01 editorial.qxd editorial ibérica no. 16 is dedicated to the fond memory of professor enrique alcaraz varó. to open this issue, maría teresa cabré, a scholar of international renown in terminology, elaborates on the interdisciplinarity of terminological units from three levels of analysis (referential, cognitive, and linguistic or semiotic). in this work, cabré takes a step forward to introduce the “polyhedricity principle” in view of gaining a better understanding of how concepts and terms relate, and also, how the human mind represents objects as specialised concepts. following this, alcaraz-ariza uses a socio-pragmatic approach to examine the expressions of praise contained in a corpus of fifty book reviews published in spanish-written medical journals. next, orna focuses on the lemmas “building” and “construction” to discuss the formal and semantic profiles registered in a corpus of construction and architecture university textbooks. then, hernández and hernández illustrate the structural, grammatical, rhetorical and metatextual features displayed by a body of research papers belonging to four sub-areas within the field of economics. a last paper on discourse analysis is porto and pena’s study on the metaphorical projections embodied by some phrasal verbs in both medical and computer english. three translation-related issues put an end to the “research” sections. firstly, yankova highlights the set of features and conditions pertaining to statutory legislation and, more particularly, to eu directives. secondly, clouet adheres to the notions “culture” and “intercultural” to provide a teaching framework for potential implementation in translation and interpreting university degrees. lastly, micic’s research note is more specific in scope and purpose as she depicts medical english instruction at belgrade university from the perspective of an enhanced and updated translation-based approach to teaching and learning. five recently published works are discussed in this issue. readers will find details about the main features of spanish for specific purposes in calvi’s and sanz’s books reviewed by felices and terrádez, respectively. in a third review, piqué explores the clues to achieve effective communication through editorial ibérica 16 [2008]: 7-8 7 01 editorial 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:13 página 7 technical writing. lastly, two collections of papers are discussed: skorczynska’s review focuses on specialised discourse at higher education and professional contexts, and guillén’s review on actual classroom practices for enhancing teaching and research in esp. following ibérica’s regulations, the editorial board has been renewed. on the one hand, i wouldd like to acknowledge the professional and thorough reviewing work carried out by guadalupe aguado (universidad politécnica de madrid) and carmen pérez-llantada (universidad de zaragoza) throughout these years and wish them well in their future endeavours. on the other, i would like to welcome new editorial members victoria guillén nieto (universidad de alicante) and mª ángeles orts llopis (universidad de murcia). finally, a word of gratitude to anabel borja albi (universitat jaume i, castelló) and mª ángeles orts llopis (universidad de murcia) for their assistance as external reviewers. ana bocanegra valle editor of ibérica universidad de cádiz (spain) ana.bocanegra@uca.es ana bocanegra valle ibérica 16 [2008]: 7-88 01 editorial 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:13 página 8 ib.rica 9.qxd there is a growing interest in the intersection of language use, language teaching and information and communication technology (ict). the increasing number of papers in relation to this subject recently submitted to aelfe conferences, held in madrid, porto, and granada, or the cilfe conference held in vilanova (barcelona), confirm this wide interest also within the area of lsp. this issue of ibérica, revista de la asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos (ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes) collects a set of representative articles focused on this emerging field within language analysis and language teaching. four of the studies here included come from the first international conference on internet and language, held at universitat jaume i de castelló in 2003. the issue is complemented with two additional papers directly submitted to the journal and related to this topic, a review article on traditional methods in specialised lexicography and several book reviews. baron’s opening article takes the subject of ict and language use beyond the scope of language teaching. for her, the relevance of internet and ict has implications that may not only affect how foreign languages are taught, but also the way in which we use and learn our own language. will written culture as we know it remain or will it be challenged and transformed by technology and the new communication media? will the tools to access literacy change, and, if so, how? will the notion of authorship be maintained? these are some of the questions to which baron’s work provides keen insight. it has to be noted that to unfold some of her answers, the author first allocates the initial part of her article to define the parameters of written culture and its historical evolution. baron then compares these parameters with the new paradigm which internet and ict are generating. alejo’s study is an example of lsp discourse analysis research focused on a specific digital genre (i.e. commercial websites). the author uses systematic linguistic insight to describe the peculiarities of metadiscourse in this type of digital texts produced and distributed in the world wide web. his conclusions show that (a) traditional linguistic analysis has to incorporate new elements and variables when studying texts in the internet if research is to produce relevant explanations of the way language is used in this communication medium; and (b) that links have developed a salient metadiscursive role in the internet which demands further study since these devices have become an essential feature of many digital texts soler, rueda and arnó’s paper focuses on how the internet may be exploited for language teaching. for this purpose, they have carried out both qualitative and ibérica 9 [2005]: 5-6 editorial 5 ibørica 9.qxd 14/02/2005 10:05 pægina 5 quantitative research on the subject, describing how students do have a significant interest in combining the net with their language learning process. complementarily, the authors explore the way in which the internet and ict may be applied to enhance foreign language learning autonomy in the context of english for academic purposes. with yus’s linguistic-cognitive approach this issue of ibérica takes a more theoretical perspective on the study of language use in the net. here the author carefully shows the apparently contradictory tension between an increasingly globalised world thanks to the internet and ict where, however, at the same time a more “glocalised” use of the net is growing. yus finally resorts to an epidemiological model of cultural dissemination to account for virtual communities and comes with what he himself considers may be viewed by others as a too individualistic vision of such groups; he, however, defends his position in the final paragraphs of his paper. ancarno’s work represents a different line of research, which does not focus on digital texts on their own. instead she makes use of a mixed corpus of texts where electronic and traditional genres are compared. in this study, she examines the digital genre of emails in relation to their antecedent: personal letters. to narrow the large variation and diversity that could be found in such genres, she focuses on emails and letters in the specific context of academic communication. ancarno then subdivides her corpus so as to be able to (a) draw differences between the two genres, and (b) detect significant variations between native and non-native speakers of english in these communication situations. the last paper in this volume, written by bolaños, rodríguez, bolaños and losada, brings as back to the approach previously undertaken in this issue in alejo’s study. in this case, however, the authors analyse corporate websites from computer companies instead of commercial in general, narrowing the genre to a specific group of companies. as in alejo’s research, the authors here also conclude that in order to properly describe a digital genre the linguist has to resort to complementary variables beyond the traditional linguistic items, thus incorporating the use of images and links in the core of this study, among several other relevant pragmatic features. these set of articles attest the increasing interest of linguists in general and lsp practitioners in particular in the outstanding status of internet and ict in our 21st century society. all these papers provide suggestive ground on which to build further analyses which may help us better understand how language is being used in our new technological world, how foreign languages may be better taught and how language itself is being changed under the pressing force of the internet and its collateral technological allies. santiago posteguillo gómez castelló, january 2005 editorial ibérica 9 [2005]: 5-66 ibørica 9.qxd 14/02/2005 10:05 pægina 6 01 editorial.qxd global interactions in english as a lingua franca. how written communication is changing under the influence of electronic media and new contexts of use franca poppi. bern: peter lang, 2012. 249 pages. isbn: 978-3-03431276-9. english as a lingua franca (elf), that is, the communicative medium of choice by speakers of different languages (seidlhofer, 2011), is currently being used on the internet as a contact language. in this sense, franca poppi tries to give us a better understanding of how written interactions in elf take place in our globalized world. her central thesis is that non-native speakers of english should no longer be recognized as language learners but as language users of a common code, which is adapted and adopted by each community of practice. after an introduction on the use of english for international communication, the decisive role of the internet and the spread of english around the world in accordance with kachru’s (1992) classification of “englishes” into concentric circles, the book reports several case studies which are gathered into two parts. part one groups several corpus analyses of online media. the first chapter on transcribed interviews and group discussions recorded from two international channels concludes that the classical distinction between native speakers of english and non-natives should be overcome; instead, we should refer to internationally competent and efficient interactants. the second example processes a corpus of texts taken from an indian online newspaper to explore how the english language is modified and shaped in accordance with the communicative needs of the users. then, the case of the baltic times, which tries to identify instances of localized and globalized usages of the language, shows that users employ and accommodate their linguistic resources as a result of internal negotiation. finally, the study of a chinese newspaper also presents examples of reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 245 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 245 localized creative expressions under the influence of culturally-shaped schemata. part two focuses on business english as a lingua franca (belf), a term coined by louhiala-salminen, charles and kankaanranta in 2005 – see also louhiala-salminen & kankaanranta (2013) for the development of the concept. belf is the elf used in the business world by speakers of different mother tongues with the sole purpose of carrying out successful communication. this part includes studies on the written language of corporate websites of international companies and email communication exchanged within this environment. the first case analyzes intercultural business interactions and concludes that a company may create its own lingua franca which reflects the company’s identity and is intended for its own community of practice. next, the chapter dedicated to the language of corporate websites illustrates that the companies studied adapt belf to create an emphatic operational relationship with their audiences and that they value accuracy of content more than language accuracy. the last two case studies deal with emails and how belf is used as a global connecting tool among people with different national languages; the author describes how email users, while communicating in elf, are highly influenced by their own cultural characteristics and try to adopt some common strategies in their written interactions, such as solidarity enforcement and conflict avoidance. the general conclusions of the monograph posit that due to the influence of the internet, and despite the fact that elf is adapted and adopted in international interactions by the many communities of practice, “there is no fear that english might fragment into many unintelligible forms” (page 223) as the need to communicate is stronger than local influences. to conclude i would like to comment on some issues that the reader may miss in the book. on the one hand, professor poppi, echoing shepherd and watters (1998), wisely introduces a fascinating and ambitious topic in computer-mediated communication (cmc): the classification of web genres. this is a challenging task since web genres are evolving constantly and their boundaries are fuzzy. surprisingly, it is disappointing to find no reference to this in part one in relation to online newspapers and their comparison to traditional newspapers on paper, for example. indeed, it is only at the beginning of part two when this issue is approached. another objection i would pose to this monograph is that, sometimes, the reader fails to see the relevance of each piece of research, its purpose and its connection to the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256246 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 246 other chapters. it seems as if the author had gathered several articles or papers published about elf and had put them together to form this book. on the whole, despite these drawbacks, i think this monograph provides a well-documented approach to the current status of elf that could appeal to researchers and postgraduate students. [review received 23 july 2013] [revised review received 13 november 2013] [revised review accepted 1 december 2013] reviewed by carmen pérez-sabater universitat politècnica de valència (spain) cperezs@idm.upv.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 247 kachru, b.b. (ed.) (1992). the other tongue. urbana: university of illinois press. kankaanranta, a. & l. louhiala-salminen (2005). “‘what language does global business speak?’ – the concept and development of belf”. ibérica 26: 17-34. lohuiala-salminen, l., m. charles & a. kankaanranta (2005). “english as a lingua franca in nordic corporate mergers: two case companies”. english for specific purposes 24: 401-421. seidlhofer, b. (2011). understanding english as a lingua franca. oxford: oxford university press. shepherd, m. & c. watters (1998). “the evolution of cybergenres”. hawaii international conference on system sciences 2: 97-109. 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 247 iberica 13 english for specific purposes in theory and practice diane belcher (ed). ann arbor: university of michigan press, 2009. 308 pages. isbn-13: 978-0472-03384-3. this volume belongs to one of the richest areas of second language research and practice, the field of english for specific purposes (esp henceforth). as its title suggests, the book examines this flourishing field by offering new research in theory and practice and is aimed at both teachers and researchers in this area. the editor’s experience and teaching resources are amply illustrated in the introduction. the volume explores esp from academic (secondary and tertiary), occupational (business, medical, and legal), and socio-cultural perspectives, and addresses two major questions: (i) how can esp instructors meet their own teacher knowledge needs? and (ii) how have esp practitioners succeeded in gaining control of the knowledge they need to address their students’ needs? english for specific purposes in theory and practice comprises an introduction made by the editor, three main parts, an afterword written by brian paltridge and an index. in the introduction, diane belcher sets out the aims of esp as well as the enormous range of domains that esp specialists enter into and the knowledge practitioners need to address their students’ needs. the author remarks that esp practitioners may not really need as much specialist knowledge as has been assumed but knowledge of how language is used in different situations. for instance, business students do not expect a business english teacher to know how to run a business. they expect knowledge of the skills and the vocabulary used in business. part 1 “english for academic purposes” concentrates on english for academic purposes (eap) and consists of four chapters. in chapter 1 ken cruickshank provides detail on the recent developments in secondary school eap, through programs focused on teaching the discourse and genres of a range of disciplines. next, ann m. johns argues that the principal purposes of eap instruction in the first years of tertiary education should be to prepare students to be rhetorically flexible, to empower them to develop an awareness of, and sensitivity to, whatever contexts, texts, and reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 issn 1139-7241 167 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 167 tasks their courses present. in the third chapter, christine feak contributes to the discussion of how to best help students develop strategies for responding to texts in a critical manner. in so doing, she explores current perspectives regarding the difficulties students face when evaluating the scholarship of their field and provides examples of student approaches to writing critically. this first part ends with ken hyland’s paper in which he highlights the importance of english for professional academic purposes (epap) as a growing area and the demand that eap practitioners have to assist junior academic staff with the academic literacy skills demanded by publication and conference presentation in a foreign language. part 2 contains seven chapters and focuses on “english for occupational purposes”. in this regard, brigitte planken and catherine nickerson show recent studies in the field of business discourse, in particular involving business english as a lingua franca, and highlight that those findings can help for the development of materials for the teaching of english for specific business purposes (esbp) and might serve to bridge the gap between theory and practice. in line with this, the same authors show in the following chapter a number of important influences on the research on written business english. they highlight four publications that show evidence of the influence of research in the generation of teaching materials and provide examples of teaching materials concerning esbp, where the mark of research findings has been integrated into the materials. in the next chapter, jane lockwood, gail forey and neil elias examine the language communication problems that non-english speaking outsourcing call center companies face when talking to native speakers customers in the u.s. next, jill northcott provides an overview of legal english from a mainly pedagogical perspective. she draws a clear distinction between the various categories of learners grouped according to their academic purposes and legal language use, and stresses a clear need to function in academic and professional legal contexts requiring the use of english. in line with this, the study of vijay k. bhatia brings into focus the most important intertextual patterns: intertextuality in legislative provisions, legal cases and legal textbooks, highlighting the key role that they play in the construction and interpretation of legal genres. the author remarks the problems of inaccessibility of legal genres as well as the problems of interpretation for both the specialists and non-specialists due to the complex range of intertextual relationships that legal discourse offers. ling shi, based on english for medical purposes, suggests that the description of characteristic linguistic features of medical texts can help reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190168 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 168 develop genre-related teaching materials and activities for the classroom whereas analysis of interactions between doctors/nurses and patients can help these practitioners improve their communication skills. this second section ends with diane belcher’s paper in which she highlights the similarities between the developments in language and nursing education, although at first appearing to have little in common, and justifies the adoption of the problem-based learning approach for the development of courses dealing with english for academic and medical purposes. part 3 “english for sociocultural purposes” is made up of two chapters. first, helen de silva joyce and susan hood address one of the great challenges of escp: how to help immigrant learners meet immediate survival needs and yet be prepared for less easily defined future possibilities. in particular, they explore one response to the tension that provokes the design of english language programs for enabling community membership, report the opportunities offered by the programs that focus on english for community membership, and analyze the needs of individuals or groups of refugees and immigrant students. second, brian morgan and douglas fleming explore and advance a notion of complementarity between the two areas of elt, particularly in respect to promoting a notion of critical citizenship in esp and esl classrooms. in their chapter, they suggest a number of exemplary resources, including textbooks, classrooms approaches, and two case studies. the afterword puts an end to this collection of chapters. here, brian paltridge reflects on the development of esp, the changes faced from its earliest days, the achievements spread throughout different sites of esp teaching and the challenges ahead for what he calls “the community of practice”. the reading of the book english for specific purposes in theory and practice is highly recommended to esp teachers, students and researchers alike since it delves into this area from different perspectives (academic, occupational and sociocultural) with a direct style and academic rigor. likewise, the aims that the editor pursued are highly achieved through the different sections and chapters from specialists in the area. [review received january 2011] [revised review accepted february 2011] reviewed by cristina calle martínez universidad complutense de madrid (spain) cristinacalle@filol.ucm.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 169 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 169 iberica 13 academic discourse and global publishing: disciplinary persuasion in changing times ken hyland & feng (kevin) jian london / new york: routledge, 2019. 262 pages. isbn: 9781138359024. academic discourse and global publishing: disciplinary persuasion in changing times by ken hyland and feng jian is at heart a wide-ranging analysis of how certain language factors in academic discourse have changed over the 50 years from 1965 to 2015. the book is divided into 4 parts and 13 chapters, 7 of which have already been published in some form in a range of applied linguistics journals. the book starts off with an incisive analysis of the background to how academic discourse has evolved in these 50 years. it considers key elements such as the explosion that has occurred in academic publishing, the increasing number of researchers and journals, the growing pressure to publish, increasing specialization and what the authors term “the hardening of hierarchies”, all with the aim of setting the scene against which the results of the more specific analyses reported in the following chapters should be viewed. chapter 2 is, in a sense, the heart of the book as here the authors describe the corpora and methods used for these subsequent analyses. it is perhaps worth describing this in detail as readers may want to know what data the analyses are based on. specifically, the authors took 6 research articles from the same 5 journals from the fields of biology, electrical engineering (“hard” sciences), applied linguistics and sociology (“soft” disciplines) spaced at 25-year intervals over 50 years (1965, 1990 and 2015). the corpus thus compiled consisted of 360 research articles with 2.2 million tokens where the corpora for individual disciplines and specific years averaged from 150 000 tokens (1965) to 243 000 tokens (2015). the names of the actual 20 journals used are also given as are the software tools employed. both corpus-driven and corpus-based modes and analysis were used. part 2 of the book is entitled changes in argument patterns and consists of 5 different chapters. the first of these chapters (chapter 3) is based on biber’s reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 271-273 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 271 (1998) multidimensional analysis and explores how the texts have changed based on 5 different dimensions (involved vs informational production, narrative vs non-narrative concerns, situation-dependent vs elaborated reference, overt expression of persuasion and abstract vs non-abstract information). information is also given on how argument functions have changed over the 50 years studied. chapter 4 analyzes changes in cohesion and coherence through the study of attended and unattended this whereas chapters 5 and 6 move on to the question of citations. chapter 5 looks at how citation practices have changed with a particular focus on numbers and types of citation, use of different reporting verbs and reporting activities and evaluation whilst chapter 6 deals exclusively with the topic of self-citation. changing tack, the last chapter in this section (chapter 7) deals with lexical bundles – specifically how 4-grams have changed both in content and function over the 50 years. part 3 of the book is dedicated to analyzing changes in stance and engagement. chapter 8 looks at the changing patterns in stance with a particular focus on evidentiality, affect and presence. chapter 9 continues in this vein with an in-depth analysis of evaluative that while chapter 9 gets to grips with changes in engagement, specifically the issues of reader mention, use of questions, knowledge, asides and directives. a useful list of engagement features is also included. chapter 11 dives into the matter of changes in the rhetoric self, essentially a study how the use of the pronoun we has changed over the period studied. finally, this part ends with the authors posing the question of whether academic discourse has become more informal. informality is defined and a list of typical features is given and then the authors proceed to analyze how their use has evolved. part 4 of the book is an epilogue (pulling it all together) where the authors attempt to do just that – bring all the threads of their extensive research together in an attempt to draw some overall conclusions. it is patently clear that this book is essential reading for all those involved in researching academic discourse. the range of different analytical approaches and the extent of analysis are exemplary. even if the purely diachronic aspect of the book is not the reader’s main concern, as may be the case for classroom-based practitioners, the book still provides essential information on many core aspects of academic discourse as it is currently used. this is not to say, however, that the book offers definitive answers to all the questions it poses. the authors themselves highlight that the chapters in the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 271-273272 book “do add up to a neat and definitive picture of the current state of scholarship in published texts” (p. 271) and they also clearly acknowledge that “more studies of more disciplines and of more features are needed to support the changes we have found and confirm whether they apply more generally across the academy” (p. 232). to this wish list i would like to add the pressing need to address some of the key methodological issues in this type of research. foremost among these is the issue of intra-genre variability, which is intrinsically linked to the matter of corpus size and representativeness. it is, in essence, an empirical question how far a sample of just 30 research articles in say, biology, can be considered to be representative of the whole discipline for any one point in time. such issues should not be eschewed but addressed directly. key factors such as sample sizes need to be justified, not merely plucked out of thin air. this will most likely be accompanied by changes in reporting figures with a move away from just giving frequencies – a strategy already highlighted as being less than optimal (gries 2006) – and the inclusion of further data such as margins of error or confidence intervals. this is not to detract from the studies included in this book but does explain why the general conclusions it reaches may be more reliable than those for specific disciplines. yet, as i have said, the authors are well aware of this situation and this is why their work should be seen above all as a firm and fertile starting point for many future studies. a phd or two anyone? received 09 september 2020 accepted 16 september 2020 reviewed by paul miller universidad de navarra (spain) pmiller@unav.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 271-273 273 biber, d. (1998). variation across speech and writing. cambridge: cup. gries, s. (2006). “exploring variability within and between corpora: some methodological considerations”. corpora 1(2): 109-151. iberica 13 la traducción especializada (en inglés y español en géneros de economía y empresa) francisca suau jiménez. madrid: arco libros, 2010. 150 págs. isbn: 978-84-7635-791-0. la prestigiosa colección biblioteca philologica de la editorial arco/libros consagra por fin un segundo volumen a las lenguas de especialidad en sus más de 20 años de existencia. ésta era una necesidad muy contrastada, dado que en los 62 volúmenes en relación con el estudio de la filología española y la lingüística aplicada, únicamente dedicó otro título a estas modalidades discursivas. en concreto, al español de la ciencia y la tecnología. los antecedentes de la obra que ahora presentamos se sitúan en dos interesantes y bastante desconocidos ejemplares publicados por la misma autora hace ya más de una década, pero al ver la luz en los documentos de trabajo de una universidad española [colección lynx, universidad de valencia] no tuvieron entonces toda la visibilidad que hubiesen merecido. nos referimos a análisis del discurso. competencia discursiva en ámbitos profesionales: el contexto de la empresa (1997) – en colaboración con rosana dolón – y la traducción empresarial (1998). si bien este estudio que hoy reseñamos, por su título, parecería más dirigido a traductores o estudiantes de traducción, en realidad creemos que es de especial interés para cualquiera que esté interesado en el estudio del discurso en general, bien sea desde el campo de las filologías o desde el ámbito de las ciencias de la comunicación. su vocación es claramente práctica y divulgativa, muy en la línea que magistralmente marcó el profesor enrique alcaraz varó, y que muy bien podría servir de manual para estudiantes de tercer ciclo que quisieran formarse en el análisis del discurso de especialidad. creemos, además, que hacía mucha falta que se publicasen también en español versiones aplicadas del análisis de género y registro que se proclamen herederas de corrientes tan influyentes como la sistémica australiana o las enseñanzas de swales o hyland. el libro se divide en 6 capítulos, precedidos de una introducción o declaración de intenciones y unas conclusiones finales, además de una bibliografía bastante completa. el primer capítulo versa sobre la traducción especializada y parte de dos preguntas fundamentales: ¿qué entendemos por reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 issn 1139-7241 182 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 182 traducción especializada? ¿qué lugar ocupa la traducción de textos económicos y de empresa entre las clasificaciones al uso? este capítulo concluye con la plasmación de las dificultades para acotar un campo tan amplio y diverso, como es el empresarial, y las necesidades concretas que este mundo profesional plantea al traductor a la hora de contratar sus servicios. los capítulos segundo y tercero recopilan los planteamientos teóricos y programáticos que sustentan el modelo de análisis que luego se aplica a muestras documentales en los capítulos siguientes. los postulados de género y registro se fundamentan en lingüistas funcionalistas como martin, eggins o fairclough, si bien merece destacarse para el español la influencia ejercida por los avances teóricos de briz y el grupo val.es.co a partir del lenguaje coloquial. ahora bien, sin género de dudas, la mayor aportación del modelo que nos presenta suau jiménez respecto a trabajos precedentes es el papel que juega el metadiscurso aplicado a la traducción especializada y su forma de integrarlo y analizarlo. esta versión de metadiscurso se basa en la percepción de la gran trascendencia que no sólo los matizadores o marcadores discursivos (hedges) presentan en los análisis de discurso sino también en la de aquellos elementos que sutilmente se utilizan para captar la atención del lector, para persuadirlo, convencerlo o entretenerlo y así ir estableciendo una especie de diálogo con él. muy interesante resulta la conclusión, coincidente con otros autores (hyland, tsé, vande kopple), respecto a que cada lengua pueda ser susceptible de establecer su propio patrón metadiscursivo. la autora intenta demostrarlo de manera objetiva mediante los análisis simultáneos en inglés y español de textos idénticos en capítulos posteriores. la conclusión más destacable es que la ignorancia del patrón metadiscursivo a la hora de traducir a una lengua meta, según suau jiménez, provoca que el producto final sea una traducción con deficiencias en la relación que el autor se proponía establecer con el lector. el capítulo cuarto efectúa un recorrido por las características del lenguaje (y especialmente del léxico) económico y empresarial que sirve para recordar al lector lo que diversos autores han ido aportando al respecto durante los últimos años. en especial, destacan las aportaciones de alcaraz varó, calvi, ainciburu, orts llopis, entre otros, en relación con particularidades léxicas tan sensibles al ámbito de especialidad como son las colocaciones, los compuestos nominales, los términos afines, los calcos o los préstamos. ahora bien, este estudio no alcanzaría su plenitud sin la incuestionable aportación pedagógica de los capítulos quinto y sexto. en el capítulo quinto reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 183 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 183 se ofrece una amplia gama de análisis de muestras de géneros de la economía y la empresa en inglés y español, pero desde una perspectiva mucho más actual. de una parte, los géneros impresos (cartas, informes, folletos, artículos de revista especializada, etc.), con independencia de que circulen o no en formato electrónico y aun cuando mantengan su estructura tradicional; y de otra, los nuevos cibergéneros (el e-mail, la página web o el blog), que incorporan una nueva estructura, tanto genérica como de registro y metadiscurso. de esa forma la autora cubre la rica variedad comunicativa que el mundo de los negocios utiliza en estos momentos. el único género que, a nuestro juicio, aún ocupa un espacio excesivo en este volumen es la carta comercial en formato convencional. la realidad nos dice que su presencia actual en las transacciones internacionales es ya insignificante y ha sido sustituida en más de un 90% de las ocasiones por el mensaje electrónico adaptado. a pesar de lo afirmado, el conocimiento de la carta todavía es necesario y su inclusión también, dado que responde aún a otros formatos en uso, como es el caso del fax. en cuanto al capítulo sexto, ahí se presenta la propuesta ideal de análisis previo a la realización de una traducción de manera esquemática. las conclusiones finales vienen a servir de colofón para justificar las bondades del modelo de análisis propuesto como ejercicio que ayude al traductor no sólo a comprender y asimilar su objeto de estudio de manera global, y en su perspectiva socio-cultural, sino también para mejorar la calidad final de su trabajo. sin embargo, la praxis de la profesión de traductor y las premuras en la entrega de los encargos (tan frecuentes en el día a día) nos inducen a pensar que su aplicación sistemática no resultaría tan sencilla ni tan verosímil, si bien su valor formativo y reflexivo para un futuro traductor sólo puede calificarse como impecable. en definitiva, sólo cabe dar la bienvenida a un texto tan útil como necesario y seguro que ocupará un lugar destacado en muchas bibliotecas y curricula de centros dedicados a la formación práctica de traductores, filólogos y expertos en ciencias de la comunicación. [reseña recibida en septiembre de 2010] [reseña revisada aceptada en enero de 2011] reseñado por ángel m. felices lago universidad de granada (spain) afelices@ugr.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190184 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 184 iberica 13 feedback in second language writing. contexts and issues (2nd ed.) ken hyland & fiona hyland (eds.) cambridge: cambridge university press, 2019. 314 pages. isbn: 978-1-108-43997-8. given the growing number of studies dedicated to feedback in second language writing in the last two decades, ken hyland and fiona hyland felt it was time for a second edition of the edited volume which was first published in 2006. only four of the original chapters have been maintained, in an updated form, and ten new chapters have been added. a substantial body of research is dedicated to studying the effects of written corrective feedback on l2 writers’ accuracy (for a meta-analysis, see kang & han, 2015), but as hyland and hyland point out, these studies place too much emphasis on cognitive factors such as input, output and noticing, ignoring the fact that feedback is always delivered in context, as part of a relationship between students and teachers. for this reason, most of the studies discussed in this volume investigate feedback within a sociocultural framework, while cognitive aspects are not ignored. it is important to clarify, as ken hyland does in the preface, that this publication considers feedback in a broad sense, and is not only concerned with written corrective feedback aimed at improving l2 students’ accuracy. in fact, the book encompasses feedback on all aspects of writing (e.g. disciplinary discourse, coherence), provided by both peers and teachers, in different modes (e.g. online forums, writing conferences) and contexts. each contribution ends with a number of implications for classroom practice. even though some of the chapters deal with aspects of feedback which can be more easily generalised to different teaching contexts, such as the chapters by bitchener and ferris and kurzer, or the chapter on collaborative writing by storch, most chapters are clearly situated within an english for academic purposes (eap) context and would be most informative for teachers working with undergraduate and graduate students at the university level. as explained in the introduction (chapter 1), the book is divided into four sections: “sociocultural dimensions” (3 chapters), “delivery and focus reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 284-287 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 284 dimensions” (4 chapters), “interpersonal and interactional dimensions” (4 chapters), and “student participation dimensions” (3 chapters). the first two chapters in section 1 deal with sociocultural factors of peer feedback. in chapter 2, villamil and guerrero apply sociocultural theory to an investigation of esl learners’ peer feedback practices. in a series of studies carried out at a puerto rican university, students were recorded while they commented on each other’s drafts. the researchers identified a range of patterns which they found to be more or less conducive to learning from peer feedback, such as “recruiting interest in the task”, “modeling solutions”, or “psychological differentiation” (pp. 33-35). according to the authors, teachers can train their students to use such strategies. they also warn teachers and researchers about the importance of taking into account students’ sociocultural backgrounds, a matter which is the focus of the next chapter. in chapter 3, hu starts out by explaining that culture has become a loaded term and that some researchers believe we should abandon the concept altogether. however, hu believes that culture needs to be reconceptualised as a multilayered concept. of particular interest to teachers is hu’s study on how teachers can create a microcultural environment in which students learn to see the benefits of peer feedback, even though their macroculture predisposes them to prefer teacher feedback. chapter 4 closes the section on sociocultural issues with a study by tardy on appropriation. while appropriation used to be viewed as one-directional, with teachers appropriating students’ texts, tardy recommends dialogical appropriation, in which teachers and students can influence each other. she provides examples from studies about the relationship between dissertation supervisors and graduate or postgraduate students. section 2 on delivery and focus dimensions of feedback is opened by a theoretical chapter on how theories of sla can inform and direct written corrective feedback research, written by john bitchener. this is then followed by a synthesis of the most recent studies on the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (ferris and kurzer). in chapter 5, bitchener proposes several theoretical models, which require further empirical testing, in order to explain the different processes that are needed for learners to notice written corrective feedback and put it to use in subsequent drafts or writing assignments. he also discusses the role of individual differences, such as working memory, long term memory and attitudes to feedback. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 284-287 285 in chapter 6, ferris and kurzer explain that the question whether feedback helps l2 writers can now be answered positively, while questions concerning the most effective type of feedback or the impact of individual differences are still in need of further research. the authors also focus on a lesser known method of giving written feedback, called “dynamic written corrective feedback”. chapter 7 by stevenson and phakiti focuses on feedback delivered by computers, which they call “automatic writing evaluation (awe)”. while most awe systems have been designed for l1 writers, they are also increasingly used in l2 contexts. even though the feedback provided by awe systems is not always accurate or easy to understand, the researchers believe it can be useful if it is seen as an additional tool to be used alongside teacher feedback. in chapter 8, storch explains how collaborative writing tasks function as peer feedback activities that are in many ways superior to more traditional ways of organising peer feedback. however, she also warns teachers to think carefully about the possible impact of social factors on the success or failure of collaborative writing activities. section 3 focuses on the interpersonal and interactive dimension of feedback, an issue which is understudied. in chapter 9, hyland and hyland discuss a case study of two eap writing teachers and six of their students at a university in new zealand. the authors show for instance how teachers often tone down criticism, for instance by using hedges. the authors add that, while students tend to appreciate positive comments, there is also a danger that feedback which is too indirect is misunderstood by students. in chapter 10, hewings and coffin present three case studies on interaction and peer feedback on an online forum for master’s students. the authors conclude that the tutor needs to be clearly present in the forum to guide and model the interactions between students, while at the same time avoiding to take a dominant role. if these conditions are met, the authors believe forums can be a useful medium for providing peer feedback. chapters 11 and 12 deal with issues which mainly concern graduate students and supervisors of phd or master’s theses. starfield addresses the underresearched topic of the feedback supervisors give on students’ dissertations. while ideally supervisors should assist students in familiarizing themselves with disciplinary discourse, in practice they may lack appropriate training to provide feedback effectively. paltridge then addresses the topic of feedback provided by reviewers on submissions to academic journals. after reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 284-287286 comparing comments on native and non-native speaker authors’ manuscripts, he concluded that the reviewers did not seem to treat nonnative speaker authors very differently, and that other issues than language may be more important in the decision to accept or reject a manuscript. the final section deals with students’ engagement with feedback. han and hyland show how both social and cognitive factors have an impact on students’ degree of engagement, giving examples from a case study of two efl students at a chinese university. in the next chapter, hyland argues that feedback on writing contains a number of implicit messages about teachers’ attitudes to the importance of writing and feedback. interviews with undergraduate students at different faculties in hong kong revealed that the feedback students received, often a mark and some general comments, made students feel that language was not that important for expressing course contents. the final chapter by yim and warschauer uses a case study of a group of high school students with an immigration background in california to show how “synchronous collaborative writing” in google docs can create an ideal environment for more and less proficient learners to scaffold each other and provide each other with peer feedback. they also warn teachers that the use of new technologies such as social media for peer feedback can only be effective if teachers provide the right amount of training and guidance to their students. thus, the second edition of “feedback in second language writing” touches upon a wide range of important issues, many of which are in need of further research. the book reminds us that social, affective and contextual factors affecting feedback are too often neglected. both researchers and teachers can benefit from the valuable insights it offers. received 08 january 2020 accepted 10 february 2020 reviewed by hanne roothooft universidad pública de navarra (spain) hanne.roothooft@unavarra.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 284-287 287 kang, e. & z. han (2015). “the efficacy of written corrective feedback in improving l2 written accuracy: a meta-analysis”. the modern language journal 99(1): 1-18. 01 editorial.qxd editorial this volume celebrates the 20th anniversary of aelfe, the association that publishes this journal. to endorse this volume with the label of “special”, the international advisory board was invited to contribute to the anniversary and share their views on the evolution of languages for specific purposes (lsp) throughout these past 20 years; a cosy corner with a retrospective flavour for comfortable reading. the resulting contributions have been gathered alphabetically in the first section of ibérica no. 24 and pave the way for academic reflection and discussion. together with this, an opening note from the president of our association attempts to summarize 20 years of intense activity and profound changes by showing the main highlights of this period and sharing the achievements of aelfe in promoting knowledge and research on lsp. in the opening paper, vijay k. bhatia offers a reflection on genre analysis, critical genre analysis and interdiscursivity to focus on how most academics and professional experts construct, interpret and use professional genres. the second note contains ken hyland’s impressions and experiences over the past 20 years of lsp teaching and research – a period in the life of aelfe that professor hyland finds “short but distinguished” (page 30). in the third note, chris kennedy describes a number of key esp projects and focuses on the spread of english as a global language and its influence on the development of esp programmes and projects. in the following note, françoise salager-meyer portraits the birth and rise of the open access movement as well as its benefits, problems and solutions. after this, mike scott reflects on the development of corpus linguistics software and the directions corpus research may follow in the near future. next, john skelton and jan whetstone bring to our attention the past and present of english for medical purposes and academic medicine, “two separate research and educational traditions which have developed more or less independently” (page 99). in the seventh note john swales develops the reception history of an influential paper by hyon (1996) to examine its influence on genre analysis and how this work has played out intertextually since its publication. then, sven tarp reviews specialised lexicography during the past two decades to claim, firstly, a lack of interest in theory in favour of practical products and, secondly, the need for further developments in terms of quality. finally, bernd voss shares some personal reflections on lsp, ibérica 24 (2012): 13-16 issn 1139-7241 13 language learning and teaching in higher education in germany with the hope that “these more personal observations may trigger off some reactions and reflections by readers on their own backgrounds and situations” (page 130). the second section of ibérica no. 24 contains six research articles and the first two deal with english for publication purposes. in the first contribution pilar mur dueñas discusses the “text histories” of a number of finance spanish researchers and how they endeavour to have their papers eventually published in english-medium international journals. in her text, mur dueñas claims a place for the contribution of intercultural rhetoric and ethnographic studies in providing evidence on the different writing processes of this particular group of scholars given their specific cultural contexts. in line with this, ana i. moreno, jesús rey-rocha, sally burgess, irene lópez-navarro and itesh sachdev analyse the perceived difficulty of spanish researchers when writing research articles in english. in particular, moreno and colleagues focus on the impact of proficiency in english versus researchers’ publication experience to conclude, among others, that: (i) the discussion section is perceived as having the greatest increased difficulty when writing in english (as an l2) across all knowledge areas; and (ii) it is not until spanish researchers have published on average at least 37 ras in english-medium journals as corresponding author over the preceding ten years that the difficulty they experience writing their ra discussions in english (as l2) decreases noticeably. the next two research articles in this section deal with the analysis of patent writing and research article abstracts from a genre-based perspective. in the first place, carmen sancho-guinda depicts patents as a genre that competes with other situated genres such as projects or grants in making the case for explicit instruction. in her study of 333 patents passed by the us patents and trademarks office for almost a decade, sancho-guinda deconstructs three recurrent myths about patent writing and advocates a pedagogy for patent writing, particularly among the disciplinary communities involved in patenting processes. in the second place, carmen piqué-noguera pays attention to business research article abstracts as a written genre with a view to raising rhetorical awareness among scholars. in so doing, piqué-noguera compares the structure and content of a corpus of abstracts compiled from two relevant publications in the field of business, highlights the specific mission that abstracts fulfil in academic writing, and suggests the need for more specific journal guidelines in this regard. editorial ibérica 24 (2012): 13-1614 the next two contributions are of a rather different nature. isabel balteiro and miguel ángel campos bring to our attention the false anglicisms that are present in the spanish language of fashion and beauty. thanks to a corpus of texts extracted from fashion magazines and news (both in print and digital form), these scholars analyse 36 false anglicisms, their behaviour and their occurrence also as compared with their condition in other languages such as italian, french, german or portuguese. the last research article in this section refers to esp current classroom practices in iran. here, peyman rajabi, gholam reza kiany and parviz maftoon investigate the underlying effects of an esp in-service teacher training program on the beliefs and instructional practices of 120 iranian esp teachers as well as on the students’ achievements regarding their exposure to a particular group of teachers (untrained or trained in such program). in section 3, maria kuteeva interviews anna mauranen, professor of english at the university of helsinki, after her plenary speech on science blogging at the 5th swedish lsp symposium organised by the centre for academic english at stockholm university. indeed, ibérica’s audience will welcome mauranen’s views on professional and academic writing, corpusbased research, lingua franca english or research in the field of the humanities. the last section contains nine reviews of books dealing with numerous subjects that may throw some light on the respective issues to both experienced and novice researchers: content and language integrated learning from a cultural perspective (mancho-barés); a practical guide for assessing writing (barahona-fuentes); current issues in research, teaching, professional applications and icts (orts); genre-based and terminological approaches to the spanish language of tourism (sánchez-reyes & torregrosa); the language of nursing and its writing practices in the academic context (pérez-llantada); internet-mediated communication or “cyberpragmatics” (berbeira-gardón); the language of architecture and civil engineering (orna-montesinos); specialised english lexicology and lexicography (edo marzá); or specialized translation with a closer attention to terminology (solís becerra). i would like to thank the members of the editorial board who have contributed with their detailed assessments throughout this year’s first semester. these are, in alphabetic order: inmaculada álvarez de mon (universidad politécnica de madrid), alejandro curado (universidad de editorial ibérica 24 (2012): 13-16 15 extremadura), mª enriqueta cortés (universidad de almería), rosa giménez (universitat de valència), victoria guillén (universidad de alicante), honesto herrera (universidad complutense de madrid), mª ángeles orts (universidad de murcia), juan carlos palmer (universitat jaume i), ramón plo (universidad de zaragoza), carmen sancho guinda (universidad politécnica de madrid). likewise, special thanks go to those invited external reviewers who have promptly and efficiently assessed submitted manuscripts during this year’s first semester: pilar mur (universidad de zaragoza, spain), marisol velasco (universidad de valladolid, spain), isabel santamaría (universidad de alicante, spain), ana cristina lahuerta (universidad de oviedo, spain), françoise salager-meyer (universidad de los andes, venezuela), ana belén martínez (universidad de córdoba, spain), marisa carrió (universitat politècnica de valéncia, spain), amparo garcía carbonell (universitat politècnica de valéncia, spain), camino rea (universidad de murcia, spain), maría kuteeva (stockholm university, sweden), karen bennett (university of coimbra, portugal), hélder fanha martins (iscal, portugal), miguel ángel campos (universidad de alicante, spain), isabel garcía izquierdo (universitat jaume i, spain), tomás conde (universidad del país vasco, spain). ana bocanegra valle editor of ibérica universidad de cádiz (spain) ana.bocanegra@uca.es editorial ibérica 24 (2012): 13-1616 01 editorial.qxd editorial the editorial management of a scientific journal is a very rewarding task, but also a very arduous one, as much time and effort needs to be devoted to maintaining and improving the quality of the journal. the readers of this journal may know that dr. ana bocanegra valle stood down as the editor of ibérica after two 4-year periods – the maximum span the journal statutes allow. i would like to express my gratitude to her for her interest and dedication in making ibérica reach international visibility and high quality standards. the journal is covered by prestigious international and national databases, directories and index lists and was designated as “excellent scientific journal” and awarded a certificate and seal of excellence by the spanish foundation for science and technology (fecyt) in 2011. the journal renewed the seal of excellence in 2013. this new spring issue attests not only the european dimension of the journal but also its fully international dimension. it should be acknowledged here that the review process and the revision of the manuscripts compiled in the issue were entirely managed by the former editor, dr. bocanegra. a new editorial team has taken over for ibérica and found in dr. bocanegra invaluable guidance in these first few months in which this new team has been managing the editorial tasks. on behalf of the members of this team, i thank dr. bocanegra for her support and generous expertise. i would also like to express my gratitude to my colleagues in this team, dr. concepción orna (associate editor) and dr. oana maria carciu and dr. diana giner (assistant editors). all of them teach languages for academic and professional languages and they are all published authors in ibérica. they very readily showed their willingness to collaborate in the editorial duties of the journal when i asked them to join the team. my special thanks to the three of them in this first issue for a successful accomplishment of all the editorial tasks. this new issue contains 9 original research articles and 4 book reviews. the selected articles provide testimony that the scope of the field of languages for specific purposes is wide-ranging and relevant, both theoretically and pedagogically. as i briefly summarize below, the issue illustrates the wealth of research interests and approaches to the understanding of textual and ibérica 29 (2015): 9-14 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 00 iberica 29.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 30/03/15 22:00 página 9 contextual aspects of specialised discourses, corpus analysis research and lsp pedagogy. the issue opens with an invited contribution by john flowerdew, from city university of hong kong. flowerdew provides a very insightful critical discussion on several metadiscourse frameworks that have been proposed for the analysis of academic discourse. this author addresses some conceptual and methodological aspects of these frameworks and also takes the case of signalling nouns to contend that this noun category might be incorporated into models of metadiscourse. following flowerdew’s contribution, matthew peacock’s original article shows how stance adverbials may play an important role in putting forward claims and propositions in academic prose. peacock classifies stance adverbials into two main categories, limitation and doubt and certainty, and explains that both are much more prevalent than hitherto suspected in academic writing. of particular interest is the author’s claim that semantic preference techniques may be a valuable method for corpus-based research on stance in academic writing. in-depth analysis and discussion on both textual and contextual aspects of legal discourse is also illustrated in this issue. raquel taranilla’s original article offers careful examination of the differences between the narratives of civil and criminal judgments, with the aim of contributing to the description of the spanish judgment as a genre. the author focuses on the textual features of the genre of court judgments and provides the reader with an insightful comparison of how proven facts are narrated in a similar way in civil and criminal systems. the original article by isabel negro alousque applies the cognitive framework to illustrate, based on empirical data, the relevance of metaphor both as a conceptual mechanism underlying political discourse and as an argumentative, ideological, evaluative and persuasive tool. the author offers a detailed textual analysis of the linguistic and conceptual metaphors of chavez’s political speeches and demonstrates that these metaphors perform persuasively, playing a central role in the construction of chávez’s self-image as both a political and religious leader. patrizia anesa and antoinette fage-butler sensibly bring to the forefront the impact of the new technologies in the context of languages for specialised communication. these authors focus on online health forums as a new form of doctor-patient communication. their article analyses the editorial ibérica 29 (2015): 9-1410 00 iberica 29.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 30/03/15 22:00 página 10 types of dialogic and polylogic interactions that occur in this type of communicative event. adopting a discourse analytical approach, the authors’ analysis illustrates how these forums may be popularizing biomedical knowledge as they are no longer targeted at specialised audience but at a diversified audience. carmen pérez-sabater and begoña montero-fleta also address the impact of the new technologies, though from the perspective of lsp teaching and learning. their article describes a very original approach to the use of twitter for esp teaching within the context of collaborative learning and blended learning environments. the authors provide detailed explanations of how twitter can be incorporated into a structured language learning task. they assess the pedagogical advantages of a writing-to-learn activity on twitter complemented with other activities of the esp course. baramee kheovichai’s original article focuses on metaphor scenarios in business discourse. the analysis of these scenarios is based on sound corpus evidence, thus providing a comprehensive basis for the search for exemplification. the article also makes significant additions to and contrasts with the relevant bibliography that the author reviews. kheovichai’s approach nicely demonstrates how cohesion is constructed in business discourse, deriving from the co-occurrence of related lexical items of the semantic fields in question. the original article by sven tarp seeks to systematize, as the author states, the functions registered in economic dictionaries during the past 300 years with a view to presenting some suggestions for the immediate future of online dictionaries. tarp provides a sound and fundamental reflection on the disciplinary status of economic lexicography and concludes with sensible recommendations for the development of future dictionaries of economics in view of the advent of e-lexicography. the last original article included in this issue, by giuseppina scotto di carlo, looks into the discoursal use of axiological and non-axiological adjectives in online popularisations, namely ted (technology, entertainment, design) talks. this author also draws on corpus evidence to explain how the speakers express judgments and take up positions at a textual level by means of evaluative adjectives. this author’s article offers rich reflections on the popularization of scientific knowledge in online multimedia genres. editorial ibérica 29 (2015): 9-14 11 00 iberica 29.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 30/03/15 22:00 página 11 besides these original research articles, this issue contains the reviews of relevant books for ibérica’s target audience. the first review, by miguel ángel campos pardillos, addresses innovative approaches to translation of legal texts (i.e. the volume legal translation in context, edited by anabel borja albi & fernando prieto ramos). the second review, by luz gil-salom, provides insightful critical views of issues of personality in legal genres (as discussed in interpersonality in legal genres, a collection of essays edited by ruth breeze, maurizio gotti & carmen sancho guinda). the readers will also find inmaculada fortanet gómez’s interesting review of mary jane curry & theresa lillis’ a scholar’s guide to getting published in english. critical choices and practical strategies, a volume which includes useful comments and insights into how to get research published in english-medium scientific journals. corporate discourse, by ruth breeze, reviewed by juan carlos palmer silveira in this issue, is also a very insightful reading for ibérica’s audience. finally, on behalf of the former journal editor, i thank the members of the editorial board for their collaboration in the peer-review process of the articles published in this issue. their suggestions and thorough evaluations of the manuscripts are a key pillar of the excellence of the journal. these have been (in alphabetical order): elena bárcena (universidad nacional de educación a distancia), maría enriqueta cortés (universidad de almería), amparo garcía carbonell (universitat politècnica de valència), rosa giménez (universitat de valència), honesto herrera (universidad complutense de madrid), maria kuteeva (stockholm university, sweden), laura m. muresan (bucharest university of economic studies, romania), maría ángeles orts (universidad de murcia), juan carlos palmer (universitat jaume i), ramón plo (universidad de zaragoza), carmen sancho (universidad politécnica de madrid), chelo vargas (universidad de alicante) and michael white (universidad complutense de madrid). also, i list below the invited external reviewers who have also generously supported the peer-review process during the past six months. on behalf of the former editor, i thank them for their detailed assessment of the manuscripts, as well as for their time and interest in ibérica. they are, in alphabetical order: erdem akbas (erciyes university, turkey) pilar alberola (florida universitària) moisés almela (universidad de murcia) editorial ibérica 29 (2015): 9-1412 00 iberica 29.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 30/03/15 22:00 página 12 ismael arinas (universidad politécnica de madrid) karen bennett (university of lisbon centre for english studies, portugal) daniele besomi (university of lausanne, france) ana bocanegra (universidad de cádiz) ruth breeze (universidad de navarra) rosario caballero (universidad de castilla-la mancha) pascual cantos (universidad de murcia) beatriz cendón (universidad de valladolid) mª josé coperías (universitat de valència) alejandro curado (universidad de extremadura) zsófija demjén (the open university, uk) dacia dressen-hammouda (université blaise pascal, france) pedro fuertes (universidad de valladolid) víctor gonzález (universidad las palmas de gran canaria) maurizio gotti (university of bergamo, italy) yongyan li (university of hong kong, china) carmen lópez ferrero (universitat pompeu fabra) hilary nesi (coventry university, uk) matthew peacock (city university of hong kong, china) anne räsänen (university of jyväskylä, finland) miguel ruiz (universitat jaume i) sven tarp (aarhus university, denmark) james wilson (university of leeds, uk) christopher williams (university of foggia, italy) ian williams (universidad de cantabria) joseph zompetti (illinois state university, us) i hope that the readers find in this issue inspiring and relevant current trends in the analysis of specialised discourses as well as innovative approaches to the teaching/learning of specialised languages. carmen pérez-llantada universidad de zaragoza (spain) llantada@unizar.es editor-in-chief of ibérica editorial ibérica 29 (2015): 9-14 13 00 iberica 29.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 30/03/15 22:00 página 13 01 editorial.qxd editorial ibérica is ringing an international bell. in a recently-published review paper entitled “keeping in touch: a survey of lexicography periodicals” and published in the reputed journal lexikos (no. 19 (2009): 404-422), r.r.k. hartmann lists ibérica among the 40 most relevant journals to lexicography and scholars involved in lexicographical research. also, there must be something about it when ibérica merits the attention of a wide array of international scholars who submit their manuscripts for peer review (see some of the outcomes in this volume), and, moreover, when ibérica provides the whole corpus for an interesting piece of research (see moisés-escudero & swales in this volume) and serves to draw relevant conclusions on contrastive genre analysis aiming at a worldwide readership. ibérica is ringing an international bell and we all have to contribute to keep it ringing. on this occasion, the invited paper opening no. 21 comes from one of the topcited scholars in ibérica. just a look at the references section of the articles in this volume will show his name and works to appear recurrently. ken hyland makes a contribution to this volume with a study on the construction of academic identity in three peripheral genres such as thesis statements, doctoral prize applications and bio statements. after discussing the importance for academic writers to manufacture their identity and find a credible position within academia, hyland digs into the ways writers from different disciplines manage to show their credentials, value their research or try to establish some sort of valued reputation with the final aim of claiming an academic self in scholarly life. conclusions show, among others, a prevalence of disciplinary patterns and practices; but, most importantly, that “identity results from the command of an “idiom”, or mastery of a community repertoire, which we appropriate and shape to our own needs and personal preferences to best present ourselves to valued others” (page 28). the second chapter, which addresses the latin american situation pertaining to eap research, also deals somehow with the need to portray a credible academic self in global scholarly life. as iliana a. martínez observes, it is not easy for researchers from “periphery countries” to make themselves visible in today’s highly competitive publishing arena; however, “instruction based on the knowledge and expertise accumulated by eap in the last twenty years may contribute to balance the inequalities faced by non-anglophone scholars when they have to communicate in a language other than their own” (page 33). as a whole, martinez’s paper displays optimism in different ways: it provides figures from the science citation index database that indicate that the number of nonanglophone researchers who publish in english is increasing and her discussion shows a positive evolution of latin american countries that are gradually finding a credible position in international research. last, she reflects on what ibérica 21 (2011): 5-8 issn 1139-7241 5 ˇ 00 iberica 21.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 10/03/11 17:17 página 5 she calls the advantages of the latin american situation and claims a capitalization of such advantages in view of maximizing eap writing instruction. the following two contributions both examine research article writing from different points of view. adopting a contrastive-rhetoric based analysis, moisés perales-escudero and john m. swales investigate patterns of rhetorical convergence and divergence in english and spanish abstracts published in issues 3 (2001) to 18 (2009) of this very same journal. their corpus consists of 84 pairs of abstracts written by academics working at spanish universities and specializing in applied discourse analysis and lsp/esp. based on this group of abstracts, perales-escudero and swales are engaged on the analysis of textreferring expressions, degree of epistemic commitment, amplified attitude, selfmention and periphrastic equivalents. both myself, as current editor-in-chief, and the authors of all these abstracts were contacted so as to confirm or refute initial assumptions. the study and translation of examples provided reveal insight into the stylistic and collocation behaviour of english and spanish in research article abstract writing and serve to outline specific rhetorical convergent and divergent patterns with potential implications for esp pedagogy and translation studies. next, jason miin-hwa lim provides a detailed account of the descriptions and justifications of sampling procedures in the method-related sections of research articles. based on a corpus of 32 experimental research articles published between 2004 and 2008 in eight reputed international refereed journals related to the teaching of english as a second language (the journal of english for academic purposes being one of them), lim investigates and handsomely illustrates the language resources and semantic functions current researchers employ to describe the locations, size and other features of sample participants (step 1) and justify the sampling procedure implemented (step 2). findings reported are practically oriented and, hence, are expected to assist both expert and novice researchers when writing research reports. also concerned with written genres, ruth breeze examines the notion of “disciplinary values” in english legal discourse. in particular, breeze focuses on six adjective/adverb sets having a prominent role in legal discourse and, by means of wordsmith tools (scott, 2007) studies the behaviour of such sets in a 2-million word corpus within the scope of commercial law: academic law articles, case law (law reports and court opinions), legislation (companies acts) and legal documents (like contracts or merger agreements). other sources such as the british national corpus (bnc) and the british academic written english corpus (bawe) are taken into account so as to contrast frequencies and draw conclusions. among the six adjective/adverb sets under study, “reasonable” and “reasonably” merits most attention, simply because the constructs of “reasonableness” and “reasonable persona” stand out in legal discourse. results editorial ibérica 21 (2011): 5-86 00 iberica 21.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 10/03/11 17:17 página 6 show, among others, the existence of complex patterns between subcorpora and that the target sets of adjectives/adverbs emerge “as being particularly prominent in particular areas of legal discourse, and as being likely to embody community-specific values that shape the disciplinary culture of law” (page 110). diplomatic language lays the groundwork for aditi bhatia’s research. in her study of political press conferences, bhatia draws on a data set of conferences between leaders of different nations held from 2001 to 2009 and published in well-known international newspapers and magazines. the various conference extracts provided help to illustrate the array of language strategies international political leaders deploy with a view to overcoming differences, negotiating, strengthening solidarity, forging alliances or creating diplomatic ties. most important of all is the construction of the ideal of a so-called “international community”, that is, “a self-organised group that is united by common beliefs, interests and commitments” (page 127), in which language has an important role to play. the last chapter deals with cognitive-oriented dictionaries for learners and their potential contribution to the development of lexicography in the near future. pedro a. fuertes-olivera and sven tarp, both authors with extensive experience in lexicographical works and dictionary making, claim that lexicography is an independent science of academic study and an area of social practice whose main challenge is to provide a reliable framework for the development of cognitiveoriented specialised dictionaries. fuertes-olivera and tarp first discuss the relationship between knowledge, skills and communication as they relate to dictionary use; next they explore the lexicographical and cognitive needs of lsp learners, and last, they discuss a proposal for the development of systematic introductions in specialised dictionaries to be accessed via internet with particular reference to the recently published diccionario inglés-español de contabilidad (nielsen et al., 2009). this issue no. 21 contains eight book reviews in all. first miguel a. gonzález macías writes on a collection of papers exploring spanish for specific purposes and published by maria vittoria calvi’s competitive research group in italy. you probably remember that issue no. 19 opened with calvi’s invited contribution on the discursive genres in the language of tourism. second, cristina calle martínez reviews diane belcher’s latest edited book on the theory and practice of esp, and which contains chapters related to english for academic purposes, english for occupational purposes and english for sociocultural purposes. third, rosa giménez moreno digs into the challenges professional english has to face in view of the changes required by the bologna process and the role esp has to play in the european higher education area. next, alejandro curado fuentes explores the latest advances and achievements in corpus linguistics as his review provides a detailed account of a selection of papers presented at the 1st international conference on corpus-based approaches to elt held in editorial ibérica 21 (2011): 5-8 7 00 iberica 21.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 10/03/11 17:17 página 7 universitat jaume i (castelló – spain) in november, 2007. in a fifth review, piedad fernández toledo assesses ruiz-garrido, palmer-silveira and fortanetgómez’s latest edited volume dealing with the discourse analysis of english for academic purposes, the discourse analysis of professional english and the pedagogy of english for both academic and professional purposes. the translation of english business and economics texts into spanish is the focus of the review by ángel felices lago who highlights the usefulness of the volume for future translators. also business english, or more particularly, english for international business and economics, is the focus of the volume reviewed by mª del carmen lario de oñate which gathers theoretical and practical proposals for undergraduate and postgraduate students wishing to operate within an international professional context. lastly, mª dolores perea barberá examines the latest english-spanish/spanish-english dictionary to date in the field of english for maritime studies. given the scarcity of publications in this esp variety, this publication will be welcome by students, teachers, translators, researchers and professionals alike. i am pleased to announce that ricardo mairal usón, a full professor in linguistics at the department of foreign philology and linguistics at the spanish national distance-learning university (universidad nacional de educación a distancia, madrid, spain) has kindly accepted to join ibérica’s international advisory board starting from this issue. professor mairal’s main areas of research interest are the architecture of the english lexicon, the representation of lexical knowledge, linguistic universals and the interactions between lexical semantics, syntax and morphology with particular reference to theoretical models, both formal and functional. his most recent research has dealt with the design of a multilingual and multifunctional lexical conceptual knowledge base for natural language processing applications. finally, i would like to acknowledge those invited external reviewers who have assessed submitted manuscripts during this past semester. these have been: nuria edo marzá (universitat de valència), carmen pérez-llantada auría (universidad de zaragoza), maria vittoria calvi (università degli studi di milano, italy), aquilino sánchez (universidad de murcia), camino rea rizzo (universidad de murcia), giovanni garofalo (università degli studi di bergamo, italy), ana c. lahuerta (universidad de oviedo), ester usó-juan (universitat jaume i), carmen sancho guinda (universidad politécnica de madrid) and mª del mar robisco (universidad politécnica de madrid). my appreciation for their detailed assessments and cooperation with this journal. ana bocanegra valle universidad de cádiz (spain) editor of ibérica editorial ibérica 21 (2011): 5-88 00 iberica 21.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 10/03/11 17:17 página 8 redalyc.lenguas de especialidad, traducción, fijación. pedro mogorrón huerta et salah mejri (dirs). alicante: universidad de alicante, 2012. 212 pages. isbn:978-8497172097 ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa rodríguez pedreira, nuria lenguas de especialidad, traducción, fijación. pedro mogorrón huerta et salah mejri (dirs). alicante: universidad de alicante, 2012. 212 pages. isbn:978-8497172097 ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 209-213 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542010 cómo citar el artículo número completo más información del artículo página de la revista en redalyc.org sistema de información científica red de revistas científicas de américa latina, el caribe, españa y portugal proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542010 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542010 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542010 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 lenguas de especialidad, traducción, fijación. langues spécialisées, figement et traduction pedro mogorrón huerta et salah mejri (dirs). alicante: universidad de alicante, 2012. 212 pages. isbn: 978-8497172097. paru en 2012 aux éditions de l’université de alicante sous la direction de pedro mogorrón huerta et salah mejri, le présent ouvrage est un hommage rendu à pierre lerat, professeur, chercheur et spécialiste de terminologie, lexicologie, lexicographie générale et spécialisée (notamment juridique). presque vingt ans après la publication de son principal ouvrage les langues spécialisées (1995), considéré comme un livre de « synthèse, de référence et d’enseignement » (eluerd, 1996: 55), ses collègues, ses compatriotes, ses amis, somme toute, des linguistes qui consacrent leur recherche aux questions dictionnairiques et/ou aux langues de spécialité lui ont offert ce livre de mélanges pour lui témoigner leur admiration et leur reconnaissance. dès le début, une présentation généreuse des contributions qui scandent le livre pose la thématique abordée (pages 10-17), qui va des langues de spécialité au figement en passant par la traduction, trois sujets entremêlés explicitement évoqués dans le titre de l’ouvrage. cette présentation a le mérite d’être exposée parallèlement en deux langues, le français et l’espagnol, sans doute par souci de cohérence avec l’ensemble des points traités dans le manuel, et peut-être bien aussi pour souligner la portée de la traduction spécialisée et en faire ressortir les enjeux et les défis. une fois exposées les problématiques d’étude et après une brève approche définitoire des trois concepts clé (spécialité, traduction et figement), la lectrice et le lecteur sont confrontés à des questions auxquelles on tente d’avancer des réponses qui s’appuient sur les résultats des treize études regroupées dans ce volume. ainsi, loin d’appartenir à des compartiments étanches, langue générale et langue de spécialité pourraient bien s’inscrire « dans une continuité consubstancielle [sic] » (page 12). dans cette mouvance, 209 reseñas/book reviews 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 209 chaque étude apporte son originalité et sa spécificité, fournit des éclaircissements sur la complexité du phénomène, et place tel ou tel concept au centre de la recherche des auteurs du volume. ainsi, la présentation, riche et détaillée, faisant figure d’introduction au corps même du livre, est suivie d’une contribution de salah mejri (pages 19-31) sur les phraséologismes dans les discours spécialisés. il en repère notamment deux: les « phraséologismes grammaticaux » et les « phraséologismes lexicaux » (page 28). sur l’assise de cette double distinction, l’auteur tiendrait à assurer « la qualité de la traduction » autour de la détection automatique des phraséologismes dans le texte source, de la « détermination de la couverture phraséologique textuelle » (page 30), et de la recherche d’équivalents dans le texte cible. de son côté, pedro mogorrón huerta s’attache aux unités phraséologiques à « contenu culturel évident » (page 81), notamment aux constructions verbales figées de l’espagnol et aux problèmes que pose éventuellement leur traduction au français. et cela pour en arriver à une conclusion qui peut sembler évidente à plusieurs, mais que d’autres pourraient contester: le traducteur se devrait de conserver le terme de la langue source si aucune autre forme de la langue cible n’existe pour représenter « l’univers culturel d’origine », ou bien d’avoir recours, entre autres, à une adaptation culturelle de la traduction si les « référents culturels » diffèrent (page 95). reste que l’une ou l’autre option n’est pas un choix facile, et que tout choix engage une démarche qui peut aussi bien être défendue que contestée, mais au final le traducteur « est amené à faire des choix dont il assume la responsabilité et qu’il doit être en mesure de justifier » (vandaele, 2008: 65). dans son étude des unités phraséologiques et leur degré de fixité dans la traduction littéraire1, inès sfar (pages 113-122) plaide pour l’importance de la dimension linguistique, en arguant paradoxalement que l’« idiomaticité linguistique » serait plus complexe à traduire que « l’idiomaticité culturelle » (page 121), c’est au moins ce que l’auteur semble démontrer dans le cadre de cette étude. pourtant, faut-il l’interpréter comme une observation unanime ? nous en doutons. de son côté, chelo vargas sierra (pages 173-196) identifie les patrons morphosyntaxiques prototypiques des combinaisons lexicales spécialisées d’un point de vue contrastif (anglais/espagnol). son argumentation n’apporte rien d’autre que des patrons d’équivalences sous forme de graphiques certes intéressants, mais dépourvus d’une systématicité reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230210 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 210 que la langue en évolution constante et l’hétérogénéité des différents textes de spécialité rendent incertaine, ainsi que le laisse entendre l’auteur. discours « des affaires », phraséologismes et traduction sont au centre des études de dolors català (pages 135-144) et de daniel gallego hernández (pages 197-212). la première présente une analyse comparative des « pragmatèmes » 2 de clôture des lettres commerciales, en français, en espagnol et en catalan, et conclut que le français fait usage de formules bien plus complexes qui prennent appui sur les relations hiérarchiques, alors que les deux autres langues emploient des formules plus simples mettant au devant des « relations paritaires » (page 142). la seconde s’occupe de la phraséologie spécialisée du langage des affaires portant sur la notion de risque, dans une étude comparative français/espagnol. au-delà du fait que l’analyse révèlerait, entre autres, « une tendance à l’emploi de la traduction littérale » (page 197), elle présenterait, au dire de l’auteur, certains avantages comme la possibilité de la création de catalogues phraséologiques utiles aux traducteurs. dans une veine similaire, mais centrant sa recherche sur la phraséologie informatique, jean-pierre colson (pages 159-171) cherche à établir « un profil phraséologique » (page 159) comme outil d’aide dans le cadre de la traduction automatique. le « score statistique » (wpr) et la fréquence sembleraient des critères essentiels pour le repérage des figements généraux et des figements spécialisés du texte source. la langue du doublage est au cœur des contributions de glòria torralba miralles et al. (pages 65-79) et de carla botella tejera (pages 99-112). ces études se rejoignent pour accréditer la singularité de la traduction audiovisuelle, en ceci que le doublage exige la prise en compte d’éléments linguistiques autant que paratextuels (visuels, sonores), et c’est bien ce qui en fait toute la difficulté. tandis que botella tejera centre son analyse sur les films anglophones et le rôle de l’intertextualité, et alors même qu’elle revendique la nécessité de transférer l’humour à une nouvelle audience-cible, torralba miralles et al. s’attèlent à l’élaboration d’un répertoire phraséologique du valencien actuel. à l’issue de leur analyse, les auteurs notent avec préoccupation un appauvrissement de la langue valencienne, qui serait dû en partie à l’absence de proverbes traduits en langue cible et aux cas d’hypercorrection détectés (pages 75-78). dans son étude sur les « variantes diatopiques » mexicaines, luis meneses (pages 49-63) fait valoir l’idiomaticité comme critère définitoire des mexicanismes, et propose une solution originale, non exempte de reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 211 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 211 contraintes, pour en faciliter l’identification: la création de dictionnaires électroniques monolingues. dans un autre ordre d’idées, pierre lerat (pages 33-44) s’intéresse à la cohérence conceptuelle, qu’il rallie aux connaissances explicites ou implicites, et à la cohésion lexicale, qu’il décrit comme un « savoir-dire » à la fois général et spécialisé. partant, les interlocuteurs des discours spécialisés seraient tenus de partager, selon lui, une compétence à la fois linguistique et extralinguistique, dans une volonté de maîtriser les règles d’un « technolecte » propre à ce type de discours. dans une perspective ouvertement descriptive et sans autre intérêt que celui de fournir un listage de locutions étiquetées par catégories, mario garcía-page se livre à une étude de la phraséologie dans cuento de cuentos de f. de quevedo (pages 123-134). cristina valderrey reñones, pour sa part, examine finement un jugement de divorce pour faute, et constate que les faits linguistiques sont ralliés au concept de genre, notamment aux « classes de texte », ainsi qu’aux contraintes rhétoriques et pragmatiques les concernant (pages 145-158). pedro mogorrón huerta et salah mejri y font déjà allusion dans la présentation de l’ouvrage: plusieurs moyens, langues et domaines évoqués « pour apporter une aide précieuse à une traduction des discours spécialisés » (page 14). c’est ce qui en fait toute la richesse et l’originalité, malgré la présence ça et là de coquilles, erreurs typographiques ou d’orthographe, et quelques erreurs de mise en forme, qui n’entament en rien l’intérêt de la lecture. par l’étendue des domaines concernés, il n’en est que plus vif. ce livre est donc fortement recommandé à l’intention, non seulement des spécialistes, mais aussi à celle de quiconque s’intéresse à la problématique du figement dans les langues spécialisées. reçue 19 février 2015 acceptée 20 février 2015 note de lecture rédigée par nuria rodríguez pedreira université de saint-jacques-de-compostelle (espagne) nuria.rodriguez@usc.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230212 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 212 references notes 1 l’étude prend comme source l’œuvre de taieb saleh (1969), saison de la migration vers le nord, traduite de l’arabe au français (1972). 2 phrasèmes particuliers fixés dans chaque langue (pages 136-137). reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 213 eluerd, r. (1996). compte rendu de « lerat pierre. les langues spécialisées. p.u.f., linguistique nouvelle, 1995 ». l’information grammaticale 70: 55-56. vandaele, s., raffo, m. et boudreau, s. (2008). « les défis de la pédagogie de la traduction spécialisée: mise en œuvre d’un site de référence en biomédecine ». ttr: traduction, terminologie, rédaction 21,2: 63-94. doi: 10.7202/037492ar. 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 213 01 editorial.qxd editorial the need for successful communication in intercultural and international business settings: analytic and comparative studies, new trends and methodologies communicating is a need in today’s business world; if professionals are not able to express their ideas appropriately, it will be difficult for them to reach positive agreements while operating internationally. this special issue of ibérica is devoted to the analysis of successful experiences aimed at communicating accurately in intercultural and international business settings. needless to say, the traditional difference between domestic and foreign markets has basically disappeared nowadays, as trade barriers have been removed thanks to the increasing amount of commercial agreements among countries. this situation has forced professionals to learn languages in order to survive in international markets, where they will have to find their space against a larger number of competitors (selmier ii & oh, 2012). as a result of this new international stage, learning other languages has become a must for most of those professionals, and english is often used as the business lingua franca in order to negotiate internationally (ehrenreich, 2010; evans, 2013). nevertheless, this can present some challenges, as rogerson-revell (2007) pointed out, as in many situations these communicative interactions are carried out among speakers whose native language is not english (kankaanranta & lu, 2013; nickerson & crawford-camiciottoli, 2013). additionally, we should also consider that these challenges may not only be linguistic, but also cultural. practitioners have aptly noticed that knowing a language in order to communicate appropriately in business settings often implies mastering three different concepts. all of them are necessary in order to succeed in business negotiations with people coming from different cultures. those three elements to be considered by any professional are: (i) the use of ibérica 26 (2013): 9-16 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 appropriate business-related concepts; (ii) using the corresponding specific terminology in english; and (iii) applying appropriate communicative techniques. in some way, working on business-related activities implies being in control of this communication triangle. nevertheless, this process can sometimes be altered by intercultural or international misunderstandings that can jeopardise the process. doing business with people from other cultures can be a fairly frustrating activity (kowner, 2002). young professionals, working as expatriates for important companies, often comment on the difficulties they have in order to communicate adequately, in many instances because knowing the language and using the right business techniques are not enough. they miss the intercultural/international component, and it may take a long time to develop it. that is why the study of the different theories related to intercultural business communication can help any interested party to succeed professionally (gibson, 2002). when dealing with international business communication we often pay attention to discourse. as bargiela-chiappini (2004) pointed out, international business discourse is both culturally-situated and contextdependent; the communication process is always affected by all three elements (discourse, culture and context), and should be understood as a whole and not as three separate elements that can be isolated. any professional has to consider the type of discourse to be used in a specific country or region (considering its specific political, economic and social situation), but always assuming the culture of the place s/he is visiting. knowing the culture and using the language accurately allows any professional to get the most from a business communication process (van meurs, korzilius & den hollander, 2006). intercultural business communication tries to solve the wide range of communication problems that often appear within a firm, considering that corporations are frequently formed by people coming from different countries and/or regions, who have different educational backgrounds, and who may be affected by their religious beliefs, their ethnic group, or their social class (dowling & welch, 2004; varner & beamer, 2005). lauring (2011: 234) aptly points out the relevance of culture in business communication when he states: most authors in intercultural business communication argue that culture determines how individuals encode messages, what mediums they choose for transmitting them, and the way messages are interpreted. this implies that editorial ibérica 26 (2013): 9-1610 when transmitting a message in an international setting, culture might function as a kind of disturbance, which can distort the intended meaning. a message can be somehow defined as valid when it is adapted to the culture of the receiver, being appropriate for his/her cultural background and achieving a final goal. thus, both appropriateness and effectiveness are two important parameters to understand the success of our messages in an intercultural setting. communication breakdowns are often caused by problems while adapting our message to our audience’s real cross-cultural competence, and sometimes we do not realize that we have not provided the receiver with the intended message. unfortunately, many professionals agree to state that the effects of failed communication can be very damaging, as their own experience can suggest so. those two concepts of appropriateness and effectiveness should be applied with a high level of sensitivity, so as not to offend people from other cultures, a fact that could jeopardize anyone’s possibilities to reach a satisfactory business deal. we should therefore try to know other people’s cultures, and this implies a basic understanding of their norms and values. what can be perfect in one culture may be taken as something inappropriate in another. in intercultural business communication, behaving as one would normally do might cause unintentional offences. only those professionals who could communicate accurately, observing the intercultural rules applied in real commercial settings, will be able to survive in this global market companies are nowadays dealing with. it is the survival of the fittest, of those who can get adapted to their environment, and in order to do so professionals will need to enhance their intercultural competence. the articles published in this special issue pay attention to intercultural and international business communication (iibc) from different perspectives. starting from a general overview on business english as a lingua franca, the volume also presents new views on genre analysis, discourse analysis and different teaching methodologies related to iibc, trying to shed some light on innovations related to this area of research. in the opening article, anne kankaanranta and leena louhiala-salminen (aalto university, finland) offer an interesting overview of the origins and foundations of belf (business english as a lingua franca) or, as they claim in their text, english as business lingua franca. in their opinion, the position of english as the global lingua franca in business is beyond dispute and it should be assumed that competence in belf is a necessity for any editorial ibérica 26 (2013): 9-16 11 business professional in international contexts. they analyse their efforts, during the last decade, in order to define how the goal-oriented nature of business can have an influence in the way professionals perceive the importance of belf. all their previous work leads these authors to conclude here that communicative competence is far more important for business professionals than linguistic accuracy, and this implies that there are many more aspects defining belf than the language itself. the next three articles deal with business correspondence in a variety of ways. yunxia zhu (the university of queensland, australia) compares english and chinese business faxes from a genre-based perspective, paying attention to texts written in new zealand and china, and analyses all the differences that can be observed regarding the persuasive techniques used in both languages. one important conclusion is that whereas english business faxes seem less direct and personal, chinese faxes place a greater emphasis on affective aspects. zhu points out that there exists a deep need to build a closer business relationship among chinese professionals, a fact that can be observed in this specific genre. the author offers a theoretical framework based on the rhetorical structures and linguistic strategies present in the faxes analysed. in zhu’s opinion, genre teaching can help enhance professionals’ understanding of institutionalised knowledge, implementing their level of competence when dealing with cross-cultural genre writing, and allowing them to overcome any problem arising from the lack of intercultural communication abilities. in the following article, maría luisa carrió-pastor and rut muñiz-calderón (universitat politècnica de valència & universidad católica de valencia, spain) analyse language variation in one hundred e-mails written by business managers from india and china. following the traditional structures proposed by bhatia (1993), these scholars observe the possible variations in the internal organization of the e-mails gathered as well as some changes in the organization of different moves and steps within those texts. the conclusions of this article shed some light related to the influence of the mother tongue in the structural decisions taken by asian businessmen while writing e-mails: despite the fact that english is used as a global language for business purposes worldwide, when they communicate their linguistic and cultural background still permeates. the next contribution to the volume also pays attention to the same topic, e-mail writing, but in this case from a european perspective. rosa giménezeditorial ibérica 26 (2013): 9-1612 moreno and hanna skorczynska (universitat de valència & universitat politècnica de valència, spain) carry out a contrastive study on how polish, british and spanish companies reply to two different types of messages (formal and informal). from the 101 replies received and analyzed, they observe the main differences among those messages, trying to define some parameters of variation based on cultural identities. similarly, they also notice that register variation fluctuates depending on the culture analysed. authors conclude that, despite the fact that moves and steps can help any professional to write a good business e-mail message, variations should also be considered and studied in such a way that any author could create a message based on the reader’s specific culture. the fifth article appearing in this special issue, written by bertha dubabcock (city university of hong kong, china), is devoted to the study of two sets of data containing transcripts of the dialogues of intercultural business meetings. the first set deals with meetings between japanese and hong kong business professionals, all of them with an adequate level of english. the second set corresponds to two meetings held by professionals in two multinational corporations in finland, and three languages are used (finnish, swedish and english), although it is english the main language used in both cases. in her analysis, du-babcock compares both sets of texts, analysing similarities and differences in the communication patterns through the number of turns taken by individuals, the length of speaking time for each group member, and the number of words uttered. she also pays attention to other aspects such as small talk, turn-taking and floor management as well as the disclosure of disagreeing opinions. next, gina poncini (zayed university, united arab emirates) presents a research project that aims at investigating how professionals communicate at several international industry events dealing with the wine and grape business. in her study she analyses contextual factors such as relationships, roles and level of expertise of those taking part in the meetings. she pays attention to how knowledge and interest help event participants to overcome cultural and professional differences; in fact, in her analysis, she realizes that both journalists and wine and grape producers share verbal and non-verbal practices during wine-tasting sessions. despite coming from different linguistic, cultural and professional backgrounds, all the professionals attending the session share certain values and practices related to the wine industry, becoming a community of practice. editorial ibérica 26 (2013): 9-16 13 the next two chapters move on to the pedagogical aspects of iibc in university settings. first, guzman mancho-barés and enric llurda (universitat de lleida, spain) analyse the steps to be taken in order to design the syllabus of a business english course. considering that their university requires a b1 level in english for all its graduates, they also examine an entry test and a questionnaire, specifically designed to gather evidence on the influence of the number of years studying english and the students’ ability to read a text appropriately. finally, they check these results with some business representatives, who emphasize the need to teach comprehension skills and language accuracy for those students interested in working in an international business environment. the data collected advocates for the need to enhance communicative efficiency in business activities. professionals, as a whole, seem more interested in communicating successfully than achieving linguistic accuracy, though this latter aspect is the main goal promoted by university practitioners. next, m. carmen lario de oñate and maría vázquez amador (universidad de cádiz, spain) pay attention to intercultural communicative competence (icc) and how this field of study has evolved in 67 business english textbooks through the last 50 years. they analyse the development of icc as a concept and how it has been taught over the years, on the basis of the different examples gathered in their corpus. lario de oñate and vázquez amador observe that the intercultural component has become more evident in their corpus since the 1980s, whereas during the 1960s and 1970s cultural aspects were largely ignored. results point out that almost half of the books published from 1980 onwards include some kind of intercultural component; however, only two of them include specific units devoted to intercultural communication. the last article completing this special issue has been written by miguel a. garcía-yeste (stockholm university, sweden) and analyses how some cultural values as context dependence and individualism play an important role in the design of press advertisements in spain. after observing that practitioners and agencies are trying to find ways to adapt marketing campaigns to intercultural target audiences, he analyses 100 spanish graphic advertisements. his piece of research is both qualitative and quantitative because it offers a set of communicative and multimodal strategies which could help any advertising professional to promote products following spanish cultural conventions as well as some final guidelines. editorial ibérica 26 (2013): 9-1614 in this volume we have also included some book reviews that can be of interest to our readership, given the main topic of this special issue. thus, christina burek’s study on intercultural communication in multicultural companies is reviewed by carmen foz (universidad de zaragoza, spain). another issue of interest, as stated above, is how intercultural issues are promoted in the classroom, and this is the main topic of yau tsai and stephanie houghton’s volume, reviewed for us by philip shaw (university of stockholm, sweden). next, miguel f. ruiz-garrido (universitat jaume i, spain) reviews rita salvi and hiromasa tanaka’s volume on intercultural interactions in business, and, to round things up, the final review of this special issue, written by carmen piqué-noguera (universitat de valència, spain), offers some guidelines on the work edited by paul gillaerts, elizabeth de groot, sylvain dieltjens, priscilla heynderickx and geert jacobs dealing with discourse in business genres. finally, i would like to thank dr. ana bocanegra-valle, the editor-in-chief of ibérica, for offering me the chance to work on this special issue. i want to point out that she has been a constant guide during this long-lasting process. she is one of the hardest-working people in our field, and an incredible support throughout this whole process. she deserves all my recognition, and i am glad to state that ibérica would not be the same without her. additionally, i would also like to thank all the invited reviewers that have devoted their time and effort in order to offer constructive feedback on the extended abstracts and the full texts submitted for publication. the following list includes, in alphabetical order, their names: magdalena bielenia-grajewska (university of gdansk, poland) maría luisa blanco-gómez (universidad rey juan carlos, spain) ruth breeze (universidad de navarra, spain) inmaculada fortanet-gómez (universitat jaume i, spain) pedro a. fuertes-olivera (universidad de valladolid, spain) honesto herrera-soler (universidad complutense de madrid, spain) maria kuteeva (stockholm university, sweden) maría del carmen campoy-cubillo (universitat jaume i, spain) maría ángeles orts llopis (universidad de murcia, spain) miguel f. ruiz-garrido (universitat jaume i, spain) carmen sancho-guinda (universidad politécnica de madrid, spain) the volume you are about to read is the result of all our efforts to offer a sound vision on new trends and methodologies on intercultural and editorial ibérica 26 (2013): 9-16 15 international business communication. i am terribly proud to have coedited this project, international both in its scope and in the origin of many contributions, together with my colleague, dr. ana bocanegra-valle. we just hope you enjoy the final result as much as we do. juan carlos palmer-silveira universitat jaume i (spain) palmerj@uji.es guest editor of ibérica no. 26 references editorial ibérica 26 (2013): 9-1616 bargiela-chiappini, f. (2004). “intercultural business discourse” in c.n. candlin & m. gotti (eds.), intercultural aspects of specialized communication, 29-51. bern: peter lang. bhatia, v.k. (1993). analysing genre: language use in professional settings. london: longman. dowling, p.j. & d.e. welch (2004). international human resource management: managing people in a multinational environment. london: thomson learning. ehrenreich, s. (2010). “english as a business lingua franca in a german multinational corporation: meeting the challenge”. journal of business communication 47: 408-431. evans, s. (2013). “perspectives on the use of english as a business lingua franca in hong kong”. journal of business communication 50: 227-252. gibson, r. (2002). intercultural business communication. oxford: oxford university press. kankaanranta, a. & w. lu (2013). “the evolution of english as the business lingua franca: signs of convergence in chinese and finnish professional communication”. journal of business and technical communication 27: 288-307. kowner, r. (2002). “japanese communication in intercultural encounters: the barrier of statusrelated behavior”. international journal of intercultural relations 26: 339-361. lauring, j. (2011). “intercultural organizational communication: the social organizing of interaction in international encounters”. journal of business and communication 48: 231-255. nickerson, c. & b. crawford-camiciottoli (2013). “business english as a lingua franca in advertising texts in the arabian gulf: analyzing the attitudes of the emirati community”. journal of business and technical communication 27: 329352. rogerson-revell, p. (2007). “using english for international business: a european case study”. english for specific purposes 26: 103-120. selmier ii, w.t. & c.h. oh (2012). “international business complexity and the internationalization of languages”. business horizons 55: 189-200. van meurs, f., h. korzilius & a. den hollander (2006). “the persuasive effect of the use of english in external business communication on non-native speakers of english: an experimental case study of the impact of the use of english on a dutch job site” in j.c. palmer-silveira, m.f. ruizgarrido & i. fortanet-gómez (eds.), intercultural and international business communication: theory, research and teaching, 139-179. bern: peter lang. varner, i. & l. beamer (2005). intercultural communication in the global workplace. new york: mcgraw-hill. iberica 13 ibérica 13 [2007]: 171-180 resumen este trabajo presenta una experiencia pedagógica en la que se aborda el aprendizaje del lenguaje jurídico y del contenido de esta disciplina. la propuesta pedagógica está elaborada a partir de nuestra experiencia docente en la materia en una universidad francesa. palabras clave: léxico jurídico, español para extranjeros, español para fines específicos, aprendizaje del léxico. abstract didactic proposal for the teaching of legal spanish in france this work presents a teaching experience which not only focuses on the acquisition of spanish legal terms but also on the subject matter. the didactic proposal rests on the author’s teaching experience of this subject in a french university. key words: glossary of legal terms, spanish as a foreign language, spanish for specific purposes, learning of vocabulary. 1. introducción la finalidad de este trabajo es presentar una propuesta didáctica del español para fines específicos que aborda no sólo el léxico y el lenguaje jurídico sino también el contenido, especialmente en los ámbitos del derecho mercantil y propuesta didáctica para la enseñanza del español en francia maría beatriz salgado universidad parís xii val de marne salgado@univ-paris12.fr 171 09 salgado.qxp 6/4/07 09:09 página 171 financiero. a la hora de elaborar una propuesta pedagógica, se debe tener en cuenta el contexto profesional al que se enfrentan los alumnos. las clases de español de los negocios (espagnol des affaires) o español lengua comercial (negociation en espagnol o espagnol langue commerciale) se implantan progresivamente en las universidades francesas más tradicionales junto con las clases de gramática o traducción. las sugerencias que presentamos en este trabajo están basadas en los siete años en que hemos impartido las asignaturas de derecho mercantil y derecho financiero a alumnos franceses de tercero y cuarto curso de la carrera de comercio internacional en la universidad parís xii. estas asignaturas desempeñan un papel fundamental para los alumnos dado que durante su carrera profesional tendrán que redactar y comprender contratos mercantiles y negociar con sociedades españolas cuyas bases legales no coinciden, a pesar de tener fundamentos de derecho similares, con las francesas. basándonos en esta experiencia, presentamos las principales dificultades a las que nos enfrentamos y los diferentes aspectos didácticos más destacados de estas clases. 2. dificultades mayores: léxico jurídico y contenido a nuestro entender, es fundamental que la enseñanza de este tipo de materias se realice en la lengua extranjera (el español en nuestro caso) para que el alumno, incluso aunque no pueda hablar con fluidez un lenguaje tan específico como es el jurídico, se familiarice con estos términos. se deben abandonar los métodos más tradicionales de enseñanza según los cuales el profesor se dirige al alumno en su lengua materna y la clase se resume a una simple traducción de términos jurídicos de un idioma al otro y la parte teórica o de contenido de la clase se imparte en francés. la dificultad de este método propuesto es, sin duda alguna, el desconocimiento del léxico por parte de los alumnos. el lenguaje jurídico es un lenguaje técnico utilizado por los profesionales del derecho y de difícil comprensión para aquellas personas ajenas al ámbito legal. afirma cornu (2005) que el vocabulario jurídico es el conjunto de términos que, en una lengua, tienen una o varias acepciones jurídicas. de manera general, el discurso jurídico, ya sea el discurso legislativo o el de la decisión de justicia, está fundado en la presunción del conocimiento del derecho y de su terminología. pero, en realidad, el alumno no siempre entiende perfectamente el término en su lengua materna. intenta relacionar el maría beatriz salgado 172 ibérica 13 [2007]: 171-180 09 salgado.qxp 6/4/07 09:09 página 172 concepto francés con un término español pero en numerosas ocasiones no hay correspondencia unívoca entre dos lenguas diferentes y sobre todo en derecho, materia que no siempre se refiere a una realidad preexistente (como un tribunal o un contrato). puede tratarse de una acción, de la capacidad o de la posibilidad de presentar un recurso ante una jurisdicción. la terminología o lenguaje jurídico es la base de identidades colectivas y se manifiesta como un elemento de cohesión social. sin embargo, se distingue de otros lenguajes específicos por diferentes aspectos que podríamos calificar de conservadores, no solamente en el vocabulario sino también en la sintaxis y en la morfología. la complejidad del lenguaje jurídico fue analizada por algunos autores que hacen una distinción importante entre el lenguaje de la ley y el lenguaje de los juristas: “el lenguaje de la ley es aquel en el que están formuladas la ley y las demás fuentes del derecho y el lenguaje de los juristas es el que utilizan jueces, abogados, juristas, etc. cuando hablan o se refieren al lenguaje del derecho” (iturralde, 1989: 30). es fácil comprobar cómo un alumno comprende sin problemas un contrato o modelo de estatutos de una sociedad y, sin embargo, encuentra enormes dificultades para extraer la idea principal de una sentencia del tribunal supremo o de la exposición de motivos de un texto legal. además, la enseñanza del derecho se enfrenta siempre a la dualidad del “derecho de los juristas” y del “derecho de los ciudadanos”. este último concepto está integrado por la forma y la apariencia que tiene el derecho para toda persona que está en contacto con esta ciencia o que la utiliza sin conocerla, aplicando su propia lógica. es la visión que tienen algunos alumnos sin formación jurídica previa y que no conocen del derecho más que los efectos que éste produce en la sociedad (creación de instituciones, de cargos públicos, legislación, etc.).1 y es que resulta curioso que este lenguaje, considerado desde siempre como un lenguaje de especialidad y técnico, utilice numerosos términos del lenguaje ordinario que en el contexto jurídico adoptan un sentido más preciso. como señala prieto de pedro (1991): (...) al contrario que en otros lenguajes técnicos, la proporción de palabras usadas de forma exclusiva por el derecho es muy escasa, la cuota mayor corresponde a términos del léxico común e incluso de otros léxicos técnicos que el derecho no modula semánticamente con acepciones propias. (prieto de pedro, 1991: 169) y es que si bien es cierto que las normas, con un marcado carácter imperativo, se sirven de términos linguísticos específicos, el recurso a propuesta didáctica para la enseñanza ibérica 13 [2007]: 171-180 173 09 salgado.qxp 6/4/07 09:09 página 173 palabras del lenguaje ordinario utilizadas con un sentido más preciso, dependiendo del contexto en que se empleen, es muy frecuente. numerosas son las ocasiones en que el término adopta un sentido jurídico en un contexto bien preciso y un significado completamente diferente en el lenguaje ordinario (por ejemplo, el término “solidaridad”). indiscutiblemente, el fenómeno contrario también se presenta, aunque con menos frecuencia: términos que sólo se conciben en un vocabulario jurídico (“hipoteca” o “acreedor” son dos ejemplos que ilustran perfectamente este caso). estas características del lenguaje jurídico nos obligan a analizar cada texto, a seleccionar los términos utilizados en un lenguaje coloquial y a definir su significado jurídico puesto que el alumno cree conocer el significado del término por el hecho de que lo conoce en su uso común. éste es un error muy frecuente en los casos de los términos “obligación”, “responsabilidad”, “mayor” o “capacidad”, por ejemplo. el alumno no sólo debe adquirir y asimilar un léxico técnico y específico del derecho sino que también adquiere una serie de conocimientos de contenido; es decir, de normas y principios fundamentales de derecho de estas dos materias jurídicas: derecho mercantil y derecho financiero. 3. elementos de partida 3.1. organización de clases el curso tiene una duración de dos horas semanales impartidas el mismo día. el orden de las actividades realizadas es el siguiente: (a) entre las actividades pedagógicas, las clases teóricas son las más utilizadas para la enseñanza del derecho, puesto que permiten transmitir al alumno una clase bien estructurada en el que los aspectos fundamentales son subrayados por el profesor. las críticas a este método didáctico son, sin embargo, importantes actualmente (ver, por ejemplo, el trabajo de artaud, 1987). la duración de esta clase teórica no excede los cuarenta minutos durante los cuales el alumno adquiere los conocimientos de la asignatura jurídica (contenido jurídico) fundamentalmente a partir de un método de derecho comparado. para esta parte de la clase utilizamos un sistema de transparencias que se proyectan (power point) y de las cuales se ha entregado una copia al alumno para evitar que su atención se centre en tomar apuntes. el siguiente maría beatriz salgado 174 ibérica 13 [2007]: 171-180 09 salgado.qxp 6/4/07 09:09 página 174 paso es establecer un diálogo con la clase para comprobar que los conceptos fundamentales han quedado claros. (b) seguidamente se organiza un trabajo individual que consiste en cuestionarios o en casos prácticos que los alumnos deben realizar con la ayuda de los apuntes y otros documentos puestos a su disposición. esta actividad se termina con la corrección en clase de los ejercicios realizados. la realización de un trabajo individual permite al alumno recurrir a su capacidad de reflexión y de intuición para la aplicación correcta de la norma de derecho que se explicó previamente en clase, así como para imaginar las soluciones jurídicas que debe aportar a los casos concretos que se le plantean. (c) la última parte de la clase es un trabajo colectivo realizado a partir de documentos y de textos jurídicos variados. el alumno estudia y analiza sentencias del tribunal supremo, modelos de contratos, estatutos de sociedades, modelos de declaraciones de impuestos y textos de doctrina. a nuestro entender, el aprendizaje del léxico es fundamental, sin embargo la comprensión de estos documentos requiere un buen conocimiento de los principios jurídicos básicos. el intercambio de soluciones entre los diferentes alumnos que integran el grupo y los debates que se generan, les obligan a utilizar los conocimientos jurídicos adquiridos en la primera parte de la clase y sobre todo el léxico específico al tema abordado. se trata de un ejercicio muy interesante que obliga al alumno a revisar el contenido de la materia y a expresarse correctamente en español jurídico en el momento de la puesta en común del trabajo realizado por los diferentes grupos. 3.2. metodología de derecho comparado para la enseñanza de estas asignaturas intentamos que el programa sea lo más similar posible al de estas mismas asignaturas en derecho francés que los alumnos estudian en el mismo semestre. la coordinación con el profesor encargado de impartir la asignatura en el idioma materno es fundamental tanto para establecer el contenido como el calendario que se seguirá durante el ciclo de aprendizaje. se destaca claramente la importancia del aspecto comparado de ambas disciplinas ya que los alumnos siempre tienen tendencia a asimilar los conceptos de derecho francés con los que aprenden en otra lengua. se ha comprobado que para el alumno cada concepto de una propuesta didáctica para la enseñanza ibérica 13 [2007]: 171-180 175 09 salgado.qxp 6/4/07 09:09 página 175 palabra en francés debe tener un equivalente en español y que el mayor número de errores y malas interpretaciones son aquellos en los se abusa de este tipo de paralelismos. veamos dos ejemplos de errores tipo, uno de concepto y otro de figura jurídica: (a) en lo que al primero se refiere podemos analizar el caso de la expresión “capacidad de obrar” que en el ordenamiento jurídico español encierra dos acepciones que en derecho francés son bien diferentes: capacité d’exercice y capacité de jouissance. el alumno busca siempre estas dos expresiones diferentes en nuestra lengua y al no encontrarlas, traduce literalmente, y por tanto incorrectamente, las expresiones francesas, creando unas expresiones que no tienen sentido en nuestro ordenamiento. (b) para ilustrar el segundo ejemplo podemos referirnos a la “sociedad por acciones simplificada”, un tipo de sociedad mercantil creada por el legislador francés sin equivalente en la legislación española. el estudiante la asimila erróneamente a una sociedad anónima y cuando se refiere a ella le añade el adjetivo de “particular” o “especial”. una metodología basada en el derecho comparado pone de relieve estos pequeños inconvenientes y destaca al mismo tiempo la importancia de trabajar el léxico con un significado técnico a través de textos de distintos géneros. 3.3. textos y documentos los textos y documentos utilizados por los alumnos en la última parte de la clase deben ser preparados y trabajados antes del curso. según el tipo de documento del que se trate, la actividad a realizar es diferente. si se trata de sentencias de los tribunales o de textos y artículos de doctrina o de la prensa de actualidad, el trabajo que debe realizar el alumno consiste en: leer el texto dos veces y subrayar los términos jurídicos relacionados con el tema que estudiamos ese día; traducir al francés esos términos; resumir el texto en tres o cuatro líneas; extraer la idea principal del texto y formularla en una línea. maría beatriz salgado 176 ibérica 13 [2007]: 171-180 09 salgado.qxp 6/4/07 09:09 página 176 sin embargo, si los documentos entregados a los alumnos son modelos de contratos o de declaraciones fiscales, damos preferencia al trabajo en grupo. para esta actividad se distribuye a los alumnos en grupos de tres y se asigna un papel a cada grupo; por ejemplo, uno es la empresa que compra y otro la que vende en la negociación del contrato; un grupo es el contribuyente y otro un representante de hacienda. el trabajo de cada uno de los grupos es negociar y completar los términos del contrato o del documento fiscal. la actividad termina con la puesta en común del trabajo de todos los grupos. la experiencia demuestra que los resultados obtenidos con este último tipo de actividad son más positivos que el trabajo realizado a partir de sentencias y textos doctrinales. como ya queda explicado, la comprensión de documentos resulta particularmente difícil tanto en el vocabulario como en la gramática y el alumno tiende a la traducción literal o a utilizar expresiones francesas que no corresponden al lenguaje jurídico español (par ces motifs, attendu que, por ejemplo). no podemos olvidar que el lenguaje jurídico es de difícil comprensión, incluso en la lengua materna. este hecho ha llevado a una parte de la doctrina francesa a proponer una simplificación del lenguaje legislativo, de tal manera que sea más simple y accesible para todos.2 esto facilitaría mucho la comprensión de la mayor parte de los textos que utilizamos en nuestras clases, puesto que, aunque los seleccionamos en función de la dificultad, incluso los más simples resultan a veces complicados para nuestros alumnos. este tipo de actividades en grupo presenta la ventaja añadida de activar las estructuras orales necesarias en la futura vida profesional de los alumnos y favorecer la expresión oral tan necesaria en las negociaciones. 3.4. profesionales y profesores invitados cada curso académico traemos a estas clases a un profesor invitado y a un profesional para dar una conferencia y mantener una charla, respectivamente, con los alumnos. en lo que a los primeros se refiere, se trata de profesores españoles que participan en los programas de intercambio de la facultad y que aportan un enfoque distinto a la asignatura. su contribución consiste en una síntesis de varios temas que ya estudiamos en clase a partir de documentos facilitados por el profesor, o incluso en una conferencia en la que se desarrolla un tema más detallado. observamos que si el profesor invitado interviene en las últimas clases del curso, los alumnos se muestran más interesados por la propuesta didáctica para la enseñanza ibérica 13 [2007]: 171-180 177 09 salgado.qxp 6/4/07 09:09 página 177 conferencia pero, desde el punto de vista del aprendizaje lingüístico, el trabajo a partir de documentos aporta mejores resultados. respecto a los profesionales que participan en nuestras clases son mayoritariamente personas que trabajan en el sector de la banca y que durante la charla con los alumnos insisten en los aspectos jurídicos que debe conocer un profesional y en cómo deben utilizarse en la práctica estos conceptos. generalmente, entregan a los alumnos diferentes documentos, que incluso utilizamos en clases posteriores. reconocemos que estas intervenciones, muy apreciadas por los alumnos, son un aporte fundamental para el aprendizaje tanto del contenido de derecho como del léxico y del lenguaje jurídico. 3.5. evaluación la evaluación permite comprobar que se han alcanzado los objetivos fijados al inicio del curso. es uno de los aspectos más difíciles de organizar en este tipo de enseñanza ya que no sólo debe reflejar el nivel de conocimiento de la lengua (vocabulario, gramática) sino también del contenido jurídico mercantil y fiscal adquirido por el alumno. durante todo el curso tiene lugar una evaluación oral continua con las diferentes actividades de puesta en común organizadas (textos, casos prácticos, contratos, etc.). esta calificación se complementa con dos pruebas escritas al final de curso: (a) un informe (dossier) escrito, realizado en grupo (2-3 personas), sobre un tema que nosotros proponemos al principio de las clases; (b) un examen que consiste en una pregunta teórica y un pequeño caso práctico similar a los que realizamos en clase. este tipo de prueba pone en evidencia la capacidad de análisis y de reflexión del alumno, permite evaluar la aplicación de la norma jurídica a una situación de hecho concreta así como la del vocabulario jurídico más adecuado. de manera general, cada una de estas dos tareas nos permite conocer el nivel de conocimientos jurídicos (el examen) y lingüísticos (el dossier) adquiridos por el alumno durante el curso. maría beatriz salgado 178 ibérica 13 [2007]: 171-180 09 salgado.qxp 6/4/07 09:10 página 178 4. conclusión la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras ha evolucionado mucho en los últimos años, pero los métodos utilizados no siempre han dado los resultados que en un principio se pensaban. durante los años en que hemos impartido las asignaturas de derecho mercantil y fiscal en la universidad de paris xii, hemos podido constatar que solamente una parte de los alumnos llegan a los últimos cursos de la carrera con unas bases linguísticas sólidas en un idioma extranjero. el hecho de que la mayoría no hable correctamente la lengua en que impartimos las materias jurídicas dificulta considerablemente nuestro trabajo. los alumnos que han realizado un período de prácticas en españa o en una empresa española implantada en francia muestran un mayor interés por este tipo de clases de “contenido y lengua” y participan de manera más activa durante las clases. el aspecto profesional o la adecuación con el mundo profesional favorece, en gran medida, el aprendizaje no sólo del contenido sino también de la terminología jurídica. basándonos en esta experiencia, hemos creado esta propuesta didáctica que se apoya básicamente en la metodología de derecho comparado. la comprensión y la adquisición del vocabulario jurídico español se hace esencialmente a partir de textos originales de sentencias, de artículos de doctrina, y de documentos profesionales, que permiten al alumno ver el uso concreto de este lenguaje específico. uno de los aspectos más positivos de esta propuesta es, tal vez, la participación en nuestras clases de profesores y profesionales invitados, los cuales, a través de sus experiencias profesionales y didácticas, aportan un complemento muy importante a la formación teórica de los alumnos. (artículo revisado recibido en noviembre de 2006) bibliografía propuesta didáctica para la enseñanza ibérica 13 [2007]: 171-180 179 artaud, g. (1987). pédagogies 1: 99-106. cornu, g. (2005). linguistique juridique. paris : montchrestien. fernbach, n.m. (1995). “la simplification du texte juridique: étude comparative”, en ciclef (ed.), français juridique et science du droit, 105-122. bruselas: bruylant. iturralde sesma, v. (1989). lenguaje legal y sistema jurídico. madrid: tecnos. prieto de pedro, j. (1991). lenguas, lenguaje y derecho. madrid: civitas sa. varga, c. (1985). domaine “externe” et domaine “interne” en droit. paris: r.i.e.j. 09 salgado.qxp 6/4/07 09:10 página 179 dra. maria beatriz salgado es doctora en derecho por la universidad paris xii-val de marne. imparte clases de derecho privado en esta universidad y en el cnam (conservatoire national des arts et métiers). ha realizado trabajos de investigación, comunicaciones y publicaciones en derecho de sociedades, concursal, del trabajo y de garantías. notas 1 a propósito de este doble sentido del derecho, el trabajo de varga (1985) nos parece muy interesante. 2 la modernización del lenguaje jurídico es un tema que preocupa incluso a los juristas de los países anglosajones (plain language movement). en francia, esta tendencia tiene cada vez más seguidores, lo que resulta bastante curioso en un país que podríamos calificar de conservador. en este sentido es muy interesante el trabajo de fernbach (1995). maría beatriz salgado 180 ibérica 13 [2007]: 171-180 09 salgado.qxp 6/4/07 09:10 página 180 01 editorial.qxd editorial in the introduction to a recently published volume edited by colleagues from the spanish university of extremadura, martin hewings (2007: xv) claims that “the wide variety of “specific purposes” that teachers are called upon to work with has long been a characteristic of the field of lsp”. moreover, he seems to find in this particular issue one of the most appealing features of lsp: for many us, this is part of the fascination of the job –i.e., bringing our language teaching skills to different academic disciplines and occupational areas–. it is also important to remember, however, that this is the feature that often discourages “general” language teachers from dipping their toes in the water of lsp. (hewings, 2007: xv) in ibérica no. 15, contributing authors do not only “dip their toes in the water” but “submerge themselves” in the (very often uncharted) waters of differing specialisms such as computer science (shehzad), business (herrera), psychology (garcía-østbye), architecture (poveda), biological sciences (peña y olivares), or aviation (aiguo). three more works highlight the significance of discourse in academic settings through the analysis of textographies (paltridge), email communication (pérez, turney & montero) and reading awareness (lahuerta). coincidentally, the research papers presented herein (except for aiguo’s) share a common interest in written discourse from different perspectives. the “research papers” section opens with paltridge’s study on how a particular approach to genre analysis, such as a textography, may contribute to the researching and teaching of writing. paltridge introduces the reader into what a textography is and discusses three particular textography instances: art and design exegeses, college english writing, and student academic writing. his examples and comments will help to raise awareness on the need “to gain an understanding of why texts are written as they are” (abstract) and will provide readers with some guidance on the value of textographies within the research on writing. next, shehzad’s paper focuses on the characteristics of the introduction section of computer science research articles and, more precisely, on how computer scientists endeavour to “create a niche” for their research. in a ibérica 15 [2008]: 5-8 5 01 editorial.qxp 14/3/08 17:49 página 5 third paper, herrera makes use of a corpus of business press headlines compiled from relevant british and spanish business papers to analyse, by means of a contrastive approach, the syntactic structure of metaphors together with the foci, the source domains and the vehicle terms used. following this, the features of e-mail communication in english are studied by pérez, turney & montero who, in particular, explore the formality of greetings and farewells, use of contractions and politeness indicators, and non-standard linguistic features in a corpus of e-mail messages from academic institutions. another wide array of text features is studied by garcía-østbye (this time, research article-comment-reply abstracts yield the target sample) and conclusions aim at pinpointing similarities and differences with traditional abstracts and with particular reference to dialogical content. poveda moves to the occupational arena and presents a study of english-spanish hedging as a strategy to achieve communicative goals in architecture project descriptions. the last paper in this group is about associative anaphora resolution in french discourse. by providing different examples (case studies) peña & olivares try to identify the different metonymic associations embodied in reports. the “research notes” section contains two very different contributions. thanks to the paper by aiguo readers are led into the characteristics of aviation english. even though particular reference is made to the chinese context, much of the situation depicted can be transferred to the situation in other countries. in the second paper, lahuerta investigates the different strategies spanish students use while reading academic materials written in english so as to contribute to increasing metacognitive awareness and helping students become more active and responsive readers. as in issue no. 14, six publications are presented and reviewed. this time reviews will be of interest to readers intrigued by the use of specialised translation as a method of formative evaluation and self-assessment (fraile’s review on elorza’s work); the use of its in the teaching of listening and reading comprehension to social work students (fuertes’ review on fernández & hewitt’s teaching materials); the analysis of oral and written medical discourse (fuertes’ review on gotti & salager-meyer’s collection of papers); the state-of-the-art of lsp (palmer’s review on alcaraz, martínez & yus’ volume); the latest english-spanish dictionary of business and finance terms and definitions (lópez’s review on merino & lópez’s encyclopaedic dictionary); and, the linguistic problems that specialised texts embody when translated (orts’ review on fuertes’ edited volume). ana bocanegra valle ibérica 15 [2008]: 5-86 01 editorial.qxp 14/3/08 17:49 página 6 turning to the current status of the journal, i am glad to announce that, in the span between no. 14 and the publication of this issue, ibérica has been recognised as a reliable international source in the field of linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences, and, hence, has been accepted for full coverage by six relevant index lists in the field of linguistics and education. these are, in alphabetic order, the following: contents pages in education, dialnet, educational research abstracts online, linguistics abstracts online, linguistics and language behavior abstracts, and mla list of periodicals. in relation to current indexing, please note that sppell (spanish periodical publications in english language and linguistics) is no longer available and, therefore, has been removed from the initial list. finally, my most sincere appreciation to ibérica’s editorial board for the work done and, particularly, to the external reviewers who have shared their knowledge and expertise with us in this period reviewing some of the papers submitted: mª teresa alejos juez (universidad rey juan carlos de madrid), mª enriqueta cortés de los ríos (universidad de almería), victoria guillén nieto (universidad de alicante), mª ángeles orts (universidad de murcia), and ana rojo lópez (universidad de murcia). a particular word of gratitude is due to nuria edo from the journal administration office at universitat jaume i, for her kind assistance and wholehearted support throughout the edition and distribution process of each issue. ana bocanegra valle editor of ibérica universidad de cádiz (spain) ana.bocanegra@uca.es references editorial ibérica 15 [2008]: 5-8 7 hewings, m. (2007). “introduction” in a. curado fuentes, p. edwards rokowski & m. rico garcía (eds.), approaches to specialised discourse in higher education and professional contexts, xiv-xviii. newcastle: cambridge scholars publishing. 01 editorial.qxp 14/3/08 17:49 página 7 01 editorial.qxp 14/3/08 17:49 página 8 01 editorial.qxd statistical methods in language and linguistic research pascual cantos gómez. sheffield: equinox, 2013. 260 pages. isbn: 978-1-84553432-5. pascual cantos gómez’s book seems to have originated from his observation of the increasingly important role of quantitative approaches in language studies. this direction is clearly a strength in its onset, as the book aims to add clarity and specificity to the humanities and its empirical scope. early references (gries, 1970) may have been more interested in explaining the theory behind the data rather than developing different examples, whereas more recent references (bachman, 2004) may have missed an explicit and direct approach to the many-fold possible perspectives arising in language investigation. a second strong point in this publication is its affordance for non-experts as a descriptive resource with illustrations of statistics adapted to actual research concerns. the book should enable language researchers to induce decision-making for statistical technique applications. quantitative analyses have become a must in many projects and case studies on language assessment, genre, discourse studies, and foreign language teaching and learning, and yet, researchers often fail to explain why they favor a specific method over another. this book may facilitate such a process. the chapters may be grouped according to three major divisions: “introduction of basic statistical topics” (chapters 1 and 2), “description of statistical techniques with different potential variables” (chapters 3 and 4), and “exploration of corpus-related issues” (chapters 5 and 6). the intention to produce material for practical purposes is stated in chapter 1, where, for basic issues (that is, central tendency measurements, standard scores, distributions, etc.), the author directly moves to what the statistical notions can do for specialised language research. one example is word category use according to text types in different subject areas. chapter 2 also introduces basic concepts: scales and variables, for which examples related to linguistic research and second language teaching are provided. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256248 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 248 chapter 3 offers a wealth of information on parametric and non-parametric tests, with a variety of contexts where the different calculations can take place. the language researcher can find detailed justification for the preference of one or more statistical methods in relation to the type of linguistic research conducted. an example would be the use of two-way anova if two independent variables, age and nationality, are tested to examine joint effect on students’ scores (versus only one effect tested at a time in one-way anova). chapter 4 examines the statistical techniques required with different independent/dependent variables. again, a set of hypothetical research scenarios are provided as examples. even when some concepts may become mathematically complex for the non-expert user (for instance, eucledian distance and clustering), the explanations are carefully designed in a sequenced manner, with a consistent reference to research cases as an aid for the clarification of procedures. for example, multiple regression is explained with the use of the relationship between motivation and age for language learning, leading to predict models with low error margins where various subjects may be placed. the statistical software spss is also examined as a necessary tool for test performance when a given significance value adds strength to the experiment (for instance, wilks’s lambda test for discriminant model confirmation). the combination of technology and operational maths described with the cases is found as particularly enriching, making chapters 3 and 4, in my view, key guiding material for statistical technique comprehension and applicability in language and linguistic investigations. chapter 5 explores the statistics for corpus-based wordlists. since corpus linguistics is probably a more familiar topic for language researchers, the concepts may be easier to grasp, or even found as basic by some readers. however, their mathematical scrutiny contributes rich input for statistical knowledge (like the log-likelihood explanation via contingency tables), and the choice of examples from literature may encourage literary text-oriented research (like the frequency list management for the study of style in alice’s adventures in wonderland). chapter 6 deals with word co-occurrence. it begins with more familiar issues on collocation and concordance, moving on to the formulae behind the scores measuring collocational strength and values. different examples from literature and spanish corpora illustrate how such values operate in corpusbased and corpus-driven processing. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 249 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 249 the overall benefit from cantos gómez’s statistical methods in language and linguistic research is thus clear: language researchers aiming to use statistics in their research can use this resource as guiding reference. other language students whose investigation may not need to rely on quantitative methods, may discover in the multitude of case scenarios described direct evidence for statistical extension in their work (for instance when comparing sets and grouping elements according to linguistic features, or even if examining stylistic aspects in literary works). [review received 16 april 2014] [revised review received 30 may 2014] [revised review accepted 5 june 2014] reviewed by alejandro curado fuentes universidad de extremadura (spain) acurado@unex.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256250 bachman, l.f. (2004). statistical analyses for language assessment. cambridge: cambridge university press. gries, s.t. (1970). statistics for linguistics with r: a practical introduction. berlin: mouton de gruyter. 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 250 this is the eighth issue since ibérica, the journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, appeared in public to complement the activities carried out by the association. the diversity of issues treated since our journal's initial steps shows how languages for specific purposes, its main target, have evolved and have seen the participation of professionals dedicated to different specialities and working in different fields, particularly in the area of applied languages and linguistics. since the early numbers of the journal, which was first published annually and edited by margaret mcginity, we have had the good fortune to include papers by some of the best known specialists in their field together with papers by other professionals, mainly from spanish universities. among these specialists, françoise salager-meyer wrote on polemicity in academic medical writing from a diachronic viewpoint in issue number 1 (1999), while tony dudley-evans, in number 2 (2000), presented genre as a key to the study of esp. the recent interest over peer reviews was approached by hugh gosden in issue number 3 (2001), in which he looked at authors' responses to referees' comments and gave clues for teaching with special emphasis on how important it is for young scientists to publish early and to use those comments for their improvement in writing. in issue number 4 (2002), vijay bhatia discussed a multi-faceted perspective of genre. in his paper, he examined the question: 'is generic description a reflection of reality, or a convenient fiction invented by applied linguists?' since i took over as editor, the journal has become a biannual publication. in issue number 5 (spring, 2003), tom huckin explored what is specific about esp, delving into the question of subject specificity and continuing the debate over the wide-angled vs. the narrow-angled approaches. greg myers, in issue number 6 (fall, 2003), looked at academic discourse from the perspective of words, pictures, and facts. issue number 7 (spring, 2004) made a provisional change in the journal. in monographic fashion, we published the papers presented at a colloquium organized by our association on cognitive linguistics, which was held at the universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) in september 2002. as a result of the success of this initiative, another monographic issue, language and internet, has been scheduled for the spring, 2005.1 in the present issue (fall, 2004) a paper is presented by john m. swales, whose longstanding efforts to introduce us into the world of genre has spawned a sizeable group ibérica 8 [2004]: 3-4 editorial 3 of researchers. in his essay, john swales takes us over thirty years back as he focuses on the significance of huddleston's adventure into corpus linguistics at a time when, as swales recalls, it was only a job reserved for the selected few who had the patience to manually compile texts. ibérica is indeed honored to be a channel for his teachings. we also include a paper on abstract retrieval by professors chan and foo in singapore. this should serve as an invitation to the readership from abroad to follow in their footsteps and submit contributions for publication in our journal. additionally, pilar safont brings to the fore her experience in the classroom and presents a new look at learners' production of request forms, and pilar alberola brings together english and spanish bank brochures in order to show their main constitutive elements and to consider whether or not they constitute a new genre. also, cristina lahuerta, an experienced university teacher of english, presents empirical research on discourse markers used by spanish undergraduates in their expository compositions, and irina argüelles, in response to the need of students to handle summarizing skills, introduces what she calls the 'babar' guide as an assessment tool for students' summaries of expository texts. this in turn is followed by the results of anna fagan and pedro martín's investigation into the use of critical speech acts in fifty research papers from psychology and chemistry. in the last part of this issue carmen pérez-llantada interviews john m. swales who shares with us some of his past experiences and also his present activities. the issues closes with two book reviews: ana bocanegra's review of linguistic studies in academic and professional english, edited by i. fortanet et al. (2004), which gathers sixteen papers related to the context of professional and academic english, and juan c. palmer's review of m. rosario bueno's excellent annotated bibliographical repertoire of publications in spain, lenguas para fines específicos en españa a través de sus publicaciones (1985-2002) (2004). this work will indeed serve as a tool for researchers who want to know what has been published in the field of specific languages in the last two decades. pedro a. fuertes closes this section with a review of the textbook english for contract and company law, 2 nd ed., by marcella chartrand, catherine millar and edward wiltshire. as he rightly points out, although written with law students of english in mind, it also contains texts which may be used by business english students. jordi piqué-angordans editor of ibérica editorial ibérica 8 [2004]: 3-44 note 1 the first four issues named here are already available in full in the webpage of the association, http://www.uv.es/aelfe. iberica 13 words for working. professional and academic english for international business and economics rosa giménez moreno (ed). valencia: universitat de valència, 2010. 400 pages. isbn: 978-84-370-7873-1. the european commission’s lifelong learning programme enables individuals to participate in a range of actions including exchanges, study visits and networking activities in order to develop their education and training across europe. one of its key aims is to promote language learning given that, since the 20th century, changes in the economy such as globalization and free trade of goods and services have increased the mobility of workers and created the need for international professionals. all this movement demands not only competent trained workers but also linguistic and cultural knowledge for better integration. in that context, the english language is regarded as the international language of communication between people of different nationalities and, therefore, professional and academic english are essential for those involved both in higher education and in business. words for working. professional and academic english for international business and economics is a collection of papers compiling theoretical and practical proposals in the field of english for academic purposes and english for specific purposes, and contains nine relevant contributions by recognized researchers and practitioners form several spanish universities. although it has been designed mainly for undergraduate and postgraduate students the volume, as a whole, is also highly recommendable for scholars and business english teachers who require a reference book they can dip into when necessary as it effectively contextualizes english for business and economics at an international level. the volume is organized into three sections, each consisting of a series of chapters dealing with different aspects of the topic and organized in the same way: theory, assimilation activities, recommended bibliography and web links, and a “test your knowledge” section. after the preface by the editor, part i, entitled “english for international business and economics”, starts with the contribution by josé mateo martínez on professional languages, in which he distinguishes between english for economics, more theoretical reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 issn 1139-7241 185 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 185 and technical, and english for business, with a semi-technical character. he distinguishes two different branches of english for business are english for commerce, which is the language used in the exchange of goods and commodities and english for finance, which describes the use of money in a number of different fields – e.g. currency, securities, loans, credits, insurance. he also highlights the importance of cultural diversity in international business english. in the following chapter, miguel f. ruiz garrido, writes on language variation in english for business and economics stating that these variations could be due to reasons like geography (accents and dialects), individuals (idiolects and styles), text (genre), situations (registers) and culture (interculturality). he examines the most salient features of english in great britain, the united states, australia, canada, india, africa and those of international english to deal with variation according to genres, registers and interculturality. section ii, “professional english”, comprises five chapters and is opened by elena bosch abarca who reports on english for general business purposes and introduces the reader to business english and its two branches: english for general business purposes and english for specific business purposes – the former for pre-experienced and the latter for jobexperienced learners. then, she depicts the main language areas in business contexts detected by different needs analyses and their subsequent skills and relevance in course design. on the other hand, elvira mª montañés brunet, the author of the next chapter, focuses on english for tourism, its scope, contents and teaching. she starts by defining english for tourism and establishing the main sectors of the travel and tourism industry together with tourism-related jobs. the discourse features of english for tourism are analyzed as well as written skills. the author includes activities such as role play, simulations, case studies and project work in order to integrate the different skills. the following chapter authored by juan carlos palmer silveira deals with english for economics and finance. after discussing the position of english as a lingua franca in business, the author provides an interesting analysis of the basic concepts professionals in economics and finance should know to communicate efficiently. he accurately describes how annual reports, as relevant business documents, are produced and also provides detail on different types of banks and financial institutions. maría ángeles orts llopis starts by distinguishing between concepts like common law and continental systems, criminal and civil law, and also different types of business organizations in the anglo-american context. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 issn 1139-7241 186 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 186 she gives a summary of the legal environment in business describing part of its main principles and elements. this section finishes with a paper by hanna skorcynska sznajder and maría carbonell olivares on english and information and communication technologies (icts). the authors give an outline of a range of basic elements from computer systems, storage devices and operating systems to e-commerce, including specialized software for business management and current ways of business communication and icts. the first contribution in section iii, “academic english”, is by rosa giménez moreno, the editor of the volume, who deals with english academic communication, that is, being able to participate in most common communicative events within the world of higher education. giménez covers listening, speaking, reading and writing skills detailing relevant strategies and techniques which allow students to become effective communicators. finally, the last chapter of the volume authored by jordi piqué-angordans and carmen piqué-noguera analyzes english for academic research. they focus on the different steps involved in research: research questions, defining hypotheses, approaching quantitative and qualitative research and referencing. they then move on to research results dissemination: academic and scientific articles, and posters and presentations; they outline their main sections and they offer substantial information on how to succeed in this type of research production and share knowledge with other experts. in order to help the assimilation of the contents each chapter contains different activities after the main section; however, in my view, most of these are excessively complex for their intended audience. at the end of each chapter an interesting recommended bibliography and web links are included as well as a lengthy self-evaluation questionnaire. all the contributions in this collection offer a comprehensive and complete overview of the main aspects of the topics dealt with because of the in-depth knowledge of the authors who share a solid and extensive background in the teaching and/or researching of business english in spanish universities. [review received december 2010] [revised review accepted january 2011] reviewed by mª del carmen lario de oñate universidad de cádiz (spain) carmen.lario@uca.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 187 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 187 iberica 13 professional english in the european context: the ehea challenge ángeles linde lópez, rosalía crespo jiménez (eds). bern: peter lang, 2010. 374 pages. isbn: 978-3-0343-0088-9. the aim of this volume is to collect recent “empirical experiences and reflections on the theories and practices of esp pedagogy” (page 10), as underlined in the introduction of the book and just before providing an engaging synopsis of the evolution of esp: its birth, definition and development throughout the last three decades, followed by a summary of the book’s contents and organization. the volume is divided into three main sections. the four chapters that make up the first section “issues in esp approaches” focus the reader’s attention on two key issues which greatly influence how esp is approached today within the european context: on the one hand, the use of new ict resources to improve institutional academic english and students’ online collaboration across cultures, and, on the other, the need to adapt professional english research and teaching within the ehea, especially in the case of such dynamic areas as business english and english for tourism. the following six chapters in the middle section “specialized language analyses” analyze current communicative and linguistic issues which affect specialized languages within the new eshe, concentrating specifically on english for textiles, maritime english, legal english, scientific english and “aeroenglish”. finally the last four chapters making up section 3 “esp students’ perceptions, attitudes and motivation” approach an increasingly challenging issue in today’s esp world: how to analyze and improve the esp students’ perceptions, attitudes and motivations. reviewing each contribution in more detail, silvia bernardini, adriano ferraresi and federico gaspari, in chapter 1, look at words, parts-ofspeech distributions, lexical bundles and stance expressions in two corpora of institutional native and non-native english, and also analyse the use of english in italian institutional websites. their research shows evidence of a lower frequency of set phrases, personal expressions and informal style when non-native speakers employ this specialised language. in chapter 2, maria kuteeva examines students’ online collaboration through two case reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 issn 1139-7241 170 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 170 studies based in lisbon and stockholm and describes how wikis can promote effective communication for academic and professional purposes, becoming an easy-to-use accessible complement to improve students’ interactive and writing skills. after this, ángel felices lago sheds light upon the imbalance that exists in spain between teaching and research within the field of business english, offering an updated approach to the teaching of this area in this country, particularly at master level, and reviewing the situation of research into business english at international level. the last contribution of this first quartet focuses on english for tourism. although in this field the adaptation to the ects system shows clear deficiencies, as maría luisa pérez cañado underlines, her paper illustrates how teaching into this field can be successfully adapted to the ehea regarding course coordination, contents, competencies, and methodological and evaluation systems. in section ii maría isabel balteiro fernández reviews the internal and external processes that specialized languages use to incorporate new words from other languages, and analyses the foreign words contained in the english discourse of textiles. chapter 6 explores the significant contribution of maritime english to the current multicultural and multilingual international trade context. as ana bocanegra-valle argues, maritime english education plays an essential role in today’s world economic development. mastering this specialized language improves communication in maritime safety issues, reduces the risk of shipping accidents and its expansion grows alongside the promotion of a modern globalised shipping world. in chapter 7 miguel ángel campos-pardillos observes that english, being regarded the lingua franca of the current european judicial space, not only transmits referential meaning but also socio-cultural and ideological connotations attached to its country of origin’s legal systems, as the available learning materials and courses demonstrate. hence, to become a “neutral” lingua franca in europe, international bodies should be urged to eliminate some of these culturally distinct elements from english centred systems and concentrate on specifically european legal issues. chapter 8 by rosalía crespo jiménez approaches a genre of frequent use in the university world: the textbook. applying corpus-analysis techniques, the author notices the significance of certain multi-worded terms within the overall lexical choices made, and through the extensive collocational behaviour of the word “concrete”, she shows the potential of these findings to help science students improve their reading comprehension skills. in reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 171 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 171 chapter 9 pascual pérez-paredes revises the different taxonomies to represent knowledge in le and the complexities that characterize the areas of professional legal practice in order to remark the difficulty in offering legal english (le) training based on integrating approaches such as bhatia’s (2008). the paper proposes the use of ontologies as instrumental resources to help le students to deal, among others, with domain-specific organizational features and address different professional cultures and practices. finally, carmen sancho guinda approaches aeronautical english first reviewing diachronically the methodological and contextual issues acting on aeronautical discourses, and afterwards, concentrating on ideational, interpersonal and textual strategies used in field-related specialised genres to promote the development of disciplinary aeronautical cultures. the third and last section opens with chapter 11 by marta aguilar and cláudia barahona who study the collaborative writing experience of 53 spanish engineering students in order to evaluate the effectiveness of this learning activity at university level. research proves that accuracy and complexity improve, peer feedback is positively valued and students perceive that they learn more and can outperform their individual production. in chapter 12 ángeles linde lópez takes a speech-act based approach to analyse the perceptions of spanish university students’ pragmatic competence in professional english. her research demonstrates that the two testing methods used, discourse self-assessment test and multiple-choice discourse completion test, are valid and reliable to measure learners’ interlanguage pragmatic knowledge, especially when dealing with requests and apologies. next, by analyzing the attitude of over 200 architecture students, ana martínez vela shows that students’ motivation on learning english can be positively influenced by integration with the international technical and scientific community. the author illustrates her view by applying these findings to the development of oral presentation skills. in the last chapter jean stephenson and elaine hewitt study the relationship between the students’ foreign language anxiety and several language learning factors such as the students’ self-assessment on their communicative skills’ levels and both, their predictions about their grades and their actual exam performance. their paper shows that anxiety, lack of self-confidence and negative self-perceptions are associated with poor performance expectations, particularly concerning listening and speaking results. this book captures the reader’s interest not only because it updates esp “traditional” issues such as learner’s needs and perceptions, specific reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190172 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 172 methodologies, syllabus design and assessment methods, but also because it is aligned with the new challenges that the esp world needs to face with escalating diligence, such as the inexorable increase of the worldwide internationalization and globalization process, the “europeanisation” and product orientation of tertiary education, the specialization of language courses in particular professional areas, the need of specific discourse analysis models and new mechanisms to study changing, hybrid and emerging specialised languages. upon these lines, the book provides a remarkable selection of new experiences and research insights, very useful for esp practitioners in their process of adapting to these challenges. [review received october 2010] [revised review accepted december 2010] reviewed by rosa giménez moreno universitat de valència (spain) rosa.gimenez@uv.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 173 bhatia, v. (2008). “genre analysis, esp and professional practice”. english for specific purposes 27: 161-174. 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 173 01 editorial.qxd editorial as editor-in-chief of this journal i am, fortunately, getting into the nice habit of opening editorial notes reporting good news on the spread of ibérica’s research. ulrich’s™ knowledgebase, an authoritative international source of bibliographic references from academic and scholarly journals, is already abstracting and indexing ibérica on a regular basis. also, from now onwards four major spanish databases need to be added to ibérica’s second page: dice (“difusión y calidad editorial de las revistas españolas de humanidades y ciencias sociales y jurídicas”), e-revist@s (“plataforma open access de revistas científicas electrónicas españolas y latinoamericanas”), isoc (“revistas de ciencias sociales y humanidades del csic”), and resh (“revistas españolas de ciencias sociales y humanas del csic”). such databases are very relevant to researchers in spanish universities given the need for research recognition as a requirement to be granted tenure or in order to be entitled to apply for research incentives. maria vittoria calvi, a professor of spanish language and translation at the italian university of milan, opens this issue with a genre-based study of discursive practices in the tourist industry. professor calvi is a renowned scholar in the study of spanish for specific purposes and has published widely and successfully on the language of tourism in particular. among her latest publications are lengua y comunicación en el español del turismo, published by arco libros in 2006 and reviewed in ibérica no. 16, and las lenguas de especialidad en español (carocci, 2009). calvi’s contribution to the present issue offers extensive explanations and clear examples to support her genre-based approach and will be of interest to those ibérica readers in need of a thoughtful taxonomy of relevant texts currently used in the tourist industry. besides calvi’s contribution, and except for the pedagogically-oriented paper by andreu-andrés and garcía-casas, ibérica 19 mainly deals with academic discourse – from the rhetorical structure of architecture design statements for dissemination (poveda) to abstracting (koltay), including the use of modal verbs (vázquez orta) and the language of certain steps (shehzad) in research articles of varying disciplines, or the academic style of doctoral theses (hewitt & felices lago). an interview with gilles fauconnier and nine reviews in all complete this issue. ibérica 19 (2010): 5-8 issn 1139-7241 5 00 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:19 página 5 andreu-andrés and garcía-casas discuss issues such as active learning, team-working, teacher’s role or self-assessment to provide a detailed account of how to implement problem-based learning in the esp classroom. results obtained and rubrics designed through cooperative work will be very valuable to those teachers faced with the task of providing training in oral presentations as part of their course syllabus. a third contribution by vázquez orta reports on the use of modal verbs as epistemic stance markers in a corpus of spanish and english business management research articles with particular attention to the introduction and discussion sections. data obtained highlight important cross-cultural differences in the use of modal verbs by english and spanish writers. next, shehzad uses corpus-based techniques to study how computer science professionals announce the principal findings of a piece of research and state the value of their published contribution. given the data analysed, the author concludes by suggesting that two such steps within the cars model should be combined so as to announce achievements and proclaim research significance. also within swales’s cars model, hewitt and felices-lago argue that the format and style of ph.d. thesis vary across english and spanish. results “point to intercultural variations in the structural preferences of different writing cultures” (page 136) and, more precisely, bring to light that the discussion section is missing in most spanish ph.d. theses. lastly, koltay reflects on information literacy and genre knowledge as they relate to abstracting and their relevance to both linguists and information professionals. in a third section to this issue, roldán riejos interviews professor gilles fauconnier, professor and chairman of the cognitive science department at the university of california san diego (usa), and founder (together with mark turner) of the cognitive theory of conceptual blending. readers wishing to know how cognition operates, particularly in relation to foreign language learning, or how conceptual blending theory addresses the construction of meaning, to name a few issues of concern, will find this lively interview most illuminating. once more, ibérica no. 19 is prolific in discussing and assessing some of the latest publications on lsp research and lsp pedagogy. álvarez de mon, salager-meyer and mungra review three publications dealing with academic discourse in a variety of ways: the language of research publications, the discourse of case histories as used in psychiatry, and the expression of collective and individual discourse features. next, pérez-llantada’s account of john swales’s educational life will lead ibérica’s readers “into the heart of editorial ibérica 19 (2010): 5-86 00 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:19 página 6 academia” (page 177) hand in hand with such an authoritative and key figure for esp research. in the fifth review, martínez-flor discusses the connection between language and the socio-cultural contexts in which face-to-face interaction takes place. after this, three lexicography-related reviews follow: the use of the specialized lexicographical approach for dictionary making (fuertes-olivera), an edited reprint of papers on lexicography (edo marzá), and a proper dictionary of french-spanish-french tourism terms (gonzález rodríguez). finally, the european portfolio as applied to languages in the academic and professional contexts is depicted by garcía laborda. i am pleased to announce that carol berkenkotter, a professor in rhetoric and communication at the department of humanities at the university of minnesota (usa), has kindly accepted to join ibérica’s international advisory board. professor berkenkotter, a leading scholar in genre theory, genre analysis and the rhetoric of science and most known to ibérica’s readers due to her top-cited publication genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: cognition, culture, power (with t.n. huckin, lawrence erlbaum, 1995), is frequently and extensively referenced in ibérica’s research articles. i would like to thank the assistance of invited external reviewers who have assessed submitted manuscripts during this past semester: honesto herrera soler (universidad complutense de madrid), rafael alejo gonzález (universidad de extremadura), magdalena bielenia-grajewska (university of gdańsk, poland), inmaculada fortanet-gómez (universitat jaume i), mª lluïsa gea valor (universitat jaume i), and victor m. gonzález ruiz (universidad de las palmas de gran canaria). ana bocanegra valle universidad de cádiz (spain) editor of ibérica editorial ibérica 19 (2010): 5-8 7 00 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:19 página 7 00 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:19 página 8 iberica 13 reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 421-425 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.421 421 researching discourse. a student guide christopher hart london: routledge, 2020, 230 pages. isbn: 9781138551084 the study of discourse becomes increasingly important in a range of disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. it helps applied linguists and pragmaticians to achieve a contextual understanding of the linguistic features of language-in-use above the sentence level, and it also enables social scientists in the field of communication, anthropology, and sociology to examine the construction of significant aspects of social lives, such as gender, power, and ideology. although the common interests in discourse analysis mean researchers have some rough consensus on basic issues like the definition of discourse, the relationship of discourse and grammar, and the social significance of discourse studies, they may employ different methods including corpus, metaphor, systemic linguistics, etc., to answer questions emerging from different social and cultural practices. the present book attempts to provide an accessible introduction to nine main methods of analysing discourse and a number of established scholars are invited to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of these methods with reference to their own studies conducted in diverse organizational, institutional, and professional contexts. the whole book consists of ten chapters. the beginning chapter (“introduction to discourse: definitions, debates, and decisions” by alison sealey) sets the scene by summarizing the three widely-acknowledged ways of theorizing discourse (discourse as text, discourse as language-in-use, discourse as social practice) and the three key strands of a typical discourse analytical project (discourse data, the producers of discourse, discourse reception). the nine methods introduced in the following chapters may be categorized into two groups. the first group (chapters 2, 3, 7 and 9) presents four independent approaches which are popularly utilized by discourse analysts with a variety of theoretical concerns. greg myers, in chapter two (“conversation analysis”), discusses the complementarity of the sociallyoriginated conversation analysis (ca) and the linguistically-based discourse analysis, and corrects the common misunderstandings related to the ! * & & & & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * k ! * & & & & * * * * * * * e ! * & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * & ! * & & & & * * * * * * * & & & & ! * & & & & * * * * * * * . & ! * & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * o ! * & & & & * * * * * * * s ! * & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * s ! * & & & & * * * * * * * t ! * & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * ! * & & & & * * * * * * * y ! * & & & & * * * * * * * o ! * & & & & * * * * * * * t ! * & & & & * * * * * * * o ! * & & & & * * * * * * * a ! * & & & & * * * * * * * o ! * & & & & * * * * * * * s ! * & & & & * * * * * * * c ! * & & & & * * * * * * * c ! * & & & & * * * * * * * , ! * & & & & * * * * * * * i ! * & & & & * * * * * * * e characteristics of the ca approach. he explains that the seemingly complicated protocols of data transcription are the very instrument for ca researchers to conduct the moment-by-moment analysis of semiotic details (pause, overlap, discourse markers, intonation contour, etc.) that conversationalists invoke to keep their interaction going. the meticulous examination of narrow stretches of talk (sometimes, lasting for a few seconds only) may generate insights into conversationalists’ strategies of positioning self, categorizing others, and negotiating interrelations. karin tusting’s chapter three (“discourse analysis and ethnography”) then describes the procedure of doing discourse analysis from an ethnographic perspective. as a mature research method in anthropology, ethnography is characteristic of “an up-close intensive long-term holistic study of smallscale communities” (p. 37). ethnographers are usually required to live in the researched site for an extended period of time, and this may help to generate an in-depth understanding of multiple layers of context in linguistically oriented discourse projects. regular visits to communicative settings and text-based interviews with inside specialists are both effective tools when discourse researchers intend to explain text/talk as literate practices sensitive to a number of contextual elements, i.e., stance, gender, identity, knowledge, power, and ideology. paul baker, in chapter seven (“corpus-assisted discourse analysis”), points out the necessity of combining statistical techniques and analysts’ qualitative inspections in corpus-assisted discourse analysis. computer software can implement algorithms and statistical tests to count the patterns of words, word types, and word collocations in large sets of textual data. however, researchers always need to invoke their analytical capacities to solve fundamental questions before embarking on the technical details, e.g., how to choose a research question, which type of text is available, how large an intended corpus is possible, and how to describe the patterns discovered. baker illustrates how his own personal experience in british public housing helps him identify an illuminating topic (how council estates/social class are represented in the british media) in his recent publications. johann unger in chapter nine (“digitally mediated discourse analysis”) discusses the similarity of digital discourse and non-digital discourse and introduces three approaches to investigating communication in digital contexts (computermediated discourse analysis, discourse-centred online ethnography, digitally mediated discourse studies). reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 421-425422 chapters 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10 are closely linked to the critical discourse analysis (cda) agenda of “extend(ing) linguistic analysis to engage with social questions around power and ideology” (p. 41). chapter four (“discourse analysis and systemic functional linguistics” by veronika koller) shows the promise of doing cda through the angle of systemic functional linguistics (sfl). as the general aim of cda is to explain how language is used to frame social problems and identities, it demands a detailed linguistic methodology to investigate the textualization of social meanings. although traditional formal grammar is capable of providing a reliable description of language use across contexts, but such a description fails to account for social actors’ situational motives. in terms of transitivity, the formal grammatical notions (subject, verb, object) see little difference in active and passive clauses except the reverted syntactic structure. on the contrary, when sfl theorizes the formal understanding of transitivity into complex function-oriented grammatical systems, i.e., participant roles, process types, and circumstance types, the acquired functional inventory of social actors is capable of revealing the text producer’s hidden ideological viewpoints. continuing the discussion of cda, chapter five (“analysing metaphor in discourse”) isolates one particular discourse technology (metaphor) and investigates how it can be deployed by text producers, namely people in power, to impose the intended versions of reality upon the recipients. chapter six (christopher hart’s “cognitive linguistic critical discourse analysis”) presents cognitive linguistics as another option for expanding the methodology of cda. the concentration of traditional cda approaches on text and its immediate interactional contexts is sometimes criticized “for not taking cognition or the reader into account, and for being too ad hoc in its analyses” (p. 97). thus, cognitive linguistic critical discourse analysis (cl-cda) goes beyond the description of linguistic structures (phonological, lexical, syntactic, etc.) and examines the conceptual structures that a text may be understood in the cognition of text recipients. a number of main cognitive frameworks (cognitive grammar, conceptual semantics, frame semantics, conceptual metaphor theory, etc.) may be applied in examining the interchange of conceptual operations and ideological discursive strategies in political and business contexts. chapter eight (“multimodal discourse analysis” by christopher hart) reports discourse researchers’ efforts to include non-linguistic resources in the analysis of the semiotic construction of realities. as a broad methodology, multimodal discourse analysis employs both traditional and reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 421-425 423 newly developed analytical approaches (conversation analysis, ethnography, systemic functional linguistics, visual grammar) to investigate the function of multimodal resources in discourse representations. its analytical focus varies from the role of one particular mode in the discursive work of persuasion, positioning and legitimacy to the interchange of multiple modes in a multimodal text. chapter ten (“experimental methods in discourse analysis”, christopher hart) presents hart’s and colleagues’ pioneering experiments for studying the effects of textual choices on audience cognition. here, research findings from previous qualitative discourse studies are reformulated as scientific hypotheses and then tested experimentally. these studies add solid statistical evidence to discourse analysts’ speculative explanation of the persuasive effect of linguistic features (lexical choice, metaphor, and syntactic structures) on the mindset of recipients (attitudes, emotions, judgements, and actions). the carefully arranged content makes the book an accessible research guide for students and junior researchers in discourse analysis. firstly, although the chapters draw on different models of linguistic inquiry and description, the contributors to this book organize their illustration of these methods according to one structure. moreover, they frequently refer to other chapters and compare the strengths and weaknesses of related methods, which clearly displays the interdisciplinarity of discourse analysis. secondly, this book provides step-by-step guides to doing discourse analysis. the itemized instructions for formulating research questions, collecting data, analysing data, and publishing findings show that discourse analysis is about processing authentic data in ways sensitive “to the local geography of contexts and practices and also to the devices through which the discourses are effectively realised” (potter et al., 1990, p. 209). thirdly, the textbook-like elements make the book a good self-teaching material for students of discourse analysis. “issues and limitations” in each chapter lead readers’ attention to other significant issues that are not addressed because of the limited scope. “further reading” provides a comprehensive list of essential and extended readings, in case readers need more focused advice for their follow-up studies. in conclusion, this book makes a valuable contribution to the literature on discourse. the step-by-step instructions written by experienced researchers are useful for research students working on their dissertations and for junior researchers planning their first independent studies, while the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 421-425424 interdisciplinary perspective promotes a reflexive attitude towards important notions, principles, and analytical practices. received 09 august 2022 accepted 11 august 2022 reviewed by lihuan wu east china university of science and technology (china) mkd2001@aliyun.com references potter, j., wetherell, m., gill, r., & edwards, d. (1990). discourse: noun, verb or social practice? philosophical psychology, 3(2), 205-217. <https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089008572999> reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 421-425 425 iberica 13 ibérica 27 (2014): 35-50 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract today, english academic discourse (ead) is the hegemonic vehicle of knowledge in the modern world, and researchers from all language backgrounds are under a great deal of pressure to publish in it. however, there exist other academic discourses in europe that are based upon quite different epistemological paradigms and which are being increasingly eclipsed with the expansion of english in academic and research settings. this paper examines some of the cultural disjunctions that manifest themselves when the anglosaxon academic model comes into contact with different knowledge traditions, and looks at the various language industries that have sprung up to help bridge the gap. the paper ends with a brief discussion of the ideological implications of the expansion of english as a lingua franca for the communication of knowledge. keywords: english academic discourse (ead), romance languages, cultural disjunctions, language industries, epistemological paradigms. resumen d is c urs o s de l c o no c im ie nt o: d is y un tiv as c ul tur al e s y s u s imp l i c ac i on e s pa ra l as in du s tri as d e l a l e ng u a a fecha presente el discurso académico en inglés constituye el vehículo hegemónico de conocimiento en el mundo moderno y los investigadores procedentes de distintas lenguas están sometidos a una gran presión por el hecho de tener que publicar en inglés. sin embargo, existen otros discursos académicos en europa basados en contextos de investigación y paradigmas epistemológicos bien diferentes. en el presente artículo se estudian algunas de las disyuntivas discourses of knowledge: cultural disjunctions and their implications for the language industries1 karen bennett university of lisbon centre for english studies (portugal) karen.bennett@netcabo.pt 35 ibérica 27 (2014): 35-50 karen bennett culturales que se manifiestan cuando el modelo académico anglo-sajón entra en contacto con otras tradiciones del conocimiento diferentes, y se examinan las distintas industrias de la lengua que han florecido para acercar ambas posturas. este trabajo concluye con una breve discusión sobre las implicaciones ideológicas de la expansión del inglés como lengua franca para la comunicación del conocimiento. palabras clave: discurso académico en inglés, lenguas romances, disyuntivas culturales, industrias de la lengua, paradigmas epistemológicos. introduction in one of the few portuguese academic style manuals that exist on the market, there is a cautionary tale about french doctors whose articles were systematically rejected for publication in the prestigious medical journal the lancet. serrano (2004) tells how a french medical journal commissioned the writing specialist, j.a. farfor, to diagnose why medical articles produced in france did not get published internationally. the conclusion reached was that their written style was wrong. for instead of being fully explicit and using short sentences with one idea per period, the french style was elliptical, imprecise and full of redundancies. hence, these professionals were being systematically excluded from the global community of practice (wenger, 1998) due to their inadequate mastery of the discourse required. serrano offers this tale to his portuguese readers presumably to warn them against making the same errors. his point appears to be that, as france strongly influenced portuguese culture until the middle of the 20th century, the portuguese are liable to make the same mistakes. despite being slightly derisive about the sparseness of english factual prose (he even offers an ironic rendition into english of a few lines from camões’ epic poem, commenting “the whole of the lusiads could be effectively dispatched in a dozen pages”), he nevertheless recognises that portuguese scientists need to learn simplicity, clarity, precision and brevity if they wish to see their work published on the international stage. this story illustrates just one of the many cultural disjunctions that exist as the result of the growing hegemony of english academic discourse (ead) as the vehicle of knowledge in the modern world. serrano’s irony also implicitly raises the question of whether a global lingua franca in this domain is in fact a desirable development. farfor (1976a & 1976b) clearly believed 36 that it was, though others have suggested that the supposed universalism and neutrality of ead might actually mask “a drift towards anglo-saxon norms” (house, 2006: 354) – that is, a form of cultural imperialism that may ultimately result in the suppression of other ways of construing knowledge. in this paper, then, i shall examine some of the cultural disjunctions that manifest themselves when the anglo-saxon academic model comes into contact with different knowledge traditions, and look at the various language industries that have sprung up to help bridge the gap. let us begin with the key term, “discourses of knowledge”. discourses of knowledge ever since michel foucault (1969) first articulated the notion of “discourse” as a form of social practice that effectively constructs the object it purports to describe, the term has been inextricably bound up with notions of community, ideology and power. that is to say, a discourse is understood to encode the worldview of the social or professional group that engendered it; hence, the syntax and lexis of the simplest sentence can be shown to contain implicit value judgements that relate it synchronically and diachronically to other texts in the system. when institutionalised, this complex web of interconnections forms a coherent “discursive formation” with its own ideology, history and agenda, which effectively determines what is accepted as “truth” within its sphere of jurisdiction. today, ead represents a particularly imposing example of a “discursive formation”. it has its roots in a prose that was forged back in the 17th century to be the vehicle for the “new science” of bacon, newton and boyle, gradually spreading to the social sciences and humanities until it eventually became what halliday and martin (1993: 84) call “the discourse of modernity”, used whenever factuality is asserted and authority claimed. today, its basic precepts are encoded in writing manuals and style guides, transmitted via the numerous english for academic purposes (eap) courses held in universities throughout the world, and enforced by the gatekeepers that condition access to the most prestigious journals and conferences. the prescriptive tradition is remarkable consistent about what those basic precepts are. a survey of the academic style manuals on the market conducted between 2004 and 2007 (bennett, 2009) revealed that all academic disciplines and genres share similar values: a taste for clarity, economy and discourses of knowledge ibérica 27 (2014): 35-50 37 precision, manifested, amongst other things, through a preference for plain concrete diction and simple straightforward syntax; restraint in making claims; the use of rational argument supported by evidence (and the concomitant avoidance of “dubious persuasive techniques” such as “emotive language” – fairbairn & winch, 1996: 180) and the incorporation of accepted theory through referencing and citation. there is even a broad consensus amongst the style manuals as regards the length and structuring of paragraphs and sentences, with a similar organisation of information (general statement of theme followed by development) at all ranks. this suggests that the disciplinary differences identified by authors such as hyland (2000) and becher and trowler (2001) are merely surface refinements to a pan-academic discourse which may be so ubiquitous in the english-speaking world that professional linguists scarcely perceive it to be a discourse at all. indeed, as hayden white (1997: 22) has pointed out, proficiency in it is today felt to constitute basic literacy. these characteristics mark ead out as the descendant of the plain style of classical rhetoric, espoused by english protestants after the reformation (croll, 1969/1929; conley, 1990). unlike the text-based knowledge of the medieval scholastics and renaissance humanists, this discourse was (and still is) very much oriented towards the world outside the linguistic sign. this positivist stance is manifested grammatically by features such as the nominalisation (halliday & martin, 1993) and the use of impersonal verb structures like the passive (ding, 1998), which shift the focus away from the observer to the object of study. a continuing tendency towards empiricism can also be observed in the constant injunctions that all claims be based upon concrete evidence, even in subjects such as literary studies and history (pirie, 1985; storey, 2004; fabb & durant, 2005). finally, the discourse is predicated upon a philosophy of linguistic realism, defined by michael dummett (1978: 146) as “the belief that statements (…) possess an objective truth-value independent of our means of knowing it”.2 indeed, it is this conviction that language, when clear and unadorned, offers a transparent view onto the outside world that has led to english factual discourse being termed “windowpane prose”, and which makes it such an attractive tool for the pursuit of science. despite its hegemony on the world stage, ead is not, however, the only discourse of knowledge in use today. in much of continental europe, where positivism, empiricism and linguistic realism are viewed as philosophically passé (foucault, 1966; rorty, 1991), the precepts that are so taken for granted karen bennett ibérica 27 (2014): 35-5038 by anglophone scholars simply do not apply. hence it is frequent to find academic writing that is based upon very different principles. the “elliptical, imprecise, redundant” style of serrano’s (2004) french doctors is just one example. a recent corpus study of a large body of portuguese academic texts3 (bennett, 2010a & 2011) confirmed the existence of a humanities writing style that is characterised by copiousness, indirectness, figurative language and a preference for a high-flown erudite or poetic diction. moreover, there is reason to believe that such a style is not restricted to portugal. ongoing research into romance scholarly writing (bennett, 2012) suggests that the spanish, french and italians write in a very similar way, as indeed could be expected given their linguistic and cultural affinities. the english-speaking world, however, does not acknowledge these differences. with the exception of the approach called contrastive rhetoric (connor, 1996) that has developed within the english language teaching (elt) industry to help foreign students overcome problems caused by mother tongue interference, the institutional attitude towards knowledge production and dissemination seems to be that there is no other valid way of encoding the fruits of academic research. this means that texts that do not comply with the basic norms of ead are liable to be turned away and denied a voice on the international stage, as studies of non-native-englishspeaking researchers’ publishing experiences have shown (lillis & curry, 2006a & 2010; salager-meyer, 2008; uzuner, 2008). cultural disjunctions let us look in more detail at some of the cultural disjunctions that reveal themselves when attempts are made to transmit knowledge across language barriers. farfor (1976a: 634) sheds more light on the case of the french doctors described in the introduction. medical writing in france, he claims, is regarded as a form of belles lettres, and the desire for stylistic elegance often overrides the drive for clarity. for example, authors believe that they should not repeat the same word in two consecutive sentences and thus search about for synonyms, a practice that undermines the precision of the text, given the need for rigorous and consistent use of terminology in scientific writing. maisonneuve (2009: 87), former editor of la presse médicale, claims that “thirty years later the situation has not changed”, and that it continues to be common practice for french medical writers “to use the style of victor discourses of knowledge ibérica 27 (2014): 35-50 39 hugo or marcel proust”. in the area of health education, arwidson and lavielle (1998: 173) identify a similar lack of clarity: one of the principles is that the action described often completely disappears within a text that expounds the convictions, arguments and ethical choices of the author. thus, by the end, the reader rarely knows much about the precise procedure employed or the results obtained. we do not know who has done what, when, how and the impact that this achieved. (translated from the french by me) clearly, then, this is not a matter of linguistic accuracy. discourses encode ideologies, as we have seen, and these french authors are clearly operating according to a whole different philosophy of knowledge. for example, the english insistence that the main referential information be presented directly and unadorned in first position at all ranks reflects its positivist orientation and (ostensible) rejection of rhetorical “manipulation”. this is one of the most significant differences with regards to the romance languages, which tend to prefer a more indirect approach.4 hence, the process of cultural adaptation may sometimes require the systematic reordering of information not only at the level of the sentence, but also of the paragraph or even entire text. for example, in the following portuguese abstract from the field of archaeology,5 the subject of the paper only appears some 50 words into the opening sentence. this means that the entire sentence needs to be inverted to bring it into line with english expectations. original partindo de um levantamento arqueológico e antropológico sobre os barcos e a navegação desde a pré-história até aos meados do séc. xx, nas tradições associadas à construção naval existentes no litoral do nw de portugal, no tipo de turismo existente nesta região (associado a actividades costeiras e marinhas) e no público-alvo, as autoras apresentam um projecto de desenvolvimento do produto o museu do barco e da construção naval. literal translation starting off from an archaeological and anthropological survey into boats and shipping from pre-history until the mid 20th century, the traditions associated with shipbuilding along the coast of northwest portugal, the type of tourism existing in the region (associated to coastal and marine activities) and the target public, the authors present a development project for the product the shipbuilding and boat museum. karen bennett ibérica 27 (2014): 35-5040 final translation this paper presents a project for a cultural product entitled the shipbuilding and boat museum, drawing upon archaeological and anthropological studies into boats and shipping from pre-history until the mid 20th century, the traditions associated to shipbuilding in northwest portugal, the type of tourism that exists in the region (associated to coastal and maritime activities) and research into target markets. textual organisation is by no means the only feature that distinguishes ead from many of its european counterparts. the corpus of portuguese academic texts from which the above extract was taken also revealed a prevalence of long and syntactically complex sentences, which have to be radically pruned and split up into shorter units before they become acceptable in english; a tendency to embed claims in larger units that foreground the interpersonal dimension, rather than present them directly; the abundant use of abstractions and poetic vocabulary, and much redundancy. although these features are particularly common in the humanities and social sciences, they can nevertheless be found in subjects that might be expected to have a more clearly-defined “scientific” status, such as medicine, economics and engineering. indeed, some of the most significant, and insurmountable, cultural disjunctions encountered during the transmission of knowledge concern disciplinary identity. in the anglophone world, the scientific paradigm is so overwhelmingly dominant that even theologians, philosophers, historians and literary critics “have to worry about whether they are being ‘scientific’, whether they are entitled to think of their conclusions, no matter how carefully argued, as worthy of the term ‘true’” (rorty, 1991: 35). however, in parts of continental europe, the humanities paradigm occupies a much more central role, influencing all aspects of knowledge production. this may involve not only a rejection of anglo-saxon “windowpane prose”, but also, in some cases, a merry disregard for disciplinary norms and boundaries. hence, it is not uncommon to find supposedly “scientific” texts that engage in poetic effusions or include literary quotations (sometimes unreferenced) from canonical writers.6 the following portuguese psychology text about anorexia7 is a case in point. assuming from the outset a phenomenological stance in the tradition of husserl, sartre and merleau-ponty, the author rejects the impersonality of the scientific paradigm but instead uses a passionate poetic style to get his discourses of knowledge ibérica 27 (2014): 35-50 41 point across. the text is divided into 26 short numbered paragraphs, some no more than a sentence long, each of which presents the voice of a different subjectivity, and is illustrated in places with excerpts of poetry by famous writers from the portuguese canon. original 16. pelo amor me ofereço em holocausto pela vida do outro. devoto-me, não já ao seu corpo, mas ao seu desejo, à sua subjectividade, ao seu espírito. (lines of poetry from camões) 17. já não vejo, e sobretudo não me vejo, pelos meus olhos, mas pelos olhos do outro. e à sua visão me moldo como objecto. se o outro me quer alegre, eu rio, mas choro se ele me quiser triste. sou activo ou passivo, inteligente ou embotado, consoante os seus desejos. se o outro me quer sem corpo, o meu corpo deixa de existir para mim. deixo os prazeres e a comida, e ele vai desaparecendo. mas sempre sobra corpo, e por isso me acho gordo. podia bem ser esse o desejo do escrupuloso pai amado pela filha anoréctica. translation 16. in love, i offer myself to be burnt up by the life of the other. i devote myself, no longer to her body, but to her desire, her subjectivity, her spirit. (lines of poetry by camões) 17. i no longer see. in particular, i no longer see myself through my own eyes, but through the eyes of the other. if the other wants me happy, i laugh, but i cry if he wants me sad. i am active or passive, intelligent or feeble, in accordance with his wishes. if the other wants me to be incorporeal, my body stops existing for me. i give up pleasures and food, and my body withdraws. but there is still too much body, and so, i think i am fat. this could well be the desire of the anorectic daughter towards her beloved but scrupulous father. despite the relatively simple texture of the prose, this work is deliberately pursuing a very different aim to that inherent to ead, and as such has been persistently rejected for publication in english. as this author has discovered karen bennett ibérica 27 (2014): 35-5042 with other works he has written, unconventional or uncategorisable texts will only ever be considered by uk or us publishers when there is incontrovertible evidence of their commercial and academic success in a number of other countries; otherwise, they are rejected out of hand. the language industries in the last decades of the 20th century, it seemed as if the anglo-saxon world was teetering on the brink of major epistemological paradigm shift, due largely to the influence of the poststructuralist currents emanating from the continent. the scientific paradigm was under attack from all sides and a number of alternative academic discourses had sprung up in an attempt to redress some of the perceived ideological, ethical and epistemological imbalances of ead.8 today, however, those challenges seem largely to have subsided. in the uk, priority for funding is now inevitably given to the so-called stem courses (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), thereby reinforcing its commitment to the scientific paradigm; and a similar bias can now be seen in other countries and at central european level, where the humanities and social sciences are being progressively squeezed and downgraded to make way for subjects more directly linked to technology, industry and business. as a result, ead has once more consolidated its position as the hegemonic discourse of knowledge, generating increased demand for those industries whose mission is to overcome the cultural disjunctions that impede access to the world academic forum. one of the language industries that has grown exponentially in recent years is the teaching business, particularly english for academic purposes (eap), which is now present in universities around the world. unlike conventional foreign language classes, these courses are less concerned with straightforward linguistic issues than with supplying learners with the rhetorical skills necessary to achieve success in the academic world. hence, they focus on issues such as the structure and organisation of academic texts, argumentation techniques, how to present and hedge claims, and the preparation and delivery of oral presentations. in many non-anglophone countries, discipline-specific eap classes are now integrated into undergraduate and/or postgraduate courses as a compulsory part of the curriculum, while in uk and us universities, foreign students are often discourses of knowledge ibérica 27 (2014): 35-50 43 obliged to attend an eap course before embarking on their chosen programme of study. the growth in this demand has also resulted in the development of lucrative subsidiary activities, such as eap teacher-training, the creation and implementation of internationally-recognised examinations (ielts, toefl, etc.) and the production of academic style manuals and guides, all of which employ thousands of people worldwide. academic publishing also addresses the question of cultural disjunctions with the provision of revision, editing and proof-reading services; indeed, a whole range of “literacy brokers” (such as journal editors, reviewers, academic peers, etc.) systematically intervene in texts of foreign authorship before their final published form is achieved, as research into the academic writing of multilingual scholars (curry & lillis, 2004; lillis & curry, 2006a, 2006b & 2010) has confirmed. the translation industry has also benefitted hugely from the hegemony of english in the academic sphere. academics with little or no command of english can only access the most prestigious international journals by having their work professionally translated, and foreign research units and journals are now increasingly publishing in english in order to reach a wider public. meanwhile, there is also a flourishing market for translation in the opposite direction, as english academic books and papers are rendered into other languages for use in non-anglophone institutions. finally, the need for technical precision in intercultural transfer situations has led to the development of multilingual terminological databases and computer tools, designed to establish “official” equivalents of technical terms in different languages and specialist areas, and present them in a userfriendly format. given the sheer scale of this undertaking, it is already a multi-million-euro industry employing vast numbers of researchers, technicians, linguists and area specialists. in future, as knowledge becomes increasingly more specialised and user communities diversify, it looks set to expand (as many of the papers in this volume show). the existence of an international lingua franca for academic and research purposes has no doubt facilitated the global transmission of information and brought great practical benefits to mankind. however, it has not been an unqualified good, and there are now a growing number of detractors complaining about the effect that it has had upon other languages and upon epistemological diversity in general. this will be the subject of my next and final section. karen bennett ibérica 27 (2014): 35-5044 the consequences one of the most interesting characteristics of discursive formations is that they are not, intrinsically, language-specific. that is to say, they can usually be exported from one culture to another through a process of “calquing”, by means of which a mirror image of the discourse is imprinted upon the recipient language, leading to the creation and eventual internalisation of new mental categories. this often occurs as a spontaneous by-product of translation activity (cronin, 1998; house, 2006). but calques may also be deliberately provoked, usually in the belief that the target culture will be enriched by new discourse habits. this was effectively what farfor (1976b) was trying to do in his cours élémentaire de rédaction médicale. believing that it was time to “deanglo-saxonise” medical writing and “make it known and available to other language groups” (farfor, 1976b: 225), he argued in chapter 1 of the cours that it was as “universal” as medicine itself: (…) whatever the language, the article should be concise, structured and presented in accordance with the norms of medical writing, which are universally applicable. (farfor, 1976a: 634; translated from the french by me) twenty-two years later, arwidson and lavielle (1998: 173) were continuing the crusade, declaring the need to extend such practices to the domain of health education. like farfor, they took a critical stance towards traditional writing practices in france, and advocated the implementation of the imrad model of textual organisation. in portugal, there is evidence that a similar process is under way. despite the relatively late appearance of portuguese-language style manuals based on the english model (such as serrano, 2004, mentioned above), the corpus study (bennett, 2010a & 2011) reveals that a discourse calqued on ead is now prevalent in the hard sciences and may even be threatening to take over the more traditional discourse of the humanities and social sciences. this brings us to my final point, namely the long-term consequences of this process on the host culture. critical discourse analysts have long realised that discourses are totalitarian in mission and imperialistic in reach, constantly aiming to explain and control as much territory as possible (kress, 1985). moreover, as they encode ideologies, the calquing process ultimately represents the colonisation of one culture by another – in this case, the discourses of knowledge ibérica 27 (2014): 35-50 45 “imposition of new ‘mental structures’ through english” (phillipson, 1992: 166). however, this kind of imperialism requires collusion on the part of the host culture to succeed. when the invading discourse is already hegemonic, the traditional discourses used by that culture in the given domain may begin to be rejected by potential users as old-fashioned and inadequate. this is the mechanism at work in portugal, as was demonstrated by some of the responses given in a survey of 192 portuguese humanities and social science researchers conducted in 2002 and 2008 (bennett, 2010b & 2011). in france, on the other hand, the fact that the process began much earlier (in the medical domain at least) and has still not yet been fully achieved (maisonneuve, 2009) is perhaps a measure of that country’s cultural selfconfidence and its traditional antagonism towards anglo-saxon impositions.9 a number of authors have now begun to manifest concern at the broader implications of this process. cronin (2003: 72-75) points out that calquing not only impoverishes the individual languages by turning them into “mirror images of the dominant languages” but that it also reduces linguistic and epistemological diversity in the world system as a whole. swales (1997: 374) makes the same point, memorably likening ead to a tyrannosaurus rex “gobbling up the other denizens of the academic linguistic grazing grounds”. the portuguese sociologist, boaventura de sousa santos (2001: 266) goes even further, coining the term “epistemicide” to describe the way in which “western science” seems set on systematically eradicating other knowledges in its bid for total control of the field. as far as the language industries are concerned, while these are clearly participating in the colonisation process by furthering the spread of ead, the calquing effect that results may ultimately serve to make some of them redundant. that is to say, once “mirror images” of the dominant discourse have been installed in the languages of its epistemological rivals, the cultural disjunctions will become less pronounced, reducing the demand for professional aid to bridge the gap. in portugal, many young researchers in the hard sciences, brought up in a bilingual technical culture where there is little to choose between a textbook written in portuguese and another written in english, are already able to do away with language classes and translation services, and produce internationally-acceptable texts relatively effortlessly. in a country like karen bennett ibérica 27 (2014): 35-5046 france, on the other hand, which has a much more confident intellectual culture of its own, the takeover will probably be resisted for longer. indeed, it is to be hoped that the cultural disjunctions will remain in place for a long time yet, not only to ensure the continued employment of the thousands of professionals involved in the language industries, but also in the broader interests of epistemological diversity. 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(1976a). “cours élémentaire de rédaction médicale, chapitre i”. translated from the english by j. feisthauer. cahiers médicaux 2: 633-635. farfor, j.a. (1976b). “medical writing in france”. british medical journal 2: 224-225. foucault, m. (1966). les mots et les choses. paris: éditions gallimard. karen bennett (phd) is a member of the centre for english studies, university of lisbon, where she researches in the area of translation studies. she has published two books and numerous articles about academic discourse and other subjects. her edited volume, the semiperiphery of academic writing: discourses, communities and practices, is coming out in 2014 with palgrave macmillan. karen bennett ibérica 27 (2014): 35-5048 foucault, m. (1969). l’archéologie du savoir. paris: éditions gallimard. halliday, m.a.k. & j.r.martin (eds.) (1993). writing science: literacy and discursive power. pittsburgh and london: university of pittsburgh press. house, j. (2006) ‘text and context in translation’. journal of pragmatics 38,3: 338–358 hyland, k. (2000). disciplinary discourses: social interactions in academic writing. harlow: longman. kress, g. (1985). linguistic processes in sociocultural practice. victoria: deakin university press. lillis, t. & m.j. curry (2006a). “professional academic writing by multilingual scholars: interactions with literacy brokers in the production of english-medium texts”. written communication 23: 3-35. lillis, t. & m.j. curry (2006b). “reframing notions of competence in scholarly writing: from individual to networked activity”. revista canaria de estudios ingleses 53: 63-78. lillis, t. & m.j. curry (2010). academic writing in a global context: the politics and practices of publishing in english. london & new york: routledge. maisonneuve, h. (2009). “my life as an editor’. european science editing 35: 87 phillipson, r. (1992). linguistic imperialism. oxford: oxford university press. pirie, d. (1985). how to write critical essays. london & new york: routledge. rorty, r. (1991). objectivity, relativism and truth (philosophical papers, vol. 1). cambridge: cambridge university press. salager-meyer, f. (2008). “scientific publishing in developing countries: challenges for the future”. journal of english for academic purposes 7: 121132. santos, b.s. (2001). “towards an epistemology of blindness: why the new forms of “ceremonial adequacy” neither regulate nor emancipate”. european journal of social theory 4: 251-279. serrano, p. (2004). redacção e apresentação de trabalhos científicos. lisbon: relógio d’água. storey, w.k. (2004). writing history: a guide for students. oxford: oxford university press. swales, j. (1997). “english as tyrannnosaurus rex”. world englishes 16: 373-382. timmermans, b. (2002). “renascimento e modernidade da retórica’ in m. meyer, m. carrilho & b. timmermans (eds.), história da retórica, tr. m. berjano, 83-226. lisbon: temas e debates. uzuner, s. (2008). “multilingual scholars participation in core/global academic communities: a literature review”. journal of english for academic purposes 7: 250-263. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. new york: cambridge university press. white, h. (1997). “the suppression of rhetoric in the nineteenth century” in b.d. schildgen (ed.), the rhetoric canon, 21-31. detroit: wayne state university. woods, p. (2006). successful writing for qualitative researchers. london & new york: routledge. notes 1 this paper was first presented as a plenary lecture at the conference le multiculturalisme et le role des langues spécialisées (organised by the groupe de linguistique appliquée des télécommunications de bretagne), held in lisbon in may 2010. 2 this contrasts with the idealist/constructivist views that are more common in continental philosophy, according to which all knowledge of reality is mediated, or even constructed by, language. 3 the corpus consisted of 408 academic texts (1,333,890 words) of different genres and disciplines, which were analysed for the presence of particular discourse features not usually found in ead. 4 there are historical reasons for this disjunction. the positivistic orientation of the knowledge paradigm that prevailed after the scientific revolution meant that, in english factual writing, the referential dimension of language (logos) gradually acquired precedence over the interpersonal/emotive (pathos) and ethical (ethos) dimensions, which had had equal value in classical rhetoric. in countries where the scholastic and humanistic traditions were perpetuated for longer (often due to educational policies put in place in catholic countries following the counter reformation), this did not occur. consequently, the academic discourse produced in those countries still shows the influence of classical rhetoric (conley, 1990; timmermans, 2002). 5 from the abstract of “ancient shipping, traditional boats and sustainable tourism in northwest portugal: the development of a product entitled the boat and naval construction museum” by a. bettencourt (2006). reproduced with the kind permission of the author. 6 in france, for example, there is little pressure to publish in english. on the contrary, activities such as student supervision count for more in academic appointments (françoise salager-meyer, personal communication). 7 from j. l. pio abreu. “a fenomenologia de sexualidade: do desejo ao amor”, chapter 7 of o tempo aprisionado: ensaios não-espiritualistas sobre o espírito humano. coimbra: quarteto editora, 2000: 139-149. this extract was first analysed in bennett (2007). 8 these included the various discourses of qualitative research that developed within the social sciences (see woods, 2006, for an overview); the french-inspired écriture of feminists and other subaltern groups; and the dense opaque prose of critical theory. 9 farfor (1976b: 224-225) gives an example of a spirited defence of the traditional french approach to medical writing. referring to an article by vargues published in nouvelle presse médicale (1975, 4: 1131), he writes, rather dismissively: “after criticising anglo-saxon papers for their simple language and detailed precision, he [vargues] (…) recommended that french research should be reported in the form of “scholarly dissertations, with thesis, antithesis, and synthesis” (…) he concluded by appealing to french authors to defend their language by rejecting anglo-american methods (les norms) of writing”. discourses of knowledge ibérica 27 (2014): 35-50 49 redalyc.manual de escritura para carreras de humanidades. federico navarro (coord.) buenos aires: filo uba, colección sol de noche, 2014. 354 páginas. isbn 978-987-3617-25-6 ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa blanco gomez, maria luisa manual de escritura para carreras de humanidades. federico navarro (coord.) buenos aires: filo uba, colección sol de noche, 2014. 354 páginas. isbn 978-987-3617-25-6 ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 226-229 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542011 cómo citar el artículo número completo más información del artículo página de la revista en redalyc.org sistema de información científica red de revistas científicas de américa latina, el caribe, españa y portugal proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542011 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542011 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542011 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org manual de escritura para carreras de humanidades. federico navarro (coord.) buenos aires: filo uba, colección sol de noche, 2014. 354 páginas. isbn: 978-987-3617-25-6. en los últimos años los docentes universitarios se vienen enfrentando a un problema de lecto-escritura importante puesto que los alumnos en muchos casos se encuentran con graves problemas de comunicación tanto oral como escrita. el presente volumen, coordinado por federico navarro, es un manual tanto para estudiantes que comienzan sus estudios universitarios como para docentes que quieran utilizarlo de herramienta con el fin de ayudar a sus alumnos a expresarse y a emplear una escritura adecuada en la carrera que realizan así como en su futuro profesional. el manual está estructurado en tres partes relativas a los géneros académicos, pero el volumen comienza con unas palabras preliminares de charles bazerman y liliana cubo de severino, a modo de consejo para ejercitarse en lo que bazerman denomina “la lente de la disciplina”, con el fin de aprender a usar el lenguaje y expresar sus conocimientos y su punto de vista a través de esa “lente” concreta. bazerman hace hincapié en una lectura no apresurada para poder elaborar un buen texto, así como en la revisión posterior de la escritura, fundamental para obtener un buen resultado. en la misma línea, liliana cubo de severino destaca que este volumen va a contribuir a desarrollar estrategias de lectura y escritura que serán extremadamente útiles para el estudiante y que le ayudarán a cumplir los objetivos de comunicación que se proponga. a continuación encontramos la introducción realizada por federico navarro y en la que conocemos cómo nació este proyecto de un equipo de ocho lingüistas especializados en la enseñanza de la lectura y escritura en la educación superior y en el que finalmente colaboran quince autores, todos ellos docentes de disciplinas académicas diferentes. navarro explica cómo se encuentra estructurado el volumen y destaca conceptos básicos como el de “género discursivo” así como la importancia de la composición de un escrito. el manual se describe como algo “híbrido”, puesto que combina pautas para una correcta lectura y posterior desarrollo de un buen escrito con reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 226 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 226 diversas investigaciones relativas a este problema con el que los docentes se enfrentan cada vez con más frecuencia. asimismo, es de destacar el hecho de que la bibliografía citada en el capítulo introductorio es muy amplia e incluye gran variedad de autores, que van desde swales (2004) a hyland (2004) pasando por bazerman et al. (2005). la parte i, presentada por federico navarro y ana brown, trata conceptos básicos sobre lectura y escritura de géneros académicos. la estructura utilizada en este capítulo se repite sucesivamente en los siguientes y consiste en un planteamiento metodológico bastante eficaz, que incluye una didáctica compuesta por introducción, lectura, ejercitación, sistematización y bibliografía. dicha estructura hace que el capítulo se aborde de manera gradual y accesible para el alumno. la parte ii está dedicada a los géneros académicos de formación y contiene cuatro capítulos diferentes. los capítulos 2 y 3 vienen presentados por lucía natale y daniela stagnaro y se centran en la evaluación, tanto en el parcial presencial como en el parcial en casa para poder comparar de esta manera las técnicas a emplear en un parcial dependiendo de la situación a la que el alumno se enfrente. en el capítulo 4 juan pablo moris e inés gimena pérez nos presentan las características básicas de la monografía, que se comparan en cierto modo con la escritura de investigación. igualmente, se analizan las diferentes secciones de la monografía así como la importancia de la voz del autor, la personalización, la despersonalización y la cita. el capítulo 5, de rubén pose y miranda trincheri, expone el examen final oral. los textos que nos presentan son relativos por un lado a la escritura y a la oralidad en la universidad y por otro a la oralidad académica y cotidiana. asimismo, se trata el tema de las ponencias, tan fundamentales en el contexto universitario, así como las presentaciones académicas orales, que conectan directamente con el examen final oral. aunque este capítulo se centra principalmente en la oralidad, a diferencia del resto de los capítulos del volumen, es comprensible que se incluya aquí puesto que el manual está dirigido a docentes y alumnos universitarios, y la capacidad oral es básica tanto en un contexto universitario a lo largo de todo el grado como en el futuro laboral inmediato de los graduados. la parte iii, compuesta por los capítulos 6 al 9, es la más específica y se centra en los géneros académicos disciplinares relativos al área de humanidades: historia, letras, filosofía y educación. el capítulo 6 tiene reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 227 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 227 como autores a irina alzari, julián d’alessandro y maricel radimi y estudia la reseña de formación en historia. se aborda la estructura de la reseña académica, sus etapas y las consignas para elaborar una reseña. aunque se menciona la reseña en historia, es de destacar que las pautas presentadas se pueden aplicar a cualquier disciplina. el capítulo 7 lo firman patricia escandar, marina peruani san román y matías h. raia y expone las estrategias de lectura en parciales y monografías de letras. trata de formas de lectura, cadenas léxicas y campos léxicos, contraste de fuentes y análisis de textos literarios, así como la importancia de los hilos de lectura, algo básico que el alumno debe dominar. en el capítulo 8 martha esther faiad desarrolla el informe de trabajo de campo en instituciones educativas y se centra básicamente en la escritura de investigación en educación, destacando aspectos como la investigación cualitativa y el uso de fuentes de datos y lo relaciona con el género de la monografía. finalmente encontramos el capítulo 9, de florencia coppolecchia, que propone desarrollar estrategias de lectura en parciales de filosofía. conectando con el capítulo anterior, la autora propone varias prácticas disciplinares de lectura así como diversas consignas de lectura, siguiendo una vez más la estructura de los capítulos precedentes. es de destacar asimismo que al final de todos y cada uno de los capítulos encontramos la bibliografía mencionada a lo largo del capítulo así como una sección muy útil de bibliografía complementaria y recursos y sitios web actualizados. habría que añadir que en el capítulo 5, que se centra en la oralidad en general, se incluyen también una serie de recursos sobre organización y desarrollo de debates, muy útiles en este campo que el alumno pretende desarrollar. por consiguiente, este volumen que aquí se presenta supone un manual de gran utilidad tanto para uso por parte de los docentes como de los alumnos ya que se puede usar como guía en clase durante un curso académico debido a todos los aspectos y disciplinas que trata y asimismo como guía de uso individual por parte de los alumnos universitarios. además, las estrategias que se pretenden desarrollar en el estudiante en este manual implican también el desarrollo de habilidades cognitivas (langacker, 2000), algo fundamental para obtener la capacidad de operar por sí mismo. se subraya la importancia de la lectura en el proceso de escritura ya que, a través de ella el lector se va preparando para componer ideas e información. igualmente, es destacable la importancia que se le concede a la revisión y a reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230228 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 228 la corrección de un texto para que éste sea lo más perfecto posible. a todo ello contribuye este volumen, que nos ofrece también entradas prácticas a la escritura académica, algo que siempre es útil para el alumno que pretende aprender a escribir y expresarse correctamente. en definitiva, este manual de escritura es una excelente guía para organizar un texto académico en las carreras de humanidades. recibida 25 agosto 2015 aceptada 26 agosto 2015 reseñado por maria luisa blanco gomez universidad rey juan carlos (españa) marialuisa.blanco@urjc.es bibliografia reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 229 bazerman, c., j. little, l. bethel, t. chavkin, d. fouquette y j. garufis (2005). reference guide to writing across the curriculum. west lafayette, indiana: the wac clearinghouse & parlor press. hyland, k. (2004). disciplinary discourses. social interactions in academic writing. michigan: the university of michigan press. langacker, r. (2000). grammar and conceptualization. berlin/new york: mouton de gruyter. swales, j.m. (2004). research genres. exploration and applications. glasgow: cambridge university press. 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 229 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 230 01 editorial.qxd editorial nowhere else than upon the sea do the days, weeks, and months fall away quicker into the past. they seem to be left astern as easily as the light air-bubbles in the swirls of the ship’s wake, and vanish into a great silence in which your ship moves on with a sort of magical effect. they pass away, the days, the weeks, the months. nothing but a gale can disturb the orderly life of the ship; and the spell of unshaken monotony that seems to have fallen upon the very voices of her men is broken only by the near prospect of a landfall. (joseph conrad, the mirror of the sea) in september 2006 i took command of ibérica, the flagship of aelfe. now that i am about to make the land, after eight years of exciting voyage and 16 ship’s calls, it is time to briefly look into this maritime adventure and share the records in the ship’s logbook. as i look astern i see how this once coastal ship has been upgraded to the global trade and converted into an ocean-going vessel fit to cross the seas of global academia and reach any port of the world. in my first editorial published in the journal i pointed at those issues which, to my judgement, would guide my editorship: (…) my most immediate concern is the consolidation of ibérica as a worldwide reference journal in lsp scholarship. in so doing, many new, as well as corrective, actions will need to be undertaken: new index lists will be applied for so that they contribute to the “global spread” (quoting gibson ferguson’s paper in this issue) of ibérica; the international advisory board will be updated and the editorial board enlarged; the “instructions for authors” section will be enhanced so as to provide greater detail; the referees’ evaluation form and assessment process will be improved so that the peerreviewing outcomes become more specific in the provision of comments and recommendations for further submissions; and, indeed, all suggestions put forward by readers and aelfe members alike will be welcome and taken into consideration (editorial to ibérica vol. 13, page 6). ibérica 28 (2014): 9-16 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 00 iberica 28.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 22/09/14 19:19 página 9 today, those target issues, attained and firmly established, are part of the ship’s life and, together, contribute to a safe passage for both passengers and crew. during this time, ibérica has welcomed on board a multilingual and multicultural crew. the editorial board, the international advisory board and the external reviewers have made their best for providing the journal with helpful and detailed reviewing reports leading to excellent pieces of research that are gathering a good number of citations worldwide. passengers, at first predominantly spanish authors, have yielded an interesting mixed group of nationalities from the five continents, represented in both proposed submissions and eventually published articles and reviews that provide a good overview of global trends and research niches on languages for specific purposes (lsp). the special issues together with the celebration of aelfe’s 20th anniversary guided us, at least initially, through uncharted seas but provided the journal with greater international visibility and very fine volumes. michael white, maria kuteeva and juan carlos palmer-silveira did very well as chief mates for volumes 17 (metaphor and lsp), 22 (academic english in parallel and elf-settings) and 26 (international and intercultural business communication). volume 24, published in 2012, celebrated the 20th anniversary of the association and, in a longer-than-usual volume, very illuminating contributions to the field of lsp and its state-of-the-art were published by most members for the international advisory board. indeed, gale “impact factor” and gale “seal of excellence” disturbed “the orderly life of our ship”, but very positively. the number of index lists, databases and repositories containing this journal has risen from 6 (in 2006) to 28 at present. in 2009 ibérica was indexed in the index lists and databases hosted by isi web of knowledgesm: social sciences citation index®, social scisearch®, journal citation reports/social sciences edition, arts and humanities citation index®. by that time it was also accepted for coverage in scimago journal rank (run by scopus). today, the journal is positioned in quartiles 3 and 2 of jcr and sjr, respectively, and has become and internationally reputed journal within the field of applied languages (see the quotes by relevant scholars gathered in my editorial for volume 25 published in 2013). in 2011 we were also shaken by the seal of excellence awarded by the spanish foundation for science and technology that accredited ibérica as an excellent journal in spanish academia and highlighted its international projection abroad. two years later this seal of excellence was renewed, and very recently (july 2014) ibérica has been ranked with the second h-index editorial ibérica 28 (2014): 9-1610 00 iberica 28.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 22/09/14 19:19 página 10 position according google scholar metrics for the period 2009-2013 in the list of scientific journals in the area of linguistics in spain (see url: http:// digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/10481/32471/7/hindex_rce_gsm0913.pdf). the ship’s wake along these lines indicates that we are approaching our port of destination, and here the reader will find the details of this 16th voyage under my supervision. helen basturkmen, associate professor of applied language studies and linguistics at the university of auckland (new zealand), opens this volume with a contribution on languages for specific purposes (lsp) teacher education. lsp teacher education is a very relevant topic for this journal, given its scope and target audience; however, this potential and underresearched area has not been so far the object of any proposed or published articles. in her study, basturkmen discusses the needs of lsp teachers as well as models of teacher education and then identifies themes in the existing literature. her most important contribution to the state-of-the-art is first, the gaps she identifies in the literature and, second, her suggestions of “topics for the research agenda to develop understanding of the nature of lsp teaching expertise” (page 17). professor basturkmen shares her interest in the lsp teaching profession with other research projects currently underway: a genre-based investigation into disciplinary variation in research reporting, and a study of supervisor feedback on dissertation writing. following basturkmen’s study is a group of four papers that explore medical english from different angles. first, neslihan önder özdemir attempts to diagnose the learning needs of turkish medical students. in order to obtain reliable data, önder özdemir uses varying research instruments (observation, reflective journals, questionnaires and in-depth interviews) with 525 participants. findings are discussed against (i) the perceived needs of medical students, and (ii) the potential differences between the perceptions of academics and medical students regarding such needs. next, shirley carter-thomas and elizabeth rowley-jolivet analyse the functioning of if-conditionals in medical editorials and how it compares in research articles (ras). the target corpus consists of 171 and 119 occurrences of if-conditionals taken from 74 editorials and 30 ras respectively. after measuring several parameters in both groups of ifconditional occurrences, authors conclude that “[a]lthough research articles and editorials can both be classified as argumentative professional discourse, editorial ibérica 28 (2014): 9-16 11 00 iberica 28.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 22/09/14 19:19 página 11 their argument strategies, as illustrated through the form and use of ifconditionals, are very different” (page 76). the following article examines cosmetics brands and the rhetorical strategies cosmetics companies use in websites to advertise their products upon the myth of “eternal youth” and persuade consumers for purchasing. here, marisa díez arroyo makes use of eighteen websites of well-known cosmetics brands to extend our knowledge of medical language in the advertising context and with persuasive, rather than informative or scientific, purposes. the last article in this group of studies within the scope of medical english discourse discusses how chinese medical doctors negotiate the pressure of publishing ras in reputed journals for attaining professional promotion and raising the performance standards of their own institution. yongyan li conducted interviews with eleven surgeons working at the orthopedics department at a major hospital in east china and found that: (i) institutions prioritize publishing in english in mainstream journals; (ii) research and publication constitute the main source of pressure despite doctor’s high clinical workload; (iii) domestic publication is also accepted but it poses a lower level of challenge and implies lower professional rewards. following with ras as an object of study is ling lin’s study on the innovative elements that structure those ras article introductions that are followed by an independent literature review. lin’s analysis of 30 article introductions shows that these rhetorical sections may follow either the traditional swalesian cars model type or a new two-move orientation type. even though findings derive from an applied linguistics ra corpus, they can be illuminating for researchers dealing with academic writing in other fields. metaphor plays an important role in architectural professional practice and discourse, and rosario caballero offers an overview of how architects think, draw and write architecture through metaphor. by focusing on extracts from architectural reviews, caballero surveys the ways metaphor informs the professional practice of english-speaking architects and provides ideas for implementing metaphor in architectural education and for training architecture students into visual knowledge and thinking. next, patrick goethals explore the tourism context through the statements of tourists (testimonials) uploaded at widely known commercial websites in the field. linguistic accommodation – or the selection of different languages editorial ibérica 28 (2014): 9-1612 00 iberica 28.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 22/09/14 19:19 página 12 among tourists and tourism professionals – and the use (even interference) of english along with a wide array of mother languages is common practice in social media conversations and written notes provided at websites. hence, goethals supports its study and implementation in language classrooms so as to establish informed links between teaching/learning, lifelong learning and direct experienced. last, inmaculada fortanet-gómez and mª noelia ruiz-madrid explore multimodality for comprehensive communication in the classroom. more particularly, they explore audienceand content-oriented questions with the aim of identifying those verbal and non-verbal strategies that foster interaction in guest lectures. the use of “okay?” and the use of clusters are the main focus of the last section of this small scale research piece and help to illustrate the importance of nonverbal behaviour in line with other genrerelated studies. the next section of this volume contains reviews on nine recent publications dealing with: • the language of tourism and internet (miguel ángel gonzález macías); • individuality and community in the disciplinary identities of academic discourse (carmen sancho guinda); • narratives in academic and professional genres (carmen piquénoguera); • the roles and global challenges faced by english-medium instruction (francisco rubio cuenca); • research writing in multilingual settings (pilar mur-dueñas); • the influence of electronic media in written communication using english as a lingua franca (carmen pérez-sabater); • statistical research as applied to language and linguistics (alejandro curado fuentes); • the language and discursive practices of business and finance (françoise olmo cazevieille); and, finally, • bhatia’s and lassen’s genre-related models as applied to the language in technical manuals (concepción orna-montesinos). editorial ibérica 28 (2014): 9-16 13 00 iberica 28.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 22/09/14 19:19 página 13 i would like to thank the members of the editorial board who have contributed to the ongoing work of the journal with their suggestions and thorough evaluations during this past semester. these have been (in alphabetic order): amparo garcía-carbonell, carmen sancho guinda, chelo vargas, elena bárcena, honesto herrera, joseba gonzález ardeo, juan carlos palmer silveira, mª ángeles orts, maria enriqueta cortés, maria kuteeva, marisol velasco, marta aguilar, mercedes eurrutia, michael white, ramón plo, rosa gimenez, victoria guillén. special thanks go to the 44 external reviewers who have collaborated with the journal during this past semester by assessing submitted manuscripts to ordinary volumes. these have been, in order of reviewing, the following: matthew peacock (city university of hong kong, china), sonia oliver del olmo (universidad autónoma de barcelona), neslihan önder özdemir (uludağ university, turkey), john skelton (university of birmingham, united kingdom), pascual cantos (universidad de murcia), marisa blanco (universidad rey juan carlos i); patrick goethals (ghent university, belgium); mercedes roldán (universidad de jaén); yu-hua chen (lancaster university, united kingdom); viviana cortés (georgia university, united states); pilar durán (universidad politécnica de madrid); georgina cuadrado (universidad politécnica de madrid); ismael arinas (universidad politécnica de madrid); mª mar soliño pazo (universidad de salamanca); jesús garcía laborda (universidad de alcalá de henares); isabel de la cruz cabanillas (universidad de alcalá de henares); mª josé luzón marco (universidad de zaragoza); cristina tejedor martínez (universidad de alcalá de henares); hanna skorczynska (universidad politécnica de valencia); bozena wislocka (universidad politécnica de madrid); christian jensen (university of copenhagen, denmark); guzmán mancho (universitat de lleida); rosario caballero (universidad de castilla-la mancha); zsófia demjén (the open university, united kingdom); anna lópez samaniego (universitat de barcelona); raquel taranilla (hamad bin khalifa university, qatar); pedro mogorrón (universidad de murcia); miguel f. ruiz-garrido (universitat jaume i); isabel k. león pérez (universidad de la laguna); purificación sánchez hernández (universidad de murcia); josé mateo (universidad de alicante); helen basturkmen (university of auckland, new zealand); james wilson (university of leeds, united kingdom); joseph zompetti (illinois state university, united states); moisés escudero (university of michigan, united states); daniele besomi (university of lausanne, switzerland); hilary nesi (university of coventry, united kingdom); claudine lecrivain (universidad de cádiz); chris j. kennedy editorial ibérica 28 (2014): 9-1614 00 iberica 28.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 22/09/14 19:19 página 14 (university of birmingham, united kingdom); natasha artemeva (carleton university, ontario, canada); patricia arnaiz (universidad de las palmas de gran canaria); inmaculada fortanet-gómez (universitat jaume i); begoña bellés-fortuño (universitat jaume i); beatriz cendón méndez (universidad de valladolid). ibérica has made this landfall in a safe and orderly manner. she will soon be manned again and get ready to heave up anchor and set sail. the new master and the whole crew will certainly watch for the seaworthiness of the vessel, will plot the chart for new routes and destinations, will plan safe passages and a successful voyage. as far as i am concerned, it has been a pleasure to be in charge of this efficiently-crewed craft for these eight years. the satisfaction of the achievements attained (particularly the quality, visibility and international positioning of the journal) far exceeds the time, effort and work invested. i am most grateful to the aelfe board, the journal editorial and international advisory boards, external reviewers, aelfe members, contributors, readers, printers, and all those colleague-friends for their help, support, collaboration, understanding, enthusiasm and encouragement that have contributed to, perhaps, the most pleasant voyage in my academic career. ana bocanegra valle universidad de cádiz (spain) editor of ibérica editorial ibérica 28 (2014): 9-16 15 00 iberica 28.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 22/09/14 19:19 página 15 00 iberica 28.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 22/09/14 19:19 página 16 iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.267 abstract: the main objective of this paper is to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the syllabus of the modules related to the training for spanish for specific purposes teachers (tsspt) in spanish universities master’s degrees registered in the ruct. the paper focuses on the academic outcomes, the contents, and the bibliography from the syllabus. it provides an overview of the university training for future teachers of ssp, which contributes to the advance and innovation of the area. from the 31 master’s degrees selected, 27 modules related to ssp were included. the criteria used in the analysis of the syllabus are from the routledge handbook of spanish language teaching (2019), the libro blanco from the aneca in lengua, literatura, cultura y civilización (2004), and the vademécum para la formación de profesores (2008). the results indicate that in spanish universities individual, methodological, and communicative learning outcomes are found. regarding the contents, the theoretical perspective is found to predominate over the practical one, while business and administrative spanish are often found. one of the most revealing data from the bibliographical references is that syllabuses promote reference texts published between 2004 and 2005. keywords: academic outcomes, contents, teaching, spanish for specific purposes teaching, bibliographical references. resumen estudio de las guías docentes para la formación de profesores de español con fines específicos en las universidades españolas el objetivo principal de este trabajo es ofrecer un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo de las guías docentes de las asignaturas relacionadas con la formación study of the course syllabuses for the training of teachers of spanish for specific purposes in spanish universities lucía gil de montes-garín & carmen oliva-sanz universidad de córdoba (spain) l82gigal@uco.es, l72olsac@uco.es 267 ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 lucía gil de montes-garín & carmen oliva-sanz de profesores de español para fines específicos (efe) en los másteres de las universidades españolas inscritos en el ruct. el presente artículo se centra en los resultados de aprendizaje, los contenidos y la bibliografía de las guías docentes. de esta forma, se esboza el panorama de la enseñanza universitaria de los futuros profesores de efe que contribuye al avance e innovación docente de este ámbito. de los 31 másteres seleccionados, se cuantifican un total de 27 asignaturas relacionadas con efe. los criterios empleados en el análisis de las guías docentes proceden del routledge handbook of spanish language teaching (2019), del libro blanco de la aneca en lengua, literatura, cultura y civilización (2004) y del vademécum para la formación de profesores (2008). los resultados indican que en las universidades españolas predominan los aprendizajes individuales, metodológicos y comunicativos. en cuanto a los contenidos, se observa un predominio del enfoque teórico frente al práctico y destaca, por su frecuencia, el español de los negocios y administrativo. uno de los datos más significativos en el estudio es la fecha media de publicación de las referencias bibliográficas que citan las guías docentes, que oscila entre 2004 y 2005. palabras clave: resultados de aprendizaje, contenidos, enseñanza, español con fines específicos, referencias bibliográficas 1. introduction courses on languages for specific purposes have been taught for over seventy years. these courses are highly specialized, as they are focused on a specific discipline (vázquez amador & lópez-zurita, 2021, p. 2). spanish for specific purposes (ssp from now on) has been in the picture for forty years and it has gained importance as part of spanish as a foreign language. given the increase in demand, future teachers of ssp should pay attention to the precise needs of their students and update their courses frequently (vázquez amador & lópez-zurita, 2021, pp. 3-4). however, although the interest in ssp is undeniable, there is a scarcity of studies available on the current state of training for ssp teachers (tsspt from now on). considering this framework, this article sets out to carry out a quantitative analysis based on information on university master’s degrees taught in spain. the registro de universidades, centros y títulos (ruct) provides a list of all the universities’ master’s degrees. the present article focuses on the training for ssp teachers. the objects of study are the course syllabuses for tsspt modules. these documents are official and allow us to study the training provided. 268 each country and language has developed differently. the rise of ssp can be traced back to the 1980s, when spain joined the european economic community, today’s european union (aguirre beltrán, 2004, p. 1114). the discipline’s success can be noticed in the celebration of international congresses about ssp, as well as in the creation of research groups like the groupe d’étude et de recherche en espagnol de spécialité formed in 2006, and publications by authors like aguirre beltrán (1998, 2000, 2009, 2012) and gómez de enterría sánchez (1999, 2001, 2007, 2009). following the path of vázquez amador and lópez-zurita (2021), this study set out to analyze the current situation regarding the training for specialized teachers of ssp, focusing on how teachers are trained in ssp in spanish universities. 1.1. objectives the main objective of this study is to outline the current status of tsspt at universities. this objective is carried out by comparing and contrasting the course syllabus of the modules related to tsspt taught at spanish universities, using the general analysis of all the different educational areas where training for ssp teachers is provided by vázquez amador and lópezzurita (2021). this study thus aims to contribute to teaching development and innovation in ssp training. to achieve these goals, the study has the following specific objectives: 1. to differentiate between ssp and tsspt. 2. to determine the ssp formative offers available for teachers in spanish universities. 3. to establish the most frequent learning outcomes, i.e., the primary learning outcomes for the training of ssp teachers. 4. to study the type of theoretical and practical contents taught in tsspt courses and their relationship with the learning outcomes expected. 5. to review the bibliographical references that constitute the bases of the taught contents. study of the course syllabuses for the training of teachers of spanish for specific purposes in spanish universities ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 269 2. theoretical framework 2.1. origin and definition of ssp several perspectives have been used to define the teaching of languages for specific purposes. the diccionario de términos clave de ele by the centro virtual cervantes narrows the definition to the learning and teaching that: facilitates the mastery of specialised communication, for instance, the language used by professionals working in a particular work field or by experts working in a particular academic discipline (martín peris, coord., 2008)1. however, hutchinson and waters (1987, p. 21 in rodríguez-piñero alcalá & garcía antuña, 2009, p. 919) define the concept in a broader way as “the approach to language teaching that aims to satisfy the communication needs of a specific group of learners”. even if the definitions vary, they always consider the teaching of languages for specific purposes as a “polyhedral” object. the study of languages for specific purposes began with the english language under the categorization of english for specific purposes in 1970 (catalá hall, 2017). as for the spanish language, it was not until the 1980s and especially the 1990s that ssp was introduced in education, research and publishing (vázquez, 2004, pp. 1113-1114). vázquez (2004) and catalá hall (2017) agree on the factors that accelerated the development of teaching languages for specific purposes. in the particular case of ssp, several factors were responsible for the development of the discipline, such as the advances in applied linguistics, a rising interest in the study of spanish at universities, and the greater specialization of society facing scientific, technological, and economic developments as part of the globalization process. language knowledge and proficiency in foreign languages have become a real demand in society. the main areas in which ssp developed first were commercial, such as spanish for tourism, business and law, followed by spanish for the service sector (healthcare), spanish for academic and institutional communication, and spanish for the army (catalá hall, 2017, p. 43). nevertheless, the broadening of working opportunities has led to an increase in “the complexity and the growing training needs among lucía gil de montes-garín & carmen oliva-sanz ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288270 professionals involved in scientific, economic, or business activities in general” (vázquez, 2004, p. 1109). that is why studies underline the relevance of a continuous analysis of student’s needs, “the requirements and demands of a learner help the teacher to prepare a unique and learnerfocused programme for specific purposes” (catalá hall, 2017, p. 43), to create a high-quality, effective formative program. students have different goals that require the analysis of the “teaching structure, [...] learning organization and management, and [...] teacher training” (vázquez, 2004, p. 1110). nevertheless, an updated analysis of the needs of today’s society requires the implementation of training for teachers of spanish for “immigrants in compulsory school contexts (children and adolescents), language teaching to adult immigrants and language teaching to children” in the ssp training sphere (rodríguez-piñero alcalá & garcía antuña 2009, p. 919). however, this is a controversial consideration for authors like gómez de enterría (2009), pastor cesteros (2004), and soto (2001): the particularity of this type of teaching is not due to the fact that a particular language modality is to be taught (such as business, medicine or academic language modalities [...]) but to the characteristics that define the learners’ profile and requirements (soto, 2001 in pastor cesteros, 2004, p. 523). the present study does not consider the modules related to the training of teachers of spanish for children or for immigrants as part of ssp, because they start from a fundamentally different set of conditions. a possible future research path would be to replicate this study by considering those modules and analyzing their differences from the ones studied here. 2.2. relationship between sfl and ssp the disciplines of spanish as a foreign language and spanish for specific purposes are closely related. in fact, for sánchez-lópez (2010, p. 87), the teaching of ssp is an “integration, extension or prolongation” of sfl. in fact, the cefr (common european framework of reference for languages) seems to include specific purposes within language learning in general, for example when it establishes that b1 students should “follow much of what is said around them on general topics, provided interlocutors avoid very idiomatic usage and articulate clearly” (council of europe, 2020, p. 75). another similarity shared between ssp and sfl is their focus on the study of the course syllabuses for the training of teachers of spanish for specific purposes in spanish universities ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 271 different competencies that a student should have, as well as the promotion of realistic materials and up-to-date content (lafford, 2012, p. 3). nonetheless, one of the main differences between ssp and sfl programs is their degree of specialization. whereas ssp programs have an instrumental approach that aims to provide the student with the necessary skills to communicate information and knowledge (sánchez-lópez, 2010, p. 85), sfl programs have a clear communicative approach. ssp programs adapt language teaching to the demands made on students in professional and academic communication (aguirre beltrán, 2004, p. 1110). these programs have an inherently interdisciplinary perspective because ssp requires “an explicit connection between learning the target language in the classroom and using it in professional venues” (byrnes, 2012, in lafford, 2012, p. 2). the interdisciplinarity comes from the different contexts in which an ssp student and an sfl student have to manage. therefore, ssp programs have to be designed taking into consideration the students’ necessities, particularly their professional field, e.g., business, engineering, healthcare, law, or tourism (aguirre beltrán, 2004, p. 1110). whereas sfl students “have focused on the development of general language proficiency and the use of the target language in academic settings” (lafford, 2012, p. 3), ssp students need “an in-depth understanding of the target culture to form a basis for establishing personal relationships with potential professional business partners” (lafford, 2012, p. 4). it is worth mentioning that in their conclusions vázquez amador and lópez-zurita (2021, p. 18) found, after analyzing different types of studies (courses, degrees, masters), that the training for teachers is scarce and not specialized enough. this contrasts with the training demands and with the ssp definition itself about the specificity of the area. another characteristic that differentiates ssp from sfl is the student profile. whereas the training in sfl is focused on students of any age, ssp students have previous general knowledge of spanish, they tend to be adults in training or professionals from a specific field that requires spanish for their jobs. besides, ssp courses tend to be short, and in many cases, urgency is a determining factor (aguirre beltrán, 2004, p. 87). considering the above-mentioned convergences and divergences between sfl and ssp, it is clear that the research and development of ssp and tsspt emerge from the global changes that affect all professions (sánchez-lópez, 2010, p. 86) and twenty first-century globalization and internationalization. lucía gil de montes-garín & carmen oliva-sanz ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288272 3. methodology 3.1. object of study this paper conducts a quantitative analysis of three of the components of the course syllabus of tsspt subjects, namely: the learning outcomes, the contents taught and the bibliographical references cited. we follow the methodology of previous studies such as vázquez amador (2021), applied to tsspt; castellano martínez and rodríguez-tapia (2022), applied to translation; and rodríguez-tapia and oliva sanz (2021), applied to terminology. to study the bibliographical references recommended for each subject, the method already mentioned in rodríguez-faneca (2020, p. 537) is followed, with which the most frequently cited works can be identified and the coincidences and divergences between the different materials can be measured. it should be noted that to analyze the learning outcomes, the considerations of vázquez-amador and lópez-zurita (2021) were also taken into account in the drafting of the descriptors for each learning outcome. 3.2. selected ssp modules in the first place, it was necessary to locate those subjects related to the training of ssp teachers. to this end, we focused on sfl master’s degrees registered in the ruct (registro de universidades, centros y títulos) in january 2022. this search provided a list of 31 master’s degrees, from which three were eliminated (udg, uja, and uhu)2 because they cease to exist in the academic year 2021/2022. given that this study aims to provide a current rather than a diachronic overview, the selection of this academic year was set to the most recent year possible, as proposed by castellano martínez and rodríguez-tapia (2022), so that the data would be up to date. once the master’s degrees had been selected, we proceeded to analyze the course syllabuses and extract from them the subjects related to the teaching of spanish for specific purposes. only 18 of the 28 master’s degrees offer subjects related to the object of study. the universities that do not include training in this regard are uib, uji, udl, udg, uimp, ouc, usal, uned, uan, and uneatlántico3. table 1 shows the the master’s degrees that include subjects related to ssp. study of the course syllabuses for the training of teachers of spanish for specific purposes in spanish universities ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 273 lucía gil de montes-garín & carmen oliva-sanz ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288274 * university ssp subjects ects type of subject universidad alfonso x el sabio español fines específicos 3 compulsory universidad de burgos la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera con fines profesionales 4 elective universidad de extremadura español para fines específicos 6 elective universidad internacional isabel i de castilla enseñanza de una segunda lengua para fines y público específicos 6 compulsory universidad de granada el español de usos específicos 3 elective el español de los medios de comunicación: prensa, radio, televisión y otros 3 elective universitat rovira i virgili español para fines específicos 3 elective universidad de salamanca español profesional: negocios y ámbito académico 3 elective universidad de cantabria aspectos teóricos y metodológicos del español con fines específicos 1 compulsory el español de los negocios 2 compulsory universidad de navarra enseñanza de español con fines específicos 4 compulsory universidad de zaragoza el español para fines específicos en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de ele 3 elective universidad pablo de olavide la enseñanza del español con fines específicos 3 compulsory universidad de sevilla español con fines específicos 4 elective universidad de las palmas de gran canaria el español para fines específicos en contextos empresariales 3 compulsory universidad de valladolid español para fines específicos en ele 3 elective universidad de córdoba español para fines específicos y nuevas tecnologías en ele 4 elective universidad a distancia de madrid contextos de enseñanza ele 6 compulsory universidad de león la enseñanza del español con fines específicos 3 elective universidad de alicante lingüística aplicada al inglés y al español para fines específicos 6 compulsory el inglés y el español en la lingüística forense 6 compulsory el inglés y el español en la lingüística computacional 6 compulsory table 1. list of university master’s degrees with ssp-related subjects the syllabuses of the 27 courses in table 1 were analyzed to identify the objectives, the competencies and learning outcomes, the contents, and the recommended bibliography. 3.3. learning outcomes the learning outcomes (hereinafter lo) analyzed follow this definition: “statement of what a learner should know, understand or be able to demonstrate upon completion of the learning process” (european union, 2011, p. 4). the different lo analyzed correspond to the sum of the objectives, the competencies, and the learning outcomes themselves, since, in the analysis of each course syllabus, the imprecision in the delimitation and absence of some of the three sections already pointed out by rodrígueztapia and oliva sanz (2021, p. 33) can be observed. the list of learning outcomes is based on the one proposed by rodrígueztapia and oliva sanz (2021, p. 34) due to the frequent appearance of pedagogical concepts, such as individual, metalinguistic or communicative competencies, which do not belong exclusively to the discipline of terminology, but to the general level of training, as stated by aneca (2004, p. 277) as general transversal competences for graduates in language subjects. however, it was necessary to add particular descriptors, due to their high frequency of appearance in the course syllabuses. this is the case of intercultural and sociocultural competence (lo9), general knowledge of the teaching of ssp (lo7), rooted in the relationship between sfl and ssp, and documentary and technological competence (lo6), as a result of the inclusion of new technologies in language learning. to measure the los present in each course syllabus, both the number of times the los appear in each course syllabus and the number of course study of the course syllabuses for the training of teachers of spanish for specific purposes in spanish universities ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 275* el español jurídico 3 compulsory el español económico-financiero 3 compulsory tecnologías de la información y el conocimiento aplicadas al inglés y español para fines específicos 6 compulsory el español del turismo y el ocio 3 compulsory el español de la medicina y las ciencias de la salud 3 compulsory & t syllabuses in which the lo is present were counted. table 2 shows the learning outcomes. table 2. list of descriptors for the study of learning outcomes 3.4. contents the selection of contents comes from the fields studied in one of the reference works (sánchez lobato & santos gargallo, 2004), as well as the most frequent specific contents detailed in the guides. the only type of applied tsspt that did not appear in the aforementioned reference book and was included in the analysis is that of the medical and health field (tc6). for an exhaustive analysis of the data, the contents were subdivided into theoretical (tc1 to tc7) and practical (pc1 to pc3). the importance of the practical contents (simulations, projects, assignments, oral presentations, or case studies) is noted in sánchez lobato and santos gargallo (2004, pp. 1123-1126), so it was considered necessary to establish this distinction to study both paradigms (theoretical and practical) in a complete and individualized manner. regarding the descriptors for the practical contents, lucía gil de montes-garín & carmen oliva-sanz ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288276 * t code descriptor descriptor delimitation lo1 individual applies to the learner as an individual. autonomy, time management, planning, problem-solving, and teamwork. lo2 metalinguistic knowledge of the terminology used in the discipline and reflection on the spanish language. lo3 communicative knowledge and use of the linguistic contents appropriate to the situation, communicative skills. lo4 analytical interpretation and critical thinking. lo5 methodological, instrumental, and theoretical know the different approaches, specific methodologies, and linguistic theories, and develop useful materials for teaching. lo6 documentary and technological develop methodologies and didactic and technological resources for teaching-learning. ability to search for bibliographic information and documentation. lo7 general knowledge of sfl teaching possess and understand linguistic, literary, and sociocultural knowledge of spanish that provides a basis for instructing future students in the most relevant aspects of the linguistic system of spanish and its standard use, within the phonetic, morphosyntactic, lexical, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic levels, and to conduct research in the field of teaching and didactic strategies of sfl. lo8 general knowledge of specific fields of specialization knowledge of the contextual framework of tourism, economics, law, and economics, etc. lo9 intercultural and sociocultural attention to other realities, immigration, and the risk of social exclusion. lo10 diagnostic diagnosis, evaluation, and argumentation of errors and solutions. & the course syllabus was understood to comply with descriptor pc2 when only general practical contents are mentioned without specifying the unit to which they correspond or belong to only one of the units. as an example, the uax guide for “spanish for specific purposes” only mentions the following general practical contents: a) programming an ssp course b) development of ssp units and materials (uax). on the other hand, the course syllabus was considered to comply with descriptor pc3 when each unit has an explicit section for the practical contents to be covered in it. this descriptor is met by subjects such as “spanish for specific purposes” at unex, where each unit has a section for the practical contents: a) spanish for tourism. contents: teaching corpus. strategies and materials for teaching and learning spanish for tourism. practical activities for unit 2: location of spanish for tourism courses. analysis of materials and development of activities. b) spanish for the health sector. contents: teaching corpus. strategies and materials for teaching and learning spanish for the health sector. practical activities for unit 6: location of spanish for health courses. analysis of materials and development of activities (unex). the distinction and individual analysis between theoretical (tc) and practical (pc) contents allow us not only to establish distinctions between both paradigms but also comparisons between the results to determine if the contents taught are mostly theoretical or if the theoretical content manifests a practical application. the codes are described in table 3. study of the course syllabuses for the training of teachers of spanish for specific purposes in spanish universities ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 277 table 3. list of descriptors for the study of contents 3.5. bibliographical references as for the works chosen as reference criteria, a quantitative analysis was made of all the references cited in the course syllabus. in the particular case of the vademécum para la formación de profesores, edited in 2004 by sánchez lobato and santos gargallo, the decision was made to cite the entire work, since numerous course syllabuses chapters of the work and the work itself were mentioned, thus duplicating the results. this is the case with the uva, for example. subsequently, once the frequency of each work had been calculated, the mean was calculated from which the frequencies that equalled or exceeded it would be representative for inclusion in the study. therefore, 12 works with a frequency of 4 or higher were considered as references. 4. results 4.1. analyzed modules once we had analyzed the 18 degrees in which tssps is taught and their subsequent 227 modules related to tsspt we were able to detect certain particularities. generally speaking, master’s degrees only include one module related to tsspt, except for the ugr (“español de usos específicos” and “el español de los medios de comunicación: prensa, radio, televisión y otros”), and the uc (“aspectos teóricos y metodológicos del español con fines específicos” and “el español de los negocios”). these two universities lucía gil de montes-garín & carmen oliva-sanz ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288278 * code descriptor c1 theoretical content on sfl tc2 theoretical contents on ssp tc3 theoretical content specific to ssp: business and commercial tc4 specific theoretical contents on ssp: tourism tc5 specific theoretical content on ssp: legal-economic tc6 specific theoretical contents on ssp: health and medical tc7 theoretical content specific to spanish with academic purposes (sap) pc1 absence of practical contents pc2 general or single-unit practical content pc3 practical content of all the units covered & include two modules related to tsspt. it is worth mentioning the peculiarity of the máster universitario en inglés y español para fines específicos from the universidad de alicante. in its curriculum, there are 8 modules related to different ssp areas. regarding the typology of the modules related to tsspt, we have to mention that 59.26 % of the analyzed modules are mandatory. however, half of these mandatory modules belong to the ua master’s degree (29.63  %) whose modules are entirely mandatory. this is a differentiating point from the rest of the modules, where 40.74 % of them are elective. leaving aside the ua particularity we can appreciate that the modules related to ssp are mostly elective. if we consider the credits assigned to tsspt modules, we see a variation between 3, 4, and 6 credits. 51.9  % of the modules have 3 ects credits assigned; 14.8 % have 4 ects credits, and 25.9 % have 6 ects credits. two modules from the uc “el español para los negocios” and “aspectos teóricos y metodológicos del español con fines específicos” have the particularity of having only 2 and 1 ects credits assigned. 4.2. learning outcomes at least three of the learning outcomes are present in every analyzed course syllabus. the most frequent learning outcome is the lo1 (individual), with a sum of 129 times which corresponds with 22.7 % of the frequency over the total of lo repetitions. besides, this learning outcome appears in 26 out of 27 of the studied course syllabuses. the only guide where it is not present is the unizar one. on average, the lo is repeated 5 times in each syllabus. the course syllabuses with a higher number of lo1 (individual lo) are those belonging to the ugr and the ua. these show an interest in working individually and independently, and bring out the relevance of facing problems individually and as a team, an ability for real life in aspects such as personal planning, creation, and distribution of classes and time. the second most repeated learning outcome is the lo5, which appears 112 times and has a frequency of 19.7 %. it is present in every course syllabus analyzed. this indicates that the knowledge of approaches, theories, and applications is a key aspect of the creation of materials. nine syllabuses of the syllabus that have a 5-point lo5 (median value) or a higher number belong to applied ssp modules, whereas only four modules related to generic ssp contents have a lo5 of 5 points or higher. study of the course syllabuses for the training of teachers of spanish for specific purposes in spanish universities ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 279 the lo3 appears in 25 out of 27 syllabuses (92.59 %), which constitutes a 15.99 % frequency over the totality of lo appearance in the 27 syllabuses. it is a lo focused on results that aim to develop communicative competencies, manage and express information in an appropriate way for its recipients, etc. that is why the second ugr syllabus stands out in this aspect. in the opposite case, we find only two syllabuses that do not include the lo3 (unav and uco). focusing on these two syllabuses we can see that they are more closely focused on individual learning outcomes than on communicative skills. following the same path, the lo4 (10.2  %) related to the analysis is only absent in the urv, unav, and unizar. in many of the syllabuses, the analysis is closely related to the research and detailed study of the bibliography, as well as to making judgments about their knowledge. table 4 shows the gathered data from the learning outcomes. table 4. data gathered from the learning outcomes on the other hand, the results provided by the tc1 do not correspond to lo7. although there are more modules containing the lo7 than the tc1, two modules with contents related to sfl do not show the corresponding learning outcomes. these are “español de usos específicos” at urg and “español profesional: negocios y ámbito” at usal. it is also worth mentioning that there are no modules containing all the learning outcomes studied in this research. the modules with the highest lucía gil de montes-garín & carmen oliva-sanz ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288280 * code descriptor frequency of appearance of the lo percentage of appearance in the syllabus lo1 individual 129 22.67 % 96.30 % lo2 metalinguistic 19 3.34 % 51.85 % lo3 communicative 91 15.99 % 92.59 % lo4 analytical 58 10.19 % 88.89 % lo5 methodological, instrumental, and theoretical 112 19.68 % 100 % lo6 documentary and technological 27 4.75 % 70.37 % lo7 general knowledge of sfl teaching 58 10.19 % 74.07 % lo8 general knowledge of specific fields of specialization 15 2.64 % 33.33 % lo9 intercultural and sociocultural 23 4.04 % 55.56 % lo10 diagnostic 37 6.50 % 74.07 % lo repetitions 569 100 % course syllabus 27 number of lo are the uax and ua ones. this indicates that the master’s degree exclusively dedicated to tsspt covers a higher number of learning outcomes. in the opposite case, we find syllabuses without half the learning outcomes studied. these are the usal, unizar, and upna. the modules with fewer learning outcomes belong to the general contents of ssp. 4.3. contents concerning the theoretical content, it should be noted that theoretical content on ssp (ct2) is frequently found, appearing in 19 of the 27 syllabuses, totalling 57.6  % of the total content. it is not present in the specific subjects on the different fields in which sfl is applied in the ua master’s degree, since the general theoretical content on the discipline is taught in the subject “lingüística aplicada al inglés y al español para fines específicos”. apart from this exception, only unex lacks theoretical content on ssp. this is striking considering that this is a subject with a high number of credits (6) and an exhaustive list of contents in the different fields of application of ssp (tourism, economics, health, etc.). the high number of appearances of tc2 shows the need to establish a theoretical basis for the discipline to be able to support practical and theoretical training in the specific branches. the second most frequent theoretical content is tc3, the specific theoretical content on ssp in business and commerce. this may be due to the needs of the financial and commercial market, but it needs to be checked in future studies to determine which areas require the most professional knowledge of ssp depending on the geographical, political, and economic situation of these areas. this branch of ssp is one of the most frequent in this study and four of the modules studied (usal, ulpgc, one module at the universidad de cantabria, and one at the universidad de almería) are entirely related to this subject. theoretical content related to tourism, the legal-economic field, health, and spanish for academic purposes, ct4, ct5, ct6, and ct7 respectively, are equally frequent, between 24.2 % and 27.3 %. except for the specific modules for each field of the ua master’s degree, no modules were found to be entirely dedicated to these subjects. the analysis of the practical content shows that 42.4  % of the modules studied have no practical content; the theoretical content taught is not applied in the classroom. this is a relevant fact already echoed by vázquez study of the course syllabuses for the training of teachers of spanish for specific purposes in spanish universities ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 281 amador and lópez-zurita (2021, p. 16), who showed that, at a european level, the percentage of special-purpose language programs that included practice was low. however, in contrast to the authors’ assertion “no spanish university included a practicum in its curricular offer” (2021, p. 16), the present study has found that 13 of the modules studied have practical content in their teaching guides. among them are the modules of uax, ubu, unex, and ui1, the two modules of urg and uc, urv, usal, upna, ulpg, and uco. six of the subjects with practical content only show general or single-unit practical content. this is the case of the uc which includes, in its thematic block 2, the “application of knowledge to the curricular design of spanish courses in different professional fields” (course syllabus of universidad de cantabria4), which contrasts with the usal, where the theoretical units have a practical section in the form of group work to analyze materials and propose activities. usal is therefore included in the group of subjects that comply with descriptor tc3 and which constitute 21.2 % of the total. it can be noticed that tsspt subjects are mostly theoretical and deal with the basic principles of the discipline, but the number of subjects with sectorspecific theoretical competencies is slightly lower. about practical contents, it is possible to determine that, although they are present in 48.2 %, they do not in all cases focus on all the theoretical contents taught. the data contrasts with the presence of the learning outcome lo5 in all the guides analyzed. this learning outcome is related to methodological and instrumental competencies and to the practical nature of teacher training, since teachers must be able to create materials focused on each group of students depending on their needs, to teach classes, and to assess their students’ results. 4.4. bibliographical references firstly, it is necessary to mention that the bibliographical references are mainly rather old. from the 497 individual bibliographical references that appear on the 27 course syllabuses, only 5 belong to the period 2019-2021; 50.1 % of the references are more than ten years old, and 33.2 % are more than twenty years old. regarding the most frequent references, we identified ref2 by cabré and gómez de enterría (2006), ref3 by gómez de enterría (2009), and ref7 by aguirre beltrán (1998) with a percentage of 27.3 % and 21.2 % (for both lucía gil de montes-garín & carmen oliva-sanz ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288282 ref3 and ref7), respectively. the remaining references have an average presence between 12 and 18 %. the modules from unileon and us have the largest number of references, 7 and 8 respectively. this contrasts with the eleven modules whose syllabuses do not refer to any of the studied references. table 5 shows a list of the most frequent bibliographical references of the course syllabus. table 5. list of the most frequent bibliographic references in the course syllabuses. it is necessary to point out that the reference texts, which have been selected due to their raised frequency in the syllabuses, belong to general areas of tsspt. there is no reference text belonging to specific areas of ssp. regarding the references with a higher practical approach we have to remark on ref4 from robles ávila and sánchez lobato (2012), and ref6 by montolío (2000). the practical approach has a moderate presence in the bibliographical references which might be related to the lower presence of practical content in the different modules. study of the course syllabuses for the training of teachers of spanish for specific purposes in spanish universities ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 283 * code bibliographical reference no. of quotations percentage 5 ref1 aguirre beltrán, b. (2012). aprendizaje y enseñanza de español con fines específicos: comunicación en ámbitos académicos y profesionales. sgel. 6 18 % ref2 cabré, m.ª t., & gómez de enterría, j. (2006). la ensen !anza de los lenguajes de especialidad: la simulacio"n global. gredos. 9 27 % ref3 gómez de enterría, j. (2009). el español lengua de especialidad: enseñanza y aprendizaje. arco libros. 7 21 % ref4 robles ávila, s., & sánchez lobato, j. (coords.) (2012). teoría y práctica de la enseñanzaaprendizaje del español para fines específicos. analecta malacitana anejo, 84. 5 15 % ref5 alcaraz varó, e., mateo martínez, j., & yus ramos, f. (2007). las lenguas profesionales y académicas. ariel. 6 18 % ref6 montolío, e. (ed.) (2000). manual práctico de escritura académica. ariel. 4 12 % ref7 aguirre beltrán, b. (1998). enfoque, metodología y orientaciones didácticas de la enseñanza del español para fines específicos. carabela, 44, 5-29. 7 21 % ref8 vázquez, g. (ed.) (2005). español con fines académicos: de la comprensión a la producción de textos. edinumen. 4 12 % ref9 gómez de enterría, j. (coord.) (2001). la enseñanza/aprendizaje del español con fines específicos. edinumen. 4 12 % ref10 lacorte, m. (ed.) (2007). lingüística aplicada del español. arco libros. 4 12 % ref11 sánchez lobato, j., & santos gargallo, i. (eds.) (2004). vademécum para la formación de profesores. sgel. 6 18 % 5. conclusions this study set out to outline the panorama of spanish universities’ training for spanish for specific purposes teachers, through the course syllabuses of the subjects related to tsspt. the offer concerning tsspt was determined and the learning outcomes, contents and bibliographical references were studied. the subjects that train teachers in ssp belong, for the most part, to sfl master’s degrees. it is worth mentioning that the study did not focus its attention on ssp courses but on the training of the future teachers responsible for ssp courses. only one master’s degree (from the ua) was found in which the training is entirely focused on tsspt. as for the administrative particularities of the subjects dedicated to tsspt, it has been possible to confirm that this training is most frequently given in the form of optional subjects (except for the ua master’s degree, whose particularities have already been mentioned) with credit rating ranging from 3 to 6 ects credits, with 51.9  % of the subjects studied in this study having 3 ects credits. only three subjects do not meet at least half of the los analyzed. the most frequent are lo1 and lo3, which implies greater attention to autonomous problem-solving and the correct use of diastratic variation. concerning the contents, theoretical content is abundant in the subjects analyzed, as opposed to practical content, which could have been omitted in the writing of the guide. similarly, the percentages of theoretical contents related to sfl are not remarkable, despite the existing relationship between the sfl and ssp. these data show the specificity of the contents taught and the assumption of a theoretical basis on sfl of the future teachers. the practical contents in the master’s degrees studied reveal divergences from the study by vázquez amador and lópez-zurita (2022, p. 16). these authors claimed to have found no practical contents in the master’s degrees from cantabria, córdoba, and extremadura. this divergence with our study may be due to the analysis of a different subject or academic year since neither of these two aspects is specified. the study of the bibliographic references carried out before the selection of the works that served as references corroborates the conclusions reached by articles such as castellano martínez and rodríguez-tapia (2022), which emphasize the outdatedness of the bibliographic references used. in the present study, only 5 of the 497 works referenced in the guides were lucía gil de montes-garín & carmen oliva-sanz ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288284 published between 2019 and 2021. of the references found, 50.1  % were published more than 10 years ago and 33.2 % were published more than 20 years ago. these data are particularly striking considering the large number of studies published per year on ssp and tsspt and the constant novelties to which the technological aspects covered in the modules are ruled. similarly, it would be useful to include a list of digital resources where students could consult specific aspects and make use of them in their future classes. for this reason, studies such as that by vázquez amador and lópez-zurita (2022) or this one, in which the shortcomings of the training are determined and possible improvements are pointed out, are necessary. regarding the bibliographical references, it is interesting to note the similarities between the results obtained by castellano martínez and rodríguez-tapia (2022) and the ones in our study. in the case of castellano martínez and rodríguez-tapia (2022, p. 127), it is observed that the most widely cited reference is that of hurtado (2011 [2001]) with a frequency of 70.4 % over the total number of subjects analyzed, while, in this study, the equivalent reference has a total percentage of 27.2 % (which constitutes our bibliographical reference code ref2). the following frequencies in the study of the mentioned authors range from 51.2  % to 25.7  %. the difference between both frequencies is greater than in the present study, whose frequencies vary between 12.1  % and 18.2  %. therefore, it can be seen that, in the course syllabus for translation studies, there is greater homogeneity in terms of the most commonly used references and a common basis for teaching. tsspt subjects could show greater variability due to the specificity of the contents taught (tourism, health, economics, etc.), which depend on the students’ needs. the panorama of university training for ssp teaching outlined above shows the situation of a module whose training still does not seem to have been differentiated or made independent from sfl training. the subjects dedicated not only to tsspt but also to the different fields of ssp (biohealth, legal-economic, tourism, etc.) are scarce if one considers the current relevance of the subject and its recent growth. the specialization of today’s world can be seen in books such as guía para la clase de español con fines específicos (valero fernández, 2022), which includes four contents blocks (arts and humanities, health sciences, social and legal sciences and sciences, and engineering and architecture) focused on very specific disciplines. study of the course syllabuses for the training of teachers of spanish for specific purposes in spanish universities ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 285 in addition, it should be mentioned that in the present paper, only the course syllabuses of the subjects were studied. this is a rigid textual typology in which it is not always possible to include all the necessary information and which may not reflect the adaptation of the training to the needs of the students in that particular academic year. likewise, we assume the possibility of variation between the guides and real classroom training, a variation that could be addressed in future lines of research focused on classroom training through a survey for both teachers and students 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(2017). qué enseñar en una clase de español con fines específicos: el análisis de necesidades. phd dissertation, universitat de barcelona. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/458442 council of europe (2020). common european framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment. companion volume. council of europe. https://rm.coe.int/commoneuropean-framework-of-reference-for-languageslearning-teaching/16809ea0d4 european union (2011). using learning outcomes. european qualifications framework lucía gil de montes-garín graduated in translation and interpreting (french) and hispanic philology at the university of córdoba. she study of the course syllabuses for the training of teachers of spanish for specific purposes in spanish universities ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288 287 series: note 4. publications office of the european union. https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/ files/using_learning_outcomes.pdf gómez de enterría, j. 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(2020). la traducción de italiano en los planes de estudio del grado de traducción e interpretación en españa. phd dissertation, universidad de córdoba. http://hdl.handle.net/10396/20971 rodríguez-piñero alcalá, a. i., & garcía antuña, m. (2009). lenguas de especialidad y lenguas para fines específicos: precisiones terminológicas y conceptuales e implicaciones didácticas. in a. vera luján & i. martínez martínez, el español en contextos específicos: enseñanza e investigación. vol. ii (pp. 907-932). asele & fundación comillas. https://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/ biblioteca_ele/asele/pdf/20/20_0907.pdf rodríguez-tapia, s., & oliva sanz, c. (2021). la enseñanza de la terminología en el grado de traducción e interpretación del sistema universitario español: una panorámica de sus resultados de aprendizaje, bibliografía y contenidos. terminàlia, 24, 29-42. https://doi. org/10.2436/20.2503.01.166 sánchez lobato, j., & santos gargallo, i. (dirs.). (2008). vademécum para la formación de profesores: enseñar español como segunda lengua (l2)/ lengua extranjera (le). sgel. sánchez-lópez, l. (2010). el español para fines específicos: la proliferación de programas creados para satisfacer las necesidades del siglo xxi. hispania, 93(1), 85-89. https://www. jstor.org/stable/25703398 soto, b. (2001). la enseñanza de e/l2 para inmigrantes en el marco de la enseñanza para fines específicos. in a. i. moreno & v. colwell (eds.), perspectivas recientes sobre el discurso. universidad de león & aesla. valero fernández, p. (coord.). (2022). guía para la clase de español con fines específicos: ciencias de la salud. eris ediciones. vázquez amador, m., & lópez-zurita, p. (2021). análisis de los programas de formación para profesorado de lenguas para fines específicos en españa. tonos digital, 41(ii), 1-24. http://www. tonosdigital.com/ojs/index.php/tonos/article/view/2 845 vázquez, g. e. (2004). la enseñanza de español con fines académicos. in j. sánchez lobato & i. santos gargallo (dirs.), vademécum para la formación de profesores: enseñar español como segunda lengua (l2)/ lengua extranjera (le) (pp. 1129-1147). sgel. collaborates in the department of language sciences. she has been a member of the organising committee of teaching and research training activities related to the teaching of spanish as a foreign language and of innovation projects related to spanish terminology in university education. she has published several book reviews in journals such as pragmalingüística, moenia and skopos. she has participated in international conferences with papers on spanish for specific purposes and textual cohesion. carmen oliva-sanz graduated in 2023 in the double degree of translation and interpreting and english studies at the university of cordoba. she is currently studying a master in secondary education teaching and a master in spanish language at the university of cordoba. she has been collaborating with the department of language sciences since 2019, where she has participated in various research projects. she received a collaboration grant from the ministerio de educación y formación profesional during the academic year 2021/2022 as well as a research grant from the university of cordoba during 2022/2023. she has presented papers in several conferences related to spanish as a foreign language (sfl), such as the asele conference in verona in 2022. her lines of research include terminology, neology, corpus linguistics, sfl and ssp teaching and the translation of literature with a gender perspective. notes 1 the quotations in spanish have been translated into english in order to facilitate the reading of the article. 2 the extinct degrees for the 2021/2022 academic year are: máster universitario en literatura europea y enseñanza de lenguas de la universidad de huelva. máster universitario en lingüística aplicada a la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera de la universidad de jaén. máster universitario en enseñanza de español y de catalán como segundas lenguas/lenguas y movimientos de población de la universidad de girona. 3 the acronyms used to refer to the different universities come from the iune list of universities (2021). these same acronyms have been used to identify the different master’s degrees. 4 available at https://web.unican.es/estudios/detalle-asignatura?c=1198&pi=105&a=2023 5 percentage of citations over the total number of analyzed guides. lucía gil de montes-garín & carmen oliva-sanz ibérica 45 (2023): 267-288288 iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.345 abstract this study aims to explore the attitudes and practices of spanish university lecturers towards their use of emi, and more specifically, their implicit and explicit assessment of their students’ english production. the research is based on an initial survey which was completed by teaching staff from a medium-sized university in madrid, as well as the findings of two subsequent focus groups consisting of a one-hour moderated discussion on the topic. the results were then processed through nvivo software. the participants in both the survey and the focus groups were drawn from a variety of academic disciplines and had different levels of experience in delivering their classes and their assessment in english. the most significant findings of the research were centred on the distinction between emi lecturers’ implicit and explicit assessment of their students’ use of english in their assignments and exams. key words: emi, assessment, higher education, internationalisation, teacher and student perceptions. resumen “realmente no estoy evaluando el lenguaje” – las percepciones del profesorado de materias impartidas en inglés acerca de su evaluación implícita y explícita de la producción lingüística del alumnado este estudio pretende explorar las actitudes y prácticas del profesorado universitario español hacia su uso del inglés como medio de instrucción (emi – english-medium instruction) y, en particular, su evaluación implícita y explícita de la “i’m really not assessing the language” emi lecturers’ perceptions of their implicit and explicit assessment of students’ language production maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh universidad pontificia de comillas (spain) drm@comillas.edu & aswalsh@comillas.edu 345 ibérica 44 (2022): 00-00 maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh producción en inglés del alumnado. la investigación se basa en una encuesta inicial realizada entre el personal docente de una universidad de tamaño medio en madrid y en los resultados de dos grupos focales a posteriori que consistieron en una discusión estructurada de una hora sobre el tema. los resultados se procesaron con el software nvivo. los participantes, tanto en la encuesta como en los grupos focales, procedían de diversas disciplinas académicas y tenían distintos niveles de experiencia en la impartición de sus clases y su evaluación en inglés. los hallazgos más significativos de la investigación se centraron en la distinción entre la evaluación implícita y explícita del profesorado emi sobre el uso del inglés por parte del alumnado en sus trabajos y exámenes. palabras clave: inglés como medio de instrucción, educación superior, internacionalización, percepciones del profesorado y del alumnado. 1. introduction – emi in higher education over the last two decades, there has been an exponential growth both in the practice of and the demand for english medium instruction (emi) in higher education throughout the non-english speaking world. as far back as 2006, coleman established seven driving forces that underlie the expansion of emi at universities: internationalisation of higher education, student exchanges, teaching and research materials, staff mobility, graduate employability, the market in international students, and content and language integrated learning (2006, p. 4). more recently, further studies (costa & coleman, 2013) have confirmed the upward trend in demand for english-taught programmes in european universities. a particularly notable and influential case of this exponential growth of emi in higher education is that of maastricht university in the netherlands. this institution began life in 1976 and opted immediately to combine the approaches of problem based learning (pbl) and emi and now teaches over half of its degree programmes and the vast majority of its doctoral programmes in english to a student body which has around 55% of international students. there has also been a long and strong emi tradition at universities in the nordic countries (finland, for example, is currently ranked first in terms of the percentage of higher education institutions that offer degree programmes in english) as well as in the baltic nations and the aforementioned case of the netherlands. on the other hand, emi in higher education is still a much newer and, to some extent, disputed phenomenon in southern europe (pulcini & campagna, 2015),1 even leading some authors such as dimova, jensen and 346 hultgren (2015) to postulate a north-south emi divide in the european higher education area. in the specific case of spain there has been a vertiginous increase in university degrees offered in english over the last five years, in both public and private institutions, although most notably in the latter. this has happened, to some extent, as a direct consequence of the bologna process and the internationalisation of higher education which, at least in spain, has tended to mean the de facto anglicisation of this field due to economic, social and political reasons, all linked intrinsically to the demand for this type of education manifested by students and their parents. nevertheless, some spanish university lecturers have expressed their reservations about this process and their concerns about their own command of english, or at least their students’ perception of their linguistic competence (ball & lindsay, 2013). the university at which this study of emi assessment was conducted is located in the community of madrid which, unlike other autonomous regions of spain such as catalonia and the basque country, does not have its own co-official language and instead is officially a monolingual, spanishspeaking region. the higher education institution where this research took place offers a number of degree programmes which are taught either completely or partially through emi. in the academic year of 2019-2020, just before the onset of the covid-19 pandemic and its severe restrictions on international travel and student mobility, the university had 7,814 undergraduate students, 4,028 graduate students and also welcomed 1,358 international students (11.46%).2 although emi has been widely implemented de facto throughout the institution, and also bearing in mind that many of the undergraduates and particularly the postgraduate students are not native spanish speakers, it is perhaps surprising to find that there is currently no official language plan at this university setting guidelines for emi. this represents a significant contrast to catalan universities with a comparable size and academic profile which, given the fact that they work in a bilingual context, tend to attach great importance to these plans and, more specifically, to the positioning of english and emi within their own linguistic objectives. in this regard, the following statement from the 2016-2020 language plan of the autonomous university of barcelona (an institution whose research performance has ensured that it has consistently been the highest ranked spanish university in international tables) is rather eloquent: “english has become the lingua franca of the international academic community and is essential for attracting and retaining talent, achieving the “i’m really not assessing the language” emi lecturers’ perceptions of their implicit and explicit assessment of students’ language production ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368 347 university’s objectives of internationalisation and excellence.”3 it would appear that universities based in the community of madrid and the academics who research and teach there do not tend to share the concerns about domain loss due to the spread of emi (lasagabaster, 2015) experienced in the autonomous regions of spain with other co-official languages (doiz et al., 2013). on the contrary, the use of emi at madrid universities is not perceived as a threat (phillipson, 2015) to the autochthonous language and instead is promoted: encouraging internationalisation is regarded by the universities as a key strategy (dafouz et al., 2014). the widespread implementation of emi at any institution of higher education evidently has major implications in terms of the selection of shared syllabus contents, materials and methodology, cooperation among teaching staff, as well as a considerable degree of english language support, which has been one of the keys to successful emi implementation (breeze & sancho guinda, 2021). the implementation of emi by universities in nonenglish-speaking countries pursues several discrete but complementary objectives such as attracting international students (particularly at postgraduate level), maintaining a high position in terms of international global academic ranking, and offering a globalised form of education to local students that will stand them in good stead in a labour market which increasingly demands a multilingual rather than a monolingual skill set. thus, as well as, the obvious market forces of supply and demand, the exponential spread of emi responds to the ever increasing need to focus on the strategic positioning of institutions. this article proposes a study of assessment in the context of emi based on a broad-ranging survey and two focus groups conducted among lecturers who teach on a wide variety of degrees (humanities, law, business, engineering and nursing) at a medium-sized, private university in the city of madrid (spain). this study aimed to find out whether these lecturers also assess english skills in addition to the content of their courses and, if so, to collect, analyse, and interpret their criteria regarding assessing, correcting, and grading their students’ use of both written and spoken english in those subjects which are taught, continuously assessed, and finally examined in english. maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368348 2. background –assessment in emi there is now an ample and growing bibliography on emi in higher education, both in the specific case of spain, and in the broader international context (shohamy, 2012; dimova et al., 2015). however, in our view, one of the aspects of this phenomenon which has currently received comparatively scant attention is assessment, particularly in relation to the language assessment criteria that could be applied in the case of use of academic english as a second language by non-native students and lecturers. lo has very recently called attention to this lack of specific research and consequent bibliography in this specific aspect of emi, stating that: with the increasing of english medium instruction (emi) in bilingual and multilingual contexts, plenty of research has been conducted to examine students’ achievements, classroom interaction and, more recently, teacher education. however, research focusing on assessment issues in emi remains scarce […] there is an urgent need to address the research gap on emi assessment (2022, p. 61). the same author also points out that “considering the fact that students are inevitably assessed of their english knowledge in conjunction with their content knowledge in emi assessment, there are concerns about whether students’ learning progress is accurately measured” (2022, 61), and lo also points to a need to address both “the validity and fairness” of emi assessment, questions which have been under-researched (shaw & imam, 2013; massler et al., 2014; otto & estrada, 2019). since assessment is a key element in the validation of any academic programme of studies whether it be continuous, formative or final, it is a sine que non in terms of both the prestige of these university studies and the ultimate employability of the graduates who attain them. therefore, it is surprising that it has thus far merited so little research interest in the field of emi. this attention has largely focused on questions of didactics, language policy matters and broader issues related to the inherent tensions between the rise of english as a lingua franca in the academic context and the protection of mother tongues and the promotion of multilingualism. all of these issues will continue to merit attention and will undoubtedly generate further research, but this article seeks rather to provide a contribution towards addressing that very research gap in language assessment highlighted by lo. through an empirical study of emi assessment practices in a “i’m really not assessing the language” emi lecturers’ perceptions of their implicit and explicit assessment of students’ language production ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368 349 representative european higher education institution, we aim to provide some practical insights into these questions, formulate some observations regarding the issues they generate, and identify some broad and overarching tendencies in terms of emi assessment in higher education that can expand this specific aspect of the field. despite this aforementioned lack of research into emi assessment, there is an enormous and growing bibliography on assessment in higher education and constitutes the main topic of certain high impact academic journals.4 there is a consensus regarding the vital role played by assessment in higher education in general, and as higher education is increasingly delivered through emi it is somewhat surprising to find this lack of academic attention to what is undoubtedly an extra layer of complexity added to the already difficult but essential task of evaluating students’ learning and progress. moreover, one of the fundamental purposes of assessment is not only to validate this learning and provide students with officially recognised qualifications to help them enter the job market, but also to provide them with valuable feedback through formative assessment. this makes the lack of research in the field doubly frustrating. in order to improve assessment methods and outcomes in emi, it is clearly essential to pay critical attention to the methodology and the criteria used in this practice. indeed, in the aforementioned voluminous bibliography regarding assessment in higher education, critical attention has been paid to questions such as “unconscious bias” in university assessment. in the multilingual, multicultural context of an emi university classroom, in which there are frequently quite diverse levels of english language competence between the students and the lecturers (dafouz milne & núñez perucha, 2010), the existence of often quite deepseated linguistic and cultural prejudices that lead to “unconscious bias” on both sides is an issue that inevitably tends to inform and perhaps even distort assessment, and one which clearly needs to be addressed. particularly in the cases of business and law schools, there are a series of additional challenges involved in english language assessment which essentially lie in the tension between preparing students properly for the workplace and offering graduate students “value for money”, whilst simultaneously respecting the integrity of robust academic assessment (dafouz et al., 2014). maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368350 3. methodology this paper reports on the results of an online survey and two focus groups carried out in the second quarter of 2021 which sought to inquire about language assessment in english mediated undergraduate and graduate instruction at a representative spanish university. this twofold approach stems not only from the need to gather more detailed information and feedback than a traditional online survey can necessarily provide, but also from the wish to delve more deeply into the study of emi assessment by examining what individual teachers consider to be more relevant to their personal classroom experiences in emi. the methodology used was based on the analysis of an online survey circulated among the emi teaching staff at this institution, and then two focus groups composed respectively of five and four lecturers chosen from the institution’s four main faculties (humanities, law and business, engineering, and nursing). we believe that this study can provide insights into the nature of the emi assessment conducted by lecturers at a representative european university and serve to offer some recommendations for improvement in terms of methodology and coordination. our research questions were aimed at finding out how the lecturers in our study sample approached emi assessment. what criteria do they use to assess their students’ lexical range and use of appropriate register and grammar in writing? in oral presentations, do they grade more highly for correct pronunciation or for overall communicative competence? do they distinguish between native and clearly non-native pronunciation? as this university has a mix of native and non-native teaching staff, we were interested in finding out whether native-speaking teachers are more tolerant of their students’ mistakes than their non-native colleagues, and we wanted to test this hypothesis with the respondents to our survey and also with the subsequent focus groups. this article also sought to observe if there were any notable differences in these assessment criteria between the sciences and the humanities, and also if there was any significant disparity based on variables such as age, gender, length of emi teaching experience, accredited level of english on the cefr, and also experience in teaching and research abroad in an english-speaking environment. we also asked the participants about the degree of homogeneity regarding criteria that might eventually exist between departments, faculties, or individual degree programmes for grading in emi subjects, what rubrics they use, if any, to assess both writing and speaking, and if these are co-created and shared with their colleagues. “i’m really not assessing the language” emi lecturers’ perceptions of their implicit and explicit assessment of students’ language production ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368 351 the anonymous survey was conducted by means of a web-based questionnaire generated by microsoft forms, and potential participants were selected among those teachers whose subjects were taught in english, excluding general english language courses, to ensure a fair distribution across disciplines. the teaching staff were contacted initially by e-mail and asked to participate in the survey and also to indicate their willingness to volunteer for one of the two subsequent focus groups. they were informed that the aim of this research study was to compare how students’ language competences were assessed depending on whether they and their teachers had english or spanish as their first language in emi courses across disciplines at this university. they were also clearly instructed to reply to the questionnaire only if they taught in english. the questionnaire consisted of 29 items, of which questions 1-16 were intended to obtain an accurate description of the populational sample in terms of age, gender, nationality, working languages, teaching experience, official english qualifications/accreditations, and the percentage of their classes that were taught in english. questions 17 to 25 inquired about the use of rubrics and the importance that participants attached to the assessment of issues such as grammatical correction, appropriate register, pronunciation, fluency, spelling, cohesion and coherence, textual organisation, and the use of correct terminology. finally, questions 26 to 29 referred to the degree of tolerance that participants attached to and perceived from the students, depending on whether their first language was english or not. nine respondents signed up for the subsequent focus groups, which were conducted through the teams platform on two separate occasions, depending on the participants’ availability and seeking to ensure a fair and representative distribution across faculties and disciplines. the group discussions were structured around the following questions: 1. do you approach teaching/assessing differently depending on the language of instruction? 2. do you think there is any difference in the way the spanish students and the international students respond to the classes you teach in english/spanish? 3. are you more or less tolerant of the language mistakes of a) native speakers b) non-native speakers? 4. leaving aside the knowledge of the subject, which language assessment criteria do you think are the most important? maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368352 5. in your opinion, what is the purpose of using english as a medium of instruction in the current context of the spanish university? both sessions were recorded with the microsoft stream tool and then transcribed, revised, annotated and uploaded to the nvivo qualitative dataanalysis software, through which we proceeded to create nodes to house relevant excerpts from the transcripts and cases for each participant in our focus groups. 4. results of the survey description of the sample thirty-four respondents completed the questionnaire. the vast majority (30) of participants were spanish (these represented 85.29% of the total sample) and also declared spanish to be their mother tongue. two respondents were italian, one was german and one british. all of them declared a second working language, and not surprisingly in this case english was the most frequent option (30 respondents), although two participants specified that they had the same command of both english and spanish. nineteen respondents indicated a third working language, but in three of these cases a lack of fluency or other limitations were mentioned. in terms of gender, the sample was balanced with 50% male and 50% female participants. their most frequent age range was from 46 to 55 (12 participants) and their length of emi teaching experience was notably heterogeneous, with the greatest number of respondents citing 3-5 years of teaching experience in english (9 participants) or 6-10 years (9 participants). eighteen (52.94%) of them also reported that they had teaching experience outside spain in various contexts. the majority of participants (17) belonged to the faculty of law and economics, and most of the respondents (20) taught courses on more than one degree (in fact, there was such a wide variety of answers to question 5, what degrees do you teach on, that we decided not to take this item into consideration in our analysis). eighteen respondents held official english language qualification and, in this respect, cambridge english advanced c1 (5 respondents) and proficiency c2 (6 respondents) were the most frequent examples mentioned, although other options such as ielts, tefl or the language certificates awarded by the escuela oficial de idiomas (official language schools which in spain are run by regional governments) were also reported. it is worth mentioning that almost half (47.05%) of the “i’m really not assessing the language” emi lecturers’ perceptions of their implicit and explicit assessment of students’ language production ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368 353 participants (16 in total) did not possess any english language certificate. a large proportion of respondents stated that they taught at least 75% of their courses in english. table 1 presents a breakdown summarising those descriptive statistics that are more relevant for the purposes of this study. table 1: participant background information. rubrics and assessment criteria questions 17 to 25 sought to ascertain whether the participants used rubrics to assess english language related parameters, and what importance they attributed in their global assessment to six specific language criteria on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being not important and 10 extremely important). what is striking at first glance is that 20 out of 34 respondents reported that they did not include in their rubrics any other criteria other than those mentioned in questions 17 to 25, thus implying that they did assess language-specific criteria in their rubrics. only two participants pointed out that their rubrics did not include any language criteria at all. when we compared this result maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368354 ! question 1 (n = 34) 25-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 over 65 1. age 4 (11.76%) 11 (32.35%) 12 (35.29%) 6 (17.64%) 1 (2.94%) question 2 (n = 34) male female 2. gender 17 (50%) 17 (50%) question 3 (n=34) spanish italian hungarian british 3. nationality 30 (85.29%) 2 (5.88%) 1 (2.94%) 1 (2.94%) question 4 (n = 34) law/econ. engineering social / hum. sc health sc theology 4. faculty 17 (50%) 5 (14.70%) 10 (29.41%) 1 (2.94%). 1 (2.94%) question 6 (n = 34) spanish english german hungarian italian 6. mother tongue 29 (85.29%) 1 (2,94%) 2 (5.88%) 1 (2.94%) 1 (2.94%) question 9 (n = 34) -3 years 3-5 y. 6-10 y. 11-15 y. 16-20 y. +20 years 9. teaching experience in english 8 (23.52%) 9 (26.47%) 9 (26.47%) 3 (8.82%) 1 (2.94%) 4 (11.76%) questions 12/13 (n = 34) c1 c2 others none 12/13. english language qualification 5 (14.70%) 6 (17.64%) 7 (20.58%) 16 (47.05%) question 14 (n = 34) 100% 75-95% 50-75% -50% 14. percentage of classes in english 8 (23.52%) 13 (38.23%) 4 (11.76%) 9 (26.47%) with the answers elicited in the focus groups, our conclusion was that question 25 (do your assessment rubrics contain any concepts not mentioned above? if so, which ones?) must have been misunderstood by some of the participants. those respondents who mentioned other non-language criteria referred to parameters such as knowledge of the subject content, citation and referencing, critical thinking, and argumentation. table 2 presents the replies for questions 17 to 25 regarding rubrics and language assessment criteria. table 2. questions 17 to 25. when comparing these results with the remarks presented in the focus group discussions, we observed certain inconsistencies. on the one hand, and as we will explore in further detail in the next section, the participants in the focus groups stated quite categorically that they did not assess according to language criteria. on the other hand, when faced with the task of attributing “i’m really not assessing the language” emi lecturers’ perceptions of their implicit and explicit assessment of students’ language production ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368 355 ! question 17 (n = 34) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 17. grammatical correction 2 1 0 2 2 4 6 5 8 4 question 18 (n = 34) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 18.appropriate register 1 0 1 0 3 3 6 8 7 5 question 19 (n = 34) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 19. pronunciation 4 2 0 0 5 4 9 5 4 1 question 20 (n = 34) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20. fluency 1 1 0 1 5 3 7 6 5 5 question 21 (n = 34) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 21. spelling 2 2 1 4 4 2 5 7 7 3 question 22 (n = 34) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 22. cohesion & coherence 0 0 0 0 3 1 5 2 13 10 question 23 (n = 34) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 23. textual organisation 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 8 10 10 question 24 (n = 34) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 24. correct terminology 1 0 0 0 0 1 6 7 8 11 question 25 (n = 34) yes no rubrics do not include any language criteria 25. rubrics include other criteria 22 20 2 a value to the importance of language criteria in their own system of overall assessment, more respondents selected values over 5 than under 5 and, in some cases, they even assigned medium or high scores to certain highly relevant linguistic parameters, such as correct grammar, where half of the participants (17) gave values of 8 to 10, or pronunciation, to which 9 respondents (26.47%) attributed a value of 7 and ten (29.41%) marked even higher with values of 8, 9 and 10. none of the respondents awarded a score of below five for two criteria, namely cohesion and coherence, and textual organisation. and only one respondent attributed a value of 1 to the importance attached in their assessment to correct terminology, which is in line with the findings of the focus groups. table 3 summarises the information collected for the importance of language assessment criteria, aggregated into three items: low (scores 1 to 4), medium (scores 5 to 7) and high (scores 8 to 10). table 3. summary importance of language criteria (in bold ≥ 50% respondents gave attributed values from 8 to 10). all in all, more than 50% of the respondents attributed a high degree of importance (scores ranging from 8 to 10) to six of the selected language assessment criteria: correct grammar, appropriate register, spelling, cohesion and coherence, textual organisation and correct terminology, but also scored extremely high on the last three criteria, which are related to conveying subject-appropriate meaning. this could indicate that content and language aspects are combined in the assessment. tolerance of language mistakes questions 26 to 29 were specifically aimed at ascertaining whether participants were more or less tolerant of the students’ language mistakes depending on the first language of the students. in the case of respondents who named english as their first language we observed a clear inconsistency, maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368356 ! questions 17 to 24 (n = 34) low importance (1-4) medium importance (5-7) high importance (8-10) 17. grammatical correction 4 (11.76%) 12 (35.29%) 17 (50%) 18.appropriate register 2 (5.88%) 12 (35.29%) 20 (58.82) 19. pronunciation 6 (17.64%) 18 (52.94%) 10 (29.41%) 20. fluency 3 (8.82%) 15 (44.11%) 16 (47.05%) 21. spelling 9 (26.47%) 11 (32.35%) 17 (50%) 22. cohesion & coherence 0 (0%) 9 (26.47%) 25 (73.52%) 23. textual organisation 0 (0%) 6 (17.64%) 28 (82.35%) 24. correct terminology 1 (2.94%) 7 (20.58%) 26 (76.47%) since 14 participants declared that english was their first language in their answers to question 26, when only one respondent had reported english as their mother tongue in question 6. in contrast, the same number of respondents (29) reported spanish as their mother tongue in questions 6 and 28. in the case of question 27, 28 respondents also stated that english was not their first language, which in conjunction with question 26, does not add up to the number of total participants (34). we could speculate here that, once again, the question was misunderstood and that what respondents meant by their “first language” was that in which their courses were taught. perhaps the question should have been phrased more explicitly. in spite of this incongruity, the majority of participants stated that they were less tolerant of language mistakes, both in spanish and english, when students were using their first language, as shown in table 4. table 4. tolerance of mistakes. 5. results of the focus groups description of participants and outputs the two focus groups were conducted at two different times and on two different days, based on the availability of the participants, but nevertheless ensuring adequate distribution of specialisations and subjects represented. an interesting feature of the dynamics of the two groups was the language in which the participants chose to communicate. in both cases, they were given the freedom to express themselves in either spanish or english, “i’m really not assessing the language” emi lecturers’ perceptions of their implicit and explicit assessment of students’ language production ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368 357 ! question 26 (n = 14) less tolerant of en language mistakes students’ first language en students’ first language not en 26. if english your first language 10 4 question 27 (n = 30) less tolerant of en language mistakes students’ first language en students’ first language not en 27. if english not your first language 26 4 question 28 (n = 29) less tolerant of es language mistakes students’ first language es students’ first language not es 28. if spanish your first language 28 1 question 27 (n = 12) less tolerant of es language mistakes students’ first language es students’ first language not es 29. if spanish is not your first language 11 1 although the questions that guided the discussion were only asked in english. however, in the first group the language used in all but one of the contributions was spanish, while the opposite happened in the second group. the length of the discussions was very similar in both: 43:41 minutes in the first case, and 42:00 minutes in the second. in the first focus group, 5 lecturers (2 male and 3 female) from three different faculties participated: human and social sciences, law, and engineering. the second focus group was composed of 4 lecturers (2 male and 2 female) from: human and social sciences, economics, and law. regarding the outputs, in the first case the number of words uttered by the participants was 6,730 and in the second case 5,363, which is consistent with the number of participants in each group. as explained above (section 3), the moderators structured the discussion around 5 questions, but participants were free to add information if they considered it relevant. nvivo processing and results once the verbatim transcripts of the recordings of both focus groups were made, they were loaded into the qualitative data analysis software nvivo and coded. in total, 5 main nodes were created (different approaches depending on language, different response depending on students, language assessment criteria, purpose of emi and tolerance to language mistakes), corresponding to the questions that structured the discussions. these were, in turn, split up into 20 sub-divisions: • different approaches depending on language different approach to teaching and assessment undifferentiated approach to teaching and assessment • different response depending on students american students asian students european students french – belgian – german spanish students • language assessment communication maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368358 handwriting implicit bias only content organisation register soft skills • purpose of emi cultural exchange english skills internationalisation professional • tolerance of language mistakes students’ tolerance of teachers teachers’ tolerance of students figures 1 and 2 show the breakdown of the nodes according to their frequency in each focus group transcript. as we can see, in both cases and despite the fact that there was no communication between the participants in the two focus groups and these issues were not raised by the moderators, the participants introduced two new aspects into the discussion, namely the differences in learning approaches between students of various nationalities and the students’ tolerance of the teacher’s language errors. comments on the differences in learning approach observed between american, asian, spanish and european students are derived from question 2, which asked about international or non-international students’ responses to classes taught in english. in both focus groups, teachers reported marked differences in the learning style and approach of american students, noting that they participate more, prefer to be given work to do outside the university classroom, and require an adaptation of the methodology towards less rote and more collaborative learning. as figures 1 and 2 show, comments on this issue reached 4.43% and 4.66% coverage respectively, and in both cases these comments were more frequent than those made about assessment criteria and implicit bias, amounting to 13 explicit and abundantly developed “i’m really not assessing the language” emi lecturers’ perceptions of their implicit and explicit assessment of students’ language production ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368 359 references in both transcripts. this statement from participant 2 of group 2 illustrates this perception: […] americans they participate much more than spaniards. you know in a completely different way. spanish students are always participating like “i’m not completely sure if what i’m gonna say is right or wrong” so, they are more cautious when participating. americans they are like “whatever i have in my head, i’m gonna say” and if it is wrong, ok, i will learn, and if it is right, ok. incidentally, the learning problems of asian (focus group 1) or frenchspeaking (focus group 2) students are also explicitly mentioned, but in both cases related to what was perceived to be a poor level of english which prevents them from keeping up properly with the pace of the classes, a problem compounded by the fact that they also do not speak enough spanish to understand instructions given in that language. german students were also mentioned, but in this case, they were described as ‘very stimulant (sic) and participative’ (participant 1, focus group 2). figure 1. frequency of references related to nvivo subdivisions in focus group 1. furthermore, the comments about the students’ level of tolerance concerning their teachers’ english language mistakes could be interpreted as the result of a misunderstanding of questions 27 to 29, related to the level of tolerance of language mistakes. this question actually sought to find out whether teachers were more tolerant of the language errors made by students using either their native language or a second language, not the maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368360 ! ! t ! s ! i ! t ! a ! p ! f ! n ! n ! a ! n ! g ! s ! o ! w ! s ! e ! a ! y ! ! ! ! ! k ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! other way around. however, it is significant that in both groups the parallel issue was spontaneously mentioned, with a coverage of 3.43% in the first case and 2.68% in the second. in the two transcripts, teachers’ tolerance of pupils’ mistakes was mentioned 13 times, whereas pupils’ tolerance of teachers’ mistakes was mentioned 8 times. figure 2. frequency of references related to nvivo subdivisions in focus group 2. with regard to the language assessment criteria used by the teachers, and despite having previously responded to a survey in which these were broken down in great detail and in which high values were given to parameters such as correct grammar (see table 3), the participants in both groups agreed that their main concern when assessing was content and that they did not attach much importance to linguistic criteria apart from appropriate register or correct textual organisation. this is in line with previous research on emi lecturers’ beliefs, where it has often been found that emi lecturers state they are not language teachers (mancho-barés & aguilar-pérez, 2020; roothooft, 2019). some also highlighted the importance of soft skills, mainly verbal and non-verbal communication. figure 3 shows the division of the main node devoted to language assessment criteria, comparing the number of references for each sub-division with the rest in both focus groups. as we can see, the participants stated with the same frequency that they only assess on the basis of content and that they, therefore, do not use rubrics to assess language, but they also agree that, if they were used, they would be common and shared. they also recognised that their assessment has an implicit bias that may be related to linguistic factors (5 references in each case) and, four “i’m really not assessing the language” emi lecturers’ perceptions of their implicit and explicit assessment of students’ language production ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368 361 ! ! ! ! s ! ! r ! ! e ! ! h ! ! u ! ! g ! ! r ! ! r ! ! g ! ! w ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! d ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! g ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! n ! ! t ! ! h ! ! c ! ! a ! ! e ! ! r ! ! n ! ! u ! ! f ! ! u respondents even asserted that this implicit bias is related to the readability of students’ handwriting: i don’t assess the english at all, let’s say explicitly […] and there are many times that implicitly you are assessing the english, because they are not expressing pretty well. so, whatever they are writing, it’s pretty difficult to understand. (participant 2, focus group 2) figure 3. references to language assessment in focus groups 1 and 2. apart from content, communicative success seems to be a determining factor in assessing both written and oral students’ assignments: the same with me. it’s communicative success. if the student is able to transmit what needs to be transmitted, i take no points off whatsoever for language use. i think i can’t really, because of the guía docente [syllabus] does not specifically include english language production as a part of the assessment criteria. i think it will be highly unfair to me to establish that as part of the grade if really, honestly, that has not been written anywhere. […] they know that they’ll need to communicate in english, so my answer is no, i do not assess language in those cases. (participant 2, focus group 1) at any rate, implicit bias related to linguistic criteria was mainly mentioned with reference to the teacher’s general understanding of students’ answers in tests. if this answer is not understood due to a lack of language proficiency, then the mark will be lower or, as participant 3 in focus group 2 put it: maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368362 ! ! t ! s ! i ! t ! g ! , ! y ! e ! o ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! f ! f ! ! 2 ! n ! b ! h ! ] ! n ! g ! n ! r ! n ! s ! h […] of course, when you have 50 exams to mark. i’m very sorry, but this whole paragraph i can’t understand it. ok, better, i cannot say if you were thinking something that was correct, but you wrote something incorrect. therefore, this is wrong. know what i mean? so, i would say explicitly no, implicitly yes. because if they do not express themselves well, you cannot understand their answer. finally, when asked about their opinion of the purpose of the use of emi in the current spanish university context, the participants in both groups declared that the main objectives are internationalisation (8 references), followed by training students for future work in a professional environment where english is a lingua franca (6 references) and, in third place, improving students’ english language skills, although in 3 of the 5 references where this was mentioned, the participants explicitly stated that, although this may have been the initial objective, it is probably not the most important nowadays. 6. discussion the majority of participants in the survey (17) were lecturers from the faculty of law and economics, suggesting not only greater implementation of emi in these parallel disciplines, but also stronger interest in reflecting upon emi practices in general and assessment in particular. we found no evidence that native-speaking teachers are more tolerant of students’ mistakes than their non-native colleagues. in fact, the vast majority of our respondents were non-natives but expressed the same standards and linguistic expectations in their assessment in english as in spanish. however, this criterion did not apply, and was in fact radically different, when the students were writing or speaking in their own first language, be that spanish or english. in this scenario, all of the respondents were notably less “tolerant”. nor did we observe any significant disparity in the findings based on variables such as age, gender, or length of emi teaching experience. several participants in the focus groups pointed to the importance of sharing and using common rubrics for assessment in emi. another common strand of thought focused on the perceived need to apply these rubrics and overall assessment criteria to both english and spanish, invoking the need for coherence and their insistence on the use of a proper academic and professional register in both cases. as other authors have found in their analysis of the international classroom, there are considerable differences in “i’m really not assessing the language” emi lecturers’ perceptions of their implicit and explicit assessment of students’ language production ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368 363 learning style preferences (ramburuth & mccormick, 2001) among students who are not only from different nationalities but also from radically different social and educational cultures. in this study, one of the broadest divisions was observed between european students, who were found to be rather passive (with some exceptions like the germans) and students from the usa, whose high degree of participation and willingness to ask questions and generally engage in the class were notable. the latter understood the ‘point’ of receiving classes from an expert who happens not to be a native english speaker and therefore feel no need to judge this expert’s level of english, but rather the quality of the teaching and the contents. nevertheless, the most striking point of convergence which was elicited from the focus groups was the recognition that, at least implicitly, they were always somehow assessing their students’ use of language in areas such as register or cohesion and coherence of written assignments. interestingly, most participants agreed that this was exactly what they do when they teach in spanish, and they all admitted upon reflection that they were not prepared to “lower the bar” beyond a certain point in terms of written expression in either language, starting from the basic assumption that if a text is not comprehensible, the student who wrote it simply cannot pass that exam. 7. conclusions this study aimed to explore the attitudes and practices of spanish university lecturers towards their assessment of the students’ use of english in emi. our findings reveal that the survey respondents attach great importance to linguistic coherence and consistency, textual organisation and correct terminology, but not to pronunciation or spelling. no differences in their assessment approach were revealed in terms of their emi teaching experience or their accredited level of english. it was also not possible to identify differences in language assessment approach between lecturers from different faculties, as most of the participants in the research were from the faculty of law and economics. rubrics used only covered content and not linguistic criteria. on the other hand, although the lecturers declared that they only assessed content and not language, the focus groups revealed an implicit bias in their assessment depending on the students’ communicative ability in english, maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368364 with respect to the textual organisation and clarity of their assignments and exams, and their general capacity to adequately convey content meaning. regarding pedagogical implications, we recommend that universities should review their emi assessment policies, in order to attain several key objectives: provide students with better feedback and formative assessment; position themselves better in terms of their international strategies; enhance the quality of assessment and provide greater transparency for all of the stakeholders involved, above all students and their prospective employers. post-covid-19, the lessons learnt about assessment and feedback under the extreme strains of universal lockdown must be used to enhance both greater quality and reliability in this field. this is a pressing and timely question, as it encompasses fundamental issues related to equality, diversity and inclusion. as future areas of research, it would also be worth considering: the need to implement shared rubrics for assessment which are also made available to the students in the interests of formative assessment; a unified system of accreditation of the english language level of the teaching staff who are going to deliver their classes and carry out their assessment through emi; a comprehensive emi training programme on an institutional level; a system of regular classroom observations, both by an external observer and also through peer reviews of recorded classes. acknowledging that english is indeed a core skill for the university educated professionals of tomorrow, it is incumbent upon us to improve not only the overall standard of the emi that they receive at their institutions, but also very specifically the quality and reliability of the assessment that they receive through emi, an assessment that will inevitably condition their professional prospects. in this sense, this article has sought to shed some light on emi lecturers’ attitudes and practices in relation to this question and provide some broad recommendations about how this issue needs to be addressed in the ever more globalised and competitive context of the internationalisation of higher education. article history: received 31 may 2022 received in revised form 02 september 2022 accepted 22 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(2014). “surely they can’t do as well”: a comparison of business students’ academic performance in english medium and spanish-as-first-language medium programmes. language and education, 28(3), 223-236. <https://doi.org/10.1080/09500 782.2013.808661> dafouz milne, e., & núñez perucha, b. (2010). metadiscursive devices in university lectures: a contrastive analysis of l1 and l2 teacher performance. in c. dalton-puffer, t. nikula, & u. smit (eds.), language use and language learning in clil classrooms (pp. 213-232). john benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.7.11daf dimova, s., hultgren, a. k., & jensen, c. (eds.) (2015). english medium instruction in european higher education. de gruyter mouton. <https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614515272-002> dimova, s., hultgren, a. k., & jensen, c. 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(2019). spanish lecturers’ beliefs dr. maría dolores rodríguez melchor is a lecturer at comillas pontifical university (madrid, spain), where she is director of the translation, interpreting and multilingual communication department. she is an accredited conference interpreter for the european institutions. her research interests include icts in conference interpreter training, emi at university level and english as a lingua franca. she has recently co-edited a volume of the peter lang series on new trends in translation studies (the role of technology in conference interpreter training, 2020). dr. andrew samuel walsh is a lecturer at comillas pontifical university and holds a degree in hispanic studies from the university of liverpool (uk) and a phd in spanish philology from the university of granada. he previously taught at the university of granada in the departments of translation and interpreting and english philology. he is a member of the european language council working group on “languages and science”, focusing his research on multilingualism in science and emi in higher education. he is also interested in literary translation and is the co-editor of literary retranslation in context (peter lang, 2017). his latest book is lorca in english. a history of manipulation through translation (routledge, 2020). notes 1 in this respect, it is worth highlighting the recent judgment of the state council of italy which prohibited the polytechnic of milan from offering all its graduate courses in english, which was supported by the accademia della crusca, the body responsible for safeguarding the italian language. http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2018020304275939 (accessed 30 november 2021) 2 in the first semester of the academic year 2021-2022, when international students were once again able to study at the university, the figure for incoming students was 550. 3https://universitatsirecerca.gencat.cat/web/.content/16_llengues_a_la_universitat/les_llengues_a_la_uni versitat/documents/plans_de_llengues_de_les_universitats/uab-plan-of-languages-2016-2020-en.pdf (accessed 30 november 2021) “i’m really not assessing the language” emi lecturers’ perceptions of their implicit and explicit assessment of students’ language production ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368 367 about english medium instruction: stem versus humanities. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 25(2), 627-640. <https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2019.170776 8> shaw, s., & imam, h. (2013). assessment of international students through the medium of english: ensuring validity and fairness in contentbased examinations. language assessment quarterly, 10(4), 452-475. <https://doi.org/10. 1080/15434303.2013.866117> shohamy. e. (2012). a critical perspective on the use of english as a medium of instruction at universities. in a. doiz, d. lasagabaster & j. m. sierra (eds.), english-medium instruction at universities. global challenges (pp. 196-212). multilingual matters. <https://doi.org/10.21832/97 81847698162-014> 4 for example, assessment and evaluation in higher education which is devoted specifically to this aspect of university education. maría dolores rodríguez melchor & andrew samuel walsh ibérica 44 (2022): 345-368368 iberica 13 ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract dictionaries of economics in the broad sense of the word have existed in the european context for more than 300 years. the article shows how these dictionaries have been extremely flexible in their adaptation to the complex and ever changing needs of their users. the great differences in terms of name, size, content, style, and structure may, at least partially, be explained by this fact. in this respect, the article systematizes the functions registered in economic dictionaries during the past 300 years, and presents some suggestions for the immediate future of online dictionaries. keywords: economic lexicography, specialised lexicography, dictionaries of economics, online dictionaries, function theory. resumen s ob re e l s ta tus d is c i pl i na ri o y f u nc i on al d e l a l e xi c og r af í a e c o nó mi c a los diccionarios de economía en el sentido amplio de la palabra existen en el contexto europeo desde hace más de 300 años. el presente trabajo muestra cómo estos diccionarios han sido muy flexibles en su adaptación a las necesidades complejas y cambiantes de sus usuarios. las grandes diferencias en lo tocante a sus títulos, tamaños, contenidos, estilos y estructuras pueden, por lo menos parcialmente, explicarse por este hecho. el trabajo sistematiza las funciones detectadas en los diccionarios económicos durante los últimos 300 años y presenta unas propuestas para futuros diccionarios de internet. palabras clave: lexicografía económica, diccionarios especializados, diccionarios de economía, diccionarios en línea, teoría funcional. on the disciplinary and functional status of economic lexicography sven tarp university of stellenbosch (south africa) & aarhus school of business and social sciences (denmark) st@asb.dk 179 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 179 ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200 sven tarp introduction in the present-day library, scientific, technical, and other specialized dictionaries greatly outnumber all other kinds, and present special problems for the lexicographer and historian alike. (hoare, 2009: 47) dictionaries of economics in the broad sense of the word – i.e. dictionaries of macroand micro-economics, business, trade, commerce, etc. – have been published for centuries. nobody knows their exact number. besomi (2011) has listed 650 titles published since 1709, the overwhelming majority in the european languages. if dictionaries from other language groups are added together with the many lexicographical works dedicated to specific subfields of economics – such as financing, accounting, etc. – the number will grow considerably. and if not only dictionaries conceived to transmit knowledge are counted, but also the ones designed to assist and facilitate specialised communication related to economics – including those made available on the internet – then we are no longer talking about hundreds, or even thousands, but probably about tens of thousands of dictionaries published during the last few centuries in relation to the broad field of economics. the thousands of dictionaries published during this long period constitute an immense body of experience, although they have never been subjected to a systematic study in order to draw theoretical and practical lessons for future works. surprisingly, within lexicography – the academic discipline supposed to deal with dictionaries – only a few studies have been conducted in order to analyse economic dictionaries. in addition, these studies seem always related to a single or a limited number of such dictionaries, or to a specific approach. within economics, or the history of economics, such systematic studies do exist, but mainly through the prism of economics and without taking necessary account of the specific lexicographical aspects. astigarraga, zabalza and almodovar (2001), for instance, have looked at the treatment of political economy in spanish and portuguese dictionaries of economics from the 18th to the 20th century. guidi (1994) has done the same with italian dictionaries published from 1726 to 1861; bientinesi (2001) has picked up the thread and studied how commercial policy was reflected in dictionaries compiled in the period between italy’s unification and the founding of the european community. besomi (2011) has analysed the 180 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 180 treatment of crises and business cycles in economic dictionaries and encyclopeadias during the last three hundred years, etc. by contrast, in the second volume of the oxford history of english lexicography (cowie, 2009), entirely dedicated to “specialized lexicography”, the perhaps most important british dictionary of economics from the enlightenment era, postlethwayt’s universal dictionary of trade and commerce, published in four editions between 1751 and 1774, is not even mentioned. the same fate is shared by rolt’s new dictionary of trade and commerce (1756), mortimer’s new and complete dictionary of trade and commerce (1766), and many of their influential successors. how can we explain this surprising fact which, due to the evident importance and relevance of dictionaries of economics in social and economic life, goes against all logic? a schism with harmful consequences although lexicography as a cultural practice has existed for more than four thousand years, it seems that it started to derail, paradoxically, back in the enlightenment era. this was the period where danton shouted out his famous “audacity, audacity, audacity!” it was a refreshing period where everything old and traditional was put on trial; scientists and philosophers sincerely believed that information and knowledge could change the world for the better; new ideas and ways of doing things sprouted like mushrooms after a shower of rain. among the many results was a large number of new and innovative lexicographical works, some of them very advanced specialised dictionaries, including dictionaries of economics (cf. tarp & bothma, 2013). in 1826, the french economist charles ganilh reflected on the role of dictionaries in the development and dissemination of economics and other sciences in the preface to his dictionnaire analytique d’économie politique: dictionaries are the best means to disseminate sciences, speed up their progress, and make them quickly move to the highest stage they can reach. the greatest perfection of human thought is in its proliferation. (dictionnaire analytique d’économie politique 1826: xxvii) a similar idea, but with other words, was expressed three quarters of a century earlier by postlethwayt (1749) in a small dissertation where the economic lexicography ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200 181 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 181 british economist outlined his plans for the universal dictionary of trade and commerce: foreign and domestic trade admitting of so infinite variety of matter, and the knowledge communicated to the world, by those skilled and experienced therein, being scattered in an infinity of volumes, it is no easy matter to have immediate recourse to what may be occasionally requisite… a subject of this extensive nature therefore being reduced to the form of a dictionary, for alphabetical reference, seems the most naturally adapted to answer these desirable purposes, and especially so, as the compilers can have no motive to deceive. (postlethwayt, 1749: 2) this idea of reducing a specific subject field to the form of a dictionary was very common in the 18th century. it was frequently referred to as putting “arts and things” into the dictionaries. for instance, in the preface to his lexicon technicum, harris (1704) explained his intentions with the dictionary: that which i have aimed at, is to make it a dictionary, not only of bare words but things; and that the reader may not only find here an explication of the technical words, or the terms of art made use of in all the liberal sciences, and such as border nearly upon them, but also those arts themselves; and especially such, and such parts of them as are most useful and advantageous to mankind. (lexicon technicum 1704: preface) a similar vision was expressed by cambers (1728) in his cyclopædia, which, according to the author, contained both “definitions of the terms, and accounts of the things signify’d thereby, in the several arts”. a reference to arts can also be found in the 1767 edition of chomel’s dictionnaire oeconomique which, according to its subtitle, “includes the art of farming the land and taking advantage of the most barren places”. in 1754, d’alembert published an article titled dictionnaire in the famous encyclopédie, where he initially distinguished between three categories of dictionary: “dictionaries of words, dictionaries of facts, and dictionaries of things”. d’alembert himself preferred a slightly different typology, i.e. “language dictionaries, historical dictionaries, and science and art dictionaries”. yet, in this way he took into account the lexicographical practice of his époque, as well as the ideas expressed by contemporary authors of specialised dictionaries. with all this in mind, it is interesting to see how samuel johnson (1755), who worked within general lexicography, only one year later, provided a quite sven tarp ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200182 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 182 different idea in his dictionary of the english language. in this classical work, a dictionary was defined as a “book containing the words of any language in alphabetical order, with explanations of their meaning; a lexicon; a vocabulary; a word-book”. as can be seen, the british lexicographer works with a much narrower concept than other authors from the same century. in his view, a dictionary is apparently only about words. the “things” – that is, the content of arts, sciences and crafts – emphasized by some of his contemporaries, seem to be completely ignored. neither are they reflected in his article on encyclopedia (or encyclopedy), which is defined in correspondence with its original meaning as “the circle of sciences; the round of learning”, without even relating it to a reference work. all this cannot but surprise considering that johnson was perfectly aware of the existence of specialised dictionaries. proof of this is the preface which he dedicated to the second edition of rolt’s new dictionary of trade and commerce (1761) without, according to himself, even knowing the author or the dictionary: sir, (said he) i never saw the man, and never read the book. the booksellers wanted a preface to a dictionary of trade and commerce. i knew very well what such a dictionary should be, and i wrote a preface accordingly. (quoted from boswell, 1791: 359) so, in the preface to the dictionary, which he never read, johnson wrote: it has lately been the practice of the learned to range knowledge by the alphabet, and publish dictionaries of every kind of literature. this practice has, perhaps, been carried too far by the force of fashion. sciences, in themselves systematical and coherent, are not very properly broken into such fortuitous distributions. a dictionary of arithmetic or geometry can serve only to confound; but commerce, considered in its whole extent, seems to refuse any other method of arrangement, as it comprises innumerable particulars unconnected with each other, among which there is no reason why any should be first or last, better than is furnished by the letters that compose their names. (johnson, 1761) the quotation shows that johnson was well-informed and knew of the existence of certain types of specialised dictionaries, but considered them to be “carried too far”. this opinion is perfectly legitimate (and johnson is certainly not the only one sharing it), but it does not justify that these dictionaries are treated as non-existent. although johnson accepted the “commercial” dictionaries of his époque (that is, before economics was transformed into a science), this disapproval of a number of economic lexicography ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200 183 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 183 contemporaneous dictionaries may explain why he defined this type of work as he did in his own dictionary. johnson’s merits as a distinguished pioneer of british lexicography cannot be neglected. but it seems that his “innocent” definition of a dictionary, in one way or another, was the starting point for a profound change of vision which took place within the predominant circles of the lexicographical establishment between the 18th and the 20th centuries. due to this development, specialised dictionaries, among them dictionaries of economics, have got lost in what gouws (2011) has called “linguistic colonialism”. we are not talking about some major conspiracy or anything of that sort; it is rather the sad story of a “one-sided vision of lexicography”, which little by little took root among many linguists devoted to the compilation of general dictionaries. due to their specific tasks in dictionary making, many of these linguists – without being able to see the wood for the trees – eventually ended up considering their discipline to be a branch of linguistics, i.e. a sort of applied linguistics. as a result, dictionaries of “things” – among them dictionaries of economics – which have played an extremely important role in the dissemination of science and progress since the age of enlightenment were increasingly ignored or treated as some sort of unwanted child by the predominant trends within western lexicography. an example of this can be found in the first issues of the prestigious international journal of lexicography, in which two scholars coming from linguistics and terminology, respectively, openly call upon subject-field experts to desist from dictionary making and content themselves with being mere “informants” (frawley, 1988; riggs, 1989). by doing this, they try to dispute the undisputable, namely, that the best dictionaries of economics have been compiled by experts in economics, among them vanguard researchers and even nobel prize winners; the new palgrave dictionary of economics and the oxford dictionary of economics are well-known examples of this. fortunately, as the two mentioned dictionaries prove, high-quality dictionaries of economics are still being produced. “things” are still being put into these dictionaries together with “explications of words”. these dictionaries are still playing a very important role in society. they still contribute to the dissemination of science and knowledge. but the above problems have created a situation where authors of these dictionaries have nowhere to go in order to discuss the challenges posed to their specific types sven tarp ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200184 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 184 of dictionary. they cannot get much assistance and inspiration from the general lexicographical conferences and journals, which mainly focus on specific linguistic and corpus-linguistic questions related to general dictionaries. neither can they get this assistance from economics, whose theories do not cater for specific problems related to the design and compilation of advanced reference works. it goes without saying that this situation is extremely harmful to economic lexicography, especially in the present period of transition from printed to digital media, which presents completely new possibilities, as well as problems, in terms of serving the multifaceted needs of the users of this branch of dictionaries. the undesired orphancy may be the main reason why specialised lexicography – including economic dictionaries – has developed at a very slow rate during the last 20 years (cf. tarp, 2012). on the disciplinary status of economic lexicography here it is appropriate to briefly comment on the disciplinary status of economic lexicography. it is evident that it cannot reasonably be considered a subdiscipline of linguistics. but does this mean that economic lexicography should be reconsidered as a subdiscipline of economics? of course not! if we can speak of dictionaries of various kinds – e.g. economic, legal, geographic, historical, linguistic, etc. – this is due to the fact that there are some important aspects and elements common to all these works, regardless of their specific and highly varying content. these uniting aspects and elements constitute the core of lexicography, a millennial independent discipline which has long ago proven its considerable interdisciplinary vocation and co-operative spirit towards almost all areas of human activity. in today’s online environment, no high-quality specialised dictionary can be produced without, on the one hand, knowledge of lexicographical theory and practice, and on the other hand, an interdisciplinary collaboration between various types of experts, among them lexicographers, subject-field experts, programmers, web-designers, professional publishers, etc. from this perspective, no high-quality dictionary of economics can be imagined without the active participation of experts in economics, contrary to the unfortunate claims of frawley (1988) and riggs (1989). by contrast, most such dictionaries can easily be imagined without the incorporation of experts in linguistic theory. whereas the overall dictionary concept and design can only economic lexicography ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200 185 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 185 be made together with experts trained in lexicography, many – and frequently most – decisions in terms of the specific data to be included in the dictionaries can only be taken by subject-field specialists such as economists. a recent example will illustrate this point. in a review of a book about elexicography, kilgarriff (2012) recommends the introduction of corpus linguistic methods also in the making of economic dictionaries, and criticises the following definition of the accountancy term “deemed cost” taken from the accounting dictionaries: deemed cost is an amount used instead of cost or depreciated cost at a specific date. any following amortisation or depreciation is made on the assumption that the enterprise initially recognised the asset or liability at a cost equal to the deemed cost. instead of this definition, written together with experts in accounting, he recommends the following definition which he has googled on the internet and found as the second hit: ‘deemed cost’ is a surrogate for cost at a given date. for example if a building is purchased at $100000 this is cost and also the deemed cost at that given date, […] after presenting this googled definition, kilgarriff comments: accurate, extensive encyclopedic entries are very often already available, and very easily accessible via google, as here. a case has to be made for what value lexicographers are adding. (kilgarriff, 2012: 27) for anybody who is not an expert in accountancy, it may be difficult to judge which of the two definitions is the best one. this also seems to be the case with kilgarriff who is apparently not in a position to see that the definition found on the internet might be correct in a specific context or for a specific purpose, but not as a definition of the term treated in the accounting dictionaries where it is defined according to existing international financial reporting standards (ifrs), and for the benefit of the specific target user in question. the definition googled by kilgarriff is far too broad and covers much more than the ifrs standards relevant to the accounting dictionaries. the method proposed by kilgarriff is but a new variant of the old “definition fishery” used by some terminologists who are not subject-field experts. this method has led to really pitiful lexicographical definitions sven tarp ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200186 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 186 where the same phenomenon has been defined not only inappropriately but sometimes completely differently in two or more languages treated in one and the same bilingual or plurilingual specialised dictionary. subject-field knowledge combined with knowledge of the target users’ needs cannot and should not be replaced by blind faith in data extracted from the internet or any other corpus. one could just imagine how the quality of the oxford dictionary of economics would be if its definitions had been googled by corpus linguists. in this regard, it is evident that the successful production of cognitive dictionaries of economics, apart from experts in lexicography, requires the active participation of experts in economics. on the functional status of economic lexicography if one looks at the dictionaries of economics published during the past three centuries, one will find that this branch of lexicography has been extremely flexible in its adaptation to the complex and ever changing needs which a heterogeneous group of potential and factual users may have in various types of social situation. the variety of economic dictionaries existing today is astonishing. this great variety in terms of name, size, content, style, and structure may, at least partially, be explained by the different functions which they display in order to serve their respective users’ lexicographical needs, although it must be admitted that high-quality dictionaries of economics go hand in hand with dictionaries of much lower quality, i.e. dictionaries not sufficiently adapted to these needs. when we speak about functions, we refer to the specific types of need which the respective dictionaries intend to meet by means of their carefully selected and elaborated lexicographical data. by definition, these needs are never abstract but always concrete ones determined by three main parameters: • the language(s) and subject field (if any) which the dictionary is designed to cover. • the type of social context where the needs occur. • the type of user determined by his or her relevant characteristics. according to the lexicographical function theory (fuertes-olivera & tarp, 2014), dictionaries may have various types of function, among them: economic lexicography ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200 187 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 187 • cognitive functions, i.e. to transmit specialised knowledge directly to the users. • communicative functions, i.e. to assist users having communication problems, e.g. related to text reception and production in a native or foreign language or translation between these languages. • operative functions, i.e. to provide advice or instructions to users on how to perform specific actions. in the following, we will briefly try to systematize the functions registered in economic dictionaries during the past centuries. the first thing that strikes the eye when looking at the great amount of economic dictionaries published until now, is that these works seem to have developed along two main lines with no or only little interconnection and overlapping. on the one hand, we have dictionaries designed to transmit knowledge about economics (cognitive dictionaries); and, on the other, dictionaries – mainly bior plurilingual ones – conceived to assist communication within this area of human activity (communicative dictionaries). we will now look at these types one by one. dictionaries with cognitive functions in his book about crises and cycles in economic dictionaries and encyclopaedias, besomi (2011: 27) notes: so far, no complete and detailed history of economic dictionaries has been compiled, in spite of the pervasive usage of such reference tools by laypeople, students and researchers. besomi himself provides some relevant reflections on the development of cognitive dictionaries of economics. these comments are centred on the elected audience of these works, which has evolved during the past centuries and impacted on the lexicographical works in question. in the 18th century, two main types of user could be detected, thus leading to two different types of lexicographical work: on the one hand, the learned people who needed information in order to keep track of the scientific development reflected in a rapidly growing number of publications, and, on the other hand, more practical people such as traders, merchants and occasionally bankers and industrialists who needed specialised information sven tarp ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200188 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 188 directly related to their profession. as a starting point, the needs of the former gave birth to the classical european encyclopaedias, whereas the needs of the latter resulted in specialised dictionaries of economics, in the first period frequently called dictionaries of commerce, or of trade and commerce, like the ones compiled by savary des bruslons (1723), postlethwayt (1751-55), rolt (1756) and mortimer (1766). starting in the early 19th century, the encyclopaedias diversified and gave rise to the so-called conversation lexica, and later the popular lexica, as a consequence of the still broader public they intended to cover. an example of a dictionary appealing to such a broad user segment is whitelaw’s popular encyclopedia, published in 1846 with the subtitle “conversations lexicon”: being a general dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, biography, history, ethics, and political economy. at the same time, the specialised dictionaries of economics also went through a transformation in terms of audience. in the first period, before the institutionalisation of the discipline, these works could not find a sufficiently solid market among the specialists and were, therefore, also addressed to other types of user, for instance, “those in charge of public and collective interests”, the “civil servants, merchants and capitalists”, etc. (besomi, 2011: 15). this situation changed towards the end of the 19th century when the studies of economics little by little became institutionalised. now, a new kind of user appeared on the scene, namely students: soon students became a large and appetizable market; this, combined with the exponential growth of the literature, made it interesting to publish readymade reference books for students. indeed, they have become the main target of economic lexicography, at least in terms of the number of works published. the larger (and more expensive) of these books are meant to be bought by libraries; those meant to be sold to students are much smaller in size, and are therefore much more limited in scope. similar to the latter are quick reference works addressed to the general public, such as newspaper readers… (besomi, 2011: 15-16) to complete the picture, the production of specialised encyclopaedias and encyclopaedia-like dictionaries also continued up to our time. examples of this are the new palgave dictionary of economics, primarily dedicated to researchers, university teachers and graduate students, and the international encyclopaedia of social sciences, addressed to a more generalist public. both of them were published in their latest (last?) printed version in 2008; and both of them have now become available on the internet. economic lexicography ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200 189 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 189 hence, although all the lexicographical works analysed have a declared cognitive function, the fact that they are addressed to various types of user with different characteristics (academics, experts, semi-experts, educators, students, interested laymen, general public, etc.) – and are supposed to be consulted in different contexts by these users – may partially explain their highly different sizes and other features. however, also national traditions and peculiarities are important in this respect, as there are notable differences in terms of the sizes of the works and the relative number of titles (taking into account the size of the respective markets) in various countries such as england, germany, france and italy (cf. besomi, 2011: 44-45). to this should be added that the available technology also plays a relevant role. this can be seen in the recent publication of a large number of online dictionaries of economics. in this environment, the size of the dictionary, i.e. the total amount of data included, is no longer relevant to its availability, inasmuch as the users can take it almost anywhere and consult it in any context. much more relevant now is the amount of data popping up on the screen in each consultation, not least due to the still bigger risk of suffering from information overload (cf. fuertes-olivera & tarp, 2014). the varying standard of the dictionaries of economics published so far interferes directly in the ongoing discussion between those scholars who claim that the evolution is always going from a lower to a higher stage, and those who defend the view that, whilst this is the general tendency, history in all its aspects only advances in the middle of temporary ups and downs, progress and retrogression. in this respect, besomi (2011: 45) observes that quantity and quality have not evolved along parallel lines: while in purely numerical terms the century of dictionaries is not the nineteenth, as is commonly maintained, but the twentieth, the nineteenth century is surely an epoch when economic and social sciences dictionaries and encyclopaedias were all first-rate, not only in size but also in terms of quality. these remarks are undoubtedly highly relevant for our discussion, as every new step is not necessarily a step forward in terms of quality. in this sense, it seems appropriate to qualify the very concept of quality in relation to lexicography. let us take a random article from the prestigious oxford dictionary of economics: gearing the ratio of a company’s debt to its equity. gearing (uk) or leverage (us) is the ratio of a company’s debt to the part of its capital owned sven tarp ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200190 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 190 by shareholders. high gearing or leverage means high reliance on debt financing. this is risky for the shareholder, as debt service absorbs a large proportion of profits in a normal year, and in a bad year the cost of debt service may exceed total profits. this could lead to dividends being reduced or passed, and possibly to loss of control of the company to creditors or debenture holders. it is no easy task to write correct and readable definitions, especially when the target user group is heterogeneous in terms of its subject-field knowledge. but there is little doubt that the above definition is appropriate if it is seen in the light of its declared function, namely, to be “an essential point of reference for students and teachers of economics, business, and finance, and invaluable for anyone needing a reliable guide to economic terms” (quoted from the cover). however, if the mentioned “students and teachers”, as well as “anyone”, instead needed, for instance, assistance to write an economic text in english, then the dictionary would be far from high-quality, as it totally lacks any data on grammar, collocations, and syntax, which are the data most frequently needed in that context. similarly, the relatively short definitions included in the oxford dictionary of economics cannot live up to the more extensive and in-depth type of information which researchers, teachers, and students demand when consulting a dictionary like the new palgrave dictionary of economics. although both dictionaries have cognitive functions in relation to economics, they cover different types of cognitive information need and are, so to say, complementary in terms of a specific target user group. the quality of the lexicographical data contained in dictionaries cannot be evaluated based upon the correctness of these data alone, but only relating them to the specific types of need which a specific type of user may experience in specific types of situation. in addition, the quality of a lexicographical product does not only depend on the quality of the data it contains; these data should also be quickly accessible, and prepared in such a way that the required information is easily retrievable. english belongs to a big language community, and is currently lingua franca for many international researchers; as such it is generally well-supplied with dictionaries. it is, however, a fact that most other language communities lack a similar set of economic twin dictionaries like the ones from oxford and palgrave. hence, even if cognitive dictionaries of economics during the economic lexicography ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200 191 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 191 past centuries have adapted to the complex and ever changing needs of their users, there are still many lacunae waiting to be filled. dictionaries with communicative functions we will now look at the other big line of development within economic lexicography, namely, the communicative dictionaries. these lexicographical works aim at assisting communication within the broad area of economics and its various subfields, most frequently between the various language communities, for which reason they are often bilingual or even plurilingual. examples of the latter are veitelle’s english-spanish-french mercantile dictionary (1864) and graham and oliver’s english-german-french-spanish foreign traders’ dictionary (1906), among others. many of these dictionaries contain very little lexicographical data except for the lemmata and their equivalents. one such example is provided by the danish-english l&h compact business ordbog from which the following article is selected: marked fair, market, marketplace, mart; [mart.] market, market area/outlet, outlet, sales area/district this dictionary was once described as “the nude words dancing over the blank pages”. it was aimed at danish users, either translators or other persons experiencing text-production problems in english, but it is nonetheless difficult to see its use value. the users who do not already know the english equivalents provided by the dictionary will simply have to guess which one to use in each situation, thus encountering new problems instead of having them solved; and those already knowing them would probably consult the dictionary in order to get other types of information which they do not get. both translation and foreign-language text production are complex processes, which, apart from specific data types, require various routes of access to these data (cf. tarp, 2004, 2013). the l&h compact business ordbog does not cater for these complex processes, and neither does it furnish any relevant data on grammar, syntax, or collocations in order to allow the production of fluent and stylistically correct english business texts. this problem is the rule rather than the exception within communicative dictionaries of economics. there are, however, a small number of authors who have tried to provide the necessary data and access options. in the soft end of the subject field, the twin danish-spanish and spanish-danish erhvervsordbøger (business sven tarp ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200192 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 192 dictionaries), designed to assist danish users in the production of spanish texts related to business communication, constitute one such example: nedlægge vb 1. (lukke) cerrar <e ⟶ ie> <do> 2. (afskaffe, ophæve) suprimir <do> 3. (arbejdspladser) destruir <u ⟶ uy foran a, e, o> <do> ▲ ~ arbejdet declararse en huelga; ~ arbejdspladser destruir empleo; ~ forbud mod noget prohibir algo; ~ en institution cerrar una institución; ~ protest protestar; ~ påstand om noget interponer demanda de algo; ~ 1.000 arbejdspladser destruir 1.000 puestos de trabajo; ~ 12 stillinger suprimir 12 puestos de trabajo; ~ en virksomhed cerrar una empresa this article, taken from dansk-spansk erhvervsordbog, provides relevant data necessary for the successful production of spanish texts (although the experience has shown that the strongly codified data on inflection and syntax are too difficult to operationalise for part of the intended user group, among them students of business spanish and translation). if needed, the spanish words can also be accessed directly through its spanish-danish twin dictionary. almost similar data, and access options, can be found in the oxford spanish business dictionary, which comprises both a spanish-english and an english-spanish part: cerrar 1 vt (tienda, negocio) close; (definitivamente) close down; (salida) seal off; ~ un acuerdo close a deal; ~ una posición close a position; ~ un trato make a deal; ~ una venta complete o close a sale 2 vi close down the two articles reproduced above deal with relatively easy words. but if these words were more complex – e.g. terms with more specialized content – then some kind of explanation would be required in order to fully serve the foreseen user group. both dictionaries contain such terms but without offering the necessary explanations or definitions. as a result, they suffer from clear limitations. it could, therefore, be a solution to cover both cognitive and communicative needs in one and the same dictionary. only a few printed dictionaries of economics try to combine such functions. one of them is the english-spanish diccionario de contabilidad from which the following article is taken: economic lexicography ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200 193 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 193 effect on cash flow = cash flow effect when an action has an effect on cash flow, this results in an outflow of cash from or an inflow of cash to an enterprise. some actions, such as depreciation, amortization and credit selling, do not have an immediate effect on cash flow. efecto en el flujo de efectivo ▲ a negative effect on cash flow un efecto negativo en el flujo de efectivo ▲ a negligible effect on cash flow un efecto poco significante en el flujo de efectivo ▲ a positive effect on cash flow un efecto positivo en el flujo de efectivo ▲ a substantial effect on cash flow un efecto considerable en el flujo de efectivo this article contains an english lemma, an english synonym, a definition, a spanish equivalent as well as spanish translations of various english collocations with the term “effect on cash flow”. it is primarily designed for spanish users and therefore does not provide data on inflection and syntax. the dictionary is, as such, very helpful to spanish users with different types of need, but even so the above article, which is one of the shorter ones in the dictionary, points to a serious problem. the dictionary is multifunctional; it therefore includes a lot of data, the amount of which would grow even more if the user group was primarily native speakers of english. an increasing part of these data would be superfluous in each concrete consultation. consequently, a user with a specific problem or need would have ever more difficulty in finding the specific data required to solve this problem or need; the access time would be longer, and the risk of not finding the relevant data would also be bigger (cf. bergenholtz & gouws, 2010). this problem cannot be solved satisfactorily in the framework of printed lexicography. generally, it can be said that a considerable number of dictionaries have been published in order to assist communication within economics, although there are still many areas and sub-disciplines which have not been sufficiently covered by these works. however, an even more serious problem is that many of these dictionaries are of dubious quality, inasmuch as they do not provide the data required to satisfy their intended users’ real communicative needs. this tendency is especially evident in the internet environment, as it has been documented by caruso (2011) in her analysis of 700 specialised online dictionaries. a possible solution to this serious problem could be the integration of communicative functions into future cognitive online sven tarp ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200194 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 194 dictionaries of economics. but before discussing this proposal, we will briefly look at other relevant functions found in existing dictionaries of economics. dictionaries with operative functions it is interesting to see how specialised dictionaries from the enlightenment era were frequently designed not only to transmit knowledge to their users, but also to give advice, suggestions, and instructions, i.e. the sort of information which we would normally expect to find in manuals, how-to’s, user guides, instruction books, etc. for instance, in the impressive subtitle of the 1767 edition of chomel’s dictionnaire oeconomique, we are told that, among other things, it includes “an exact description of the plants”, which can be used as food, to cultivate the land or embellish our gardens, as well as “instructions on how to prevent diseases and how to cure them”. in the same vein, in his introduction to the fourth edition of the universal dictionary of trade and commerce, postlethwayt (1774) declares that the “work abounds with no small variety of suggestions and intimations for the advancement of numerous branches of the trade and commerce of these kingdoms” (page iii). unfortunately, the limits of this article do not permit a thorough discussion of this interesting experience which seems to have been completely forgotten in modern lexicography. the question, however, is whether the current transition to online media is not the right moment to re-saddle and reintroduce it into a new generation of advanced economic dictionaries and information tools. recommendations for future dictionaries of economics to summarise, so far dictionaries of economics have displayed cognitive, communicative and operative functions with a view to serving the highly different needs of their target users, although the last two functions seem to have been forgotten in modern lexicography. as a rule, the cognitive and communicative functions have lived their own separate lives in different lines of dictionaries with little or no overlapping, whereas the operative functions – to the extent they exist – have been addressed by cognitive dictionaries. in economic lexicography ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200 195 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 195 general, the quality of cognitive dictionaries of economics seems to be at the higher end of the scale, whereas communicative dictionaries tend to be of much lower quality with only relatively few exceptions. from a social and economic point of view, the real challenge today is to continue producing high-quality dictionaries of economics adapted to the specific needs of specific target users in specific contexts, while simultaneously filling the many gaps in partially or totally unsatisfied user needs. in this light, the main task of cognitive dictionaries today is to cover as many relevant language communities and sub-disciplines of economics as possible, whereas the main challenge posed to communicative dictionaries is to raise standards. with this in mind, we will make the following suggestions for the immediate future of dictionaries of economics: • authors of dictionaries of economics, as well as publishing houses, should regain the spirit from the enlightenment era, and display “audacity, audacity, audacity” without being afraid of innovation in the most radical sense of the word. • lexicographers should put everything old and traditional on trial and only continue with methods and principles which have been tested and found useful in terms of reducing production costs, speeding up production time, improving the quality of the end product, and adapting it to the users’ specific needs in each context. • lexicographers should take full advantage of the new computer and information technologies, as well as the digital media, and should, without hesitation, go online with their products in order to compete with the continuous flow of low-quality dictionaries placed on the internet. • online dictionaries of economics should, in order to guarantee maximum quality in all aspects, be produced in close, interdisciplinary collaboration between experts in lexicography, economics, programming, web-design, etc. • online dictionaries of economics should include any type of data required to assist their users. • online dictionaries of economics should, as far as it is possible and relevant, combine cognitive functions with communicative and operative functions, among others. sven tarp ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200196 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 196 • online dictionaries of economics should make provision for various functions and types of need by means of differentiated access routes, as well as dynamic articles adapted to the user’s specific needs in each situation or consultation. • online dictionaries of economics as a whole should contain as much relevant data as possible, whereas the individual articles popping up on the screen should display as little data as possible with a view to fully satisfying their users’ needs in each concrete consultation and, at the same time, avoiding information overload. • online dictionaries of economics should not only be evaluated by the quality and quantity of their lexicographical data, but also by the time it takes to access these data and make use of them. • lexicographers and other interested people should consider introducing a future certificate that could be given to all online dictionaries of economics displaying a certain minimum standard in terms of subject-field coverage, data quality, and usability. the main idea is that dictionaries of economics should be viewed as much more than traditional “dictionaries”, and transformed into advanced information tools belonging to the 21st century. why, for instance, does the online oxford dictionary of economics not offer collocations and other relevant types of linguistic data to native speakers, foreign researchers, and anybody else who experience text-production problems when writing economic texts in english? why do the online accounting dictionaries not offer instructions and advice to their users on how to prepare and send in the annual accounts? the idea, of course, is not to suffocate the user with a lot of new data which may be totally irrelevant and superfluous in order to solve a specific need, but to include such data in the dictionary, and simultaneously make allowance for advanced access options leading the user to exactly the amount and type of data required in each situation or consultation. the idea is to leave the past behind and take serious steps towards a new generation of advanced lexicographical information tools of the types called models t ford and rolls royces, according to the typology proposed by tarp (2011). as can be seen, all this is impossible to achieve without combining an advanced lexicographical theory with expert knowledge of economics, highclass programming, user-friendly designing, among other things. in this way, economic lexicography ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200 197 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 197 lexicography, as a millennial independent discipline, will once more prove its great interdisciplinary and co-operative spirit. article history: received 21 may 2014 received in revised form 18 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(1988). “new forms of specialized dictionaries”. international journal of lexicography 1,3: 189-213. fuertes-olivera, p.a. & h bergenholtz (eds.) (2011). e-lexicography: the internet, digital initiatives and lexicography. london/new york: continuum. fuertes-olivera, p.a. & s. tarp (2014). theory and practice of specialised online dictionaries: lexicography versus terminography. berlin, boston: de gruyter. gouws, r.h. (2011). “learning, unlearning andi in the planning of electronic dictionaries” in p.a. fuertes-olivera & h. bergenholtz (eds.), 17-29. guidi, m.l. (1994). “economy and political economy in italian dictionaries and encyclopedias (1726-1861)” in m. albertone & a. masoero (eds.), political economy and national realities, 147-175. torino: fondazione luigi einaudi. hoare, m.r. (2009). “scientific and technical dictionaries” in a.p. cowie (ed.), 47-93. johnson, s. (1761). “preface” in r. rolt, a new dictionary of trade and commerce. second edition. london: printed for g. keith, s. crowder, and h. woodgate and s. brooks. kilgarriff, a. (2012). “[review of] pedro a. fuertesolivera/henning bergenholtz (eds.). elexicography: the internet, digital initiatives and lexicography”. kernerman dictionary news, july 2012, 26-29. postlethwayt, m. (1749). a dissertation on the plan, use, and importance, of the universal dictionary of trade and commerce. london: john and paul knapton. riggs, f.w. (1989). “terminology and lexicography: their complementarity”. international journal of lexicography 2,2: 89-110. tarp, s. (2004). “reflections on dictionaries designed to assist the users with text production in a foreign language”. lexikos 14: 299-325. tarp, s. (2011). “lexicographical and other e-tools for consultation purposes: towards the individualization of needs satisfaction” in p.a. fuertes-olivera & h. bergenholtz (eds.), 54-70. tarp, s. (2012). “specialised lexicography: 20 years in slow motion”. ibérica 24: 117-128. tarp, s. (2013). “what should we demand from an online dictionary for specialized translation?” lexicographica 29: 146-162. tarp, s. & t.j.d. bothma (2013). “an alternative approach to enlightenment age lexicography: the universal dictionary of trade and commerce”. lexicographica 29: 222-284. sven tarp is professor of lexicography at the school of business and social sciences at the university of aarhus (denmark) and extraordinary professor at the university of stellenbosch (south africa). with a ph.d. in 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 199 specialised lexicography (1993) and a doctor’s degree in learners’ lexicography (2006), he is the editor or co-editor of several specialised dictionaries and has published more than 150 contributions in journals and well-known series. he is one of the founders of the function theory of lexicography. sven tarp ibérica 29 (2015): 179-200200 10 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 200 iberica 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in spain, politics is often seen as a profession rather than a service, and thus political discourse should be considered a specialized genre subjected to specific rules and convention. in the 2010s, a new tendency to campaign in politics was the use of social networks, allowing the publication of messages in a virtual environment and the possibility of interacting with other users, twitter being a popular network. the purpose of this research is to analyze a corpus of 630 tweets published by four spanish political leaders in their personal twitter accounts, and consequently to describe their communication style in this social network with the hypothesis that their political views and interests influence their messages. in order to achieve our aim, this research focused on the analysis of written text, emoji, multimedia affordances, and hashtags, and how these elements influenced the politicians’ communication style when dealing with some relevant topics at the time this study was carried out. keywords: written discourse, spanish politicians, social networks, twitter, communication. resumen los políticos españoles en twitter: un análisis lingüístico de su discurso escrito en españa, la política suele concebirse como una profesión más que como un servicio, y, por ello, el discurso político debe interpretarse como un género especializado que está sometido a una serie de reglas y convenciones específicas. en la década de los años 2010 surgió una nueva manera de hacer campaña en política mediante el uso de las redes sociales, las cuales permitían la publicación de mensajes cortos en un entorno virtual y la posibilidad de interactuar con otros usuarios. una de las redes sociales más populares en la esfera política es twitter. en este artículo se analiza un corpus de 630 tuits publicados en las cuentas spanish politicians in twitter: a linguistic analysis of their written discourse ricardo casañ pitarch universitat politècnica de valència (spain) ricapi@upv.es 195 ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216 ricardo casañ pitarch personales de twitter de cuatro líderes políticos españoles y se describe su estilo de comunicación en esta red social, desde la hipótesis de que sus opiniones e intereses políticos podrían interferir en sus mensajes. para ello, el presente trabajo se centra en el análisis de algunas formas de lenguaje, en concreto el texto escrito, los emojis, diferentes piezas multimedia y los hashtag de sus tuits, y presta atención al modo en que estos elementos influyen en el estilo de comunicación que adoptan los políticos al tratar ciertos temas relevantes en el periodo en que se realizó este estudio. los resultados de esta investigación sugieren la existencia de un vínculo entre el discurso adoptado en twitter y los intereses políticos que se persiguen. en este sentido, parece que los políticos han de adaptar su estilo de comunicación en twitter a su público objetivo, así como a sus propósitos e intereses políticos, como también sucede en otros contextos no políticos. palabras clave: discurso escrito, políticos españoles, redes sociales, twitter, comunicación. 1. introduction social networks first appeared at the end of the 1990s, and have been defined as online virtual environments where users connect to other people on the site (boyd & ellison, 2007; chen, 2011; kaplan & haenlein, 2010). the purpose of social networks has progressively evolved since their origin, and in addition to being a network of contacts, they also allow people to share information, including ideas or personal thoughts (pegoraro, 2010). in this sense, verger, hermans and sams (2011) point out that social networks have changed the relationship between politics and their audience by adding interactivity, hyper-textuality and multimedia to their written discourse. since its foundation, different personalities have been using twitter as their channel to communicate with broad audiences and broadcast information. according to the second quarterly report provided by twitter in 2018, 335 million people are actively using this social network; users also include celebrities from areas such as sports, cinema, music, tv, art, literature, and also politics. from a linguistic perspective, the interest of this paper lies in the analysis of how twitter is used by four politicians whose parties are currently the most representative in the spanish parliament: prime minister pedro sánchez (psoe: partido socialista obrero español), pablo iglesias (podemos), pablo casado (pp: partido popular), and albert rivera (ciudadanos). as an attempt to summarize the current political context in spain, centre-left psoe has formed a left-wing coalition government with left-populist podemos, whereas the right-wing parties pp and ciudadanos are part of the 196 current opposition. in this sense, it should be acknowledged that political discourse can be considered a specialized genre since it concerns a specific profession subject to certain rules and conventions, as it happens in parliamentary debate (gavriely-nuri, 2010; van dijk, 2005). in the case of spain, politics is often seen as a profession rather than a service (montero, 2007); and these circumstances allow us to consider political discourse a professional branch. this research aims at analyzing and describing the main linguistic features of politicians’ written discourse in twitter and at discussing how their communication style helps them approach their audience and consequently pursue their political interests and goals. to this purpose, it should be acknowledged that, depending on the genre, the language of politics has certain common rules and its own terminology, which is constantly evolving, as is also the case in other professional and academic fields. the specialization of this form of discourse may result from that technical vocabulary whose use is associated with a specific, well-defined genre. consequently, political discourse, like journalistic and literary discourses, is different from everyday language. this paper analyzes political discourse conveyed through twitter, resulting in digital interaction among professional politicians and large audiences who are not necessarily experts. thus, this digital component (twitter), whose nature is informal in terms of communication, may give rise to a new hybrid form of specialized discourse. 2. political discourse and twitter twitter is a microblogging tool launched in 2006. this tool allows users to share information expressed in a maximum of 280 characters with other users, and to include multimedia content (initially the limit was 140 characters, which imitated the sms system in mobile phones at that time, but this was subsequently increased). several politicians are currently using this tool to spread information about political facts, campaigning, selfpromotion, and to state their opinions or to foster transparency within the political system, among other purposes (ausserhofer & maireder, 2013). although tweets are a non-specialized textual genre, their use as a professional tool has recently become widespread among politicians in their campaigns as well as in their daily social interaction, with the aim of maintaining or enhancing their public image and reputation (chun, shulman, sandoval & hovy, 2010; coliander, marder, falkmane, madestam, modig & sagfossen, 2017; sams & park, 2014). in addition, this network also allows spanish politicians in twitter: a linguistic analysis of their written discourse ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216 197 interaction among users, both public and private, and enables people to “quickly react to current events and gauge interest in and support for their actions” (johnson, jin & goldwasser, 2017: 741). as a result, twitter, as well as other forms of social media, seems to have changed political communication worldwide (jungherr, 2014), and it has become one of the political genres used professionally by politicians doing campaigns (graham, broersma, hazelhoff & van’t haar, 2013). gallardo-pauls and enguixoliver (2016) suggested that this change began in 2008 during the national elections in the us, when obama used social media widely. in this case, these authors explained that the purpose of this software tool was to amplify the impact of the messages delivered by involving the audience actively in a discussion. the result was a breakthrough that changed discourse forms and the way of doing political campaigns. prior to our research, some previous studies on how politicians and political parties use social networks were identified. rauchfleisch and metag (2015) analyzed the use of twitter in political communication in switzerland; in their case, the study focused on explaining the shift from equalization towards normalization with the diffusion of some political information within this social network. similarly, graham, broersma, hazelhoff and van’t haar (2013) analyzed the information posted by the politicians in twitter and how they interacted with their followers. other examples include those provided by zappavigna (2011), who examined the use of evaluative language to affiliate in tweets, and mancera and pano (2015), who analyzed the syntactic and discursive properties of a corpus of hashtags extracted from the tweets of different politicians in spain. more recently, alcántaraplá and ruiz-sánchez (2018) published a book chapter in which they discussed the 2015 election campaign in spain and the role of twitter. in their research, they analyzed 16,300 messages published in twitter by the five most popular parties and their candidates in a period of two weeks. they found that the analysis of their corpus required not only a linguistic study, but also a need to analyze text from a multimodal perspective, which also included multimedia content such as video, audio and links to other websites as well as the use of emoji. from this perspective, this is a reason to justify the view that political discourse has changed thanks to the widespread use of social networks, in this case twitter. as explained in the introduction, the purpose of this research is to analyze and describe some linguistic features of the written discourse of four spanish politicians in twitter. to this purpose, this research focuses on the ricardo casañ pitarch ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216198 analysis of the length of their tweets in terms of characters, words, and sentences, the use of non-linguistic forms such as multimedia, hashtags, or emoji, and their interest in certain topics. in this sense, some authors have commented how these elements and linguistic features can influence communication. regarding the effects of language style on communication, different discourse forms can have certain reactions on the audience; in this sense, heylighen and dewaele (1999) suggested that various features mark the difference between formal and informal language. on the one hand, formal elements are more cognitively demanding than informal ones, and consequently they are also more restrictive to audiences with lower cognitive skills, although there are fewer chances to misinterpret those messages. on the other hand, informal elements presented for being high cognitively demanding remain more ambiguous and subjective, giving the audience an opportunity to take their own interpretations, either favoring or disfavoring the communicator’s message. for example, djafarova (2008) suggested that audiences are more attracted by brief messages; in this sense, short sentences are far more effective than those ones built with more words than necessary. in previous research, casañ-pitarch (2018) found that the american prime minister donald trump used shorter sentences in his oral discourse (mean: 11.58) in comparison to his predecessor ex-prime minister barack obama (mean: 21.58); in this case, mr. trump was clearly addressing part of his campaign to working classes suffering from job insecurity. furthermore, if the word order is the standard (s+v+o/c), the information is conveyed more fluently and the message is clearer to the audience than if the standard order is altered; simple language increases the possibilities of being understood (djafarova, 2008). as explained, twitter is a microblogging tool with limited characters, but still it seems that the length of the messages and their sentences could have some effects on their audiences. furthermore, the use of rhetorical questions also seems to be relevant in political discourse. nguyen (2010) suggested that rhetorical questions are used to persuade the audience by appealing to the addressee’s emotions. similarly, lisowska (2017) explained that rhetorical questions in political discourse are usually introduced with the aim of appealing the public. statements in the form of questions are used to make a point rather than to eliciting an answer. in addition, by delivering a rhetorical question, the speaker approaches the audience, who is indirectly invited to think and reflect. this strategy helps speakers convince readers with their own spanish politicians in twitter: a linguistic analysis of their written discourse ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216 199 arguments, by presupposing that their reflections are common sense. wong and yap (2015) went further and classified the major functions of rhetorical questions into four categories: persuasion, self-promotion, challenge, and doubt-inducing. these categories can help us understand the different purposes of politicians when they deliver a question in twitter, as suggested by gallardo-pauls and enguix-oliver (2016). concerning other forms of communication, twitter is characterized by some specific tools and features. in this sense, this social network allows attaching multimedia to texts, permits the use of emoji, and the signs # (hashtag) and @ are used for particular purposes. the first of these elements, multimedia, is used to incorporate videos, images, or links to written texts. in other words, written discourse in twitter can be combined with aural and visual media, and it offers hyper-textuality, which enable users to freely move around large amounts of information which are interconnected with links. the result of sharing videos with the audience is that they can promote their image and somehow build brands or personality cults (balakhonskaya, zhuravleva, gladchenko & beresneva, 2018; hwang, 2012; millan & ball, 2010); as result, this could reinforce their position as party leaders as it does with corporate entities (weber, 2019). regarding the idea of the personality cult, paltiel (1983) introduces some examples of this practice during the leninist regime, a widespread practice in other eras and places such as franco in spain or mao zedong in china, or more recently with the image of obama in the media and his popular motto “yes we can”. in addition to multimedia, texts in twitter can also be accompanied by emoji, which convey feelings and emotions and consequently provide the text with an extended meaning (vergeer, 2015). stark and crawford (2015) referred to the use of smiles as a capitalist tool in the media since the 1960s; their aim was to create social bonds by sharing a positive attitude. in the case of emoji, they “help people in digital environments cope emotionally with the experience of building and maintaining social ties within hierarchical technological platforms and unjust economic systems that operate far outside of their control” (crawford, 2015: 8). thus, emoji offer a way of ‘humanizing’ written discourse, making it more informal in an attempt to approach the audience with emotions. finally, hashtags are in-text keywords introduced by the sign # and used to find similar information by clicking on them. according to bud (2013), hashtags can lead to discussions on a given topic; and consequently, they help popularize and spread messages among the audience as well as strengthening their information. similarly, the sign @ ricardo casañ pitarch ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216200 is used to mention a user’s account, which can also lead to increasing the impact and diffusion of messages. it should be acknowledged that all these forms are better understood and more often used by the youngest people, since they have grown up with them, and this contrasts with their more limited use by many older people (jaeger, xia, lee, hunter, beresford & ares, 2018; prada, rodrigues, garrido, lopes, cavalheiro & gaspar, 2018). for the aim of this research, the understanding of certain topics should be reviewed together of campaigning and opposition strategies among politicians in twitter. to this purpose, the first issue that should be studied is how right and left-wing parties conceive the concept of welfare and how they handle it. in words of spicker (2014), there are some general differences between left and right-wing parties. according to this author, the left-wing support social and institutional welfare, public provision, minority or endangered groups, and collectivism; in the same way, he suggests that the right-wing parties are individualistic, against welfare and public provision, and support their residual welfare. in this sense, it seems that whereas the left-wing tend to defend welfare from a social perspective which promotes equality and public services, the right-wing defend individual rights based on social orders and hierarchy, and focus on the economic power of individuals in a capitalist society (berlet & lyons, 2018). thus, it seems that, for the right-wing, individual welfare is connected to economy factors (barth, finseraas & moene, 2015; besley, 2016), whereas left-wing parties support collectivism and social welfare (aron, 2017; jones, 2018). thus, it seems consequent that the left-wing will defend sensitive issues such as feminism and racial equality, among others, or at least they will not react or show attitudes against them (funk, 2016). on the contrary, the right-wing might look indifferent towards these issues, or show opposition against them; instead, they may support measures that promote privatization of public services or enhance individuals’ rights in the free market economy (merkl & weinberg, 2014; saltman, 2015). in addition to the concept of welfare, the strategies among politicians in twitter to conduct campaigns and perform opposition should also be reviewed. conway, kenski, and wang (2015: 365) appointed twitter as a “new avenue for influence”. they justified it by stating that social networks serve a similar purpose to websites and blogs, which have been previously used for the same goal. as has been previously suggested, twitter allows interactions among users (verger, hermans & sams, 2011), and this can be somehow advantageous since it can be a sign of proximity to their spanish politicians in twitter: a linguistic analysis of their written discourse ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216 201 supporters. in addition, twitter is an open global environment likely to receive more visitors than websites and blogs, which visitors access intentionally rather than finding information by chance or in the news board, as it happens with social networks (towner & dulio, 2012). in this sense, enli and skogerbø (2013: 759) explained that social media constitute a useful context for campaigning since they allow candidates to approach voters and “market their candidacies, mobilize voters for the upcoming election, discuss politics or a combination”. for the second aim, opposing other parties can also be understood as a means of campaigning (graber & dunaway, 2017). in this case, politicians tend to criticize and attack their political opponents. according to lópez-meri, marcos-garcía and casero-ripollés (2017), this function is especially used in twitter by the parties in the opposition to criticize and discredit other leaders or the current government. these researchers analyzed the same context one year before the present study, and they found that the leader of the opposition parties addressed a higher percentage of their tweets to criticism compared to the right-wing spanish prime minister rajoy. 3. method this study aims at analyzing and describing the main linguistic features found in tweets sent by four leaders of the most representative spanish parties in their personal twitter accounts, as well as discussing how their communication styles influence their attempts to approach their audiences and fulfill some of their political goals. to this purpose, our corpus contains the tweets of the four politicians in a period of 27 days, from 15 september 2018 to 11 october 2018. the total amount of tweets analyzed was 630. the period of 27 days was chosen because this was the time the current spanish prime minister needed to post 100 tweets. then, the tweets from the other politicians needed to be set in the same period of time so they were equally contextualized. in order to achieve the objectives of this research, this study focuses on the quantification of language forms, and a qualitative analysis of their communication regarding some current relevant topics. the first part of this analysis includes a compilation and quantification of tweets, characters (with spaces), words, and sentences, questions and exclamations, multimedia, hashtags (#), mentions (@), and emoji. the second part of this study ricardo casañ pitarch ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216202 focuses on analyzing qualitatively how these politicians deal with welfare, campaigning and opposition, and the nationalist and feminist movements in spain. the choice of these topics was based on their frequency, considering the three most usual ones in the account of each politician, so their communication strategies can be compared among themselves. regarding software, antconc has been used in this research to quantify the amount of sentences and words, and to identify the most frequent words. 4. results the first part of this study focuses on determining how frequent the four politicians use twitter. as can be observed in the following table, casado and iglesias are the ones who use twitter most often, whereas prime minister sánchez is the one using this tool the least. concerning direct tweets, casado is clearly the most engaged in twitter among the four; in fact, he is using it 137.30% more often than the prime minister and between 54.85% and 69.17% more than the other two politicians, casado and iglesias respectively. regarding retweets, iglesias is the leader in this rank, in which prime minister sánchez is also the last. in addition, this study also concerns the quantification of language forms. the table below shows the length of the politicians’ tweets in terms of characters, words and sentences. in the case of characters per tweet, the amount used among them is similar except with rivera, who clearly introduced fewer than the rest. regarding the amount of words per tweet, the representatives of the oldest parties used more words per sentence than the newbies. for example, casado introduced a mean of 40 words in each tweet, and a fact contrasted with rivera, who only wrote 34.05. the percent variation between these two was 17.47%. then, it was also observed that the left-wing used fewer words than the right-wing; in this case, iglesias used spanish politicians in twitter: a linguistic analysis of their written discourse ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216 203 i tweets retweets tweets + retweets tweets/day (tw/27) retweets/day (tw/27) total tw. daily pedro sánchez 100 71 171 3.70 2.63 6.33 pablo iglesias 153 161 314 5.67 5.96 11.63 pablo casado 237 77 314 8.78 2.85 11.63 albert rivera 140 86 226 5.19 3.19 8.37 table 1. interactions on twitter: 15/09/2018-11/10/2018. 10.61 words per sentence, whereas casado used 17.17, being this percent variation 61.83%. at last, regarding sentences per tweet, iglesias used more sentences in contrast to rivera, the percentage variation between these two politicians was 54.49%. next, table 3 shows some features as to how the four politicians use twitter. these features refer to the use of questions, exclamations, hashtags, mentions, emoji, and multimedia. as can be observed, the prime minister does not deliver questions in his twitter account, whereas the other politicians do. these questions tend to be addressed to the prime minister or other parties; in this sense, casado and rivera addressed most of their questions to prime minister sánchez and they were related to the catalonian secessionist crisis. some examples are “mr. sánchez, why did you move coup-leader prisoners to catalonia and why are you considering possible pardon?” or “where is pedro sánchez in a moment of chaos and violence sown by secessionist in catalonia?” in the case of iglesias, he often uses rhetorical questions to promote critical thinking among the audience and against political and juridical corruption. some examples are “who does not want to protect nature?” or “which is the limit of power company’s greed?” regarding the use of emoji, the newcomers iglesias and rivera were the leaders. the former used a wide range of emoji, and his choice was associated to the content of the tweet, whereas the latter also used emoji forms related to the content of his tweets but it was significant that flags, mainly the spanish one, were used in 21 tweets. last, the use of multimedia should also be commented. as can be observed, these politicians tend to attach videos, images and links to their tweets (retweets have been excluded). results show that the prime minister was the one who used the fewest resources, whereas casado used the most. in the case of the pp leader, he was the main focal point of the image or video in most of his tweets (94.51%). the other politicians also tended to be the focal point of their images and videos, but percentages were lower: prime minister sánchez (62.32%), rivera (38.52%), and iglesias (20.47%). ricardo casañ pitarch ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216204 characters with spaces words sentences characters/ tweet words/ tweet words/ sentence sentences/ tweet pedro sánchez 25,344 3,826 296 253.44 38.26 12.93 2.96 pablo iglesias 38,021 5,505 519 248.50 35.98 10.61 3.39 pablo casado 59,801 9,480 552 252.32 40.00 17.17 2.33 albert rivera 30,015 4,767 307 214.39 34.05 15.53 2.19 table 2. language forms: characters, words, sentences. the second part of the research focused on analyzing qualitatively how these politicians deal with certain relevant topics in spain, such as welfare, campaigning, and the nationalist and feminist movements. as shown in the following table, there are some noticeable differences among the four parties. to start with, both left-wing politicians seemed to be more interested in social welfare than the right-wing rivals. in this respect, casado was more interested in the people’s economic welfare, whereas mr. rivera did not publish much information on this topic. in table 4, some terms on social welfare issues were identified; for example, prime minister sánchez used nouns such as compromiso (commitment, 0.42%), derecho (right, 0.31%), apoyo (support, 0.26%). with the same purpose, iglesias frequently used the terms gente/personas/ciudadanos (0.65%), derecho (right, 0.38%), trabajo (job/work, 0.24%) or vida (life, 0.24%). among the top ten most used words by the right-wing participants, casado used the word apoyo (support, 0.28%), whereas rivera used derecho (right, 0.34%). concerning political campaigns in twitter, it has been observed that the two left-wing political leaders have similar percentages in terms of political propaganda, and the same happens with the two right-wing candidates, spanish politicians in twitter: a linguistic analysis of their written discourse ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216 205 ? ! # @ !! multim. ?/tw !/tw #/tw @/tw !! /tw multim./ tweet pedro sánchez 0 16 202 39 16 69 0.00 0.16 2.02 0.39 0.16 0.69 pablo iglesias 11 16 37 72 73 127 0.07 0.10 0.24 0.47 0.48 0.83 pablo casado 22 0 129 124 5 237 0.09 0.00 0.54 0.52 0.02 1.00 albert rivera 7 20 69 54 54 135 0.05 0.14 0.49 0.39 0.39 0.96 table 3. other forms: questions, exclamations, hashtags, mentions, emoji, and multimedia. pedro sánchez pablo iglesias pablo casado albert rivera welfare social 29% 24.84% 3.38% 1.43% economy 6% 8.50% 13.08% 0.71% campaigning propaganda 42% 41.18% 34.60% 32.86% opposition 1% 4.58% 17.72% 22.14% feminist movement 20% 3.27% 0.84% 0.71% nationalist movement 4% 0.65% 29.96% 41.43% others 2% 2.61% 0.42% 0.71% table 4. main topics. despite the fact that first group tweeted more propaganda than the second one. however, these groups vary a great deal when it comes to oppose the other parties. in this case, the complaints to the opponents were more frequent in the right wing than the left. regarding campaigning, the four parties used the word gobierno (government), estado (state), país (country), and españa/españoles (spain/spaniards) quite often. whereas the left-wing parties mostly used them to refer to their positions in government, the right-wing introduced these terms to attack and make opposition. in these cases, the right-wing parties frequently named the prime minister sánchez (casado: 0.37%, rivera: 0.90%), or created the word sanchismo with a sense of imposition from the prime minister (rivera: 0.02%). they also addressed the government with the word estado (state, casado: 0.25%, rivera: 0.36%); and casado regularly called for elecciones (elections, 0.23%). lastly, both parties showed a great concern towards certain social movements, such as the nationalist crisis in spain and feminism. in the case of rivera, nationalism was especially relevant among his tweets (41.43%). on the contrary, the left-wing parties did not seem to pay the same degree of attention to this crisis, and in the case of iglesias, he only tweeted about this issue once. rivera and casado seemed to be the most sensitive towards this topic and they regularly used the noun words cataluña/catalanes (catalonia/catalans, casado: 0.43%, rivera: 0.44%). rivera used other words such as separatistas/separatismo (separatist/separatism 0.57%), the catalan prime minister torrà (0.42%), or ley (law, 0.38%) and democracia (democracy, 0.38%). in addition, they also mentioned artículo 155 (casado: 0.21%, rivera: 0.06%), which is an article in the spanish constitution that ricardo casañ pitarch ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216206 sánchez % iglesias % casado % rivera % gobierno* (25) 0.65 gobierno* (26) 0.47 españ* (107) 1.13 españ* (67) 1.41 mujer* (24) 0.63 españ* (22) 0.40 gobierno* (70) 0.74 sánchez (42) + sanchismo (2) = 44 0.92 españ* (20) 0.52 gente (13) + persona* (9) = 22 0.40 cataluña (41) 0.43 separatis* (27) 0.57 igualdad (18) 0.47 derecho* (21) 0.38 sánchez (35) 0.37 catal* (21) 0.44 comprom* (16) 0.42 polític* (18) 0.33 apoy* (27) 0.28 torrá (20) 0.42 derecho* (12) 0.31 presupuesto* (16) 0.29 nacional (25) 0.26 gobierno* (20) 0.42 país (10) -es (2) 0.31 euros (14) 0.25 estado (24) 0.25 ley* (18) 0.38 estado* (11) 0.29 ciudadan* (14) 0.25 elecciones (22) 0.23 democra* (18) 0.38 apoy* (10) 0.26 trabajo* (13) 0.24 educación (19) 0.20 estado* (17) 0.36 cariño* (8) 0.21 vida* (13) 0.24 prime ministere* (19) 0.20 derecho (16) 0.34 table 5. most frequent noun words. allows the government to intervene politically and militarily in any region that promotes territorial secessionism. as to the feminist movement, prime minister sánchez was significantly more supporting towards the feminist movement than his government supporter, iglesias, and much more than the right-wing politicians in this study. the most usual words tweeted by the prime minister were mujer (woman, 0.63%), and igualdad (equality, 0.47%), whereas the word cariño (love/affection, 0.21%) was mostly used to give condolences to female victims of domestic violence. 5. discussion as these results illustrate, twitter seems to provide some information about politicians’ communication styles. the connection of these results will be discussed in this section with the aim of describing some significant linguistic features of their written discourse through this social network, and how their strategies and styles help them achieve their political goals. prime minister pedro sánchez is in the privileged position that the other politicians strive achieve in the next elections, if not earlier. he aspires to maintain his prime ministerial seat in the government; and thus, his strategies and objectives may differ from those of the other candidates. it should be noticed that he is the politician who tweets the least among the four leaders, and maybe this could be related to the fact that he does not need to promote himself through social networks as much as the others since he is the main focus of attention for the national media. in addition, his language also seems to be cautious and he avoids starting discussion with controversial issues such as the catalan secessionist crisis. instead, the prime minister makes his own propaganda, which includes supporting current sensitive issues such as the feminist movement. this connects with the idea of funk (2016), who suggested that left-wing parties support social causes and they never react against them. in fact, he is the one among the four politicians who has paid the most attention to feminism. this seems to be a strategy to obtain female votes, especially considering that the magnitude of this movement and society’s awareness has significantly increased in recent years. as appointed by spicker (2014), left-wing parties tend to support social welfare in terms of collectivism and helping minority or endangered groups. with reference to his language, prime minister sánchez has used approximately 3 sentences in each tweet, and they tend to be relatively spanish politicians in twitter: a linguistic analysis of their written discourse ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216 207 shorter in comparison with those of the right-wing opponents. this results in direct messages which are less cognitively demanding; as explained by djafarova (2008), audiences are more attracted by short sentences and they are easier to be understood. in other words, by using plain language, sánchez seems to focus on people with basic education rather than on those with an advanced level, who are used to receiving more cognitively demanding messages, as suggested by heylighen and dewaele (1999). this fact does not necessarily imply that voters with right or left-wing ideologies have inferior or superior cognitive skills, but that these groups can be approached with some specific language forms; for example, the right-wing american president donald trump also used shorter sentences in his campaign in order to approach individuals with lower cognitive skills (casañ-pitarch, 2018). next, pedro sánchez also seems to be quite neutral, neither too formal nor too informal. in addition, his political party is one of the two most traditional ones in spain, and although they are tagged as progressive, he could be chained to maintaining certain language manners and formality in twitter in order to keep certain proximity with their older voters. however, it may be acknowledged that this formality does not seem to prevent him from using emoji forms, which add emotion and they approach the young and the middle aged. as suggested by stark and crawford (2015), emoji can help establish social bonds by sharing a positive attitude. among other features of his language, the current spanish prime minister seems to have a relaxed neutral tone, which in general addresses to left-wing supporters, especially women and working class people of all ages. iglesias is currently giving support to prime minister sánchez in the spanish government. his political views are more left-wing than the current spanish prime minister and some opponents have even tagged him as a radical. his main propaganda seems to be twofold: on the one hand, it concerns his fight against corruption, elitism, and right-wing parties and, on the other, he aims at offering more social benefits to middle and low classes as well as promoting social equality, as it is expected from a left-wing parties (aron, 2017; jones, 2018). in this sense, he mainly promotes social welfare, but also focuses on the economy and industrial development. his tweets do not tend to attack the other parties, but a few examples of opposition towards psoe and the right-wing have been found. so, this seems to be a sign that he is not taking side with anyone, although he can either support or attack other parties. regarding his views on the feminist and catalan movements, it seems that he wants to avoid entering into conflict with certain topics, and ricardo casañ pitarch ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216208 has not tweeted about them very often (spicker, 2014). the reason can be that his opinion would be definitely magnified by the media and affect his propaganda. concerning his language, his tweets contained more sentences (3-4) than the other parties, but they were the shortest. this could be interpreted as a sign to make his messages less cognitively demanding and easier to remember. this idea is supported by djafarova (2008), and iglesias and sánchez seem to follow the same principle with the aim of targeting voters with less cognitive skills. he also seems a closer politician with the use of emoji, which help transfer emotions through his messages (vergeer, 2015). these facts clearly imply that he is addressing his messages to the lower socioeconomic levels within society, and especially to younger people concerned with job insecurity. pablo casado’s party has historically been the main opposition to psoe, being conservative and right-wing. in 2018, the pp party was involved in an institutional crisis after receiving a vote of no confidence, and consequently they lost the presidency in the government. since then, it seems that some conservative voters decided to find alternatives and some of them choose ciudadanos, which is also right-wing but more progressive in aspects like religion. as a response to this crisis, the new leader should promote regeneration within the party, and at the same time it seems that he also keeps certain parallelism with their counterpart in ciudadanos, although this fact cannot be confirmed. however, casado does not seem to be supported by all his party members; and thus, it is likely that he needs to show that he can be a solid and strong leader. consequently, the need for both internal and external political propaganda could justify why he is the leader who has posted most tweets in the same period, as an attempt to reinforce his image as leader and enhance his party reputation (weber, 2019). furthermore, he always accompanies his texts with multimedia as photos and videos in which he appears as the main protagonist in his photos and videos. as appointed by some authors (balakhonskaya et al., 2018; hwang, 2012; millan & ball, 2010), it seems that he needs to promote his image with the purpose of maintaining his position as a good party leader with cult to his personality, a strategy that has been used in the past by other historical leaders (hammond et al., 2017; paltiel, 1983). as for his main focus as political leader, his understanding of welfare seems to relate to the economy rather than social rights and benefits, as it is expected in right-wing leaders (berlet & lyons, 2018). casado is also concerned with the nationalist movement; and he devotes a great number of tweets to this issue. this political strategy could spanish politicians in twitter: a linguistic analysis of their written discourse ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216 209 be an attempt to recover the confidence of some of his dissatisfied voters in catalonia, the region where the party ciudadanos was founded and is most popular. finally, he constantly opposes the leader of the current government with different arguments, being corruption one of the main topics. in fact, his party lost control of the government due to its presumed corruption, and he seems to counterattack prime minister sánchez with the same topic. as suggested by lópez-meri et al. (2017), this strategy is usual among the parties in the opposition to criticize and discredit the current prime minister and his government. concerning his language style, the pp leader is the one who writes the longest tweets and sentences among the four leaders. this contrasts with the style of prime minister sánchez and iglesias; thus, it seems that this style is addressed to people with better cognitive skills, and this tend to be found more often in people with advanced education than in those with basic one (heylighen & dewaele, 1999). his language is rather formal and avoids exclamation marks or emoji forms. this formal language register seems to be suitable to communicate with his elderly conservative audience (jaeger et al., 2018; prada et al., 2018), but his young physical appearance (39) could also be an attempt to attract younger and middle-aged people. initially, ciudadanos tagged itself as a center-left-wing party. however, it seems that as time passed by their political interests and views have clearly changed towards the right-wing. it also seems that the aim of this party is to confront the catalan secessionist movement. according to the information and data collected from his tweets, it seems obvious that his target audience is twofold: non-secessionist catalan people, and dissatisfied right-wing voters, mainly from casado’s pp. as can be observed, there are three main topics that he covers in twitter, and the main one concerns his opposition to catalan secessionism. then, he is continuously attacking the current government with the aim of complaining as for its soft attitude against secessionism, and demanding new elections. as was also the case with casado, this is a usual strategy among the parties in the opposition (lópezmeri et al., 2017). his style looks fresh and is aimed to attract right-wing voters, most of them dissatisfied with other parties. therefore, his posts tend to include emoji; and among them, the spanish flag is frequent. this enhances the image of a patriotic party and leader. the power of emotions transferred by emoji has been previously explained by vergeer (2015). regarding his writing style, his sentences are longer than the other three politicians; and although this fact may be a sign of eloquence, his messages ricardo casañ pitarch ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216210 are cognitively more demanding than the rest, and consequently the information is more difficult to retain. as explained by djafarova (2008), simple language increases the possibilities of being understood; therefore, his target audience seems to be oriented to voters with tertiary education. 6. conclusion social networks are partially responsible for some of the communication changes that society has experienced in the two decades. in addition to the normal use of twitter to publish and share information with other users, and interconnect those messages and people with hashtags and @ signs, politicians seems to have found their use for their political campaigns beneficial. as it happens with other forms of discourse, political discourse is also subjected to specific rules and conventions, which make it a specialized genre. in addition, politics is increasingly becoming a profession rather than a service; and for that reason, its specific language forms could be tagged in the same category as other professions such as banking, medicine, or engineering, among many others. the popularity of this social network makes that political leaders need to be present in twitter in order to approach a part of their target audience. in this research, some tweets from the current prime minister pedro sánchez (psoe), pablo iglesias (podemos), pablo casado (pp), and albert rivera (ciudadanos) have been analyzed with the aim of describing some relevant linguistic features of their written discourse in twitter. the major findings in this research are that there are some common characteristics that distinguish left and right-wing parties, and also government and opposition. in this sense, the messages conveyed by leftwing parties, psoe and podemos, were addressed to social causes and welfare, supporting minority or endangered groups (feminism), and never reacting against them (catalonia secessionism). this contrasts with the right-wing ones, pp and ciudadanos, who continuously attacked catalonia secessionism and almost ignored the feminist movement. concerning their language, both prime minister sánchez and mr. iglesias used shorter sentences than the right-wing leaders. this implies that these messages were easier to understand; and this fact usually benefits people with inferior cognitive skills, which mainly involve people with basic education and lower working classes. the history of these two left-wing parties is associated to laborers; and being spanish politicians in twitter: a linguistic analysis of their written discourse ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216 211 a coincidence or not, the difference between the left and right-wing parties on their sentence length seems to be a significant finding according to our literature review. this fact suggests that language forms in politics are modified around their interests and addressed to their target audience. in the case of the right-wing parties, they tend to be associated with capitalism, corporations and economy welfare, which results in the privatization of public services. the fact of having better jobs also implies earning higher salaries, and this leads to more possibilities to afford an advanced education, which usually results in a better development of their cognitive skills. consequently, people with advanced education tend to have a better capability to understand messages with a higher degree of complexity in comparison to those with basic one. another noteworthy finding in this research is the fact that literature and the results of our experiment coincide in the fact that opposition need to attack the government, and not vice versa. in our corpus, it could be observed how the right-wing parties continuously tried to discredit the prime minister. on the other hand, iglesias was more cautious on attacking his partner in the government. in addition, it should also be emphasized the fact that some parties used emoji in order to give emotion to their tweets. in this case, it seems that this fact was related to the age of their target voters and regardless of their political orientation. ciudadanos and podemos, the youngest parties, were keener on their use than pp and psoe, the historically most popular parties in spain. this fact could imply that the newbies focused on younger audiences, whereas the traditional ones, perhaps, relied on the loyalty of their older voters and avoided forms of language that are not usual among older people. at last, this research has also found that some politicians need to build reputation and a good image, and twitter seems to be a good tool since it allows introducing media. as previously said, this is associated to the idea of promoting a personality cult, a usual strategy among political leaders. in conclusion, this paper has attempted to explain the connection between the written communication styles and the political interests of the four most popular political leaders in spain in 2019. this study aims at justifying the discourse forms used by these four politicians, and it seems that the ideas introduced in the literature coincide with the results from the experiment. therefore, it seems that political discourse in twitter could be considered a specialized genre. ricardo casañ pitarch ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216212 regarding limitations, it should be acknowledged that different interpretations could have been made from the same results, and extending the corpus or the participants would also be a great help to understand the political context in spain. in the same way, further research could also be more specific and focus exclusively on one single politician or on one individual element. acknowledgments the author would like to acknowledge the support and help received from carmen sancho and ruth breeze to review this article and attain the quality standards required by ibérica. article history: received 30 january 2019 received in revised form 09 march 2020 accepted 20 april 2020 references spanish politicians in twitter: a linguistic analysis of their written discourse ibérica 40 (2020): 195-216 213 alcántara-plá, m. & a. ruiz-sánchez (2018). “las campañas electorales en las redes sociales: el ejemplo de twitter en españa” in c. llamas saíz (ed.), el análisis del discurso político: géneros y metodologías, 131-154. pamplona: eunsa. aron, r. 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(2011). “ambient affiliation: a linguistic perspective on twitter”. new media & society 13(5): 788-806. iberica 13 ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 issn 1139-7241 abstract teaching second language learners how to write research reports constitutes a crucial component in programmes on english for specific purposes (esp) in institutions of higher learning. one of the rhetorical segments in research reports that merit attention has to do with the descriptions and justifications of sampling procedures. this genre-based study looks into sampling delineations in the method-related sections of research articles on the teaching of english as a second language (tesl) written by expert writers and published in eight reputed international refereed journals. using swales’s (1990 & 2004) framework, i conducted a quantitative analysis of the rhetorical steps and a qualitative investigation into the language resources employed in delineating sampling procedures. this investigation has considerable relevance to esp students and instructors as it has yielded pertinent findings on how samples can be appropriately described to meet the expectations of dissertation examiners, reviewers, and supervisors. the findings of this study have furnished insights into how supervisors and instructors can possibly teach novice writers ways of using specific linguistic mechanisms to lucidly describe and convincingly justify the sampling procedures in the method sections of experimental research reports. keywords: genre analysis, applied discourse analysis, research reports, writing instruction, academic writing. delineating sampling procedures: pedagogical significance of analysing sampling descriptions and their justifications in tesl experimental research reports jason miin-hwa lim malaysian university of sabah (malaysia) drjasonlim@gmail.com 71 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 71 ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 jason miin-hwa lim resumen concretando los procedimientos de muestreo: importancia pedagógica del análisis de las descripciones de muestreo y sus justificaciones en los informes de investigación experimental en la enseñanza del inglés como segunda lengua enseñar a los estudiantes de una segunda lengua cómo escribir informes constituye un componente crucial en los programas de inglés para fines específicos (ife) que se imparten en instituciones de educación superior. uno de los aspectos retóricos en los informes de investigación a los que se debe prestar atención guarda relación con las descripciones y justificaciones de los procedimientos de muestreo. este trabajo, basado en estudios de género, examina los pasos retóricos referentes al muestreo que figuran en la sección de métodos de los artículos de investigación relacionados con la enseñanza del inglés como segunda lengua, escritos por investigadores expertos y publicados en ocho prestigiosas revistas académicas internacionales. usando como marco de referencia los trabajos de swales (1990 y 2004), hemos llevado a cabo, por un lado, un análisis cuantitativo de los pasos retóricos y, por otro, una investigación cualitativa de los recursos del lenguaje que se emplean para concretar y definir procedimientos de muestreo. esta investigación tiene considerable relevancia para los estudiantes y académicos de ife al haberse obtenido conclusiones pertinentes relativas al modo más adecuado en el que se pueden describir las muestras objeto de estudio, satisfaciendo de este modo las expectativas de los examinadores, evaluadores y directores del trabajo de investigación elaborado. los hallazgos de este estudio aportan claves que ayudan a los directores y profesores en su labor docente para con los escritores noveles; concretamente, cómo utilizar mecanismos lingüísticos específicos para describir con claridad y justificar de forma convincente los procedimientos de muestreo en las secciones de los informes de investigación experimental que se ocupan de la descripción del método de investigación palabras clave: análisis de género, análisis de discurso aplicado, informes de investigación, docencia de la producción escrita, escritura académica. introduction writing dissertations often forms a crucial part of undergraduate and master’s programmes in the teaching of english as a second language (tesl) and other fields related to language education. novice writers, however, frequently encounter problems while presenting new information in the early chapters of a dissertation, particularly the introductory and 72 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 72 methodological chapters. this study was therefore motivated by my concerns about the language difficulties faced by second language dissertation writers in writing the drafts of dissertations submitted to supervisors for comments and corrections. one of the information elements containing numerous language errors has to do with the delineations of sampling procedures in the method section of a research report. in recent genre-analyses (e.g., flowerdew, 2005; kanoksilapatham, 2005; samraj, 2005; lim, 2006; ding, 2007), the word “delineation” or “delineating” has been used to carry the meaning of “describing or reporting something (particularly a procedure, move, or rhetorical structure) in great detail”. as errors are often attributed to learners’ understanding of the circumstances under which samples were collected and their command of the language, some instances of errors (committed by undergraduate learners) need to be cited here to demonstrate the need to study experienced writers’ language choices associated with this communicative move. the following examples illustrate some authentic errors committed by undergraduate novice writers in the delineations of sampling procedures in their final year dissertations. while these errors have been highlighted with italics, their associated corrections, replacements, additions, and/or explanations are indicated in parentheses as shown below: (1) the researcher decided to use what is (to be deleted) random sampling. this technique is (was) more useful to select (for selecting) the respondents from all the population (nardi, 2003). the researcher selects (selected) all the form four students because there were only three classes of form four in that school. (2) the form four esl learners was (were) chosen because they are (were) capable to read (capable of reading) the questionnaire in (the) english language, and if they do (did) not understand (the text given) at least it is (it would be at least) easier to conduct (guide) them. the aforementioned instances have illustrated that language difficulties are not merely restricted to tense usage, but may include mistakes in the use of vocabulary items, lexical chunks, and phrasal combinations. while it has to be acknowledged that numerous recent studies have focused on analysing errors in learners’ language usage and difficulties (döpke, 1999; ellis, 2006; collins, 2007; lim, 2007), linguists and genre analysts such as bhatia (1993), berkenkotter and huckin (1995), hudson (2007) or swales (1990 & 2004) emphasise the significance of acquiring “situated knowledge” and “genre delineating sampling procedures ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 73 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 73 knowledge” while learning language in various academic contexts. this can be done through comprehending sufficient examples of authentic text segments (used by expert writers) in close relation to the communicative functions of the rhetorical segments concerned. the aforementioned segments appear in the form of rhetorical moves, each of which comprises several possible steps signifying the writers’ communicative functions that are relevant to the specialised discourse community. a “move” here is defined as “a rhetorical unit that performs a coherent communicative function in a written or spoken discourse” (swales, 2004: 228). although a move may be realised in the form of a clause, a sentence or several sentences, swales (2004) has pointed out that it is not a formal unit but a functional one. several rhetorical steps (under a move) may then perform different specific functions, all of which accomplish the same principal function of the move, which constitutes a hierarchically higher functional unit. in the context of this study, analysing the aforementioned segments associated with sampling delineations may provide us with adequate related instances that can be used as (i) examples in pre-writing instructional sessions, and (ii) frames of reference in post-writing corrections and explanations. to comprehend the status of these rhetorical segments, i will first review some genre-based studies connected with sampling delineations. in the method section, “delineating/describing the sample” was given the status of a “step” within a move rather than a move by itself in some disciplines such as medicine (nwogu, 1997) and management (lim, 2006). nevertheless, it would be interesting to find out whether this rhetorical category is so inextricably linked with other related steps that it can always be aptly viewed as parts of a particular move (i.e., “describing data collection procedures”). motivated by such concerns, this study aims to (i) determine whether “delineating the sample” is a stable move occurring in most of the journal articles on tesl, (ii) ascertain the possible ways in which these sampling procedures are justified, and (iii) identify the salient linguistic mechanisms that experienced writers frequently use to describe and justify these sampling procedures. in relation to the aforementioned objectives, some past research needs to be reviewed to indicate (i) the general prevalence of “delineating data collection procedures” in several disciplines, and (ii) the prominent characteristics of these steps. while holmes (1997) found that the method sections are rare (2 jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 21 (2011): 71-9274 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 74 out of 10) in history research articles (ras), posteguillo (1999) reported that computer science articles in his corpus do not include the method section at all. in contrast, the biochemistry method sections studied by kanoksilapatham (2005) contained a 4-move structure consisting of “describing materials”, “describing experimental procedures”, “detailing equipment”, and “describing statistical procedures”. in her study, the segments referring to the sample were given the functional label “describing materials” (kanoksilapatham, 2005: 277) rather than “describing the sample” (lim, 2006: 287). nonetheless, the term “materials” in the context of biochemistry articles also refers to a “sample” (of natural substances, human/animal organs or tissues, or chemicals whose source and/or background are often described) analysed instead of merely a set of objects needed in collecting or analysing data. the extent to which the significance of sampling descriptions varies across disciplines can be further considered via a comparison of the prevalence of sampling descriptions in biochemistry method sections with that in (i) medical research methods studied by nwogu (1997), and (ii) management method sections analysed by lim (2006). nwogu (1997), in particular, provided a three-move structure for the method sections of medical research papers, in which the major communicative moves were (i) “describing data-collection procedures” (nwogu, 1997: 128) involving medical researchers’ specifications of the source of data, sample size, and criteria for data collection); (ii) “describing experimental procedures” (nwogu, 1997: 129) involving logical and sequential descriptions of steps and procedures during the experimental process; and (iii) “describing data analysis procedures” (nwogu, 1997: 130) in which tools used in statistical or quantitative studies were identified and accounted for in relation to the body of the research data. the emerging problem is that “describing experimental procedures” in move 2 (specified by nwogu (1997) as a move that occurred mainly in experimental studies) is a functional label that also encompassed the meaning of “collecting data via experiments” in move 1. this means that move 2 in nwogu’s study (1997) can be reckoned to be a step of move 1 given that descriptions of experimental procedures in stages actually form part of the on-site “data collection procedures” (for experimental studies). it would therefore be interesting to use a corpus in a discipline, like tesl, to investigate whether provision of details concerning the source of data and sample characteristics might actually constitute a separate or distinct move delineating sampling procedures ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 75 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 75 that does not involve any on-site data collection procedure (in the experimental processes itself). in relation to this, lim (2006) reported that “describing the sample” is one of the three steps found in the initial move called “describing data collection procedures” – the other two steps being (i) “recounting steps in data collection” and (ii) “justifying data collection procedures”. despite his illustration using instances of the rhetorical categories in management research articles, two problems remain in regard to (i) whether descriptions of sampling procedures (also regarded by lim (2006) as part of data collection procedures) actually constitute part of the data gathering procedures in other disciplines (apart from management) in terms of communicative functions and sectional organisations, and (ii) whether the linguistic features of “describing the sample” are so distinctly different from those of “recounting data collection/gathering procedures” that these two rhetorical categories actually need to be considered as separate moves (rather than steps within the same move). more importantly, as genres are dynamic and open to change in response to users’ needs and changes in the contexts in which they occur (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; paltridge, 2000), it would be interesting to investigate how a particular rhetorical category is expressed in a certain discipline. as genres become recognizable only after they have become “somewhat standardised” (bhatia, 1995: 1), experimental articles related to tesl, which form an established and standardised subgenre of applied linguistics ras, may therefore provide useful information on (i) the extent to which sampling delineations constitute a separate move, (ii) its detailed communicative functions and the frequency of its related justifications, and (iii) the linguistic mechanisms used to accomplish the related communicative functions. motivated by the need to enlighten second language learners in their reading and writing of the method sections in tesl experimental studies, this genre-based study seeks to answer three research questions as follows: (1) what are the communicative functions of “delineating the sample” in experimental research papers on tesl? (2) do the frequencies of sampling delineations in tesl experimental reports largely hinge on the types of headings that the writers use? jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 21 (2011): 71-9276 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 76 (3) what salient language mechanisms are used to delineate the sample in research papers on tesl? research method to obtain data pertaining to the aforementioned research questions, a total of 32 tesl-related articles on experimental research were selected from eight different international refereed journals published from 2004 to 2008, including applied linguistics, tesol quarterly, studies in second language acquisition, language teaching research, journal of english for academic purposes, international review of applied linguistics in language teaching, system, and relc journal. the purposive sample, comprising four articles from each journal, was selected using my “experience and knowledge of the group to be sampled” (gay, mills & airasian, 2009: 134), and the selection criteria were that the articles had to be (i) those published in established international refereed journals, and (ii) closely connected with experimental research in the teaching of english. in some of these journals, the research procedures are presented in sections under investigation-focused headings, such as “the study” or “the experimental study”, but in accordance with lim (2006) and pho (2009), they are considered as “method sections”. the findings obtained on the delineation of sampling procedures are therefore generalisable only to tesl articles bearing the aforementioned characteristics. two specialist informants who had published tesl experimental research articles in established international refereed journals were interviewed to (i) provide views on the rationale for describing sampling procedures in the discipline, and (ii) ascertain the degree of acceptability of the communicative functions involved in sampling descriptions. the informants’ spoken data in the face-to-face interviews were recorded digitally and studied to “triangulate the discourse analyses” (berkenkotter, 2009: 13) of the tesl experimental research reports. the overall organisation of the articles was analysed before attention was focused on studying (i) the generic structure of the sections containing sampling delineations, and (ii) the linguistic exponents employed to realise each rhetorical move and constituent step. swales’s (1990 & 2004) seminal “movestep analysis” was first used to examine the texts using a contextual procedure that emphasised communicative purposes recognised by expert members of an academic discourse community. using the approach, i analysed the genre in delineating sampling procedures ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 77 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 77 terms of distinct units in a hierarchically organised framework whereby a section was divided into rhetorical moves that were subsequently broken down into constituent steps. this study first attempted to distinguish “delineating the sample” from other co-occurring rhetorical categories in the method sections. the minimal unit to which a main rhetorical function could be assigned was a t-unit, which is “one main clause plus any subordinate clause or nonclausal structure that is attached to, or embedded in it” (hunt, 1970: 4). more generally, each t-unit analysed in this study was “an independent clause and all of its dependent clauses” (sachs & polio, 2007: 79). this means that each rhetorical step is “minimally” a t-unit consisting of one main clause in some cases, although it may comprise several sentences or paragraphs (with the same rhetorical function) in other cases. a different rhetorical step incorporated in a subordinate/dependent clause was considered as having been embedded in the step found in the main/super-ordinate clause(s) of the t-unit. subsequently, occurrences of each step were marked in each text so that its frequency could be identified. typographical features, division of sections and subsections, and linguistic features were used to distinguish this move from others (mauranen, 1993; connor, davis, & de rycker, 1995; nwogu, 1997; connor & mauranen, 1999). a step constituting a segment might consist of a main clause or even several sentences insofar as its occurrence was not interrupted by any other rhetorical step. attention was then focused on all segments associated with sampling descriptions and/or justifications (if any). each segment pertaining to sampling delineations were analysed to ascertain whether other moves (particularly those associated with on-site gathering of data) were embedded in them. the number of occurrences of sampling delineations was counted with reference to the number of times a step appeared without being interrupted by any other step. mann-whitney u-tests were conducted to ascertain the extent to which the frequencies of the steps associated with sampling delineations differ in accordance with the major headings under which the related segments appear. salient linguistic features were then analysed with reference to sentence structures, clause elements, categories of phrases, and parts of speech if they appeared as prominent features of the rhetorical category. the analysis of prominent linguistic choices was conducted on the basis of (i) linguistic descriptions provided by quirk et al. (1985), and greenbaum and quirk (1990), and (ii) descriptions of academic language as illustrated by thomas and hawes (1994) and lim (2006, 2008 & 2009) for the research genre. jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 21 (2011): 71-9278 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 78 results and discussion based on the analysis, two major steps associated with the delineation of sampling procedures have been identified. while the first step (i.e., “describing the sample/participants”) pertains to sampling criteria and descriptions of the location, size, and proficiency-related characteristics of a sample, the second step (i.e., “justifying the sampling procedures”) focuses on the writer’s demonstrations of the comparability of treatment groups and highlights advantages of employing the sample. consulted on the aspects covered in research procedures, both specialist informants acknowledged the frequent inclusion of these two distinctly separate rhetorical steps on sampling delineations. the communicative functions found in the step analysis and endorsed by the specialist informants are illustrated in table 1. step no. communicative functions specialist informant a (sia) has pointed out writers’ tendency to consider the “overall design”, which she called the “conceptualization of the whole study”, before moving on to sampling descriptions and deciding on the material/s or items to be used in the instrument. this has supported my categorisation of sampling descriptions as a distinctly separate move from descriptions of overall research designs and descriptions of materials and/or instruments. specialist informant b (sib) has commented that “sample is separated from procedures for instrument development, and for actually administering the test” and “so we have subjects, instruments and procedures”. in this context, she referred to “procedure” as the actual “administering of instrument” (not descriptions of the instrument) at the research site where data were collected. this has again substantiated my decision to categorise sampling delineations as being different from the moves associated with the descriptions of materials and instruments and delineating sampling procedures ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 79 step no. communicative functions step 1: describing the sample/participants (a) describing the location of the sample/participants; (b) describing the size of the population; (c) describing the characteristics of the sample (sizes, origins, age groups/levels, educational backgrounds, socio-economic levels, language proficiency levels, language used (frequency of usage), training and qualifications, experience, assessment criteria for grouping, requirements, etc.); (d) describing the sampling criteria/techniques step 2: justifying the sampling procedure/s (a) demonstrating comparability of the treatment groups; (b) highlighting advantages of using the sample. table 1. communicative functions of “delineating the sample” in tesl experimental research articles. 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 79 those of on-site data collection procedures. in regard to justifications, sia has considered the incorporations of justifications as optional and dependent on the need of the writer. sia has also specified that when a procedure “is not really mainstream” and is considered as not readily accepted by the research community, it would be necessary to justify the procedure concerned by citing the past researchers who adopted them although few details of past research methods may be incorporated. given the aspects illustrated above, we can now study the overall distribution and frequencies of the steps to provide an overview of the degrees of prevalence of sampling delineations in method sections 1 through 32 (i.e., m1 – m32). table 2 shows that “describing the sample/participants” appears in most (i.e., 31 out of 32 method sections) of the tesl experimental research articles, with 2.09 occurrences per section (i.e., 67 occurrences in a corpus of 32 method sections). “justifying the sampling procedures”, however, occurs in nearly half (i.e., 14 out of 32) of the research reports, with 0.53 occurrence per section. mann-whitney u-tests were conducted to identify the inter-heading differences in the occurrences of both steps in the entire corpus. mannwhitney u-tests were used instead of independent samples t-tests (although the number of occurrences is a ratio variable) because the occurrences were not normally distributed for all the constituent steps. table 3 shows the mann-whitney u-statistics and asymptotic values for each of these steps. as the asymptotic values for all the steps in the method sections are above the cut-off point of 0.05, i have found no significant inter-heading differences in the occurrences of sampling delineations. occurrences of both steps therefore exhibit no significant differences across papers with procedure-focused headings (e.g., “method/s”, “methodology”, “research design”, etc.) or investigation-focused headings (e.g., “the study”, “the experiment”, “the experimental study”, etc.). having justified the inclusion of the segments related to research methods, the following sections focus on qualitative results for each of these steps. article no. heading for the results section step 1 step 2 steps 1-2 jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 21 (2011): 71-9280 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 80 step 1: describing the sample/participants step 1 often (i) precedes segments pertaining to descriptions of research instruments and other on-site data collection procedures, and (ii) includes descriptions of the characteristics of the participants, and the locations delineating sampling procedures ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 81 article no. heading for the results section step 1 step 2 steps 1-2 m1 method (three experiments) 3 1 4 m2 methods 2 0 2 m3 method 2 0 2 m4 experiment 1 & experiment 2 2 1 3 m5 method 3 2 5 m6 method 2 0 2 m7 experiment 1 & experiment 2 3 0 3 m8 method 2 2 4 m9 methodology 6 2 8 m10 study 1 & study 2 2 1 3 m11 the current study (2 analyses) 4 0 4 m12 method 2 0 2 m13 method 1 1 2 m14 the experiment 2 0 2 m15 method 2 1 3 m16 the study 3 0 3 m17 the experimental study 3 0 3 m18 the experimental study 1 1 2 m19 design of the study 3 1 4 m20 method 2 0 2 m21 experiment i & experiment 2 0 0 0 m22 experiment 1 & experiment 2 1 1 2 m23 experimental design 1 0 1 m24 method 1 0 1 m25 research method 2 0 2 m26 the experiments 2 1 3 m27 research design 1 1 2 m28 method 1 1 2 m29 method 2 0 2 m30 methodology 1 0 1 m31 an experiment 3 0 3 m32 the study 2 0 2 no. of tesl papers containing the step/s 31 14 31 frequency of step/s under procedure-focused headings 39 12 51 frequency of step/s under investigation-focused headings 28 5 33 total frequency of step/s in all method sections 67 17 84 mean frequency 2.09 0.53 2.63 median frequency 2.00 0.00 2.00 sd 1.118 0.671 1.431 table 2. frequencies of “describing the sample/participants” and “justifying the sampling procedures” in tesl experimental research papers. rhetorical category mann-whitney u statistic (u) asymptotic value (2-tailed) move 2-step 1 104.500 0.440 move 2-step 2 105.000 0.422 move 2 105.000 0.454 table 3. asymptotic significance values indicating inter-heading differences with reference to occurrences of the procedural steps. 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 81 where the samples were obtained. sampling descriptions rarely appear under the section heading “procedure” or “data collection procedure” (except in method sections 11, 25, and 31) as they generally constitute a separate subsection under a separate heading such as “participants” or “subjects” in half of the tesl experimental papers. in all cases, sampling delineations are always separated from on-site data gathering procedures, and they usually precede descriptions of data collection procedures in most (i.e., 19 out of 32) of the method sections. in some method sections, although brief on-site data collection procedures are described in sections under such headings as “participants” or “subjects”, they only appear after descriptions of the participants have been presented. sampling descriptions in tesl experimental research methods constitute a separate communicative move in that such descriptions do not incorporate descriptions of a series of stages in which the data were collected on the research site, or the preparation of the instruments used in collecting data. analysing the grouping methods alone reveals a key characteristic of “describing the sample” which is frequently found in the method sections of other disciplines such as management (e.g. lim, 2006). there are, however, characteristics typically found in the method sections of tesl experimental ras but not in those of other disciplines (see table 4). jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 21 (2011): 71-9282 subject (noun phrase denoting participants) predicator (copular verb in the past simple) complement (np describing participants and containing a headnoun premodified or postmodified by adjectival prepositional or participial phrases) adverbial/s (prepositional phrase/s indicating origin/s or research site/s or participial phrases indicating research sites or residential areas) the participants in the second trial were 62 dutch-speaking students (aged 19–20) of modern languages (majoring in english) at the same college for translation and interpreting as in the first experiment… (m1: 251) the participants in this study were 121 students learning english as a foreign language in fukuoka, japan… (m3: 51) individuals in this study were 154 esl students attending intensive programs at four u.s. universities. (r6: 278) participants were 32 students of modern languages, majoring in english, at a college for translation and interpreting in brussels, belgium. (m15: 248) the participants were 49 students enrolled in general english classes in a national university in japan. (m28: 357) all were cantonese, l1 speakers, of chinese ethnic background, living in high-rise housing blocks in medium income areas of the new territories of hong kong. (m31: 332) table 4. subject-predicator-complement-adverbial (spca) structures used in descriptions of participants in step 1. 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 82 for instance, the descriptions of the participants’ proficiency levels in the spca structure constitute a distinguishing feature of this step in tesl experimental methods. these typical descriptions of participants generally include a predicator consisting of a plural copular verb in the past simple, preceded by a sentence-subject comprising a shorter noun phrase denoting participants. the copular predicator is generally ensued by a more elaborate noun phrase describing participants, in which the headnoun is postmodified by participial phrases (e.g., “enrolled in general english classes”, “attending intensive programs”, etc.) and adjectival prepositional phrases (e.g., “of chinese background”, etc.) closely associated with language-related descriptions. the headnoun is often premodified by numeric figures and language-related adjectives (e.g., esl, cantonese, etc.). the sentence-final spatial adverbial is usually a prepositional phrase indicating the research site where the participants were involved. aside from the copular verbs, the use of transitive lexical verbs in the past tense also constitutes a salient feature of step 1. such instances are shown as follows: (1) all the learners reported previous english instruction … (m2: 50) (2) all participants reported limited exposure to english outside of school, a situation consistent with foreign language learning. (m9: 551) (3) these participants (mean age: 41.7; range: 18.1–61.0) reported using english on average only about 5% daily (0.23%), estimating their daily use of french at a mean of 95% (80–100%) ... (m11: 424) (4) however, a smaller proportion of the migrant students (53%) claimed to have had formal instruction at the private language schools ... (m16: 416) (5) following graduation from the military academy, all participants undertook the same post-graduate level of training in the army aviation school and training center ... (m20: 42) these predicator-object phrasal combinations generally contain transitive lexical verbs (e.g., “reported”, “undertook”, etc.) ensued by sentence-objects indicating language exposure (e.g., “limited exposure to english”, “formal instruction at the private language schools”, etc.). it can be seen that descriptions of the participants’ language backgrounds may be categorised into three major aspects, encompassing descriptions prior to, during, and after the research period as exemplified in table 5: delineating sampling procedures ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 83 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 83 the above categorisation of language proficiency descriptions has shown that authors generally describe participants’ backgrounds in tesl experimental research by referring to the subjects’ language-related activities with four major temporal features. while the past simple is used for describing participants’ proficiency levels during the research period, the past progressive indicates activities continuing during the research period. the present simple or present perfect is used occasionally for language-related activities that have relevance at the time of research reporting whereas the past simple and past perfect may be used to delineate activities before the research period in order to provide comprehensive background information on the subjects’ proficiency in the target language. the characteristics of the participants are often described with reference to the origins or backgrounds of the subjects as shown below: (6) the learners came from various l1 backgrounds, including asian, romance, and germanic. thus, the class makeup was typical of many university-level intensive english programs in the u.s. (m2: 50) jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 21 (2011): 71-9284 syntactic choice instance of references to hypotheses • the 28 esl learners who took part in the study were enrolled in a university-level intensive english program. (m2: 410) • students’ proficiency levels ranged from lower intermediate (50) to upper intermediate (51) to advanced level (53). fourteen different native languages were represented, with the largest being spanish (58), arabic (22), japanese (22), and korean (11). (m6: 278) using the past simple for descriptions of proficiency levels during the research period • their proficiency in english was estimated to be of upper-intermediate to advanced level … (m15: 248) • in the second school, the participants were 30 in total. the subjects were studying english in a secondary greek school (all at the age of 12-13) ... the participants selected in both schools were studying english ... (m13: 75) using the past progressive for activities continuing during the research period • except for three students from one of the private language schools, all students in this study were studying full-time … (m16: 418) • students enrolled in these classes have high school or equivalent degrees from their home countries, began studying english as teenagers, and have been in the united states for between 0 and 6 months ... (m7: 327) using the present simple/perfect for language activities with present relevance at the time of research reporting • university students in the netherlands have typically had 6–7 years of english in high school; all participants could therefore be expected to have at least an intermediate level of proficiency in english. (m12: 460) • fifteen students (11 korean, 3 japanese, and 1 indonesian) enrolled in a high-intermediate english as a second language (esl) class in the intensive english program (iep) at a large midwestern university participated in this study … participants had been in the united states for a range of 1 month to 1 year, and most of them had recently been placed in the high-intermediate level based on the iep placement test … (m10: 75) using either the past simple or the past perfect for languagerelated activities before the research period • the learners in the fourth group, the “early” group, were child (early) learners of english. they had arrived in the u.s. as children, at about 9 years of age, had resided in the u.s. for a mean of 11 years, … (m22: 235) table 5. syntactic choices used for describing language proficiency in step 1. 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 84 (7) the participants were selected from four second-year efl classes at kyushu university … (m3: 51) (8) the students were drawn from both international and immigrant esl populations …(m8: 261) (9) the participants were individually recruited from students (age range 18 to 20) at a technical college in japan …(m24: 15) (10) the subjects were all from “band 1” english medium secondary (high) schools, in an education system … (m31: 332) the expressions illustrated in (6)-(10) show that phrasal combinations comprising past tense verbs and prepositions indicating source or origin (e.g., “were drawn from”, “were recruited from”, etc.) constitute an important feature of this step in which more specific delineations of the participants, especially those concerning nationalities, classes, program areas, and types of college are subsequently presented. an alternative structure used to highlight participants’ involvement is the use of procedural verbs denoting participation as illustrated in table 6. in the cases where the past tense procedural verb is used, meticulous descriptions of the participants appear in the pre-predicator rather than the postpredicator position. delineating sampling procedures ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 85 subject (noun phrase denoting participants with pre-modifiers and post-modifiers) predicator (copular verb in the past simple) adverbial/s (prepositional phrase/s or infinitive clauses) forty-four students who had not participated in the rating exercise participated in the main experiment. (m4: 217) eighty native dutch-speaking students (51 female, 29 male) aged 18–29 (m = 21.5, sd = 2.46) at the university of amsterdam participated in the rating session, which was conducted as part of a 1-h test session at the department of psychology. participants received !7 (approximately us$8) for their participation. (m12: 460) a total of 104 students, who were enrolled in an introductory psychology course at the university of massachusetts, participated to fulfil a requirement for that course … (m14: 136) three intact classes of 99 firstyear japanese public high-school students (53 males and 46 females) aged 15 and 16 participated in this study. (m30: 110) table 6. subject-predicator-adverbial (spa) structures with detailed descriptions of participants appearing in the sentence-initial subjects in step 1. 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 85 the sentence-initial subjects generally appear heavily loaded with numerical and education-related pre-modifiers (e.g., “99 first-year japanese public highschool”) and other adverbial post-modifiers which are either prepositional phrases (e.g., “at the university of amsterdam”) or relative clauses (e.g., “who had not participated …”). in sampling descriptions, group formation usually becomes an indispensable feature, but a wide range of syntactic choices can be employed to accomplish the assignment of subjects into groups. descriptions of grouping methods in step 1 can be presented using (i) a passive verb denoting usage ensued by a preposition of purpose, (ii) passive phrasal verb denoting assignment, (iii) a passive verb phrase denoting choice, or (iv) a passive phrasal verb indicating division in the sentence-predicator position. instances illustrating group selection and assignment are given in table 7. of these syntactic choices, the use of passive phrasal verbs denoting assignment (e.g., “were assigned to”), verb phrase denoting choice (e.g., “were selected”) and phrasal verb indicating division (i.e., “were split into”, etc.) appear more prominent. jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 21 (2011): 71-9286 syntactic choice instance of segments indicating methods of grouping • two parallel groups with a shared history of english courses at the college were used as experimental (n=27) and control (n=35) groups. (m1: 248) employing a passive verb denoting usage ensued by a rolerelated preposition of purpose • two parallel groups sharing the same english courses were used as experimental (n=39) and control (n=23) groups. (m1: 251) • participants belonged to three groups: 10 l1 arabic speakers (arabic), 10 non-arabic esl learners (non-arabic esl), and 10 native speakers of english (english)…(m7: 327) listing groups after using a verb denoting relationship or formation • out of six intact classrooms, three groups were formed: the direct-only correction group (n = 31), the direct metalinguistic group (n = 32), and the control group (n = 28). (m8: 261) • one of the two classes was randomly assigned as a control group, and the other as an experimental group. (r2: 411) using a passive phrasal verb denoting assignment • these teachers were assigned to two experimental groups (recasts vs prompts) and a control group… (m9: 551) • these were selected after conducting preliminary observations in six intensive esl classes in six schools. (m9: 550) using a passive verb phrase denoting choice as the sentence-predicator • a total of eight students were randomly selected to participate in the oral proficiency assessment tasks…(m29: 347) • the learners were randomly distributed into two intact speaking and listening elective classes by the language program administrators ... (m2: 410) • they were split into three groups using a random procedure from the beginning of the experiment: pi group (n =15); ti group (n= 15); moi group (n = 17) …(m13: 75) employing a passive phrasal verb indicating division in the sentencepredicator position • all students were from the same class, that is, form three students from a chinese medium, low banding secondary school, and were divided into two groups of four … (m29: 347) table 7. syntactic choices used in indicating methods of grouping subjects in step 1. 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 86 like the use of the phrasal combinations above, subjects’ backgrounds in tesl experimental research are often depicted using the past perfect as illustrated in (11)-(13): (11) all of the participants had studied english for a minimum of seven years, and had scored 80 per cent or higher on the 2,000 word level of version 1 of the vocabulary levels test (schmitt 2000). their mean score was 27.4 indicating that they had mastered that level ... (m3: 51) (12) all were nss of quebec french and were born and raised in montreal (n = 6) or in granby, quebec (n = 34), in homes where only french was used. all participants had received primary and secondary education in french ... (m11: 413) (13) all the students had completed 6 years of english study, involving approximately 800 h of classroom instruction, before entering university... (m28: 357) this is a more distinct characteristic that illustrates the extent to which authors place greater emphasis on participants’ previous experience using the past perfect in the description of the sample. such references to past training of the participants provide readers with pertinent information on the educational backgrounds of the subjects, particularly in relation to language proficiency. step 2: justifying the sampling procedure this step differs from step 1 in that it moves beyond the mere description of a research activity, and hence, it is appropriate to consider it as an explanation intended to justify sampling techniques (see figure 1). delineating sampling procedures ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 87 describing the sample/participants justifying the sampling technique one of the two already established groups (17 students) was randomly assigned to the experimental condition, while the other group (15 students) was assigned to the control condition. to ascertain that both groups were initially on a par as far as oral proficiency was concerned, we compared their scores in the oral proficiency interviews that were part of the exam session at the end of the first year of their training (three months prior to the start of the experiment). (m15: 249) out of a population of 85 students, we selected four sub-groups of 10 students based on the results of an in-house esl placement test. (m27: 88) we restricted participants to those with intermediate level scores in order to obtain as homogeneous a sample as possible. (m27: 88) figure 1. shifts from sampling descriptions in step 1 to sampling justifications in step 2. 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 87 this is a step that works in close relation with step 1 to stifle possible doubts or scepticism about the acceptability of the selection of the participants involved in tesl experimental research. justifications of sampling methods often centre on how the comparability of the groups of participants was ensured (before further analysis could be carried out) via careful preinstructional comparison or restriction (control) of participants with reference to their proficiency levels. there is no denying that in some cases (as shown in table 8), justifications may be more implicit as comparability of the treatment groups are indicated without using overt linguistic choices, yet in most cases prominent lexical and syntactic choices normally characterise this step. while justifying the selection of a sample, authors may attempt to justify the selection using (i) purpose adjuncts (e.g., “in order to eliminate one of the methodological questions …”) or (ii) reason adjuncts (e.g., “because they represented a block of learners whose familiarity with english could be regarded as limited”) after verb phrases denoting choice (e.g., “were chosen”) jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 21 (2011): 71-9288 linguistic choice instance of segments used in sampling justifications • to ascertain that both groups were initially on a par as far as oral proficiency was concerned, we compared their scores in the oral proficiency interviews … (m15: 249) • this group differed from the late+10 group only in their age of arrival (and chronological age) and was included in this study to examine the influence of aoa on the perception-production relationship. (m22: 235) • we restricted participants to those with intermediate level scores in order to obtain as homogeneous a sample as possible. (m27: 88) using purpose adjuncts in the form of infinitive clauses • to ensure this, the following steps were taken…only words that i thought were worth learning were used so as to increase the pedagogical value of the study for the participants … (m6: 280) • these eight students were chosen based on their level of proficiency, their l1, and their scores in this study. of the eight students, three were in the top third of posttest scores, three were in the middle third, and two were in the lower third ... (m6: 284) using a verb phrase denoting choice and a reason adjunct • they were chosen because they represented a block of learners whose familiarity with english could be regarded as limited; all had similar scores of between 25 and 36 out of 80 on the school’s entry test. (m26: 370) • one reason for our assumption is that in the 1990s and through the time our study was conducted, the united states was the most popular destination for japanese high school and university students (“consultants’ report: japan,” 2003) … in 2002, riney read approximately 260 application letters for this program, in which students were asked to state their motives for applying ... (m5: 448) using integral and non-integral citations of past researchers’ statements to support a sampling technique • we believe, however, based on our experience, that ga is one of the most widely heard exonormative varieties of english in japan. related literature supports this notion: mcarthur (1996), regarding universities, television, and the media; crystal (1997), regarding hollywood and film ...(m5: 449) table 8. linguistic choices used for justifying sampling techniques in step 2. 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 88 in order to demonstrate the authors’ cautiousness in conducting various procedures that ensure the comparability of the groups involved in experiments. alternatively, writers may justify the sampling procedure by using integral or non-integral citations of past researchers’ statements concerning the aptness of the research site from which the participants were selected or the samples of data were obtained. conclusions and implications for reading and writing instruction this study has resolved several major difficulties associated with the descriptions of sampling procedures in the writing of tesl research methods. “delineating sampling procedures” has been found to be a separate and yet principal rhetorical move which is not embedded in descriptions of instruments and on-site data gathering procedures. having resolved some inconsistency associated with the use of the functional label (i.e., “describing data collection”) for sampling descriptions in past studies (e.g., lim, 2006; nwogu, 1997; pho, 2009), this study has demonstrated the need to view delineations of sampling procedures as a separate distinct communicative move that is different from descriptions of on-site data gathering procedures. this move is realised in two distinct ways via (i) descriptions of the sampling procedures which occur in almost all of the experimental papers, and (ii) sampling justifications that appear in nearly half of the research papers. overall, “delineating the sample” occurs more than twice on average, thus indicating that it is a principal communicative category in the experimental studies. while step 1 focuses on descriptions of the sample location, size, characteristics and sampling techniques, step 2 demonstrates the comparability of treatment groups and highlights significant advantages of using the sample. the use of mann-whitney u-test has confirmed that the distribution of the occurrences of each step is not dependent upon the differences between the procedure-focused and investigation-focused headings of the methodrelated sections. in experimental research, instructors may allow novice writers to incorporate sampling delineations under either procedure-focused headings or investigation-focused headings given that they do not entail significantly different frequencies of sampling delineations. in regard to specific semantic functions, step 1 generally focuses on the descriptions of participants in a research site to enlighten readers on the delineating sampling procedures ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 89 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 89 circumstances under which the study was conducted without incorporating any description of the steps taken in on-site data gathering activities. these descriptions of the characteristics of the participants are often linked to the participants’ perceptual judgments, learning contexts or language speaking environment to demonstrate their desired effects on research methods. this is often done via shifts from the past simple to the past perfect while revealing the previous experience of the participants. as the past perfect is frequently used in conjunction with the past simple by authors to underscore participants’ previous experience and past training, it is recommended that esp instructors retain the contextual information on participants’ language proficiency levels in gap-filling items, so that learners can contrast the past perfect with the past simple in comprehensible and meaningful sampling descriptions in their discipline. in the tasks concerned, the range of syntactic choices to be incorporated in describing samples may comprise those differentiating the use of (i) the past simple for descriptions of proficiency levels during the research period, (ii) the past perfect for actions when writers look back on earlier actions, (iii) the past progressive for activities that began before the research period, and (iv) the present simple or present perfect for language activities with current relevance. in guiding learners to describe samples in step 1, it would be interesting for esp instructors to highlight how noun phrases denoting participants (in an spca structure) are post-modified by participial phrases, adjectival prepositional phrases, and relative clauses. gap-filling exercises requiring learners to complete sentences involving the predicator-object combinations may also be appropriate tasks for training learners to describe the sample or participants’ language backgrounds. novice learners may also need some training in using phrasal combinations encompassing prepositions indicating source or origin that help to delineate participants’ nationalities and educational backgrounds, which distinguish the method-related sections of tesl experimental ras from those in other disciplines. as delineations concerning group formation often form a central component of experimental research, salient linguistic mechanisms to be introduced in classroom exercises may have to include the syntactic choices pertaining to group selection and assignment. vocabulary items that may be given the focus in sentence construction exercises can also cover phrasal verbs denoting assignment and division, and role-related prepositions of purpose. in regard to step 2, novice writers may learn to justify their samples via background reading of the papers in this discipline, and subsequently, esp jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 21 (2011): 71-9290 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 90 instructors can design exercises requiring learners to identify these justifications that frequently incorporate infinitive clauses used as reason/purpose adjuncts, and integral and/or non-integral citations employed in advocating sampling techniques. these language mechanisms can be manipulated by second language learners to demonstrate comparability of the treatment groups and to minimise possible doubts about the acceptability of sampling criteria involved in experimental research. acknowledgements i would like to thank the malaysian university of sabah for a research grant needed to conduct this study. i am also indebted to the fulbright organization for making it possible for me to access a large number of references related to this paper during my research stint at the university of michigan in ann arbor. [paper received june 2010] [revised paper accepted october 2010] references delineating sampling procedures ibérica 21 (2011): 71-92 91 berkenkotter, c. (2009). “a case for historical “wide-angle” genre analysis: a personal retrospective”. ibérica 18: 10-21. berkenkotter, c. & t.n. huckin (1995). genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: cognition/culture/power. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. bhatia, v.k. (1993). analyzing genre: language use in professional settings. essex: longman. bhatia, v.k. (1995). “genre-mixing in professional communication: the case of ‘private intentions’ v. ‘socially recognised purposes’” in p. bruthiaux, t. boswood, & b. du-babcock (eds.), explorations in english for professional communication, 1-19. hong kong: city university of hong kong. collins, l. (2007). “l1 differences and l2 similarities: teaching verb tenses in english”. elt journal 61: 295-303. connor, u. & a. mauranen (1999). “linguistic analysis of grant proposals”. english for specific purposes 18: 47-62. connor, u., k. davis & t. de rycker (1995). “correctness and clarity in applying for overseas jobs: a cross-cultural analysis of u.s. and flemish applications”. text 15: 457-475. ding, h. (2007). “genre analysis of personal statements: analysis of moves in application essays to medical and dental schools”. english for specific purposes 26: 368-392. döpke, s. (1999). “cross-linguistic influences on the placement of negation and modal particles in simultaneous bilingualism”. languages sciences 21: 143-175. ellis, r. (2006). “modelling learning difficulty and second language proficiency: the differential contributions of implicit and explicit knowledge”. applied linguistics 27: 431-463. flowerdew, l. 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(2009). research articles in applied linguistics and educational technology: a corpusbased study of rhetorical moves and authorial stance. ph.d. thesis submitted to monash university, australia. posteguillo, s. (1999). “the schematic structure of computer science research articles”. english for specific purposes 18: 139-160. quirk, r., s. greenbaum, g. leech & j. svartvik (1985). a comprehensive grammar of the english language. london: longman. sachs, r. & c. polio (2007). “learners’ uses of two types of written feedback on a l2 writing revision task”. studies in second language acquisition 29: 67-100. samraj, b. (2005). “an exploration of the genre set: research article abstracts and introductions in two disciplines”. english for specific purposes 24: 141-156. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. (2004). research genres: exploration and applications. cambridge: cambridge university press. thomas, s. & t.p. hawes (1994). “reporting verbs in medical journal articles”. english for specific purposes 13: 129-148. 04 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:20 página 92 iberica 13 ibérica 29 (2015): 63-82 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen este artículo se plantea la pregunta de si las características textuales del género de la sentencia judicial están determinadas por el orden jurisdiccional al que pertenece el juzgado que emite el texto. para ello, se emplea un corpus de sentencias civiles y penales españolas, que serán contrastadas. en concreto, se cotejarán los relatos de los hechos probados en las sentencias de esos dos órdenes jurisdiccionales. el objetivo es determinar si existen diferencias entre las narrativas de las sentencias civiles y penales, con el propósito final de disponer de una descripción cada vez más precisa y ajustada del género discursivo de la sentencia. palabras clave: géneros discursivos, análisis contrastivo, sentencia civil, sentencia penal, relato de hechos probados. abstract t h e g e n re o f c ou rt j ud g m e nts : a c o ntr as t iv e a na l y s is of t h e ac c ou nt o f pr ov e n f ac t s i n c i v il an d c r imi na l s ys t e ms this paper addresses whether the textual features of the genre of judgment are determined by the jurisdictional matter. for this purpose, this research compares a corpus of criminal judgments with one of civil judgments. specifically, the account of proven facts will be contrasted. the goal is to determine whether there are differences between the narratives of civil and criminal judgments, with el género de la sentencia judicial: un análisis contrastivo del relato de hechos probados en el orden civil y en el orden penal raquel taranilla translation and interpreting institute – hamad bin khalifa university, qatar foundation ragarcia@qf.org.qa, raqueltaranilla@gmail.com 63 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:45 página 63 ibérica 29 (2015): 63-82 raquel taranilla the purpose of providing an increasingly accurate description of the spanish judgment as a genre. keywords: discourse genres, contrastive analysis, civil judgment, criminal judgment, account of proven facts. la sentencia judicial en las distintas instancias jurisdiccionales: una propuesta contrastiva1 en el seno de la investigación lingüística sobre el español del derecho2, la sentencia judicial es sin duda el género que ha recibido mayores atenciones (véanse pardo, 1996; alcaraz y hughes, 2002: 251-255, 288-292; lópez samaniego, 2006a, 2006b, 2010; cucatto, 2009; garofalo, 2009: 222-256; taranilla, 2009, 2012: cap. 6, entre otros). ese interés se explica, además de por la centralidad del género de la sentencia en el sistema judicial, por la facilidad para obtener ejemplares de sentencias reales en bases de datos abiertas, que permiten confeccionar de forma rápida un corpus para el análisis (taranilla, 2013a). ahora bien, la caracterización del género se ha llevado a cabo de un modo un tanto desordenado y escasamente sistemático y, de hecho, no disponemos aún de un catálogo de cuestiones relevantes para su descripción, ni de consideraciones metodológicas particularizadas. además, se han venido manejando ciertas presunciones sobre el género que convendría replantear. una de ellas es su uniformidad. este artículo parte de la pregunta de si existen diferencias en el género de la sentencia en función del orden jurisdiccional desde el que se emite la resolución. hay que precisar que, movidas por la intuición de que hay disparidades sustanciales entre las sentencias producidas en los diversos órdenes, algunas investigaciones han tomado la precaución de abordar un tipo específico de sentencias: en la mayoría de ocasiones se ha optado por el estudio de las sentencias propias del orden penal (cucatto, 2009; garofalo, 2009; lópez samaniego, 2010; taranilla, 2012), pero también se han abordado las sentencias de un órgano jurisdiccional en concreto, como en taranilla (2009), sobre las sentencias del tribunal constitucional español. en términos generales, este trabajo busca abrir una línea de investigación en el estudio del español jurídico que se propone contrastar la producción textual de instancias jurisdiccionales distintas y, de ese modo, proporcionar un retrato cada vez más preciso y granulado de la variedad jurídica de la lengua. en ese sentido, este estudio realiza un análisis contrastivo de los 64 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:45 página 64 relatos de hechos probados que contienen las sentencias civiles y las penales. desde hace unos años, algunos lingüistas vienen interesándose por la producción narrativa que tiene lugar en la práctica jurídica (véase, para el inglés, harris, 2001, 2005; cotterill, 2003; heffer, 2005, 2010; y, para el español, carranza, 2003, 2010; taranilla, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013b). en cuanto al relato de los hechos propio de la sentencia judicial, en un trabajo previo (taranilla, 2012: cap. 6) caractericé de modo exhaustivo la configuración narrativa de la sentencia penal. a modo de desarrollo, partiré de los hallazgos de ese primer estudio y, basándome en un corpus que combina sentencias civiles y penales, estableceré las diferencias entre la forma lingüística del relato de las sentencias producidas en esos órdenes. corpus y metodología de estudio para poder establecer la comparación mencionada, se ha compilado un conjunto de sentencias civiles comparable al de sentencias penales que se empleó para el estudio de referencia3, que contenía diez sentencias penales resueltas en primera instancia. concretamente, se han reunido diez sentencias civiles emitidas por juzgados de primera instancia de diversas ciudades españolas en la primera mitad del año 20124, que resuelven asuntos de índole diversa. las dos tablas siguientes resumen los datos de los dos subcorpus empleados en el presente trabajo. la tabla 1 se refiere al subcorpus de sentencias penales y la tabla 2, al de sentencias civiles. en ellas se da cuenta del asunto que resuelve cada sentencia. igualmente, se registra el número de palabras de cada una, así como el promedio de palabras de las sentencias de cada subcorpus. el género de la sentencia judicial ibérica 29 (2015): 63-82 65 el género de la sentencia judicial ibérica 29 (2015): …-… juzgados de primera instancia de diversas ciudades españolas en la primera mitad del año 20124, que resuelven asuntos de índole diversa. las dos tablas siguientes resumen los datos de los dos subcorpus empleados en el presente trabajo. la tabla 1 se refiere al subcorpus de sentencias penales y la tabla 2, al de sentencias civiles. en ellas se da cuenta del asunto que resuelve cada sentencia. igualmente, se registra el número de palabras de cada una, así como el promedio de palabras de las sentencias de cada subcorpus. proceso5 asunto nº palabras totales de la sentencia pe : 1 delito de robo con violencia + falta de lesiones 1.936 pe : 2 delito de quebrantamiento de condena 2.072 pe : 3 delito de lesiones 5.525 pe : 4 delito de simulación de delito 1.425 pe : 5 delito de robo con fuerza en las cosas 1.014 pe : 6 delito de amenazas + falta de injurias 949 pe : 7 delito contra la seguridad vial 1.086 pe : 8 delito de tenencia ilícita de armas 2.221 pe : 9 delito contra la propiedad intelectual 3.188 pe : 10 delito de robo con violencia 4.375 promedio 2.379 tabla 1. composición del subcorpus de sentencias penales. proceso asunto tabla 2. composición del subcorpus de sentencias civiles. una vez compuesto el corpus del estudio, se han seleccionado los fragmentos en que se relatan los hechos probados en el seno de cada sentencia. se ha procedido entonces al cotejo de la composición narrativa propia de los dos órdenes jurisdiccionales abordados. específicamente, se ha analizado cuál es la ubicación del relato en el conjunto de la sentencia (que será el tema del apartado 3), su configuración global (que será tratada en el apartado 4) y sus características sintácticas (tratadas en el apartado 5). 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:45 página 65 una vez compuesto el corpus del estudio, se han seleccionado los fragmentos en que se relatan los hechos probados en el seno de cada sentencia. se ha procedido entonces al cotejo de la composición narrativa propia de los dos órdenes jurisdiccionales abordados. específicamente, se ha analizado cuál es la ubicación del relato en el conjunto de la sentencia (que será el tema del apartado 3), su configuración global (que será tratada en el apartado 4) y sus características sintácticas (tratadas en el apartado 5). la ubicación del relato de hechos probados en la sentencia judicial la ley española determina con poco detalle la forma concreta que han de tener las sentencias judiciales. de hecho, puede considerarse que la sentencia judicial es un género infraprescrito, pues no cuenta con un conjunto exhaustivo de directrices que determinen cómo confeccionarlo, sino que los jueces aprenden a hacerlo, en buena medida, imitando otras sentencias previas y siguiendo convenciones sobre el género que se trasmiten en su comunidad de práctica (taranilla, 2012: 93). por otra parte, en lo que se refiere al relato de hechos probados, aquello que dispone la ley no está, como se verá a continuación, libre de controversia. la ley establece cuál ha de ser la superestructura del género, que en virtud del artículo 248.3 de la ley orgánica del poder judicial (lopj) ha de constar de cinco secciones: “las sentencias se formularán expresando, tras un encabezamiento, en párrafos separados y numerados, los antecedentes de hecho6, hechos probados, en su caso, los fundamentos de derecho y, por último, el fallo”. asimismo, para el ámbito civil en particular, rigen los raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): 63-8266 el género de la sentencia judicial ibérica 29 (2015): …-… juzgados de primera instancia de diversas ciudades españolas en la primera mitad del año 20124, que resuelven asuntos de índole diversa. las dos tablas siguientes resumen los datos de los dos subcorpus empleados en el presente trabajo. la tabla 1 se refiere al subcorpus de sentencias penales y la tabla 2, al de sentencias civiles. en ellas se da cuenta del asunto que resuelve cada sentencia. igualmente, se registra el número de palabras de cada una, así como el promedio de palabras de las sentencias de cada subcorpus. proceso5 asunto tabla 1. composición del subcorpus de sentencias penales. proceso asunto nº palabras totales de la sentencia ci : 1 nulidad de contrato 1.909 ci : 2 reclamación de cantidad 1.277 ci : 3 reclamación de cantidad 834 ci : 4 nulidad de contrato 5.619 ci : 5 declaración de acto ilícito + reclamación de cantidad 4.177 ci : 6 nulidad de contrato 4.864 ci : 7 reclamación de cantidad 1.070 ci : 8 reclamación de cantidad 898 ci : 9 reclamación de cantidad 802 ci : 10 protección civil del honor 2.469 promedio 2.392 tabla 2. composición del subcorpus de sentencias civiles. una vez compuesto el corpus del estudio, se han seleccionado los fragmentos en que se relatan los hechos probados en el seno de cada sentencia. se ha procedido entonces al cotejo de la composición narrativa propia de los dos órdenes jurisdiccionales abordados. específicamente, se ha analizado cuál es la ubicación del relato en el conjunto de la sentencia (que será el tema del apartado 3), su configuración global (que será tratada en el apartado 4) y sus características sintácticas (tratadas en el apartado 5). 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:45 página 66 artículos 208 y 209 de la ley de enjuiciamiento civil (lec), que prescriben cuestiones de forma y contenido de las sentencias civiles7. para el tema del presente artículo, es relevante reproducir el inicio del segundo de ellos: artículo 209 lec: las sentencias se formularán conforme a lo dispuesto en el artículo anterior y con sujeción, además, a las siguientes reglas: 1.ª en el encabezamiento deberán expresarse los nombres de las partes y, cuando sea necesario, la legitimación y representación en virtud de las cuales actúen, así como los nombres de los abogados y procuradores y el objeto del juicio. 2.ª en los antecedentes de hecho se consignarán, con la claridad y la concisión posibles y en párrafos separados y numerados, las pretensiones de las partes o interesados, los hechos en que las funden, que hubieren sido alegados oportunamente y tengan relación con las cuestiones que hayan de resolverse, las pruebas que se hubiesen propuesto y practicado y los hechos probados, en su caso. 3.ª en los fundamentos de derecho se expresarán, en párrafos separados y numerados, los puntos de hecho y de derecho fijados por las partes y los que ofrezcan las cuestiones controvertidas, dando las razones y fundamentos legales del fallo que haya de dictarse, con expresión concreta de las normas jurídicas aplicables al caso. 4.ª el fallo […]. en la práctica penal las sentencias se dividen en las cinco partes que establece el artículo 248 lopj, a saber, encabezamiento, antecedentes de hecho, hechos probados, fundamentos jurídicos y fallo. como es esperable, el relato fáctico al que llega el juzgador tras la práctica de la prueba se contiene en la secuencia titulada, precisamente, “hechos probados”. sin embargo, en la práctica civil, las sentencias no suelen tener un apartado semejante. en opinión de parte de la doctrina, si bien en el orden penal el establecimiento de los hechos que el juez considera demostrados es un imperativo legal, no es un requisito imprescindible en las sentencias civiles (montero aroca, 2000: 423-434). esa postura a menudo se ampara en la redacción de la ley y, en particular, en el empleo del sintagma preposicional en su caso en los dos preceptos legales que se han reproducido arriba: “las sentencias se formularán expresando […] los antecedentes de hecho, hechos probados, en su caso, los fundamentos de derecho y, por último, el fallo” (art. 248 lopj); el género de la sentencia judicial ibérica 29 (2015): 63-82 67 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 67 y “en los antecedentes de hecho se consignarán […], las pretensiones de las partes o interesados, los hechos en que las funden, que hubieren sido alegados oportunamente y tengan relación con las cuestiones que hayan de resolverse, las pruebas que se hubiesen propuesto y practicado y los hechos probados, en su caso” (art. 209.2º lec). el sintagma en su caso daría al segmento de hechos probados un carácter de contingencia, pero no de necesidad; es decir, según parece querer decir la ley, el juez podría incluirlo en su escrito en caso de que fuese oportuno. a pesar de que para algunos académicos la omisión del apartado de hechos probados en el orden civil es injustificable, ya que elude parte del mandato de motivación de las sentencias (igartua, 2003: 8 n4), lo cierto es que el examen de los textos reales, de las resoluciones que efectivamente producen los jueces, demuestra que las sentencias civiles carecen de secuencia específica de hechos probados. el examen del corpus arroja que los hechos probados de las sentencias civiles aparecen integrados en el apartado de fundamentos jurídicos, mientras que, en las sentencias penales, al relato de hechos le corresponde una sección propia, que es bastante breve y que contiene en exclusiva una secuencia narrativa. las tablas siguientes dan cuenta de la dimensión de tales secuencias en el subcorpus de sentencias penales (tabla 3) y en el de sentencias civiles (tabla 4). tal como se puede ver, el número de palabras que dedica el juez a establecer los hechos y a fundamentar la decisión es similar en los dos órdenes jurisdiccionales. en ambos, la mayor parte de la sentencia se dedica a los fundamentos jurídicos. raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): 63-8268 raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): …-… proceso nº palabras hechos probados nº palabras fundamentos jurídicos nº palabras totales de la sentencia porcentaje de los hechos probados en relación con el total de la sentencia porcentaje de los fundamentos jurídicos en relación con el total de la sentencia pe : 1 235 1.115 1.936 12,1% 57,6% pe : 2 153 1.385 2.072 7,4% 66,8% pe : 3 167 4.696 5.525 3% 85% pe : 4 126 872 1.425 8,8% 61,2% pe : 5 90 531 1.014 8,9% 52,3% pe : 6 54 441 949 5,7% 46,5% pe : 7 111 533 1.086 10,2% 49% pe : 8 137 1.615 2.221 6,7% 72,7% pe : 9 128 2.209 3.188 4% 69,3% pe : 10 597 2.923 4.375 13,6% 66,8% promedio 180 1.632 2.379 7,5% 68,6% tabla 3. dimensión de las secuencias de hechos probados y fundamentos jurídicos en el subcorpus de sentencias penales. proceso nº palabras fundamentos jurídicos nº palabras totales de la sentencia tabla 4. dimensión de la secuencia de fundamentos jurídicos en el subcorpus de sentencias civiles. como muestra de la ubicación diferente que el relato de los hechos tiene en cada orden, véanse los ejemplos siguientes. el primero es el relato de un delito de simulación de delito, extraído de una sentencia penal, y el segundo, el relato de la comercialización de un dispositivo electrónico ilícito, que proviene de una sentencia civil: (1) hechos probados único. valorando en conciencia la prueba practicada en el juicio oral, resulta probado y así expresamente se declara que el acusado andrés daniel comas lópez, de nacionalidad peruana, mayor de edad, con antecedentes penales cancelables, en fecha 23 de abril de 2008 ante la comisaría de mmee de les corts, barcelona, denunció faltando a la verdad, denuncio que en la noche del 21 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 68 como muestra de la ubicación diferente que el relato de los hechos tiene en cada orden, véanse los ejemplos siguientes. el primero es el relato de un delito de simulación de delito, extraído de una sentencia penal, y el segundo, el relato de la comercialización de un dispositivo electrónico ilícito, que proviene de una sentencia civil: (1) hechos probados único. valorando en conciencia la prueba practicada en el juicio oral, resulta probado y así expresamente se declara que el acusado andrés daniel comas lópez, de nacionalidad peruana, mayor de edad, con antecedentes penales cancelables, en fecha 23 de abril de 2008 ante la comisaría de mmee de les corts, barcelona, denunció faltando a la verdad, denuncio que en la noche del 21 al 22 de abril, se encontraba en el establecimiento “sol y luna” en el carrer aribau de barcelona, donde hizo una consumición que abonó con su tarjeta visa, para comprobar al día siguiente que se le habían cargados 7 anotaciones a esa misma tarjeta por importe de 1.153,00 euros que según él no había consumido. los cargos habían sido todos autorizados por el acusado. [pe : 4] (2) fundamentos de derecho primero.las entidades demandantes interesan que se declare acto ilícito la comercialización por parte de la demandada de los dispositivos ps jailbreak al amparo de los artículos 102.c) y 160.2 de la ley de propiedad intelectual (lpi) y en consecuencia que se ordene la retirada del comercio y la destrucción de dichos dispositivos, así como el cese de actos de promoción, publicidad y distribución de los mismos. y ejercita acumuladamente, al amparo del artículo 140.2 lpi, acción de reclamación de daños y perjuicios derivados de ese acto ilícito. el género de la sentencia judicial ibérica 29 (2015): 63-82 69 raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): …-… proceso tabla 3. dimensión de las secuencias de hechos probados y fundamentos jurídicos en el subcorpus de sentencias penales. proceso nº palabras fundamentos jurídicos nº palabras totales de la sentencia porcentaje de los fundamentos jurídicos en relación con el total de la sentencia ci : 1 1.223 1.909 64% ci : 2 942 1.277 73,7% ci : 3 441 834 52,9% ci : 4 4.930 5.619 87,7% ci : 5 3.315 4.177 79,3% ci : 6 4.033 4.864 82,9% ci : 7 824 1.070 77% ci : 8 390 898 43,3% ci : 9 450 802 56,1% ci : 10 1.857 2.469 75,2% promedio 1.841 2.392 77% tabla 4. dimensión de la secuencia de fundamentos jurídicos en el subcorpus de sentencias civiles. como muestra de la ubicación diferente que el relato de los hechos tiene en cada orden, véanse los ejemplos siguientes. el primero es el relato de un delito de simulación de delito, extraído de una sentencia penal, y el segundo, el relato de la comercialización de un dispositivo electrónico ilícito, que proviene de una sentencia civil: (1) hechos probados único. valorando en conciencia la prueba practicada en el juicio oral, resulta probado y así expresamente se declara que el acusado andrés daniel comas lópez, de nacionalidad peruana, mayor de edad, con antecedentes penales cancelables, en fecha 23 de abril de 2008 ante la comisaría de mmee de les corts, barcelona, denunció faltando a la verdad, denuncio que en la noche del 21 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 69 la demandada se opone a la demanda, pues niega que la comercialización, de dichos dispositivos infrinja lo previsto en las normas referidas por la actora. segundo.los hechos de los que deriva la controversia que se dilucida en el presente proceso son los siguientes: las entidades demandantes, sony computer entertaiment europe, ltd y sony computer entertaimente españa, s.a. (en adelante sony) comercializan en españa la videoconsola “sony playstation 3” (ps3) que incorpora medidas tecnológicas de protección con el fin de evitar la infracción de sus derechos de propiedad intelectual mediante actos de “piratería”. asimismo, los vídeos ejecutables en dicha consola están protegidos por medidas tecnológicas anticopia que les impiden ser ejecutados desde soportes distintos al disco “blu-ray” original o en plataformas de hardware distintas a la ps3. la entidad demandada comercializa a través de la página web “www.discoazul.com” un dispositivo denominado “ps jailbreak” con el que se neutralizan las medidas tecnológicas instauradas en la consola sony y en los soportes de sus videojuegos. se trata de un microprocesador incluido en un conductor universal en serie (usb), que acoplado a la consola sony ps3, deshabilita los sistemas de protección tecnológicos implantados en dicha consola permitiendo así ejecutar videojuegos desde soportes no autorizados. pues bien, no siendo tales hechos controvertidos, la cuestión discutida se centra en si el dispositivo comercializado por la demandada elude las medidas tecnológicas de la ps3 y sus videojuegos en términos no permitidos por la lpi. tercero.la lpi regula el levantamiento o la elusión de medidas tecnológicas […]. [ci : 5] en el segundo ejemplo, la secuencia de fundamentos jurídicos dedica su segundo subapartado a los hechos probados, que para este estudio se han destacado en cursiva, y que además están encabezados por un segmento metadiscursivo, por una frase de introducción, que aquí se ha resaltado en negrita. conviene precisar, sin embargo, que esta disposición tan clara de los hechos probados en la sentencia civil no es habitual y que, como se explicará seguidamente, lo más frecuente es que el establecimiento de hechos se entremezcle con los razonamientos propios del apartado de fundamentos jurídicos. raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): 63-8270 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 70 la arquitectura del relato de hechos probados además del lugar que ocupa en la superestructura de la sentencia, el relato de hechos probados en las sentencias civiles y penales se distingue por su arquitectura, esto es, por la disposición global de sus elementos. de un lado, el relato de la sentencia penal es una secuencia narrativa – que puede contener, como es común, algún fragmento descriptivo – en la que el juez refiere los hechos que, tras la práctica de la prueba en el juicio oral, considera efectivamente probados. esa narrativa aparece encabezada por una fórmula que, con algunas variaciones, suele ser “resulta/queda probado y así se declara que” (taranilla 2012: 285), tal como muestra el ejemplo (3): (3) hechos probados probado y así se declara que el acusado, ernesto olio, ciudadano salvadoreño con nie nº 456456456l, nacido el 1-1-85, con antecedentes penales no computables y preso por esta causa desde el día 30 de abril de 2010, sobre las 06.00h del día 25 de abril de 2010, guiado por el propósito de obtener un inmediato enriquecimiento patrimonial y en unión de un individuo no identificado, abordó a gerard mas, cuando transitaba tranquilamente por la calle pavía de barcelona y, tras sujetarle por la espalda al tiempo que la persona ignota le cogía por el cuello, le exigió que le entregara todo lo que llevaba, a lo que le víctima se resistió, ante lo cual el individuo desconocido le dio varios puñetazos en la cara hasta que la víctima cayó al suelo, momento en el que el acusado le propinó diversas patadas en la espalda y en la cara, logrando finalmente apoderarse de un teléfono móvil marca nokia, modelo 6120 classic, propiedad de gerard mas, tras lo cual se dio a la fuga. [pe : 1] el relato penal no refiere el acontecimiento criminal de cualquier modo, sino que se ajusta a un guion narrativo (esto es, a una secuencia de hechos concretos) que proporciona la ley penal. cuando tipifica un delito o una falta, la ley penal establece los elementos que ha de contener un relato de hechos para poderse categorizar como ese delito o esa falta. eso provoca que en la narrativa que produce el juez se imponga seguir con pulcritud el guion legal (taranilla, 2012: 100-107, 284-292). en el ejemplo anterior, el relato concreta el esquema narrativo que proporciona el artículo 237 del código penal, que regula el delito de robo con fuerza o violencia: “son reos del delito de robo los que, con ánimo de lucro, se apoderaren de las cosas muebles ajenas empleando fuerza en las cosas para acceder al lugar donde éstas se encuentran o violencia o intimidación en las personas”. según tal precepto, el género de la sentencia judicial ibérica 29 (2015): 63-82 71 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 71 el delito de robo exige tres elementos: (i) ánimo de lucro, (ii) apoderamiento de cosas muebles ajenas y (iii) empleo de fuerza o violencia. nótese cómo el relato que compone el juez contiene los tres elementos del tipo penal: (3’) hechos probados probado y así se declara que el acusado, ernesto olio, ciudadano salvadoreño con nie nº 456456456l, nacido el 1-1-85, con antecedentes penales no computables y preso por esta causa desde el día 30 de abril de 2010, sobre las 06.00h del día 25 de abril de 2010, guiado por el propósito de obtener un inmediato enriquecimiento patrimonial [=ánimo de lucro] y en unión de un individuo no identificado, abordó a gerard mas, cuando transitaba tranquilamente por la calle pavía de barcelona y, tras sujetarle por la espalda al tiempo que la persona ignota le cogía por el cuello, le exigió que le entregara todo lo que llevaba, a lo que le víctima se resistió, ante lo cual el individuo desconocido le dio varios puñetazos en la cara hasta que la víctima cayó al suelo, momento en el que el acusado le propinó diversas patadas en la espalda y en la cara [=violencia], logrando finalmente apoderarse de un teléfono móvil marca nokia, modelo 6120 classic, propiedad de gerard mas [=apoderamiento de cosa ajena], tras lo cual se dio a la fuga. [pe : 1] además, el lugar autónomo que merece el relato de hechos probados en la sentencia penal forma parte de una composición del género que reproduce el proceso de decisión que lleva a cabo el juez. la superestructura de la sentencia, y en concreto el encadenamiento de apartados <hechos probados + fundamentos jurídicos + fallo> de la superestructura, representan icónicamente el silogismo en que consiste todo proceso judicial: los hechos probados constituyen la premisa menor del razonamiento, los fundamentos jurídicos contienen la premisa mayor y, para terminar, el fallo emitido por el juez se corresponde con la conclusión argumentativa (wroblewski, 1974; iturralde, 1991). en la sentencia civil, la superestructura del género es distinta; como se ha apuntado arriba, el relato de hechos probados se integra en la secuencia de fundamentos jurídicos. el modo como se imbrica la narrativa en esa secuencia, aunque no es siempre igual, cumple ciertas regularidades que se abordan a continuación. por lo general, los fundamentos jurídicos empiezan estableciendo, normalmente de forma sucinta, cuál es la pretensión de las dos partes en conflicto, con el propósito de fijar los términos del debate y dar paso a la argumentación sobre cómo ha de resolverse la controversia. esa diferencia compositiva respecto a la sentencia penal está motivada por el hecho de que el raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): 63-8272 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 72 razonamiento que lleva a cabo el órgano decisor es distinto en cada orden: para el juez penal es capital determinar en la sentencia qué hechos han sido demostrados durante el juicio oral y, a partir del relato de hechos probados, establecer la consecuencia conforme a la ley; para el juez civil, en cambio, el centro de la operación decisoria radica en el establecimiento de la controversia entre las partes, que el juez deberá dirimir seguidamente8. una muestra de la forma como se fijan las pretensiones de las partes en la sentencia civil se puede ver en el fundamento jurídico primero del ejemplo previo (2) o en el ejemplo que sigue: (4) fundamentos de derecho primero.[pretensión del demandante]  la actora carnavali de alicante s.l., interpone demanda contra amiguetes interprises s.a., en reclamación de la suma de 6.000 euros como daños y perjuicios por incumplimiento de la demandada de las obligaciones asumidas en el contrato suscrito el 27 de agosto de 2010, [pretensión del demandado]  a lo que se opone la demandada alegando que no incumplió el contrato, que la actora no acredita los daños que reclama y que el objeto del contrato constituía una cesión gratuita del local. [ci : 2] la tabla 5 da cuenta de en qué sentencias civiles del subcorpus manejado los fundamentos jurídicos comienzan con el establecimiento de las pretensiones de las partes. asimismo, refiere el número de palabras que el juez dedica a explicar tales pretensiones y lo coteja con el número de palabras de la sección de fundamentos jurídicos. los datos de la tabla demuestran que la mayor parte de los fundamentos jurídicos comienzan determinando qué pretenden las partes implicadas, en un fragmento textual a menudo breve. el género de la sentencia judicial ibérica 29 (2015): 63-82 73 raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): …-… primero.[pretensión del demandante] ! la actora carnavali de alicante s.l., interpone demanda contra amiguetes interprises s.a., en reclamación de la suma de 6.000 euros como daños y perjuicios por incumplimiento de la demandada de las obligaciones asumidas en el contrato suscrito el 27 de agosto de 2010, [pretensión del demandado] ! a lo que se opone la demandada alegando que no incumplió el contrato, que la actora no acredita los daños que reclama y que el objeto del contrato constituía una cesión gratuita del local. [ci : 2] la tabla 5 da cuenta de en qué sentencias civiles del subcorpus manejado los fundamentos jurídicos comienzan con el establecimiento de las pretensiones de las partes. asimismo, refiere el número de palabras que el juez dedica a explicar tales pretensiones y lo coteja con el número de palabras de la sección de fundamentos jurídicos. los datos de la tabla demuestran que la mayor parte de los fundamentos jurídicos comienzan determinando qué pretenden las partes implicadas, en un fragmento textual a menudo breve. proceso ¿los fundamentos jurídicos empiezan con las pretensiones de las partes? nº palabras de la relación de pretensiones nº palabras totales fundamentos jurídicos ci : 1 no, no incluye pretensiones 1.223 ci : 2 sí 77 942 ci : 3 sí 103 441 ci : 4 sí 874 4.930 ci : 5 sí 112 3.315 ci : 6 sí 495 4.033 ci : 7 sí 56 824 ci : 8 sí 157 390 ci : 9 sí 143 450 ci : 10 no. incluye pretensiones, pero no al inicio de los fundamentos jurídicos 1.857 tabla 5. las pretensiones de las partes al inicio de los fundamentos jurídicos. al margen de las pretensiones de las partes, el apartado de fundamentos jurídicos puede dedicar un segmento textual independiente al relato de los hechos en que se origina el conflicto. el ejemplo previo (2) vuelve a servir para ilustrar este punto. hay que decir que, en el seno del corpus manejado, solamente tres sentencias civiles (ci : 2, ci : 5 y ci : 10) incluyen un segmento narrativo autónomo. ese modo de organizar el texto es el más habitual cuando los hechos en sí mismos no son el objeto de la controversia, sino que las partes discuten la interpretación o las consecuencias de tales hechos. es el caso del ejemplo siguiente. en él, el fundamento jurídico primero comienza estableciendo los hechos del conflicto; seguidamente, la sentencia refiere cuál es la interpretación de la parte actora acerca de los hechos referidos y, a continuación, el juez proporciona los argumentos que le llevan a estimar o desestimar la demanda. 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 73 al margen de las pretensiones de las partes, el apartado de fundamentos jurídicos puede dedicar un segmento textual independiente al relato de los hechos en que se origina el conflicto. el ejemplo previo (2) vuelve a servir para ilustrar este punto. hay que decir que, en el seno del corpus manejado, solamente tres sentencias civiles (ci : 2, ci : 5 y ci : 10) incluyen un segmento narrativo autónomo. ese modo de organizar el texto es el más habitual cuando los hechos en sí mismos no son el objeto de la controversia, sino que las partes discuten la interpretación o las consecuencias de tales hechos. es el caso del ejemplo siguiente. en él, el fundamento jurídico primero comienza estableciendo los hechos del conflicto; seguidamente, la sentencia refiere cuál es la interpretación de la parte actora acerca de los hechos referidos y, a continuación, el juez proporciona los argumentos que le llevan a estimar o desestimar la demanda. (5) fundamentos de derecho primero.[establecimiento de hechos probados]  de la documental aportada resulta que d. celso el 5 de julio de 2011, en su blog bajo el título: “siete motivos por los que el caso sgae es mucho más que la propia sgae afirmó: ‘muchos de los participantes en el turbio entramado de la propiedad intelectual actúan de manera completamente inadecuada, vulnerando las leyes de la competencia o las prácticas razonablemente exigibles a toda empresa. promusicae, por ejemplo, vulnera abiertamente las leyes antimonopolio creando un sistema rirmonet, que da lugar a un entorno donde solo las discográficas pertenecientes a la asociación pueden de hecho tener llegada a un canal de promoción tan importante como la radio’. y hay en ese artículo un enlace a otro de 23 de febrero de 2011 en la que se afirma que las listas de ventas están manipuladas, que promusicae paga los derechos de autor para las radios, que programan exclusivamente música a través de la plataforma ritmonet y que los no socios tienen como única solución para disponer de este servicio ceder sus derechos a un socio de promusicae, con lo que se perpetua un monopolio anticompetitivo que permite mantener el negocio de las discográficas. [pretensiones de las partes]  la parte actora considera que estas manifestaciones suponen un ataque al honor de promusicae en cuanto le imputan hechos – vulnerar las leyes antimonopolio, imponiendo un canal de distribución exclusivo y excluyente a las radios, lucrarse de dicha situación monopolística con la exclusión de cualquier otro actor en el mercado de contenidos musicales – que hacen desmerecer la imagen pública de la asociación. [razonamiento del juez que conducirá al fallo]  conforme declaró la sts de 19 de julio de 2006” 1. aunque es cierto que… [ci : 10] raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): 63-8274 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 74 con todo, la mayor parte de las sentencias civiles carece del establecimiento específico e independiente de los hechos que el juez considera probados. lo más frecuente es que los fundamentos jurídicos empiecen con las pretensiones de las partes y sigan con el razonamiento del juez que conduce al fallo, esto es, con la motivación de la sentencia. el relato fáctico del proceso civil se conoce con frecuencia de forma mediata, a lo largo de la argumentación que hace el juez para justificar su decisión. en suma, el apartado de fundamentos jurídicos de las sentencias civiles es un producto textual que imbrica informaciones relativas a los hechos, a las pruebas que sirven para demostrar tales hechos, y a los razonamientos jurídicos que llevan al juez a decidir en un sentido u otro acerca del conflicto entre las partes. el ejemplo (6) muestra de qué modo el relato de los hechos (resaltado también aquí en negrita) va proporcionándose al hilo de la valoración de las pruebas y las pretensiones de las partes, en un texto que en conjunto está dirigido a argumentar la decisión final. (6) fundamentos de derecho primero.circunscribiéndose el presente litigio a contrato (documento nº 5 de la demanda y nº 2 del escrito de contestación) mediante el que, en septiembre de 2.007 y efectuando abono de 130.000 euros, el demandante concertó producto denominado “valores santander”, la resolución del mismo no puede soslayar que, contrariamente a la imagen que del mismo se ofrecía en el marco del relato fáctico de la demanda (vid. en particular documento nº 12 de entre los anejos al escrito de contestación), nos hallamos ante demandante en absoluto ajeno al fenómeno de la inversión financiera, habiendo de hecho adquirido acciones (evidente inversión de riesgo dada la notoria volubilidad del mercado) de la propia demandada con anterioridad a referida concertación contractual. aparte ello, el propio actor aportaba con su demanda folleto publicitario (documento nº 9) que es obvio que debió recibir previamente a perfeccionarse la contratación debatida (máxime el conocimiento del contenido de ésta que el demandante manifestó tener al concertarla como sirve a evidenciar el propio contrato que nos ocupa en que así explícitamente se plasma) y del que claramente – sin que al respecto exista oscuridad o dificultad interpretativa alguna – se infiere que nos hallamos ante producto que, con relación al capital invertido y durante el primer año, garantizaba determinado rendimiento (7,30% de interés nominal), garantizando rendimiento diverso durante los siguientes cuatro años (euribor a tres meses más el género de la sentencia judicial ibérica 29 (2015): 63-82 75 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 75 2,75%), canjeándose automáticamente a los cinco años por acciones de la demandada. finalmente la documentación asimismo aneja al escrito de contestación (en particular documentos nº 10 al 12) sirve a demostrar que la demandada ha cumplido plenamente con todas las obligaciones derivadas de referido contrato. [ci : 1] la sintaxis del relato de hechos probados la sintaxis del relato penal tiene una característica destacable, que consiste en que a menudo se recurre a una única oración para narrar la secuencia entera de hechos probados. con ese recurso, el escritor intenta poner de relieve de forma ostensiva que todos los elementos contenidos en el tipo delictivo quedan recogidos en la acción que relata. como muestra, puede volverse al ejemplo (3), en el que se emplea una única oración (de 172 palabras) para dar cabida a todos los elementos que forman parte del guion que suministra la ley para el delito de robo con violencia (taranilla, 2012: 120-124). nótese cómo la información se va proporcionando haciendo uso de una sintaxis muy compleja: (3’’) hechos probados probado y así se declara subordinación (oración completiva) que el acusado, ernesto olio, ciudadano salvadoreño con nie nº 456456456l, nacido el 1-1-85, con antecedentes penales no computables y preso por esta causa desde el día 30 de abril de 2010, sobre las 06.00h del día 25 de abril de 2010, subordinación (oración adjetiva de participio) guiado por el propósito de obtener un inmediato enriquecimiento patrimonial coordinación (oración copulativa) y en unión de un individuo no identificado, abordó a gerard mas, subordinación (oración adverbial) cuando transitaba tranquilamente por la calle pavía de barcelona coordinación y, subordinación (oración adverbial) tras sujetarle por la espalda subordinación (oración adverbial) al tiempo que la persona ignota le cogía por el cuello, le exigió subordinación (oración completiva) que le entregara todo lo que llevaba, coordinación (oración ilativa) a lo que le víctima se resistió, coordinación (oración ilativa) ante lo cual el individuo desconocido le dio varios puñetazos en la cara raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): 63-8276 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 76 subordinación (oración adverbial) hasta que la víctima cayó al suelo, coordinación (oración ilativa) momento en el que el acusado le propinó diversas patadas en la espalda y en la cara, coordinación (oración ilativa) logrando finalmente apoderarse de un teléfono móvil marca nokia, modelo 6120 classic, propiedad de gerard mas, subordinación (oración adverbial) tras lo cual se dio a la fuga. [pe : 1] en cuanto a la sentencia civil, debido a su disgregación frecuente en la secuencia de fundamentos jurídicos, no puede atribuírsele el recurso de emplear una única oración larga para relatar todos los hechos probados. sin embargo, el empleo de oraciones muy extensas también se registra en ocasiones en los fundamentos jurídicos de las sentencias civiles. véase como muestra el ejemplo (6), cuyo fundamento jurídico primero consta de tres oraciones, dos de las cuales son notablemente extensas (117 y 120 palabras). ese recurso textual se debe a la voluntad del juez que redacta el texto de incluir en su exposición los numerosos matices que se han de advertir en relación con aquello que está explicando, lo que, de hecho, es una cualidad general de la escritura jurídica (tal como han apuntado numerosos autores que han abordado el tema, como samaniego, 2004: 298; montolío et al., 2011). en efecto, los periodos oracionales largos son consecuencia de la densidad informativa que necesita trasmitir el escritor9. al margen de la presencia común de oraciones extensas, los recursos sintácticos del relato de los hechos en las sentencias penales pueden ser determinados con mayor precisión. en concreto, el escritor de resoluciones judiciales penales dispone de una serie bien definida y muy productiva de estructuras gramaticales que le sirven para enlazar un acontecimiento a otro y componer un fragmento textual narrativo de forma eficaz. entre esas estructuras recurrentes, destacan (i) las estructuras con valor ilativo cuyo origen es una oración de relativo con antecedente oracional, como en el ejemplo (7); (ii) las aposiciones ilativas, compuestas por un sustantivo que encapsula la información previa y por una oración de relativo especificativa, como en (8); (iii) los gerundios con valor ilativo, como en (9); y (iv) las oraciones de <sin + cláusula>, como en (10) (taranilla, 2012: 126-128): (7) […] abordó a gerard mas, […] le exigió que le entregara todo lo que llevaba, a lo que le víctima se resistió, ante lo cual el individuo desconocido le dio varios puñetazos en la cara hasta que la víctima cayó al suelo […] [pe : 1] el género de la sentencia judicial ibérica 29 (2015): 63-82 77 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 77 (8) […] el individuo desconocido le dio varios puñetazos en la cara hasta que la víctima cayó al suelo, momento en el que el acusado le propinó diversas patadas en la espalda y en la cara […] [pe : 1] (9) […] el acusado le propinó diversas patadas en la espalda y en la cara, logrando finalmente apoderarse de un teléfono móvil [...] [pe : 1] (10) […] varias contusiones, que curaron con una sola primera asistencia médica a los dieciocho días, siete de los cuales estuvo impedido para desarrollar sus ocupaciones habituales, sin restar secuelas. [pe : 1] la frecuencia de tales recursos en la composición de los hechos en las sentencias civiles es mucho menor. eso se debe a dos motivos. en primer lugar, está relacionado con que, como se ha expuesto, los hechos que el juez considera probados van apareciendo al hilo de la argumentación; así, es habitual que los recursos que sirven para componer narrativas aparezcan en medio de un fragmento argumentativo. por ejemplo, el fragmento (11) contiene piezas que sirven para relacionar eventos (como es el caso de los gerundios ilativos “garantizando” y “canjeándose”) y piezas cuya función es argumentativa (como el operador “máxime”, los recursos de subjetivación “es obvio que” o “claramente”, y las fórmulas metaargumentativas “sirve a evidenciar” o “se infiere que”). (11) […] el propio actor aportaba con su demanda folleto publicitario (documento nº 9) que es obvio que debió recibir previamente a perfeccionarse la contratación debatida (máxime el conocimiento del contenido de ésta que el demandante manifestó tener al concertarla como sirve a evidenciar el propio contrato que nos ocupa en que así explícitamente se plasma) y del que claramente – sin que al respecto exista oscuridad o dificultad interpretativa alguna – se infiere que nos hallamos ante producto que, con relación al capital invertido y durante el primer año, garantizaba determinado rendimiento (7,30% de interés nominal), garantizando rendimiento diverso durante los siguientes cuatro años (euribor a tres meses más 2,75%), canjeándose automáticamente a los cinco años por acciones de la demandada. [ci : 1] en segundo lugar, dadas las características de la materia civil, las secuencias de hechos probados habitualmente carecen de una verdadera estructura narrativa, esto es, una composición en la que por lo menos dos acontecimientos se sucedan en el tiempo10. eso provoca que no se recurra apenas a mecanismos de función ilativa con los que enlazar eventos cronológicamente. el ejemplo (12) contiene un fragmento de hechos raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): 63-8278 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 78 probados en una sentencia civil, que es más expositivo que narrativo, de ahí que contenga numerosas formas verbales en presente durativo: (12) segundo.los hechos de los que deriva la controversia que se dilucida en el presente proceso son los siguientes: las entidades demandantes, sony computer entertaiment europe, ltd y sony computer entertaimente españa, s.a. (en adelante sony) comercializan en españa la videoconsola “sony playstation 3” (ps3) que incorpora medidas tecnológicas de protección con el fin de evitar la infracción de sus derechos de propiedad intelectual mediante actos de “piratería”. asimismo, los videos ejecutables en dicha consola están protegidos por medidas tecnológicas anticopia que les impiden ser ejecutados desde soportes distintos al disco “blu-ray” original o en plataformas de hardware distintas a la ps3. la entidad demandada comercializa a través de la página web “www.discoazul.com” un dispositivo denominado “ps jailbreak” con el que se neutralizan las medidas tecnológicas instauradas en la consola sony y en los soportes de sus videojuegos. se trata de un microprocesador incluido en un conductor universal en serie (usb), que acoplado a la consola sony ps3, deshabilita los sistemas de protección tecnológicos implantados en dicha consola permitiendo así ejecutar videojuegos desde soportes no autorizados. [ci : 5] conclusiones: el estudio de las variantes de la sentencia judicial la descripción del discurso de la sentencia judicial no puede orillar el hecho de que existen variantes del género en función del órgano jurisdiccional que emite un texto. este artículo ha demostrado que existen diferencias en las sentencias según el orden al que pertenece el órgano emisor. en concreto, hay importantes divergencias en la configuración de los hechos probados en las sentencias penales y en las civiles, en cuanto al lugar que ocupa el relato de hechos en la superestructura del género, a su composición general y a los recursos sintácticos que se emplean. ello viene propiciado por la naturaleza distinta de los asuntos penales y civiles, así como por el tipo de razonamiento propio y peculiar que realiza el juez en cada uno de los órdenes. partiendo de la constatación de esas diferencias, conviene replantear en adelante las descripciones de la sentencia judicial. en futuras investigaciones, el género de la sentencia judicial ibérica 29 (2015): 63-82 79 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 79 será imprescindible tener en cuenta las peculiaridades de los textos producidos por los distintos órganos jurisdiccionales. en ese sentido, convendrá realizar análisis contrastivos entre sentencias dictadas no solo por juzgados de órdenes distintos (penal y civil, como se ha hecho en el presente artículo, administrativo y social), sino también por instancias jurisdiccionales diversas. solo de ese modo será posible disponer de un conocimiento detallado y exhaustivo de las propiedades de la sentencia judicial. historia del manuscrito: recibido 12 diciembre 2013 versión revisada recibida 2 mayo 2014 aceptado 20 enero 2015 referencias raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): 63-8280 alcaraz, e. y b. hughes (2002). el español jurídico. barcelona: ariel. bal, m. (2009). narratology: introduction to the theory of narrative. toronto: university of toronto press. carranza, i. (2003). “genre and institution: narrative temporality in final arguments”. narrative inquiry 13,1: 41-69. carranza, i. (2010). “la escenificación del conocimiento oficial”. discurso & sociedad 4,1: 129. cotterill, j. (2003). language and power in court. a linguistic analysis of the o.j. simpson trial. basingstone: palgrave. cucatto, m. (2009). “la conexión en las sentencias penales de primera instancia. del análisis de textos a la práctica de escritura de sentencias”. revista de llengua i dret 51: 135-160. garofalo, g. (2009). géneros discursivos de la justicia penal. un análisis contrastivo españolitaliano orientado a la traducción. milán: franco angeli. harris, s. (2001). “fragmented narratives and multiple tellers: witness and defendant accounts in trials”. discourse studies 3,1: 53-74. harris, s. (2005). “telling stories and giving evidence: the hybridisation of narrative and nonnarrative modes of discourse in a sexual assault trial” en j. thornborrow y j. coates (eds.), the sociolinguistics of narrative, 215-237. amsterdam: john benjamins. heffer, c. (2005). the language of jury trial: a corpus-aided analysis of legal-lay discourse. basingstoke/new york: palgrave. heffer, c. (2010). “narrative in trial. constructing crime stories in court” en m. coulthard y a. johnson (eds.), the routledge handbook of forensic linguistics, 199-217. london/new york: routledge. igartua, j. (2003). la motivación de las sentencias, imperativo constitucional. madrid: centro de estudios políticos y constitucionales. iturralde, v. (1991). “sobre el silogismo judicial”. anuario de filosofía del derecho 8: 239-272. lópez samaniego, a. (2006a). “el uso metaargumentativo de las perífrasis obligativas en el lenguaje judicial español” en m.v. calvi y l. chierichetti (eds.), nuevas tendencias en el discurso de especialidad, 117-140. bern: peter lang. lópez samaniego, a. (2006b). “los ordenadores del discurso enumerativos en la sentencia judicial: ¿estrategia u obstáculo?”. revista de llengua i dret 45: 61-87. lópez samaniego, a. (2010). “documentos profesionales con destinatarios no expertos. el empleo de los mecanismos referenciales en la sentencia del 11m”. signos 43,72: 99-123. montero aroca, j. (2000). “sentencia, motivación y requisitos internos. la congruencia” en j. montero aroca, j.l. gómez colomer, a. montón y s. barona (eds.), el nuevo proceso civil (ley 1/2000), §20. valencia: tirant lo blanch. montolío, e., mª á. garcía asensio, p. gras, a. lópez samaniego, f. polanco, r. taranilla y i. yúfera (2011). estudio de campo: lenguaje escrito. madrid: comisión para la modernización del lenguaje jurídico, ministerio de justicia. 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 80 raquel taranilla es licenciada en derecho y doctora en filología hispánica por la universitat de barcelona (ub), y se dedica al análisis del discurso jurídico. ha impartido clase de comunicación en la facultad de derecho de la ub, en distintos grados de ingeniería en la universitat oberta de catalunya, así como en la escuela judicial de españa. ha sido becaria de investigación de la ub y también ha disfrutado de una beca en el comité económico y social europeo, con sede en bruselas. actualmente coordina el programa de español del translation and interpreting institute (hamad bin khalifa university qatar foundation). notas 1 este artículo se enmarca en el proyecto estrategias de textualidad del discurso profesional en soportes multimodales. análisis y propuestas de mejora (ffi2011-28933), financiado por el ministerio de economía y competitividad. 2 para una panorámica de la investigación acerca del discurso del derecho, que hace además consideraciones particulares sobre el estudio del español jurídico, véase taranilla (2012: 19-32). 3 las sentencias penales que se emplean en este artículo forman parte del corpus de procesos penales (taranilla, 2012, 2013), cuya elaboración fue posible gracias a la colaboración de los juzgados de lo penal de la ciudad de barcelona. de cara a salvaguardar la identidad de las personas implicadas en los procesos judiciales, todos los datos personales que contienen tales sentencias son falsos. el género de la sentencia judicial ibérica 29 (2015): 63-82 81 pardo, m.l. (1996). derecho y lingüística. cómo se juzga con palabras. (análisis lingüístico de sentencias judiciales). buenos aires: nueva visión. prince, g. (1982). narratology: the form and functioning of narrative. berlin: mouton de gruyter. samaniego, e. (2004). “el lenguaje jurídico: peculiaridades del español jurídico”, en p. fuertes (coord.), lengua y sociedad: investigaciones recientes en lingüística aplicada, 273-309. valladolid: universidad de valladolid. taranilla, r. (2007). “con cuentos a la policía: las secuencias narrativas en el acta de declaración del atestado policial”. revista de llengua i dret 47: 79-112. taranilla, r. (2009). “la gestión de la propia imagen en las argumentaciones del tribunal constitucional: la función retórica de las estrategias de cortesía”. revista de llengua i dret 52: 117-149. taranilla, r. (2011). “análisis lingüístico de la transcripción del relato de los hechos en el interrogatorio policial”. estudios de lingüística. universidad de alicante 25: 101-134. taranilla, r. (2012). la justicia narrante. un estudio sobre el discurso de los hechos en el proceso penal. cizur menor: aranzadi. taranilla, r. (2013a). “aspectos metodológicos en la confección de un corpus jurídico. consideraciones a propósito del corpus de procesos penales”. revista de investigación lingüística 16,1: 311-341. taranilla, r. (2013b). “el escrito de acusación penal: convenciones genéricas en la configuración del relato de los hechos”. i vardande. revista electrónica de semiótica y fenomenología jurídicas 2: 64-94. taruffo, m. (2008). “¿verdad negociada?”, revista de derecho xxi,1: 129-152. wroblewski, j. (1974). “legal syllogism and rationality of judicial decision”. rechstheorie 5: 3346. 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 81 4 el subcorpus civil se ha obtenido a través de la base de datos del cendoj (centro de documentación judicial), que es pública y abierta. en esa base de datos los textos aparecen cegados, esto es, en ella se eliminan los apellidos y los demás datos de las personas implicadas. en este trabajo se han mantenido los errores tipográficos y de ortografía de las sentencias originales. 5 las referencias que se emplean en las tablas se utilizarán también en este artículo para identificar los fragmentos que se utilizan como ejemplos. 6 este artículo no se ocupa de los antecedentes de hecho como fragmento narrativo. sobre esa cuestión puede verse taranilla (2012: 278-284). 7 en el ámbito penal, hasta la entrada en vigor de la mencionada lopj, regía el artículo 142 de la ley de enjuiciamiento criminal, que establecía una superestructura de las sentencias penales en forma de “considerandos” y “resultandos” (véase taranilla 2012: 268-272). 8 en ese sentido, algunas propuestas sobre el razonamiento judicial afirman que el establecimiento de la verdad de los hechos tiene una calidad distinta en el orden civil y en el orden penal. mientras que el ideal penal pretende descubrir la verdad material (esto es, la de los hechos del mundo), en el proceso civil a menudo es suficiente con alcanzar una verdad de tipo negocial, es decir, aquella a la que lleguen las partes por acuerdo. si bien esta distinción cualitativa del objeto de los procesos civil y penal ha sido duramente criticada por algunos teóricos, lo cierto es que esos mismos autores reconocen que tiene calado efectivo en la práctica (taruffo 2008: 139-140). 9 ahora bien, el español dispone de recursos alternativos a las oraciones muy extensas, que permiten también presentar informaciones complejas. en ese sentido, los procesos de modernización del discurso jurídico han comenzado a proponer otros modos de trasmitir la complejidad, que a la vez resulten fácilmente legibles (montolío et al. 2011, taranilla, 2012: 129). 10 para una definición básica de narrativa, véase prince (1982) y bal (2009). raquel taranilla ibérica 29 (2015): 63-8282 05 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 82 iberica 13 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 resumen el presente artículo realiza un análisis cualitativo de las principales metáforas conceptuales y esquemas de imagen (lakoff, 1993, ungerer y schmid, 1996) que estructuran el conocimiento de la física cuántica. destacan las metáforas de la cuantificación y la discontinuidad de la materia, y el esquema de la confrontación y de la guerra, utilizado en la conceptualización de las partículas elementales. a continuación, presenta un análisis contrastivo en inglés y en español de las principales expresiones metafóricas, hallándose que el esquema de la guerra (lakoff y johnson, 1980, 1999; ortony, 1993), que incluye a su vez el concepto de poder y confrontación, está presente en ambas lenguas. sin embargo, este análisis contrastivo también pone de manifiesto que, aunque las metáforas conceptuales trascienden las fronteras lingüísticas, no siempre resultan ser isomórficas en los dos idiomas. de aquí que algunos de los términos, generados en lengua inglesa por científicos alemanes, se ven afectados por una reinterpretación semántica al traducirse al español. palabras clave: metáfora conceptual, cognitivismo, análisis contrastivo, física. abstract a contribution to the study of metaphor in quantic physics in spanish and english texts this paper offers a qualitative analysis of the main conceptual metaphors found in quantum physics. grounded on the cognitive approach (lakoff, 1993; ungerer & schmid, 1996), the study of the lexicalized and structural metaphors aportaciones al estudio de la metáfora en la física cuántica a partir de textos en inglés y en español georgina cuadrado esclapez y heliane berge legrand universidad politécnica de madrid y universidad complutense de madrid georgina.cuadrado@upm.es y jberge@filol.ucm.es 85 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 85 86 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand is followed by their contrastive analysis in english and spanish. results show that metaphors of quantification and discontinuity of matter, and the schema of war in the conceptualization of elementary particles (cuadrado esclapez & berge legrand, 2005) are highly relevant in this language. this schema, present in many other conceptualizations in different fields (lakoff & johnson, 1980, 1999; ortony, 1993), contains in its development the concept of power and confrontation, also to be found in both languages. the contrastive analysis, furthermore, demonstrates that conceptual metaphors are not always isomorphic in these two languages, although in most cases they cross the linguistic barriers. thus, some of the terms resulting from the cognitive metaphors and schemas, originated in english while being created by german speaking scientists, undergo a process of reinterpretation as they pass into spanish. key words: conceptual metaphors, cognitivism, contrastive analysis, physics. introducción este artículo tiene por objetivo principal el análisis de las metáforas como instrumentos para representar el conocimiento científico. los marcos teóricos en los que se encuadra son el semántico-pragmático y el cognitivo; el primero dedicado al estudio del significado y del uso de la lengua, y el segundo, descrito como teoría general del conocimiento humano. en la lingüística tradicional, la ciencia había estado asociada a un lenguaje objetivo y conciso, que no daba cabida a las formas metafóricas o a un lenguaje de carácter figurativo. sin embargo, en oposición a esta hipótesis, el cognitivismo reivindica para la metáfora un papel fundamental en la conceptualización de la realidad científica. esto se refleja en estudios tanto sobre su función para la representación del conocimiento y las teorías científicas (theory-constructive metaphors), como en trabajos sobre su función explicativa o exegética en la ciencia (boyd, 1993). entre los últimos se encuentran los análisis realizados dentro de la medicina (salager-meyer, 1990), la economía (white hayes, 1996), la publicidad (cortés de los ríos, 2001), o los que versan sobre la ciencia en general (boyd, 1993; stambuk, 1998; knudsen, 2003). todos ellos contribuyen a poder mantener que la metáfora, como proceso de nuestro sistema conceptual, supone un elemento esencial para la comprensión intelectual de la ciencia a través de la propia experiencia humana que queda así fuera de los límites del mundo científico. por otra parte, el pensamiento metafórico también da origen a los modelos 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 86 científicos, que organizan parcelas enteras de la realidad. los modelos junto con los esquemas y las metáforas, crean y suscitan nuevas analogías, muchas de las cuales son fundamentales para el avance científico o para la adopción de una línea de investigación diferente (black, 1962, 1993; miller, 1993; collins y gentner, 1995). finalmente, es preciso manifestar que las metáforas no reflejan la realidad de manera total ni objetiva, sino que esconden algunos de sus aspectos y acentúan otros. se trata siempre de conceptualizaciones parciales, puesto que en cualquier otro caso no sería posible hablar de metáfora, sino de representación objetiva del mundo. de ahí que en muchas ocasiones sea necesaria la utilización de distintas concepciones metafóricas para llegar a la descripción más fiel o más completa posible de un concepto científico. según lakoff y johnson (1980), cada una de las diferentes formas de estructurar un mismo concepto sirven a distintos propósitos, enfatizando un aspecto diferente del concepto; es decir, cada metáfora se encarga de proporcionar una perspectiva sobre el concepto y de estructurar uno o varios de sus aspectos. 1. metodología y descripción del corpus el análisis de las metáforas como instrumento para representar el conocimiento científico se realiza tanto desde la microestructura como de la macroestructura del texto. para ello se ha tomado como punto de partida el estudio del léxico de la física cuántica en el que figura el proceso metafórico, hasta llegar a determinar las principales metáforas conceptuales que sustentan la categorización de este conocimiento; tras este estudio de carácter cognitivo, se presenta un análisis contrastivo en inglés y en español de los casos hallados. que el léxico sea (según alcaraz varó, 2000) el elemento lingüístico más privilegiado en la composición de la realidad, queda hoy fuera de toda discusión entre la comunidad lingüística. así, para algunos autores como gutiérrez rodilla (1998: 37), su interés es tal, que incluso puede considerarse el “elemento caracterizador del lenguaje científico”. dicho esto, es necesario comenzar por señalar la importancia del concepto diacrónico y evolutivo de la lengua para este estudio, ya que muchas palabras consideradas en este momento como lenguaje literal han sido metáforas en un momento lingüístico previo. un ejemplo de ello, que volveremos a encontrar en otro aportaciones al estudio de la metáfora ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 87 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 87 contexto con la metáfora de la ola y la onda, es el de cresta, ya analizado anteriormente por ullmann (1972: 241), que explica: “cuando la cima de una montaña es llamada cresta (es) porque se parece a la cresta de la cabeza de una animal”. estos casos de analogía son muchas veces de gran interés en el estudio de la formación y evolución del pensamiento y del lenguaje. bajo esa perspectiva lingüística se ha analizado un corpus constituido fundamentalmente por la obra de stephen hawking (1996) a brief history of time. from the big bang to the black holes (5ª edición) y de su traducción al castellano la historia del tiempo (1992). el libro constituye una obra general sobre las leyes físicas que rigen y determinan el universo. su indiscutible importancia dentro de la física teórica y la riqueza en terminología científica acerca de la física de partículas justifica su elección desde el punto de vista lingüístico. este corpus se ha completado por textos fundamentales dentro de la denominada física moderna (weinberg, 1977; asimov, 1982), así como por diferentes artículos de divulgación científica en inglés y español. 2. breve perspectiva histórica de la formación de las metáforas en el lenguaje de la física cuántica muchos de los conceptos fundamentales de la física y la astrofísica, tal como el átomo, la energía o la materia aparecen en la cultura occidental durante el mundo clásico y el desarrollo de su campo conceptual a lo largo de nuestra historia se produce mediante cambios en su estructura interna, es decir, en sus rasgos definitorios. sin embargo, su esencia se mantiene vigente por ser términos que están situados entre los conceptos filosóficos y científicos. algunas de estas metáforas se asientan sobre palabras que han ido modificando paulatinamente su contenido semántico; otras, sobre términos que han sido olvidados durante determinadas etapas y son recuperados más tarde para venir a designar realidades totalmente diferentes a las que referían cuando se originaron. la solución a la conceptualización de nuevas realidades y a la designación de nuevos conceptos está en manos de los científicos, muchos de los cuales, de manera consciente o inconsciente, se ven en la necesidad de recurrir a la metáfora para poder conceptuar, comunicar y explicar la realidad del mundo. en la física cuántica se utilizan términos, como “espín” o “gluón”, con una estructura interna muy desarrollada y constituidos con la claridad suficiente para poder dar sentido y coherencia a una realidad g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand 88 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 88 hasta entonces totalmente desconocida. los nuevos hallazgos científicos descubren una realidad que no sólo no tiene nada en común con el mundo físico cercano al hombre, sino que, además, contradice gran parte de las concepciones de la física hasta el momento y se aparta de la experiencia proporcionada por los sentidos. a continuación, se expondrán las principales metáforas sobre la materia así como las maneras diferentes de conceptualizar las partículas, lo que generalmente se consigue mediante representaciones que las hacen más tangibles y específicas. así, las partículas las podemos encontrar como contenedores, como ondas, como números cuánticos o como seres vivos participantes en un proceso. es decir, destacan los términos que hacen referencia a sus características prominentes. el estudio de las metáforas sobre las partículas elementales continuará con el análisis contrastivo de la metáfora basada en el poder y la lucha: forces dominate the physical worlds [las fuerzas dominan el mundo físico] (cuadrado esclapez y berge legrand, 2005), que ayuda a estructurar el mundo de la física moderna. a partir de ella, se suscitan diferentes conexiones semánticas referidas al dominio, a la aniquilación y, finalmente, al concepto de libertad o a la ausencia de ésta. para que esto sea posible, presupone que las partículas tengan cuerpo, vida y también mueran. 3. análisis de las metáforas de la mecánica cuántica la metáfora fundamental de la mecánica cuántica, que le asigna su denominación, es “la materia se cuantifica”; a partir de aquí se genera una gran cantidad de extensiones metafóricas que irán desarrollándose a continuación. (a) matter quantifies [la materia se cuantifica] la física cuántica constituye una nueva perspectiva que supone la ruptura total con respecto a la explicación clásica del mundo de la que el hombre ha dispuesto hasta ese momento. entre otras muchas consecuencias, la adopción de esta metáfora conceptual implica un cambio en la definición de la materia, tal como explica amaya y garcía de la escosura (1998: 67) en el siguiente párrafo: una partícula elemental no puede ser descrita en términos clásicos (...); se puede decir que a lo que más se asemeja es a un conjunto de números aportaciones al estudio de la metáfora ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 89 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 89 cuánticos, por lo que la antigua impenetrabilidad de la materia se transforma en la física cuántica en la impenetrabilidad para los números cuánticos, ya que la respuesta a la pregunta ¿qué es la materia? es sin duda alguna: un conjunto de números cuánticos. las tres principales metáforas asociadas a la metáfora de la cuantificación de la materia son: (a.1) the spectrum of energy is entropic [el espectro de la energía es entrópico] el 14 de diciembre del año 1900, max planck presentó en la german physical society su trabajo “on the theory of the energy distribution law of the normal spectrum” (planck, 1901). es la primera vez que se utiliza la metáfora de la cuantificación y distribución, si bien como mantiene johnson sheehan (1997), el término cuántico no se acuña hasta años más tarde. esta metáfora, como se verá a continuación, sirve de base para la aparición de nuevas teorías científicas, al ser aplicada mediante el razonamiento analógico, a distintos campos. la teoría de los cuantos supone una verdadera revolución en la física pues rompe con las concepciones de la física clásica sobre la materia y la radiación que asumía en ellas la idea de continuidad. hoy en día se intenta aplicar también la mecánica cuántica a la ciencia computacional. cirac y zoller (2000) parten de un principio básico de la mecánica cuántica, el entanglement1, por el cual la modificación de un cuanto de energía se traduce instantáneamente en la modificación de un segundo cuanto situado a cierta distancia sin que medie ningún tipo de conexión física entre ellos. su origen etimológico es el término latino quantum. ejemplos: (1) each quantum had a certain amount of energy that was greater the higher the frequency of the waves, so at a high enough frequency the emission of a single quantum would require more energy than was available (60).2 / cada uno de ellos poseía una cierta cantidad de energía que era tanto mayor cuanto más alta fuera la frecuencia de las ondas, de tal forma que para frecuencias suficientemente altas, la emisión de un único cuanto requeriría más energía de la que se podía obtener (82). (2) this quantum will disturb the particle and change its velocity in a way that cannot be predicted (60-61). / este cuanto perturbará la partícula, cambiando su velocidad en una cantidad que no puede ser predicha. (83). g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand 90 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 90 (a.2) matter is found in packets [la materia se agrupa en paquetes] la aparición de esta metáfora que proporciona corporeidad no se justifica en la inexistencia de una forma previa para la conceptualización de esta realidad, pues se podría haber expresado mediante el término grupo o conjunto, ambos términos de gran frecuencia en el lenguaje de las matemáticas. la metáfora de los paquetes aporta, sin duda, una fuerza plástica y visual por expresar este término un objeto concreto, tangible y material. ejemplos: (3) the german scientist max planck suggested in 1900 that light, x rays and other waves could not be emitted at an arbitrary rate, but only in certain packets that he called quanta. (60) / el científico alemán max planck sugirió en 1900 que la luz, los rayos x y otros tipos de ondas no podían ser emitidos en cantidades arbitrarias, sino solo en ciertos paquetes que él llamó cuantos. (82). extensiones metafóricas: (4) ¿qué valor daría a la constante de planck, el parámetro que determina el tamaño de los pequeños paquetes –denominados cuantos– en que la energía sería empaquetada? (el país, 27 septiembre 2000: 36). (a.3) matter is discontinuous [la energía es discontinua] esta metáfora sobre la discontinuidad de la materia y la energía es parte de la misma metáfora conceptual que la anterior. la energía es discontinua sustituye un fundamento científico profundamente arraigado en la física clásica: la energía es continua. como mantiene johnson sheehan (1997: 187) con respecto al proceso que conduce a la adopción de la metáfora cuántica, es precisa la creación de una serie de términos nuevos y la sustitución de otros para poder describirla: as planck recognizes, the presumption of atomism that is the basis of boltzmann´s theory of thermodynamics urges a redefinition of energy into atomistic or discontinuous terms. therefore, he discusses energy through a cluster of atomistic terms like “discrete”, “energy element”, “integer”, “equal parts” “independent” and “complexions. ejemplos: (5) aristotle believed that matter was continuous, i.e. one could divide a piece of matter into smaller and smaller bits without any limit (...) (69). / creía aportaciones al estudio de la metáfora ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 91 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 91 aristóteles que la materia era continua, es decir, que un pedazo de materia se podía dividir sin límite en partes cada vez más pequeñas (...) (93). extensiones metafóricas: (6) a few greeks, however, such as democritus, held that matter was inherently grainy (...) (69). / sin embargo, unos pocos griegos, como demócrito, sostenían que la materia era inherentemente granular (...) (93). 4. metáforas sobre la estructura interna de las partículas elementales la terminología con la que se designan las partículas fundamentales procede en su mayor parte, como se observará a continuación, de las lenguas clásicas (como es el caso de los electrones o neutrones). sin embargo, en algunos casos también se origina de una forma arbitraria, es decir, sin que exista ningún vínculo semántico entre la palabra elegida y lo designado (por ejemplo, los quarks o la utilización de sabores y colores). en el grupo de las partículas elementales se integran las partículas que no están formadas por otras. en la actualidad lo integran las siguientes: los leptones (el electrón y su neutrino; el muón y su neutrino; el tautón y su neutrino); los hadrones (los mesones y bariones) y las partículas mediadoras (los fotones y los bosones pesados). los leptones son seis: el electrón, el muón, el tautón (con carga eléctrica negativa) y sus tres neutrinos (sin carga negativa). existen, además, seis antipartículas. los quarks son también de seis tipos o sabores y se designan con pares de letras (u,d), (c,s) y (t,b). tienen carga eléctrica fraccionaria y poseen carga de interacción fuerte que puede ser de tres clases, llamadas colores. podemos igualmente encontrar los seis antiquarks correspondientes. finalmente, los hadrones no son partículas elementales, sino que están formadas por quarks. pueden ser de dos tipos: mesones (formados por un quark y un antiquark) y bariones (formados por tres quarks) (véase la clasificación resumida que figura en la tabla 1). en las interacciones fundamentales, las partículas mediadoras o intermediarias (en inglés denominadas messenger particles), cuya interpretación será analizada más adelante, son: el fotón (responsable de la interacción g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand 92 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 92 electromagnética), tres bosones pesados (relacionados con la interacción débil), ocho gluones (que median la interacción fuerte y nunca se observan libres) y el gravitón, responsable de la interacción gravitatoria. leptones: hadrones: partículas mediadoras: como se desprende de esta clasificación, únicamente es posible encontrar connotaciones metafóricas en el término “gluón”. desde el punto de vista contrastivo, en él, que deriva etimológicamente de glue (pegar) y -on, encontramos que en la lengua meta se adopta la terminología inglesa. de ahí que haya una pérdida de significado y de connotaciones metafóricas. según el oxford english dictionary, “gluón” se define como: “any of a group of massless bosons possessing colour that are postulated as carriers of the colour force that binds quarks together in a hadron”. (b) particles contain charges [las partículas contienen carga] al activar la metáfora de la fuerza se activa simultáneamente la de las partículas como contenedores. en ella aparece proyectado sobre las partículas el esquema del contenedor (lakoff y johnson, 1980). el esquema de imagen del contenedor se emplea con gran frecuencia en la conceptualización de la realidad, y se manifiesta constantemente en los diferentes registros de la lengua. en este caso está asociada la metáfora de la carga que, según se recoge en la nueva enciclopedia larousse en su tercera acepción, es “lo que se transporta en hombros, a lomos o en cualquier vehículo”. una carga eléctrica la constituye la cantidad de electricidad que posee un cuerpo. esta metáfora se manifiesta generalmente mediante sustantivos o verbos, entre los que destacan los sustantivos: charge/carga, discharge/descarga, load/carga, etc., y los verbos: to charge/cargar, to discharge/descargar, to load/cargar, to unload/descargar y to carry/llevar. ejemplos: (7) (...) the electromagnetic force, which interacts with electrically charged particles like electrons and quarks (77) / la fuerza electromagnética, que aportaciones al estudio de la metáfora ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 93 ibérica 13 [2007]: …-… 7 antipartículas. los quarks son también de seis tipos o sabores y se designan con pares de letras (u,d), (c,s) y (t,b). tienen carga eléctrica fraccionaria y poseen carga de interacción fuerte que puede ser de tres clases, llamadas colores. podemos igualmente encontrar los seis antiquarks correspondientes. finalmente, los hadrones no son partículas elementales, sino que están formadas por quarks. pueden ser de dos tipos: mesones (formados por un quark y un antiquark) y bariones (formados por tres quarks) (véase la clasificación resumida que figura en la tabla 1). en las interacciones fundamentales, las partículas mediadoras o intermediarias (en inglés denominadas messenger particles), cuya interpretación será analizada más adelante, son: el fotón (responsable de la interacción electromagnética), tres bosones pesados (relacionados con la interacción débil), ocho gluones (que median la interacción fuerte y nunca se observan libres) y el gravitón, responsable de la interacción gravitatoria. leptones: hadrones: partículas mediadoras: electrón/y su neutrino mesones (quark y antiquark) fotones muón/ y su neutrino bariones (tres quarks) bosones pesados tautón/ y su neutrino gluones tabla 1. tipos de partículas. como se desprende de esta clasificación, únicamente es posible encontrar connotaciones metafóricas en el término “gluón”. desde el punto de vista contrastivo, en él, que deriva etimológicamente de glue (pegar) y -on, encontramos que en la lengua meta se adopta la terminología inglesa. de ahí que haya una pérdida de significado y de connotaciones metafóricas. según el oxford english dictionary, “gluón” se define como: “any of a group of massless 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 93 interactúa con las partículas cargadas eléctricamente, como los electrones o los quarks [...]. (102) (8) (...) not with uncharged particles, such as gravitons [...] (77) pero no con las partículas sin carga, como los gravitones. (102) extensiones metafóricas: (9) force carrying particles can be grouped into four categories (79) / las partículas portadoras de fuerza se pueden agrupar en cuatro categorías (...). (101) 5. metáforas sobre la dualidad onda partícula otra forma de definición de la partícula es mediante la dualidad “onda partícula” (también denominada dualidad “onda corpúsculo”), mediante la cual se puede describir todo el universo. “onda” se define como “una perturbación de naturaleza acústica, electromagnética, etc., que se propaga en un medio progresivamente, en una, dos o tres dimensiones, al modo de una onda en la superficie del agua” (lévy, 1992: 567). la dualidad onda partícula se plantea en las primeras décadas del siglo xx para explicar los fenómenos del microcosmos, en una reconciliación de dos conceptos claramente excluyentes entre sí a los ojos de la razón y de la experiencia de la física clásica. sin embargo, el nuevo formalismo matemático que daba cuenta de este comportamiento era totalmente consistente. la dualidad se pone de manifiesto en el famoso experimento de la doble rendija, en el que el comportamiento ondulatorio se observa en forma de difracción y de patrones de interferencia, y el corpuscular se manifiesta en el efecto fotoeléctrico. como afirma hawking (1996: 64), “for some purposes it is helpful to think of particles as waves and for other purposes it is better to think of waves as particles”. el autor explica esta dualidad en el siguiente ejemplo: (10) a nice way of visualizing the wave/particle duality is the so called sum over histories introduced by the american scientist richard feynman. in this approach the particle is not supposed to have a single history or path in space-time, as it would in a classical, non-quantum theory. instead it is supposed to go from a to b by every possible path. with each path there are associated a couple of numbers: one represents the size of a g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand 94 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 94 wave and the other represents the position in the cycle (i.e. whether it is a crest or a trough). neighbouring paths, the phases or positions in the cycle will differ greatly. (67) / un modo interesante de visualizar la dualidad onda partícula es a través de un método conocido como suma sobre historias posibles, inventado por el científico norteamericano richard feynman. en esta aproximación, la partícula se supone que no sigue una única historia o camino en el espacio-tiempo, como haría en una teoría clásica, en el sentido de no cuántica. en vez de esto, se supone que la partícula va de a a b a través de todos los caminos posibles. a cada camino se le asocia un par de números: uno representa el tamaño de una onda y el otro representa la posición en el ciclo (es decir, si se trata de una cresta o de un valle, por ejemplo). la probabilidad de ir de a a b se encuentra sumando las ondas asociadas a todos los caminos posibles. si se compara un conjunto de caminos cercanos en el caso general, las fases o posiciones en el ciclo diferirán enormemente. (89) (c) waves have crests and troughs [las ondas tienen crestas y valles] esta metáfora lexicalizada se utiliza para la explicación del comportamiento de la onda. los términos crest y troughs dan nombre a la parte prominente de ésta y la contraria, respectivamente. no existe una correspondencia total entre el inglés y el español. mientras que crest se traduce por “cresta”, trough se emplea para referirse a lo que en castellano se denomina “valle” de la onda. esta metáfora se aplica, además, en otros campos de la ciencia muy diferentes entre sí: por ejemplo, en estadística, corresponde en castellano a “mínimo” y en meteorología indica las “bajas presiones”. (d) particles spin [las partículas giran] las partículas poseen una propiedad denominada espín (término metafórico en su lengua de origen) que representa a la partícula como una peonza girando sobre su eje. dicha metáfora se aleja del fenómeno descrito en el hecho de que, según la mecánica cuántica, las partículas no tienen un eje bien definido. el espín proporciona la información relativa a cómo se muestra una partícula desde diferentes perspectivas mediante una imagen visual. para miller (1984), el término spin supuso la recuperación de las imágenes mentales (anschaunngsbildern) proporcionadas por la percepción sensorial para la explicación de los fenómenos de la física: aportaciones al estudio de la metáfora ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 95 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 95 by separating causality from a space-time description bohr was able to regain, in a suitably restricted form, pictures from the world of perceptions, that is anschaunngsbildern, whose loss he had lamented in 1925 and for which he was willing to go to the length of welcoming the notion of spin in 1926. (miller, 1984: 152) miller (1984: 154) reconoce, sin embargo, que existen propiedades que quedan fuera de toda posibilidad de percepción por parte de nuestros sentidos, cuando menciona: “the intrinsic properties of elementary particles that may not be open to our perceptions, e.g, electron spin”. las partículas de espín 1/2 forman la materia del universo y obedecen el principio de exclusión de pauli, según el cual, dos partículas similares no pueden tener la misma posición y la misma velocidad. las partículas de espín entero transmiten las fuerzas. no obedecen el principio de exclusión y por tanto, pueden dar lugar a fuerzas muy intensas. en alguna ocasión pueden dejar de ser virtuales y manifestarse por medio de ondas (metáfora de la dualidad onda partícula). las partículas portadoras de fuerzas se agrupan en cuatro categorías. de esta forma, la metáfora anterior y la metáfora de la carga se entrecruzan para reflejar, combinadas, esta realidad. el proceso funcional mediante el cual se manifiesta la metáfora conceptual puede ser de relación (como propiedad de la partícula): particles have spin; o material (como verbo): particles spin. finalmente, es preciso observar que spin evoca en inglés una situación de doble rotación mientras que el concepto de girar en español implica rotación única y sencilla. ejemplos: (11) these particles have a property called spin. (73) / estas partículas tienen una propiedad llamada espín. (97) (12) what the spin of a particle really tells us is what the particle looks like from different directions. (73) / lo que nos dice realmente el espín de una partícula es cómo se muestra la partícula desde distintas direcciones. (97) extensiones metafóricas: (13) one way of thinking of spin is to imagine the particle as little tops spinning about the axis. (73) / un modo de imaginarse el espín es representando a las partículas como peonzas girando sobre su eje. (97) g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand 96 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 96 con respecto a la bondad de esta metáfora, y a pesar de que proporcione una imagen visual poderosa, existe la posibilidad de que conduzca a error puesto que para que un objeto gire es necesario que posea una forma definida y determinada. de ahí que hawking (1996: 73) mantenga: “however, this can be misleading, because quantum mechanics tells us that the particles do not have any well defined axis”. (e) particles decay [las partículas se desintegran] este término presenta una serie de connotaciones metafóricas en inglés que sugieren conceptos como pudrición, desmoronamiento o decadencia de las que carece la palabra empleada en español, en el que desintegrarse es fundamentalmente denotativo y no connotativo. ejemplos: (14) (...) protons, which make up much of the mass of ordinary matter decay into lighter particles such as antielectrons. (83) / los protones, que constituyen gran parte de la materia ordinaria, pueden decaer espontáneamente en partículas más ligeras, tales como antielectrones. (107-108) 6. metáforas sobre el dominio la presencia del esquema de la guerra (lakoff y johnson, 1980, 1999; ortony, 1993) en la conceptualización de la física de partículas ha sido llevada a cabo en estudios anteriores (cuadrado esclapez y berge legrand, 2005; cuadrado esclapez, 2002). la gran frecuencia de esta forma de conceptualización del mundo humano se justifica en el hecho de que la guerra y la agresión están latentes en gran parte de las manifestaciones humanas a lo largo de nuestra historia, y constituyen unos elementos con fuertes fundamentos biológicos en la conducta de todos los seres vivos. todo ello hace predecir que un análisis contrastivo manifieste su presencia en ambas lenguas. desde el plano estructural de este fenómeno, gordillo y terrades (1973) distinguen entre agresión simétrica y agresión asimétrica. la primera es horizontal y la segunda es vertical. la agresión no suele encontrarse en estructura simétrica (la horizontal), sino que se inclina generalmente hacia el dominio por la fuerza. en el esquema utilizado por la física que se desarrollará a continuación intervienen ambas. cuando hablamos de aportaciones al estudio de la metáfora ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 97 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 97 aniquilación de partículas se produce una agresión simétrica, pues los participantes se encuentran en un mismo plano, mientras que cuando intervienen las fuerzas y las partículas la estructura es asimétrica porque existe una jerarquía. cuando la agresión entra en una estructura asimétrica se activa el concepto del castigo y el arte de la guerra y la agresividad se racionalizan. mantienen gordillo y terrades (1973: 29) que “la racionalización acompaña normalmente a toda conducta agresiva y es susceptible de manifestarse indirectamente de formas diferentes”. el esquema general del dominio y la guerra, suscitado por la agresión asimétrica, origina una serie de sub-esquemas en los que los participantes son las partículas y las fuerzas, y los procesos son aquellos que se llevan a cabo por las interacciones entre ambas partes. la guerra implica los siguientes procesos: dominio, sometimiento, obediencia y finalmente esclavitud, que a su vez implica la idea del confinamiento o pérdida de libertad, y sus opuestos: libertad y liberación. de lo anterior se deduce que todos éstos están conectados mediante un sistema de redes internas, es decir, el proceso relativo a la esclavitud implica a su vez el del confinamiento, y también, por oposición a éstos, surgen los procesos sobre la libertad y la liberación, la mediación ante un conflicto y así sucesivamente. los principios generales de la física de partículas, por lo tanto, se asientan sobre una metáfora muy completa, estructurada y bien definida en la que se entrecruzan diversos dominios cognitivos. esta suprametáfora se resume a continuación: en el mundo hay una fuerza general (cuyos postulados aún no han sido encontrados por el ser humano), que se desdobla en cuatro fuerzas individuales, determinadas y descubiertas por la ciencia. la “teoría de la gran unificación” (the great unification theory)3 es la encargada de descubrir la fuerza general que integra a todas las demás fuerzas. entre tanto, las fuerzas individuales dominan. a los feudos sobre los que cada una de ellas ejerce su poder se les denominan “dominios”. cada fuerza tiene sus propios dominios, así por ejemplo “on the small scales of the atoms and molecules, electromagnetic forces dominate” (hawking, 1996: 78). en esta conceptualización general de una parte de la realidad física sobre la estructura de la dominación se hace especialmente evidente la afirmación de johnson (1987: xii) sobre la influencia y manera de determinar y hasta cierto punto reducir la realidad: “metaphor is a pervasive, irreducible, imaginative structure of human understanding that influences the nature of meaning and constrains our rational inferences”. g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand 98 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 98 ejemplos: (15) the gravitational forces from the distant stars would dominate over that from the earth. (19) / las fuerzas gravitatorias debidas a las estrellas lejanas dominarían frente a la atracción de la tierra. (36) (16) on the small scales of atoms and molecules, electromagnetic forces dominate (78) / a distancias pequeñas, típicas de átomos y moléculas, las fuerzas electromagnéticas, dominan.(102) extensiones metafóricas: (17) even for objects the size of stars, the attractive force of gravity can win over all the other forces, and cause the star to collapse. (87) / incluso para objetos del tamaño de una estrella, la fuerza atractiva de la gravedad puede dominar sobre el resto de las fuerzas y hacer que la estrella se colapse. (112) a partir de la metáfora lexicalizada del dominio es posible la creación de metáforas no lexicalizadas o metáforas imaginativas. un ejemplo lo constituye escape from a force, en la que escape no es parte integrante del vocabulario específico de la física. su soporte morfológico es verbal: to escape/escapar. ejemplos: (18) at this temperature protons and neutrons would no longer have sufficient energy to escape the attraction of the strong nuclear force, and would have started to combine together to produce the nuclei of atoms of deuterium (...) (130) / a esta temperatura protones y neutrones no tendrían ya energía suficiente para vencer la atracción de la interacción nuclear fuerte, y habrían comenzado a combinarse juntos para producir los núcleos de átomos de deuterio (...). (f) particles annihilate each other [las partículas se aniquilan entre sí] la metáfora de la aniquilación se utiliza para expresar en física el fenómeno que resulta del contacto de una partícula con su antipartícula. aniquilar es convertir en energía radiante. en ella las partículas se nos presentan como seres animados capacitados para el exterminio. de esta forma, el microcosmos se convierte en un campo de batalla. las razones para la creación de esta metáfora pueden ser de carácter histórico, ya que no existe ningún motivo lo suficientemente fuerte como aportaciones al estudio de la metáfora ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 99 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 99 para que esta realidad sea necesariamente conceptualizada así. de hecho, la aniquilación o reducción a la nada no podría ser una metáfora que se acercara o fuera fiel a la realidad del cosmos pues nada desaparece, sino que se transforma. lévy (1992) propone en su lugar la palabra “desmaterialización”, pues mantiene que el término “aniquilación”, “bien que profusamente utilizado, es impropio, ya que la desaparición de corpúsculos es compensada siempre por la aparición de una energía radiada cuantitativamente equivalente” (lévy, 1992: 514). no obstante, y a pesar de que falsea la realidad externa, “aniquilación” es un término totalmente coherente con la estructura del dominio conceptual en el que se genera y desarrolla el lenguaje de la física de partículas. como es posible observar, el primer registro de este término como verbo, según el oxford english dictionary, data de 1930, un periodo histórico marcado por la experiencia de una guerra mundial en la que por primera vez en la historia hacen su aparición las armas químicas, y en el que se fraguaba una segunda que iba a ser aún mucho más cruel y devastadora para la humanidad. ejemplos: (19) one can think of these fluctuations as pairs of particles of light or gravity that appear together at some time, move apart, and then come together again and annihilate each other (116) / uno puede imaginarse estas fluctuaciones como pares de partículas de luz o de gravedad que aparecen juntas en un instante determinado, se separan y luego se vuelven a juntar, aniquilándose entre sí. (144) (20) we would again observe a lot of radiation from annihilations. (84) / observaríamos de nuevo una gran cantidad de radiación producida por las aniquilaciones. (109) extensiones metafóricas: (21) this is the anticipated behaviour if the original particles were positive electrons which annihilate in fight. (oxford english dictionary, 1989: 484) el proceso de aniquilación interviene en la explicación del comienzo del universo, tal como aparece a continuación en la explicación del modelo caliente del big bang (hawking, 1996: 129): (22) as the universe continued to expand and the temperature to drop, the rate at which electron/antielectron pairs were being produced in collisions would have fallen below the rate at which they were being destroyed by g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand 100 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 100 annihilation. (129) / a medida que el universo continuaba expandiéndose y la temperatura descendiendo, el ritmo al que los pares electrón/antielectrón estaban siendo producidos en las colisiones habría descendido por debajo del ritmo al que estaban siendo destruidos por aniquilación. (157) ejemplos: (23) (…) it is an important property of the force-carrying particles that do not obey the exclusion principle (76) / una propiedad importante de las partículas portadoras de fuerza es que no obedecen el principio de exclusión. (100) (24) cp symmetry was not obeyed in the decay. (86) / ni siquiera la simetría cp se conservaba en la desintegración. (111) en este caso, desaparece la metáfora en el texto español. (g) movement is freedom [el movimiento es libertad] el modelo “las fuerzas dominan el mundo” suscita la metáfora “el movimiento de las partículas es libertad”. la partícula libre es aquella que se puede mover sin que otras fuerzas que provienen de otras partículas las determinen. al igual que en el caso anterior, consideramos que (cuadrado esclapez y berge legrand 2005: 174): this is patently the case of the correlation that exists between scientific thought and the historical, political and social moment that frames it (...); the generation of theme related new metaphors is conditioned by the cultural context experienced by the authors. ejemplos: (25) experiments with large particle accelerators indicate that at high energies the strong force becomes much weaker, and the quarks and gluons behave almost like free particles. (81) / experimentos realizados con grandes aceleradores de partículas indican que a altas energías la interacción fuerte se hace mucho menos intensa, y los quarks y los gluones se comportan casi como partículas libres. (106) esta metáfora sugiere un gran número de extensiones metafóricas, por ejemplo, las relativas a la esclavitud, el confinamiento, etc. aportaciones al estudio de la metáfora ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 101 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 101 (h) particles send messages [las partículas median] en esta metáfora destaca el hecho de que no existe una correspondencia entre la terminología inglesa y la española. la designación de “partículas mediadoras” forma parte de la suprametáfora relativa al dominio y al enfrentamiento que subyace bajo la conceptualización del mundo cuántico. en la nueva enciclopedia larousse se define “mediador” como aquel “que media o interviene en una discusión, problema, etc., tratando de solucionarlo”. en su tercera acepción se recoge asimismo su sentido y alcance social: “dícese de la persona o grupo de personas que intervienen en un conflicto colectivo para solucionarlo, mediante gestiones ante las partes en conflicto”. desde un aspecto antropológico, la mediación hace referencia a una estructura compleja de agresividad asimétrica. el mediador va legitimado y dotado de una fuerza y derecho. al establecerse la mediación, la agresividad se constituye en fenómeno social y no natural, a pesar de que este adjetivo, en el campo de la jurisprudencia, por ejemplo, se utilice equivocadamente. así, como mantienen gordillo y terrades (1973), lo que se designa como derecho natural es el más cultural de todos, ya que establece intercambios y asimetrías precipitados por reglas culturales. es importante observar que esta metáfora dentro del esquema del dominio no existe en la lengua inglesa, idioma en el que se originan gran parte de estos términos. su correspondencia es messenger, palabra que no recoge las connotaciones de ésta última, a pesar de ser igualmente metafórico. el mensajero intercambia información. esta metáfora se encuentra también en biología para designar el tipo de molécula que lleva información genética. no existe correspondencia exacta con el castellano, que la traduce como mediadora o intermediaria. (i) particles are bodies [las partículas son cuerpos] las partículas son cuerpos es otra metáfora raíz que se desprende de la macroestructura del texto y es posible encontrarla por tanto a lo largo de toda la obra de hawking tanto en inglés como en su traducción al castellano. la primera metáfora desarrollada a partir de la partícula como un cuerpo es la de la vida. a partir de ella, se generan muchas otras, como por ejemplo la muerte, la percepción sensorial, etc. ejemplos: g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand 102 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 102 (26) probable life of proton must be greater (84) / la vida media del protón debe ser mayor (109). (27) the one with negative energy is condemned to be a short-lived particle. (116) / el que tiene energía negativa está condenado a ser una partícula virtual de vida muy corta (145). extensiones metafóricas: (28) this force is universal, that is every particle feels the force of gravity, according to its mass or energy. (77) / esta fuerza es universal en el sentido de que toda partícula la experimenta. (101) (29) the left hand of the electron (asimov, 1982) / el electrón es zurdo (asimov, 1982). (30) “material zurdo” (título de artículo) (...) que invertían el comportamiento de muchas propiedades electromagnéticas fundamentales (...) (diario el país, 2 de mayo de 2001: 30). el ejemplo 29 refleja la expresión metafórica creada por asimov a partir de la metáfora conceptual “los electrones son seres humanos”. como el propio científico explica (asimov, 1982: 73), puede afirmarse que el electrón es zurdo porque se ha comprobado que cuando le afectan las interacciones nucleares débiles, éste “tiende a actuar a izquierdas y no a derechas”. 7. resultados del análisis de los textos se desprende que las tres principales metáforas asociadas a la cuantificación de la materia son: (a) el espectro de la energía es entrópico; (b) la materia se agrupa en paquetes; y (c) la energía es discontinua. con respecto a las metáforas sobre las partículas elementales, bien son de carácter aislado y terminológico (“gluón”) o bien pertenecen a las metáforas conceptuales “las partículas son cuerpos”, a “la metáfora de la carga” (bajo la que subyace el esquema de imagen del contenedor) y a “la metáfora de la dualidad onda-partícula”. finalmente, la metáfora del dominio, analizada ya en estudios anteriores (cuadrado esclapez, 2002; cuadrado esclapez y aportaciones al estudio de la metáfora ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 103 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 103 berge legrand, 2005), muestra una compleja serie de expresiones metafóricas basadas en el esquema de la guerra. con respecto a un segundo análisis de carácter contrastivo, si analizamos el esquema conceptual que se desprende de las metáforas encontradas en el texto original, vemos que en español, la lengua meta, se adoptan con gran fidelidad casi todos los términos metafóricos acuñados para la física cuántica y para la física de partículas, tanto de las metáforas de la discontinuidad, como las del dominio y de la carga. sin embargo, no hay una correspondencia total y absoluta entre estas dos lenguas, sino que en algunos términos puntuales se produce una pérdida de la metáfora o un solapamiento revelador. éste es el caso los ejemplos que se desarrollarán a continuación, en los que se muestra que en la traducción se produce uno de los siguientes procesos: pérdida de connotaciones. ubicación en un dominio cognitivo diferente. retención de alguno de los rasgos constituyentes comunes. expansión de la metáfora conceptual. desaparición de la metáfora en la lengua meta. (a) casos en los que se pierden connotaciones, lo que limita el proceso paralelo de una extensión potencialmente generadora de otras metáforas afines: to decay. to decay decaer idea: degenerar idea: ir a menos imagen: putrefacción imagen: pasar de posición superior a inferior asociaciones con imágenes parecidas: proceso de extensión de metáfora activado. (b) casos en los que la metáfora en la lengua origen pertenece a un campo conceptual y en la lengua meta se sitúa en un campo diferente: to escape. to escape vencer idea: evitar confrontación idea: buscar confrontación imagen: pasar de una posición de imagen: pasar de una posición de inferior a igualdad. igualdad a superior g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand 104 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 104 (c) casos en los que los dos términos, el inglés y el español, retienen rasgos constituyentes comunes que confirman la naturaleza estructural de la metáfora conceptual: trough/valle, to feel/experimentar. en el primer caso, el rasgo que se comparten ambos términos es de carácter formal. es decir, el esquema del corte transversal de una depresión entre montañas es similar al corte transversal de un abrevadero o un pesebre. un segundo caso de retención de rasgos constituyentes es el de feel, que se traduce en español por experimentan. aunque ambas derivan de la metáfora “las partículas son cuerpos”, mientras que del término subtécnico en inglés se infiere únicamente que las partículas tienen vida, en español sus implicaciones son mucho más complejas e incluye la capacidad de razonar y deducir. (d) expansión de la metáfora conceptual. casos en la que la metáfora se encuentra en la lengua meta y no en la lengua origen. messenger/mediadora, to win/dominar. messenger mediadora idea: transmisión de información. idea: resolución de conflictos. dominio conceptual: la comunicación. dominio conceptual: el conflicto. win dominar dominio conceptual: juego, competición dominio conceptual: guerra, poder. como es posible observar mediante el análisis contrastivo de estos términos, el poderoso esquema de la guerra se traspasa de una lengua a otra, de forma que la lengua receptora es capaz de suscitar metáforas a partir de este esquema que no existen en la metáfora en la lengua original. mediador implica siempre confrontación, ya que no existe la mediación si no hay conflicto. mensajero, sin embargo, se ubica en un contexto general y neutro. por su parte, to win puede pertenecer al dominio conceptual del juego, mientras que dominar no implica estas connotaciones. consecuentemente, se produce la activación de esquemas mentales diferentes en cada una de las lenguas. por último, es también interesante observar que se produce un proceso contrario a la tendencia general en la traducción, ya que tiene lugar un enriquecimiento semántico en español. casos de desaparición de la metáfora en la lengua meta. finalmente, encontramos dos casos de pérdida: “espín” y “gluón”. en ambos términos, al adoptarse directamente del inglés, se pierden las connotaciones metafóricas que poseen en la lengua origen. aportaciones al estudio de la metáfora ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 105 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 105 8. conclusiones el análisis del discurso científico llevado a cabo ha puesto de manifiesto una serie de metáforas conceptuales complejas y estructuradas que sirven de soporte al lenguaje de la física del siglo xx y que emanan de las metáforas lexicalizadas que constituyen la terminología propia del lenguaje de la física cuántica. todas estas metáforas representan formalmente el conocimiento y el avance de la ciencia. el estudio de las metáforas conceptuales de textos en inglés y en español ha contribuido a despejar, en la reinterpretación de sus significados, algunos procesos cognitivos tales como: (a) la estructuración conceptual del conocimiento científico a través de metáforas cognitivas que sirven de soporte de estructuras mentales y que contienen a su vez sub-esquemas organizados de metáforas. (b) la descomposición interna en rasgos semánticos de las metáforas conceptuales y de las expresiones metafóricas propias de la física cuántica en ambas lenguas. como se ha podido comprobar en el análisis contrastivo, en la mayoría de los casos analizados las metáforas se mantienen sin variación tras su traducción al español. sin embargo, se ha observado que la equivalencia no es total, ya que han hallado tanto ejemplos de pérdidas de significado de como de enriquecimiento semántico al producirse el paso de una lengua a otra. este fenómeno ya había sido observado por ullmann (1974) en un profundo estudio de los préstamos y calcos, muchos de los cuales poseían connotaciones metafóricas. (artículo revisado recibido en noviembre 2006) bibliografía g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand 106 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 alcaraz varó, e. (2000). el inglés profesional y académico, madrid: alianza editorial. amaya y garcía de la escosura, j. m. 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(2001). el país, 2 de mayo: 30. 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 107 108 ibérica 13 [2007]: 85-108 g. cuadrado esclapez y h. berge legrand dr. georgina cuadrado esclapez es profesora del departamento de lingüística aplicada a la ciencia y a la tecnología de la universidad politécnica de madrid, doctora en filología inglesa y máster en lingüística aplicada. ha participado en proyectos de investigación sobre inglés científico y cognitivismo, áreas en las que ha realizado publicaciones nacionales e internacionales. dr. heliane jill berge legrand es doctora en lingüística por la universidad de londres y, en la actualidad, profesora asociada en el departamento de inglés de la universidad complutense de madrid. ha desarrollado su labor docente e investigadora en diferentes campos, entre los que destacan la fonética experimental, lingüística aplicada y lexicología. notas 1 el diario no traduce el término, sino que lo utiliza en original y en cursiva. sin embargo, se aclara que su traducción podría ser “entrelazamiento”. 2 a partir de ahora, los paréntesis situados al final del ejemplo indicarán el número de página en el que éste se encuentra, tanto en la versión original como en su traducción al castellano. 3 el cognitivismo recoge este concepto y busca también una teoría de la unificación. 05 cuadrado.qxp 11/4/07 16:44 página 108 03 mart.nez-flor.qxp ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-41 abstract the field of interlanguage pragmatics has recently received a lot of attention. among the features examined within this field, learners' awareness and production of a variety of speech acts has been widely investigated in both second and foreign language contexts. focusing on the latter, there has been increasing interest in analysing learners' use of requests, suggestions and advice acts across different esp disciplines (martínez-flor & alcón, 2004). however, results from this research provided a partial report of learners' requesting behaviour, since it only dealt with the request head act realisations without considering those devices that accompany such a speech act in order to modify its pragmatic effect (trosborg, 1995; sifianou, 1999). bearing this fact in mind, the present study examines learners' requesting performance from two different esp disciplines, namely those of english philology and computer science engineering, with a focus on both the amount and type of modifiers they employ when requesting in two different situations. findings show on the one hand that learners from the english philology discipline employed a higher amount of modifiers than the computer science engineering learners; and on the other hand, the analysis of the type of internal and external modifiers employed by both groups revealed a similar trend, which indicates the lack of variety in using these modification devices. on the basis of these findings, some pedagogical implications, as well as suggestions for further research are presented. key words: interlanguage pragmatics, requests, modifiers, english as a foreign language resumen el uso de elementos de mitigación en peticiones por estudiantes universitarios en dos disciplinas de ife el campo de la pragmática del interlenguaje ha recibido mucha atención recientemente. entre los temas que se han examinado, uno que se ha investigado especialmente es la comprensión y producción de actos de habla por parte de estudiantes tanto en contextos de segundas lenguas como lenguas extranjeras. centrándonos en éste último, se ha prestado interés en analizar el uso que hacen los estudiantes de las peticiones, sugerencias y consejos en diferentes disciplinas del campo del ife (martínez-flor & alcón, 2004). sin embargo, los resultados de esta investigación mostraron sólo una parte del learners' use of request modifiers across two university esp disciplines alicia martínez-flor and esther usó-juan universitat jaume i de castelló, spain aflor@ang.uji.es & euso@ang.uji.es 23 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 23 comportamiento de los estudiantes al realizar peticiones, puesto que sólo se trató la forma lingüística de la propia petición y no en los modificadores que acompañan a este acto de habla para modificar su efecto pragmático (trosborg, 1995; sifianou, 1999). teniendo en cuenta este aspecto, la presente investigación analiza la realización de peticiones de estudiantes que pertenecen a dos disciplinas diferentes, filología inglesa e ingeniería informática, prestando atención tanto a la cantidad como al tipo de modificadores que emplean al realizar las peticiones en dos situaciones diferentes. los resultados muestran por un lado que los estudiantes de filología inglesa emplearon un mayor número de modificadores que los de ingeniería informática. por otro lado, el análisis del tipo de modificadores tanto internos como externos utilizados por estudiantes de los dos grupos reveló una tendencia similar, lo que indica la poca variedad que hacen de estos modificadores. en base a estos resultados, se presentan varias implicaciones pedagógicas, así como futuras líneas de investigación. palabras clave: pragmática del interlenguaje, peticiones, elementos de modificación, inglés como lengua extranjera introduction the field of interlanguage pragmatics (ilp) has been defined as the area of research that "seeks to describe and explain learners' development and use of pragmatic knowledge" (kasper, 1989: 42). therefore, in contrast to cross-cultural pragmatics, which deals with the comparison of learners' pragmatic performance with that of native-speakers (nss), research conducted in the area of ilp adopts a second language acquisition perspective by focusing on those developmental issues that affect learners' acquisition of pragmatics (bardovi-harlig, 1999, 2001, 2002). this research has been divided into cross-sectional and longitudinal studies devoted to analysing learners' awareness and use of a wide range of pragmatic aspects, such as greetings, conversational abilities, discourse markers, interactional routines and modality in disagreements (see kasper & rose [1999, 2002] for a review). among those target pragmatic aspects being examined in ilp research, learners' ability to comprehend and produce different speech acts has received a great deal of attention in both second (schmidt, 1983; takahashi & dufon, 1989; ellis, 1992; barron, 2003) and foreign language contexts (house & kasper, 1987; faerch & kasper, 1989; trosborg, 1995; hill, 1997; bardovi-harlig & dörnyei, 1998; rose, 2000). the overall results from these studies illustrated that the learners immersed in the second language community showed a developmental pattern in their acquisition of requests, since they were daily exposed to authentic pragmatic input, as well as opportunities to make requests in different contextual situations. in contrast, learners' chances to develop an appropriate requesting behaviour in the foreign a. martínez-flor & e. usó-juan ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-4124 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 24 language context were very limited, since their only contact with the target language was restricted to the classroom setting. paying attention to learners' performance in foreign language contexts, there has been increasing interest in examining whether learners' opportunities to practice different speech acts may vary depending on the specific english for specific purposes (esp) discipline they are engaged in. to this respect, martínez-flor and alcón (2004) compared learners' awareness and use of three exhortative speech acts, namely those of requests, suggestions and advice, in different contextual situations across six university disciplines: english philology, primary education, law, business administration and management, computer science engineering, and agricultural technical engineering: horticulture and gardening speciality. the common feature among these esp disciplines was the fact that all had english as a compulsory subject, although each syllabus was adapted to the particular esp course to be covered. these six disciplines were distributed into the three main types of esp categories developed by hutchinson and waters (1987), that is, the first two disciplines were related to english for the social sciences (ess), the next two were related to english for business and economics (ebe), and the last two disciplines were concerned with english for science and technology (est). results from martínez-flor and alcón's (2004) study showed that learners engaged in the ess category performed better than learners from the other disciplines in both their awareness and production of the three speech acts being examined. the authors argued that this could have been due to the fact that this type of discipline covers a more "traditional humanities-based general english" than the other esp disciplines (hutchison & waters, 1987: 16-18). thus, the kind of english that students from english philology and primary education had received could have included more general situations eliciting a variety of speech acts, such as the ones examined in their study, than the more specific syllabi involving particular vocabulary and discipline-related situations covered in the other esp categories. to sum up, this study pointed to differences between learners' speech act performance from different esp disciplines within the foreign language classroom. however, focusing specifically on the speech act of requesting, it provided a partial report of learners' actual requesting behaviour, since it only dealt with those linguistic formulae employed to make the request act itself without considering those devices that accompany such a speech act in order to modify its pragmatic effect. the speech act of requesting according to trosborg (1995) and sifianou (1999), requests consist of two main parts, namely those of the core request or head act, and the peripheral modification learners' use of request modifiers ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-41 25 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 25 ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-41 a. martínez-flor & e. usó-juan devices. whereas the head act consists of the main utterance which has the function of requesting and can stand by itself, the peripheral modification devices are optional items that serve to either mitigate or intensify the force of the requesting move. additionally, these modification items can be of two types: internal, which appear within the same request act (e.g. could you possibly open the window?), and external, which appear in the immediate linguistic context rather than in the request act itself (e.g. it is quite hot in here. could you open the window?). therefore, considering the fact that requests are directive face-threatening speech acts (brown & levinson, 1987), and that their performance may threaten the hearer’s negative face, the use of these modifiers is essential so that the speakers’ requesting performance may be considered as appropriate in a variety of situations. research examining learners’ use of these modification devices when requesting has obtained different results concerning the amount and type of modifiers employed by their participants (kasper, 1981; blum-kulka & olshtain, 1986; house & kasper, 1987; faerch & kasper, 1989; trosborg, 1995; hill, 1997; hassall, 2001; achiba, 2003; barron, 2003; kobayashi & rinnert, 2003; schauer, 2004). regarding internal modification, some studies have shown learners’ underuse of this type of modifiers in comparison to nss, and more specifically the “downtoner” (kasper, 1981; house & kasper, 1987; faerch & kasper, 1989; hassall, 2001; barron, 2003), whereas other studies, such as the one conducted by blum-kulka and olshtain (1986), reported no differences in the amount of this type of modifiers between learners and nss. in contrast, focusing particularly on the politeness marker “please”, the studies by faerch and kasper (1989), hill (1997) and barron (2003) found that learners overused it. with respect to external modification, kasper (1981) reported that learners and nss used the same amount of this type of modifiers, and trosborg (1995) stated that learners underused them when compared to nss. however, the overall result found in most of the studies showed that learners overused external modifiers, and particularly the type known as “grounders” (blum-kulka & olshtain, 1986; house & kasper, 1987; hassall, 2001; achiba, 2003; kobayashi & rinnert, 2003; schauer, 2004). in fact, blum-kulka and olshtain (1986) and hassall (2001) reported that their learners’ grounders created a verbose effect because they contained excessive information and, consequently, were regarded as inappropriate. a common feature among all these studies that have investigated learners’ use of peripheral modification devices concerns the fact that all included participants who were learning english as a foreign language (efl), with the exception of blumkulka and olshtain (1986), achiba (2003) and schauer (2004). however, none of these studies examined whether there were differences between their use of different modifiers depending on the particular esp discipline they were engaged in. taking 26 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 26 ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-41 learners' use of request modifiers this aspect into account, and considering results from the above-mentioned study by martínez-flor and alcón (2004), the present paper examines learners’ requesting behaviour from two different disciplines, namely those of english philology and computer science engineering, with a focus on their use of peripheral modification devices when requesting in two different situations. more specifically, we attempt to answer the following research questions: 1. do learners from two esp disciplines employ the same amount of modifiers when requesting? 2. does the type of modifiers (i.e. internal and external) vary depending on the esp discipline the learners belong to? methodology participants participants taking part in our study consisted of two groups of students of universitat jaume i (castellón) who were in the second-year course of the degrees/esp disciplines of english philology and computer science engineering, respectively. the former group involved twenty-eight female and twelve male students (n=40), whereas the latter group involved nine female and fifteen male students (n=24). their age ranged between 19 and 23 years old, the average age being 21.5 years. data collection the data were collected during the oral exam the two groups had to take at the end of the semester with their respective lecturers. therefore, the same steps were followed with both the english philology and computer science engineering groups. once the learners had individually performed their assigned oral exam, the lecturer asked the next student to enter her office. then, the lecturer gave the pair of students a role-play situation, and asked them to spontaneously perform it, that is, the two students were asked to perform the role-play without having any time to prepare what they had to say (see appendix a). after performing this role-play, the same procedure was followed with the next two students, who were provided with a different role-play situation (see appendix b). these two role-plays were specifically designed for this study, since they elicited request use and varied according to one of the three sociopragmatic factors described in brown and levinson’s (1987) politeness theory, namely that of social status. this 27 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 27 politeness variable was taken into account, since it has been regarded as one of the factors that affect the choice of particular pragmalinguistic forms as well as the use of mitigation devices to make appropriate requests. thus, whereas the first role-play (appendix a) involved an equal status relationship between the interlocutors (i.e. two classmates), the second role-play (appendix b) addressed a higher status relationship between the interlocutors (i.e. a student and a professor). regarding the other two politeness variables, those of social distance and degree of imposition, they were kept similar in both role-plays, that is, the interlocutors knew each other (i.e. close social distance), and the request to be made involved a high degree of imposition (i.e. asking to lend the class notes in the first role-play, and asking for an extension of the deadline to hand in some coursework assignment in the second role-play). all role-plays were tape-recorded and transcribed in order to analyse the amount and type of internal and external modifiers employed by learners from the two esp disciplines when making their requests. for this analysis, we considered previous ilp studies (house & kasper, 1981; trosborg, 1995; sifianou, 1999; márquez-reiter, 2000; achiba, 2003) that have presented classifications of modification devices used by second and foreign language learners when requesting (see table 1a for internal modifiers and table 1b for external modifiers). a. martínez-flor & e. usó-juan ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-4128 table 1a. internal modifiers used in requests. internal modifiers openers questions • do you think you could open the window? consultative device • would you mind opening the window? negation • i don’t suppose you would mind closing the window. conditional • i would be grateful if you could open the window hedges softeners diminutives • abbreviations (info for information) tag questions • you could open the window, couldn’t you? miscellaneous • could you possibly open the window for a moment? intensifiers • you really must open the window. fillers hesitators • i er, erm, er – i wonder if you could open the window cajolers • you know, you see, i mean appealers • ok?, right?, yeah attentiongetters • excuse me …; hello …; look … 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 28 results and discussion the first of our research questions referred to the overall amount of peripheral modification devices employed by learners from the two esp disciplines. results obtained after analysing all the transcripts showed that learners from english philology modified forty request moves out of a total of forty-five, whereas learners from computer science engineering only employed modification devices, either external or internal, in eleven out of twenty-five request moves (see figure 1). as illustrated in figure 1, learners engaged in the english philology degree employed a higher amount of peripheral modification devices when requesting (78.08%) than learners from computer science engineering (21.92%). these findings may have been related to the specific esp syllabus to be covered in each degree, since the first group of learners majored in english and, consequently, the english language was both an object and a tool of study for them. in other words, apart from studying a particular subject devoted to practicing the english language (in which similar types learners' use of request modifiers ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-41 29 table 1b. external modifiers used in requests. external modifiers preparators • may i ask you a favour? could you open the window? grounders • it seems it is quite hot here. could you open the window? disarmers • i hate bothering you but could you open the window? expanders • would you mind opening the window? once again, could you open it? cost minimizing • could you open the window? i’ll close it after the class session. promise of reward • could you open the window? if you open it, i promise to take you to the cinema. please • would you mind opening the window, please? 21.92% 78.08% english philology computer science engineering figure 1. learners’ overall use of peripheral modification devices from the two esp disciplines. 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 29 of role-plays could be practiced), learners also employed english as the means of communication in other subjects from their degree. in contrast, learners from the second group, that is, computer science engineering, only had this compulsory subject of english, which mainly covered specific vocabulary and situations related to the computer-science field. these differences may have therefore exerted an influence in their overall use of peripheral modification devices. these results are in line with martínez-flor and alcón’s (2004) study, which also showed that learners from the english philology degree performed better when requesting (i.e. their use of linguistic realisations to express the request head act) than learners from other esp disciplines, such as computer science engineering or business administration and management. the following examples illustrate this point by showing learners’ request moves from english philology (example 1) and computer science engineering (example 2) when performing the first role-play designed for this study (see appendix a): example (1)1 a. eh … hello silvia … i have to ask you a question. i haven’t gone to the classes eh … because i have been working … in a restaurant … and i would need your notes if you don’t mind for the exams. b. ok. i will go with you …eh … to copy my notes … because i understand that you … eh … you were not able to come to class … so don’t worry. example (2) a. eh … hello manel b. hello sandra a. … i need the class notes for the subject that … i part on monday b. ok … i have all the last class a. you give me the … notebooks? b. eh … yes is this … would you have any copy? a. eh … yes … eh i need this notebooks … i go i go to reprography for photocopy … b. ok thank you a. bye as can be observed in example 1 above, the learner from the english philology discipline employed four peripheral modification devices when making his request (e.g. hello silvia, i have to ask you a question, because i have been working, and if you don’t mind for the exams), which mitigated, to a great extent, the pragmatic force of such speech act. in contrast, the request performed by the computer science engineering learner was more direct with no instances of peripheral modification devices serving to soften the impositive requesting act, with the exception of a repetition (i.e. an a. martínez-flor & e. usó-juan ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-4130 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 30 “expander”). moreover, it is also interesting to point out that although the first example is shorter than the second one, it shows a more coherent piece of discourse than the second one, which is ungrammatical and highly repetitive. this fact, therefore, may indicate that having a certain degree of grammatical competence might influence learners’ pragmatic performance by increasing the number of modifiers employed when requesting, as well as by producing more coherent request moves (see bardovi-harlig, 1999, 2003, on the relationship between grammar and pragmatics). apart from considering the overall amount of peripheral modification devices employed by the two groups, we also examined the number of internal and external modifiers they produced in an attempt to ascertain whether there were preferences of one type of modification over the other depending on the discipline learners were engaged in (see figure 2). as illustrated in figure 2, it seems that learners from the two esp disciplines employed more internal than external modification devices. in particular, learners’ use of internal modifiers from english philology amounted to 65.58% as compared to the low use of external modifiers (34.42%), and a similar pattern was found for the computer science engineering learners, who employed a higher number of internal modification devices (57.41%) than external (42.59%). this tendency of preferring internal over external modifiers seems to support the study by faerch and kasper (1989) which found that their two groups of participants (i.e. danish learners of english and german, and nss of both languages) also employed more internal than external modification devices. according to these authors (1989: 242), this could have been due to the fact that “internal modification is an obligatory choice, [while] external modification [is] an optional choice”. however, the data collection technique in faerch and kasper’s (1989) study was that of a written discourse completion test learners' use of request modifiers ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-41 31 65.58 57.41 34.42 42.59 0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 internal modification external modification english philology computer science engineering figure 2. learners’ use of internal and external modification devices from the two esp disciplines. 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 31 (dct), whereas we employed oral spontaneous role-plays to collect learners’ requests, something that may have also influenced the results. in fact, considering the particular situation in which our data were collected, that is after taking part in an oral exam at the end of the semester, we may assume that learners’ performance in an additional unexpected oral task could have contributed to the higher use of internal modifiers (e.g. you know, you see, excuse me) and, consequently, the lower use of the external type of modifiers, which may be more difficult to produce, since they involve “conscious planning decisions on the part of the speaker” (faerch & kasper, 1989: 244). in order to provide a more detailed picture of which particular types of internal and external modifiers learners had employed, we posed our second research question. specifically, we were interested in examining whether the type of modification devices produced varied depending on the esp discipline learners belonged to. starting with the internal peripheral modification devices, figure 3 shows that the most frequent type of modifier employed by learners from both groups was the “hesitator” type, followed by “attention-getters”, “cajolers”, and “softeners”2. to a lesser extent, learners from english philology employed “openers”3 and “cajolers”, and no instances of “intensifiers” were found. the opposite results were obtained with the computer science engineering learners, since they employed “intensifiers” to a lesser extent, and no instances of “openers” and “appealers” were found in the data. the high use of “hesitators” by learners has also been reported in other studies which have employed oral role-plays as the data elicitation instrument (kasper, 1981; trosborg, 1995). in this line, it could have been the case that our learners employed a high use of this internal modifier due to the nature of the task they were asked to perform, that is, a spontaneous role-play in which they did not have time to prepare in advance what they had to say. therefore, as previously mentioned, this fact may a. martínez-flor & e. usó-juan ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-4132 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 openers softeners intensifiers hesitators cajolers appealers attentiongetters english philology computer science engineering figure 3. learners’ use of different types of internal peripheral modification devices from the two esp disciplines. 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 32 have been the cause why learners’ overall amount of modifiers fell under the internal rather than the external type of modification devices. however, trosborg (1995: 261) also pointed out that the hesitation phenomena found in her learners’ speech was mainly “caused by linguistic insecurity and lack of proficiency, rather than being used strategically as a downtoning device”. bearing this fact in mind, the author claimed that learners employed a high use of “hesitators” because they were less competent than the nss, who could resort to a variety of other mitigating devices. similar reasons could explain why our learners, indistinctively from the discipline they were engaged in, resorted to a high use of “hesitators” instead of employing other devices, such as “downtoners” (i.e. a type of softener) which, as faerch and kasper (1989) state, require more pragmalinguistic competence on the part of the learners. the following examples illustrate this point by showing the high frequency of “hesitators” employed by both learners from english philology (example 3) and computer science engineering (example 4) when performing the second role-play designed for this study (see appendix b): example (3) a. good day b. morning a. i was … i’m i’m one of your students for english practice and … i know … i have to we had to … hand in some … eh … some work last week but … i’m one of the students … i think i’m one of the students who didn’t bring them … eh … i was wondering if you could extend the deadline … eh … and i could bring them … eh i don’t know … next week or or … in two days time … b. next week on monday? a. it’s ok b. thank you. no problem, next week. a. thank you. example (4) a. hello b. hello a. i … i have a … mmm… my my sister … he … get married and i … eh … to hand coursework b. ok … and what what you want? a. eh … i decide that … eh … that you … if you can … eh … if you could give me … two days more b. ok … if you give me an authoritation … you will … you will get to … you will get your housework two days late a. i can’t … no authoritation … because i wasn’t in any official situation learners' use of request modifiers ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-41 33 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 33 the next two types of internal modifiers most employed by learners were “attentiongetters” and “cajolers”. these findings seem to indicate that the type of “fillers”, which includes hesitators, cajolers, appealers and attention-getters (see table 1 above), was the learners’ preference from the two esp disciplines. in fact, and as previously mentioned, this result may have been related to the fact that data were collected through interactive oral role-plays and, consequently, the use of fillers, which are “optional lexical items used by speakers to fill in the gaps that occur during an interaction” (sifianou, 1999: 179), was highly employed in contrast to their low occurrence in other studies which have collected data using written instruments (house & kasper, 1987; faerch & kasper, 1989). the use of “softeners”, which refer to adverbs (e.g. possibly, just) and fixed expressions, such as a moment or a little bit, was the next type of modifiers employed by the two groups of learners. finally, some differences were observed among learners’ use of “openers”, “appealers” and “intensifiers”. learners from english philology employed a limited number of “openers” and “appealers”, whereas the computer science engineering learners did not use any of these modifiers. this could have been due to the fact that the use of “openers” requires more grammatical competence on the part of the learners (i.e. using questions, negative constructions and conditional sentences), and the use of “appealers” may also require more strategic or discourse-based competence (i.e. use of ok?, right?, yeah). regarding learners’ use of “intensifiers”, which refer to devices “rarely used with requests” since they have the function of aggravating the impact of the request indicating impolite behaviour (sifianou, 1999: 157), it is interesting to point out that only learners from the computer science engineering discipline employed them (see example 5 taken from learner’s performance in the second roleplay designed for this study included in appendix b). example (5) “eh … hello teacher … mmm … eh … i really want an extension of the deadline because i can’t make the … the coursework because my mother … eh … was being to the hospital … and … it’s impossible … but eh … i have a …” moving on to the type of external modification devices, figure 4 shows that the most frequent type of modifier employed by learners from both groups was that of “grounders”, whereas the use of the other external modifiers varied depending on the esp discipline learners were engaged in. on the one hand, learners from english philology employed “preparators”, followed by both “expanders” and “please” to the same degree, and finally, “disarmers”. there was no occurrence of the “cost minimizing” and “promise of reward” in the data from this group of learners. on the other hand, the computer science engineering learners resorted to the use of “please”, followed by “preparators”, “expanders”, and to a lesser extent, the type of a. martínez-flor & e. usó-juan ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-4134 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 34 “promise of reward”. finally, no instances of “disarmers” or “cost minimizing” were found. the high use of “grounders” on the part of learners from both esp disciplines seems to be in line with previous research that has illustrated learners’ overall preference for this type of external modifier when compared to other external modification devices (blum-kulka & olshtain, 1986; house & kasper, 1987; faerch & kasper, 1989; trosborg, 1995; hassall, 2001; achiba, 2003; kobayashi & rinnert, 2003). according to house and kasper (1987: 1281), this may be due to the fact that “it is psychologically most plausible to make the addressee understand the reason(s) behind a request”. moreover, it has been claimed that “grounders” are more explicit in their politeness function than other types of modifiers and, therefore, they are regarded as an efficient mitigating strategy which reduces the threat to the hearer’s face (faerch & kasper, 1989; hassall, 2001). this may have been the reason why our learners employed a higher number of these devices, since they could have felt easier to justify the imposing nature of their requests by expressing the reasons why such requests were made. the following examples illustrate this point by showing the use of “grounders” by both learners from english philology (example 6) and computer science engineering (example 7) in the first role-play (see appendix a): example (6) a. hi estela b. hi ana a. i have a little problem because i i couldn’t go to classes lately … i was ill you know … and i don’t have the notes … so would you mind giving me your notes please? b. no … i will give you my notes … eh … what … eh … for how many days? a. eh … i think only one week learners' use of request modifiers ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-41 35 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 p reparators grounders dis armers e xpanders cos t minimizing p romis e reward p leas e english philology computer science engineering figure 4. learners’ use of different types of external peripheral modification devices from the two esp disciplines. 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 35 example (7) a. hello b. hi lafuente a. eh … i need the classnotes … eh … because … because … because … eh … i didn’t can … i didn’t go to the class … i need classnotes … do you do you can you … eh … can you … eh … can you [prestarme] the classnotes … eh … for … in the evening … it’s very important … because i can’t go to class but i need them … my mother in hospital … she was ill … but i didn’t go because no taxis … because … b. eh … yes i can … if you come to my house this afternoon and then you give them back to me again … yes a. ok thanks b. bye as can be observed in the two previous examples, both groups of learners employed “grounders” to support and justify their requests. however, the utterance from the computer science engineering learners was very long with the inclusion of excessive information. in fact, most of the “grounders” found in this group of learners showed a tendency towards verbosity, that is, producing long utterances with the inclusion of too much redundant and unnecessary information (blum-kulka & olshtain, 1986; hassall, 2001; schauer, 2004). this verbose pragmatic behaviour may have been due to several reasons already identified in previous research, such as their lack of confidence in their ability to make their meaning understood, or to be adequately polite (faerch & kasper, 1989; hassall, 2001: 274). in addition, and as previously mentioned, this tendency to produce lengthy utterances could have also been related to their lack of enough pragmalinguistic competence to produce what they wanted to express in less, but more appropriate, words. regarding the next types of external modification devices employed by the two groups of learners, it is interesting to point out that the computer science learners also resorted to a high use of the politeness marker “please”, which supports previous research that has found learners’ overuse of this modifier given the fact that it is an explicit and transparent marker of politeness (faerch & kasper, 1989; hill, 1997; barron, 2003). therefore, in line with hassall (2001), it seems that learners from this discipline showed a tendency towards clarity, either by producing lengthy speech act realisations or favouring a high use of “please”, in order to make sure they were understood in a language over which they had imperfect control. instead of employing this politeness marker to a considerable extent, learners from english philology preferred the use of “preparators” (see example 8), which have also been regarded as one of the modifiers most employed by learners, since they prepare the addressee for the ensuing request (kasper, 1981; hill, 1997; kobayashi & rinnert, 2003). a. martínez-flor & e. usó-juan ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-4136 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 36 example (8) a. hello good morning … i would like to speak to you because i have some problems and … and i haven’t … i haven’t had time enough to finish my work and i would like to know if it was possible to have … eh … more time to finish it … b. ok you can have … eh … one more week but no more because if there are any students that know that i’m making you that favour maybe they’ll get angry … ok? … so only one more week … a. thank you very much the use of “expanders”, that is repeating the same request head act or employing synonymous expressions with a mitigating effect, were the next type of modifiers employed by the two groups of learners. this result could also be related to the fact that instead of resorting to a greater variety of different modifiers, learners repeated their requests again probably due to their lack of pragmalinguistic competence. finally, whereas no instances of the “cost minimizing” type of external modifier were found in any of the two groups of learners, the type of “disarmers” was only used by learners from the english philology discipline (see example 9), and the “promise of reward” modifier was only employed by computer science engineering learners (see example 10). it is our belief that the “disarmer” type required more elaboration than the “promise of reward” type, and this may have been the reason why a different use of these modifiers was found in each of the two groups of learners. example (9) a. i’m very sorry to bother you but … eh … i have a couple of problems and i’d like you to … eh … let me an extension for the deadline of … of ... the coursework assignment … to be able to .. eh … b. do you think a couple of days would be enough? a. yes i think so b. ok then … a couple of days example (10) a. hello b. hi a. eh … i need the classnotes … eh … because i … i not go to class the other day and … b. eh … yes … but … eh … a. i can help you another day with the programmes … b. well … i’m a very good friend and i’m giving you my notes a. ok thanks learners' use of request modifiers ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-41 37 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 37 to sum up learners’ use of different types of internal and external modifiers, it seems that some differences were observed regarding some specific modifiers, such as “openers” or “intensifiers” with respect to internal modification, or “please” and “disarmers” as regards external modification. however, the general trend regarding the variety of modifiers employed seemed to be quite similar for the two groups of learners, as illustrated in figures 3 and 4 above. conclusion and pedagogical implications the aim of the present study was to provide more insights into learners’ requesting behaviour in the foreign language context. in particular, we examined whether learners’ performance from two esp disciplines, namely those of english philology and computer science engineering, was different regarding the amount and type of modifiers employed when requesting in different situations. results concerned with the first research question showed that learners from the english philology discipline employed more modification devices than those from computer science engineering. additionally, when comparing the number of internal and external modifiers employed by the two groups, findings illustrated that both groups of learners employed more internal than external modifiers, something that could have been related to the type of data collection instrument employed (i.e. spontaneous oral role-play) and the data collection situation (i.e. after taking part in an oral exam). with respect to our second research question, results indicated that the most frequent type of internal modifier employed by both groups was the “hesitator”, and regarding the external modifiers, the “grounder” was the most frequent type of modifier. although some differences were observed in relation to the use of other types of modifiers, the general trend was quite similar for learners belonging to each esp discipline. in relation to these findings, some pedagogical implications may be proposed. first, employing interactive role-plays as the data elicitation instrument is advisable, and particularly in the foreign language context, since they allow learners with opportunities to practice the target language. however, the situations designed for the two role-plays employed in the present study only varied in terms of the social status between their participants (i.e. equal versus higher status), and no attention was paid to whether learners’ performance when modifying their requests varied from one situation to the other. therefore, the analysis of learners’ performance in a variety of role-plays that differ depending on other politeness variables, such as social distance and degree of imposition, should be investigated in future studies. by so a. martínez-flor & e. usó-juan ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-4138 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 38 doing, we could provide more insights into whether learners’ requesting behaviour is influenced by the sort of situations they are asked to perform. second, the fact that learners’ variety of different types of modifiers did not differ considerably, irrespective of the esp discipline they were engaged in, seems to indicate that instruction of these modifiers would be necessary, particularly in the foreign language classroom. according to kasper (2001) and kasper and roever (2005), the classroom context has been regarded as an impoverished environment for the acquisition of pragmatics, since learners are not provided with appropriate input, opportunities for contextualised practice, and chances of receiving feedback on their pragmatic competence. consequently, it would be very beneficial to provide learners with metapragmatic explanations regarding the importance of softening the impositive force of requests on the one hand; and to engage them in a variety of awareness-raising and production activities that include the use of both internal and external modifiers when requesting in different contextual situations on the other hand. these activities could be adopted and tailor-made for different esp disciplines. in this way, pragmatics could be integrated in different foreign language learning syllabi attending to learners’ needs in a given discipline. future investigations therefore are needed to examine the teachability of these modifiers in the foreign language classroom, and more specifically in different esp disciplines. moreover, the design of various teaching approaches that may best suit our learners’ pragmatic development when modifying their requests by accounting for their individual differences, such as proficiency level, motivation or learning style, should also be addressed in future research. it is our belief that considering all these aspects in further observational and empirical research would enrich our understanding of how pragmatics can be developed and integrated in foreign language learning contexts. acknowledgements this study is part of a research project funded by (a) the spanish ministerio de educación y ciencia (hum2004-04435/filo), co-funded by feder, and (b) fundació universitat jaume i and caixa castelló-bancaixa (p1.1b2004-34). 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(1992). “learning to communicate in the classroom: a study of two language learners’ requests”. studies in second language acquisition 14: 1-23. faerch, c. & g. kasper (1989). “internal and external modification in interlanguage request realization” in s. blum-kulka, j. house & g. kasper (eds.), cross-cultural pragmatics: requests and apologies, 221-247. norwood, nj: ablex. hassall, t. j. (2001). “modifying requests in a second language”. international review of applied linguistics 39: 259-283. hill, t. (1997). the development of pragmatic competence in an efl context. unpublished doctoral dissertation. tokyo: temple university japan. house, j. & g. kasper (1981). “politeness markers in english and german” in f. coulmas (ed.), conversational routine, 157-185. the hague: mouton de gruyter. house, j. & g. kasper (1987). “interlanguage pragmatics: requesting in a foreign language” in w. lörscher & r. schultze (eds.), perspectives on language in performance. festschrift für werner hüllen, 1250-1288. tübingen: narr verlag. hutchinson, t. & a. waters (1987). english for specific purposes. cambridge: cambridge university press. kasper, g. (1981). pragmatische aspekte in der interrimsprache [pragmatic aspects in interlanguage]. tübingen: narr verlag. kasper, g. (1989). “variation in interlanguage speech act realisation” in s. gass, c. madden, d. preston & l. selinker (eds.), variation in second language acquisition, vol. 1: discourse and pragmatics, 37-58. clevedon: multilingual matters. kasper, g. (2001). “classroom research on interlanguage pragmatics”, in rose & kasper, 33-60. kasper, g. & c. roever (2005). “pragmatics in second language learning” in e. hinkel (ed.), handbook of research in second language teaching and learning, 317-334. mahwah, new yersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. kasper, g. & k. r. rose (1999). “pragmatics and sla”. annual review of applied linguistics 19: 81-104. kasper, g. & k. r. rose (2002). pragmatic development in a second language (language learning monograph series). oxford: blackwell. kobayashi, h. & c. rinnert (2003). “coping with high imposition requests: high vs. low proficiency efl students in japan”, in martínezflor, usó & fernández (eds.), 161184. márquez reiter, r. (2000). linguistic politeness in britain and uruguay. a contrastive study of requests and apologies. amsterdam: john benjamins. martínez-flor, a. & e. alcón (2004). “pragmatic competence in the esp context: a study across disciplines”, in i. fortanet, j. c. palmer & s. posteguillo (eds.), linguistic studies in academic and professional english, 167-201. castellón: servei de publicacions de la universitat jaume i. martínez-flor, a., e. usó & a. fernández (eds.) (2003). pragmatic competence in foreign language teaching, castelló: servei de publicacions de la universitat jaume i. rose, k. r. (2000). “an exploratory cross-sectional study of interlanguage pragmatic development”. studies in second language acquisition 22: 27-67. rose, k. r. & g. kasper (eds.) (2001). pragmatics in language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. schauer, g. a. (2004). “may you speak louder maybe? interlanguage pragmatic development in requests”, in s. foster-cohen, m. sharwood smith & m. ota (eds.), eurosla yearbook 4, 253-272. amsterdam: john benjamins. schmidt, r. (1983). “interaction, acculturation and the acquisition of communicative competence” in n. wolfson & e. judd (eds.), sociolinguistics and second language acquisition, 137-174. rowley, ma: newbury house. sifianou, m. (1999). politeness phenomena in england and greece. a cross-cultural perspective. oxford: oxford university press. takahashi, s. & m. a. dufon (1989). cross-linguistic influence in indirectness: the case of english directives performed by native japanese speakers. unpublished manuscript. department of english as a second language. honolulu: university of hawaii. trosborg, a. (1995). interlanguage pragmatics. requests, complaints and apologies. berlin: mouton de gruyter. 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 40 dr. alicia martínez-flor is a lecturer in the department of english studies at universitat jaume i in castellón (spain). she has carried out various studies on the development of learners’ pragmatic competence in the classroom setting. her research interests include interlanguage pragmatics, second language acquisition and foreign language learning and teaching. dr. esther usó-juan is a lecturer in english language and english for specific purposes at universitat jaume i in castelló (spain). she has conducted several studies on the presentation of pragmatic features in esp materials. her research interests lie primarily in the areas of second language acquisition, interlanguage pragmatics, and efl reading. appendix a a. you did not attend the classes of a very important subject and the exams period is near. one of your classmates has all the class notes and you need to review them for the exam. what would you say? b. one of your classmates did not attend his/her classes and wants your notes to study for the exams. appendix b a. you were supposed to hand in some coursework assignments last week, but you couldn’t finish them on time. what would you say to your teacher to get an extension of the deadline? b. one of your students is going to tell you that he/she couldn’t finish the coursework assignments last week so he/she wants an extension of the deadline. learners' use of request modifiers ibérica 12 [2006]: 23-41 41 1 learners’ responses have been transcribed as originally written by them. the examples included throughout this paper present the request head act underlined, and the peripheral modification devices in italics for the readers’ quick identification 2 since learners did not employ any “diminutives” or “tag questions” within the group of softeners, we have decided to term softeners only those expressions included within the subtype of “miscellaneous” (e.g. probably, just, for a moment …) 3 among the four subtypes of openers illustrated in table 1, only the “consultative device” was employed by the two groups of learners. this is, therefore, the reason why we have termed this type openers without including further subtypes within it. notes 03 mart nez-flor.qxp 20/09/2006 13:43 pægina 41 iberica 13 ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the extent to which research hypotheses need to be incorporated in experimental studies often becomes a subject of discussion among academics supervising the writing of theses and dissertations. while writers are concerned about how hypotheses can be strategically linked with other elements in research reports to effectively present an introductory chapter, instructors are considering ways of guiding learners to use the appropriate language in postulating research hypotheses. using an analytical framework developed by swales (1990 & 2004) and specialist informants’ qualitative data, this largely qualitative investigation looks into a corpus of experimental doctoral dissertations submitted to 32 american universities from 2001 to 2009 in order to ascertain (i) the degree to which research hypotheses need to be presented in dissertation introductions, (ii) how hypotheses are strategically linked with other rhetorical segments, and (iii) the salient linguistic mechanisms used to achieve the communicative functions. this study has revealed (i) how writers shift from pertinent communicative moves to the postulation of hypotheses, and (ii) the gamut of major language choices employed to postulate these hypotheses. the findings can be used to prepare teaching materials that help learners comprehend and employ the rhetorical strategies and linguistic mechanisms needed in postulating hypotheses in research reports. keywords: genre analysis, dissertation writing, hypothesis formulation, research hypotheses, teaching/learning materials. postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations on applied linguistics: a qualitative investigation into rhetorical shifts and linguistic mechanisms jason miin-hwa lim*, chek-kim loi* and azirah hashim** universiti malaysia sabah*, universiti malaya** (malaysia) drjasonlim@gmail.com, lck734@yahoo.com, azirahh@um.edu.my 121 ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142 j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim resumen f or mul a c i ón d e h i pó te s i s e n te s i s d o c tor al e s d e t ip o e xp e rim e nt al e n e l á mb it o d e l a l in g üí s ti c a a p l ic a da : un a i nv e s t ig a c i ón c u al ita ti v a s o br e c am bi os re t óri c o s y me c a ni s mos l i ng ü ís ti c o s hasta qué punto las hipótesis de una investigación deben ser incluidas en un estudio experimental se convierte a menudo en objeto de debate entre los directores de trabajos de investigación y tesis doctorales. si bien los doctorandos se preocupan de cómo vincular estratégicamente las hipótesis con otros elementos en el proyecto de investigación para presentar con eficacia un buen capítulo introductorio, los directores se preocupan más de cómo guiar al alumno de doctorado para que pueda utilizar el lenguaje de manera apropiada para la formulación de las hipótesis de trabajo. en base al marco analítico desarrollado por swales (1990 y 2004), así como datos cualitativos de informantes especialistas, el presente estudio cualitativo analiza un corpus de tesis doctorales de tipo experimental presentadas en 32 universidades americanas desde 2001 hasta 2009 para determinar (1) hasta qué punto las hipótesis de investigación deben ser planteadas en la introducción de la tesis; (2) cómo se vinculan estratégicamente las hipótesis con otros elementos retóricos; y (3) qué mecanismos lingüísticos más relevantes se emplean para lograr funciones comunicativas. este estudio pone de manifiesto (1) cómo los escritores sustituyen secuencias comunicativas típicas por la formulación de hipótesis; y (2) las principales expresiones lingüísticas empleadas para la descripción de dichas hipótesis. los resultados obtenidos pueden servir para preparar materiales didácticos que ayuden a los doctorandos a entender y emplear estrategias retóricas y mecanismos lingüísticos necesarios para formular hipótesis en los trabajos de investigación. palabras clave: análisis de género, escritura de tesis, hipótesis de investigación, materiales docentes/de aprendizaje. 1. introduction over the last decade, numerous scholars have taken an interest in investigating the communicative moves of research introductions in a wide range of disciplines, notably because of the pedagogically useful findings in the context of teaching english for specific academic purposes (esap). the disciplines involved in their studies on research introductions have so far covered physics (swales & najjar, 1987), software engineering (anthony, 1999), conservation biology and wildlife behaviour (samraj, 2002 & 2005), computer science (shehzad, 2008, 2010 & 2011), law (tessuto, 2008), 122 applied linguistics (hirano, 2009), educational psychology (swales & najjar, 1987; loi & evans, 2010), medicine (zhang & hu, 2010), economics (lakic, 2010), agricultural sciences (del saz rubio, 2011), civil engineering (kanoksilapatham, 2011), and management (lim, 2012; mur-dueñas, 2012) among others. the proliferation of these studies on research introductions in recent years may be ascribable to the broad acceptance of a genre-based analytical framework proposed by swales (1990 & 2004) and the wideranging implications of these genre-based studies for reading and writing instruction. swales (2004) considered research introductions as a part-genre containing three moves, known as (i) “establishing a territory” via topic generalisation in move 1, (ii) “establishing a niche” in move 2 which mainly involves gap indications and extensions of the existing research tradition, and (iii) “presenting the present work” (previously known as “occupying the niche”) in move 3 which covers purpose statements, research questions, hypotheses, definitional clarifications, method-related summaries, announcements of principal outcomes, value statements, and structure indications. although many previous studies that adopted the three-move swalesian model mentioned above have revealed the degrees to which generic structures differ across disciplines, they have devoted relatively little attention to the linguistic realisations of these communicative moves and steps. for instance, ozturk (2007), hirano (2009), del saz rubio (2011) have respectively analysed the research introductions in applied linguistics and agricultural sciences, whereas soler-monreal, carbonell-olivares and gil-salom (2011) have studied dissertation introductions in computing. nonetheless, their focus is mainly on the move sequences (for instance, “m1-m2-m1-m3”, etc.) while scant attention has been directed to the specific linguistic mechanisms needed to accomplish these moves. studying these linguistic mechanisms is important in an instructor’s preparation for an esap lesson because past research has shown that learners are able to transfer many of the generic features, including rhetorical organisation and language resources, which they had previously studied into their writing subsequently (cheng, 2007). despite the existence of some studies (for example, lim, 2012; shehzad, 2008) which have devoted considerable attention to the linguistic realisations of move 2 (that is, “establishing a niche”), many steps in the subsequent move 3 have yet to be studied thoroughly in close relation to the language resources. among the steps in move 3, research hypothesis postulation (rhp) stands out as an occasionally optional and yet generally important postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142 123 step in different academic disciplines (swales, 2004). the need to study the rhetorical functions and linguistic realisations of hypothesis postulation is justifiable for two reasons. first, there is evidence attesting to the fact that second language dissertation writers in non-anglophone countries encounter problems in presenting hypotheses in english. in the following authentic instances of hypothesis-related segments, errors committed by five different postgraduate candidates in a non-anglophone country are italized, and suggested corrections and insertions/additions are indicated in parentheses: • there is significant different (a significant difference) in stress between type a and type b respondents. • there are significant effect (is a significant effect) of gender on the relationship between self-confidence and organisation’s structure of opportunity, supportive relationships of career success. • the more enhance (enhanced) the relationship quality the higher the satisfaction enjoyed by the customer. • respondent’s age (a respondent’s age) has significant relationship (a significant relationship) to (with) venture growth. • expectancy is positively influence (is positively influenced by) the motivation on performance. the aforementioned examples have illustrated that these postgraduate candidates’ mistakes in writing research hypotheses are not merely restricted to those affecting subject-verb concord, but may also include other lexical, syntactic and morphological errors related to the use of verbs, prepositions and nouns. as such, if novice writers are given sufficient pre-writing examples in instructional sessions before reading authentic text segments, they may be able to see how the communicative functions of these rhetorical segments are fulfilled using the linguistic mechanisms exemplified in the instances. adequate instances may also be used in post-writing activities as frames of reference to help novice writers correct some common errors in related text segments. second, it would be interesting to ascertain the prominence of hypothesis postulation, especially when the language and discipline concerned are taken into consideration. previous research seems to suggest that both the language used and the discipline concerned may have a bearing on the frequency with which research hypotheses would occur. for instance, in j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142124 educational psychology, hypothesis testing has been found in as high as 75 percent of the english research articles, but it is completely absent in chinese research articles in the same discipline (loi & evans, 2010). across disciplines, however, hypothesis testing constitutes a principal step found in a third (33.3%) of the research article introductions (rais) in wildlife behaviour in english, but its frequency differs from that in conservation biology rais, in which “there is a general absence of a list of hypotheses to be verified in the introduction” (samraj, 2002: 13). samraj (2002: 11) argued that “observed animal behaviour is interpreted in terms of previously postulated hypotheses or is the basis for modifications of older hypotheses”. the frequencies of hypothesis postulation also differ in other applied science disciplines. for instance, hypothesis formulation has been found to be completely absent in civil engineering rais (kanoksilapatham, 2011) while computing rais also contain very few occurrences of hypotheses (shehzad, 2008). in this study, it would therefore be important for us to select the introductions in a discipline (such as applied linguistics) in which research hypotheses are likely to occur, so that sufficient research hypotheses in the discipline concerned could be collected and studied in terms of their linguistic features. this study is also novel in view of the fact that the aforementioned studies have not focused on how linguistic resources are used in postulating research hypotheses. if we intend to conduct an in-depth qualitative study into how hypothesis postulation is realised linguistically (for the sake of assisting novice writers to postulate research hypotheses correctly), it is necessary to select a research genre in which hypotheses are more likely to occur frequently. this requires us to consider (i) the research genre (dissertations or journal articles), (ii) the research methods (qualitative or quantitative methods), (iii) the language used (spanish, english, or chinese), and (iv) the discipline concerned (civil engineering, computing, or applied linguistics). in view of such considerations, we chose published doctoral dissertations in a major anglophone country, which are based on quantitative experimental research in applied linguistics, for four reasons. first, published dissertations/theses are more likely to include more hypotheses compared to journal papers, and doctoral dissertation writers are allowed to fully illustrate how research hypotheses are linked with other rhetorical elements compared to journal papers which have some spatial constraint in the form of word limit. second, quantitative studies are more likely to include research hypotheses than qualitative studies (fraenkel & wallen, 2003; creswell, 2008; gay, millis & postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142 125 airasian, 2009). third, the previous studies on research introductions reviewed above (see, for example, loi & evans, 2010; soler-monreal, carbonell-olivares & gil-salom, 2011) have highlighted the possibility that research introductions in english may be more likely to incorporate research hypotheses than those written in certain languages, such as chinese and spanish. fourth, in a preliminary survey, we have found that research genres in applied linguistics are likely to incorporate adequate hypotheses that could facilitate our inquiry into the linguistic resources used in postulating hypotheses. more precisely, although past research has been conducted on research article introductions in applied linguistics (ozturk, 2007), the linguistic realisations of research hypotheses in published doctoral dissertations have yet to be studied in sufficient detail. given the lack of focus on linguistic resources and some uncertainty over the frequency of hypothesis postulation in dissertation introductions (compared to article introductions), this study has opted to identify (i) the extent to which hypothesis postulation is included in doctoral dissertation introductions, and (ii) the positioning and lexico-grammatical mechanisms used to present the hypotheses concerned. in this largely qualitative investigation, two research questions are formulated as follows: (1) to what extent are research hypotheses incorporated in the introductory chapters of american doctoral dissertations on applied linguistics? (2) what rhetorical shifts and lexico-grammatical mechanisms do doctoral dissertation writers use to postulate research hypotheses in these dissertations? the first research question seeks some quantitative data to ascertain the frequency with which the research hypotheses are incorporated in the corpus of american doctoral dissertations.1 the second question seeks essentially qualitative data that reveal the possible range of rhetorical shifts and salient lexico-grammatical choices used by dissertation writers to postulate research hypotheses as part of their effort to gain acceptance into the academic research community. it also focuses on obtaining some quantitative data with respect to the frequencies of tenses employed by dissertation writers in postulating research hypotheses. j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142126 2. research procedures this study was conducted in three stages involving: (i) a careful selection of published doctoral dissertations on applied linguistics research, (ii) a genre analysis of the dissertations, and (iii) face-to-face semi-structured interviews with american advisors supervising the writing of doctoral dissertations. 2.1. procedures for selecting doctoral dissertations we purposively selected 32 doctoral dissertations on applied linguistics in accordance with the criterion that the dissertations should be based on quantitative experimental research. the criteria employed in identifying quantitative experimental research were based on the features explained by gay, millis and airasian (2009) and creswell (2008). this means that all the experimental research reported in the dissertations adopted a deductive approach, focused on objective reality to be discovered and established cause-effect relationships between a dependent variable and at least one independent variable. the dissertations were completed in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the doctor of education (ed.d.) degree or the doctor of philosophy (ph.d.) degree, and submitted to american universities from 2001 to 2009. we selected only one doctoral dissertation which had been submitted to each of the 32 american universities during that period to ensure that the corpus was not affected largely by the influence of a specific set of supervisors at a university or the preferred requirements of certain universities. the evenly distributed purposive sample therefore precluded over-reliance on the requirements and expectations of only a small group of u.s. universities, given that all of them constituted members of the academic discourse community concerned. 2.2. procedure for analysing research hypotheses using swales’ (1990 & 2004) move-step analytical framework, we examined the published dissertations with reference to the communicative functions of each introductory chapter. attention was first focused on dividing the texts into the three major introductory moves reviewed above before all the segments connected with hypothesis postulation were marked distinctly. the number of occurrences of rhps was calculated with reference to the number of times it appeared without being interrupted by any other step. an rhp might consist of a main clause or several sentences insofar as its occurrence was not interrupted by any other rhetorical step. subsequently, postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142 127 prominent shifts from one segment (that is, rhetorical move or constituent step) to an rhp were analysed if they demonstrated recurrent linkages between different rhetorical segments. each rhp was analysed by considering its position of occurrence in the doctoral dissertations. attention was then directed to how writers performed the rhetorical functions of rhps using lexico-grammatical choices, including sentence structures, clause elements, and categories of phrases or words. in segments where obvious lexico-grammatical structures were evident, the instances obtained from the dissertations were tabulated to illustrate the common patterns (which are useful in the preparation of teaching materials for second language writers of english). salient language choices were identified on the basis of (i) general linguistic descriptions provided by quirk et al. (1985), greenbaum and quirk (1992), and downing and locke (2006), and (ii) lexico-grammatical descriptions for research-related genres as illustrated by thomas and hawes (1994) and lim (2006, 2011a & 2011b). with respect to the tenses used by the doctoral students in postulating research hypotheses, all finite verbs (verbs showing tense distinction) used by the writers (for constructing hypotheses) were highlighted before the frequencies of the verbs in each of the major tenses were counted and compared. 2.3. semi-structured interviews semi-structured interviews were conducted with two experienced american doctoral dissertation supervisors who had successfully completed their supervision of experimental research in applied linguistics. the supervisors played the role of “specialist informants” (swales, 1990: 129; bhatia, 1993: 34) who provided views on the postulation of research hypotheses. the interviews, digitally recorded in the supervisors’ offices, were conducted after the rhetorical analysis to ensure that problems arising from the earlier phases could be presented orally to the informants. open-ended questions were used in the interviews (lynch, 1996; berg, 2004) to elicit responses from the supervisors in regard to (i) the significance of research hypotheses in doctoral dissertations on experimental studies in applied linguistics, and (ii) the fundamental requirements and expectations of the academic discourse community in regard to the postulation of hypotheses. j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142128 3. results and discussion to provide an overview about the data elicited, some general findings based on the specialist informants’ spoken data are first reported here before the quantitative results about the frequencies of rhps and their lexicogrammatical realisations are presented. to specialist informant a (sia), when dissertation writing is considered “at a higher level”, the research hypotheses are generally used “to ensure what the reader is going to understand how to read the dissertation”. similarly, specialist informant b (sib) viewed research hypotheses as central in both the writing process and the reading process given that they would inform the reader of what they needed to look for, without which the doctoral candidates would not know the direction in which the dissertation should proceed. another interesting aspect has to do with the positioning of research hypotheses in doctoral dissertations. an analysis of the positions of occurrences of rhps also furnishes pertinent information on how dissertation writers strategically direct their studies in dissertation introductions (dis) whose average length is 16.6 pages (see table 1). (the frequencies of verbs used in rhps will be discussed in section 3.4.) the general pattern shows that a vast majority of the dissertation writers place their hypotheses (13/16) in the medial portions after sufficient background information and literature have been presented. overall, as sib has pointed out, in experimental research, doctoral students are normally advised to place their hypotheses after they have stated the purpose of the studies. 3.1. distribution of research hypotheses in terms of the distribution, postulation of research hypotheses appears in only 16 of the 32 dis, thus showing that 50% of the doctoral dissertation writers did not include any hypothesis in their introductory chapters on postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142 129 j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): …-… direct their studies in dissertation introductions (dis) whose average length is 16.6 pages (see table 1). (the frequencies of verbs used in rhps will be discussed in section 3.4.) frequencies of verbs category frequency of rhps simple past simple present simple future no. of occurrences 25 45 34 37 mean 0.78 1.41 1.06 1.16 no. of dis 16 10 10 8 percentage of dis (with rhps) 50.0 62.5 62.5 50.0 table 1. frequencies of hypothesis postulations and verb tenses used in rhps. the general pattern shows that a vast majority of the dissertation writers place their hypotheses (13/16) in the medial portions after sufficient background information and literature have been presented. overall, as sib has pointed out, in experimental research, doctoral students are normally advised to place their hypotheses after they have stated the purpose of the studies. 3.1. distribution of research hypotheses in terms of the distribution, postulation of research hypotheses appears in only 16 of the 32 dis, thus showing that 50% of the doctoral dissertation writers did not include any hypothesis in their introductory chapters on quantitative experimental research. the total frequency of the hypothesis postulation is 25 (the mean frequency being 0.78). overall, the quantitative analysis has confirmed swales’ (2004) statement regarding the optional status of research hypothesis in the present study. to ascertain whether the distribution of the occurrences of rhps is dependent upon the overall macro-structure of the experimental dissertations, a mann-whitney u-test was conducted to identify any possible inter-structural differences, which are actually the differences due to the distinction between the introduction-method-results-discussion (imrd) structure and the introduction-literature review-method-results-discussion (ilmrd) structure in the occurrences of rhps in the entire corpus of dis.2 as the asymptotic value for rhps across the dissertation introductions with the two structures is 0.752 (that is, p>0.05), there is no significant difference between the dis employing the ilmrd structure and those using the imrd structure in terms of the occurrences of all the constituent steps. the ways in which hypotheses are realised rhetorically in experimental doctoral dissertations can be fully understood if we analyse (i) the inter-step and/or intermove shifts concerning research hypotheses, and (ii) the salient linguistic features of rhps. the following section provides the results based on the qualitative analysis of the linguistic mechanisms employed to fulfil each quantitative experimental research. the total frequency of the hypothesis postulation is 25 (the mean frequency being 0.78). overall, the quantitative analysis has confirmed swales’ (2004) statement regarding the optional status of research hypothesis in the present study. to ascertain whether the distribution of the occurrences of rhps is dependent upon the overall macro-structure of the experimental dissertations, a mann-whitney u-test was conducted to identify any possible inter-structural differences, which are actually the differences due to the distinction between the introductionmethod-results-discussion (imrd) structure and the introductionliterature review-method-results-discussion (ilmrd) structure in the occurrences of rhps in the entire corpus of dis.2 as the asymptotic value for rhps across the dissertation introductions with the two structures is 0.752 (that is, p>0.05), there is no significant difference between the dis employing the ilmrd structure and those using the imrd structure in terms of the occurrences of all the constituent steps. the ways in which hypotheses are realised rhetorically in experimental doctoral dissertations can be fully understood if we analyse (i) the inter-step and/or inter-move shifts concerning research hypotheses, and (ii) the salient linguistic features of rhps. the following section provides the results based on the qualitative analysis of the linguistic mechanisms employed to fulfil each rhetorical step, and the connections between rhps and their preceding or ensuing rhetorical category (that is, move or step). “postulating a hypothesis” is a step found in half (16/32 or 50%) of the dis. even though each research question in the dis is not immediately ensued by a corresponding hypothesis, a subsection containing several research hypotheses is generally preceded by a subsection on research questions. interestingly, more than half of the doctoral dissertations containing research questions (i.e., 53.8% or 14/26) also have hypotheses presented in them. in contrast, only a small proportion (2/16) of the dis containing research hypotheses does not have research questions. this means that in most (87.5% or 14/16) of the dis containing research hypotheses, the appearance of hypotheses is highly contingent upon the occurrence of research questions. 3.2. interconnections between hypotheses and research questions the appearance of hypotheses largely hinges on the inclusion of research questions, and hypotheses are generally incorporated in addition to research questions (see figure 1). j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142130 second, while every research question is presented in the simple present, the converged sentence (that is, the sentence that appears as a result of the convergence) contains hypotheses presented in the simple future (for example, “will demonstrate”, etc.), and each of these sentences contains anticipatory it-clauses (present tense) indicating a prediction (for example, “it is hypothesized”, “it is also predicted”, “it is expected”) followed by an extraposed subject containing the actual hypotheses (for example, “that root and pattern training will enhance inferencing (research question 4) and coining (research question 5) ability of unfamiliar words that share roots of previously learned words”). while the aforementioned formulation of research questions exhibits a convergent pattern in the process of shifting to the postulation of hypotheses, the following segments show a one-to-one relationship between each research question and its corresponding hypothesis (see figure 2). postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142 131 j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): …-… presenting research questions postulating research hypotheses this main research question is broken down into seven questions formulated as follows: 1. are students who receive morphological training on roots and patterns better at inferring meaning of unfamiliar words when root information is provided as compared to those who do not receive morphological training? 2. are students who receive morphological training on roots and patterns better at coining unfamiliar words when root information is provided as compared to those who do not receive morphological training? 3. are students who receive morphological training on roots and patterns able to benefit from their morphological awareness equally in their receptive inferring and productive coining of unfamiliar words when root information is provided?... (di17: 6) 4. are students who receive morphological training on roots and patterns better at inferring meaning of unfamiliar words when root information is not provided as compared to those who do not receive morphological training? 5. are students who receive morphological training on roots and patterns better at coining unfamiliar words when root information is not provided as compared to those who do not receive morphological training? 6. are students who receive morphological training on roots and patterns better at retaining lexical items as compared to those who do not receive morphological training? in other words, does morphological awareness of a particular arabic word yield better retention of that word? 7. are students who receive morphological training on roots and patterns able to benefit from their morphological awareness both in their receptive and productive vocabulary retention? in other words, is morphological awareness of particular arabic words effective in their receptive and productive retention? regarding the first three research questions, it is hypothesized that beginner learners will demonstrate an ability to successfully apply knowledge of arabic derivation morphology in their lexical inferring (research question 1) and coining (research question 2) of unfamiliar words; however, due to the low proficiency level of the participants, more gains will be evident in the inferring than in the coining ability (research question 3). it is also predicted that root and pattern training will enhance inferencing (research question 4) and coining (research question 5) ability of unfamiliar words that share roots of previously learned words. as for the last two research questions, it is expected that morphological awareness will lead to better vocabulary retention (research question 6), and that it will facilitate receptive retention more than productive retention (research question 7)… (di17: 8) figure 1. shifts from purpose statements to purpose justifications. second, while every research question is presented in the simple present, the converged sentence (that is, the sentence that appears as a result of the convergence) contains hypotheses presented in the simple future (for example, “will demonstrate”, etc.), and each of these sentences contains anticipatory itclauses (present tense) indicating a prediction (for example, “it is hypothesized”, “it is also predicted”, “it is expected”) followed by an extraposed subject containing the actual hypotheses (for example, “that root and pattern training will enhance inferencing (research question 4) and coining (research question 5) ability of unfamiliar words that share roots of previously learned words”). while the aforementioned formulation of research questions exhibits a convergent pattern in the process of shifting to the postulation of hypotheses, the following segments show a one-to-one relationship between each research question and its corresponding hypothesis (see figure 2). figure 2 also illustrates that with the exception of hypotheses presented in “existential clauses” (for example, “hi = there is a significant effect for group …”, etc.) and the anticipatory it-clauses (for example, “it was hypothesized that …”), all the hypotheses are presented in the simple future in direct statements regardless of whether the preceding research questions corresponding to them are in the simple future or the simple present. the shifts in figure 3 from “presenting a research question” to “postulating a null hypothesis” and “postulating an alternative hypothesis” also illustrate the close relationship between research questions and two different types of hypotheses: figure 2 is also used here to present two main points. first, in a complete cycle, a null hypothesis expressed in a declarative sentence containing a negative expression (for example, “non-significant difference”, “no significant difference”, etc.) is generally used with an alternative hypothesis presented in a positive declarative sentence. second, even though null hypotheses may be expressed in either the simple present or the simple future, existential clauses in the alternative hypotheses (for example, “there is…”) are usually used in the simple present. j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142132 postulating hypotheses in doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): …-… presenting research questions postulating research hypotheses will students administered learning-style assessments and strategies on the basis of be results score significantly higher on the cuny/act writing sample (cuny office of assessment, 2006), compared with students taught with traditional study-skills materials and methods? (di14: 6) there will be significantly higher scores on the cuny/act writing sample for students provided learning-style assessments and strategies with be than for students taught with traditional studyskills materials and methods. (di14: 7) will be elements predict differences in anxiety between the experimental and control groups, as measured by the stai? (di14: 7) h7: be elements will predict differences in the anxiety levels of experimental and control-group students, as measured by the stai. (di14: 8) the null and experimental hypotheses derived from the research questions are presented: 1. is there a difference in the english achievement of high school students who practice reflective assessment and receive coplanned curriculum, as compared to those who are taught the same co-planned curriculum but do not practice reflective assessment techniques? (di29: 7) h0 = there is a non-significant difference for group (two levels: reflective and non-reflective) on high school students' english achievement as measured by their score on the heroic journey unit assessment… (di29: 7) figure 2. shifts from research questions to hypotheses in the same dissertation introductions. figure 2 also illustrates that with the exception of hypotheses presented in “existential clauses” (for example, “hi = there is a significant effect for group …”, etc.) and the anticipatory it-clauses (for example, “it was hypothesized that …”), all the hypotheses are presented in the simple future in direct statements regardless of whether the preceding research questions corresponding to them are in the simple future or the simple present. the shifts in figure 3 from “presenting a research question” to “postulating a null hypothesis” and “postulating an alternative hypothesis” also illustrate the close relationship between research questions and two different types of hypotheses: 3.3. categories of research hypotheses and their linguistic features while the linguistic features shown in the aforementioned shifts illustrate the exclusive use of the simple present in existential clauses, we may be able to gather more linguistic information via an analysis of a wider spectrum of research hypotheses presented across the corpus. rhps are, in general, realised in two ways. the first major linguistic mechanism that doctoral candidates use has to do with direct statements in three comparatively simpler structures. the three major mechanisms constitute the most prevalent linguistic resources used in rhps. the first structure, the simplest, requires merely a heading in the form of a noun phrase (denoting hypotheses) before the predictions are expressed in the simple future (see table 2). while the second structure involves a brief statement of the purpose of the hypothesis before a hypothesised difference is expressed in the simple present, the third structure requires the use of past-tense verbs to introduce predictions in the postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142 133 j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): …-… presenting a research question postulating a null hypothesis postulating an alternative hypothesis the null and experimental hypotheses derived from the research questions are presented: 1. is there a difference in the english achievement of high school students who practice reflective assessment and receive co-planned curriculum, as compared to those who are taught the same co-planned curriculum but do not practice reflective assessment techniques? h0 = there is a non-significant difference for group (two levels: reflective and non-reflective) on high school students' english achievement as measured by their score on the heroic journey unit assessment. hi = there is a significant effect for group (two levels: reflective and nonreflective) on high school students' english achievement as measured by their score on the heroic journey unit assessment. (di26: 7) research question 1. how does the use of cooperative learning/ teaching strategies affect academic achievement on the georgia performance standards in language arts among sixth-grade students? null hypothesis 1. there will be no significant difference between the academic achievement, as shown by the test scores on the georgia performance standards test in language arts, of sixthgrade students who were instructed with the use of cooperative learning strategies and those sixth-grade students who were instructed with the use of traditional teaching strategies. h0: µ1 – µ2 = 0 alternative hypothesis 1. there is a significant difference between the academic achievement, as shown by the test scores on the georgia performance standards test in language arts, of sixth-grade students who were instructed with the use of cooperative learning strategies and those sixthgrade students who were instructed with the use of traditional teaching strategies. ha: µ1 – µ2 ≠ 0 (di30: 14) figure 3. complete cycles from research questions to null hypotheses and alternative hypotheses in the dissertation introductions. figure 2 is also used here to present two main points. first, in a complete cycle, a null hypothesis expressed in a declarative sentence containing a negative expression (for example, “non-significant difference”, “no significant difference”, etc.) is generally used with an alternative hypothesis presented in a positive declarative sentence. second, even though null hypotheses may be expressed in either the simple present or the simple future, existential clauses in the alternative hypotheses (for example, “there is…”) are usually used in the simple present. 3.3. categories of research hypotheses and their linguistic features while the linguistic features shown in the aforementioned shifts illustrate the exclusive use of the simple present in existential clauses, we may be able to gather more linguistic information via an analysis of a wider spectrum of simple future or in mathematical equations. interestingly, in all these three categories of direct statements, predictions are expressed in the simple future or the simple present so far as verbs are involved. j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142134 j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): …-… syntactic choice instance of references to hypotheses within subjects main effects: neurologically-mediated skills associated with proficient reading including phonological awareness, rapid automatic naming, visual motor integration, and vestibular/cerebellar functioning (i.e., motor coordination) will show improvement over each interval within each group. 1. between subjects main effects: neurologically-mediated skills associated with proficient reading including visual-motor integration, phonological awareness, rapid automatic naming and vestibular/cerebellar functioning (i.e., motor coordination) will improve more for group pann than for groups pa or c. 2. within subjects by between subjects interaction effect: neurologically mediated skills associated with proficient reading including visual-motor integration, phonological awareness, rapid automatic naming, and vestibular/cerebellar functioning (i.e., motor coordination) will improve the most over each interval for group pann when compared with group pa and group c. hypotheses stated as null hypotheses 1. no differences will exist when comparing within-group interval means of phonological awareness skills. 2. no differences will exist when comparing between-group population means as they relate to phonological awareness skills. 3. no differences will be found when comparing group x three interval means for phonological awareness skills…(di19: 10-11) providing a heading in an np before presenting hypotheses in the simple future hypotheses h1; there will be significantly higher scores on the cuny/act compass reading test for students provided learning-style assessments and strategies with be than for students taught with traditional study-skills materials and methods. h2: there will be significantly higher scores on the cuny?act writing sample for students provided learning style assessments and strategies with be than for students taught with traditional study-skills materials and methods…(di14: 7) stating both the purpose of the hypothesis and the existence of a hypothesised difference in the simple present the following null hypotheses determine the effectiveness of the read 180 software during 2006 and 2007 and overall: ho1a: no statistically significant mean achievement differences exist below the alpha level of .05 overall and by subgroups (english learners, sed, special education, and ethnicity) between experimental and control groups on the cst in english language arts; ho1b: no statistically significant mean achievement differences exist below the alpha level of .05 overall and by subgroups (english learners, sed, special education, and ethnicity) between experimental and control groups on the cst in word analysis and vocabulary development…(di18: 26) using past-tense verbs to introduce predictions expressed in the simple future or in an (in)equation the second hypothesis was: ha2: adult female students who receive explicit phonics instruction will have significantly higher scores on an orthographic awareness test at the end of 16 weeks of instruction than students who do not receive explicit phonics instruction. the null hypothesis for the second hypothesis was: h02: adult female students who receive explicit phonics instruction will not have significantly higher scores on an orthographic awareness test at the end of 16 weeks of instruction than students who do not receive explicit phonics instruction… (di15: 16) postulating hypotheses in doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): …-… based on the main research questions, the hypothesis of the present study was the following: the experimental group, which received the explicit experienced grammar instruction, outperformed the control group in terms of spoken grammatical accuracy in the posttest. the hypotheses were tested at the significance level of 0.05. ho: µ experimental, posttest accuracy µcontrol, posttest accuracy < or = 0 h1: µ experimental, posttest accuracy µcontrol, posttest accuracy > 0 (di8: 12) table 2. the use of direct statements in expressing research hypotheses in step 2b. syntactic choice instance of references to hypotheses the hypothesis was [that with oral-language rehearsal students’ writing performance should increase.] (di2: 13) using an svc structure containing a that-clause to express a prediction in the past tense the research hypothesis was [that spanish-speaking students who received the enhanced ve setr instruction would have a higher level of vocabulary development and reading comprehension when compared to a comparison group of students who received the setr only instruction]. (di31: 4) for research question one, it was hypothesized [that the mean score of the treatment group would be greater than the mean score of the comparison group on the post-test measure]. similarly, for research question two it was hypothesized that the mean score of the treatment group would be greater than the mean score of the comparison group on the generalization test. (di3: 10) it was hypothesized [that students in the learning-style intervention program would demonstrate statistically higher test results, as measured by their cuny/act scores in reading and writing (cuny test development program, office of academic affairs, 2006)] (di14: 5) using an anticipatory itclause (in either the present or past tense) to express a prediction in an extraposed subject containing a that-clause based on findings from first language (li) acquisition research on the role of morphological awareness in vocabulary development, it is my hypothesis [that awareness of arabic derivational morphology will indeed enhance vocabulary acquisition…(di17: 8) the main research hypotheses were directional. therefore, the treatment of the explicit experienced grammar instruction was assumed to have positive effects on the measured performance or zero effect at worst. deterrents, namely negative effects, to the measured performance were predicted to be unlikely to arise. (di8: 14) we expect that children with a higher level of initial english proficiency will benefit more from cr discussions on their oral and written english skills; children with lower level of initial english proficiency will be more motivated and engaged in cr discussions and have more positive attitudes toward english learning. (di27: 22) using a predictive verb ensued by a infinitive clause or that-clause to indicate a prediction of an experimental effect (in the present or past tense) to recapitulate, we expected that engaging in collaborative reasoning discussion would improve spanish-speaking ells’ oral and written english and their motivation and english learning attitudes…(di27: 18) table 3. the use of indirect statements containing that-clauses and infinitive clauses in presenting research hypotheses. third, the doctoral candidates often use predictive verbs ensued by infinitive clauses or that-clauses which indicate predictions of experimental effects in while the first type of hypothesis mainly appears in the form of direct statements, table 3 illustrates how doctoral candidates use intricate structures involving indirect statements containing subordinate that-clauses to postulate research hypotheses. these indirect statements are used to express hypotheses in three major syntactic structures. first, writers often use subject-verb-complement (svc) structures (for example, “the research hypothesis/was/that...”, etc.) containing that-clauses which express predictions in unison with the subsequent past-tense copular verbs (for example, “was”). second, anticipatory it-clauses are often used to express predictions in extraposed subjects in the form of that-clauses. in this case, the modal verbs indicating predicted events (for example, “would be”, “would demonstrate”, “will ... enhance”, etc.) are always used in agreement postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142 135 postulating hypotheses in doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): …-… based on the main research questions, the hypothesis of the present study was the following: the experimental group, which received the explicit experienced grammar instruction, outperformed the control group in terms of spoken grammatical accuracy in the posttest. the hypotheses were tested at the significance level of 0.05. ho: µ experimental, posttest accuracy µcontrol, posttest accuracy < or = 0 h1: µ experimental, posttest accuracy µcontrol, posttest accuracy > 0 (di8: 12) table 2. the use of direct statements in expressing research hypotheses in step 2b. syntactic choice instance of references to hypotheses the hypothesis was [that with oral-language rehearsal students’ writing performance should increase.] (di2: 13) using an svc structure containing a that-clause to express a prediction in the past tense the research hypothesis was [that spanish-speaking students who received the enhanced ve setr instruction would have a higher level of vocabulary development and reading comprehension when compared to a comparison group of students who received the setr only instruction]. (di31: 4) for research question one, it was hypothesized [that the mean score of the treatment group would be greater than the mean score of the comparison group on the post-test measure]. similarly, for research question two it was hypothesized that the mean score of the treatment group would be greater than the mean score of the comparison group on the generalization test. (di3: 10) it was hypothesized [that students in the learning-style intervention program would demonstrate statistically higher test results, as measured by their cuny/act scores in reading and writing (cuny test development program, office of academic affairs, 2006)] (di14: 5) using an anticipatory itclause (in either the present or past tense) to express a prediction in an extraposed subject containing a that-clause based on findings from first language (li) acquisition research on the role of morphological awareness in vocabulary development, it is my hypothesis [that awareness of arabic derivational morphology will indeed enhance vocabulary acquisition…(di17: 8) the main research hypotheses were directional. therefore, the treatment of the explicit experienced grammar instruction was assumed to have positive effects on the measured performance or zero effect at worst. deterrents, namely negative effects, to the measured performance were predicted to be unlikely to arise. (di8: 14) we expect that children with a higher level of initial english proficiency will benefit more from cr discussions on their oral and written english skills; children with lower level of initial english proficiency will be more motivated and engaged in cr discussions and have more positive attitudes toward english learning. (di27: 22) using a predictive verb ensued by an infinitive clause or that-clause to indicate a prediction of an experimental effect (in the present or past tense) to recapitulate, we expected that engaging in collaborative reasoning discussion would improve spanish-speaking ells’ oral and written english and their motivation and english learning attitudes…(di27: 18) table 3. the use of indirect statements containing that-clauses and infinitive clauses in presenting research hypotheses. third, the doctoral candidates often use predictive verbs ensued by infinitive clauses or that-clauses which indicate predictions of experimental effects in with the preceding main verb in the anticipatory it-clauses (for example, “it was hypothesized”, “it is my hypothesis”, etc.). third, the doctoral candidates often use predictive verbs ensued by infinitive clauses or that-clauses which indicate predictions of experimental effects in either the present or past tense (for example, “was assumed to have...”, “were predicted to be...”, “expect that...will benefit”, “expected that ... would improve”, etc). 3.4. overall tense usage in the postulation of research hypotheses while the results reported above have included tense usage in specific types of hypothesis postulation, some crucial questions concerning the overall usage of tenses need to be addressed here. a discussion on the views elicited from the specialist informants appears to be an appropriate starting point. on the one hand, sia’s typical “high-level advice” to doctoral candidates is that they could “use the simple past tense throughout” the introductory chapter so far as it is possible (wherever necessary). to sia, “when you are jumping back and forth in verb tense, it is just more difficult to read”, and “it flows just more smoothly if you just stick with simple past tense” in most situations requiring them. on the other hand, sib wavered between the simple past and the simple present and would advise candidates to use either the simple present or the simple past for research hypotheses because a dissertation, unlike a prospectus, is a report on what a postgraduate student has already done. given that the specialist informants’ recommendations differ from each other to a certain extent, it would be necessary to use the authentic instances to consider the overall frequencies of the tenses mentioned above, and find out the circumstances under which the three tenses are used. table 1 shows that in the formulation of research questions, the simple past and the simple present are used in more doctoral dissertations compared to the simple future (even though the total number of verbs in the simple present is lower than that in the simple past or the simple future). the overall distribution of tenses therefore has furnished more conclusive statements concerning the relative importance of each major tense across the corpus. table 1 has also shown that research hypotheses can be expressed equally commonly in the simple past or the present simple, and this can be partly understood if the informants’ view is taken into consideration. when sia said the only advice she gave was that the simple past tense should be used throughout the doctoral dissertations so far as it was possible (wherever relevant), she was j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142136 essentially referring to the use of the past tense in indirect statements for expressing hypotheses. however, when sib preferred either the simple present or the simple past, she was mainly referring to a general tendency to use the simple present to express a general phenomenon or “state of affair” in a direct statement, and the simple past to express a prediction in an indirect statement explained above. the detailed analysis of tense usage for hypotheses has shown that 62.5% (10/16) of the doctoral dissertations employ the simple past and the simple present respectively, while a significant proportion (50%) of them use the simple future in postulating hypotheses. another interesting qualitative finding derived from this study is that even though both the simple present and simple future co-occur with the simple past in the presentation of research hypotheses, the simple past is mainly used in introducing, explaining, and/or justifying hypotheses in indirect statements. this means that the doctoral candidates often switch between direct and indirect statements in expressing their predictions in different portions of the same dissertation introduction. 4. conclusion and pedagogical implications this study has demonstrated how doctoral dissertation writers in a major anglophone country use a repertoire of generic strategies to postulate research hypotheses in experimental research pertaining to applied linguistics. it has illustrated how doctoral candidates use rhetorical shifts and lexico-grammatical mechanisms to postulate hypotheses that collectively determine the tracks along which their experimental dissertations would proceed. this study has found that a vast majority of the hypotheses are placed by published dissertation writers in the medial portions after sufficient background information and literature have been presented, and this may be ascribed to the need to position their hypotheses after research questions in their dissertation introductions. interestingly, research hypotheses appear in only half of the dissertation introductions on applied linguistics, the mean frequency being 0.78 hypothesis per dissertation introduction (di), thus substantiating swales’ (2004) general statement regarding the optional and yet principal status of research hypothesis in research introductions. the frequencies of research hypotheses do not differ across the published dissertation introductions employing the imrd and ilmrd structures. in a postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142 137 vast majority of the dis containing research hypotheses, the appearance of hypotheses is highly contingent upon the occurrence of research questions. given that only a small proportion of the doctoral dissertations incorporate hypotheses without research questions, it might be possible for instructors to advise learners to position a subsection containing research hypotheses after a subsection on research questions, and more specifically, instructors may show learners how research questions converge into a series of related hypotheses as demonstrated in this paper. so far as lexico-grammatical structures are concerned, when a research question is presented in the simple present, the converged sentence usually comprises hypotheses presented in the simple future in direct statements. in some other cases, a sentence may contain an anticipatory present-tense itclause indicating predictions ensued by an extraposed subject encompassing the actual hypothesis. based on the findings reported above, when instructors guide learners to present hypotheses in direct statements, the tense to be focused on is notably the simple future regardless of whether the preceding research questions are in the simple future or the simple present. the shifts from “presenting a research question” to “postulating a null hypothesis” and “postulating an alternative hypothesis” further confirm the prevalent usage of the simple future in rhps that involve no existential clauses. in specific cases, instructors may demonstrate to novice writers how to attain a complete cycle comprising a null hypothesis expressed in a declarative sentence containing a negative expression with an alternative hypothesis presented in a positive declarative sentence as illustrated in this paper. nonetheless, when writers use null hypotheses, in either the simple present or the simple future, their existential clauses in alternative hypotheses are usually expressed in the simple present. overall, writers may (i) merely employ a heading denoting hypotheses before making predictions in the simple future, (ii) use a brief statement of the purpose of the hypothesis before expressing a hypothesised difference in the simple present, or (iii) deploy past tense verbs to introduce predictions in the simple future or in mathematical equations. as suggested by the specialist informants, the past tense is preferred to ensure a smoother flow in most situations involving indirect statements in hypothesis postulation. with respect to such indirect statements, instructors might need to devise exercises requiring learners to use three major syntactic structures, involving (i) the svc structures containing that-clauses which express predictions in combination with the subsequent past-tense copular j.m.h. lim, c.k. loi & a. hashim ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142138 verbs, (ii) anticipatory it-clauses for expressing predictions in extraposed subjects in the form of that-clauses, and (iii) predictive verbs ensued by infinitive clauses or that-clauses indicating predictions of experimental effects in the present or past tense. in short, analysis of the overall distribution of tenses has shown that research hypotheses can be expressed equally commonly in the simple present or the simple past. the detailed analysis of tense usage in hypothesis postulation on the whole has shown that most of the doctoral dissertations employ the simple past and the simple present respectively, while half of them use the simple future in postulating hypotheses. it is therefore important for learners to be aware that even though both the simple present and simple future co-occur with the simple past in the postulation of research hypotheses, the simple past is mainly used in introducing, explaining, and justifying hypotheses in indirect statements, and writers often need to switch between direct and indirect statements in expressing their predictions in different portions of the same dissertation introduction. acknowledgements we are grateful to the fulbright organisation and the institute of international education (iie) of the united states of america for providing and administering a generous research grant needed to conduct this study at the university of michigan in ann arbor. we would like to thank professor emeritus john m. swales for his thought-provoking and insightful comments on this study concerning the communicative functions of research hypotheses. 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(2011). “outlining purposes, stating the nature of the present research, and listing research questions or hypotheses in academic papers”. journal of technical writing and communication 41: 139-160. soler-monreal, c., m. carbonell-olivares & l. gilsalom (2011). “a contrastive study of the rhetorical organization of english and spanish phd thesis introductions”. english for specific purposes 30: 4-17. swales, j.m. & h. najjar (1987). “the writing of research article introductions”. written communication 4: 175-191. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. (2004). research genres: exploration and applications. cambridge: cambridge university press. tessuto, g. (2008). “writer identity in the introduction section of academic law research articles: exploring metadiscourse strategies”. linguistica e filologia 27: 39-58. dr. jason miin-hwa lim is associate professor of english at the malaysian university of sabah. his 52 research-based publications include papers in espj (elsevier), system (elsevier), ibérica (aelfe), discourse studies (sage), and jeap (elsevier). dr. chek-kim loi is senior lecturer of english at the malaysian university of sabah. her publications include papers in journal of pragmatics (elsevier), discourse studies (sage), and jeap (elsevier). dr. azirah hasim is professor of linguistics at the university of malaya. her publications include papers in multingua (walter de gruyter), world englishes (wiley), and text and talk (walter de gruyter). notes 1 in the current study, we define “american doctoral dissertations” as “doctoral dissertations prepared for and submitted to universities in the united states of america regardless of the candidates’ countries of origin”. 2 mann-whitney u-tests were used instead of independent samples t-tests although the number of occurrences is a ratio variable because the occurrences were not normally distributed for all the constituent steps. postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations ibérica 27 (2014): 121-142 141 thomas, s. & t.p. hawes (1994). “reporting verbs in medical journal articles”. english for specific purposes 13: 129-148. zhang, y. & j. hu (2010). “a genre-based study of medical research article introductions: a contrastive analysis between chinese and english”. the asian esp journal 4: 72-96. iberica 13 ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 issn 1139-7241 abstract biber et al. (1999) contend linking adverbials perform important cohesive and connective functions by signalling connections between units of discourse; however, there has been little previous corpus-based research in this important area of esp. this paper describes an analysis of linking adverbials, such as “however” and “therefore”, in a corpus of 320 published research articles (ras) across eight disciplines, four science and four non-science. new lists of linking adverbials were developed and the parameters of frequency, function and disciplinary variation were examined using wordsmith tools. they were found to be more frequent than previously thought, with numerous statistically significant disciplinary differences, for example between the sciences and nonsciences. also, they often clustered together in complex sequences. a close examination of ras in two of the sciences revealed some reasons for the much lower rate of occurrence there. authors developed claims in a different way, describing methods and results in a more narrative or descriptive style rather than explicitly telling readers the connections between ideas, claims and facts. conclusions are that linking adverbials are more important in ras as signalling and cohesive devices, and for helping ra authors construct and strengthen claims, than previously thought by experts in this field. also, different disciplines achieve this in significantly different ways, confirming the importance of discipline variation when researching their use. keywords: english for specific purposes, linking adverbials, corpus analysis, interdisciplinary research writing, genre analysis. resumen el uso de adverbios conectores en art�culos acad�micos de ocho disciplinas diferentes biber et al. (1999) afirman que los adverbios conectores realizan importantes linking adverbials in research articles across eight disciplines matthew peacock city university of hong kong (china) enmatt@cityu.edu.hk 9 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 9 ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 matthew peacock funciones cohesivas y conectivas señalando conexiones entre unidades del discurso; sin embargo, no existe mucha investigación basada en análisis de corpus en esta importante área de inglés para fines específicos. en este artículo se analiza el uso de adverbios conectores, por ejemplo however y therefore, en un corpus de 320 publicaciones académicas de ocho disciplinas diferentes, cuatro de ciencias y cuatro no de ciencias. se elaboraron nuevas listas de adverbios conectores y se examinaron su frecuencia, función y variación según las disciplinas utilizando wordsmith tools. se descubrió que su frecuencia era mayor de lo que se creía, produciéndose importantes diferencias entre disciplinas desde el punto de vista estadístico; por ejemplo, entre las ciencias y las no ciencias. además los adverbios conectores aparecían juntos a menudo formando secuencias complejas. un análisis más minucioso de los artículos de investigación en dos de las disciplinas científicas reveló algunas razones que justifican su menor frecuencia en dichos campos. los autores desarrollaban su argumentación de forma diferente, describiendo los métodos y los resultados en un estilo más narrativo o descriptivo en vez de alertar explícitamente a sus lectores de las conexiones entre ideas, afirmaciones y hechos. se concluye en este estudio que la importancia de los adverbios conectores en los artículos de investigación reside en su función como instrumento señalizador y de cohesión, así como en ayudar a sus autores a construir y a fortalecer su argumentación; y que dicha importancia parece mayor de lo que se pensaba. además, en diferentes disciplinas esto se consigue de formas claramente diferentes, confirmándose así la importancia de la variación disciplinaria a la hora de investigar el uso de estas expresiones. palabras clave: inglés para fines específicos, adverbios conectores, análisis de corpus, artículos de investigación en diferentes disciplinas, análisis de género del discurso. 1. introduction this paper describes a corpus-based analysis of linking adverbials such as “however” and “thus” in research articles (ras) across eight disciplines –chemistry, computer science, materials science, neuroscience, economics, language and linguistics, management, and psychology. the purpose of the research was to study interdisciplinary differences in the frequency, form and function of the linking adverbials that authors use. there seems to be little research in the area since biber et al. (1999), apart from biber (2006). in this article conrad’s (1999: 3) definition of linking adverbials is used: 10 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 10 “those adverbials that serve to connect two stretches of discourse”. biber et al. (1999: 765, 875) add to this definition, saying they “make explicit the relationship between two units of discourse”. they signal these relationships and are therefore “important devices for creating textual cohesion”. the following extract from a neuroscience research article in the corpus shows an example: the criterion measure, b, was positively skewed and thus log transformed values were used for all analyses. thus here signals a logical connection – the author used log transformed values because measure b was positively skewed. in other words, the second unit is a consequence of the first. the ra was chosen for this study because of its importance for spreading knowledge. hyland (1996) says ras are a vital medium for legitimating findings and disciplines, and williams (1998) calls them the preferred genre for communication among discourse communities, noting that the language of ras defines these communities. pressure to publish makes ras very important for researchers, and therefore it is not at all surprising that authors wish to stress the importance of their work and persuade readers of the authenticity of their arguments and claims. moreno (1997) calls this their primary aim. however, hunston (1994) suggests that while some may see ras as objective and impersonal, their real aim is to persuade. hyland (2000) agrees, saying the main purpose of the ra is to persuade, convince peers, and establish credibility. the corpus was 320 published research articles, forty from each discipline. the research aim and approach was not only to explore these cohesive and connective functions, but to investigate how these adverbials may assist in the performance of other important functions in ras – presenting, developing, and supporting claims; together with persuading, convincing peers, and establishing credibility. the disciplines were classified for this research as science or non-science. the following methods were used to achieve this. first, visits were made to the academic departments representing the disciplines, and experts asked to discuss the classification. there was little controversy regarding chemistry, computer science, materials science, and neuroscience (sciences), or management and language and linguistics (non-sciences). regarding economics, however, experts noted that while they consider it a non-science, it is sometimes called a linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 11 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 11 social science, and found in university faculties of humanities/social sciences. there was a little more controversy with psychology. sources said that while this topic has initiated some discussion, neither they nor their colleagues classify it as a science, adding that among the 15 or so branches of psychology, just one branch is considered a science: clinical psychology. second, it is noted that university psychology departments are not normally found in faculties of science. therefore the decision was made to classify psychology as a nonscience for the present research. 2. definition and functions of linking adverbials conrad’s (1999) and biber et al’s (1999) definitions of linking adverbials appear in the previous section. however, the terminology, definition, and functions of linking adverbials have occasioned further discussion in the literature, with other authors sometimes using varied terminology. carter and mccarthy (2006) call them “linking adjuncts” and distinguish them from the closely related conjunction. conjunctions like “because”, “neither”, “nor”, and “but” also link two clauses or other units, but differ from linking adverbials in that they have a “purely syntactic role” (biber et al., 1999: 85). biber et al. (1999) also discuss coordinating conjunctions, which they also call coordinators, and subordinating conjunctions such as “despite” and “in spite of ”, which they also call subordinators, noting that they are closely related to but different from linking adverbials. the authors further note that “though”, “so” and “yet” can function either as linking adverbials or as conjunctions – “though” as a subordinator, “so” and “yet” as coordinators. their study provides an example of “though” functioning as a subordinator, “she had never heard of him, though she did not say so”. an example of “so” as a conjunction is “i rose early so that i’d get there on time”. the following extract from the corpus for this study shows an example of “so” functioning as a linking adverbial: “there are lots of different levels and angles of interest. so the decisions are slow and complicated” (management).1 biber et al. (1999) indicate adverbials fall into three different classes: (a) circumstance adverbials (e.g. “nowadays”), which add circumstantial information about propositions in clauses, (b) stance adverbials (e.g. “definitely”), which express stance towards clauses,2 and (c) linking adverbials, which serve a connective function, making the relationship between two units of discourse clear, and are important cohesive devices. matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): 9-3412 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 12 the authors further divide linking adverbials into six “semantic categories”, which express the following different relationships: 1. enumeration (e.g. “first”, “second”) and addition (e.g. “also”). the latter mark the next unit of discourse as being additional. 2. summation, such as “to conclude”. 3. apposition, which show the following text is an example (e.g. “for example”) or reformulation (e.g. “that is”). 4. result/inference (e.g. “therefore”), which show the following unit is a result, or a logical or practical consequence. it also marks the conclusions the reader is expected to draw, or connects claims to supporting facts. 5. contrast/concession (e.g. “however”), which indicate alternatives. they add that some highlight contrasting information, often leading to the main point the writer wants to make, and others express reservations “about the idea in the preceding clause”. 6. transition, for example “by the way”, which mean something is only loosely connected. 3. previous empirical studies few empirical studies seem to have used corpora to research linking adverbials: three important studies are biber et al. (1999), biber (2006) and charles (2007). biber et al. (1999) examined four registers in the longman spoken and written english (lswe) corpus: news articles, academic prose (book extracts plus ras, 2.6 million words each), fiction and conversation. academic prose was 5.3 million words. there were seventy-five book extracts, mostly technical trade books, from thirteen different disciplines, and ras from fifteen different disciplines. linking adverbials were much more common in academic prose and conversation than in fiction and news. biber et al.’s (1999) estimations show that in academic prose the result/inference category was the most common, since in this type of text presenting and supporting claims is very important, and, as these are developed, there is a greater use of linking adverbials. regarding stylistic preferences, their work demonstrates that choices for the result adverbials “therefore”, “thus” and “hence” show more variability by author, and that linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 13 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 13 these three adverbials seem to be interchangeable. it is also noted that multiple adverbials can appear in a clause (e.g. “going slowly now”), and that a single sentence may contain more than one linking adverbial (e.g. “in addition” plus “however”). biber (2006) presents corpus results for five individual linking adverbials in textbooks across five disciplines (760,600 words), in “institutional writing” (catalogues and student handbooks, 151,500 words), and in “written course management” (course packs and course management, 159,600 words). he reports linking adverbials to be less common in “written course management”, and still less common in “institutional writing”. charles (2007) presents corpus results for eight individual linking adverbials in eight first language (l1) politics m.phil. theses (190,000 words), and eight l1 materials science doctoral theses (300,000 words). the author’s bar chart does not provide exact numbers, as in the case of biber et al. (1999), but their estimated figures are approximately as indicated in table 1, which shows the results from all three empirical studies. these three studies, referred to above, and particularly biber et al. (1999), are by far the most important to date in this area of esp; although conrad, in a later paper repeating many of biber et al.’s (1999) (see conrad 2000), calls for much more research into linking adverbials, particularly regarding register variation. semantic category biber et al 1999: lswe acade-mic prose individual linking adverbials biber et al 1999biber 2006 charles 2007 whole semantic category lswe academic prose business textbooks engineering textbooks humanities textbooksnatural science textbooks social science textbooks politics m. phil. theses materials science ph.d. theses matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): 9-3414 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 14 linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 15 ib é ri c a 2 0 ( 2 0 1 0 ): … -… 1 is s n 1 1 3 9 -7 2 4 1 b ib e r e t a l 1 9 9 9 : l s w e a c a d e m ic p ro s e b ib e r e t a l 1 9 9 9 b ib e r 2 0 0 6 c h a rl e s 2 0 0 7 s e m a n ti c c a te g o ry w h o le s e m a n ti c c a te g o ry in d iv id u a l l in k in g a d v e rb ia ls l s w e a c a d e m ic p ro s e b u s in e s s t e x tb o o k s e n g in e e ri n g t e x tb o o k s h u m a n it ie s t e x tb o o k s n a tu ra l s c ie n c e t e x tb o o k s s o c ia l s c ie n c e t e x tb o o k s p o li ti c s m . p h il . t h e s e s m a te ri a ls s c ie n c e p h .d . t h e s e s h o w e ve r 1 1 0 0 1 4 0 0 1 1 0 0 8 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 7 0 0 1 9 0 0 n e ve rt h e le ss 1 0 0 -------c o n tr a st / co n ce ss io n 1 2 0 0 ye t 1 0 0 -----3 0 0 5 0 th u s/ th e re fo re 1 3 0 0 1 3 0 0 1 8 0 0 9 0 0 1 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 7 0 0 1 7 0 0 r e su lt/ in fe re n ce 3 0 0 0 h e n ce 1 0 0 -----2 0 0 5 0 0 fu rt h e rm o re 1 0 0 -----2 5 0 1 5 0 a d d iti o n 1 0 0 0 in a d d iti o n ------1 0 0 3 0 0 fo r e xa m p le 6 0 0 1 4 0 0 1 4 0 0 7 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 5 0 0 3 0 0 e .g . 2 0 0 -------th a t is -4 0 0 9 0 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 3 0 0 --a p p o si tio n 1 8 0 0 i.e . 2 0 0 -------t a b le 1 . p re vi o iu s e m p ir ic a l f in d in g s: f re q u e n cy p e r m ill io n w o rd s. 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 15 4. rationale for research as noted in the previous section, biber et al. (1999) contend that presenting, supporting and developing claims, and textual cohesion, are very important in academic prose. shaw (2000) also says it is important in ras to develop arguments, and support claims. shaw (2000) and hunston (2001) both also point out that research writers organize arguments into long chains (also see hoey, 2001), but neither author discusses how they do this. it is suggested that these authors are correct about the importance of supporting and developing claims in ras, and that linking adverbials might play a role in helping authors to achieve this. yet data on linking adverbials, across disciplines and particularly in the sciences, seems to be lacking. liu (2008) calls for “more detailed” corpus-based research on linking adverbials, noting that this method is the only way to achieve accurate and reliable results. it is proposed that the area has not received the attention it warrants and that further research is needed, to assess disciplinary variation across a number of science and non-science disciplines. this research focuses on four of biber et al.’s (1999) semantic categories for linking adverbials: “contrast/concession”, “result/inference”, “apposition”, and “addition”. the first three were chosen because the functions they perform appear to be an important part of presenting, supporting and developing claims. “addition” was selected because preliminary examination of the corpus indicated that linking adverbials such as “also”, which biber et al. say function to show the next unit is additional, in fact often aid writers to introduce claims. in order to make this research more manageable, other categories analysed by biber et al. (1999) were left aside, because they may be less important in developing claims and are regarded as beyond the scope of the present study. bhatia (2000) says a strong justification for genre research in esp is that it informs the teaching of research writing, especially for writers who wish to join academic discourse communities. the area is increasingly important due to the fast-growing numbers of research writers around the world, and is worth further investigation. the results might tell us much more about esp and the nature of ras, and help teachers of research writing inform learners of appropriate patterns. although there is a considerable amount of information about the ra available, much still remains to be discovered about this subject; and a number of authors have called for more research. swales (2004) does not matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): 9-3416 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 16 contradict his previous claim that our picture of the ra “is far from complete” (swales, 1990). berkenkotter and huckin (1995) note that understanding genres is vital for participation in relevant discourse communities. hyland (1996 & 1997) says a better understanding of ras will improve understanding of rhetoric and how scientists work. this will also help the teaching of esp. writing theses and ras is difficult (paltridge, 1993), and is a prerequisite for entry to the research community. hopkins and dudley-evans (1988) suggest that esp materials must be informed by genre research and that understanding disciplinary differences is essential for preparing esp courses. the next section will explain the aims of this research and also describe the corpus, how the list of linking adverbials was built up, and how the corpus was searched. 5. methodology the aims of this study were to advance and extend previous research on the form, frequency, function and distribution of linking adverbials in ras across eight disciplines, four science (chemistry, computer science, materials science, neuroscience) and four non-science (economics, language and linguistics, management, and psychology), and to develop a more comprehensive list of linking adverbials. 5.1. research aims and research questions the aims of this research were, within the corpus, to: (1) build up a list of linking adverbials in the four target categories; (2) investigate the frequency of all linking adverbials in the target categories; (3) investigate disciplinary variation; (4) investigate function. the following questions are directly addressed: (1) how frequently do ra authors use linking adverbials across a range of disciplines? are there any interdisciplinary differences? (2) what linking adverbials do ra authors use across a range of linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 17 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 17 disciplines? are there any interdisciplinary differences? (3) how do linking adverbials function across a range of disciplines? are there any interdisciplinary differences? 5.2. the ra corpus the corpus was 320 published ras, forty from each discipline. table 2 shows the length of disciplinary corpora. the eight disciplines were selected because they represent a range of subjects and also have large numbers of research writers around the world. this increases the usefulness of this research regarding recommendations for teaching esp. four leading refereed journals were selected from each discipline (see appendix). the academic departments representing the eight disciplines were visited, and two sources from each were asked to name principal journals from their field. ten ras from 2007/2008 were randomly chosen from each journal by giving each a number and drawing numbers from a box. only empirical datadriven ras with the introduction-method-results-discussion format were chosen. essays and discussions were excluded, and only one ra by any one writer was included in the corpus – that is, no writer’s name appears twice. no attempt was made to choose native-speaker authors, which in any case cannot be identified by merely looking at their name or the name of the institution where they work. it is suggested that the disciplinary corpora are sufficiently representative because of their size and because of the use of discipline sources to choose journals. matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): 9-3418 linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 9 discipline number of ras total word length science chemistry 40 137,241 computer science 40 286,171 materials science 40 160,222 neuroscience 40 243,057 non-science economics 40 292,488 language and linguistics 40 249,854 management 40 285,825 psychology 40 306,184 four non-sciences 160 1,134,351 four sciences 160 826,691 all disciplines 320 1,961,042 table 2. lengths of disciplinary corpora. the eight disciplines were selected because they represent a range of subjects and also have large numbers of research writers around the world. this increases the usefulness of this research regarding recommendations for teaching esp. four leading refereed journals were selected from each discipline (see appendix). the academic departments representing the eight disciplines were visited, and two sources from each were asked to name principal journals from their field. ten ras from 2007/2008 were randomly chosen from each journal by giving each a number and drawing numbers from a box. only empirical data-driven ras with the introduction-method-results-discussion format were chosen. essays and discussions were excluded, and only one ra by any one writer was included in the corpus – that is, no writer’s name appears twice. no attempt was made to choose native-speaker authors, which in any case cannot be identified by merely looking at their name or the name of the institution where they work. it is suggested that the disciplinary corpora are sufficiently representative because of their size and because of the use of discipline sources to choose journals. 5.3. investigating the corpus analysis was done in the following steps, using the concord and contexts functions of wordsmith tools 4.0 (scott, 2004). explanation of certain steps follows: step 1. a list of 46 linking adverbials was constructed from biber et al. 1999, other grammars, and a thesaurus. this is more extensive than previously published lists. step 2. a preliminary examination of the corpus was conducted to check the function of all 46 linking adverbials, to see whether they do in fact always function as linking adverbials or not. this was done by individually checking a large number of occurrences of each in each discipline corpus 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 18 5.3. investigating the corpus analysis was done in the following steps, using the concord and contexts functions of wordsmith tools 4.0 (scott, 2004). explanation of certain steps follows: step 1. a list of 46 linking adverbials was constructed from biber et al. 1999, other grammars, and a thesaurus. this is more extensive than previously published lists. step 2. a preliminary examination of the corpus was conducted to check the function of all 46 linking adverbials, to see whether they do in fact always function as linking adverbials or not. this was done by individually checking a large number of occurrences of each in each discipline corpus and evaluating function by reading the relevant sentence and surrounding sentences. at this stage it was found that eight, in addition to the dualfunction items “though” and “so” discussed in the introduction, do not always function as linking adverbials: i. “rather” (exclude e.g. “rather quiet”, “rather tired”) ii. “yet” (exclude e.g. “we have not eaten yet”, “it is not yet clear”) iii. “alternatively” (exclude e.g. “content and language were alternatively the central focus”) iv. “similarly” (functions as a linking adverbial only in a sentence initial position. an example as non-sentence initial is “men and women behave similarly”) v. “further” (functions as a linking adverbial only when followed by a comma) vi. “in the same way” (functions only in a sentence initial position. an example as a non-sentence initial is “children respond in the same way”) vii. “that is” (functions as a linking adverbial only when followed by a comma) viii. “specifically” (functions only in a sentence initial position. an example as non-sentence initial is “the present study set out to specifically investigate”). step 3. the frequency of all linking adverbials was checked, along with disciplinary variation. all cases of “though” and “so” plus the above eight items not functioning as such were naturally excluded from the linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 19 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 19 count: this required manual examination of every occurrence of each using the concord function. conjunctions (e.g. “although”, “while”, and “whereas”) were also excluded, because they are not linking adverbials (biber et al., 1999; carter & mccarthy, 2006). step 4. the function of every occurrence of all linking adverbials was individually checked by reading the relevant sentence and surrounding sentences. step 5. the frequency of all linking adverbials was examined within individual journals, to check if any were used significantly more frequently by certain journals. step 6. statistical significance was set at p<.05 and tested with the chisquared test within the log-likelihood calculator. regarding steps 2 and 3, the corpus was split into disciplinary corpora at times to check disciplinary variation. regarding steps 2, 3, and 4, “function” means “operates” or “acts”. individual manual checking of the function of every occurrence is vital3. two evaluators were involved in step (4): this writer and a local university lecturer. the second coder independently evaluated the function of every occurrence in order to measure inter-rater agreement. this writer reassessed the function of every occurrence after one month in order to measure intrarater agreement. inter-rater agreement was 97%, rising to 100% after discussions. intra-rater agreement was 99%. 6. results this section will start with the results for the three research questions. a total of 23,544 functioning linking adverbials were found in the whole corpus. the frequency of use was 12,006 per million words, or 74 per ra, though the number was drastically lower in chemistry (24 per ra) and much lower in materials science (36 per ra). the number per ra for the other disciplines was economics 89, language and linguistics 84, management 97, psychology 107, computer science 84, and neuroscience 68. the authors of all 320 ras used them. frequency across all four semantic categories, and disciplinary differences, are shown in tables 3, 4, 5, and 6 per million words (pmw). the forms are all in frequency order, with the most common first. table 3 does not show all the contrast/concession forms, only those with a frequency of 100 pmw or above. matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): 9-3420 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 20 linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 21 matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): …-…12 item all 4 nonsciences econ. lang. manag. psych. however 1380* 1401 1416 1308 1399 rather 456* 291* 560* 545 444 though 220* 164 256 217 248 in contrast/by contrast 205 182 176 133* 317* instead 184 202 160 150 219 on the other hand 174* 202 168 136 186 nevertheless/nonetheless/ notwithstanding 164* 96* 228* 119 219* otherwise 122* 295* 56* 80 49* total 3172* 3027 3292 2941* 3428* item all 4 sciences chem. compu. mats. neuro. however 1110 905* 979 1219 1313* rather 305 161* 427* 138* 354 though 139 80 171 144 132 in contrast/by contrast 219 109* 140* 231 366* instead 170 212* 192 69* 189 on the other hand 111 175 112 144 53* nevertheless/nonetheless/ notwithstanding 76 7* 91 44 119 otherwise 64 51 112* 25* 41 total 2426 1832* 2434 2206 2905* * = statistically significant difference table 3. contrast/concession linking adverbials: discipline differences. frequency pmw. linking adverbials in research articles item all 4 nonsciences econ. lang. manag. psych. thus 914* 839 796 675* 1304* therefore 696* 801 488* 930* 546* so 412 469 568* 381 258* hence 292* 586* 116* 294 154* as a result 108 127 112 108 85 consequently 101* 82 88 143 92 thereby 72* 86 52 105 46 accordingly 71* 65 20* 84 105 for this reason 17 17 36 14 3* total 2682* 2921* 2204* 2545 2441* item all 4 sciences chem. compu. mats. neuro. thus 644 489* 643 488* 840* therefore 613 533 612 569 691 so 403 358 174* 46* 64* hence 169 131 234* 219 82* consequently 69 117 73 75 33* thereby 41 29 45 44 41 accordingly 37 7* 49 38 41 for this reason 16 15 28 19 0* as a result 117 80 154 200* 41* total 2110 1723* 2353* 1856* 1951 * = statistically significant difference table 4. result/inference linking adverbials: discipline differences. frequency pmw. 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 21 matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): 9-3422 matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): …-…14 item all 4 nonsciences econ. lang. manag. psych. also 2196* 1908* 2588* 2385 1974* as well 474* 291* 632* 605* 399 in addition 387* 387 392 353 415 moreover 196 315* 72* 175 203 furthermore 183 178 112* 231 199 similarly 134* 92 140 161 144 further, 64* 51 72 84 52 additionally 59 45 60 59 72 likewise 37 21 48 28 52 besides 26 14 8 56* 26 in the same way 2 0 0 3 3 total 3758* 3301* 4124* 4140* 3539 item all 4 sciences chem. compu. mats. neuro. also 1846 1263* 2105* 1856 1872 as well 368 299 448 338 333 in addition 326 197* 378 281 370 moreover 160 36* 150 231 193 furthermore 179 146 189 100* 239 similarly 81 44 108 75 74 further, 40 22 70 13 33 additionally 53 66 42 69 49 likewise 30 58 31 19 21 besides 27 7 21 56 25 in the same way 5 15 0 0 8 total 3115 2153* 3542* 3038 3218 * = statistically significant difference table 5. addition linking adverbials: discipline differences. frequency pmw. linking adverbials in research articles item all 4 nonsciences econ. lang. manag. psych. e.g. 905* 473* 700* 706* 1670* for example/for instance 862* 795 952 934 784 such as 840* 507* 1152* 1276* 493* i.e./that is, 780* 736 688 448* 1209* in other words 136* 75* 188 133 154 specifically 84* 96 20* 112 98 namely 68 62 100 73 42 total 3674* 2743* 3800 3682 4451* item all 4 sciences chem. compu. mats. neuro. e.g. 711 88 863* 300* 1156* for example/for instance 504 175 899* 194* 432* such as 661 628 874* 625 457* i.e./that is, 561 285* 573 519 733* in other words 54 22 98* 13* 49 specifically 52 15 52 50 74 namely 57 80 31 63 70 total 2601 1292* 3392* 1763* 2971* * = statistically significant difference table 6. apposition linking adverbials: discipline differences. frequency pmw. 6.1. frequency – semantic categories three categories, contrast/concession, addition, and apposition, were found to be more common than previously thought. frequency per million words over all eight disciplines was contrast/concession 2857, result/inference 2441, addition 3487, and apposition 3221 whereas biber et al. (1999) report 1200, 3000, 1000, and 1800 respectively – though of course their corpus was 50% book extracts and 50% ras. these four tables reveal some striking interdisciplinary variations in linking adverbial frequency. the first clear difference is that the sciences 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 22 6.1. frequency – semantic categories three categories, contrast/concession, addition, and apposition, were found to be more common than previously thought. frequency per million words over all eight disciplines was contrast/concession 2857, result/inference 2441, addition 3487, and apposition 3221 whereas biber et al. (1999) report 1200, 3000, 1000, and 1800 respectively – though of course their corpus was 50% book extracts and 50% ras. these four tables reveal some striking interdisciplinary variations in linking adverbial frequency. the first clear difference is that the sciences use significantly fewer linking adverbials than the non-sciences in all four semantic categories. however, this science/nonscience difference varied by discipline: chemistry used all four types significantly less often. materials science used two types significantly less often – result/inference and apposition. computer science used three types significantly more often than the other sciences – result/inference, addition, and apposition; neuroscience used contrast/concession and apposition significantly more often. other variations may be seen among the nonscience disciplines. 6.2. frequency – individual forms the tables show the most common forms in each category. the first five in contrast/concession were “however”, “rather”, “though”, “in contrast/by contrast”, and “instead”. the most common in the other three categories were as follows: result/inference “thus”, “therefore”, “so”, and “hence”; addition, “also”, “as well” and “in addition”; apposition “e.g.”, “for example/for instance” and “such as”. no significant difference in the frequency of use of any linking adverbial was found within any one journal. regarding contrast/concession, table 3 shows a number of significant individual discipline differences in the use of individual forms. it also shows that the sciences used a narrower range of forms than did non-science authors: almost all forms in the table were used significantly less frequently by the sciences, except for the middle two, “in contrast/by contrast” and “instead”. science authors favoured these two forms. regarding apposition (table 6), after careful examination of two pairs of forms across the entire corpus, “for example/for instance” and “i.e./that is”, it is concluded that they are interchangeable. linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 23 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 23 6.3. function linking adverbials functioned only partly as predicted by biber et al. (1999). results from the four categories will now be presented, with numbered representative examples from the corpus: 6.3.1. contrast/concession biber et al. (1999) say they indicate alternatives. while this was found to be sometimes true in this corpus of ras, they are also sometimes associated with making claims, and it is suggested that the latter function may be more important in ras. first, here is an example denoting alternatives: (1) david could have used the touch handshape to represent grasping objects <1 in. in diameter and the small handshape to represent grasping objects between 1 and 2 in. in diameter. however, he did not use the forms in this way (psychology). second, here are two examples where the linking adverbial is associated with making claims. example (3) uses two contrast/concession forms in one sentence. the second form marks the claim: (2) the drivers of value, which can be thought from the perspective of how a buyer actually evaluates a purchase situation, has been explicated to some degree in the purchasing management literature (…) however, what is missing is the interaction of the dyad and the preconditions (management). (3) while the chronotopic approach is not intended to be used as a stand alone heuristic, but instead is intended to be used in conjunction with other teaching approaches, it is, nevertheless, an important step in coming to better understand what effects semantic and syntactic choices produce (language and linguistics). 6.3.2. result/inference it is suggested that biber et al.’s (1999) assertion that these linking adverbials mark results or consequences is correct. an example follows: (4) the criterion measure, b, was positively skewed and thus log transformed values were used for all analyses (neuroscience). matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): 9-3424 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 24 6.3.3. addition biber et al. (1999) say that these show that the next unit is additional. while this was found to be often true in the corpus, it was noted that the very common form “also” often appears in chains. additionally, “also” was often associated with making claims, and the latter function is assessed as being very important. first, here is an example showing the following unit is additional: (5) also, while the value of the diversity of gcae members is recognised, the difficulty of having a wide range of linguistic competence is also acknowledged (language and linguistics). second, here are two examples of “also/as well” associated with claims. the forms also function to show that the next unit is additional, but it is suggested that to these authors, the “claim” function is particularly important. example (7) contains three claims in one sentence: (6) thus, we expect that the two theories would also be useful to predict the acceptance of sda (computer science). (7) as well as providing a visual representation of each of the case companies, the framework also provides the means of comparing one cybermediary with another. the framework also offers a way of comparing any changes to the roles and relationships of a cybermediary over time (management). 6.3.4. apposition it is proposed that biber et al.’s (1999) contention that these forms show the following text is an example or reformulation is correct. however, regarding the first of these functions – showing that the following text is an example – linking adverbials in this category had the additional function of helping authors to make claims. this can be seen in example (8). example (9) shows “reformulation”: (8) the sv-mix approach also provides a useful tool for investigating the implications of some interesting hypothetical scenarios. for example, suppose that one wishes to think about the implications of a peso-type situation involving a low-probability, high-impact event (economics). (9) an alternative explanation for our finding differences by behavior type may be that our stimulus behaviors differed in potency. in other words, perhaps our targets’ smiles were quite distinct (psychology). linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 25 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 25 linking adverbials were found to be sometimes clustered together in long and complex sequences. these appear to be an important method of aiding in the strengthening of claims in ras. examples (3), (5), (6), (7) and (8) show this tendency. another example follows: (10) rather than thinking in terms of company promotions directly to consumers, for example, the team conceived joint advertising and promotions processes with the retailers, such as jointly sponsored mailings to retailer loyalty card holders. the team also realized that it had no product review procedure (management). 7. discussion and conclusions linking adverbials were found to be more common than previously thought, though the corpora were of course not identical. table 7 compares the present results with biber et al. (1999): semantic category biber et al. 1999 – lswe academic prose table 7 shows that in this study three categories (contrast/concession, addition and apposition) were much more common in ras than in biber et al.’s (1999) academic prose corpus (book extracts plus ras). result/inference was less common. these differences are striking. another conspicuous difference is the proportion of three out of four semantic categories as a percentage of the whole. contrast/concession made up around 24%, result/inference 20%, addition 29%, and apposition 25-28% (in this respect, the science and non-science disciplines were remarkably matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): 9-3426 matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): …-…18 (10) rather than thinking in terms of company promotions directly to consumers, for example, the team conceived joint advertising and promotions processes with the retailers, such as jointly sponsored mailings to retailer loyalty card holders. the team also realized that it had no product review procedure (management). 7. discussion and conclusions linking adverbials were found to be more common than previously thought, though the corpora were of course not identical. table 7 compares the present results with biber et al. (1999): biber et al. 1999 – lswe academic prose present study frequency per million words percentage of total semantic category frequency per million words percentage of total nonscience science nonscience science contrast/ concession 1200 17 3172 2426 24 24 result/ inference 3000 43 2682 2110 20 21 addition 1000 14 3758 3115 28 30 apposition 1800 26 3674 2601 28 25 total 7000 100 15055 11935 100 100 table 7. comparison of findings on four semantic categories: biber et al. (1999) and present study. table 7 shows that in this study three categories (contrast/concession, addition and apposition) were much more common in ras than in biber et al.’s (1999) academic prose corpus (book extracts plus ras). result/inference was less common. these differences are striking. another conspicuous difference is the proportion of three out of four semantic categories as a percentage of the whole. contrast/concession made up around 24%, result/inference 20%, addition 29%, and apposition 25-28% (in this respect, the science and non-science disciplines were remarkably similar) whereas biber et al. (1999) report 17%, 43%, 14%, and 26% respectively. one cause of these category results is that the present search covered a greater number of linking adverbials than biber et al. (1999), who do not list very many individual forms. an example of this can be seen in table 1. biber et al. (1999) report the frequency of the contrast/concession form “however” as 1100 pmw, and the whole contrast/concession category as 1200 pmw: “however” makes up 92%. yet in this study, the frequency of “however” over all eight disciplines was 1266 pmw, making up only 44% of the whole category. on top of this the 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 26 similar) whereas biber et al. (1999) report 17%, 43%, 14%, and 26% respectively. one cause of these category results is that the present search covered a greater number of linking adverbials than biber et al. (1999), who do not list very many individual forms. an example of this can be seen in table 1. biber et al. (1999) report the frequency of the contrast/concession form “however” as 1100 pmw, and the whole contrast/concession category as 1200 pmw: “however” makes up 92%. yet in this study, the frequency of “however” over all eight disciplines was 1266 pmw, making up only 44% of the whole category. on top of this the frequency results for other individual forms were not much different from those reported in table 1, yet the category frequencies are higher. another important factor probably associated with the present results is the somewhat different corpora – biber et al. (1999) used academic prose, book extracts plus ras, around 50% each, and this factor must not be overlooked. turning to the meaning of the present results, they indicate that contrast/concession, addition, and apposition linking adverbials are more common and therefore more important in ras than previously thought, if readers of biber et al. (1999) assumed that their results applied to ras. and the higher frequency of the contrast/concession category makes it appear particularly important. it contains a large number of linguistic forms (see table 3) available to and used by authors, and the functions that are reported here, such as assisting authors to construct claims, make it perhaps very valuable for them. the same is also true for addition and apposition linking adverbials, considering their higher frequency and extra functions. and regarding the function of linking adverbials across all four categories, it is suggested that this study adds to biber et al.’s (1999) descriptions. biber et al. (1999) said in their broad description that linking adverbials signal relationships between two units of discourse and create textual cohesion (they only mention presenting and supporting claims in connection with the result/inference category), and in their more detailed description that they indicate alternatives; show results and consequences; or show the next unit is additional, an example, or a reformulation. all this is true but it is argued here that in the ra contrast/concession forms are also sometimes used to help authors make claims; addition forms often assist in introducing claims; and apposition forms help writers strengthen claims. additionally, linking adverbials were found to be sometimes clustered together in long and complex sequences, which appear to be another important method of linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 27 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 27 supporting claims in ras. it was noted in the introduction that it is very important for ra authors to persuade readers of the authenticity and validity of their claims, convince peers, and establish credibility, and therefore it is proposed that aiding writers with these functions is an important task. regarding individual disciplines, the sciences use significantly fewer linking adverbials than the non-sciences in all four categories. but a closer look at the results shows that this varied sharply by discipline, and that the major difference was in two of the four sciences – chemistry and materials science. a much closer examination of chemistry and materials science ras was then undertaken to try to understand some of the reasons for this much lower rate of occurrence. it was observed that authors tended to present and to develop claims in a different way – they used less argument. they described their research justifications, methods, results and conclusions in a much more narrative and descriptive style: they seemed merely to describe the steps they took, and their findings, one by one, and let readers work out their claims. presumably the aim is to show the order of events or rather, this order is sufficient for readers, who perhaps do not need to be explicitly told the connections between facts, arguments, and claims. these authors did less restating, reformulating, exemplification, and less linking units of discourse together. computer science and neuroscience ras, on the other hand, resembled the non-science disciplines much more. some typical and representative examples of these factors from chemistry and materials science from the corpus will now be shown. the first is from a typical chemistry “justify our research” section: (11) all current materials of this type use simple inorganic fluorides such as nayf4 as host structures for luminescent lanthanide cations (…) with this in mind, we have recently initiated an exploratory study of group iii element fluoride hydrothermal chemistry, using organic amines as structure-directing agents, in order to open up a new area of structural solid-state chemistry. the next example is from a typical chemistry conclusion section: (12) here, it has been shown that mf-ica is capable of providing good estimates of the elution patterns containing background, mass spectral sources and the area of the eight analytes in four clusters despite their heavily overlapped signals. the reasonable results would be obtained by selecting the proper parameters, such as number of sources, nonnegative mixing prior and source prior values. matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): 9-3428 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 28 the next example is from a typical materials science “introduce our research” section: (13) spraycasting followed by hot working in this study is designed to produce an intermediate grain size in the range 1-5 um without the need for severe deformation. the present paper describes an investigation of the microstructure of a spray cast al–5.31mg–1.15li–0.28zr alloy and its microstructural evolution during hot compression as a function of temperature. example (14) is from a typical materials science conclusion: (14) a high quality al–5.31mg–1.15li–0.28zr billet with an initial grain size of -10um has been produced by spraycasting. the zr microdistribution was non-uniform, with denuded regions adjacent to coarse l12al3zr particles at grain boundaries. after consolidation and dispersoid precipitation heat treatment at 400 deg. c for 4 h the grain size coarsened. a different style is apparent in the following computer science and neuroscience extracts. example (15) is from a computer science discussion section: (15) the main advantages of cva compared to hmm are that cva is easy to implement and does not require such complex operations as hmm. if one wants to avoid the burden of calculation of probability density functions while building a classifier, cva is a reasonable choice. but in the cva method, a whole utterance is treated as a single vector instead of a sequence of independent vectors. therefore, the number of parameters in cva is larger. the last extract is from a typical neuroscience conclusion: (16) phmri is an exciting new non-invasive approach to study receptor function in healthy, diseased and treated subjects. it is the only noninvasive imaging approach that allows mapping of pharmacological interactions in vivo with a high spatial and temporal resolution (borsook et al., 2006). developing imaging approaches that will allow in vivo monitoring of cell transplants is essential to advance this therapeutic approach efficiently into clinical practice (modo et al., 2004). the use of phmri to assess disease and treatment will surely provide exciting novel insights. linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 29 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 29 one method or further examining and helping to explain the much lower rate of occurrence in these two disciplines would be to do a text analysis of contrasting examples with the same discourse function or sub-function in different ra sections, for example introduction-discussion-conclusion, and investigate to what extent authors achieve these functions using linking adverbials. however, this particular area of extended research is beyond the scope of the present study. some of the many significant discipline differences with individual forms may be explained by a presumed interchangeability of some of the forms. for example, economics used “rather” far less often and “otherwise” far more often. yet for two disciplines, this does not explain the variation: management and materials science authors did not use any contrast/concession forms more often. 7.1. pedagogical implications linking adverbials seem to be important, and these results have implications for teaching esp and particularly for the teaching of research writing, especially dissertations and research papers. it is suggested that competence in research writing includes a developed knowledge of linking adverbials, i.e. when, where and how to use them. this knowledge varies across disciplines and this implies that an awareness of discipline variations is necessary for teachers of research writing. certainly students must be told of the importance of context in using linking adverbials in research writing, and be told that awareness of their use is necessary4. 7.2. further research more complete lists of linking adverbials need to be developed, perhaps combining lists used in previous research, forms found in dictionaries and a thesaurus, and forms found inside ras. the latter method may be especially useful. other questions to research are: how frequent are linking adverbials in other disciplines, and how are they used? what other functions do they have across disciplines? how and when are they acquired by research writers? exactly how do they function when they cluster together in long and complex sequences? how do chemistry and materials science authors achieve certain functions? this study shows the importance of linking adverbials in ras in the sciences matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): 9-3430 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 30 versus non-sciences, and also in individual disciplines. it is proposed that linking adverbials are more important in ras as signalling and cohesive devices, and for helping authors manoeuvre more effectively to make and/or to strengthen claims, than previously thought. also, different disciplines achieve this in significantly different ways, confirming the importance of discipline variation when researching their use, and adding to knowledge of esp. it is hoped this study helps us better understand scientific expression and the ra. [paper received december 2010] [revised paper accepted april 2010] references linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 31 berkenkotter, c. & t.n. huckin (1995). genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: cognition/culture/power. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. bhatia, v.k. (2000). “genres in conflict” in a. trosborg (ed.), 147-161. biber, d. (2006). university language: a corpusbased study of spoken and written registers. amsterdam: john benjamins. biber, d., s. johansson, g. leech, s. conrad & e. finegan (1999). longman grammar of spoken and written english. harlow: pearson education. bolton, k., g. nelson & j. hung (2003). “a corpusbased study of connectors in student writing: research from the international corpus of english in hong kong (ice-hk)”. international journal of corpus linguistics 7: 165-182. carter, r. & m. mccarthy (2006). cambridge grammar of english. cambridge: cambridge university press. charles, m. (2007). using a corpus to explore argument in academic discourse: how far can we go? paper presented at corpus linguistics 2007, university of birmingham, uk, 27-30 july. chen, c. w-y. (2006). “the use of conjunctive adverbials in the academic papers of advanced taiwanese efl learners”. international journal of corpus linguistics 11: 113-130. conrad, s.m. (1999). “the importance of corpusbased research for language teachers”. system 27: 1-18. conrad, s. (2000). “will corpus linguistics revolutionize grammar teaching in the 21st century?” tesol quarterly 34: 548-560. hoey, m. (2001). textual interaction. london: routledge. hopkins, a. & t. dudley-evans (1988). “a genrebased investigation of the discussion sections in articles and dissertations”. english for specific purposes 7: 113-121. hunston, s. (1994). “evaluation and organization in a sample of written academic discourse” in m. coulthard (ed.), advances in written text analysis, 191-218. london: routledge. hunston, s. (2001). “colligation, lexis, pattern, and text” in m. scott & g. thompson (eds.), patterns of text, 13-33. amsterdam: john benjamins. hyland, k. (1996). “talking to the academy: forms of hedging in science research articles”. written communication 13: 251-281. hyland, k. (1997). “scientific claims and community values: articulating an academic culture”. language and communication 17: 19-31. hyland, k. (1998). hedging in scientific research articles. amsterdam: john benjamins. hyland, k. (2000). disciplinary discourses: social interactions in academic writing. harlow, essex: longman. liu, d. (2008). “linking adverbials: an acrossregister corpus study and its implications”. international journal of corpus linguistics 13: 491-518. moreno, a. i. (1997). “genre constraints across 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 31 matthew peacock teaches in the department of english at the city university of hong kong. his research interests include english for specific purposes, corpus analysis, research writing, genre analysis, and tefl methodology. he co-edited (with john flowerdew, 2001) a collection from cambridge university press, research perspectives on english for academic purposes. notes 1. liu (2008) offers a useful review of the literature on the two types of linking devices. 2. see silver (2003) for further research on stance adverbials. 3. many authors stress the importance of doing this: for example frequency is obtained from statistical analysis but context is vital in understanding function (tognini-bonelli, 2004), and a “microscopic study” must be carried out before categorisation can be done (williams, 2002: 60). 4. see bolton, nelson and hung (2003) and chen (2006) for further ideas on teaching. matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): 9-3432 languages: causal metatext in spanish and english ras”. english for specific purposes 16: 161-179. paltridge, b. (1993). “writing up research: a systemic functional perspective”. system 21: 175192. scott, m. (2004). wordsmith tools (version 4). oxford: oxford university press. shaw, p. (2000). “towards classifying the arguments in research genres” in a. trosborg (ed.), 41-56. silver, m. (2003). “the stance of stance: a critical look at ways stance is expressed and modeled in academic discourse”. journal of english for academic purposes 2: 359-374. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. (2004). research genres: explorations and applications. cambridge: cambridge university press. tognini-bonelli, e. (2004). “working with corpora: issues and insights” in c. coffin, a. hewings & k. o’halloran (eds.), applying english grammar: functional and corpus approaches, 11-24. london: arnold. trosborg, a. (ed.) (2000). analysing professional genres. amsterdam: john benjamins. williams, g.c. (1998). “collocational networks: interlocking patterns of lexis in a corpus of plant biology research articles”. international journal of corpus linguistics 3: 151-171. williams, g. (2002). “in search of representativity in specialised corpora: categorisation through collocation”. international journal of corpus linguistics 7: 43-64. 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 32 appendix: journals in the corpus linking adverbials in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 9-34 33 matthew peacock ibérica 20 (2010): …-…24 appendix: journals in the corpus science non-science chemistry • analytica chimica acta • inorganica chimica acta • journal of organometallic chemistry • journal of solid state chemistry economics • economic modelling • journal of economic behavior and organization • journal of economics and business • journal of financial economics computer science • computers in human behavior • computer speech and language • information and software technology • international journal of humancomputer studies language and linguistics • english for specific purposes • journal of english for academic purposes • journal of second language writing • system materials science • acta materialia • biomaterials • corrosion science • polymer management • journal of business venturing • journal of international management • industrial marketing management • international journal of information management neuroscience • cognition • brain and cognition • neuropsychologia • neuroscience psychology • acta psychologica • cognitive psychology • journal of anxiety disorders • journal of research in personality 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 33 01 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:01 página 34 06 gim.nez.qxp ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109 abstract the purpose of this article is to direct the attention of the specialists towards the notion of linguistic register in order to promote new systematic methods of analysing its current span of variation. despite its still unclear definition and frequent amalgamation with other varieties, the movement across registers is one of the most effective and frequent communicative tools that a language has to adapt itself to the diverse private, social and professional settings. however, this type of variation is one of the most difficult to be perceived, learnt and correctly used by foreign speakers and, in general, all non-effective communicators. as this article shows in the first part, the existing theory and models of analysis need to be reviewed and updated in order to provide clearer distinctions and more practical parameters of research. the second part of the article proposes a basic method of approaching current register variation systematically, emphasizing the most controversial aspects in the analysis of registers and pointing out the need to overcome these difficulties in order to promote more practical studies, other useful typologies and new pedagogical materials on this type of variation. key words: sociolinguistics, language variation, register, context, communication resumen nueva perspectiva sobre la variación de los registros lingüísticos: el eslabón perdido el objetivo del presente artículo es dirigir la atención de los especialistas hacia la noción de registro lingüístico con el fin de promover nuevos métodos de analizar los registros actuales. a pesar de la falta de claridad en su definición y la frecuente confusión con otros tipos de variación lingüística, el movimiento a través de toda la gama de registros es uno de los instrumentos comunicativos más efectivos y de uso más frecuente que posee una lengua para adaptarse a los diversos entornos privados, sociales y profesionales. sin embargo, este movimiento es uno de los mecanismos más difíciles de percibir, aprender a new approach to register variation: the missing link rosa giménez moreno universitat de valència, spain rosa.gimenez@uv.es 89 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 89 y utilizar correctamente, sobre todo en el caso de hablantes extranjeros y comunicadores poco efectivos. como se muestra en la primera parte del artículo, la teoría y los modelos de análisis existentes necesitan ser revisados para poder generar distinciones internas y parámetros de investigación más claros. en la segunda parte del artículo se propone un método básico de análisis que permite la ejemplificación sistemática de los registros lingüísticos actuales, enfatizando los aspectos más controvertidos que operan en este tipo de análisis y la necesidad de superarlos para conseguir elaborar estudios más prácticos, tipologías más útiles y nuevos materiales pedagógicos. palabras clave: sociolingüística, variación lingüística, registro, contexto, comunicación introduction since variability is inherent in human language and most of this variation is systematic, from the 70s linguistics has focused on language use and the systematic ways in which users exploit linguistic resources. from this perspective, many studies have approached linguistic variation analysing linguistic features such as hedging or modality, language dimensions or functions which make a discourse more informative or narrative, and genres such as every day conversation or newspaper articles, just to mention a few examples; most of them compiled in famous corpora such as the michigan corpus of academic spoken english (micase), the british national corpus or the international corpus of english (biber, 1995, 1998; reppen et al., 2002). nevertheless, as most specialists admit (reppen et al., 2002: vii), “analyzing the influence factors on linguistic variation present difficult methodological challenges.” among these difficulties, we may include carrying empirical analyses of natural texts, collecting texts from a wide range of speakers and contextual factors, and establishing clear differences among all the varieties interacting in a speech event. these three obstacles, and in particular the third one, have become the key stone of the avoidance by many authors of questionable concepts such as the concept of “communicative register.” there have been important well-known attempts to define the term and thanks to these proposals we can have a better idea of the uniqueness and specificity of the concept. however, as it can be observed in real practice and throughout most published research on language variation, many specialists still use the word “register” in an unspecific and unclear way, in many cases exchanging the word randomly with the other types of variation, such as genre, style, etc. this switch is probably done in the belief that it might be better understood in that way, but sometimes it is because what they are actually investigating or making reference to is not register itself but another of these other language varieties. in practice, it seems apparent that a unified and widely accepted clear use of register does not exist as a rosa giménez moreno ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-10990 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 90 type of language variation different from the other varieties –as it happens, for example, with the concept of genre and idiolect. if language variation as a whole is seen as a chain of specific choices made by users according to diverse communicative aspects brought into play, register variation seems to be a “missing link” inside this chain, without a clearly defined position, nature and usage. taking these factors into account the purpose of this paper is, firstly, to direct the attention of specialists towards the notion of register, its still unclear definition, current random use and frequent amalgamation with other varieties; and secondly, to emphasize the need of facing the main controversial areas and approaching the subject from new perspectives which help to understand its main defining components, its specific behaviour in a particular language or across languages, its specific influence in daily communication and its complete scale of internal variation. register analysis: a critical overview linguistic theory only counts on a few theoretical approaches to carry out systematic research into current register variation and, as this paper will point out, even these well-known approaches do not seem to cast enough light on the subject to promote practical studies, useful typologies and effective pedagogical materials on this type of variation. for example, coultas’ treatise, language and social contexts (2003), clearly gives information on variation regarding power, gender and regional talk but deals with register variation only by mentioning some “formality” parameters (coultas, 2003: 9). it seems that the scale of formality is still the most useful way of approaching, using and assessing this type of variation. obviously, although the concept of register can be included inside the general field of language variation, as underlined by biber and finegan (1994), its true nature places the analyst in a highly delicate research area located in the junction of important fields such as sociolinguistics, language in use, pragmatics, applied linguistics, discourse and conversation analysis, speech act theory, code switching, institutional linguistics and corpus linguistics, among others. it is not easy to study a concept with such a huge range of research levels and with such a fixed dual conceptualization –which have, in fact, become almost fossilized in daily practice– therefore restricting its variation to the broad swinging usage between the concepts of formality and informality (giménez moreno, 1994). a “register,” from a general social perspective, can be seen as the adequate manner of expressing your message depending on the social situation where that message is communicated; a communicative frequency or wavelength chosen by the individual a new approach to register variation ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109 91 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 91 from the whole scale of possibilities given by a language to express a certain idea properly within its context. contextual variation started to be an interesting field of research and study at the beginning of the 20th century together with all the emergent anthropological and ethnological descriptive analyses of the time. following the work of pioneers such as malinowski (1923) and firth (1935) on the importance of the context in language variation, the term “register” was suggested by reid in 1956 with reference to the capacity of human language to adapt itself to different social situations. with this proposed terminology, reid was pointing out that this adaptation operates within a vertical or transversal mode/axis with regard to the other types of language variation that operate in a horizontal mode/axis. a few years later, this split or bifurcation was specified by halliday et al. (1964) establishing a distinction between dialectal variation dependant on the user’s characteristics and register variation dependant on the circumstances of the usage. at that time a few interesting typologies appeared, being still useful to establish primary differentiations among registers. an approach of special interest is the pioneer classification proposed by joos (1961). although this author still mixed the terms “style” and “register” and did not provide a detailed linguistic account of the main differences among the proposed styles, he transcended the traditional dichotomy between formal and informal language and established correlations between five types of “style” (frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate) and the age (senile, mature, teenage, child and baby), the breadth (genteel, puristic, standard, provincial, and popular) and the social responsibility of the speaker (best, better, good, fair, and bad). through this perspective, joos pointed out that the choices dependent on the user and on the use are closely related and can interfere with each other; also that the relationship between the interlocutors and the purpose of the message are key distinctive parameters when distinguishing among registers. according to this approach, the “consultative style” is the most neutral and from which the other four registers depart. this style is used with strangers and unfamiliar interlocutors; its main function is interaction and the speakers have to provide as much information as possible, not assuming any common ground and ensuring that the basic content and norms are shared. on the informal side, the author places the “casual style” on a first level, being the style used with known or familiar interlocutors who share the same communicative norms and mechanisms. he places the “intimate style” on a second level of informality being used inside exclusive groups of speakers who have private or personal ties and do not need to refer to any general public information. on the other side of the consultative style, there is also a first level, where joos (1961) places the “formal style,” which is not participative or interactive but mainly informative expressed in a linear, explicit and rosa giménez moreno ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-10992 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 92 ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109 a new approach to register variation elaborate manner. finally the “frozen style” is placed on the highest level of formality, becoming the style of creativity, declamation and printed expression. these labels and general parameters on register variation proposed by joos in the 60s are still useful in our current practice but they have not been revised, further developed and made applicable to specific contexts inside the whole spectrum of daily communication. despite the efforts of these authors and other specialists (barber, 1962; gregory, 1967) in favour of register analysis, at that time, the relevance of the research on social variation was shared –and often shaded– by that dedicated to other many social and dialectal varieties which were targeted by the most important linguists of those decades. in the mid-60s social situational variation was examined by ferguson (1959, 1964), on diglossia and baby varieties respectively; brown and gilman (1960), on language and power; leech (1966), on press advertising and poetry; crystal and davy (1969), on conversation, newspapers, legal and religious language; gumperz and hymes (1972), on argots in asian villages; labov (1972a), on urban and social dialects; and trudgill (1974), on social differentiation of english; among many others. most of these studies identified registers with styles (labov, 1972a,b; trudgill, 1974); with some rare exceptions such as fisher (1958) who already distinguished three levels of formality in his interviews. according to reppen et al. (2002), the factors attributed to this neglect of register research were, on the one hand, the fast development of descriptive functional linguistics and the prevailing status of spoken/conversational language (viewing the analyses of written varieties as targets of literary and rhetorical concern); and, on the other hand, “the discounting of the importance of register differences in a speech community, and the extent and social importance of the linguistic differences associated with those register ranges”; adding to these factors “the lack of a paradigmatic, or even dominant, methodological and theoretical framework for the analysis of registers” (reppen et al., 2002: 6). nevertheless, register studies were not totally ignored and the term was often used in the studies carried out by some of the most important specialists of this period (ferguson, 1964; gumperz & hymes, 1972; labov, 1972a,b). however, from a practical point of view, the problem was that –as benesh (2001: 5-6) mentions in her chronological review of eap– most “register analysis” carried out in the 60s were lexical analyses on a specific topic or discipline such as “scientific english” or “business english.” she gives as an example, ewer and latorre’s course in basic scientific english (1969). these authors analysed three million words within the scope of modern scientific english ranging from popular writing to learned articles and graded the words according to frequency and complexity. from that study, pedagogical material appeared but, as it has been pointed out, all these materials were 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 93 about a “discipline” or a “topic” expressed in what might be called a “neutral or standard professional register.” this register, however, became very helpful for the learning of specific vocabulary and grammatical structures related to a specific professional field but not for the distinguishing and learning of the register variation that operates in the communication related to that topic or field. for example, the process of water condensation and raining –“scientific english”– can be described to a group of university students sitting in a lecture theatre (institutional/academic register) but also to our own child lying in the garden (intimate register). the topic will be the same but the register in both cases might be quite different: in the first case, the speaker –the lecturer– will tend to use impersonal expressions, elaborate connectors, specific technical vocabulary, latin terms, nominalizations and restricted body language; whereas in the second case, the speaker –the mother/father– might use attitudinal expressions, personalization, contractions or “fast” language, idiomatic expressions, figurative and metaphoric language, basic connectors and free body language; among many other choices. in the 70s and 80s, specialists (hymes, 1972; gregory & carroll, 1978; halliday, 1978) concentrated on the limits of the concept of speech situation regarding those fields of linguistics highly dependant on its influence: speech acts, inference and presupposition, topic and comment, rhetorical devices such as metaphor, irony and allusion, etc. together with all these new insights, more register studies emerged analysing the “register” of other specific disciplines, mainly professional, but most of them were still topic-centred lexical contributions. as fowler (1996: 190) pointed out, the limitations among these “registers” were so confusing that it was very difficult to draw any classification. despite this general tendency, three new important aspects were underscored with regard to register variation: (a) the need to analyse register from a wider perspective which allowed embracing other language varieties and including other communicative parameters (hymes, 1984; martin, 1985); (b) the importance of establishing some clearer set of differences between register analysis and genre analysis (ventola 1984; couture, 1986; swales, 1990); and (c) the key connection between register variation and the “verbal repertoire” of each language community: “no human being talks the same way all the time […]. at the very least, a variety of registers and styles is used and encountered; […] each language community has its own system of registers” (ure, 1982: 5). rosa giménez moreno ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-10994 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 94 this theory clearly pointed out that registers should be considered verbal repertoires which depend on the specific language and community conventions (contextual, social and cultural conventions), not so much on individual conventions, clearly differentiating registers also from idiolects and communicative styles. another essential contribution of these years in the distinction and classification of registers was the need to concentrate on the marked forms of each repertoire. all speakers have their own repertoires and know different ways of expressing the same information but, in a certain context, there is one which predominates over the others as the “marked form”: "these marked forms of language constitute the registers of a linguistic repertoire" (finegan & besnier, 1989: 429). however, as mcintosh (1963) had warned 20 years earlier, these repertoires and marked forms depend on the social conventions and the perception of communicative suitability and appropriateness developed by the speech community. despite the relevance of these theoretical insights and their potential to develop diverse methodological approaches to register variation, the general practice still tended to identify register with topic/discipline, genre or style, always relating the notion of register to the scale of formality, and most of the specific register theory along this period evolved under the functional systemic approach to register variation led by halliday (halliday et al., 1964; gregory & carroll, 1978; halliday, 1978, 1980) based on the three well-known parameters: “field” (topic or activities involved), “tenor” (participants’ role relations) and “mode” (communication channels). they also established the correlation between each of these three components and the three main meta-functions of language in a social context: conceptual (field), interpersonal (tenor) and textual (mode) (halliday, 1978). this perspective –highly theoretical– integrated and justified as register-related analyses the many previous studies on diverse disciplines (topic or field-centred analyses), and included within it the notion of register variation, not only the increasing studies on written and spoken communication, (mode) but also all those studies on variation related to role relationships (tenor), such as doctor-patient, teacher-pupil, vendor-customer, and so on (sinclair & coulthard, 1975; burton, 1980; ventola, 1987; among many others). this wide ranging and all-embracing perspective of register led to the current situation in which either almost all can be included within register variation or hardly anything can really be attributed to register variation. obviously most of these studies on specific syntactic or grammatical features (e.g. passive voice), on functions (e.g. informing), on lexical characteristics (e.g. nominalizations) or on particular genres (e.g. letters and brochures) also offered subsequent insights into the use of register variation and contributed to obtaining a grasp of the magnitude of its coverage. however, this partial perspective does not a new approach to register variation ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109 95 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 95 allow us to see how all the communicative aspects –syntax, functions, lexis, genres, etc.– vary together to move from one register to another, which constitutes the “keystone” to classifying registers and identifying repertoires. on the other hand, the studies on register variation from this systemic perspective offered some theoretical frameworks exemplified with linguistic and communicative features associated to a few differentiated registers –mainly professional registers (see ghadessy, 1988)– but did not help to establish a practical clear division between registers and other close types of variation, these frameworks being very difficult to apply to all registers. probably the search for an alternative, a distinctive theory to analyze registers, was the initial purpose of biber’s work in the 80s. biber (1986, 1988) and his colleagues started to develop a new “multidimensional” (md) method of register analysis based on the four most important “dimensions” which differentiate the most frequently used registers: (a) involved versus informational production; (b) narrative versus non-narrative concern; (c) elaborated reference versus situation-dependent reference; and (d) impersonal versus non-impersonal style. coinciding with crystal (1991), biber and finegan (1994) defined a register as a “linguistic difference that correlates with different occasions of use”; however, they added the following warning: “in addition to the term register, the terms genre, text type and style have been used to refer to language varieties associated with situational uses” (biber & finegan, 1994: 4). they distinguished these terms from the notion of dialect associated with groups of users, but not clearly amongst the four quoted terms themselves. this is why their work –despite the clarity of the title of the book (sociolinguistic perspectives on register) and the high quality of the research included– contains several articles where there is no clear distinction between registers, genres and styles; finding expressions such as “the register of coaching,” “personal ads register” or “diglossia as register variation,” together with other articles mainly about styles. this mismatch in how a register may be considered with regard to other types of language usage keeps the sensation of certain confusion among the specialists themselves; a sensation which tends to increase dependant upon the specific set of heterogeneous dimensions proposed by the authors to study this variation: a mixture of functions (e.g. informational and narrative function) and linguistic features usually related to the user’s style (e.g. impersonal style). this unclear notion of register can be observed in many other works; for example, schiffrin et al. (2001), handbook of discourse analysis, which included very interesting rosa giménez moreno ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-10996 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 96 information about “register variation” in several chapters –mainly following biber and conrad’s (2001) md perspective– where the authors considered genres such as telephone conversations, face to face conversations, spontaneous speeches, public speeches, general fiction, professional letters, biographies, press reviews and official documents as registers. something similar happened in geisler (2002) regarding debates and trials. although the md method is basically functional and based on the analysis of genres rather than registers, it is a highly valuable contribution to the study of registers, not only due to the amount of theory, suggestions, data and examples provided on language variation, but also to some insights into the distinctive nature of this specific type of variation. for example, schiffrin et al. (2001: 191) specified that the main parameters that had an influence on the choice of a certain register were, on the one hand, the communicative purpose and the physical relationship between addressor and addressee, and on the other, the production circumstances and setting. in contrast with halliday’s (1978, 1980) theory, this notion does not include the mode and the field of communication as distinctive parameters in register variation, which brings the discussion back into the pioneer area of defining the basic parameters which intervene in the distinction of registers from other types of variation. differentiating register from other closely related linguistic concepts this need to update and re-elaborate the foundations on register variation can be observed in contemporary authors such as davies (2005). in his work on varieties of modern english, davies analysed what he called “contextual variation” and, although he followed halliday’s theory about mode, tenor and field and exemplified this theory with some genres (cooking recipes and literary novels), his definition of register specified clearly the two main components of a register: the contextual situation and the roles of the participants. he started his approach by including as relevant aspects all the components of a speech situation listed by hymes in 1972: setting, participants, ends, act, key, instrumentalities, norms and genre; but eventually he pointed out as distinctive two basic components: “register is a variety of language most likely to be used in a specific situation and with particular roles and statuses involved” (hymes, 1972: 112). therefore, although many different components interact in all types of social variation at the same time, there is a distinctive correlation between them and the three main types of contextual variation (register, genre and style): a new approach to register variation ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109 97 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 97 (a) the established norms or conventions of the setting and the roles of the participants decide the type of register to be used (for example, ceremonial or ritual register); (b) inside that specific register, the participant’s ends (purpose and function), the chosen instrumentalities (channels) and the act (sequence and form of expression) of the communicative event decide the type of genre (for example, a sermon); and, finally, (c) the key (mood and manner) –among others– decide the type of style (for example, ironical). considering this telescopic dimension of the language variation martin (1985) already observed that the language is expressed through registers and registers through genres; and following martin, carrillo guerrero (2005: 25) also considered registers on a rhetorical level above all typologies of genres, texts or discourses, communicative codes and styles. he distinguished clearly registers from genres, as he exemplified through the text of the following postcard: “here for a week with my sister. been trying out my german. lesley,” (carrillo guerrero, 2005: 3). this author pointed out that this text belonged to the genre of post cards, but its linguistic peculiarities were determined by its register. the ellipsis of the personal pronoun “i,” of the verbs “have been/have,” of the heading “dear, etc.” and of the ending “love, etc.” correlated with an informal communicative situation of shared trust and knowledge between the interlocutors which differences it from other post cards of its same genre. if we take as an example the macro-genre of spontaneous daily conversation and look at two different conversations: a conversation with our boss in his office (small meeting) and a conversation with our partner in bed (pillow talk). regarding register, these two conversations will be very different and, as we see, the main variable will be the relationship between the interlocutors (their intentional and factual roles) and, as a secondary very important variable, the communicative setting (the norms, restrictions and appropriateness of where and when). therefore, in practical terms these are the two basic variables which define the concept of register and on which extensive register analysis depends. obviously, all the other variables interact at the same time and have an influence on the type of language produced. this is why, apart from this first basic differentiation of registers from genres (e.g. conversation, letter, report, novel, lecture. etc.) and styles (e.g. ironical, distant, elaborate, plain, etc.), on defining register variation other specifications are also crucial. in the last ten years, several specialists approached the boundaries of the concepts of register, genre and style, and most of them seemed to agree on pointing out the rosa giménez moreno ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-10998 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 98 concept of “speech community” as the key parameter to understand and define these three levels of variation (giménez moreno, 1997). as mentioned at the beginning of the previous section, for almost a century the concept of “context” has been at the centre of many discussions on language variation (see malinowski, 1923). in fact, there was a great amount of research about its different dimensions: cultural context, textual context, situational context, etc. (see giglioli, 1972; lakoff, 1972; van dijk, 1977, 1999; enkvist, 1984; halliday & hasan, 1985; among others). however, if we wish to delimit the coverage of current register variation using simple practical guidelines, the main parameter to distinguish among the different communicative contexts seems to be the mental model of each context that ordinary speakers –of the concerned speech community– have, and on which depends the set of communicative and behavioural choices they make. obviously, not everybody has exactly the same mental model of each communicative context –the speaker’s experiential and socio-cultural background will have an influence on these models– but there is a generic mental model attached to each context that most members recognize and share. these mental models also include all the sets of elements that accompany the specific marked linguistic choices: socio-cultural conventions regarding body language, proxemics, dress codes, etc. in fact, the shared mental models of each communicative context constitute one of the distinctive features of a speech community (swales, 1990), and they are the starting point in the analysis and distinction between registers. it is also essential to distinguish between “register” and “linguistic feature/characteristic” (e.g. personalisation, modality, etc.), “function” (e.g. show deference and politeness, inform, narrate, mitigate, persuade, etc.), “topic/field/discipline/subject” (e.g. the language of science, journalism, sports, economics, etc.) and “mode” (e.g. oral, written, sign language, etc.). the great difficulty in this subject is that in daily communication all these elements or components coming from language variation regarding its use, plus all the peculiarities introduced by the user’s language variety, melt together so naturally that sometimes one specific linguistic feature (for example, “hereinafter”) seems just distinctive of a certain set of language variables (the genre of the “memoranda of agreement” inside the discipline of “law” or “legal language” and mainly the written mode), leaving aside the fact that it can also be distinctive inside other wider or more neglected variables (such as the register of institutional or professional communication). in order to carry out these correlations in a systematic way we need some new insights, new typologies, new easier and more practical ways of recognising, classifying and studying registers. a new approach to register variation ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109 99 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 99 main difficulties in the classification of registers: a proposal taking into account the two mentioned basic components of register variation, a simple but useful typology might come out from the usual contexts of communication and the different communicative roles of daily life. the first basic division may be established between personal/private life and public life, and then subdivide them into at least another four basic registers which are shown in table 1: in general terms, each of these basic registers may be expressed in –at least– three communicative versions, frequencies or tones: (a) a more relaxed, flexible or informal register open to the mixture with other registers and to the introduction of diverse peculiarities arising from the specific circumstances or from the intervening language variation dependant on the users. in the case of private roles/settings the communication tends to enter into a more intimate dimension and in the case of public roles/settings the speakers will show a more casual attitude. it is preferable to avoid popular labels such as “colloquial” or “familiar” because they can be misleading or create certain interferences: the term “colloquial” is used to express a certain degree of flexibility, relaxation, routine or informality in the communicative register being used but it also conveys a certain shift towards the oral mode and the conversational genres which can create interferences when categorizing registers. the use of the adjective “familiar” may seem a good option to refer to family contexts for the common etymology of both words, even better when translating this approach into other languages; for example, in spanish a “familiar register” could be easily understood as belonging to the family world (“entorno familiar”), but this word does not exist in english in the same meaning being generally used in the sense of “to be acquainted with.” rosa giménez moreno ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109100 participants/roles communicative setting personal/private life family relatives family settings (homes and public places but exclusive/closed) amicable friends/acquaintances friendly settings (homes and public places but exclusive/closed) public life social neighbours/citizens social open settings professional colleagues social services: police, doctors, clerks, etc. institutions of public services and work environment. table 1. basic register varieties. 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 100 (b) a neutral or conventional register recognised, shared and used by all the native speakers which shows most of the traditional parameters, matches with the expected stereotypes and provides the core amount of distinctive expressions. (c) a distant, rigid or formal register highly stereotyped, accepted and traditional, the register of the “etiquette,” the professional protocol, the daily rituals and social ceremonies. the following tables (tables 2, 3, 4 and 5) provide a few distinctive examples for each type of register and tone: a new approach to register variation ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109 101 family register internal variation more informal/intimate • hi baby/sweetheart! • how’s your day been, darling? • come here and (give) us a kiss. • i could eat you up. you are so cute! neutral/conventional • i’ve got a sore on my arm. where’s that yellow cream? • that curry last night gave me awful stomach ache. • if you tell your mum that, you can forget your birthday present. more formal/ritual • what have you been doing this weekend? • have you been anywhere nice? • how do you feel today? table 2. family register: examples of internal variation. amicable register internal variation more informal/intimate • hey mate, don’t get so upset about it. • if he says that one more time, i’m going to shoot myself. • i feel like death warmed up today. • what can i wear to the party tomorrow to drive peter wild? neutral/conventional • helen and i are having a party over easter. would you and john like to come? • i’ve just given the baby some fruit. let’s hope that’s the end of the tea-time tantrums. • i don’t mind going, it’s up to you. more formal/ritual • how’s nick? • how’s work going? • what are they (your kids) up to? table 3. amicable register: examples of internal variation. social register internal variation more informal/casual • my next door neighbour is absolutely filthy. • i can lend you my secateurs; just pop round after work and get them. • don’t eat there, it’s a real rip-off. neutral/conventional • excuse me! would you mind helping me with this lock? • pardon? i didn’t quite catch what you said. • it’s important to remember that we’re here for a purpose. more formal/ ritual/ceremonial • we are here today to celebrate the marriage of … • i’d like to take this opportunity to thank my dear wife for… • it’s been a great pleasure to welcome you into our home this evening. table 4. social register: examples of internal variation. 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 101 the complexity in the further analysis –detection of marked choices, subclassification, description and extensive exemplification– of these basic registers mainly arises from three important facts: (a) each register has its span of internal variation from its most flexible options to its most rigid ones, depending on the other coexisting communicative variables (mode, genre, style, etc.); (b) registers evolve together with the socio-cultural parameters –habits/ traditions, needs, fashions, trends, etc.– of each speech community, so what might be usual for a group of speakers might be hardly acceptable for another group; and (c) in daily communication speakers move across registers as fast as they move across communicative roles and contexts, so two interlocutors with the same communicative role –e.g. friends– will alter their communicative register depending on the different contexts where they are in each moment, and two interlocutors in the same context –e.g. an office– will alter their register depending on the roles they play. due to the first fact there are situations where a register at a certain point can share many features and become very similar to another one making it difficult to see which one is the predominant. as it can be perceived through the given examples, what seems obvious is that all registers tend to have a conventional/neutral version. depending on the circumstances, they can be expressed in a more orthodox, rigid or formal manner (e.g. two relatives will tend to interact in a more distant tone if suddenly an acquaintance joins them while they are having a drink in the pub) and also in a more flexible, relaxed and personalised way with a tendency to include elements of other registers or to communicate through a mixture of registers (for example, two colleagues may end up in the pub behaving as “friends,” then the initial register –“neutral professional register”– might become a mixture of “casual professional,” “casual social” and “ritual or neutral amicable”). rosa giménez moreno ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109102 professional register internal variation more informal/casual • have you heard the latest about the md? apparently he’s leaving! • what are you doing for lunch today? feel like grabbing a sarnie? • christ! that meeting went on for ages! neutral/conventional • i was wondering whether you might do me a favour. • the meeting will start at 10am. • come in, sit down. what can i do for you? more formal/ ritual/ceremonial • my lords, ladies and gentlemen, i pray silence for … • good evening and thanks for taking the time to attend this evening’s event. • my dear colleagues, thank you and good night. table 5. professional register: examples of internal variation. 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 102 in many cases, this fluctuation will depend on the specific genre and the style chosen. for example, there are many genres (e.g. lectures, doctor-patient conversations, etc.) where the communication does not take place between two equal communicators with similar roles (e.g. two colleagues, two scholars, two doctors, two lawyers) but between the provider of a service (e.g. teacher, doctor, lawyer, receptionist.) and the consumer of the service who is “a member of the public/society” (e.g. student, patient, client, guest); in those cases the expected professional register might amalgamate with the social register to a larger or a smaller extent depending on the interlocutors’ style, attitude and relationship. something very similar happens in the world of mass communication: the language of journals contains a mixture of registers: from the expected specific professional jargon to any register used in the direct quotations and reported information included inside the articles of the journal. for example, while reporting a sudden incident in conventional “professional” english, a journalist of the daily express included the following quotation from a witness: “i got very, very upset and went outside the corridor and burst into tears” (daily express 4th june, 2005, p. 5), which belongs to an informal level of the “social,” or even “amicable,” register. the correlation between genres and registers might become of great help in order to sub-classify these main registers but there are two issues that have to be taken into account. the first is that, as swales (2004) points out, genres can no longer be seen as single and separable communicative entities but as complex networks which naturally switch mode from writing into speech and –it can also be added– move from a register variety into another. in fact, registers can be also seen in the same way, as complex networks which naturally move from one genre into another adapting themselves to the requirements of each genre. for example, linguistic features which are not frequent in formal professional registers –such as ellipsis, abbreviations and “fast language”– can be found in some formal academic genres; for example, in scientific abstracts subjectless sentences (e.g. “examined j. p.’s early writings …”) often appear at the beginning or inside the text mainly to economize on space. the second issue is that, regarding genre variation, there is still an imbalance in the research dedicated to the diverse communicative settings: genre analysts have tended to concentrate much more in written than in oral genres and also in public rather than in private communication so it is much easier to find helpful studies and already accepted genres related to social and professional registers than to the registers used in family and amicable contexts. as swales (2004: 1) notes, from the late 1980s to the first years of the new millennium, “there has been a continuing and accelerating interest in centralizing the concept of genre in specialized language teaching and in the development of professional communication skills.” it is also important to a new approach to register variation ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109 103 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 103 consider that by the mere nature of each mode, spoken genres tend to be more adaptable to internal register variation than written genres, the latter being more faithful to the conventional/neutral parameters of each register. nevertheless, these challenging –more than hindering– aspects should not discourage new practical approaches based on the correlations between registers and genres. as the following table (table 6) shows, correlations between the main registers and some of the most usual spoken genres can be easily established and they can be one of the most illustrative and useful parameters to create practical classifications and illustrative exemplifications. as mentioned, another important obstacle in order to approach register analysis is the current socio-cultural diversity found in most communicative settings. just by standing in the middle of a city square and listening to how people address to each other around us, we can observe how the complexity of current socio-cultural values has a great effect on the complexity of current communication. the cohabitation of so many different social, cultural, moral, professional and personal parameters in our day-to-day communicative settings is promoting, on the one hand, a general tendency to the relaxation and the neutralization of the traditional forms of communication; and on the other hand, the acceptance of new communicative options which facilitate and increase the effectiveness, the understanding and/or integration of the speakers. these two sociolinguistic processes have a great effect on register variation and register analysis since there is a wider diversity of roles and settings at the four levels –familiar, amicable, social and professional– and they seem to evolve and introduce new changes with increasing rapidity. these adjustment processes not only bring modifications inside a register but also alter other language varieties creating hybrids and new registers (“emergent registers,” according to ferrara et al., 1991: 12): "it appears that competent users of a language have an extended language repertoire, rosa giménez moreno ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109104 registers tones/frequencies spoken genres family intimate neutral ritual pillow talk daily meal talk christmas dinner, and other family celebrations amicable intimate neutral ritual confessions, and ”have a laugh” talk dinner party talk open gathering, and street encounter with acquaintances social casual neutral ceremonial warning, requests and street/lift encounters with neighbours social open assembly (with diverse neighbours and other citizens) religious ceremonies (with all sorts of members) professional casual neutral ceremonial coffee break business meeting awards ceremony table 6. correlation between registers and spoken genres. 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 104 and when new situations arise, they create new appropriate language varieties out of existing language varieties: they form hybrids." finally, the last issue to consider when analysing registers lies in the rhythm of daily communication. in many personal, social and professional situations there are occasions when in a short span of time a speaker is continuously moving between different registers depending on the communicative context starting or ending, and also on the type of relationship maintained with the interlocutors approaching and leaving that context. an example of how this fact becomes determining in the delimitation of the different registers and in the classification of their distinctive features can be the communicative complexity of academic conferences. as swales (2004: 197) points out talking about conference presentations: this would involve the travel to and from the venue, the meeting of old friends and the making of new acquaintances, the plenaries, receptions, and book exhibits, and the intangibles of the conference “buzz” –its taut intellectual atmosphere, its rush from one talk to another, its gossip, its job interviews, its hot topics, and its “in” people. obviously, in one of these big communicative events many registers, genres, styles and roles take part. the usual and expected communicative tone or frequency used among all the members of this main event –academic conference– belongs to what might be called “institutional or professional” register (the context is institutional/professional and the roles of the participants are colleague-colleague), and more specifically, inside this broad professional register, to the “academic” register (the context is the university world). this register is the parameter which embraces most of the language varieties taking place in the conference and will be clearly perceived by the participants not only in genres such as the plenaries where the register shows its most formal distinctive features, but also in other more casual genres, such as the genre of the coffee breaks, the receptions and the “journeys” (lifts to airports, stations, restaurants and other buildings). in the case of plenaries, the speaker may switch from the “neutral academic” flow of speech into a most “ritual or ceremonial” register; and in the case of the coffee break, s/he will switch into one of the different options of “social” register, or even of “amicable” register. however, there may be times when the speaker finishes the presentation –having used a “neutral or ritual” register– then walks outside the conference theatre with the colleague who introduced him/her –talking in a “casual professional” register– and then is intercepted by an old colleague –switching with him/her into a “ritual,” o perhaps “neutral,” “amicable” register– and the three of them end up in the coffee shop joining another group of colleagues –talking together in a mixture of “casual academic” register and “neutral,” or perhaps “ritual,” “social” one. all this process a new approach to register variation ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109 105 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 105 can happen in minutes and an effective speaker has to be prepared to be effective throughout these swift shifts of register. regarding the distinction of registers from other varieties, the interesting aspect is that in all these situations most speakers –mainly native or proficient speakers of english– will perceive clearly that the different communicative frequencies or tones available are being used and manipulated in order to emphasize or negotiate the roles/relationships and the contexts implicated in that speech act, independently of the genre being used. for example, if we are giving a colleague a lift to the hotel at the end of the day’s activities and this colleague opens the door of the car, sits down next to us and says “right, so do you agree with peter about the irrelevance of the theory. do we know any of the members of the advisory board?” seems quite clear that he/she is maintaining the “academic” tone of the interaction; but if he/she says “thank you for the lift. you can’t find a taxi round here for love nor money. and then on top of that they’re so expensive.” this implies that our colleague is opening a conversation in a “social” register; however, if we hear “wow! great day, don’t you think! shall we have one last drink before bed?” he/she is starting an interaction in an “amicable” or friendly register. with the help of the existing –and also new corpora– further research is being currently carried out at the university of valencia to adapt and develop this approach –only just outlined here– and analyse the feasibility of this framework regarding the exemplification of each register and its use for communicative and pedagogical purposes. regarding register typologies, the most important challenge is to integrate the categories, concepts, examples and valuable contributions inherited from our predecessors into a new practical and effective systemic method of analysis which sets this type of language variation at the same level of importance as the other related language varieties and promotes a deeper study of its current use across all daily communicative contexts. conclusions there is a need to re-define the notion of register and to approach register variation in a wider, deeper and more useful manner which covers all its span of internal change. as emphasized in the introduction of the present paper, the study and the effective use of registers depends on the identification of their specific position inside the chain of language choices made in daily communication. at the moment this position still seems quite ambiguous, unclear and restricted in practice to a few general parameters, such as formality/informality. through these pages, the search rosa giménez moreno ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109106 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 106 for this “missing link” –the distinctive nature, wide coverage and use of registers– has been approached by reviewing the most significant previous studies on register variation and discussing the basic differentiations between registers and other closely related linguistic concepts. finally, to provide a ground to encourage discussion, a new perspective of analysing and classifying current registers has been outlined. at present, perhaps none of us can offer a better definition or a more useful typology of registers than those already proposed but if the community of linguists start revising and discussing this field and contributing with new positive ideas, perhaps soon this term might not be so frequently confused with other language varieties and specialists might find a more effective way of describing, classifying, exemplifying and –what is even more urgent– creating effective materials for teaching register variation. register variation is possibly one of the most subtle, compromising and effective types of variation inside the world of professional and social communication; however, it is one of the most difficult to be perceived, learnt and correctly used by foreign speakers and, in general, all non-effective communicators. some current popular debates and conflictive matters on linguistic and communicative issues –such as those brought up by members of the audience in british radio programmes, such as word for word (radio 4)– might be better understood and solved much more easily if british ordinary speakers knew more information about their own register variation; for example, certain speakers might not need to hide their accent or feel stigmatised professionally or socially due to where they come from if they could learn to master the necessary registers needed to speak correctly and effectively in institutional, professional and social settings across the uk. despite this demand, there is a surprising scarcity of teaching materials on this type of variation. as barnickel (1982) pointed out in her study on how to improve the teaching of travel agency encounters, although current textbooks include some training on choices of modality, politeness markers and formality, recordings of authentic discourse in travel agencies show that foreign language teaching is still rather off the mark, and that more research in this area is still needed. (barnickel, 1982: 499) from the pedagogical point of view, it is obvious that the research carried out so far about register variation has not been as successful and profitable as that on dialectal variation (i.e. “world englishes”) or genre variation (e.g. the language of letter writing). most specialised current textbooks include exercises on these latter types of variation but not much about register variation; apart from the typical exercises about basic general formal-informal aspects of communication: direct versus indirect style, a new approach to register variation ibérica 12 [2006]: 89-109 107 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 107 active versus passive expressions, “fast language” versus nominalizations, etc. as this article emphasises, for many linguistic, social and pedagogical reasons this field of variation needs urgent research capable of leading to more practical distinctions, to deeper understanding, to more innovative pedagogical approaches and to more effective teaching materials. acknowledgements i would like to express my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and useful suggestions. 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(1987). the structure of social interaction. london: pinter. 06 gimønez.qxp 20/09/2006 13:49 pægina 109 iberica 13 ibérica 26 (2013): 77-98 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract today the most international written mode of communication within the business world is electronic correspondence. as the introductory section explains, diverse analyses of emails written in different cultures have been carried out revealing interesting differences and similarities in their discourse features and rhetorical strategies. however, a comparative examination of business emails from representative european cultures such as british (northern europe), spanish (southern europe) and polish (eastern europe) has not been undertaken so far. with this aim, a corpus of over 100 emails of response to business requests written in english by companies set up in these three cultures has been compiled and analysed. the main research targets are to observe the main parameters of variation across these cultures, the existent variation regarding the prototypical move structure and how register variation fluctuates depending on each culture. the results will indicate that across these cultures the move structure of this genre is more complex than current templates and existing published materials show. the study also demonstrates that, while there is a tendency to standardize email correspondence at a european level, there are certain parameters of variation that may help language learners and users to conform their messages depending on the recipient’s culture. keywords: intercultural studies, corpus analysis, business communication, email writing, response to requests. resumen c om uni c a c ió n pr of e s i on al e n tr e s c ul tu ra s e u ro pe a s : u n an ál is i s c o nt ra s tiv o d e c or re o s e l e c tró ni c os b ri tán ic o s , e s pa ño l e s y po l a c os actualmente el correo electrónico es el modo más internacional de comunicación escrita en el mundo de los negocios. como el presente artículo business communication across three european cultures: a contrastive analysis of british, spanish and polish email writing rosa giménez-moreno and hanna skorczynska universitat de valència & universitat politècnica de valència (spain) rosa.gimenez@uv.es & hskorczy@idm.upv.es 77 ibérica 26 (2013): 77-98 r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska revisa, se han llevado a cabo diversos análisis de correspondencia electrónica escrita en diferentes culturas revelando interesantes similitudes y diferencias en sus rasgos discursivos y estrategias retóricas. sin embargo, un examen comparativo de correos electrónicos procedentes de tres culturas europeas tan representativas como la británica (europa del norte), la española (europa del sur) y la polaca (europa del este) no se ha realizado hasta el momento. con este propósito, se ha analizado un corpus de más de 100 correos electrónicos de respuesta a solicitudes de información escritos en inglés por empresas establecidas en estas tres culturas. los objetivos son detectar los principales parámetros de variación intercultural en este género, analizar su estructura actual y observar la fluctuación del registro profesional dependiendo de cada cultura. los resultados reflejan que la estructura de este género empresarial es más compleja de lo que a menudo muestran las plantillas y estudios existentes. la investigación también demuestra que, si bien hay una tendencia a estandarizar la correspondencia electrónica en inglés dentro el ámbito europeo, existen ciertos parámetros de variación que pueden ayudar tanto a estudiantes como a usuarios a adecuar sus mensajes dependiendo de la cultura del destinatario. palabras clave: estudios interculturales, análisis de corpus, inglés empresarial, escritura de correos electrónicos, respuesta a solicitudes. introduction: international business communication (ibc) and intercultural business discourse (ibd) this study aims to identify the differences among three european business cultures in current business email writing, and more specifically in emails of response to business requests. the main research question formulated asked whether emails written by british, poles and spaniards in business contexts showed any variations, both at the level of structure and the register used. the existence of differences, related to the writer’s culture, could point to the need to better adapt to the reader’s cultural expectations and shed light on possible cultural misunderstandings. the present study can be placed within the field of intercultural business communication (ibc), a multidisciplinary area of research, nurtured by intercultural communication, business communication, social psychology, and discourse studies (bargiela-chiappini & nickerson, 2003; bargielachiappini, 2007). the notion of culture has for long been a controversial issue in the field. hofstede (1991: 260) referred to culture as the “collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one culture 78 from another”; and, gudykunst and kim (1992: 13) defined culture as “‘systems of knowledge’ shared by a relatively large group of people”. these general definitions were criticized for prioritising nationality and equating the concept of culture with country (louhiala-salminen, 1997; jameson, 2007), and were found to be unhelpful in understanding intercultural issues in multinational business organizations. in response to this criticism, it was suggested that the self, identity, organizational roles, individual differences and business contexts should be considered in order to provide a more refined approach to the notion of culture (poncini, 2002; bargiela-chiappini & nickerson, 2003). from this perspective, culture was referred to as a construct created through interaction in context (brannen & salk, 2000; bargiela-chiappini & nickerson, 2003; sackman & phillips, 2004). varner’s (2000) theory of ibc deals with communication among individuals or groups from different cultural backgrounds in a business environment, and places an emphasis on business organization as an essential variable of the theory. the interaction of communication, culture and business in a specific business context creates a “transactional culture” (bell, 1992: 452), which, for business people from different cultural backgrounds, serves as a communication framework that is acceptable for their cultures, organizations or governments. national culture, specific corporate culture, and the awareness of individual communicative styles are essential elements of ibc. yan (1997) and scollon and scollon (2001) argued that it is individuals and not cultures that communicate with each other, even though a majority from a particular culture tends to share certain cultural characteristics (hofstede, 1980; hofstede, hofstede & minkov, 2010). with reference to the european cultures, extreme cultural differences are difficult to find in today’s european business world. however, certain degrees of variation among the main european business cultures have been reported to exist (randlesome & brierley, 1993; mole, 2003). bargiela-chiappini (2007) in her theoretical and methodological proposal of studying ibc from the perspective of intercultural business discourse (ibd), points out that a strong language-centered approach to interculturality is necessary (ehlich & wagner, 1995; bargiela-chiappini & harris, 1997; gimenez, 2002; poncini, 2004). in this context, ibd is “culturally-situated – and therefore context-dependent – discourse, where ‘discourse’ is social action shaping and being shaped by structure” (bargielachiappini, 2007: 34). the strong notion of discourse that is characteristic of business communication across three european cultures ibérica 26 (2013): 77-98 79 this approach to ibc allows for culture to be used as an interpretative tool, since it is viewed as practice embedded in verbal and non-verbal interaction. this perspective on discourse eliminates the dualism between language and culture, and language and society, and provides a link between micro and macro analyses. research on ibd has looked into intercultural issues in spoken (meetings and negotiations) and written discourse (letters and emails). studies of verbal and non-verbal behavior in intercultural and intra-cultural face-to-face business meetings have dominated research in the field. the results of contrastive analyses of speakers of british english, italian and chinese were reported in straub (1994), bargiela-chiappini and harris (1997), yeung (2003), poncini (2002 & 2004), spencer-oatey and xing (2003), and rogerson-revell (2007). research on intercultural negotiations has dealt with their strategic nature and the rapport between the participants when they are native and non-native speakers of english (spencer-oatey, 2000; vuorela, 2005). with regard to written communication, the genre variation in a crosscultural study of the rhetorical strategies used in application letters by flemish and us writers was described in connor et al. (1997). email correspondence is considered as the pioneer of current internet social networks and, in the past 20 years, it has developed into the most widespread and frequent means of business written communication (danet, 2001; yus, 2010), coexisting with other now “more traditional” means as zhu (this volume) attests for particular cultures. along with the new information technology innovations, this medium has undergone constant modifications in form and style: from formal and extended texts (hawisher & moran, 1993) to instant and short messages, similar to mobile texting formats (baron, 2000). however, emails have their own discourse peculiarities regarding purpose, structure and writing process (gains, 1999; gimenez, 2000 & 2006; crystal, 2002). giménez-moreno (2011a) examined register variation (rv) in british business emails and detected that the senders’ conventional and intentional roles influence an email register causing internal oscillations between different registers within the same email. the use of english as a lingua franca in email communication between writers from different cultural backgrounds has been approached by a few scholars – in this volume, for instance, carrió-pastor and muñiz-calderón address the variation of english business emails from india and china. nickerson (2002) analyzed electronic communication in english between r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): 77-9880 dutch and british in one division of a dutch-owned multinational company. the results showed that the use of english email was strongly embedded in the organizational practices of the company, where the majority of managers and employees were dutch-speaking. the selection of english versus dutch was related to the communicative purpose of a given transmission: english was used to produce official reports on the organizational practice, even though all participants in the communicative exchanges were dutchspeaking. a few differences in the discourse features and rhetorical strategies used by british and dutch writers, such as a more frequent use of upgraders, emphatics and the pronoun “we” in the dutch emails, and a more frequent use of “if ” clauses in the british emails, were interpreted as culturallymotivated variations. many more similarities were identified in the study, which suggests the existence of a typified corporate discourse regardless of the national culture of the writer. gimenez (2002) investigated culturally bound decisions in choosing email or fax between an argentinean subsidiary and its european head office. the study shows that the communication conflicts in multinational business contexts do not arise from language misunderstandings in using english as the corporate language, but are often caused by the global corporate identity imposed by the head office and the socially constructed identity of the local subsidiary. louhiala-salminen, charles and kankaanranta (2005) studied the use of english as a lingua franca in email exchanges and in meetings between swedish and finnish members of a merged swedish-finnish company. many similarities were identified in the use of the same discourse characteristics in spoken and written discourse samples examined. with reference to email communication, the study shows similarities in the use of the message format (salutations), its content and the use of three email genres (dialogue genre, postman genre and notice board genre) between swedish and finnish employees. however, the requests written by finns were more direct, used imperative and interrogative forms more often than those sent by swedes. in addition, finnish requests included minimalist politeness expressions, while the swedish used more deferential strategies. as can be seen, the research on business email exchanges from the perspective of ibc and ibd still leaves many questions unanswered, specially with reference to the intercultural communication in europe, which indeed can be considered as multicultural, given its geographical, political and linguistic context. while business email communication is highly standardized in many of its aspects, the fine cultural differences in the business communication across three european cultures ibérica 26 (2013): 77-98 81 communication between writers from different european cultures may interfere in business practices and the fulfillment of business goals. the present study aims to provide data on culturally motivated rv in email exchanges between members of the british, polish and spanish cultures, using english as a lingua franca. no study of corpus-based rv related to these three different european cultures has been conducted to the best of our knowledge. the present research fills the existing gap and furthers the knowledge about rv in intercultural communication. the genre of response to business requests/inquiries in the past decades electronic mails have become the most popular means of written communication within the business world, however many specialists are emphasizing the importance of writing correct emails, following adequate etiquette rules to avoid damaging professional image and liability risk (danet, 2001). the idea of “correction” is a relative concept which in this case will mainly depend on the structural and textual peculiarities of this type of discourse (baron, 2000) and also on other important functional and contextual parameters such as the adequacy of the communicative register used (giménez-moreno, 2006, 2011a & 2011b). structural and textual features within genre analysis, many genres related to business correspondence have been analysed in the last 20 years in order to help both customers and business workers to improve their communicative skills. thanks to these studies, there are thousands of templates in the market providing support and hints to communicate correctly and effectively in the business world (sandler & keefe, 2008). regarding requests and enquiries, specialists such as zhu (1997) or kong (1998) studied the move structure of request letters identifying the following main moves: • acknowledging the suitability of the receiver’s company; • making the request; • providing information about the sender’s company; • justifying the request; r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): 77-9882 • stating conditions; • indicating/requesting additional information; and • concluding. request emails, as in the case of emails of complaint, have already been fully studied as they tend to concern both general and business customers/consumers and help to facilitate the interaction between both market ends (giménez-moreno, 2011). in this study we have preferred to concentrate on their correlating more neglected genres: responses to requests/enquiries. this genre, as it happens with apology emails (schaefer, 2010), mainly concerns business writers and they are a priority in their training. most templates provided by specialists such as sandler and keefe (2008) or popular websites specifically designed for business users, such as <office.microsoft.com>, offer a series of indispensable moves and standard language formulas which should be included in conventional emails of response to requests, as outlined in table 1: in the case of electronic correspondence these structural features have to be compatible with the requirements and tendencies imposed by the medium. as previous studies on email writing have already indicated, electronic correspondence has its own discourse peculiarities which affect the text’s purpose, structure and writing process (baron, 2000; crystal, 2002). emails operate on a multimodal medium: written, oral and also “pictorial”, using emoticons and other visual techniques (yus, 2010). since the main purpose of this medium is to save time and reduce work pressure, the more it fluctuates towards its spontaneous, unplanned and conversational side, the more “informal” features it incorporates: business communication across three european cultures ibérica 26 (2013): 77-98 83 r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): …-… • concluding. request emails, as in the case of emails of complaint, have already been fully studied as they tend to concern both general and business customers/consumers and help to facilitate the interaction between both market ends (giménezmoreno, 2011). in this study we have preferred to concentrate on their correlating more neglected genres: responses to requests/enquiries. this genre, as it happens with apology emails (schaefer, 2010), mainly concerns business writers and they are a priority in their training. most templates provided by specialists such as sandler and keefe (2008) or popular websites specifically designed for business users, such as <office.microsoft.com>, offer a series of indispensable moves and standard language formulas which should be included in conventional emails of response to requests, as outlined in table 1: essential moves language formulas 1 thanking the customers for their interest “thank you for your request for …” 2 providing requested information “enclosed you will find …” 3 providing additional information “we would also like to attach the following info …” 4 close hoping for future business “we look forward to receiving your order.” table 1. key moves in the genre of response to requests. in the case of electronic correspondence these structural features have to be compatible with the requirements and tendencies imposed by the medium. as previous studies on email writing have already indicated, electronic correspondence has its own discourse peculiarities which affect the text’s purpose, structure and writing process (baron, 2000; crystal, 2002). emails operate on a multimodal medium: written, oral and also “pictorial”, using emoticons and other visual techniques (yus, 2010). since the main purpose of this medium is to save time and reduce work pressure, the more it fluctuates towards its spontaneous, unplanned and conversational side, the more “informal” features it incorporates: • unconventional use of punctuation, capitalization and spelling; • low conceptual density (with cleft-structures and use of existential “there”); • short or fragmented utterances/sentences; • coordination rather than subordination; • simple syntactic structures; • adjacency pairs; • rhetorical or phatic questions; • elliptical and contracted forms, both conventional and unconventional abbreviations; • idiosyncratic and colloquial word selection (such as, “hi folks”); and • unconventional use of punctuation, capitalization and spelling; • low conceptual density (with cleft-structures and use of existential “there”); • short or fragmented utterances/sentences; • coordination rather than subordination; • simple syntactic structures; • adjacency pairs; • rhetorical or phatic questions; • elliptical and contracted forms, both conventional and unconventional abbreviations; • idiosyncratic and colloquial word selection (such as, “hi folks”); and • reliance on the immediate context with frequent use of reference propositions and demonstrative modifiers. as gains (1999) indicates, in email writing there is also a special awareness of the limits and subtleties of the medium. for example, in the case of response emails, depending on the specific purpose of the message, writers might take more time in replying (might have to wait for other companies’ information), vary the length of their message (including diverse types of data), or follow diverse procedures before providing the required proposal or service (request specific details or submission of official forms). apart from these parameters of variation, the moves indicated in table 1 will also have to be adapted to the variation imposed by the structural framework of this medium (that is, message headings, openings/greetings/salutation, closings, attachments, etc). for example, as gains (1999) observed, the salutation and the close might oscillate from the conventional formula in formal emails (“dear mr. or ms. + recipient’s surname” and “(all the) best wishes/regards”) to very casual options which include no greeting, just the recipient’s name or other unconventional ways of addressing and saying goodbye to the recipient (“hello” and “cheers” and “thank(s) (you)”). these elements of fluctuation will depend on the span of rv of a specific genre and will be to a higher or lesser extent influenced by the cultural parameters of the writers. r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): 77-9884 register variation in electronic correspondence as pérez sabater, turney and montero fleta (2008) indicated, the analysis of computer mediated communication clearly reveals the progressive informalisation and heterogeneity of professional discourse. early studies on email writing also emphasized the importance of what they tended to call “stylistic register” (gains, 1999; gimenez, 2000; waldvogel, 2007). these works did not present a clear definition of register and they expressed this concept mixed with others (mainly with “style”); however, they agreed that there seems to be a regular, consistent and neutral form of communication in the business world characterized by a “semi-formal” co-operative tone of expression which follows linguistic principles, both in grammar and punctuation, “allied to what may be called standard written english” (gains, 1999: 97). as giménez-moreno (2011a) observed, the main features of this professional neutral register are: 1. the predominant function is informative. 2. tendency to use shorter sentences, bullet points and conventional abbreviations. 3. open use of direct speech (direct questions) but expressed in formal language. 4. use of modality, mitigation and hedging. 5. explanations carefully avoiding colloquialisms or slang. 6. avoidance of opinions, personal comments and subjective or emotive language. in daily business life this register is sometimes raised, becoming more formal and detached for certain purposes (for instance, to mark the difference in status or seniority between the interlocutors), and at other times, this register relaxes, becoming more casual and informal (for instance, to persuade the recipient or to encourage him/her to do something). this fluctuation has led some researchers to state that “the search of commonalities of stylistic register proved to be a problematic exercise, due to the extremely wide diversity of registers adopted by the writers” (gains, 1999: 92). from our perspective, registers are verbal repertoires which move up and down in our daily lives from their most intimate to their most formal versions mainly depending on two essential parameters: the communicative business communication across three european cultures ibérica 26 (2013): 77-98 85 context and the participants’ roles (giménez-moreno, 2006). these roles affect communication depending on professional conventions (for instance, employer-employee relationship) and also on the participants’ intentions (for instance, to become friends). it is therefore essential in rv to differentiate between conventional and intentional roles (giménez-moreno, 2011b). context and role fluctuation allows us to distinguish at least two macroregisters in our private life: (1) a family one, used with relatives, and (2) an amicable one, used with friends. in correlation, at least two other macroregisters can be differentiated in our public life: (3) a social one, used with neighbours and other citizens in social open settings, and (4) a professional one, used with colleagues and other professionals in institutional and work settings (giménez-moreno, 2006). each of these four main registers has at least three tones or frequencies: (1) a more relaxed, flexible or informal, (2) a neutral, conventional or standard, and (3) a more distant, rigid or formal. most studies in rv include lexical and grammatical features which traditionally have been attached to both extremes of professional discourse (biber, 1995; halliday, 1980). the ten correlations in table 2 summarise the most important linguistic features which vary in order to make professional communication more informal/casual (column a) or more formal/ritual (column b). as a guiding principle, the type of register will not be ultimately determined by the type of linguistic features but by their proportion and combination. in this way, we find in current business email features which correspond to the professional formal register (formal and polite openings and endings, dry r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): 77-9886 business communication ibérica 26 (2013): …-… a (+) informal/casual (showing commitment, involvement and closeness) b (+) formal/ritual (showing deference, neutrality and objectivity) 1. personal expressions 2. active verbs/expressions 3. direct speech 4. ordinary reporting verbs (e.g. say) 5. ordinary connectors (e.g. so) 6. general terms/expressions (e.g. man) 7. emotive/subjective/attitudinal terms (e.g. guess) 8. phrasal verbs and informal idiomatic expressions 9. use of contractions, abbreviations and "fast language" 10. straight statements and direct commands 1. impersonal expressions 2. passive verbs/expressions 3. indirect speech 4. specific reporting verbs (e.g. mention) 5. more elaborate connectors (e.g. furthermore) 6. precise terms/expressions (e.g. technician) 7. neutral/objective terms (e.g. inform) 8. latin terms and standard formal expressions 9. detailed and concrete expressions without contractions using nominalization and modifiers 10. politeness, caution and mitigation markers table 2. ten linguistic parameters of rv in professional communication (adapted from giménez-moreno, 2010: 302). as a guiding principle, the type of register will not be ultimately determined by the type of linguistic features but by their proportion and combination. in this way, we find in current business email features which correspond to the professional formal register (formal and polite openings and endings, dry purely informative texts, careful use of punctuation and paragraph structure, frequent appearance of modality and conventional lexical formula) together with features which are typical of the professional casual register (informal greetings and endings, conversational and colloquial strategies, relaxed syntax and punctuation, fast language and unconventional shortenings, implicit and explicit complicity strategies, humor and irony, casual terminology, informal phrasal verbs and idioms, etc). in the process of these combinations one or two of the main registers act as a pole/s of reference for the text/discourse (professional register), but also other subsidiary registers (social register or amicable register) are often included. the social register is noticeable when writers include personal information about themselves and other colleagues, subjective/emotive expressions, social issues related to health, holidays, sports and leisure activities. the amicable register is perceptible when participants imply common previous history or provide compromising information showing spontaneous emotions, complicity and confidentiality, using peculiar terminology and abbreviations. this register works as an strategy to show or gain approval, and also to admit weaknesses, apologise, prepare the ground for rejection and keep face after some fault (giménez-moreno, 2011a). today’s business email writers frequently use rv as a tool to facilitate communication and improve the relationship with their colleagues, adopting diverse professional and personal roles. the extent to which cultural parameters affect how these registers vary and these roles fluctuate is still unknown. in the purely informative texts, careful use of punctuation and paragraph structure, frequent appearance of modality and conventional lexical formula) together with features which are typical of the professional casual register (informal greetings and endings, conversational and colloquial strategies, relaxed syntax and punctuation, fast language and unconventional shortenings, implicit and explicit complicity strategies, humor and irony, casual terminology, informal phrasal verbs and idioms, etc). in the process of these combinations one or two of the main registers act as a pole/s of reference for the text/discourse (professional register), but also other subsidiary registers (social register or amicable register) are often included. the social register is noticeable when writers include personal information about themselves and other colleagues, subjective/emotive expressions, social issues related to health, holidays, sports and leisure activities. the amicable register is perceptible when participants imply common previous history or provide compromising information showing spontaneous emotions, complicity and confidentiality, using peculiar terminology and abbreviations. this register works as an strategy to show or gain approval, and also to admit weaknesses, apologise, prepare the ground for rejection and keep face after some fault (giménez-moreno, 2011a). today’s business email writers frequently use rv as a tool to facilitate communication and improve the relationship with their colleagues, adopting diverse professional and personal roles. the extent to which cultural parameters affect how these registers vary and these roles fluctuate is still unknown. in the following section we will propose a method to analyse how these parameters of variation behave depending on three different european cultures. methodology and analysis with the aim of observing the fluctuation of business email writing across european cultures, three cultures of northern, eastern and southern europe have been chosen: english, polish and spanish respectively. the countries were selected from the macro-geographical regions established by the united nations statistics division (revised on 28th november 2012) considering not only geographical but also commercial and cultural differences. the analysis targets are to observe: business communication across three european cultures ibérica 26 (2013): 77-98 87 (a) what the main parameters of variation across these cultures are; (b) whether the prototypical move structure proposed by specialists was homogeneously used; and (c) how rv fluctuated depending on each culture. in order to compile a research corpus of emails of response to business requests we asked for the help of two native british business professionals who worked as collaborators in strict confidence and anonymously, called in this study alison brown and jane smith. each of them played the role of a company’s employee and wrote an email requesting a proposal for a business trip to a main european city with the aim of carrying out team bonding activities. both emails contained the same information and followed this genre’s move structure, as already mentioned in the “structure and textual features” section, but one of them was written in professional casual/informal register and the other one in professional formal register (see main differentiating features in table 2). these two emails, casual and formal, were sent to the department of enquiries of 150 travel agencies: 50 based in england, 50 based in poland and 50 based in spain. table 3 summarises the number of replies: results as can be observed in table 4, the number of answers and consecutive answers varies both with regard to the message formality, as well as the nationality. the first distinctive variable concerns the personalised unavailability messages sent by some receivers of our emails, called in this study “absence messages”. what draws the attention is the lack of these messages in the spanish corpus, which, together with the low number of spanish emails received could indicate that replying to a message, even if a request cannot be fulfilled, is not customary in this culture. similarly, spanish r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): 77-9888 r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): …-… following section we will propose a method to analyse how these parameters of variation behave depending on three different european cultures. methodology and analysis with the aim of observing the fluctuation of business email writing across european cultures, three cultures of northern, eastern and southern europe have been chosen: english, polish and spanish respectively. the countries were selected from the macro-geographical regions established by the united nations statistics division (revised on 28th november 2012) considering not only geographical but also commercial and cultural differences. the analysis targets are to observe: (a) what the main parameters of variation across these cultures are; (b) whether the prototypical move structure proposed by specialists was homogeneously used; and (c) how rv fluctuated depending on each culture. in order to compile a research corpus of emails of response to business requests we asked for the help of two native british business professionals who worked as collaborators in strict confidence and anonymously, called in this study alison brown and jane smith. each of them played the role of a company’s employee and wrote an email requesting a proposal for a business trip to a main european city with the aim of carrying out team bonding activities. both emails contained the same information and followed this genre’s move structure, as already mentioned in the “structure and textual features” section, but one of them was written in professional casual/informal register and the other one in professional formal register (see main differentiating features in table 2). these two emails, casual and formal, were sent to the department of enquiries of 150 travel agencies: 50 based in england, 50 based in poland and 50 based in spain. table 3 summarises the number of replies: register spanish polish british total no. companies 4 11 17 32 casual/informal no. messages 4 22 31 57 no. companies 7 6 7 20 formal no. messages 10 13 21 44 table 3. informal and formal messages: number of companies and emails. results writers in this corpus tend to significantly delay their replies in more than 15 days, in comparison to british and polish writers who normally reply within 15 days or less. clear differences can also be observed in the use of the request acknowledgement and the subsequent promise to submit a proposal later. interestingly, this business writing strategy was more frequent in the informal/casual corpus (see examples 1 and 2), and was especially often used by the british writers, followed by the poles. (1) i have some ideas to run by you. i’ll get back as soon as possible with some suggestions. (british casual) (2) see information below. we’re working on the hotels now and will contact you soon. (polish casual) this strategy was used only once in the spanish formal and informal corpus and this difference shows that building strong ties with customers tends to start with the first contact for british and polish writers, but more frequently in informal contexts. most of the messages in the corpus contained requirements to provide a proposal, however what was required differed for the writers representing the three cultures. while all enquired about destinations, dates and the type of room, the poles were especially interested in the group members: their age, sex, education, profession and physical condition, and the british required details of the budget available. regarding the message length, the formal emails were clearly longer than the informal, with the spanish emails being the longest (211.7 words on average) business communication across three european cultures ibérica 26 (2013): 77-98 89 business communication ibérica 26 (2013): …-… as can be observed in table 4, the number of answers and consecutive answers varies both with regard to the message formality, as well as the nationality. the first distinctive variable concerns the personalised unavailability messages sent by some receivers of our emails, called in this study “absence messages”. what draws the attention is the lack of these messages in the spanish corpus, which, together with the low number of spanish emails received could indicate that replying to a message, even if a request cannot be fulfilled, is not customary in this culture. similarly, spanish writers in this corpus tend to significantly delay their replies in more than 15 days, in comparison to british and polish writers who normally reply within 15 days or less. clear differences can also be observed in the use of the request acknowledgement and the subsequent promise to submit a proposal later. interestingly, this business writing strategy was more frequent in the informal/casual corpus (see examples 1 and 2), and was especially often used by the british writers, followed by the poles. (1) i have some ideas to run by you. i’ll get back as soon as possible with some suggestions. (british casual) (2) see information below. we’re working on the hotels now and will contact you soon. (polish casual) this strategy was used only once in the spanish formal and informal corpus and this difference shows that building strong ties with customers tends to start with the first contact for british and polish writers, but more frequently in informal contexts. informal formal broad parameters british polish spanish british polish spanish no. of absence messages 3 2 0 4 2 0 no. of wrong email addresses 1 3 7 1 1 10 time to answer (days) 1-5 1-20 15/+ 1-15 1-15 15/+ acknowledgement of the enquiry and promise to submit proposal later 15 8 1 0 2 0 requirements to provide a proposal 12 11 4 6 2 7 average no. of words per message 95.6 65.1 62 130.8 94.3 211.7 proposal 10 9 0 7 2 5 average no. of words per proposal 85.8 42 0 271 500 533 table 4. broad parameters of the messages in the informal and formal corpus. most of the messages in the corpus contained requirements to provide a proposal, however what was required differed for the writers representing the three cultures. while all enquired about destinations, dates and the type of room, the poles were especially interested in the group members: their age, sex, and the polish, the shortest (94.3 words on average). the informal messages differed in length as well: the british had the greatest extension (95.6 words), while the polish and spanish had a similar number of words on average. the proposals were submitted mostly by the british writers both in reply to the formal and informal messages. the proposal length varied too: those sent with the formal messages were significantly longer than the others, sent with the informal emails. the formal proposals varied from 271 words on average for the british writers and around 500 words for the polish and spanish writers. interestingly, both the message and the proposal length seem to be influenced by the level of message formality. the spanish writers produced the longest formal messages and proposals, while the british wrote the longest informal texts. the data on the use of the structural moves in replies to requests in the corpora (see table 5) show that on the whole the writers from the three cultures follow similar patterns of moves, incorporating additional moves to this genre basic structure (see table 1). however, many slight differences can be observed and interpreted in terms of rv and cultural variation. the use of the salutation was less frequent for the british writers, both in the informal and formal messages, and was especially rare in the informal emails. the polish and spanish writers always started with a salutation in informal and formal contexts, with the former showing the greatest variety of phrases used in the formal messages: “dear jane”, “hi jane”, “dear madam” and “dear sirs”. the phrases used for thanking for the enquiry were found in about 50% of the messages in corpus, regardless of the formality level and r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): 77-9890 r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): …-… education, profession and physical condition, and the british required details of the budget available. regarding the message length, the formal emails were clearly longer than the informal, with the spanish emails being the longest (211.7 words on average) and the polish, the shortest (94.3 words on average). the informal messages differed in length as well: the british had the greatest extension (95.6 words), while the polish and spanish had a similar number of words on average. the proposals were submitted mostly by the british writers both in reply to the formal and informal messages. the proposal length varied too: those sent with the formal messages were significantly longer than the others, sent with the informal emails. the formal proposals varied from 271 words on average for the british writers and around 500 words for the polish and spanish writers. interestingly, both the message and the proposal length seem to be influenced by the level of message formality. the spanish writers produced the longest formal messages and proposals, while the british wrote the longest informal texts. the data on the use of the structural moves in replies to requests in the corpora (see table 5) show that on the whole the writers from the three cultures follow similar patterns of moves, incorporating additional moves to this genre basic structure (see table 1). however, many slight differences can be observed and interpreted in terms of rv and cultural variation. informal (%) formal (%) move british polish spanish british polish spanish salutation 26 100 100 76 100 100 thanking 60 55 50 53 20 40 willingness 60 55 50 65 70 40 requesting info 42 55 100 47 30 70 requested info/materials 32 45 0 24 20 0 additional info about request 28 25 0 35 0 50 close 53 15 50 53 40 70 ending 85 95 100 76 70 80 signature 92 45 100 76 80 80 complete info about co 53 60 75 53 60 70 additional co/country info and links to other pages 14 15 0 24 20 0 attachments 0 15 0 6 20 20 table 5. structural move variation in informal and formal messages: percentage of messages including structural moves. the use of the salutation was less frequent for the british writers, both in the informal and formal messages, and was especially rare in the informal emails. the polish and spanish writers always started with a salutation in informal and formal contexts, with the former showing the greatest variety of phrases used in the formal messages: “dear jane”, “hi jane”, “dear madam” and “dear sirs”. the phrases used for thanking for the enquiry were found in about 50% of the messages in corpus, regardless of the formality level and the culture, except for the culture, except for the formal polish messages, where only 20% used thanking expressions. stating the willingness to help the customer with their enquiry was found in half of the formal and informal messages (examples 3 and 4), except for the spanish formal emails, of which only 40% assured explicitly that the customer will receive assistance. (3) we have received your letter enquiring about trip for 8-12 members of the management team. first option will be glad to organize this event for you. (polish formal) (4) thanks for getting in touch. i can certainly look into the options for you. (british informal) the move of requesting more information about the enquiry (examples 5, 6 and 7) was used significantly more often in the spanish emails, both formal (70%) and informal (100%), than in the rest of the british and polish messages. a similar difference can be observed for the move of providing requested information or materials: none of the spanish writers used this particular move. by contrast, a greater percentage of the spanish writers included additional information about the enquiry in the formal corpus; while none of the polish writers did so in the same formal corpus. (5) please kindly provide us with the information required in order for us to provide you with a quotation. (british formal) (6) to make such an offer i need some more information. (polish formal) (7) i would be very grateful if you could give me some more information on the type of activity that you would like us to suggest. (spanish formal) the use of the close was similar in all of the messages examined, except for the informal polish emails, where only 15% included closing phrases. interestingly, endings and signatures were included slightly less often in the formal emails from the three cultures than in the informal ones. most of the phrases used were: “regards”, “kind regards”, “best regards”, with a few cases of “yours” or “yours sincerely”. the majority of the spanish informal and formal emails included complete information about the company, while around half of the british and polish emails did so. however, only the british and polish writers inserted additional information about the company or the country, together with links to other websites. business communication across three european cultures ibérica 26 (2013): 77-98 91 the last variation can be observed in the use of attachments: some of the formal emails in the three cultures were sent with attached files, unlike the informal ones, which did not include attachments except for the polish messages. table 5 includes a number of variations in the use of structural moves, which can be detected between the writers from the three cultures, providing some hints on the level of message formality. table 6 summarises more clearly how rv fluctuates in our corpus within the professional register, from its casual to its formal tone. this table 6 indicates the percentage of messages where the distinctive features were identified and serve to draw some groundwork conclusions. with reference to the professional casual register, the highest ratio of language features appears in british emails, and the most characteristic features in this particular genre seem to be the use of personal expressions, direct questions, general terms and straight statements. this casual tone is more marked in the case of polish emails where the presence of these four features increases significantly, together with emotive and subjective expressions (examples 8 and 9). to a lesser extent they are also marked in the spanish emails. r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): 77-9892 r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): …-… british polish spanish register distinctive features % % % personal expressions 75 65 50 active verbs/expressions 17 35 -- direct speech/direct questions 35 65 -- ordinary reporting verbs (“say”) ------ ordinary connectors (“so”, “but”) 10 15 -- general terms/expressions (“man”) 39 45 25 emotive/subjective/attitudinal expressions 10 45 1 phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions 28 ---- contractions, abbreviations and “fast language” 14 15 -- ca su al /in fo rm al straight statements and direct commands 17 60 25 impersonal expressions/“there is”, “there are” 18 20 -- passive verbs/expressions 12 ---- indirect speech/indirect questions 18 30 40 specific reporting verbs (“mention”) 12 ---- elaborate connectors (“furthermore”) 12 10 30 precise terms/expressions (“technician”) 35 60 40 neutral/objective terms (“inform”) 24 20 10 latin terms and standard formal expressions 47 60 70 detailed and concrete nominalization and modifiers, evaluative adjectives 29 30 30 fo rm al politeness, caution and mitigation markers 47 50 60 table 6. percentage of messages including professional casual and formal register features. with reference to the professional casual register, the highest ratio of language features appears in british emails, and the most characteristic features in this particular genre seem to be the use of personal expressions, direct questions, general terms and straight statements. this casual tone is more marked in the case of polish emails where the presence of these four features increases significantly, together with emotive and subjective expressions (examples 8 and 9). to a lesser extent they are also marked in the spanish emails. (8) we have got a lot of nice hotels in poland in big cities and far away from them. don’t worry we will offer something to suit you. (polish casual) (9) with pleasure we can prepare the offer for you. any preferences regarding cities in poland? i understand you would require accommodation in singles rather than in twins? (polish casual) the british corpus also offers a marked presence of most distinctive language features usually attached to the professional formal register. however, polish writers tend to reinforce this tone by increasing the use of impersonal expressions, indirect questions and politeness/caution markers. this tone is especially marked by the frequent appearance of precise terms and standard formal formula (example 10). this tendency to adhere strictly to the standards regarding lexical formula, hedging and politeness markers shows its highest exponent in the spanish emails (example 11). (8) we have got a lot of nice hotels in poland in big cities and far away from them. don’t worry we will offer something to suit you. (polish casual) (9) with pleasure we can prepare the offer for you. any preferences regarding cities in poland? i understand you would require accommodation in singles rather than in twins? (polish casual) the british corpus also offers a marked presence of most distinctive language features usually attached to the professional formal register. however, polish writers tend to reinforce this tone by increasing the use of impersonal expressions, indirect questions and politeness/caution markers. this tone is especially marked by the frequent appearance of precise terms and standard formal formula (example 10). this tendency to adhere strictly to the standards regarding lexical formula, hedging and politeness markers shows its highest exponent in the spanish emails (example 11). (10) since we haven’t got typical tour packages, it will be a pleasure to prepare “taylor suited” offer for you. (polish formal) (11) in addition i would be grateful if you could inform me if you want us to include meals and beverages in the total cost. (spanish formal) the results confirm the usefulness of these distinctive linguistic features (see table 2) when analyzing rv in professional contexts, also their proportion illustrates how professional register fluctuates within this genre depending on each culture. in general terms, we see that the british use a lower but wider proportion of features from both ends, formal and informal; however, the polish and the spanish tend to use a more limited and hierarchical set of features, with stronger dependence on language formula and standards. this particular feature may be related to the fact that the polish and spanish employees use english as a foreign language. in the three cultures there are instances of fluctuation towards the social and amicable registers as a strategy to approach and persuade the client. this shift is especially noticeable in polish emails. for example, after making formal requirements such as “please, advise who recommended our company”, a polish company ends with a social sign up like “have a good day”. this fluctuation within the professional register and shift to other registers can also be illustrated through polish email number 12 which starts with “hi alison”, then moves to more formal terms (“thank you for your enquiry”) followed by a long list of neutral requirements. after this, the business communication across three european cultures ibérica 26 (2013): 77-98 93 writer relaxes the tone with subjective/empathic language (“i understand you would require …”), general colloquial terms (“if your boss is not coming …”), even becoming amicable (“so don’t be afraid we will find suitable hotels”), raising the tone at the end with a formal ending (“looking forward to hearing from you”). conclusions the present study provides evidence on variations in intercultural business discourse (bargiela-chiappini, 2007), understood as culturally situated and context-dependent social action. the emails written in english by british, polish and spanish company employees show significant variations. despite a limited number of emails examined, the differences in the use of the register might be attributed to the writers’ command of english, which was used as a native and as a foreign language. in case of the polish and spanish employees, we can also relate the variations detected to their native languages, and consequently to their culture, and possibly culture-dependent business practices. in tune with previous studies on business genres (nickerson, 2002; louhialasalminen, charles & kankaanranta, 2005), and despite the variations attested, our research suggests that there exists a typified corporate discourse regardless of the national culture of the individual employee. this shared intercultural business discourse in the case of responses to business requests is clearly noticed in the use of broad parameters such as time to answer, requirements to provide a proposal, and the average number of words per proposal. moreover, there are overall similarities in the move patterns used within this genre by writers from the three cultures. nevertheless, as gudykunst and kim (1992) predicted, the notion of national culture has worked as a system of knowledge, structural patterns, lexical formula, syntactical choices and register parameters, shared by groups of business people and which changes depending on their cultural environment. for instance, with reference to the move variation, british emails did not include the salutation as frequently as could be expected. by contrast, acknowledging the request and promising to submit the proposal later was very frequent for the british and polish writers in comparison with the spanish. however, in formal emails the latter tended to express the willingness to help the customer more explicitly and requested information r. giménez-moreno & h. skorczynska ibérica 26 (2013): 77-9894 about the enquiry more frequently. only british and poles added details about the company or the country with links to other websites. finally spanish writers produced the longest formal messages and proposals and the british wrote the longest informal texts. regarding rv, the british used a wider range of distinctive features in both formal and casual tones, in contrast with the polish and the spanish who chose a more limited and hierarchical stock of formulaic and standardised features, which might be related to the use of english as a foreign language. the three target cultures, and in particular the poles, used the shift to other neighbouring registers, mainly the social and amicable, as a persuasive technique. the study provides insights into the structural rv in emails written by business practitioners from three european business cultures. possible misunderstandings resulting from the culturally-based differences might be avoided by raising awareness about how writers from different national and corporate cultures approach business communication tasks in their workplace. especially, the polish and spanish writers who use english as a foreign language in business contexts should be more aware of a broader range of linguistic resources that the british use. acknowledgements we would like to thank the anonymous referees of the journal for the helpful comments and suggestions, which have considerably improved the final version of the paper. 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(2013). “a cross-cultural analysis of english and chinese business faxes: a genre perspective”. ibérica 26: 35-54. iberica 13 ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract framed against the backdrop of internationalization of higher education, this paper argues for the need to cross disciplinary boundaries and build stronger bridges between the domains of english-medium education and esp/eap, particularly at a time when english-taught programmes seem to challenge the status quo of esp professionals. to this end, this article will first briefly describe the objects of study – esp/eap and eme – and map out the relationship between the two. secondly, a description of what are called the ‘diverging zones’ between these two educational approaches will be developed. in this section, major differences in curricular goals, in the way english is conceptualised, in students’ and teachers’ profiles, as well as in the pedagogical practices developed will be examined. thirdly, the section entitled ‘converging zones’ will look into some of the contact points of eme and esp theories and practices so that possible gaps are bridged. finally, the last part of the paper, titled ‘emerging zones’ will provide suggestions for joint collaborative research and the development of teacher education programmes that truly respond to the current needs of eme and esp/eap professionals and students as well. keywords: english-medium education, esp, eap, internationalisation, higher education. resumen cruzando las fronteras disciplinarias: la enseñanza en inglés (eme) se encuentra con el inglés para fines específicos (esp) enmarcado en el contexto de la internacionalización de la enseñanza superior, este artículo defiende la necesidad de cruzar las fronteras disciplinarias y tender crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp) emma dafouz universidad complutense de madrid edafouz@ucm.es 13 ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 emma dafouz puentes más sólidos entre los ámbitos de la enseñanza de contenidos en inglés y el inglés para fines específicos/académicos (ife/ifa), especialmente en un momento en que la enseñanza en inglés parece desafiar el statu quo de los profesionales de ife/ifa. para ello, este artículo describe primero brevemente los objetos de estudio esp/eap y eme y examina la relación entre ambos. en segundo lugar, el trabajo describe lo que se denominan las “zonas de divergencia” entre estos dos enfoques educativos. en esta sección, se abordan las diferencias en los objetivos curriculares, en la forma de conceptualizar el inglés, en los perfiles de estudiantes y de profesores, así como en las prácticas pedagógicas desarrolladas. en tercer lugar, en la sección titulada “zonas de convergencia” se profundiza en los puntos de contacto de las teorías y prácticas sobre las que se sustentan eme y esp con el fin de salvar las posibles diferencias. finalmente, la última parte del artículo, titulada “zonas emergentes”, ofrece sugerencias para la investigación conjunta y el desarrollo de programas de formación del profesorado que respondan realmente a las necesidades actuales tanto de los profesionales de eme y esp/eap como de sus estudiantes. palabras clave: inglés como lengua de educación, inglés para fines específicos, inglés para fines académicos, internacionalización, educación superior. 1. introduction: setting the scene in a world that is more globally connected than ever the presence of english has increasingly grown, to the point that it is now essential for communication in commerce, science, technology and academia. in the case of academia, the last two decades have also witnessed a widespread use of english, not only for research and publishing, but also for educational purposes, particularly in higher education institutions (dafouz & smit, 2020; doiz et al., 2013; hultgren et al., 2015; macaro et al., 2019). this use of english as language of instruction is broadly connected to the internationalisation of educational settings, wherein english has been given roles that contribute to employment opportunities, international mobility, as well as the development of global skills and disciplinary knowledge (beelen & wit, 2012). a wide number of empirical studies researching this gradual shift to englishmedium education (or eme) in tertiary settings have been conducted in the last years. such studies have focused on a vast range of topics that span from examining policies and the motivations for the introduction of eme (e.g. altinyelken et al., 2014; bonancina-pugh, 2012), to describing its 14 implications at the classroom level, or exploring participant attitudes (e.g. lecturers’, students’ or managers’) and their beliefs and perceptions of this phenomenon (aguilar, 2017; arnbjörnsdóttir, 2020; dafouz et al., 2016; kuteeva et al., 2020; llurda et al., 2014). by and large, it can be said that the diverse research findings have adopted either a positive tone, underlining the opportunities of eme for teaching and learning in present day higher education, or, in contrast, a discouraging tone, emphasising the loss of quality in education as a result, amongst other factors, of teachers’ and learners’ poor (academic) english language skills. arguing against this binary and somewhat simplistic interpretation, this paper aims to add depth to current understandings of eme by focusing precisely on the affordances (and challenges) that this educational change can bring to english for specific purposes (esp) professionals and learners; and, vice versa, to reflect on the opportunities and challenges that esp can bring to eme lecturers and participants. as pointed out in nesi (2020, p. ix) ‘modern esp … learners increasingly need to be able to interact within and between a range of cultures; they will also belong to diverse discourse communities with differing demands for standardisation and accuracy, and differing communicative purposes’. at the same time, in eme there is now a growing recognition that for these programmes to reach their full potential, explicit awareness of academic language and disciplinary literacies needs to be factored into subject-learning curricula (dafouz, 2018; meyer et al., 2018) adopting the two-fold standpoint of a researcher involved in eme for over two decades as well as of a policy advisor responsible for curricular internationalisation at my university, i will argue here for the need to cross disciplinary boundaries and build stronger bridges between the eme and esp domains, particularly at a time when english-taught programmes seem to ‘compete with esp courses and challenge the status quo of esp teachers’ (bocanegra-valle & basturkmen, 2019, p. 131). thus, this article is primarily geared toward the interests of esp participants who are (or may be in the future) in eme settings as well as of those who would like to investigate further in these areas. additionally, this study calls upon the growing number of eme professionals that acknowledge the importance of language(s) in their educational practices. in doing so, i will touch upon several key questions that are deemed relevant for esp and eme practitioners, namely what are the needs in eme that esp professionals can help to address? what are the gaps in esp that eme professionals can aim to fill? how can eme and esp teaching and learning be supportive of one crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp) ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 15 another? and finally, which research avenues can this alignment open up for researchers? the paper will first briefly describe the objects of study – esp and eme – and map out the relationship between the two. secondly, a description of what i have called ‘diverging zones’ between these two educational approaches will be developed. in this part, major differences in curricular goals, views of english, students’ and teachers’ profiles, as well as the pedagogical practices developed in these esp and eme contexts will be displayed. thirdly, the section entitled ‘converging zones’ will look into some of the contact points of eme and esp theories and practices so that possible gaps are bridged and, finally, the last section will focus on ‘emerging zones’ where further research is suggested to coordinate efforts and expand investigative initiatives across fields. 2. defining eme and esp as most readers of this journal are lsp/lap professionals, providing lengthy definitions of what esp is and what it covers is most likely not necessary. nevertheless, the purpose of this section is to demarcate the objectives of these two areas, so that hasty assumptions of what esp and eme respectively cover are not automatically made. i will sketch thus the areas of influence of both so that the zones of convergence and divergence examined later can be traced more easily. with an initial focus on the term esp, the general aim has been to develop discipline-related teaching practices tuned to (young-adult or adult) learners whose main objective is learning english for specific educational (evans & green, 2007) or professional purposes (bhatia, 2004). in this vein, the ability to function competently in a range of genres (very often written but not only) is a main concern for these learners as it can determine their access not only to career opportunities but also to positive identities and even life choices (hyland, 2006). the classic work by dudley-evans and st john (1998) describes esp as traditionally divided into two main areas: english for occupational purposes (eop) and english for academic purposes (eap). at the university level, students who are expected to enter a professional academic community in a research-oriented university, for instance, would generally require eap practice. the branch of eap focuses specifically on the academic study skills usually needed in higher education settings (e.g. reading skills, noteemma dafouz ibérica 41 (2021): 13-3816 taking, essay writing, specialised terminology, etc). on the other hand, students who are expected to join the workforce right after graduation would typically need eop practice, in the form of very specific communicative language that will enable them to use english in their professions (e.g. english for nursing, english for accountants, english for shopfloor staff, etc). broadly, by considering students’ needs after they have left the university, the choice of focus on eap or eop can be appropriately made. the label eme, or the more widely used to date, english-medium instruction (emi) (ekoç, 2020; macaro, 2018; pecorari & malmström, 2018), is generally connected to the growing internationalisation of education across the world. typically, emi refers ‘to the teaching and learning of an academic subject (i.e. economic, chemistry, aeronautical engineering, etc.) using english as the language of instruction, and usually without an explicit focus on language learning or specific language aims’ (dafouz, 2018, p.170). furthermore, while not explicit in the acronym, emi is understood to be mainly implemented at the tertiary level. in order to delineate the differences between labels, airey (2016) uses a continuum where language-oriented approaches are contrasted with contentoriented ones, as figure 1 below displays: at the left end of the continuum, we find eap courses with mainly language learning outcomes aiming to provide students with the academic reading and writing skills they need to complete their studies. here, academic language is viewed as a generic set of skills that can be acquired more or less independently of the content area where they will be used. in the centre, we find content and language integrated learning (or clil). clil, also referred to in some settings as bilingual education in other crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp) ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 17 t i figure 1. the language/content continuum (airey, 2016, p. 73). u m p s n c a g p 1.e gurfi anguage/lthe p.2016,,eyrai(nuumiontcentontcanguage/ .73) settings (see lorenzo, 2017), an educational approach developed principally in primary and secondary school settings, where the final goal is to develop both language proficiency and content knowledge in a balanced manner (coyle et al., 2010). at the right end of the continuum, under emi, language is viewed mainly as a tool for teaching and, consequently, not expected to affect the content taught to any great degree (airey, 2016). within the realm of emi, other related labels have also been used, such as english-medium programmes (schmidt-unterberger, 2018), english-taught programmes (wächter & maiworm, 2014) and integrating content and language in higher education (or iclhe) (wilkinson & zegers, 2007). similar to clil, the acronym iclhe addresses the integration of both content and language but specifically in higher education. first coined at the university of maastricht in 2004, iclhe is usually reserved for tertiary-level programmes that have explicit and integrated content and language learning aims (valcke & wilkinson, 2017). however, it could be said that, since its inception, the iclhe focus has been mostly used in research circles which emphasise the importance of addressing language as a key component in the construction of knowledge, and look into classroom discourse as well ‘as an integral part of teaching and learning’ (smit & dafouz, 2012, p. 2), even if not all programmes include an explicit language focus. finally, a recently developed label known as ememus, which stands for english-medium education in multilingual university settings, has been coined to portray more accurately the particular features of this educational setting (dafouz & smit, 2016, 2020). to begin with, in ememus the term ‘education’, which embraces both teaching and learning, is used against the unidirectional ‘instruction’ and includes also reference to research in university circles. moreover, ememus explicitly describes the multilingual sociolinguistic setting that characterises present day societies and heis more specifically. in european eme settings, for instance, 55% of the student population is on average not local but comes from various settings and thus brings other linguistic repertoires to the classroom (wächter & maiworm, 2014). in these multilingual scenarios, while english is a central element, its role as a lingua franca (or elf) amongst speakers of different l1s contributes to re-examining the seemingly uniform role of english from a more dynamic, multidimensional and communicative light (iino & murata, 2016). finally, university settings are focalised in ememus, revealing concrete features emma dafouz ibérica 41 (2021): 13-3818 not shared by previous levels of education, such as the voluntary nature of university studies, the diversity of the student population and the cognitively mature profile of students (smit & dafouz, 2012). figure 2 below displays the positioning of ememus (or eme for short) in relation to the esp/eap labels, on the one hand, and iclhe and emi, on the other. given that ememus is intrinsically multi-dimensional and therefore encompasses more than the language and content dimensions displayed below, i will place it on a slightly higher level to index that it is more inclusive than the labels iclhe and emi (for a more detailed account of ememus and its dimensions see dafouz & smit, 2016, pp. 399–402, 2020). as visualised in figure 2, and taking into account the distance between the labels esp/eap and ememus along the continuum, one would instinctively assume that no relationship can be established. nevertheless, as stated earlier, the aim of this paper is first to demarcate zones of divergence in order to subsequently address the converging zones that esp and eme share and, ultimately, conclude with the emerging zones, described as windows of opportunity for research, professional development and collaboration across these two fields. 3. english-medium education and esp: diverging zones while binary distinctions can often lead to simplifying realities that are intrinsically complex, the purpose of this section is to point out the most noticeable differences between eme and esp, so that potential zones of convergence and collaboration can be discussed later on in section 4. crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp) ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 19 figure 2. ememus in the language and content continuum. a 3 e gfi e ur 2. emem uunitnoctnetnocdnaegaugnalehtnius em mu . s o g s a r e 3.1. the construct of ‘english’ in eme and esp settings the two acronyms examined throughout this paper – esp and eme – share one letter: the ‘e’ for english. however, while usually treated as a uniform reality, english cannot be envisaged as a single monolithic construct but rather as a multifaceted one whereby highly diverse functional roles co-exist and are foregrounded depending on the context of use (dafouz & smit, 2017). over the last decade, sociolinguistic research has questioned monolingual norms and conceptualisations of languages as static entities (e.g. canagarajah, 2011; garcía & wei, 2014) and advocated for a more fluid understanding of language(s). this understanding, in turn, responds more accurately to how individuals use the language(s) at their disposal and how they resort to distinct linguistic repertoires when needed (singh & lu, 2020). drawing on this sociolinguistic paradigm, the english that esp and eme practitioners deal with is substantially different. thus, according to basturkmen (2005, p. 5), in esp or, at least ‘[i]n the early years of esp, the objective was … imparting linguistic knowledge with esp functioning to reveal the facts about the linguistic features of subject-specific language.’ over time, this approach evolved into viewing english as the language used in discourse communities with specific communicative purposes and distinct language patterns grouped under the key linguistic notion of ‘genre’ (swales, 2004). in contrast, in eme the focus is largely on disciplinary content learning and, as a result, english is viewed as the ‘tool’ to achieve this (dafouz & smit, 2017, p. 287). english is an instrument accepted by all ‘which does not belong to any specific community and needs to be learnt in educational settings by everyone, including native speakers’ (kuteeva et al., 2020, p. 288). such an understanding, however, is rather an idealisation which overlooks the diversity and variability of english language uses and users in the real world and in heis more particularly. in eme programmes outside the anglophone world, english has multiple roles that vary depending on the contextual variables. thus, in addition to the efl role, it can also be used as a lingua franca (elf) by l2 speakers of english who employ it as a contact language amongst individuals with other linguistic backgrounds (jenkins, 2014). the notion of lingua franca has extended so widely in some disciplinary and professional contexts, such as business studies, that there is now a special acronym known as belf (business english as a lingua franca) to refer specifically to this scenario (komoriglatz, 2018). business settings are generally known to be inherently emma dafouz ibérica 41 (2021): 13-3820 multilingual, including functional and professional codes, and thus constructed by their speakers in accordance with their individual repertoires and the specific needs and context of their interaction. under this light, belf is seen as ‘flexible, hybrid and variable, with all participants in the interaction having the right to contribute to, construct and use the shared repertoire as is necessary in order to achieve their interactional goals’ (komori-glatz, 2018, p. 55). in other words, belf students are true users of the language. the conceptualisations described above, both for esp and eme, form part of language ideologies, which are socially situated and connected to questions of identity and power (bhattacharya, 2017; creese & martin, 2003). such ideologies have clear repercussions on the teaching and learning practices employed, on the group dynamics or on the assessment criteria followed. therefore, the aforementioned english standard variety that most eme lecturers believe to be using in their classrooms is rather a reduced version of the multifaceted roles that english plays in eme classrooms where societal, institutional, pedagogical and communicational functions come into play in complex and dynamic ways (dafouz & smit, 2017). thus, a lecturer’s preference, for instance, for one english variety over another (e.g. american vs british english) reflects language ideologies that usually align (consciously or not) with certain pedagogical practices and materials. in this respect, while native varieties of english have been reported to be valued by eme students and lecturers alike, such preferences do not enjoy the same status across all settings. thus, it would be interesting to conduct further research into why such preferences arise in certain sites and not in others (kuteeva, 2020). 3.2. participant profiles: teachers and students in eme and esp contexts when comparing the participant profiles of both teachers and students in these settings, notable differences emerge. by and large, the esp teacher is traditionally an english language expert who holds a degree or has been trained in the english as a foreign language (efl) paradigm and afterwards receives training in more disciplinary-focused language teaching (or esp). bocanegra-valle and basturkmen (2019, p. 128) argue that while esp and eap teaching have expanded substantially, ‘little is known about what kinds of knowledge, skills and abilities these esp teachers need and how they are acquired and developed’. in his reflection on how eap has changed over the crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp) ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 21 last 20 years, hyland (2012, p. 33) notes that esp/eap professionals were at first responsible for identifying key features of genres and translating them into effective teaching materials, and that while they did not have to ‘be experts in disciplinary content … they did need to have some awareness and feel for a particular vocational area’. in turn, the eme lecturer is most typically a content expert, usually with (advanced) english language proficiency, sometimes as a result of international academic experiences, such as completing studies or a phd abroad. the level of english that these professionals are required to certify in order to work in eme programmes is known to vary significantly across contexts. thus, while some heis demand a c1 level of general english (common european framework of reference, cefr) to lecture, others accept a b2 level – a decision which very often depends on the human resources at their disposal or on the university or government policies in place. in any case, what needs to be highlighted when talking about english language proficiency and eme is that even lecturers with a high competence in english usually lack the pedagogical expertise to realise that learning complex content in a foreign language is not only a matter of changing linguistic codes (dafouz & smit, 2020; pavón vázquez & ramos, 2018). in other words, most eme professionals do not have the capacity to make their procedural knowledge available to students and thus find disciplinary language so natural that it is ‘difficult to analyze it or dissect it’ (llinares et al., 2012, p. 111) in the way that novice students would need them to do. it is precisely the development of such disciplinary language knowledge and practices, which typically belong to the eap/esp realm, that constitutes an area where eme lecturers would strongly benefit from guided assistance and collaboration (see section 5.3 for further elaboration of this point). as for the student profile, esp and eme students share some features but clearly differ in others. broadly, in esp we typically find a homogenous group of local and national students who usually share an l1 and enrol in these courses (which are more often compulsory than not) as part of the degree requirements. it is not uncommon, however, at least in the case of spain, that students are allowed to validate the esp/eap credits if they provide a formal certificate of their english proficiency. by doing this, heis avoid large classrooms with highly mixed-ability groups. moreover, these esp courses generally view the student population as language ‘learners’, that is, as non-native english speakers who are deemed perennially deficient and always in search of native-like proficiency. i will revisit this point in emma dafouz ibérica 41 (2021): 13-3822 section 5 when emerging zones for eme and esp collaboration are developed. in the eme classroom a more heterogenous student body is typically found, where home but also international students come together. enrolment in eme programmes, unlike in esp ones, is for the most part voluntary, thus the reasons for joining them vary widely, ranging from a need to have a differentiated curriculum, the pursuit of international experiences, higher employability opportunities, to english language development in settings where english proficiency is traditionally lower (e.g. ackerley et al., 2017). in contrast to the view of esp, students in eme are often envisaged as ‘users’, in the sense that they employ the language freely with other speakers of english from a vast variety of linguacultural backgrounds, as noted when referring to the case of belf earlier. furthermore, eme participants focus mainly on developing meaningful communicative exchanges rather than on language accuracy. in other words, eme students switch from the ‘languagelearning mode’ to the ‘application mode’ (ke & cahyani, 2014). 3.3. pedagogical practices in eme and esp as mentioned above, closely related to the construct of english and the teacher and student profiles, we find the pedagogical practices developed in esp and eme contexts respectively. in an esp scenario where the teaching objective is the development of subject-disciplinary language and skills, language-learning methodologies are clearly followed. traditionally, esp was largely textual in its approach, and, consequently, focused mainly on vocabulary building and the development of student product outcomes (i.e. essay writing, case reports, oral presentations). however, current esp teaching practices (kırkgöz & dikilita, 2018; terauchi et al., 2020) seem to be gradually moving onto social participation paradigms where issues of identity and leaners’ experiences outside the classroom can be seen as an opportunity for collaboration with eme lecturers, as 5.3. below will develop further. eme, instead, focusses largely on developing content-knowledge and thus a transmission mode of education often predominates in these settings as a legacy of teacher-centred methodologies (in the l1). these teacher-centred strategies conceive knowledge ‘as being transmitted from expert teacher to inexpert learner, and the teacher’s task is to ‘get it across’’ (biggs, 1999, p. 61). the focus, ultimately, is on what the teacher does. in this scenario, eme crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp) ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 23 lecturers usually lack the necessary pedagogical knowledge to face the teaching of complex concepts in another language. students, on the other hand, are expected to have acquired the necessary language skills to complete the eme course prior to entry and, consequently, subject-specific language is often demoted to a remedial activity carried out outside the standard curriculum. in some spanish universities the situation for eap/esp programmes is even more critical, as some have been removed from the eme official curriculum on the assumption that formal english language instruction is no longer needed as students will pick up language incidentally (arnó-macià & mancho-barés, 2015; breeze & dafouz, 2017; fortanetgómez, 2013). given the importance of this issue, section 5 will revisit the topic when addressing possible zones of convergence. regarding materials, the wealth of textbooks and resources typically developed for the esp/eap fields (from business to tourism, engineering, law, etc,) is notable. these texts were designed drawing on student needs and chiefly used corpus linguistics and genre approaches (swales, 2004). in contrast, the first eme programmes often lacked tailor-made materials and relied heavily on ad hoc adoptions of books written for english-language speakers in anglophone settings (banegas & busleimán, 2021). moreover, such eme materials often covered disciplinary subjects using examples culturally removed from the students’ immediate context and scaffolding was hardly developed to attend the language needs of the l2 users. in this respect, some research suggests that a misalignment between the students’ actual learning needs and a lack of proper textbooks and teaching resources may have compromised initially some eme achievements in, for instance, student writing or exam responses (dafouz, 2020). finally, assessment is another area where differences clearly emerge between esp and eme contexts. as a result of the language-oriented vs contentoriented foci adopted, language is the target in an esp setting and thus the focus is principally on students’ accuracy and/or fluency. in eme, by contrast, the emphasis on content usually prevents language from being assessed, at least formally (and officially). nevertheless, many lecturers admit to downgrading student work when language errors are too numerous or flagrant, although such a criterion is often not included explicitly in the course syllabus (abedi et al., 2004; dafouz, 2020; dafouz et al., 2014; kao & tsou, 2017). given the unclear focus on assessment in many eme settings, it seems that collaborative research in this area would be very welcome. emma dafouz ibérica 41 (2021): 13-3824 having indexed some of the most noticeable differences, or what i called ‘diverging zones’ between eme and esp, i would like now to offer a summary table for the sake of clarity: 4. eme and esp: converging zones this section addresses the converging zones or points of contact that eme and esp teaching and learning somewhat share. it examines as well how some of these contact points are currently being tried out and paves the way for section 5 where more concrete suggestions for future collaboration in research and teacher professional development programmes will be addressed. crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp) ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 25 esp eme curricular goals disciplinary-language learning disciplinary-content learning teacher profile language expert with formal training in english language teaching (native or nonnative) content expert with usually no formal training in elt (native and non-native) roles of english english viewed as specific set of skills and disciplinary language (esp/eap) english as a means of instruction (a tool), english as a lingua franca (elf) student profile fairly homogenous: local and national student as language ‘learner’ heterogenous: local, national, and international student as language ‘user’ pedagogical knowledge efl pedagogy student-centred content-knowledge pedagogy/transmission mode teacher-centred assessment language-focused focus on language accuracy and fluency content-focused focus on disciplinary knowledge (often declarative) teaching formats text-based combined with efl communicative approaches mostly lecture-based materials esp/eap materials designed for the efl (l2 learner) content materials usually designed for the english-speaking learner or adapted/translated from non-english (l1) sources curricular goals disciplinary-language learning disciplinary-content learning table 1. diverging zones between esp and eme teaching and learning contexts. 4 programmes will be addressed. 4 4.1. constructivist theories of (language) learning in eme and esp reflecting a socio-constructivist view of education, the new literacies approach (street, 1999) viewed esp and eap as moving beyond the teaching and learning of academic and disciplinary skills and proposed a view of such skills as social practices. this socio-constructivist position recognises the importance of language in the building of knowledge and of disciplinary identity and shows a greater respect for students’ subject knowledge, interests and perceptions (hyland, 2012). in this view, the teacher, as language expert, is engaged in the co-building of disciplinary content with the student, who is the content-expert-to-be. similarly, in the eme milieu, the content teacher can be also seen to move gradually beyond the transmission model described above and aim at coconstructing disciplinary knowledge with students by making the classroom more interactive and student-centred. moreover, in some eme settings students are sometimes found to display higher oral interpersonal skills in english than their lecturers, while the former are stronger in academic language proficiency as a result of researching and publishing in english. thus, the different strengths that both sets of participants bring to the classroom can be looked upon as complementary rather than threatening and as a way forward in developing constructivist theories of learning. in this vein, empirical research on eme in european higher education has suggested that course design can be facilitated by promoting student-centred learning, wherein students take more responsibility for what and how to learn (wilkinson, 2013). these suggestions will be touched upon again in section 5. 4.2. developing disciplinary literacies in esp and eme settings the sociolinguistic turn in language education, mentioned in 3.1, shifted the focus from a skill-based view of disciplinary learning to envisaging literacies as social practices. according to this paradigm, in becoming socialised into their respective disciplines, students learn both how to communicate in particular ways and how to behave as particular kinds of people (murray, 2008). thus, when writing or speaking as academics, as accountants or as philosophers, students gradually become members of their disciplines’ respective communities of practice (lave & wenger, 1991). the acquisition of such academic literacies enables students to effectively and legitimately engage with and influence knowledge, both in speaking and in writing. emma dafouz ibérica 41 (2021): 13-3826 against this sociolinguistic background, in esp/eap, genre theories have been followed to map how individuals use language to develop relationships, establish communities and ‘get things done’ (hyland, 2012). esp/eap have also examined the ways genres differ across disciplines and language groups and have encouraged more recently research into languages other than english and into the ways speakers of those languages use english to construct disciplinary literacies. in the case of eme, as pointed out earlier, such disciplinary literacies are often invisible to the content lecturer and thus, despite being experts in their own discipline, eme practitioners are not usually prepared pedagogically to explain the linguistic conventions operating within subject-specific areas. in this respect, i believe eme has opened a window of opportunity for language awareness (dafouz, 2018) – an opportunity actually identified by lecturers when they come across international exchange students whose institutional, cultural and linguistic backgrounds compel them to reflect on the linguistic goals they have for all their students (whether national or international). in sum, the concept of disciplinary literacies (dls) sketched here has thus proved to be a useful starting point for the discussion of disciplinary language learning goals for both esp/eap and eme practitioners. concrete illustrations of how collaboration on this particular area can be further developed will be addressed next. 5. future directions for eme and esp collaboration: emerging zones three concrete research areas where both esp and eme experts can collaborate effectively are addressed in this last section. evidently, the list of possibilities is not exhaustive, but it could be an eye-opener for new lines of joint action, both in research and teacher professional development, which can be revisited over time. 5.1. developing a glocal and disciplinary literacies-based curriculum in this globally interconnected world we live in, the integration of global needs is crucial, as is attention to the local specificities of our context. this ‘glocal’ perspective aligns closely with eme as it underlines its contextsensitive nature, as well as with ‘modern’ views of esp (nesi, 2020). in this crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp) ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 27 vein gustafsson and jacobs (2013) claim that the change of emphasis when moving from an esp to an eme approach largely allows for a greater focus on learning and communication processes rather than on assessing solely student products (exams, essays, case-reports, etc). similarly, blaj-ward (2017, p. 101) advises on the need to include ‘context sensitive measures of quality in eap provision, which give the student an active role in designing this provision rather than merely a recipient role, and reflect the principle that language proficiency development is ‘everyone’s business.’’ along these lines, the recent work by jiang and zhang (2017) in eme chinese settings suggests that an eme-oriented esp/eap course design can also motivate and facilitate students’ self-directedness, as is shown in student teamteaching and process-oriented writing activities. under this paradigm, students’ gradually take more responsibility in managing language study through carrier content and, at the same time, develop more agency. a way to do this is, as explained earlier, by training esp professionals in viewing subject disciplinary language as social practices embedded in specific settings. in this regard, the use of the recently developed construct known as cognitive discourse functions or cdfs (dalton-puffer, 2013) bridges the gap between the cognitive functions that students need to activate and the discursive actions necessary to process content knowledge successfully. drawing on bloom’s (1956) classic taxonomy for learning, dalton-puffer’s model indexes seven categories (i.e. classify, define, describe, evaluate, explain, explore and report), which, in turn, include a wider set of subcategories (or members). these categories ideally ‘function as a kind of lingua franca that may enable educators to communicate across subject boundaries’ (dalton-puffer, 2013, p. 242). translated to the realm of esp and eme, cdfs can help both sets of professionals (and their respective students) engage in a dialogue where the discursive conventions of their disciplinary areas can be more clearly approached. moreover, daltonpuffer’s construct is context-sensitive in that when applied to one specific setting or to one specific subject it ‘may take on a very specific shape and perhaps further elements’ (ibid, p. 237). the situated nature of this model enables us also to move beyond perspectives initially theorised from the linguistic angle and adopt a more epistemological view, where content specialists unveil how they actually construct disciplinary knowledge in their teaching and professions (spires et al, 2018). by way of illustration, the use of the cdfs model in the subject of history in secondary schools in austria (dalton-puffer & bauer-marschallinger, 2019) confirms enhancement of emma dafouz ibérica 41 (2021): 13-3828 students’ subject literacy competence when explicit attention is given to the cdfs typical of history genres. an identification of the cdfs in place in eme disciplines could prove useful not only in supporting students’ development of dls and teachers’ content-pedagogy but also in identifying the presence of what have been referred to as ‘hybrid genres’ or ‘blended genres’ (brown, 2017). hybrid genres are described as texts where some aspects of academic rhetoric in english are blended with features of other (national) rhetorical traditions in a way that the resulting student output is not deemed appropriate in either context. investigations into these hybrid varieties and how to approach them in a constructive manner would be of interest for eap practitioners working alongside eme lecturers. 5.2. valuing multilingualism and translanguaging in vein with the glocal and multilingual nature of present-day heis, professionals from eme and esp need to be aware of the multilingual repertoires that students and lecturers bring to the classroom. while not explicit in the esp acronym, but an essential component of ememus, the role of multilingualism in the learning process cannot be ignored any longer (e.g. cenoz & gorter, 2010; kuteeva et al., 2020; llurda et al., 2014). the available literature advocates for a multilingual turn in education, although for that to truly occur, crucial changes need to take place with regard to language ideologies in the classroom. some of the conflicting views reported by participants regarding, for instance, the use of one vs. various languages when teaching seem to be aligned with an institution’s prior traditions or with an individual’s personal experience in dealing with international classrooms and their treatment of and response to students’ multilingual repertoires (see e.g. dafouz et al., 2016; kuteeva et al., 2020; breeze & roothooft, 2021). thus, in the case of universities or individuals with a shorter tradition of internationalisation, the use of various languages in the classroom is often reported as a ‘deficiency’ and connected to factors such as insufficient teacher or student language proficiency. in contrast, in settings with more experience and tradition of multilingual and international students, the very same practices may be viewed as a resource rather than an obstacle for communication and learning (jenkins, 2014; lasagabaster & doiz, 2021). consequently, in order to overcome such monolingual views and englishonly practices, esp and eme practitioners could share real life examples of how multilingual professional practices can be useful for students in certain content areas. thus, for example, in the case of medical students, the use of crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp) ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 29 the local language is deemed necessary to engage with local patients, while, at the same time, english remains crucial for research and publishing. additionally, the creation of bilingual or multilingual online databases and glossaries and bibliographies designed to support students’ academic and linguistic development can be used to illustrate students’ use of their own home languages for learning purposes. after all, one needs to remember that in ememus programmes the aim is to develop biliterate or pluriliterate users who can employ their different multilingual repertoires depending on their professional needs both at home and abroad (meyer et al., 2018; palfreyman & van der walt, 2017; wilkinson & gabriëls, 2020). closely related to multilingual uses and users, we find translanguaging (tl), a construct developed by garcía and li wei (2014, p. 21), who argue that: translanguaging does not refer to two separate languages nor to a synthesis of different language practices or to a hybrid mixture. rather translanguaging refers to new language practices that make visible the complexity of language exchanges among people with different histories, and releases histories and understandings that had been buried within fixed language identities constrained by nation-states. in this regard, the role of the esp/eap expert would first be to become acquainted with this notion and its pedagogical use in the classroom, so that an understanding and appreciation of translanguaging (tl) practices can be shared with eme practitioners. an educational view of such tl strategies can, in turn, enable students with a common l1 to construct their disciplinary knowledge more effectively. furthermore, as mentioned above, when referring to pluriliteracies, tl has also proved to be helpful in developing students’ subject disciplinary language (mazak & carroll, 2016; see paulsrud et al., 2021 for a critical exploration of tls in emi). concurrently, the esp/eap practitioner could also point out to eme professionals how such tl practices, which may be useful under some teaching and learning circumstances, can be viewed under a negative light when they exclude international students with no shared l1 competence. in this case, eme educators should be made aware of the dangers of leaving out those who do not have the required linguistic resources to participate actively in the international classroom (kuteeva et al., 2020). emma dafouz ibérica 41 (2021): 13-3830 5.3. promoting interdisciplinary professional development collaboration between eme and esp professionals, as advocated throughout this paper, is of paramount importance. however, in order for such collaboration to function effectively, airey (2016, p. 78) rightfully notes that: both parties need to understand what the other can bring to the table ... the content lecturer should not view the language expert as a low-level technician dealing with issues of secondary importance and who is responsible for a ‘quick language fix’ [nor] the language expert fall int the trap of criticizing what may appear to be underdeveloped or naive approaches to disciplinary discourse on the part of the content lecturer. discussions and negotiations of what teaching and learning in esp and eme settings actually entails are therefore needed. in this vein, and drawing on a recent study of esp teachers from three different universities in spain, bocanegra-valle and basturkmen (2019) argued that many of the esp professionals interviewed reported feeling like outsiders to the disciplinary community they attend to and expressed a need to appear ‘credible’, ‘respected’ and ‘valued’ (ibid, p. 136) in the eyes of their content colleagues. in order to achieve this, their work suggests closer collaboration amongst professionals and more preparation in the development of disciplinary literacies adapted to the true needs of the students and academics working in their respective disciplinary areas. this cooperation has been addressed as well in the ‘adjunct-clil model’ proposed by arnó-macià and manchobarés (2015), where language instruction is tailored to disciplinary needs in a balanced clil-like manner, and where collaboration between language and subject specialists is organised in a systematic manner. another example of the fruitful cooperation between content and esp teachers can be found in the south african context, described in detail in the special issue of across the disciplines (gustafsson, 2011). in this project, language experts’ partnership with content lecturers begins by uncovering the tacit rules that govern their disciplinary discourse(s) and by asking the type of questions a novice would (jacobs, 2005, 2007). in order to achieve this, some authors suggest decentralising esp units from the english departments at heis where they are usually located, and placing them instead in the faculties where they can work more closely with the disciplinary experts and co-develop curricular innovations (arkoudis et al., 2014; murray, 2016). such a measure could bring with it a number of advantages such as allowing esp/eap teachers to build their discipline crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp) ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 31 knowledge and to gain familiarity with the expectations of the faculty departments vis-à-vis the academic literacies of their respective disciplines. this, in turn, could guide syllabus design and pedagogy accordingly, thereby helping to ensure relevance and continuity. such decentralisation would also facilitate the integration of esp/eap teachers into the local academic community and in doing so promote their understanding of its structures, procedures, constraints, and opportunities that afford the development of students’ language competence. furthermore, greater decentralisation or ‘embeddedness’ (cf. blaj-ward, 2017) allows for the establishing and nurturing of productive working relationships with academic and professional staff. this could be seen to facilitate esp/eap teachers’ capacity to operate effectively and better influence and support both academic staff and students through personal contact and even committee membership. the other side of the coin, however, views interdisciplinary collaboration and the decentralisation of esp/eap units with certain suspicion as it raises particular organisational challenges to departments in heis. as departments have been traditionally organised around a disciplinary core, the integration of insights and research from disciplines that do not advance this core is often disregarded (ng & litzenberg, 2019). in any case, what teacher professional development for eme ought to foreground is the need to go beyond english language training only and aim for a more holistic understanding of this educational phenomenon, one that repositions eme in a broader international and multicultural frame (dafouz, 2021). while substantial efforts have been made to provide pedagogical support to eme professionals often through trans-national project funding (see, for instance, equiip project, tace project, etc) and the launching of new specialised publications (breeze & sancho guinda, 2021; morell & nickolaevna, 2021; sánchez-pérez, 2020), there is still room for improvement. for a start, the systemic support of teacher professional development programmes for university professionals, whether in eme or in other innovative practices, needs to be institutionalised. such provision, i would add, also needs to be extended to students beyond eme and esp settings and address disciplinary competence building in the l1 as well. if we really want our university students (whether l1 or l2 learners) to develop the necessary communicative, multilingual and multicultural strategies to succeed in this globalised world, support cannot be postponed any longer – a request which, i believe, is food for a whole different paper. emma dafouz ibérica 41 (2021): 13-3832 6. concluding remarks as global issues become ever more complex, the sharing, integration and collaboration of diverse experiences and expertise across disciplinary boundaries becomes truly crucial. with a focus on eme and esp/eap affordances and challenges, this paper aimed to reconcile these seemingly separate areas and unveil shared opportunities for teaching, learning and research. in this respect, three major zones emerged as relevant for collaboration and research: 1) the development of a glocal context-sensitive curriculum designed jointly by eme and esp practitioners, where real-life tasks and disciplinary-led literacies are included; 2) the valuing of multilingual and translingual practices which host the diverse linguistic repertoires that students and lecturers bring to the current classroom, and which, concurrently, view them as resources for learning rather than as obstacles; and 3) the endorsement of interdisciplinary collaboration across esp and eme professionals from different disciplinary traditions in search of a common ground that appeals to both. in this respect, if we want esp to be seen as a site for change rather than accommodation (basturkmen, 2014), comprehensive measures that truly coordinate language-in-education strategies across institutional levels need to be designed. last, while esp/eap specialists have expressed understandable concerns with regard to the fast spread of eme programmes in higher education and their fear of losing professional space, this paper has tried to underline instead the opportunities provided by eme and esp collaboration. in doing so, it is hoped that, on the one hand, eme programmes can view the importance of language awareness for quality teaching and learning and, on the other, esp can revisit their teaching and learning strategies under a more transformative light. acknowledgements my thanks to the reviewers, and to ute smit, for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. my gratitude also goes to carmen sancho guinda, editor-in-chief and ruth breeze, executive editor of iberica, for making the whole editing process so straightforward. this work was supported by the ministerio de ciencia, innovación y universidades [grant number pid2019-103862rb-100]. article history: received 21 june 2021 received in revised form 1 july 2021 accepted 1 july 2021 crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp) ibérica 41 (2021): 13-38 33 references emma dafouz ibérica 41 (2021): 13-3834 abedi, j., hofstetter, c. h., & lord, c. 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(2007). researching content and language integration in higher education. valkhof pers. iberica 13 ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper provides an in-depth analysis of the functioning of if-conditionals in medical editorials (meds). as previous genre-based studies of medical discourse genres have shown, meds need to address at least three different types of readers and are thus a research-oriented, socio-political and praxisoriented genre. medical editorialists therefore need to customize their argumentative strategies in order to reach and convince these distinct readerships. our aim is to adopt a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose, by focusing on a syntactic pattern which has a potentially important role to play in the construction of argument: the if-conditional. by examining the syntactic variants of the structure in meds we demonstrate the correspondence between seemingly minor constructional variants and the rhetorical aims of the genre in question. a comparison between the research article and med usages moreover helps us to identify the form-function pairings specific to the editorials and in this way pinpoint how the if-conditional forms are used to serve the specific argument strategies of the med genre. keywords: if-conditionals, medical editorials, rhetorical purpose, syntactic variants, genre. resumen u na pe r s pe c tiv a s i nt ác t ic a a p ro pó s it o de l as e s tra te g i a s de pe r s ua s ió n: e l e j e mp l o de l as f r as e s c ond i c io na l e s de tip o “ if ” e n l os e di tor ia l e s mé d i c os e n i ng l é s este artículo propone un análisis pormenorizado del funcionamiento del modo condicional en if en los editoriales médicos escritos en inglés (meds en inglés). como lo han demostrado otros trabajos que tratan del discurso médico elaborados dentro de una perspectiva de género, los meds están dirigidos a, a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose: the example of if-conditionals in medical editorials shirley carter-thomas and elizabeth rowley-jolivet institut mines-télécom (tem) & université d’orléans (france) shirley.thomas@telecom-em.eu & elizabeth.jolivet@univ-orleans.fr 59 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 59 ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet como mínimo, tres tipos de lectores y, por tanto, se trata de un género orientado a la investigación, a la práctica y de carácter socio-político. los autores de los editoriales médicos necesitan pues adaptar sus estrategias argumentativas para personalizar y convencer a estos tres tipos específicos de lectores. nuestro objetivo es proponer una perspectiva sintáctica a propósito de estas estrategias de persuasión focalizándose en una estructura de sintaxis que juega un papel muy importante en el desarrollo de la argumentación: la frase condicional en if. a través de un análisis de diversas variantes de la estructura condicional en los meds se demuestra que existen correspondencias entre ciertas variantes construccionales supuestamente de menor importancia y las estrategias como los objetivos retóricos del género indicado. una comparación con otro género científico, el artículo de investigación, nos permite además identificar mejor las asociaciones función/forma que son específicas de los editoriales y determinar de esa manera como están empleadas las frases condicionales en if para que logren sus estrategias de persuasión propias de los meds. palabras clave: editoriales médicos, estrategias de persuasión, frases condicionales de tipo “if ”, variantes sintácticas, géneros discursivos. 1. introduction editorials are probably the most visible expression of opinion in written media discourse. given their important role in leading and shaping opinion, editorials in the general or political press have particularly attracted the attention of analysts in the critical discourse analysis tradition seeking to uncover the ideological agendas behind the arguments: “editorial argumentation, even when seemingly explicit, is often a front for another argumentative agenda” (van dijk, 1992: 253). while this ideological purpose is clear in the case of the political press, it is perhaps less obvious for other social groups. ideologies however, taken in the broad sense of the term, are not limited to groups with an overtly political platform: professional and institutional groups in society also have structured and goal-oriented interests to defend, defined by the professional identity, norms and values, social position and resources of the group in question. a powerful professional group in western societies is the medical profession. it is a profession with highly selective access and elite status, extensive social relevance, and a strong corporate sense of identity, possessing its own internal regulatory bodies. it comes as no surprise, therefore, that the specialised journals of this professional group also include editorials as a regular feature (webber, 1994). 60 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 60 the various studies focusing on the medical editorial (henceforth med) genre appear to agree on a certain number of characteristic features, which clearly distinguish this genre from others found in medical journals, such as the research article (ra), case report, or review article. within the system of genres (bazerman, 1994), there is considerable interaction between the different genres. this relationship is one of “functional intertextuality” in that each genre has a different function within the medical profession (vihla, 1999: 129). the main role of the ra, for example, is to put forward claims, based on research investigations; these claims can then be subjected to assessment within the profession in editorials: “in the textual hierarchy formed by medical genres, editorials often function as metatexts, and comment on other texts” (vihla, 1999: 126). these comments are frequently couched in highly critical and authoritative terms. salager-meyer (2001), for example, in a cross-generic study of four medical genres, places editorials at the most “polemical” pole of a cline ranging from blunt criticism to absence of dissension. likewise, carnet and magnet (2006: 243) conclude that meds appear as highly ideological, sharing “a strong polemical similarity with editorials from the general press”. 1.1. the three agendas of medical editorials in addition to this comment function which meds share with editorials in general, three more specific functions appear to characterize the genre, reflecting the three distinct readerships of medical journals. giannoni (2008: 98) sums these functions up as follows: [meds] act as expert introductions to relevant topics dealt with in the journal; they offer critical commentary on events of shared interest to the medical community; and finally they provide guidelines for practitioners, helping them to recognise best practices and suitable references in the literature. we will refer to these different communicative purposes as, respectively, a research-oriented agenda, a socio-political agenda, and a praxis-oriented agenda. the research agenda is reflected in the fact that meds are published in research journals, where they co-occur with ras presenting cutting-edge medical research. unlike hard sciences, however, medicine is as much an art as a science: conclusions are based to a large extent on observational a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 61 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 61 evidence and probabilistic reasoning, in which the interpretations of research results can vary. moreover, its ultimate goal is the treatment of patients, so the applicability of research to real-world situations needs to be carefully examined. editorials, which are situated at the interface between research and praxis, have an important role to play here in assessing the relative merits of research claims and hypothesizing about the possible consequences or follow-up to give to research findings. the editorials of reputed journals are also addressed to socially influential actors outside or on the periphery of the medical profession, however – such as governments, hospital administrators and pharmaceutical companies – and therefore have a socio-political agenda or axe to grind. questions such as the public funding of medicine, medical education and training, laws regulating cloning and biomedical research, pharmaceutical r&d into new drugs, etc. all have a direct impact on medicine, and depend on decisions taken by institutions or professional bodies not directly controlled by the medical profession itself. lastly, editorials are also addressed to medical practitioners, and have a praxis-oriented agenda. the breakthroughs of medical research, if applied incautiously, can have deleterious or even fatal consequences in practice, and so need to be implemented with proper caution, in strict conformity with the rigorous ethical and clinical rules of conduct of the profession. medicine as a body regulates its own conduct and requires all practitioners to observe the deontology of the profession; prescriptive pronouncements and recommendations addressed to peers and practitioners in the profession itself are therefore admissible or even necessary in this discipline, in order to ensure that these norms are respected in clinical praxis. these three agendas call on a wide range of argumentative strategies, as editorialists engage in evaluation and criticism, hypothesising, promotion and persuasion, but also recommendation, prescription, and warning. while certain linguistic features of meds have been pointed out (modality – vihla, 1999; rhetorical questions – salager-meyer, 2001; tenses, modality and negation – carnet & magnet, 2006; first person markers – giannoni, 2008), there has been little in-depth investigation into the syntactic resources exploited by meds to achieve their rhetorical aims. our aim in the present study is to adopt a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose, focusing on a syntactic pattern which has a potentially important role to play in the construction of argument: if-conditionals. s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): 59-8262 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 62 if-conditionals can fulfil several highly valuable functions in argumentative discourse: the inherent non-assertiveness of conditional clauses means that they can be used for hypothesising and hedging (carter-thomas, 2007), for envisaging alternatives and conceding competing points of view (declerck & reed, 2001; warchal, 2010); the role of if as a space-builder (fauconnier, 1994; dancygier, 1998) enables the author to set up an alternative argumentative space within which to manoeuvre and situate claims, while the constructional if p, q1 pattern can be exploited to establish causal links or specify the precise conditions under which the research was carried out. by comparing how if-conditionals are used in ras and meds published in journals in the same disciplinary context, we show how the same basic formal structure can be adapted in different ways for different agendas. 1.2. theoretical background the study of conditionals has been approached from a variety of angles. numerous typologies and classifications have been proposed by philosophers, linguists and grammarians, based on logical or truth implications (lewis, 1976), on the conceptual domains or worlds to which the content of the conditional refers (sweetser, 1990), on semantic distinctions (comrie, 1986) or on simplified verb-sequences, as is generally the case in pedagogical grammars. many of these classifications prove however difficult to apply in practice. the idealised tense sequences of pedagogical grammars have been found to provide only a very partial picture of the multitude of combinations that speakers actually use (fulcher, 1991; norris, 2003; rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2008). classifications revolving around issues of logic and truth are likewise difficult to apply to naturally occurring text. other more functionally based classifications such as those of sweetser (1990) or athanasiadou and dirven (1997) also proved difficult to apply to specialised texts. one difficulty with these classifications, as with several others, is that they are mainly based on decontextualised examples. with a few notable exceptions such as that of ford’s (1997) study of conditionals in conversation and the panoramic overview of declerck and reed (2001) based partly on the cobuild and lancaster-oslo-bergen (lob) corpora, very few of the existing typologies are based on real data or corpora. the if operator is however notoriously polysemous and context-sensitive. in order to evaluate the role of if-conditionals in discipline-specific forms of argumentation a fully contextualised a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 63 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 63 approach appears essential. in akatsuka’s (1986: 333) words, “conditionals are discourse-bound”. our own approach is genre-based. one of the basic postulates of a genre approach is that the communicative aims and context of the discourse impact both on the overall textual organization and on the syntactic strategies adopted by writers and speakers. in our previous work on the ifconditional (rowley-jolivet, 2007; carter-thomas & rowley-jolivet, 2008), we examined this construction from a genre perspective, contrasting its use in various medical genres (ras, case reports, conference presentations and editorials). this work not only demonstrated major divergences with what is usually predicted in the “theory” on conditionals, but established that if conditionals are used in highly genre-specific ways, both formally and functionally speaking. in the present study, our aim is to take a close look at the syntactic variants of this structure in meds in order to demonstrate the correspondence between seemingly minor syntactic variants and the rhetorical aims of the genre in question. as warchał (2010) has demonstrated, if-conditionals can have a strong interpersonal component, guiding the reader’s interpretation, negotiating concepts, staving off criticism and generally involving the reader. it is these rhetorical aspects of if-conditional use that we will focus on in the remainder of the article, examining how the choice of particular formal and syntactic variants of the conditional serves the rhetorical purposes of specialised medical editorials. 2. corpus and methodology the corpus used for this study comprises 171 occurrences of if-conditionals taken from 74 editorials in two high impact factor medical journals. these occurrences are contrasted with 119 occurrences of if-conditionals taken from 30 research articles on the same topics, again in leading medical journals (see table 1). although small in comparison with modern general corpora nowadays, our specialised corpus is we believe both large enough to be representative of this specialised discourse and small enough for us to implement the fully contextual approach we are advocating (ghadessy, henry & roseberry, 2001). although conditionality can be expressed in many ways, our study is restricted to if as the prototypical operator of conditionality in english. s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): 59-8264 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 64 other conditional subordinators were consequently ignored. care was also taken to manually discard any occurrences where if introduced a subject or object clause (and was therefore the equivalent of whether), as in the following example: (1) unfortunately, there have been no randomized trials that have determined if (=whether) a clinically relevant graft-versuslymphoma effect exists. (med) however elliptical if-clauses (“if possible”, “if necessary”), a frequent feature in medical discourse, were included. the frequency of if per 1000 words of running text was calculated for both genres and the details of this breakdown are given below. as table 1 shows, if-conditionals are more frequent in the editorials than in the research articles. our figures tally with those of ferguson (2001) who found an identical ratio of 1.8 if-conditionals per 1000 words in meds and a very similar 1.1 ratio in ras. it would seem therefore that medical editorialists have greater recourse to if-clauses than ra authors. however, the precise form and use of these constructions remain to be verified. in the following sections we will look first at the verb forms in the basic if p, q pattern and their meanings and then at constructional variants with the subsequent nuances they introduce. we begin by examining all the verb forms employed in the if p, q conditionals, comparing the use made of the canonical verb sequences and identifying the preferred verbal combinations in the two genres, meds and ras. we then focus on a number of variations observed in the basic if p, q constructional pattern, involving the addition of specific lexemes or specific punctuation. following dancygier (1998), we take the view that conditional constructions are compositional in meaning. different formal choices in the basic constructional pattern can be associated with specific functions and meanings, thereby constraining interpretation. a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 65 s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): …-… (1) unfortunately, there have been no randomized trials that have determined if (=whether) a clinically relevant graft-versuslymphoma effect exists. (med) however elliptical if-clauses (“if possible”, “if necessary”), a frequent feature in medical discourse, were included. the frequency of if per 1000 words of running text was calculated for both genres and the details of this breakdown are given below. editorials research articles # texts 74 30 # occ 171 119 # words 95,143 111,907 ratio if/1000w. 1.8 1.06 source2 jco & lo jco & ijro table 1. corpus details. as table 1 shows, if-conditionals are more frequent in the editorials than in the research articles. our figures tally with those of ferguson (2001) who found an identical ratio of 1.8 if-conditionals per 1000 words in meds and a very similar 1.1 ratio in ras. it would seem therefore that medical editorialists have greater recourse to if-clauses than ra authors. however, the precise form and use of these constructions remain to be verified. in the following sections we will look first at the verb forms in the basic if p, q pattern and their meanings and then at constructional variants with the subsequent nuances they introduce. we begin by examining all the verb forms employed in the if p, q conditionals, comparing the use made of the canonical verb sequences and identifying the preferred verbal combinations in the two genres, meds and ras. we then focus on a number of variations observed in the basic if p, q constructional pattern, involving the addition of specific lexemes or specific punctuation. following dancygier (1998), we take the view that conditional constructions are compositional in meaning. different formal choices in the basic constructional pattern can be associated with specific functions and meanings, thereby constraining interpretation. throughout the analysis this focus on the formal features of if-conditionals will therefore be constantly related to the particular rhetorical functions fulfilled by the construction in the genre and discourse context. a comparison between the ra and editorial (ed) usages will help us to identify the form-function pairings particular to the editorials and in this way pinpoint how the if p, q forms are used to serve the specific argument strategies of the med genre. 3. results 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 65 throughout the analysis this focus on the formal features of if-conditionals will therefore be constantly related to the particular rhetorical functions fulfilled by the construction in the genre and discourse context. a comparison between the ra and editorial (ed) usages will help us to identify the form-function pairings particular to the editorials and in this way pinpoint how the if p, q forms are used to serve the specific argument strategies of the med genre. 3. results 3.1. verb forms 3.1.1. canonical conditionals discussion of verb forms in conditionals is often restricted to three “canonical” sequences, in which the verb forms index increasing degrees of hypotheticality: 1) present + future; 2) past + “conditional”; 3) past perfect + “conditional” perfect (see examples (2)-(4) below). as indicated earlier, many analysts consider that these sequences give only a very partial picture of actual discourse use. their frequency in our data is shown in table 2. as can be seen the meds contain far more canonical forms than the ras. this distributional difference can be largely explained by the importance of hypothesising and predicting in the editorials. through such patterns editorialists fulfil their role of opinion-leaders, engaging in predictive, speculative or highly critical pronouncements on research claims or on the socio-economic and legislative environment of medicine. all the type 1 canonicals in the meds are used to make predictions concerning socio-economic issues such as the provision of medical services and their funding, legislation, developments in trials and drug marketing, and medical education: s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): 59-8266 a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): …-… 3.1. verb forms 3.1.1. canonical conditionals discussion of verb forms in conditionals is often restricted to three “canonical” sequences, in which the verb forms index increasing degrees of hypotheticality: 1) present + future; 2) past + “conditional”; 3) past perfect + “conditional” perfect (see examples (2)-(4) below). as indicated earlier, many analysts consider that these sequences give only a very partial picture of actual discourse use. their frequency in our data is shown in table 2. meds ras total canonical 1 18 2 20 canonical 2 14 4 18 canonical 3 5 1 6 all canonical forms (1, 2, 3) 37 (21.6%) 7 (5.9%) 44 (15.2%) total occ. of if-conditionals 171 119 290 table 2. “canonical” tense sequences in medical editorials and research articles. as can be seen the meds contain far more canonical forms than the ras. this distributional difference can be largely explained by the importance of hypothesising and predicting in the editorials. through such patterns editorialists fulfil their role of opinion-leaders, engaging in predictive, speculative or highly critical pronouncements on research claims or on the socio-economic and legislative environment of medicine. all the type 1 canonicals in the meds are used to make predictions concerning socio-economic issues such as the provision of medical services and their funding, legislation, developments in trials and drug marketing, and medical education: (2) if the current reliance on screening continues to increase, then the demands on colonoscopists’ time will become overstretched and the financial consequences will be too great for the us health-care system. (med) unlike research investigations in ras into the causes, diagnosis and treatment of disease, where certainty is much more difficult or even impossible to attain, in the economic or legislative domain, medical editorialists feel confident enough of causal relations to use predictive if p, q clauses. the greater recourse to type 2 and 3 canonicals, expressing varying degrees of hypotheticality, can likewise be explained by the argumentative aims of meds: “to raise questions, diagram problems, propose definitions and offer alternatives and/or solutions for future research, (…) examine, discuss and criticize” (salager-meyer et al., 1989: 153). medical editorials address “hot” or 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 66 (2) if the current reliance on screening continues to increase, then the demands on colonoscopists’ time will become overstretched and the financial consequences will be too great for the us health-care system. (med) unlike research investigations in ras into the causes, diagnosis and treatment of disease, where certainty is much more difficult or even impossible to attain, in the economic or legislative domain, medical editorialists feel confident enough of causal relations to use predictive if p, q clauses. the greater recourse to type 2 and 3 canonicals, expressing varying degrees of hypotheticality, can likewise be explained by the argumentative aims of meds: “to raise questions, diagram problems, propose definitions and offer alternatives and/or solutions for future research, (…) examine, discuss and criticize” (salager-meyer et al., 1989: 153). medical editorials address “hot” or controversial issues for which there is often no clear-cut solution, or confront results by different research teams which give rise to diverging interpretations. for all these hypothesising functions, if-clauses are an invaluable syntactic resource: (3) are these sufficient data to accept the fact that carcinomatosis from gastrointestinal cancer can be cured in selected patients? if this were true, it would be a major step forward for oncology. natural history studies suggest a survival of approximately 6 months. (med) the majority of type 2 and all occurrences of type 3 canonicals in the editorials are counterfactuals. counterfactuals are a prime example of the role of if as a space-builder. this hypothetical thinking enables the speaker to envisage the possible consequences of situations which either did not in fact occur in the past or which do not currently hold (akatsuka & strauss, 2000). the aim of this space-building will often be an evaluative one: if these counterfactual situations are entertained, it is in order to judge, criticise or, more rarely, to commend the actual decisions or behaviour of the actors involved. the reason why counterfactuals are found exclusively in the editorials and not in the ras seems to lie in the different rhetorical aims of the two genres. researchers could be considered to be undermining the strength of their research claims if they gave too much prominence to other hypothetical spaces: to what could or could not have been done in alternative a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 67 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 67 approaches. editorialists, in contrast, are not defending their own research claim. counterfactuals enable them to express criticism of others’ work, or regret that a certain avenue was not explored: (4) in the context of previous trials in solid tumors that have failed to demonstrate an effect of maintenance therapy on survival, one needs to consider the question of what the likely outcome would have been if the primary end point of this study had been survival, and the study had been continued despite the emergence of a statistically significant difference in progression-free survival. (med) in example (4) the editorialist criticises the study, which was stopped too soon to provide data on survival – the primary end-point in oncology – and relativizes its positive results. the degree of tense backshifting in the p clause indicates the degree of commitment to the likelihood of the counterfactual situation – the more backshifted the verb form, the greater the authorial distance. in (4), the counter-evidence is extremely strong as the author is hypothesising about known, and hence irreversible past facts; type 3 canonicals are therefore used. in (3), in contrast, tense backshifting is less marked as the “factual” status of the assertion (that carcinomatosis from gi cancer can be cured), although questionable – as shown clearly by the preceding interrogative – cannot be entirely excluded at the time of writing, given the lack of data. 3.1.2. other verb sequences although canonical forms play a significant role in the editorial, the meds as well as the ras also contain a rich variety of other verb combinations. the most important of these are shown in table 3. s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): 59-8268 a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): …-… 3.1.2. other verb sequences although canonical forms play a significant role in the editorial, the meds as well as the ras also contain a rich variety of other verb combinations. the most important of these are shown in table 3. verb sequence p + q meds n (%) ras n (%) truncated forms 27 (15.8) 17 (14.3) past + past 3 (1.8) 61 (51.2) past + modal 12 (7) 4 (3.4) past perfect + past 0 4 (3.4) present + present 43 (25.1) 10 (8.4) present + modal 38 (22.2) 9 (7.5) present + past 2 (1.1) 2 (1.7) others 9 (5.3) 5 (4.2) all 134 (78.3) 112 (94.1) table 3. other verb sequences (excluding canonicals). both genres contain a number of what we have termed truncated forms, involving in the majority of cases partial or complete ellipsis of the p clause: (5) if clinically indicated, additional imaging studies were obtained (ra) such reduced verb forms allow the writer to achieve a greater economy of style. in the more argumentative discussion section of the ras and particularly in editorials, they also enable the writer to confront different voices by briefly encapsulating certain hypotheses, before forcefully presenting their own viewpoint: (6) thus, an important question to be pursued from the report of gamis et al is whether ds-aml cases older than 2 years lack prior history of tmd and gata1 mutations? if so, it would clearly indicate a different biologic origin and possibly a difference in response (med) however, in general, the ras and meds favour very different verb sequences. in the ras, the majority of sequences involve a past tense in both the p and q clauses and occur within the methods section (see carter-thomas & rowleyjolivet, 2008). authors use these if-clauses to refer to specific pieces of research carried out in their research teams: (7) the dose of paclitaxel was reduced by 20% if the patient had grade 4 neutropenia that lasted >5 days (ra). in the meds, in contrast, past tenses are rare; the argumentation is very much anchored in the present with nearly 50% of occurrences containing a present tense in one or both clauses. these forms are used to make generalisations and overviews (example 8), emit hypotheses (example 9) or to make rather authoritative pronouncements (example 10): 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 68 both genres contain a number of what we have termed truncated forms, involving in the majority of cases partial or complete ellipsis of the p clause: (5) if clinically indicated, additional imaging studies were obtained (ra) such reduced verb forms allow the writer to achieve a greater economy of style. in the more argumentative discussion section of the ras and particularly in the editorials, they also enable the writer to confront different voices by briefly encapsulating certain hypotheses, before forcefully presenting their own viewpoint: (6) thus, an important question to be pursued from the report of gamis et al is whether ds-aml cases older than 2 years lack prior history of tmd and gata1 mutations? if so, it would clearly indicate a different biologic origin and possibly a difference in response (med) however, in general, the ras and meds favour very different verb sequences. in the ras, the majority of sequences involve a past tense in both the p and q clauses and occur within the methods section (see carterthomas & rowley-jolivet, 2008). authors use these if-clauses to refer to specific pieces of research carried out in their research teams: (7) the dose of paclitaxel was reduced by 20% if the patient had grade 4 neutropenia that lasted >5 days (ra). in the meds, in contrast, past tenses are rare; the argumentation is very much anchored in the present with nearly 50% of occurrences containing a present tense in one or both clauses. these forms are used to make generalisations and overviews (example 8), emit hypotheses (example 9) or to make rather authoritative pronouncements (example 10): (8) currently, the average life expectancy of a 75-year-old woman is nearly 12 years (17 years if she is healthy), and that of an 85-yearold woman is nearly 6 years (9.6 years if she is healthy). (med) (9) if the results reported by mellado et al. are observed by other investigators, it is possible that detection of cmc could direct selection of high-risk patients for high-dose interferon therapy. (med) a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 69 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 69 (10) if the uk government’s targets for health care are to be realised, the leadership needs to be bold. (med) in (10), the “if to be” structure further suggests not only a projection into the future, but also an evaluation of the desirability of the projected action (declerck & reed, 2001). however, in all three cases the present tenses are used as part of a commentary on the relevance of current practice rather than as part of any narrative focusing on a specific research project. 3.1.3. modals medical discourse in general, as is well-known, is characterised by a high degree of hedging, in which modal forms play a large part (prince, frader & bosk, 1982; adams-smith, 1984; salager-meyer, 1994). vihla (1999) has also found modality to be even more marked in editorials than in ras, a feature which she attributes to genre-dependent forms of argumentation. whereas ra authors use “experimental justification” for their arguments, basing their conclusions on empirical evidence, argumentation in editorials is “interpretative”, relying on the writer’s personal interpretation and opinions. our corpus reflects this trend. as table 4 shows, modal verbs3 are extremely frequent in the med subset: 62% of q clauses contain a modal, compared to only 25% in the ras. in addition to the three canonical conditionals discussed above, a wide range of modal values is found, but also with different distributions in the two genres. what has been called “dynamic” modality (palmer, 1990) – referring to possibility or necessity that is imposed by circumstantial factors or a concrete situation – only appears with any frequency in the ras, where evidential justification has more weight than the authors’ personal opinion: (11) if fu had to be discontinued because of toxicity, the investigator could continue with single-agent oxaliplatin. (ra) s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): 59-8270 s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): …-… (8) currently, the average life expectancy of a 75-year-old woman is nearly 12 years (17 years if she is healthy), and that of an 85-year-old woman is nearly 6 years (9.6 years if she is healthy). (med) (9) if the results reported by mellado et al. are observed by other investigators, it is possible that detection of cmc could direct selection of high-risk patients for high-dose interferon therapy. (med) (10) if the uk government’s targets for health care are to be realised, the leadership needs to be bold. (med) in (10), the “if to be” structure further suggests not only a projection into the future, but also an evaluation of the desirability of the projected action (declerck & reed, 2001). however, in all three cases the present tenses are used as part of a commentary on the relevance of current practice rather than as part of any narrative focusing on a specific research project. 3.1.3. modals medical discourse in general, as is well-known, is characterised by a high degree of hedging, in which modal forms play a large part (prince, frader & bosk, 1982; adams-smith, 1984; salager-meyer, 1994). vihla (1999) has also found modality to be even more marked in editorials than in ras, a feature which she attributes to genre-dependent forms of argumentation. whereas ra authors use “experimental justification” for their arguments, basing their conclusions on empirical evidence, argumentation in editorials is “interpretative”, relying on the writer’s personal interpretation and opinions. our corpus reflects this trend. as table 4 shows, modal verbs3 are extremely frequent in the med subset: 62% of q clauses contain a modal, compared to only 25% in the ras. modals in q meds n (%) ras n (%) total modal verbs4 106 (62) 30 (25) of which canonicals 37 (21.6) 7 (5.9) table 4. modals in the q clause. in addition to the three canonical conditionals discussed above, a wide range of modal values is found, but also with different distributions in the two genres. what has been called “dynamic” modality (palmer, 1990) – referring to possibility or necessity that is imposed by circumstantial factors or a concrete situation – only appears with any frequency in the ras, where evidential justification has more weight than the authors’ personal opinion: (11) if fu had to be discontinued because of toxicity, the investigator could continue with single-agent oxaliplatin. (ra) 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 70 deontic modals however are extremely rare (2 occurrences), indicating that ras are not directly concerned with professional praxis. in the editorials, in contrast, which bridge the gap between research and praxis, both epistemic and deontic modality is frequent. this frequent recourse to epistemic modality in if-clauses enables editorials to fulfil their metatextual role of evaluation, commenting on and assessing arguments expressed in previous texts, whilst at the same time making their own text more persuasive: (12) such an approach is not new and might prove more acceptable if there were a plausible biologic rationale for using a particular clinical parameter. (med) editorialists are expected to take a stand on issues and do not hesitate to make recommendations, with “must” being the most frequent choice here, and with slightly more hedged recommendations using “should”, “could”, “will” or “would”. recommendations in the editorials concern two domains: firstly, legislative, social and financial aspects of medicine, or its socioeconomic environment, where the writer is the spokesman for the medical community in its dealings with governments and institutions: (13) the legal situation in many countries needs to be clarified quickly, but this will only occur in a rational and sensible way if evidencebased conclusions are used to formulate new legislation. (med) secondly, recommendations concern desirable changes to, or improvements in, current medical practices and procedures: (14) if one accepts these treatments as valid, major changes in the management of cancer patients with peritoneal seeding must be considered. in this approach … (med) in this case the editorialist is giving advice not to outside partners, but to his medical peers. 3.2. constructional variants of the if p , q pattern in editorials so far, we have considered only the default expression of if-conditionals: if p, q. not only however do verb forms impact on conditional meaning, but a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 71 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 71 there are also several other formal variants on the basic pattern, each of which imparts a particular shade of meaning. lexemes such as “then”, “only”, and “even” can be added, and the interrogative form can be used in q instead of the usual declarative5. such variants occur with very different frequencies in the two genres: as can be seen in table 5, they represent a significant proportion of all the if-conditionals in the editorials, accounting for 26% (44 occurrences), against only 7.5% (9 occurrences) in the ras. they are, we contend, highly revealing about the argumentative strategies of the editorials. what several of these variants have in common is their potential for greater authorial control over readers’ opinions, either by minimising the tentativeness usually associated with the if-clause, or by negotiating agreement between writer and reader through a subtle management of polyphony, while still preserving the reader’s “face” thanks to the polite and non-assertive value of if. 3.2.1. if p, then q as dancygier (1998) and dancygier and sweetser (1997) have argued, the presence of “then” in the q-clause implies that p is the unique space in which q is located or is valid, thereby excluding competing spaces and, as a result, constraining the interpretation that the reader can put on the if construction. in forcing a causal or strong dependency relation between the two clauses, the if p, then q construction is more categorical than the simple if p, q one. it implies an authorial ethos in which the text producer feels entitled to impose his reasoning process on the receiver. it is interesting to note, therefore, that in the ra, where the adoption of such a position of superiority by the author could be perceived as presumptuous, there are very few occurrences of the if p, then q pattern, whereas one finds twelve occurrences in the editorials: (15) if the provision of such services is not kept in touch with the increasing number of cancer survivors, then the importance of quality of life in cancer will no longer be sustainable (med) s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): 59-8272 s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): …-… the if-clause, or by negotiating agreement between writer and reader through a subtle management of polyphony, while still preserving the reader’s “face” thanks to the polite and non-assertive value of if. meds ras if p, then q 12 4 q only if p 7 0 even if 11 5 if p, q? 14 0 total 44 (26%) 9 (7.5%) table 5. constructional variants of if-conditionals in medical editorials and research articles. 3.2.1. if p, then q as dancygier (1998) and dancygier and sweetser (1997) have argued, the presence of “then” in the q-clause implies that p is the unique space in which q is located or is valid, thereby excluding competing spaces and, as a result, constraining the interpretation that the reader can put on the if construction. in forcing a causal or strong dependency relation between the two clauses, the if p, then q construction is more categorical than the simple if p, q one. it implies an authorial ethos in which the text producer feels entitled to impose his reasoning process on the receiver. it is interesting to note, therefore, that in the ra, where the adoption of such a position of superiority by the author could be perceived as presumptuous, there are very few occurrences of the if p, then q pattern, whereas one finds twelve occurrences in the editorials: (15) if the provision of such services is not kept in touch with the increasing number of cancer survivors, then the importance of quality of life in cancer will no longer be sustainable (med) medical editorialists seem to have fewer qualms about adopting this type of authoritative voice, both towards outside partners (example 15) and towards their medical peers (example 16): (16) if, in addition, we do not have convincing evidence of antitumor responses, then we have little to guide our vaccine development (med). 3.2.2. q only if p (iff) this constructional variant occurs only in the editorials, as such an authorial stance would also undoubtedly be considered overbearing in the ras. the additional meaning imparted to the construction by this lexeme is similar to that of “then”, in that “only” excludes all other conditions apart from the one selected by the author, operating a closure or bounding of the theoretically open space of p, and again imposing a single interpretation on the reader. thanks to 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 72 medical editorialists seem to have fewer qualms about adopting this type of authoritative voice, both towards outside partners (example 15) and towards their medical peers (example 16): (16) if, in addition, we do not have convincing evidence of antitumor responses, then we have little to guide our vaccine development (med). 3.2.2. q only if p (iff) this constructional variant occurs only in the editorials, as such an authorial stance would also undoubtedly be considered overbearing in the ras. the additional meaning imparted to the construction by this lexeme is similar to that of “then”, in that “only” excludes all other conditions apart from the one selected by the author, operating a closure or bounding of the theoretically open space of p, and again imposing a single interpretation on the reader. thanks to the restrictive meaning of “only”, p is specified as the sufficient and necessary condition for q. (17) the project will succeed only if there are enough adequately trained radiologists to operate the equipment and interpret the results (med) the “if and only if ” interpretation is a pragmatic implicature of many ordinary if p, q utterances, that is when the “only” is not voiced, and is generally referred to as conditional perfection (horn, 2000). as with the if p, then q construction, q only if p positions the writer as someone authoritative, licensed to make definitive statements which foreclose all the other possible options that the reader might be tempted to entertain. 3.2.3. even if p, q and q (,) even if p the addition of “even” confers a concessive meaning on the if-conditional. the construction without even can sometimes be interpreted concessively, depending on the assumptions held by the interlocutors, as in dancygier’s (1998: 165) example: “i would marry you if you were a monster from mars”. given the shared assumption that martian monsters do not make attractive husbands, a concessive interpretation would be the normal one here. we have however only one occurrence of such “implicit” concessive a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 73 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 73 conditionals in our data; in all the other cases, the concessive relation is explicitly signalled by the presence of even. concessive conditionals are a very useful structure in argumentative discourse in general, as they enable the author to forestall objections to his argument. by using the form even if p, q or q even if p, the author asserts q whether the possible counter-argument in p is the case or not; conceding or appearing to concede p in fact strengthens the claim in q, which is asserted to hold whatever the status of p. a few concessive conditionals are found in the ras, almost exclusively in the discussion section. however, they are more common in the meds, where editorialists frequently confront and assess the relative merits of different arguments, as in the following example: (18) even if a ban on smoking in public places only reduced the number of passive smokers presenting with tobacco-related diseases, a substantial saving would be made, both in human and economic terms. (med) 3.2.4. interrogative q the use of an interrogative form in q, rather than the usual declarative, is a strong manifestation of attitudinal marking by the author, and occurs only in the editorials (see table 5). questions in general are much more frequent in editorials, as befits their objective of raising controversial issues. webber (1994), in a study of questions in different medical journal genres, found that editorials and reviews combined contained nine times more interrogatives than the ras. hyland (2002) comparing questions in ras, textbooks, and student reports, found them to be over twice as frequent in textbooks as in ras, and proposed the following explanations for this difference: questions are dialogic, involving the reader in the text and in the author’s argument, and are more overtly interactional; they also however exert a considerable degree of discourse control, since the questions asked are the ones chosen by the author and to which he or she has the answers, and are often used in fact to lead the reader in a particular direction. in the ra, questions would be felt to be condescending by many readers, as an egalitarian stance is expected. however, as already pointed out above, the writer-reader relation in editorials is also often an unequal one. both of these aspects – interaction and control – are apparent in the use that medical editorialists make of the if p, q? construction, and indicate very s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): 59-8274 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 74 different argumentative strategies to those of ras. conditional questions, strategically placed in the opening (example 19) or concluding paragraph of the editorial, directly address the readers, involving them in a dialogue on a professional problem and inviting them to speculate on solutions in the hypothetical space opened up by if: (19) a number of barriers to recruitment [of patients in clinical trials] have been identified, with no singular, simple solution forthcoming. but if incremental gains are to be made, how could our current models of clinical trials expand to include significantly more patients? (med) in addition to its interactional utility, the if p, q? variant can also be used to exert editorial control. a first point to note is that all the p-clauses are initial; the interrogative in q is therefore performed against the background already set up by p. the function of the initial p-clause is to encapsulate certain assumptions that can be made from the preceding stretch of discourse, in order to provide a warrant for the question itself. this encapsulation can be done, however, either with a cooperative or with a critical intent, and the presuppositions of p are not the same in each case. an example of the former is: (20) [after a lengthy discussion of the advantages of combination therapy over single-agent therapy] if multiple agents are to be used, which other drugs have clear efficacy against pcnsl? (med) if p sums up the shared writer-reader assumptions from the preceding discourse, and the question in q is one which the reader is likely to wish to ask at this juncture. it can be glossed as: “if [as you the reader and i the writer, now agree, though out of politeness i do not presume to assert that we agree] we need to use multiple agents”. in other cases, however, this encapsulation has the critical intent of enabling the author to question, in q, the assumptions in p. the writer summons into the text another voice in p, by recalling the claims of others, and then proceeds in q to question these claims, both syntactically and rhetorically speaking. the following example could be glossed as “if [as authors x and y claim, an incorrect claim in my opinion so one that i do not assert] a graftversus-lymphoma effect exists …”: a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 75 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 75 (21) after the serious limitations of this analysis are taken into careful consideration, the question remains: if a graft-versus-lymphoma effect does exist, why was evidence of it not observed in this analysis? (med) from a polyphonic perspective, it is clear that the author does not take responsibility for the point of view that “a graft-versus-lymphoma effects exists”: the co-text is highly negative (“the serious limitations of this analysis”), the use of the if operator signifies that the concept evoked is nonassertable, adding the emphatic auxiliary “does” further heightens the doubt, and the negative question in q directly challenges the contested claim. the if p, q? construction has a clear refutative function here. examples (19)-(21) illustrate how the if p, q? structure can be used persuasively to negotiate agreement between writer and reader and confront different points of view. the degree of control exercised by the editorialist over the dialogue with the reader can also on occasion be even greater: (22) if “fit elderly” patients can tolerate aggressive multimodality therapy, does this mean that all older patients should be treated this way? the answer is no. (med) by answering his own question, the editorialist explicitly funnels the debate, adopting a clear didactic stance towards his reader. 4. conclusion this close syntactic analysis indicates that there appears to be a consistent form-function pairing in the use of the if-conditional in medical eds and ras: the specific functions fulfilled by the medical editorial (see the introduction section of this paper) entail different frequencies of use of certain syntactic patterns, and the presence or absence of other syntactic variants of the if construction, compared to the ra. although research articles and editorials can both be classified as argumentative professional discourse, their argument strategies, as illustrated through the form and use of if-conditionals, are very different. if-conditionals in meds make considerably more use of the so-called canonical conditional forms than the ras, principally for making predictions s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): 59-8276 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 76 and for hypothesising. other verb sequences too are exploited very differently in the two genres. whereas ra authors favour past tense sequences for reporting specific pieces of research, in meds the immediacy of the present tenses is preferred. likewise both genres make very different use of modal verbs. formal variations on the basic if p, q pattern are also exploited very differently in the ras and meds. our medical editorials make consistently more use of the lexical variants: if p, then q, q only if p, even if and the interrogative form in q (if p, q?) than the ras. the ifconditional adapts itself to the different argumentative strategies implemented in each of the three agendas – research-oriented, sociopolitical, and praxis-oriented: “the conditional (…) is not a creature of constant hue, but chameleon-like, takes on the colour of its surroundings” (watson & johnson-laird, 1972: 92, quoted in caron, 1979). in accomplishing the research-oriented agenda, certain specific possibilities of the if-conditional construction that we have shown to be typical of editorials are particularly relevant: • “canonical” conditionals 2 and 3 enable the author to open up a counterfactual space and propose alternatives to the researchers’ methods; • the if p, q? variant directly questions the claims put forward or the feasibility of clinical implementation; • the prevalence of epistemic modality in q and the fundamental non-assertibility of the if-conditional are an invaluable resource in making suppositions and interpreting; • the polyphonic potential of concessive conditionals (with “even if ”), and truncated or full forms which encapsulate other points of view, enable the writer to confront different voices; • the optionality associated with if-clauses facilitates the management of the research readership’s “face”. the importance of the socio-political agenda in the communicative aims of the editorials is apparent in several formal features of if-conditionals: • canonical type 1, which occurs frequently in the editorials, is used exclusively to make categorical predictions about social, economic and political problems; a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 77 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 77 • the authoritative stance of constructional variants such as if p, then q or q only if p is often wielded to defend the interests of the profession; • the prevalence of present tense sequences, compared to the past tenses which predominate in the ras, clearly indicates a genre oriented towards present and future action and towards what needs to be done; • the recourse to persuasive, less academically-grounded forms of argumentation than those found in the ra makes these specialized editorials much more accessible to the layman. lastly, when addressing medical practitioners, editorialists have no compunction about making authoritative statements to their professional peers: • variants on the if-conditional construction, such as if p, then q , q only if p enable them to exercise a high degree of authorial control; • the frequent use of deontic modality and recommendations, by showing that medical practice is norm-governed action, reinforces the practitioners’ sense of professional identity. the interactional role of interrogative if-conditionals can also be interpreted as a discursive sign of the social role of editorials within the profession, as by using questions to engage in a dialogue with readers, editorialists involve their readers in unresolved or controversial issues that the medical community as a whole needs to address. in order to accomplish these multiple functions and to formulate their arguments in ways that each of these three readerships will find convincing and appropriate, medical editorialists need to customise their argumentative strategies – to be in turn cooperative, critical, speculative, prescriptive or admonitory. the versatility of the if-conditional construction means that it can successfully lend itself to these different agendas, thanks to the subtle nuances that choices in various formal features provide. as van dijk (1998: 45) succinctly remarks, “many of the discursive strategies of ideological expression are formal”. [paper received 14 march 2013] [revised paper received 7 september 2013] [revised paper accepted 27 october 2013] s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): 59-8278 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 78 references a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 79 adams-smith, d.e. (1984). “medical discourse: aspects of author’s comment”. esp journal 3: 2536. akatsuka, n. (1986). “conditionals are discoursebound” in e. traugott, a. ter meulen, j.s. reilly & c.a. ferguson (eds.), 333-351. akatsuka, n.m. & s. strauss (2000). “counterfactual reasoning and desirability” in e. couper-kuhlen & b. kortmann (eds.), cause – condition – concession – contrast, 205-234. berlin: mouton de gruyter. athanasiadou, a. & r. dirven (1997). “conditionality, hypotheticality, counterfactuality” in a. athanasiadou & r. dirven (eds.), 61-96. athanasiadou, a. & r. dirven (eds.) (1997). on conditionals again. amsterdam: benjamins. bazerman, c. 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(1982). “on hedging in physician-physician discourse” in r.j. di pietro (ed.) linguistics and the professions, 8397. hillsdale nj: ablex. rowley-jolivet, e. (2007). “a genre study of if in medical discourse” in k. fløttum (ed.), 176-201. rowley-jolivet, e. & s. carter-thomas (2008). “when practice belies ‘theory’: form, function and frequency of if-conditionals in specialised discourse”. asp, la revue du geras, 53/54: 3961. salager-meyer, f. (1994). “hedges and textual communicative function in medical english written 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 79 shirley carter-thomas is professor of english linguistics at télécom business school in evry, france and a member of the cnrs research team lattice. she gives courses in research methodology and academic writing to international graduate students. her research areas span functional and contrastive linguistics, esp and writing pedagogy. elizabeth rowley-jolivet is a former senior lecturer in english for specific purposes at the university of orleans in france. she is a member of the laboratoire ligérien de linguistique and of the professional association mediterranean editors and translators. her research interests cover genre analysis, spoken and written communication in science, multimodality and the epistemology of science. notas 1 following the conventions adopted in much of the literature on if-conditionals, we will refer to the subordinate if-clause as the p clause and the main clause as the q clause. 2 the sources are: journal of clinical oncology (jco, 2003), international journal of radiation oncology (ijro, 2003), and the lancet oncology (lo, 2003-2004). the 2012 impact factors of these journals are: jco = 18.038, ijro = 4.524, the lancet oncology = 25.12. 3 we have restricted our analysis here to modal verb forms in the main (q) clause. various types of modalising lexis are also however frequently exploited in the if-conditionals in our med corpus (“it is possible that…”; “perhaps…”; “it is unlikely that…”; “we need to…”). s. carter-thomas & e. rowley-jolivet ibérica 28 (2014): 59-8280 discourse”. english for specific purposes 13: 149170. salager-meyer, f. (2001). “from selfhighlightedness to self-effacement: a genre-based study of the socio-pragmatic function of criticism in medical discourse”. lsp & professional communication 1: 63-82. salager-meyer, f., g. defives, c. jensen & m. de filipis (1989). “communicative function and grammatical variations in medical english scholarly papers: a genre analysis study” in c. laurén & m. nordman (eds.), special language: from humans thinking to thinking machines, 151160. philadelphia: multilingual matters. sweetser, e. (1990). from etymology to pragmatics. cambridge: cambridge university press. traugott, e., a. ter meulen, j.s. reilly & c.a. ferguson (eds.) (1986). on conditionals. cambridge: cambridge university press. van dijk teun, a. (1992). “racism and argumentation: ‘race riot’ rhetoric in tabloid editorials” in f.h. van eemeren, r. grootendorst, j.a. blair & c.a. willard (eds.), argumentation illuminated, 242-259. dordrecht: foris. van dijk teun, a. (1998). “opinions and ideologies in the press” in a. bell & p. garrett (eds.), approaches to media discourse, 21-63. oxford: blackwell. vihla, m. (1999). medical writing. modality in focus. amsterdam: rodopi. warchał, k. (2010). “moulding interpersonal relations through conditional clauses: consensusbuilding strategies in written academic discourse”. journal of english for academic purposes 9: 140150. webber, p. (1994). “the function of questions in different medical journal genres”, english for specific purposes 13: 257-268. 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 80 4 the modal forms in the q clause encompass the following: “would”, “would have”, “will”, “may”, “may have”, “might”, “might have”, “could”, “can”, “must”, “should”. 5 there are a number of other formal variants to the if p, q pattern which will not be dealt with here: notably those related to clause ordering, the use of commas in writing and intonation in speech (see dancygier, 1998). a syntactic perspective on rhetorical purpose ibérica 28 (2014): 59-82 81 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 81 04 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:21 página 82 iberica 13 ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 issn 1139-7241 abstract this paper explores how the economic crisis is reported by analysing one of the most common conceptual mappings related to the economy: economy is a natural phenomenon. more specifically, i analyse the use of natural disasters, weather and apocalyptic metaphors in press covers together with other elements such as metonymies, image schemas, colour and cultural aspects. the aim of this paper is to investigate how all these devices are exploited by journalists to reflect the economic crisis and to influence their readers. a cognitive-axiological approach has been used to analyse seven covers which are closely related to the above metaphors out of 51 published in 2008 in the economist, the prestigious business and current affairs magazine. the analysis is structured according to the theory of cognitive linguistics outlined over the last three decades (amongst others see johnson, 1987; lakoff, 1987 & 1993; lakoff & johnson, 1980; forceville, 1996 & 2006; ruiz de mendoza, 2000; ungerer, 2000; ruiz de mendoza & mairal usón, 2007), but with some additional findings from other axiological contributions (krzeszowski, 1993, 1997 & 2004; and felices lago, 2006 & 2008). keywords: cognitive semantics, metaphors, metonymies, image schemas, axiological linguistics. resumen mecanismos cognitivos para comunicar la crisis econ�mica: un an�lisis a trav�s de las portadas del the economist este artículo analiza cómo se comunica la crisis económica a través de uno de los trazados conceptuales más característicos relacionados con la economía: la economía es un fenómeno natural. más concretamente cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis: an analysis through covers in the economist maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos universidad de almería (spain) mecortes@ual.es 81 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 81 analizamos el empleo de las metáforas de desastres naturales, climatológicas y apocalípticas mostradas en portadas de revistas junto con otros elementos como metonimias, esquemas de imagen, el color y aspectos culturales. nuestro propósito es investigar cómo todos estos elementos son explotados por los periodistas para reflejar la crisis económica e influir en sus lectores. usando un análisis cognitivo-axiológico hemos analizado siete portadas de entre 51 que están estrechamente relacionadas con las metáforas objeto de estudio. dichas portadas han sido publicadas en the economist, prestigiosa revista económica. nuestro análisis se estructura según la teoría de la lingüística cognitiva perfilada durante las tres últimas décadas (johnson, 1987; lakoff 1987 y 1993; lakoff y johnson, 1980; forceville, 1996 y 2006; ruiz de mendoza, 2000; ungerer, 2000; ruiz de mendoza y mairal usón, 2007) añadiendo algunas contribuciones axiológicas (krzeszowski, 1993, 1997 y 2004; y felices lago, 2006 y 2008). palabras clave: semántica cognitiva, metáforas, metonimias, esquemas de imágenes, lingüística axiológica. introduction the financial crisis of 2008 was unleashed as a direct result of the burst of the real estate bubble in the usa in 2006, which brought about the crisis of so-called subprime mortgages in october 2007. the repercussions of the mortgage crisis began to become seriously apparent in early 2008, with the knock-on effect to the us financial system first, and subsequently to international finances. bonis et al. (in allen & synder, 2009: 36) state “a financial crisis is generally defined to be a wider range of disturbances, such as sharp declines in asset prices, failures of large financial intermediaries, or disruption in foreign exchange markets”. one of the important notions connected with the crisis is the way it is covered in the press. the texts and images that journalists use frequently turn to metaphor, as reflected by the dominant culture and the values that define it. metaphor is frequently used in current economic discourse as the following examples from mccloskey (1986) show: economies need equilibrium, otherwise they will collapse; public debt is a burden; currencies may be weak or currencies may be strong and business moves in cycles. in fact, white (1996) highlights extensive evidence of the widespread and systematic use of metaphor in press discourse, claiming that it plays a key role in articulating textual cohesion and coherence, which make maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): 81-10682 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 82 an essential contribution to the communicative nature of press discourse. likewise martin moore (2008) affirms: for some reason the current crisis in finance/banking is attracting an astonishing bevy of analogies. many people have gone for classic weather metaphors (tornadoes, hurricanes whirlwinds), others prefer to up the ante and go for natural disasters (tsunamis, fires) and a few not wanting to be overdone in the over-egging go rather apocalyptic (black holes, doomsday machines). in this paper i would like to contribute, using a cognitive approach, to the understanding of the above metaphors used in the economic arena together with the metonymies, image schemas, colour and cultural aspects1 which accompany them. more specifically, my aim is to investigate how all these devices are exploited by journalists to report on the economic crisis and to influence their readers. it is widely accepted that metaphor and metonymy are essential tools of conceptualisation of economic problems that are often artfully manipulated to attract the audience’s attention, to persuade them and to perform diverse communicative functions. as cubo de severino, israel and zonana (1988) affirm, metaphors have two very important functions: (1) to manipulate readers’ minds through the inference patterns and value judgements generated by metaphors; (2) to give a more concrete representation of the situation at hand, making it clearer. as regards image schemas, these underlie all aspects of meaning and cognition and hence they influence important aspects of how we think, reason, and imagine, and can therefore play a very important role in persuasion (gibbs & colston, 2006). as a consequence, it is to be argued that these cognitive devices, together with colour and cultural elements, can also be useful tools to communicate persuasively and reinforce the most significant aspects of a financial situation. persuasion as a communicative strategy is usually present in everyday situations, for example, in an advertisement, political meeting, etc. schmidt and kess (1986: 2) define it as “the process of inducing a voluntary change in someone’s attitudes, beliefs or behaviour through the transmission of a message”. the sample of this paper consists of seven of the 51 covers published in the economist in 2008 which clearly dealt with the economic crisis in terms of natural disasters, weather and apocalyptic metaphors. this paper is divided into the following sections. the first one will be devoted to the state of the art of metaphors and economics, metonymies, image schemas and colour. cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 83 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 83 secondly, the sample under analysis and the methodology used will be introduced. this section will act as the basis for the empirical analysis of the cognitive structures, image schemas, colour and cultural aspects in the covers illustrated. the final section will draw some conclusions. state of the art metaphors and economics before analysing some of the most relevant studies of metaphor applied to economic discourse, i believe that it is pertinent to give a brief overview of the main features of magazine covers. generally speaking, the fundamental characteristic of a magazine cover is that it has a monothematic structure: a background photograph or illustration and a headline that sums up the topic and that may be accompanied by other verbal elements (guimarães, 2000). however, the magazine cover is not simply a visual and verbal summary of what is considered the most important current topic; it is also an important form of self-advertising. the magazine cover will have to jostle for newsstand shelf-space with countless other publications, and so it must be able to attract the reader’s attention. a vast range of colours and fonts can help to highlight the information, hopefully making it stand out, but also acting as a visual magnet, drawing attention to it and away from other publications (golzio, 2003). magazine covers offer a vision of the world and of reality, and they present a strong symbolic meaning, seeking the greatest visual impact in order to transmit emotions. considering magazine covers as self-advertising, as mentioned above, we should bear in mind that as advertising messages are inspired by a great number of metaphors, metonymies and image schemas which seek to differentiate one product or service from the rest (ungerer, 2000; cortés de los ríos, 2001; rocamora abellán, 2004; forceville, 1996 & 2006; velasco sacristán & cortés de los ríos, 2009; among others), magazine covers also present the same cognitive structures and mental patterns. if, as lakoff and johnson (1980: 5) argue, “the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another”, the possibilities metaphor offers for advertising are obvious. metaphorical processes can also play a role in advertising images. forceville (1996) was the first to introduce a comprehensive theory of pictorial metaphor in advertising, which offers a very detailed and useful model for analysis that maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): 81-10684 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 84 has been widely adopted by researchers. metaphors always express an evaluation of the target in terms of good or bad, praise or blame, and so on, which is why they are so useful in persuasive argument. three general categories of metaphorical realisations can be identified for advertising metaphors: verbal, pictorial and multimodal (forceville, 1996 & 2006), which can accommodate even more specific subtypes: pictorioverbal, verbopictorial, etc. forceville (2006: 10) pursues the thesis that if: (...) conceptual metaphor theory is right in assuming that humans pervasively use verbal metaphor because they largely think metaphorically, then metaphorical thought should manifest itself not just in language, but also via all other modes of communication, such as pictures, music, sounds and gestures. advertising is generally based on primary metaphors, but it also gives rise to secondary ones through a creation process. primary metaphor, according to lakoff and johnson (1999), is a way to conceptualize, reason and visualize subjective experience with reference to other domains of experience, mostly sensory motor domains of incoming sensory experiences and our own body movements. economics is most probably the discipline in which most research into metaphor has been carried out within the domain of english for specific purposes (esp). since the irruption of cognitive linguistics in the 1970s different studies have been carried out to show the application of this theory to the field of esp. metaphor offers economics language transparency and specificity and particularly the language of finance is, from the linguistic point of view, one of the most dynamic and interesting fields of business english due to its innovative and popular register (adams & cruz, 2007). metaphors tell us the perspective of the speaker or how the speaker wishes us to see things. in referring to the “tsunami” caused by the collapse of monetary funds, the “credit drought” or the “strength of the financial hurricane”, economic phenomena are presented as unleashed forces of nature. in this way their negative consequences are highlighted. the intention is to explain them away as a natural event for which no one in particular can be held responsible. the first rhetorical effect is to eliminate any responsibility. as jameson (2009) states, rhetoric is just a tool and it can be used for good or ill. a second effect is to instil fear and resignation in the face of what is depicted as inevitable and universal. the use of metaphor is especially visible in communicating crises since they are cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 85 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 85 often used to transmit strong emotions of hope and fear, even though it is known that every addressee has different interests and reacts in a different way to negative information (lützenrath, peppmeier & schuppener, 2006). the metaphor observatory (2008) introduced a few choice metaphors to express the financial crisis in american crisis. among others, the many metaphoric perspectives are categorized into: • boating: shipwreck; • weather: perfect storm, hurricane; • tectonic: earthquake, tsunami, tidal wave; • enemy ambush: twin towers, pearl harbour; • habit: addiction, enabler; • accidental: blunder, crash, train wreck, rescue, bailout; • religious: holocaust, armageddon; and • health: heart attack, cancer. i shall now go on to review some of the most relevant works dealing with analysis of metaphor in economic discourse. white (1996 & 2004) studies the use of metaphor in the british press in reference to the monetary crisis of 1992. this linguist analyses the press’ systematic, widespread usage of metaphor to deal with the monetary crisis and highlights metaphor’s major contribution to the cohesion and coherence of texts. boers (1997) pays special attention to a cluster of metaphors related to the notions of health, fitness and racing, for example, long term subsidies are addictive or lagging behind competition. fuertes olivera (1998) defends the cognitive value of metaphor in economic texts, analysing those used by economists to conceptualise the idea of inflation via the metaphors inflation is an organism, inflation is a horse, inflation is a disease and inflation is an enemy. gómez parra, e et al. (1999) focus on metaphorical expressions in spanish and english that reflect the metaphor the stock exchange is a moving object. maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): 81-10686 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 86 herrera and white (2000) propose a methodology focused on cognitive semantics to teach the metaphorical uses of growth, as in economic growth wilts under higher taxation or strong exports accelerate growth. charteris-black (2000) investigates the theoretical implications of metaphor for the selection and teaching of lexis on esp courses. of particular interest is the use of inanimate metaphors to describe economy as animals, for example, inflation as a horse (galloping inflation). charteris-black and ennis (2001) analyse metaphors in financial reporting in english and spanish based on the market crash in 1997. their analysis showed that the economy is an organism is the metaphor most frequently used in financial reports, followed by market movements are physical movements and market movements are natural disasters. according to millar and beck (2004), as far as the metaphorical aspect of the financial crisis is concerned, two domains dominate, namely container and war, whereas the third one – disease – is much less popular in crisis rhetoric. the container metaphor is used to convey the fact that inside activities are controlled, whereas outside ones represent negative aspects, such as enemies or potential dangers. serón ordóñez (2005) analyses metaphor in financial texts from the translator’s point of view. the semantic fields covered in economics discourse are the following: animated features, health, war, mechanisms, sailing, fluids, plants, meteorological phenomena, sports and animals. personifications are used in order that non-human entities may be categorised as positive or negative characteristics. the recession is personified by aggression, being defined as an adversary that attacks social measures (such as an instrument that can cut, hit or destroy). bielenia-grajewska (2009) discusses some metaphorical terms in investment banking communication in the following languages: english, german, spanish and polish. metonymy, image schemas and colour metonymy only involves one conceptual domain, that is to say, the mapping occurs within a single domain and not across domains. in metonymy there is a “stand for” relationship since one entity in a schema is taken to stand for cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 87 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 87 another entity in the same domain or for the domain as a whole. metonymies are usually represented by the schema x for y, where x represents the source domain and y symbolizes the target meaning of the metonymic operations. likewise, metaphor and metonymy may interact in a number of ways (goossens, 1995; taylor, 1995; ruiz de mendoza ibáñez, 1999a & 1999b; ruiz de mendoza & díez velasco, 2003; geeraerts, 2003; and hampe, 2005). their conceptual and semiotic interaction is of significant relevance in advertising (cortés de los ríos, 2001; rocamora abellán, 2004; felices lago & cortés de los ríos 2009; amongst others). as regards image schemas, turner (1991: 58) points out that: image-schemas are extremely skeletal images that we use in cognitive operations. many of our most important and pervasive image schemas are those underlying our bodily sense of spatiality. they include our imageschema of verticality, of a path leading from a source to its goal, of a forward motion, of a container (or more accurately of a bounded space with an interior and exterior), of contact, and of such orientations as up-down, front-back, and centre-periphery. we have many image-schemas of a partwhole relational structure (...) when we understand a scene, we naturally structure it in terms of such elementary image-schemas. as mentioned previously, image schemas underlie all aspects of meaning and cognition and hence they motivate important aspects of how we think, reason, and imagine. nevertheless, in spite of this importance, they have not yet been sufficiently explored. as argued by gibbs and colston (2006: 260), “they are a crucial, undervalued dimension of meaning”. we believe that image schemas are helpful in attaining the goal of persuading and influencing press readers’ opinion. as human beings are always evaluating what can be good or bad for them, researchers fall back on these cognitive structures since the positive or negative value of each image schema is also added to the concept or picture. in this sense, krzeszowski (1990: 161) pointed out that “many lexical items carry heavy axiological weight, and that weight is semantically relevant”. furthermore, he makes a case for lakoff ’s (1987) idealized cognitive models (icms) as a starting point for the development of a general theory of values. accordingly, the level of experience constitutes the first step to configure a hierarchy of values relative to the way people evaluate situations. in addition, krzeszoswki (1993, 1997 & 2004) argued that the axiological parameter positive-negative lends special dynamism to the use of preconceived schemata in metaphorisation. maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): 81-10688 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 88 it is difficult to find image schemas in isolation. indeed, linguistic analyses have shown that image schemas can serve as source domains of countless metaphors (lakoff & johnson, 1980; lakoff, 1987; barcelona sánchez, (ed.) 2000; hampe, 2005), metonymies (díez velasco, 2001) and metaphormetonymy interaction (ruiz de mendoza, 1999a, 1999b & 2000). another element to be highlighted due to its persuasive value in magazine covers is colour. the colour system has been a crucial factor in the understanding of embodied language (feldman, 2006). as it is an integral element of corporate and marketing communications it induces moods and emotions, influences consumers’ perceptions and behaviour and helps companies position or differentiate themselves from the competition. as lakoff and johnson (1999) state, colours and colour categories are not “out there” in the world but are interactional. colour concepts and colour-based inferences are thus structured by our bodies and brains. categories of cognitive colours are capable of “conveying” sensations or concepts to the person observing them. hence, they do affect how we feel and react to certain covers. since we do not actively think of colours and the ideas they remind us of, the effect colours have on us is subliminal. although we are not conscious of it all the time, this affective influence colours have on us is very powerful, as humans have been conditioned to accept colours to represent specific ideas such as the stereotypical black for negative things and white for pure things. sample and methodology in order to carry out the analysis of the sample selected i preferred to follow the lines of the theory of cognitive linguistics outlined over the last three decades (amongst others see johnson, 1987; lakoff, 1987 & 1993; lakoff & johnson, 1980; forceville, 1996 & 2006; ruiz de mendoza, 2000; ungerer, 2000; ruiz de mendoza & mairal usón, 2007), but adding some findings from other axiomatic contributions (krzeszowski, 1993, 1997 & 2004; and felices lago 2006 & 2008). in this paper i analyse the exploitation of nature, weather and apocalyptic metaphors, metonymies and image-schemas in press covers together with colour and cultural aspects and how they are used for communicating economic crisis. i will identify cases of metaphormetonymy interaction and metaphors and metonymies based on image schemas, as well as image schemas standing alone. for the analysis of cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 89 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 89 metaphors i will consider their modality: monomodal (verbal, pictorial) or multimodal (pictorio-verbal, verbo-pictorial). as regards image schemas they will be classified according to evans and green’s (2006) typology: (a) space: up-down, front-back, left-right, near-far, centre-periphery, path, straight-curved, scale. (b) containment: in-out, full-empty. (c) multiplicity: part-whole, count-mass. (d) balance: axis balance, point balance equilibrium. (e) force: compulsion, blockage, counterforce, diversion, enablement, attraction, resistance. (f) cycle2. (g) attribute: heavy-light, dark-bright, big-small, warm-cold, strongweak. in addition to this classification the motion image-schema forward-backward (turner, 1991) will be considered. i will incorporate an axiological approach with a view to determining which image schemas journalists use to support the metaphors and metonymies shown on the magazine covers. are they all negative schemas, or are there also positive ones to convey a slight sense of hope in the face of the economic upheaval and uncertain future? as for colour, i will analyse whether on the magazine covers studied all the colours are dark due to the negative connotations of the selected metaphors or whether lighter colours also appear to counteract these connotations. with regard to culture, kramsch (1998: 127) states that “it is a membership in a discourse community that shares a common social space and history, and a common system of standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating, and action”. with this idea in mind, i will analyse cultural aspects that feature in the chosen covers reporting on the financial situation. the sample of this paper consists of seven of the 51 covers published in the economist in 2008 which clearly dealt with the economic crisis in terms of natural disasters, weather and apocalyptic metaphors. these seven are the only ones that feature the metaphors under study. the one with the apocalyptic metaphor appeared on 6th december; those concerning natural disasters were published on 22nd march, 19th july, 20th september and 22nd maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): 81-10690 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 90 november; finally, those concerning weather metaphors appeared on 26th january and 25th october. the above-mentioned metaphors are closely related, as a natural disaster could be caused by a violent storm and give rise to an apocalyptic image. therefore, all seven metaphors will be analysed without distinguishing between categories. our analysis will be based on a table showing the cognitive structures (metaphors and metonymies), metaphor modality (monomodal or multimodal) and image schemas that appear on each cover. analysis of the covers the first cover (see figure 1 and table 1) portrays the verbo-pictorial metaphor, money which is in a black hole is down. a black hole is an area of space/time brought about by a great mass in its interior which produces a huge increase in density. this causes a gravitational field of such force that no particle can escape it, not even photons. the black hole draws in investors’ money to the unchartered depths. this image schematic metonymic-metaphor is based on the image schemas of space (up-down), containment (in-out) and attribute (dark-bright, big-small) in which the negative value is held by “down”, “in”, “dark” and “big”. it can be observed that there is an axiological clash with the value of big as this is prototypically a positive value in image schemas. these image schemas are associated to the metonymy-based metaphor of more is down with money. this metaphor contradicts the universal experience of the piling frame, according to which more quantity means an increase in verticality (i.e. more is up). in addition more is down is also based on lack of control (i.e. money falling inside the hole). the rapid pace of the financial crisis means it has become very difficult to have an overview of the financial transactions which are taking place. on the other hand, we can distinguish another classical metonymy, clothes for the person in this case, the business suit for investors. as regards colours the journalist has mainly used dark colours to transmit the negative effects of the crisis such as blue-grey on the ground and the business suit and black for the hole. however, on the left one can see bright blue and green, a little yellow and a red flower, as signs of hope in desperate times. interestingly, the businessman is not able to see these bright colours as he is in a weak, kneeling position looking into the hole. cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 91 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 91 the title of this cover taps a cultural meaning. it comes from the song “all the flowers gone” by pete seeger and this interpretation is reinforced by the single flower in the background. the first stanza of the song hints at the idea that the content of the song is related to the current economic situation: where have all the flowers gone, long time passing, where have all the flowers gone, long time ago, where have all the flowers gone, young girls picked them ev’ryone, when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn? in the third line the phrase “picked them ev’ryone” could be construed as meaning that capitalism is consuming everything without thinking of the maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): 81-10692 maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): …-…10 green, a little yellow and a red flower, as signs of hope in desperate times. interestingly, the businessman is not able to see these bright colours as he is in a weak, kneeling position looking into the hole. figure 1. apocalyptic metaphor (6th december, 2008). types metaphor (money which is in a black hole is down)cognitive structures metonymy (the business suit for investors) metaphor modality mutlimodal: verbo-pictorial image schema space/containment/attribute: up-down/in-out/ dark-bright, big-small table 1. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 1. the title of this cover taps a cultural meaning. it comes from the song “all the flowers gone” by pete seeger and this interpretation is reinforced by the single flower in the background. the first stanza of the song hints at the idea that the content of the song is related to the current economic situation: maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): …-…10 green, a little yellow and a red flower, as signs of hope in desperate times. interestingly, the businessman is not able to see these bright colours as he is in a weak, kneeling position looking into the hole. figure 1. apocalyptic metaphor (6th december, 2008). types metaphor (money which is in a black hole is down)cognitive structures metonymy (the business suit for investors) metaphor modality multimodal: verbo-pictorial image schemas space/containment/attribute: up-down/in-out/ dark-bright, big-small table 1. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 1. the title of this cover taps a cultural meaning. it comes from the song “all the flowers gone” by pete seeger and this interpretation is reinforced by the single flower in the background. the first stanza of the song hints at the idea that the content of the song is related to the current economic situation: 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 92 future. the girls picked every flower without thinking that there would soon be none left. we could transfer this scenario to the economy. those committing bad economic practices consume and waste resources without thinking of the consequences. in the case of the financial crisis this could mean the granting of unlimited loans in various countries e.g. the united states of america. the last line could allude to the frustration and disappointment of the general public. no one believes in a change in the economy. economists, bankers and politicians have learnt neither from past crises nor from the knowledge of economic theory. the second cover under study is shown in figure 2 and contains the verbopictorial metaphor the economic crisis is an earthquake cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 93 cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 11 where have all the flowers gone, long time passing, where have all the flowers gone, long time ago, where have all the flowers gone, young girls picked them ev’ryone, when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn? in the third line the phrase “picked them ev’ryone” could be construed as meaning that capitalism is consuming everything without thinking of the future. the girls picked every flower without thinking that there would soon be none left. we could transfer this scenario to the economy. those committing bad economic practices consume and waste resources without thinking of the consequences. in the case of the financial crisis this could mean the granting of unlimited loans in various countries e.g. the united states of america. the last line could allude to the frustration and disappointment of the general public. no one believes in a change in the economy. economists, bankers and politicians have learnt neither from past crises nor from the knowledge of economic theory. figure 2. natural disaster metaphor (22nd march, 2008).maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos types metaphor (the economic crisis is an earthquake shaking wall street) cognitive structures metonymy (the street stands for the institution) metaphor modality multimodal: verbo-pictorial image schemas balance table 2. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 2. the second cover understudy is shown in figure 2 and contains the verbopictorial metaphor the economic crisis is an earthquake shaking wall street based on the image schema of balance. in this case, economic balance has been lost. the world’s economic foundations have been shaken by the earthquake that wall street has suffered. this metaphor carries an almost explicit comparison with the fall of the berlin wall (durand, 2008). it is well known that the fall of the berlin wall led to a new world order, and this particular crash may well lead to a new world economic order. the negative value lies in the loss of balance. in addition we can distinguish the following metonymy: the street stands for the institution. 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 93 shaking wall street based on the image schema of balance. in this case, economic balance has been lost. the world’s economic foundations have been shaken by the earthquake that wall street has suffered. this metaphor carries an almost explicit comparison with the fall of the berlin wall (durand, 2008). it is well known that the fall of the berlin wall led to a new world order, and this particular crash may well lead to a new world economic order. the negative value lies in the loss of balance. in addition we can distinguish the following metonymy: the street stands for the institution. as regards colour, we should highlight the golden colour of the lettering, intended to associate it with money, on the black background of the wall, again stressing the negative situation of the american economy. the red text is intended to persuade possible readers to buy this edition of the economist as this colour highlights the report on the economic crisis and also transmits the sense of danger for the economy. maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): 81-10694 cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis figure 3. natural disaster metaphor (19th july, 2008). types metaphor (the economic problems of savings banks are twin tornadoes) cognitive structures mutlimodal: verbo-pictorial metaphor modality attribute/movement: big-small, dark-bright/ forward-backward image schema space/containment/attribute: up-down/in-out/ dark-bright, big-small table 3. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 3. the verbo-pictorial metaphor the economic problems of savings banks are twin tornadoes shown in figure 3 is based on the 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 94 the verbo-pictorial metaphor the economic problems of savings banks are twin tornadoes shown in figure 3 is based on the following image schemas: attribute (big-small, dark-bright) and movement (forward-backward). “big” interacts with the primary metaphor importance is size (grady, 1999). the size of the tornadoes intensifies the economic destruction caused by the crisis which is highlighted by the colour black. the twisters are moving forward, which means that the financial crisis is not over and that it may destroy even more than it already has. we observe that there are axiological clashes with the values of big and forward as those are prototypically positive values in image schemas. as a result, the negative values are introduced by “big”, “dark” and “forward”. the headline of this cover, twin twisters, also alludes to the expression twin sisters. the journalist is personalising the two main economic problems brought about by the crisis (i.e. fannie mae and freddie mac) as twin sisters in order to stress that the economic problems are similar, on the one hand, and to “humanize” the problem on the other. as regards colours, dark tones appear not only in the images, but also in the headline. the journalist’s intention is to transmit negativity. the red colour is used to convey the two main economic problems faced by the usa in 2008; the colour not only communicates these problems but also acts as a warning about the extreme situation facing the country. in the fourth cover (see figure 4) the verbo-pictorial metaphor the economic crisis is a whirlpool interacts with the space schema (up-down). in this case the direction is downward, and the parameter of control is implicit in the logic of the schema, as it is difficult to control. as a result, this image schema is linked to the primary metaphor being subject to control or force is down. the whirlpool itself stands for the downward spiral of the global economy that drags everything down. the schema of verticality suggests a negative axiological loading due to the downward direction. cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 95 ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 13 figure 3. natural disaster metaphor (19th july, 2008). types metaphor (the economic problems of savings banks are twin tornadoes) cognitive structures multimodal: verbo-pictorialmetaphor modality attribute/movement: big-small, dark-bright/ forward-backwardimage schemas space/containment/attribute: up-down/in-out/ dark-bright, big-small table 3. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 3. the verbo-pictorial metaphor the economic problems of savings banks are twin tornadoes shown in figure 3 is based on the following image schemas: attribute (big-small, dark-bright) and movement (forward-backward). “big” interacts with the primary metaphor importance is size (grady, 1999). the size of the tornadoes intensifies the economic 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 95 in the same way, the metaphor, the economic crisis is a whirlpool offers a case of metonymy within metaphor. the source domain whirlpool has a metonymic basis. the metonymy corresponds to the type container-for-contained metonymy and more particularly whirlpool for contained. most famous and economically powerful institutions are being sucked into a container, the whirlpool. the colours are mainly shades of blue, white and dark colours up to black on some edges. blue represents depth and power. depth is associated with the depth of the container (the whirlpool) and the power is related to force. maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): 81-10696 cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 15 figure 4. natural disaster metaphor (20th september, 2008) types metaphor (the economic crisis is a whirlpool)cognitive structures metonymy (whirlpool for contained). metaphor modality mutlimodal: verbo-pictorial image schema space: up-down table 4. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 4. as regards the cultural aspects, the bull is a symbol of economic success and a healthy stock-market. this arises from a famous legend in which californian gold diggers arranged a show-fight between a bull and a bear. the bull tossed up the bear with his horns (increasing stock-market quotations) and the bear fought down the bull (decreasing stock-market quotations). in this image, the bull, a signal of strength and economic power, is being pulled down by the vortex. cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 15 figure 4. natural disaster metaphor (20th september, 2008) types metaphor (the economic crisis is a whirlpool)cognitive structures metonymy (whirlpool for contained). metaphor modality multimodal: verbo-pictorial image schemas space: up-down table 4. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 4. as regards the cultural aspects, the bull is a symbol of economic success and a healthy stock-market. this arises from a famous legend in which californian gold diggers arranged a show-fight between a bull and a bear. the bull tossed up the bear with his horns (increasing stock-market quotations) and the bear fought down the bull (decreasing stock-market quotations). in this image, the bull, a signal of strength and economic power, is being pulled down by the vortex. 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 96 the whole background is held in black which makes it appear more drastic. the title begging the question “what next?” is in large, white letters, which should be interpreted as a sign warning of some economic danger. as regards the cultural aspects, the bull is a symbol of economic success and a healthy stock-market. this arises from a famous legend in which californian gold diggers arranged a show-fight between a bull and a bear. the bull tossed up the bear with his horns (increasing stock-market quotations) and the bear fought down the bull (decreasing stock-market quotations). in this image, the bull, a signal of strength and economic power, is being pulled down by the vortex. cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 97 maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos figure 5.natural disaster metaphor (22nd november, 2008). types 1. metaphor (the economic crisis is a credit drought) 2. metaphor (the sun is money) cognitive structures 1. metonymy (the business suit for investors) 2. metonymy (the coin for money) metaphor modality multimodal: 1. verbo-pictorial 2. verbo-pictorial image schemas movement/space: forward-backward/up-down/near-far table 5. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 5. the verbo-pictorial metaphor the economic crisis is a credit drought shown in figure 5 is based on the image schema of movement (forward-backward) which interacts with the primary metaphor progress is forward movement. the businessman at the bottom is looking for liquid funds which can be equated with a water-seeking man in the desert. the businessman is crawling towards the money which on the one hand has created the economic stranglehold, but on the other hand is his salvation. the maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos figure 5.natural disaster metaphor (22nd november, 2008). types 1. metaphor (the economic crisis is a credit drought) 2. metaphor (the sun is money) cognitive structures 1. metonymy (the business suit for investors) 2. metonymy (the coin for money) metaphor modality mutlimodal: 1. verbo-pictorial 2. verbo-pictorial image schema movement/space: forward-backward/up-down/near-far table 5. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 5. the verbo-pictorial metaphor the economic crisis is a credit drought shown in figure 5 is based on the image schema of movement (forward-backward) which interacts with the primary metaphor progress is forward movement. the businessman at the bottom is looking for liquid funds which can be equated with a water-seeking man in the desert. the businessman is crawling towards the money which on the one hand has created the economic stranglehold, but on the other hand is his salvation. the 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 97 the verbo-pictorial metaphor the economic crisis is a credit drought shown in figure 5 is based on the image schema of movement (forward-backward) which interacts with the primary metaphor progress is forward movement. the businessman at the bottom is looking for liquid funds which can be equated with a water-seeking man in the desert. the businessman is crawling towards the money which on the one hand has created the economic stranglehold, but on the other hand is his salvation. the businessman thirsts to arrive there because he expects to find fresh cash. the forward movement is valued positively. the verbo-pictorial metaphor the sun is money is based on the image schema of space (up-down; near-far). the sun is above the man and directs our life. the image of distance is depicted by the near-far schema. the sun, which is the cause of the drought, is also money. it is on the horizon, but no matter how hard we try we can never reach it. consequently, the negative value is held by far. on the other hand, we can depict another classical metonymy, clothes for the person in this case, the business suit for investors. at the same time, we can conceptualize another metonymy the coin for money. the text is very interesting, as we can see the contrast between black and white: white for the better clause “all you need is cash”, and black for the worse clause “managing in the downturn”. we should also highlight the blue of the horizon which emphasises the distance. regarding cultural aspects, the headline is an imitation of the very famous 1967 song “all you need is love” by “the beatles”, which should be interpreted as an indication of the essential nature of cash as the only thing you need to live. the sun is illustrated as a coin (quarter dollar = 25 us cents) with the image of george washington so as to highlight the potential strength of the dollar among world economies. in figure 6 the verbo-pictorial metaphor economic problems are climatic conditions is based on the movement schema (forwardbackward). here forward is evaluated negatively and positively. the storm is advancing, however, the man is coming towards us and, in spite of the weather, the man continues doing business. the negative value is held by forward in relation to the movement of the storm towards us. we observe that there is an axiological clash with the value of forward as this is prototypically a positive value in image schemas, but at the same time maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): 81-10698 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 98 forward is related to the businessman advancing despite adverse weather conditions, and this is evaluated positively. we should take into account the fact that the image of this cover shows a clearly tropical scenario, the place where the storms can be most intense and destructive. in fact, tropical storms are the most devasting weather phenomena. the intensity of the storm on this cover is what highlights the determination of the businessman. the pictorial metaphor the ray of lightning is the falling plotted line of a graph is based on the image schema of space (up-down) in which the negative value is held by down. the ray of lightning produces maximum damage on touching the earth, and when the stock exchange reaches bottom it has crashed. cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 99 maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos figure 6. weather metaphor (26th january, 2008). types 1.metaphor (economic problems are climatic conditions) 2. metaphor (the ray of lightning is the falling plotted line of a graph) cognitive structures metonymy (the business suit for investors) metaphor modality mutlimodal: 1. verbo-pictorial 2. pictorial image schema movement/space/containment: forward-backward/up-down/in-out table 6. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 6. on the other hand, we can depict another classical metonymy, clothes for the person in this case, the business suit for investors. we should also highlight the image schema of containment (in-out) which is depicted in the headline (“it’s rough out there”). everyone knows that economic activity is mainly carried out outside a container. it is necessary to go out into the street, in other words outside the container, to do business and make the maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos figure 6. weather metaphor (26th january, 2008). types 1.metaphor (economic problems are climatic conditions) 2. metaphor (the ray of lightning is the falling plotted line of a graph) cognitive structures metonymy (the business suit for investors) metaphor modality multimodal: 1. verbo-pictorial 2. pictorial image schemas movement/space/containment: forward-backward/up-down/in-out table 6. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 6. on the other hand, we can depict another classical metonymy, clothes for the person in this case, the business suit for investors. we should also highlight the image schema of containment (in-out) which is depicted in the headline (“it’s rough out there”). everyone knows that economic activity is mainly carried out outside a container. it is necessary to go out into the street, in other words outside the container, to do business and make the 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 99 on the other hand, we can depict another classical metonymy, clothes for the person in this case, the business suit for investors. we should also highlight the image schema of containment (in-out) which is depicted in the headline (“it’s rough out there”). everyone knows that economic activity is mainly carried out outside a container. it is necessary to go out into the street, in other words outside the container, to do business and make the economy grow. in this case being outside is valued positively, although here the value presented is negative, as illustrated by the expression: “it’s rough”. as regards colour, the plot of the graph in red represents the dramatic state of the economy. maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106100 cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis economy grow. in this case being outside is valued positively, although here the value presented is negative, as illustrated by the expression: “it’s rough”. as regards colour, the plot of the graph in red represents the dramatic state of the economy. figure 7. weather metaphor (25th october, 2008). types metaphor (butterflies are emerging economies in a storm) cognitive structures metonymy (a butterfly for each continent) metaphor modality mutlimodal: verbo-pictorial image schema space/movement/containment: up-down/forward-backward/in-out table 7. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 7. the last cover to be analysed (figure 7) shows the verbo-pictorial metaphor butterflies are emerging economies in a storm. it is based on the image schemas of space (up-down), movement (forward-backward) and container (in-out). the butterflies are gaining altitude and advancing. these insects are fragile, like emerging economies, and so they transmit the weakness cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis economy grow. in this case being outside is valued positively, although here the value presented is negative, as illustrated by the expression: “it’s rough”. as regards colour, the plot of the graph in red represents the dramatic state of the economy. figure 7. weather metaphor (25th october, 2008). types metaphor (butterflies are emerging economies in a storm) cognitive structures metonymy (a butterfly for each continent) metaphor modality multimodal: verbo-pictorial image schemas space/movement/containment: up-down/forward-backward/in-out table 7. analysis of the cover illustrated in figure 7. the last cover to be analysed (figure 7) shows the verbo-pictorial metaphor butterflies are emerging economies in a storm. it is based on the image schemas of space (up-down), movement (forward-backward) and container (in-out). the butterflies are gaining altitude and advancing. these insects are fragile, like emerging economies, and so they transmit the weakness 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 100 the last cover to be analysed (figure 7) shows the verbo-pictorial metaphor butterflies are emerging economies in a storm. it is based on the image schemas of space (up-down), movement (forwardbackward) and container (in-out). the butterflies are gaining altitude and advancing. these insects are fragile, like emerging economies, and so they transmit the weakness of the economy. the fact that they are “inside” a storm means that there is a risk of falling and not being able to rise back up. it is a well-known fact that if a butterfly’s wings get wet it will not be able to fly. the crisis is so serious that if the group of adult butterflies disappears, then the whole generation will disappear. however, as they attempt to fly above the clouds there remains some hope that the bad economic situation can be overcome. in the real world butterflies do not fly in formation, this underlines the fact that all the emerging economies are linked together. the positive value is held by up and forward and the negative value is held by in. on the other hand, we can depict the following metonymy: a butterfly for each continent. in the cover we can see six butterflies, each of them representing an economic continent: north america, south america, europe, asia, africa and oceania. in each of these continents there are diverse emerging economies so the butterflies as a whole stand for all the world’s emerging economies. dark colours predominate and appear separated by an orange sky to convey the dangerous situation that the world economy is experiencing. the butterflies feature the same colours, which serves to emphasise the shared situation. conclusions we should highlight that extreme natural phenomena are used to capture the magnitude of the economic crisis. our analysis has proved that most of the metaphors of natural disasters, weather and apocalypse that are used to report on the economic crisis in 2008 interact with metonymies and image schemas. most of the metaphors are multimodal. in most cases the source domain alludes to natural disasters or climatic conditions as conventional metaphors, although in other cases creative metaphors appear, such as the sun is money or butterflies are emerging economies in a storm. one cover presents a case of metonymy within metaphor: whirlpool for contained (see table 4). in another cover an cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 101 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 101 image schema (down) is part of the source domain. we are referring to the image schematic metonymic-metaphor: money which is in a black hole is down (see table 1). in addition, the metonymies found in relation to the economic crisis on the magazine covers in question are as follows: • container-for-contained (see table 4) • clothes for the person (the business suit for investors) (see tables 1, 5 and 6) • street for the institution (see table 2) • the coin for money (see table 5) • a butterfly for each continent (see table 7) this analysis has also shown that most metaphors and metonymies are based on image schemas to convey the financial crisis and to strengthen its negative nature. in this regard, the metaphors studied always convey a negative evaluation of the financial situation and this is the reason why they are so useful in persuasive argument. however, as regards image schemas, most of them are negative but there are also some positive ones to mitigate the economic situation. image schemas that have appeared in this analysis – and in those that have combined metaphor and metonymy – have been those of space (up-down; near-far), containment (in-out), attribute (dark-bright; big-small), balance and movement. on one occasion an image schema appears alone: containment (in-out). in addition, we have found specific emphasis on values in the covers under analysis. some of the prototypically positive values of some image schemas have often been used with a negative value (e.g. big, forward) thus producing axiological clashes and proving that they are not merely representative of universal experience, but crucially tied to specific socio-cultural cognition. we should also mention that big and forward are used with their prototypical positive value to transmit the idea that despite adversity, an effort is being made to continue with financial dealings. as for colour, dark colours stand out as a sign of negativity and red as a sign of danger, but at the same time bright colours like green and yellow can also be used to transmit hope. regarding cultural aspects, we should highlight the use of song titles such as maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106102 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 102 “all the flowers gone” by pete seeger and “all you need is love” by the beatles in headlines to report on the economic crisis. these songs are wellknown and help to attract the readers’ attention and make them reflect on a given situation. in general titles and covers of the sample analysed characteristically practise underdetermination.3 in short, this work shows that metaphors which are used to convey the idea of economic crisis are backed up by other cognitive devices to persuade and influence the readers’ behaviour and lead them to a certain position which the journalist has intended. metaphors persuade because metaphoric thinking structures and influences the way that an audience reads and reacts to an event. and it is known that people make decisions based on emotion and logic, and metaphors can be powerful in attaching emotional significance to the seemingly ordinary. for example, describing economic crisis as a natural disaster is far more evocative and inspiring than referring to it in literal terms. journalists often use these resources to achieve their goals of moving their audiences and changing their attitudes. our analyses have demonstrated that cognitive metaphors, metonymies, image schemas, colours and cultural aspects are used as an overall persuasive strategy in the financial context. 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(1995). linguistic cross-categorization. prototypes in linguistic theory. oxford: clarendon paperbacks. turner, m. (1991). reading minds: the study of english in the age of cognitive science. princeton, nj: princeton university press. ungerer, f. (2000). “muted metaphors and the activation of metonimies in advertising” in a. barcelona sánchez (ed.), 321-340. velasco sacristán, mª s. & mª e. cortés de los ríos (2009). “persuasive nature of image schematic devices in advertising: their use for introducing sexism” in revista alicantina de estudios ingleses 22: 239-270. white, m. (1996). la metáfora en el tratamiento de la crisis monetaria en la prensa británica. madrid: servicio de publicaciones de la universidad complutense de madrid. white, m. (2004). “turbulence and turmoil in the market or the language of a financial crisis”. ibérica 7: 71-86. 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 105 ibérica 20 (2010): 81-106 maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos english for specific purposes and didactics applied to languages for specific purposes. notes 1 in this regard we do not aim to analyse culture in figurative language, but rather american and british cultural aspects used in the covers of the economist. 2 a cycle schema is an image schema which involves repetitious events and event series. 3 semantic underdetermination is related to the distinction between what is said and what is implicated. 106 04 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:22 página 106 iberica 13 ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract metaphor is a critical component of being an architect: it mediates the various stages involved in architectural design, motivates a large part of the jargon used in the discipline, and is consistently used as a rhetorical strategy in many of the genres articulating architectural communication. given its importance in architectural practice and discourse, the teaching of metaphor should be included in the syllabi of english for specific purposes (esp) courses taught at polytechnic schools. the purpose of this paper is twofold. on the one hand, i describe how various metaphors inform architects’ practice – from the first design phase to the post-construction assessment distributed in one of the most popular genres in the community; that is, the architectural review. drawing insights from cognitive and genre research into the role of metaphor in the discipline, i then suggest ways in which metaphorical competence can be fostered in esp courses aiming at facilitating the students’ gradual enculturation process into their future community of practice. keywords: metaphor, architecture, genre, disciplinary acculturation, esp pedagogy. resumen p e ns a nd o , d ib uj a nd o y e s c r ib ie n do a rq ui te c tu ra me di a nte l a m e tá f ora la metáfora es un componente esencial del trabajo de los arquitectos: interviene en las distintas fases del diseño de un proyecto, motiva una gran parte de la jerga de la profesión, y es una de las estrategias más recurrentes en muchos de los géneros que conforman el discurso de la arquitectura. dada su importancia en la práctica y la interacción comunicativa de los arquitectos, la metáfora también debería formar parte de los programas de inglés como lengua específica (ife) que se enseñan en las escuelas politécnicas. en este sentido, los objetivos de este thinking, drawing and writing architecture through metaphor rosario caballero universidad de castilla-la mancha (spain) mrosario.caballero@uclm.es 155 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 155 ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 rosario caballero artículo son dos. en primer lugar, se describe el papel de la metáfora en la práctica de la arquitectura – empezando por la fase de diseño de edificios y acabando en la evaluación de los mismos en uno de los géneros más populares del discurso arquitectónico: la reseña de arquitectura. a partir de esta descripción de la metáfora como mecanismo cognitivo y de su uso en dicho género, se hace una propuesta que contribuya a fomentar la competencia metafórica de los estudiantes de arquitectura en cursos de ife entendiendo que dicha competencia puede contribuir a que hagan suyos los conocimientos y prácticas característicos de su futura comunidad profesional. palabras clave: metáfora, arquitectura, género, asimilación disciplinar, pedagogía ife. introduction in 1991 the spanish magazine el croquis published the article “como acotar un croissant” (how to lay out a croissant) in which architects eva prats and enric miralles explained, in graphic and verbal form, how to decompose the orthogonal geometry hidden in the many folds of this pastry roll (see appendix). twenty years later, we find the croissant example in the programmes of subjects dealing with architectural composition in schools of architecture (e.g. the university of buffalo or the school of architecture of barcelona etsab).1 the text is interesting in several respects. first, it points to the associative or figurative quality of architectural design – that is, architects’ consistent use of non-architectural entities when designing spatial artefacts. second, by verbally explaining what is displayed in graphic form, the text underlines the importance of language in a discipline often regarded as an exclusively visual affair. interestingly, both language and images often exhibit the same degree of figurativeness: on the one hand, the architects use a croissant to explore composition and dimensionality transformations – that is, two operations involved in architectural design; on the other, the expressions “a surface wraps itself ”, “half moon”, “constellations of centerpoints” or “tangents” used for describing the croissant itself – and by extension, any building informed by this pastry – are also figurative. moreover, although the text belongs to a spanish magazine, it is also rendered in english, thus illustrating the status of this language as a lingua franca in the discipline – as also attested by architectural magazines worldwide. finally, the text shows, step by step, how the topological properties of an everyday entity can be 156 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 156 abstracted for their further translation into spatial terms – that is, how it is actually done. in short, the croissant example nicely points to the figurative, multimodal – verbal and visual – and enactive quality of architectural design. in the present paper i describe the role and function of metaphor in the discourse of architects in order to suggest ways in which research into its textual and communicative function can be integrated in esp courses for architecture undergraduates. the basic assumptions are that (a) metaphorical “competence” is critical in the architectural realm and, therefore, needs to be explicitly taught; and (b) its introduction in the classroom must involve both images and language as well as action-based or enactive activities in order to be fully effective and compliant with what happens in the discipline. the reasons underlying this agenda are two. first, unlike other fields where metaphor may play a supporting role, in architecture metaphor is critical: together with being part of the discipline’s theoretical repository (forty, 2000), it informs all the stages of designing a building as well as the language used to discuss it (with clients, colleagues, etc.) before, during and after its construction where it motivates jargon terms (for example, “skin”, “cladding” or “sawtooth roof ”) or language describing spatial arrangements as “crouching creatures” in more innovative terms.2 therefore, esp courses should promote the acquisition of metaphorical competence in order to facilitate the learners’ enculturation process and gradual insertion in their chosen disciplinary community. the second reason lies in the very competences, objectives and strategies included in the syllabi of architecture degrees,3 among which we find: • competences dealing with spatial vision, creativity and imagination, critical reasoning, oral and written communication (both in spanish and english), conception and representation of the visual properties of objects and spaces, assessment of finished artefacts, and engagement in architectural criticism; • objectives concerned with the study and knowledge of (a) form as image and structure – models, types and relationships between form and meaning, symbolic processes, etc.; (b) representation and interpretation processes; (c) ways of looking: perceiving and describing; (d) abstraction as a means to identify the inherent properties of objects, and, most interestingly; (e) architectural criticism; thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 157 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 157 • strategies aimed at the acquisition of techniques involving analogy and imaginative processes, and at familiarizing students with reading and writing about architectural topics. all these reveal an awareness of the importance of training architecture undergraduates in acquiring those cognitive and discursive skills most relevant for their chosen disciplinary community. not only is metaphor one such skill (as suggested by descriptors like “creativity”, “imagination” or “symbolic processes”), but is an intrinsic component of architects’ thought and language. in the following section i show how metaphor is used in architectural design as well as in texts concerned with post-construction assessment – in many ways, the two sides of the same coin. metaphor in architecture the present discussion draws upon my previous work on metaphor in the discourse of architects (caballero, 2006, 2009 & 2013; caballero & paradis, 2013). combining insights from conceptual metaphor theory (cmt) and genre analysis after the seminal work of lakoff and johnson (1980 & 1999) and swales (1990) respectively, i described metaphor’s contribution to furnishing architects with a system for thinking and discussing built space in the architectural reviews (hereafter ars); that is, one of the most popular genres in architectural discourse and regarded as “a central and invaluable tool in architectural education – in the basic teaching of design, as well as in the production of reflexive, informed, and discerning professional graduates” (stead, 2003). concerning the “thinking” aspect, metaphor has been regarded as a design trigger or primary generator (darke, 1979; oxman, 1999; goldschmidt & sever, 2011). plowright (2014) provides a more straightforward description of the value of metaphor in architecture – and one which is congruent with cmt views on metaphor. he describes architectural design itself as a domain-to-domain transfer whereby outside knowledge is mapped or translated into architecture-specific inside knowledge – an operation which, if done well, enriches and reinforces the architectural content or, in cmt terms, domain. simply put, the ability to integrate – that is, map – knowledge across domains lies at the very core of creativity in both metaphor and architectural design. this integration of seemingly disparate ideas into architectural solutions is also acknowledged by practitioners themselves. the rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180158 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 158 following example shows architect zvi hecker explaining how his heinzgalinski school in berlin started to take shape and gradually evolved during its construction:4 a drawing of the geometry of a sunflower was given to me (…) it demonstrated how the spirals determine the growth of the sunflower seeds, and that the spiral proceeds in the golden progression (…) the jewish school in berlin provided me with the opportunity to pursue my fascination with the phenomenon of the sunflower’s phenomena a little bit further: adapted to fit the program of the school, the sunflower lost much of its precise geometrical structure, but it retained its dynamic and organic character (…) the sunflower’s celestial construction seemed most suitable for planning the school, since its seeds orbit the sun and the sun rays illuminate all of the schoolrooms. in time it became evident that the school, whilst under construction, was gradually transforming into an intricate city. streets and courtyards followed the paths of the orbits and the infinitesimal traces of the sun rays. (…) the building was nearing completion when an uncertainty arose. by now the construction resembled neither a sunflower nor a city but a book whose open pages carry the load of the construction. (…) following a lengthy talmudic debate, the school was eventually found to be built correctly. it was acknowledged that the sunflower, when transplanted from the holy land to berlin evolved naturally into a book. the experts declared that the transformation was unavoidable since the book represented the only lot jews were allowed to cultivate in the diaspora. not only do architects often think in metaphors when approaching a new design, but such metaphors are translated into verbal and graphic form. this thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 159 thinking, drawing and writing arquitecture ibérica 28 (2014): …-… figures 1 & 2. sketch and axonometry of heinz-galinski school. not only do architects often think in metaphors when approaching a new design, but such metaphors are translated into verbal and graphic form. this is illustrated in figures 1 and 2 where hecker’s sunflower may be discerned in the sketch and the axonometric drawing as well as in the language used by the architect. interestingly, this is not the only metaphor involved in this building: the school started as a “sunflower”, yet turned into “an intricate city” and ended up being “a book”. this mixture of metaphors reflects the evolution of the architect’s ideas along different construction phases as well as the various properties of the finished building – from its visual traits to the more abstract and/or symbolic concerns underlying its design. however, despite the architect’s explanation of how the three metaphors cohere into his building, the school is known as “the sunflower”, and this is also the visual metaphor mostly used by those architects – design scholars, reviewers, and so forth – who have commented upon the building in specialized architectural publications. hecker’s quote above also indirectly addresses one of the most controversial issues in metaphor research; that is, the difficulties derived from distinguishing between visual and non-visual knowledge and, accordingly, between image metaphors and conceptual metaphors as customarily done in cmt. thus, conceptual metaphors have been defined as resulting from mapping conceptual knowledge and being mainly concerned with providing ontological status and structure to typically abstract concepts and activities (for example, “a tightly-knit neighbourhood” or “the architect stitched the new to the old” instantiating spatial artefacts/arrangements are cloth and building is weaving respectively). in contrast, image metaphors are described as mapping conventional mental images onto other conventional mental images by virtue of their similar appearance (for example, “the building is a jagged fan of five overscaled concrete fins”). however relevant the distinction may be for discussing the ways architects construe their specific world, drawing the line between visual and conceptual knowledge in the discipline is not easy. indeed, 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 159 is illustrated in figures 1 and 2 where hecker’s sunflower may be discerned in the sketch and the axonometric drawing as well as in the language used by the architect. interestingly, this is not the only metaphor involved in this building: the school started as a “sunflower”, yet turned into “an intricate city” and ended up being “a book”. this mixture of metaphors reflects the evolution of the architect’s ideas along different construction phases as well as the various properties of the finished building – from its visual traits to the more abstract and/or symbolic concerns underlying its design. however, despite the architect’s explanation of how the three metaphors cohere into his building, the school is known as “the sunflower”, and this is also the visual metaphor mostly used by those architects – design scholars, reviewers, and so forth – who have commented upon the building in specialized architectural publications. hecker’s quote above also indirectly addresses one of the most controversial issues in metaphor research; that is, the difficulties derived from distinguishing between visual and non-visual knowledge and, accordingly, between image metaphors and conceptual metaphors as customarily done in cmt. thus, conceptual metaphors have been defined as resulting from mapping conceptual knowledge and being mainly concerned with providing ontological status and structure to typically abstract concepts and activities (for example, “a tightly-knit neighbourhood” or “the architect stitched the new to the old” instantiating spatial artefacts/arrangements are cloth and building is weaving respectively). in contrast, image metaphors are described as mapping conventional mental images onto other conventional mental images by virtue of their similar appearance (for example, “the building is a jagged fan of five overscaled concrete fins”). however relevant the distinction may be for discussing the ways architects construe their specific world, drawing the line between visual and conceptual knowledge in the discipline is not easy. indeed, by claiming that “the sunflower lost much of its precise geometrical structure” and alluding to those other traits which do remain in his building after the initial sunflower metaphor, hecker is acknowledging the complex nature of the process of thinking a building and translating it into three-dimensional space. put differently, despite the graphic slant of architects’ work, overemphasizing the visual at the expense of the conceptual would hugely overlook the fact that the former is always linked to the latter and vice versa. as it is, hecker’s drawing upon a sunflower seems to combine both “types” of knowledge, since together with its “geometry”, he liked the flower’s “celestial” traits and the fact that “its seeds rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180160 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 160 orbit the sun and the sun rays illuminate all of the schoolrooms”. although the architect’s initial interest lies in the visual traits of a sunflower, this gives way to more abstract concerns dealing with celestial, symbolic and dynamic notions suggested by its shape, which hecker ends up relating to education – that is, an abstract concept. the information carried by different metaphors and the way these are used in the discipline is the topic of the following section. metaphor and architectural jargon metaphor is part of architects’ theoretical repository, underpinning the complex knowledge schemas to be acquired in their long training. for instance, notions of built space articulated by biology or mechanistic metaphors are part and parcel of architects’ disciplinary acculturation and, therefore, conventional and automatic within the discipline (see also the discussion on engineering metaphors in roldán-riejos & úbeda-mansilla, 2006 & 2013; roldán-riejos, úbeda mansilla & santiago lópez, 2011). this is best illustrated by some of the jargon used for talking about the functional and structural properties of buildings (“spine”, “bowels”, “mechanics”), the way they are spatially arranged (“rhythm”), their problems and “pathologies” (“fatigue”, “blister”, “bleeding”), and their external appearance (“muscular”, “feminine”, “sinewy”). in turn, language metaphors are more focused on architects’ work and the discipline per se; that is, underlie such conventional expressions as “vernacular” architecture or architectural “genre(s)”, “syntax”, “semantics”, “vocabulary” or “rhetoric”, all of which foreground the “intertextual” dimension of architects’ work as well as their compliance with a set of combinatory rules and conventions. table 1 shows some of the metaphors informing architectural jargon. in agreement with the characteristics of the discipline, some metaphorical jargon carries visual information (“cross tee”, “i-beam”, “i-joist”), other terms are exclusively concerned with buildings’ functional, abstract properties (“fatigue”), and some lexis combines visual and functional knowledge (“skin”, “skeleton”, “rib”). however, as pointed out earlier, the properties of built artefacts cannot be compartmentalized into form versus function – alone or in combination. rather, built space is also characterized by sensory information related to mass, texture, luminosity, sound, or smell. in other words, experiencing architecture brings in properties related to what thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 161 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 161 buildings ‘feel’ like, that is, is a holistic, enactive or embodied and multimodal experience. this may be illustrated by qualifiers such as “crisp” or “rugged” and musicand textile-informed nouns such as “fabric”, “grain” or “rhythm”, all of which express buildings’ textural properties by blending distal (sight, sound) and proximal (touch) perceptual experiences in the same expression. indeed, architectural texture is not relegated to what can be felt with the human hand: standard definitions of texture cover both the tactile and visual quality of buildings’ surfaces (harris, 2006); accordingly, when architects design a building they also consider “optical texture” (e.g. the façade of the palazzo medici in florence illustrates this property as resulting from, yet not limited to, rhythm, repetition, and the use of material).5 a final example illustrating architects’ sensory concerns is “acoustical glare”, i.e. the harsh quality of sound inside buildings caused by too flat and smooth walls or surfaces. this is shown in the passage below: making sense. (…) in our ocular-centric design culture, where does sound fit and how does it inform the development of domestic architecture? (…) the project advocates an aural-ocular design strategy, a way of thinking that enlists new technologies to provoke a set of enhanced social and sensory experiences in domestic space (...) mix house integrates a new kind of window wall within an acoustic design that achieves a condition that we take rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180162 thinking, drawing and writing arquitecture ibérica 28 (2014): …-… source domains metaphors and examples organic buildings are living organisms skin, membrane, skeleton, rib, haunch, hip, bowels, blister, fatigue textiles architectural practice is cloth making stitch, weave, thread, knit buildings/cities are cloth city’s/building’s fabric, tightly-knit (spaces) building elements are pieces of cloth/clothing clad(ding), jacket(ing), sheath(ing), sheet(ing), curtain wall, apron, sleeve language architecture is language imagery, lexicon, vocabulary, syntax, idiom, rhetoric buildings are texts vernacular machine buildings are machines mechanisms, mechanics architectural practice is musical practice choreograph, orchestrate buildings are musical pieces rhythm i-beam, i-joist, j channel, v-truss shapes & 3-d objects butterfly/sawtooth roof, half-barrel/barrel/corbel/fan/groin/net/spiral vault table 1. metaphorically motivated jargon. in agreement with the characteristics of the discipline, some metaphorical jargon carries visual information (“cross tee”, “i-beam”, “i-joist”), other terms are exclusively concerned with buildings’ functional, abstract properties (“fatigue”), and some lexis combines visual and functional knowledge (“skin”, “skeleton”, “rib”). however, as pointed out earlier, the properties of built artefacts cannot be compartmentalized into form versus function—alone or in combination. rather, built space is also characterized by sensory information related to mass, texture, luminosity, sound, or smell. in other words, experiencing architecture brings in properties related to what buildings ‘feel’ like, that is, is a holistic, enactive or embodied and multimodal experience. this may be illustrated by qualifiers such as “crisp” or “rugged” and musicand textile-informed nouns such as “fabric”, “grain” or “rhythm”, all of which express buildings’ textural properties by blending distal (sight, sound) and proximal (touch) perceptual experiences in the same expression. indeed, architectural texture is not relegated to what can be felt with the human hand: standard definitions of texture cover both the tactile and visual quality of buildings’ surfaces (harris, 2006); accordingly, when architects design a building they also consider “optical texture” (e.g. the façade of the palazzo medici in florence illustrates this property as resulting from, yet not limited to, rhythm, repetition, and the use of material).5 a final example illustrating architects’ sensory concerns is “acoustical glare”, i.e. the harsh quality of sound inside buildings caused by too flat and smooth walls or surfaces. this is shown in the passage below: 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 162 for granted in media: the integration of sound and image. by incorporating cutting-edge technologies with traditional acoustic principles, the project rethinks and extends the modernist notion of visual transparency to include aural transparency as well. (architectural design, vol. 78) this sensuous approach to built spaces, which starts yet transcends what they look like, has led some architects to underline the role of the haptic system in experiencing three-dimensionality, i.e. the sine qua non of architecture (bloomer & moore, 1977; pallasmaa, 2005 & 2009; see also caballero & paradis, 2013). haptic experience is seen as simultaneously combining feeling and doing: it encompasses, directly or indirectly, most other senses and, particularly, motion since it is acquired through action – that is, it depends on motor skills. given the critical status of the latter, architects’ recurrent use of motion metaphors in order to describe buildings is far from surprising. some of the figurative expressions thus informed instantiate the scenario moving within a building is making a journey whereby people’s movement inside built spaces is described as a journey and those spaces are referred to as the buildings’ “routes” (usually co-occurring with “circulation”), “itineraries”, “paths”, or “promenades”. a second use of motion metaphors appears to be more concerned with verbalizing how people – often prospectively – feel buildings while interacting with and inside them – that is, it expresses a more holistic experience. consider the following description of steven holl’s cité de l’océan et du surf in biarritz: holl understands the visceral thrill of communing with the ocean’s rollicking power. such experiences feed through into the muscular yet sensuous architecture, which cups and cradles visitors within the concrete wave. the curved platform also acts as a belvedere rising up to address the site and frame views to the distant western horizon where sea meets sky. this sense of compression and release is intended to suggest the experience of surfing. ‘it’s analogous to being on a rolling sea,’ says holl, ‘when you dip down in a valley of water and are spatially enclosed (…) then the sea lifts you up and you can see in every direction.’ (on the beach in biarritz with steven holl, the architectural review, september 2011) here the reviewer combines visual information, the building as a “concrete wave” or one of its parts as “rising up to address the site”, with information less precise yet alluding to the sensual experience provided by its spaces, as explicitly pointed out by qualifying the ensemble as “sensuous architecture”. for instance, “muscular” conveys both visual and haptic information, while thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 163 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 163 the verbs “cup” and “cradle” and the nouns “compression” and “release” attempt to capture what the building feels like when inside it. the ensuing explanation by the architect likening it to “being on a rolling sea” reinforces these ideas. in short, metaphor is one of the cognitive and linguistic mechanisms whereby knowledge is construed, (re)codified, disseminated and, eventually, legitimized in architecture. one of the contexts typically involved in such endeavours is the genre of architectural reviews, as described in the following section. metaphor in post-construction genres: the architectural review metaphor also works as a rhetorical tool in the various genres articulating architectural communication. this is particularly noteworthy in postconstruction texts such as ars where the use of metaphor meets the genre’s topical and rhetorical concerns. ars are relatively short texts aimed at describing and evaluating built arrangements. both goals underlie the textual organization of the genre, which is typically organized around three distinct sections: introduction, description, and closing evaluation. each section is further structured in various textual sequences which are themselves organized in agreement with the way authors choose to accomplish their rhetorical goals. figure 3 summarizes the genre’s structure. rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180164 thinking, drawing and writing arquitecture ibérica 28 (2014): …-… in short, metaphor is one of the cognitive and linguistic mechanisms whereby knowledge is construed, (re)codified, disseminated and, eventually, legitimized in architecture. one of the contexts typically involved in such endeavours is the genre of architectural reviews, as described in the following section. metaphor in post-construction genres: the architectural review metaphor also works as a rhetorical tool in the various genres articulating architectural communication. this is particularly noteworthy in post-construction texts such as ars where the use of metaphor meets the genre’s topical and rhetorical concerns. ars are relatively short texts aimed at describing and evaluating built arrangements. both goals underlie the textual organization of the genre, which is typically organized around three distinct sections: introduction, description, and closing evaluation. each section is further structured in various textual sequences which are themselves organized in agreement with the way authors choose to accomplish their rhetorical goals. figure 3 summarizes the genre’s structure. title + lead introduction creating context introducing the building first evaluation of the building description providing technical/budget/construction details of the building outlining building’s general organization and/or appearance (overall plan) describing the parts/components of the building highlighting parts/traits of the building closing evaluation technical card visual data + captions figure 3. rhetorical structure of the architectural review. regarding the topics covered in the texts, metaphor helps reviewers comment on (a) the architect’s intervention by drawing upon seemingly related practices, for example architectural practice is cloth making or musical practice as in architects’ “weaving”, “choreographing” or “orchestrating spaces”; (b) the buildings’ external appearance, for example a building described as a “concrete wave” in the previous description of steven holl’s cité de l’océan et du surf in biarritz; or (c) their functional properties, e.g. buildings are living organisms with “breathing” needs and “bleeding” problems, or machines (their “mechanics”). of course, focusing on one aspect of buildings at the expense of others has rhetorical implications: by choosing and exploiting certain metaphors, reviewers foreground and/or downplay those aspects of the building at issue that best suit 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 164 regarding the topics covered in the texts, metaphor helps reviewers comment on (a) the architect’s intervention by drawing upon seemingly related practices, for example architectural practice is cloth making or musical practice as in architects’ “weaving”, “choreographing” or “orchestrating spaces”; (b) the buildings’ external appearance, for example a building described as a “concrete wave” in the previous description of steven holl’s cité de l’océan et du surf in biarritz; or (c) their functional properties, e.g. buildings are living organisms with “breathing” needs and “bleeding” problems, or machines (their “mechanics”). of course, focusing on one aspect of buildings at the expense of others has rhetorical implications: by choosing and exploiting certain metaphors, reviewers foreground and/or downplay those aspects of the building at issue that best suit their own views and arguments. put differently, metaphor is one of the strategies used by reviewers in order to textually reconstruct architectural projects as they like. consider the following review of hecker’s jewish school: the sunflower opens. a children’s world was invaded on 15 september by political and media giants during the official opening of zvi hecker’s heinz-galinski school in berlin (…) at the centre of his geometrically extrapolated sunflower plan lies an open air foyer around which twoand three-storey ‘petals’, classroom, caretaker’s house, sports and multi-purpose halls, swirl centrifugally, connected by ‘snake’ corridors and ‘mountain’ stairways. the reinforced concrete column and beam structure (…) zvi hecker has created a small city with open air and covered gathering points, private corners, alleys and cobbled courtyards. at every turn there are glimpses of trees and garden, choices of ways through or out of the building. he thinks of the school as ‘a secret society (…) zvi hecker’s plastic ensemble of forms has elements which although stationary and rooted in the earth seem to be in fluid and dynamic movement. like a citroën 2cv with playful and detachable parts, as opposed to a sleek mercedes, it has human scale and does not intimidate the user. zvi hecker himself remarked, on seeing his school from the air, that the roofscape looked like a friendly meeting of whales. shapes and volumes within the building arouse many topographical, animal and plant associative thoughts, and as hecker has said, ‘education is about broadening children’s horizons, through a harmonious development of their mind, their soul, their body. it is an organic process and should take place in an organic environment.’ (layla dawson, the architectural review, november 1995) thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 165 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 165 this critic endorses hecker’s sunflower metaphor, using it to open the text as well as in the description of the building: its plan is a “geometrically extrapolated sunflower” and its internal spaces are “twoand three-storey ‘petals’” which “swirl centrifugally” – the latter alluding to hecker’s explanation of his choice of metaphor. this is mixed with the more ad-hoc expressions “snake corridors” and “mountain stairways” after their shape. in order to evaluate the building, the reviewer abandons the sunflower metaphor and uses the metaphorical simile “like a citroën 2cv with playful and detachable parts”, presenting the building as humane and friendly rather than intimidating. these qualities are reinforced by quoting the architect’s views on the school’s roof as looking “like a friendly meeting of whales”, a comment which, as happens with the reviewer’s, is mainly concerned with visual information (for a detailed discussion, see caballero, 2013). the review published one year later, follows a different strategy: scholastic sunflower. in the first jewish school built in berlin since the nazi times, zvi hecker has used his obsession with geometry to generate a network of memorable particular places to act as a humane backdrop to education. [the building] is full of incident and exploitation of a local occurrence, full of nooks and crannies, full of subtle variations of shape and size: yet it is highly controlled. the “sunflower” which is the generating idea is always traceable but not overbearing (…) in the process of walking around the building, the mediterranean experience is remembered. the left-hand side (seen from the street) is a knife cut through the sunflower system (…) turning round into the rear playground the sheer range of the parts and the knitted quality of the whole add to this. of course, it is a town. what else could it be? and the total system reinforces the analogy. the radiating sweeps define “quartiers” and their streets, the “snakes”, are a countermovement, somewhat like a stream, the edges of the town have different physiognomies dependent upon circumstance: one tight, one heroic, one secret and one casually falling away. the quality of external space is of a series of localities. hecker has exploited this internally (…) in his own words, hecker wants the school to be a “big family house” rather than an institution. so there are several places in which he enjoys (and encourages) the fact that the kids can hide. he enjoys the fact that only the inmates really know all the routes through the building. town rather than house (...) the mediterranean characteristic pervades in the question of surface and incision. in only one part of the building does he (quite deliberately) offer a “standard” two-storey run of repeated rooms and window-and-spandrel architecture (…) it will be interesting to listen to the (inevitable) comparisons that will be made between the school and libeskind’s jewish museum. the latter is surely much more rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180166 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 166 of a citadel than this building. yet symbolism and light preoccupy both (...) surely an architect’s interpretation of “beth-sepher” … the house of the book … which is its basic form, by the way. (peter cook, the architectural review, june 1996) this reviewer also uses the sunflower metaphor to open the review, point to hecker’s original idea, and refer to the building’s plan. other visuallymotivated language concerns reference to parts of the building as “a knife cut through the sunflower system,” or as “snakes”, and the final commentary quoting the architect’s views of his building as “the house of the book” yet relating it to the school’s external appearance. however, most commentary relies on an urban metaphor (again, drawing upon hecker himself) whereby the school is equated to a “town” or “citadel”, and its internal spaces are described as “localities”, “quartiers”, “edges” (of the town), and “routes” – all of them compliant with the aforementioned metaphor as well as articulating a virtual tour inside the building at the hands of the reviewer. the way each review is crafted illustrates some of the negotiation strategies in architectural criticism which, in turn, respond to the multimodal quality of architectural texts where images not only play as important a role as verbal explanations, but are usually regarded as the true language of the discipline. the provision of visual information together with the audience’s expertise and, hence, ability to interpret what is graphically shown determines the way critics couch their views in the texts. typically, the use of scare quotes and similes draws attention to the interpretative – as opposed to the factual – quality of the reviewers’ commentary and, by so doing, leave their readers free to interpret the building as they choose. as particularly illustrated in the previous review by layla dawson (the architectural review, november 1995), the fact that this usually happens with visually-motivated language suggests that reviewers are aware that their reference to spaces as, for instance, “petals,” “snakes” or “mountains” may be potentially face-threatening for their visually literate audience and, therefore, that they are more ready to negotiate seeing than thinking. in contrast, less visual metaphorical language exhibits a more amodal and apparently objective quality fully compliant with the abstract information it conveys. readers may also strongly disagree with such commentary, yet disagreement cannot be validated by means of images provided in the texts and, therefore, remains a personal, individual reaction to the critic’s arguments. this is the case of the previous review by peter cook (the architectural review, june 1996): the reviewer appears to be mainly concerned with the dynamic, “civic,” and experiential qualities of hecker’s thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 167 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 167 school, all of them symptomatic of good design, yet fairly “abstract” until actually experienced by the users of the building. indeed, regardless of the architect’s use of the town metaphor in his own texts, the schematic explanation in these contrasts with the reviewer’s more elaborated portrayal, who interprets the architect’s work in more detail. put differently, the most “abstract” metaphors among those used by the architect to explain the evolution of his sunflower-building become the true rationale of the finished artefact at the hands of this particular reviewer. the fact that the metaphor originates in the architect under evaluation reinforces the reviewer’s status as a valid interpreter and judge of his work within the architectural community. in short, metaphors in the ar genre not only help architect-critics to reconstruct all the complexities involved in threedimensional, built space in a way that enables readers to better understand them, but are also first-order rhetorical strategies symptomatic of what goodwin (1994) called a “professional vision”. the foregoing description has shown how metaphor informs architectural design, e.g. the thinking part of architects’ work, the jargon used to refer to buildings and their parts, and their post-assessment at the hands of the architectural critics. the focus so far has been placed upon how fullyestablished – expert – members of the architectural community use metaphor. the question now is to determine how knowledge of this use may help promote metaphorical competence in esp courses for architecture undergraduates. metaphor in architectural education when reflecting upon esp practices in the early 1980s, widdowson (1983: 104) pointed out that “to learn to be an engineer must involve an initiation into ways of thinking and behaving which define that secondary sub-culture, and the use of language in this initiation is bound to conform to these subcultural conventions.” these early views on the instrumental role of language in the training process of future professionals coincide with some of the goals of the current tertiary education context. a similar view can be found in lave and wenger (1991), lantolf and pavlenko (2001), and norton (2001). their ideas about the language classroom are summarized by breen (2001: 8) as follows: rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180168 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 168 we have identified the language classroom as a particular context of the learning process (…) it can be seen as a specific community of practice for learners which gravitates within the wider communities from which they come, and to which they seek membership. in this sense, a language class mediates between the learners being and becoming. if, as these scholars claim, the needs of undergraduates are partly determined by the demands of their future professional life, the sooner these are covered, the better. of course, this calls for the design of esp courses that not only aim at building up the students’ linguistic competence, but also prove meaningful within the whole degree – that is, they are related to the other subjects of the curriculum and, above all, address the skills and competences informing it. this involves making decisions on the topics that may be most useful for the students, the procedures to be adopted in introducing them in the language classroom, and the achievements expected of the students at the end of any such course. as to the first question, the foregoing discussion suggests that metaphor is a relevant topic per se. this is reinforced by the emphasis placed upon creativity and imagination, symbolic processes, analogy, and imaginative processes in architectural degrees, which leads one to think that metaphor should be taught explicitly, rather than implicitly, in the architecture classroom. similar claims towards the deliberate exploitation of metaphor in the second language classroom (whether this is esp oriented or otherwise) have been advocated by both applied linguists (cameron & low, 1999; charteris-black, 2000; henderson, 2000; caballero, 2003; littlemore & low, 2006; alejo, 2007; among others) as well as architecture scholars (coyne, snodgrass & martin, 1994; logan, 2007; kanekar, 2010; casakin, 2011). as to questions related to the teaching procedure and the expected results, these are intrinsically related to each other and are the focus of the next section. familiarizing students with architectural metaphors another look at the competences, objectives and strategies in architectural degrees listed earlier reveals the importance of training architecture students into visual thinking from the beginning. this is attested by the importance of subjects dealing with visual and topological concerns such as drawing, form analysis etc. or by the introduction of the croissant activity (and related or similar ones) in the first year of architectural degrees, which thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 169 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 169 suggest that metaphors primarily concerned with visual knowledge should be taught first in an esp course. moreover, as discussed elsewhere (caballero, 2003 & 2006), image or visual metaphors not only motivate a fair amount of architectural jargon (for instance, most typologies of building elements are thus informed), but are instantiated in patterns that are fairly easy grammar-wise, which is an advantage both for memorization, retrieval and use purposes. a related advantage is that image metaphors are particularly useful in architectural description – versus the more evaluative or argumentative potential of conceptual metaphors. since description is more basic than the kind of critical thinking involved in evaluation, it seems reasonable to expect that images will be easier to spot in the texts, and also easier to use. a final argument is that image metaphors rely, first and foremost, on physically immediate knowledge from typically recognisable entities topology-wise (sunflowers, croissants, and the like), all of which are easy to translate into spatial terms and, in contexts where english is a foreign language like spain, into the official languages spoken in the classroom. accordingly, this type of metaphor may be easier to recognise and understand than more elusive expressions describing structural arrangements in terms of musical pieces or textiles. of course, in subsequent stages students will need to learn how visual data also trigger other types of sensory and abstract knowledge (for example, the notions of acoustical glare and optical texture introduced earlier); however, since the point of access for such information is always visual, starting what is first apprehended through the eyes seems to be the most sensible approach. among the goals to consider when designing activities based upon image metaphors, the most immediate are learning to: (a) relate verbal descriptions to visual information and report the information thus gathered both in verbal and drawn form (for example, translate what is verbally transmitted into sketches); (b) acquire visually-informed jargon (for example, typologies of building elements); (c) describe personal projects in agreement with their physical properties; and, whenever possible (d) explore the design possibilities afforded by similar and/or different non-architectural and explain how they might cohere into the same design in written and drawn form (for example, the use of both an open fan and an open book in the building described in the example provided in figure 4). rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180170 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 170 as to the activities designed to meet those objectives, i would start with those focusing on receptive skills and would slowly proceed to integrate these with activities concerned with production. thus, after the explicit introduction and explanation of a few metaphor “basics” involving image metaphors according to the teacher’s informed views about their productivity, the students may be presented with activities dealing with: • matching visual information (like plans, drawings, photographs) with linguistic description; • matching linguistic description with visual information; • spotting building/building parts reference terms, and constructive typologies in texts; • grouping typologies according to visual criteria; • writing the caption of a visual (schematic description); • reconstructing building/building element through linguistic description; • drawing building/building element from verbal description; • describing a personal building project to classmates according to its external appearance. teachers could use illustrations like the one in figure 4 (also by architect zvi hecker) plus their corresponding texts, and make the students match and/or discuss (depending on their proficiency level) what is represented in verbal and visual form: it is a jagged fan of five overscaled concrete fins webbed together by an entrance lobby, synagogue, and multipurpose hall (…) the architect likens the building to an open book, the five pages of which – the concrete fins – represent significant events in the history of duisburg’s jewish population. one of the “pages” for instance, points directly at the site where the town’s former synagogue stood before it was destroyed by the nazis (…) along the park, the pages of hecker’s book are heroically scaled, but as it butts up against the older houses, the building steps down around an intimate, irregular courtyard that creates a quiet, domestically scaled entrance (…) the synagogue proper, a truncated star with a blocky ark (…) is finished almost crudely (…) architect zvi hecker likens jewish cultural center’s oversized concrete fins to open hand or pages of book. thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 171 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 171 once the students are sufficiently familiarized with visual metaphors, the next step is to introduce those dealing with more abstract – conceptual – knowledge, most of which are often used for evaluation and argumentation purposes and, hence, represent a step further in difficulty, maturity and, of course, language proficiency. this does not mean that visual metaphors should be dropped out of the syllabus since, as has been seen, metaphors often combine both visual and functional knowledge (particularly those concerned with buildings’ support system such as “skeleton” or “rib”). likewise, even if the activities are less visually concerned, this does not mean that students already master descriptive strategies and, therefore, the activities should not be concerned with description at all. thus, many activities are similar to the ones proposed above, yet the emphasis is on promoting the undergraduates’ higher-order cognitive processes, for instance their understanding of meaning as image-structure-meaning (architectural “syntax” and “semantics”) beyond external appearance (even if it is first accessed through it), the shift from representation to interpretation, abstraction as a means to identify the inherent properties of objects (projects’ “parti”; that is to say, their basic scheme or concept), non-visually motivated analogical reasoning, etc. the ultimate aim here is to foster the students’ critical reasoning skills so that they can become evaluators themselves as well as engage in the post-construction evaluative practices typical of the discipline. the teaching sequence here should be the same as the one suggested for image metaphor – that is, it starts from comprehension activities to gradually rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180172 thinking, drawing and writing arquitecture ibérica 28 (2014): …-… discuss (depending on their proficiency level) what is represented in verbal and visual form: it is a jagged fan of five overscaled concrete fins webbed together by an entrance lobby, synagogue, and multipurpose hall (…) the architect likens the building to an open book, the five pages of which – the concrete fins – represent significant events in the history of duisburg’s jewish population. one of the “pages” for instance, points directly at the site where the town’s former synagogue stood before it was destroyed by the nazis (…) along the park, the pages of hecker’s book are heroically scaled, but as it butts up against the older houses, the building steps down around an intimate, irregular courtyard that creates a quiet, domestically scaled entrance (…) the synagogue proper, a truncated star with a blocky ark (…) is finished almost crudely (…) architect zvi hecker likens jewish cultural center’s oversized concrete fins to open hand or pages of book. figure 4. illustration by zvi hecker for classroom work. once the students are sufficiently familiarized with visual metaphors, the next step is to introduce those dealing with more abstract – conceptual – knowledge, most of which are often used for evaluation and argumentation purposes and, hence, represent a step further in difficulty, maturity and, of course, language proficiency. this does not mean that visual metaphors should be dropped out of the syllabus since, as has been seen, metaphors often combine both visual and functional knowledge (particularly those concerned with buildings’ support system such as “skeleton” or “rib”). likewise, even if the activities are less visually concerned, this does not mean that students already master descriptive strategies and, therefore, the activities should not be concerned with description at all. thus, many activities are similar to the ones proposed above, yet the emphasis is on promoting the undergraduates’ higher-order cognitive processes, for instance their understanding of meaning as image-structure-meaning (architectural “syntax” and “semantics”) beyond external appearance (even if it is first accessed through it), the shift from representation to interpretation, abstraction as a means to identify the inherent properties of objects (projects’ “parti”; that is to say, their basic scheme or concept), non-visually motivated analogical reasoning, etc. the ultimate aim here is to foster the students’ critical reasoning skills so that they can become evaluators themselves as well as engage in the post-construction evaluative practices typical of the discipline. thinking, drawing and writing arquitecture ibérica 28 (2014): …-… discuss (depending on their proficiency level) what is represented in verbal and visual form: it is a jagged fan of five overscaled concrete fins webbed together by an entrance lobby, synagogue, and multipurpose hall (…) the architect likens the building to an open book, the five pages of which – the concrete fins – represent significant events in the history of duisburg’s jewish population. one of the “pages” for instance, points directly at the site where the town’s former synagogue stood before it was destroyed by the nazis (…) along the park, the pages of hecker’s book are heroically scaled, but as it butts up against the older houses, the building steps down around an intimate, irregular courtyard that creates a quiet, domestically scaled entrance (…) the synagogue proper, a truncated star with a blocky ark (…) is finished almost crudely (…) architect zvi hecker likens jewish cultural center’s oversized concrete fins to open hand or pages of book. figure 4. illustration by zvi hecker for classroom work. once the students are sufficiently familiarized with visual metaphors, the next step is to introduce those dealing with more abstract – conceptual – knowledge, most of which are often used for evaluation and argumentation purposes and, hence, represent a step further in difficulty, maturity and, of course, language proficiency. this does not mean that visual metaphors should be dropped out of the syllabus since, as has been seen, metaphors often combine both visual and functional knowledge (particularly those concerned with buildings’ support system such as “skeleton” or “rib”). likewise, even if the activities are less visually concerned, this does not mean that students already master descriptive strategies and, therefore, the activities should not be concerned with description at all. thus, many activities are similar to the ones proposed above, yet the emphasis is on promoting the undergraduates’ higher-order cognitive processes, for instance their understanding of meaning as image-structure-meaning (architectural “syntax” and “semantics”) beyond external appearance (even if it is first accessed through it), the shift from representation to interpretation, abstraction as a means to identify the inherent properties of objects (projects’ “parti”; that is to say, their basic scheme or concept), non-visually motivated analogical reasoning, etc. the ultimate aim here is to foster the students’ critical reasoning skills so that they can become evaluators themselves as well as engage in the post-construction evaluative practices typical of the discipline. 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 172 move to production ones. some of the objectives to cover are learning to: (a) use jargon concerned with “behaviour”, function and/or structure; (b) describe the internal logic of personal projects; (c) build critical thinking abilities; and (d) evaluate – argue and counter-argue – personal as well as classmates’ projects in oral or written form. the following are some of the activities that could help meet these objectives: • determining the topic of the text (solution to a problem? noteworthy building? etc. why?). • spotting and discriminating descriptive stretches from evaluative ones, and determining whether the passages focus on the external or internal aspects of the building at issue. • reconstructing building’s or building element’s logic from its linguistic description. • drawing buildings internal organization (volume, mass, circulation) from verbal description. • assessing (describing and defending) a personal building project to classmates and teachers according to its functional/abstract properties orally (the crit genre) and in written form (in a short ar). • evaluating somebody else’s building in oral and written form. • comparing various reviews of the same building. as to the texts that may be used, these can include any description and/or evaluation of buildings dealing with metaphors other than those exclusively concerned with their physical appearance (typically, machine, organic, music or language metaphors), or reviews where controversy may arise between what is argued in the text and what is shown in the visuals accompanying it. the following example together with figures 5 and 6 may illustrate the tension between abstract and visual knowledge often characterizing architectural assessment – the architect using an organic metaphor basically, albeit not exclusively, concerned with the roof ’s visual properties, and the reviewer taking this to more abstract levels: [architect’s comment] this was a great opportunity to further explore my theories relating to the ‘parasite’ in architecture (…) as a form, [the roof] bites into the thirties structure and clings to the ground inside the thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 173 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 173 courtyard. growing from this position, it surges towards the north; splintering the light with glass, shade cloth panels and zincalume-clad wings. these materials combine the flesh-like fragility of cloth with the idea of exoskeleton in the shells and steel. (…) it is analogous to the growth of a large fig tree. unlike minimalist modernism, it shows the struggle of structure through space. [reviewer’s comment] richard goodwin calls his new work a ‘parasite’. it’s actually a roof which has a strong narrative. to understand this narrative, it is necessary to be aware of his work over the last 20 years: an exploration of the ambiguous space at the conjunction of flesh and skeleton; of the internal as external (…) in this case, this ‘parasite’ is at work under the building, in the bowels of the structure, emerging to engage the very insides of the building with the unsuspecting passer-by (…) the roof is an organic response to the need for the entire building to mark the passing of time. it creates a dynamic tension. (…) richard goodwin, metaphorically, has dumped the guts on the footpath. (…) but what is the point of that? this is the artist confronting us with a truism: this building is not what you see. it has beating, pumping services lying just below its skin. no longer can the neat and poised exterior of the union hotel conceal the truth; the underbelly of this building has been scratched and the parasite has emerged. a parasite that exposes the real goings on of this place: of the stench of fifty years of beer and cigarettes, of the tales told, of the jokes had, of the human passing. scratch below the surface and the spirit of this building will disgorge (james grose, architecture australia, 1999). rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180174 thinking, drawing and writing arquitecture ibérica 28 (2014): …-… [reviewer’s comment] richard goodwin calls his new work a ‘parasite’. it’s actually a roof which has a strong narrative. to understand this narrative, it is necessary to be aware of his work over the last 20 years: an exploration of the ambiguous space at the conjunction of flesh and skeleton; of the internal as external (…) in this case, this ‘parasite’ is at work under the building, in the bowels of the structure, emerging to engage the very insides of the building with the unsuspecting passer-by (…) the roof is an organic response to the need for the entire building to mark the passing of time. it creates a dynamic tension. (…) richard goodwin, metaphorically, has dumped the guts on the footpath. (…) but what is the point of that? this is the artist confronting us with a truism: this building is not what you see. it has beating, pumping services lying just below its skin. no longer can the neat and poised exterior of the union hotel conceal the truth; the underbelly of this building has been scratched and the parasite has emerged. a parasite that exposes the real goings on of this place: of the stench of fifty years of beer and cigarettes, of the tales told, of the jokes had, of the human passing. scratch below the surface and the spirit of this building will disgorge (james grose, architecture australia, 1999). figures 5 & 6. the parasite. courtesy of the architect. thinking, drawing and writing arquitecture ibérica 28 (2014): …-… [reviewer’s comment] richard goodwin calls his new work a ‘parasite’. it’s actually a roof which has a strong narrative. to understand this narrative, it is necessary to be aware of his work over the last 20 years: an exploration of the ambiguous space at the conjunction of flesh and skeleton; of the internal as external (…) in this case, this ‘parasite’ is at work under the building, in the bowels of the structure, emerging to engage the very insides of the building with the unsuspecting passer-by (…) the roof is an organic response to the need for the entire building to mark the passing of time. it creates a dynamic tension. (…) richard goodwin, metaphorically, has dumped the guts on the footpath. (…) but what is the point of that? this is the artist confronting us with a truism: this building is not what you see. it has beating, pumping services lying just below its skin. no longer can the neat and poised exterior of the union hotel conceal the truth; the underbelly of this building has been scratched and the parasite has emerged. a parasite that exposes the real goings on of this place: of the stench of fifty years of beer and cigarettes, of the tales told, of the jokes had, of the human passing. scratch below the surface and the spirit of this building will disgorge (james grose, architecture australia, 1999). figures 5 & 6. the parasite. courtesy of the architect. thinking, drawing and writing arquitecture ibérica 28 (2014): …-… [reviewer’s comment] richard goodwin calls his new work a ‘parasite’. it’s actually a roof which has a strong narrative. to understand this narrative, it is necessary to be aware of his work over the last 20 years: an exploration of the ambiguous space at the conjunction of flesh and skeleton; of the internal as external (…) in this case, this ‘parasite’ is at work under the building, in the bowels of the structure, emerging to engage the very insides of the building with the unsuspecting passer-by (…) the roof is an organic response to the need for the entire building to mark the passing of time. it creates a dynamic tension. (…) richard goodwin, metaphorically, has dumped the guts on the footpath. (…) but what is the point of that? this is the artist confronting us with a truism: this building is not what you see. it has beating, pumping services lying just below its skin. no longer can the neat and poised exterior of the union hotel conceal the truth; the underbelly of this building has been scratched and the parasite has emerged. a parasite that exposes the real goings on of this place: of the stench of fifty years of beer and cigarettes, of the tales told, of the jokes had, of the human passing. scratch below the surface and the spirit of this building will disgorge (james grose, architecture australia, 1999). figures 5 & 6. the parasite. courtesy of the architect. 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 174 concluding remarks as postulated in cmt, metaphor plays a critical heuristic role in understanding new, abstract concepts, in approaching already-known ones from a new perspective, and, of course, in communicating such experiences. one of the concerns of this paper has been to survey metaphor’s contribution to furnishing english-speaking architects with a system for thinking, experiencing and discussing built space since this is a prerequisite in order to design esp materials in an informed way. the second concern has been to describe how this knowledge can be used to teach metaphor in the esp classroom, from activities more focused on specific skills to those involving the students’ participation in some architectural genres (for instance, different types of drawings, crits, or ars). a genre-metaphor combination is an effective tool for disciplinary enculturation since it shows students when, where and how to use the metaphors that make up the professional jargon and rhetorical devices of the new community of practice – culture – they are about to enter. finally, since the competences reinforced with the help of the esp course can always be transferred or re-applied whenever needed, teaching metaphor from a genre perspective can also provide useful insights for the undergraduates’ future writing practice, even if this is mostly done in their own language. [paper received 24 may 2013] [revised paper received 7 september 2013] [revised paper accepted 1 october 2013] references thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 175 alejo, r. (2007). “raising students’ awareness of the use of metaphoric ‘out’ in economics and its discourse”. esp malaysia 13: 39-53. bloomer, k. & c. moore (1977). body, memory, and architecture. new haven: yale university press. breen, m. (ed.) (2001). learner contributions to language learning. new directions in research. harlow: pearson education. caballero, r. (2003). “how to talk shop through metaphor. bringing metaphor research to the esp classroom”. english for specific purposes 22: 177-194. caballero, r. (2006). re-viewing space. figurative language in architects’ assessment of built space. berlin & new york: mouton. caballero, r. (2009). “the role of metaphor in architectural appreciation: a look at reviews from the 19th and 20th centuries” in s. radighieri & p. tucker (eds.), point of view: description and evaluation across discourses, 69-95. rome: officina. caballero, r. (2013). “the role of metaphor in architects’ negotiation and (re)construction of knowledge across genres”. metaphor and symbol 28: 3-21. caballero, r. & c. paradis (2013). “perceptual landscapes from the perspective of cultures and genres” in r. caballero & j. diaz-vera (eds.), sensuous cognition. explorations into human sentience: imagination, (e)motion and perception, 77-107. berlin/new york: mouton. cameron, l. & g. low (1999). “metaphor”. language teaching 32: 77-96. 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 175 rosario caballero is an associate professor at the universidad de castillala mancha (spain). her research focuses on metaphor in professional genres. she has authored re-viewing space. figurative language in architects’ assessment of built space (2006, mouton), co-edited sensuous cognition. explorations into human sentience (2013, mouton), and published journal papers on architectural and wine metaphors. rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180176 casakin, h. (2011). “metaphorical reasoning and design expertise: a perspective for design education”. journal of learning design 4: 29-38. charteris-black, j. (2000). “metaphor and vocabulary teaching in esp economics”. english for specific purposes 19: 149-165. coyne, r., a. snodgrass & d. martin (1994). “metaphors in the design studio”. journal of architectural education 48: 113-125. darke, j. (1979). “the primary generator and the design process”. design studies 1: 36-44. forty, a. (2000). words and buildings. a vocabulary of modern architecture. london: thames & hudson. goldschmidt, g. & a.l. sever (2011). “inspiring design ideas with texts”. design studies 32: 139-155. goodwin, c. (1994). “professional vision”. american anthropologist 96: 606-633. harris, c. m. (ed.) (2006). dictionary of architecture and construction. new york: mcgraw-hill. henderson, w. (2000). “metaphor, economics and esp: some comments”. english for specific purposes 19: 167-173. kanekar, a. (2010). “between drawing and building”. the journal of architecture 15: 771-794. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago & london: the university of chicago press. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1999). philosophy in the flesh. the embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. new york: basic books. lantolf, j. & a. pavlenko (2001). “(s)econd (l)anguage (a)ctivity theory: understanding second-language learners as people” in m. breen (ed.), 141-158. lave, j. & e. wenger (1991). situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. cambridge: cambridge university press. littlemore, j. & g.d. low (2006). figurative thinking and foreign language learning. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. logan, c. (2007). “metaphor and pedagogy in the design practicum”. international journal of technology & design education 18: 1-17. norton, b. (2001). “non-participation, imagined communities and the language classroom” in m. breen (ed.), 159-171. pallasmaa, j. (2005). the eyes of the skin. architecture and the senses, 2nd ed. chichester: wiley-academy. pallasmaa, j. (2009). the thinking hand. existential and embodied wisdom in architecture. chichester: wiley-academy. plowright, p. (2014). revealing architectural design. methods, frameworks and tools. london: routledge. roldán-riejos, a. & p. úbeda mansilla (2006). “metaphor use in a specific genre of engineering discourse”. european journal of engineering education 31: 531-541. roldan-riejos, a., p. úbeda mansilla & j. santiago lópez (2011). the language of architecture and civil engineering. newcastle: cambridge scholars. roldán-riejos, a. & p. úbeda mansilla (2013). “metaphor in the esp engineering context”. ibérica 25: 107-126. stead, n. (2003). “is contemporary criticism in a state of crisis?” architecture australia 92, 6 (novdec. issue). url: http://architectureau.com/ articles/essay-10/ [07/12/11] swales, j. (1990). genre analysis. cambridge: cambridge university press. widdowson, h.g. (1983). learning purpose and language use. oxford: oxford university press. 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 176 notes 1 this is one of the texts guiding the first-year undergraduates in the school of architecture of barcelona etsab into the first exercise of the subject “bases for architectural projects” which, in the academic year 2011-12 consisted in decomposing and drawing a fruit or vegetable and explaining the ensuing result (“acotar i dibuixar una peça de l’hort”). the second text used in the subject is bruno munari’s “rose nell’insalata” (1982, pages 4-5, einaudi). 2 unless otherwise indicated, my discussion is based on previous research (caballero, 2006 & 2013; caballero & paradis, 2013) and the examples are taken from these published works. 3 see, for instance, the degrees offered in the escuela técnica superior de arquitectura of the universidad politécnica de madrid, etsab, universidad de toledo, alicante or granada, among others. 4 images and texts courtesy of the architect. they may be found at http://www.zvihecker.com 5 see also the pedagogical document “arch 121. introduction to architecture i” offered by the architecture department in çankaya university, turkey (url: http://www. arch121.cankaya.edu.tr). thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 177 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 177 appendix prats, e. & e. miralles (1991). “como acotar un croissant”. el croquis 49/50: 240-241. copyright granted by the publication. rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180178 thinking, drawing and writing arquitecture ibérica 28 (2014): …-… appendix prats, e. & e. miralles (1991). “como acotar un croissant”. el croquis 49/50: 240-241. copyright granted by the publication. 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 178 thinking, drawing and writing architecture ibérica 28 (2014): 155-180 179 rosario caballero ibérica 28 (2014): …-… 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 179 08 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 180 redalyc.the transition from university to publication: register and interactional metadiscourse features in immunology research written in catalan and english ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa pujol dahme, ana; selfa sastre, moisés the transition from university to publication: register and interactional metadiscourse features in immunology research written in catalan and english ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 155-181 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542008 how to cite complete issue more information about this article journal's homepage in redalyc.org scientific information system network of scientific journals from latin america, the caribbean, spain and portugal non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542008 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542008 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542008 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the ability to use the register and the rhetorical conventions of the research article is important to achieving academic success and professional development in researchers’ careers. numerous studies have focused on research articles across different disciplines and cross-culturally. however, little research has been carried out into the students’ research report, from a developmental perspective and in a different language from english. to address this gap, we are reporting on a longitudinal study that aimed to characterize the transition of the academic register and the interactional function from university to scientific publication. the research focus is twofold: (1) it examines the academic register by means of lexical diversity, syntactic complexity and lexical density, and (2) it examines and compares the distribution of stance and engagement markers across stages. the data (n = 16) consists of university master’s theses written in catalan (romance language) and published articles in english, in the discipline of immunology, written by the same eight subjects. as discipline-specific writing conventions are an integral aspect of determining writing proficiency, overall findings suggest that students have not yet acquired writing proficiency, either in academic register or in writer-reader interactions. key words: research articles, register, metadiscourse, catalan, english. the transition from university to publication: register and interactional metadiscourse features in immunology research written in catalan and english ana pujol dahme and moisés selfa sastre universitat de barcelona and universitat de lleida (spain) apujoldahme@ub.edu & mselfa@didesp.udl.cat 155 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 155 ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre resumen l a tr an s ic i ón de l a u ni v e rs i da d a l a p ub l ic a c i ón: el re g i s tr o l i ng ü ís t ic o y e l m e ta di s c ur s o i nte r ac c io na l e n tr ab a jo s de i nv e s t ig a c i ón d e in mu nol og í a e n c at al á n e ing l é s la habilidad para usar de forma adecuada el registro lingüístico y las convenciones retóricas del artículo de investigación es importante para lograr el éxito académico y el desarrollo profesional en la carrera de los investigadores. numerosos estudios se han centrado en artículos de investigación a través de diferentes disciplinas e interculturalmente. sin embargo, pocas investigaciones se han ocupado del análisis de la escritura del trabajo de investigación de estudiantes, desde una perspectiva de desarrollo y en un idioma diferente al inglés. para llenar este vacío, se presenta un estudio longitudinal que tiene como objetivo caracterizar la transición del registro académico y la función interaccional desde la universidad a la publicación científica. el foco de la investigación es doble: (1) se examina el registro académico por medio de la diversidad léxica, la complejidad sintáctica y la densidad léxica, y (2) se examina y compara la distribución de los marcadores de postura (stance) y afiliación (engagement) a través de los niveles universitario y publicaciones. los datos (n = 16) proceden de trabajos finales de máster escritos en catalán (lengua románica) y artículos publicados en inglés, en la disciplina de la inmunología, escritos por los mismos ocho sujetos. las convenciones de escritura específicas para cada disciplina son un aspecto integral de la determinación de la competencia de escritura. los resultados generales sugieren que los estudiantes aún no han adquirido el dominio de escritura, ni en el registro académico ni en las interacciones escritor-lector. palabras clave: artículo de investigación, registro, meta-discurso, catalán, inglés. 1. introduction academics construct knowledge as members of professional groups and they communicate their findings usually through research articles, which are also part of the process allowing the integration of new scholars into different discourse communities (hyland, 2008a). students in their transition from university into the professional research community have to master the academic register of the research article, as there is an increased pressure to communicate research through this genre. they have to learn not only the linguistic register for communicating properly in academic english, but also the rhetorical conventions that their discourse community considers 156 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 156 convincing (berkenkotter, huckin & ackerman, 1991). the function of the research article (henceforth ra) is to report on investigations through publication and therefore it is an important channel for sharing knowledge in the academic culture (swales, 1990). we understand genre as a social act containing discourse community’s forms of knowing and acting (miller, 1984). when students, for instance, learn to use the ra, they need to assimilate specific linguistic forms to communicate knowledge and also the practices and norms of the scientific community (bawarshi & reiff, 2010). these impose social, cognitive and linguistic demands, especially for students, whose native language is not english, as it means fitting in with the anglo-american academic writing tradition (hyland & hamp-lyons, 2002; rienecker & stray jörgensen, 2003). from the perspective of contrastive rhetoric, academic writing is viewed as culturally determined and two major styles of writing can be distinguished: formal-oriented cultures (e.g. english) and content-oriented cultures (e.g. german, spanish, catalan) (clyne, 1994; cuenca, 2003). english is the international language for dissemination of research, especially in biomedical sciences (swales, 2004). proficiency in academic english is an important matter for students. in the spanish academic context, for instance, martín, rey-rocha, burgess and moreno (2014) reported that for scholars in medical science, communicating in english is certainly a hurdle and they are concerned with learning the strategies to enhance the contribution of their research. moreover, there is a broad consensus of the dialogic and interactive nature of specialized academic discourse (flowerdew, 2014). in written academic texts, such as ras, writers seek to present their arguments dialogically. they have to situate their language use to express their authorial voice and guide the readers of the discourse community to a particular interpretation, so as to persuade them of the claims. this could be accomplished by means of interactional discourse markers, such as stance and engagement ones (hyland, 2008a). although presenting an awareness of self and audience is important to achieve academic success and professional development, it is challenging for students to properly employ the interactional resources of their discourse community. non-native english-speaking students usually experience difficulties to manage their authorial voice (henderson & barr, 2010; nelson & castelló, 2012). native english-speaking students show considerable variations of forms, structures and functions of lexical bundles in comparison with published academic writing (cortes, 2002; hyland, 2008b). the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 157 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 157 therefore, providing evidence to explain how writers use the academic register, lexico-grammatical and discourse features is crucial to improving writing skills towards an expertise stage. whereas the importance of writer and reader representation in academic register is well-established by developmental research on writing (bereiter & scardamalia, 1987; kellogg, 2008), in different disciplines (kuo, 1999; cortes, 2004; mcgrath & kuteeva, 2012) and cross-culturally (mur, 2007; vázquez, 2010), very little is known about how these features develop through different stages and from one language to another. the present study addresses this gap in two ways: (1) it analyzes the academic register through grammatical and lexical measures, such as lexical diversity, syntactic complexity and lexical density in biology texts, specifically, in the immunology field, in university master’s theses written in catalan and published articles in english written by the same subjects. (2) it also analyzes and compares the distribution of stance and engagement markers across these stages. below, we first focus on the characteristics of theses and ras, likewise we provide a theoretical overview of the lexico-grammatical and discourse features of the academic register. then, we examine these features in a corpus-based study, in order to provide some quantitative and qualitative data. finally, we discuss the results and present some conclusions. 2. master’s theses and research articles: different genres students’ assignments are usually considered as a less valued genre since they are normally read only by teachers. the concept of genre has been defined commonly as a set of events sharing particular communicative purposes (swales, 1990). so, genre is defined as a social action. bazerman (1988: 62) understands genre as “a socially recognized, repeated strategy for achieving similar goals in situations socially perceived as being similar”. in this sense, following miller (1984: 165) “genre serves as keys to understanding how to participate in the actions of a community”. master’s theses and ras are not the same genre. however, the goal of most academic writing is to develop the ability to write professional texts like, for instance, scientific texts (russell & cortes, 2012; gardner & nesi, 2013). as stated by gardner & nesi (2013: 28) “the ra is a model for the sort of writing that students aspire to produce”. a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182158 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 158 students’ assignments, such as master’s theses, differ from research genres in various aspects. they vary not only in the targeted audience, but also in terms of purpose and the requirement of skills and knowledge. while students’ assignments aim to demonstrate the acquisition of required skills, ras aim to report new experiments and persuade the reader of the validity and importance of new findings (gardner & nesi, 2013). despite these differences, there are some similarities between both types. they are results of a complete piece of a research process. both include research aim/question, investigation, links and relevance to other research in the field. furthermore, these kinds of texts share the fixed structure of the ra in their organizational level (macro-structure): introduction, method, results and discussion section (imrd), which follows the steps of the research process and gives coherence at the rhetorical level. students and professionals have shared a typified way of acting within the inquiry process, namely, they have written their research (mauranen, 1993). so, in both cases, the final stage of the inquiry process is a written product expected to communicate knowledge. therefore, because of their similarities, we have decided to analyze master’s theses and compare them with the ras, which could offer us an insight into the development of writing in the specific discipline. 3. academic register a register is the configuration of lexical and grammatical features that characterizes particular uses of language (halliday & hasan, 1989; schleppegrell, 2001). as the point of departure of our study derives from psycholinguistic research on later language development, we conceive mastering of register as the ability to use linguistic forms properly in different communicative contexts (ravid & tolchinsky, 2002; berman, 2004). this not only entails linguistic knowledge, in this case, of specialized scientific terms, but also “communicative competence” (hymes, 1972). we assess register by means of the following lexico-grammatical features: lexical diversity, syntactic complexity and lexical density. the academic written register generally has a high lexical diversity, which refers to the different words used in a text (chafe & danielewicz, 1987) and it has been shown to be characteristic of advanced proficiency (malvern, richards, chipere & durán, 2004). lexical diversity differs according to age and genre (berman & verhoeven, 2002; johansson, 2008). further, academic register is the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 159 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 159 syntactically more complex than colloquial language; in the sense of structurally “compressed”. this observation is important, since it changes the stereotypical notion that complexity in academic writing lies in the high use of subordinate clauses (biber & gray, 2010). recent corpus studies on professional ras have shown that syntactic complexity relies on phrasal (non-clausal) modifiers embedded in noun phrases, rather than on clausal subordination (biber, gray & poonpon, 2011). density is also a characteristic of academic language and it is associated with more propositional content. it is understood as the proportion of content words per total words (schleppegrell, 2001), which are usually shown using a nominalized structure (halliday, 1993). these characteristics contribute to the complexity of the academic register and usually make it more difficult to read (ventola, 1996). however, although this complexity goes against “reader-friendliness”, greater lexical diversity and more complex syntax may be an indication of more skilled writing production. in fact, if proficiency is judged by sophisticated production rather than easy readability, then higher quality is related to these features (mcnamara, crossley & mccarthy, 2010). these features have been studied in high school students’ persuasive essays (uccelli, dobbs & scott, 2013) and essays written by freshman college students (mcnamara, crossley & mccarthy, 2010), and in both studies they found them to be predictive of writing quality. despite the evidence that, for instance, syntactic complexity correlates with text quality, other studies show inconsistency when trying to relate both features (beers & nagy, 2009). based on a review of the literature, these authors suggest that this inconsistency could be due to the variety of measures, genres and ages across studies. lexical density characterizes academic register (schleppegrell, 2001). this is usually achieved through nominalizations, especially in the scientific community, for instance, in medical written journals (guillén galve, 1998). this could lead to the belief that dense texts, with high use of nominalizations, are more formal and prestigious and therefore students would aspire to acquiring this rhetorical effect (baratta, 2010). however, as ventola (1996) highlights, in order to write successful texts, writers should keep a balance in their use of lexical density. accurate and conscious linguistic choices are more important than high lexical density. an excessive use of nominalizations gives the sensation of a hard text without fluency (ventola, 1996). moreover, we have to take into account, as pointed by baratta (2010: 1018), that “there may indeed be discipline-specific a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182160 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 160 writing conventions with regard to how frequently nominalizations are used”. few studies have analyzed the use of nominalization (colombi, 2002; baratta, 2010), from a developmental perspective. colombi (2002) focused on how bilingual university students developed their academic register in latino spanish essays. the findings suggest that as students’ writing skills develop, their lexical density and nominal structure grow while grammatical intricacy decreases. baratta (2010) analyzed in students’ english essays the frequencies and function of nominalizations across an undergraduate program. results reveal proficient development with regard to nominalization usage within their academic community. some studies which have attempted to relate lexical density with writing quality in l2 students (e.g. engber, 1995) reveal that lexical density has no relation with quality. furthermore, our study has a different purpose from those studies, as our motivation is not to judge writing quality, but to characterize the academic register of the ras written by students in university and as professional researchers, because a connection between register and literacy has been demonstrated (ravid & berman, 2009). advanced literacy refers to meaningmaking abilities in university and these are required for participation in professional or social institutions (schleppegrell & colombi, 2002). 4. interactional metadiscourse metadiscourse, defined as “how writers situate their language use to include a text, a writer and a reader” (hyland & tse, 2004: 167), gives at an advanced level of writing an account of how writers negotiate propositional information properly to a specific discourse community. further, snow and uccelli (2009), in their proposal for a research agenda, point out that using the taxonomy of metadiscourse markers might prove relevant for the study of academic language from a developmental perspective. within this model of metadiscourse, the interactional dimension is linked to the dialogic function in academic writing and comprises stance and engagement resources. stance can be defined as the expression of attitude, feelings, judgments or commitment concerning the propositional content of the message by means of grammatical and lexical features (biber & finegan, 1989). engagement, on the other hand, refers to linguistic features used by the writer to involve the reader, to guide the reader to the interpretation of the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 161 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 161 the argument and to include him as a participant of the discourse (hyland, 2008a). within stance, the linguistic resources which have been found to be useful for the interpersonal function are self-mention markers, as they highlight the authorial presence (martínez, 2005; mur, 2007) and the epistemic modality markers, boosters and hedges, since their function is to express the writer’s commitment or lack of commitment to the truth of the proposition (vázquez & giner, 2008). regarding the authorial presence, academic texts are often described as detached or informational as opposed to involved (biber, 1993). the informational dimension is marked by frequent occurrences of nouns, adjectives, prepositional phrases, etc., whereas the involvement dimension is expressed through 1st and 2nd personal pronouns, questions, and hedges (biber, 1993). although involvement, and therefore the use of personal pronouns, is prototypical of face-to-face conversations (tannen, 1985), when writing ras, researchers must emphasize the importance of their findings (kuo, 1999). they have to construct their social identity, as researchers of the scientific community (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995), and this is discursively constructed usually through first person pronouns (kuo, 1999). further, the use of epistemic modality markers to express certainty (boosters) and doubt (hedges) have been the focus of much research as it is central to academic writing (crismore, markkanen & steffensen, 1993; salager-meyer, 1994). however, boosters have been studied less extensively than hedges, although the two concepts are equally interesting topics of research (vázquez & giner, 2008). it seems a general claim that members of the discourse community cannot make categorical statements about their findings. they should balance their claims with an appropriate degree of commitment (lafuente, 2008). that means to express possibility or project an image of humility (swales, 1990; hyland, 1996). beyond this, the fact is that the use of certainty markers has to do with some constraints established in scientific professional research. a general assumption is that more robust results require fewer hedges, although the results in the use of these two markers could vary, especially in scientific ras, according to the degree of industrial sponsorship or journal impact factor (gross & chesley, 2012). hedging is important in academic writing and clarifying the motivation for its use is interesting, especially in the field of english for specific purposes a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182162 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 162 (markkanen & schröder, 1997; lewin, 2005), as even proficient l2 students have difficulties in hedging (hyland, 1996). by means of hedging, writers can present a proposition as a possibility, an opinion, rather than as a factual argument and this might help them gain the reader’s acceptance (hyland, 1998). hedges are not intrinsic to texts, their meanings are realized through writer-reader interaction and this is linked to the specific discourse community (markkanen & schröder, 1997). from a cognitive developmental perspective, the use of hedges implies the consideration of multiple perspectives and this is a factor in shaping the development of a proficient academic writer (berman, 2004). prior research on metadiscourse found that, whatever the discipline, proficient academic writers use more hedges (hyland & milton, 1997; aull & lancaster, 2014). other studies found this to be a predictor for the writing quality of persuasive essays in english (uccelli, dobbs & scott, 2013). the use of more hedges itself is not always an indicator of writing quality, as students could have learned hedges as decontextualised lexical formulae and apply them in an indiscriminate way (hyland & milton, 1997). despite this, writers in all disciplines, including the “hard” ones such as biology, use hedges (hyland, 2005). we have to bear in mind that most general academic writing manuals in spanish (e.g. montolío, 2000) suggest that in academic writing, references to the writer or reader should not appear. also, mendiluce (2005), in his review of scientific manuals, concluded that in general they do not deal with discursive markers, such as boosters or hedges. in contrast, students at university are requested increasingly to adopt an explicit position on the issues on which they write in order to build their own voice (castelló et al., 2010). therefore, it represents a challenge for students to cope with the rhetorical ways in which scholars communicate their findings. to summarize, it is suggested that lexical diversity, syntactic complexity, lexical density and the rhetorical markers are worth investigating, assuming that these are features that characterize the academic register and the interactional strategy used by the specific community. in addition, by analyzing these features in the transition from one context to another, from university to the professional world, it is expected that information can be found on developing writing abilities in a specific discourse community. the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 163 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 163 5. method 5.1. description of the corpora data for this study consist of master theses in immunology in catalan (n=8) from the tarbuc corpus and published ras from immunology journals in english, collected from pubmed (n=8). the tarbuc corpus (treballs acadèmics de recerca de batxillerat i universitat en català) is constituted by 114 academic research reports. it comprises 60 reports, of the disciplines of biology and history, written by twelfth-grade high school students (age 1718) and 54 master’s theses produced at the university of barcelona (spain). these disciplines were chosen because they represent different methodologies and research traditions (cortes, 2004). biology is based on experimental-quantitative methodology and history on qualitative or primary source research to present evidence. the study reported here focuses only on master’s theses in catalan and published ras in english in the discipline of immunology (see the list of titles in appendix 1). 5.2. preparation of the corpora the original ras were collected in digital format (pdf) and two different versions of the corpus were created: a plain text version (.txt) without figures, graphs and format, and a second plain text version, which was morphologically tagged (see example below) using freeling 3.1 (padró & stanilovsky, 2012). as illustrated, the output contains three columns: word-lemma-part of speech (pos). the first version was used to analyze syntactic complexity, measured in terms of words per sentence, and lexical diversity and to identify metadiscourse markers of stance and engagement. the second version was used to analyze syntactic complexity indexed by number of words before the main verb, and lexical density. a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182164 the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): …-… figure 1. morphologically tagged output from freeling 3.1. as illustrated, the output contains three columns: word-lemma-part of speech (pos). the first version was used to analyze syntactic complexity, measured in terms of words per sentence, and lexical diversity and to identify metadiscourse markers of stance and engagement. the second version was used to analyze syntactic complexity indexed by number of words before the main verb, and lexical density. 5.3. categories of analysis: lexico-grammatical features to examine changes in the academic register of ras indexed according to a selection of lexico-grammatical features (lexical diversity and density, syntactic complexity) data were analyzed using a shell script for the linux operating system. this free and open source software enables script design (a collection of commands stored on a file) ad hoc, that is, the analysis of specific linguistic features within any text. it is worth mentioning that all the analysis tools we have employed are open source; this enables the reproducibility of our study. with linux the following lexical and syntactic measures were generated. text length: calculated as the number of sentences per text. a sentence refers to the orthographic unit that is inserted between full stops. although most of the studies reported above have used the clause as a text segmentation unit, our segmentation unit is the sentence. we consider the sentence as a feasible unit of written language (berman & ravid, 2009), because it has a meaningful and complete syntactic relationship (szmrecsanyi, 2004). lexical diversity: measured through the “subsample variety” with the textable open source data analysis tool (xanthos, 2014), using the average of word types in subsamples of a given size randomly drawn from the data. we used this measurement, because many other measures, such as type/token ratio have been known to be sensitive to the length of the text (mccarthy & jarvis, 2010) and “subsample variety” is a simple but robust way to measure lexical diversity (xanthos, 2014). syntactic complexity (1): calculated as the number of words per sentence. sentence length was used as one of the two indexes of syntactic complexity. scientific writing has little verbosity, as shown in the example (a) from the 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 164 5.3. categories of analysis: lexico-grammatical features to examine changes in the academic register of ras indexed according to a selection of lexico-grammatical features (lexical diversity and density, syntactic complexity) data were analyzed using a shell script for the linux operating system. this free and open source software enables script design (a collection of commands stored on a file) ad hoc, that is, the analysis of specific linguistic features within any text. it is worth mentioning that all the analysis tools we have employed are open source; this enables the reproducibility of our study. with linux the following lexical and syntactic measures were generated. text length: calculated as the number of sentences per text. a sentence refers to the orthographic unit that is inserted between full stops. although most of the studies reported above have used the clause as a text segmentation unit, our segmentation unit is the sentence. we consider the sentence as a feasible unit of written language (berman & ravid, 2009), because it has a meaningful and complete syntactic relationship (szmrecsanyi, 2004). lexical diversity: measured through the “subsample variety” with the textable open source data analysis tool (xanthos, 2014), using the average of word types in subsamples of a given size randomly drawn from the data. we used this measurement, because many other measures, such as type/token ratio have been known to be sensitive to the length of the text (mccarthy & jarvis, 2010) and “subsample variety” is a simple but robust way to measure lexical diversity (xanthos, 2014). syntactic complexity (1): calculated as the number of words per sentence. sentence length was used as one of the two indexes of syntactic complexity. scientific writing has little verbosity, as shown in the example (a) from the master’s theses, therefore we decided that it was not necessary to sort out roundabout phrasing. a)el tractament consisteix en l’administració d’antibiòtics d’ampli espectre de seguida que se sospita el shock, suport vital intensiu (degut a la hipotensió cal aplicar fluïdoteràpia i fàrmacs vasoactius) i neutralització de les toxines bacterianes amb la injecció d’immunoglobulines intravenoses. the treatment involves the administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics immediately when a shock is suspected, intensive life support (due to hypotension, fluid therapy and vasoactive drugs should be applied) and the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 165 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 165 neutralization of bacterial toxins with injection of intravenous immunoglobulin. syntactic complexity (2): another measure of syntactic complexity was calculated using the number of words before the first finite verb, and according to the pos tagger output with a shell script. lexical density: calculated as the frequency of content words (nouns, adjectives, verbs and some adverbs) in a text as a ratio of total sentences. adverbs not considered content words are intensifiers, delimiters, connectives and deictic adverbs, whereas those which have referential meaning are considered content words. lexical density has been measured, by first applying the freeling 3.1 open source language analysis tool (padró & stanilovsky, 2012). it marks up all the words in a text as part-of-speech (pos), that is, it assigns its lexical category to each word. once this was done, a script for linux was used to compute all the content words in a sentence as a ratio of total sentences. two results were obtained: content words with adverbs and those without, as the pos tagger does not discriminate between different adverbs. 5.4. categories of analysis: interactional markers based on an approach used by hyland (2005) the texts were coded for the metadiscoursal functions that account for stance and engagement. the following grammatical categories account for this function: lexical verbs in conditional mood, modal verbs, verbal periphrasis, adjectives, adverbs and personal pronouns. stance: this refers to an attitudinal dimension. it is the writer’s textual “voice” and concerns how the writer presents himself and conveys his judgments, opinions and commitments. it is mainly realized through four resources: hedges: they indicate the writer’s reluctance to express a complete commitment to a proposition (e.g. possible, might, perhaps). boosters: they signal the writer’s certainty and involvement in a proposition (e.g. sure, prove, definitely). attitude markers: they indicate the writer’s affective attitude to a proposition, conveying surprise, importance and so on (e.g. important, surprisingly, interestingly). self-mention markers: they explicitly refer to the writer, to the authorial identity, by means of personal pronouns and possessive articles (e.g. we, our). a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182166 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 166 the following examples were coded as stance markers in the present study: (1) hedges, (2) self-mention and boosters, and (3) attitude. 1. sembla que activin stat1... they seem to stimulate… 2. cosa que ens porta a afirmar que ... which leads us to state that ... 3. és important destacar que si l’anàlisi ... it is important to stress that if the analysis... engagement: this refers to a dimension where writers include readers as discourse participants by anticipating their possible objections and guide them towards interpretations. engagement is mainly realized by reader pronouns, which are markers that signal the inclusion of the reader as a member of the discipline and guide readers through an argument as if they were participating in the discourse with shared goals (e.g. inclusive we). directives: they are markers that instruct the reader to look at another part of the text (e.g. see figure 1), how to carry out some action (e.g. open the valve) or interpret an argument (e.g. note). appeals to shared knowledge: they are markers that give readers a participating role in the construction of the argument, allowing them to recognize the knowledge as familiar (e.g. wellknown, obviously). questions: they are markers that invite engagement. the following examples accounted for some engagement markers: (4) reader pronouns, (5) directives, (6) appeals to shared knowledge. 4. la ressenya científica ens indica que la resposta... the scientific review indicates to us that the response… 5. en la figura 6 veiem els nivells... in figure 6 we see levels ... 6. se sap que malgrat... it is known that even... using this classification is a viable option for analyzing corpora, as is comparing the frequency of use of markers in different languages, such as catalan and english, because although the linguistic forms differ, the interactional function is mostly the same. the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 167 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 167 the texts were explored with a freeware concordance program, antconc 3.2.4w (anthony, 2011), using a two-step procedure. first, a closed list of the linguistic forms which accounted for writerand reader-oriented function was created (e.g. writer-oriented: el nostre objectiu general: our main goal; reader oriented: se sap que: it is known that). second, a more qualitative analysis was undertaken to check the functions were fulfilled by the linguistic forms. for this purpose we used the concordance program, antconc 3.2.4w, to determine the context in which the closed list of forms appeared and to decide their specific function according to that context. as shown in (7a) and (7b), the same linguistic form (mostra) may function as a referential term (7a) or as an interactional marker (7b), where the linguistic form addresses the reader with a directive marker. 7a els microlitres de mostra que fóssin necessaris per a tenir 200mg the sample microliters needed to achieve 200mg 7b tal i com es mostra a la figura 3. as shown in figure 3. furthermore, the same linguistic form (indica) may account for two different functions. in (8a), it functions as a directive marker to the reader whereas in 8b it functions as a booster marker, to signal the writer’s certainty. 8a tal com s’indica en la taula. as indicated in the table. 8b fet que indica que s’ha dut amb èxit el procés. that fact indicates the process has been successful. an independent rater, a degree holder in biology and linguistics who was familiar with the categories, checked 30% of the linguistic forms and decided their specific function according to that context. the comparison between the rater’s coding and ours revealed an inter-rater reliability of 0.86 (kappa), indicating a high level of agreement. to solve the cases of disagreement, a second rater, a linguist, discussed the cases with us to reach a consensus. a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182168 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 168 6. results descriptive statistics were estimated for the corpus’ lexical-grammatical features and distribution of interactional markers in university and in publications. due to the data, a non-normal distribution, the wilcoxon signed-rank test was applied for testing the effect of academic level on interactional markers and lexical-grammatical features. to estimate the effect size, the following equation has been used in which z is the z-score and n is the number of total observations that were made (field, 2009). table 1 shows the statistical comparisons, medians, z-scores and effect size, for the lexico-grammatical features in university master theses and publications. results indicate that university texts have significantly more words than publications. publications showed significantly higher lexical diversity than university texts. when measuring syntactic complexity, as the mean number of words in a sentence, texts produced at university were more complex than publications. however, for the second measure of syntactic complexity, the mean number of words before the first finite verb in a sentence, the opposite is true: publications were more complex than university texts. university texts showed significantly higher lexical density, with adverbs, than publications. the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 169 the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): …-… words in a sentence, texts produced at university were more complex than publications. however, for the second measure of syntactic complexity, the mean number of words before the first finite verb in a sentence, the opposite is true: publications were more complex than university texts. university texts showed significantly higher lexical density, with adverbs, than publications. university (n = 8) journals (n = 8) lexico-gramatical features mdn mdn z r number of words 6,275 4,219 −2.38** −.20 number of sentences 202.50 165 −1.68 ns lexical diversity 76.00 78.00 −2.41** −.21 syntactic complexity (mean number of words in a sentence) 30.50 25.00 −2.38** −.20 syntactic complexity (mean number of words before the first finite verb) 5.00 10.50 −2.55** −.22 lexical density (with adverbs) 17.00 14.00 −2.38** −.20 table 1 statistical comparisons for lexico-grammatical features in university master theses and publications, medians, z-scores and effect size **p < .01. figure 2. medians of proportion of each interactional marker in university ras and publications *p<.05, **p<.01. 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 169 at the discourse level, results reveal a higher use of stance markers (mdn = 0.82, mdn = 0.41) in publications and university, respectively, than engagement markers (mdn = 0.17, mdn = 0.20). it is shown that the difference between levels for stance markers is significant z = −2.52, p = .01, r = −.22 and that the difference in the use of engagement markers is not significant z = −.84. within the stance and engagement markers (figure 2) it is shown that publications (mdn = .14) have significantly more stance attitude markers than university texts (mdn = .05), z = −2.36, p = .01, r = −.20. publications (mdn =. 39) showed a significantly higher use of stance self-mention markers than university texts (mdn = .21), z = −2.10, p = .03, r = −.18. university texts have significantly more engagement reader pronouns (mdn = .03) than publications (mdn = .003) z = −2.20, p = .02, r = −.19. 7. discussion we analyzed a variety of lexico-grammatical and discourse features, which are assumed to be characteristic of the academic register and specifically of the research article. our study extends findings of recent developmentally oriented research on academic register (e.g., uccelli, dobbs & scott, 2013) a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182170 the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): …-… words in a sentence, texts produced at university were more complex than publications. however, for the second measure of syntactic complexity, the mean number of words before the first finite verb in a sentence, the opposite is true: publications were more complex than university texts. university texts showed significantly higher lexical density, with adverbs, than publications. university (n = 8) journals (n = 8) lexico-gramatical features mdn mdn z r number of words 6,275 4,219 −2.38** −.20 number of sentences 202.50 165 −1.68 ns lexical diversity 76.00 78.00 −2.41** −.21 syntactic complexity (mean number of words in a sentence) 30.50 25.00 −2.38** −.20 syntactic complexity (mean number of words before the first finite verb) 5.00 10.50 −2.55** −.22 lexical density (with adverbs) 17.00 14.00 −2.38** −.20 table 1 statistical comparisons for lexico-grammatical features in university master theses and publications, medians, z-scores and effect size **p < .01. figure 2. medians of proportion of each interactional marker in university ras and publications *p<.05, **p<.01. 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 170 but in a romance language, catalan. an innovative feature of our analysis concerns the transition made by eight subjects, who wrote their texts at university in catalan and in a professional setting, in english. our analysis focused on lexical diversity, syntactic complexity and lexical density, and interactional markers as a window on developing writing abilities in a specific discourse community. we found differences between levels in the length of the texts, measured as number of words, but this result could be explained because of the task instructions. at university, texts are asked to be limited to 30 pages. our value of lexical diversity is close to those reported and measured with vocd for english written narratives (vocd = 70-80) (mcnamara, crossley & mccarthy, 2010; uccelli, dobbs & scott, 2013) and expository texts (vocd = 80-90) (berman & verhoeven, 2002). higher lexical diversity is considered to be a characteristic of proficient writers (malvern et al., 2004) and this seems to be consistent with our findings, since publications showed more lexical diversity than university ras. it is worth noting here that in contentoriented cultures such as spanish or catalan, the general trend is an avoidance of lexical repetition, contrary to formal-oriented cultures, like english, which tend towards repetition (cuenca, 2003). the lower use of lexical diversity in university texts, however, might also be based on the characteristic of the register. informational registers, such as academic register, are characterized by the use of the same technical terms (biber, 1993). despite this, there are some other resources to create diversity in texts, for instance, substitutions of adjectives or deriving adverbs from adjectives. it seems that students do not make use of these techniques. the findings for syntactic complexity, measured as words in a sentence, from our study are consistent with the average of 24-28 words per sentence reported for english scientific prose (bazerman, 1988; gross, harmon & reidy, 2002). our result, 30 words per sentence in university, is similar to the average reported for written science in italian, another romance language. the difference shown with the publications in english might be due to the syntax in romance languages, such as italian or catalan, which allows a greater structural complexity than english (scarpa, 2007). for the second measure of syntactic complexity, the mean number of words before the first finite verb in a sentence, the differences might be explained by language typology. spanish and catalan allow one to change the order of a sentence, while english is stricter regarding the order of the constituents (vázquez, fernández & martí, 2000). the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 171 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 171 furthermore, we found that university texts showed significantly higher lexical density than publications. this difference might be attributed to language differences (johansson, 2008) or to the fact that the students relate dense texts to those written in a formal register (baratta, 2010). it can be further conjectured that the students do not balance their use of lexical density properly. the following examples illustrate lexical density and also syntactic complexity (measured as words in a sentence). consider the first line of a sentence, example (b) of the introduction section of a master’s theses, and example (c) the introduction section of a publication. in this master’s theses (b) there are 5 nouns (nn), 3 adjectives (jj) and 3 prepositional (in) phrases functioning as noun modifiers, before the comma. whereas in a publication (c) only 3 nouns, 3 adjectives and 1 prepositional phrase to express more or less the same idea. b) l’asma és una malaltia respiratòria crònica, de caràcter al·lèrgic en la nn nn jj jj in nn jj in majoria de casos, nn in nn que té una alta prevalença en la nostra societat europea actual. c) allergic asthma is a common inflammatory disease of the airway, jj nn jj jj nn in nn and long-term therapy is aimed at counteracting episodes of bronchospasm and reducing allergic inflammation. if we analyze these examples in the light of biber, gray and poonpon’s (2013) developmental stages of complexity we could say that the students’ example (b) is more complex (stage 5: extensive phrasal embedding in the np: multiple prepositional phrases as postmodifiers, with levels of embedding) than publications (c) (stage 4: more phrasal embedding in the np: attributive adjectives, nouns as premodifiers). in this sense, we would argue that students do not fit the requirement of the discipline specific conventions. despite this, we found in a previous study (pujol dahme & selfa sastre, in revision) that lexical density increased markedly when comparing catalan high school---to university research reports. these findings are consistent with the findings of previous studies showing that lexical density increases a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182172 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 172 with the development of writing skills (colombi, 2002; baratta, 2010). further, with the statement that high lexical density is related to scientific writing (halliday & martin, 1993). a second goal of the study was to examine the distribution of stance and engagement markers across levels. our finding for the difference of the total writer-oriented markers between levels suggests that mastering the rhetorical discourse form of the specific discourse community is a lengthy process. linguistic, cognitive and social factors interact in the protracted transition from a native speaker/writer to a skilled speaker/writer (berman, 2004). nevertheless, it is not only a developmental or a skill issue; it is also a matter of knowing and adequacy to academic writing. in fact, hyland’s (2005) analysis of 240 ras in eight disciplines showed that in all disciplines stance markers are more common than engagement features. in our sample university students use a significantly higher use of reader pronouns, which are engagement markers, compared with publications, which show a greater proportion of self-mention markers. the lack of an authorial voice, in students’ texts, point at fundamental differences in the purposes of master’s theses and publications. to recap, students have to demonstrate the acquisition of required skills (gardner & nesi, 2013). it is not suggested that students have failed to adhere to the demands of the rhetorical conventions of the community. what is manifested as more reader-oriented could correspond to an engagement with the target audience, in other words, students have to align their discourse with the accepted knowledge and therefore involve the reader/professor. our findings show that there are no statistically significant differences in the proportions of hedges and boosters between levels, although the proportion of boosters in publications was almost four times higher. whether hedges and boosters have been misused or do not fit the rhetorical section they are in, especially at university level, needs an additional and deeper analysis. we had expected, taking into account the findings from hylands' study (2005), that hedges would be more frequent than boosters in publications. we found the contrary; boosters were more frequent than hedges. these could be partly explained bearing in mind the high level of competiveness in biomedical sciences, so more robust results require fewer hedges (gross & chesley, 2012). further, our results showed a significant difference in publications regarding attitude markers. hyland (1998) found in his analysis of biology that attitudes markers were the less frequently used markers of stance. in contrast we found the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 173 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 173 that after self-mention and boosters, attitude markers were used more than hedges. for example, in one published ra we found an attitude marker expressing assessment 5 times, such as in the example below. “interestingly”, trex2 expression is largely reduced in the mice lacking ikka, which is required to maintain skin homeostasis and prevent skin cancer. (published article: increased susceptibility to skin carcinogenesis in trex2 knockout mice) the most common attitudinal markers that we found, and this is in line with hyland's findings (1998), refer to issues the writer sees as important or interesting, as shown in the following example from our corpus. “importantly”, and in contrast to previous trials, our patients were hiv-1infected individuals who were demonstrably immunosuppressed, having failed to make serological and cd4 cell immune responses to vaccination with at least one of the three selected antigens (hepatitis a, hepatitis b and tetanus toxoid). (published article: the reconstitution of the thymus in immunosuppressed individuals restores cd 4 -specific cellular and humoral immune responses) the use of attitude markers is based on disciplinary values and even different cultural backgrounds, such as english and spanish, are overridden by shared disciplinary conventions (mur, 2007). since our sample of publications reveals a high use of attitudinal markers, using these markers might be a distinguishing mark of proficiency, in the sense of adopting a discipline-specific writing convention. therefore we suggest that the difference observed between publications and master’s theses in the use of these markers might be due to the lack of mastery of disciplinary rhetorical conventions. interestingly, our findings of the differences of self-mentions confirm the ra genre as a text involving a highly rhetorical discourse replacing a detached stance (bazerman, 1988; hunston, 1994; swales, 2004). through self-mention writers project an authorial voice. this personal projection, when used to an appropriate degree, that is, in the way used by the specific community, allows the writer to construct his identity by emphasizing his individual contribution. this, in turn, helps to construct his professional authority and credibility (hyland, 2004). our results of the high use of selfmention in publications together with a lower use of hedging could be interpreted as an effort to project an authorial imprint. the use of selfa. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182174 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 174 mentions differs according to genre, discipline and culture. a cross-cultural study of personal pronouns between business management ras published in english and in iberian spanish has shown that the frequency of selfmentions is higher in english than in spanish ras. our results are in line with these findings, and could be partly explained by considering the author’s cultural background, since spanish culture seems to emphasize involvement relations (mur, 2007). an additional explanation to the observed differences is related to the prescription of academic style manuals, which suggest that in academic writing references to the writer or reader should not appear. these results must be viewed in light of some limitations. it is a preliminary analysis with a small sample size, and moreover, caution is required when comparing lexico-grammatical features in two different languages. further research on these features should be undertaken, to see if the differences between catalan and english texts are due to the language typology. 8. concluding remarks this study sheds light on some pedagogically relevant components of academic writing, from two perspectives: academic register and writer-reader interactions. academic register has been analyzed by means of lexical diversity, syntactic complexity and lexical density. the writer-reader interactions have been analyzed by means of stance and engagement markers. we have provided a snapshot view of the challenge that is posed with the transition from a university to a professional setting, with the aim to understand how students participate in the actions of a community. although master’s theses and ras are not the same genre, the goal of most students’ assignments is to develop the ability to write professional texts. within these, the ra genre serves as a model for the discipline specific writing. on the assumption that discipline-specific writing conventions are components of determining writing proficiency, it is suggested that these students have not yet acquired writing proficiency, either in academic register or in writer-reader interactions. as such, the overall picture that emerges from this study is a reflection of the complexity of the protracted path to mastery, in which linguistic, cognitive, cultural factors and the constraint of genre and discourse community are linked processes. further, it may seem that register and writer-reader interactions are, usually, fundamental elements in contemporary teaching. nevertheless, we contend that a rethink of how the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 175 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 175 writing is addressed in the curriculum for the specific university disciplines may be necessary. acknowledgements this research article has received a grant for its linguistic revision from the language institute of the university of lleida (2015 call). we want to express our gratitude to jorge lloberas, from the faculty of biology (ub), for allowing the data collection. we are indebted to toni quesada for the development of several computational tools. we also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their detailed and perceptive comments. article history: received 19 january 2015 received in revised form 1 june 2015 accepted 4 june 2015 references a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): 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(1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. new york: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. (2004). research genres: explorations and applications. new york: cambridge university press. szmrecsanyi, b. (2004). “on operationalizing syntactic complexity” in g. purnelle, c. fairon & a. dister (eds.), le poids des mots. proceeding of the 7th international conference on textual data statisctical analysis 2, 1032-1039. louvain-laneuve: presses universitaires de louvain. tannen, d. (1985). “relative focus on involvement in oral and written discourse” in d. olson, d., n. torrance & a. hilyards (eds.), literacy, language, and learning, 124-147. cambridge: cambridge university press. uccelli, p., c. dobbs & j. scott (2013). “mastering academic language: organization and stance in the persuasive writing of high school students”. written communication 30: 36-62. vázquez, g., a. fernández & m. a. martí (2000). “dealing with lexical semantic mismatches between english and spanish” in proceedings of the international conference of knowledge based computer systems, 308-319. mumbai, india. vázquez, i. (2010). “a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs in the expression of epistemic stance in business management research articles in english and spanish”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 19: 77-96. vázquez, i. & d. giner (2008). “beyond mood and modality: epistemic modality markers as hedges in research articles. a cross-disciplinary study”. revista alicantina de estudios ingleses 21: 171190. ventola, e. (1996). “packing and unpacking of information in academic texts” in e. ventola & a. mauranen (eds.), academic writing. intercultural and textual issues, 153-194. philadelphia: benjamins. xanthos, a. (2014). “textable: programmation visuelle pour l’analyse de données textuelles” in actes des 12èmes journées internationales d’analyse statistique de donées textuelles (jadt). 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 179 training in language and literature (university of barcelona). her research interests include later language development, academic writing and corpus linguistics. moisés selfa sastre is doctor in philosophy (university of lleida, 2002). currently, he is professor of teaching language and literature (university of lleida) in the department of specific didactics. his research interests revolve around the teaching of writing in the context of primary, secondary and students of the university. he is part of the research group (grerli. grup de recerca per a l’estudi del repertori lingüístic) of the university of barcelona. his recent publications deal with the teaching of writing literary texts and interpretation of these. notes 1 catalan is spoken in four spanish autonomous communities (aragon, the balearic islands, catalonia and the valencian community), in the french region of roussillon, and in the city of alghero, on the italian island of sardinia. in catalonia, catalan and spanish are equally recognized as official languages, but catalan is the language of education. a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182180 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 180 appendix list of titles the transition from university to publication ibérica 30 (2015): 155-182 181 a. pujol dahme & m. selfa sastre ibérica 30 (2015): …-… in language and literature (university of barcelona). her research interests include later language development, academic writing and corpus linguistics. moisés selfa sastre is doctor in philosophy (university of lleida, 2002). currently, he is professor of teaching language and literature (university of lleida) in the department of specific didactics. his research interests revolve around the teaching of writing in the context of primary, secondary and students of the university. he is part of the research group (grerli. grup de recerca per a l’estudi del repertori lingüístic) of the university of barcelona. his recent publications deal with the teaching of writing literary texts and interpretation of these. notes 1 catalan is spoken in four spanish autonomous communities (aragon, the balearic islands, catalonia and the valencian community), in the french region of rousillon, and in the city of alghero, on the italian island of sardinia. in catalonia, catalan and spanish are equally recognized as official language, but catalan is the language of education. appendix interview questionnaire list of master’s theses in the discipline of immunology 1. efecte d’un nou probiòtic en un model d’asma al·lèrgica en el ratolí 2. estudi de la resposta al superantigen seb a nivell de citocines i fosforilació d’stats en un model de shock sèptic murí. 3. estudi dels efectes coestimuladors de la interacció cd26-ada en l’expressió de marcadors d’activació de la cèl·lula t 4. estudi d’una doble estratègia per a induir i expandir el repertori de cèl·lules t basada en l’administració d’hormona de creixement i vacuna en pacients amb infecció pel vih 5. disminució dels nivells de tcr en la membrana dels limfòcits t cd4+ humans per efecte de sindecà-2 6. generació de cèl·lules dentrítiques tolerogèniques per terapia cel·lular en esclerosi múltiple 7. modificació de l’expressió de cd36 i cd206 per lligands de receptors toll-like (tlrs) i citocines 8. estudi de la influència dels pèptids naturals presentats per mhc de classe ii en autoimmunitat tiroidea list of published articles 1. activity of the cyclooxygenase 2-prostaglandin-e prostanoid receptor pathway in mice exposed to house dust mite aeroallergens, and impact of exogenous prostaglandin e2 2. increased susceptibility to skin carcinogenesis in trex2 knockout mice 3. increased a-defensins 1-3 production by dendritic cells in hiv-infected individuals is associated with slower disease progression 4. the reconstitution of the thymus in immunosuppressed individuals restores cd 4 -specific cellular and humoral immune responses 5. syndecan-2 can promote clearance of t-cell receptor/cd3 from the cell surface 6. specific t-cell proliferation to myelin peptides in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis 7. functional consequences of cd36 downregulation by tlr signals 8. the peptide-binding motif of hla-dr8 shares important structural features with other type 1 diabetes-associated alleles 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 181 09 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:55 página 182 iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https:// doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.163 abstract: this study adopted a bibliometric approach to trace the diachronic changes in metadiscourse research, based on the research articles and their unique references retrieved from the web of science (wos) core collections from 19802020. citespace software was employed to conduct a co-citation analysis to investigate the common themes, the developmental stages, as well as the landmark publications of this domain over the last four decades. twelve major themes (represented by clusters) were identified and most figure a strong focus in esp. studies in these clusters progressed through three developmental stages, namely the conceptualizing stage, the maturing stage, and the flourishing stage. labeled transformative studies, three key studies were identified as playing a key role in the developmental stage. the use of structural variation analysis contributed to address the otherwise over-reliance on co-citation analysis. by identifying notable features in the development of metadiscourse research, this study provides insight into the evolution of the scientific field. keywords: bibliometric, metadiscourse studies, co-citation analysis, structural variation analysis, developmental stages resumen: ¿cómo un tema de investigación termina convirtiéndose en un ámbito de investigación? análisis bibliométrico de la investigación sobre el metadiscurso este estudio adopta un enfoque bibliométrico para trazar los cambios diacrónicos en la investigación del metadiscurso con base en los artículos de investigación y sus referencias únicas recuperados de las colecciones principales how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research jihua dong1, shuai dong1 & louisa buckingham2 1 shandong university (china) & 2 university of auckland (new zealand) dongjihua@sdu.edu.cn, 202120217@mail.sdu.edu.cn, l.buckingham@auckland.ac.nz 163 ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 jihua dong, shuai dong & louisa buckingha de web of science (wos) entre 1980 y 2020. se empleó el software citespace para llevar a cabo un análisis de co-citación con el fin de investigar los temas comunes, las etapas de desarrollo, así como las publicaciones de referencia de este ámbito en las últimas cuatro décadas. se identificaron doce temas principales representados por grupos, la mayoría de los cuales se centraban en el esp (inglés con fines específicos). los estudios de estos grupos progresaron a través de tres etapas de desarrollo, a saber, la etapa de conceptualización, la etapa de maduración y la etapa de florecimiento. se identificaron tres estudios transformadores clave, que contribuyeron a marcar el comienzo de la etapa de desarrollo. el uso del análisis de variación estructural utilizado en este estudio contribuyó a resolver la gran dependencia del análisis de co-citación. nuestro análisis identificó rasgos notables en el desarrollo de la investigación sobre metadiscurso, que pueden aportar información sobre la evolución de los campos científicos. palabras clave: bibliometría, estudios de metadiscurso, análisis de cocitación, análisis de variación estructural, etapas de desarrollo 1. introduction bibliometric analysis is a quantitative review approach used to trace the development of research fields by identifying the stages through which a topic progresses, tracking research trends, and investigating features of academic publications such as authorship and impact (merigó et al., 2016; tian & wise, 2020). specific applications of this approach in scientific disciplines have enabled insights into the origination and the formation of the scientific domain (yeung et al., 2017), the identification of high-impact work (merigó et al., 2016) and co-citation patterns (merigó et al., 2016). efforts have also been devoted to sketching out research trends in applied linguistics through a bibliometric lens, e.g., lexicography (de schryver, 2009), non-professional interpreting (martínez-gómez, 2015; zhang, et al., 2015), genre analysis (pérez-llantada, 2015), and more recently, applied linguistics (lei & liu, 2018), english for specific purposes (esp) (liu & hu, 2021), english for academic purposes (eap) (hyland & jiang, 2021) and datadriven learning (dong et al., 2022). to date, bibliometric analysis has been primarily employed to investigate the general development of an established research field (e.g., aryadoust & ang, 2019; fu et al., 2021; hyland & jiang, 2021). in this study, we adopted this approach to explore the evolution of metadiscourse in applied linguistics 164 from its initial emergence to its current status as an established domain of study. the concept of metadiscourse, which was initially mentioned by harris (1959) and finally defined by schiffrin (1980), received some attention in the 1980s (e.g., crismore, 1989; kopple, 1985; williams, 2008) and interest in this domain has increased over the years (hyland et al., 2022). the rising popularity of this topic over the last two decades has helped to make it a prominent domain of research in linguistics, which is studied from a variety of perspectives (d’angelo & consonni, 2020; dong & buckingham, 2018; hyland, 2017). in this study, we undertook a systematic quantitative review of research in this domain to map out more specific developmental trends and predict potential future research themes in metadiscourse. specifically, a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research over four decades (1980-2020) was conducted to identify research themes and evolutionary stages, using the conceptualization of scientific domain formulated by shneider (2009), and predict future developments in this domain. the following questions guide our endeavor: 1) what are the major themes in metadiscourse research between 1980 and 2020? 2) what stages can be identified in the development of metadiscourse research since its genesis? 3) what are the most transformative publications in the recent development of metadiscourse research? 2. literature review metadiscourse is mainly concerned with the commentary on a text (written or spoken) by its producer, predominantly in academic register (hyland, 2017), and it refers to audience-oriented language that is intended to support readers or listeners in processing information. this concept is based on the premise that language not only interacts with the outside world, transmitting information of various types, but also with itself, providing readers with tools for interpreting, organizing, and evaluating what is being said (jiang & hyland, 2015). metadiscourse plays a vital role in facilitating effective how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 165 communication between writers and readers and influencing readers’ acceptance of the assertions expressed in a text (hyland, 2005), and it has thus attracted substantial attention in discourse studies. two main approaches have been prevalent in the study of metadiscourse: broad and narrow. the broad approaches are quantitative, while the narrow approaches are qualitative. the broad approach advocates retrieving all instances of a pre-defined list of subset members on a large scale based on the premise that each form searched for has the same function. it exhibits a high reliance on linguistic form, and is quantitative in nature. the automated retrieval enabled in this approach allows for a comparison of frequency and distribution trends across large data sets, and thus researchers can effectively compare genres, registers, and contexts. in contrast, the narrow approach involves greater manual recognition of potential metadiscourse and analyzes extended metadiscursive meaning. it is characterized by a high reliance on context and is thus smaller scale and qualitative in nature. this method, while addressing fewer aspects of metadiscourse than the broad approach, provides a more in-depth knowledge of how metadiscourse functions in particular contexts. (ädel and mauranen (2010) provide a more detailed distinction between these two approaches.) one strand of previous studies on metadiscourse has focused on systematic reviews of the field (i.e., d’angelo & consonni, 2020; hyland, 2017; hyland et al., 2022; khedri et al., 2013). for instance, khedri et al (2013) reviewed studies on metadiscourse in 1990s-2010s with consideration of how authors employ interactive metadiscourse markers in academic abstracts in the soft sciences, and they illustrated how these studies contribute to the development of metadiscourse research. hyland (2017) provides a narrative account of the development of this field in his review of metadiscourse research over the last four decades. in a recent study, hyland et al. (2022, p. 3) mapped out metadiscourse research from the genre perspective and listed several commonly employed contrastive variables in this domain (i.e., genres, modes, languages, first language writers, student proficiencies and time). although these systematic reviews have supplemented our knowledge regarding the development of metadiscourse studies, there is still a need to conduct a systematic quantitative review of research in this domain to map out the developmental trends and predict potential future research themes in metadiscourse research. jihua dong, shuai dong & louisa buckingha ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190166 3. methodology 3.1. dataset this study is based on a dataset comprised of academic research articles on the topic of metadiscourse, retrieved with the search string “metadiscourse” from the web of science (wos) core collection database. as metadiscourse adopted in this study is a broad domain, and many specific concepts were found in related studies (e.g., hyland (1998) examined hedging and boosting functions between disciplines), before the search in the database, we undertook a pilot study, using specific concepts in metadiscourse (“boosters”, “hedges”, “self-mention”, “stance”, etc.) and similar terms (“metadiscourse”, “metatext” and “text reflexivity”), following mauranen (1993) and ädel (2006), as the search terms. an in-depth analysis of the results from the pilot study shows that the search results using these specific concepts of metadiscourse are included by using the search term “metadiscourse”, while the search results using alternative terms yield a number of irrelevant references, such as “theories of reflexivity” or “intertextual practice”. in another pilot search, the use of “stance”, “evaluation” and other interactional elements in the framework of hyland (2005) yielded a number of unrelated results. for example, the search string “stance” generated results related to another well-known framework that classifies it into “epistemic”, “attitude” and “style”. a close inspection of the related items, on the other hand, indicated that they bear a strong connection to the metadiscourse framework (hyland, 2005). therefore, to ensure the purity and comprehensiveness of references on metadiscourse, we used “metadiscourse” exclusively as the search term, which is also in line with hyland (2017) and khedri et al. (2013). the search was restricted to the period from 1980 to 2020 as, according to hyland (2017), widespread use of this term in applied linguistics started from 1980. a preliminary literature search in the wos database also confirmed this premise. in terms of the document type, the search was constrained to “articles”, while excluding “book reviews” and “proceeding papers”, following khedri et al. (2013). in this process, “review articles” were also excluded as this document type tends to have a high citation rate that may thus distort the citation-based clustering analysis (ho et al., 2017). also, to limit our review to studies in the fields of language and communication, only studies under the “linguistics” category in wos were included. the dataset retrieved how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 167 consisted of 480 studies and 13,991 unique references to metadiscourse. the retrieved bibliographic records, including author, title, source, abstract, and references, were downloaded as a txt file for further analysis. 3.2. methods of analysis citespace is an analytical tool used for visualizing and analyzing trends in a scientific domain and employs citation data retrieved from the web of science (chen, 2006). it has been widely employed to detect “the knowledge structure of a discipline, emerging trends, and developing modes of a field from a macroscopic perspective” (fu et al., 2021, p. 901) in a wide range of fields, including the language sciences (aryadoust & ang, 2021; fu et al., 2021; liu et al., 2019). citespace 5.7.r2 was employed to process the dataset and generate a dynamic co-citation network of references that were co-cited by all studies in the dataset. to identify the theme(s) in a cluster of references, citespace extracted noun phrases from the titles, keyword lists, or abstracts of articles that cited the particular cluster (chen, 2016). to construct an optimal network (chen, 2016), a network pruning algorithm (pathfinder) was adopted, and the log-likelihood ratio (llr) algorithm was also used to extract cluster labels automatically in the co-citation network. to address research question 1, which inquires into the common themes in metadiscourse studies, a co-citation analysis was conducted. co-citation is concerned with “the frequency with which two documents are cited together by other documents” (small, 1973, p. 256). co-citation analysis can uncover themes and characteristics of a specific domain (chen, 2016), and it is a prevalent research method employed in bibliometric studies to analyze the theme of a research field. this analysis can help to reveal main themes and thus provides an “objective way of modeling the intellectual structure of scientific specialties” (small, 1973, p. 256). studies with interconnected references are grouped into the same clusters, and these represent a specific research topic in the co-citation network (chen, 2006). in the specific analysis, modularity and silhouette scores were used to detect the quality of a co-citation network. the modularity value measures the composition of the network and falls within the range of 0 to 1. a value greater than 0.3 indicates that the network associations are significant. the silhouette score identifies the degree of homogeneity of the studies contained in clusters; a score above 0.5 represents an acceptably homogenous cluster. jihua dong, shuai dong & louisa buckingha ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190168 for a more refined picture of the themes, we also identified the landmark publications, which refer to publications that can greatly influence the development of a domain (shu & liu, 2021). in the co-citation network, landmark publications are those with high values in the three metrics instead of direct cited frequency following chen (2011). previous studies used three metrics: sigma, betweenness centrality, and citation burstness to find a landmark publication (liu & hu, 2021). this metric combines the strengths of betweenness centrality and citation burst. betweenness centrality (0–1) has been used in previous studies to detect “potentially revolutionary” publications (chen et al., 2010, p. 1390); and citation burst refers to a surge of citations and is used to locate research areas of high popularity (chen, 2016). sigma identifies a node within a network of cited references that is structurally significant due to its rapid increase in citations, and it is believed to combine the strength of the other two aforementioned metrics (chen, 2016). therefore, the sigma metric was used in this study to identify landmark publications. to address research question 2, which concerns the developmental stages of metadiscourse research, shneider’s evolutionary model was employed as a theoretical framework. the theoretical framework has been employed in a number of previous studies (e.g., chen, 2012; chen & song, 2019; li et al., 2021) that investigation the development of scientific fields (e.g., kuhn, 1962; shneider, 2009). scientists’ working style, research focus and limitations often “depend on the evolutionary stage of a scientific discipline” (shneider, 2009, p. 221). according to shneider (2009), a scientific discipline normally includes four evolutionary stages in its development. the first stage of scientific development is to introduce a new subject to the community, and the second is to develop the main research techniques of this field. in the third stage, the field redefines the subject matter with the techniques developed in stage 2, thereby generating new insights. at stage 4, research will turn to the practical application of previously generated knowledge. given that the theory has been recently proposed, few studies have employed shneider’s theory in applied linguistics. one of these is liu and hu (2021), which explores the development of esp between 1908-2018 in two prestigious journals and identifies a three-stage development of esp. in this study, we mapped the clusters retrieved by citespace, based on their beginning time, duration, interactions with other clusters, and the matching of the labels with the functions defined by shneider (2009). a manual analysis of the clusters and labels was conducted to match articles with one how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 169 of the four stages defined by schneider. the first and second author independently completed the mapping of the clusters according to the model, achieving a high inter-rater agreement of 93%. disagreements were resolved through discussion. with respect to research question 3, a structural variation analysis (sva) was conducted in citespace to determine the studies of transformative potential in ushering in a new stage of development. sva is a method used to measure the transformative potential of ideas expressed in a newly published paper. the real-time capability of this method solves the intrinsic difficulty of co-citation analysis in failing to uncover recent publications and has been adopted by several studies (e.g., azam et al., 2021; hou et al., 2020; sebastian & chen, 2021). the approach analyses changes in a network, such as a broadening of the scientific domain or the creation of new links between previous studies (chen, 2012). a study detected by this method (i.e., a potentially transformative study) refers to papers containing “innovations that are not previously established in studies cited in the respective list of references and the network of references cited contained therein” (olmedagómez et al., 2019, p. 1564). following chen (2011), this study adopted three parameters to calculate the studies with transformative potential, namely: modularity change rate, cluster linkage, and centrality divergence. modularity change rate measures the structural changes of the underlying co-citation network induced by connections created by new publications. the higher the value of modularity change rate, the greater the potential impact that the new paper is expected to have on the co-citation network. cluster linkage uncovers “the overall structural change introduced by an article in terms of new connections added between clusters” (chen, 2012, p. 439). a higher score of cluster linkage indicates a higher potential to change the whole co-citation network, that is, the connections between clusters. finally, centrality divergence reviews “the relative entropy of betweenness centrality across all the nodes in the baseline co-citation network” (chen, 2013, p. 626). this metric measures the variation of the distribution of centrality betweenness introduced by the new article. according to chen (2012), a study with a high centrality divergence score often involves more than one cluster, which signals a tendency towards interdisciplinarity. it can therefore be considered as “a valuable early sign of transformative research at interdisciplinary level” (p. 144). jihua dong, shuai dong & louisa buckingha ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190170 as suggested by hou et al. (2020), the influence of a study can be gauged by its role in connecting other clusters. by extracting the potentially transformative papers (i.e., the potentially revolutionary publications), we hope to uncover the likely themes of metadiscourse research in the future. 4. results and discussion this section first provides a detailed analysis of the co-citation network (section 4.1). section 4.2 analyzes the developmental stages of metadiscourse based on shneider’s theory. finally, in section 4.3, we identify publications with transformative potential for the development of metadiscourse studies. 4.1. the major themes in metadiscourse research the co-citation analysis identified 131 clusters in the co-citation network, consisting of 817 nodes and 1375 links. the modularity and silhouette scores of the co-citation network in this study are 0.9166 and 0.9401 respectively, indicating that the network is sufficient for further analysis. figure 1 illustrates the timeline view of the co-citation network output by citespace, which facilitates insights into the development of metadiscourse from a diachronic perspective and shows the duration of each cluster. of these, the earliest cluster (cluster #5) has a mean publication year around 1998, while the youngest (cluster #10) has a mean year around 2017. table 1 displays information concerning the twelve largest clusters1 (these account for 77.7% of all metadiscourse studies retrieved), with sizes (the number of studies) ranging from 11 (cluster #18) to 97 (cluster #0). other information, such as the size of analyzed clusters, silhouette score, averaging year, label with the highest score,2 is also included. how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 171 figure 1. the timeline view of the co-citation network3 jihua dong, shuai dong & louisa buckingha ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190172 ! table 1. detailed information of major clusters cluster #0 is the largest detected cluster in the co-citation network (containing 97 studies), and it has a silhouette score of 0.899, which indicates a high level of homogeneity of themes within the cluster. the recency of this cluster (timespan: 2012-2020) and its size are evidence of the currency of the themes it encompasses. cluster #1 is the second-largest cluster in the co-citation network, and it shares some common themes with cluster #0 (e.g., chinese-medium journal; applied linguistics article). the two clusters differ in that cluster #0 contains studies focusing on specific types of metadiscourse (e.g., surprise markers and interactional metadiscourse), while cluster #1 comprises discourse genres (e.g., spanish thesis writing) and research methods (e.g., comparative analysis). how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 173 ! cluster cluster size silhouette score mean year timespan cluster labels (top 10 & p value < 0.05) #0a 97 0.899 2015 2012-2020 chinese-medium journal; applied linguistics article; metadiscourse feature; interactional marker; international postgraduate business students’ text; written scientific spanish; comparative study; surprise marker; interactional metadiscourse; spanish thesis writer #1a 69 0.935 2010 2006-2014 chinese-medium journal; applied linguistics article; metadiscourse feature; interactional marker; international postgraduate business students’ text; written scientific spanish; comparative study; spanish thesis writer; discussion chapter; comparative analysis #2 37 0.967 2012 2009-2017 cross-cultural perspective; authorial presence; corpus data; enhancing writing pedagogy; using corpus-based research; discussion section; online academic corpora; engagement voice; traveler forum; promotional website #3 34 0.92 2000 1996-2005 discussing method; memory problem; computing science; corpus study; research article; surprise marker; interactional metadiscourse; academic writing; shell noun; knowledge construal #4 27 0.962 2002 1999-2005 textual metadiscourse; national culture; academic discipline; research article #5 26 0.931 1998 1996-2002 comparative study #9 19 0.985 2006 2004-2008 social cognition; political communication; organizing knowledge; essay genre; discoursal resource; research article; surprise marker; interactional metadiscourse #10 15 0.983 2017 2016-2019 wechat public account advertisement; relational act; same degree; group discussion; exploring dominance-linked reflexive metadiscourse; research article; surprise marker; interactional metadiscourse; academic writing #13 13 0.995 2000 1998-2002 surprise marker #12 13 0.989 2017 2015-2019 master thesis abstract; rocky road; finish engineering student; second language; stumbling block; diachronic perspective; research article; surprise marker; interactional metadiscourse #15 12 0.999 2014 2013-2016 digital comment #18 11 0.923 2004 2002-2005 rhetorical strategy; modeling metadiscourse; biomedical research abstract i 4.2. the developmental stages of metadiscourse studies in this section, we present the developmental stages of research on metadiscourse over the last four decades, guided by shneider’s theory (2009). we identified three main stages by the starting year of each cluster, namely, the emerging stage (1983about 2005), primarily focusing on introducing metadiscourse; the maturing stage (about 2005about 2015), concerned with enlarging the territory of metadiscourse; and the flourishing stage (about 2015-now), which encompasses a broadening of the research themes and the application of the research methods established in the two preceding stages. in the following sub-sections, we provide a detailed account and discussion of the major clusters and the landmark publications identified in each stage. 4 . 2 . 1 . t h e em e r g in g st ag e ( 1 9 8 3 – ab o ut 2 0 0 5 ) the emerging stage of metadiscourse studies comprises three clusters: part of cluster #3 (discussion of methods), cluster #5 (comparative studies), and cluster #13 (surprise markers). these clusters are primarily concerned with the introduction of specific terms (e.g., discussing method and knowledge construal), the formulation of definitions (e.g., crismore, 1984), and classification systems (e.g., williams, 2008). although more typical of stage 2, this stage also comprised themes related to research methods and text genres, such as the comparative method in cluster #5 (e.g., fuertes-olivera et al., 2001) and the corpus method in cluster #3 (e.g., lindemann & mauranen, 2001). a possible explanation for this discrepancy may lie in the concurrent methodological developments in corpus linguistics. that is, advancements in an allied field shaped the approach to metadiscourse research from the outset. the three clusters are the oldest in terms of both publication timespan (1996-2005) and the mean year (2000). no landmark publication was identified at this stage. this is not unexpected, as stage 1 research does not typically reap many citations (shneider, 2009). 4 . 2 . 2 . t h e m at ur i n g st ag e (a bo ut 2 0 0 5 a b o ut 2 0 1 5 ) as displayed in table 1, stage 2 of metadiscourse research ranges from around 2000 to 2015 and comprises seven clusters (cluster #1, #2, #4, #9, #15, #18 and part of cluster #3). according to shneider (2009), this stage is “primarily concerned with broadening and deepening the jihua dong, shuai dong & louisa buckingha ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190174 conceptualization of the focus of study, and this entails developing a richer and more sophisticated use of language to describe a broader spectrum of phenomena” (p. 221). a central focus of metadiscourse research in these clusters concerned the refining of the classification frameworks proposed in stage 1 or the proposal of alternatives. for instance, the classification in vande kopple (1985) distinguished between seven types of metadiscourse (text connectives, code glosses, illocution markers, narrators, validity markers, attitude markers and commentaries). this framework was further modified by crismore, markkanen and steffensen (1993) in terms of introducing two higher-level categories: textual markers and interpersonal markers. another influential framework of metadiscourse in this stage was proposed by ädel (2006), which followed mauranen’s (1993) idea and jakobson’s (1960) functions of language and viewed metadiscourse as “text about the evolving text, or the writer’s explicit commentary on her own ongoing discourse” (ädel, 2006, p. 20). ädel (2006) provided five clear criteria for investigating metadiscourse, i.e., intersubjectivity, non-propositionality, context-dependency, explicitness, and intra-textuality. however, among many classifications proposed in stage 2 (and the subsequent stages), only hyland’s (2005) framework in cluster #9 (social cognition), which built on thompson’s (2001) distinction between interactive and interactional resources, was identified as a landmark publication (see table 2). the framework on metadiscourse is identified as a predominant in this domain, with a high sigma value of 2.33. interactive metadiscourse comprises self-reflexive expressions to manage the flow of information, thereby “addressing how writers guide readers by anticipating their likely reactions and needs” (hyland, 2005, p. 44), and interactional metadiscourse encompasses linguistic resources used to make “explicit interventions to comment on and evaluate material” (hyland, 2005, p. 44). two subsequent publications, hyland and tse (2004) and aull and lancaster (2014), were also detected as landmark publications (as shown in table 2). it is necessary to point out that ädel (2006), an influential study in metadiscourse, was not found as a landmark publication in the co-citation network for two possible reasons. the first is that hyland’s model (2005) is generally seen as the dominant model in the domain (hyland, 2017, 2022), and the second is that in the choice of search terms, this study did not adopt “metatext” or “text reflexivity” as the search term, which is preferred by studies (e.g., salas, 2015; zhang, 2016), following ädel’s (2006) approach. how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 175 another notable feature of stage 2 concerns the endeavors to expand the terrain by proposing new themes, particularly with respect to emerging genres and languages in this domain. in the co-citation network of stage 2, several labels regarding to the genre or part-genre under investigation (“wechat public account advertisement”, “master thesis abstract”, “discussion section”, “digital comment”) frequently occurred (as shown in table 1). it is also evident that a comparative study design is preferred, as the label “comparative study” was found to be significant in cluster #1, llr = 29.11. several studies using a comparative perspective were found (hyland, 2004; kawase, 2015), which investigate the use of metadiscourse in different genres. language is the other notable theme we identified in stage 2. while metadiscourse was limited in english in stage 1, more languages were used in stage 2. spanish was the second most prominent language of metadiscourse studies (e.g., carrasco muñoz, 2008; meza, 2016), and this is evidenced by the high value in the log-likelihood ratio score of the cluster label “written scientific spanish” (llr = 29.36) in cluster #1. nevertheless, stage 2 research was mainly in the domain of eap, as evidenced by cluster labels such as “eap lesson”, “english research article”, “written academic writing”, etc., which confirms the finding in hyland (2017, 2022). as shown in table 1, studies in stage 2 of metadiscourse research were primarily undertaken from the following two perspectives: style-variation metadiscourse research (cluster #1, #9, #18 and part of cluster #2, #4 and #15); and language proficiency research (part of cluster #2, #4 and #15). both perspectives experienced prolonged citation bursts (between 2004 and 2016; between 1999 and 2016 respectively). table 2. landmark publications in style-variation metadiscourse research (ranked by year). specifically, style-variation metadiscourse research (2002-2014) was most prominent in cluster #1, comprising 69 articles. two research approaches were salient: cross-disciplinary and cross-genre approaches. the cross-disciplinary approach received a high citation in the wos core collection (e.g., hyland & tse, jihua dong, shuai dong & louisa buckingha ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190176 ! no. co-citation burst centrality sigma publication cluster 1 19 4.35 0.21 2.33 hyland (2005). metadiscourse: exploring interaction in writing 9 2 23 4.84 0.13 1.84 hyland and tse (2004). metadiscourse in academic writing: a reappraisal 4 3 19 4.78 0.17 2.09 aull & lancaster (2014). written communication 2 table 2. landmark publications in style-variation metadiscourse research (ranked by year). specifically, style-variation metadiscourse research (2002-2014) was most prominent in cluster #1, comprising 69 articles. two research approaches were salient: cross-disciplinary and cross-genre approaches. the cross-disciplinary approach received a high citation in the wos core collection (e.g., hyland & tse, 2004; hyland, 2004). for example, the first disciplinary-related metadiscourse publication, hyland (1998), explored the importance of rhetorical context for the appropriate use of metadiscourse. a subsequent highly cited study, hu and cao (2015) identified robust evidence for disciplinary practices in the use of interactional metadiscourse in hard and soft disciplines. genre analysis, pioneered by swales (2011), focuses on language in specific text types. studies following this approach explored new genres, such as the undergraduate textbook, abstracts, slogans, and headlines. two primary genres involved in metadiscourse research are business and academic genres (hyland, 2017, 2022). it is evident that the academic genre is more dominant, as shown by the significant academic-pertinent cluster labels listed in table 1 (with p values below 0.05). regarding the cross-genre approaches, hu and cao (2015) pointed to the paucity of research using this approach, compared to cross-disciplinary research. nevertheless, we found that cluster labels for the cross-genre approach possessed higher llr scores than those for the cross-disciplinary approach, which signals the higher impact of this approach in recent years (e.g., carrió-pastor, 2019; labrador et al., 2014). research from the perspective of “proficiency metadiscourse research” typically considers two different variables in the analysis of metadiscourse: the effect of different native language backgrounds, and different writing proficiency levels (such as undergraduate essays and journal papers) (e.g., campbell et al., 2012; hu & liu, 2018). the contrastive analysis, prominent in both clusters #2 and #4, was firstly undertaken by vergaro (2002). this was followed by other studies which identified the differences in metadiscourse usage between english and languages such as brazilian portuguese (hirano, 2009), spanish (mur-dueñas, 2011), italian (vergaro, 2005), chinese (crosthwaite & jiang, 2017; mu et al. 2015) and malaysian (jomaa & alia, 2019). proficiency-focused studies, represented by the cluster label “l2 ability”, received a high score in cluster #0. a landmark publication (aull & lancaster, 2014, with a sigma score of 2.09) identified on this theme compares the use of stance expressions (one category of metadiscourse) in academic writing produced by students and academics. several studies were identified on this theme (hinkel, 2005; jiang, 2015; mur-dueñas, 2011) that considered the implications of metadiscourse research for language teaching, and which usually employ a contrastive approach (e.g., high-level students compared with low-level students). 2004; hyland, 2004). for example, the first disciplinary-related metadiscourse publication, hyland (1998), explored the importance of rhetorical context for the appropriate use of metadiscourse. a subsequent highly cited study, hu and cao (2015) identified robust evidence for disciplinary practices in the use of interactional metadiscourse in hard and soft disciplines. genre analysis, pioneered by swales (2011), focuses on language in specific text types. studies following this approach explored new genres, such as the undergraduate textbook, abstracts, slogans, and headlines. two primary genres involved in metadiscourse research are business and academic genres (hyland, 2017, 2022). it is evident that the academic genre is more dominant, as shown by the significant academic-pertinent cluster labels listed in table 1 (with p values below 0.05). regarding the cross-genre approaches, hu and cao (2015) pointed to the paucity of research using this approach, compared to cross-disciplinary research. nevertheless, we found that cluster labels for the cross-genre approach possessed higher llr scores than those for the cross-disciplinary approach, which signals the higher impact of this approach in recent years (e.g., carrió-pastor, 2019; labrador et al., 2014). research from the perspective of “proficiency metadiscourse research” typically considers two different variables in the analysis of metadiscourse: the effect of different native language backgrounds, and different writing proficiency levels (such as undergraduate essays and journal papers) (e.g., campbell et al., 2012; hu & liu, 2018). the contrastive analysis, prominent in both clusters #2 and #4, was firstly undertaken by vergaro (2002). this was followed by other studies which identified the differences in metadiscourse usage between english and languages such as brazilian portuguese (hirano, 2009), spanish (mur-dueñas, 2011), italian (vergaro, 2005), chinese (crosthwaite & jiang, 2017; mu et al. 2015) and malaysian (jomaa & alia, 2019). proficiency-focused studies, represented by the cluster label “l2 ability”, received a high score in cluster #0. a landmark publication (aull & lancaster, 2014, with a sigma score of 2.09) identified on this theme compares the use of stance expressions (one category of metadiscourse) in academic writing produced by students and academics. several studies were identified on this theme (hinkel, 2005; jiang, 2015; mur-dueñas, 2011) that considered the implications of metadiscourse research for language teaching, and which usually employ a contrastive approach (e.g., high-level students compared with low-level students). how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 177 with two notable exceptions, the primary focus of metadiscourse research in stage 2 was in accordance with shneider’s (2009) theoretical framework, that is, expanding the territory of metadiscourse and establishing new research themes and approaches. the exceptions concerned the absence of innovative analytical tools for analyzing metadiscourse, and the limitation of the discourse type studied to academic writing. in our view, these limitations have hindered innovative developments in the field. reflecting on possible future lines of enquiry, liu and hu (2021) encouraged future metadiscourse research to “go beyond corpus-based textual analysis to capitalize on other methodological enablers, such as experimental procedures, ethnographic tools, and eye-tracking technologies” (p.111). 4 . 2 . 3 . t h e f l o u r i sh i ng s ta g e ( a bo u t 2 0 1 5 ) table 3 presents detailed information relating to stage 3 research generated by citespace. three clusters were found: part of cluster #0 (chinesemedium journal), part of cluster #10 (wechat public account advertisement), and cluster #15 (digital comment). of these, cluster #0 was the most prominent cluster with 97 publications. the oldest cluster in stage 3 began in 2013 (cluster #15), and the latest cluster (which began in 2016) still enjoyed high impact till 2020. no landmark publications were found, which indicates the absence of a dominant research theme. as shown in table 3, studies in stage 3 center on two dominant perspectives, namely “new media” and “applied linguistics”. the new media perspective (part of cluster #10) attracted growing attention (blal & sturman, 2014), and the cluster labels show the expansion of metadiscourse-related studies to new registers, such as wechat advertisements, fiction, websites, and reports (e.g., gonzález, 2005; vásquez, 2015; zhang, 2016). the most influential studies in applied linguistics are in cluster #0, which is mainly concerned with analyzing the author-reader connection, the construction of author stance and knowledge construction (see table 5). themes that attracted considerable attention included authorial stance, shell nouns, and writing pedagogy; new themes included intensification strategies and dominance-linked reflexive metadiscourse (i.e., reflexive metadiscourse used to achieve dominance in interaction). the most highly cited study in cluster #0, however, was hyland’s (2017) review of the development of metadiscourse. according to miranda and garciacarpintero (2018), review papers tend to be cited (on average) three times jihua dong, shuai dong & louisa buckingha ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190178 more frequently than regular research articles and the findings in this study confirm this. it is interesting to note that corpus-based and corpus-driven studies, the common research approaches in stage 2, are also dominant in stage 3 labels (mainly in cluster #15), which indicates the prevailing influence of stage 2. according to shneider (2009), stage 3 research perspectives are strongly influenced by stage 2, albeit with adjustments. in reflection of the dominance of corpus linguistic methods, the second most highly cited stage 3 study was the antconc software (anthony, 2005). however, contrary to shneider (2009), new theory was found to emerge in metadiscourse research in stage 2. based on the work of stance nouns (charles, 2003) in academic writing, jiang and hyland (2018) addressed the interactional dimension of nouns in academic writing and proposed the existence of “metadiscursive nouns”. the concept refers to “a sub-set of abstract nouns and [is] distinguished from them by their unspecific semantic meaning” (jiang & hyland, 2015, p. 4). the study found that “metadiscursive noun + post-nominal clause” is one of the most frequently used patterns. this emerging noun pattern represents a method of “organizing discourse into a cohesive flow of information and of constructing a stance towards it” (hyland & jiang, 2018, p. 20). a potential influence brought by this study is that it may cause a curvilinear development of metadiscourse. as suggested by kuhn (1962), scientific development does not proceed linearly. in this light, this study thus can contribute to giving rise to a new wave of research on metadiscourse and reinvigorating the field, according to shneider (2009). another notable finding concerns the introduction of a new analytical tool, namely the authorial voice analyzer (in yoon, 2017). this tool allows users to automatically detect interactional metadiscourse in the source text. although according to shneider (2009) the emergence of analytical tools typically occurs at stage 2, a possible reason for its delayed appearance is the low demand for technological advancements due to the limited scale of the metadiscourse research field. however, it is necessary to point out that the application did not attract citations, as we found only two studies with the combination of keywords “metadiscourse” and “authorial voice analyzer” in the wos (lim, 2019; yoon, 2018). how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 179 table 3. research perspectives identified in stage 3. 4.3. publications with the strongest transformative potential publications with transformative potential refer to those containing innovations that had not been previously introduced in the studies cited (olmeda-gómez et al., 2019). in this study, sva in citespace was used to identify the recent publications in metadiscourse of transformative potential. the specific analysis follows the criterion of olmeda-gómez (2019) and uses the geometric mean of the values for three separate metrics (presented in section 3.2) to select the studies with the highest transformative potentials. the analysis identified 13 publications with transformative potential (table 4) and the studies with the highest transformative potential are presented in table 5. notably, the dominance of stage 3 publications (eleven in total) is evidence of the more innovative nature of stage 3 metadiscourse research. this finding is not consistent with shneider’s (2009) account of stage 3 research which constitutes only “relatively minor but still highly useful alterations of the research methods while adapting them for new tasks.” (p. 220). thus, discrepancies were identified in the development of metadiscourse research with respect to shneider’s (2009) evolutionary model, which indicates a different developmental trajectory of metadiscourse. also of note, papers with the highest modularity change rate in each stage are all located in the proximity of a stage transition. for instance, the transformative study of hewings and hewings (2002) appeared at the beginning of stage 2, and the second transformative study (hyland & jiang, 2018) was located at the beginning of stage 3. this suggests that transformative studies may function as an indicator of the transition to a new developmental stage in a domain. jihua dong, shuai dong & louisa buckingha ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190180 ! concept refers to “a sub-set of abstract nouns and [is] distinguished from them by their unspecific semantic meaning” (jiang & hyland, 2015, p. 4). the study found that “metadiscursive noun + post-nominal clause” is one of the most frequently used patterns. this emerging noun pattern represents a method of “organizing discourse into a cohesive flow of information and of constructing a stance towards it” (hyland & jiang, 2018, p. 20). a potential influence brought by this study is that it may cause a curvilinear development of metadiscourse. as suggested by kuhn (1962), scientific development does not proceed linearly. in this light, this study thus can contribute to giving rise to a new wave of research on metadiscourse and reinvigorating the field, according to shneider (2009). another notable finding concerns the introduction of a new analytical tool, namely the authorial voice analyzer (in yoon, 2017). this tool allows users to automatically detect interactional metadiscourse in the source text. although according to shneider (2009) the emergence of analytical tools typically occurs at stage 2, a possible reason for its delayed appearance is the low demand for technological advancements due to the limited scale of the metadiscourse research field. however, it is necessary to point out that the application did not attract citations, as we found only two studies with the combination of keywords “metadiscourse” and “authorial voice analyzer” in the wos (lim, 2019; yoon, 2018). no. perspective cluster no./ mean year number of publications extracted cluster labels related to the perspective (top 10 by llr score, p-level < 0.05) 1 new media approach part of #10(2017) 15 wechat public account advertisement (24.57); relational act (24.57); group discussion (9.45); exploring dominancelinked reflexive metadiscourse (9.45) 2 applied linguistics approach part of #0 (2015); part of #15 (2014) 110 chinese-medium journal (27.46); applied linguistics article (27.46); metadiscourse feature (24.36); interactional marker (24.36); surprise marker (19.67); authorial presence (18.19); eap lesson (15.11); interactive metadiscourse (12.04); shell noun (10.99); knowledge construal (10.99) table 3. research perspectives identified in stage 3. 4.3. publications with the strongest transformative potential publications with transformative potential refer to those containing innovations that had not been previously introduced in the studies cited (olmeda-gómez et al., 2019). in this study, sva in citespace was used to identify the recent publications in metadiscourse of transformative potential. the specific analysis follows the criterion of olmeda-gómez (2019) and uses the geometric mean of the values for three separate metrics (presented in section 3.2) to select the studies with the highest transformative potentials. the analysis identified 13 publications with transformative potential (table 4) and the studies with the highest transformative potential are presented in table 5. notably, the dominance of stage 3 publications (eleven in total) is evidence of the more innovative nature of stage 3 metadiscourse research. this finding is not consistent with shneider’s (2009) account of stage 3 research which constitutes only “relatively minor but still highly useful alterations of the research methods while adapting them for new tasks.” (p. 220). thus, discrepancies were identified in the development of metadiscourse research with respect to shneider’s (2009) evolutionary model, which indicates a different developmental trajectory of metadiscourse. table 4. studies detected with transformative potential in the co-citation network. table 5. the three most transformative studies detected in the co-citation network. table 5 displays the top three studies with the highest transformative potential in each developmental stage. the earliest publication is hewings and hewings (2002) from cluster #5, appearing in the earliest stage of the evolutionary model. this study explores the “it” structure through a metadiscourse perspective in two computerized corpora, i.e., in published journal papers in the field of business studies and in mba student dissertations written by non-native english speakers. the study investigated the main interpersonal roles in the hedging of the “it” structure (i.e., marking the writer’s attitude, emphasis, and attribution) and found that students often use more hedging in articulating their claims. the retrieved information from citespace shows that the study connects biber et al. (1999) in cluster #5 with hyland (1998) in cluster #13. this application of the register variation theory of biber et al. (1999) in the exploration of metadiscourse constitutes an innovative step. the second publication with transformative potential in stage 2 is tse and hyland (2006). the study investigated how the pragmatic purpose in the use of metadiscourse markers varies in book reviews in three disciplines. the how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 181 ! also of note, papers with the highest modularity change rate in each stage are all located in the proximity of a stage transition. for instance, the transformative study of hewings and hewings (2002) appeared at the beginning of stage 2, and the second transformative study (hyland & jiang, 2018) was located at the beginning of stage 3. this suggests that transformative studies may function as an indicator of the transition to a new developmental stage in a domain. published modularity change rate cluster linkage centrality divergence stage no. references 2002 3.3621 0.4 0.2976 1 hewings & hewings 2006 2.2807 0.2667 0.8316 2 tse & hyland 2015 -0.1274 0 0.1994 3 pujol dahme ana 2015 0.00 0.00 0.00 3 lee & deakin 2016 0.00 0.00 0.00 3 hu & cao 2018 1.121 0.0303 0.5091 3 ädel 2018 2.3356 0.0303 0.028 3 akbas & hardman 2018 2.5095 0.0606 0.0946 3 ho & li 2018 1.7137 0.0303 0.0773 3 ho 2018 5.8082 0.0909 0.1646 3 hyland & jiang 2018 1.6791 0.0303 0.0832 3 jiang & hyland 2018 2.3356 0.0303 0.028 3 mozayan, allami & fazilatfar table 4. studies detected with transformative potential in the co-citation network. table 5. the three most transformative studies detected in the co-citation network. table 5 displays the top three studies with the highest transformative potential in each developmental stage. the earliest publication is hewings and hewings (2002) from cluster #5, appearing in the earliest stage of the evolutionary model. this study explores the “it” structure through a metadiscourse perspective in two computerized corpora, i.e., in published journal papers in the field of business studies and in mba student dissertations written by non-native english speakers. the study investigated the main interpersonal roles in the hedging of the “it” structure (i.e., marking the writer’s attitude, emphasis, and attribution) and found that students often use more hedging in articulating their claims. the retrieved information from citespace shows that the study connects biber et al. (1999) in cluster #5 with hyland (1998) in cluster #13. this application of the register variation theory of biber et al. (1999) in the exploration of metadiscourse constitutes an innovative step. the second publication with transformative potential in stage 2 is tse and hyland (2006). the study investigated how the pragmatic purpose in the use of metadiscourse markers varies in book reviews in three disciplines. the analysis shows that the study strengthens the connection between hyland (2002a) and hyland (2002b), and also ! also of note, papers with the highest modularity change rate in each stage are all located in the proximity of a stage transition. for instance, the transformative study of hewings and hewings (2002) appeared at the beginning of stage 2, and the second transformative study (hyland & jiang, 2018) was located at the beginning of stage 3. this suggests that transformative studies may function as an indicator of the transition to a new developmental stage in a domain. table 4. studies detected with transformative potential in the co-citation network. published modularity change rate cluster linkage centrality divergence stage no. references 2002 3.3621 0.4 0.2976 1 hewings & hewings 2006 2.2807 0.2667 0.8316 2 tse & hyland 2018 5.8082 0.0909 0.1646 3 hyland & jiang table 5. the three most transformative studies detected in the co-citation network. table 5 displays the top three studies with the highest transformative potential in each developmental stage. the earliest publication is hewings and hewings (2002) from cluster #5, appearing in the earliest stage of the evolutionary model. this study explores the “it” structure through a metadiscourse perspective in two computerized corpora, i.e., in published journal papers in the field of business studies and in mba student dissertations written by non-native english speakers. the study investigated the main interpersonal roles in the hedging of the “it” structure (i.e., marking the writer’s attitude, emphasis, and attribution) and found that students often use more hedging in articulating their claims. the retrieved information from citespace shows that the study connects biber et al. (1999) in cluster #5 with hyland (1998) in cluster #13. this application of the register variation theory of biber et al. (1999) in the exploration of metadiscourse constitutes an innovative step. the second publication with transformative potential in stage 2 is tse and hyland (2006). the study investigated how the pragmatic purpose in the use of metadiscourse markers varies in book reviews in three disciplines. the analysis shows that the study strengthens the connection between hyland (2002a) and hyland (2002b), and also analysis shows that the study strengthens the connection between hyland (2002a) and hyland (2002b), and also creates new links between hyland (2002a) and hyland (2004). an in-depth inspection revealed that tse and hyland (2006) first applied corpus approaches to analyze metadiscourse in philosophy book reviews, and this study functions to create a new link between hyland (2004) and hyland (2002b). it also used the interview approach to analyze rhetorical features of metadiscourse, which contributed to establishing the link between hyland (2004) and hyland (2002a). this inspired several studies in the generated co-citation network using interviews as an approach to explore the metadiscourse (e.g., bogdanovic & mirovic, 2018; peng & zheng, 2021). the last potential transformative study is by hyland and jiang (2018). this study shared a strong link with hyland (2017), kawase (2015), and hong and cao (2014). the study analyzed the use of metadiscourse from a diachronic perspective and explored whether, and to what extent, metadiscourse has changed in professional writing in different disciplines over the past 50 years. in our co-citation network, eight out of 13 transformative potential publications were found to be published in 2018. the topic of those studies signals the direction of future themes of metadiscourse research, according to the sva results. emerging focuses on genres like email (ho, 2018), teacher feedback on student writing (ädel, 2018) and qualitative studies (mozayan et al., 2018) have extended the territory of metadiscourse. new directions such as the subdisciplinary perspective (mozayan et al., 2018) or diachronic perspective (hyland & jiang, 2018) also emerged in this domain. although studies that were detected to have the most transformative potential still focus on eap, a broader array of perspectives has emerged (e.g., interpretation (fu, 2017), mooc (zhang & sheng, 2021)) and will probably expand the scope of metadiscourse. 5. conclusion adopting a bibliometric approach, this study provided a diachronic and systematic review of the developmental features of metadiscourse studies over the last four decades and tracked the evolution of a research topic evolving into a popular research domain. the co-citation analysis revealed twelve major clusters, three landmark studies and 13 potentially transformative studies. jihua dong, shuai dong & louisa buckingha ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190182 using shneider’s (2009) theoretical framework of scientific development, we identified three developmental stages that metadiscourse research has undergone over the last four decades: the emerging stage (introducing the metadiscourse, 1983about 2000), the maturing stage (expanding the research territory, about 2000about 2015), and the flourishing stage (creating new insights into the researching object, about 2015-). the developmental trajectory of metadiscourse research was found to largely coincide with characteristics foreseen in shneider’s (2009) evolutionary model. some unique features were identified, which may pertain to the recency of this emerging research field, and these can contribute to amending this theoretical framework of scientific development. a second contribution of the study concerns the creative application of structural variation analysis to identify studies of transformative potential in the development of metadiscourse research. this approach helps to pinpoint the studies that play a pivotal role in ushering in the next developmental stage of this field soon after their emergence, which helps to solve the issue of heavy reliance on co-citation analysis. the ability to identify the features of a study that contribute to transformative potential, as demonstrated through our analysis, has the following two potential implications. firstly, researchers are able to foresee such features in the design of future research, which can increase the likelihood of the study achieving transformative potential and advancing the research field. secondly, the structural variation analysis employed in this study can also be used to help journal editors to identify manuscripts with transformative potential before the peer review process, thereby facilitating their consideration of this factor in making decisions on the acceptance of a paper in the reviewing process. admittedly, factors external to the research process (such as societal trends) also influence the development of a research field or scientific domain. in recognition of this, future research might explore this through the integration of particular variables into the study design, where possible. another limitation concerns the use of a purpose-built dataset of publications and their unique references collected from wos core collections. a broader dataset (such as the full dataset of wos or a dataset compiled with google scholar) may provide more comprehensive coverage of metadiscourse studies. finally, citations are dynamic in nature. they are subject to variation and are sensitive to the influence of various factors, including research scale, social influence, and self-citation (bornmann & how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 183 daniel, 2008); 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(2001). interaction in academic writing: learning to argue with the reader. applied linguistics, 22(1), 58-78. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/22.1.58 tian, e., & wise, n. (2019). an atlantic divide? mapping the knowledge domain of european and north american-based sociology of sport, 20082018. international review for the sociology of sport, 55(8), 1029-1055. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 1012690219878370 tse, p., & hyland, k. (2006). ‘so what is the problem this book addresses?’: interactions in academic book reviews. text & talk an interdisciplinary journal of language, discourse communication studies, 26(6), 767-790. https:// doi.org/10.1515/text.2006.031 vergaro, c. (2002). “dear sirs, what would you do jihua dong (orcid: 0000-0001-7864-2319) is professor, qilu young scholar, and taishan young scholar in the school of foreign languages and literature at shandong university, china. her research interests include corpus linguistics, corpus-based teaching, academic writing, and discourse analysis. she has previously published in english for specific purposes, international journal of corpus linguistics, journal of english for academic purposes, recall, and system, among others. shuai dong (orcid: 0000-0001-9358-2158) is a doctoral student in languages and linguistics at the school of foreign languages and literature at shandong university. he has published in waiyu yanjiui, waiyu xuekan, etc. his current research interest is eap, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and bibliometric analysis. louisa buckingham (orcid: 0000-0001-9423-0664) lectures in applied linguistics at the university of auckland. she has published on topics related to corpus informed discourse analysis, language learning and sociolinguistics. she has published in various journals including tesol quarterly, system, journal of english for academic purposes, english for specific purposes, and journal of multilingual and multicultural development. jihua dong, shuai dong & louisa buckingha ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190188 if you were in our position?”. discourse strategies in italian and english money chasing letters. journal of pragmatics, 34(9), 1211-1233. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-2166(02)00046-2 vergaro, c. (2005). ‘dear sirs, i hope you will find this information useful’: discourse strategies in italian and english ‘for your information’ (fyi) letters. discourse studies, 7(1), 109-135. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605048769 vásquez, c. (2015). “don’t even get me started…”: interactive metadiscourse in online consumer reviews. digital business discourse, 19-39. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137405579_2 williams, j. m. (2008). style: ten lessons in clarity and grace. manitoba education, media production services unit. yeung, a. w., goto, t. k., & keung leung, w. (2017). a bibliometric review of research trends in neuroimaging. current science, 112(04), 725. https://doi.org/10.18520/cs/v112/i04/725-734 yoon, h. j. (2017). textual voice elements and voice strength in efl argumentative writing. assessing writing, 32, 72-84. https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.asw.2017.02.002 yoon, h. j. (2018). the development of esl writing quality and lexical proficiency: suggestions for assessing writing achievement. language assessment quarterly, 15(4), 387-405. https://doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2018.1536756 yoon, h. j., & römer, u. (2020). quantifying disciplinary voices: an automated approach to interactional metadiscourse in successful student writing. written communication, 37(2), 208-244. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088319898672 zhang, d., & sheng, d. (2021). efl lecturers’ metadiscourse in chinese university moocs across course types. corpus pragmatics, 5(2), 243-270. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41701-02100098-0 zhang, m. (2016). a multidimensional analysis of metadiscourse markers across written registers. discourse studies, 18(2), 204-222. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/1461445615623907 zhang, m., pan, h., chen, x., & luo, t. (2015). mapping discourse analysis in translation studies via bibliometrics: a survey of journal publications. perspectives, 23(2), 223-239. https://doi.org/10. 1080/0907676x.2015.1021260 notes 1 according to chen’s (2016) criteria, this study treats clusters containing more than ten articles as large clusters. 2 due to the limited studies scrutinized in this study, the keywords of cluster #0 and cluster #1 generated by the llr algorithm were found to overlap in a few cluster labels, for instance chinese medium journal. 3 each cluster is shown by a horizontal line with nodes/rings of varying sizes based on their co-citation statistics. in this study, recognizing that metadiscourse studies are predominantly published after 2010, we used a fish-eye lens function of citespace to assist the interpretation of the co-citation result. the purple ring in the figure 1 signals the greater number of publications in this domain in recent years, e.g., hyland (2005), whose framework is predominantly used in metadiscourse research, which is also detected as a high sigma value publication. how does a research topic evolve into a research field? a bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research ibérica 45 (2023): 163-190 189 there is no doubt that cognitive linguistics is nowadays one of the latest, most versatile, and interdisciplinary trends in linguistic theory. in general terms, cognitive linguistics deals with different issues involved in the interaction of language, experience, and cognition. moreover, the influence of cognitive theory on applied linguistics and, more specifically, on the research currently carried out in academic language and in the field of lsp has also become a source of innovation. thus, the range of investigation interests may cover from more classical aspects related to metaphor and categorization, to more recent studies of the interrelation between discourse and cognition. in this respect, it is worthwhile mentioning, for instance, the studies on metaphor and metonymy phenomena at the level of discourse, including text coherence and text development as well as their role in scientific and technical communication. likewise, it is not surprising that since cognitive linguistics focuses on language as an instrument for organizing, processing and conveying information, recent contributions to cognitive linguistics arrive from the area of sociolinguistics and social cognition, as shown in the main subjects proposed in the latest international cognitive conference. as previously mentioned, the applications of cognitive linguistics to lsp teaching is an emergent field of study, very recently opened and being currently developed in an interdisciplinary way. therefore, it is worthwhile to make some considerations about the state of the art of cognitive research applied to the classroom. despite the novelty of this approach, three major directions can already be distinguished in the general application of cognitive contributions to foreign language learning. the first one to be mentioned is the approach known as "cognitive learning strategies". this area has been receiving more and more attention in second language acquisition for several decades. its origins come from cognitive psychology, which was one of the dominant modes of strategy analysis in the late 1970s and was still influential well into the 1980s. the focus of interest of learning strategies lies mainly in the learner's psychology, its objective being to identify the type of strategies that are more relevant in the learning process. according to this theory, the way learners manipulate metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies has to be taken into account. therefore, the role of teachers is twofold, on the one hand, to find out the strategies that students prefer to use and, on the other, to determine the type of tasks that can influence the cognitive strategies in the learning process in an adequate way. ibérica 7 [2004]: 3-4 editorial 3 the second main direction concerns the way that concepts are categorised to some extent in accordance with central examples of categories, as stated in the prototypicality theory first formulated by the psychologist eleanor rosch. since then the theory has been applied to other fields by other specialists, such as michio sugeno, professor of artificial intelligence in tokyo university, and his work in the theory known as fuzzy set. a third line of investigation concerns the study of conceptual and linguistic metaphor, which argues for the exploitation of contextualised metaphor as a separate and fundamental learning item. on the other hand, in grammar teaching, cognitive linguistics works by making students aware of the importance of conveying meaning through the function of formal linguistic items and of the conceptual interface between syntax and semantics. and, finally, in the study of discourse, a top-down approach to texts is applied, helping students understand the codes and formalities associated not only with their community linguistic group but also with genre studies. the students should also be aware of the experiential background of language-in-use, including the cultural background, the discourse context, and the psychological environment of linguistic performance. under "cognitive studies in lsp", this special volume of ibérica includes some articles that have been selected taking into account the different contributions they could offer in the lsp aspects that have been mentioned above. the idea came about after the celebration of the "developing cognitive linguistics in languages for specific purposes seminar" preceding the ist international aelfe conference held in madrid in september 2002. thus, m. white, g. cuadrado, and j. herráez highlight the metaphorical aspects of various lsp conceptual and linguistic fields; j. littlemore's article is concerned with the study of learning strategies applied to metaphor use. a. roldán is interested in looking at communication and its strategies from a cognitive viewpoint, and p. durán analyses the mental mechanisms related to the processing of second language new vocabulary. this volume also contains two book reviews of very recent publications on cognitive theory from different perspectives: p. robinson's (2001), reviewed by m. millán and r. jackendoff's (2002) by p. úbeda. we would like to acknowledge the excellent job carried out by the members of ibérica's editorial board for their review work, and also hanna skorczynska's reading of the final draft of the papers. pilar durán escribano & ana roldán riejos universidad politécnica de madrid ibérica 7 [2004]: 3-44 01 editorial.qxd les discours de la bourse et de la finance laurent gautier (ed). berlin: frank & timme, 2012. 182 pages. isbn: 978-386596-302-4. cet ouvrage collectif, divisé en quatre parties, s’intéresse au rôle de la langue et des discours du domaine de la bourse et des finances. la première met en lumière les liens existant entre discours financiers et idéologie islamiste. afin d’aider les traducteurs à mieux appréhender la dénomination des concepts de la finance islamique, fayza el quasem identifie les caractéristiques de cette langue en mettant en exergue l’importance des connaissances culturelles qui s’avèrent cruciales pour mener à bien tout type de négociation financière. le traducteur aura recours à l’emprunt terminologique pour ne pas s’écarter du sens conceptuel du terme (sharia) ou à l’euphémisme comme stratégie d’expression. sur le plan syntaxique, il privilégiera les tournures impersonnelles et passives. une incursion religieuse se révèle nécessaire pour tous les métiers voulant s’ouvrir au monde financier de l’islam. la deuxième partie de l’ouvrage, rassemble sous le titre de « discours de crise », deux contributions. la première de michel van der yeught propose une analyse diachronique, de 1700 à nos jours, des discours boursiers anglo-américains qui émergent en période de crise financière et qui sont rédigés par des non spécialistes à la portée de tout un commun. l’auteur en identifie six types et démontre que chacun d’eux résulte de deux matrices discursives différentes : l’une en relation directe avec la crise boursière, l’autre dépendant de l’auteur «  partie prenante  » à la crise. il rapproche leur interprétation de l’analyse littéraire et les qualifie de « littérature boursière ». dans la seconde contribution, pascale janot focalise sa recherche sur la dernière crise financière et observe que les discours médiatiques français et italiens sont une source abondante de termes anglo-américains. l’auteure sélectionne pour son étude le terme financier emblématique  subprime dont elle étudie minutieusement la structure et l’évolution de sa mise en scène reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 251 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 251 discursive : son aspect graphico-visuel, ses dénominations et désignations, les procédés de reformulation qui l’accompagnent. trois articles constituent la troisième partie de cet ouvrage, intitulée « stratégies discursives ». le premier de johanna miecznikowski, andrea rocci et gergana zlatkova s’intéresse à l’organisation pragmaticodiscursive et aux actes de prévision des articles de presse économique et financière (aef) italienne. les premiers résultats mettent en lumière des différences entre les genres de la presse écrite et les aef, en particulier, leur structure argumentative. l’étude quantitative et qualitative des actes de prévisions met en valeur différents types d’arguments d’importance privilégiée dans ces discours. rudi palmieri et camilla palmieri mettent en évidence la variété textuelle de la communication financière qu’ils conçoivent comme un contexte communicatif dont le principal objectif consiste à investir c’est-à-dire à créer de la valeur. les auteurs expliquent les situations financières (rachat d’actions, politique de dividende, etc.) dans lesquelles interviennent les principaux acteurs (investisseurs, imprésarios, agents intermédiaires) afin de dégager les différents types d’interaction qui entrent en jeu et d’identifier les genres textuels qui en dérivent. silvia modena aborde la question du passage à l’euro à travers le discours de jean-claude trichet, gouverneur à cette époque de la banque de france et membre du conseil de la banque centrale européenne. l’auteure différencie deux visées argumentatives à partir d’un corpus bien sélectionné : le discours d’expertise et de vulgarisation. elle classe les arguments utilisés à partir de leur contenu sémantique tout en précisant que leur choix est, bien entendu, fortement lié à l’auditoire cible. la quatrième partie consacrée aux micro-analyses réunit trois contributions. fida barake étudie les néologismes sur le même thème que pascale janot : la crise des subprimes ou prêts hypothécaires d’origine américaine dans la presse économique française. elle distingue des anglicismes propres au système financier américain, des emprunts indirects de l’anglais et des emprunts de l’arabe provenant d’articles sur la finance islamique et montre que leur naissance et multiplication dépendent des bouleversements financiers mondiaux. l’article de philippe verronneau s’attache à l’étude des unités lexicales nominales allemandes composées d’un nom + un nom unis par un trait d’union. abondantes dans le discours de la bourse et des finances, elles reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256252 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 252 présentent des caractéristiques morphologiques particulières se combinant avec des sigles, des anglicismes ou des nombres. sémantiquement, elles apportent, en général, précision et clarté et elles se prêtent aussi à la création de nouvelles formations. la dernière contribution de pierre lejeune se penche sur la diversité des emplois du terme marché(s) en se basant sur un corpus d’articles journalistiques du domaine de l’économie et des finances. après avoir listé les référents rencontrés, l’auteur analyse minutieusement le concept à partir de ses contextes discursifs. la plupart des occurrences relevées lui attribuent un trait humain soit par métonymie soit par personnification. s’agirait-il d’un procédé pour reconduire les agissements des acteurs du monde financier ? les travaux recueillis par laurent gautier, de par l’optique linguistique de leurs approches, offrent aux lecteurs, linguistes de spécialité ou économistes, des pistes d’exploitation de la terminologie et montrent l’importance de la langue et des discours dans les savoirs économiques et financiers. [note de lecture reçue le 22 avril 2014] [note de lecture révisée et reçue le 30 mai 2014] [note de lecture révisée et acceptée le 5 juin 2014] note de lecture rédigée par françoise olmo cazevieille universitat politècnica de valència (espagne) folmo@idm.upv.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 253 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 253 01 editorial.qxd editorial ibérica no. 14 bears evidence of the “global spread” (quoting ferguson’s paper in the preceding issue) of the journal of aelfe. indeed, this is a truly international issue, with articles from different (mainly european) countries, which boosts the presence of ibérica in the field of languages for specific purposes among scholars worldwide. ibérica no. 14 also stands out because of the increased and varied number of reviews submitted. this shows not only that lsp is proving to be a promising area of research as a whole, but also that there is an increased quality of works, many of them published in relevant international publishing houses, edited by spanish scholars, and hosting pieces of research from authors and institutions worldwide. in this respect, ibérica no. 14 comes to support john swales’ generous, complimentary and encouraging words in his preface to the book edited by pérez-llantada & ferguson reviewed in this issue: after all, in recent years, spain has emerged on the world stage as an esp powerhouse and, in terms of investigations currently being undertaken, it may be second to none (…) spanish esp practitioners are not only publishing locally, as in that excellent journal ibérica, but internationally, as recent issues of english for specific purposes and the journal of english for academic purposes attest. while these practitioners are often housed in traditional-sounding departments of “filología”, they go about their business, and speak and write about their business in ways that are fully and importantly representative of the “new spain”. (swales, 2006: 16) ibérica no. 14 opens up with a paper by murray, hourigan & jeanneau addressing blogs and their implementation among university students to perform their academic tasks more effectively and efficiently. as a part of a larger ongoing project, murray et al. examine the role of micropublishing in general, and blog writing in particular, in promoting successful academic writing and language learning strategies. they survey an array of english written students’ blogs (32 in all) from the point of view of self-expression and reflection and provide a sample list of blog entries which are assessed in terms of structure, cohesion and organisation. the second paper in this issue deals with scientific discourse and hedging. the context of morales, cassany & gonzález-peña’s work is dental review articles published in iberoamerican journals over a 10-year period. morales ibérica 14 [2007]: 5-8 5 01 editorial.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 5 et al. classify the different hedges dental experts use and study the relationship of hedging as a discourse strategy related to the position of authors in the scientific community. next, botella rodríguez & gonzález rodríguez provide a historical overview of the teaching and learning of french and english for specific purposes at their own university, and hence, shed light on the possible origins of lsp in the spanish education system. based on a legacy catalogue of grammars and dictionaries, this paper claims and proves that the current educational concern about lsp is not exclusive to the last few decades of the 20th-century but rather a target teaching issue which goes further back in time. the fourth paper deals with assessment. garcía laborda & magal royo depict an internet-based multilingual testing platform for oral and written exams (known as plevalex) with particular reference to its potential implementation for the testing of esp. metaphorical medical language is the focus of mungra’s contribution. by determining the frequency and types of metaphors in a corpus of titles from a medical journal mungra analyses the role of metaphors in titles and reaches the conclusion that, although syntactically simple, medical journal titles are endowed with a highly communicative meaning which can positively contribute to enhancing academic literacy, especially among esp beginners. the sixth paper is an example of how common research interests can prevail over different nationalities and different mother tongues into a successful piece of research. cole, pritchard & trenkner map out the results of a twoyear international research project carried out with the aim of profiling the various types of maritime english instructors presently employed at higher institutions and suggest a set of actions in view of successful maritime education and training. the last paper in this issue comes from two lithuanian universities and is concerned with portfolios as an alternative assessment tool for performance at tertiary level. kavaliauskienė, kaminskienė & anusienė highlight selfassessment as an efficient option to evaluate esp language learning and focus on portfolios as a comprehensive tool for reflective practice which, at the same time, helps esp teachers assess learners’ knowledge and skills. finally, the six book reviews included herein are varied in scope (i.e., lsp branches) and reference/target languages. as stated before, most works reviewed are collections of essays of an international nature –i.e., published by relevant domestic or international houses, edited by spanish practitioners, and ana bocanegra valle ibérica 14 [2007]: 5-86 01 editorial.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 6 hosting works from scholars around the world. this, once again, contributes to the “global spread” of spanish research on lsp worldwide, and at the same time, it backs up and reinforces swales’ comparison of spain as “an esp powerhouse”. reviews will be of interest to readers intrigued by legal language from the standpoint of german research (forés’ review on bungarten & engberg’s bibliography); metaphorical language in civil engineering (fuertes’ review on boquera’s glossary); information technology and lsp (lópez’s review on arnó et al.’s volume); current issues regarding the four language skills (gilabert’s review on usó-juan & martínez-flor’s collection); globalisation of english versus world englishes (fortanet’s review on pérezllantada & ferguson’s co-edition); and, finally, interculturality and its role in business communication (lario’s review on palmer-silveira et al.’s work). in pursuance of ibérica’s regulations, the editorial board has been renewed. i would like to acknowledge the professional and thorough reviewing work carried out by pilar durán (universidad politécnica de madrid), concepción sanz (universidad de castilla-la mancha), ángel felices (universidad de granada) and pedro fuertes (universidad de valladolid) throughout these years and wish them well in their future endeavours. likewise, the editorial board has been enhanced to cover the demands of the increasing number of submissions and, particularly, the reviewing process of works written in french and german. i take the opportunity to welcome new editorial members: theo bungarten (universität hamburg), joseba gonzález ardeo (universidad del país vasco), esther hernández longas (universidad de alcalá de henares), claus-peter neumann (universidad de zaragoza), juan carlos palmer silveira (universitat jaume i), and ramón plo alastrué (universidad de zaragoza). i am also pleased to announce that gibson r. ferguson (university of sheffield) has kindly accepted to join the international advisory board. my sincere appreciation to ibérica’s editorial board for the work done and, particularly, to the external reviewers who have shared their knowledge and expertise with us in this period reviewing some of the papers submitted: santiago posteguillo (universitat jaume i), antonio garcía morilla (universidad de cádiz), mª ángeles orts (universidad de murcia), elena lópez torres (universidad de cádiz), elisabet arnó (universitat politècnica de catalunya), and ester usó juan (universitat jaume i). ana bocanegra valle universidad de cádiz (spain) editor of ibérica editorial ibérica 14 [2007]: 5-6 7 01 editorial.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 7 references ana bocanegra valle ibérica 14 [2007]: 5-88 ferguson, g.r. (2006). “the global spread of english, scientific communication and esp: questions of equity, access and domain loss”. ibérica 13: 7-38. swales, j.m. (2006). “preface” in c. pérez-llantada & g.r. ferguson (eds.), english as a glocalization phenomenon. observations from a linguistic microcosm, 15-17. valencia: publicacions de la universitat de valència. 01 editorial.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 8 30 reseñas.qxd ibérica 13 [2007]: 181-194 181 la redacción y traducción biomédica (inglés–español). un estudio basado en 200 textos is a monographic volume of research based on esther vázquez y del árbol’s doctoral thesis defended at the university of granada, but with an expanded corpus doubling that of her original dissertation published in 2002. the author dedicates her work to fundamentally two kinds of readership, first to spanish-speaking specialists in the bio-medical professions who have to write and / or translate specific texts into english, and secondly professional translators of bio-medical language from english to spanish and vice versa. however, i would also venture to say that the information is of great value to other interest groups such as lsp teachers and learners who require scientific knowledge of the discourse patterns of the genre defined from the sampling, as well as to researchers of this specialization in order to enrich their studies of corpus work. the introduction and justification poses some novel points like challenging as false the premise that written scientific style is always clear, concise and direct. other aspects address the increased demand for appropriate medical translation in our modern day society due to immigration. the content is divided into seven chapters, three appendices and bibliographical references. chapter one offers a review of the characteristics of scientific writing illustrated with examples from the corpus analyzed. english for medical purposes (emp) is finely defined and classified from the perspective of textual rhetoric, register and genre. chapter two features genre analysis with aspects like the etymology of the concept, the divergent qualities of text types and its place within scientific environs. this chapter claims that the texts of corpus under study can be justifiably labeled genre rather than text types. chapter three constitutes a theoretical overview of reseñas/book reviews la redacción y traducción biomédica (inglés-español). un estudio basado en 200 textos. esther vázquez y del árbol. granada: universidad de granada, 2006. 229 pages. isbn: 84-338-3838-5 (soft cover) 10 reseñas.qxp 6/4/07 09:11 página 181 different positions on genre analysis. dr. vázquez initially opts for the stance taken by swales (1990), but concludes that paltridge (1997) provides keys that further simplify analytical processes conducive to arriving at more rigorous detail. thus, chapter four applies partridge’s methodological proposal for corpus design of the 200 texts belonging to various biomedical genre and sub-genre. the structures of the texts are presented schematically, while content is dealt with in a series of descriptive keys facilitating their identification. results are then contrasted in order to ascertain the salient features in each group. chapter five presents the final conclusions coherently drawn from the body of research and most certainly worthy of consideration. chapter six contains helpful data on the problems involved in translations of this kind, and better yet, a series of straightforward, practical solutions which can significantly aid the tasks of the professional translator and laymen alike. this particular section makes this book an invaluable reference for anyone dedicated to translating, writing and reading biomedical texts. equally useful is chapter seven containing recommended bibliography for translation. the appendices embellish the set of useful tools for translation of biomedical texts: appendix 1 – a table of basic units of the international system; appendix 2 – a conversion table of spanish/english scientific units; and appendix 3 – exemplary translations in their original and proposed translation forms. the general bibliography is divided into three sections. the full reference data of the corpus analyzed and grouped according to text type provides complete information of the sources used, thus facilitating the quest for further information on any particular text. the list of reference works is extensive however, the inclusion of the latest works on this topic in future editions would enhance the work. hot off the press volumes (see bibliography) include gavoli (2005) for esp teachers and learners, thompson and hunston (2006) for researchers, which concludes with halliday´s views on the issues raised, sampson and mccarthy (2006), and widdowson (2005) for translators linguists. lastly, the dictionaries and manuals consulted are enumerated. this book is highly recommendable for anyone working with biomedical texts. it analyzes the discourse of these specialized patterns, and it serves as a handbook with guidelines for translation of biomedical texts in english and spanish. reviewed by patricia edwards rokowski (universidad de extremadura) reseñas / book reviews 182 ibérica 13 [2007]: 181-194 10 reseñas.qxp 6/4/07 09:11 página 182 reseñas / book reviews ibérica 13 [2007]: 181-194 183 gavoli, l. (2005). exploring corpora for esp learning. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. paltridge, b. (2005). genre, frames and writing in research settings. amsterdam/ philadelphia: john benjamins. sampson, g. r. & d. mccarthy. (2006). corpus linguistics: readings in a widening discipline. london: continuum international publishing group ltd. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis. english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. thompson, g. & s. hunston. (2006). system and corpus: exploring connections. london: equinox publishing ltd. widdowson, h.g. (2005). text, context, pretext: critical issues in discourse analysis. oxford: blackwell publishing. references 10 reseñas.qxp 6/4/07 09:11 página 183 01 editorial.qxd editorial in the time span from my last editorial note (ibérica no. 16, fall 2008) to this issue, ibérica has gained stronger international presence in academic research. beginning with no. 15 (spring 2008), ibérica is indexed, abstracted and referenced in the following index lists and databases hosted by isi web of knowledgesm: social sciences citation index®, social scisearch®, journal citation reports/social sciences edition, arts and humanities citation index®. also, the journal has very recently been selected for coverage (abstracting and indexing) in the international databases ebsco, “communications & mass media complete” products (managed by ebsco publishing), and scopus (included in elsevier’s bibliographic databases); in both cases starting with 2009 published material. as editor-in-chief of this journal, i dare say that all aelfe members, ibérica’s contributors and ibérica’s readers are honoured with this international acknowledgment, boost and support that we have longed for. from now onwards, it is also our duty to take care of this favourable and privileged position and maintain this journal up to the present standards of academic quality. as a regular issue, ibérica no. 18 contains papers and reviews from spain and abroad. the research contributions to this issue may be classified according to three broad themes: the study of specialised genres and discourse (papers by berkenkotter, zhou & heineken, edo, and carciu); translation and legalese (papers by gonzález-ruiz, and orts); and pedagogical issues as influenced by the new european space for higher education (eshe) (papers by ezeiza, and kavaliauskienė & kaminskienė). the first group of papers and the whole issue opens with berkenkotter’s invited contribution. carol berkenkotter, a renown scholar in genre analysis and the study of the rhetoric of science, is among ibérica’s most-cited authors thanks to her celebrated volume genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: cognition/culture/power (with t.n. huckin and published by lawrence erlbaum in 1995). in her work to this issue, berkenkotter studies case history narratives in psychiatry from a “wide-angle” perspective. based on the experience gained with the writing of her latest book patient tales. case histories and the uses of narrative in psychiatry (university of south carolina press, 2008) she focuses on the role of psychiatric narrative from the 18th ibérica 18 [2009]: 5-8 5 01 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:16 página 5 century to the present time and takes a mixed-method approach to describe case histories of mental illness as “a knowledge-producing medical art”. the second contribution is a paper that was not eventually published in the previous monograph on metaphor and lsp (ibérica no. 17) due to overshooting space availability. as michael white, guest editor of that special issue, explains, dehui zhou and edgar heineken compare and contrast student perceptions of teacher metaphors among a chinese and a german audience showing them to rely heavily on factors of cultural heritage. significantly, their evidence brings us back to zoltan kövecses’ initial insights on the role of specific cultural and local factors in triggering metaphor. in a third contribution, nuria edo marzá renders a detailed account of the development of a bilingual, corpus-based dictionary for use in the ceramics industry. by focusing on the selection and generation of “active entries”, edo describes the process she has followed and the decisions she has made on the selection of the different pieces of information contained in the dictionary entries so that they meet the needs of prospective users. finally, oana maria carciu offers empirical evidence from her research on biomedical writing. drawing on a contrastive analysis of first-person plural references in the different sections that make up a research article written in english, carciu discusses the rhetorical similarities and differences in the choice and use of “we”, “our”, and “us” by angloamerican and spanish writers. the second group of papers deals with the translation of legal language and the subtleties and intricacies this entails due to the complexity of the legal discipline itself. víctor gonzález-ruiz tries to unravel the language of the law in spanish courts by describing the principles of statutory interpretation in spain and examining a case study that illustrates his discussion. then, mª ángeles orts llopis resorts to the domains of public and private law to compare delegated legislation and tenancy agreements as examples of legal genres produced within the scope of common law and continental (civil) law that have to be understood, interpreted and explained in terms of cultural products of different specialised communities. the european reform for higher education is dealt with in the last group of papers from two complimentary points of view. joseba ezeiza ramos begins by exploring eshe guidelines in relation to the communicative and linguistic competences to be mastered by experimental sciences students in their own mother tongue. in his paper, ezeiza describes an r&d project editorial ibérica 18 [2009]: 5-86 01 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:16 página 6 under development and details the communicative needs together with the general and specific competences to be adapted to the learning profile of experimental sciences graduates. lastly, the work by galina kavaliauskienė and ligija kaminskienė encourages esp practitioners to embed lifelong learning principles in their esp courses by implementing learning strategies in the language classroom. lifelong learning is a buzz issue throughout the eshe framework and its implementation is required in all sorts and stages of learning. here, the authors relate lifelong learning to strategy training to a group of psychology and social work students. as ibérica no. 17 special issue on metaphor and lsp contained no reviews, this issue is prolific in discussing and assessing some of the latest publications on lsp research and lsp pedagogy. there are seven reviews in all. 1) manuel botella describes a practical book dealing with the promotion of academic writing skills among nursing and midwifery students; 2) alejandro curado discusses the works of a research group from the pontificia universidad católica (valparaíso, chile) which focus on the study of specialised discourse and corpus linguistics from common viewpoints; 3) based on a collection of papers edited by experienced colleagues from the spanish universities of valencia and jaume i, honesto herrera helps readers to “speak english at university” with both research and teaching purposes; 4) bárbara eizaga reviews seventeen chapters written in italian and spanish published as the outcome of an international conference (milano, italy, november 2006) that gathered presentations on the intercultural issues pertaining to communicative events in business organisations; 5) also dealing with this lsp field is mª del carmen lario’s review on a practical and innovative handbook whose layout conforms to the effective development of eshe general and communicative competences while learning spanish for the business industry; 6) ángel felices accounts for the theory and practice needed for the production of business dictionaries with pedagogical purposes by examining a volume that is highly useful to dictionary compilers, lexicographers, lexicologists and users; 7) finally, elena bárcena reviews a pioneering work wholly focused on lsp and eshe. this collection of papers offers an overview of esp teaching and learning in western european higher education after bologna and provides illustrating examples of national adaptations aiming at integrating content and language in compliance with eshe requirements. as usual, issues published in each year’s second semesters include a list of welcome and farewell. in recognition to their work to ibérica i would like to editorial ibérica 18 [2009]: 5-8 7 01 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:16 página 7 editorial ibérica 18 [2009]: 5-88 appreciate the collaborative effort and dedication shown by patricia edwards (universidad de extremadura), carmen rueda (universitat politècnica de catalunya), russell dinapoli (universitat de valència), and esther hernández (universidad de alcalá de henares). indeed, this journal is most indebted to these members of the editorial committee who have assessed proposed manuscripts on a permanent basis for the past years. from this issue onwards, marta aguilar (universitat politècnica de catalunya), elena bárcena (universidad nacional de educación a distancia), mercedes eurrutia (universidad de murcia), and rosa giménez (universitat de valència) will be actively involved in reviewing proposals for the journal in the position of editorial committee members. lastly, i would like to acknowledge the cooperation of invited external reviewers: anabel borja (universitat jaume i), diana yankova (new bulgarian university, bulgaria), pedro martín (universidad de la laguna), marta aguilar (universitat politècnica de catalunya), mª ángeles alcaraz ariza (universidad de alicante), david giannoni (università degli studi di bergamo, italy), rosa giménez (universitat de valència), carmen pérez sabater (universidad politécnica de valencia), carmen pérez-llantada (universidad de zaragoza), and chelo vargas (universidad de alicante). ana bocanegra valle universidad de cádiz (spain) editor of ibérica 01 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:17 página 8 iberica 13 corpus-based approaches to elt mari carmen campoy-cubillo, begoña bellés-fortuño, maria lluïsa gea-valor (eds). london / new york: continuum, 2010. 298 pages. isbn: 978-1-8470-6537-7. as may be easily inferred, the subject covered in this book reflects many linguists’ / teachers’ growing interest in the bond of cl (corpus linguistics) and english language teaching (elt). the title brings the point to the fore: there may be different approaches on which the researchers base their analyses, but their results consistently point to the advantageous use of cl in elt, in particular, in university settings. corpus-based approaches to elt derives from a selection of original papers presented at the 1st international conference on corpus-based approaches to elt held in universitat jaume i (castelló – spain) in november, 2007 and expands the cl focus to describe the pedagogical possibilities of cl in eap, esp and epp. after reading the book, i find that its proposal may follow from and/or complement pérez-llantada and ferguson’s (2006), as the latter presented eap findings based on the micase (michigan corpus of academic spoken english) alone, whereas this volume includes micase as one among various other resources and tools exploited for language teaching. i think the book generally presents a well-documented linguistic theoretical framework as well as interesting methods to design, build, manage, and exploit corpus resources and techniques. as the volume editors state in the first chapter, all the authors in the book favour a social view of linguistic enquiry, where oral and written discourses cannot be analysed in isolation, but in relation to the context where they are produced. the connection of cl and elt seems to stand more firmly on these grounds. the editors also anticipate the growing importance of multi-modality in the cl/elt relationship. in part 1, chapter 2, ute römer, current director of the micase project, describes up-to-date work on elt from both the indirect (material design) and direct (data-driven analysis or ddl) perspectives. obviously enough, many technological advances have taken place since the early ddl proposals (e.g., johns, 1991), but, as römer admits, progress calls for broad teacherreseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 issn 1139-7241 174 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 174 centred awareness and effective use of this direct method in specialised and general second language (l2) contexts. chapter 3, by annelie ädel, with her research status also consolidated in the micase school, heads the esp section of the book. the author explores the direct (ddl) approach with new and innovative insight, and goes on to anticipate the especially useful function of stylistics in the annotation of eap linguistic and meta-linguistic phenomena. the five other chapters in this section describe case studies with cl applications in esp teaching and learning. their analyses share what i regard as a positive attitude towards the student, making him/her the centre of the cl focus. begoña bellés-fortuño and mari carmen campoycubillo (chapter 4) explore the use of “i feel” in spoken academic discourse from micase, checking the forms in contiguous and noncontiguous co-texts. the strength of their analysis lies in their correlated probing at the textual level, an approach that benefits systematic sampling in eap. a similar case is winnie cheng’s chapter 5, where this author’s work with “concprogramming” seems to prove reliable for ddl phraseology, to be managed at a social-professional plane for the language learner. mª josé luzón marco (chapter 6) provides a clear demonstration of how the bottom-down approach in cl can go hand in hand with the top-down analysis, thus putting some traditionally challenging ddl tenets into practice. the author describes a case study with a specialised language corpus, and gives very illustrative examples of genre-related linguistic items and their suitable tagging procedure in accordance with learners’ main errors. the corpus used in chapter 7 can also classify as a learner resource, since its construction aims to cater for the students’ immediate linguistic and metalinguistic needs in specialised contexts. belinda crawford camiciottoli’s business english corpus contains only lectures, and these oral texts are analysed according to lexical frequency, so that students are directed to the chief matter in activities before, during, and after the lectures. maria georgieva and lilyana alexandrova grozdanova (chapter 8) close the esp section with the description of the initial stages of a project on the communicative strategies adopted by different foreign students in the eil (english as international language) scope. in part 3, all eight chapters but one use learner corpora to try to answer linguistic enquiries on the nature of learners’ errors. in my view, the findings are interesting and generally suggest significant advances for the understanding of how cl lines of work can operate to address pedagogical issues. chapter 9, by sylvie de cock, offers a detailed account of the state reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 175 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 175 of oral learner corpora (perhaps until 2008) and their use in pedagogy with the inclusion of multi-modal formats (video, audio, etc). julia lavid, jorge arús hita and juan rafael zamorano-mansilla (chapter 10) describe the learning context of english philology and contrastive linguistics students during their management of a database that allows for direct access to corpora with different written genres and text types. rafael alejo gonzález explains a case study done with the spanish and swedish components of the icle (international corpus of learner english). in particular, he analyses the use of the particle “out” to measure the degrees of phrasal verb use effectiveness. his findings lead to interesting observations on the nature of nationality differences, first language transfer, and lexical use frequency. mª angeles andreu andrés, aurora astor guardiola, maría boquera matarredona, penny macdonald, begoña montero fleta and carmen pérez-sabater. (chapter 12) describe what they consider to be a methodological pillar for learner error analysis in the tagging of multilingual corpora and according to a variety of disciplines involved. amaya mendikoetxea, susana murcia bielsa and paul rollinson (chapter 13) provide a full report on the glossing of learner errors from a corpus of philology students’ argumentative essays. in the database designed to explore the results, the authors observe that l1 interference is a constant factor to account for. sylvie de cock and magali paquot’s chapter 14 also offers some solutions for l2 errors, treated in monolingual learner dictionaries (mld), as derived from the icle. the authors focus on misuse, but also overuse and underuse in the academic register, a project developed in conjunction with macmillan. tom rankin (chapter 15) challenges adverb placement activities from l2 textbooks by considering actual adverb use in learner writing. rankin distinguishes the position of learner errors, to be dealt with differently from learner mistakes. finally, chapter 16 by izaskun elorza and blanca garcía-riaza has to do with elt and cl, but does not provide any information about actual realization in the classroom or academic settings. instead, the analysis touches on a possible text authenticity measurement done according to the comparison of short text wordlists with bnc (british national corpus) frequency ranks. part 4 includes three more chapters in the collection. this section was particularly interesting to read because of its direct relevance to form and mode diversity in elt. all the applications described to explore multimodality events (i.e., lectures, interviews, social encounters) seem to reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190176 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 176 succeed in their adaptation to the elt context in spain and abroad. josé mª alcaraz calero, pascual pérez paredes and encarnación tornero valero (chapter 17) explain the profitable uses to be made of the sacodeyl annotator tool for pedagogy, linking multimodality features to various ddl possibilities. josep roderic guzmán pitarch and eva alcón soler (18) describe the alfracovalt database, which includes english/catalan parallel corpora for teacher-guided translation exploitation (e.g., to raise awareness of socio-pragmatic factors in the use of requests). the last chapter (chapter 19), by inmaculada fortanet-gómez and mercedes querol-julián, instructs on how to properly prepare, design, build, and analyse a videocorpus for multimodal elt, in particular to teach spanish faculty both verbal and non-verbal parameters from recorded english-spoken lectures. in conclusion, i believe this collection contributes significantly to formulating and testing hypotheses for the use of cl in elt. it is good news that the level of project development in spain can demonstrate worldwide cooperation and significant research. this book is a good example, as its intended audience among young researchers may find in its reading interesting proposals and inspiration for future work. [review received may 2010] [revised review accepted january 2011] reviewed by alejandro curado fuentes universidad de extremadura (spain) acurado@unex.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 177 pérez-llantada, c. & g.r. ferguson (eds.) (2006) english as a glocalization phenomenon. observations from a linguistic microcosm. valencia: publicacions de la universitat de valència. 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 177 01 editorial.qxd editorial ibérica 20 contains six research articles, one research note and nine reviews. it opens with two genre-based works on research articles (ras) across disciplines. in the first paper, matthew peacock focuses on linking adverbials across four science and four non-science disciplines. by making use of the wordsmith tool v.4 (scott, 2004), he studies linking adverbials – such as “however” or “otherwise” – in terms of frequency, function and disciplinary variation. with biber et al.’s (1999) semantic categories for linking adverbials as a guiding light, peacock analyses 320 published ras totalling a 1,961,042 word corpus. conclusions reveal important disciplinary variations – such as a higher use of linking adverbials by non-science disciplines – and stress the prominent role of linking adverbials as signalling and cohesive devices for the construction and strengthening of claims by researching authors. in the second paper, enrique lafuente millán deals with authorial identity and the writer’s presence in ras. by combining data from 96 ras published in four different disciplines and insights from 14 specialist informants, he examines the use of exclusive first person markers as an interpersonal strategy that influences authoritative stance. lafuente’s concern lies primarily with the discursive functions of exclusive “we” so that seven pragmatic functions are identified, their relative occurrence estimated and their purpose discussed in view of potential disciplinary variations. particularly innovative is the array of comments by the specialist informants from each discipline gathered from interviews and groups meetings that enhances this author’s main findings. the following two papers both examine the metaphorical use of language within the financial context. firstly, nadezda silaski and tatjana -durović acknowledge and address animal metaphors in the conceptualisation of inflation as an animal in english economic discourse. more specifically, they focus on the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor to claim and map the negative evaluations contained in inflation as an entity. in so doing, silaski and -durović draw a parallel between inflation and the ways animals move, look, eat/are fed, attack and are controlled in an effort to illustrate the wealth of linguistic realisations pertaining to the ferocious animal metaphor. secondly, maria enriqueta cortés de los ríos calls our attention to today’s world economic ibérica 20 (2010): 5-8 issn 1139-7241 5 ˇ ˇ ˇ 00 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:21 página 5 crisis by analysing seven covers recently published in the economist from a cognitive-axiological perspective. in particular she discusses the metaphors, metonymies, image schemas, colour and cultural aspects found in the target press covers, and examines how these devices are used to capture meaning and communicate the economic crisis. in her analysis, cortés contends that the magnitude of today’s world economic crisis is conveyed through metaphorical expressions related to extreme natural phenomena (i.e. nature, weather and apocalyptic metaphors), that metaphors and metonymies are based on image schemas that strengthen the negative side of the economic crisis, and that colours and culture-related features are used as persuasive strategies to move and influence readers. in a fifth paper, camino rea rizzo and aquilino sánchez pérez explore the so-called “lexical constellation model” and its contribution to the formation of new terms in telecommunication english. they begin by presenting and illustrating the lexical constellation model with particular attention to the potential and behaviour of semantic features to shape old and new meaning and senses within lexical units (or “words”). based on technical dictionaries and other reference works as well as a five-million word corpus of telecommunication english compiled by the first author for her ph.d. thesis (rea, 2008), rea and sánchez apply the lexical constellation model to three familiar words in telecommunication english such as “bus”, “hub” and “chip” with the aim of discovering “the relationships and connections between the new technical meaning generated and the “old meaning or meanings” in which the new sense is rooted or from with it derives” (page 115). luis javier santos lópez closes this section with a research article on parliamentary discourse. santos studies a corpus of transcriptions gathered from 187 plenary sessions of the spanish parliament held between 2000 and 2008 and focuses on question time as a particular subgenre within political discourse. santos first takes into account the gricean maxims of quantity, quality, relevance and manner to explain the link between the discourse uttered in parliament when questioning and its underlying cooperative principle. then, he goes on to explore the communicative purpose and channel, the relationship between speakers and hearers as well as the topics of concern and suggest a classification of subgenres for the umbrella genre identified as parliamentary discourse. the research note by philippa mungra reports the process and outcome of editorial ibérica 20 (2010): 5-86 00 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:21 página 6 implementing a content and language integrated learning (clil) methodology in a medicine course with the purpose of teaching medicine students to write scientific abstracts in english. mungra’s description of the course layout and methodology developed, team-work undertaken, testing method employed and sample exercises outlined will be very interesting to those lecturers faced with the task of designing clil courses as an alternative to lsp courses in pursuance of the requirements laid down by the bologna declaration and the european space for higher education. as far as the section of reviews is concerned, this reveals the ample opportunity of lsp for research and international publications. bárbara eizaga rebollar provides a detailed account of metadiscourse in academic speech from the point of view of relevance theory; anabel borja examines the discourse types that criminal law entails for translation purposes in spanish and italian; michael white assesses a volume that applies cognitive linguistics to second language teaching and learning; miguel f. ruiz-garrido explores a collection of chapters from the 2005 aila conference focused on conversation analysis as applied to spoken specialised discourse; elena lópez torres reviews the content and language integrated learning (clil) methodology and its implementation from primary to tertiary educational levels; chelo vargas acknowledges a volume published in honour of the reknowned danish lexicographer henning bergenholtz with fourteen relevant contributions from highly regarded scholars in the field of lexicography; marta aguilar writes about a manual addressed to non-native speakers of english for the purpose of writing science research texts that comply with the conventions of today’s scientific community; juan carlos palmer-silveira addresses the construct of interculturality in business settings and the simulation and gaming methodology as a vehicle to achieve the communicative competence that helps readers to communicate efficiently in an intercultural business context; and, finally, honesto herrera soler encourages readers to resort to statistics and use the spss software for making the most of our research. ibérica is most indebted to the members of the editorial committee who have assessed proposed manuscripts on a permanent basis for the past years. on behalf of the whole editorial committee, i would like to appreciate the collaborative effort and dedication shown by ivone c. cunha (iscap, porto, portugal) and hanna skorczynska (universidad politécnica de valencia). moreover, i would personally like to thank them both for their personal support and encouragement not only on my editorial duties but also on my editorial ibérica 20 (2010): 5-8 7 00 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:21 página 7 particular concerns. the journal wishes ivone and hanna well in their current and future academic endeavours and welcomes two new members to the editorial committee: honesto herrera (universidad complutense de madrid) and chelo vargas (universidad de alicante). finally, i would like to acknowledge those invited external reviewers who have assessed submitted manuscripts during this past semester. these have been: adriana bolivar (universidad central de venezuela), honesto herrera (universidad complutense de madrid), adelina jover (universidad de alicante), rosa lorés (universidad de zaragoza), pilar mur (universidad de zaragoza), françoise salager-meyer (universidad de los andes, mérida, venezuela) and chelo vargas (universidad de alicante). my appreciation for their detailed assessments and the expertise and time invested in the journal. ana bocanegra valle universidad de cádiz (spain) editor of ibérica editorial ibérica 20 (2010): 5-88 00 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:21 página 8 iberica 13 ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 issn 1139-7241 abstract research on academic writing has long stressed the connection between writing and the creation of an author’s identity (ivanič, 1998; hyland, 2010). identity is said to be created from the texts we engage in and the linguistic choices we make, thus relocating it from hidden processes of cognition to its social construction in discourse. issues of agency and conformity, stability and change, remain controversial, however. some writers question whether there is an unchanging self lurking behind such discourse and suggest that identity is a “performance” (see for instance butler, 1990) while others see identity as the product of dominant discourses tied to institutional practices (foucault, 1972). all this has been of particular interest to teachers and researchers of eap because students and academics alike often feel uncomfortably positioned, even alienated, by the conventions of academic discourse. they sometimes complain that the voice they are forced to use requires them to “talk like a book” by adopting a formal and coldly analytical persona. in this paper i want to explore how we construct an identity in three rather neglected academic genres where the requirements of anonymity and impersonality are more relaxed. in thesis acknowledgements, doctoral prize applications and bio statements, writers are exempted from formal conventions of disciplinary argument and have an opportunity to reveal something of how they want to be seen by others. my question is: what use do they make of with these opportunities? keywords: identity, academic writing, thesis acknowledgements, doctoral prize applications, homepages. resumen proyectando una identidad académica en algunos géneros reflexivos desde hace mucho tiempo las investigaciones sobre escritura académica han subrayado la conexión entre escritura y la creación de una identidad de autor projecting an academic identity in some reflective genres ken hyland the university of hong kong (china) khyland@hku.hk 9 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 9 ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 ken hyland (ivanič, 1998; hyland, 2010). se dice que la identidad se crea a partir de los textos que tratamos y las opciones lingüísticas que elegimos, reubicando así dicha identidad desde los procesos ocultos de cognición hasta su construcción social en el discurso. con todo, los asuntos relativos a agentividad y conformidad, estabilidad y cambio continúan siendo cuestiones controvertidas. algunos autores ponen en duda si existe una actitud de auto-acecho inamovible tras el discurso y sugieren que la identidad es una “actuación” (véase por ejemplo butler, 1990), al tiempo que otros entienden la identidad como el producto de discursos dominantes fuertemente apegados a prácticas institucionales (foucault, 1972). todo esto ha resultado ser especialmente interesante para los docentes e investigadores de inglés con fines académicos ya que tanto los estudiantes como los propios académicos no se sienten cómodos o incluso con frecuencia sintiéndose un tanto alienados, ante las convenciones del discurso académico. éstos suelen denunciar que se ve obligados a utilizar una voz que les hace “hablar como un libro” adoptando una personalidad formal, fría y analítica. en el presente trabajo pretendo estudiar cómo construimos una identidad en tres géneros académicos bastante olvidados en los que los requisitos de anonimato e impersonalidad son menos estrictos. en las secciones de agradecimientos, en las solicitudes de premios y en las bionotas se les exime a los autores de aplicar las convenciones formales habituales para argumentar lo propio en una disciplina y se les ofrece la oportunidad de manifestarse del modo en el que quieren ser vistos por parte de otros. mi pregunta es: ¿cuál es el uso que hacen de estas oportunidades? palabras clave: identidad, escritura académica, agradecimientos en tesis, solicitudes de premios doctorales, páginas digitales. identity and the construction of personal credibility first i need to say something about my understanding of “identity”. contemporary perspectives see identity as part of a social and collective endeavour rather than something achieved in isolation. essentially, “we are who we are” through participation in our social groups and the ways we are linked to situations, to relationships, and to the rhetorical positions we adopt in our routine interactions with others. identity thus involves “identification” with some community, taking on and shaping its discourses, behaviours, values and practices to construct a self both distinct from and similar to those of its members. these individual and collective identifications are symbolized in language so that speaking and writing in community-specific ways proclaims membership of a group and of culture. this identification to 10 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 10 the group, however, is a complex process as we cannot simply proclaim who we want to be and hope this identity will stick. how we choose to express ourselves must resonate with group members so that our claims to be one of them are seen as credible and valid. put more directly, identities are constructed out of the rhetorical options our communities make available, so that we gain credibility as members and approval for our performances by aligning our language choices with those of our social groups. we “position” ourselves in relation to others using these discourses and in turn are positioned by these same discourses (davies & harré, 1999). the idea of positioning is therefore a means of seeing how language can represent people in particular ways and, at the same time, how it can be used to negotiate new positions. while we become who we are only in relation to others, adopting the modes of talk that others routinely use, identity also means assembling a performance using the language and values we bring to the group from our social backgrounds. community discourses, and their social ideologies, therefore assist the performance of identities by providing broad templates for how people see and talk about the world. our identities draw heavily on these schema as they both shape and enable particular “speaking positions” and disable others (baynham, 2006). in one sense, then, identity means constructing credibility – as students, teachers, nurses, fishmongers, or whatever. it involves negotiating a self which is coherent and meaningful to both the individual and the group. this means, of course, that identity is not simply a matter of personal choice. we cannot just be whoever we want to be. but it also means that we are not just prisoners of our social groups. in particular, while academic contexts privilege certain ways of making meanings and so restrict what language participants can bring from their past experiences, we can also see academic conventions as a catalogue of options which allow writers to actively accomplish an identity through discourse choices. similarity and differences are therefore entangled in each other, and both are socially constructed in language. we come to invest in particular positionings so that we act like someone in that position and “become like that kind of person” (wortham, 2001: 9). in bakhtin’s (1981) terms, his or her word echoes those of others in that positioning. in the rest of this paper i want to focus on how students and academics represent themselves in genres which foreground identity in the activity of writing. by briefly examining the relatively peripheral genres of thesis projecting an academic identity ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 11 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 11 acknowledgements, doctoral prize applications and bio statements, i hope to reveal some of the ways that academics work to manufacture credibility in their dealings with others. 2. identity in thesis acknowledgments i begin with a genre which initially seems to have little to do with identity. acknowledgements, however, are central to the academic practice of reciprocal gift giving and, for students, offer an opportunity to give credit to institutions and individuals who have contributed to their thesis in some way and to make a favourable impression on readers. so while acknowledgements can act as a means of recognizing debts and achieving a sense of closure at the end of a long and demanding research process, they also reveal the writer as someone with a life beyond the page; an individual among academics. acknowledgements are common in published articles (cronin, mckenzie & rubio, 1993), but they are more than a simple catalogue of indebtedness and the expression of thanks is not an entirely altruistic business. ben-ari (1987), in fact, comments on the role of acknowledgements in constructing a professional identity through their strategic role in “careering”. this is achieved through the author’s management of his or her relations to the disciplinary community and affiliation to particular research groups, leading figures or academic orientations. the opportunities which acknowledgements offer for building an identity linked to relationships with others appears not to be lost on post graduate students. in a corpus of 240 acknowledgements accompanying masters’ dissertations and phd theses written by hong kong students in six disciplines (hyland, 2003 & 2004), i discovered that students use this channel to not only recognize assistance and support, but to construct a particular persona. one way of doing this was to mention supervisors, who appeared in every acknowledgement, revealing the intellectual, and often emotional, obligation writers feel towards them: example 1: i would like to thank dr. mun fai leung, my supervisor, for his patient guidance. as my adviser, prof. christopher candlin, whose interests in life’s big issues within academia and beyond it, has provided constant inspiration as i progressed into my work. ken hyland ibérica 21 (2011): 9-3012 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 12 ranging from the blandly formal to the near reverent, the thanks offered to supervisors and other academics, some perhaps only peripheral to the research, may also project a relationship beyond the thesis. this is most pronounced in phd acknowledgements in the sciences and engineering, where winning the protection and goodwill of established figures is often vital for gaining post-doctoral grants, a lab to work in, or a teaching position. more directly relevant to the public construction of an academic self, however, is the fact that who we identify with contributes to who we are, or are seen to be. in the hard sciences the creation of knowledge is heavily dependent on the collaborative exchange of materials, information, and unpublished results which enmesh the researcher into networks of reciprocal obligations. the effective construction of a credible academic persona therefore depends on who you know. mentioning key figures can both gain the writer important credit and help project a scholarly persona, as these students seemed to realise: example 2: the acknowledgement is an important section for creating good impression. (electronic engineering phd interview) some of the comparative results are from other labs and i will put these people in the acknowledgements. some of these are from important people in the field and it is a good idea to include them. (biology phd interview) the elaboration of self-identification draws upon “a wide palette of accessories in the human world” (jenkins, 2008: 71) and so who we express a connection with or have relationships with says something to others about us. less obviously, perhaps, we can also see the construction of identity in the acknowledgement of individuals and institutions who have provided resources such as data, technical help and financial support, in completing the research process. while research often crucially depends on this kind of support, we can also see the textual production of an academic self in the detailing of thanks for the paraphernalia of academic success such as prizes, prestigious scholarships, company sponsorships or travel grants. these examples give some flavor of this: projecting an academic identity ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 13 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 13 example 3: the research for this thesis was financially supported by a postgraduate studentship from the university of hong kong, the hong kong and china gas company postgraduate scholarship, epson foundation scholarship, two university of hong kong crcg grants and an rcg grant. (computer science phd) this project was generously supported by funding from hong kong polytechnic university’s staff development committee. support has been forthcoming, too, from cathay pacific airways in the form of complimentary air travel, which has allowed me to attend a number of overseas conferences and thereby bring the research to the attention of a wider audience. (applied linguistics phd) while the writer may feel obliged to refer to his or her funding agency, an examiner is unlikely to remain unimpressed by the writer’s obvious confidence and undoubted academic credentials. similar rhetorical intentions perhaps lie behind acknowledging individuals for organising conferences, reviewing articles, and collaborating on publishing projects. particularly prevalent in the sciences, where work practices are more likely to transcend the immediate research site and offer greater opportunities for collaboration in research papers and conference presentations, such gratitude clearly serves to enhance the writer’s professional credentials: example 4: a special acknowledgment is extended to y.k. leung at stanford university for providing spreading resistance analysis and to prof. simon wong for reviewing my iedm paper. (electronic engineering phd) portions of this thesis represent joint work with francis lor, which appear in the following papers: “linear-time algorithms for unspecified routing in grids,” in the proceedings of international conference on algorithms; (…) and “efficient algorithms for finding maximum number of disjoint paths in grids,” in journal of algorithm. (computer science phd) it is not difficult to see the textual construction of an academic self in these apparently innocent appreciations from a grateful graduate. they help mark ken hyland ibérica 21 (2011): 9-3014 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 14 the writer out as an individual whose academic talents have already been recognized and who may therefore be a deserving candidate for further honours. in the human sciences, on the other hand, students sought to promote an academic identity by positioning themselves in relation to their subjects: example 5: i would like to acknowledge the invaluable help rendered by my subjects, the elderly diabetic patients follow-up at the alp lei chau and tang chi ngong out-patient clinic, who spent time to participate in this study without immediate benefit to themselves. (public administration phd) finally, i am most indebted to the 517 companies that were willing to return my questionnaire with their responses. (business studies phd) quite clearly, it is unlikely that the subjects themselves are likely to read these acknowledgements. but these texts are written for another audience altogether as they can communicate quite subtle rhetorical intimations of professional commitment and academic competence. they hint at the authority and involvement of the writer and of trials overcome to professional readers. while students are able to carefully create a disciplinary persona in their acknowledgements, the fact that almost 40% of the thanks in the corpus were to friends and family suggests that the genre also provided them with the chance to project a more human face and a social identity. the fact that over 90% of these thanks identified family and friends by their full name, occasionally with an honorific, once again reflects the public nature of this discourse and underlines the writers’ intention that the recipients are clearly identifiable to outside readers. it indicates a clear awareness of audience and perhaps an opportunity for the writer to represent him or herself as a social person which is not available in the dissertation proper: example 6: gratitude expressed to all my research teammates including miss irene kung, miss charlotte yim and mr. z. q. fang. their humour and spiritual support smoothened my research progress. (biology phd) projecting an academic identity ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 15 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 15 my heartfelt gratitude especially to my two mentors, my mother, mrs. gita vyas and my father, late, dr. v. k. vyas who said that i could do whatever i set my mind to. (applied linguistics phd) more significantly, though, references to the tensions and hardships of research are common at this point in these acknowledgements. the writer is here able to provide a picture of an individual with a life affected by a commitment to research which has had consequences for his or her private life and identity. alluding to the struggle and ultimate triumph over the difficulties of graduate study helps display core academic values of modesty, generosity and gratitude which help define the public face of their discipline: example 7: most importantly, i would like to thank my parents and my dearest wife, rowena chui. without their support and great encouragement, i cannot concentrate on my work and overcome the difficulties. (computer science phd) last, but definitely not the least, i am greatly indebted to my family. it was my parents’ unconditional love, care, and tolerance which made the hardship of writing the thesis worthwhile. (public admin phd) so while writers become more human, and perhaps more sympathetic to readers, they do not lose sight of the need to project a credible and academically distinctive identity. these statements recognizing friends and relations mark the writer out as a real, individual person. at the same time, however, they also index shared belonging through participation in a community ritual which signals a change of status and seeks recognition as a community member. it is clear, then, that acknowledgements are not merely random lists of thanks. here writers attempt to demonstrate competent participation in a disciplinary community, promoting themselves as familiar with the norms and practices of their discipline, and deserving of the qualification sought. 3. identity in prize applications the alignment of the self with particular academics and disciplinary values is done more directly by making claims for the value of one’s research. but ken hyland ibérica 21 (2011): 9-3016 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 16 while academics gain recognition and status through their published work, graduate students have not yet reached this stage. their dissertation is often the only textual artefact which testifies to their scholarly credentials and supports their claim to an academic identity. the promotion of their work in applications for prizes therefore takes on particular significance in the manufacture of credibility. in this section i explore how writers accomplish this rhetorical task, investigating 70 supporting statements submitted over three years for a doctoral prize in education awarded by a uk university. the prize application is actually a complex set of genres which comprise an abstract of the thesis, a recommendation from the supervisor, and a supporting statement from the applicant. because, in this case, the judges do not read the entire thesis, the supporting statement is the most important text for the construction of identity, and for this prize applicants were asked to submit a text of up to 300 words evaluating the research. preparing these statements typically poses a serious challenge to applicants because of their unfamiliarity with the conventions of the genre and the expectations of its audience. this is both an occluded and un-researched genre which bears little similarity to previously studied persuasive texts such as applications for jobs (bhatia, 1993), graduate school places (ding, 2007) and grant proposals (koutsantoni, 2009). so, neither students nor judges have expertise in this kind of writing, although some guidance is provided in the call for applications: the doctoral thesis prize celebrates outstanding post-graduate work at this university. it is awarded to the author of the thesis who, in the opinion of the judges, best demonstrates originality, contributions to the field, clarity of argument and potential impact. a prize of £3000 will be awarded to the winner. the rubric explicitly asks applicants to evaluate the academic merit of their work, the sub-text being that applicants should not only highlight the significance of their research, but in so doing provide evidence of their discoursal competence and a disciplinary persona. almost all applicants followed the application guidelines and focused on the contribution and impact of their research, with originality and commentary on the argument less often mentioned. while these features represent the professional stock-in-trade of any self-respecting academic, they are rarely asked to reflect and comment on their texts directly. years of study in projecting an academic identity ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 17 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 17 doctoral research, however, have enculturated these students into the ways of their discipline and as a result we find them demonstrating disciplinary membership through the use of specialized terminology and the mention of celebrated theorists: example 8: this thesis works within geographical and environmental education and education for sustainable development and global citizenship (esdgc) to address matters pertinent to ‘philosophy of education’ (notably psychology, comparative philosophy and postmodern and critical theorising). the study is a multidimensional, multiscalar and holistic conceptual enquiry into the nature of ‘human-place’ relations with a view to suggesting crucial dimensions of a ‘place-based education’. these extracts display considerable expertise in manipulating specialist frames and addressing central concerns in educational research, presenting a competent identity as a disciplinary insider. but while their graduate training encourages a scholarly perspective on this task, the prize also inclined these writers toward a promotional rather than critical perspective on what they had done. the task is not made any easier by the fact that over 70% of the applicants for the prize were international students. as swales and feak (2004: 229) observe, audience expectations for personal statements are often “more shaped by local cultural values and national academic traditions than is the case with more technical writing”. consequently, some arguments seemed a tad naïve: example 9: prof x and dr. y stated in my viva that my thesis is a contribution to knowledge and that they have learned a lot from my work. all arguments in my thesis are clearly set out, informed by existing literature and supported by empirical evidence. when you consider the contribution of my work to the field of education studies in ireland and its ongoing impact you will be quite impressed with my research work. the cause of difficulty may lie in the conflicts inherent in trying to combine a promotional and an academic genre, selling one’s research after years of creating appropriately tentative arguments. ken hyland ibérica 21 (2011): 9-3018 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 18 despite this, however, most applications displayed considerable rhetorical sophistication as the writers sought to persuade the judges of the value of their research and the credibility of their academic credentials. this was largely achieved through a series of moves which addressed the criteria of the prize and underlined the contribution (example 10), impact (example 11) and originality (example 12) of their research: example 10: my thesis contributes to global literature in the field of research methodology in general and sri lankan literature in particular. example 11: furthermore, publications arising from my thesis have already received favourable comment. i have no doubt that the publication of the thesis itself and the lecture series already begun will excite academic debates on research methodology. example 12: this thesis was groundbreaking in that it was the first study to look at the non-formal learning of novice teachers in medical settings. while some formulations here might suggest the writers’ novice status, there is clearly an attempt to position work in the wider understandings of the field and so align themselves with its members. these doctoral graduates also displayed their claims to an academic identity by highlighting expertise in various areas of research. one indication of an academic identity, for instance, is to suggest one’s contribution to the development of theory and research methodologies: example 13: my approach is to examine the seldom-heard accounts of professionals working with these families using an innovative synthesis of theoretical ideas from discursive psychology, faoucauldian discourse analysis, critical disability and childhood studies. i employed a modified version of the ‘circuit of culture’ – a theoretical model which holds that meanings are distributed across a series of key moments from product production through to consumption. this original descriptive-cum-analytical framework combines elements of content, discourse and social semiotic analysis. projecting an academic identity ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 19 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 19 the use of the first person here is clearly not a casual or neutral choice. it functions to display a professional competence by suggesting that, in other hands, things could have been done differently. a final way these writers took on the voice of competent academics was by employing evaluative lexis that drew on discipline-shared estimations of worth. while expressions of affective “appreciation” (martin & white, 2005) such as “good”, “beautiful”, “terrible”, etc. are rare, a great deal of evaluation is embedded in the values of a social group’s estimations of what is positive or negative. evaluation, in other words, is concerned with the construction of communities of shared values and assessments; it invokes particular positions to persuade community members to see things in a certain way. to simplify hunston (1993), we can distinguish two broad categories through which evaluation is manifested: status and value. status reflects the writer’s degree of certainty and commitment towards a proposition, i.e. its modality; while value refers to quality on a “good-bad” scale. as we might expect, prize applications overwhelmingly impart a status of certainty to their content. this is a discourse of assurance which aims to leave readers in no doubt of the worth of the thesis with little space for the hedging of research writing. typically statements are made categorically and are often boosted in a number of ways to impart an assurance to the subject matter: example 14: as such it offers a sturdy theoretical framework and a clear methodological path through rich data. the work culminates in a strong argument regarding … my work represents a huge contribution to scholarly work in education and has secured an important foothold in the research into gender. this robust stance means that writers offer readers a confident positioning of themselves towards their work, generating an enthusiasm which hopefully the panel of readers finds infectious. the expression of value in these texts reflects the shared concerns of the community and what it believes to be important. in this genre these always draw on positive items and place great emphasis on a few key semantic classes. while research articles tend to bestow value on entities such as accuracy, consistency, simplicity, and usefulness (hunston, 1993), these texts ken hyland ibérica 21 (2011): 9-3020 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 20 stress those features mentioned above of novelty (example 15) and importance (example 16), together with clarity (example 17) and scholarliness (example 18). these examples (italics added) indicate just some of the lexis that writers drew on to make these evaluative claims: example 15: it provides an original contribution to the study of educational accountability, understood in a comparative and cross-cultural perspective, which is considered relatively neglected in this field. example 16: this thesis will make a major contribution to these debates. example 17: it constructs, however, a clear and continuous argument through these multiple engagements. example 18: i address these complex issues and tensions in a scholarly manner. these post-graduate students, reflecting on their research to apply for a prestigious and financially rewarding prize, attempt to represent themselves and their work within disciplinary frameworks of understanding. by taking a positive and promotional position on their completed research, they seek to persuade the panel of judges of their own credibility as academics as much as the particular value of their theses. writing like a disciplinary expert is, therefore, more than mastery of particular disciplinary genres such as research articles or theses. it is a process that involves control of an entire semiotic system of rhetorical resources. 4. identity in article bio statements while a great deal of identity research focuses on what people say about themselves in formal interviews with academics, this approach is highly contrived. most of the time we are not performing identity work by narrating stories of ourselves to complete strangers from the local university, we are presenting ourselves through our understandings and reworking of available genres. a more mundane way of doing autobiographical work is found in the short personal bio statements which accompany research projecting an academic identity ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 21 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 21 articles. bios are authentically produced, naturally occurring texts constructed for a genuine purpose; a site where academics stake a claim to a certain version of themselves for their peers and institutions. this is probably the most explicit public assertion of self-representation in scholarly life. it sits in stark contrast to the prescribed anonymity of the article itself, which has been stripped of identifying information for blind peer review and generally approximates to conventions which discourage too much personal exposure. here we find a space where, in 50 to 100 words, authors are able to reflexively craft a narrative of expertise for themselves, albeit within the tight constraints of a relatively unvarying genre. the bio, then, is a key opening for academics, both novice and experienced, to manage a public image through the careful recounting of achievement. it is an opportunity to make a claim for a particular identity. the following comments relate to a corpus of 600 bios taken from articles in three disciplines, applied linguistics, electrical engineering, and philosophy, and also controlled for gender, with 100 bios by males and females in each discipline (hyland & tse, forthcoming). overall, the results show that different journals vary in their requirements. word length is, in fact, a distinguishing feature of bios across disciplines with those in engineering about twice as long as those in applied linguistics. the gender of the writer also appears to influence the length of texts with males tending to say more about themselves than women. the frequency counts, shown in table 1, also reveal something of the ways that academics construct their identities in this genre in terms of both what they say (moves) and how they say it (process types). looking first at the move structures of these texts we can see that writers overwhelmingly mentioned employment in their bios, always stating their ken hyland ibérica 21 (2011): 9-3022 moves totals per 1000 words process types totals per 1000 words employment 577 12.1 relational 1,330 27.9 research 475 10.0 circum 138 2.9 education 296 6.2 intensive 856 18.0 publications 283 5.9 possessive 365 7.7 achievement 88 1.8 material 1,103 23.2 comm services 84 1.8 mental 58 1.2 personal profile 50 1.1 verbal 54 1.1 behavioural 2 0.0 existential 1 0.0 total 1,853 38.9 3,907 82.0 table 1. overall frequencies of moves and process types in bios. 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 22 current post, and together with research interests this comprised over half of all move types in the corpus. in terms of representing these experiences, “how” they conveyed these moves, writers used relational and material process types to discuss themselves in 95% of all clauses. the dominance of these process types stresses the importance of what the individuals claimed to “be” and what they “do”. relational process types predominantly clustered in what halliday (1994: 119) calls “intensive” types, where a writer claims to “be” something, such as an assistant professor, a doctoral student or specialist in some field or other. these made up two thirds of all relational processes, with possessives, where writers stated they “had” some form of experience or research interest, comprising another 27%. circumstantial processes, where the process includes attribute of some kind, such as what the writer is “interested in” or an institution he or she is “affiliated with”, were also present in these texts, but these were far less common. looking at these results in more detail, it may be surprising that gender is a relatively insignificant factor in influencing how writers represented themselves in bios with both move and clause level decisions being broadly similar in the bios of men and women. perhaps the main difference here is that male academics tended to foreground what they had formally accomplished by way of publications (example 19) and service to the academic community (example 20): example 19: dr. mohanty is an author of 70 peer-reviewed top-notch journal and conference publications, many of which have been nominated for best paper awards. they have received worldwide citations, a total of approximately 150, till date. (electrical engineering) he holds nine honorary degrees and 14 academic medals and has published a thousand books. (philosophy) example 20: he is a member of the editorial board of the international journal on data warehousing and mining and has served on more than 40 program committees including … (electrical engineering) projecting an academic identity ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 23 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 23 he coordinates the computer connection at the annual conference on college composition and communication, serves as list and reviews editor for h-digirhet, and has recently joined the editorial staff of enculturation: a journal of rhetoric, writing, and culture. (applied linguistics) publications form a key aspect of academic identity claims as both the promotion of knowledge and the establishment of reputation depend on them. many women, however, did not mention publications at all and simply offered a list of their educational experiences and professional qualifications. it could be that these differences are related to rank rather than gender. philosophy and electronic engineering in particular continue to be largely male-dominated fields where men are more likely to be heads of labs and assume posts of greater responsibility such as holding chairs and editorships (tse & hyland, 2008). this potentially gives them a greater volume of “product” to include in their bios. the data, in fact, show an upward curve in the mention of research, employment, publication and achievement moves in traversing across the status cline. senior scholars, in particular, were significantly more likely to discuss both their research interests and publication outputs. at the other end of the scale, research students largely used the opportunity to set out an educational background. in the absence of a clear publication record, they sought to manufacture a credible disciplinary identity by highlighting the fact they had taken a higher degree at a prestigious university. these credentials are also often supplemented, especially by females, by a specification of the writer’s research interests, as here: example 21: hua luan is currently a ph.d. student in school of information, renmin university of china. her research interests include data warehousing, data mining, … (electrical engineering) charlotte cobb-moore is a doctoral candidate at queensland university of technology. areas of research centre around young children’s social interactions, with particular focus on their enactment of governance and … (applied linguistics) there are also differences in the process types employed by writers of different rank, with the proportion of relational forms increasing and ken hyland ibérica 21 (2011): 9-3024 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 24 material forms decreasing with rank. relational processes dominate writers’ choices among the academics and students as bios are a genre which has something to say about the author, and what they mainly have to say is “who he or she is”. it is interesting, moreover, that senior academics were twice as likely to select “identifying” over “attributive” choices: example 22: arnold berleant is professor of philosophy (emeritus) at long island university. he has been president of the international association for aesthetics, secretary-treasurer of the american society for aesthetics, and secretary-general of the iaa, and is the author of six books that elaborate a field theory of aesthetics (philosophy) she is the author or co-author of over 40 technical papers and is the holder of two patents. (electrical engineering) identifying options signal that this is an important part of who writers see themselves to be, so uniquely “identifying” the writer. students and nonprofessorial faculty members, on the other hand overwhelmingly selected attributive options, signaling class membership rather than a unique identity: example 23: she is an independent scholar. (applied linguistics) osamu sawada is currently a phd student in the department of linguistics at the university of chicago. (applied linguistics) here writers make claims to be seen as one of many rather than as one; so their status is part of a wider group and not an exclusive position or distinctive aspect of their persona. while status and gender influence the decisions authors make in writing a bio, the decisive factor in these choices appears to be discipline. table 2 shows that the gender distributions of self-representation are relatively balanced within each discipline compared with some significant differences across fields. projecting an academic identity ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 25 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 25 perhaps the most striking difference is the importance engineers give to education, a category which they use to claim expertise in an area of study, thus promoting a scholarly insider-competence in esoteric skills and knowledge: example 24: hyouk ryeol choi received the b.s. degree from seoul national university, seoul korea, in 1984, the m.s. degree from korea advanced technology of science and technology (kaist), in 1986, and the ph.d. degree from pohang university of science and technology, pohang, korea, in 1994. (electrical engineering) this perhaps reflects a more apprenticeship-based system of research training in the hard sciences where inexperienced academics enjoy greater opportunities to play a fuller role in the research and publishing process as part of a lab-based team even while pursuing their studies. research is typically less individually conceived and independently conducted here than in the soft knowledge fields and so for many engineers educational training is a significant aspect of their career profile and therefore tends to be given more attention in their bios than writers in applied linguistics and philosophy. applied linguists, in contrast, give greater prominence to their research interests with this move comprising about a third of all moves in their bios: example 25: tanke specializes in contemporary continental philosophy, with a special interest in the works of michel foucault and jacques ranciere. (applied linguistics) ken hyland ibérica 21 (2011): 9-3026 app ling elec eng philosophy total f m f m f m employment 16.6 16.4 8.7 8.0 15.3 14.4 12.1 research 14.2 11.9 9.7 8.7 10.4 7.0 10.0 education 5.6 4.7 9.1 7.3 4.5 3.4 6.2 publications 5.6 7.8 2.1 2.1 11.1 12.6 5.9 achievement 1.5 1.4 2.2 3.3 0.8 0.4 1.8 comm services 1.0 1.2 1.9 2.6 1.4 1.5 1.8 personal profile 0.7 0.5 1.4 1.5 0.6 0.9 1.1 total 45.3 43.9 35.1 33.4 44.0 40.1 38.9 table 2. moves by disciplines and gender (per 1000 words). 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 26 jennifer dewinter’s scholarship unpacks traditional and new media convergence within global markets. she is particularly interested in … (applied linguistics) this not only stakes a claim for academic credibility through familiarity with areas of current interest, but also aligns the writer with a particular camp of like-minded individuals. philosophers, on the other hand, prefer to highlight their publications. in philosophy research is spread out over a broad range of topics with long range solutions, slow publication times and books as preferred modes of dissemination (becher & trowler, 2001). because of this perhaps, publications take on a particular significance which is very different from the hard sciences where publication is frenetic and multiply authored. decisions at clausal level also reflect broad disciplinary preferences. applied linguists, for example, were more likely to represent their work as an act of discovery and cognition through mental processes (italics added in the examples): example 26: her recent work examines the intersections of civic rhetoric and digital spaces. (applied linguistics) he investigates writing skill in classroom and workplace settings … (applied linguistics) this adds a more reflective and studious shade to a bio than other options, representing the writer as a thinking academic rather than as an intellectual worker grinding out a quota of papers and presentations. engineers, in contrast, and particularly male engineers, used more verbal forms to present themselves as arguers and discussers: example 27: she is now lecturing at sanjesh college of computing and statistics, tehran, iran. (electrical engineering) he proposes the use of selectively grown epitaxial layers … (electrical engineering) like mental processes, verbal choices highlight human agency, bringing the role of the writer, lecturer or presenter to the forefront and so helping to construe the author explicitly in his or her scholarly role. projecting an academic identity ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 27 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 27 the greatest disciplinary variations, however, were in the ways writers employed relational processes, and in particular philosophers’ use of identifying relational clauses. explicitly naming oneself as something or other is a significant aspect of identification and philosophers did this twice as frequently as applied linguists and nearly four times more than engineers. this option stresses a unique position for the writer and emphasizes an individual contribution: example 28: jeanne openshaw is senior lecturer in religious studies at the university of edinburgh (philosophy) he has been president of the international  association for aesthetics, secretary treasurer of the american society for aesthetics, and … (philosophy) the prevalence of this pattern in philosophy may be due to the particularly individualistic ethos of the discipline which encourages writers to put their personal stamp on what they write. research practices which stress interpretations and arguments as the creative insights of the author offer a way of positioning oneself in relation to colleagues which is very different to the self-effacing ideology which sees results as the collective endeavours of a team simply reporting experimental outcomes. 4. conclusions every text projects an identity claim, but context plays a decisive role in how such projections are enacted. any individual’s presentation and interpretation of self will vary from one situation to another depending on the purpose of the encounter, the audience, and the individual’s relationship with that audience. to summarise the argument: we can see individuals negotiating their identities within the interactional order, mobilising rhetorical and interactional competencies within particular contexts, communities and genres. identity results from the command of an “idiom”, or mastery of a community repertoire, which we appropriate and shape to our own needs and personal preferences to best present ourselves to valued others. we locally construct an identity through relationships between the self and community using the texts and language forms that these ken hyland ibérica 21 (2011): 9-3028 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 28 communities make available. in this paper i have focused on three reflective genres to throw the importance of textual context into sharp relief. i have also deliberately chosen to focus here on some relatively modest and unexplored sites of identity construction. but while they may be seen as among the more peripheral discourses of the academy, they are also ones where writers are able, indeed are virtually required, to display a selfconscious and reflective representation of self. here the arts of impression management are revealed most clearly as writers have the time to compose a picture of how they would like to be seen while being relatively unencumbered by the constraints of more formal genres of academic writing. in acknowledgements, prize applications and bios, academics reveal their expertise and craft a credible persona in a variety of ways. seeking to achieve specific promotional goals and drawing on particular views of audience, on an understanding of academic values, and on a knowledge of appropriate rhetorical practices, these writers manage to project a carefully considered and rhetorically machined identity likely to appear credible to others. [paper received july 2010] references projecting an academic identity ibérica 21 (2011): 9-30 29 bakhtin, m. (1981). the dialogic imagination. austin, texas: university of texas press. baynham, m. (2006). “performing self, family and community in moroccan narratives of migration and settlement” in a. de fina, d. schiffrin & m. bamberg (eds.), discourse and identity, 376-397. cambridge: cambridge university press. becher, t. & p. trowler (2001). academic tribes and territories: intellectual enquiry and the culture of disciplines, 2nd ed. milton keynes: srhe/oxford university press. ben-ari, e. (1987). “on acknowledgements in ethnographies”. journal of anthropological research 43: 63-84. bhatia, v.k. (1993) analysing genre: language use in professional settings. harlow: longman. butler, j. (1990). gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. london: routledge. cronin, b., g. mckenzie & l. rubio (1993). “the norms of acknowledgement in four humanities and social sciences disciplines”. journal of documentation 49: 29-43. davies, b. & r. harré (1990). “positioning: the discursive production of selves”. journal for the theory of social behaviour 20: 43-63. ding, h. (2007). “genre analysis of personal statements: analysis of moves in application essays to medical and dental schools”. english for specific purposes 26: 368-392. foucault, m. (1972). the archaeology of knowledge. london: tavistock. halliday, m.a.k. (1994). an introduction to functional grammar, 2nd ed. london: edward arnold. hunston, s. (1993). “evaluation and ideology in scientific writing” in m. ghadessy (ed.), register analysis: theory and practice, 57-73. london: pinter. hyland, k. (2003). “dissertation acknowledgments: the anatomy of a cinderella 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 29 ken hyland is professor of applied linguistics and director of the centre for applied english studies at the university of hong kong. he has  published over 150 articles and 14 books on language education and academic writing. he was founding co-editor of the journal of english for academic purposes and is now co-editor of applied linguistics. ken hyland ibérica 21 (2011): 9-3030 genre”. written communication 20: 242-268. hyland, k. (2004). “graduates’ gratitude: the generic structure of dissertation acknowledgements”. english for specific purposes 23: 303-324. hyland, k. (2010). “community and individuality: performing identity in applied linguistics”. written communication 27: 159-188. hyland, k. & p. tse (forthcoming). ““she has received many honours”: identity in article bio statements”. ivanič, r. (1998). writing and identity: the discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. amsterdam: john benjamins. jenkins, r. (2008). social identity, 3rd ed. london: routledge. koutsantoni, d. (2009). “persuading sponsors and securing funding: rhetorical patterns in grant proposals” in m. charles, d. pecorari & s. hunston (eds.), academic writing: at the interface of corpus and discourse, 37-57. london: continuum. martin, j. & p. white. (2005). the language of evaluation: appraisal in english. london: palgrave. swales, j. & c. feak (2004). academic writing for graduate students: essential tasks and skills, 2nd ed. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. tse, p. & k. hyland (2008). “‘robot kung fu’: gender and the performance of a professional identity”. journal of pragmatics 40: 1232-1248. wortham, s. (2001). “interactional positioning and narrative self-construction”. narrative inquiry 10: 157-184. 01 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:18 página 30 iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https:// doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.215 abstract genre studies have tended to focus on academic contexts, with little attention to professional settings. against this backdrop, this study set out to conduct a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization written to land institutions in ghana. the study adopted a textual analysis, informed by the esp approach to genres, and supplemented it with a corpus-based analysis to examine 40 letters of regularization. the analyses revealed that the most frequent move in the letters of regularization was the ‘purpose of the letter’. although the ‘reason for the application’ move was not obligatory, it took up considerable textual space in the letters. as regards lexico-grammatical features, politeness was embedded and expressed in if-clauses to mitigate direct impositions on the reader. additionally, gratitude was mainly construed as a quality and as a process in the letters. based on these findings, the study offers implications for further research and practice. keywords: corpus-based analysis, esp, genre, gratitude, letters of regularization, politeness. resumen análisis basado en corpus del género de las cartas de regularización: el caso de las instituciones de la propiedad de la tierra en ghana los estudios de género se han centrado en contextos académicos y apenas han prestado atención a los entornos profesionales. con este trasfondo, el presente estudio se propuso llevar a cabo un análisis de género basado en corpus de cartas a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana emmanuel mensah bonsu1, joseph benjamin archibald afful1, guangwei hu2 1 university of cape coast (ghana) & 2 the hong kong polytechnic university (china) ebonsu@stu.ucc.edu.gh, jafful@ucc.edu.gh, guangwei.hu@polyu.edu.hk 215 ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu de regularización escritas a instituciones de la propiedad en ghana. el estudio llevó a cabo un análisis textual basado en el enfoque adoptado para el análisis de los géneros desde el inglés para fines específicos, el cual se complementó con un estudio basado en corpus que implicó el análisis de 40 cartas de regularización. los resultados obtenidos revelaron que la sección que más frecuentemente aparecía en las cartas de regularización era el “objetivo de la carta”. aunque la sección de “motivo de la solicitud” no era obligatoria, ocupaba un espacio textual considerable en las cartas. en cuanto a los rasgos lexicográficos, la cortesía se integraba y expresaba en cláusulas condicionales para mitigar las imposiciones directas al lector. además, en las cartas la gratitud se interpretó principalmente como una cualidad y como un proceso. a partir de estos resultados, el estudio ofrece implicaciones para la investigación y la práctica. palabras clave: análisis basado en corpus, inglés para fines específicos, género, gratitud, cartas de regularización, cortesía. 1. introduction following swales’s (1981) seminal work, genre studies now play an essential role in research on specialized discourse. generally, genre analysis enables us to understand how genres are crucial in discourse communities that share communicative goals and conventions. a large number of genre studies have focused on academic contexts (hyland, 2003, 2005; lin et al., 2020; swales, 2009). over the past three decades, scholars have investigated academic genres such as research articles (fryer, 2012; pho, 2008), academic letters (ding, 2007; flowerdew & dudley-evans, 2002), academic weblogs (kjellberg, 2009; tiainen, 2012), theses and dissertations (afful & mwinlaaru, 2012; yang, 2013), presentations (carter-thomas & rowleyjolivet, 2003; hu & liu, 2018), and lectures (lee, 2016; thompson, 1994; yaakob, 2014). however, a survey of the literature reveals the neglect of genres in professional contexts, with only a few studies focusing on medical, business and legal genres (bhatia, 2016; breeze, 2014; dos santos, 2002; mehrpour & mehrzad, 2013; sarfo, 2011). based on a comprehensive search in the genre literature, we found no study that has investigated letters of regularization as a professional genre. this study, conducted in the professional context of ghana, is an attempt to address the gap. as regards the professional context, the present study covers land institutions in ghana. in land institutions, genres that are operative include letters for lease (indenture), letters of regularization, letters for registration of title, letters for deed registration, and letters to sublet state land. the focus of this study is 216 letters of regularization as a genre conventionalized by the land institutions in ghana because such letters serve as precursors for writing other kinds of letters within the institution. in this genre, the term ‘regularization’ refers to “the process which applies selected planning approaches and techniques to legalize or lease the rights over a land” (kessy, 2005, p. 36). a letter of regularization is written to a lawful land institution in most parts of the world (specifically in ghana, such as the state housing company or lands commission) to show an interest in land or to acquire a regularization certificate for land. land ownership varies across countries in the world. in ghana, (customary) lands are technically owned by indigenes (antwi & adams, 2003). however, the state under statutory powers (national land policy (nlp) of 1999) can acquire these customary lands as public lands. the public lands take two forms: state lands (lands compulsorily acquired for public use such as schools and hospitals which entitles customary owners to compensation payments) and vested lands (lands taken over by the state from the customary landowners for management purposes because of disputes) (quan et al., 2008). the lands commission by its legal framework is mandated to manage public lands, which constitute about 20% of the total lands (abdulai & ndekugri, 2007). the commission manages the acquisition, holding and disposition phases of such public lands to alleviate impending challenges such as delays in compensation payments, and impractical use of lands for their intended purpose between the state and customary owners. such challenges and other economically related motives often lead customary landowners to dispose of lands to grantees rather than the state, without the knowledge or permission of the commission. as such land transactions are illegal (akaateba, 2019), there is a need to regularize illegally acquired lands. this becomes the only window of opportunity for the grantees, leading to the writing of a letter of regularization. thus, the letter is an important step to correcting illegality in land acquisition. grantees resort to such letters to have their acquired land regularized through the lands commission. usually, a letter of regularization is used to acknowledge a possible oversight on the acquisition of land and to obtain a legal document to ‘regularize’ an interest. its dominant communicative purpose notwithstanding, the letter can be influenced by several factors, such as fear of eviction, prosecution, surveying works, and the need for land. the letter is usually accompanied by an approved site plan, and a copy of evidence of legal existence if the land is to be acquired or has already been a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 217 acquired. in this regard, we envisage possible references to such documents within the letter of regularization. also, the letter is constructed in a way that recognizes the authority of the land institutions, expresses politeness, and provides other information that validates their ownership of the land or property on the land. given the overarching communicative purpose of the letter, words such as land, plot, thank, co-operation, and plan are likely to characterize the letter. such linguistic resources may influence the internal organization of the letter. our focus on letters of regularization in this study is motivated by three considerations. first, the study represents a first effort to explore an important yet little-researched professional genre and, consequently, is likely to instigate further research in other land institutions or agencies in other countries. as introduced above, the importance of this genre stems from the prominence attached to land acquisition and management in ghana and other similar contexts. the constant litigation and other legalities around land acquisition and related processes make such a genre a crucial communicative artefact. this is because the legal pluralism (statutory and customary) (kasanga & kotey, 2001) underlying the legal framework for land management in ghana makes the land tenure system highly susceptible to land disputes. thus, this genre helps to achieve greater stability of activities concerning land. for instance, land title deeds are legitimately given to individuals through this genre. second, the effort to explore letters of regularization from a linguistic perspective contributes to bridging the gap between industry and academia, which have largely remained two parallel worlds. to explore a professional genre in industry from an academic perspective can build meaningful connections and facilitate communication between the two worlds. third, we believe that traditional genre analysis needs to be expanded and complemented by corpus-based analysis of relevant linguistic resources to develop a fuller understanding of a genre. thus, aside from revealing the rhetorical structure of the genre, our study is also intended to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the genre by analyzing its lexico-grammatical features as typical resources that reflect the genre and its context of use. as we identify and define the moves and their lexico-grammatical features, the results can inform further research in similar fields. given these considerations, our study was guided by two main research questions: 1. what is the generic structure of letters of regularization written by applicants to land institutions in ghana? emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242218 2. what lexico-grammatical features characterize the letters of regularization written by applicants to land institutions in ghana? 2. previous research on professional letters as pointed out earlier, professional genres have been under-researched, and our comprehensive search of the literature did not lead to published work on letters of regularization. however, we did locate a few studies on professional letters that are relevant to our study. one such study is flowerdew and wan (2010), which examined company audit reports in hong kong, focusing on the linguistic and contextual features of the genre. innovatively, they combined a genre analysis to identify the schematic structure and the linguistic realization of the genre with an ethnographic analysis to examine the context of the production of the genre. they reported that while the letters were conventionalized to follow a specific template, there were variations in the writing which addressed inconsistencies in accounting reviews. based on their findings, the researchers advocated the complementarity of different approaches in a single study to explore genres. their advice was taken up in the present study as we combined two different approaches – textual and corpus analyses – in our inquiry into letters of regularization. in the same professional setting, flowerdew and wan (2006) studied tax computation letters as an important genre of tax accountants. they emphasized the social context of the construction of the genre in addition to the functional, structural and lexico-grammatical analyses. they identified lexical items typical of tax computation letters such as tax and financial. these words add to the effectiveness of tax computation letters and reiterate a letter’s purpose within its context. in view of this finding, we expected the words characteristic of letters of regularization to further affirm the overall purpose of these letters within the land institutions. notably, flowerdew and wan (2006) observed that tax computation letters are linked to audit reports by accountants. thus, we anticipated similar connections between letters of regularization and other relevant documents. in their study on a genre in the corporate world, jalilifar and beitsayyah (2011) analyzed the rhetorical structure of 200 english and persian enquiry letters. adopting santos’s (2002) model of negotiation, they examined the schematic structure, lexico-grammatical features, and politeness strategies. a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 219 they reported that the two sets of letters varied in terms of their politeness strategies but shared the same schematic structure. inspired by this study, we examined politeness strategies used in letters of regularization in the present study. politeness strategies are important in a letter of regularization because they can facilitate the writer’s goal to have the letter and the documents authorized. the use of such strategies can influence the choice of lexicogrammatical resources such as modal verbs used in a particular move. letters of regularization can be characterized as a type of application letter. in this regard, gillaerts’s (2003) study was relevant. gillaerts identified a direct relationship between the rhetorical structure of an application letter and the evaluation of the application letter by the officials who received it. the study revealed that application letters that were better structured and followed regular rhetorical moves were appreciated and favorably attended to than those that lacked some expected elements of the letter. also relevant to our study was a study by al-ali (2004) that examined communication strategies in arabic and english job application letters. the study found that arabian authors of application letters to institutions frequently used strategies such as “glorifying the institution of the prospective employer” and “invoking compassion” (p. 18). these strategies were, however, not adopted by native english authors, who engaged in an extended discussion to promote themselves and highlight their suitability for the positions concerned. similar findings were also reported by bhatia (1993) in his study of application letters. informed by these previous studies, we focused on politeness and construal of gratitude as strategies in letters of regularization. 3. the esp approach to genre studies in the genre scholarship, three approaches have traditionally dominated genre studies: new rhetoric (bazerman, 1994; miller, 1984), systemic functional linguistics (christie, 2013; martin, 1992), and english for specific purposes (bhatia, 1993; swales, 1990). recently, lin et al. (2020) have introduced three additional approaches (cognitive genre analysis, critical genre analysis, and corpus-based genre analysis) from the extant literature on genre analysis. while these approaches are acknowledged, the english for specific purposes (esp) approach grounds this study. the esp approach focuses on specific-purpose genres and non-native speakers’ use of language, which makes it appropriate for the present study. being the bestemmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242220 known champion and the chief architect of the esp approach to genre analysis, swales (1990, 2004) notes that growing genre research within the esp approach transcends the mere identification and labelling of moves to constitute the communicative purpose and effects. swales’s (1990) definition of genre has been influential in genre scholarship. he defines a genre as “a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes” (swales, 1990, p. 58). in other words, the communicative purpose of a genre (e.g., the purpose of writing a letter of regularization) is recognized by members of the discourse community concerned. furthermore, a genre exhibits “various patterns of similarity in terms of structure, style, content, and intended audience” (swales, 1990, p. 58). central to realizing the communicative purpose of a genre is the concept of ‘move’, which is indicative of the communicative purpose which motivates and shapes a genre (hu & liu, 2018). a move is a purposeful subrhetorical unit of a genre that aids in realizing the genre’s communicative purpose (afful, 2005; swales, 1990). collectively, each move contributes to achieving the overall purpose of a genre. while the concept of move appears abstract, it is identified by its communicative purpose (bonsu & afful, 2022), cognitive-semantic boundaries, or the structure of the text (tseng, 2011). another key term is ‘step’, which is a rhetorical strategy embedded within a move to realize the communicative purpose (afful & gyasi, 2020). summarily, biber et al. (2007) identify rhetorical and linguistic strategies as means of determining moves. we argue that a genre evolves and develops from and through actors’ responses to recurrent situations, and is shaped around characteristics such as form, content, purpose and other functionalities (berkenkotter & huckin, 2016). while the foregoing theoretical formulations characterize the traditional esp approach, recent developments highlight the contributions of corpus-based analyses to genre studies. such analyses aim at accounting for the lexicogrammatical features characteristic of a genre. thus, the expanded esp approach attends to both the generic structure of a text and the lexicogrammatical resources used in service of the communicative goal. in other words, apart from generic affordances, lexico-grammatical resources constitute another dimension for understanding a genre. interestingly, bhatia (1996, p. 48) noted that communicative purposes impose “constraints on allowable contributions in the use of lexico-grammatical and discoursal forms”. this means that through lexico-grammatical features, we come to understand why language is used differently in a specific instance of a genre. a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 221 bhatia (2002) confirms that one important aim of analyzing lexicogrammatical resources is to investigate how language is used in and shaped by context. this allows a discussion of thematic topics that are typically overlooked in the traditional esp approach. lin et al. (2020) pointed out the effectiveness of corpus linguistics in exploring the lexico-grammatical features of genres. amongst other scholars, hyland and tse (2012), hyland (2005), goźdź-roszkowski (2020) adopted corpus-based procedures to examine lexico-grammatical intricacies in genres. while the esp move analysis is conducted to reveal the schematic structure of a genre, the corpus-based procedure is used to identify conventionalized use of lexical words (which are thematized). in this light, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of letters of regularization as a genre, we drew on the esp and corpus-based frameworks to design and conduct the present study. the combined approaches add to the innovativeness of this study and provide a “more complete view of the elephant” (bhatia, 2012, p. 19). 4. methodology 4.1. methodological approach we adopted a predominantly qualitative research design (i.e., in-depth textual analysis) as the method of inquiry. according to creswell and creswell (2018), qualitative design, while providing room for innovativeness, helps researchers explore and understand social organizations. the affordances of textual analysis as a method of qualitative inquiry are well demonstrated in previous studies of academic and professional genres (e.g., bazerman, 1994; bhatia, 1993, 2008; flowerdew & wan, 2006, 2010; jalilifar & beitsayyah, 2011). such analysis, when well conducted, facilitates the development of an in-depth and contextualized understanding of the genre under investigation as a staged, goal-oriented social process. our qualitative design enabled us to conduct a fine-grained analysis of the letters of regularization to understand the language and communication strategies used in them. we supplemented the textual analysis with a corpus-based analysis to identify frequently occurring lexical items (i.e., single words with content meaning) in the data. the corpus-based approach was adapted to focus on the frequent lexical words in the letters. as biber et al. (1994) pointed out, esp research is one of those areas where corpus methods can be fruitfully applied. in line with the esp approach to genre analysis adopted in our study, the corpus-based emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242222 analysis would offer insights into the textual analysis by capturing important lexico-grammatical features and identifying themes and patterns associated with the most frequently occurring content words. biber et al. (1994) clarified that depending on the kinds of linguistic resources of the genre, even a 1000-word corpus is representative enough for corpus-based analysis. as bhatia (2002) noted, corpus procedures reveal patterns of form and use in a particular genre which are difficult to perceive in other ways. in view of the inherent relationships among communicative purpose, generic structure and lexico-grammatical resources discussed in the preceding section, our corpus-based frequency analysis of key lexico-grammatical features in the letters of regularization was expected to identify conventionalized use of lexical words in the letters to yield insights into how the genre is used in and shaped by the ghanaian context of landownership. 4.2. data collection the data for this study comprised 50 letters of regularization written to the state house company office in the ashanti region. these were all the letters available at the institution at the time of data collection. given that this written genre is occluded (i.e., not publicly accessible), we made a special effort to access the letters of regularization. first, we liaised with an official from a technical university who led us to acquire the data from the aforementioned institution. second, because of their confidentiality, we took pictures of the letters without having a hardcopy. we excluded the demographic information of the letter writers from the pictures. to assess how representative these 50 letters were of letters submitted in other regions, we wrote to the lands commission offices in the central and western region of ghana to collect samples. we found negligible differences in structure and content between the letters provided by the different institutions. therefore, we concluded that our data was representative of land institutions in ghana, given the communicative purpose of the letter. figure 1 reproduces a typical letter of regularization. the number of letters in our data set was adequate to reach the saturation of coding, where additional letters did not yield new codes and, consequently, were redundant (fusch & ness, 2015). notably, hyland (2005) supported the use of a small corpus for a specific and detailed analysis of the texts contained therein. a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 223 figure 1. a sample letter of regularization. 4.3. data analysis we adopted bhatia’s (2002) conceptualization of genre analysis that covers both the rhetorical structure and lexico-grammatical features of the chosen genre. the analysis of the rhetorical structure focused on the identification of moves, their frequency, the sequencing of the identified moves, and the textual space taken by the individual moves. specifically, we first conducted a preliminary analysis of seven letters randomly selected from the data set to flesh out the moves and their purposes. we used cognitive-semantic boundaries to identify the moves in the letters, as suggested by afful (2016). next, we used the identified moves to analyze 40 letters numbered from ril1 to ril40 (‘ril’ standing for regularization of interest letters). we ended up with 40 letters because three of the 50 letters were incomplete due to age and fading and seven letters were used in the pilot analysis. when the preliminary list of moves was used to code the 40 letters, it was revised where necessary. we created a table (see table 1) to facilitate the identification and labelling of the moves. the main challenge that we encountered in the move analysis was determining the move boundaries. we contacted an expert in land policy who helped us resolve the uncertainties. we calculated and achieved an acceptable level of inter-rater reliability (i.e., 81% agreement). all the disagreements were resolved through discussions. to determine the status of the identified moves, we followed hüttner’s (2010) criteria, as summarized in table 2. these criteria are widely adopted in the literature. table 1. identification and labelling of moves. emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242224 move label communicative purpose move 1 purpose of the letter stating the sole motive of the letter. move 2 reason for the application providing reasons to support the application to acquire land. move 3 attachment of documents referencing documents attached to the letter. move 4 closure creating a positive impression and relationship. move 5 expression of gratitude acknowledging the reader or institution. table 2. status of moves. after the move analysis was completed, we conducted a corpus-based analysis of the lexico-grammatical features related to each move because the moves drew on different linguistic resources in their realization (bonsu & afful, 2022). the lexico-grammatical analysis focused primarily on politeness strategies involving the use of modal verbs and the construal of gratitude. informed by agbaglo’s (2022) construal of gratitude analysis, we adapted hyland and tse’s (2004) approach to identifying expressions or linguistic items indicating thanking. to analyze the data via the antconc (2020) software, we typed the letters in ms word and converted the .doc versions to .txt versions. the files were then loaded into the software for frequency analysis. we generated the word list of the entire data set. we excluded all the functional words from the frequency count because of our focus on meaningful (content) words. we checked for the frequency and ranking of the content words (see table 7). aside from this, we used words such as thank* (with other forms), grateful, and pleased to search for expressions of gratitude in the letters. with our background knowledge of politeness strategies in ghanaian english, we used the past forms of modal verbs such as would and could to identify expressions of politeness in the data. 5. findings and discussion 5.1. moves in the letters of regularization table 3 presents the identified moves and their names. a total of five distinct moves were identified in the letters. there were no sub-moves (steps) identified in the data mainly because the letters were generally short and not complex. a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 225 percentage of occurrence status 90%–100% obligatory 50%–89% core 30%–49% ambiguous 1%–29% optional table 3. moves identified in the data set. 5 . 1 . 1 . m o v e 1 : p ur p o s e o f t h e l e t te r we identified and labelled move 1 as the ‘purpose of the letter’. this move states the author’s communicative intention of writing the letter and establishes the application for the regularization of land. the following examples illustrate this move: (1) i humbly wish to apply for a government plot of land in respect of the above mentioned plot. (ril 8) (2) i wish to apply for regularization of the above mentioned plot at medoma which falls within your jurisdiction. (ril 12) (3) i wish to apply for regularization of documents on the above mentioned plot at pankronu estate, which falls within your jurisdiction. (ril 14) as can be seen in examples 1-3, the applicants began their letters with expressions such as i wish to apply for and i humbly wish to apply for to clearly indicate the purpose of their letters. evidently, regularization of documents, plot, and jurisdiction are content words that are directly related to land as a property. unsurprisingly, this move had the highest frequency among all the moves. the land policy expert we consulted affirmed that without this move, the letters of regularization would be flawed and serve no communicative purpose in the land institutions. 5 . 1 . 2 . m o v e 2 : r e as o n f o r t h e a pp l i ca t io n another frequent move is ‘reason for the application’. out of the 40 letters analyzed, it occurred in 36 of them. as illustrated by examples 4-6, the authors of the letters used this move to explain why they needed to apply for the regularization of documents for a plot or land. among other things, commercial, residential and developmental reasons predominated in the letters. most instances of this move were embedded in other moves. emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242226 emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): …-… in ghanaian english, we used the past forms of modal verbs such as would and could to identify expressions of politeness in the data. 5. findings and discussion 5.1. moves in the letters of regularization table 3 presents the identified moves and their names. a total of five distinct moves were identified in the letters. there were no sub-moves (steps) identified in the data mainly because the letters were generally short and not complex. move name move 1 purpose of the letter move 2 reason for the application move 3 attachment of documents move 4 closure move 5 expression of gratitude table 3. moves identified in the data set. 5.1.1. move 1: purpose of the letter we identified and labelled move 1 as the ‘purpose of the letter’. this move states the author’s communicative intention of writing the letter and establishes the application for the regularization of land. the following examples illustrate this move: (1) i humbly wish to apply for a government plot of land in respect of the above mentioned plot. (ril 8) (2) i wish to apply for regularization of the above mentioned plot at medoma which falls within your jurisdiction. (ril 12) (3) i wish to apply for regularization of documents on the above mentioned plot at pankronu estate, which falls within your jurisdiction. (ril 14) as can be seen in examples 1-3, the applicants began their letters with expressions such as i wish to apply for and i humbly wish to apply for to clearly indicate the purpose of their letters. evidently, regularization of documents, plot, and jurisdiction are content words that are directly related to land as a property. unsurprisingly, this move had the highest frequency among all the moves. the land policy expert we consulted affirmed that without this move, the letters of (4) … to develop the plot earmarked to the ghana revenue authority, dunkwa for an office (ril 4) (5) … commercial purposes. (ril 6) (6) … for residential use. (ril 7) 5 . 1 . 3 . mo v e 3 : a t ta ch m en t o f d o cu m en t s this move occurred in more than half of the letters and was used by the authors to draw the reader’s attention to the documents attached to the letters, as exemplified by examples 7-9. the attached documents were usually the plan of the site (land), search letter/reports and statutory declarations, namely documents that verified the ownership or interest of the individual party applying to the land institution. similar to flowerdew and wan’s (2006) findings, this move was used to reference or link other documents to the letter of regularization. (7) attached is the allocation note, statutory declaration, cadastral plan and a copy of the search report from lands commission. (ril 15) (8) attached are copies of site plan edged pink and search letter conducted in your outfit for your easy reference. (ril 6) (9) a photocopy of the site plan is attached. (ril 3) 5 . 1 . 4 . mo v e 4 : c l o sur e the closure move, appearing in most letters, prepares the reader for the end of the letter and subtly expresses the author’s hope of success in the application (see examples 11-13). the first-person pronoun i dominated the closure move and often co-occurred with the second-person possessive pronoun your, conveying a collaborative relationship between the author and the reader. this relationship was further strengthened by expressions such as abide by your regulations, co-operation, and trust. (10) i count on your co-operation. (ril 5) (11) i will abide by your regulations and rules governing it. (ril 17) (12) i trust i can count on your co-operation in this matter. (ril 13) a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 227 5 . 1 . 5 . m o v e 5 : e xp r es si o n o f gr a t it u de the final move, illustrated by examples 13-15, expresses the author’s gratitude. most applicants concluded their letters with an expression of gratitude and on a polite note in anticipation of the results from the land institution. (13) i shall be grateful if you would advise me…. (ril 1) (14) thank you. (ril 18) (15) thanks in advance. (ril 20) 5.2. frequency of the moves the frequencies of the moves in the letters are summarized in table 4. move 1 was the most frequent move and was present in 95% of the letters, which evidenced its centrality in the genre. the second most frequent move, move 4, occurred in 90% of the letters, making it an obligatory move. move 2, move 3 and move 5 were core moves as they were found in 80%, 65% and 65% of the letters, respectively. according to hüttner (2010), obligatory moves form the nucleus of a genre, and an instance of the genre would be flawed without these moves. core moves are typical of a genre and render instances of the genre acceptable within the discourse community. no ambiguous or optional moves were identified in our data set. table 4. frequency of the moves. 5.3. sequencing of the moves move sequencing is an important rhetorical strategy that users of a genre can draw on. it is the arrangement of the moves in a particular order. table 5 presents the various sequences of the moves present in our data set. we found one 6-move sequence, seven 5-move sequences, four 4-move emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242228 emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): …-… (12) i trust i can count on your co-operation in this matter. (ril 13) 5.1.5. move 5: expression of gratitude the final move, illustrated by examples 13-15, expresses the author’s gratitude. most applicants concluded their letters with an expression of gratitude and on a polite note in anticipation of the results from the land institution. (13) i shall be grateful if you would advise me…. (ril 1) (14) thank you. (ril 18) (15) thanks in advance. (ril 20) 5.2. frequency of the moves the frequencies of the moves in the letters are summarized in table 4. move 1 was the most frequent move and were present in 95% of the letters, which evidenced its centrality in the genre. the second most frequent move, move 4, occurred in 90% of the letters, making it an obligatory move. move 2, move 3 and move 5 were core moves as they were found in 80%, 65% and 65% of the letters, respectively. according to hüttner (2010), obligatory moves form the nucleus of a genre, and an instance of the genre would be flawed without these moves. core moves are typical of a genre and render instances of the genre acceptable within the discourse community. no ambiguous or optional moves were identified in our data set. move frequency (%) status of move m1: purpose of the letter 38 (95%) obligatory m2: reason for the application 32 (80%) core m3: attachment of documents 26 (65%) core m4: closure 36 (90%) obligatory m5: expression of gratitude 26 (65%) core table 4. frequency of the moves. 5.3. sequencing of the moves move sequencing is an important rhetorical strategy that users of a genre can draw on. it is the arrangement of the moves in a particular order. table 5 presents the various sequences of the moves present in our data set. we found one 6-move sequence, seven 5-move sequences, four 4-move sequences, three 3move sequences, and one 2-move sequence. clearly, the 5-move sequences as a sequences, three 3-move sequences, and one 2-move sequence. clearly, the 5-move sequences as a group were the most common as they occurred in 18 (45%) of the letters. of these sequences, the most frequent one was 1>2>5>3>4. the 3-move sequences as a group were the second most common, occurring in one-quarter of the letters. of these sequences, 1>2>5 was the most frequent. both the 6-move and 2-move sequences were rare, occurring in only two letters, respectively. table 5. sequences of the moves. as can be seen in table 5, move 1 was used to introduce most of the letters, with only a few exceptions in some sequences. this is because the first move announces the purpose of the letter, which makes it mandatory. the 2>5>4>5 and 5>4>5 sequences can be considered flawed due to the absence of the purpose move as an obligatory move. in other words, the generic structure and the intended purpose of the letter may not be actualized because of the absence of the first move. only one move sequence, 1>2>3>4>5, was completely linear (bonsu & afful, 2022). instead of exhibiting linearity in the sequences, most of the moves were recycled (swales, 1990). for instance, 1>3>1>2>4, 2>1>2>4>5, and 2>1>2>3>4>5 were sequences where move 1 or move 2 were recycled. the a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 229 a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): …-… group were the most common as they occurred in 18 (45%) of the letters. of these sequences, the most frequent one was 1>2>5>3>4. the 3-move sequences as a group were the second most common, occurring in one-quarter of the letters. of these sequences, 1>2>5 was the most frequent. both the 6-move and 2-move sequences were rare, occurring in only two letters, respectively. pattern frequency total % 6-move sequence 2>1>2>3>4>5 2 2 5% 5-move sequence 1>2>3>4>5 1>3>2>4>5 1>3>1>2>4 1>2>5>3>4 1>2>4>3>4 1>3>2>4>5 2>1>2>4>5 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 18 45% 4-move sequence 2>1>3>4 2>5>4>5 1>2>3>4 2>1>4>5 2 2 2 2 8 20% 3-move sequence 1>2>5 1>4>5 5>4>5 6 2 2 10 25% 2-move sequence 1>3 2 2 5% total 40 40 100% table 5. sequences of the moves. as can be seen in table 5, move 1 was used to introduce most of the letters, with only a few exceptions in some sequences. this is because the first move announces the purpose of the letter, which makes it mandatory. the 2>5>4>5 and 5>4>5 sequences can be considered flawed due to the absence of the purpose move as an obligatory move. in other words, the generic structure and the intended purpose of the letter may not be actualized because of the absence of the first move. only one move sequence, 1>2>3>4>5, was completely linear recycling of these two moves was clearly due to their importance in letters of regularization. 5.4. textual space in genre studies, the space allocated to a move reflects its significance in the genre. table 6 presents the total number and percentage of words allocated to each move as well as the mean number of words per move. the most frequent move (i.e., purpose of the letter) had the second most textual space, averaging 17 words per instance. interestingly, move 2 (i.e., reason for the application) was not an obligatory move but had the greatest textual space, averaging 24 words per instance. this could be explained by the fact that to ensure the acceptance and processing of their letters, the authors would need to flesh out their reasons for applying for the regularization documents. move 3 (i.e., attachment of documents), together with move 4 (i.e., closure), the second most frequent move in the data set, had the least space allocated, averaging 13 words per instance of each move. finally, move 5 (i.e., expression of gratitude) averaged 17 words per instance and had the second greatest textual space (tied with move 1). this could be explained by the importance of the move in leaving a good impression on the reader (i.e., the officer in charge of processing the letter) and securing their approval. table 6. textual space taken by the moves. 5.5. politeness strategies: lexico-grammatical features politeness strategies are indispensable to communication, offering interactants the opportunity to use language “in a socially appropriate manner” (taguchi, 2008, p. 424). in ghana, english is the official language used in all institutions for official functions. however, the pluralization of english across the world (mesthrie & bhatt, 2008) has given rise to many variants, including a ghanaian variety of english. socio-culturally, politeness is expressed through ghanaian english in all formal contexts, especially in emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242230 emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): …-… (bonsu & afful, 2022). instead of exhibiting linearity in the sequences, most of the moves were recycled (swales, 1990). for instance, 1>3>1>2>4, 2>1>2>4>5, and 2>1>2>3>4>5 were sequences where move 1 or move 2 were recycled. the recycling of these two moves was clearly due to their importance in letters of regularization. 5.4. textual space in genre studies, the space allocated to a move reflects its significance in the genre. table 6 presents the total number and percentage of words allocated to each move as well as the mean number of words per move. the most frequent move (i.e., purpose of the letter) had the second most textual space, averaging 17 words per instance. interestingly, move 2 (i.e., reason for the application) was not an obligatory move but had the greatest textual space, averaging 24 words per instance. this could be explained by the fact that to ensure the acceptance and processing of their letters, the authors would need to flesh out their reasons for applying for the regularization documents. move 3 (i.e., attachment of documents), together with move 4 (i.e., closure), the second most frequent move in the data set, had the least space allocated, averaging 13 words per instance of each move. finally, move 5 (i.e., expression of gratitude) averaged 17 words per instance and had the second greatest textual space (tied with move 1). this could be explained by the importance of the move in leaving a good impression on the reader (i.e., the officer in charge of processing the letter) and securing their approval. move textual space in words average number of words m1: purpose of the letter 626 (23.70%) 626/38 = 17 m2: reason for application 760 (28.77%) 760/32 = 24 m3: attachment of documents 342 (12.94%) 342/26 = 13 m4: closure 478 (18.09%) 478/36 = 13 m5: expression of gratitude 436 (16.50%) 436/26 = 17 total 2642 (100%) 84 table 6. textual space taken by the moves. 5.5. politeness strategies: lexico-grammatical features politeness strategies are indispensable to communication, offering interactants the opportunity to use language “in a socially appropriate manner” (taguchi, 2008, p. 424). in ghana, english is the official language used in all institutions for official functions. however, the pluralization of english across the world formal requests or applications (thompson & anderson, 2019). this appears to concur with the claim that conceptualizations of english form part of the discourses surrounding its use (kuteeva, 2020). while politeness can be achieved with different lexico-grammatical resources, we focused on modal verbs in the letters of regularization. this lexico-grammatical analysis of modal verbs is novel because although modal verbs have been studied in language acquisition (e.g., huddleston & pullum, 2002; hyland & milton, 1997) and discourse analysis (e.g., boicu, 2008; nartey & yankson, 2014), they have scarcely been examined in genre studies investigating politeness in ghanaian english. examples 16-18 illustrate the use of modal verbs to express politeness in the letters. in this connection, there was reader, rather than writer, dominance in the letters. the expressions of politeness embedded in the if-clauses (e.g., if you co ul d regularize, if you c o u l d assist, and if you w o u l d advise) followed structures that construed gratitude. the if-clauses mitigated the direct imposition of the requests; hence, making the letters more polite and acknowledging the power relations. the modal verbs marking politeness were could and would, which function as hedging devices (hu & cao, 2011) to reduce the force of expression. such politeness strategies took a largely reader-oriented perspective, where the authority in charge of processing the letter was revered. as anderson (2014) points out, in ghanaian english, the hearer (e.g., the recipient of the letter in this study) is higher in status than the speaker (e.g., the author of the letter); hence, the speaker expresses politeness to acknowledge the social status or distance of the hearer. (16) i would therefore be very pleased if you could regularise my title to the subject property.... (ril 26) (17) i would therefore be most grateful if you could assist me to acquire it through the proper way. (ril 31) (18) i shall be grateful if you would advise me as to whether or not the above named applicant is in a sound financial position to undertake the project. (ril 25) letters of regularization are essentially request letters and, consequently, are potentially face-threatening and imposing (blum-kulka, house & kasper, 1989). by using modal verbs such as those found in examples 16-18, the authors of the letters avoided direct imposition implied in the letters. the modal verbs were used mostly as a negative politeness strategy (brown & a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 231 levinson, 1987), where there was minimal imposition of requests to demonstrate the distance between the participants (yule, 1996). our finding about the use of modal verbs to express politeness contradicts anderson’s (2014) contention that users of ghanaian english barely use modal verbs in polite requests. 5.6. construal of gratitude: lexico-grammatical features gratitude is expressed as a positive response to a benefactor (cownie, 2017), and we show gratitude to construct our social identities (hyland & tse, 2004). as agbaglo (2022) pointed out, gratitude is one of the social constructs that promote cohesion in society and connect individuals. in our data set, gratitude took the form of expressed indebtedness for a desired generosity of the land institution. our analysis of the expression of gratitude move revealed that gratitude was construed mainly as a quality and as a process. 5 . 6 . 1 . gr a t it u de as a q ua l i t y when gratitude is construed as a quality, it is mostly realized by adjectival groups where the writer/speaker, using the first-person singular pronoun i, is presented as a carrier of that gratitude attribute. as agbaglo (2022) noted, grateful and thankful commonly head the adjectival groups expressing gratitude. these patterns were also found in our data set, as illustrated by examples 19-21: (19) i would therefore be most grateful if you could assist me to acquire it through the proper way. (ril 22) (20) i shall be very thankful if you would advise me as to whether or not the above-named applicant is in a sound position to undertake the project estimated about ¢3.5 million. (ril 34) (21) i would therefore be very pleased if you could regularise my title to the subject property and furnish me with all necessary documents pertaining to ownership specifically the sub-lease. (ril 39) as can be seen in the examples above, the carrier realized by the pronoun i is the individual expressing gratitude. in the adjectival groups construing gratitude, the head adjectives are grateful, thankful and pleased. while grateful is premodified by the adverb most, thankful and pleased are pre-modified by very. emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242232 the adverbs heighten the degree of gratitude. similar findings were reported by agbaglo (2022). notably, while afful (2016), agbaglo (2022) and hyland (2003) found grateful and thankful indicating that the beneficiary is pleased with the assistance, the expression of gratitude in our data set was constructed with a future reference making it appear conditional. 5 . 6 . 2 . gr a t it ud e as a p r o c es s gratitude was also construed as a process in our data set. this happened when the process, realized by a verb, represented the expression of gratitude. examples 22 and 23 illustrate the construal of gratitude as a process. in these examples, gratitude was construed predominantly as a process through operatives (i.e., [i] thank you). another process verb that was used was appreciate. the processes indicated were used to credit a recipient or show appreciation as a form of response to something given or done. while previous studies on the expression of gratitude (e.g., gesuato, 2004; hyland & tse, 2004) found thank or thanks modified by adverbs, the processes were presented without adverbial modifications in our corpus of letters. this pattern might have to do with the direct and specific nature of the letters to the land institution, as compared to acknowledgements in academic discourse investigated in the previous studies. (22) thank you. (ril 40) (23) i appreciate your efforts. (ril 32) 5.7. frequency of content words and related themes following mwinlaaru and nartey (2021), we conducted a corpus-based frequency analysis to identify the most frequent content words and group them to reveal the related themes. the 10 most frequently used content words across the letters are presented in table 7. these words conveyed the ‘aboutness’ (scott, 1999) of the letters (i.e., their thematic content). given the communicative purpose of the letters of regularization, it is unsurprising that land was the most frequently used content word. the words included in table 7 were sorted into two groups corresponding to the themes of “claiming ownership of the land” and “evidencing the land’s allocation”, respectively. a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 233 table 7. frequency of content words. 5 . 7 . 1 . c l a im in g o w ne r sh i p o f t h e l a nd under this theme, the applicants expressed either their rightful ownership of the land or the property on it. aside from wanting to regularize their interest, they demonstrated that they were the authorized owners of the land. as illustrated by examples 24-28, the keywords related to this theme are land, plot, site, apply, and search. these words share similarities in meaning and visually imaging land. while a plot is usually interchangeable with land, it could be a portion of land in general. the words search and site relate to development on a plot or land. the use of apply further solidifies the claim of land. land, plot, and apply were found in move 1, where the purpose of the letter was announced. (24) i wish to apply for plot of land edged pink on …. (ril 2) (25) i wish to apply for the regularization of the above mentioned plot …. (ril 33) (26) i attach herewith a site for your ease of reference. (ril 19) (27) attached is the search for your perusal. (ril 1) (28) i therefore wish to apply and regularize my interest in the said land. (ril 28) plot was used to claim only a portion of the land concerned in example 24 but referred to the whole piece of land concerned in example 25. site in example 26 referred to an overview of a piece of land planned for development. finally, search in example 27 is synonymous with land, referring emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242234 a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): …-… of gratitude (e.g., gesuato, 2004; hyland & tse, 2004) found thank or thanks modified by adverbs, the processes were presented without adverbial modifications in our corpus of letters. this pattern might have to do with the direct and specific nature of the letters to the land institution, as compared to acknowledgements in academic discourse investigated in the previous studies. (22) thank you. (ril 40) (23) i appreciate your efforts. (ril 32) 5.7. frequency of content words and related themes following mwinlaaru and nartey (2021), we conducted a corpus-based frequency analysis to identify the most frequent content words and group them to reveal the related themes. the 10 most frequently used content words across the letters are presented in table 7. these words conveyed the ‘aboutness’ (scott, 1999) of the letters (i.e., their thematic content). given the communicative purpose of the letters of regularization, it is unsurprising that land was the most frequently used content word. the words included in table 7 were sorted into two groups corresponding to the themes of “claiming ownership of the land” and “evidencing the land’s allocation”, respectively. rank concordance hit word 9 83 land 14 79 plot 15 64 attached 18 61 apply 19 60 site 21 56 plan 24 48 wish 26 40 search 28 38 named 29 36 mentioned table 7. frequency of content words. 5.7.1. claiming ownership of the land under this theme, the applicants expressed either their rightful ownership of the land or the property on it. aside from wanting to regularize their interest, they demonstrated that they were the authorized owners of the land. as illustrated by examples 24-28, the keywords related to this theme are land, plot, site, apply, to an allocation of land intended to be owned and regularized. from this analysis, it is evident that the lexical items are indispensable to letters of regularization and must be present in all instances of this genre to achieve its intended purposes. 5 . 7 . 2 . e vi d en ci ng t h e l an d’ s a l l o ca ti o n words such as attached, plan, wish, named, and mentioned as used in our data set indicated that the land in question was available and needed to be developed for residential, commercial or governmental purposes (see examples 29-33). providing evidence of land allocation is a starting point for regularizing interest in it. (29) … two copies of the site plan to the area in question are attached …. (ril 10) (30) the original site plan was attached to my earlier application … (ril 4) (31) i wish to apply for regularization of documents …. (ril 14) (32) i own the property with the above named plot number at kumasi …. (ril 18) (33) i humbly wish to apply for a government plot of land of the above mentioned plot. (ril 9) in the examples presented above, words such as named and mentioned are adjectives specifying the plots concerned, and attached points to other documents evidencing the allocation of the land. related to attached is plan, part of the documents as evidence for the allocation of the land. wish in example 31 politely expresses the desire of the applicant to acquire land through the evidence provided. this word was frequently used in move 1 to reflect its communicative purpose. the corpus-based frequency analysis corroborated halliday’s (1978) observation that “given that we know the situation, the social context of language use, we can predict a great deal about the language that will occur” (p. 32). 6. conclusion this study set out to conduct a genre analysis of letters of regularization written to land institutions in ghana. motivated by the dearth of research on a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 235 genres in non-academic contexts, this study innovatively integrated the esp approach to genre analysis and corpus-based analyses to answer the research questions. the study revealed that the most frequent and obligatory move in the letters of regularization analyzed was the ‘purpose of the letter’. expectedly, the ‘closure’ move also achieved an obligatory status. two move sequences (i.e., 1>2>5 and 1>2>5>3>5) were markedly more frequent than the other move sequences. although the ‘reason for the application’ move was not obligatory, it was allocated much textual space in the letters, evidencing its centrality in the letters. modal verbs were frequently used to express politeness in the letters, especially in if-clauses, and mitigate direct imposition on the reader. additionally, gratitude was mainly construed as a quality and a process in the letters. in line with the communicative purpose of the letters, the corpus-based analyses revealed land as the most frequent keyword in the letters, occurring mostly in the “purpose of the letter” move. several implications can be derived from these findings for further research and practice. first, a comparative study could be conducted to investigate lease letters and letters of regularization to identify intertextual features shared by these two genres. this recommendation is motivated by the close resemblance between the two genres. the comparative study could identify the differences and similarities between the genres and how they complement each other to achieve the purpose of land institutions. in addition, our study can be replicated in other contexts outside ghana to affirm or modify our findings as a way of contributing to genre scholarship. for instance, given that politeness is construed differently across cultures, a study could investigate how lexico-grammatical features are used to achieve politeness in different cultural contexts. also, the provisions and references in the letters of regularization in ghana may be different from those in other contexts and consequently merit further cross-context inquiry. finally, given the relatively small data set examined in this study, another study could increase the number of letters and, with respect to lexico-grammatical features, focus on hedging strategies in letters of regularization. this is because hedging strategies can offset the risk of facing legal actions through the letter if the required documents evidencing the land are not provided. the practical implication of the present study is for ghanaian land institutions to provide guidelines on writing letters of regularization so that all the necessary elements are included to realize the communicative purpose of such letters. pedagogically, through the analysis of this professional genre, teaching and learning resources could be provided to scaffold the learning of emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242236 ghanaian students in the field of land policy and institution. through this, such professionals can be equipped to evaluate the appropriacy and effectiveness of the letters against the communicative purpose of the genre. article history: received 23 november 2022 received in revised form 27 february 2023 accepted 28 february 2023 references a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 237 abdulai, r. t., & ndekugri, i. e. 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(2009). worlds of genre: metaphors of genre. in c. bazerman, a. bonini, & d. figueiredo (eds.), genre in a changing world (pp. 3-16). parlor press. emmanuel mensah bonsu is an mphil student at the department of english, university of cape coast. his research interests include academic writing, english language education, english for academic/specific purposes, literary criticism, sociolinguistics, and technologies in higher education. he has made considerable contributions to these and other areas of higher education. he is a member of the linguistics association of ghana (lag) and the ghana name society (gns). joseph benjamin archibald afful a professor of applied english studies and head of department at the department of english, university of cape coast (ghana), with 23 years of teaching in higher education. as a postdoctoral mellon fellow from the university of the witwatersrand (south africa), he holds a ph.d. from the national university of singapore (singapore). with his research interests in english for academic and publishing purposes, address practices, and genre studies, he has published extensively in recognized journals and serves as a reviewer for top and emerging journals. he has worked with several institutions for programme accreditations, faculty promotion assessments, and institutional research. he is a member of aila africa research network, the european association for the teaching of academic writing (eataw), the consortium on graduate communication (cgc), the postgraduate research supervisors network, and the international network of address (inar) and linguistics association of ghana (lag). guangwei hu is professor of language and literacy education in the department of english and communication and associate dean emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph benjamin archibald afful, guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242240 taguchi, n. 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(2014). a genre analysis and corpus-based study of university lecture introductions. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of birmingham. yang, w. (2013). genre analysis of dissertation acknowledgements: a comparative study across contexts. 3l: the southeast asian journal of english language studies, 19(2), 27-40. yule, g. (1996). pragmatics. oxford university press. (postgraduate studies) in the faculty of humanities, the hong kong polytechnic university. his research interests include academic literacy, biliteracy acquisition, english for academic/specific purposes, language-ineducation policy, and the psychology of second language learning and use. he has published over 150 journal articles and book chapters in these and other research areas. his most recent co-edited book is cultural knowledge and values in english language teaching materials: (multimodal) representations and stakeholders (2022, springer). he serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, including english for specific purposes, ibérica, journal of english for research publication purposes, and language, culture and curriculum. currently, he is co-editor-in-chief of journal of english for academic purposes. a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularization: the case of land institutions in ghana ibérica 45 (2023): 215-242 241 iberica 13 ibérica 29 (2015): 223-236 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 legal translation in context. professional issues and prospects anabel borja albi, fernando prieto ramos (eds). bern: peter lang, 2013. 315 pages. isbn: 978-3-03430284-5. in recent years, legal translation research has reached high degrees of excellence. gone are the days when contributions, though valuable, were fragmented, lacking in theoretical framework, and showed a great chasm between academic theory and professional practice. the present situation is characterized by a fruitful combination of theory and practice, with scholars who have often been (or still are) practising translators, as exemplified by the present volume. the book is divided into three main sections. the first, devoted to legal translation in the private sector, starts with jan engberg’s “comparative law for translation: the key to successful mediation between legal systems”, which argues for the usefulness of comparative law when it comes to solving specific translation problems and distinguishes between multilingual legal terminology, which is the really complicated task because of asymmetries, and legal translation, a much more feasible task which becomes easier if the translator is aided by consultation of scholarly debate between legal experts. “certified translators in europe and the americas: accreditation practices and challenges”, by francisco vigier, perla klein and nancy festinger, deals with the always controversial issue of the requirements and standards demanded from those responsible for producing valid legal translations. a look at european countries and the americas reveals a great diversity of practices, from countries where there is no specific title for official legal translators as such to others with specific, governmentendorsed titles, and with backgrounds ranging from no specific training to university degrees plus membership of professional associations. 223 reseñas/book reviews 12 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:49 página 223 in “freelance translation for multinational corporations and law firms”, anabel borja albi makes a detailed analysis of the figure of the freelance translator, which starts with the initial decision to abandon general projects and embrace a specialized area (in this case, law), and includes necessary steps like networking with specialists and interacting with clients, and, as hinted in other chapters in this book, a comparative knowledge of specific areas of law in order to respond to the demands placed upon them. issues like text genres and cat tools also become relevant, and the use of validated bilingual texts is recommended, either in general or in order to develop personal glossaries through extraction software. the last contribution in this section, “challenges of the freelance legal translator: lifelong learning, ethics and other key professional issues”, by joão esteves-ferreira, deals with training and ethical problems, which first and foremost include not accepting projects for which one is not qualified – a recurrent dilemma in the present crisis situation. another important topic, seldom addressed in academic literature but certainly with an influence upon the end result, is pricing and the conflict between time spent (including research and documentation) and word-based pricing (favoured by clients for cost-control and budgeting reasons). the second part of the book focuses on national public institutions, starting with “translating for domestic courts in multicultural regions: issues and new development in europe and the united states of america”, by juan miguel ortega, cynthia giambruno and erik hertog, dealing with criminal proceedings and the right to fair trial after landmark decisions of the echr. here the authors discuss quality issues and, especially, the future changes after directive 2010/64/eu on the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings. leo hickey, in “translating for the police, prosecutors and courts: the case of english letters of request”, comments on the drafting of lor’s and the relationship between the translator and investigators. a detailed analysis is made of the various parts of the document, with an emphasis on official names and pre-existing translations, but also with remarks on the translator’s choices between foreignization and naturalization, and the variety of styles (police style, legal styles) within documents. ramón garrido nombela’s “translating for government departments: the case of the spanish ministry of foreign affairs and co-operation” starts out pointing out the extent to which translation degrees ignore the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 29 (2015): 223-236224 12 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:49 página 224 public sector, with its specific requirements, including teamwork and anonymity, intertextuality and formal restrictions. the section ends with a contribution by jean-claude gémar, “translating vs co-drafting law in bilingual countries: beyond the canadian odyssey”, and aptly explains why a discipline like jurilinguistics was born in such a complicated context. examples are shown which illustrate the mechanics of co-drafting, leading to solutions which would be unthinkable in “traditional” translation. the merits of co-drafting are praised in contrast with translation, including the added – but by no means minor – advantage that the two texts are placed on an equal footing. the third part looks at legal translation at international organizations and starts with a joint paper by susan šarčevič and colin robertson, “the work of lawyer-linguists in the eu institutions”. the chapter focuses on lawyer-linguists, specialized lawyers with high-level language abilities responsible for translation but also for revision and legal advice. some of the tasks described are the translation of references for preliminary rulings to the court of justice of the european union, the monitoring of legislative quality and revision of draft commission decisions, and early intervention in cases where drafters are not native speakers of the language used. a similar, but much wider sphere, is discussed in xingmin zhao and deborah cao’s “legal translation at the united nations”. the chapter offers attractive information on the recruitment and training procedures and the training provided. after a brief analysis of the most usual text types translated, major issues are discussed, such as the diversity of issues and the occasional problems caused by different options in various languages. in the conclusions, the authors point out the need for better use of information tools and improved training, especially for exchange between translators and academics and among translators themselves. the practices of an always controversial body are analyzed by alexandra tomič and ana beltrán montoliu in “translation at the international criminal court”, where the requirements vary from the basic documentation in the working or official languages, to the most intricate problems caused by the “situation languages” arising from each specific case. in these contexts, there is a procedure in place which allows the court to use complete glossaries of terms in less standardised languages. muriel millet’s “legal translation at interpol” is a complete description of the practices at interpol, including instances of non-translation (in the case reseñas / book reviews ibérica 29 (2015): 223-236 225 12 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:49 página 225 of notices), the translation techniques used, a trend towards monolingualism in english, and the implications of the need for speed and quality, leading towards self-revision and partly solved through enhanced access to documentation. the sphere of trade and business is represented by the chapter by fernando prieto ramos, whose “legal translation at the world trade organization” offers valuable information on the types of texts translated and the high demands placed on translators in terms of quality and deadlines, which are reflected in the recruiting procedure, often implying double qualifications in law and translation. the last chapter, “technology at the service of specialized translators at international organizations”, by olivier pasteur, focuses on the tools available to wto translators, including translation memories, terminology databases, digital dictation and speech recognition, and ultimately machine translation, although the author expresses serious doubts regarding the false idea that it may render human translators unnecessary. in sum, this is an interesting volume, one of whose strengths is the fact that many of its contributors are practitioners themselves and, therefore, their insights combine the professional perspective with a sound theoretical framework. another detail which will sure contribute to help towards the success of this publication is that, despite the wide variety of issues and bodies covered, the focus on institutional legal translation is maintained throughout, which will make all sections attractive to scholars, practitioners and students, especially because of the balance between general topics (with an emphasis on professional demands) and specific case studies. mention must be made of the extensive bibliography given, which makes this book an invaluable starting point for further research. received 31 august 2014 accepted 21 december 2014 reviewed by miguel ángel campos pardillos universidad de alicante (spain) ma.campos@ua.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 29 (2015): 223-236226 12 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:49 página 226 iberica 13 grammar choices for graduate and professional writers (2nd ed.) nigel a. caplan michigan: the university of michigan press, 2019. 216 pages. isbn: 978-0-472-03731-5. the volume under review is the second edition of grammar choices for graduate and professional writers. compared with its first edition, published in 2012, the second has been revised to reflect classroom experience and users’ feedback. for example, as emphasized by caplan in the introduction, the improvement made in the new edition includes new sections, revised explanations, updated exercises, and revised example sentences. born of caplan’s experience of teaching academic writing to graduate students at his institution (the english language institute at the university of michigan), this book aims to provide practical guidance on the use of major grammar resources in academic writing. the book succeeds at presenting the diversity of grammar topics ranging from word to phrase and clause, and finally to text organization in a coherent manner, and at linking grammar choices with functions in authentic academic writing. the book will be of interest for graduate and professional writers, as well as for teachers of esp (english for specific purposes). the volume comprises eight chapters, preceded by an introduction, which sets the stage by highlighting how grammar choices differs from other grammar books and by clarifying grammar terminology. each chapter covers a major topic of grammar useful to graduate and research writers and follows a similar outline, starting with a language awareness report and ending with the grammar of each discipline. the language awareness report draws readers’ attention to the grammar topic to be discussed in the chapter, using authentic texts representative of a variety of academic genres, including the report, the introduction, the abstract, the literature review, the data commentary, the definition paper and the textbook. while sections in each chapter revolve around one major grammar topic, they can be skipped without loss of continuity. the grammar-in-the-discipline encourages students to think more specifically about discipline-specific language use through exercises that illustrate the grammar topic in each unit. this part can be used as a teaching resource or class exercise. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 279-283 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 279 chapter 1, “an approach to academic written grammar”, begins with the building blocks of written grammar, i.e., word forms, phrases and clauses. caplan introduces readers to the notion of ‘slots’, which can be used to analyze the structures of clauses and phrases. each finite clause comprises slots of subject, verb, and objects or complements. a noun phrase, requiring the head noun as the obligatory slot, involves complex and flexible modifiers (e.g., determiner, adjective, noun) and qualifiers (e.g., prepositional phrase, embedded clause). the author also introduces three levels of meaning in sfl, i.e., ‘experiential’ (the content of the sentence), ‘interpersonal’ (the writer’s attitude), and ‘textual’ (the organization of the text). the general approach to academic written grammar provided here connects with the more detailed discussion in subsequent chapters. chapters 2 and 3 deal with clause grammar. in more detail, chapter 2 focuses on equal (coordinating) and unequal (subordinating) clauses as two types of clause combinations. techniques for creating clauses of equal status (compound sentences) and unequal status (complex sentences) are described. in addition, caplan discusses a no less important aspect of clause combination: the logic relations between the clauses combined. he illustrates halliday’s (1994: 225) three categories of meaning: ‘elaborating’, ‘extending’ and ‘enhancing’. by listing sentence connectors or conjunctions as typical signals of each meaning category, caplan makes the discussion accessible to readers who are not familiar with sfl. chapter 3 continues the discussion of clause grammar by focusing on embedded clauses, where one clause is part of another. the types of clause covered range from restrictive relative clauses and reduced embedded clauses, to noun clauses, non-finite clauses and subjective clauses. the chapter ends with a section on common problems posed by the use of embedded clauses. caplan discusses verb forms, including tense and voice, in chapter 4. subject-verb agreement and subject-verb inversion are also topics of this chapter. the author starts with an overview of verb tenses and highlights that tense choice can affect three levels of meaning. the different functions of the present simple, present perfect, future tense, and other less frequent verb tenses are illustrated with numerous examples. the author then explains the reasons for using passive voice. for instance, the passive voice allows the writer to improve information flow (chapter 8) by moving the agent to the end of the clause, i.e., the ‘new information’ position. despite the general popularity of passive voice in academic writing, caplan critiques the simplified assumption that passive voice is always preferred. he draws reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 279-283280 readers’ attention to lists of verbs rarely or never used in the passive, as a contrast to the frequently used passive verbs (e.g., ask, associate, base). chapter 5 delves into noun phrases and nominalizations, which, as suggested by caplan, are more information-bearing than verbs and adjectives. caplan begins by distinguishing between count and non-count nouns and then takes readers through several sections on the structural slots of noun phrases, including articles, quantifiers, adjectives and possessives. he also explains differences between generic reference, indefinite reference and definite reference. based on halliday and martin (1993), caplan proposes three primary functions of nominalization: to pin down the phenomena they are studying as facts, to avoid repetitiousness, and to improve information flow. while chapters 1-5 mainly deal with experiential meaning, i.e., the content, chapter 6 moves to interpersonal meaning: what one thinks about the content. this chapter follows hyland’s (2000) framework of hedging and boosting to analyze interpersonal meaning. whereas the grammar resources of hedging, boosting and general evaluation are plenty, caplan focuses on modal verbs, adverbs, conditionals and comparatives. these word forms are less central to the content of a clause than verbs or nouns, but play a key role in conveying the writer’s stance and attitude. the author concludes the chapter with a discussion on evaluative language, suggesting that “very few language choices are completely neutral in terms of interpersonal meaning, so effective writers choose words carefully to establish their authority and align the reader with their ideas” (p. 153). examples of evaluative language include noun phrases, reporting verbs, action verbs, linking verbs, and descriptive adjectives. for readers who struggle with finding appropriate word combinations in writing, chapter 7 will be of great value, as caplan introduces corpus searching to facilitate collocation learning. the author suggests using google scholar, a popular academic search engine, as the easiest corpus, the michigan corpus of upper-level students papers (micusp) as a reference corpus of excellent graduate student papers, and the corpus of contemporary american english (coca) as a massive corpus representing different registers and allowing sophisticated searches. following this, the author details how corpus searching can be applied to collocations of different word forms, including verb-preposition, noun-preposition collocations, verb-noun collocations, and adjective-noun and noun-noun collocations. caplan ends the chapter with the suggestion of using “skeletal reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 279-283 281 sentences” (p. 171), known elsewhere as “the bare bones of a sentence” or “sentence/phrase stems” in one’s own writing. for example, the search for “it is adj that” will provide lists of skeletal sentences (e.g., it is clear that, it is possible that) functioning to express the author’s stance in academic writing. the final chapter, “beyond the sentence”, examines the third level of meaning: textual organization. caplan first highlights the importance of following the old-new information structure to attain a smooth information flow. he then explores forms and functions of theme, defined as the first elements in a clause. devices of controlling the theme of a clause include moving adverbs, prepositional phrases, or dependent clauses to the theme position. as with the rest of the chapters, the author consistently adheres to the principle of making grammar choices according to functions. finally, drawing on daneš (1974) and weissberg (1984), caplan extends the discussion of theme to paragraph patterns, among which he illustrates with examples the linking pattern, the repeated theme pattern, the super-theme pattern, the theme preview pattern, and blended patterns. in so doing, the author informs readers of the choices available and the different functions of each option. for example, he shows that while the repeated theme pattern, where several sentences share the same theme, is “useful for defining or explaining a complex concept” (p. 185), the theme preview pattern is “more useful for organizing long texts than single paragraphs” (p. 187). caplan’s grammar choices for graduate and professional writers is a valuable resource for graduate and professional writers. the book consistently builds on the central concept of grammar choices, rather than on rules in academic writing. the grammar resources are explained with reference to specific functions using authentic academic texts. its approach to grammar provides readers with the opportunity to think specifically about the motivations behind their choices. received 02 september 2020 accepted 09 september 2020 reviewed by yan zhang school of foreign languages, east china university of science and technology (china) richinhopezy@gmail.com reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 279-283282 references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 279-283 283 daneš, f. (1974). “functional sentence perspective and the organization of the text”. papers on functional sentence perspective 23: 106-128. halliday, m.a.k. (1994). an introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.). london: edward arnold. halliday m.a.k. & j.r. martin (1993). writing science: literacy and discourse power. london: taylor & francis. hyland, k. (2000). disciplinary discourse: social interactions in academic writing. harlow: pearson. weissberg, r.c. (1984). “given and new: paragraph development models from scientific english”. tesol quarterly 18: 485-500. 01 editorial.qxp do we need to standardize written scientific discourse? almost ten years ago we wrote that academicians had been debating about the exact place of english for specific purposes (esp) and english for academic purposes (eap) –and similarly, languages for specific purposes (lsp) and languages for academic purposes (lap)–, and whether or not esp was valued on a par in higher education vis-à-vis eap and vice versa. some linguists tended to reject this parity on the grounds that one devalues the other. our proposal, at that time, was that we "concentrate on what can be developed in common to contribute positively to the debate" (piqué et al., 1996: 6). lsp is sufficiently diversified, as kachru (1988: 9) wrote, to cover three basic assumptions: […] appropriateness of language corpus; format organization of the corpus at various linguistic levels; phonetic, phonological, lexical, syntactic, and discoursal; and the relationship between the formal features and the functions of the texts in terms of the profession, participants, and so on. and alcaraz (2003: 5), in his prologue to rosario bueno's bibliographical study, wrote: en lo que a las lenguas modernas se refiere, la interdisciplinariedad ha significado su fecunda unión con otras ramas del saber, como el derecho, la medicina, los negocios, la ciencia y la tecnología, la industria, etc., y el resultado de esta fructífera alianza son las lenguas de especialidad, también llamadas lenguajes profesionales y académicos. since the first issue of ibérica, we have tried to open up the scope of contributions to our journal and accept papers not only from a diversity of cultures and nationalities but also languages and ideological points of view. we have intended to leave room indeed to different languages other than english (particularly spanish and french) in an effort to foster, under the pressures exerted by english as today’s scientific lingua franca, the use of other scholarly languages. it is actually an effort to somehow heed swales’ (1998) call for preserving academic languages. i believe we have succeeded in doing so, while at the same time respecting and maintaining whenever possible their cultural and rhetorical traditions. we believe we have accomplished our role in doing so, whether writing as natives or nonnatives, although sometimes forgetting that culture is what makes international communication complex, as has been evidenced by authors who have attributed differences in textual rhetoric to cultural differences (mauranen, 1993: 252). although we recognize the universality of the english language and that our papers written in english will achieve a much larger audience, our task as editor has tended not to establish a specific writing code or a handbook for publication in our journal, but rather allow our contributors’ specific writing languages and identities. as ibérica 12 [2006]: 5-8 5 01 editorial.qxp 20/09/2006 13:39 pægina 5 leppänen (2003: 55) said about publishing, writing handbooks are “very much ideological, historical, and moral in nature.” in addition –she concludes (1993: 81)–, “their universality, technicality, and transparency are often only apparent, especially for non-native writers of academic english,” and by extension, for academic writers in any language. while we would agree with ana moreno (1997: 173), in her comparison between english and spanish models, that there are “more areas of similarity than differences between [these] two writing cultures of the western world,” we also want to guarantee this multicultural transparency. there has been a tendency to standardize writing, but, as pointed out by nancy hoft (1999: 146), “it is not a solution to the problems introduced by multilingual and multicultural readerships that is growing in its popularity among worldwide corporate leaders in localization.” in addition, she believes that this localization, as an alternative to globalization, is not the answer since it is expensive and time consuming and proposes a third option: collaboration. salager-meyer et al. (2003), faced with the “uniformization and standardization” trend in the non-english speaking academia, posed the following challenging final sentence: isn’t it already too late to prevent scientific discourse from becoming a monoculture which encourages conformity to approved disciplinary discursive practices, and may thus be considered as a system of increasingly restrictive social control? (salagermeyer et al., 2003: 242) writers in the medical professions, facing that old aphorism of “publish or perish”, are indeed under such pressure for uniformity that everything not adhering to the vanvouver dictates will be systematically refused for publication. ells and hugle’s (1997) booklet, publishing without perishing, does not seem to be the answer, since it simply gears possible users of this manual towards uniformity in publishing. this uniformity is further promoted when nursing is included in the same package with the medical sciences (erlen, 1997). the ‘collaboration’ hoft (1999) was talking about when referring to technical communication does not seem such a content-empty idea in an effort to reach compromise between the advocates of both currents. we firmly agree with her proposal when she postulated a “spirit of genuine collaboration” among all professionals involved, a collaboration that represents “the struggle to identify and address cultural differences as they present themselves in the technical communication context” (hoft, 1999: 147). this issue contains seven articles, an interview with charles meyer, and three book reviews. two of them come from the usa and denmark, and the rest from spanish universities. the variety of topics analyzed further enhances our opinion that the field of languages for specific purposes has a much wider scope than assigned twenty years ago. jordi piqué-angordans ibérica 12 [2006]: 5-86 01 editorial.qxp 20/09/2006 13:39 pægina 6 charles meyer, from the university of massachusetts boston, explores how materials drawn either from the web or from the database micase can be used to teach modality in english to prospective teachers of esl, efl and esp. we are also very pleased to have a closer look at professor meyer’s professional activity in the interview carried out by our colleague, dr. carmen pérez-llantada, through which dr. meyer’s dedication to corpus linguistics studies is made evident. alicia martínez-flor and esther usó-juan focus on a practical problem encountered in many esp disciplines: the use of request modifiers. in their pragmatic approach, they come to the conclusion that request modifiers were more commonly used among english philology students than among informatics students, and also that both groups used more internal modifiers, particularly “hesitators’, than external ones. the professionals working at the aarhus school of business have been known for their activity in dictionary production and more specifically on specialized lexicography. we already had proof of their expertise in the 2005 fall issue of ibérica (10: 7-21), with sven tarp’s paper, and in this issue we are pleased to include another paper by sandro nielsen on monolingual accounting dictionary production and how its texts can be used for efl teaching purposes. marisol velasco touches upon the world of advertising by way of examining the variety of english being used and its degree of specialization: she concludes that this variety of english shows a low degree of specialization and it is, in fact, on the borderline between general and specific english. from a rather theoretical perspective, rosa giménez tackles the problem of defining the concept of register. it is not the first time she approaches this difficult task (giménez, 1997), and she does it now through the review of existing theories and models of analysis and proposes a new and practical systematic approach to register analysis. maría josé esteve analyzes medical english from a diachronic perspective and, through a corpus of ophthalmologic texts, studies the evolution of several sets of words from the 14th to the 19th centuries. she found that there was a decrease of words denoting procedure and, at the same time, an increase in the number of complex words from one period to the next. finally, rosario artiga explores academic lectures and authorial presence in their phraseology. she identifies and describes various elaboration strategies used by lecturers, finding a (perhaps surprisingly) high frequency of elaborations not marked by any comprehension clues such as formal definition structure, discourse markers, or syntactic patterning. they make suggestions for disambiguating unfamiliar lexis in science lecture contexts. this issue comes to a close with three book reviews on three important publications: the first one is on a recently published bilingual dictionary of economics and law do we need to standardize written scientific discourse? ibérica 12 [2006]: 5-8 7 01 editorial.qxp 20/09/2006 13:39 pægina 7 ibérica 12 [2006]: 5-8 jordi piqué-angordans (french-spanish/spanish-french), which is actually a second revised edition of a previous publication. the second and third book reviews are related to two collections of essays: the former, on language use in the academic context, gathers a series of papers delivered at the universidad politécnica de madrid by several scientific discourse specialists; and the latter, on corpus linguistics and its application to the study of english, in what we may call a state-of-the-art publication, offers a wide selection of papers presented at the hübner seminar, organized by the universidad de zaragoza. i have been connected to ibérica, first as member of the editorial board since its inception in 1991 and as editor for the last four years, but now it is time to let new air and new ideas come in and continue our work. when i embarked in this job, i had in mind a challenging list of priorities for the journal, namely redesigning its layout to make it more professional, increasing the number of issues per year and also making it more known internationally by including it in several international listings. hopefully, these improvements have been noted by, and beneficial to our entire readership. i greatly appreciate the support provided by the whole editorial board and aelfe’s executive committee. without their help and the help of our many contributors, what we have accomplished would have not been possible. i am sure that the new editor will continue towards enhancing this rapidly developing area of languages for specific purposes, particularly when you think of it in terms of the new european curricula. at this point, i would like to make mine john swales’ (1994: 200) words written in his farewell as co-editor of esp: “i will henceforth find myself in the unaccustomed position of receiving a copy of [ibérica] in the mail and not already knowing what it contains.” it is time, therefore, to make way for younger, and certainly fresher, replacements. jordi piqué-angordans universitat de valència (spain) editor of ibérica ells, c. & t. hugle (eds.) (1997). publishing without perishing: a handbook for graduate and professional students on the medical humanities. mclean, va: society for health and human values. erlen, j. a. (1997). "writing ethics articles for nursing journals: helpful hints" in ells & hugle (eds.), pp. 4-6. giménez moreno, r. (1997). "the boundaries of the concepts of genre, register and style in academic discourse" in j. piqué & d. j. viera (eds.), applied languages: theory and practice in esp, 37-44. valencia: unviersitat de valència. hoft, n. (1999). "global issues, local concerns." technical communication 46: 145-148. leppänen, s. (2003). "universalistic handbook discourse and the local needs of writers." text 23: 53-87. mauranen, a. (1993). cultural differences in academic rhetoric. frankfurt am main: peter lang. moreno, a. i. (1997). "genre constraints across languages: causal metatext in spanish and english ras." english for specific purposes 16: 161-179. salager-meyer, f., m. a. alcaraz ariza & n. zambrano (2003). "the scimitar, the dagger and the glove: intercultural differences in the rhetoric of criticism in spanish, french and english medical discourse (1930-1995)." english for specific purposes 22: 223-247. swales, j. m. (1994). "from the editors." english for specific purposes 13: 199-203. swales, j. m. (1998). "language, science and scholarship." asian journal of english language teaching 8: 1-18 references 8 01 editorial.qxp 20/09/2006 13:39 pægina 8 iberica 13 ibérica 26 (2013): 17-34 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper focuses on the development of the concept of belf, which originally stood for “business english as lingua franca”, but later we have used the abbreviation to refer to “english as business lingua franca”. with this change we want to emphasize the domain of use rather than the type of english. the concept of belf originates from two large research projects conducted at the aalto university school of business from 2000 to 2009. the projects were inspired by research into english as a lingua franca (elf) and, from that perspective, they set on exploring the language and communication practices of internationally operating business professionals. the findings of the projects showed how the domain of business, and particularly its goal-oriented nature, was significant for belf discourse and for the perceptions of belf communication of the practitioners themselves. overall, it can be argued that for belf speakers, grammatical correctness is not nearly as important as the genre knowledge of their own specific field of expertise, involving a shared understanding of what, why, how and when to communicate. thus, we argue that professional competence in today’s global business environment involves communication knowhow as an integral element of business knowhow. further, in an international context, competence in belf is a necessity. keywords: international business communication, elf (english as lingua franca), belf (english as business lingua franca), global communicative competence, review article. resumen ¿ q u é l e n g ua j e h a bl a e l c om e rc i o g l o ba l ? c on c e pt o y e v o l uc i ón d e l b el f el artículo presta atención al desarrollo del concepto de belf, que originalmente implicaba business english as lingua franca (“inglés comercial “what language does global business speak?” – the concept and development of belf anne kankaanranta and leena louhiala-salminen aalto university (finland) anne.kankaanranta@aalto.fi & leena.louhiala-salminen@aalto.fi 17 ibérica 26 (2013): 17-34 a. kankaanranta & l. louhiala-salminen como lengua franca”) pero que más tarde se ha definido como english as business lingua franca (“inglés como lengua franca de los negocios”). con este cambio pretendemos enfatizar el dominio de uso en lugar del tipo de inglés. el concepto de belf se origina en dos grandes proyectos de investigación desarrollados en la aalto university school of business entre los años 2000 y 2009 e inspirados en investigación sobre el inglés como lengua franca (elf). desde esa perspectiva exploraron el lenguaje y las prácticas comunicativas de profesionales de los negocios que operan internacionalmente. los resultados de los proyectos mostraron cómo el dominio de los negocios, y en particular su tendencia al logro de objetivos, eran significativos para entender el discurso belf y para la percepción que los mismos participantes tenían de la comunicación belf. se puede indicar que para los hablantes de belf, la corrección gramatical no es tan importante como el conocimiento de los géneros propios de su ámbito de experiencia, lo que implica una comprensión común acerca de qué, por qué, cómo y cuándo comunicar. nuestra postura es que la competencia profesional en los entornos empresariales globales actuales implica que el conocimiento comunicativo constituye un elemento integral del conocimiento comercial. en contextos internacionales, la competencia en belf es una necesidad. palabras clave: comunicación comercial internacional, elf (inglés como lengua franca), belf (inglés como lengua franca de los negocios), competencia comunicativa global, artículo de revisión. introduction in the 1980s, when we started teaching english for business students, there was no need to think twice of the conceptualization of the english language. having msc degrees in business studies, we were both acutely aware of the particular environment where our teaching and our students’ proficiency requirements were situated, and made every effort to contextualize our teaching appropriately. it was important to stay up-to-date with the developments of the business world and also closely follow the technological advancements that first gradually and later more dramatically, changed the entire scene (see, for instance, friedman, 2006). nevertheless, the object of teaching, english, was the language we had learnt at school as a foreign language (efl) ourselves, with its idioms, phrasal verbs, prepositions and articles. the only occasional debates dealt with the distinction between british and american english, both varieties had supporters and opponents in our small, north european country. 18 along with advancing globalization, business structures started to change rapidly in the 1990s. cross-border mergers and acquisitions took place and the increasing significance of the internet in all social and societal activities meant that the patterns of communication also changed (see, for instance, louhiala-salminen, 1997; nikali, 1998; crystal, 2001). when we approached the turn of the millennium, the developments in our environment had led to a situation where practically all societal sectors, spearheaded by the business sector, could be characterized as playgrounds of global players to some extent. no longer did only specific units of organizations deal with partners across borders (as, for example, in imports or exports of goods and services), but entire organizations had to be prepared to engage in international interactions, for a variety of purposes. for example, a finnish company merging with a german company might place some of their operations in portugal and some in india, and the unit responsible for corporate accounting would need to keep in touch with all these locations. international collaboration of professional associations, labor market unions or national lottery organizations could serve as another example. earlier, the general activities of these organizations were taken care of locally, using the local language in communication. only specific operations were “international” and for these, specific professional qualifications were needed, including proficiency in the languages in question, which in most cases meant english and/or the language of the particular “international” party. in addition to the more complex environment for international communication, where it was not any more possible to communicate using a number of format-bound export/import related generic messages, another significant trend affected the teaching of english for business students. as various important issues became internationally shared within multinational, multicultural and multilingual organizations and they had to be managed, most of these organizations chose to use english for their organization-wide communication. some businesses explicitly opted for english as their corporate language and others followed suit in a more implicit manner, making ad hoc, pragmatic decisions to resort to english that was the language mastered by the majority of employees (see, for instance, vollstedt, 2002; maclean, 2006; louhiala-salminen & kankaanranta, 2012). however, what these internationally operating organizations actually used in their daily operations and activities was not the english language of native speakers but english as lingua franca (elf) shared among the non-native speakers of the language. the concept and development of belf ibérica 26 (2013): 17-34 19 the trends discussed above have distinctly affected the teaching of “english” in our own institution. within the past twelve years, the aalto university school of business (up until 2010, the helsinki school of economics) has implemented a major conceptual and practical change process of the curriculum for language and communication studies (for a more detailed description, see louhiala-salminen & charles, 2006; kankaanranta & louhiala-salminen, 2007). the subject that is taught to all business students for their professional, international communication – previously called english, or english for business purposes (ebp) – has become english business communication (ebc), where the focus is on the words “business communication”, and teaching takes place in english, assuming the lingua franca perspective. in addition to offering ebc studies to all the school’s business students, our department specializes in (international) corporate communication and offers both a master’s program and a doctoral program. in these degree programs the particular emphasis is on the communication function, and communicative nature overall, of all organizations. the two programs are run in english but the language is regarded as only one – albeit important – aspect constituting organizations through communication. in this paper, we provide a review of english in the present globalized environment with a special focus on its role in the business context. first, we review research into elf, which has been relevant for our own approach. then, we describe two major research projects housed in the department of communication at the aalto university school of business that contributed to our conceptualization of english as the business lingua franca (belf) as used in the international business context. finally, we provide conclusions and briefly discuss implications for pedagogy. english as lingua franca (elf) according to knapp and meierkord (2002), the concept “lingua franca” originates from a language variety that was used on the south-eastern coast of the mediterranean between the 15th and the 19th centuries, enabling trade between people who did not share the native language. haberland (2011) discusses lingua francas over time in great detail and differentiates, for example, between microand macro-sociolinguistic approaches. in the first approach, lingua franca emerges in specific interactions, in which a particular a. kankaanranta & l. louhiala-salminen ibérica 26 (2013): 17-3420 language is used among speakers with different native languages, whereas the second approach refers to a property or quality of a particular language in a historically specific language contact situation, for example, the use of latin as the language of religion and learning in europe. although the definitions of the concept have varied a great deal over the past ten years of active elf research, jenkins, cogo and dewey (2011) point out that today most researchers seem to agree that english as a lingua franca is used in communication by speakers of different native languages, which suggests that also native speakers of english are included. in other words, elf is considered distinctly different from english as a native language (enl) and must thus be learned by native english speakers as well. only a minority of researchers comply with firth’s (1996) definition, which emphasizes the role of english as a contact language between people none of whom have english as their mother tongue and who choose to use english as a shared “foreign” language. along with globalization, elf has drawn a lot of attention in academia, in particular since the turn of the millennium. at an increasing pace, research on the use and nature of elf has appeared in scholarly journals and books within linguistics and communication, and in 2012 the very first issue of a new academic journal focusing merely on elf came out (see seidlhofer, jenkins & mauranen, 2012). in addition to the pioneering elf researchers (such as jenkins, 2000; mauranen, 2003; seidlhofer, 2004), there is a growing number of others enticed by the topic (dewey, 2007; cogo, 2009; ljosland, 2011; kirkpatrick, 2012; björkman, 2013; among others). in her extensive review of elf research up until the early 2000s, seidlhofer (2004) presents a discussion of the role and characteristics of elf, alongside enl, english as a native language. interestingly, she calls for a reconceptualization of the english language and claims that although the global spread of english and its consequences have long been a focus of critical discussion, less attention has been paid to the nature and forms of the language used. seven years later, jenkins, cogo and dewey (2011; see also mauranen & ranta, 2009) provide a review of the developments in research into elf in general and discuss linguistic research on the levels of lexicogrammar, phonology and pragmatics in particular. for example, they present such typical features of elf “grammar” as dropping the third person present tense “–s”, confusing relative pronouns “who” and “which”, omitting articles and inserting them where they do not belong, and inserting redundant prepositions (jenkins, cogo & dewey, 2011). as seidlhofer (2004) the concept and development of belf ibérica 26 (2013): 17-34 21 earlier suggested, it now seems that such features occur because of the regularization of the system. however, although the identification of such linguistic features increases our knowledge about elf discourse, a question has emerged with more empirical data becoming available: what functions do such linguistic features assume in communication? in other words, what motivates the use of certain linguistic forms in elf discourse (jenkins, cogo & dewey, 2011). thus, while earlier elf research was concerned with what was regular in elf discourse, now it seems that the focus has turned to the inherently dynamic nature of elf and the rationale for using particular forms in a particular context. the focus on the context is no new invention in elf research since, not surprisingly, the use of elf in academic discourse has been on the research agenda of academics from the very beginning. for example, at the footsteps of seidlhofer (2001), who had announced the compilation of voice (the vienna-oxford international corpus of english), our finnish colleague, anna mauranen (e.g. 2003) collected an academic elf corpus known as elfa (english as a lingua franca in academic settings). since the early 2000s, a number of researchers have followed suit (ammon & mcconnell, 2002; björkman, 2011 & 2013). also, the context of the elf classroom and that of education policy have attracted attention among scholars such as smit (2009), kirkpatrick (2012), honna (2012), and dewey (2012). finally, we would like to draw attention to one of seidlhofer’s (2001) arguments that has greatly inspired our own work investigating language use in global business. this is her claim of a “conceptual gap” (seidlhofer, 2001) in the place where elf should be firmly established in people’s minds. according to her, the gap results from the way language seems to be so closely tied with its native speakers that it is very difficult to open up conceptual space for such a new concept as elf. as we pointed out in the introduction to this paper, although we had already moved away from teaching english for business purposes towards english business communication, the notion of elf as any speaker’s “right” that supports a power balance among speakers, was a turning point in our thinking: no more benchmarking to native speakers but rather to an effective business communicator no matter what his/her native tongue. alongside the lingua franca perspective, within the past two decades there have been other approaches to the internationalization of language use and the role of english in this development. for example, the notion of “world a. kankaanranta & l. louhiala-salminen ibérica 26 (2013): 17-3422 english(es)” has been investigated extensively (kachru & nelson, 1996), and such concepts as “globish” and “basic global english” (grzega, 2006) have been introduced as new pedagogical perspectives. within business communication, in fact already before seidlhofer’s (2001) argument of the conceptual gap, elf had been discussed in terms of “international english for business purposes” (iebp) and “international business english” (ibe) (johnson & bartlett, 1999) albeit rather superficially, without explicit definitions of the concepts or rigorous empirical research. at the same time, emerging from our own classroom experience and our own research in applied linguistics (see louhiala-salminen 1996, 1997, 1999 & 2002; nikko & kankaanranta, 2000; kankaanranta 2000, 2001 & 2005) we were confronted with questions of the nature, use and role of the english language in our english business communication courses. with the variety of approaches, philosophies and emphases already available in the early 2000s, and especially intrigued by the lingua franca research proliferating at the time, we decided to engage in empirical studies on language use in internationally operating organizations. english as business lingua franca (belf) over the past ten years, we have conducted two major research projects focusing on language use and practices in internationally operating organizations; both projects were funded by the academy of finland. the first project (in 2000-2002) investigated in-house communication in finnishswedish mergers and was vital for the construction of the belf concept. the second project (in 2006-2009) examined communication knowhow as integral to business knowhow of internationally operating business professionals and enabled further elaboration of the concept. thus, our research started close to home addressing communication issues between two scandinavian neighbours in the early 2000s but went global towards the end of the decade. in what follows, we introduce both projects and address their motivation, objectives, methodology, and the key findings from the belf perspective. the merger project (2000-2002) the name of the first research project reflected our motivation well: “finnish, swedish or english? internal communications in recently merged the concept and development of belf ibérica 26 (2013): 17-34 23 finnish-swedish companies”. it was one of the seventeen projects in a large research program focusing on “interaction across the gulf of bothnia” (this was also the title of the program that investigated finnish/swedish communication largely in a variety of fields). our own project concentrated on business interaction, and we wanted to find out how employees managed the linguistic and cultural challenges in two large corporations, both of which were the result of mergers across the gulf of bothnia at the end of the 1990s, namely storaenso, a paper company, and nordea, a banking group. more specifically our objective was to investigate language use and communication practices among business professionals with two different linguistic backgrounds, finnish and swedish. as the name of the project suggests, we aimed to explore what languages were used in the two merged corporations involving two nordic countries. although the shared language, lingua franca, of the region has traditionally been ‘scandinavian’ – a fluid combination of swedish, norwegian, danish and icelandic – the increasingly globalized business has spurred the use of english. finnish does not feature in scandinavian, but finns are familiar with it through swedish, which is the other official language of finland and thus a mandatory subject in finnish schools. although the merger project investigated other communicative questions as well, the present paper concentrates on the studies relevant for the construction of the concept of belf. we used a multi-method approach including a questionnaire survey and related interviews to map out (1) communicative practices in the companies and (2) the perceptions of finnish and swedish employees of each other’s communication cultures and their similarities and differences (louhiala-salminen, 2002). in addition, we conducted analyses of authentic (english-language) discourse: meetings (see louhiala-salminen & charles, 2006; nikko, 2009) and emails (kankaanranta, 2005 & 2006). the questionnaire survey had some 400 respondents and 31 employees were interviewed; the meeting data comprised four video recorded meetings with circa 9 hours of talk; and the email corpus contained 282 email messages with a total of 103 finnish (n=52) and swedish (n=51) writers. the journal article introducing the concept of belf, louhialasalminen, charles and kankaanranta (2005), combined the three data sets and ultimately constructed the concept of belf as a language used among finnish and swedish business professionals. the key findings of the merger project from the belf perspective can be summarized into three points. first, english (lingua franca) was the language a. kankaanranta & l. louhiala-salminen ibérica 26 (2013): 17-3424 used in interactions between finnish and swedish business professionals at work to do the work, not scandinavian or swedish. thus, in addition to sharing the “core” of english (the “e”) and the lingua franca (the “lf”) aspect, the nature of the elf resource we identified was very much determined by the goal of getting a job done in the domain of business (the “b”). english was used in all hierarchical positions in the two organizations and was not limited to, for example, higher level jobs. however, it has to be noted that all communication in the two companies had not changed into english, but the two mother tongues (finnish and swedish) were still needed and used extensively in day-to-day activities. while some employees used english in all their company-internal communication, some others mainly used their native tongue. in other words, the choice between english and the mother tongue was pragmatic: the decisive factor was the target audience and their preference. secondly, we found that english was perceived as a neutral and equal alternative – indeed, an empowering resource – because it was neither party’s mother tongue and was thus “owned” by neither. in particular, finnish employees had felt their professional expertise decrease when they used their – often limited – swedish for professional communication with their native swedish speaker colleagues. however, this feeling did not emerge when they used swedish for other than strictly business purposes. for example, swedish was used in small talk among finns and swedes before and after the meeting proper and in email greetings and complimentary closes. in such situations its role was – and it was perceived to be – to build rapport and create a feeling of togetherness. thirdly, the merger project data revealed that when our finnish and swedish informants were using belf in their communication, it clearly reflected the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of its speakers. thus, it was not perceived as a “cultureless” code but a “linguistic masala” (meierkord, 2002), a variety with a dynamic set of characteristics depending on the speaker and his/her native language and its conventions. this finding was also corroborated by the analysis of authentic data: finnish belf seemed to be somewhat more direct and issue-oriented than the discussion-oriented and interpersonal swedish variety. in a nutshell: whereas finns were inclined to write “check the figures” in their emails, swedes favored “could you please check the figures”. the concept and development of belf ibérica 26 (2013): 17-34 25 the knowhow project (2006-2009) the motivation for the knowhow project also becomes apparent in its official name: “does business know how? the role of communication in the business knowhow of globalized operations”. in this research project we wanted to find out how communication was affected by such dramatic change processes in business as globalization, advancement of it systems, specialization, modularization, and networks. again, our project was part of a large research program by the academy of finland. now, the widely defined object of research for the entire program was “business knowhow”. to apply for the funding, we argued that communication knowhow is an integral element of business knowhow of today’s business professionals. in other words, professionals need to know what, why, how, and when to communicate when they are sharing knowledge and building networks, which have been identified as integral practices to such elements of business knowhow as innovations, business processes and management strategy (näsi & neilimo, 2006). the knowhow project consisted of several subprojects that examined communication knowhow in companies at different levels; here, we describe the subproject that continued to investigate issues related to belf. the objectives of the subproject were two-fold: (1) to examine communication conventions, characteristics, and communication knowhow in globalized and globalizing companies and (2) to identify features that contribute to perceptions of communication being “successful”. our methodology comprised a questionnaire survey and related interviews, both of which explored the perceptions of the respondents and interviewees. the survey was targeted at professionals in five finland-based companies working regularly in international contexts; it was administered on-line and had a response rate of 52%, with 987 respondents. the respondents represented 31 different native languages with finnish, however, dominating (40%) (for more details, see louhiala-salminen & kankaanranta, 2011). the semi-structured interviews were conducted in five europe-based multinationally operating companies located in finland and the netherlands; in total, 27 internationally operating professionals were interviewed. the native tongue of a good half of them was finnish (for more details, see kankaanranta & planken, 2010). next, we report on our findings from the perspective of belf competence, after which we address the more extensive concept of global communicative a. kankaanranta & l. louhiala-salminen ibérica 26 (2013): 17-3426 competence. we might argue that the main finding of the whole project was the fact that belf as a shared resource was now taken for granted by internationally operating business professionals; it was perceived as any other necessary tool to do the work (kankaanranta & louhiala-salminen, 2010). it was also considered “global” in the sense that it was not conceptualized as a language spoken in the uk or usa. belf competence, involving both knowledge and skills, was perceived as a dynamic construction heavily dependent on the context of its use and the users. for example, it did not seem to have any absolute requirements as to its discursive forms as long as it was sufficient for getting the work done and creating rapport – no matter how limited the english proficiency of the users. however, such a competence, albeit modest on the surface level, implies a number of components. belf speakers need to possess accommodation skills, listening skills, an ability to understand different “englishes”, and overall, tolerance towards different communication styles. this view was corroborated by another distinctive feature: grammar was not considered as important as the genre knowledge of one’s own field of expertise. according to our informants, this context-specific genre knowledge involved a shared understanding of, for example, appropriate choice of audience, media and timing as well as the focus and style of the (spoken/written) message. interestingly, our findings show that the discourse strategies perceived as “successful” in international encounters were the same as traditionally emphasized in business communication text books: clarity, brevity, directness and politeness (see, for instance, munter, 2011). this alignment seems to emphasize the shared culture of the international business community (the “b”), which co-existed with the belf speakers’ individual cultural backgrounds (for more, see kankaanranta & lu, 2013). multiculturalism was perceived as an inherent quality of belf and was seen to be further strengthened by multilingualism (for more on culture and elf, see baker, 2011 & 2012). our findings on the role and use of belf and communicative success in the global context inspired us to expand our perspective into the notion of competence, and we decided to explore the elements of “global communicative competence” of internationally operating business professionals. using the empirical data from the knowhow project and discussing earlier research on competence in several fields, we suggested a model (figure 1 below) for what we call global communicative competence (gcc). the concept and development of belf ibérica 26 (2013): 17-34 27 as can be seen in figure 1, the global communicative competence of a business professional is depicted as the bull’s eye in the model surrounded by three layers consisting of multicultural competence, competence in belf, and business knowhow. all the three layers are needed for the gcc to exist. first, multicultural competence refers to the knowledge and skills in managing communicative situations with representatives of different national, organizational, and professional cultures. it requires accommodation skills including respect and tolerance towards “different ways of doing things”, as one of our interviewees so aptly put it. such skills are strengthened by multilingualism; knowing languages other than english and one’s own mother tongue provides new perspectives, together with tacit knowledge which is hard to come by otherwise. the second surrounding layer, competence in belf, is driven by the idea of managing the task at hand, while simultaneously creating rapport and maintaining the relationship (for maintaining trust, see kassishenderson & louhiala-salminen, 2011). it requires competence in the english “core”, business-specific genres, and communication strategies focusing on clarity, brevity, directness and politeness. in essence, belf is very different from a “natural” language spoken with native speakers because it is highly situation-specific, dynamic, idiosyncratic and consequently, inherently tolerant of different varieties. the dynamism entails that strategic skills, such as ability to ask for clarifications, make questions, repeat utterances, and paraphrase (see mauranen, 2006), gain in importance for successful communication. third, the outermost layer of business knowhow is fundamental for gcc; as we have seen, it filters a. kankaanranta & l. louhiala-salminen ibérica 26 (2013): 17-3428 a. kankaanranta & l. louhiala-salminen ibérica 26 (2013): …-… figure 1. model of global communicative competence (louhiala-salminen & kankaanranta, 2011: 258). as can be seen in figure 1, the global communicative competence of a business professional is depicted as the bull’s eye in the model surrounded by three layers consisting of multicultural competence, competence in belf, and business knowhow. all the three layers are needed for the gcc to exist. first, multicultural competence refers to the knowledge and skills in managing communicative situations with representatives of different national, organizational, and professional cultures. it requires accommodation skills including respect and tolerance towards “different ways of doing things”, as one of our interviewees so aptly put it. such skills are strengthened by multilingualism; knowing languages other than english and one’s own mother tongue provides new perspectives, together with tacit knowledge which is hard to come by otherwise. the second surrounding layer, competence in belf, is driven by the idea of managing the task at hand, while simultaneously creating rapport and maintaining the relationship (for maintaining trust, see kassis henderson & louhiala-salminen, 2011). it requires competence in the english “core”, business-specific genres, and communication strategies focusing on clarity, brevity, directness and politeness. in essence, belf is very different from a “natural” language spoken with native speakers because it is highly situation-specific, dynamic, idiosyncratic and consequently, inherently tolerant of different varieties. the dynamism entails that strategic skills, such as ability to ask for clarifications, make questions, repeat utterances, and paraphrase (see mauranen, 2006), gain in importance for successful communication. third, the outermost layer of business knowhow is fundamental for gcc; as we have seen, it filters through and affects all the other layers. the outermost layer refers to business-specific knowledge and combines two integral elements: the particular ! 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% through and affects all the other layers. the outermost layer refers to business-specific knowledge and combines two integral elements: the particular “domain of use” and the wider, overall goals, norms and strategies of business shared by the business community. to summarize this section on the concept of belf, we refer to a table that first appeared in a keynote presentation by charles in the elf forum – the first international conference of english as a lingua franca held in helsinki in 2008 (for a written version, see charles, 2007), but we modify the table to illustrate the particular differences between efl and belf approaches that we consider critical (see table 1). table 1 crystallizes our present understanding of the language (that is, belf) used by internationally operating business professionals to communicate with other (mostly) non-native speakers, and it also provides a comparison with the efl paradigm, which prevailed at the time we started our teaching careers in the 1980s. as can be seen, there are major differences between the two paradigms addressing some key criteria related to communication and language use, which undoubtedly have an impact on teaching and research. conclusions since the introduction of the concept of belf (louhiala-salminen, charles & kankaanranta, 2005), it has shown its relevance for scholars of international business communication (see, for instance, bargiela-chiappini, the concept and development of belf ibérica 26 (2013): 17-34 29 the concept and development of belf ibérica 26 (2013): …-… “domain of use” and the wider, overall goals, norms and strategies of business shared by the business community. to summarize this section on the concept of belf, we refer to a table that first appeared in a keynote presentation by charles in the elf forum – the first international conference of english as a lingua franca held in helsinki in 2008 (for a written version, see charles, 2007), but we modify the table to illustrate the particular differences between efl and belf approaches that we consider critical (see table 1). criterion efl belf successful interactions require ns-like language skills business communication skills and strategic skills the speaker/writer aims to emulate ns discourse get the job done & create rapport nnss are seen as learners, “sources of trouble” communicators in their own right main source of problems inadequate language skills inadequate business communication skills “culture” national cultures of nss business community cultures and individual cultural backgrounds english is “owned” by its native speakers nobody – and everybody table 1. comparison between efl and belf approaches. table 1 crystallizes our present understanding of the language (that is, belf) used by internationally operating business professionals to communicate with other (mostly) non-native speakers, and it also provides a comparison with the efl paradigm, which prevailed at the time we started our teaching careers in the 1980s. as can be seen, there are major differences between the two paradigms addressing some key criteria related to communication and language use, which undoubtedly have an impact on teaching and research. conclusions since the introduction of the concept of belf (louhiala-salminen, charles & kankaanranta, 2005), it has shown its relevance for scholars of international business communication (see, for instance, bargiela-chiappini, nickerson & planken, 2007; charles, 2007; rogerson-revell, 2007; gerritsen & nickerson, 2009; du-babcock, 2009; pullin stark, 2009; ehrenreich, 2010; jenkins, cogo & dewey, 2011). however, since elf/belf research assumes a radical ontological and epistemological stance, claiming that the object of study in fact is different from the notion of “english”, it is only natural that there is also an opposition to this conceptualization in the academic community (for a nickerson & planken, 2007; charles, 2007; rogerson-revell, 2007; gerritsen & nickerson, 2009; du-babcock, 2009; pullin stark, 2009; ehrenreich, 2010; jenkins, cogo & dewey, 2011). however, since elf/belf research assumes a radical ontological and epistemological stance, claiming that the object of study in fact is different from the notion of “english”, it is only natural that there is also an opposition to this conceptualization in the academic community (for a commentary from the teaching perspective, see maley, 2010). simultaneously, however, it can be argued that elf/belf research could expand and contribute to research in business disciplines such as international business and management, in which “language-sensitive” research has produced knowledge about language issues in multinational companies (piekkari & tietze, 2011). for example, various aspects of “corporate language” have been addressed but without problematizing or questioning the notion itself. indeed, the question of authority and power in the context of corporate language vs. belf usage would benefit from further research. finally, we offer a brief discussion on the pedagogical implications based on our belf studies. as table 1 suggests, efl (english as a foreign language) seems to have a neat set of characteristics that define desirable learning outcomes, whereas the characteristics for belf reflect its very nature: variation, hybridity, dynamism, context-dependency and individual idiosyncrasies. how can such a chameleonic “language” be taught? how can our findings inform the teaching and learning of english for future business professionals? we argue that the model of global communicative competence (see figure 1) could serve as a good framework for addressing the pedagogical challenges involved. the three intertwined layers surrounding the center of gcc should be intertwined in teaching as well. for a future business professional, the outermost layer, business knowhow, is the foundation on which the communicative competence is constructed. this entails that business knowledge and awareness should be imported into the belf classroom, for example, with the help of case studies, problem-based learning, and different types of simulations. although there is no denying of the fact that ultimately, the real life practice is the best school for learning belf, these methods are still able to imitate the real life experience fairly effectively. in this way, the students would learn – not only the key business terminology – but even more importantly, the related concepts, genres, and practices that are typically shared in the business discourse community and a. kankaanranta & l. louhiala-salminen ibérica 26 (2013): 17-3430 would thus be salient in a particular communicative situation. for instance, these activities imitating authentic business situations would demonstrate when things need to be confirmed in writing, when the situation requires utmost preciseness, and when the approach can be more laid-back. in other words, although it is important to master the english “core” (jenkins, 2000), it is even more important to be able to use english as a tool to get the work done while simultaneously maintaining a good relationship with communication partners. as such qualities as directness, clarity and politeness could be characterized as “success factors” both in business communication and in belf communication, they should be used to evaluate student work. for example, they can be further developed into explicit grading criteria or into more detailed and specific rubrics, which would give the student a written account as to how well s/he has performed in relation to each criterion. interestingly, rubrics like this are the key element of the assurance of learning process of the most prestigious accreditation agencies, for example, the association to advance collegiate schools of business (url: http://www.aacsb.edu) when the learning outcomes of specific business degree programs, courses, and assignments are reviewed. at this point, it must be remembered, however, that being “flexibly competent” (house, 2002) is of utmost importance: students need to be trained so that they are able to analyze a particular situation, including the job at hand, and to act accordingly. sometimes it may be essential to be direct, whereas other times indirectness may be more impactful in view of the task at hand. typically, this type of belf competence calls for more focus on the strategic use of language: being able to accommodate one’s communication to the partner’s knowledge level, to connect on the relational level, to clarify information, to paraphrase, to make questions, and to ask for clarifications. this flexibility would mean that the evaluation criteria in the rubric gain different weightings depending on the situation. finally, the multicultural competence of students can be enhanced by, first, encouraging them to learn other languages than english and secondly, increasing their knowledge of and respect for other “cultures” including national, ethnic, professional, industry, and corporate cultures. although the idea is not to emulate the behavior of others, raising awareness of “other ways of doing things” contributes to the global communicative competence.  to conclude, since belf can be conceptualized as a language that can be learned – at least to some extent – by non-native english speakers, it could the concept and development of belf ibérica 26 (2013): 17-34 31 also be learned by native speakers of english. in this way, they would be better equipped to operate in international business contexts, where most of their fellow players today are non-native english speakers using belf. 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(1996). “the business communication class room vs. reality: what should we teach today?” english for specific purposes 15: 37-51. louhiala-salminen, l. (1997). “investigating the genre of a business fax: a finnish case study”. the journal of business communication 34: 316-333. louhiala-salminen, l. (1999). from business correspondence to message exchange: the notion of genre in business communication. overview of phd dissertation. jyväskylä: university of jyväskylä, centre for applied language studies. louhiala-salminen, l. (2002). “the fly’s perspective: discourse in the daily routine of a business manager”. english for specific purposes 21: 211-231. louhiala-salminen, l. & m. charles (2006). “english as the lingua franca of international business communication: whose english? what english?” in j.c. palmer-silveira, m.f. ruizgarrido & i. fortanet-gomez (eds.), english for international and intercultural business communication, 27-54. bern: peter lang. louhiala-salminen, l. & a. kankaanranta (2011). “professional communication in a global business context: the notion of global communicative competence”. ieee transactions on professional communication, special issue on professional communication in global contexts 54: 244-262. louhiala-salminen, l. & a. kankaanranta (2012). “language issues in international internal communication: english or local language? if english, what english?” public relations review, special edition on internal communication, 38: 262-269. louhiala-salminen, l., m. charles & a. kankaanranta (2005). “english as a lingua franca anne kankaanranta phd, msc (econ), emba is senior university lecturer at the department of communication of the aalto university school of business, helsinki, finland. her research interests include email genres, english as the business lingua franca (belf) and corporate communication in international contexts.  leena louhiala-salminen phd, msc (econ) is professor of international business communication at the aalto university school of business, helsinki, finland. her research interests include the various genres of business communication, the use of english as the business lingua franca, and corporate communication in international contexts. a. kankaanranta & l. louhiala-salminen ibérica 26 (2013): 17-3434 in nordic corporate mergers: two case companies”. english for specific purposes. special issue: english as a lingua franca international business contexts 24: 401-421. maclean, d. 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(2011). guide to managerial communication. effective business writing and speaking. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. näsi, j. & k. neilimo (2006). mitä on liiketoimintaosaaminen. helsinki: wsoy. nikali, h. (1998). the substitution of letter mail in targeted communication. helsinki: oy edita ab. nikko, t. & a. kankaanranta (2000). “tavoitteena professionaalinen kielitaito” in p. kalaja & l. nieminen (eds.), kielikoulussa – kieli koulussa, afinlan vuosikirja n:o 58, 245-264. jyväskylä: suomen soveltavan kielitieteen yhdistys. nikko, t. (2009). dialogic construction of understanding in cross-border corporate meetings. acta universitatis oeconomicae helsingiensis. helsinki: helsinki school of economics. piekkari, r. & s. tietze (2011). “introduction. a world of languages: implications for international management research”. journal of world business 46: 267-269. pullin stark, p. (2009). “no joke – this is serious! power, solidarity and humour in business english as a lingua franca (belf)” in a. mauranen & e. ranta (eds.), 152-177. rogerson-revell, p. (2007). “using english for international business: a european case study”. english for specific purposes 26: 103-120. seidlhofer, b. (2001). “closing a conceptual gap: the case for a description of enlish as a lingua franca”. international journal of applied linguistics 11: 133-158. seidlhofer, b. (2004). “research perspectives on teaching english as a lingua franca”. annual review of applied linguistics 24: 209-239. seidlhofer, b., j. jenkins & a. mauranen (2012). “editorial”. journal of english as a lingua franca 1: 1-3. smit, u. (2009). “emic evaluations and interactive processes in a classroom community of practice” in a. mauranen & e. ranta (eds.), 200-224. vollstedt, m. (2002). “english as a language for internal company communications” in k. knapp & c. meierkord (eds.), 87-108. imprimir iberica 13 ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 résumé conscients de l’importance croissante que revêtent la formation en distanciel et par voie de conséquence les méthodes, outils et activités articulées autour d’un apprentissage autonome, cette étude se propose d’évaluer l’ensemble des ressources pédagogiques en ligne mises à disposition de l’internaute apprenant. comme les contenus interactifs et multimédia concernant le fle (français langue étrangère) sont innombrables, nous nous sommes centrés sur le français de spécialité (fos: français sur objectifs spécifiques), en particulier, le français des affaires et du tourisme. notre objectif étant de compléter un travail précédent portant sur l’évaluation des sites fos, de nouveaux critères ont été considérés pour une utilisation optimale des ressources en jeu. il s’avère qu’une bonne combinaison des outils pédagogiques disponibles sur internet pourrait être une bonne option pour les apprenants du français des affaires, alors que les outils de formation interactive concernant le français du tourisme demeurent insuffisants pour garantir un apprentissage adéquat de cette langue spécifique. mots clés: tic, ressources pédagogiques en ligne, français sur objectifs spécifiques (fos), français des affaires, français du tourisme. abstract ��������� � ��� �������� ���������� �� ���������� given the increasing importance of distance learning and therefore of the need for methods, tools and activities designed for self-learning, this paper proposes to make an evaluation of the existing resources available on the internet for online learners. as interactive and multimedia content for ffl (french as a le fos: une évaluation des ressources pédagogiques en ligne nuria rodríguez pedreira et carlos valcarcel riveiro universidade de santiago de compostela finuprod@usc.es et fivalcar@usc.es 109 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 109 110 ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 n. rodríguez pedreira et valcárcel riveiro foreign language) is considerable, the analysis focuses on fsp (french for specific purposes), and particularly on french for business and tourism. the goal of this paper is to complete work done previously on the evaluation of websites devoted to fsp, by applying new criteria for an optimal use of online resources. the results of this research point out that a good combination of learning content available on the net might be a profitable option for learners of business french, while e-learning tools for french used in the tourism area remain insufficient. key words: ict, e-learning resources, french for specific purposes (fsp), french for business, french for tourism. 1. introduction dans les dernières décennies, l’enseignement/apprentissage du fle a subi de nombreuses transformations tant méthodologiques que pédagogiques. les publics apprenants intéressés par l’apprentissage d’une langue étrangère ont également évolué. les raisons de cette évolution sont multiples: le développement des nouvelles technologies de l’information et de la communication (tic), les transformations du marché linguistique, ainsi que la demande diversifiée d’un enseignement pratique de la part des publics professionnels contribuent à la diffusion d’un enseignement/apprentissage spécifique adapté aux nouveaux défis. surgissent alors un certain nombre de dénominations parallèles répondant à ce renouveau méthodologique: “français fonctionnel”, “français de spécialité”, et “français sur objectifs spécifiques” (fos), qui finit par s’imposer vers les années 90. comme l’affirment cuq et gruca (2003: 321) “la science et la technique sont désormais partie prenante du champ de la culture, et (…) une langue qui veut conserver sont statut de langue internationale de communication ne peut plus ignorer ce fait”. le public est désormais à la recherche d’un enseignement fonctionnel qui lui assure son intégration dans le marché du travail. les besoins de l’apprenant ne se cantonnent pas à l’acquisition des compétences langagières nécessaires à la communication mais ils s’étendent aux savoir-faire professionnels (prendre un rendez-vous par téléphone, passer une commande, rédiger une lettre commerciale, préparer un voyage d’affaires…). tauzin (2003: 82) manifeste à ce propos “le fos ce n’est pas enseigner le français ou apprendre le français, mais c’est bien apprendre du français “pour”. c’est du français pour travailler –pour les uns– et pour suivre des études– pour les autres”. l’apprenant n’apprend donc plus le français (langue culturelle), mais du français (langue fonctionnelle). 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 110 l’importance de cet enseignement réside dans le fait qu’on y aborde des sujets directement liés au centre d’intérêt des apprenants, autrement dit, qu’on y enseigne un français spécifique utilisé en situation de communication réelle dans un contexte linguistique particulier. ainsi, comme le signale richer (2004: 11) “ces apprenants (…) visent une rentabilité de la formation, un retour significatif sur investissement en formation (…) et présentent une forte motivation professionnelle et/ou sociale”.1 il ne fait donc aucun doute que l’enseignement du français sur objectifs spécifiques met au premier plan l’apprenant et son activité professionnelle. nous reprendrons volontiers à notre compte l’affirmation de mangiante et parpette (2004: 158) déclarant que “le grand intérêt du fos sur le plan méthodologique réside (…) dans la cohérence, le lien ��� � �� qu’il établit entre besoins des apprenants et objectifs de cours”. non seulement l’enseignant de fos doit-il pouvoir amener l’apprenant à connaître la langue française mais aussi doit-il savoir développer pour lui “un véritable agir communicationnel, professionnel et culturel” (richer, 2004: 14). il doit parvenir pour cela à une maîtrise à la fois langagière et culturelle et s’adapter aux différents domaines de spécialité. doivent s’y ajouter la nécessité d’une didactique spécifique adaptée aux exigences des apprenants, qui focalisent leurs besoins sur des savoir-faire langagiers et professionnels. la méthodologie du fos se singularise donc par le poids que revêt la dimension sociale dans le contexte d’apprentissage ce qui se traduit par l’établissement d’objectifs visant le domaine à la fois lexical et socioprofessionnel. le besoin de mettre en place des programmes spécifiques d’enseignement se fait sentir de plus en plus dans les institutions qui doivent redoubler d’efforts pour fournir des ressources à la fois humaines et matérielles. la généralisation des équipements informatiques dans les centres d’enseignement devrait conduire à une innovation de la méthode d’enseignement/apprentissage qui demeure le plus souvent ancrée dans une pédagogie trop classique de la diffusion des savoirs par la parole et l’écrit. l’utilisation des tice (technologies de l’information et de la communication pour l’enseignement) suppose un pas en avant dans le processus d’apprentissage, donc une plus grande souplesse dans l’organisation des enseignements, en modules. soulignons aussi une forte implication des étudiants dans ce contexte d’apprentissage justifiée par l’émergence des nouveaux outils pédagogiques (formation sur mesure, autoévaluation, suivi personnel, tutorat). les tic offrent, en général, une interactivité poussée que ne permettent pas le fos: une evaluation des ressources ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 111 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 111 les ouvrages sur papier, les cassettes ou les vidéos. ainsi, non seulement la “toile” permet-elle un travail tutoré mais elle garantit un apprentissage autodirigé. la combinaison d’un enseignement en modules et les multiples ressources didactiques disponibles sur le web (activités pédagogiques diverses, forums de discussion, tchats, blogs, etc.) suffisent, selon nous, à assurer dans un premier temps une formation initiale en langue de spécialité. bien entendu il ne faut pas oublier la qualité et la richesse de l’enseignement classique “en présentiel” qui appelle les apprenants à la réflexion et aux échanges communicatifs. pourtant, l’attrait et la diffusion croissante des tice, contribuant à la modernisation des universités, a vocation à prendre le relais. 2. analyse des ressources e-learning en français des affaires et du tourisme un recensement ainsi qu’une évaluation sommaire des ressources pédagogiques disponibles sur le web ont été menés dans une étude préalable2. chaque ressource retenue devait faire l’objet d’une numérotation suivant une grille d’analyse élaborée à cet effet. l’originalité de cette grille provient du fait qu’elle peut être réutilisée et modifiée autant que possible pour l’évaluation d’outils pédagogiques en ligne. comme disent guyotclément et al. (2003: 5): nous avons voulu vous faciliter l’emploi d’internet, vous permettre d’accéder à des informations aussi diverses que possibles, pour éviter de vous perdre dans les méandres de la toile (…) bref, mettre le maximum d’atouts de votre côté pour rendre l’enseignement et l’apprentissage de la langue française encore plus attractifs. notre prétention ici est d’approfondir le travail entamé précédemment, en y apportant de nouvelles données susceptibles d’influer sur le taux de popularité des sites concernés. les résultats que nous présentons sous forme de données numériques pourraient être à la base du succès plus ou moins grand des sites consultés et ils peuvent bien constituer un excellent indice de l’état de la question. n’ont été envisagées que les ressources e-learning pour l’apprentissage de la langue de spécialité, en ce qui concerne tout particulièrement le français des affaires et du tourisme. outre le modèle de grille d’analyse dans lequel y sont n. rodríguez pedreira et valcárcel riveiro 112 ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 112 inscrits les scores obtenus par chaque site3, nous présentons une grille complémentaire explicative de ces résultats (cf. annexe 2). un premier classement des sites sélectionnés pourrait être établi en fonction de leur structure et de leurs objectifs. d’une part, se détachent de l’ensemble de véritables méthodes en ligne qui proposent aux internautes un apprentissage progressif et structuré en modules. c’est le cas de la méthode thaïlandaise bonjour de thaïlande (s9), consacrée à l’apprentissage du français du tourisme, ainsi que des sites comment vont les affaires? (s5) et make french your business (s7), élaborés dans le cadre des programmes éducatifs de radio france internationale et de la bbc. d’autre part, les sites restants constituent plutôt des banques de ressources pour l’apprentissage et l’enseignement du français des affaires et du tourisme. il s’agit du site le français en affaires, élaboré sous le partenariat de différentes institutions publiques et privées du québec (s2), du site de la section de langues de la ccip (s3) et du complément en ligne de la méthode au format papier pour parler affaires (s4). il faut y ajouter les rubriques sur le français des affaires des portails franc-parler (s1) et bonjour de france (s6), de même que le chapitre “français des affaires” de bibliolangues, une ressource conçue essentiellement pour les enseignants. les différences entre ces deux types de sites –méthodes didactiques et portails de ressources pédagogiques–, ainsi que leurs carences et avantages respectifs, imposent leur utilisation complémentaire dans le cadre d’un apprentissage autonome ou d’un enseignement soutenu par les tic. au total, nous avons retenu neuf sites consacrés, pour la plupart, à l’apprentissage du français commercial et des affaires4. seul le site s9 envisage en exclusivité le français du tourisme, bien que certains sites comme s3 offrent aussi des activités pour apprendre un certain nombre d’aspects de la langue de ce secteur. 3. évaluation catégorielle de la sitographie retenue l’analyse des moyennes obtenues dans chaque catégorie pour l’ensemble des sites (cf. fig.1) révèle, d’abord, que les contenus linguistiques et le travail des différentes compétences (orale et écrite) ne sont pas abondants, même si, en général, les moyennes indiquent une présence acceptable de ces deux éléments. à cela s’ajoute, dans l’ensemble des sites, l’absence d’activités proposées pour consolider les acquis grammaticaux des usagers, ainsi qu’un manque de prévision concernant la disparité des niveaux susceptibles de caractériser le public visé par ces sites, c’est-à-dire, les apprenants en ligne. le fos: une evaluation des ressources ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 113 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 113 face à ces carences, les moyennes d’ensemble reflètent également l’insertion de nombreux contenus socioprofessionnels et l’abondance d’éléments de soutien pour l’apprentissage des éléments linguistiques (documents authentiques, glossaires, synthèses, etc.). cependant, cela ne suffit pas à compenser le déséquilibre que nous avons constaté, en général, entre l’apprentissage de savoir-faire professionnels et de savoir-faire communicatifs. l’analyse des moyennes catégorielles relève aussi certaines déficiences concernant la conception web des sites. tel est le cas de leur performance interactive (existence de forums, d’intervention tutoriale, etc.), leur fréquence d’actualisation, le nombre de langues d’interface ou la diversité et pertinence des composantes iconographiques. d’un point de vue plus général, une prise en compte des moyennes calculées pour l’ensemble des deux grands groupes de catégories —conception du site et contenus de formation5— nous permet de mieux saisir les forces et les faiblesses des sites retenus dans notre analyse. les résultats obtenus mettent en évidence d’autres disparités présentées par la plupart des sites concernant l’intégration des composantes de conception web (lisibilité, graphisme, options de téléchargement, etc.) et les contenus linguistiques et professionnels. n. rodríguez pedreira et valcárcel riveiro 114 ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 figure 1. moyennes par catégories. 0.78 1.11 1.11 1.33 1.441.44 1.56 1.89 2.22 2.44 2.56 2.672.67 2.89 2.89 3.44 3.67 0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 p c lu e g t d n d c i o c b s c l2 p v c l1 p i q r r i a c l c s n c 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 114 d’une part, une première catégorie de sites semble accorder plus d’importance aux facteurs de composition. il s’agit là des méthodes en ligne proposées par les compagnies de radiotélévision publiques (s5, s7), mais aussi des sites de ressources conçus pour l’apprentissage autonome (s1, s4, s3). par rapport à ces derniers, les méthodes en ligne de rfi et de la bbc présentent un décalage plus marqué, leurs moyennes de contenus restant bien en dessous de 2. d’autre part, une seconde catégorie de sites proposant des ressources pour l’enseignement/apprentissage (s2, s6, s8) privilégient les contenus linguistiques et/ou professionnels de façon plus ou moins significative. cependant, le décalage entre les deux types d’éléments semble être ici moins fort que dans le groupe précédent. finalement, seule la méthode en ligne du français du tourisme (s9) présente un équilibre satisfaisant entre les éléments de conception web et les contenus linguistiques et professionnels. 4. la performance mise en diagramme de dispersion: un point de vue plus nuancé dans une première approche de notre travail (rodríguez pedreira et valcárcel riveiro, 2005), nous avons établi un classement des sites retenus en fonction de leur score moyen pour l’ensemble des catégories (cf. fig. 2). les disparités enregistrées entre les catégories de conception web et le fos: une evaluation des ressources ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 115 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 s7 s5 s8 s1 s6 s9 s2 s3 s4 score moyen 1.41 1.65 1.82 1.82 2.29 2.35 2.47 2.59 2.71 score conception 2 3 1.6 2 2 2.4 2 2.6 3.4 score contenus 1.2 1.3 1.9 1.9 2.3 2.4 2.6 2.3 2.5 s7 s5 s8 s1 s6 s9 s2 s3 s4 figure 2. score moyen par site et par classes catégorielles. 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 115 celles se rapportant aux contenus de formation nous ont poussés à les intégrer conjointement, afin de fournir une analyse plus nuancée conduisant à optimaliser l’utilisation des ressources disponibles en ligne. la mise en diagramme de dispersion des moyennes obtenues pour chaque groupe de catégories –contenus et conception– (cf. fig. 3) nous permet de vérifier les déséquilibres qui existent dans chaque site au niveau de leur performance. cette mise en diagramme a été effectuée en étalant les moyennes de conception web sur l’axe y et le score en contenus de formation sur l’axe x. pour chaque groupe de catégories, nous avons considéré comme “insuffisants” les sites présentant des moyennes en dessous de 2 et comme “suffisants” ou acceptables ceux dont la moyenne était égale ou supérieure à ce chiffre. cela nous a permis de diviser le diagramme de dispersion en quatre zones qui expriment quatre degrés de performance. ainsi, les sites intégrés dans l’aire située en haut à droite obtiennent des moyennes égales ou supérieures à 2 dans les deux grandes catégories. sur le diagramme, ils se trouvent donc dans une zone de suffisance. il s’agit de deux sites de ressources (s4 et s3), qui enregistrent aussi les meilleurs scores moyens, et de la méthode du français du tourisme (s9). les sites s6 et s2 sont également inclus dans cette zone mais ils sont placés sur la ligne se trouvant n. rodríguez pedreira et valcárcel riveiro 116 ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 contenus s 4 s 5 s 7 s 8 s 1 s 3 s 9 m s 6 s 2 déséquilibre suffisant insuffisant déséquilibre figure 3. performance et déséquilibres de la sitographie retenue. 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 116 dans la limite du déséquilibre favorable aux contenus de formation. de ce point de vue, ces sites, quoique acceptables selon les critères de notre analyse, seraient moins conseillables que s4 et s3. du côté opposé, le site placé dans le carré en bas à gauche (s8) présente des carences importantes dans les deux catégories, ce qui le rend le moins conseillable pour l’apprentissage autonome du français des affaires6. de leur part, les méthodes en ligne de rfi (s5) et de la bbc (s7) se trouvent dans la zone du déséquilibre favorable aux composantes de conception web. c’est aussi le cas de s1, le site de ressources franc-parler, qui se trouve, comme s7, sur la limite minimale de la suffisance des contenus de formation. enfin, quant à l’ensemble de la sitographie retenue, représentée par m sur la figure 3, ses moyennes la placent dans la zone de suffisance. 5. comment surmonter le déséquilibre entre contenus et conception? même si l’ensemble des ressources disponibles en ligne s’avère acceptable selon les critères retenus dans notre analyse, tous les sites, sauf s9, présentent des décalages plus ou moins appréciables en ce qui concerne l’équilibre entre conception web et contenus de formation. la question qui se pose alors est celle de savoir comment surmonter ces déséquilibres afin d’optimiser la performance des ressources en ligne pour l’enseignement/apprentissage du français des affaires et du tourisme. à notre avis, une utilisation complémentaire de celles-ci s’impose. pour y parvenir, il conviendrait peut-être de combiner les méthodes en ligne avec l’utilisation des ressources proposées dans les portails fos. dans ce sens, nous pensons qu’une bonne option pour le français des affaires serait celle de conjuguer l’utilisation de s5 et de s4. la méthode de rfi comment vont les affaires présente une conception web remarquable qui est accompagnée d’un bon traitement des composantes interculturelles ainsi que d’une progression acceptable des contenus de formation. le déficit observé pour ces derniers pourrait être compensé par les activités proposées sur le site pour parler affaires, complément en ligne d’une méthode au format papier. d’autres combinaisons sont également possibles, comme s7+s4 ou bien s5+s4+s3 si le but est de passer l’examen de la ccip. en ce qui concerne le français du tourisme, le site bonjour de thaïlande présente un bon équilibre entre contenus de formation et conception web, le fos: une evaluation des ressources ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 117 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 117 quoique les éléments de formation interculturelle n’aient été conçus que pour le public thaïlandais. à ce propos, l’élaboration d’un portail de ressources ciblant exclusivement le français du tourisme serait souhaitable. l’important étant qu’il puisse être capable de rassembler une riche mosaïque de compétences interculturelles susceptibles d’attirer des internautes étudiants issus de tous les coins du monde. (article reçu en octobre 2006) bibliographie dr nuria rodríguez pedreira est maître de conférences à l’université de santiago de compostela. elle est titulaire d’un doctorat en philologie française et travaille dans deux axes de recherches: la linguistique synchronique, en particulier dans les domaines sémantique et syntaxique, et le français de spécialité (fos). dr carlos valcárcel riveiro est professeur associé à l’université de santiago de compostela. il a fait son doctorat en philologie romane et actuellement ses deux lignes de recherche sont la géolinguistique, en particulier du domaine d’oïl, et le français sur objectifs spécifiques (fos). notes 1 c’est nous qui soulignons. 2 pour plus de détails, voir rodríguez pedreira et valcárcel riveiro (2005). 3 la grille dûment complétée figure en annexe 3. n. rodríguez pedreira et valcárcel riveiro 118 ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 cuq, j.-p. et i. gruca (2003). cours de didactique du français langue étrangère. grenoble: presses universitaires de grenoble. guyot-clément, c., j.-l. penfornis, p. le fort, s. le page et m. blanche (2003). les 500 sites internet. paris: belin. mangiante, j.-m. et c. parpette (2004). le français sur objectif spécifique: de l’analyse des besoins à l’élaboration d’un cours. paris: hachette. richer, j.-j. (2004). “pour une didactique spécialisée du français sur objectifs spécifiques”. point commun 22: 10-14. rodríguez pedreira, n. et c. valcárcel riveiro (2005). “fos et internet: ressources pédagogiques en français des affaires et du tourisme”, in curado, a., m. rico, e.m. domínguez, p. edwards, r. alejo et j.a. garrido (eds.), languages for academic and professional purposes in the 21st century university framework, 431-440. cáceres: universidad de extremadura. tauzin, b. (2003). “outils et pratiques du fos dans l’enseignement, la formation d’enseignants, les examens et l’édition”. table ronde in “y-a-t-il un français sans objectifs(s) spécifique(s)?”. les cahiers de l’asdifle 14: 71-83. 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 118 4 afin d’éviter les répétitions, nous citerons les sites analysés par des codes (s1, s2, s3, etc.). ceux-ci, ainsi que les sites auxquels ils se rapportent, sont précisés dans la section “sitographie”, à la fin de ce travail. 5 cf. annexes 2 et 3. 6 en ce qui concerne le score moyen, ce site n’occupe pourtant pas le dernier rang, mais les méthodes d’auto-apprentissage en ligne s7 et s5 (vid. fig. 2). d’autre part, il faut rappeler que s8 a été plutôt conçu pour les enseignants. annexe 1. sitographie le fos: une evaluation des ressources ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 119 s1 : franc-parler http://www.francparler.org/parcours/fos.htm http://www.francparler.org/parcours/affaires.htm http://www.francparler.org/parcours/tourisme.htm s2 : le français en affaires au quebec et en amerique du nord http://www.francais-affaires.com/ s3 : centre de langue de la chambre de commerce et d’industrie de paris http://www.fda.ccip.fr/ s4 : pour parler affaires (chancerel) http://www.chancerel.com/pourparler/ s5 : comment vont les affaires? (radio france internationale) http://www.rfi.fr/fichiers/langue_francaise/languefr/cva_espagnol/ 20cursos.asp s6 : bonjour de france http://www.bonjourdefrance.com/index/indexfranaff.htm s7 : make french your business (bbc) http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/languages/french/business/index .shtml s8: bibliolangues (français des affaires) http://bibliolangues.free.fr/conception/fda/page1activites.htm s9: français du tourisme (bonjour de thaïlande) http://www.thaicyberu.go.th/officialtcu/main/french_course/mai nmenu.asp 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 119 annexe 2. grille d’analyse utilisée n. rodríguez pedreira et valcárcel riveiro 120 ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 catégo ries* nul 0 insuffisant 1 moyen 2 bon 3 excellent 4 nc plus de 25’’ plus de 12’’ plus de 6’’ plus de 4’’ immédiat pi embrouillée vague simple aérée développée lu monolingue en français bilingue (français/le autre que l’anglais) bilingue (français / anglais) trilingue plurilingue ri disproportionnée inadéquate adéquate complète exhaustive s t r u c t u r e ,p r é s e n t a t io n e t c o n c e p t io n td absent rare suffisant considérable abondant pc statique exceptionnel régulier fréquent permanent cl absent rare suffisant considérable abondant eg absent rare suffisant considérable abondant cl absent rare suffisant considérable abondant acl absent rare suffisant considérable abondant nd inexistant vague 2 niveaux 3 niveaux 3 niveaux échelonnés bs absent rare suffisant considérable abondant qr pauvre/ absent sommaire/ rare conventionnel/suffisant original/ considérable innovateur/ abondant ci absent rare suffisant considérable abondant c o n t e n u s cs absent rare suffisant considérable abondant p u b li c v is é pv non explicité amateurs étudiants en fp etudiants et enseignants de fp etudiants et enseignants de fp et professionnels c o n t a c t s e t f o r u m s oc absents restreints et payants libres et gratuits payants et guidés libres et guidés * nc (navigation et chargement); pi (présentation de l’information); lu (langues utilisées); ri (recherche de l’information); td (téléchargement des documents); pc (processus de création); cl (contenus linguistiques); eg (exercices de grammaire); cl (compétences linguistiques); acl (autres contenus linguistiques); nd (niveau de difficulté); bs (bibliographie et sitographie); qr (qualités remarquables); ci (contenus iconographiques); cs (contenus socioculturels); pv (public visé); oc (options de communication). 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 120 annexe 3. score des sites pour chaque catégorie d’analyse le fos: une evaluation des ressources ibérica 13 [2007]: 109-122 121 catégories s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6 s7 s8 s9 m nc 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 3,67 pi 2 2 3 4 2 3 2 2 4 2,67 lu 0 2 0 2 3 0 2 0 1 1,11 ri 3 2 3 4 3 3 2 2 4 2,89 s t r u c t u r e ,p r é s e n t a t io n e t c o n c e p t io n td 1 0 3 3 3 0 0 0 2 1,33 pc 3 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0,78 cl 1 2 3 4 3 3 3 3 1 2,56 eg 0 3 0 4 0 3 0 0 0 1,11 cl 0 2 4 3 1 3 2 2 3 2,22 acl 3 3 3 4 2 2 2 3 4 2,89 nd 0 2 2 1 1 4 1 1 1 1,44 bs 4 4 2 2 0 0 0 2 3 1,89 qr 3 3 2 4 2 2 1 3 4 2,67 ci 1 1 1 1 0 3 0 2 4 1,44 c o n t e n u s cs 4 4 4 2 4 3 3 3 4 3,44 public visé pv 0 4 4 4 0 4 2 2 2 2,44 contacts et forums oc 2 2 4 0 0 2 0 2 2 1,56 moyenne par sites 1,82 2,47 2,59 2,71 1,65 2,29 1,41 1,82 2,35 06 rodriguez.qxp 11/4/07 16:46 página 121 iberica 13 ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper is based on the premise that the analysis of company discourse from the perspective of english for specific purposes contributes to the discovery of a specialized culture and bears witness to the values of a given period. previous studies have shown that the media and the public react differently to environmental and technological controversies in the united states and in the united kingdom. it is thus relevant to assess how the specialized community formed by technological risk companies is impacted by the cultural context. this paper focuses on the specialized discourse produced by two american companies involved in agricultural biotechnology and oil production – monsanto and chevron, respectively – in specific sociocultural contexts. more precisely, their british and american websites are analyzed so as to determine how their form and content are influenced by public concerns. differences in form and content between the american and british websites can be said to reflect specific corporate responses to the controversy in different contexts. company discourse should thus be considered as a reflection of social trends, as the rhetorical strategies implemented by monsanto and chevron vary depending on the local audience. it is assumed that this particular aspect of company discourse reflects the specificity of the discourse community formed by technological risk companies within the corporate world. keywords: discourse analysis, company discourse, web genres, specialized languages, technological risk companies. monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages in the us and the uk: corporate discourse as a reflection of social trends? fanny domenec université sorbonne-paris iv (france) fanny.domenec@u-paris2.fr 51 ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 fanny domenec resumen l o s s i tio s w e b de m o ns an to y c h ev ron e n l o s e s ta do s u n id os y e n e l re i no u nid o : ¿ e l d is c urs o e m pr e s ar ia l c o mo te s ti g o d e l a s p re oc up ac i on e s d e l p úb l i c o? este estudio parte de la premisa de que el análisis del discurso empresarial desde la perspectiva que ofrece el ife contribuye al descubrimiento de una cultura especializada al tiempo que da fe de los valores de una época determinada. diversos estudios anteriores han demostrado que los medios de información y el público reaccionan de manera diferente en los estados unidos y en el reino unido ante los conflictos de naturaleza tecnológica. por tanto, resulta pertinente estudiar el impacto del contexto cultural sobre la comunidad especializada constituida por las denominadas empresas de riesgo tecnológico. este trabajo se centra en el discurso especializado que se produce en el seno de dos empresas americanas dedicadas al negocio del petróleo y de la biotecnología (chevron y monsanto) en contextos culturales específicos. en concreto, trata de analizar los sitios web británicos y americanos de estas dos polémicas empresas con el fin de establecer los efectos de las preocupaciones del público sobre la estructura y el contenido de los sitios. las diferencias en la forma y el contenido identificadas en los sitios americanos y británicos permiten caracterizar el comportamiento de una comunidad profesional directamente concernida por la controversia. así pues, habría que considerar el discurso de empresas como el reflejo de fenómenos de sociedad. las estrategias retóricas utilizadas por monsanto y chevron muestran una variación que obedece a los usuarios locales al tiempo que atestiguan la evolución de las preocupaciones relativas a la controversia tecnológica y medioambiental. nuestra hipótesis es que esta especificidad del discurso corporativo refleja la particularidad de la comunidad discursiva formada por la industria del sector de riesgo tecnológico, en el seno del mundo de la empresa. palabras clave: análisis del discurso, discurso corporativo, géneros web, lenguas especializadas, empresa de riesgo tecnológico. introduction this paper focuses on the american and british home pages of two american multinationals involved in agricultural biotechnology and oil production – monsanto and chevron, respectively. providing virtually universal access, corporate home pages (chps) represent a capital showcase for a company’s identity. they are also flexible tools that can be tailored to particular communication needs. following swales (1990), we assume that a 52 single discourse community can display various communicative purposes within a single genre, by adapting it to public expectations. indeed, it seems that adaptation to the local context is a major challenge for oil and agricultural biotechnology firms whose activities are perceived differently in europe and in the united states. consequently, this study aims to compare the form, content and rhetorical strategies of the british and american home pages of monsanto and chevron to assess the impact of the local context on corporate discourse.1 monsanto’s homepages are presented in appendices 1 and 2, respectively. the homepages for chevron’s websites are presented in appendices 3 and 4. this paper is organised as follows: the first section defines the category of “technological risk companies” within the corporate world. a review of the literature on web pages and their function in corporate communication is then presented. next, the methodology used for this study is explained. results regarding the specific form and content of monsanto’s and chevron’s american and british websites are included and a discussion of the findings concludes the paper. context: “technological risk companies” and legitimacy issues the phrase “technological risk companies” does not refer to a standard category. though the very concept of risk has become mainstream in corporate management literature, it seems that agricultural biotechnology and oil companies combine different types of risks, which makes them specific within the corporate world: beyond the financial risks induced by investment in state-of-the-art research and development projects, these industries are involved in activities that raise concerns regarding their impact on human health or the environment: monsanto’s implication in genetically modified organisms (gmos) feeds into the controversy over non-genetically modified crop contamination and subsequent impacts on biodiversity and human health. among others, chevron has recently made the headlines for environmental damage in ecuador or the development of “hydraulic fracturing”.2 one could argue that other sectors, namely the pharmaceutical industry, are also involved in potentially polemical technological innovations. however, chevassus-au-louis (2007) and hommel and godard (2002) have monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 53 underlined a different risk/benefit ratio for the pharmaceutical and the seed industry: indeed, the activities of the former are primarily conceived as curing diseases and hence meant to bring “tangible” progress, which is not obvious for the latter. similarly, several environmental organizations present unconventional resources and fossil fuels as unnecessary and replaceable, calling for the development of alternative energies. one should also distinguish between “risk” companies and “sin” companies (isani, 2010: 108). it is now publicly acknowledged that the effects of the tobacco, alcohol or gambling industry are harmful, which explains that “responsible gaming”, “responsible smoking” and “responsible drinking” are now included in the companies’ discourse. in contrast to this public acknowledgement, oil and agricultural biotechnology companies strive to prove critics wrong and regain public confidence by presenting their activities as harmless and even beneficial to mankind. the efforts to counter negative perceptions account for the inclusion of legitimacy strategies in monsanto’s and chevron’s communication. in the last decades, the “legitimacy theory” has become a major tool to analyze corporate disclosures (campbell, craven & shrives, 2003; patten & crampton, 2004; branco & rodrigues, 2006). based on a “social contract”, the legitimacy theory implies that: (…) an institution must constantly meet the twin tests of legitimacy and relevance by demonstrating that society requires its services and that the groups benefiting from its rewards have society’s approval. (shocker & sethi, 1973: 97) following o’donovan (2002) and tilling (2004), former analyses (domenec 2009 & 2010) have underscored a “chronic” use of legitimating tools that could be specific to technological risk industries: though particular events have occasionally put monsanto and chevron under the spotlight, the polemic surrounding their activities primarily suggests a lingering trust deficit. for agricultural biotechnology and oil multinationals, regaining legitimacy consists in constantly reminding the public of the final purpose of their activities, that is to say, help to solve major problems for the world’s population – hunger or need for energy. potential environmental and sanitary risks are hence expected to be mitigated through the continuous reference to sustainable agriculture or sustainable energy production in corporate discourse, more specifically on the companies’ websites. fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7654 corporate websites and corporate communication: background literature several studies have focused on the characteristics of webgenres that have considerably renewed traditional genres of discourse. indeed, beyond typical formal and structural features, websites are also shaped by “functionality”, described by shepherd and watters (2004: 239) as “the capabilities afforded by this new medium [the world wide web]”. the “navigation tools or links that branch off the website as a whole” (askehave & nielsen, 2005: 128) are the most obvious examples of website functionality that can be used to serve specific communicative purposes. other studies have focused on the henceforth fundamental role of corporate websites in corporate communication strategy. some authors have underscored the advertising and marketing content of these communication tools (salam, rao & pegels, 1998; perry & bodkin, 2000). however, [c]ompanies have employed website technology for an increasing number of purposes. these have included marketing, selling (lymer 1999), reporting (xiao et al. 2002; marston 2003) and, in a recent study (adams & frost 2003), reputation management was cited as a possible function. (campbell & beck, 2004: 100) in the conclusion to their paper devoted to “restorative websites”, campbell and beck (2004: 100) suggested addressing “disclosure strategies for reputation management where (…) gaining or maintaining reputational or social legitimacy might be a prominent motive”. in fact, it seems that unlike the one-shot “responses to public allegations of specific ethical malpractice or faux pas” (campbell & beck, 2004: 100) analyzed in former studies, the legitimizing stance is constitutive of technological risk companies’ everyday communication on the web. chevron and monsanto have a distinct website for their british audience, hence the importance of the concept of localization for this paper. previous studies devoted to website localization mainly focused on translation issues: sandrini (2005: 131) defines the concept of localization as “adapting a product to a particular locale”, the latter being characterized as “a group of people who share a language, a writing system and other properties which may require a separate version of the product”. similarly, perrault and gregory (2000: 229) contend that “[b]y far, the most prevalent topic in website globalization is that of language and translation”, while adams and monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 55 frost (2004: 37) associate websites with “a unique set of communication problems with respect to language barriers”. however, it seems that these conceptions of localization omit potential differences among communities speaking the same language, especially english, as [t]he strength of english lies in the fact that it does not represent just one culture or one way of life alone, at least not in its present form; it is being used as a vehicle for communicating several cultures, several ways of conducting the way of science and technology, discussing issues and negotiating realities in trade, management, commerce, economics and politics. (bhatia, 1997: 315) indeed, in the united kingdom and in the united states, technological risk companies are confronted to various public reactions to their activities. levy and kolk (2002: 280) accounted for “divergent pressures on [oil] companies headquartered in different countries”: one possible explanation for the differences among the oil companies is thus that climate strategies are formulated in the context of cognitive frames and regulatory systems reflecting home country environments. it is widely believed, for example, that european consumers and regulators are more concerned than their american counterparts about the natural environment, and are more likely to make economic sacrifices for environmental benefits. biotechnology companies have also had to face different public reactions in europe and in the united states: in 2008, patrick geffray3, former chief executive of monsanto france, acknowledged “two different perceptions”, which he attributed to “prejudice against american food” and “doubts concerning regulatory authorities”. botelho and kurtz (2008: 22) underlined the impact of news coverage of biotechnology in the usa and in the uk on public acceptance or rejection of the issue. in this paper, we would like to extend the concept of localization to cultural, and not exclusively linguistic, criteria. monsanto’s and chevron’s “.com” websites are “the most likely url used by an interested stakeholder” (campbell & beck, 2004: 104) and hence represent both american and global reputational websites. by contrast, “.co.uk” websites are specifically targeted to british stakeholders. we have chosen to focus more specifically on the chps of the websites: defined as “personal or organizational information plus links to other pages reflecting the subject’s interests that are intended to introduce the person or organization to the world and to fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7656 facilitate further contact” (crowston & williams 2000: 208), the chps constitute the very first presentation of companies. as such, they are fundamental for the global corporate reputation. chps have been characterized by shepherd and watters (2004: 237) as “web pages describing the interests and ambitions of companies whose purpose for existing is to make profit through selling some product or services”. santini (2006: 35-37) mentioned an “easy” or “stable” web genre that can be “unambiguously perceived” by users. indeed, luzón (2002: 52) identified the most frequent elements found on chps: (…) copyright information, legal notices/ terms of use/ online privacy statement, positive announcements and news headings related to the company, links to corporate news and information and economic information about the company, showcase, adverts of new products, “choose a country” feature, e-mail contact, additional information about the company (training, events, seminars, jobs), offer of free of charge products and services. askehave and nielsen (2005: 124) also underscored a highly specific hybrid purpose of chps, characterized by promotional and informational features: (...) the homepage (…) displays an interesting mixture of promotional features intertwined with content information where for example pictures, sound, music and animation are combined with enticing summaries of web site contents to make the user stay and explore the site (…) we often see the following characteristics of newspaper discourse on the homepage as well: small summaries, key words, catchy headlines, tables, frames, attentionseeking photos and information value attached to the placement of elements (e.g. the inverted pyramid format and given information on the left and new information on the right). admittedly, monsanto’s and chevron’s corporate home pages include stable features. yet, they do not seem to serve a uniquely informational or promotional purpose as they may also represent major legitimization tools for risk companies. the questions raised in this paper are thus the following ones: to what extent do chevron’s and monsanto’s home pages display long-term reputation management, aimed to legitimize the company’s activities? do the strategies implemented on the chps vary depending on the target audience of the website? monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 57 method to answer these questions, this paper relies on the field of english for specific purposes and builds on the work undertaken by askehave and nielsen (2005: 120), who suggested “an extension of the swalesian genre model that takes the digital characteristics into account”. the case study first focuses on website access using the google search engine which is the most commonly used search engine (pan et al., 2007). we assume that the analysis of the quick links and short descriptions that appear in the search engine can provide useful insight into the companies’ presentation on the internet. so, we entered the names of monsanto and chevron, first on <www.google.com>4, the international version of the search engine, then on <www.google.co.uk>, the british version, to see whether the user had access to the same website, and to compare the information available before accessing the website. for this analysis, the short description and quick links to monsanto’s and chevron’s websites were compared with a sample of six other companies: microsoft, apple, johnson and johnson, wells fargo and company, at&t, pfizer. these firms were chosen because they frequently appear in the top ten companies of the ftse4good index. as such, we assume that they do not suffer from the same image deficit as technological risk companies. differences in corporate communication could thus provide an insight into the specific handling of environmental and technological controversies by the biotechnology and oil industry. the second part of the analysis focuses on the form and content of the british and international home pages. we focused on the general layout of the chps and the distribution of visual and textual elements, for example pictures, titles, short summaries and texts to characterize the global structure of the chps. “functionality” was also taken into account to examine the organization of information through tabs and hyperlinks. regarding the content of chps, this study relies on the elements identified by luzón (2002) and askehave and nielsen (2005). more specifically, the rhetorical values attached to visual (logo, colors, layout, pictures, photos and main tabs) and textual elements (catchy headlines, small summaries, and all the words to be found on the homepage) were studied. the visual elements were classified according to their symbolic value in the context of the environmental and technological controversy. the textual elements were classified according to their main communicative purpose. four main categories were identified: fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7658 information, which is typical of home page content; addresses to the reader, which echo the interactivity provided by web tools; storytelling, when text features the stories of “real people”; and controversy, when referring to polemics involving the company. the same operation was conducted for the six reference websites. finally, the antconc software was used in order to determine potential differences in the terminology used on the british and american websites: the “word list” and “keyword list”5 functions allowed us to check whether some terms were preferred in specific geographical contexts. results specific access to monsanto’s and chevron’s global and local websites the search for “monsanto” and “chevron” on <www.google.com> provided direct access to the global websites of the companies. below the link to the website, a short description of the companies and a selection of hyperlinks were included: <www.monsanto.com> if there were one word to explain what monsanto is about, it would have to be farmers. it is our purpose to help them meet the needs of a growing population ... show stock quote for mon careers – investors – products – contact us <www.chevron.com> chevron works to meet the world’s growing demand for energy by exploring for oil and natural gas; refining and marketing gasoline; producing chemicals and ... show stock quote for cvx careers contact gifts & credit cards fuels & stations find a chevron station our businesses investors chevron worldwide though there are more hyperlinks to chevron’s website, the main entries are similar and target specific audiences: future employees (“careers”), investors, monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 59 customers (“our products” for monsanto and “fuels and stations” for chevron), various stakeholders (“contact”). the main entries correspond to what was found for the six reference websites (see appendix 5), yet, differences in the short description were highlighted by the comparative analysis: for the six reference companies, the short descriptions are purely informational, while chevron’s and monsanto’s focus on the argument of global demand to justify the need for the companies’ activities. in addition, the use of a specific corporate website for the uk seems marginal in the reference corpus, as only pfizer has a distinct website. the template for <www.pfizer.com> and <www.pfizer.co.uk> is actually similar, which seems to underscore a strategy of globalization, rather than localization. by contrast, access to monsanto’s and chevron’s websites differs when using <www.google.co.uk>: the british version of monsanto’s chp is completely independent from the global website and there is only one “entry gate” – the link to the homepage6 . the general description of the company differs from that provided on <www.google.com> through the focus on innovation. however, the motive of the farmer and the argument of global demand echo the short description of the global website: monsanto is an agricultural company. farmers around the world use our innovative products to address on-farm challenges and reduce agriculture’s overall … access to chevron’s british website evolved significantly over the period of this study: in august 2011, the url for chevron’s british website was <www.texaco.co.uk>. the use of the name texaco is specific to the uk: chevron and texaco merged in 2001, forming the chevron texaco company. however, since 2006, the company has been known as chevron corporation, texaco representing only a brand of the company7. there is only one direct link to the website, and a specific short description, totally different from the one found on <www.google.com>: texaco in the uk. among the top ten north sea producers, the company is the fourth largest petrol retailer in britain (...) welcome to chevron in the uk … the focus on the companies’ activities corresponds to the traditional template of short descriptions, also found in the reference corpus. however, the choice of “texaco” for the british website raises the issue of brand perception, brand being defined as “what the consumer thinks and feels and visualizes when he or she sees the brand’s symbol or name” (batra, myers & fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7660 aaker, 2009: 333). for a british audience, the company’s website logically refers to the “everyday brand”, regardless of financial mergers. the localization strategy is all the more visible in the reference to the company’s rank on the european market. interestingly however, the short description of <www.texaco.co.uk> specifies “welcome to chevron in the uk”, suggesting a hybrid strategy of globalization and localization. layout and structure: the importance of symbolic images on the global chps analysis of the textual and visual content of the chps also reveals local differences in terms of structure, through dissimilar uses of words, sentences and images (see table 1). the most obvious difference between the british and global websites lies in their layout: the former feature a “vertical” layout – with hyperlinks included alongside long chunks of text – while the latter exhibit a horizontal layout – with series of images and illustrations of various sizes which convey an impression of dynamism. another striking feature of global websites is the limited number of sentences and the preference for one-word tabs, triggering non-linear reading: (...) the hypertext system places certain constraints on the reading pattern, which results in a new kind of reading referred to as “hyper-reading” (…) hypertext reading [is] regarded as non-linear (where the reader filters, skims and scans the text), and traditional text reading [is] regarded as linear. (askehave & nielsen, 2005: 126) the amount and choice of pictures also differ between global and british chps. apart from two relatively small pictures of a frog and a leaf on <www.monsanto.co.uk> to illustrate the issue of biodiversity, there are very few pictures on british websites. the symbolic motive of the green leaf is also featured at the bottom of chevron’s british home page and the monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 61 monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): …-… “texaco” for the british website raises the issue of brand perception, brand being defined as “what the consumer thinks and feels and visualizes when he or she sees the brand's symbol or name” (batra, myers & aaker, 2009: 333). for a british audience, it seems logical that the company’s website should refer to the “everyday brand”, regardless of financial mergers. the localization strategy is all the more visible in the company’s rank on the european market. interestingly however, the short description of <www.texaco.co.uk> specifies “welcome to chevron in the uk”, suggesting a hybrid strategy of globalization and localization. layout and structure: the importance of symbolic images on the global chps analysis of the textual and visual content of the chps also reveals local differences in terms of structure, through dissimilar uses of words, sentences and images (see table 1). website words sentences pictures www.texaco.co.uk 228 10 1 www.chevron.com 143 4 7 www.monsanto.co.uk 833 27 2 www.monsanto.com 342 5 7 table 1. numbers of words, sentences and images on the four websites studied. the most obvious difference between the british and global websites lies in their layout: the former feature a “vertical” layout – with hyperlinks included alongside long chunks of text – while the latter exhibit a horizontal layout – with series of images and illustrations of various sizes which convey an impression of dynamism. another striking feature of global websites is the limited number of sentences and the preference for one-word tabs, triggering non-linear reading: (...) the hypertext system places certain constraints on the reading pattern, which results in a new kind of reading referred to as “hyper-reading”. (…) hypertext reading [is] “regarded as non-linear (where the reader filters, skims and scans the text), and traditional text reading [is] regarded as linear. (askehave & nielsen, 2005: 126) the amount and choice of pictures also differ between global and british chps. apart from two relatively small pictures of a frog and a leaf on <www.monsanto.co.uk> to illustrate the issue of biodiversity, there are very few pictures on british websites. the symbolic motive of the green leaf is also featured at the bottom of chevron’s british home page and the hyperlink leads to a page entitled “save more than fuel”, where users from various countries can find advice regarding fuel consumption. not only pictures are more numerous on global websites, but they also highlight different aspects: global websites exhibit pictures focusing on individuals – three on <www.monsanto.com>, five on hyperlink leads to a page entitled “save more than fuel”, where users from various countries can find advice regarding fuel consumption. not only pictures are more numerous on global websites, but they also highlight different aspects: global websites exhibit pictures focusing on individuals – three on <www.monsanto.com>, five on <www.chevron.com>. in the latter case, these pictures are a direct echo to chevron’s motto “the human element”. global websites also celebrate innovative products emphasizing technological innovation. for example, on <www.monsanto.com>, four pictures out of eight represent seeds, symbolizing the technological innovation at the core of the company’s activities. similarly, chevron’s global chp includes two pictures centred on modern techniques for energy production and exploration. interestingly, as opposed to the green leaf hyperlink found on its british website, chevron’s global website offers the image of a car as a hyperlink to the page “save more than fuel”. the choice of pictures representing people who benefit from their products and innovations seems to exemplify the legitimacy stance adopted by the two companies on their global websites. textual content: specific communicative purposes depending on the context beyond a dissimilar visual content, the analysis of the catchy headlines and small summaries also reveals different communicative purposes on the global and local websites (see table 2). out of the four categories presented in the method section – information, addresses to the reader, storytelling, controversy – “controversy” appears as specific to technological risk companies in specific contexts: frequent references to “opinions” and “concerns” were found on <www.monsanto.co.uk>, while the home page of <www.monsanto.com> features a tab “news and views”, which includes a section “issues and answers”. as regards chevron, controversy is restricted to the american home page: the bottom right of <www.chevron.com> is devoted to the ecuador trial in which chevron has been involved for more than a decade but this issue is not mentioned on <www.texaco.co.uk>. fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7662 fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): …-… <www.chevron.com>. in the latter case, these pictures are a direct echo to chevron’s motto “the human element”. global websites also celebrate innovative products emphasizing technological innovation. for example, on <www.monsanto.com>, four pictures out of eight represent seeds, symbolizing the technological innovation at the core of the company’s activities. similarly, chevron’s global chp includes two pictures centred on modern techniques for energy production and exploration. interestingly, as opposed to the green leaf hyperlink found on its british website, chevron’s global website offers the image of a car as a hyperlink to the page “save more than fuel”. the choice of pictures representing people who benefit from their products and innovations seems to exemplify the legitimacy stance adopted by the two companies on their global websites. textual content: specific communicative purposes depending on the context beyond a dissimilar visual content, the analysis of the catchy headlines and small summaries also reveals different communicative purposes on the global and local websites (see table 2). out of the four categories presented in the method section – information, addresses to the reader, storytelling, controversy – “controversy” appears as specific to technological risk companies in specific contexts: frequent references to “opinions” and “concerns” were found on <www.monsanto.co.uk>, while the home page of <www.monsanto.com> features a tab “news and views”, which includes a section “issues and answers”. as regards chevron, controversy is restricted to the american home page: the bottom right of <www.chevron.com> is devoted to the ecuador trial in which chevron has been involved for more than a decade but this issue is not mentioned on <www.texaco.co.uk>. website information storytelling reader address controversy www.texaco.co.uk x x x x www.chevron.com x x x x www.monsanto.co.uk x x x x www.monsanto.com x x table 2. textual elements in monsanto’s and chevron’s american and british chps. hence, we may suggest that risk companies do not have a global communication strategy regarding polemical issues, but adapt their discourse depending on the target audience and the impact of the controversy. indeed, though dissimilar, the communication strategies identified on the chps could reflect the overwhelming importance of the environmental and technological controversies in monsanto’s and chevron’s specialized discourse. the neutral tone and the choice of the texaco brand for chevron’s british website may illustrate a strategy of distancing from the company’s upstream operations (for example, exploration and production of oil and gas). by contrast, the explicit acknowledgement of the hence, we may suggest that risk companies do not have a global communication strategy regarding polemical issues, but adapt their discourse depending on the target audience and the impact of the controversy. indeed, though dissimilar, the communication strategies identified on the chps could reflect the overwhelming importance of the environmental and technological controversies in monsanto’s and chevron’s specialized discourse. the neutral tone and the choice of the texaco brand for chevron’s british website may illustrate a strategy of distancing from the company’s upstream operations (for example, exploration and production of oil and gas). by contrast, the explicit acknowledgement of the controversy on <www.monsanto.co.uk> underscores that the company takes into account public concerns and builds its communication strategy in response to these fears. the two american websites feature a more direct response to concerns related to their activities, through a specific hyperlink leading to a page where the company’s view on polemical issues is presented. lexical choices: specific terminology to refer to the companies’ activities in different contexts finally, the lexical analysis of the textual content of the chps also reveals important differences between the global and local websites. the keywords for <www.monsanto.co.uk> and for <www.texaco.co.uk> are presented in table 3 and table 4, respectively. to keep only the most relevant results, we focused on keywords with a minimum keyness of 4. personal pronouns and possessive adjectives were included as they pertain to the interactivity specific to web tools. on monsanto’s chps, the main differences lie in the terminology used to describe the company’s activities: on <www.monsanto.com>, no clear monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 63 monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): …-… controversy on <www.monsanto.co.uk> underscores that the company takes into account public concerns and builds its communication strategy on response to these fears. the two american websites feature a more direct response to concerns related to their activities, through a specific hyperlink leading to a page where the company’s view on polemical issues is presented. lexical choices: specific terminology to refer to the companies’ activities in different contexts finally, the lexical analysis of the textual content of the chps also reveals important differences between the global and local websites. keywords <www.monsanto.co.uk> and on <www.texaco.co.uk> are presented in table 3 and table 4, respectively. to keep only the most relevant results, we focused on keywords with a minimum keyness of 4. personal pronouns and possessive adjectives were included as they pertain to the interactivity specific to web tools. frequency keyness keyword frequency keyness keyword 13 14.949 biotechnology 5 11.810 is 10 11.499 biotech 5 11.810 uk 9 10.349 click 3 7.086 registered 9 10.349 crops 6 4.914 texaco 8 9.199 gm 2 4.724 england 7 8.049 here 2 4.724 its 7 8.049 uk 2 4.724 lubricant 13 6.478 about 2 4.724 move 4 4.600 site 2 4.724 name 4 4.600 you 2 4.724 petroleum table 3. keywords on <www.monsanto.co.uk> (reference corpus: <www.monsanto.com>) table 4. keywords on <www.texaco.co.uk> (reference corpus: <www.chevron.com>) on monsanto’s chps, the main differences lie in the terminology used to describe the company’s activities: on <www.monsanto.com>, no clear reference to biotechnology was found and the multinational is presented as an “agricultural company”, which leaves the polemical nature of biotechnology in the shadows. the words “agriculture” and “food” are used to refer to the company’s activities, but they are not associated with the adjectives “genetically modified” (“gm”), “genetically engineered” or “biotech”. on <www.monsanto.co.uk> however, the words “biotechnology”, “biotech” and “gm” were found 13, 10 and 8 times, respectively, which underscores a very different perspective on the company’s products. similarly, keywords for <www.texaco.co.uk> include “lubricants” and petroleum”, while <www.chevron.com> favours vaguer references to “energy”. such terminological choices suggest a more precise focus on the company’s project in the british context. another feature on chevron’s british chp is the recourse to impersonal references to the company through the frequent use of “its” or “be” in the third person. these choices stand in sharp contrast with the reference to biotechnology was found and the multinational is presented as an “agricultural company”, which leaves the polemical nature of biotechnology in the shadows. the words “agriculture” and “food” are used to refer to the company’s activities, but they are not associated with the adjectives “genetically modified” (“gm”), “genetically engineered” or “biotech”. on <www.monsanto.co.uk> however, the words “biotechnology”, “biotech” and “gm” were found 13, 10 and 8 times, respectively, which underscores a very different perspective on the company’s products. similarly, keywords for <www.texaco.co.uk> include “lubricants” and petroleum”, while <www.chevron.com> favours vaguer references to “energy”. such terminological choices suggest a more precise focus on the company’s project in the british context. another feature on chevron’s british chp is the recourse to impersonal references to the company through the frequent use of “its” or “be” in the third person. these choices stand in sharp contrast with the first-person adjective “our” found on <www.chevron.com>. it thus seems that the european context triggers a more neutral communication strategy, focused on information, rather than on interaction. discussion: the influence of the controversy on the generic features of chps industry-specific communicative needs: the hegemony of the market argument monsanto’s and chevron’s websites obviously represent “symbolic behaviours (…) to improve how the company is perceived” (hargis & watt, 2010: 77), which is not the case for the six ftse companies. on all four websites, the argument of global demand and community involvement echoes the “hegemony of the market” argument identified by kleinman and kloppenburg (1991: 432): the latter is described as a specific discursive element put forward by monsanto to promote its activities by presenting agricultural biotechnology as beneficial not only to the firm, but also to the community. indeed, frequent references to farmers, portrayed as needing the company’s technology, were found on <www.monsanto.com> (7 references) and on <www.monsanto.co.uk> (7 references). the reference to farmers underscores “alliances or affiliations with other businesses that have a fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7664 positive reputation” (hargis & watt, 2010: 79) and contributes to the “creat[ion] [of a] unique reputation”. similarly, the use of the name texaco in a british context suggests a positive local reputation linked to a specific corporate identity. the focus on the company’s involvement in “uk society” and “community” echoes the hegemony-of-the-market argument. on <www.chevron.com>, references to the adjective “human” and the verb “agree” were found five and four times, respectively, suggesting that the human motive is also a key communication tool for chevron through the slogan “human energy”. beyond the argument of global demand, other instances of a legitimization strategy were found on the four websites. the link to the “drive smarter” page is common to chevron’s american and british home pages, presenting the company as a responsible actor that shares public concerns regarding the environment. in addition, by focusing on consumers’ behaviour, these links may aim to distract attention from the company’s potential responsibility for pollution. the four homepages also insist on the companies’ community involvement, whether at a local or global level, justifying their presence worldwide. as such, they also aim to “consolidate the image of the sender” (askehave & nielsen, 2005: 130). country-specific strategies: the influence of website localization on chps the analysis also highlights specific local strategies, common to monsanto and chevron. the inclusion of social networks (facebook, twitter or youtube) is restricted to monsanto’s and chevron’s american home pages. this may indicate a deliberate effort to create a more personal relationship with the user, while the absence of social networks and of a search engine tool on the british websites causes them to be left with a more synoptic function. moreover, the use of pictures and references to people on <www.chevron.com> and, to a lesser extent on <www.monsanto.com>, adds an emotional dimension: these “real people” personalize the need for technological progress or explicitly state their satisfaction with the companies’ activities. the specific use of human figures contrasts with perry and bodkin’s (2000: 94) conclusions, who found that “[t]he component utilized most often was non-person, indicating that inanimate objects were pictured most often on the fortune 100 web sites”. the “human element” thus appears as a major visual perception tool on the american home pages –even if it is also highlighted in the textual content of monsanto’s british chp. monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 65 the focus on the “human element” on monsanto’s and chevron’s websites can be associated with the importance of storytelling in risk companies’ communication strategies: the testimonies of real people are used as emotional vectors to convince the user of the need for the company’s products. one notable exception, however, is the texaco website which does not refer to the “human energy” slogan or to specific individuals. the lexical analysis underscores specific communication strategies depending on the target audience. the more frequent use of “biotech[nology]” on the british website could be explained by the negative perception associated with the phrase “genetically modified”: in a document entitled “understanding consumer perceptions of food technology and sustainability” available on the ific (international food information council) website, terminology is described as a key factor affecting consumer attitudes toward food technology. “genetically modified”, “genetically engineered” or “genetically altered” are labelled as “negative phrases”, while “food biotechnology” or “genetically improved” are labelled as “better phrases”. the frequent occurrences of “biotech[nology]” on <www.monsanto.co.uk> seem to have a euphemistic function, enhanced by the absence of reference to technology on the global website. results also seem to indicate a different approach to the environmental and technological controversies: frequent references to “opinions” and “concerns” were found on <www.monsanto.co.uk>, featuring a reactive strategy. it seems that, confronted with widespread defiance regarding biotechnology in great britain, the company has used the local website as an “advocacy tool”. hence, it is presented as a pedagogical response to public concerns, as showed in the subtitle: “food biotechnology is a matter of opinions. monsanto believes you should hear them all”. though this acknowledgement does not seem necessary in the united states, where “consumers usually do not question the presence of gmos”8, the “news and views” hyperlink on <www.monsanto.com> actually gives access to a section “issues and answers” where monsanto “answer[s] questions that critics have levied against [the company]”9. similarly, it seems that chevron has decided to take a clear stance on the ecuador issue through the section “ecuador lawsuit” accessible from the global chp. the absence of reference to the trial on <www.texaco.co.uk> might be explained by the difference in branding, as the use of the texaco brand in the uk may distance the local branch from its parent company. these findings contrast fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7666 with the conclusions of campbell and beck (2004: 110) who identified not only “case-by-case”, but also “concealed” responses: companies did not make their responses (or presumably the fact that they had been accused of ‘sin’) immediately obvious to casual visitors to their websites. interested visitors usually had to ‘click around’ to find the company’s discussion of the subjects in question. (…) this finding, although perhaps not surprising, indicates that unless a visitor wishes to know specifically about the ‘sin’, he or she may visit and leave the website without knowing anything about it. indeed, results suggest that technological risk companies have openly integrated the controversy in their operational communication, despite a specific handling of the environmental and technological controversies depending on the target audience. the distribution of hyperlinks on the chps illustrates different purposes. containing fewer hyperlinks, <www.texaco.co.uk> is designed as an informational document to be used in a “reading mode”. as such, it provides “a condensation of the most important information on the site and serves as a swift, brief, and scannable site introduction” (askehave & nielsen, 2005: 130). conversely, the global home pages and that of monsanto uk feature various hyperlinks and are meant to be used in the navigating mode: the purpose of all web documents in the navigating mode is to provide access to relevant web pages and web sites, i.e. to act as a means of transportation allowing the reader to travel the world wide web moving from one web page or web site to another. (askehave & nielsen, 2005: 131) finally, different uses of web functionalities illustrate various communicative purposes for the chps under study, ranking from traditionally informational and promotional purposes to legitimizing and/or defensive strategies (see figure 1). british chps feature highly dissimilar responses to the environmental and technological controversies. <www.texaco.co.uk> corresponds to traditional models of chps with informational and promotional content, while <www.monsanto.co.uk> appears as a restorative website, meant to rehabilitate the biotech industry as a whole. by contrast, the communicative strategy displayed on the american websites is more consistent, even though <www.chevron.com> adopts a clearly defensive stance regarding the ecuador trial. monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 67 conclusion results show that chps are highly flexible tools and confirm that genre analysis cannot be dissociated from a cultural perspective. indeed, this analysis supports levy and kolk’s (2002: 281) statement that “[w]ithin the [multinational company] itself, strategies and practices developed in the home country are not necessarily transmitted evenly to all subsidiaries.” dissimilar short descriptions and entry gates to monsanto’s and chevron’s websites underscore a localization strategy that was not identified in the reference corpus. moreover, detailed analysis of the chps evidences country-specific features in terms of general structure: the use of pictures, search bars, social networks and non-linear reading appears as characteristic of the global chps. in terms of content however, no consistent strategy, whether local or company-specific, was found. as a matter of fact, each company’s chps feature a specific attitude regarding environmental and technological controversies, depending on the local context. the lack of coherence between the strategies adopted supports the view that “[e]ach company’s unique history and culture affects its response to institutional pressures” (levy & kolk, 2002: 281). heterogeneity in corporate discourse hence points out that the concept of localization cannot be restricted to linguistic criteria: despite the status of lingua franca of the english language, lexical and syntactic choices differ depending on the target audience. from fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7668 monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): …-… figure 1. communicative purposes of monsanto’s and chevron’s chps. conclusion results show that chps are highly flexible tools and confirm that genre analysis cannot be dissociated from a cultural perspective. indeed, this analysis supports levy and kolk’s (2002: 281) statement that “[w]ithin the [multinational company] itself, strategies and practices developed in the home country are not necessarily transmitted evenly to all subsidiaries.” dissimilar short descriptions and entry gates to monsanto’s and chevron’s websites underscore a localization strategy that was not identified in the reference corpus. moreover, detailed analysis of the chps evidences countryspecific features in terms of general structure: the use of pictures, search bars, social networks and non-linear reading appears as characteristic of the global chps. in terms of content however, no consistent strategy, whether local or company-specific, was found. as a matter of fact, each company’s chps feature a specific attitude regarding environmental and technological controversies, depending on the local context. the lack of coherence between the strategies adopted supports the view that “[e]ach company’s unique history and culture affects its response to institutional pressures” (levy & kolk, 2002: 281). heterogeneity in corporate discourse hence points out that the concept of localization cannot be restricted to linguistic criteria: despite the status of lingua franca of the english language, lexical and syntactic choices differ depending on the target audience. from an english for specific purposes perspective, findings an english for specific purposes perspective, findings support swales’ (1990) statement that a single genre can adapt to different communicative purposes. further research could focus on the other perception management tactics available on corporate websites, for example, the interactive games found on <www.chevron.com> related to energy saving, or the election of america’s mom of the year on <www.monsanto.com>. the characterization of the form and content of these documents could provide relevant insight into the evolution of corporate webgenres in a context of controversy. besides, additional comparisons with other local and global chps could provide insight into the issues of translation and representation of national cultures. finally, an extended comparison with other european websites could illustrate the impact of local public perceptions on technological risk companies’ communication. [paper received 21 may 2012] [revised paper accepted 9 june 2013] references monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 69 adams, c. & g. frost (2004). the development of corporate websites and implications for ethical, social and environmental reporting through these media. edinburgh: icas. askehave, i. & a. nielsen (2005). “digital genres: a challenge to traditional genre theory”. information technology and people 18: 120-141. batra, r., j.g. myers & d.a. aaker (2009). advertising management. dehli: dorling kindersley. bhatia, v. 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(2011). “monsanto’s claims au royaume-uni et aux états-unis : les communiqués de presse de monsanto, entre unité générique et hétérogénéité culturelle”. asp, la revue du geras 59: 65-93. hargis, m. & d. watt (2010). “organizational perception management: a framework to overcome crisis events”. organization development journal 28: 73-87. hommel, t. & o. godard (2002). “trajectoire de contestabilité sociale et production d’ogm à fanny domenec, a former student of the ecole normale supérieure de cachan, has recently presented her phd dissertation under the supervision of dr. catherine resche (celta, ea 3553). her research is focused on the linguistic policies and practices of “technological risk companies” (more specifically oil and biotechnology companies), and on the progressive shift from crisis communication to risk communication. after a master’s degree in english for specific purposes, she passed the agrégation in 2008. fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7670 usage agricole”. économie rurale 270: 36-49. isani, s. 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(2004). “refinements to legitimacy theory in social and environmental accounting”. commerce research paper series 4, 6. url: http://www.flinders.edu.au/sabs/business-files/ research/papers/2004/04-6.pdf [08/03/13] notes 1 this research was undertaken during the second quarter of 2011 and due to the flexible nature of web tools, some results may no longer be accurate. 2 “hydraulic fracturing”, a technique used to extract shale gas is highly polemical, especially in europe. 3 interview with yann fichet, director of industry and governmental affairs for monsanto france, conducted april 23 2009. 4 the google usa websearch tool was also used and the results were similar to <www.google.com> 5 by comparing the words that appear in the corpus under study to a “reference corpus”, the keyword list tool generates a list of “keywords” that are unusually frequent (or infrequent) in the target files. 6 the main link gives access to a general homepage with links to seven websites. i chose to focus on the first suggested link, labelled “monsanto imagine / biotechnology”, which appeared most relevant for a comparison with monsanto’s global website. 7 though chevron lubricants are sold in the uk under the brand “texaco”, the texaco station services can be operated by other energy companies. in august 2011, after this study was conducted, valero purchased texaco-branded wholesale sites in the uk. hence, the site <www.texaco.co.uk> is now related to valero and no longer to chevron. interestingly however, it still appears when one enters “chevron uk” in the google search engine. 8 interview with patrick geffray, former general manager for monsanto france, conducted march 10 2009. 9 http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/monsanto-business-practices.aspx monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 71 appendix 1: homepage for <www.monsanto.com> as of june 11, 2011 fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7672 monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): …-… appendix 1: homepage for <www.monsanto.com> as of june 11, 2011 appendix 2: homepage for <www.monsanto.co.uk> as of june 21, 2011 monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 73 fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): …-… appendix 2: homepage for <www.monsanto.co.uk> as of june 21, 2011 appendix 3: homepage for <www.chevron.com> as of august 2, 2011 fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7674 monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): …-… appendix 3: homepage for <www.chevron.com> as of august 2, 2011 appendix 4: homepage for <www.texaco.co.uk> as of july 21, 2011 monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): 51-76 75 fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): …-… appendix 4: homepage for <www.texaco.co.uk> as of july 21, 2011 appendix 5: access to other corporate websites from <www.google.com>, as of august 2, 2011 fanny domenec ibérica 27 (2014): 51-7676 monsanto’s and chevron’s home pages ibérica 27 (2014): …-… appendix 5: access to other corporate websites from <www.google.com>, as of august 2, 2011 company hyperlink “careers” hyperlink “investors” hyperlink “products” hyperlink “contact” description microsoft get product information, support, and news from microsoft. apple apple designs and creates ipod and itunes, mac laptop and desktop computers, the os x operating system, and the revolutionary iphone and ipad. johnson and johnson x x x x new jersey-based multi-national manufacturers of pharmaceutical, diagnostic, therapeutic, surgical, and biotechnology products, as well as personal hygiene ... wells fargo x wells fargo is a provider of banking, mortgage, investing, credit card, insurance, and consumer and commercial financial services. at&t x at&t is a leader in telecommunication services, including cell phones, wireless, uverse, digital tv, high speed internet, dsl, home phone, ... pfizer x x x pfizer inc: the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company. pfizer inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets leading prescription ... iberica 13 ibérica 28 (2014): 17-34 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract given the varied roles language for specific purposes (lsp) teachers typically play and the demanding nature of lsp teaching, the literature on teacher education for lsp is surprisingly limited. this paper examines the literature on lsp teacher education including literature on teacher education in english for specific purposes (esp) and english for academic purposes (eap). the introduction discusses the needs of lsp teachers, whose work typically involves investigating needs and specialist discourse, developing courses and materials as well as classroom teaching. it is argued that teacher needs are an important basis for determining content for lsp teacher education programmes and that further research is needed to identify these needs. section 2 identifies themes in the existing literature. it focuses on two themes in particular, the role of specialised knowledge and suggestions for the content of the teacher education programme. section 3 discusses models of teacher education with particular reference to lsp in-service contexts. section 4 identifies gaps in the literature and suggests topics for the research agenda to develop understanding of the nature of lsp teaching expertise. keywords: teacher education, teacher needs, teacher expertise, research topics. resumen f or ma c ió n d e l pr of e s o ra do de l f e : re v i s ió n b ib l io g r áf i c a y s ug e re nc ia s p a ra p ró xi ma s i nv e s ti g a c io ne s dado que los profesores de lenguas para fines específicos (lfe) suelen ejercer roles muy variados y la profesión docente es de por sí misma exigente, la lsp teacher education: review of literature and suggestions for the research agenda helen basturkmen university of auckland (new zealand) h.basturkmen@auckland.ac.nz 17 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 17 ibérica 28 (2014): 17-34 helen basturkmen bibliografía sobre formación del profesorado es sorprendentemente limitada. en este artículo se estudia la bibliografía existente sobre formación del profesorado de lfe, incluidas las referencias relativas a la formación del profesorado de inglés para fines específicos (ife) e inglés para fines académicos (ifa). en la introducción se tratan las necesidades de los profesores de lfe, cuyo trabajo suele conllevar la investigación de necesidades y el discurso especializado, el desarrollo de cursos y materiales así como tareas de docencia en el aula. las necesidades del profesor conforman una base importante gracias a la cual es posible establecer el contenido que han de tener los programas de formación del profesorado en lfe y es necesario investigar más para lograr identificar dichas necesidades. en la segunda parte de este trabajo se identifican los temas recurrentes en la bibliografía y se presta especial atención a dos asuntos: el papel que juega el conocimiento especializado y las sugerencias para dotar de contenido los programas de formación del profesorado. en la tercera parte se estudian los modelos de formación del profesorado haciendo hincapié en los contextos de formación permanente. en la cuarta parte se señalan las carencias existentes en la bibliografía y se sugieren temas para continuar la investigación y comprender mejor la naturaleza de la experiencia docente del profesorado de lfe. palabras clave: formación del profesorado, necesidades del profesor, experiencia docente, temas de investigación. 1. introduction according to hall (2013: 5537): the well trained language teacher knows how to introduce new language structures, to get his or her learners to practice language items, to focus on accuracy, to exploit language points as they arise, to use language within fairly controlled parameters and all the other things that language teachers routinely do. lsp teaching, however, forces teachers to go beyond their own levels of expertise and, in effect, to become researchers as well as teachers. as described above, teaching lsp often makes considerable demands on teachers. dudley-evans and st john (1998) identify five roles involved for the lsp practitioner, namely, teacher, course designer, materials provider, collaborator (with subject specialists), researcher and evaluator of courses, materials and student learning. additional roles suggested recently are that of advisor on content and language integrated learning (clil) programmes in english-medium university teaching contexts (taillefer, 2013) and as 18 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 18 intercultural mediators and mentors for lifelong learning to aid the implementation of the european space for higher education reform (bocanegra valle, 2012). lsp teachers therefore generally face an array of work needs, all of which require knowledge and skills and presumably some form of teacher education. yet, as argued by richards (1997), the lsp literature has tended to foreground the needs of the target situation and tended to background the needs of the lsp teacher. although some description of the needs of lsp teachers is given in the literature, empirical investigation might shed further light on the nature of these needs. the literature shows how lsp teachers often not only teach lessons and courses, but are also involved in course and materials development. as described by hall (2013) the role often requires research (such as, researching needs or specialist discourse). the literature contains numerous reports of lsp teachers investigating needs (for example, cowling, 2007; fielder, 2011) and specialist discourse (for example, gimenez, 2001; forey & lockwood, 2007). in addition the role can require considerable skill and knowledge in terms of curriculum and materials development (basturkmen, 2010). in teaching language for general purposes, teachers can often make use of the many high quality commercially available course books and materials that are published, many of which often now appear in sets including dvds, web-site resources, self-study materials for learners and teachers’ guide books. this is much less often the case in lsp where courses are developed to meet the specific needs of a group or groups of students (dudley-evans & st john, 1998; basturkmen, 2006 & 2010). even published materials that appear to have some relevance since they concern areas of interest, such as, english for nursing, medical english or academic speaking, are likely to only have certain overlaps with the needs of the students in the class, the needs for which the class was established in the first place. generally lsp teachers draw on published materials only selectively (belcher, 2009) and they can rarely base an entire course on them as is sometimes possible in general language teaching. the work of teachers is described by belcher (2006: 135): like other educational endeavours, esp assumes there are problems, or lacks, that education can ameliorate, but unlike many other educational practices, esp assumes that the problems are unique to specific learners in specific contexts and thus can be carefully delineated and addressed with lsp teacher education ibérica 28 (2014): 17-34 19 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 19 tailored-to-fit instruction. esp specialists are often needs assessors first and foremost, then designers and implementers of specialised curricula in response to identified needs. in other words, lsp (esp) teachers are involved in research and in curriculum and materials development tasks as well as teaching. this leads to the present topic, namely, given the varied roles and the demands of lsp teaching, what topics might lsp teacher education usefully involve? in this paper the term teacher education is used to refer to both initial or pre-service teacher education and the on-going professional development of teachers already involved in teaching languages for specific purposes. the topic of teachers and teacher education has not attracted much interest by researchers in lsp to date. master (2005) reports an analysis of topic areas covered by articles from 1980 to 2001 in the journal english for specific purposes. the analysis shows the relative infrequency of articles on teacher training compared with all other topics listed (discourse analysis, program description, needs analysis, and materials). i recently searched the same journal using the word teacher or teachers in the search function. the search revealed that although a limited number of articles included these words in their titles, the main texts of the articles were generally not centrally concerned with teacher education. given the demanding nature of lsp teaching it is somewhat surprising that the topic of esp teacher education has received limited attention in the literature published in english to date. it would seem that the community “esp professionals know the least about is their own” (belcher, 2013: 544). there has been a plethora of studies into specialist discourse and the language needs of lsp learners but research into “teaching” in lsp has been very limited (richards, 1997; watson todd, 2003; basturkmen, 2006). in the remainder of this paper i argue that further understanding of the needs of lsp teachers could be useful to the field of lsp and that this understanding can be used to inform decisions about topics in teacher education programmes. i also argue that this understanding can draw, at least in part, on findings from empirical studies of lsp teacher expertise. i also suggest that the reflective model of teacher education seems particularly suited to in-service lsp teacher education. helen basturkmen ibérica 28 (2014): 17-3420 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 20 2. themes in the literature although the literature on teacher education in lsp is not extensive, a number of themes can be identified. there has been discussion of the role of specialised knowledge in lsp teacher education (dudley-evans, 1997; ferguson, 1997; master, 2005; hall, 2013) and strategies teachers can use to compensate for gaps in their subject knowledge (wu & badger, 2009). writers have suggested topics for esp teacher education in general (ewer, 1983; strevens, 1988; hall, 2013) and for pre-service esp teachers in particular (master, 1997; hüttner, smit & mehlmauer-larcher, 2009). further topics include the choice of linguistic theories to inform pre-service esp teacher education (dudley-evans, 1997 & 2009; master, 1997; hüttner, smit & mehlmauer-larcher, 2009), the role of culture and context knowledge in lsp teacher education (dudley-evans, 1997; hall, 2013), teacher beliefs (alexander, 2012), teacher decision making (basturkmen, 2006; kuzborska, 2011), teacher development initiatives in particular settings (maclean, 1997; palmer & posteguillo, 1997; thompson & de silva joyce, 2013), teacher education programmes in a specific geographic context (howard, 1997; master, 1997), the role of lsp teachers in light of particular policies and educational reforms (bocanegra valle, 2012; taillefer, 2013) and the infrastructure of professional associations and conferences supporting lsp teachers’ professional development (lafford, 2012). empirical studies of esp teachers or teaching appear limited (richards, 1997; basturkmen, 2006; wu & badger, 2009; kuzborska, 2011) although studies of this nature could be a useful source of information for lsp teacher education. the limited provision of lsp teacher education has been noted by writers. the inadequacy of esp teacher education in the us context was highlighted by master (1997) who commented that while most methodology courses on matesol programmes mentioned esp, there was an overall lack of emphasis on esp and very few programmes offered courses on esp. this limited provision is noted again by belcher (2013) who comments that very few language teaching programs offer esp as a specialisation although some offer elective classes. howard (1997) surveyed ma programmes in the united kingdom. the survey found only three programmes specialised in esp. it also found a number of ma programmes offered one module on esp/eap. the introduction to a focus issue on lsp of the journal modern language journal (lafford, 2012) includes two sections particularly relevant to lsp lsp teacher education ibérica 28 (2014): 17-34 21 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 21 teacher education. the section titled “professional infrastructure” (page 13) suggests esp teachers and researchers have been much better served by conferences and associations compared to teachers and researchers of other languages for specific purposes. a further section titled “lsp researchers/practitioners” (pages 13-14) reports literature and personal correspondence indicating that a number of lsp teachers in us and european contexts originally come from degree programmes in traditional language or literary studies, rather than degree programmes in applied linguistics, tesol, or second language acquisition. 2.1. role of specialised knowledge some writers have considered the extent of knowledge of the specific discipline or profession in question that is needed by lsp teacher. one initial description (early, 1981: 85) pointed out the relatively limited nature of the teacher’s knowledge: the esp teacher, for the most part, does not in any straightforward sense conform to the image of a knower. it is true that he or she possesses specialist knowledge of the target language which the learner is interested in acquiring; he or she may be fortunate enough to possess some familiarity with the subject matter relevant to the learner’s area of study or concentration. it is more likely, however (…) that the learner will possess far more knowledge in depth in his or her own specialist field than the teacher. although the lsp teacher of during or post-experience learners may have less knowledge of the specialist field than his or her students, this is far less likely to be the case with teachers of pre-experienced learners (learners who have not yet started studying their target discipline or entered their target workplace role). the question of how much specialised knowledge the teacher needs may thus be a topic that is context-dependant. when teaching pre-experienced learners, the teacher may also be teaching subject content. this was the case described by hutchinson and waters (1987) who were working with pre-experience students of technical subjects, which led them to suggest a role for the esp teacher in teaching subject concepts alongside language. a number of views have emerged over the years on the topic of how much subject knowledge the lsp teacher requires and who is the best person to help the lsp learner (the lsp teacher or the subject specialist). one writer helen basturkmen ibérica 28 (2014): 17-3422 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 22 believed esp teachers needed a good attitude towards and interest in the subject area rather than subject matter expertise and such teachers were better able to help learners compared to content experts who tend to take “linguistic and content knowledge for granted” (taylor, 1994: 14). ferguson (1997: 84) distinguishes “specialised knowledge”’ and “specialist knowledge” or knowledge of the content of the student’s discipline or subject. specialised knowledge, on the other hand, ferguson argues involves three inter-related forms of knowledge: knowledge of disciplinary cultures and values, knowledge of the epistemological basis of different disciplines and knowledge of genre and discourse including genre and discourse-analytic skills. this writer also considered that although specialist knowledge was very desirable, it was not something that could feasibly be provided on lsp teacher education programmes. discussion of the esp teacher’s “subject-matter knowledge” is provided in master (2005). this writer reviews differing views with reference to a continuum. at one end of the continuum are views that teacher knowledge of content is a potential obstacle to the true role of esp teaching and at the other end of the continuum are proposals for a content-based curriculum in which linguistic knowledge is subordinate to subject content instruction. master’s own view was that esp teachers are usually better prepared to deal with the needs of the esp student than subject specialist except in highly technical contexts (such as, air traffic control). the team teaching approach developed at birmingham university (dudleyevans & st john, 1998: 152) arose in response to the demands of teaching english to students from highly specialised fields. it was an attempt to avoid the situation in which: the eap teacher (…) with a smattering of knowledge in the subject area, and a view of himself as an expert on communication (…) comes to regard himself as an expert – or the expert – on how the subject ought to be taught, and even what the subject ought to be. in this approach, instruction involves three parties – the esp teacher, the subject specialist and the students. the esp teacher acts as a mediator between the language and subject knowledge by providing language needed to express the content. an example instructional sequence is provided in which the subject specialist (an engineering lecturer) records a lecture, the esp teacher devises a worksheet of questions on the lecture content and a lsp teacher education ibérica 28 (2014): 17-34 23 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 23 team-taught session is held (students, the engineering lecturer and the eap teacher). the session focuses on the responses of the students to the question items on the worksheet with the subject specialist providing information as needed on points of content and the language teacher helping with any language points arising. the rationale for the approach was explained in terms of needs – “the student needs to know how his performance is measuring up to the expectations of his teachers and to have immediate assistance with the difficulties as they arise” (johns & dudleyevans, 1985: 141) – and the subject specialist needs to know how effectively he communicates with his students so that communication is improved. the language teacher needs to understand the conceptual matter of the subject so that she/he can fully understand how language is used to represent that structure and where difficulties arise. further developments on the approach (dudley-evans, 2001) describe a shift away from team teaching on lecture comprehension to a focus on writing. the instruction for master level students in engineering described in this work focused on two written genres, the organisation of responses to a particular type of examination question and the writing of a professional genre, the compact specification. benefits were reported in terms of student learning (they learned the most effective way organising their writing) and for the teachers. the subject specialist was able to see first-hand the kind of difficulties students could have in the writing and the language teacher had the opportunity to use authentic content without getting out of depth. 2.2. content for the teacher education programme some suggestions have been made in the literature for content in teacher education programmes. discussion in the early years suggested teachers of esp would require additional training compared to teachers of general english language (strevens, 1988). they would need a grounding in applied linguistics, practical experience with the population they would teach, experience in working with subject experts and a willingness to familiarise themselves with some subject matter of the area of esp (ewer, 1983). master (2005) suggests two options for esp teacher education for new teachers, a general esp track or esp education for a special category. topics for the general esp track (pre-service) option suggested by master included, history and development of esp, major sub divisions of esp, esp skills (such as, writing, reading), materials assessment and development, helen basturkmen ibérica 28 (2014): 17-3424 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 24 curriculum, assessment and evaluation, administration and an “in-depth focus in at least one area of esp” (master, 2005: 35). topics for lsp teacher training suggested by hall (2013) include language (for example, “how can it be specific?” “what kinds of analysis will be useful?”), specificity (for example, “how specific can we be?”) and purpose (for example, “whose purposes?”). this writer also suggests teaching and management skills as further topics and that the curriculum can be grouped into three areas, namely, pedagogy, context-embedded language and discourse, and management. a description of the lsp teacher education curriculum offered on the three ma programmes that specialised in esp in the united kingdom in the late 1990’s (howard, 1997) found a number of core (nonoptional) papers across the programmes. these were discourse analysis, linguistic varieties, methodology, course/syllabus design and materials production. in new zealand (where i live and work), five universities have ma programmes in applied linguistics/tesol and two of these currently offer an elective course in esp. “language teaching 754 english for specific purposes”, i convene at the university of auckland as one of the course offerings on the mtesol and postgraduate diploma in language teaching programmes in the department of applied language studies and linguistics. in this context, only a very few of the course participants have had prior experience of teaching esp or eap, although a number of them have had some experience of teaching general english language. most expect to teach esp or eap at some point in the future. the course can thus be categorised as pre-service or pre-experience teacher education. the aims of “language teaching 754” are for participants to develop an understanding of theoretical, empirical and practical aspects of esp including eap, and of issues and debates in this field. specifically it aims to enable participants to develop their theoretical knowledge and skills relating to needs analysis, developing descriptions of specialist discourse and developing courses and materials. a further aim is for participants to become familiar with critical perspectives, current issues and debates in esp and eap. the course is organised into four main topic areas: theoretical bases of esp, investigating needs, researching specialist discourse, issues and procedures in course design. as discourse analysis and corpus linguistics are offered on other papers on the programme, only some attention to these important topics is given in the esp course (many of the students have studied topics, such as, genre analysis and pragmatic description in their lsp teacher education ibérica 28 (2014): 17-34 25 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 25 other courses). an overview of topics on “language teaching 754” is shown below. theoretical perspectives branches, characteristics & rationale of esp key concepts (language varieties, discourse communities, specificity) needs analysis aims, procedures and approaches views of language critical perspectives researching specialist discourse aims and procedures genre, corpus & ethnographic-based approaches approaches & issues in course design from needs analysis to course aims and objectives types of course objectives debates on critical/pragmatic, wide/narrow-angled, study skills/academic literacy approaches teaching methodologies materials development issues concerning teacher subject-matter knowledge & collaboration with subject specialists perspectives on learning and assessment issues in lsp testing future trends as the overview above shows, the course focuses on issues and debates in the field as well as areas of knowledge and skills. although it is hoped that the course would serve the needs of course participants who go onto teach esp and eap in the future, the course is essentially academic in nature. as such, the overall goal is for participants to develop an understanding of the field as an area of research and knowledge in applied linguistics. 3. models of teacher development the teacher education literature distinguishes between pre-service and inservice teacher education. the term teacher development is used to refer to the ways teachers continue to develop beyond initial stages of teaching. terms such as “learning to teach” (pachler & paran, 2013: 692) and “learning teaching” (scrivener, 2011: 38) refer to teachers’ on-going endeavours to develop a deeper understanding of teaching and learning. helen basturkmen ibérica 28 (2014): 17-3426 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 26 most suggestions for lsp teacher education programmes described in section 2 of this paper have concerned pre-service lsp teacher education. however, many of the lsp initiatives, courses and projects reported in the literature are written by experienced lsp teachers who faced a specific challenge or need in their teaching context. a number of reports of this nature can be seen in lsp specialist journals, such as english for specific purposes, ibérica and professional and academic english: journal of the english for specific purposes interest group. the reports by practitioners in the field describe a particular aspect of their work, often in terms of pre-course investigation or course/materials preparation (see for example, cowling, 2007; martinez, 2011; and tsuda, 2012). different models, or conceptualisations, of teacher education have been proposed in the literature on teacher education (pachler & paran, 2013). these models include the craft (or apprenticeship) model, the applied science model and the reflective model. the applied science model offers a perspective of education based on received knowledge, that is, knowledge derived from research. in this model the researcher and the teacher are conceptualised as separate and the teacher as the consumer of research (in our case – applied linguistics research). the third model, the reflective model, suggests teachers draw on two types of knowledge: received or theoretical knowledge (of applied linguistics) and experiential knowledge. the latter is based on experiences from teaching practice. it evolves over time through a recurring cycle of practice and reflection on practice (nunan & lamb, 1996; murphy, 2001; pachler & paran, 2013). in practical terms, reflective teaching involves teachers collecting information and on their teaching and using it as a basis for “critical reflection about their efforts on a language course” (richards & lockhart, 1994: 1). the aims are for teachers to gain awareness or insights into their teaching and to take action on what is learnt for the purpose of enhancing teaching. the action might involve exploring instructional innovations, trying out alternatives, and modifying or changing routines in teaching based on what is learnt (murphy, 2001). teacher decision making is one topic for reflection, although this topic has been relatively unexplored (murphy, 2001). as suggested above the lsp literature includes reports of individual teachers’ initiatives in response to particular situations in their teaching. the reports tend to show how the teachers drew on received knowledge in the lsp literature but went beyond that to create a solution to a particular problem in their own teaching context. these published accounts of have lsp teacher education ibérica 28 (2014): 17-34 27 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 27 made an important contribution to knowledge in lsp. presumably many other lsp teachers similarly take action on their teaching and create solutions but do not publish reports. it would seem that experienced lsp teachers do explore innovations and try out alternatives based on what they learn from reflecting on their teaching and integrating it with the cumulative body of knowledge from the lsp literature. for example, cowling (2007) developed a syllabus for intensive modules for a business english communication course for new employees at an industrial company in japan. cowling wished to investigate needs but the new employees did not yet have positions in the company and did not know which positions they would be given. determining needs was thus particularly difficult and the writer reports how he set about devising multiple methods and drawing on multiple sources for information. a further example, (tsuda, 2012) reports the development of a course and materials for an esp course for dieticians in a postgraduate college. tsuda could not find previous research or existing course descriptions and materials relevant to english for dieticians, which was not an established branch of esp. the writer therefore had to conduct an initial stage of needs analysis just to gain an overall understanding of the work and communicative needs of dieticians. the report describes this initial stage and collaboration with subject specialists to design the course and project-based instructional tasks. esp has been described as an essentially teaching and materials-led movement dudley-evans & st john (1998). the examples above show esp teachers reflected on their teaching situations and took the kinds of actions for the purposes of enhancing teaching described by murphy (2001). the reflective model of teacher education appears to provide one way of conceptualising the route by which many innovations and practices in lsp have come about. 4. suggestions for the research agenda in this section a number of suggestions are made for the research agenda. the suggestions are made with reference to the literature on lsp teacher education. 1. the literature has suggested the set of knowledge and skills (dudleyevans & st john, 1998; hall, 2013) needed by lsp teachers. as suggested helen basturkmen ibérica 28 (2014): 17-3428 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 28 above, identification of such skills and areas of knowledge (teacher needs) can be used as a basis for determining topics for teacher education. however, to date most suggestions appear to have been informed on the basis of the cumulative body of knowledge of lsp teaching that has evolved historically and which is reported often on a case by case basis in the literature. there have been relatively few “empirical studies” investigating the work of lsp teachers. evidence from empirical studies investigating teachers’ work, such as materials development and course development processes and decision-making (basturkmen, 2010; kuzborska, 2011) could be used to inform or support decisions about course content for teacher education. this information could be elicited through self-report data, that is, by asking teachers to describe work tasks, or observational study, such as johnson’s (2003) study of expert teachers working through the process of materials design. 2. the literature indicates lsp teaching often requires teachers to become researchers as well as teachers (dudley-evans & st john, 1998; basturkmen, 2010; hall, 2013). a cross-case study of esp teachers/course developers in the new zealand context (basturkmen, 2010) revealed some of the challenges esp teachers faced in conducting the research necessary for planning their courses, such as difficulties in locating existing descriptions or corpora of specialist discourse or findings previous analysis of needs in similar situations. in recent years ethnographic forms of enquiry in lsp have been proposed (holliday, 1995; gimenez, 2001; molle & prior, 2008; dressen-hammouda, 2013) but how knowledgeable are lsp teachers with the methods typically involved in such enquiry? lsp teachers not only often conduct investigations themselves in preparation for course development but are also consumers of the research published in lsp specialist journals and thus may need understanding of the forms of research currently reported in the literature. however, relatively little is known about how lsp teachers transition into the role of researcher and the methods they use in their enquiries. a further suggestion for the research agenda is investigation of the research skills and knowledge needs of teachers of lsp. 3. particular initiatives developed by individual teachers and programs feature in the lsp literature, for example, cowling (2007) and tsuda (2012). the reports of these initiatives and programs offer important insights for the field. the reports tend to provide information on the products (what was developed) and the reasons why they were needed. however, they tend not to describe how the developments came about. research is needed to lsp teacher education ibérica 28 (2014): 17-34 29 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 29 investigate how experienced lsp teachers continue developing their teaching practice. researchers could consider the means or processes involved in lsp teacher on-going professional development, to better understand if and how they engage in reflective teaching (murphy, 2001) and other forms of ongoing professional development. 4. it is generally recognised that specialised knowledge of the discipline or profession is important in lsp teaching. the literature has shown various viewpoints on what this knowledge should include. however, there has been little investigation into how lsp teachers come to acquire this knowledge. team teaching is one avenue for the development of the lsp teachers’ specialist knowledge. what the language teacher learned from team teaching with a subject specialist in one setting was described by dudley-evans (2001). other options for cooperation and collaboration with subject specialists could be explored. interviews with lsp teachers might bring to light the role played by collaboration and cooperation in developing their specialised knowledge. empirical study could shed light on the ways teachers develop this kind of knowledge and the role that particular endeavours, such as collaboration or co-operation with subject specialists, can play. 5. it has been suggested that the opportunities for teacher development provided by the “professional infrastructure” for teachers of other languages is relatively limited compared to those available for teachers of esp and eap (lafford, 2012). however, information on what opportunities there are appears scanty. more information is needed to identify the opportunities for professional development available for teachers of languages other than english for specific purposes. to what extent does this infrastructure serve their needs and interests? 6. the literature has suggested content for pre-experience lsp teacher education. in the paper i described the esp course developed at the university of auckland on the mtesol programme. the course focused on skills and technical areas (analysing needs, ways of investigating specialist discourse, and course/materials design processes) as well as current debates and issues in the field. to the best of my knowledge, researchers have not considered the role or value such knowledge plays (or does not play) in early lsp teaching practice. 7. eap teaching appears to be an expanding branch of lsp, spurred no doubt by the increase in the numbers of international students enrolling in universities in english-speaking countries, and the move towards englishhelen basturkmen ibérica 28 (2014): 17-3430 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 30 medium education in a number of european countries in recent years (kuteeva, 2011). master (2005) suggested two options: a general track lsp teacher education programme and for a special category. researchers could investigate the needs of teachers working in eap and findings could be used to inform decisions on content for eap teacher education programmes as a special category. 5. concluding comments the present paper aimed to contribute to the literature on lsp teacher education. it examined the literature on lsp teacher education and suggested that this literature is rather limited. a caveat to this is that although the literature with an explicit focus on teacher education is limited, a good deal of the general literature on lsp provides important information about teaching and thus implicitly addresses the topic. this paper identified themes in the literature explicitly addressing teacher needs or teacher education for lsp. the paper made suggestions for research topics to explore teacher needs and the forms and features of lsp teacher expertise in order to develop further understanding of these topics. [paper received 3 december 2013] [revised paper received 9 june 2014] [revised paper accepted 15 june 2014] references lsp teacher education ibérica 28 (2014): 17-34 31 alexander, o. (2012). “exploring teacher beliefs in teaching eap at low proficiency levels.” journal of english for academic purposes 11: 99-111. basturkmen, h. (2006). ideas and options in english for specific purposes. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. basturkmen, h. (2010). developing courses in english for specific purposes. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. belcher, d. (2006). “english for specific purposes: teaching to the perceived needs and imagined futures in worlds of work, study and everyday life.” tesol quarterly 40: 133-56. belcher, d. (2009). “what esp is and can be” in d. belcher (ed.), english for specific purposes in theory and practice, 1-20. ann arbor: university of michigan press. belcher, d. (2013). “the future of esp research: resources for access and choice” in b. paltridge & s. starfield (eds.), 535-551. bocanegra valle, a. (2012). “el profesor de inglés para fines específicos ante el espacio europeo de educación superior.” aula 18: 29-41. cowling, j. (2007). “needs analysis: planning a syllabus for a series of intensive workplace courses at a leading japanese company.” english for specific purposes 26: 426-442. dudley-evans, t. (1997). “five questions for lsp teacher training” in r. howard & g. brown (eds.), 58-67. dudley-evans, t. (2001). “team-teaching in eap: changes and adaptations in the birmingham approach” in j. flowerdew & m. peacock (eds.), research perspectives on english for academic purposes, 225238. cambridge: cambridge university press. 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 31 helen basturkmen ibérica 28 (2014): 17-3432 dudley-evans, t. & m. st john (1998). developments in english for specific purposes. cambridge: cambridge university press. dressen-hammouda, d. (2013). “ethnographic approaches to esp research” in b. paltridge & s. starfield (eds.), 501-517. early, p. (1981). “the esp teacher’s role – implications for the ‘knower-client’ relationship” in the esp teacher: role, development and prospects (elt documents 112), 42-52. london: the british council. ewer, j.r. (1983). “teacher training for est: problems and methods”. the esp journal 2: 9-31. ferguson, g. (1997). “teacher education and lsp: the role of specialised knowledge” in r. howard & g. brown (eds.), 80-89. fielder, c. (2011). “an eap course as preparation for academic study in english”. journal of international association of teachers of english as a foreign language esp special interest group 38: 15-23. forey, g. & j. lockwood (2007). “‘i’d love to put someone in jail for this’: an initial investigation of english in the business processing outsourcing industry”. english for specific purposes 26: 308326. gimenez, j.c. (2001). “ethnographic observations in cross-cultural business negotiations between non-native speakers of english: an exploratory study.” english for specific purposes journal 20: 169-193. hall, d.r. (2013). “teacher education for languages for specific purposes” in c.a. chapelle (ed.), encyclopedia of applied linguistics, 55375542. oxford: blackwell publishing. holliday, a. (1995). “assessing language needs within an institutional context: an ethnographic approach.” english for specific purposes 14: 115126. howard, r. (1997). “lsp in the uk” in r. howard & g. brown (eds.), 41-57. howard, r. & g. brown (eds.) (1997). teacher education for lsp. clevedon: multilingual matters. hutchinson, t. & a. waters. (1987). english for specific purposes: a learning-centred approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. hüttner, j., u. smit & b. mehlmauer-larcher (2009). “esp teacher education at the interface of theory and practice: introducing a model of mediated corpus-based genre analysis.” system 37: 99-109. johns, t.f. & t. dudley-evans (1985). “an experiment in team-teaching of overseas postgraduate students of transportation and plant biology” in j.m. swales (ed.), episodes in esp, 140-153. oxford: pergamon. johnson, k. (2003). designing language teaching tasks. basingstoke: palgrave. kuzborska, i. (2011). “teachers’ decision-making processes when designing eap reading materials in a lithuanian university setting.” journal of english for academic purposes, 10: 223-237. kuteeva, m. (2011). “editorial – teaching and learning in english in parallel-language and elf settings.” ibérica 22: 5-12. lafford, b.a. (2012). “languages for specific purposes in the united states in a global context: commentary on grosse and voght (1991) revisited.” the modern language journal 96: 127. maclean, j. (1997). “professional participation: a technique for lsp teacher education” in r. howard & g. brown (eds.), 158-175. martinez, i.a. (2011). “capitalising on the advantages of the latin american eap situation: using authentic and specific materials in eap writing instruction”. ibérica 21: 31-47. master, p. (1997). “esp teacher education in the usa” in r. howard & g. brown (eds.), 22-40. master, p. (2005). “english for specific purposes” in e. hinkel (ed.), handbook of research in second language teaching and learning, 99-115. mahwah, n.j: lawrence erlbaum associates. molle, d. & p. prior (2008). “multimodal genre systems in eap writing pedagogy: reflecting on a needs analysis”. tesol quarterly 42: 541-566. murphy, j.m. (2001). “reflective teaching in elt” in m. celce-murcia (ed.), teaching english as a second or foreign language, 499-514. boston: heinle & heinle. nunan, d. & c. lamb (1996). the self-directed teacher: managing the learning process. cambridge: cambridge university press. pachler, n. & a. paran (2013). “teacher education” in m. byram & a. hu (eds.), routledge encylopedia of language teaching and learning, 692-698. abingdon: routledge. palmer, j.c. & s. posteguillo. (1997). “a teacher training approach to a degree in english in philology: implementing tesp” in r. howard & g. brown. (eds.), 202-209. paltridge, b. & s. starfield (eds.) (2013). the 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 32 lsp teacher education ibérica 28 (2014): 17-34 33 handbook of english for specific purposes. chichester: john wiley & sons. richards, k. (1997). “teachers for specific purposes” in r. howard & g. brown. (eds.), 115126. richards, j.c. & c. lockhart (1994). reflective teaching in second language classrooms. new york: cambridge university press. scrivener, j. (2011). learning, teaching: the essential guide to english language teaching, 3rd ed. oxford: macmillan. strevens, p. (1988). “the learner and teacher of esp” in d. chamberlain & r. baumgardner (eds.), esp in the classroom: practice and evaluation, 3944. london: modern english publications in association with the british council. taillefer, g. (2013). “clil in higher education: the (perfect?) crossroads of esp and didactic reflection”. asp 63: 31-53. taylor, m. (1994). “how much content does the esp instructor need to know?” tesol matters 4: 14. thomson, e.a. & h. de silva joyce (2013). “language teacher professional development as a pillar of curriculum change”. professional and academic english: journal of english for specific purposes special interest group 41: 36-44. tsuda, a. (2012). “developing an esp course and materials for dieticians”. journal of iatefl esp special interest group 39: 23-30. watson todd, r. (2003). “eap or teap?” journal of english for academic purposes 2: 61-70. wu, h. & r.g. badger (2009). “in a strange and unchartered land: esp teachers’ strategies for dealing with unpredicted problems in subject knowledge during class”. english for specific purposes 28: 19-32. helen basturkmen is associate professor in applied language studies and linguistics at the university of auckland where she teaches courses in languages for specific purposes, discourse analysis and research methodology. she has published two books on teaching languages for specific purposes (erlbaum, 2006 and palgrave macmillan, 2010) and articles in a number of international journals. 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 33 02 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:19 página 34 iberica 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 267-270 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 applied linguistics and knowledge transfer, employability, internationalisation, and social challenges ana bocanegra-valle (ed.) bern: peter lang, 2020. 344 pages. isbn 978-3-0343-3714-4 the overarching aim of this ambitious edited volume is to explore from diverse perspectives how applied linguistics can inform and engage with other disciplines and society at large to address social challenges. the growing trend for interdisciplinary degree programmes, calls for more meaningful engagement with institutions outside of the academy, and the ambition of internationalisation, invite a fresh look at the applicability and foci of the work of our field; therefore, the idea behind this book is both timely and welcome. the introduction sparks interest and sets out clearly the key themes that provide a red thread for the chapters. these are knowledge transfer, internationalisation, employability, and social challenges. working definitions of the concepts are provided, and connections drawn between them. the first section comprises four chapters loosely linked by the theme of knowledge transfer. the first, “linguistic research in the 21st century: looking beyond” offers an overview of how linguistic theory informs cutting-edge research in human-machine interaction, biosciences, and artificial intelligence. the chapter inspires thinking about how programmes in applied linguistics seeking to recruit could diversify in terms of curriculum content, the potential for the creation of interdisciplinary programmes with strong links to industry, and the role of applied linguistics in those programmes. chapters 2 and 3 also reference technological advances. chapter 2 focuses on integrated writing assistants and their impact on how we write. the topic is tackled through the lens of lexicography, and touches on the impact of 267 book reviews digital innovations on related business models, such as the decline in dictionary production. an overview of the types of integrated writing assistants available and their benefits are presented. the author then zooms in on “write assistant”, which has been made widely available to danish school children. while this tool has provided some short-term benefits, the long-term implications for children’s writing processes are unknown, suggesting a fruitful line of enquiry for applied linguists. in chapter 3 we move from writing to pronunciation with a focus on mobile assisted language learning. the author reports on an empirical study investigating learners’ views on a smartphone app designed to develop the user’s english pronunciation. the role of applied linguists in this type of innovation is also made clear via the recommendations provided by the author as to how such apps could be improved for the various stakeholders. the final chapter shifts gear and deals with entrepreneurship and innovation, and an innovative competition-styled intervention designed to train these skills. a type of needs analysis was conducted on the genres produced as part of the intervention to understand the language students’ needs, revealing a “stylistic hybridity”. the chapter is a very good example of how language for specific purposes collaborations can enrich the content curriculum. part 2 deals with internationalisation and begins with a critical perspective on internationalisation itself. of particular interest was the call for an inclusive agenda which facilitates an internationalised curriculum at home (thus removing the need for student mobility). the chapter challenges lazy thinking about what internationalisation is and could be. for example, the author underscores the fact that large numbers of students taking part in erasmus does not necessarily equate to a high level of commitment to internationalisation, or that students who study in a different country will necessarily experience intercultural development. the proposed “internationalisation at home” as a way forward is not only appealing from a social justice perspective, but also offers a way of continuing the project during the current pandemic. at the same time, student mobility of course remains an important facet of internationalisation, and chapter 2 explores international students’ quality of experience during their time abroad. the author describes her own experience of supporting students in an international mobility programme and the role of service learning in providing linguistic and cultural reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 267-270268 experiences. the challenge perhaps is to engage university leadership and policy makers so that this type of mutually beneficial approach is implemented more widely. chapter 3 also centres on study abroad and reports the results of a mixed methods longitudinal study exploring the impact of erasmus on identities, language attitudes and uses, and employability. the results of the pre-/post-questionnaire study revealed students’ perceptions of a hierarchy of languages with, perhaps unsurprisingly, english at the top. more surprising to me was the decreasing interest in learning the local language, although differences in attitudes were observed depending on the host country context. the final chapter in this section shifts our gaze from the students to academics, and their views on the impact of internationalisation on teaching and research. the challenges and opportunities offered by internationalisation are revealed. in the final section, four chapters consider how applied linguistics can contribute to employability and address social challenges. the first chapter deals with pronunciation and employability and provides an overview of the range of features that can generate misunderstanding or a negative evaluation of the speaker. the chapter begins with the truism: “people judge each other, in part, not only by what they say but also how they speak.” the author proposes working to reduce facets of pronunciation that impede intelligibility for a global audience, which is a sensible aim; however, the final suggestion of eliminating stereotyped features (e.g. the trilled /r/ for l1 spanish speakers) in order to make a better impression on potentially biased listeners perhaps invites challenge from scholars with expertise in sociolinguistics, world englishes and english as a lingua franca. chapter 2 is a wide-ranging chapter that looks at how higher education can function better to provide students with marketable skills and meet business needs as demand for bilingual speakers increases. one the one hand, i appreciated the author’s call for curricula based on the projected language needs of students in their future employment. on the other, i wondered about the practicalities given the specificity of language use in different professional contexts. it is also perhaps important to ask why it should be the role of universities and not companies to provide (and fund) job specific language training. the final chapters take a different turn: chapter 3 looks at student attitudes to migration as revealed through their written compositions, while chapter 4 demonstrates how methods in applied linguistics (in this case multimodal text analysis) can be applied to questions of gender equality in the professions. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 267-270 269 to conclude, i found this collection to be very thought-provoking. the overarching experience of reading the book is to be reminded that as applied linguists, we have a strong role to play in society at large and must reach out beyond the borders of academia. refreshingly, the book is not englishlanguage-centric in terms of subject matter, and there is a mix of empirical pieces and more reflective and discursive chapters. perhaps due to the breadth of topics covered and the broad range of intended readers – lecturers, students, policy makers, industry, and the professions – the experience of reading the book from start to finish was a little disjointed. but i imagine most readers will “dip in” depending on their specific interest and will find their time well spent. i also wondered whether some of the ideologies underpinning the book could have been subject to more challenge (e.g. employability agendas and the role of the university in society), and whether questions of social justice could have been pursued more strongly. but on the whole, i recommend this book as a call to action to reassert the societal importance and relevance of applied linguistics today. received 01 september 2020 accepted 07 september 2020 reviewed by lisa mcgrath sheffield institute of education, sheffield hallam university (united kingdom) l.mcgrath@shu.ac.uk reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 267-270270 01 editorial.qxd editorial at aelfe v (zaragoza, 14-16 september 2006) i was elected and appointed to take command of ibérica, the flagship of aelfe. i have been a member of aelfe since its early stages, and of ibérica’s editorial board since july 2000. having worked with the two previous editors of this journal i cannot but bring them to my memory and praise their achievements. by the second half of the 1990’s, aelfe’s executive committee foresaw the need of a spanish-based academic journal so as to respond to the emergent and promising research on languages for specific purposes carried out by aelfe members. conferences on lsp became frequent, lecturers with the task of teaching languages for academic and vocational purposes spread throughout spanish universities, researching interests and outcomes demanded scholarly support … and ibérica was conceived. margaret mcginity accepted the challenge as pioneering editor, showed initiative and worked hard and patiently in laying the keel and building the hull. jordi piqué took over at issue no. 5 and, since then, he has been fitting the vessel out neatly and carefully, showing undeniable dedication, expertise and professionalism. ibérica has also been, and still is, an efficiently-crewed craft. my sincere appreciation to preceding and current editorial committees for their commitment, assistance and support. today, ibérica is a widely recognized journal among scholars and researchers which covers the multi-faceted nature of lsp. it is published twice a year on a steady basis, indexed in some internationally-accepted lists and aimed at a global audience with varying research expectations but a common interest in the study of languages as applied to different academic and vocational contexts. ibérica has become very popular outside spain thanks to the journal itself, to the invited contributions and to aelfe conferences, and many papers have recently been submitted from abroad –hopefully, they will be published in forthcoming issues. i take this opportunity to encourage aelfe members to submit their work, either in the form of “research articles” (8,000 words maximum) or “reviews” (around 1,000 words) on recent publications. ibérica is also a forum for discussion and, hence, the sections “research notes” (up to 3,000 words approximately) and “interview with …” provide the opportunity for updating the background and listening more closely to relevant scholars in the field. if any aelfe member feels ibérica 13 [2007]: 5-6 5 01 editorial.qxp 6/4/07 08:49 página 5 confident and shows expertise in editing a set of papers on a highly topical subject or an issue of particular relevance to lsp, monographs can also be presented to the editorial board, submitted for review and are especially encouraged. still, the voyage is intended to be long and there is a lot of work ahead. based on the solid achievements inherited, my most immediate concern is the consolidation of ibérica as a worldwide reference journal in lsp scholarship. in so doing, many new, as well as corrective, actions will need to be undertaken: new index lists will be applied for so that they contribute to the “global spread” (quoting gibson ferguson’s paper in this issue) of ibérica; the international advisory board will be updated and the editorial board enlarged; the “instructions for authors” section will be enhanced so as to provide greater detail; the referees’ evaluation form and assessment process will be improved so that the peer-reviewing outcomes become more specific in the provision of comments and recommendations for further submissions; and, indeed, all suggestions put forward by readers and aelfe members alike will be welcome and taken into consideration. my predecessor jordi piqué dropped anchor at issue no. 12 with the hope of letting “new air and new ideas come in and continue our work”. it is time now for this editor and editorial board to heave up, set sail and cater for the seaworthiness of ibérica, the journal of aelfe. ana bocanegra valle universidad de cádiz (spain) editor of ibérica ana bocanegra valle ibérica 13 [2007]: 5-66 01 editorial.qxp 6/4/07 08:49 página 6 iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.289 abstract against the backdrop of english being the academic lingua franca, chinese medical doctors are under tremendous pressure to get their research published in english-medium journals. this paper reports on a multiple-case study of chinese medical doctors’ scholarly publishing in english. drawing on multiple types of data collected from two doctors at a major hospital affiliated with a top research-intensive university in mainland china, we explored the focal participants’ perspectives on their difficulties in scholarly publishing, their strategies for addressing these difficulties, and the factors and resources at work in their navigation of the publishing processes. informed by activity theory, we identified contradictions within the doctors’ scholarly publishing activity systems. we focused on the rules and tools that framed the doctors’ scholarly publishing activities, and our findings revealed how they drew on an array of tools and signs to resolve the contradictions and meditate their scholarly publishing endeavors. our study points to the need for institutional policies and initiatives to support chinese medical doctors aspiring for international publication. keywords: international publishing, academic writing, english-as-anadditional-language researchers, activity theory, medical doctors. resumen las prácticas de publicación académica en inglés de dos médicos chinos: desafíos, contradicciones y estrategias two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices: challenges, contradictions and coping strategies songsha ren1,2 & guangwei hu2 1school of foreign languages, china west normal university 2department of english and communication,the hong kong polytechnic university (china) songsha.ren@connect.polyu.hk, guangwei.hu@polyu.edu.hk 289 ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 songsha ren & guangwei hu en un contexto en el que el inglés es la lengua franca académica, los médicos chinos se ven sometidos a una enorme presión para publicar sus investigaciones en revistas anglosajonas. este artículo presenta un estudio de varios casos centrado en las publicaciones académicas en inglés por parte de médicos chinos. con base en diferentes tipos de datos recogidos de dos médicos de un prestigioso hospital afiliado a una universidad de perfil investigador en china continental, exploramos las perspectivas de los participantes sobre sus dificultades en la publicación académica, sus estrategias para hacer frente a estas ellas y los factores y recursos que intervienen en los procesos de publicación. basándonos en la teoría de la actividad, identificamos contradicciones en los sistemas de actividad de publicación académica de los doctores. nos centramos en las reglas y herramientas que enmarcaban las actividades de publicación académica de los doctores. nuestros hallazgos evidenciaron cómo recurrían a una serie de herramientas y signos para resolver esas contradicciones y reflexionar acerca de sus esfuerzos de publicación académica. nuestro estudio pone de manifiesto la necesidad de políticas e iniciativas institucionales para apoyar a los médicos chinos que aspiran a publicar a nivel internacional. palabras clave: publicación internacional, redacción académica, investigadores del inglés como lengua adicional, teoría de la actividad, médicos. 1. introduction scholarly publishing has been increasingly prized because research output is widely adopted as a definitive indicator of an institution’s quality, performance, rankings, and funding allocations (lillis & curry, 2006, 2010; mcgrail et al., 2006). moreover, english has become established as the privileged language of scholarly publication (curry & lillis, 2010; kuteeva & mauranen, 2014). the dominance of english as the scientific medium is evident in the valorized pecking orders of academic journals, such as the science citation index (sci), and has shaped academic knowledge production and institutional evaluation systems in significant ways (curry & lillis, 2017), especially in english-as-an-additional-language (eal) countries (flowerdew & li, 2009). consequently, eal researchers have been under much pressure to publish in international english-medium journals (belcher, 2009; canagarajah, 2002; tardy, 2004). chinese doctors, or clinicianresearchers (yanos & ziedonis, 2006), are no exception (e.g., li, 2013; li, 2014a, 2014b). according to a news feature published in nature in 2021, the number of english-language journal articles with authors affiliated to 290 chinese hospitals has increased 50-fold over the past two decades (else & van noorden, 2021). despite the huge increase, articles authored by chinese doctors do not seem to be well received by the international academic community, as can be seen in their relatively low essential science indicators (esi), an influential database that covers more than 12,000 journals included in the web of science (wos) core collection and aims to reveal research trends as well as influential authors, publications, and institutions. one possible contributor is chinese doctors’ inadequate english writing skills, which hamper their effort to translate their research into high-quality publications (zhang et al., 2020). although research has shown that such language barriers may pose additional challenges to eal researchers, much remains unknown about the specific difficulties that chinese medical doctors may face and the various strategies that they develop to overcome these difficulties, since formal training in scholarly publishing is rare at medical schools (mcneill et al., 2007; oyibo, 2017). this study was therefore motivated by the increasing visibility of chinese medical doctors in the international academic community and the paucity of research on their scholarly publishing experiences and practices. as the types of challenges and difficulties examined in this study are not unique to chinese medical doctors but are also faced by their counterparts in other eal countries (martín et al., 2014; mungra & webber, 2010), our findings can contribute to illuminating what is happening in such contexts. given that scholarly publishing is a situated practice with its dynamics being contextspecific, our study can also shed light on how situational constraints faced by chinese doctors may be similar to or different from those faced by eal medical doctors with a dual-status identity (i.e., as clinician and researcher) and aspiring to publish in other contexts. by examining how our focal doctors were juggling between the demands of academic research and clinical practice, we hope to develop a contextualized understanding of their scholarly publishing activity system and present an informed critique of the sci-oriented promotion mechanism widely instated in mainland china and other eal contexts (curry & lillis, 2017). when aspiring to publish in english-medium journals, eal researchers often face what have been traditionally characterized as linguistic and content-related challenges (canagarajah, 2002; carli & ammon, 2007; ferguson et al., 2011; phillipson, 2008, 2009). these scholars may find their aspirations frustrated by their insufficient english proficiency and inadequate understanding of english academic writing conventions (martín two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 291 et al., 2014; muresan & pérez-llantada, 2014). in addition, content-related difficulties may thwart eal researchers’ efforts to publish impactful research (huang, 2010; mišak et al., 2005). these problems include lack of originality (muresan & pérez-llantada, 2014), methodological shortcomings (lei & hu, 2019), insufficient procedural rigor (mungra & webber, 2010), and invalid interpretations of the results and inappropriate conclusions (mišak et al., 2005). for example, martín et al. (2014) found that due to the stiff competition to publish in english-medium journals, eal medical researchers had to argue for the relevance of their studies in their responses to reviewers’ comments, which they deemed an exceptionally daunting task. to cope with the challenges, eal scholars may resort to mediating resources of various types: material (e.g., cultural artifacts), financial (e.g., paying for the services of language professionals), and social (e.g., enlisting the help of colleagues) (lillis & curry, 2010). given the situated nature of eal researchers’ challenges and resources, the type and extent of mediation vary from one context to another (li & flowerdew, 2007; luo & hyland, 2021; mcdowell & liardét, 2019). research has also shown that eal researchers’ success in scholarly publishing depends to a large extent on whether they can mobilize resources at hand to overcome the challenges that they face (lillis & curry, 2010; luo & hyland, 2019). for instance, luo and hyland’s (2019) case study of a chinese medical doctor’s use of translation as a practical text mediation strategy revealed that the participant “[could] hardly write a complete sentence in english but regularly publish[ed] in prestigious international journals” (p. 19). therefore, luo and hyland (2019) argued for the usefulness of text mediation as a strategy for eal researchers to make up for their inadequate english proficiency. although a substantial body of research has focused on the publishing endeavors of eal researchers based in non-anglophone countries (lei & hu, 2015, 2019), there is still much to learn about chinese medical doctors’ english-medium publishing experiences, especially the array of disciplinary, professional, institutional, and individual factors that both give rise to challenges in their publishing efforts and mediate the strategies they develop to overcome such challenges. therefore, this study aims to contribute to the current literature by presenting a contextualized and close-up analysis of chinese medical doctors’ scholarly publishing practices and offering pedagogical implications for english for research and publication purposes (erpp). in light of current scholarship that has started to conceptualize scholarly publishing by eal scholars as social practice constituted by locally songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316292 negotiated and pervasively mediated processes (lei & hu, 2019), the present study draws on activity theory (engeström et al., 1999) to capture the complexity of scholarly publishing activities. this theoretical perspective explores the complex interrelations between individual subjects and their community (engeström, 2015) and provides a useful framework for interrogating various social practices, including scholarly publishing activities. according to engeström (2015), an activity system can be represented and studied in terms of seven interrelated analytical elements (i.e., subject, object, outcome, mediating artifacts, community, division of labor, and rules) and the fundamental forms of mediation between them. the subject is the individual or group whose viewpoint is selected as the analytical perspective. the object is the “raw material” or “problem space”, which is transformed by the activity into an outcome with the assistance of mediating artifacts (i.e., tools and signs). the mediating artifacts are instruments through which the activity is carried out. the community consists of individuals or groups that share the same object. the division of labor concerns “both the horizontal division of tasks between the members of the community and the vertical division of power and status” (engeström, 1993, p. 67). lastly, the rules are “the explicit and implicit regulations, norms and conventions that constrain actions and interactions within the activity system” (engeström, 1993, p. 67). with specific reference to the activity system of scholarly publishing, the subject is a medical doctor, whose object is to turn his/her research into publications that create new knowledge, improve clinical work, join the dialogue of the discourse community, and fulfill the hospital’s publication requirements. the subject’s mediating resources and tools include relevant scholarly literature, colleagues, supervisors, fellow researchers, language professionals, editorial services, journal editors, manuscript reviewers, among others. the subject’s community may comprise hospital administrators, supervisors, patients, fellow doctors, various gatekeepers of scholarly publishing, and other academic and professional members. the division of labor explores how tasks are shared based on available/adopted roles and power relations. for instance, journal editors and manuscript reviewers serve as gatekeepers of the quality of scholarly publications and offer feedback to improve the manuscripts under review, whereas colleagues are expected to provide mutual support. with respect to the power relations involved in scholarly publishing, journal editors and manuscript reviewers are at higher rungs of power and authority than is the medical doctor who aspires to publish in their journals. the rules prevalent in two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 293 the activity system comprise both the explicit/implicit norms and conventions of academia and the hospital’s policies and regulations regarding scholarly publishing. the outcome may be desirable (e.g., published articles, the meeting of institutional publication requirements for promotion, membership in the academic community, and contributions to knowledge) or negative (e.g., rejection of the submitted manuscripts, failure to meet the institutional publication requirements for promotion, and missed opportunities to contribute knowledge). as a pivotal construct of activity theory, contradictions are “historically accumulating structural tensions in and between components of activity, or between activities” (engeström, 2001, p. 137). within the structure of an activity system, four levels of contradictions can be distinguished (engeström, 2015): primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. the present study focuses on the first two levels. a primary contradiction arises within a constitutive component of the activity system, as illustrated by the inherent conflict between the object of securing promotions promptly by striving for the quantity of research output and the object of contributing to knowledge by producing quality scholarly publications. secondary contradictions, on the other hand, exist between an activity system’s constitutive components, for example, when institutional rules encouraging a product-oriented approach to scholarly publication undermine the subject’s process-oriented object of developing himself/herself into a well-rounded clinician-researcher or the desired outcome of producing new scientific knowledge. notably, primary contradictions manifest themselves in secondary contradictions (roth & lee, 2007). importantly, contradictions are “the principle of [an activity’s] self-movement and ... the form in which the development is cast” (ilyenkov, 1977, p. 330). therefore, an analysis of contradictions in an activity system is critical to an understanding of its developmental trajectory. because activity systems evolve and develop through the resolution of contradictions, this framework also offers a means of identifying potential tensions and learning opportunities by examining the dynamic relationship between the difficulties faced by doctors and the strategies that they deploy to address those difficulties. informed by activity theory, the study set out to answer three research questions: 1. what challenges do chinese medical doctors encounter in scholarly publishing in english? songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316294 2. what are the strategies they develop and deploy to address those challenges? 3. how do these challenges and strategies mold their scholarly publishing practices? 2. method this study employed a holistic multiple-case study design (yin, 2018) to examine how two chinese medical doctors engaged in scholarly publishing in their professional context. this design allowed us to conduct an in-depth investigation into individual cases and understand a complex phenomenon in a real-life context because case-study research is equipped to address exploratory research questions of “what”, “how” and “why”, and is the preferred methodology when the researcher has little control over the events to be examined (yin, 2018). furthermore, given the complexity and multidimensionality of our research problem, the multiple-case design would facilitate a contextualized understanding of chinese medical doctors’ publishing practices and offer cross-case corroboration (duff, 2008; yin, 2018). moreover, it was necessary for our exploratory study to select cases from the same context so as not to “prematurely rule out particular variables or factors” (duff, 2008, p. 119). 2.1. research site and participants the research site chosen for this study was a top-tier hospital (y hospital) affiliated with the medical school of a top research-intensive university (x university) in western china. the medical school offers associate, baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral programs. in addition to clinical duties and research work, the medical doctors at y hospital are also required to undertake teaching and supervision. notably, according to the nature index 2020, x university is among the academic institutions that made fast increases in their research productivity between 2015 and 2020. to enhance its competitiveness for national research grants and awards and boost its rankings at inter/national levels, y hospital started to include research output (especially sci-indexed papers) among job responsibilities and rolled out a publication policy around 2010. in the updated version of the policy that was in effect at the time of our study, sci-indexed english papers carry more weight than chinese ones do, especially when it comes to promotions and awards, and can catapult hopefuls on the promotion fast track. two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 295 two medical doctors at the focal hospital were selected as participants in this study for three reasons. first, the hospital is renowned for its high rankings in various national leagues of clinical capability and research output. second, although the sci-indexed papers produced by its staff outnumber those emanating from other chinese hospitals, its esi for the category of clinical medicine suggests that its research output does not have much international impact. the issue was highlighted in a recent document circulated by y hospital: “the quantity of our sci-indexed papers is continuing to increase, but the quality of these papers has not much improved”. third, unlike chinese scholars in other fields whose scholarly publishing has received considerable attention (e.g., li & flowerdew, 2007), much less research has focused on chinese medical doctors. we employed a purposeful sampling strategy, namely criterion sampling, to select the participants for this study. the sampling criteria include: (1) being junior doctors, (2) having experience of publishing in english, and (3) having varying success in their english scholarly publishing. the two medical doctors at y hospital, yang and pang (pseudonyms), were selected due to both differences and similarities in their english-medium scholarly publishing experience. yang was recommended by our contact person (also a medical doctor) at y hospital for having published many sci-indexed articles in english. he was enrolled in an undergraduate-postgraduate-doctoral integrated program at the medical school of x university in 2008 and graduated with a doctoral degree in 2016. he then started working as a post-doctoral fellow in his doctoral supervisor’s team at y hospital and finished his post-doctoral research in 2021. at the same time, he was undertaking clinician responsibilities at y hospital and was undergoing a clinical training program. yang did not have any overseas experience. at the time of this study, he had been studying and working at x university and its affiliated y hospital for almost 13 years. his good number of english-medium publications notwithstanding, he confided that the quality of his sci-indexed papers was not high, as indicated by the relatively low impact factors of the journals where his papers appeared and the unsatisfactory language quality of these papers. to secure a promotion, he still needed to publish papers in highranking international journals. pang was enrolled in an undergraduate-postgraduate integrated program in the medical school of x university in 2003 and graduated with a master’s degree in 2010. in the next three years, he worked at a hospital affiliated with a provincial university. in 2013, he left this job to study in a doctoral program songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316296 at a top medical school affiliated with p university, a leading researchintensive university in mainland china, and graduated with a doctoral degree in 2016. he was then recruited by y hospital and started working there. pang later stayed at a medical school in usa as a visiting scholar for three months. although he published papers in prestigious sci-indexed journals before he joined y hospital, pang reported that he was struggling with writing papers in english, due to his inadequate english proficiency and heavy workload at y hospital. as revealed by our findings in the following sections, such personal and situational factors prevented pang from pursuing his aspirations to publish research papers in high-quality sci-indexed journals. he confided that he was not willing to play the numbers game – it was the quality of scholarly publications, not the quantity, that mattered to him. consequently, pang lamented that the number of academic papers published during his employment at y hospital was far from enough to secure him a promotion to associate professorship. yang and pang were both in their thirties and had similar academic backgrounds and learning experience. both reported that they had received little training in either academic writing or scholarly publishing. as they were recruited by y hospital in the same year, they were under similar pressure to publish and meet the hospital’s publication requirements for a promotion to associate professor/deputy chief physician. table 1 summarizes the two doctors’ publication profiles1. table 1. participants’ publication profile before and during employment at y hospital. 2.2. data collection and analysis data collection was conducted in strict accordance with the institutional review board approval of our study. we collected several types of data to achieve data triangulation and enhance the trustworthiness of our findings (lincoln & guba, 1985). the collected data comprised: (1) institutional policy documents, (2) the two doctors’ drafts, together with related artifacts (e.g., policy documents, editors’ letters, and reviewers’ reports), and (3) intwo chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 297 name sex age start date degree professional/ academic rank no. of papers before work no. of papers during work manuscripts in progress chinese english chinese english chinese english pang m 30s 2016 phd attending physician/ lecturer 3 4 2 2 0 8 2 yang m 30s 2016 phd attending physician/ lecturer 0 3 0 16 0 2 f depth, semi-structured interviews with the doctors centering around their manuscripts, their perspectives on and interpretations of selected reviewer comments, and their descriptions of the revisions made by themselves, their colleagues, or language professionals whose services they had solicited. the interviews were the main data source for our study. information collected in these interviews included their l1 and l2 writing experiences, their perceived skills or lack thereof, their attitudes towards and perceptions of scholarly publishing and publication policy, publication histories, their motives and goals for scholarly publishing, and any involvement of others in their writing processes. three interviews were held with each of the two doctors, and all the interviews were undertaken by the first author. the interviews were conducted in chinese, lasted between 1 and 2 hours, were audio-recorded, and later transcribed for subsequent analysis. following yagamata-lynch’s (2010) analytical approach, we conducted a thematic analysis and an activity systems analysis. we followed the guidelines of constructivist grounded theory (charmaz, 2017) in coding our data. the data coding comprised two phases: an initial coding phase followed by a focused, selective coding phase. in the initial coding phase, we examined the data carefully and iteratively to become thoroughly familiar with the data; we tried to both remain open to, and stay close to, our data by doing line-by-line coding and, wherever possible, using in vivo codes, namely the doctors’ own words as codes. we then moved on to focused coding to decide which of the initial codes made the most analytic sense to capture our data incisively and comprehensively in our emerging analysis. this inductive and data-driven approach to coding prevented the imposition of our prior theory on our data. we then constructed themes to capture the patterns indexed by our focused codes, reviewed and defined the themes to “ensure that the themes work well in relation to the coded data, the dataset, and the research question” (terry et al., 2017, p. 29). in conducting the activity systems analysis (yamagata-lynch, 2010), we looked across individual accounts, developed narratives to describe each doctor’s experience with scholarly publishing, and identified themes related to the elements of the doctors’ scholarly publishing activity system and to our sensitizing concepts, including difficulties, mediating resources, and coping strategies. we then examined the relationships between the activity system’s components to determine contradictions and tensions in the system and identified the ways in which the doctors reduced or resolved these contradictions and tensions. songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316298 3. findings while the two doctors differed in their scholarly publishing experience, our cross-case analysis generated two common themes: 1) lack of grounding in scholarly publishing, and 2) coping strategies as efforts to resolve contradictions within the scholarly publishing activity system. 3.1. lack of grounding in scholarly publishing 3 . 1 . 1 . in ad e qua t e l an gu ag e sk i l l s both pang and yang viewed their inadequate english proficiency as a significant obstacle to their scholarly publishing in english-medium journals. pang lamented that “to us, especially medical doctors in mainland china, the english language is really a very big obstacle” (interview, 7 feb 2021). his account of drafting english manuscripts captured the stumbling process and the language problems he had with english scholarly writing: it was like my mind was in chaos. i cannot figure out the logic in the english language. i feel lost in the meaning i am trying to make. now if you ask me to write up my manuscripts in english, i just do not know how to organize my language (interview, 18 april 2021). he shared his specific language difficulties in scholarly writing, such as “poor vocabulary and grammar knowledge” (interview, 18 april 2021), and admitted that nearly all his manuscripts had language problems, as evidenced by some reviewers’ blunt comments on the unintelligibility of his writing. much to his frustration, “s/he [the reviewer] simply commented that s/he could not understand your english” (interview, 14 march 2021). due to his inadequate language proficiency, pang felt that “english academic writing was a very time-consuming process” (interview, 7 feb 2021). likewise, yang confided that “language is a big problem for me when writing up english manuscripts” (interview, 14 march 2021): i think i’m not equipped with the capacity to think in english. in most cases, i have to do the thinking in chinese first and then translate it into english (interview, 14 march 2021). yang mentioned his difficulties with metadiscourse markers (e.g., hedges and boosters) to support and construct his argument. two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 299 when i got some evidence that was not particularly strong, i may have used words indicating a higher evidential value than the evidence warranted (interview, 14 march 2021). yang’s language difficulties stemmed partly from his restricted store of english phrases and sentence structures and his practice of “borrowing” the needed vocabulary and sentence structures from published articles: if you ask me to write up a manuscript on covid-19, i don’t think i can do a good job because there are not so many published journal articles from which i can learn the phrases and sentence patterns. it can be a great challenge to me (interview, 14 march 2021). he explained that his inadequate command of english impeded an in-depth discussion on central issues in his manuscripts. despite these language difficulties, yang said that his manuscripts were rarely rejected only because of language-related issues. however, he did acknowledge that nearly all his manuscripts had some spelling and grammatical errors identified by journal editors and reviewers. the language difficulties presented above concern not only sophisticated language features such as metadiscourse but also basic usages of lexicon and grammar. these problems highlight the doctors’ lack of adequate english language skills to meet the high linguistic demands of scholarly writing. 3 . 1 . 2 . la ck o f g en r e k no w l ed g e another difficulty perceived by the doctors was their lack of explicit genre knowledge. while they had some implicit genre knowledge as manifested in their references to the “logic in writing”, both pang and yang acknowledged their struggles with different types of writing (i.e., genres or sub-genres) because their manuscripts reported either basic or clinical research. they explained that their basic research was mainly based on biomedical experiments conducted in the laboratories, whereas their clinical research consisted of patient-oriented retrospective and prospective studies (rubio et al., 2010). both agreed that conducting and reporting basic research was more challenging due to their insufficient training in such research and scholarly writing during their medical school days. it is important to note that the two doctors also reported that they found it quite challenging to write up clinical research papers. songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316300 although both yang and pang were familiar with the components of different types of research articles (e.g., introduction, method, discussion), their perceived difficulties revealed their lack of sophisticated genre knowledge to achieve the desired rhetorical effects in their writing. when it comes to the reporting of clinical research, pang reported that “my specific difficulty in writing up the results section has to do with presenting the results in a coherent way”; he found it difficult to accentuate the most relevant details and findings of his studies (interview, 14 march 2021). although he did not report difficulty with the discussion section, pang found the comments from journal editors and reviewers instructive: they [editors and reviewers] often pointed out that in the discussion section, my explanation of a certain phenomenon was not well supported by my results. i think this is a common problem among chinese scholars, including myself. chinese scholars tend to discuss stuff that doesn’t come from their own research. i think chinese scholars infuse too much of their subjectivity in their discussion. it’s like that your discussion of the results in your manuscripts is based on your own subjective opinions rather than your data (interview, 14 march 2021). of all the sections, yang found it easier to write the methods and results sections but admitted that the discussion section was a headache: the difficult task for me is how to discuss what my results mean, instead of merely summarizing and repeating them and the related conclusions, and what contributions they can make to clinical practice (interview, 14 march 2021). when reflecting on his experience of publishing his first basic research paper, yang said: i was not sure what the logic should be. i just did not know what points i should write about and in which parts i should include these points (interview, 18 april 2021). having published both clinical and basic research, pang concurred with yang that “it is more difficult for doctors to write up a manuscript on basic research”, especially when it comes to reporting experimental findings in basic research (interview, 18 april 2021). two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 301 the above accounts both demonstrated some genre awareness in the two doctors and attested to their lack of nuanced genre knowledge and familiarity with the discourse conventions of their target academic communities (martín et al., 2014; muresan & pérez-llantada, 2014). their candid sharing revealed that they were cognizant of the rhetorical and social functions of different genres but found it challenging to integrate these two dimensions of genre knowledge in a particular research paper (driscoll et al., 2020; tardy, 2009). despite their keen sense of the need to highlight the novel contribution of their research to disciplinary knowledge, their lack of genre expertise prevented them from doing so effectively. their struggles with the discussion section stemmed largely from their unfamiliarity with the discourse conventions of the international disciplinary community whose membership they were seeking (negretti & kuteeva, 2011). the greater difficulties they had with basic research seemed to have also resulted from their unfamiliarity with the norms and conventions of the disciplinary genre that instantiates and embeds the epistemological assumptions underlying such research (berkenkotter & huckin, 2016). 3 . 1 . 3 . la ck o f ex pe r t is e i n co nc ei v in g an d d e si g ni ng r e se ar c h another major difficulty perceived by the doctors was their lack of expertise in spotting novel research topics, developing strong research designs and achieving rigor in data collection and analysis. both pang and yang admitted that their manuscripts were mostly rejected for a lack of novelty and relevance. pang confided that “on quite a few occasions, the journal editors and reviewers directly pointed out that others have already done similar research before” (interview, 18 april 2021). yang also commented: it is rather difficult to publish in a prestigious international journal because this means you need to find a very interesting aspect of a specific clinical practice that not so many researchers in your field have noticed (interview, 18 april 2021). both doctors explained that their difficulty in coming up with novel research problems arose from their inexpertness in clinical practice/research as junior doctors. as yang further noted, unique clinical research problems that promise novel breakthroughs can only be spotted by those doctors with an in-depth understanding of their field because of their extended engagement songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316302 in clinical practice, and it would be difficult for junior doctors to find such a niche because of their lack of such in-depth knowledge and extended clinical practice. while they were well aware of the importance of methodological rigor and robust research design for publishing in international journals, yang and pang shared the methodological problems that they found chinese medical doctors likely to have. pang provided an unreserved account of such problems: the comments [from editors and reviewers] were often aimed at my research design. they pointed out that my manuscript reported a retrospective study, but i did not include an adequate number of medical records, and that my cases and samples were too few. or they commented that my follow-up period was too short. moreover, they also pointed out my research lacked methodological novelty (interview, 14 march 2021). likewise, yang reported the various unexpected problems he encountered when designing his first basic research study leading to an english-medium publication, and described the process as one of “twists and turns” (interview, 18 april 2021). for instance, the reviewers directly pointed out the “weakness” in his research design: the lack of in vivo evidence on…expression in the rat mi model is a weakness (rc1-ems1). he admitted that when he obtained the results of this 2-year study, he found himself unable to interpret them. this issue was raised by the reviewers: in figure..., with respect to normoxia in…, the…did not reduced...authors should explain it. this result is not supporting the data.... (rc1-ems1). from an activity theory perspective, the various difficulties and challenges recounted by the doctors were concomitant with several primary and secondary contradictions (engeström, 2015) in their scholarly publishing activity system. among them were the primary contradiction between their status as junior clinician-researchers and their expected status as expert knowledge contributors (lei & hu, 2019), and the secondary contradiction between their expected expertise in scholarly publishing and the absence of tools concomitant to such expertise (engeström, 2015). the doctors resorted to an array of strategies to resolve the contradictions. two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 303 3.2. strategies for mediating and resolving structural tensions to address the above difficulties and challenges, the doctors turned to various mediating resources, namely cultural artifacts, individuals and relationships that could be capitalized on as tools to facilitate their scholarly publishing activities. the effectiveness of these tools varied and depended on the intersection of the doctors’ own publishing experience and learning history with a range of factors. 3 . 2 . 1 . a dd r es si ng i n ad eq ua te l a ng u ag e sk il l s both yang and pang reported that to compensate for their inadequate english proficiency they imitated and borrowed linguistic expressions and sentence templates from published journal articles. another strategy frequently employed to overcome the negative impact of inadequate english language skills was drafting a manuscript in chinese before translating it into english. when translating a manuscript into english, pang used baidu (an internet search engine widely used in china) and google to search for unfamiliar words and phrases, and yang often used google translate to do the initial translation and then revised the translation, as illustrated by the extracts below: …most of the… is …are in a static state quiescent fibroblastlike…responsible for maintaining…homeostasis, mainly secreting moderate extracellular matrix to maintain…homeostasis;…. we therefore design the purpose of the present study is to provide a novel method for…(ems2-first draft). as the excerpts show, yang’s revisions were not restricted to linguistic expressions and syntactical structures but also concerned the construction of authorial voice and identity by using the first-person pronoun. additionally, the two doctors turned to colleagues/fellow researchers (yang), language professionals (pang), and/or editorial services (yang & pang) for language support. yang enlisted the help of members in his local community (e.g., senior colleagues in his department) to proofread and revise his manuscripts, which eliminated many of his language problems. unlike the chinese doctors in li’s (2013) study who reported that they rarely used editorial services, the doctors in our study put a premium on such editorial services. both reported that their manuscripts were mostly free of language songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316304 problems after they were edited by the paid editorial services. pang remarked that of all the mediating resources, “the editorial services are the most useful, as long as you pay the fees” (interview, 14 march 2021). despite his favorable experience with such services, pang reported that “half of his manuscripts were accepted without using english editorial services” (interview, 14 march 2021). he explained that he endeavored to tackle the language problems himself so as to develop his english competence. our study revealed that the eal researchers sought support from various mediators to navigate their academic text production. despite the perceived usefulness of these mediators, there were also some limitations. first, while pang was very positive about the usefulness of paid english editorial services, yang expressed some reservations about such editorial services. yang reported that in some cases, the quality of english editorial services failed to meet his expectations because only minor revisions were made to his manuscripts. one possible reason, as yang explained, was that he paid only for “basic editing service” due to his lack of funding as a junior doctor. he further noted that “different rates are charged for different types of editorial service” and that “if you want to have your manuscripts substantially revised and polished, it will cost a bomb” (interview, 18 april 2021). yang said that he would pay for editorial services only at the journal editors’ requests. furthermore, both doctors learnt from their publishing experiences that language problems were not the litmus test for the fate of their manuscripts and consequently they usually opted to solve such problems themselves (pang) or by seeking collegial support (yang). they would turn to editorial services when they felt that the language issues were beyond themselves/their colleagues and when they had the financial resources. they explained that while having no language problems would enhance the chance of publication, it was the quality of research (e.g., the appropriateness of the research design adopted) that would be the most important determinant of the fate of their manuscripts. second, the effectiveness of textual mediation by language professionals depends very much on their possession of relevant disciplinary knowledge (luo & hyland, 2021; willey & tanimoto, 2015). as pang noted, english language teachers as mediators were unlikely to deal effectively with specialist knowledge, and “their help often turned to be limited and superficial” (interview, 14 march 2021). the limited usefulness of the textual mediation may also have reflected a mediator’s reluctance to “give pro bono discursive support, reflecting the time and effort involved for little return to the two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 305 mediator” (luo & hyland, 2021, p. 14). reflecting on his experience with various mediators, pang concluded that “i have learned that i need to depend on myself for the revision and polishing of my manuscripts” (interview, 14 march 2021). 3 . 2 . 2 . ov er c o m i n g in ad eq ua te g en r e k no w l e dg e to grapple with their lack of genre knowledge about english research papers, yang and pang reported that they learned “the logic of writing” from reading published journal articles. as yang explained, writing up scientific papers has some rules. if you read enough journal articles, you will just learn the “framework”, and can then write up the manuscripts step by step (interview, 14 march 2021). to deal with the challenges in writing up his first english manuscript reporting a basic research study, yang turned to a senior colleague for help when he could not decide how to organize his paper. despite his endeavor to “construct the logic of scholarly writing”, yang confided that journal editors and reviewers still raised questions about the logical organization of his writing: sometimes i did not know what the problems were. they [editors and reviewers] told me what and how i should write in a certain section. i made the requested revisions accordingly (interview, 18 april 2021). similarly, pang spoke highly of the journal editors’ and reviewers’ comments because they helped him improve his dissuasion section greatly. in his own words, “their comments were really helpful in deepening my understanding of the results”, and “it was then much easier for me to structure the discussion when i was able to think clearly about the results” (interview, 14 march 2021). additionally, when encountering difficulties in organizing his manuscripts, pang mentioned that “i also referred to some books, such as how to write and publish a scientific paper…. following the guidance of the books, i then checked and revised my own manuscripts”. he commented that “these reference books were of great help” to improve the quality of his research papers, as evidenced by the publication of those manuscripts written and revised solely by himself (interview, 14 march 2021). songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316306 3 .2 . 3 . tac kli ng th e lac k of exper tise in co ncei ving and desi gning resear ch to overcome their inexpertness in identifying novel research problems, developing strong research designs and making sense of their empirical results, the two doctors adopted several strategies. although he expected his manuscripts to be rejected for a lack of novelty, yang still submitted them to prestigious journals just to obtain the journal editors’ and reviewers’ comments: “the reviewers and editors sometimes raise questions about my methodology, which offers useful feedback to improve my research” (interview, 18 april 2021). as he explained, the more highly ranked the journals are, the greater research expertise the editors and reviewers have. i wanted to learn from their original views about research in my field, even though i knew my manuscripts were not of a high quality (interview, 18 april 2021). their comments made me notice some research problems i had never thought of, and these research problems had the potential to yield novel findings (interview, 14 march 2021). for similar reasons, pang valued the feedback from journal reviewers and editors. despite multiple rejections of his manuscripts by top journals mainly due to their lack of novelty, he revealed that: i have never submitted my manuscripts to journals such as scientific reports with an expectation that they would be easily accepted …. i only nominated as my reviewers the most influential scholars in my field and corresponding authors of the papers i cited (interview, 14 march 2021). pang reported that their comments enabled him to access their in-depth understanding of the existing body of knowledge and learn about the disciplinary frontiers. pang shared the story of receiving a reviewer’s recommendation of “accepted as it is. no revision needed” after one of his manuscripts was submitted to a prestigious journal for the seventh time (interview, 14 march 2021). he attributed this success to the helpful comments he had received from the editors and reviewers of the journals the manuscript had been submitted to. these comments greatly improved his “conceptual skills in conceiving and designing research” because they offered suggestions which made his research methods “more rigorous and better aligned with the scientific paradigm” (interview, 14 march 2021). although pang benefitted greatly from such comments, he admitted that two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 307 “the more comments i received from the journal reviewers and editors, the more likely they were to reject my paper” (interview, 14 march 2021). besides journal editors and reviewers, yang learned novel research designs and methods from published journal articles and turned to his senior colleagues and fellow researchers for methodological advice to compensate for his lack of research expertise. for instance, when yang was designing his first basic research project, he consulted a senior colleague on its research design and methodological procedure. he also used some new, sophisticated statistical tools to “enhance the validity” and “improve the quality” of his research (interview, 18 april 2021). instead of seeking help from members in his local disciplinary community, pang sought advice on his research methodology from the overseas scholars that he had met during his short stint at the american university. in his own words, “it would be best if you can find native english-speaking scholars to help polish your manuscripts and provide some specialist guidance on your research” (interview, 14 march 2021). to alleviate his weaknesses in interpreting empirical results, yang made strategic use of linguistic resources such as hedges in the discussion section of his papers. when he found it difficult to interpret some results, he would write in “a relatively humble voice” (interview, 18 april 2021). he used modal auxiliaries (e.g., could and might) to hedge his claims and modulate his confidence in them, as illustrated by the following excerpt: …implying increasing…activation could constitute a promising strategy... …in understanding how…might regulate…were made (yang, ems1-final draft). he went on to explain that “if the reviewers and editors did not question my writing in this part, it means that i was using the right tone” (interview, 18 april 2021). although this strategy was somewhat opportunistic, it seemed to work well for yang. in summary, pang and yang engaged with mediating artifacts (engeström, 2015; roth & lee, 2007), such as published journal articles and linguistic devices, and interacted with social others (e.g., colleagues, manuscript reviewers and journal editors) to address their insufficient research skills. these coping strategies sustained their scholarly publishing endeavors and helped them (re)construct their scholarly identities (russell, 1997). songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316308 4. discussion and conclusion in this study, we have examined, through the conceptual lens of activity theory, the challenges faced by two chinese medical doctors in their english-medium publishing endeavors and the various strategies employed by them to tackle the challenges. this theoretical perspective illuminates the root causes of the challenges and the nature of the strategies. these challenges and strategies emanated from several contradictions, or structural tensions, inherent in the doctors’ scholarly publishing activity system (engeström, 2015). some of these contradictions centered on y hospital’s publication policy. chief among them was the secondary contradiction between the policy as rules of the game for the subjects (i.e., the doctors) and the institutional as well as the subjects’ object of engaging in research. the rules represented a product-oriented approach that valorized quantities (e.g., numbers of publications and impact factors) and drove the doctors to publish sci-indexed articles (li, 2014b). such an approach was at tension with the subjects’ object of developing themselves into well-rounded clinician-researchers producing new scientific knowledge and the hospital’s object of enhancing its clinical and research capacity, which called for a more process-oriented approach. another secondary contradiction was the structural tension between the institutional publication policy as rules and the mediating resources needed to comply with the rules. y hospital directed the doctors’ attention to the expected outcome (i.e., publications in highimpact sci-indexed journals) but did not provide the tools and signs that they would need to achieve the outcome. this contradiction led to the multiple challenges faced by our participants and eal researchers in previous studies (ferguson et al., 2011; lei & hu, 2019; phillipson, 2009) and necessitated the coping strategies adopted by the two doctors. related to the structural tensions discussed above was a primary contradiction within the subjects. the two doctors were junior clinicianresearchers in the process of developing their clinical skills and scholarly publishing expertise on the one hand and were institutionally expected to be expert contributors of scientific knowledge on the other (lei & hu, 2019). this primary contradiction residing in their dual status played out in the secondary contradiction between their institutionally shaped object of scholarly publishing and the lack of grounding in research and scholarly publishing needed to achieve the object. to resolve these contradictions, the two doctors leveraged various mediating resources available in their community ranging from cultural artifacts (i.e., published two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 309 articles, sophisticated statistical tools, and linguistic resources) to significant social others (i.e., journal editors, manuscript reviewers, colleagues, fellow academics, and paid editorial services). notably, many of these coping strategies created valuable learning opportunities for the doctors and contributed to bridging the gap between their dual status. taken together, these findings indicate that scholarly publishing is an artifact-mediated, socially distributed, and historically embedded activity (lei & hu, 2019). according to yamagata-lynch (2010), activity theory has been criticized for focusing on observable activities but ignoring “individual cognitive development and its relationship with human activity, cognition, psychology, and cultural settings” (p. 28). our study has overcome this potential drawback and yielded a contextualized understanding of the structural tensions in the activity system where learning affordances for the doctors emerged (engeström, 2001). our findings have shown that the contradictions not only created difficulties and impediments but were also potential “sources of change and development” (engeström, 2015, p. 137). drawing on engeström’s (2015) theorizing, the activity system analysis conducted in our study has helped to “render explicit the more tacit elements of an action” (hashim & jones, 2007, p. 7). for example, our study has revealed that the doctors were relatively disadvantaged or advantaged in relation to specific mediating tools and prevailing rules, and experienced different levels of development and learning, depending on how they responded to the structural tensions in their scholarly publishing activity systems (engeström, 2015). furthermore, our study has shown that individuals and relationships could be drawn on as resources to facilitate the doctors’ scholarly publishing activities (clouder et al., 2020), corroborating the finding of previous studies (canagarajah, 2018; lillis & curry, 2010) that eal researchers’ scholarly publishing is not merely the enactment of individual competence but a networked activity and, consequently, goes beyond discursive issues to include the strategic mobilization of relevant social and material resources. thinking through our findings with activity theory has also helped to reveal that activity systems are experienced differently by individuals, though “the general structural characteristics” (engeström, 2001, p.140) remain stable. individuals inevitably embed an activity in their history (engeström, 2015), and such historical embedding will shape their attitudes towards rules, tools, and the way these are deployed (e.g., clouder et al., 2020). for example, the songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316310 doctors’ previous experiences shaped the tools available (e.g., resources of textual mediation) and how they were utilized. this individualism was charged with a sense of personal agency and allowed the doctors to develop their own strategies to deal with the institutionally imposed rules for scholarly publishing. for instance, yang focused strategically on increasing the number of his english-medium papers by publishing in sci-indexed but relatively low-impact journals, whereas pang put a premium on the quality rather than quantity of his scholarly publications and targeted prestigious journals. our study has revealed the strenuous challenges faced by early-career, dualstatus practitioners who need to conduct multidisciplinary translational research that intersects with basic and clinical science (rubio et al., 2010). it has also raised questions about the rationality of implementing assessmentoriented institutional policies without providing the resources and institutional support needed to achieve the policy goals. the findings of this study have several implications. first, although structural tensions in the scholarly publishing activity system bring along rich learning opportunities, our findings indicate that these contradictions cannot be fully resolved by the subjects’ personal agency alone. this points to a need for institutional policies and initiatives to support doctors aspiring for international publication. as attested to by our participants’ perceived difficulties, these policies and initiatives should make process-oriented and capacity-building support available to enhance their development as clinician-researchers. second, institutional support can take the form of in-service professional development programs designed to enhance a wide range of discursive competencies and research skills (smirnova et al., 2021). for instance, skills in conceiving and designing research for international publication and explicit knowledge of different academic genres (e.g., basic research and clinical research articles) are desiderata to include in these programs. the programs should also introduce the various mediating resources that junior clinician-researchers can draw on and effective ways or successful examples of tapping on these resources. third, since scholarly publishing is a social practice (lei & hu, 2019; luo & hyland, 2019) and because members of one’s community and their relationships can be valuable mediating resources, institutions could scaffold their staff ’s publishing endeavors by instituting mechanisms that help them form peer groups. such peer groups would not only allow their members to leverage socially distributed cognition (cole & engeström, 1993) and learn from each other’s expertise but could also two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 311 facilitate the effective division of labor (engeström, 2015) to enhance research productivity. article history: received 20 august 2022 received in revised form 18 january 2023 accepted 20 january 2023 references songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 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(2017). involving junior doctors in medical article publishing: is it an effective method of teaching? advances in medical education and songsha ren is a lecturer at the school of foreign languages, china west normal university. she is also a ph.d. student at the department of english and communication, the hong kong polytechnic university. her research interests include academic literacy, second language writing, critical discourse analysis, and genre analysis. guangwei hu is professor of language and literacy education in the department of english and communication, the hong kong polytechnic university. his research interests include academic literacy, english for academic and specific purposes, second language writing, and english as an international language. he has published widely on these and other areas. he is co-editor for journal of english for academic purposes. songsha ren & guangwei hu ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316314 practice, 8, 669-674. https://doi.org/10.2147/ amep.s147431 phillipson, r. 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(2021). english and/or russian medium publications? a case study exploring academic research writing in contemporary russian academia. journal of english for academic purposes, 53, 101015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2021.101015 tardy, c.m. (2009). building genre knowledge. parlor press. tardy, c.m. (2004). the role of english in scientific communication: lingua franca or tyrannosaurus rex? journal of english for academic purposes, 3, 247-269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2003.10. 001 terry, g., hayfield, n., clarke, v., & braun, v. (2017). thematic analysis. in c. willig & w. stainton-rogers (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research in psychology (pp. 17-36). sage. willey, i., & tanimoto, k. (2015). “we’re drifting into strange territory here”: what think-aloud protocols reveal about convenience editing. journal of second language writing, 27, 63-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2014.09.010 yamagata-lynch, l.c. (2010). activity systems analysis methods: understanding complex learning environments. springer. yanos, p.t., & ziedonis, d.m. (2006). the patientoriented clinician-researcher: advantages and challenges of being a double agent. psychiatric services, 57(2), 249-253. https://doi.org/10. 1176/appi.ps.57.2.249 yamagata-lynch, l. c. (2010). activity systems analysis methods: understanding complex learning environments. springer science & business media. yin, r.k. (2018). case study research and applications: design and methods (6th ed.). sage. zhang, j., ge, y., wang, j., wu, z., wang, y., bhat, a., & lin, y. (2020). challenges and growth opportunities: the landscape of chinese medical publication professionals in the global context: a questionnaire-based survey. current medical research and opinion, 37(2), 261-267. notes 1 scholarly publications were counted only when the participants were the first and/or corresponding author. all english publications were sci-indexed articles. 2 the number includes manuscripts rejected before. appendix: the interview guide 1. could you please share with me your experiences of learning to write in english? 2. could you please describe your usual processes of writing in english? 3. what are your main problems with english academic writing? how do you cope with them? 4. how would you rate your english-language competence? 5. what difficulties do you think chinese scholars may experience in writing english manuscripts? why? 6. how have you dealt with the difficulties? who/what kind of resources have you turned to when you attempted to deal with the difficulties? how useful do you find each kind of resources? was any of your earlier experiences helpful? in what ways? 7. do you think doing research is important for medical doctors? why (not)? 8. are you interested in publishing your research? do you think scholarly publishing is important for medical doctors? why (not)? 9. do you like writing and publishing your research in english? why (not)? two chinese medical doctors’ english scholarly publishing practices ibérica 45 (2023): 289-316 315 iberica 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the exploration of linguistic profiles of research articles (ras) has been underrepresented in the existing literature. this study utilizes two automated language processing tools and a cluster analysis approach to explore linguistic features and variation of published research articles (n=360) in two hard science disciplines (i.e., biology and medicine). findings show five different profiles characterized by their use of distinct combinations of linguistic features. the identified profiles not only vary between the two disciplines, but also within each discipline. the distinct profiles within each discipline represent the potentially different ways for researchers to write publishable research articles. the study fills the research gap and contributes to a new understanding of linguistic features and variation of ras. keywords: writing for publication, linguistic variation, writing profiles, cluster analysis, automated language processing. resumen las diferentes maneras de escribir artículos de investigación publicables: una exploración a partir de herramientas de procesamiento automático del lenguaje la bibliografía especializada apenas se ha adentrado en el análisis de los diferentes perfiles lingüísticos de los artículos de investigación. el presente trabajo explora los rasgos lingüísticos y la variación que presentan 360 artículos de investigación publicados pertenecientes a dos disciplinas de ciencias puras (biología y medicina) a partir de dos herramientas de procesamiento automático del lenguaje y un enfoque de análisis cluster. los resultados obtenidos revelan la the different ways to write publishable research articles: an exploration using automated language processing tools weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung nanyang technological university (singapore) nie18zhan20@e.ntu.edu.sg & yinling.cheung@nie.edu.sg 171 ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung existencia de cinco perfiles que se caracterizan por su uso de diferentes combinaciones de ciertos rasgos lingüísticos. los perfiles identificados no solo varían en función de la disciplina, sino que también se ha detectado variación dentro de una misma disciplina. esa variación interna a la disciplina representa diferentes perfiles que parecen encarnan diversos modos de redacción a los que los investigadores podrían recurrir para producir artículos de investigación publicables. con este estudio se pretende cubrir esta laguna de investigación y ofrecer una nueva mirada que ayude a profundizar en la comprensión de los rasgos lingüísticos y de la variación de los artículos de investigación. palabras clave: escritura académica, variación lingüística, perfiles de escritura, análisis cluster, procesamiento automático del lenguaje. 1. introduction researchers around the world, especially those from english as an additional language (eal) background, are under tremendous pressure to write publishable research articles (ras) for refereed english-medium journals (mur dueñas, 2012; flowerdew & wang, 2016; li, 2014; moreno, rey-rocha, burgess, lópez-navarro & sachdev, 2012). many eal writers face challenges due to their limited repertoire of linguistic resources and inadequate knowledge of the disciplinary writing conventions (flowerdew, 2000). to inform the writing of these struggling researchers, there have been an increasing number of studies exploring the linguistic features of ras and how they vary between different disciplines and sub-disciplines (cortés, 2004, 2013; hyland, 2005; hyland & tse, 2005; afros & schryer, 2009; parkinson, 2013; zhang & cheung, 2017, 2018). variation has been explored in terms of the frequencies of occurrence for individual features and interpreted in relation to the functional characteristics of different disciplines or sub-disciplines. the findings have improved our understanding of how to write publishable ras and offered practical reference to the teaching and learning of english for research publication purposes (erpp). however, these studies may have oversimplified the picture of linguistic variation of ras. first, meaningful variation may not lie in the occurrence of individual linguistic features, but rather in the combination of a collection of features. second, most of the studies have not considered the possibility that there may be linguistic variation that is not functionally motivated. in fact, studies have already identified the use of different combinations of features, which they called “linguistic profiles”, in functionally similar texts written by 172 students (jarvis, grant, bikowski & ferris, 2003; crossley, roscoe & mcnamara, 2014). the current study seeks to make a novel contribution to the field by exploring the linguistic profiles of ras and how they vary. to do so, a corpus of 360 “discussion” sections of ras was compiled from two disciplines (i.e., biology and medicine) and four sub-disciplines (i.e., genetics, molecular biology, oncology as well as immunology and allergy) and two automated language processing tools were used to examine a large set of features beyond word-level. a cluster analysis approach was adopted to identify the linguistic profiles in the corpus. if the identified profiles vary according to the division of disciplines or sub-disciplines, the variation is likely to be functionally determined by disciplinary or sub-disciplinary characteristics. however, if different profiles are identified within one single discipline or sub-discipline, those profiles are less likely to be determined by functional factors but represent the different ways to write publishable ras within that particular (sub)discipline. the research questions to be addressed in this paper are: 1) what linguistic profiles of ras are observable in the corpus? 2) to what extent do the linguistic profiles represent functional variation across disciplines and sub-disciplines? 3) to what extent do the linguistic profiles represent the different ways to write publishable ras within the same disciplines and sub-disciplines? 2. literature review 2.1. linguistic profiles of ras the study builds on the assumption that successful writers may not depend on the use of individual linguistic features, but rather on how features are used in combination. the combination of features is called a “linguistic profile”. a number of studies have explored this assumption and identified multiple profiles of writing in proficient students’ texts (jarvis et al., 2003; crossley et al., 2014). our research aims to further investigate this assumption and examine whether published ras also demonstrate different profiles and how these profiles vary. profiles can be identified via a cluster analysis approach, which can group ras into clusters in a way that ras in one cluster display within-group similarities with respect to the target linguistic the different ways to write publishable research articles ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 173 features, while revealing significant between-group differences regarding one or more features. the combination of features characterizing each cluster represents one linguistic profile. the exploration of linguistic profiles of ras has been under-represented in the existing literature. the present study aims to fill this gap and contribute to a new understanding of linguistic features and variation of ras. 2.2. linguistic variation of ras – a functional perspective the linguistic variation of academic prose has been widely explored from a functional perspective. this perspective holds that the core characteristics of writing depend on its function, determined in turn by the communicative purpose and situational context of language use (biber & conard, 2009). the primary purpose of academic prose is to construct and disseminate knowledge, which distinguishes it from other types of writing. the unique characteristics of academic prose have been empirically investigated by many studies. that by biber (1988), for one, draws attention to the nominal style of academic prose, which packs fairly complex information through a heavy reliance on nouns, noun phrases, and prepositions. this nominal style is distinct from other types of writing such as narrative, less informational and more involved, and with a higher use of verbs and personal pronouns. academic prose is also found to be more structurally compressed and utilizes more phrasal (rather than clausal) modifiers embedded in noun phrases (biber & gray, 2010; gray, 2015). academic prose is not a homogenous text type and undergoes functional variation among its subtypes. for example, book reviews and ras have been found to deploy grammatical structures quite differently (groom, 2005). within the domain of ras, variation is also determined by the situational context of writing for different disciplines and sub-disciplines, such as their epistemological beliefs and ontological assumptions, and their knowledge structures and research practices. the functional variation of ras has been explored at many different levels. at the level of lexis, research shows that the use of lexical bundles is closely linked to the functional moves of ras, with a clear tendency to vary across disciplines (cortés, 2004, 2013). at the level of grammatical structure, research findings not only point to variation according to disciplines but also among different sections of ras with distinct communicative purposes (hyland & tse, 2005; parkinson, 2013). in fact, studies that investigate single weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194174 lexical or grammatical features are relatively few. rather, more research has been done on a collection of lexical and grammatical features used to achieve functional means. in recent years, the linguistic realization of interpersonal meanings has become an important research area. the use of intensifiers, personal pronouns, and self-citations to achieve the function of self-promotion in ras has been found to vary between the disciplines of linguistics and literary studies (afros & schryer, 2009). other features such as hedges, boosters, and reader pronouns, which contribute to stance and reader engagement, have also been investigated across ras of eight disciplines (hyland, 2005). the results show that the frequencies of these features vary according to the traditional “hard” and “soft” division of disciplines. research on writers’ use of appraisal (martin & white, 2005) resources in ras has uncovered meaningful variation not only between the disciplines of computer science and applied linguistics but also between the qualitative and quantitative research paradigms within applied linguistics (zhang & cheung, 2017, 2018). the paradigmatic variation can be interpreted in relation to the functional characteristics of the two research paradigms. these studies have produced robust knowledge on the writing conventions of ras for different disciplines and sub-disciplines. this knowledge is important for research writers, as they need to be aware of and conform to register and disciplinary conventions when writing for publication (flowerdew, 2000). however, most of the studies quantified linguistic variation in terms of the frequencies of occurrence for individual features rather than the combination of features (or linguistic profiles). moreover, informed by the functional perspective, the identified variation was often interpreted in relation to the distinct situational context of writing for different disciplines and sub-disciplines. potential variation is usually not assumed within texts that share the same functional characteristics, for example, ras within one discipline or sub-discipline. hence, little research has been done to explore the potential linguistic variation within functionally equivalent texts in terms of style. 2.3. different ways to write publishable ras – a style perspective the style perspective is distinct from the functional perspective. the analysis from the functional perspective seeks to compare functionally different writing with distinct communicative purposes or situational contexts. for example, the comparison between academic prose and narrative, and the the different ways to write publishable research articles ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 175 comparison between ras of different disciplines or sub-disciplines. the linguistic variation identified is thus associated with the functional characteristics underlying the writings. the style perspective, however, seeks to identify linguistic variation within writings that share similar functional characteristics (biber & conard, 2009), for instance, within ras of the same discipline or sub-discipline. consequently, the identified variation is less likely to be related to the functions of writing but represents the optional alternatives that allow writers some freedom. the stylistic variation of ras has not been explicitly explored. in the research on student writing, findings have provided some evidence of potential linguistic variation in terms of style. for example, jarvis et al. (2003) have identified multiple profiles of writing produced by l2 students under the same condition (timed) for the same purpose (exam) with the same results (highly-rated). further analysis demonstrates that the variation in terms of the profiles cannot be fully explained by situational factors such as the writing topic and the students’ l1 background. therefore, the multiple profiles may represent the different ways for students to write highly-rated timed compositions for exams. similarly, the study by crossley et al. (2014) has identified four profiles of writing in a collection of highly-rated student essays and the different profiles are not related to the situational factors of the writings (prompt, grade level, and temporal condition). the finding gives further support to the existence of linguistic variation that is not functional but stylistic. to explain the variation, jarvis et al. (2003) proposed the notions of “complementarity” and “compensation”, which will be discussed later in more detail along with related findings of the current study. the exploration of stylistic variation of ras can reveal the alternative ways for researchers to write publishable ras within a discipline or sub-discipline. this knowledge is particularly beneficial to those eal researchers with a limited linguistic repertoire because it allows them some leniency to pragmatically choose the features that are more familiar to them while conforming to disciplinary or sub-disciplinary writing conventions. 2.4. automated language processing tools the target linguistic features of the study were examined using two computational tools, namely, coh-metrix and linguistic inquiry and word count (liwc). the majority of the features were explored through cohmetrix. coh-metrix provides multilevel analyses of discourse characteristics weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194176 (graesser, mcnamara & kulikowich, 2011) and has been adopted in many studies to investigate linguistic features in a variety of discourse including ras (mccarthy et al., 2007; ye, 2013). the tool reports on a set of linguistic features, some of which have been widely studied, for example, pronouns, passives, negations, adjectives, adverbs, nominal forms, and prepositional phrases (biber, 1988; gray, 2015). it also allows the analysis of features beyond the word-level such as referential cohesion, syntactic patterns and complexity, and mental representation of causation and intentionality (graesser & mcnamara, 2011; mcnamara et al., 2014). a complementary set of features was explored through liwc (pennebaker, boyd, jordan & blackburn, 2015), which has been a popular tool to study student writing (e.g., crossley et al., 2014; mcnamara et al., 2015). in this study, the features investigated through lwic include those that depict the writers’ mental processes, time orientation, and relativity. 3. methodology 3.1. corpus construction procedures the current study is based on a self-constructed corpus of 360 “discussion” sections of published ras from refereed english-medium journals. the discussion section serves the purpose to make sense of the findings and argue for the significance of the research. the discussion section was selected as the focus of our study because it is where “the current work is most vigorously ‘sold’” (hyland, 2009, p. 73) and was found to be among the most challenging sections to write for novice researchers (uzuner, 2008). the discussion sections are from two different disciplines. considering potential variation within disciplines (zhang & cheung, 2017, 2018), we selected two subdisciplines from each discipline to represent their writing practices. the selection was made based on the journal ranking indicator provided by scimago journal rank (sjr). the sjr indicator was calculated based on the scopus database, which is the world’s largest scientific database and the best representation of the structure of world science. meanwhile, the sjr indicator has been found to strongly correlate with other journal metrics such as journal impact factor (jif) and source normalized impact per paper (snip), despite some differences in the ranking (guerrero-bote & moya-anegón, 2012). to determine the discipline and sub-disciplines for study, the sjr metrics for all scientific journals during the period of 2012 to 2016 were downloaded. the different ways to write publishable research articles ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 177 all the journals were ranked in order according to the value of their sjr indicator. the top 15 scientific journals of all fields were identified by averaging the value of the sjr indicators from the year 2012 to 2016. by considering journal indicators from multiple years, the effect of drastic change in the ranking of some journals in a particular year was minimized to provide a more objective picture of the scientific value of the journals. the statistics reveal that most of the journals in the top 15 are from the two disciplines of biology and medicine. the statistics also reveal that the subdisciplines of genetics and molecular biology are most widely covered in biology, whereas oncology and immunology & allergy are most widely covered in medicine. for journal selection, we calculated the average value of the sjr indicator from 2012 to 2016 for all journals from the four sub-disciplines and ranked them in order. six high-ranking journals from each sub-discipline were selected to form the journal pool where ras were drawn to build the corpus. however, many top journals in the four sub-disciplines publish exclusively review articles and they were not included in the journal pool because the focus of the current study is on empirical ras (see appendix a for the list of selected journals from each subject area). for article selection, computer-generated random numbers were used to select five articles from each year of the journals’ publication in the period of 2015 to 2017. in total, 360 ras were selected, which all have a separated and explicitly titled “discussion” section. all the “discussion” sections were then extracted and converted into plain text for analysis through coh-metrix and liwc. see table 1 for the descriptive statistics of the corpus. table 1. descriptive statistics of the corpus. weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194178 biology medicine genetics (n=90) molecular (n=90) oncology (n=90) immunology & allergy (n=90) mean sd mean sd mean sd mean sd paragraph count 6.81 3.20 5.91 2.50 7.26 2.41 7.09 2.68 sentence count 41.16 17.05 34.82 14.49 41.32 14.06 42.34 14.09 word count 1149.14 509.40 958.36 410.78 1070.32 344.17 1151.56 399.49 paragraph length 6.33 1.85 6.17 2.00 5.85 1.63 6.44 2.63 sentence length 28.06 3.76 27.69 4.11 26.34 3.80 27.47 4.33 word length (syllable) 1.87 0.10 1.89 0.10 1.93 0.09 1.89 0.10 word length (letter) 5.50 0.25 5.55 0.24 5.65 0.24 5.56 0.27 obi scitenge )09=(n ygolo ralucelmo )09=(n ocon =(n enicidme ygolo )09 &ygloonumim ygrelal )09=(n agrarpa ncentse cdrwo agrarpa ncentse eldrwo eldrwo )09=(n name sd ountcph a 816. 203. ountcenc 1641. 0517. tnuo 141149. 40509. hngtelph a 336. 851. hngtelenc 0628. 763. htgne (syl )lebla 871. 100. htgne r)tte(le 505. 250. )09=(n =(n name sd name 915. 502. 267. 8234. 4914. 3241. 36958. 78410. 321070. 176. 002. 855. 6927. 114. 3426. 891. 100. 931. 555. 240. 655. )09 ygrelal )09=(n sd name sd 412. 097. 682. 0614. 3442. 0914. 17344. 561151. 49399. 631. 446. 632. 803. 4727. 334. 090. 891. 100. 240. 565. 270. 3.2. statistical analyses the statistical analyses were conducted based on the selected linguistic indices from coh-metrix and lwic. we first conducted pearson productmoment correlations between the initial 87 indices to make sure they are not assessing the same construct. using a threshold of r > .900, 8 indices demonstrating multicollinearity were removed from the analysis, with 79 retained. then we used the z-scores of the 79 retained indices as independent variables to conduct an initial cluster analysis using hierarchical cluster analysis with squared euclidean distance and ward’s method as the distance measure. the analysis can group the “discussion” sections into clusters according to their shared linguistic features. the initial cluster analysis yielded an optimal five-cluster solution (see figure 1 for the resulting dendrogram). we then used the selected five-cluster solution to conduct a follow-up cluster analysis, which resulted in the allocation of every “discussion” to a specific cluster (see table 2 and 3). the different ways to write publishable research articles ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 179 figure 1. dendrogram for cluster analysis. gurfi sisyanalertuslcorfamogrendrd1.e gur . cluster 1 cluster 2 cluster 3 cluster 4 cluster 5 biology genetics 15 28 22 24 1 biology molecular 27 34 22 7 0 medicine oncology 12 27 6 14 31 medicine immunology & allergy 23 39 9 9 10 total 77 128 59 54 42 table 2. make-up of the clusters. scitenegygolobi ralucelomygolobi ygoloconenicidme ygrella&ygolonmmuienicidme altot 1retsucl 2retsucl 3retsucl 15 28 22 27 34 22 12 27 6 23 39 9 77 128 59 eakm2.e tabl s.erustclhe tofup 3 4retsucl 5retsucl 24 1 7 0 14 31 9 10 54 42 a multivariate analysis of variance (manova) was conducted to test which linguistic indices demonstrate significant differences between the identified five clusters. manova is based on the same conceptual framework as the univariate analysis of variance (anova). anova tests for statistical differences on one single dependent variable by an independent grouping variable. manova extends the analysis by taking a combination of dependent variables into account. the use of manova will compare whether the combination of variables differs by different groups. the indices were used as the dependent variables and the “discussion” in each cluster as the independent variables. the results of the manova demonstrate significant difference for 75 out of the 79 linguistic variables used in the cluster analysis (see appendix b for the manova results). following the manova, the mean scores (z-scores) of the 75 linguistic indices that demonstrate significant differences were computed for each cluster to identify the clusters with the highest and lowest score for each index. this could provide a picture of the most distinctive linguistic features of a particular cluster. the mean scores are presented in table 4. weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194180 cluster 1 cluster 2 cluster 3 cluster 4 cluster 5 mean sd mean sd mean sd mean sd mean sd paragraph count 6.66 2.42 6.79 2.84 5.53 2.00 7.33 3.41 7.90 2.41 sentence count 38.51 14.08 40.30 15.73 35.59 12.94 44.06 17.78 42.05 13.64 word count 1135.52 414.67 1081.82 435.24 894.69 311.93 1171.67 531.71 1135.21 330.94 paragraph length 6.14 2.46 6.22 1.98 6.70 2.16 6.27 1.74 5.43 1.53 sentence length 29.86 4.12 27.09 3.78 25.45 2.85 26.55 4.12 27.58 3.97 word length (syllable) 1.87 0.10 1.89 0.10 1.95 0.09 1.88 0.09 1.89 0.10 word length (letter) 5.51 0.24 5.58 0.26 5.69 0.24 5.50 0.23 5.53 0.28 table 3. descriptive statistics of the cluster. a table 4. linguistic features with the highest and lowest mean score for all clusters. finally, a series of discriminant function analyses (dfa) were conducted to test the accuracy of the model. a discriminant analysis is a statistical procedure capable of predicting group membership. in the case of this study, the analysis examines whether the 75 indices can predict the cluster the different ways to write publishable research articles ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 181 category index clusters 1 2 3 4 5 lexical features noun + verb + adjective + adverb + article + first person pronoun (plural) + third person + impersonal pronoun + content word frequency + all words frequency + minimum frequency for content words + age of acquisition + familiarity + concreteness + meaningfulness + polysemy + hypernymy for nouns + hypernymy for verbs + lexical diversity lexical diversity all words + lexical diversity mtld + lexical diversity vocd + syntactic pattern density noun phrase + verb phrase + adverbial phrase + preposition phrase + agentless passive voice + negation + gerund + infinitive + comparison + interrogative + number + quantifier + syntactic complexity left embeddedness + modifiers per noun-phrase + med (part of speech) + med (all words) + syntax similarity (adjacent sentences) + syntax similarity (all sentences) + category index clusters 1 2 3 4 5 connectives all connectives + causal + logical + adversative and contrastive + temporal + expanded temporal + additive + referential cohesion noun overlap (adjacent sentences) + stem overlap (adjacent sentences) + noun overlap (all sentences) + content word overlap (adjacent sentences) + content word overlap (all sentences) + latent semantic analysis lsa overlap (adjacent sentences) + lsa overlap (adjacent paragraphs) + lsa given/new + situational model causal verb + causal verb and causal particles + intentional verb + intentional cohesion + lsa verb overlap + wordnet verb overlap + mental processes positive emotion + negative emotion + insight + causation + discrepancy + tentativeness + certainty + differentiation + time orientation past focus + present focus + future focus + relativity space + time + membership. the dfa results demonstrate that the combinations of the 75 indices have successfully distinguished the five clusters (χ2=781.78, df=16, p<.001). following typical procedures of discriminant analysis, the accuracy of the model is reported in terms of both “recall” and “precision”. recall is defined as the number of true positives (members of the cluster correctly identified) divided by the number of true positives plus the number of false negatives (members of the cluster incorrectly identified as non-members). precision is defined as the number of true positives divided by the number of true positives plus the number of false positives (non-members of the cluster incorrectly identified as members). the estimated accuracy of the model in predicting the membership of each cluster is presented in table 5. 4. results 4.1. description of the clusters the statistical analyses have grouped all the “discussion” sections into five clusters, which are characterized by distinct combinations of linguistic features. the defining features of each cluster, as summarized in table 4, are described in the following. cluster 1 is defined by high scores on features related to “noun”, “word concreteness”, “hypernymy for verbs”, “third person pronoun”, “noun phrase”, “modifiers per noun-phrase”, “referential cohesion”, and “lsa”. the lexical feature of this cluster is characterized by the more frequent use of nouns, concrete words, specific verbs (high hypernymy score), and third person pronouns. as nouns are the primary resource to convey referential meanings, the frequent use of these indicates high information density (biber, 1988). the use of concrete words and specific verbs implies very precise lexical choice to present information content in an exact way. third person pronouns are often used to refer to human participants in the study and are relatively rare in hard sciences such as biology and physics (gray, weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194182 cluster 1 cluster 2 cluster 3 cluster 4 cluster 5 recall 84.4% 64.8% 89.8% 68.5% 90.5% precision 74.7% 77.6% 76.8% 75.5% 79.2% estimated accuracy 79% 71% 83% 72% 84% * estimated accuracy =2! "#$%&'()!#$%*++"#$%&'&(),#$%*++ table 5. estimated accuracy of the model. 4 w c 2015). the high frequency of “noun phrase” and “modifiers per noun phrase” are related to the nominal style of academic writing. the high score on “modifiers per noun-phrase” indicates that longer and more complex syntactic structures are used in this cluster because there are more words before the head noun. such embedded noun phrases also allow more information to be packed into one sentence and contribute to the informationally dense and structurally compressed characteristics of academic prose (biber & gray, 2010). in terms of cohesion, cluster 1 scores high on all indices of referential cohesion. these indices measure coreference features, which refers to linguistic cues that link sentences, clauses, and propositions through the repetition of words or common lemma (mcnamara & kintsch, 1996). in addition to such explicit co-reference features, cluster 1 is also high in conceptual overlap measured by lsa indices. these indices assess co-reference in terms of the similarity of implicit knowledge. for example, two words will be considered similar if they share similar surrounding words (grasser & mcnamara, 2011). while cluster 2 is the largest cluster, the linguistic characteristic of this cluster is the least distinctive. it only obtained a high score on one index of “additive connectives” (e.g., and, moreover, also), which serve to connect ideas and add information. this may indicate that ras of this cluster make relatively balanced use of all features. cluster 3 is defined by high scores on “lexical diversity”, “age of acquisition”, “verb”, “adjective”, “first person pronoun (plural)”, “impersonal pronoun”, “temporal connectives”, “situational model”, “causation”, “discrepancy”, “med (all words)” and “time orientation (future focus)”. overall, this cluster utilizes a more diverse range of vocabulary as it obtained high scores on all three indices of lexical diversity. the use of a more diverse vocabulary indicates the presentation of very specific meanings (biber, 1988). it can also be linked to text difficulty and cohesion (grasser & mcnamara, 2011). greater lexical diversity often adds to text difficulty because there are more unique words and new ideas integrated into the texts. this also means less repetition of words and thus less explicit cohesion features in the text. moreover, the vocabulary used in this cluster tends to be more difficult, which is evident in the high score on “age of acquisition”. this index specifies the age when the target word first appears in a child’s vocabulary and a high score means the word is acquired at a later age. unlike cluster 1, which is information-oriented with the heavy reliance on nouns, cluster 3 assumes an action-oriented style with the frequent use of verbs and the different ways to write publishable research articles ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 183 verb related terms such as verb phrases, gerunds, and infinitives. consequently, there are more pronouns used in this cluster as the agent of the actions and more temporal connectives to sequence the actions. this cluster also obtained high scores on indices related to “situational model” (“causal verb”, “causal verb and particles”, and “intentional verb”). these indices are linked to the causality and intentionality of actions or processes, which help readers build a mental representation of the text (grasser & mcnamara, 2011). they contribute to readers’ comprehension of the actions depicted in the ras. this cluster employs more features related to “causation” (e.g., because, effect) and “discrepancy” (e.g., would, should). these features can also be linked to the action-oriented style because they can be used to explain the purpose and effect of actions. last, the cluster scores high on one of the med (minimal edit distance) indices. these indices measure the consistency and uniformity of syntactic structures and a high score implies more complex structures. cluster 4 is defined by high scores on “adverb”, “article”, “all connectives”, “causal and logical connectives”, “agentless passive voice”, “intentional cohesion”, “insights”, “tentativeness”, “certainty”, “time orientation (present focus)”, and “med (part of speech)”. the lexical feature of this cluster is characterized by the frequent use of adverbs and articles. adverbs give more information about the time and place mentioned in the texts. articles give more information about the nouns they modify and can also contribute to the cohesion of writing (jarvis et al., 2003). other cohesive features include connectives, which provide cues of text organization by drawing links between ideas and clauses (mcnamara et al., 2014). this cluster is high in the use of all connectives, especially the two types of “casual” (because, so) and “logical” (therefore, if). the frequent use of them may imply that the ras in this cluster are more involved in the process of critical reasoning and deduction. this cluster scores high on agentless passives, which are more frequently used in hard rather than soft disciplines to de-emphasize the role of the researchers (gray, 2015). this reflects the positivist-empirical epistemology of the hard disciplines, which suggests that the research would yield similar outcomes irrespective of the researchers conducting it (hyland, 2005). while the role of the agents tends to be deemphasized, more “intentional cohesion” features are used to help readers understand the agents’ goal in performing actions. for features of mental processes, this cluster scores high on “insight” (think, know), “tentativeness” (maybe, perhaps), and “certainty” (always, never). all these features weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194184 contribute to the expression of writers’ stance (hyland, 2005; zhang & cheung, 2017). the use of “insight” can signal the subjectivity of the proposition that follows. the use of “tentativeness” implies the writer’s reserved opinion towards the proposition, whereas the use of “certainty” indicates the writers’ strong commitment. these two features serve similar functions as “hedges” and “boosters” and tend to co-occur in ras (hyland, 2005). their use indicates that the researchers need to weigh up the commitment they invest in their arguments due to the existence of alternative interpretations. these features are relatively infrequent in hard science disciplines because hard knowledge is more objective and therefore provides fewer alternatives to consider (hyland, 2005). this cluster is high in the use of present tense, which indicates general truths or describes the effects of phenomena (jarvis et al., 2003; gray, 2015). the use of present tense tends to be more frequent than that of past tense in a range of hard and soft disciplines, except for history (gray, 2015). moreover, similar to cluster 3, this cluster scores high on one of the med indices, which means more complex syntactic structures. last, it is worth mentioning that cluster 4 is defined by low scores on most indices related to co-reference (“referential cohesion” and “lsa”), which is in stark contrast to cluster 1. the contrast will be further discussed later. cluster 5 is defined by high scores on indices of “lexical features”, “syntactic structures”, “adversative and contrastive connectives”, “expanded temporal connectives”, “lsa given/new”, “verb overlap”, “positive and negative emotion”, “differentiation” “relativity”, and “time orientation (past focus)”. for lexical features, this cluster scores high on all three indices of word frequency (“content word frequency”, “all word frequency”, and “minimum frequency for content word”). high frequency words are those that appear in the english language more often than others and thus are easier words. the words in this cluster also obtain high scores on “meaningfulness”, “familiarity”, “polysemy”, and “hypernym”. higher meaningfulness score indicates that the words have strong relations with other words. familiarity assesses the extent to which a word is familiar to an adult. polysemy score indicates the ambiguity of writing as the more potential interpretation of a word the higher its polysemy score. meanwhile, it may also indicate easier words because high frequency words tend to have more meanings (mcnamara et al., 2014). the words used in this cluster also tend to be more specific as suggested by high scores on the two indices of “hypernym”. taken together, all the lexical indices suggest that words used in this cluster the different ways to write publishable research articles ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 185 are comparatively easier to comprehend for readers than those in other clusters. in terms of syntactic features, this cluster employs a wider range of syntactic patterns including prepositional phrases, negations, comparison, interrogatives, numbers, and quantifiers. the syntactic structures of this cluster are more complex given the high score on “left embeddedness”, which measures the number of words used before the main verb of the main clause in sentences. further, the high scores on the two “syntactic simplicity” indices imply that the syntactic structures in the cluster are more consistent in style and form (mccarthy et al., 2009). the cohesive devices frequently deployed in this cluster include adversatives and contrastive connectives, expanded temporal connectives, and implicit co-reference features measured by “lsa given/new” and “verb overlap” indices (lsa verb overlap and wordnet verb overlap). this cluster is high in the expressions of positive and negative emotions as well as “differentiation” (but, else). this cluster also makes more reference to space (in, above) and time (end, until). the preferred tense is “past focus”, which serves to situate one’s research within established findings in the field, describe methodological procedures, or report findings that are not yet accepted as truth (jarvis et al., 2003; gray, 2015). 4.2. variation according to disciplines and sub-disciplinary areas as presented in table 2, the majority of biological ras fall into cluster 1 to 4, whereas most of the medical ras are in cluster 1, 2, 4 and 5. this indicates variation of the linguistic profiles between the two disciplines. as cluster 3 contains mostly biological ras (75%), it is more representative of the discipline of biology. similarly, as cluster 5 contains all (except one) medical ras, it is more representative of the discipline of medicine. there is no clear pattern of variation between the two sub-disciplines in each discipline. 4.3. variation within disciplines and sub-disciplines as presented in table 2, the five linguistic profiles also vary within each discipline. to be more specific, there are four different linguistic profiles (cluster 1 to 4) for biological ras of both sub-disciplines; and four (cluster 1, 2, 4 and 5) for medical ras of both sub-disciplines. the variation of the linguistic profiles within each discipline is not related to sub-disciplinary division. weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194186 5. discussion 5.1. significance of the linguistic profiles the study demonstrates the use of a cluster analysis approach to investigate the linguistic features and variation of ras. this approach identifies five different linguistic profiles in our corpus. the profiles are characterized by their use of distinct combinations of linguistic features. so far, the research on linguistic profiles has been mostly restricted to student writing (jarvis et al., 2003; crossley et al., 2014). the current study provides initial evidence for the existence of multiple profiles of writing in ras. moreover, the study also uncovers that the profiles not only vary between disciplines but also within a single discipline and sub-discipline. the identification of the profiles reveals a more complex picture of linguistic variation of ras, which will contribute to our more refined knowledge of the field. 5.2. disciplinary variation in writing the current study has identified linguistic variation between biology and medicine ras. from the functional perspective, the variation is likely to be motivated by the different situational contexts of writing for the two disciplines. however, we were not able to conduct an in-depth qualitative analysis to explain the variation. while the automated language processing tools allow us to explore a relatively large set of features beyond word-level in a sizable corpus, it does not have an interface for researchers to scrutinize the analyzed instances. therefore, we could only interpret our results according to established findings. cluster 3 contains mostly biological ras. this cluster is high in the use of first person pronouns (plural), which usually refers to the writers themselves. the use of such interpersonal features has been found to be infrequent in academic writing, especially in ras of hard science disciplines such as biology and physics (hyland, 2005; gray, 2015). the positivistempirical epistemology underlying hard disciplines requires the researchers’ role to be minimized in order to highlight the objectivity of the study (hyland, 2005). however, the current finding suggests that the degree of “impersonality” varies between hard disciplines and some writers in biology tend to make their own presence more visible to the readers. this points to their confidence in taking responsibility for the research and to their efforts to emphasize their own contribution to the the different ways to write publishable research articles ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 187 field. such a practice is acceptable, considering that all the ras have reached publication in high-ranking journals. this cluster is also high in the use of verbs and verb-related terms, activity verbs being the most popular type in ras across a variety of disciplines (gray, 2015). they are often used to describe data, concepts, methodology, or findings, and therefore may be more numerous in the discussion section. this cluster also uses the future tense more, probably to make claims concerning what needs to be done in future research. cluster 5 is more representative of the discipline of medicine. compared to cluster 3, ras in this cluster deploy more features related to time and space. the feature of space can be used in the form of internal references, as in “it was demonstrated above”, characteristic of highly informational texts (biber, 1988). references to space can also be used to state the research context, that is, the place where the research is conducted, or where the sample is drawn from. in contrast to biological ras in cluster 3, the medical ras in this cluster score low on “first person pronoun (plural)”, which reflects the researchers’ intention to minimize their own presence. in this case, researchers in medicine are more closely aligned to the common practice in the hard disciplines than their counterparts in biology. ras in this cluster also obtained high scores on the features of positive and negative emotions. one possible reason may be that part of our medical samples are from the subdiscipline of oncology and deal with research topics related to cancer, which would likely provoke emotional responses. 5.3. different ways to write publishable ras our results show that the five linguistic profiles vary within each discipline, regardless of sub-disciplinary division. therefore, variation is not likely to be motivated by the functional characteristics of the sub-disciplines, but may rather be attributable to mere stylistic preferences. the multiple profiles within each discipline may represent different ways for researchers in that discipline to write publishable ras. to interpret the findings from the style perspective, we adopt the twodimensional framework of “complementarity” and “compensation” proposed by jarvis et al. (2003). complementarity refers to the idea that there may be a variety of linguistic resources that serve similar goals in ras, and the high frequencies of some features may result in low frequencies of others. for example, ras in cluster 1 are defined by a high weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194188 frequency of co-reference features but by a low frequency of connectives, whereas ras in cluster 4 exhibit the opposite pattern. the use of coreference features contributes to text cohesion by connecting propositions, clauses, and sentences and the lack of such features may lead to cohesion gaps in texts (mcnamara et al., 2014). to bridge these gaps, writers can choose from a variety of cohesive devices such as “connectives”, rather than relying solely on co-reference features. these two features may thus show a complementary distribution and their use in the same text may not be high. compensation means that writing deficiencies associated with certain features can be counterbalanced by the use of other features. in cluster 3, for example, a vocabulary more diverse than in other clusters suggests that more ideas have been incorporated to the text. however, unlike clusters 1 and 4, here the ras do not show a high use of co-reference features nor of connectives to link ideas. this could potentially be a deficiency in writing but is compensated by a high use of features that contribute to the situation model, which assists readers in building a mental representation of the text for a better understanding. also, ras in cluster 5 employ longer and more complex syntactic structures, which add to the readers’ processing burden, however, this weakness may be compensated because the structures they use are more uniform and consistent. moreover, there is also variation that cannot be reasonably explained by this framework. for example, ras in cluster 3 show a high use of first person pronouns (plural) to make the researchers’ presence more visible, whereas ras in cluster 4 tend to use more agentless passives to de-emphasize the role of the researchers. this difference is neither ‘complementary’ nor ‘compensatory’. it may represent a style preference of the researchers, which reflects how they position themselves in relation to their research, their readers, and their discipline. both styles are accepted for publication in highranking refereed journals. 6. conclusion the study reveals a complex picture of linguistic variation of ras, which can offer useful implications for future erpp research and pedagogy. first, the use of a cluster analysis approach identifies five different linguistic profiles in our corpus. the profiles are characterized by their use of the different ways to write publishable research articles ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 189 distinct combinations of linguistic features. this finding suggests that meaningful variation of ras is more likely to exist in terms of different combinations of linguistic features or “linguistic profiles” rather than individual features. previous research (e.g., afros & schryer, 2009; hyland, 2005; parkinson, 2013) that quantifies linguistic variation in terms of the occurrence of individual features may fall short in providing a comprehensive understanding of ras in different disciplines or subdisciplines. the cluster analysis approach utilized by this study has shown to be a productive approach to identify the different linguistic profiles of ras. future research may also adopt this approach to investigate ras from other disciplines and sub-discipline to better understand the linguistic profile and variation of ras. second, the profiles are found to vary between the disciplines of biology and medicine. this finding corresponds with previous observations that the linguistic features of ras vary according to disciplines (e.g., cortés, 2004, 2013; hyland & tse, 2005; zhang & cheung, 2017, 2018). such variation may represent the disciplinary writing conventions and is likely to be motivated by the situational contexts of writing for different disciplines, such as their epistemological belief, ontological assumption, knowledge structure, and research practice. to write publishable ras, researchers need to conform to these disciplinary writing conventions. erpp instructors need to raise the awareness of novice writers of such conventions and equip them with the necessary linguistic resources. third, the profiles also vary within each discipline and there is no evidence that the variation is functionally related to the sub-disciplines. therefore, the study concludes that linguistic variation of ras can be stylistic and research writers are allowed to write publishable ras in different ways while still conforming to the writing conventions of their discipline. erpp instructors may introduce the strategies of ‘complementarity’ and ‘compensation’ to novice research writers, especially to those from eal background. through the use of these strategies, eal writers with a limited repertoire of linguistic devices may strategically deploy the resources that are more familiar to them to complement or compensate for other resources that are unfamiliar to them to better achieve their writing goals. weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194190 acknowledgements the first author would like to thank the national institute of education, nanyang technological university scholarship (hd-rss scholarship) for supporting the research work presented in this paper. article history: received 03 may 2019 received in revised form 31 december 2019 accepted 27 january 2020 references the different ways to write publishable research articles ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 191 afros, e. & c.f. schryer (2009). “promotional (meta)discourse in research articles in language and literary studies”. english for specific purposes 28(1): 58-68. biber, d. 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(2013). “a coh-metrix analysis of language varieties between the journal articles of chinese and american scientists. international journal of english linguistics 3(4): 63. zhang, w. & y.l. cheung (2017). “understanding engagement resources in constructing voice in research articles in the fields of computer networks and communications and second language writing”. the asian esp journal 13(3): 72-99. zhang, w. & y.l. cheung (2018). “the construction of authorial voice in writing research articles: a corpus-based study from an appraisal theory perspective”. international journal of english studies 18(2): 53-75. appendix a. selected journals for the current study the different ways to write publishable research articles ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194 193 subject areas journals sjr indicator (5-year average) biology: genetics 1.! nature genetics 23.45 2.! genome research 14.04 3.! cell stem cell 13.69 4.! genes and development 12.10 5.! genome biology 8.76 6.! systematic biology 8.59 biology: molecular biology 1.! nature methods 14.87 2.! molecular cell 13.54 3.! nature structural and molecular biology 10.97 4.! cell metabolism 10.72 5.! cell host and microbe 8.09 6.! embo journal 7.85 medicine: oncology 1.! cancer research 15.06 2.! cancer cell 13.41 3.! the lancet oncology 8.87 4.! journal of national cancer institute 6.42 5.! journal of clinical oncology 5.56 6.! clinical cancer research 4.92 medicine: immunology & allergy 1.! immunity 15.76 2.! journal of experimental medicine 11.36 3.! journal of allergy and clinical immunology 5.09 4.! mucosal immunology 4.25 5.! arthritis and rheumatology 3.88 6.! journal of infectious disease 3.70 appendix b. manova results weiyu zhang & yin ling cheung ibérica 40 (2020): 171-194194 index f p !!2p index f p !!2p noun overlap (adjacent sentences) 46.882 0.000 0.346 number 6.977 0.000 0.073 stem overlap (adjacent sentences) 34.260 0.000 0.279 quantifier 30.883 0.000 0.258 noun overlap (all sentences) 48.031 0.000 0.351 first person pronoun (plural) 5.443 0.000 0.058 content word overlap (adjacent sentences) 55.056 0.000 0.383 impersonal pronoun 6.443 0.000 0.068 content word overlap (all sentences) 47.472 0.000 0.348 content word frequency 54.978 0.000 0.383 lsa overlap (adjacent sentences) 23.400 0.000 0.209 all words frequency 17.306 0.000 0.163 lsa given/new 21.331 0.000 0.194 age of acquisition 6.202 0.000 0.065 lexical diversity all words 18.285 0.000 0.171 familiarity 36.628 0.000 0.292 lexical diversity mtld 45.777 0.000 0.340 concreteness m 10.763 0.000 0.108 lexical diversity vocd 25.127 0.000 0.221 meaningfulness 11.212 0.000 0.112 all connectives 9.481 0.000 0.097 polysemy 26.620 0.000 0.231 logical connectives 9.441 0.000 0.096 hypernymy for nouns 27.905 0.000 0.239 adversative and contrastive connectives 7.005 0.000 0.073 hypernymy for verbs 16.574 0.000 0.157 expanded temporal connectives 26.434 0.000 0.229 hypernymy for nouns and verbs 9.329 0.000 0.095 additive connectives 8.580 0.000 0.088 discrepancy 11.674 0.000 0.116 causal verb 5.701 0.000 0.060 tentative 20.209 0.000 0.185 intentional verb 12.444 0.000 0.123 certainty 10.515 0.000 0.106 intentional cohesion 10.066 0.000 0.102 differentiation 13.916 0.000 0.136 lsa verb overlap 36.759 0.000 0.293 past focus 44.910 0.000 0.336 wordnet verb overlap 13.909 0.000 0.135 present focus 27.309 0.000 0.235 left embeddedness m 15.343 0.000 0.147 future focus 15.369 0.000 0.148 modifiers per noun-phrase 5.338 0.000 0.057 time 21.474 0.000 0.195 med (part of speech) 10.567 0.000 0.106 positive emotion 16.323 0.000 0.155 med (all words) 44.921 0.000 0.336 negative emotion 7.174 0.000 0.075 syntax similarity (all sentences) 5.943 0.000 0.063 causal verb and causal particles 4.501 0.001 0.048 noun phrase 17.369 0.000 0.164 insight 4.532 0.001 0.049 verb phrase 37.238 0.000 0.296 syntax similarity (adjacent sentences) 4.436 0.002 0.048 adverbial phrase 10.777 0.000 0.108 temporal connectives 4.184 0.003 0.045 preposition phrase 21.900 0.000 0.198 causal connectives 3.293 0.011 0.036 agentless passive voice 11.719 0.000 0.117 causation 3.325 0.011 0.036 negation 20.558 0.000 0.188 space 3.128 0.015 0.034 gerund 17.389 0.000 0.164 lsa overlap (adjacent paragraphs) 2.939 0.021 0.032 infinitive 13.598 0.000 0.133 minimum frequency for content words 2.870 0.023 0.031 noun 26.270 0.000 0.228 third person 2.782 0.027 0.030 verb 16.825 0.000 0.159 adjective 2.714 0.030 0.030 adverb 13.886 0.000 0.135 temporal cohesion 2.360 0.053* 0.026 article 6.038 0.000 0.064 causal cohesion 2.298 0.059* 0.025 conjunction 6.358 0.000 0.067 perceptual 2.294 0.059* 0.025 comparison 39.140 0.000 0.306 first person pronoun (single) 0.302 0.877* 0.003 interrogative 5.436 0.000 0.058 (*) marks non-significant difference. iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.239 abstract doctor-patient interpersonality strategies have evolved considerably in recent years, mainly due to the increase in telephone and online consultations generated by the covid-19 pandemic. in such interactions, the control and expression of emotions have a crucial influence on the adequacy and effectiveness of communication. remote interaction makes this affective exchange even more complex than in face-to-face consultations. this study aims to configure a comprehensive model for analysing the affective domain in virtual medical consultations, useful for english and spanish patients and learners. with this aim, the most recognised theories on professional interpersonality are reviewed and applied to a corpus of doctor-patient interactions in peninsular spanish and british english, extracted from representative forums on the internet. the analysis highlights how specific stance and register variation mechanisms positively and negatively influence the emotional domain in these communicative exchanges. the proposed model allows significant contrastive findings on the occurrence and intensity of sentiment markers in both languages. the results illustrate how doctors in spanish favour a more cautious, detached and predictable encounter, while doctors in english use a greater number and variety of attitudinal strategies to achieve engagement, empathy and emotional comfort. keywords: doctor-patient communication, stance adaptation, register variation, interpersonal strategies, markers of emotion. resumen la expresión de las emociones en las consultas médicas virtuales: un análisis integral contrastivo inglés-español the expression of emotions in online medical consultations: a comprehensive spanish-english analysis rosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá iulma universitat de valència (spain) rosa.gimenez@uv.es & alicia.ricart@uv.es 239 ibérica 44 (2022): 00-00 rosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá las estrategias interpersonales en la relación médico-paciente han evolucionado considerablemente en los últimos años, en especial por el aumento de las consultas telefónicas y virtuales generadas por la pandemia del covid-19. en tales interacciones, el control y la expresión de las emociones tienen una influencia crucial en la adecuación y eficacia de la comunicación. la interacción a distancia hace que este intercambio afectivo sea aún más complejo que en las consultas presenciales. este estudio tiene como objetivo configurar un modelo integral para analizar el dominio afectivo en las consultas médicas virtuales, útil para pacientes y estudiantes de inglés y español. con este objetivo, se revisan las teorías más reconocidas sobre la interpersonalidad profesional y se aplican a un corpus de consultas médico-paciente en español peninsular e inglés británico extraídas de foros representativos en internet. el análisis destaca cómo las actitudes y los mecanismos de variación del registro influyen positiva o negativamente en la expresión efectiva de las emociones durante estos intercambios comunicativos. el modelo propuesto permite revelar contrastes significativos sobre la frecuencia y el impacto de los marcadores de la emoción en ambos idiomas. los resultados ilustran cómo los médicos en español suscitan encuentros más cautelosos, impersonales y predecibles, mientras que los médicos en inglés utilizan un mayor número y variedad de estrategias actitudinales para destacar su grado de compromiso y empatía, y, así, facilitar el confort emocional. palabras clave: comunicación médico-paciente, adaptación de la actitud, variación de registro, estrategias interpersonales, marcadores emocionales. 1. introduction in the last 50, and especially 20 years, the complex communication between doctor and patient has been studied from multiple points of view (ong et al., 1995; salager-meyer, 2014). however, as cate and haes (2009) warned years ago, there are still few information and training resources for university-level medical education. experts in medical communication have noted that graduates and practitioners are increasingly concerned about their abilities to interact with patients, especially when delivering bad news online (schmid mast et al., 2005; gotti & salager-meyer, 2006). these concerns of doctors and patients, as well as the interest of researchers in this field of study, have intensified over the last two years owing to the effects of the covid-19 pandemic and the consequent need to carry out many professional tasks virtually with less preparation and guidance than would be desirable (bokolo, 2021). in fact, experts such as fernández-luque (2015) state that, in doctor-patient practice, the link between the internet and health was first 240 established only about a decade ago. the progressive growth of internet use, especially with the expansion of smartphones, has given rise to the phenomenon of “mobile health” (mhealth), which gives people access to over 100,000 applications to gather health data and contact health professionals. communicative success with e-patients depends primarily on the accuracy and quality of the medical information exchanged and on the interpersonal skills of the interlocutors, especially the affective tactics used by doctors to reply to the patients’ requests and questions (mcneilis, 2001). in line with this, xin and yansheng (2021) emphasise that medical trust today depends on doctors’ ability to show that they take their patients’ problems seriously and treat them with care and concern. prototypically, the affective tactics used for these purposes align with the essential attitudes typical of this environment, aimed at alleviating the intrinsic difficulties of this interaction, which is delicate, subtle and fragile, but also honest and direct. the most distinctive forms of affect in this environment are sympathy, understanding, consideration, relief, sensitivity, compassion and reassurance (jeffrey, 2016, chen, 2020). chen (2020) points out that patient satisfaction has to do with the informational and emotional support of the doctor; however, the latter has a greater effect on the patient’s satisfaction. one of the virtual communicative genres in which many of these issues converge is medical consultations in online forums. these increasingly popular information exchange platforms provide ease and flexibility, facilitating natural expression and more spontaneous communication (mahoney, 2015; giménez-moreno & martínez-sierra, 2017). in addition, computer-mediated communication favours anonymity and accessibility for those marginalised in society (tanis, 2008). it is also an attractive genre for health researchers since it allows information on public health to be retrieved and analysed through so-called “infodemological” studies, which, for example, have been a valuable source of data for treating diseases caused by tobacco consumption and other drug addictions (hua et al., 2020). as experts in sentiment analysis of medical forums declare, patients recurrently express controversial feelings such as confusion, encouragement and gratitude (bobicev & sokolova, 2018). the covid pandemic has highlighted other relevant emotions in the last two years. for example, in the extensive survey conducted by al-zyoud et al. (2021) on medical consultations, emotions such as empathy, honesty, optimism, simplicity and the expression of emotions in online medical consultations: a comprehensive spanish-english analysis ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262 241 deliberation stand out. their results confirmed that physicians’ communication skills positively affected the psychological state of patients. conversely, other recent studies (xin & yansheng, 2019) reveal that the current difficulties have negatively impacted the mutual trust between doctors and patients. although these studies cover essential emotional aspects, none offers an inclusive model of analysis that allows systematic identification of the broad spectrum of emotions and attitudes that interact in this genre. this study’s first aim is to review studies on doctor-patient interaction in search of criteria about its affective nature, in order to configure a comprehensive model of attitude analysis in online medical forums. the second objective is in line with research intended to reverse the progressive depersonalisation and the expanding socio-educational gaps detected in spanish doctor-patient encounters, particularly since the covid19 pandemic (arroyo & diaz, 2021). this objective is also motivated by studies that attribute specific emotional and psychological problems of spanish patients to doctors’ lack of communicative training. (haskardzolnierek et al., 2021). the second part of the study thus focuses on analysing the affective domain in a corpus of online consultations in spanish and english, comparing the attitudinal mechanisms in both languages from a comprehensive contrastive perspective. this study can thus shed light on the degree of confluence and divergence of both languages and medical cultures in this online genre. 2. salient attitude dimensions and affective mechanisms in medical interaction a comprehensive review of the literature on medical interaction is necessary to identify those intrinsic dimensions of this professional genre that encompass the discursive regulators of emotions in conversation (xin & yansheng, 2021). this section synthesises the theoretical approaches and attitudinal mechanisms of the proposed analysis model, structured in five categories corresponding to the most prominent communicative dimensions in medical consultations (table 1). rosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262242 table 1: five salient attitude dimensions in medical consultations. the first two dimensions, good practices and prototype style markers, focus on the doctor’s profile and professional conduct and depend on the recognition given by the medical speech community (in a given sociocultural context) to a series of medical practice conventions (kelly, 2020). for example, studies on good practices emphasise the importance of good manners, conveying interest, giving compliments and showing a nonjudgemental attitude (ong et al., 1995). they are intended to express correction, demonstrate reliability, and reinforce the doctor’s professional competence and ethics, particularly when using online platforms (guseh et al., 2009). these medical convention markers are expressed differently depending on the doctor’s communicative style. schmid mast et al. (2005, p. 245) proposed a typology that differentiates three doctor prototypes according to the way they address their patients: (1) “disease-centred doctors”, who are generally viewed by the patients as a bit “blunt and insensitive”, (2) “emotion-centred doctors”, viewed as “kind but sad”, and (3) “patient-centred doctors”, regarded as “understanding and positive”. each prototype, identified by a series of communicative markers, includes affective tactics expressing fairness, sensitivity, compassion, reassurance, and other emotions. from this attitudinal point of view, other prototypes are worth mentioning, like the difference between doctors-caretakers (more distant and institutional) and doctors-caregivers (more affectionate care providers), highlighted by coombs et al. (1993). the third salient dimension, phatic and descriptive protocols, is genreoriented and depends on the speech act move structure. as experts have emphasised for over four decades, a good command of these protocols (such as salutations, acknowledgements, questioning and farewells) also accentuates the doctor’s respect and professionalism (goffman, 1981; mapelli 2015). politeness markers, especially in the form of pathic communication such as greetings, farewells and best wishes formula, are intended to assure a sense of respect, positive emotion and a good atmosphere; also, specific jargon, made up mainly of diseases’ names, the expression of emotions in online medical consultations: a comprehensive spanish-english analysis ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262 243 ! ! a salient attitude dimensions! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. medical good practice conventions prototype medical-style markers phatic and descriptive protocols empathetic behaviour indicators relational identity-shift strategies! reinforces the doctor’s proficiency and patient trust (xin & yansheng, 2021). effective control of description is paramount in this genre (salager-meyer, 1985, 2014), with salient mechanisms such as metaphors and similes (e.g., like grit in my eye), hedges and softeners (e.g., a little discomfort, slightly sick), and vague expressions (e.g., a kind of ache). the last two dimensions, empathetic behaviour indicators and relational identity-shift mechanisms, depend on the relationship established with the patient. the first type demonstrates and measures the degree of sympathy, understanding, consideration, and relief of the interacting parties. over the last 50 years, experts in communication accommodation theory (cat) have highlighted a large number of strategies that interlocutors often use to converge and empathise with each other and thus facilitate interaction (giles et al., 1987). as breen et al. (2009) highlight, the physician’s primary goal is to interact with the patient, using an interpersonal combination of personal exploration, sensitivity, accommodation, rapport, and trust. the study by ahmed and bates (2016) with 310 patients in primary care clinics concluded that convergent medical behaviour was the most important factor for improving patient satisfaction. this behaviour is manifested by making the patient feel treated as an equal, individually and efficiently, and by showing interest and reducing their anxiety as much as possible. success therefore depends on a series of cat strategies that facilitate interpretability, such as asking precise questions and checking that the patient understands and assimilates what is being asked or transmitted. linguistically, this usually includes prompting verbal offloading and reflexive dialogue, expressions of encouragement, engagement markers, paraphrasing and using silences, among many others (ong et al., 1995; peters, 2022). despite cat’s expansive scope, experts warn of a significant imbalance in using these strategies in actual practice, often due to underconvergence or overconvergence behaviours (street, 2003, p. 146). some doctors do not show enough strategies for successful interaction, while others use so many colloquial strategies, informal expressions and empathetic tactics that they generate misunderstandings affecting the information and relational identities, leading some doctors to be even perceived as condescending or patronising. controlling relational identities is therefore paramount in training and professional practice. as in all professional registers, in medical consultations, communication flows through a series of conventional relational identities (i.e., doctorrosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262244 patient) that act as a pivot or reference point on which other intentional relational identities (e.g., parent-child, teacher-student, seller-consumer) strategically emerge and intersperse (giménez-moreno, 2006). these professional, social and personal relational identities are often blended and interchanged in these highly affective-marked genres to influence the parties’ sense of proximity, familiarity, and ease (coombs et al., 1993; mapelli, 2015). the relational-identity shifts are evidenced by register-marked mechanisms, such as specific jargon vs colloquialisms, specialised aphorisms vs popular idioms, sudden adaptations in prosodic choices, characteristic syntactic structures and interactive markers. this intricate heterogeneity of distinctive features must be controlled to achieve communicative success in the affective domain in this genre, i.e., to manage listening, silence and dialogue with the attitude that best enhances empathy and respect (bensing et al., 2011). therefore, a comprehensive analysis model must combine various categories and criteria from different methodological approaches. in this research, four of them will be particularly emphasised: (a) systemic-functional linguistics, (b) register variation theory, (c) metadiscourse studies, and (d) sentiment analysis theory. systemic-functional linguistics, and its purpose-oriented perspective on professional politeness and rhetorical choices, can help focus on the range of persuasive mechanisms speakers use to attain these objectives, including traditional evaluative and emotional mechanisms (gotti & salager-mayer, 2006). register variation theory and its succeeding contextual and interpersonal perspective on tenor variation and relational identities, professional prototypes and socio-cognitive conventions can contribute to identifying the affective and attitudinal patterns of this particular genre (halliday, 1994; giménez-moreno, 2006; staples et al., 2020). additionally, metadiscourse theory and its characteristic textual analyses on appraisal mechanisms concerning attitudes, emotions and beliefs (martin & white, 2005; white, 2015; hyland, 2019) provides the framework to assess the overall affective impact and also the subjective mechanisms operating during the interaction, with the possibility of measuring these dimensions statistically. finally, sentiment analysis theory offers opinion mining tools, sentiment identification and appraisal facilities (taboada, 2016). consequently, our comprehensive model for analysing the affective domain of online medical consultations must at least include the following four categories: the expression of emotions in online medical consultations: a comprehensive spanish-english analysis ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262 245 1. sentiment markers, such as qualitative adjectives (wilson et al., 2008), intensifiers (taboada et al., 2011) and other emotion indicators of, for example, irony or sarcasm (hernández farias & rosso, 2017). 2. interpersonal strategies that reveal stance and register variation, evidenced in the lexical fluctuation and the use of certain sentence types, modality, personal markers and indirect speech, among others (giménez-moreno, 2006; white, 2015; staples et al., 2020). 3. appraisal and mitigation tactics that convey affect, judgement and appreciation; also their force and their intention (martin & white, 2005; bellés-fortuño, 2018), together with mitigation mechanisms such as sequential placement and multifunction mitigators to alleviate face threats (caffi, 1999; goldsmith, 2000). 4. positive and negative politeness strategies (brown & levinson, 1978), accompanied by a wide range of rhetorical figures led by gradations, metaphors, euphemisms, litotes and understatements (heifferon & brown, 2009; bleakley, 2017). before concluding this section, it is essential to point out that these categories often overlap in daily communication. several of their linguistic representations can be brought together in one expression. for example, the ironic response of a doctor to a thank you for something difficult done to help a patient may be my pleasure!. this last expression could be considered a rhetorical figure, politeness strategy, self-mention and mitigation mechanism. therefore, these categories need to be approached from an interrelated perspective in many instances and contexts. it is also possible and might be advisable that on particular occasions, they need to be studied or assessed together with other complementary categories and linguistic features not included here. these methodological issues will be explained in the following sections. 3. corpus description and methodology as expected, the compilation of the spanish and english online corpora was laborious given the fact that professional medical forums: (a) require a membership fee and a monthly subscription, (b) are focused on a specific field rather than on a variety of themes, and (c) tend to omit specific and detailed information referring to other private websites for specialised or rosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262246 private issues (giménez-moreno & martínez-sierra, 2017). therefore, in the medical forum data collection, at least three criteria were followed to control variables: (1) the forums had to be freely accessible, (2) the physician responses had to provide detailed information in response to the issue raised by the patient, and (3) the forums should not be specialised only in a specific topic of medicine but in a wide range of medical issues. two representative forums have been selected considering the mentioned factors and difficulties: doctors lounge forum for the english corpus and opinion médica online for the spanish corpus. the corpus comprises threads from these two forums compiled during the last six months of 2020. threads directly related to covid-19 were excluded to minimise the polarisation of language associated with this new disease to the detriment of the usual expressions related to common conditions. after a filtering and organising process, the final compilation included 100 threads about five highly recurrent medical pathologies: dermatological problems, diabetes, gynaecological issues, paediatric consultations and sexually transmitted diseases. in addition to their quantitative salience, these pathologies were selected because they tend to be more difficult to discuss due to their intrusive nature involving personal areas of affective complexity. the english corpus of doctors’ and patients’ interactions contained 30.023 words (1.838 sentences) and the spanish corpus comprised 12.741 words (856 sentences). the spanish corpus thus contained practically half as many words as the english corpus; however, when focusing only on the doctors’ interventions, the figures indicate that english doctors (13.986 words) speak less (46% of words included in the exchanges) than spanish doctors (9.386 words, 73.6% of words in the corpus). this demonstrates a clear predominance of the spanish doctors’ voice in this doctor-centred corpus in contrast with a more patient-centred and engaging approach in the case of english doctors. the methodological criteria used to analyse the affective domain in these corpora followed the proposed model of salient categories synthesised in the previous section: sentiment markers, interpersonal strategies, appraisal and mitigation mechanisms, and rhetorical and politeness strategies. to identify and study the features of each category we included quantitative and qualitative procedures. the qualitative analysis was based on systematic observation and manual annotations. three corpus analysis applications were used for the quantitative analysis: sketch engine (for keywords, the expression of emotions in online medical consultations: a comprehensive spanish-english analysis ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262 247 frequencies, collocations and statistical comparisons) and lingmotif and nvivo (for sentiment analysis). 4. results and discussion the following pages summarise the findings of the corpora analysis. in the first stage, doctors’ intervention lengths and threads’ lexical density are compared in the english and spanish corpora. next, the main categories of affective mechanisms are identified and compared. regarding lexical density, as previously mentioned, the total number of doctors’ interactions was higher in the spanish corpus than in the english one. however, in terms of the length of the interventions (table 2), the difference was insignificant, as the average number of words per interaction was 54 words for the english doctors versus 52 for the spanish doctors. as for the shortest and longest interactions, there was a match between the corpora, with 14 the total number of words in the briefest english interaction versus 16 words in the shortest spanish exchange. nevertheless, the doctors’ most prolonged interaction took place in the english corpus, with a slightly higher number of words, namely 397 words for the longest, followed by a 232-word one, versus 198 words for the most prolonged spanish interaction. there seems to be a standard length in doctors’ interventions irrespective of the language, namely 52-54 words per interaction (14-16 words in brief interactions and between 198-232 words in prolonged interactions). table 2: doctors’ interventions length. 4.1. sentiment markers the first analysis was carried out with the application lingmotif, focusing mainly on the doctors’ interventions. this tool detects positive, negative, and rosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262248 ! ! doctors english corpus spanish corpus number of conversations 231 160 average number of words 54 52 longest intervention 397/232 198 shortest intervention 14 16 neutral items and provides positivity and negativity scores on the data. the software identified a significant number of positive items in spanish (e.g., prevenir, mejorar, descanso, correcta, positiva) and english (e.g., helpful, useful, help, correct and positive). the main drawback of lingmotif is that it identifies the items associated with diseases, symptoms, and remedies as negative (e.g., diabetes, injury, infection, blood, fever, pain), even when their pragmatic meaning is positive (e.g., la fiebre demuestra que su metabolismo está combatiendo la enfermedad). this variance accounts for the high number of negative items in both corpora and supports the convenience of reinforcing the investigation with further analysis. nevertheless, as these terms considered negative have a similar frequency in both corpora, the results clearly show that the lexical negativity in the english consultations is significantly higher than in the spanish ones, showing a total of 784 in english versus a total of 476 in spanish. it must be underlined that the negative score in english doubles that in spanish (2420 versus 993). in contrast, the number of positive items is similar in both languages, namely 410 in english and 407 in spanish. the corpus analysis software nvivo was used for the second analysis as it detects emotion in more extensive stretches of text. it provided us with 0.4% negative items in the spanish corpus and 2.9% in the english corpus. thus, this second tool corroborates the higher percentage in the english corpus of negative terms. nvivo analysis differentiates among negative items (1.5% in english and 0.2% in spanish), moderate negative terms (0.9% in english and 0.1% in spanish), and extremely negative (0.5% in english and 0.1% in spanish). the linguistic representation of negative words includes names of diseases (e.g., eczema, cancer, diabetes) and nouns with a negative connotation (such as infección, riesgo, problema, lesiones/ pain, discomfort, wounds, condition, itchiness, sores, and injuries). the presence of adjectives among the negative linguistic features of the corpus is varied, including intensifiers (e.g., frequent, excessive, recurrent, unstable, extreme, low) and also adjectives with a negative connotation related to adverse feelings (e.g., troubling, frustrating, worrying) and physical discomfort or pain (e.g., stabbing, ulcerated, inflamed, viral). concerning positivity rates, the english corpus contains 1.1% positive items, whereas spanish positive items represent 0.17%, most identified as neutral positive. positivity is also higher in english, although the difference is small. it is reflected in the nouns used (e.g., advantage, improvement, heal) and particularly in the adjectives identified in both corpora (e.g., benign, effective, painless / ideal, mínimo, mejor). the expression of emotions in online medical consultations: a comprehensive spanish-english analysis ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262 249 the analysis shows a few isolated instances with positive/negative effect, like the aforesaid names of diseases and some collocations of terms with opposite emotions whose sentiment depends on their combination (e.g., the positive adjective eficaces was identified as negative when accompanied by solo or algo). certain prosodic and syntactic choices also affect the positivity/negativity of some expressions, in addition to their linguistic register. in this sense, a significant finding is the use of exclamation marks by the english doctors, especially at the end of their interactions (e.g., as closing expressions and farewell formulas such as best wishes!, good luck!). these exclamations contrast with the more formal and conventional register of the spanish correlates (e.g., ¡cuídese! or ¡adiós!). this greater use of positive language corresponding to the casual professional register in the english corpus correlates with the combination of certain register-marked discursive mechanisms that are illustrated in the following section. the global results of the sentiment analyses, both in their positive and negative dimensions, show a more significant occurrence of sentiment markers and, therefore, greater emotional intensity in the english online consultations than in the spanish ones. 4.2. interpersonal procedures the analysis confirms that doctors’ highest priority, and predominant objective in this genre, is counselling patients. this interpersonal macrofunction encompasses most interactive moves that configure this type of online encounter: advising, informing, recommending, guiding, instructing, reassuring, etc. the linguistic choices used in this procedure significantly influence how both interlocutors express their affection and emotions. a distinctive and contrastive interpersonal mechanism in counselling is the preemptive use of modality. in the case of english, the most frequent linguistic strategy to advise is by means of the exploratory word would (0.55%) within a conditional sentence (e.g., if it gets worse, i would recommend waiting to see if it gets better in a few days). its correlate in spanish is the verb of obligation deber (0.69%), mostly in its conditional inflections (e.g., deberían hacerle pruebas). a second option in the spanish corpus is the use of impersonal coercing expressions such as es importante or hay que, which can be understood as synonyms or alternative expressions of debería (e.g., debería/es importante/hay que evitar). this attitude of authority and detachment is also revealed through sentences headed by the impersonal reflexive passive form rosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262250 in spanish (e.g., se recomienda, se aconseja) and other impersonal phrases (e.g., algunas recomendaciones podrían ser). spanish doctors use the explicit version of recomendar (0.17%) a little more often than the english doctors use recommend (0.11%), to avoid directness, minimise their dominant role and invite patients to make their own decisions. another characteristic strategy when giving recommendations is the omission of the advising verb le recomiendo que and the personal pronouns. instead, they opt for imperative sentences like consulte a su especialista, which reinforce the direct and distant tone that characterises the spanish doctors compared to their correlates in english, who tend to use more empathetic options, such as i would get a second opinion. the use of imperatives is salient in both databases reinforcing the doctors’ authority and control over the situation. still, in english consultations, these verbal forms are regularly complemented by the auxiliary verb do (e.g., do get an opinion from your doctor). this auxiliary verb softens the imposing effect of the imperative in a much more encouraging and reinforcing exchange. as these features and examples show, the dividing line between recommendation-command and recommendation-suggestion is sometimes very thin in this genre, marked merely by intonation and modality. the stance concerning some particular engagement strategies, such as personal markers, contrasts in both corpora. as table 3 and 4 illustrate, the second-person pronouns you (1.25%) in the english corpus far outnumber the joint frequency of usted (0.05%) and tú(s) (0.02%) in the spanish corpus. this engagement mechanism is often used to emphasise the patients’ uniqueness, explicitly addressing and involving them in the discourse; it also reinforces the personal and bidirectional relationship between doctor and patient. again, in this mechanism, english doctors stand out in their individualising and concurring effort, compared to spanish ones, as shown by the data in table 3 and 4. table 3: use of personal markers. table 4: use of personal markers. the expression of emotions in online medical consultations: a comprehensive spanish-english analysis ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262 251 ! ! personal markers english corpus personal markers spanish corpus you 175 1.25% usted 5 0.05% your 125 0.89% tú (s) 2 0.02% i 84 0.60% su (s) 2 0.02% my 13 0.09% table 4: use of personal markers. t this tendency extends to other adjectives and pronouns, as is the case with second-person possessives. the english corpus shows a frequency in the use of the adjective your (0.89%), whereas in the spanish corpus only two examples of tu(s) were registered, and a total of 6 sentences contained su(s). in addition, the words that surround the possessive markers in the spanish corpus often overturn their engaging force. for example, this occurs when the pronoun su appears in an imperative sentence (e.g., consulte con su ginecólogo o médico de cabecera) or when the pronoun is used impersonally, not addressing the patient’s personal circumstances directly, but rather referring to patients in general who could be in the same situation (e.g., es ideal para parejas que desean espaciar el nacimiento de sus hijos). concerning self-mentions, i and my are also used to emphasise individuality and commitment on both sides. in the english corpus, doctors try to establish a closer relationship using the pronoun i (0.60%) in combination with the pronoun you (e.g., i would urge you to follow my indications). these attitude markers bring to light the person behind the professional, who adopts more of a caretaker role with a more compassionate and fraternal approach to the issue. the following example shows how the presence of personal and possessive pronouns shifts the register into a more amicable tone reinforcing the special care and interest for the patient and highlighting their uniqueness: i hope this information is helpful and does not compound your pre-existing confusion! you need to consult your regular doctor who will be in a better position to correlate your clinical picture with your blood sugar values. the corresponding spanish pronoun yo appears explicitly only once. however, it should be noted that in spanish, personal pronouns are often omitted but implicit. if implicit and explicit mentions of these pronouns are taken into account, the frequency of this marker is similar in both corpora. one last remark concerns the low incidence of the possessive adjective my (0.02%) in english and null in spanish. on the two occasions in which it appears, it has a paradoxical effect since it does not seem to indicate an approximation or commitment on the doctor’s part, but quite the opposite, a greater emphasis on the position of professional authority and interpersonal power of the practitioner: my feeling is that you may not need anything more than to get a reappraisal from your dermatologist, my answer is based on the treatment of acne and tetracycline. rosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262252 the last set of interpersonal mechanisms that stand out in this study is related to communicative register variation. in general terms, this genre is made up of professional encounters between two standard or conventional relational identities (i.e., doctor and patient), expressed through communicative markers in tune with the good practices and prototype styles mentioned in the theoretical review. depending on these choices, the register shifts from professional-formal to professional-casual and vice versa (giménez-moreno, 2006, 2020). in the corpora, we find clear examples of these normalised shifts, as table 5 illustrates. table 5: register variation in the doctor-patient counselling process. as these examples show, modal phrases (would and conditionals) and indirect speech markers (best would be / lo ideal es) are used to express more formality and deference, while imperatives and verbs of obligation are employed to generate a certain level of informality, ease and closeness, especially when dealing with delicate issues. in addition to these regular register shifts, the analysis of our corpora also shows a frequent inclusion of features from other non-professional registers (i.e., family and amicable registers). in both corpora, we see typical expressions that correspond to personal or private relational identities (e.g., parents and children). for example, in the spanish consultations, doctors alternatively use the familiar expression hacer caca and its professional correlate defecar. the amicable register is also observed in expressions such as don’t do it! or go ahead! these deliberate register shifts are very significant because they show the intentional attitudinal effort of the doctors to get closer to the patients, going even beyond their professional conventions to the expression of emotions in online medical consultations: a comprehensive spanish-english analysis ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262 253 ! !! t ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! register variation in the doctor-patient counselling process! formal professional english formal professional spanish i would definitely recommend se recomienda/ aconseja best would be to avoid hay que evitar do check in with your doctor consulte con su médico i would urge you to have some tests deberían hacerle pruebas casual professional english casual professional spanish you must get your dad examined pensemos en el tratamiento precoz hard for you to explain? for me, it is perhaps harder to diagnose! un pene más grande no tiene por qué dar más placer better get rid of it! si hace caso y no lo repite mejor taking that will kill you ¿y se pone maquillaje estando así? achieve greater understanding, impact, trust and, ultimately, follow-up by their patients for their own benefit. in sum, doctors resort to specific interpersonal mechanisms (i.e., modality, engagement markers and register variation) to express their attitude towards the procedure they are carrying out. 4.3. appraisal and mitigating mechanisms the corpus analysis demonstrates the clear predominance of adverbial expressions of gradation as a concomitant appraisal mechanism. a significant number of intensifiers were registered, namely, adverbs reflecting high and low degrees. table 6 below shows that although there was a wider range of intensifiers in english, the total frequency rate, including all the adverbs, was similar in both corpora with a total of 88 instances in english and 86 in spanish. those most commonly used in both corpora were most (0.14%), very (0.12%), more (0.11%) in english, and the corresponding adverbs más (0.52%) and muy (0.23%) in spanish. table 6: intensifiers in the english and spanish corpora. these intensifying adverbs are often combined strategically with other adverbs such as unlikely, rápidamente or too to achieve the patient’s relief and to minimise or maximise the patient’s concern (e.g., the chances of getting a clinical infection are indeed most unlikely, es muy importante que vaya rapidamente al especialista). similarly, the adverb muy (0.23%) is combined by spanish doctors with words such as rápida or remota to emphasise the good news (e.g., las posibilidades de recaida son muy remotas). on the contrary, a more significant impact was expected from some a priori predictable adverbial expressions that have finally proven occasional. one of them was poco/s (17 rosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262254 ! ! 4 english corpus spanish corpus most 20 0.14% más 49 0.52% very 17 0.12% muy 22 0.23% more 16 0.11% siempre 9 0.10% even 15 0.11% incluso 6 0.06% quite 8 0.06% much 7 0.05% always 5 0.04% occurrences), with very low representation and usually combined with the term problemas. when used, it has the function of causing relief in the patient (e.g., el liquen plano de la piel causa pocos problemas y no requiere tratamiento. in the english corpus, few is generally used in expressions of time (e.g., a few years, a few months), not as an appraisal mechanism, attitudinal marker or emotional reliever. remarkably, the same happens to the adjective little. doctors only use them in set expressions or in combination with other terms that help relieve the patient, establishing the same correlation as in spanish (e.g., oral contraceptive is only one of a few treatment options). along with the intensifiers indicated above, another frequent adverb of great attitudinal relevance in this genre is siempre (0.10%), which is the third most frequently used adverb in the spanish corpus (e.g., en la infertilidad masculina debe siempre descartarse la existencia de un varicocele). in the english corpus, always occupies eighth place in frequency (0.04%). however, as mentioned above, english doctors tend to use a wider variety of adverbs, alternating always with such as quite, just or much which are not correlated in the spanish corpus. the analysis also displays results about other significant mitigation mechanisms. the most relevant stance markers identified in our corpora are hedges. as described in hyland (2019), hedges present the information as a possibility rather than a definite fact. they imply that the statement of the speaker or writer is based on logical reasoning and not on specific knowledge, mitigating the speaker’s responsibility. this mitigating function is developed more predominantly through modal verbs in both languages (e.g., no treatment may be required, el dolor puede estar causado por una hernia inguinal). of the total number of words in each subcorpus, the percentages corresponding to modal verbs used more than 20 times in the english corpus are can (0.84%), may (0.67%), would (0.55%) could (0.30%) and should (0.28%); in the spanish corpus are poder (1.57%), deber (0.55%) and soler (0.2%). other mitigating verbs of similar nature are seem (0.06%) and parecer (0.04%). they are primarily used as a way of emphasising that they are tentative diagnoses but also to show deference and sensitivity to the patient on the issue (e.g., it seems likely that it is nothing serious, parece un caso de cefalea). these results illustrate the fact that english doctors use a greater number and variety of modal verbs (425 instances in the english corpus) compared to spanish doctors (252 modal verbs in the spanish corpus). another strategy that is frequently observed is the mitigation of probability rates through adjective and adverbial forms. spanish doctors frequently use the expression of emotions in online medical consultations: a comprehensive spanish-english analysis ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262 255 the term posible (0.11%), but this rate is doubled in the english corpus with the use of the synonyms: to be likely (0.11%) and to be possible (0.13). in both languages, doctors resort to these strategic words to put the patient and themselves at ease (e.g., the condition is most likely to be a cherry angioma. again, the meaning of the adverb probably (0.04%), and its frequent collocation with temporary problem in the english corpus (e.g., be assured that this is probably a temporary problem), do not find the same correlation with the spanish probablemente, with only one mention. the same goes for the use of the adverb usually (0.11%) in the english corpus without a correlative presence in spanish. in this latter case, its highest mitigating force is displayed in combination with a modal verb (e.g., then, the doctor usually can remove the iud if needed). except for these cases where there are significant differences between languages, the remaining adverbial mitigators are used in similar rates, with contrasts in some usage preferences: generally (0.18%) and generalmente (0.05%), but normalmente (0.18%) and normally (0.14%). in all these cases, doctors intend to restate the norm and reassure the patient (e.g., this condition is generally caused by stress /este es un trastorno generalmente pasajero). all these findings demonstrate that english doctors use a larger and wider selection of mitigation strategies than spanish doctors in current online consultations. these are attitudinal markers that facilitate the exchange of information, showing and raising respect, deference, sympathy and many other positive feelings. 4.4. rhetorical and politeness strategies the data revealed so far has proven that both corpora are clear examples of the dialogical complexity that characterise the control of emotions in this professional genre. this last section completes the representativeness of these corpora by reinforcing the significance of the politeness protocols (e.g., welcoming expressions), rhetorical figures (e.g., physiological metaphors), and conventional attitudinal jargon (e.g., to express care). as mentioned previously, these encounters require taking into account the limitations of the mode of interaction, the vulnerability of the patient and the sensitivity of the issues discussed. these particular requirements force interlocutors to use strategies and mechanisms that are common outside the professional arena. the subsequent stance and register shifts, as illustrated in the above highlighted interpersonal strategies (section 4.2), incorporate other facilitating strategies such as humour, irony, hyperbole and emphasis. the rosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262256 corpus shows many professional-to-familiar register shifts (i.e., from doctorpatient relational identities to parental relational identities) expressing sympathy with the patient through humour and ironical comparisons in exclamation sentences (e.g., ¡más no siempre es mejor!), especially combined with casual conventional jargon (e.g., normal! and do you all go to the loo so many times a day?). this communication strategy is usual in both languages (0.8%); however, the english corpus uses exclamation and question marks, while the spanish corpus tends to omit such punctuation devices (1.1%). these minor details make a certain difference in correctness and communicative politeness. conventional pathos-based rhetorical strategies (e.g., empathy, sympathy, pathopoeia, etc.) are also frequent to appeal to emotion and get the patient to open up in the initial moves, or leave in the best possible mood in the final moves of the consultation. the ethopoeia is a distinctive figure of this type of encounter (1.2%), where the doctors often put themselves in the place of the patients, expressing or echoing their feelings and their fears (e.g., it is a relatively simple procedure i would not expect any problem., your confusion is not in any case unique, i would not be concerned.). these rhetorical figures also include other characteristic emotions that reflect the frustration, exasperation or discouragement the interlocutors often feel. for example, there are 0.5% instances of apagoresis when the doctors show their impossibility to offer any more help and try to inhibit the patient from insisting (e.g., sorry, i’m unable to help you more on this.) finally, characteristic jargon and lexical collocations a priori expressed to inform the patient also operate as rhetorical figures of attenuation or litotes with a significant emotional function. for example, in the spanish corpus, the focus of many of these collocations (0.6%) is mainly concerned with the risks of treatment and their frequency, such as the combination of the noun tratamiento or método with adjectives such as sencillo or efectivo and the adverb muy, often also followed by the adjective raro/s (e.g., la ligadura de trompas es un método muy efectivo, los casos de fallo son muy raros). so despite the fact that the doctors in both corpora use similar rhetorical and politeness mechanisms, their prevalence varies. spanish doctors prefer to remain more detached with higher pervasiveness of the professional communicative register. the expression of emotions in online medical consultations: a comprehensive spanish-english analysis ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262 257 5. conclusion the present study has unfolded the most significant dimensions, components and mechanisms of the affective domain in online spanish and english medical consultations. at a global communicative level, the participants in these interactions need training, awareness and decisionmaking principles covering behavioural and illocutionary dimensions such as good practice conventions, prototypical medical-style markers, phatic and descriptive protocols, empathetic behaviour indicators, and relational identity-shift strategies. this awareness and empowerment process, at a more precise discursive and linguistic level, involves knowledge and practice in specific sentiment markers, interpersonal mechanisms, appraisal and mitigation tactics, and rhetorical-persuasive strategies. another interesting outcome applicable to both languages is that, although the average length of a doctor’s online intervention is around 50 words, in reality, these physicians must be prepared to formulate short-interactive (around 15 words) and longinformative (around 200 words) interventions. this analysis model also highlights significant results from a contrastive perspective. despite their tight consultation schedules, spanish doctors occupy 73% of the exchange making a noticeable effort to explain extensively, formulate elaborate questions and diagnose in more detail than english doctors, who in their 46% of the exchange are more focused on making patients explain themselves extensively, ask questions and express their concerns. it is evident that these represent two different communicative approaches or medical cultures (kirschbaum & fortner, 2012). this study demonstrates that the english approach exerts greater control over the emotions that emerge in this genre. sentiment markers are a valuable tool to measure the affective domain. their more frequent use both negative and positive in the english interactions confirms the closer, more empathetic role on the part of english doctors, which contrasts with the very low representation of even positive items in the spanish corpus, evidencing the doctors’ detachment and avoidance of entering the personal sphere. regarding interpersonal devices, the study highlights the complexity of the medical counselling function in this genre, and the narrow dividing line between the recommendation-command, most frequent in the spanish corpus, and the recommendation-suggestion, most recurrent in the english corpus. this line is often marked merely by intonation and modality options, but it is very significant at the attitudinal rosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262258 level. similar differences are seen concerning appraisal and mitigating mechanisms, particularly in the frequency with which english doctors generalise and use gradation markers together with various expressions of probability to put the patient at ease. finally, rhetorical and politeness strategies like irony and hyperbole also account for the affective domain in both english and spanish doctors’ interactions. this compendium of strategies smooths the authoritative and sometimes daunting voice of the doctors, bringing them closer to their patients and creating a more relaxed, affable, and respectful environment conducive to dialogue, complicity and, ultimately, communicative efficiency. learning about these mechanisms ought to be a must in spanish and english curricula for medical students and practitioners. instruction in these linguistic skills should be included in university undergraduate and postgraduate medical degrees, and in specific professional training courses (al-zyoud et al., 2021). the proposed model, strategies and examples could facilitate communication in these encounters, and help design future courses and research. the present study also evidences different attitudes among british and spanish doctors when dealing with patients’ emotions online, leaving open the question of whether this variance lies in different sensitivities, in diverse models of care or if this could be related to dissimilarities in university medical training cultures. given the irregularity of this instruction in university degrees worldwide, haas-gehres (2021) states, awareness and management of diverse cultural sensitivities should be essential skills in the curriculum for all health professionals. therefore, further comprehensive comparative analyses of these differences could 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(2008). health-related online forums: what’s the big attraction? journal of health communication, 13(7), 698-714. <https://doi.org/ 10.1080/10810730802415316> rosa giménez moreno (phd) is senior lecturer in the department of english and german studies at the university of valencia and a founding member of the university institute of applied modern languages (iulma). she has lectured on linguistics and communication in english for three decades at the graduate and postgraduate university levels. she has a particular research interest in language variation and professional communication from a sociolinguistic, pragmatic and cognitive perspective. she has published her investigation on prestigious academic platforms such as the journal of pragmatics, metaphor and social world and language and intercultural communication. alicia ricart vayá is associate professor at the department of english and german philology of valencia since 2010. she has been teaching esp in the degrees of tourism, medicine, nursing, podiatry, physiotherapy and english studies. she has been teaching esp from 2002 to 2010 at the polytechnic university of valencia, where she conducted her european ph.d in 2008, entitled: “an esp comparative analysis in medical research articles. english-spanish”. at the present, she is a member of the university institute of applied modern languages. her main fields of research include contrastive rhetoric, corpus linguistics, professional communication, discourse analysis, translation and sla. rosa giménez-moreno & alicia ricart-vayá ibérica 44 (2022): 239-262262 white, p. r. (2015). appraisal theory. in k. tracy, c. ilie & t. sandel (eds.), the international encyclopedia of language and social interaction. john wiley & sons. wilson, d., williams, m., & butler, d. (2008). language and the pain experience. physiotherapy research international, 14(1). <https://doi.org/ 10.1002/pri.424> xin z., & yansheng, m. (2021). trust me, i am a doctor: discourse of trustworthiness by chinese doctors in online medical consultation. health communication, 36(3), 372-380. <https://doi. org/10.1080/10410236.2019.1692491> 30 reseñas.qxd avalado por el sólido perfil profesional y académico de sus autoras, el interés de este libro radica en que viene a rellenar el vacío que había hasta ahora en torno a la enseñanza-aprendizaje del español de especialidad. pensado para la enseñanza, con un modelo práctico de uso y aplicación, el cual desprende intención pedagógica desde la primera hasta la última página, la enseñanza de los lenguajes de especialidad. la simulación global se estructura en dos partes bien diferenciadas, si bien lógicamente relacionadas. en la primera parte, eminentemente teórica, se recogen con meticulosidad los planteamientos básicos para la descripción y caracterización de los lenguajes de especialidad, a saber: qué se entiende por lenguajes de especialidad, qué criterios definen el carácter “especializado” de una lengua, cuáles son los componentes y características de los textos especializados, cómo abordar el análisis de un texto especializado, qué determina el carácter especializado de un texto. la introducción a la enseñanza-aprendizaje de los lenguajes de especialidad o con fines específicos se inicia en el apartado 5 (parte i), donde se abordan los recursos concretos necesarios para enseñar a gestionar adecuadamente la comunicación en una especialidad: recursos textuales, recursos léxicos y terminológicos, y fraseología. los últimos avances metodológicos, en cuyo marco se sitúa la simulación global como un excelente ejercicio didáctico para poner en práctica situaciones reales de comunicación especializada, se exponen en la segunda parte, predominantemente práctica, con rigurosidad, minuciosidad y, sobre todo, manifiesta sensibilidad hacia la docencia. además de presentar una aproximación a la historia de la simulación global como método de formación y aprendizaje –muy de agradecer–, las autoras nos introducen en esta innovadora herramienta, que, gracias a que posibilita ser fiel reflejo de la realidad profesional y a la fuerte motivación que provoca entre los alumnos, facilita la adquisición de la competencia comunicativa de las lenguas de especialidad. reseñas / book reviews 184 ibérica 13 [2007]: 181-194 la enseñanza de los lenguajes de especialidad. la simulación global maría teresa cabré y josefa gómez de enterría. madrid: gredos, 2006. 163 páginas. isbn: 84-249-2793-1 10 reseñas.qxp 6/4/07 09:11 página 184 en los últimos años ha surgido una notable demanda de profesores de lenguas de especialidad. ahora bien, la carencia de aportaciones didácticas y, por tanto, de materiales para la utilización en el aula es innegable. y los materiales al uso, un buen número de los cuales se hallan poco actualizados y/o elaborados, no han favorecido por igual a todos los campos de especialidad, como es el caso de la enseñanza del español de las ciencias de la salud. de ahí la oportunidad de este trabajo. los profesores de lenguas de especialidad y los estudiantes de posgrado en período de especialización encontrarán de sumo interés y utilidad el apartado 8 (parte ii), volcado por completo en todo lo que conlleva la programación: desarrollo de la simulación global, determinación tanto de objetivos de aprendizaje como de competencias, actividades, estrategias y destrezas, organización de los materiales y evaluación, entre otros componentes didácticos. la segunda parte culmina con el apartado 9, que, dedicado exclusivamente a la práctica de la simulación global, se convierte en un instrumento utilísimo para su aplicación en el aula. en concreto, se ofrece a modo de ejemplo el esquema de algunas simulaciones que se pueden llevar a la práctica para la enseñanzaaprendizaje del español de especialidad: (1) creación de una empresa. (2) una empresa en expansión: el departamento de recursos humanos. (3) la agencia de viajes. (4) una reunión de política internacional. (5) el centro de salud. conviene subrayar, asimismo, la inclusión, por parte de las autoras, de un aspecto que confiere al libro de un carácter moderno y comunicativo. nos referimos a la inserción de tareas basadas en información on-line, de manera que los estudiantes han de completar una serie actividades tras buscar la información requerida en las páginas de internet recomendadas. cabe destacar, por último, la claridad del estilo en el que este libro ha sido redactado, su clara estructuración y su interés pedagógico, lo que lo convierten en un excelente manual para todos los interesados en la enseñanza-aprendizaje de las lenguas de especialidad y todos aquellos estudiosos que lleven a cabo tareas investigadoras encaminadas a la elaboración de materiales de calidad y bien elaborados. con respecto a los destinatarios de este libro, cabe añadir que, aunque vaya destinado a aquellos que desempeñan o desempeñarán su labor docente en reseñas / book reviews ibérica 13 [2007]: 181-194 185 10 reseñas.qxp 6/4/07 09:11 página 185 el ámbito de la enseñanza-aprendizaje de las lenguas de especialidad especialmente para estudiantes de español como lengua extranjera, estamos convencidos de su enorme utilidad para otros ámbitos docentes. nos referimos concretamente al de los estudios de traducción, donde la enseñanza-aprendizaje del español de especialidad empieza a ser ya, afortunadamente, una realidad. por todo lo expuesto, no podemos sino recomendar la lectura de esta obra a todos aquellos investigadores, docentes y estudiantes interesados en adquirir información, ampliar o completar sus conocimientos sobre la enseñanza/aprendizaje de las lenguas de especialidad en general y sobre la enseñanza-aprendizaje del español de especialidad en particular. reseñado por mª blanca mayor serrano (doctora en traducción e interpretación, barcelona) reseñas / book reviews 186 ibérica 13 [2007]: 181-194 10 reseñas.qxp 6/4/07 09:11 página 186 iberica 13 diccionario enciclopédico marítimo / the marine encyclopaedic dictionary. español-inglés/inglésespañol. luis delgado lállemand. madrid: editorial paraninfo, 2010. dos volúmenes: inglés-español, 812 págs. isbn: 978-84-283-8077-5. español-inglés, 710 págs. isbn: 978-84283-8076-8. la publicación del diccionario enciclopédico marítimo supone una grata novedad en un ámbito de la lexicografía especializada que no es demasiado prolífico. un diccionario de este tipo abarca distintas disciplinas y campos semánticos relacionados con el sector marítimo, desde la industria de la construcción y las reparaciones navales hasta la navegación y el transporte marítimo, pasando por las navieras, los seguros marítimos, las radiocomunicaciones, la actividad portuaria, el sector pesquero o la industria petrolera, entre otros muchos. así pues, el valor de este diccionario destaca no sólo por la gran cantidad de términos recopilados del ámbito marítimo, de campos semánticos tan relacionados pero a la vez tan distintos, sino también por suponer una actualización de la terminología marítima en lo que se refiere a temas tan relevantes y vigentes como la contaminación del medio marino o la protección marítima. el diccionario consta de dos volúmenes a los que el autor se refiere como “primera parte”, diccionario inglés/español, “segunda parte”, diccionario español/inglés. el primer volumen contiene los siguientes apartados, cada uno de ellos en versión bilingüe: guía del usuario, bibliografía, significado de abreviaturas y acrónimos, y prólogo del presidente de la asociación de ingenieros navales y oceánicos de españa. el hecho de que siempre esté en primer lugar la versión española nos indica que ésta es la lengua materna o primera lengua del público al que, al menos en una primera instancia, se dirige esta obra. a continuación, encontramos el listado de términos en inglés con su traducción al español, 783 páginas, y finalmente, varias páginas dedicadas a publicitar (entendemos que por motivos de patrocinio) una empresa de construcción y reparación de buques, también en ambas lenguas. en la bibliografía no se señala ningún diccionario, glosario o vocabulario del ámbito marítimo, ni siquiera ninguno relevante que haya podido servir de reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190188 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 188 inspiración al autor. en cambio, se destacan como fuentes de información terminológica actualizada los reglamentos de las sociedades de clasificación, revistas especializadas, de las que se proporciona una extensa lista y, por último, catálogos de fabricantes, consultores, representantes, etc. y páginas web. en el apartado “abreviaturas usadas en este diccionario” hallamos una lista de más de doscientas abreviaciones que, generalmente, se van a utilizar para indicar campos semánticos o aspectos gramaticales: categoría gramatical (verbo, adverbio, adjetivo, preposición, pronombre, sustantivo, sustantivo plural, conjunción), abreviatura o acrónimo, interrogación, interjección, prefijo/sufijo, etc. tal vez hubiera sido conveniente añadir el género del término para aquellos usuarios cuya primera lengua no es el español. el segundo volumen remite al lector al primero en todos sus apartados excepto en el de abreviaturas y acrónimos, y contiene el listado de términos de español a inglés con una extensión de 693 páginas. resulta sorprendente que el diccionario se denomine “enciclopédico”, pues tan solo de forma ocasional y no sistemática se incluye una breve definición descriptiva de los términos. cierto es que el autor explica cómo uno de los usos del paréntesis es precisamente: dar una breve aclaración del término, del compuesto o de la frase, etc. para una mejor aclaración, o bien para indicar en qué materia pueden ser encuadrados: lacing, s. culebra. (cabo usado para asegurar una vela a un palo, etc.) boat lacing. culebra. (funda de bote) lacing of the head. perdigueta. (madera de apoyo del mascarón). (b. m.). (pág. 11) sin embargo, en mi opinión y a pesar de su indudable utilidad, estas aclaraciones no tienen la suficiente entidad como para calificar esta obra de diccionario enciclopédico. merece nuestra admiración el ingente trabajo realizado. la extensión de la obra se debe a que se han recopilado numerosos términos especializados, compuestos, colocaciones y expresiones que abarcan el amplio espectro del ámbito marítimo, desde términos muy específicos de maniobras de atraque o desatraque (“heave away! interj. ¡cobrar sobre el cabestrante! (orden), heave back. v. desvirar (cadena, etc.).”), relacionados con los distintos sistemas de propulsión y servicios del buque (“bilge injection valve. válvula de inyección de la sentina.”), términos de la estructuras de buques (“flat keel. quilla horizontal (est.). quilla plana. (est.).”) y un larguísimo etcétera. asimismo, se reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 189 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 189 demuestra esta exhaustividad en el volumen español-inglés; por ejemplo, para el término “bomba. n. bomb (arm.). pump. (mec., etc.)” encontramos cuatro páginas de tipos de bombas, en su segunda acepción, presentes en los distintos sistemas del buque, desde “bomba acoplada de sentinas. power driven bilge pump.” hasta “bomba de barrido. scavenge pump. scavenging pump (of an engine).”, por citar algunas de tantas. es un hecho destacable que muchas entradas del diccionario reflejen las múltiples acepciones de términos polisémicos; el uso de abreviaturas que indican los distintos campos semánticos permiten al usuario identificar la traducción adecuada para cada contexto. asimismo, un aspecto que no suelen mostrar los diccionarios técnicos y que resulta original y relevante es el hecho de que se recoja el registro de uso, es decir, si el término es antiguo, familiar o informal. cabe también señalar la gran cantidad de acrónimos y siglas que el autor ha incluido en el diccionario y que permiten al usuario conocer su significado y su traducción, así como la recopilación de nombres de convenios, códigos o recomendaciones internacionales de obligado cumplimiento en el sector naval-marítimo. sin duda, las casi 1500 páginas que conforman los dos volúmenes de esta obra, nos ofrecen un extenso número de términos de gran utilidad para profesionales de estos sectores, estudiantes y profesores de inglés marítimo, terminólogos y traductores. [reseña recibida en diciembre de 2010] [reseña revisada aceptada en enero de 2011] reseñado por mª dolores perea barberá universidad de cádiz (spain) mariadolores.perea@uca.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190190 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 190 iberica 13 english for professional and academic purposes miguel f. ruiz-garrido, juan c. palmer-silveira, inmaculada fortanetgómez (eds.). amsterdam: rodopi, 2010. 237 pages. isbn: 978-90-420-2955-2 (paperback)/ 978-90-420-2956-9 (e-book). as the authors acknowledge, enrique alcaraz was responsible for the terminological shift from esp to epap (english for professional and academic purposes), on the basis that – following widdowson too – any language use has specificity. the title reflects this shift and the monograph can be considered a fitting tribute to both scholars and their philosophy of (applied) language and linguistics. the editors, members of the grapel research group with an outstanding track in epap research and pedagogy set up to offer a view of english as an international lingua franca as used in a wide range of geolinguistic contexts with an international scope in the depicting of research and professional practices. approaches and topics in the research and teaching of epap are varied, and so are the techniques used, drawing upon genre and discourse analysis, contrastive rhetoric, corpus linguistics, rhetorical analysis and ethnographic tools. there are three sections devoted, respectively, to discourse analysis in eap, discourse in the professions and, lastly, epap pedagogy. section i includes a group of works on academic generic and discourse practices and conventions in different fields and geolinguistic settings. chapter 1, by dushyanti mendis, presents a bottom-up corpus based analysis of two varieties of eap writing, british and sri lankan, to detect patterns of use which might reflect underlying beliefs about the norms and conventions in writing for an international versus a local audience, with interesting caveats on gatekeeping and negotiation in a critical discourse analysis trend. carmen pérez-llantada combines bottom-up discourse analysis which is both cross-cultural and cross-linguistic with statistical methods (i.e. cluster analysis and frequency retrieval analysis) to yield qualitative and quantitative evidence showing how spanish writers move towards english cultural conventions when writing in academic english, while they keep their commitment to their culturally bound practices when reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 issn 1139-7241 178 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 178 writing in their mother tongue. her results offer evidence for a hybrid nature of internationally published nnss academic texts revealing a rather optimistic landscape, with culturally bound differences not posing serious problems with regards to publishing and an actual negotiation between culture-dependent uses and genre-related ones already taking place. françoise salager-meyer, angeles mari alcaraz ariza and maryelis pabón berbesi focus on medical paper acknowledgement sections across different cultures and languages with the aim of determining possible contextual influences in this genre which is part of the scholar’s rhetorical repertoire. corpus based and ethnographic analyses cast light on the status of this genre, revealing the influence of economic and social factors not only in the rhetorical instantiation of acknowledgements, but also in the extent to which their formal conventions are fixed. these works inevitably lead to stressing the role of discourse analysis in the provision of real, context and community related input on which novice researchers should be enculturated. ana moreno provides strands for future research aimed at achieving this in a systematic, high scale way, including benchmark specifications and practical, specific methodological advice for obtaining a reliable corpus of intercultural and cross-cultural evidence to use as precourse needs analysis for academic writing purposes. turning to section ii, on professional english, the contributions share a sociological bias in the analysis of various contexts and community discourses, and mostly aim at detecting sociocultural patterns as reflected in language usage with implications for different target activities. philip shaw opens the section by providing an exercise of textography on two different but related discourse communities and focusing on the report genre. basic elements of genre theory – e.g. community, systems, roles, values and hierarchies, etc. – are illustrated by showing these elements at work in both worlds, leading to the conclusion that “the members of a discourse community are not people but personae, that is, people in particular roles.” (page 84). the next two chapters focus on health-related discourse, analysed primarily as information sources aimed at patients. ulla connor, elizabeth goering, marianne matthias & robert mac neil analyse – through surveys and interviews – diabetes patients’ attitudes towards specific health information sources in order to relate information reception and processing to knowledge construction which may lead in turn to adherence to the treatment plans, which is the goal pursued by the health systems. inger askehave & karen k. zethsen engage in the textual reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 179 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 179 analysis of two health promotion leaflets using greimas actantial model to focus again on health system information sources and with the aim of checking, by analysing the linguistic constructions used, whether patient empowerment as a system target is really instantiated. lastly, in her datadriven description of the corporate values statement genre, pilar garcésconejos blitvich deepens into issues related to generic integrity and genre vs. discourse specificity. her analysis of identity construction tackles the lexico-syntactic devices used for epistemic and agentive self-references providing evidence for discourse community, genre and medium (digital vs. printed) as variables affecting the way identity is constructed and represented. section iii, on epap pedagogy, contains a set of contributions describing specific practices and a bundle of reflections on epap teaching aspects, which all help to depict it as a way of “academic live”. ana bocanegravalle gives practical advice on material evaluation and related issues like topic inclusion, in-house material design, or adaption techniques for specific groups. the insights and tips are constantly contextualised, with a systematic differencing between efl/esl and epap teaching requirements. authenticity and usefulness in relation to materials selection and design are two keywords in this approach to material management. john swales and christine feak focus on research abstracts as authentic material, offering suggestions for task design in a top-down fashion. the tasks suggested are flexible enough to be adapted to specific disciplines as they depart from the idea of students creating small but representative corpora from their own fields. its strength lies precisely on the role assigned to situated cognition and autonomous learning, and the balance achieved through the material selection, assuring a minimum degree of representativeness for the sake of analysing and engaging in authentic generic practices. ruth breeze tests the usefulness of two approaches in essay writing, i.e. textual analysis and rhetorical analysis, including in her account both qualitative and quantitative data. the top-down, rhetorical approach seems more effective in the long run, combined with overt strategy teaching and consciousness rising, in line with new rhetoric and genre theory advocacies. this chapter and the next one by julio giménez make a case for the overt tackling of academic practices as a way of acculturation from a social-constructivist angle. giménez explores the writing of disciplinespecific genres by different discipline groups, combining statistical surveys with case studies to show the need of situated academic writing practice, reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190180 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 180 from a rather narrow angle, with discipline and content specific strategy training again deemed necessary from the data yielded. finally, thomas orr depicts the ese (education for science and engineering) work characteristics, constraints and ideal attributes “for those interested in either developing an ese programme (…) or pursuing ese as a career” (abstract). the centre for language research based in japan and described thoroughly will be considered the ideal working setting for a successful epap teaching-learning environment by many readers who will indeed envy the conditions and facilities described. despite some limitations regarding the size of samples which do not permit clear-cut generalizations at times, this monograph may result very inspiring for the newly arrived into the epap community, and thought-provoking to those who, like myself, have already devoted many years of their life to these constantly challenging – and sometimes even rewarding – epap practices. this monograph will be also very valuable to gain awareness on the role current discourse analysis is having in the disentangling and unlocking of community practices and conventions, in view of a more informed, righteous and effective communication. [review received december 2010] [revised review accepted january 2011] reviewed by piedad fernández toledo universidad de murcia (spain) piedad@um.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 181 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 181 01 editorial.qxd new applications of genre analysis to technical manuals. the perspectives of bhatian and lassen models ángel felices lago, diana fernández lloret. new york: edwin mellen press lewiston, 2012. 156 pages. isbn: 978-0-7734-2585-9. genre analysis and genre-based pedagogy have attracted growing attention from different scholarly traditions over the last decades, particularly from those researchers who have focused on professional and workplace communication. with this volume, which explores the silestone technical manual genre, felices lago and fernández lloret seek to respond to the demand for exploration of professional genres. as an instructional genre addressing highly-skilled specialized personnel, the technical manual represents an action-oriented genre whose communicative purpose is the creation and dissemination of technological knowledge. new applications of genre analysis to technical manuals follows the traditional definition of genres as typified rhetorical action and hence used to accomplish a specific action (miller, 1984) – as the authors claim, the manual seeks “to get the job done” (page 32). when understanding the genre as “situated” into disciplinary practice (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995), the authors align themselves with the view of genres as socially constructed, in other words, as oriented towards meeting the needs of the community and thus towards achieving a social goal. under these premises, the volume carries an analysis of the technical manual inspired by the work of genre theorists such as swales or bhatia and their view of professional genres as complex, multilayered and evolving, thus determined by the dynamism of professional practices and goals. to set the theoretical background for the study, the volume starts with a historical overview of the discursive scenario of language and communication in professional and specialized settings and reviews the foundational concepts of genre theory (part 1). drawing on swales’ seminal definition of genre and its later application to specialized discourse by bhatia reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256254 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 254 (2004), lassen (2003) and killingsworth and gilbertson (1992), the authors explore the technical manual as a hybrid genre subject to changing communicative needs and whose generic features are linked to the action it needs to accomplish: to ensure the adequate use of the device. on these grounds, the authors define their hypothesis, objectives and research questions in part 2: (i) the application of bhatia’s and lassen’s approaches to the analysis of the moves and steps of technical manuals; (ii) the comparison of similarities and variations in structure and style across areas of specialization; and, finally, (iii) some proposals on the possible adaptation of the model. part 3 deals with the genre analysis of the silestone technical manual. after a review of the evolution of the moves and steps models proposed in the literature, the authors justify their adoption of lassen’s (2003) application of the model for technical communication. it is, in their view, a suitable framework for the specificities of the majority of the manuals, despite the possible stylistic variation, marketing strategies, interests or business cultures. the authors, however, question the flexibility of bhatia’s model and view the genre as shaped by its communicative purpose (the correct use of the product as well as the co-operation with customers) and therefore showing considerable variation in terms of organization and structure. with lassen’s model as the “skeleton” (page 138), the study presents the results of a genre analysis of a corpus of 3 silestone technical manuals compared with a second corpus of 17 manuals of engineering and electronic devices employed within the food, petrochemical or energy sector. as they argue, despite variations in the structure of the genre, related to the specificities of its communicative purposes, a number of the steps and moves considered obligatory by lassen tend to appear in all the manuals analyzed. their findings thus ratify the validity of the model although the authors finally argue for its flexibility. in its conclusions the volume suggests some modifications of the model, which would be based on a common structure but with specific moves, steps and sub-steps for each specialized discipline. new applications of genre analysis to technical manuals represents a solid contribution to the field of technical communication as well as to genre analysis studies which will benefit teachers in esp or professional communication courses as well as professionals themselves. felices lago and fernández lloret provide an insightful, carefully-designed analysis of the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 255 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 255 technical manual genre. for their theoretical framework the authors rely on well-established genre theorists such as swales or bhatia. however, a review of the more recent developments in the field would have offered an interesting perspective. yet, the volume proposes a very flexible model for the genre analysis of the technical manuals, whose major contribution is its adaptability to the specific communicative purpose of each specialized discourse community. [review received 25 april 2014] [revised review received 31 may 2014] [revised review accepted 8 june 2014] reviewed by concepción orna-montesinos universidad de zaragoza (spain) conorna@unizar.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256256 berkenkotter, c. & t. huckin (1995). genre knowledge in disciplinary communication. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. bhatia, v. k. (2004). worlds of written discourse: a genre-based view. london/new york: continuum. killingsworth m. & m. gilbertson (1992). signs, genres, and communities in technical communication. amityville, ny: baywood. lassen, i. (2003). accessibility and acceptability in technical manuals: a survey of style and grammatical metaphor. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. miller, c. (1984). “genre as social action”. quarterly journal of speech 70: 151-167. 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 256 iberica 13 interpersonality in legal genres ruth breeze, maurizio gotti, carmen sancho guinda (eds). bern: peter lang, 2014. 393 pages. isbn 978-3-03431524-1 interpersonality draws attention to the fact that writers do not simply produce texts but use language to offer a credible representation of themselves and their work, and to establish social relations with readers. research on interpersonality has been mainly carried out on texts in academic, scientific and technical genres (e.g. latour & woolgar, 1979; hyland, 2004, 2005; hunston, 2005). however, as the editors point out in the introductory chapter, the interpersonal aspect of language still remains under-researched, dispersed and limited to a narrow range of genres and to a restricted notion of interpersonality in legal contexts. the present volume is intended to fill this gap and is therefore a valuable contribution to the study of the interactional dimension of language across specific legal genres. adopting a genre approach, the contributions offer a systematic linguistic analysis of the realisation and distribution of interpersonal features in specific legal texts. throughout the volume, the contributors convincingly offer a wide range of theoretical frameworks and combined approaches. the contributions investigate various aspects of the interpersonal, dialogic and interactive domain, applying their own taxonomies and extending existing models on dialogic interaction in different legal contexts to various linguistic and discursive features. when writers adopt a point of view, a kind of dialogic engagement takes place. monoglossic formulations involve only the single voice of the writer and ignore the multiplicity of alternative views and voices, as opposed to the heteroglossic point of view, in which the utterance operates in a communicative context with multiple voices and viewpoints (martin & white, 2005: 575). this dialogistic perspective and the notion of heteroglossic engagement are instantiated in the number of legal genres investigated in this volume. legal experts choose to emphasise their visible presence by manifesting a level of authority in a text, which becomes central to building a convincing discourse. alternatively, writers choose to position themselves close to readers in nonexpert circles, which contributes to their invisibility, thereby showing consideration and deference to the lay reader. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 29 (2015): 223-236 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 227 12 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:49 página 227 an interesting approach worth mentioning in relation to the interpersonal aspect of communication, be it oral or written, is the concept of language as dialogue (weigand, 2009, 2010), which entails that language is used for communicative purposes and is always performed dialogically. in weigand’s view, dialogue is a sequence of an initiative and a reactive action (what she calls the dialogic action game or mixed game). there is an internal interdependence of the initiative and the expected reactive action in cultural surroundings, which is to be negotiated in dialogic interaction (flowerdew, 2014: ix). the book comprises 14 chapters grouped in three sections, each offering studies centred around texts as sites of interaction on three levels of interaction: among legal experts, between legal experts and mixed audiences, and between legal experts and lay people. the contributions are preceded by an introductory chapter: “framing interpersonality in law contexts”, by the editors, ruth breeze, maurizio gotti and carmen sancho guinda, who provide the reader with an illuminating overview of the topic in which they masterfully contextualise the theme and describe the interpersonal features that characterise legal discourse. this introduction facilitates the understanding of the topic, especially to those readers who are not familiar with the genre and may find legal texts complex and a bit dry. the book is organised as follows. the first section explores four genres used in expert contexts, where the interpersonal resources of interaction may seem highly formalised in some cases, while in other contexts experts appear to use stance and engagement devices with the aim of persuading their addressees. the first chapter by davide mazzi investigates interpersonality in judicial language at crucial moments in the decision-making process in common law and non-common law contexts. in the second chapter, tarja salmitolonen analyses an eu directive, i.e. a prescriptive document belonging to the category of legislation used to direct the legislators of the member states to take measures that will implement their purpose. this genre presents an extensive use of interpersonal and interactive metadiscursive devices with a persuasive function on the recipients’ side. in chapter three, maría ángeles orts llopis reports findings of a research carried on charter parties, i.e. the contracts made out between ship owners and the persons who charter a vessel, and the interactions that take place between the dramatis personae involved in them. drawing on a corpus of legal research articles, michele sala explores interrogative formulations as interpersonal resources that presuppose and reveal a recognisable dialogical framework between the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 29 (2015): 223-236228 12 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:49 página 228 writer and the readers. finally, christoph hafner investigates interpersonal resources in the barrister’s opinion, a document intended to provide a balanced legal view on a particular case for the solicitor representing the client involved. the author compares opinions written by experienced barristers and those composed by postgraduate law students. the genres analysed in the second section focus on how experts in the legal field interact with ordinary citizens. such context affects the type of interpersonal strategies used to engage with heterogeneous audiences holding different expectations and legal background knowledge. the first and second chapters of this section present two studies whose aim is to show how legal texts can be accessible to the general audience. in the first one, vijay bhatia analyses interpersonality in statutory writing by offering two different versions of the text: a simplified version written for the general public and an easified version for specialist audiences. in the second chapter, carmen sancho guinda analyses a corpus of legal decisions on aviation accidents and incidents issued by the national transportation safety board of the usa. through the use of engagement choices, writers manage to reconcile accessibility and informativeness. the subgenre of legislative drafting guides and manuals is examined by christopher williams, who explores the interpersonal aspects of guides intended for people involved in drafting legislation, namely the questions of authorship and readership. the next two chapters analyse genres on intellectual property: domain name arbitration awards and patents. the first study by ignacio vázquez-orta offers a critical discussion of the way in which arbitrators get engaged in a dialogue with the parties going for arbitration and with a wider professional community of practice. finally, drawing on a corpus of us patents, ismael arinas pellón focuses on how the interpersonal metafunction serves the persuasion strategies that patent drafters use to overcome the objections of two adversarial audiences: those concerned with validity and those worried about infringement. the third section includes four studies dealing with legal interactions between legal experts and lay people. in this context the lawyer has a double task: to gain the cooperation of lay people and to involve the lay participants into the legal discourses. in the first chapter ruth breeze analyses letters of advice and opinion considering the writer’s stance and use of relational resources at each stage of the text. in his chapter, maurizio gotti examines interpersonality in mediation discourse, a form of dispute resolution. the author analyses oral transcripts from mediation cases and reseñas / book reviews ibérica 29 (2015): 223-236 229 12 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:49 página 229 identifies the negotiation strategies commonly adopted by mediators. patrizia anesa focuses on the delivery of instructions to jurors in us courts to observe the way experts and lay people interact in the jury instruction phase of trials by reviewing the generic ‘pattern’ that jury instructions widely used in us courtrooms. rounding up this final section, isabel corona explores the genre of the press release in international arbitration cases, which were published in circumstances conditioned by the rhetorical need to defend and justify the company’s actions. various dialogic resources are used to argue for the legitimacy of the company’s actions and reactions against the other party’s (re)actions. this volume is highly recommendable to both researchers and scholars working in the field of legal discourse and the interpersonal component of legal genres. i feel that the suggestions and innovative perspectives of the different studies will bring awareness of how textual voices act interpersonally in law contexts. received 16 september 2014 accepted 21 january 2015 reviewed by luz gil-salom universitat politécnica de valència (spain) mlgil@upvnet.upv.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 29 (2015): 223-236230 flowerdew, j. (2014). “foreword” in l. gil-salom & carmen soler-monreal (eds.), dialogicity in written specialised genres, ix-xvi. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. hunston, s. (2005). “conflict and consensus: construing opposition in applied linguistics” in e. tognini bonelli & g. del lungo camiciotti (eds.), strategies in academic discourse, 1-15. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. hyland, k. (2004). disciplinary discourses: social interactions in academic writing. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. hyland, k. (2005). “stance and engagement: a model of interaction in academic discourse”. discourse studies 7: 173-192. latour, b. & s. woolgar (1979). laboratory life: the construction of scientific facts. princeton, nj: princeton university press. martin, j.r. & p.r.r. white (2005). the language of evaluation: appraisal in english. new york: palgrave/macmillan . weigand, e. (2009). language as dialogue. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. weigand, e. (2010). dialogue: the mixed game. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. 12 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:49 página 230 04 nielsen.qxp ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-64 abstract monolingual accounting dictionaries are important for producing financial reporting texts in english in an international setting, because of the lack of specialised bilingual dictionaries. as the intended user groups have different factual and linguistic competences, they require specific types of information. by identifying and analysing the users' factual and linguistic competences, user needs, use-situations and the stages involved in producing accounting texts in english as a foreign language, lexicographers will have a sound basis for designing the optimal english accounting dictionary for efl text production. the monolingual accounting dictionary needs to include information about uk, us and international accounting terms, their grammatical properties, their potential for being combined with other words in collocations, phrases and sentences in order to meet user requirements. data items that deal with these aspects are necessary for the international user group as they produce subject-field specific and register-specific texts in a foreign language, and the data items are relevant for the various stages in text production: draft writing, copyediting, stylistic editing and proofreading. key words: specialised lexicography, foreign-language text production, communicationoriented functions, user needs, production dictionaries resumen diccionarios monolingües de contabilidad para la producción de textos de inglés como lengua extranjera los diccionarios monolingües de contabilidad son importantes para la producción de textos de información financiera en inglés en un contexto internacional, debido a la falta de diccionarios bilingües especializados. dado que los grupos de usuarios a los que van dirigidos estos diccionarios poseen distintos grados de competencias lingüísticas y especializadas, cada caso requiere un tipo específicos de información. mediante la identificación y el análisis de la competencia lingüística de los usuarios, de sus necesidades y situaciones de uso, así como de las etapas implicadas en la producción de textos de inglés como lengua extranjera, los lexicógrafos tendrán una base sólida para el diseño de un diccionario óptimo de contabilidad en inglés para la producción textos en inglés como lengua extranjera. el diccionario de contabilidad monolingüe debe incluir información sobre términos de contabilidad británicos, monolingual accounting dictionaries for efl text production sandro nielsen aarhus school of business, denmark sn@asb.dk 43 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 43 americanos e internacionales, sus propiedades gramaticales, su potencial para ser combinados con otras palabras en colocaciones, así como frases para satisfacer los requisitos de los usuarios. los datos que se ocupan de estos aspectos son necesarios para los usuarios internacionales en la producción de textos específicos según disciplina y registro en una lengua extranjera, y son asimismo relevantes para las distintas etapas en la producción de textos: escribir el borrador, edición de copias, edición estilística y corrección de pruebas. palabras clave: lexicografía especializada, producción de textos en una lengua extranjera, funciones orientadas hacia la comunicación, necesidades del usuario, producción de diccionarios 1. accounting dictionaries must give a true and fair view irrespective of nationality large enterprises use english as a lingua franca when disseminating financial reporting information. most of these enterprises produce their texts in english as a foreign language (efl) and therefore need tools that help them produce idiomatically correct financial reporting texts. this implies the use of the correct terminology as defined and accepted within the field of accounting and financial reporting as well as the use of grammatically correct collocations, phrases and sentences. when producing such highly specialised texts in a foreign language, writers regularly consult bilingual dictionaries but often find that these do not fulfil their requirements. most bilingual dictionaries lack the specialisation required by such users and few bilingual accounting dictionaries are available; this means that many producers of financial reporting texts have no bilingual accounting dictionaries to consult. consequently, english accounting dictionaries will be tools that are likely to help the producers of such texts in preparing the information they need to convey to an international audience. in particular english accounting dictionaries prepared for international users and use-situations in a global setting are relevant, and they have a potential for catering for a large group of users. the users of financial reporting texts make up a heterogeneous group. enterprises publish their interim and annual reports in order to attract investors who may invest money in the firms. lenders such as international banks base their decisions to grant loans and credit lines to enterprises on the basis of, inter alia, these reports. similarly, suppliers use financial reports to assess the creditworthiness of companies, and customers are likely to need information about the future prospects and sustainability of the enterprises from which they buy their goods and services. the users of financial reports of multinational enterprises also include employees in and governments of various countries. it is imperative that enterprises are able to present fairly their financial position in a way that is both factually and linguistically correctly. sandro nielsen ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-6444 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 44 in order to produce the necessary function-related dictionaries, lexicographers must establish the lexicographic basis for an english dictionary of accounting designed for production purposes by international users. such a dictionary must give a true and fair view of the factual, terminological and linguistic state of affairs within the subject-field. in this paper i will attempt to identify the lexicographic basis of a monolingual accounting dictionary designed for efl text production by analysing the requirements of the user groups in terms of lexicographic functions, by briefly discussing the relevant stages in the production process and then establish the types of data needed by the users at different levels of text production. 2. the functions of monolingual dictionaries in studying and describing a monolingual specialised dictionary it is necessary initially to determine its function(s) at a practical level. first, the function(s) chosen by the lexicographers provide the basis for all other lexicographic decisions, from the selection of entry words, over the selection of information types, to the selection of lexicographic structures. second, the lexicographers must determine the basic needs of the users on the basis of the dictionary function(s) relative to the intended user group. a dictionary is a tool that has been designed to fulfil one or more functions. these functions are related to specific types of use-situations and a lexicographic function is one that can assist the user in a given situation of use, i.e. the focus is on what the dictionary is intended to inform about, not its data types. two main types of lexicographic function apply to monolingual accounting dictionaries. communicationoriented functions are those that help the user in situations of ongoing or planned communication such as the understanding of texts in the user’s native language (l1) or in a foreign language (l2), the production of texts in l1 or l2, and the revision and editing of texts in l1 or l2. these functions focus on the transfer of a message from a sender to a receiver and are predominantly text-dependent. on the other hand cognition-oriented functions are those that offer assistance in use-situations where the user is deriving and verifying propositional knowledge as well as the acquisition of information such as the acquisition of factual and/or linguistic knowledge generally about the l1 or l2 culture, or in connection with a specific issue in the l1 or l2 culture, for instance in a learning context (such as a course on accounting): when and how do you recognise goodwill as opposed to badwill? these functions focus on knowledge, i.e. data that have become information with a use or purpose through a cognitive mental process; they are predominantly text-independent functions. the distinction between these two main types of function allows the lexicographers to monolingual accounting dictionaries ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-64 45 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 45 make monolingual accounting dictionaries with a plurality of functions and this is especially interesting in a context involving efl text production (bergenholtz & kaufmann, 1997: 98-99; bergenholtz & nielsen, 2002: 5-6). the lexicographers of a multifunctional english accounting dictionary will invariably have to give different priorities to the functions, as –for practical reasons– its data will support some functions more or better than others. a monolingual accounting dictionary for efl text production may be designed to assist non-native englishspeaking users in connection with one primary function, two secondary functions and one tertiary function: • primary function: production of texts in english • secondary functions: revision and editing of english texts understanding of english texts • tertiary function: knowledge acquisition concerning english accounting issues as already indicated, the type of dictionary discussed is one that assists its intended users in producing financial reporting texts in english as a foreign language. following tarp (2004: 304-306) the term “foreign-language text production” consists of l2 text production based on a native-language outline and free text production without a nativelanguage outline. in this context, it is important to appreciate that efl text production is a multi-stage process involving writing a first draft followed by revision and editing and therefore, the dictionary needs to be polyfunctional. furthermore, a particular data item may support more than one function; for instance definitions support the production, revision, editing and understanding of english texts as well as knowledge acquisition. lexicographers must relate these functions to the intended user group, the users’ linguistic and factual competences, and user needs in the relevant situations of use (nielsen, 2002: 2-3). failure to do so will leave the lexicographers with an insufficient basis for determining which types of data they have to include in their dictionary. 3. identifying user needs linking dictionary functions to user needs involves the identification of user competences. the factual competence, which concerns the accounting competence sandro nielsen ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-6446 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 46 in an international environment, and the linguistic competence, i.e. english accounting and financial reporting language, determine how the user will actually use a dictionary in a particular type of situation. bergenholtz & kaufmann (1997: 98-99) propose a distinction between three general groups of users: experts, semi-experts and interested laypeople. this triadic grouping is an appropriate starting point for any specialised dictionary but needs to be supplemented by a user profile to form a practical basis. the purpose of a user profile is to identify the major characteristics and lexicographic needs of the intended users, taking into account their factual and linguistic competences in an international context. an english accounting dictionary for efl text production may have the following user groups: 1. accounting experts 2. efl experts 3. student accountants 4. communication experts and journalists disseminating financial reporting information a single dictionary is unlikely to provide the same amount of help in the same number of situations to all four user groups. consequently, it is suggested that the lexicographers should give different priorities to these groups. the primary user group will be accounting experts, who are persons with considerable factual competence and small to medium linguistic efl competence, as they are the prime candidates for producers of financial reporting texts in english as a foreign language. the secondary user group will then consist of secretaries and language experts with considerable linguistic efl competence and small to medium factual competence, as they are likely to assist experts in producing english financial reporting texts; efl experts are generally semi-experts in relation to both types of competence, as they are experts within the field of english language but not within the specialised language of accounting and financial reporting. student accountants, communication experts and journalists are interested laypersons, occasionally semi-experts at best, in terms of factual and lsp competence, but may have a significant language competence in terms of language for general purposes. accordingly, the english accounting dictionary for efl text production will have to contain information about linguistic and factual aspects relating to english as a foreign language to fulfil its functions as a production dictionary. linguistic and factual information is relevant to all user groups but to various degrees. the primary monolingual accounting dictionaries ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-64 47 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 47 user group needs more linguistic information, such as morphological and syntactic information, than the secondary group. both groups need the same factual information specifying the difference between english terms, especially in those cases where it is necessary to distinguish between variants, depending on meaning and context. failure to include such information will seriously impair the dictionary’s potential for fulfilling user needs. in order to satisfy user needs, the lexicographers must make a dictionary that contains data supporting the functions of production, editing and revision in the relevant situations of use. a traditional monolingual specialised dictionary focuses exclusively on definitions (nielsen & mourier 2005: 91-94), but in any specialised text terms account for less than fifty percent of the words; such a dictionary does not help the user producing the remainder of the text. the optimal english accounting dictionary for efl text production needs to give priority to the functions of producing, editing and revising accounting and financial reporting texts and must contain a variety of data types in addition to terms and their definitions. it should contain at least the following types of data supporting the primary, secondary and tertiary functions, all data types needed by persons producing accounting texts in english as a foreign language: orthography, grammatical irregularity, definition, usage note, collocation, phrase, synonymy and antonymy. in their attempt to meet user needs, lexicographers must develop a dictionary concept that differs from the traditional monolingual specialised dictionary. one focus point is the inclusion of syntagmatic information, which deals with word combinations and their relationship such as collocations, phrases and sentences. an accounting dictionary containing all these types of data offers considerably more help to users than the traditional monolingual specialised dictionary, because it supplements the factual, defining data. it is beyond the scope of this paper to comment on all the various data types the optimal english accounting dictionary for efl text production may contain, so the following discussion will first describe elements of text production that are lexicographically relevant and will then go on to discuss data items such as grammar, definitions, collocations and phrases and how they support the primary and secondary functions with particular reference to the primary and secondary user groups. 4. identifying stages in text production it is necessary to prepare a general outline of the function of efl text production in order to determine the other lexicographic choices that the authors of a dictionary sandro nielsen ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-6448 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 48 have to make. the writing of financial reporting texts in english as a foreign language shares its basic elements with the stages in writing a financial reporting text in one’s native language. for the purposes of specialised lexicography it is relevant to establish the basic stages of text production, as a monolingual accounting dictionary is unlikely to provide help in all stages; therefore the lexicographers need to identify those stages where the dictionary may provide help. in general, text production is the process of writing a text and involves a planning, an execution and a finalisation stage. by its very nature, the execution stage is the only one that is automatically relevant for lexicographic purposes, as this is where text production proper takes place. the finalisation stage is only partially relevant to dictionaries designed for efl text production, as it concerns the proofreading, printing and copying of the final text; proofreading is the only element that has lexicographic relevance, as it is the last step before printing and copying, at which stage the text has in effect been completed. rude (2002: 14-16) identifies the following elements in the planning phase: the definition of the project, the definition of readers, the definition of the scope, type and purpose of the text, the development of templates, design and style sheets. it is difficult to imagine a specialised production dictionary that can provide sufficient help in the planning stage, and this phase is better covered by a writing or style manual, though some of the elements, for instance design, may affect the execution stage, and may even influence the printing phase. the lexicographers of a monolingual accounting dictionary for efl text production should focus on the execution stage and the proofreading phase. according to rude (2002: 15-16), the execution stage involves the writing of a draft text, the design of the text, the revision and editing of the text. a monolingual dictionary for efl text production is a tool that can be designed to help users with drafting, revising and editing provided the lexicographers include the relevant data. the incorporation of such data is fairly straight forward, as most –if not all– the data can be placed in the dictionary articles, but the exact location will depend on the distribution structure adopted by the lexicographers. it is argued that data dealing with the design of financial reporting texts may be difficult to include in a production dictionary, particularly in the articles, but if the lexicographers decide to include such data, it is proposed that they should be placed in the front or back matter. nielsen (1994: 107-108) suggests that illustrative examples of subject-field specific documents can be placed in appendices, especially if they relate to several entry words. this approach was adopted by collin dictionary of accounting, which contains examples of a profit and loss account and a balance monolingual accounting dictionaries ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-64 49 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 49 sheet showing the general layout and format of such texts, albeit in a simplified form. the primary reason for placing such illustrative examples in the back matter is their complexity and relatively large size, and it is important that they are legible if they are to be of any use. from a user’s perspective, the best solution would be to provide illustrative examples in a non-simplified format as this would match the needs in real life use-situations. writing, editing and revision for the purposes of lexicographic functions can be divided into two levels. the macro-level concerns the relationship between paragraphs and larger units of text and only affect lexicographic functions as indicated above in respect of design, layout and format. in contrast, the micro-level concerns words, collocations, phrases and sentences, and this text level is particularly interesting for production dictionaries. first, the dictionary is an excellent medium for containing and presenting information about the micro-level elements of texts and, second, the users need information about the micro-level in particular when producing financial reporting texts in english as a foreign language. according to mossop (2001: 11-12) editing and revision involves checking a text to make sure that generally accepted grammar and spelling rules are complied with (copyediting), that the terminology is consistent and the text unambiguous (stylistic editing), and generally checking the text for errors and amending it accordingly (revising). based on mossop (2001: 168) proofreading is an extension of editing and revision to the finalisation stage, in that it involves the comparison of the printer’s proof with the manuscript and is limited to making corrections. as indicated by the factual and linguistic competences revealed by the user profile above, international users will face the most serious problems and challenges at the micro-level, and lexicographers should focus on this level when planning and compiling efl production dictionaries. 5. selecting the correct variety of english one of the first things the producers of financial reporting texts need to consider is the selection of the appropriate variety of english. most non-linguists and many linguists are unaware that different variants of english exist, but this fact is of great relevance in the field of accounting and financial reporting and for dictionaries dealing with this subject-field. the english spoken in the united kingdom differs from that spoken in the united states, canada and australia, because each country has structured its financial reporting framework differently and this is reflected in the terminology and linguistic means used. this clearly affects the micro-level of production. sandro nielsen ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-6450 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 50 for the purposes of international financial reporting, the non-native english speaker has to choose between three varieties of english. it is generally accepted that financial information may be presented in british english, american english or international english, i.e. the variety of english found in the international financial reporting standards (ifrs, formerly referred to as ias). for european enterprises ifrs terminology and usage is particularly important in that the european union has adopted rules requiring stock exchange listed companies to report financial data on the basis of these standards. the english accounting dictionary needs to contain data that explicitly informs the user of the existence of these three varieties of english wherever relevant in order to provide the non-native text producer with the necessary information. the difference between the three varieties of english is easily seen in the terminology used. this implies that lexicographers must take into account the possible existence of language variants for each lemma in the wordlist. whenever such different terms exist the lexicographers should lemmatise each term and explicitly make the user aware of the variant(s), because the user is likely to know only one, and this will be the term he will search for. existing accounting dictionaries treat such variants differently, but the following examples are representative: these examples inform the user implicitly of the correct british and explicitly of the correct american terms, but only one article indicates the american term through the use of a diatopical label. an unsuspecting user who looks up the term “profit and loss account” will never realise that there is an american variant; a similar treatment of the two terms is found in oxford dictionary of accounting. other examples are: monolingual accounting dictionaries ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-64 51 profit and loss account (p&l) annual summary of a company’s financial operations, required by law to be submitted to the uk registrar of companies by every trading company over a certain size [...]. income statement us term for a profit and loss account. examples 1 and 2. excerpts from articles in dictionary of international accounting terms. profit and loss account (p&l account) ... (note: the american equivalent is the profit and loss statement or income statement) us income statement ... (note: the british equivalent is the profit and loss account) examples 3 and 4. excerpts from articles in collin dictionary of accounting. 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 51 these two articles give the user sufficient information to select the term belonging to either of the two english language varieties, though the first article does no help the user choose between the two american synonyms. the articles from the two dictionaries do present one practical problem: which of the two variant terms should the user select if he wants to produce a text using international accounting terminology? only one article in each dictionary contains a diatopical marking and this leads the user to conclude that the term “profit and loss account” is the correct british and ifrs term. nothing in the articles or the metatexts of the dictionaries indicates otherwise. the above articles illustrate the general treatment of financial reporting terminology in english accounting dictionaries, as they give no indication as to the correct ifrs term, which is “income statement”. in order to be as helpful as possible the efl accounting dictionary must explicitly tell the dictionary user which is the correct british, american and ifrs term, so that the user can select the correct one for his text. the following excerpt illustrates of how this may be done using diatopical labels that leave no room for doubt: the lexicographers should take into account that the distinction between three varieties of english extends to word classes other than nouns, notably verbs and adjectives. it is relevant to the international user to know that the verb “to invoice” is used in british and ifrs english, and that the equivalent american verb is “to bill”; the american equivalent to the british and ifrs adjective “share-based” is “stockbased”. there is a final caveat, however: not only does the selection of an english language variety impact on the writer’s choice of other terms in his text but it also affects the choice of syntactic structures, in that there may be different syntactic options in a particular context depending on whether the text is written in british or american english. a truly crafted monolingual accounting dictionary for efl text production must address such aspects and provide the relevant information to its users. sandro nielsen ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-6452 profit and loss account uk ... synonyms: income statement us ias/ifrs p&l account uk profit and loss statement us example 5. excerpt from article in english dictionary of accounting. 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 52 6. linking data types and levels of text production when the writer of financial reporting texts has selected a variety of english, his focus will be directed towards the actual production of the text at the micro-level. a monolingual accounting dictionary whose function is to assist the user in a specific use-situation of this sort should contain and present the data for micro-level text production relevant for writing, editing and revising. consequently, the lexicographers need to identify appropriate types of data that the user is likely to need taking into account the international context in which the dictionary is rooted together with the factual and linguistic competences of the intended user group. this may be done by organising the analysis hierarchically based on more or less discrete levels corresponding to the elements of the text micro-level: words, collocations, phrases and sentences. the discussion below may be seen as a proposal for data types to be included in a monolingual accounting dictionary for efl text production by the user groups identified above. using a bottom-up approach, the lexicographers will start with the smallest unit, i.e. the word. the user of the english accounting dictionary will require various types of information about words, here defined as the lemmatised entry words, in order to produce an idiomatic text. generally, the production of idiomatic texts in english requires grammatical knowledge. as pointed out by mugdan (1989: 129) only few specialised dictionaries contain grammatical information, and the most likely reason for the lack of grammatical information is that the dictionaries were not compiled for text production, or that the lexicographers failed to recognise the needs of the users. data dealing with the grammatical properties of english accounting terms and the associated language usage needs careful consideration by lexicographers. depending on how detailed the writer works, grammatical data are particularly relevant for copyediting, revising and proofreading, but may also be helpful at the phase of writing the draft text and the phase of stylistic editing. the entry word inherently contains orthographic information about its correct spelling, but the optimal dictionary is prescriptive, i.e. indicating the recommended spelling in case of alternatives. when the user consults the dictionary in a text production situation he is not primarily interested in knowing all the existing spelling variants, but wants to know which one to use. for instance, the spelling of the noun “cash-generating unit” exists alongside “cash generating unit”. in such situations the dictionary should recommend one of the alternatives; in this case the spelling “cashgenerating unit” should be recommended as this is the most modern spelling. both spelling variants should be lemmatised as the user may search for either, and one way of presenting the information is the following: monolingual accounting dictionaries ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-64 53 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 53 in such cases only the entry word is given with the relevant grammatical information and after the note “not recommended, use instead” the user finds a cross-reference to the recommended word where he will also find a definition, collocations etc. this illustrates how lexicographic structures, in casu the mediostructure, may support data and dictionary functions. the difference between american, british and ifrs english also affects the correct spelling of words: the spelling “amortisation” is the correct british and ifrs variant, whereas the correct american term is spelt “amortization”; the verb “recognised” is thus spelt in british and ifrs english, but is spelt “recognize” in american english; in british and ifrs english the correct spelling of the adjective is “labour”, whereas the american equivalent is “labor”. if a word can be used in all three types of accounting english, this should either be marked explicitly by diatopical labels or implicitly, i.e. without any diatopical labels. the latter solution requires that the user is explicitly told in the user guide or elsewhere that the lack of a diatopical label means that a word can be used irrespective of language variety. a user who consults a monolingual accounting dictionary when producing an english accounting text also needs grammatical information such as word class information, as well as information about inflectional and derivational morphology. one reason is that english is a syntactic language, whereas the native language of many users will be analytic or ideographic. briefly stated word class information is used to disambiguate homonyms, such as the noun “contract” and the verb “contract”, and serves the dual purpose of facilitating lemma search and providing general linguistic information. data on inflection is particularly important in cases of irregularly inflected words because the user can only be expected to know regular efl inflectional patterns at best. inflectional information is relevant because of the difference between analytic and syntactic languages, and the primary user group is unlikely to know anything about this. for instance it is imperative to know that the plural of “measurement basis” is “measurement bases” (the second word inflects irregularly) and that the plural of “date of disposal” is “dates of disposal” (the plural is indicated on the first word) in order to produce a grammatically correct text. such information can be presented as follows: sandro nielsen ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-6454 cash generating unit noun <a, the, -s> not recommended, use instead: cash-generating unit example 6. article from english dictionary of accounting. measurement basis noun <a, the, measurement bases> example 7. excerpt from article in english dictionary of accounting. 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 54 the distinction between different varieties of english may also affect the inflection of nouns. this aspect is highly relevant to the phases of copyediting and proofreading and the user cannot be expected to know when the grammatical rules differ from one language variant to the other. accordingly, lexicographers must identify such differences with specific reference to the register-specific context and present the information in a clearly and easily comprehensible way. one problem is that such information is often difficult to present within the schematic framework adopted for the presentation of grammatical information, so the lexicographers may have to resort to special means such as usage or grammar notes, for instance: what the user needs when producing texts is an accounting dictionary that contains information about the inflection of all word classes lemmatised. the comparison of adjectives is an area that deserves treatment in a foreign-language production dictionary, as the rules differ from one language to another. in english some adjectives are compared morphologically, some syntactically and others irregularly. which type of comparison that goes with which adjective is something that the lexicographers cannot expect the user to know, which means that they must incorporate this information in the dictionary. none of the printed english accounting dictionaries examined contained such information, nor did any of the twelve internet accounting dictionaries examined in nielsen & mourier (2005: 101102). however, if the linguistic competences of the users of a dictionary designed for efl text production so require, the lexicographers must include data showing the inflected forms of adjectives; otherwise they will not be true to the lexicographic function and the users’ needs. morphological comparison may be presented as follows: information about the syntactic comparison of adjectives should be presented in a similar vein, for instance: monolingual accounting dictionaries ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-64 55 expenditure noun <an, the, -s> grammar note the plural form expenditures is used in american english but not in british english. example 8. excerpt from article in english dictionary of accounting. severe adjective <severer, severest> example 9. proposal for the presentation of morphological comparison in dictionary article. 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 55 in the same way, the user needs information about the inflection of verbs, whether regular or irregular. the lexicographers may elect to explicitly indicate irregular inflection and leave it to the user to deal with regular inflection. this option is only appropriate for the second user group but is insufficient for the primary and tertiary user groups. accordingly, a well-designed english accounting dictionary for efl text production should indicate both regular and irregular inflection patterns for verbs. only two of the dictionaries examined contain information about inflected forms. the authors of collin dictionary of accounting have taken a minimalist approach by only presenting inflected forms in few cases, mainly for irregular verbs, for instance: the authors of the other dictionary have opted for a more user-friendly solution by explicitly indicating inflected forms for all verbs and in addition showing whether, and if so how, a verb can be used in both the active and the passive, for instance: the article in example 12 tells the user that the verb “accept” inflects regularly in the active: “accepts”, “accepted”, “has accepted”, “accepting”; in the passive the verb inflects as follows: “is accepted”, “was accepted”. information about the passive in english is highly relevant to the users of the efl production dictionary as the passive is formed by linguistic means and according rules that differ from one language to another and this type of information primarily supports the functions of copyediting and revising. a grammatical aspect that is a source of much confusion is that a technical term or other word is countable in the native language of the user but uncountable in english, or vice versa. it must be assumed that the language competence of accounting experts will fail them in such situations; the language competence of efl experts enables them to produce idiomatically correct english texts, but as they are not sandro nielsen ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-6456 economical adjective <more economical, most economical> example 10. proposal for the presentation of analytical comparison in dictionary article. wind up [...] verb ... (note: winding – wound) example 11. excerpt from article in collin dictionary of accounting. accept verb <-s, -ed, has –ed, -ing> passive <is –ed, was –ed> example 12. excerpt from article in english dictionary of accounting. 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 56 experts within the field of accounting, the relevant terminology and language usage, the dictionary must make it possible for the second user group to produce texts in idiomatically correct english within the subject field in question. one way of solving this problem is to include the appropriate data as follows: this article explicitly informs the user that the term “authority” in the sense “power to act on another’s behalf ” cannot be used with the indefinite article and cannot be used in the plural, but with the definite article. this information is particularly relevant to the user in all phases of text production, especially as this dictionary presents it consistently for nouns. first, the user who produces financial reporting texts in english as a foreign language cannot be expected to know when and when not the definite and indefinite articles can be used. second, the lexicographic choice of presenting this kind of information is practically and theoretically interesting, as it breaks with tradition in both general and specialised dictionaries. most importantly, the data meet the requirements of the users in relation to the lexicographic function of efl text production (see also examples 6, 7 and 8 above). sometimes the entry words may have grammatical properties that cannot be shown schematically. in such cases the user needs to be informed about these properties in a clear and unambiguous way and several options are available to lexicographers. one solution is to present the information in a special usage or grammar note such as in the following article: definitions are important in dictionaries designed for the production of accounting texts by an international user group. definitions are particularly helpful in the writing and copyediting phases, but also when checking a text for consistency of terms and proofreading. if the user is in doubt whether a word can be used in the sense monolingual accounting dictionaries ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-64 57 authority1 noun <no indefinite article, the, no plural> example 13. excerpt from article in english dictionary of accounting. stock 2 us noun <no indefinite article, the, no plural> grammar note stock is semantically plural, grammatically uncountable singular. to state a given number of shares of stock the terms share(s) or x shares of stock are applied. definition stock refers to the legal capital of a corporation divided into basically two types of shares of stock: common stock and preferred stock. example 14. excerpt from article in english dictionary of accounting. 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 57 contemplated, the definitions can prove him right or wrong; in other words, the user can be confirmed in his belief that the word he is about to use is the correct one. it is imperative that lexicographers are aware that definitions must be written with the users’ different factual and linguistic competences in mind, which means that the focus is on quality not quantity (or length). an accounting expert producing a text is likely to need a relatively short definition as long as it contains the correct factual details, as his factual competence will assist him; the definition will then supplement his own competence. in contrast, a semi-expert, such as an efl expert, is likely to need a relatively long definition that supports and supplements his somewhat weak factual and special language competences. in order to be as useful as possible, the definition should be written in easily understood language. this may be a challenge as the intended users make up a heterogeneous group with varying degrees of factual and linguistic knowledge. some accounting definitions found in the international financial reporting standards as well as the uk and us regulatory frameworks may be difficult to grasp by the user group because of their complex syntax; therefore, complex wording should be rephrased and simplified to meet the requirements of the user group at large. however, as pointed out by bergenholtz and nielsen (2002: 12-14), the lexicographers must not sacrifice the factual contents of definitions at the expense of (too) simplified definitions. definitions must be true and faithful to the subject field of accounting otherwise the requirements of accounting experts (and the professional readers of their texts) would not be met. when writing definitions lexicographers should pay attention to the distribution of the explanatory data. this involves both the distribution structure and the mediostructure; the former decides where a data item is to be placed in relation to other data items, and the latter mediates an otherwise non-existent relationship between two or more data items by linking them according to semantic potentiality (nielsen 1999: 92). this requires that lexicographers take a conceptual rather than an alphabetical approach; i.e. they should consider the lemmatised entry words in conceptual groups and make sure that the definition of each entry word within this group is fine-tuned to those of the other entry words. the definition in the following article may serve as a point of departure: this entry word belongs to a conceptual group dealing with amortisation generally and the definition should be seen in this light. prima facie the definition is easy to sandro nielsen ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-6458 amortizable [...] adjective which can be amortized; the capital cost is amortizable over a period of ten years example 15. article from collin dictionary of accounting. 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 58 understand, provided that the user knows what the verb “to amortize” means and this can be checked by consulting the lemmatised verb, which reveals the following article: a user who is in doubt as to the actual meaning of the adjective “amortizable” and who looks up the verb “amortize” faces the problem of understanding what “amortizable” means: does it refer to meaning (a) or meaning (b)? based on the almost identical example sentences in the two articles, the user may conclude that the adjective “amortizable” can only be used in meaning (b), whereas it can in fact be used in both senses. the lexicographers should have adjusted the definition in example 15 so as to be in line with the two definitions in example 16, so that the definition of the adjective would have explicitly referred to the two meanings indicated under the verb. as a consequence, there should also have been a crossreference in the article “amortizable” referring the user to the article “amortize”. directly above the word level we find collocations, i.e. the habitual co-occurrence of lexical items. they constitute an important part of the syntactic properties of many words and the linguistic rules and restrictions applying to collocations are highly language specific (tarp 2004: 315). therefore, the users need an english accounting dictionary that clearly indicate acceptable collocations as many of the rules and restrictions applying to collocations in the user’s native language are unlikely to be mirrored by those applying to collocations in english. the main criterion for including collocations is their importance to the user in the use-situations contemplated and the collocations to be incorporated should be those that show the typical register-specific use of the entry word. the collocations are necessary in order to produce texts in a foreign language that are factually and linguistically correct. based on the factual and linguistic competences of the primary and secondary user groups, the monolingual accounting dictionary should contain those collocations that are important and relevant in accounting and financial reporting texts. lexicographers should pay particular attention to collocations that have restricted collocational range in a foreign language, as the users cannot be expected to be familiar with such limitations. as there are various options available when combining words, the production dictionary must contain a combination of register-specific terms of art and ordinary words, for instance: monolingual accounting dictionaries ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-64 59 amortize [...] verb (a) to pay off (a debt) by instalments or by putting money aside regularly over a period of time (b) to depreciate or to write down the capital value of an asset over a period of time in a company’s accounts; the capital cost is amortized over five years; see also sinking fund example 16. article from collin dictionary of accounting. 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 59 adjective + noun, e.g.: depreciable asset verb + noun, e.g.: transfer ownership verb + preposition, e.g.: measure at cost verb + adverb, e.g.: measure reliably information about collocations assists the user at different stages of text production: draft writing, copyediting, and proofreading. it is imperative that the user gets it right when producing his financial reporting text in english, otherwise he risks being misunderstood or not understood at all. if this is the case, the whole production process was in vain. linked to the discussion of collocations is the matter of phrases. the term “phrase” is generally used to mean any combination of two or more words, but in this context “phrases” are combinations of words that are clauses and sentences, in whole or in part. this type of syntagmatic information may be illustrated by the following examples, which are phrases that are likely to be used in financial statements: 1) land and buildings are shown at fair value (alternatively: show land and buildings at fair value); 2) exchange differences are taken to shareholders’ equity (alternatively: take exchange differences to shareholders’ equity); 3) foreign exchange losses at the balance sheet date were recognised in shareholders’ equity (alternatively: recognise foreign exchange losses in shareholders’ equity at the balance sheet date). these examples indicate that the lexicographers have at least two options when presenting phrases. the lexicographers may elect to present phrases in inflected forms, which means that the user may copy them directly from the dictionary and paste them into his text, or they can present phrases in their “uninflected” form as indicated by the alternatives. based on the linguistic competences of the primary and secondary user groups, the better solution is to present phrases in both inflected and uninflected forms. the primary user group can use the inflected phrases without changing syntax, and the secondary user group can use both inflected and uninflected phrases without difficulty. a few aspects in relation to phrases are of theoretical and practical interest. printed dictionaries are restricted in space so here some phrases may be presented in inflected form and others in uninflected form, whereas electronic dictionaries have no such restriction and may offer both forms of the same phrase. however, the latter solution may result in data “overkill” and thereby frustrated users. the really advanced and well-designed electronic accounting dictionary will allow the user to decide whether sandro nielsen ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-6460 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 60 he wants the phrases presented in inflected or uninflected form. finally, lexicographers and publishers should be aware that the use of inflected phrases may attract copyright claims if they have been extracted from printed sources (for instance an electronic corpus of financial reporting texts) in unaltered form. this may lead lexicographers to prefer uninflected phrases with the associated negative consequences for some users. in this context it is important to note that if the lemmatised entry words are primarily made up of terms of art, the phrases will contain a significant number of lgp (language for general purposes) words that typically occur in financial reporting texts. lexicographers must keep this in mind when selecting the phrases and try to balance the selection of phrases against user requirements, user competences and lexicographic functions. experience shows that non-linguists and language experts with a low degree of factual knowledge have a tendency to think in terms of their native language structures when they communicate in english, orally as well as in writing. the result is the production of ungrammatical – and at the same time unidiomatic – texts in the foreign language. the lexicographers therefore need to allow for various grammatical aspects that may help the users produce texts in english (nielsen & mourier in print). information about phrases predominantly supports the functions of draft writing and stylistic editing, but may also be relevant to proofreading. as pointed out by nielsen & mourier (2005: 102) a dictionary designed for efl text production with no collocations or phrases illustrating the use of nouns with special verbs and prepositions or other fixed contexts within accounting language is of little and very limited use in connection with text production. this is especially evident when taking into account the competences of the user groups identified by the user profile. example sentences, i.e. full sentences also referred to as text examples, may serve as model sentences that facilitate the production of a foreign-language text. only few english accounting dictionaries present such sentences that may assist the user in his production of a text, in particular in connection with the functions of draft writing and stylistic editing. example sentences may be presented in various ways, for instance: monolingual accounting dictionaries ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-64 61 profit-taking (...) noun selling investments to realize the profit, rather than keeping them; share prices fell under continued profit-taking example 17. article from collin dictionary of accounting. quote some profit-taking was seen yesterday as investors continued to lack fresh incentives to renew buying activity financial times 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 61 in example 17 the lexicographers have used two ways of presenting sentences; one inside the article and highlighted by semi-bold italics, the other inside a middle-matter component, in casu a text box. neither presentation form has an inherent advantage over the other, but the use of text boxes with an indication of the source from which the sentence has been retrieved lends the example authority. nevertheless, examples that contain complete sentences in which the entry word is used as found in financial reporting texts serve as inspiration for anyone writing accounting texts. synonyms and antonyms may serve a dual purpose in a production dictionary. first of all synonyms may supplement the definition and thereby assist the user in finding the right term; a synonym may be the final confirmation the user needs. secondly, synonyms may provide alternative words that can be used in the text for the purpose of variation. in both instances synonyms support the writing, copyediting and proofreading of accounting texts. on the other hand antonyms may also supplement the definition and assist the user in finding the correct term; an antonym may be the final confirmation the user needs. moreover, antonyms may help the user forming a mental picture of the conceptual hierarchy between related terms. in either case antonyms primarily facilitate the writing, copyediting and proofreading of a text. one way in which to present synonyms and antonyms is the following: 7. concluding remarks there is no doubt a need for a dictionary that can assist international users in producing financial reporting texts in english. it is also clear that most existing english accounting sandro nielsen ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-6462 increase 2 verb <-s, -d, has -d, increasing> passive <is –d, was -d> definition to increase means to make something larger in amount, degree, level or number. collocations increase a value increase the carrying amount of goodwill increase convergence of accounting standards around the world increase to an amount equal to or greater than the asset’s carrying amount increase loss per share from continuing operations increase earnings per share or decrease loss per share from continuing operations synonyms raise antonyms decrease example 18. article from english dictionary of accounting. 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 62 dictionaries lack the necessary types of data to facilitate the production of such texts, mainly because the lexicographers did not explicitly intend their dictionaries to help with this function. in order to meet user requirements, the lexicographers of existing and future english accounting dictionaries would benefit from identifying relevant communication-oriented and cognition-oriented lexicographic functions and design their dictionaries so that they contain the data types needed by the users in the relevant use-situations. this requires careful study of the factual and linguistic competences of the dictionary’s user group so that the lexicographers can select and present the types of factual and linguistic data necessary to assist the users. as indicated above, this lexicographic exercise will result in multifunctional specialised dictionaries that can assist the user in different use-situations. a production dictionary that is true to its function(s) and user needs will have to contain syntagmatic information in addition to factual and traditional linguistic information. syntagmatic information focuses particularly on the combination of words in collocations, phrases and sentences and provides useful and necessary information about text production above the word (or term) level. syntagmatic information about english accounting and financial reporting language is necessary because the lack of knowledge as to combining words in a foreign language within a register-specific context leads to unidiomatic texts, for instance because the collocational patterns of the user’s native language and english differ. the users’ need for this type of information is reflected in only two of the accounting dictionaries examined but lexicographers are encouraged to plan, design and compile defining and syntagmatic english accounting dictionaries for the production of financial reporting texts. such dictionaries will provide the user with a true and fair view of the facts and language usage within the field of accounting. (paper submitted in april 2006) monolingual accounting dictionaries ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-64 63 references bergenholtz, h. & u. kaufmann (1997). “terminography and lexicography. a critical survey of dictionaries from a single specialised field.” hermes 18: 91-125. http://www.regnskabsordbogen.dk/lit /hermes/h18_05.pdf (last accessed 24 april 2006). bergenholtz, h. & s. nielsen (2002). “terms in the language of culturedependent lsp dictionaries.” lexicographica. international annual for lexicography 18: 5-18. collin dictionary of accounting = p. h. collin, d. york & a. joliffe (2001). dictionary of accounting. london: peter collin publishing. dictionary of international accounting terms = j. o. e. clark (2001). dictionary of international accounting terms. canterbury: financial world publishing/chartered institute of bankers. english dictionary of accounting = s. nielsen, l. mourier & h. bergenholtz (2005-2006). english dictionary of accounting. http://www.regnskabsord bogen.dk/regn/gbgb/gbregn.aspx (last accessed 24 april 2006). mossop, b. (2001). revising and editing for translators. manchester/ northampton: st. jerome publishing. mugdan, j. (1989). “grammar in dictionaries of languages for special purposes (lsp).” hermes 3: 125-142. 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 63 dr. sandro nielsen is affiliated with centre for lexicography, aarhus school of business, denmark. he is the author and co-author of numerous publications on lexicography, including the bilingual lsp dictionary. principles and practice for legal language (1994), two law dictionaries, five accounting dictionaries, and a major contributor to the manual of specialised lexicography (1995). sandro nielsen ibérica 12 [2006]: 43-6464 nielsen, s. (1994). the bilingual lsp dictionary. principles and practice for legal language. tübingen: gunter narr verlag. nielsen, s. (1999). “mediostructures in bilingual lsp dictionaries”. lexicographica. international annual for lexicography 15: 90-113. nielsen, s. (2002). lexicographical basis for an electronic bilingual accounting dictionary: theoretical considerations. http://www.sprog. asb.dk/sn/lexicographicalbasis.htm (last accessed 24 april 2006). nielsen, s. & l. mourier (2005). “internet accounting dictionaries: present solutions and future opportunities.” hermes 34: 83-116. nielsen, s. & l. mourier (in print): “design of a function-based internet accounting dictionary” in h. gottlieb & j. e. mogensen (eds.), dictionaries, lexicographical options and user needs. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins publishing company. oxford dictionary of accounting = j. law & g. owen (eds.) (2005). dictionary of accounting. oxford/new york: oxford university press. rude, c. d. (ed.) (2002). technical editing. new york [etc.]: longman. tarp, s. (2004). “reflections on dictionaries designed to assist users with text production in a foreign language.” lexikos 14: 299-325. 04 nielsen.qxp 20/09/2006 13:44 pægina 64 iberica 13 ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in the last decades metaphor has been much researched from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. one of the metaphor research lines has been the study of metaphor in specialized genres, including politics (musolff, 2004). political metaphor has been considerably researched within the cognitive framework and a few investigations have been concerned with the use of metaphor by political leaders (e.g. semino & masci, 1996; charteris-black, 2004, 2009). the present paper focuses on the use of metaphor in the public discourse of hugo chávez, the former venezuelan president. chávez was a captivating, if polarizing, leader whose hallmark was his oratory. we analyse a sample of chávez’s speeches for evidence of its metaphorical content. we identify and explain the linguistic and conceptual metaphors that occur in his speeches with a view to demonstrating that they play a central role in the construction of chávez’s self-image as both a political and religious leader for persuasive purposes. keywords: conceptual metaphor, evaluation, ideology, persuasion. resumen h ug o c h áv e z y l a c on s tr uc c i ón d e s u im ag e n a tra v é s de l a m e táf ora en las últimas décadas la metáfora ha sido objeto de numerosos estudios teóricos y empíricos. una de las líneas de investigación ha sido el análisis de la metáfora en diversos géneros, incluyendo el político (musolff, 2004). la metáfora política se ha estudiado desde una perspectiva cognitiva y varios trabajos tratan del uso de la metáfora por parte de diversos líderes políticos (semino & masci, 1996; charteris-black, 2004, 2009). este artículo se centra en el uso de la metáfora en los discursos de hugo chávez, expresidente de venezuela. aunque suscitó división de opiniones, chávez fue un líder hugo chávez and the building of his self-image through metaphor isabel negro alousque universidad complutense de madrid (españa) inegro@ccee.ucm.es 83 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 83 ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 isabel negro carismático que destacó por su oratoria. analizamos un corpus de discursos de chávez e identificamos y explicamos las metáforas lingüísticas y conceptuales que hemos encontrado. el objetivo es demostrar el papel de las metáforas en la construcción de la imagen de chávez como líder político y religioso con fines persuasivos. palabras clave: metáfora conceptual, evaluación, ideología, persuasión. introduction in the last decades political communication has been studied as a discourse type (cf. chilton & schäffner, 2002) with a rhetorical function (e.g. feldman & de landtsheer, 1998; de landtsheer & feldman, 2000) and an ideological function (e.g. wodak, 1989; van dijk, 2006). much of the research has concentrated on the role of metaphor in the various forms of political discourse, including speeches, party manifestos, committee hearings, news media interviews and articles, and television news. the role of political metaphor has been researched from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics and pragmatics. these approaches highlight the cognitive, argumentative, persuasive, evaluative and ideological functions of metaphor. in the present contribution we investigate the occurrence of metaphor in the speeches delivered by the former venezuelan president, hugo chávez, and the way metaphors are used in his public discourse. as we shall see, chávez had a vivid rhetoric and employed metaphor for persuasive purposes to build his self-image as both a political and religious leader and to evaluate policies and political opponents. this paper is structured in seven sections. the second section gives an overview of the theoretical background of this study. this is followed by a profile of hugo chávez as a political leader. after a brief section on chávez’s rhetoric and his use of metaphor, we explain the methodology of our study. then we focus on the analysis of his metaphorical discourse. the last section presents some concluding remarks. theoretical background metaphor is profusely used in political discourse, and its role has been vastly investigated. straehle et al. (1999: 68) identify a range of purposes for metaphor, including persuasion, legitimation, group solidarity and (citing 84 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 84 chilton, 1996: 74), “the production of new conceptualisations for problematic situations”. sharifian (2013: 350) stresses the role of political metaphors to establish or legitimize a give perspective. a close look at the metaphor literature yields the following functions of political metaphor: (1) cognitive; (2) argumentative/ideological; (3) persuasive; and (4) evaluative. the cognitive role of political metaphor is examined by cognitive theorists (cf. chilton & ilyin, 1993; semino & masci, 1996; straehle et al., 1999; beer & de landtsheer, 2004). the cognitive dimension subsumes two aspects. first, metaphor in political discourse is a means of conceptualizing and expressing political issues. in line with this, metaphor is a device to construct the political reality (graber, 1993). secondly, political metaphors reify abstractions (katz, 1996; thompson, 1996). as mio and katz (1996: 1) remark, “politics, being an abstract entity, rely heavily on metaphors to make concepts more tangible”. nonetheless, political metaphor does not merely contribute to developing a conceptual framework for representing ideas. chilton and ilyin (1993: 10) mention the heuristic (i.e. cognitive) and pragmatic roles of political metaphor. in much the same vein, charteris-black (2004, 2005, 2009) and musolff (musolff, 1998, 2000, 2004; musolff & zinken, 2009) put forward a view on metaphor that considers its discursive dimensions. in this light, metaphor is first a mode of argumentation. as musolff (2004: 39) remarks, “[t]he argumentative exploitation of conceptual metaphors in political discourse is unlimited”. political metaphors are very effective in the communication and explanation of policy. they frame arguments and suggest particular conclusions. in much the same vein, de landtsheer (de landtsheer, 2009; de landtsheer & koch, 2005) claims that metaphor is a useful tool for communicating ideology. ideology is to be understood in the sense suggested by kress and hodge (1993: 15): “ideology involves a systematically organized presentation of reality”. taking this into consideration, metaphor is essential in creating such a presentation of reality (charteris-black, 2004: 28). thirdly, metaphor works as a persuasive strategy in political contexts by appealing to the emotions. last but not least, the ideological motivation of metaphor is based on its rhetorical role as a persuasive technique. metaphorical choices convey the author’s subtle evaluation of policies or political rivals. for example, crespo’s (2013) analysis of churchill’s wartime hugo chávez and the building of his self-image ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 85 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 85 speeches reveals dysphemistic metaphor (i.e. pejorative conceptual metaphor) as a powerful resource of manipulation by presenting political rivals negatively. charteris-black (2009: 97-115) has developed a model of metaphor in political communication in which the persuasive modes of myth (i.e. explanatory narratives that embody a set of beliefs expressing aspects of the unconscious) and ideology (i.e. a set of beliefs, attitudes and values through which a group forms and sustains itself) are integrated with the classical role of metaphor outlined by aristotle, who proposed three functions for metaphors based on logos (i.e. communicating and explaining policy), pathos (i.e. heightening emotional impact), and ethos (i.e. establishing a politician’s integrity). our analysis is based on charteris-black’s model, which we deem to be a comprehensive and explanatory account of political metaphor that integrates all the facets discussed above. we seek to gain insight into the ethical dimension of metaphor. more specifically, our aim is to show how metaphor can be effectively employed in two ways (charteris-black, 2009: 103): (i) as a form of self-evaluation of a political leader (chávez in this case), and (ii) as a form of evaluation of policies or political opponents. chávez’s profile hugo chávez, the former venezuelan president, was one of the most charismatic and controversial world leaders for 14 years. he enjoyed enormous popular support and garnered international attention. he won the presidency in the 1998 election following a failed coup in february 1992. after surviving a coup against his own presidency in 2002, he won reelection two more times. he died on 5 march 2013 after battling cancer for about two years. the cornerstone of chávez’s presidency was the bolivarian revolution, his plan to remake venezuela a socialist state, which took its name from simón bolívar, a 19th-century venezuelan independence hero of whom chávez was a devotee. he even renamed venezuela the bolivarian republic of venezuela. the bolivarian revolution was what he called “venezuela’s socialist movement”. chávez’s participatory and democratic socialism combined left-wing tenets of equality, social justice and wealth distribution with a fervent nationalism inspired by bolívar. his foreign policy focused on harsh criticism of the bush administration and the defence of latin american economic integration. isabel negro ibérica 29 (2015): 83-10486 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 86 chávez’s rhetorical style much of chávez’s popularity and charisma is to be attributed to his oratory. chávez earned a reputation for his lengthy speeches, which captivated huge crowds and grabbed the media attention. they deal with a wide range of topics shifting from capitalism to the proper way to conserve water while showering during the water shortage that venezuela suffered in 2009. an identical variety is noticed in his multiple appearances on television, where he hosted his own sunday show, aló presidente (“hello president”), mixing theology and serious affairs of state like global politics and the nationalization of businesses with songs, jokes and anecdotes. as an avid reader, he frequently quoted philosophers (e.g. kant, rousseau), thinkers (e.g. morin, chomsky, max, boff), poets (e.g. benedetti, césaire), historical figures (e.g. bolívar) and even singers (e.g. silvio rodríguez, alí piera) to legitimize his political projects. his public speeches and addresses show a vehement style that evoked a sentiment of patriotism and denounced capitalism and imperialism. nonetheless, the main characteristic of chávez’s discourse was his antiamerican perspective, as exemplified by the derisive terms he used to refer to the usa president bush, such as “asshole” and “mr danger” – after an evil character in a venezuelan novel. chávez developed a populist rhetoric in which extensive use is made of metaphors in order to construct his self-image. an example is provided by the source domain of painting. chávez equates the bolivarian revolution with an “unfinished painting” in order to legitimize the abolition of presidential term limits in february 2009. he is the “artist” who cannot not leave his work as it is: “no se puede pasar el pincel a otra persona en mitad del cuadro. el artista debe terminar su trabajo” [you cannot hand the brush to someone else in the middle of the painting. the artist must finish his work.] in the remainder of the paper we shall analyse chávez’s use of metaphor to shape his self-image and to evaluate policies and political rivals. methodology and discussion methodology in this paper we carry out a qualitative analysis of the metaphors used by chávez with a view to showing that they are evaluative tools that serve to hugo chávez and the building of his self-image ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 87 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 87 assess policies and political opponents and build up his self-image as a political and religious leader. in the light of this, metaphors can be said to establish chávez’s ethical appeal (cf. above). the analysis that follows is based on a small-scale corpus research. the data collection has been gathered by means of an internet search. of the total corpus of speeches, public statements and election campaigns accessed online, a small sample of 30 that span 10 years were selected for the purposes of this study. the most significant ones were delivered at internationals forums. they are listed below: • speech at the 12th g-15 summit held in caracas in february 2004. • speech at the united nations on 16 september 2005. • speech at the united nations on 20 september 2006. • speech at the copenhagen climate summit in december 2009. • speech at the united nations on 26 september 2011. the remaining discourses are speeches delivered in official events, television broadcasts or public addresses to the venezuelan people _ available at url: http://www.revolucionomuerte.org/index.php/discursos/discursos-comandantehugo-chavez. this website contains a large archive of chávez’s speeches (over 200), from which we randomly selected a subset of 25 units. our search was carried out in two stages. in the first stage, we read the texts in order to find those expressions which we judged to be metaphorical. in the second stage, we classified the linguistic metaphors according to the source domain they are drawn from. the following domains are highlighted: war, religion, travel, family, light and fire. in the third stage we selected the linguistic metaphors that chávez used to build his self-image. discussion as mentioned earlier, chávez’s public discourse shows characteristic patterns of metaphor use as regards the conceptual source domains underlying his speeches. table 1 shows the distribution of metaphors across the sample: isabel negro ibérica 29 (2015): 83-10488 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 88 as can be seen in table 1, a total of 164 metaphorical expressions were found. an overwhelming majority (112) belongs to the domain of war. there is a low proportion of religious metaphors (15), journey metaphors (10), family metaphors (10), light metaphors (8) and fire metaphors (7). the widest range of linguistic metaphors is found in the domain of war, and the most recurrent metaphorical item is batalla (“battle”, 23 tokens). in the remainder of the section, we offer a detailed analysis of all the metaphors. war metaphors chávez employed the conceptual metaphor a political process is a war to build his image as the heir of simón bolívar, the venezuelan independence hero. thus, his self-proclaimed bolivarian revolution echoes bolívar’s wars of independence. taking into consideration chávez’s admiration for bolívar and his military roots – chávez was a military officer – it is hardly surprising that his discourse reveals important correspondences between the domains of politics and war. he saw the venezuelan people and himself as an army fighting for the revolution (el pueblo soldado): (1) somos soldados del ejército bolivariano, que decidimos hace años entregar nuestras vidas a un proyecto revolucionario. [we are soldiers of the bolivarian army, who decided years ago to give our lives to a revolutionary project.] hugo chávez and the building of his self-image ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 89 isabel negro ibérica 29 (2015): …-… metaphor tokens metaphorical expressions war metaphors 112 soldados, ejército, enemigo, batalla, guerra, lucha, ofensiva, resistencia, frente, alianza, estrategias, táctica, operaciones de defensa, guerrilla, victoria, empuñar espadas, combatir, defender, resistir, derrotar, vencer religion metaphors 15 misiones, resurrección, lázaro colectivo, reino, dogma, diablo, mártir, salvar journey metaphors 10 camino, marcha, rumbo, dirección, caminar family metaphors 10 padre bolívar, hijos, hermanos, hermanas, nación hermana light metaphors 8 amanecer, alborada, luz, tinieblas, fuerzas oscuras fire metaphors 7 ardimiento, incendio, llamarada, llama, fuego other metaphors 2 mar capitalista, tentáculos burgueses table 1. distribution of metaphors across chávez’s discourse. as can be seen in table 1, a total of 164 metaphorical expressions were found. an overwhelming majority (112) belongs to the domain of war. there is a low proportion of religious metaphors (15), journey metaphors (10), family metaphors (10), light metaphors (7) and fire metaphors (7). the widest range of linguistic metaphors is found in the domain of war, and the most recurrent metaphorical item is batalla (“battle”, 23 tokens). in the remainder of the section, we offer a detailed analysis of all the metaphors. war metaphors chávez employed the conceptual metaphor a political process is a war to build his image as the heir of simón bolívar, the venezuelan independence hero. thus, his self-proclaimed bolivarian revolution echoes bolívar’s wars of independence. taking into consideration chávez’s admiration for bolívar and his military roots – chávez was a military officer – it is hardly surprising that his discourse reveals important correspondences between the domains of politics and war. he saw the venezuelan people and himself as an army fighting for the revolution (el pueblo soldado): (1) somos soldados del ejército bolivariano, que decidimos hace años entregar nuestras vidas a un proyecto revolucionario. [we are soldiers of the bolivarian army, who decided years ago to give our lives to a revolutionary project.] in commemorating the 21st anniversary of the civil-military rebellion of february 4, 1992, chávez stated: 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 89 in commemorating the 21st anniversary of the civil-military rebellion of february 4, 1992, chávez stated: (2) nosotros salimos a empuñar nuestras espadas en defensa de las garantías sociales, de los derechos de la gran humanidad venezolana, queríamos ser el pueblo en armas forjador de la libertad. [we left to brandish our swords in defense of social guarantees, of the rights of the greater venezuelan community. we wanted to return to our bolivarian essence, to truly be the people in arms forging liberty.] in the speech he delivered after the 2012 election he advanced his policy for the next years in terms of alineamientos estratégicos (“strategic alignments”). when chávez uses war metaphors to frame his political project, they carry a positive connotation. nonetheless, the conceptual elements of the war scenario reveal a different evaluative slant when used to show chávez’s fierce opposition to venezuelan political parties and the usa. thus, the bolivarian revolution was first seen as a war against venezuela’s political parties. chávez’s political opponents are no longer contenders but enemies (artillería “artillery”) supported by foreign governments: (3) los adversarios, los enemigos del país no descansan ni descansarán en la intriga [the adversaries, the enemies of the country don’t rest, and won’t rest, they’ll continue creating intrigue.] (4) lo que nosotros enfrentamos el 7 de octubre como concreción de la batalla fue una alianza, una coalición de fuerzas internacionales de mucho poder. [what we faced on 7 october as a sign of the battle was an alliance, a powerful coalition of international forces.] (5) nosotros no derrotamos sólo a capriles y a la coalición de capriles, derrotamos a una coalición internacional de mucho poder. [we defeated not only capriles and capriles’ coalition, we defeated a powerful international coalition.] in the war against his political opponents chávez uses strategies to win: (6) es necesario continuar fortaleciendo la estrategia, la táctica, las operaciones de defensa. [it is necessary to continue to strengthen the strategy, the tactics, the defence operations.] isabel negro ibérica 29 (2015): 83-10490 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 90 in line with this, he depicted elections as “battles” (batallas) and election wins as “victories” (victorias): (7) ¡hasta la victoria siempre! y venceremos. [until the victory always! and we will win.] in 2012 he won a fourth term in office and described his win as a “perfect victory” (victoria perfecta) following “a perfect battle” (una batalla perfecta). the bolivarian revolution was later represented as a “prolonged fight” (lucha prolongada) against capitalism, the usa and its venezuelan allies. the war metaphors that chávez used to voice his anti-american attitude evoke a more complex scenario. the war scenario consists of two stages, an observation stage and an action stage. the observation stage begins with the perception of a threat, namely imperialism and capitalism / neoliberalism: (8) la guerra imperialista nos amenaza a todos. [imperialist war threatens us all.] the initial threat is a fact when an enemy is identified, namely, the usa: (9) el enemigo acecha desde fuera. [the enemy is lying in wait for us from the outside.] (10) desde el 11 de septiembre de 2001, comenzó una nueva guerra imperialista que no tiene precedentes históricos: una guerra permanente. [on september 11th 2001, a new and unprecedented imperialist war began, a permanent war.] then, in the second stage, there is a call to action where allies are summoned: (11) […] lucha heroica contra el colonialismo. [heroic fight against colonialism.] (12) fortalezcamos nuestra conciencia y nuestra voluntad de batalla por salvar al mundo. [we have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle in order to save the world.] (13) nosotros sabemos que los pueblos no se suicidan, los pueblos se despiertan, se levantan y combaten. hugo chávez and the building of his self-image ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 91 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 91 [but we know that countries do not commit suicide. the people of our countries awake, stand up and fight!] (14) si el capitalismo resiste, le daremos batalla. [if capitalism resists, we are obliged to take up a battle against capitalism.] in this context, chávez refers to the president of iran, one of venezuela’s main allies against the us, as a “gladiator in the anti-imperialist struggle”. chávez pleaded for international unity against imperialism in the form of a military front: (15) tenemos que unirnos en un gran frente antiimperialista. [we must have unity in a great anti-imperialist front.] the call to action is followed by a military struggle where the countries’ unity will allow for victory: (16) si permanecemos unidos podemos vencer al imperialismo. [as long as we remain united we will be able to defeat imperialism.] political struggle is rarely represented in terms of defence: (17) el futuro de un mundo multipolar en paz reside en nosotros. en la articulación de los pueblos mayoritarios del planeta para defendernos del nuevo colonialismo. [the future of a multi-polar world, in peace, resides in us, in the organization of the majority of the people on earth to defend ourselves against the new colonialism.] journey metaphors the heavy presence of journey metaphors in political communication has been highlighted in recent metaphor literature (e.g. beer & boynton, 2004: 141; charteris-black, 2004: 74). journey metaphors play a central role in chávez’s self-representation as a political leader. whereas war metaphors build chávez’s image as the new simón bolívar, the metaphor a political process is a journey, reveals him as a leader guiding the venezuelan people toward a new political and economic order. they encode chávez’s political vision of a socialist venezuela: isabel negro ibérica 29 (2015): 83-10492 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 92 (18) venezuela comenzó a caminar con sus propios pies. [venezuela has started to walk on its own feet.] in his speech after winning the 15 february 2006 election socialism is the destination reached along the path of revolution: (19) venezuela continuará su marcha hacia el socialismo democrático del siglo xxi. [venezuela will continue its march toward the democratic socialism of the 21st century.] the strength of his discourse lies in terms like “march” and “path”. thus, in later public addresses chávez insisted: (20) estos caminos de la construcción del socialismo. [this path of the construction of socialism.] the path towards bolivarian socialism is full of obstacles: (21) ustedes saben cuántas dificultades hemos vencido para llegar aquí hoy. ¡cuántos caminos hemos cruzado! a veces las fuerzas parecían fallar. [you know how many difficulties we have overcome to get here today. we have walked across so many paths! sometimes strength seemed to fail us.] (22) la marcha sigue siendo dura, pero con la fuerza irresistible del amor estamos a paso de vencedoras y de vencedores hacia la independencia definitiva, hacia la patria socialista y liberada. [the march continues to be difficult, but with the irresistible force of love, we are on our way to achieving definitive independence, a socialist and liberated nation.] in other speeches socialism is the path that leads to the bolivarian revolution: (23) lo que nos toca a nosotros ahora es darle la dirección correcta a esta revolución: el socialismo. [what remains for us is to give the correct direction to this revolution: socialism.] (24) venezuela tomará el camino socialista. [venezuela will take the socialist path.] hugo chávez and the building of his self-image ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 93 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 93 chávez further employed journey metaphors to oppose socialism to capitalism: (25) el socialismo, esta es la dirección, este es el camino para salvar al planeta. el capitalismo es el camino al infierno. [socialism, this is the direction, this is the path to save the planet. capitalism is the path to hell.] fire metaphors fire metaphors support chávez’s self-image as a political leader by showing the bolivarian revolution as a fire which burns the country: (26) es un ardimiento la lucha revolucionaria. [the revolutionary fight is a fire.] (27) a los valientes soldados bolivarianos, nos tocó desatar aquel libertario incendio de justicia que durará siglos y siglos. [to the brave bolivarian soldiers, it is up to us to enhance that liberating fire of justice that will last century upon century.] (28) la patria ardiendo en llama sagrada, en fuego sagrado. [the nation burning in a sacred flame, in a sacred fire.] in chávez’s view, the fire of socialism has spread to latin america: (29) la llamarada se hizo continente. [the flare-up became a continent.] additionally, chávez resorts to the source concept of fire to refer to the feeling of patriotism, which gave impetus to the civil-military rebellion of 4 february 1992: (30) ese fuego sagrado que nos atizaba por dentro no podía seguir oculto. [the sacred fire that stirred within could no longer be hidden.] it is relevant to mention that in the transfer from the domain of fire to the target domain of political revolution the mapped feature is power; in this sense fire metaphors are very effective in persuading the audience because of their potential for moving them. isabel negro ibérica 29 (2015): 83-10494 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 94 religion metaphors the domain of religion plays a central role in chávez’s public discourse. the metaphor politics is religion backs up chávez’s self-representation. the linguistic realisations of this metaphor are carried out by key words from this domain (misiones “missions”, resucitar “resurrect”, dogma, demonio “devil”, mártir “martyr”) that capture a positive evaluation of chávez and his political project, on the one hand, and convey a critical stance towards imperialism and the us, on the other hand. religion metaphors contribute to chávez’s self-image by emphasizing two dimensions: chávez-christ and chávez the preacher. chávez borrows two particular aspects of christ’s life in order to mobilize support: his devotion and his saving mission. first, he gives his life to venezuelan people, just as christ gave his life for humankind: (31) mi vida es vuestra. yo pertenezco al pueblo de venezuela. [my life is yours. i belong to the people of venezuela.] (32) yo no soy chávez, chávez es el pueblo. [i am not chávez, chávez is the people.] similar sentiments of dedication are evoked by two further conceptual elements: the religious concept of consecration in (33) and the idea of consumption drawn from the domain of fire (34). the former is employed to describe chávez’s commitment to his political project, whereas the latter highlights chávez’s personal sacrifice: (33) me consagro íntegramente al pleno servicio del pueblo venezolano. [i remain consecrated completely to continue solving the problems of the people.] (34) me consumiré gustosamente al servicio del pueblo sufriente. [i shall gladly consume myself with pleasure to help the suffering people.] secondly, chávez’s mission, like christ’s, is to save humankind and create a new social order based on moral values: (35) […] y finalmente contribuir a la salvación de la especie humana. [and finally contribute to the salvation of the human race.] (36) hagamos de esta tierra un cielo, un cielo de vida y de paz para toda la humanidad. hugo chávez and the building of his self-image ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 95 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 95 [let us make this earth a heaven, a heaven of life, of peace, peace and brotherhood for all humanity.] like christ the saviour he brought about venezuela’s resurrection through his landslide victory in 1998: (37) hoy en venezuela estamos viviendo una verdadera resurrección. [today in venezuela we are living a true resurrection.] (38) ¡la resurrección de venezuela está en marcha y nada ni nadie podrá detenerla! [the resurrection of venezuela has begun and nothing and no one can stop it.] (39) ahí está el 4 de febrero como un grito sagrado que desde nuestra memoria colectiva le dijo a venezuela levántate y anda, y así ha sido gracias al lázaro colectivo que es el pueblo de bolívar, todas y todos somos artífices de la patria resurrecta. [there is february 4th like a sacred cry from our collective memory that told venezuela to get up and move forward, and thanks to the collective lazarus that is the land of bolívar, all of us are artifices of the resurrected nation.] (40) fue como una resurrección lo que hemos vivido. aquí había un pueblo dormido como muerto y llegó el lázaro colectivo y se levantó. [what we have lived is like a resurrection. there was a dead land and the collective lazarus came and got up.] as a preacher, chávez preaches the virtues of socialism. chávez equates socialism with christianity: (41) el modelo socialista no es otro que el modelo de cristo. [the socialist model is christ’s model.] (42) el socialismo, el reino de dios en la tierra, el reino de la paz, de la justicia y de la igualdad, lo que cristo vino a anunciar hace más de 2.000 años. [socialism, the kingdom of god on earth, the kingdom of peace, justice and equality, what christ came to announce more than 2000 years ago.] (43) bienaventurados los que sufren porque de ellos será el reino de la justicia, el reino de la paz, del amor, que es el reino del socialismo. [blessed those who suffer: for theirs is the kingdom of justice, the kingdom of peace, of love, which is the kingdom of socialism.] isabel negro ibérica 29 (2015): 83-10496 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 96 in this context, christ comes to be considered as the first socialist: (44) si usted realmente quiere ver las cosas a través de los ojos de jesucristo, que creo que fue el primer socialista. [if you really want to look at things through the eyes of jesus christ, who i think was the first socialist.] within the new political order that chávez meant to establish, his social programs, which constituted the most visible symbols of the bolivarian revolution and an important element of his socialist agenda, were metaphorically construed as religious “missions”. he also showed himself as a preacher when he referred to political leaders that he befriended. thus, he claimed that gaddafi, the libyan president, would be remembered as a “martyr”. finally, in contrast with the positive connotation of the conceptual elements above mentioned, chávez uses his self-image as a preacher to back up a strong negative assessment of the usa policies. the movement promoted by chávez is strongly opposed to neoliberalism, which is conceptualized as “dogma”: (45) aquí el neoliberalismo alcanzó categoría de dogma doctrinal. [here [in latin america] neoliberalism reached the status of a dogma.] chávez fiercely criticized the neoliberal model as a form of “suicide” and promoted the struggle against it. accordingly, the selection of the word “dogma” carries a negative connotation. in much the same way, capitalism is denounced as the proof of devil’s action: (46) el capitalismo es el camino del diablo. [capitalism is the way of the devil.] chávez’s “anti-imperialist” policies are also represented by religious metaphors. his anti-american attitude peaked at the united nations on 26 september 2006 when he pronounced bush “the devil”. this source concept is exploited by chávez to develop the political argument that the usa poses a direct threat to the world order and conveys a very strong negative evaluation of american policies. one day after the then-u.s. president spoke to the international body chávez announced in the general assembly chamber: hugo chávez and the building of his self-image ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 97 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 97 (47) ayer vino el diablo aquí, ayer estuvo el diablo aquí, en este mismo lugar. huele a azufre todavía hoy. [the devil came here yesterday. right here. and it smells of sulfur still today.] the bush is evil metaphor is a telling example of the use of metaphor to develop a myth in the sense suggested by charteris-black (2009: 100). light metaphors light metaphors contribute to chávez’s self-image building as christ and have a strong emotional appeal. like christ’s kingdom, which came to bring light for mankind, the period that opened with chávez’s election win has brought a new dawn: (48) el 4 de febrero nuestro pueblo vio el amanecer de su esperanza. [on february 4th our people saw the dawn of their hopes.] the new political order brought about by chávez is metaphorically understood as a light shining all over the world: (49) la luz del pueblo venezolano construyéndose a sí mismo hoy está brillando al mundo. el pueblo venezolano hoy está irradiando sus luces. [the light of the venezuelan people building itself is shining today. the venezuelan people are radiating its light today.] in much the same way, socialism will bring “dawn” to the south-american subcontinent, as illustrated in (50-51): (50) latinoamérica es un territorio de amanecer. [dawn is breaking out all over latin america.] (51) desde aquí le decimos a fidel: adelante camarada, que empieza la alborada. [from here we say to fidel: go forward, comrade, dawn is breaking out.] whilst the source concept of light has a positive connotation, the polar concept, darkness represents the forces of evil: (52) quienes irrumpimos contra las tinieblas de la injusticia y la indignidad que abrumaban a venezuela por aquel entonces estábamos, como decía el che guevara, guiados por grandes sentimientos de amor. isabel negro ibérica 29 (2015): 83-10498 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 98 [those of us who burst into the shadows of injustice and indignity that overwhelmed venezuela in those days were, as che guevara said, guided by a great feeling of love.] the negative connotation of darkness is utilized by chávez for a critical judgment. chávez associates the enemies of venezuela to the forces of darkness or “the dark powers”, a familiar expression within christian discourse to refer to satan (cf. charteris-black, 2005: 51). family metaphors the metaphor a country is a family appeals to emotion by tapping into venezuelan nationalism. at the same time it serves an ideological purpose by creating group solidarity in order to win support. chávez employs this metaphor to back up his self-evaluation as both a political and religious leader. on the one hand, he represents himself as a son of simón bolívar, thus following in his footsteps: (53) aquí estamos padre bolívar 200 años después mostrándole al mundo antiguo la majestad de la sociedad nueva, una sociedad donde todos podamos vivir como hermanos. [here we are, father bolívar, 200 years later, demonstrating for the new world the majesty of the new society.] (54) […] los soldados que nos sentimos hijos de simón bolívar. [we soldiers consider ourselves the sons of bolívar.] within this conceptual framework, chávez depicts his foreign allies as siblings. thus, he called “brother” the iranian president and libya a “sister nation”. on the other hand, chávez, like christ, claims that we are all “brothers”: (55) hermanos y hermanas, hoy vivimos en un país realmente libre. [brothers and sisters, today we live in a really and truly free country.] (56) el pueblo de estados unidos […] son hermanos y hermanas nuestros en toda américa y el resto del mundo. [the people of the united states […] are brothers and sisters of all of us in the americas and the rest of the world.] figures 1 and 2 summarize the role of metaphor in the construction of chávez’s self-image as a political and religious leader, respectively. hugo chávez and the building of his self-image ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 99 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 99 isabel negro ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104100 hugo chávez and the building of his self-image ibérica 29 (2015): …-… [here we are, father bolívar, 200 years later, demonstrating for the new world the majesty of the new society.] (54) […] los soldados que nos sentimos hijos de simón bolívar. [we soldiers consider ourselves the sons of bolívar.] within this conceptual framework, chávez depicts his foreign allies as siblings. thus, he called “brother” the iranian president and libya a “sister nation”. on the other hand, chávez, like christ, claims that we are all “brothers”: (55) hermanos y hermanas, hoy vivimos en un país realmente libre. [brothers and sisters, today we live in a really and truly free country.] (56) el pueblo de estados unidos […] son hermanos y hermanas nuestros en toda américa y el resto del mundo. [the people of the united states […] are brothers and sisters of all of us in the americas and the rest of the world.] figures 1 and 2 summarize the role of metaphor in the construction of chávez’s self-image as a political and religious leader, respectively. political leader chávez simón bolívar the bolivarian revolution bolívar’s wars of independence domestic policy politics is war positive evaluation bolivarian army fight for venezuela strategic alignments negative evaluation battle against political opponents victory over political opponents contenders are enemies foreign policy politics is war positive evaluation fight for latin american union negative evaluation war against imperialism, capitalism / neoliberalism and the empire (the usa) positive evaluation venezuela walks along the path of revolution / socialism negative evaluation capitalism is the path toward hell a political process is a journey family metaphors: chávez is bolívar’s son the bolivarian revolution is a fire figure 1. metaphor in the construction of chávez’s self-image as a political leader. isabel negro ibérica 29 (2015): …-… religious leader chávez christ domestic policy politics is religion positive evaluation first election win resurrection socialism kingdom of god on earth social reforms missions family metaphors foreign policy people are brothers and sisters negative evaluation capitalism dogma bush evil politics is religion light metaphors the new world dawn / a new morning usa´s powers of darkness light metaphors chávez’s presidency is a new dawn figure 2. metaphor in the construction of chávez’s self-image as a religious leader. in summary, the analysis of chávez’s speeches reveals the ethical dimension of metaphor as both a form of self-evaluation of the politician and a form of evaluation of policies or political opponents. war and religious metaphors are powerful devices for supporting chávez’s ethical integrity as a political and religious leader and for communicating ideology given that they serve to construct his particular representation of the world where the usa is both the enemy and devil. in addition, they are vital in shaping chávez’s stance in his domestic and foreign policies. most importantly, they are indicative of the changing evaluative bias of metaphor since they carry a positive or negative connotation. although we have focused on the ethical dimension of chávez’s metaphoric discourse (i.e. chávez’s self-evaluation and evaluation of political issues), it is worth mentioning that metaphor serves other purposes in his political speeches. thus, whilst war and religious metaphors prove to be very effective in the communication of his political project, family and light-fire metaphors have a strong emotional appeal. 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 100 in summary, the analysis of chávez’s speeches reveals the ethical dimension of metaphor as both a form of self-evaluation of the politician and a form of evaluation of policies or political opponents. war and religious metaphors are powerful devices for supporting chávez’s ethical integrity as a political and religious leader and for communicating ideology given that they serve to construct his particular representation of the world where the usa is both the enemy and devil. in addition, they are vital in shaping chávez’s stance in his domestic and foreign policies. most importantly, they are indicative of the changing evaluative bias of metaphor since they carry a positive or negative connotation. although we have focused on the ethical dimension of chávez’s metaphoric discourse (i.e. chávez’s self-evaluation and evaluation of political issues), it is worth mentioning that metaphor serves other purposes in his political speeches. thus, whilst war and religious metaphors prove to be very effective in the communication of his political project, family and light-fire metaphors have a strong emotional appeal. conclusion the present contribution lies within the scope of recent research into political communication, which has revealed that metaphors are not just conceptual devices but have significant rhetorical uses that provide the basis for their discursive function. in this paper we have undertaken an applied study of metaphor in political discourse through the survey of the metaphors occurring in the speeches delivered by the former venezuelan president, hugo chávez. as a masterful communicator, chávez was wellknown for his vivid rhetoric condemning capitalism, imperialism and the usa. the study offers evidence for the relevance of metaphor both as a conceptual mechanism underlying political discourse and as an argumentative, ideological, evaluative and persuasive tool. specifically, the findings show the role of metaphor in building chávez’s positive self-image as the heir of simón bolívar and as christ. in this sense, the paper reveals chávez’s political application of the source domains of war, religion, journey, family and light as powerful persuasive strategies. on the one hand, war and journey metaphors are the basis for his self-portrayal as the leader of the bolivarian revolution who fights against his political opponents and american imperialism and leads venezuela along the path of hugo chávez and the building of his self-image ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 101 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 101 revolution/socialism. on the other hand, religion, family and light metaphors support his self-image building as christ by depicting him as someone who gives his life for his people and saves venezuelan people, making them members of the same family. within the light/dark schema, chávez regarded the new political and economic order that he intended to establish as a “new morning” that would defeat the american “powers of darkness”. the scope of this paper being limited, further research into the different forms of political communication should be carried out in order to verify the frequency and use of metaphor in political contexts. article history: received 12 february 2014 received in revised form 24 july 2014 accepted 25 july 2014 references isabel negro ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104102 beer, f.a. & g.r. boynton (2004). “path through the minefields of foreign policy space: practical reasoning in the u.s. senate discourse about cambodia” in beer & de landtsheer (eds.), 141161. beer, f.a. & c. de landtsheer (eds.) (2004). metaphorical world politics. east lansing: michigan state university press. charteris-black, j. (2004). corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. charteris-black, j. (2005). politicians and rhetoric: the persuasive power of metaphor. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. charteris-black, j. (2009). “metaphor and political communication” in a. musolff & j. zinken (eds.), 97-115. chilton, p. (1996). security metaphors: cold war discourse from containment to common european home. berne/new york: peter lang. chilton, p. & m.v. ilyin (1993). “metaphor in political discourse: the case of the ‘common european house’”. discourse and society 4,1: 731. chilton, p. & c. schäffner (eds.) (2002). politics as text and talk: analytic approaches to political discourse. amsterdam: john benjamins. crespo, e. (2013). “words as weapons for mass persuasion: dysphemism in churchill’s wartime speeches”. text & talk 33,3: 311-330. de landstheer, c. (2009). “collecting political meaning from the count of metaphor” in a. musolff & j. zinken (eds.), 59-78. de landtsheer, c. & o. feldman (2000). beyond public speech and symbols. explorations in the rhetoric of politicians and the media. westport, ct: praeger. de landtsheer, c. & e. koch (2005). “metaphors and the framing of the european single currency (euro) in and out of ‘euro land’” in r.f. farnen, h. dekker, c. de landtsheer, h. sünker & d.b. german (eds.), democratization, europeanization and globalization trends. cross-national analysis of authoritarianism, socialisation, communication, youth and social policy, 429-446. frankfurt: peter lang. feldman, o. & c. de landtsheer (1998). politically speaking: a worldwide examination of language used in the public sphere. westport, ct: praeger. graber, d. (1993). “political communication: scope, progress, promise” in a.w. finifter (ed.), political science: the state of the discipline, vol. ii, 305-332. washington dc: american political science association. kress, g. & r. hodge (1993). language as ideology. london: routledge. katz, a. (1996). “on interpreting statements as metaphor or irony: contextual heuristics and 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 102 isabel negro alousque is an assistant lecturer at the english department at the complutense university in madrid. her main research interests are english for specific purposes, cognitive semantics, lexicology and translation. notes 1 a number of conventions are used for reporting metaphors. source domains are in uppercase letters and conceptual metaphors are in small capitals. hugo chávez and the building of his self-image ibérica 29 (2015): 83-104 103 cognitive consequences” in mio & katz (eds.), 122. mio, j.s. & a. katz (1996). metaphor: implications and applications. mahwah, nj: erlbaum. musolff, a. (1998). “metaphors and trains of thought: spotting journey imagery in british and german political discourse” in s. wright, l. hanrais & j. howorth (eds.), language, politics, and society, 100-109. clevedon: multilingual matters. musolff, a. (2000). “political imagery of europe: a house without exit doors?”. journal of multilingual and multicultural development 21,3: 216-229. musolff, a. (2004). metaphor and political discourse. analogic reasoning in debates about europe. new york: palgrave. musolff, a. & j. zinken (eds.) (2009). metaphor and discourse. new york: palgrave. semino, e. & m. masci (1996). “politics is football: metaphor in the discourse of silvio berlusconi in italy”. discourse and society 7,2: 243-269. sharifian, f. & m. jamarani (2013). “cultural conceptualisations and translating political discourse” in a. rojo & i. ibarretxe-antuñano (eds.), cognitive linguistics and translation, 339372. berlin/new york: mouton de gruyter. straehle, c., g. weiss, r. wodak, p. muntigl & m. sedlak (1999). “struggle as metaphor in european union discourses on unemployment”. discourse and society 10,1: 67-99. thompson, s. (1996). “politics without metaphor is like a fish without water” in mio & katz (eds.), 185201. van dijk, t.a. (2006). “politics, ideology, and discourse” in b. keith (ed.), encyclopedia of language and linguistics, 728-740. oxford: elsevier. wodak, r. (ed.) (1989). language, power, and ideology. amsterdam: john benjamins. 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 103 06 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:46 página 104 editorial the fact that 46 researchers from 38 universities worldwide answered the call for abstract proposals for this special issue is ample testimony to the dynamicity of metaphor studies in the field of languages for specific purposes. the issue opens with two invited contributions which pursue different purposes. the article by zoltan kövecses, author of metaphor. a practical introduction (oxford university press, 2002), among many other works, examines how context bears on metaphor in discourse, providing, as it were, a general backdrop to the more specific articles to follow. the other invited article by graham low and jeannette littlemore addresses the more specifically didactic issue of the metaphoric nature of classroom management language and how it might be mis/understood by students. kövecses’ article, while tackling a major issue in metaphor studies at the present time, namely, how local cultural issues may be playing a decisive role in motivating the use of metaphor in general or in determining the choice of one or other metaphor at any particular juncture, is at the same time highly relevant to the use of metaphor in languages for specific purposes. thus, if discourse on the car industry exploits the semantic field of that industry for metaphor sources or the presence of a boxer leads to metaphor use from that source or a journalist constructs his argument exploiting relevant aspects of the californian habitat to metaphorically deal with a question that has a bearing on that part of the world, then an important issue for language teachers for specific purposes could be the question of how aspects of their particular fields may trigger and sustain metaphor. that is, if and how, for instance, naval engineering, architecture, business, medicine or any other specific field may be tapping the conceptual and linguistic resources of its own subject matter for metaphor sources. the result of such a process is that specific concepts and vocabulary, literal in, and proper to, those specific fields, may be reutilised metaphorically in those same disciplines. graham low and jeannette littlemore, joint authors of such a relevant book to this ibérica issue as figurative thinking and foreign language learning (palgrave macmillan, 2006), point out that “the target language to manage a class and organise its work represents one of the few genuinely communicative uses of the target language in many formal foreign-language ibérica 17 [2009]: 5-10 5 01 iberica 17.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 30/03/09 8:18 página 5 or bilingual-education teaching situations” (abstract). the foreign language class holds a unique advantage over any other subject in that, as bachman (1990: 2) puts it, the language itself is “both the instrument and the object”. low and littlemore show that this instrumental classroom-language is highly metaphoric and may easily be misunderstood by students. they provide intriguing evidence (which i will not reveal here) of how perceptions vary both among and between native and non-native speakers. the selected contributions cover a wide range of subjects within the scope of languages for specific purposes. the first two focus on science. andreas musolff ’s contribution contrasts how the topic of embryonic stem cells (esc) comes across in media publications in britain and germany. it shows both the salient role of metaphor in public debates on crucial scientific issues and, at the same time, points to cultural specificities. one of the major questions one tends to ask is what difference metaphor makes and what difference the choice of one metaphor rather than another makes. interestingly, the author discusses and reveals “how the different metaphor preferences may account for contrasts in british and german public attitudes and legislation regarding esc research” (abstract). the article by laura hidalgo downing and blanca kraljevic mujic taps a different scientific genre as their evidence comes from abstracts on the theme of immunology appearing in scientific american. they are particularly interested in distinguishing between conventional and new or more creative metaphors, their different functions and the persuasive effects they entail. perhaps, we are very much accustomed to the idea that science operates on a basis of technical concepts and terminology and then metaphor is subsequently added to simplify and get across those concepts and terminology. this may not necessarily be the actual sequence. the authors show a very revealing case where a new metaphor –“cell suicide”– is first introduced in an academic field to name a novel concept and it is only later that an appropriate technical term is developed –in this case, “apoptosis”– to substitute it. in other words, the sequence is the inverse of what may have been taken for granted. the next three articles have different didactic or pedagogical ends as their main focus. a question that had been posed for some time at conferences was to what extent the insights deriving from metaphor research were making their way into the classroom. this is the central goal of marisol velasco’s contribution. on the back of extensive research being carried out in the fields of translation and interpretation, there is renewed interest in the potential of translation in language-for-specific-purposes teaching. adopting editorial ibérica 17 [2009]: 5-106 01 iberica 17.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 30/03/09 8:18 página 6 this view, the author goes on to outline specific and concrete strategies to take advantage of the possibilities afforded by translation where metaphor use in the context of business is concerned. in addition to metaphor in language, she also introduces pictorial metaphor and both allow her to show that appropriate translation very characteristically may imply the raising of cross-cultural awareness on the part of students. andrés palacios presents a very novel proposal providing a system of visual patterns to capture tense and aspect, pointing out the advantages of visuals for students of today’s world. as with all novel proposals, it is difficult to predict their application and staying power. nevertheless, the author does provide a convincing system of cross-modal correspondences –spoken-graphic-visual– and argues for the applicability of the system for esp students, particularly in architecture and civil engineering and in general “for raising learners’ linguistic awareness of agreement within the sentence” (abstract). if, as jun zhao points out, gesture as a conveyor of metaphor has been largely ignored, lsp practitioners will find very convincing evidence in her article, gleaned from real teaching scenarios, for taking it into account. indeed, they should even find it intriguing to learn how coherent and systematic teacher gestural behaviour may be and at the same time be something which so blatantly escapes our notice. the author makes the important point that gesture is not just an extra added onto word but that it often plays a crucial role in encapsulating and getting across abstract ideas and that we may miss the point if we only analyse verbal utterances. additionally, while language comments and assessments are typically susceptible to rehersal, gesture is characteristically produced on-line and hence for that very reason has a particularly significant effect on communication potential. the remaining three articles of this number deal with a variety of issues. magdalena bielenia-grajewska examines the language of investmentbanking communication in english, german, spanish and polish, paying close attention to merger and acquisition processes, an area which is particularly rich in metaphor use. evidence is gleaned from a variety of sources and with 170 english terms as her starting point, the author examines how the other languages behave vis-à-vis these metaphoric terms. this gives her scope for very interesting cross-linguistic evidence and analysis. she claims that “[we] can observe globalising tendencies in technical, political or business vocabulary but national languages tend to keep their own semantic structures, especially figurative expressions” (pages 146-147). the article co-authored by maity siqueira, ana flávia souto de editorial ibérica 17 [2009]: 5-10 7 01 iberica 17.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 30/03/09 8:18 página 7 oliveira, dalby dienstbach hubert, galeno faé de almeida, and larissa moreira brangel, deals with metaphor identification in a terminological dictionary, arguing, in line with very recent developments, for the need to place figurative language very firmly within the brief of terminology. the always controversial issue of identification benefits from the pooled opinions of the group and their evidence is based on brazilian portuguese terminological dictionaries enriched by contrasts with different english dictionaries. they conclude that “metaphorical extensions seem to be one of the main reasons for the polysemy of lexical items” (page 173). thomas h. smith’s contribution incorporates yet another specific area where metaphor deployment may have very significant effects, namely, that of mediating in conflict resolution. the author’s corpus shows seven highly conventional metaphors to occur in such frequency as to frame descriptions and explanations. furthermore, they easily fit into interrelated groups. while these metaphors, according to smith, may oversimplify issues, at the same time, they pave the way for extended interactions, reintroducing necessary complexity and facilitating developments in the mediating process. in summary, then, the two invited articles plus the selected ones cover a wide spectrum of interests within the much wider field of the use of metaphor in languages for specific purposes. those articles have dealt with metaphor as shaping content in different areas, as a pedagogical tool or facilitator in others or as a bearer of cultural heritage in many others. as a sign of the globalisation of knowledge at the present moment, the cross cultural or cross linguistic agenda to appear to a greater or lesser degree has a bearing on such languages as english, portuguese, german, hungarian, polish, chinese as well as passing references to others, amerindian, for instance. the set of articles are a testimony to how far and how rapidly this particular field of research is progressing and it is to be hoped that this special edition will encourage further work on metaphor in the vast territorial extensions of languages for specific purposes. indeed, very significant work along these lines is right now emerging from aelfe-colleague pens (see, for instance, recent ibérica numbers; or roldán riejos & úbeda mansilla, 2006; or cuadrado esclápez & redondo ramiro, 2008). let me take advantage of this opportunity to thank ibérica for the honour and pleasure of guest-editing this special issue and my particular gratitude goes to the editor-in-chief, ana bocanegra who spared no support nor organisational expertise in helping me far beyond the call of duty –and always doing so with characteristic cheerfulness. moreover, she took the editorial ibérica 17 [2009]: 5-108 01 iberica 17.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 30/03/09 8:18 página 8 gestation and delivery of this special issue in her stride making it compatible with the pregnancy and birth of her own son, david. heartiest congratulations. my enduring regret is not having been able to take far more of the excellent proposals on board for this issue and i sincerely thank the authors of all 46 abstracts and again convey my appreciation for their understanding that despite positive or very positive assessments, space limitation made it impossible to include them. undoubtedly, many of those proposals will see the light in suitable publication venues. finally, i want to express, on behalf of ibérica and particularly on my own, the sincerest of gratitude for the invaluable help from so many colleagues worldwide who generously gave of their expertise and time to the assessment and refereeing processes at different stages of the preparation of this issue. as a token of recognition their names appear below in alphabetic order: rafael alejo gonzález .................................(universidad de extremadura, spain) christina alm arvius ........................................(university of stokholm, sweden) annalisa baicchi ...............................................................(university of pavia, italy) katarynza bromberek-dyzman .......(adam mickiewicz university, poznan, poland) denis canellas de castro duarte ....................(universidad complutense, spain) lourdes carriedo lópez ..................................(universidad complutense, spain) jonathan charteris-black ....(university of western england, united kingdom) georgina cuadrado esclápez ...........(universidad politécnica de madrid, spain) alejandro curado fuentes ..........................(universidad de extremadura, spain) charles forceville ......................(universiteit van amsterdam, the netherlands) pedro fuertes olivenza .....................................(universidad de valladolid, spain) honesto herrera soler .....................................(universidad complutense, spain) iraide ibarretxe antuñano .................................(universidad de zaragoza, spain) olaf jäkel ..............................................................(flensburg university, germany) marlene johansen ..............................................(university of stokholm, sweden) gitte kristiansen ................................................(universidad complutense, spain) seth lindstromberg .................................(hilderstone college, united kingdom) mª dolores lópez maestre ....................................(universidad de murcia, spain) maria victoria martín de la rosa ....................(universidad complutense, spain) susanna niemeier ..............................(university of koblenz-landau, germany) carita paridis .............................................................(university of växjö, sweden) ana cristina pelosi de macedo ..................(federal university of ceará, brazil) ana roldán riejos ..............................(universidad politécnica de madrid, spain) francisco j. ruiz de mendoza ............................(universidad de la rioja, spain) carmen sancho guinda ....................(universidad politécnica de madrid, spain) editorial ibérica 17 [2009]: 5-10 9 01 iberica 17.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 30/03/09 8:18 página 9 hanna skorczynska ..........................(universidad politécnica de valencia, spain) hans-georg wolf .............................................(university of hong kong, china) michael white universidad complutense de madrid (spain) white@filol.ucm.es guest editor of ibérica no. 17 references editorial ibérica 17 [2009]: 5-1010 bachman, l.f. (1990). fundamental considerations in language testing. oxford: oxford university press. cuadrado esclápez, g. & a. redondo ramiro (2008). “estudio semasiológico de las principales metáforas de imagen empleadas en el lenguaje de la agronomía: un análisis de corpus”. paper presented at the xxvi aesla international conference, 3-5 april 2008. universidad de almería, spain. kövecses, z. (2002). metaphor. a practical introduction. new york: oxford university press. littlemore j. & g. (2006). figurative thinking and foreign language learning. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. roldán riejos, a. & p. úbeda mansilla, (2006). “metaphor use in a specific genre of engineering discourse”. european journal of engineering education 31: 531-541. 01 iberica 17.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 30/03/09 8:18 página 10 01 editorial.qxd ��-��� ��� &���� ��� %� %���� �$�� �����-������ $�� ��� �� ����� � ��� �$� �6��� ����� �" ������$ "�� �����"�� ������� ��� � ��� ������$ "�� �����-�� ������� ��� � +��� ��-�����&� '�������� "�� �����"�� ������� �'� � ��� '�������� "�� �����-�� ������� �'� �+� ��� %$��$�� �� ��� �� %�� ������ �� � ��� �� $��$�� ��������� ����a���� �� ��� ���� �����# ��-� ��������� ������ �� ��b��� �$�� �����& �� �$� ������� �$�� ��� �������� �$� ��$��# c�� ��������� �� �$�� ��-�� %�� �$�� %� d����������� �� %$�� ��� � ��������� �� ��--�� �� ������ ��� ���������& �� �$� �� ���d � ��� �� ��#� 8557� 7�# '� �� ��""�������& �������"���� �� e��$�� �85::� 5� %����� �� ����� �$��� ���� 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")�g+h��>� �� ��=��4�� ��"��4 ���� i��3��)�1��1���,jkk���e��= �� ����+ �� � �� ���� �������������3��9�6�� ��� �3�� �������� �� e����&��"3� 2�������l (�����1�� ��� ������ ���)��#$ � ��% &�� ���'(� $������ � � �� ��������� ) j+-j�� ��� ���� >� ���� ������3 =�2���� ����� ��� ������� ���� 6� 3� 93� 1�� ��3�"������� =�m�;)���)���+c���� ���+1����l�&��c� c������,jjh���e��= ����%=n�93� ��� �89 3��m��� ���e�������=�m�;�� ���� �� ���)� � ��� %� � � )� ������ ) ��� � ) g+k��c��#�������������2���� =�m�;+����� ���)����l�%��=�� ������� �-..g��� e>� ����� &��������� �� ��� � ��� ������e� ��� i�� 3� 1��6� �� ��)����4����� ����������������� ������� ���)�-� �� �)� ����/)�,/d+,k,� 80��� ������ ���� ���������� iberica 13 ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 issn 1139-7241 abstract in today’s academic world, creating an appropriate authorial identity by means of self-mention resources is essential to project an image of competence and reliability in research articles (ras), and to highlight the relevance of one’s contributions. this paper offers quantitative and qualitative data on the use of exclusive first person markers in ras from four different disciplines, namely applied linguistics, business management, food technology and urology, complemented by insights from specialist informants in each of the fields. moreover, the main discourse functions performed by authors when using exclusive “we” have been studied. the results indicate that there are significant variations in the frequency of these resources and in the preferred functions for which they are used across disciplines, although this variation is not entirely consistent with the dichotomy between hard and soft sciences. key words: research article, metadiscourse, disciplinary variation, personal pronouns, identity. resumen òextending this claim, we propose éó la presencia del autor en art�culos de investigaci�n de diferentes disciplinas acad�micas hoy en día en el mundo académico es esencial crear una apropiada identidad como autor que ayude a los investigadores a proyectar una imagen de competencia y fiabilidad a través de sus artículos de investigación, así como a destacar la relevancia de sus contribuciones. en este artículo se ofrecen datos cuantitativos y cualitativos sobre el uso de marcadores exclusivos de primera persona en artículos de investigación de cuatro disciplinas distintas, y se ‘extending this claim, we propose…’ the writer’s presence in research articles from different disciplines enrique lafuente millán universidad de zaragoza (spain) elafuen@unizar.es 35 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 35 ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 enrique lafuente millán complementan estos datos con ideas aportadas por informantes especializados de cada una de esas áreas. asimismo, se han estudiado las funciones discursivas más importantes utilizadas por esos autores al emplear el pronombre “we” en su uso exclusivo. los resultados muestran que existen importantes variaciones disciplinares tanto en la frecuencia de estos recursos como en las funciones más comunes que éstos desempeñan, aunque estas variaciones no son del todo coincidentes con la dicotomía tradicional entre áreas duras y blandas. palabras clave: artículo de investigación, metadiscurso, variación interdisciplinar, pronombres personales, identidad. introduction academic discourse has traditionally been perceived as impersonal and objective prose. this conventional interpretation is partly based on the positivist view that science rests on empirical results that are dissociated from the personal beliefs or subjective perceptions of the individual. style guides and textbooks for academic writing are also a factor which has contributed to this generalised perception, since they often advise authors to avoid a personal style of writing and to conceal one’s personal views under conventions of impersonality and anonymity. however, a substantial amount of research carried out over the last decade (ivanic, 1998; tang & john, 1999; hyland, 2001, 2002a & 2002b; harwood, 2005a & 2005b; vázquez orta et al., 2006; among others) suggests that academic writing is moving away from its traditional image of distance and impersonality, and that the presence of the writer in the text and, more particularly, the use of some first person markers can be appropriate in certain contexts. in order to explain this increase in the degree of writer presence that is found in academic writing, researchers have examined the social negotiations involved in the creation of scientific knowledge. according to kuo (1999), the use of certain rhetorical strategies such as first-person pronouns is related to the dynamic and paradoxical nature of modern scientific research articles, where the writer has to balance the need to claim significance for his/her research with the humility and modesty towards the community that is necessary to obtain their agreement. in the same way, hyland (2001: 209) contends that showing humility is only part of the picture, as “writers must carefully balance this with vigorous argument for the originality of their claims”. 36 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 36 hyland’s (2001) perspective draws on the insights of sociologists of science like benkenkotter and huckin (1995), who relate the increasingly personal tenor that appears in research articles to the researcher’s growing need to highlight the originality of their own contributions in order to promote their work. as berkenkotter and huckin (1995) suggest, today writers make more frequent use of self-promotional features in order to advertise their research partly because getting one’s work published in a prestigious journal has become harder than ever. personal pronouns are one of the “marketing tactics” (harwood, 2005a) which, together with evaluative markers and boosters, writers use in order to promote their work and facilitate its entrance into the increasingly competitive world of academia. researchers have also tried to account for the growing presence of selfmention features in research articles by studying the identities that authors are expected to project in their texts. as tang and john (1999) or hyland (2001 & 2002b) point out, language is used by academic writers as a resource for creating a particular self or ‘persona’ (cherry, 1988) which represents them as knowledgeable and reliable members of the discipline. the adoption of a competent identity or persona is instrumental in order to make an article persuasive and this is partly achieved through the use of self-mention markers such as first person pronouns and self-citation (hyland, 2001), inasmuch as they allow writers to emphasize their own contribution to the field and to gain credibility in the eyes of their peer readers. personal pronouns and other self-mention resources allow writers to construct an appropriate authorial identity and to present themselves as competent and original members of their discourse communities. nevertheless, as tang and john (1999) point out, the first person pronoun in academic writing is not a “homogeneous entity”, but instead it can help to project a number of different roles or identities with varying degrees of authorial presence. developing ivanic’s (1998) idea of a continuum of authorial presence, tang and john (1999) propose a typology of six different identities or roles behind the first person pronouns in academic writing and dispose these roles along a cline in terms of authorial power. according to this continuum, certain roles signalled by exclusive personal pronouns like “originator” (involving the writer’s conception of the ideas or knowledge claims which are advanced in the essay) or “opinion-holder” (the person who shares an opinion, view or attitude with regard to known information or established facts) allow writers to make themselves visible and to show a high level of authority in the text. conversely, other roles of inclusive pronouns the writer’s presence in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 37 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 37 like “representative” of a larger group of people or “guide”, convey a small degree of authorial presence. apart from tang and john (1999), a number of researchers (vassileva, 1998; kuo, 1999; hyland, 2002a; harwood, 2005a & 2005b; among others) have suggested their own functional taxonomies for personal pronouns in academic discourse. sometimes the analysis of personal pronouns has been approached as a self-contained rhetorical phenomenon, comprising both inclusive and exclusive uses (see for example kuo, 1999, and harwood, 2005a). in contrast, hyland (2002a) contends that exclusive first person pronouns and possessive adjectives fulfil a different set of roles from those of inclusive pronouns and that, consequently, they should be studied as a separate metadiscourse category which hyland (2001) dubbed “selfmention”, a class of metadiscourse strategies where he also includes selfcitations. in his work, hyland (2002a) proposes a typology of four different discourse functions for self-mentions in research articles: (1) stating a purpose, (2) explaining a procedure, (3) elaborating an argument, and (4) stating results/claims. this typology, like that of tang and john (1999), recognises that certain functions such as stating a purpose and explaining a procedure entail a lower degree of personal exposure, while others (i.e., elaborating an argument and stating results/claims) are considered to involve a much more powerful authorial presence. according to hyland (2001, 2002a & 2002b, among others), the way writers use self-mention resources to construct their authorial self can vary depending on the social and epistemological practices of each discipline. hyland (2001) shows that self-mention resources are more common in ras belonging to the soft disciplines than in ras in the hard sciences, where authors tend to downplay their own role in the research and to highlight the phenomena being studied. in his view, showing the appropriate degree of authorial presence constitutes an important way to signal membership to a particular community of scholars. moreover, by using the codes and identity of their community, writers are recognised as competent and well-informed members and so acquire credibility and authority. however, even though complying with disciplinary expectations is crucial in order to make an article persuasive, there are few studies on the incidence of self-mention resources in many specific disciplines and on the different identities or roles that writers tend to adopt when using exclusive pronouns (mur-dueñas, 2007; carciu, 2009). enrique lafuente millán ibérica 20 (2010): 35-5638 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 38 in the present study, i will address the issue of disciplinary variation in the use of self-mention resources by analysing a corpus of research articles from four different fields of knowledge, as well as using ethnographic data obtained from interviews with specialist informants. additionally, i will elaborate on previous work to suggest a refined categorisation of the major discourse functions of self-mention strategies in academic texts and will provide statistical data on the distribution of these functions across disciplines. materials and methods the corpus i have used in my research comprises 96 journal articles belonging to four different disciplines: food technology, urology, business management and applied linguistics (see table 1). each of the four subcorpora consisted of 24 articles that had been randomly selected from recent issues of three international journals identified by specialist informants as being among the most prestigious in their field. therefore, eight articles were extracted from each of the journals and were numbered from 1 to 8 (for example: “j. of urol.1”, “j. of urol.2”). the articles not available online were scanned and manually revised. furthermore, the reference sections, tables and abstracts were deleted, to form an electronic corpus of nearly half-million (473,000) words. the random selection of research articles adopted for this study was intended to provide a typical sample of articles from each of the disciplines. this sampling procedure, however, entailed an imbalance in terms of the number of single-authored and multiple authored articles, the latter being clearly predominant in the hard sciences and in business management (see table 1). for the purpose of selecting the disciplines in the corpus it seemed appropriate to adopt the opposition between soft and hard science disciplines (becher, 1989), particularly considering the existing research the writer’s presence in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 39 enrique lafuente millán ibérica 20 (2010): …-…4 disciplines than in ras in the hard sciences, where authors tend to downplay their own role in the research and to highlight the phenomena being studied. in his view, showing the appropriate degree of authorial presence constitutes an important way to signal membership to a particular community of scholars. moreover, by using the codes and identity of their community, writers are recognised as competent and well-informed members and so acquire credibility and authority. however, even though complying with disciplinary expectations is crucial in order to make an article persuasive, there are few studies on the incidence of self-mention resources in many specific disciplines and on the different identities or roles that writers tend to adopt when using exclusive pronouns (mur-dueñas, 2007; carciu, 2009). in the present study, i will address the issue of disciplinary variation in the use of self-mention resources by analysing a corpus of research articles from four different fields of knowledge, as well as using ethnographic data obtained from interviews with specialist informants. additionally, i will elaborate on previous work to suggest a refined categorisation of the major discourse functions of selfmention strategies in academic texts and will provide statistical data on the distribution of these functions across disciplines. materials and methods the corpus i have used in my research comprises 96 journal articles belonging to four different disciplines: food technology, urology, business management and applied linguistics (see table 1). each of the four subcorpora consisted of 24 articles that had been randomly selected from recent issues of three international journals identified by specialist informants as being among the most prestigious in their field. therefore, eight articles were extracted from each of the journals and were numbered from 1 to 8 (for example: “j. of urol.1”, “j. of urol.2”). the articles not available online were scanned and manually revised. furthermore, the reference sections, tables and abstracts were deleted, to form an electronic corpus of nearly half-million (473,000) words. the random selection of research articles adopted for this study was intended to provide a typical sample of articles from each of the disciplines. this sampling procedure, however, entailed an imbalance in terms of the number of single-authored and multiple authored articles, the latter being clearly predominant in the hard sciences and in business management (see table 1). business management food technology urology applied linguistics total single-authored 6 1 0 12 19 multiple-authored 18 23 24 12 77 total 24 24 24 24 96 table 1. number of single-authored and multiple-authored articles. 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 39 supporting the validity of the hard-soft separation (hyland, 2001 & 2002b; harwood, 2005a; among others). in order to cover a wider spectrum of the academy, a decision was made to include a further division within each of the two areas. consequently, the soft science field was separated into the social sciences and the humanities (business management and applied linguistics in the corpus), while the hard sciences were broken up into the bio-medical field and the technical sciences (urology and food technology in the corpus). other practical criteria such as the possibility of finding specialist informants, as well as having access to the most important publications in those fields, were also taken into consideration. finally, the unesco international nomenclature for the fields of science and technology was used as a standard to establish that the four disciplines in the corpus were indeed representative of broadly different fields of the academic world. to carry out the quantitative analysis, i used the concordance software wordsmith tools 4®. after all the concordances had been automatically produced by the software, they were analysed in context and all the instances of inclusive pronouns and inclusive possessive adjectives, as well as uses inserted in literal quotes or examples, were left out. subsequently, all the uses of exclusive “we” were examined so as to identify their main function and to create a corpus-driven categorisation of these functions. the pronoun “we” was the first-person marker analysed for creating this categorisation inasmuch as it was the most frequent self-mention marker in the corpus, as well as a more obvious indication of writer presence than the possessive adjective “our”. the author of this research and a colleague with experience in conducting similar research worked together in the manual analysis of the data. this triangulation of investigators helped to reduce bias and enhance the reliability of both of the sorting processes described above. ethnographic tools have been increasingly viewed as valuable tools in order to explain possible differences appearing in corpus data (connor, 2004), as they allow us to investigate the culture within which the text was created. in order to elicit data, ethnographic interviews and focus group meetings were carried out with selected specialised informants from each of the disciplines. these elicitation procedures aimed at investigating the researchers’ perceptions and disciplinary expectations as to what constitutes appropriate use of self-mention resources in ras. a total of 14 researchers participated in the individual interviews and focus groups, all of whom had some experience in the publication of ras in international journals. the informants were spanish and foreign researchers based at the university of enrique lafuente millán ibérica 20 (2010): 35-5640 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 40 zaragoza (spain), as well as foreign scholars we had access to during the celebration of conferences and seminars. interviews were mechanically recorded and transcribed into written protocols to help find patterns. despite the fact that the external validity of the ethnographic data was partly compromised by factors such as the limited number of informants or their diverse academic status, the qualitative information obtained allowed in some cases for the triangulation of research methods, thus lending greater empirical support to the interpretation of the data. results and discussion overall quantitative results the analysis of the corpus reveals several interesting findings related to the use of self-mention features across disciplines. as we can see in table 2, first person pronouns and possessive adjectives were quite recurrent in three of the four sub-corpora: business management, applied linguistics and urology. only food technology, which is classified as a technological area related to engineering, showed a very low occurrence of these features. the results also reveal that, while the raw occurrence of first-person plural pronouns is clearly higher in the soft science disciplines studied (i.e. business management and applied linguistics), the relative incidence of markers of self-mention is notably higher in urology, a medical hard science, if compared with applied linguistics, and almost as high as in business management. a debate over whether raw or normalised frequencies are more reliable indicators of tendencies is beyond the scope of this paper. nevertheless, it is worth noting that the surprisingly high relative number of the writer’s presence in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 41 enrique lafuente millán data was partly compromised by factors such as the limited number of informants or their diverse academic status, the qualitative information obtained allowed in some cases for the triangulation of research methods, thus lending greater empirical support to the interpretation of the data. results and discussion overall quantitative results the analysis of the corpus reveals several interesting findings related to the use of self-mention features across disciplines. as we can see in table 2, first person pronouns and possessive adjectives were quite recurrent in three of the four subcorpora: business management, applied linguistics and urology. only food technology, which is classified as a technological area related to engineering, showed a very low occurrence of these features. business management food technology urology applied linguistics average we 594 (40.1) 32 (3.9) 186 (30.9) 372 (20.1) 1,184 (20.84) us 18 (1.2) 1 (0.1) 4 (0.7) 11 (0.6) 34 (0.72) our 358 (24.5) 30 (3.7) 189 (31.4) 175 (9.5) 752 (15.9) i 59 (4.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 27 (1.5) 86 (1.82) my 4 (0.3) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 16 (0.9) 20 (0.42) total 1,093 (70.1) 150 (7.7) 458 (62.9) 721 (32.5) 2,422 (43.69) table 2. raw and normalised occurrence (x 10,000 words) of self-mention realizations. the results also reveal that, while the raw occurrence of first-person plural pronouns is clearly higher in the soft science disciplines studied (i.e. business management and applied linguistics), the relative incidence of markers of selfmention is notably higher in urology, a medical hard science, if compared with applied linguistics, and almost as high as in business management. a debate over whether raw or normalised frequencies are more reliable indicators of tendencies is beyond the scope of this paper. nevertheless, it is worth noting that the surprisingly high relative number of self-mention resources in urology may be taken to indicate that, with regards to the use of this type of interpersonal language, urology does not conform to the conventional description of hard science academic texts that often appear in writing manuals, where writers are advised to adopt an impersonal and objective writing style. these preliminary results will be discussed in more detail in the following sections. use of personal pronouns and possessive adjectives 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 41 self-mention resources in urology may be taken to indicate that, with regards to the use of this type of interpersonal language, urology does not conform to the conventional description of hard science academic texts that often appear in writing manuals, where writers are advised to adopt an impersonal and objective writing style. these preliminary results will be discussed in more detail in the following sections. use of personal pronouns and possessive adjectives as can be seen from table 2, the patterns of use of first person singular pronouns and possessive adjectives in the corpus are very different from the ones of plural pronouns, which is not surprising given that only one of the 48 articles from the hard science subcorpora was single-authored. the paucity of single-authored articles in hard sciences could ultimately be explained by the fact that research in these areas is expected to be the result of the joint effort of a team of researchers, which makes it difficult for individual researchers to stake claims individually. as becher (1989) points out, team work is more common in “urban” disciplines, where the number of hot issues for research is limited and there is a higher competition and more intense interaction among disciplinary members. interestingly, according to the reports obtained from specialist informants in those fields, researchers in their disciplines actually do write some articles on their own, although in those cases it seems to be common practice to compose them and publish them as if they had been created by the whole group of specialists: usually i write the article myself, as the first author, and then i hand it around to my colleagues so that they can give their opinion. however, when it comes to signing the article we always do this as a group. at least in our field, it is normally assumed that the researcher appearing first is the one who wrote it and developed it, while the one appearing last is the head of the research group. (food technology, informant 4) while the personal pronouns “i” and “my” were non-existent in the hard science disciplines analysed, they were slightly more frequent in the business management corpus (see example 1) and in applied linguistics. unfortunately, the results obtained on the use of the first person markers (“i” and “my”) across the four disciplines analysed are not comparable, as 6 of the 24 ras in the business management corpus were single-authored, enrique lafuente millán ibérica 20 (2010): 35-5642 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 42 while 12 of the ras in applied linguistics had one author. nevertheless, it was interesting to find that in both disciplines the pronoun “i” was only used very differently by these single authors. when researchers in business management decided to employ the first person singular pronoun in their business articles they did so quite abundantly, i.e., close to 20 times per article (see example 1). (1) to test the preceding hypotheses, i gathered survey, interview, and archival data on both locked-out firms and successful firms competing in the same market and over the same time frame. (acad.manag.jour.5) in contrast, a number of single authors in both disciplines decided to avoid using exclusive first person pronouns altogether or, perhaps more surprisingly, opted for the use of exclusive plural pronouns and possessive adjectives rather than singular ones when referring to themselves in their text. in sum, there seems to exist a degree of variation among individual authors as to the ways in which singular pronouns and possessives are used in single-author ras in the disciplines studied. however, a deeper investigation of this aspect of pronoun use would require a fully comparable corpus of single-author and multiple-author ras in each discipline, such analysis being beyond the scope of the present study. according to my results (table 2), there is also a very large difference in the incidence of the two plural first person pronouns analysed in the corpus, namely “we” and “us”. the exclusive subject pronoun “we” was used very frequently in all the subcorpora except for food technology, where its incidence was notably low (3.9 tokens per 10,000 words). the highest values were found in a discipline belonging to the social sciences, i.e. business management. these results are roughly in agreement with those obtained by hyland (2001) in ras in marketing, a field which is closely related to business management. in addition, the incidence of the pronoun “we” in applied linguistics is only slightly lower than the one reported in the same study by hyland. the high incidence of the pronoun “we” in urology was somewhat unexpected (see example 2). although a high frequency in the use of firstperson pronouns in other hard disciplines like physics or biology has already been reported (hyland, 2001), to my knowledge there is no reference in previous research to the fact that self-mention markers are so recurrent in the medical disciplines. the writer’s presence in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 43 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 43 (2) in this study we found that the prevalence of psychological distress in patients with bladder cancer is relatively high and this level slightly decreases in the early postoperative period. (j. of urol.2) the results for urology ras, as well as hyland’s (2001) results for physics and biology, are in apparent conflict with the traditionally accepted view that articles from hard science disciplines are descriptive and impersonal and that the results they report are independent observable truths. this finding might suggest that urologists tend to be aware of the importance of using first person pronouns so as to project a strong authorial voice and to take credit for one’s findings. moreover, the researchers’ decision to use personal markers in order to clearly stand behind their research findings and conclusions might also be affected by factors like the journals’ status, inasmuch as self-mention resources may be perceived as a necessary marketing strategy in order to get their research published in prestigious international journals. this hypothesis was supported by the comments of a scholar in this field: it all depends on the journal. when a journal has a high impact ranking and if i send a very large series [of results] and the study is very elaborate, and i have worked for years with a large number of patients, then i feel capable of saying things like “we can conclude”. because your contribution is greater and also because these journals expect you to do so, due to the impact ranking. they are very tough in their selection process. if you are not sure of what you are doing it is not gonna get published. (urology, informant 1) unlike the pronoun “we”, the object pronoun “us” seems to be very rare in ras, as it was used only 34 times in the overall corpus. despite its low occurrence, it should be noted that this personal pronoun was used most often in business management and applied linguistics, while it was used merely once in food technology. according to my data, in the soft disciplines the pronoun “us” mostly appeared following verbs such as “allow”, “enable”, “help” or “provide” in the explanation of the benefits or limitations of particular methodological decisions (example 3). in doing this, the authors seem to attempt to reveal the sound logic underlying their decisions and to stress their competency as researchers. (3) we did not ask them what they could do, as that would have invited them to list a number of possibilities. all three teachers were shown the same enrique lafuente millán ibérica 20 (2010): 35-5644 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 44 episodes and this technique enabled us to compare their responses to the same events. (ap.ling.2) the first person plural marker “our” was overall a very frequent indicator of writer presence in ras in the corpus, only second to the pronoun “we” (see table 2). however, there are some notable differences in the incidence and use of these two self-mention features. the use of the possessive adjective “our” was comparatively more frequent in the hard science disciplines (urology and food technology) than in the humanities and social sciences. in particular, in urology the plural possessive adjective was even more frequent than the personal pronoun. in order to investigate this cross disciplinary variation in the use of the exclusive possessive adjective we need to consider the uses and collocations of this word in ras. in the hard disciplines, the word “our” is often used to express the authors’ ownership of the research being reported or the data or results obtained from this research in expressions such as “our results”, “our data”, “our findings”, etc. these noun phrases tend to function in the sentence as the inanimate subjects of epistemic lexical verbs such as “suggest”, “indicate”, “imply”, and also more emphatic verbs such as “show” or “demonstrate”. these “abstract rhetors” (halloran, 1984: 74) help writers to present data as the originators of the findings, thus concealing the part played by subjective interpretation in the conception of that claim. by using inanimate subjects the potential threat inherent in the presentation of personal claims or findings is notably hedged, and the writer’s commitment to the truth of that statement is also reduced. interestingly, in example 4 the writer additionally reduces the potential threat of making a claim by sharing with previous researchers the credit she might receive for her contribution to the discipline. (4) our data and those of others have demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of this procedure even in elderly patients with significant comorbidities. (j. of urol.5) the use of “our” when presenting claims or stating hypotheses may also fulfil another hedging function different from that of abstract rhetors. in some cases, researchers use expressions such as “our results”, “in our series”, or “in our sample” in order to suggest that the findings or conclusions they have arrived at are not assumed to have general validity for other studies, as the quotes below illustrate: the writer’s presence in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 45 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 45 i always refer to the results: “in the results obtained we can find…” why is this necessary? because people may do the same study and find different results. (food technology, informant 5) we would normally say: “our results agree…”. i think that “we agree” is stronger than “our results agree…” it is as if you were saying that mine does resemble this other (…) but maybe some other article won’t. it is as if your opinion was better than that of another person. (food technology, informant 5) through these expressions, authors are in fact purportedly limiting the external validity of their research in a strategic attempt to limit their individual responsibility for the findings (see example 5). (5) in our experience, this approach was successful in most of these challenging cases, with only minor and infrequent complications. (urol.2) the social and epistemological expectations of different communities can sometimes be recognised when looking at the editorial policy of journals as stated in the style guides for authors. it is worth noting for example that, in one of the journals in the business management sub-corpus, academy of management journal, authors were explicitly advised to avoid describing models or theories as acting like animate subjects. moreover, researchers were encouraged to put sentences in the active voice and to intrude into the text by using first person pronouns. in contrast, style guides in food technology (food chemistry) and in urology (journal of urology) do not make such recommendations but concentrate instead on how the information should be organised and structured in order that the article complies with the expectations of the reader and the experiment described can be reproduced. to summarise, the use of the possessive adjective “our” seems to be comparatively more frequent in the hard sciences analysed than in the soft science disciplines. a possible explanation for this difference may lie in the lower degree of writer commitment conveyed by the use of the first person plural possessive compared to the first person pronoun “we”. writers in the hard disciplines tend to favour this self-mention resource because they seem to be aware that the use of “our” followed by “results”, “data”, “findings”, among others, allows them to reduce responsibility for their statements and, therefore, protects them from the potential negative consequences of having their claims refuted. moreover, it has been argued that the small incidence of the personal pronoun “we” may also be related to the authors’ desire to gain enrique lafuente millán ibérica 20 (2010): 35-5646 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 46 “persuasive authority” (hyland, 2001) and credibility by highlighting the objective and impersonal nature of the research process. in contrast, it could be argued that in the soft science disciplines, the possibility of isolating variables and replicating research is much more tenuous, and therefore the risk of having one’s findings refuted in subsequent studies is smaller. the results discussed up to this point indicate that unlike singular pronouns and possessives, the pronoun “we” and the possessive adjective “our” are relatively common in all the disciplines except food technology, albeit to different degrees in each of these disciplines. moreover, it has been shown that the two plural personal markers follow rather different patterns of use, which seem to be related to the epistemological specificities of each discipline and to the identities which authors want to project in their texts. however, in order to accurately account for the way researchers construct their authorial identities in different disciplines we cannot simply take into account the quantitative incidence of these markers, but we also need to examine the discourse functions or roles these self-mention resources fulfil in the text. this analysis will be undertaken in the following section. discourse functions of exclusive “we” it has been argued here that personal pronouns and other self-mention resources allow writers to construct an appropriate authorial identity in order to present themselves as competent and original members of their discourse communities. nevertheless, as tang and john (1999) point out, first person pronouns in academic writing do not behave as a homogeneous element, but instead they can help to project a number of different roles or identities with varying degrees of authorial presence. several different taxonomies have been proposed in the literature for the classification of the rhetorical functions fulfilled by first person pronouns in academic texts (vassileva, 1998; kuo, 1999; tang & john, 1999; hyland, 2002a; harwood, 2005a; among others). however, the examination of my concordance output revealed that a different classification might be called for in order to map the diverse rhetorical identities adopted by the writer through the use of the personal pronoun “we”. consequently, a new taxonomy was elaborated based on the concordances obtained from the corpus as well as on some of the already existing classifications – notably, tang and john (1999), and hyland (2002a). the writer’s presence in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 47 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 47 as table 3 shows, my categorisation establishes some additional divisions with respect to the four basic functions established by tang and john (1999) and hyland (2002a), aside from including several areas of overlap in the identities or roles projected by these functions. identities (tang & john, 1999) functions (hyland, 2002a) functions (my proposal) the first three functions identified in my corpus, “structuring information”, “stating a goal” and “explaining the procedures”, are related to the identities of “architect” and “recounter of research” defined by tang and john (1999) and, just like those identities, they involve a less manifest authorial presence than other of the pragmatic functions for which self-mention markers are used. as shown below, authors may use self-mention resources when making anaphoric (example 6) and cataphoric references (example 7) with the aim of structuring the information in the text. on the surface, these uses may seem to perform a textual instead of an interpersonal function, inasmuch as they are typically used to give cohesion to the text by referring to information appearing previously in the text or announcing what is to come. nevertheless, sometimes the ra authors can simultaneously make a strategic use of this anaphoric function in order to imply that their past intervention effectively proved one of their claims (example 6), thus manipulating the readers’ interpretation of the text. (6) previously, we have shown that rmlp can be considered a chainbreaking antioxidant. (food res. int.8) enrique lafuente millán ibérica 20 (2010): 35-5648 identities (tang & john, 1999) functions (hyland, 2002a) functions (my proposal) 1. structuring the information or moves present in the article/ referring backwards or forward architect of the text stating a purpose 2. stating a goal or purpose recounter of the research process explaining a procedure 3. explaining the procedures, steps or research decisions taken 4. stating expectations, hypotheses, beliefs or agreement with a particular view opinion holder elaborating an argument 5. expressing strengths or limitations 6. stating results or findings originator stating results or claims 7. making claims or assertions table 3. different categorisations of the functions and identities projected by exclusive “we”. 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 48 (7) we next discuss the social psychological research that we used to make predictions. (j. of manag.1) the second function identified in my corpus, “stating a goal”, does not correspond to any of the identities described by tang and john (1999), although it appears to overlap with the role they define as “recounter of the research process”. when expressing their goals, authors often refer to choices they made when focusing their research on a particular issue (example 8). in doing so, the expression of goals can also contribute to projecting the identity of the efficient researcher, who recounts her research explaining the steps followed or the choices made. “explaining research procedures” is in fact the third function of “we” included in my classification and it is clearly illustrated in example 9. (8) as a first step in our analysis, we wanted to check whether efl learners had a tendency to overor underuse … (ap.ling.8) (9) after creation of the pneumoretroperitoneum, we started by dissecting preprostatic fatty tissue to expose the pubic bone and the endopelvic fascia, identifying the prostate. (e.urol.2) in contrast to tang and john’s (1999) proposal and also to my own classification, hyland (2002a) claims that researchers state their goals so as to clarify the schematic structure of the argument and to organise the discourse for their readers. consequently, hyland considers that structuring the information in the article does not constitute a separate rhetorical function (see table 3), and must instead be treated as an additional pragmatic effect of statements of purpose. in my view, this position appears to overlook the fact that in many utterances containing exclusive “we” a text structuring function is clearly dominant and is unrelated to the expression of purpose, as is the case in example 6. therefore, for my analysis it seems reasonable to maintain the division between these two rhetorical functions: “structuring information” and “stating a goal”. the relative occurrence of the seven pragmatic functions i propose was analysed in order to investigate possible differences across disciplines (see table 4). the writer’s presence in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 49 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 49 with regard to the incidence of the first three functions, it can be observed that the explanation of procedures and research decision is by far the most frequent function of exclusive “we” in all the disciplines under study, with a noticeably higher incidence in the business management and medical corpora. according to researchers in business management, in certain cases the explanation of the decisions or steps taken during the research process may be exploited as a purposeful rhetorical strategy. authors may do this by establishing a comparison between the decisions made in previous studies and their own, thus showing a gap in research and highlighting their own contribution: we also use the pronoun we at the beginning, in the introduction. for instance, we sometimes say that some authors have done this or that, and that we think that there exists a gap. this way we show our contribution. (business management, informant 3) another significant finding is that the two soft disciplines, applied linguistics and business management, displayed a considerably higher use of “we” in order to structure the information in the article, possibly in order to make up for the wordiness and complexity of their texts. in other words, it could be argued that the need to use more structuring resources may be related to the fact that articles in the soft disciplines follow a more flexible and synthetic structure and arguments are less linear than in the hard sciences. consequently, researchers in soft disciplines have a greater need to guide the readers around the article and point out to them the different moves performed in the text. the interpersonal effects brought into play through the use of “we” in expressions of expectations and hypotheses, or in evaluation of one’s research (functions 4 and 5 in my classification) are clearly different from the ones described herein for the first three functions. when ra writers state enrique lafuente millán ibérica 20 (2010): 35-5650 ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 13 utterances containing exclusive “we” a text structuring function is clearly dominant and is unrelated to the expression of purpose, as is the case in example 6. therefore, for my analysis it seems reasonable to maintain the division between these two rhetorical functions: “structuring information” and “stating a goal”. the relative occurrence of the seven pragmatic functions i propose was analysed in order to investigate possible differences across disciplines (see table 4). business management food technology urology applied linguistics average structuring information 2.33 0.37 0.66 2.38 1.80 goals & purposes 1.10 0.00 1.33 1.51 1.10 procedures 23.49 1.96 15.26 8.53 12.87 hypotheses/ assumptions 5.89 0.12 4.65 2.43 3.38 limitations & strengths 2.19 0.00 1.49 1.78 1.56 results & findings 2.74 0.61 4.98 2.38 2.52 making claims 1.92 0.86 1.16 1.24 1.37 table 4. relative occurrence x 10,000 words of the discourse functions of exclusive “we”. with regard to the incidence of the first three functions, it can be observed that the explanation of procedures and research decision is by far the most frequent function of exclusive “we” in all the disciplines under study, with a noticeably higher incidence in the business management and medical corpora. according to researchers in business management, in certain cases the explanation of the decisions or steps taken during the research process may be exploited as a purposeful rhetorical strategy. authors may do this by establishing a comparison 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 50 their assumptions (example 10) or remark on the strengths of their research (example 11), they commit themselves to a particular position or line of thinking. in doing so, they project a more visible authorial presence, but also expose themselves more clearly to potential criticism. (10) on this point we agree with authors [28] practicing contrast enhancement color doppler … (e.urol.5) (11) by incorporating both objective and subjective measures (…) we were able to more readily compare the social capital effects on career success. (acad.manag.jour.5) (12) thus, we only have one recorded session of dinnertime conversation from around … (ap.ling.5) one’s individual position is also expressed when pointing out limitations in one’s research (example 12), although the threat to the author’s face inherent in this context is much smaller, because the author projects an image of humility which will be perceived as appropriate by the discourse community: sometimes, i would use it (we to describe limitations). i think that is very good style. i think it is formal, polite, discreet and appropriate. (applied linguistics, informant 1) unexpectedly, my results indicate that applied linguists were less willing than urologists and authors in business management to make themselves visible when putting forward their hypotheses or assumptions, possibly, it might be argued, because hypotheses are not enunciated so often by researchers in applied linguistics. in contrast, researchers in food technology clearly avoid appearing in the text when evaluating the strengths and limitations of their own research or when expressing their hypotheses or assumptions. the last two functions put forth in my analysis, “stating results” (example 13) and “making claims” (example 14), were integrated by hyland (2002a) into just one category, “elaborating an argument”. while i agree that in both cases the writer fulfils the role of originator of new scientific knowledge, in my view making claims involves a more powerful authorial presence and a correspondingly greater threat to the writer’s face. when making claims researchers stress their ownership of the new knowledge being presented. yet, claims are not originated merely by the application of sound scientific procedures, as is the case when presenting results, but they demand a personal participation in the interpretation of results and in the elaboration the writer’s presence in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 51 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 51 of a claim. moreover, claims to new knowledge constitute a considerable threat to the negative face of the readers (myers, 1989), as they impose on the readers’ right to accept or reject a particular interpretation. (13) in the current study we found a 44.6% preoperative prevalence of psychological distress in all patients. (j. of urol.2) (14) in this work, we have shown that it is possible to distinguish infrared spectra of honey from those of honey samples adulterated with sugar solutions. (j.agric. food chem.2) the results obtained appear to support my hypothesis that these two functions need to be considered separately. as can be seen in table 4 above, the self-mention marker “we” was generally used more often for the presentation of results than for making claims. this would suggest that researchers in the fields studied generally prefer not to indicate their authorial presence by means of exclusive “we” when fulfilling the most authoritative function, since this pronoun appeared four times less often in this rhetorical move, i.e. “making a claim”, than when presenting results or hypotheses. it is interesting to note, however, that this trend did not apply to food technology, as the exclusive pronoun appeared slightly more often when making claims than when presenting results. nevertheless, the very small overall frequency of this pronoun in food technology makes it impossible to formulate any sound hypotheses on the use of these two rhetorical moves based on our statistical data. according to the data obtained from informants, the expression of claims using an exclusive first person pronoun seems to be acceptable under some specific conditions, despite potentially constituting a very imposing and facethreatening rhetorical move. for instance, according to an informant from the field of food technology, in the discussion section of ras there is some scope for the use of this rhetorical function, as this is the part of the ra where writers are expected to take more risks and to make their own interpretations: i don’t think saying “we have shown” is too strong in the discussion section. the adventure is always in the discussion section. while in the results (…) you simply report on the findings obtained. when you are discussing the results, that is when you have to be a bit more careful. (food technology, informant 1) enrique lafuente millán ibérica 20 (2010): 35-5652 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 52 other factors such as the journal’s citation impact and the amount of data have also been mentioned by informants as key issues determining the use of “we” for expressing personal claims. in fact, in the informant’s view it is the journals with the highest impact ranking that expect the writer to adopt a strong authorial identity by means of self-mention markers, among other resources. this hypothesis is partly supported by the fact that the style guides in the academy of management journal, the journal with the highest impact ranking in business management, explicitly advise authors to employ first person pronouns rather than passives or inanimate subjects. to summarise, the pronoun “we” can be used in ras in the performance of a number of rhetorical functions which entail different degrees of writer presence and of risk to the readers’ face. in order to more accurately explain the interpersonal negotiations present in ras from different disciplines we need to take into account the function they fulfil in context as well as the pragmatic effects they are intended to create. conclusions in the increasingly competitive world of academia, the creation of an appropriate authorial identity by means of self-mention resources is essential for researchers in order to present themselves as competent and reliable members of the discipline, and to persuade readers about the relevance of their contributions. however, the results presented here suggest that the way writers construct this authorial self varies according to the specific epistemological and social norms of their own disciplinary communities. my analysis has attempted to show that the ways first person pronouns function clearly reflect the epistemological and social practices of particular discourse communities. in order to make their text persuasive, researchers must draw on these social conventions and project the degree of authority and credibility that is expected by their community, but they must also balance those strong authorial features by presenting themselves as appropriately modest and unassuming. in fact, as suggested by the comments of informants, failure to show humility to the community may involve risking the chance of getting one’s paper published. in addition, it has been argued here that disciplinary expectations also have an influence on the rhetorical functions or moves which these self-mention the writer’s presence in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 53 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 53 strategies fulfil in research articles. this entails that, unless we examine the pragmatic effects which these and other interpersonal resources provoke in context, our analysis of academic discourse may overlook some important factors and variables which may help us account for the negotiation of meaning present in these texts. the results presented here seem to confirm that disciplinary norms and expectations have some bearing on the writer’s decision to adopt a more or less authoritative stance. nevertheless, previous research has also pointed at other factors which may influence the choice of interpersonal metadiscourse strategies, like for example the authors’ cultural background (vassileva, 1998, 2001; martínez, 2005), or even individual factors (salagermeyer, alcaraz-ariza y zambrano, 2003; vold, 2006) such as sex, seniority, native command of the language or personality, among others. the high degree of individual variation in the frequency and choice of self-mention resources which has been reported here is obviously consistent with the notion that individual factors play a significant part in the way authors handle these and, possibly, other interpersonal strategies. unfortunately, the analysis of the extent to which these individual factors are responsible for variations in the use of self-mention resources is beyond the scope of the present study. in spite of the valuable insights provided by existing research, the extent to which writers should project their authorial identity within different disciplinary communities remains problematic. hence more research is necessary in order to map out the variations that exist not only across different fields but also across specific disciplines and subdisciplines within broad areas of knowledge such as the social or the medical sciences. the possible influence of cultural and individual factors also needs to be investigated by future research. in addition, the designers of esp courses aimed at future or novel researchers should take into account the key significance which the use of these and other interpersonal metadiscourse strategies may have in order to obtain acceptance for the publication of one’s research. [paper received october 2009] [revised paper accepted march 2010] enrique lafuente millán ibérica 20 (2010): 35-5654 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 54 references the writer’s presence in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 55 becher, t. (1989). academic tribes and territories: intellectual inquiry and the cultures of disciplines. milton keynes: srhe/ open university press. berkenkotter, c. & t. huckin. (1995). genre knowledge in disciplinary communication. hillsdale, mj: lawrence erlbaum. carciu, o.m. (2009). “an intercultural study of firstperson plural references in biomedical writing”. ibérica 18: 71-92. cherry, r.d. (1988). “ethos versus persona: selfrepresentation in written discourse”. written communication 5: 251-276. connor, u. (2004). “intercultural rhetoric research: beyond texts”. journal of english for academic purposes 3: 291-304. halloran, s.m. (1984). “the birth of molecular biology: an essay in the rhetorical criticism of scientific discourse”. rhetoric review, 3: 70-83. harwood, n. (2005a). “‘nowhere has anyone attempted ... in this article i aim to do just that’. a corpus-based study of self-promotional i and we in academic writing across four disciplines”. journal of pragmatics 37: 1207-1231. harwood, n. (2005b). “‘we do not seem to have a theory ... the theory i present here attempts to fill this gap’: inclusive and exclusive pronouns in academic writing”. applied linguistics 26: 343375. hyland, k. (2001). “humble servants of the discipline? self-mention in research articles”. english for specific purposes 20: 207-226. hyland, k. (2002a). “authority and invisibility: authorial identity in academic writing”. journal of pragmatics 34: 1091-1112. hyland, k. (2002b). “options of identity in academic writing”. elt journal 56: 351-358. ivanic, r. (1998). writing and identity: the discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. benjamins: amsterdam. kuo, c. h. (1999). “the use of personal pronouns: role relationships in scientific journal articles”. english for specific purposes 18: 121-138. martínez, i. a. (2005). “native and non-native writer’s use of first person pronouns in the different sections of biology research articles in english”. journal of second language writing 14: 174-190. mur dueñas, p. (2007). “‘i/we focus on…’: a crosscultural analysis of self-mentions in business management research articles”. journal of english for academic purposes 6: 143-162. myers, g. (1989). “the pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles”. applied linguistics 10: 1-35. salager meyer, f., m. a. alcaraz-ariza & n. zambrano (2003). “academic criticism in spanish medical discourse”. international journal of applied linguistics 13: 96-114. tang, r., & s. john (1999). “the “i” in identity: exploring identity in student academic writing through the first person pronoun”. english for specific purposes 18 (supplement 1): s23-s39. vassileva, i. (1998). “who am i/who are we in academic writing?: a contrastive analysis of authorial presence in english, german, french, russian and bulgarian”. international journal of applied linguistics 8: 163-189. vassileva, i. (2001). “commitment and detachment in english and bulgarian academic writing”. english for specific purposes 20: 83-112. vázquez orta, i., e. lafuente millán, r. lorés sanz & p. mur dueñas. (2006). “how to explore academic writing from metadiscourse as an integrated framework of interpersonal meaning: three perspectives of analysis: the intergeneric perspective” in c. pérez-llantada, r. plo & p. neumann (eds.), comunicación académica y profesional en el siglo xxi: géneros y retórica en la construcción del conocimiento disciplinar. proceedings of the 5th international aelfe conference, 197-209. zaragoza: universidad de zaragoza. vold, e. t. (2006). “epistemic modality markers in research articles: a cross-linguistic and crossdisciplinary study”. international journal of applied linguistics 17: 61-87. dr. enrique lafuente is a senior lecturer at the spanish university of zaragoza, where he teaches esl and tefl courses. his main research interests are applied linguistics, pragmatics and eap. his phd thesis dealt with cross-disciplinary variation in the use of interpersonal metadiscourse in research articles published internationally. 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 55 ibérica 20 (2010): 35-56 enrique lafuente millán appendix the writer’s presence in research articles ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 19 dr. enrique lafuente is a senior lecturer at the spanish university of zaragoza, where he teaches esl and tefl courses. his main research interests are applied linguistics, pragmatics and eap. his phd thesis dealt with crossdisciplinary variation in the use of interpersonal metadiscourse in research articles published internationally. appendix list of journals and related abbreviations in the corpus: applied linguistics: journal of pragmatics (j.of prag.) english for specific purposes (esp) applied linguistics (ap.ling.) business management: academy of management journal (acad.manag.jour.) journal of management (j. of manag.) information and management (info. & manag.) urology: european urology (e.urol.) journal of urology (j. of urol.) urology (urol.) food chemistry: food chemistry (f.chem.) food research international (food res. int.) journal of agricultural and food chemistry (j.agric. food chem.) 56 02 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:20 página 56 iberica 13 ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this study examines how cosmetics brands adopt characteristics of medical english in their web sites as a rhetorical strategy to persuade consumers. from the joint perspective of rhetoric, understood as persuasive stylistic choices, and a relevance-theoretic approach to pragmatics, the present paper explains how social assumptions about “ageing youthfully” are successfully strengthened in this type of advertising thanks to the alliance with medicine. this work explores various rhetorical devices, specified through both lexical and syntactic features. the analysis suggested here urges to reconsider research conclusions drawn on the use of science in advertising along truth-seeking premises, as well as previous classifications of this type of goods based on purely informative grounds. keywords: medical english, cosmetics, web advertising, rhetoric, persuasion. resumen “ e n v e je c e r ma nte n ié n do s e j o v e n” o l a r e tó ric a d el i ng l és m é di c o e n l a p ub l i c id ad este trabajo analiza el uso del inglés médico en las páginas web de las marcas de cosméticos como recurso retórico para persuadir a los consumidores. desde la perspectiva conjunta de la retórica, concebida como elecciones estilísticas persuasivas, y de la pragmática, de acuerdo con la teoría de la relevancia, se explica cómo los supuestos sociales en torno a la idea de “envejecer manteniéndose joven” se intensifican en este tipo de publicidad debido a la alianza que se establece con la medicina. el estudio de recursos retóricos desde este punto de vista, tanto a nivel léxico como sintáctico, invita a reconsiderar las conclusiones obtenidas por otros trabajos sobre el uso de la ciencia en los ‘ageing youthfully’ or the rhetoric of medical english in advertising marisa díez arroyo universidad de oviedo (spain) arroyo@uniovi.es 83 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 83 ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106 marisa díez arroyo cosméticos, especialmente aquellos basados en la búsqueda de la verdad en la publicidad o bien en un enfoque puramente informativo de la misma. palabras clave: inglés médico, cosmética, publicidad web, retórica, persuasión. 1. rhetoric and communication in advertising rhetoric as an ancient discipline meant the skills of eloquent speech, practised for both aesthetic and practical goals. according to a line of thought headed by plato, it was believed that a repertoire of skills in persuasive speech could win any argument, without concern for questions of truth or beauty (mauranen, 1993). this standpoint has been largely responsible for rhetoric’s poor reputation, correlating it mainly with a flowery but empty message. in the last decade of the 20th century and in the beginnings of the 21st century, rhetoric has flourished once more and practitioners have spread their analysis across a variety of disciplines, among them advertising (mcquarrie & mick, 1996; zhao, 2002). in its contemporary revival, rhetoric has placed the focus on style – how to say things – leaving content issues (for instance, what brand attribute to claim or what competitive position to hold) to marketing decisions. the fundamental objective of running commercial advertising campaigns is to persuade, an aim that has always been at the very heart of rhetoric (schiappa & hamm, 2007). therefore it seems likely that a rhetorical analysis can advance a broad understanding of advertising. mcquarrie and phillips (2008) argue that the contribution of rhetoric to advertising is twofold: firstly, to point out that some of the choices available concern stylistic elements; secondly, to give a more detailed appraisal of how these elements operate in advertising. considerations of this nature lead us to establish another necessary link with pragmatics, in sperber and wilson’s (2012a: 1) words, “the study of how contextual factors interact with linguistic meaning in the interpretation of utterances”. according to relevance theory, what is explicitly communicated by an utterance goes well beyond what is said or literally meant, and may be vaguer and less determinate than is generally thought (sperber & wilson, 1995). there is then a fundamental distinction between 84 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 84 explicatures (the speaker’s explicit meaning) and implicatures (all the other propositions that make up the speaker’s meaning). as sperber and wilson (2012a: 14) state, the crucial point about the relation between explicatures and implicatures is “that implicated conclusions must be deducible from explicatures together with an appropriate set of contextual assumptions”. the notion of context supported by relevance theory (sperber & wilson, 1995) comprises people’s cognitive environment in a broad sense, because it includes any phenomena that can enter the mind of the communicators during the interpretation process itself. this implies that contexts are dynamic, rather than fixed, and retrieved during the interpretation process (xu & zhou, 2013). the interaction between already held assumptions and new ones results in cognitive effects. the principle of relevance strives for the least processing effort with the greatest cognitive effects (sperber & wilson, 1995). relevance theory provides interesting and useful reflections for our analysis. on the one hand, it follows that the less explicit the meaning, the higher the hearer’s responsibility in constructing it. on the other hand, a hearer finds an input relevant when it connects with accessible contextual assumptions in order to draw positive cognitive effects. this is very important in advertising communication because each person will find some implicatures more accessible than others, thus being able to look for the relevance of the message in different ways. moreover, if advertising communication is unfailingly characterised by a considerable load of processing effort (diez arroyo, 1998; tanaka, 1999), then the reward will come in the form of greater cognitive effects. 2. cosmetics in web advertising this paper focuses on skin-care advertising in women’s cosmetics companies’ web sites, therefore throughout the whole work the consumer will be considered female by default. the decision to focus on cosmetics advertising springs from the curiosity to examine how advertising rhetoric handles, supports and, possibly strengthens, the surrounding social anxiety over body culture and the urgency of looking good. these features surrounding the textual rhetoric of cosmetic advertising are also manifest in the relevant role played by imaging, with pictures of beautiful, young women and even famous actresses endorsing the advertisement. ageing youthfully ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106 85 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 85 as regards the selection of our product class, cosmetics, it has largely been determined by the importance that the face has as a prime symbol of one’s public appearance, above all for women. women’s motivation to give their attention to cosmetic goods can be based on factual explanations about how sensitive their skin becomes to the passing of time, hence the need to take care of it. but all these ideas necessarily coexist with other underlying reasons that have been studied from multiple sides. a possible approach has been taken from the marketing and consumer behaviour perspective (guthrie, kim & jung, 2008), which explores how cosmetics may help women channel their desires to improve their physical attractiveness. alternatively, other studies have been carried out from a gender viewpoint (wolf, 1992) or a cultural one (dolan, 2011), according to which the pressure on women is “to age youthfully”. as for the choice of advertising medium, cosmetics brands’ web sites represent a challenge with respect to magazine advertising. unlike most written advertising, the texts in our domain have not been conceived of as short attention-seeking phrases that a receiver may come across while browsing a magazine. nor are they usually so heavily conditioned by the limitations to the layout for a given publication. it is these features that make web sites special in a very important respect: their potential readers must have shown an interest and curiosity in the product beyond its name and use (day cream, night cream, face cream, eye area cream or serum) that impels them to click on the pull-down menus. as argued by janoschka (2004), online advertising is interaction-oriented, in the sense that it has been designed to offer information based on the users’ decision. thus the effectiveness of web advertising largely depends on the potential consumers’ motivation and involvement (janoschka, 2004). people look for details about the object they are interested in and spend some of their time informing themselves about it. this informative issue that we claim to be attached to cosmetic brands’ web sites is not to be disregarded and bears important consequences for the purposes of the present work. firstly, the classical dichotomy information/persuasion in advertising may now appear, less than ever, to be not so clear-cut (we will refer back to this point later in section 2.3). secondly, as observed by santamaría pérez (2011), internet advertising (at least in the case of certain products, among them cosmetics) can be characterised by a neutral, objective and more explicative tone, closer to scientific explanations. marisa díez arroyo ibérica 28 (2014): 83-10686 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 86 2.1. the data as already stated, the selected object of analysis comprises women’s cosmetics companies’ web sites. the study is based on the information contained in the urls of the following brands: biotherm, chanel, dior, estée lauder, eucerin, guerlain, helena rubinstein, jeanne piaubert, kanebo, l’oréal, la mer, la prairie, lancôme, nivea, olay, roc, shiseido and yves saint laurent. the collection of data took place in the period march-december 2012 when well-known and established web sites of cosmetics companies were examined manually with the intention of gathering information about the language instances shown in the presentation of the products they offered. no pre-conceived divide between mass and class brands was applied to the search. arguably, however, the final selection of examples favours expensive brands over less expensive ones (that is, nivea, roc, eucerin or l’oréal), an imbalance that we attribute to the difficulty met on some occasions to access the internet sites of certain trade marks (for instance boots), whose products where found (at least from the spanish location where the research was conducted) only in web sites specialised in online shopping, and hence, finally discarded for distorting the purpose of the analysis. however, the uneven number of extracts between brand levels can obey other considerations. firstly, differences may be partly attributed to the range of products available from each brand at a given time – with class brands ranking higher. secondly, the design of the various web sites, with class brands coming top on the list of sophistication. this translates into the use of more details about the products, with optional sections (“learn more”, “application”, “ingredients”) that the reader can display at will. in this respect, we have observed a conscious effort to present the sections of the same line (for example, capture totale by dior) in a careful, varied style, instead of the less sophisticated and more practical option of working on a schema and introduce variations on it. such a strategy can be related to what is technically known (aaker, 1997) as “brand personality”, that is, a compendium of the characteristics or perceptions that consumers attribute to a brand. research has shown that consumers are inclined to purchase a product if they feel identified with the image projected by a brand or when they themselves want to achieve the ideal represented by it (malhotra, 1981; sirgy, 1982; guthrie, kim & jung, 2008). regardless of these considerations, there is no distinction drawn in this paper between the rhetoric of mass or class cosmetics. ageing youthfully ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106 87 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 87 2.2. background assumptions and working hypothesis when designing their texts, advertisers have to make decisions about what to say and how to say it. this is of the utmost importance, because at any time advertising must tune in to the current social values and interests. the relationship between the industry of personal care and consumers is mediated by society’s worries over ageing and beauty. developments in medical science have significantly increased life expectancy – older people can live vigorous and more active lives until a much older age than in the past, which brings about the valorisation of youthfulness through the extension of middle age and the encouragement to keep a close check on bodily deterioration (tulle-winton, 2000). with these considerations in mind, we put forward the following hypothesis: advertisers draw the consumer towards cosmetics through the classical greek myth of eternal youth, which is revivified in our time through the alliance with medicine. a similar connection in terms of beauty and health, in spanish advertising, has already been noted by díaz rojo (2001/2002), but his is an analysis heavily dependent on social cues. the present study, however, aims to contribute to the body of research on persuasive communication by extending the use of medical language to the advertising context. it is our contention that the tripartite link between medicine, health and beauty that allows advertisers to present the cosmetics product as a kind of medicine is based on four rhetorical strategies, namely, to assess the performance of the product, to invoke evidence as a scientific proof, to draw a parallelism with medical prescriptions and, finally, to adapt medical english to the advertising readership. each of these strategies will be explained and exemplified in section 3. the rhetorical practice of resorting to medicine as a persuasive mechanism has a plausible justification since it [medicine] is an area in which the whole society is the potential clientele and where knowledge is quickly and frequently transformed into practice. it is perhaps the most obvious point of contact between science and society, and one at which attempts to popularise are inevitable. (mcconchie, 1997: 4) to this same respect hughes (2000) or díaz rojo (2001/2002) have observed that medicine is repositioning itself as a biopsychosocial practice marisa díez arroyo ibérica 28 (2014): 83-10688 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 88 in which health maintenance, rather than disease and its elimination, is becoming the locus for health-care organisations. all the considerations made so far shed some light on how the invocation of medicine, or its counterpart, science, is designed to move the recipient of cosmetics advertising to take action, a recipient already sensitive to the issues of image and appearance intimately connected to health. these ideas are reflected in the following set of advertising extracts taken from our sample: (1) a. our exclusive technologies revitalize aging skin, making visible age reversal a reality. <time zone line and wrinkle reducing crème, estée lauder> b. roc® scientists’ unparalleled expertise in harnessing the anti-aging power of retinol has resulted in the development of products proven to significantly diminish signs of aging for healthier, younger looking skin. <rocretinol, roc> c. reenergizes to help skin recall the smoothness and tone of youth, and face the future with pride. <future solution lx total revitalizing cream, shiseido> d. it will help you look as young as you feel. <cellular radiance concentrate pure gold, la prairie> e. skin beauty can wane when the natural recovery and protection functions of the skin are impaired by processes such as ageing, exposure to uv rays and active oxygen. <impress, kanebo> it is worth noting the use of “impaired” in example (1e), a term characteristic of formal, medical contexts which directly makes the addresser yield implications about poor health, the need to take palliative measures and the like. this line of analysis will let us appreciate the rhetorical value of the stylistic options taken by advertisers, but simultaneously, it will permit us to reconsider the conclusions drawn in other studies of cosmetics products. the next section is meant to review these works. 2.3. cosmetics advertising: from truth-values to informative content although to the best of our knowledge, works on the use of science in skincare advertising do not abound, it is no less true that its use has not gone by ageing youthfully ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106 89 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 89 altogether unnoticed. we would like to make reference to the works by campanario, moya and otero (2001), santamaría pérez (2011) and wolf (1992). the first two, especially campanario, moya and otero (2001), inspect the broad use of science in advertising, with reference to cosmetics, from a scientific perspective. wolf (1992) explores the beauty myth from a gender viewpoint, reflecting throughout her book on the advertising of beauty products. grounded on different methodological approaches, these three studies reach a similar conclusion, namely, that advertisers make false statements and, consequently, advertising is decried as manipulative and dismissed as superficial. while it is clear that unethical advertising should not be condoned, this research argues that the judgement pronounced on advertising in these works is misguided, not to mention the fact that corporations all over the world would not continue to spend their economic resources on claims that deceive all the people all the time. we hypothesise that the methodological approach adopted in the present paper lets us explain why advertising cannot be judged from a perspective committed to truth-values. advertising language is designed to sing the praises of the product, it is an instantiation of laudatory discourse, and knowledge of rhetoric (and by extension of advertising) is knowledge of how to say things. moreover, relevance theory offers another powerful analytical tool, which makes it possible to provide an explicit and finegrained account of the issue of truthfulness. within this theoretical perspective, communication is only governed by a principle of relevance; consequently, the importance should be attached to why the speaker chooses to utter a particular sentence. besides, utterances do not always communicate the concepts they encode, the meaning of an utterance is characterised by inferencing. this inferential role depends on the receiver, who takes the responsibility for interpretation. thus, in this way, the same message is liable to be interpreted differently by different consumers. more concluding evidence to this respect comes from recent research on consumer behaviour (latour & latour, 2009). it has been shown that, even admitting that advertising could be false, those consumers who were to notice such falsity will not reject a brand by the validity of the advertisement content. the second element we wish to take issue with is the informative dimension of advertising. the traditional divide information/persuasion in advertising marisa díez arroyo ibérica 28 (2014): 83-10690 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 90 (see for instance madrid cánovas, 2005) is usually associated with two different worlds: marketing and economic-based approaches favouring the former, while the latter pertains to the domain of rhetorical analyses, possibly embedded in linguistic and semiotic considerations. obviously, this dichotomy is operative in as much as it is the result of applying many different strategies and research preoccupations to a field that is highly multidisciplinary, and to this extent it will continue to be valid. but, simultaneously, it must be taken with flexibility on both sides, because although the aforementioned worlds may be back-to-back, in our appreciation, there is a lot to be gained if they start talking, that is, if communication between them flows. as already claimed, the (potential) consumers of cosmetic products address themselves to the various cosmetics companies’ web sites looking for information, which implies that an analysis of stylistic choices should pay attention to how information is handled by advertisers. but we vindicate, in turn, that a study of advertising on purely informative grounds may ignore aspects that could yield different results should rhetorical weight be taken into account. the analysis of marketing strategies frequently involves the classification of products into categories, being one of the most common ones the distinction between durable and non-durable goods – other overlapping categories also common in consumer behaviour are alternatively labelled as utilitarian and hedonic (khan, dhar & wertenbroch, 2005). the former is made up of cars, furniture, home furnishings or appliances, which pose performance and financial risks to consumers, enjoy the status of highinvolvement goods and are associated with high levels of information in their advertising campaigns. by opposition, the latter group consists, among others, of food, spirits, drinks and personal care, regarded as frivolous, with low-involvement rates and with low demands for information (see abernethy & franke, 1996: 1-4 for a detailed analysis). according to this “informative dimension”, cosmetics, categorised as nondurable goods, would automatically inherit the features of their group. it is arguable, however, that the situation depicted here does no longer hold when a rhetorical analysis of the advertising of these products is substantiated. we have already seen how the decision to present cosmetics from a medical perspective raises high levels of involvement, together with beauty/health consciousness among consumers. moreover, the alliance with medical ageing youthfully ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106 91 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 91 science is meant to overcome the alluded frivolity of these products, which appear now as necessary to maintain our health. in addition, the lack of risk cannot be supported either, because the consumer expects to find not only short-term benefits, but also delayed benefits, for example, long-term health. the point is that these issues do only become evident when examining a set of texts rather than conducting an enquiry among a group of consumers, and when using text-analytic methods instead of quantitative empirical ones. this is in fact the aim of the section that follows, to offer a rhetorical approach to cosmetics advertising texts and to show how the medical presentation of skin-care products will ultimately result in a new advantageous appreciation of such goods. 3. the rhetorical analysis of data this section is designed to specify the rhetorical steps supporting the medical approach adopted in this type of advertising. the discussion opens with the cosmetic product seen in terms of how successfully it performs, that is, of its capabilities to improve the woman’s skin condition. in the second place comes the pertinence of evidence, regarded as objective, scientific information backing the validity of the claims made. the third strategy develops the echoic nature of rhetoric, unveiling the parallelism with medical prescriptions. the section concludes with the effort to adapt inscrutable medical terminology to the general public. 3.1. the importance of performance as has just been shown, one of the claims of the informative oriented classification of goods is that non-durable products had no performance risks associated. we will try to prove how the advertising of cosmetics attaches a great importance to the performance of the product. this, in turn, is easily justifiable from a medical point of view: when patients need to treat their health with medicines, however slight their state may be, they always want to know when the first improvements in their condition will appear. in agreement with relevance theory, the assumptions held by medical patients are quickly and effectively transferred to the world of cosmetics thanks to the medical terminology borrowed. let’s examine this set of examples from our data. marisa díez arroyo ibérica 28 (2014): 83-10692 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 92 (2) a. utilizing unprecedented contour-recalling technology, this cream creates dramatic smoothness and firmness, rebuilding a look of youth instantly. <shiseido bio-performance advanced super revitalizing cream, shiseido> b. instantly smoothes rough, dry patches with our exclusive microsphere refinishing system. <idealist, estée lauder> c. high molecular weight hyaluronic acid: instantly, it replenishes hydration to plump and smooth away fine dry lines in seconds. <time zone, estée lauder> d. immediately, the skin feels refreshed, suppler and more comfortable. <forever youth liberator cream, yves saint laurent> e. this 2-step process starts working immediately to reduce the appearance of dark circles and puffiness. <roc brilliance eye beautifier, roc> product performance is measured in time indications conveyed by the adverbials “instantly” in (2a,b,c), this last one reinforced by the prepositional phrase “in seconds”, and “immediately” (2d,e). the urgency expressed by such time expressions draws implications about the high quality of the product, its efficiency or its healthy benefits. another common medical reference to time improvement periods is to express them in “weeks”. note that the use of figures in (3a) makes the connection with doctors recommendations more evident, at the same time that the sequencing – “after 1 week”, “after 4 weeks” invites implications about credibility, real improved condition: (3) a. after 1 week, dark circles and under-eye bags are reduced. after 4 weeks, overall facial features are lifted and more defined. <roc brilliance night recharching moisturiser, roc> b. it will help wrinkles, even deep ones, appear plumped up within four weeks. <eucerin hyularon-filler eye cream, eucerin> it can also be the case that the time span is detailed under formulas even closer to medical language: (4) a. quick, concentrated, under-eye treatment sheets that dramatically transform the appearance of wrinkles and help improve ageing youthfully ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106 93 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 93 dark circles with a single application. <benefiance pure retinol instant treatment eye mask, shiseido> the expression “with a single application” in (4a) above is an alternative way to indicate immediacy. but at the same time, the item “application” can have the meaning “medicinal substance applied to the skin”, implications about medicine are invited by the presence of other units characteristic of medical language, such as the noun “treatment” and the verb “improve”. in the pursuit of persuasion, a crucial aspect closely related to the question of performance is the need to provide convincing proofs. this point is illustrated in the next subsection. 3.2. the role of evidence evidence plays a prominent role when the addresser wishes to offer conclusive details of his/her argument. in cosmetics advertising, this role becomes all the more relevant because it is used as a rhetorical strategy immersed in an alliance with medical science. the characteristic style of medical language thrives on scientific proofs based on tests and statistics clinically proven (adegoju, 2008). (5) a. 93% of women noticed enhanced lash and eye beauty within 4 weeks. <eyes and lash anti-aging primer, roc> b. in a clinical testing, 97% of women demonstrated fast results. <roc brilliance eye beautifier, roc> c. based on a clinical study on 41 women. <absolue l’extrait, lancôme> d. after 12 years and 6,000 experiments… <crème de la mer, la mer> e. in a series of four studies with 180 people, the following results were achieved: 94% of people using eucerin hyularon-filler day cream and 77% of people who used eucerin hyularon-filler night cream found an overall improvement to the condition of their skin. further tests by consumers also showed positive results: 95% said the eucerin hyularon-filler concentrate left their skin visibly and noticeably smoother. 83% agreed the eucerin hyularon-filler concentrate effectively minimises the appearance of wrinkles. <eucerin> marisa díez arroyo ibérica 28 (2014): 83-10694 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 94 the rhetorical strategy here consists in the inclusion of figures and percentages, together with lexical items such as “clinical” (5b,c), “tests” (5b,e), “studies” (5c,e) or “results” (5e), in order to reinforce the scientific image of the product advertised in each case. its function is to increase the persuasiveness of a message that through the incorporation of objective, factual information becomes highly relevant for a consumer avid for good news to enhance her public image. a further element that holds a powerful persuasive function is the allusion to proper nouns: (6) a. […] confirms michelle rathman, expert of stem research at l’oréal. <l’oréal> b. […] thanks to a collaboration with professor desmoulière, a specialist in tissue reconstruction. <guerlain> these people are identified as experts (6a) and specialists (6b), further accompanied by the title of “professor” in the last case. they are presented as authorised voices that give evidence and credibility to the assertions made about the product. relevance theory helps us to understand how the scientific implications which have been triggered by the presence of figures, statistics, proper nouns and pertinent lexical units in the message benefit the consumers’ appreciation of the cosmetic product, at the same time that reassure women in their quest for beauty. 3.3. the echoic nature of rhetoric over the last two decades, many scholars in applied linguistics have directed their attention to the analysis of medical english in various forms: texts written by specialists for specialists (salager-meyer, 2004; méndez cendón, 2004; gotti & salager-meyer, 2006) or have focused on the features exhibited by medical research articles (see mungra & canziani, 2013: 40-43 for useful references). while their various studies have contributed to a better understanding of the lexical and syntactic specifics of this particular jargon, our interest in this manifestation of specialised text falls, however, on a slightly different side, that is, on an everyday communicative genre: medical prescriptions. this section aims to demonstrate how some parts of cosmetics advertisements have been designed to resemble a type of medical text that ageing youthfully ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106 95 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 95 anyone of us, as eventual patients, knows well. in swinyard’s (1975: 1601) words, the prescription order “brings to focus (…) the diagnostic acumen and therapeutic proficiency of the physician with instructions for palliation or restoration of the patient’s health”. hence these forms display a format where doctors specify information (swinyard, 1975; shmerling, 2011) as, for example, the dosage of a medication, how many doses to be taken at once, by what route (oral or otherwise) the medicine should be administered, how often it should be taken and how to do it. also included are additional details such as time of day and indications about how to take the medicine (that is, with or without food). in agreement with our theoretical framework, this rhetorical strategy adopted by advertisers can be conceived of as having an echoic nature. in sperber and wilson’s (2012b: 93) terms: an echoic utterance indicates to the hearer that the speaker is paying attention to a representation; it indicates that one of the speaker’s reasons for paying attention to this representation is that it has been entertained by someone; it also indicates the speaker’s attitude to the representation echoed. the hypothesis we put forward is that the parts of the cosmetics advertisements related to the application of the beauty cream are echoic in nature. on identifying the features of medical prescriptions and the short sentences in which they are written, the consumer reinforces the parallelism between the medicine and the product designed by scientists to restore and maintain her skin healthy. through this method of echoing scientists’ consideration of the product as scientific or medical, advertisers express a positive attitude, hoping to transmit approval or even reverence. additionally, the details presented in this way attain a higher degree of objectivity and realism; after all, it is practical information that the reader is made to find more relevant thanks to the rhetorical device chosen and the cognitive effects derived. in what follows we are going to indicate how this strategy works. let’s start with the instructions about the dosage of the product and how often it should be taken: (7) a. use once or twice a day in the am and/or pm. <roc brilliance, roc> marisa díez arroyo ibérica 28 (2014): 83-10696 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 96 b. use daily in the morning and evening <eucerin® dermopurifyer cleanser, eucerin> c. use twice daily before the day and night creams. <eucerin hyularon-filler concentrate, eucerin> d. apply every night after cleansing your face. <nivea q10 plus anti-wrinkle night cream, nivea> e. after the first application, dimply pump to dispense product, am/pm. <skin caviar liquid lift, la prairie> f. day and night, dispense one drop onto the palm of your hand and gently smooth over your face, neck and décolleté. <cellular radiance concentrate pure gold, la prairie> g. apply a thick layer on the thoroughly cleansed face and throat, 2 to 3 times weekly. leave on for 10 minutes and remove any excess with a cotton pad. <certitude absolue ultra anti-wrinkle cream mask, jeanne piaubert> h. the eye beautifying crème and eye activating serum should be applied in equal amounts evenly to the eye area. <roc brilliance, roc> syntactically, these excerpts are written in the imperative, the most common verbal form to give instructions; alternatively, (7h) presents the variation of modal verb “should” plus the passive form. lexically, the choice of verb ranges from “to use” (7a,b,c) to “to apply” (7d,g) to a variant of both slightly more specific as “to smooth” (7f). the recommended frequency is indicated by the adverbials “once”, “twice” and “daily” (7a,b,c); but note that (7g) replaces the letters with figures, which may arguably be closer to what doctors write on prescriptions. the same reasoning can be applied to the abbreviations “am/pm” in (7a,e), instead of the full forms “morning” and “evening” (7b) or their variants “day” and “night” (7d,f). special attention deserves the verb “to dispense” (7e,f) for its connections with medicine in the meaning “to give out medicine according to a doctor’s prescription”, reinforced in (7f) with the exactness of the dose “one drop”, only possible through a dropper, a specially designed container for measuring out drops of medicine. the same idea of precision encapsulates (7h) in the prepositional phrase “in equal amounts”. the parallelism with the instructions for administering the medicine can be found in: ageing youthfully ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106 97 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 97 (8) a. apply by gently massaging into the skin, using upward circular strokes. <nivea q10 plus anti-wrinkle night cream, nivea> b. eye activating serum. using your fingertip, apply the activating serum to the complete eye contour area, including eyelids and below eyebrows. gently massage into skin. <roc brilliance, roc> c. (…) gently smooth over your face and neck. your skin will take on a golden radiance. <cellular radiance concentrate pure gold, la prairie> d. apply generously to the face and neck. spread the cream from the centre of the face outwards. <capture totale multi-perfection crème, dior> if the prescriptions instruct on whether to take the medicine orally or otherwise, cosmetics advertisements equally point to where to apply the cream: “skin” (8a), “eye contour area”, “eyelids” and “below eyebrows” (8b) or “face” and “neck” (8c,d). indications of how to do it are also provided: “using circular strokes” (8a,b), “using your fingertips” (8b), where the nonfinite gerund clauses alternate with imperative forms “apply by gently massaging” (8a), “gently smooth over your face and neck” (8c), “spread the cream from the centre of the face outwards” (8d). a parallelism can also be drawn between the indications given by doctors about how to take the medicine (that is, with or without food) and the application of the beauty product alone or in combination with any other: (9) a. apply after cleanser and softener. <shiseido bio-performance advanced super revitalizing cream, shiseido> b. apply day and night, alone or after the forever youth liberator serum, on the face and neck. <forever youth liberator crème, yves saint laurent> c. follow with your daily moisturizer. <cellular radiance concentrate pure gold, la prairie> d. applied before any other treatment, it boosts its performance. <capture totale one essential, dior> e. for best lifting results, let the serum dry on the skin before applying another product. follow with skin caviar luxe cream, extrait of marisa díez arroyo ibérica 28 (2014): 83-10698 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 98 skin caviar firming complex or moisturizer of choice. <skin caviar liquid lift, la prairie> special highlighting deserves the short length of the sentences, as corresponds to a text that echoes doctors’ indications, achieved in occasions through the elision of noun phrases in complement position after the transitive verb “follow” as in (9c,e). example (9e) is especially noticeable in this respect, since its last part shows additional omission of quantifiers and determiners: “follow with (…) or moisturizer of choice”, instead of the most common “follow with (…) or any other moisturizer of your choice”. this section has argued in favour of a rhetorical strategy in cosmetics advertising that consists in presenting the parts of the advertisement concerned with the application of the product after the format of medical prescriptions. we have presented this rhetorical device as having echoic nature, which will abound in the consumer’s recognition of the cosmetic product as a scientific outcome and which will ultimately boost the positive appreciation of the advertised goods. the next step is to analyse the role played by scientific/medical terminology in cosmetics advertising. 3.4. adapting medical english to the advertising readership in their pursuit of convincing the consumer of cosmetics, advertisers resort to the employment of scientific or pseudo-scientific terms. the complexity inherent in this type of language, as pointed out by schmied (2008: 13), “is a necessary reflection of the complexity of reality. that is why academic descriptions and explanations of more complex phenomena have to be rendered as complex language structures”. the conceptual difficulty added to the complex lexical features – polysyllabic words, greco-latin affixation, among others – limit the interpretation of these terms to specialists, an elitist community. the decision to include the specialised terms in this kind of advertising, however, can only be understood as a rhetorical device, that is, as an effort to reinforce the scientific character of the product. the interpretation of such terms demands extra processing effort which, according to relevance theory, will be rewarded by the cognitive effects in favour of the benefits of the cream, its positive results for the consumer’s skin, her beauty and so on and so forth. ageing youthfully ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106 99 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 99 studies on scientific and popular scientific texts conclude that “the difference (…) in terms of accessibility and readability can be captured in the parameter of semantic difficulty” (haase, 2007: 49). in order to overcome the alluded semantic depth and adapt the specialised word to the general public, advertisers introduce an explanation under a variety of forms. let’s start with the following examples: (10) a. vitamin e energizes skin and protects from premature aging signs. allantoin soothes away flakiness and calms irritations. <revitalizing cream, shiseido> b. a shiseido skincare original technology formulated with the innovative form support veil effectively corrects and helps prevent the appearance of lines and sagging around the delicate eye and lip areas. <white lucent anti-dark circles cream, shiseido> c. at the same time, the unique r.a.r.e.™ oligopeptide helps to rebundle collagen. <rénergie microlift eye r.a.r.e.™ lifter, lancôme> d. exclusive trilipid complex restores missing lipids, repairing the moisture barrier. anti-oxidants protect skin from environmental damage and visible signs of premature aging. <verité, estée lauder> all of these extracts take the form of simple sentences where the specialised item, “vitamin e” and “allatoin” in (10a), “form support veil” (10b), “r.a.r.e.™ oligopeptide” (10c), “trilipid complex” and “anti-oxidants” in (10d), is the subject of verbs like “to protect” (10a,d), “to help” (10b,c), “to correct” (10a), “to restore” (10d) or “to energise” (10a). items of this kind are known in the relevant literature (pérez-llantada, 2012: 58) as “procedural words”, whose function is to assist the specialised terminology in conveying propositional content. at other times, the specific unit is qualified by appositive noun phrases introduced after a dash (11a) or a comma (11b,c): (11) a. […] stimulating the production of the enzyme fn3k – skin’s own natural anti-wrinkle antidote. <ultra correction line repair, chanel> b. temps majeur cream is enriched with ‘ganoderma lucidum’, a popular ingredient used in chinese medicine. <temps majeur cream, yves saint laurent> marisa díez arroyo ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106100 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 100 c. a powerful combination of unique ingredients –reconstruction complex and pro-xylane™, a patented scientific innovation– has been shown to improve the condition around the stem cells and stimulate cell regeneration to reconstruct skin to a denser quality. <absolue precious cells, lancôme> quite often, the noun phrase presents a higher level of complexity: around the head may cluster not only premodifying elements, but also postmodifying restrictive relative clauses introduced by “that” (12a,b,c), and, less commonly in our examples, by “which”: (12) a. contains xylitol-enriched phyto-vitalizing factor, a highperformance moisturizing and retexturizing agent that effectively softens fine lines and brings a noticeably younger look to skin. <the skincare multi-energizing cream, shiseido> b. contains hydroxyproline, a high-technology amino acid that parallels skin’s own natural building blocks and helps natural collagen production. <benefiance pure retinol instant treatment mask, shiseido> c. it contains e-pulse®, our unique cosmetic electro-stimulation technology that stimulates the skin’s natural process for fast results and a younger-looking you. <roc brilliance beautiful skin, roc> d. it contains a powerful e-pulse™ technology which smoothes and perfects the skin around the eyes. <roc brilliance eye and lash anti-aging primer, roc> alternatively, the specification of the head noun can take the form of nonfinite clauses, for ease of reference indicated in the extracts by means of square brackets: (13) a. it contains e-pulse™, a patented micro-current technology [inspired by the latest professional procedures] and [backed by years of research]. <roc brilliance night recharging moisturiser, roc> b. txc™ —the first active brightening ingredient [registered in japan as a quasi-drug by a western company]— has a distinctive structure that delivers continuous action for 12 hours. <le blanc, chanel> ageing youthfully ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106 101 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 101 c. the first skincare with lr 2412, a molecule [designed to propel through skin layers]. <visionnaire, lancôme> d. hydra collagenist mask, a deep hydration intense re-infusion face mask [enriched in derm-hydrafix complex and collagen microspheres to “implant’ water at the heart of skin]. <hydra collagenist mask, helena rubinstein> in all of these examples the antecedent head is identical with the implicit subject of the -ed postmodifying clause. moreover, the participle concerned is firmly linked with the passive voice in such a way that these clauses can be interpreted, according to the context, as equivalent to expanded finite relative clauses with a restrictive character: “which has been/was inspired by the latest professional procedures” and “which has been/was backed by years of research” in (13a), “which has been/was registered in japan” (13b), “which has been/was designed to propel through skin layers” (13c) and “which has been/was enriched in derm-hydrafix complex” (13d). but explanations of the scientific term can equally be provided by means of infinitive purpose clauses, where the formal “in order to” is replaced by “to”, the mere mark of infinitive: (14) a. it contains highly concentrated hyaluronic acid and glycine saponin to help skin feel smoother and look younger. <eucerin dermo purifier cleanser, eucerin> b. the formula, enhanced with micro-fillers and hydra-vitamin complex, works deep within the lip surface to intensely hydrate and help smooth. <regenerist anti-aging lip treatment, olay> c. (…) micro-spheres filled with perfecting ingredients to replump the skin’s hydration mattress and smooth skin. <aquasource skin perfection, biotherm> all of the examples (10) to (14) show the advertisers’ efforts to adapt the (pseudo)scientific terms to the readership through a variety of syntactic structures that specify the semantically loaded lexical item. this can find a parallelism in the plain english campaign’s recommendations for doctors towards their patients. in a downloadable document from their website (url: http://www.plainenglish.co.uk), they offer several tips to write medical information in plain english, top on the list are the marisa díez arroyo ibérica 28 (2014): 83-106102 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 102 attempts to avoid jargon and to keep the language as straightforward as possible. advertisers’ decision to include the specialised item, together with an explanation of its contribution to skin’s health, can only be assessed from a rhetorical perspective. relevance theory explains how the initial presence of specialised language in a non-specialised scientific/medical domain such as advertising is meant to impress consumers and to bring about processing effort. this extra processing cost can appropriately be counterbalanced by rich cognitive effects, which will ultimately reinforce the medical appreciation of the product in question. 4. concluding remarks in this paper we have defended a rhetorical analysis of cosmetics advertising as the only possible means to understand the relevance of the claims that advertisers make about their products. in particular, we have studied how these goods are advertised from the medical-scientific perspective, establishing a parallelism between the advertising of cosmetics and the characteristics of medical english. the analysis focuses on the role of performance and evidence, as well as the echoic nature of medical prescriptions; finally we have examined how the medical-scientific jargon is adapted to the advertising readership, emulating plain english. the choice of these persuasive strategies has far-reaching consequences, not only for the consumers’ new appreciation of these products, traditionally regarded as frivolous, but also for previous work in advertising based on a classification sustained on purely informative terms. thus we have vindicated the need for collaborative work within the advertising industry itself. rhetorical analyses, supported on qualitative text-analytic methods, are essential to gain a better insight into the complex phenomenon of advertising and one cannot afford to ignore their conclusions. 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(2000). “old bodies” in p. hancock, b. hughes, e. jagger, k. paterson, r. russell, e. tulle-winton & m. tyler (eds.), the body, culture and society. an introduction, 64-83. philadelphia: open university press. wolf, n. (1992). the beauty myth. new york: anchor books. xu, z. & y. zhou (2013). “relevance theory and its application to advertising interpretation”. theory and practice in language studies 3: 492-496. zhao, x. (2002). “a variable-based typology and a review of advertising-related persuasion research during the 1990s” in j. dillard & m. pfau (eds.), the persuasion handbook: developments in theory and practice, 495-512. london: sage. 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 105 05 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 106 iberica 13 ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 issn 1139-7241 abstract the last 20 years have seen increasing interest in the way in which meaning is made in different professional and academic disciplines. central to this issue is the notion of disciplinary values, that is, qualities which define what is prized or stigmatised by different professional communities. in the present paper, the notion of disciplinary values is used to examine the way legal writers communicate meaning in different genres. to this end, six adjective/adverb sets which have a prominent place in legal discourse (“clear/ly”, “important/ly”, “reasonable/ly”, “appropriate/ly”, “correct/ly” and “proper/ly”) are identified. their collocates and semantic preferences are studied in four 500,000-word corpora consisting of texts from the area of commercial law: academic journal articles, case law, legislation, and legal documents. although the frequency and use of “clear/ly” and “important/ly” appear not to differ greatly from those found in other corpora of written and academic written texts such as the british national corpus (bnc) and the british academic written english corpus (bawe), “reasonable/ly”, “appropriate/ly”, “correct/ly” and “proper/ly” were found to be salient in some or all of the subcorpora. the reasons for this are then analysed within the framework of disciplinary values. these words appear to convey attributes that have particular importance in the legal profession, reflecting disciplinary values that cross the boundaries between various written genres. keywords: disciplinary values, genre, legal discourse, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics. resumen valores disciplinares característicos del discurso legal: un estudio de corpus en los últimos 20 años ha surgido un interés creciente en la generación del significado en las distintas disciplinas académicas y profesionales. un concepto disciplinary values in legal discourse: a corpus study ruth breeze universidad de navarra (spain) rbreeze@unav.es 93 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 93 ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 ruth breeze clave es la noción de que existen “valores disciplinares”, es decir, cualidades que definen lo que se valora o se censura en las distintas comunidades profesionales. el propósito de este artículo es profundizar en el concepto de los valores disciplinares en el discurso de los profesionales del derecho mediante el estudio de un corpus de distintos géneros textuales del área jurídica. se identifican seis adjetivos/adverbios que destacan en el lenguaje del derecho (clear/ly, important/ly, reasonable/ly, appropriate/ly, correct/ly y proper/ly). las palabras contiguas y las preferencias semánticas se estudian en cuatro corpus especializados de 500.000 palabras cada uno, del área del derecho comercial y corporativo: artículos de revistas, sentencias, leyes y documentos legales. aunque la frecuencia y el uso de clear/ly e important/ly no se distinguen de manera significativa de los que se encuentran en otros corpus de textos escritos y científicos, como el british national corpus (bnc) y el british academic written english corpus (bawe), reasonable/ly, appropriate/ly, correct/ly y proper/ly son especialmente frecuentes en los corpus de lenguaje jurídico. tras el análisis efectuado en el corpus sobre su potencial significado en el mundo jurídico, se concluye que dichas palabras comunican cualidades que se consideran especialmente importantes en dicho ámbito y reflejan valores disciplinares que cruzan las fronteras entre los distintos géneros textuales. palabras clave: valores disciplinares, género textual, discurso legal, análisis del discurso, lingüística de corpus. introduction over the past 20 years, growing interest has centred on the way that knowledge and ideas are presented in a wide range of academic and professional genres (knorr cetina, 1999; hyland, 1999; biber, 2006). phenomena such as evaluative or relational language, modality and hedging have received considerable research attention, and major differences have come to light concerning discursive practices in disciplinary communities. analysis of the lexical and syntactic choices made in different professional and academic texts may shed light on the specific assumptions and practices that affect the way people handle and represent experience within particular communities. the degree of personality or impersonality in the text, the use of hedging, emphatics or attitude markers, and various aspects of lexical choice, all project the epistemological premises of the discipline and the value system that operates within it. central to this issue is the notion of disciplinary values, that is, qualities which define what is prized or stigmatised by different professional communities. for example, in a cross94 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 94 disciplinary study of academic publications, giannoni (2009) found differences in the metaphorical language used to express approval and disapproval in applied linguistics, law, medicine and economics. in the present paper, the notion of disciplinary values, developed by hyland (1999) and further explored by giannoni (2009), is used to examine the way legal writers communicate meaning in different genres. to this end, six salient adjective/adverb sets are examined, as they appear in four 500,000-word corpora of text from the area of commercial law: academic journal articles, case law, legislation, and legal documents. corpus linguistics and disciplinary values when writers produce texts, they are engaging in a social process, and the choices they make are shaped by their knowledge of genre conventions, their previous experience of professional discourses, and the professional and personal ends that they hope to achieve. as hyland states (1999: 100), “textual meanings (…) are socially mediated, influenced by the communities to which writers and readers belong”. the texts themselves thus serve as evidence of the way a particular professional community generates and manages knowledge. the language choices made by individual writers of professional texts are rarely arbitrary, and they are not generally creative or original, as they might be in the case of a novelist or poet. the word often used to describe lexical choices in professional and academic contexts is “appropriate”, and whether or not a particular word or phrase is appropriate depends on the tacit consensus within the disciplinary community, as well as on broader considerations such as register, the parameters of which are set by broader social consensus. in the last instance, a word is generally considered appropriate because it is the one that is most commonly used in a particular context, and therefore appropriacy is closely related to frequency. to access the discourses of professional groups, corpus methodology provides a useful tool which generally proves more reliable and objective than introspection or observation. although some authors have postulated a “cultural divide” between corpus linguistics and discourse analysis (leech, 2000), on the grounds that discourse analysis relies on the integrity of text whereas corpus analysis tends to work on decontextualised fragments, there is now a growing consensus that the two areas are mutually complementary disciplinary values in legal discourse ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 95 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 95 and may even overlap (stubbs, 2007). the evolving understanding of corpus linguistics is that although patterns in language can be studied through concordancing and other tools, the analysis of meaning should always have a central role (sinclair, 2004). in linguistic terms, investigation of samples of texts affords direct access to parole, or what the professionals in question actually write or say on particular occasions, in the form of horizontal concordance lines. however, when concordance lines are viewed vertically, more enduring patterns come to light that can provide considerable information about the discourses that operate among particular groups. although the term “discourse” is not always used in corpus research, this article will use the framework set out by stubbs (2007) based on tuldava (1998), in which text is a understood as a static product of discourse, which is a dynamic process. discourse is meaningful social action which is not reducible to text, but may be accessed through it. corpus methodology enables us to perceive the “pervasive routine of most language use” (stubbs, 2007: 146), and allows us to document in detail the patterns and repetitions that are essential to the way language functions in real social contexts (adolphs & durow, 2004). although this approach may be more problematic if the object of study is the language system itself, when the focus of interest is a clearly delimited area such as the discourse of a particular community of practice, it would seem clear that analysis of patterns that recur over large samples of text can provide important insights. in this context, the particular frequency of specific lexical items that convey attitude and epistemic stance in texts produced within different disciplines has led some linguists to propose the notion of disciplinary values, as a way of characterizing the distinctive set of qualities or attributes to which worth is ascribed within a particular community of practice. such values may not be immediately obvious, not least because professional and academic writers tend to conceal their identity behind a cloak of objectivity and rarely make explicit personal declarations concerning professional values. however, small clues are available, for example, in the form of evaluative or epistemic adjectives conveying value judgements, which can help outsiders to form an impression of the qualities that are considered important within the particular discipline (tutin, 2008; dahl, 2009; giannoni, 2009). the presence or absence of value-laden lexis may in itself shed light on the nature of the claims being made by the writer, and thus on the epistemological framework within which the discipline operates (hyland, 1999). ruth breeze ibérica 21 (2011): 93-11696 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 96 in the case of academic writing, one area that has received scholarly attention is the presence of certain key adjectives, which may reflect the writer’s underlying values and influence the communication of facts, ideas and interpretations within a community of practice. swales and burke (2003) investigated the use of evaluative adjectives in spoken academic language, and found there to be more evidence of intensification and polarization in academic speech than in written genres. pérez-llantada (2008) analysed stance adjectives in research articles from applied linguistics and information technology, and established that both disciplines tended to rely heavily on a small set of evaluative descriptors, such as “important”, “good”, “difficult” and “clear”, and that both used a slightly higher proportion of relevance adjectives (“important”) than assessment adjectives (“good”). taking this type of analysis a stage further, giannoni (2009) examines the use of the adjectives “broad”, “clear” and “strong”, all of which have metaphorical connotations, and other members of the corresponding word families, in academic articles from four disciplines, and identifies considerable variation between areas in the extent to which each one is used. he attributes these results to differences in the values held by members of the respective discourse communities. in his view, these evaluative terms, which might conventionally be regarded as “dead metaphors”, that is, metaphors which have become so conventionalised that the links to their original meaning have been severed (pawelec, 2006), actually influence and are influenced by the values that people hold in particular communities, much in the way that a conceptual metaphor in an idiomatic expression reflects and perpetuates a particular way of understanding the world (lakoff, 1987). by way of example, in giannoni’s (2009) study, the writers of linguistics articles were found to use more metaphors related to clarity, whereas academic lawyers favoured words that connoted breadth or inclusiveness: he surmises that this result may be coloured by the linguists’ struggle to extract knowledge from text, on the one hand, and the lawyers’ quest for general, widely-applicable norms, on the other. to research these concepts, one promising method is that proposed by stubbs (2007), based on the analysis of extended units of meaning explained in sinclair (1998). this involves the use of corpus techniques to obtain detailed information about the way that words are used, focusing particularly on collocation (the relation between the node word and other word-forms that co-occur frequently with it); colligation (the relation between the node word and particular grammatical structures with which it is found); semantic disciplinary values in legal discourse ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 97 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 97 preference (the relation between the node word and lexical sets of semantically-related lemmas) and semantic prosody, sometimes called discourse prosody (the pragmatic or attitudinal function of the unit in the text). of these, the first and third attribute appear to be of particular relevance to the purpose of this study: the words and semantic sets with which a particular adjective frequently co-occurs would be likely to provide rich information about the sense in which that adjective is used, and its particular resonance within the discipline or the genre. identification of evaluative adjectives and adverbs against this background, the present study sets out to obtain deeper knowledge of the values embodied in legal discourse by identifying and studying high-frequency lexical items. rather than comparing academic law articles with publications from other spheres of academia, i aim to investigate disciplinary values in law by taking a broad overview of four important areas of legal discourse: academic articles, case law (law reports and opinions), legislation and legal documents. the first two fields (academic law and case law) belong firmly within the scope of the same parent discourse community, since there is real overlap between academics and leading legal practitioners, and both sets of professionals read each other’s texts (vass, 2004). moreover, both lawyers and academics deal with legislation on a daily basis, even though they are less likely to be involved in its drafting. finally, practising lawyers are likely to be thoroughly familiar with the language of legal documents within the realm of private law. the corpus which forms the basis for this study consists of 2 million words from the area of commercial law in english, divided into four sub-corpora of approximately 500,000 words each from: academic law articles on commercial and corporate law, case law (law reports and court opinions), legislation (companies acts) and legal documents (contracts, merger agreements and so on). these four subcorpora can be seen to serve as a sample of four interlinked legal discourses. corpus methodology is used, first to identify possible value-laden lexical items, and then to bring out the similarities and differences in the way that these are used in the different types of legal text. in order to identify words with possible epistemic and evaluative connotations, the following procedure was followed. first, wordsmith tools ruth breeze ibérica 21 (2011): 93-11698 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 98 (scott, 2007) were used to generate wordlists ordered in terms of frequency. these lists were then scanned in order to identify frequent adjectives. the 20 most frequent evaluative adjectives from each subcorpus were identified. since the focus of the study was on evaluative language that might relate to disciplinary values, items that seemed to refer to frequency, possibility, generality/specificity or necessity were not included in the list. the final lists were then compared, and all the adjectives/adverbs that appeared within the top twenty on two or more lists were assessed for inclusion in the study. the following epistemic or evaluative adjectives/adverbs appeared in two or more lists: “appropriate”, “fully”, “greater”, “proper”, “properly”, “reasonable”, “reasonably”, “sufficient”, “approximately”, “clear”, “close”, “complete”, “correct”, “direct”, “directly”, “fair”, “free”, “full”, “fundamental”, “important”, “ordinary”, “particularly”, “relevant”, “significant”, “simply”, “unfair”. of these, “reasonable”, “appropriate” and “proper” appeared in all the lists, being close to the top in all except that for academic articles, while “clear”, “important” and “correct” were among the first ten words on at least two of the lists. once the six words had been selected, frequencies were obtained for all the adjectives and their corresponding adverbs. the adjective forms were more frequent than the adverbs in all cases except “clearly” (legislation subcorpus) and “properly” (academic articles, case law and legal documents subcorpora). overview of adjective/adverb frequency the frequency of the six adjectives in the four legal subcorpora is shown in table 1, and that of the six corresponding adverbs in table 2. the data are normalized to frequency per 10,000 words. in order to provide a point of comparison, the frequencies of the respective items in the british national corpus (bcn) and the british academic written english corpus (bawe) are also displayed in both tables. disciplinary values in legal discourse ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 99 area reasonable clear important correct proper appropriate academic articles 2.2 3.1 4.8 1.8 0.9 1.7 case law 4.6 4 2.1 1.7 1.3 2.8 legislation 4.3 0 0.1 0.4 1.5 4 legal documents 9.8 0.7 0.4 1.7 0.9 0.9 bnc 0.6 2.5 3.9 0.7 0.6 1.1 bawe 0.7 2.6 6.7 1.2 0.3 1.7 table 1. frequency of adjectives per 10,000 words. 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 99 for the sake of simplicity, a frequency twice the frequency of the bnc or bawe (taking the highest of the two) was taken to indicate salience of the item concerned in the subcorpus in question. for example, in the case of “appropriate”, the highest incidence is that of the bawe (1.7), and so for this item to be salient, the frequency in the subcorpus would have to be greater than 3.4, which only holds for the legislation subcorpus. the salience of “reasonable” and “reasonably” in all four corpora, and its particular prominence in legal documents, are especially noticeable. as far as the other items are concerned, the pattern is more complex. “clear”, “clearly”, “important” and “importantly” are frequent in academic articles and case law, while “correct” is frequent in all the subcorpora except legislation. “proper” is salient in case law and legislation, whereas “properly” is frequent in all the subcorpora but salient only in case law and legal documents. finally, “appropriate” is salient in legislation, but no instances of the corresponding adverb were encountered in this subcorpus. once the initial frequencies had been established, the collocates and semantic preferences of the chosen words were investigated in depth. in what follows, the full research process is explained in the case of “reasonable/reasonably”, while in the case of the other words, only the most important findings are described. case study: “reasonable/reasonably” the construct of the “reasonable person” is familiar to anyone who has had contact with legal discourse, since it is a legal fiction, that is, a construct that is widely used as a standard against which the understanding or behaviour of individual people can be measured (green, 1968). what constitutes “reasonableness” has, of course, been a central philosophical question in western thought, particularly in the last two centuries (nubiola, 2009). in the area of law, the notion of “reasonableness” seems to have been originally ruth breeze ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116100 area reasonably clearly importantly correctly properly appropriately academic art 1 1.6 0.6 0.6 0.9 0.3 case law 1.7 2.2 0.5 0.8 1.7 0.1 legislation 2.6 0.4 0 0.1 0.9 0 legal docs 7.7 0.3 0 0 1.7 0.1 bnc 0.3 1.5 0.1 0.2 0.6 0.1 bawe 0.3 1.8 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.1 table 2. frequency of adverbs per 10,000 words. 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 100 applied to the behaviour of individuals, particularly regarding their civil liability in cases of negligence, and is thought to date back to the leading tort case of vaughan v. menlove (132 er 490, common pleas 1837) (see schwartz, 1989, for discussion of the reasonable person in negligence cases). it is now also frequently applied in an epistemological sense to the issue of how legal documents (contract, treaties, codes and so on) should be interpreted (knapp, crystal & prince, 2003; orts, 2005), and is therefore particularly common wherever the meaning of written material is in dispute. the jurist oliver wendell holmes jr. explained the theory behind the reasonable person standard as stemming from the impossibility of “measuring a man’s powers and limitations” (wendell homes, 1881: 108) and the need to presume that a kind of average conduct exists above and beyond individual peculiarities and quirks. the notion of the “reasonable person” has been the object of considerable discussion in jurisprudence, touching on both its philosophical basis and its practical application (for accounts of the debate in legal theory, see di matteo, 1996, and gilles, 2001). this construct has come in for harsh criticism, since it seems to presuppose the existence of “an independent, mystical interpreter” (di matteo, 1996: 301) and entails an element of subjectivity, but although the notion of the “reasonable person” may be perceived as being less than robust, no satisfactory alternative has been devised. in fact, there is a need for such terms, which are useful precisely because they entail an element of openness and adaptability, and can be applied across a wide range of differing cases. there is a sense in which such words function as “wild cards”, whose precise application is left to the discretion of the court or relevant authority in each particular instance (orts, 2005). this would seem to be an instance of the strategic role of vagueness and semantic indeterminacy in legal language, analysed in depth by endicott (2000), which is counterbalanced in practice by the presence of authoritative interpreters of the law, in the form of judges, who can apply the general but unspecific concept to a concrete, particular case (engberg & heller, 2008). in order to investigate the use of “reasonable” and “reasonably” in legal discourse, the wordsmith concordance tool (scott, 2007) was used to detect the n-grams and patterns in which these terms appeared, and to research any related semantic preferences. disciplinary values in legal discourse ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 101 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 101 it is noteworthy that 16 of the 114 instances of “reasonable” in academic articles were in inverted commas (either the word itself, or as part of a longer quotation). although it is hard to know the force of quotation marks in a concordance line, the examples seemed to indicate that the writer was problematizing the concept of reasonableness, or at least throwing doubt on a previous instance in which it had been used. ruth breeze ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116102 l2 l1 r1 r2 and with prudence reasonable faith and attorneys and have reliance time price not not reasonable price time table 3. patterns in academic articles (node = “reasonable”). l2 l1 r1 r2 had and inference that support all opportunity interpretation the with probability efforts fair only reasonable interpretation and table 4. patterns in case law (node = “reasonable”). l2 l1 r1 r2 took all grounds expenses within the lengths fees take and diligence for fair with reasonable fees and table 5. patterns in legislation (node = “reasonable”). l2 l1 r1 r2 use commercially efforts and shall use satisfaction fees and its detail the its all reasonable discretion including table 6. patterns in legal documents (node = “reasonable”). 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 102 disciplinary values in legal discourse ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 103 l2 l1 r1 r2 and with prudence reasonable faith and attorneys and have reliance time price not not reasonably price time table 8. patterns in academic articles (node = “reasonably”). l2 l1 r1 r2 could could have have were can infer infer the not practicable and would and reasonably well expect table 9. patterns in case law (node = “reasonably”). t subcorpus (per 10,000) academic art. (2.2) case law (4.6) legislation (4.3) legal docs (9.8) r prudence 17 r reliance 7 r inference* 37 r interpretation 11 r probability 10 fair and r 7 r attorneys’ fees 7 support a r inference that 8 r probability of a business opportunity 6 had a r probability of 5 r steps 39 he took all r steps 19 r expenses 13 r time 12 r grounds 9 r expenses incurred 9 r period 8 r cause 8 r care 6 failed to take all r steps 6 r efforts 66 commercially r efforts 39 r commercial efforts 23 r detail 17 r fees 17 r attorneys 17 r access 15 r notice 12 r period 11 r discretion 8 r time* 6 r opportunity 6 r satisfaction 6 (clusters) reasonable (semantic preference) attorney’s fees/costs, time, price, cost, basis, construction, damages, formula, conclusion*, risk taking, parties, relationship, view, period, doubt, sum, mind*, prediction, way, businessman, substitute, hourly rate, connection, compensation, foreseeability, effort*, r to rely on, intelligence, expectation, chance of success, r to assume, take a r view certainty, effort*, decision*, view, objection*, steps, prospect*, fees, diligence, doubt, likelihood, sense, person*, grounds, alternative, time, cause, belief, arrangement*, proposal*, bases, expectancy, attitude, observer, care, opportunity enquiries, belief, likelihood, basis, expenses, time, accuracy, period, fees, progress, judgement, costs, expectation, satisfaction, intervals, enquiry, measures, conduct, prospect, diligence, purpose, person, compensation, witness, amount, precautions, opportunity, excuse, notice, means, accuracy, evidence approval, request*, assistance, basis, cooperation, manner, business, investigation, expenses table 7. clusters and semantic preferences of “reasonable” (r) in the four subcorpora. 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 103 from the foregoing tables, it is clear that although the semantic preferences of the high-frequency words “reasonable” and “reasonably” are similar across the four legal corpora, they are not interchangeable. it can be noted that, although both words were most frequently found in legal documents, ruth breeze ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116104 l2 l1 r1 r2 the may practicable believes soon director believed regarded state not regarded after will and reasonably likely expected table 10. patterns in legislation (node = “reasonably”). l2 l1 r1 r2 could not advisable request that may request required would could satisfactory expect and would reasonably acceptable table 11. patterns in legal documents (node = “reasonably”). subcorpus (per 10,000) academic art. (1) case law (1.7) legislation (2.6) legal docs (7.7) r expect 7 r equivalent 6 could r 9 r be 8 may r 19 r practicable 16 r require 15 r be 12 r believes 10 be r 10 r be expected 90 may r request 27 expect, estimate, induce, afford, construe, read, ask, decide, believe, act, view, rely, reject, determine, adjudge, project rely, expect, draw, consider, incur, relate, come to conclusion, reflect, infer, interpret, propose, differ, want, describe, include, think, disclose, approve, anticipate, act believe, regard, consider, be aware, require, understand, anticipate, exercise, incur, request, resolve, estimate, inform expect, determine, incur, require, believe, cooperate, request, act (clusters) reasonably (semantic preference:verbs) (semantic preference: adjectives) equivalent, foreseeable, short, confident, certain prompt, susceptible, available, necessary, circumspect, practicable, satisfied, confident, well informed, likely, obtainable, capable practicable, likely, necessary, open, sufficient, attentive, sufficient, able, diligent necessary, likely, satisfactory, practicable, acceptable, advisable, approximate, possible table 12. clusters and semantic preferences of “reasonably” (r) in the four subcorpora. 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 104 the patterns in which they occurred were more restricted than in the other subcorpora, being more formulaic, with a larger number of n-grams. their semantic preferences were limited to a few nouns, verbs and adjectives. on the other hand, the greatest number of possible combinations using “reasonable” was found in academic articles, while the greatest for “reasonably” was in the case law corpus. closer examination of the items that collocated with “reasonable” revealed that there was a semantic preference for words related to money and time across all four subcorpora, while epistemic judgements (“doubt”, “certainty”) were found in the academic, case law and legislation subcorpora. in the legislation subcorpus, “reasonable” also combined with a wide selection of actions such as “steps” and “measures”, and reasons such as “cause” and “grounds”. the legal documents subcorpus also combined “reasonable” with actions (“efforts”, “approval”, “request”), though in a more limited range, and was the only subcorpus to include the category of help, embodied in “assistance” and “cooperation”. in the case of “reasonably”, the semantic preference was clearly for verbs of thinking and anticipation. “expect” was one of the commonest collocates in all the subcorpora except legislation, where “believe” headed the list of collocating verbs. “request” and “require” were common collocates of “reasonably” in legislation and legal documents, but not in the other two subcorpora. in the academic articles and case law, however, “reasonably” was found in combination with a wider range of epistemic verbs (“reflect”, “interpret”, “construe”, “think”, “view”, “infer”) and verbs reporting speech acts (“describe”, “propose”, “disclose”). in general, as might be expected, there was somewhat greater overlap between legislation and legal documents, and a rather greater divide between these and the other two subcorpora. not only are legislation and legal documents more repetitive and formulaic, but they are also more likely to focus on procedural aspects, on actions, requests and requirements, than are the areas of case law and academic writing. the greater degree of commonality between academic articles and case law may also be attributed to rhetorical aspects, such as the need to argue a case, which would tend to necessitate a greater range of epistemic verbs. it is hardly surprising that the collocations of “reasonable” and “reasonably” in these genres should differ sharply from those found in the prescriptive language of laws and legal documents, which exist in order to set out clear rules for people to follow. disciplinary values in legal discourse ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 105 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 105 case study: “clear/clearly” as table 1 shows, “clear” was most common in academic articles and case law, with higher frequency than in the bnc and bawe, but was infrequent in legislation and legal documents. it seems logical that this should be the case, since “clear” is an epistemic adjective which is frequently used in the discourse of argument. this use would seem to be confirmed by the frequency of “be* clear” and “make* clear” in these subcorpora (73 and 23 occurrences in academic articles and 89 and 46 occurrences in case law, respectively). the semantic preference of clear in academic articles was for “whether”, and for “failure”, “example”, “framework”, “evidence”, “implication”, “manifestation”, “words”, “instance”, “line”, “provisions”, “leader”, “rule”, “violation”, “directive”, “agreement”, “reference”, “separation”, “consent”, “contractual language”, “exception”, “distinction”, “custom”; in other words, for a range of lexical items connected with concrete evidence or intellectual constructs. in case law, in addition to “whether”, the pattern was similar: “acknowledgement”, “view”, “breach”, “instance”, “error”, “analysis”, “invitation”, “message”, “terms”, “notice”, “answer”, “case”, “distinction”, “shortcomings”, “example”, “evidence”, “provision”, “choice”, “intent”, “meaning”, “conflict”, “language”. “clear” only occurred twice in the entire legislation subcorpus, while in the legal documents subcorpus it appeared 20 times, in the combination “free and clear (of all/any liens)”. it was notable that the academic articles subcorpus was the only one in which “unclear” also occurred (frequency 0.4/10,000), which points to a difference between academic and judicial discourse: academic writers take an objective stance to complex issues, and may find it expedient to identify areas of law or enquiry that are unclear; the judge’s function is to rule on particular cases, which means that his/her discourse is likely to emphasise clarity rather than its absence. “clearly” was present in academic articles at around the same frequency as in the bnc and bawe (1.6 as compared to 1.5 and 1.8), was markedly more frequent in the case law subcorpus (frequency 2.2), and was present to a negligible extent in the other two subcorpora. in academic articles it was found with the verbs “limit”, “allow”, “exceed”, “raise”, “intend”, “protect”, “preclude”, “suggest”, “reflect”, “incorporate”, “lay down”, “anticipate”, “exist”, “demarcate”, “meet”, “feel”, “draft”, “express”, “cover”, “separate”, “imply”, “promote”, “consider”, and with the adjective “unfair”. in case law, it co-occurred with “state”, “acknowledge”, “estimate”, “exclude”, “define”, “express”, “consider”, “warrant”, “constitute”, “refer”, “intend”, ruth breeze ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116106 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 106 “foreshadow”, “prefer”, “communicate”, “presuppose”, “cover”, “contemplate”, “believe”, “relate”, “fail”, “comprehend”, “regard”, “foresee”, and with the adjectives “identifiable”, “honest”, “correct”, “contrary”, “erroneous”. in the foregoing, it is noticeable that epistemic verbs are present to a considerable degree among the collocates in case law, whereas academic texts include a greater preponderance of verbs with a concrete meaning. this probably reflects the special preoccupation with intentions and interpretations in case law. in case law, “clearly” also often occurred adverbially, separated from the rest of the sentence by commas (“clearly, the defendant was not aware …”). adverbs are generally more often found in spoken than written registers (biber, 2006), and so the greater presence of “clearly” here may be due to the fact that law reports and court opinions are heavily influenced by the spoken language of the courtroom. case study: “important/importantly” as tables 1 and 2 show, “important” was frequent in academic articles and fairly frequent in case law, while “importantly” was salient in academic articles and frequent in case law. both “important” and “importantly” were largely absent from the other two subcorpora. in academic articles, important was frequently used in comparative or superlative forms (25 instances of “most important” and 21 of “more important”). “important” appeared with the following nouns: “role”, “implications”, “policy”, “factor”, “aspect”, “case”, “point”, “question”, “characteristic”, “element”, “concern”. this item thus seemed to be used in discursive functions, chiefly for discriminating between different parts of a whole. in case law, “important” was followed by “issue”, “interest”, “provision”, “question”, “company”, “element”, “witness”, “role”, “point”, “matter”, “part”, “link”, “similarity”, “element”, “term”, “question”, “insight”, “role”, “omission”, “fact”. the wider semantic range of these nouns points to “important” being used across a broader range of uses, including the evaluation of players in the case at hand (“company”, “witness”). “importantly” was mainly used as an adverbial discourse marker in both academic articles (30 out of 31 instances) and case law (25 out of 26 instances). in both cases, the comparative and superlative forms were more frequent than the unmodified adverb. the high frequency of this adverb in comparison to bnc data seems to point to its being a regular feature of argumentative legal discourse. disciplinary values in legal discourse ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 107 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 107 case study: “correct/correctly” “correct” appeared in academic articles, case law and legal documents much more frequently than in the bnc (1.8, 1.7 and 1.7, respectively, as compared to 0.7 in the bnc). however, it was infrequent in the legislation subcorpus (0.4). in academic articles, the most frequent combinations were “correct answer” (36 instances) and “correct interpretation” (9 instances), as well as “be* correct” (23 instances), often used impersonally. in case law, “be* correct” was also common (48 instances), and “correct” was also found qualifying “evaluation”, “assertion”, “amount”, “statement” and “approach”. in other words, “correct” appears to be an adjective that indicates the writer’s approval of a particular answer, approach or interpretation, and is thus basically epistemic, indicative of certainty. in legal documents, however, the use of “correct” was quite different, since almost all the instances refer to “accounts”, “copies” and “lists”, that is, to the accuracy of concrete documentation. in the legal documents subcorpus, the most frequent clusters are “true and correct” (31 instances), “complete and correct” (14 instances) and “correct and complete” (14 instances). “correctly” is salient in academic articles and case law (frequencies of 0.6 and 0.8 respectively, as compared with 0.2 in the bnc and 0.3 in bawe), and is found with verbs of noticing, thinking and deciding such as “hold”, “decide”, “interpret”, “note”, “identify”, “see”, “anticipate”, “demonstrate”, “consider”, “allow” and “distinguish” in articles, and with “point out”, “argue”, “note”, “observe”, “presume”, “identify”, “describe”, “conclude” and “hold” in case law. case study: “proper/properly” “proper” was salient in case law and legislation, perhaps because there is a particular focus on procedure in both of these areas. “properly”, by contrast, was salient in case law and legal documents. in case law, proper was found with the following range of nouns: “interpretation”, “notice”, “decisions”, “means”, “grounds”, “opportunity”, “place”, “purposes”, “consideration”, “measure”, “course”, “disclosure”, “standard”, “construction”, “analysis”, “mechanism”, “negotiation”, “scope”, “time”, “consequences”, “treatment”. these would seem to group into four categories: procedures (“steps”, “measures”), interpretations (“analysis”, “construction”), reasons (“grounds”, “purposes”) and conditions (“times”, “places” and so on). the semantic preferences of ruth breeze ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116108 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 108 “proper” in legislation centred mainly on conditions: “person”, “delivery”, “purpose”, “information”, “party”, “person”, “accounts”, “instruments”, “proceedings”, “address”, “form”, “official”, “claimant”, “business”, “officer”. in case law, “properly” was found in combination with “act”, “allege”, “assert”, “belong”, “view”, “understand”, “consider”, “describe”, “consult”, “describe”, “pay”, “establish”, “make”, “put forward”, “give”, “find”, “accept”, “incur”, “conclude”, “apply”, “represent”, “refuse”, “relate”, “present”, “frame”, “bring a claim”, “serve”, “distribute”, “reflect”, “hold”, “grant”. in legal documents, it co-occurred with “bring”, “make a complaint”, “sign”, “address”, “submit”, “accompany”, “incur”, “endorse”, “execute”, “maintain”, “reflect”, “require”, “file”, “explain”, “administer”, “convene”, “deal with”, “exercise2. in this subcorpus, it was particularly common in the n-grams “properly completed” (16 instances) and “properly completed and signed” (8 instances). in both cases, “properly” seemed to be used across a range of functions to indicate that something is done in the legally prescribed manner. case study: “appropriate/appropriately” the occurrences of “appropriate” were mainly in case law and legislation. in case law (frequency 2.8), “appropriate” combined with “meaning”, “approach”, “forum”, “order”, “value”, “share”, “recommendation”, “date”, “advice”, “party”, “measure”, “proportion”, “method”, “principle”, “case”, “response”, “defence”, “fee”, “claim” and “form of relief ”. in legislation, where “appropriate” was extremely frequent, accounting for 4 out of every 10,000 words, its most frequent collocates were “condition”, “term”, “arrangement”, “authority”, “rate” and “qualification”, and other collocates were: “modification”, “official”, “standard”, “person”, “enquiry”, “number”, “approval”. “appropriate” was also found in the phrases consider* appropriate (21 instances) and “deem* appropriate” (11 instances). the adverb “appropriately” was only more frequent in academic articles than in the bnc, and was found with the verbs “measure”, “treat”, “protect”, “resolve” and “define”. as in the case of “proper”, the basic meaning of “appropriate” seems to imply a quality relating to actions that have the stamp of legal approval. the difference would appear to be that “appropriate” implies something that is approved because it is proportionate (“share”, “value”) or fitting in a context disciplinary values in legal discourse ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 109 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 109 (“defence”, “advice”, “recommendation”), whereas proper may also be applied to ratiocinatory phenomena such as “interpretation” and “analysis”. in other words, “proper” means “right”, but “appropriate” only means “right in context”, and does not convey a strong enough sense of security for describing activities of epistemological inquiry. on the other hand, both “proper” and “appropriate” seem to be applicable to material conditions, such as “date” or “fee”. a similar contrast was apparent in the case of the corresponding adverbs, so that “properly” co-occurred with a wide range of epistemic and action verbs, whereas “appropriately” was mainly found with certain specific action verbs. the main pattern emerging from the case studies of “appropriate” and “proper” is that in case law, “proper”, with its implicit meaning of procedural or intellectual rightness, is both stronger and more widely applicable than “appropriate”, which is understood as a relative matter, indicating rightness in a particular context. thus important intellectual activities to do with the reasoning of legal cases, such as interpreting, construing or analysing, can be done “properly”, whereas “appropriate/appropriately” seemed to be more generally used to refer to actions and their suitability in a particular context. in legislation, however, “proper” and “appropriate” both referred mainly to conditions and procedures, as was also the case for “properly” in legal documents. discussion it is known that the epistemic and evaluative lexis in academic and professional writing varies from one discipline to another, and that the observable differences may stem from different underlying epistemological frameworks in different areas of academia (meyer, 1997; hiltunen, 2006; giannoni, 2009). against this background, this paper explored the use of six salient stance-denoting adjective/adverb pairs across four subcorpora representing different areas of legal discourse. their relative frequency in the different areas of legal writing was considered, and the n-grams and semantic preferences associated with these words in each text type were examined. in very general terms, “reasonable/reasonably”, “correct/correctly”, “proper/properly” and “appropriate” emerged as being particularly prominent in particular areas of legal discourse, and as being likely to embody community-specific values that shape the disciplinary culture of law. ruth breeze ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116110 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 110 looking first at the comparisons of word frequency that were made between subcorpora, complex patterns emerged, but in general it can be stated that there was a certain degree of common ground as far as the frequency and use of the lexical items considered here in academic articles and case law (law reports and court opinions) were concerned. this similarity could be explained by the similarity in rhetorical purpose (to argue and persuade, as opposed to prescribing or proscribing), or by the fact that these genres are freer and tend to be characterised by a more personal voice, whereas legislation and legal documents tend to be more formulaic and more repetitive. however, further research would be needed to establish whether the similarities and differences between genres that were detected actually extend to other aspects of stance, such as hedging or verb choice. regarding the actual adjective/adverbs themselves, the results of this study provide an interesting overview of certain salient values in legal discourse, and the role they play in text. while “clear/clearly” and “important/importantly” appear to have a persuasive function, being used to project epistemic certainty and order points in the discourse, the other four pairs (“reasonable/reasonably”, “correct/correctly”, “proper/properly” and “appropriate/appropriately”) appear to convey disciplinary valuejudgements, and despite their apparent similarity, seem not to be interchangeable. specifically, the finding of specific patterns as regards ngrams and semantic preferences tends to support the notion that these words have different discipline-specific roles which are hard for nonspecialists to define precisely. in general, they appear to belong to the class of lexical items which has been described as “sub-technical vocabulary” (dudley-evans & st. john, 1998: 80; flowerdew, 2001: 78) or “cryptotechnical vocabulary” (howard, 1991: 15); that is, words which are neither truly common-core vocabulary (“good”, “useful”) nor genuine technical terms (“tort”, “duress”), but which can be described as “re-designated general language items” (sager, dungworth & mcdonald, 1980: 24). however, other authors have distinguished between common words which occur regularly in a particular discipline and have acquired a specialised meaning (e.g. in medical english, words such as “complications” or “examination”), which in their view can be defined as “sub-technical vocabulary” in a strict sense, and common-core words that are simply more frequent in a specialised field, but which maintain their usual meaning, and are an essential component in the language of the discipline (alcaraz, 2000; pérez-paredes & sánchez, 2005). in the present study, even though the disciplinary values in legal discourse ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 111 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 111 words are all in general usage, and belong to the first thousand word families of english, their meaning within the specialized discourses of law has been found to be both more specific and more circumscribed than might be expected. it appears that these words can be situated in the second of these categories, that is, as common words that are markedly frequent in legal language, although one of the words (“reasonable/ly”) appears to cross the borderline between frequent words and sub-technical words as defined above. of all the items studied here, “reasonable/reasonably” appears to be the most specific instance of a word with a special resonance in the field of law. its extremely high frequency across all four subcorpora, and the large number of high-frequency n-grams associated with it, point to its having a particular, legally-specific significance. however, even though the construct of the “reasonable person” is familiar as part of legal discourse, the vast majority of occurrences in these corpora did not make a direct association between “reasonable” and “person”. instead, most of the instances documented here would appear to extend that construct further, by some process of transfer, so that the commonest combinations were with personal characteristics (“prudence”), actions (“efforts”, “steps”), presumably such as would be expected of the “reasonable person”, and then with epistemological aspects such as “interpreting”, “inferring”, “concluding”, and so on, which presumably project the positive quality of reasonableness to the writer him/herself. it is thus viable to propose that reasonableness is truly a characteristic disciplinary value that crosses the borders of different legal genres, and is applied both in a classically technical sense, as a construct needed to measure human behaviour, and in an extended sense, as a value that legal writers wish to appropriate for themselves. regarding “correct”, “proper” and “appropriate”, the boundaries dividing their semantic fields are harder to demarcate. corpus studies in other areas have done much to elucidate the semantic preferences of apparent synonyms (cf. partington, 1998, 39-47 on the preferences of “sheer”). in academic articles and case law, “correct/correctly” are generally found with verbs or nouns of thinking, saying and deciding. this is not wholly surprising in case law, because the discourses of case law are inevitably concerned with weighing up and determining the right course of action. it is more interesting that the same terminology is used almost to the same degree in academic writing, where its connotations of normativity and prescriptiveness might make it seem rather incongruous. notably, “correct” ruth breeze ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116112 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 112 was found to be much more frequent in the academic law articles in the present study than in the bawe corpus of cross-disciplinary academic written english. this evidence would seem, again, to indicate that the particular value of correctness, which may have originated in the context of the courtroom, has become enshrined in legal discourse across a range of genres. it was also noteworthy that “correct” also appeared frequently in the legal documents subcorpus, but that its use there was quite different, since here it referred almost exclusively to the accuracy of specific documents. as far as “proper” and “appropriate” and their respective adverbs are concerned, “proper” was found to combine with a relatively wide range of items, including epistemic verbs/nouns, in case law, and with a narrower range centring on correctly executed actions and procedures, in legislation and legal documents. “appropriate” had a narrower range of application, and seemed mainly to denote a quality of proportionality or suitability to context. “proper” was three times as common in academic law as in bawe, as was “properly”, while “appropriate” was found to have the same frequency in academic law as in bawe. extrapolating from this, we can perceive that properness is a more pervasive legal value, which can apply to analyses and interpretations as well as to correctly executed procedures, and which appears to indicate that something is done as it should be, with a stamp of legal approval. moreover, its use extends to the academic sphere, where it would not be expected. in this, the meaning and semantic preferences of “proper” are close to those of “correct”, although their fields of use differed: “proper” was particularly common in case law and legislation (areas where procedures are foregrounded), whereas “correct” was frequent in all the subcorpora except legislation. “appropriate”, on the other hand, could be seen to denote suitability in context, rather than an abstract quality of rightness, and was not found with epistemic verbs except in the set phrases “consider appropriate” and “deem appropriate”, which again emphasize suitability in context rather than an abstract value. in summary, this paper has addressed the question of disciplinary values in law by detailed study of the behaviour of six adjective/adverb pairs in four subcorpora of legal texts. it is clear that academic authors and judges who deliver rulings and opinions construct an authoritative voice by signalling the value (or non-value) of their own contributions and of other knowledge claims that are under discussion, and that they rely on a specific disciplinary value framework to underpin their discourse. we have seen here that certain key lexical items of an evaluative nature (“reasonable”, “correct”, “proper”, disciplinary values in legal discourse ibérica 21 (2011): 93-116 113 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 113 “appropriate”) appear to play an essential role in their value system. moreover, it has also been shown that there is considerable overlap between the salience and use of these items in academic and case law, and in other areas of legal discourse, since the same words also play a significant role in the language of legislation and legal documents. further research is needed to establish whether the discourses of other disciplines, such as economics or medicine, also make use of specific sets of prominent value-laden lexical items across a variety of different academic and professional genres. 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(1881). the common law. boston: little, brown and co. 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 115 05 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:21 página 116 iberica 13 ibérica 41 (2021): 39-60 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract professional organizations use websites as spaces for the creation of communities. academies of sciences are examples of professional organizations, and their websites represent scientific discourse used in these scientific communities. however, little to no attention has been paid to the ways in which websites of academies of sciences present these scientific organizations in general and use rhetorical temporality for that purpose in particular. in this article, we attempt to explore how rhetorical temporality functions across two academies of sciences’ websites associated with different nations: the us national academy of sciences and the royal swedish academy of sciences. we situated our research within the frames of epideictic rhetoric, the role of consensus in the rhetoric of science, and rhetorical temporality. we developed a coding scheme that we applied to our data to categorize the individual pages on each site according to how they were temporally situated. our analysis revealed several differences in the ways that the temporal categories we developed were used within each site. the coding scheme we created shows potential for future application to websites belonging to other professional organizations. keywords: scientific communication, digital communication, rhetoric of science, academies of sciences, rhetorical temporality. resumen temporalidad retórica en la comunicación científica en línea: un análisis de los sitios web de las academias de ciencias de ee.uu. y suecia las organizaciones profesionales se sirven de los sitios web como espacios para la creación de comunidades. las academias de ciencias son ejemplos de rhetorical temporality in online scientific communication: an analysis of the us and swedish academies of sciences websites olga menagarishvili & bret zawilski metropolitan state university (usa) & maynooth university (ireland) olga.menagarishvili@metrostate.edu, bret.zawilski@gmail.com 39 ibérica 41 (2021): 39-60 olga menagarishvili & bret zawilski organizaciones profesionales y sus sitios web son una muestra del discurso científico utilizado en estas comunidades científicas. sin embargo, apenas se ha prestado atención al modo en que las sitios web de las academias de ciencias presentan a estas organizaciones científicas y a cómo explotan la temporalidad retórica para ese propósito en particular. en este artículo exploramos cómo funciona la temporalidad retórica en dos sitios web de dos academias de ciencias: la academia nacional de ciencias de ee. uu. y la real academia de las ciencias de suecia. nuestra investigación se sitúa en el marco de la retórica epidíctica, el papel del consenso en la retórica de la ciencia y la temporalidad retórica. hemos desarrollado un esquema de codificación que aplicamos a nuestros datos para clasificar las páginas individuales de cada sitio de acuerdo con su ubicación temporal. nuestro análisis ha evidenciado varias diferencias en el modo en que se utilizan en cada sitio las categorías temporales desarrolladas. el esquema de codificación que hemos desarrollado presenta un importante potencial para aplicaciones futuras en sitios web pertenecientes a otras organizaciones profesionales. palabras clave: comunicación científica, comunicación digital, retórica de ciencias, academias de ciencias, temporalidad retórica. 1. introduction the websites of professional organizations not only represent spaces for the creation of communities, but also serve as a space for the invention of a temporal identity as they present a history, reiterate the current position, and signal future directions for an organization. at the same time, the websites of academies of sciences are examples of scientific discourse, and their temporal nature becomes even more important when considering the ways in which science as an enterprise has always been rhetorically situated. ways of communicating about science online have been explored (for example, trench, 2008). other sources have also discussed more specific genres of online science and scientific communication, such as blogs (colson, 2011), online journalistic sites (bubela et al., 2009), and grant-funding organizations (palmer & schibeci, 2014). however, no attention has been given to the way that scientific academies have presented themselves through their websites in general and through their use of rhetorical temporality on those websites in particular. as palmer and schibeci (2014, p. 513) noted, “little or no attention” has been granted to sites of peer communication within the sciences. while the websites of the academies address a variety of audiences, they are also examples of peer communication among professionals within the field. 40 additionally, these organizations serve as science research funding bodies, and so the rhetorical strategies being employed by the websites of these academies play a significant role in the function of scientific communication. we selected the us national academy of sciences and the royal swedish academy of sciences due to the similarity of their stated mission and goals. the us national academy of sciences describes itself as an organization that aims: “to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems. […] [they] also encourage education and research, recognize outstanding contributions to knowledge and increase public understanding in matters of science, engineering, and medicine”. similarly, the royal swedish academy of sciences positions itself as: “an independent organisation, whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. […] [its activities] primarily focus on: being a voice of science in society […], providing a scientific basis for public debate […], recognising outstanding contributions to research […], disseminating knowledge to the public […], [and] mediating international scientific contacts”. according to each of these statements on their respective websites, these academies are both devoted to preserving the independence of scientific endeavors while seeking to recognize “outstanding contributions” as well as aligning in other goals. in this study, we attempt to explore how rhetorical temporality functions across two scientific academy websites associated with different nations: the usa and sweden. by examining the websites from two countries, we look to trace the multiple ways in which similar organizations can be temporally constructed in different cultural contexts. 2. theoretical background for this project, we situated our research within three frames: epideictic rhetoric, the role of consensus in the rhetoric of science, and rhetorical temporality. rhetorical temporality in online scientific communication: an analysis of the us and swedish academies of sciences websites ibérica 41 (2021): 39-60 41 we recognize that organizational websites serve as examples of epideictic rhetoric as they reflect, in the present moment, the values of the organizations they represent. organizational websites have been studied from this perspective. for example, farcaş (2016) looked at the ways in which the websites of the ministries of the romanian government present, communicate, and define institutional identity. a study conducted by sillince and brown (2009) focused on police websites and explored how multiple organizational identities are constructed through rhetoric to maintain and enhance the legitimacy claims made by the organizations. we chose to use this framework because the epideictic nature of these sites also calls attention to the way in which the temporality of the present is used to establish the values and prerogatives of these organizations. our second frame is the role of consensus in the rhetoric of science. many scholars have previously argued that science is a rhetorically constructed discourse (simons, 1980; miller & selzer, 1985; fahnestock, 1986; prelli, 1989; gross, 1990; ceccarelli, 2001; walsch, 2010; reid, 2019). more specifically, drawing on the work of alan gross (2006), we recognize that scientific bodies often use a rhetorical appeal to objectivity as a persuasive strategy that lends credibility to scientific endeavors. yet gross (2006, p. 22) also emphasizes the role that consensus plays in these communities, noting that “at any time, in any science, scientists must make up their minds about what needs to be explained, what constitutes an explanation, and how such an explanation constrains what counts as evidence”, and these decisions, situated within a community, must be made in connection with other scientists. we selected this frame because each of the academies we study represents one of the authorizing bodies that often grapple with presenting science to various audiences as well as signaling the collective agreement surrounding the ongoing goals of scientific research. in other words, these communities are places where consensus is created as members of the academies work toward deciding what needs to be explained. our third frame is rhetorical temporality in websites. most research that has been done in this area focused on news websites. for example, ybema (2010, p. 481) discussed “how the editors of a dutch national newspaper constructed their newspaper’s identity in temporal discontinuity talk, discursively constructing a contrast between the ‘old’ and the ‘new,’ between legacies from a common past and plans for the future”. a study conducted by bødker and brügger (2018, p. 56) explores “how the temporalities of online news have developed since the first news sites in the mid-1990s” and focuses on the olga menagarishvili & bret zawilski ibérica 41 (2021): 39-6042 analysis on morphological and syntactical levels while extröm (2016) examines the interaction of past, present, and future in online news of disasters. we selected this frame because theories of the rhetoric of science suggest that the temporal lenses used by communicators within the field carry meaning and are not an arbitrary construction. other studies discuss temporality in online consumer reviews and online corporate pictorials. for example, vásquez (2015, p. 5) explores “how both the remote past and the present are variably deployed as discursive resources” by the authors of user-generated online consumer reviews and provides references to the past realized with such linguistic features as past temporal adverbs, grammatical aspect, and prepositional phrases. rämö’s (2017) study discusses examples of time and temporality in online corporate pictorials, including the captured moments motif, decisive moments motif, and allegory of time motif. we agree with ybema (2010, p. 481), who points out that “temporality is generally acknowledged as a critical ingredient in processes of identity formation”. bødker and sonnevend (2018, p. 3) also consider journalism as “a series of interrelated practices for the social construction of time” and point out that it “arrests the ordinary and the usual in various forms of texts that create feelings of simultaneity, help define the contemporary, outline possible futures, and shape our understanding and memories of the past”. however, in another analysis of the temporal spectrum in news narratives, neiger and tenenboim-weinblatt (2016, p. 139) emphasize the importance of going beyond the three conventional orientations that are usually defined as “past-present-future” and introduce five clusters of temporal layers and different journalistic roles: “updating (present and immediate past/future), reporting (recent past), contextualization and ritualistic functions (midrange to distant past), analysis (near future), and projection (far/conjectured future)”. zelizer (2018, p. 114) further discusses the need to use more “differentiated, nuanced, and active” temporalities instead of simple and linear assumptions of time in digital news. for the purposes of this study, we rely heavily on the use of our third frame, rhetorical temporality, in our analysis. however, the prior two frames functioned implicitly throughout our analysis. considerations of our first frame, epideictic rhetoric, informed all of our temporal coding as we found through our initial research that organizational websites were frequently connected to considerations of present values held within the rhetorical temporality in online scientific communication: an analysis of the us and swedish academies of sciences websites ibérica 41 (2021): 39-60 43 organization–a fundamentally epideictic concern. additionally, our investigation of the rhetorical temporality of these websites provided support for the argument that these spaces are active communities in which members strive for consensus–our second frame–through the construction of a temporal representation of the organization. while research into each of these angles can be found separately for different kinds of websites (i.e., organizational websites (sillince & brown, 2009; farcaş, 2016), news sites (ybema, 2010; extröm, 2016; bødker & brügger, 2018), and online consumer reviews (vásquez, 2015), we found no studies that addressed websites of scientific academies from the three angles discussed above (epideictic rhetoric, the role of consensus in the rhetoric of science, and rhetorical temporality). we feel that it is important to consider these frames in connection with the websites of these academies because they provide valuable insight into the ways through which knowledge, consensus, and the construction of public awareness (similar to the purpose of the news sites previously studied) are deployed in a context that has not been previously explored. the purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by exploring how temporally situated content functions across two scientific academy websites associated with different nations. additionally, we will propose and use a coding scheme that will involve more nuanced temporalities. 3. methodology the two websites that we selected for this project were the website for the us national academy of sciences (http://nasonline.org/) and the website for the royal swedish academy of sciences (https://kva.se/en/startsida). these websites were chosen because they represent similar organizations (academies of sciences) belonging to different nations, and they seemed well suited to a pilot research project using the framework of rhetorical temporality that we have developed as they involve peer communication as well as science communication targeted to a broader public, suggesting a diversity of content. additionally, both websites contained content in english. more specifically, the entire us website was presented in english while the swedish website had an english and a swedish version. because of the scope of this paper, we only analyzed the content published in english. even during our initial project development, changes to each of the websites were fairly regular, and we recognized that we would need to work with static olga menagarishvili & bret zawilski ibérica 41 (2021): 39-6044 versions of the websites to ensure our dataset’s consistency. in order to provide ourselves with a static text for analysis, we began our data collection by cataloguing both sites and creating archived offline versions of each site in may of 2017. the next step involved the creation of a visual sitemap of each website’s pages going down to the third level of site organization (see figures 1 and 2). we chose to limit our analysis to the first three levels because on both sites, content that we found below the third level was usually automatically generated from a database. rhetorical temporality in online scientific communication: an analysis of the us and swedish academies of sciences websites ibérica 41 (2021): 39-60 45 figure 1. sitemap for the us national academy of sciences. figure 2. sitemap for the royal swedish academy of sciences. e gurfi 1. metsi cneiscfoymedaaclanoitnaus ehtrofpam .sec e gurfi 2. ametsi neiscfoymedaachsidswelayroehtrofpa .secn we developed a coding scheme to categorize the content on each page, and while we were coding, we used the sitemaps (see figures 1 and 2) to keep track of those coding decisions. our coding categories, which we also explain below, can be found in figure 3. pages coded as present (pr) were those that did not provide any forecasting or contextualization aimed at influencing future action or re-situating past activity in the organizations. an example of a page coded as pr on the swedish website would be the “organization and objectives”, which essentially provides an overview of the current structure of the academy. pages coded as past (p) were categorized as external documents that were merely attached to the sites. in this sense, pages coded as p were not created with the purpose of rearticulating the past, but rather as a space for the archival of prior texts or documentation. on the us site, we identified the organization’s annual report to congress as an example of a document that was attached to the site with no explicit contextualization. the most interesting of the categories we identified involved the development of vectors, represented by arrows, to signal that the choices regarding the past and the future events were made in the present. in other words, our perception of these texts highlighted the epideictic nature of these sites, which automatically situated past and future elements through the present. pages coded as present shaping the future (pr ⟶ f) served as a space for each organization to project its goals or call for future action. these were often signaled by imperative statements designed to lead the audience to olga menagarishvili & bret zawilski ibérica 41 (2021): 39-6046 figure 3. temporal coding categories. p p gurfi e gur 3 .srieogtea cgindol craopme. t some action or belief. examples of pages coded as pr ⟶ f on both the royal swedish academy of sciences and the us national academy of sciences websites were the “events” pages, which often focused on promoting future events sponsored or hosted by the organizations. pages coded as present shaping the past (p ⟵ pr) often focused on contextualizing current activities by presenting a historical narrative. this historical contextualization presented the information in a way different from the temporality of a purely past (p) temporal category. examples of this category were frequent and could be found in the royal swedish academy’s description of its major prizes and the historical legacies of these prizes. also, in some instances we made use of compound codes when multiple temporalities were signaled in a single page. for example, certain pages included both a contextualization of past events and projections of future activity, which we would code as p ⟵ pr ⟶ f to represent the multiple vectors at work. we referred to this coding category as the spectrum. after some initial calibration of the deductive coding scheme, our interrater reliability was 100% across each of the sites, including instances of doublecoding particular pages. 4. results after applying our coding scheme to the pages from the us national academy of sciences and the royal swedish academy of sciences websites, we found a distribution of percentages across the various temporal categories that signified visible differences in the way temporality was used in the two sites (see table 1). this spread allowed us to focus on particular instances of disparity. some of these pages were double-coded, which explains the difference between the total number of pages analyzed and the sum of instances for individual temporal categories. we counted doublecoded pages twice (once for each category). rhetorical temporality in online scientific communication: an analysis of the us and swedish academies of sciences websites ibérica 41 (2021): 39-60 47 to summarize, we found that the most frequent temporal categories we identified for the us national academy of sciences were p ⟵ pr and pr ⟶ f; for the royal swedish academy of sciences, the most popular categories were pr and p ⟵ pr. conversely, the least popular category for the us site was p, and the least popular category for the swedish site was p ⟵ pr ⟶ f. 5. discussion after looking at how each temporal category was used in smaller sections of each site, we found two sections where the differences we identified were meaningful. those were (1) pages defining each organization and its goals and (2) pages describing awards and prizes offered by the two organizations. finally, we looked at pages that made use of the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f category as there were notable differences in the way this category was used. 5.1. pages defining each organization and its goals the us website had 13 pages focused on defining the organization and its goals. one of the first trends that we noted was that us national academy of sciences made use of the p ⟵ pr category and tended toward historization to highlight the credibility and reputability of the organization as a whole in places like the mission statement and the “organization” page. more specifically, we found instances of p ⟵ pr in seven out of the 13 pages (53.85%), while we only identified instances of pr in three out of the 13 pages (23.08 %). for example, the “mission” page on the us site states: olga menagarishvili & bret zawilski ibérica 41 (2021): 39-6048 a website total number of pages analyzed pr p pr ! f p " pr p " pr ! f the us national academy of sciences 81 14 (17.28%) 5 (6.17%) 26 (32.1%) 27 (33.33%) 14 (17.28%) the royal swedish academy of sciences 112 41 (36.61%) 12 (10.71%) 17 (15.18%) 41 (36.61%) 6 (5.36%) table 1. total distribution of temporal categories across all pages. t established by an act of congress, signed by president abraham lincoln in 1863, the nas is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. [...] nearly 500 members of the nas have won nobel prizes, and the proceedings of the national academy of sciences, founded in 1914, is today one of the premier international journals publishing the results of original research. in this passage, the us national academy of sciences attaches itself to notable historical figures, such as president abraham lincoln, when describing its overarching goal. the content of this page also explicitly highlights its historical situatedness by providing several notable dates, including its founding in 1863 and the founding of its primary research publication in 1914. finally, the passage also references the numerous members who have previously been awarded nobel prizes for their research, establishing a tradition of noteworthy contributions to the sciences. in many ways, the mission statement’s primary passage spends much more time emphasizing its historical basis than defining the ongoing work that the organization supports. in accordance with our vector category, p ⟵ pr, this is an example of a description of the present work of the organization being heavily situated and shaped by an invocation of the past. aspects of the past have been selected that highlight the current mission, a trend that we will see in other sections dedicated to establishing the identity of the organization. similarly, we see another example of this on the “organization” page, where the us national academy of sciences is described in the following way: the national academy of sciences was established in 1863 by an act of congress, signed by president lincoln, as a private, nongovernmental institution to advise the nation on issues related to science and technology. members are elected by their peers for outstanding contributions to research. dr. marcia mcnutt is president. this passage shares several similarities with the mission statement of the organization, including a reference to the founding date of the us national academy of sciences and the invocation of president abraham lincoln. even though it provides a broad overview of the structure of the organization including its goals and the procedural consideration of member election, the passage is also focused on re-articulating the past as a way of describing the present state of affairs. rhetorical temporality in online scientific communication: an analysis of the us and swedish academies of sciences websites ibérica 41 (2021): 39-60 49 in contrast, the royal swedish academy of sciences website had 10 pages focused on the organization and its goals and predominantly relied upon the pr temporal category, emphasizing current actions and initiatives. we found instances of pr in seven out of 10 pages (70%), while we only identified instances of p ⟵ pr in three out of the 10 pages (30%). for example, the “objectives” page for the swedish site reads: the royal swedish academy of sciences is an independent nongovernmental organisation, whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. the academy has a particular responsibility for natural science and mathematics, but its work strives to increase interaction between different disciplines. here, the text of the passage relies primarily upon a description of ongoing initiatives and goals. despite describing the academy as a non-governmental organization, the passage does not provide any further detail regarding the academy’s specific historical situatedness. as a result, there is significantly less emphasis placed on historicization in connection with a description of the organizational structure. another example of the prominence of the pr temporal category comes from “the academy’s organization” page of the royal swedish academy of sciences site. this page states: the academy meets regularly in plenary meetings to take important decisions. responsibility for developing the academy’s activities and making efficient use of available resources lies with the academy board. the president (preses) is the chair of the academy and leads its plenary meetings and board meetings. three vice presidents head committees within the academy. they as well as the president are elected to hold office for fixed terms. here we see that the pr temporal category that is used in this section frames the royal swedish academy of sciences through its current hierarchical structure. when referencing prominent individuals, the swedish site primarily makes use of position titles, such as “the president”, rather than referring to specific historical individuals who may have held the position previously. it discusses activities once again, referencing the regularly occurring “plenary meetings”. thus, these academies established their objectives and organizational structure through the use of different temporal appeals. the us national olga menagarishvili & bret zawilski ibérica 41 (2021): 39-6050 academy of sciences site primarily used the p ⟵ pr temporal category while the royal swedish academy of sciences site mainly made use of the pr temporal category. 5.2. pages describing awards and prizes the section covering organizational goals and structure was not the only place where we saw differences in the temporal categories that were used by each organization. when looking at pages that described awards and prizes offered or sponsored by the two organizations, the two sites also differed in some notable ways. the us national academy of sciences site had six pages focused on awards and prizes, and a majority of those pages made use of the pr ⟶ f temporal category. we found instances of pr ⟶ f on three out of six pages (50%), one instance of p ⟵ pr ⟶ f (16.67%), one instance of pr (16.67%), and one instance of p (16.67%). more specifically, we see a great deal of pr ⟶ f on the “how to nominate” page; for example, the pages discussing award nominations are primarily focused on providing guidelines for submissions, such as “all nominations must be submitted online. unless otherwise stated, the following materials must be submitted”. this is followed by a list of required materials or guidelines. as stated in our “method” section, we used pr ⟶ f both to code future actions as well as imperative sentences, drawing attention to passages that directed the audience to take a particular action in the future. this particular page included imperative instruction, keyed toward inspiring the audience to take action by submitting a nomination. similarly, the “connect with awards” page makes heavy use of the imperative tone as a way of fostering engagement with the awards process: “join the awards mailing list to receive announcements, e-alerts, and information about the nomination process and deadlines. questions? contact us at awards@nas.edu”. again, the emphasis on the “connect with awards” page appears to be primarily oriented toward fostering action on the part of the site visitors. rather than overtly making any historical context for the awards visible, the page emphasizes the procedurality of applying for awards. conversely, the royal swedish academy of sciences’ awards section contained many instances of the p ⟵ pr temporal category. the swedish website had significantly more pages devoted to awards and prizes than the us website: 41 pages in total. we found 23 instances of p ⟵ pr (56.1%), rhetorical temporality in online scientific communication: an analysis of the us and swedish academies of sciences websites ibérica 41 (2021): 39-60 51 nine instances of p (21.95%), seven instances of pr (17.07%), and four instances of pr ⟶ f (9.76%). for example, the main descriptive text on the “nobel prizes” page drew heavily on the p ⟵ pr temporal category in a description of the history of this prestigious award: by the terms of alfred nobel’s will the nobel prizes in physics and chemistry have been awarded by the academy since 1901. the awarding ceremony takes place on 10 december, the anniversary of alfred nobel’s death. each prize can be shared by three laureates at the most. the laureates are announced here and at nobelprize.org every year in mid-october immediately after they have been chosen. here, the royal swedish academy of sciences references the historical situatedness of the nobel prize. while some of the information describes procedural elements of the award, such as the nature of the annual ceremony and announcement process, it is largely contextualized by a description of the longevity of the prize. this use of historical context when discussing awards is also present in other major pages on the royal swedish academy of sciences website. while the sveriges riksbank prize in economic sciences may be not as well-known as the nobel prize, the “prize in economic sciences” page introduces it through a similar p ⟵ pr temporal category: the sveriges riksbank prize in economic sciences in memory of alfred nobel was instituted in 1968, at the tercentenary of the bank. the awarding ceremony takes place on 10 december, the anniversary of alfred nobel’s death. the laureates in economic sciences are announced and published on the academy’s and the nobel foundation web sites every year in midoctober immediately after they have been chosen. procedural elements of the award process are also present in this passage, but the page is situated through a historical framing of the prize. as a result, we can see two different approaches to contextualizing awards and prizes using separate temporal categories on the two websites. while each academy seeks to promote the existence of its prizes and awards, the emphasis is different. the us website emphasizes the procedurality by using the pr ⟶ f temporal category, while the swedish website focuses on the historical situatedness of the awards by using the p ⟵ pr temporal category. olga menagarishvili & bret zawilski ibérica 41 (2021): 39-6052 5.3. pages making use of the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f category finally, the last notable difference in temporal categories we noted during our analysis was not situated around individual sections of the websites. rather, we noticed that there was an interesting difference in the way each website made use of the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f temporal category. the use of the entire spectrum of temporalities on a single page, identified as p ⟵ pr ⟶ f, occurred several times across each of the websites, but the ways in which it was leveraged greatly differed. on the us website, the spectrum appeared only on pages where the organization was seeking to inspire action directly related to the academy itself. in fact, all 14 instances of p ⟵ pr ⟶ f temporal category on the us site were found on pages that sought action regarding the us national academy of sciences. for example, we see p ⟵ pr ⟶ f temporal category represented on the “giving to nas” page: on may 1, nas president marcia mcnutt hosted 40 guests at the 2018 elkan blout society luncheon to express her gratitude to those nas members and spouses whose generous financial contributions have greatly enhanced our work as scientific advisor to the nation. held during nas annual meeting, this luncheon has become an annual tradition to recognize some of the nas’ most charitable and loyal donors, and to welcome new members into three of our academy giving societies: the einstein society, the elkan blout society, and the heritage society. this year’s luncheon welcomed four new members to the einstein society and twelve to the elkan blout society. thank you to all of our giving society members for their dedicated generous support. if you have any questions or would like to know how you can become a member of our giving societies, please contact mark carter, nas director of development. in this instance, the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f temporal category is used to situate awareness of important events associated with the organization that represent an ongoing or cyclical investment from members of the us national academy of sciences. the past is visible in the description of the 2018 elkan blout society luncheon that took place on may 1, 2018, while the present is invoked in a procedural overview of the event and its purposes. finally, the future manifests in the imperative statement at the conclusion of the passage, invoking action from members of the us national academy of sciences. rhetorical temporality in online scientific communication: an analysis of the us and swedish academies of sciences websites ibérica 41 (2021): 39-60 53 likewise, we see the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f category appear on pages for major programs spearheaded by the us national academy of sciences as an organization, such as on the “about distinctive voices” page: distinctive voices highlights innovations, discoveries, and emerging issues in an exciting and engaging public forum. do you wonder how things work? what the future holds? if you are curious about the science and technology behind today’s hot topics, distinctive voices is for you! spend an evening gaining insights on significant advances in medicine, biotechnology, energy, the environment, space exploration, and more. learn from some of the best minds in the world–including members of the national academy of sciences, the national academy of engineering, and the national academy of medicine–in presentations geared to the general public. events are held in irvine, california with videos of past distinctive voices events available on our youtube channel. [...]. distinctive voices was created in 2006 as a program of the national academy of sciences communication initiative to increase science literacy. the program, hosted at the beckman center in irvine, california receives major funding from national academy of sciences arthur l. day fund, national academy of sciences w. k. kellogg foundation fund and the national academy of sciences frank press fund for dissemination and outreach. the present is visible in a description of distinctive voices’ mission to “highlight innovations, discoveries, and emerging issues”, procedural information regarding how and where events are typically held, as well as information regarding the funding that it currently receives. the future in this passage is signaled by imperative instruction, encouraging individuals to participate in the distinctive voices program. finally, the past is invoked in the second paragraph in the description of the program’s creation in 2006. as seen on both the “giving to nas” and the “about distinctive voices” pages, which we excerpted above, the information being conveyed to the audience directly relates to programs or initiatives for the us national academy of sciences. the passages situate the event or initiative through a historical context, describe the present structure, and include a call to action or participation from the audience. for the website of the royal swedish academy of sciences, however, the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f was almost entirely associated with position statements that olga menagarishvili & bret zawilski ibérica 41 (2021): 39-6054 sought to evoke action from bodies beyond that of the academy. out of six total instances of the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f temporal category, five of those (83.33%) were connected to calls for action directed at institutions beyond the academy itself. for example, on the “support for ahmadreza djalali” page, the royal swedish academy of sciences advocates for an individual while describing a current ongoing human rights crisis: in a letter to the leaders of iran, the committee expresses support for the release of the researcher ahmad reza djalali, imprisoned in evin prison in iran since april 2016. the committee is also very concerned about djalalis health as he is on a hunger strike again. the committee urges the iranian authorities to ensure that incarceration follow un rules for the treatment of prisoners (nelson mandela rules), in particular, that he is taken out of solitary confinement, allowed to communicate regularly with his lawyer and family and is provided with all necessary medical care. in this passage, the past is invoked by referencing djalali’s imprisonment since 2016, the present is referenced through the committee’s ongoing support for this individual, and the future call to action is directed toward the iranian government. similarly, on the “concern about developments in turkey regarding human rights and the situation for researchers” page, another example of the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f temporal category is present: dr. serkan golge, a respected physicist with dual u.s./turkish citizenship, was arrested in turkey’s hatay province on july 23, 2016, while visiting his parents. he is accused of membership in fetö, which he has denied. in the absence of reasonable evidence to support the charges against dr. golge, the human rights committee urges the turkish authorities to ensure that he is promptly and unconditionally released from prison. in addition to discussing past and present events, this page again advocates for action, not from its member-participants, but from the turkish government as a whole. in this way, each of these pages focuses on inspiring action external to the royal swedish academy of sciences as an organization and seeks to create some kind of social action in the world broadly writ. rhetorical temporality in online scientific communication: an analysis of the us and swedish academies of sciences websites ibérica 41 (2021): 39-60 55 on both of these academies’ websites, there is a clear emphasis on calls to action on pages that included the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f temporal category. in a sense, the two different uses of this category represent a somewhat insular perspective compared to an external orientation from the organizations as a whole. the us website remained largely focused on the activity of the national academy of sciences itself, while the swedish website extended its appeals to institutions well outside the boundaries of the royal swedish academy of sciences. 6. conclusions in this study, we explored the websites for two academies of sciences, which had not been studied previously. in particular, we sought to understand how rhetorical temporality functions across the us national academy of sciences and the royal swedish academy of sciences. to conduct our analysis, we created a coding scheme that captures a more nuanced understanding of the way temporality is employed in each of these sites. more specifically, we developed the temporal categories of present (pr), past (p), present-to-past (p ⟵ pr), present-to-future (pr ⟶ f), and the spectrum (p ⟵ pr ⟶ f) to emphasize that choices regarding the past and future events are often framed through the present. by employing these temporal categories, we discovered notable differences between the two websites. most broadly, we identified p ⟵ pr and pr ⟶ f were the most frequently occurring temporal categories on the us national academy of sciences website, and pr and p ⟵ pr were the most frequently seen temporal categories on the royal swedish academy of sciences. while the p ⟵ pr temporal category occurs on both sites, there are some broadly-observed differences between the sites as well. the wide usage of pr ⟶ f on the us site may be explained by the significant amount of imperative content present on the us site. likewise, the emphasis on the pr temporal category on the swedish site may reflect the institution’s focus on structure and procedural operations. in addition to looking at the big picture, we identified several smaller sections on each website and found some interesting differences in how the temporal categories were used in two of these sections: (1) pages that olga menagarishvili & bret zawilski ibérica 41 (2021): 39-6056 defined the organizational goals and structure and (2) pages that dealt with awards and prizes. on pages that defined the academies’ goals and structure, the us and swedish sites differed in the temporal categories that were most frequent. the us site primarily made use of the p ⟵ pr category, while the swedish site relied most heavily on material that was coded as pr. our interpretation of these data led us to believe that this difference could be the result of a greater emphasis on structure and procedure within the swedish site, which focused more on the current undertakings of the organization. the us site, though, relied much more heavily on appeals toward credibility established by historical figures or the longevity of the organization. the other section that demonstrated differences in how the temporal categories were used focused on the awards and prizes offered by each academy. in this instance, the us site relied most heavily on the pr ⟶ f category, which could be explained by the us site’s focus on imperative content–in this case, specific instructions on how to apply for certain prizes and awards. conversely, the swedish site focused on the historical situatedness of the royal swedish academy of sciences’ awards and prizes by employing the p ⟵ pr temporal category. finally, we observed a difference in how the us and swedish sites made use of the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f temporal category. while this category was not associated with a singular section within the site, its implementation across both websites differed. on the us site, the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f temporal category appeared only on pages where the academy sought to inspire engagement that was directly related to the academy itself. this implementation was much more internally directed than the use of the p ⟵ pr ⟶ f category on the swedish site, where the spectrum was primarily identified on pages seeking to inspire action from entities outside of the academy. our interpretation led us to believe that this could be due to a greater emphasis within the royal swedish academy of sciences on engagement with the international scientific community. we believe that the coding scheme we developed could be useful for conducting research on scientific academies representing other countries. more specifically, our next step is looking at the scientific academies of russia and china so that we could extend the body of analysis beyond western institutions in order to determine how rhetorical temporality may be used across a more diverse sample of academies. while we believe the differences we identified above are meaningful, more research is needed in rhetorical temporality in online scientific communication: an analysis of the us and swedish academies of sciences websites ibérica 41 (2021): 39-60 57 order to determine the full scope of how rhetorical temporality is used within the websites of scientific academies, which serve as sites of professional communication. article history: received 27 june 2019 received in revised form 03 august 2020 accepted 21 may 2021 olga menagarishvili & bret zawilski ibérica 41 (2021): 39-6058 references bubela, t., nisbet, m.c., borchelt, r., brunger, f., critchley, c., einsiedel, e., geller, g., gupta, a., hampel, j., hyde-lay, r., jandciu, e.w., jones, s.a., kolopack, p., lane, s., lougheed, t., nerlich, b., ogbogu, u., o’riordan, k., ouellette, c., spear, m., strauss, s., thavaratnam, t., willemse, l., & caulfield, t. 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(2018). epilogue: timing the study of news temporality. journalism, 19(1), 111–121. iberica 13 ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 resumen simulación y juego es una estrategia de formación que comparte los principios que predica el socioconstructivismo y que responde a necesidades específicas de formación del paradigma actual de educación. la consolidación del uso de la simulación o el juego como herramientas docentes es el resultado de una larga trayectoria que culmina con la convergencia entre las teorías de enseñanzaaprendizaje y un enfoque pedagógico más pragmático, basado en la experiencia, que brinda como resultado un aprendizaje más significativo. este trabajo investiga cómo el carácter puramente lúdico con el que nacen los primeros juegos se transforma en instrumental. con este objetivo, se hace un recorrido por las diferentes aplicaciones de la simulación y el juego desde sus orígenes, como juegos de guerra y posteriormente juegos de empresa, hasta su afianzamiento como estrategia docente en numerosas disciplinas y actividades de formación. la posibilidad de vivir una experiencia sin riesgos en una situación bajo un escenario real o simulado nutre un enfoque docente basado en “aprender haciendo”. desde finales de los años cincuenta, estrategias de formación de uso tradicionalmente militar se prodigan entre numerosas disciplinas y entornos específicos de formación, entre las que se incluye el aprendizaje de lenguas para fines específicos. palabras clave: simulación, juego, juegos de guerra y de empresa, formación basada en la experiencia, socioconstructivismo. abstract historical perspective of simulation and gaming as a teaching strategy: from war to the language-for-specific-purposes classroom perspectiva histórica de simulación y juego como estrategia docente: de la guerra al aula de lenguas para fines específicos amparo garcía-carbonell y frances watts universidad politécnica de valencia agarciac@upvnet.upv.es y fwatts@upvnet.upv.es 65 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 65 simulation and gaming is an educational strategy which shares the tenets of socioconstructivism and responds to the specific training needs of the current educational paradigm. the consolidation of the use of simulations and games as teaching tools is the outcome of the evolution culminating in the convergence of teaching and learning theories and a more pragmatic pedagogical approach based on experience, which as a result leads to more meaningful learning. this paper examines how the character in simple play of early games has become instrumental. with this objective, the paper surveys the different uses of simulations and games, such as war games and later business games, from their origins to maturity as a teaching strategy in numerous disciplines and training activities. the possibility of experiencing, at no risk, a situation in a real or simulated scenario nurtures a teaching approach based on “learning by doing”. since the end of the 1950’s, training strategies traditionally used in the military have become widely used in many disciplines and specific training environments, including language learning for specific purposes. key words: simulation, game, war and business games, experienced-based education, socioconstructivism. introducción la concepción de nuestro planeta como una aldea global y el fenómeno de la comunicación multilingüe han aumentado de forma vertiginosa en todo el mundo y ha traído consigo la necesidad de interaccionar con otras culturas, quizá con una urgencia mayor que en cualquier otro momento de la historia de la humanidad. paradójicamente, algunos de los factores que han provocado ese incremento en la comunicación multilingüe, de forma paralela han levantado una serie de barreras en la comunicación, por ejemplo, la complejidad de las relaciones internacionales, la velocidad en la transmisión de la información, el cambio social y tecnológico, el reconocimiento de las entidades étnicas, etc. una forma de superar estos obstáculos es incrementar el número de personas que aprenden una lengua adicional. la adquisición de esa lengua como un conjunto de normas o códigos no es suficiente, la sociedad actual necesita entornos de aprendizaje donde los estudiantes puedan hacer uso de la lengua que están adquiriendo de forma creativa y que responda a sus necesidades comunicativas personales y profesionales. la función comunicativa de la lengua es más importante que la lengua en sí misma, es vital para la sociedad. aprender una lengua es un proceso participativo que implica creación, interpretación y negociación, es un intercambio entre los individuos que hacen de la lengua el mayor a. garcía-carbonell y f. watts 66 ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 66 67ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 perspectiva histórica de la simulación y juego instrumento de interlocución entre los pueblos. de igual forma que el mundo no podría existir sin comunicación, en palabras de fisher (1982) la comunicación sustenta la vida, pero la comunicación no podría existir sin la lengua. la práctica de la comunicación oral, por escrito, presencial, a distancia, en entornos de formación o entre profesionales responde a unas necesidades académicas y laborales específicas; la respuesta a esas necesidades no acaba con la selección de contenidos específicos. la adquisición de una lengua demanda estrategias docentes o de formación que emplacen al estudiante en situaciones que le permitan interaccionar en un entorno lo más real posible para tratar de despertar la necesidad de comunicar. la metodología “simulación y juego”1 establece una comunicación que cuenta con variables y la fluidez que intervienen en el discurso real, pero en un entorno simulado. experiencias como la que se llevan a cabo en la universidad politécnica de valencia desde 1992, donde se utiliza la simulación telemática o a distancia para la enseñanza del inglés a futuros ingenieros de telecomunicación, en la de la universidad nacional de enseñanza distancia (uned), o en la universidad pontificia comillas, entre otras, dan prueba de ello (rising, 2001). simulación y juego es una estrategia capaz de dar respuesta a necesidades comunicativas específicas y permite que los participantes adquieran no sólo habilidades lingüísticas, sino de negociación, de toma de decisiones, de trabajo en equipo, entre otras; habilidades que contempla la adquisición de lenguas para fines específicos. grupos de investigación como gideao (grupo de investigación en dirección de empresas asistidas por ordenador) de la universidad de sevilla, o el grupo di-aal (dimensión intercultural y aprendizaje activo de lenguas) de la universidad politécnica de valencia, junto con diferentes departamentos de la universidad de deusto, la universidad pontificia comillas de madrid, o la universidad de zaragoza cuentan con una trayectoria de alrededor de dos décadas de investigación en el tema, que da fe del papel relevante de esta estrategia en el territorio español (rising, 2001). el presente trabajo se adentra en los orígenes y evolución de la simulación y el juego y plantea cómo el carácter inicial puramente lúdico adquiere un enfoque más funcional, hasta llegar a ser una estrategia docente consolidada. muestra cómo los primeros juegos, sólo de guerra, dan paso a una gran variedad temática y con múltiples aplicaciones en la formación e 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 67 investigación. en este artículo se hace una primera aproximación al uso de la simulación y el juego en la enseñanza de lenguas con fines específicos y se plantea su uso en campos como dirección y administración de empresas, ingeniería, derecho, medicina, entre otros. en un segundo trabajo se abordará en profundidad simulación y juego como estrategia docente en la enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas de especialidad. el objetivo final, por tanto, de este trabajo es colocar las piezas sobre el tablero, adentrarse en los orígenes de una metodología consolidada, que día a día adquiere mayor relevancia en el área que nos ocupa. origen de la metodología “simulación y juego” los antecedentes del actual movimiento entorno a la metodología simulación y juego se remontan a 3000 años antes de cristo con los juegos de guerra de wei-hai y chaturanga. en el juego de mesa chino wei-hai el ganador tenía que flanquear al oponente, de acuerdo con los principios del gran pensador guerrero sun-tzu. en el juego de mesa hindú chaturanga el número de oponentes se elevaba a cuatro; se introducían elementos de azar con el uso de los dados y se incrementaba la verosimilitud visual añadiendo piezas de juego que representaban soldados de infantería, caballería ligera, elefantes y carros de guerra (wilson, 1968 –citado en keys, 1990). el juego de las damas y el ajedrez ya estaban presentes en la antigua grecia, asia menor, persia o la india muchos siglos antes de cristo. el faraón ramsés ii (1292-1225 a.c.) fue pintado en los muros de su palacio de tebas jugando una partida de damas. de igual modo, se encontraron figuras en miniatura o representaciones gráficas de soldados y armas así como tableros de juego en tumbas egipcias y excavaciones arqueológicas (fraile, 1993). en el propio libro de los muertos aparece un código ilustrado que enumera los procedimientos rituales que había que seguir para acceder al más allá, donde el difunto jugaba una partida de senet (juego popular de mesa en el antiguo egipto) con un adversario invisible (steiner, 1998). el legado de los juegos romanos aparece en forma de tableros de distintas formas y tamaños, grabados sobre losas de piedras del pavimento de los foros de distintas ciudades. uno de los ejemplos más significativos son los 57 tableros de itálica, cerca de sevilla, sede de la familia del emperador adriano; los más comunes y numerosos tienen forma circular, aunque la a. garcía-carbonell y f. watts 68 ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 68 forma rectangular también es representativa. estos juegos parecen ser antepasados de los actuales juegos del tres en raya o las damas. entre los más destacados está el ludus latrunculorum o juego de los latrunculi, término con el que se designaba a los mercenarios hasta el siglo i a. c., y posteriormente a los ladrones. cuando el término tomó su significado actual, las fichas pasaron a llamarse soldados y guerreros (milites y bellatores). se trataba de un juego de estrategia bélica, plasmado en un tablero de 74 casillas en forma de un campo de batalla. cada jugador disponía de 16 fichas y tenía que invadir el campo del enemigo siguiendo unas reglas que estaban entre las del juego de las damas y el ajedrez (steiner, 1998). en el siglo xvii, las versiones europeas del juego del ajedrez comenzaron a reflejar hazañas militares con la inclusión no sólo de alfiles y caballeros, sino de piqueros, alabarderos y arqueros (wolfe, 1990 y 1993). muy pronto estos juegos de salón se convirtieron en juegos “serios”, como se observa en el desarrollo del juego del rey de weikhman, en ulm en 1664, el ajedrez de guerra de helwing, de 1780, utilizado en la corte de brunswick, alemania (young, 1959). estos juegos presentaban una gran variedad de topografías; las jugadas se limitaban a parámetros de velocidad y a acciones que reflejaban experiencias de ejércitos reales con sus subunidades de granaderos, dragones, húsares y artillería ligera, donde las reglas del juego se administraban por un director de juego independiente. el juego más complejo de este tipo fue diseñado en 1978 por george venturini, en schleswig. este juego empleaba 60 hojas de reglas, con 1.800 brigadas, 600 baterías de artillería ligera y 200 baterías de caballería, con un campo de juego de 3.600 cuadrados pintados sobre el terreno en la frontera franco-belga (thomas, 1957). desafortunadamente, la complejidad del juego aumentó de tal forma que se hizo casi imposible de jugar o arbitrar. el juego de guerra más conocido es el kriegspeil, diseñado por el barón prusiano von reiswitz y su hijo, se enseñaba como parte del patrimonio nacional a dignatarios europeos que visitaban el país. con el tiempo, se fueron incorporando factores aleatorios por medio de los dados o se calculaban los movimientos de las tropas con operaciones matemáticas. finalmente, el kriegspeil se utilizó como herramienta de formación en las campañas de prusia contra austria en 1886 o en la guerra con francia en 1870. a partir de esta fecha, los juegos de guerra siguen dos caminos divergentes como nos muestran el rigid kriegspeil y el free kriegspeil. la primera versión utilizaba unas reglas de juego muy estrictas, jugadas de azar con dados, gráficos, tablas y matemáticas para determinar el perspectiva histórica de la simulación y juego ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 69 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 69 movimiento de las tropas y el efecto de la artillería; por ello se reservó como juego táctico de tropa. la segunda versión, en la que los resultados de las jugadas se juzgaban a discreción por un árbitro con experiencia, se reservó como juego táctico para oficiales (wolfe, 1993). la utilización de los juegos hasta este momento tenía como finalidad básica la de divertir; la sofisticación de alguno de ellos sólo perseguía la búsqueda de la parte lúdica o la intriga de lo complicado. el primer uso programado de una simulación o juego se atribuye a la armada prusiana en el siglo xix, debido a razones relacionadas con el comportamiento o la conducta. los prusianos no se sentían satisfechos de cómo se estaba llevando a cabo el reclutamiento de sus oficiales, se dieron cuenta de que los exámenes o pruebas escritas que utilizaban no eran suficientes porque carecían de fiabilidad; de este modo decidieron utilizar la simulación para detectar reacciones de comportamiento de los candidatos. en vez de preguntar cómo actuarían en una situación determinada, la idea era colocar al individuo en dicha situación y observar qué ocurría. esta idea fue copiada posteriormente por el ejército británico, donde se planteaban todo tipo de situaciones para analizar las distintas conductas, en las que los candidatos desempeñaban diferentes papeles: oficinista, supervisor, agente, ingeniero, entre otros. había pruebas que revelaban los distintos grados de ingenuidad, cooperación, valor y otros aspectos del entorno militar. algunas no eran simulaciones interactivas, los participantes de forma individual tenían que abordar una situación sin ayuda o cooperación; aunque la mayoría de las simulaciones eran de tipo participativo e implicaba equipos de trabajo. las diferencias entre las simulaciones o los juegos y las pruebas escritas incidieron no sólo en los participantes sino también en los formadores, quienes, cada vez más, se vieron en la necesidad de aplicar pruebas de tipo conductista donde se observa y evalúa a personas en acción y no únicamente a través de pruebas escritas (jones, 1995). de esta forma, la simulación y el juego se introducen plenamente en el ejército como técnica instrumental para reclutar personal, además de para el entrenamiento o como apoyo en la formación. los juegos de guerra se siguen utilizando durante todo el siglo xx para examinar planes en operaciones militares (hausrath, 1971; fuchida y okumiya, 2004), estudiando operaciones propuestas y evaluando y revisando los factores cuantificables, así como la logística de los movimientos tácticos a. garcía-carbonell y f. watts 70 ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 70 en la estrategia militar utilizada. antes de la primera guerra mundial, el schlieffen plan en la invasión germano-francesa se desarrolló de acuerdo con los resultados obtenidos en el juego. más tarde, el ejército alemán utilizó las experiencias de su campaña polaca de invierno de 1939-1940 para proponer los juegos que debían utilizar y estudiar para futuras invasiones de francia y los países bajos. japón también hizo uso de los juegos para evaluar y revisar sus tácticas y aspiraciones militares. en 1940 este país abrió el total war research institute, el colegio naval y el de la armada, donde la práctica del juego sirvió para diseñar las campañas en filipinas a través de malasia, o el ataque a pearl harbor (hausrath, 1971). durante la segunda guerra mundial, las fuerzas aéreas británicas utilizaron para entrenar a sus pilotos un dispositivo denominado entrenador artificial unido, una de las primeras tácticas descrita como una simulación propiamente dicha. para participar en la simulación era necesaria una cabina aérea, ubicada normalmente en un hangar, donde el piloto se colocaba dentro con todos los controles a su disposición. todos los movimientos o maniobras que él llevaba a cabo dentro del simulador se registraban fuera de la cabina, en los paneles de control, y observado por pilotos expertos. así fue como el entrenador artificial unido permitió a los pilotos experimentar con un modelo una situación real de vuelo, conocer los errores que podían cometer y decidir cómo evitarlos (breto-flores, 1976). este tipo de simuladores de vuelo son hoy en día práctica habitual en la formación de cualquier piloto. en los estados unidos, tras el comienzo de la segunda guerra mundial, los militares se encontraron con el problema de cómo reclutar espías. el plan inicial era reclutar criminales, puesto que ese trabajo sucio requería experiencia criminal. esta política de reclutamiento no tuvo el éxito deseado, por lo que se hizo necesario un cambio en los criterios de selección. una de las alternativas que se adoptó fue la de abrir el abanico de selección a personas que desearan desempeñar trabajos peligrosos, opción que pronto se desestimó por miedo a la avalancha de “machos”, maniáticos o psicópatas. fue entonces, cuando un oficial que había regresado a estados unidos, tras haberse formado en la academia militar de sandhurst, en inglaterra, describió el uso de las simulaciones y los juegos que estaban haciendo los británicos, ejercicios que fueron inmediatamente adoptados por los americanos. oficiales y soldados eran sometidos a unas pruebas organizadas por la oficina de servicios estratégicos (oss). las pruebas para reclutamiento de espías duraban varios días. después de una prueba perspectiva histórica de la simulación y juego ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 71 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 71 intensiva de aciertos y errores se implantó un sistema por el cual cada candidato debía afrontar una serie de situaciones tales como tener un nombre, lugar de nacimiento, estudios, etc.; datos todos ellos ficticios pero que estaban relacionados con entornos que el candidato conocía. los candidatos eran adiestrados para ser fieles a su papel absolutamente todo el tiempo, excepto en una situación específica que sería anunciada oficialmente por un mando. en diferentes ocasiones, especialmente después de un fallo, los candidatos eran entrevistados de forma individual por un superior en un clima de máxima relajación, que en la mayoría de las ocasiones les hacía revelar su pasado y mostrar su verdadera identidad (jones, 1982 y 1995). a pesar de la antigüedad de algunos juegos, podemos considerar la segunda guerra mundial como el punto de partida para una nueva etapa, donde la aplicación de las técnicas de simulación se extiende a distintos continentes y se utiliza, además de en la planificación bélica, para la búsqueda y destrucción; técnicas que ya se usaban durante la ii guerra mundial o la guerra de vietnam. la planificación y análisis de combates aéreos y terrestres e implicaciones políticas de los nuevos sistemas de armamento internacional, tales como patrones de despliegue de armas nucleares realizadas por la otan en europa (breto-flores, 1976), son algunas de las acciones en las que los juegos tuvieron una importancia considerable. en el periodo de posguerra también aparecen los llamados juegos de crisis o conflicto, cuya aplicación repercute fundamentalmente en el campo de las relaciones internacionales. una gran parte de los oficiales militares que se instruyeron con juegos de guerra en las décadas de 1930 y 1940 regresaron a la vida civil ocupando puestos directivos en empresa y comenzaron a introducir los juegos como herramienta de formación. en la evolución de los juegos de guerra a juegos de empresa no se puede olvidar la labor fundamental de la rand corporation, con el juego monopologs de 1955, que simulaba la gestión de inventario de la fuerzas aéreas de los estados unidos (jackson, 1959 –citado en keys, 1990). este juego se adaptó para la toma de decisiones en el campo de los negocios, sin correr riesgos al delegar responsabilidades reales en principiantes (faria, 1987). otro factor que contribuye a la consolidación de simulación y juego como estrategia docente fue el lanzamiento en estados unidos de la teoría del aprendizaje a través de la experiencia y el cambio de actitudes. el enfoque pedagógico, especialmente en gestión y ciencias económicas y empresariales y en prácticas de formación y desarrollo, comienza a cambiar bajo la a. garcía-carbonell y f. watts 72 ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 72 influencia de las teorías de cambio de grupo de lewin (1951), los métodos t-group o de terapia de grupo (lippitt, 1949; schein y bennis, 1965) y la formación de la sensibilidad y el trabajo de crecimiento personal llevado a cabo en los laboratorios nacionales de formación y en el esalen institute. las leyes de contigüidad, efecto, intensidad, organización, facilitación, interferencia y ejercicio (hilgard, 1948) se modifican o se sustituyen por teorías de aprendizaje más modernas o eficaces. de esta forma, simulación y juego como estrategia de formación se abre definitivamente camino. afianzamiento de simulación y juego como estrategia docente a finales de los años 50 comienza la era moderna de la simulación y el juego. estados unidos toma la delantera y se convierte definitivamente en el país pionero a través de la american management association (ricciardi et al., 1957). de la confluencia entre los juegos de guerra y las teorías de educación centradas en el estudiante aparecen los llamados juegos de empresa, que se propagan rápidamente entre las escuelas de ciencias económicas y empresariales de todo el mundo, así como en operaciones de formación y desarrollo. las experiencias de la oficina de servicios estratégicos (sso) pasan a ser la base para las simulaciones de empresa y negocios en todo el país. seleccionar a un directivo no es, en principio, diferente de escoger a un espía; todo lo que se necesita es saber qué tipo de conducta es la pertinente o no para el trabajo e idear la simulación apropiada (jones, 1995). en 1956 apareció el primer juego de empresa realmente conocido la top manager decision simulation, el primer juego de negocios de amplia difusión desarrollado por la american management association (meier, 1967). seguidamente, en 1957, greene y andlinger diseñaron el business management game para la mckinsey & company (andlinger, 1958). aunque la implantación de simulación y juego en el campo de la educación y la enseñanza propiamente dicha aparecen en inglaterra en el año 1968 con los primeros ensayos con esso students business game, el juego top management decision game de schreiber, utilizado en 1957 en la universidad de washington, aparece registrado como el primer juego con fines docentes utilizado en un aula (watson, 1981). a partir de ese momento el número de juegos de empresas crece rápidamente. en el año 1961 ya hay más de 100 juegos de empresa diseñados y utilizados por más de 30.000 ejecutivos. en 1969 aparece el business games handbook con 190 juegos de perspectiva histórica de la simulación y juego ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 73 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 73 empresa y en 1980, the guide to simulations/games for education and training describe 228 juegos de empresa (faria, 1998). en 1987 faria calculó que en 1.900 universidades más de 8.755 profesores usaban juegos de empresa en el año académico 1985-1986, lo que en ese momento supone el 95,1% de las universidades acreditadas en estados unidos para la especialidad de dirección de empresas. en un estudio más reciente, faria (1998) calcula que el uso de los juegos de empresa ha incrementado a un 97,5% de las universidades de estados unidos que otorgan títulos acreditados en dirección de empresas. burgess (1991), en un estudio realizado en el reino unido señaló que el 92% de los departamentos de dirección de empresas de las escuelas politécnicas y el 48,9% de las universidades utilizaban juegos. estos centros empleaban una media de 3,2 juegos en cada institución y llevaban una media de 7,5 años aplicando esta metodología. a diferencia de las universidades norteamericanas, en las universidades británicas casi la mitad de los juegos se desarrollaron dentro de las propias universidades y se utilizaron mayoritariamente en los niveles de postgrado. muchas universidades en el reino unido tienen hoy en día unidades docentes dedicadas exclusivamente a facilitar el uso de la informática educativa, que incluye la enseñanzaaprendizaje del inglés como segunda lengua y el uso de simulaciones o juegos por ordenador. las universidades de hull, exeter, liverpool y wolverhampton son de las más conocidas en este campo; cuentan con software propio y un extenso número de publicaciones. en australia, mckenna (1991) encontró un porcentaje menor de utilización de los juegos de empresa, con el 70% implantado después de 1984 y utilizado por sólo el 55,2% de las universidades con estudios de dirección de empresa. la apertura temática de los juegos de empresa se constata a finales de la década de los 80; gower (1988) en su handbook of management games describe más de 300 juegos de empresa, con temas que incluyen la agricultura, la banca, la alimentación, la electrónica, la enfermería, la aplicación en investigación, los servicios sociales, o las pymes, entre otros. a medida que los países del este europeo han ido abriendo sus puertas a una economía de mercado y las barreras nacionales han ido desapareciendo, se ha ido reconociendo la gran actividad en el pasado y en el presente en torno a la simulación y el juego (wolfe, 1991). en la unión soviética el trabajo de marie birshtein (1902-1992) fue muy notable por su creatividad y prolijidad (gagnon, 1987). aunque expresó temprano interés por esta filosofía de trabajo mientras era estudiante en la universidad de leningrado, birshtein a. garcía-carbonell y f. watts 74 ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 74 encontró esta perspectiva con pocos horizontes y a principios de los años 20 comenzó a trabajar en temas relacionados con los aspectos sociales de organización del trabajo (wolfe, 1993). en las tres últimas décadas birshtein no sólo desarrolló juegos de gestión sino que fomentó el desarrollo interdisciplinar de los juegos y promocionó los métodos educativos activos. otros países de la europa del este y europa central (rumanía, polonia, letonia, etc.) cuentan con la tradición de un cuarto de siglo en el uso de la metodología simulación y juego. la necesidad de abrir sus puertas al mundo y de explicar la economía de mercado y la gestión empresarial moderna a sus directivos y estudiantes hacen de la década de 1980 el punto de arranque en el uso de esta metodología, fundamentalmente con el uso de simulaciones y juegos de empresa. autores como wolfe (1991) señalan que la expansión de simulación y juego se vislumbra precisamente en estos países. la posible integración en europa y la necesidad de dirigirse hacia un status más competitivo dentro de los poderes económicos del mundo, son el mejor estímulo para su desarrollo y diseminación en el horizonte europeo. países como holanda y alemania también cuentan con una larga tradición en este campo, donde existen compañías consultoras de prestigio que se dedican al diseño de juegos y simulaciones específicas para empresas o entidades gubernamentales. en una primera estimación llevada a cabo en la década de 1980, se calcula que existen alrededor de 200 juegos, de los cuales 80 son de cálculo manual y 120 por ordenador; todos relacionados con la banca, técnicas para la toma de decisiones, comercio, inversiones, etc. (rohn, 1986). españa, a través de los grupos de investigación mencionados en la introducción y fundamentalmente de las empresas, entre otros, cuenta ya con cierta tradición en el uso de simulación y juego como estrategia de formación e investigación. simulación y juego como estrategia docente en otras disciplinas al igual que los juegos de guerra fueron los predecesores de los juegos de empresa, éstos a su vez han sido los predecesores del uso de simulaciones o juegos como herramienta docente en otros campos. la fusión entre la estrategia de guerra y la estrategia de empresa es similar a la coexistencia, casi dos décadas después, de los juegos de empresa y la simulación y el juego en educación y sus diferentes manifestaciones disciplinares. perspectiva histórica de la simulación y juego ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 75 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 75 el uso multidisciplinar de la simulación y el juego arranca en las décadas de 1950 y 1960. las simulaciones de tipo diagnóstico (gredler, 1992) se usaban para entrenar profesionales en áreas como la medicina, la psicología, la arqueología, la investigación de accidentes aéreos, etc. en este tipo de simulaciones los participantes viven una situación que requiere tomar decisiones secuencialmente, reciben información pero, en ocasiones, no disponen de todos los datos necesarios y pueden contar con información errónea. tienen que aplicar sus conocimientos en la solución de problemas, lo que exige un análisis de la situación y evaluación e interpretación de los datos. normalmente las simulaciones no son unidimensionales, es decir, hay más de una posibilidad de concluirlas con éxito, pero cada decisión afecta a decisiones posteriores. la simulación más antigua de las simulaciones para las ciencias sociales es la inter-nation simulation, diseñada por harold guetzkow de la universidad de northwestern y cleo cherryholmes de la universidad del estado de michigan, a finales de la década de 1950. esta simulación se desarrolló para investigar los patrones de comportamiento entre naciones. trata de varios países ficticios de los que aporta información sobre su gobierno, riqueza, recursos, población y estadísticas sobre la seguridad nacional, el descontento entre la población, etc. los participantes tienen que fijar metas y enfrentarse a múltiples decisiones simultáneas. las simulaciones diseñadas para aumentar la empatía o la concienciación en los participantes tardaron algo más en aparecer, pero en la década de 1970 ya se contaba con varias. el objetivo de estas simulaciones es experimentar los valores y frustraciones de personas con esquemas distintos a los suyos. dos ejemplos conocidos de este tipo de simulación son me, the slow learner, en la que se detectan las frustraciones de los estudiantes al tener que resolver problemas de difícil solución pese al esfuerzo invertido, o starpower, donde los participantes piensan que están jugando, sin saber que un grupo (los más ricos) tiene la posibilidad de cambiar las reglas para favorecerse y así crear un conflicto entre los grupos con el fin de definir los sentimientos de los menos favorecidos de la sociedad. las dos décadas comprendidas entre 1950 y 1970 son, en definitiva, un período de continuo afianzamiento en el uso multidisciplinar de la metodología simulación y juego. a. garcía-carbonell y f. watts 76 ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 76 simulación y juego en la enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas las simulaciones y los juegos en el campo de la comunicación y para la enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas son de más corta tradición. datan de 1970, cuando las teorías comunicativas de aprendizaje de lenguas afloran y empiezan a dar importancia a la interacción y a la comunicación. hoy en día, el uso de simulación y juego en la enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas está considerablemente extendido. las simulaciones situacionales o de aula, al igual que los juegos, son práctica habitual. asimismo, la incorporación de la tecnología pasa por diseñar no sólo simulaciones o juegos por ordenador, sino que va un paso más allá. permite simulaciones asistidas por ordenador, donde el escenario se plantea y la acción transcurre en tiempo real, como ocurre en las simulaciones telemáticas icons o ideels. pero no todas las simulaciones satisfacen los objetivos propuestos en el aula de lenguas. coincidimos con gredler (1992) quien señala cuatro características esenciales para que las simulaciones sean eficaces en la enseñanza de habilidades lingüísticas: 1. que la simulación absorba la atención y la acción de los participantes y les libere del sentido del ridículo que puedan sentir al utilizar una lengua extranjera; 2. que sea intensa en cuanto a las intervenciones individuales y de grupo; 3. que la situación que plantea tenga varios desenlaces posibles, lo que crea un mayor interés y proporciona un mayor control a los participantes; y 4. que no se imponga el éxito o el fracaso, sino un uso de la lengua más funcional. el diseño y uso de una simulación o juego en el aprendizaje de lenguas, y más concretamente en el aprendizaje de una lengua para fines específicos, también implica una serie de principios. • en primer lugar, toda simulación utilizada para este fin ha de tener en cuenta tanto su aplicabilidad como el objetivo de estudio. • en segundo lugar, se ha de diseñar de forma que la comunicación sea un componente natural y no quede desvirtuado por el perspectiva histórica de la simulación y juego ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 77 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 77 componente técnico o científico. • en tercer lugar, el contenido de información no debe intimidar a los participantes o al profesor ni tampoco aburrirles. • por último, la simulación debe respetar las necesidades lingüísticas del estudiante. si estos principios se traducen en términos de aprendizaje, se puede afirmar que una simulación utilizada en la adquisición de una lengua ha de permitir que los participantes manipulen una gama de registros lingüísticos y de vocabulario en un contexto concreto y para unos fines específicos. a pesar del énfasis mostrado en lo específico, sería conveniente puntualizar que existen simulaciones utilizadas para la enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas para fines específicos que no han sido diseñadas con el fin para el que se utiliza y viceversa, donde la validez de las mismas ha quedado demostrada (coleman, 1985, 1990 y 1992; crookall y oxford, 1990a y 1990b; dunkel, 1991; garcía carbonell, 1998; garcía carbonell y watts, 1996 y 1997; garcía carbonell et al., 1998; garcía carbonell, gotor, et al., 2001; garcía carbonell, rising, et al. 2001; rising, 2001; macdonald, 2005; watts et al., 2006, entre otros). si se analiza cómo la simulación facilita la adquisición de una lengua, se observa que intervienen diferentes factores. scarcella y crookall (1990), en la línea de krashen (1981 y 1982), apuntan que los participantes adquieren una lengua cuando se les expone a grandes cantidades de input comprensible. el estudiante entiende estos “registros de entrada” o “información entrante” (beltrán, 1993: 34) cuando ésta es de un nivel semejante a la que él posee, al igual que existe una mejor comprensión de estos registros cuando presentan un nivel algo inferior a los suyos. “the best input is the input that we naturally give people when we talk to them so that they can understand” (krashen, 1982: 52). cuando se plantea una situación en un clima relajado de comunicación y cooperación, los hablantes tienden a utilizar registros que los interlocutores pueden entender. si el uso de la lengua de forma natural da como resultado unos registros comprensibles, el uso de simulación y juego ofrece esos registros y plantea escenarios de trabajo que propician una comunicación genuina. las decisiones que se toman en una simulación no tienen un efecto directo sobre la sociedad, lo que significa que cometer errores no conlleva coste. por lo general, los participantes en una simulación o juego son capaces de producir registros más complejos porque existe una presión menor que ante una situación real. scarcella y crookall (1990) plantean las ventajas de a. garcía-carbonell y f. watts 78 ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 78 que el estudiante se sienta en un entorno relajado. en este sentido, el uso de la simulación en el aprendizaje de una lengua permite a los participantes utilizar y repetir los registros lingüísticos, así como examinar sus errores. otro factor que propicia el aprendizaje de una lengua con el uso de simulación y juego es involucrarse activamente. swain y lapkin (1982) y long (1983) sostienen que someterse únicamente a un número de registros, aunque sea elevado, no es suficiente, ya que en muchas ocasiones el estudiante no les presta atención. en este sentido, una característica importante de la simulación es su capacidad de generar modelos de comunicación muy variados, así como de relaciones sociales. la situación que brinda el escenario plantea la discusión de temas que requieren patrones lingüísticos igualmente variados y en ocasiones específicos. la acción que se genera en la simulación hace que el participante siga atraído no sólo por participar, sino por adquirir la lengua que necesita para desenvolverse con más soltura en la situación en la que se encuentra. una reacción bastante común entre los participantes en una simulación es olvidar que están aprendiendo una lengua nueva y simplemente se lanzan a utilizarla para resolver las situaciones o conflictos que en cada momento se plantean. la premura, la novedad de la situación o la necesidad de hacerse entender hacen que los participantes en una simulación recurran a conocimientos lingüísticos pasivos o no utilizados hasta el momento, pero que se requieren en ese preciso instante. en opinión de brumfit (1984), cuando a los estudiantes se les coloca en situaciones de comunicación específicas y espontáneas, éstos desarrollan habilidades de uso de la lengua de forma creativa y espontánea. la simulación facilita entre los estudiantes ese contexto natural que les permite comunicarse y, por tanto, desarrollar su creatividad idiosincrásica, tanto en un entorno social como lingüístico. esa realimentación inmediata que ofrece el contexto natural en el uso de la lengua le indica al participante si su comunicación es apropiada y eficaz. el afecto o emociones positivas son también esenciales en la adquisición de una lengua. scarcella y crookall (1990: 226) aseguran que “a process involving some form and degree of reidentification underlines the long-term motivation needed to master an additional language”. krashen (1982), a su vez, insiste en que las situaciones de baja ansiedad favorecen el desarrollo de una lengua. muchos juegos o simulaciones producen ansiedad por la acción, que no hay que confundir con la ansiedad producida por tener que utilizar una lengua que no se domina. la simulación produce relajación en los perspectiva histórica de la simulación y juego ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 79 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 79 esquemas mentales del individuo y en el contexto, de forma que fomenta las emociones positivas del participante, quien tiene la oportunidad de repetir o probar nuevas conductas en un entorno donde no se siente inseguro o fracasado. en definitiva, se podría resumir en cinco puntos fundamentales, cómo el uso de la metodología de simulación y juego beneficia la adquisición de lenguas: 1. reúne los requisitos necesarios para una comunicación genuina: a) la lengua que se produce se ha de procesar por el hablante; b) el contenido ha de ser determinado por él; c) los procesos de reajuste a cambios situacionales son necesarios; d) la lengua ha de ser un medio para un fin (brumfit, 1984). 2. ofrece el contexto más realista que se puede ofrecer en el aula y ayuda a establecer un puente entre el aprendizaje controlado de la lengua y la relativa incertidumbre que provoca el mundo real. 3. brinda al estudiante la oportunidad no sólo de utilizar las destrezas lingüísticas, sino también otro tipo de habilidades pragmáticas. 4. origina un desarrollo continuado y no siempre predecible del discurso (cunningsworth y horner, 1985). 5. permite una evaluación psicolingüística y pragmática del proceso y del producto. entre simulación y el uso de la lengua, tanto nativa como una segunda lengua o lengua de especialidad, existen puntos en común: ambas implican modelos, representaciones, realidades y significados negociados. la simulación y juego proporciona a los participantes la posibilidad de intervenir e interpretar el mundo, generando modelos lingüísticos acordes con el contenido y el contexto. en la línea de vicente (1998), la simulación y el juego, en este proceso de búsqueda incansable de recursos didácticos eficaces, emergen como instrumentos flexibles, abiertos y con grandes posibilidades de interacción con y para el alumno. se trata de herramientas que facilitan el aprendizaje a través de la acción y el autodescubrimiento. en la enseñanza de lenguas para fines específicos aporta el contenido y el contexto, y permite preparar, actuar y reflexionar sobre el proceso y el producto. a. garcía-carbonell y f. watts 80 ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 80 conclusión aunque cientos de años antes de cristo ya se jugaba y como afirman duke y kemeny (1989: 166) “gaming, in its many forms, may reasonably be regarded as the world’s second oldest profession”, averiguar lo que ha ido ocurriendo a lo largo de los años no es tarea fácil por la escasa y dispersa literatura que existe al respecto. como apunta sugar (1994) un jugador recuerda sólo dos juegos, el primero y el último. no obstante, a través de los antecedentes históricos ya se vislumbra el carácter didáctico-pedagógico y la aplicabilidad de la simulación y el juego, que vaticinan una práctica de uso cada vez mayor en la enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas. duke (1974) bautiza esta práctica como the future´s language, una forma nueva de comunicación de rápido ascenso e impacto en numerosas geografías y situaciones. esta nueva forma de comunicación representa un esfuerzo del hombre para formular un lenguaje orientado hacia el futuro. a pesar de sus orígenes milenarios, simulación y juego es una forma de comunicación híbrida, que tan sólo hace tres décadas duke (1974: 11) la definía como “not new, not well understood, poorly used, and in its infancy”. no obstante, al menos en lo que respecta a la educación, existe una convicción evidente de que cuando se utiliza con la misma precisión y entendimiento que las formas de comunicación tradicional, resulta ser muy efectiva. asociaciones nacionales e internacionales como isaga (international simulation and gaming association), nasaga (north american simulation and gaming association), absel (association for business simulation and experiential learning), jasag (japanese association for simulation and games) o sagset (society for active learning), entre otras, aglutinan a académicos y profesionales de múltiples disciplinas y nacionalidades en un punto de intersección, el uso de simulación y juego como estrategia de formación o investigación, y son un indicador del interés y la expansión que esta metodología ha suscitado en los últimos años. publicaciones especializadas como simulation & gaming. an international journal of theory, practice and research se hace eco de teorías, experiencias y de la investigación en curso en muy diversas áreas de conocimiento, incluida la enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas de especialidad, se trata de un vehículo de expresión y formación para expertos y noveles en el campo. tras un acercamiento histórico a la simulación y el juego como herramientas y su consolidación como estrategia docente y de investigación, se ha hecho un planteamiento inicial del potencial que este enfoque docente tiene en la perspectiva histórica de la simulación y juego ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 81 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 81 enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas en general y con fines específicos. un segundo trabajo sobre simulación y juego como estrategia de formación en lenguas con fines específicos, de próxima publicación, indaga en profundidad en los principios y uso de esta metodología en la adquisición de lenguas en y para contextos concretos. 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(1998). efectividad de la simulación telemática en el aprendizaje del inglés técnico. tesis doctoral inédita. universitat de vàlencia. garcía carbonell, a. y f. watts (1996). “telematic simulation and language learning” en garcía carbonell, a. y f. watts (eds.), simulation now! simulación ¡ya!, 585-595. valencia: diputació de valència. garcía carbonell, a. y f. watts (1997). “simulación telemática y aprendizaje de lenguas: princi04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 82 perspectiva histórica de la simulación y juego ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 83 pios, integración curricular y didáctica” en c. cuéllar y j. castellví (eds.), las nuevas tecnologías integradas en la programación didáctica de lenguas extranjeras, 193-204. valencia: universitat de valència. garcía carbonell, a., f. watts y b. rising (1998). “portfolio assessment in simulation for language learning” en j. geurts y c. joldersma (eds.), gaming/simulation for policy development and organizational change, 333-348. tilburg: tilburg university press. garcía carbonell, a., a. gotor, b. montero, b. rising y f. watts (2001). “oral presentation assessment of simulation portfolios” en e. musci (ed.), on the edge of the millennium: a new foundation for gaming simulation, 23-31. bari: edizioni b.a. graphis. garcía carbonell, a., b. rising, b. montero y f. watts (2001). “simulation/gaming and the acquisition of communicative competence in another language”. simulation & gaming: an international journal of theory, practice and research 32: 481-491. gower, h. (1988). handbook of management games. new york: delacorte. gredler, m. (1992). designing and evaluating games and simulations. a process approach. london: kogan page. hausrath, a.h. (1971). venture simulation in war, business and politics. new york: mcgraw-hill. hilgard, e.r. (1948). theories of learning. new york: appletoncentury-crofts. jones, k. (1982). simulations in language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. jones, k. (1995). simulations. a handbook for teachers and trainers, 3ª ed. london: kogan page. keys, b. (1990). “the role of management games and simulations in education and research”. journal of management 16: 307-337. krashen, s. d. (1981). second language acquisition and second language learning. oxford: pergamon. krashen, s. d. (1982). principles and practice in second language acquisition. oxford: pergamon. lewin, k. (1951). field theory in social sciences. new york: harper-row. lippitt, r. (1949). training in community relations. new york: harpers. long, m. (1983). “native speaker/non-native speaker conversation and the negotiation of comprehensible input”. applied linguistics 4: 177-193. macdonald, p. (2005). an analysis of interlanguage errors in synchronous and asynchronous intercultural communication exchanges. valencia: publicacions de la universitat de valència. mckenna, r.j. (1991). “business computerized simulation: the australian experience”. simulation & gaming 22: 36-62. meier, r.c. (1967). “simulations for transmitting concepts of social organization” en w.z. hirsch (eds.), inventing education for the future, 156-175. san francisco: chandler. ricciardi, f.m., c.j. craft, d.g. malcolm, r. bellman, c. clark, j.m. kibbee y r.h. rawdon (1957). top management decision simulation: the ama approach. new york: american management association. rising, b. (2001). la eficacia didáctica de los juegos de simulación por ordenador en el aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera en alumnos de derecho, económicas e ingeniería. tesis doctoral inédita. madrid: universidad pontificia comillas de madrid. rohn, w.e. (1986). “the present state and future trends in management games for management development in germany”. simulation & games 17: 382392. scarcella, r. y d. crookall (1990). “simulation/gaming and language acquisition” en d. crookall, d. y r.l. oxford (1990a) (eds.), 223-230. schein, e.h. y w.g. bennis (1965). personal and organizational change through group methods. new york: wiley. steiner, a.m. (1998) “jaque al faraón”. newton 4: 39-40. sugar, s. (1994). “my first game: the ms. bonnie episode”. simulation & gaming: an international journal of theory, practice and research 21: 258-260. swain, m. y s. lapkin (1982). evaluating bilingual education: a canadian case study. clevedon: multilingual matters. thomas, c.j. (1957). “the genesis and practice of operational gaming”. proceedings of the first international conference on operational research, 6568. baltimore, md: operations research society of america. vicente, d. (1998). prefacio de los juegos de simulación, una herramienta para la formación. donosita-san sebastián: cidec. watson, h.j. (1981). computer simulation in business. new york: john wiley. watts, f., a. garcía-carbonell y n. martinez alzamora (2006). “relación entre evaluación y evaluación por el profesor. estimación de tiempo de dedicación del estudiante” en f. watts y a. garcía carbonell (eds.), la evaluación compartida: investigación multidisciplinar, 109-130. valencia: universidad politécnica de valencia. 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 83 wolfe, j. (1990). “the role of management games and simulations in education research”. journal of management 16: 307336. wolfe, j. (1991). “on the transfer of market oriented business games to eastern block cultures”. social science review 92: 202-214. wolfe, j. (1993). “successful student case analysis strategies”. simulation & gaming 24: 464-475. young, j.p. (1959). a survey of historical developments in war games. oro-sp-9b (ad210865), john hopkins university, operations research office, bethesda, md. 84 ibérica 13 [2007]: 65-84 a. garcía-carbonell y f. watts dr. amparo garcía carbonell es profesora de inglés en la escuela superior de ingenieros de telecomunicación de la universidad politécnica de valencia. su tesis doctoral versa sobre la efectividad de la simulación telemática en el aprendizaje del inglés técnico. es miembro del comité directivo de la international simulation and gaming association (isaga) y responsable del grupo de investigación dimensión intercultural y aprendizaje activo de lenguas (di-aal), cuya investigación se centra fundamentalmente en metodología activa, evaluación y análisis del discurso. dra. frances watts es profesora de inglés en la escuela superior de ingenieros de telecomunicación de la universidad politécnica de valencia, miembro de la international simulation and gaming association (isaga) y del grupo de investigación dimensión intercultural y aprendizaje activo de lenguas (diaal). responsable del grupo de innovación en la evaluación para la mejora del aprendizaje activo (iema). notas 1 la asociación de términos “simulación y juego” da nombre a la metodología que incluye simulaciones o juegos en la estrategia docente. se trata de un enfoque y no sólo de una técnica, definición avalada por la asociación internacional de simulación y juego (isaga). para hacer referencia a la técnica, herramienta o ejercicio utilizado se habla de simulaciones o de juegos específicos en todas sus variantes: situacionales, por ordenador, ejercicios militares, juegos psicosociales de rol, entre otros. 2 proyecto icons: international communication and negotiation simulations. universidad de maryland. url: http://www.icons.umd.edu/ [06-06-06]. proyecto ideels: intercultural dimensions in european education through on-line simulation. ideels es un proyecto socrates/erasmus diseñado por un grupo de profesores-investigadores procedentes de las universidades de bremen (alemania), nice-sophia antipoli (francia), bergen y nord trondelag (noruega) y la universidad politécnica de valencia, upv (españa). url: http://www.ideels.uni-bremen.de [22-06-06]. 04 garcia carbonell.qxp 11/4/07 16:43 página 84 iberica 13 science communication on the internet. old genres meet new genres maría-josé luzón & carmen pérez-llantada amsterdam: john benjamins, 2019. 242 pages. isbn: 9789027204660. to everyone working in the field of english for specific purposes, the notion of genre has enormous importance. scientific and professional texts are only comprehensible if we approach them from a sound understanding of genre as the key to the way professional discourse communities use language to perform social actions. in the last ten years, however, our knowledge of professional genre repertoires has been increasingly challenged by the emergency of new digital genres, often existing in parallel with the traditional ones. this development has been particularly interesting in the area of scientific publication, where researchers and publishers have been eager to grasp the possibilities of internet-based media. this volume makes a significant contribution to our understanding of this rapidly changing scenario. the first three chapters pose the question whether scientific research articles have changed significantly during their transition to digital publishing. some of their defining features are explored as they undergo this process, and emergent digital genres are compared with the traditional written genre in terms of form and function. the book here relies on six quantitative studies (bazerman, atkinson, gross, bank, owen, gross and harmon) focusing in different ways on scientific publishing from the 17th through to the 21st century. the chosen perspective is fascinating to read, as it not only considers how the genre conception has become more complex, triggered by technological factors, but widens this view by incorporating rhetorical issues. among other aspects, this means considering how the new genre responds to changes in social activities and circumstances, a line of inquiry proper to the original language for specific purposes approach. luzon, pérez-llantada, harmon, and mehlenbacher & mehlenbacher defend the stability of the research article in its essence regarding form and function even when it moves to the internet (e-journals), seeing it as “preserving and extending existing functions and values”, supplementing and enhancing them, rather reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 288-290 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 288 than presenting a “wholesale reinvention that radically transforms a communicative practice”. this is explained on the basis that the modern science genre seems not to be an autonomous, disconnected entity, but rather forms part of – and collaborates within – a “broader ecology of genres” (mehlenbacher). the chosen perspective paints a useful bigger picture of what the specific digital genres are and their relation with others. as these authors explain, modern articles on the one hand certainly do still follow traditional formal aspects such as the imrad model, and their function is predominantly pragmatically oriented, given their continuing epistemic commitment and their compliance with community norms. on the other hand, these authors also offer an interesting account of how the interaction between the visual and verbal text has changed in the transition to internet, and has become much stronger, permitting all participants to explore and exploit new possibilities of communication. the underlying concept of continuity and change discussed here is addressed in all chapters of the book, forming a common thread. following on from this, several chapters (from 4-9, with the exception of chapter 6) address the new genres that have arisen through the use of digital affordances, specifically the graphical abstract (ga) (rabuske hendges & salete florek), videos (such as three-minute thesis presentation or author videos) and podcasts (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas), and also multimodal recontextualizations of scientific texts through notions such as hyperlinks. for example, maier and engberg explore the concept of knowledge mediation and adjusting strategies, thinking particularly of the level of explanatory depth required for different audiences in order to manage the knowledge asymmetry between them. besides, the new marketoriented tendency among the latest genres, which bear strong traits shared with promotional and advertising genres (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas), is well explained. in line with this new promotional function, the increased multimodal elements are interpreted, such as the frequent use of colour and images to attract a wider audience. moreover, the benefits and problems accompanying the democratization of science, converting it into a public good, are also clarified. in relation to this, the notion of networking, interoperability, open discussion and an intensified critical evaluation receive a special focus. lastly, three of the chapters offer a rather different take on digital genres. breeze considers how open peer review has brought about changes in the way that referees and editors communicate with authors – and in the way the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 288-290 289 authors formulate their responses or rebuttals. smart and falconer offer an interesting analysis of the vatican discourse laudato si considering the evolution of its conception of science and technology, drawing from the promise that it constitutes a bridging genre placed in-between the digital and print genre. last, reid and anson focus on polycontextuality and context collapse in internet-mediated citizen science. in comparison to the former chapters, these focus more closely on the changing interrelated social communication and knowledge construction between, respectively, author responses and referees, some popes and the pontifical academy of sciences, and last, the public and an expert community in scientific digital, spoken and print-based genres. the opening up and increased visibility of these processes thanks to the internet offer a privileged window onto the study of how these participants, whether experts, semi-experts or a wider, unknown public, interact and contribute to the formation and dissemination of scientific knowledge. coming to an end, this book offers a useful and realistic understanding of the complex panorama of digital genres in science, focusing on the emergence of new patterns and features afforded by the internet which may one day configure new genre conventions. it also addresses the changing interactive communication system and the way it operates between scientists and a wider, open-for-all audience. in doing so, it touches on several related underlying problems, such as the question of quality control in digital media, or the radical reduction of scientific content that is inaccessible for the average audience. however, perhaps the strongest theme that comes through the chapters in this volume concerns the benefits of digital media, such as their vast potential for increasing knowledge dissemination, or the opportunities the offer to encourage the proactive incorporation of the whole internet community. received 15 december 2020 accepted 22 december 2020 reviewed by: pilar gerns university of navarra (spain) mgerns@unav.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 288-290290 iberica 13 ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 issn 1139-7241 resumen este estudio se propone demostrar que la “pregunta oral en la sesión de control al gobierno” constituye un género del lenguaje político, encuadrado en el supragénero “sesión del pleno” que, a su vez, pertenece a la familia de géneros “lenguaje parlamentario”. para ello se realiza el análisis de un corpus del lenguaje parlamentario constituido por las transcripciones de las sesiones del pleno del congreso de los diputados. se observa que este tipo de pregunta no es una interacción conversacional normal, debido a la violación de las máximas de intercambio cooperativo de grice (1975 y 1978). sin embargo, los turnos de preguntas y respuestas obedecen al principio de cooperación porque responden a las exigencias dialógicas del momento, el lugar, la finalidad y la norma convencional de referencia, de forma que dichos turnos conforman un género discursivo con una estructuración convencional, para el cual la violación de las máximas es funcional. posteriormente se realiza un análisis de diferentes funciones comunicativas de la pregunta que lleva a una propuesta de clasificación dentro del lenguaje parlamentario. se llega a la conclusión de que se puede establecer una categorización de la pregunta, basándose en las condiciones de textualidad de la estructura informativa del texto. keywords: lenguaje parlamentario, géneros discursivos, lingüística del corpus. abstract question time as a text genre in spanish parliamentary discourse the purpose of this article is to demonstrate that question time in parliamentary sessions represents a subgenre of a wider one, the genre of géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario español: la pregunta oral en la sesión de control al gobierno luis javier santos lópez università degli studi di milano (italy) luis.santos@unimi.it 127 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 127 plenary sessions, within parliamentary genre of political language. we have analyzed a corpus of transcriptions of plenary sessions of the spanish parliament. preliminary results show that this type of question is not a regular conversational interaction trait since it violates the rules of cooperative interchange (grice, 1975 y 1978). we raise, therefore, the hypothesis that the rounds of questions and answers would rely on the maxims of cooperation, since they follow the dialogical demands of the moment, the place, the purpose and the conventional rules of reference. in other words, they make up a textual genre with a conventional structure, for which the violation of these principles is functional. to support our hypothesis we have conducted a functional analysis of the oral question that has led us to classify it within the genre of parliamentary language. our conclusion is that it is possible to establish a categorization of the question, based on the textual conditions of the informative structure of the text. palabras clave: parliamentary language, discursive genres, corpus linguistics. introducción, materiales y metodología el lenguaje político ha sido, y es, objeto de estudio continuo por parte de las más dispares corrientes lingüísticas y retóricas: se encuentra un filón importante en la corriente de la lexicología social iniciada por martoré (1953) que ha generado un gran filón de investigación en el ámbito hispánico, y el más reciente del análisis crítico del discurso, difundido en españa fundamentalmente a través de las contribuciones de ruth wodak (1989) y teun a. van dijk (2009). son clásicos los estudios de fernando lázaro carreter (1987) y manuel alvar ezquerra (1987). algunos investigadores no consideran el lenguaje político y, en concreto, el parlamentario, un lenguaje de especialidad (shapiro, 1984; coseriu, 1987; corcoran, 1990; fedel, 1994) mientras que otros (alvar ezquerra, 1991; san vicente, 2001; núñez y guerrero, 2002) defienden lo contrario.1 el propósito de este artículo es estudiar la pregunta oral en la sesión de control al gobierno como género discursivo, buscar su encuadramiento en el discurso parlamentario y, a su vez, en el lenguaje político. para conseguir este objetivo propondremos, como hipótesis, un cuadro general de clasificación del lenguaje político a partir de la lingüística del género puesto que, gracias a ella, se podrán clasificar los diferentes ámbitos de la acción-expresión política en un determinado contexto sociocultural. pretendiendo formular una hipótesis de clasificación de los géneros luis javier santos lópez ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150128 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 128 ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario discursivos del lenguaje parlamentario (lp) en la cual encuadrar la pregunta oral en la sesión de control al gobierno (en lo sucesivo, la pregunta), es necesario remitirse a los estudios clásicos sobre el tema, en concreto a bhatia (1993), swales (1990), berkenkotter y huckin (1995) y adam (1999). para los propósitos de este estudio ha sido muy útil la estructura de la enciclopedia de géneros de especialidad desarrollada por el proyecto gentt (gèneres textuals per a la traducció) del departament de traducció i comunicació de la universitat jaume i de castellón (españa), puesto que permite “estudiar les regularitats relacionades amb la terminologia, la fraseologia, l’estructura sintàctica i formal dels documents, els aspects relacionats amb el registre, la ideologia, etc.” (garcía y monzó, 2002: 147). es necesario, pues, crear un modelo de clasificación realizado con criterios internos y externos, tal como afirman los investigadores de gentt: nosotros pensamos que es necesario un modelo con criterios múltiples, en el que todas las dimensiones relevantes sean consideradas. dada la complejidad del concepto, en gentt entendemos que el género sólo se puede definir a priori desde una perspectiva extratextual. por otro lado observamos que dentro del fenómeno de género se dan diversos grados de abstracción (...) se plantea, por tanto, la conveniencia de identificar los diversos niveles del concepto género y establecer los parámetros que definen cada uno de dichos niveles. lo hacemos a partir del corpus, de modo experimental e inductivo, planteando hipótesis y contrastándolas con el corpus (ezpeleta y gamero, 2004: 4). este trabajo está basado en un corpus especializado, textual, anotado y documentado, del lenguaje parlamentario que contiene los textos de todas las sesiones plenarias del primer año de las legislaturas 2000-2004 y 2004-2008.2 el corpus está compuesto por 5.408.993 palabras provenientes de 187 actas del diario de sesiones del congreso de los diputados: pleno y diputación permanente (congreso de los diputados 2000 y 2004b, en lo sucesivo ds), desde la constitución de la mesa hasta el primer debate sobre el estado de la nación en ambas legislaturas. se analizará más detalladamente un subcorpus de 593.547 palabras, que corresponden a las preguntas y respuestas en la sesión de control al gobierno. en primer lugar se analizará el subcorpus a la luz de las máximas del intercambio cooperativo de grice (1975 y 1978) para determinar si obedecen al principio de cooperación; además, se analizará la pregunta para observar en qué medida responde a las condiciones de textualidad de de beaugrande 129 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 129 y dressler (1994) centradas en la estructura informativa del texto. por último, con el fin de encuadrar la pregunta en el discurso parlamentario, se estudiará la pregunta adaptando el modelo de clasificación realizado por el proyecto gentt y formulando una propuesta de clasificación. análisis del corpus a partir de las máximas del intercambio cooperativo se entiende por “pregunta” en este artículo los intercambios dialógicos que tienen lugar en la sesión de control al gobierno regulados por los artículos 185 al 190 del reglamento del congreso de los diputados (congreso de los diputados 2004a, en lo sucesivo reglamento), que comprenden la pregunta por parte de un diputado, la respuesta o contestación por parte del gobierno, la repregunta o réplica por parte del mismo diputado y otra intervención del gobierno o contrarréplica. se ha denominado “pregunta” al conjunto del intercambio porque coincide con la expresión que se utiliza normalmente en la comunicación del parlamento español. en adelante identificaremos con “p” las preguntas iniciales, con “r” las respuestas, con “rep” las réplicas y con “c” las contrarréplicas. la numeración corresponde al orden del ejemplo en el presente trabajo y con relación al conjunto del intercambio dialógico. se ha observado que algunos intercambios conversacionales en esta situación comunicativa son improbables en la lengua general o, cuando menos, constituyen un acto de comunicación fallido, como se puede observar en el siguiente ejemplo: 1-p – diputado matos mascarreño: la doy por formulada. (ds 20/10/2004) 1-r – ministra trujillo rincón: la doy por contestada. (ds 20/10/2004) se presenta la duda sobre qué es lo que diferencia una pregunta en un ámbito general de comunicación de otra en el lp. después de una ojeada al ds resulta inmediato pensar que la pregunta en este contexto viola las máximas del intercambio cooperativo de grice (1975 y 1978). a continuación se hará una revisión del corpus a través de estas máximas con el fin de corroborar o refutar esta hipótesis inicial. luis javier santos lópez ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150130 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 130 máximas de cantidad la primera máxima de la cantidad exige que se informe de lo que se pide. en las tres preguntas que el diputado acebes paniagua realiza a la vicepresidenta del gobierno fernández de la vega, se observa que el contenido informativo no está en función de la respuesta, sino de la réplica: 2-p: señora vicepresidenta, ¿considera el gobierno que con los nombramientos más importantes que ha efectuado cumplen con los compromisos adquiridos por ustedes con los ciudadanos? (ds-12/05/2004) 3-p: señor presidente, señorías, ¿piensa el gobierno que sus múltiples contradicciones no tienen coste alguno para los intereses de los ciudadanos? (ds-23/06/2004) 4-p: señora vicepresidenta, ¿le ha pedido el presidente del gobierno que mejore la coordinación entre los ministros? (ds-30/06/2004) considerando que es un diputado de la oposición el que se dirige a un miembro del gobierno, se puede hipotizar que se trata de preguntas retóricas; de hecho, la vicepresidenta responde: 2-r: (...) en estas tres semanas que llevamos de gobierno, el gobierno ha cumplido con todos sus compromisos. en materia de nombramientos también, señor acebes. (ds-12/05/2004) 3-r: (...) señor acebes, le niego la mayor y además le ruego explique a la cámara a qué coste se refiere. (ds-23/06/2004) 4-r: (...) el presidente del gobierno no me ha pedido tal cosa porque conoce perfectamente el esfuerzo y el trabajo de todos los miembros del gobierno en la acción concertada de este gobierno al servicio de los ciudadanos. (ds30/06/2004) el diputado acebes paniagua, en la réplica, responde a su propia pregunta, sin tomar en gran consideración las palabras de la vicepresidenta: 2-rep: señoría, creo que no, creo que en materia de nombramientos también van por mal camino. (...) así que es un claro incumplimiento con algo que era muy fácil de cumplir. nadie se lo había exigido, era un compromiso del presidente del gobierno con los ciudadanos, fácil de cumplir y que han incumplido. eso, señor presidente, no es renovación democrática, eso no es honor a la palabra dada. (...) señor presidente, esto no es renovación democrática; esto, en los anuncios, se llama publicidad engañosa: mucha propaganda y muy poca verdad. (ds-12/05/2004) géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 131 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 131 3-rep: sí, señora vicepresidenta. en sólo dos meses hemos asistido a un repertorio de contradicciones y rectificaciones sin precedentes en ningún gobierno y además en todas las variables: vicepresidente segundo contradice a ministro, vicepresidenta rectifica a vicepresidente, ministro rectifica a ministro y los ministros que se contradicen a sí mismos, que es el más difícil todavía; es decir, un auténtico despropósito que hoy ya nadie duda. (ds23/06/2004) 4-rep: señoría, pues si no lo ha hecho debería hacerlo y además con urgencia (...). ustedes están generando preocupación e inestabilidad. ¿saben por qué? porque es un gobierno sin rumbo ni en política económica ni en política territorial ni en política internacional, y esto es malo para españa. (ds30/06/2004) en segundo lugar, la máxima de cantidad exige que no se dé más información que la que se pide. es muy habitual que, cuando un miembro del partido que apoya al gobierno hace una pregunta, se extienda durante cinco minutos (el tiempo máximo concedido por el reglamento) con una descripción de una situación determinada sin que al final haya una pregunta específica. no se transcriben por entero las intervenciones, sino únicamente el final de tres preguntas que ejemplifican el punto, puesto que no hay una cuestión, sino una opinión: 5-p – diputada aburto balsega: (...) por eso creemos que los atentados del islam, tan terribles que es difícil de imaginarlos, deben suponer una inflexión en la lucha antiterrorista a nivel internacional. (ds-15/09/2004) 6-p – diputado cuadrado bausela: (...) es más, yo creo que se pone a prueba con aspectos de carácter global y con otros que afectan a cooperaciones reforzadas, a grupos de países con más capacidad que puedan actuar, se pone a prueba hasta qué punto, señor ministro, la unión europea es capaz de tener una estrategia global propia de defensa, sin necesidad de peregrinar a un rancho tejano para saber cuál es nuestra política de defensa, por supuesto. (ds-16/06/2004) 7-p – diputado cuadrado bausela: (...) señor ministro, conviene que el conjunto de la opinión pública sepa cómo se aprueba una misión española de las fuerzas militares en el exterior, con qué amparo de legalidad internacional, para qué fines concretos, qué mandato preciso se le da, no le vaya a ocurrir, como nos contaba aquel general polaco a quien mandaron a irak a hacer regadíos y terminaron diciéndole que detuviera a un clérigo, señor ministro. para eso ni un militar español, ni un militar polaco, ni ningún militar. (ds-24/11/2004) luis javier santos lópez ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150132 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 132 el miembro del gobierno normalmente agradece la pregunta o exalta su pertinencia, ya que el diputado ha alabado su gestión y, a veces, ha criticado la del gobierno anterior, como se puede ver en sendos extractos de las respuestas: 5-r – ministro moratinos cuyaubé: (...) pero como bien señala s.s., el tema que se nos plantea y que ponen de manifiesto los acontecimientos de osetia del norte es de qué manera debemos de responder al terrorismo. (ds15/09/2004) 6-r – ministro bono martínez: señor presidente, señor diputado, el gobierno desea una política de seguridad y de defensa en los términos en que s.s. se pronunciaba, pero que hoy tenemos que reconocer una verdad que s.s. también indicaba, y es que europa tiene que ser en materia de defensa lo que hoy no es: un actor eficaz y creíble (...). por eso me alegra su pregunta, ya que son absolutamente necesarias nuevas fórmulas de cooperación estructural. (ds-16/06/2004) 7-r – ministro bono martínez: por último, señoría, coincido plenamente con que la sociedad española conoce la misión de paz de los ejércitos de españa. (ds-24/11/2004) máximas de calidad la primera máxima de la calidad exige que no se emitan sentencias que se consideren falsas: las acusaciones recíprocas entre miembros del gobierno y la oposición sobre presuntas falsedades y engaños son una constante en las preguntas al gobierno. no se transcriben por problemas de espacio las interrogaciones; a efectos estadísticos, se han extraído del corpus las expresiones relacionadas con la veracidad o falsedad de la información y sus diferentes realizaciones verbales, adjetivales y adverbiales que se detallan en la tabla 1. se ha procedido al análisis de la parte del corpus dedicada a las preguntas utilizando el programa informático antconc. el número total de palabras (tokens) es de 593.547, que corresponden a 22.878 tipos de palabras (types), por lo tanto las 752 ocurrencias relacionadas con la veracidad de la información significan el 3,28% de los tipos de palabras presentes en el texto. la segunda máxima de calidad requiere que no emitan sentencias de las que no se tienen datos. las discusiones sobre si los datos aportados son atendibles, inexistentes o si en manos del gobierno/oposición obran documentos que prueban la inconsistencia documental de la respuesta del interpelado son innumerables. géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 133 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 133 máxima de relevancia la máxima de relevancia exige la pertinencia. la pregunta en la sesión de control se debe presentar por escrito ante la mesa del congreso y contendrá “la escueta y estricta formulación de una sola cuestión, interrogando sobre un hecho, una situación o una información, sobre si el gobierno ha tomado o va a tomar alguna providencia en relación con un asunto, o si el gobierno va a remitir al congreso algún documento o a informarle acerca de algún extremo” (art. 188.1 del reglamento). en algunas ocasiones, sin embargo, la pregunta que se hace no tiene relación con el texto previamente depositado, como en el siguiente ejemplo: 8-p – [pregunta depositada del] diputado rajoy brey: ¿cree usted que contribuyen a la confianza de los españoles los anuncios hechos por su gobierno sobre reformas fiscales? [pregunta formulada ante el pleno por el] diputado rajoy brey: muchas gracias, señor presidente. señor rodríguez zapatero, lo que hoy espera la opinión pública de usted es una explicación sobre el lamentable espectáculo que en las últimas horas han dado el coronel chávez y el señor moratinos. usted ayer y hoy se ha negado a responder a los periodistas. yo le brindo la oportunidad de hacerlo en este momento. (ds-24/11/2004) máxima de modo la primera máxima de modo pide que se evite la ambigüedad. no sucede así en el ámbito parlamentario y fundamentalmente en la sesión de control al luis javier santos lópez ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150134 ibérica 20 (2010): …-…6 la primera máxima de la calidad exige que no se emitan sentencias que se consideren falsas: las acusaciones recíprocas entre miembros del gobierno y la oposición sobre presuntas falsedades y engaños son una constante en las preguntas al gobierno. no se transcriben por problemas de espacio las interrogaciones; a efectos estadísticos, se han extraído del corpus las expresiones relacionadas con la veracidad o falsedad de la información y sus diferentes realizaciones verbales, adjetivales y adverbiales que se detallan en la tabla 1. lema ocurrencias confianza 162 confusión, confusa, confusionismo, confusos, confunda, confundan, confunde, confundamos, confundidos, confundido, confundiendo, confundirlo, confundir 132 creíble 10 cuestionar 20 embustero 2 engaño, engañaba, engañado, engañados, engañamos, engañan, engañando, engañándoles, engañar, engañaremos, engañe, engaño, engañó, engaños, engañosa 82 enmascarar 2 evidencia 24 falacia 2 falso, falsear 76 ficticio 2 mentira, mentía, mentido, mentir, mentiras 96 verdad, veracidad, verdaderos, verdaderamente, verdadera, verdades, veraz 466 total 752 tabla 1. ocurrencias relacionas con la veracidad de la información. se ha procedido al análisis de la parte del corpus dedicada a las preguntas utilizando el programa informático antconc. el número total de palabras (tokens) es de 593.547, que corresponden a 22.878 tipos de palabras (types), por lo tanto las 752 ocurrencias relacionadas con la veracidad de la información significan el 3,28% de los tipos de palabras presentes en el texto. la segunda máxima de calidad requiere que no emitan sentencias de las que no se tienen datos. las discusiones sobre si los datos aportados son atendibles, inexistentes o si en manos del gobierno/oposición obran documentos que 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 134 gobierno. los responsables de la acción política a menudo dan rodeos en sus explicaciones, como le reprochan sistemáticamente los diputados de la oposición. algunos ámbitos temáticos, el nacionalismo, la guerra, la política lingüística, el terrorismo, etc., son especialmente fecundos en ambigüedades, como denuncia el diputado en la réplica siguiente: 9-rep – diputado zaplana hernández-soro: no es caprichoso denunciar que el presidente del gobierno ha dicho que da igual distinguir entre el término nación o el término nacionalidad, porque lo que está haciendo el presidente del gobierno es precisamente abrir la puerta a esas reivindicaciones. (ds-03/11/2004) la segunda máxima de modo requiere la brevedad. en las preguntas y respuestas en las sesiones de control parlamentario al gobierno ni se es breve, ni se es prolijo. cada participante tiene cinco minutos a su disposición según el artículo 188.3 del reglamento y en muy raras ocasiones se interviene durante un tiempo menor. tampoco se hace por un tiempo mayor puesto que el presidente de la cámara le retira automáticamente el uso de la palabra e, incluso, apaga el micrófono del participante. la última máxima de modo exige que se sea ordenado en la exposición. la pregunta y la respuesta responden a la máxima de modo sin lugar a dudas, principalmente porque la pregunta o bien es muy breve o bien ha sido estructurada y redactada de antemano. el que una intervención oral se redacte de forma escrita contribuye a una estructuración del discurso superior a una interacción exclusivamente oral. sin embargo, son numerosas las violaciones a la máxima en los turnos de réplica y contrarréplica puesto que, en muchas ocasiones, el participante está tan alterado que no es capaz de producir un discurso estructurado. el corpus analizado se basa en el diario de sesiones, por lo cual buena parte de los titubeos, las incorrecciones, las incoherencias y las reticencias de los participantes han sido eliminados y, sin embargo, nos encontramos en tantas ocasiones con textos totalmente desordenados. las condiciones de textualidad de la pregunta para el propósito de este artículo es fundamental analizar la pregunta teniendo en cuenta las condiciones de textualidad de de beaugrande y dressler (1994) centradas en la estructura informativa del texto géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 135 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 135 (intencionalidad, aceptabilidad, informatividad, situacionalidad, intertextualidad), puesto que son éstas, y no las centradas en el texto (coherencia y cohesión), las que pueden contribuir en mayor medida a un encuadramiento de este tipo de textos en una enciclopedia de géneros. la intencionalidad de una pregunta en muchas ocasiones no es la de conocer una respuesta, sino la de exaltar la propia acción política o denigrar la del adversario. la pregunta, incluso cuando no se formula explícitamente o aunque su tono sea agresivo, debe ser aceptada por el interlocutor, pues así lo prevé la ley. en el corpus objeto de estudio se ha registrado un único caso (véanse los ejemplos anteriores 1-p y 1-r) en el que un ministro se ha negado a responder a una pregunta no formulada oralmente y el presidente de la cámara lo ha reconvenido y le ha recordado su obligación de responder. solamente existe una situación en que la pregunta puede no satisfacer las condiciones de aceptabilidad: cuando el diputado la plantea en una lengua diferente de la castellana, en ese caso el presidente da al ministro la potestad de no responder aunque provoque la respuesta airada del diputado que ha realizado la pregunta, como en el ejemplo siguiente: 10-rep – diputado tardà i coma: gracias, señor ministro. no haber aceptado nuestra pregunta en lengua catalana con toda normalidad no le honra como demócrata, y se lo agradecemos, porque así no ha contribuido a la normalización de la lengua catalana en este cámara, lo cual como sabe para nosotros, y con toda seguridad también debería serlo para usted, es un deber democrático. (ds-02/06/2004) la informatividad de las respuestas es generalmente escasa, en primer lugar porque la cantidad de tiempo de la que se dispone es limitada y los temas que se abordan son complejos; en segundo lugar porque, como hemos visto, el propósito de la pregunta y de la respuesta no suele ser informativo. la situacionalidad influye en la estructuración de la pregunta: en ocasiones se observa que en una misma sesión dos grupos hacen una pregunta con un contenido informativo parecido pero con propósitos comunicativos diferentes. en primer lugar se registra la pregunta de un miembro de la oposición sobre un determinado tema y posteriormente una pregunta similar por parte del grupo que apoya al gobierno. la co-textualidad de la segunda pregunta cambia los propósitos comunicativos, pues pretende dar al representante del gobierno la posibilidad de completar la respuesta a la pregunta precedente sin tener que someterse a un turno de réplica contrario a su actuación. luis javier santos lópez ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150136 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 136 la intertextualidad de las preguntas es clara: se citan documentos, textos, leyes, etc. producidos con anterioridad (intertexto), en la respuesta se hace referencia, evidentemente, a la pregunta (infratexto), y en la formulación nos encontramos referencias legislativas, numéricas o siglas que se refieren a otros documentos (hipertexto). la pregunta en la lingüística de género para intentar encuadrar la pregunta en una enciclopedia de géneros, seguimos las indicaciones del grupo gentt (ezpeleta y gamero, 2004) con el fin de analizar la finalidad comunicativa, el canal, la relación entre emisor y destinatario así como los ámbitos temáticos del lp. finalidad comunicativa siguiendo el esquema de patrick charaudeau (2002), se pueden identificar los siguientes tipos de textos en el lenguaje político que corresponden a sendas finalidades comunicativas dominantes: • textos electorales: se trata de todos los textos propagandísticos realizados por los aparatos de los partidos políticos para convencer al electorado y para promover la imagen de los candidatos. su finalidad es que el elector haga una elección, por lo tanto es perlocutiva. • textos ideológicos: se trata de los fundamentos de la acción política, o sea, de las comunicaciones y ponencias en los congresos de los partidos y los artículos en revistas especializadas y divulgativas. su finalidad es argumentativa. • textos teóricos: estudios científicos sobre política realizados por estudiosos que no tienen necesariamente que ser políticos. su finalidad fundamental es expresiva. • textos parlamentarios: sus propósitos comunicativos son muy variados, van desde los fines perlocutivos propios de la propaganda, por ejemplo en un debate de investidura o sobre el estado de la nación, a los argumentativos en los debates sobre proyectos de ley o a los ilocutivos del voto. géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 137 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 137 estos tipos corresponderían a la “familia de género” que utilizan en gentt y que corresponde al “grado mayor de abstracción. agrupa a un conjunto de textos que tienen en común una finalidad comunicativa determinada en un contexto de uso socio-profesional específico” (ezpeleta y gamero, 2004: 5). canal es una realidad extralingüística, el reglamento, la que fija los canales de comunicación. cualquier expresión lingüística que no se emita a través de las vías legalmente determinadas no tiene consideración de intervención parlamentaria y, por tanto, pierde su eficacia. los diferentes canales, establecidos en su mayor parte por los artículos 61 al 67 del reglamento, son: • sesiones de las comisiones: conjunta: compuesta por un grupo de diputados pertenecientes a la comisión constitucional que se reúne con diputados y senadores de una región para proponer un estatuto de autonomía. mixta: compuesta por un grupo igual de diputados y senadores que se reúnen para conciliar posiciones divergentes del congreso y del senado en torno a la reforma constitucional. no permanente, “se crea para un trabajo concreto. se extingue a la finalización del trabajo encomendado”. permanente: que tiene generalmente propósitos legislativos. de investigación: creadas para esclarecer asuntos de interés público. • sesiones del pleno: conjunta: compuesta por los miembros del congreso y el senado. constitutiva: celebrada después de las elecciones para elegir al presidente y a los miembros de la mesa. de apertura: primera sesión de la legislatura en la que se procede al debate de investidura del gobierno. extraordinaria: que se celebra fuera del período ordinario de sesiones a petición del gobierno, de la diputación permanente luis javier santos lópez ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150138 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 138 o de la mayoría absoluta de los diputados para tratar temas de excepcional gravedad y urgencia. ordinaria: la que se celebra dentro del período de sesiones. informativa: que se celebra a petición del gobierno o de la comisión correspondiente para que comparezca un ministro para informar a la cámara. secreta: que trata temas que afectan a la seguridad nacional, a la disciplina parlamentaria o a acusaciones a diputados de delitos de traición o contra la seguridad nacional. • sesiones de la diputación permanente: que está constituida por un mínimo de veintiún diputados que representarán a los grupos parlamentarios y que asumen las facultades de la cámara cuando ésta ha sido disuelta o en el período entre sesiones. el conjunto de textos producidos en estas formaciones sociodiscursivas (adam, 1999) pueden encuadrarse en el supragénero puesto que éste “representa los rasgos mínimos comunes (finalidad comunicativa y el canal) a todos los géneros que se agrupan por debajo de ella” (ezpeleta y gamero, 2004: 5). es interesante en estos casos el estudio de la transcendencia de la comunicación y cómo afecta a las características textuales de los discursos. así, por ejemplo, es habitual la presencia de numerosos periodistas en las sesiones plenarias y, a consecuencia de ello, fragmentos de los discursos llegan a los medios de comunicación. la sesión de apertura y algunas de las sesiones extraordinarias, dado el interés especial de los contenidos, son normalmente retransmitidas en directo por televisión. las comisiones de investigación suelen tener una gran relevancia social y muchos ciudadanos están pendientes de ellas. los trabajos de muchas de las comisiones tienen una relevancia escasa y no alcanzan transcendencia hasta que no llegan al pleno. evidentemente, la relevancia social de los actos de habla, modificando el canal a través del cual se difunden, incide sobre la textualidad de los mensajes: así por ejemplo no se encuentran textos con propósitos propagandísticos dentro de la comisiones permanentes, mientras que los discursos ante el pleno tendrán una elaboración retórica más cuidada y un léxico menos especializado con el fin de obtener la comprensión y la adhesión de los ciudadanos. los discursos de la diputación permanente serán fundamentalmente técnicos y prescriptivos. géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 139 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 139 relación entre los interlocutores dentro de la sesión plenaria en sesión ordinaria se encuentran diferentes tipos de intervenciones que condicionan los tiempos de intervención, las consecuencias de la alocución (por ejemplo, una interpelación puede originar una moción, el debate de un proyecto de ley implica una votación posterior, etc.) y la jerarquía entre los participantes: • comparecencia: comparecencia informativa, reservada a los miembros del gobierno con preguntas de los diputados. informe: reservado a personalidades como el defensor del pueblo o el presidente del tribunal de cuentas, para informar de su gestión. • debate: debate conjunto: discusión sobre diferentes mociones. debate de totalidad: discusión sobre un proyecto de ley al que se le han presentado enmiendas a la totalidad. debate de un proyecto: discusión sobre la aprobación de una ley. debate del presupuesto: discusión sobre el proyecto de presupuestos generales del estado. • interpelación (urgente): interrogación al gobierno que puede generar una moción. • pregunta: con respuesta oral. con respuesta por escrito. • moción • proyecto de ley • proposición no de ley • convalidación o derogación de reales decretos-ley la relación entre los interlocutores corresponde al tercer nivel de clasificación, el género, según ezpeleta y gamero (2004: 6): luis javier santos lópez ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150140 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 140 el tercer nivel corresponde a los géneros. los criterios para identificarlos y definirlos se estructuran en torno a las dimensiones comunicativa y pragmática de hatim y mason (1990). respecto a la dimensión comunicativa consideraremos la situación de uso, quién es el emisor (a instancias de quién se crea el texto), quién es el receptor potencial, y en su caso otros posibles participantes (autor material del texto, receptores intermedios o paralelos, etc.) (...) respecto a la dimensión pragmática consideraremos la finalidad comunicativa. ámbitos temáticos otro gran problema que presenta el análisis del lp es el análisis de los temas porque la política se ocupa de todo, desde lo más íntimo, los sentimientos (discute y legisla sobra las formas de convivencia de las personas, por ejemplo), hasta lo más lejano (discute sobre problemas internacionales). además, la complejidad temática de los textos los hace difícilmente catalogables; por ejemplo, cuando se habla del terrorismo, se mezclan cuestiones de interior, de justicia, de relaciones con las comunidades autónomas, etc.; cuando se habla de transportes, puede ser con referencia a las obras públicas, a la economía, a las normas de tráfico, etc. se ha intentado clasificarlas de modo que sean rentables para un eventual estudio terminológico: • institucional: organización interna del sistema político, incluyendo el constitucional y el sistema de partidos: relaciones centro-centro • autonómico: sistema de relaciones entre el centro del poder y la periferia de la administración. • internacional: sistema de relaciones entre el centro del poder y el exterior. • económico: relaciones entre el centro del poder y el marco de referencia que afecta a casi todas las decisiones políticas. • técnico o de competencia ministerial: relaciones con aspectos no estrictamente políticos (vivienda, obras públicas, seguridad social, etc.). propuesta de clasificación se puede, pues, resumir la categorización dentro de la tabla 2; téngase en cuenta que el presente estudio ejemplificará esta clasificación con los textos géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 141 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 141 provenientes de una familia de géneros, los textos “parlamentarios”, correspondientes al supragénero “pleno ordinario” y al género “pregunta”. no se incluyen, por lo tanto, las familias de género extrañas al lp (textos electorales, ideológicos y teóricos). una vez enmarcada la pregunta como género discursivo perteneciente a la familia de géneros “lenguaje parlamentario” y al supragénero “sesión del pleno”, se pueden observar sus características principales determinadas por el reglamento: la identificación de los interlocutores, las posibilidades y los vínculos de la interacción, la modalidad de expresión, los ámbitos temáticos, los tiempos y la forma de la comunicación. todo ello se trata a continuación. (a) identificación de interlocutores. en el artículo 1853 se define la identificación de los interlocutores: los que preguntan son los diputados y los que responden son los miembros del gobierno. afirma bertuccelli papi (1993: 102) que: la lingua deve essere concepita come un insieme di limiti, uno schema di controllo delle potenzialità espressive di un parlante che voglia interagire verbalmente con altri membri di una comunità socio culturalmente e storicamente determinata. ogni interazione verbale presuppone margini di indeterminatezza nell’organizzazione interna del sistema e allo stesso tempo manifesta l’esistenza di limiti che rendono possibile la contrattazione dei sensi comunicativi al di là dell’indeterminatezza luis javier santos lópez ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150142 ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 13 internacional: sistema de relaciones entre el centro del poder y el exterior. económico: relaciones entre el centro del poder y el marco de referencia que afecta a casi todas las decisiones políticas. técnico o de competencia ministerial: relaciones con aspectos no estrictamente políticos (vivienda, obras públicas, seguridad social, etc.). propuesta de clasificación se puede, pues, resumir la categorización dentro de la tabla 2; téngase en cuenta que el presente estudio ejemplificará esta clasificación con los textos provenientes de una familia de géneros, los textos “parlamentarios”, correspondientes al supragénero “pleno ordinario” y al género “pregunta”. no se incluyen, por lo tanto, las familias de género extrañas al lp (textos electorales, ideológicos y teóricos). familia de géneros del lenguaje político supragéneros del lp géneros del lp temas parlamentario sesión de la comisión conjunta mixta no permanente permanente de investigación sesión del pleno conjunta constitutiva de apertura extraordinaria ordinaria informativa secreta sesión de la diputación permanente comparecencia informativa informe debate debate conjunto debate de totalidad debate de un proyecto debate del presupuesto interpelación (urgente) pregunta oral escrita moción proyecto de ley proposición no de ley convalidación o derogación de reales decretos-ley institucional autonómico internacional económico técnico tabla 2. propuesta de clasificación del lp. una vez enmarcada la pregunta como género discursivo perteneciente a la familia de géneros “lenguaje parlamentario” y al supragénero “sesión del pleno”, 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 142 en el caso de los textos analizados en este estudio el límite es mucho mayor, puesto que a los propios de la lengua se añaden los jurídicos. no sólo limita el número de participantes, sino que asigna los roles de cada uno de ellos, por lo que no puede ser un ministro el que interrogue a un diputado. usando la terminología de bertuccelli papi se puede considerar al parlamento como una “comunidad socio-culturalmente e históricamente determinada”, en la que las interacciones verbales se realizan no en función de las costumbres, de la cultura de la comunidad sino, principalmente, en función de la norma en vigor, por lo que los márgenes de “indeterminación en la organización del sistema” y las “posibilidades de negociación de los sentidos comunicativos” son mucho menores. (b) posibilidades y vínculos de la interacción. con el artículo 188.24 se observa que la participación de los miembros no es libre, sino que el presidente de la mesa decide en última instancia el número de preguntas admitidas, que no está en función del tema o la relevancia de la pregunta, sino en función del número de escaños ocupados por el grupo parlamentario del interlocutor. (c) modalidades de expresión. el punto 1 del artículo 1865 indica el modo en que la pregunta se debe presentar. es muy importante que la pregunta se presente de forma escrita puesto que condiciona la definición del registro comunicativo antes de que tenga lugar el acto de habla: el campo (el acto en su conjunto, el tema, los participantes, la finalidad), el modo (el medio y el canal) y el tenor (el papel de los participantes) (halliday, 1983). el punto 26 de este artículo plantea excepciones a los temas que deben ser tratados. (d) ámbitos temáticos y temporización. el artículo 188.17 fija los temas que se pueden tratar y los plazos de presentación de las preguntas. es muy importante que se presenten con una antelación superior o igual a las cuarenta y ocho horas por dos razones: en primer lugar porque consiente al interlocutor una estructuración de la respuesta e impide la espontaneidad propia de una conversación normal; y en segundo lugar porque el ministro interrogado puede acceder a intertextos que le permitan documentarse sobre el contenido de la pregunta y prepararse para eventuales ataques derivados de la pregunta. esto último es muy importante desde el punto de vista de la intertextualidad. véase como ejemplo el siguiente extracto del ds: géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 143 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 143 11-p – diputado barrachina ros: ¿qué valoración le merecen, señor ministro, los datos de paro registrado y de afiliación a la seguridad social del pasado mes de agosto? 11-r ministro caldera sánchez-capitán: (...) en primer lugar, agosto suele ser un mes errático. en segundo lugar, el aumento del paro, aunque siempre es malo, ha sido de 13.000 personas, que tampoco creo que sea una cantidad como para entender que cambia la tendencia; por ejemplo, en enero de este año el paro subió en 50.000 personas y en octubre del año pasado, en 60.000 (...). en abril, cuando ustedes acabaron su periodo de gobierno, el paro crecía sobre el año anterior casi en 50.000 personas y en agosto sólo crece en 30.000 personas. (...) ha habido más contrataciones en agosto este año que el año pasado y, sobre todo, se ha incrementado un 20 por ciento el número de contratos indefinidos. en cuanto a seguridad social, aunque los datos de agosto no han sido buenos, señoría, le daré un dato: su gobierno previó que el crecimiento de afiliación a la seguridad social iba a ser del 1,9 por ciento y ¿sabe usted cuál ha sido hasta el 31 de agosto? el 2,6. (e) duración y forma de la comunicación. el punto 3 del artículo 1888 es pertinente para el análisis textual en cuanto aborda la forma en que se realizará el intercambio comunicativo. el diputado puede formular escuetamente la pregunta o incluso darla por formulada, a partir de ahí comienzan los turnos de respuesta, réplica y contrarréplica para cada uno de los participantes. los turnos de réplica y contrarréplica no son obligatorios y los diputados y los miembros del gobierno pueden agotar los cinco minutos que tienen a su disposición, respectivamente, en la pregunta o en la respuesta. en este sentido son muy interesantes las elecciones de los participantes en función del grupo político (gp) al que pertenecen: • diputado de oposición: generalmente planteará la pregunta con la mayor brevedad puesto que su motivación no es la de conocer la respuesta, sino lanzar un ataque al ministro en su turno de réplica. el ministro interpelado, en consecuencia, dará una respuesta muy breve dejando un tiempo mayor para la defensa de su posición en el turno de contrarréplica. he aquí algunos ejemplos: 12-r ministra espinosa mángana: gracias, señor presidente. sí, señor diputado, y además mucho mejor de lo que el gobierno anterior del pp había hecho. (ds-12/05/2004) luis javier santos lópez ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150144 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 144 13-r vicepresidenta del gobierno, fernández de la vega sanz: pues, francamente, no. (ds-06/04/2005) 14-r ministro sevilla segura: ni frenazo ni acelerón, todo al ritmo previsto. (ds-09/03/2005) • diputado de la misma formación política que el ministro: generalmente desarrolla el tema de la pregunta consumiendo sus cinco minutos en la formulación, puede concluir con la formulación escueta de la pregunta o, incluso, como se ha visto con anterioridad en 5-p, 6-p y 7-p, sin pregunta. durante su exposición alabará la gestión del gobierno, afirmará que la situación es mejor que con el gobierno anterior y el tono será cordial, a veces sumiso. la pregunta se hace no tanto con el fin de obtener una información, sino con la de facilitar una respuesta lucida al ministro interpelado. de hecho el ministro, también en turno único, casi siempre agradece la pregunta y exalta el tono colaborativo del diputado. • diputado de grupo ideológicamente afín al gobierno, que mantiene acuerdos de legislatura o de gobierno o bien que no se identifica como oposición: la conversación se desarrolla en los cuatro turnos canónicos, pero con espíritu colaborativo, no hay agresión y en muchas ocasiones el propósito del diputado es obtener una información. con estos se pone de manifiesto la ausencia de jerarquía y, aunque el diputado esté de acuerdo con el ministro, de alguna manera muestra una cierta distancia. en su turno de contrarréplica el miembro del gobierno, generalmente, alaba el espíritu de colaboración del diputado, como se muestra en el ejemplo siguiente: 15-rep – diputado duran i lleida: muchísimas gracias, señor ministro, por la información que nos ha facilitado, y aprovecho este turno para insistir en algunos de los aspectos que mencioné en mi primera intervención y que quizá son los que han sido administrados en la respuesta del señor ministro de manera más superficial, si me permite la expresión. (ds-12/05/2004) 15-c – ministro moratinos cuyaubé: señor durán lleida, le agradezco su apoyo a la mayoría de los planteamientos del gobierno y, por tanto, agradezco a su grupo que podamos contar con ustedes en este momento crítico y esencial para el futuro de la unión géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 145 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 145 europea, que es finalizar la negociación de ese tratado constitucional de la unión. (ds-12/05/2004) (f) jerarquía en la comunicación. por último, el punto 4 del artículo 1889 es importante por lo que respecta la jerarquía en la comunicación, ya que sólo el gobierno tiene la potestad de aplazar una pregunta y su consiguiente respuesta. se resumen en la tabla 3 los elementos dominantes que condicionan la comunicación. conclusiones a partir de los ejemplos propuestos en el presente artículo, se podría pensar que no existe un principio de cooperación entre los participantes en la sesión de control del gobierno. sin embargo, los turnos de preguntas y respuestas obedecen a este principio puesto que se ajustan a las exigencias dialógicas del momento, el lugar, la finalidad y la norma convencional de referencia, o sea, conforman un género discursivo con una estructuración convencional para la cual la violación de las máximas es funcional. es más, teniendo en cuenta los postulados de los estudios culturales (lutter y reisentleiner, 2004), se puede examinar la actividad lingüística de la pregunta oral en la sesión de control al gobierno desde una perspectiva social, ya que es capaz de luis javier santos lópez ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150146 géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario interlocutor / emisor iniciador receptor material receptor intermedio o paralelo tenor relación jerárquica finalidad comunicativa oposición al gobierno / diputado diputado ministro o presidente del gobierno ciudadanía agresivo no propaganda gp de referencia del gobierno / diputado ministro o formación política ministro o presidente del gobierno cámara y ciudadanía cordial o sumiso sí información y propaganda gp afín al gobierno / diputado diputado ministro o presidente del gobierno cámara cortés no información tabla 3. elementos dominantes que condicionan la comunicación. conclusiones a partir de los ejemplos propuestos en el presente artículo, podríamos pensar que no existe un principio de cooperación entre los participantes en la sesión de control del gobierno. sin embargo, los turnos de preguntas y respuestas obedecen a este principio puesto que se ajustan a las exigencias dialógicas del momento, el lugar, la finalidad y la norma convencional de referencia, o sea, conforman un género discursivo con una estructuración convencional para la cual la violación de las máximas es funcional. es más, teniendo en cuenta los postulados de los estudios culturales (lutter y reisentleiner, 2004), podemos considerar la actividad lingüística de la pregunta oral en la sesión de control al gobierno desde una perspectiva social, ya que es capaz de modificar la realidad compartida, creando esta violación de las normas un espacio discursivo admitido: in tale spazio emergono le rappresentazioni di oggetti, eventi, individui di cui è possibile parlare: le modalità –linguistiche– di tali rappresentazioni hanno rilevanza sociale, poiché i significati espressi attraverso il linguaggio costituiscono – essi stessi – la realtà, al pari di eventi concreti, in un determinato ambito collettivo, privato o istituzionale (antelmi, 2007: 48). las condiciones de textualidad de la estructura informativa del texto en la pregunta (intencionalidad, aceptabilidad, informatividad, situacionalidad, intertextualidad) describen una modalidad de interacción dialógica peculiar que se somete a un modelo convencional y específico. esto hace que podamos géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): … 17 interlocutor / emisor iniciador receptor material receptor intermedio o paralelo tenor relación jerárquica finalidad comunicativa oposición al gobierno / diputado diputado ministro o presidente del gobierno ciudadanía agresivo no propaganda gp de referencia del gobierno / diputado ministro o formación política ministro o presidente del gobierno cámara y ciudadanía cordial o sumiso sí información y propaganda gp afín al gobierno / diputado diputado ministro o presidente del gobierno cámara cortés no información tabla 3. elementos dominantes que condicionan la comunicación. conclusiones a partir de los ejemplos propuestos en el presente artículo, podríamos pensar que no existe un principio de cooperación entre los participantes en la sesión de control del gobierno. sin embargo, los turnos de preguntas y respuestas obedecen a este principio puesto que se ajustan a las exigencias dialógicas del momento, el lugar, la finalidad y la norma convencional de referencia, o sea, conforman un género discursivo con una estructuración convencional para la cual la violación de las máximas es funcional. es más, teniendo en cuenta los postulados de los estudios culturales (lutter y reisentleiner, 2004), podemos considerar la actividad lingüística de la pregunta oral en la sesión de control al gobierno desde una perspectiva social, ya que es capaz de modificar la realidad compartida, creando esta violación de las normas un espacio discursivo admitido: in tale spazio emergono le rappresentazioni di oggetti, eventi, individui di cui è possibile parlare: le modalità –linguistiche– di tali rappresentazioni hanno rilevanza sociale, poiché i significati espressi attraverso il linguaggio costituiscono – essi stessi – la realtà, al pari di eventi concreti, in un determinato ambito collettivo, privato o istituzionale (antelmi, 2007: 48). las condiciones de textualidad de la estructura informativa del texto en la pregunta (intencionalidad, aceptabilidad, informatividad, situacionalidad, intertextualidad) describen una modalidad de interacción dialógica peculiar que se somete a un modelo convencional y específico. esto hace que podamos géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 17 interlocutor / emisor iniciador receptor material receptor intermedio o paralelo tenor relación jerárquica finalidad comunicativa oposición al gobierno / diputado diputado ministro o presidente del gobierno ciudadanía agresivo no propaganda gp de referencia del gobierno / diputado ministro o formación política ministro o presidente del gobierno cámara y ciudadanía cordial o sumiso sí información y propaganda gp afín al gobierno / diputado diputado ministro o presidente del gobierno cámara cortés no información tabla 3. elementos dominantes que condicionan la comunicación. conclusiones a partir de los ejemplos propuestos en el presente artículo, podríamos pensar que no existe un principio de cooperación entre los participantes en la sesión de control del gobierno. sin embargo, los turnos de preguntas y respuestas obedecen a este principio puesto que se ajustan a las exigencias dialógicas del momento, el lugar, la finalidad y la norma convencional de referencia, o sea, conforman un género discursivo con una estructuración convencional para la cual la violación de las máximas es funcional. es más, teniendo en cuenta los postulados de los estudios culturales (lutter y reisentleiner, 2004), podemos considerar la actividad lingüística de la pregunta oral en la sesión de control al gobierno desde una perspectiva social, ya que es capaz de modificar la realidad compartida, creando esta violación de las normas un espacio discursivo admitido: in tale spazio emergono le rappresentazioni di oggetti, eventi, individui di cui è possibile parlare: le modalità –linguistiche– di tali rappresentazioni hanno rilevanza sociale, poiché i significati espressi attraverso il linguaggio costituiscono – essi stessi – la realtà, al pari di eventi concreti, in un determinato ambito collettivo, privato o istituzionale (antelmi, 2007: 48). las condiciones de textualidad de la estructura informativa del texto en la pregunta (intencionalidad, aceptabilidad, informatividad, situacionalidad, intertextualidad) describen una modalidad de interacción dialógica peculiar que se somete a un modelo convencional y específico. esto hace que podamos 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 146 modificar la realidad compartida, creando esta violación de las normas un espacio discursivo admitido: in tale spazio emergono le rappresentazioni di oggetti, eventi, individui di cui è possibile parlare: le modalità –linguistiche– di tali rappresentazioni hanno rilevanza sociale, poiché i significati espressi attraverso il linguaggio costituiscono – essi stessi – la realtà, al pari di eventi concreti, in un determinato ambito collettivo, privato o istituzionale (antelmi, 2007: 48). las condiciones de textualidad de la estructura informativa del texto en la pregunta (intencionalidad, aceptabilidad, informatividad, situacionalidad, intertextualidad) describen una modalidad de interacción dialógica peculiar que se somete a un modelo convencional y específico. esto hace que se pueda considerar la pregunta en la sesión de control al gobierno un género discursivo correspondiente al supragénero “sesión plenaria ordinaria” y a la familia de géneros “lp” porque mantiene características formales y funcionales propias que la hacen específica para el contexto situacional en que se produce y anómala en cualquier otro contexto. la violación de las reglas formales (tiempo, estructura, modo, lengua, etc.) implica la exclusión de los participantes y la violación de las reglas funcionales (propósitos comunicativos y condiciones de participación) provoca un acto de comunicación fallido. [artículo recibido en noviembre de 2009] [artículo revisado aceptado en abril de 2010] references géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 147 adam, j.-m. (1999). linguistique textuelle des genres de discours aux textes. paris: nathan. alvar ezquerra, m. (coord.) (1987). el lenguaje político. madrid: fundación friedrich ebert. alvar ezquerra, m. (1991). “lenguaje político: el debate sobre el estado de la nación”. lingüística española actual xiii: 5-46. antelmi, d. (2007). “i fondamenti” en f. santulli (ed.), pragmatica della comunicazione turistica, 646. roma: editori riuniti. berkenkotter, c. y t.n. huckin (1995). genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: cognition, culture, power. hillsdale: lawrence erlbaum. bertuccelli papi, m. (1993). che cos’è la pragmatica. milano: bompiani. bhatia, v.k., (1993). analysing genre. language use in professional settings. london/new york: longman. charaudeau, p. (2002). “a quoi sert d’analyser le discours politique?” en c.u. lorda y m. ribas (eds.), anàlisi del discurs politic, 161-176. barcelona: universitat pompeu fabra. congreso de los diputados (2000). diario de sesiones del congreso de los diputados. madrid: boletín oficial del estado. congreso de los diputados (2004a). constitución española y reglamento del congreso de los diputados. madrid: boletín oficial del estado. 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 147 luis javier santos lópez es profesor de lingüística y traducción en la facultad de ciencias políticas de la universidad de milán. sus intereses de investigación son los lenguajes de especialidad, en concreto el político y el económico, y la lexicografía bilingüe. se ocupa además de didáctica del español. notas 1 para un panorama más detallado véase santos (2008: 343-344). 2 la primera parte ha sido realizada por lucia bonzini y la segunda por luis javier santos lópez. 3 artículo 185: los diputados podrán formular preguntas al gobierno y a cada uno de sus miembros. luis javier santos lópez ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150148 congreso de los diputados (2004b). diario de sesiones del congreso de los diputados. madrid: boletín oficial del estado. corcoran, p.e. (1990). “language and politics” en d.l. swanson y d. nimmo (eds.), new directions in political communication: a resource book, 5185. london: sage. coseriu, e. (1987). “lenguaje y política” en m. alvar ezquerra (ed.), el lenguaje político, 9-32. madrid: fundación friedrich ebert. de beaugrande, r-a. y w.u. dressler (1994). introduzione alla linguistica testuale. bologna: il mulino. ezpeleta, p. y s. gamero (2004). “los géneros técnicos y la investigación basada en el corpus: proyecto gentt” en r. gaser, c. guirado & j. rey (eds.), insights into scientific and technical translation. barcelona: ppu-universitat pompeu fabra. url: http://www.gentt.uji.es/sites/default/ files/ezpeleta %20y%20gamero%202004.pdf [02/02/2010] fedel, g. (1994). “sul linguaggio politico”. quaderni di scienza politica 3: 353-94. garcía, i y e. monzó (2002). “enciclopèdia electrònica de gèneres d’especialitat per a la traducció” en a. alcina y s. gamero (eds.), la traducción científico-técnica y la terminología en la sociedad de la información, 147-154. castellón: publicacions de la universitat jaume i. grice, h.p. (1975). “logic and conversation” in p. cole y j.l. morgan (eds.), syntax and semantics, 3: speech acts, 41-58. new york: academic press. grice, h.p. (1978). “further notes on logic and conversation” en p. cole (ed.), syntax and semantics, 9: pragmatics, 113-128. new york: academic press. halliday, m.a.k. (1983). il linguaggio come semiotica sociale. bologna: zanichelli. lázaro carreter, f. (1987). “viejo lenguaje. ¿nuevas ideas?” en m. alvar ezquerra (ed.), 3348. lutter, c. y m. reisentleiner (2004). cultural studies. milano: bruno mondadori. matoré, g. (1953). la méthode en lexicologie: domaine français. paris: marcel didier. nuñez, e.m. y s. guerrero (2002). el lenguaje político español. madrid: cátedra. san vicente, f. (2001). la lengua de los nuevos españoles. zaragoza: libros pórtico. santos, l.j. (2008). “definición del léxico político en los diccionarios monolingües: algunas dificultades” en h.e. lombardini y m. carreras (eds.). limes. lexicografía y lexicología de las lenguas de especialidad, 343-358. monza: polimetrica. shapiro, m.j. (1984). language and politics. oxford: blackwell. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis. english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. van dijk, t.a. (2009). discurso y poder: contribuciones a los estudios críticos del discurso. barcelona: gedisa. wodak, r. (ed.) (1989). language, power and ideology: studies in political discourse. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 148 4 artículo 188.2: las preguntas se incluirán en el orden del día, dando prioridad a las presentadas por diputados que todavía no hubieren formulado preguntas en el pleno en el mismo período de sesiones. sin perjuicio de este criterio, el presidente (...) señalará (...) el criterio de distribución entre diputados correspondientes a cada grupo parlamentario. 5 artículo 186.1: las preguntas habrán de presentarse por escrito ante la mesa del congreso. 6 artículo 186.2: no será admitida la pregunta de exclusivo interés personal de quien la formula o de cualquier otra persona singularizada, ni la que suponga consulta de índole estrictamente jurídico. 7 artículo 188.1: (...) el escrito no podrá contener más que la escueta y estricta formulación de una sola cuestión, interrogando sobre un hecho, una situación o una información, sobre si el gobierno ha tomado o va a tomar alguna providencia en relación con un asunto, o si el gobierno va a remitir al congreso algún documento o a informarle acerca de algún extremo. los escritos se presentarán con la antelación que fije la mesa y que nunca será superior a una semana ni inferior a cuarenta y ocho horas. 8 artículo 188.3: en el debate, tras la escueta formulación de la pregunta por el diputado, contestará el gobierno. aquél podrá intervenir a continuación para replicar o repreguntar y, tras la nueva intervención del gobierno, terminará el debate. los tiempos se distribuirán por el presidente y los intervinientes, sin que en ningún caso la tramitación de la pregunta pueda exceder de cinco minutos. terminado el tiempo de una intervención, el presidente automáticamente dará la palabra a quien deba intervenir a continuación o pasará a la cuestión siguiente. 9 artículo 188.4: el gobierno podrá solicitar, motivadamente, en cualquier momento y por una sola vez respecto de cada pregunta, que sea pospuesta para el orden del día de la siguiente sesión plenaria. géneros textuales en el lenguaje parlamentario ibérica 20 (2010): 127-150 149 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 149 06 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 150 iberica 13 ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper describes a corpus-based analysis of variation in the distribution and function of modals and their role in the expression of “stance” in a corpus of 600 research articles (ras) across twelve disciplines. stance is an expression of attitudes, judgments, or assessments towards the truth of propositions (biber et al., 1999), and part of the important function of claiming and confirming membership of discourse communities and therefore in constructing identity. three functional categories of modals perform a valuable role in the construction of stance: possibility/ability, obligation/necessity, and prediction (biber et al., 1999). however, very little research seems to have investigated variation across disciplines or their use in the ra. the corpus was analysed using wordsmith tools (scott, 2004), followed by manual checking of the function of every occurrence. interand intra-rater agreement was also checked. many statistically significant disciplinary differences were found, along with numerous marked differences with individual modals. further examination of the corpus revealed considerable disciplinary variation in the patterns and verbs associated with the target modals, and a number of sub-functions of the topics covered by the modals. conclusions are that modals perform an important role in the construction of stance. keywords: modals, corpus analysis, english for specific purposes, genre analysis, research articles. resumen e l us o d e e xp re s i on e s mo da l e s e n a rtí c ul o s d e i nv e s ti g a c ió n: un a pe r sp e c t iv a c ro s di s c ip l in ar en este trabajo se analiza la variación en la distribución y función de las expresiones modales y su papel en la expresión de un determinado punto de vista modals in the construction of research articles: a cross-disciplinary perspective matthew peacock city university of hong kong (china) enmatt@cityu.edu.hk 143 ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 matthew peacock en un corpus de 600 artículos de investigación pertenecientes a doce disciplinas académicas diferentes. se entiende por punto de vista la expresión de actitudes, juicios de valor o valoraciones sobre la veracidad de una proposición (biber et al., 1999), recurso comúnmente utilizado a la hora de reivindicarse como miembro de una comunidad discursiva y por lo tanto de construir una identidad. tres categorías funcionales de expresiones modales desempeñan un valioso papel en la construcción de un punto de vista: posibilidad/habilidad, obligación/necesidad y predicción (biber et al., 1999). sin embargo, hasta la fecha no se ha investigado mucho sobre cómo estas categorías de expresiones modales pueden variar dependiendo de la disciplina académica o sobre cómo se utilizan en artículos de investigación. el corpus fue analizado usando wordsmith tools (scott, 2004). a continuación se comprobó manualmente la función de cada expresión modal. también se comprobó la categorización de dichas funciones utilizando un observador independiente y posteriormente se realizó una comprobación adicional por parte del investigador. se encontraron numerosas diferencias entre disciplinas que pueden considerarse significativas desde el punto de vista estadístico, así como numerosas y significativas diferencias en el uso de las diferentes expresiones modales. un posterior análisis del corpus reveló la existencia de una considerable variación disciplinar en el uso de colocaciones y de verbos asociados con los modales empleados, así como un número de sub-funciones de los temas asociados con las expresiones modales. se concluye que los modales desempeñan un importante papel en la expresión de determinados puntos de vista. palabras clave: expresiones modales, análisis de corpus, inglés para fines específicos, análisis de género, artículos de investigación. introduction this paper describes a corpus-based analysis of discipline variation in the distribution and function of modals, for example “can” and “would”, and their role in the construction of stance. the corpus was 600 research articles (ras) across twelve disciplines: biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, environmental science, language and linguistics, law, neuroscience, physics and materials science, psychology, and public and social administration. the starting point of this research was the idea that modals may play an important role in the construction of stance in ras. the ra was chosen for this research because of its significance for the spread of knowledge. williams (2002) says discourse communities develop codes for communication through the use of patterns and that this code, rather than individual words, is one of their defining characteristics. ras have been 144 called the key medium for authenticating findings and disciplines (hyland, 1996), and the preferred method for communication among discourse communities (williams, 1998). their language defines these communities. stance is defined as the expression of attitudes, judgments, or assessments towards the truth of propositions (biber et al., 1999: 966). it is represented by “linguistic mechanisms” (biber, 2006: 97-98) and “lexical markers that convey the attitudes of the speaker/writer (…) toward our message (and) the degree of certainty” (reilly, zamora & mcgivern, 2005: 186). it has also been described as the “expression of attitudes, feelings, judgments, or commitment concerning the propositional content of a message” (biber & finegan, 1989: 93). suggestions, claims, and propositions are an important part of the ra; and in ras the construction and expression of stance is part of the important function of claiming, confirming, and expressing membership of and position in the discourse community of peers, academics, and other researchers, and therefore in constructing identity. modals in general are said to be the most common markers of stance (biber et al., 1999; reilly, zamora & mcgivern, 2005). biber et al. (1999) that three functional categories of modals play an important role in the construction of stance: possibility/ability for example “could”; obligation/necessity for example “must”; and prediction/volition for example “will”. additionally, modals are by far the most common markers of stance in university registers (for example, classroom teaching, texbooks – biber, 2006). however, very little previous research seems to have investigated discipline variation in modal usage and their role in the construction of stance. next, four previous studies will be described, in order of importance. first, biber et al. (1999) examined modal frequency in the academic prose section of the longman spoken and written english (lswe) corpus, book extracts plus ras, 2.6 million words each: seventy-five book extracts (mostly technical trade books) from 13 disciplines, and ras from 15 disciplines. biber et al. do not give exact figures, but report the following results: possibility/ability 7200 per million words (pmw), obligation/necessity 3200 pmw, and prediction/volition 3600 pmw. item results were “can” 3000, “could” 800, “may” 2800, “might” 600, “must” 1200, “should” 1200, “have to” 400, “need to” 200, “will” 2200, “would” 1400, and “shall” 200. “(had) better”, “have (got) to”, “(be) supposed to” and “ought to” were each less than 100. however, occurrences of volition (or intention: for example “this paper will/is going to discuss …”) were not excluded. this modals in the construction of research articles ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 145 sub-function can be called future “will” and is not part of the expression of stance. second, vázquez orta (2010) analyses the use of the modals “can”, “could”, “may”, “might”, “must”, “will”, “should”, “would”, and “shall” in 48 business management ras, half by l1 english authors and half by l1 spanish authors. the total frequency for all these modals was 7000 pmw for the english authors, and 5300 pmw for spanish authors. the most common modals in order of frequency for the former were “may”, “could”, “can”, “would”, and “might”, and “can”, “will”, “may”, “would”, “could”, and “might” for the latter. vázquez orta (2010: 93) suggests that “lack of modalisation seems to be a natural tendency for spanish writers”, adding that this adds to their difficulties writing in english and publishing. he does not, however, discuss the function of these modals in the expression of stance. third, neff et al. (2004), as part of a larger study of writer stance, examine the modals “might”, “may”, “could”, and “can” in a corpus of 60 l2 and l1 argumentative essays written in english. neff et al. report that non-native speakers (nns) overused “can” in comparison to native speakers (ns), and underused “might”, “may”, and “could”. they speculate (p. 82) that the overuse of “can” results from the fact that spanish relies heavily on one verb, “poder”, which corresponds to the english “can” and “could” and sometimes “might” and “may”. finally, these scholars assert that nns have problems modalizing statements. rationale for the present research it is suggested that modals may play an important role in constructing stance and therefore in expressing the very important ra functions of putting forward suggestions, claims, and propositions. modals would thereby function for claiming, confirming, and expressing membership of and position in a discourse community: and would therefore be valuable persuasive devices and an important part of research writing including ras, and worth investigating further. and if modals are important, they must also be acquired by aspiring nns research writers. bhatia (2000: 147) says a strong justification for genre research is that it informs the teaching of research writing, especially for writers who wish to join academic discourse communities. matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164146 taylor and chen’s (1991) suggestions that scientific discourse is heavily restricted by disciplinary cultures, and that much more attention must be given to these differences, have gained considerable ground in recent years. there seems to have been very little research into discipline variation in modal usage and the construction of stance and it is suggested the area is increasingly important due to the fast-growing numbers of research writers around the world, particularly nns. it is proposed that the area has not received the attention it warrants and that further research is needed, to assess variation in modal usage across a number of science and non-science disciplines. the present research can provide this information and the results should also tell us much more about the nature of ras, and help teachers of research writing inform learners of appropriate patterns. research method the distribution, frequency and function of modals in 600 research articles was investigated across twelve disciplines, six science and six non-science. the disciplines were classified as science or non-science by asking experts to discuss the classification. there was no controversy regarding biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, neuroscience, and physics and materials science (classified by the experts as sciences), or business, language and linguistics, law, and public and social administration (classified as non-sciences). regarding economics, experts said they consider it a non-science, pointing out that it is located in university faculties of humanities. there was more debate with psychology. experts said that while this topic has initiated some discussion, they do not classify it as a science, adding that only clinical psychology is considered a science among the 15 or more areas of psychology, and that university psychology departments are not normally located in science faculties. therefore psychology was classified as a non-science for the present research. the modals and their functional categories (following biber et al., 1999: 485) are: (1) possibility/ability: “can”, “could”, “may”, “might”. (2) obligation/necessity: “must”, “should”, “(had) better”, “have (got) to”, “need to”, “ought to”, “be supposed to”. (3) prediction: “will”, “would”, “shall”, “be going to”. modals in the construction of research articles ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 147 biber et al’s list was adopted as it is the standard work on the topic. “(had) better”, “have got to”, “ought to”, and “shall” were excluded from the analysis after preliminary searches showed that they are virtually absent from the present corpus. also, as noted above, biber et al. call category three ‘prediction/volition’: and as volition or future “will” is not part of the expression of stance, it was excluded from the analysis. examples from the present corpus of “would” and “will” used for “prediction” follow: “a general or remedial english course would be extremely difficult to organise” (language and linguistics). “the fact that the software industry is unlikely to soon become the next tobacco or asbestos industry does not mean that the legal system will not intrude. near term likely intrusions will be forced by: more contractual requirements …” (computer science). “one would expect to find deficits that are fairly limited to certain perceptual or conceptual domains” (language and linguistics). these modals function to express commitment to the truth of the propositions presented. research aims and research questions the aims of this research were, within the corpus, to: (1) investigate the frequency of all modals in the target categories. (2) investigate disciplinary variation. (3) investigate function. the following questions are directly addressed: (1) how frequently do ra authors use modals across twelve disciplines? are there any interdisciplinary differences? (2) how do modals function across twelve disciplines? the ra corpus the corpus was 600 ras published between 2000 and 2008, 50 from each discipline – see table 1. the twelve disciplines were selected because they represent a range of subjects and also have large numbers of research writers, mostly nns, around the world. this increases the usefulness of this matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164148 research regarding recommendations for teaching. various leading journals were selected from each discipline (see appendix). visits were made to the relevant departments and two sources from each asked to name principal journals from their field. ras were randomly chosen from each journal by giving each a number and drawing numbers from a box. no attempt was made to only choose ns writers for the corpus. only empirical data-driven ras with the introduction-method-results-discussion format were chosen, following hyland (1998) who notes that this is an important genre. essays, discussions and ras by writers already chosen were not used. it is suggested that the disciplinary corpora are sufficiently representative because of their size and because of the use of discipline sources to choose journals. investigating the corpus analysis was done in the following steps, using the concord function of wordsmith tools 4.0 (scott, 2004). explanation of steps 1 and 2 follows: step 1: investigate disciplinary variation in the frequency of the target modals. step 2: manually and individually check the function of every occurrence of all the target modals by reading the relevant sentence and surrounding sentences. one reason for doing this was to check whether or not every occurrence functioned to construct stance. modals in the construction of research articles ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 149 matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): …-… departments and two sources from each asked to name principal journals from their field. discipline no. of ras total word length biology 50 286,440 business 50 329,599 chemistry 50 182,472 computer science 50 359,003 economics 50 364,710 environmental science 50 249,874 language and linguistics 50 320,847 law 50 372,748 neuroscience 50 303,098 physics and materials science 50 226,253 psychology 50 381,709 public and social administration 50 306,624 all twelve disciplines 600 3,683,377 table 1. lengths of disciplinary corpora. ras were randomly chosen from each journal by giving each a number and drawing numbers from a box. no attempt was made to only choose ns writers for the corpus. only empirical data-driven ras with the introduction-methodresults-discussion format were chosen, following hyland (1998) who notes that this is an important genre. essays, discussions and ras by writers already chosen were not used. it is suggested that the disciplinary corpora are sufficiently representative because of their size and because of the use of discipline sources to choose journals. investigating the corpus analysis was done in the following steps, using the concord function of wordsmith tools 4.0 (scott, 2004). explanation of steps 1 and 2 follows: step 1: investigate disciplinary variation in the frequency of the target modals. step 2: manually and individually check the function of every occurrence of all the target modals by reading the relevant sentence and surrounding sentences. one reason for doing this was to check whether or not every occurrence functioned to construct stance. another was that “will” does not always function in this way, as noted above: all such functions were excluded from the count. it is also noted that it is possible that authors use modals to tone down their findings either in order to be modest or polite, or to follow academic writing conventions within disciplines. statistical significance was set at p<.05 and was tested with the log-likelihood calculator (rayson, berridge & francis, 2004). another was that “will” does not always function in this way, as noted above: all such functions were excluded from the count. it is also noted that it is possible that authors use modals to tone down their findings either in order to be modest or polite, or to follow academic writing conventions within disciplines. statistical significance was set at p<.05 and was tested with the log-likelihood calculator (rayson, berridge & francis, 2004). for step 1, high-frequency is defined as 40 pmw or higher, following biber et al. (2004: 376): “we take a conservative approach (…) [a] frequency cutoff of 40 times per million words to be included in the analysis”. regarding step 2, “function” means “operates” or “acts”. individual manual checking of the function of every occurrence is vital. the importance of doing this is stressed by tognini-bonelli (2004), who asserts that while frequency can be obtained from statistical analysis, context is vital for understanding function. williams (2002: 60) proposes that a “microscopic study” must be carried out before categorisation can be done. two evaluators carried out step 2: this writer and a local university lecturer. to measure inter-rater agreement, the second coder independently evaluated the function of every occurrence. to measure intra-rater agreement, this writer reassessed the function of every occurrence after one month. inter-rater and intra-rater agreement, after discussions, were both 100%. results the results for all functional categories and individual modals in the whole corpus can be seen in tables 2 and 3: the twelve target modals were very common – their average frequency was 736 pmw. the tables reveal considerable disciplinary variation, and large numbers of statistically significant differences. one clear and broad difference is between the sciences and non-sciences: the former show significantly lower frequencies, apart from just one science, computer science. matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164150 four of the most striking areas of individual discipline variation visible in tables 2 and 3 are: modals in the construction of research articles ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 151 modals in the construction of ras ibérica 27 (2014): …-… for step 1, high-frequency is defined as 40 pmw or higher, following biber et al. (2004: 376): “we take a conservative approach (…) [a] frequency cut-off of 40 times per million words to be included in the analysis”. regarding step 2, “function” means “operates” or “acts”. individual manual checking of the function of every occurrence is vital. the importance of doing this is stressed by tognini-bonelli (2004), who asserts that while frequency can be obtained from statistical analysis, context is vital for understanding function. williams (2002: 60) proposes that a “microscopic study” must be carried out before categorisation can be done. two evaluators carried out step 2: this writer and a local university lecturer. to measure inter-rater agreement, the second coder independently evaluated the function of every occurrence. to measure intra-rater agreement, this writer reassessed the function of every occurrence after one month. inter-rater and intra-rater agreement, after discussions, were both 100%. results the results for all functional categories and individual modals in the whole corpus can be seen in tables 2 and 3: target modals all 12 disc. bus. eco. lang. & ling. law psy. pub. & soc. adm. possibility / ability can 2229 2575* 2356 2407* 2186 1496* 2186 may 1624 1838* 1378* 1694 2809* 1620 1762 could 790 840 585* 871 934* 774 971* might 514 447* 434* 658* 1100* 836* 578 total 5156 5701* 4753* 5631* 7029* 4727* 5497 obligation / necessity should 790 1018* 653* 775 1518* 813 831 must 338 441* 277* 361 735* 245* 325 need to 196 413* 68* 369* 193 98* 429* (have) to 184 226* 154 295* 190 193 357* (be) supposed to 8 8 14 27* 11 20 5 total 1516 2106* 1166* 1827* 2648* 1369* 1947 prediction would 1197 1240 1186 1353* 2683* 1379* 1319 will 952 1170* 1231* 1017 2012* 617* 1355* (be) going to 11 18 3 21 3 3 50* total 2161 2427* 2421* 2391* 4698* 1999* 2724* total – all modals 8833 10234* 8339* 9849* 14374* 8095* 10168* table 2. discipline differences: non-sciences frequency per million words * = statistically significant difference: bold is significantly higher, italics is significantly lower matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): …-… target modals all 12 disc. bio. chem. com. sc. env. sc. neu. phy. & mat. sci. possibility / ability can 2229 1419* 1767* 3779* 2037* 1411* 2518* may 1624 1589 775* 1517 1440* 1374* 1253* could 790 851 692 612* 658* 959* 669* might 514 440 162* 290* 225* 477 268* total 5156 4300* 3396* 6198* 4361* 4221* 4708* obligation / necessity should 790 407* 353* 1024* 512* 617* 547* must 338 265* 123* 395 214* 165* 320 need to 196 85* 43* 231 141* 49* 20* (have) to 184 57* 18* 234* 101* 197 67* (be) supposed to 8 0* 4 0* 0* 0* 0* total 1516 814* 541* 1884* 968* 1029* 954* prediction would 1197 577* 512* 1080* 1047* 922* 547* will 952 322* 191* 1052 1120* 337* 564* (be) going to 11 0* 0* 31* 0* 0* 0* total 2161 899* 703* 2164 2166 1259* 1111* total – all modals 8833 6012* 4640* 10246* 7495* 6509* 6772* table 3. discipline differences: sciences frequency per million words. * = statistically significant difference: bold is significantly higher, italics is significantly lower the twelve target modals were very common – their average frequency was 736 pmw. the tables reveal considerable disciplinary variation, and large numbers of statistically significant differences. one clear and broad difference is between the sciences and non-sciences: the former show significantly lower frequencies, apart from just one science, computer science. four of the most striking areas of individual discipline variation visible in tables 2 and 3 are: (1) the high frequencies for business in obligation/necessity (“should”, “must”, “need to”, and “(have) to”); (2) the very high frequencies for law in possibility/ability (“may”, “could”, “might”), obligation/necessity (“should”, “must”), and prediction (“would”, “will”); (3) the high frequencies for computer science in possibility/ability (“can”), and obligation/necessity (“should”); (4) the many low category and individual item frequencies in five out of the six sciences – possibility/ability in biology, chemistry, and environmental science; obligation/necessity in biology, chemistry, environmental science, neuroscience, and physics and materials (1) the high frequencies for business in obligation/necessity (“should”, “must”, “need to”, and “(have) to”); (2) the very high frequencies for law in possibility/ability (“may”, “could”, “might”), obligation/necessity (“should”, “must”), and prediction (“would”, “will”); (3) the high frequencies for computer science in possibility/ability (“can”), and obligation/necessity (“should”); (4) the many low category and individual item frequencies in five out of the six sciences – possibility/ability in biology, chemistry, and environmental science; obligation/necessity in biology, chemistry, environmental science, neuroscience, and physics and materials science; and prediction in biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and physics and materials science. chemistry, and to a lesser extent biology, are particularly low in obligation/necessity and prediction. however, in just six out of the 36 functional category totals, analysis may be confused by the possible use of synonyms or near-synonyms within individual categories, where one modal shows significantly higher usage and another significantly lower. for example, psychology authors may be using “might” instead of “can”, and “would” instead of “will”; physics and materials science authors may be using “can” instead of “may”, “could”, and “might”; and environmental science authors may be using “will” instead of “would”. however, in the other 30 category totals, there is no such potential confusion. individual manual checking of the function of every occurrence of all the target modals, taking into account the possibility that authors use modals to tone down their findings through modesty or politeness or to follow discipline conventions, confirmed that apart from the exceptions with “will” noted above, they all functioned to construct stance. they were also in line with the biber et al. (1999) functional categories. examples from the corpus will be given in the next section. discussion and conclusions analysis of the corpus leads us to suggest that modals do play an important role in the construction of stance in ras. the top ten modals in this corpus matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164152 together at 8813 pmw were less common than in biber et al. (1999), though this is perhaps not surprising as they had a different corpus. additionally, biber et al. did not exclude occurrences of volition: volition comprised 22% of the occurrences of “will” and “going to”. however, higher frequencies were found than in vázquez orta (2010), who reports 7000/5300 pmw for eight modals in business management ras. in the present corpus the frequency was 9570 pmw for the same modals in business ras. closer examination of the corpus was then undertaken to investigate the striking discipline differences seen in tables 2 and 3, which are not easy to explain. other authors have followed taylor and chen’s (1991) suggestion that discipline discourses are affected by disciplinary cultures. hyland says (1999) that discipline differences reflect rhetorical constraints within a discipline, and bondi (2006: 49; also see malavasi & mazzi, 2008) asks the very good and “daunting question” – “where does the specificity of a discipline lie?” she says she cannot answer but speculates that part of the answer lies in the language used. hyland (2008) also refers to language conventions among ra authors, and proposes that different disciplines value different kinds of arguments and also vary in what their readers already know and how they might be persuaded. hyland says the result of this is that physicists do not write like philosophers or applied linguists, and theorizes that disciplines range along a cline with hard knowledge sciences and softer humanities at opposite ends. his hypothetical cline describes sciences as empirical, objective, quantitative, showing linear and cumulative growth, utilizing experimental methods, not relying on rhetoric, and putting greater weight on methods, procedures and equipment: and humanities as explicitly interpretive, qualitative, utilizing discursive argument and more fluid discourses, and putting greater weight on strength of argument to present claims. hyland (2008), like bondi (2006), hypothesizes that the specificity of disciplines lies in language, and also asserts that hard science writers use more modals such as “could” and “may” in order to objectify their research. the discipline differences found were explored in the light of hyland’s (2008) hypothetical cline and other hypotheses. it is suggested that this can inform us about the research focus and the argument and persuasive structure of individual disciplines. the first step in this further analysis was using the patterns function of concord in wordsmith tools (the collocates and cluster functions were much less useful for this) to isolate common patterns, and the verbs associated with those patterns, in the striking areas for business and law mentioned above – compared with the other eleven modals in the construction of research articles ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 153 disciplines. table 4 shows the results, and table 5 shows patterns and verbs for a selection of other modals and disciplines. the numbers in brackets in the “sub-function” columns refer to representative examples extracted from the corpus, which follow table 5. matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164154 modals in the construction of ras ibérica 27 (2014): …-… as so ci at ed v er bs in th e 11 o th er di sc ip lin es ~ ex ist , ~ a vo id , ~ se rv e, ~ be lo ng ~ sa tis fy , ~ e qu al , ~ no te , ~ c on sid er ~ be , ~ d ev el op , ~ ca rry , ~ im pr ov e ~ di ffe r, ~ le ad , ~ co nt rib ut e, ~ c ho os e ~ be , ~ a ffo rd , ~ c on sid er , ~ re pl ac e ~ se rv e, ~ d ev el op , ~ in clu de , ~ a ffe ct ~ tre at , ~ h el p, ~ gi ve , ~ re fle ct ~ sa tis fy , ~ e qu al , ~ no te , ~ c on sid er ~ be gi n, ~ c on tin ue , ~ de pe nd , ~ re qu ire ~ in ve st ig at e, ~ in vo lve , ~ st ay , ~ te nd ~ be , ~ le ad , ~ ha ve , ~ p ro vid e ~ tre at , ~ b el on g, ~ gi ve , ~ b ec om e su bfu nc tio ns in th e 11 o th er di sc ip lin es ta lki ng a bo ut r a to pi cs (2 ) ta lki ng a bo ut re se ar ch (4 ) ta lki ng a bo ut re se ar ch (6 ) ta lki ng a bo ut re se ar ch (8 ) ta lki ng a bo ut re se ar ch (1 0) ta lki ng a bo ut re se ar ch (1 2) ta lki ng a bo ut r a to pi cs (1 4) ta lki ng a bo ut re se ar ch (1 6) ta lki ng a bo ut re se ar ch (1 8) ta lki ng a bo ut re se ar ch (2 0) ta lki ng a bo ut re se ar ch (2 2) ta lki ng a bo ut r a to pi cs (2 4) co m m on p at te rn s in th e 11 o th er d is ci pl in es va lu es ~ , u se rs ~ , in fo rm at io n ~ th e sy st em ~ sy st em s ~, fa ct or s ~, in fo rm at io n ~, th eo ry ~ da ta ~ , s tu di es ~ , t he or ie s ~, fin di ng s ~ re se ar ch ~ , s tu dy ~ , in fo rm at io n ~, fa ct or s ~ re se ar ch ~ , s tu dy /ie s ~, re su lts ~ , m od el /s ~ pa rti cip an ts ~ , re su lts ~ , fa ct or s ~, s tu di es ~ va lu es ~ , co m pa ni es ~ , fir m s ~, u se rs ~ sy st em /s ~ , i nf or m at io n ~, fa ct or /s ~ , t he or y ~ m od el ~ , pa rti cip an ts ~ , st ud y ~, re su lts ~ st ud y/ ie s ~, s ys te m ~ , in fo rm at io n ~, d at a ~ we ~ , m od el ~ , r es ul ts ~ , re se ar ch ~ va lu es ~ , co m pa ni es ~ , pr oj ec ts ~ , u se rs ~ as so ci at ed v er bs ~ ex am in e, ~ d ev el op , ~ co ns id er , ~ e xp lo re ~ ex ist , ~ d ev el op , ~ en ga ge , ~ u se ~ m an ag e, ~ u nd er st an d, ~ co ns id er , ~ de ve lo p ~ ca us e, ~ d ec id e, ~ ch oo se , ~ in clu de ~ in clu de , ~ m ak e, ~ in cr ea se , ~ re su lt ~ m ak e, ~ a tte m pt , ~ in flu en ce , ~ be co m e ~ co nt in ue , ~ be co m e, ~ co ns id er , ~ a llo w ~ re m ai n, ~ c on sid er , ~ sh ow , ~ d et er m in e ~ in vo lve , ~ o pe n, ~ ne ed , ~ re qu ire ~ be , ~ a ct , ~ e ng ag e, ~ re sp on d ~ be , ~ s ee , ~ fi nd , ~ us e ~ be , ~ h av e, ~ u se , ~ pl ay su bfu nc tio n ta lki ng a bo ut re se ar ch (1 ) ta lki ng a bo ut r a to pi cs (3 ) ta lki ng a bo ut r a to pi cs (5 ) di sc us sin g co ur ts an d ca se s (7 ) di sc us sin g co ur ts an d ca se s (9 ) di sc us sin g co ur ts an d ca se s (1 1) di sc us sin g co ur ts an d ca se s (1 3) di sc us sin g co ur ts an d ca se s (1 5) di sc us sin g co ur ts an d ca se s (1 7) di sc us sin g co ur ts an d ca se s (1 9) ta lki ng a bo ut r a to pi cs (2 1) ta lki ng a bo ut r a to pi cs (2 3) co m m on p at te rn s re se ar ch ~ , s tu di es ~ , p ro je ct s ~, v ar ia bl es ~ cu st om er s ~, e nt r e pr en eu rs ~ , co m pa ni es ~ , f irm s ~ en tre pr en eu rs ~ , c om pa ni es ~, ow ne rs ~ , f irm s ~ vic tim /s ~ , de cis io n/ s ~, of fe nd er s ~, c ou rt/ s ~ ju dg es ~ , c as es ~ , l aw s ~, co ur ts ~ de cis io n/ s ~, c ou rt/ s ~, la w ~, po lic e ~ co ur t/s ~ , l aw ~ , p ro ce ss ~ , of fe nd er /s ~ co ur t/s ~ , j ud ge /s ~ , p ol icy ~ , ev id en ce ~ ca se /s ~ , a bu se ~ , p ar tie s ~, vic tim /s ~ vic tim /s ~ , d ef en da nt /s ~ , in ju re r/s ~ , c ou rts ~ us er s ~, a lg or ith m s ~, m od el ~ , s ys te m ~ us er s ~, s ys te m ~ , n od es ~ , re se ar ch ~ m od al m od al sh ou ld m us t ne ed to m ay co ul d m ig ht sh ou ld m us t wo ul d wi ll ca n sh ou ld di sc ip lin e & no ta bl e di sc ip lin e fe at ur e bu sin es s h ig h fre qu en cie s, o bl ig at io n/ ne ce ss ity la w v er y hi gh fre qu en cie s, po ss ib ilit y/ ab ilit y la w v er y hi gh fre qu en cie s, o bl ig at io n/ ne ce ss ity la w v er y hi gh fre qu en cie s, p re di ct io n co m pu te r s cie nc e hi gh fr eq ue nc ie s, po ss ib ilit y/ ab ilit y co m pu te r s cie nc e – hi gh fr eq ue nc ie s, o bl ig at io n/ ne ce ss ity ta bl e 4. t he m os t s tri kin g di sc ip lin ar y di ffe re nc es in m od al u sa ge , w ith c om m on p at te rn s an d as so cia te d ve rb s. future studies should examine how factors such as environmental uncertainty and the nature of dependencies between different functional areas affect levels of involvement. representative examples from the corpus (modals have been highlighted with inverted commas): (1) the future studies “should” examine how factors such as environmental uncertainty and the nature of dependencies between different functional areas affect levels of involvement (business) (2) the implications of such a system “should” be more fully explored (psychology) (3) companies “must” therefore develop the capability of creating new services that customers will value (business) (4) obviously, additional factors “must” be considered to adequately account for child physical abuse risk (public and social administration) modals in the construction of research articles ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 155 matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): …-… modal discipline common patterns sub-function associated verbs eco. firm/s ~, revenue ~, model/s ~, markets ~ talking about research (25) ~ punish, ~ expect, ~ lead, ~ borrow lang. & ling. students ~, teachers ~, learners ~, writers ~ talking about ra topics (26) ~ practice, ~ facilitate, ~ offer, ~ give pub. & soc. adm. housing ~, environment ~, managers ~, findings ~ talking about ra topics (27) ~ help, ~ provide, ~ note, ~ afford bio. protein/s ~, plants ~, species ~, system/s ~ talking about research (28) ~ serve, ~ be, ~ affect, ~ bind chem. sample/s ~, materials ~, effect/s ~, ions ~ talking about research (29) ~ influence, ~ provide, ~ occur, ~ lead ca n phy. & mat. sci. equation/s ~, values ~, stress ~, alloys ~ talking about research (30) ~ influence, ~ have, ~ be, ~ give eco. firms ~, market/s ~, policies ~, investors ~ talking about research (31) ~ reduce, ~ help, ~ occur, ~ indicate lang. & ling. student/s ~, english ~, writing ~, teacher/s ~ talking about ra topics (32) ~ influence, ~ occur, ~ play, ~ serve m ay pub. & soc. adm. maltreatment ~, children ~, public ~, health ~ talking about ra topics (33) ~ reflect, ~ help, ~ affect, ~ lead bus. firm/s ~, information ~, research ~, owners ~ talking about research (34) ~ result, ~ allow, ~ support, ~ require eco. firm/s ~, bidder/s ~, revenue ~, labour ~ talking about research (35) ~ lead, ~ make, ~ require, ~ change wo ul d lang. & ling. language ~, student/s ~, learner/s ~, course ~ talking about research (36) ~ seem, ~ wish, ~ need, ~ take bus. conflict ~, firm/s ~, market/s ~, product ~ talking about ra topics (37) ~ take, ~ focus, ~ make, ~ affect eco. team/s ~, firm/s ~, regions ~, income ~ talking about research (38) ~ see, ~ discuss, ~ consider, ~ refer w ill lang. & ling. language ~, student/s ~, teacher/s ~, english ~ talking about research (39) ~ help, ~ begin, ~ enable, ~ examine table 5. a selection of other modal patterns and associated verbs. future studies should examine how factors such as environmental uncertainty and the nature of dependencies between different functional areas affect levels of involvement. representative examples from the corpus (modals have been highlighted with inverted commas): (1) the future studies “should” examine how factors such as environmental uncertainty and the nature of dependencies between different functional areas affect levels of involvement (business) (2) the implications of such a system “should” be more fully explored (psychology) (3) companies “must” therefore develop the capability of creating new services that customers will value (business) (5) owners “need to” seriously consider the range and intensity with which they access various potential networks (business) (6) personal and public theories “need to” be viewed as living, intertwining tendrils of knowledge which grow from and feed into practice (language and linguistics) (7) both the criminal and the potential victim “may” decide to have a gun available during the crime (law) (8) the lack of research “may” be due to the highly conserved structure of the ts active site (biology) (9) this law “could” increase the probability of being stopped (law) (10) we cannot rule out the possibility that these results “could” be due to the markedness of the consonants (neuroscience) (11) similarly, police “might” be influenced by a suspect’s prior criminal record (…) they “might” be more likely to pursue the arrest of a suspect who has a criminal history (law) (12) it is not clear how participants “might” react to such tokens (psychology) (13) instead, courts “should” consider whether a custom of use is ingrained and what this norm reflects in society (law) (14) in such cases, users “should” change the minimum code clone size to ‘50’ (computer science) (15) the court “must” determine prospectively whether the copyright holder “should” control the market (law) (16) for the sv2 model, paths for both volatility factors “must” be simulated (economics) (17) acts of wife abuse “would” be perceived as wrong if they were illegal (law) (18) the fuzzy logic results “would” be equivalent to classic automation results (environmental science) (19) the answers since georgetown in 1964 have varied and it is unclear what weight courts “will” give to this interest (law) (20) any message disseminated in a loosely coupled system “will” be subject to varying interpretations (public and social administration) (21) by successively splitting partitions, the system “can” use the incoming evidence to gradually focus in on the underlying states of interest (computer science) matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164156 (22) at a minimum, our results “can” be used as a benchmark for negotiations (business) (23) it is desirable that a data mining system “should” be able to present comprehensible results, in an accessible manner (computer science) (24) another implication of children’s language-specific categorization is that they “should” treat two words as different if those words contain the sounds of a discriminated, native contrast (psychology) (25) however, attrition of firms “can” lead to sample selection bias if the disturbance of the selection equation is correlated with the disturbance of the growth equation (economics) (26) paraphrasing exercises are sometimes provided so that students “can” practice restating the ideas of a given excerpt (language and linguistics) (27) the physical environment “can” provide clues to the social and political situation that influences behavior (public and social administration) (28) recombinant proteins “can” be expressed to three distinct locations (biology) (29) the low-temperature sol–gel syntheses that are generally used to prepare nanocrystalline materials “can” lead to the formation of high concentrations of defects (chemistry) (30) the stex equation “can” also be solved for positive eigenvalues (physics and materials science) (31) the presence of stickiness at least on the demand side of the labour market “may” generate instability, as shown in section 3 (economics) (32) teachers “may” not be fully aware of how much feedback they give (language and linguistics) (33) maltreated children “may” be prone to impulsive, aggressive behavior when faced with frustration (public and social administration) (34) the positive and significant coefficients indicate that firms “would” enhance the degree of knowledge management when the organizational members trust each other (business) (35) in terms of our misperception hypothesis, high value bidders “would” thus be more likely to formulate pessimistic beliefs about the available supply (economics) (36) similarly, the very essence of persuasive language “would” seem to depend on writers operating free of spatial (or in the case of sermons and speeches, temporal) limitations (language and linguistics) modals in the construction of research articles ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 157 (37) a change in a belief in a product “will” not only affect the perception about the producers of that specific product, but “will” also impose a set of values on those producers who are considered to belong to other countries (business) (38) the gdp share of the high-income regions “will” still fall, according to the projections, but by less (economics) (39) analysis of their language “will” indeed produce striking results (language and linguistics) tables 4 and 5 also reveal considerable disciplinary variation in patterns and in associated verbs. the next step was to look more closely at function. while the primary function of all target modals falls into one of biber et al’s (1999) three functional categories of modals, it was possible to identify subfunctions of the topic types covered by the modals. discipline variation is also apparent here. they fell into three categories talking about research, talking about ra topic areas, and, specific to law, discussing courts and cases. the next step was to examine the most striking differences seen in tables 2 and 3. these are the following: business authors used 34% more obligation/necessity modals than the other four non-science disciplines (excluding law), employing “should” to discuss ra topic areas, and “must” and “need to” to discuss their research. presumably it is correspondingly more important and necessary in business to express commitment to the truth of propositions in the obligation/necessity area, and to put greater weight on strength of argument to present claims. law authors’ use of all modals over all three biber et al. (1999) functional categories was a remarkable 54% higher than the other five non-science disciplines. authors utilised them to discuss the broad area of courts and cases and more specifically victims, decisions, offenders, judges, laws, police, process, policy, evidence, abuse, and defendants. seemingly, in all three functional categories, it is correspondingly much more important and necessary in law than in any other discipline to utilise modals to express commitment to the truth of propositions concerning these discipline-specific topics, and to present argument in support of claims. law authors used far more modals to achieve these functions than did writers in other disciplines. next, computer science authors’ use of modals was a striking 63% higher than the other five science disciplines. apparently, in two out of three matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164158 functional categories, possibility/ability and obligation/necessity, it is correspondingly very much more important in computer science than in the other five sciences to employ modals to express attitudes and assessments towards the truth of propositions, to express degrees of certainty, and to utilise argument in support of claims. computer science authors used significantly higher numbers of modals to achieve these functions than did the other science writers. finally, chemistry and biology show particularly low frequencies for obligation/necessity and prediction. a closer examination of chemistry and biology ras was then carried out to try to identify the reasons for this. after careful searches revealed that authors do not appear to cover obligation/necessity and prediction in ways aside from the use of modals, it was concluded that these authors present and develop arguments in a different way, with far less reference to these functions. authors discuss their methods, results and conclusions in a much more narrative and descriptive style, normally describing their research steps and their findings one by one, letting readers work out their claims in this way. it seems that this is sufficient for readers, who perhaps do not need to be openly told the connections between arguments and claims. computer science ras, however, were much more similar to the non-science disciplines. randomly selected and representative examples from chemistry, biology, and computer science discussion and conclusion sections follow: (40) in conclusion, lc–esi-msn was proved to be a rapid facultative analytical method for the characterization of steroidal saponins in the crude extract from d. nipponica, while multi-stage tandem mass spectrometry combined with electrospray ionization (esi-msn), particularly adducted metal ion, was helpful for elucidating the structural information. (chemistry) (41) isatin was found to be an effective inhibitor for commercial copper corrosion in aerated 0.5 m h2so4 at higher concentrations in the temperature range 25–55 °c. some evidence was found for a different corrosion mechanism for copper in solutions containing isatin in contrast to aerated uninhibited solutions of 0.5 m h2so4. the difference between gravimetric and potentiodynamic corrosion rates emphasizes the limitation of the tafel line extrapolation method in the determination of corrosion rates. (chemistry) (42) the c-fos peptide immunogen sequence used to generate c-fos antibody displayed no homology to any protein species other than cmodals in the construction of research articles ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 159 fos itself when an advanced blastp homology search was performed with the peptide sequence employing the swissprot data base. it is therefore likely that p35 is a novel protein species. the differential expression pattern of p35 in p+ and pcells rules in a role for p35 as a novel determinant of the promotion susceptible phenotype. (biology) (43) the carbon emissions coefficient, the carbon emitted in producing 1 mj of energy in the form of wood from short rotation coppice, is estimated to be 0.0013 kgcmj-1 based on the standard set of assumptions. because wood fuel itself is ‘carbon neutral’, this represents the total emissions of carbon to the atmosphere as a result of using wood fuel. this estimate does not include any allowance for carbon sequestered in unutilized components of coppice which may rise to between 5 and 12 tcha-1 over 25 years. (biology) (44) this study and its findings may have important implications as the greek society becomes increasingly permeated by ict. for instance, the gcas could be useful to greek researchers as they pursue further research in the area of general attitudes and general behaviors toward computers. greek researchers are encouraged to use the gcas to further examine its reliability and validity. future research should continue to test the possible relationships between computer attitudes and computer experience and confidence. (computer science) the above analysis leads to the proposal that many or most of the patterns and associated verbs presented are prevailing terminology within disciplines. these differing patterns and associated verbs appear to arise from the topics discussed: or more explicitly, it is apparent that they cover differing terminology, topics, research methods, and discussions across the twelve disciplines. they are thus an important part of the meanings, and the functions, of these modals. the sharp discipline differences found lead to the conclusion that these meanings and functions differ by discipline, and that useful conclusions regarding modal usage cannot be constructed by looking at only one or two disciplines. this highlights the importance of discipline-specific research into modals. these modals and their patterns seem to represent one method through which disciplines differentiate themselves, as well as being an important part of these ras and part of the defining code (williams, 2002) of ras. they represent disciplinary norms, and the patterns presented are apparently accepted within disciplines as standard ways for authors to present their research. this study has revealed some conventional forms in disciplinary corpora. matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164160 it is concluded that modals play a valuable role in the construction of stance, an important part of research writing. authors do employ them to express attitudes, value judgments, and assessments towards their suggestions, claims, and propositions, and thereby accomplish the important functions of claiming and confirming membership of their discourse community, and constructing identity. it is also concluded, regarding modals, that scientific discourse is constrained by disciplinary cultures (taylor & chen, 1991; hyland, 1999), that an important part of the specificity of disciplines lies in language (bondi, 2006), and that disciplines do differ in argument structure and in what readers already know and how they are persuaded. in addition, hyland’s (2008) hypotheses were a helpful starting point for analysis of the present corpus where, concerning modals, it was found that business and law authors (for example) do not write like biology or chemistry authors. and broadly speaking the twelve disciplines did range along a cline with five of the six sciences, and the six non-sciences plus computer science, at different ends. however, hyland’s (2008) further hypotheses regarding sciences versus non-sciences were somewhat less useful in the present instance, as they did not predict the discipline differences found. while biology, chemistry, environmental science, neuroscience, and physics and materials science authors did show tendencies to rely less on rhetoric and to put greater weight on methods, procedures and equipment, it was also found that economics (to a large extent), and language and linguistics and psychology (to some extent), were empirical, objective, and quantitative, and put a lot of emphasis on methods and procedures. however, business, language and linguistics, law, psychology, and public and social administration were found to tend more towards interpretive and discursive argument, and to place greater weight on argument to present claims, than did the five sciences. however, hyland’s (2008) assertion that hard science writers use more modals such as “could” and “may” to objectify their research was not supported by the present research. implications for teaching the present research can inform the teaching of research writing. tables 4 and 5 provide discipline-specific lists of the highest-frequency collocations – in this case, the nouns and verbs – associated with our target modals. considerable disciplinary variation is apparent. collocations are an important part of language knowledge and they need be acquired, stored, modals in the construction of research articles ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 161 and processed as complete units (schmitt, grandage & adolphs, 2004) by students. it is suggested that awareness of these discipline variations is important for teaching, especially to students of research writing, and that discipline-specific teaching of these collocations is desirable. this may be especially important for nns, who may not know the importance of these particular collocations in academic english, and who may also be unaware of discipline conventions. further research can look at other areas of contrast between sciences and non-sciences, and among other disciplines: patterns and associated verbs may well be fruitful areas for further investigation. lack of space precludes the presentation of further examples, and further analysis, from the present corpus. however, this study has provided indications that modals are an important method of achieving the goal of persuading readers of the authenticity of their claims, one of the primary aims of ra authors, and that there are interdisciplinary differences in how they do this. analysis of the large corpus shows modals to be an important part of research writing. it is suggested that this research has added to an understanding of variation in modal usage across a number of disciplines, and hoped that the present findings improve knowledge of ras, have relevance for the teaching of research writing, and help teachers prepare discipline-specific research writing materials. [paper received 27 september 2012] [revised paper accepted 25 may 2013] references matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164162 bhatia, v.k. (2000). “genres in conflict” in a. trosborg (ed.), analysing professional genres, 147-161. amsterdam: john benjamins. biber, d. (2006). “stance in spoken and written university registers”. journal of english for academic purposes 5: 97-116. biber, d., s. conrad & v. cortes. (2004). “if you look at…: lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks”. applied linguistics 25: 371-405. biber, d. & e. finegan (1989). “styles of stance in english: lexical and grammatical marking of evidentiality and affect”. text 9: 93-124. biber, d., s. johansson, g. leech, s. conrad & e. finegan (1999). longman grammar of spoken and written english. harlow: pearson education. bondi, m. (2006). “a case in point: signals of narrative development in business and economics” in k. hyland & m. bondi (eds.), academic discourse across disciplines, 49-74. bern: peter lang. hyland, k. (1996). “talking to the academy: forms of hedging in science research articles”. written communication 13: 251-281. hyland, k. (1998). hedging in scientific research articles. amsterdam: john benjamins. hyland, k. (1999). “disciplinary discourses: writer stance in research articles” in c. candlin & k. hyland (eds.), writing: texts, processes and practices, 99-121. london: longman. hyland, k. (2008). “genre and academic writing in matthew peacock teaches in the department of english at the city university of hong kong. his research interests include english for specific purposes, corpus analysis, research writing, genre analysis, and tefl methodology. in 2001 he co-edited (with john flowerdew) a collection from cambridge university press, research perspectives on english for academic purposes. modals in the construction of research articles ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164 163 the disciplines”. language teaching 41: 543-562. malavasi, d. & d. mazzi (2008). “‘it can be assumed that, if our conceptual model is valid, then…’: the construction of multiple identities in economics vs. marketing”. linguistica e filologia 27: 157-179. neff, j., f. ballesteros, e. dafouz, f. martínez & j.p. rica (2004). “formulating writer stance: a contrastive study of efl learner corpora” in u. connor & t. a. upton (eds.), applied corpus linguistics: a multidimensional perspective, 73-89. amsterdam: rodopi. neff, j., e. dafouz, m. díez, f. martínez, r. prieto & j.p. rica (2003). “evidentiality and the construction of writer stance in native and nonnative texts” in j. hladky (ed.), language and function 223-235. amsterdam: john benjamins. rayson, p., d. berridge & b. francis (2004). “extending the cochran rule for the comparison of word frequencies between corpora” in g. purnelle, c. fairon & a. dister (eds.), le poids des mots: proceedings of the 7th international conference on statistical analysis of textual data (jadt 2004), volume ii, 926-936. louvain: presses universitaires de louvain. reilly, j., a. zamora & r.f. mcgivern (2005). “acquiring perspective in english: the development of stance”. journal of pragmatics 37: 185-208. schmitt, n., s. grandage & s. adolphs (2004). “are corpus-derived recurrent clusters psycholinguistically valid?” in n. schmitt (ed.), formulaic sequences, 127-151. amsterdam: john benjamins. scott, m. (2004). wordsmith tools, version 4. oxford: oxford university press. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. taylor, g. & t. chen (1991). “linguistic, cultural, and subcultural issues in contrastive discourse analysis: anglo-american and chinese scientific texts”. applied linguistics 12: 319-336. tognini-bonelli, e. (2004). “working with corpora: issues and insights” in c. coffin, a. hewings & k. o’halloran (eds.), applying english grammar: functional and corpus approaches, 11-24. london: arnold. vázquez orta, i.o. (2010). “a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs in the expression of epistemic stance in business management research articles in english and spanish”. ibérica 19: 77-96. williams, g.c. (1998). “collocational networks: interlocking patterns of lexis in a corpus of plant biology research articles”. international journal of corpus linguistics 3: 151-171. williams, g. (2002). “in search of representativity in specialised corpora: categorisation through collocation”. international journal of corpus linguistics 7: 43-64. appendix: journals in the corpus. matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): 143-164164 matthew peacock ibérica 27 (2014): …-… appendix: journals in the corpus. biology • applied soil ecology • biochimica et biophysica acta • biomass and bioenergy • chemistry and biology • current biology • journal of biotechnology language and linguistics • english for specific purposes • journal of english for academic purposes • journal of neurolinguistics • journal of second language writing • language and communication • language sciences • speech communication • system business • industrial marketing management • international business review • international journal of information management • international journal of project management • international journal of research in marketing • journal of business venturing • journal of international management • journal of operations management law • california law review • canadian journal of criminology • international review of law and economics • journal of criminal justice chemistry • analytica chimica acta • analytical biochemistry • corrosion science • inorganica chimica acta • international journal of inorganic materials • journal of chemical thermodynamics • journal of organometallic chemistry • journal of solid state chemistry neuroscience • cognition • brain and cognition • neuropsychologia • neuroscience computer science • computers in human behavior • computer speech and language • information and software technology • international journal of human-computer studies physics and material science • acta materialia • biomaterials • chemical physics • corrosion science • international journal of fatigue • journal of luminescence • journal of the mechanics and physics of solids • physica c: superconductivity • polymer economics • economic modelling • journal of economic behavior and organization • journal of economics and business • journal of financial economics phsycology • acta psychologica • cognitive psychology • journal of anxiety disorders • journal of research in personality environmental science • applied energy • atmospheric environment • biomass and bioenergy • ecological modelling • environmental pollution • global environmental change public and social administration • child abuse & neglect • evaluation and program planning • habitat international • international journal of public sector management • social science & medicine • world development iberica 13 ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen en esta contribución se describe el fenómeno de la acomodación lingüística en contextos profesionales turísticos. la acomodación lingüística se refiere a la selección de uno o varios códigos en conversaciones entre hablantes que no tienen la misma lengua materna. este fenómeno está particularmente presente en el espacio multilingüe de la unión europa, donde las conversaciones entre turistas y profesionales pueden desarrollarse en la lengua local, la lengua materna del turista o una lingua franca, por defecto el inglés. a menudo, los profesionales pueden elegir entre diferentes opciones, por lo cual conviene sensibilizarlos y concienciarlos de la diversidad de actitudes u opiniones que pueda haber entre los turistas. para realizar este objetivo pedagógico, se aboga por integrar en los materiales didácticos varios corpus de testimonios de los propios turistas. estos corpus han sido analizados previamente en estudios de índole sociolingüística. la lectura y el análisis de los testimonios como método didáctico responde a tres principios importantes, que son la importancia del aprendizaje continuo, la importancia de establecer vínculos bidireccionales entre la formación escolar y la experiencia directa de la práctica, y el desarrollo de corpus mediados para fines pedagógicos. palabras clave: multilingüismo, lenguaje para el turismo, didáctica de las lenguas de especialidad, inglés como lingua franca, testimonios de turistas. abstract l i ng u is t ic a c c om mo da ti on i n p ro f e s s io na l tou ri s m c on te x ts . a d id a c ti c a p pr oa c h ba s e d on t ou ri s ts ’ te s ti mo ni al s in this paper, i will discuss the phenomenon of linguistic accommodation in professional tourism contexts. linguistic accommodation refers to the selection la acomodación lingüística en contextos profesionales turísticos. un enfoque didáctico basado en los testimonios de turistas patrick goethals universidad de gante (bélgica) patrick.goethals@ugent.be 181 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 181 ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202 patrick goethals of one or various linguistic codes in conversations between speakers who do not have the same mother tongue. this is a particularly salient phenomenon in the multilingual setting of the european union, where conversations between tourism professionals and tourists may be in the local language, the mother tongue of the tourist or a lingua franca, which happens to be english by default. since tourism professionals very often have several options to choose from, they should be made aware of the diversity of tourists’ attitudes and opinions towards different forms of linguistic accommodation. to achieve this pedagogic goal, i argue in favor of integrating into the didactic materials various corpora of tourists’ testimonials. these corpora have been previously analyzed in sociolinguistic studies. reading and analyzing the testimonials as a didactic method fulfils three important didactic guidelines, namely the importance of stimulating life-long learning, the importance of establishing bidirectional links between school training and direct experience in practice, and the development of pedagogically mediated corpora. keywords: multilingualism, language for tourism, specialized languages pedagogy, english as a lingua franca, tourists’ testimonials. 1. introducción empezamos este estudio por una reflexión sobre las competencias comunicativas que deben dominar los profesionales del turismo. nos centramos en la competencia metacomunicativa de la “acomodación comunicativa” o la aptitud de un hablante de adaptar su forma de hablar con el fin de conseguir un mayor grado de convergencia (acercamiento) o divergencia (distancia) respecto al interlocutor (giles, coupland y coupland, 1991). una de las decisiones clave en contextos interculturales y multilingües, típicos del turismo, es la selección de la lengua (yoneoka, 2011): puede utilizarse la lengua materna de una de ambas partes, una lingua franca, o una combinación de ellas. la decisión de optar por uno u otro código exige ser capaz de empatizar con el otro, y de aprender a interpretar con sutileza sus expectativas lingüísticas, su autoimagen lingüística y su actitud respecto a las situaciones multilingües inherentes al turismo internacional. puesto que el término original de acomodación “comunicativa” abarca todo tipo de variación comunicativa (acento, ritmo, lenguaje no verbal), hablaremos en este estudio de la “acomodación lingüística”, para ceñirnos a la selección de la lengua. después plantearemos la pregunta de cómo se puede enseñar o mejorar esta competencia, y abogaremos por el uso de un tipo de materiales relativamente 182 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 182 nuevo, que son los testimonios de los turistas en medios sociales, en concreto los sitios web para evaluar hoteles (<booking.com>) y los diarios de viaje publicados en sitios web de comunidades de viajeros (<losviajeros.com>). la idea fundamental es que la lectura y el análisis de estos testimonios contribuyen a concienciar a los profesionales de las actitudes y opiniones de sus interlocutores, los turistas. como método didáctico se encuentra a medio camino entre la experiencia directa y la formación descontextualizada, pudiendo enriquecer ambas dimensiones. al mismo tiempo, abogaremos por un uso más intensivo de los resultados de la investigación académica a la hora de desarrollar nuevos materiales didácticos. en la segunda parte aplicaremos los principios expuestos e ilustraremos cómo se pueden utilizar con fines didácticos corpus originalmente compuestos y analizados en el marco de un proyecto de investigación sociolingüística sobre el turismo (goethals, en prensa a y b). el carácter auténtico de las fuentes y su previa descripción sistemática contribuyen a sentar unas bases firmes para la enseñanza de esta forma particular de comunicación profesional que es “el lenguaje de la hospitalidad” (hospitality language, blue & harun, 2003). 2. turismo y didáctica de las lenguas para usos profesionales 2.1. la competencia metacomunicativa de los profesionales en turismo aunque la enseñanza de las lenguas para fines profesionales abarca terrenos muy diversos, uno de los principales focos de interés ha sido la adquisición de la terminología, el léxico y/o la fraseología propia de la lengua de especialidad. desde esta perspectiva, el turismo ha recibido menos atención que otros ámbitos como el lenguaje jurídico o académico (calvi, 2010), y tal vez no sin razón, en vista de que en muchos contextos, el discurso turístico no se caracteriza primordialmente por la frecuencia de terminología técnica, la monoreferencialidad de esta terminología, o la ausencia de significados connotativos (gotti, 2006; sanmartín sáez, 2011). esto es especialmente cierto cuando consideramos el llamado “lenguaje de la hospitalidad”, utilizado en contextos como la recepción de hoteles, los restaurantes o las oficinas de turismo, donde se recurre principalmente a actos de habla y elementos de vocabulario de carácter general. la acomodación lingüística ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202 183 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 183 sin embargo, desde diferentes perspectivas se ha insistido en que una menor presencia de terminología especializada no excluye que se trate de un tipo de lenguaje o de comunicación con sus propias convenciones y prácticas discursivas. así, por ejemplo, se ha descrito cómo determinados elementos léxicos “comunes” (por ejemplo adjetivos evaluativos o modalizaciones interpersonales) adquieren una función pragmáticamente especializada en géneros turísticos escritos como las guías de viaje, los folletos o las páginas web institucionales (dann, 1996; suau jiménez, 2011; cappelli, 2012). al mismo tiempo, se han desarrollado taxonomías de los géneros turísticos escritos y descripciones de las características inherentes a géneros particulares (febas borra, 1978; calvi, 2010; goethals, 2013). pasando a la comunicación turística oral, hay que destacar sobre todo que los estudios son más bien escasos y provienen principalmente de la disciplina de los estudios en turismo, y no del campo propiamente dicho de la lingüística aplicada. sin embargo, a pesar de que el enfoque fundamental de estos estudios está en temas como la medición de la satisfacción del cliente, la evaluación normalizada de la competencia comunicativa de los empleados o la gerencia de recursos humanos (kozak, 2001; tuna, 2006; thitthongkam y walsh, 2010; sirikhan y prapphal, 2011; min, 2012), ponen de relieve varios aspectos cruciales para la enseñanza de la comunicación turística. en primer lugar, se subraya la importancia de tener en cuenta el carácter eminentemente intercultural del turismo, donde se manifiestan todo tipo de diferencias y tensiones entre la(s) cultura(s) local(es) y la(s) cultura(s) de los turistas. aunque la globalización sea innegable en sus efectos espaciales, materiales y visuales, el encuentro entre culturas sigue siendo un fenómeno socio-cognitivo, en el que desempeñan un papel fundamental las expectativas, los prejuicios y estereotipos, las actitudes, la autoimagen, la percepción de las relaciones de poder, etc. (leclerc y martin, 2004; traiger, 2008; griffiths y sharpley, 2012). en segundo lugar, el sector del turismo (o de los servicios en general) se da cuenta cada vez más del papel que juegan las lenguas en la gerencia de los servicios interculturales (tuna, 2006). a pesar de la presencia generalizada del inglés como lingua franca (fox, 2008), se advierte del riesgo de considerar el inglés como la única solución posible o deseable para la comunicación con los huéspedes (phipps, 2007), tanto más porque el uso de la lengua materna del cliente llevaría a una mayor satisfacción y una mayor lealtad (holmqvist y grönroos, 2012). al mismo tiempo, se ha señalado que las actitudes o patrick goethals ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202184 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 184 expectativas lingüísticas pueden diferir considerablemente según el grupo lingüístico al que pertenece el turista (tuna, 2006), según el destino que se visita (traiger, 2008), y según los contextos en los que se desarrolla la conversación (cohen y cooper, 1986). la sensibilidad ante el multilingüismo está particularmente presente en la unión europea (véase por ejemplo la estrategia europea en favor del multilingüismo – consejo europeo, 2008) y particularmente en los países continentales de europa occidental (blue y harun, 2003; leslie y russell, 2006). y en tercer lugar, los estudios citados no dejan de subrayar la importancia de tener en cuenta los resultados de la investigación académica en la gerencia del turismo y en la formación de futuros profesionales en particular. este trabajo se propone contribuir a realizar este objetivo. en concreto, quiere contribuir a elaborar un método para la sensibilización y concienciación de los (futuros) profesionales (alonso alonso, 2006) respecto a la intersección de los dos fenómenos destacados, que son el mecanismo de la “acomodación lingüística” en la comunicación turística, y la dimensión socio-cognitiva de los encuentros turísticos. 2.2. métodos y materiales didácticos en este apartado desarrollaremos varias reflexiones sobre las exigencias particulares de la enseñanza de la comunicación turística (y la metacompetencia particular de la acomodación lingüística), haciendo hincapié en tres temas muy debatidos en la bibliografía reciente: (1) el aprendizaje continuo, y la pregunta de cómo fomentarlo; (2) el desarrollo de formas de aprendizaje que tiendan un puente entre la enseñanza formal descontextualizada y la experiencia directa; y (3) el uso de los corpus en la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras, y en particular la deseabilidad de una “mediación pedagógica” de los corpus. esto nos permitirá definir el valor añadido de los testimonios de los turistas como fuente de materiales para actividades de lectura y de análisis. 2.2.1. aprendizaje permanente se ha destacado con razón la importancia del aprendizaje permanente en diferentes terrenos del aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera (bocanegravalle, 2008; kavaliauskienè y kaminskinè, 2009). los profesionales deben ser capaces de seguir aprendiendo durante y desde la práctica laboral. esto es tanto más cierto cuando consideramos las circunstancias laborales la acomodación lingüística ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202 185 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 185 específicas del sector turístico, que describiremos brevemente basándonos en los resultados de un estudio etnográfico piloto en una oficina de turismo en flandes/bélgica1 (van den berghe, 2013). el caso concreto permite entender los desafíos a los que se enfrenta cualquier proyecto didáctico que pretenda mejorar el nivel de preparación de los profesionales del turismo. en primer lugar, muestra que los requerimientos lingüísticos mínimos que se manejan en la selección de nuevo personal no se corresponden con las necesidades que experimentan los propios empleados en la práctica laboral. aunque las instancias oficiales parten del supuesto de que los conocimientos lingüísticos adquiridos al final de la enseñanza secundaria2 son suficientes (vanneste et al., 2009), los/las recepcionistas testimonian que sienten la necesidad de mejorar sustancialmente sus conocimientos del francés, y de adquirir como mínimo un nivel elemental en alemán y en español. con excepción de alguna iniciativa aislada, no se ofrecen ciclos de formación sistemáticos, por lo cual el aprendizaje depende de las iniciativas individuales del personal. algunas personas siguen cursos nocturnos, y todos señalan que intentan aprender de los contactos con los turistas. la transcripción que se recoge a continuación de una conversación entre un(a) recepcionista (r) y dos turistas españoles (t-1 y t-2) ilustra muy bien esta voluntad de aprendizaje, además de la acomodación lingüística. t-1: hola r: hola t-1: ¿español ? r : mhm. un poco (ríe) mix español, francés, euh inglés, euh t-1: vale. inglés, mejor r: ¿inglés? okay! español... tengo información en español. t-1: ah vale, vale r: euhm… tengo un recorrido (tono interrogativo) en el ciudad, en la ciudad euhmm t-1: muy bien r: (ríe) es el centro, estamos aquí o euuuhm, you’ll see the most important things, monuments, museums,... todo es explicada, explicado en español. there are no signs, you have to follow on the map and read, euh… every text. es aproximativa un hora y media t-1: hora y media r: ... to do the tour. then you will see the most important patrick goethals ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202186 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 186 things of [xxx]. euhm… you have euh… here el castillo, euh puente de [xxx], puerte medieval… ¿puerto? t-1: puerto t-2: puerto r: puerto. euh… campanario, el catedral, euh... eria, euh medieval, euh, erio, ¿eria? ¿área? t-2: sí, área, área medieval,... euh. r: ¿área? t-1: área. (oficina de turismo flamenca, conversación grabada en diciembre 2012, citada en van den berghe, 2013: 31)3 esta conversación nos muestra el carácter muy fluctuante de la selección de un código: el turista pregunta si puede comunicarse en español pero seguidamente pasa a utilizar el inglés, y el/la recepcionista dice que prefiere el inglés pero luego insiste en utilizar el español. de hecho, las dudas lingüísticas del profesional se convierten en el objeto de varios turnos: el profesional se perfila en la conversación como una persona con una evidente voluntad de aprender o de utilizar la lengua y no tiene reparos en pedir ayuda a quienes son sus clientes. como ya se ha mencionado, la voluntad de ampliar los conocimientos lingüísticos no está cubierta por iniciativas institucionales u organizacionales, que tienden a dar por sentado el dominio de las destrezas necesarias (blue y harun, 2003). el desafío didáctico es por tanto múltiple: además de sensibilizar a las instituciones y organizaciones para que inviertan en formación, se deberían desarrollar materiales didácticos que fomenten la capacidad del autoaprendizaje desde la propia práctica laboral. si las conversaciones con los turistas deben servirles como fuente de información para seguir aprendiendo, los profesionales necesitan comprender adecuadamente cómo funcionan estos intercambios. gracias a este entendimiento podrán comunicarse más adecuadamente, y además deducir nuevas informaciones, por ejemplo sobre formas de dirigirse al otro, maneras de realizar ciertos actos de habla, etcétera. como argumentaremos en la próxima sección, la lectura de los testimonios de turistas puede contribuir a este objetivo. además, cabe recordar el papel clave que desempeñan las actividades de lectura en el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera (krashen, 2004; maley, 2008), y la dificultad de fomentar las actividades de lectura por iniciativa propia en un contexto de autoaprendizaje. en la práctica, estas actividades la acomodación lingüística ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202 187 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 187 solo se realizan cuando responden a un interés personal o cuando pueden ofrecer elementos de contenido relevantes para la profesión. la lectura de los testimonios puede cumplir con estos requisitos, porque hablan de temas que les son muy familiares y cercanos a los profesionales, y que además les pueden enseñar elementos nuevos sobre la manera en que los turistas perciben y describen sus experiencias. 2.2.2. la lectura de los testimonios: entre experiencia y formación una segunda preocupación de la didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras, es la idea de vincular la formación escolar con la experiencia directa de la práctica de dicha lengua en contextos reales (gilmore, 2007; tomlinson, 2012). es importante destacar que el proceso de vincular formación y práctica es bidireccional. por una parte, es fundamental procurar que los materiales didácticos utilizados en clase sean auténticos y reflejen contextos comunicativos realistas, para que se aprenda a comunicar de una manera pragmática y sociolingüísticamente adecuada (gilmore, 2007; flowerdew, 2012). pero por otra parte, también se ha señalado que la experiencia directa de la práctica no es suficiente como método didáctico (dekeyser, 2007): la experiencia directa, estudiada sobre todo bajo la forma de una estancia en un país extranjero, necesita el apoyo de un proceso de formación explícita para surtir un efecto duradero y significativo en el dominio de la lengua extranjera (dekeyser, 2007) y en las actitudes interculturales de los aprendientes (coleman, 1998). en otros términos, los aprendientes deben aprender a interpretar los contextos reales, y volverse conscientes de su complejidad y variedad, porque en el caso contrario, la experiencia directa incluso puede tener como único efecto el refuerzo de prejuicios ya establecidos (coleman, 1998). entre las diferentes propuestas que se han avanzado para vincular formación y experiencia directa, figuran el uso de simulaciones y juegos de rol (cabré y gómez de enterría, 2006), o el uso de los corpus (véase el apartado siguiente). a estas modalidades se añade nuestra propuesta concreta concerniente a la lectura y el análisis de los testimonios de los turistas. no cabe duda de que se trata de un tipo de textos auténticos: son textos reales, y además relevantes, en el sentido de que gozan de una alta credibilidad entre los propios turistas que los consultan para informarse (volo, 2010), y se les atribuye una gran importancia desde las instancias turísticas oficiales (toerisme vlaanderen, 2011; dominguez vila y araujo vila, 2012). en este sentido, seguramente es un género con el que deberían familiarizarse los patrick goethals ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202188 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 188 profesionales del turismo, aunque solo fuera para poder seguir la información que se publique sobre ellos. sin embargo, los relatos de los turistas ofrecen también un instrumento para entender mejor el comportamiento y la experiencia de los turistas: “[the] analysis of these texts offers a commonsense approach to developing a deeper and more meaningful understanding of tourists’ experiences and behavior” (bosangit, mccabe & hibbert, 2009: 63; véase también dann, 2007). aunque la afirmación de bosangit, mccabe and hibbert (2009) se dirigía en primer lugar a los investigadores en turismo, en realidad hay pocas razones para no dar el paso siguiente, que es ofrecer estos datos también a los profesionales que deben aprender a comunicarse con los turistas. en la sección siguiente desarrollaremos esta idea. 2.2.3. los testimonios desde la perspectiva de los corpus pedagógicos es bien conocido el gran aporte que supone el acceso a las muestras de uso real, variado y actual que constituyen los corpus. aunque muy frecuentemente se enfocan aspectos de fraseología (sinclair, 2004), es evidente que los corpus, como repertorios de comunicación auténtica, también pueden utilizarse para enseñar otras competencias, por ejemplo competencias pragmático-discursivas. sin embargo, como lo señalan braun (2005) y flowerdew (2012), existe cierta discrepancia entre el entusiasmo demostrado por los investigadores en didáctica y la relativa escasez de aplicaciones en contextos o materiales reales. aunque puede haber varias razones para explicar esta discrepancia, es interesante considerar la tesis de braun (2005) de que, para tender un puente entre los corpus y la práctica didáctica es necesario prestar mayor atención a la “mediación pedagógica” de los corpus (braun, 2005). una de las ideas clave es la necesidad de convertir los “textos” del corpus en instancias de “discurso auténtico”, para lo cual es necesario que los corpus sean homogéneos (esto es, que tengan un contenido similar, o sean instancias de tipos de discurso similares), que previamente sean codificados y anotados por parte de los diseñadores del corpus, y que los alumnos lean también ciertos textos “horizontalmente”, y no solo consulten las concordancias “verticalmente”. ahora bien, es evidente que el preprocesamiento de los corpus supone una gran inversión de tiempo por parte de los autores didácticos, y que por eso raras veces se lleva a cabo, a menos que se reduzca drásticamente el tamaño de los corpus, o que la codificación se limite a operaciones automáticas como la acomodación lingüística ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202 189 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 189 el etiquetado de clases de palabras (pos-tagging). opinamos que, para este fin, se podrían aprovechar en mayor medida los resultados y los materiales desarrollados en las investigaciones académicas en lingüística y análisis del discurso. los corpus que se han compuesto y codificado con fines de investigación se pueden volver a utilizar con fines didácticos. 2.2.4. los corpus como hemos expuesto arriba, este estudio propone reconsiderar desde una perspectiva diferente materiales empíricos reunidos en el marco de un proyecto de investigación sociolingüística (goethals, en prensa a y b). para este proyecto se han compuesto y analizado dos corpus: un primer corpus de 1,8 millones de palabras con diarios de viaje escritos por turistas españoles sobre diferentes destinos europeos (francia, italia, alemania, bélgica y holanda) en <losviajeros.com>, y un segundo corpus con un total de 11.316 evaluaciones de hoteles flamencos (la parte monolingüe neerlandófona de bélgica), escritas en alemán, francés y español, que fueron publicadas en el sitio web <booking.com>. en ambos corpus se identificaron todos los fragmentos en los que los turistas se refieren al tema de la lengua. el objetivo del primer estudio consiste en elaborar una taxonomía de los micro-relatos metalingüísticos, en evaluar la relevancia que tiene el factor de la lengua en la experiencia de los turistas hispanohablantes, y en considerar su funcionamiento discursivo, relacionándolo con otras características de los diarios de viaje. el segundo estudio tiene por objetivo realizar una comparación intercultural entre diferentes grupos de turistas y comparar sus actitudes lingüísticas tal y como se desprenden de sus testimonios. ambos estudios revelan que la lengua materna juega un papel clave en los relatos que cuentan los turistas hispanohablantes: se refieren más a su lengua materna que los turistas francófonos o germanófonos y sobre todo hacen hincapié en las experiencias positivas, agradeciendo los esfuerzos que realiza la gente local para hablar español. por otra parte, son bastante negativos sobre sus propios conocimientos lingüísticos, que consideran a menudo deficientes o insuficientes. el inglés, aunque se puede suponer que estuvo presente en su experiencia real, aparece raras veces en sus testimonios. lo que importa enfatizar es que la previa investigación sociolingüística ofrece un doble preprocesamiento de los corpus: en primer lugar, conlleva la codificación del corpus, que puede aprovecharse en contextos didácticos dando acceso a los estudiantes al corpus codificado donde podrán leer y analizar los diferentes tipos de relatos según la categoría deseada. y en patrick goethals ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202190 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 190 segundo lugar, también ofrece un marco interpretativo, que permite deducir el carácter recurrente o más bien excepcional de los diferentes tipos de micro-relatos. en este sentido, ofrecen unas pautas científicas para seleccionar los contenidos de aprendizaje. 3. un acercamiento didáctico a la acomodación lingüística a través de los testimonios de los turistas en este apartado, trazaremos las líneas generales de un acercamiento didáctico orientado hacia una mayor concienciación de las posibles actitudes lingüísticas de los turistas4. prestaremos atención a las expectativas y actitudes hacia el uso de la lengua materna y hacia el uso de una lengua extranjera, principalmente el uso del inglés como lingua franca. 3.1. actitudes ante el uso de la lengua materna como en otros dominios de la satisfacción del turista, su grado de satisfacción con respecto al uso de su lengua materna depende de sus expectativas (para un resumen de la bibliografía, véase zehrer, crotts y magnini, 2011). yoneoka (2011) apunta tres factores que influyen en las expectativas: el tipo de destino hace más o menos probable el uso de la lengua materna, la presencia de elementos contextuales puede invalidar o modificar estas expectativas generales, y, finalmente, los turistas pueden tener sus preferencias personales. la lectura y el análisis de los fragmentos (1)-(6) inducirá a reflexionar sobre los diferentes factores que pueden intervenir, y sobre las posibles expectativas que puedan tener diferentes grupos de turistas en el contexto laboral concreto donde trabaja el profesional. así, en los ejemplos se manfiestan diferentes actitudes y opiniones: la actitud de un turista español satisfecho de poder hablar inglés y que no necesita el español (1); la sorpresa negativa cuando ciertos indicios contextuales sugieren la presencia de la lengua materna y éste no es el caso (2-3); la expectativa y casi la exigencia de poder hablar español en un hotel de una cadena española (34); la expectativa de no poder hablar la lengua materna en este país-destino (4); el contraste sorprendente entre la ausencia de la lengua materna y la presencia de un número elevado de turistas hispanohablantes (5); y finalmente el papel de las preferencias personales, y la sorpresa positiva de poder utilizar la lengua materna en contextos donde no se estaba seguro de poder hacerlo (6-7). se trata en todos los casos de relatos recurrentes que la acomodación lingüística ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202 191 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 191 aparecen con una frecuencia significativa en los relatos de los turistas hispanohablantes (goethals, en prensa a y b). (1) no probamos a hablar en español en el hotel, por lo que no sé si conocerían el idioma (imagino que sí, al menos algo, porque se les veía gente de mundo). toda la comunicación en el hotel fue en inglés y sin problemas5. (ksenio, “escapada berlín mayo 2011”, <losviajeros.com>) (2) estuvimos buscando restaurantes y al final elegimos uno que en el escaparate anunciaba sus platos en español. nuestra sorpresa fue mayor cuando nada más entrar, el camarero nos da la carta en nuestro idioma pero él no hablaba ni una palabra en español. (javi0220, “berlín. más allá del muro...”, <losviajeros.com>) (3) principalmente elegí este hotel al tratarse de una cadena española y bueno nada más llegar al hotel en recepción hay un cartel que pone “hola. bienvenidos” en teoría el personal habla español, bueno pues allí nadie nos habló en español aun poniendo en sus chapas de identificación que hablaba español. (pareja joven español, gante, <booking.com>) (4) otra cosa que me llamó la atención es que las señoritas del hall no sabían hablar español. curioso para ser un hotel español aunque, por lo general, en el país casi nadie habla español por lo que tampoco es de extrañar. (pareja joven española, gante, <booking.com>) (5) casi a punto de comenzar llegamos a ver la atracción de [xxx], consiste en un pequeño cine donde aparece el personaje que interactúa con el público, te llama, pregunta cosas, quiere que hagas cosas, está entretenido, salvo que al ser solo las sesiones en inglés o francés pues pierdes un poco el hilo, para haceros una idea: en la nuestra el 80% del público era español, pero qué le vamos a hacer (mouses, “viaje a la magia”, <losviajeros.com>) (6) nos fuimos a buscar la oficina de turismo. la localizamos bastante rápido. preguntamos a la chica si por un casual hablaba español y mira por donde sí que lo hablaba. la chica muy amablemente nos dio un plano del casco viejo de la ciudad y nos indicó qué zonas visitar. (belugos, “diario de la bretaña”, <losviajeros.com>) patrick goethals ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202192 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 192 (7) la atención ha sido excelente. fue el único hotel de 8 ciudades hasta ahora conocidas que nos han contestado en español...muy amigable. (pareja joven argentina, brujas, <booking.com>) para los profesionales del turismo además es relevante conocer el nivel de competencia que determinados grupos de turistas esperan, o perciben como satisfactorio. como destacó duchêne (2009), puede haber diferencias interculturales y determinados grupos lingüísticos son más exigentes que otros (en particular cita el caso de los francófonos). los fragmentos (8)-(11) permitirán a los aprendientes deducir que los turistas hispanohablantes distinguen entre niveles de competencia, y que pueden ser muy explícitos en sus elogios (9), y no critican la falta de competencia cuando el profesional solo tiene conocimientos limitados. de hecho, en (10) y (11) se observa una actitud positiva: (8) lo mejor es que busquéis la oficina de información turística y os den un mapa del pueblo. si tenéis suerte, hasta puede que coincidáis con la chica que nos atendió que sabía perfectamente español. (itarma, “la selva negra y berlin”, <losviajeros.com>) (9) allí nos atendió una señora muy maja y de nuevo en castellano. hay que ver lo bien que se hacía entender en castellano a pesar de haber estado solo 3 semanas en mallorca. (jorgevic, “11 días correteando por alemania”, <losviajeros.com>) (10) el chico de la recepción encantador, dice que no habla español, pero se entera de todo y te da toda la información que le pidas. (viajero individual español, amberes, <booking.com>) (11) sirven un desayuno muy completo incluido en el precio. los dueños del hotel hablan un poquito de español por lo que contestarán a dudas o indicaciones que puedan surgir durante la estancia. (pareja joven española, brujas, <booking.com>) finalmente, estos testimonios no solo muestran la importancia de satisfacer las expectativas de los turistas, sino que revelan que algunas experiencias han superado las expectativas – véase por ejemplo “mira por donde” (6), “único hotel” (7), “si tenéis suerte” (8), o “de nuevo” (9). estas experiencias provocan una sorpresa positiva, y son particularmente importantes porque constituyen el tipo de experiencias que los turistas recordarán y, sobre todo, contarán a sus conocidos (magnini, crotts y zehrer, 2011). en este sentido, la acomodación lingüística ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202 193 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 193 un menor nivel de expectativas por parte de los turistas no debería verse como una razón para dedicarle menos atención, sino más bien como una oportunidad para superar las expectativas, con la esperanza (realista) de generar comentarios positivos en los medios sociales. 3.2. actitudes ante el inglés como l in g ua f r a nc a aunque el inglés como lingua franca está omnipresente en el mundo del turismo, conviene ser consciente de las diferentes actitudes que los turistas pueden manifestar ante su uso. en primer lugar, se puede llamar la atención sobre la diferencia entre la acomodación mediante la lengua materna del cliente y la acomodación mediante el inglés como lingua franca (house, 2003). de hecho, usar la lengua materna del otro puede entenderse como un acercamiento explícito a él, y expresa por sí mismo la voluntad de fomentar la convergencia entre los interlocutores (en términos de house (2003) “language for identification”). en este sentido, no es de extrañar que en los relatos sobre el uso de la lengua materna a menudo aparezcan expresiones de gratitud o reconocimiento (6-7, anteriormente citados). en cambio, si bien el inglés como lingua franca puede facilitar el intercambio de información, no conllevaría la misma idea de que uno de los interlocutores se esfuerza para acercarse al otro (en términos de house (2003) “language for communication”). de hecho, al usar una lingua franca, ambas partes se adaptan y hacen un esfuerzo similar. el turista incluso puede tener la sensación de hacer un mayor esfuerzo que el profesional, lo cual evidentemente no favorece un sentimiento de gratitud (véase también la referencia a holmqvist y grönroos (2012) en la sección 1.1). para el profesional del turismo, esto significa sobre todo que debería ser consciente del diferente impacto que puede conllevar el hecho de hablar una lingua franca y el hecho de hablar la lengua materna del turista, aunque para el profesional ambas situaciones pueden suponer un esfuerzo considerable. uno de los patrones discursivos que dejan entrever esta diferencia (goethals, en prensa a) es que en las secuencias sobre el uso de la lengua materna se menciona a menudo el nombre de la persona con la que se ha hablado (véanse los extractos 12-14), lo cual no es el caso en los fragmentos que se refieren positivamente al uso del inglés (15). la mención explícita del nombre puede interpretarse como una clave o un indicio del contacto más cercano entre el turista y la persona que le atiende. patrick goethals ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202194 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 194 (12) que está céntrico y la simpatía de michelle que habla perfectamente español y está dispuesta a echarte un cable con cualquier duda. (familia con niños mayores española, brujas, <booking.com>) (13) en suma dan lo que prometen en la web, sin sorpresas desagradables. el personal el servicial y paul, el dueño, habla español perfectamente, lo que constituye un plus. (pareja mayor argentina, brujas, <booking.com>) (14) lo que mas nos gusto fue la atención de la chica a cargo que nos atendió en recepción, no recuerdo su nombre ahora, pero hablaba muy bien español! (pareja joven peruana, brujas, <booking.com>) (15) el personal habla muy bien ingles. // todo estuvo perfecto, la persona de la recepción sumamente amable y hablaba inglés // personal muy amable, todos hablan inglés. (varias fuentes, brujas, <booking.com>) al analizar los testimonios en mayor profundidad, se puede desarrollar una reflexión sobre la posible carga emotiva de ciertos contactos que a los profesionales pueden parecer rutinarios y técnicos (pensemos en los registros y salidas en los hoteles, los intercambios con los camareros, etc.). de hecho, a pesar de su carácter superficial, a menudo son los únicos contactos que tienen los turistas con la población local y cobran así un valor simbólico que va más allá de su puro valor práctico (cordeiro, 2011), al representar, por falta de otros encuentros más profundos, la dimensión interpersonal sin la cual la experiencia turística no sería completa. volviendo ahora a las posibles actitudes ante las lenguas extranjeras en general, y ante el uso del inglés como lingua franca en particular, la comparación de los testimonios en (1) y (16)-(19) permite darse cuenta de las diferentes dimensiones cognitivas en juego, que reflejan además diferentes funciones que puede desempeñar una lengua en la comunicación. así, en el extracto (1) nos encontramos ante un turista que se siente cómodo hablando en inglés y que no siente la necesidad de intentar hablar en su lengua materna. en el extracto (16), al contrario, el uso del inglés es para el turista una ofensa o una falta de respeto: no se trata de un mero problema práctico sino que tiene implicaciones emocionales evidentes (es conveniente indicar que los ejemplos tan explícitos provenían de turistas francófonos visitando la acomodación lingüística ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202 195 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 195 flandes). en (16) el uso del inglés también se describe de una manera negativa, pero ahora como una de las circunstancias que contribuyeron a que la visita fuera poco interesante y no consiguiera captar realmente el interés del turista. en los extractos (17) y (18), a su vez, se manifiesta el fenómeno llamado linguascape por cordeiro (2011), que consiste en que la lengua extranjera es parte de una experiencia de exotismo, lo cual puede desorientar al viajero (extracto 18) pero igualmente puede provocar situaciones cómicas y divertidas que añaden un ligero toque aventurero a la experiencia viajera (extracto 19). (16) il faut parler anglais ! ça m’énerve ! (viajero individual francés, amberes, <booking.com>) ¡hay que hablar inglés! ¡me fastidia! (17) la verdad es que [la visita] me decepcionó un poco porque te dan una vuelta muy rápida por el centro y te llevan a una fábrica de diamantes, donde te explican en inglés un poco la historia y el proceso de los diamantes para seguidamente meterte en la tienda para que compres algo. (laisi, “amsterdam danke u veel!!”, <losviajeros.com>) (18) sales a uno de los aeropuertos más grandes de europa y debes fijarte muy bien en la señalización y hablar inglés. sin inglés en alemania lo tienes difícil, habla inglés hasta las estatuas. (iviviajero, “asombrándose en alemania (frankfurt y berlín)”, <losviajeros.com>) (19) como nos proporcionaron la carta en francés el jabalí ponía “civet de sanglier”; en catalán jabalí es “senglar” así que deduje que sería eso; para asegurarme le pregunté al camarero en inglés textualmente “this is pig of the mountain?”; jaja, y el tío se empieza a reír y me hace el sonido del jabalí y con las manos hace como si tuviera dos cuernos en la boca; nos tronchamos allí de risa. era jabalí. (xaica, “descubriendo bastiones cátaros”, <losviajeros.com>) a la luz de lo que precede, se podría pensar que la mejor solución siempre es utilizar la lengua materna del turista. obsérvese, sin embargo, el fragmento siguiente: (20) toca pagar el bus. volvemos al aeropuerto, y toca perder el miedo a hablar ingles. cojo valor, me planto delante de la vendedora de tickets y: patrick goethals ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202196 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 196 jelou, gui need tickets go to rome! vendedora: ok, esperar 5 minutos, os pongo 3? vale, llevo escrito español en la frente, me miro un poco en el reflejo del cristal, pero no me veo nada. (rdhelo, “milano – bérgama – lago di como”, <losviajeros.com>) lo que nos muestra este testimonio es que la acomodación también incide en la autoimagen del hablante. aunque podemos suponer que la autoimagen lingüística del autor de este fragmento ya era baja, vemos que al cambiar “bruscamente” de lengua parece sugerir al otro que su competencia en la lengua extranjera es deficiente, lo cual puede ser ofensivo para el hablante, tanto más cuando hay terceros que lo están observando. de hecho, de los ejemplos analizados en goethals (en prensa a) se desprende que éste es un factor que hay que tener en cuenta al comunicarse con turistas hispanohablantes porque la autoimagen lingüística es claramente negativa, y se concibe además como una característica no individual sino social, propia de la “cultura” hispanohablante. finalmente, a continuación se presentan algunos fragmentos para fomentar la reflexión sobre posibles formas de acomodación, pues no solo se puede elegir entre usar un código u otro, sino que hay otras formas de acomodación posibles. en (21)-(23) leemos testimonios que aluden en términos generales a una actitud respetuosa y comprensiva (21), al uso de herramientas de traducción (22) o al mero hecho de hablar la lingua franca a un ritmo o con un nivel léxico adaptado al público a quien va dirigido (23). (21) excelente vocación de servicio: amables, confiables y sobre todo comprensivos con el lenguaje. (pareja mayor mexicana, brujas, <booking.com>) (22) el recepcionista que nos atendió al entrar era muy amable y servicial, [...] nos apuntó en un papel el nombre de las paradas y su situación la indicó en un mapa que nos proporcionó. [...] como no hablaba español y nuestro inglés es bastante pobre, cuando no le entendíamos lo ponía en un traductor de internet y así nos comunicábamos. (pareja mayor española, gante, <booking.com>) (23) aparece nuestra guía. es una joven resuelta y de grandes ojos verdes que habla inglés a mayor velocidad de la que yo quisiera. la acomodación lingüística ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202 197 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 197 le pido que hable un poco más despacio pero, inconscientemente, adopta a los pocos minutos la velocidad de crucero. por suerte para mí, desprovista de guión las preguntas las responde a un ritmo más asequible. (lecrín, “venecia: paseos en calma”, <losviajeros.com>) 4. conclusión en esta contribución hemos querido llamar la atención sobre una particularidad de la comunicación turística hablada, que es la “acomodación lingüística”, o la selección del código en que se va a desarrollar la conversación entre el profesional y el turista. este fenómeno está particularmente presente en el espacio multilingüe que es europa occidental, donde los intercambios pueden desarrollarse en la lengua del país de destino, la lengua materna del turista o una lingua franca, muy a menudo el inglés, dependiendo de los conocimientos lingüísticos de los interlocutores. dada su frecuente aparición en los testimonios de los turistas hispanohablantes, es importante sensibilizar y concienciar a los profesionales de la relevancia que tienen las experiencias lingüísticas para estos turistas, y sobre todo de la diversidad de opiniones y actitudes que puedan tener los turistas al respecto. opinamos que los mismos testimonios de los turistas, que han servido para realizar los estudios sociolingüísticos y que constituyen el marco interpretativo para el presente trabajo, son una fuente valiosa para desarrollar nuevos materiales didácticos destinados al objetivo de concienciación y sensibilización. este tipo de materiales cumplen tres requisitos frecuentemente citados en la bibliografía didáctica contemporánea: primero, la lectura de los testimonios funciona como un vínculo entre la realidad profesional y el contexto de la enseñanza formal. los testimonios contribuyen a introducir la realidad profesional en la clase porque dan voz a los propios clientes. su lectura y posterior discusión en clase permiten plantear preguntas de debate sobre las diferentes expectativas lingüísticas que pueden tener diferentes grupos de turistas, las maneras de responder a ellas, las oportunidades o amenazas que pueden representar las diferentes formas de acomodación. segundo, el uso de estos materiales fomenta el aprendizaje continuo, pues enseñan a interpretar mejor los intercambios conversacionales, de los que patrick goethals ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202198 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 198 hemos visto que para los profesionales funcionan también como contextos de aprendizaje. al mismo tiempo, familiarizan a los futuros profesionales con un tipo de textos que les podrá atraer por su contenido, condición esencial para que las actividades de lectura se realicen con suficiente regularidad y por iniciativa propia. asimismo, permiten enriquecer la comprensión de la realidad profesional, porque en los testimonios se vuelven explícitas ciertas opiniones y actitudes que en contextos reales siguen implícitas. y en último lugar, el tipo de materiales utilizado constituye una manera factible y realista para integrar más corpus “mediados” en la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras, gracias al hecho de que los mismos materiales lingüísticos pueden ser valiosos para los investigadores en el área de la lingüística como para los diseñadores y creadores de materiales didácticos. 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(2004). “the search for units of meaning” en j.m. sinclair y r. carter (eds.), trust the text, 24-48. london: routledge. sirikhan, s. y k. prapphal (2011). “assessing pragmatic ability of thai hotel management and tourism students in the context of hotel front 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 200 patrick goethals es profesor titular en el área de español del departamento de traducción, interpretación y comunicación de la universidad de gante (bélgica). ha publicado sobre temas de sintaxis española, traducción, enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera (ele) y comunicación turística. también es el coordinador del reciente manual de expresión escrita (b2-c1), para estudiantes ele anglófonos y neerlandófonos (academia press, gante). notas 1 para respetar la privacidad de los empleados se han eliminado las referencias más concretas que pudieran conllevar una identificación de la autoría. 2 en flandes, esto significa por término medio un nivel b2 para el inglés y b1 para el francés. cabe añadir, sin embargo, que desde muchos sectores se cuestiona cada vez más que los alumnos flamencos medios alcancen el nivel requerido de francés, que en muchos casos no pasaría del umbral a2 (revista klasse 9/12/2011, kennis frans eerstejaarsstudenten lerarenopleiding ondermaats). 3 desde la perspectiva del aprendizaje, es interesante observar que en una conversación posterior, la misma persona utiliza los vocablos españoles que acaban de enseñarles los turistas españoles: r: so if you do this, you will see the most important things. so what is it? it’s the castle here, castillo, puerto medieval, euh… puente de san miguel, campanario, catedral, area medieval, vrijdagsmarkt, a la acomodación lingüística ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202 201 office department”. asian efl journal professional teaching articles 53: 72-94. suau jiménez, f. (2011). “la persuasión a través del metadiscurso interpersonal en el género página web institucional de promoción turística en inglés y español” en m.v. calvi (ed.), la lengua del turismo. géneros discursivos y terminología, 177-199. bern: peter lang. thitthongkam, t. y j. walsh (2010). “roles of language in tourism organisational management”. asian journal of management research 184: 184199. toerisme vlaanderen. (2011). internationale marketingstrategie 2012-2015. url: http://www. toerismevlaanderen.be/internationale-marketingstrategie [28/05/13] tomlinson, b. (2012). “materials development for language learning and teaching”. language teaching 45: 143-179. traiger, c. (2008). tourists’ english expectations: discourse analysis of attitudes towards language and culture on travel websites. unpublished phd thesis, university of arizona. tuna, m. (2006). “cultural approximation and tourist satisfaction” en m. kozak y l. andreu (eds.), progress in tourism marketing, 207-217. amsterdam: elsevier. van den berghe, e. (2013). spanish, please? las conversaciones multilingües en una oficina de turismo. tesina de máster. universidad de gante: área de traducción, interpretación y comunicación. vanneste, d., s. huyghe, k. vandensavel y k. vanginderachter (2009). “languages and aspects of tourism education and training in flanders (belgium)”. scottish languages review 19: 25-34. volo, s. (2010). “bloggers’ reported tourist experiences: their utility as a tourism data source and their effect on prospective tourists”. journal of vacation marketing 16: 297-311. yoneoka, j. (2011). “the importance of language negotiation in initial intercultural encounters: the case of the service industry employee”. intercultural communication studies xx: 90-103. zehrer, a., j. crotts y v. p. magnini (2011). “the perceived usefulness of blog postings: an extension of the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm”. tourism management 32: 106-113. 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 201 market, euh a square, a big square (oficina de turismo flamenca, conversación grabada en diciembre 2012, citada en van den berghe 2013). 4 en esta contribución no pretendemos desarrollar el módulo didáctico en sí. este módulo se desarrollará en el marco de la edición de un manual sobre la comunicación con turistas hispanohablantes basado en la investigación de corpus orales y escritos. los testimonios se prestan a actividades de lectura guiadas, actividades de debate sobre las oportunidades y amenazas que plantea la realidad multilingüe del contexto turístico, así como a actividades de ampliación de vocabulario, en particular el vocabulario coloquialescrito. 5 los fragmentos se citan tal y como aparecen en los blogs, con excepción de los errores de acentuación que se han corregido. para los ejemplos que provienen del sitio web comunidad de viajeros url: http://www.losviajeros.com se dan como fuente el alias de su autor y el título del blog. para los ejemplos que provienen del sitio intermediario url: http://www.booking.com se cita la información que ofrece booking sobre el autor y la ciudad en la que está situado el hotel). patrick goethals ibérica 28 (2014): 181-202202 09 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:24 página 202 iberica 13 ibérica 21 (2011): 31-48 issn 1139-7241 abstract this paper describes a situation that suggests an optimistic future for periphery scholars, particularly from latin america. first it shows a positive evolution of publications in english in latin america, which appears to be associated to the concomitant evolution of postgraduate programmes. then, it is argued that such evolution could be improved by a form of eap instruction that capitalizes on the special characteristics of the latin american situation, particularly the highly specific needs of learners, the common latinate l1, the possibility of having homogeneous groups in terms of fields, and the limited set of genres used by researchers in this context. such features could be exploited to the learners’ advantage through the use of authentic and specific materials. both authenticity and specificity will increase motivation and reduce comprehension problems, while allowing participants to contribute their knowledge of science to the course. keywords: eap, specificity, authenticity, periphery publishing, latin american context. resumen capitalizando las ventajas de la situación latinoamericana del inglés con fines académicos: uso de materiales auténticos y específicos en la instrucción en escritura académica este trabajo describe una situación del inglés con fines académicos que sugiere un futuro optimista para investigadores de la periferia, particularmente para latinoamericanos. el trabajo primero muestra una evolución positiva de las capitalizing on the advantages of the latin american eap situation: using authentic and specific materials in eap writing instruction iliana a. martínez universidad nacional de río cuarto (argentina) imartinez@hum.unrc.edu.ar 31 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 31 ibérica 21 (2011): 31-48 iliana a. martínez publicaciones en inglés en latinoamérica, la cual parece estar asociada a la evolución concomitante de los programas de postgrado. luego se argumenta que dicha evolución puede mejorar con una forma de instrucción en inglés con fines académicos que capitalice las características especiales de la situación latinoamericana, particularmente las necesidades altamente específicas de los alumnos, la lengua materna de origen latino, la posibilidad de contar con grupos homogéneos con relación a los campos disciplinares, y la limitada cantidad de géneros que emplean los investigadores en este contexto. estos aspectos pueden explotarse en beneficio de los alumnos mediante el empleo de materiales auténticos y específicos. tanto la autenticidad como la especificidad aumentarán la motivación y reducirán los problemas de comprensión, y a la vez permitirán que los alumnos aporten sus conocimientos de ciencia al curso. palabras clave: inglés con fines académicos, especificidad, autenticidad, publicación en la periferia, contexto latinoamericano. introduction the growth of english as the language of scientific communication has directly related the success of scholars’ academic careers to their ability in the use of english, be they native or non-native speakers of the language (hyland, 2006). this fact has led different researchers to express their concern regarding the advance of english to the detriment of other languages, and to acknowledge the consequent disadvantageous position of non-anglophone periphery scientists (swales, 1990, 1997 & 2004; flowerdew, 2000; salager-meyer, 2008). in spite of this, the world tendency is to continue turning to english, as reflected both in the increase of publications in english in the science citation index (sci) to about 95% of its journals (hyland, 2006), and in the shift to english of journals from europe and japan (swales, 1997 & 2004; hyland, 2006). this shift to english, however, is not restricted to central countries only; it is also evident in periphery countries. in latin america (la), for example, as far back as 1999, prestigious local publications had already switched to english, with journals having 100% of their articles written in that language. such was the case of the journal biocell from argentina, and the journals brazilian journal of genetics and archives of medical research from brazil (gómez et al. (1999) as cited in ortiz, 2009). the advance of english has been accompanied by different suggestions to facilitate the access of peripheral scholars to central journals in english. 32 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 32 flowerdew (2008: 84), for example, suggests that editors should accept manuscripts that meet intelligibility standards, even when they may not conform to what is considered as “standard english”. also salager-meyer (2008) reports on initiatives based on solidarity and cooperation, through which non-native scholars could have access to different forms of assistance in the process of manuscript production. but in my view, the most effective form of empowerment for non-anglophone scholars is the provision of instruction on academic writing in english, as occurs through courses for non-native speakers of english implemented in different parts of the world (belcher & braine, 1995a; dudley-evans, 1995; jacoby, leech & holten, 1995; tardy, 2006; holmes & celani, 2006). the assumption underlying these courses is that all writers, be they native speakers of english (ness) or non-native speakers of english (nness), need to be aware of the norms and expectations of the community of practice that they wish to address, and such awareness can be raised through explicit instruction on these issues. in this respect, english for academic purposes (eap) has developed resources to equip non-anglophone scholars, both with conscious knowledge of the conventions and expectations of specific academic communities, and with linguistic and rhetorical resources that may allow their confident participation in academic contexts (swales, 1990; hyland & hamp-lyons, 2002). instruction based on the knowledge and expertise accumulated by eap in the last twenty years may contribute to balance the inequalities faced by non-anglophone scholars when they have to communicate in a language other than their own. flowerdew (2002: 7) justifies eap pedagogy in the following terms: ... whether one likes it or not, english as world language, at least in the academic field, is more or less a fait accompli. while it is important to make people aware of the potential for hegemony in the use of english and the issues of power and access which accompany this potential, and while it is important to encourage cultural and linguistic plurality, to deny people access to the linguistic, social and educational capital that english represents is irresponsible. indeed, english is – ironically – a vehicle by means of which voices arguing for linguistic diversity can be heard loudest. this paper is concerned with the status of publication in english in latin america, with a focus on the situation of argentina. it shows an evolving reality, manifested in the increasing number of papers published by latin american researchers in high-impact journals. the paper also highlights capitalizing on the advantages ibérica 21 (2011): 31-48 33 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 33 some features of the latin american context that could be exploited to the learners’ advantage through the use of authentic and specific materials. the situation described and the advantages of the characteristics of the context suggest a promising future for latin american scholars, and anticipate a central role for eap instruction. latin american publications in science citation index: the case of argentina the science citation index (sci), the database known to cover about 6,650 prestigious journals of the world, is one of the most consulted indexes produced by scientometrics. its prestige is mainly due to the high standards of evaluation of the journals that it includes, and to the services that it provides. among other services, the sci offers information for the classification of scientists according to their productivity, the ranking of publications at national and international level, the ordering of citations received by journals and authors, and the hierarchization of postgraduate programmes and universities. the information is used worldwide, and serves as a basis for the administration of intellectual capital and investment (ortiz, 2009). although the sci is viewed as representing world inequalities because of the poor presence of research from periphery countries (hyland, 2006; salagermeyer, 2008; swales, 1990), recent research reviewed by swales (2004) has provided evidence that indicates that the number of non-anglophone researchers who publish in english is increasing. the evidence indicates that six of the top ten most productive countries in sci are countries where english is a foreign language: japan, germany, france, russia, italy and the netherlands. there is also evidence of a steady increase of european and asian articles in particular fields. furthermore, about 45% of the first authors of articles in the reputed journals nature and science have been shown to be non-native speakers of english. similar tendencies have been observed in latin america, as revealed by recent information from the centro argentino de información científica y tecnológica (caicyt), an official argentinean centre providing scientific and technological information based on sci. their data inform on the production in sci between 2000 and 2008 of the five most productive latin american countries, brazil, mexico, argentina, chile and venezuela. table 1 iliana a. martínez ibérica 21 (2011): 31-4834 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 34 shows that all these countries increased their production in the eight years reported, but, while argentina and venezuela only reached a 50% increase, chile doubled, and brazil and mexico almost trebled their production in the same period. what is interesting is that just these five latin american countries produced 60,931 articles in 2008, which represents 4.2% of all the articles in sci in the same year, with 1,432,296 articles published (see table 2). this percentage is twice the figure reported by abdelrahim (2004, as cited in salager-meyer, 2008) for all peripheral countries in 2004, a fact which attests to the increasing tendency mentioned. as for argentina, table 1 informs that the country published 7,928 papers in sci in 2008, which may suggest that it is underrepresented, as it is only 0,55% of the number reported for the whole world. these numbers, capitalizing on the advantages ibérica 21 (2011): 31-48 35 year argentina brazil chile mexico venezuela 2000 5,124 12,643 2,283 5,211 1,180 2001 5,313 13,442 2,363 5,660 1,131 2002 5,584 15,741 2,659 5,503 1,226 2003 5,646 16,285 2,977 6,635 1,233 2004 5,499 17,304 2,988 7,158 1,120 2005 5,698 18,765 3,262 7,541 1,234 2006 5,935 20,862 3,604 7,758 1,202 2007 6,468 23,098 3,881 9,361 1,321 2008 7,928 34,215 4,447 12,758 1,583 table 1. the top five latin american countries in scientific production (source: caicyt, updated 26/06/2009). year argentina total sci 1990 2,284 685,171 1991 2,176 706,087 1992 2,174 720,440 1993 2,422 761,459 1994 2,665 799,838 1995 3,115 858,970 1996 3,763 900,303 1997 4,219 938,021 1998 4,439 945,768 1999 4,869 974,937 2000 5,124 988,156 2001 5,313 980,109 2002 5,584 1,028,445 2003 5,646 1,070,005 2004 5,499 1,134,688 2005 5,698 1,173,438 2006 5,935 1,212,188 2007 6,468 1,322,242 2008 7,928 1,432,296 table 2. argentinean production in sci (source: caicyt, updated 26/06/2009). 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 35 however, may also be interpreted in a different light. authors such as swales (2004) and ortiz (2009) have criticized the interpretation of the importance of the research production of a particular country solely in terms of the raw numbers of articles published. these authors note that, if raw numbers are related to the population of the country, many countries would be relatively better positioned in terms of scientific contributions. both ortiz and swales provide examples of scandinavian countries, which, in relative terms, would be better positioned than france or germany, and even proportionally better than the united states. the evidence resulting from this form of interpretation has led swales (2004: 40) to observe that: indeed, if there is a message here, it is that research, largely communicated through english coming from countries in which english is largely a foreign language, such as japan, germany and france, would appear not to be greatly disadvantaged by that very fact. following this line of interpretation, argentina would be relatively better positioned with respect to latin american countries with a higher number of papers published, as for example brazil, and would be in a similar situation with respect to a country with a lower number of publications, such as chile (see table 1). thus, argentina’s production, which in raw numbers is about a fifth of the brazilian production, turns to be as important as the brazilian production, if not more important, since, although brazil has four times more articles, it also has a population almost five times larger. in relation to chile, the situation is the reverse. the argentinean production is numerically higher, because in this case, the number of articles is twice the number of chilean articles, but argentina also has more than twice the population, making the production similar in relative terms. relative numbers may allow a different evaluation of countries, and the assessment of the impact of the role of english in scientific communication from a different perspective. also the positive evolution in terms of articles published by argentina between 1990 and 2008 is worth highlighting. in this period argentina had a three-fold increase of articles published in journals indexed by sci, moving from 2,284 articles published in 1990 to 7,928 articles in 2008, while the world production only doubled in the same period (see table 2). these and the above figures present a panorama that appears optimistic with respect to the possible visibility of periphery research. iliana a. martínez ibérica 21 (2011): 31-4836 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 36 the role of postgraduate education a particularly interesting situation emerges from the information on argentina’s production by discipline provided by caicyt (see table 3). the data reveal a great disparity in the distribution of publications, which, in my view, may be associated to the research and publication tradition of the different sciences in the country. in the data, two aspects stand out: great differences among sciences, and a generalized gradual increase in production. as for the differences among sciences, the data show that 95% of the total number of publications in 2008 were produced by the exact sciences, life sciences, and health sciences, whereas the social sciences and the arts and humanities contributed a meagre 5% of the country’s publications in sci. although it is known that academic writing is more demanding for l2 writers of the soft sciences than for writers of the hard sciences (swales, 2004), the dominance of the sciences may also be associated to the fact that these fields have a relatively long, robust and uninterrupted research capitalizing on the advantages ibérica 21 (2011): 31-48 37 y e a r l if e s c ie n c e s p h y s ic s , c h e m is tr y a n d s o il s c ie n c e s a g ri c u lt u re , b io lo g y a n d e n v ir o n m e n t c li n ic a l m e d ic in e e n g in e e ri n g , c o m p u ta ti o n a n d t e c h n o lo g y s o c ia l a n d b e h a v io u ra l s c ie n c e s m u lt id is c ip li n a ry s c ie n c e s in s tr u m e n ts a rt s a n d h u m a n it ie s n o t a s s ig n e d 1990 884 881 466 548 189 82 21 11 1 9 1991 797 846 436 519 231 55 15 9 1 29 1992 834 856 495 519 203 69 15 15 19 1993 969 974 506 601 208 72 19 24 14 1994 984 1,060 583 641 243 61 18 41 1 28 1995 1,231 1,186 693 809 258 79 17 21 3 25 1996 1,477 1,481 820 896 333 100 22 28 2 34 1997 1,597 1,521 955 1,107 366 95 20 41 2 43 1998 1,663 1,665 1,049 1,128 347 108 21 18 52 1999 1,874 1,775 1,043 1,277 391 135 20 35 3 63 2000 1,860 1,942 1,169 1,350 429 129 26 33 4 44 2001 1,888 1,959 1,226 1,399 487 113 38 57 2 48 2002 1,978 2,057 1,366 1,395 474 147 32 42 1 87 2003 1,928 1,983 1,363 1,567 533 141 37 43 2 57 2004 2,055 2,048 1,425 1,335 450 168 39 51 6 71 2005 2,034 2,136 1,534 1,261 528 181 36 52 11 128 2006 2,103 2,199 1,753 1,284 578 192 46 50 6 0 2007 2,281 2,233 1,824 1,604 522 200 61 57 12 0 2008 2,872 2,743 2,283 2,142 740 366 121 50 16 0 table 3. argentinean production by discipline in sci (source: caicyt, updated 26/06/2009). 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 37 tradition in the country, with postgraduate programmes in central universities, some programmes dating as far back as the late 1890’s (jeppesen et al., 2004). on the other hand, the modest presence of the soft sciences may be explained by the incipient research tradition and the recency of a generalized promotion of postgraduate programmes in the country. in fact, only as recently as 1995 did government legislation provide a framework for the development, promotion, accreditation and evaluation of postgraduate education and research (jeppesen et al., 2004), which has given a great impulse to masters and doctoral programmes, particularly in the social sciences. it is possible, then, to infer that there is an association between postgraduate education and the quality of research and publication of the country. the information in table 4, based on data provided by rama (2006) and by caicyt, clearly attests to this association. it shows that the four latin american countries with the greatest number of postgraduate programmes are also the four countries with the greatest production in sci. still, despite the marked differences observed between hard and soft sciences in argentina, it is interesting to note that all fields showed a generalised increase in their scientific production. in the period between 1990 and 2008, some fields trebled their production, such as those grouped under life sciences, and those grouped under physics, chemistry and soil sciences. others had a four-fold increase in their production, such as the fields of clinical medicine, and of engineering, computation and technology. the fields of agriculture, biology and the environment and the social and behavioural sciences had almost five times more production. as for the arts and humanities, the number of publications moved from just one article in 1990 to sixteen articles in 2008. this increase may be attributed to a number of factors. one may be the reduction of distance between centre and periphery resulting form recent advances in technology and the generalized iliana a. martínez ibérica 21 (2011): 31-4838 l2 situation doctoral programmes papers in sci 2008 brazil 1,056 34,215 mexico 406 12,758 argentina 291 7,928 chile 103 4,447 cuba 95 n/d peru 91 n/d colombia 56 n/d venezuela 48 1,583 table 4. relation between the doctoral programmes and publications in sci in latin american universities (source: caicyt, 2009, and rama, 2006: 46). 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 38 access to internet use in all argentinean universities. government policies have also contributed to a positive evolution in terms of number of publications. among the policies implemented, those destined to improve the quality of libraries should be highlighted. these have materialized in the installation of a network for all universities and research centres of the country, providing access to an electronic library with full-text journals, many of them in sci (http://www.biblioteca.mincyt.gov.ar/). another policy that has certainly contributed positively is the creation of official evaluation committees with international standards of accreditation, such as the comisión nacional de acreditación universitaria (coneau) (jeppesen et al., 2004). further, government-dependant scientific research agencies not only promote publication in sci, but also evaluate the scientists’ careers and provide access to official grants based on the scientists’ contributions to international journals. the increasing tendency of the number of articles produced in argentina suggests that it is possible for periphery nness to actively participate in the dialogue of science. but clearly the possibilities of non-anglophone scholars would be greatly increased if they had access to academic writing instruction. some sporadic efforts are in progress (e.g. martínez, 2002; salager-meyer, 2007; aranha, 2009), despite the scarcity of human and economic resources for such a demanding task. the increase in international publications, however, would be greater if there were institutional policies for the development of academic writing in english, which are not yet present in argentina, and have also been reported as a need for other la countries (salager-meyer, 2008). in the next section i will characterize the la context and will describe the type of materials that i have found useful in my experience: authentic and specific texts. authentic and specific materials are, as i will argue, highly adequate to optimize the characteristics of this particular eap context. eap in the latin american context the la context has some characteristics that, although at first sight may appear as disadvantages, may be turned into advantages through a form of instruction that capitalizes on such characteristics. my experience in eap comes from a course on academic writing for researchers and doctoral candidates of the experimental sciences, taught in argentinean universities since 1996. the participants in these courses have different levels of capitalizing on the advantages ibérica 21 (2011): 31-48 39 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 39 proficiency in english, but they are all expert readers of papers of their fields of specialization. the course, described in detail in martínez (2002) and updated yearly, aims at developing genre awareness, leading to writing research for publication in indexed journals. in the course, awareness is raised at three levels: cultural, rhetorical, and linguistic. the cultural level is informed by the contributions of the new rhetoric (e.g. bazerman, 1988 & 1994; myers, 1989, 1990 & 1996; berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; freedman, 1994; freedman & medway, 1994a; miller, 1994a & 1994b); the rhetorical level is based on the contributions of the school of english for specific purposes (esp) (e.g. dudley-evans, 1986 & 1994; swales, 1990, 1996 & 2004; thompson, 1993; brett, 1994; kanoksilapatham, 2005); and the linguistic level is based on the contributions of different schools, such as systemic functional linguistics, esp, and corpus linguistics (e.g. thompson & ye, 1991; halliday, 1993 & 1994; salager-meyer, 1994; berry, 1995; hyland, 1999 & 2001; martínez, 2001 & 2005; cortés, 2004; hyland & tse, 2007). the course is developed in a particular esp context, one of the contexts identified by dudley-evans and st. john (1998) in their characterization of the different eap situations in the world. according to these authors, eap course contents and methods are determined by the language in which content courses are taught. from this perspective, these authors identify four situations: in three of them, the language of all or most content courses is english, which i will call here the l2 situation. this is the case of english speaking countries, countries where english is a second language, or countries where some university courses are officially taught in english. in the fourth situation identified by dudley-evans and st. john, content courses are taught in the national language, and english is an auxiliary language. within the fourth situation, a particular case is the latin american countries, as these countries share characteristics which, in my view, may positively contribute to facilitate academic writing instruction. i will call this the latinate situation. the l2 situation and the latinate situation have contrastive characteristics, synthesized in table 5. iliana a. martínez ibérica 21 (2011): 31-4840 l2 situation latinate situation ns practitioners nnes practitioners heterogeneous groups homogeneous groups variety of l1 backgrounds latinate l1 background need of various skills simultaneously specific needs (one skill at a time) wide variety of genres used limited set of genres used table 5. characteristics of two different eap situations. 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 40 in the l2 situation, the context on which most research has focused, eap has the advantage of having practitioners who are mostly native speakers of english. they mainly impart instruction to heterogeneous groups, usually with a wide variety of academic interests and different scientific backgrounds. these learners also have different mother languages and require instruction in a variety of genres (dudley-evans, 2002; hyon, 2002; swales & lindeman, 2002). due to the heterogeneity of these contexts, it makes sense to focus on general eap (spack, 1988), and to use materials prepared ad hoc, as has been suggested in the literature (swales, 2009). the fourth group (the latinate situation) may appear as the most disadvantaged, as the practitioner is usually a non-native speaker of english, and teaches, in the native language, how to manipulate texts to be read or written in english. still, i argue that it is possible to exploit many of the characteristics of the situation to the learners’ benefit. in this context, and due to the generalized demand for instruction in eap, it is possible to have groups of learners that come from the same postgraduate programme, and hence, share the same theoretical background and scientific interest. the groups are also homogeneous in terms of l1, as in latin american countries the dominant language, and specifically the language of instruction, is a latinate language. the fact that the l1 is a latinate language is itself advantageous, and needs to be capitalized on, as its exploitation greatly facilitates the manipulation of the language of science in english, whose origin is mostly latin (coxhead & nation, 2001). another advantage is that the learners need specific skills, mainly reading and writing, and it is a common practice in the region to teach one skill at a time (see holmes & celani (2006) for reading, and martínez (2002) for writing). thus, the latinate situation offers a special context for the use of authentic texts, specific to the interests of the group. in the next section, i will argue how the practitioner in a latin american context, usually non-anglophone, may motivate learners by using authentic texts of their specific fields of interest, and may thus capitalize on the contributions of the learners in terms of knowledge of their fields of study and of doing research (dudley-evans & st. john, 1998; martínez, 2002). capitalizing on the advantages ibérica 21 (2011): 31-48 41 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 41 using authentic and specific texts in writing instruction different authors with teaching experience in countries representative of the l2 situation have highlighted the benefits of having diversity in their courses, as, among other reasons, they offer the learners the possibility of exposure to discussions on differences by fields, and allow learners to have access to across-campus socialization (hyland, 1999; swales & lindemann, 2002). the latin american situation, on the other hand, allows for focused instruction, being it possible to concentrate on specific needs in terms of skills, genres and fields. the main advantages of the context are the identification of highly specific needs, a common l1, and the possibility of having highly homogeneous groups. first, a focus on a clear need, e.g. to write for international publication, results in high motivation, as the learners can maximize their use of time by concentrating on the set of science-related genres (swales, 2004), focusing on the research article, the genre needed in most doctoral programmes in the sciences. it must be noted that having papers published is a requirement for graduation in most doctoral programmes of the sciences in argentina. second, a common l1 and language of instruction of latinate origin allows the possibility of capitalizing on the similarities between latinate languages and the language of science. many of the linguistic aspects that may seem problematic in scientific english for novice learners who are native to english, such as lexical density and nominalization (halliday, 1993), do not appear to be so for speakers of latinate languages that are experts in their research fields. lexis is mostly transparent, as the vocabulary of science is mainly of latin origin. left branching may be a problem and there is a good amount of left branching in science for the construction of complex concepts, designating a highly specific referent. still, complex noun groups do not seem to pose a problem for these specialists, as they generally recognize the referents of the noun groups when they are concepts of their own research fields. to illustrate, i will resort to examples from a text (anil et al., 2002) that i used in a course where there were veterinaries working in meat processing plants and slaughterhouses. complex nominal groups like “a penetrating captive bolt gun (cbg)”, “a pneumatically activated penetrating cbg”, and “a cartridge-operated conventional penetrating cbg” posed no problem to these students, because, although their level of iliana a. martínez ibérica 21 (2011): 31-4842 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 42 english was low, they were familiar with the referents. thus, the words served to successfully identify the instruments they referred to without the need to analyse the nominal structures. as for nominalization, this process involves right branching, which is the main way spanish modifies nouns. the similarity of nominalized structures in english and spanish facilitates their interpretation. furthermore, “-ation”, the highly productive suffix for nominalization in scientific english, is of latin origin. note the following cases, where the nominalizations are in italics: “the injection of anaesthetic agent”; “by application of 250 v for 3 s”; “a continuous infusion of a mixture of xylazine”; “the risk of transmission of bse prions to humans through meat consumption”. third, the possibility of having l1 homogeneous groups as well as discipline specific groups calls for the use of specific and authentic materials. specific materials allow to concentrate on the specific vocabulary that the researcher needs, which has been shown to be highly restricted (sutarsyah, nation & kennedy, 1994; chen & ge, 2007; hyland & tse, 2007; martínez, beck & panza, 2009). specificity increases motivation, reduces comprehension problems, and, at the same time, allows participants to contribute their knowledge of science, creating an atmosphere of confidence. in relation to the use of texts for exemplification in courses, swales (2009: 5) presents what he calls “the practitioner’s dilemma”, which implies that, in the process of selecting class materials, and after having unsuccessfully browsed for a text that can act as a good model, the practitioner is faced with three possibilities, “keep on looking, editing or go somewhere else” (swales, 2009: 5), where this “somewhere else” implies that the practitioners themselves should write the texts for course practice. this suggestion is certainly adequate in the l2 situation, where eap courses integrate learners from different disciplines and l1 backgrounds, making it difficult to find a common and at the same time appealing text. such courses are usually taught by native speakers who can write their own texts. writing scientific texts to be used as course materials does not seem possible in the latin american situation, where practitioners are mostly nnes, like myself, and for whom constructing interesting scientific texts in different scientific fields would probably be an overwhelming task, beyond many nness’ language skills. in latinate contexts, authentic materials, which are in fact what the researchers actually use as literature for their studies and what they need to write for publication, are not only appropriate in relation to teachers and students, but also increase motivation. capitalizing on the advantages ibérica 21 (2011): 31-48 43 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 43 conclusion as a conclusion, i would like to emphasize some aspects that suggest an optimistic future for periphery scholars, particularly from latin america. the information of databases shows a positive evolution of latin american scholars’ participation in mainstream journals. this information indicates that, although there may be marginalisation of periphery scholars due to economic or other factors (canagarajah, 1996 & 2003), international participation is possible. the presence of latin america can be furthered by providing eap instruction that capitalizes on the aspects of the latin american situation described here as advantages, particularly the possibility of having participants with a common linguistic and scientific background. in our role as non-native eap practitioners and researchers we may contribute to redress the imbalance produced by the need to publish in a language other than one’s own. as practitioners, we should capitalize on those aspects of scientific language that are common to english and latinate languages and on the scientific knowledge that the learners possess. as researchers, we should contribute descriptions and contrastive studies that may unveil the linguistic similarities, which will facilitate eap instruction for non-anglophone graduate students and researchers. acknowledgements i am grateful to the members of my research team, the anonymous reviewers and this journal editor for their careful reading of the manuscript and insightful comments. this study was supported by a grant of secyt unrc (secretaría de ciencia y tecnología, universidad nacional de río cuarto, argentina). 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(1994). “systems of genres and the enactment of social intentions” in a. freedman & p. medway (eds.), genre and the new rhetoric, 79101. london: taylor & francis. belcher, d. & g. braine (1995a). “introduction” in d. belcher & g. braine (eds.), xiii-xxix. belcher, d. & g. braine (eds.) (1995b). academic writing in a second language: essays on research and pedagogy. norwood, nj: ablex. berkenkotter, c. & t. huckin (eds.) (1995). genre knowledge in disciplinary communication – cognition/culture/power. hillside, nj: lawrence erlbaum. berry, m. (1995). “thematic options and success in writing” in m. ghadessy (ed.), thematic development in english texts, 105-128. london: pinter. brett, p. (1994). “a genre analysis of the results section of sociology articles”. english for specific purposes 13: 47-59. caicyt (2009). centro argentino de información científica y tecnológica. url: http://www.caicyt.gov.ar/bases-de-datos-eindicadores/indicadores/indicadores [22/11/09] canagarajah, s. (1996). “nondiscursive requirements in academic publishing, material resources of periphery scholars, and the politics of knowledge production”. written communication 13: 435-472. canagarajah, s. (2003). “a somewhat legitimate and very peripheral participation” in c. casanave & s. vandrick (eds.), writing for scholarly publication. behind the scenes in language education, 197-210. hillside, nj: lawrence erlbaum. chen, q. & g. ge (2007). “a corpus-based lexical study on frequency and distribution of coxhead’s awl word families in medical research articles (ras)”. english for specific purposes 26: 502-514. cortes, v. (2004). “lexical bundles in published and student disciplinary writing: examples from history and biology”. english for specific purposes 23: 397-423. coxhead, a. & p. nation (2001). “the specialised vocabulary of english for academic purposes” in j. flowerdew & m. peacock (eds.), research perspectives on english for academic purposes, 252-267. cambridge: cambridge university press. dudley-evans, t. (1986). “genre analysis: an investigation of the introduction and discussion sections of msc dissertations” in m. coulthard (ed.), talking about text, 128-145. birmingham: english language research. dudley-evans, t. (1994). “genre analysis: an approach to text analysis for esp” in coulthard, m. (ed.), advances in written text analysis, 219-228. london: routledge. dudley-evans, t. (1995). “common-core and specific approaches to the teaching of academic writing” in d. belcher & g. braine (eds.), 293-312. dudley-evans, t. (2002). “the teaching of the academic essay: is a genre approach possible?” in a. johns (ed.), 225-235. dudley-evans, t. & m. st. john (1998). developments in esp. a multidisciplinary approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. flowerdew, j. (2000). “discourse community, legitimate peripheral participation, and the nonnative-englishspeaking scholar”. tesol quarterly 34: 127-151. flowerdew, j. (2002). “introduction: approaches to the analysis of academic discourse in english” in j. flowerdew (ed.), academic discourse, 1-18. harlow: longman. flowerdew, j. (2008). “scholarly writers who use english as an additional language: what can goffman’s ‘‘stigma’’ tell us?” journal of english for academic purposes 7: 77-86 . freedman, a. (1994). “do as i say: the relationship between teaching and learning new genres” in a. freedman and p. medway (eds.), 191-210. freedman, a. & p. medway (1994a). “locating genre studies: antecedents and prospects” in a. freedman & p. medway (eds.), 1-22. freedman, a. & p. medway (eds.) (1994b). genre and the new rhetoric. london. taylor & francis. halliday, m.a.k. (1993). “some grammatical problems in scientific english” in m.a.k. halliday & j.r. martin (eds.), writing science. literacy and discursive power, 69-85. london: the falmer press. halliday, m.a.k. (1994). an introduction to functional grammar. london: edward arnold. holmes, j. & m. celani (2006). “sustainability and local knowledge: the case of the brazilian esp project 1980-2005”. english for specific purposes 25: 109-122. hyland, k. (1999). “academic attribution: citation and the construction of disciplinary knowledge”. applied linguistics 20: 341-367. hyland, k. (2001). “humble servants of the discipline? self-mention in research articles”. 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 45 iliana a. martínez ibérica 21 (2011): 31-4846 english for specific purposes 20: 207-226. hyland, k. (2006). english for academic purposes. an advanced resource book. london: routledge. hyland, k. & l. hamp-lyons (2002). “eap: issues and directions”. journal of english for academic purposes 1: 1-12. hyland, k. & p. tse (2007). “is there an ‘academic vocabulary’?” tesol quarterly 4: 235-253. hyon, s. (2002). “genre and esl reading: a classroom study” in a. johns (ed.), 121-141. jacoby, s., d. leech & c. holten (1995). “a genrebased developmental writing course for undergraduate esl science majors” in d. belcher & g. braine (eds.), 351-373. jeppesen, c., a. nelson, v. guerrini & r. farías (2004). diagnóstico y perspectiva de los estudios de posgrado en argentina. url: http://www4.iesalc.unesco.org.ve/programas /post grados /informe%20postgrados%20 argentina.pdf [22/11/09] johns, a. (ed.) (2002). genres in the classroom. multiple perspectives. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. kanoksilapatham, b. (2005). “rhetorical structure of biochemistry research articles”. english for specific purposes 24: 269-292. martínez, i.a. (2001). “impersonality in the research article as revealed by the analysis of the transitivity structure”. english for specific purposes 20: 227-247. martínez, i.a. (2002). “developing genre awareness in non-native english-speaking writers of experimental research articles: a collaborative approach” in j. cradall & d. kaufman (eds.), content-based instruction in higher education settings, 79-92. virginia: tesol. martínez, i.a. (2005). “first person use in native and non-native writers of research articles in biology”. journal of second language writing 14:174-190. martínez, i.a., beck, s. & c. panza (2009). “academic vocabulary in agricultural research articles: a corpus-based study”. english for specific purposes 28: 183-198. miller, c. (1994a). “genre as social action” in a. freedman & p. medway (eds.), 23-42. miller, c. (1994b). “rhetorical community: the cultural basis of genre” in a. freedman & p. medway (eds.), 67-78. myers, g. (1989). “the pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles”. applied linguistics 10: 1-35. myers, g. (1990). writing biology. madison, wi: the university of wisconsin press. myers, g. (1996). “strategic vagueness in academic writing” in e. ventola & a. mauranen (eds.), 3-17. ortiz, r. (2009). la supremacía del inglés en las ciencias sociales. buenos aires: siglo veintiuno. rama, c. (2006). “los postgrados en américa latina en la sociedad del saber” in informe sobre la educación superior en américa latina y el caribe, 2000-2005. la metamorfosis de la educación superior. caracas: editorial metrópolis, c.a. salager-meyer, f. (1994). “hedges and textual communicative function in medical english written discourse”. english for specific purposes 13: 149170. salager-meyer, f. (2007). “around the world: teaching medical writing to doctors and scientists”. the write stuff 16: 15. salager-meyer, f. (2008). “scientific publishing in developing countries: challenges for the future”. journal of english for academic purposes 7: 121132. spack, r. (1988). “initiating esl students into the academic discourse community: how far should we go?” tesol quarterly 22: 29-51. sutarsyah, c., p. nation & g. kennedy (1994). “how useful is eap vocabulary for esp? a corpus based study”. relc journal 25: 34-50. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. glasgow: cambridge university press. swales, j. (1996). “occluded genres in the academy. the case of the submission letter” in e. ventola & a. mauranen (eds.), 45-58. swales, j. (1997). “english as tyrannosaurus rex”. world englishes 16: 373-382. swales, j. (2004). research genres. exploration and applications. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j. (2009). “when there is no perfect text: approaches to the eap practitioner’s dilemma”. journal of english for academic purposes 8: 5-13. swales, j. & s. lindemann (2002). “teaching the literature review to international graduate students” in a. johns (ed.), 105-119. tardy, c. (2006). “researching first and second language genre learning: a comparative review and a look ahead”. journal of second language writing 15: 79-101. 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 46 iliana a. martínez has an ma in applied linguistics, university of birmingham. she is full professor of academic writing and genre analysis at the national university of río cuarto, argentina. her research interests include genre theory and pedagogy, corpus linguistics, and systemic functional linguistics. she has published in espj, jeap, jslw and a chapter in tesol cbi series. capitalizing on the advantages ibérica 21 (2011): 31-48 47 thompson, d. (1993). “arguing for experimental ‘facts’ in science. a study of research article results section in biochemistry”. written communication 10: 106-128. thompson, g. & y. ye (1991). “evaluation in the reporting verbs used in academic papers”. applied linguistics 12: 365-382. ventola, e. & a. mauranen (eds.) (1996). academic writing – intercultural and textual issues. amsterdam: john benjamins. 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 47 02 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:04 página 48 iberica 13 corpus analysis in different genres: academic discourse and learner corpora maría luisa carrió-pastor (ed.) new york: routledge, 2020. 362 pages. isbn: 978-0-36741716-1 there has been a growing interest in academic and learner discourse over the last few decades. this burgeoning area of research has witnessed a boom and a diversification of methodological approaches, among which corpus linguistics stands out thanks to its advantage of allowing researchers to handle large volumes of authentic linguistic data. the fruitful combination of corpus linguistics and discourse analysis is being applied to more specific environments and communicative situations. while there are countless research articles of this kind published in top peer-reviewed journals such as journal of english for academic purposes and international journal of learner corpus research, few scholarly books deal with this aspect, with some notable exceptions (e.g., charles, pecorari & hunston, 2009; römer, cortes & friginal, 2020). corpus analysis in different genres: academic discourse and learner corpora, edited by maría luisa carrió-pastor, is thus a timely collection that brings together diverse contributions focused on the application of the corpus methodology to academic discourse and learner discourse analysis. the book contains an introduction and 18 specially commissioned chapters written by experienced practitioners in the field. these chapters are grouped thematically and cover various academic genres (chapters 1-8) as well as studies on learner discourses (chapters 9-18). in the introduction, book editor maría luisa carrió-pastor provides an excellent overview of this collection and a succinct summary of each chapter. the first section of the volume concerns the application of the corpus approach to different genres of academic discourse: staple ones such as research articles, book reviews, and abstracts are joined by others less commonly seen, such as journal descriptions and book prefaces. the section starts with a chapter by carrió-pastor, in which she looks at the use of selfreseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 274-278 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 274 mentions across three broad disciplines: engineering, linguistics, and medicine. her quantitative analysis shows that first-person singular selfmentions practically occurred only in linguistics, and that the most frequent self-mention form in all three corpora was exclusive we. the qualitative analysis implies that authorial presence in all three fields was intended to achieve specific rhetorical purposes. in chapter 2, alonso-almeida discusses the expression of gratitude as a routinized writing procedure within an overlooked academic genre: book preface. based on an analysis of 72 prefaces in linguistics books, the author identified six major forms of thanking expressions and ten specific functions that these expressions perform. in contrast, in the third chapter kriukova compares the expression of criticism (i.e., negative evaluation) in the book reviews by soviet and post-soviet russian academic communities. her findings show a surprising “increased amount and relative directness of criticism in modern reviews” (p. 72) and a much higher incidence of conceptual criticism over textual criticism in terms of the targets for criticism. the next two chapters focus on stance in scientific writing. quintana-toledo and sánchez cuervo (chap. 4) explore authorial stance in the use of modal verbs by medical researchers. having analyzed 48 medical abstracts, they found that epistemic and dynamic modals were more commonly employed by researchers to express possibility and potentiality. in chapter 5, álvarezgil specifically takes an interest in the adverb fairly as a metadiscursive element and in its use in late modern english scientific writing. after scrutinizing textual materials from two disciplines (astronomy and history) between 1700 and 1900, the author reveals the mitigating effect of fairly as an indicator of authorial presence in scientific texts. another remarkable finding is the existence of disciplinary differences, such as the more frequent co-occurrence of this adverb with a modal verb in historical texts. also interested in disciplinary differences, giannoni (chap. 6) looks into lexical bundles (lbs) in journal descriptions (jds) from four disciplines and identifies 24 lbs in his self-compiled corpus. further functional analysis indicates an overall limited disciplinary variation of lb use in the jds, as well as a predominance of referential bundles. the last two chapters of the section are more methodology-oriented and encourage qualitative methods in academic discourse studies. in chapter 7, herrando-rodrigo highlights the importance of an ethnographic approach reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 274-278 275 in corpus compilation. as an illustration, after conducting pilot interviews and delivering questionnaires to medical experts, she drew on the information about their reading behavior of medical popularizations to compile comparable corpora of medical popularizations and scientific articles. this kind of expertise-informed corpora is “meaningful to both eap and esp users and language mediators, and teachers” (p. 128). the closing chapter, by bocanegra-valle, discusses the potential of applying computerassisted qualitative data analysis software (caqdas) to academic discourse research. she first introduces the concept of qda and the two most popular caqdas packages: atlas.ti and nvivo. she then surveys the application of these two packages in academic discourse-related studies. her findings suggest a growing trend towards caqdas, although it remains underestimated in general and by non-anglophone scholars in particular. the second section of the volume focuses on learner corpora and on how researchers or teachers can make use of them to benefit the language learning process and their pedagogical practices. it begins with a chapter coauthored by pavičić takač, kružić and vakanjac ivezić, in which they explore the use of contrastive discourse markers in argumentative essays produced by learners of english and german. based on two self-compiled learner corpora, their analysis shows that those non-native students tended to overuse or misuse certain contrastive connectives and employed them with a limited variation. the study also offers some teaching advice. in chapter 10, núñez-román goes beyond the basic contrastive discourse markers and shifts his attention to the broader concept of metadiscourse. by drawing upon ädel’s (2006) reflexive model, the author investigates the use of personal metadiscourse markers (pmm) in final degree dissertations (fdd) from 16 spanish universities. the results reveal that student’s pmm use varied depending on the typology of fdd, and that text-oriented discursive functions were the predominant dimension. the author further suggests raising fdd writers’ awareness of participant-oriented metadiscourse. in chapter 11, tasso goes deeper into the topic of metadiscourse but building her study on hyland’s (2005) interpersonal model instead. her analysis of 55 essays produced by spanish advanced efl learners indicates that despite the limited range of interactional devices employed by the student writers, engagement markers were the most frequent resource. in chapter 12, sánchez-jiménez sets out to examine the rhetorical functions of citation from cross-linguistic, cross-cultural, and expertise level perspectives. to this end, he compiled 24 master’s theses and another 24 reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 274-278276 research articles in both english and spanish. findings reveal that all these factors (language, culture, and level of expertise) influence the use of rhetorical functions of citation by different writer groups. interested in the correlation between language proficiency and linguistic complexity, pérezguerra, in chapter 13, uses statistical techniques to analyze english essays produced by non-native and native students at different levels. results suggest that complexity in writing is not always incremental as the proficiency increases. chapter 14, by montesinos-lópez and romeroforteza, presents calec, a newly developed corpus for the learning of catalan for specific purposes. they first introduce the background, educational settings, importance, and methodology for building calec. they then demonstrate how the corpus can help them analyze the errors produced in students’ specialized writing. in chapter 15, fuster-márquez and fernández-domínguez look at a set of lbs that are overproduced by spanish efl learners but absent or rarely used by native speakers. based on contrastive interlanguage analysis (cia) of one learner corpus and two native reference corpora, the authors detect 77 frequently overused four-word lbs and then classify them according to three discourse functions. they conclude the chapter by pointing out possible reasons for the overuse of these lbs and by discussing the implications. skorczynska, in chapter 16, investigates the metaphorical senses of three vision verbs (regard, see, and view) from a cognitive linguistics perspective and assesses the extent to which their patterns of use in english academic writing vary across three corpora: l2 non-expert, l1 non-expert, and l1 expert. she suggests that more attention be paid to the problematic areas when teaching the non-literal senses of these three verbs. mestre-mestre shifts her attention to the emotional aspect of academic discourse in chapter 17, where the use of emotion-loaded expressions in master’s theses produced by native and non-native english speakers is under analysis. her results indicate that native students are more prone to convey emotions in their writing than l2 learners. finally, she suggests raising pragmatic awareness of emotional expressions in classroom teaching. the final chapter, by torrado-cespón, addresses the lack of proofreading and foreign language anxiety among english learners when writing online. the author’s analysis of online posts allows her to classify students’ apology utterances reacting to mistakes and finally leads her to conclude that it is important for teachers to advise students on the correct use of language in online settings. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 274-278 277 this collection has met the objective of providing up-to-date corpus studies on academic and learner discourses. authors have skillfully demonstrated how corpora can be applied to academic discourse research and to foreign language learning and teaching alike. what i consider particularly innovative and meaningful is the inclusion of two methodology-oriented chapters (chap. 7 and 8). both the ethnographic approach to corpus compilation and the application of caqdas to academic discourse are under-discussed and under-explored topics in this field. additionally, this volume breaks the english-centric circle, covering other languages such as spanish, catalan, russian, and german. however, the major flaw in this edited volume may be an apparent lack of research on spoken academic discourse. since the central theme of the collection is academic discourse, readers might expect to see studies on oral academic interactions. in addition, while the chapters in both parts are balanced with a well-defined and logical theme, some chapters seem to be outliers within that coherent whole. for example, chapters 7 and 8, which do not actually aim to research a specific academic genre, seem to be incoherently related to other contributions in section 1. overall, this edited volume is a valuable resource for postgraduate students and researchers engaged in the corpus approach to academic discourse, especially in written texts. it could also be of practical use to preand inservice foreign language teachers and eap educators in classroom settings. received 09 november 2020 accepted 16 november 2020 reviewed by gang yao universidad de murcia (spain) gang.yao@um.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 40 (2020): 274-278278 ädel, a. (2006). metadiscourse in l1 and l2 english. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. charles, m., d. pecorari & s. hunston (eds.) (2009). academic writing: at the interface of corpus and discourse. london/new york: continuum. hyland, k. (2005). metadiscourse: exploring interaction in writing. london/new york: continuum. römer, u., v. cortes & e. friginal (eds.) (2020). advances in corpus-based research on academic writing: effects of discipline, register, and writer expertise. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. iberica 13 ibérica 26 (2013): 35-54 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper develops a theoretical framework based on genre analysis and crosscultural persuasion for comparing english and chinese business faxes. although extensive research has been done in genre analysis and second language writing, scarce literature can be found in cross-cultural genre study of business faxes. specifically this paper compares faxes used in new zealand and china. it has been found that english faxes and chinese faxes are used differently in a number of areas, especially in persuasive orientations. chinese faxes have a much stronger emphasis on affective aspect useful for building business relationships. this difference is also found in rhetorical structure and linguistic strategies. for example, logos has been identified as a major persuasive orientation in english faxes while both qing or pathos and li or logos were seen as important for chinese faxes. keywords: cross-cultural genre analysis, business persuasion, faxes, new zealand, china. resumen u n an ál i s is i nte r c ul t ur al d e l os f ax e s c om e rc i al e s e n i ng l é s y e n c h i no: u na p e rs p e c t iv a b as a d a e n e l g é ne r o este trabajo desarrolla un marco teórico basado en el análisis de géneros y en la persuasión intercultural para comparar faxes comerciales escritos en inglés y en chino. a pesar de que existe un gran volumen de investigación acerca del análisis de géneros y de la escritura en segundas lenguas, los trabajos sobre estudios interculturales relacionados con el género de los faxes comerciales son escasos. este trabajo compara faxes utilizados en nueva zelanda y china. se demuestra que los faxes escritos en inglés y en chino se utilizan de manera distinta en a cross-cultural analysis of english and chinese business faxes: a genre perspective yunxia zhu the university of queensland (australia) yzhu@business.uq.edu.au 35 ibérica 26 (2013): 35-54 yunxia zhu diferentes áreas, especialmente en lo relativo a orientaciones persuasivas. los faxes chinos confieren un mayor énfasis a aspectos afectivos, con el fin de desarrollar relaciones comerciales. esta diferencia se encuentra también en la estructura retórica y en las estrategias lingüísticas. por ejemplo, el logos ha sido identificado como una importante orientación discursiva en los faxes en inglés de la misma manera que lo son el qing o pathos y el li o logos en los faxes en chino. palabras clave: análisis de géneros intercultural, persuasión en los negocios, faxes, nueva zelanda, china. introduction this paper aims to propose a theoretical framework comparing english and chinese business faxes. although extensive theoretical frameworks can be found in genre analysis and teaching (such as swales, 1990; bhatia, 1993 & 2012; hyland, 2007; martin, 2009), cross-cultural comparative study has not become a research focus in genre analysis (canagarajah, 2002; hyland, 2002). on the other hand, the comparative study in contrastive rhetoric (kaplan, 1966; kirkpatrick, 1991; young, 1994; li, 1996) mainly focuses on skills of l2 writing and much less attention has been given to comparing the social roles of genres in the professional contexts. an exception can be found in a group of researchers who pay particular attention to comparing genres (such as yli-jokipii, 1994; ulijn & li, 1995; bargiela-chiappini & nickerson, 1999; louhiala-salminen, 1999; zhu, 2000 & 2005). as more and more people are communicating with other cultures, we need to explore cross-cultural genre study in greater depth, including understanding the micro-level messages and macro-level issues in professional communication. in addition, there is also a genuine lack of theories that incorporate culture-specific features of writing and persuasion. this paper will contribute to cross-cultural genre study by incorporating the sociocognitive tradition of genre analysis (such as berger & luckmann, 1966; swales, 1990; bergmann & luckmann, 1995; berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; paltridge, 1997) and cross-cultural considerations. this paper specifically compares english and chinese faxes used in new zealand and china. faxes are one of the communication medium of business communication. although faxes are reported as less frequently used than other genres such as emails (louhiala-salminen, 1999), they are still commonly used in new zealand and china. in particular, faxes are a major form of business communication (zhu, 2004). new zealand and china are 36 chosen because they represent a typical case of distant cultures with new zealand belonging to the anglo-saxon cluster and china to the asian clusters (hofstede, 1991; house et al., 2004). it would be interesting to see if cultural differences also exhibit themselves in the use of business faxes. the structure of the paper is organised in this manner. it first reviews the relevant areas of research findings in contrastive rhetoric, classical and chinese rhetoric, and genre analysis. second, a framework of comparing genres is proposed based on the theoretical review of genre analysis and cross-cultural rhetoric and persuasion. third, the framework is exemplified by a comparison of english and chinese business faxes. finally, the major findings are highlighted followed by theoretical and practical implications of this study. genre analysis and the sociocognitive tradition according to bakhtin (1986), genre reflects “deep semantics” and it is not just the “sites of actions”, but also sites of ideological action. in a similar light, genre is seen as related to a social constructivism within the sociology of knowledge (berger & luckmann, 1966; schutz & luckmann, 1974; bergmann & luckmann, 1995). according to this view, genre can be defined as “socially constructed models” that respond to recurrent communicative problems. as guenthner and knoblauch (1995) further elaborate, genres represent a central communicative means in the construction of social reality. furthermore, the social stocks of knowledge are not statically transmitted, and they are “being built up, maintained, transmitted and also modified in communicative processes” (guenthner & knoblauch, 1995) via “prepatterned” conventions. according to swales, genre is characterised by a set of communicative purposes. these purposes are sometimes criticised as being too utilitarian (canagarajah, 2002), however, they can be appropriately seen as related to “genre as social action” (miller, 1984: 151) that is culturally confined. in further elaboration, the purposes of a genre can be realised in “moves” and “steps”. a move is seen as a communicative event, and a step is a unit under a move. drawn from the concept of speech community used in sociolinguistics (such as hymes, 1974; or saville-troike, 1984), swales suggests that a discourse community is a group in which particular communicative tasks are central to the functioning of this group. a similar approach is used by other genre studies such as bhatia’s (1993) a cross-cultural analysis of english and chinese ibérica 26 (2013): 35-54 37 examination of english promotion genres and bazerman’s (1988) and myers’ (1990) study of english scientific genres. bhatia’s (1993: 21) “cognitive structures” of genre offers a further understanding towards genre knowledge and communicative purposes. to bhatia, genre represents the “typical regularities and organisation”. here bhatia looks at genre as reflecting relevant knowledge structures. the “regularities” and “strategies” apparently offer us some interesting clues for identifying significant patterns within the genre convention. for example, faxes apply certain strategies including embeddedness (gimenez, 2004) and complementality (zhu, 2004). gimenez (2004) defines embeddedness as having more than one messages embedded into one email text and zhu (2004) refers to the complementary nature of fax as dependent on other forms of communication such as telephones. in sum, the sociocognitive vein of genre analysis contributes to the exploration of genre knowledge, institutional contexts, and the discourse community, thus offering an in-depth analysis to genre. for this reason, the sociocognitive perspective will form an essential component of this paper while close attention is also given to cross-cultural persuasion. cross-cultural persuasion it is commonly acknowledged that cross-cultural dimensions are useful for understanding the contexts of genre. relevant dimensions include hofstede’s (1991) individualism (focusing on individual interest) and collectivism (stressing group’s interest). according to hofstede, new zealand belongs to the individualistic society while the opposite is true of china which is characterised by collectivism. although this dimension is relevant to the comparison of faxes, a major perspective that is less stressed in cross-cultural study is the perspective of persuasion, hence a need for a detailed review of this aspect. aristotle, as a major representative of the greek rhetoric, developed a wide range of concepts in rhetoric, and the most relevant to this study is the persuasive appeals. aristotle (rhetoric, in aristotle & kennedy, 1991) points out three means of influencing belief and action: ethos (character and standards), pathos (emotion) and logos (reason and evidence). fundamentally, ethos can mean the believability of the speaker, the credibility which the speaker brings to the speech situation. the speaker has to create yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): 35-5438 his own credibility; he has to maintain a moral linkage between himself and his content. pathos as an artistic proof focuses on using the emotions as a supplement to a speaker’s other means of persuasion. aristotle’s list of emotions is long, recommending co-joining them with ethical appeals. this second part of the persuasion process is simply to arouse emotional feelings in the message receiver. for the purposes of this study, logos is related to the logical, rational and evidential underpinning of a speaker’s argument. while the two preceding elements seemingly appear more peripheral, it is the logical and reasonable substance that should be the primary part of a communicator’s presentation. logos is thus seen as the major element in persuasion, and arrangement of the ideas gathers under its rubric; a structure has to be imposed on the collected material. for aristotle (rhetoric, 3.13) such partitioning could be a duo: “a speech has two parts. necessarily, you state your case and you prove it”. from the above discussion we can see that ethos, pathos and logos may not enjoy an identical level of priority and aristotle places major importance on logos in persuasion, treating pathos only as secondary to the logical presentation of an argument. the stress on logos, clear structure and argumentation has an overwhelming influence on contrastive rhetoric. this also indicates a major difference from classical chinese rhetoric to be detailed below. confucian school of thought represents a dominant influence on chinese persuasion and communication (gao & ting-toomey, 1998; zhu, 2009). confucian thought is mainly based on ren tao or the way of humans and the moral codes he prescribes in his teachings. to him, ren (“benevolence”) is seen as the highest standard of moral perfection. in order to achieve these virtues, confucius sets the highest standards for adequate conduct in these five key role relationships between ruler and subject, neighbour and neighbour, father and son, husband and wife, and older brother and younger brother, among which four are hierarchical relationships. these relations are related to pathos and are often advocated as important forms of effective persuasion in chinese culture. in relation to this relational and hierarchical context, chinese written genres, in particular those involving interaction of the reader and writer, tend to stress the relationships between the reader and the writer. it can be inferred that chinese rhetoric and persuasion has a much stronger emphasis on pathos or affect. to confucius, affective, cognitive and logical a cross-cultural analysis of english and chinese ibérica 26 (2013): 35-54 39 functions are closely intertwined and equally valued (garrett, 1993; lü, 1998). they are expressed very much in the modern terms of qing (“feelings or emotions embedded in the context”) and li (“reasons or facts”) (li, 1996). li (1996) advocates that qing has great persuasive power and compliments li. although qing and li may not be the only criteria for good writing, they certainly represent an important dimension of writing criteria. good writing thus should be excellent in expressing both emotions and argument. qing and li can thus be seen as the essential element in chinese persuasion. based on this, zhu & hildebrandt (2003) point out that chinese rhetoric tends to stress on both pathos and logos. their findings also coincide with li’s (1996) discussion of chinese persuasion based on both qing (emotional approach) and li (logical approach). a theoretical framework of cross-cultural genre comparison based on the above literature review, genre comparison involves the exploration of relevant knowledge structures (bartlett, 1932; rumelhart, 1988), and “deep semantics” across cultures. in this light of this organising frame, specific stages of comparison are developed in figure 1. this involves four stages: comparing sociocultural contexts; comparing persuasive orientations, comparing communicative purposes, and comparing texts including moves and steps. it incorporates a range of theoretical underpinning discussed earlier. the concepts rhetoric and persuasion are useful for understanding persuasive orientations. the incorporation of both purposes and persuasive orientations offers a fuller understanding of genre. the concept of “social stock of knowledge” or institutional knowledge permeates all the stages, which is useful for interpreting the specific strategies used in the text. in general, the stages proposed in figure 1 aim to embrace the cognitive depth in cross-cultural genre study in two areas. on the one hand, relevant social stocks of knowledge are referred to as a fundamental element to determine what can be relevant for comparison. on the other hand, communicative purposes are examined and identified in relation to persuasive orientations, thus giving cross-cultural considerations to different set of purposes. at the textual level, rhetorical structure is seen only as one component of the text while consideration is also given to other genres or yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): 35-5440 features such as embeddedness (gimenez, 2004) and complementality (zhu, 2004). in this way, the proposed stages of comparison can help to overcome the constraints of a purely linear-staged comparison and offers the possibility of examining genres more horizontally and comprehensively. data selection and methodology a corpus of 40 chinese and 40 english sales order-related faxes are randomly chosen from a data pool of 564 faxes (including 256 chinese faxes and 308 english faxes). some background information about the data selection process is provided in detail here. these faxes were collected from four chinese companies in beijing and zhengzhou and four new zealand companies in auckland. all the companies were of a reasonable size dealing with both international and domestic businesses. the english faxes were written in english and the chinese faxes were in chinese. here are the criteria i followed in the selection of fax data. first, they were related to sales orders such as requests about products, and inquiries about price and delivery dates. second, as a fax message it had to indicate a clear format such as a cover page, salutation and signature. this criterion ruled out some other advertising materials that used fax as a medium. third, the faxes did not include attached materials or documents of other genres such a cross-cultural analysis of english and chinese ibérica 26 (2013): 35-54 41 yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): …-… figure 1. stages for cross-cultural genre comparison. data selection and methodology a corpus of 40 chinese and 40 english sales order-related faxes are randomly chosen from a data pool of 564 faxes (including 256 chinese faxes and 308 english faxes). some background information about the data selection process is provided in detail here. these faxes were collected from four chinese companies in beijing and zhengzhou and four new zealand companies in auckland. all the companies were of a reasonable size dealing with both international and domestic businesses. the english faxes were written in english and the chinese faxes were in chinese. here are the criteria i followed in the selection of fax data. first, they were related to sales orders such as requests about products, and inquiries about price and delivery dates. second, as a fax message it had to indicate a clear format such as a cover page, salutation and signature. this criterion ruled out some other advertising materials that used fax as a medium. third, the faxes did not include attached materials or documents of other genres such as sales brochures, which were sent via fax in order to reach the reader quickly. the most effective english and chinese faxes (see appendix) arose from the corpus in two sets or rating. first, i started with an initial rating of all the 40 english and 40 chinese sales order-related faxes. specifically, they were given respectively to five chinese and five new zealand managers to grade. these managers were chosen on a voluntary basis, and also available for conducting the classical rhetoric: ethos, pathos & logos comparing persuasive orientations chinese rhetoric: e.g. qing & li cultural values and dimensions comparing sociocultural context social, economic and relational context market economy, business orientation comparing communicative purposes culture-specific factors such as relational rhetorical structure: moves and steps comparing texts other features, e.g. complementality, and embeddedness as sales brochures, which were sent via fax in order to reach the reader quickly. the most effective english and chinese faxes (see appendix) arose from the corpus in two sets or rating. first, i started with an initial rating of all the 40 english and 40 chinese sales order-related faxes. specifically, they were given respectively to five chinese and five new zealand managers to grade. these managers were chosen on a voluntary basis, and also available for conducting the rating. more importantly, they had extensive experience writing and using faxes in their everyday business practice. second, based on the managers’ grading, i decided on the five english and five chinese faxes which were seen to be most representative of each corpus. the five selected faxes were then delivered with a questionnaire to 100 managers from each country. the new zealand managers were from auckland which is the country largest city and also the centre of business activities. the chinese managers were from zhengzhou which is located in northern china. it is a city of with a population of more than four million people and is also a centre of business activities in the largest province of henan. subsequently the most effective fax was chosen based on a five-grade scale with 5 as the highest score and 1 the lowest. the english fax was graded 3.1 and the chinese got an average rating of 4.0. stage 1. comparing the sociocultural and technological context in the first stage, both sociocultural contexts and technological environments are examined since fax is a technologically mediated form of communication. new zealand is largely inherited from british and european traditions and is known as a commonwealth country. the market economy has been a dominant feature in its economic structure (zhu, 2005; zhu & hildebrandt, 2013). business faxes are often used to promote products with a clear result orientation, which also coincides with hofstede’s (1991) individualistic and result-oriented culture and a strong focus on business outcome. the strong business orientation forms a basic principle underlying the major content of business faxes. the social context of chinese business practice reflects a mixture of both marketing economy and the traditional values based on confucian thought. on the one hand, the economic reform connects china to the market yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): 35-5442 economy and sales promotions also have become an essential factor. this tendency has become even stronger and more evident since china joined the world trade organisation (wto). western marketing strategies also apply to chinese faxes to a large extent. on the other hand, traditional values relating to collectivism (hofstede, 1991), and confucian five relationships as well as group orientation (zhu, nel & bhat, 2006) also prevail as part of this sociocultural environment. in terms of the technological environment, nowadays many businesses are conducted via fax as a means of communication because of its fast speed and its ability to attach copies of original documents. these features, which are also advantages, apparently have revolutionised the process of information exchange, and made business communication easier. as a consequence, recent years, particularly the past two decades, have witnessed a rapid increase in the use of faxes in business transactions. louhialasalminen (1999) has researched the use of faxes in europe. according to her, faxes are an important genre for business transactions. however, she also found that there was a tendency for companies to use faxes less frequently as they were being gradually replaced by emails, which are not only fast, but also more economical. based on this, louhiala-salminen predicts that faxes may be transitory and short-lived as a form of business writing. however, these findings so far are not entirely applicable to the new zealand and chinese business contexts, at least, not to companies of reasonable sizes. for example, all the companies where i collected my data still use faxes as an important means of communication and receive faxes on a daily basis. china has also recently witnessed the popularity of faxes and business organisations prefer faxes to emails which are largely seen as a form of personal communication. stage 2. comparing persuasive orientations and communicative purposes the persuasive orientations discussed earlier still apply here as shown in table 1, which will also be referred to in the other stages of comparison. in english faxes, the logical approach is particularly stressed in marketing and sales promotion, while pathos is also explicated but only as a minor respect such as relating to the informal relationship with the customer. in contrast, chinese concepts relating to persuasive orientations encompass a cross-cultural analysis of english and chinese ibérica 26 (2013): 35-54 43 qing or emotional approach as well as li or logical approach, so both will be applied to chinese faxes. specifically li refers to two kinds of knowledge relating to marketing and appropriate business practice and technological contexts in china, and qing is related to politeness principles based on readerwriter relationships which may involve some specific interpersonal relationship such as salesman and customer. these persuasive orientations may well have an impact on the components of communicative purposes (see table 1) of both english and chinese faxes. as a result, they may not share exactly the same purposes although there is a clear overlap between the two genres. for example, similar purposes relating to business and sales are found in both english and chinese faxes, and both have a predominant emphasis on the logos of business transactions. this kind of similarity indicates a strong convergence of business contexts which are characterised by market economy and competition. there is one particular difference worth noting though: the chinese company’s image is still related to respect, as found in the chinese faxes, thus indicating a stronger pathos or qing. yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): 35-5444 yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): …-… are not only fast, but also more economical. based on this, louhiala-salminen predicts that faxes may be transitory and short-lived as a form of business writing. however, these findings so far are not entirely applicable to the new zealand and chinese business contexts, at least, not to companies of reasonable sizes. for example, all the companies where i collected my data still use faxes as an important means of communication and receive faxes on a daily basis. china has also recently witnessed the popularity of faxes and business organisations prefer faxes to emails which are largely seen as a form of personal communication. stage 2. comparing persuasive orientations and communicative purposes the persuasive orientations discussed earlier still apply here as shown in table 1, which will also be referred to in the other stages of comparison. english faxes chinese faxes persuasive orientations ethos, logos and pathos qing and li communicative purposes to promote business to advertise product to create a positive image to encourage further contact to promote business to advertise product to keep record of business progress to create a positive/respectful image to encourage further contact to communicate a problem to seek cooperation to maintain long-term relationships rhetorical structures salutation refer to previous communication giving information order confirmation polite closing good wishes signature salutation refer to previous communication giving information order confirmation stressing co-op. embedded moves polite closing good wishes signature genre complementality telephone face to face meetings emails telephone face to face meetings embeddedness rare frequently table 1. major findings from the english and chinese faxes. in english faxes, the logical approach is particularly stressed in marketing and sales promotion, while pathos is also explicated but only as a minor respect such the chinese faxes appear to have more purposes than the english. for example, they include “keeping record of business queries and progress” as a purpose while there is no such a purpose for english faxes. chinese faxes also have an additional purpose of communicating a problem, which is absent in the english corpus. further differences can be identified in terms of the writer and the reader relationships. both english and chinese faxes share the purpose of establishing further contact. chinese faxes, however, also intend to stress co-operation and long-term relationships, which is a reflection of a collectivistic society and group orientation. stage 3. comparing texts both rhetorical structure and other textual features are discussed in this stage in order to reflect the comprehensive nature of the genres concerned. genre complementality and embeddedness as shown in tables 1 and 2, two other genre features are outstanding: genre complementality and genre embeddedness. faxes, in both cases, are used as a genre to complement other genres or channels of communication. for example, both english and chinese faxes mention the simultaneous correspondence between the writer and reader via telephone or face-to-face meetings. faxes are very much used as an additional means of communication. as indicated in table 2, about similar number of fax messages mentioned the on-going discussion via telephones and face-to-face meetings while the writer employs fax as a means of further communication. both genres prefer to use telephone as an additional channel more frequently than meetings and emails. a significant number of english faxes referred to the content of earlier email correspondence with the reader while none of the chinese faxes actually did this. this is further evidence to show that fax is a more popular business genre than emails in china. genre embeddedness is also worth noting as it is a significant feature for chinese faxes. as shown in table 2, 30 faxes have embedded messages often indicated with serial numbers (for instance, the chinese fax in appendix 1) while only 3 english faxes are embedded. the average number of embedded message within one fax is usually between two and four, with an exception of one fax, which has embedded as many as eight. a cross-cultural analysis of english and chinese ibérica 26 (2013): 35-54 45 two types of messages are found to be embedded in the chinese faxes: the writer sometimes includes a note informing the reader about order forms or contract; other embedded messages are very much like reporting an issue or a problem such as a delayed payment. the former plays a role of informing the reader and documenting the business transaction, which also fits well into the purpose of “keeping track of the business progress”. on the other hand, embedding problematic messages can also be seen as related to chinese politeness rituals. for example, the writer can insert or even camouflage a negative message in the sales-order fax in order to dilute the negative effect on the reader. this point will be further discussed regarding the most successful chinese fax. comparing rhetorical structures rhetorical structures are compared in relation to persuasive orientations and communicative purposes. this stage includes a comparison of rhetorical structure, moves and steps. the moves found in both english and chinese corpora are shown in table 1. at the overall textual level, english and chinese faxes share the essential elements of order-related moves and other formulaic moves such as polite closing, polite closing, and signature and date. these moves are thus seen as the common generic features for sales order-related faxes. however, the chinese faxes are composed of some additional features. for example, they stress co-operation and embed other messages and moves as discussed earlier. analysing the most successful faxes this section analyses the most successful faxes and further details the linguistic differences and similarities (see appendix). the two faxes are discussed with reference to findings from the corpus in general. yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): 35-5446 yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): …-… channel more frequently than meetings and emails. a significant number of english faxes referred to the content of earlier email correspondence with the reader while none of the chinese faxes actually did this. this is further evidence to show that fax is a more popular business genre than emails in china. genre embeddedness is also worth noting as it is a significant feature for chinese faxes. as shown in table 2, 30 faxes have embedded messages often indicated with serial numbers (for instance, the chinese fax in appendix 1) while only 3 english faxes are embedded. the average number of embedded message within one fax is usually between two and four, with an exception of one fax, which has embedded as many as eight. embeddedness telephone contact email meeting english faxes 3 22 11 5 chinese faxes 30 35 0 3 total 33 57 11 8 table 2. frequency of genre complementality and embeddedness. two types of messages are found to be embedded in the chinese faxes: the writer sometimes includes a note informing the reader about order forms or contract; other embedded messages are very much like reporting an issue or a problem such as a delayed payment. the former plays a role of informing the reader and documenting the business transaction, which also fits well into the purpose of “keeping track of the business progress”. on the other hand, embedding problematic messages can also be seen as related to chinese politeness rituals. for example, the writer can insert or even camouflage a negative message in the sales-order fax in order to dilute the negative effect on the reader. this point will be further discussed regarding the most successful chinese fax. comparing rhetorical structures rhetorical structures are compared in relation to persuasive orientations and communicative purposes. this stage includes a comparison of rhetorical structure, moves and steps. the moves found in both english and chinese corpora are shown in table 1. at the overall textual level, english and chinese faxes share the essential elements of order-related moves and other formulaic moves such as polite closing, polite closing, and signature and date. these moves are thus seen as the common generic features for sales order-related faxes. however, the chinese faxes are composed of some additional features. for example, they stress cooperation and embed other messages and moves as discussed earlier. analysing the most successful faxes the english fax the major purpose of the english fax is to provide order details regarding the loan of equipment for the expo. as shown in the left-hand column, it includes six moves: salutation, referring to previous contact, providing order details, encouraging further contact, good wishes and signature. at the textual level, this fax focuses on the main purpose of equipment rental with no other embedded messages, and it is also typical of the features found in the english corpus as a whole. “hello” in the salutation indicates an informal conversational style, which coincides with the style in sales genres, but an even more casual salutation is used here. the fax begins with “i trust your trip went well”. this sentence can be interpreted in two ways. on the one hand, it indicates the previous contact the reader has with the writer, who has been following up the development of the order. on the other, the writer also sends her greetings regarding the trip, indicating a certain level of pathos. however, this does not appear to be the major persuasive orientation in the fax. the third move, which is the most important in this fax, is to provide order details. this move is made up of three items or steps. “item” is preferred here in the analysis as it more reflects a feature of memo writing. the first item details the availability of what is being ordered for loan purposes. the writer here simply provides a list of four kinds of loan equipment as indicated clearly by the symbols in the text. the second item details the options for the arrangements to be made for hiring the equipment. the third item tells the reader when to sign the loan document. all these three items are purely factual and informative about the specific business dealt with, in this case the loan equipment. these items also speak to the point about how the business deal can go ahead. the writer does not seem to be too much concerned about the choice of words, and her major objective in writing the fax is to make the meaning come across. the fourth move of polite closing can be interpreted as playing two roles. on the one hand, it encourages further contact by giving the reader the phone number. on the other, it winds up the letter politely by offering further services. the final two moves of good wishes and signature use standard forms are also frequently found in english letter writing. a cross-cultural analysis of english and chinese ibérica 26 (2013): 35-54 47 the chinese fax the chinese fax contains seven moves: salutation, greetings, order-related information, complaint, cooperation, good wishes and signature. the overall structure of the fax reflects the general findings of the chinese corpus about the stress on both business and relationships. the fax represents an example of genre embeddedness and a complaint is included in the text – a characteristic also evident in some other chinese faxes. the first move is “mr” plus the addressee’s full name, which is also commonly used in the corpus as a standard form of salutation. the second move is composed of a series of greetings. “how are you” is a very common greeting and is frequently employed by most faxes. “happy new year” and “prosperity” are also used in this fax since it was written at the beginning of the new year. these greetings are emphasised as a good sign for collaboration. the qing or pathos is thus heavily embedded in the greetings, and also lays the background for the collaboration the writer intends to stress later. the third move, providing order details, acknowledges the receipt of the sales contract. however, the writer associates signing the contract or the business progress with the new year. it means good luck to have something good happen at the beginning of the year according to the chinese mythology. here the contract is seen as promising for further collaboration. both the business purposes and the qing or feelings are thus mixed and each reinforces the other. the writer then makes the promise that “you can trust our commitment to collaboration”. words such as xinren or “trust” and fangxin or “reassurance” are frequently used in the corpus. it has been found that writers sometimes use promises as a strategy to gain the reader’s trust. the fourth move is related to an implicit complaint regarding a deferred payment. it involves three speech acts: informing the reader of the delayed payment, in the meantime, making an implicit complaint, and raising a request to follow this up. the move begins with detailed information about the deferred payment, followed by an implicit complaint, as the writer points out the inconsistent information provided by mr zhang and his bank. note that a reference is made to an earlier communication as a type of genre complementality, which can be a phone call in this context. the request, however, is more interesting in its use of linguistic strategies, and both qing and li are mixed together to achieve effective persuasion. the request is repeated; the first goes: yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): 35-5448 cishi fanqing zhang xiansheng jinsu bang zhu chaxun, this matter kindly ask mr zhang earliest convenience help check up yinwei chang shijian tuoyan hui yingxiang gui (h) wo shuangfan yinhou because long time defer can affect you (h) i both sides future dingdan de shunli zhixing. order gne smooth carry out we kindly ask mr lian to help check about this at your earliest convenience because deferred payment may affect directly the carrying out of our sales orders. as shown in this example, the request is raised in a very polite form of fanqing or “kindly ask”. the use of the third person for the reader along with “mr” or xiansheng makes it even more polite. the avoidance of “you” fits in well with the high-level degree of politeness. in this way, the qing or emotional persuasive orientation is greatly achieved in this request followed by the possible consequence of the delay. in order to further reduce the imposition, the writer reiterates the request and associates it with the collaboration which is also the theme throughout the fax: qing nin yi gui (h) wo dazhan hongtu hejuo weizhong please you (h) take you (h) i great develop plan collaborate as important tong zhang xiangsheng xiezhu chaqing cishi. with mr zhang help sort out this matter please think about the possible further collaboration between you (h) and us. hope that you can help mr zhang sort out this issue. more persuasion here is achieved by asking the addressee to think about the further collaboration ahead, which also indicates a long-term strategy. collaboration is still underpinning the request here. the fifth move, which is to stress cooperation, occurs twice in the text. it is used the first time together with the request for the reader to look into the matter. it is essential here as a collectivistic practice, and the delay in payment is seen as a threat to the cooperation. cooperation is mentioned once again towards the end, which may well serve as a final reminder of the payment issue raised earlier. the sixth move, good wishes, reiterates the two important factors of collaboration and the new year for emphasis. a stress on cooperation and good wishes ends the text with some good feelings towards the reader, thus qing is well implemented. a cross-cultural analysis of english and chinese ibérica 26 (2013): 35-54 49 the signature is followed by shang, which often indicates a person of a junior position or in the shangxing genre or the subordinate writing to the superior. however, the writer employs this form purposely to lower himself in order to indicate a humble tone. a humble tone is often seen as a polite as well as persuasive strategy in business letters (zhu, 2000 & 2005). in sum, qing or pathos and li or logos both underlie the moves in this chinese fax. words associated with both orientations permeate the moves, and business dealings are seen as closely related to cooperation principles and mutual trust. the writer mentions these principles whenever possible throughout the message. the mixture of both qing and li, or pathos and logos, becomes an essential component in persuasion in chinese faxes. conclusion this paper has proposed a theoretical framework for comparing genres and contributes to cross-cultural genre study in two areas. on the one hand, it offers an in-depth analysis such as institutional knowledge about genres of target cultures. on the other, it adopts both western classical and chinese persuasive orientations in order to achieve a balanced view for comparison. the strengths of the framework also lie in its focus on using persuasive orientations as a starting point, on exploring the knowledge shared by the professional discourse communities, and on its stress of other genre features such as complementality and embeddedness besides the rhetorical structure. the proposed framework can be used as a template for further replications and can also be extended to comparing other professional and business genres across cultures. as exemplification, this paper has compared english and chinese business faxes and come up with significant findings. for example, logos has been identified as a major persuasive orientation in english faxes while both qing or pathos and li or logos were seen as important for chinese faxes. these findings have confirmed the different persuasive orientations at play in chinese faxes. further differences are also indentified including extra communicative purposes relating to building business relationships, embedded messages, and moves relating to cooperation and long-term relationships. as part of the shared generic features of business faxes, both genres indicate a strong emphasis on business transactions and are used to complement other communication channels such as telephone and face-to-face meetings. yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): 35-5450 the above findings have theoretical implications for the comparative study of genre. it is essential to explore non-western or culture-specific theories for comparing genres because genre is situated in its own sociocultural contexts. a culture-specific perspective can offer more depth to the target genres. while confucian perspective is found useful for this particular study, it may also have influence on other cultures since confucian school of thought has a great influence in many other asian countries. this study has pedagogical implications for cross-cultural genre analysis and genre and second language education as language is important for crosscultural learning (zhu & bargiela-chiappini, 2013). for example, genres can be learned following the proposed stages. each stage contributes to genre teaching and learning in a particular area such as learning persuasive orientations and purposes. in this way, genre teaching can help enhance student understanding of discourse community and institutionalised knowledge, thus targeting a high-level competence for cross-cultural genre writing. like any other study, this one has its own limited focus on comparing two cultures. in addition, it needs to be noted that the findings were confined to limited data source of more than 500 english and chinese faxes and from which a total of 80 faxes were studied. future study may extend the comparison to a wider range of cultures to see if similar or more significant findings can be identified. further research may also incorporate more extensive data source and examine the use of faxes across cultures from a longitudinal perspective to see how faxes may evolve over time. 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(1997). “a rhetorical analysis of chinese yunxia zhu is a senior lecturer at the business school, the university of queensland, australia. her research interests include cross-cultural communications and management. she has won numerous research awards and her works have appeared in books and international journals such as management international review, journal of business ethics, academy of management learning and education, discourse & communication, discourse studies, discourse & society and text. a cross-cultural analysis of english and chinese ibérica 26 (2013): 35-54 53 sales letters”. text 17: 543-566. zhu, y. (2000). “structural moves reflected in english and chinese sales letters”. discourse studies 2: 525-548. zhu, y. (2004). “genre mixing in chinese faxes: a case study of successful communication”. paper presented at the abc europe conference, may 21-23, catholic university, milan. zhu, y. (2005). written communication across cultures: a sociocognitive perspective on business genres. amsterdam: john benjamins. zhu, y. (2009). “confucian ethics exhibited in chinese marketing communication: a discourse approach”. journal of business ethics 88: 517528. zhu, y. & f. bargiela-chiappini (2013). “balancing emic and etic: situated learning and ethnography of communication in cross-cultural management education”. academy of management learning and education 12(3). doi: 10.5465/amle.2012.0221 zhu, y. & h.w. hildebrandt (2003). greek and chinese classical rhetoric – the root of cultural differences in communication”. asia pacific journal of marketing & logistics 14: 89-114. zhu, y. & h.w. hildebrandt (2013). “effective persuasion of international business sales letters: an emic-etic perspective”. management international review 53: 391-418. zhu, y., p. nel & r. bhat (2006). “a cross cultural study of communication strategies for building business relationships”. international journal of cross cultural management 6: 319-341. appendix 1. the most successful english and chinese faxes yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): 35-5454 yunxia zhu ibérica 26 (2013): …-… appendix 1. the most successful english and chinese faxes the english fax salutation hello paul, prev contact i trust your trip went well. i have spoken to my colleagues in hamburg order details who confirm that they have the following available for loan for anuga: item 1 � 1 x paua banner � 1 x water banner � 2 x greenstone banners � 8 x aluminium doweling (for hanging banners) item 2 philip jones will be at anuga from 12-15 october and catherine mclaren from 15-17. philip said he can bring the material with him and catherine can bring it back assuming this fits your requirements. grateful if you can confirm this, alternatively they can courier the items to cologne for you (there will be a courier charge for this). item 3 once arrangements are confirmed i will forward a loan document to you for signing for this material and also the stand signage being provided via display equipment ltd. further contact if you have any queries please phone me on (09) 333 8888. good wishes yours sincerely, signature cassandra leslie promotional manager international the translation of the chinese fax salutation to mr wang jianwei, greetings how are you (h)? happy new year! wish you prosperity! order details 1. i have recently received contract as-6589 signed by your (h) company. thank you for ordering 60x58 cotton shopping bags. we are extremely grateful to you for your cooperation and support at the beginning of the new year. in order to guarantee the time of delivery now we are making adequate arrangements to design samples and prepare materials according to your order. you (h) can trust our commitment to collaboration. complaint 2. at the same time, our company sent over 104,000 cotton bags and the delivery number is cvc/b 98055. we haven’t received your payment yet. according to mr zhang, the payment of us$ 35,490 was sent on november 30. however, we consulted with henan branch, china bank and found that no payment had been made by your (h) bank so far. we kindly ask mr liang4 to help check about this at your earliest convenience because deferred payment may affect directly the carrying out of our sales orders. please think about the possible further collaboration between you (h) and us. hope that you can help mr zhang sort out this issue. stress co-op thank you for your cooperation! good wishes happy new year! signature zheng liangchen (shang) iberica 13 ibérica 27 (2014): 77-96 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this article describes the influence of the user needs paradigm in the construction of specialised dictionaries. it shows that this paradigm coincides with the main tenets of the function theory of lexicography, a theoretical construction that offers theoretical and practical solutions for improving the quality of specialised dictionaries. this theoretical stance is illustrated with reference to how encyclopaedic information is dealt with in two wine dictionaries that are separated by almost 40 years, and which are, therefore, ideal candidates for investigating the influence of the user paradigm on their compilation. more specifically, this article considers the lexicographic treatment accorded to subject field labels, which are presented as essential lexicographic data for helping non-experts and interested laypeople. these labels assist users more in communication functions in a foreign language than in their native language, and are consequently needed in trilingual dictionaries such as the south african trilingual wine dictionary, a free access internet dictionary that targets experts, semi-experts and interested laypeople. keywords: specialised lexicography, user needs, wine dictionary, encyclopaedic data, subject field labels. resumen la influenc ia del paradigma de utilidad en la lexic ografía especializada: alg unas reflexiones en relación con dos diccionarios del vino publicados en sudáfrica en este artículo se describe la influencia del paradigma lexicográfico relacionado con las necesidades de los usuarios. este paradigma coincide con la base teórica the influence of the user needs paradigm in specialised lexicography: some reflections in connection with two south african wine dictionaries michele f. van der merwe and pedro a. fuertes-olivera university of stellenbosch (south africa) & university of valladolid (spain) michelevdm@sun.ac.za & pedro@tita.emp.uva.es 77 ibérica 27 (2014): 77-96 m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera de la teoría funcional de la lexicografía y su aplicación práctica a la construcción de diccionarios especializados. en concreto, se analiza el tratamiento de la información enciclopédica presente en dos diccionarios dedicados a la misma materia (el vino) y separados por casi 40 años de diferencia. los dos diccionarios analizados se compilaron en sudáfrica, uno de ellos en el año 1973 y el otro en el año 2012. el estudio se centra en las etiquetas temáticas, es decir en una estructura lexicográfica muy importante en la lexicografía especializada ya que sin ellas la mayoría de los usuarios tendrían muchas dificultades para acceder a la información que necesitan cuando consultan un diccionario de este tipo. estas estructuras ayudan más en las diferentes situaciones comunicativas en una lengua extranjera que en la lengua propia del usuario; aparecen en el diccionario de 2012, el south african trilingual wine dictionary, que es un diccionario de acceso libre que puede consultarse en internet y que tiene como objetivo ayudar a los tres tipos de usuarios descritos hasta la fecha en la literatura lexicográfica: expertos, semi-expertos y legos interesados. palabras clave: lexicografía especializada,; necesidades del usuario, diccionario de vino, datos enciclopédicos, etiquetas temáticas. 1. introduction tarp’s (2012) discussion of the development of specialised lexicography during the past twenty years offers mixed results. on the one hand, the number of published specialised reference works has increased substantially. on the other hand, the lexicographic quality of most of these works is deficient: specialised lexicography has produced a big and growing quantity of practical products during the past two decades; however, when it comes to the quality of these products and the underlying theory that has to support and guarantee this quality, specialised lexicography – including terminography – has more than anything else been characterised by twenty years in slow motion. (tarp, 2012: 125) there are several factors that might have contributed to this situation, a lack of adequate theoretical framework representing the factor discussed in this paper. we aim to show that the so-called “user needs paradigm” introduced in householder & saporta’s (1967) seminal work offers theoretical and practical solutions for improving the lexicographic quality of specialised dictionaries (section 2). this approach is illustrated by our reference to two south african wine dictionaries, which were published in 1973 and 2012 78 (section 3). in particular, this paper will argue that the inclusion of subject labels in the dictionary published in 2012 responds to the influence of the user needs paradigm, and therefore illustrates the way ahead for enhancing the lexicographic quality of specialised dictionaries, namely, to take into consideration the theories developed in the field of lexicography (section 4). a final conclusion summarizes the main points discussed and offers some reflections on future developments. 2. the user needs paradigm the user needs paradigm refers to the academic discussions that focus on users consulting a dictionary in specific usage situations. these discussions are widespread in specialised lexicography and have been one of the central issues in the development of the function theory of lexicography, which is a theoretical construction initially advocated by bergenholtz & tarp (2002, 2003 & 2004; tarp, 2008). the function theory of lexicography is being used in the construction of several specialised dictionaries, for example, the accounting dictionaries (fuertes-olivera, 2009 & 2011; fuertes-olivera & nielsen, 2011 & 2012; fuertes-olivera & tarp, 2011; nielsen & almind, 2011; bergenholtz, 2012; fuertes-olivera et al., 2012). it maintains that the genuine purpose of any information tool is satisfying the specific needs a particular user has in a specific usage situation. tarp (2008: 56-57) has shown that user needs can be divided into two main groups: “primary user needs” and “secondary user needs”. primary user needs are those leading to a dictionary usage context, for example, a communicative-oriented situation such as translating a specialised text. primary user needs are those requiring information and typically include data about the mother tongue, the foreign language, specialised language in both the mother tongue and the foreign language, comparative information about the mother tongue and foreign language, comparative data about specialised language in the mother tongue and foreign language, general cultural information, that relating to culture in a specific language area, information concerning a specific subject or science, and comparative data on a subject in national and foreign culture (see tarp, 2008: 56-57 for a review). secondary user needs are those that arise when users seek assistance in a dictionary. these are needs for information as well as for instruction and the influence of the user needs paradigm ibérica 27 (2014): 77-96 79 education, for example, users who “have very little knowledge about a specific discipline need simple lexicographical data about this discipline – otherwise they will find it hard to extract information out of complex data” (tarp, 2008: 57-58) similarly, users who have a poor command of a foreign language need dictionaries containing the relevant lexicographical data in their mother tongue. to put it another way, users with no formal training in grammar, for example, spanish students of science, will find dictionary articles such as that in example (1) useless, even if hanks’ (2007) pattern dictionary of english verbs (pdev) is “a fundamental resource for use in computational linguistics, language teaching, and cognitive science” (url: http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/projekty/cpa/). a review of the literature on specialised information tools reveals that the term “user needs” is frequently repeated, although for most scholars it is a kind of “catch phrase” with no real meaning. this is currently occurring in spanish terminographical circles, in which “user needs” are taken for granted, perhaps because most spanish scholars approach the construction of specialised dictionaries by making use of linguistics, typically the main tenets of corpus linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and functionalism. this approach can be observed in some publications – for example, alonso, millon and williams (2011), fernández and faber (2011) – devoted to presenting the theoretical bases underpinning the construction of on-going specialised information tools. alonso, millon and williams’ (2011) dicsci, for example, is a specialised dictionary prototype that is being compiled by replicating hanks’ (2007) pdev (see example 1) and using williams’s (1998) collocational network, and williams and millon’s (2009) collocational resonance. according to the m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera ibérica 27 (2014): 77-9680 the influence of the user needs paradigm ibérica 27 (2014): …-… construction initially advocated by bergenholtz & tarp (2002, 2003 & 2004; tarp, 2008). the function theory of lexicography is being used in the construction of several specialised dictionaries, for example, the accounting dictionaries (fuertes-olivera, 2009 & 2011; fuertes-olivera & nielsen, 2011 & 2012; fuertes-olivera & tarp, 2011; nielsen & almind, 2011; bergenholtz, 2012; fuertes-olivera et al., 2012). it maintains that the genuine purpose of any information tool is satisfying the specific needs a particular user has in a specific usage situation. tarp (2008: 56-57) has shown that user needs can be divided into two main groups: “primary user needs” and “secondary user needs”. primary user needs are those leading to a dictionary usage context, for example, a communicative-oriented situation such as translating a specialised text. primary user needs are those requiring information and typically include data about the mother tongue, the foreign language, specialised language in both the mother tongue and the foreign language, comparative information about the mother tongue and foreign language, comparative data about specialised language in the mother tongue and foreign language, general cultural information, that relating to culture in a specific language area, information concerning a specific subject or science, and comparative data on a subject in national and foreign culture (see tarp, 2008: 56-57 for a review). secondary user needs are those that arise when users seek assistance in a dictionary. these are needs for information as well as for instruction and education, for example, users who “have very little knowledge about a specific discipline need simple lexicographical data about this discipline – otherwise they will find it hard to extract information out of complex data” (tarp, 2008: 57-58) similarly, users who have a poor command of a foreign language need dictionaries containing the relevant lexicographical data in their mother tongue. to put it another way, users with no formal training in grammar, for example, spanish students of science, will find dictionary articles such as that in example (1) useless, even if hanks’ (2007) pattern dictionary of english verbs (pdev) is “a fundamental resource for use in computational linguistics, language teaching, and cognitive science” (url: http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/projekty/cpa/). m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera ibérica 27 (2014): …-… example (1). patterns of the verb “to bark” extracted from hanks’ (2007) pdev. a review of the literature on specialised information tools reveals that the term “user needs” is frequently repeated, although for most scholars it is a kind of “catch phrase” with no real meaning. this is currently occurring in spanish terminographical circles, in which “user needs” are taken for granted, perhaps because most spanish scholars approach the construction of specialised dictionaries by making use of linguistics, typically the main tenets of corpus linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and functionalism. this approach can be observed in some publications – for example, alonso, millon and williams (2011), fernández and faber (2011) – devoted to presenting the theoretical bases underpinning the construction of on-going specialised information tools. alonso, millon and williams’ (2011) dicsci, for example, is a specialised dictionary prototype that is being compiled by replicating hanks’ (2007) pdev (see example 1) and using williams’s (1998) collocational network, and williams and millon’s (2009) collocational resonance. according to the authors, the dissci project aims to build an “organic online dictionary of verb uses in sciences which will reflect usage and assist non-native speakers of english with production” (alonso, millon & williams, 2011: 19). by “organic” the authors refer to “a living dictionary that will organised (sic) itself in a natural way thanks to the links between words shown by means of collocational networks” (alonso, millon & williams, 2011: 16). in addition, the authors are confident that the dicsci will provide a way to explain the terminological and phraseological tendency of words used in science. fernández and faber (2011: 204) claim that specialised dictionaries “describe relationships between terms and concepts”, and therefore propose the use of prototype theory and several other cognitive mechanisms with the aim of representing the conceptual structures underlying terms in the domain. this can be achieved by writing definitions that signal the existence of relations, for example, a part-whole relation, among concepts. for instance, using the tenets of prototype theory can shed light on several vertical and horizontal relations that are expected to be used when writing the lexicographical data needed for assisting users. they show the working of such an approach in the entry “window” that is characterised in several dimensions. fernández and faber defend this approach in their discussion of best, which is an online dictionary prototype for learners in the architecture and building construction domain. to the best of our knowledge, dicsci and best are still on the drawing board and, therefore, cannot be evaluated. however, our experience as metalexicographers and lexicographers leads us to make the claim that the above theoretical bases will not result in dictionaries directed at satisfying their users’ needs. for instance, users of specialised dictionaries are interested in neither the horizontal nor vertical relations of terms. instead, we propose an analysis of the term “user needs” in relation to the function theory of lexicography, which argues that users “always” need a specific type of information that depends both authors, the dissci project aims to build an “organic online dictionary of verb uses in sciences which will reflect usage and assist non-native speakers of english with production” (alonso, millon & williams, 2011: 19). by “organic” the authors refer to “a living dictionary that will organised (sic) itself in a natural way thanks to the links between words shown by means of collocational networks” (alonso, millon & williams, 2011: 16). in addition, the authors are confident that the dicsci will provide a way to explain the terminological and phraseological tendency of words used in science. fernández and faber (2011: 204) claim that specialised dictionaries “describe relationships between terms and concepts”, and therefore propose the use of prototype theory and several other cognitive mechanisms with the aim of representing the conceptual structures underlying terms in the domain. this can be achieved by writing definitions that signal the existence of relations, for example, a part-whole relation, among concepts. for instance, using the tenets of prototype theory can shed light on several vertical and horizontal relations that are expected to be used when writing the lexicographical data needed for assisting users. they show the working of such an approach in the entry “window” that is characterised in several dimensions. fernández and faber defend this approach in their discussion of best, which is an online dictionary prototype for learners in the architecture and building construction domain. to the best of our knowledge, dicsci and best are still on the drawing board and, therefore, cannot be evaluated. however, our experience as metalexicographers and lexicographers leads us to make the claim that the above theoretical bases will not result in dictionaries directed at satisfying their users’ needs. for instance, users of specialised dictionaries are interested in neither the horizontal nor vertical relations of terms. instead, we propose an analysis of the term “user needs” in relation to the function theory of lexicography, which argues that users “always” need a specific type of information that depends both on the specific type of user and on the specific type of situation in which the need occurs. within this framework, we believe that the intended user of wine dictionaries in south africa is now more varied than 40 years ago. for instance, the wine sector is growing and wine dictionaries are also sought by interested laypeople, for example, consumers of wine that need some knowledge about it. this extra-lexicographical situation was considered and affected the way in which wine terminology was dealt with in a recently-published south african wine dictionary. contrary to what was common in south african specialised dictionaries, the new dictionary the influence of the user needs paradigm ibérica 27 (2014): 77-96 81 incorporates encyclopaedic data that targets the needs of the new user types identified: semi-experts and interested laypersons. 3. background information on two wine dictionaries the wine dictionary (wd) of the south african department of national education was published in 1973 by the terminology section of the language services bureau in collaboration with the oenological and viticultural research institute: the object of the wine dictionary was to assemble in a comprehensive bilingual lexicon the essential terminology of the wine industry in general and the south african wine industry in particular. this book (pviii) therefore, covers all aspects of this most important industry, from the preparation of the soil for the vines to the label on the wine bottle, from the cultivation of new cultivars for our special conditions to the serving of the final product on the table. for this reason the terms covering the specialised fields such as cellar technology, grafting, pruning methods, vine diseases and wine chemistry were augmented by terms of a more general nature from related fields such as soil science, horticulture, agricultural engineering, genetics and botany. excursions into related fields were limited to those terms intimately connected with viticulture. (wid, page viii) the south african trilingual wine industry dictionary (wid) was published in 2012 by winetech and sawis as an internet dictionary with free access for users. two subject committees worked on the compilation of the dictionary, namely, one for “oenology” and another for “viticulture”. according to the introduction, the dictionary deals with terms on “oenology” and “viticulture”: the subject field viticulture includes for example terms relating to organic cultivation and production, soil science, plant biotechnology, vine viruses, plant protection and plant improvement. the subject field oenology makes provision for the terminology on production technology, bottling, packaging, as well as microbiology. in a nutshell, the dictionary supplies information on the physiology of the vine, the fruit of the vine and the winemaking process. (wid, page vii) a list of target users for whom the wid is intended is supplied, and these users include viticulturists and oenologists, producers and winemakers, m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera ibérica 27 (2014): 77-9682 viticulture and oenology students and lecturers, public relations officers and information officers, wine marketers, writers in the field of wine and wine lovers. when the list of target users is analysed, it is evident that the dictionary is intended for a whole range of users, from experts such as viticulturists to oenologists, and semi-experts like public relations officers to laypeople such as wine lovers. it is important to note that a person who might be viewed as an expert, for example, a viticulturist, does not necessarily have the expert knowledge on oenology, and that such a user would also need subject guidance from the dictionary. to sum up, both dictionaries are separated by 40 years and are ideal candidates for investigating the influence of the user paradigm on their compilation. this approach is illustrated below with an analysis of the way in which subject labels are treated in both dictionaries. 4. encyclopaedic information in specialised dictionaries encyclopaedic information is concerned with describing factual knowledge and extra-linguistic reality. in specialised dictionaries encyclopaedic information is usually provided in the form of encyclopaedic notes in the dictionary articles, independent external components, known as “systematic introductions”, “subject-field components”, “encyclopaedic sections”, or “subject field term systems” (bergenholtz & nielsen, 2006: 284; fuertesolivera, 2009; svensén, 2009), and encyclopaedic labels addressing the individual lemmata or equivalents. encyclopaedic notes in specialised lexicography are regarded as key dictionary structures for fulfilling dictionary functions and satisfying the intended users’ needs. they are similar to definitions for non-specialists. systematic introductions are separate dictionary components, situated either at the front or the back (usually following the user’s guide), which aim at furnishing cognition-oriented and communication-oriented functions. the former, which represent the primary function, consist in providing an introduction to or a systematic, detailed exposition of the subject field covered by the dictionary. the latter supplement the encyclopaedic information offered with language information in the form of collocations, auxiliary words, and examples of standard lsp usage (bergenholtz & tarp 1995: 154-159 and 176-178; bergenholtz & nielsen 2006: 290-293; fuertesolivera, 2009: 161-178). encyclopaedic labels typically consist of special the influence of the user needs paradigm ibérica 27 (2014): 77-96 83 symbols or abbreviated terms used in reference works to help the user find a particular lemma, choose the correct equivalent, or indicate the association of a term with a particular subject field. in the discussion below, we will be basically concerned with subject (field) labels. in well-conceived specialised dictionaries (that is, dictionaries which have been prepared by taking into account dictionary functions and users’ needs), subject labels will assist users more in communication-oriented functions in a foreign language than in their native language, provided that the expected user has, at least, a working knowledge of the subject-field (or sub-field) considered, particularly in culture-dependent domains. they are also useful for cognitive-oriented functions, although they cannot replace encyclopaedic notes or systematic introductions (bergenholtz & tarp 1995). in the next section we illustrate the workings of subject labels for assisting users, especially interested laypeople, to “read” wine texts – that is, our analysis will highlight the “reception function”. 4.1. subject labels in wd and wid a way to transfer subject information in a dictionary is to make use of subject field labels. subject labels could be used to assist users in the transfer of subject and semantic information. experts, semi-experts and laypeople might require considerable guidance from a specialist language dictionary to understand terms fully and completely. 4.1.1. articles in the wine dictionary, with reference to subject field labels due to the nature of a specialised language dictionary, it is a pre-requisite for a term to belong to a specialised field in order to qualify for inclusion in such a dictionary as a lemma. the assumption follows that a word needs to be classified as belonging to the field of “viticulture” and “winemaking”. from the preface of the wd it is clear that terms from different specialised fields like cellar technology, as well as those from related fields like soil science, were included in the dictionary. however, no reference is made in the preface to any kind of subject label system in the dictionary. there is no list of subject labels supplied and no introductory comments are made on the subject fields used in the microstructure of the dictionary. m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera ibérica 27 (2014): 77-9684 if one consults the dictionary, no subject labels referring to specialised fields or related fields could be identified in the microstructure of the dictionary. the microstructure of a typical article in the wd consists of a lemma in the source language supplied with a translation in the target language, as example (2) shows: example (2). the term “arm” in the wine dictionary. arm: arm during a dictionary consultation process the following scenario could be described. if a subject expert consulted the dictionary and the purpose of consultation was translation from afrikaans to english, then the dictionary consultation process would be a successful one. if, however, a layperson or a semi-expert consulted the dictionary, the article would offer no assistance to the user at all, except for the fact that the translation equivalent of the afrikaans term is supplied. apart from no definition being offered, no further assistance is given as regards clarifying the meaning of the term, for example, by indicating that it belonged to a specific specialised field or a related field. it might have been of great benefit to the user if a subject label like “grapevine morphology” had been used to indicate that the term “arm” refers to a part of the grapevine. when the microstructure of the wd is analysed closely, more information on a few terms could be found in the target language. (the information provided in brackets is translated into english and given in italics for the reader of this article). information is supplied in brackets, as shown in example (3): example (3). semantic/encyclopaedic information in some entries in the wine dictionary amertune; bitterwording (wynsiekte) wine disease apoplexy: apopleksie (wingerdsiekte) vine disease appellation of origin: oorsprongsbenaming (wyn) wine in the above entries, the information provided in brackets could be interpreted as labels, although they are not identified or explained as labels. the word “wine disease” is used four times and the word “vine disease” twice in the dictionary. as a result of their scant occurrence in the dictionary, they could not be interpreted as part of its labelling system. neither are they employed consistently, as the lemmas “bitter rot”, “black the influence of the user needs paradigm ibérica 27 (2014): 77-96 85 knot”, “black measles”, “black rot” and “black spot” all refer to grapevine diseases and have not been indicated as such. the user of the dictionary has been provided with insufficient information and information transfer has not taken place. if semi-experts and laypeople consulted the dictionary, the result would be unsuccessful, as subject specific information has not been supplied. when considering the previous examples discussed and the following ones taken from the dictionary, no system according to which information is supplied in brackets was apparent, as may be seen in the following examples from wd (example 4): example (4). lack of systematic labelling system used in the wine dictionary. bloom: waas, waslaag (op korrels) on berries chemical sterilization: chemiese sterilisasie (van mos) of must cooking (baking): bak (van sjerrie en ander wyntipes) of sherry and other types of wine measles: masels (swamsiekte by wingerd) fungus disease in vines neck: nek (van bottel) of bottle in the above-mentioned examples the information supplied in brackets seems to contextualise terms by explaining the semantic fields to which the terms belong to the user, and which could provide a better understanding of their meaning. in the case of “neck”, it would be appropriate to contextualise the word so that when most users read the information they would be able to understand the meaning of the “neck of bottle”. the term “measles” is contextualised by the fact that it is a fungus disease, and for the expert and semi-expert consulting the dictionary this would be useful information. for the semi-expert the information would perhaps cause confusion as to what the exact meaning of the term is. in the case of the word “bloom”, the user might understand the term better if it were mentioned that it occurs on berries, although it is still not likely that a layperson would grasp the exact meaning of “bloom”. it would even be more difficult for a layperson to understand to what the “chemical sterilization of must” refers, or the reference of “cooking of sherry and other types of wine”. it is doubtful that consultation of the wd would assist the user in the consultation process, as no successful transfer of information has occurred. the following items (example 5) from the wd demonstrate a very fragmented and inconsistent use of information in brackets, which could m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera ibérica 27 (2014): 77-9686 add to confusion on the part of the user. in the case of the lemma “fundatrix”, the translation equivalent is “fundatrix” and another translation equivalent, stammoeder, is supplied. apart from the fact that the user is not informed as regards whether these terms are absolute or partial synonyms, more information is provided in brackets. transfer of information is not complete, since the user is not told whether filloksera is a further explanation of the word (as in the previous examples), a synonym or a hyponym. the same problem arises for the user in the lemma “wine robber”. it is not clear if monsternemer is synonymous with wyndief or if there is a semantic relation of hyponymy between the words. example (5). fragmented system of labelling in the wine dictionary. fundatrix: fundatrix, stammoeder (filloksera) phylloxera wine robber (wine thief): wyndief (monsternemer) sampler the semantic relations between the terms described above are unclear and not explained to the user. it is very unlikely that the semi-expert and layperson could rely on their intuition to find the correct answer to their query. these examples demonstrate very poor guidance for the user, especially the semi-expert and layperson. in the example of “greenish coloured wine” (example 6), a comment is made in brackets by the lexicographer. it could be considered pragmatic information, as it informs the user that the colour is the desired colour for white wine. it is the only example of such a comment found in the wd. this is good subject information and could be very useful to the user, but unfortunately it is not conveyed in either the correct or a consistent manner. example (6). pragmatic labelling in the wine dictionary. greenish coloured wine: groenerige wyn (gewenste witwynkleur) desired white wine colour to sum up, there is no labelling system in the wd to assist the user to understand subject terms. the use of information in brackets provided by the wd is not very successful. brackets are seen as a place to “dump different kinds of information”. it confuses users and is of little benefit to them. 4.1.2. subject labelling system in the sa wine industry dictionary a list of subject labels is supplied in the wid (see table 1). the influence of the user needs paradigm ibérica 27 (2014): 77-96 87 the subject field labels are supplied in alphabetical order and the user can click on the list in order to view it. there are 54 subject labels used in the dictionary and they form part of an intricate system. since the wid is a specialised dictionary for terms in “oenology” and “viticulture”, most of the labels refer to either “oenology” or “viticulture”. subject labels, such as “bacteriology”, º“barrel type”, “bottle size”, “bottle type”, “bottling”, “cooperage”, “crushing” and “destemming”, “distillation”, “enzyme”, “mouth-feel wheel”, “packaging”, “oenology”, “regulatory”, “waste and waste management”, “wine fault”, “wine style”, “wine tasting”, “wine type”, “winemaking” and “yeast”, refer to “oenology”. these subject labels represent a subfield of “oenology” as a whole, as they refer to its specialised fields. subject labels, such as “cultivation practice”, “fertilization”, “grapevine anatomy”, “grapevine development”, “grapevine disease”, “grapevine morphology”, “grapevine pest”, “grapevine physiology”, “growth regulator”, “irrigation”, “propagation”, “pruning”, “training”, “trellising” and “viticulture”, refer to “viticulture”. these subject labels represent a subfield of the area of “viticulture”, referring to specialised fields of “viticulture”. the subject labels mentioned above have an exclusion effect, in the sense that a label such as bottle type would only be used in connection with the specialised field of “winemaking”, or a label like cultivation practice would m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera ibérica 27 (2014): 77-9688 m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera ibérica 27 (2014): …-… oenology viticulture related fields bacteriology barrel type bottle size bottle type bottling cooperage crushing and destemming distillation enzyme mouth-feel wheel packaging oenology regulatory waste and waste management wine fault wine style wine tasting wine type winemaking yeast refer to oenology cultivation practice fertilization grapevine anatomy grapevine development grapevine disease grapevine morphology grapevine pest grapevine physiology growth regulator irrigation propagation pruning training trellising viticulture biochemistry biodiversity biology biotechnology botany chemistry climate commerce genetics microbiology plant pathology soil science table 1. diagram indicating the labelling system used in the wid. the subject field labels are supplied in alphabetical order and the user can click on the list in order to view it. there are 54 subject labels used in the dictionary and they form part of an intricate system. since the wid is a specialised dictionary for terms in “oenology” and “viticulture”, most of the labels refer to either “oenology” or “viticulture”. subject labels, such as “bacteriology”, º“barrel type”, “bottle size”, “bottle type”, “bottling”, “cooperage”, “crushing” and “destemming”, “distillation”, “enzyme”, “mouth-feel wheel”, “packaging”, “oenology”, “regulatory”, “waste and waste management”, “wine fault”, “wine style”, “wine tasting”, “wine type”, “winemaking” and “yeast”, refer to “oenology”. these subject labels represent a subfield of “oenology” as a whole, as they refer to its specialised fields. subject labels, such as “cultivation practice”, “fertilization”, “grapevine anatomy”, “grapevine development”, “grapevine disease”, “grapevine morphology”, “grapevine pest”, “grapevine physiology”, “growth regulator”, “irrigation”, “propagation”, “pruning”, “training”, “trellising” and “viticulture”, refer to “viticulture”. these subject labels represent a subfield of the area of “viticulture”, referring to specialised fields of “viticulture”. the subject labels mentioned above have an exclusion effect, in the sense that a label such as bottle type would only be used in connection with the specialised field of “winemaking”, or a label like cultivation practice would be found only when referring to the specialised field of “viticulture”. there are, however, labels in the wid that could refer to either the field of “oenology” or the field of “viticulture”. these labels are “analysis”, “equipment”, “implement”, “instrument” and “machinery”. be found only when referring to the specialised field of “viticulture”. there are, however, labels in the wid that could refer to either the field of “oenology” or the field of “viticulture”. these labels are “analysis”, “equipment”, “implement”, “instrument” and “machinery”. subject labels in the wid do not refer uniquely to subfields of “oenology” and “viticulture”, but also to related fields such as “biochemistry”, “biodiversity”, “biology”, “biotechnology”, “botany”, “chemistry”, “climate”, “commerce”, “genetics”, “microbiology”, “plant pathology” and “soil science”. labels on related fields have been chosen since these subject fields have an impact on “oenology” and “viticulture”. the user can search according to the list of subjects. a specific subject can be clicked on/activated and all the terms belonging to the specific subject field will be shown. when the term is clicked on again, the user will be linked to the article of the terms. a subject field like “regulatory” could be chosen and the user will then find the term “wine ward” in the subject field, together with other terms relating to the field. 4.1.3. articles in the sa wine industry dictionary, with reference to subject field labels according to its introduction, most of the terms in the dictionary have subject fields, and when the microstructure of the dictionary articles is analysed, it is evident that all the lemmas in the dictionary have been supplied with subject labels. the microstructure of a typical article in the wid would consist of the lemma, a reference to the part of speech, subject label(s), a definition of the term and a translation equivalent in afrikaans and isixhosa. examples (7) to (16) show the main functions of these subject labels. in the article on the lemma “bloom”, the subject label “viticulture” is used and the term is linked to the specialised field of “viticulture”. when a user refers to the term, before reading the definition, they would know that the term belongs to the specialised field. example (7). a label for signaling the specialised field of the term in the wid. bloom noun subject viticulture the delicate waxy coating on the surface of mature grape berries. afrikaans waslaag, waas xhosa incindi (ephuma kwiidiliya ezivuthiweyo) the influence of the user needs paradigm ibérica 27 (2014): 77-96 89 in the article on the lemma “peripheral vascular network”, the subject label “grapevine morphology” is used and the term is linked to the specialised field of grapevine morphology, which is a subfield of “viticulture”. this is useful to the user and subject information is conveyed successfully. example (8). a label for signaling the subfield of “peripheral vascular network” in the wid. peripheral vascular network noun subject grapevine morphology conductive tissue vein network in the skin of the berry. afrikaans dopvaatbundelnetwerk xhosa ubume bemithambo yesiqhamo when the articles for “gravity vacuum filling machine” and “spray pump” are analyzed, it may be deduced that two labels could be used for one term when a term belongs to more than one specialised field. in the case of “gravity vacuum filling machine”, the term belongs to the specialised fields of “machinery” and “packaging”, whereas “spray pump” is to be found in the specialised fields of “equipment” and “viticulture”. this is good information for the user, who is directed to the subject spheres of the terms. example (9). terms with two labels in the wid. gravity vacuum filling machine noun subject machinery, packaging a filling process utilising gravity and vacuum. afrikaans gravitasievakuumvuller xhosa umatshini wokuvala spray pump noun subject equipment, viticulture equipment used to spray the vineyard. afrikaans spuitpomp xhosa impompo yokutshiza in the case of the lemma “ammonium sulphate”, even more than two subject fields are mentioned – namely, “chemistry”, “winemaking” and “viticulture”. the user would then know that the term could be used in the related field of “chemistry”, as well as in the specialised fields of “winemaking” and “viticulture”. this represents an inclusive relationship between fields, as the term could be used in both. m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera ibérica 27 (2014): 77-9690 example (10). labels for signaling an inclusive relationship. ammonium sulphate noun subject chemistry, winemaking, viticulture an inorganic compound used to encourage the growth of yeasts in wine making and to encourage the growth of vines. afrikaans ammoniumsulfaat xhosa i-amoniyam salifeyithi when homonyms are presented in the wid, the use of subject field labels is also important and it is essential that specific labels are used, as, due to the very nature of homonyms, the lexicographer is describing two different words that do not have any semantic resemblance to each other. in the two articles describing “breed”, two different subject field labels were used, one referring to the specialised field of “wine tasting” and the other to the specialised field of “viticulture”, representing in this case an exclusion of fields. the user receives valuable information transfer. example (11). labels for signaling homonyms. breed (1) noun subject wine tasting a characteristic which makes the wine distinctive, distinguished and which puts it in a class of its own. afrikaans statuur xhosa uhlobo breed (2) noun subject viticulture new variety obtained by deliberate cross-pollination. afrikaans kruising xhosa uhlobo olutsha lokufuya izityalo in the two articles describing “radiation”, two different subject field labels were used, one referring to the specialised field of “winemaking” and the other to the specialised field of “viticulture”. this is an indication to the user that the term could have two very different semantic values and belong to two different subject fields. labels are used to indicate an either/or relationship – that is, an excluding relationship between the two terms. example (12). labels for signaling polysemy. radiation (1) noun subject winemaking the influence of the user needs paradigm ibérica 27 (2014): 77-96 91 radiation process used for sterilising equipment. afrikaans bestraling xhosa ukukhupha imitha, ukusasaza imitha radiation (2) noun subject viticulture the total amount of sunlight energy received. afrikaans straling xhosa amandla elanga afunyenweyo the terms “dense” and “sulphuring” are examples of lemmas with polysemous senses, but two subject field labels are displayed in the articles. in the article for “dense” two subject field labels, referring to the specialised fields “wine tasting” and “viticulture”, are used. the label wine tasting focuses on the first polysemous sense whereas the second label “viticulture” focuses on the second polysemous sense of “dense”. the two polysemous senses of “sulphuring” are marked with the two subject field labels “winemaking” and “viticulture”. in the label “winemaking” the first focus in on the first polysemous sense whilst and the second label “viticulture” considers the second polysemous sense of “sulphuring”. it is left to the intuition of the dictionary user to discover this, as it is not explained in the introduction to the dictionary. example (12). labels for signaling related subject fields. dense adjective subject wine tasting, viticulture 1. a wine tasting term describing a wine that has concentrated aromas on the nose and palate. 2. describing the physical qualities of the canopy or soil. afrikaans gekonsentreerd, dig xhosa mfiliba, ukujiya, ukuxinana sulphuring noun subject winemaking, viticulture 1. burning a sulphur wick to disinfect an empty barrel before filling it with new wine. 2. applying sulphur dust or liquid to the vineyard as a fungicide. afrikaans swa(w)eling xhosa ukufakwa kwesibabile, kwifatyi, kwisitiya sediliya subject field labels in the wid do not refer only to specialised fields of “oenology” and “viticulture”, but also to other subject fields relating to them. the articles for the terms “paper chromatography” and “soil profile” m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera ibérica 27 (2014): 77-9692 have subject labels referring to other related subject fields, for example, “chemistry” and “soil science”. example (13). labels referring to other related subject fields. paper chromatography noun subject chemistry procedure for analysis of complex chemical mixtures by the progressive absorption of the components of the unknown sample (in a solvent) on a special grade of paper. afrikaans papierchromatografie xhosa indlela yokubonisa iikhemikhali ngephepha soil profile noun subject soil science the vertical sequence and properties of soil layers (horizons). afrikaans grondprofiel xhosa umbonakaliso womhlaba to summarise, the wid made use of labels for every term included in the dictionary. the purpose of this was to compile a dictionary with the needs of the user that are well highlighted. hence, a labelling system was planned and applied constantly in the dictionary. the advantages for the user of a labelling system is that a term is placed in a subject field, either in the subfields of “viticulture” or “oenology”, or in one of the related subject fields. with the subfield lexicographers help potential users by narrowing down the meaning of the word to a specific field and/or sub-field. in other words, lexicographers of specialised dictionaries should include dictionary components that offer more focused pictures of terms and thereby help their users, particularly in text reception and text production situations. in order to fulfil its obligation to users, the labelling system in a dictionary should be explained to them. during the consultation process users would get to know the system, understand it and expect the dictionary to make use of it appropriately and systematically. 5. conclusion this article has argued that “nothing is more practical than a good theory” (nielsen & tarp, 2009: ix). this reflection is especially necessary in the realm of specialised lexicography, which is mired in three related misunderstandings: an association with linguistics, a lack of the influence of the user needs paradigm ibérica 27 (2014): 77-96 93 understanding of the true nature of lexicography, and its consideration as an art or craft. such misunderstandings are visible in the current debate on the tenets of the function theory of lexicography, especially regarding some of its claims on the user needs paradigm. on the one hand, advocates of lexicography as a sub-discipline of (applied) linguistics describe dictionaries as repositories of language knowledge and, consequently, ideal candidates for evaluating linguistic theories and reproducing them when designing and compiling dictionaries. scholars such as de schryver (2012), kilgarriff (2012), and rundell (2012), among others, criticise the tenets of the function theory, maintaining that the designing and compiling of specialised dictionaries must rest on corpus data and frequencies, and propose methodologies whose final aim is the production of (semi-) automatic word patterns – that is, word sketches, that will help lexicographers and reduce the amount of time and money needed for constructing specialised dictionaries. on the other hand, proponents of the function theory defend the argument that lexicography is an independent academic science concerned with the analysis of data, access routes and users’ needs in several user situations (fuertes-olivera & bergenholtz, 2011). these scholars claim that the methods and practices used when compiling general language dictionaries cannot be applied for compiling specialised dictionaries, and illustrate their view with examples taken from real working specialised dictionaries. they have, for instance, shown that frequency, that is, corpus lexicography, can mislead lexicographers in view of the fact that there are no “word sketches” in specialised lexicography and no possibility of constructing dictionary articles (semi-)automatically (fuertes-olivera, 2012). to the best of our knowledge, the claim that corpus frequencies can be of much use for compiling specialised dictionaries is still a “dream”. this paper adds weight to the second approach: it has shown that user needs are in a constant flux, and has proposed ways of coping with them by analysing the lexicographical treatment accorded to a recent south african wine dictionary. this dictionary contains a complete list of subject labels that were included with the aim of assisting semi-experts and interested laypeople, two user groups that were absent from a previous south african wine dictionary. in a word, this article proposes a simple and easy-to-implement option for designing and constructing specialised dictionaries. if properly understood, this methodology can be used for m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera ibérica 27 (2014): 77-9694 upgrading new editions of well-known and traditionally-conceived specialised dictionaries. acknowledgements thanks are due to ministerio de economía y competitividad (grant ffi2011-22885) and junta de castilla y león (grant va067a12-1) for financial support. thanks also to the editor of ibérica and to two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the first draft of this paper. 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(2012). “trends in twenty-five years of academic lexicography”. international journal of lexicography 25: 464-506. fernández, t. & p. faber (2011). “the representation of multidimensionality in a bilingualized english-spanish thesaurus for learners in architecture and building construction.” international journal of lexicography 24: 198-225. fuertes-olivera, p.a. (2009). “systematic introductions in specialized dictionaries: some proposals in relation with the accounting dictionaries” in s. nielsen & s. tarp (eds), lexicography in the 21st century. in honour of henning bergenholtz, 161-178. amsterdam / philadelphia: john benjamins. fuertes-olivera, p.a. (2011). “equivalent selection in specialized e-lexicography: a case-study with spanish accounting terms”. lexikos 21: 95-119. fuertes-olivera, p.a. (2012). “lexicography and the internet as a re-(source)”. lexicographica 28: 49-70. fuertes-olivera, p.a. & h. bergenholtz (eds.) (2011). e-lexicography, the internet, digital initiatives and lexicography. london & new york: continuum. fuertes-olivera, p.a. & s. nielsen (2011). “the dynamics of terms in accounting: what the construction of the accounting dictionaries reveals about metaphorical terms in culture-bound subject fields”. terminology17: 157-180. fuertes-olivera, p.a. & s. nielsen (2012). “online dictionaries for assisting translators of lsp texts: the accounting dictionaries”. international journal of lexicography 25: 191-215. michele f. van der merwe is a lecturer in curriculum studies in the faculty of education at the university of stellenbosch.  her fields of interest lie in the pedagogical lexicography, language teaching, as well as lsp dictionaries. michele has presented various conference papers on lexicography and has published in international journals on lexicography. pedro a. fuertes-olivera is head of the international centre for lexicography, has lectured in more than 20 countries, and has written more than 150 academic contributions. among others, he is co-author of pedagogical specialised lexicography (john benjamins) and theory and practice of specialised online dictionaries (de gruyter), editor of specialised dictionaries for learners (de gruyter), and co-editor of e-lexicography: the internet, digital initiatives and lexicography (bloomsbury academic). m. van der merwe & pedro a. fuertes-olivera ibérica 27 (2014): 77-9696 fuertes-olivera, p.a. & s. tarp (2011). “lexicography for the third millennium: cognitiveoriented specialised dictionaries for learners”. ibérica 21: 141-162. fuertes-olivera, p.a., h. bergenholtz, s. nielsen & m. niño amo (2012). “classification in lexicography: the concept of collocation in the accounting dictionaries”. lexicographica 28: 291-305. hanks, p. (2007). pattern dictionary of english verbs. url: http://deb.fi.muni.cz/pdev [20/01/14] householder, f.w. & s. saporta (eds.) (1967). problems in lexicography. bloomington: indiana university. kilgarriff, a. (2012). “book review of p.a. fuertesolivera & h. bergenholtz, eds. 2011. elexicography, the internet, digital initiatives and lexicography”. kernerman dictionary news 20: 26-29. nielsen s. & r. almind (2011). “from data to dictionary” in p.a. fuertes-olivera & h. bergenholtz (eds.), e-lexicography. the internet, digital initiatives and lexicography, 141-167. london/new york: continuum. nielsen, s. & s. tarp (eds.) (2009). lexicography in the 21st century. in honour of henning bergenholtz. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. rundell, m. (2012). “it works in practice but will it work in theory? the uneasy relationship between lexicography and matters theoretical” in r.v. fjeld & j.m. torjusen (eds.), proceedings of the 15th euralex international congress, 47-92. oslo: department of linguistics and scandinavian studies. svensén, b. (2009). “subject-field classification of lexicography revisited” in s. nielsen & s. tarp (eds.), lexicography in the 21st century. in honour of henning bergenholtz, 147-159. amsterdam/ philadelphia: john benjamins. tarp, s. (2008). lexicography in the borderland between knowledge and non-knowledge. general lexicographical theory with particular focus on learner’s lexicography. tübingen: max niemeyer verlag. tarp, s. (2012). “specialised lexicography: 20 years in slow motion”. ibérica 24: 117-128. williams, g. (1998). “collocational networks: interlocking patterns of lexis in a corpus of plant biology research articles”. international journal of corpus linguistics 31: 151-171. williams, g. & c. millon (2009). “the general and the specific: collocational resonance of scientific language”. proceedings of the corpus linguistics conference cl2009, 20-23 july 2009. liverpool: university of liverpool. url: http://ucrel. lancs.ac.uk/publications/cl2009/ [20/01/14] ——(1973). wine dictionary (including viticulture, winemaking, wine chemistry) /wynwoordeboek (insluitende wingerdbou, wynbereiding, wynkunde). pretoria: terminology section, languages services bureau in collaboration with the oenological and viticultural research institute. department of national education. ——(2012). south african trilingual wine industry dictionary. winetech and sawis. url: www.sawis/dictionary.co.za [10/08/12] redalyc.peripheral scholarly journals: fromlocality to globality ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa salager-zeyer, françoise peripheral scholarly journals: fromlocality to globality ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 15-36 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542002 how to cite complete issue more information about this article journal's homepage in redalyc.org scientific information system network of scientific journals from latin america, the caribbean, spain and portugal non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542002 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542002 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542002 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org ibérica 30 (2015): 15-36 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this critical literature review examines the problems faced by scholarly peripheral journals. two categories of problems were identified. the first one refers to the deleterious effect the “publish-or-perish” mantra has on those journals, such as publication drain and the conduction of research that appeals to an international audience. the second category consists in problems that are related to the context in which these journals are published: lack of funds to run the journals, lack of competent editors and reviewers, problems related to publication ethics, endogamy, etc. the solution to overcome such problems is not to publish more and more journals in peripheral countries – which has been the tendency for the last ten years or so – but to upgrade local journals to global ones that should be published online in order to attract high-quality papers from both national and foreign authors. this would strengthen and enhance these journals visibility and international indexing. it would also increase the global influence of the research conducted in peripheral countries and bring global awareness to the specific scientific, social, cultural and economic features prevailing in such contexts. key words: periphery, center, scholarly publications, impact factor, peer review, editors. resumen r e v is t as c i e ntí f ic as e n pa ís e s “ p e ri f é ri c os ” : de l o c al e s a g l ob al e s este artículo analiza los problemas que caracterizan a las revistas científicas publicadas en los países llamados “periféricos”. ellos se pueden dividir en dos categorías. la primera corresponde a problemas que surgen a consecuencia de la “cultura del publicar o perecer”, tales como la “fuga” de artículos hacia revistas peripheral scholarly journals: from locality to globality1 françoise salager-meyer graduate school of medicine, universidad de los andes, mérida (venezuela) francoise.sm@gmail.com 15 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 15 ibérica 30 (2015): 15-36 françoise salager-meyer de mayor prestigio y la investigación de temas de interés para un público internacional. la segunda categoría se refiere a problemas relacionados con el contexto en el cual las revistas “periféricas” están publicadas como, por ejemplo, la falta de recursos económicos, de editores y árbitros competentes, problemas de ética, la endogamia, etc. la solución para resolver dichos problemas no radica en aumentar el número de revistas – como ha sido la tendencia en los últimos diez años – sino en mejorar la calidad de las revistas “periféricas” con el fin de atraer artículos de calidad no sólo de la región donde se publican sino también de otras partes del mundo. ello mejoraría la visibilidad y la indización de esas revistas. se incrementaría así la influencia global de la investigación que se lleva a cabo en contextos periféricos y daría a conocer a nivel internacional las características científicas, sociales, culturales y económicas de los países de la “periferia”. palabras clave: países periféricos, países desarrollados, publicaciones científicas, factor de impacto, editores, arbitraje. 1. introduction. mainstream vs periphery journals science is a noble enterprise, and it is probably the most fantastic achievement in human history, wrote the boston-based science journalist david freedman (2010) in an intentionally inflammatory paper entitled “lies, damned lies and medical science”2. in that enterprise – which includes the transfer and dissemination of scientific information – the international visibility of scholarly journals plays a fundamental role. the problem is that, as jean claude guédon (2010) affirms, not all scientific journals are created equal: the publication system is hierarchical. as is the case in many other aspects of human activities, competition, here too, is the rule. indeed, publications – the written product and final stage of research – are the most important means of regulating the current international system of scientific competition. they embody a great deal of power and structure the careers of the members of the scientific community almost all over the world and in almost all disciplines (post, 2012). what is more, not only individuals, but also institutions and even countries attempt to maximize published output, with the result that we witness an almost unmanageable increase in the number of scientific journals. according to boissier (2013), the volume of science, as evaluated by the number of publications, increases tenfold every fifty years, and the number of scientific journals doubles every thirteen years on average. this growth is driven in part by emerging countries, such as china, india, brazil, south korea, russia, and turkey. 16 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 16 we could divide scientific publications into two sets between which there is a definite gap, asserts guédon (2010) in compelling fashion: the first one consists in “mainstream science” journals that originate in industrialized (also called “center”) countries, and the second is made up of publications emanating from developing countries and/or emerging research centers, also referred to in the literature as “peripheral” or “non-industrialized”. before explaining each set of scholarly publications, two definitions are in order. firstly, throughout this paper, the expression “scientific publications” will refer to journals reporting knowledge across the full spectrum of scholarly disciplines, from the natural sciences to the arts and humanities. secondly, because developing countries do not form a homogeneous group and for lack of an all-encompassing term, i will indistinctively refer in this paper to “developing”/“peripheral” countries in contrast with industrialized/mainstream/center ones (wallerstein, 1991; canagarajah, 2002). under the umbrella expression “developing countries”, i then include middle-income countries, such as iran, semi-peripheral countries such as croatia (see bennett, 2014), and the bricks group: brazil, russia, india, china, korea and south africa. 1.1. mainstream/center journals mainstream science journals – also called “reputable”, “high-ranking” or “elite” publications – are supposed to be the epitome of excellence, publishing the best research only. they are indexed in international databases, such as the social science index (sci), the social science citation index (ssci) or their equivalents. they are written in english, a language that has become the modern lingua franca in a world that is economically, scientifically and culturally dominated by anglo-american countries. as lillis and curry (2013: 224) posit, english has a dominant status within scientific activity, “particularly in relation to the most valued product of science, publications in ‘high status’ journals which constitute a significant form of symbolic capital so essential to building competitive knowledgebased economy.” the pressure to publish in this reputable literature of science – the so-called “p-or-p mantra” or “p-or-p culture” (adler & harzing, 2009) – has increased tremendously worldwide over the past thirty years or so, a period that coincides with the rapid increase in global investments in scientific research, especially in industrialized countries. that pressure has been widely peripheral scholarly journals ibérica 30 (2015): 15-36 17 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 17 documented in university-based settings (martínez, 2011; harzing, 2013). it is only recently that it has been reported in the professional context of teaching hospitals where both research and teaching activities are being simultaneously conducted (li, 2014). in both the developed and the developing worlds, that “p-or-p culture” is being harshly criticized because it has led to the elaboration of a point or “merit pay” system that enables a holistic quantification of researchers’ output and determines their recruitment, contract renewal, promotion, tenure, etc (see section 3.5). this prevalent worship of center-based publications is evident, for example, from the promotion and monetary compensation researchers receive (englander & uzuner-smith, 2013; johns, 2013; lee & lee, 2013; alberts 2015) to the point that in some countries, such as china (qiu, 2010; shao & shen, 2011), south korea (lee & lee, 2013) and pakistan (fuyuno & cyranoski, 2006), promotions and cash prizes (sometimes up to usd 17,000 per paper, depending on the journal impact factor) are awarded for publishing in sci journals. as berer (2012) very aptly puts it, this merit-pay system arises from neo-liberal politics where measurement equals value which equals money, thus reflecting a blind belief in the effectiveness of the market place. this situation led the nobel prize winner for medicine and editor in chief of elife, randy schekman, to announce in 2014 that his laboratory would no longer submit papers to “luxury journals”, such as science, nature, and cell, on the grounds that they were “damaging science” by awarding “inappropriate and distorting incentives” to publish in top-tier journals. “the incentives offered by top journals distort science, just as big bonuses distort banking… science must break the tyranny of luxury journals,” emphatically declares schekman (2013: 1). the nobel prize winner goes a step further by calling on all journal editors to stop promoting “the gimmick called impact factor”. this, he sustains, would result in research that will better serve science, humanity and society. it should be mentioned that this de facto pressure that uses place of publication as a proxy for quality of science has recently led to a dramatic increase in academic fraud (anderson et al., 2007; schekman, 2013), paper retractions,3 problems related with authorship vs. contributorship, conflict of interests, duplicate publications, and global ethical issues in scholarly publishing (the notorious ffp triad: fabrication, falsification and plagiarism; smith, 2008). needless to say, the spectacular cases of academic fraud that françoise salager-meyer ibérica 30 (2015): 15-3618 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 18 have been discovered and later discussed in the public media have seriously damaged the trust placed in science. this is why it has been argued that governments should avoid crude cash-per-paper incentives to publish in elite journals and rather tailor rewards to promote ethical research. 1.2. peripheral/“small” journals inspired by the fact that there is a worldwide substantial difference between the classic prestigious international well-established biomedical journals and a large group of “weaker” journals with very different needs and profiles, by the end of 2006 the world association of medical editors (wame) decided to create the “small journal task force” (stegemann, 2013). now widely used, the expression “small journals” has nothing to do with size or print run, but refers to those journals published in peripheral countries that are absent from the english-biased and center based international databases i mentioned in the previous section (stegemann, 2007; salager-meyer, 2008; guédon, 2010; habibzadeh, 2012). lack of regularity and low paper quality are perhaps the main common denominator of these “small journals” (mendoza, 2006; lee & lee, 2013; stegemann, 2013; sotelo-cruz, 2014). in developing countries where the national language is not english, journals are written in the researchers’ native language, whether it is spanish, portuguese, chinese, russian, farsi, etc. however, in the search for greater visibility, and, as a consequence, for a wider international readership, some of these journals have switched to english (gibbs, 1995, in mexico; roitman, 2004, in russia; habibzadeh, 2006, in iran; lee, 2013, in korea; piccoli & procianoy, 2007 and vasconcelos, 2008, in brazil; habibzadeh, 2012, in the middle east). others have turned bilingual and provide the full text english translation of the papers they publish. some of these bilingual peripheral journals are supported by international publishing companies, such as springer in russia (roitman, 2004). because over 85% of the world’s population lives in the 153 countries categorized as lowand/or middle-income countries, we are probably safe to assume that there is a world of publishing that does not occur in english nor emanates from english-speaking countries. it should be borne in mind, though, that some countries lack the culture and tradition of supporting scientific research. examples of these are some wealthy arab countries that provide huge funds for education, but whose share in the production of knowledge is insignificant (lillis & curry, 2013, table 10.1). research does peripheral scholarly journals ibérica 30 (2015): 15-36 19 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 19 not only require logistics, indeed; it also requires the culture that secures its existence, and this culture is minimal in quite a few peripheral countries (salager-meyer, 2008). peripheral journals have strong reasons to exist. however, farrokh habibzadeh (2004), the lancet middle east editor and former president of wame, remarks that some people have little faith in journals published in the periphery. he gives the example of jerome p. kassirer, a former editor of the new england journal of medicine, who once asserted that “developing countries should receive guidance on nutrition and immunization before getting advice on medical editing”. as habibzadeh argues, the truth of the matter is that physicians working in peripheral and/or semi-peripheral countries face health problems that their counterparts working in developed countries do not have to cope with (e.g. malaria and chagas’ disease). this is then a strong argument for peripheral medical researchers to publish their somewhat different experiences in domestic journals. we should not forget, however, that a strong raison d’être of peripheral journals is also to provide a framework for career promotion of faculty members (salager-meyer, 2014). it is true that peripheral journals do frequently suffer from a series of recurrent problems, which explains why they are generally frowned upon not only by researchers from the “center” but also by influential peripheral ones. the following section of this paper deals with the analysis of these problems and is followed (section 3) by recommendations that should be adopted in order to increase the quality and, hence, the international visibility of peripheral journals (see salager-meyer, 2008, 2014; habibzadeh, 2012). before getting to the heart of the matter, i would like to point out that the present paper is a critical literature review, the aim of which is to present a comprehensive picture of the topic under discussion. in this sense, sections 2 and 3 are not based on original research data but are the product of my extensive reading on a wide array of topics related to academic publishing in general (more specifically to academic publishing in peripheral and semiperipheral countries), and of my own experience 1) as a member of the ethics committee of the institution i work at, 2) as an editorial board member of two applied linguistics peripheral journals, and 3) as an authors’ editor for spanish-speaking researchers from different disciplines who seek their research paper acceptance in english-medium journals. françoise salager-meyer ibérica 30 (2015): 15-3620 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 20 2. problems faced by peripheral journals 2.1. deleterious effects of the “publish or perish culture” 2.1.1. publication drain the first negative impact the p-or-p mantra has on peripheral journals refers to the outflow of domestic research. indeed, those peripheral researchers who master the necessary skills to write a paper in english and/or those who have access to programs, such as authoraid, will prefer to submit their best papers (i.e. the most original, ground-breaking and/or scientifically robust ones) to english-written journals with a high impact factor.4 li (2014) presents an interesting account of the strategies used by chinese medical researchers to convey similar clinical messages for a domestictargeted vs. an international readership. this kind of differentiation perpetuates a scenario of the best research much less likely to be published in domestic journals, and the bulk of domestically published papers not being read or cited by those who publish at the international level (salagermeyer, 2008). as stegemann (2007: 161) asserts, making specific reference to venezuelan journals: “we should be fighting against the publication drain of regional articles into elite (english-written) journals and for the appropriate recognition of scientific activity in the region”. this outflow of papers has become very common, especially in the hard, natural and life sciences, with the trend increasing year by year. as caramelli and rocha e silva (2010: 38) report: “to brazilian editors, it is clear that english-speaking editors and researchers – and, unfortunately, many authors – are blind to brazilian publications and do not cite or even read them”. this, no doubt, hinders the development of domestic journals and is damaging for peripheral scholarship because it is difficult for domestic journals to attract stellar research (shao & shen, 2011). for example, habibzadeh (2012) reports that few english-medium medical journals published in the middle east receive submissions from abroad. this is the case too for the official journal of the croatian nurses association, remark hodorovic and hodorovic (2014), who further argue that the presence of foreign authors in croatian journals could raise publication standards and lead to better research performance of health professionals. peripheral scholarly journals ibérica 30 (2015): 15-36 21 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 21 2.1.2. research topics that appeal to an international audience this situation not only creates a shortage of high quality articles for most local or regional peripheral journals, but also leads peripheral researchers to use the scarce resources they have to deal with issues that may be of little or no relevance to their community (i.e. their social context), institution or country. the focus on external recognition thus undermines locally important research, shifts the emphasis of research to topics that appeal to an international audience, and discourages governments from focusing on locally relevant policy and funding. we can hence readily assert that the prevailing research assessment system with its obsession with metrics (rankings of all sorts, journal impact factors, h-index, etc.) has a devastating impact on peripheral scholarship and editing. 2.2. contextual/intrinsic factors for habibzadeh (2006), contextual factors are more “fundamental” than those that stem from the worldwide pressure to publish in mainstream journals (see 1.1. above) and are shared by most “small journals”, regardless of their country of origin. it should be kept in mind, though, that not all journals are equally affected. for example, those published in the bricks countries (see introduction) will be less affected than those published in, let’s say, bangladesh or nigeria. 2.2.1. shortage of financial resources and poor infrastructure poor infrastructure and lack of funding are recurrent concerns of small journal editors. lack of funding and strained circumstances ended the publication of numerous journals in boznia herzegovina (masic, 2011), bangladesh (ahmed, 2012), venezuela (stegemann, 2007), mexico (gibbs, 1995), and africa (youdeowei & mukanyange, 1995). quite frequently, these journals disappear for a few years and resume publications when finances are available again. what is more, as i explain below, poor infrastructure and financial constraints make it hard for editors to develop desktop publishing skills, improve the production and content of peripheral journals, and maintain regular publication in-print or online. mainstream scholarly journals are almost always published by juggernaut commercial publishing houses that, as shashok (2014) emphatically asserts, are powered more by profit than by the real needs of researchers and the françoise salager-meyer ibérica 30 (2015): 15-3622 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 22 general public. by contrast, scholarly journals in eastern europe (lysenko, 2007), bangladesh (ahmed, 2012), the middle east (habibzadeh, 2012) and latin america (stegemann, 2007; vasconcelos, 2008) are affiliated to and published by research or educational organizations. they are thus expected to be viable as long as there is institutional support. the publishing industry in the periphery is also sometimes supported by scholarly societies and scientific associations that are frequently required to publish at least one journal for official registration. this is the case of some scholarly journals in venezuela (stegemann, 2007), brazil (piccoli & procianoy, 2007; caramelli & rocha e silva, 2010), the middle east (habibzadeh, 2012) and korea (suh et al., 2012). these journals tend to be of a higher quality because their editors are not – or, at least, less – under pressure to accept and publish their fellow researchers’ papers. as a consequence, they are in a better position to select the best papers. many of these journals, remarks habibzadeh (2012), also receive more funds. an example is archives of iranian medicine, a journal affiliated with the iranian academy of medical sciences that has the highest impact factor of all middle eastern medical journals. 2.2.2. authors’ pool another problem facing small journals is the difficulty they have in obtaining suitable articles and/or original manuscripts for publication because their author pool is limited, and because, as i explained before, influential peripheral researchers – who generally master english academic skills – prefer to publish their best results in english-medium journals. they moreover generally feel that it is relatively easy to publish in local or national journals. as li (2014) reports, the perception of this low level of challenge is in line with chinese doctors’ unfavorable comments about domestic journals which they see as lower standard and reporting work of a limited scope, not rigorous enough, thus of a suspicious credibility. low credibility leads to low submission of high quality papers. this explains why mexican researchers are frequently reluctant to publish in mexican journals irrespective of the journal’s quality and number of readers. according to sotelo-cruz (2014), biomedical researchers in mexico publish less than 10% of their output in mexican journals. peripheral scholarly journals ibérica 30 (2015): 15-36 23 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 23 2.2.3. article quality authors who publish in peripheral local or national journals may have limited skills in conducting research and/or writing up research reports. there is widespread acknowledgement indeed that, in developing countries, there is insufficient emphasis on developing both l1 and l2 (english) written communication skills. this is an “unfortunate inherent characteristic among middle eastern societies”, asserts habibzadeh (2006: 99). this remark is formally echoed by vasconcelos (2008) in brazil, englander and uzuner smith in mexico (2013), ahmed (2012) in bangladesh, murugesan in rwanda (2012), and informally by many of my latin american colleagues. regarding the teaching of english academic writing/research publication skills in peripheral countries, the problem is even more acute because of a lack of qualified eap specialists and because eap as a discipline is a rather recent phenomenon (see salager-meyer et al., 2015). in reference to korean and iranian scientific journals, suh et al. (2012) and habibzadeh (2012) point out that the growing number of newly launched journals is not accompanied by a growth in high-quality articles. sotelo-cruz (2014), for his part, reports that papers written by mexican researchers are poorly written, often with deficiencies in format, content, illustrations, references and originality, and that authors are frequently reluctant to comply with feedback provided by referees to correct article deficiencies. godlee and jefferson (2003) moreover remark that many authors will only submit a paper to a smaller journal if the paper has been rejected by a prestigious journal. this is why lee and lee (2013: 226) refer to domestic korean journals as the “graveyard” for papers rejected by international (englishwritten) journals. as gasparyan (2012: 10), editor of european science editing, points out: less popular journals, particularly those from small or disadvantaged scientific communities, usually suffer from submission of poorly written manuscripts which may have been rejected by higher-ranking journals or focus on a narrow scope of interest. poor manuscripts are thus published in low-status journals that then fail to attract better quality manuscripts and are, as a consequence, not read, not cited, not indexed. pérez tamayo (2006) compares this phenomenon to the matthew effect: articles in mexican journals are not cited frequently even when they are of good quality. a vicious circle i will refer to again further on. françoise salager-meyer ibérica 30 (2015): 15-3624 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 24 2.2.4. peer reviewers opinions on the peer review process (whether it be open, closed, preor post-publication) diverge. some posit that peer review is “something of a lottery, prone to bias and abuse, and hopeless at spotting error and fraud” (smith, 2009: 8), an opinion shared by quite a few other scholars (ahmed & gasparyan, 2013). others sustain that, although imperfect and not evidencebased, in most cases it does serve as a guarantor of paper quality (rushby, 2010). whatever the standpoint adopted regarding this thorny issue, the frequent scarcity of skilled, committed and unbiased peer reviewers is another hurdle for peripheral journals (ahmed, 2012; sotelo-cruz, 2014). indeed, in small scientific communities, journal editors have great difficulties finding suitable reviewers, especially international ones. what is more, the pool of reviewers is frequently the same as that of researchers/authors, and there may be only a few accessible experts in a sub-specialized field. this is why peripheral journals are sometimes accused of being endogamic. quite frequently too, national reviewers do not return the articles entrusted to them for review in time. hence, the review process tends to be slow (sotelo-cruz, 2014). occasionally peer reviewers are biased and even antagonistic and write acerbic comments. this, of course, does not encourage researchers to submit their papers to domestic journals. all in all, the peer review system used by less prestigious journals is far less selective and rigorous than that used by journals with higher rejection rates (marušić et al., 2002; habibzadeh, 2012)5. meneghini and packer (2007) report that in brazil, where about 60% of the scientific output is published in portuguese, the quality of the englishand portuguese-medium articles differs significantly, most of the portuguese-medium articles having little or no peer review. “poor quality writing, unavailability of skilled referees and low effectiveness of peer review are among the major threats to scholarly publishing in bangladesh”, affirms ahmed (2012: 42). this, too, has been a major problem for decades in boznia and herzegovina, asserts masic (2011), where local reviewers, as well as editors from this small scientific community, have always faced the dilemma of being objective, or “harming their friends” and “making enemies” (masic, 2011: 108). in small countries and/or scientific communities, indeed, local authors and reviewers easily recognize each other even when their identity is hidden. peripheral scholarly journals ibérica 30 (2015): 15-36 25 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 25 2.2.5. editors peripheral journal editors face many problems as well, some common to editors worldwide, some more specific to small journal editors. but first of all, what is a “good editor”? a good editor must be an expert in his/her discipline and a good author with a good publication record. s/he must also be well versed in ethical issues and have experience in writing different types of articles and in communicating with authors and reviewers (abdollahi, 2012). the problem is that in peripheral countries, the activity is not recognized as a profession: there are no professional career development opportunities and no prior training for academic journal editors. as stegemann (2007), masic (2011), gonzález (2011), uysal and coker (2011), habizadeh (2012) and sotelo-cruz (2014) report, most domestic journal editors are subject specialist academics/renowned professionals, not professional science editors. “science editing as a profession cannot flourish without a career path, continuous education and financial incentives”, asserts ahmed (2012: 42). most editors of peripheral journals have turned to editing as a matter of personal choice, on invitation, or because they have been assigned editorial responsibilities by the institutes they work at. they have frequently acquired their knowledge and skills through trial and error and learnt their trade “on the job” among the many stresses and strains the journals are subjected to (habibzadeh, 2006). moreover, most of them work pro bono because the task of editing a journal is included in their regular heavy teaching load and research activities. journal editing, then, occupies a tiny space in their working schedule. all this explains why unfamiliarity with editorial conventions represents the main impediment peripheral editors encounter in their job. what is more, lack of financial resources impedes small journal editors to connect their own journals with international libraries, databases or indexing systems. in spite of the fact that some international editing organizations, such as the european association of science editors, offer training and education, few editors ever join international professional associations or attend international meetings or training courses related to editorial work because official and/or academic support is rare (stegemann, 2007; sotelocruz, 2014). françoise salager-meyer ibérica 30 (2015): 15-3626 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 26 i should finally mention that it is not infrequent for some peripheral journal editors to receive external influences and be subject to pressure to accept manuscripts by the institution that owns the journal and appoints the editor. 2.2.6. international guidelines because small journal editors are unfamiliar with editorial conventions, most peripheral journals do not generally adhere to international guidelines regarding authorship policies and conflict of interest statements. as stegemann (2007) reports, in venezuela and other latin american countries (with some exceptions in brazil, mexico, and argentina, the “big three” in latin america), the main medical journals do not adhere to and rarely update international guidelines, such as those of the international committee of medical journal editors (icmje). this view is shared by jaykaran et al. (2011) about indian medical journals. as expressed in section 1.1, though, the non-adherence to international guidelines, i.e. non-ethical publishing, is far from being a problem of peripheral journals only. 2.2.7. indexation the various problems i mentioned above affect authors’ attitude towards submission and prevent peripheral journals from entering international bibliographic databases, the major challenge of the scientific periphery. their circulation is very limited, and they are often not available beyond their country or region of origin. this is why gonzález (2011) refers to costa rican scientific journals as “orphan” journals. all this entails a lack of regional or international indexation, low citation frequency, low impact factor, lack of visibility, etc. the lack of international indexation affects domestic journals in china (wan, 2005), in bangladesh (ahmed et al., 1999) where 86% of the journals are not indexed, in slovenia (turk, 2011), in iran (habibzadeh, 2006) and in the middle east in general (habibzadeh, 2012) where only a few journals fulfill the minimum requirements for being covered by major indexing services. this is why publishing in peripheral journals not included in one of the international databases is seen as having little value, particularly in the sciences. to summarize, i will quote marušić et al. (2006: 151) who cogently qualify the problems peripheral journals are confronted with as a “vicious circle of peripheral scholarly journals ibérica 30 (2015): 15-36 27 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 27 inadequacy”. by this, these authors mean that small journals have an unfavorable starting position “because of the small number of manuscripts they receive, their insufficient pool of reviewers, the low quality of their articles, and their poor international visibility, all of which reduces the pool of potential authors and closes that vicious circle of inadequacy”. in spite of the situation described above, many peripheral scholars strongly believe that journals in developing countries must continue to be published. the question is how to improve these journals quality so that they can contribute to the enhancement of universal knowledge and act as partners in the international research community. 3. how can the vicious circle of inadequacy be broken? 3.1. quality: the key word the key word here is quality at all levels (for an excellent discussion of the difference between “excellence” and “quality”, see guédon, 2013). as habibzadeh (2012) and sotelo-cruz (2014) strongly posit, one way to tackle the problems mentioned in the previous section is to spend the limited national publishing budgets on a few journals only. for example, many low quality journals in the latin american or middle eastern regions could be merged to make new quality regional journals with better infrastructures. some journals could then be amalgamated by region or specialty to improve manuscript flow and share resources. only then could papers be selected on the basis of their originality and scientific relevance either at the local, national, regional, and/or international level. these high quality papers should have their titles, extended abstracts, and key words translated into english, and the very best papers – selected on the basis of their scholarly significance – could be entirely translated into english. a recently taken translation initiative goes in that direction. i am referring to the michael heim translation prize that was awarded for the first time in 2014 and will be awarded annually thereafter for the best collegial translation of a journal article from an east european language into english. the criteria of selection are the scholarly significance of the research, the quality of the translation, and the contribution the translation will make to disciplinary dialogue across linguistic communities. françoise salager-meyer ibérica 30 (2015): 15-3628 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 28 3.2. journal editors’ training but not only should the articles published be of high quality. editors, editorial board members and reviewers too should be of the highest status as possible. these “actors” and gatekeepers should uphold ethical standards that could be acquired through topical education, preand post-graduate editorial training courses and seminars on research integrity and scientific writing in the researchers’ native language (uzun et al. 2015). universities, learned associations and international organizations – e.g. the european association of science editors (ease), the committee of publication ethics (cope) and the world association of medical editors (wame) – should be actively involved in the organization of these educational activities throughout peripheral regions. ease organizes such courses throughout europe and in mexico, but more should be done in that respect. marušić et al. (2006), gonzález (2011), uysal and coker (2011), and suh et al. (2012) report that the results of the educational and ethical policies mentioned above have been gratifying for croatian, costa rican, turkish and korean journals for, in the past years, their inclusion rate in bibliographic indices and databases has significantly increased. getting out of the scientific periphery is possible, assert marušić et al. (2006), but more efforts should be made in that direction. in order to prevent plagiarism (one of the three flaws of today’s scientific research), peripheral journal editors should be provided with the crosscheck service. this is important, affirms gasparyan (2012: 59) “particularly in emerging science countries, where a large proportion of journals still lack authorship policies and do not adhere to the accepted criteria”. this view is shared by jaykaran et al. (2011) who specifically refer to indian journals. finally, editors from the different peripheral regions should act as trainers by exchanging ideas, sharing experiences, and learning from one another. this is why the eastern mediterranean association of medical editors (emame) was created with the purpose of organizing workshops in the region on different aspects of the editorial craft (habibzadeh, 2012). 3.3. open access because geographical distance is no longer an obstacle for international communication except in africa, governments in the developing world need peripheral scholarly journals ibérica 30 (2015): 15-36 29 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 29 to be made aware of the opportunities provided by information technology for the dissemination of research output. fortunately, several good, free software programs are available, such as the open journal system. these can help editors run the whole process in a professional way. ethical open access (oa) not predatory/“vanity press” oa (beall, 2012) – should accept all papers that meet quality standards. it is the quality of science that should matter, not the journal’s brand. ethical oa offers an opportunity to rethink what constitutes research impact and to encourage research sharing and international visibility, issues, as we have seen, that are of particular relevance to the developing world. it has been repeatedly shown that, within the first year of publication, articles published in the new breed of oa journals are far more downloaded and reach a broader audience than do subscription/toll access articles, thereby increasing their authors’ visibility both within their own countries and worldwide (salager-meyer, 2012; björk et al., 2014). referring to the official journal of the croatian nurse association, hodorovic and hodorovic (2014) report for example that in 2008 the journal started being available online at the association website. as a result, the annual consultation traffic increased almost threefold over two years. on a much larger scale, miguel et al. (2011) put forward the impact of oa (green road) on the visibility of journals covering all scientific fields and all geographical regions. as guédon (2010) cogently asserts, oa to the scientific literature is an excellent example of convergence between center and periphery countries: most scientists everywhere agree that oa will improve their ability to work and to contribute to the evolution of science. 3.4. indexation and bibliodiversity it could be argued that it will be difficult for these high quality peripheral journals to be included in prestigious indexation systems because they are not written in english. perhaps, but it is not as important as it seems because powerful indexation platforms like scielo, redalyc, lilacs and latindex have been evolving as good substitutes for the sci and ssci (meneghini et al., 2006; delgado-troncoso, 2011). by allowing the development of regional (latin american) scientometric tools, these electronic databases have been able to mitigate the gap between englishmedium journals, on the one hand, and latin american, caribbean and iberian ones, on the other. françoise salager-meyer ibérica 30 (2015): 15-3630 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 30 there is no question, assert caramelli and rocha a silva (2010), that scielo is mainly responsible for the observed upgrade of brazilian journals, many of them now appearing in the web of science and the journal citation report. such examples show that oa changes the balance of power in a world dominated by groups which hold thousands of (mostly englishlanguage) journals: it paves the way to what could be called a real “bibliodiversity”, “since it enables the emergence of a plurality of viewpoints, modes of publication, scientific paradigms, and languages” (jump, 2013). 3.5. peripheral researchers’ evaluation system conventional methods of evaluating research impact based on journal citations, particularly the reliance on thomson reuters’ journal impact factor (see footnote 3) need to be reconsidered and redesigned. the culture of citations has been designed in the first world, and there is a consensus that many elements are not appropriate for developing countries (caramelli & rocha e silva, 2010; suh et al., 2012; englander & uzuner-smith, 2013). what is more, citation patterns vary across disciplines. for example, books and book chapters are not recorded, although they are very important in the social sciences. as chan (2011: 1) asserts, “[f]or too long, research assessment in the developing world has closely followed practices and metrics created by wealthier nations. even organizations, such as unesco and oecd continue to reinforce the use of the journal impact factor”. in this respect, it is worthwhile mentioning here that more and more academic voices both from the center and the periphery claim that using journal rank as an assessment tool is bad scientific practice, which is a potential threat to the scientific endeavor because it frequently leads to misconduct, even outright fraud (see the san francisco declaration of research assessment 2012, http://www.ascb.org/dora/). national and/or regional peripheral scientific associations could then lead initiatives to persuade the relevant government officials to drop the journal impact factor requirement and other citation metrics, and peripheral researchers could lobby towards that end at regional levels and through internet lists and websites. this means that in the developing world, the por-p ‘culture’ and pressure should be replaced by what ravi murugesan, an authoraid training coordinator in africa, refers to as “influence or perish” (irikefe et al., 2011) and/or the societal impact of research (alberts 2015). peripheral scholarly journals ibérica 30 (2015): 15-36 31 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 31 4. conclusion this critical literature review paper has provided a synthesis of the major issues facing peripheral journals and presented a substantial set of realistic steps to be undertaken towards more successful publishing in the developing world. by taking these steps, those small journals that have not made it through yet in international databases/indexes could become academic journals through which distinguished scholars worldwide will communicate with one another. from a strict linguistic standpoint, the presence of english-written titles, extended abstracts and keywords will allow the international scientific community to become aware of insights and research outside the dominant language communities. in an ideal world, one of leonardo da vinci’s favorite mottos “ostinare rigore” (constant rigor) should be the motto for research in general, in any discipline and for all scholarly journal editors who should ensure that the papers they publish are trustworthy (allende, 2004). the problem is that we do not live in an ideal world, that ethics is a complex subject, and that good publication practices do not develop by chance. the responsibility to promote measures that may drastically improve the situation of peripheral publications falls upon the international scientific community. if these measures are undertaken, improved quality of scholarly publications and, in the case of medical publications, a consequent boost in standards of heath care in the developing world, should be expected. in such a way, small journals will be able to provide leadership in their respective regions. enhanced quality and highest status at all levels (articles, actors and “gatekeepers”) will lead to increased visibility. this is the only way small journals can break the vicious circle of inadequacy that has plagued them for so long. acknowledgements funding to support this research was awarded by the university of the andes scientific, technological, humanistic and artistic research center (cdchta) through grant m1039-13-06-b. article history: received 9 august 2014 received in revised form 1 october 2014 accepted 10 october 2014 françoise salager-meyer ibérica 30 (2015): 15-3632 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 32 references peripheral scholarly journals ibérica 30 (2015): 15-36 33 abdollahi, m. 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(2008). “most cases of research misconduct go undetected, conference told”. british medical journal 336: 913. smith, r. (2009). “in search of an optimal peer review system”. journal of participatory medicine 1,1: e13. sotelo-cruz, n. (2014). “problems faced by editors of biomedical journals in mexico”. european science editing 40,1: 6-8. stegemann, h. (2007). “raising the visibility of ‘small journals’: the venezuelan association of biomedical journal editors (asereme)”. the write stuff 16,4: 161-165. stegemann, h. (2013). “‘small journals’, indexes and ecancer: an opportunity for latin america”. ecancer and medical science. 10.3332/ecancer.2013.ed30. suh, c.o., s.j. oh & s.t. hong (2012). “korean association of medical journal editors at the forefront of improving the quality and indexing chances of its member journals”. european science editing 38,4: 95-99. turk, n. 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(67) eight international conference of the international federation of science. university of barcelona. spain. 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 35 (elsevier) and is currently coordinating the multilingual and multidisciplinary research group on scientific discourse analysis (university of the andes, graduate school of medicine, mérida, venezuela). notes 1 a preliminary version of this paper was presented as a plenary lecture at the cerlis conference held at the university of bergamo (italy) in june 2014. 2 in that paper, the title of which is a calque of the phrase “lies, damned lies, and statistics”, freedman argues that much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong, leading the author to wonder why doctors, to a striking extent, are still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice. freedman’s paper echoes an article written in 2009 by richard smith, the former editor of the british medical journal, entitled “in search of an optimal peer review system” in which the author states that most of what appears in peer-review journals is scientifically weak. yet peer review remains sacred, worshiped by scientists and central to the processes of science – awarding grants, publishing, and dishing out prizes. 3 the number of paper retractions due to academic fraud has skyrocketed – up tenfold in the past three decades – with plagiarism and duplicate publications at the root of about 25% of those retractions (bailey, 2013) – that a website dedicated to their monitoring (http://retractionwatch.com) has been created in 2010, whilst the year 2011 was declared “the year of the retraction” (brembs & munafó, 2013). 4 despite widespread criticism of biased coverage and a flawed methodology underlying its calculation, a journal if continues to dominate research evaluation as if it were the only and universal index to assess the quality of journals (post, 2012). as a matter of fact, the popularization of this metrics as a rapid and cheap method for evaluating researchers, research groups, teaching/research and universities has stimulated a dynamic interaction between bureaucrats, researchers, and editors. 5 the rejection rate for many journals is over 50%, and for top-tier journals, it can be over 90% (leventhal, 2012). the best of all journals, the journal of universal rejection, has a 100% rejection rate! this is obviously meant sarcastically. françoise salager-meyer ibérica 30 (2015): 15-3636 03 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 36 redalyc.la variación terminológica en la comprensión y producción de textos académicos: propuesta de representación en un diccionario especializado de aprendizaje de psicología ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa fernández-silva, sabela; becerra rojas, nelson la variación terminológica en la comprensión y producción de textos académicos: propuesta de representación en un diccionario especializado de aprendizaje de psicología ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 183-208 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542009 cómo citar el artículo número completo más información del artículo página de la revista en redalyc.org sistema de información científica red de revistas científicas de américa latina, el caribe, españa y portugal proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542009 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542009 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542009 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen se presenta una investigación lexicográfica sobre la variación terminológica y su representación en un diccionario especializado monolingüe destinado a estudiantes universitarios. la investigación está basada en un estudio descriptivo sobre la variación terminológica en un corpus de artículos científicos de psicología y en la aplicación de un test a una muestra de estudiantes universitarios sobre el conocimiento y manejo de este recurso en tareas de producción y comprensión de textos. los resultados muestran que la variación terminológica intratextual desempeña una función cognitiva y discursiva importante para la transmisión del contenido especializado y la construcción de un texto cohesionado. por otro lado, los estudiantes se muestran favorables a la utilización de la variación como recurso cognitivo y discursivo pero presentan problemas a la hora de reconocer ciertos parámetros de variación y utilizarla en tareas comunicativas. finalmente, se propone una microestructura de diccionario pedagógico que registra los distintos tipos de variación terminológica y proporciona información sobre su uso para poder explotar las posibilidades cognitivas y discursivas de este recurso. palabras clave: variación terminológica, discurso académico, lexicografía especializada de aprendizaje, comprensión y producción. la variación terminológica en la comprensión y producción de textos académicos: propuesta de representación en un diccionario especializado de aprendizaje de psicología sabela fernández-silva y nelson becerra rojas pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso (chile) sabela.fernandez@ucv.cl & nelson.becerra@gmail.com 183 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 183 ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas abstract t h e ro l e o f te rm in ol o g ic al v ar ia ti on i n te x t re c e p tio n a nd p ro du c ti on : p ro p os a l f o r it s r e pr e s e nt at io n in a p e d ag o g i c al d ic t io na ry o f ps y c h o l og y in this article, a lexicographical research on terminological variation and its representation in a monolingual specialized dictionary for university students is presented. this proposal draws on a descriptive study of term variation in a corpus of research articles and a test evaluating the level of knowledge of terminological variation in psychology students in comprehension and production tasks. results show that intra textual term variation is used as a cognitive and discursive device that assists knowledge transfer and text cohesion. furthermore, students are aware of the usefulness of this cognitive-linguistic device but have trouble in identifying certain variation parameters and using it properly in communicative tasks. finally, a microstructure for a learners’ dictionary is presented in which different types of term variation are displayed along with information in order to help users to exploit the cognitive and discursive possibilities of this device. keywords: terminological variation, academic discourse, pedagogical specialised lexicography, comprehension and production. 1. introducción la relevancia otorgada a la lectura y escritura en el contexto universitario reside en el valor epistémico de ambas habilidades, ya que a través de ellas los estudiantes acceden y comunican el conocimiento de su disciplina. ambas tareas constituyen un desafío para estudiantes que comienzan a insertarse a una comunidad disciplinar, pues para realizarlas adecuadamente deben manejar la estructura conceptual del ámbito y las convenciones discursivas propias de su comunidad. uno de los elementos más importantes del discurso especializado es la terminología. los términos representan los conceptos especializados de un área, de manera que conocer la terminología es imprescindible para acceder y comunicar el conocimiento propio de una disciplina (cabré, 1999). las teorías actuales de la terminología reconocen que la variación es una característica inherente al término que se manifiesta en todo tipo de discursos especializados. diversos estudios que se han aproximado a la variación terminológica sugieren que la existencia de denominaciones alternativas para un mismo concepto especializado ejerce una función 184 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 184 relevante en la transmisión del conocimiento especializado y en la construcción de un texto (fernández-silva, freixa y cabré, 2011; tercedor y lópez, 2012; pecman, 2014). por ello, conocer los parámetros de uso y variación de los términos es tan importante como conocer los conceptos a que remiten, y representa un desafío para estudiantes universitarios que se enfrentan a la lectura y escritura académicas. sin embargo, las informaciones sobre el uso de los términos y concretamente la variación terminológica han estado infrarrepresentadas en los diccionarios terminológicos, que durante mucho tiempo fueron elaborados bajo una óptica prescriptiva. la creación de recursos terminológicos para usuarios no expertos ha experimentado un desarrollo importante en los últimos años (dancette y rhéthoré, 2000; binon et al., 2002; l’homme, 2008; faber y león, 2010). estas propuestas comparten la visión de que cada recurso debe atender las necesidades de los potenciales usuarios en situaciones sociales específicas (bergenholtz y tarp 1995). en los diccionarios especializados de aprendizaje, estas necesidades están relacionadas con la adquisición del conocimiento de una materia y con su comunicación, ya sea en lengua materna o en lengua extranjera (fuertes-olivera y arribas-baño, 2008). sin embargo, la lexicografía especializada de aprendizaje se ha abocado al desarrollo de una lengua extranjera y ha ignorado otras funciones que estos diccionarios podrían cubrir. lo anterior deja de manifiesto la necesidad de investigar sobre recursos terminológicos destinados a estudiantes, que los asista en el desarrollo de habilidades cognitivas y comunicativas propias de su disciplina, como por ejemplo la comprensión y producción de textos especializados. con el fin de contribuir a la incipiente investigación en lexicografía especializada de aprendizaje monolingüe, hemos realizado un estudio encaminado a caracterizar la variación terminológica en el discurso académico de la psicología y a identificar las necesidades que poseen los estudiantes universitarios en el manejo de este recurso en tareas de lectura y escritura. este estudio se enmarca en el proyecto varterm, que tiene por objetivo explorar la función de la variación terminológica en cuatro disciplinas de las ciencias naturales y sociales.1 a partir de los resultados del estudio, presentamos una propuesta de representación de la variación terminológica en un diccionario especializado destinado a estudiantes de psicología. este artículo se estructura en los siguientes apartados. tras esta introducción presentamos una revisión teórica sobre la variación terminológica en el la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 185 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 185 discurso especializado y su representación en las obras lexicográficas. en el apartado de metodología, se presenta el proyecto varterm, se resumen los resultados sobre la variación en artículos de psicología y se presenta el cuestionario de variación aplicado a los estudiantes. finalmente, se presentan los resultados del cuestionario, la propuesta de microestructura de diccionario y las conclusiones del estudio. 2. marco teórico 2.1. la variación terminológica en el discurso especializado los términos desempeñan un papel fundamental en la representación y organización del conocimiento de un área, pues son las unidades que representan los conceptos especializados. durante el proceso de formación disciplinar todo estudiante debe adquirir y aprender a manejar la terminología de su área, a fin de representar y comunicar el conocimiento de manera precisa y adecuada en los contextos académicos y profesionales en que se va a desempeñar. conocer la terminología no implica únicamente conocer los conceptos representados por los términos y cómo se relacionan en la estructura conceptual, sino también conocer su uso en discurso a fin de identificarlos y emplearlos adecuadamente en diversas situaciones comunicativas (fuertesolivera y arribas-baño, 2008). los términos, como toda unidad léxica, son fruto de una convención social y están sujetos a variación, que se manifiesta en las denominaciones alternativas de un concepto o en la apertura significativa de una forma (cabré, 1999). si bien las posturas más orientadas a la estandarización terminológica consideran que la variación constituye un obstáculo para la comunicación especializada (wüster, 1998; felber y picht, 1984; pavel y nolet, 2001), las corrientes descriptivas más recientes reconocen que es un fenómeno inherente al término (cabré, 1999; temmerman, 2000; gaudin, 2003; diki-kidiri, 2008; faber, 2012). hoy en día la investigación en torno a la variación terminológica está abocada a caracterizar el fenómeno desde la perspectiva cognitiva, comunicativa y discursiva de la terminología y a explorar su función en la representación y comunicación del conocimiento. s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208186 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 186 2.1.1. la variación terminológica en la representación del conocimiento los estudios que se han aproximado a la variación terminológica desde una perspectiva cognitiva relacionan este fenómeno con los procesos dinámicos de categorización y estructuración del conocimiento especializado (temmerman, 2000; fernández-silva, freixa y cabré, 2011; tercedor, 2011). los conceptos son entidades flexibles que se relacionan en estructuras multidimensionales, de manera que su contenido está influido por el contexto temporal, social y comunicativo. para bowker (1997: 283) esta multidimensionalidad implica que no todos clasifican un área de especialidad de la misma forma, o que una misma persona puede abordar un mismo concepto desde diferentes perspectivas en distintos momentos. esta variabilidad en el plano cognitivo puede reflejarse en el plano lingüístico a través de variación terminológica. la relación entre variación conceptual y variación terminológica se explica por el carácter motivado de la denominación (kocourek, 1991). la selección terminológica refleja un determinado punto de vista sobre el concepto, pues no solo remite a este en su globalidad, sino que enfatiza determinados aspectos de su contenido a través de la forma denominativa (freixa, fernández-silva y cabré, 2008). así, las variantes terminológicas violencia machista, maltrato hacia la mujer o violencia conyugal ofrecen diferentes perspectivas sobre el fenómeno porque priorizan diferentes características del concepto: en el primer caso se menciona al agente del maltrato, en el segundo caso al sexo de la víctima, y en el tercer caso la relación sentimental entre las personas maltratadora y maltratada. así, se ha sugerido que la variación terminológica no solo tiene una motivación cognitiva sino que puede ser funcional en el proceso de construcción del conocimiento en los textos. en el contexto de la divulgación científica, cassany y martí (1998) la consideran una estrategia divulgativa empleada para transmitir un concepto especializado a un público amplio y heterogéneo. los términos son reformulados mediante diversas estrategias léxicas – sinónimos genéricos, hiperónimos – y discursivas – definiciones, paráfrasis, expresiones metalingüísticas –, formando un “paradigma denominativo” (mortureux, 1993) que facilita la comprensión por parte de un público lego. del mismo modo, freixa (2002) observa que la variación denominativa no solo es cuantitativamente más frecuente en textos de bajo nivel de la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 187 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 187 especialización, sino que se da una mayor distancia conceptual entre las variantes. en estos textos la convivencia de variantes alternativas permite ir “completando el conjunto de rasgos semánticos del concepto, a partir de la priorización de diferentes rasgos en las diferentes denominaciones” (freixa, 2002: 332). sin embargo, la función cognitiva de la variación denominativa también está presente en contextos altamente especializados. por ejemplo, pecman (2014) observó en un corpus de artículos científicos que los expertos recurren a la variación como herramienta cognitiva para teorizar y explicar de manera más clara un concepto, y en definitiva, para “crear nuevo conocimiento” (pecman 2014: 2). de igual modo, rogers (2004) analizó la variación terminológica en la versión alemana de un manual de automoción y su traducción al inglés, y concluyó que la sinonimia y polisemia de los términos no solo tiene una motivación funcional, sino que proporciona “perspectivas enriquecidas y diversificadas” (2004: 234) sobre los conceptos. 2.1.2. la variación denominativa en la comunicación especializada la terminología tiene la función de representar y organizar el conocimiento especializado de un ámbito científico o técnico, pero también de comunicarlo de manera efectiva y adecuada a la diversidad de situaciones de comunicación especializada (cabré, 1999). así, los términos también están sujetos a parámetros de variación dialectal y funcional, aunque la tipología y el grado de incidencia de estos factores depende de la organización sociolingüística particular de la comunidad especializada. los factores de variación dialectal más reconocidos son la procedencia geográfica o el estatus socioprofesional (freixa, 2006); en lo que respecta a la variación funcional o de registro, las variables de campo, tenor y modo (halliday, 1978) se combinan para generar dos factores determinantes en la variación terminológica: la relación social entre los participantes (registro formal) y el conocimiento compartido entre ambos (tecnicidad o nivel de especialización) (tercedor y lópez, 2012: 254). la elección de términos adecuados al nivel de especialización es relevante para una comunicación efectiva, pues garantiza que el contenido especializado se ajuste al nivel de conocimientos del receptor. del mismo modo, los textos altamente especializados tienen unas exigencias de precisión, concisión y sistematicidad que solo se pueden garantizar con el uso de una terminología más s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208188 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 188 controlada. en cualquier caso, la inserción disciplinar implica conocer y manejar la diversidad de géneros especializados que circulan en el ámbito, tanto a nivel de la estructura retórica como de los recursos léxicogramaticales propios de cada evento comunicativo, incluyendo la terminología. por último, la variación denominativa intratextual también ejerce una función importante en la construcción del texto, puesto que es uno de los principales mecanismos de cohesión léxica que contribuyen a la textura (halliday y hasan, 1976). así, la variación denominativa permite la reiteración a lo largo del texto a través de la selección de distintas unidades léxicas, cuya correferencia está asegurada al remitir a un mismo concepto especializado. en este proceso de textualización, los términos sufren transformaciones como resultado de las relaciones que establecen con otros elementos del texto. así, para collet (2003), los términos sintagmáticos pueden ver alterada su estructura lineal por la inserción de elementos verbales, adjetivales o metalingüísticos entre la base y la extensión (“modulación por tonos” vs. “modulación denominada por tonos”); por la coordinación de dos o más términos sintagmáticos que comparten la misma base (“cobertura parcial” y “cobertura semiglobal” vs. “coberturas parciales y semiglobales”); o por la reducción de uno o varios constituyentes del sintagma (“servicio aeronáutico por satélite” vs. “este servicio”). de estos fenómenos, la coordinación y la reducción favorecen la economía verbal y permiten evitar la repetición, que es percibida como un obstáculo para la lectura de cualquier texto (adelstein, 2002). de lo anterior se deduce que la variación denominativa no solo es el resultado natural de la dinámica discursiva, sino que es un mecanismo que contribuye a la cohesión y coherencia textuales y por consiguiente, a la construcción del texto. las variaciones no entran en conflicto con la función denominativa del término, puesto que a través del potencial de correferencia, todas las variantes “son igualmente válidas para referirse al concepto dentro de los límites del texto” (collet, 2003: 4). por ello, a la hora de leer o escribir un texto especializado es necesario conocer las relaciones que los términos establecen con otras unidades, sus transformaciones discursivas y la función de la variación denominativa en el proceso de construcción textual. la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 189 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 189 2.2. la representación de la variación terminológica en los diccionarios especializados el papel acordado a la representación de la variación terminológica en los diccionarios ha ido evolucionando en paralelo al reconocimiento de su existencia como fenómeno inherente a la unidad terminológica. asimismo, la inclusión y tratamiento de los distintos tipos de variantes depende de las funciones y destinatarios del diccionario. en el contexto de la estandarización internacional que marcó los inicios de la terminología, se perseguía el ideal de biunivocidad que establecía que no “debería haber denominaciones ambiguas (homonimia y polisemia) ni denominaciones múltiples para un mismo concepto (sinonimia)” (wüster, 1998: 137). la representación de la variación en los diccionarios estaba guiada por la tarea normalizadora de establecer la preferencia de unas formas sobre otras. sin embargo, felber y picht (1984) reconocen que las variantes regionales son igualmente válidas en sus zonas geográficas correspondientes y deben ser recogidas: [los bancos de datos terminológicos] deberían informar a los diversos grupos de usuarios sobre aspectos tales como el significado de los términos, sus equivalentes en otras lenguas, […] términos sinónimos empleados en un área lingüística dada. (1984: 73) en el contexto de la normalización institucional de una lengua (minorizada o minoritaria), el trabajo terminológico combina la dimensión descriptiva – registro de los términos que efectivamente usan los especialistas – con la prescriptiva, que propone orientaciones sobre el uso. los recursos terminológicos elaborados con esta finalidad deben tener muy en cuenta el carácter sociocultural de la comunicación especializada y deben adecuarse a la variedad de usuarios y situaciones, lo cual se ve reflejado en un tratamiento más amplio de la variación terminológica. así, pavel y nolet (2001: 28-29) proponen una clasificación de las marcas que deben acompañar a los sinónimos en los bancos de datos terminológicos, en las que se combinan la dimensión normativa con la dimensión de uso, a través de marcas geolectales, sociolectales temporales y funcionales. la inclusión de la variación dialectal y funcional también se considera relevante en los recursos terminológicos destinados a resolver necesidades comunicativas como la traducción o la producción de textos. abejón y gómez de enterría (2006: 3) señalan que un glosario para traductores no s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208190 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 190 solo debe proporcionar equivalentes en la lengua meta, sino también informar sobre sus restricciones de uso para “reproducir en el texto nuevo el mismo rango de variación de la expresión que se encontraba en el texto original”. en el glosario de gestión del patrimonio y turismo cultural incluyen información sobre variación denominativa y conceptual en un 70% de las entradas. la variación denominativa se indica en dos campos de la microestructura: “sinónimos” y “abreviaturas”. en el campo “notas” se incluyen “otras denominaciones en español con las que [el término principal] mantiene una equivalencia conceptual relativa o mínima”, información “sobre variación conceptual de una denominación” y variantes denominativas en inglés (abejón y gómez de enterría, 2006: 4). sin embargo, solo la variación geográfica viene acompañada de marca de uso, pues según las autoras generar una tipología de marcas que refleje la multiplicidad de factores de variación dificultaría la consulta al traductor. este trabajo considera la variación terminológica como un fenómeno que los traductores deben manejar para elaborar un texto meta de acuerdo a los parámetros de corrección y adecuación al discurso. sin embargo, su tratamiento lexicográfico resulta insatisfactorio por cuanto el campo notas debe acoger diferentes tipos de información y las variantes no siempre vienen acompañadas de marcas de uso para que el usuario pueda utilizarlas adecuadamente. la investigación de collet (2004) reflexiona explícitamente sobre la necesidad de reflejar en un diccionario especializado monolingüe la variación discursiva surgida en la elaboración de un texto. como veíamos en el apartado 2.1.2., la autora sostiene que la variación del término sintagmático en discurso favorece la organización cohesiva del texto. la autora propone incluir en la microestructura un campo dedicado al “paradigma reduccional” (paradigme réductionnel), donde figurarían las reducciones anafóricas y léxicas debidamente identificadas. los sinónimos se consignarían en un campo independiente y poseerían entradas propias en el diccionario. la autora justifica esta decisión porque permitiría tratar con más detalle los casos de cuasisinonimia y evitaría que la entrada se sobrecargara con información que “en realidad hace referencia a términos diferentes” (collet, 2004: 260). la autora reconoce la utilidad de representar la variación terminológica intratextual en diccionarios con funciones comunicativas. sin embargo, su propuesta no contempla la existencia de otro tipo de variantes discursivas más allá de las reducciones ni las posibilidades cognitivas de este mecanismo para la transmisión del conocimiento especializado. la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 191 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 191 la propuesta de malmgren (2009), en cambio, reconoce la importancia de otro tipo de relaciones semánticas en la producción de textos. según el autor, un diccionario que pretende suplir una necesidad comunicativa como la escritura debe presentar en su microestructura información sobre sinónimos, antónimos y cohipónimos, pues ayudan al usuario a encontrar la palabra adecuada en una situación dada y a “escribir de forma más variada” (malgrem, 2009: 98). el autor propone la inclusión de estas relaciones en una escala de progresión basada en la distancia conceptual, que abarcaría sinónimos, cuasisinónimos, cuasiantónimos, antónimos y cohipónimos. asimismo, también propone incluir marcas de uso para advertir al usuario respecto del empleo de ciertas variantes que son poco frecuentes, coloquiales, peyorativas o restringidas a usos regionales. finalmente, tercedor y prieto (2013) presentan un recurso terminológico para facilitar la comunicación médico-paciente en el área de la salud donde se recogen las variantes terminológicas de enfermedades y síntomas. para los autores, la comunicación en este contexto se ve dificultada por las diferencias en la percepción y conceptualización de las realidades médicas entre distintos perfiles de usuarios. por ello, entender qué aspectos comunicativos y cognitivos resaltan las variantes de un concepto es clave para la selección del término adecuado, y deben figurar en un recurso destinado a la divulgación. el recurso terminológico multimodal que proponen posee una organización onomasiológica, donde cada concepto está asociado a una serie de variantes terminológicas. cada variante incluye información sobre la categoría gramatical, el idioma, el registro (formal, informal, informal experto, neutro, niños), el uso geográfico, el grado de familiaridad dentro de cada registro, el proceso de formación (acortamiento, siglación, préstamo, etc.), la frecuencia de uso y recomendaciones sobre su uso (término mal usado, calco, incorrección ortográfica). en síntesis, podemos observar que ya existen algunas voces que reconocen la función de la variación en la representación del conocimiento y la comunicación en distintos contextos de especialización; sin embargo, todavía son escasos los trabajos que proponen una representación lexicográfica adecuada del fenómeno. 3. resultados este estudio pretende contribuir a la representación lexicográfica de la variación terminológica en un diccionario especializado de psicología s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208192 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 192 destinado a asistir en la comprensión y producción de textos. esta propuesta está fundada en dos estudios: una descripción de la variación terminológica en un corpus de artículos de investigación científica de psicología en español (fernández-silva, en prensa); y el estudio de las necesidades de estudiantes de psicología en torno al uso de la variación, que presentamos en este artículo. en este apartado resumimos brevemente los resultados del primer estudio y describimos el instrumento empleado para el análisis de las necesidades. 3.1. la variación terminológica en artículos de psicología este estudio se enmarca en el proyecto varterm, que tiene por objetivo explorar el papel de la variación terminológica en la representación y transferencia de conocimiento especializado en cuatro disciplinas científicas. para ello, se compiló un corpus de artículos de investigación científica y se analizó la variación terminológica a partir del tipo de información proporcionada por las variantes y su distribución a lo largo del texto (fernández-silva, en prensa). los resultados del análisis realizado en el subcorpus de psicología sirvieron como base para la elaboración del cuestionario y la propuesta de representación lexicográfica. a continuación resumimos brevemente las características del corpus, la metodología de análisis y los principales resultados que tienen relevancia para el presente estudio. corpus: el subcorpus de psicología está conformado por 19 artículos de investigación (135.982 palabras) publicados en español en las dos revistas de psicología indexadas en el repositorio de revistas científicas scielo chile terapia psicológica y psykhe. los países de afiliación institucional de los autores eran, por orden de importancia, chile, colombia, méxico y españa. metodología: se analizó la variación denominativa intratextual de los conceptos principales de cada artículo – los que aparecían en el título, resumen o palabras clave. se combinó la detección manual con otras estrategias de búsqueda mediante un programa de concordancias2, a saber, búsqueda por marcadores metadiscursivos de sinonimia (suárez, 2004) y por constituyentes de términos sintagmáticos (hamon y nazarenko, 2001). los candidatos a variantes fueron validados por especialistas del área y finalmente se obtuvo un corpus terminológico constituido por 772 variantes (referidas a 159 conceptos) y 3.313 ocurrencias.3 finalmente, las variantes la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 193 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 193 fueron clasificadas en función de la distancia semántica con el término base (la primera ocurrencia del concepto). los resultados más relevantes para el estudio lexicográfico aquí presentado son: • la variación terminológica intratextual es un fenómeno frecuente en los textos altamente especializados como los artículos de investigación científica. en el corpus analizado, se dio un promedio de 4,8 variantes por concepto y una frecuencia media de 4,2 ocurrencias por variante. • la variación terminológica desempeña una función cognitiva en el interior de los textos, pues proporciona información sobre las distintas características y dimensiones del concepto (información intracategorial) así como sobre las relaciones que establece con otros conceptos del área (información intercategorial). la proporción de variantes con cambio semántico fue muy superior (73%) a la de aquellas que no presentaban variación en el contenido conceptual expresado en la variante (27%). por lo tanto, en el corpus analizado, la función cognitiva es más relevante que la estilística, motivada por evitar la repetición o por economía verbal. • la variación también ejerce una función retórica que contribuye a realizar los distintos propósitos comunicativos del género textual. se observó una incidencia y comportamiento distinto de la variación en distintas secciones del artículo de investigación, que se vincularon con las funciones retóricas de identificar el concepto (presente en título, resumen y palabras clave), explicar su contenido (introducción y discusión) contextualizarlo dentro de la investigación (metodología y resultados), o generalizar los resultados obtenidos en una muestra a la población en general (discusión). 3.2. el test de variación terminológica para obtener la información sobre las necesidades de los potenciales usuarios del diccionario (estudiantes de psicología) en torno al manejo de la variación terminológica se elaboró un test de variación terminológica (ver anexo). este test tenía por objetivo obtener información acerca de la percepción de los estudiantes sobre la variación terminológica; su conocimiento de los factores s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208194 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 194 de variación intra-autor y su función; y el manejo de este recurso en tareas de comprensión y producción de textos académicos. para la elaboración del test, se tuvieron en cuenta las áreas de conocimiento de vocabulario en comprensión y producción propuestas por nation (1990) y la tipología de causas de variación denominativa de freixa (2006).4 se incluyeron tres métodos de obtención de datos diferenciados por el grado de participación del estudiante y la dificultad de la tarea: la autopercepción sobre el comportamiento lingüístico propio, la valoración del comportamiento de terceros, y la ejecución de una tarea por parte del estudiante. esta combinación de métodos permite recabar información desde diferentes perspectivas y proporciona una visión más completa del fenómeno estudiado. por otro lado, en cuanto a la técnica de evaluación (ibáñez, 2012), se combinaron ejercicios de respuesta corta (sí o no), de respuesta larga, de rellenar huecos y la técnica de likert. el instrumento fue validado a través de una entrevista con una académica de psicología5 y de su pilotaje en una muestra de estudiantes universitarios de primer año de la misma universidad. esto permitió mejorar la formulación de las instrucciones y eliminar algunos términos lingüísticos que podrían dificultar la realización del test. el test se aplicó a 29 estudiantes de primer año de psicología de una universidad chilena. la elección de estudiantes de primer año se justifica por la función del diccionario, que aspira a desarrollar habilidades cognitivas y comunicativas desde las primeras etapas de la inserción universitaria. por otro lado, mediante entrevistas con profesores de la carrera corroboramos que los sujetos ya se habían visto involucrados en tareas de comprensión y producción de textos académicos en los meses previos a la fecha de la aplicación del test. 4. resultados en este apartado presentamos, en primer lugar, los resultados del test de variación terminológica que nos permitieron describir las necesidades de los potenciales usuarios del diccionario. en segundo lugar se presenta la propuesta de microestructura de diccionario pedagógico especializado y se discute el diseño y la información incluidos en la entrada lexicográfica. la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 195 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 195 4.1 necesidades de los estudiantes de psicología en el manejo de la variación terminológica en tareas de comprensión y producción de textos académicos los resultados del test de variación terminológica que se presentan en los siguientes apartados son: a) percepción sobre la variación terminológica en el discurso especializado; b) conocimiento de los factores de variación intraautor y de su función en los textos; y c) manejo de la variación terminológica en tareas comunicativas. para evaluar la percepción sobre la variación en la lectura y escritura se presentaron una serie de afirmaciones a las que los estudiantes debían asignar su grado de conformidad. como muestra la figura 1, un 93,1% declara prestar atención al uso de la terminología en los textos. también se observa que manifiestan una actitud favorable a la variación: un 82,8% de los sujetos no está de acuerdo con que la repetición de términos favorezca la precisión de un texto, y reconocen la variación como mecanismo estilístico (86,2%) y cognitivo (89,7%). para evaluar el conocimiento de los estudiantes sobre los factores de variación y su función, se emplearon ejercicios de respuesta corta, en la que los estudiantes debían leer ejemplos de variación en artículos científicos y contestar por qué el autor había usado variantes terminológicas y con qué fin. los resultados (ver figura 2) muestran que un 44,8% de los sujetos reconoce el factor interlingüístico (convivencia de dos variantes en distintas lenguas, generalmente préstamo y forma vernácula, por ejemplo vih y s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208196 s. fernández-silva y n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): …-… figura 1. percepción sobre la variación terminológica el discurso académico. para evaluar el conocimiento de los estudiantes sobre los factores de variación y su función, se emplearon ejercicios de respuesta corta, en la que los estudiantes debían leer ejemplos de variación en artículos científicos y contestar por qué el autor había usado variantes terminológicas y con qué fin. los resultados (ver figura 2) muestran que un 44,8% de los sujetos reconoce el factor interlingüístico (convivencia de dos variantes en distintas lenguas, generalmente préstamo y forma vernácula, por ejemplo vih y hiv) pero solo un 20,7% identifican el factor funcional vinculado con el grado de especialización del texto (abulia vs. falta de energía). en cuanto a los factores de variación intratextual, un 69% de estudiantes identifican el factor estilístico asociado a evitar la repetición (estudio no experimental correlacional vs. este estudio), mientras que solo un 37,9% identifican el factor cognitivo, donde la variación terminológica refleja una perspectiva distinta de categorización (violencia machista y violencia intrafamiliar contra las mujeres). figura 2. resultados de identificación de causas de la variación. 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 196 hiv) pero solo un 20,7% identifican el factor funcional vinculado con el grado de especialización del texto (abulia vs. falta de energía). en cuanto a los factores de variación intratextual, un 69% de estudiantes identifican el factor estilístico asociado a evitar la repetición (estudio no experimental correlacional vs. este estudio), mientras que solo un 37,9% identifican el factor cognitivo, donde la variación terminológica refleja una perspectiva distinta de categorización (violencia machista y violencia intrafamiliar contra las mujeres). en cuanto a la función de la variación terminológica, los estudiantes reconocieron la función estilística en un 15% de los casos. por ejemplo, los encuestados reconocían que las variantes eran empleadas “por algo de estética”, “para mantener cierto ritmo”, para hacer el texto “más dinámico” o para “evitar la reiteración”. en un 33% de los casos, los estudiantes identificaron una utilidad cognitiva, aludiendo que “las distintas formas de referirse a un mismo concepto facilitan parte de su entendimiento”, “mejora la comprensión del término en distintas formas”, y “ayuda a profundizar y explicar en cierta forma que sería la violencia machista”. en un 15,5% de los ejemplos analizados, los estudiantes reconocieron ambas funciones de manera combinada. sin embargo, en un 63,8% de los ejemplos no se atribuyeron funciones a la variación. el tercer aspecto evaluado fue el manejo de la variación terminológica en tareas de comprensión y producción de textos, a través de un ejercicio de identificación de variantes y otro de inserción en espacios en blanco, ambos a partir de textos extraídos de nuestro corpus. en la tarea de comprensión (ver figura 3), el 31% de los sujetos identificó la totalidad de las variantes en contexto, el 14% dos de tres variantes, un 24,1% una variante, mientras que el 31% restante no identificó correctamente ninguna variante. en el ejercicio la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 197 s. fernández-silva y n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): …-… figura 1. percepción sobre la variación terminológica el discurso académico. para evaluar el conocimiento de los estudiantes sobre los factores de variación y su función, se emplearon ejercicios de respuesta corta, en la que los estudiantes debían leer ejemplos de variación en artículos científicos y contestar por qué el autor había usado variantes terminológicas y con qué fin. los resultados (ver figura 2) muestran que un 44,8% de los sujetos reconoce el factor interlingüístico (convivencia de dos variantes en distintas lenguas, generalmente préstamo y forma vernácula, por ejemplo vih y hiv) pero solo un 20,7% identifican el factor funcional vinculado con el grado de especialización del texto (abulia vs. falta de energía). en cuanto a los factores de variación intratextual, un 69% de estudiantes identifican el factor estilístico asociado a evitar la repetición (estudio no experimental correlacional vs. este estudio), mientras que solo un 37,9% identifican el factor cognitivo, donde la variación terminológica refleja una perspectiva distinta de categorización (violencia machista y violencia intrafamiliar contra las mujeres). figura 2. resultados de identificación de causas de la variación. 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 197 de inserción de variantes, solo el 7% de los sujetos insertó todas las variante correctamente, el 28% insertó dos variantes, el 41,3% una variante y el 24,1% ninguna. la figura 3 muestra que los resultados en el manejo de la variación en la comprensión son ligeramente mejores que en la producción. de acuerdo con lo que los mismos sujetos declaran, la variación facilita la comprensión y favorece una lectura más dinámica, pero al mirar los resultados podemos observar que no logran poner en práctica este conocimiento, almacenándose como un conocimiento declarativo y no como un conocimiento estratégico (paris, lipson y wixson, 1983). a partir los resultados del test, podemos caracterizar a los potenciales usuarios del diccionario como sujetos que tienen una actitud favorable hacia la variación terminológica en los textos académicos, la cual se comprende como un mecanismo útil para elaborar textos dinámicos, cohesionados y facilitar la comprensión. por otro lado, identifican mejor la variación discursiva – ya sea esta por alternancia de código o por reducción – que la variación funcional y cognitiva. finalmente, en el momento de poner en práctica sus conocimientos en tareas comunicativas, los sujetos tienen un peor rendimiento, tanto en el reconocimiento de variantes como en su inserción en contextos. esta caracterización de las necesidades de los potenciales usuarios propicia el diseño de una microestructura de diccionarios pedagógico especializado que modele los diversos usos de la variación terminológica en la comunicación académica. s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208198 la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): …-… en cuanto a la función de la variación terminológica, los estudiantes reconocieron la función estilística en un 15% de los casos. por ejemplo, los encuestados reconocían que las variantes eran empleadas “por algo de estética”, “para mantener cierto ritmo”, para hacer el texto “más dinámico” o para “evitar la reiteración”. en un 33% de los casos, los estudiantes identificaron una utilidad cognitiva, aludiendo que “las distintas formas de referirse a un mismo concepto facilitan parte de su entendimiento”, “mejora la comprensión del término en distintas formas”, y “ayuda a profundizar y explicar en cierta forma que sería la violencia machista”. en un 15,5% de los ejemplos analizados, los estudiantes reconocieron ambas funciones de manera combinada. sin embargo, en un 63,8% de los ejemplos no se atribuyeron funciones a la variación. el tercer aspecto evaluado fue el manejo de la variación terminológica en tareas de comprensión y producción de textos, a través de un ejercicio de identificación de variantes y otro de inserción en espacios en blanco, ambos a partir de textos extraídos de nuestro corpus. en la tarea de comprensión (ver figura 3), el 31% de los sujetos identificó la totalidad de las variantes en contexto, el 14% dos de tres variantes, un 24,1% una variante, mientras que el 31% restante no identificó correctamente ninguna variante. en el ejercicio de inserción de variantes, solo el 7% de los sujetos insertó todas las variante correctamente, el 28% insertó dos variantes, el 41,3% una variante y el 24,1% ninguna. figura 3. manejo de vd en comprensión y producción de textos académicos. la figura 3 muestra que los resultados en el manejo de la variación en la comprensión son ligeramente mejores que en la producción. de acuerdo con lo que los mismos sujetos declaran, la variación facilita la comprensión y favorece una lectura más dinámica, pero al mirar los resultados podemos observar que no logran poner en práctica este conocimiento, almacenándose como un conocimiento declarativo y no como un conocimiento estratégico (paris, lipson y wixson, 1983). 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 198 4.2. representación de la variación terminológica en la microestructura de diccionario pedagógico especializado del área de la psicología nuestra investigación se enmarca en el ámbito de la lexicografía especializada monolingüe orientada al aprendizaje (tarp, 2005; fuertesolivera y arribas-baño, 2008; fuertes-olivera, 2010). a continuación describimos los usuarios, necesidades y funciones del diccionario: • los potenciales usuarios de este tipo de diccionarios son estudiantes de psicología que se están insertando en una comunidad discursiva, lo cual pasa por la adquisición de los conocimientos y el lenguaje de la disciplina, así como por el desarrollo de las habilidades comunicativas propias de su especialidad. los usuarios son caracterizados como semilegos, ya que si bien inician un proceso de aprendizaje, están mínimamente familiarizados con el lenguaje científico y poseen interés en la adquisición sistemática de conocimientos (tarp, 2010). • el diccionario está orientado a asistir a los usuarios en necesidades puntuales surgidas durante su proceso de aprendizaje (tarp, 2010). estás necesidades están vinculadas con la adquisición del cuerpo de conocimientos de su disciplina y con el desarrollo de habilidades comunicativas, concretamente la comprensión y producción de textos. • por lo tanto, la función del diccionario es de asistir a los potenciales usuarios en situaciones cognitivas (estudio sistemático de la disciplina y su lenguaje) y en situaciones comunicativas de recepción y producción de textos especializados en su lengua materna. nuestra propuesta se focaliza el tratamiento de la variación terminológica en una microestructura de diccionario en formato electrónico. presentamos la ficha terminológica ejemplificada con el concepto violencia de pareja y las variantes obtenidas en nuestro análisis de corpus. la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 199 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 199 la entrada contiene los siguientes campos: concepto, definición(es), área(s) temática(s), variantes formales, sinónimos, términos relacionados, y construcción discursiva. a continuación comentamos cada uno de ellos: concepto: proponemos una organización onomasiológica del diccionario, que permita acceder a partir del concepto y sus distintas variantes. de esta s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208200 la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): …-… concepto ej. violencia de pareja área(s) temática(s) de la psicología y disciplinas afines ej. psicología > psicología clínica, psicología comunitaria. derecho > derecho familiar definiciones y fuente definición 1. la violencia de pareja se refiere al comportamiento de la pareja o ex pareja que causa daño físico, sexual o psicológico, incluidas la agresión física, la coacción sexual, el maltrato psicológico y las conductas de control. fuente: oms definición 2. la violencia de pareja comprende la agresión emocional y psicológica, el abuso sexual y el acoso entre miembros de una relación romántica pasada o presente. los estudios científicos y clínicos indican que la violencia íntima ejercida de forma continuada puede provocar una multiplicidad de enfermedades mentales y físicas, y las víctimas más frecuente son las mujeres y sus hijos. fuente: mccloskey, k. (2012) variantes formales (siglas, abreviaturas, símbolos, etc.) y contextos de uso. ej. ipv: sigla del término inglés intimate partner violence. contexto: “aunque algunos estudios sugieren que en estados unidos la violencia de pareja (ipv, por sus siglas en inglés) no aparece en mayor o menor grado entre los colectivos minoritarios en comparación con la población en general, los refugiados e inmigrantes sí se enfrentan a barreras especiales para que les sean prestados los servicios adecuados.” (uehling et al. 2015) sinónimos: variantes dialectales, cognitivas (cuasisinónimos) y funcionales (de registro). contexto(s) de uso: ej. violencia íntima: enfatiza que el vínculo sentimental no necesariamente está legalizado a través, por ejemplo, del matrimonio “la violencia íntima o dating violence, ha sido definida por algunos autores como el ejercicio o amenaza de un acto de violencia por al menos un miembro de una pareja no casada sobre el otro, dentro del contexto de una relación romántica” (poo y vizcarra 2008) ej. violencia conyugal: enfatiza que el tipo de relación entre agresor y víctima es estable, generalmente de matrimonio. “la violencia conyugal es un fenómeno social que ocurre en un grupo familiar, sea este el resultado de una unión consensual o legal, y que consiste en el uso de medios instrumentales por parte del cónyuge o pareja para intimidar psicológicamente o anular física, intelectual y moralmente a su pareja, con el objeto de disciplinar según su arbitrio y necesidad la vida familiar.”(loubat, ponce y salas 2007). términos relacionados: hiperónimos, hipónimos, cohipónimos, merónimos. ej. violencia intrafamiliar, violencia doméstica: términos más genéricos que pueden abarcar también la violencia hacia otros miembros de la familia, como los hijos. ej. violencia contra las mujeres: término más específico que indica que la víctima de la violencia es una mujer. sin embargo, se usa a menudo como sinónimo por tratarse del caso más común de violencia de pareja. construcción discursiva: violencia de pareja en jóvenes universitarios (título) “la violencia íntima se ha constituido en las tres últimas décadas en un problema social reconocido a nivel mundial por la magnitud del fenómeno, y por las consecuencias físicas y psicológicas que acarrea. en los últimos años la preocupación respecto de este tipo de violencia se ha desplazado a los jóvenes…” (introducción) “las consecuencias descritas para quienes han sufrido violencia de pareja son trastornos depresivos […] así como el riesgo de repetir el modelo de interacción violenta en futuras relaciones.” (introducción) tabla 1. microestructura de diccionario pedagógico especializado de psicología. 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 200 manera, se privilegia la orientación descriptiva al no establecer un término de referencia como prioritario. áreas temáticas: proponemos indicar las subáreas de la psicología a la que pertenece el concepto para favorecer la adquisición de la estructura de conocimiento, así como también su uso en otras disciplinas cercanas que resulten relevantes, como el derecho, la sociología, la medicina, etc. definición: proponemos para este campo una compilación de definiciones de otras fuentes reconocidas (enciclopedias de psicología, organizaciones internacionales, expertos), que permita ilustrar la naturaleza flexible de los conceptos especializados y sus diferentes perspectivas de abordaje según el sujeto y los objetivos. variantes formales: en este campo incluiríamos las variantes formales cuya referencia al concepto no sea transparente, como las siglas, abreviaturas, etc. proponemos no incluir variantes gráficas o morfosintácticas porque no encierran utilidad discursiva o cognitiva en el discurso; a excepción de variantes cuyo uso no se recomienda (como por ejemplo calcos o incorrecciones ortográficas). sinónimos: en este apartado optamos por incluir variantes motivadas cognitivamente – aquellas que remiten a un mismo concepto pero enfatizan distintos elementos del contenido conceptual – así como también variantes dialectales y funcionales. se propone no incluir las reducciones anafóricas porque su empleo no requiere más que un conocimiento básico de lexicología de la lengua materna y además no presentó dificultades para los estudiantes en el test. en todos estos casos, la información sobre el uso de las variantes se aclararía mediante una breve descripción, evitando recurrir a una tipología compleja de marcas de uso, y además irían acompañadas de contextos reales de uso. términos relacionados: la inclusión de términos relacionados (hiperónimos, hipónimos, cohipónimos, merónimos) responde a una doble función cognitiva y discursiva, ya que permite al usuario identificar las relaciones entre conceptos en su área pero también utilizarlos en discurso para referirse al concepto en cuestión y proporcionar cohesión al texto. construcción discursiva: consideramos importante incluir una sección específicamente destinada a desarrollar estrategias de comprensión y producción de textos, en las que se ilustre mediante contextos de uso reales cómo el concepto se va desplegando a lo largo del texto a través de la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 201 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 201 las distintas variantes, y cómo contribuyen a construir un texto cohesionado. 5. conclusiones en la presente investigación abordamos la variación terminológica como un fenómeno inherente al discurso especializado que debe ser caracterizado adecuadamente en los recursos terminológicos. nos apoyamos en investigaciones recientes que sugieren que la variación terminológica no es solamente producto de la adecuación del discurso al contexto geográfico, social y situacional, sino que también ejerce una función cognitiva y discursiva relevante en la construcción del conocimiento en los textos. desde el punto de vista cognitivo, la variación aporta información sobre el concepto y las relaciones con otros conceptos de la estructura conceptual; discursivamente, contribuye a la cohesión del texto y a realizar los diferentes propósitos comunicativos del género textual. por ello, información sobre el comportamiento discursivo y cognitivo de los términos puede ayudar a resolver problemas surgidos en la comprensión y producción de textos, y contribuir al desarrollo de habilidades cognitivas y comunicativas en aprendices de una especialidad. nuestra propuesta está sustentada en un estudio sobre el comportamiento real de los términos en el discurso académico de la psicología y en las necesidades que presentan los potenciales usuarios del diccionario. los datos obtenidos mediante dos metodologías diferentes proporcionan sustento empírico a nuestra propuesta lexicográfica y constituye una de las mayores fortalezas de nuestro estudio. a partir de estos resultados, la microestructura que proponemos aspira a reflejar la multidimensionalidad de los conceptos especializados y su variabilidad denominativa, mediante la inclusión en una misma entrada de unidades que no mantienen entre sí una relación de sinonimia absoluta pero que con frecuencia son utilizadas para hacer referencia al mismo concepto en los textos, como cuasisinónimos, hiperónimos, hipónimos, etc. el objetivo es modelar el uso de la variación como una estrategia tanto cognitiva como discursiva en la comprensión y producción de textos académicos. el siguiente paso consiste en diseñar la macroestructura del diccionario a partir de un vaciado terminológico de los géneros académicos que más leen los estudiantes en la carrera, y elaborar el recurso terminológico de acceso s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208202 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 202 libre para la comunidad universitaria. también consideramos que este recurso debería no solo incluir terminología, sino también fraseología típica de los géneros académicos, a fin de combinar el nivel terminológico y retórico-discursivo en un único recurso de ayuda a la lectura y escritura. historia del artículo: recibido 27 abril 2015 artículo revisado recibido 3 julio 2015 aceptado 4 julio 2015 bibliografía la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 203 abejón, t. y j. gómez de enterría (2006). “la variación terminológica y su presentación en la microestructura del glosario especializado” en l. fabbri (ed.), terminología, conocimientos, sociedad y poder: x simposio iberoamericano de terminología, 1-10. montevideo: ritermintendencia municipal de montevideo. 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(1ª ed). barcelona: iula. 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 204 nelson becerra rojas es profesor de lenguaje y literatura de la universidad de viña del mar y magíster en lingüística aplicada de la pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso (pucv). sus intereses de investigación abarcan la producción textual, los géneros especializados y la multimodalidad. actualmente, estudia el doctorado en lingüística en la pucv. notas 1 varterm (fondecyt 11121597). la variación denominativa en la representación y transmisión del conocimiento especializado (www.varterm.org). este proyecto ha sido financiado por el fondo de desarrollo científico y tecnológico de la comisión de ciencia y tecnología del gobierno de chile. 2 textstat: http://neon.niederlandistik.fu-berlin.de/textstat/. 3 en la web del proyecto se pueden consultar los nombres de los especialistas colaboradores y la base de datos del análisis. (www.varterm.org). 4 la tipología incluye causas dialectales (geográficas, cronológicas y sociales), funcionales (adecuación al nivel de lengua y especialización), discursivas (evitar repetición, economía lingüística, creatividad), interlingüísticas y cognitivas (imprecisión conceptual, distanciación ideológica, diferencias en conceptualización). 5 agradecemos a la psicóloga carla fardella cisternas (pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso, chile) su participación en la etapa de validación. la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 205 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 205 apéndice: test para la elaboración de diccionarios en el área de la psicología8 s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208206 la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): …-… apéndice: test para la elaboración de diccionarios en el área de la psicología objetivo: evaluar el conocimiento que poseen los estudiantes de psicología de segundo año en torno a la terminología de su área con el objetivo de elaborar un diccionario para estudiantes. importante: lea con detención cada una de las tareas pedidas a lo largo del test y recuerde que no existen respuestas buenas o malas. i. lea el siguiente texto extraído de una revista especializada de psicología y responda a continuación. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 estilo de apego en mujeres y su relación con el fenómeno del maltrato conyugal “se examinó el estilo de apego de mujeres que sufren violencia conyugal y cómo este estilo puede influir en la mantención de ésta. la muestra fue no probabilística por cuota y participaron 50 mujeres divididas en dos grupos homogéneos respecto de sus características sociodemográficas. en un grupo se consideró la variable maltrato conyugal. se trató de un estudio correlacional comparativo, con un diseño cuasi experimental de tipo ex post facto, en base a técnicas mixtas de investigación. se aplicó el cuestionario camir y se realizaron entrevistas semi estructuradas. el análisis de los datos se efectuó a través del programa de corrección del instrumento y las entrevistas fueron tratadas mediante la técnica de análisis de contenido. los resultados indican que el grupo de mujeres víctimas de violencia conyugal presentan estilo de apego preocupado, con características que influirían en el afrontamiento del maltrato y consecuentemente en la mantención de éste.” fuente: loubat, m., p. ponce & p. salas (2007). “estilo de apego en mujeres y su relación con el fenómeno de maltrato conyugal”. terapia psicológica 25(2): 113-122. ¿cree usted que existe una relación entre las palabras del texto “violencia conyugal” (líneas 2 y 11) y “maltrato conyugal” (líneas 1, 5, 14)? justifique su respuesta. ii. a continuación se presentan fragmentos de artículos publicados en revistas especializadas de psicología. podrá ver que en estos fragmentos se destacan términos que, a pesar de cambiar forma, hacen referencia al mismo concepto. ¿por qué cree usted que se produce esto? 1 “por consiguiente, heckman (2003) planteó un modelo para evaluar la calidad de vida en enfermedades crónicas (ciqol), donde teoriza que la satisfacción en la vida de las personas que viven con una enfermedad crónica como el vih...” “existen personas infectadas de hiv que permanecen asintomáticas durante años y otras en las que se manifiestan los síntomas relacionados con el sida o incluso hay personas en las que el sida aparece de forma rápida.” respuesta: 2 “… diabetes mellitus tipo 1 y qué factores psicológicos y sociales se relacionan con ésta, se diseñó un estudio no experimental correlacional. los participantes fueron 61 adolescentes entre 12 y 18 años de edad […] tomando en consideración los antecedentes presentados, en este estudio se persiguió responder la siguiente pregunta…” respuesta: 3 “en el caso de la violencia machista, considerando los tipos de apego antes descritos, se podría suponer que en el sustento de la conducta de permanencia de la mujer junto al agresor, se podría encontrar un patrón de apego particular, principalmente el inseguro o preocupado.” 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 206 la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208 207 s. fernández-silva y n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): …-… “en la conferencia mundial de naciones unidas sobre derechos humanos, celebrada en viena en 1993 se reconoció por primera vez en la historia a la violencia intrafamiliar contra las mujeres como una violación de sus derechos humanos.” respuesta: 4 “también influyendo el rendimiento académico, se mencionó la falta de atención y concentración, la abulia y desinterés, la inmadurez respecto a alumnos de años anteriores y los problemas de conducta así como los problemas familiares.” “por ello es tan importante la detección de esta falta de energía en los distintos ámbitos de desarrollo adolescente.” respuesta: iii. lea el siguiente fragmento de un artículo de investigación científica extraído de la revista especializada terapia psicológica y realice las tareas pedidas en los ítems 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 y 6. _____________ en jóvenes universitarios la violencia íntima se ha constituido en las tres últimas décadas en un problema social reconocido a nivel mundial por la magnitud _______________, y por las consecuencias físicas y psicológicas que acarrea […] en los últimos años la preocupación respecto a _______________ se ha desplazado a los jóvenes, dado que la conducta agresiva durante la niñez y la adolescencia ha sido identificada como un fuerte predictor de violencia posterior, el inicio precoz de las tendencias agresivas se asocia con violencia severa y crónica, no sólo durante la adolescencia sino también durante la adultez […] estudios con jóvenes norteamericanos señalan que la ruralidad, la expulsión y/o suspensión de la escuela, la existencia de múltiples parejas, y el uso de alcohol, incrementarían el riesgo _______________. iii.1.como puede ver, en el texto anterior se encuentra destacado el término “violencia íntima”. en este texto el autor empleó las variantes que se muestran en el recuadro inferir para hacer referencia a este concepto. intente ubicar en cada espacio en blanco la variante que usted cree que el autor utilizó. si es necesario puede anteponer al término las palabras: este/a/os/as, el/la/los/las, de. variantes: “violencia en pareja”, “tipo de violencia”, “fenómeno de la violencia de pareja” y “violencia de pareja” iii.2. ¿por qué cree usted que el autor se refirió a “violencia íntima” a través de todas estas expresiones? ¿cree que tiene alguna función en el texto? respuesta iii.3. ¿considera que las variantes empleadas por el autor son útiles para entender mejor el concepto de “violencia íntima”? respuesta iii.4. si usted escribiera este texto ¿utilizaría variantes adicionales a las entregadas? sí ___ no ___ iii.5. si su respuesta anterior es afirmativa, ¿cuáles? justifique su respuesta. respuesta iii.6. ¿considera que el texto estaría mejor escrito si se usara el término “violencia íntima” en todos los contextos sin variar? justifique su respuesta. iv. lea el siguiente fragmento de un artículo de investigación científica extraído de la revista especializada de psicología y realice las tareas pedidas en los ítems 12 y 13. iv.1. en el texto leído presenta una investigación sobre la percepción de la calidad de vida en personas infectadas con vih/sida. busque las referencias que en el artículo aluden a las personas que presentan vih y subráyelas. “phaladze, humans, dlamini, hulela, hadebe, sukati, et al. (2005), desarrollaron una investigación para conocer la percepción de la calidad de vida en personas infectadas con el vih/sida, en cuatro países de áfrica sub-sahariana (botswana, lesotho, sudáfrica, y swazilandia). en una muestra de 753 personas diagnosticadas con vih/sida se encontró que las personas con niveles de satisfacción de vida más altos eran 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 207 s. fernández-silva & n. becerra rojas ibérica 30 (2015): 183-208208 la variación terminológica ibérica 30 (2015): …-… aquellos con niveles educativos más bajos, que tenía menos preocupaciones económicas y financieras, que no tenían un diagnóstico clínico de vih/ sida u otras condiciones de comorbilidad, que tenían baja sintomatología y menos preocupaciones de salud. ninguno de estos participantes tomaba medicación antirretroviral en el momento de este estudio.” alpi, s., h. fernández, m. quiceno, m. lópez y c. otalvaro (2008). “calidad de vida relacionada con la salud y apoyo social funcional en pacientes diagnosticados con vih/sida”. terapia psicológica 26(1): 125-132. iv.2. ¿cuál es la relación que existe entre las palabras que usted destacó? justifique su respuesta. v. a continuación le presentamos una breve encuesta para conocer sus hábitos de escritura en la universidad. por favor, evalúe de 1 a 4 en qué medida estas afirmaciones se ajustan a su manera de redactar textos académicos de psicología, aplicando la siguiente escala: 1) totalmente de acuerdo, 2) de acuerdo, 3) en desacuerdo, 4) totalmente en desacuerdo cuando escribo un texto en la universidad, yo… ______ no presto atención a si uso o no uso siempre los mismos términos ______ intento usar siempre los mismos términos para que mi texto sea más preciso ______ uso términos diferentes para hacer más entretenida la lectura del texto ______ uso términos diferentes para que mi texto sea más comprensible 10 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 208 iberica 13 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 abstract although experts on advertising and the discourse of advertising have traditionally presented a series of features common to all adverts, the incidence of these features depends on a number of factors, including the type of product being promoted, the market being addressed and the media used. this article presents the results obtained from an analysis of a corpus of english print adverts for financial products focussing on lexical, semantic, syntactic and pragmatic aspects. initial research determined the salient features of this type of advert enabling us subsequently to observe the extent to which they differ from adverts for consumer goods in general. the rapid expansion of this product sector and its advertising over recent decades makes it a particularly interesting area to study, while industry estimates predict that the money spent on advertising in this sector will increase substantially over the next five years, ensuring its relevance as a field of study. this paper, and the material involved, can be useful in itself as a description of a particular discourse, but can also be regarded as a tool to be used in translation, translator training and the teaching of english for specific purposes. key words: discourse of advertising, discourse analysis, advertising, product sector, financial products. the advertising of financial products in the press heather adams and laura cruz garcía universidad de las palmas de gran canaria hadams@dfm.ulpgc.es & lcruz@dis.ulpgc.es 123 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 123 resumen la publicidad de productos financieros en la prensa aunque, tradicionalmente, los expertos en publicidad y en el discurso de la publicidad han hallado una serie de características comunes a los anuncios, es cierto que dependiendo del tipo de producto que se anuncia, el mercado al que se dirige y el medio empleado, la incidencia de esas características varía. el objetivo de este artículo es el de presentar los resultados obtenidos a partir del análisis de un corpus de anuncios impresos ingleses de productos financieros centrándonos en los aspectos léxico-semánticos, sintácticos y pragmáticos. una vez determinadas sus características, ha sido posible observar en qué medida se diferencian estos anuncios de los anuncios de productos de consumo en general. el auge experimentado por este sector en las últimas décadas lo convierte en un campo de estudio relevante y las previsiones indican que la inversión en publicidad en este sector aumentará considerablemente durante los próximos cinco años, con lo que la relevancia de este campo de estudio queda patente. este trabajo y el material empleado pueden ser de interés por sí mismos como la descripción de un discurso específico, pero pueden constituir una herramienta útil para tareas como la traducción y la enseñanza tanto de la traducción como del inglés para fines específicos. palabras clave: discurso publicitario, análisis del discurso, publicidad, tipo de producto, productos financieros. introduction this article presents the findings of a study on the differences in language use found in advertisements for financial products as opposed to those promoting mainstream consumer goods. the study was based on a corpus of thirty ads for financial products aimed at the general public published in two british national newspapers1 (the observer and the independent on sunday) in january and february 2004. we based our selection of products advertised on the categories established by the department of trade and industry (2004) and the financial services authority (2004) –the independent body responsible for regulating the provision of financial services in the uk–, which include the following financial products or services: banking, national savings and investments, insurance, mortgages, pensions, isas, collective investments, gilts, shares, pensions and financial advice. this sector, as we shall see below, has expanded rapidly over recent decades, and its products differ appreciably, in terms of their characteristics, from those traditionally considered to be consumer goods. our objective in h. adams & l. cruz garcía 124 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 124 125ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 the advertising of financial products this study was to analyse the content of the ads for financial products in order to determine the degree to which the discourse used differs from that used in ads for consumer products. general background the advertising of consumer products has been analysed by a number of experts (block de behar, 1992; cook, 1992; dyer, 1996; ferraz martínez, 1993 and myers, 1994, among others) in order to determine the specific uses of language found, as well as the relevance of the image, in the transmission of the message of an ad. the advertising of consumer products has evolved over a period of more than 100 years as production and marketing techniques have become increasingly sophisticated. the capacity of manufacturers to supply more goods than are actually needed has led to a wide range of ways of creating a need in the public, which will then be satisfied by manufactured goods. the more saturated the market for a particular type of product, the more complex the advertising required. an example of extremely evolved advertising can be seen when ads draw on and play on previous ads. cook (1992) gives examples of this phenomenon, and cites the successful use of the 1985 levi 501 campaign in subsequent ads for carling black label beer, in which the setting, distinctive music and parts of the script of the levi’s ad were used within the beer commercial, with an ironic twist at the end bringing the fashionable, trendy values of the jeans ad down to earth to a common sense setting more in consonance with the image of the beer product. the sector of financial products offered to the general public is a relatively recent phenomenon. in britain, the expansion of this sector over the past twenty or thirty years has been dramatic. as examples, we can cite the growth of the private pension market, as a direct result of the 1986 social security act, under which employees could “opt out” of part of their state pension and contribute the corresponding amount to a private pension fund, and the department of trade and industry’s website now tells us that in the uk the private sector provides a much higher proportion of pension payments than in nearly any other country. similarly, figures provided by the council of mortgage lenders (2004) show that loans for house purchases rose from £2,900 million pounds in 1974 to £79,400 million pounds in 2000, and £122,000 million pounds in 2003. the advertising of financial products is also big business today. information provided for 2002 by the advertising 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 125 association (2004), a federation of thirty-two trade bodies and organisations representing the advertising and promotional marketing industries in the uk, shows that this sector is one of the top three in terms of the amount of money spent on advertising, known as “adspend”. furthermore, a survey by the market research group mintel international group ltd. (2004) on the effectiveness of advertising and promotion in financial services carried out in 2004 estimates that the adspend for the financial services sector is set to grow by 55% in the 2003-2009 period. advertising in the financial products sector: legal constraints and expectations advertising products in this sector poses a dilemma. as fairclough (1994: 116) points out, sectors such as banking face increasing pressure to package their products in a similar way to traditional consumer goods, and to sell them as such: […] a particular difficulty for banks: to emulate consumer goods their services must bow to the consumer and be made attractive, simple and maximally unconstrained; yet the peculiar nature of the ‘goods’ on offer makes it imperative that consumers’ access to them be controlled by rules and safeguards. the need to control the advertising of products in this sector obliges us to look at the corresponding legal constraints. advertising in the uk is largely self-regulating. the advertising standards authority (asa), which is the selfappointed industry watchdog, promotes adherence to the british code of advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing, enforced by the committee of advertising practice (cap), for all non-broadcast advertisements published in the uk. the key concepts underpinning the code are legality, honesty, decency and truthfulness. each advertiser must ensure that their advertisements comply with the legal requirements established for the product sector. of particular interest in the financial products sector, given the complexity of the product characteristics and a possible lack of experience in the field on the part of potential customers, are the honesty principle, which forbids advertisers to exploit the credulity, lack of knowledge or inexperience of consumers and the criterion of truthfulness, which demands that no ad mislead, or be likely to mislead, through inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise (asa, 2002). h. adams & l. cruz garcía 126 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 126 this code permits comparative advertising as long as the following conditions are met: products compared must meet the same needs or be intended for the same purpose and only material, relevant, verifiable and representative features of the products may be compared (this may include price). it also stipulates that no confusion between brands, products, advertisers, trade markets, trade names, etc. may be created. it also establishes the following specific conditions for financial advertising: ads must be set out in such a way as to be easily understood by the audience being addressed to ensure that advantage is not taken of the public’s inexperience or credulity; they must state the nature of the contract being offered, any limitations, expenses, penalties and charges and the terms of withdrawal; the basis used to calculate any rates of interest, forecasts or projections should be apparent immediately; it must be clearly stated that the value of investments is variable and, unless guaranteed, can go down as well as up; it should also be made clear that past performance or experience does not necessarily give a guide for the future. any examples used must be representative (cap, 2003). however, the advertising of financial products is not limited solely by legal constraints. the public also has specific expectations about the advertising of this type of product, which advertisers ignore at their peril. research carried out in 2002 for the asa reports the following findings, of specific interest to the financial advertising sector. although there is a general acceptance of the use of hyperbole in the representation of products in ads, this acceptance does not apply to all product sectors, and financial advertising is one of the key exceptions. “unacceptable” hyperbole is perceived in areas where decisions taken can seriously affect an individual’s life and happiness, a category which clearly includes personal finance. advertisers in this category are thought to be hiding behind the small print and words used to evade or retreat from a direct or forthright statement, often referred to as “weasels”. this small print is, in the consumer’s mind, definitely present to protect the advertiser, not the consumer (asa, 2002). the mintel study of financial advertising entitled “effectiveness of advertising and promotion in financial services–uk”, mentioned above, stresses the importance of press advertising in this sector, as the written word represents the best medium for conveying detailed information. it also suggests that the use of humour helps to overcome an apathetic response by consumers to advertising in this sector, and concludes that appealing on an emotional level tends to be more effective in getting the message across. the advertising of financial products ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 127 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 127 other elements which helped to make advertising in this sector more effective include creativity and a certain degree of ingenuity. ads perceived as clever were well-received, although the study’s findings show that it is important that ads for this type of product should not try to be too clever, as this can cause confusion and alienate potential customers. the use of celebrities was also seen as positive, as were those ads that transcend the advertising medium to become a topic of everyday conversation. our initial survey of two national newspapers (the observer and the independent on sunday) in january and february 2004, revealed a plethora of suitable ads for inclusion in our corpus. this abundance of advertisements for financial products directed at the general public rather than specialists reveals the buoyancy of the sector –there is clearly more supply than demand, as competitors strive to attract the attention of potential customers. the very presence of such a large number of ads for this type of product is, in itself, indicative of the spread of consumerism into a sector which was, until relatively recently, one that covered specific financial needs (for a pension, a bank account, savings, a mortgage loan, etc.), but in which we can now see signs of advertisers creating consumer need (and therefore demand) with more sophisticated products, often aimed at encouraging customers to switch from their existing product or service provider to an alternative one. we can therefore deduce that this product sector has evolved in advertising terms beyond the stage of covering the basic needs of possible customers, and will therefore employ at least some of the strategies associated with consumer advertising. the corpus our corpus consisted of thirty press ads, as follows: mortgage products (eight ads), savings accounts (eight ads), current accounts (three ads), loans (three ads), annuities (two ads), brokerage/financial services (two ads), life assurance (one ad) and investment funds (one ad). all the ads were taken from the observer and the independent on sunday in the first two months of 2004. the first distinguishing feature of these ads is that many of them can immediately be divided into two, clearly differentiated parts. the first part, the main body, comprises written text, and often image. the second is a section located generally either along the top or the bottom of the h. adams & l. cruz garcía 128 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 128 advertisement, although it may also appear as a column running down the right hand side of the ad, containing the terms and conditions governing the products mentioned. this section, the small print, made up exclusively of written text (including numbers but no images), is presented in small, sometimes tiny, letters, and occupies a much smaller proportion of the text than the main body. however, it is linguistically denser than the main ad, containing more words. thus, the main body of one ad has 136 words while the small print of the same ad contains 506 words; in another example, the figures are 31 and 131 words respectively. the difference is not always so great but the small print always contains more words than the main body. this division into the main part and the small print was observed in 80% of the corpus. of the remaining ads, some presented a different type of division, in which the bottom part of the ad consisted of a coupon which could be sent off to request further details of the product. these ads lacked the kind of detailed information regarding terms and conditions normally found in the small print –presumably this information would be sent to those customers who requested further details. the use of the coupon did not appear to be determined by the product type. the information given in the ads can be divided into three main categories: a) information about the advertiser provided for identification purposes, largely limited to the small print; b) the product type and its characteristics, in particular the product’s terms and conditions; and c) contact details specifying how the reader can contact the advertiser. the use of images, words and numbers cook (1992: 37) uses the term “modes of communication” to refer to the use of music, pictures and language in the transmission of advertising messages. it is common to see a mixture of words, numbers and images in press ads. iconographic images (ferraz martínez, 1993), with their power to convey a set of values to be associated with the product, are increasingly important. in some sectors, such as cosmetics, the image is accompanied by little or no text and the message is transmitted by the connotative power of the values associated with the image. while the image used in an ad is undoubtedly one of the most powerful mechanisms by which the message is conveyed, the written word is also important. by contrast with the image, tacitly accepted by the addressee as the advertising of financial products ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 129 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 129 often being associative, written text is perceived as being more objective (cook, 1992). in order to serve the three laws governing advertising language, efficiency, freedom and informative economy, specified by ferraz martínez (1993), we can expect to find a number of features including heterogeneous languages (words, images, numbers, foreign words, multiple registers from the most formal to the most colloquial); innovation to the point of breaking linguistic norms, including neologisms and innovative structures, and short condensed texts in which unnecessary or not very informative elements are omitted. this principle of economy is in stark contrast to the high level of repetition often found in advertising language. research carried out in 2002 for the asa on the perception of advertising by the public drew some interesting conclusions for the financial products sector. the survey shows that people consider ads in newspapers as a valuable source of information, whereas ads in other media, such as tv and cinema were viewed as being entertaining rather than informative. the tendency to see newspaper ads as a welcome source of information on products and services was particularly true of national newspapers (as opposed to local or regional newspapers). block de behar’s affirmation (1992) that the length of text varies in proportion to the novelty of the product, and that the written text in an ad for a well-known product will tend to be shorter than that of an ad for a new product needing a more detailed explanation, expresses a related idea. the length of written text is related to the amount of information needed to convey product details to the potential consumer. in the case of our corpus, the detailed information about the product is given in the small print, which typically includes more written text, as mentioned above. as we would expect, the messages contained in our corpus were presented using a mixture of words, images and numbers. although not all the ads included images, over 60% of the corpus included iconographic images of some kind, always located in the main body. given the highly associative nature of this type of element in an ad, it constitutes a powerful tool for transmitting the values which the advertiser wishes the reader to associate the product. these values largely coincide in our corpus with those transmitted by connotative language in the main body of the ads, as described below. another central element in the transmission of the message in the advertising of financial products is the use of numbers. product characteristics are largely defined and described in numerical terms, given the importance of data such as the interest rate applied, the term or duration of h. adams & l. cruz garcía 130 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 130 the product, together with starting and redemption dates. in those ads in which comparisons are drawn between different products, comparisons are almost always based on figures, typically the interest rate applied. thus, we see, in five different ads, tables comparing the rates of the advertised products with one or more competitors, where the comparison is expressed solely in numbers. in some cases, such as ads for mortgages, the small print includes an example of the payment schedule applicable, as the following extract shows: typical example: based on a flexible mortgage of £85,000 over 20 years on a property worth £132,812.50. if 6 monthly payments of £488.13 are made, then 30 monthly payments of £556.99, then 203 monthly payments of £563.55 and a final payment of £561.66, total payable would be £134,685.79. as we shall see below, this tendency to use figures to describe and define the product has a direct impact on the use of adjectives, normally used extensively in ads for consumer products to give product descriptions. we should mention that numbers were found both in the small print and the main body sections of the ads in our corpus. language functions in financial ads as far as language function is concerned, if we take jakobson’s classification (1984) as a benchmark, consumer ads typically include language fulfilling the referential function (to describe the product), the conative or, in bühler’s terminology, appellative, function (to catch the addressee’s attention) and the emotive, or expressive, function (to persuade the potential customer). the common denominator of ads of all types is the appellative function, used to attract the addressee. cruz garcía (2001) considers that the referential function seems to be predominant in the promotion of certain types of products where detailed product description plays a key role in persuading the would-be purchaser. our analysis of the semantic content of the language used in ads for financial products shows that they include both denotative and connotative language. however, the connotative language is limited entirely to the main body of the ads; the small print consists wholly of denotative, objective information. the fact that the small print section contains more words than the main body of the ad, and that all the language within the small print the advertising of financial products ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 131 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 131 section is denotative, leads us to the inevitable conclusion that the use of language is predominantly objective and factual. however, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that, despite this preponderance of denotation, readers are likely to be more affected initially by the connotations presented, as both the image and the connotative language occupy more space and are accompanied by many more eye-catching techniques in order to attract their attention. we might suggest that the very size of the small print is, in itself, connotative. the advertiser is trying to focus the reader’s attention on the information in the main body of the ad, whereas the real terms and conditions pertaining to the products are contained in the small print. we will see, below, how this attempt to camouflage the reality of the products is mirrored by some of the values that the advertisers portray as associated with this type of product. however, at the same time, this small print information is fulfilling a real need, as the reader wants to know all the details of this type of product. the small print is present because of the advertiser’s legal obligation to provide detailed information, but also to inform the potential customer about details he/she wishes to know. thus, by virtue of its very informativeness, the small print clearly fulfils a persuasive function. early advertising of consumer products depicted or described a product in terms of its ingredients, characteristics and function. however, the situation has moved on considerably, mirroring the evolution in products, markets and marketing, and one of the main objectives of today’s advertising is to create an idealised version of the real world in which addressees feel at home, while playing on their hopes, aspirations, insecurities and dreams. this idealised parallel world exalts a series of values, including youth, independent tastes, informality, sophistication, adventure, novelty and modernity (block de behar, 1992). within the main body of the ads in our corpus, connotative language serves to promote the following values: individualism, flexibility, ease of application, security, happiness and problem-solving. the concepts of individualism, flexibility and ease of application thus promoted are diametrically opposed to the precise, restrictive conditions specified (often in the small print) in the ads: this use of connotation is an attempt to make the products more “user-friendly”. security is possibly the linchpin value that consumers look for in financial products (that they should be reliable, failsafe, guaranteed), although paradoxically, ads for investment products are legally bound to warn that the performance of such products is not h. adams & l. cruz garcía 132 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 132 guaranteed. the other values promoted here (the idea that the advertised product can solve your problems and make you happy) are common to the advertising of many other types of product, and are, therefore, not a distinguishing characteristic of ads for financial products. lexical and semantic traits before presenting the specific lexical and semantic characteristics identified in our corpus, we shall outline some of the predominant features of this type found in consumer advertising. perhaps the dominant lexical trait of advertising discourse is the repetition of all types of words, but mainly of nouns and adjectives (block de behar, 1992). adjectives abound and typically appear in comparative and superlative forms, and with the prefixes extra-, multi-, super-, ultra-, etc. dyer (1996) provides us with a list of the most commonly-occurring adjectives in advertising discourse, according to which “new” is by far the most frequently-used adjective, followed by “good”, “better”, “best”, “free”, “fresh”, “delicious”, “full”, “sure”, “clean”, “wonderful”, “special”, “fine”, “big”, “great”, “real”, “easy”, “bright”, “extra”, “rich”, and “golden”, while jackson (1991) stresses the importance given by advertisers to the emotive meanings of adjectives, at the expense of their denotative meanings. however, the analysis of our corpus has shown that in this case the product sector in question conditions the lexical and semantic characteristics of these texts. throughout our corpus the nouns associated with the product type and characteristics, as well as the contact details, are by far the most recurrent. the most commonly occurring nouns relating to product type (with over 20 occurrences in the corpus) were “mortgage”, “loan”, “account”, “isa” and “product” while the most frequently-found noun related to contact details was “office” (16 occurrences). by far the most commonly found noun of all belonged to the category of product characteristics (terms and conditions): “rate” was detected 127 times in the corpus, excluding occurrences of acronyms in which “r” stands for “rate” such as “apr” and “aer” (32 and 18 occurrences respectively). of the fifteen most recurrent nouns in the corpus (more than 20 occurrences), nine expressed product characteristics (“rate”, “interest”, “asp”, “year”, “fee”, “month”, “term”, “charge” and “balance”). the advertising of financial products ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 133 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 133 the adjectives used also tend to be factual. an examination of the most commonly occurring examples shows that those found 20 or more times in the corpus were (in descending order) “available”, “variable”, “registered”, “gross”, “current”, “monthly”, and “equivalent”. the old favourites normally associated with advertising discourse are relatively scarce in our corpus and in some cases receive special treatment: “best” is often qualified and “new” rarely applies to the product. if we bear in mind the hyperbolic use of adjectives normally associated with advertising language, some financial products are described in very moderate terms, as in “a good interest rate and reasonable access when you need it”. such restraint is by no means common in the advertising of consumer goods. an additional point concerning the use of adjectives in these ads is the relative scarcity of comparative and superlative forms. the key to this lies in the use of numbers. it is worth noting that “better” and “best” were surprisingly rare in this corpus (8 and 9 times respectively), and that their uses were often attenuated: “among the best around”, and “you could be thousands of pounds better off ”. comparisons between products are drawn by giving the different interest rates applicable. extravagant product claims are clearly not the order of the day. neologisms are very common in advertising in general, as they suggest novelty and attract the reader’s attention. however, only one neologism and no loan words were found in our corpus. the neologism “postsaver” is the name of the product, coined to link the ideas of saving and a product that operates by post. it is clear that linguistic innovation is not a key concept in the advertising of this product sector, in which one of the main values associated with the products is security. coining new words or importing foreign expressions could make the products appear less trustworthy, an attribute which might be considered negative by potential consumers. as far as verbs are concerned, “to be” is clearly predominant, indicative of an objective style. this preponderance of “to be” (despite the frequent cases of ellipsis described below) marks a style in which the information is presented as a universal truth. some 150 occurrences of this verb were counted, excluding uses as an auxiliary, while the next most recurrent verbs (“pay”, “call”, “record”, “monitor” and “quote”) were found 36, 28, 18, 17 and 13 times respectively. “pay” is used in the explanation of product terms and conditions while “call” refers to contacting the advertiser. “record” and “monitor” refer to the advertiser’s right to record and monitor telephone calls with potential customers, a concept found in over half of the ads in our h. adams & l. cruz garcía 134 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 134 corpus. and finally, “quote” appears as customers are requested to mention or quote a specific reference when they contact the advertiser. in terms of the use of adverbs in our corpus, including adverbials, the majority denote frequency, and refer to the periodicity with which payments are made or fall due, given the specific terms and conditions of the product in question. thus, the most commonly occurring expression of this type in the corpus (12 occurrences) is per annum or p.a., followed by “just”, “currently”, “annually”, “only” and “always”. the use of a distinctive latin form, commonly used in financial contexts, is in itself a distinguishing characteristic of advertisements for this type of product. the terminology used in the corpus constitutes another distinguishing factor in that it relates to either product types or characteristics, and thus belongs to the sphere of finance. the category of product characteristics offers us the largest source of specific terminology, with the compounds of “rate” particularly significant (“apr”, “bank of england base rate”, “tracker rate”, “base rate”, “contractual rate of interest”, “notional rate”, “standard variable rate” and its acronym “svr”, “annual equivalent rate” and its acronym “aer” and “repo rate”). other terms linked to product characteristics include “underpayment”, “cat”, “offsetting reserve facility”, “running yield”, “gross redemption yield”, “drawdown” and “equity release”. a more limited array of terminology refers to product type, and includes “annuity”, “mortgage”, “loan”, “cash back”, “index-tracking trust” and “mini cash isa”. advertising in general attempts to mirror everyday, face-to-face communication, as a way of bringing its idealised world closer to the target audience. this effect is achieved in a number of ways, including mechanisms commonly found in spoken conversation such as turn-taking, the assumption of knowledge shared by the characters in the ads (and the addressee), paralinguistic features such as pace, pitch, timbre, grouping, intonation, etc., dialogue and monologue formats, inner monologues, testimonials, celebrity endorsements and the use of determinedly colloquial language. in our corpus, informal words or expressions were found in the main body of eighteen of the thirty ads, but not in any great abundance. examples include expressions such as “save you hassle”, “save you a packet”, “chill out”, “a cool six months”, “whopping”, “hangover”, “what’s in it for me?”, “a bit of a mouthful” and “until money grows on trees”. in general, the the advertising of financial products ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 135 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 135 language used was more formal than we would normally expect of advertising, in line with the solidity which the advertisers wish to convey. puns and other word plays, altered spelling and other types of word modification are also common in advertising discourse for consumer products as they are a neat way of encapsulating different meanings, or referents, in short expressions. puns are particularly common and complex in english as copywriters make the most of words with exactly the same form although they belong to different grammatical categories. however, we found only two examples in our corpus, both in the same ad: “highly-rated”, which is used to mean valued or esteemed, as well as referring to a high interest rate, and the headline “it pays to be level-headed”, which includes a play on “it pays”, meaning both it is beneficial and, in this case, it will give you more money. this low incidence of puns may reflect the intention not to make the product sound frivolous. four instances of sustained metaphor were recorded. in one ad, mortgages are likened to clothing, so the advertised product is “sharp”, “made to measure” and “will look great on” the customer, whereas competitive products are “baggy” and “ill-fitting”, and the heading “this glove fits like an abbey re-mortgage deal” implies that the traditionally accepted symbol of a close fit (the glove) can now be redefined, with even more precision, in terms of the product advertised. in another ad, the advertiser’s name “smile” is mirrored by the smiley image and the text “for a happy wallet”, establishing a metaphor of happiness associated with the product. two other ads include metaphorical language, alluding to curable financial problems, such as a “financial hangover” in one case and to food/hunger in another (the mortgage is a “cake” and the additional benefits the “icing”, the interest rate is “tasty” and the potential consumer’s interest is referred to in the question “hungry to know more?”). however, in these two latter cases, metaphorical language accounts for only a small part of the text in the main body and is not central to the transmission of the message. the low incidence of metaphor appears to mirror the scant appearance of informal language and puns. while advertisers want to make their products appear attractive, it is important for them not to include too many elements that might detract from the overall impression of product reliability. h. adams & l. cruz garcía 136 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 136 syntax in this section, we shall include those items normally considered as constituting syntax although our interest in the function with which they are used leads us to highlight their semantic role. advertising language is normally expressed in simple, short sentences; the subordinate clauses found tend to be conditional, although there are examples of comparative and result clauses. imperative clauses are frequent, even disproportionate (block de behar, 1992), and are used, together with interrogatives, to establish a direct link with the addressee, while exclamations are redolent of personal, face-to-face communication. asyndeton is frequent and juxtaposed sentences are common. ellipsis is very common in advertising discourse, as it creates an atmosphere of proximity and intimacy, in which information not explicitly mentioned has to be supplied by the reader. this creates a link between the addresser, the addressee and the product. ellipsis also helps to save space, and, therefore, money. in this section, we will examine to what extent our ads differ from these general characteristics in terms of sentence and clause type, use of informal constructions, condensed noun clusters, ellipsis and explicit use of verb forms, active and passive voice, explicit reference to the first, second and third persons singular and plural (use of pronouns, possessive adjectives and pronouns) and modal verbs. the analysis of the syntax used in our corpus shows that simple, short sentences predominate, although examples of longer compound and complex sentences also occur in both the main body and the small print to explain the details of competitors’ rates quoted and to present disclaimers relating to possible future events. this type of sentence may even be found in parts of the ads that one would normally expect to have a shorter, punchier style, such as the following sub-header: invest a lump sum of at least £3,000 into any legal & general indextracking isas before 30 april 2004, then hold it until 31 december 2004 – and we’ll refund your 2004 annual management charges in february 2005. the vast majority of the simple sentences identified in the corpus were declarative, as befits factual language. exclamative and interrogative sentences were rare, and almost all the imperative constructions were found in the main body of the texts, thus fitting with the pattern of appealing directly to the reader in this section of the ad. this infrequent use of the advertising of financial products ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 137 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 137 exclamations and interrogations may be explained by the need to avoid too informal a tone. the use of such a tone could suggest a lack of seriousness, which the advertisers would not wish to see associated with the products they promote as guaranteed and reliable. several of the compound sentences found included subordinate clauses. the most commonly-observed subordinate clauses in both the main body and the small print were conditional. they were used to present product benefits (“join the thousands switching to our current account and, if you pay in £1000 a month, you’ll get 25 times more interest than barclays, […]”), and terms and conditions (“the free legal service is not available should you choose not to use the appointed panel of solicitors”). subordinate clauses were generally more varied in the main body, and were used in a number of ways. subordinate clauses of purpose expressed either what the product or advertiser does in order to generate maximum benefit for the consumer or urged the reader to contact the advertiser in order to buy the product: as the uk’s leading life insurance broker we will compare hundreds of quotes from all the uk’s leading companies to ensure that you get the right cover at the lowest price possible! subordinate clauses of result and reason, generally in the main body of the ads, express potential product benefits to persuade the potential customer to buy, as we can see in the following examples: “as you will not receive any interest on this money, there is no income tax to pay”, and “we don’t mind what you’re borrowing for, so our personal loan might be just the thing”. subordinate clauses of time express the timeframe within which particular conditions will apply (“payment holidays will be allowed after the first six months’ payments have been made […]”), and subordinate clauses of concession transmit those product benefits which are not guaranteed (“although, please remember that your capital is not guaranteed and you may not get back the amount of your original investment”). the use of juxtaposed sentences is common in both the small print and the main body. in general we can say that in the small print, this device is used to save space, as in: †0% interest on purchases and balance transfers* for six months from date account opened. *this offer excludes balance transfers from other credit h. adams & l. cruz garcía 138 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 138 cards issued by the co-operative bank p.l.c. rates correct at time of going to press and variable unless otherwise stated. credit facilities are subject to status and not available to non-uk residents or anyone under 18 years of age. by contrast, in the main body it is used to emphasise the message, to give the impression of a multitude of benefits provided by the product. this can be seen in the following example: 0% until 1 july 2004 on transfer of credit card, store card, overdraft and loan balances. 0% until 1 july 2004 on new purchases. (12.3% apr variable). 0.5% cash back on purchases. sometimes, as in the advertising of other types of products, sentences appear as juxtaposed because they have been punctuated and separated by full stops, when the use of commas would be more natural, as in “you know where the smart money is. so move your isa to us now and watch your money grow”. however, at the same time, we can also find some examples of sentences clearly linked with explicit connectors, as the following fragment shows: “the capital value of your investment is likely to fall if interest rates rise in the medium-to-long term, but similarly it could rise if interest rates fall”. as far as the idea of mirroring informal everyday language is concerned, our corpus included some instances of constructions normally associated with this type of language. however, these colloquial constructions were fairly limited, as we might expect given the type of product being advertised, and the financial commitment(s) required of the customer. fewer than 30 instances were recorded of contracted verb forms (“it’s”, “we’ll”, “don’t”, etc.), while some question forms appeared without the initial auxiliary (“want to boost your income?”, “want a quicker return?”), but in general, very few of the liberties normally to be expected in consumer advertising, were taken. advertising discourse tends to have a disproportionately high concentration of nouns and noun structures and a low density of verbs. the frequent use of noun clusters and nouns in apposition gives rise to an “inventory” style. however, in our corpus, there was a low incidence of condensed noun clusters and very few instances of nouns in apposition were found. this scarcity can be explained by the fact that the products are so often described in terms of the interest rate applied. descriptions are therefore largely made up of numbers and percentage signs, rather than by lists of nouns. the advertising of financial products ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 139 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 139 in terms of ellipsis of verb forms, we found that the verb “be” was frequently omitted. in the small print this is largely to save space, while in the main body it is often the case that the principal characteristics of the product are conveyed by naming the type of interest rate applied, accompanied by the rate in figures and a percentage sign, with no verb. thus, the high incidence of numbers fulfilling an adjectival role both reduces the concentration of nouns used and increases the incidence of ellipsis of verb forms. the most commonly-used verb form was the simple present, followed by the imperative. thus the predominant tone of the ads is one of certainty, of the presentation of facts, complemented by the appellative function of the imperative. the simple future, normally associated with the categorical claims advertisers make about the irrefutable benefits stemming from the enjoyment of their products, is used sparingly in our corpus, as befits the more tentative claims made for this type of product. both the simple future (“if you choose to minimise the interest you pay us […], we will not pay interest on an equivalent amount of the money you have in your current account and savings”) and the conditional tenses (“*aer stands for annual equivalent rate and illustrates what the interest would be if interest was paid and compounded each year”) are used in conditional sentences, usually in the small print, to explain how the terms and conditions of the product advertised will/would apply. as usual in advertising, more active than passive verb constructions were found, attributing an active role to both the potential customer and the advertiser/product. in this case, this may be a deliberate technique in order to overcome customer passivity, the reluctance on the part of potential customers to buy a possibly unfamiliar, complex type of product, which, in some cases, may bring with it a set of inescapable financial commitments for the buyer. we have already stated that advertisers are at pains to emphasise that their products can be adapted to the individual needs of each consumer, that they are flexible, and easy to apply for or manage. it is therefore logical that the ads are worded in such a way as to portray the transaction between consumer and financial entity in an active way. in advertising, the second persons singular and plural (“you”, “your” and “yours”) are used to appeal directly to the addressee, often depicted as a fictional character created within the text of the ad. the use of the first person singular is normally limited to such fictional creations within the ad, whereas advertisers use the first person plural to refer to themselves. the h. adams & l. cruz garcía 140 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 140 third persons singular and plural (“it”, “its”, “they”, “them”, “their” and “theirs”), tend to refer to outsiders, to those people who, for some reason (normally the non-consumption of the product or non-participation in the fictional world created) are excluded. explicit references to the second person are the most common in our corpus, as we would expect in texts clearly aiming to attract the reader’s attention. to this end, it occurred almost twice as many times in the main copy (146 occurrences) as in the small print (87 occurrences), thus underlining the fact that appeals to the reader are far more common in the main body (“you know where the smart money is. so move your isa to us now and watch your money grow”). the first person plural refers to the advertiser (“at intelligent finance we take the pain out of getting a mortgage”), while the third person plural is used either to refer to competitors, or to representatives of the advertiser depicted in such a way as to imply an independence from the advertiser which does not actually exist. thus, we see “they’ve helped to make us […]” and “they’re on hand to help you […]”, in an ad in which the advertiser assumes the first person plural, and where “they” refers to “our experts”. the intention here is to distance the source of the information from the advertiser, thus presenting the information as an objective fact, whereas the information is actually supplied by employees of the advertiser. neither the third person singular nor plural is used to refer to outsiders who do, or do not, use the advertised product. one of the most interesting aspects of the syntax of our corpus involved the use of modal verbs. the analysis of the most frequently-occurring modal verbs shows us that advertisers use “may” or “can” largely to communicate actions that they will carry out as they see fit (“this is a limited offer and may be withdrawn at any time”), “could” to posit, somewhat tentatively, the benefits of their products (“if the markets have left your isa looking a little shell-shocked, a nice gentle chat […] could be the natural thing to do”), “must” to stipulate the customer’s obligations (“you must be 18 or over and give us a mortgage over your property”) and “can” or “could”, to mention possible disadvantages of the products (“the value of your investments and the income from them can go down as well as up”). the use of modals in general in these ads aims to suggest the benefits of the products rather than to make categorical product claims. this is characteristic of a softer, less aggressive sales approach. the advertising of financial products ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 141 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 141 conclusions our analysis of a corpus of thirty british press advertisements for financial products suggested that adverts in this product sector mirror many of the characteristics of ads for consumer products. however, the characteristics of these products, the legal restraints applicable and consumer expectations as to acceptable types of sales approach all affect the language used to sell them. table 1 summarises the differences, both in terms of content and language use, revealed by our study. these differentiating characteristics include the division of most ads in this product sector into two immediately discernible parts. the main body of the ad, occupying the greater part of the ad, often includes an image clearly intended to imbue the product with certain abstract values which are then mirrored in the connotative language used. the small print, with no image, occupies a much smaller area of the ad but presents a higher density of written text and includes only denotative language (although the exhaustive nature of the information given clearly aims to persuade). the role played by numbers in the description and comparison of products and their characteristics has clear implications over and above the sheer abundance of figures used in the text. it affects the incidence and type of adjectives found, accounts for the negligible presence of comparative and superlative adjectival forms, explains, at least partially, the low density of noun clusters and nouns in apposition and is a factor in the high incidence of ellipsis of verb forms. the terminology used in the ads is another differentiating factor, as it pertains exclusively to the world of finance. the adjectives used tend to be factual, as do the adverbs, and contribute to more moderate product claims than are usually found in consumer advertising. the tone of the ads is serious, there is very little use of informal language and product claims are attenuated, suggesting possible benefits rather than promising them. the use of modal verbs is very distinctive in these ads, with “could”, “may” and “must” acting out clearly delimited roles. the presence of some complex sentence structures and use of explicit connectors alternates with simple sentences found in juxtaposition. h. adams & l. cruz garcía 142 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 142 in short, the language used in the advertising of financial products to the general public reflects the need of the advertiser to make the products attractive. moreover, it shows the advertiser’s awareness that the customer’s decisions as to product choice are important and are not to be taken lightly. any potential product benefits must not, therefore, be exaggerated. the results of our study reveal a variety of syntactical structures and a wealth of lexical resources, including vocabulary related to the field of finance, ranging from the every-day to the highly specialised. for this reason, this research not only provides a new contribution to discourse analysis, but also the advertising of financial products ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 143 the advertising of financial products ibérica 13 [2007]: …-… 17 imbue the product with certain abstract values which are then mirrored in the connotative language used. the small print, with no image, occupies a much smaller area of the ad but presents a higher density of written text and includes only denotative language (although the exhaustive nature of the information given clearly aims to persuade). press adverts for consumer products press adverts for financial products layout no established pattern governing layout. texts usually include a combination of headline, subheading, body, identifying information and image. frequent division into a main section and the small print. images and connotative language limited to the main body, while small print contains only factual, denotative language. words, numbers and images words, numbers and images all used to convey the message. key role of numbers in the presentation of product characteristics, advantages and comparative claims. images limited to the main body of the ad. semantics adjectives frequently used to emphasise emotive meanings rather than denotations. hyperbole common, particularly superlative forms. factual and objective, moderate claims sometimes qualified. more limited presence of adjectives given significant use of numbers. adverbs used to convey emotive meanings rather than denotations. adverbs, mainly of frequency, referring to periodicity of payments. frequent use of neologisms and loan words. very scarce use of neologisms and loan words. terminology used to make products appear scientific or endowed with latest technology. terminology belonging exclusively to the world of finance. connotative language promoting values such as youth, independent tastes, informality, sophistication, adventure, novelty and modernity. connotative language promoting individualism, flexibility and ease of application, ease of mind and problem-solving. informal language very common, mirroring spoken language. frequent use of puns and metaphors. few instances of informal expressions. puns and metaphors infrequent. syntax short, simple sentences. short simple sentences alternate with longer, more complex sentence structure. abundance of juxtaposed sentences. juxtaposed sentences alternate with longer sentence structures linked by explicit connectors. 3rd person singular and plural used to denote “others”, people who do not use/consume the product in question. infrequent use of the third person to refer to a department or group of ”allies” or colleagues of the advertiser, represented as a separate body. no specific information on modal verbs. modals used to attenuate product claims (could); to differentiate between the contractual obligations facing the potential customer (must, have to) and the freedom advertisers allow themselves to make changes in their terms in the future (may). informal structures, mirroring everyday spoken language common. very few informal structures. table 1. press ads for consumer and financial products: differentiating characteristics. 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 143 constitutes a valuable tool for translators working into and out of english, as well as offering didactic potential in the teaching of english for specific purposes and in translator training. this study provides teachers of english for specific purposes with an analysis of a type of text which can be adapted and applied in the classroom. as for translator training, our findings clearly show that language use in adverts for different types of products may differ, and therefore indicates that translators need to ensure that their pretranslation analysis of parallel texts is based on ads taken from the same product sector. (revised paper received november 2006) references heather adams is a lecturer at the faculty of translation and interpreting of the university of las palmas de gran canaria. her research fields include the translation of advertising discourse, translation into the foreign language, the teaching of foreign languages in translation studies and audiovisual translation. dr. laura cruz garcía is a lecturer at the faculty of translation and interpreting of the university of las palmas de gran canaria. her research h. adams & l. cruz garcía 144 ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 advertising association (2004). url: http://www.adassoc.org.uk/inform/in6.html [19/07/2004]. advertising standards authority (2004). the british code of advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing. url: http://www.asa.org.uk [20/07/2004]. advertising standards authority (2002). the public’s perception of advertising in today’s society.url: http://www.asa.org.uk [27/07/2004]. block de behar, l. (1992). el lenguaje de la publicidad. argentina: siglo xxi. cook, g. (1992). the discourse of advertising. new york: routledge. council of mortgage lenders (2004). url: http://www.cml.org.uk [21/07/2004]. cruz garcía, l. (2001) la traducción de textos publicitarios. los anuncios de productos informáticos. unpublished doctoral thesis. universidad de las palmas de gran canaria, las palmas de gran canaria. department of trade & industry (2004). url: http://www.dti.gov.uk/sectors_ financial.html [22/07/2004)] dyer, g. (1996). advertising as communication. london/new york: routledge. fairclough, n. (1994). discourse and social change. cambridge: polity press. ferraz martínez, a. (1993). el lenguaje de la publicidad. madrid: arco. financial services authority (2004). url: http://www.fsa.gov.uk [19/07/2004]. jackson, h. (1991). words and their meaning. london/new york: longman. jakobson, r. (1984). ensayos de lingüística general. barcelona: ariel. mintel international group ltd. (2004). effectiveness of advertising and promotion in financial services – uk. url: http://www.the-infoshop.com [29/07/2004]. myers, g. (1994). words in ads. london: edward arnold. 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 144 fields include the translation of advertising discourse, languages for specific purposes, audiovisual translation and the teaching of foreign languages in translation studies. notes 1 the newspapers mentioned are the observer dated 25/01/04, 01/02/04, 08/02/04, and the independent on sunday dated 11/01/04, 18/01/04, 25/01/04. the advertising of financial products ibérica 13 [2007]: 123-146 145 07 heather adams.qxp 6/4/07 09:05 página 145 iberica 13 ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract past research has concluded that people from collectivist cultures communicate differently from individualist cultures. this distinction has been based upon the observation of hall’s (1976) theory and has not been subjected to systematic empirical investigation. in this paper, i report a research finding examining communication behaviors of individualist cultures (sweden and finland) and collectivist cultures (hong kong and japan). the data sets were the transcripts of intercultural meetings where participants discussed and made decisions about similar topics. using this meeting data, the communication behaviors on multiple dimensions are examined. both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the data are analyzed to answer the three research questions put forward. while the quantitative aspect of the data answers research questions related to turn-taking behaviors, the qualitative data describes the discourse patterns used in relation to topic management strategies. keywords: intercultural decision-making meeting, english as business lingua franca, turn-taking behaviors, use of backchannels, floor management. resumen e l i ng l é s c o mo l e n g ua f ra nc a d e l os ne g oc i os : un an ál i s is c om pa ra ti v o d e l c omp o rta mi e nto c o mu nic at iv o y s us e s t ra te g i as e n c o nte x to s as i át ic o s y e u ro pe o s estudios previos han demostrado que las personas procedentes de culturas colectivistas se comunican de manera diferente a como lo hacen otras personas english as business lingua franca: a comparative analysis of communication behavior and strategies in asian and european contexts bertha du-babcock city university of hong kong (china) enbertha@cityu.edu.hk 99 ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 bertha du-babcock de culturas individualistas. esta distinción se ha basado en el estudio de la teoría de hall (1976), si bien no ha estado sustentada en una investigación empírica sistemática. en este trabajo presentamos los hallazgos observados tras examinar los comportamientos comunicativos de culturas individualistas (suecia y finlandia) y de culturas colectivistas (hong kong y japón). con este fin hemos usado las transcripciones de reuniones interculturales en las que los participantes debatían y tomaban decisiones sobre temas similares. a partir de los datos de estas reuniones se examinaron los compartimientos comunicativos a la luz de varias perspectivas. se analizaron aspectos tanto cuantitativos como cualitativos, con la finalidad de responder a tres cuestiones. mientras que el aspecto cuantitativo de los datos obedece a las cuestiones relacionadas con los comportamientos en el cambio de turnos a la hora de hablar, los datos cualitativos describen los modelos discursivos utilizados con relación a estrategias de articulación del tópico. palabras clave: reuniones para la toma de decisiones interculturales, inglés como lengua franca de los negocios, comportamientos en turnos de intervención, retrocanalización, distribución de intervenciones. introduction the use of english as a lingua franca (elf) has become the fastest-growing but the least recognized function of english in the world (seidlhofer, 2001 & 2003; jenkins, 2007). english as a language of communication between non-native english speakers is assuming an increasingly vital role. in contrast to the native and the established second language varieties, the use of elf has been heatedly debated but relatively little studied (mauranen & ranta, 2009). in their edited book, mauranen and ranta (2009) noted that research into elf has been slower to take off, despite pioneering work by a handful of scholars. let alone the business english as lingua franca (belf), the elf in the international business contexts. globalization accelerates need for business english communication skill. english has increasingly become the lingua franca of today’s world business language with business practitioners coming from a variety of cultural backgrounds and speaking different national languages. the phenomenon of elf in international business contexts has drawn great attention as the world of business has become globalized. with the increasing importance of english in international business, undeniably, this global trend has made english a worldwide business language and a business lingua franca. 100 in the business context, the increasing use of elf has to do with the globalization of business operations. the emergence of internationalized business operations means that a shared language is essential for communication purposes and that business professionals have to be able to communicate in english professionally and effectively. firth (1996: 240), a pioneer of elf research, noted that “english (…) used as a ‘lingua franca’, [is] a ‘contact language’, between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom english is the chosen foreign language of communication”. seidlhofer (2001: 146) defines a lingua franca as “a [shared] language by means of which the members of different speech communities can communicate with each other”. taking these two definitions of firth (1996) and seidlhofer (2001), louhialasalminen, charles and kankaanranta (2005) coined the term of elf by adding “b” to describe the use of elf in international business contexts (see also kankaanranta & louhiala-salminen, this volume). louhialasalminen, charles and kankaanranta (2005) defined belf as english used as a shared communication code when conducting business within the global business discourse community. charles (2007: 264) argued that belf differs from elf in that the domain of belf is solely business, and “its frame of reference is provided by the globalized business community. the b of belf is thus the socio-pragmatic backdrop against which language … is to be interpreted”. kankaanranta and louhiala-salminen (2010: 204) further state that: (…) english in today’s global business environment is ‘simply work’ and its use is highly contextual. thus, knowledge of the specific business context, the particular genres used in the particular business area, and overall business communication strategies are tightly intertwined with proficiency in english. consequently, “belf (…) implies a starting point where the code of communication is investigated in its own right, not as “english” in the traditional sense of the word” (rogerson-revell & louhiala-salminen, 2010: 276). this description coincides with hanford’s (2010: 145) argument that “the most important issue in business is not language ability, but the experience and ability to dynamically maneuver within the communities of practice which business people inhabit”. with globalization, a large and rapidly growing segment of non-native english speakers exchanges information in intercultural business communication settings, yet there is little systematic evaluation that english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 101 compares communication behaviors of non-native english speakers in intercultural communication situations. prior studies examining english as a business lingua franca has been a focus in europe for the past two decades. scholars such as nickerson (2002), bargiela-chiappini (2005), and louhialasalminen, charles and kankaanranta (2005) have contributed a great deal in this line of research by examining the effect of english as business or corporate languages in international business contexts. aside from the research conducted in the european continent, in asia, others studies have also investigated the communication behaviors of non-native english business professionals in multinational business meetings – see, for example, rogerson-revell (1999), bilbow (2002), or du-babcock (1999, 2003, 2005 & 2006). these studies conducted in various parts of continents have confirmed that english is an intrinsic part of communication in multinational settings and a fact of life for many international business people. this study examines the similarities and differences of the communication behaviors of hong kong chinese and swedish/finnish business professionals. specifically, the study examines the use of belf between these two groups of business professionals. consequently, the purpose of this research aims to (a) investigate communication behaviors of hong kong chinese, finnish, and swedish business professionals in intercultural business settings and (b) examine the effects of the english-language proficiency on the communication behaviors of these two researched groups. review of literature to investigate the impact of culture and english-language proficiency on the communication behaviors of the business professionals of the two researched groups, i use the concept of belf to bridge micro (interlocutor’s utterances) and macroscopic (reasons for turn-taking and topic management difference) issues. i first review the belf framework and related studies conducted in europe and asia. second, i discuss culture and english-language proficiency influences to explain bilingual business professionals’ language use in international business communication contexts. bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130102 belf in international business meetings lingua franca interactions refer to situations where “there are no nativespeakers of english present in the interaction” (nikerson, 2005: 195) in that english is used as a shared language among individuals who speak english as second or foreign language. louhiala-salminen, charles and kankaanranta (2005) described belf in a merger-acquisition environment where the interactions between swedes and finns took place in english within the organization. they investigated business communication conducted in elf in the globalizing business context in two major research projects financed by the academy of finland. the first project focused on two international corporations, both formed as a result of a merger between a swedish and a finnish company. the study examined the two most frequent communicative events (meetings and email messages) in which english was used as a lingua franca between finnish and swedish employees. the findings showed that when english was used as a shared language in the business domain, communication was facilitated, since all its speakers were on an equal footing because nobody’s native language was used. the second research project explored the notion of communicative competence in general and belf competence in particular as components of the business competence of internationally operating business professionals. the findings of the second research showed that although belf communication consisted of a hybrid of discourse features originating from both the speakers’ and hearers’ mother tongues/cultures, a number of qualities of that communication were also shared. a more recent study by kankaanranta and lu (2013) further looks into this phenomenon and the perceptions of finnish and chinese business professionals of each other’s communication. rogerson-revell (2008) investigated the use of elf in international business meetings by european business organization. she concluded that while english for international business (eib) has an essential function as a lingua franca in multilingual settings, it can also present challenges both linguistically and culturally, particularly as more and more interactions are between speakers whose first language is not english. prior studies examining english as a business lingua franca has been a focus in europe for the past two decades. scholars such as nickerson (2002) and bargiela-chiappini (2005) have contributed a great deal in this line of research by examining the effect of english as business or corporate english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 103 languages in international business contexts. other researchers from the european continent (for instance, poncini, 2002; louhiala-salminen, charles & kankaanranta, 2005; ehrenreich, 2010; kankaanranta & louhialasalminen, 2010) have investigated language choice and communication in different european languages. bargiela-chiappini and harris (1997) examined the discourse in british and italian business meetings. the study analyzed both structural and pragmatic properties of intra-cultural business meetings (british and italian) as well as the structural and pragmatic properties in intercultural business meetings that took place in an angloitalian joint venture. other studies by poncini (2002, 2003, 2004 or this volume) examined an italian company’s meetings with its international distributors. poncini’s study shows how the meeting participants constructed their business relationships through their choice of linguistic strategies. aside from the research conducted in the european continent, in asia, studies have also investigated the communication behaviors of non-native english business professionals in multinational business meetings. rogerson-revell’s (1999) study examined management meetings of a hong kong international airline corporation, and looked specifically at interactive styles and interactive strategies. in her study, rogerson-revell examined interactive strategies in terms of how participants managed their talk and how well the messages were understood. in a similar research, bilbow (2002) investigated the pragmatic aspect of interaction between native englishspeaking expatriates and local cantonese-speaking chinese in a large multinational corporation. he concluded that: (i) chinese are not as verbally active as westerners in intercultural meetings; (ii) the improper use of directness strategies was a cause for pragmatic linguistic or sociolinguistic failure in the interaction between western expatriates and local cantonesespeaking chinese; and (iii) communication breakdowns in intercultural business meetings result in perception gaps between local chinese and expatriates. two recent studies by du-babcock and tanaka (2010 & 2013) examined the communication behaviors of two researched groups coming from similar collectivist, high-context cultural backgrounds (that is, hong kong and japanese business professionals) in their decision-making meetings in using elf. the overall findings indicate that in spite of the presumed cultural similarity between the two researched groups, distinctive differences were observed in turn-taking behaviors from the quantitative perspective. findings of the qualitative comparisons show that the hong kong chinese bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130104 and japanese business professionals exhibited similarities and differences. both groups reflected their high-context cultural orientations. disagreements were also expressed differently between hong kong and japanese business professionals in intercultural meetings. in contrast, in intra-cultural meetings, while japanese business professionals carry over similar discourse patterns in disclosing their disagreements, hong kong participants tended to be more indirect in intra-cultural meetings if compared with intercultural meetings culture, english-language proficiency, and communication context the cultural context and language affect communication participation and effectiveness. at a score of 25 in hofstede’s scale of individualismcollectivism, hong kong is categorized as a collectivist culture where grouporientation cultural norm is dominated, and people act in the interests of the group and not necessarily in the interests of themselves (hofstede, 1991). in contrast, finland and sweden, with scores of 63 and 71 in the scale, are categorized as individualistic societies. it means that a high preference for a loosely-knit social framework is preferred in that swedes and finns are expected to take care of themselves and their immediate families only. adopting the cultural construct of individualism and collectivism (i-c), oetzel (1995 & 1998) developed a model of effective decision-making theory (edmt) to predict communication behavior in culturally homogeneous and heterogeneous small groups. specifically, he examined differences in the number of turns, the number of initiated conflicts, and conflict styles in a small group that are likely to be influenced by cultural ic and group composition. results of his studies show that individual communication behavior is directly affected by cultural i-c and that individuals exhibited different communication behaviors when participating in homogeneous groups as compared to when participating in heterogeneous groups. replicating oetzel’s studies, du-babcock (2003, 2005) examined the distribution of speaking time and turn-taking behavior in homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. du-babcock concluded that chinese bilinguals exhibited different communication behaviors when participating in a homogeneous group as compared to a heterogeneous group decision-making meeting. cross-cultural studies on turn-taking (see, for example, ng et al., 2000) have examined the number of turns taken during business group meetings or in english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 105 family conversations and found that turn-taking behavior appears to be influenced by cultures across all groups. gudykunst and nishida (1994) explained that this pattern of distribution can be linked to cultural differences. that is, members of individualistic cultures distribute turns unevenly, whereas members of collectivistic cultures distribute turns relatively equally because individuals from collectivistic cultures stress group sharing and harmony rather than individual gains. in addition to culture, second-language proficiency is a determining factor that affects the communication behaviors of bilingual business professionals. prior studies (for instance, du-babcock et al., 1995; dubabcock, 1999, 2003, 2005 & 2006; du-babcock & tanaka, 2010) have established that second-language proficiency is positively related to communication effectiveness and participation rates in second-language communication environments. lower proficiency individuals contribute fewer ideas and engage in language simplification and avoidance strategies by adopting a variety of practices that either alter or reduce content and ignore difficult-to-express subjects. du-babcock’s (1999 & 2006) earlier studies examined different turn-taking behaviors and strategies and concluded that the language that communicators choose to use can influence and change message content and communication behaviors. adopting the language proficiency-based explanation, the results suggested that firstand second-language proficiency differentials triggered the various communication behaviors of the cantonese bilinguals. the results also indicated that individuals with higher second-language proficiency participated at a higher rate in secondlanguage meetings than did individuals with lower second-language proficiency. her cross-cultural study (du-babcock, 2003 & 2005) on the distribution of speaking time and turn-takings between homogeneous and heterogeneous groups concluded that chinese bilinguals exhibited different communication behaviors when participating in a homogeneous as compared with a heterogeneous group decision-making meeting. taken together, both studies suggest that second-language proficiency also has a significant effect on hong kong bilinguals’ communication behavior in such types of meetings. taken together two of her earlier studies, the results suggest that culture and second-language proficiency are determining factors that affect the communication behaviors of chinese bilinguals. bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130106 yamada (1990) found that japanese participants were less active than american participants. tanaka (2006a) investigated workplace interactions in english in a japanese chemical company and further confirmed yamada’s (1990) research findings, in terms of turn-taking frequency. tanaka’s (2006a) study also concluded that japanese participants were less active participants as compared with their united states and french participants. other studies conducted in asia confirmed similar results. echoing du-babcock’s studies of the relationship between linguistic proficiency and turn-taking, these findings suggest that chinese and japanese as compared to americans and west europeans participate at lower rate due to their lower english-language proficiency. the linguistic proficiency difference, then, can create a critical communication breakdown as well as a power divergence between fluent speakers and less fluent speakers. in another study, tanaka (2006b) took a critical discourse analysis approach to analyzing power relations between japanese and french in intercultural meetings. the analysis of turn-taking patterns showed that the number of turns taken in the meeting can be affected by the speaker’s position or power, both positively and negatively. based on the literature reviewed, three research questions are put forth and they are: rq1: do business professionals from hong kong and from sweden/ finland exhibit equivalent or different communication behaviors in english business meetings? rq2: does english language proficiency affect the communication behaviors (for instance, turn-taking and number of words) of hong kong and swedish/finnish business professionals and managers in their english-language communication? rq3: do business professionals of the two researched groups use similar or different topic management strategies? research method the current study is based on two data sets which consist of asian belf data and european belf data. both sets of the belf data were derived from qualitative and quantitative data collection from two different cultural english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 107 orientations that are categorized by hofstede (1991) as individualism (sweden and finland) and collectivism (hong kong and japan). the objective of the qualitative meeting dialogues data, derived from text-based analysis, is to examine how individuals from collectivist cultural oriented societies (hong kong chinese business professionals) managed meeting talk similar to or different from individuals from individualist cultural oriented european societies (swedish and finnish business professionals). in addition, the quantitative aspect of the data (turn-taking behavior, number of words spoken and english-language proficiency) allows for the turntaking theoretical framework to be operationalized and generalized. that is, the quantitative analysis of the data consists of performing interaction analysis of the intercultural business meetings. in this section, i will first describe the collection of these two sets of belf data and the analysis of the data. data collection the research sites in the current study are business professionals from hong kong and japan (thereafter referred to as “the asian belf data”), and those business professionals from two merged swedish and finish corporations (thereafter referred to as “the helsinki belf data”) where participants engaged in elf intercultural business meetings. trade between the asiapacific region and europe comprises a significant component of global business. because of this, research on communication between these two regions has become increasingly important. the communication tasks represented in the current study required all of the business professionals to engage in business discussions around various topics in group meetings. the participants needed to share and present information from their respective viewpoints. the discussions were video and audio taped. the asian belf data the asian belf data set contains transcripts of the dialogues of five intercultural business meetings between japanese and hong kong business professionals. all of the five group decision-making meetings were held and videotaped in videotaping studios equipped with professional videoconferencing facilities. the meetings involved 26 japanese and 17 hong kong chinese business professionals. the japanese participants were business professionals who were voluntarily signed up to participate in the bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130108 study in response to the invitation announcement posted on a website. as for the hong kong business professionals, the participants were invited by one researcher to take part. she screened the participants to make sure that their professional backgrounds were at the level to adequately take part in the research. each decision-making group was made up of six to eight members consisting of a relatively equal proportion of japanese and hong kong chinese. the participants of the asian belf data assumed the role of board of directors in a simulated decision-making meeting. their task was to respond to a crisis in that the participants had to decide whether the company should recall its product that had caused 20 to 30 deaths in the past five years – see guffey & du-babcock (2010) for the description of the simulation. the communication task represented in this study required all of the participants to engage in decision-making discussions. the participants needed to share and present information from their respective viewpoints in order to reach optimal decisions. the group members had to interactively integrate inputs and make decisions that not only contributed to the profitability of the entire firm, but also took into consideration the well-being of society as a whole, rather than just make decisions that would improve results in their respective interests. in this connection, the focus of the discussions was on corporate strategy development in five topical areas that the company should adopt in its us domestic and asian markets. consequently, the dialogs captured the strategy development of the decision-making process that evolved in the board meetings. although random assignment was not possible, all of the participants had comparable and adequate english-language proficiency and interactive listening skills for business related communication. the work experience of these simulation participants was comparable and their work professions included mid-level manager, from various industries, such as private enterprises, educational institutions, pharmaceutical company, and law firms. the transcripts of five intercultural business meetings form the basis for the asian (hong kong – japan) belf data. the total word count for these five intercultural business meetings is about 43,547 words. the helsinki belf data the second set of the data for the current empirical study consist of nordic national and cross-border managerial meetings. this set of the data was english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 109 collected by a group of scholars and researchers at the former helsinki school of economics (at present aalto university) in conjunction with a research project on in-house communication in newly merged finnish/swedish corporations. the helsinki data contains a database of video-recorded company-internal meetings held in two multinational (originally nordic) corporations. three different languages are used in the data: finnish, swedish and elf. two meetings (editorial and head office meetings) were chosen for the current study data set. the data was transcribed according to conversation analytic principles developed by sacks, schegloff and jefferson (1974). the extracts of the editorial and head office meetings came from a multinational corporation that operates in the paper industry. one meeting involves a group of managers where they dealt with in-house magazine production. the other is a meeting of the management group gathered in the head office for a regular top management meeting which involved top management from sweden, finland and german. the helsinki belf data consists of a series of videotaped company internal meetings that lasted seven hours and 36 minutes. the meeting participants were finns and swedes. the meetings were conducted in english, with occasional swedish or finnish comments being injected. likewise the initial, small talk stages of the meeting – before the chairperson focused on the agenda – were in finnish or swedish. meeting participants were representatives of various business units and various organizational positions. the editorial meeting was informal and the purpose of the meetings was to decide on the contents of the next issue of the globally distributed company-internal magazine. the head office meeting discussed “big l(ondon) project”. in total 53,334 words were incorporated for qualitative analysis. data analysis involved in this study were both quantitative and qualitative data. in the quantitative data analysis, similarities and differences in the communication behaviors were defined by (i) the number of turns taken by individuals; (ii) the length of speaking time during which each group member spoke; and (iii) the number of words spoken. bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130110 turn-taking behavior analysis to assess turn-taking communication behavior, the turn-taking framework developed by sacks, schegloff and jefferson (1974) was adopted together with the specific technique used in du-babcock’s (1999, 2003, 2005 & 2006) studies. a turn consists of all the speech interactant’s utterances up to the point where another individual take over the speaking role. the number of turns taken and the number of words spoken by each participant was codified, counted, and compared. speaking time was calculated to measure the exact length of each conversational turn. the length of speaking time for each turn and words spoken were coded according to the designated interlocutors and served as a cross check of meeting interaction. as the current study seeks to examine the differences in number of turns, speaking time distribution, and number of words spoken, possible variations in meeting duration and number of meeting participants may adversely affect the accuracy of the statistical test results on the variables being examined. in order to prevent these intervening factors from confusing or influencing the statistical tests and to obtain more accurate results, we controlled and adjusted the factors (that is, to treat them as covariates and keep them constant) by using analysis of covariance (ancova) tests. to investigate how second-language proficiency affects the communication behaviors of bilingual business professionals, pearson’s correlation coefficient was also performed. in doing so, mean scores and standard deviations for all the variables are calculated and compared. ancova and pearson’s correlation coefficient tests are performed to investigate whether english-language proficiency and culture affects communication behaviors of individuals between hong kong chinese and finnish/swedish business professionals and managers when participating in their english business meetings. measurement of english-language proficiency the english proficiency of the business professionals was assessed by a native-english speaker who judged the english proficiency levels of the hong kong chinese, japanese, swedish, and finnish business professionals. the speech acts to be judged was derived from edited meeting videotapes. the judge viewed and listened to five minutes of each participant’s speech acts and assigned their proficiency levels with reference to the common european framework (cefr). the proficiency level was further reenglish as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 111 categorized: individuals with a2 and b1 were categorized as 1 indicating lowlevel of english language; b2 and c1 were categorized as intermediate-level and advanced-level of english proficiency, respectively. in regard to the qualitative data analysis, i looked for the patterns that could describe the nature of communication process in the meetings. the analysis of the transcripts and videos uncovered three aspects: socializing/small talk, use of backchannels, and floor management. results and interpretations this section first reports the results of the two research questions which were derived from quantitative analysis by examining whether different communication behaviors exhibited by the two researched groups as measured by turn-taking, speaking time, and words spoken in their respective intercultural decision-making meetings. then findings of the research question 3 are described from a qualitative perspective. the qualitative analyses look into how business professionals managed discussion topics from three perspectives; namely, socialization/small talk, backchannels, and turn-taking and floor management. quantitative analysis rq1 asks whether business professionals exhibit equivalent or different communication behaviors in intercultural business meetings. to answer rq1, the number of turns, the distribution of the speaking time, and the number of words are calculated and compared between asian belf data and helsinki belf data. as the belf data are derived from business professionals from hong kong and japan for the asian belf data, and from sweden and finland for the helsinki data, the comparisons are made to see whether there are withingroup differences between japanese and hong kong chinese and between swedish and finnish. if no significance is found, the within-group data will be combined to form the basis for the statistical analysis. table 1 compares the within-group differences of the two researched groups. to investigate whether the within-group difference exists, an ancova test was also performed. table 1 shows that while there are significant differences between hong kong and japanese business professionals in all bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130112 three aspects of the communication behaviors (i.e., number of turns, amount of speaking time, and number of words spoken) in their intercultural meetings, no significant difference is found between the swedish and finnish business professionals. for the asian belf data, the comparison data is made by contrasting the communication behaviors of the hong kong business professionals with the helsinki data. the reason for doing so is to prevent a skewing of the results due to the low english-language proficiency of japanese business professionals. as no statistical significance is found between swedes and finns, the data of the two groups will be combined for statistical analysis. comparisons of communication behaviors between the helsinki group and the hong kong group will be examined in rq1. to answer rq1, the mean scores of three dependent variables, namely, the number of speaking turns, the length of speaking time and the number of words spoken, are calculated. besides, to examine the existence of significant differences between helsinki and hong kong business professionals, ancova is performed. here, the duration of the meetings is treated as covariate to control its effect on the three dependent variables. the results are summarized in table 2. english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 113 bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): …-… decision-making meetings. then findings of the research question 3 are described from a qualitative perspective. the qualitative analyses look into how business professionals managed discussion topics from three perspectives; namely, socialization/small talk, backchannels, and turn-taking and floor management. quantitative analysis rq1 asks whether business professionals exhibit equivalent or different communication behaviors in intercultural business meetings. to answer rq1, the number of turns, the distribution of the speaking time, and the number of words are calculated and compared between asian belf data and helsinki belf data. as the belf data are derived from business professionals from hong kong and japan for the asian belf data, and from sweden and finland for the helsinki data, the comparisons are made to see whether there are within-group differences between japanese and hong kong chinese and between swedish and finnish. if no significance is found, the within-group data will be combined to form the basis for the statistical analysis. table 1 compares the within-group differences of the two researched groups. turns (number) speaking time (seconds) words (number) asia belf group hong kong 65 694 1738 japan 39 404 800 tvalue 4.000** 3.786* 20.706* helsinki belf group sweden 331 2085 5326 finland 201 1035 2502 tvalue 6.218 10.284 18.367 * statistical significance at the 0.05 level ** statistical significance at the 0.01 level table 1. a within-group comparison of the identified variables between the two researched groups in intercultural meetings. to investigate whether the within-group difference exists, an ancova test was also performed. table 1 shows that while there are significant differences between hong kong and japanese business professionals in all three aspects of the communication behaviors (i.e., number of turns, amount of speaking time, and number of words spoken) in their intercultural meetings, no significant difference is found between the swedish and finnish business professionals. for the asian belf data, the comparison data is made by contrasting the communication behaviors of the hong kong business professionals with the helsinki data. the reason for doing so is to prevent a skewing of the results due to the low english-language proficiency of japanese business professionals. as english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): …-… no statistical significance is found between swedes and finns, the data of the two groups will be combined for statistical analysis. comparisons of communication behaviors between the helsinki group and the hong kong group will be examined in rq1. to answer rq1, the mean scores of three dependent variables, namely, the number of speaking turns, the length of speaking time and the number of words spoken, are calculated. besides, to examine the existence of significant differences between helsinki and hong kong business professionals, ancova is performed. here, the duration of the meetings is treated as covariate to control its effect on the three dependent variables. the results are summarized in table 2. variables helsinki hong kong mean difference t-value turns (number) 261 54 207 10.962** speaking time (second) 1520 729 791 14.815 words (number) 3806 1749 2013 22.144** ** statistical significance at the 0.01 level table 2. mean scores of the identified variables between the two researched groups in english business meetings. the results in table 2 show that the average number of speaking turns, the average amount of speaking time and the average number of words spoken by helsinki business professionals are higher than those of the hong kong business professionals. this means that the european business professionals take more turns and use more words to express their viewpoints at the meetings. significant differences at the 0.01 level are found in the mean differences in the average number of turns and in the average number of words spoken. no significant difference is found in the mean difference in the average amount of speaking time (in seconds). rq2 examines whether english-language proficiency affects the communication behaviors (for instance, turn-taking and number of words) of the two researched groups in their business meetings. to examine the effect of language proficiency on the communication behaviors, the level of english-language proficiency was divided into three levels; namely, low, intermediate, and advanced levels according to the cefr language proficiency framework. the pearson’s correlation coefficient is performed to answer this research question. the results are summarized in table 3, which shows that english proficiency is positively correlated with the communication behaviors of helsinki and hong kong business professionals in different ways. the results in table 2 show that the average number of speaking turns, the average amount of speaking time and the average number of words spoken by helsinki business professionals are higher than those of the hong kong business professionals. this means that the european business professionals take more turns and use more words to express their viewpoints at the meetings. significant differences at the 0.01 level are found in the mean differences in the average number of turns and in the average number of words spoken. no significant difference is found in the mean difference in the average amount of speaking time (in seconds). rq2 examines whether english-language proficiency affects the communication behaviors (for instance, turn-taking and number of words) of the two researched groups in their business meetings. to examine the effect of language proficiency on the communication behaviors, the level of englishlanguage proficiency was divided into three levels; namely, low, intermediate, and advanced levels according to the cefr language proficiency framework. the pearson’s correlation coefficient is performed to answer this research question. the results are summarized in table 3, which shows that english proficiency is positively correlated with the communication behaviors of helsinki and hong kong business professionals in different ways. according to the english-language proficiency assessed by an intercultural communication specialist, the whole helsinki group possesses intermediate (b1) or advanced level (b2 and c1) of english proficiency. the results show that for the intermediate group, correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 level are found between the level of english proficiency and the number of turns and number of words spoken. in contrast, individuals with bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130114 bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): …-… english language proficiency turns (number) speaking time (seconds) words (number) helsinki group low (a1+a2) / / / intermediate (b1) 0.412* 0.357* 0.379** advanced (b2+c1) 0.416* 0.389* 0.363** hong kong group low (a1+a2) 0.310* 0.307* 0.346** intermediate (b1) 0.325* 0.314* 0.329** advanced (b2+c1) 0.417* 0.410* 0.422** * statistical significance at the 0.05 level ** statistical significance at the 0.01 level table 3. pearson’s correlation coefficients between the english proficiency and the communication behaviors between the two researched groups. according to the english-language proficiency assessed by an intercultural communication specialist, the whole helsinki group possesses intermediate (b1) or advanced level (b2 and c1) of english proficiency. the results show that for the intermediate group, correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 level are found between the level of english proficiency and the number of turns and number of words spoken. in contrast, individuals with advanced english proficiency, correlations with significant level at the 0.05 level are found between the english proficiency and the amount of speaking time (in seconds) and the number of words spoken. as for hong kong group, the results of the pearson’s correlation coefficient reveals positive correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 level in terms of the number of turns for participants with low, intermediate and advanced levels of english proficiency. correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 and 0.01 levels are also found in the number of words for business professionals with intermediate and advanced levels of english proficiency. rq2 is partially supported. the results indicate that the english-language proficiency best predicts the length of speaking time and the number of word utterances of meeting discussion among participants who possessed advanced english-language proficiency. the mixed correlation results were observed indicating that the english-language proficiency only measures partially the strength of the association with the three identified variables. when examining the transcripts of the meeting dialogues and turn interactions, it is worthy to note that the use of backchannels may have affected the results of participation rates between the two researched groups. to further examine whether english-language proficiency affects the frequent use of backchannels, frequency of backchannels was counted and calculated against the number of turns taken by individuals to obtain the percentage of backchannels used by individuals with different english-language proficiency levels. the correlation advanced english proficiency, correlations with significant level at the 0.05 level are found between the english proficiency and the amount of speaking time (in seconds) and the number of words spoken. as for hong kong group, the results of the pearson’s correlation coefficient reveals positive correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 level in terms of the number of turns for participants with low, intermediate and advanced levels of english proficiency. correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 and 0.01 levels are also found in the number of words for business professionals with intermediate and advanced levels of english proficiency. rq2 is partially supported. the results indicate that the english-language proficiency best predicts the length of speaking time and the number of word utterances of meeting discussion among participants who possessed advanced english-language proficiency. the mixed correlation results were observed indicating that the english-language proficiency only measures partially the strength of the association with the three identified variables. when examining the transcripts of the meeting dialogues and turn interactions, it is worthy to note that the use of backchannels may have affected the results of participation rates between the two researched groups. to further examine whether english-language proficiency affects the frequent use of backchannels, frequency of backchannels was counted and calculated against the number of turns taken by individuals to obtain the percentage of backchannels used by individuals with different englishlanguage proficiency levels. the correlation was also performed to examine the effect of english-language proficiency and use of backchannels. backchannel responses have been identified as a variable that affects turntaking behavior (laskowski, 2010). this widely accepted recognition has not been followed up by systematic research to measure the impact of backchannels. a backchannel is defined as behavior where a participant responds or reacts to the speaker (with “uh-huh”, “mhmm”, “eh?”) without interrupting the speaker’s turn – see, for instance, goodwin and goodwin (1992), du-babcock (2006). as backchannel responses are usually short, some researchers do not consider them to be complete utterances. however, backchannel responses (such as “(m)hm”, “yeah”, “really?”) may constitute a full turn and express agreement, disagreement, and promises. in one instance, a backchannel response can allow the speaker to retain the attention of listeners, and the speaker does not want the speaking role to be taken over by the listener. in another case, the backchannel response can be a prelude english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 115 to taking a turn of speaking, so the listener makes sounds to show he or she is planning to speak immediately. in this case, the listener may say “ahhhh” in a way that implies disagreement or that a contradiction is coming when it is the listener’s turn to speak. studies (goodwin & goodwin, 1992, among others) suggest that nonverbal backchannels (such as eye gaze, head nodding, facial movement) are essential in social interaction. however, in the current study, only verbal backchannels were measured. prototypical backchannels commonly used in this study included such utterances as “yes”, “ok”, “u-hmm”, “yeh”, and “you are right”. in comparing the use of backchannels, speech acts that include utterances such as “yes”, “ok”, “yeh”, and “you are right” by each individual are categorized as backchannels. the frequency of backchannels are categorized and counted against with the total number of turns taken by each individual. the results show that backchannels used by asian participants are that business professionals with low english-language proficiency exhibited more backchannels behaviors than those of intermediate and advanced englishlanguage proficiency individuals (38.8%, 35.7%, and 31.8% respectively). figure 1 also shows that whereas the english proficiencies of the asian business professionals increase the frequency of the use of backchannels decreases. in contrast, the backchannel behavioral patterns of the helsinki group reveal an opposite direction. the results show that helsinki business professional with advanced english proficiency (c1 level) exhibit 51.3% of backchannel which is higher than those who with b2 and b1 levels of the english-language proficiency for the use of 41.3% and 47.8% of the use of backchannels. bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130116 bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): …-… figure 1 also shows that whereas the english proficiencies of the asian business professionals increase the frequency of the use of backchannels decreases. in contrast, the backchannel behavioral patterns of the helsinki group reveal an opposite direction. the results show that helsinki business professional with advanced english proficiency (c1 level) exhibit 51.3% of backchannel which is higher than those who with b2 and b1 levels of the english-language proficiency for the use of 41.3% and 47.8% of the use of backchannels. figure 1. a comparison of the use of backchannels between the two researched groups. in addition to the comparison between groups, a comparison of the use of backchannels among four nations was also made. figure 2 shows that in the asian group individuals with low english-language proficiency tend to use more backchannels than those with higher english-language proficiency. as for the helsinki group, the results show that: (i) finns exhibited more backchannels than swedes when comparing individuals with same english-language proficiency; and that (ii) swedish business professionals with higher english-language proficiency are likely to exhibit more backchannels. in addition to the comparison between groups, a comparison of the use of backchannels among four nations was also made. figure 2 shows that in the asian group individuals with low english-language proficiency tend to use more backchannels than those with higher english-language proficiency. as for the helsinki group, the results show that: (i) finns exhibited more backchannels than swedes when comparing individuals with same englishlanguage proficiency; and that (ii) swedish business professionals with higher english-language proficiency are likely to exhibit more backchannels. after examining the frequency of backchannels among four nations, further examination of the effect of english-language proficiency on the use of backchannels is made between these two researched groups. the pearson’s correlation coefficient is performed to investigate whether the englishlanguage proficiency affects the frequency of backchannels (see table 4). the results show that for helsinki business professionals, the higher the english-language proficiency, the more frequent use of backchannels. the english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 117 english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): …-… figure 2. a comparison of the use of backchannels among four nations. after examining the frequency of backchannels among four nations, further examination of the effect of english-language proficiency on the use of backchannels is made between these two researched groups. the pearson’s correlation coefficient is performed to investigate whether the english-language proficiency affects the frequency of backchannels (see table 4). english-language proficiency business professionals low medium high helsinki .351* .403* hong kong .152 .254 .302* japanese .276* .172 * statistical significance at the 0.05 level table 4. effect of the english-language proficiency on the use of backchannels. the results show that for helsinki business professionals, the higher the englishlanguage proficiency, the more frequent use of backchannels. the same correlation pattern is also observed among hong kong business professionals. in other words, correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 level are only found with individuals who possess high-english proficiency among hong kong business professionals. as for japanese business professionals, correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 level are found with individuals who possess low english-language proficiency. in comparison with du-babcock’s (2006) study in which hong kong bilinguals who possessed lower english-language competence tended to use backchannels to show their engagements, the current study shows a conflicting result in using english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): …-… figure 2. a comparison of the use of backchannels among four nations. after examining the frequency of backchannels among four nations, further examination of the effect of english-language proficiency on the use of backchannels is made between these two researched groups. the pearson’s correlation coefficient is performed to investigate whether the english-language proficiency affects the frequency of backchannels (see table 4). english-language proficiency business professionals low medium high helsinki .351* .403* hong kong .152 .254 .302* japanese .276* .172 * statistical significance at the 0.05 level table 4. effect of the english-language proficiency on the use of backchannels. the results show that for helsinki business professionals, the higher the englishlanguage proficiency, the more frequent use of backchannels. the same correlation pattern is also observed among hong kong business professionals. in other words, correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 level are only found with individuals who possess high-english proficiency among hong kong business professionals. as for japanese business professionals, correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 level are found with individuals who possess low english-language proficiency. in comparison with du-babcock’s (2006) study in which hong kong bilinguals who possessed lower english-language competence tended to use backchannels to show their engagements, the current study shows a conflicting result in using same correlation pattern is also observed among hong kong business professionals. in other words, correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 level are only found with individuals who possess high-english proficiency among hong kong business professionals. as for japanese business professionals, correlations with significant differences at the 0.05 level are found with individuals who possess low english-language proficiency. in comparison with du-babcock’s (2006) study in which hong kong bilinguals who possessed lower english-language competence tended to use backchannels to show their engagements, the current study shows a conflicting result in using backchannels in helsinki group and hong kong group. the result of the japanese group in using backchannels is consistent with du-babcock’s findings. the motivation of using backchannels among these three groups is worth noting. consequently, the use of the backchannels will be further investigated from the qualitative aspect. qualitative data analysis rq3 asks whether business professionals from the two research groups use similar or different topic management strategies. using qualitative analysis, i examine three aspects of topic management strategies; namely socializing/small talk, backchannel behaviour and turn-taking and floor management. socializing/small talk socializing/small talk is like a lubricant, and is treated in this study as an essential component, even though it is often regarded as peripheral and marginal due to its frequent occurrence at the opening, closing and transitional positions of conversation (holmes, 2000). socializing/small talk is relational genre (du-babcock & babcock, 2007) that surrounds and intermixes with task-related communication and which develops positive attitudes that can result in more efficient and effective work-related communication. that is, if interlocutors are comfortable and excited about working with each other, the overall results can be improved work performance. socializing/small talk takes on a different degree of importance and has different patterns in asian and helsinki contexts. the degree and nature of bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130118 small talk also has to do with whether interlocutors are communicating in their first language and, when communicating in a second-language, their level of second-language proficiency. if interlocutors have lower language proficiency, it is probable that there will be less socializing/small talk as those involved need to concentrate on the task at hand. in addition, asians may avoid small talk in order to prevent from being put in a face-threatening situation due to the possibility of making grammatical errors or embarrassing statements. cultural factors also may affect the nature, frequency, and timing of socializing/small talk. in a business meeting setting, the period during which the participants await the start of the meeting constitutes a good opportunity for socializing with each other through small talk. in this period, both the asian and helsinki business professionals engaged in socializing/small talk. the nature of the socializing/small talk differs in this case not because of cultural differences but because of the prior relationship of the interlocutors. with the asians, the interlocutors did not know each other before, and therefore use this period to introduce themselves and to begin to develop their relationships. in contrast, the helsinki business professionals had already met previously, and the socializing/small talk in the beginning period serves to renew, update, and further build and solidify their relationships. excerpt 1 describes the deliberation of socializing/small talk of the asian business professionals. to do so, i analyze turns 14, 24, and 26 of excerpt 1, an excerpt from one of the five intercultural meetings. three japanese (indicated by a b c) and four hong kong chinese (indicated by d e f g) attended this meeting. in this excerpt (and other excerpts), i use italics to indicate the discourse patterns that are relevant to the topics of discussion. in the first two to five minutes, the participants in the intercultural decisionmaking meetings seemed to be consciously grounding their harmonious relationship by inserting a little piece knowledge of the partner’s language (see excerpt 1 utterances 14, 24, and 26) while introducing themselves. such deliberate discourse confirms that hong kong chinese and japanese, both being members of collectivist cultures, value interpersonal harmony. excerpt 1: 14 g: i’m cecilia, douzo yoroshiku. [pleased to meet you] 24 b: and er… 我是takano [i am takano] 26 b: i’m takano, i know a little bit only chinese ar… 你們…很漂 亮, [you all are very pretty] english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 119 in most of the intercultural meetings, interaction styles between hong kong and japanese business professionals did not differ much in greeting and selfintroduction sequences. it should be noted that code switching from english to japanese by hong kong chinese participants and english to mandarin by japanese participants is used for achieving convergence as another study of chinese and japanese business interaction (poppi, 2010) attests. since the japanese participants did not speak cantonese, mandarin chinese was the only resource for them to use during strategic code switching. although harmony-seeking is said to be one of the attributes of collectivistic culture, caution is needed when asserting that the two groups share collectivist cultural values. pre-meeting small talk is also often observed in western individualistic settings as well (mirivel & tracy, 2005). the convergence could be motivated by the need to understand each other and continue with the proceedings rather than for ideological reasons (harmony seeking) specific to collectivists. in comparison with the asian style of socialization, the meeting participants of the helsinki group were inclined to injecting small talk, humors from time to time, especially the initiation of new topics. comparatively, the helsinki business professionals also spent more time for socialization before the beginning of the meeting. for example, in one of the head office meetings, the meeting participants spent seven minutes and 48 seconds to have socialization / small talk before the chairperson called the meeting in order. the language for the socialization was also the combination of the native languages (finns or swedes) of the meeting participants and english. backchannel behavior the backchannel behavior exhibited by helsinki business professionals is very different from asian business professionals. when examining the use of backchannels between the two researched groups, an interesting pattern is emerged (see excerpt 2 for the helsinki meeting). in a helsinki meeting, meeting participants were discussing a big l(ondon) project issue, and 104 turns (from turn 31 to turn 134) were devoted to the discussing of this issue. however, when decomposing the speech acts, only 12 turns were related to the issues, including the first turn that was initiated by the chairperson. a, the person who was in charge of reporting the big l issue, spoke eight times in providing information. d used two turns to ask issue-related questions (for example, how many people can be accommodated in the new building bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130120 and whether the company will provide cultural training to assist family members to adjust to living in london). the analysis shows that 88 percent of the speech acts was backchannel behavior with participants teasing around the points either in a humorous or sarcastic way. excerpt 2: 31 e: raising the issue for discussion 38 a: explaining background of big l 56 a: providing more information on big l; 64 a: more information on big l and when the building would be available 66 a: list of transferees 69 a: hr matters 71 d: raising family training issue 80 a: details have not been planned yet 85 a: further clarify that there are two projects in big l project: office project and hr project; also providing the name list on these two projects 87-89 e&a: more information on who is on the list; humor[sarcastic??] beautiful steering group 112 e: the location of big l(ondon) 131 e: from turn 113 to turn 134, meeting participants continued to talk about where the exact location in a teasing tone. only in turn 131, e(chairperson) commented that the location is a quite ok area. in contrast, in a hong kong-japan intercultural meeting, the participants took 52 turns (from turn 51 to turn 103) to discuss the option of the strategies the company should take in the us market. of 52 turns, 7 turns are either silence or overlapping turns by all of the participants. in this connection, only 45 turns are used for categorization. the distribution of the turns is divided by individual participants and is categorized into two aspects: topic related discussion or backchannels. table 5 lists the frequencies. english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 121 english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): …-… japanese participants hong kong participants a b c d e f g h topic related 0 3 1 4 5 2 8 7 backchannels 0 2 1 7 1 0 2 2 total 0 5 2 11 6 2 10 9 table 5. frequency of turns in relation to topical discussion or backchannel. of the 45 turns, 30 turns are topic related discussions and 15 are backchannels. when dividing the turns by nationality, japanese business professionals only contribute 8 turns in the designated topic whereas hong kong business professionals contribute 22 turns. however, when looking at the use of backchannels, japanese business professionals exhibited twice more backchannels than hong kong business professionals (10 versus 5 turns). the frequently used backchannel wording by japanese business professionals are: “good”, “yeh”, “yes”, “um huh”, and “okay”. turn-taking and floor management the examination of turn-taking interaction and the floor management reveals similarities and differences between the helsinki group and the asian group. in a helsinki meeting, the floor management is free flowing among members except one situation when f was late for the meeting for about nine minutes. as soon as f stepped in and said “hi” to meeting attendees, e, the chairperson, immediately passed the floor to f to discuss the issue. excerpt 3 reveals that the chairperson allows the turns to be taken freely except in one case that member f was late for the meeting, and the chairperson assigned the turns to member f. next, i analyze turns 226 to 234 of excerpt 3, an excerpt from helsinki meeting that discusses the next issue of the in-house magazine. five finns (indicated by a b c g h), two swedes (indicated by d e) and 1 german (indicated by f) attended this meeting; however, only three of them appear in the excerpt. excerpt 3: 226 e: well, heinz, we are, we are looking at the april results and i just said that magazine came actually above budget, which was strong … and newsprint came out five below budget, which was the result of the strike in finland. but er, would you like to comment on any -anything especially on on on mag and … 227 f: yes 228 f: yes 229 f: that’s right 230 f: yes, only er em, can say that er em if you talk about er magazine that er, weakest points we have again is er compulsory where we have special problems with er er variable costs. … we are working on … to present this is er, much more important item, restructuring plan … … how to of the 45 turns, 30 turns are topic related discussions and 15 are backchannels. when dividing the turns by nationality, japanese business professionals only contribute 8 turns in the designated topic whereas hong kong business professionals contribute 22 turns. however, when looking at the use of backchannels, japanese business professionals exhibited twice more backchannels than hong kong business professionals (10 versus 5 turns). the frequently used backchannel wording by japanese business professionals are: “good”, “yeh”, “yes”, “um huh”, and “okay”. turn-taking and floor management the examination of turn-taking interaction and the floor management reveals similarities and differences between the helsinki group and the asian group. in a helsinki meeting, the floor management is free flowing among members except one situation when f was late for the meeting for about nine minutes. as soon as f stepped in and said “hi” to meeting attendees, e, the chairperson, immediately passed the floor to f to discuss the issue. excerpt 3 reveals that the chairperson allows the turns to be taken freely except in one case that member f was late for the meeting, and the chairperson assigned the turns to member f. next, i analyze turns 226 to 234 of excerpt 3, an excerpt from helsinki meeting that discusses the next issue of the in-house magazine. five finns (indicated by a b c g h), two swedes (indicated by d e) and 1 german (indicated by f) attended this meeting; however, only three of them appear in the excerpt. excerpt 3: 226 e: well, heinz, we are, we are looking at the april results and i just said that magazine came actually above budget, which was strong … and newsprint came out five below budget, which was the result of the strike in finland. but er, would you like to comment on any -anything especially on on on mag and … 227 f: yes 228 f: yes 229 f: that’s right 230 f: yes, only er em, can say that er em if you talk about er magazine that er, weakest points we have again is er compulsory where we have special problems with er er variable … costs. … we are working on … to present this is er, much more important item, restructuring plan … … how bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130122 to be responsible for a restructuring project … important point … in magazine. 231 e: and i have said that the protocol was doing well now… 232 f: yes, but but but not enough 233 c: mm yeah 234 f: i wouldn’t say that the direction is right, it’s it’s ok, but er, it’s not enough if if you make a bench marking if you see the total in spring in comparison to others, and we know…. management problem because there you have to be tough and you have to go really in details and have to… in contrast, the style of floor management for the asian business professionals reveals differences. taking hong kong business professionals as an example, the floor management reveals differences between intra-cultural meetings where hong kong business professionals used either their native language, cantonese, or belf language, english. excerpts 4 and 5 are examples of the deliberations between hong kong intra-cultural meetings in their native language, cantonese and in second-language, english. with regard to the floor management, the deliberations in excerpt 4, hong kong intra-cultural cantonese meeting, show when the meeting was conducted in cantonese, the floor management and turns were mostly assigned by the chairperson (indicated by b). excerpt 4: 56 b: …不如咁啦，由阿natalie個邊講先，而家有咩口野，你 你點睇今次？口下！ [natalie, how about starting from you first…] 60 b: 唔唔唔，. . . 個drugs 係combination呀，即係其實我口地 口的藥係撈埋其他口的藥去食囉 . . . 咁或者diana你點睇 呀？ [uh uh uh…diana, what’s your opinion?] 66 b: 停一停先，ok. 咁…阿angela你又同唔同意佢口既講法 [angela, do you agree with the decision on stopping ….?] 68 b: …會唔會口的醫生接收口左大家錯口既訊息，所以導 致口左咁口既誤會囉。. . . 咁呀…cecilia，咁你又點睇呀 ？ [cecilia, what do you think?] 70 b: 你同唔同意醫生去繼續去配返口的隻藥？你同意既？ (looking at f and soliciting her viewpoints) (to cecilia) [do you agree with leaving the decision to the doctor?] 77 b: 咁呀，nicole呢？[is that so. so nicole, what about you?] english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 123 in comparison, different floor management is observed when the meeting was conducted in english in that the turns were taken by participants freely after the initial floor assignment by the chairperson (see excerpt 5). in general, at the intra-cultural english meeting, the chairperson (indicated by b) interjected her ideas by clarifying the discussion of the issues or summarizing the discussion. reasons for such a different floor management can be due to the english-language proficiency of the chairperson. unlike the meeting conducted in cantonese, the chairperson spent most of her turns clarifying or summarizing the discussions in intra-cultural english meeting. excerpt 5: 176 b: … i would like er let er like er diana, to er give your opinion er, in this issue. 177-187 e&b: … i propose not to continue …, but i would allow the doctors to continue … (discussions continue between e and b) 188 a: [a took over the floor] i totally agree with celine (the chairperson) because … i see your point diana, … i agree with you. yours is moderate approach … 190-192 d, b, a: [d took over the floor] so your choice is option a? 193 e: [e took over the floor and identify the next person to take over the floor] …so, natalie, i would like to know if er you propose to stop er production and destroy er all the stocks, so you know at presence that still patients taking easyfix, so what would you do? 195 a: yes, i know so that‘s why i think we need to … to see whether any supplement or any ar other drugs could be substituted, alright, or in in in replaced that easyfix. 196 b: [b / the chairperson agrees with a’s viewpoint and re-states the key points and stresses corporate image] ... how to build up our build up or re-enhance our corporate image. it’s it’s a global, is our global asset, you know, the corporate image. and i think this approach is the most responsible behavior, to the end user, … and which is the public … 197-199 a: [a took over the floor] yes it‘s a long term ((nodding)) … tell the public again that our drug is reliable… so although we recall, for the um, now, but i think just for short term… 200 d: [d took over the floor] so you agree to recall all stocks but do you agree to destroy all stocks as well? 201-218 a, b, d: [turns from 201-218 are shared by a, b, and d to discuss the issues. the floor management is free flow.] the topics of discussion are: (a) to alleviate public worries, so as to rebertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130124 establish the public imreputation; (b) too soon to recall and destroy the product; and (c) not very trust those independent studies and those experts as well 219-220-234 e, b, a, d: [e took over the floor in turn 219 and ended his turn in 234 without invitation from the chairperson] yes, chairperson i agree [with d’s viewpoints]. e thinks that recalling and destroying the product does not solve the real problem. … i don‘t think at this moment of time, er we need to take so strong er reaction, right now. [note: from turn 220 to turn 234 the discussion was centered around whether the company should recall. e suggested that the company should hold a press conference stressing the successful cases]. in excerpt 5, the intra-cultural meeting where english was used, the chairperson initiated the topic in turn 176 and assigned the member to express her opinions. so, the turns between 177 and 187 were a dyad between the chairperson and member e. the floor then was taken by member a in turn 188, followed by d in turn 190, and e in turn 193, without the invitation of the chairperson. in turn 196, the chairperson regains the floor to summarize the viewpoints discussed from turn 177 to turn 195. then, the floors were taken by members a, d, e again from turn 197 to turn 234. conclusion the current study examines the similarities and differences of the communication behaviors of business professionals who come from different cultural contexts. the study also investigates the effects of the english-language proficiency on the communication behaviors of these two researched groups. specifically, the study examines the use of belf between asian and helsinki groups. two data sets were derived from qualitative and quantitative data collection. the objective of the qualitative data, derived from text-based analysis, is to illustrate and examine how individuals from asian societies (hong kong and japanese business professionals) managed meeting talk similarly to or different from individuals from european societies (swedish and finnish business professionals). in addition, the quantitative aspect of the data (for instance, turn-taking behavior, number of words spoken) allows for the turn-taking theoretical framework to be operationalized and generalized. english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 125 findings of the research questions are as follows: the helsinki business professionals took more turns and exhibited a larger amount of spoken words in intercultural business meetings where business english was used as lingua franca. although no significant difference was found in the amount of speaking time, this was longer in the helsinki case. the english-language proficiency correlates with the number of turns, the amount of speaking time, and the number of words spoken for both helsinki and asian business professionals who possess an advanced level of english proficiency. as for the asian business professionals, individuals with low english proficiency tended to take fewer turns, spoke less, and used fewer words to elaborate their viewpoints. results of the backchannel frequency reveal an inconsistent pattern between the two researched groups. in asian belf data, business professionals with low english-language proficiency tend to use more backchannels. the helsinki belf data, however, show the opposite backchannel patterns as those business professionals with higher english proficiency exhibit more backchannels. the qualitative analysis of the data from the two researched groups shows the following: • socialization / small talk: while asian business professionals exhibit small talk or socialization at the beginning of the meeting, helsinki business professionals are inclined to inject small talk throughout the meetings, particularly at the beginning of the topic initiation. • backchannels. asian business professionals with lower english proficiency tend to use more backchannels to reveal their engagement; however, the helsinki business professionals with advanced english proficiency use more backchannels. • turn-taking and floor management. in the cantonese meeting, the chairperson controlled the floor management. in contrast, in the helsinki meeting the chairperson did not exhibit control and there was a free flow in message exchange among the participants. bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130126 implications for further research the current research has a long-term impact by allowing future researchers to draw upon an enlarged knowledge base and for academics and business practitioners to develop and implement programs that facilitate international and intercultural business communication. for researchers, the present study can guide future research efforts as the findings will build on prior research and expand the foundation on which future research studies can be built. the findings also extend knowledge of the variables affecting english as a business or corporate lingua franca in international business contexts, so that future research studies can evaluate the international and intercultural business communication process more precisely and accurately. the research also has practical implications for academics in university settings and business practitioners in firms conducting international business. for educational institutions, the findings of the study can be used to develop teaching materials that relate to real world needs of international business communicators. for business practitioners, the results can be used to tailor their training programs to address the communication problems of non-native english communicators in specific tasks and situations. in sum, the practical significance of the research is to contribute to the theory base on international and intercultural business communication and, concurrently, to provide operational guidelines for business communication researchers and practitioners. it also provides comparisons of turn-taking and strategies in different cultures and among these cultures in international and intercultural business communication. acknowledgements this article is based on two research projects: general research fund (grf 9041451/cityu 141509 and the strategic research grant (srg 7008167) funded by the hong kong special administrative region (sar) and city university of hong kong. i gratefully acknowledge the generosity and kind support of the grf and srg funding. appreciation also goes to my coresearchers, professors tanaka, charles, and louhiala-salminen, and dr. kankaanranta for their contribution of the research data. i also wish to thank dr. juan carlos palmer-silveira, special issue editor, and the english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 127 anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the earlier manuscript. 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(1991). cultures and organization: software of the mind. maidenhead, berkshire: mcgraw-hill. holmes, j. (2000). “doing collegiality and keeping control at work: small talk in government departments” in j. coupland (ed.), small talk, 3261. london: longman. english as business lingua franca ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130 129 jenkins, j. (2007). english as a lingua franca: attitude and identity. oxford: oxford university press. kankaanranta, a. & l. louhiala-salminen (2010). “‘english? – oh, it’s just work!’: a study of belf users’ perceptions”. english for specific purposes 29: 204-209. kankaanranta. a. & l. louhiala-salminen (2013). “‘what language does global business speak?’ – the concept and development of belf”. ibérica 26: 17-34. kankaanranta, a. & w. lu (2013). “the evolution of english as the business lingua franca: signs of convergence in chinese and finnish professional communication”. journal of business and technical communication 27: 288-307. laskowski, k. (2010). “modeling norms of turntaking in multi-party conversation” in proceedings of the 48th annual meeting of the association for computational linguistics (acl2010), uppsala, sweden, 999-1008. louhiala-salminen, l., m. charles & a. kankaanranta (2005). “english as a lingua franca in nordic corporate mergers: two case companies”. english for specific purposes 24: 401-421. mauranen, a. & e. ranta (2009). english as a lingua franca. studies and findings. newcastleupon-tyne: cambridge scholars. mirivel, j.c. & k. tracy (2005). “premeeting talk: an organizationally crucial form of talk”. research on language & social interaction 38: 1-3. nickerson, c. 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(2008). “participation and performance in international business meetings”. english for specific purposes 27: 338-360. rogerson-revell, p. & l. louhiala-salminen (2010). “an introduction to language matters part 2”. journal of business communication 47: 375379. sacks, h., e. schegloff & g. jefferson (1974). “a simplest systematic for the organizational of turntaking for conversation”. language 50: 696-735. seidlhofer, b. (2001). “closing the conceptual gap: the case for a description of english as a lingua franca”. international journal of applied linguistics 15: 133-157. seidlhofer, b. (2003). a concept of international english and related issues: from “real english” to “realistic english”? strasbourg: council of europe. url: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/source/ seidlhoferen.pdf [10/07/13] tanaka, h. (2006a). “emerging english speaking business discourse in japan”. journal of asian pacific communication 16: 25-50. tanaka, h. (2006b). “corporate language policy change: the trajectory of management discourse in japan, the oppressed or the oppressor?” in r. dolón, m. labarta & j. todolí (eds.), critical discourse analysis, 279-288. valencia: universitat de valència. yamada, h. (1990). “topic management and turn distribution in business meetings: american versus japanese strategies”. text 10: 271-295. bertha du-babcock is an associate professor teaching (intercultural) business communication and communication strategies in business projects at city university of hong kong. she received the distinguished member award in 2010, the kitty o locker outstanding researcher award in 2008 and the meada gibbs outstanding teaching award in 2004. she also received outstanding article awards in the journal of business communication (2007) and business communication quarterly (2001). bertha du-babcock ibérica 26 (2013): 99-130130 01 editorial.qxd editorial the last volume (ibérica no. 26) was a special issue co-edited with juan carlos palmer-silveira (universitat jaume i, spain) and devoted to “intercultural and international business communication”. this special issue gathered a selection of very interesting works and was honoured with contributions from leading international scholars whose works recurrently appear in book chapters and journal articles dealing with international business communication. my deepest thanks to juan carlos palmer-silveira for the work carried out and his help with the final edition of the volume. additionally, i would like to highlight three other issues dealing with the international visibility and the quality of the journal: as you all probably remember, ibérica was awarded a seal of excellence by the spanish foundation of science and technology (fecyt) in 2011. that seal was awarded for two years, completing the period last spring 2013. some months ago the fecyt initiated the process for the renewal of the seal of excellence and, therefore, we endeavoured to write the reports and fill in the documents required. the final outcome is already known and i am proud to announce that ibérica has been entitled to renew its seal of excellence. the journal has met all the quality requirements and will be the holder of the seal of excellence for three years this time. ibérica is the only journal in the field of applied linguistics or modern languages (philology) that has been entitled to exhibit the 2013 renewed seal of excellence on its cover. on top of this, i am very pleased to announce that by the end of 2013 ibérica was included in two new relevant lists: academic journals database and cabell’s directory. as stated in their respective websites, academic journals database is a universal index of periodical literature covering basic research from all fields of knowledge, and is particularly strong in medical research, humanities and social sciences. it contains full-text versions from most of the articles available (at present, 1.28 million articles available online from 5,800 internationally respected journals). likewise, cabell’s directory contains a wealth of information designed to help researchers and academics match their manuscripts with the scholarly journals which are most likely to publish those manuscripts. here, journals are indexed according to twenty-four different topic areas and ibérica is included in the area of education. ibérica 27 (2014): 9-14 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 ibérica welcomes two new members to its international advisory board. these are maria vittoria calvi (from no. 26 onwards) and maurizio gotti (from this volume onwards). maria vittoria calvi is familiar to ibérica’s readers for her works on spanish for specific purposes and, more particularly, her studies on the spanish of tourism, an area in which she is a leading figure worldwide. maria vittoria calvi is, at present, professor of spanish language and translation at the italian university of milan, she has led several r&d projects on spanish lexicography and spanish for tourism and has published widely in these two particular areas. her celebrated books lengua y comunicación en el español del turismo (arco libros, 2006) and la lengua del turismo. géneros discursivos y terminología (peter lang, 2011, coedited with giovanna mapelli) have been considered seminal for all those researchers in the field of tourism languages, particularly spanish. maria vittoria calvi is at present editor in chief of cuadernos aispi. estudios de lenguas y literaturas hispánicas, the recently founded (2013) scientific journal hosted by the italian hispanic association (aispi). maurizio gotti, who, incidentally, also opens this volume, is professor of english language and translation, director of the department of foreign languages, literatures and communication, and director of the research centre on specialised languages (cerlis) at the italian university of bergamo. his main research areas are three: (i) the features and origins of specialized discourse, both in a synchronic and diachronic perspective; (ii) the history of the english language, english lexicology and lexicography; (iii) and (english) language teaching. he has published extensively in these research areas, particularly book chapters and journal articles and he is most familiar to ibérica’s audience thanks to, perhaps, his work as editor of the volumes published by peter lang as part of the linguistic insights series. maurizio gotti’s contribution to this volume is a study of popularization discourse, and here, he approaches the construct of popularization from three interrelated perspectives: popularization as reformulation, popularization as recontextualization, and popularization as a socially relevant process. his analysis portrays a complex system that implies the adoption of an integrated approach covering: (a) the cognitive dimension of knowledge; (b) textual analysis; (c) critical discourse analysis; (d) media studies; (e) semiotics; and (f) interdisciplinarity. these five areas, so gotti expects, will help to identify and describe the various aspects involved in the process of conveying specialist knowledge for information purposes – that is, popularization. editorial ibérica 27 (2014): 9-1410 karen bennett focuses on the supremacy of english in academia and how this has impacted other european academic discourses. more particularly, she first discusses “some of the cultural disjunctions that manifest themselves when the anglo-saxon academic model comes into contact with different knowledge traditions” (page 35); and then, she pays attention to the main language industries (steam and eap courses, translations services, etc.) that are contributing to maintaining the epistemological diversity of worldwide knowledge. webgenres and corporate discourse can also permeate some kind of cultural disjunctions, and these are the object of fanny domenec’s paper. the analysis of the british and american versions of two websites belonging to two american companies in the businesses of agricultural technology and oil production shows that company discourse is a reflection of social trends and, moreover, that local audiences have an impact on the rhetorical strategies employed by each company to convey information and reach a particular society. the language of wine is studied in the next two papers from rather different points of view and, thus, makes “winespeak” stand as a promising field of research within esp genre analysis and lexicography, the “user needs paradigm” is the focus of michele van der merwe and pedro a. fuertesolivera lexicographical analysis of two south-african dictionaries that deal with the lexis of wine and were published within a 40-year’s span. the authors first provide background information on specialised lexicography and then move on to offer an in-depth analysis of subject field labels as they are contained in both dictionaries. next is bozena wislocka breit’s contrastive study of wine tasting sheets. here, the author makes use of systematic functional linguistics and appraisal theory to examine the main features of wine tasting sheets and its characterization as a linguistic genre on its own. her main conclusion is that the free and quasi literary style of english texts contrasts strongly with the sobriety of the spanish tasting sheets. together with wislocka’s study, the next three articles also serve the purposes of genre and text analysis research. the contribution by jason miin-hwa lim, chek-kim loi and azirah hashim deals with the ways hypotheses are formulated in applied linguistics dissertations. more particularly, the authors carry out a qualitative investigation of a corpus of experimental doctoral dissertations submitted to 32 american universities in editorial ibérica 27 (2014): 9-14 11 the past decade furnished with the data gathered from two specialist experienced american doctoral dissertation supervisors acting as specialist informants for this particular investigation. the piece of research carried out by matthew peacock aims at investigating the frequency, disciplinary variation, distribution and function of all modals contained in a corpus of 600 research articles from twelve different science and non-science disciplines. his most valuable conclusion is that modals play a relevant role in the construction of “stance” and, eventually, “identity” because modals are employed by scholars in their research writing to express “attitudes, value judgments, and assessments towards their suggestions, claims, and propositions, and thereby accomplish the important functions of claiming and confirming membership of their discourse community, and constructing identity” (page 161). pascual cantos gómez sketches what he calls a “low-cost” technique that identifies a range of linguistic markers that discriminate among textclassification categories, and pursues the automatic classification of texts. a total of five categories and 75,000 words (that is, 15,000 words per category) comprise the ad-hoc compiled corpus and it is hoped that the discriminant function analysis performed contributes to the creation of new models and the reduction of computational costs. last, maría alcantud-díaz, alicia ricart vayá and carmen gregori-signes share their experience with a course of english for tourism and bring to our attention “digital storytelling” as an innovative and promising tool to enhance language learning in esp courses. this teaching/learning tool copes with some of the challenges set forth in the european space for higher education and provides learners with opportunities to develop the competences required and contained in the common european framework of reference for languages – particularly those regarding teamwork and use of icts. besides these research articles, this volume contains the reviews on ten books that will be of most interest to ibérica’s audience. thanks to the detailed accounts offered by reviewers, readers will: • be provided with the theoretical and practical guidelines for developing courses in esp (elena martín monje); • be initiated in statistics for linguistic research (juan carlos palmersilveira); editorial ibérica 27 (2014): 9-1412 • learn about research based on corpora and on meta-analysis, as well as applications in specialised languages (maria-lluïsa geavalor); • reflect on the most relevant pedagogical issues pertaining to the teaching and learning of english for academic and occupational purposes (maría vázquez amador); • rethink academic writing pedagogy in the european higher education area (marta aguilar); • update their knowledge on the contribution of corpora to applied linguistics, language researchers and esp users (pascual pérezparedes); • explore the current aims, methods and trends in lsp research (ana roldán-riejos); • gain awareness of how epistemic/attitudinal stance is realised and authorial voice expressed in written academic and professional genres (inmaculada fortanet-gómez); • increase their understanding of the developments in scientific discourse, research writing, and education against a globalizing scenario (ruth breeze); • learn about the publication of a new spanish-english-chinese dictionary for the olive oil industry (miguel casas gómez). i would like to thank the members of the editorial board who have contributed to the ongoing work of the journal with their suggestions and thorough evaluations during this past semester. these have been (in alphabetic order): amparo garcía-carbonell, carmen sancho guinda, chelo vargas, elena bárcena, honesto herrera, inmaculada álvarez de mon, javier herráez, joseba gonzález ardeo, juan carlos palmer silveira, mª ángeles orts, maria enriqueta cortés, maria kuteeva, marisol velasco, marta aguilar, mercedes eurrutia, michael white, ramón plo, rosa gimenez, victoria guillén. likewise, special thanks go to the invited external reviewers who have collaborated with the journal during this past year by assessing submitted manuscripts to ordinary volume issues. these have been, in alphabetic order, the following: ana c. lahuerta (universidad de oviedo), ana roldán-riejos editorial ibérica 27 (2014): 9-14 13 (universidad politécnica de madrid), ángel felices (universidad de granada), antonio lillo (universidad de alicante), carmen pérez-llantada (universidad de zaragoza), carmen piqué-noguera (universitat de valència), carmen rueda (universitat politècnica de catalunya), claudine lecrivain (universidad de cádiz), david levey (universidad de cádiz), elena martín monje (universidad nacional de educación a distancia), elena montiel ponsoda (universidad politécnica de madrid), enric llurda (universitat de lleida), françoise salager-meyer (universidad de los andes, venezuela), guadalupe aguado (universidad politécnica de madrid), iliana martínez (universidad nacional de río cuarto, argentina), javier pérez guerra (universidad de vigo), laura hidalgo downing (universidad autónoma de madrid), laura muresan (bucharest university of economic studies, romania), maría ángeles zarco (universidad de cádiz), marisa carrió-pastor (universitat politécnica de valència), nuria edo marzá (universitat jaume i), pascual pérez-paredes (universidad de murcia), philippa mungra (university of rome-la sapienza1, italy), rosario caballero (universidad de castilla-la mancha), ruth breeze (universidad de navarra), silvia molina plaza (universidad politécnica de madrid), sonia oliver del olmo (universidad autónoma de barcelona), tatiana caziani (university of palermo, italy). ana bocanegra valle universidad de cádiz (spain) editor of ibérica editorial ibérica 27 (2014): 9-1414 iberica 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the present work carries out a discursive analysis of two 2019 institutional reports on the world’s economy and their spanish translations, and endeavours to determine the role that emotion plays in the way each text is lexically verbalized. a prior lexical analysis is carried out to obtain a 60-keyword list used to create a lexical taxonomy which may allow comparison of the proportion of –emotion-free– technolects and that of emotion-laden items conceptualizing the economic situation with a positive or negative polarity in either text. subsequently, automatic processing is conducted with lingmotif (moreno-ortiz, 2017), a sentiment analysis software to establish the positive and/or negative polarity and the degree of emotional intensity in the texts. the analysis reveals how there exist rhetorical-linguistic differences in the way emotion is deployed between the reports in line with the goals of each institution, and that these differences are mirrored in their spanish translations. keywords: economic discourse, emotion, sentiment analysis, economic lexicon, english, spanish. resumen la emoción para pronosticar una recesión: análisis bilingüe léxico y de sentimiento de los informes económicos mundiales de la onu y del fmi para el año 2019 este trabajo lleva a cabo un análisis discursivo de dos informes institucionales de 2019 sobre la economía mundial y sus traducciones al español, y se propone emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis of the un and imf world economy reports for 2019 maría ángeles orts llopis universidad de murcia (spain) mageorts@um.es 217 ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 maría ángeles orts llopis determinar el papel que desempeña la emoción en la forma en que cada texto está verbalizado léxicamente. se ha realizado previamente un análisis del léxico que ha permitido obtener una lista de 60 palabras clave utilizadas para crear una taxonomía léxica capaz de permitir la comparación de la proporción de tecnicismos libres de emoción y la de elementos cargados de emoción que conceptualizan la situación económica con una polaridad positiva o negativa en cada texto. posteriormente, se ha realizado un procesamiento automático con lingmotif (moreno-ortiz, 2017), un software de análisis de sentimiento que establece la polaridad positiva y/o negativa y el grado de intensidad emocional de los textos. dicho análisis revela la existencia de diferencias retóricolingüísticas en la forma en que se emplea la emoción en cada uno de los informes que están relacionadas con los objetivos comunicativos de cada institución y que quedan reflejadas en sus traducciones al español. palabras clave: discurso económico, emoción, análisis de sentimiento, léxico económico, inglés, español. 1. introduction the world economy is, nowadays, a topic of global concern, particularly since the summer of 2008, the date marking the onset of the global systemic crisis. during the years that have followed, economy has evolved from being a subject only for connoisseurs to becoming a topic of general interest, as the evolution of global finances is warily monitored by experts and followed by laypeople through traditional media and the social networks. since the outbreak of the crisis, though, the factors that make economy a matter of general interest, and even of anxiety, seem to have become more sophisticated. political and social events –such as the advent of the trump administration in the usa, the euro crisis and brexit in europe, the changing role of emerging economies and the increasing meteorological risks due to climatic change in the world at large– have an influence on global markets and their performance, and have been identified as “market sentiment indicators”, these defined as “a combination of all investors’ views, opinions and feelings”1. consequently, trade policy controversies, financial instabilities and high debt levels constitute the focus of interest of both specialists and laypeople. in tune with this concern, as an aftermath of the previous crisis and at the threshold of a new 2020 mayhem, think tanks such as the imf and the un endeavour to warn the world at large, but mainly policymakers, of the potential dangers that loom in the future by means of recurrent reports on 218 the economic prospects for the years and months to come. a corpus of such reports constitutes the materials under scrutiny in the present work. if emotions in language is a flourishing field in areas such as appraisal theory and pragmatics (foolen, 2012; schwarz-friesel, 2015; mackenzie & alba-juez, 2019, just as a few examples), with the exception of some studies by social scientists and anthropologists (berezin, 2005, 2009, among others) it is by no means usual to associate emotion and economy. in fact, economics has traditionally been regarded as a rational, regular science, and the antithesis of emotion and sentiment (bandelj, 2009). and even if the technicalisation of the economic profession is ever increasing (biel & sosoni, 2017), which favours the coinage of new terms and the opacity of its discourse, the language of economics and finance is, nonetheless, quite close to human sentiment, plagued as it is with metaphors indicating a range of emotions such as fear and trust, where fear is connected to market anxiety and panic, and trust is connected to market confidence (charteris-black, 2004; charteris-black & ennis, 2001; herrera soler & white, 2012). hence, the present analysis is based upon the hypothesis that sentiment in economic language is expressed with items of emotion-laden value –words that indicate a process of assignment of sentiment on the part of the addresser of the text– which, in economics, take the shape of “discourse metaphors”. zinken defines discourse metaphors as “verbal expressions containing a construction that evokes an analogy negotiated in the discourse community” (2007: 445). along these lines, for musolff and zinken (2009) and zinken et al. (2008), metaphor is first a mode of argumentation, framing arguments and highlighting discursive developments. hence, discourse metaphors shall be understood here as hackneyed metaphorical projections prototypical of some genres which present a lexicalized form with a relatively fixed meaning (garrido, 2013). it is, then, our hypothesis that the type of genre under analysis, the institutional economic report, is not only colonised by emotion-free technolects, the terms of art of the profession, but also by emotion-laden items, liable to generate the basic sentiments depicted in plutchik’s model (1980) –joy-sadness, anger-fear, trust-distrust and surprise-anticipation. these emotion-laden words and expressions have the potential to turn rational or, rather, emotion-free, concepts like the human body, objects, substances, as well as structure abstract concepts, into emotion-triggers. a plethora of studies within the realm of linguistics applied to professional languages are explanatory of diverse aspects of metaphoricity, and some emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 219 approach the subject of economic metaphors with heuristic explanations, endeavouring to explain how abstract conceptualizations of economy, growth, market, market movements, etc. are made more comprehensible through images (silaški & đurović, 2010; skorczynska, 2010). but, conversely, other authors (kövecses, 2003, 2010; charteris-black, 2014) demonstrate that, in economic language, metaphorical images are linked to the rhetorical concept of pathos, that is to say, the heightening of emotional impact. specifically, a series of studies demonstrate how the economy is often portrayed as a human being who suffers maladies, describing economic problems as objects subject to breakdowns or erosion (orts & rojo, 2010; schäffner, 2012; arrese, 2015, just to mention some). in the course of our analysis we will see how “source concepts are organized into mininarratives or ‘scenarios’ that dominate the discourse manifestations of source domains”, as defined and developed by mussolf (2006: 23). we, then, seek to explicitly measure the expression of emotions in economic language with the systematic study of emotion-laden items and discourse metaphors, aiming to capture how economic problems and their solutions are described, where such lexical elements map the economic scenario with a positive or negative polarity. in a second stage, this study also aims to deploy sentiment analysis software in the attempt to capture the receiver of the message’s attention with a mixture of technical data and emotional messages. sentiment analysis, or sa, constitutes the germ of extensive literature destined to the description of different software designs for computational linguistics and automatic analyses of texts (taboada, 2016). in the area of economics, sa has provided new possibilities to unveil some of the complexities of financial markets, and as one of the instruments provided by ai (artificial intelligence), researchers have deployed its algorithms to analyse the trends of stock markets, aiding companies and investors in the fields of decision-making and risk management (devitt & ahmad, 2007; ruiz-martínez et al., 2012; uhr et al., 2014, among others). nevertheless, to our knowledge, in applied linguistics and, specifically, in genre analysis, this type of software has not been used to provide (as this study endeavours to evidence) interesting connections between words and the emotional subtext of a professional genre such as the institutional report. hence, we are poised to demonstrate how the combination of quantitative and qualitative linguistic analyses is very useful to shed some light on how it is that sentiment on similar information contents (a financial account on the state of the world’s maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244220 economy in 2019) is expressed differently, according to the role and scope of the organization behind it. 2. materials and methods the role that textual typology can play is very relevant when assessing the presence of potentially emotion-laden lexical items in economic discourse. as loma-osorio explains (2004), economic texts addressed both to expert and non-expert receivers perform informative and persuasive functions, constituting a channel to disseminate the technolects that strictly belong to the monosemic, expert-to-expert scope of communication, as well as innovative coinages of new discourse metaphors and neologisms. specifically, the institutional financial reports currently submitted to analysis constitute a means to spread economic information while describing the global economic panorama emotionally enough to exert some kind of response from the readers (mainly policymakers and economic actors). our parallel corpus consists of two 2019 reports on the state of the world economy in their original english versions and their spanish translations. the first group of subcorpora is made up of two versions of the “world economic situation and prospects 2019”, issued by the un in the course of the abovementioned year. the english version (henceforth, wesp) and its spanish translation (hereafter, wespes) are, indeed, a product of the united nations department of economic and social affairs, working together with a group of un commissions specialized in the scrutiny of economic analysis and policy in several parts of the world. wesp is defined by the institution as “a flagship publication on the state of the world economy”2, monitoring macroeconomic trends and strategies for a large number of economies worldwide. as its name suggests, apart from economic issues, the un department of economic and social affairs not only aims to offer hard and fast economic information, but it monitors social and environmental dimensions of sustainability, seeking the implementation of the 2023 agenda for sustainable development. the second group of subcorpora is offered by the imf. the imf’s world economic outlook update for january (henceforth weo in its english original)3 is one of the reports that the organization issues yearly, whose official translation into spanish, as offered by the institution, will be referred to as weoes. emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 221 contrary to wesp, weo is mainly concerned with economic affairs worldwide, since the imf’s primary purpose is the vigilance of the international monetary system, supervising issues in the macroeconomic and financial scope that have an influence on the stability of global and financial aspects. in this sense, and in tune with the role of the imf as a watchdog of international economy, the report will presumably concentrate upon macroeconomic affairs and emphasise technical information. table 1 summarizes the lexical structure of the different subcorpora after an examination with the lingmotif software (moreno-ortiz, 2017): in the table we can see how the spanish subcorpora are longer than their english originals. this confirms what was stated by vázquez ayora (1977: 336) and berg selisson (2012: 120), that spanish translations from english are systematically longer than their originals for a number of reasons, such as the fact that many one-word english constructions are translated into phrases of two or three words; english, in contrast, is a much more economical language, which translators usually tend to amplify when rendering their spanish versions. hence, wespes consists of 3496 tokens, from 1057 types, structured in 106 sentences which contain 1600 lexical items and 1614 grammatical items functionally speaking, and, formally speaking, 3170 single words and 292 multiwords. on the other hand, weoes (the imf report in spanish) is an even larger subcorpus, with 4385 words or tokens and 1203 forms or types. it should be noted that lexical richness is, comparatively, greater in the un subcorpora than in the imf ones, where there is a higher number of words repeated frequently. this can be seen in the 30.23% token/type ratio in wespes and the 27.43% in weoes. the number of sentences is lower in wespes, which again indicates a higher sentence length in the imf subcorpus. the study, as we anticipated in our previous section, consists of two phases: the first is purely lexical and carries out automatic processing by means of maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244222 t c t corpus sentences tokens types t/t ratio items lex. words func. words single words multi words wesp 106 2623 915 34.88% 2524 1600 924 2389 92 weo 137 3454 1044 30.22% 3375 2122 1253 3340 115 wespes 106 3496 1057 30.23% 2524 1600 1614 3170 292 weoes 137 4385 1203 27.43% 3375 2122 1970 4092 293 table 1. lexical structure of wespes and weoes, according to lingmotif (moreno-ortiz, 2017). i antconc 3.5.8. (anthony, 2019), a software for the extraction of data. antconc 3.5.8. is a text analysis program that allows lists of words, their frequencies and corpus keywords to be collected from textual corpora, allowing comparisons between frequencies, placements, n-grams (ergo, more or less fixed verbal sequences) and large-scale concordances. the objective of this phase was to obtain a lexical classification of the four subcorpora with a list of keywords indicating the relevance and frequency of a) emotionfree economic technolects or b) emotion-laden discourse metaphors disclosing positive or negative feelings in the description of the global economic scenario. lexical units were marked as metaphorical when the semantic tension created between the contextual meaning in which the unit is used and its basic meaning (as defined by our source of reference, in this case unterm, the united nations terminology database4), can be explained in terms of cross-domain mapping (steen, 2009: 36-37). for example, the word ‘burden’ generally refers to a serious or difficult obstacle. in economy, the term points to a second, metaphorical meaning: the responsibility to pay back an excessive amount of money. likewise, the word ‘hike’ is “a long walk in the countryside”, whereas its metaphorical meaning points to “a sudden increase in the amount or level of something”. to obtain the keyword list, an ad-hoc reference corpus was built for each language, consisting of previous versions of the un and imf reports combined provided for 2017 and 2018, containing 179,450 tokens (in the english reference corpus) and 216,970 tokens (in the spanish reference corpus). the usage of a similar reference corpus is in line with garofalo’s work (2017) and was aimed at underlining the differences in content and lexical choices between past editions of the reports and the ones subject to scrutiny, highlighting how singularly global market conditions are depicted by each of the think tanks in the present economic scenario. in a second phase, sa processing was used through lingmotif v.1.0 software (moreno ortiz, 2017). in this case, the purpose was to study the sentiment polarity (positive, negative or neutral) and the intensity of feeling (neutral to extremely intense) in each of the texts. using the results of the first phase, a complementary plugin or lexicon (one in english, one in spanish) was added to the software, consisting of a list of emotion-laden terms, mostly discourse metaphors, as the emotion-laden items in the corpus. with the aid of the plugin, the texts were processed again to observe the differences in emotional involvement of the different segments within each text. emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 223 according to the hypotheses here formulated, it is to be expected that there may be, in different measures in each subcorpus, a) both emotion-free technolects (the specialised terminology of the field) and emotion-laden items (terms with a sentiment value), and also b) different polarities of feeling in both texts, and different intensities of emotion, probably in tune with the social purpose that each institution wishes to accomplish. 3. results 3.1. phase one. the lexical study the method followed for the use of this software rendering a description of the lexical map in the imf and un subcorpora in each language entailed the elaboration of a list of stopwords, or those with grammatical, but without lexical meaning. a stopword list was made in english and in spanish to filter each subcorpus in turn, so as to eliminate the elements void of lexicality. on the other hand, so as to further restrict the framework of analysis, a list of lemmas was also incorporated in either language to cluster all the morphological variants of the different types. table 3 presents the results obtained by word keyness for either english subcorpus. due to the length of the corpus overall and the space restrictions of this work, only the first 60 keywords were chosen, many of which will be discussed below. table 2 shows, then, each term in order of keyness and their relative frequency, since the subcorpora were different in size. maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244224 emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 225 wesp order keyness relative frequency (f%) term 1 1,60 341.059 develop 2 1,98 245.751 economy 3 0,72 83.235 sustainable 4 0,80 80.591 risk 5 0,34 70.420 prospect 6 0,34 54.745 poverty 7 0,99 53.122 global 8 0,76 45.092 trade 9 0,91 37.623 policy 10 0,30 37.529 multilateral 11 0,19 36.561 dispute 12 1,45 36.180 growth 13 0,23 36.084 agenda 14 0,15 35.914 escalate 15 0,15 35.914 tension 16 0,30 32.948 inequality 17 0,95 32.087 country 18 0,15 30.932 condition 19 0,27 30.772 longer 20 0,19 28.750 diversification 21 0,15 28.321 fundamental 22 0,34 27.026 infrastructure 23 0,11 26.935 eradicating 24 0,11 26.935 poses 25 0,11 26.935 steep 26 0,69 26.405 financial 27 0,15 24.914 rural 28 0,23 24.388 vulnerability 29 0,15 23.661 vital 30 0,23 21.129 environment 31 0,15 20.818 inclusive 32 0,27 20.376 social 33 0,30 20.359 levels 34 0,11 20.250 resource 35 0,42 20.195 debt 36 0,19 19.514 require 37 0,15 19.388 reach 38 0,38 19.013 high 39 0,19 18.772 progress 40 0,30 18.742 rise 41 0,30 18.742 significant 42 0,11 18.685 institution 43 0,30 18.592 large 44 0,08 17.957 contagion 45 0,08 17.957 delivering 46 0,08 17.957 disorderly 47 0,08 17.957 fail 48 0,08 17.957 matched 49 0,08 17.957 obligation 50 0,08 17.957 power 51 0,08 17.957 redressing 52 0,08 17.957 responsive 53 0,08 17.957 retaliation 54 0,08 17.957 transparency 55 0,15 17.657 target 56 0,11 17.465 concern 57 0,11 17.465 fragility 58 0,11 17.465 heightened 59 0,11 17.465 severe 60 1,60 17.465 tariff table 2. keywords in wesp and weo. i weo order keyness relative frequency (f%) term 1 1,30 191.648 economy 2 0,41 122.378 tension 3 0,43 111.664 tariff 4 0,35 97.870 condition 5 0,29 66.395 develop 6 0,32 65.935 sentiment 7 0,75 64.557 trade 8 0,26 62.725 concern 9 0,49 55.339 risk 10 0,26 52.639 tighten 11 1,36 50.617 growth 12 0,55 47.090 price 13 0,72 44.538 global 14 0,14 43.706 escalate 15 0,17 43.501 prospect 16 0,78 42.117 policy 17 0,69 41.323 financial 18 0,29 41.113 weak 19 0,23 39.785 projection 20 0,14 38.325 brexit 21 0,23 35.112 fall 22 0,14 33.198 barrier 23 0,38 30.152 oil 24 0,26 28.371 uncertainty 25 0,14 27.584 spreads 26 0,17 27.073 sovereign 27 0,69 26.360 market 28 0,09 26.224 dispute 29 0,09 26.224 shutdown 30 0,12 25.481 aversion 31 0,12 25.481 resolve 32 0,38 23.909 projected 33 0,29 23.272 forecast 34 0,32 22.501 domestic 35 0,09 21.751 softening 36 0,12 21.658 elevated 37 0,12 21.658 regulatory 38 0,14 21.061 unchanged 39 0,35 20.227 expected 40 0,52 19.982 rate 41 0,09 19.545 emission 42 0,12 19.146 notably 43 0,35 18.409 lower 44 0,09 17.982 burden 45 0,14 17.655 revisions 46 0,06 17.483 passthrough 47 0,06 17.483 shadow 48 0,06 17.483 spark 49 0,06 17.483 truce 50 0,14 17.309 slower 51 0,12 17.276 industrial 52 0,09 16.765 contraction 53 0,09 16.765 hikes 54 0,12 16.746 momentum 55 0,14 16.049 slow 56 0,09 15.766 weighed 57 0,12 15.356 announced 58 0,23 15.312 activity 59 0,14 14.953 slowdown 60 1,30 14.947 range in the table some of the words have been highlighted in bold (those indicating economic technolects, or terms with a standardized, specific usage in economics, according to unterm), red (the emotion-laden items with a metaphorical value), green (those lexical items labelled ‘social terms’, expressing or verbalizing social involvement) and blue, marking intensifiers or softeners. if we take either subcorpus at hand, we can see that among the first 60 keywords in wesp only 4 are technolects (‘economy’, ‘trade’, ‘financial’ and ‘tariff ’). weo, in contrast, duplicates that number, with 8 terms of art: ‘price’, ‘economy’, ‘tariff ’, ‘trade’, ‘financial’, ‘spread’, ‘market’ and ‘sovereign’. words of a social character were found in wesp, such as ‘sustainable’, ‘environment’ and ‘social’, which an antconc 3.5.8. search rendered as having a positive polarity (as in ‘sustainable growth/development/finance’ or ‘social protection/goals/services’). in weo, no term with a clear social orientation was found, which seems to be symptomatic of greater narrowness of topic. once the technolects had been identified, we proceeded to analyse the sentiment items in the list. the selection was undertaken searching for their collocations and concordances in text with the aid of antconc 3.5.8. (anthony, 2019) to spot the potentially emotional lexical elements in context. finally, excel allowed a new numerical compilation of the different semantic values of positive and negative evaluation, this time taking into account their grammatical function. our antconc search unveiled 30 items in wesp: 9 positive terms (‘develop’, ‘multilateral’, ‘growth’, ‘diversification’, ‘eradicating’, ‘resource’, ‘progress’ and ‘transparency’) and 14 negative (‘risk’, ‘poverty’, ‘dispute’, ‘escalate’, ‘tension’, ‘inequality’, ‘vulnerability’, ‘debt’, ‘contagion’, ‘disorderly’, ‘fail’, ‘retaliation’, ‘concern’ and ‘fragility’), to which emotion-laden value intensifiers and softeners used to express positive (2) and negative (5) polarities were added. specifically, the intensifiers ‘steep’, ‘severe’, ‘high’, ‘significant’, ‘large’ and ‘heightened’ were found in negative contexts (as in ‘steep reductions/number of disputes’, ‘severe disruptions’, ‘significant vulnerabilities/slowdown/damage’, ‘large imbalances/risk/ repercussions’ and ‘heightened stress/volatility/tensions’), whereas ‘fundamental’ and ‘vital’ were found always in a positive context (as in ‘fundamental shift/transformation’, or in ‘vital economic transformation’). as far as weo is concerned, 28 emotion-laden items were uncovered, and the difference in polarity is even more abrupt (23 negative, against 5 positive items): 18 negative nouns were found (‘tension’, ‘concern’, ‘risk’, ‘tighten’, ‘escalate’, ‘weak’, ‘brexit’, ‘fall’, ‘barrier’, ‘uncertainty’, ‘dispute’, ‘shutdown’, maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244226 ‘aversion’, ‘burden’, ‘shadow’, ‘contraction’, ‘slowdown’ and ‘hike’), plus 5 intensifiers with a negative value (‘elevated’, ‘unchanged’, ‘slower/ slow’ and ‘softening’, as in ‘elevated debt burdens/geopolitical risks’, ‘unchanged yields’, ‘slow global growth/demand’ or ‘softening momentum’), and, finally, 5 positive sentiment words (‘growth’, ‘resolve’, ‘truce’, ‘momentum’ and ‘sentiment’). table 3 shows these results more explicitly: as we suggested at the beginning of the study, our search for concordances and collocations led to the conclusion that positive and negative items seem to be constellated as discourse metaphors triggering positive or negative responses. hence, of the negative words found in wesp, ‘dispute’, ‘retaliation’, ‘risk’, ‘escalate’, ‘tension’ and ‘disorderly’ correspond to the framing of economy as a conflict where economic problems (‘poverty’, ‘inequality’) are enemies, as in: (1) eradicating poverty by 2030 will require both double-digit growth in africa and steep reductions in income inequality. emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 227 lexical taxonomy in wesp lexical taxonomy in weo technolects (4) social words (3) technolects (8) social words (0) economy, trade, financial, tariff sustainable, environment, social economy, tariff, trade, financial, spread, market, sovereign ––– negative sentiment words (19) negative sentiment words (13) emotion-laden items intensifiers and softeners emotion-laden items intensifiers and softeners poverty, inequality, tension, dispute, retaliation, risk, escalate, disorderly vulnerability, contagion, fragility, fail, debt, concern steep severe high significant large heightened tension, concern, risk tighten, escalate, weak, brexit, fall, barrier, uncertainty, dispute, shutdown, aversion, burden, shadow, contraction slowdown, hike elevated unchanged slower/ slow softening positive sentiment words (11) positive sentiment words (5) emotion-laden items intensifiers and softeners emotion-laden items intensifiers and softeners develop, multilateral, growth, diversification, resource, progress responsive, transparency fundamental vital growth, resolve, truce, momentum, sentiment ––– table 3. lexical taxonomies in wesp and weo. a in weo, in contrast, the array of negative words pictures different metaphorical scenarios. economy as a conflict is also present, with words like ‘tension’, ‘escalate’, ‘risk’ and ‘dispute’, most also existent in wesp, but the economy is mainly conceptualized as a journey full of obstacles (as with words like ‘brexit’, ‘barrier’, ‘fall’, ‘burden’, ‘slowdown’ and ‘hike’ –always in reference to interest rates and/or tariffs, and with a negative value), sometimes a problem zone where global economies are humans that suffer (‘concern’, ‘uncertainty’, ‘aversion’, ‘weak’). see, for instance: (2) multiple factors weigh on the region’s outlook, including weak oil output growth, which offsets an expected pickup in non-oil activity. problems are also seen as objects that break (as in ‘tighten’, ‘shutdown’ and ‘contraction’). even a word like ‘development’, potentially positive, is used in negative contexts, as in: (3) but these developments occurred against a backdrop of weakening financial market sentiment, trade policy uncertainty, and concerns about china’s outlook. regarding positive scenarios, in wesp there is a conceptualization of economy as a living organism (‘develop’, ‘growth’, ‘responsive’), or as a journey (‘progress’) where economic systems are seen as objects or buildings (‘multilateral’, ‘diversification’, ‘transparency’) whose design can be improved, as in: (4) this also requires progress towards a more inclusive, flexible and responsive multilateral system. in weo the human organism conceptualization seems to be stronger (‘growth’, ‘resolve’, ‘sentiment’) while framing economy as a conflict scenario (‘truce’) or a journey (‘momentum’) show some, if scarcer, examples. table 4 below exhibits the findings for the spanish subcorpora, wespes and weoes. maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244228 table 4. keywords in wespes and weoes. emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 229 t wespes order keyness relative frequency (f%) term 1 1,60 210.707 economía 2 1,14 96.249 desarrollo 3 0,51 90.774 financiero 4 0,83 88.567 política 5 0,57 86.720 riesgo 6 0,60 72.461 comercio 7 0,86 69.733 país 8 0,31 65.206 perspectiva 9 0,20 64.517 tensión 10 0,26 62.880 pobreza 11 0,92 58.381 mundial 12 0,46 57.238 gran 13 0,20 52.360 básico 14 1,14 44.240 crecimiento 15 0,49 41.760 sostenible 16 0,23 39.992 desigualdad 17 0,17 38.785 agenda 18 0,11 36.867 desequilibrio 19 0,14 35.559 condición 20 0,20 35.230 multilateral 21 0,14 33.798 diversificación 22 0,29 33.041 clima 23 0,29 32.800 mundo 24 0,11 31.883 financiación 25 0,49 29.971 nivel 26 0,17 29.839 objetivos 27 0,11 29.269 escalada 28 0,17 29.239 servicio 29 0,09 27.650 arancel 30 0,09 27.650 controversia 31 0,09 27.650 obstáculo 32 0,11 27.366 graves 33 0,14 27.189 eficaz 34 0,11 25.857 formulación 35 0,11 24.602 amenaza 36 0,11 24.602 logro 37 0,26 24.266 podría 38 0,23 23.949 infraestructura 39 0,09 23.172 erradicar 40 0,17 22.474 ritmo 41 0,14 21.048 deben 42 0,11 20.999 tecnología 43 0,26 20.973 medida 44 0,09 20.960 percepción 45 0,09 20.960 produjo 46 0,11 20.316 fundamental 47 0,17 19.972 social 48 0,09 19.393 apoyar 49 0,09 19.393 correcciones 50 0,09 19.393 desencadenar 51 0,09 19.393 riqueza 52 0,14 18.573 vulnerabilidad 53 0,20 18.505 reducir 54 0,06 18.433 afectaría 55 0,06 18.433 imperativo 56 0,06 18.433 obligaciones 57 0,06 18.433 proporcionar 58 0,06 18.433 receptivo 59 0,06 18.433 rurales 60 1,60 18.433 transparencia weoes order keyness relative frequency (f%) term 1 1,09 156.933 economía 2 0,34 134.603 tensión 3 0,55 133.463 comercial 4 0,68 126.398 financiero 5 0,27 107.682 arancel 6 0,34 107.239 emergente 7 0,30 101.281 condición 8 0,25 87.591 actitud 9 0,32 84.536 perspectiva 10 0,57 78.832 mercado 11 0,43 73.910 precio 12 0,39 65.055 riesgo 13 0,27 64.896 desaceleración 14 0,57 64.518 política 15 1,07 54.429 crecimiento 16 0,16 53.325 preocupación 17 0,23 52.802 factor 18 0,21 51.289 prevé 19 0,41 47.974 informe 20 0,14 44.889 moderación 21 0,11 44.868 aversión 22 0,21 43.908 proyecta 23 0,14 42.452 restrictivas 24 0,16 42.268 proyección 25 0,25 40.825 previsto 26 0,25 40.141 petróleo 27 0,21 39.305 materia 28 0,14 37.341 soberanos 29 0,62 36.893 mundial 30 0,11 36.537 brexit 31 0,11 36.537 ímpetu 32 0,14 36.055 expectativa 33 0,18 32.063 pronóstico 34 0,14 29.723 endurecimiento 35 0,14 29.053 deterioro 36 0,09 28.301 cierre 37 0,09 28.301 próximos 38 0,21 28.180 incertidumbre 39 0,25 26.981 medida 40 0,07 26.921 disputa 41 0,09 26.401 vehículos 42 0,11 25.242 barreras 43 0,11 25.242 nuevos 44 0,09 24.894 levemente 45 0,14 24.360 revisiones 46 0,09 23.642 subida 47 0,25 22.945 baja 48 0,07 22.444 modere 49 0,07 22.444 títulos 50 0,14 21.101 ritmo 51 0,16 20.564 banco 52 0,07 20.236 obedece 53 0,11 19.491 diferenciales 54 0,09 19.369 finales 55 0,11 19.112 semestre 56 0,07 18.671 arancelarias 57 0,07 18.671 flojo 58 0,07 18.671 sufrido 59 0,09 18.171 pasado 60 1,09 17.947 tregua among the 60 items on the list, wespes shows 5 technical terms (economía, financiero, comercio, financiación, arancel), as opposed to 11 in weoes (economía, comercial, financiero, arancel, mercado, precio, soberanos, títulos, diferenciales, banco and arancelarias). the spanish version of the imf report shows, then, more technical terms than any other subcorpus. in contrast, three words of a social character (sostenible, clima, social) were found in the un subcorpus, but as it happened with weo, no word of this kind is in weoes’s list of most frequent words. regarding sentiment items, wespes shows 24: 11 positive words and intensifiers, 13 negative (12 emotion-laden nouns and verbs –riesgo, tensión, pobreza, desigualdad, desequilibrio, escalada, controversia, obstáculo, amenaza, desencadenar, vulnerabilidad, obligación– plus an intensifier used only in negative contexts: grande). weoes, in turn, shows 22 emotion-laden words: 14 negative terms, plus 3 negative intensifiers, and like its english version, 5 positive terms, no positive intensifiers. we can also see these taxonomies in table 5 below: maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244230 lexical taxonomy in wespes lexical taxonomy in weoes technolects (5) social words (3) technolects (11) social words (0) economía, financiero, comercio, financiación, arancel sostenible, clima, social economía, comercial, financiero, arancel, mercado, precio, soberanos, títulos, diferenciales, banco, arancelarias. ––– negative sentiment words (13) negative sentiment words (17) emotion-laden items intensifiers and softeners emotion-laden items intensifiers and softeners riesgo, tensión, pobreza, desigualdad, desequilibrio, escalada, controversia, obstáculo, amenaza, desencadenar, vulnerabilidad, obligación grande tensión, riesgo, desaceleración, preocupación, aversión, brexit, endurecimiento, deterioro, cierre, incertidumbre, disputa, barreras, subida flojo, levemente, (a la) baja positive sentiment words (11) positive sentiment words (5) emotion-laden items intensifiers and softeners emotion-laden items intensifiers and softeners desarrollo, crecimiento, multilateral, diversificación, eficaz, logro, apoyar, receptivo, transparencia fundamental, imperativo crecimiento, moderación, ímpetu, tregua, actitud ––– table 5. lexical taxonomies in wespes and weoes. a as regards discourse metaphors, most of the words in wespes belong to the war/conflict conceptualization, since they are deployed to identify threats, to present the un as a battling/healing force and to establish itself as a defender against negative elements of the global economy, with words like controversia (‘controversy’), amenaza (‘threat’), riesgo (‘risk’), escalada (‘escalation’), tension (‘tension’); as in wesp, economic problems are enemies, as with pobreza (‘poverty’), desigualdad (‘inequality’), desequilibrio (‘imbalance’), vulnerabilidad (‘vulnerability’) and desencadenar (‘unchain’). see, for example, 5: (5) estos d e s e qui l i br io s al e j a n a ún más el logro de los objetivos de erradicar la pobreza y crear empleos decentes para todos. (“these imbalances push the targets of eradicating poverty and creating decent jobs for all further from reach”, in the english version). other conceptualizations present positive words in a scenario where economy is a living/human organism with words like desarrollo (‘development’), crecimiento (‘growth’), logro (‘achievement’) and economic systems and structures are objects and buildings to be repaired, as in multilateral, diversificación (‘diversification’), apoyar (‘support’), transparencia (‘transparency’): (6) la di v e rs i f ic a c i ón re f o rz a rá la resiliencia y, en muchos casos, es también una necesidad ambiental. (“diversification will strengthen resilience, and in many cases is also an environmental necessity”). in weoes economy as a conflict is also present, with words like tensión, riesgo, disputa, restrictive; also, economic problems are objects that experiment breakdowns, with endurecimiento (‘tightening’), deterioro (‘deterioration’) and cierre (‘shutdown’). let us see an example: (7) [..] otros factores que agudizan el r ie s g o a la baja son la incertidumbre acerca del programa de políticas de los nuevos gobiernos, un c i e rr e prolongado del gobierno federal en estados unidos, y te n s io ne s geopolíticas en oriente medio y asia oriental. (“[..] other factors adding downside risk include uncertainty about the policy agenda of new administrations, a protracted us federal government shutdown, as well as geopolitical tensions in the middle east and east asia”). the economy as a journey is, as in its english version, present in sentences containing words such as desaceleración (‘slowdown’), barreras (‘barriers’), emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 231 brexit, and subida, translated from ‘high’ or ‘higher,’ frequently used in the context of interest rates and tariffs: (8) a pesar del estímulo fiscal que neutraliza en parte el impacto de la subida de los aranceles de estados unidos, la economía de china se desacelerará. (“despite fiscal stimulus that offsets some of the impact of higher us tariffs, china’s economy will slow down”). lastly, country economies and markets in weoes show a human element, both in negative and in positive sentiment words –preocupación (concern), aversión (‘aversion’), incertidumbre (‘uncertainty’), actitud (‘sentiment’), crecimiento (‘growth’) and moderación (‘moderation’). our final example shows this: (9) [..] si la ac t it ud del mercado se recupera, una mayor confianza y condiciones financieras más favorables podrían reforzarse mutuamente y elevar el c re c i mie n to por encima del pronóstico de base. (“if [..] market sentiment recovers, then improved confidence and easier financial conditions could reinforce each other to lift growth above the baseline forecast”). 3.2. phase two. deploying sentiment analysis as garofalo (2017: 57) points out, sentiment analysis endows discourse analysis with useful empirical data for the researcher, offering computational and objectifiable keys to strengthen the merely qualitative study of observable phenomena. as noted above, this paper uses the lingmotif software (morenoortiz, 2017) to find out the polarity and intensity of feeling in the two sets of reports under study. specifically, the difference between lingmotif –developed by the tecnolengua group of the university of málaga– and other opinion mining methods lies in the fact that the system admits the processing of extensive texts, and not just mini-texts in the style of tweets. additionally, it includes an internal lexicon with words and phrases with emotional weight which are detected in the process of analysis. lingmotif evaluates the text under analysis on a scale from 0 to 100 from “extremely negative” to “extremely positive”, based on a semantic sentiment orientation in the text (text sentiment score, or tss). it also offers a rating scale of sentiment intensity (text sentiment intensity, or tsi), calculated as an average between emotionridden and emotion-free ones, assigning ratings on a scale from -5 to +5, where 0 is an expression of neutrality. it is important to note at this point that, on the one hand, the software not only detects simple units, but also localizes syntagmatic units, so that, for example, the positive term ‘buoyant’ becomes maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244232 negative when added the modifier ‘less’ and the negative term ‘corruption’ acquires a positive value when the verbal form ‘reducing’ is added (both in wesp). this is possible due to the existence of context rules (of inversion, intensification and attenuation) in the system, to accommodate possible sentiment modifiers (moreno-ortiz, 2017: 133). these context rules (cvs or ‘contextual valence shifters’) are lingmotif’s mechanism to detect words or phrases that may appear in the immediate vicinity of the identified value unit, modifying its valence and increasing, neutralizing or giving it an opposite value to that originally given (fernández-cruz & baixauli-pérez, 2018: 45). figures 1 to 4 show the overall results provided by the software: emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 233 maría ángeles orts llopis 0 is an expression of neutrality. it is important to note at this point that, on the one hand, the software not only detects simple units, but also localizes syntagmatic units, so that, for example, the positive term ‘buoyant’ becomes negative when added the modifier ‘less’ and the negative term ‘corruption’ acquires a positive value when the verbal form ‘reducing’ is added (both in wesp). this is possible due to the existence of context rules (of inversion, intensification and attenuation) in the system, to accommodate possible sentiment modifiers (moreno-ortiz, 2017: 133). these context rules (cvs or ‘contextual valence shifters’) are lingmotif’s mechanism to detect words or phrases that may appear in the immediate vicinity of the identified value unit, modifying its valence and increasing, neutralizing or giving it an opposite value to that originally given (fernándezcruz & baixauli-pérez, 2018: 45). figures 1 to 4 show the overall results provided by the software: tss tsi cvs segments positive items negative items neutral items positive score negative score 45 97 43 154 175 1271 291 360 figure 1. wesp sentiment score and intensity values. tss tsi cvs segments positive items negative items neutral items positive score negative score 45 91 37 167 197 1443 302 389 figure 2. wespes sentiment score and intensity values. initially, the results seem to, somehow, contradict our initial diagnosis as to the – comparatively– more negative character of the imf reports, compared to the un ones. from figures 1 and 2 above, it is clear that the values of the un report in the english original and its translation seem similar, with identical tsss, weighing the scores of positive, negative and neutral lexical items. these two figures show how they are both initially, the results seem to, somehow, contradict our initial diagnosis as to the –comparatively– more negative character of the imf reports, compared to the un ones. from figures 1 and 2 above, it is clear that the values of the un report in the english original and its translation seem similar, with identical tsss, weighing the scores of positive, negative and neutral lexical items. these two figures show how they are both slightly (and identically) negative and somewhat different in their tsis: 97 for wesp and 91 for wespes (both extremely intense). maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244234 emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis slightly (and identically) negative and somewhat different in their tsis: 97 for wesp and 91 for wespes (both extremely intense). tss tsi cvs segments positive items negative items neutral items positive score negative score 42 74 45 123 187 1813 231 375 figure 3. weo sentiment score and intensity values. tss tsi cvs segments positive items negative items neutral items positive score negative score 41 71 39 134 216 2001 229 415 figure 4. weoes sentiment score and intensity values. in turn, the results for the imf reports show that both sentiment score and intensity are marginally weaker in the spanish translation but that, still, both weo and weoes are slightly negative and fairly intense. if, on the other hand, we take the two sets of reports, the un’s and the imf’s, an important difference in intensity –they are evaluated as ‘extremely’ and ‘fairly’ intense, respectively– is observable between them. tsi is calculated as the proportion of sentiment (positive or negative) vs neutral scores. besides, lower intensity values in the imf reports as compared to the un’s ones are directly related to two variables, length and lexical richness. as far as length is concerned, since intensity is calculated in the software as an absolute measure and categorized by text length, the longer the text (in this case, weo and weoes), the more improbable for its words to be emotion-laden than in the shorter ones (wesp and wespes). lexical richness is also relevant: wesp was by far the most lexically rich text, which accounts for its higher intensity, and, at the other side of the scale, weoes was the longest and least lexically rich text, and also the text with the lowest intensity. tss, on the other hand, is calculated weighing positive and negative items in proportion in turn, the results for the imf reports show that both sentiment score and intensity are marginally weaker in the spanish translation but that, still, both weo and weoes are slightly negative and fairly intense. if, on the other hand, we take the two sets of reports, the un’s and the imf’s, an important difference in intensity –they are evaluated as ‘extremely’ and ‘fairly’ intense, respectively– is observable between them. tsi is calculated as the proportion of sentiment (positive or negative) vs neutral scores. besides, lower intensity values in the imf reports as compared to the un’s ones are directly related to two variables, length and lexical richness. as far as length is concerned, since intensity is calculated in the software as an absolute measure and categorized by text length, the longer the text (in this case, weo and weoes), the more improbable for its words to be emotion-laden than in the shorter ones (wesp and wespes). lexical richness is also relevant: wesp was by far the most lexically rich text, which accounts for its higher intensity, and, at the other side of the scale, weoes was the longest and least lexically rich text, and also the text with the lowest intensity. tss, on the other hand, is calculated weighing positive and negative items in proportion to neutral scores. in the light of our lexical reports, we predicted that weo and weoes would be more negative than wesp and wespes, but in fact the software shows that the contrary is true. however, the lesser negative polarity in the imf’s reports may be explained because of the substantially lower number of neutral items in wesp and wespes as compared to weo and weoes. however, lingmotif’s findings regarding the number of positive and negative items somehow confirm our results in the lexical part of the study. even if the four texts seem to be equally negative, and disregarding the presence of neutral items, it is verifiable that weo and weoes do have more negative items and higher negative scores (187 and 216, respectively) than wesp and wespes (175 and 197, respectively). subsequently, and upon the basis of the lexical study in the previous subsection, a plugin or reference dictionary was prepared for each subcorpus to refine the results of the analysis and provide value units linking to the conceptual framework of each of the reports. because sentiment is very closely connected to topic, this additional wordlist was prepared to complement the central lexicon lingmotif provides and takes into account the sentiment in our taxonomy. in the procedure followed, the words in context, and their collocations and n-grams were scrutinized to generate a set of value units selected for their representativeness and were assigned a negative or positive value in accordance with their metaphorical meaning in the text. the wildcard all was used to match all parts of speech: emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 235 table 7 shows the plugins made for the respective subcorpora in english and in spanish, with a difference in amount (49 items in the english plugin, 42 maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244236 emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis <aversion>,all,-5 <a_la_baja>,all,-3 <barrier>,all,-5 <actitud>,all,2 <brexit>,all,-5 <amenaza>,all,-3 <burden>,all,-5 <aversión>,all,-5 <concern>,all,-3 <barrera>,all,-5 <contagion>,all,-5 <brexit>,all,-5 <contraction>,all,-5 <cierre>,all,-5 <develop>,all,3 <controversia>,all,-3 <disorderly>,all,-5 <crecimiento>,all,3 <dispute>,all,-5 <desaceleración>,all,-5 <diversification>,all,3 <desarrollo>,all,3 <elevated>,all,-3 <desencadenar>,all,-2 <escalate>,all,-5 <desequilibrio>,all,-3 <fail>,all,-5 <desigualdad>,all,-5 <fragility>,all,-5 <deterioro>,all,-3 <fundamental>,all,3 <disputa>,all,-5 <growth>,all,3 <diversificación>,all,3 <heightened>,all,-3 <eficaz>,all,3 <hike>,all,-3 <endurecimiento>,all,-5 <inequality>,all,-5 <escalada>,all,-3 <large>,all,-3 <flojo>,all,-3 <momentum>,all,5 <fundamental>,all,3 <multilateral>,all,3 <imperativo>,all,-3 <poverty>,all,-5 <ímpetu>,all,-5 <progress>,all,5 <incertidumbre>,all,-5 <resolve>,all,2 <levemente>,all,-3 <resource>,all,3 <logro>,all,5 <responsive>,all,3 <moderación>,all,3 <retaliation>,all,-5 <multilateral>,all,3 <risk>,all,-5 <obligación>,all,-3 <sentiment>,all,2 <obstáculo>,all,-5 <severe>,all,-3 <pobreza>,all,-5 <shadow>,all,-5 <preocupación>,all,-3 <significant>,all,-3 <restrictiva>,all,-5 <shutdown>,all,-5 <receptivo>,all,3 <slow>,all,-3 <riesgo>,all,-5 <slowdown>,all,-5 <sostenible>,all,5 <softening>,all,-3 <subida>,all,-3 <sustainable>,all,5 <tensión>,all,-5 <steep>,all,-3 <transparencia>,all,5 <tension>,all,-5 <tregua>,all,5 <tighten>,all,-5 <vulnerabilidad>,all,-3 <transparency>,all,5 <truce>,all,5 <uncertainty>,all,-5 <unchanged>,all,-3 <vital>,all,3 <vulnerability>,all,-5 <weak>,all,-3 table 7. ad-hoc plugin for english and spanish. table 7 shows the plugins made for the respective subcorpora in english and in spanish, with a difference in amount (49 items in the english plugin, 42 in the spanish one) reflecting concomitances with the taxonomy above. the keywords were selected manually in the segments processed by lingmotif, taking note of those that, according to our results, were outside the valuation assigned by default by the internal dictionary of the application, or whose valuation was newly adjusted to concur with our conceptual study. once the keywords had been selected, they were assigned a negative or positive valence, depending on their context in the text, in a scale from -5 to +5. thus, for example, words that in context were found to very negatively depict the economy as a conflict scenario (‘dispute’, ‘risk’, ‘escalate’ and ‘tension’; disputa, riesgo, tensión), or as a journey (‘brexit’, ‘barrier’, ‘fall’, ‘burden’, ‘slowdown’; brexit, barrera, obstáculo, desaceleración) were assigned a -5 valence, whereas intensifiers with a negative value (‘severe’, ‘heightened’) were all found to contain less negativity and were assigned a -3 valence. most positive words conceptualizing economy as a living organism (‘develop’, ‘growth’, ‘responsive’; desarrollo, crecimiento, receptivo), and framing economic in the spanish one) reflecting concomitances with the taxonomy above. the keywords were selected manually in the segments processed by lingmotif, taking note of those that, according to our results, were outside the valuation assigned by default by the internal dictionary of the application, or whose valuation was newly adjusted to concur with our conceptual study. once the keywords had been selected, they were assigned a negative or positive valence, depending on their context in the text, in a scale from -5 to +5. thus, for example, words that in context were found to very negatively depict the economy as a conflict scenario (‘dispute’, ‘risk’, ‘escalate’ and ‘tension’; disputa, riesgo, tensión), or as a journey (‘brexit’, ‘barrier’, ‘fall’, ‘burden’, ‘slowdown’; brexit, barrera, obstáculo, desaceleración) were assigned a -5 valence, whereas intensifiers with a negative value (‘severe’, ‘heightened’) were all found to contain less negativity and were assigned a -3 valence. most positive words conceptualizing economy as a living organism (‘develop’, ‘growth’, ‘responsive’; desarrollo, crecimiento, receptivo), and framing economic systems as objects or buildings (‘multilateral’, ‘diversification’; multilateral, diversificación) were assigned a 3 valence, since they were found to have a moderate (not very intense) sentiment weight in context. likewise, intensifiers with a positive value (almost absent in the spanish subcorpora and with scarce examples in the english ones, like ‘vital’ or ‘fundamental’) were assigned a 3 valence. only words with more emotional weight in context, like ‘transparency’, ‘momentum’, ‘truce’ or ‘sustainable’ (transparencia, , ímpetu, tregua, sostenible) were assigned a 5 valence. figure 5 shows the results of the analysis performed by lingmotif: one of the most striking findings is the fact that the four reports now present the maximum tsi –100, all of them “extremely intense”– score. this is undoubtedly due to the fact that the number of sentiment items has risen in the scrutiny of the reports overall, the number of neutral items having, consequently, decreased. sentiment polarities have also changed, predictably emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 237 maría ángeles orts llopis systems as objects or buildings (‘multilateral’, ‘diversification’; multilateral, diversificación) were assigned a 3 valence, since they were found to have a moderate (not very intense) sentiment weight in context. likewise, intensifiers with a positive value (almost absent in the spanish subcorpora and with scarce examples in the english ones, like ‘vital’ or ‘fundamental’) were assigned a 3 valence. only words with more emotional weight in context, like ‘transparency’, ‘momentum’, ‘truce’ or ‘sustainable’ (transparencia, , ímpetu, tregua, sostenible) were assigned a 5 valence. figure 5 shows the results of the analysis performed by lingmotif: corpus tss tsi sent. items pos. items neg. items neut. items wesp 48 100 415 223 192 1170 weo 37 100 420 190 230 1689 wespes 44 100 428 218 210 1372 weoes 34 100 440 195 245 1904 figure 5. new values assigned the 4 subcorpora with ad hoc plugin. one of the most striking findings is the fact that the four reports now present the maximum tsi –100, all of them “extremely intense”– score. this is undoubtedly due to the fact that the number of sentiment items has risen in the scrutiny of the reports overall, the number of neutral items having, consequently, decreased. sentiment polarities have also changed, predictably going down in the two reports by the imf (from 42 to 37 in the english original and from 41 to 34 in the spanish one, both sets turning from slightly negative to fairly negative in sentiment polarity) and increasing in the case of the un’s reports (from 45 to 48 sentiment polarity in wesp and from 45 to 44 in wespes). as remarked upon above, these changes are in line with the incorporation of our findings in the previous section. in the first place, adding up all the emotion-laden items as sentiment factors implies that intensity increases, since new sentiment words were integrated into the plugin and some others were granted more intensity than previously, as is the case of all the items assigned a -5 or 5 valence. secondly, the deployment of our new taxonomy also points to differences in sentiment scores. in fact, it is the reason for the larger amount of negative items in the imf reports (187 before, to 230 after the plugin in weo, 216 to 245 in weoes) and the greater number of positive items in the un ones (154 to 223 in wesp, 167 to 218 in wespes). hence, weo, as the most adverse of reports in our corpus, show fragments that lingmotif evaluates as having an extremely negative score, where items that had not been picked up by the software as negative, now are: (10) china’s economy slowed in 2018 mainly due to financial regulatory tightening to rein in shadow banking activity and off-budget local government investment, and as a result of the widening trade dispute with the united states, which intensified the slowdown toward the end of the year. and in its spanish version, in weoes: (11) la economía china se desaceleró en 2018 debido principalmente al endurecimiento de las regulaciones financieras con el fin de frenar la actividad de la banca paralela y excluir del presupuesto la inversión de los gobiernos locales, y también como resultado de la creciente disputa comercial con estados unidos, que agravó la desaceleración hacia finales del año. as we can see in the spanish version, the verbal form agravó constitutes a more explicit, negative version than its referent in the original, ‘intensified’. additionally, an increase of positive polarity is observable in wesp and wespes: (12) nevertheless, this must leave space for countries to adopt effective tax policies that enhance domestic public finance for sustainable development. going down in the two reports by the imf (from 42 to 37 in the english original and from 41 to 34 in the spanish one, both sets turning from slightly negative to fairly negative in sentiment polarity) and increasing in the case of the un’s reports (from 45 to 48 sentiment polarity in wesp and from 45 to 44 in wespes). as remarked upon above, these changes are in line with the incorporation of our findings in the previous section. in the first place, adding up all the emotion-laden items as sentiment factors implies that intensity increases, since new sentiment words were integrated into the plugin and some others were granted more intensity than previously, as is the case of all the items assigned a -5 or 5 valence. secondly, the deployment of our new taxonomy also points to differences in sentiment scores. in fact, it is the reason for the larger amount of negative items in the imf reports (187 before, to 230 after the plugin in weo, 216 to 245 in weoes) and the greater number of positive items in the un ones (154 to 223 in wesp, 167 to 218 in wespes). hence, weo, as the most adverse of reports in our corpus, show fragments that lingmotif evaluates as having an extremely negative score, where items that had not been picked up by the software as negative, now are: (10) china’s economy slowed in 2018 mainly due to financial regulatory tightening to rein in shadow banking activity and off-budget local government investment, and as a result of the widening trade dispute with the united states, which intensified the slowdown toward the end of the year. and in its spanish version, in weoes: (11) la economía china se d e s a c e l e r ó en 2018 debido principalmente al e nd ure c imi e nt o de las regulaciones financieras con el fin de f r e na r la actividad de la banca paralela y excluir del presupuesto la inversión de los gobiernos locales, y también como resultado de la creciente d is p ut a comercial con estados unidos, que ag r av ó la d e sa c e l e r ac i ón hacia finales del año. as we can see in the spanish version, the verbal form agravó constitutes a more explicit, negative version than its referent in the original, ‘intensified’. additionally, an increase of positive polarity is observable in wesp and wespes: (12) nevertheless, this must leave space for countries to adopt effective tax policies that enhance domestic public finance for sustainable development. maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244238 (13) sin embargo, esto debe dejar espacio para que los países adopten políticas fiscales e f ic a c e s que me j o re n las finanzas públicas nacionales en pos del de s a rr ol l o s os te n ib l e. all in all, the integration of the plugin into the process of analysis with lingmotif has shown how connected sentiment is to the way in which information is conceptualized by the sender of the message. this conceptualization is made, in economic discourse, through the deployment of an array of discourse metaphors that transmit sentiment and attitude to heighten emotional impact. even if differences in intensity and polarity before and after the application of the plugin are not abysmal, the results are really relevant, since they confirm that there exist interesting asymmetries between texts, aligned with the intentions of their issuers. 4. discussion and conclusions our study has endeavoured to demonstrate how the combination of qualitative and quantitative linguistic analyses can offer interesting data as to the way in which institutions issue very similar financial information in different ways, according to their aims and scope. the reports under scrutiny show that the 2008 crisis is not over, and seems to lengthen towards a new economic mayhem in 2020; but the un and the imf do not communicate this information in the same way. from the onset of this study we hypothesized that the lexicon of the reports under analysis would combine technical terms belonging to the area of economics, together with emotion-laden items with a metaphorical value depicting sentiment, but with uneven combinations, in tune with the institution’s role and goals. in fact, our initial lexical analysis showed how the imf reports seemed to be more technical and scarcer in emotion-laden items and discourse metaphors than the un’s. one could infer from such results that the imf (a body which is solely involved in macroeconomic analyses and recommendations) is more bent on technical issues and less involved emotionally. nonetheless, our processing of the texts through lingmotif has unveiled that the reports issued by this institution are, in fact, acutely intense, and even more negative in character than the un’s. this appears to support the discourse metaphor constellations uncovered initially, which suggested that the imf resorts to a wider range of conceptualizations (the economy is a battlefield, but also a sick living organism, a vehicle whose failure to get to a destination is mapped as emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 239 wreckage– and its problems, objects in need of repairing. we illustrated all of this above, but the following extract also summarizes the institution’s dire warnings: (14) risks to global growth tilt to the downside. an escalation of trade tensions beyond those already incorporated in the forecast remains a key source of risk to the outlook. financial conditions have already tightened since the fall. a range of triggers beyond escalating trade tensions could spark a further deterioration in risk sentiment with adverse growth implications, especially given the high levels of public and private debt. on the other hand, in the first batch of results, the un reports actually showed more sentiment words overall, exuding a social inspiration that is seemingly scant in the other group of reports. this, and the higher number of positive items, showed a wider-ranging scope and a more positive character in this report than in the imf’s. eventually, processing wesp and wespes with the sa software confirmed that the un reports contain negative items, but these are actually fewer than the positive ones. in tune with such processing, we saw how the discourse metaphors in the un reports tended to stick more narrowly to the framing of the economic situation as an arena of conflict, but also used very positive imagery with words such as ‘growth’, ‘achievement’, ‘transparency’ and ‘multilateral’, which point to an incessant fight of economies towards improvement and wellbeing: (15) strengthening multilateralism is, therefore, central to advancing sustainable development across the globe. (16) trade in services also contributes to inclusiveness, resilience, and diversification. this conceptualization could respond to the formulation that a weak economy is something that countries have to fight against to protect their citizens, but that there might be a series of possible way-outs for the solution to problems, a sense of shared objectives in the social sphere to overcome them, in the picture portrayed by the un’s reports. in conclusion, the present study has tried to demonstrate that the discourse of economy is not exempt from emotion, nor are the official reports on the situation of the world finances –by institutions as prominent as the un and the imf– written in a detached way. on the contrary, international think tanks maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244240 emit their diagnoses on the state of the global economy deploying emotional triggers with the aim of promoting international response, mainly from economic policymakers and operators. this study has carried out a scrutiny of the emotion-laden items and discourse metaphors with positive or negative values that these institutions apply when issuing their annual reports directed to warn the world about the symptoms of the crisis that they seem to predict. nevertheless, there is a lack of linearity in sentiment polarity and intensity between reports. as we stated above, our second objective was to detect which of the reports –the imf’s or the un’s– carried more emotional weight, and whether such weight would be maintained in their translated versions. on the one hand, this study has proved that the way in which the global economic scenario is pictured is different, in line with the sociological or ideological purposes that each institution is set to attain. on the other hand, it has unveiled slight rhetorical-linguistic differences between the economic discourse of the two languages. overall, there are differences of verbalization in the english originals and their spanish translations, since even if the versions transmit analogous meanings overall, they are embodiments of the different ways to conceive economic discourse in either language, where english has conciseness as one of its main characteristics and spanish tends to be more verbose and categorical, mainly in the use of adverbials. more importantly, the polarized expression of positivity or negativity is embedded in the way that each think tank describes the economic difficulties that the world has ahead of it, and the role that such an institution plays in the global scenario. hence, probably our results, if restricted in size and scope to these reports, may be ‘softer’, in the case of the un, ‘harsher’, regarding the imf, in line with the way in which each institution depicts itself: the un being broader in its scope, highlighting social problems and environmental issues that affect world economies from the humanitarian standpoint; the imf’s bleak discourse, on the other hand, showing the institution’s role as a watchdog in charge of monitoring changes in the economy, as it issues regulatory advice to governments in the face of a new economic havoc that seems to loom in the world’s horizon. article history: received 31 july 2019 received in revised form 23 january 2020 accepted 17 february 2020 emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 241 references maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244242 anthony, l. 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(1980). emotion: a psychoevolutionary synthesis. new york: harper and row. rojo, a. & m.á. orts (2010). “metaphorical pattern analysis in financial texts: framing the crisis in positive or negative metaphorical terms”. journal of pragmatics 42(12): 3300-3313. ruiz-martínez, j.m., r. valencia-garcía & f. garcía-sánchez (2012). “semantic-based sentiment analysis in financial news” in proceedings of the 1st international workshop on finance and economics on the semantic web, 3851. mª ángeles orts llopis is professor at the department of translation and interpreting at the university of murcia, where she currently lectures on legal and economic translation. she has specialized in legal, economic and business english and has published extensively in such areas. notes 1 according to iforex, “market sentiment is the combined attitude of investors toward a specific market or instrument”, as in <https://www.iforex.in/market-sentiment>. 2 wesp is available at <https://www.un.org/development/desa/statements/asg/mr-harris/2019/ 01/launch-of-wesp-2019.html>. 3 weo is available at <https://www.imf.org/en/publications/weo>. 4 unterm is available at <https://unterm.un.org/unterm/portal/welcome>. emotion to forecast a recession: a bilingual lexical and sentiment analysis ibérica 40 (2020): 217-244 243 schäffner, c. (2012). “finding space under the umbrella: the euro crisis, metaphors, and translation”. journal of specialized translation 17(b): 250-270. schwarz-friesel, m. (2015). “language and emotion. the cognitive linguistic perspective” in u.m. lüdtke (ed.), emotion in language, 157-173. amsterdam: john benjamins. silaški, n. & t. đurović (2010). “the conceptualization of the global financial crisis via the economy is a person metaphor –a contrastive study of english and serbian”. facta universitatis, series: linguistics and literature 8(2): 129-139. skorczynska, h. (2010). “a corpus-based evaluation of metaphors in a business english textbook”. english for specific purposes 29: 30-42. steen, g. (2009). “three kinds of metaphor in discourse: a linguistic taxonomy” in a. musolff & j. zinken (eds.), metaphor and discourse, 25-39. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. taboada, m. (2016). “sentiment analysis: an overview from linguistics”. annual review of linguistics 2(1): 325-347. vázquez ayora, g. (1977). introducción a la traductología. washington: georgetown university press. zinken, j. (2007). “discourse metaphors: the link between figurative language and habitual analogies”. cognitive linguistics 18(3): 445-466. zinken, j., i. hellsten & b. nerlich (2008). “discourse metaphors” in r. dirven, r. frank, t. ziemke & j. zlatev (eds.), body, language, and mind. vol. 2: sociocultural situatedness, 363-385. berlin: mouton de gruyter. 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.79 abstract academics’ professional and discursive practices are becoming more and more varied and demanding. it seems to be increasingly necessary to collaborate and network with international scholars and obtain funding from international institutions and not only to publish research results, but also to disseminate them globally. in this context, international research project websites play an important role and are a relevant object of analysis. drawing on genre analysis this paper presents a text-based rhetorical analysis of a sample of 10 websites from european research projects within the h2020 program. specific digital genres in the sample are identified and labelled, and some genre relations established between these and other genres. a distinction is drawn between genres that are labelled “website-generated” and “website-hosted”. a move analysis of website-generated genres is then presented discerning specific moves and communicative functions bearing in mind the context in which these websites are created. through the analysis, valuable insights are gained into international researchers’ professional and digital discursive practices in english and how these websites are used to gain visibility and promote the research groups’ self-branding by disseminating new knowledge, promoting their work and accounting for the funding received. keywords: genre analysis, research project websites, visibility, genre relationships. exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites pilar mur-dueñas iedis (instituto universitario de investigación en empleo, sociedad digital y sostenibilidad), universidad de zaragoza (spain) pmur@unizar.es 79 ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 pilar mur-dueñas resumen estudio de las prácticas discursivas digitales profesionales de los investigadores: un análisis de género sobre sitios web de proyectos europeos de investigación las prácticas profesionales y discursivas de los académicos son cada vez más variadas y exigentes. cada vez parece más necesario colaborar y establecer redes con académicos extranjeros y obtener financiación de instituciones internacionales, y no solo publicar los resultados de investigación, sino también difundirlos a nivel mundial. en este contexto, los sitios web de proyectos de investigación internacionales desempeñan un papel importante y constituyen un objeto de análisis relevante. con base en el análisis de géneros, este trabajo presenta un análisis retórico de una muestra de 10 sitios web de proyectos de investigación europeos financiados dentro del programa h2020. en este artículo se identifican y etiquetan géneros digitales específicos en la muestra y se establecen algunas relaciones entre estos y otros géneros. se distingue entre los géneros denominados “website-generated” (generados para el sitio web) y “website-hosted” (alojados en el sitio web). a continuación, se presenta un análisis de los “moves” (secciones) de los géneros generados para el sitio web distinguiendo funciones comunicativas específicas a partir del contexto en el que se crean estos sitios web. este análisis pone de manifiesto cómo son las prácticas discursivas profesionales y digitales de los investigadores internacionales en inglés y cómo se utilizan estos sitios web para aumentar su visibilidad y promover una imagen propia positiva mediante la difusión de nuevos conocimientos generados en el seno del proyecto, la promoción del trabajo realizado y la rendición de cuentas de la financiación recibida. palabras clave: análisis de género, análisis del discurso mediado por ordenador, sitios web de proyectos de investigación, visibilidad, relaciones de géneros. 1. introduction scholarly online communication serves an important function to make researchers and their work visible and accessible to a wide audience, especially at a time when science is acquiring more societal value seeking to empower citizens to participate in scientific debates and advances and also enhancing the accountability for public spending. gaining e-visibility, which entails establishing one’s identity online, sharing one’s work, and overall promoting one’s scholarship, seems to be more and more necessary for academics (e.g., barbour & marshall, 2012; luzón, 2018; lorés-sanz & herrando-rodrigo, 2020; lorés & diani, 2021). academics need to produce 80 primary output, i.e., peer-reviewed research articles, chapters, books, monographs or conference papers, which constitute certified and legitimised knowledge, and currently determine scientists and scholars’ credibility and reputation (puschmann, 2015). however, they also need to disseminate, circulate and discuss such output, which is frequently done online and in english. this online dissemination has important implications, especially as it erodes the boundaries between modes of expert and non-expert communication, between scientists and citizens, and it broadens the range of stakeholders (puschmann, 2015, p. 26). the internet has prompted a move from internal to public scientific communication, “facilitating public access to previously private spaces, and thus ‘turning science communication inside-out’” (trench, 2018, p. 185). these evolving digital practices within their communities (jones et al., 2015) entail a complex professional practice (sarangi & candlin, 2011) and diverse, intricate discursive practices for scientists and scholars. such digital discursive practices require scientists’ and scholars to interpret and use professional genres (bhatia, 2008). they need to respond to social actions, to communicate their research results through different modes and media and interact with diverse audiences, beyond their expert communities of practice, encompassing expert audiences (from other disciplines), stakeholders (funding bodies and beneficiaries), and the general public. digital genres and practices, thus, respond and adapt to sociocultural and technical change (miller, 2017) in which researchers find themselves immersed. academics are currently prompted to obtain funding not only from local and national bodies but also from international institutions, which entails their collaboration and networking with international colleagues. in this context, the websites of international projects become a relevant object of analysis, especially to gain insights into researchers’ evolving professional and discursive practices. such practices respond to social and institutional exigencies regarding the dissemination and sharing of research and knowledge. research project websites may help to legitimise and enlist public support of science, research and scholarly work and also to “open up” science in ways that promote broad dissemination of (scholarly) research (puschmann, 2015). the particular communicative purposes, and the context and medium in which these websites are created and consumed shape their structure and the type of texts constructed and published within them. the present article offers a genre-based analysis of a sample of exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 81 websites from h2020 european research projects, which beyond responding to an institutional demand, seek to disseminate and communicate research to a global audience, and foster the project’s visibility. the present research examines the following questions: – what genres are included in the sample of european research project websites? what are their specific communicative purposes? how do they contribute to promoting research groups’ results and visibility? the paper further aims to provide an answer to the following subset of research questions: – which genre relations may be established among the genres identified? can genre relations be determined between these genres and other (non) digital genres? – what information and/or structure do they present? can some rhetorical moves be identified? while the main focus will be on the analysis of the verbal component of these genres, attention will also be paid to the affordances of the medium to determine their purposes and to explore how they respond to international researchers’ social practices and communicative demands from institutions and funding bodies, including expectations from a global diverse audience. the study seeks to unearth how international networks discursively respond to an institutional demand while at the same time projecting their visibility, fostering their credibility and adjusting their texts to diversified, global audiences. in addition, the study presents a situated rhetorical analysis (based on constitutive together with elaborating or expanding moves, and supportive or preparatory moves) of genres in institutional websites, which have not received enough discursive scholarly attention. 2. theoretical background 2.1. genre analysis the digitisation of scholarly communication has made research more visible and accessible to wider audiences, opening it to broader scrutiny, with pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-10882 important consequences on how texts and genres are framed and used and how that framing and use also shape scholars’ visibility and (online) identity. digital genres, as a result, need to be further explored especially considering how they are shaped by the context and medium in which they emerge and are accessed. in the digital environment, genres become more dynamic and unstable; thus, ascertaining how they are structured, controlled or determined (miller, 2015) becomes a more difficult endeavour. despite their likely elusiveness, it is indeed relevant to conduct genre analyses of digital discourse since “[g]enre analysis –that is, a systematic assessment of how textual artefacts group together– provides an essential and useful way to make meaningful abstractions about online discourse, and to uncover and describe its structural features and their communicative purposes and effects” (heyd, 2016, p. 88). in describing their structural features, moves can be of special use. a move is defined as a “discourse or rhetorical unit that performs a coherent function in a written or spoken discourse” (swales, 2004, pp. 228-229), or we could add in a digital discourse. moves in digitallymediated communication can be realised verbally and non-verbally and will be determined based on the context and medium in which the digital genres take place. with the advent of computer-mediated communication (cmc) and digital media, genre studies and genre analysis have necessarily evolved (e.g., crowston & williams, 2000; giltrow & stein, 2009; catenaccio, 2012; luzón & pérez-llantada, 2019) to take into account the affordances they bring with them and the subsequent changes in the production, function and reception of genres. print genres have been remediated, that is, they have been “relocated, transformed, combined, and repurposed to fit in a new context” (luzón & pérez-llantada, 2019, p. 5). digital media have also enabled embedding and hyperlinking, fostering interconnectedness among digital genres and practices (luzón & pérez-llantada, 2019; lorés, 2020). the digital medium allows users to apply a navigating and a reading mode (askehave & nielsen, 2005). when applying a navigating mode, attention is paid to the reading paths that can be followed in and out of the website; when applying a reading mode, on the other hand, a zoom in lens is applied to the digital genre and the texts to be analysed. genres cannot be analysed in isolation. rather, genres relate to each other, establishing different types of relations, such as sets, i.e., type of texts that a person fulfils (devitt, 1991); systems, i.e., interrelated texts that portray all parties’ interaction (bazerman, 1994); repertoires, i.e., the genres that are exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 83 routinely used by members of a community (orlikowski & yates, 1994); hierarchies, i.e., genres organised according to the value assigned to each of them (swales, 2004), and chains, i.e., as being created in chronological order (swales, 2004); or colonies, i.e., genres with an overriding common purpose (bhatia, 2004). these possible genre relations will be considered in the analysis of research project websites to show how the genres identified are interconnected and also connected to other (non) digital genres so that a better understanding is gained of the discursive practices embraced by international research groups. in addition, in this study of digital genres the notion of meta-genre (giltrow, 2002), which encompasses guidelines or written regulations framing the writings and genres in a particular context, will also be taken into account. meta-genres are tied to their context of use and may contribute to establishing regularities in genres in general and in digital genres in particular. in this case, the eu institutional guidelines may have a bearing on the genres, and should be considered in their analysis within h2020 project websites. 2.2. eu research project websites and e-visibility research project websites can be a “rhetorical interface between the hypertext medium and specific genres” (catenaccio, 2012, p. 47). as such, they have specific purposes for project members and those browsing the websites, which constitute a global, diversified audience. these websites, through which scientific knowledge seems to be democratised, may contribute to public engagement. as highlighted by the national coordinating centre for public engagement in the uk (2020), “websites can be an inexpensive and inclusive way to engage with the public” (https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/do-engagement/choosemethod/websites). they are a valuable element for current knowledge dissemination, as they “are to be seen as repositories and transmitters of the current values of scientific research” (lorés, 2020, p. 1) and are a key deliverable of international research projects. in the case of eu projects under the h2020 call, creating and maintaining a website is a requirement, which may have two important implications. first, websites can have a marked accountability function; research projects need to be accountable for the funding received and for meeting the research objectives established, which may lead members to share their work, and emphasise their productivity. second, making it a requirement entails that such public engagement is encouraged by funding bodies and stakeholders, seeking to pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-10884 legitimise the research funded and carried out in the eyes of the general public. indeed, they “attempt to respond to societal demands for good practice in public expenditure and investment in r&d [research and development]” (lorés, 2020, p. 7). figure 1 illustrates the multiple functions that eu research project websites may accomplish. figure 1. research project websites’ multiple functions. research project websites fulfil a relevant role in the dissemination of knowledge (bondi, 2017) (or policies) to a broad, global audience, including academic, expert readers, such as members of their disciplines or related ones, external stakeholders (funding bodies and beneficiaries), and the lay public, whom they seek to inform and provide specialised knowledge. they also have persuasive purposes, contributing to the research groups’ selfbranding. self-branding is defined by marwick (2013, p. 166) as “primarily a series of marketing strategies applied to the individual”. in this case, the marketing strategies would be applied to a research project. it is intrinsically linked with self-promotion, which technologies make possible on a large scale (marwick, 2013). through these websites, the research group can gain visibility. visibility is achieved “when people know your name, are familiar with your work, and think highly of your intellectual contributions” (leahey, 2007, p. 537). rather than pursuing individual visibility, it seems that these research teams or consortia seek to create a collective identity and gain visibility in the professional and social spheres. this may be the result of institutional guidelines provided in terms of the need to stress the added value of such collaborative research. exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 85 t 3 3. method a sample of ten websites was selected from international research projects financed under the horizon 2020 european programme in which a member of the universidad de zaragoza (spain) participated, thus following a convenience sampling method (see table 1). this convenience sampling allowed us to maintain a close link between the texts analysed and the context in which they were produced. it ensured that we could get in contact with potential informants close to us and which could provide us with valuable contextual information. this sample constitutes part of the europrowebs (european project research website) corpus compiled by the intergedi group (pascual et al., 2020). table 1. description of the corpus. first, a navigating mode (askehave & nielsen, 2005) was applied to analyse the content and different sections of the websites based on their communicative purpose, which led to the identification of two different types of digital texts and genres: “website-generated” and “web-hosted”. on the one hand, “website-generated” genres –adapted (crowston & williams, 2000), or reconfigured and emergent phenomena (herring, 2013) from other digital or analogue genres– were discerned. the label “website-generated” should not lead to assume that these genres were original to the website. they may likely be adapted from previous genres in the genre chain (swales, 2004) and may stem from the institutional meta-genre demands (giltrow, 2002). this can be the case, for instance, of research descriptions formulated as work packages that can actually be an adaptation or a reconfiguration of a required section of the grant proposal submitted. on pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-10886 research project website nº of words project start date project end date 1 indus3es http://www.indus3es.eu/ 13,179 1/10/2015 30/11/2019 2 medeas http://www.medeas.eu/ 5,556 1/1/2016 31/12/2019 3 migrate https://www.h2020-migrate.eu/ 12,038 1/1/2016 31/12/2019 4 supersmart http://www.supersmart-supermarket.eu/ 2,720 1/2/2019 31/1/2019 5 simpla http://www.simpla-project.eu/en 2,762 1/2/2016 31/1/2019 6 up_running http://www.up-running.eu/ 12,014 1/4/2016 30/6/2019 7 waste2fuels http://www.waste2fuels.eu/ 475 1/1/2016 31/12/2018 8 wi-5 http://www.wi5.eu/ 7,555 1/2/2015 31/5/2018 9 greengain https://greengain.eu/ 1,745 1/1/2015 31/12/2017 10 dice http://www.dice-h2020.eu/ 1,754 1/2/2015 31/1/2018 59,798 the other hand, “website-hosted” genres (and platforms) were identified, which are embedded or linked on the website (bhatia, 2004; luzón, 2017) as a way of making them available and downloadable, and can be considered reproduced genres (crowston & williams, 2000) or familiar phenomena (herring, 2013). applying this navigating mode to the sample of websites led me to identify that genres with specific communicative purposes were recursive in the websites but appeared under different sections and labels, as will be presented in the next section. a reading mode (askehave & nielsen, 2005) was then applied to the corpus to carry out a genre-based analysis focusing on their rhetorical structure, discerning specific moves (units with a coherent function) within each website-generated genre. for such identification of the move structure of the website-generated genres, a datadriven analysis was undertaken whereby the content of the texts was carefully read in context and specific communicative purposes determined for each of them. then, the texts were coded to determine whether they had (not) been included in each of the websites in the corpus. once the communicative purposes of these website-generated genres were delineated, their constitutive, supportive or elaborating nature was determined. also, possible genre relations were established among the identified web-site generated genres and between these and other (digital) genres drawing on text-external features and on the social and institutional context. 4. identification and description of digital genres in international research project websites website-hosted (reproduced, familiar) genres or platforms were discerned in the research project webs. these are linked or embedded and respond mostly to their accountability function. that is the case of multi-form deliverables (e.g., brochures, research articles, reports, newsletters or technical notes), which are made available and readily consulted and downloaded. they appear in different sections of the website labelled as “resources”, “downloads”, “documents”, “deliverables” or “publications”). table 2 summarises the identified genres and the extent to which they were included in the websites in the sample. they highlight the research projects’ productivity and respond to the need to widely disseminate and share the scientific knowledge accrued, duly responding to public spending obtained. exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 87 table 2. summary of genres identified in research project websites. it is especially through website-generated genres that research groups provide information about their research, to convince readers of the worth and validity of such research as well as to promote the projects’ productivity and to project a credible, networked collective identity. the research groups generate these genres to feed in their websites complying with the requirements of the funding body, which consider websites a crucial dissemination activity. these genres appear to fulfil a similar function to showcasing genres in research group blogs, described as “explicitly promotional genres, used to showcase individual, group, community or institutional activities” (luzón, 2017, p. 454). a summary of the findings can be found in table 3. table 3. summary of website-generated genres in the sample of research project websites. first of all, research mission statements are presented on the homepage and/or under one of the first sections on the website labelled “summary”, “overview” or “about” (figure 2). it can work as a presentation card of the research group (it could be seen as a “research card”, resembling former business cards), crafted in such a way that a diverse audience (potentially encompassing research fellows, stakeholders and beneficiaries, interested pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-10888 website-hosted genres and platforms nº of websites research output 9 applications 3 blog 1 website-generated genres nº of websites research mission statement 10 research activity description 10 research partners’ profile 9 research news and events 8 website-generated genre labels and sections associated with communicative purpose research mission statement summary, overview, about, home, mission to create and project research value and culture research activity description project, description, research, about to provide details of the aims or objectives, methodology, results, potential benefits or impact of the research undertaken research partners’ profile partners, consortium, members, board to describe, render visible and promote the researchers’ institutions research news and events news, events, news and events to publicise research outcomes and to highlight productivity users and the wide public), gets to understand what they do and why they do it. figure 2. example 1: research mission statement (website 6). genre relations may be established with corporate mission statements. it can be argued that just as company or institution mission statements are used “to illustrate the creation and projection of corporate culture” (swales & rogers, 1995, p. 226), research mission statements in these websites are used to project research group value and culture. in this respect, corporate and research mission statements could be considered to form a genre colony (bhatia, 2004), sharing similar communicative purposes in different contexts. also, some degree of interdiscursivity (bhatia, 2004, 2008) can be traced between them in as much as some established conventions and resources, such as a highly promotional discourse which entails the use of positive evaluative language, -associated with other professional contexts and practicesseem to have been appropriated by international research groups. these borrowed conventions highlight a promotional culture of selfbranding, which is not an innovation, but is very much related to the corporations’ marketing (page, 2012) now appropriated by international funded research projects. as stated by petroni (2014), the web is not only characterised by being a huge hypertext but also by its hypermodality and its hypermediality. pictures, visual representations (example 1) and logos frequently accompany text in research mission statements and contribute to creating the research project self-branding. the use of other media is also relevant. in two websites (3 and exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 89 a 10), the research mission statement is accompanied by a video. in addition, research mission statements commonly feature links to other parts of the website to promote readers’ navigation (askehave & nielsen, 2005) through the website as they direct them to other genres. further details on the particular research aims or objectives, the methodology, the results and the potential benefits or impact of the research are also provided under different labels, usually in a second section or page within the website. their specific communicative purposes and situational context can lead to establishing a second website-generated genre, referred to as “research activity description” (see table 3). detailed, positive descriptions of the research undertaken are organised in many different ways, and specific rhetorical strategies (such as visuals which can help readers understand the projects’ specificities) are used in the analysed websites. in some of them, reference is made to work packages, and specific objectives are organised in a bulleted list (figure 3). this digital genre tends to be highly informative, sharing specialised information with peers, expert members in (other) disciplines, or knowledgeable agents. figure 3. example 2. research activity description (website 3). a relationship needs to be acknowledged between this digital genre and antecedent or existing genres, likely forming part of the successful project h2020 grant proposal giving way to a genre chain (swales, 2004). research activity descriptions can be considered to be adapted, to emerge from or to be reconfigured from the texts drafted in the submission and required by the pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-10890 call. these texts may have been “re-purposed, re-designed and re-deployed” (bateman et al., 2014, p. 10) when included in the research projects’ websites once granted financial support and responding to a social action required from the funding body. a process of transformation seems to have taken place triggered by the meta-genre (giltrow, 2002). research activity descriptions in the project website can be seen to constitute a regularised genre, more situational, tacit and flexible than a regulated, institutional metagenre (schryer & spoel, 2005), namely the h2020 call and the research project network ensuing submission. a third genre was identified in the research project websites: the “research partners’ profile” (figure 4), which research projects use to present the research institutions of the members participating in the european funded projects. this is a good opportunity to enhance the research institutions’ reputation, highlighting their relevance as members of a research network, which has been granted european funding, and therefore, also recognition. figure 4. example 3. research partners’ profiles (website 5). finally, research news and events are included on the website, which help the project publicise their research progress and promote their productivity, fulfilling a clear accountability function. this may be considered one of the most dynamic sections on the website since it continues growing as the project develops. it may be through this section that the audience’s attention is not only gained but also maintained, as there tend to be constant updates. news and events may be accessed through the homepage (figure 5) or the menu (figure 6), which can have a different format depending on the context in which they are read. exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 91 a third genre was identified in the research project websites: the “research p figure 5. example 4: research news and events (website 2). figure 6. example 5: research news and events (website 2). table 4 summarises the occurrence and length of the instantiations of these genres in the corpus. on average, research mission statements are 179 words long, ranging from 60 to 332 words, and research activity descriptions are 888 words long, with greater diversity as they could range from 120 to 2,314 words. research partners’ profiles (per website) were, on average, 2,133 words long, but their length was also very different on each website. their length varied depending on the number of institutions participating in the research group and on whether a section was included in each of the profiles on the specific role or functions taken by the particular institution in the project (as will be discussed in the next section). finally, not only was the number of research news and events diverse across the websites analysed (from 2 to 112 news were posted) but also the number of words in each of them, ranging from an average of 73 words to 401 words per piece of news in different websites. these differences can be accounted for bearing in mind the time the project had been running at the time of the corpus compilation, pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-10892 and also to the open guidelines in the plan for the exploitation and dissemination of results offered by the eu. this document highlights the need to establish a well-planned strategy and to think constantly and globally about communicating the work carried out within the project. nevertheless, no specific instructions are given on how such communication and dissemination is to be effectively undertaken. thus, research project websites may, and in fact do, draw on different verbal and non-verbal strategies to disseminate their research. table 4. website-generated genres occurrence and text length in the corpus. as can be seen in table 4, most of these website-generated genres appear on all the websites, with some exceptions. one of the websites in the corpus did not include the research partners’ profiles. the section was created, but no information was found directly on the website on them, and, as a result, the specific communicative purposes highlighted do not seem to be achieved, and hence the visibility of the group not highlighted to the same extent. two of them (websites 9 and 10) did not include research news and events, at least at the moment when the corpus was compiled. the genres identified can be seen as individual texts “pursuing rhetorical aims which are both an end in themselves, and at the same time serve higher purposes” (catenaccio, 2012, p. 45). that is, they serve their communicative intents and also higher purposes of the research project websites in general, i.e., informativity, promotion, and accountability, with the overall intention to gain e-visibility and self-branding (see figure 1). the rhetorical structure of the website-generated genres identified will now be looked into to explore exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 93 research project mission statement activity description partners’ profile news and events total 1 indus3es 87 1.91 3.155 8.746 13.179 2 medeas 209 831 2.775 1.741 5.556 3 migrate 332 2.314 7.613 1.779 12.038 4 supersmart 293 351 1.530 1.397 2.720 5 simpla 60 251 1.054 546 2.762 6 up_running 127 1.963 1.100 8.824 12.014 7 waste2fuels 109 120 – 246 475 8 wi-5 184 512 2.346 4.513 7.555 9 greengain 171 942 632 – 1.745 10 dice 219 406 1.129 – 1.754 1.791 8.881 21.334 27.792 59.798 t further their specific rhetorical aims, looking at the moves usually covered which respond to specific functions and intentions. 5. rhetorical structure of website-generated genres in research project websites the moves discerned in each of the website-generated genres highlighted above (research mission statements, research activity descriptions, research partners’ profiles and research news and event) will now be presented. this analysis will enable us to look closer into how international research projects undertake the required communication and dissemination of their research results through this digital medium, gaining visibility and increasing the credibility and impact of their research. specific moves (swales, 2004) were determined within each websitegenerated genre paying attention to the particular communicative functions fulfilled by diverse units within each of them. those moves which were included in all the websites in the corpus were considered constitutive moves, as they can be taken to constitute their generic integrity. the rest of the moves or rhetorical units identified were taken to be supportive or preparatory moves, as they precede and open the path to the constitutive move, or elaborating or expanding moves, as they provide subsequent information. 5.1. research mission statements the moves identified in research mission statements in the project websites are summarised in table 5. table 5. moves in the research mission statement website-generated genre. pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-10894 s move nº of websites research mission statement statement of aims 10 acknowledging european financing and collaboration 5 statement of target and beneficiaries 3 filling a gap/offering a solution 3 claiming topic centrality 1 the statement of aims may be considered to be the constitutive move of this website-generated genre (figure 7). the other moves identified “filling a gap/offering a solution” and “claiming topic centrality” have a supportive or preparatory function for the central statement of aims, justifying them. “acknowledging funding” and “statement of target and beneficiaries” are rhetorical units commonly found in this website-generated genre with an extending or elaborating function of the main constitutive move. figure 7. move structure of the research mission statement website-generated genre. – statement of aims: are included to highlight what is intended to be carried out throughout the international research project. this is a compulsory move, as it has been found in all 10 websites in the sample and can be considered constitutive (see example 1 above). – acknowledging european financing and collaboration: in some cases (5 out of 10 websites), this information is foregrounded from the beginning and appears as part of this research mission statement (example 6). it can contribute to gaining prestige and credibility as the financial support obtained from a highly competitive call by a funding body is highlighted. example 6. research mission statement (website 9) the three-year project, which started on january 2015, is supported by the horizon 2020, a european program to foster research and innovative solutions in the eu. […] – statement of target and/or beneficiaries: in a few cases (3 websites), the specific beneficiaries of the research are also highlighted as part of this brief, initial research mission statement (example 7). as depicted in figure 2, this move extends or elaborates on the statement of aims. exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 95 – acknowledging european financing and collaboration: in some cases (5 out of 1 t !"#$$#%&'(' &()*+,,-.#%&'(' /+$01#+% !2$(#3#%&'1+)#4' 4-%1.($#15 60))+.1#7-'+.' ).-)(.(1+.5'3+7-/ ! !"#"$%$&"'()' #*%+ ,(&+"*"-"*.$'%(.$ !849%+:$-;&#%&' <0.+)-(%',#%(%4#%&' (%;'4+$$(=+.(1#+% !61(1-3-%1'+,'1(.&-1' (%;'=-%-,#4#(.#-/ <$(=+.(1#%&'+.' ->1-%;#%&'3+7-/ u ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ! (&%#$$"# (&%#.-,,,+*)&( %+#10$/+ ! 4#)+1&%#3#(2$ 51#$(.1%4 ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ! )("&$%$"#!" +%#* $.(%$.*"-"*"+&,( !84 <0 (% !61( (% ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' &%#&;-$:+%984 &%#4%(%#,%(-)+.<0 %+#(1.+(=$$+4;(% 1'-&.1(,+1'%-31-61( -/#.(#4#-,-%=;(% ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 51#$(.1%4.+-71#.+))60 /-7+35.+1(.)(-). ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' (% ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' -/#.(#4#-,-%=;(% .+&%1#(.+=(<$ -/7+3&%#;-%1-> ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' example 7. research mission statement (website 4) the project reaches all those that make the decisions for new technology, those offering and optimising solutions, those setting the frameworks and those supporting the uptake of greener solutions in europe’s food retail sector. – filling a gap/offering a solution: in a number of websites (3) the objectives of the research project are presented as filling a gap or offering a solution to a problem. this frequently entails some negative evaluation of, for instance, existing tools and integration of areas, as shown in example 8, which is seen as a problem that the research presented will target. as such, it serves to prepare and justify the aims and the central move. example 8. research mission statement (website 2) currently, many tools lack sufficient integration of these important areas despite being tightly connected to the energy sector. furthermore, current modelling tools often lack sufficient documentation, transparency and have been predominately developed for a specialised audience, which makes validation and comparison of results as well as independent review more challenging. the medeas project aims to solve the current challenges of integration and transparency by developing a leading-edge policy-modelling tool. – claiming topic centrality: in one of the websites in which special emphasis is placed on the topic of research, this moves paves the way for the statement of aims, and seeking to convince a varied audience of the relevance of the research undertaken by the project. through the research mission statement, the research group briefly presents what they plan to do to bring about benefits to the european union economy and citizens. this is of utmost importance in the h2020 projects call and submission. once granted funding, these aims need to be stressed through one of their main dissemination media, their project website. 5.2. research activity descriptions as readers get “deeper” into the research project websites, more information can be obtained further down on homepages or within the first section of the website. through a data-driven analysis, five different moves or rhetorical units were delimited within this website-generated genre pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-10896 corresponding to specific communicative intents (table 6). the coding of the 10 websites revealed that only one move was consistently performed. table 6. moves in the research activity descriptions website-generated genre. the statement of specific objectives may be considered the constitutive move of this website-generated genre (figure 8), as it has been presented on all websites. the other moves identified can be considered extending or elaborating with two different functions. first, they can be mostly informative, providing details on the research development through the description of methods and procedures and/or steps taken and the limited statement of results. second, they can have an accountability function stressing the value and need of those objectives through indicating benefits or impact and the statement of dissemination actions to be undertaken. figure 8. move structure of the research activity description website-generated genre. – statement of specific objectives: this appears to be an obligatory, constitutive move as is included in all 10 websites in the sample. example 9 provides an illustration. exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 97 move nº of websites research activity descriptions statement of specific objectives 10 indication of benefits or impact 8 description of methods and procedure and/or steps taken 5 statement of dissemination actions 3 statement of results 1 evmo hcraesre y tviiact iptidescr fotnemetast f b ontioaicdin onoitpircsde nekta sevitcejbocificeps tcapr im ofitsenef b spetsro/dnaerudecorpdnasdohtemfo setisbewfonº 10 8 5 onsiptidescr fotnemetast fotnemetast onsiacton inatissemdi stluser 3 1 ' ' !?%;#4(1#+%'+,' =-%-,#1/'+.'#3)(41 !61(1-3-%1'+,' ;#//-3#%(1#+%' (41#+%/ <$(=+.(1#%&'+.' ->1-%;#%&'3+7-/' @(44+0%1(=#$#15a ! !"#"$%$&"'()' +/$0*)*0' (12$0"*.$+ ,(&+"*"-"*.$' %(.$ !b-/4.#)1#+%'+,' 3-1c+;/'+.' ).+4-;0.!61(1-3-%1'+,'.-/0$1/ <$(=+.(1#%&'+.' ->1-%;#%&'3+7-/' @#%,+.3(1#7#15a ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' s ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' s ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' o ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' o ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 3 ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' $.*"-"*"+&,( ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ! ,+%+#1(4#;?% 14()3#.+/1#,-%=! ,+1'%-31-61( %+#1(%#3-//;# /%+#1(4 .+&%#1(.+=(<$ -/7+3&%#;-%1-> a51#$#=(1%0+44@( ! ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ! 0*))**0$+/ +$.*0"$2(1 # $%$& (!" )"" $.*"-"*"+&,( $.%( !b3). !61( ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ,+%+#1)#.4/b.+/;+c13-.0;-4+). 1/$0/-.,+1'%-31-61( .+&%#1(.+=(<$ -/7+3&%#;-%1-> a51#7#1(3.,+%#@ ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' e ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' e example 9. research activity description (website 10) the project aims at delivering methods and tools that will help satisfying quality requirements in data-intensive applications by iterative enhancement of their architecture design. that is, the monitoring data acquired during testing and operation will be deeply analyzed to find quality pitfalls and performance outliers. the goal is to identify quality anti-patterns in the architecture of the data-intensive application and exploit this to accelerate refactoring and iteratively optimise quality characteristics. – indication of benefits or impact: through this move, the research group can justify the value of the project and can extend or elaborate on the specific objectives by pointing out who will benefit from them (example 10). example 10. research activity description (website 9) main target groups regional and local players, who are responsible for maintenance and conservation work and for the biomass residue management in their regions & service providers – including farmers and forest owners, their associations, ngos and energy providers and consumers – description of methods and procedures and/or steps taken throughout the project. this is included in half of the websites and can help to project an image of professionalism of the research participants and of soundness, as they display knowledge of how they will achieve the stated objectives (example 11). example 11. research activity description (website 3) firstly, accurate models for desktop protection studies and hil tests will be provided and the existing protection functions/solutions under high pe penetration will be assessed. secondly, new protection solutions allowing 100% pe penetration to be reached will be developed and tested by performing hil tests with real protection equipment supplied by schneider electric in order to check the feasibility (both technical and economic) of the proposed solutions. – statement of dissemination actions. this is included in 3 of the websites (example 12), possibly as a reflection on the high importance given to this aspect in h2020 calls and their role in public engagement intended to reach pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-10898 diverse audiences. it can thus be considered an expanding or elaborating move with an accountability function. example 12. research activity description (website 6) up_running will communicate directly with more than 20 policy makers, and will engage lobbying groups through the celebration of 7 national and 1 eu workshops and through more than 15 lobbying meetings. – statement of results: this is surprisingly sparse (table 6), only found on one website (example 13). it may be due to the organic nature of these websites. european funded projects under the h2020 program tend to be financed for three years. this information can be fed in as the research develops and results are actually obtained. it may be the case that a chain generic relation (swales, 2004) is established between primary output (puschmann, 2015) in the form of research articles and publications and this genre, which may condition its instantiation in the project website. it may also be the case that the research project members prefer to focus on specific results obtained through research news and events, which tends to be a more dynamic section of the website. example 13. research activity description (website 1) results showed that many industrial processes are suitable for integration of aht technology. sectors which are especially promising are the petrochemical, pulp&paper, and ceramics sector; followed by water and nonferrous sectors, where it can be integrated in special applications. cement and steel sectors showed too high temperatures for aht integration. two different digital genres have been discerned within the research project websites in terms of different degrees of detail and specificities. they could constitute a genre set (devitt, 1991) in that they are texts that the research group create or reconfigure to inform a global readership of their research endeavours. as such, whereas research mission statements may be directed to the general public, contributing to enlisting public support of science and “opening” science up (puschmann, 2015), research activity descriptions (and especially some moves within these) may be addressed to a more specialised or expert readership (scholars in the same or related disciplines, and/or stakeholders), with further background knowledge and specific want or need of detailed information. exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 99 5.3. research partners’ profiles as can be seen in table 3, all websites in the sample but one include a profile of all partners participating in the research project. this website-generated genre can contribute to the overall aim of giving e-visibility not only to the research activity and outcomes, but, most significantly, to the participating partners with promotional intentions. only in a couple of cases individual bionotes of the specific researchers have been included. this is significant as the research undertaken does not tend to be personalised but is seen as a joint enterprise resulting from a network of institutions, mainly firms, universities, research centres, and institutes. a closer analysis of the genre revealed different communicative intents, which led to establishing 3 moves. the extent of their use is summarised in table 7. table 7. moves in the research partners’ profile website-generated genre. the description of the partner tends to include background information about the institution, namely, its origin, location, size, or type of institution as well as specific details on its goal or mission, its field(s) of specialisation and/or expertise. in some cases, further details are included regarding awards or accreditations obtained by the institution or its members. this description can be considered a constitutive move (figure 9). figure 9. move structure of the research partners’ profile website-generated genre. pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108100 move nº of websites research partners’ profiles description 9 statement of specific role or function in the project 4 highlighting overall characteristics 3 evmo hcraesre s’nertpar esliofpr noitpircsde fotnemetast ognithgilhghi nº tcejorpehtninoitcnufroelorcificeps scitsiretcarahcllarevo setisbewfonº 9 4 3 ' ' ' !d#&c$#&c1#%&'+7-.($$' 4c(.(41-.#/1#4/'+,' )(.1%-./*4+%/+.1#03 60))+.1#7-'+.' ).-)(.(1+.5'3+7! 3$+04*/"*(&' ()'/#4"&$4 ,(&+"*"-"*.$'%(.$ !61(1-3-%1'+,'/)-4#,#4' .+$-'+.',0%41#+%'+,' )(.1%-.'#%'1c-').+e-41 <$(=+.(1#%&'+.' ->1-%;#%&'3+7f ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ! $$.(-7+&%#1c&#$c&d# ,'+/4#1/#.-14(.(c4 30#1.+/%+4*/.-%1.)( .+-7#1.+))60 -7+35.+1(.)(-). ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ! &("*/*40+3$ 4$&"4#/() $.(%$.*"-"*"+&,( ! 16 +. )( ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 4,##4-)/,'+1%-3-1(1 ,'+%+#14%,0.+-$+ 14-e+).-c1%#.-%1.)( .+&%#1(.+=(<$ -7+3&%#;-%1-> ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' in four websites, the profiles comprise a two-part text; first, a general description of the institution is offered, followed by a statement of its specific role or function in the project, which can be considered an elaborating or expanding move (figure 4). this second part may be introduced by a heading (e.g., “role in the project”, “main task attributed in the project”) or just be included without a heading. in three websites, partners’ profiles are introduced by an opening text that also highlights the most relevant characteristics of the members (example 14), which can be a supportive or preparatory move for the description of partners. example 14. research partner profile (website 4) the project consortium consists of 9 partners across europe. most of the partners possess expert knowledge about the technical solutions for efficient heating and cooling systems in supermarkets. the team consisting of […] – is, therefore, best placed to combine research, analysis, training, dissemination and network-building. this information can be a specific strategy to promote a collective identity and to answer calls from the eu programmes that highlight the need to prove that collaborative research adds value to the research undertaken. the creation of a collective identity pointed out may respond to these institutional guidelines. 5.4. research news and events the number of news on each website varies greatly depending very likely on the state of development of the current project and also on the informational and publicising undertakings of the research group. research news and events in these research project websites refer mainly to the research groups’ participation in international scientific events such as conferences, seminars, or talks. such events tend to be previously announced and then their participation in the event is summarised. another important feed is events (workshops, meetings, assemblies) organised by the research group. again, in this case news are posted announcing the events, and information is provided once the event has been held. the research group also publicises their scientific publications in this section of their website. news and events are also used to present other research output, which at the same time constitutes new information (or updates) on the website; that is the case of videos, reports and brochures featuring results from the project. exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 101 thus, research news and events perform a significant accountability function, stressing the productivity and dissemination of the research group results. each piece of news or event presents a headline, which most often includes the project’s name and key aspects related to the specific details of the event, when and where it took place, who participated, and what kind of participation it was. this reported information can be considered the constitutive move of the website-generated genre (table 8; figure 10) and it may be accompanied by a visual, commonly a picture of the research member(s) participating in the event. table 8. moves in the research partners’ profile website-generated genre. figure 10. move structure of the research news and events website-generated genre. hyperlinks are included at the end of the news to engage readers to consult further information on the research output. these hyperlinks can be external (lorés, 2020) -guiding readers, for example, to the website of the international scientific event or the journal websiteor internal -prompting readers to access other parts of the website, consult specific documents, or watch a video featuring the research members’ presentation. finally, two websites promote the audience’s participation allowing readers to leave a pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108102 move nº of websites research news and events description of the event or news 8 headline 8 promotion of further reading or navigation through hyperlinks 8 invitation to leave comments 2 evmo hcraesre s new and sevent onoitpircsde enildahe fonoitomopr nksilhyper nº wsenrotneveehtf noitagivanrognidaerrehtruf hguroth setisbewfonº 8 8 8 sevent hyper le tontioitavin tsnemmo ceva le 2 ' !d-(;$#%60))+.1#7-'+.' ).-)(.(1+.5'3+7!f-)+.1-;' #%,+.3(1#+%'@:c(1g' :c-.-g':c-%g':c+a ,(&+"*"-"*.$' %(.$ !h.+3+1#+%'+,' ,0.1c-.'.-(;#%&'+.' %(7#&(1#+% !?%7#1(1#+%'1+' $-(7-'4+33-%1/ <$(=+.(1#%&'+.' ->1-%;#%&'3+7-/ f ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' $.*"-"*"+&,( $%( ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ! -#%$;(d.+-71#.+))60 -7+35.+1(.)(-). ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ! ;-1.+)fg1(c:@%+#1(3.,+%# a+:cg%-:cg-.-:c $.%( ! ! ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ! ,'+%+#1+3+.h .+&%#;(-..-c1.,0 %+#1(&#7%( ! +1%+#1(1#7?% /1%-33+4-7($.+&%1#(.+=(<$ -/7+3&%#;-%1-> ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' comment at the end of the event or piece of news promoting public engagement called for by the social and institutional context and enabled by the affordances of the digital medium. another website offers more limited participation by just enabling readers to like or share the news. 6. conclusion this study aims to offer a preliminary analysis of the communicative purposes of international research project websites and determine the genres in which science and knowledge are communicated and shared globally. these digital texts respond to the need to reach potentially diverse audiences (i.e., expert readers in the same or other disciplines, stakeholders, such as funding bodies and beneficiaries and the lay public), and to promote the research project’s visibility. specific genres with particular and overriding purposes have been identified, which respond to social and institutional exigencies placed on funded international research teams. in the analysis, specific attention has been paid to text-internal and text-external factors taking a critical genre analysis (bhatia 2008) perspective. the analysis has led to the identification of two different types of genres and platforms. first, those that are hosted or embedded on the website (bhatia, 2004; luzón, 2017); second, those which seem to be generated, or adapted and transformed from previous genres in the chain (bhatia, 2004) to be published on the website. within the former, website-hosted genres, we find (1) research output in the form of deliverables, leaflets, reports, etc., (2) applications, and (3) blogs. within the latter, website-generated genres, four have been identified, even if labelled differently and organised under different sections across the sample of websites: (1) research mission statement, (2) research description activity, (3) research partners’ profile, and (4) research news and events. specific genre relations have been established, for instance, between the research mission statement and corporate mission statements, as they fulfil similar communicative purposes, establishing a specific genre relationship, that of a genre colony (bhatia, 2004), sharing similar communicative purposes even if they are found in different contexts and media. the research activity description seems to incorporate elements from the grant proposal, which in turn responds to a specific call; in this respect, this digital genre can be considered a link in a genre chain (bhatia, 2004), as part of a exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 103 genre repertoire (orlikowski & yates, 1994) deployed by researchers participating at international funded projects. finally, all these websitegenerated genres can be taken to form a genre set (devitt, 1991) with the overall aim of promoting the research groups’ e-visibility and self-branding. the rhetorical structure of each website-generated genre has been discerned, determining constitutive moves together with elaborating and supporting moves. these can provide some coherence to the particular communicative purposes of the genres in these websites and enable meaningful abstractions about this professional digital discourse (heyd, 2016). it seems that just as corporate websites promote the image of a company through the functionality and versatility of this means of communication (bolaños medina et al., 2005), these institutional websites promote the image of research projects, enhancing their visibility and creating their own branding. this may be in line with an increasing marketisation process of academic life and work prompted by digital practices. the study has focused on analysing international researchers’ increasingly complex professional and discursive practices in digital scientific communication in response to social and institutional calls for openness. to do so, they need to be familiar with and use specific offline and online genres (leading them to obtain funding) and be able to transform them into digital genres in response to a meta-genre, in this case, the institutional guidelines provided by the eu as the funding body. international researchers are required to deploy a vast genre repertoire (orlikowsky & yates, 1994) and carry out processes of regenring (english, 2011). in this regenring process, adaptations need to be undertaken, as in the new medium, the genre fulfils different, new communicative purposes and a global audience can access it. in such a process of regenring the semiotic modes participating in the medium (bateman, 2008, 2014) play a significant role with the hypermodality, hypermediality and hyperlinking processes (petroni, 2014) afforded by the medium. the findings from this analysis of digital genres can inform international researchers’ training in, and be used to provide guidelines on, how to craft genres in project websites to present their scientific results to diverse audiences, and increase their visibility online. genre analyses should be replicated in a larger sample of research project websites from this and other cultural contexts, which would enable us to determine whether the genres identified and explored in the light of the social and institutional context can be generalised to this type of institutional pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108104 research websites. in addition, the non-verbal component of websites also deserves further analysis to ascertain its role in fulfilling the communicative purposes of the digital genres identified. further analyses could also be undertaken to explore the possible interplay between genres, their verbal and non-verbal realisations, and their understanding and accessibility by diverse audiences. this study has determined specific genres in research project websites and has provided a detailed analysis of their role and function as socially shaped by the current context of global research dissemination practices in english. these are professional and discursive practices that international researchers need to embrace and deserve further scholarly attention from discourse analysts and esp researchers. article history: received 28 october 2022 received in revised form 9 december 2022 accepted 28 december 2022 acknowledgements grant pid2021-122303nb-100 funded by mcin/aei/10.13039 /501100011033 and by erdf a way of making europe. references exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 105 askehave, i., & nielsen, a. e. 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(2017). knowledge dissemination pilar mur-dueñas ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108106 across media in english: continuity and change in discourse strategies, ideologies, and epistemologies. impact, 9(3), 64-66. https://doi. org/10.21820/23987073.2017.9.64 catenaccio, p. (2012). a genre-theory approach to the website: some preliminary considerations. in s. campagna, g. garzone, c. ilie & e. rowleyjolivet (eds.), evolving genres in web-mediated communication (pp. 27-52). peter lang. crowston, k., & williams, m. (2000). reproduced and emergent genres of communication on the world wide web. the information society, 16, 201215. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972240050133652 devitt, a. j. (1991). intertextuality in tax accounting: generic, referential, and functional. in c. bazerman & j. paradis (eds.), textual dynamics of the professions: historical and contemporary studies of writing in professional communities (pp. 336-357). um press. english, f. 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(2015). discourse and digital practices: doing discourse in the digital age. multimodal communication, 4(2), 181-182. https://doi.org/10.1515/mc-2015-0013 leahey, e. (2007). not by productivity alone: how visibility and specialization contribute to academic earnings. american sociological review, 72, 533561. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240707200403 lorés, r. (2020). science on the web: the exploration of european research websites of energy-related projects as digital genres for the promotion of values. discourse, context and media, 35, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm. 2020.100389 lorés, r., & diani, g. (2021). disseminating knowledge: the effects of digitalised academic discourse on language, genre and identity. journal of english studies, 25(3), 249-258. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825577.2021.1988262 lorés-sanz, r. & herrando-rodrigo, i. 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(2013). status update: celebrity, publicity and branding in the social media age. yale university press. miller, c.r., (2015). genre as social action (1984), revisited 30 years later (2014). letras & letras, 31(3), 56-72. https://doi.org/10.14393/ll63v31n3a2015-5 miller, c.r. (2017). where do genres come from? in. c.r. miller & a. r. kelly (eds.), emerging genres in new media environments (pp. 1-34). palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/9783-319-40295-6_1 national coordinating centre for public engagement in the uk (2020). websites. retrieved 14 june 2021, from https://www. publicengagement.ac.uk/do-engagement/choosemethod/websites. orlikowski, w. j., & yates, j. (1994). genre repertoire: the structuring of communicative practices in organizations. administrative science quarterly, 39(4), 541-574. https://doi.org/10.2307/ 2393771 page, r. (2012). the linguistics of self-branding and micro-celebrity in twitter: the role of hashtags. discourse and communication, 6(2), 181-201. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481312437441 pascual, d., mur-dueñas, p., & lorés, r. (2020). pilar mur-dueñas is a senior lecturer in the department of english and german studies at the faculty of education, universidad de zaragoza (spain). she is a member of the intergedi research group. her research focuses on the analysis of multilingual scholars’ discursive practices in english. she has explored scholars’ publication practices looking into academic genres from an intercultural perspective. her more recent research focuses on the analysis of scholars’ digital practices in scientific communication and dissemination. exploring researchers’ professional digital discursive practices: a genre analysis of european research project websites ibérica 45 (2023): 79-108 107 looking into international research groups’ digital discursive practices: criteria and methodological steps taken towards the compilation of the europro digital corpus. research in corpus linguistics, 8(2), 87-102. https://doi.org/10.32714/ ricl.08.02.05 petroni, s. (2014). collaborative writing and linking: when technology interacts with genres in meaning construction. in p. evangelisti allori, j.a. bateman & v.k. bhatia (eds.), evolution in genre: emergence, variation and multimodality (pp. 289306). peter lang. puschmann, c. (2015). a digital mob in the ivory tower? context collapse in scholarly communication online. in m. bondi, s. cacchiani, & d. mazzi (eds.), discourse in and through the media: recontextualizing and reconceptualizing expert discourse (pp. 22-45). cambridge scholars. sarangi, s., & candlin, c.n. (2011). professional and organisational practice: a discourse/ communication perspective. in c.n. candlin & s. sarangi (eds.). handbook of communication in organisations and professions (pp. 3-58). de gruyter mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/978311 0214222.3 schyer, c.f, & spoel, p. (2005). genre theory, health care discourse, and professional identity formation. journal of business and technical communication, 19(3), 249-278. https://doi.org/10. 1177/1050651905275625 swales, j. (2004). research genres: exploration and applications. cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139524827 swales, j., & rogers, p. s. (1995). discourse and the projection of corporate culture: the mission statement. discourse and society, 6(2), 223-242. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926595006002005 trench, b. (2008). internet turning science communication inside-out? in m. bucchi & b. trench (eds.), handbook of public communication of science and technology (pp. 185-198). routledge. http://intergedi.unizar.es/ iberica 13 ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this study uses a longitudinal critical needs analysis to diagnose the english for academic purposes (eap) needs of turkish medical students seeking proficiency in medical english and contribute to needs analysis methodology. the data were collected from medical students and specialists. to obtain valid and reliable information about medical students’ needs, five types of instruments were used: ethnographic methods, including sustained observation and participation in a research setting; reflective journals; and a questionnaire and in-depth interview. the questionnaire design was based on essays collected from the students during their study, and the items were constructed from the students’ own words. to the best of my knowledge, this study is the first attempt in the literature to triangulate both methods and data with a focus on critical pedagogy to diagnose eap needs. the findings are the result of the triangulation of data and methodology to ensure the reliability and validity of the findings. a total of 525 subjects participated in the research (186 participants in the pilot study and 339 participants in the main study). the findings revealed medical students’ expectations of their english for specific purposes (esp) instructor, students’ shortcomings, and the problems and strategies they use while learning medical english. the interview data analysis sought to determine whether higher education students can be a reliable source to consult for their own educational needs in higher education. the methodology followed here can be replicated in other mainstream classrooms. keywords: eap, medical english, critical needs analysis, longitudinal study. diagnosing the eap needs of turkish medical students: a longitudinal critical needs analysis neslihan önder özdemir uludağ university (turkey) neslionder@uludag.edu.tr 35 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 35 ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 neslihan önder özdemir resumen d ia g n os t ic a nd o l a s ne c e s i da d e s d e i f a d e l os e s tu di a nte s d e me d ic i na t ur c os : un e s tud io l ong it ud ina l el propósito de este estudio es diagnosticar las necesidades de inglés para fines académicos (ifa) de los estudiantes de medicina turcos en relación al inglés médico. se empleó un análisis continuo de necesidades fundamentales para identificar las necesidades. los datos fueron obtenidos de estudiantes de medicinas y especialistas del campo de la medicina. para obtener una imagen válida y fiable de las necesidades de los estudiantes de medicina, se usaron tres tipos de instrumentos diferentes de colección de datos: métodos etnográficos, incluyendo observación dentro de las aulas y diarios reflexivos, así como un cuestionario y una entrevista. se debe destacar que el cuestionario se diseñó a partir de redacciones de los estudiantes de medicina en el contexto del estudio, así que las preguntas se basan en los enunciados de los mismos estudiantes. los resultados son el resultado de triangular los datos y un método para garantizar la fiabilidad y validez de los resultados. un total de 525 personas participaron en el estudio, 186 participantes en un estudio piloto y 339 participantes en el estudio principal. los resultados revelaron las expectativas que tenían los estudiantes de medicina de los instructores de inglés para fines específicos (ife), las deficiencias y problemas de los estudiantes y los métodos y estrategias que usan para aprender inglés médico. el análisis de los datos de las entrevistas abordó la pregunta de si los estudiantes pueden ser una fuente fiable a la que consultar acerca de las necesidades docentes en la educación superior. el procedimiento seguido aquí puede reproducirse en otras aulas convencionales. palabras clave: ifa, ingles médico, estudio longitudinal, análisis crítico de necesidades. 1. introduction english for specific purposes (esp) instruction has flourished as a specific, dynamic discipline within the field of english language teaching. esp employs a tailored-to-fit instruction (belcher, 2006) and highlights practical application. because general english does not meet learners’ specific language needs, esp can provide valuable insight into language teaching. english for academic purposes (eap) is a branch of esp and english for medical purposes (emp), the instruction discussed in this study. emp refers to “the teaching of english for doctors, nurses, and other personnel in the medical professions” (maher, 1986: 112). 36 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 36 in eap courses, needs analysis (na) is the fundamental, continuous process of revising the objectives and course design to improve effectiveness (west, 1994; richards, 2001; basturkmen, 2010). upton (2012) suggests that students may have different needs that influence their motivation and the effectiveness of their learning. na can be used to measure students’ needs with “precision and accountability” (hyland, 2012: 12). several empirical needs analyses have been conducted in the literature (see, for instance, basturkmen 1998; holme & chalauisaeng 2006; evans & green, 2007; bosuwon & woodrow 2009; huang, 2010). because the current study addresses the emp needs, only relevant studies in similar contexts are discussed. in their descriptive study chia et al. (1999) criticised english courses in taiwan because they had been developed without conducting na. they investigated the english needs of college students in a medical context to describe the perceptions of medical students and faculty members and identify the students’ language needs. the survey included questions to determine the importance of english to the students, their needs concerning english skills and their suggestions for developing an english programme based on the results. the study included 349 medical students and 20 faculty members in the medical programme. two questionnaires were modelled on instruments in the literature. the results revealed that the most frequently perceived need was listening instruction. faculty members noted a need for listening skills that would improve one’s ability to understand daily conversation (59.9%), radio and tv programmes (30.7%) and lectures (8%). when reporting on their reading, speaking and writing skills, most of the students focused on their desire to be able to read newspapers and magazines, conduct everyday conversations and write reports and research papers. shi, corcos and storey (2001) conducted an na to develop an english course for medical students that was limited to speaking skills. the course used transcripts of videos and audio recorded during hospital ward teaching sessions in hong kong. the study analysed the discourse in the recorded teaching sessions to determine how lecturers guided students in their clinical training; to identify problems in student-lecturer dialogues as spoken discourse; and to develop relevant materials and tasks based on the results of the analysis. the researchers focused on language errors that led to communication problems to develop explicit tasks. the data were obtained through observation and by videotaping the students’ performance during ward teaching. clinical training textbooks were also examined for discourse moves (like bates, 1995). five ward teaching sessions were videotaped and one session was audiotaped; in total, six hours of data were diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 37 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 37 collected. the data included grammatical errors, interruptions, repetition, pauses and unfinished utterances. discourse analysis revealed that tutors guided students while they presented cases, conducted physical examinations and made diagnostic hypotheses that required the ability to match registers, recited the chronology of a medical history using appropriate linking words and tenses and described examination techniques. 1.1. remaining methodological issues previous studies have contributed valuable insights, but several issues seem to have been overlooked. empirical studies on na have been affected by limitations, particularly concerning methodology, which is crucial to ensure the reliability and validity of the findings. the validity and reliability of the instruments used and the studies’ results are rarely discussed and are often under-researched (van hest & oud-de glas, 1990; long, 2005). moreover, the current na literature indicates that there is little research on improving data collection methods. few studies have used triangulation (see jasso-aguilar, 1999), and insiders’ perceptions of their own needs tend to be overlooked, though data can be triangulated to encompass on both insiders’ (students and academics) and outsiders’ (experts) views. likewise, west (1994) criticises lack of attention paid to learners as a source of na information. although students’ participation is emphasised, questionnaire items tend to be constructed from an outsider’s perspective, which is problematic. kennedy, fisher and ennis (1991) studied critical thinking in education and criticised education systems for their lack of critical thinking and critical pedagogy. they suggest that training in critical thinking is important and should be the primary task of education worldwide (pennycook, 1999). however, the literature generally indicates that students are not prepared to fully participate in a democratic society and do not have the critical thinking skills necessary to meet the demands of the world because they lack higher order thinking abilities. in a significant contribution to these criticisms, benesch (1999) demystifies power relations while discussing critical na in an academic context that fosters democratic participation in life outside the classroom. in this context, the emphasis is on opportunities for change and encouragement of students’ engagement and awareness of their rights. the author suggests that the data collection instruments can be developed through the active participation of students. in other words, the items in the instruments can be developed based on students’ perceived needs, reflecting a critical pedagogical approach to teaching and curriculum development. neslihan önder özdemir ibérica 28 (2014): 35-5838 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 38 to address the gaps in the literature, this study conducts a critical na following benesch’s (2001) recommendations, focusing on democratic participation and power relations and accepting students as active members of society. in this context, na is a component of critical pedagogy because it is being used to identify inequalities and encourage learners to question and democratise their learning process. in this context, the present study aims to diagnose the needs of turkish medical students in medical english courses at uludağ university in turkey. face-to-face interview data were collected to supplement the questionnaire findings and allow all of the stakeholders an opportunity to express their perceptions of the needs of medical students and provide valuable insights into the literature on critical na methodology and strategies for balancing power relations. unlike previous studies, in this study, critical pedagogy and critical thinking in education are addressed. the critical pedagogical principles emphasised in this study include: (i) the purpose of education is encourage students to view their circumstances as a problem to reflect and act upon; (ii) practitioners should participate in and contribute to teaching as life-long learners; (iii) practitioners act as individuals when approaching problems; and (iv) learning atmospheres should be created in which students have the right and the power to express themselves and make decisions. this study contributes to the literature by employing qualitative and quantitative techniques to collect detailed information about learners’ needs from all stakeholders. to the best of my knowledge, this study is the first attempt in the literature to triangulate both methodology and data with critical pedagogy by comparing students’ needs at two different time periods and involving all of the stakeholders in the development of the data collection instruments. the findings may therefore have significant implications for course design. this study aims to investigate the following research questions: 1. what are the perceived eap needs of turkish medical students learning medical english as a foreign language in the faculty of medicine? diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 39 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 39 2. are there any differences between the perceptions of medical specialists and turkish medical students regarding medical english? if so, what are the differences? 2. methods 2.1. teaching context medical english is an elective course for students in their 1st, 2nd and 3rd years in the faculty of medicine at uludağ university. before taking the course, students must pass an english proficiency examination developed by the school of foreign languages, with a minimum score of 70 out of 100. accordingly, these students have an english-language background. the course was coordinated by an esp practitioner who had pursued postgraduate esp studies and had relevant training in medical field terminology. 2.2. participants and the study cooperation among university entities was necessary because “what is established as a need is a matter for agreement and judgement not discovery” (lawson, 1979: 37). given the significance of collaboration in needs identification, three groups of participants were included in this study. the first group consisted of academics (an administrator, content instructors, research assistants and medical english course coordinators, who are also doctors). the second group consisted of medical students who had taken medical english as an elective course. importantly, students’ motivation may increase when instructors involve them in decision-making processes during the planning of the course curriculum. the third group included doctors from a private hospital and in the bursa health directorship. the first and second groups were considered insiders, whether working or studying, whereas the third group included outsiders. different groups of participants were invited to the study because participants can provide valuable data based on their experiences. the first group, academics, has teaching experience and plays various roles in the department, including organising meetings with students and developing curricula. thus, these participants are familiar with the teaching context and the students’ profiles as insiders and can make valuable contributions to the present study. the second group, students, is the target group. neslihan önder özdemir ibérica 28 (2014): 35-5840 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 40 students have the right to express their needs for medical english instruction. the third group, doctors in public and private hospitals, represent the students’ target needs in their future work context. all of these parties are included in this research to explore the present and target needs of the students. research participants who are also stakeholders strengthen the outcomes of the research because “getting the right information from the right people” (horowitz, 1986: 460) is a significant issue when identifying students’ needs. the pilot study included 183 students, who contributed to the development of the questionnaire, and three informants (two students and one content instructor), who were involved in piloting the interview questions. a total of 186 informants participated in piloting the main instruments to identify potential problems. the questionnaire in the main study was distributed to 206 students who did not participate in the pilot study and who had taken the medical english course (see table 1). the students were graduated of anatolian high school (43.7%), science high school (15%) and private school (12.6%).1 in addition to the first group of students who received the questionnaire, the same questionnaire was given to 118 new students (upon registration) who began their education at the end of september 2010 (see table 1 again). most of the students had graduated from science high school (33.1%), anatolian high school (32.2%) and private schools (16.9%). a total of 525 participants (186 in the pilot study, 324 students in the main study, and 15 other participants) took part in the study. diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 41 neslihan önder-ozdemir ibérica 28 (2014): …-… the pilot study included 183 students, who contributed to the development of the questionnaire, and three informants (two students and one content instructor), who were involved in piloting the interview questions. a total of 186 informants participated in piloting the main instruments to identify potential problems. the questionnaire in the main study was distributed to 206 students who did not participate in the pilot study and who had taken the medical english course (see table 1). high schools medical english students n (%) new students n (%) anatolian 93 (43.7) 39 (32.2) anatolian teacher 17 (8.3) 6 (5.1) international 25 (12.1) 7 (5.9) general 8 (3.9) 6 (5.1) military 1 (0.5) 0 (0.0) private 26 (12.6) 20 (16.9) science 31 (15.0) 39 (33.1) super 4 (1.9) 0 (0.0) other 1 (0.5) 1 (0.8) total no. of participants 206 (female: 98 / male: 108) 118 (female: 54 / male: 64) average age 20.14 18.97 table 1. high schools students graduated. the students were graduated of anatolian high school (43.7%), science high school (15%) and private school (12.6%).1 in addition to the first group of students who received the questionnaire, the same questionnaire was given to 118 new students (upon registration) who began their education at the end of september 2010 (see table 1 again). most of the students had graduated from science high school (33.1%), anatolian high school (32.2%) and private schools (16.9%). a total of 525 participants (186 in the pilot study, 324 students in the main study, and 15 other participants) took part in the main interview for the study. 2.3. data collection procedure the researcher collected all of the data between february 2009 and october 2011 after receiving ethical approval from the bursa clinic ethical committee for both the pilot study in december 2009 and the main study in january 2010. this study is longitudinal in both its data and design. the student data were collected at two distinct time periods; the students were comparable because they were drawn from the same population (menard, 2002). the analysis included comparing the data collected at both periods (that is, 2009 and 2011). this longitudinal study served two purposes: to describe the changes between old and new students, and to explain the relationships between them (dörnyei, 2007). the participants were fully informed of the purpose of the study, and 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 41 2.3. data collection procedure the researcher collected all of the data between february 2009 and october 2011 after receiving ethical approval from the bursa clinic ethical committee for both the pilot study in december 2009 and the main study in january 2010. this study is longitudinal in both its data and design. the student data were collected at two distinct time periods; the students were comparable because they were drawn from the same population (menard, 2002). the analysis included comparing the data collected at both periods (that is, 2009 and 2011). this longitudinal study served two purposes: to describe the changes between old and new students, and to explain the relationships between them (dörnyei, 2007). the participants were fully informed of the purpose of the study, and confidentiality was assured. participants gave informed consent. the researcher aimed to fully understand students’ context and needs to provide a meaningful set of findings. the study was conducted in three main phases. the first phase was the prepilot study, in which an ethnographic research method was employed to familiarise the researcher with the setting and to determine the research aim and questions. ethnographic method was used in the present study in line with the research aims because ethnography involves extended observation of a group that requires the researcher to adopt a critical approach. the second main phase of the research included a pilot study that integrated qualitative and quantitative research. its aim was to test the instruments, including the newly developed questionnaire and interview questions, to identify potential problems and to make the necessary modifications before undertaking the main study. the questionnaire and the interviews were conducted in the third phase. 2.4. data collection methods 2.4.1. ethnography to triangulate the findings, avoid obtaining subjective information, collect accurate empirical qualitative and quantitative data and answer the research questions properly, this study employed ethnographic techniques. given the benefits of ethnography with a focus on trangulation of methods for an indepth investigation of the inclusion of social and cultural considerations (davis, 2005), this study employed classroom observation and interviews that required sustained engagement over time. for the first month, the neslihan önder özdemir ibérica 28 (2014): 35-5842 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 42 researcher was only a nonparticipant-observer, who was detached from the setting and seeking to gain familiarity with the teaching context, the medical students, the language of medicine and the culture of the department. later, she was a full participant and was involved in all classroom activities as a course coordinator and a participant-observer of the students. this is a common form of observation in ethnographic studies and a key data collection method. the observation was unstructured in the teaching environment where english was being used to facilitate exploration of the teaching atmosphere and the expectations and problems of the students. 2.4.2. reflective journal the researcher kept a reflective journal in the form of field notes for three months and regularly reflected and evaluated after each course to guide her actions. the field notes were related to the classroom, the students and the interactions that occurred. the notes about the research setting were rich and provided accurate information for the research report on all stages of the research. following cowie (2009), five dimensions were considered (see table 2). some excerpts from the reflective journal are presented: actors: students were on time and ready for medical english class. they seem to be willing to learn a lot. space: there are almost 200 students but the class is not noisy at all. the sound system is working very well. although it is a large lecture hall, the seating is planned in a way that we can see each other in the classroom… activities: the reading parts were related to the topics alzheimer’s and schizophrenia. in the first hour, we brainstormed about alzheimer’s to exchange opinions. we read the passage on alzheimer’s. some of my students said that they have difficulty understanding when i speak in english diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 43 neslihan önder-ozdemir ibérica 28 (2014): …-… dimension definition 1. space the physical place or places 2. actors the people involved 3. activities a set of activities people did 4. goals the things that people were trying to accomplish 5. feelings the emotions felt and expressed table 2. key dimensions of observation following cowie (2009). some excerpts from the reflective journal are presented: actors: students were on time and ready for medical english class. they seem to be willing to learn a lot. space: there are almost 200 students but the class is not noisy at all. the sound system is working very well. although it is a large lecture hall, the seating is planned in a way that we can see each other in the classroom… activities: the reading parts were related to the topics alzheimer’s and schizophrenia. in the first hour, we brainstormed about alzheimer’s to exchange opinions. we read the passage on alzheimer’s. some of my students said that they have difficulty understanding when i speak in english and when they are reading passages. i liked the way that students asked their questions sincerely when they did not understand or were hesitant. i tried to encourage them to focus on the general idea, both in reading and in listening. later, i talked about the strategies they could use when they read. it took almost two hours to examine the paragraph, so we will study other paragraphs in the following weeks. my aim is to scaffold students’ understanding while they are coping with the passages that are related to their field. while i am talking about learning strategies concerning reading, i give some clues for the exam. i emphasise that they should focus on the main idea and if there are some unknown words, they can try to guess from the context by concentrating on words that they are already familiar with rather than unknown words. 2.4.3. questionnaire because “whoever determines needs largely determines which needs are determined” (chambers, 1980: 27), the researcher developed a new questionnaire that, in contrast to previous questionnaires used in needs analyses research, was specific to the teaching target. the questionnaire was designed to act as the basis for the interviews, which were conducted to triangulate the data collected from students and to collect the specialists’ perceptions. the main instrument employed to collect the data was a 5-point likert scale questionnaire, which was considered the most suitable technique for collecting information from a large number of students. the respondents were asked to rank each item using a 5-point likert scale (such as 5top priority 4priority 3low priority 2not a priority 1absolutely not a priority). a higher item score indicated a more favourable attitude. while developing the study’s questionnaire, the learners made critical contributions by identifying their needs, wants and 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 43 and when they are reading passages. i liked the way that students asked their questions sincerely when they did not understand or were hesitant. i tried to encourage them to focus on the general idea, both in reading and in listening. later, i talked about the strategies they could use when they read. it took almost two hours to examine the paragraph, so we will study other paragraphs in the following weeks. my aim is to scaffold students’ understanding while they are coping with the passages that are related to their field. while i am talking about learning strategies concerning reading, i give some clues for the exam. i emphasise that they should focus on the main idea and if there are some unknown words, they can try to guess from the context by concentrating on words that they are already familiar with rather than unknown words. 2.4.3. questionnaire because “whoever determines needs largely determines which needs are determined” (chambers, 1980: 27), the researcher developed a new questionnaire that, in contrast to previous questionnaires used in needs analyses research, was specific to the teaching target. the questionnaire was designed to act as the basis for the interviews, which were conducted to triangulate the data collected from students and to collect the specialists’ perceptions. the main instrument employed to collect the data was a 5-point likert scale questionnaire, which was considered the most suitable technique for collecting information from a large number of students. the respondents were asked to rank each item using a 5-point likert scale (such as top priority priority low priority not a priority absolutely not a priority). a higher item score indicated a more favourable attitude. while developing the study’s questionnaire, the learners made critical contributions by identifying their needs, wants and expectations and indicating areas needing improvement. at the beginning of the term, the researcher asked medical students about their needs and expectations regarding medical english instruction. after being asked the open question, “what are your expectations and needs regarding medical english?”, 193 students wrote essays providing recommendations that allowed the researcher to collect relevant data and to conduct the na as a continuous process. the use of the medical students’ own words, phrasing and voices promotes learner autonomy and critical thinking, scaffolds student learning and treats students as active participants (benesch, 2001), the primary characteristics of critical neslihan önder özdemir ibérica 28 (2014): 35-5844 the main instrument employed to collect the data was a 5-point likert scale questionnaire, which was considered the most suitable technique for collecting information from a large number of students. the respondents were asked to rank each item using a 5-point likert scale (such as ƒtop priority √priority ¬low priority ¡not a priority ¿absolutely not a priority). a higher item score indicated a more favourable attitude. while developing the study’s questionnaire, the learners made critical contributions by identifying their needs, wants and expectations and indicating areas needing improvement. at the beginning of the term, the researcher asked medical students about their needs and expectations regarding medical english instruction. after being asked the open question, “what are your expectations and needs regarding medical english?”, 193 students wrote essays providing recommendations that allowed the researcher to collect relevant data and to conduct the na as a continuous process. the use of the medical students’ own words, phrasing and voices promotes learner autonomy and critical thinking, scaffolds student learning and treats students as active participants (benesch, 2001), the primary characteristics of critical na. the questionnaire development and the instrument’s validity and reliability have been thoroughly discussed elsewhere (onder, 2012a). the questionnaire underwent quantitative analysis and was reviewed by the students. the questionnaire was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss 11). the percentages, means and standard deviations of the questionnaire items were calculated. the interview data were transcribed and grouped, and the findings underwent qualitative analysis. tables of the categories and codes were generated. ƒ √ ¬ ¡ ¿ the main instrument employed to collect the data was a 5-point likert scale questionnaire, which was considered the most suitable technique for collecting information from a large number of students. the respondents were asked to rank each item using a 5-point likert scale (such as ƒtop priority √priority ¬low priority ¡not a priority ¿absolutely not a priority). a higher item score indicated a more favourable attitude. while developing the study’s questionnaire, the learners made critical contributions by identifying their needs, wants and expectations and indicating areas needing improvement. at the beginning of the term, the researcher asked medical students about their needs and expectations regarding medical english instruction. after being asked the open question, “what are your expectations and needs regarding medical english?”, 193 students wrote essays providing recommendations that allowed the researcher to collect relevant data and to conduct the na as a continuous process. the use of the medical students’ own words, phrasing and voices promotes learner autonomy and critical thinking, scaffolds student learning and treats students as active participants (benesch, 2001), the primary characteristics of critical na. the questionnaire development and the instrument’s validity and reliability have been thoroughly discussed elsewhere (onder, 2012a). the questionnaire underwent quantitative analysis and was reviewed by the students. the questionnaire was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss 11). the percentages, means and standard deviations of the questionnaire items were calculated. the interview data were transcribed and grouped, and the findings underwent qualitative analysis. tables of the categories and codes were generated. ƒ √ ¬ ¡ ¿ the main instrument employed to collect the data was a 5-point likert scale questionnaire, which was considered the most suitable technique for collecting information from a large number of students. the respondents were asked to rank each item using a 5-point likert scale (such as ƒtop priority √priority ¬low priority ¡not a priority ¿absolutely not a priority). a higher item score indicated a more favourable attitude. while developing the study’s questionnaire, the learners made critical contributions by identifying their needs, wants and expectations and indicating areas needing improvement. at the beginning of the term, the researcher asked medical students about their needs and expectations regarding medical english instruction. after being asked the open question, “what are your expectations and needs regarding medical english?”, 193 students wrote essays providing recommendations that allowed the researcher to collect relevant data and to conduct the na as a continuous process. the use of the medical students’ own words, phrasing and voices promotes learner autonomy and critical thinking, scaffolds student learning and treats students as active participants (benesch, 2001), the primary characteristics of critical na. the questionnaire development and the instrument’s validity and reliability have been thoroughly discussed elsewhere (onder, 2012a). the questionnaire underwent quantitative analysis and was reviewed by the students. the questionnaire was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss 11). the percentages, means and standard deviations of the questionnaire items were calculated. the interview data were transcribed and grouped, and the findings underwent qualitative analysis. tables of the categories and codes were generated. ƒ √ ¬ ¡ ¿ the main instrument employed to collect the data was a 5-point likert scale questionnaire, which was considered the most suitable technique for collecting information from a large number of students. the respondents were asked to rank each item using a 5-point likert scale (such as ƒtop priority √priority ¬low priority ¡not a priority ¿absolutely not a priority). a higher item score indicated a more favourable attitude. while developing the study’s questionnaire, the learners made critical contributions by identifying their needs, wants and expectations and indicating areas needing improvement. at the beginning of the term, the researcher asked medical students about their needs and expectations regarding medical english instruction. after being asked the open question, “what are your expectations and needs regarding medical english?”, 193 students wrote essays providing recommendations that allowed the researcher to collect relevant data and to conduct the na as a continuous process. the use of the medical students’ own words, phrasing and voices promotes learner autonomy and critical thinking, scaffolds student learning and treats students as active participants (benesch, 2001), the primary characteristics of critical na. the questionnaire development and the instrument’s validity and reliability have been thoroughly discussed elsewhere (onder, 2012a). the questionnaire underwent quantitative analysis and was reviewed by the students. the questionnaire was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss 11). the percentages, means and standard deviations of the questionnaire items were calculated. the interview data were transcribed and grouped, and the findings underwent qualitative analysis. tables of the categories and codes were generated. ƒ √ ¬ ¡ ¿ the main instrument employed to collect the data was a 5-point likert scale questionnaire, which was considered the most suitable technique for collecting information from a large number of students. the respondents were asked to rank each item using a 5-point likert scale (such as ƒtop priority √priority ¬low priority ¡not a priority ¿absolutely not a priority). a higher item score indicated a more favourable attitude. while developing the study’s questionnaire, the learners made critical contributions by identifying their needs, wants and expectations and indicating areas needing improvement. at the beginning of the term, the researcher asked medical students about their needs and expectations regarding medical english instruction. after being asked the open question, “what are your expectations and needs regarding medical english?”, 193 students wrote essays providing recommendations that allowed the researcher to collect relevant data and to conduct the na as a continuous process. the use of the medical students’ own words, phrasing and voices promotes learner autonomy and critical thinking, scaffolds student learning and treats students as active participants (benesch, 2001), the primary characteristics of critical na. the questionnaire development and the instrument’s validity and reliability have been thoroughly discussed elsewhere (onder, 2012a). the questionnaire underwent quantitative analysis and was reviewed by the students. the questionnaire was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss 11). the percentages, means and standard deviations of the questionnaire items were calculated. the interview data were transcribed and grouped, and the findings underwent qualitative analysis. tables of the categories and codes were generated. ƒ √ ¬ ¡ ¿ 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 44 na. the questionnaire development and the instrument’s validity and reliability have been thoroughly discussed elsewhere (onder, 2012a). the questionnaire underwent quantitative analysis and was reviewed by the students. the questionnaire was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss 11). the percentages, means and standard deviations of the questionnaire items were calculated. the interview data were transcribed and grouped, and the findings underwent qualitative analysis. tables of the categories and codes were generated. 2.4.4. interview in conjunction with the use of observation, reflective journal and questionnaires, semi-structured interviews were used in this research to elicit additional in-depth information to complement the questionnaire. interviews provide the interviewer sufficient flexibility and allow the interviewer to obtain unexpected responses from the interviewees (richards, 2009). the questions were compatible with the four target subsections of the questionnaire. all of the interviews except two were conducted in turkish and were then translated into english. two students and one instructor participated in piloting the interviews. in the main study, thirty interviews were conducted with six groups of participants (see table 3). diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 45 neslihan önder-ozdemir ibérica 28 (2014): …-… position code n (%) position code n (%) dean p.d.1 1 (3.3) medical student 6 p.s.16 medical student 7 p.s.17 medical student 8 p.s.18 medical student 9 p.s.19 medical student 10 p.s.20 course coordinator 1 course coordinator 2 course coordinator 3 course coordinator 4 course coordinator 5 p.c.2 p.c.3 p.c.4 p.c.5 p.c.6 5 (16.67) medical student 11 p.s.21 medical student 12 p.s.22 medical student 13 p.s.23 content instructor 1 content instructor 2 content instructor 3 p.i.7 p.i.8 p.i.9 3 (10.0) medical student 14 p.s.24 research assistant 1 p.r.10 1 (3.33) medical student 15 p.s.25 medical student 1 p.s.11 doctor from bursa health directorship 1 p.h.26 1 (3.33) medical student 2 p.s.12 doctor at private hospital 1 p.p.27 medical student 3 p.s.13 doctor at private hospital 2 p.p.28 medical student 4 p.s.14 doctor at private hospital 3 p.p.29 medical student 5 p.s.15 15 (50.0) doctor at private hospital 4 p.p.30 4 (13.33) table 3. participants in the interview. 3. results and discussion 3.1. research question 1: what are the perceived eap needs of turkish medical students learning medical english as a foreign language in the faculty of medicine? the frequencies and percentages of the target items were calculated. importantly, when the mean scores of each of eight domains were analysed, the results showed that students felt the most strongly about the importance of learning english, indicating that medical students are highly aware of the significance of learning medical english. students ranked instructor qualifications second, demonstrating their expectations of the instructor. this is an unexpected finding that has yet to be addressed in the literature. however, as shown by the mean scores of the eight domains examined, there are other components that are more important than the students’ perceptions of their own shortcomings, problems and aims. findings suggest that self-perceived needs may derive from the degree of importance that students assigned to english in their education, and instructors’ characteristics and roles in english-language teaching process may have significant effects on students and their perceptions of discipline-specific english. hyland (1997) conducted research on 1,619 hong kong undergraduate students’ perceptions from eight disciplines to determine students’ perceptions regarding the importance of english. the results showed that hong kong 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 45 3. results and discussion 3.1. research question 1: what are the perceived eap needs of turkish medical students learning medical english as a foreign language in the faculty of medicine? the frequencies and percentages of the target items were calculated. importantly, when the mean scores of each of eight domains were analysed, the results showed that students felt the most strongly about the importance of learning english, indicating that medical students are highly aware of the significance of learning medical english. students ranked instructor qualifications second, demonstrating their expectations of the instructor. this is an unexpected finding that has yet to be addressed in the literature. however, as shown by the mean scores of the eight domains examined, there are other components that are more important than the students’ perceptions of their own shortcomings, problems and aims. findings suggest that self-perceived needs may derive from the degree of importance that students assigned to english in their education, and instructors’ characteristics and roles in english-language teaching process may have significant effects on students and their perceptions of disciplinespecific english. hyland (1997) conducted research on 1,619 hong kong undergraduate students’ perceptions from eight disciplines to determine students’ perceptions regarding the importance of english. the results showed that hong kong students seem to recognise the importance of english competence to their academic success. in the present study, the qualifications of the instructor, the methods and strategies used, students’ attitudes towards english, the settings in which english is used, students’ english competency goals and their self-perceived shortcomings and problems represent, in descending order, the remaining important issues. the present study focuses on the findings relevant to four domains of the questionnaire: (i) qualifications of the instructor; (ii) medical students’ problems and (iii) shortcomings; and also, (iv) methods and strategies for learning medical english that meet students’ needs. five items were considered important for an esp instructor by most of the students (see table 4): instructors should care about their job, love teaching, and be highly motivated (72.5%); they should teach english in a way that makes students love english (67.2%); they should have a high level of english proficiency (66.9%); they should make the course interesting and neslihan önder özdemir ibérica 28 (2014): 35-5846 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 46 entertaining (65.4%); and they should create a relaxing atmosphere in the classroom (53.4%). students also expect the instructor to create a detailed teaching plan (41.0%); to prepare before class (42.7%) and to allocate time for student questions (39.9%). teaching discipline-specific english is more challenging than teaching general english (selinker, 1979), which may explain students’ perceptions of the instructor’ characteristics (that is, being highly motivated and proficient). when medical students were asked to describe their shortcomings in the medical-english learning-process, another important, though expected, result showed students experienced difficulty communicating orally (34.2%), as shown in table 5. diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 47 neslihan önder-ozdemir ibérica 28 (2014): …-… response total instructors should completely unimp. unimp. partially important important very important n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) 1. make the course interesting and entertaining 1 (0.3) 3 (0.9) 24 (7.4) 84 (25.9) 212 (65.4) 324 2. plan the teaching process in detail 4 (1.2) 12 (3.7) 60 (18.6) 114 (35.4) 132 (41.0) 322 3. prepare before coming to class 7 (2.2) 10 (3.1) 52 (16.1) 116 (35.9) 138 (42.7) 323 4. care about their job, love teaching, and be highly motivated -- 3 (0.9) 13 (4.0) 73 (22.5) 235 (72.5) 324 5. allocate specific time for questions 4 (1.2) 11 (3.4) 44 (13.6) 135 (41.8) 129 (39.9) 323 6. have professional competency 1 (0.3) 6 (1.9) 26 (8.1) 99 (30.7) 190 (59.0) 322 7. have a high level of proficiency in english 1 (0.3) 3 (0.9) 19 (5.9) 84 (26.0) 216 (66.9) 323 8. create a relaxing atmosphere in the classroom 2 (0.6) 6 (1.9) 45 (13.9) 98 (30.2) 173 (53.4) 324 9. teach english in a way that makes students love english 1 (0.3) 3 (0.9) 19 (5.9) 83 (25.7) 217 (67.2) 323 8. understand students’ feelings and opinions 2 (0.6) 11 (3.4) 55 (17.0) 108 (33.3) 148 (45.7) 324 table 4. overall responses for qualifications of the instructor. teaching discipline-specific english is more challenging than teaching general english (selinker, 1979), which may explain students’ perceptions of the instructor’ characteristics (that is, being highly motivated and proficient). when medical students were asked to describe their shortcomings in the medicalenglish learning-process, another important, though expected, result showed students experienced difficulty communicating orally (34.2%), as shown in table 5. 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 47 this finding contradicts the results of chia et al. (1999), who found that reading was the most important skill for medical students in taiwan. the foreign language education system in turkey may influence the outcome found in this study because grammar rather than language production is emphasised in the teaching of english, and examinations tend to consist of multiple-choice questions. english language productive skills are rarely assessed in turkish higher education (onder, 2012b). another highly relevant self-perceived shortcoming was the insufficient proficiency of english gained in the classroom (31.2%). crowded medical lecture halls of almost two hundred students or insufficient exposure to english outside the classroom may contribute to this result. some students felt that they had difficulty understanding medical research articles written in english (28.2%). unfamiliarity with the research article genre or content may influence this perception. the findings also suggest that pronunciation and the ability to translate text from english to turkish were not salient perceived shortcomings. neslihan önder özdemir ibérica 28 (2014): 35-5848 diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): …-… response total self-perceived shortcomings absolutely invalid invalid low validity valid top validity n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) 1. difficulty understanding medical articles 6 (1.9) 18 (5.6) 80 (24.8) 128 (39.6) 91 (28.2) 323 2. not able to pronounce the words 17 (5.3) 34 (10.6) 116 (36.0) 90 (28.0) 65 (20.2) 322 3. difficulty expressing while speaking 12 (3.8) 29 (9.1) 77 (24.1) 92 (28.8) 109 (34.2) 319 4. insufficient level of english gained in the classroom 53 (17.0) 35 (11.3) 55 (17.7) 71 (22.8) 97 (31.2) 311 5. problems in understanding english expressions and statements 11 (3.4) 49 (15.1) 107 (33.0) 92 (28.4) 65 (20.1) 324 6. difficulty in translating text from english to turkish 12 (3.7) 33 (10.2) 112 (34.6) 89 (27.5) 78 (24.1) 324 table 5. overall responses for self-perceived shortcomings. this finding contradicts the results of chia et al. (1999), who found that reading was the most important skill for medical students in taiwan. the foreign language education system in turkey may influence the outcome found in this study because grammar rather than language production is emphasised in the teaching of english, and examinations tend to consist of multiple-choice questions. english language productive skills are rarely assessed in turkish higher education (onder, 2012b). another highly relevant self-perceived shortcoming was the insufficient proficiency of english gained in the classroom (31.2%). crowded medical lecture halls of almost two hundred students or insufficient exposure to english outside the classroom may contribute to this result. some students felt that they had difficulty understanding medical research articles written in english (28.2%). unfamiliarity with the research article genre or content may influence this perception. the findings also suggest that pronunciation and the ability to translate text from english to turkish were not salient perceived shortcomings. 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 48 almost 20% of the students acknowledged that they were unprepared when they come to class (see table 6). the researcher’s observations and reflective journal confirm students’ lack of preparation. an excerpt from the reflective journal reads: when i asked students if they read the research article on integrated care, i realised that only five students had skimmed the article… this may be because medical students have busy schedules. students have weekly mid-term examinations, final and oral examinations in their content courses, including anatomy. oral examinations may take priority over preparing for courses. students also struggled with the relationship between communication functions (that is, expressing contrast) and were sometimes unable to benefit from the course materials. the strategies that students found to be the most effective were repetition (50.9%) and learning words in context in medical articles (50.9%) (see table 7). learning english by using english words in sentences was also diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 49 neslihan önder-ozdemir ibérica 28 (2014): …-… response total problems during medical english process absolutely not a priority not a priority low priority priority top priority n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) 1. unprepared for the english courses 12 (3.7) 39 (12.1) 86 (26.6) 122 (37.8) 64 (19.8) 323 2. unable to benefit from the course materials presented 14 (4.4) 63 (19.6) 97 (30.2) 109 (34.0) 38 (11.8) 321 3. problems understanding english expressions & statements 29 (9.0) 70 (21.7) 104 (32.2) 80 (24.8) 40 (12.4) 323 4. problems with the relationship between communication functions (showing contrast,, explanation, etc) 25 (7.7) 51 (15.8) 86 (26.6) 106 (32.8) 55 (17.0) 323 5. i have +/ opinion toward learning english because of people or events in the past 69 (21.4) 63 (19.5) 58 (18.0) 77 (23.8) 56 (17.3) 323 table 6. overall responses for problems. almost 20% of the students acknowledged that they were unprepared when they come to class (see table 6). the researcher’s observations and reflective journal confirm students’ lack of preparation. an excerpt from the reflective journal reads: when i asked students if they read the research article on integrated care, i realised that only five students had skimmed the article… this may be because medical students have busy schedules. students have weekly mid-term examinations, final and oral examinations in their content courses, including anatomy. oral examinations may take priority over preparing for courses. students also struggled with the relationship between communication functions (that is, expressing contrast) and were sometimes unable to benefit from the course materials. the strategies that students found to be the most effective were repetition (50.9%) and learning words in context in medical articles (50.9%) (see table 7). learning english by using english words in sentences was also considered important (47.4%). however, the lowest rating in this category was given to 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 49 considered important (47.4%). however, the lowest rating in this category was given to learning words through various learning strategies (28.7%). this finding indicates that students may be unfamiliar with learning strategies because unfortunatly the education system in turkey tends to focus on memorisation. the researcher’s observations and reflective journal confirm students’ discomfort with learning strategies. excerpt from the reflective journal: i wrote “heal” on the board and asked if they were familiar with the meaning of this word. they hesitated to answer and claimed that it was the first time they had seen this word. then, i wrote “health” and they were surprised… because derivations are very important for understanding words and word structures, i provided lots of examples. neslihan önder özdemir ibérica 28 (2014): 35-5850 diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): …-… learning words through various learning strategies (28.7%). this finding indicates that students may be unfamiliar with learning strategies because unfortunatly the education system in turkey tends to focus on memorisation. the researcher’s observations and reflective journal confirm students’ discomfort with learning strategies. response total methods and strategies completely unimp. unimp. partially important important very important n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) 1. learning english by using english words in sentence 1 (0.3) 3 (0.9) 29 (9.0) 137 (42.4) 153 (47.4) 323 2. meanings of english words as well as parts of speech and collocations 3 (0.9) 8 (2.5) 56 (17.3) 123 (38.1) 133 (41.2) 323 3. reinforcing the target words by repetition 1 (0.3) 4 (1.2) 33 (10.2) 121 (37.3) 163 (50.9) 324 4. learning words in sentences and in different contexts 1 (0.3) 14 (4.3) 43 (13.3) 144 (44.6) 121 (37.5) 323 5. learning words through different learning strategies 2 (0.6%) 18 (5.6) 86 (26.8) 123 (38.3) 92 (28.7) 321 6. learning words by usage in medical articles 1 (0.3) 6 (1.9) 34 (10.5) 118 (36.4) 165 (50.9) 324 7. learning structures & words through sample texts that include target structures & words 1 (0.3) 12 (3.7) 49 (15.1) 141 (43.5) 121 (37.3) 324 8. learning by emphasizing the differences between medical and general english 1 (0.3) 11 (3.4) 54 (16.7) 124 (38.4) 133 (41.2) 323 table 7. overall responses for methods and strategies. excerpt from the reflective journal: i wrote “heal” on the board and asked if they were familiar with the meaning of this word. they hesitated to answer and claimed that it was the first time they had seen this word. then, i wrote “health” and they were surprised… because derivations are very important for understanding words and word structures, i provided lots of examples. 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 50 3.2. research question 2: are there any differences between the perceptions of academics and medical students regarding eap needs? if so, what are the differences? interview data were collected from insiders and outsiders to obtain the perspectives of all the potential stakeholders and give them a voice. through in-depth interviews, this study identified the following salient perceptions of medical english instruction: learning needs, teaching environment, english proficiency, settings in which english is used, individual english-learning goals, problems, learning strategies, teachers’ roles and students’ opinions and feelings about medical english. the most frequently mentioned categories were identified and are reported here. salient themes in each category and the total number of interview participants are shown in tables 8-9. these tables summarise stakeholders’ comments. the interview data analysis should be interpreted with caution because the participants did not necessarily share the salient views presented; some views were not included in the table because the attitude was not particularly salient to the given individual at that particular moment (flowerdew, 1999). diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 51 neslihan önder-ozdemir ibérica 28 (2014): …-… 3.2. research question 2: are there any differences between the perceptions of academics and medical students regarding eap needs? if so, what are the differences? interview data were collected from insiders and outsiders to obtain the perspectives of all the potential stakeholders and give them a voice. through indepth interviews, this study identified the following salient perceptions of medical english instruction: learning needs, teaching environment, english proficiency, settings in which english is used, individual english-learning goals, problems, learning strategies, teachers’ roles and students’ opinions and feelings about medical english. the most frequently mentioned categories were identified and are reported here. salient themes in each category and the total number of interview participants are shown in table 8. this table summarises stakeholders’ comments. the interview data analysis should be interpreted with caution because the participants did not necessarily share the salient views presented; some views were not included in the table because the attitude was not particularly salient to the given individual at that particular moment (flowerdew, 1999). participants no (%) domains participant code academics (total: 10) students (total: 15) 1. learning needs speaking p.d.1-p.c.3-p.c.4-p.c.5-p.i.7-p.i.8-p.r.10-p.s.12-p.s.18 7 (70) 2 (13.3) listening p.d.1-p.c.3-p.c.4-p.c.5-p.s.14 4 (40) 1 (6.7) reading p.d.1-p.c.4-p.c.5p.s.17-p.s.18 -p.s.19-p.s.21-p.s.25 3 (30) 5 (33.3) medical vocabulary p.c.2-p.c.3-p.c.6-p.i.7-p.i.8-p.s.11-p.s.12p.s.13-p.s.14-p.s.15-p.s.16-p.s.17-p.s.18p.s.19-p.s.20-p.s.21p.s.22-p.s.23-p.s.24p.s.25 5 (50) 15 (100) 2. problems speaking p.c.3-p.c.4-p.c.5-p.i.8-p.i.9-p.r.10-p.s.11p.s.12-p.s.13-p.s.14-p.s.18-p.s.20-p.s.21p.s.22-p.s.23-p.s.24-p.s.25 6 (60) 11 (73.3) 3. learning strategies reading research articles p.d.1-p.c.6-p.r.10-p.s.18 3 (30) 1 (6.7) writing p.i.8-p.i.9p.s.12-p.s.17 2 (20) 2 (13.3) 4. instructors’ roles encouraging students p.d.1-p.c.4-p.i.7-p.s.11-p.s.20-p.s.23 3 (30) 3 (20.0) being supportive p.s.11-p.s.20-p.s.21-p.s.23 0 (0) 4 (26.7) table 8. insiders’ comments. 3.2.1. medical english learning needs 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 51 3.2.1. medical english learning needs three skills were considered to be salient learning needs: listening, reading and speaking. the findings revealed that 70% of the academics believed that students need to be able to speak english in a medical context; among the students, however, speaking was considered a less salient need (13.3%). academics tended to associate speaking with practise, as the following quotes indicate: p.c.2: what i have observed is the lack of practise [in medical contexts] despite the fact that students have knowledge [of the language]. when they are using the language, they are not active, but is the knowledge useful when they are answering the questions? yes, it is. p.c.4: the focus should be on practice. they need to speak and understand what is spoken. fifty per cent of the academics and all of the students reported that they needed to learn medical terms. the students strongly criticised grammar instruction: p.s.16: i do not think that we need grammar while we are learning medical english. we have been repeating grammar since our primary school years. from now on, we should review words because the words we learnt in general english are different than the words in medical english. learning medical words may make us superior because they represent our field. p.s.25: the most important deficiency is our knowledge of medical vocabulary. of course, grammar is also important, but when we can use the correct words, we can understand even if our grammar is bad. p.s.29: we have studied grammar so far (until we came to university). what did i learn? whenever i looked at a text, i just said yes, it is present tense, but nothing more. this year, we are learning medical words. it is much better. i can remember. academics also stated that medical vocabulary was important for written and spoken communication: neslihan önder özdemir ibérica 28 (2014): 35-5852 neslihan önder-ozdemir ibérica 28 (2014): …-… p.c.3: i think i have difficulty expressing myself and my emotions, but i am trying to improve. what am i doing? for example, the book i have been reading recently is in english. it is a medical book. most of the medical books are in english.…two years ago i took a toefl examination to test myself. now i am reading a novel in english that has not been translated into turkish. in our education system, grammar topics, such as passive voice, are taught very well; however, when we meet a citizen of the world, our students cannot put two words together. p.i.7: listening and understanding. i did not learn english in a professional setting, so i have some shortcomings. i have the most difficulty with speaking. p.s.25: i especially have difficulty speaking…i am trying to practise with my friends, who are good at english in the lecture hall. however, i cannot say that i am successful in my attempt. i have difficulty finding words. everyone says that if you go abroad, you will have to talk more fluently because you must speak, and you do not have any other choice. erasmus may help. 3.3.3. methods and strategies among the methods and strategies employed, reading and writing were highlighted in the interview data (see table 9). it is tentatively suggested that the reason for this limited finding is likely to be students’ unfamiliarity with english-learning strategies. domain participant code participants no. (%) 1. problems speaking p.h.26 -p.p.27p.p.28-p.p.29-p.p.30 5 (100) table 9. outsiders’ comments. the questionnaire findings confirm this supposition. in the questionnaire results, the lowest-rated method was learning words through a variety of learning strategies (28.7%). instead, personal effort and note-taking were emphasised in the interview data: p.i.7: i have attended many english courses but i think courses are very limited. my individual effort was greater, and i read the turkish daily news in english. i recommend this because you read about the events in your country, and you read in english. therefore, you learn the usage of words in real life. it was very effective and not expensive. mine was completely an individual effort because you look up each unknown word yourself. i strongly suggest trying this strategy. p.i.8: i underline important words and take notes. one of the students explained his strategy in an interesting way using a phrase learnt in the medical terminology: p.s.12: i generally study by writing. we learnt the following saying in the medical terminology course: docendo discitur. writing means studying three times. first, 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 52 p.c.4: as far as i have observed, one of the basic needs of students is to improve their insufficient vocabulary knowledge. p.i.8: they should know the precise fixed medical terminology used in the articles. 3.2.2. problems as expected, speaking was a crucial problem among academics (70%) and students (40%). the participants made the following statements: p.c.5: i have difficulty speaking english when i have not spoken it for a long time. understanding different accents is challenging. sometimes, even in turkish we do not understand some accents, and it happens in english, too...as turkish citizens, we try to talk in english by obeying all the grammatical rules…for example, people from germany or sweden speak even though they make grammar mistakes. p.c.3: i think i have difficulty expressing myself and my emotions, but i am trying to improve. what am i doing? for example, the book i have been reading recently is in english. it is a medical book. most of the medical books are in english.…two years ago i took a toefl examination to test myself. now i am reading a novel in english that has not been translated into turkish. in our education system, grammar topics, such as passive voice, are taught very well; however, when we meet a citizen of the world, our students cannot put two words together. p.i.7: listening and understanding. i did not learn english in a professional setting, so i have some shortcomings. i have the most difficulty with speaking. p.s.25: i especially have difficulty in speaking…i am trying to practise with my friends, who are good at english in the lecture hall. however, i cannot say that i am successful in my attempt. i have difficulty in finding words. everyone says that if you go abroad, you will have to talk more fluently because you must speak, and you do not have any other choice. erasmus may help. 3.3.3. methods and strategies among the methods and strategies employed, reading and writing were highlighted in the interview data (see table 9). it is tentatively suggested that the reason for this limited finding is likely to be students’ unfamiliarity with english-learning strategies. diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 53 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 53 the questionnaire findings confirm this supposition. in the questionnaire results, the lowest-rated method was learning words through a variety of learning strategies (28.7%). instead, personal effort and note-taking were emphasised in the interview data: p.i.7: i have attended many english courses but i think courses are very limited. my individual effort was greater, and i read the turkish daily news in english. i recommend this because you read about the events in your country, and you read in english. therefore, you learn the usage of words in real life. it was very effective and not expensive. mine was completely an individual effort because you look up each unknown word yourself. i strongly suggest trying this strategy. p.i.8: i underline important words and take notes. one of the students explained his strategy in an interesting way using a phrase learnt in the medical terminology: p.s.12: i generally study by writing. we learnt the following saying in the medical terminology course: docendo discitur. writing means studying three times. first, you think what you will write. second, you see what you write. you see while you are writing. therefore, i use this strategy, and i believe it works. the results of the interview data analysis confirm strevens’ hypothesis (1988: 40) that “…the learner usually has at least a rough idea of what he wishes to be able to do in english. often this rough idea is accurate”. 3.2.4. instructors’ roles there were various perceptions of instructors’ roles. the findings suggest that teaching esp is challenging and that instructors have many responsibilities: p.c.2: i cannot teach medical english in the relaxing/comfortable way that i teach my own courses. we did not have education or training. therefore, small problems sometimes occur. as this participant indicates, teaching esp is a professional challenge and feeling comfortable in the classroom is difficult. this finding accords with stevens’ (1988) opinion. he notes that professionalism is not easily achieved and that esp instructors need special assistance and training because esp teaching requires extra effort and commitment. neslihan önder özdemir ibérica 28 (2014): 35-5854 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 54 medical professionals had specific expectations of esp practitioners. many believed that they should attract students’ attention and explain the knowledge of english was to be a world citizen. p.c.3: there are instructors who attract students’ attention, and there are instructors who leave students feeling detached. it is the same everywhere in the world. p.i.7: i think the most important issue is [telling] the students how english knowledge will help them and that learning english is significant because if a student does not believe in the [benefits of] english, he/she will never put forth effort, especially to learn english. if the instructors explain to the students where english is used, and how beneficial it is for their profession, this will encourage them. i have been to germany and realised that maybe speaking english is not enough. i understood that if you know german, you may benefit a lot in germany. therefore, these experiences should be shared with students. students expect teachers to be supportive and encouraging: p.s.23: [esp practitioners] should support us when we do not understand a medical word and should not expect us to prepare for the course. we have many courses each term and have difficulty reviewing notes. 4. conclusions this study demystifies a valuable methodological approach for identifying the eap needs of medical students. to achieve the research aims and validate the findings, this longitudinal critical na employed five types of instruments: ethnographic methods, including classroom observations and reflective journals, a questionnaire and an interview. the findings suggest that administrators and instructors should not be viewed as the only sources of curriculum design because their diagnoses of learners’ needs may not be correct. students should be encouraged to become involved in identifying their own needs. however, generalisability of the findings should be considered with caution because the data are confined to medical students at uludağ university. additional data from esp practitioners could provide additional insights. because discourse analysis can help practitioners design authentic teaching materials, especially for the teaching of english for academic and professional purposes, it would also be interesting to investigate the medical documents kept by medical professionals. diagnosing the eap needs ibérica 28 (2014): 35-58 55 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 55 acknowledgements i am grateful for the helpful comments of the journal editor ana bocanegravalle, two anonymous reviewers and the active volunteer participation of medical students at uludağ university. i am appreciative of the academic support of professor sarah benesch (city university of new york) and dr. nigel harwood (university of sheffield). the article is derived from an unpublished ma dissertation in english language teaching by onder, n. (2012a), which received the best post-graduate student award in educational sciences in 2013. [paper received 8 april 2013] [revised paper received 18 march 2014] [revised paper accepted 25 march 2014] references neslihan önder özdemir ibérica 28 (2014): 35-5856 bates, b. (1995). a pocket guide to physical examination and history taking. philadelphia, pa: j.b. lippincott co. basturkmen, h. (1998). “refining procedures: a needs analysis project at kuwait university”. english teaching forum 36: 2-9. basturkmen, h. (2010). developing courses in english for specific purposes. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. belcher, d. (2006). “english for specific purposes: teaching to perceived needs and imagined futures in worlds of work, study and everyday life”. tesol quarterly 40: 133-156. benesch, s. (1999). “right analysis: studying power relations in an academic setting”. english for specific purposes 18: 313-328. benesch, s. 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(1994). “needs analysis in language teaching”. language teaching 27: 1-19. 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 57 03 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:20 página 58 iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.243 abstract the literature published in the last decades on the use of machine translation (mt) generally conveys the idea that it is not suitable for professional translation. furthermore, translation students are usually warned that they should not use this tool in their assignments or exams and that doing so would be penalized. the reason behind such reluctance may be that mt produced poor results unless it was used on controlled language in pre-edited texts within a specific specialization field and the target texts were subsequently post-edited with appropriate tools. however, three main considerations lead us to propose a reevaluation of the usefulness of mt in university translation courses: first, students employ mt despite warnings not to do so; second, current tools like google translate or deepl have considerably improved outcomes; and third, mt is already being used as an assistant tool in computer-assisted translation (cat) – although the results are usually monitored by a human translator. as translation teachers, we propose that post-editing mt-translated texts could be used for didactic purposes: the diagnosis of mt-errors could help improve students’ translation skills and linguistic proficiency both in their mother tongue and their second language. in this article, we present the results of using mt plus post-editing in a university course on spanish-german specialized translation. this type of translation poses considerable challenges for students and often requires them to review and deepen their knowledge of the target language grammar. our aim was to contribute to the didactics of translation by training students in error prevention through the analysis of mt-errors, and to teach them to develop a critical attitude when post-editing. keywords: machine translation, post-editing, specialized translation, translation didactics, linguistic competence. google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat universidad de málaga (spain) & universidad de granada (spain) mjvs@uma.es, rburbat@ugr.es 243 ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat resumen google translate y deepl: rompiendo tabúes en la formación de traductores. estudio observacional y análisis los estudios publicados en las últimas décadas sobre el uso de la traducción automática (ta) tienden a transmitir la idea de que esta no es adecuada para la traducción profesional. además, se suele advertir a los estudiantes de traducción de que se verían penalizados si utilizaran dicha herramienta a la hora de realizar encargos o exámenes. el motivo de tales reticencias podría ser que la ta generaba resultados deficientes salvo cuando se aplicaba a lenguajes controlados en textos preeditados pertenecientes a campos de especialización concretos y cuando los textos meta se sometían a una posedición con herramientas apropiadas. no obstante, tres consideraciones nos condujeron a proponer una nueva valoración de la utilidad de la ta en la enseñanza universitaria de la traducción: en primer lugar, los estudiantes utilizan la ta a pesar de que se les advierta de que no deben hacerlo; en segundo lugar, los resultados de las herramientas actuales, como google translate o deepl, han mejorado de forma considerable; y en tercer lugar, la ta ya funciona como una herramienta auxiliar en la traducción asistida por ordenador (tao), aunque los resultados se revisen habitualmente por un traductor humano. como profesoras de traducción planteamos que la posedición de los textos traducidos por ta se puede emplear como herramienta didáctica para mejorar la competencia lingüística y traductora de los estudiantes, tanto en su lengua materna como en su segunda lengua mediante el diagnóstico de los errores. en este artículo presentamos los resultados del uso de la ta junto con la posedición una asignatura de traducción especializada entre el español y el alemán. este tipo de traducción, por un lado, supone un gran reto para los estudiantes y, por otro, a menudo requiere que en clase se repase la gramática de la lengua meta y se amplíen los conocimientos acerca de ella. nuestro objetivo fue contribuir a la didáctica de la traducción, entrenando a los estudiantes a prevenir errores propios mediante el análisis de los errores producidos por la ta y una posedición con actitud crítica. palabras clave: traducción automática, posedición, traducción especializada, didáctica de la traducción, competencia lingüística. 1. introduction until a few years ago, the use of machine translation (mt)1 was considered inadequate for professional translation. furthermore, students used to be systematically warned that they should not use this tool in their assignments or exams and that doing so would be penalized. the reason behind this 244 reluctance may have been that mt produced poor results unless it was used on controlled language in pre-edited texts within a specific specialization field and the target texts were subsequently post-edited with appropriate tools. this situation led translators and teachers to avoid the use of mt. however, mt-systems applied to specialized texts and allowed a training period, have managed to produce quite acceptable results, and they are now used to speed up the translation process. furthermore, recent developments in neural machine translation (nmt) produce even better results. as translation teachers, we wondered whether mt post-editing could be applied to translation pedagogy, using mt-error diagnosis and therapy to improve students’ command of their mother tongue or a second language. in a word, should we ignore the winds of change and close our eyes to reality? or is it time to adapt to changes in the working environment? so far, many professional translators have been strongly against mt because they considered that it threatened their jobs. the international federation of translators (fit) even released several publications to calm the waters, in which they claimed that mt would not harm translators’ activity (läubli & orrego-carmona, 2017, p. 60). conversely, results published by several researchers showed that some of the many translators dedicated to postediting2 were actually working on post-edition of mt-texts, and that they were not unhappy with it (guerberof arenas, 2013, pp. 92-93; gaspari et al., 2015; zaretskaya, 2017, p. 117; scansani, 2020). actually, reluctance to accept mt is rather surprising, since translators have long been working with translation memories (tm), which are based on the principles of mt, and must be followed by post-edition of the segments automatically proposed by the tm. a possible explanation for such generalized rejection of mt would be translators’ concern about earning lower incomes from clients that usually ignore that mt-texts need correction and consequently intend to pay lower fees (as with tms). it is true, however, that until recently, mt required a huge post-editing effort, and that only a combination of pre-edited texts or texts written in controlled language, with trained mt-programs and a post-editing process could produce satisfactory results and be used in large texts. initial mt developments were mainly rule-based (rbmt), i.e., based on linguistic knowledge. these systems mainly failed to translate correctly proper names, homonyms, prepositions and idioms. nowadays, they are seldom used because this type of automatic translator is difficult to produce, it would only work in one language direction and any modification in a standard may google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 245 conflict with other ones. more recently, example-based-machinetranslation (ebmt) was developed. hutchins (2005, p. 69) claimed that it “occupies an intermediary position between rbmt and smt and it makes use of both statistical (smt-like) and symbolic or linguistic (rbmt-like) methods”, perhaps a ‘true’ hybrid mt approach. the next system was corpus-based and statistics-based (smt: statistical machine translation) and its weaknesses mainly affected negation, antonyms, conjugations and syntax; in addition, omissions and failure to adjust to the context are still frequent. smt (actually, phrase based statistical machine translation, pbsmt) represented a quality leap. it was based on aligned corpora of text in the two languages and worked bidirectionally using syntagms. however, there was the handicap that some languages were too complex in structure for this type of mt (e.g. german). the processes of artificial intelligence (ai) are often obscure, and it is not easy to understand why an algorithm generates a particular result. in 2010, explainable artificial intelligence (xai) was developed, and it was implemented as a new kind of neural network, more transparent in terms of information processing, in 2015. this new method was also known as “deep learning”, which is where the name of the automatic translator deepl comes from. as stated by miller (2019, p. 3): “the running hypothesis behind the explainable artificial intelligence is that by designing and implementing intelligence agents that are transparent, users will be better equipped to understand and therefore trust the intelligent agents”. google, yandex and microsoft started using a neural machine translation (nmt) system in 2015, i.e., opennmt, released by the harvard nlp group. in august 2017, the new nmt system deepl was launched, showing a performance that exceeded expectations, and which was much discussed in social media. in 2015, nmt brought about a change of paradigm, with learning algorithms re-using patterns stored in text corpora, and with an excellent performance in word-representation and word-prediction. it significantly improved translation fluency, because it performed better in keeping the word order, inserting function words correctly, improving morphological agreement, and making better lexical choices. as a consequence, neural network-based automatic translation is growing steadily with rising numbers of companies relying on it, e.g., e-bay, amazon and aliexpress (cf. bares sánchez, 2017)3. this latter fact demonstrates the importance of automatic translation in business and marketing, as it enables companies to advertise products in many languages thus increasing earnings. maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266246 in this context, it becomes important to question the quality of such translations. in our study, we compared deepl translations with versus without post-editing by our students. in particular, we analyzed the types and frequencies of translation errors in mt-translated texts and compared them with those of post-edited ones, with the aim of identifying and classifying error tendencies and transferring this knowledge to students. the ultimate goal of this analysis was to gain insights into those features that need to be reinforced in the classroom, so as to reduce the number of errors in students’ translations, improve their translation performance and enhance their academic results. 2. hypothesis and objectives our hypothesis was that post-edition of machine translated texts by university translation students with poor command of the target language will produce better results than their translations without mt. the main objective of this study was to analyze the differences between mt-texts and mt-texts post-edited by students in terms of error diagnosis, to make students aware of their failures and introduce metacognitive error therapy. 3. methods of the observational study some researchers in linguistics or translation claim that successful communication – instead of formal correctness – is the paramount goal. however, the quality of a translation is connected to professional performance and error prevention, and to ensuring that the translated text achieves its intended objective. a text containing grammar errors will hardly meet the readers’ expectations and might be difficult or impossible to understand. we focused our research on the grammar errors found in students’ german-spanish translations. an essential question is to what extent mt differs from non-mt translation in terms of quality. in an earlier study published in 2006, we analyzed students’ human translation with special focus on the errors that occurred in their translations from their mother tongue into a foreign language. in this study, we analyze whether the use of mt followed by post-edition could affect those results. google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 247 3.1. sample and procedure six different texts (126-512 words each) were analyzed in this study. all texts were extracted either from articles published in the financial section of a non-specialized journal or from information articles in financial newspapers. it should be noted that they were controlled texts to some extent, since they belonged to well-defined areas that had been studied in class; thus, the number of errors was expected to be lower than in translations of unknown topics. the analyzed texts are listed in the annex. participants were students from the fourth year (last year) of the bachelor’s degree in translation and interpreting of the university of malaga, spain. since every text was translated in a different class session, the number of the participating students ranged from 31 to 34. they had to translate from their mother tongue, spanish, into a foreign language, german, which they had officially learnt for 225 hours during the course of their studies. translations had to be completed within 45 to 90 minutes depending on the extension of the text. students were allowed to access the internet and use their own materials (other translations, glossaries, etc.), as well as online resources like dictionaries or mt-tools. they were required to translate the original texts using the mt-tool deepl and to subsequently post-edit the target text. notice that corrections were required only when mandatory (thus stylistic errors were ignored). in this regard, we followed the international organization for standardization (iso) 18587:2017 (2017) definition of “light post-editing”, namely making corrections only “to obtain a merely comprehensible text without any attempt to produce a product comparable to a product obtained by human translation”. as far as translation competence is concerned, post-editing has the advantage of bringing together two practice types: linguistic and instrumental (technological). the students’ translated and post-edited texts were then analyzed, and the errors were quantified and classified. 3.2. error classification translation errors can be classified in different ways and certain errors should always be taken into account in translations (cf. varela salinas, 2006). although the diagnosis of individual errors is a complex issue, the asymmetry between source and target languages is a general difficulty. usually, students are well aware of this when it comes to word choice (lexicon) and pronunciation (phonology), but not so much in sentence maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266248 construction (syntax). in our experience, calques of grammatic patterns, especially syntactic ones, are rather frequent. moreover, there is a difference between declarative and procedural knowledge: students can have quite a good knowledge of grammar theory but fail to apply the rules in specific exercises or in text productions such as translations. in this research, we classified translation errors into the following categories: pragmatics grammar equivalence (understanding the original text and choosing an equivalent expression or conveying the same idea/function in the target text) spelling lexicon/terminology style culture although different error classifications can be used, these categories were the most suitable ones for a comparison with the results of our abovementioned study (varela salinas, 2006, pp. 189-203). notice that any given error was counted once, regardless of the times it appeared in a text (i.e. repetitions were not counted as independent errors). the results of mt and students’ translations are described, for every single text, as: total number of errors, error rate (total errors over total number of words in the text), number of errors per category and error percentage per category (the proportion of errors in a certain category from the total errors in that text). in students’ translations, the mean number of errors (mean error) is offered for comparison. 3.3. choice of the mt-tool in order to choose the mt-tool to be used in our study, we conducted an initial comparison between google translate and deepl. both mt-systems were used to analyze one of the texts of the study4; the results showed that deepl performed better. google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 249 4. results in this section we discuss the main results of our observational study. the complete results are summarized in the tables in the annex. tables 1 and 2 show the results of google translate vs. deepl translation of one of the texts used in the study. although the distribution of errors across the categories was similar for both, google translate showed a higher total number of errors and error rate (56 and 16.6, respectively) than deepl (23 and 6.8, respectively). on this basis, we chose deepl as the mt-tool to be used in this study. table 1. mt translation with google translate. table 2. mt translation with deepl. table 3. students’ light post-editing of mt translation with deepl. table 3 shows the results of students’ mt + light post-editing. like in our 2006 study, most errors fell into category grammar; followed by much less errors in lexicon/terminology, spelling and equivalence. a similar distribution pattern with grammar at the top of difficulties was observed in maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266250 google translate text 1: los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors number 7 17 8 1 19 3 1 16.6 56 percentage 12.5% 30.36% 14.29% 1.79% 33.93% 5.36% 1.79% deepl text 1: los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors number 3 8 4 7 1 6.8 23 percentage 13.04% 34.78% 17.39% 30.43% 4.35% students, n = 34 text 1: los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors mean error number 33 475 10 35 232 9 6.8 794 23 percentage 4.16% 59.8% 1.26% 4.4% 29.1% 1.13% all the students’ texts. as in our previous article, we propose that an insufficient amount of german language class hours could account for this finding. pragmatics errors were scarce and stylistic errors were even scarcer, which was not surprising since only light post-editing was required. however, this result could be due to such errors being subsumed into other categories like lexicon, grammar or equivalence, or to the type of text chosen. culture errors were not recorded because the source texts did not contain cultural words. a comparison between the results of deepl vs. students’ deepl+light post-editing translations (tables 2 and 3) shows that the total number of errors with deepl was equivalent to the student’s error mean (23); and that the total error rate of deepl was equivalent to the students’ one (6.8). an analysis of every individual translation showed that 44% of students made a similar number of errors in this text. regarding the other texts, students showed slightly higher error numbers and rates than deepl in two of them and slightly lower values in another two, while in the longest text, students performed much worse than deepl. however, understanding these differences in the students’ mt performance would require further research. since grammar errors were by far the most frequent ones, we classified them into the following subcategories for further analysis: declension syntax conjugation passive voice pronouns determined/undetermined articles gender punctuation conjunctions subject omission tenses prepositions subjunctive google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 251 errors within category grammar can help identifying error tendencies and, more important, provide knowledge about the specific features that need to be emphasized in the didactic use of mt. the tables in the annex about text 1 show the results of deepl vs. students in terms of the distribution of grammar errors in the text6. the remarkably high number of errors made by students in grammar subcategories syntax, declension and prepositions is in agreement with our results published in 2006. the differences between deepl and students can be observed at once; although the mt-system struggled with prepositions at the same level as students, its use of tenses was – at least in this text – markedly poorer, and so were the correct use of (un)determined articles and gender. in translation didactics, it is important to consider potential problems that students might find during the post-editing process. the fact that students made more mistakes in syntax, declension and prepositions suggests that they did not rely on deepl to solve those problems. on the other hand, the high number of errors made by deepl in the use of tenses is remarkable. according to silva (2014, p. 33), mt performance is better with shorter text segments. in our study, the translation of the text “inflación subyacente”, which was considerably shorter and syntactically less complex than the rest, showed similar error tendencies for both deepl and students in the main general categories (tables 4 and 5). thus, grammar and lexicon were the most problematic areas for both; otherwise, students experienced more difficulties with spelling and deepl, with pragmatics. table 4. mt translation with deepl. table 5. students’ mt translation with deepl followed by light post-editing. maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266252 deepl text 3: inflación subyacente error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors number 2 4 4 2 6.25 12 percentage 16.7% 33.4% 33.4% 16.7% students, n = 31 text 3: inflación subyacente error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors mean error number 0 136 7 25 58 56 0 4.69 282 9 percentage 48.2% 2.5% 8.9% 20.6% 19.9% the fact that the students’ error mean was slightly lower than the total errors with deepl may be surprising. a possible reason for this finding could be that students were more confident with using deepl because this text was the last assignment and they had gained experience throughout the term. when the grammar error subcategories were considered, deepl again showed difficulties with prepositions, while students struggled with the same subcategories as before, i.e., syntax, declension and prepositions. interestingly, the figures clearly show that students tended to introduce errors into the mt-text, usually in the categories that are most difficult for them. the analysis of the remaining four texts in our study7 yielded similar results in students’ grammar errors in the three main subcategories, a finding that could be accounted for by their insufficient command of the target language. in this regard, mt and post-editing have limitations, although a slight improvement in students’ use of mt-tools was noticed in the last text. 5. discussion our results indicate that post-editing the outcome of mt can be helpful provided that the translator masters the target language; thus, the use of mt can significantly enhance the quality and consistency of a translation in that case. in this regard, our findings support “research findings that translators are more productive when post-editing” (cadwell et al., 2018, p. 318). however, if the translator has a poor command of the target language, mt post-edition does not help, and may even lead to impaired results. our students showed a tendency to “correct” assumed mt-errors, eventually producing worse versions. the nature of students’ errors indicates the grammatical aspects that should be reinforced with the aim of enhancing their linguistic knowledge, with syntax and declension appearing as the most frequent error types. however, it should be considered that some errors may have been included into different categories (e.g., an incorrect irregular verb may be due to a poor grammar knowledge or may be a spelling error). it should be noted that the assessment of translation quality errors should be weighed according to the extent they distort communication. thus, spelling errors that could be caused by typing mistakes would be less important than grammar or terminology errors. the latter ones should be penalized more strictly since google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 253 they hinder, to a greater extent, the accurate comprehension and/or functional achievement of the text. on the other hand, it is essential to know the error tendencies of the mtsystem used, to better anticipate such errors and compensate for them during the post-editing process. finally, the context is crucial for a correct translation, and if this is not provided, no current mt can translate accurately. machine translation is not able “to think outside the box”. this also happens with cultural words, intertextual references, degrees of politeness and implicit knowledge. after all, mt is a mechanical process, while human translation is a mental process. we propose that, to acquire knowledge and train the necessary skills, the user should begin by learning to use mt-systems adequately, something easy to do since there are several free online mt-systems available. once the weaknesses of an mt-system for a given language pair are known, it becomes easier to detect errors and enhance the quality of the target text through a post-editing process. several authors have published studies on mt and post-editing (cf. balling et al., 2014), specially focusing on productivity (words/hour, words/day). however, although important in professional practice, time pressure may be an additional error factor when training students with a poor command of the target language. in our study, students simply had to meet the previously established deadlines. nevertheless, authors point out that there is “an average time saving of 25% from post-editing machine translation over translation from scratch” (elming et al., 2014, p. 147). it is our opinion that students, in their expectations about professional practice, should regard mt as a part of the new translation flow, where translators may work as language experts, in tasks like post-editing and correcting human or machine translations. this should not be seen as a complete automation of the translation process, but rather as the use of a helpful tool, bearing in mind that the results will still need revision. using mt also has a negative side that should be considered. svoboda (2017, p. 95); for example, stated: assuming that future mt solutions (including neural mt), to some extent, will be reusing existing language material to become trained, they run the risk of producing and consolidating superficial language. by this we mean a flattened language consisting of a limited number of the most commonly used words and phrases, without the true richness and diversity found in human expressions. maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266254 the fit europe (2015) expressed similar ideas: the translator has to read the warnings and must never use online mt (and even api) with sensitive data, because they are all transferred to the translation memory in order to train it and improve its results; hence the need to warn students on using it in a thoughtless way. moreover, it should be pointed out that there is an ethical dimension to the use of mt-systems: it is a translator’s/vendor’s/buyer’s choice whether to use mt or not, and whether to contribute to training a third-party’s system with his/her own renderings (svoboda, 2017, p. 105). 6. conclusions and prospects ict-tools are currently a part of the translator’s working environment, and they are here to stay. therefore, we postulate that post-editing machine translated texts should also be a part of translators’ training programs (sánchez-gijón, 2016, p. 161; aranberri, 2017, p. 89). it is essential that future translators learn to use mt with a critical mind, especially when translating into a foreign language. error counting, description and classification allow teachers to identify those features that require practical or theoretical reinforcement in class. this is especially important when teaching students with a low level of the target language. proper use of technological tools may improve the quality of translation. in this context, it seems safe to assume that improvements in mt-technology will eventually lead to the disappearance of the translator profession as it is today (cf. svoboda 2017, p. 101 ff.). translation is currently undergoing deep changes, and the professional profiles required by future employers will most probably shift from translators capable of transferring texts from one language to another while conveying the content, intention and cultural elements, to language experts skilled in different tasks such as post-edition, reviewing, layout, re-writing (transcreation), and other possible novel tasks like training translation engines, supervising post-edition quality, working in computational linguistics, etc. thus, in our opinion, translators do not need to worry about the disappearance of their profession, but instead they should learn to use machine translation to increase their productivity. after all, we walk towards an integration of human and artificial intelligence. we are witnessing the beginning of an artificial intelligence revolution that will google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 255 influence many areas, including machine translation. to successfully navigate this change and to train competitive translators, we teachers need to adopt a didactic approach that integrates mt and human translation. in agreement with other authors, like doherty and kenny (2014) or pym (2014), we postulate that better integration of mt and post-editing into translation studies is needed. in our opinion, besides learning to use computer assisted translation (cat) tools, applications for automatic translation and post-edition of cat-texts, translators should learn the basics of different mt types and post-edition of mt-texts. in this connection, it should be borne in mind that reviewing someone else’s translations and correcting mt errors, peers’ errors or one’s own errors help translators become aware of translation decisions and gain command of foreign languages. because of our reduced sample size, the results and conclusions of this study cannot be extrapolated to the general population. however, they are illustrative of important aspects to be considered in teaching translation students and may serve as a basis for future research. currently, a new observational study is underway in our research group, aimed at comparing the quality of translation mt with and without post-edition into the translator’s mother tongue. article history: received 25 july 2022 received in revised form 20 january 2023 accepted 20 march 2023 references maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266256 aranberri, n. (2017). what do professional translators do when post-editing for the first time? first insight into the spanish-basque language pair. hermes – journal of language and communication in business, 56, 89-110. https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.v0i56.97235 bares sánchez, p. (2017). la traducción automática en los comercios electrónicos: un laberinto de títulos indescifrables. bachelor’s thesis, pompeu fabra university. cadwell, p., o’brien, s., & teixeira, c. s. c. (2018). resistance and accommodation: factors for the (non-) adoption of machine translation among professional translators. perspectives, 26(3), 301-321. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676x .2017.1337210 doherty, s., & kenny, d. (2014). the design and evaluation of a statistical machine translation syllabus for translation students. the interpreter and translator trainer, 8(2), 295-315. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399x.2014.937571 elming, j., balling, l. w., & carl, m. (2014). investigating user behaviour in post-editing and translation using the casmacat workbench. in s. o’brian, l. w. balling, m. carl, m. simard & l. specia (eds.), post-editing of machine translation: processes and applications (pp. 147-169). cambridge scholars. fit europe (2015). fit europe position statement on the multilingual digital single market. cbti/bkvt belgian chamber of translators and interpreters. https://www.cbti-bkvt.org/en/news/ maría-josé varela salinas is an associate professor in the department of translation and interpreting at the university of malaga (spain). she leads the andalusian hum-855 research group and serves as the editor of the journal redit electronic journal of didactics in translation and interpreting. her research focuses mainly on the didactics of specialized text translation and has been widely published in national and international journals and books from prestigious publishers. ruth burbat is member of the department of english and german philology at the university of granada, spain. she is training german as a foreign language at the faculty of translation and interpretation and was head of the research project daf-collage.eu: teaching and studying german on the network, which obtained the first prize in the university competition of free google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 257 198-fit-europe-position-statement-on-the-multilin gual-digital-single-market gaspari, f., almaghout, h., & doherty, s. 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(2020). machine translation for institutional academic texts: output quality, terminology translation and post-editor trust. phd dissertation, university of bologna. https://doi.org/ 10.6092/unibo/amsdottorato/9191 silva, r. (2014). integrating post-editing mt in a professional translation workflow. in s. o’brian, l. w. balling, m. carl, m. simard & l. specia (eds.), post-editing of machine translation: processes and applications (pp. 24-50). cambridge scholars. https://doi.org/10.1080/13556509.2015.1008745 svoboda, t. (2017). no linguistic borders ahead? looking beyond the knocked-down language barrier. transcultural, 9(2), 86-108. https://doi.org/ 10.21992/t93q0f varela salinas, m.-j. (2006). un caso de valoración de errores en traducción inversa (español-alemán). in m.-j. varela salinas, la evaluación en los estudios de traducción e interpretación (pp. 189-203). bienza. zaretskaya, a. (2017). machine translation postediting at transperfect – the ̔ human’ side of the process. revista tradumàtica, 15, 116–123. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/tradumatica.201 software at national level. her main research focus lies on foreign language didactics, metacognition and learner autonomy and digital tools in foreign language learning which is reflected in her national and international publications and participation in different research projects. notes 1 according to iso 18587:2017 (2017), mt is defined as “automatic translation of text from one natural language to another using a computer application”. 2 defined by iso 18587:2017 (2017) as to “edit and correct machine translation output”. 3 for a better understanding of nmt, see nitzke & hansen-schirra (2021). 4 text: «los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio». 5 prag: pragmatics, gr: grammar, eq: equivalence, spell: spelling, lex/term: lexicon/terminology, sty: style, cult: culture. 6 «los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio». 7 see annex for the figures and percentages corresponding to all the analyzed texts, including the ones that are not shown in the manuscript: “la inflación baja dos décimas en octubre hasta el 1,6% por los carburantes”, “el desempleo en reino unido”, “la inflación (sin alimentos ni energía) recula una décima en alemania y da un respiro a draghi” y “la inflación de alemania sube en junio hasta el 1,6%”. maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266258 appendix text 1: los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio source: el economista. economía. october 18, 2017. https://www.eleconomista.es/economia/noticias/8682005/10/17/los-desempleados-de-mas-de-52-anosrecuperan-el-subsidio.html google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 259 google translate text 1: los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors number 7 17 8 1 19 3 1 16.6 56 percentage 12.5% 30.36% 14.29% 1.79% 33.93% 5.36% 1.79% google translate text 1: los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio grammar error subcategory number percentage declension syntax 1 5.88% conjugation 2 11.76% passive voice pronouns determined/undetermined articles 2 11.76% gender punctuation 3 17.65% conjunctions 2 11.76% subject omission 1 5.88% use of tenses 3 17.65% prepositions 2 11.76% subjunctive 1 5.88% deepl text 1: los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors number 3 8 4 7 1 6.8 23 percentage 13.04% 34.78% 17.39% 30.43% 4.35% deepl text 1: los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio grammar error subcategory number percentage declension 1 12.5% syntax 1 12.5% conjugation passive voice pronouns determined/undetermined articles 1 12.5% gender 1 12.5% punctuation text 2: la inflación baja dos décimas en octubre hasta el 1,6 % por los carburantes source: la vanguardia. sociedad. november 14, 2017. https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20171114/432880754106/la-inflacion-baja-dos-decimas-en-octubre-hastael-16—por-los-carburantes.html maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266260 conjunctions subject omission use of tenses 2 25% prepositions 2 25% subjunctive students, n = 34 text 1: los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors mean error number 33 475 10 35 232 9 6.8 794 23 percentage 4.16% 59.8% 1.26% 4.4% 29.1% 1.13% deepl text 2: la inflación baja dos décimas en octubre hasta el 1,6 % por los carburantes error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors number 3 2 1 4.76 6 percentage 50% 33.33% 16.66% students, n = 34 text 1: los desempleados de más de 52 años recuperan el subsidio grammar error subcategory number percentage declension 104 21.8% syntax 121 25.5% conjugation 45 9.5% passive voice 8 1.7% pronouns 15 3.2% determined/undetermined articles 5 1.1% gender 35 7.4% punctuation 49 10.3% conjunctions 10 2.1% subject omission 2 0.4% use of tenses 4 0.8% prepositions 73 15.4% subjunctive 4 0.8% google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 261 deepl text 2: la inflación baja dos décimas en octubre hasta el 1,6 % por los carburantes grammar error subcategory number percentage declension syntax 1 50% conjugation passive voice pronouns determined/undetermined articles gender punctuation conjunctions subject omission use of tenses prepositions 1 50% subjunctive students, n = 34 text 2: la inflación baja dos décimas en octubre hasta el 1,6 % por los carburantes error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors mean error number 23 106 5 5 15 3.57 154 4.5 percentage 14.93 % 68.83 % 3.25 % 3.25 % 9.74 % students, n = 34 text 2: la inflación baja dos décimas en octubre hasta el 1,6 % por los carburantes grammar error subcategory number percentage declension 39 37% syntax 27 25% conjugation 7 7% passive voice 1 1% pronouns 4 4% determined/undetermined articles gender punctuation 5 5% conjunctions 5 5% subject omission use of tenses 1 1% prepositions 17 16% subjunctive text 3: inflación subyacente source: expansión. economía. july 13, 2017. second part. https://www.expansion.com/economia/2017/07/13/59672874268e3eea408b45e6.html maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266262 deepl text 3: inflación subyacente error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors number 2 4 4 2 6.25 12 percentage 16.7% 33.4% 33.4% 16.7% deepl text 3: inflación subyacente grammar error subcategory number percentage declension syntax conjugation passive voice pronouns determined/undetermined articles gender 1 25% punctuation conjunctions subject omission 1 25% use of tenses prepositions 2 50% subjunctive students, n = 31 text 3: inflación subyacente error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors mean error number 0 136 7 25 58 56 0 4.69 282 9 percentage 48.2% 2.5% 8.9% 20.6% 19.9% students, n = 31 text 3: inflación subyacente grammar error subcategory number percentage declension 30 22.1% syntax 48 35.3% conjugation 10 7.3% passive voice pronouns 8 5.9% determined/undetermined articles 4 2.9% gender 1 0.7% punctuation 5 3.7% conjunctions 14 10.3% subject omission 1 0.7% use of tenses prepositions 15 11.0% subjunctive text 4: el desempleo en reino unido source: el economista. economía. october 18, 2017. https://www.eleconomista.es/economia/noticias/8682338/10/17/el-desempleo-britanico-se-situa-en-el-43-yalcanza-nivel-minimo-en-12-anos.html google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 263 deepl text 4: el desempleo en reino unido error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors number 3 6 4 0 3 2 0 4.68 18 percentage 16.67% 33.33% 22.22% 16.67% 11.11% 100% deepl text 4: el desempleo en reino unido grammar error subcategory number percentage declension 2 33.33% syntax conjugation passive voice pronouns determined/undetermined articles gender punctuation conjunctions subject omission use of tenses 3 50% prepositions subjunctive 1 16.67% students, n = 34 text 4: el desempleo en reino unido error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors mean error number 3 518 6 31 144 15 5.45 717 21 percentage 0.4% 72.2% 0.8% 4.3% 20.0% 2.1% 100% students, n = 34 text 4: el desempleo en reino unido grammar error subcategory number percentage declension 77 14.9% syntax 132 25.5% conjugation 18 3.5% passive voice 1 0.2% pronouns 71 13.7% determined/undetermined articles 29 5.6% gender 24 4.6% punctuation 37 7.1% conjunctions 33 6.4% subject omission 2 0.4% use of tenses 13 2.5% prepositions 50 9.7% subjunctive 31 6.0% text 5: la inflación (sin alimentos ni energía) recula una décima en alemania y da un respiro a draghi source: blog de economía y finanzas bankinter. october 13, 2017. https://www.bankinter.com/blog/loultimo/inflacion-sin-alimentos-energia-recula-una-decima-alemania-respiro-draghi maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266264 deepl text 5: la inflación (sin alimentos ni energía) recula una décima en alemania y da un respiro a draghi error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors number 2 3 0 0 3 0 0 2.09 8 percentage 25% 37.5% 37.5% 100% deepl text 5: la inflación (sin alimentos ni energía) recula una décima en alemania y da un respiro a draghi grammar error subcategory number percentage declension syntax conjugation passive voice pronouns determined/undetermined articles gender punctuation conjunctions subject omission use of tenses prepositions 2 66.67% subjunctive 1 33.33% students, n = 34 text 5: la inflación (sin alimentos ni energía) recula una décima en alemania y da un respiro a draghi error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors mean error number 560 44 104 328 16 274.67 1052 31 percentage 53.23% 4.18% 9.89% 31.18% 1.52% 100% students, n = 34 text 5: la inflación (sin alimentos ni energía) recula una décima en alemania y da un respiro a draghi grammar error subcategory number percentage declension 49 8.75% syntax 118 21.07% conjugation 48 8.57% passive voice 19 3.39% pronouns 11 1.96% determined/undetermined articles 16 2.86% gender 42 7.5% punctuation 57 10.18% text 6: la inflación de alemania sube en junio hasta el 1,6% source: expansión. economía. july 13, 2017. https://www.expansion.com/economia/2017/07/13/59672874268e3eea408b45e6.html google translate and deepl: breaking taboos in translator training. observational study and analysis ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266 265 conjunctions 43 7.68% subject omission 12 2.14% use of tenses 5 0.89% prepositions 42 7.5% subjunctive 98 17.5% deepl text 6: la inflación de alemania sube en junio hasta el 1,6% error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors number 1 1 2 8 3.8% 12 percentage 8.3% 8.3% 16.7% 66.7% deepl text 6: la inflación de alemania sube en junio hasta el 1,6% grammar error subcategory number percentage declension syntax conjugation passive voice pronouns determined/undetermined articles gender punctuation conjunctions subject omission use of tenses 1 100% prepositions subjunctive students, n = 34 text 6: la inflación de alemania sube en junio hasta el 1,6% error category5 prag gr eq spell lex/term sty cult error rate total errors mean error number 237 52 44 162 14 4.5 509 15 percentage 46.56% 10.22% 8.64% 31.83% 2.75% 100% students, n = 34 text 6: la inflación de alemania sube en junio hasta el 1,6% grammar error subcategory number percentage declension 17 7.17% syntax 76 32.07% conjugation 27 11.39% passive voice maría-josé varela salinas & ruth burbat ibérica 45 (2023): 243-266266 pronouns 18 7.59% determined/undetermined articles 10 4.22% gender 7 2.95% punctuation 35 14.77% conjunctions 16 6.75% subject omission 4 1.69% use of tenses 5 2.11% prepositions 22 9.28% subjunctive redalyc.dialogicity in written specialised genres, luz gil-salom, carmen soler-leal (eds) amsterdam / philadelphia: johnbenjamins, 2014. 227 pages. isbn 978-90 -272-1040-1 ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa arinas pellón, ismael dialogicity in written specialised genres, luz gil-salom, carmen soler-leal (eds) amsterdam / philadelphia: johnbenjamins, 2014. 227 pages. isbn 978-90 -272-1040-1 ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 222-225 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542014 cómo citar el artículo número completo más información del artículo página de la revista en redalyc.org sistema de información científica red de revistas científicas de américa latina, el caribe, españa y portugal proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542014 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542014 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542014 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org dialogicity in written specialised genres luz gil-salom, carmen soler-leal (eds). amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins, 2014. 227 pages. isbn: 978-90-272-1040-1. dialogicity in written specialised genres presents a collection of papers whose common thread is an analysis of authorial voice, dialogic relations, evaluation, and identity construction in written genres. the originality of this volume lies in the genres and languages analysed: usually, the study of interpersonality in texts is focused on journal papers written in english. in this case, there is a wider range of genres analysed (literature review chapters in phd theses, film reviews, book review articles, fiction book reviews, traveller’s opinion forums, tourism opinion forums, online specialised genres, and journal papers) while the languages covered are english, italian, and spanish. after an introduction from the editors, john flowerdew provides a foreword where he draws attention to the research questions answered by the papers included in this volume. flowerdew highlights the fact that this volume has identified linguistic and cultural differences in the expression of dialogicity across genres, disciplines, and languages. this is followed by an introductory chapter where ken hyland begins with a summary of his research on engagement and stance achieved through hedges, self-mention, reader pronouns, and directives. he then compares how these strategies are used in journal papers belonging to eight different academic disciplines. hyland concludes that the dialogue between academic writers and their audiences happens because it is inherent to persuasive writing. he attributes the higher frequency of dialogicity in the hard sciences as compared to the soft sciences to the intrinsically interpretative nature of the humanities and social sciences. the rest of the volume is divided in three sections: four chapters on authorial stance and the construction of readership, three chapters on dynamic dialogic interactions, and a concluding chapter. carmen solermonreal and luz gil-salom (pages 23-54) compare a corpus of 10 computer science phd thesis literature review chapters in spanish with reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 222 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 222 another corpus of 10 similar texts in english. they focus on the analysis of how phd thesis authors use reporting verbs to mitigate threats to the positions appearing in the quoted literature. their conclusion is that although both spanish and english authors rely on similar strategies, preferences in the choice of politeness tactics are culturally bound. marta carretero (pages 55-85) examines a corpus of 80 film reviews (40 in english and 40 in spanish) to identify how engagement is employed in the genre. she further subdivides the corpus into professional and consumer generated reviews. carretero finds not only differences in engagement use between professional and amateur reviewers, but also among english and spanish ones. giuliana diani (pages 87-112) analyses two corpora: 45 history book review articles written in english and 41 specimens of the same genre written in italian. the focus of her research is the dialogic dimension of argumentation. she looks at the occurrences of the pronouns “i” and “we” in english as well as “io” and “noi” plus their corresponding verbal forms in italian. her conclusions point to the existence of several voices in this genre and a cultural link of preferences in the dialogic presentation of arguments. maria-lluïsa gea-valor (pages 113-133) looks at the use of interactional metadiscourse in fiction book reviews. her chapter presents a genre that uses metadiscourse both to provide assessment on a novel and engage a readership that has a status similar to that of the writer. the following book section begins with francisca suau-jiménez’s (pages 137-164) report on the use of writer’s stance and reader’s engagement in a corpus of on-line forum threads. she shows how forums are genres where writers and readers exchange their roles consecutively as they negotiate meaning and understanding with the help of interpersonal markers. this is followed by rosana dolón’s (pages 165-187) chapter on the discursive creation of child consumer identity within official information websites and opinion forums. for her study, she uses a corpus of 189 threads from a kid trip forum and a corpus of 204 texts from london’s official tourism website. her conclusions point to differences in how kids are presented within each corpus through the use of different interpersonal approaches. the section concludes with francisco yus (pages 189-208) presenting an analysis of writer-reader interactions in four different on-line academic genres. his corpus includes four sub-corpora representing traditional computing journal articles online, web-adapted computing journal articles, blog entries within second life, and technology blog entries in the guardian. his analysis indicates that the more adapted a genre is to the web environment, the less control reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 223 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 223 that the author has over the interactions with the readership. the concluding chapter (shaw, pages 209-220) extracts consequences from the previous chapters on how the use of interpersonality changes as web native genres take more prevalence. the main weaknesses of this compilation are related to editing issues and the use of the corpus linguistics methodology. regarding the first, i have noticed that some of the numerical data presented in tables (hyland: 7; carretero: 77, 79, 80, 82) do not add up to the totals shown. in relation with the methodological issues, most authors mention what software was used for their research; unfortunately, others provide vague references such as: “a commercially available text analysis programme” or simply omit any mention. most of the corpus data reported consists of tokens in the corpus and normalized frequencies every 1,000 words. this procedure deprives the readers from useful contextualisation figures (number of types, type/token ratios, percentage of hapax legomena, or keywords) while it relies on the convenient, but unrealistic assumption that words are evenly distributed across texts. flowerdew, in the book’s foreword, presents this collection of papers as relevant “to anyone interested in language as multidimensional dialogue” (page xv) and then points to a mostly academic audience (phd researchers, reviewers of the genres analysed, and researchers of spanish, italian, or english from the perspective of the interactive nature of writing). let me suggest here how this compilation can be useful for some additional audiences. among the several challenges of contemporary research, we can highlight the need to transfer the knowledge generated to non-research agents and sharing this knowledge with other research disciplines. dialogicity in written specialised genres is particularly pertinent for those analysing opinion in social networks for marketing, public relations, and sociological purposes by means of sentiment analysis (or opinion mining) techniques. in particular, chapters 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 deal both with linguistic features used to display opinions in writing and ways to interact with readers in online genres. the book is also of interest for people researching communication in opinion journalism. the papers compiled in this volume can be used as a model for other contrastive studies using different language pairs. there is also room for further research by increasing the size of the corpora used and refining the design and statistic measurements. those concerned with the different uses of dialogicity between hard and soft sciences can test hyland’s explanations with diachronic studies assessing whether variation reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230224 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 224 among disciplines is the result of a stylistic evolution within the soft sciences or it has been there from the beginning. in conclusion, this volume is undoubtedly a source of research ideas and bibliography for those who are working with the interactive features of written genres. received 22 october 2014 accepted 23 october 2014 reviewed by ismael arinas pellón universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) ismael.arinas@upm.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 225 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 225 01 editorial.qxd supporting research writing. roles and challenges in multilingual settings valerie matarese (ed). cambridge: chandos publishing, 2012. 330 pages. isbn: 978-1-84334-666-1. supporting research writing: roles and challenges in multilingual settings focuses on the publication practices of non-native english speaking (nnes) academics from the perspective of an often neglected group of professionals who help them in their goal. as pointed out by the editor, valerie materese, the unifying term “language professionals” is used in an attempt to raise the profile of those offering extremely varied types of writing support to academic authors, including among others copy editors, translators, authors’ editors, or professional writers. these language professionals do deserve greater visibility and recognition of their work and this book contributes to learn more about their practices. the book should, thus, be of interest not only to academic authors but also to journal editors and publishers, as well as to institutional and educational administrators, and, overall, to anyone taking part in the production and dissemination of academic knowledge. the seed of the book was a panel discussion which took place at the mediterranean editors and translators 2009 annual conference and brought together professionals offering language support to nnes authors across different countries. it comprises 15 chapters coherently divided into four sections. sally burgess and theresa lillis’ introductory chapter opens the book and sets the scene for the remaining contributions. the authors maintain that the key to the success of working relationships is based on three important aspects: the management of expectations, the establishment of credibility and the issue of authority. part 1 “teaching nnes authors to write in english” comprises four chapters on different approaches to teaching english for academic purposes (eap) especially to academics who use english as an additional language (eal). sally burgess and anne pallant describe four perspectives to the teaching of academic written skills and argue that there has been and will be reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 241 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 241 an increasing need for non-anglophone academics to acquire written academic skills in english. mary ellen kerans shows how the literature on process writing has helped her and can help language professionals in general to provide authors with support. she illustrates some research-based heuristics offered by such literature with examples from her own daily practice with authors in nonanglophone settings. based on their own experience, sally burgess and margaret cargill argue that using genre analysis and corpus linguistics, and especially the use of concordances, can bring fruitful results in eap courses as well as in oneto-one mentoring sessions with eal writers. the authors describe the procedure followed in a publications skills course. in the last chapter of this first part valerie matarese describes an approach used to teach research and research writing to nnes in the biomedical sciences based on strategic, critical reading. the content and structure of the seven-day course is provided as it has been designed and implemented by the author. part 2 “helping nnes authors publish through translation” contains three chapters on the support needed by authors who want to publish their research results in english for an international readership but do not have enough command of the language. in the first one, karen bennett acknowledges that the hegemony of english in the academic world impinges particular rhetorical options in manuscripts to be published in that language and that, as a result, academic translators into english need to heavily domesticate the texts. in the next chapter susan m. digiacomo underlines the importance of voice in the dissemination of disciplinary knowledge. drawing on own examples from the fields of anthropology and biomedicine she reflects on how translators need to go beyond literalness and be aware that they also have a voice, which they need to put at the service of the source text and of the translated author. from their first-hand experience greg morley and mary ellen kerans discuss the reasons why a bilingual publication may be chosen and the practical aspects to be considered when undertaking such task. bilingual publications, although labor intensive and costly, seem to be in the rise. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256242 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 242 under part 3 four different chapters discuss the issue of “facilitating publication through editing and writing support” to those authors who can write in english for research publication purposes, even if it is not their native language, but need support in that endeavor. joy burroughboenisch presents different types of editing: editing occurring chronologically in the process of writing and publishing a text, editing interventions across a continuum moving from superficial to substantial, and levels of edit. she maintains that texts written by nnes authors undergo a different type of editing, which in fact lies between editing and translation. in her chapter marije de jager discusses the complexities that copy-editing – which is supposed to be the most superficial type of editing – entails when it takes place for a non-anglophone english-medium journal. the role of the copy editor becomes multifaceted, and they sometimes act as “the last gatekeeper” and perform an educating role. joy burrough-boenish and valerie matarese’s chapter focuses on the work of author editors, which is usually previous to the manuscript submission to a journal. author editing can be very varied, especially when it concerns manuscripts from nnes authors. the importance of dialoguing with authors if only through the edited text is underlined. greg morley presents another type of research writing support, that provided by a professional – usually medical – writer, whose role is to help authors get a publishable paper taking as a starting point their ideas, data and opinions. the necessary steps to be taken and some complicating aspects that may arise in the writing process are discussed. professional writers should be particularly aware of ethical practices, which can be achieved by constant negotiation with authors. the last section of the book, part 4 “blurring the boundaries” includes three final contributions which highlight overlaps among the writing support tasks discussed separately in each of the preceding parts: teaching, translating and editing. joy burrough-boenisch advocates for didactic editing, as it can be beneficial both to the authors and the editors. through a proactive approach to editing, nnes novice authors can learn skills and strategies, and language professionals can add value to their work, ensure acceptance of their revisions and can make their job easier in the long run. valerie matarese focuses on another type of writing support, developmental editing, which may be required when the researchers have data and findings but are unable to draft their papers or when the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 243 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 243 researchers’ manuscripts have been serially rejected by publication journals. development editors must be particularly concerned with authorship issues in order to foster researchers’ engagement and avoid ghostwriting, which can be achieved combining such developmental editing with author coaching. the authors of the last chapter, theresa lillis, anna magyar and anna robinson-pant, describe their collaborative experience, as journal editor, academic writing researcher and teacher translator, respectively, in designing and implementing a successful authors’ mentoring programme to support the writing of nnes authors from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. the authors further discuss the roles and responsibilities of anglophone centre journals. finally, valerie matarese closes the book with an afterword in which, as a way of summary, reflects on the complex figure of the language professional and discusses the main recurring aspects throughout the book, namely, the need for writing support to be individualized, multifaceted, multilingual and multicultural, the role of language professionals as communicators and mediators, the necessary proactive nature of their work, and their concern with ethical issues. as shown by the summary of the fifteen chapters, the book offers valuable insights into the increasingly important work of language professionals in the publication of academic knowledge in english-medium journals. because of their prominent, and often undervalued, role in current publication practices, this book is a most relevant contribution. however, given the global nature of academic research publications, some further thoughts from the contributors – mostly anglophone and/or educated at anglophone institutions working in non-anglophone contexts – on the current role of english as a lingua franca (elf) and the implications for their work would have been welcome. nonetheless, the book makes an excellent job in bringing together the voices of experienced language professionals and unveiling the process of research writing and publication, which, so far, has not attracted much scholarly attention, but which undoubtedly deserves it. [review received 7 april 2014] [revised review received 31 may 2014] [revised review accepted 13 june 2014] reviewed by pilar mur-dueñas universidad de zaragoza (spain) pmur@unizar.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256244 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 244 iberica 13 ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 issn 1139-7241 las lenguas de especialidad en español maria vittoria calvi, cristina bordonaba zabalza, giovanna mapelli, javier santos lópez. roma: carocci editore, 2009. 224 págs. isbn: 978-88-430-4970-7. el presente volumen constituye una interesante aproximación al estudio de las lenguas de especialidad en español. desde una perspectiva eminentemente didáctica, los autores han estructurado el libro en dos partes. en la primera tres capítulos introductorios revisan los conceptos básicos necesarios para poder abordar el estudio analítico de las diferentes lenguas de especialidad que van a constituir la segunda parte de la obra. el primero de los capítulos introductorios (m.v. calvi “las lenguas de especialidad”) se dedica al problema de la definición del término “lenguas de especialidad” y a sus diferentes denominaciones: “lenguas para fines específicos”, “lenguas especiales”, microlanguages o microlingue y “lenguas especializadas” o “lenguas de especialidad”. asimismo la autora describe las diferentes aproximaciones al estudio de las lenguas de especialidad atendiendo al componente temático (la “dimensión horizontal”) que incluye el léxico y la terminología, y al componente pragmático (la “dimensión vertical”) con referencia al texto, a las funciones comunicativas, a los niveles de especialización, etc. por último se explica la importancia de la internacionalización de las lenguas de especialidad, con el inglés como lingua franca, así como la necesidad de atender a la competencia comunicativa de los hablantes y las diferencias culturales e interculturales y su influencia en las propiedades discursivas de las lenguas de especialidad. el segundo capítulo (c. bordonaba zabalza “neología y formación de palabras”), dedicado a la formación de palabras, se ocupa del proceso de formación de nuevas unidades léxicas distinguiendo dos tipos de neologías, la denominativa (derivada de la necesidad de designar lo nuevo o desconocido) y la estilística (con finalidad expresiva). dependiendo de los procesos utilizados para crear nuevas palabras podemos distinguir la neología de sentido o semántica (la que dota de un nuevo significado a un 163 reseñas/book reviews 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 163 término ya existente), la neología de forma (la creación de significantes y significados nuevos a través de los mecanismos de formación de palabras) y los préstamos (la introducción de palabras procedentes de otras lenguas). el tercer y último capítulo introductorio (g. mapelli “texto y género”) se ocupa del texto como unidad lingüística comunicativa en el que podemos distinguir tres componentes interconectados: el componente comunicativo (el significado literal o explícito y el de procesamiento o implícito de un texto), el componente pragmático (los factores que influyen en la actividad comunicativa intencional entre emisor y receptor) y el componente estructural (los elementos léxico-gramaticales que influyen en la construcción del significado y que facilitan el proceso interpretativo del interlocutor). también se describe la teoría de los actos de habla y las funciones del texto de austin y searle, los modelos de tipologías textuales y el concepto de género discursivo, con especial énfasis en los géneros profesionales como parte de la caracterización de las lenguas de especialidad. este capítulo termina con la propuesta de un modelo de análisis de textos lingüísticos basada en el género, el marco situacional, el marco estructural, los elementos morfosintácticos y los elementos extralingüísticos del texto. los siguientes seis capítulos se ocupan del análisis y la caracterización de algunas lenguas de especialidad. las descripciones analíticas se completan con fragmentos de textos que ejemplifican y aclaran las explicaciones y culminan con una propuesta de comentario lingüístico de un texto específico, siguiendo el modelo propuesto en el capítulo tres. cada capítulo termina con la bibliografía utilizada por los autores. así el capítulo cuarto se dedica al lenguaje de los medios de comunicación (g. mapelli “el lenguaje de los medios de comunicación”). la autora comienza definiendo el concepto de comunicación aplicado a los medios. posteriormente distingue entre el lenguaje del periodismo escrito, caracterizado por la concisión, claridad y precisión, el empleo de técnicas de captación del lector, objetividad, corrección y el uso de elementos paralingüísticos e icónicos y el lenguaje de la publicidad, que se distingue por el uso de elementos no verbales, el carácter apelativo de los titulares y su combinación con la imagen y el eslógan. asimismo analiza los diferentes géneros periodísticos (noticia, crónica, entrevista, editorial, columna y titulares). el siguiente capítulo (g. mapelli “el lenguaje científico-técnico”) se ocupa del lenguaje científico-técnico, atendiendo a sus particularidades reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190164 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 164 morfológicas, léxicas y morfosintácticas. en cuanto a las características morfológicas, aunque el lenguaje de la ciencia y la tecnología debe ser monosémico, preciso y objetivo, la autora describe algunos ejemplos de ambigüedad, polisemia y connotación. del léxico se destacan la prefijación y sufijación, los compuestos, el empleo de epónimos, las abreviaturas y los préstamos. a nivel morfosintáctico se incide sobre la “impersonalización” como característica principal del discurso. una descripción similar del lenguaje económico encontramos en el capítulo sexto (j. santos lópez “el lenguaje económico”), incluyendo además el componente intercultural. también se analiza la importancia de los aspectos interculturales (comunicación no verbal, cortesía y estilos de negociación) en las relaciones comerciales. el autor hace un repaso de los distintos géneros textuales, centrándose en el informe, el formulario, la carta comercial y los géneros orales (negociación, reunión o videoconferencia, entre otros). el lenguaje jurídico, objeto del capítulo séptimo (c. bordonaba zabalza “el lenguaje jurídico”), así como el lenguaje administrativo con el que guarda estrecha relación, se aborda atendiendo a su característica más relevante: el predominio de la forma escrita sobre la oral. entre sus rasgos distintivos cabe destacar el uso de préstamos, fundamentalmente del latín y del griego, así como la formación de palabras a través de la derivación (fundamentalmente por prefijación y sufijación) y la composición. en el capítulo octavo (j. santos lópez “el lenguaje político”) el lenguaje político se describe atendiendo a sus aspectos pragmáticos, principalmente en lo que se refiere a las relaciones entre el emisor y los destinatarios. se presta una especial atención a la retórica como uno de los más relevantes géneros textuales del lenguaje político, distinguiendo entre sus rasgos el empleo de técnicas de persuasión, el uso de la metáfora y la necesidad del discurso políticamente correcto. el lenguaje turístico, del que se ocupa el noveno y último capítulo (m. v. calvi “el lenguaje del turismo”), coincide con el lenguaje político en la naturaleza persuasiva de su discurso, por lo que, además del análisis léxico y morfosintáctico de esta lengua de especialidad, se incluye la descripción de los recursos de implicación del interlocutor, no solo en el plano lingüístico (apelaciones directas, el “nosotros” participativo, el uso de adjetivos, etc.), sino también a nivel gráfico e icónico. por último se aborda otra característica del lenguaje turístico, la presencia de elementos deícticos referidos al espacio y el tiempo. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190 165 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 165 en conclusión, nos encontramos ante un texto bien estructurado, de fácil lectura y con un nivel de dificultad asequible para todo aquel que quiera iniciarse en el análisis lingüístico de textos especializados. el carácter didáctico del libro lo convierte en un excelente punto de partida para profundizar en el estudio de las lenguas de especialidad en español. [reseña recibida en enero de 2011] [reseña revisada aceptada en febrero de 2011] reseñado por miguel ángel gonzález macías universidad de cádiz (spain) miguel.macias@uca.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 21 (2011): 163-190166 08 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:11 página 166 in this issue we are pleased to announce that we have further been included in two new international bibliographical lists, cindoc (centro de información y documentación científica center of scientific information and documentation [http://www.cindoc.csic.es]) and latindex (sistema regional de información en línea para revistas científicas de américa latina, el caribe, españa y portugal regional center of online information for scientific journals from latin america, the caribbean, spain, and portugal [http://www.latindex.unam.mx]). we hope that this will widen our journal's scope and really become an element of scientific dissemination in the area of applied languages. the present issue offers a wide range of topics which cover areas related to legal, medical, advertising, and business discourse. in the first paper, by s. tarp, the concept of a well-conceived specialized bilingual dictionary is offered. his discussion runs in the line of previous dictionaries which have been qualified as truly active (posteguillo & piqué-angordans, 2005: 460-461) with the purpose of becoming a useful tool for the translator for both decoding and encoding. a contrastive view of similarities and differences in the contract terminology is offered by m. a. orts; she feels that the problems of legal translation stem from the fact that every legal system has its own kind of language. this topic of legal discourse and its translation is complemented with a book review by the same author on a text on english law and the difficulties involved in the translation of legal english texts into spanish. the world of advertising is undertaken by m. l. gea from a very peculiar aspect, namely blurbs, specifically those contained in books. she takes a very ample view of them and contends that they "not only describe the contents of a book, but also evaluate and recommend the book by means of extracts from reviews in well-known newspapers, journals and magazines which praise the qualities of the book and the author" (p. 42). medical discourse is another issue discussed by three of our collaborators: g. mendiluce and a. i. hernández attempt to classify hedges and boosters from a contrastive standpoint. they feel that medical discourse in spanish has received little attention from the literature, particularly because hedges and boosters represent a terminological and conceptual gap in spanish. e. vázquez concludes, in her genre-based analysis, using paltridge's (1997) approach, of medical editorials and letters to the editor from a contrastive stance, that genres have their own linguistic patterns which are not shared with the rest. ibérica 10 [2005]: 5-6 editorial 5 m. j. luzón also emphasizes the importance of genres since they play an important role in the teaching and learning of languages for professional and academic purposes. she feels that the concept of "genre colony" can be used in the organization of syllabi for esp courses. contrastive studies seem to have become one of the key issues among today's researchers quite concerned with the difficulties encountered by translators and teachers as well. p. lópez presents a very useful glossary of economic anglicisms and how they have entered into the spanish language. she analyzes the linguistic mechanisms involved in this interlinguistic adaptation. she finally offers a list of over forty anglicisms with explanation of the term or expression along with quotations from today's business and economics popular literature. m. velasco also undertakes business discourse to have a look at metaphors and how they can become a useful device for esp teachers. she feels that the incorporation of metaphors in the english program can make students more aware of key concepts, models and issues, while at the same time improve their reading and translating skills. we come to an end with a very informative and lively interview, conducted by a. moreno and l. suárez, to one of the top experts in contrastive and intercultural rhetorics, professor ulla connor. we are grateful she accepted to be interviewed thus giving us a chance to know her and her achievements better. two book reviews have also been included, one already mentioned by m. a. orts, and a second one by p. edwards on a recent textbook for teaching english to students of tourism. as a final note, we would like to mention the extraordinary review work done by the members of our editorial board, and also our thanks should go to two external reviewers who also have voluntarily helped in the review work for this and other issues, namely drs. juan josé calvo and amparo olivares, both from the universitat de valència (spain). jordi piqué-angordans editor of ibérica editorial ibérica 10 [2005]: 5-66 paltridge, b. (1997). genres, frames and writing in research settings. amsterdam: john benjamins. posteguillo, s. & j. piqué-angordans (2005). "computer terminology: developing an active bilingual englishspanish dictionary". symposium on lexicography xi. proceedings of the eleventh international symposium on lexicography may 2-4, 2002 at the university of copenhagen, 453-473. edited by h. gottlieb, j. e. mogensen & a. zettersten. tübingen: max niemeyer verlag. references iberica 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this article offers new applications on the use of audiovisual translation as a task within the framework of task-based learning and the effect it has on listening comprehension. in addition, it seeks to expand the limited academic information and literature related to the use of subtitling as a language learning tool for students without translation training, specifically within the context of english for the military or english for the security forces. on the other hand, within the area of english for specific purposes, and more specifically english for the military, its aim is to provide the basis for future research within that context for the use of subtitled audiovisual material (both interlingual and intralingual) and audiovisual translation, as well as other audiovisual translation modes such as dubbing and audio description. it also offers a critical review of the use of a virtual learning management system in the provision of authentic audiovisual material and the teaching and subsequent execution of subtitling tasks. the study was carried out in an entirely virtual environment, with the aim of creating a positive impact on the teaching and learning of audiovisual translation, especially in traditional translator training programs, providing a model of how audiovisual translation subjects can be taught in an entirely virtual form, taking advantage of available software applications and encouraging a greater use thereof. keywords: english for specific purposes, listening comprehension, subtitling, audiovisual translation, task-based learning. resumen mejora de la comprensión oral en el inglés militar para fines específicos mediante la subtitulación: estudio experimental using subtitling to improve military esp listening comprehension: an experimental study adrián fuentes-luque & alan patrick campbell universidad pablo de olavide (seville, spain) & middle tennessee state university (united states) afuentes@upo.es & alan.campbell@mtsu.edu 245 ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 adrián fuentes-luque & alan patrick campbell este artículo ofrece nuevas aplicaciones sobre el uso de la traducción audiovisual como tarea dentro del marco del aprendizaje basado en tareas y el efecto que esta tiene en la comprensión auditiva. además, intenta ampliar la limitada información y literatura académica relacionadas con el uso de la subtitulación como herramienta en el aprendizaje de idiomas para los alumnos sin formación en traducción, específicamente dentro del contexto del inglés para militares o del inglés para las fuerzas de seguridad. por otra parte, dentro del área del inglés para fines específicos, y más concretamente el inglés para lo militar, su objetivo es proporcionar una base para futuras investigaciones dentro de ese contexto para el uso de material audiovisual subtitulado (tanto interlingüístico como intralingüístico) y la traducción audiovisual, así como otros modos de traducción audiovisual como el doblaje y la audiodescripción. también ofrece una revisión crítica del uso de un sistema de gestión de aprendizaje virtual en cuanto a la facilitación de material audiovisual auténtico, así como la enseñanza y la posterior ejecución de las tareas de subtitulado. el estudio se llevó a cabo dentro de un entorno íntegramente virtual, con el objetivo de crear un impacto positivo en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la traducción audiovisual, sobre todo en los programas tradicionales de formación de traductores, proporcionando un modelo de cómo se pueden impartir asignaturas de traducción audiovisual de forma íntegramente virtual, aprovechando las aplicaciones de software disponibles y fomentando un mayor uso de las mismas. palabras clave: inglés para fines específicos, comprensión oral, subtitulación, traducción audiovisual, aprendizaje basado en tareas. 1. introduction english is indisputably the international lingua franca. not only is it used for individual purposes, such as international travel, but also for collective purposes, such as humanitarian aid, peace missions, international law enforcement, and military operations. the use of english for international communication in political and diplomatic dialogue is unquestionable. globally, however, “the ratio of native to non-native [english speakers] is 1:3” (crystal, 2003: 69). english has become an international language “for one chief reason: the power of its people – especially their political and military power” (crystal, 2003: 9). english-language dominance in international communication along with technological breakthroughs now form a unique pair that has paradigm-changing potential for language teaching and learning. multimedia products, such as television and film, are no longer considered hard-to-get items, but rather readily available for 246 anyone with an internet connection. these products, when combined with new technology and the correct methodology, prove to be extremely beneficial for language learning purposes. this study is a direct result of a need identified by nato for members of its international security assistance force (isaf) mission in afghanistan to improve their english in terms of military specific terminology, radio communications, and unit operational planning. isaf’s training and transition teams, collectively referred to as security force assistance teams (sfats), are responsible for training and advising the afghan national security forces (ansf). since this is a nato-led initiative, the ability to communicate in english is paramount for the mission, but unfortunately, in 2009 a need for team members to improve their english language skills prior to deployment was identified (embree, 2009), as the military-specific english language abilities of the sfats were not sufficient. as a result, the “mission-related english for operational mentor and liaison teams” were developed: the two-week, intensive mission-related english (mre) for operational mentor and liaison teams (omlt) workshop is designed for international military personnel preparing to embed with the afghan national army. participants enhance their language skills in english for specific purposes through learning, reviewing and practicing time-sensitive radio call formats and reports, and battle drill terminology in context (george c. marshall european center for security studies, 2010: 1). however, there were not enough resources to send all members of the team to the in-person workshop at the marshall center. this study suggests that a possible solution to this problem could lie in the professional task of subtitling used as a didactic tool for language acquisition purposes to increase listening comprehension skills, via military radio when delivered through an online learning management system. recent academic research (lertola, 2012; neves, 2004; sokoli, 2006; talaván zanón, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010a, 2010b, 2011; williams & thorne, 2000) shows positive results with respect to the use of subtitling, an audiovisual translation mode, as a task for non-translator language learners to increase language acquisition, and more specifically, improve their listening comprehension skills (talaván zanón, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010a, 2010b, 2011) and vocabulary acquisition (lertola, 2012). these studies have only been conducted within using subtitling to improve military esp listening comprehension: an experimental study ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 247 the context of general language learning; there has yet to be a significant project dedicated to examining the use of subtitling as a learner task within the context of english for specific purposes (esp). furthermore, the studies have all been conducted in traditional classroom settings utilizing computer labs to carry out the experiments as opposed to via online learning. even before researchers began to investigate the possibility of audiovisual translation as a didactic tool, since as early as the mid-1970s there has been an interest in the use of commercially subtitled audiovisual material in language learning, and substantial research has been conducted and published relative to its use (baltova, 1994; bird & williams, 2002; dollerup, 1974; garza, 1991; markham, 1989; neuman & koskinen, 1990; price, 1983; vanderplank, 1988, 1999, 2010; williams & thorne, 2000; winke et al., 2010). however, what remains to be explored in depth is the use of audiovisual translation, in this case subtitling as a learner task, in second language acquisition (vanderplank, 2010) with respect to listening comprehension when applied to english for specific purposes. therefore, the purpose of this study is to test the effect of subtitling as a learner task on listening comprehension by comparing (1) a subtitling task and (2) the viewing of subtitled audiovisual material to listening comprehension via military radio, all in an online learning environment. the desired outcome of this study is to provide new insights into the use of audiovisual translation as a learner task and the effect that this task has on listening, vocabulary acquisition, and content knowledge. it is also intended to contribute to the scarce information and scholarly writing on the use of subtitling as a language learning task for non-translators – in particular within the context of esp. 2. literature review since the mid-1970s, researchers such as dollerup (1974) have been studying the possible uses and effects of commercially subtitled audiovisual material in language learning. most studies, however, have focused primarily on the use of existing captioned and subtitled audiovisual material (bird & williams, 2002; danan, 2004; garza, 1991; neuman & koskinen, 1990; vanderplank, 2010). although a press release from the european commission states that “subtitling is a spectacular tool for helping people learn languages easily and enjoyably” (europa press releases, 2007: 2), the fact remains that “research on adrián fuentes-luque & alan patrick campbell ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266248 subtitling as a medium for language learning is almost non-existent” (williams & thorne, 2000: 218). furthermore, vanderplank (2010: 17) adds that “there have been few reports of the value of captioning or subtitling of programmes as an aid to developing language knowledge and skills”. since that time, several significant studies (lertola, 2012; neves, 2004; sokoli, 2006; talaván zanón, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010a, 2010b, 2011; williams & thorne, 2000) have been developed on subtitling as a learner task. according to the results of the aforementioned studies, it can be concluded that subtitling as a task for language learners may increase language acquisition, be it in the form of listening comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, or language awareness. williams and thorne’s (2000) groundbreaking study provided anecdotal results opening the field for further research and reigniting the debate about the place of audiovisual translation in foreign language learning. talaván zanón’s (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010a, 2010b, 2011) conclusions from the studies conducted within the context of listening comprehension in learners of english, provide a solid theoretical and experimental foundation for further research in the form of both replication and extension. thus, we applied the same techniques to test the effects of subtitling as a learner task on the listening skills of learners of english, but within the unique context of english for military purposes. drawing on the statistical results of previous studies confirming that the subtitling condition does improve the listening comprehension of learners of english, lertola (2012) considered the effect of the subtitling condition on incidental vocabulary acquisition. the present study continues in the same vein, relying on the foundational work provided by lertola (2012) to determine the effects of subtitling on incidental vocabulary acquisition within the esp context of english for the military. while the existing studies have been implemented in face-to-face teaching environments, one of the main recommendations is to use the subtitling technique in virtual learning environments owing to its flexibility: one of the major advantages of the strategy presented in this proposal is the technological support it offers, that makes it possible to use it in both faceto-face and distance learning environments. in this context, the ideal situation is for the strategy to be integrated in a multimedia software or online courseware (talaván zanón, 2006, p. 41). this study embraces this suggestion, has been designed for a wholly virtual environment using an online learning management system, and is using subtitling to improve military esp listening comprehension: an experimental study ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 249 fundamentally based on krashen’s (1982, 1985) input and affective filter hypotheses. audiovisual resources allow the teacher to choose material that, due to its authenticity (it was originally created for speakers of the target language), not only provides the necessary context for language acquisition to take place, but also incorporates material that students may be interested in, which may result in a lower affective filter and increased motivation. with respect to comprehensible input, audiovisual media allow the audience the opportunity to “view the message as much as listen to it” (baltova, 1994, as cited in danan, 2004: 67). in accordance with the affective filter hypothesis, “language learning must take place in an environment where learners are ‘off the defensive’ and the affective filter (anxiety) is low in order for the input to be noticed and gain access to the learners’ thinking” (krashen, 1982: 127). the use of audiovisual materials in the classroom contributes to lowering the affective filter, given the fundamental entertainment value of audiovisual material in and of itself. for borras and lafayette (1994), the use of captioned audiovisual material can be a means of lowering this affective filter. they claim that the students who work with captioned media tend to have a more positive attitude than those not presented with this resource. this positive attitude is reinforced by the instantaneous feedback and check on understanding that captions provide to the learner. positive attitude and increased motivation, according to krashen, yield a low affective filter and allow for more comprehensible input to make it through to the language acquisition device. using subtitling as a task not only provides the student with an opportunity to interact with contextually-rich whole language, but also adds the benefit of increased motivation, as students are likely to see the task as an entertaining activity with content that is of their interest and with the outlook that the task could be used outside of the formal classroom environment. with respect to increased motivation and entertainment, neves (2004) observed: experience has shown that, while learning how to subtitle, students gain a greater command of language usage, in the broadest of senses, and above all, and pleasure in manipulating text to achieve the best possible results (neves, 2004: 138). as williams and thorne (2000: 217) make clear, “even for students who have no desire to work in the media, the combination of aural, visual and adrián fuentes-luque & alan patrick campbell ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266250 written elements required in order to subtitle competently makes it unique as a language-learning tool”. also informing this study, communicative language teaching (clt), or the communicative approach, is based primarily on the theory that the purpose of language is communication (brandl, 2007) and thus, the learners’ goal is to achieve “communicative competence” (hymes, 1972), which involves linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competences, refers to a language user’s knowledge with respect to grammar (syntax and morphology) and phonology, as well as social knowledge about how and when to use the language appropriately (canale & swain, 1980). savignon (2002) sums up that the essence of clt is “the engagement of learners in communication to allow them to develop their communicative competence” (savignon, 2002: 22). clt is based on and includes multiple theories from various fields and “derives from a multidisciplinary perspective that includes, at the least, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, sociology, and educational research” (byram & hu, 2013: 136) and “cognitive science, educational psychology, and second language acquisition (sla)” (brandl, 2007: 6). task-based language teaching, a method consistent with the communicative approach, is an integral part of the framework of the present study. 3. methodology according to nunan (1992), action research in language learning “is initiated by the practitioner and is derived from a real problem in the classroom which needs to be confronted” (18). in practice, action research allows for a language teacher to carry out research themselves, in their own environment based on a desired improvement or a known problem, and involves stating the improvement or problem, conducting an initial inquiry, formulating a hypothesis, testing different ways to ‘treat’ the problem, analyzing the results, sharing the findings, and implementing the change. based on anthony’s (1963) hierarchy for language teaching, in which he distinguishes between approach, method, and technique, the pedagogical knowledge claims for this study were based on clt and esp as approaches, and task-based language teaching (tblt) is the method employed. central to the core of this study in terms of research design is the experimental treatment. the treatment that the experimental group was exposed to, known as the experimental treatment or the independent variable, is a task as defined within the context of tblt: the subtitling task. using subtitling to improve military esp listening comprehension: an experimental study ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 251 tblt is essentially a method (a procedural plan for presenting and teaching of language) that focuses on authentic language in which learners utilize the language to complete meaningful tasks. tblt as a method of language instruction incorporates tasks as the central focus of the language instruction, as opposed to a focus on form such as grammar and vocabulary. instead of focusing learners’ attention on the use of a specific linguistic construct, the task is the focal point, and the learners are therefore encouraged to utilize the whole of their linguistic knowledge in combination in order to complete the task. in the case of the present study, the task is the creation of interlingual subtitles from videos released by nato’s isaf mission in afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. listening comprehension, the dependent variable, influenced the conception, design, and procedural aspects of the present study. while listening comprehension, as a core skill, can be found within the three modes of communication (interpersonal, presentational, and interpretive), this study focuses on listening comprehension within the context of the interpretive mode. that is, “interpretation of meaning in oral and printed texts [that] may also require a deeper knowledge of culture in order to gain a cultural interpretation of a text” (shrum & glisan, 2009: 155). in her 2013 publication entitled “la subtitulación en el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras” [‘subtitling in foreign language learning], talaván zanón provides extensive information on the use of subtitles and subtitling as a learner task. in addition to the theoretical foundations provided, she proposes a model for language teachers to incorporate the subtitling task aimed at increasing listening comprehension skills, which includes previewing activities, the central subtitling task, and post-viewing activities. while this model constitutes the didactic framework for the present study, it does not include details regarding specific subtitling processes, and thus we have combined it with a specific framework for subtitling processes, as proposed by neves (2004), that is based on general and audiovisual translation theories. the population of our experiment included commissioned and noncommissioned professional career members of the spanish navy enrolled in intermediate level english courses taught through the spanish navy language school (escuela militar de idiomas, emid), at the naval station of rota (cádiz, spain) and also members of the spanish army enrolled in the intermediate level english course taught at the spanish military engineers’ academy in hoyo de manzanares (madrid, spain). the sample for this study adrián fuentes-luque & alan patrick campbell ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266252 consisted of 46 students, with convenience-based selection used to identify participants from the specified population that met the following criteria: be a member of the military of one of the nato or partnership for peace (pfp) countries, and possess an intermediate english level as demonstrated with a minimum 2-2-2 standardized language profile (slp) for listening, speaking, and reading in accordance with nato standardization agreement (stanag) 6001, valid within the past three years. based on the research purpose and questions, a true experiment was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses and a simple two-group design was used: the pre-test post-test randomized controlled trial. participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental or the control group based on matched pairs, which involves “establishing pairs of participants with similar scores on a variable known to be related to the dependent variable (dv) [with] random allocation of members of pairs to different experimental groups or to an experimental and control group” (robson, 2002: 105). participants were divided into matched pairs using the test of english for international communication, or toeic ®, sample test for blocking. the overall assignment of the participants to the groups and the blocking on pretest toeic ® scores is graphically displayed in figure 1. using subtitling to improve military esp listening comprehension: an experimental study ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 253 because the toeic ® was used as the blocking factor to increase randomization, it was important to also examine whether or not any relationship between the results on this blocking factor and any external variables existed. any relationship between these external variables and this blocking factor could potentially skew the results of the randomization used to form the matched pairs. in order to answer this question, the coefficient of correlation was calculated to compare participant age and nato rank to the results on the toeic ®. pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient (pearson’s r) is used to determine the existence, or not, of a linear relationship between variables, represented by a p-value, and the strength of adrián fuentes-luque & alan patrick campbell ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266254 ! figure 1: blocking on the toeic ® to form matched pairs. b ! ! ! ! u ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! e ! bl1:e gurfi ! paihed catmmorfo t®ceitohe ton ng ikocbl ! srpai . t ! s ! e ! n ! i ! n ! o ! t ! d ! h ! n ! that relationship, represented by the r-value. statistically speaking, when a correlation coefficient is r = 1.0 this signifies a perfect positive linear correlation, whereas when r = -1.0, the correlation is said to be a perfect negative correlation. according to cohen (1988), the strength of the relationship between variables using the r-value can be interpreted as either weak when |r|=0.1 to 0.29, moderate when |r|=0.3 to 0.49, or strong when |r|=0.5 to 1.0. pearson’s r was calculated for the relationship between each variable, resulting in r-values between -1.0 and 1.0, indicating that there was no linear relationship between any of the variables. this is an important finding as it applies to the randomization of assignment to either the control or experimental group, and supports the creation of homogenous groups for study. all relationships were investigated using pearson’s r and analyses were performed to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality. there was a weak negative correlation between the toeic ® and age, a moderate positive relationship between toeic ® and nato rank, and a weak negative relationship between nato rank and age, as displayed in table 1. there was one experimental group, which was given the experimental treatment, and one control group, which carried out a parallel activity similar to the independent variable. figure 2 illustrates the design, whereas r represents random assignment, o represents a measurement, and x represents experimental treatment. next, utilizing the online course management software, canvas, participants were divided into two online course sections corresponding to their group of assignment. participants then began to work through the 5 modules. modules 1 and 5 were the same for all participants, regardless of their group using subtitling to improve military esp listening comprehension: an experimental study ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 255 variable toeic ® % age nato rank) toeic ® % 1.0000 -0.2047 0.4064 age -0.2047 1.0000 -0.0870 nato rank 0.4064 -0.0870 1.0000 table 1: external variable and toeic ® correlation coefficient r-values. t i elbairva %®ceito eag knraonat varnalertex1:e tabl %®cieto eag onat 00001. 20470. 40640. 20470. 00001. 08700. 40640. 08700. 00001. ceitoand e ablivar eiciffffeconoitalerrco® )knrao 4064 0870 0000 rtn seulva . figure 2: experimental design. n i experimental group op ----r ----o1 ----x1 ----o2 control group op ----r ----o1 --------------o2 gniesdalentmiperex2:e gurfi . of assignment, and consisted of the preand post-listening comprehension tests. the gap-filling tests employed for measuring the dependent variable were pre-existing cloze assessments already in use at the tactical communications english workshop. the first pre-treatment listening assessment was created from a nato-released video of the 82nd combat aviation brigade helicopters and the radio traffic between the pilots and their dispatch base. each group then worked through 3 unique additional modules, wherein the subtitling treatment was applied to the experimental group and a parallel activity was given to the control group. the modules were asynchronous, self-paced and participants were given a window of 6 weeks to complete the modules. in order to avoid the need to download and install complicated software, this study made use of an online subtitling platform called amara. amara “is home to an award winning subtitle editor that makes it easy to caption and translate video […and] also hosts volunteer localization & accessibility communities, and offers professional tools and services for subtitles” (amara.org, n.d.). after working through module 3, participants in the experimental group moved on to module 4, the subtitling task, which consisted of basic preparatory information regarding the requirements of the task and provided the video as well as the spotting in .srt format. because the subtitling intervention was for language learning purposes, and not for the explicit training of subtitlers, the .srt file was provided in an effort to save time when working in the subtitling platform. the clip that was subtitled consisted of b-roll footage that was again taken from helicopters belonging to the us army’s 82nd combat aviation brigade. the pilots are “observing insurgents in the act of emplacing an improvised explosive device in southern afghanistan” (self destructing ied, 2009). the clip’s length is approximately 2 minutes and 55 seconds and includes a total of 59 subtitles. for the control group, the parallel treatment that was applied consisted of viewing subtitled audiovisual material. the control group was shown the same video that was used as the subtitling task in the experimental treatment, but in this case, the video included the english-language captions, subtitles that “are composed in the same language as the source text speech” (pérezgonzález, 2009: 15). lastly, the military radio listening comprehension post-treatment assessment was administered as module 5. this post-test provided the data used to analyze the subtitling task intervention. upon completion of the course content, all participants were given the end-of-course survey, which provided adrián fuentes-luque & alan patrick campbell ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266256 an opportunity for participants to express their feelings on the use of the online learning management system. depending upon their group of assignment, participants were also asked questions regarding the use of audiovisual material and subtitling as a task. 4. presentation of data, analysis, and discussion in order to best understand how the data supports the overall results, they are presented here concurrently with the discussion of the results and will be revisited in the conclusions section. keeping in mind that the purpose of this study was to test the effect of subtitling on listening comprehension, the study’s hypotheses were: 1. the experimental group’s scores on military radio-based listening comprehension assessments will be higher than those of the control group as a result of the subtitling task; 2. the control group’s scores on military radio-based listening comprehension assessments may increase as a result of viewing subtitled audiovisual material; and 3. the experimental group will state that the learning management system supports subtitling as a task for learners of english for the military. using subtitling to improve military esp listening comprehension: an experimental study ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 257 ! figure 3: average score by group on o1 and o2. o ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! e gurfi ! oon oup rgbye orscage erav3: 1 oand 2. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! average score by group on o1 and o2 o 1 % & o 2 % 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00% 100.00% ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! verage saaverage scor contr 90.00% 100.00% ! oup on o1 and o2e by grverage scor group control group experimental gr ! oup on o1 and o2 experimental group ! ! o 1 % & o 2 % 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 59.13%% ! % 56.98% % 56 98% 54.35% ! 54.35% 59.95% ! 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% pr tre-treatment (o1) ! trpost-treatment (o2)eatment (o1) ! eatment (o2) ! ! ! ! ! overall, we can see that the control group’s average score decreased from 59.13% to 56.98%, a difference of 2.15 percentage points, while the experimental group’s average score increased from 54.35% to 59.95%, a difference of 5.6 percentage points. the analysis indicated that this was a statistically significant difference in score improvement between the groups (p = 0.0316). analysis of the model residuals indicated that no assumptions were violated (constant variance, normality of residuals). figure 3 highlights the increase in average scores obtained from pre to post-test observation, o1 and o2, by group. upon calculation of the percent increase, this comes to a 10.3% increase in average score by the experimental group and a 3.64% decrease in average score of the control group. given two groups, homogenized on the dependent variable, this information shows that the experimental group, which received the intervention, performed better than the control group on the post-test. the data supports hypothesis 1, “the experimental group’s scores on military radiobased listening comprehension assessments will be higher than those of the control group as a result of the subtitling task”. the experimental design, to include the random assignment of participants to the groups based on the blocking factor, and the controls in place, ensures that this 10.3% increase in scores can be attributed to the intervention – the subtitling task. for both the sample and the population under study, the score increase on listening comprehension assessments can be attributed to the experimental treatment. with respect to hypothesis 2, the data shows that the control group’s scores decreased as a result of viewing subtitled audiovisual material by 2.15 percentage points, a 3.64% decrease. in order to determine how this may relate to the larger population, a one-sample t-test was performed to test the null hypothesis that the control group’s scores did not change as a result of viewing subtitled audiovisual material. the analysis indicated that there was not a statistically significant difference in score improvement between the groups (p = 0.8916). therefore, we cannot say that the population would necessarily increase their scores on military radio-based listening comprehension assessments as a result of viewing the subtitled audiovisual material. the study also aimed at providing information related to the independent variable, the use of the online learning management system. with regard to this, we presented a hypothesis that “the experimental group will state that the learning management system supports subtitling as a task for learners of english for the military”. the data were obtained via the completion of a adrián fuentes-luque & alan patrick campbell ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266258 participant survey by the experimental group at the end of the experimental procedure, with likert-style questions and level of agreement with the statements. the analysis of data showed that the experimental group provided positive feedback related to the use of both the canvas online learning management system and the amara subtitling platform for the subtitling intervention. this study is the first of its kind to take advantage of an online platform for an experiment involving subtitling as a learner task for the improvement of listening comprehension. these positive results are quite encouraging given the novelty of this investigation and the military context. implementing a subtitling task for learners of general english, english for specific purposes and the learning of other languages deserves further study as to its feasibility and viability. taking advantage of advances in technology, paired with the constant presence of digital devices in our society, implementing this technique online is a way to further engage learners on their terms, utilizing a medium with which they are already familiar, feel comfortable, and in which they are, in many cases, proficient. with respect to krashen’s (1982) affective filter hypothesis, the use of familiar platforms for delivering content and implementing techniques may be a way of lowering the affective filter and increasing language acquisition, for example. the findings confirm that the use of a learning management system indeed supports subtitling as a task for learners of english for the military, as reported on the end-ofcourse surveys by research participants. given the qualitative nature of these findings, the statistical analysis of these responses cannot be applied in the same manner as those from the primary research questions. however, the positive feedback obtained serves as foundational for further study, providing a solid base for designing and carrying out more experiments within the realm of action research to learn more about the use of online learning management systems and subtitling as a learner task. as a whole, the results of the study are thus positive. given the unique features of the context, without a face-to-face interaction, the self-guided and autonomous nature of the course yielded data that may be analyzed within the design of the experiment to show that the use of this intervention increased listening comprehension skills via military radio. furthermore, the positive results are encouraging with respect to the esp context under study. this novel approach to the use of the subtitling task is altogether affirming for further study in this area, and the optimistic feedback given by participants regarding the use of the online systems provides a solid using subtitling to improve military esp listening comprehension: an experimental study ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 259 foundation for follow-up research within this area and the application of learning via subtitling for non-translators in the future. the study took advantage of authentic material in the form of nato-released videos from afghanistan and u.s.-released videos from iraq to implement the subtitling task via an online learning management system. this model provides a lowcost alternative to face-to-face classes, and uses open-source materials, including the online management system, as well as the videos and the subtitling platform. it shows that the intervention under study is not only viable as a tool for increasing listening comprehension and communication by military radio, but also that the online mode of delivery is equally viable from both a cost and a management perspective. the positive findings indicate that the technique of subtitling as a learner task increases radiobased listening comprehension skills in learners of english for the military. while the study’s primary foundation was based on the use of subtitling as a learner task, the secondary hypothesis attempted to answer the question “to what extent do scores on military radio-based listening comprehension assessments increase as a result of viewing subtitled audiovisual material by learners of english for the military”. because the control group received a secondary, parallel treatment which consisted of viewing subtitled audiovisual material, the hypothesis that their scores might also increase as a result was based primarily on existing research (such as that by koolstra & beentjes, 1999; markham, 1989; neuman & koskinen, 1990; price, 1983; vanderplank, 1988, 1990, 1999). our data, however, did not support the rejection of the null hypothesis and therefore the answer to the research question is that the scores on military radio-based listening comprehension assessments did not increase as a result of viewing subtitled audiovisual materials assigned to the control group. the scores decreased by 2.15 percentage points, a 3.64% decrease from pre-treatment to post-treatment assessment. while there may be several explanations for this decrease, one of the most logical may be related to the concept of ‘cognitive load’ (sweller, 1988, 1994) with respect to the dual-coding theory (paivio, 1990) and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (mayer, 2005). cognitive load deals with the capacity of the working memory and the mental exertion required to process information stored there. dual-coding theory holds that input comes via two separate channels, one for verbal input and another for non-verbal, and that each type is then processed by separate brain systems. in language-teaching this could be exemplified by teaching new vocabulary words either with adrián fuentes-luque & alan patrick campbell ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266260 pictures and the written words together versus either the word or the picture alone. the dual-coding theory supports the use of subtitled audiovisual material in language learning, but mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning challenges this idea under certain circumstances. the basic cognitive theory of multimedia learning posits that there are two main channels for processing information (aural and visual) and that we have a limited capacity for processing this information. according to mayer’s theory, “in the process of trying to build connections between words and pictures, learners are able to create a deeper understanding than from words or pictures alone” (mayer, 2005: 5). while the use of subtitles may be supported by the cognitive theory of multimedia learning and the multimedia principle, this violates the so-called redundancy principle as reported by clark and mayer (2016): “when the instructional message includes graphics, explain the graphics with narration alone […] do not add redundant on-screen text” (2016: 68). however, although it may violate this principle, adding subtitles may prove to be helpful for students who are not native speakers of the language as “helping students learn in a second language may be a special case” (clark & mayer, 2016: 68). this point of view supports the efficacy of viewing subtitled audiovisual material for improving comprehension. why, then, may this not have been the case for the present study, if so many other researchers have reported positive results? according to a 2014 study conducted by lee, mayer, and peebles, “adding subtitles to fast-paced video narrated in english did not help non-native english speakers” (clark & mayer, 2016: 68). due to the use of authentic audiovisual material in this study, the videos were very fast-paced. the specific video chosen for the control group’s parallel activity had a speech rate of approximately 190 words per minute. given this, according to clark and mayer (2016), an explanation may be that the pace of the video paired with the written and spoken text may have caused some level of cognitive overload. this fast-paced video used by the control group may provide an explanation for the results with respect to hypothesis 2. if a different video with a slower speech rate had been utilized, the results might have been more aligned with those obtained in the studies carried out by other researchers. although the null hypothesis could not be rejected for the second hypothesis, the use of subtitled audiovisual material to increase listening comprehension skills does have merit and further research is necessary. moreover, this technique should continue to be investigated in terms of using subtitling to improve military esp listening comprehension: an experimental study ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 261 online delivery via a learning management system. implementing this technique while incorporating the principles proposed by clark and mayer (2016) regarding e-learning and multimedia learning theory is of particular interest. this technique not only continues to be used for general language learning, but further research into the utility of subtitled audiovisual material in the languages for specific purposes context is also in order. with respect to the principal hypothesis, after data analysis the subtitling intervention given to the experimental group did have a positive effect on the participants’ scores on the radio listening comprehension tests. however, according to the analysis evaluating the second hypothesis, the scores on the radio listening comprehension assessments did not improve after viewing subtitled audiovisual material, and therefore the analysis does not allow for rejection of the null hypothesis. it must be kept in mind that the information from the survey data is not generalizable to the population, and that the results are generally positive regarding the use of the canvas learning management system and the amara subtitling platform. overall, participants either chose to “agree” or “strongly agree” with the positive statements concerning the use of these online systems. 5. final conclusions and further research the results of this study fully support the subtitling task as an intervention for language learners along with its implementation via online learning management systems. while further research is necessary, these findings can be used to support practitioners in the field of language education to incorporate these techniques into their instructional practices and curricula. furthermore, practitioners are called upon to continue undertaking action research within their own educational contexts and thus contribute to the state of the art, shaping language-teaching methodology in their own environment and in the larger language education community. this study lays the foundation for further research on the use of subtitling as a task for learners of english, especially for those fields of english for specific purposes (esp) that involve communication by radio and telephone, to include audiovisual communication such as videoconferencing and videocalls. furthermore, this study opens the door to much-needed additional research on the use of online learning management systems to implement the language teaching technique of subtitling as a task. adrián fuentes-luque & alan patrick campbell ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266262 this intervention should be studied for use with pilots and air traffic controllers, maritime professionals, and emergency services such as police, fire brigades, and emergency medical teams. these occupations require the use of communication via radio and/or telephone, and often in english. similarly, the use of subtitling as a learner task has also been applied to language learning for languages other than english (lertola 2012). one of the most important outcomes of this study is the information obtained regarding the ease of use of the online learning management system, paired with the challenges that arose in designing the subtitling task. as education and training are increasingly moving to an online format, there is an urgent need for a platform to be designed specifically for subtitling as a learner task that will integrate seamlessly into modern learning management systems, such as blackboard, moodle, and connectedu. of utmost importance is that this platform be entirely web-based, requiring no software download, and with mobile capability. this study has shown great promise for subtitling as a learner task in increasing listening comprehension of learners of military english. given the use of the english language in international military, peacekeeping, security, public health, and safety contexts, the importance of innovative and effective language instruction techniques cannot be denied. further research is necessary in order to find out more on the intersection of audiovisual translation and language learning. in addition, we should also continue to inquire and learn about the use of subtitling within other categories of language learning, different linguistic combinations, and different delivery methods. article history: received 05 march 2019 received in revised form 15 march 2020 accepted 27 april 2020 references using subtitling to improve military esp listening comprehension: an experimental study ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 263 amara.org. 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(2006). “learning via subtitling (lvs): a tool for the creation of foreign language learning adrián fuentes-luque is associate professor in translation at the universidad pablo de olavide (seville, spain), where he was the director of the master’s degree in translation and the head of the translation and interpreting section. he has published widely on audiovisual translation, the history of translation, tourism translation, the translation of humour and advertising translation. alan campbell is assistant professor of spanish at middle tennessee state university (tennessee, usa) and has taught at the u.s. defense language institute. he has also served for several years as u.s. consul in seville (spain). his research interests include audiovisual translation, language for specific purposes, translation for language learning, and communicative proficiency. using subtitling to improve military esp listening comprehension: an experimental study ibérica 40 (2020): 245-266 265 activities based on film subtitling” in m. carroll, h. gerzymisch-arbogast, and s. nauert (eds.), audiovisual translation scenarios: proceedings of the marie curie euroconferences mutra: 1-5 may 2006, 1-8. copenhagen: mutra. sweller, j. (1988). “cognitive load during problem solving: effects on learning”. cognitive science 12(2): 257-285. sweller, j. (1994). “cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design”. learning and instruction 4(4): 295-312. talaván zanón, n. (2006). “using subtitles to enhance foreign language learning”. porta linguarum 6: 41. talaván zanón, n. (2007). “learning vocabulary through authentic video and subtitles”. tesol spain newsletter 31: 5-8. talaván zanón, n. (2009). aplicaciones de la traducción audiovisual para mejorar la comprensión oral del inglés. phd dissertation. universidad nacional de educación a distancia (uned, spain). talaván zanón, n. (2010a). “audiovisual translation and foreign language learning: the case of subtitling” in r. caballero & m.j. pinar (eds.), ways and modes of human communication, 1313-1320. cuenca: ediciones de la universidad de castilla-la-mancha. talaván zanón, n. (2010b). “subtitling as a task and subtitles as support: pedagogical applications” in j. díaz cintas, a. matamala & j. neves (eds.), new insights into audiovisual translation and media accessibility, 285-299. amsterdam/new york: rodopi. talaván zanón, n. (2011). “a quasi-experimental research project on subtitling and foreign language acquisition” in l. mcloughlin, m. biscio & m.a. ní mhainnín (eds.), audiovisual translation: subtitles and subtitling, 197-218. oxford: peter lang. talaván zanón, n. (2013). la subtitulación en el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras. barcelona: octaedro. vanderplank, r. (1988). “the value of teletext subtitles in language learning”. elt journal 42(4): 272281. vanderplank, r. (1990). “paying attention to the words: practical and theoretical problems in watching television programmes with uni-lingual (ceefax) sub-titles”. system 18(2): 221-234. vanderplank, r. (1999). “global medium – global resource? perspectives and paradoxes in using authentic broadcast material for teaching and learning english” in c. gnutzmann (ed.), teaching and learning english as a global language. native and non-native perspectives, 253-266. tübingen: stauffenburg. vanderplank, r. (2010). “deja vu”? a decade of research on language laboratories, television and video in language learning. language teaching 43(1): 1-37. williams, h. & d. thorne (2000). “the value of teletext subtitling as a medium for language learning”. system 28(2): 217-228. winke, p., s. gass & t. sydorenko (2010). “the effects of captioning videos used for foreign language listening activities”. language learning & technology 14(1): 65-86. 05 velasco.qxp ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-88 abstract advertising english is characterised by several linguistic, pragmatic and functional features that distinguish it from other varieties of english that are not specialised. in this paper we have analysed the linguistic (i.e. graphic-phonologic, morpho-syntactic and lexico-semantic), pragmatic and functional features of advertising english, using a sample of 1142 advertisements run in british cosmopolitan in 1999 and 2000, and have considered their closeness or distance from general english texts. in short, this analysis has proved that advertising english is a variety of esp (english for specific purposes) with a low degree of specialisation and of a social type, which is on the borderline between ge (general english) and esp. it has also proved that although related to ebe (english for business and economics), because of its economic content and purpose, advertising english seems to be closer to ge than ebe. key words: advertising, english varieties, esp, discourse analysis resumen inglés publicitario e ipa: el anuncio de “british cosmopolitan” como ejemplo de texto especializado el inglés publicitario presenta una serie de aspectos lingüísticos, pragmáticos y funcionales que le confieren unidad frente a otras variedades del inglés que no son especializadas. en este artículo analizamos las características lingüísticas (gráfico-fónicas, morfosintácticas, y léxicosemánticas), pragmáticas y funcionales del inglés publicitario, utilizando para ello una muestra de 1142 anuncios publicados en 1999 y 2000 en british cosmopolitan y consideramos su proximidad o alejamiento respecto a las características que presentan los textos del inglés general. nuestro estudio ha evidenciado, en síntesis, que el inglés publicitario es una modalidad del ife (inglés para fines específicos) con un ligero grado de abstracción, de carácter divulgativo y en la frontera entre el inglés general y el ife. también ha evidenciado que aunque el inglés publicitario guarda relación con el inglés empresarial y económico, debido a su contenido y finalidad, el inglés publicitario parece aproximarse más al inglés general que el inglés empresarial y económico. palabras clave: publicidad, variedades del inglés, ife, análisis del discurso advertising english and esp: the british cosmopolitan ad as an example of ‘specialised’ text marisol velasco sacristán universidad de valladolid marisol@emp.uva.es 65 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 65 introduction lsps (languages for specific purposes) have traditionally been described in opposition to lgp (language for general purposes). while lsps are used to discuss specialised fields of knowledge, lgp is the language that we use every day to talk about ordinary things in a variety of common situations. every language has both lgp and lsp. english, for instance, has esp (english for specific purposes) and ge (general english) (cf. alcaraz varó, 2000: 15; bowker & pearson, 2002: 25). esp consolidates in the 60s and 70s; according to swales (1988), the first publications on esp were barber (1962), herbert (1965) and lackstrom et al. (1972). from then onwards there have been many different studies on esp (swales, 1988, 2000; hutchinson & waters, 1987; robinson, 1991; dudley-evans & st. john, 1998; alcaraz varó, 2000; garcía mayo, 2000). advertising english has traditionally been considered a variety of esp, more specifically of ebe (“english for business and economics”) (gómez moreno, 1994: 180). however, in our view, although related to ebe because of its economic content and purpose, advertising english is different from ebe in that it has very particular discursive features that seem to show that advertising english is closer to ge than ebe. in this paper we claim that advertising english is a variety of english that is different from other varieties that are not specialised, although closer to ge than more specialised varieties of esp, such as ebe. theoretical framework according to cabré castellví (1993: 151), specific texts contain regular linguistic features at each level of grammar, such as those that are graphic-phonologic, morpho-syntactic and lexico-semantic, also including a lexical choice, presence and absence of concrete units and structures, and the use of diverse codes. in this sense, they usually show particular linguistic patterns and units, such as foreign words that are transformed into english words, complex noun groups, adjectives in noun premodifying patterns, verbs in the indicative mode, the present tense, neologisms, borrowings, learned terms, group units, abbreviations, acronyms, specialised borrowings, nouns derived from verbs and short sentences. advertising english presents, as we will see, many of these specialised morpho-syntactic and lexicosemantic features. marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-8866 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 66 with reference to syntax, the specific languages seem to depend on general language since in them “the relatively few special syntactic features do not constitute an independent grammatical system” (sager et al., 1980: 185). hence, the language for science and technology often uses a simple syntax: “progressive reduction of syntactic complexity to the absolute minimum and exposition, as well as through the extended use of functional terms” (gerr, 1942, in sager et al., 1980: 185). regarding the syntax of advertising discourse, sager et al. (1980: 185) state that “within the entire range of technical literature –including advertising, popular science and trade journals– almost any of the syntactic devices available in general english might be expected to occur.” with regard to the use of different codes, in specific texts there are usually verbal and non-verbal codes, for example images, etc. this combination of codes is rare in general texts (cf. sager et al., 1980: 103; cabré castellví, 1993: 153). in addition, as stated by sager et al. (1980: 45), “it can be said that linguistic communication which relies essentially on the social and emotive use of language is difficult if not impossible to represent in a non-linguistic code.” however, advertising english incorporates, as we will see, this social and emotive use of language in many of the images it uses. from a pragmatic point of view, an lsp is a language that shows very particular features determined by the elements of its communicative contexts: participants (addresser and addressee), the communicative circumstances, and purpose (cabré castellví, 1993: 129). these elements usually appear in a discursive modality that most often characterises specialised texts, that is, the informative discursive modality. nonetheless, some scholars claim that there are other important discursive modalities in specialised discourse; for instance, persuasion. indeed, although persuasion has largely been ignored in esp varieties, there are grounds to suspect that it constitutes an important discursive modality to characterise esp (cf. alcaraz varó, 2000: 129). theories such as sperber and wilson’s (1986, 1990) relevance theory, the speech act theory (austin, 1962) and the reception theory (eco, 1984), have dealt with the role of participants in different types of persuasive discourses. the speech act theory and the reception theory have mostly focused on the addressee. sperber and wilson (1986, 1990) have, nonetheless, devoted attention to both the addresser and addresee of persuasive discourses. relevance theory is nowadays considered as one of the most influential models within the field of pragmatics. as grice’s (1975) model has done, relevance theory emphasises the fact that there is a difference between what we say and what we mean, advertising english and esp ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-88 67 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 67 between the abstract semantic representations of sentences and the particular interpretations of statements and utterances in context. relevance theory constitutes an attempt to characterise communication as achieved by means of the recognition of intentions, the consequent mutuality of the cognitive environment and the operation of inferential processes. in this sense, the distinction between informative intention and communicative intention, the audience’s search for optimal relevance and its interest in cost-effectiveness are of crucial significance in characterising covert communication (tanaka, 1994: 40-43): • first, regarding intention it is seen as involving an informative intention which is embedded within a second-order communication intention. overt communication consists of the revelation of these two layers of information, whereas covert communication hides the informative intention by making assumptions more manifest, but not mutually so. • second, as opposed to ostensive communication, covert communication does not bear a guarantee of optimal relevance. according to sperber and wilson (1986: 158), an utterance is optimally relevant only if it achieves enough effects to be worthy of the hearer’s non-gratuitous effort to achieve an effect. in covert communication, the hearer does not have the speaker’s guarantee of optimal relevance to guide his/her interpretation, but other stimuli to overcome this deficiency. the communicator relies on the addressee noticing certain non-linguistic stimuli. • third, since processing information requires effort, the request to undertake this task has to be accompanied by reward. by requesting the addressee’s attention, the communicator indicates that he/she has reason to believe that he/she is providing relevant information which will make the addressee effort worthwhile (sperber & wilson, 1986: 124-125; tanaka, 1994: 20). the notion of covert communication works within a relevance-theoretic framework and different scholars have advanced the idea that advertising discourse is a typical example of ‘covert communication’ (dyer, 1982; tanaka, 1994; forceville, 1996; díaz pérez, 1999, 2000; fuertes olivera et al., 2001; crook, 2004). bencherif and tanaka (1987; in tanaka, 1994: 41) defined covert communication as “a case of communication where the intentions of the speaker is to alter the cognitive environment of the hearer, i.e. to make a set of assumptions more manifest to her, without making this intention mutually manifest.” marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-8868 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 68 ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-88 advertising english and esp according to tanaka (1994: 43), the advertiser engages in covert communication for two main purposes: (1) to try to make the addressee forget the advertiser is trying to sell something, and (2) to avoid taking responsibility for the social consequences to certain implications arising from advertisements. in short, tanaka (1994) argues that “covert communication, if and when it works, allows the advertiser to have his cake and eat it.” with regard to communicative circumstances, we have matters or topics addressed. different varieties of esp communicate different topics that can be scientific, technical or professional. yet nowadays specialised topics include broader matters from different fields of knowledge that include the use of everyday topics along with specialised ones. a case in point is trade (kocourek, 1982) or advertising (buchholz, 1978).1 in those fields specialised topics appear in combination with topics related to everyday issues as in women’s magazines. more specialised journals, for instance computer publications, would probably use more specialised topics. as far as the degree of specialisation of discourses is concerned, it must be argued that there are different discursive levels or styles (cf. cabré castellví, 1993: 142) which are in turn determined by the degree of specialisation of its users. in lsps there can be five different styles (cf. bergenholtz & tarp, 1995: 19; velasco-sacristán, 2003: 175-176): 1. academic, formal and personal style: from expert to expert. it is characterised by a formal register and a high degree of shared knowledge between participants. for instance, a conference on “e-commerce” and web advertising. 2. professional, formal and impersonal style: from expert to semi-expert. there is a high degree of shared knowledge although not as specialised as in the academic style. for example, a training course in advertising strategies for the staff of an advertising agency. 3. professional, formal, impersonal style: from semi-expert to semi-expert. intermediate degree of shared knowledge and specialisation. a talk from an expert in foreign trade and semi-expert in advertising for students doing advertising in a business graduate school is a good illustration of this type of style. 4. professional, formal and personal style: from expert to lay people. this is the style that is on the borderline between specialised and social language, with a low degree 69 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 69 of shared knowledge. for instance, articles from advertising age, a popularising journal on advertising. 5. popularising, formal and personal style: from semi-experts to lay people; the lowest degree of specialisation, with a high degree of social language and an intermediate degree of shared knowledge. print advertisements are a case in point. advertising texts from women’s magazines, like british cosmopolitan, fall within this fifth degree of specialisation. texts with a low degree of specialisation usually have distinguishing features that normally characterise impersonal and objective texts, such as scientific or technical ones. on the one hand, they present features like implicit dialogue between the addresser and the addressee, implicit personal viewpoints and implicit purpose, metalinguistic elements, such as explanations, definitions, synonyms, and so on and so forth, along with linguistic elegance as shown by a somehow poetic function of language. on the other hand, they contain other linguistic features that show an impersonal and objective style; for instance, present tenses, short clauses, impersonal formulas, noun groups and other representation systems in texts (cf. cabré castellví, 1993: 155-156). advertising english texts have, as we will see, both types of characteristics: impersonal and objective ones. in addition to these styles, attention has to be paid to different geographical, historical and social dialects, and the personal style of the ad addressers and, occasionally, that of addressees. finally, considering the functions of language as proposed by jakobson (1970: 504506), sociological models such as hymes’ (1972), or the functional-sociological model proposed by halliday (1978, 1985), it can be argued that the main function of lsps is that of informing (cabré castellví, 1993: 155). yet, this seems true of very specialised lsps, such as est, but not so in the case of lsps with a low degree of specialisation. advertising is a good illustration of this low degree of specialisation. in functional terms, advertisements seem to be better represented as a continuum of text functions fluctuating between ‘informing’ and ‘manipulating’ (hatim, 1990: 117; fuertes-olivera et. al., 2001: 1291). corpus and methodology following cabré castellví (1993: 136) and taking linguistic, pragmatic and functional features as general criteria for distinguishing esp from ge, we will analyse the linguistic, pragmatic and functional features of british cosmopolitan ads in a sample of 1142 advertisements published between 1999 and 2000. marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-8870 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 70 british cosmopolitan is a women’s magazine published in more than 25 countries, which includes articles showing a mixture of entertainment and information. winship (1987) claims that this magazine was first launched in the uk in 1972 for a middle-class, single and twenty-five year-old readership. she adds that a key to the success of british cosmopolitan is that it offers a plurality of opinions and profuse advertising which offers consumer spreads with all the associations of female desire, pleasure and fantasy. our discursive analysis will pay attention to the form and function of these ads focusing on their linguistic, pragmatic and functional features to assess whether they are different from other non-specialised english varieties, and whether they are closer to ge than the discursive features of ebe linguistic, pragmatic and functional analysis of british cosmopolitan ads linguistic features in line with any other specialised language, in advertising english there are regular specific features at each level of grammar. in this sense, from a linguistic point of view, advertising shows certain features that are frequent in esp texts, mostly morphological, lexical and syntactic, along with the use of non-verbal codes. in our analysis we have found the following remarkable linguistic features: at a graphic level advertisements usually draw attention to the written form by using (myers, 1994: 32-44): � unexpected letters; example2: � numbers to fill a slot in a word usually filled by a letter; example: � letters that usually only occur infrequently; example: advertising english and esp ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-88 71 “new impulse icø” [brand name, picture of a woman who is frozen, may 1999, impulse icø deodorant.] “egypt welcome to our se7nth millenium” [slogan, picture of a landscape from egypt, may 1999, egypt designated millenium host touristic office.] “gap khakis” [brand name, picture of a model wearing the clothes advertised, gap khakis clothes.] 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 71 � unpredictable spellings; example: � alterations of letters to draw attention to their shape or name as well as their place in a word. � foreign names that are transformed into english words. � homophones, namely, words that sound alike but are spelled differently. at a phonologic level there are also regular features in advertising english that occur infrequently in general english: � unexpected parallelisms in sounds, not just spellings. � repetition of consonants, i.e. alliteration, which in some positions is more insistent; example: � repetition may also work through similar, rather than identical sounds. � repetition of vowels, i.e. assonance. � rhyme; example: � tunes and intonation, i.e. the effect of any foregrounding of sound can be brought out or played down by spoken intonation or by music in a jingle. � homophones. � onomatopoeias. example that shows an onomatopeia for silence: � repetition of formal schemes, i.e. “correspondence or partial identity between pieces of text in proximity which are often ‘rhetorical’ in a familiar sense of the word, in that they heighten the emotional tone of the message, giving insistent emphasis to points of strategic importance” (leech, 1966: 190), etc. marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-8872 “cheez dippers light” [product name, picture of the product advertises, july 1999, “cheez dippers light” by the laughing cow.] “hp. brilliant baked beans” [slogan, picture of the product advertised, november 1999, hp baked beans.] “feeling is everything” [slogan, picture of the product advertised and a couple inside a car who are seemingly making love, january 1999; durex comfort condoms.] “shhhh.... let your nails say it all” [heading, pictures of lips and a finger on them and a picture of the products advertised, july 1999, manicare manicure products.] 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 72 at a morpho-syntactic level there is also preference for certain units, for example: � the noun, for instance complex noun groups with heavy premodification that describe the product in a precise, attractive and efficient way (bhatia, 1993: 146; alcaraz varó, 2000: 3); example: � the adjective, especially that in noun premodifying patterns and in the comparative and superlative forms; example: � the verb, in its frequent use of the imperative; example: � the infinitive. � the indicative; example: � the present tense; example: � the second person singular and plural; example: � the determiners, especially those with a deictic value; example: advertising english and esp ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-88 73 “seven days from now you could have smoother, softer skin” [heading, picture of the product advertised, april 1999, dove soap.] “the toughest watch of all times. baby-g” [slogan, picture of cinema stills, the product advertised and x-rays, january 1999, “baby g” watches by casio.] “enjoy the difference” [slogan, picture of a man besides a woman who is jumping, june 1999, clothes with lycra by dupont.] “allure makes the man” [heading, picture of an olympic medal winner in barcelona 1992, may 1999, “allure homme” male fragrance by chanel.] “nothing stops diarrhoea faster” [slogan, picture of a woman who is twisting her legs up, july 1999, “diacalm” drug against diarrhoea by seton-scholl.] “kellogg’s. because you are what you eat” [slogan, picture of a woman, a bathroom scales, and the products advertised, september 1999, kellogg’s cereals.] “color. that’s holiday” [slogan, picture of a woman who is wearing the clothes advertised, november 1999, gap clothes.] 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 73 � the adverbs, mostly those used to modify adjectives; example: � sentences, such as simple short clauses, consisting of, for instance, a juxtaposed noun group preceded by “for”; example: � or by an adjectival group conjoint; example: � there can also be noun group appositions; example: � elliptical sentences. � substitution. � juxtaposed sentences. � coordinated sentences, etc. at a lexico-semantic level there is a preference for: � both emotive vocabulary; example: � and technical vocabulary; example: marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-8874 “new impulse icø. refreshingly glacial” [slogan, picture of a woman who is frozen, may 1999, impulse icø deodorant.] “canesten. for burning cistitis” [slogan, picture of a fire extinguisher, april 1999, “oasis for cistitis” drug against cistitis by canesten-bayer.] “difficult to define. impossible to resist” [heading, picture of a woman and the product advertised, april 1999, “allure” female fragrance by chanel.] “sport. edition. rover 200” [heading, picture of a car and drawing of a storm, may 1999, “rover 200 car” (sport edition) by rover.] “beautiful. very beautiful” [slogan, picture of a woman and the product advertised, november 1999, “daily hand cream” by cutex.] “introducing the motorola v3688, the smallest lightest dual-band gsm phone in the world. small in size, long on battery life [...]” [copy, picture of a woman and the product advertised, august 1999, motorola v3688 mobile phone.] 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 74 � neologisms3 that often begin as colloquial terms; example: � borrowings; for instance those in a group next to english words; example: � puns; example where there is a pun based on the homophone “date” that creates semantic ambiguity: as far as the choice of vocabulary is concerned, there is a great deal of terms from the ge language, along with a considerable amount of specific technical vocabulary and vocabulary that are on the borderline between ge language and esp. the use of both technical and general vocabulary seems to be justified by the audience’s specialisation degree. advertising copywriters have to create a message for a plural audience that comprises readers of different degrees of specialisation: lay public, experts and semi-experts in the topic addressed in the ad. � example of advertising vocabulary from the ge language: � example that contains specialised technical vocabulary: � example of vocabulary on the borderline between specific and general english language: advertising english and esp ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-88 75 “elizabeth arden smartwear” [brand name, picture of a woman who has seemingly used the product advertised, july 1999, “new recital” hair dyes by l’oréal.] “new recital. les blondissimes” [brand, picture of a woman who has seemingly used the product advertised and that product, july 1999, “new recital” hair dyes by l’oréal.] “one date that won’t let you down” [heading, picture of a woman, february 2000, the cosmopolitan show.] “forget dull, fading colour. with the new pantene pro-v color range, vibrant, colourful hair in only three steps away” [subheading, pictures of women and the products advertised, june 1999, pantene pro-v color hair dyes.] “introducing the motorola v3688, the smallest lightest dual-band gsm phone in the world. small in size, long on battery life [...]” [copy, picture of a woman and the product advertised, august 1999, motorola v3688 mobile phone.] 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 75 in addition, the vocabulary used in advertising english is one of its most distinguishing features. in addition to the informative function that specific vocabulary has, advertising terms usually have an additional social function in that it is thanks to advertising that some specific terms, such as aspirin, get to the general public (cf. cardona & fernández besararte, 1972: 61). they therefore fulfil a social function, called “banalisation” by galisson (1978), that is most useful to introduce specific vocabulary in our everyday life (svobodová, 1981: 116-117; cabré castellví, 1993: 136). hence, some technical vocabulary is usually “banalised” in the copy of an ad and the product brand name. in this sense, ‘aspirin,’ ‘togal’ in pharmacology, ‘kodak’ or ‘hoover’ in commerce are very good cases of this banalisation function (cf. asher & simpson, 1994: 2011). regarding structural patterns, advertising english shows differences in the usage of certain language structures. on the one hand, there are particular patterns and units that are frequently used in specialised texts, such as morphological structures composed of learned terms, group units, abbreviations, acronyms, specialised borrowings, nouns derived from verbs, short clauses; on the other, there are some units that do not appear very often, for instance complex subordinated sentences. in this sense, advertising english has: � frequent complex morphological patterns, especially in noun and adjectival groups. � there are also learned latin or greek terms together with germanic ones. � group units in noun groups containing premodifications; example: � nonce-compounds and embedded constructions in adjectival groups; example: � abbreviations; example: marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-8876 “hydra zen. skin destressing moisturiser” [heading, picture of a rose and the product advertised, may 1999, “hydra zen” moisturiser by lancôme.] “sunwater lancaster” [brand name, picture of a woman and the product advertised; may 1999, “sunwater” perfume by lancaster.] “[...] anti-perspirant deodorant roll-on” [copy, picture of the product advertised, may 1999, dove deodorant: noncecompounds.] “[...] it helps speed recovery from uv and environmental damage [...]” [copy, picture of a woman and the product advertised, august 1999, “advanced night repair cream” by estēe lauder.] 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 76 � symbols. � borrowings. � nouns derived from verbs; example: � short clauses, such as minor and non-finite clauses; example of a non-finite clause: � there are, nonetheless, and also in line with the usual trend in specific languages, a few examples of subordinated clauses which are mainly of three types: sentences introduced by “when,” “if ” and “because”; example: in the syntax of advertising discourse there is, as in general english, shifts in the logical order of elements, ellipsis and substitutions. in this sense, there are, for instance: � unfinished sentences that use periods when commas should be used; example: � language from everyday conversations, such as idioms; example: � or colloquialisms; example: advertising english and esp ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-88 77 “the daily telegraph. writing that demands reading” [slogan, picture of a child’s hand wearing a hospital bracelet indicating that he/she is hiv positive, april 1999, the daily telegraph.] “loves skin. hates sweat” [heading, picture of the product advertised, may 1999, dove deodorant.] “l’oréal paris. because i’m worth it” [slogan, picture of a woman who has seemingly used the product advertised, march 1999, “id collection” of stencils and tattoos by l’oréal.] “strong, soft. beautiful. shiny” [subheading, picture of a woman and the products advertised, march 2000, kms daily repair products.] “looking good from hair to toe” [slogan, picture of a “wella experience” label next to a drawing of a woman, may 1999, wella hair products.] “gotcha!” [subheading, three pictures of shoes, lips and a handbag, march 2000, alldays normal pads; slang; dialectal varieties; etc.] 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 77 as far as the use of different codes is concerned, the use of non-verbal codes is one of the most remarkable features of advertising english. although these codes are usually found in specialised texts, the non-verbal codes used in the discourse of advertising are more similar to general english texts than to specific ones, since in them there is social and emotive content, as it is in the verbal content of advertisements. in addition, advertising images are semiotic devices that show a seeming analogy and objectivity, which is or can be distorted by digital programs (e.g. photoshop, etc.). � example in which an icon of an envelope is used with very clear emotive and social meaning: pragmatic features from a pragmatic point of view advertising english shows very particular features determined by its participants, the communicative circumstances and its purpose. regarding advertising participants, forceville (1996: 81) argues that they are the addresser and addressee of advertising texts are therefore key elements of the advertising communication. in advertising a specialised or semi-specialised agent, that is the advertiser, communicates persuasive information by means of a typical example of covert communication that characterises persuasion. as far as the communicative discourse modality is concerned, tanaka (1994) considers advertising in terms of “covert” rather than “ostensive” communication arguing that “covert communication is a response to the interrelated problems which advertisers face in their task of persuading or influencing” (1994: 36). advertising is, indeed, typical of a situation in which there is a low level of trust and social cooperation between advertisers and their audience. the advertiser’s task is to make the audience believe something about a product without her4, namely the addressee, distrusting him, namely the addresser (tanaka, 1994: 43). this leads to a variety of strategies on the part of the advertiser. covert communication is one of these (tanaka, 1994: 40). marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-8878 “the � is vodafone” [slogan, picture of the product advertised, february 2000, vodafone mobile phones: use of a non-verbal code in combination with a verbal code.] the most important components since all the other components only matter in the light of the fact that in a communicative situation one more or less specified agent wishes to convey something to another more or less specified agent. 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 78 advertising covert communication can be seen, for instance, in the use of metaphors and the extended use of words in the projection of the image of women in advertising to make indirect claims for which the advertiser can later avoid responsibility (tanaka, 1994). � example of a metaphor that is covertly communicated and is also used to project the image of women in advertising: in this metaphor the nonhuman entity of a commodity is understood in terms of a person who is often the consumer and the different human features, motivations and activities related to this person, giving rise to the metaphor the commodity is the consumer, which is indeed an example of ontological metaphor items to sell are people (kövecses, 2002: 59) that evokes in the reader the same attitudes and feelings that they have in connection with a person (consumer). the use of “she” in the example seems to point to the lingerie to convey definitional attributes of “womanhood,” such as sexiness, exquisiteness, etc. this metaphor is, in our view, an example of covert communication as in it the metaphor, the producer’s informative intention, is not mutually manifest, there is no optimal relevance and the metaphor interpreter uses the visual cues as a reward to compensate his/her processing interpretation effort. in short, covert communication strategies serve as attention-grabbing and interestraising devices, because of its puzzling, amusing and entertaining nature, and also as social enhancers, strengthening the social bond between the advertiser and the consumer, enhancing the credibility of the persuader while leading to an attitude change in the audience. the advertiser, on the one hand, wishes to use problematic areas of particular sensitivity, for example, sex or snobbery, as a means of cultivating intimacy, escaping any responsibility for doing so and avoiding negative social reactions emanating from the public. the hearer, on the other hand, can benefit from becoming more involved in the process of communication, receiving a reasonable pay-off for his/her efforts at interpretation in terms of a number of contextual effects products, and can eventually accept or reject the advertiser’s message. in short, the addresser, i.e. persuader, uses language strategies and visual images to suggest meaning to an audience, but the audience, using its own attitudes and reasoning skills, constructs its own meaning. this type of persuasion seems to be the advertising english and esp ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-88 79 “exquisite ... isn’t she?” [slogan, picture of a sexy young woman wearing the product advertised, september 1999, “eva” lingerie by naturana.] 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 79 result of an elaborated process of communication between a more or less specialised addresser, that is expert and semi-expert, and a more or less specialised addressee who is often a lay person. as far as communicative circumstances is concerned, in the advertising of women’s magazines there is a combination of scientific, technical or professional topics along with everyday topics and female topics: � example of a female topic: british cosmopolitan style falls into the fifth style we described in the theoretic framework when we introduced different degrees of specialisation in so far as it is a social, formal and personal style. indeed, advertising texts have distinguishing diversifying features that usually characterise impersonal and objective texts like scientific or technical ones, such as: � an often implicit dialogue between an addresser and an addressee; example: � implicit personal viewpoints and implicit purpose: texts contain quotations, examples, explanations, etc.; example: � metalinguistic elements, e.g. explanations, definitions, synonyms, etc.: the quantity of these elements varies depending on the degree of specialisation and shared knowledge between addresser and addressee. the more specialised the addressee, the more metalinguistic elements. example of a definition: marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-8880 “non-applicator tampons. comfort at your fingertips” [slogans, drawing of a personified tampon with a label saying “99p trial pack”; april 1999, tampax regular non-applicator tampons: menstruation topic.] “want great skin? got two seconds? take the tape test?” [heading of the ad insert, pictures of the products advertised, august 1999, clinique 3-step skin care system.] “most pasta sauces sound italian. mine taste italian” [heading, picture of a man who is holding one of the products advertised, october 1999, pasta sauce “pastagusto” by sacla.] “time is what you make of it” [slogan, picture of a man and a woman who are playing beach volleyball and the product advertised, june 1999, “oragin ‘zest” watch by swatch.] 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 80 � linguistic elegance, appropriate structures, adequate layout. there is a somehow poetic function of language. example of a simile: present tenses, short clauses, impersonal formulas, noun groups and other representation systems in texts are abundant in advertising english and convey an impersonal and objective style. with regard to the purpose of advertising communication, there are grounds to claim that advertising has multiple functions. ads persuade potential consumers to buy a product or service but “they may (also) amuse, inform, misinform, worry or warn” (cook, 2001: 10). as cook argues, “if an ad is defined by its selling function alone, then one might wonder what it becomes when the product is no longer available, or when the receiver is someone who cannot or will not buy the product [...]” (cook, 2001: 10). hence, it seems reasonable to say that advertising fulfils multiple functions. the advertisement addressee knows that purpose and therefore interprets the ad adequately. in other words, the ad addressee knows that the ad public or institutional goal is to sell a product or service, reorganises the ad information according to that intention and that leads him/her to the correct ad interpretation (cf. corrales crespo, 2000). advertising addressees first realise that they are facing a case of persuasiveinformative discourse when they encounter an ad, namely a text type. an ad is therefore easily recognised as a case of persuasive-informative discourse by addressees. advertising discourse can be classified as follows (cf. velasco sacristán, 1999: 32; 2003: 272) (see figure 1)5. advertising english and esp ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-88 81 “dior dune. for her. for him. as free as the wind [...]” [slogan, picture of a woman in a dessert and the product advertised, august 1999, “dune” female fragrance and “dune pour homme” male fragrance by christian dior.] information and persuasion (discourse) advertising (genre) publicity (subgenre) commercial advertising (text type) advertisement (text type) publicity advertisement (text type class) commercial advertisement (text type class) broadcast commercial advertisement (text type subclass) web commercial advertisement (text type subclass) print commercial advertisement (text type subclass) print commercial advertisement heading (text) print commercial advertisement slogan (text) figure 1. classification of advertising discourse (adapted from velasco sacristán 1999: 32; 2003: 172). 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 81 in advertising the main function is persuasion along with information. the following discursive level is that of genre; it is classified into two subgenres: publicity and commercial advertising. the next level is that of the text type which is the advertisement that can be found in publicity and commercial advertising giving rise to publicity or commercial ads. in each type of advertisement there are different text type subclasses determined by the media where advertisements are published. they are generally speaking of four types: broadcast, radio, web or print commercial advertisements. they are composed of different texts, for instance, headings, slogans, etc. we can conclude that, from a pragmatic point of view, advertising shows a low degree of specialisation between experts or semi-experts and laypeople by means of a typical example of covert communication. it is also of a social type. functional features as advertising texts fluctuate between ‘informing’ and ‘manipulating’ in order to highlight a particular function of language, linguistic prominence should be given to the corresponding pragmatic elements. the pragmatic elements of advertising communication and their corresponding functions of language are shown in figure 2. in our view, advertising is a genre that is an example of covert communication as we have seen above, where there are two main orientations: one towards the product or service advertised, that is a referential function and one towards the addressee, namely, a conative function. the second orientation is often predominant in advertising texts although it is usually combined with a referential function. in this vein, successful advertising avoids marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-8882 reality product/service referential function channel written/spoken/digital phatic function code advertising language + images/sound, etc. metalingual function addresser message or text addressee advertiser advertisement as part of a target audience emotive function poetic function conative function figure 2. pragmatic elements of advertising communication and their corresponding functions of language (adapted from fuertes olivera et al., 2001: 129). 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 82 pushing consumers to buy, but rather persuades them, thus reducing the psychological burden consumers suffer during their buying sprees (fuertes olivera et al., 2001: 1293). advertisers use referential functional devices such a: � deictic determiners; example: � numerals; example: � classifying and defining adjectives; example: � noun groups used in noun premodifications; example: advertising information, as shown by the referential function of advertisements, is nonetheless different from information in more specialised objective lsps, e.g. est, in that the seemingly objective information if subjectively chosen gives rise to a somehow artificial type of information where there are conative linguistic features such as: � metaphors; example: � disjunctive syntax and incomplete sentences. � inferential devices, for example person markers, hedges, emphatics, etc.; example of a hedge: advertising english and esp ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-88 83 “color. that’s holiday” slogan, picture of a woman who is wearing the clothes advertised, november 1999, gap clothes. “one capsule once. clears thrush” slogan, drawing of a woman’s half face and the product advertised. “difflucan one,” drug against vaginal thrush, by pfizer consumer healthcare. “new impulse icø” brand name, picture of a woman who is frozen, may 1999, impulse icø deodorant. “double wear stay-in-place makeup spf 10” brand name, picture of a well-known model and the product advertised, october 1999, “double wear stay-in-place makeup spf10,” by esteē lauder. “le parfum de washing up liquid” slogan, picture of a woman running outdoors and the product advertised, april 1999, “citrus burst” washing up liquid, by persil: metaphor (the washing up liquid is perfume). “no wonder anadin is britain’s most popular brand of pain killer” slogan, picture of several women making up themselves, april 1999, “anadin extra” by whitehall. 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 83 � informal conversations containing rhetorical questions and commands. � 2nd person singular pronouns. � vocatives. � colloquial terms like idioms, slang, etc.; example: all in all, in functional terms advertisements show fluctuation between information and persuasion giving rise to the use of both referential-conative functions with a predominant orientation towards conative features. conclusion advertising english shows regular features at each level of grammar. in this sense, advertising english shows certain features frequently found in esp texts. these characteristics are mostly morphological, lexical and syntactic, such as the use of foreign names that are transformed into english words, complex noun groups with heavy premodification, adjectives in noun premodifying patterns and in the comparative and superlative forms, verbs in the indicative mode and/or in the present tense, neologisms or borrowings. the syntax of advertising english also presents, on the one hand, particular patterns and units that are frequently used in specialised texts, such as morphological structures composed of learned terms, group units, abbreviations, acronyms, specialised borrowings, nouns derived from verbs and short sentences. on the other hand, and also in line with the usual trend in specific languages, there are a few examples of subordinated clauses which are mainly introduced by “when,” “if ” and “because.” along with these linguistic features, advertisements also show linguistic characteristics from the ge language and features on the borderline between ge and esp. for instance, the choice of advertising vocabulary shows that there are many terms from ge, along with a considerable amount of specific technical terms and vocabulary that are on the borderline between ge language and esp. this vocabulary is also one of the most distinguishing features of the advertising discourse as it is especially used. in addition to the informative function that specific vocabulary has, advertising terms usually have an additional social function in that it is thanks to advertising that some specific terms, such as aspirin, get to the general marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-8884 “freak. only 25% of people never suffer from problem skin” heading, picture of skin, june 1999, lutsia laboratoires dermatologiques. 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 84 public. in the syntax of advertising english there is also, as in ge, shifts in the logical order of elements, ellipsis, substitutions, unfinished sentences that use periods when commas should be used, idioms, colloquialisms, etc. as far as the use of different codes is concerned, the use of non-verbal codes in advertising is more similar to ge than to esp, since in them there is social and emotive content, as in the verbal content of advertisements. in addition, advertising images show a seeming analogy and objective which is or can be distorted by means of digital programs. from a pragmatic point of view, in advertising a specialised or semi-specialised agent, that is the advertiser, conveys persuasive information by means of a typical example of covert communication that characterises persuasion. the discursive modality of persuasion has largely been ignored in esp varieties but, as argued by recent studies like alcaraz varó (2000), we think that it can constitute an important discursive modality to characterise esp. advertising covert communication can be seen by examples of metaphors and the extended use of words in the projection of the image of women in advertising to make indirect claims for which the advertiser can later avoid responsibility (tanaka 1994). in our view, covert communication strategies are, on the one hand, the result of an elaborated process of communication between a more or less specialised addresser, that is expert or semi-expert, and a more or less specialised addressee who is often a lay person. on the other hand, these strategies play a social function as they are attention-grabbing and interest-raising devices and also social enhancers that aim at strengthening the social bond between the advertiser and the consumer, enhancing the credibility of the advertiser. the advertiser wishes to use problematic areas of particular sensitivity, for example sex or snobbery, as a means of cultivating intimacy, escaping any responsibility for doing so and avoiding negative social reactions emanating from the public. in addition, the use of advertising topics shows also a clear overlap between esp and ge as there is a combination of specific topics along with everyday ones. in functional terms, advertising texts fluctuate between ‘informing’ and ‘manipulating’ showing two main orientations: first, towards the product or service advertised; and second, towards the addressee, namely the consumer. on the one hand, there are referential devices, such as deictic determiners, numerals, classifying and defining adjectives, noun groups used in premodifications, etc. on the other hand, there are conative linguistic features like metaphors, disjunctive syntax, incomplete 2nd person singular pronouns, vocative and colloquial terms. unlike esp texts, in advertising texts there is a predominant conative function rather than the referential one, hence showing that advertising texts are functionally closer to ge. advertising english and esp ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-88 85 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 85 in short, as shown by our linguistic, pragmatic and functional analysis of advertisements from british cosmopolitan, advertising english is a variety of esp with a low degree of specialisation and of a social type, which is on the borderline between gl and lsp. its closeness to ge makes it different from other varieties of esp that are more specialised. in this sense, and regarding ebe, the variety of esp where advertising english is usually located (gómez moreno, 1994), this article has proved that although advertising english is obviously related to ebe, because of its economic content and purpose, the particular linguistic, pragmatic and functional features of advertising english make it somehow different from ebe in that advertising english is closer to ge than ebe. acknowledgements thanks are due to prof. pedro a. fuertes olivera for his comments on an earlier draft of this article. financial support for this research has been provided by the junta de castilla y león (ref. no. va041a05). 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(1987). inside women’s magazines. london: pandora. 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 87 marisol velasco-sacristán holds a phd from the university of valladolid, where she teaches applied linguistics, particularly esp. her main research interest includes women’s studies, sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics and specialized communication. her papers in these areas have appeared in international and national specialised journals. she is author of metáfora y género (2005). marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 12 [2006]: 65-8888 1. although only in specialised journals (cf. cabré castellví, 1993: 154; sager et al., 1980: 183). 2. each of our examples in this article shows a transcript of the verbal content of the ad, on the left, and on the right in square brackets, a description of its illustration, the month and year the ad was published, the product and brand names, the feature(s) observed in the ad. we have also underlined the feature(s) in the example. 3. the use of some of these words is sometimes short-lived but others get consolidated into the system (pérezllantada & plo, 1998: 85; alcaraz varó, 2000: 50). 4. tanaka (1994), as opposed to sperber and wilson (1986, 1990), uses the convention of referring to the addressee as ‘she’ and the addresser as ‘he’. 5. capital letters and small case letters have been used to make a typographical distinction between classes and subclasses in our classification. notes 05 velasco.qxp 20/09/2006 13:47 pægina 88 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the present study seeks to offer an understanding of how high-end hotel websites produce privilege, creating a sense of belonging and entitlement for their 4/5-star guests. the experience of tourism is intrinsically linked to embracing otherness, and as a reflection of this, hotel websites offer a characterization of cultural otherness in an attempt to make it resonate with the potential expectations of a socioeconomically privileged client. the study considers the question of what elements of experience of otherness the website will address, relying on a critical discourse analysis perspective and drawing on bourdieu’s notion of habitus as related to lifestyle, difference and distinction. specifically, the words different and distinct are addressed in this study as markers of otherness and privilege. based on fairclough’s sociocultural approach, and specifically on halliday’s transitivity system, the use of these words in clause construction patterns yields an understanding of how specific representations of reality revolving around the idea of otherness are built up. the research is corpus-driven and qualitative, its conclusions also offering some insight as to how hotel websites recreate forms of in-group similarity. keywords: tourism discourse, difference, otherness, privilege, critical discourse analysis. resumen diferente y distinto como marcadores de otredad: un estudio de corpus de la (re)creación de privilegio en hoteles de alto nivel el presente estudio pretende dar a conocer cómo las webs de los hoteles de alto nivel (4 y 5 estrellas) crean privilegio entre sus huéspedes, construyendo un ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness: a corpus-driven study of the (re)creation of privilege in high standard hotels rosana dolón herrero universitat de valència (españa) dolon@uv.es 97 ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 rosana dolón herrero sentido de pertenencia a la élite y de derecho a recibir dicho privilegio. la experiencia del turismo está intrínsecamente unida a abrazar la otredad, y como tal reflejo, las webs hoteleras ofrecen una caracterización de otredad cultural en un intento de hallar un eco en las expectativas de un cliente socioeconómicamente privilegiado. este estudio toma en consideración qué elementos de la experiencia de otredad recoge la web, basándose en una perspectiva del análisis crítico del discurso y, en concreto, en la noción de bourdieu de hábito, relacionado con estilo de vida, diferencia y distinción. específicamente, los términos diferente y distinto son tratados como marcadores de otredad y privilegio. a partir de la aproximación sociocultural de fairclough, y, más concretamente, del sistema de transitividad de halliday, el uso de estos términos en los patrones oracionales permite comprender cómo están construidas las representaciones específicas de la realidad que giran en torno a la idea de otredad. esta investigación cualitativa está basada en un análisis de corpus y las conclusiones obtenidas apuntan hacia una profundización del modo en que las webs hoteleras recrean formas de similitud inter-grupal. palabras clave: discurso del turismo, diferencia, otredad, privilegio, análisis crítico del discurso. 1. introduction tourism represents one of the most active areas of economic growth in the era of post-industrial globalization, and as such has the potential to create social realities that project ideologies of difference. critical tourism research, hence, reaches beyond its characterization as a service industry concerned with the reflection of a socioeconomic order, and addresses its role as a cultural industry endowed with the power to create, maintain and perpetrate different forms of social inequality (see e.g., thurlow & jaworski, 2010: 187; thurlow & jaworski, 2011: 287). as a cultural industry, the goods rendered are semioticized to a significant degree through the use of linguistic and audio-visual resources, in an attempt to turn the potential customer into a client (jack & phipps, 2005). accordingly, tourism, an essential component of the globalized economy, has resulted in the commodification of both language and identity (heller, 2003: 474). this has contributed to cognitive and cultural constructions of how a consumer is, sees him or herself, or wants to be seen in the world, both as an individual and as a member of a group (richardson & langford, 2015: 83). 98 mediating the relationship between tourist and destination, with the pervasive presence of language and other modes of communication, tourism can be seen as primarily an information-intensive business (jack & phipps, 2005; cheng, 2016: 85). this implies, as hannam and knox (2015) highlight, the treatment of texts from the tourism sector as mediated cultural products, which provides insights into how the discursive practice in tourism ‘(re)produces and shapes objects of knowledge and social identities as well as being (re)produced and shaped by them’ (fairclough & wodak, 1997: 258). while acknowledging the importance of all modes of communication which contribute to (re)shaping cultural practices in the discourse of tourism, our interest in this study lies specifically in the language used. a critical discourse analytical approach to the promotional discourse of hotel websites will seek to understand how a privileged sense of belonging and entitlement to space is enacted. we will ask how the hotel as a destination reference creates a sense of privilege, which is to resonate with the identity of potential guests of four and five star hotels, a particularly demanding client group. from a constructivist perspective, a critical discourse analytical approach allows for the conceptualization of discourse as a linguistic mechanism that contributes to the socio-cognitive representation of a collective identity for privileged customers (koller, 2012). it is a framework through which we can access the processes of demarcating ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’ in space (literally and figuratively) as enacted by power (norquay & drozdzewski, 2017: 92). the critical approach is further justified when we understand the discursive construction of privilege along the lines of ferber (2012), that is, as a possible means of naturalizing inequality, and hence with the potential to lead eventually to the preservation of some sort of permanent inequality. certain discourse practices in the context of tourism are intended to draw attention to the self. such is the case with hotel websites that offer four or five-star distinction with a client in mind who is supposed to expect a (re)creation of a space where ‘action and meaning, status and distinction are acquired and transmitted’, the experience of tourism thus becoming ‘a vehicle for transmitting identity’ (edensor, 2001: 71). the simultaneous expectation of distinction and the quest for it demand the concept of privilege. the privileged self, both as an individual and a group, enjoys a series of structural advantages that have been granted, ‘whether or not these advantages are readily perceptible, actively sought after, or even desired’ ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness: a corpus-driven study of the (re)creation of privilege in high standard hotels ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 99 (stoudt, 2009: 8). in fact, whether the quest for privilege is unconsciously motivated or willingly activated is not of interest in the present research. it is the concept of privilege itself that lies at the heart of our study, in that the structural advantages from which the higher class tourist benefits are necessarily to the disadvantage of others. in this sense, engaging with the study of privilege also allows for insights into the social inequality underlying disadvantage, enacted at the cost of a status typically held by a minority group. reason and bradbury (2006: 10) identify this effect as illustrating the need to study privilege in the pursuit of social justice, since ‘the “pedagogy of the oppressed” must be matched by a ‘pedagogy of the privileged”.’ or, as mcintosh (2012: 195) observes, ‘the study of power is not accurate unless it includes both disadvantage and privilege’. 2. about difference and distinction the concepts of difference and distinction lie at the very heart of our study. on the one hand, difference points at the nature of the touristic experience itself, embracing the idea of otherness; on the other hand, distinction is intrinsically linked to the concept of privilege itself. the experience of tourism is often represented as ‘removed from the quotidian’, in that it offers ‘opportunities to explore different identities’ (edensor, 2001: 60). this temporary distancing from the habitual has also been referred to as an exploration of otherness, ‘a privileged entry into a variety of phenomena’ that allows for an incursion into ‘the world in its differences and diversity’ (favero, 2007: 52), where the attainment of pleasure is significantly related to the experience of what is different from everyday life (urry, 1990, 1995). the polarisation between the known, quotidian place and the other, different one in tourism echoes a parallelism in the discursive construction of the tourist identity, recreating a tension between the individual self and the tourist self (dolón, 2016: 67) in a constant interplay ‘with difference and authenticity (…) where “otherness” and “selfness” are brought into dialogue’ (favero, 2007: 58-59). in a similar fashion, this place-related experience of otherness is expressed in terms of lifestyle migration, where place is seen as performed in and through discourse, as a means of contributing to the fabrication of individual and collective identities (torkington, 2012: 72). the concept of lifestyle encapsulates systematic products of habitus (bourdieu, 1984), and rosana dolón herrero ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118100 integrates a set of practices embraced by the individual, which give material form to a particular narrative of self-identity (giddens, 1991: 81). hence, lifestyle migration implies a tourism experience that conveys the idea of temporarily leaving behind the quotidian, which in turn is expected to challenge the individual’s self-narrative. in terms of the study of privilege the perspective of constructivist structuralism (bourdieu & wacquant, 1992) is undoubtedly of relevance. this approach postulates an understanding of discursive and social practices inasmuch as they identify with active processes of (re)production and transformation of social structures. bourdieu (1990: 59) articulates this transformational potential, assuming a social genesis of habitus, structure and social classes: a social class, then, is a group of individuals that share ‘identical or similar conditions of existence and conditionings…having the same habitus’, where the members’ in-group perception hinges on ‘internalized structures, common schemes of perception, conception and action’ (1990: 60). in his classic study on distinction, bourdieu (1984: 170) elaborates on the concept of ‘habitus’, relating it to lifestyle, taste, difference, and distinction itself, where different conditions of existence produce a different habitus. lifestyles, in turn, are to be understood as the systematic products of habitus, which become socially qualified sign systems. taste would partake of this dialectical relationship as ‘the practical operator of the transmutation of things into distinct and distinctive signs’ (bourdieu 1984: 174). thurlow and jaworski (2012: 490-491), also drawing on bourdieu, point to the ideological essence which underlies communication, where the articulation of ‘good taste’ entails the reproduction of dominant systems of belief, maintaining structures of inequality and privilege. the habitual consumption of symbolic goods contributes to a stylization of identity (fairclough, 2003: 159), which encapsulates the potential of ‘strategic (re)presentation, promotion and imposition of particular ways of being (or styles) involving language, image, social practice and material culture’ (jaworski & thurlow, 2009: 195), liable to become naturalized through routinization, that is, habitus. identity is then to be approached as a resource that people may use, rather than as an attribute that individuals have or are; a discursive construction through which people do things (hall, 1996). the discursive construction of place contributes to the construction of both individual and collective identities (torkington, 2012: 72), as the marketing ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness: a corpus-driven study of the (re)creation of privilege in high standard hotels ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 101 of place requires representations of a touristic nature to utilise and reflect identities (pritchard & morgan, 2001: 168). we can hence understand place identity as being intrinsically linked to the multiplication of versions of individual and collective selves (torkington, 2012: 168), where places are given meanings and identity traits by people, and places may be said to shape tourist identities in some way (see dixon & durrheim, 2000; benwell & stokoe, 2006). an insight into the experience of tourism in terms of consumption of social mobility (machin & richardson, 2008: 281) brings together the concepts of identity, otherness and difference in an interesting way, turning the hotel destination into a significant place reference, where lifestyle, privilege, habitus and identity have a symbolic interplay, and where the hotel website stands as an important mediator that articulates the dialectics between these categories. in dolón (2016) the hotel itself as a tourist destination is discussed, the tourist experience being framed in terms of the consumption of place, which in turn implies the notion of commodification of place identity (e.g., urry, 1990; pritchard & morgan, 2001; heller, 2003; hallett & kaplanweinger, 2010; thurlow & jaworski, 2010; torkington, 2012). this itself translates into the idea of tourists consuming the symbolic characteristics and values attached to the discursive articulation of the place in question. 3. the study tourism websites in general have received extensive academic attention (e.g., dann, 1996; hallett & kaplan-weinger, 2010; hung & law, 2011; koskensalo, 2012; dolón, 2014, 2016), as opposed to hotel websites in particular, where scholarly approaches are still scarce, as observed by arfin bin salim et al. (2012: 136). studied mainly in terms of their potential as marketing tools (see e.g., hsie, 2012), hotel websites have also been analysed for their generic textual and multimodal characteristics, and their underlying discursive strategies (e.g. suen, 2009; cheng, 2016; suau-jiménez, 2016). our interest in the present study lies in the important representational potential of hotel websites. while engaged in promotional marketing, their discourse may offer a representation of the hotel destination that reflects the way a tourist is meant to look at it. that is, the representation of the hotel has to resonate with the image that prospective guests entertain for rosana dolón herrero ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118102 themselves and for the destination they have in mind. the potential for a socio-cultural construction of the hotel empowers the website to construe a particular vision of the place, the hotel thus being recognised as a sociocultural construction rather than a physical location (pritchard & morgan, 2001: 167); the existence of hotels, being fundamentally a cultural one, turns these into ‘places that have no objective reality, only intersubjective ones’ (shurmer-smith & hannam, 1994: 13). the purpose of the study is to offer an analysis of the discourse of hotel websites whose promotional activity is addressed to four and five-star hotel guests, that is, individuals who share social class and income as privileging factors (mcintosh, 2012: 197). the aim is to uncover the discursive construction of privilege. a critical discourse analytical approach will seek to identify how the hotel as a place reference is represented to create and offer a sense of privilege intended to resonate with the social class identity of the prospective hotel guest. the study will lead to an understanding of how a privileged sense of belonging and entitlement to the hotel space is discursively constructed, where the concept of privilege articulates what is demarcated (literally and figuratively) as sameness in space (norquay & drozdzewski, 2017: 90). our approach to the study of privilege relies on the conceptualization of difference in terms of otherness as discussed above. it also hinges on the precepts of constructivist structuralism, drawing on bourdieu (1984) in the terms above mentioned. the hotel website is expected to articulate a place representation to meet the specific taste and general lifestyle requirements that encompass the guests’ sense of distinction, a representation of privileged otherness that is expected to echo in the guests’ perceptions of their own social class. as we have noted previously, the tourist experience is intrinsically linked to embracing otherness (favero, 2007), and can even be referred to in terms of lifestyle migration (torkington, 2012). the question arises, then, as to what elements of experience of otherness or difference the website will attend to in the discursive representation of the hotel when addressing a privileged guest: whether these will be circumscribed to issues of status and distinction, to a real temporary change in lifestyle, or indeed will convey some change of habitus. within the framework of critical discourse analysis, fairclough’s (e.g., 1999, 2002) sociocultural approach proves an insightful perspective for the ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness: a corpus-driven study of the (re)creation of privilege in high standard hotels ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 103 present research, where social structure, social action and agency are dialectically related. more specifically, i have drawn on halliday’s (1985) system of transitivity, which integrates the components of participants, processes and circumstances associated with the ideational function of expressing content and communicating information, starting from clause construction patterns as semantic representations of experience and reality. to capture the sense of difference and distinction, i have chosen to analyse the precise uses of different and distinct, with the aim of gaining an insight into how hoteliers explicitly integrate these adjectives into their websites’ clause construction patterns as a means of recreating specific processes of representation of reality while marketing the prospective tourists’ hotel experience. the choice of different and distinct is not random: while different lies at the centre of the characterization of otherness, the meaning of which is strictly to confer the idea of other than, separate from or not the same, distinct adds a more marked sense of difference, one nuanced by the trait of this difference being clearly noticeable and clearly separate from something else, this additional semantic quality being intrinsically linked to the idea of privilege.1 a corpus of 189 hotel webpages was compiled from our research team’s database (corpus multilingüe en turismo – universitat de valència – cometval), representing in equal proportion four and five-star hotels from both the uk and the usa. attention was also paid to the geographical locations of hotels, in order to avoid the possibility of certain geo-spatial conditions outweighing others, and thus guaranteeing a balanced representativeness in the corpus (see e.g., atkins, clear & ostler, 1992). the hotel websites were fully exploited, with the inclusion of the entire texts therein, leading to a total of 813,922 words. our study is qualitative and corpus-driven. the use of the concordancing tool antconc3.4 (anthony 2014) makes it possible to trace and retrieve specific patterns of linguistic choices, in this case to access systematic uses of clause construction and transitivity patterns (see e.g., hundt, nesselhauf & biewer, 2007; baker, 2006). the search words different and distinct yielded forty-two and twenty-three clauses respectively, and the transitivity patterns of these were then analysed manually. for the forty-two examples including the word different, a further refinement of the data was made in which we discounted those uses that referred to routine administrative formalities (e.g. use a different card, arrival on a different date, prices are in a different currency), in that rosana dolón herrero ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118104 these do not express the tourist experience in a strict sense. the remaining samples with different amounted to thirty clauses. 4. results and discussion 4.1. uses with ‘different’ the prevailing clause construction pattern corresponds to material processes of semantic representation of experience, with a total of eighteen samples (tables 1—5) clearly outnumbering other process types, these others including six examples of relational processes (table 6). hence, in addition to circumstantial use (table 7), for most of the representational choices the use of the concept different is circumscribed to a representation of reality in terms of doing and, to a far lesser extent, being. different is not found to partake of any of the other four process types (experiential, mental, behavioural or verbalization) in the data. the following tables (1 to 4) illustrate the different uses related to the material processes. ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness: a corpus-driven study of the (re)creation of privilege in high standard hotels ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 105 the hotel in agentive position (material process) 1. the hotel provides many different options for any event 2. the hotel has catered for numerous different events 3. the hotel has a variety of different sized rooms 4. fownes hotel has eleven different meeting rooms table 1. room/rooms in agentive position (material process) 5. each of them [the rooms] has a different feel and character 6. the hotel has catered for numerous different events 7. [the] dining rooms accommodate different food requests table 2. ‘we’ (hoteliers) in agentive position (material process) 8. we can accommodate different sizes of groups 9. the hotel has catered for numerous different events table 3. ‘we’ (hoteliers) in agentive position (material process) 10. what makes the hotel different… 11. caterers accommodate different food requests 12. el puerto [restaurant] offers a different style [of going out]: 13. doing something a little bit different is refreshingly down-to-earth. table 4. t the important discriminating factor here is the participation framework, with a focus on who or what stands in the agentive actor position. two options reveal themselves as possible: either the hotel, its representatives (we, the caterers) or a part of it (the rooms) stand in agentive position and offer something different to the prospective guest (tables 1—3 above); or it is the hotel guest who accesses different elements or services (table 5 below). however, a clear preference for an impersonal agentive role can be identified, as shown by the scant use (only two examples) of a we-pronoun in agentive position, in favour of space references (the hotel, the room(s), the restaurant), which are clearly more representative. a closer examination of the examples above links the hotel’s doing in the interest of the guest to processes of having, offering, making, providing, accommodating, and catering for. it is the hotel (table 1) that provides what is different, seen in its pronominal representation we (table 3) or in specific role representations such as caterers (11), in addition to specific hotel premises, such as the restaurant (12). importantly, the hotel rooms also take on this agentive function (table 2). the three uses with accommodate, applied to either different food requests (6, 11) or to different sizes of groups (8), add to the simple process of offering, the willingness and capacity to adapt to the specific traits of the guests, and thus address an individualized target customer. on the other hand, clauses with the guest in agentive position (table 5) are represented far less frequently, and in general portray a visitor who needs, requires, looks for and finds. it is interesting to highlight the uses (15) we understand that (16) and as we have found, along with (22) we appreciate that and (24) we recognize that from table 6 below, which frame the main clause while showing an awareness and understanding of the client’s requirements. these uses also succeed in projecting a role for the hotelier as a researcher, one that not only offers but also enquires about the kind of differences desired or required by the hotel guest. rosana dolón herrero ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118106 ‘you’/the guest in agentive position (material process) 14. (you) choose different ways to experience beauty treatments 15. [we understand that] every customer has different needs 16. [as we have found] each person has different requirements 17.(you) looking for somewhere a little different for a special occasion? 18.(you) will find a host of different entertainment, style and theme options table 5. t the uses of different in relational processes (table 6), despite being infrequent, are interesting in that they reveal types of equivalences that are established and discursively projected. it is specifically the rooms that are given this status of being different (with the exception of examples 22 and 24), where ‘difference’ includes references to shape, size or style. these qualities are further emphasised, and also extended in more abstract terms, when talking about a suite exuding an aura of quiet luxury (23). of note are the uses of each (22, 23) and every (24) in combination with all (20, 21), embracing both an individualized and a collectivized offer of difference, and thus covering the totality (all) but also implying an attention to detail (each, every). the circumstantial uses of different add further specification to the essential clause construction pattern, as table 7 shows. examples (25)-(27) all suggest the idea of variety, hence the range and choice of what is on offer. on the other hand, in examples (28)-(30) different is related to a sense of purposefulness. of special interest here are (29) and (30), where the hotel offers both for something a little different in combination with for something completely different, addressing the tourist experience of experiencing otherness (something completely different) while making an explicit reference to the preservation of habitus in lifestyle (something a little different). ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness: a corpus-driven study of the (re)creation of privilege in high standard hotels ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 107 ‘different’ in relational processes 19. the ensuite bedrooms [are] all different shapes and sizes 20. all the hotel bedrooms are different styles, shapes and sizes 21. all the rooms we offer are different [with something to suit every preference] 22. [we appreciate that] each event is different 23. each [luxury grand suite] is different, exuding an aura of quiet luxury 24. [we recognize that] every wedding is different table 6. ‘different’ in circumstantial position 25. each [corporate venue] with a different feel, each with a different appeal 26. a dynamic mix of common and private spaces, furniture, objects, lighting and finishes from different eras to reflect a sense of unconventionality and freedom 27. we offer dedicated fitness professionals in a variety of different disciplines 28. the restaurant is ideal for different occasions 29. for something a little different, day spa packages are the ideal to unwind 30. for something completely different you could host a drinks reception table 7. t 4 the above analysis of the clause as an expression of semantic processes is complemented with an insight into the syntagmatic frame in which different has been used. most of the collocations are found to integrate abstract concepts, these related either to the idea of ambiance/atmosphere (different feel, appeal, aspect, character), to the context of decoration (different style(s), shapes, sizes), or to a sense of variety (different ways, options, varieties). these occurrences are followed, according to quantitative criteria, by references to rooms (different sized rooms, event rooms, meeting rooms, suites, room types, suite types). finally, we may add here specific uses, such as different bourbons, stories, disciplines, eras, element teas, and the like, which again point at an idea of variety. 4.2. uses with ‘distinct’ as was the case with different, the prevailing clause construction pattern with distinct again corresponds to material processes of the semantic representation of reality. this preference proves to be especially salient here, as no other process types (except one example, (47), for existential processes) were identified. even examples of relational processes were absent from the data, which were often found to establish equivalences in terms of being different in the previous sub-section. the use of distinct, with the sole exception of one example in table 11, is circumscribed exclusively to a representation of experience and reality in terms of doing, as shown in tables 8-11 below. this doing takes the shape of offering, featuring, having, providing, etc., all of which result in the hotel or other related space references communicating to the prospective guest a specific sense of distinction. rosana dolón herrero ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118108 lodgings, rooms, spaces in agentive position (material process) 31. each [of the very spacious family apartments] offers you distinct advantages 32. [these rooms] feature a distinct alcove for dining and/or working 33. the large sitting room has distinct areas for comfortable seating 34. standard rooms feature one of three distinct design styles, ranging from warm and inviting to classic elegance to avant-garde 35. [our junior suites] consist of one large room offering distinct bedroom and sitting areas 36. these suites feature a distinct dining area and guest bathroom 37. the executive suites provide a distinct living area 38. each [hotel/duo of hotels] has its own distinct appearance 39. each [of halekulani’s three restaurants] offers its own distinct style 40. [our stylishly redesigned lobbies] provide guests with a distinct sense of arrival table 8. as to the participation framework, the hotel, rooms, suites and other space references (lobbies, apartments) prove to be the most representative choices for the agentive actor position. it is these spaces that provide some distinct feature for the prospective guest. while this was also the case with the use of different, the samples with distinct are more frequent and also more complex, in that they involve a wider range of space references. these references, as happens with different, significantly outnumber those cases in which the hotelier or other personified hotel representative plays an agentive role. in fact, only one sample was found with distinct, expressed through reference to the catering and banquet teams (47), offering or recreating a sense of distinction. the two samples in table 9 are worth a closer look, as it is the distinct quality trait that occupies this agentive position. a distinct professional character (41) and a distinct architecture (42) are seen to do something to the guests’ benefit, example (42) being especially noteworthy in that both agent and object convey the idea of distinction: the distinct architecture has a distinct appearance. as table 12 below shows, the hotel guest is rarely found in agentive actor position. only three samples (45-47) portray a guest who experiences, discovers or chooses an element of distinction. ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness: a corpus-driven study of the (re)creation of privilege in high standard hotels ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 109 ‘distinct’ in agentive position (material process) 41. distinct professional character make hard rock hotel chicago’s meeting space ideal for hosting any event 42. the resort’s distinct architecture has its own distinct appearance table 9. hotel representatives in agentive position (material process) 43. our catering and banquet teams have earned a distinct reputation for their quality of service table 10. ‘distinct’ in existential process 44. on the third floor of the hotel [there] are two distinct meeting areas: the salon, overlooking fifth avenue and the boardroom, overlooking 36th street table 11. a the circumstantial uses of distinct (table 13) are expressed mainly in prepositional phrases, the preposition with conveying an additive specification: with its distinct character and style (48), with its distinct neighbourhoods (49), and with a style distinct to its new york setting (50) thus translate into something extra offered to the hotel guest. and this additional something is invariably related to an abstract idea of style or character. in fact, both in (49) and (50) the distinction that is made accessible to the guest is not retrievable from the hotel itself, but from its surroundings, such as the neighbourhood or new york city. style also proves to be the theme of distinction in samples (51) and (52), referring to the cuisine, in a distinct local style, and to architecture in noting the distinct european design styles that the hotel has to offer. the idea of purposefulness, which was found to be more salient in the uses with different, is here found in just one example (53), the criteria for space distributions accounting for a distinct residential feel. a further consideration of the uses of distinct within the frame of collocations yields interesting observations. distinct appears to be related mostly to the idea of style (distinct character and style, design styles, early 20th century design styles, local styles, own style, style), while the use of different most frequently evokes the idea of ambiance or atmosphere, as noted above. this sense is also recreated through the use of distinct, but to a far lesser extent in rosana dolón herrero ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118110 ‘you’/the guest in agentive position (material process) 45. [you] experience the distinct collaboration of classic and modern architecture 46. guests of our boutique hotel will discover a distinct european-styled ambiance 47. [you] choose from the distinct quarters of the capital and three very individual luxury london hotels table 12. t ‘distinct’ in circumstantial position 48. [island themed suites] each with its own distinct character and style 49. with its distinct neighbourhoods, ethnic foods and quaint cafés, boston is the commercial and cultural centre of new england 50. contemporary interiors blend setai elegance with a style distinct to its new york setting 51. each of our hotel restaurants offers exceptional cuisine in a distinct local style – the very antithesis of bland hotel food 52. [art deco] found its inspiration in many distinct early 20th century european design styles 53. a private living room parlour is separate from the bedroom for a distinct residential feel table 13. a further consideration of the uses of d t our corpus, with only three samples (distinct european-styled ambiance, residential feel, sense of arrival). a notable characteristic underlying the use of distinct is in its collocation with the spatial concept of area, where the offer made to the guest ranges from general references to distinct areas to the functional specifications of distinct dining, living or meeting areas. this spatial expression of distinction is not found in uses with different. the following schematic layout summarises the main differences between the two uses: ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness: a corpus-driven study of the (re)creation of privilege in high standard hotels ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 111 different: prevailing process type distinct: prevailing process type material (having, offering, making providing, accommodating, catering for). to a lesser extent: relational processes (being). material (offering, featuring having, providing). no other process type. relational processes: especially related to rooms, recreating abstract qualities with reference to shape and style, often further epitomized (e.g. exuding an aura of quiet luxury). no relational process different: participation framework distinct: participation framework mostly the hotel space and parts of it (e.g. the rooms) in agentive actor position. mostly the hotel and the rooms grant elements of otherness (in equal proportion) mostly the hotel space and parts of it (e.g. lobbies, apartments) in agentive actor position. a variety of hotel spaces (rooms, suites, lobbies, sitting rooms, hotel restaurants, apartments) grant otherness. minimally represented: we, the caterers (hotel representatives) in agentive actor position. preference for an impersonal agentive actor. almost inexistent: we, the hotelier (hotel representatives) in agentive actor position. preference for an impersonal agentive actor. prospective client (you) in agentive actor position with same frequency as the hotel, in material processes. the client as an agent has, looks for, chooses, finds difference. the rooms importantly outnumber (more than triple) the prospective client (you) in agentive actor position in material processes. the client as an agent discovers and experiences distinction. prospective client (you) in agentive actor position with same frequency as the hotel, in material processes. the client as an agent has, looks for, chooses, finds difference. distinct also in agentive position of material processes (e.g.: the distinct professional character, the distinct architecture) offering s.th. to the client. recurrent uses with we accommodate: implies willingness and capacity to adapt (hotelier as involved agentive actor). related uses such as we recognize, we appreciate, we have found out, we understand, position the hotelier as a researcher, able to respond to different demands on the part of the client. the results yield insights into the specific hotel-guest relationships underlying the uses of different versus distinct, which contribute to an understanding of how privilege and entitlement to the high-standard hotel space are (re-)created. material processes were found to be the predominant clause construction patterns underlying the use of both words, which implies that rather than referring to difference or distinction in terms of qualities that exist, are perceived, or else used to identify how or what something is, they are associated with an idea of doing: a characteristic that is offered to a prospective guest by some agent. it is interesting to highlight that it is mainly the hotel space or its constituent rooms that offer different or distinct elements, importantly outweighing a personalized hotel representative being projected as the agent. difference and distinction are hence granted not by the hotelier or in any case the hotel marketer but by the hotel space and its constituent spaces (e.g.: rooms, lobbies, restaurants), the uses with distinct entertaining a wider variety of hotel spaces in agentive position, while different is mostly restricted to references to rooms. however, despite the clear prevalence of an impersonal agent, represented by the constituent hotel spaces, the uses with different also include -to a much lesser extentthe voice of the hotelier (we, the hotel) as an agent that offers the quality of difference. this involves his/her discursive projection as rosana dolón herrero ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118112 different: circumstantial uses distinct: circumstantial uses recreate idea of variety and range, offering choice. recreate specifically idea of additive specification, the addition of s.th. extra (related to style and character), restricted to the hotel setting. specifically recreate sense of purposefulness purposefulness practically inexistent. point at the idea of preservation of habitus, when specifying for s.th. a little different or for s.th. completely different. different syntactic frame/collocations distinct syntactic frame/collocations mostly abstract concepts, referring to ambiance, atmosphere and feel (different aspect, character) related to hotel and rooms; decoration (different style, shape) and variety (different ways). mostly embracing idea of style (context of design and decoration). to lesser extent related to ambiance/atmosphere. attached to spatial concept area (referring to the range of functions (living area, meeting area, dining area). m i somebody capable of adjusting to and finding out about the needs on the part of the prospective client, requirements that are neither disclosed or made (explicit or implicit) reference to. when looking into the circumstantial uses, different recreates the idea of the rooms themselves (and to a lesser extent the hotel marketer) offering variety and a sense of purposefulness behind this, which presupposes a discerning guest who seeks to make specific choices. even an awareness of the guest’s habitus, that is habitual lifestyle expectation, is made reference to. instead of variety and purposefulness, distinct recreates on the other hand the idea of the hotel spaces (including rooms and the hotel itself) offering something added (which does quite encapsulate the semantic traits of the concept of distinction itself), and depicts the privileged guest as expecting to be granted some special extra. despite offering different elements, both different and distinct coincide in delimiting these to abstract concepts, the hotel spaces making the offer of something distinct accessible to the guest mainly in terms of style, while the offer of different revolves around the idea of ambiance, atmosphere and feel. the avoidance of concretion in favour of abstract concepts is very interesting in the hotel’s (re-)creation of a privileged guest. it implies in the first place the projection of some kind of floating signifiers whose possible meanings are left open. thus the appeal is, on the one hand, to a collective status-driven group identity, whose members will mirror and recognize themselves in the offer provided. on the other hand, the exact nature of possible referents is left open, and each individual hotel guest is allowed to endow the abstract concepts with the meanings that resonate most closely with their mental representation of what counts as a different atmosphere, ambiance, feel and the like. in this sense, these uses also contribute to the creation of an individualized identity, appealing to the singularity of the guests’ expectations. the four/five-star hotel, then, is invariably depicted as being able to respond to all possible expectations on the part of the prospective client. 5. conclusions the discussion section above yields important findings for an understanding of how high-end hotel websites (re-)create a sense of privilege and belonging for their prospective hotel clients. in the first place, the proportion ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness: a corpus-driven study of the (re)creation of privilege in high standard hotels ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 113 between corpus size and frequency of occurrences of clauses that contain the words different and distinct, confirm that it is not quantitative but qualitative criteria that do substantially reflect the major ways four and five star hotels construct the idea of otherness through these two precise words. the study offers interesting insights into how the hotel website discursively entertains an idea of difference and distinction, thus articulating what elements of experience of otherness are made salient, and how these are circumscribed to experiences of lifestyle, habitus and status. neither the uses with different nor those with distinct have been found to signal an idea of experiencing otherness that would convey a sense of lifestyle migration (giddens, 1991; torkington, 2012), an opportunity to explore different identities (edensor, 2001) or an incursion into the world in its differences and diversity (favero, 2007). the current study thus invites the reflection that their uses, rather than pointing to a (temporary) removal or change from the habitual, are meant to reassure the guest that the ambiance, atmosphere, style, or feel evoked or created by the hotel and its constituent rooms will stand out and separate from the quotidian lifestyle of average middle class living standards. in this sense, the offer of otherness is interpretable in fact as being specifically the offer and assurance of a status-driven socio-cultural sameness. these uses can, accordingly, be said to emphasize the idea of ingroup similarity for a socioeconomically privileged client. the study thus contributes to an understanding of how in this specific touristic context sameness is demarcated in space (norquay & drozdzewski, 2017) through a stylization of an identity of privilege (fairclough, 2003; jaworski & thurlow, 2009), which represents, promotes and imposes a sense of status-driven belonging and entitlement to the hotel space. the findings have important implications for the hospitality industry, which could reconsider its discursive practices in the design of hotel websites. the way these were found to create a place representation through the uses of difference and distinct endows these adjectives with an important potential when it comes to creating an identity for the hotel, thus revealing themselves as powerful persuasive tools. the semioticized hotel identity in the terms developed in this study is liable to be used as a resource (hall, 1996) to discursively create a sense of belonging or (hence) exclusion. at the same time, this hotel identity could symbolically fabricate a sense of privilege which may eventually lead to a rosana dolón herrero ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118114 naturalization of inequality (ferber, 2012). this is so because the hotel space seems to appropriate difference and distinction as signifiers that confer ingroup belonging rather than recreate strict senses of touristic consumption relating to changes in lifestyle and habitus. article history: received 14 september 2018 received in revised form 20 november 2018 accepted 30 april 2020 references ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness: a corpus-driven study of the (re)creation of privilege in high standard hotels ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 115 anthony, l. 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(2012). “place and lifestyle migration: the discursive construction of ‘glocal’ place-identity”. mobilities 7(1): 71-92. thurlow, c. & a. jaworski (2010). “silence is golden: the ‘anti-communicational’ linguascaping of super-elite mobility” in a. jaworski and c. thurlow (eds.), semiotic landscapes: language, image, space, 187-218. london: continuum. thurlow, c. & a. jaworski (2011). “tourism discourse: languages and banal globalization”. applied linguistics review 2: 285-312. thurlow, c. & a. jaworski (2012). “elite mobilities: the semiotic landscapes of luxury and privilege”. social semiotics 22: 487-516. urry, j. (1990). the tourist gaze: leisure and travel in contemporary societies. london: sage. urry, j. (1995). consuming places. london: routledge. van leeuwen, t.a. (1996). “the representation of social actors” in c.r. caldas-coulthard & m. coulthard (eds.), texts and practices. readings in critical discourse analysis, 32-70. london: routledge. rosana dolón is senior lecturer at the universitat de valència, where she has been teaching and researching since 1990. her research attention is currently directed towards the field of discourse analysis, particularly critical discourse analysis and corpus studies. her most recent publications focus on the discursive genres found in the areas of tourism and politics. notes 1 the precise differences between the semantic characteristics of different and distinct have been obtained from the main current dictionaries in english language. derived words such as distinction or difference have not been considered for the study as the frequency of their occurrences was not found to be significant, their inclusion being beyond the scope of the present study. ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness: a corpus-driven study of the (re)creation of privilege in high standard hotels ibérica 39 (2020): 97-118 117 iberica 13 ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract metaphor has been shown to play an important role in business science discourse. yet, previous corpus-based studies only investigated a pre-selected list of metaphoric expressions, potentially rendering the analysis incomplete. furthermore, some studies which only focused on lexis did not analyse how the lexical items may construct business concepts in terms of scenarios. the purpose of this research is to investigate metaphor used to construct business concepts in business research articles. 42 business research articles published in 2009-2010 from five journals ranked in the top-ten according to the 2007 journal impact factors (thompson reuters, 2008) constitute the data of this study. semantic annotation software usas (rayson, 2008) was used to assist in the retrieval of metaphoric expressions. furthermore, manual analysis of concordances was done to find metaphorical expressions that had not been captured by the semantic tags. the analysis of these metaphoric expressions was based on conceptual metaphor theory (lakoff & johnson, 1980) and metaphor scenario (musolff, 2006). data analysis indicates that metaphor constructs business concepts as scenarios which have participants performing actions to reach their goal according to the source-path-goal schema of the source domains. at the centre of these scenarios, the bounded space source domain serves as a conceptual space or a setting for each scenario. other source domains, which are war, sport, game, journey, machine, living organism, building and physical forces, project the scenarios onto the space, forming interconnected and coherent scenarios of business discourse. keywords: metaphor, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, business discourse, cognitive linguistics. metaphorical scenarios in business science discourse baramee kheovichai silpakorn university (thailand) kiao_ra@yahoo.com 155 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 155 ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 b. kheovichai resumen e s c e n ar io s me ta f ór ic o s e n e l d is c urs o de l os ne g oc i os la metáfora juega un papel fundamental en el discurso de la ciencia de los negocios. sin embargo, los estudios previos basados en corpus solamente han investigado una lista pre-seleccionada de expresiones metafóricas, por lo que el análisis es potencialmente incompleto. además, otros estudios solo centrados en el léxico no han analizado ítems léxicos que pueden construir conceptos de negocios mediante escenarios. el objetivo de este estudio es el de investigar la metáfora utilizada para construir conceptos de negocios en artículos de investigación de este ámbito. para el desarrollo del estudio se tomaron 42 artículos de investigación publicados en 2009-2010 de cinco revistas de entre las 10 mejor clasificadas en el jcr 2007 (thompson reuters, 2008). se utilizó el software de anotación semántica usas (rayson, 2008) para extraer las expresiones metafóricas. asimismo, se realizó un análisis manual de las concordancias para identificar expresiones metafóricas que no se identificaron mediante el procedimiento automatizado de etiquetas semánticas. el análisis de estas expresiones se basó en la teoría de la metáfora conceptual (lakoff & johnson, 1980) y del escenario de metáfora (musolff, 2006). los datos indican que la metáfora sirve para construir conceptos específicos mediante escenarios en los que los participantes realizan acciones para alcanzar sus objetivos siguiendo el esquema de fuente-trayectoria-objetivo de los dominios fuente. en el núcleo de estos escenarios está el dominio fuente de espacio limitado, que sirve como espacio conceptual para crear cada escenario. otros dominios fuente, como guerra, deporte, juego, viaje, máquina, organismo vivo, edificio y fuerzas físicas, proyectan los escenarios en un espacio, formando escenarios interrelacionados y coherentes en el discurso de los negocios. palabras clave: metáfora, análisis del discurso, lingüística de corpus, discurso de negocios, lingüística cognitiva. introduction a wealth of metaphor studies have shown that metaphor plays an important role in business discourse. research in economics indicates that metaphor is used to construct new theories (mccloskey, 1995). linguistic research has shown that metaphor is a crucial tool for communicating ideas (herrerasoler, 2008; silaški & đurović, 2010; skorczynska, 2014) and managing interpersonal relation (handford, 2010). 156 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 156 recently corpus linguistics has an important role to play in the study of metaphor in discourse, allowing metaphor research to be grounded in strong empirical data (charteris-black, 2004; deignan, 2005). nevertheless, corpus studies of metaphor use in business sciences (cf. skorczynska & deignan, 2006; alejo, 2010; skorczynska sznajder, 2010) have been based on searches for the preselected strings of metaphoric expressions, potentially rendering the analysis incomplete. in addition, some studies (e.g. skorczynska snajder & deignan, 2005) solely investigate how the source domains generate particular business lexis. however, the focus on lexis alone might not fully capture the nature of metaphor in discourse. bruner (1991, cited in musolff & zinken, 2009: 5) argues that the target concepts can be meaningfully comprehended when they are embedded in “metaphorical narrative in a discourse community”. previous studies such as koller (2004) and musolff (2006) have shown that metaphor forms a scenario locally when metaphoric expressions occur in close proximity and globally across a corpus. the source domains that are connected to each other are found to be instantiated in metaphoric expressions clustering near each other (koller, 2004; kimmel, 2009). it is therefore important to investigate metaphoric expressions, arrive at the narratives which they form and examine whether there is a link between different source domains. this study aims to further the investigation of metaphor use in business science discourse via the integration of corpus linguistic methods and discourse approach to metaphor. semantic annotation software is employed to assist in retrieving metaphoric expressions in a corpus. metaphor scenario (musolff, 2006) is applied to shed further light on the discursive construction of the target concepts as well as the connection and coherence of source domains (kimmel, 2009), which may in turn contribute to a better insight into the nature of metaphor in business science discourse. theoretical frameworks among several paradigms in metaphor study, lakoff and johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphor theory has assumed paramount importance and become a predominant approach that has been used by several studies (cf. kövecses, 2002; koller et al., 2008). according to this theory, metaphor involves conceptualizing one thing in terms of another. instantiated in metaphoric expressions, conceptual metaphor derives from a cross-domain metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 157 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 157 mapping from the source domain onto the target domain at the cognitive level (lakoff, 1993: 203). this is evidenced in conventional metaphoric expressions such as “waste my time”, “spend your time”, and “invest a lot of time” (lakoff & johnson, 1980: 7-8) which show that humans conceptualize time in terms of money and thus it can be wasted, spent or invested. lakoff and johnson (1980) argue that humans’ cognition is metaphorical in nature – a claim which they supported with prevalent metaphoric expressions in language. although widely applied, conceptual metaphor theory has been criticized for being too static and decontextualized. as this theory is based on data generated from introspection, the socio-cultural context in which metaphor occurs is disregarded (koller, 2005: 199-200). in addition, it does not address how differing lexicalization results in different interpretation (musolff & zinken, 2009: 2-3). in contrast, a discourse approach to metaphor ascribes high importance to the communicative activities and the social context in which metaphor occurs, emphasizing that metaphor is an on-going process of negotiation involving different parties who employ metaphor to shape the social reality of a specific topic or a social domain such as economics, politics or education (musolff & zinken, 2009: 1-4). by drawing associations between two concepts and structuring one from the other, metaphor can be employed to “explain, persuade, reason, theorize and offer new conceptualizations of reality” (semino, 2008: 31). this is fundamental to the construction and communication of new knowledge as metaphor can provide access to complex ideas through the structure of a more familiar and well-delineated one (albritton, 1995: 43, cited in deignan, 2005). in the domain of economics, for instance, research indicates that metaphor is an essential tool by which economists construct theories, offer new conceptualizations of economic phenomena and communicate their ideas (henderson, 1994). furthermore, the discourse approach recognizes that an important factor influencing metaphor understanding is the narrative in which metaphor is situated (musolff & zinken, 2009: 5). to show how metaphor becomes meaningfully embedded in narratives, musolff ’s (2006) concept of metaphor scenario seems to be a potential framework. the concept of “scenario” is developed from fillmore’s notion of conceptual scene and lakoff ’s concept of scenario which is structured by source-path-goal schemata (musolff, 2006: 27-28). a scenario involves the rich correspondences between the source domain and the target domain in terms of actors, their b. kheovichai ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178158 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 158 interactions, results of those interactions and evaluations which together form a narrative that structures the target concept (ibid.). one source domain might also combine with other source domains to form a narrative (ibid.: 26). the emphasis of the discourse approach on naturally occurring data (semino, 2008) can be enhanced by a corpus linguistic approach which provides a strong empirical grounding and allows the extraction of metaphoric expressions from a large pool of data (deignan, 2005). in particular, the use of semantic annotation software such as usas (rayson, 2008) has been shown to enable a semi-automated retrieval of metaphoric expressions in a corpus as evidenced in works by semino et al. (2009). by employing semantic annotation software – an approach which allows for the more open-ended search for metaphoric expressions (semino et al., 2009) – it is hoped that this study will retrieve metaphor from a corpus more thoroughly. data the data comprise a corpus of 42 business research articles. the articles (492,880 words in total) were published in 2009-2010 in journals ranking in the top-ten according to the 2007 journal impact factors (thomson reuters, 2008). the details of the corpus composition in terms of the name and the rank of the journals, the number of texts and the number of words from each journal are summarized in table 1. the journal ranked second, academy of management review, is excluded because it contains only review articles. to control the genre, only research articles were included in the corpus. metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 159 metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): …-… journal title rank number of texts word counts academy of management journal 1 8 97,208 marketing science 3 9 98,557 journal of marketing 4 9 97,120 administrative science quarterly 5 7 96,039 strategic management journal 6 9 103,956 total 42 492,880 table 1. composition of the corpus. methodology after compiling the corpus, semantic annotation software, usas (rayson, 2008), was employed to identify potential metaphoric expressions. to use this software, the corpus was uploaded into the web-based wmatrix program (rayson, 2008), in which usas is embedded. then the software assigned a semantic category based on a longman lexicon of contemporary english (mcarthur, 1981, cited in semino et al., 2009) to words and multiword expressions in the corpus. semino et al. (2009) argue that the semantic categorization of this software more or less accords with source domains of conceptual metaphor theory and thus investigation into key semantic categories which are unlikely to appear in a particular text type is likely to yield metaphoric expressions. in consequence, following these authors, i compared this corpus against the bnc sampler education corpus to determine salient semantic categories in the domain of business sciences, especially those unlikely to be found in business research articles. due to space limit, only the top five semantic tags that have the highest log-likelihood value are shown in table 2 to briefly illustrate the comparison results. table 2. the top five semantic tags which have the highest log-likelihood value. as seen in the table, there are some semantic tags that can potentially lead to metaphorical expressions because they are either related to the source domains listed in previous studies or the target domains. these are: 1) i2.2. business: selling, 2) s5+ belonging to a group and 3) i2.1 business: generally. consequently, i investigated these semantic tags as well as others to search for metaphorical expressions. unlike semino et al. (2009), i did not specify the cut09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 159 methodology after compiling the corpus, semantic annotation software, usas (rayson, 2008), was employed to identify potential metaphoric expressions. to use this software, the corpus was uploaded into the web-based wmatrix program (rayson, 2008), in which usas is embedded. then the software assigned a semantic category based on a longman lexicon of contemporary english (mcarthur, 1981, cited in semino et al., 2009) to words and multiword expressions in the corpus. semino et al. (2009) argue that the semantic categorization of this software more or less accords with source domains of conceptual metaphor theory and thus investigation into key semantic categories which are unlikely to appear in a particular text type is likely to yield metaphoric expressions. in consequence, following these authors, i compared this corpus against the bnc sampler education corpus to determine salient semantic categories in the domain of business sciences, especially those unlikely to be found in business research articles. due to space limit, only the top five semantic tags that have the highest log-likelihood value are shown in table 2 to briefly illustrate the comparison results. as seen in the table, there are some semantic tags that can potentially lead to metaphorical expressions because they are either related to the source domains listed in previous studies or the target domains. these are: 1) i2.2. business: selling, 2) s5+ belonging to a group and 3) i2.1 business: generally. consequently, i investigated these semantic tags as well as others to search for metaphorical expressions. unlike semino et al. (2009), i did not specify the cut-off point and looked at semantic tags which might be relevant to source domains and target domains of business concepts so as not to miss metaphoric expressions which have low frequency. the selection of semantic tags to be investigated was informed by related literature but i looked for some other semantic domains that seemed incongruent with the discourse of business science as well. b. kheovichai ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178160 metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): …-… table 1. composition of the corpus. methodology after compiling the corpus, semantic annotation software, usas (rayson, 2008), was employed to identify potential metaphoric expressions. to use this software, the corpus was uploaded into the web-based wmatrix program (rayson, 2008), in which usas is embedded. then the software assigned a semantic category based on a longman lexicon of contemporary english (mcarthur, 1981, cited in semino et al., 2009) to words and multiword expressions in the corpus. semino et al. (2009) argue that the semantic categorization of this software more or less accords with source domains of conceptual metaphor theory and thus investigation into key semantic categories which are unlikely to appear in a particular text type is likely to yield metaphoric expressions. in consequence, following these authors, i compared this corpus against the bnc sampler education corpus to determine salient semantic categories in the domain of business sciences, especially those unlikely to be found in business research articles. due to space limit, only the top five semantic tags that have the highest log-likelihood value are shown in table 2 to briefly illustrate the comparison results. semantic tags log-likelihood value i2.2 business: selling 2277.87 a2.2 cause & effect/ connection 1868.23 z5 grammatical bin 1606.41 s5+ belonging to a group 1091.08 i2.1 business: generally 1076.36 table 2. the top five semantic tags which have the highest log-likelihood value. as seen in the table, there are some semantic tags that can potentially lead to metaphorical expressions because they are either related to the source domains listed in previous studies or the target domains. these are: 1) i2.2. business: selling, 2) s5+ belonging to a group and 3) i2.1 business: generally. consequently, i investigated these semantic tags as well as others to search for metaphorical expressions. unlike semino et al. (2009), i did not specify the cut09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 160 once the concordances from each semantic tag were generated, node terms and their linguistic environment were examined to decide whether or not they are metaphorical, based on the metaphor identification principle (pragglejaz group, 2007). the instructions for determining metaphor are as follows: 1. read the entire corpus of a text to gain general comprehension. 2. dissect the lexical units in the texts. 3. determine the contextual meanings of each lexical unit and consider if it has a more basic meaning, that is, “more concrete, related to bodily action, more precise and historically older”. 4. if there is a more basic meaning of that lexical unit, examine if there is a relationship between the meaning in context and the basic meaning. 5. if the answer is yes, the lexical unit is metaphorical (pragglejaz group, 2007: 3). these metaphoric expressions were then analyzed according to conceptual metaphor theory (lakoff & johnson, 1980) and metaphor scenario (musolff, 2006) to examine the conceptual mappings and to determine if metaphors found across the corpus globally form a narrative and how they are related to each other. metaphor scenarios in business research articles based on the analysis of metaphoric expressions, a rich set of correspondences between the source domains and the target domains of business/economics is identified. the application of scenario (musolff, 2006) reveals that several source domains help construct business concepts in terms of interconnected narratives or scenarios with participants, interactions and purposes. i argue, following alejo (2010), that the bounded space source domain creates a conceptual space onto which other source domains project the scenarios. below i first explicate the properties of each source domain and exemplify aspects of each source domain which together construct business scenarios with metaphoric expressions in italics. the number in round brackets following metaphoric expressions are frequencies metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 161 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 161 of their lemma. if there is no number, the metaphoric expression occurs only once. bounded space the central element of the business scenarios is the bounded space source domain. there are 692 metaphor tokens of the bounded space source domain in the corpus. this source domain serves as a setting or conceptual space which is integrated with other source domains that have a sourcepath-goal schema (alejo, 2010: 1142). as an elaboration on the container metaphor (which corresponds to what is termed bounded space metaphor in this article) in terms of its origin and function in discourse, alejo (2010) argues that in economics/business sciences container is used to conceptualize consumers and the business transaction in general which is lexicalized in the term market. market as an exchange of goods and services derives from the metonym place for action. such a concept of market is further abstracted because nowadays not only can business transaction be done in the marketplace but also online and indeed sometimes market refers to the economic system in general. this abstraction is made possible by the conceptual metaphor a market is a container (alejo, 2010: 1146). the container metaphor has been argued to be integrated with other source domains such as war and other source domains which involve movement and physical forces (kimmel, 2009). based on the metaphoric expressions identified, it is argued that the source domains of war, sport, game, journey, machine, living organism, building and physical forces project actors and their interaction with each other onto the conceptual space. this space is also adjusted to suit the entities, actions, relations and purposes. the manifestation of the bounded space source domain can be detected in metaphoric expressions such as “in the electronic market”, “out of business” and “in the industry”. as a result, this source domain is mapped onto market, business and industry. for instance, the term “market” in many cases seems to refer to consumers or the business transaction, which do not have a boundary. this term therefore provides a boundary to this abstract concept because the spatial property of a market is used to conceptualize them. furthermore, the bounded space metaphor allows this concept to be entered or exited, which can be seen in phrases such as “entered the market”, “gone out of business” and “access the market”. also, entities in the area b. kheovichai ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178162 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 162 seem to try to claim ownership of the space. this is shown in the phrases “market expansion” and “market overlap”, which illustrates that participants try to own the same area. moreover, entities in the area attempt to prevent others from entering the area as indicated by “entry barriers”. market is in consequence bounded and limited space and business actors struggle to gain entry and own the area inside. war the conceptualization of business as war generates 877 metaphoric expressions in the corpus. the war source domain projects battles, soldiers, military tactics and fighting over territory onto the conceptual space which now becomes a territory or a battle field. business people as well as business resources are warriors, business activities are war, while market/consumers are territory which companies fight over. also, business resources are conceptualized as weapons in war. the purposes of war include survival in the battle and gaining more territory, that is, consumers. moreover, there is a combination with romantic relationship metaphor projecting a scenario of political marriage between companies which then join forces in war. sample metaphoric expressions which indicate the conceptualization of business as war such as “battle(s)” (5) and “war(s)” (5) which occur in the phrases “an uphill battle” and “bidding war”. there are 27 instances of metaphor which show the connection between war and bounded space source domain. examples include “entering a foreign market”, “face an uphill battle”, “survival in the ne market” (6) and “target consumer segments” (3). apparently on the one hand the bounded space now becomes a battlefield where fight and survival take place. on the other hand, the phrase “target consumer segments” indicates that consumers are conceptualized as a bounded space – a territory that businesses fight to attain. this evidence supports my claim that the bounded space is adjusted to suit the scenario. the war scenario structures the concept of business processes as warfare between troops from different sides who fight each other for survival and more territory. business personnel and companies are troops while consumers are territory. evidence to support that business personnel and other resources are conceptualized as soldiers is derived from the metaphoric expressions: “mobilize”, “mobilization”, “force”, “echelon”, “marshal” and “alliances”. the first two metaphoric expressions, that is, “mobilize” and “mobilization”, metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 163 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 163 were frequently found in the phrases “workers mobilize” (4), “worker mobilization” (3) and “mobilize necessary items for business”. the first two give a scenario of workers fighting the employers for their rights, thereby portraying the war between employers and employees who have competing interests. yet, the last one shows the conceptualization of products as soldiers. the metaphoric expression “force” as in the phrases “sales force” and “task force” indicates that business persons are conceptualized as the troop of each firm. “echelon” (19), a military term for an arrangement of soldiers or war crafts in a procession, shows the conceptualization of company leaders as soldiers because it appears in the phrase “upper echelon theory” which refers to how the cognitive processing of leaders can have an impact on a company. “upper echelon” therefore refers to the leaders of business firms. although the word “upper echelon” generally refers to people of higher status or rank, the metaphoric meaning of “echelon” might still play a role in the conceptualization of business leaders. the word “marshal” identified in the phrase “marshal sufficient financial resources” illustrates the conceptualization of resources as troops. the word “alliance” shows that to achieve business goals each firm can collaborate or join forces with other companies (boddy, 2005: 699), in which case the business actors are conceptualized as troops of different sides in war. there are 41 occurrences of romantic relationship metaphors which are combined with war metaphor as well. these were identified in metaphoric expressions such as “alliance break-ups”, and “alliance partners”. the word “break-ups” (19) is a dual metaphor which literally refers to breaking up a physical object but now used metaphorically for the end of a romantic relationship. this combination might suggest a conceptualization of business relationship as a political marriage in which two parties get married and join forces in war. having shown how the war source domain constructs participants, i now elaborate on the scripts that are metaphorically constructed by this source domain. prior to launching an attack, business persons establish goals and plans. this results in the metaphoric expressions: “aim” (26), “mission” (17), “strategy” (202) and “strategic” (413). they frequently occur in phrases such as “business aims”, “company’s missions”, “pricing strategy” (3) and “strategic choice” (15). subsequently, firms engage in a war with their rival companies. the actions which show the conceptualization of business as war include “target” (54), “fight”, “fire” (2), “threat” (14), “attack” (2), “campaign” (6), “championed”, “retaliate” (4), “defences” (3) and “entrenched” (4). there are b. kheovichai ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178164 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 164 two ways in which “target” is used to conceptualize business. in the context of mergers and acquisitions “target” is found in the phrases “target firm” (3) and “acquisition target” (2). these show a war between a firm and other companies which are being acquired. in another case, “target” seems to show the conceptualization of business as a war to capture consumers because it was identified in the phrases “target market” and “target consumers” (7 instances of the lemma target co-occurring with “consumers” or other similar terms). the defensive side of war is found in the phrase “defences such as impression management” and “entrenched wireless industry”. other metaphoric expressions refer to the attack. weaponry in business includes products and money as indicated by “product launch” (6). the aggressiveness of business war is shown in phrases describing business activities such as “brutal standard war” (4), “fierce market-share battle” (7), “aggressive bidding” (27) and “hostile takeover”. in addition, the metaphoric expression “fierce price competition” can suggest the conceptual link with the sport source domain. in fact, koller (2004) argues that sport metaphor provides a conceptual support to the war metaphor because they both create a concept of two opposites excitedly trying to subjugate each other. war and sport are thus closely related, which is possibly why they co-occur. the goals of business that are constructed by the war scenario include surviving the battle and acquiring more territory. the first is derived from the metaphoric expression “survive” (15) and “survival” (127), which appear in the phrases “firms survive” and “survival in ne markets”. the second is shown in metaphoric expressions such as “market expansion” (8), “market coverage” (13) and “market entry” (37). also, there are metaphors related to fighting which do not fit the schema, i.e. “empire building” and “build empires” which are also identified in previous studies such as koller (2004). this refers to the behaviour of leaders who work for their own benefit at the expense of the company’s development. sport the sport source domain has 452 metaphor tokens. here business people are conceptualized as sports players who compete against each other and the bounded space becomes a sport tournament that each player participates in. the goal is to win the competition and get the prize. this is also related to the game source domain as it is very difficult to decide whether some metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 165 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 165 metaphoric expressions, such as “players”, belong to sport or game metaphor. the sport source domain is evidenced in metaphoric expressions indicating the conceptualization of business persons as sport players such as “market players” (30 instances of the lemma player with metaphoric meaning) and “player firm”. “they were jockeying for their position” (3) is a horse riding metaphor which shows that business persons are conceptualized as jockeys. also, the metaphoric expressions “team up” and “team” (193) indicate the concept of team in sport which is used to conceptualize business. in the sport scenario, business people or firms are competing against each other in a sport event, as shown in “compete in the same industry” and “firms competing in markets with ne” (54 instances of the lemma compete). here it seems that market and industry are conceptualized as a sport tournament and at the same time a bounded space due to the preposition “in”. these metaphoric expressions lend further support to the argument that the bounded space metaphor integrates with other scenarios by functioning as a setting for interaction. moreover, the sport metaphors “organizational goal” and “financial goal” (61 occurrences of the lemma goal with metaphorical meaning related to business activities) portrays business as a goal-oriented activity. metaphoric expressions indicating antagonistic competition are “compete with the p2p market” and “vying for dominance” (4) which involve players going against each other as in football (but these are not football metaphors). there are other sport metaphors related to non-antagonistic competition such as “catch up to rivals” and “catch up with apple” (3 instances of the lemma catch up) which are a racing metaphor. apart from competing, there is a metaphoric expression “business coaching” which derives from the training aspect of sport. finally, winning is the purpose of business competition which is indicated by “winner-take-all market outcomes”. game there are metaphoric expressions from the concept of game theory and other games such as chess are also evidenced in the corpus. they are used to conceptualize business persons as players who play a game to win or to solve the game. the game involved, such as chess, requires strategy which therefore overlaps with war. 57 instances of game metaphor are identified. b. kheovichai ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178166 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 166 there are several metaphoric expressions displaying the conceptualization of business persons as players such as “key industry players”, “market players” and “how stakeholders play the game” (3 occurrences of the collocation “play” + “game”). apparently, these overlap with sport metaphor because the metaphoric expression “player(s)” (4) can be classified as sport metaphor as well. following koller (2004), i sorted these into both source domains owing to the difficulty in distinguishing them. there are many metaphoric expressions associated with games such as enter a “multi-period bargaining game”, “end game”, which is from chess, and “stakes”, which derives from gambling. what is more, game theory is used as a source domain which generates terms, namely, “cooperative game”, “entry game” and “two-stage game”. the purpose is to successfully complete the game as in “to solve the game” or “we use backward induction”. journey the journey metaphor has 198 occurrences in the corpus. the business scenario according to this source domain involves business people who are conceptualized as travellers selecting the route to their destination, i.e. the market. they then travel in a vehicle, which also shows a conceptual link with the machine source domain. along the way, they encounter obstacles but eventually reach the market. other companies also make the same journey to the market. consequently, this scenario shifts to war in which the pioneer tries to fight off later entrants to protect their territory. sample metaphoric expressions indicating the conceptualization of business people as travellers are “pioneer” and “market pioneer” (179 occurrences of the lemma play). the travellers need to choose a route before travelling, resulting in the metaphoric expression “path” (5) as in “founders may opt for this path”. there are various types of journey identified in the corpus. a sea journey occurs in the lemma navigate (6). “navigating” occurs in “there was no map for navigating this territory”, conveying the conceptualization of establishing a new business as exploring a new land. another metaphoric expression related to the sea journey is “helm” as in “having a family ceos both at the helm and as board chair”. here the company is conceptualized as a ship travelling in a sea journey with the person at the helm who controls the direction. on the other hand, the lemma free ride shows an on-land journey and portrays an exploitation metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 167 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 167 situation when passengers do not pay the fare. there is also an upward journey as in “establish footholds in the geographic or product markets”. the lemma navigate and the term “helm”, which suggest the conceptualization of a company as a ship, show the connection with the machine source domain in the sense that the machine source domain provides a means of transportation for the journey source domain. while travelling along the journey, companies encounter various types of obstacles. the first one is heavy traffic, which is instantiated in the metaphoric expression “bottleneck”. this is actually a dual metaphor from the image metaphor, a neck of a bottle which is narrow and thus hard for liquid to pass through. there are also accidents such as “derail” and “the crash of the technology stocks” which are one-off metaphors. the first show train accident while the second might be car crash or air crash. the words “derail” and “crash” indicate the conceptual link between the journey source domain and the machine source domain because both portray an accident during a journey which involves the use of vehicles. the destination is the market, as evidenced in “pioneer’s entry” (2), which means entering the market. the story, however, does not end there because there are followers. hence, the pioneer wages war against other companies to protect their territory. the scenario is therefore shifted to war, which is shown in “pioneers deter potential entry” (2) and “pioneers’ survival advantage” (39). machine in the mechanistic conceptualization which instantiates 128 metaphor tokens, business resources, firms and other business entities are conceptualized as a machine. the scenario involves human agents – business people or companies – starting and controlling this machine to keep it working in perpetuity where money is often conceptualized as liquid for the functioning of the machine. however, there might be an accident that stops it. there are several metaphoric expressions indicating the conceptualization of businesses as machines, namely “mechanism” (82), “inputs” (11), “outputs” (29), “rewiring” (17), “engine” and “helm”. the metaphoric expression “mechanism” illustrates the functioning aspect of a machine which is mapped onto business and companies as it appears in the phrase “dynamic pricing mechanisms appear in the market”, conceptualizing the market as a machine of which price is a part. “inputs” and “outputs” found in the phrase b. kheovichai ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178168 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 168 “converting innovation inputs into outputs” conceptualizes the process in which a firm turns resources into goods and services as machine producing outputs, showing the conceptual metaphor companies are machines. the lemma rewiring in the phrases “trigger rewiring” and “rewiring of effective cross-bu collaboration” also instantiates this metaphor, describing the company as containing wires that can be rearranged. “engine” demonstrates the conceptualization of products as machines because it appears in the phrase “handbags are the engine that drives luxury brand today”. the word “helm” conceptualizes a company as a ship whose direction is controlled by the leader as discussed earlier in the journey metaphor section. there are some instances of liquid metaphor such as “cash flows” (12) and “liquidity” (19); i argue that liquid is used in the control of machine. previous studies such as skorczynska and deignan (2006: 93) classified such metaphoric expressions as belonging to the mechanistic conceptualization of business. in addition, alejo’s (2010) research investigates the container metaphor in economic textbooks and found the conceptual metaphor economy is a container in which liquid, that is, money, goes through different parts, which is derived from the circular flow model. alejo (2010) states that the historical development of economics shows the shift from the organic model conceptualizing money as blood circulating around the human body, to a mechanical conceptualization of the economic system as liquid circulating around a pipe system container. this is also in line with henderson (1994) who also argues that liquid is part of the mechanistic conceptualization of economy as money enters and exits the economy like liquid entering and exiting a pipe system. these, coupled with the fact that money is needed to run a business, might indicate a possibility that money conceptualized as liquid is used to control business, which is conceptualized as a machine. the mechanical conceptualization of business seems to highlight the humans’ control over business. this is supported by the metaphoric expressions “trigger” (4), “drive” (6), “accelerating” (2) and “steer” as in the phrases “trigger rewiring”, “driving the market”, “an accelerating growth in dtc advertising” and “steered state pension fund investment”. here company, market, the growth of a business campaign and money are machines which seem to be under the control of human agents. the start is instantiated in the lemma trigger, whereas the rest are evidenced of the control process. the accidents which may disrupt business “derail” and “crash” appear in the phrase “a significant challenge that can derail successful and timely project completion” and “the crash of the technology metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 169 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 169 stocks”. these are also discussed in white’s (2003) study on the conceptualization of growth in economic discourse in which he proposes the schema of the mechanical collocates of growth comprising of “mechanical source, ignition, process, control and accident” (page 145). it should also be noted that the phrase “an accelerating growth in dtc advertising” illustrates the hybridization of machine metaphor “accelerating” and the living organism metaphor “growth”. alejo (2010: 1148) attributes the mixing of metaphors from two different domains to the historical development of economics, since there is a paradigm shift in economic theory from organic to mechanic conceptualization. white (2003: 142-143) argues that the prevalence of mechanistic metaphor in everyday life and the central role that machines play in an economic system might contribute to the coexisting metaphor. in addition, he adds that the use of mechanical metaphor might exhibit humans’ aspiration to control the economic development. living organism the living organism metaphor has 134 occurrences in the corpus. this source domain constructs the scenario of gardeners – business people – growing their companies or other business entities which are conceptualized as plants or animals. these plants or animals then grow and once they grow enough, business people can harvest the produce. a number of metaphoric expressions manifesting the conceptualization of business entities, excluding business persons, as living organism were found. the metaphoric expressions “product life cycles”, “product life span” and “industry life cycles” indicate the life cycle aspect of business. there are 7 instances of “life cycle” and 1 instance of “life span”. growth is shown in the phrases “revenue growth”, “in evolving market”, “seeing the program grow” and “economic growth”, conceptualizing money, market, business project and economy in terms of a living organism. there are 66 occurrences of the lemma grow. also the growth of a plant that can grow branches is realized in “branch office”. what is more, business entities can grow from youth to maturity as in the phrases “young company”, “a fledging organization” and “mature desktop pc market”. the aspect of health and illness was found in the metaphoric expression “financial health” (2). evidence that business persons are conceptualized as gardeners is derived from the entailment of the phrases “ceos may initially opt to grow their firms” (4), “prune the assortment of products” and “reap a competitive b. kheovichai ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178170 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 170 advantage” (6 occurrences of the lemma reap). here, business persons nurture the companies and the products, which are conceptualized as plants. since people looking after plants are gardeners/farmers, this entails that business people are conceptualized as gardeners or farmers. after that, business persons can collect the product when business grows enough. this is instantiated in the metaphoric expression “reap” which were identified in phrases such as “reap gains” and also “cash cow”, which conceptualizes a profitable business unit in terms of a cow that produces a large amount of milk. finally, general animal and plant metaphors, namely, “inertial dinosaur”, “pet project”, “cannibalizing the profits of their supermarket” and “black sheep” were also detected. while others are quite self-explanatory, the term “cannibalize” deserves further elaboration. the collins cobuild english dictionary (1995: 234) gives two definitions of this word. the first refers to bringing pieces from an old machine into a new one. the second describes the phenomenon in business when people buy new products instead of other products of a company. according to solomon et al. (2009: 290) in a business context cannibalization refers to the situation when a company launches new products and this results in diminishing sales of its existing ones. this is because customers shift to new products instead of buying the old ones. from the context of my data, the second definition in the collins cobuild english dictionary and solomon et al.’s (2009) account seems to be the meaning of “cannibalization”. consequently, this metaphoric expression suggests that the existing product income, which is being gobbled up by the new ones, is thus conceptualized as humans eating other humans. building the building metaphor generates 36 metaphor tokens. it shows the conceptualization of business people as architects or builders. the scenario involves architects or builders designing or constructing a building, that is, a company. the result is that the building is designed or constructed. the scenario in the construction or design of the building involves architects who design the building as in the phrase “architects of firm strategy”, which conceptualizes business persons as architects. the design/construction is indicated by the phrases “re-architect or patch their bu portfolio” and “firms that built on kodak’s core oled technology”, which convey the conceptualization of company as a building. the word “re-architect” is a onemetaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 171 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 171 off metaphor, the lemma patch occurs twice while the lemma build occurs 105 times. the building source domain provides structure to various business concepts and entities. this is evidenced in metaphoric expressions such as “different market structures”, “a coupled architecture” and “construct of rewiring”. these illustrate that market and company are conceptualized as buildings. finally, the outcome of the design is shown in the word “blueprints” (4), which occurs in the phrase “industry category and founders’ blueprints”. physical forces physical forces metaphors conceptualize the interaction between business actors in terms of physical forces. 315 metaphoric expressions of the physical forces metaphor are manifested in the corpus. the scenario starts with sources of physical forces – business actors – exerting forces on force recipients – business persons, companies or customers – to cause them to change or bring balance to the force. there is also a conceptual link with other source domains since sometimes it involves mechanistic forces and fighting which connects with war metaphors. the conceptualization of business as physical forces is manifest in the metaphoric lemma force (37), in phrases such as “market-based forces” and “cohesive forces”. the exertion of power was identified in the phrase “leverage its brand”. the word “leverage” (18) relates to the machine source domain as well because literally it means using a lever such as when lifting a car. the forces’ recipients are evidenced in “firms suffer the triple blow of facing a less attractive environment” in which firms are force recipients of a physical force, that is, hitting. this metaphoric expression is thus also connected to war metaphors. moreover, metaphor showing the reaction to the force is “elasticity” (133), which occurs in the phrases “budget share elasticity” and “price elasticity”. these conceptualize the reaction of consumer demand to price modification in terms of the rubber’s reaction to physical forces because price elasticity of demand is the sensitivity of consumers to the changes in prices (solomon et al., 2009: 362). the exertion of the force results in some change, as in “driving forces for change”. the force exertion may also create balance, which is evidenced in the phrases “equilibrium price” and “equilibrium states”. there is also a connection with game theory, as in “pure strategy nash equilibrium”. the scenarios of each source domain discussed above can be visualised in figure 1. in the figure, the bounded space source domain is the centre b. kheovichai ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178172 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 172 and functions as an area where other source domains project the scenarios, which are represented by arrows (→) which consists of a source-pathgoal represented by block (➯). for each source domain, the first text box is the source, the second is the path and the third is the goal. the links between different source domains are represented by dashes arrows (⇢). in the figure, the centre of the metaphorical scenarios is the bounded space source domain which serves as a conceptual space where other source domains project the scenarios. a total of 8 source domains project scenarios onto the bounded space source domain. war projects a scenario of soldiers attacking others to survive or gain more territory. sport projects the scenario of sport players competing to win the competition. game projects the scenario of players playing a game to win or to solve the game. journey involves travellers who travel to reach their destination. however, other entrants may try to move in so the travellers have to fight, shifting the journey to the war scenario machine projects the scenario of humans starting a machine and controlling it with money, which is conceptualized as liquid. this source domain is related to the journey source domain because in some cases companies are metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 173 metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): …-… figure 1. conceptualizations of business scenarios. metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): …-… figure 1. conceptualizations of business scenarios. 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 173 conceptualized as a vehicle that a traveller uses in a journey. regarding living organism, business people are conceptualized as gardeners who grow plants or animals and collect the products once they reach maturity. building involves architects or builders (business people) designing or constructing a building (the company) until the construction is completed. physical forces has a scenario of a force exerted on other entities to make them change or to result in a balance of the force. the analyses reveal the source domains identified in previous studies, e.g. war, sport, game, machine, and living organism. the analysis also indicates the prevalence of the war scenario in business sciences discourse – a finding which concurs with other prior studies (e.g. koller, 2004). furthermore, the war source domain has a connection with various other source domains, namely, sport, journey, physical forces and romantic relationship. scenarios are all goaloriented because of their source-path-goal schema, indicating the aggressive and goal-oriented nature of business discourse. there are connections between different source domains which might be attributable to the conceptual link and the hybridization of different source domains owing to disciplinary development. further, there are traces that theories in other disciplines are imported into business sciences, resulting in metaphoric expressions. the application of the metaphor scenario, i believe, can capture the coherent links between source domains that construct business/economics concepts. building on alejo’s (2010) notion of container metaphor and its relationship with source-path-goal schema source domains, i argue that bounded space metaphor functioning as a conceptual space is a centre that links other source scenarios. then entities, actions and purposes, which can be derived from various aspects of these source domains, are projected onto this conceptual space to form a narrative of business sciences. these scenarios are related to each other and there is a scenario shift (from journey to war). consequently, the concept of scenarios shows that each source domain contributes to the coherent story of business sciences. furthermore, it situates metaphoric expressions in a meaningful narrative, in line with the argument made by musolff and zinken (2009), which accentuates the scenario-embedded character of metaphor during communication essential for metaphor meaning and comprehension. b. kheovichai ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178174 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 174 conclusions the language of business journal articles contains a rich variety of source domains. the hypothesis is confirmed as i have shown that there are nine source domains that structure business concepts, including bounded space, war, sport, game, journey, machine, living organism, building and physical forces. as hypothesised, war is the most prevalent metaphor in the business science discourse. the hypothesis that many aspects of each source domain will form a scenario is confirmed for the most part except for the bounded space source domain which does not form a scenario in itself but functions as a conceptual space for other source domains’ scenarios. the rest form a scenario with entities, actions and results or goals. yet, there are some metaphoric expressions which do not fit the schema, such as “black sheep” or “cannibalizing”, but these constitute only a minor part of the findings. after all, it can be expected that some metaphors from the general domain of english might appear in a corpus. finally, most of the scenarios have conceptual links with some other source scenarios, except the building source domains, which is only connected to the bounded space (which is not a scenario). to the best of my knowledge, this study is the first one to employ metaphor scenarios (musolff, 2006) and semantic annotation (rayson, 2008) to investigate metaphor in a business academic genre. through a more openended search, this study might yield a clearer picture of metaphor use in business science discourse. the scenario shows the conceptual coherence between the source domains at the scenario level. i hope that this study might further enrich our understanding of metaphor in the specialized discourse and offer a contribution to the body of research on metaphor in business science discourse. acknowledgements i would like to thank my supervisor, dr. andrew hardie, for his support during each stage of this project. special thanks to dr. neil millar for his valuable advice and the reviewers for their insightful comments. article history: received 10 may 2014 received in revised form 14 september 2014 accepted 15 september 2014 metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 175 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 175 references b. kheovichai ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178176 albritton, d.w. (1995). “when metaphors function as schemas: some cognitive effects of conceptual metaphors”. metaphor and symbolic activity 10: 33-46. alejo, r. (2010). “where does the money go? an analysis of the container metaphor in economics”. journal of pragmatics 42,4: 1137-1150. boddy, d. (2005). management: an introduction, 3rd ed. harlow: prentice hall. bruner, m. (1991). “the narrative construction of reality”. critical inquiry 1,1: 1-21. cannibalize. (1995). in j. sinclair (eds.), collins cobuild english dictionary, 2nd ed., 234. london: harpercollins. charteris-black, j. (2004). corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. basingstoke: palgrave-macmillan. deignan, a. (2005). metaphor and corpus linguistics. amsterdam and philadelphia: john benjamins publishing. handford, m. (2010). the language of business meetings. cambridge: cambridge university press. henderson, w. (1994). “metaphor and economics” in r. backhouse (ed.), new directions in economic methodology, 343-367. london: routledge. herrera-soler, h. (2008). “a metaphor corpus in business press headlines”. ibérica 15: 51-70. kimmel, m. (2009). “metaphors of the eu constitutional debate – ways of charting discourse coherence in a complex metaphor field”. metaphorik.de 17: 49-100. koller, v. (2004). metaphor and gender in business discourse: a critical cognitive study. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. koller, v. (2005). “critical discourse analysis and social cognition: evidence from business media discourse”. discourse and society 16: 199. koller, v., hardie, a., rayson, p. & e. semino (2008). “using a semantic annotation tool for the analysis of metaphor in discourse.” metaphorik.de 15: 141-160. kövecses, z. (2002). metaphor: a practical introduction. new york: oxford university press. lakoff, g. (1993). “the contemporary theory of metaphor” in a. ortony (ed.), metaphor and thought, 202-251. cambridge: cambridge university press. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago and london: the university of chicago press. mcarthur, t. (1981). longman lexicon of contemporary english. london: longman. mccloskey, d. (1995). “metaphor economists live by”. social research 62,2: 215-237. musolff, a. (2006). “metaphor scenarios in public discourse”. metaphor and symbol 21,1: 23-38. musolff, a. & j. zinken (eds). 2009. metaphor and discourse. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. pragglejaz group. (2007). “mip: a method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse”. metaphor and symbol 22,1: 1-39. rayson, p. (2008). “from key words to key semantic domains”. international journal of corpus linguistics 13,4: 519-549. semino, e. (2008). metaphor in discourse. cambridge: cambridge university press. semino, e., v. koller, a. hardie & p. rayson (2009). “a computer-assisted approach to the analysis of metaphor variation across genres” in j. barnden, m. lee, j. littlemore, r. moon, g. philip, & a. wallington (eds.), corpus-based approaches to figurative language: a corpus linguistics 2009 colloquium, 145-154. birmingham: university of birmingham cognitive science research papers. silaški, n. & t. đurović (2010). “catching inflation by the tail—animal metaphoric imagery in the conceptualisation of inflation in english”. ibérica 20: 57-80. skorczynska sznajder, h. & a. deignan 2005. “a corpus approach to metaphor description in scientific business discourse” in perspectivas interdisciplinares de la lingüística aplicada, valencia: publicaciones de la universidad politécnica de valencia, 169-176. skorczynska, h. & a. deignan (2006). “readership and purpose in the choice of economics metaphors”. metaphor and symbol 2,2: 87-104. skorczyska sznajder, h. (2010). “a corpus-based evaluation of metaphors in a business english textbook”. english for specific purposes 29: 3042. skorczynska, h. (2014). “metaphor and education: reaching business training goals through multimodal metaphor”. procedia – social and behavioral sciences 116: 2344-2351. 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 176 baramee kheovichai is an english lecturer at the faculty of arts, silpakorn university. he obtained a phd degree from the university of birmingham and an ma degree from lancaster university. his areas of interest are discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and metaphor study. metaphorical scenarios in business ibérica 29 (2015): 155-178 177 solomon, m.r., g.w. marshall, e.w. stuart, b. barnes & v. mitchell (2009). marketing: real people, real decision. harlow: pearson education limited. thomson reuters. (2008). journal ranked by impact: business. sciencewatch.com. url: http://sciencewatch.com/dr/sci/08/oct12-08_1/ [20/05/10]. white, m. (2003). “metaphor and economics: the case of growth”. english for specific purposes 22: 131-151. 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 177 09 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:48 página 178 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the byzantine conventions of advanced academic writing in english are notoriously difficult for graduate students and junior scholars to gain control over. global higher education and academic publishing have seen a massive expansion in recent years, so that the ability to demonstrate insider disciplinary competence and a grasp of scholarly persuasion has become essential for academic success. with courses in english for research and publication purposes (erpp) in their infancy and unknown in many countries, writers often turn to the advice of style manuals for guidance. here they often find recommendations to follow general principles of clarity, brevity and objectivity and are given advice on specific features to achieve this. in this paper we examine three of the most commonly referred to features: demonstrative ‘this’, existential ‘there’ and first-person pronouns. with the aid of a diachronic corpus of articles from four disciplines over the past 50 years, we find that expert use of these features has increasingly departed from the advice in the guides. we describe how the use of these features has changed and stress what instructors in erpp courses might teach. keywords: text, style guide; prescriptive advice; research writing; corpora. resumen prescripción y realidad en la escritura académica avanzada el dominio de las complejas convenciones de la escritura académica avanzada en inglés entraña muchas dificultades para los estudiantes de posgrado y los jóvenes investigadores. debido a la enorme expansión que han experimentado en los últimos años la educación superior y la publicación académica, ser capaz de demostrar una plena competencia disciplinar y una gran capacidad de persuasión académica se ha convertido en un factor esencial para el éxito académico. en la prescription and reality in advanced academic writing feng (kevin) jiang a & ken hyland a b a jilin university (china), b university of east anglia (united kingdom) kevinjiang@jlu.edu.cn & k.hyland@uea.ac.uk 15 ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland medida en que los cursos de inglés para fines de investigación están actualmente en una fase inicial de implantación e, incluso, son desconocidos en muchos países, muchos recurren a los consejos de los manuales de estilo, que suelen recomendar seguir los principios de claridad, brevedad y objetividad y ofrecen orientaciones respecto a mecanismos específicos para lograrlo. en este artículo examinamos tres de los mecanismos lingüísticos a los que más suele hacerse referencia: el demostrativo this, el existencial there y los pronombres de primera persona. con la ayuda de un corpus diacrónico compuesto por artículos de cuatro disciplinas publicados en los últimos cincuenta años, hemos hallado que el uso de estos mecanismos por parte de investigadores expertos se ha ido desviando paulatinamente de los consejos ofrecidos en las guías. asimismo, describimos cómo ha evolucionado el uso de estos mecanismos y mostramos qué es lo que los docentes deberían enseñar en asignaturas de inglés para fines de investigación. palabras clave: texto, guía de estilo, consejo prescriptivo, escritura académica, corpus. 1. introduction the expansion of international publishing is largely seen as a positive development, both for academics wishing to share their research and for developing nations striving to become part of the “knowledge economy”. as a result, the number of researchers around the world has expanded massively, with unesco (2017) reporting some 7.8 million full-time equivalent researchers in 2013, an increase of 21% since 2007. there has, therefore, been a corresponding increase in published research, with 33,100 active scholarly peer-reviewed english-language journals publishing some 3 million articles in 2018 (johnson et al, 2018). this scenario, of course, broadens the opportunities for eal researchers to participate in a global scholarly dialogue. but gaining control of the byzantine conventions of academic english can be a daunting challenge for writers. novice researchers, whether native or non-native english speakers, step into unfamiliar territory when crafting academic texts at this level and both phd students and junior academics, as well as their teachers and mentors, turn to style manuals and writing websites for advice. in this paper we examine the usefulness of this advice by comparing some of the most common admonishments in style guides to what we found in a diachronic corpus of academic articles. in this way we hope to illuminate the 16 reliability of the advice and, pedagogically, to draw attention to what instructors in english for research and publication purposes (erpp) courses might teach. 2. challenges and guidance: academic writing and style guide advice dissertations and research papers are sites where authors require control of sophisticated literacy skills to produce texts which are both comprehensible and plausible to exacting specialist readers. here, technical issues of grammatical accuracy have less relevance than rhetorical understanding, disciplinary knowledge and an awareness of an authorial self. for most newcomers, and even many seasoned old-hands, however, the conventions of academic writing are an “alien form of literacy” (hyland, 2016: 246) where formality, abstraction, technicality and objectivity conspire to baffle authors (bailey, 2015; hyland, 2019). as a result, new writers often seek refuge in the authority of writing manuals or style guides, where they find advice like this: pronouns confuse readers unless the referent for each pronoun is obvious; readers should not have to search previous text to determine the meaning of the term. pronouns such as this, that, these, and those can be troublesome when they refer to something or someone in a previous sentence. eliminate ambiguity by writing, for example, this test, that trial, these participants, and those reports. (apa manual, 2010: 68). cautions against ‘unattended pronouns’ are just one of the features writers are advised to use or avoid in academic texts, and surveys of style guides list numerous such taboo items (e.g. bennett, 2009; walkova, 2020). the extent to which this advice represents the pundit’s personal preference, subjective impression or critically informed understanding, however, is never certain and empirical studies of style guide advice is rare. do the prescriptive rules contained in style guides actually reflect the ways expert writers use language in academic texts? the source of the advice is essential as writing guidelines can have a decisive influence on authors’ choices (hagge, 1997; millar, budgell & fuller, 2013). it is also an important question in view of what features instructors might teach in academic writing classes. the style guides are helpful to some extent. they point writers to general principles of clarity, brevity and an emphasis on objectivity (bennett, 2009). prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 17 the first two principles suggest writers avoid vague and wordy expressions (belmont & sharkey, 2011; mewburn, firth, & lehmann, 2019), often advising them to provide clear reference when using pronouns (as in the apa quote above) and to minimise the use of ‘dummy it’ subjects. advice on the need for objectivity tends to be less assured than in the past and often depends on the discipline the guide is aimed at. for instance, mcmillan and weyers (2011: 106) warn scientists that: ‘‘above all, academic writing is objective, using language techniques that generally maintain an impersonal tone’’, while oliver (1996: 5) qualifies this advice by explaining objectivity is common “especially in the natural sciences”. surveys of style guides by huckin (1993) and chang and swales (1999) suggest that anaphoric pronouns (e.g. demonstrative ‘this’), expletives (e.g. existential ‘there’) and first person pronouns (e.g. ‘i’ and ‘we’) are among the most frequently mentioned language features in style guides. taking these three features to represent the goals of clarity, brevity and objectivity in writing manuals, we focus on the advice given on them and compare this with their use in research texts. 3. demonstrative ‘this’, existential ‘there’ and firstperson pronouns: stylistic taboos 3.1. demonstrative ‘this’ for biber et al. (1999: 349), demonstrative ‘this’ marks “immediate textual reference” as shown in these examples1. (1) the hair root resembles the duodenal crypt in that the mitotic activity is associated with a specific deeper region of the connective tissue. this could be taken to imply the existence of tissue-specific types of mesenchymal factors. (bio: 1990) (2) if the firm will sacrifice “profits” (no matter how measured) for anything else, whether prestige, good public or labor relations, for a quiet life, or liquidity, or what have you, then it is clearly not maximizing profits. and if it is not maximizing profits it must be maximizing “utility”, which is simply a more elaborate way of saying that it does what it thinks best. this can hardly be untrue, but it is also not very helpful unless some content can be poured into the empty utility functions. (soc, 1965) feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland ibérica 39 (2020): 15-4218 (3) [t]he categories of information and commensurate assignment would look something like this: to fine tune sentence length articulations of textual information using text language… (al, 1990) in (1), ‘this’ refers back to the sentence “the hair root resembles the duodenal crypt in that the mitotic activity is associated with a specific deeper region of the connective tissue,” while in (2) “this” points to the whole prior stretch of text of several sentences. in (3), on the other hand, ‘this’ refers forward to the following proposition. demonstrative this therefore helps writers to link chunks of information and create cohesion in a text, although anaphoric (backward-pointing) reference occurs far more frequently than the cataphoric (forward-pointing) use in academic prose (biber et al., 1999). but while demonstrative ‘this’ can create cohesive ties, exactly what ‘this’ refers to may be unclear, as the above examples show. because the use of such “vague” or “broad reference” (kolln & gray, 2010: 96) writers run the risk of being unclear or imprecise and as a result style guides often recommend its avoidance. for instance, strunk and white (2018: 90) advise that “the pronoun ‘this’, referring to the complete sense of a preceding sentence or clause, can’t always carry the load and so may produce an imprecise statement”. style guides also recommend writers to eliminate ambiguity by accompanying ‘this’ with “a summary word” (swales & feak, 2012) or “a missing noun” (kolln & gray, 2013). swales (2005) calls the structure “attended or unattended this”, that is, whether to attend the demonstrative ‘this’ with a noun or noun phrase (as in “this uncertainty is because…”) or to leave ‘this’ unattended (as in “this is because…”) and regards it as an important rhetorical choice. generally, style guides advise writers to attend ‘this’ with a noun, but give little information regarding how (un)attended ‘this’ can best be used, what the referential content can best encapsulate. 3.2. existencial ‘there’ existential ‘there’ affirms the existence or presence of something (or its non-existence or non-presence). it is used with an intransitive verb, typically a copular or linking one, most often in ‘there be + indefinite noun group’ structures such as the following2: (4) [t]here was a corresponding increase in the incidence of failure to correct. (al, 1990) prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 19 (5) [t]here is a final point about goals which the index constructor should beware. (soc, 1990) (6) [t]here is a substantial maternal contribution of dctcf. (bio, 2015) in these examples, the indefinite noun group is referred to as the notional subject (biber et al., 1999) in order to be distinguished from ‘there’, which is the grammatical subject. this pushes the clausal subjects towards the end of the sentence. in addition to this main function, huckin and pesante (1988) and carter-thomas and rowley-jolivet (2001) recognise two additional functions, derived from this basic one. the three functions are: to assert the (non)existence of entities; to mark enumeration; and to summarise given information. firstly, existential ‘there’ asserts or denies the existence of something, often to show an association between two assertions. we can see this in (7), where the author comments on the importance of a previously stated explanation and then announces a practical motivation for this interpretation. (7) since our general aim is the improvement of communication skill, there must be constant emphasis on the real meaning of the latin words and the relation of the real meaning to the english-derived words. many students will find this both illuminating and pleasurable. (al, 1990) here existential ‘there’ allows “the addressee to prepare for something that is about to be introduced” (halliday & matthiessen, 2014: 308). by filling the theme position with minimal information, the ‘empty’ subject ‘there’ helps to introduce the new message and guide readers to a preferred interpretation. so ‘there’ in (7), for example, points to the upcoming new information conveyed by the noun group “constant emphasis…”, which carries the focus of the message, so bringing the new element to readers’ awareness (celcemurcia & larsen-freeman, 1999). a second function of existential ‘there’ is to summarise or reiterate points made earlier in the discourse (carter-thomas & rowley-jolivet, 2001). in example (8), the author argues about the disagreement on the distribution of administrative power in british universities, by summarising what has been found in the experiments. (8) when asked whether most british university departments would be better run by the method of circulating chairmanship than by a permanent head of department, 60 per cent of the natural scientists feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland ibérica 39 (2020): 15-4220 agreed (including agreement with reservations) that “a serious disadvantage of redbrick universities is that all too often they are run by a professorial oligarchy”. this indicates that there is some discontent about the way power is distributed. (soc, 1990) a third function is to enumerate (huckin & pesante, 1988; celce-murcia & larsen-freeman, 1999; carter-thomas & rowley-jolivet, 2001). biber et al. (1999: 952), for instance, take this as “a springboard in developing the text when it is used to introduce a series of elements”. we can see this prospective signalling of upcoming information in the following examples. in (9), ‘there are several challenges’ predicts an enumeration, thus introducing a sequence of difficulties rather than a single item. this enumeration helps to organise the discourse and create a coherent message as it prepares readers for what follows, helping them better understand the upcoming elements: (9) there are several challenges involved in designing zero detection comparator for a micro-power converters. first, the performance of the comparator needs to be very good. if the delay of the comparator is high, the exact timing of the hs control cannot be met. second, the power consumption of the comparator needs to be small, as it will add to the loss in the boost converter. finally, the mismatch between the devices in the comparator can result in high offset, which can alter the zero detection… (ee, 2015) existential ‘there’ thus contributes to the organisation of a message, although style guides often warn academic writers to steer well clear of the structure. for example, the longman practical stylist (baker, 2006: 114) tells students to “keep your sentences awake by not putting them into those favourite stretchers of the passivists, there is.., it is…, and the like”. this prescription is repeated in other texts, such as belmont and sharkey (2011) and hall and birkerts (2007). for others, making ‘there’ behave like a grammatical subject by pushing the actual subject further into the sentence makes it “non-referential, dummy and empty” (celce-murcia & larsenfreeman, 1999: 444) because it merely “fills space in a sentence without contributing to its meaning” (hall & birkerts, 2007: 339). for these reasons writers are typically advised to avoid it. prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 21 3.3. first person pronouns the use or avoidance of first person pronouns (‘i, we, our’, etc.) in academic writing has been a perennial topic of debate among manual writers (bennett, 2009), sociologists (gilbert & mulkay, 1984) and applied linguists (e.g. hyland, 2001). generally, however, writers are counselled to use an impersonal style of writing to strengthen the objectivity of their claims. first person pronouns are the most obvious expression of a writer’s presence in a text, and style guides generally admonish students to avoid them. this advice is typical: the total paper is considered to be the work of the writer. you don’t have to say ‘i think’ or ‘my opinion is’ in the paper. (. . .) traditional formal writing does not use i or we in the paper. (spencer & arbon, 1997: 26) typically, in academic writing, one should avoid personalised writing and the use of words related to the first person. (decker & werner, 2016: 287) admonishments regarding the avoidance of self-mention inform traditional scientific writing and stem from positivist assumptions about rationality and detached reasoning. reliable descriptions of what the natural and human worlds are actually like are only possible by removing the socially contingent interventions of the recording actor, and these unmediated representations of the world are believed to be the only guarantee of reliable knowledge. science is perhaps less dogmatic about the reliable bases of ‘truth’ these days and recognises that reporting occurs in a pragmatic context which includes the theories held by the interpreting researcher (hyland, 2004). persuasion, however, still relies heavily on the eradication of the author in order to give prominence to experimental activities and the workings of the natural world. it allows the research to speak directly to the reader in an unmediated way, and many style guides and online academic writing sites continue to advocate the avoidance of self-mention in order to convey an appropriate tone: the #1 writing no-no is to never use 1st or 2nd person. why? in academic writing, it’s important to avoid personal bias. using “i” or “we” makes the essay about you and your experiences, instead of research and concrete details. (writecheck, 2020) there is generally a rule in academic writing that the first person should not be used. this makes your writing sound more objective and impersonal. (university of hull, 2020) feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland ibérica 39 (2020): 15-4222 it is now recognised, at least in applied linguistics research, that the strategic use of personal pronouns allows writers to emphasise their own contribution to the field and to seek agreement for it (hyland, 2001). academic writing advice therefore now seems to be more open to the use of first-person pronouns, for stylistic reasons as much as anything else. the manual of scientific style (rabinowitz & vogel, 2009: 433), for instance, encourages writers to employ “the active voice whenever possible”, as does the influential ‘how to write and publish a scientific paper’: i herewith ask all young scientists to renounce the false modesty of previous generations of scientists. do not be afraid to name the agent of the action in a sentence, even when it is ‘i’ or ‘we’. (gastel & day, 2016: 202) while other guides acknowledge that avoidance of self-mention is not always appropriate in the social sciences: [d]isciplines utiliz[ing] the first person in discussing their work, including psychology, philosophy, political theory, nursing and anthropology. (fairbairn & winch, 2011: 177). this conflicting advice, however, leaves many writers confused about the extent they can reasonably intrude into their discourse to assert their personal involvement (carciu & maria, 2009; hyland, 2001). in summary, the style guides tend to offer advice which may seem arbitrary and informed more by stereotypical assumptions than actual hard evidence of usage. in order to understand these three features better, and to judge whether there have been any changes in the use of these devices in published writing in recent years, we seek to answer the following questions: (1) what are the frequency and forms of the three linguistic features in academic writing? (2) have there been any changes in recent decades? (3) to what extent does the use of these features vary across disciplinary fields? prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 23 4. corpora and analysis to empirically investigate the accuracy of these stylistic prescriptions, and whether they have ever reflected actual writing practices, we created three corpora, taking research articles from the same five journals in four disciplines spaced at 25-year intervals over 50 years: 1965, 1990 and 2015. the fact that journals come and go, that they undergo fragmentation and specialisation, and that they are replaced by new ones over time, places some constraints on diachronic research. however, we sought to select robust journals at the top of their respective fields and with a long history. we selected journals from disciplines which offered a cross-section of academic practice, representing soft and hard sciences: applied linguistics, sociology, electrical engineering and biology. from each of these four fields we took six papers at random from each of the five journals which had achieved the top ranking according to their 5-year impact factor in 2015. single and co-authored papers were chosen in equal numbers. overall, the corpus comprises 30 articles from each discipline from each year, 360 papers of 2.2 million words (table 1), showing a massive increase in the length of articles over the period: firstly, to identify demonstrative ‘this’, the corpora were searched for ‘this’ in subject position, the “locus classicus” of this construction (swales, 2005: 2). we then conducted a manual reading of concordance lines to identify each valid instance as either unattended or attended with a noun/noun phrase. secondly, a search for ‘there’ was followed by a manual examination of every instance to eliminate all cases of the locative adverb there (as in “as can be seen there in text one…”). we considered whether the existential ‘there’ structures we identified were in a basic form (“there is a silence”) or whether more information was packaged using modification and adverbial expansion (“there are widespread new principles of text-making composition”). thirdly, we searched for first person pronouns (‘i, my, me, we, our, us’) in feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland ibérica 39 (2020): 15-4224 ( ! ( ! ! w discipline 1965 1990 2015 change (%) applied linguistics 110,832 145,712 237,452 114.2 biology 244,706 240,255 237,998 -2.7 elec. engineering 92,062 124,631 235,681 156.0 sociology 149,788 205,238 262,203 75.0 totals 597,388 715,836 973,334 62.9 table 1. corpora by discipline and word length. f the corpora, which indicate authorial intrusion. all cases were examined in context to ensure they were exclusive first person uses and to rule out inclusive uses which refer to both writers and readers. all the searches were done using antconc (anthony, 2019) with coding by maxqdaplus (2012). both authors worked independently on a 10% sample of cases of each search item and achieved an inter-rater agreement of 96% on existential ‘there’, 98% on demonstrative this, 98% on first person pronouns after resolving disagreements. 5. demonstrative ‘this’: attended clarity or unattended persuasion? overall, we identified 1,951 cases of demonstrative ‘this’ in the 2015 corpus, or 20 cases per 10,000 words, and 57.8% of them were attended. figure 1 shows there has been a substantial increase in the use of the structure since 1965, with cases almost doubling over the period to 8.1 cases per article. this remains a significant increase of 22.7% (log likelihood = 27.78, p < 0.001) even when adjusted for the longer papers. in other words, we observed a different trend than we might expect from the style guides with a substantial increase in the past 50 years. presumably writers recognise its role in establishing cohesion and clarity in academic prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 25 figure 1. change of (un)attended ‘this’ in the corpora over time (per 10,000 words). i t atun)(ofhange c1.e gurfi ‘ended tat ’isth rep (e timrev oaropro ce thin )sdro w00,00 1 . e writing for an audience which has grown increasingly heterogeneous over the years, with institutional incentives for academics to reach wider popular and corporate readers. today’s rhetorical context is one in which writers give greater attention to guiding readers through a text and helping them to see connections between ideas (hyland & jiang, 2019). readers with less subject knowledge are likely to require more textual support to see connections and follow the writer’s argument. we can see from figure 1, however, that style guide advice does correspond to the proportional difference in attended ‘this’, which has grown from 3.2% to 15.6% over the period. writers are taking greater trouble to ensure their readers see clearly where their arguments are going, as we can see from (10). (10) we then calculated the rate of drift of these elements and the rates of proximal and distal growth based on the data extracted from the image analyses (fig 5 and fig 7). this analysis showed that drifting speeds range between 0.1409 and 0.5546. (bio, 2015) the attended noun helps readers to process the information and gain a clearer understanding of how the writer is organising the discourse. turning to disciplinary changes, the increase in the length of papers between 1965 and 2015 has meant an increase in the use of demonstrative ‘this’ to structure the longer texts and accommodate the reading needs of wider audiences. it is surprising, however, to see one discipline, electrical engineering, actually using slightly fewer cases, although it is still the most frequent user (fig. 2). feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland ibérica 39 (2020): 15-4226 figure 2. changes in demonstrative ‘this’ by discipline (per 10,000 words). a 10,0 15,0 20,0 25,0 30,0 1965 1990 2015 applied linguistics sociology biology electrical engineering as we saw in table 1, engineering saw the greatest increase in the length of papers in our sample, rising 156% to 7,856 words over 50 years, so we might expect a corresponding rise in devices to help create cohesion. it seems, however, that writers are finding other ways to explicitly structure their texts, especially the formulaic phrases used to link numerical data which are familiar in the quantitative sciences (kuteeva & mcgrath, 2015). commenting on research writing in engineering, for instance, mcnown (1996: 427) stresses the need to “use limited space effectively” and “pack the material densely”, but advises writers not to compress texts using complex structures. certainly, demonstrative ‘this’, whether attended or unattended, provides engineers with a succinct way to link up texts compared with other cohesive devices, such as substitution and ellipsis. we also found that writers in the hard sciences are more likely to use unattended ‘this’ for anaphoric reference than those in the humanities and social sciences. scientists and engineers feel more confident about readers recovering a referent as they build cohesion far more through reference to specialised craft skills and the “tacit knowledge from their daily work with processes and instruments” (myers, 1991: 6). as we can see in this example, although demonstrative ‘this’ is not defined by an attending noun, this knowledge can be retrieved by disciplinary familiarity with mechanical procedures (11): (11) the first just requires to verify whether (31) holds for some l ∈ {1, . . ., ns}. the second sub-condition consists of checking the existence of j ∈ j (k), k ∈ k and p ∈ rq satisfying (32). this can be done by determining the values of p that satisfy the first constraint in (32)… (ee, 2015) most interestingly, table 2 shows there has been an increase in the proportional use of unattended ‘this’ in the two applied disciplines (applied linguistics and electrical engineering) and a decrease in the two pure disciplines (sociology and biology). prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 27 1965 1990 2015 attended this unattended this attended this unattended this attended this unattended this applied linguistics 78.5 21.5 68.7 31.2 62,9 37.1 sociology 48.7 51.3 52.8 47.2 58.2 41.8 biology 55.2 44.8 56.1 43.9 57.3 42.7 electrical engineering 56.5 43.5 53.2 46.8 49.7 50.3 table 2. changes in the proportion of attended and unattended ‘this’ by discipline (%). u ( unattended ‘this’, as swales (2005) and jiang and wang (2018) show, encapsulates prior discourse in a word, turning it into a generalised proposition and indicating how the writer wants the information to be understood. in applied fields in particular, such a generalization may help align the propositional information with the epistemological emphasis of the field, promoting a utilitarian application of knowledge. our diachronic data testify to a strengthened trend in those disciplines to rely on unattended ‘this’ both to establish textual coherence and the smooth flow of information and, equally importantly, to promote coherence by representing information in a way that readers can clearly understand. to understand this structure in more detail, we also identified the content referred to by ‘this’ in the immediately preceding discourse and classified it in terms of its length and complexity. we used four categories: simple noun phrases (12), complex noun phrases (13), clause/sentence (14) and extended discourse (15). (12) the cef or crr is a way of expressing the per-unit reduction of load achieved by operating the dsm alternative in terms of deferred generation. this factor is used in the evaluation process to calculate dollars per kilowatt-year. (ee, 1990) (13) it evolves with the continuing formation of the channel spreading from the source to the drain. with a schottky junction this process is suppressed. (ee, 2015) (14) indeed, cre-based cell tracing of hes1+ terminal duct cells/cacs in adult mice failed to show any islet progenitor capacity while these cells seemed to contribute to the ductal tree. one explanation for this difference would be that while zebrafish cacs… (bio, 2015) (15) the second innovation is a task which is not an enviable one for the alliance but provides a fundamental difficulty to its leaders: the continuous evaluation, not only of fiscal and monetary measures and investment schemes, but also of complex social and political programs. for the former, international and professional agencies have now acquired experience and techniques: for example, in the appraisal of the effectiveness of inflationary or deflationary policy measures, of controls or the abolition of controls of foreign exchange, or of public and private investments. their evaluation is relatively easy because their results can be estimated fairly accurately in quantitative terms. but not so with respect to social reforms: their evaluation must be made partly in qualitative terms where value judgments play an influential role. this feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland ibérica 39 (2020): 15-4228 is a great challenge because the redistribution of social, economic, and political privileges formerly... (soc, 1965) table 3 shows that clause/sentence-level texts are the most common antecedents referred to by demonstrative ‘this’ across the years, despite a slight fall in the proportion. although this result aligns with gray (2010), our diachronic data show that complex noun phrases and extended discourse have increased their proportion of all referents, reaching 34.3% and 10.5% in 2015 respectively. this implies that writers are now inclined to include more information with both attended and unattended ‘this’, carrying this information into the ongoing discourse. table 4 shows that simple and complex noun phrases are both preferred and have gained an increased proportional use in the hard disciplines. phrasal structures figure prominently in scientific writing and have increased over time (biber and gray, 2016). certainly, in our corpus, writers in the hard sciences mainly use phrases to convey information and then weave them into prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 29 1965 1990 2015 simple noun phrases 18.6 17.2 15.6 complex noun phrases 33.5 34.1 34.3 clause/sentences 41.8 40.5 39.6 extended discourse 6.1 8.2 10.5 table 3. changes in the categories of referent antecedents across time (%) t applied linguistics sociology 1965 1990 2015 1965 1990 2015 simple noun phrases 32.7 30.5 28.6 31.9 29.3 26.8 complex noun phrases 33.3 29.8 28.3 34.5 31.7 29.1 clause/sentences 29.1 35.5 39.3 27.8 34.0 39.9 extended discourse 4.9 4.2 3.8 5.8 5.0 4.2 biology electrical engineering 1965 1990 2015 1965 1990 2015 simple noun phrases 29.4 29.8 28.6 33.2 33.1 31.3 complex noun phrases 34.0 35.2 39.0 33.8 36.7 40.2 clause/sentences 33.5 33.0 30.2 30.1 28.4 26.6 extended discourse 3.1 2.0 2.2 2.9 1.8 1.9 table 4. changes in the proportion of referent antecedents across disciplines (%). p ( the ongoing argument using demonstrative ‘this’. example (16) is typical in this respect. (16) values of q within s-1 led to a significant increase in time-averaged information (table 1 and fig 4b; friedman anova, global effect on all considered q values: p < 0.001). this effect was robust early after the feedback… (bio, 2015) by contrast, soft knowledge fields tend to use ‘this’ to refer to, and comment on, information expressed at a clause/sentence level as in (17). (17) while not technically a control, we also find that ethnic identity mobilizes respondents independent of repression experiences (model 2) and even for those who have not experienced repression personally (model 3). this finding is in line with traditional movement theory… (soc, 2015) 6. existential ‘there’: structural verbosity or cogent interaction? we identified 1143 cases of existential ‘there’ in the 2015 corpus, averaging 9.5 cases per article and 11.7 cases per 10,000 words. however, there has been a 39.3% drop from 19.4 cases per 10,000 words in 1965. but while there are fewer cases, the structure is still widely used in research writing and some functions have actually increased. this is because existential ‘there’ offers writers a useful means of introducing a new topic and strengthening the coherence of their text. in the examples below, we see writers evaluating a theoretical hypothesis (18) and smoothly transitioning between negative and positive features of corpora before addressing further arguments (19). (18) might not such selection eventually result in the production of a protective and nurturing compartment—a cell (note, there is no protocell stage in this model)? there are many problems with this hypothesis… (bio, 2015) (19) although there are drawbacks, there are at least three main advantages of using corpora in comparison with direct observations. (al, 2015) we should note that the notional subjects in the above examples, ‘problems’, ‘drawback’ and ‘advantage’, project judgements about something, indicating feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland ibérica 39 (2020): 15-4230 that the so-called ‘empty’ subject of ‘there’ actually offers a powerful mechanism for expressing authorial stance. existential ‘there’ “relieves the writer of any responsibility for the viewpoint”, presenting ‘problems’, ‘drawback’ and ‘advantage’ as “a given existential statement” (davies, 1988: 197). in addition, in the case of ‘there are at least three main advantages’ in (19), ‘advantage’ constructs a frame for readers’ understanding of the upcoming discussion, guiding their view to the author’s positive evaluation of using corpora. in terms of the rhetorical functions, figure 3 shows that existential ‘there’ is increasingly used to summarise information and mark enumeration while asserting the (non) existence of entities continues to be the dominant function across the years. the increase of article length and the corresponding expansion of information packed in each article requires writers to provide additional textual support to assist readers’ in processing texts. existential ‘there’ creates a coherent flow moving between given and new information. as we might expect, the construction largely affirms the existence of something, with 74.3% of cases throughout the period. figure 4 presents the changes in the proportion of existence and non-existence affirmed by existential ‘there’. prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 31 i figure 3. frequency of the rhetorical functions of existential ‘there’ across years. a 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1965 1990 2015 assert (non)existence mark emuneration summarise given information 1000 0 200 400 600 800 1965 encetsxienon)(tressa 1990 onitarunemek ram esiramums 2015 onitaatmornfforin vegi he tofyequencfr3.e gurfi ‘alienttsiexofonsituncfalciorhetrhe ’reeth syeaross acr . , english academic prose tends to privilege negative assertions. this is because writers often either refute a hypothesis (20) or problematise previous studies to move closer to their own position (21): (20) there is no epistemological reason not to integrate this rich, uninitiated data in social analysis. (soc, 2015) (21) numerous attempts had been made to explain its nature, but there was no general agreement among these interpretations. (bio, 1965) it is also worth mentioning that there has been a slight rise in the use of existential ‘there’ among hard science writers as they have increasingly sought to strengthen the presentation of their results (hyland & jiang, 2019). conversely, the more discursive soft fields have reduced their use, perhaps with a growing awareness of the potential kickback by readers against making strong claims. however, both sociologists and, particularly, applied linguists remain the heaviest users of the structure. table 5 summarises the changing frequency of existential ‘there’ across disciplines. feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland ibérica 39 (2020): 15-4232 figure 3. frequency of the rhetorical functions of existential ‘there’ across years e ( 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 1965 1990 2015 existence non-existence 300 400 500 600 700 800 tofyequencfr3.e gurfi 0 100 200 300 1965 ‘alienttsiexofonsituncfalciorhetrhe ’reeth 1990 encetsxie nonencetsxie syeaross acr 2015 ( 1965 1990 2015 applied linguistics 45.1 31.6 17.2 sociology 25.7 18.2 12.2 electrical engineering 7.9 12.0 8.5 biology 8.1 8.5 9.0 table 5. changing frequency of existential ‘there’ by discipline (per 10,000 words). i nildeilpap oicso enlacirtceel olobi 1965 1990 2015 scitsiugn 145. 631. 217. ygol 725. 218. 212. gnireenigen 97. 012. 58. ygo 18. 58. 09. 2015 olobi 5.e tabl euqerfgnignach ygo 18. 58. 09. ‘laitnetsixefoycn ’reeth 10,per(ne iplscidiby ds)orw000 10, . y in order to explore how writers use existential ‘there’ to achieve disciplinary persuasion, we are also interested in its discoursal expansion in constructing arguments. this can be achieved either through pre-modification (22), postmodification (23), or adverbials (24). alternatively, modification and adverbials can be combined as in (25). (22) [t]here have been no industrially acceptable methods. (ee, 2015) (23) [t]here is evidence that stubborn group-related dispositions inform sonic styles and sonic evaluation… (soc, 2015) (24) in particular there may be scope for future studies which deliberately aim to collect data from classrooms… (al, 2015) (25) [t]here was a strong curvilinear relationship between the foliar chlorophyll content and spad values. (bio, 2015) our results show that authors in the hard domains tend to expand the head nouns in their work more than those in the soft fields. in so doing, they also package more information into each structure (3.2 expansions per head noun in hard disciplines vs 2.1 in soft fields on average across the years). we can see from table 6 that typically, the discoursal expansion in hard discipline texts is largely achieved through pre-modification and adverbials, as in these examples: (26) [t]here is a non-zero steady-state prediction error. (ee, 2015) prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 33 ( applied linguistics sociology elec. engineering biology 1965 1990 2015 1965 1990 2015 1965 1990 2015 1965 1990 2015 discoursal expansion 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 modifications 76.5 75.8 74.8 75.5 76.1 77.4 68.9 68.3 68.2 71.9 71.7 71.5 postmodifications 52.4 51.8 51.3 49.5 50.4 51.7 23.8 23.4 23.3 20.7 21.1 22.1 phrase 27.0 25.8 24.5 26.6 27.2 27.8 5.8 5.5 5.3 10.8 11.2 12.3 clause 25.4 26.0 26.8 22.9 23.2 23.9 18.0 17.9 18.0 9.9 9.9 9.8 premodifications 24.1 24.0 23.5 26.0 25.7 25.7 45.1 44.9 44.9 51.2 50.6 49.4 adverbials 23.5 24.2 25.2 24.5 23.9 22.6 31.1 31.7 31.8 28.1 28.3 28.5 logic 20.3 20.8 21.3 22.5 21.6 19.9 17.1 18.1 19.2 20.2 21.2 21.7 time/place 3.2 3.4 3.9 2.0 2.3 2.7 14.0 13.6 12.6 7.9 7.1 6.8 table 6. expansion of head noun in existential ‘there’ (% of expanded nouns). w ( (27) [t]here is a logical path from surface protoplasm to protocells via selection for the ability to colonize distant mineral surfaces. (ee, 2015) writers in the soft disciplines, in contrast, tend to expand head nouns through post-modification. (28) [t]here is an increasing tendency to generate new, and very different, mutant forms of a social contagion with each new transmission. (soc, 2015) (29) [t]here was no reference to the student’s research process, and barely any reference to the student’s work, at all. (al, 2015) in comparing these examples, we can see that writers in hard domains typically expand head nouns to add precision to their descriptions, while those in soft fields add discoursal elaboration to ensure a more diverse readership will find their arguments coherent. 7. first person pronouns: objectivity or presence? the use of first person pronouns has increased dramatically in academic writing over the last 50 years, rising from 223.1 cases per 10,000 words in 1965 to 284.0 cases in 2015. this growth of 27.3% suggests that the style guides which advise against personal forms of language use are wildly out of date. table 7 shows that frequencies have increased a massive 163% in biology, 63% in electrical engineering and 38% in sociology, although they have declined 27% in applied linguistics. the huge rises in the hard sciences are perhaps the most surprising as science writers are conventionally seen to represent meanings in an objective way, subordinating the authority of the individual to the authority of the text (hyland, 2001, 2004a). these trends undermine those assumptions. feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland ibérica 39 (2020): 15-4234 applied linguistics sociology elec. engineering biology 1965 1990 2015 1965 1990 2015 1965 1990 2015 1965 1990 2015 we 42.8 41.7 29.5 33.6 31.9 40.2 47.1 66.7 71.0 10.1 15.1 37.9 i 22.1 18.2 29.5 12.8 13.3 28.7 0.1 0.2 0.5 2.2 1.6 1.8 our 16.2 19.0 8.9 12.8 14.4 12.9 3.6 4.2 6.9 5.8 6.0 10.1 us 5.7 6.0 3.2 3.9 3.3 4.0 1.8 4.5 7.2 1.2 1.2 1.8 total 86.8 83.9 64.3 64.0 64.9 81.9 52.8 65.1 85.7 19.2 19.8 51.7 table 7. changes in first person pronouns by discipline (per 10,000 words). t this increase, however, is confined to plural forms, which allow authors to create more distance between themselves and their reporting than first person singular, and so temper a more invasive stance. partly, of course, it reflects the growing trend, and career pressures, towards multiple authorship over the last 70 years with the average number of authors per paper in scopus growing from 3.2 in 1996 to 4.4 in 2015 (economist, 2016) and almost two-thirds of global articles having authors from multiple institutions (hyland, 2015). it is nevertheless a significant trend towards greater authorial presence in scientific texts. one reason for this may be the need for scientists to respond to the imperative of “impact” as a measure of their research contributions in annual performance reviews and career assessments. taking their work beyond the confines of a specialised group of insiders involves interpersonal adjustments, making their research less impersonal and more accessible to audiences in the commercial world. a more likely explanation, however, is that greater visibility is now essential: creating a presence as an acting, decision-making individual is a way of ensuring that their interpretations and claims do not go unnoticed by university human resource panels where applications for jobs, tenure and promotion are judged. a more personal voice garners more visibility, more citations and more professional credit. something of this claim for recognition can be seen in these examples: (30) we highlight where data for certain fragile y predictions are lacking and propose research avenues that would further elucidate particular dynamics of y-chromosome loss. (bio, 2015) (31) in this work we develop a theory of system approximation for timed systems by quantifying the timing differences between corresponding system events. (ee, 2015) here we see personal reference makes a clear claim for credit and an explicit indication of the perspective from which a statement should be interpreted, enabling writers to emphasise their own contribution and to seek agreement for it. sociology has followed a similar path with authors increasing their presence in their texts through first person pronouns, although this is perhaps more understandable than in the sciences. here research is generally more explicitly interpretative and less abstract, with less ‘exact’ data collection procedures and less control of variables. readers expect that authors will not prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 35 write with positivist detachment but will craft a convincing argument from a personal point of view: (32) [w]e argue that when errors occur individual humans may attempt to correct them, essentially adding in words or actions that seem appropriate in the available context. thus our overall theory applies broadly to transferable, endogenously duplicable... (soc, 2015) (33) i attribute this to the contingent nature of competition... (soc, 2015) overall, therefore, avoidance of the first person to convey impersonality now seems less rigidly adhered to than in the past, reflecting the ambivalence about its use in the style guides. the patterns in applied linguistics, however, are more curious, with a substantial fall in personal forms over the last 50 years. it possibly reflects the growing maturity of the discipline and an increase in empirically-oriented studies, as opposed to more personal accounts of teaching practices in earlier times. the discipline has increasingly taken on the trapping of the social sciences with a corresponding moderation of self-mention and increased reliance on replicability, falsifiability and more rigorous independent support of claims. an alternative explanation may be the influence on the corpus of growing numbers of second language writers, most notably from china and the middle east, who have been schooled in the virtues of eliminating explicit agency from academic writing (e.g. hyland, 2015). more likely, perhaps, is that this development simply represents a heightened awareness, and growing self-consciousness, among rhetorically sensitive applied linguists keen to replace an ego-centric voice with a more collectivist one. these explanations, however, are rather fanciful. their weakness is emphasised, moreover, by the fact that both applied linguistics and sociology showed an increase in the use of singular first person over the period, with it doubling in the former since 1990 and increasing threefold in the latter. quite clearly, the ability of authors to position themselves as reflective agents with important ideas to contribute (34) or insights to convey (35) remains very important in these fields: (34) i broaden their observations and argue that highly discretionary programs are themselves a common feature of american governance. i furthermore point to how assumptions about the sexual division of labor ordered a federal and locally applied discretionary program. feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland ibérica 39 (2020): 15-4236 framed through a feminist-weberian lens, i argue that the american state’s locally… (soc, 2015) (35) i am distinctly aware that my approach stems from the sla periphery. my objective in advancing such a perspective, however, is not to discount the earlier sla work on language anxiety. rather, i seek to extend the borders of future research on language anxiety in sla… (al, 2015) while ‘i’ is increasing in the soft knowledge fields, we can see from table 7 that we dominates the frequencies in all disciplines, comprising 58% of all forms in 2015. this has nearly doubled in electrical engineering and increased by almost four times in biology. 8. final observations and conclusions the globalisation of academia has created a highly competitive and assessmentoriented research culture in which individuals are judged by the length of their publication lists. publication has come to equal ‘productivity’ and is used as a crude measure of worth, with institutions conferring posts, promotions, tenure and sometimes bonus payments on those who are successful. so not only has the need to publish never been greater, but this has to be done in an arcane form of english which requires both native and non-native english writers to acquire special literacy skills. with english for research and publication purposes courses in their infancy, many writers turn to style guides and publication manuals for advice. what they often find in them are admonishments to observe principles of clarity, brevity and objectivity in their writing, with advice to avoid demonstrative ‘this’, existential ‘there’ and first person pronouns. our detailed examination of these features in a diachronic corpus of research articles suggests that this advice does not accurately reflect current academic writing practices. we have observed remarkable increases in the use of demonstrative ‘this’ and first person pronouns in research writing over the past 50 years, although existential ‘there’ has fallen. the guides seem to have it partly right. while demonstrative ‘this’ has seen a significant rise, in defiance of style guide admonishments, much of this has been in cases with an attended noun/noun phrase, which reflects the advice provided in the guides to ensure readers can recover the intended referent. the significant drop in the use of existential ‘there’ largely corresponds to advice given to academic prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 37 writers, although it remains an important means of introducing topics and strengthening textual coherence. it has come increasingly, moreover, to mark enumeration and summarise information, especially in the hard science fields, to ensure readers get the writer’s take-home message. style guides have been less successful in accurately reflecting the use of first person in professional research writing. the sciences in particular are now significantly more likely to express arguments in the active voice using inclusive we to claim agency for their decisions and credit for their work. these authorial practices are a rhetorical response to the dramatic changes in academic life in recent years which demand more publication, greater collaboration and expanded outreach to new audiences. the commercial repositioning of disciplinary knowledge means that research is often read by a more diverse audience who can make practical use of it, and authors have responded by making themselves more accessible and their work more reader friendly. our research also has implications for graduate writing classes and the burgeoning field of english for research and publication purposes. at these levels of advanced academic writing, novices need advice based on empirical research of what occurs rather than outdated impressions of conventions. while style guides and publication manuals can be useful, it is more important for students to treat their advice with scepticism and to learn from the rhetorical practices embodied in the pages of the journals in their discipline. teachers have an important role to play here, guiding students away from tame compliance with discrete stylistic rules and towards an understanding of academic discourse as a coherent means of achieving practical ends. the decisions writers make are not effective because they comply with extant rules, but because they meet readers’ expectations of what is familiar, plausible and persuasive. the kind of corpus studies we have reported here can not only assist novice research writers but should inform the work of language teachers. such an approach encourages us to be critical in our work and to prioritise functions and understand what the writer is trying to do, rather than adhere slavishly to stylistic prescriptions of forms. article history: received 27 may 2020 received in revised form 5 june 2020 accepted 7 june 2020 feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland 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(2019). second language writing (2nd edition). cambridge: cambridge university press. hyland, k., & f.k. jiang (2019). academic discourse and global publishing: disciplinary feng (kevin) jiang is kuang yaming distinguished professor in applied linguistics in the school of foreign language education at jilin university, china and gained his phd under the supervision of professor ken hyland at the university of hong kong. his research interests include disciplinary discourse, corpus studies and academic writing, and his publications have appeared in most major applied linguistics journals. ken hyland is professor of applied linguistics in education at the uea. he is best known for his research into writing and academic discourse, having published over 240 articles and 28 books on these topics with 51,000 citations on google scholar. a collection of his work was published by bloomsbury in 2018. feng (kevin) jiang & ken hyland ibérica 39 (2020): 15-4240 persuasion in changing times. london: routledge. jiang, f. k., & f. wang (2018). “‘this is because … ’: authorial practice of (un)attending this in academic prose across disciplines”. australian journal of linguistics 38(2): 162–182. johnson, r., a. watkinson & m. mabe (2018). the stm report: an overview of scientific and scholarly publishing, 5th ed. hague: international association of scientific, technical and medical publishers kolln, m., & l.s. gray (2013). rhetorical grammar: grammatical choices, rhetorical effects, 7th ed. boston: pearson. kuteeva, m & l. mcgrath (2015). “the theoretical research article as a reflection of disciplinary practices: the case of pure mathematics”. applied linguistics 36: 215-235. mcmillan, k. & j. d. b. weyers (2011). how to write essays & assignments. harlow: pearson. mcnown, j. 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(1996). writing essays & reports: teach yourself. london: hodder & stoughton. rabinowitz, h. & s. vogel (2009). the manual of scientific style. burlington: academic press. spencer, c. m. & b. arbon (1997). foundations of writing: developing research and academic writing skills. lincolnwood: national textbook co. strunk, w. & e.b. white (2018). the elements ofsstyle. vancouver: spectrum inc. swales, j. m. (2005). “attended and unattended ‘this’ in academic writing: a long and unfinished story. esp malaysia 11(1): 1–15. swales, j. m. & c.b. feak (2012). academic writing for graduate sstudents: essential tasks and skills, 3rd ed. ann arbor: university of michigan press. unesco. (2017). science report. url: https://en.unesco.org/unesco_science_report/figur es [07/06/2020] university of hull. (2020). “academic writing style”. url: https://canvas.hull.ac.uk/courses/ 371/pages/academic-writing-style [07/06/2020] writecheck. (2020). writing no-no # 1. url: http://en.writecheck.com/blog/2012/11/30/writingno-no-1-video [07/06/2020] notes 1 all examples are from our diachronic corpus discussed in section 4. here, demonstrative this is bolded, its referent is underlined and attending nominals are italicised. 2 existential there is bolded and notional subject is italicized. prescription and reality in advanced academic writing ibérica 39 (2020): 15-42 41 08 artiga.qxp ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 abstract epistemic lexical verbs (hyland, 1998) constitute essential elements in conveying different interpersonal meanings, among those judgment, certainty, doubt, and evidence, aiding speakers both to project themselves into the speech and to maintain interesting relationships with audiences. supporting sinclair’s (1991) contention that meanings are clustered into lexicogrammatical patternings, and not in isolated items, this paper explores the phraseology accompanying the most representative epistemic lexical verbs (elvs) in university lectures. by applying corpus-based methodology, we also illustrate the functional variability of think –the most salient of these lexical verbs–, especially the roles it performs when hedging the discourse and complying with politeness conventions as part of interactional and metadiscoursal strategies. at a textual level, results indicate that lecturing speech favors the proliferation of evaluation markers that appear to be arranged in several recurrent formal patterns. this clearly entails potential for pedagogical purposes and esp syllabuses. key words: academic speech, lectures, stance, lexical units, interpersonal pragmatics resumen la interacción semántico-pragmática de la presencia del autor en la fraseología de las clases magistrales los verbos epistémicos (hyland, 1998) constituyen elementos esenciales en la transmisión de múltiples significados interpersonales, entre los que se incluyen el juicio, la certeza, la duda o la evidencia, contribuyendo de manera eficaz a que los hablantes se proyecten dentro del discurso y establezcan relaciones interesantes con la audiencia. de acuerdo con los postulados de sinclair (1991) que argumenta que los significados no se codifican de forma aislada sino que tienden a formar estructuras lexicogramaticales, este estudio pretende explorar la fraseología típica de los verbos epistémicos (elv) más frecuentes en clases magistrales. asimismo, se ilustrará mediante la metodología del análisis de corpus, la variabilidad funcional de think, por ser el más frecuente de dichos verbos léxicos, en the semantic-pragmatic interface of authorial presence in academic lecturing phraseology maría rosario artiga león universidad de zaragoza charomar21@wanadoo.es 127 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 127 particular las funciones que desarrolla matizando el discurso y conviniendo con los mandatos de la cortesía dentro de las estrategias de interacción y metadiscurso. a nivel textual los resultados indican que este tipo de discurso universitario favorece la proliferación de indicadores de evaluación que forman diversos patrones tipo, lo que implica un enorme potencial para su aplicación práctica en los currículos de inglés para fines específicos. palabras clave: discurso académico, clases de universidad, posición de autor, unidades léxicas, pragmática interpersonal introduction far from being neutral or straightforward towards the information conveyed writers/speakers tend to include affective meanings such as their own attitudes and evaluation in addition to propositional content. over the last several years, linguists have become increasingly interested in the ways speakers and writers express judgments and even personal feelings to support their arguments and validate their claims. such investigations have been carried out from different perspectives and under several labels, including “attitude” and “modality” (halliday, 1994), “evaluation” (hunston, 1994), “affect” (ochs, 1989), “evidentiality” (chafe & nichols, 1986), “hedging” (holmes, 1988; hyland, 1996, 1998; markkanen & schröder, 1997), “appraisal” (martin, 2000), and “stance” (biber & finegan, 1988, 1989; beach & anson, 1992; barton, 1993; conrad & biber, 2000). although these terms cover slightly overlapping areas, they all refer to writer/speaker point of view about the state of affairs or the information transmitted. this paper will primarily adhere to biber and finegan’s (1988) concept of stance, which refers to the ways speakers and writers convey their personal feelings and assessments in addition to propositional content. these authors define “epistemic stance” as the degree of certainty or evidence towards the content; it is roughly modalization in halliday’s (1994) terminology, whereas “attitudinal stance” conveys more personal feelings, and “style stance” relates to the speaker’s or writer’s comment on the way in which the information in a clause is presented. stance has been used as an umbrella word comprising several heterogeneous textual features. among the devices deployed to index stance, epistemic lexical verbs (hyland, 1998), heretofore elvs, such as think, suggest, feel and seem are essential to encode judgment and carry out evaluative functions, both in written and spoken academic registers (hyland, 1998; biber et al., 1999). as stated above, these elements help perform the interpersonal function of language and are part of modality systems, which broadly refer to “a speaker’s attitude towards, or opinion about, the truth of a proposition expressed” and “extends to their attitude towards the situation or event described by a sentence” (simpson, 1993: 47). maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144128 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 128 whereas the proliferation of these stance markers in conversational settings has already been pointed out by several researchers (biber et al., 1999; hunston & thompson, 2000), the situation in the academic spoken registers has been somewhat neglected so far and studies have been more sporadic (mauranen, 2000, 2001; poos & simpson, 2002; swales & burke, 2003; simpson, 2004). in lecturing, being this an instructional genre, speakers easily resort to elvs by adopting various positions to project themselves into the speech: assessing knowledge, doubting some aspects, commenting on propositions, indicating the source of the information, agreeing/disagreeing, and making alliances and commitments, among others: we also know that academic speech tends to be heavily hedged, although, as poos and simpson (2002) have suggested, not only for the traditional reasons of modesty and uncertainty, but also (at least in instructive speech) as a way of socializing students into the sensitivities of a particular discipline. (swales & burke, 2003: 1) information in lectures, although planned beforehand and possibly somehow previously rehearsed, is delivered online and interaction tends to share the characteristics of both face to face and spontaneous exchanges (swales, 1990; mauranen, 2000). teachers generally favor audience oriented devices and appear accessible and encouraging providing personal support and allowing relaxed, informal encounters. from a different perspective, epistemic elements are not usually selected in isolation; rather, they tend to cluster in formulaic lexical chunks (sinclair, 1991; hunston & sinclair, 2000). as nattinger and decarrico (1992: 11) put it, they make “lexical phrases” typically “consisting of a syntactic frame that contains slots of various fillers, and run the gamut from completely fixed unvarying phrases to phrases that are highly variable.” these lexicalized composites seem to be fixed not only in their form but also in their functional application. therefore, in the expression of meanings, it could be reasonable to describe sense and structure together, as sinclair (1991: 65) concurs, “it seems that there is a strong tendency for sense and syntax to be associated.” he further argues that “speakers have meanings which they want to make and that these meanings naturally attract to themselves phraseologies which incorporate lexis and grammar” (sinclair, 1991: 31). it is then likely that certain structural patterns select similar words for particular meanings. on pedagogical grounds, this suggests that rather than teaching isolated lexical elements, english for specific and academic purposes instruction should pay closer attention to complex patternings to convey meanings successfully since “fluent and idiomatic control of a language rests to a considerable extent on knowledge of a body of ‘sentence stems’ which are ‘institutionalized’ or ‘lexicalized’” (pawley & syder, 1983: 191) in order to help learners’ production achieve native-like accuracy. from a pedagogical point of view, in an attempt to bridge the gap between research the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 129 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 129 and teaching, our study will be relevant to detect lecture comprehension verbs selecting recurrent lexical gambits, which will be of interest for those wanting to communicate effectively in the academic world. in the light of these considerations, my aim in this paper is twofold, firstly to identify the routine composites and to observe the frequency and recurrence of these clusters describing the correlates that accompany elvs as pillars on which the conceptual load of lectures is framed. secondly, i will focus on the verb think, to illustrate the pragmatic effects of elvs within a context of use. although any attempt to discuss and assess the implications this research might have for teaching english for academic purposes (eap) and english for specific purposes (esp) falls outside the scope and length of this article, some general pedagogical considerations will also be sketched out at the end of this paper. analytical procedures the corpus chosen for the present study consists of 14 lectures, a total number of 152,810 words, chosen randomly out of the 62 lectures available in micase (michigan corpus of academic speech in english), and it is the only electronic compilation that contains samples of real academic speech events that i know of. micase is an appropriate resource since it includes authentic data recorded in a university setting and also covers four different domains of knowledge: social sciences and education, humanities and art, physical sciences and engineering, and biological and health science. the lectures were analyzed by using the concordance program wordsmith tools 3.0 (scott, 1999), which allows rigorous contextual investigations and, additionally, enables horizontal and vertical study of concordances, essential in the identification of frequently-occurring sequences of items and phraseology. corpus-based research was used to provide empirical evidence in order to reveal much more about grammatical features and to enable investigation of the actual patterns of use in addition to structural descriptions. in a preliminary stage of the research, elements not found to have epistemic meanings in the context of use were discarded, which happened in nearly half of the tokens (734 out of 1,347). we resorted to an expert native scholar (see acknowledgements) for clarification on some of the doubtful meanings these elvs conveyed as this task was not always straightforward considering there exist fuzzy and overlapping instances difficult to discern in this slippery category of lexical verbs. then, in the first stage of this study, a quantitative analysis of the frequencies observed by the different items under study was carried out to find out the most recurrent elvs in the genre. later, by using corpus-based analytical techniques, we maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144130 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 130 were able to document the different structural patterns by which speakers mark stance using several lexical and syntactic resources available. finally, the focus of analysis was turned to the pragmatic domain to study the communicative functions the verb think carries out in the context of university lectures. results and discussions quantitative results in an initial search, the frequency distribution these elvs score in the corpus was observed to identify which tokens are favored in university lectures. following hyland (1998), biber et al. (1999), and hunston and thomson (2000), on the most recurrent lexical verb items conveying epistemic meanings to encode stance in speech and academic settings, the following verbs were selected: admit, appear, argue, assume, believe, calculate, claim, conclude, consider, doubt, estimate, exhibit, feel, figure, guess, imagine, indicate, infer, judge, not know, note, notice, predict, seem, show, speculate, suggest, suppose, suspect, and think. results of the frequencies found in the corpus are illustrated in table 1. the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 131 lexical verb total number of counts counts with epistemic meaning average number of counts per 10,000 words comparative percentage admit 2 1 0.06 0.13% appear 36 10 0.65 1.36% argue 18 11 0.71 1.49% assume 41 35 2.29 4.76% believe 29 22 1.43 2.99% calculate 6 2 0.13 0.27% claim 8 3 0.19 0.40% conclude 9 6 0.39 0.81% consider 21 6 0.39 0.81% doubt 1 estimate 23 1 0.06 0.13% exhibit 5 1 0.06 0.13% feel 58 15 0.98 2.04% figure 28 3 0.19 0.40% guess 25 15 0.98 2.04% imagine 23 6 0.39 0.81% indicate 6 3 0.19 0.40% infer 3 1 0.06 0.13% judge 10 3 0.19 0.40% not know 105 73 4.77 9.94% note 47 4 0.26 0.54% notice 45 12 0.78 1.63% predict 11 6 0.39 0.81% seem 57 57 3.73 7.76% show 90 10 0.65 1.36% speculate suggest 35 13 0.85 1.77% suppose 65 38 2.48 5.17% suspect 2 2 0.13 0.27% think 538 375 24.50 51.08% total 1,347 734 (55%) 48.03 100% table 1. total number of tokens of epistemic lexical verbs in lectures micase (152,810 words). 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 131 quantitatively speaking, think scores the highest frequencies, more than 51% of the total number of elv tokens, followed by other items such as not know (9.94%), seem (7.76%), suppose (5.17%), assume (4.76%), and believe (2.99%). in the case of know, only negative tokens expressing uncertainty were selected since no epistemic meanings were found in the affirmative form of this verb. all these six recurrent items at the top of the rank are favored by conversational settings (biber et al., 1999), whereas other verbs which show insignificant or null frequencies (admit, calculate, claim, doubt, exhibit, indicate, infer, judge, speculate, and suspect) correspond to verbs more characteristic of written registers. thus, our results corroborate previous findings1 on the subject by hyland (1998) and biber et al. (1999). in the following stage of this research, admitting that some associations in the dichotomy of form and function can be found in elvs, we set to identify the lexical bundles that constitute specific linguistic realizations to mark stance. phraseological correlates of epistemic lexical verbs in lectures adhering to sinclair’s (1991) and hunston and thompson’s (2000) contention that lexis and grammar constitute a single phenomenon and not two separate systems, this section illustrates how the language of stance tends to be realized in linguistic units displaying a varied range of structural possibilities. the analysis below will be centered on the six most frequent elvs in the selected corpus, think, not know, seem, suppose, assume and believe (81.74% of the total number of counts) since the comparative frequencies of some of the remaining verbs were not considered significant. the corpus displays several grammatical and lexical patterns containing epistemic lexical verbs to convey different evaluation meanings as illustrated in table 2: maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144132 elvs total tokens passive elvs pattern 1: + that-clause pattern 2: parenthetical sentence pattern 3: + to infinitive pattern 4: + to epist. verb think 375 4 280 66 30 not know 73 5 5 seem 57 6 2 29 suppose 38 34 2 1 33 assume 35 2 19 2 4 believe 22 1 9 3 3 total 600 41 6.83% 321 53.5% 79 13.16% 62 10.33% 37 6.16% table 2. phraseological correlates of the most frequent epistemic lexical verbs in lectures micase (152,810 words). 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 132 pattern 1: personal/impersonal subject + epistemic lexical verb + (that)-clausal complement this pattern is by far the most recurrent verbal composite since all these epistemic markers allow this structure. in our corpus more than half of the frequencies 383 out of a total of 734 (321 out of 600, a 53.5%, in the most frequent verbs), show this patterning. moreover, some authors even include these elvs in the category of ‘believe-type verbs’ (givón, 1993; nöel, 2002). although explicit that is frequent as illustrated in examples 1 and 2, that is more usually omitted (example 3). in these three instances the matrix verb conveys the speaker’s stance towards the content of the forthcoming proposition; in the first example the lecturer indexes the source of the evidence for his/her claim whereas in the second and third elvs are used to somehow add speculation towards the content of the propositions. (1) […] but they still don't metastasize as well as d-one-twenty-two. foso this suggests that there are additional factors that the immune system yes is one factor but there are other factors […] (lel175su106)2 (2) […] so the world that marx was seeing, was one of increased worker exploitation, and marx believed that as this worker exploitation became utterly unbearable […] (lel220juo71) (3) […] so can i explain for example the fact that if i go, how's everybody doing? you all assume i'm, more likely happy, than unhappy […] (lel500ju034) apart from a that-clause, other alternative subordinate sentences can be found as is the case of why, where, what, whether and if, these being commonly associated with not know. thus, in example 4 not know hedges a subordinate sentence with what mitigated by a proliferation of other stance markers (‘i think’, ‘might’, ‘exactly’, conditional sentences …), and in example 5 the verb conveys uncertainty towards the following conditional sentence. (4) […] that pun is in the spanish and i think if you were only reading the english, you might just, you know think it's a typo. i don't know exactly what the translators should've done there, they could've called it fleambo instead of limbo or something i don't know, but anyway […] (les300su103) (5) […] but i don't know if that's the latest and greatest technology in uh i just know some systems used to work that way and i don't know if that's still the case, but horizthe chebyshev travel occurs whenever you have two independent […] (les330jg052) semantically, these verbs index judgment, ranging from speculating about the truth of the complement clause in one way or another, especially through mental and cognitive the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 133 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 133 verbs3, to indicating deduction about the claim (guess, suggest, estimate, calculate …). conveying certainty towards the truth of the proposition is illustrated in example 6 through an emphatic cleft sentence, whereas example 7 evinces how guess encodes speaker’s deduction on the upcoming information. it is also noticeable how these elvs anticipate other lexical evaluators, particularly adjectives and adverbs (‘clearly’, ‘really’, ‘quite’, ‘important’, ‘good’ …) in both examples. (6) […] what i think that the the paper clearly does, is it shows that the kinds of sophistication that are in the option value or the stochastic dynamic program models, are really quite important […] (les280jg138) (7) […] they're all equated with the japanese syllabary, the japanese kana. uh there're forty-seven kana. i guess that's a good way to remember how many kana there are. (lel140su074) apart from the recurrent mental process verbs, others describe more emotional or attitudinal states, particularly feel. it is interesting to note that feel conveys fuzzy connotations blending opinion and feeling as shown in example 8 where both meanings overlap. besides, there is a further group of elvs that, rather than marking the nature of the following sentence, provide evidence or report on the source of the evidence for the speaker’s comment, mainly appear, seem and show. this can be seen in example 9 where seem encodes the justification for the lecturer’s reasoning. (8) […] you don't have to say i love you all you have to do is give somebody food, and that indicates a relationship. (and) i feel that when i read this. (les300su103) (9) […] so, it seems to me that, if we understand the plot in relation to what the spanish really says, it really means, when it happens you are bound forever. (lel300su076) the subject of these epistemic verbs controlling the complement clause can sporadically be explicit (10 times out of 375 in the case of think), although pronoun reference is much more frequent, being usually the first person singular, i, therefore the lecturer, who openly evaluates, judges or gives opinion. in the six most recurrent elvs, i scores 330 out of 600 maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144134 epistemic lexical verb i pronoun we pronoun you pronoun it pronoun think 256 13 13 4 not know 60 5 3 seem 3 20 suppose 1 1 4 6 assume 4 15 3 2 believe 6 2 2 1 total 330 55% 36 6% 25 4.1% 33 5.5% table 3. pronoun reference in lectures micase. 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 134 frequencies (55% of the total number of counts) as illustrated in table 3. alternatively, yet not so frequently, we find the first person plural, we, by which speakers make a general reference also involving the audience (36 cases out of 600, 6%, in the six most frequent elvs). other personal pronouns include you, a clear indicator of the interpersonal function of language (25 counts, 4.1%, out of 600). you can show ambiguous reference but it usually relates to the audience and it is a further way for lecturers to bring students into the speech. in example 10 we can see instances of you (‘you may think’), explicit reference (‘your teacher may not think’) and also first person singular pronoun (‘i think’). here think together with modals and adverbial modifiers (‘may’, ‘like’, ‘really’) indicates speculation. impersonal pronoun reference (33 counts, a 5.5% of the total number of tokens) commonly correlates with seem (20 hits out of a total of 33 in the most common epistemic lexical verbs) and also appear (5 out of 10 hits). these copular verbs are usually followed by a subject predicative and perform a linking function so that the subject predicative directly characterizes the subject as seen in example 11. seem can also enact the personal reference and subjective position by adding the object –to me as seen in example 12. some of these verbs such as suggest, seem, appear, show, indicate and predict happily combine with both personal and impersonal pronoun reference. (10)[…] if you write a paper which is like graded, you know based on your, teacher's interpretation of your paper and you may think it's like really, mhm great and your teacher (may,) not think the same way and i think that that also causes like a little problem, cuz, as far as like, grades are concerned […] (lel185su066) (11)[…] and these matrix metalloproteases again help to break down the extracellular, matrix. it appears that both of these families of proteases they do somewhat different things and both of them are needed in order to get efficient […] (lel175su106) (12)[…] so, it seems to me that, if we understand the plot in relation to what the spanish really says, it really means, when it happens you are bound forever. (lel300su076) pattern 2: i + epistemic lexical verb (parenthetical sentences) swales and malczewski (2001: 149) refer to this pattern as ‘epistemic parentheticals.’ parenthetical clauses are independent sentences which occur freely in different positions and interrupt the ongoing discourse at any point to qualify any part of the speech. conrad and biber (2000) even label them as ‘comment clauses’ acting as stance adverbials, used to “explicitly mark a proposition as the speaker’s opinion or to convey some level of doubt” (conrad & biber, 2000: 70). these authors contend the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 135 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 135 that their use is limited to conversational registers and usually correlates with mental and cognitive verbs, especially think, believe, not know, feel, guess, imagine and suppose. table 2 reveals 79 instances of parenthetical clauses (13.16% of the total number of tokens) in the six most frequent elvs selected for the analysis. in monologic speech, as is the case in lectures, these units help break the flow of speech and allow speakers to express more tentative meanings. example 13 shows speaker’s reservations on the information and in example 14 the lecturer hedges his/her claim in order not to appear too categorical about what he previously admitted; in both cases parentheticals enable non-commitment to propositions. (13)[…] now let me describe for you one, simple experiment, which makes this point. this is on the next page i believe of the coursepack. page, twenty-two. (lel175su106) (14)[…] trying to find out whether there's a relationship between birth control pill usage, and cancer risk, and i think i said there is no single experiment it's not like there's one right answer it's a very complicated question how scientists go about […] (lel175su106) similarly, they can also be found at moments when lecturers hesitate or feel insecure in relation to the information transmitted, especially conveying complex conceptualizations in order to allow teachers time to find the best way to solve difficulties. in this sense, the use of ‘parentheticals’ can be associated with several hesitation pointers such as repetitions or other metatalk devices making linguistic chunks when the discourse is not smooth. in example 15 the speaker resorts repeatedly to this pattern as a hesitation marker at a moment of particularly difficult argumentation. (15)[…] overgeneral i thought. i mean, you can find other references, especially in the new testament, i think that, that uh, indicate that it's a gift and i um, i think, no i don't think it i don't think it's i don't think it's looked down upon but i think in terms of um, i just i really don't like, um, when they say, it jui mean it's ar […] (les605su080) pattern 3: impersonal/personal subject + epistemic lexical verb active/passive + clausal to infinitive epistemic verbs are also frequently followed by a non-finite clause (62 out of 600 cases, a 10.33%, in the six most common elvs, see table 2). however, this is restricted to seem and suppose in the selected corpus. this pattern rather than qualifying the proposition, evaluates the preceding subject, as can be seen in the examples below. the passive construction is slightly more common than its active counterpart (41 maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144136 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 136 tokens out of 600, a 6.83%, see table 2), being more formal and impersonal and making the attribution of the stance not explicit or ambiguous. passive epistemic verbs enable speakers to either minimize full responsibility for their claims, protect their face or detach themselves from what is being talked about. the agent of the clause can be usually retrieved but, at times, it is difficult to decide on the hidden person behind the impersonal expression. accordingly, this pattern tends to be preferred in those cases when lecturers present information that has not yet been proved or whose evidence is still unknown as in example 16 or when they refer to a general belief instead of manifesting his/her own views (example 17). in this example 17, the use of agentless passive patterns implies a lack of any specified human agency and contributes to impersonalization and a higher avoidance of any personal reference. (16)[…] this seems to be in contradiction, to another prescription. and the prescription that often run runs counter to to this, is foreign policy […] (les495ju063) (17)[…] i didn't find very much um on the christian views, of the song of songs but um it's supposed to be the romance of jesus and the church with mary as the chief female figure. (les605su080) interestingly, both passive and active structures can also be sporadically accompanied by a passive infinitive adding further impersonalization to the utterance; something quite unusual in other conversational settings. suppose is the verb that most commonly resorts to this typology in our corpus (‘is supposed to be supported’, ‘they are not supposed to be finished’, ‘was supposed to be chosen’ …). in example 18, the unknown and blurred attribution is indexed to speculate about the content without clearly indicating the source of the judgment. (18)[…] i mean the countries that were most affected by those missiles that were supposed to be deployed in western europe, um, england, there were four countries england netherlands germany and italy. (les495ju063) pattern 4: noun/adjective/verb + epistemic lexical verb infinitive + that-clause another recurrent pattern containing elvs is that of the infinitive form after either a noun (‘temptation’, ‘tendency’, ‘reason’ …), an adjective (‘likely’, ‘interesting’, ‘difficult’ …) or even other alternatives such as a verb followed by infinitive (‘have’, ‘make’, ‘want’ …). this pattern accounts for 37 cases (6.16%) in the six most common elvs in our data as seen in table 2. in the example below we can observe how the epistemic lexical infinitive verb qualifies the upcoming that-clause proposition by making a hedged general assumption the lecturer disagrees with. the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 137 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 137 (19)[…] so, there's always this temptation to think that evolution is moving us, in a direction towards always higher performance that's not what evolution is doing at all. evolution is a pr […] (lel500ju034) as regards the phraseology these stance markers usually reflect, it is recurrent to find different types of hedging, including prepositions such as ‘like’ and adverbs ‘sort of ’ and ‘just’, either following or preceding the epistemic verbs making sentences blurred or more fuzzy and adding ambiguity to the speaker’s position. these associations, typically restricted to informal conversational settings, are frequent with feel and seem as illustrated in example 20, where reformulation and the epistemic modal and adverbs contribute to further tentativeness. (20)[…] and even though some of what they produce might seem like, it's you know geared to, uh, disaffected women, or people of color or seeks to show, uh poor people a little bit. that that's all kind of a mask. (lel220juo71) evidence makes it also clear that these lexical verbs do not often occur in isolation, on the contrary, they seem to cluster with other stance devices including prosodic features, discourse fillers, evaluative adjectives, adverbs and modality markers, especially modal verbs, shaping mutually supporting associations that allow speakers to index more epistemic meanings, usually making sentences less likely and more tentative. in example 21 we can see suggest preceding two evaluative adjectives. the most commonly found modal verb in our corpus is the conversational ‘can’, which usually collocates with imagine and think, another typical association is ‘should’ and know. ‘may’, ‘might’ and ‘would’ are currently found with think, seem, suggest, suppose … hedging the discourse, as seen in example 22 above. (21)[…] when she goes into the dark room that is no longer dark, with pedro. in fact, i would suggest to you that, one of the great things about this novel is that it works with an enormous set of oppositions. (les300su103) (22)[…] if you write a paper which is like graded, you know based on your, teacher's interpretation of your paper and you may think it's like really, mhm great and your teacher (may,) not think the same way and i think that that also causes like a little problem […] (lel185su066) overall, it is frequent to find high traffic of these epistemic lexical verbs making bundles as observed in examples 23 and 24; this proliferation of stance markers allows speakers to achieve their purposes more effectively, not only to facilitate lecture comprehension but also to soften power status inequalities between speakers and audience. this feature correlates with mechanisms of spoken registers and includes retrace and repair, reformulation, clarification, pauses and other hesitation markers, characteristic of improvised speech. maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144138 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 138 (23)[…] so along with stock options which i think is a great idea, i think, you know, some kind of like, the company should_ i mean for_ i guess brenda is not in control other than uh, you know, re-saying to the company what she thinks is uh_ somehow getting a company, organization […] (lel185su066) (24)[…] especially in the new testament, i think that, that uh, indicate that it's a gift and i um, i think, no i don't think it i don't think it's i don't think it's looked down upon but i think in terms of um, i just i really don't like, um, when they say, it jui mean it's archaic language obviously but when they say he knew he lay with her it just seems like, a chore […] (les605su080) in the next section, attention will be focused on the contextual use of think, the most representative epistemic lexical verb in the corpus (51.08%, more than half of the total number of occurrences and a frequency of 24.5 items per 10,000 words) to interpret the functional variability and pragmatic implications of this epistemic marker within the context of academic lectures. pragmatic dimension of epistemic lexical verbs think emerges as the most salient epistemic lexical verb marker in our corpus and performs several communicative functions. primarily, think is a recurrent epistemic stance marker and commonly indexes the speakers’ opinion about the content, a characteristic function of academic speech where lecturers, as members of a discourse community, indicate degree of certainty, comment on the evidence, assess knowledge, or commit themselves towards the information presented in a more subjective and persuasive manner. this position of stance is also associated with personal authority and power but since speakers limit their claims to their personal opinion they also give their audience freedom to refute or disagree with them. therefore, the principle of solidarity usually reflected in this instructional genre (swales, 1990) is not disrupted. in examples 25 and 26 speakers give their own tentative views about the content. on some occasions, meanings are blurred and it is not clear whether the utterance is a declaration of opinion or of uncertainty, as in example 26. (25)[…] the meaning of the metaphor with um the rabbinic metaphor or a feminist metaphor or if there's like, a mix of both. i think i think it probably could be a mix of both like, i think both interpretations are valuable i think like, the feminist interpretation is […] (les605su080) (26)[…] make the bass rise by half steps until he gets there. okay same kind of thing going on here only i don't think it's very funny. i don't think it would be much exaggeration at all to say that that one interval the rising half step is the basis of the development section. (les420mg134) the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 139 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 139 at other times, rather than expressing evaluation towards content, think acts as an attitude marker to convey more personal views and feelings. this function is typical of conversational exchanges but it is also present in academic settings. through attitude markers lecturers rather than conveying judgment towards content, show alliances with the information. speakers make use of interpersonal resources to establish relations with audiences and index their own point of views, which promotes conviviality. we can also note that this verb in the affirmative encodes some kind of agreement or certainty whereas disagreement and uncertainty correlate more with negative forms. according to nattinger and decarrico (1992), ‘i think’ is one of the most frequent lexical phrases used in lectures for signaling agreement and disagreement. in example 27 uncertainty seems to be close to criticism towards previous views on the bible whereas example 28 reveals more some degree of likelihood. in both examples think anticipates lexical markers of evaluation. (27)[…] ch on the rabbinic um, research of it. but um ... yno i i don't think that the bible is wholly againanti, sexuality. but i do think that, um, it's, very cautious maybe even overly cautious. in a modern sense. (les605su080) (28)[…] okay. uh he's a lotta fun. i think i think ueda akinari's interesting. uh cuz his plots are so interesting they have such interesting twists. uh house amid the thickets […] (lel140su074) a further functional variable of “think” corresponds to that of metadiscourse device to organize and signal discourse conveniently as suggested by schiffrin, 1980; crismore et al., 1993; mauranen, 2001; swales and malczewski, 2001, and simpson, 2004, among others. these discourse management elements are part of the rhetoric of this genre and proliferate in pedagogic settings where an effective transmission of information is aimed at. again, speakers resort to the interpersonal elements of language to establish rapport with audiences about the upcoming speech, draw attention towards some specific aspects or demand participation and feedback. in example 29 think appears as an attention-getter to make things salient to students and in example 30 it is used to seek for students’ participation by eliciting their response. in both instances think forms part of metadiscourse elements enhancing teacher classroom control. (29)[…] tita chencha and john dried the bedroom, the stairs, and the bottom floor. and so it goes from stairs to stairs. i think that this section is really a paradigm for the way the whole book functions. (lel300su076) (30)[…] hold it within the vesicle so that it can't be targeted ...? you're whispering the answer, what? whatta you think? no, you don't know? the cholesterol for (xx) yes, l-d-l receptors. (lel175su106) a recurrent pragmatic functional category of think in the corpus is that of hedging the discourse in various ways. hedges (hyland, 1996, 1998; markkanen & schröder, maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144140 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 140 1997) constitute rhetorical elements aimed at avoiding categorical claims and diminishing the force of bald assertions which fit perfectly in spoken genres. it is usually hard to pinpoint the exact purpose of hedges since their meanings commonly overlap but they are frequently intended to: � show cautious positions and tentativeness, allowing students to contradict speaker’s opinions (e.g. ‘i think this is a kind of complicated uh uh statement’; ‘i think it’s not perhaps quite as clear as in the english’; ‘i don’t think it’s looked down upon’ …) � make criticism smoother (e.g. ‘your statement was a little, i thought, overgeneral’; ‘i think you’re grown ups, some of you, i think, have gone to great pains and at great length’ …) � give advice or recommendations that would otherwise sound too pushy (e.g. ‘i don’t think i have to read it verbatim’; ‘i think you would much more quickly get more’ …) � show sympathy and agreement (e.g. ‘i think what you are saying makes sense’ …) � simply appear vague or ambiguous (e.g. ‘i think that’s sort of what is going on’; ‘we think we know what’s real what reality is, something which has a little bit of i would think a folksy element’ …) in truth, we observe in the corpus that lecturers generally adopt positions of modesty; therefore, most of the meanings of hedges can be related to politeness (brown & levinson, 1987) enabling speakers not to impinge on the negative face of audiences by manifesting too harsh assertions. in this example the lecturer’s avoidance of categorical positions is evinced by the use of several hedges additionally downtoned by modals and adverbs. (31)[…] that pun is in the spanish and i think if you were only reading the english, you might just, you know think it's a typo. i don't know exactly what the translators should've done there, they could've called it fleambo instead of limbo or something […] (les300su103) finally, think appears as a discourse filler or floor maintaining filler (poos & simpson, 2002) at moments of hesitation, allowing speakers time to regain the flow of speech or at times when the transmission of information is not smooth. in this function think usually clusters in bundles with other epistemic markers and with additional discourse markers. indicators of spontaneous speech including pauses, reformulation, retrace and repair, stammering and repetitions are frequent as we can see in example 32 where the speaker seems to have probably lost the train of thought. the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 141 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 141 (32)[…] my question actually. um, i think i think that she's talking, i mean it's i think she's talking um, i think it's the bride and her friends are talking, uh, or um, her ... i think it's her friends actually, talking to her. right. (les605su080) undoubtedly, since stance markers overlap and bundle, it is particularly difficult in most cases to establish speakers’ real intentions and to pinpoint on the specific function think performs in the discourse. it is therefore more accurate to conclude that it is a multifunctional element to convey several communicative meanings. concluding remarks by tracing recurrent phraseological units in academic speech, corpus evidence showed that university lectures do not seem to be neutral or objective. on the contrary, this genre appears to be persuasive and highly evaluative making frequent use of elvs, among other devices, to index speakers’ personal stance. data suggested that among the items under study, judgmental verbs especially think were the most recurrent followed by much more sporadic elements such as not know, seem, suppose, assume and believe. also, in spite of the freedom and openness that characterizes the syntax and lexis of conversation, we found patterns associated to meanings. these verbs form distinctive lexical structures of use and recurrent patternings that correspond to semantic meanings. particularly salient was the use of these epistemic lexical verbs to frame that-clauses whose propositions they evaluate and to introduce other lexical markers of evaluation, mostly adjectives and adverbs. there was also a correlation of this structure with first person pronouns that make opinions more prone to criticism and give the discourse a flavor of subjectiveness. the analysis also showed how these units cluster at moments making bundles to attain their purposes more effectively. from a pragmatic viewpoint, elvs have shown to function as rhetorical devices that help connecting language to producers establishing participatory relationships with audiences in various different ways. the pragmatic effects of stance as a linguistic enactment of interpersonal meanings have included in the analysis above evaluating messages, marking difficulties in the transmission of information, hedging the discourse and complying with politeness conventions. lecturers rather than adopting categorical positions seemed to manifest their views and project their own persona in a mitigated way, encouraging solidarity and fostering a participatory and convivial atmosphere within the classroom. on pedagogical grounds, this small scale study has shed some light on the convenience of instructing students into recurrent phraseology and into the maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144142 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 142 the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 143 pragmatic meanings elvs convey. moreover, the study might make us think of this category of lexical verbs as an essential open typology to mark stance positions that should be paid attention to in the curricula. in all, non-native speakers should be aware of the role stance markers perform in order to avoid pragmatic failure and being at the risk of sounding too categorical or impolite in their exchanges. acknowledgments thanks are due to dr. g. r. ferguson (university of sheffield) for his sound advice on the analysis of elvs and to dr. c. pérez-llantada (university of zaragoza) for her comments on previous drafts of this paper. i also want to express my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers of ibérica for their helpful suggestions. 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(1986). evidentiality: the linguistic coding of epistemology. norwood, nj: ablex. conrad, s. & d. biber (2000). “adverbial marking of stance in speech and writing” in hunston & thompson (eds.), 56-73. crismore, a., r. markkanen & m. steffensen (1993). “metadiscourse in persuasive writing: a study of texts written by american and finnish university students.” written communication 10,1: 39-71. givón, t. (1993). english grammar: a functional-based introduction, vol. 2. amsterdam: john benjamins. halliday, m. a. k. (1994). an introduction to functional grammar. london: arnold. holmes, j. (1988). “doubt and certainty in esl textbooks.” applied linguistics 91: 20-44. hunston, s. (1994). “evaluation and organization in a sample of written academic discourse” in m. coulthard (ed.), advances in written text analysis, 191-218. london: routledge. hunston, s. & j. sinclair (2000). “a local grammar of evaluation” in hunston & thompson (eds.), 74-101. hunston, s. & g. thompson (eds.) 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(2004). “stylistic features of academic speech: the role of formulaic expressions” in u. connor & t. a. upton (eds.), discourse in the professions: perspectives from corpus linguistics, 37-64. amsterdam: john benjamins. sinclair, j. m. (1991). corpus concordance collocation. oxford: oxford university press. swales, j. m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j. m. & b. malczewski (2001). “discourse management and new-episode flags in micase” in r. c. simpson & j. m. swales (eds.), corpus linguistics in north america. selections from the 1999 symposium, 145-164. ann arbor: university of michigan. swales, j. m. & a. burke (2003). “‘it’s really fascinating work’: differences in evaluative adjectives across academic registers” in p. leistyna & c.f. meyer (eds.), corpus analysis. language structure and language use, 1-18. amsterdam – new york: john benjamins. 1 hyland (1998) and biber et al. (1999) agree that think, know, seem, suppose, assume and believe are recurrent in conversational settings. 2 according to micase index of transcripts, the lectures used for this research correspond to the following file identification and file names: lel115ju090: intro anthropology lecture lel140su074: japanese literature lecture lel175su106: biology of cancer lecture lel185su066: behavior theory management lecture lel220juo71: intro communication lecture lel300su076: fantasy in literature lecture lel500ju034: intro psychology lecture les280jg138: labor economics lecture les300su103: american literature lecture les330jg052: graduate industrial operations engineering lecture les420mg134: beethoven lecture les485mg006: graduate physics lecture les495ju063: political science lecture les605su080: women in the bible lecture 3 these mental and cognitive verbs are the most frequent in our corpus and include think, believe, assume, suppose, suspect... notas 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 144 redalyc.exploring professional collaboration at the boundary between content and language teaching from a chat approach ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa moore, emilee; ploettner, joan; deal, mandy exploring professional collaboration at the boundary between content and language teaching from a chat approach ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 85-103 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542005 how to cite complete issue more information about this article journal's homepage in redalyc.org scientific information system network of scientific journals from latin america, the caribbean, spain and portugal non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542005 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542005 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542005 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract different ways in which the integration of content and language emerges within higher education language policies and classroom teaching and learning are well studied in the literature, as are methods and techniques that could be useful in classrooms to scaffold the accomplishment of dual learning objectives. however very little attention has been paid to exploring the complexities emerging during collaboration at the boundary between teaching professionals from different areas of expertise, and this is potentially even more so in higher education. attending to this gap, this article presents the first results of a professional development experience being carried out at a catalan university promoting english medium instruction, which aimed at increasing collaboration between language and subject lecturers at the boundary of content and language teaching across degree programs. the experience involved formalised pairing-up of content and language specialists working within the same degree program for focussed discussion on the planning and implementation of their respective subjects. the experience provides insight into teacher cognition – or what teachers think, know, and believe, and the relationship this potentially has with their classroom action – and into how interdisciplinary dialogue may be supported to prompt its transformation. key words: higher education clil; interdisciplinary dialogue; teacher cognition; cultural historical activity theory (chat). resumen e x pl o ra r l a c o l ab or ac ió n p ro f e s io na l e n l a f ro nt e ra e ntr e l a e ns e ña nz a d e c on te ni do s y l e ng ua d e s de un e nf o que b as a do e n l a te o rí a de l a a c ti v i da d exploring professional collaboration at the boundary between content and language teaching from a chat approach emilee moore, joan ploettner and mandy deal universitat internacional de catalunya and universitat autònoma de barcelona, spain esmoore@uic.es, jploettner@uic.es & mdeal@uic.es 85 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 85 ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104 e. moore, j. ploettner & m. deal en la literatura académica han sido bien estudiadas las diferentes formas en las que la integración de contenidos académicos y una lengua extranjera emerge en las políticas lingüísticas de las universidades y en la docencia. también lo son los métodos y técnicas que podrían ser útiles en las aulas para la consecución de los dobles objetivos de aprendizaje: contenido y lengua. sin embargo, se ha prestado muy poca atención a la exploración de las complejidades que emergen en la colaboración entre profesionales de diferentes áreas de conocimiento, más aún si se trata de educación superior. atendiendo a este déficit, aquí se presentan los primeros resultados de una experiencia de desarrollo profesional que se lleva a cabo en una universidad catalana que promueve la enseñanza de contenidos en inglés y que tiene como objetivo aumentar la colaboración entre profesores de lengua y profesores de contenidos específicos en la frontera entre sus respectivas actividades. la experiencia implica el emparejamiento formal de especialistas de contenido y lengua dentro del mismo plan de estudios para facilitar el diálogo sobre la planificación y ejecución de sus respectivas materias. el análisis empírico de dicha experiencia permite indagar en la cognición de los profesores – lo que piensan, saben y creen, y la relación que ésta podría tener con su acción en el aula – y en cómo el diálogo interdisciplinario podría facilitarse para llevar a la transformación de la misma. palabras clave: aicle en la educación superior; diálogo interdisciplinario; cognición de los profesores; teoría de la actividad. 1. introduction 1.1. introducing additional language medium higher education different resolutions and action plans coming out of european institutions in recent decades have aimed to address issues of cultural and linguistic diversity and language learning within a context of globalisation. such policies push for training plurilingual and pluricultural citizens ready for engaging in transnational encounters as a pillar of european cohesion and economic growth. one of the solutions to learning additional languages that has most resonated in recent times as a result of such concerns is the introduction of new languages in classrooms through different immersion approaches, or what is often referred to as content and language integrated learning (clil). the term clil was coined in the mid-1990s as an umbrella description for good bi/multilingual pedagogical approaches that could be adopted in a wide variety of educational settings, although it is most often identified with compulsory levels of education. clil is defined broadly as a dual-focused teaching and learning approach in which an additional language 86 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 86 is used in constructing both content and language knowledge (coyle, hood & marsh, 2010). the rationale supporting the adoption of this framework is multi-fold. in theoretical terms, the genesis of clil can be traced in communicative and socio-cultural approaches to second language teaching. in practical terms and at the institutional level, the main justifications for clil are based on the premise that teaching certain subject matter in another language means increasing language learning time but not decreasing content class hours; in other words, clil enhances higher language skills at a faster rate and without dominating the curriculum with language classes (coyle et al., 2010). it also means that students can have higher exposure to the foreign language as well as to authentic subject-related materials and tasks in that language, all of which ultimately leads to more authentic interaction (escobar urmeneta, 2004). in terms of content, it is claimed that the potential difficulties or the “opacity” resulting from teaching in an additional language provide novel opportunities for engaging with the “density” of the subject matter and, hence, for knowledge construction (gajo, 2007; moore, nussbaum & borràs, 2013; moore, 2014). furthermore, with such intensive learning of content in other languages, it is thought that students become better prepared for future interaction in a multicultural and linguistically diverse global work force (marsh, 2002). clil at the university level in europe remains an emerging educational context that has evolved from the same eu guidelines and language policies. both globalisation and the bologna process have changed the expectations for university education and for clil approaches to language and content teaching (smit, 2010). like clil at other educational levels, language and content integration in university curricula can appear in many different forms with models ranging from adjunct courses to simple theme-based lessons or lectures given entirely in an additional language. the choice of model depends on the aims, needs and cultural context of each centre. unlike clil in primary and secondary schools, the student populations have already acquired certain academic and language skills and are preparing to become active members of more globalised professional communities. therefore, education for students at this level should have a greater focus on language use in relevant academic and professional domains (dafouz & núñez, 2009). clil practices reflecting these needs have included themebased language courses, language for specific purposes (lsp), contentbased courses and genre-based courses taught by language specialists. exploring professional collaboration ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104 87 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 87 a further clil approach that is becoming more prevalent in european university curricula is additional language medium instruction in content courses taught by content specialists (räisänen & fortanet-gómez, 2008). the language that most university programs have chosen as the vehicle for such courses has been english, and thus the denomination english medium instruction (emi) is commonly used (wilkinson & zegers, 2008). decisions to adopt emi courses have been based on a variety of reasons and influences, such as the impelling force of globalisation (coleman, 2006) in which english has become a lingua franca among international markets and other social communities. many universities adopt emi courses to fulfil the student mobility goals of the bologna process. coleman (2006) lists further catalysts for these curricular innovations at the higher education level, such as availability of teaching and research materials, staff mobility, graduate employability, and attracting the international student market. the higher education context in spain – and in particular in catalonia, where this study was carried out – parallels trends observed in the rest of europe. the current decrease in student enrolment has had a further impact on decisions to include clil in the curricula; universities have sought to implement courses taught through the medium of an additional language in order to attract local future university students who are keenly aware of the language needs for employability (dafouz & núñez, 2009) as well as students from abroad. undergraduate degrees that include bilingual components were initially introduced in private tertiary institutions in the mid-1990s and have only recently spread into the public universities (dafouz & núñez, 2009). it would seem evident that in order for clil to operate effectively in university contexts, educators should recognise a need for interdisciplinary collaboration, specifically between content and language specialists, and advocate for the creation of venues through which such cooperation could thrive. achieving this type of interaction is not an easy endeavour in a spanish university setting, where an interdisciplary tradition does not exist (fortanet-gómez, 2011). 1.2. the research context the university where the authors are employed as language specialists and where this research was conducted is no different from other universities in the european context in terms of its aims for internationalisation, though it e. moore, j. ploettner & m. deal ibérica 30 (2015): 85-10488 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 88 is set in a bilingual region where catalan and spanish are official, and where catalan, spanish and english are working languages at universities. it is a young, private university whose curriculum has included clil (lsp, emi) courses in english since its inauguration in 1997, some of which are taught by language department teachers. recent action plans have targeted internationalisation as a goal towards which stronger efforts should be placed over the next several years, aiming for at least 20% of teaching to be done in english. this places greater pressure on faculties to increase english medium content teaching. there is further pressure on faculties to ensure the quality of their content teaching in english, which is increasingly translated into a need for official certification of teachers’ english level. outcomes and experiences of english medium content courses at the university have not been consistent. while many faculty members have expressed interest in giving full or partial courses in that language, some have spoken of disappointing outcomes. professors and administrators alike have expressed concerns that students do not have high enough levels of english to understand the content. other professors have perceived their own language skills to be lacking in regards to being able to lecture about material with the normal depth to which they are accustomed. furthermore, they feel unable to ‘ad lib’ or share relevant and humorous anecdotes to make the material more interesting. such views reflect those reported in other studies about clil in european university settings (e.g. airey & linder, 2006; dafouz & núñez, 2010; jensen & thøgersen, 2011). the fact that content teachers are assuming part of the responsibility for additional language teaching places new demands on, and implies a new role for, university language departments. apart from developing students’ scientific and professional discourse competence in english through discipline specific content across degree programs and overseeing language certification processes, the language department at the university studied has also been assigned the task of improving training for professors teaching their disciplines in english; that is, to share know-how as language specialists in training content professors to teach through english. in addition to supporting general communicative competences in english and providing initial training for teaching content in english, the plan developed and put in place in the 2012/2013 academic year was designed to increase collaboration between language and subject specialists in order to boost the quality of clil teaching by both faculty and language department teachers. gustafsson et al. (2011) claim that this type of collaboration is challenging exploring professional collaboration ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104 89 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 89 for faculty for different reasons, including those linked to infrastructural, institutional, epistemological, disciplinary and rhetorical contingencies. precisely due to this complexity, it warrants empirical examination. this paper presents the first results of a professional development experience being carried out at the university with the explicit goal of fomenting micro-level partnerships at the boundary of content and language teaching across degree programs. the experience involves formalised pairing-up of 1 or 2 content experts and a language specialist involved in english medium instruction within the same degree program for focussed discussion on the planning and implementation of their respective subjects. this initiative is referred to as “development groups for teaching in english”. the development groups (henceforth dgs) were conceived – one of the authors of this paper was part of the initial conceptualisation and implementation – within a rationale of reciprocity and mutual development. the theoretical role of the expert in teaching english as an additional language, as was explained in writing to participants at the beginning of the experience, is: • to help identify aspects of their peers’ english that need development and to offer linguistic support and suggestions for self-improvement; • to help identify aspects of their peers’ performance as a teacher in english in need of development and to propose methodological strategies and insights from their own experience of managing second language classrooms; • to draw on their peers’ expertise in the teaching of academic content for the improvement of their own classroom practice and the development of relevant and up-to-date teaching/learning materials. the role of the expert in teaching academic contents a priori is: • to share their expertise in the academic content for the improvement of their peers’ classroom practice and their development of relevant and up-to-date teaching/learning materials and methods; e. moore, j. ploettner & m. deal ibérica 30 (2015): 85-10490 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 90 • to help identify aspects of their own english that need development and to be open to receive linguistic support and suggestions for self-improvement; • to help identify aspects of their own performance as a teacher in english in need of development and to be willing to try out new methodological strategies for managing second language classrooms. the duration of the dgs is limited to one semester, renewable depending on participants’ commitment and their on-going priorities. groups should meet face-to-face for up to 10 hours (usually 10 meetings) within the same semester, at a time and place agreed on by the members. it is the responsibility of all members to arrange meetings, to attend them punctually, and to keep track of the time spent. additionally, the expert in teaching academic content may request that the expert in teaching english provide revision of written teaching materials in english for up to 10 hours within the semester. at the beginning of the experience, participants are encouraged to observe their partner’s classes and to conceive of the dgs as an opportunity for collaborative action research. in its simplest form, action research is something teachers do every time they plan a class, deliver it, observe their students’ performance and reflect on what needs to be done next time. in a more complex form, it is a conscious plan for self-development and a grass root, participatory way of driving educational theory and advancement (see, for example, cohen, manion & morrison, 2007). in the following section, the conceptual framework used to understand the dgs as a space for mutual professional development is discussed, before turning to the data. 2. dialogical knowledge at the boundary between activity systems this research is essentially concerned with teacher cognition, or what teachers think, know and believe, and the relationship this potentially has with their classroom action (borg, 2003), how it comes to light and how it changes through participation in the dgs. the genesis of the approach to exploring professional collaboration ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104 91 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 91 cognition and cognitive development taken in this article is owed to vygotsky, who taught us that social interaction – including the human endowment for speech, gesture, and other symbolic means of communication – is the embryo of cognitive development and the place for its study. his notion of mediation, or “the process through which humans deploy culturally constructed artefacts, concepts and activities to regulate (i.e. gain voluntary control over and transform) the material world or their own and each other’s social and mental activity” (lantolf & thorne, 2006: 79), was ground-breaking for the learning sciences. this is because, according to engeström (2001: 134): the insertion of cultural artifacts into human actions was revolutionary in that the basic unit of analysis now overcame the split between the cartesian individual and the untouchable societal structure. the individual could no longer be understood without his or her cultural means; and the society could no longer be understood without the agency of individuals who use and produce artifacts. since vygotsky, the notion of mediation has been explained and adapted by his colleagues and contemporaries, for example in cultural historical activity theory (chat), the origins of which are usually traced to the work of leonte’v and the development of which is attributed in large part to engeström. whereas vygotsky focused on the dialogic mediation between subject, tool and object, activity theory provides for three additional units of analysis for understanding learning processes: rules, community and division of labour. in this paper, third generation chat (engeström, 2001) is particularly inspirational in conceptualising content teaching in english and teaching english through content as two separate cultural activities, or activity systems (see figure 1). although these two activity systems are complex in themselves, involving for example, different disciplinary traditions, different roles within the institution and different relationships with institutional requirements, taking two activity systems as the unit of action and analysis allows attention to be paid to the intersection or third space (akkerman & bakker, 2011) emerging between them. the literature on chat refers to this bridging between intersecting practices as boundary crossing. in this regard, the dgs are considered both a practical initiative to promote boundary crossing and as a privileged site for exploring vital forces of professional development. e. moore, j. ploettner & m. deal ibérica 30 (2015): 85-10492 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 92 that is, the dgs are conceived of as facilitating interdisciplinary, dialogical knowledge – in the bakhtinian sense – in relation to the shared object of english medium or clil instruction. as such, they may be considered as a site where teacher cognition in relation to the object may be traced and potentially restructured and transformed for the benefit of classroom practice. as akkerman and bakker (2011: 137) point out, the notion of dialogicality “[…] comes to the fore in the various claims on the value of boundaries and boundary crossing for learning: learning as a process that involves multiple perspectives and multiple parties”. according to these same authors, different mechanisms or procedures constituting the learning potential of boundary crossing – which they refer to as identification, coordination, reflection and transformation – may be traced in the research literature. of these phenomena, transformation is most fitting in terms of the experience presented in this article. according to akkerman and bakker (2011), it follows a process starting with confrontation with a difficulty forcing reconsideration of present practices and interrelations, leading to the recognition of a shared problem space facilitating the creation of new hybrid practices and their consolidation, or the fusion of reinforced established knowledge with new practices. for transformation to happen, most research has pointed to the need for shared work at the boundaries to continue over time (akkerman & bakker, 2011). exploring professional collaboration ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104 93 exploring professional collaboration ibérica 30 (2015): …-… understood without his or her cultural means; and the society could no longer be understood without the agency of individuals who use and produce artifacts. since vygotsky, the notion of mediation has been explained and adapted by his colleagues and contemporaries, for example in cultural historical activity theory (chat), the origins of which are usually traced to the work of leonte’v and the development of which is attributed in large part to engeström. whereas vygotsky focused on the dialogic mediation between subject, tool and object, activity theory provides for three additional units of analysis for understanding learning processes: rules, community and division of labour. in this paper, third generation chat (engeström, 2001) is particularly inspirational in conceptualising content teaching in english and teaching english through content as two separate cultural activities, or activity systems (see figure 1). figure 1. content and language teaching as two activity systems meeting at the boundaries of english medium instruction. although these two activity systems are complex in themselves, involving for example, different disciplinary traditions, different roles within the institution and different relationships with institutional requirements, taking two activity systems as the unit of action and analysis allows attention to be paid to the intersection or third space (akkerman & bakker, 2011) emerging between them. the literature on chat refers to this bridging between intersecting practices as boundary crossing. in this regard, the dgs are considered both a practical initiative to promote boundary crossing and as a privileged site for exploring vital forces of professional development. that is, the dgs are conceived of as facilitating interdisciplinary, dialogical knowledge – in the bakhtinian sense – in relation to the shared object of english medium or clil instruction. as such, they may be considered as a site where 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 93 finally, the analysis presented in the following section will also refer to the notion of boundary objects (star, 1989; star & griesemer, 1989) to speak about the material or conceptual mediating tools that are functional in bridging boundary practices. according to the definition by star and griesemer (1989: 393): boundary objects are objects which are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites. they are weakly structured in common use, and become strongly structured in individual-site use. they may be abstract or concrete. they have different meanings in different social worlds but their structure is common enough to more than one world to make them recognizable, a means of translation. the creation and management of boundary objects is key in developing and maintaining coherence across intersecting social worlds. in the data presented, such boundary objects mostly encompass material tools facilitating interdisciplinary dialogue such as lecture notes and video recordings of mock lessons, but may also be more abstract tools such as conceptual and methodological knowledge and discipline specific terminology in english. before looking at the data, the objectives and the methodological approach taken in this research are overviewed. 3. research objectives and methodology the purpose of this paper is to present some preliminary findings based on the experience of the first 18 months of the dg initiative. like the dgs themselves, the objectives of this research paper may be considered within an action research framework. that is, as davison (2006) remarks, except for a growing corpus of research on university teaching through the medium of an additional language, or clil, very little attention has been paid to exploring the complexities of collaboration at the boundaries between teaching professionals from different fields of expertise. thus, the action planned and put into practice in the form of the dgs responds to both practical concerns and a theoretical gap. by taking an empirical stance in evaluating the initial experience, we seek to inform the future approach to the dgs and offer transferable insights for better clil in higher education in this setting and beyond. e. moore, j. ploettner & m. deal ibérica 30 (2015): 85-10494 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 94 specifically, in the following section a single case study is presented of collaboration between an expert in dentistry1 and one of the authors, an expert in english who has an academic and professional background in the health sciences. the data are field notes collected ethnographically by the language-teaching specialist while participating in the experience. video recordings of the meetings were also collected and have been referred to throughout the analytical process; however transcripts of this data will not be included in this initial presentation of results nor will they be discussed. the research at this stage is exploratory and attempts to gauge some of the tensions emerging in the dialogical space created by the dgs between professionals from different backgrounds as well as to identify some of the boundary objects facilitating dialogue as an opportunity for the transformation of teaching practices. the questions addressed in this paper are: how do professionals from different backgrounds organise their dialogue at the boundaries? what do the professionals have cognitions about in relation to the practice of teaching through the medium of english? (how) are these cognitions restructured in dialogue over time? (how) may this transform teaching practice? the main findings are presented in the following section. 4. results at the time of registration in the training, content teachers interested in taking part in the dgs are asked to complete a form providing certain information about the class they are teaching in english and their reasons for wanting to take part in the experience. according to the information received from the content teacher focussed on here, the class she teaches in english has 92 undergraduate health science students, all of whom are local students and have a broad range of proficiencies in english. the class is delivered as a lecture. when asked for the main aspects of her teaching that she wanted to focus on in the dg, the teacher responded: extract 1, registration form: parlar i comunciar bé als alumnes (translation: to speak and communicate well with students) in total, 5 face to face dg meetings were carried out between the content and language specialist between october 2013 and february 2014 (semester 1), and these are what are focused on here. although the meetings could exploring professional collaboration ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104 95 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 95 have continued in semester two, the teachers faced practical difficulties (e.g. increased workload, schedule conflicts) in sustaining their collaboration. the aim of the first of the meetings in semester 1, according to the field notes, was to meet, set objectives and organise a plan. the language expert alludes to certain issues – her partner’s competence in english and language certification (an institutional requirement), her strategies for learning english, and her partner’s idea that lecturing in english means just translating teaching material to that language – that emerged in the dialogue in this session. at this point, speaking and communicating well with students, the aim identified by the content teacher when registering for the dg, seem to be concerns linked to her general competence in english. the following extracts are from the field notes taken by the language specialist. extract 1, field notes session 1: she expresses insecurity with her grammar knowledge and writing skills. she has no official certification of her level. extract 2, field notes session 1: we started out by discussing how she is currently studying english. extract 3, field notes session 1: she has given me digital copies of two related articles and the powerpoint presentation for one 2-hour session she plans to teach in english. [extract from notes omitted]. she proposes “translating” part of the material to english and presenting it to me in the next session. thus, in this first session, the orientation seems clearly towards a definition of the object shared by the two teaching professionals at the boundary of their practices as a concern with general linguistic correction on behalf of the content teacher – grammar and writing, adequate translation of written course materials, etc. – rather than with any shared methodological issues. the field notes from session 2 suggest that this concern remains, and is perhaps strengthened by the omnipresence of an institutional push for content teachers to certify their level of (general) english through an upcoming official examination (referred to as cluc in the extracts). the field notes also indicate, however, an expansion of the definition of language to include a preoccupation with domain specific terminology. extract 4, field notes session 2: she had not prepared the slides she was planning on preparing for this session. when i arrived she was translating them. we started out by translating some of them together for about 10-15 minutes. extract 5, field notes session 2: the rest of the session she gave her lecture with the slides in spanish, i corrected language, pronunciation, and asked e. moore, j. ploettner & m. deal ibérica 30 (2015): 85-10496 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 96 questions to clarify concepts. we referred to the hard copies of the articles i had brought to identify correct vocabulary and use of english. extract 6, field notes session 2: at the end of the session she commented that she has enrolled for the cluc exam on nov 29 and asked if i could help her to prepare for the writing section. in expanding the shared object beyond purely linguistic concerns to the specific words used in english to encapsulate conceptual meaning, it appears that the lecture notes and the scientific articles in english become fundamental boundary objects for focusing the discussion. the field notes from the third session reveal the development of a new tension that seems to somewhat displace previous concerns with general linguistic competence: what adaptations need to be made when delivering content lectures in english to facilitate students’ comprehension extract 7, field notes session 3: we met in a classroom and [teacher’s name ommitted] gave in english a large part of her lecture on [topic ommitted], using the power point slides she had “translated” into english from spanish. before the lecture she explained to me that her “method” of preparing lectures in english at congresses is to read a lot of material related to her topic. she does not memorize her lecture, she speaks spontaneously. extract 8, field notes session 3: i actively listened. i had a hard copy of the power point slides to take notes on. i had previously read the two articles she had sent me about the subject and had seen the same powerpoint slides in spanish. i was generally able to follow the lecture she gave. i think i will speak to her about the importance of providing written support to students who will be attending a session in l2. extract 9, field notes session 3: she seemed very comfortable lecturing in english, and is even able to give anecdotal examples to clarify the concepts she presents. extract 10, field notes session 3: [teacher’s name ommitted] is a fast lecturer and presents a large amount of information. it has occurred to me that perhaps she needs to spend a bit more time paraphrasing and doing comprehension checks when she presents in english. extract 11, field notes session 3: [teacher’s name ommitted] mispronounces some key vocabulary [terms omitted] and has some difficulty expressing some concepts in english, but most of the time these difficulties do not obscure understanding exploring professional collaboration ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104 97 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 97 session 3 thus appears to offer transformative potential in the sense that confrontation with a problem extending beyond general and content specific language difficulties may be discerned, that is, how the content teacher prepares for and delivers her lectures in english and whether the methodology employed is conducive to students’ learning. the emergence of a new, jointly constructed boundary object, being the video recording of the mock lecture given by the content teacher, may also be observed. this joint attention could arguably force reconsideration of and adaptations to present practices, or transformation. however, the notes from session 4 urge caution in making such judgments. here, it may again be observed how concern with the institutional requirement for content teachers to certify their level of english re-orients the focus on the dg discussions to general (examinable) competences in that language. this apprehension about the content teacher’s general linguistic competence supersedes the activity planned for that session, being to comment on the boundary object of the video of a mock lecture recorded in the previous session. extract 12, field notes session 4: i came prepared to revise with her the video of the lecture she gave in our last session. [teacher’s name ommitted], however, wanted to focus on preparing for the cluc today. she has the exam on nov 29 and is worried about obtaining a b2 level, which she needs in order to teach. the fifth and final session examined here suggests persisting tensions as to the shared objective of the dg. on the one hand, the notes taken by the language expert suggest a reinforced orientation towards the way that the content teacher delivers her lectures in english. she quite clearly defines recordings of the lectures that she has made together with her partner as the boundary object that should guide the collaboration, and the modification of certain teaching strategies being used by the content teacher as a goal of the dg sessions. this shift in orientation is not as clear in the case of the content teacher, who appears to remain focused on general and specific linguistic aspects of her practice. having already sat for the exam, certification no longer emerges as a concern. furthermore, it is revealing that the language experts’ own teaching practices are not oriented to by either participant as a focal point for the discussions, despite reciprocity and mutual development being explicit aims of the dgs from an institutional perspective. e. moore, j. ploettner & m. deal ibérica 30 (2015): 85-10498 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 98 extract 13, field notes session 5: when i first arrived she was working at her computer writing an email in response to a request for student exchange with a university from russia. she asked me to help her write the email and i did. extract 14, field notes session 5: mainly i wanted to give her the positive message that she is understandable, but that her pacing is very fast. i wanted to impress upon her that since she is lecturing in l2, she needs to go slowly, check understanding, and repeat important points. she said she understands these concepts, but later, when she started to give her presentation again, she continued to speak very quickly with little information to orient sts. as a first step i am insisting in her introducing the topic of each slide before she starts explaining the content. she did start to do this in this session. extract 15, field notes session 5: i also spoke to her about the need to plan the amount of material she will present. [extract from notes ommitted]. she agrees that she needs to edit her material. extract 16, field notes session 5: [teacher’s name ommitted] needs help in organizing her thought. i saw this when she explained the content of one slide to me. she needs to identify clearly the topic she is presenting (i did this with her at one point) and she needs to present her ideas in a more organized way. extract 17: she prefers to take notes on pronunciation and language feedback. the shifting, yet unresolved, tensions evolving at the boundaries between two professional practices across the five sessions explored in this results section may thus be summarised in the following diagram (figure 2). the diagram represents the major themes that the teachers participating had cognitions about during the sessions, as represented in the field notes. exploring professional collaboration ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104 99 exploring professional collaboration ibérica 30 (2015): …-… may thus be summarised in the following diagram (figure 2). the diagram represents the major themes that the teachers participating had cognitions about during the sessions, as represented in the field notes. figure 2. shifting tensions emerging in the dg sessions. 5. conclusion as was discussed above, both the dgs and this research have been conceived within an action research framework, responding to both to practical concerns and a theoretical gap in terms of development through collaboration between professionals from different disciplinary traditions involved in teaching through the medium of an additional language. recalling gustafsson et al. (2011), this type of collaboration in clil (lsp, emi, etc.) settings – in particular in higher education – is considered challenging for different reasons, and this could be one explanation for the lack of research in this area identified by authors such as davison (2006). taking a chat approach has made it possible for the dgs to be conceptualised as a potentially boundary crossing initiative bridging activity systems of content and language teaching. at the same time, it allows tensions linked to participants’ different disciplinary backgrounds, their relationships to institutional requirements (e.g. certification), and the definition of their roles within the broader activity of teaching in english, among others, to be taken into account within a theory of cognition and cognitive development. the first results of this research, summarised in figure 2, suggest shifting yet unresolved tensions in terms of how the joint work within the dg is defined, or as to the cognitions displayed by the two teaching professionals in regards to their shared object. it has also allowed the identification of certain boundary objects – scientific articles, mock lectures – that might facilitate the construction of shared problem spaces. yet, following the process towards transformation identified by akkerman and bakker (2011), the dialogic work has not yet led to the creation of new hybrid practices and their consolidation, nor to the fusion of reinforced established knowledge with new practices. it would appear that the participants are still in the process of negotiating their third space, which would strengthen the potential for the dgs to impact on both content teaching through english and english teaching through content, the latter being an aspect that is 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 99 5. conclusion as was discussed above, both the dgs and this research have been conceived within an action research framework, responding to both to practical concerns and a theoretical gap in terms of development through collaboration between professionals from different disciplinary traditions involved in teaching through the medium of an additional language. recalling gustafsson et al. (2011), this type of collaboration in clil (lsp, emi, etc.) settings – in particular in higher education – is considered challenging for different reasons, and this could be one explanation for the lack of research in this area identified by authors such as davison (2006). taking a chat approach has made it possible for the dgs to be conceptualised as a potentially boundary crossing initiative bridging activity systems of content and language teaching. at the same time, it allows tensions linked to participants’ different disciplinary backgrounds, their relationships to institutional requirements (e.g. certification), and the definition of their roles within the broader activity of teaching in english, among others, to be taken into account within a theory of cognition and cognitive development. the first results of this research, summarised in figure 2, suggest shifting yet unresolved tensions in terms of how the joint work within the dg is defined, or as to the cognitions displayed by the two teaching professionals in regards to their shared object. it has also allowed the identification of certain boundary objects – scientific articles, mock lectures – that might facilitate the construction of shared problem spaces. yet, following the process towards transformation identified by akkerman and bakker (2011), the dialogic work has not yet led to the creation of new hybrid practices and their consolidation, nor to the fusion of reinforced established knowledge with new practices. it would appear that the participants are still in the process of negotiating their third space, which would strengthen the potential for the dgs to impact on both content teaching through english and english teaching through content, the latter being an aspect that is not even contemplated in the data analysed. in other words, the field notes suggest no evidence of the reciprocal nature of the dgs, despite the teachers’ mutual development being a central aspect of their initial conceptualisation. the fact that both the person who initially planned the dgs and the language specialist contributing the data are also authors of this paper allows critical reflection as to why this may be so. e. moore, j. ploettner & m. deal ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104100 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 100 referring back to the chat framework, there was arguably ambiguity in the initial rules and guidelines provided only in writing to participants and an insufficiency in the specific tools (e.g. observation guides for observing each others’ classes) offered for stimulating boundary crossing though the dgs. another explanation for the shortcomings of the dg might be found in the institutional division of labour, with the content expert holding a higher academic position within the university hierarchy. this inequality of status led to the reluctance on the part of the language expert to impose previously agreed upon objectives for sessions or to push for a more bidirectional relationship. future groupings should thus seek greater symmetry in this regard. related to this, the significance of the two specialists’ domains of expertise (i.e. the teaching of english and the teaching of dentistry) also enjoys unequal recognition within the university. this arguably led to a dynamic within the dg in which the language expert did not want to “waste” her partner’s time by seeking feedback on her subjects, and the content expert did not take an interest in the subjects taught by her partner. however, in emphasising reciprocity in the dgs, the point is precisely to make the complex task engaged in by language teachers in developing students’ scientific and professional discourse competence visible to nonspecialists in this area. finally, certain institutional aspects (e.g. participants’ heavy workloads, changes in schedules across semesters, the reduced total number of hours assigned for the dgs) need more careful consideration in setting up the groups initially. the analysis does highlight the transformative potential of the dgs and therefore allows us to present a strong case for their continuation. furthermore, this research is in the process of being expanded through the interactional analysis of how the content and the language teachers’ ideas about teaching through the medium of english are constructed and potentially transformed through their interdisciplinary dialogue as it is entextualised in the form of audio-visual recordings. ongoing data collection from this and other dg experiences, including field notes and audio-visual data from both meetings and content and language classrooms, will also be used to compare different dg experiences, as well as the discourse constructed in meetings and actual classroom practices. this research will allow more light to be shed on aspects that may enhance or encumber the potential of dgs for transforming higher education clil. exploring professional collaboration ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104 101 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 101 acknowledgements this work was supported by the agaur-generalitat de catalunya under grant 1273 sgr 2009; spanish ministry of science and innovation (micinn) under grant edu2010-15783. article history: received 10 october 2014 received in revised form 10 march 2015 accepted 11 march 2015 references e. moore, j. ploettner & m. deal ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104102 airey, j. & c. linder (2006). “language and the experience of learning university physics in sweden”. european journal of physics 27: 553560. akkerman, s. & a. bakker (2011). “boundary crossing and boundary objects”. review of educational research 81,2: 132-169. borg, s. (2003). “teacher cognition in language teaching: a review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do”. language teaching 36,2: 81-109. cohen l., l. manion & k. morrison (2007). research methods in education. 6th edn. london: routledge-falmer. coleman, j. (2006). “english-medium teaching in european higher education”. language teaching 39,1: 1-14. coyle, d., p. hood & d. marsh (2010). clil: content and language integrated learning. cambridge: cambridge university press. dafouz, e. & b. núñez (2009). “clil in higher education: devising a new learning landscape” in e. dafouz & m. guerrini (eds.), clil across educational levels, 101-112. madrid: richmond publishing. dafouz, e. & b. núñez (2010). “metadiscursive devices in university lectures: a contrastive analysis of l1 and l2 teacher performance” in c. dalton-puffer, t. nikula & u. smit (eds.), language use and language learning in clil classrooms, 213-231. amsterdam, netherlands: john benjamins. davison, c. (2006). “collaboration between esl and content teachers: how do we know when we are doing it right?” international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism 9(4): 454475. engeström, y. (2001). “expansive learning at work: toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization”. journal of education and work 14: 133-156. escobar urmeneta, c. (2004). “content and language integrated learning. do they learn content? do they learn language?” proceedings from the xxi international conference aesla: 2738. fortanet-gomez, i. (2011). “critical components of integrating content and language in spanish higher education”. across the disciplines 8,3. url: http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/clil/fortanetgomez.cfm [9/03/2015] gajo, l. (2007). “linguistic knowledge and subject knowledge: how does bilingualism contribute to subject development?” international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism 10,5: 563581. gustafsson, m., a. eriksson, c. räisänen, a.c. stenberg, c. jacobs, j. wright, b. wyrley-birch & c. winberg (2011). “collaborating for content and language integrated learning: the situated character of faculty collaboration and student learning”. across the disciplines 8,3. url: http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/clil/gustafssonetal.cf m [08/10/2014] jensen, c. & j. thøgersen (2011). “danish university lecturers’ attitudes towards english as the medium of instruction”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 22: 13-34. lantolf, j.p. & s.l. thorne (2006). sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. oxford: oxford university press. marsh, d. (2002). “content and language integrated learning: the european dimension actions, trends and foresight potential”. url: 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 102 emilee moore is director of the language department at the uic and lecturer in education faculty at the uab. she is a member of the research group on plurilingual interaction and teaching (http://greip.uab.cat). she has extensive experience researching plurilingual interaction in general and higher education clil specifically, and has published in these areas in prestigious journals and books. joan ploettner is lecturer in the language department at the universitat internacional de catalunya. she has previous education and professional experience in the health sciences. she is currently carrying out her phd at the universitat autònoma de barcelona by exploring knowledge building communities in higher education english mediated instructional settings. mandy deal is assistant director in the language department at the uic. she has been involved in implementing the bologna process in the health sciences program at the uic for the last 12 years. she is carrying out her phd at the uab, exploring interactional competence and epistemic practices in academic group work among dental students in a clil program. notes 1 signed informed consent was obtained from the content teacher for this research to be conducted. the teacher also read, commented on and agreed to the results discussed in the draft version of this text. exploring professional collaboration ibérica 30 (2015): 85-104 103 http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/languages/in dex.html [08/10/2014] moore, e. (2014). “constructing content and language knowledge in plurilingual student teamwork: situated and longitudinal perspectives”. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism 17,5: 586-609. moore, e., l. nussbaum & e. borràs (2013). “plurilingual teaching and learning practices in ‘internationalised’ university lectures”. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism 16,4: 471-493. räisänen, c.a. & i. fortanet-gómez (2008). “the state of esp teaching and learning in western european higher education after bologna” in i. fortanet-gómez & c.a. räisänen (eds.), esp in european higher education: integrating language and content, 11-51. amsterdam: john benjamins. smit, u. (2010). english as a lingua franca in higher education: a longitudinal study of classroom discourse. berlin: mouton de gruyter. star, s.l. (1989). “the structure of ill-structured solutions: boundary objects and heterogeneous distributed problem solving” in l. gasser & m. huhns (eds.), distributed artificial intelligence, 3754. san mateo, ca: morgan kaufmann. star, s.l. & j.r. griesemer (1989). “institutional ecology, translations, and boundary objects: amateurs and professionals in berkeley’s museum of vertebrate zoology”. social studies of science 19,3: 387-420. wilkinson, r. & v. zegers (2008). “introduction” in r. wilkinson & v. zegers (eds.), realizing content and language integration in higher education, 19. maastricht: maastricht university. 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 103 06 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 104 iberica 13 ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the enactment of theoretical contribution in research articles (ras) is a critical academic writing practice for showcasing the scientific progress of a disciplinary field. to decide how novel research strengthens a discipline’s current state of knowledge necessitates evaluating the new empirical results based upon its specific academic norms. yet the academic values utilized to formulate theoretical advancement have been little studied in the literature. drawing upon pertinent evaluation frameworks, the purpose of this study is to uncover how ra authors negotiate the theoretical value of novel research by conducting a rhetorical analysis of 60 research article discussion sections taken from four prestigious management journals. the present investigation reveals a tentative taxonomy of six rhetorical appeal types deployed by ra authors to articulate the value of novel research in the knowledge market. the widespread use of these appeals in management research article discussion sections indicates that a strong promotional orientation is prevalent in the rhetoric of the journals examined. the findings of this research have theoretical and pedagogical implications for academic evaluation and promotion, as well as for teaching academic writing. keywords: academic value, theoretical contribution, academic evaluation, discussion section, academic discourse. resumen la construcción del valor teórico en las secciones de discusión de artículos de investigación en el área de las ciencias de la administración mostrar cuál es la contribución teórica de un artículo de investigación es una práctica de escritura académica fundamental para poner de manifiesto el progreso científico que se produce en una determinada disciplina. para decidir crafting theoretical value in management research article discussion sections fei-wen cheng national chiayi university (taiwan) chengfw@gmail.com 61 ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 fei-wen cheng en qué medida la nueva investigación refuerza el estado actual de conocimiento en una disciplina es necesario evaluar los nuevos resultados empíricos obtenidos con base en sus normas académicas específicas. no obstante, los valores académicos utilizados para formular los avances teóricos apenas han sido estudiados en la bibliografía. a partir de diferentes marcos de evaluación pertinentes, el objetivo de este estudio es desvelar cómo los autores de artículos de investigación negocian el valor teórico de la nueva investigación a través de un análisis retórico de las secciones de discusión de 60 artículos de investigación procedentes de cuatro revistas prestigiosas en el ámbito de las ciencias de la administración. el presente trabajo ofrece una taxonomía provisional de seis tipos de apelaciones retóricas utilizadas por los autores de artículos de investigación para articular el valor de novedad en el mercado del conocimiento. el extendido uso de estas apelaciones en las secciones de discusión de los artículos de investigación de ciencias de la administración evidencia que prevalece una fuerte orientación promocional en la retórica de las revistas examinadas. los hallazgos de este trabajo tienen implicaciones teóricas y pedagógicas para la evaluación y promoción académicas, así como para la enseñanza de la escritura académica. palabras clave: valor académico; contribución teórica; evaluación académica; sección de discusión; discurso académico. 1. introduction demonstrating the contribution of new research to the target disciplinary field is essential when seeking academic publication (locke & goldenbiddle, 1997; martín & león pérez, 2014; mur-duenãs, 2014; hyland, 2015). prior research has indicated that the contribution is likely to be manifested in the introduction (swales, 2004; martín & león pérez, 2014; mur-duenãs, 2014) and discussion (nwogu, 1997; yang & allison, 2003; basturkmen, 2012; tessuto, 2015) sections of a research article (ra) via a move/step which states the value or significance of the research. though insightful, these studies rarely go beyond statements of the general contributions of the research in order to distinguish the specifics of its theoretical significance from its methodological, pedagogical, or other types of contributions. thus, a well-defined template for assessing a study’s theoretical contribution is unavailable. the notion of theoretical contribution is regarded as replete with “ambiguity and intricacy” (corley & schinoff, 2017, p. 11). for clarity, and given that intellectual progress within a specific discipline is documented in academic 62 publications, “theory” in this study is broadly conceived as the scientific knowledge legitimized by an academic discipline and published in the existing body of literature. in this sense, theoretical contribution is signified by the discursive choices describing a new study’s contribution to advance the disciplinary knowledge base (bartunek & rynes, 2010; corley & gioia, 2011; corely & schinoff, 2017). the construction of theoretical contribution thus requires tacit knowledge of disciplinary academic norms to decide how new research adds to the corpus of disciplinary knowledge in the published literature. it entails complex rhetorical maneuvering to evaluate the empirical results based upon a communal value system (thompson & hunston, 2000; giannoni, 2010) in a specific scientific field. however, scant attention has been paid to the types of evaluation norms underlying these discursive practices, hereafter dubbed “theoretical value”. the present study was motivated by both theoretical and pedagogical interests. first, as noted above, little research attention has been paid to the discursive construction of theoretical value, which holds true for the area of english for specific purposes/ english for academic purposes (esp/eap) scholarship. second, several studies have indicated that writing such discussions is a formidable task for apprentice writers (peacock, 2002; basturkmen, 2009; swales & feak, 2012; le & harrington, 2015). by integrating typologies of academic values proposed in the established literature with the theoretical frameworks of move/step schemes, this study was undertaken to probe into the evaluative parameters for crafting the description of theoretical contribution in ra discussion sections. discussion sections warrant further scrutiny because, as lewin, fine and yang (2001) put it, they are “inviting applause” for the new study (p. 62) by evaluating and justifying the value of its empirical results theoretically, methodologically and/or practically for promotional purposes. it is hoped that the present study can shed more light on this critical act and thus serve the pedagogical purpose of clarifying how to evaluate the new findings so as to warrant claims of their theoretical contribution in the ra discussion section. as academics face intense competition internationally for publishing in renowned journals, understanding how to formulate an effective account of the theoretical contribution of their empirical results is crucial in today’s academic world. crafting theoretical value in management research article discussion sections ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 63 2. academic values in the ra genre in the present study, academic values are conceived as norms underpinning the social and cultural dimension of academic evaluation across disciplines (giannoni, 2010). many approaches to evaluation language have been advocated in the past few decades, for instance, biber and finegan’s (1988) stance, hunston and thompson’s (2000) evaluation, hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse, martin and white’s (2005) appraisal, and bednarek’s (2006) parameter-based framework of evaluation. these frameworks have some common strands but give prominence to different facets of evaluation phenomena (see excellent reviews in bednarek, 2006, and hunston, 2011). although these approaches to evaluation language are fairly comprehensive and account for a diverse variety of the related linguistic resources, the purpose of this study is to examine the academic criteria used to evaluate and promote the theoretical value of empirical findings. frameworks documenting specific value evaluation parameters associated with academic discourse are appropriate to meet this goal. while academic values are formulated within particular disciplines (giannoni, 2010), genres (swales & burke, 2003) and language-specific cultures (martín & león pérez, 2014), the focus of the present study centers on these associated with the ra genre across disciplines. table 1 shows several taxonomies of academic values on ra genre, though divergent in scope as well as evaluation entities. as illustrated, a wide spectrum of proposed academic values accounts for the variation of evaluation approaches while shedding some light on the fei-wen cheng ibérica 41 (2021): 61-8264 research hunston (1993) thetela (1997) swales & burke (2003) giannoni (2010) corley & gioia (2011) evaluation entities results findings not specified wide variety theoretical contribution academic values reasonableness consistency supportiveness usefulness importance reliability significance certainty deviance relevance assessment acuity aesthetic appeal size strength goodness size novelty relevance value timing impact complexity generality completeness centrality appeal originality utility table 1. comparison of academic value frameworks. a value system underlying academic discourse across disciplines. one line of scholarship has suggested an all-inclusive framework of value categories prototypical in the ra genre, demonstrating the interface between value parameters and their linguistic manifestations. by focusing exclusively on the use of adjectives as evaluative markers, swales and burke (2003) found that seven categories of adjectives predominated across the michigan corpus of academic spoken english (micase), and hyland’s ra written corpus, such as “deviance”, exhibiting the extent to which entities are related to each other (e.g., “‘strange,” “typical”); “assessment”, denoting a general evaluation of any entities (e.g., “exciting,” “horrible,” “uninteresting’); and “acuity”, relating to assessment of the intellectual quality of the work (e.g., “intelligent,” “stupid”). their results showed that three values, “size”, “relevance”, and “assessment”, occur predominantly across both spoken and written academic genres, and that “relevance” is the most prevalent of the three in hyland’s written corpus, where it is also more prevalent than in the micase. giannoni (2010) also proposed a comprehensive framework of value parameters in ras based on an analysis of 10 disciplines selected from the natural sciences, applied sciences, human sciences, social sciences and mathematical sciences. to account for disciplinary differences, more categories were added to those in previous studies (“size”, “relevance”, and “impact”), including “novelty”, “appeal” (e.g., interesting), “complexity”, “generality” (e.g., general/specific), “completeness”, and “centrality”. the four most prevalent values across disciplines in decreasing order are “relevance”, “size”, “goodness” and “novelty”, though “relevance” and “goodness” are less prominent in the hard sciences than in the humanities/social sciences. another line of scholarship focuses on how value parameters vary depending on their evaluated entities, further illuminating the relationships between evaluated entities and value parameters in ra genres across disciplines. in a pioneering study, hunston (1993) identified different entities in experimental research articles, such as the research event, hypotheses/interpretation, and findings, and their corresponding evaluation criteria. the values assigned to research results as a focal entity are shown in table 1; “reasonableness”, “consistency” and “supportiveness” refer to the fit between relationship of findings and expectations, other research, and theory. “usefulness” indicates the capacity of the research to evaluate existing theory, while “reliability” and “importance” are self-evident criteria. hunston’s framework was further modified in thetela’s (1997) study. by crafting theoretical value in management research article discussion sections ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 65 analyzing all grammatical forms of attitudinal language in 60 ras in the areas of history, economics, psychology and applied linguistics, thetela reported that across disciplines, “significance” and “certainty” were the values most often utilized to evaluate results, whereas “usefulness” and “control” were most often associated with research methods. of particular relevance to the present research, corley and gioia (2011) identified “originality” and “utility” as two attributes constituting the basis for claiming and assessing theoretical contributions in management literature. however, these two general value parameters are too broad in scope to distinguish textual evidence specific to how any theoretical contribution is realized. the above frameworks reveal features of a broad range of academic values in the ra genre across various disciplines, despite differences in the use of terminology and conceptual frameworks and in the research purpose across studies. though possibly useful as research coding tools or as a vocabulary for presenting epistemic knowledge, these frameworks lack the specificity to make clear connections to ra rhetorical structures and therefore pedagogical value. that is, they index general values that can be deployed and featured in discussion, but not under what occasions it is appropriate to exploit them or how to do so in a strategic and sophisticated manner. although the value parameters for research results listed in the studies by hunston (1993), thetela (1997) and corley and gioia (2011), are closely related to the present research, they need to be substantiated in specific rhetorical acts to show how a theoretical value to the target discipline is negotiated in new research. the importance of when to apply which value may be observed in recent micro-analyses of evaluative parameters of specific moves/steps in ra introductions across disciplines. kwan, chan and lam (2012) examined the use of evaluation criteria in one specific step, “counter-claiming”’ in “move 2: establishing a niche” in the field of information systems. they found that in critiques of prior literature in this discipline, ra value parameters center on “validity”, “methodological flaws” and “explanatory power” for evaluation entities such as theories, research design or practice, whereas the parameters focus on “cost”, “accuracy”, “capacity”, “reliability” and “scalability” for non-epistemic entities, such as design and performance of it artefacts. likewise, in a study of three business-related disciplines, finance, management and marketing, lindeberg (2004) reported six categories of evaluation criteria utilized in the “claims of centrality” step of introduction move 1: “authority” (i.e., a named authority from a disciplinary fei-wen cheng ibérica 41 (2021): 61-8266 field or society), “economy” (i.e., the magnitude of the researched phenomenon in financial terms), “practitioner” (i.e., the usefulness of the topic), “research” (i.e., the importance of the topic), “scope” (i.e., the prevalence of the topic in business or society in general), and “topicality” (recency or novelty of the topic). these evaluation criteria, glossed as “rhetorical appeals”, are adapted to the same rhetorical step in wang and yang’s (2015) study of applied linguistics ras. in line with lindeberg (2004), four similar criteria were prevalent in assessing the research domain under investigation: “salience” (importance), “magnitude” (prevalence), “topicality” (newness/recency), and “problematicity” (conflicts/difficulties). though none of these studies centers on ra discussion sections, they do enhance our understanding of the academic values underpinning a specific rhetorical step, and their findings pinpoint the importance of connecting academic value with rhetorical schemes. such connections may enable eap practitioners to design awareness-raising pedagogical activities, and provide effective rhetorical tools that novice researchers can apply when composing ras. following this stream of research, the present study set out to elucidate the craft of framing theoretical value by examining the types of academic norms that are utilized in management ra discussion sections to anchor a work’s theoretical contribution. the academic values mobilized to articulate and promote a study’s theoretical contribution are termed “appeals” in this research, reflecting previous uses in the literature. the term “rhetorical appeal” utilized in lindeberg’s (2004) and wang and yang’s (2015) studies reflects the positive value associated with a specific evaluative parameter, borrowing swales’ conceptualization of appeal-making as a promotional strategy (lindeberg, 2004; wang & yang, 2015). its positive and promotional features distinguish it from 1) value parameters, which extend through a positive to negative continuum and form the basis for appeal-making; and 2) the traditional move/step, which does not instantiate these two features simultaneously. 3. method 3.1. data collection 3.1.1. the field of management the importance of constructing theoretical contributions in academic publication is overtly emphasized in the discipline of management science, crafting theoretical value in management research article discussion sections ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 67 to which a virtual obsession with theories has been ascribed (hambrick, 2007; corley & gioia, 2011; cornelissen & durand, 2014; shaw, bansal, & gruber, 2017) as “an outgrowth of the field’s efforts to demonstrate academic worthiness” (hambrick, 2007, p. 1347). given that management science is a much younger discipline than other social sciences (i.e., economics, sociology, and psychology), it has self-identified as a one-sided borrower of theories from them (colquit & zapata-phelan, 2007; rousseau, 2007; corley & gioia, 2011; cornelissen & durand, 2014), and in order to establish itself as a valid academic field with scientific rigor, major efforts have been dedicated to theory building. this priority can be observed in the wealth of theoretical and empirical studies addressing the definition of theory in management and organization fields (whetten, 1989; sutton & staw, 1995; weick, 1995), the taxonomies or criteria used to assess theoretical contributions (colquit & zapata-phelan, 2007; corley & gioia, 2011), and the thinking tools used to facilitate theoretical innovation such as “disciplined imagination”, “problematization” and “thickening of abstraction”, as noted in cornelissen and durand’s (2014) comprehensive review. this critical demand for new and discipline-specific theories reflects the requirements of academic publication for explicit articulation and justification of theoretical contributions, that is, the extent to which the study moves the field beyond its current status and transforms it, so that the discipline can maintain and build its legitimacy and relationships within the larger academic community (corley & gioia, 2011). this interdisciplinary focus and its concomitant disciplinary emphasis on developing theoretical maturity through academic publication renders management an interesting field in which to observe the rhetorical practice of crafting theoretical contribution and to delineate the discursive mechanisms behind its formation. 3.1.2. corpus compilation a total of 60 ra discussion sections were collected from four internationally prestigious management journals, based upon high impact factors documented by the isi web of science (2013) and consultations with disciplinary experts: the academy of management journal (amj), the journal of management (jom), administrative science quarterly (asq), and the journal of management studies (jms). empirical articles published in 2011 or 2012 with a distinct introduction-method-result-discussion (imrd) format were purposefully chosen from each journal and were then shortlisted. fifteen fei-wen cheng ibérica 41 (2021): 61-8268 articles were then randomly selected to constitute the corpus, drawing from the odd numbers on the shortlist articles of each journal. table 2 summarizes basic information on the resulting corpus. 3.2. data recording prior to identifying the types of academic values or rhetorical appeals manifested in formulations of theoretical contribution, it was necessary to categorize the move/step associated with this rhetorical act. for this purpose, the data coding process started with developing a preliminary analysis of the whole schematic structure of management ra discussions and proceeded through the steps of conducting an inter-coder reliability test of this structure, identifying instances of the rhetorical act of highlighting theoretical contributions, and finally analyzing and classifying the academic values underlying this act. to develop an initial move scheme, the well-known yang and allison (2003) model was revised in combination with additional rhetorical choices reported in lewin, fine and young (2001) and kanoksilapatham (2005), to capture more comprehensively the rhetorical functions found in management discussions. to fine-tune this initial classification of move/step elements in pursuit of a comprehensive account of possible structures, the researcher went through a multi-iteration procedure until all the possible move/step elements were exhausted. based on the initial coding of half of the target corpus, a tentative rhetorical scheme comprising six moves with embedded steps was developed, in which most rhetorical schemes identified in the previous literature were represented with some newly added elements frequently manifested in the target corpus. among the six moves, move 2, “claim research value”, which serves as the starting point for the present study, includes the following three embedded steps: step 1, “stating theoretical implication”; step 2, “showcasing the theoretical background”; crafting theoretical value in management research article discussion sections ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 69 journals articles overall length of all discussions mean length (sd) of all discussions academy of management journal 15 41,939 2,796 (400.9) administrative science quarterly 15 33,150 2,210 (569.3) journal of management 15 37,498 2,499.9 (625.2) journal of management studies 15 31,077 2,071.8 (466.6) total 60 143,664 2,394.4 (581.7) table 2. basic corpus information. 3 t t and step 3, “justifying the theoretical value”. each of these three steps in move 2 also consists of several sub-steps. this tentative scheme was subject to further inter-coder reliability analysis with three inter-coders, including two management academics and one native english-speaking faculty member working within a foreign language department. all had been educated in english-speaking countries and published widely in high-impact international journals. for the sample of 15 discussion sections (25%) randomly selected from the target corpus of 60, the obtained cohen’s kappa values ranged from .90 to .93 among the researcher and three coders across the six moves, while it was from .75 to .81 for the three steps of move 2. most of the coding discrepancies centered on the boundaries between steps, particularly among the researcher and the two management academics, but all of these were resolved through constructive debates. the remaining 45 discussion sections were then analyzed by the researcher, starting by demarcating the different moves across the corpus, followed by the three constituent steps of move 2 and their embedded substeps, focusing primarily on prominent semantic/linguistic features. in this move, the substep of step 1, dubbed as step 1a, “highlighting theoretical contribution to the field”, points to the deployment of explicit lexicogrammatical resources to signal the theoretical contribution. it serves as the basis for identifying the rhetorical appeals underlying each theoretical contribution and was found in 56 of the 60 articles (93%) (it was absent from both jom’s and jms’s two articles). it also had the highest frequency of occurrence (n = 314, 92%) in the corpus. the heavy presence of this substep indicates the emerging trend that management scholars place a high premium on advertising their original contribution in response to the strong competition to publish in high-profile international journals. the subsequent analysis focuses on the rhetorical appeals utilized in the highly promotional step 1a, “highlighting theoretical contribution to the field”. following the procedures documented in giannoni (2010), the categories of rhetorical appeals were first sorted by applying lexical and semantic criteria to group the pertinent linguistic elements together into conceptually similar categories. an appeal label was then assigned to each whole unit of this rhetorical sub-step, with reference to the taxonomy of academic values or appeals specified in the literature noted above. overall, six rhetorical appeals were categorized as explicated in the results section. once the benchmarking of rhetorical appeals had been completed, the fei-wen cheng ibérica 41 (2021): 61-8270 ensuing analysis was undertaken manually to calculate the occurrence rate of each appeal. 4. results a total of 319 instances of appeals were coded among the 56 ra discussion sections, omitting the four that did not include this substep, averaging 5.70 instances per discussion. with the scope of the analysis restricted to lexicogrammatical features, six categories of appeals utilized to construct theoretical contribution were identified, namely, appeals to scope, value, novelty, gap-filling, importance, and usefulness. each appeal with its linguistic manifestations, indicated by boldfaced markings, is discussed in the following subsections. table 3 presents the raw counts and percentages of the occurrence of these types of appeal in the corpus and the number of articles containing each appeal. the predominant category is the appeal to scope, followed in decreasing order by the appeals to novelty, value, gap-filling, importance and usefulness. note that five of those in step 1a were subject to double-coding in terms of underlying appeals. for instance, two appeal types, value and importance, were assigned to the following example: “this study offers important theoretical implications to the literature in…” this double-coding explains why there is a higher frequency of rhetorical appeals (n = 319) compared to that of step 1a (n = 314). in addition, there are differences in the frequencies of these appeals across the four top journals. table 4 displays the raw counts and percentages of the occurrence of the six types of appeal in each journal. crafting theoretical value in management research article discussion sections ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 71 research scope novelt y valu e gap fillin g importanc e usefulnes s n.c. * total instances 135 55 54 38 29 7 1 n=31 9 percentage s 42% 46 (77%) 17% 31 (52%) 17% 33 (52%) 12% 25 (42%) 9% 19 (32%) 2% 7 (12%) n=60 table 3. distribution of different types of appeals. * note. n.c. = instance cannot be assigned to any appeal category. as shown, these appeals register the highest frequency counts in the amj, possibly because of the high premium placed by the amj on explicit articulation and justification of theoretical contribution, as evidenced in the journal’s publication criteria, which state that “all articles published in the academy of management journal must also make strong theoretical contributions. meaningful new implications or insights for theory must be present in all amj articles….” (amj website). moreover, articles in other journals might have featured less overt strategies to allude to theoretical contributions, such as indexing the congruence between their results and those in prior literature without designating them as contributions. that said, the distributions of the appeals in each journal seemingly reflects the general trends noted in table 3, with the appeal to scope standing out distinctly as the leading appeal, though slight variations in the ensuing order can be observed. there are perceptibly lower frequencies of the appeal to importance in jms and that of the appeal to gap-filling in jom. given the rather small corpus of the present study and the absence of the substep of highlighting theoretical contributions in two articles of jms and jom, it is feasible that investigating a larger corpus would shed more light on this discrepancy. the following subsections will account for each appeal in greater detail. 4.3.1. the appeal to scope in an appeal to scope, the author precisely specifies the ways in which the new findings expand the scope of or add diversity to the disciplinary knowledge through typical linguistic renditions (e.g., add to existing research, extend the literature, shed light on, or move this research forward). extracts 1 to 5 show some pertinent instances. fei-wen cheng ibérica 41 (2021): 61-8272 scope novelty value gap filling importance usefulness n.c.* total amj 57 (46%) 17 (14%) 21 (17%) 14 (11%) 11 (9%) 3 (2%) n= 123 57 (46%) asq 24 (28%) 19 (22%) 16 (19%) 13 (15%) 11 (13%) 2 (2%) n= 85 24 (28%) jms 32 (57%) 7 (13%) 7 (13%) 8 (14%) 2 (4%) 0 n= 56 32 (57%) jom 22 (40%) 12 (22%) 10 (18%) 3 (5%) 5 (9%) 3 (5%) n= 55 22 (40%) table 4. distribution of rhetorical appeals across journals. (1) this study also ad d s to t h e l i t er a tu r e on classification by studying market classification that is an informal taxonomy based on identity...(asq, 1) (2) second, we co m pl e m e nt ed an d e xt en de d t h e o r g an iz a ti o n al l e ar n in g l i te r at u r e by our theorizing... (amj, 3) (3) this b r o ad en s o ur u nd er s ta nd in g o f the potential value of complementary assets for… (asq, 6) (4) a first contribution of our study lies in th e ex t en si o n o f d u tt o n an d du ke r i ch ’ s o r i g i na l o b se r v at i o n that members’ evolving conceptualiz...(jms, 1) (5) …we begin to bu i l d m o re de ta i l ed th e o r y ab o u t work-family relationships and move the theoretical focus from the individual to the couple a...(jom, 5) this appeal type underscores the value of the new research as a form of knowledge extension in a specific domain, seeking to stretch an established research tradition. management academics show a strong tendency to apply this appeal type, as indicated by its appearance in nearly 80% of the ras in the corpus (see table 3) and its highest frequency of occurrence in each journal (see table 4). an analogous appeal for promotional purposes is also reported in lindeberg’s (2004) and wang and yang’s (2015) examinations of move 1 in ra introductions in the fields of business and applied linguistics respectively, in which the function of the appeal is to connote the significance of the selected topic by demonstrating its prevalence in the extant literature. given that this appeal registers the highest occurrence rate in the target corpus, the present research in tandem with past studies points to the predominant role of this value in the ra genre, while each study has its distinct criteria for capturing the value of scope. 4.3.2. the appeal to novelty the appeal to novelty denotes the newness or uniqueness of the research by highlighting its originality with regard to a specific aspect of disciplinary knowledge. this appeal is frequently expressed with attitudinal language that overtly proclaims the work’s novelty (e.g., first, novel, new, or unique) or flags the study as “different,” as seen in the following text segments. crafting theoretical value in management research article discussion sections ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 73 (6) …our study is the f i r st to provide specific theoretical and empirical insights on ... (amj, 8) (7) the present study contributes to the ipt literature a new third line of ipt theory and research—-specifically, a dimension pertaining to the way people’s ipt relates to how other people perceive and respond to them. (jom, 3) (8) my research thus offers a n o v el explanation for haas and hanson’s (2005) findings and advances broader theory linking teams’ knowledge us...(asq, 15) (9) the present study presents a d if f er e nt aspect of emotion in entrepreneurship ...(jms, 13) by foregrounding the study’s novel contribution to disciplinary knowledge, this appeal directly addresses the academic concern for newness. interestingly, given the emphasis on theoretical innovation in the management discipline, it appears in only about 50% of the ras, a substantially lower rate of occurrence than the appeal to scope. one caveat is in order, however. this finding should not be interpreted as the weak presence in the current corpus of theoretical novelty, since it may not be featured solely through the discursive choices usually associated with this appeal. it may also be negotiated at varying levels of discourse beyond overt linguistic cues, which is beyond the scope of this research to explore. in addition to elucidating theoretical novelty, this appeal has also been utilized for other rhetorical purposes, such as spotlighting novelty of research topic, as noted in prior literature investigating the “claiming centrality” step in move 1 in business studies (lindeberg, 2004) and in applied linguistics (wang & yang, 2015), or signaling general research value in the “stating the value” step in move 3 of ra introductions in health sciences and humanities/social sciences (martín & león pérez, 2014). this appeal has also been characterized in ras across various hard and soft sciences as having major academic value for diverse rhetorical purposes (giannoni, 2010). 4.3.3. the appeal to value this appeal fleshes out a general approach to claiming theoretical contribution, often enacted through such terms as “contribution” or fei-wen cheng ibérica 41 (2021): 61-8274 “implication”, as exemplified below. given its general nature, some of the discursive choices do not mark the theoretical aspect of the contribution at the clause level, as shown in examples [10] and [13]. they are classified as this rhetorical appeal based upon co-texts, that is, texts prior to or following this appeal. (10) the results of this study m a ke t w o co nt r i bu ti o n s. first, they help to validate and stream-line theories of ... (jms, 9) (11) our findings c o n t r i bu t e t o the leadership, creativity, and attribution l i t er a tu r es in four primary ways. (amj, 10) (12) the t h eo r et ic a l im p l i c at i o n is that the information exchange perspective should be extended by explicitly including the motivational dime...(jom, 10) (13) … a pr i m a r y c o nt r i bu ti o n of our study is to develop theory regarding why this form of impression management is likely to be more persuasive...(asq, 14) as one of the frequently occurring appeal types, “appeal to value” generally acts as an organizing element, often by being placed at the beginning of move 2, as displayed in the examples [10] and [11]. it foregrounds the overall strength of the novel research, so that readers can gain a broad overview of its potential value prior to the unfolding of each specific theoretical contribution. this appeal may have a powerful impact on readers’ perceptions of the value of the related findings. by asserting overall theoretical advancement, this appeal sets readers up to adopt a positive attitude toward the new research. 4.3.4. the appeal to gap filling this substep is adapted from wang and yang’s (2015) “appeal to problematicity” which refers to a claim of topic centrality by presenting “the conflicts, problems, difficulties, or challenges” that a proposed research topic addresses (168) to refer to claims that the new research is filling a gap in the literature. in the present study, a research gap can be linguistically formulated in various ways, either as a lack of research on the target topic, a previous study’s call for more research in a particular domain, or conflicting findings documented in the literature, all of which index that the extant scholarship is insufficient or incomplete to portray or explain a specific phenomenon. a crafting theoretical value in management research article discussion sections ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 75 theoretical contribution can thus be established by illuminating one aspect of the disciplinary knowledge gap. this appeal can be conveyed through a wide array of linguistic devices such as addressing a specific research gap, meeting the call advanced in former literature, or reconciling conflicting findings noted in previous research, as illustrated in the following extracts. (14) we begin to f i l l t h i s g ap i n t h e l i t er a tu r e by revealing how high levels of flattery and opinion conformity increase ceos’ overconfidence...(asq, 2) (15) …, this study a dd r es se s t h e l ac k o f multi-level approaches in entrepreneurship... (jms, 12) (16) on a related note, this study r es po nd s t o s c h ul z ’ s ( 2 0 0 1 ) c al l f o r r es ea r ch that can help explain not only how managers recognize and construe the relevance of knowledge (as a precursor to knowledge acquisition), but also how existing understandings of relevance influence organizational capabilities. by explicating the linkages between conceptions of the significance and sources of useful knowledge and subsequent acquisition and use processes, this study achieves the key outcome that the ways in which managers perceive and understand knowledge… (amj, 5) (17) this is a first step to m e et t h e c al l f o r m o r e p o si t iv e o r g a n i z a t i o n a l s t u d i e s (luthans et al., 2008; luthans & youssef, 2007; youseff & luthans, 2007) as our results provide support for the theoretical notion that positive experiences by one individual in the workplace can cross over and influence another, at least in the supervisor-subordinate case (westman, 2001). (jom, 1) (18) finally, our theoretical extensions and empirical analyses r e c o n c i l e a n i m p o r t a n t c o n t r a d i c t i o n i n t h e l i t e r a t u r e regarding the long-term...(amj, 8) as shown above, by appealing to the gap-filling principle, a study can effectively claim a potential theoretical contribution to the field in the sense that a neglected area in the disciplinary knowledge has now been examined, or an academic debate may now be settled. this rhetorical feature has also been identified as one means of underscoring the general contribution of fei-wen cheng ibérica 41 (2021): 61-8276 the novel research, as reported in liu and lim’s (2014) study of economics ras, and in martín and león pérez’s (2014) research on ra introductions in health and humanities/social sciences. 4.3.5. the appeal to importance this appeal is narrowly defined as the use of evaluative adjectives (e.g., important, significant) to overtly foreground an aspect of the novel research as having important implications for the development of disciplinary knowledge, as displayed in the following extracts [19] and [20]. it may also be enacted through ascribing significant value to a specific finding (see examples [21] & [22]) that makes its theoretical inroads into disciplinary knowledge, thus underscoring the study’s original contribution to the established literature with or without making a bald claim of theoretical contribution. (19) this study introduces a new and i m p o r t a n t theoretical perspective to the management literature: the role of firm level desperation. (asq, 12) (20) in light of theory suggesting that top-down and bottom-up approaches be integrated for optimal change effectiveness (conger, 2000; dunphy, 2000), our study contributes an i m po r ta nt insight with regard to an asymmetrical effect in transitioning between top-down and bottom-up organizing styles. (amj, 7) (21) …we believe that the unpacking of ‘conditions of individual action’ into specific and meaningful components is a small but i m po r ta nt contribution to current research…(jms, 10). (22) finally, an i m p o r t an t finding from this study concerns the explication of and support for pioneering orientation as a distinctly different construct from entrepreneurial orientation.  prior to this study, entrepreneurial orientation was commonly viewed as subsuming market pioneering behaviors …thus, pioneering behaviors appear to have significant effects upon firm performance above and beyond those explained by a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation. (jom, 9) intriguingly, the appeal to importance has a much lower rate of incidence in claiming theoretical contribution, although it is recognized as a primary crafting theoretical value in management research article discussion sections ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 77 evaluation criterion of academic discourse (hunston, 1993; thetela, 1997; swales & burke, 2003; giannoni, 2010; corley & gioia, 2011), as shown in table 1. one major reason to account for its lower incidence here is that, in the prior literature, it is broadly conceived to encompass an extensive array of meanings as an academic value that may be applied to any aspect of a study, whereas the present study has attempted to refine this all-embracing evaluation criterion by confining its meaning to references to theoretical importance or significance, so other usages of evaluative terms are not taken into account. 4.3.6. the appeal to usefulness this appeal associates the research’s current contribution with its capacity to evaluate the validity, applicability or explicatory power of existing theory, as the instances [23] and [24] show. (23) hence, our research testifies to the promise of extending creativity theory by... (amj, 10) (24) moreover, we indicate the applicability of the social dilemma literature to the topic of group compensation. (jom, 2) the above examples show how the usefulness of a paper’s theoretical contribution may be asserted by demonstrating the extension of an existing theory in one domain to other relevant fields. it has the lowest frequency rate among the six appeal types for promoting research value, which can be attributed to the narrow definition of “appeal to usefulness” adopted in the current study. following the criteria formulated in hunston (1993), this appeal is restricted to theoretical advancements without taking account of the research’s utility in other aspects. because evidence of practical utility is an important component in management ras (bartunek & rynes, 2010; corley & gioia, 2011), future research can address an expanded sense of utility to include other aspects, which may reveal more frequent deployment of appeals to usefulness to elucidate the research’s practical contribution. 5. conclusions as a critical practice to proclaim and advance the scientific progress of a disciplinary field, the act of theoretical contribution has been underfei-wen cheng ibérica 41 (2021): 61-8278 explored in the extant literature. this study probes into this rhetorical practice to uncover the evaluative norms utilized to textually construct and promote theoretical contribution. drawing upon pertinent evaluation frameworks, this study explores the rhetorical appeals utilized to signify theoretical value in one rhetorical act designated as “highlighting theoretical contribution to the field”. the findings indicate a tentative taxonomy of six rhetorical appeal types deployed by ra authors to articulate the theoretical value of novel research in the knowledge landscape. this study thus provides a more comprehensive treatment of a long-standing theme in management scholarship, and has several theoretical and pedagogical implications for promotion of academic value. first, this research elucidates the typical rhetorical appeals systematically deployed by authors of academic management studies to overtly inscribe the theoretical contributions of their research in their discussion sections. by investigating the evaluative norms for formulating theoretical contribution, this study refines our understanding of what constitutes theoretical contribution and further clarifies the general research value, termed as “significance” in thetela (1997) or “originality” in corley and gioia (2011). although the past literature in the management discipline places a heavy weight on articulating theoretical contributions in academic publications, how to craft this articulation remains a mystery. the current findings offer a more nuanced understanding on its rhetorical construction. second, some of these appeals have also been found prevalent in other rhetorical moves/stepa, such as highlighting research topic importance in business and applied linguistics ra introductions (e.g., lindeberg, 2004; wang & yang, 2015), or in underscoring research significance across evaluative entities in many hard/soft sciences (giannoni, 2010; basturkmen, 2012). although comparison between studies proves hard due to their different foci and terminologies, this study demonstrates that some evaluative norms can be activated for a variety of rhetorical purposes, and thus contributes to a broader understanding of the system of promotion of academic fields advocated by wang and yang (2015). third, the pervasive use of rhetorical appeals characterizes the highly promotional nature of the management discipline, as noted in several studies (corley and gioia, 2011; cornelissen & durand, 2014; lindeberg, 2004). although overt articulation of research value appears to be rigorously executed in management studies, it is possible that such a promotional crafting theoretical value in management research article discussion sections ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 79 emphasis is textual evidence indexing the evolution of the genre, as previous research has determined the promotional tendency in academic genres given the fierce competition in scholarly publication (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; bhatia, 2004; swales, 2004; hyland, 2005, 2015; wang & yang, 2015). finally, this study can shed more pedagogical light on how to evaluate a new finding to craft its theoretical value. the rhetorical appeals attested to in the current corpus can be compiled into a repertoire of evaluation parameters at the micro (step) level, and students can be provided with evaluation norms to apply to their findings. this is a key step in the formulation of theoretical contribution, supported by comparing the outcomes of the new research with the theoretical literature motivating the research, in order to anchor its academic value to the target knowledge domain. such evaluative comparison can be a daunting task, and researchers often overreach their empirical findings to drift into overgeneralization in asserting a theoretical contribution (geletkanycz & tepper, 2012). the pedagogical guidelines drawn from this research can assist novice researchers with a nuanced understanding of promotion tactics and offer cognitive tools to assess their empirical findings, thus easing the burden of claiming and legitimizing the value of their research. in conclusion, it should be borne in mind that generalizations about the rhetorical appeals utilized to promote theoretical contribution in the field of management should be avoided since variations among their frequencies can be observed among the selected journals and also the current corpus is extracted from ras of the most influential journals. the present findings may need to be verified against a larger corpus within the same discipline or across disciplines. in addition, though the current study demonstrates the prevailing schemes in negotiating the value of theoretical innovations, it places at center stage the act of theoretical contribution but excludes the values constructed in other moves (e.g., empirical/methodological or practical implications), or other ra sections (e.g., the method section). it would be interesting for future research to examine the uses of academic values in different moves of discussion sections or other ra sections, given that to date few empirical studies have addressed academic promotion from this genre-based perspective, except for wang and yang (2015) and lindeberg (2004) on claiming the centrality step of move 1, both of which center on ra introductions rather than discussion sections. as an undertheorized line of inquiry, more research is needed to inform theory on promotion of academic contributions to theory, particularly by fei-wen cheng ibérica 41 (2021): 61-8280 differentiating the inventory of academic values associated with a specific move, which can help to articulate the subtle ways in which such promotion is enacted. such research would not only offer a more thorough understanding of the promotional tactics adopted but also enable novice academic writers to capture more fully the rhetorical practices and their variations depending on immediate contexts and subsequently facilitate their mastery of these rhetorical strategies. article history: received 16 september 2019 received in revised form 17 march 2020 accepted 10 june 2021 references crafting theoretical value in management research article discussion sections ibérica 41 (2021): 61-82 81 bartunek, j. m., & rynes, s. 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(2003). research articles in applied linguistics: moving from results to conclusions. english for specific purposes, 22(4), 365–385. iberica 13 ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 issn 1139-7241 abstract animal metaphors are conventional in many languages and their metaphorical use is not limited only to human beings, non-physical domains may also be understood in terms of the assumed properties of animals. set within the wider theoretical framework of cognitive theory of metaphor, this paper deals with the conceptualisation of inflation as an animal in english. we focus on the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor, in which the most salient properties of wild animals as a source domain are mapped onto the abstract and complex target domain, inflation, producing various conceptual mappings, which refer to the ways wild animals move, look, sound, eat/are fed, attack and are controlled. we show how the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor functions within popular economic discourse, as well as how it structures our thinking about inflation, a dangerous phenomenon which poses a potential threat to every economy in the world. key words: conceptual metaphor, animal metaphors, inflation, inflation is a ferocious animal. resumen cogiendo la inflaciîn por los cuernos ð im�genes metaf�ricas de animales en la conceptualizaci�n de inflaciîn en ingl�s las metáforas sobre animales son habituales en muchas lenguas y el uso metafórico que se hace de éstos no se limita en exclusiva a los seres humanos, sino que se aplica a ámbitos no físicos con relación a las supuestas características catching inflation by the tail – animal metaphoric imagery in the conceptualisation of inflation in english nadezda silaski and tatjana durovic university of belgrade (serbia) silaskin@sbb.rs & gtdjuro@eunet.rs 57 ˇ ˇ ´03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 57 de los animales. enmarcado dentro de una visión global de la teoría cognitiva aplicada a la metáfora, el presente artículo aborda la conceptualización de la inflación como animal en la lengua inglesa. nos centraremos en la metáfora la inflación es un animal feroz como ejemplo de cómo las características más sobresalientes de los animales salvajes como dominio fuente se configuran dentro de un dominio meta abstracto y complejo como es inflación que, a su vez, genera distintos mapas conceptuales que aluden al modo en el que los animales salvajes se mueven, se muestran, emiten sonidos, se alimentan/son alimentados, atacan y son controlados. tratamos de mostrar la función de la metáfora la inflación es un animal feroz dentro del discurso económico divulgativo y, además, el modo en el que dicha metáfora estructura nuestro pensamiento en lo relativo a la inflación, un fenómeno peligroso que entraña riesgos potenciales para la economía mundial. palabras clave: metáforas conceptuales, metáforas sobre animales, inflación, la inflación es un animal feroz. 1. introduction set within the broad theoretical framework of cognitive theory of metaphor (lakoff & johnson, 1980; charteris-black, 2004; cameron & deignan, 2006; semino, 2008), this paper deals with the conceptualisation of inflation as an animal in english. being a metaphor itself1 (injecting money into the economy to produce higher prices is like blowing air into a balloon), inflation as a rather abstract and difficult-to-understand economic phenomenon is often interpreted in terms of more concrete entities. here we focus on the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor, in which the most salient properties associated with wild animals (the ways they look, eat, behave, sound, attack, as well as the ways they are tamed, controlled, caught or killed) are mapped onto the target domain, inflation. animal metaphors are conventional in many languages (see, among others, halverson, 1976; nilsen, 1996; ana, 1999; baider & gesauto, 2003; halupka-resetar & radić, 2003; fernández fontecha & jiménez catalán, 2003; talebinejad & dastjerdi, 2005; deignan, 2005; macarthur, 2005; hsieh, 2006; lópez rodríguez, 2007; silaski, 2009). as kövecses (2002: 124) claims, “[m]uch of human behavior seems to be metaphorically understood in terms of animal behavior”. the human behaviour is animal behaviour metaphor, kövecses explains, probably originates from the fact that “humans attributed human characteristics to animals and then reapplied n. silaski & t. durović ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 ˇ ˇ ˇ 58 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 58 ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 catching inflation by the tail these characteristics to humans” (kövecses, 2002: 125). this we owe to the great chain of being, “a cultural model that concerns kinds of beings and their properties and places them on a vertical scale with ‘higher’ beings and properties above ‘lower’ beings and properties” (lakoff & turner, 1989: 166). animal names are used to describe people (the people are animals metaphor), to assign them various desirable or undesirable animal properties, to address them either with abuse or affection, etc. studies of animal metaphors mainly focus on animal names used for the purposes of semantic derogation, particularly on the differences between the animal names used to describe men and those used for women. however, it is not only human beings and their behaviour which are understood as animals, but non-physical domains may also be understood in terms of the assumed properties of animals (kövecses, 2002). although lakoff and johnson (1980) claim that metaphors are grounded in human physical, bodily experience, recent research has shown that “some metaphors cannot be traced back to experiential experience, but rather have their basis in the perceived similarities or resemblances, i.e. in the perception of common characteristics or structures between entities or areas of experience” (semino, 2008: 7). in this paper, the inflation is an animal metaphor falls into the latter category. in other words, owing to the knowledge we as human beings have of animals and their behaviour, we perceive similarities between (wild) animals, on the one hand, and inflation as a dangerous and threatening phenomenon, on the other. thus, for example, “horse metaphors have been used to describe rates of inflation with danger being suggested by the increasing speed of the horse e.g. trotting inflation; galloping inflation; run-away inflation and even, (…) inflation – the riderless horse” (henderson, 1986: 112-13; see also fuertes-olivera & pizarro-sánchez, 2002). however, the real or perceived similarities between inflation and other conceptual domains have not been drawn only from the source domain of animals. thus, lakoff and johnson (1980) provided linguistic evidence of the conceptual metaphor inflation is an adversary. inflation has also been reported to be conceptualised as robbery, disease, enemy, entity, and engine (fuertes-olivera & velasco sacristán, 2001; fuertes-olivera & pizarro-sánchez, 2002; and velasco sacristán, 2009) as well as a ghost (durović, 2007). nevertheless, with the exception of sporadic references to the conceptualisation of inflation as an animal within more detailed studies, to the best of our knowledge there are no papers which 59 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 59 systematically cover this issue, which proved to be enough of a challenge to inspire a search for the linguistic realisations of the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor. these linguistic metaphors will demonstrate how the conceptual metaphor in question is realised by making use of the full scope of the properties of the source domain, thus systematically structuring the way people understand the concept of inflation in a culture determined by the english language. 2. theoretical framework and data collection according to the main tenets of conceptual metaphor theory (cmt), the metaphor is not a property of individual linguistic expressions and their meanings, but of whole conceptual domains. thus, at the heart of lakoff and johnson’s (1980) theory lies the “conceptual metaphor”, defined as an essential conceptual tool which consists of the “source” and “target” domains. lakoff and johnson use the target domain is source domain formula to describe the metaphorical connection between the two domains. more precisely, the conceptual metaphor consists of a structural mapping between the source conceptual domain in terms of which the target conceptual domain is understood metaphorically, and the target conceptual domain, which is to be understood metaphorically (turner, 1990). it is of crucial importance to draw a distinction between “metaphor” and “linguistic metaphor”. while “metaphor” is now used as the equivalent to “conceptual metaphor”, “linguistic metaphor” (more commonly known as a “metaphorical expression”) is the linguistic realisation of a particular conceptual metaphor. as lakoff (1993: 209) emphasises, “contemporary metaphor theorists commonly use the term “metaphor” to refer to the conceptual mapping, and the term “metaphorical expression” to refer to an individual linguistic expression (…) which is sanctioned by a mapping”. the corollary is that it is our conceptual system that is metaphorical in nature, not the language itself. language thus becomes one of the ways of expressing our conceptual system and is assigned a subsidiary role. as cameron and deignan (2006: 672) claim, “[w]hile linguistic examples are cited throughout the central work in the field, their importance is as evidence for cognitive links rather than in themselves”. however, contemporary metaphor research from the late 1990s and 2000 onwards has completely shifted focus from viewing metaphor as a primarily n. silaski & t. durović ibérica 20 (2010): 57-8060 ˇ 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 60 cognitive phenomenon, placing great emphasis on “the importance of language use in understanding metaphor” (cameron & deignan, 2006: 672). in other words, metaphor now emerges as an equally cognitive and linguistic phenomenon, the link no longer being uni-directional (thinking ➝ language), but a two-way interaction between language and thinking (cameron & deignan, 2006). in addition to its linguistic form and conceptual content, metaphor possesses a notable socio-cultural dimension. one of its dimensions is the affective force, reflected in “the beliefs, attitudes, values, and emotions of participants” (cameron & deignan, 2006: 674). hence in this new “emergentist perspective” metaphor is viewed as a blend of linguistic, conceptual and socio-cultural aspects (cameron & deignan, 2006). charteris-black (2004: 24) also emphasises the “interconnecting aspects of metaphor” arguing for such a definition of metaphor which incorporates its semantic, cognitive and pragmatic dimensions. a semantic role of a metaphor refers to creating new meanings for words, “since the meanings of words change over time” (charterisblack, 2004: 20) and it is difficult to determine what counts as a metaphor. thus, definitions of metaphor also need to address a cognitive role of metaphor in developing our understanding on the basis of analogy, and a pragmatic one arising from “the underlying purpose of [a metaphor] influencing opinions and judgements by persuasion” (charteris-black, 2004: 21). this reorientation in metaphor research raises certain doubts about the corpus of (mostly artificially constructed) examples isolated from discourse contexts which was used to emphasise only the cognitive aspect of metaphor and which pinpointed mainly conventionalised or “dead” metaphors. consequently, traditional cmt based on such a corpus was frequently unable to provide viable explanations for either novel innovative metaphors or the highly specific non-literal meanings of many expressions. this noted shortcoming has been overcome by the development of discourse and corpus approaches to metaphors focusing on a metaphor as contextualised, i.e. on the discourse context of metaphors (cameron & deignan, 2006). therefore, in this paper an attempt will be made to explain how the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor functions in authentic discourse, as evidenced by its textual manifestations, as well as to show how this particular metaphoric choice shapes our view of inflation. being used in a particular discourse – popular economic and business discourse, it will also be argued that an important aspect of the catching inflation by the tail ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 61 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 61 inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor is the prominent expression of the affect and attitude of the discourse participants. adopting a deductive method in our analysis, we will start with the overarching inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor, focusing on as many linguistic realisations as we managed to gather from online sources as possible, with the aim of showing how this metaphor is structured with respect to the most characteristic features of wild animals mapped onto inflation. the data collection for the analysis that follows has been gathered by means of an internet search. namely, in the course of reading various texts about the current global economic crisis, written in english and originating from different sources (newspapers, magazines, web sites, etc.), we noticed that the authors of those texts frequently likened inflation to an animal. the most salient features of animals, of wild animals in particular (the ways they look, eat, behave, sound, attack, as well as the ways they are tamed, controlled, caught or killed), have been used to describe the various aspects of the abstract phenomenon, inflation. however, in order to verify the validity of our intuitive judgement as regards the conceptualisation of inflation as a wild animal in english – since “intuitions are not necessarily explicit and systematic” (semino, 2008: 14) – as well as to corroborate our observation by authentic linguistic data, we conducted a google search in which the query was inflation beast, combined with a small number of words referring to the salient features of (wild) animals (mainly verbs2 which describe the ways animals move – e.g. gallop, crawl, trot, hack, etc., eat – e.g. gobble, devour, etc., look – e.g. jaws, claws, etc. and sound – e.g. howl, bellow, bark, growl, etc.). the texts obtained in this way were extracted and compiled in one word file, totalling around 65,000 words. the research then proceeded in the following way: the texts were read carefully in order to identify those metaphorical expressions which we intuitively felt provided instantiations of the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor. we then applied the metaphor identification procedure (mip) proposed by the pragglejaz group (2007) in order to check the metaphoricity of the lexical units3 relating to the previously mentioned salient features of animals as well as to establish their contextual and basic meaning. the basic meaning is defined here as that which is more concrete, related to bodily action, more precise, as well as historically older (pragglejaz group, 2007), thus encompassing the etymological meanings as well. having established the presence of metaphoricity, we then extracted the parts n. silaski & t. durović ibérica 20 (2010): 57-8062 ˇ 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 62 (sentences, parts of sentences or titles of newspaper articles) containing those expressions which both of us judged to be metaphorical. some of these sentences will be used to illustrate our points in the analysis that follows and a list of all sources from which examples have been extracted is provided in the appendix.4 finally, we classified the data according to the conceptual mappings present in the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor, which will be discussed later in the text. the texts from which we excerpted these metaphorical expressions proved to be mainly aimed at the general public, i.e. ordinary people, not specifically at experts, and they originate mostly (with a few exceptions) from daily or weekly business and finance oriented newspapers, magazines and periodicals, web sites offering advice on how to deal with the effects of the current global financial crisis, as well as from the economy or business sections of dailies or weeklies of general orientation. such discourse may be termed “popular economic and business discourse”, which refers to “journalistic texts that deal with current economic and business matters for an audience of experts and nonexperts, and seek to inform and entertain more generally” (skorczynska & deignan, 2006: 89). therefore, the goal of this paper is not to offer a corpus-based analysis of the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor nor is it to establish the absolute or relative frequencies of metaphorical expressions or metaphor density in the data collection. our main goal is, by using a text-based approach, to provide an illustration and analysis of the linguistic instantiations of this conceptual metaphor as well as to show, from a discursive point of view, how this metaphor is structured in terms of the most salient animal properties mapped onto the target domain, inflation. 3. inflation as an entity the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor reveals a very complex cognitive structure. at its core it belongs to the class of entity and substance metaphors, also known as “ontological metaphors” (lakoff & johnson, 1980: 25), which are connected with our experiences with physical objects, including our bodies. the most common case of ontological metaphors is related to the perception of ideas, events, emotions and activities as substances, or concrete entities. one type of ontological catching inflation by the tail ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 63 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 63 metaphor consists of viewing an abstract notion such as inflation as an entity, as the following examples (lakoff & johnson, 1980: 26) show: • inflation is lowering our standard of living. • inflation is backing us into a corner. • inflation makes me sick. viewing inflation as an entity enables its quantification, the identification of its particular aspects, seeing it as a cause, and even believing that we understand it (lakoff & johnson, 1980). the inflation is an entity metaphor is “necessary for even attempting to deal rationally with our experiences” (lakoff & johnson, 1980: 26). in addition, the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor entails a particular type of ontological metaphor where we “zoomorphise” an inanimate concept, inflation, assigning it animal characteristics, the way animals eat, move, attack, sound, etc. attributing animate features to inanimate concepts such as inflation “not only gives us a very specific way of thinking about inflation but also a way of acting toward it” (lakoff & johnson, 1980: 34), i.e. it allows us to make sense of the phenomena in the world around us. the conceptual basis for the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor is the semantic transfer of the most salient attributes that are stereotypically associated with (wild) animals to refer to inflation and its harmful effects. the salient properties of wild animals, such as being dangerous, violent, cruel, fierce, savage, speedy, or untamed, are mapped onto inflation to depict its detrimental effect on currency, people and their savings, and a country’s economy in general. “animals therefore serve as prototypes for threats and dangers to mankind” and in turn are “typically employed to construct negative evaluations” (charteris-black, 2004: 184-5).5 what follows are different extensions of the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor illustrated by the most striking examples from our data collection. 4. inflation as a ferocious animal inflation is unpredictable and high inflation is an undesirable force regarded as harmful to an overall economy – high inflation adds to existing inefficiencies in the market, making it difficult for companies to budget or plan long-term; it can act as a drag on productivity; it creates uncertainty n. silaski & t. durović ibérica 20 (2010): 57-8064 ˇ 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 64 about the future purchasing power of money and discourages investment and saving; it can impose hidden tax increases, etc. since it is a highly complex and abstract phenomenon, metaphor users try to visualise inflation in order to facilitate its understanding and propose strategies for coping with it. on the basis of the selected metaphorical expressions, several submetaphors of the inflation is a (ferocious) animal metaphor may be identified regarding the various properties of wild animals. these are discussed in the sections which follow. 4.1. the ways animals move the following examples profile the inherent properties as regards the movement of animals, the inflation (as an) animal being projected as a composite one. (1) oil prices went through the roof, and inflation flew up to 12 percent. (2) inflation in construction is galloping at 1.5% per month. (3) inflation has been contained at approximately 3% for 2009 compared to trotting inflation rates for the past 5 years. (4) and if you hold cash as actual cash, well, inflation just keeps hacking away, leaving you with less than you started with. (5) getting more income coming in will definitely make inflation easier to ride out. thus most birds can “fly”, and horses, as domesticated wild animals, “gallop”, or “trot” or “hack away”.6 examples which connote movement in the air – “fly”, or on the ground – “gallop, trot or hack away” – share a saliency of speed and agility which in the case of flying and galloping further results in the conceptualisation of inflation as an uncontrolled, wild and untamed animal. hence in examples (2), (3), and (4) inflation is visualised as a horse whose motion – i.e. speed and control – is in no way tempered or restricted by an agent. this serves to rationalise risk and danger (of inflation) “for the far greater strength and weight of the animal makes any kind of struggle between the animal and its human controller an ill-matched one” (macarthur, 2005: 73). however, attempts aimed at transforming inflation into an animal subservient to the intentions of economic policy-makers call for know-how, knowledge and skill which are usually subdued or at best hinted at. therefore, the verb “ride out” (example 5) used with the catching inflation by the tail ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 65 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 65 implication of “rider” in mind – i.e. of someone who will control the motion of inflation – introduces more positive evaluations, subjecting inflation to the agent’s active stance and their willingness to reduce it. still, it echoes the hardship and duration of the whole process. 4.2. the ways animals look the physical properties of inflation conceptualised as an animal are further instantiated in the way this animal looks, as can be seen from the following examples: (6) second, you must assemble a portfolio that will protect you from the claws of inflation. (7) but you’ll need to ensure that the money you’ve tucked away is generating its own income so that the vicious jaws of inflation don’t rip it to shreds. (8) inflation flashes its sharp teeth against the back drop of dark clouds of recession. at a more superficial level, inflation can bite us, cut us, tear us and rip our income to shreds, with its “claws”, “jaws” and “sharp teeth”. at a higher level of abstraction, however, inflation can hurt us, leaving us deprived of something extremely valuable, it takes us aback and we are unprepared for its onslaught. the fear we feel is very realistic and these metaphorical expressions vividly depict all of the detrimental effects inflicted upon us. if we relate (something as abstract as) inflation to some of the most unpleasant sensations in our physical experience, depicted by animal’s sharp claws, teeth or jaws, this presupposes taking the necessary steps to ward off any undesirable outcome and the expectation that we will be on the alert and act accordingly. such a conceptualisation serves the purpose of advising the public to take precautions for the future, e.g. by (re)investing their money more wisely. 4.3. the ways animals sound the further decomposition of inflation conceptualised as a ferocious animal focuses on the different sounds animals make, illustrated by the following examples: n. silaski & t. durović ibérica 20 (2010): 57-8066 ˇ 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 66 (9) inflation roars back in venezuela in april. (10) in it, goyette explains alternative investments that should remain strong in the face of howling inflation, and gives readers tools to maintain the value of their savings and take advantage of inevitable future opportunities. (11) as a result, it will never tame inflation until it becomes a clawing, bellowing threat. (12) developing markets’ inflation beast keeps growling. (13) we have long argued that inflation, although the central banker’s nightmare, is little more than the dog barking in the night! (14) caged beast of inflation utters a hiss. animal metaphoric imagery is again very rich, as the above examples show. the “roaring” of lions, the “howling” of wolves, the “bellowing” of bulls, the “growling” and “barking” of dogs or the “hissing” of snakes, all of these menacing animal sounds underlie the intense feeling of fear of impending events. the sounds stand for bad omens that may or may not materialise. for example, a dog may bark with the intention of biting you or greeting you, wolves and dogs alike howl, uttering cries of anger but also of pain or grief, bulls bellow in anger or pain alike. these sounds inspire fear, sometimes rational, on other occasions irrational, which in the latter case calls for a qualified and credible explanation of our apprehension and advice on how to minimise the uncertainty of future events. 4.4. the ways animals eat/are fed the metaphorical extensions of the animal metaphor referring to the way animals eat or are fed map onto different policies or protective measures undertaken to tackle the issue of inflation. (15) just what is inflation, this ravenous beast that eats away at the value of every dollar you earn? (16) russia is feeding the beast that soon will devour it. (17) if your money is stowed in a “safe” investment, like a low-yielding savings or money market account, you’ll never see how inflation is gobbling up virtually all of your return. (18) inflation gnaws at pet food companies. catching inflation by the tail ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 67 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 67 (19) the inflation beast, once out of its cage, can devour savings quickly and disrupt an economy for a long time (...) (20) but the voracious inflation in the 1970s (the consumer price index went up nearly 84 percent from 1969 to 1979) ate away most of the gains. (21) push interest rates up far enough and you can tame the bloated beast. (22) how to starve the inflation beast? generally, inflation only erodes the real value of money (the functional currency) and other monetary items. it is known that inflation has no effect on the real value of non-monetary items. this in turn means, no matter how surprising it may be for lay people, that inflation may also be credited with some positive effects. if held at low or moderate levels, it would for example allow labour markets to reach equilibrium faster, ensure that nominal interest rates stay sufficiently above zero (so that if the need arises, the bank can cut the nominal interest rate) or lower the return on monetary assets relative to real assets, which would result in an increase in investment, etc. therefore, sometimes the beast should be “fed” (example 16) or the “bloated” beast starved, for example by pushing interest rates up far enough (examples 21 and 22) so as to extract positive effects and restore proper economic balance. however, the harmful effects of inflation far outweigh the positive ones, thus imputing the extremely negative characteristics of the beast to inflation, such as being “ravenous” and “voracious”, the beast who will “gnaw”, “eat away”, “gobble up” and “devour” not only what people have but the overall economy as well, again memorably emphasising the devastating effects of inflation. at a higher level of abstraction, verbs like “gobble up” or “devour” (both marked as [+aggressive] by koller, 2003: 183), grounded on the physical experience of food moving down inside the body, may imply the annulment of existence which is experientially reminiscent of the cruelty of beasts. likening inflation to a voracious beast which gobbles up or devours underlies the inability and ineffectiveness of those accountable for letting the (inflation) beast grow so large and difficult to control, as well as the helplessness of ordinary people when faced with the harmful effects of periods of inflation. 4.5. the ways animals attack conceptualised as a ferocious animal, which in search for food sometimes invades another animal’s territory, inflation is ready to attack and “ravage” the economy: n. silaski & t. durović ibérica 20 (2010): 57-8068 ˇ 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 68 (23) how to protect your money from this predatory inflation? (24) however, you don’t have to fall prey to inflation, if you take the right steps to avoid here. (25) fending off inflation’s ravages. (26) inflation gauges show the beast that ravaged the 1970s and early 1980s remains subdued. the authors of the above metaphorical expressions seem to instil humanlike characteristics which are added to the conceptualisation of inflation as our enemy, as examples (25) and (26) show. perceiving inflation as an enemy who “ravages” serves to rationalise all the measures at one’s disposal in order to fend off inflation attacks. in other words, the inflation is a ferocious animal that attacks sub-metaphor seems to mobilise the public and assure them of the inevitability of certain defensive measures, i.e. metaphorically speaking, of “making sacrifices” in the national economy by, for example, the lowering of salaries and general standard of living. this conforms to lakoff and johnson’s (1980: 34) view that when “we are suffering substantial economic losses due to complex economic and political factors that no one really understands”, the inflation is a ferocious animal that attacks sub-metaphor “at least gives us a coherent account of why we’re suffering these losses.” hence the general public are supposed to be watchful and alarmed at the prospect of the pending “danger”: (27) beware of the inflation beast. (28) the menacing inflation beast. (29) where to invest to escape inflation? (30) the inflation beast remains a threat, but we are confident that it can be caged – in the developed economies at least. the “danger” aspect seems to integrate both the physical sensation and mental representation of inflation as a ferocious animal. on the one hand, we actually feel inflation as a real “menace” (example 28), chasing its prey, i.e. the general public. people are threatened and warned and try (sometimes in vain) to “escape” from it (example 29). this connotes the speed, skill and cunning with which one should be equipped in order to elude the inflation beast. on the other hand, we may form a mental image catching inflation by the tail ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 69 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 69 of danger and “threat” as a premonition of imminent jeopardy which should in turn expedite all precautionary measures on our part. 4.6. the ways animals are controlled in its cognitive aspects, the sub-metaphor inflation is a ferocious animal that must be kept under control stems from the previous one, inflation is a ferocious animal that attacks. the following are some examples of this sub-metaphor: (31) inflation about to be unleashed, says the economist who called the crunch. (32) cheaper food prices keep inflation on leash. (33) he did this to keep inflation under leash and has hinted that rate increases are likely to continue. (34) korea to double efforts to tame inflation. (35) in other words, from time to time governments deliberately squeezed credit as an act of policy to curb inflation. (36) slow growth will tame the inflation beast. (37) is it really time to whip inflation now? (38) keeping the beast in its cage. (39) i have said many, many times that inflation is a sinister beast that, if uncaged, devours savings, erodes consumers’ purchasing power, decimates returns on capital, undermines the reliability of financial accounting, distracts the attention of corporate management, undercuts employment growth and real wages, and debases the currency. (40) nonetheless, the bank was concerned about price pressures, and decided it was safest not to touch the rate, lest it unleash the inflation beast. (41) the experience of the late 1970s and early 1980s highlights the difficulties in recapturing the inflation beast once uncaged. the wealth of metaphorical expressions, such as “to unleash”, “to keep inflation on/under leash”, “to tame it”, “to curb it”, “to whip it”, “to keep it in its cage”, or “to recapture the inflation beast once uncaged”, adds up to a diversity of surface and deeper meanings and implications alike. inflation is thus projected as a lower life form which, if displaced from its natural n. silaski & t. durović ibérica 20 (2010): 57-8070 ˇ 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 70 habitat (i.e. the wilderness where it is usually guided by survival instincts) should be kept in a cage, on leash, or controlled and restrained with the intention of curbing or taming it. what this sub-metaphor seems to highlight are the most salient properties of wild animals, such as cruelty, savagery and the instinct to kill. if unchecked and released from the watchful eye of its tamer, the inflation beast could jeopardise the lives of those around. metaphorically speaking, inflation is an entity that demands the constant attention of experts in economic issues as well as that of the general public. it is perceived as a permanent threat, i.e. “sinister beast” (example 39), which can wreak havoc on the whole economy, a beast that devours savings and erodes consumers’ purchasing power, etc. consequently, the conceptualisation of inflation as a ferocious animal that must be kept under control allows us to quantify it, to feel its consequences and identify it as the cause of certain events. we are also sensitive to the measures undertaken in order to “keep the beast in its cage” (example 38), such as “cheaper food prices” (example 32), “credit squeeze” (example 35), or “slow growth” (example 36). however, in line with the principle of “metaphorical highlighting” (kövecses, 2002), this sub-metaphor seems to hide the awareness that in spite of all training and hard work, i.e. expertise, policies and forecasts, inflation conceptualised as a ferocious animal defies the belief that it is a phenomenon which may be completely kept under control – it is not possible to fully domesticate wild animals, as supported by the expressions “inflation on the run”, “runway inflation”, “the beast of inflation is on the loose”, “inflation is still running wild”, or “the beast of inflation is running amuck” in the following examples: (42) inflation on the run. (43) the increase is more than expected but far short of the runaway inflation some fear may result from the obama stimulus package. (44) the beast of inflation is on the loose and will likely be with us for quite a while. (45) us inflation still running wild as recession looms. (46) even applying the same yardstick, the four consumer price indices reveal that, far from being subdued, the beast of inflation is running amuck. simply put, inflation rate is not negative but in double digits. catching inflation by the tail ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 71 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 71 “runaway inflation” (via the image of a runaway horse) which is “on the loose” and “runs amuck” are ingrained metaphorical expressions which connote “being out of control”, “being not confined or bound”, highlighting “the difficulties in recapturing the inflation beast once uncaged” (example 41). on the basis of the examples below, we become familiar with the ways of restraining such an unpredictable and relentless entity as inflation. the last three mappings offer clear ways of how to regulate certain behaviour for the common good. 4.6.1. sending the beast to sleep in the first of these cases controlling inflation is perceived as sending a wild animal to sleep. (47) inflation is a snarling vicious dog that has been put to sleep. (48) the fed purchase of government securities was a purely artificial attempt to dope the inflation horse. (49) inflation is not dead; it is just hibernating. (50) however the most recent readings from around the world point to an inflation beast either comatose or mortally wounded. (51) many investors will continue to fret until it becomes clear that the fed has not awakened the inflation beast. (52) while there has been lots of noise about inflationary pressures, the beast itself is still slumbering. the mpc should not act until they see convincing evidence of it waking up. the metaphorical images of putting a “snarling”, “vicious dog to sleep” (example 47), “doping the inflation horse” (example 48) and being “comatose” (example 50), unlike the natural processes of “hibernation” (example 49) or “slumbering” (example 52) which are not induced either chemically or in some other way, equally suggest low level of bodily activity, the weakening of instincts, the inability to react and stupor. on a more positive note, the sending a wild animal to sleep submetaphor foregrounds the jubilation of devising ways and strategies to quell inflation and channel its subversive force. what this sub-metaphor conceals is the short-term nature of policy and the expectations and fear of what will happen when inflation beast awakens and becomes fully operational again. n. silaski & t. durović ibérica 20 (2010): 57-8072 ˇ 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 72 as example (49) states, “inflation is not dead; it is just hibernating”, therefore any partial measures may only serve to postpone the inevitable. 4.6.2. catching the beast the next sub-metaphor proposes a more effective way of restraining the uncontrollable process of inflation, that linked with pursuing and catching the beast, as illustrated by the following examples: (53) inflation to be trapped with neo matrix. (54) currently at over 4 percent, inflation in britain is expected to tail-off in line with the falling oil price. (55) let’s hope the ugly beast of inflation can get controlled before it takes us into an economic tailspin. (56) there is still fear in the market. but you are seeing the beginning of signs that the inflation beast is being caged, which is much more reassuring. (57) the inflation beast was finally contained. “traps” are supposed to be efficient devices for catching or capturing animals so as to force them into a place from which they are not likely to escape. the usual associations of being trapped are being unable to move, being forced to stand still, “get controlled” (example 55), “being caged” (example 56), hence “being contained” (example 57). therefore, in comparison with the previous sending the beast to sleep submetaphor, catching the beast implies a greater level of power over the inflation beast. 4.6.3. killing the beast finally, the sub-metaphor inflation is a ferocious animal that should be killed highlights the best option for handling inflation, that which entails its complete destruction. (58) mexico’s central bank pulled the monetary trigger again friday, raising its benchmark interest rate to 8.25% in a bid to shoot down inflation. (59) super savings accounts that slaughter inflation. (60) volker proved that you can slay the inflation beast with enough determined interest rate hikes. catching inflation by the tail ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 73 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 73 (61) i think the “tight money” crowd is simply arguing that we should kill the inflation beast on the first go around and not let it live for the inevitable final battle. (62) 7 ways to beat the inflation beast. (63) they will then be able to position themselves as inflation-fighters – white knights that ride to the rescue to kill-off the inflation beast before it inflicts too much damage on the economy. examples (58), (59), and (60) invoke images of different weapons placed at one’s disposal to kill the beast. examples (59) and (60) of “slaughtering” and “slaying” inflation, which stand out as extremely cruel and violent, are particularly vivid and thus underlie the danger and brutality of beasts. notwithstanding the horrific effects of the selected metaphorical expressions, the inflation is a ferocious animal that should be killed sub-metaphor, no matter how contradictory this may be, ends on an optimistic note by placing the emphasis on successful ways to stop the beast – e.g. by “super savings accounts” in example (59), “determined interest rate hikes” in example (60) and “tight money” in example (61). the rhetorical effect the metaphorical expressions achieve in examples (59) and (62) illustrates the fact that metaphors in discourse may also function as powerful persuasive and attention-grabbing devices (semino, 2008). 5. conclusion in this paper an attempt has been made to study one possible way of conceptualising inflation in english. by linking the conceptual and the linguistic (cameron & deignan, 2006), we have tried to point out how the ferocious animal metaphor functions in authentic discourse as substantiated by numerous and diverse linguistic realisations which refer to the ways wild animals move, look, sound, eat/are fed, attack and are controlled. it may be claimed that apart from the conceptual and the linguistic, what matters most in the case of the ferocious animal metaphor used for the conceptualisation of inflation in english is its affective force, manifested in the attitudes and emotions of the discourse participants, such as fear, menace, threat, etc. it would be insightful to conduct similar research in other languages, including serbian, in order to verify whether the conceptual mappings and n. silaski & t. durović ibérica 20 (2010): 57-8074 ˇ 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 74 their linguistic instantiations found in the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor in english are shared by the speakers of other languages, especially of those nationalities who have been hit by hyperinflation in their history. if these mappings, accompanied by similar linguistic realisations, prove to be common, then the inflation is a ferocious animal metaphor may be regarded as a conventional metaphor, which appears “to play a privileged role in transmitting social understandings of situations” (macarthur, 2005: 71-72), serving as “a means of expressing a collective evaluation” (macarthur, 2005: 72), in this case, of a phenomenon which poses a potential threat to every economy in the world. [paper received september 2009] [revised paper accepted february 2010] references catching inflation by the tail ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 75 ana, o.s. (1999). “like an animal i was treated: anti-immigrant metaphor in us public discourse”. discourse and society 10: 191-224. baider, f.h. & s. gesauto (2003). “masculinist metaphors, feminist research”. metaphorik.de 05/2003. url: http://metaphorik.de/05/baidergesuato.pdf [07/06/10] cameron, l. & a. deignan (2006). “the emergence of metaphor in discourse”. applied linguistics 27: 671-690. charteris-black, j. (2004). corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. basingstoke and new york: palgrave macmillan. deignan, a. (2005). metaphor and corpus linguistics. amsterdam: john benjamins. -durović, t. (2007). “metaphors in economic discourse” in i. lakić & n. kostić (eds.), proceedings of the international conference language for specific purposes, 43-55. podgorica: lider. fernández fontecha, a. & r.m. jiménez catalán (2003). “semantic derogation in animal metaphor: a contrastive-cognitive analysis of two male/female examples in english and spanish”. journal of pragmatics 35: 771-797. fuertes olivera, p.a. & m. velasco sacristán (2001). “the translatability of metaphor in lsp: application of a decision-making model”. revista alicantina de estudios ingleses 14: 73-91. fuertes olivera, p.a. & i. pizarro-sánchez (2002). “translation and ‘similarity-creating metaphors’ in specialised languages”. target 14: 43-73. halupka-rešetar, s. & b. radić (2003). “ animal names used in addressing people in serbian”. journal of pragmatics 35: 1891-1902. halverson, j. (1976). “animal categories and terms of abuse”. man 11: 505-516. henderson, w. (1986). “metaphor in economics” in m. coulthard (ed.), talking about text (discourse monograph no 13), 109-127. birmingham: university of birmingham english language research. hsieh, s. c. (2006). “a corpus-based study on animal expressions in mandarin chinese and german”. journal of pragmatics 38: 2206-2222. koller, v. (2003). metaphor clusters in business media discourse: a social cognition approach. ph.d. thesis. university of vienna. url: http://www.wuwien.ac.at/inst/english/koller_diss.p df [01/07/08]. kövecses, z. (2002). metaphor. a practical introduction. oxford: oxford university press. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago: university of chicago press. lakoff, g. & m. turner (1989). more than cool 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 75 nadezda silaski currently works as an assistant professor of english for economists at the faculty of economics, university of belgrade. she got her phd degree in 2005 with a thesis dealing with a genre analysis of advertisements in serbian and british women’s magazines. her fields of interest include esp, contact linguistics and political discourse analysis. she is the co-author of a monograph on serbian public discourse and three textbooks on english for economics. tatjana -durović currently works as an assistant professor of english for economists at the faculty of economics, university of belgrade. she became phd in linguistics in 2006 with a thesis deling with a comparative analysis of metaphors in english and serbian economic discourse. her main research interests include esp, particularly conceptual metaphors in economic discourse. she is the co-author of a monograph on serbian public discourse and three textbooks on english for economics. notes 1 although now highly conventionalised and mainly considered a dead metaphor, the term inflation has a clear metaphorical etymology (smith, 1995: 45). n. silaski & t. durović ibérica 20 (2010): 57-8076 ˇ reason. a field guide to poetic metaphor. chicago: the university of chicago press. lakoff, g. (1993). “the contemporary theory of metaphor”. in a. ortony (ed.), metaphor and thought, 202-251. cambridge: cambridge university press. lópez rodríguez, i. (2007). “the representation of women in teenage and women’s magazines: recurring metaphors in english”. estudios ingleses de la universidad complutense 15: 1542. macarthur, f. (2005). “the competent horseman in a horseless world: observations on a conventional metaphor in spanish and english”. metaphor and symbol 20: 71-94. nilsen, a.p. (1996). “of ladybugs and billy goats: what animal species names tell about human perceptions of gender”. metaphor and symbolic activity 11: 257-271. pragglejaz group (2007). “mip: a method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse”. metaphor and symbol 22: 1-39 semino, e. (2008). metaphor in discourse. cambridge: cambridge university press. silaški, n. (2009). “animal metaphors in some business-related terms in english”. paper presented at the international conference across languages and cultures, herceg novi, montenegro, 4-6 june 2009. skorczynska, h. & a. deignan (2006). “readership and purpose in the choice of economics metaphors”. metaphor and symbol 21: 87-104. smith, g. (1995). “how high can a dead cat bounce?: metaphor and the hong kong stock market”. hong kong papers in linguistics and language teaching 18: 43-57. talebinejad, m.r. & h.v. dastjerdi (2005). “a cross-cultural study of animal metaphors: when owls are not wise!”. metaphor and symbol 20: 133150. turner m. (1990). “aspects of the invariance hypothesis”. cognitive linguistics 1: 247-255. velasco sacristán, m. (2009). “a translation approach to metaphor teaching in the lsp classroom: sample exercises from a business english syllabus”. ibérica 17: 83-98. ˇ ˇ 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 76 2 although in previous research on animal metaphors and particularly on the people are animals metaphor, it was mainly nouns which were reported to be metaphorical in nature, in our analysis “animal metaphor[s] tend[s] to capture particular behaviour, and these are typically referred to by verbs” (semino, 2008: 201; see also deignan, 2005). 3 a “lexical unit” refers not only to individual words but also to multiword expressions (semino, 2008). 4 each source provided in the appendix contains information about the web site from which each individual example has been excerpted, the name of the media, the title of the article (where applicable), the name of the author (where available), and the date of the publication (where available). 5 this does not mean that the animal metaphor imparts only negative evaluations. for its positive aspects see, among others, charteris-black (2004) and silaski (2009). for serbian, see halupka-resetar & radić (2003). 6 although the verb “hack” means to go for a ride on horse for pleasure, the contextual evidence (“leaving you with less than you started”), as well as the particle “away” suggest firstly, that inflation is used in an active subject construction and secondly, that, if unchecked, hacking can easily be turned into the trotting or galloping of inflation. appendix: sources of examples [numbers in brackets refer to examples in the main text] (1) http://www.secretsofsurvival.com/survival/stock_market_crash.html, secrets of survival (“how to survive a stock market crash in 2008”, by james roberts, jan 2008) (2) http://gulfnews.com/business/construction/inflation-in-construction-galloping-at-1-5-per-month1.90518, gulfnews.com (“inflation in construction galloping at 1.5% per month”, by suzanne fenton, 8 mar 2008) (3)http://www.ey.com/publication/vwluassets/budget_brief_2010/$file/budget%20brief%202010.pdf, ernst &young (”budget 2010”, 18 nov 2009) (4) http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2009/01/31/this-is-why-buffetts-buying-stocks.aspx, the motley fool (“this is why buffett’s buying stocks”, by morgan housel, 31 jan 2009) (5) http://www.richcreditdebtloan.com/how-to-survive-inflation/, rich credit debt loan (“how to survive inflation”, 31 aug 2009) (6) http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/05/news/economy/recession_invest.fortune/, cnnmoney.com (“recession? where to put your money now”, by shawn tully, 14 feb 2008) (7) http://www.fsp.co.za/eletter/get-serious-about-your-retirement%e2%80%a6-it%e2%80%99s-too-late, fleet street publications (”get serious about your retirement… before it’s too late”, by karin iten, 16 feb 2009) (8) http://www.prlog.org/10090837-inflation-flashes-its-sharp-teeth-against-the-back-drop-of-dark-cloudsof-recession.html, prlog free press release (“inflation flashes its sharp teeth against the back drop of dark clouds of recession”, 18 jul 2008) (9) http://www.reuters.com/article/idusn0121018420070501, www.reuters.com (“inflation roars back in venezuela in april”, by saul hudson, 1 may 2007) (10) http://bullnotbull.blogspot.com/2009/11/dollar-meltdown-review.html, bullnotbull.com (“the dollar meltdown – review”, by michael nystrom, 9 nov 2009) (11) http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/18/news/economy/cure.fortune/, cnnmoney.com (“will the cure be worse than the disease?”, by shawn tull, 22 jan 2008) (12) http://www.assetallocationinsights.com/2008/04/developing-markets-inflation-beast.html, asset allocation insights (“developing markets’ inflation beast keeps growling”, 2 apr 2008) catching inflation by the tail ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 77 ˇ ˇ 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 77 (13) http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/economics/the-full-story-behind-uk-interest-ratehikes.aspx, money week (“the full story behind uk interest rate hikes”, 15 aug 2007) (14) http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/18/business/worldbusiness/18iht-think.2.t_2.html, the new york times (“caged beast of inflation utters a hiss”, by reginald dale, 18 may 1999) (15) http://www.axa-equitable.com/retirement/inflation-and-long-term-investing.html, axa equitable life insurance company (“long term investing: remember inflation”, 6 oct 2009) (16) http://larussophobe.wordpress.com/russia-is-feeding-the-beast-that-soon-will-devour-it/, larussophobe (“russia is feeding the beast that soon will devour it”, 24 may 2006) (17) http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/money101/lesson4/index6.htm, cnnmoney.com (“the hidden peril of inflation”) (18) http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/may2008/db20080512_629202.htm, business week (“inflation gnaws at pet food companies”, by christopher palmeri,13 may 2008) (19) http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/features/viewpoints/story.html?id=413fe373-290c-47afad9e-a45f64ecea8a, the montreal gazette (“bank of canada must keep the inflation beast in its cage”, 24 jul 2008) (20) http://www.ohio.com/news/10135181.html, ohio.com (“meet the family: census data form american portrait”, by david knox, 30 sep 2007) (21) http://redingtonmedia.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/pension-scheme-trustee-newsletter-scrappingthe-credit-spread-3-march-20082.pdf, redington (“scrapping the credit spread? don’t discount it.”, by dawid konotey-ahulu, 3 mar 2008) (22) http://economics.about.com/b/2008/09/11/frankel-on-starve-the-beast.htm, economics.about.com (“frankel on starve the beast”, by mike moffatt, 11 sep 2008) (23) http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4281, india knowledge wharton (“can dalal street tame the inflation monster?” 1 may 2008) (24) http://www.richcreditdebtloan.com/how-to-survive-inflation/, rich credit debt loan (“how to survive inflation”, 31 aug 2009) (25) http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/p116571.asp, moneycentral.msn.com (“tips help you whip inflation now”, by timothy middleton, 10 oct 2007) (26) http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_629460.html, pittsburghlive.com (“key economists fear inflation is threatening a comeback”, by mark davis, 14 jun 2009) (27) http://www.ftadviser.com/investmentadviser/investments/features/article/20080505/2b2467e61528-11dd-94ce-0015171400aa/beware-of-the-inflation-beast.jsp, financial times adviser (“beware of the inflation beast”, by martin cholwill, 5 may 2008) (28) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/article675980.ece, the globe and mail (“the new global menace: food inflation”, by barrie mckenna, 29 mar 2008) (29) http://www.thestreet.com/story/10414352/where-to-invest-to-escape-inflation.html, the street.com (“where to invest to escape inflation”, by sam patel, 29 apr 2009) (30) http://tvnz.co.nz/view/tvnz_smartphone_story_skin/1995197, tvnz.co.nz (“dollar surge curbs commodities”, 11 aug 2008) (31) http://www.wealth-bulletin.com/portfolio/markets/content/1053712601/, wealth bulletin (“inflation about to be unleashed, says the economist who called the crunch”, by james rutter, 24 mar 2009) (32) http://www.blonnet.com/2008/02/16/stories/2008021650271300.htm, business line (“cheaper food prices keep inflation on leash”, 16 feb 2008) (33) http://www.forextradingstrategiesblog.com/, forex trading strategies blog (“the us dollar up against major currencies”, 15 apr 2006) (34) http://www.korea.net/news/news/newsview.asp?serial_no=20080603010&part=104&searchday, korea.net (“the government will double efforts in every possible way to tame inflation”, 3 jun 2008) n. silaski & t. durović ibérica 20 (2010): 57-8078 ˇ 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 78 (35) http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andreas-whittam-smith/andreas-whittamsmith-time-to-put-some-bankers-in-the-dock-952488.html, independent (“andreas whittam smith: time to put some bankers in the dock”, 6 oct 2008) (36) http://www.economicsuk.com/blog/000726.html, economicsuk.com (“slow growth will tame the inflation beast”, by david smith, 22 jun 2008) (37) http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/26/markets/thebuzz/index.htm, cnnmoney.com (“is it really time to whip inflation now?”, by paul r. la monica, 27 may 2009) (38) http://www.news.appstate.edu/2006/06/27/comparing-inflation/, appalachian state university (“tips help you whip inflation now”, by timothy middleton, 27 jun 2006) (39)http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/investing/contrarianchronicles/thefedembracesinflation.aspx , msnmoney.com (“the fed embraces inflation”, by bill fleckenstein, 2 jun 2008) (40) http://www.bnn.ca/news/2193.html, business news network (“banking without a net”, by noah zivitz, 14 jul 2008) (41) http://www.eurointelligence.com/article.581+m519fd24ca3c.0.html, eurointelligence.com (“regulatory debauchery”, by satyajit das, 2 dec 2007) (42) http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/2583215/inflation-on-the-run, stuff.co.nz (“inflation on the run”, by david hargreaves, 10 jul 2009) (43) http://bx.businessweek.com/obamas-stimulus-plan/inflation-led-by-energy-prices-shows-slight-risein-june/12146106759187067974-eef8f0466ebb4e0442c0e01e8802e9f5/, los angeles times (“consumer prices jump, industrial production falls”, by don lee, 15 jul 2009) (44) http://www.drjeffcornwall.com/2008/07/inflation-is-top-concern-among.html, belmont university (“inflation is top concern among business owners”, by jeff cornwall, 8 jul 2008) (45) http://www.crikey.com.au/topic/consumer-price-index/, crikey.com.au (“us inflation still running wild as recession looms, by glenn dyer, 17 jan 2008) (46) http://www.dnaindia.com/money/analysis_chaos-a-tale-of-4-inflation-rates_1288076, dnaindia.com (“chaos: a tale of 4 inflation rates”, by s. gangadharan, 7 sep 2009) (47) http://www.smh.com.au/business/inflation-is-a-snarling-vicious-dog-that-has-been-put-to-sleep20081105-5ihc.html, the sidney morning herald (“inflation is a snarling vicious dog that has been put to sleep”, by jessica irvine, 6 nov 2008) (48) http://www.fullermoney.com/x/default.html?cotd=y&id=7978, fullermoney.com (“washington’s new pr effort: bernanke says recession could end in 2009”, 16 mar 2009) (49)http://www.ftportfolios.com/commentary/economicresearch/2009/1/16/the_consumer_price_index_ cpi_dropped_0.7percent_in_december, ftportfolios.com (“december cpi, by brian s. wesbury and robert stein, 16 jan 2009) (50) http://www.ilim.com/inthemarket/viewcontent.asp?linkname=inthemarket&id=45, irish life investment managers (“inflation: missing in action [and what this means for markets!] (51) http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_41/b4053058.htm, business week (“why the fed’s cut won’t spark inflation”, 8 oct 2007) (52) http://www.eef.org.uk/policy-media/releases/uk/2006/inflation+beast+still+slumbering+say+ manufacturers.htm, eef.org.uk (“inflation beast still slumbering say manufacturers”, 12 nov 2006) (53)http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/articleshow/articleshow/3097763.cms, the economic times (“inflation to be trapped with neo matrix”, by amiti sen and deepshikha sikarwar, 4 jun 2008) (54) http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/european-central-banks-slash-rates-to-wardoff-recession_100115931.html#ixzz0ede4xigv, thaindian news (“european central banks slash rates to ward off recession”, 6 nov 2008) (55) http://forum.belmont.edu/cornwall/archives/005832.html, belmont university (“the ugly beast”, by jeff cornwall, 25 sep 2006) catching inflation by the tail ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 79 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 79 ibérica 20 (2010): 57-80 n. silaski & t. durović (56) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/business/worldbusiness/14iht-market15.1.16128926.html, the new york times (“looking for clues on interest rates”, by natsuko waki, 14 sep 2008) (57) http://www.economicsuk.com/blog/000726.html, economicsuk.com (“slow growth will tame the inflation beast”, by david smith, 22 jun 2008) (58) http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/16/business/fi-mexico16, los angeles times (“mexico’s central bank raises key rate again”, by marla dickerson, 16 aug 2008) (59) http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews149362.html, lovemoney.com (“super savings accounts that slaughter inflation”, by cliff d’arcy, 30 may 2008) (60) http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2008/07/17/the_great_deflation_of_2009/, time.com (“the great deflation of 2009”, 17 jul 2008) (61) http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/types-of-spirals/, the new york times (“the conscience of a liberal”, by paul krugman, 1 aug 2008) (62) http://www.lendingtree.com/smartborrower/7-for-7/money-management/ways-to-beat-inflation/, lendingtree.com (“7 ways to beat the inflation”, 28 jul 2008) (63) http://www.safehaven.com/article-3963.htm, safe haven.com (“inflation, inflation expectations and the dollar”, by steve saville, 18 oct 2005) ˇ 80 03 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:35 página 80 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract while the teaching of discipline-specific writing has drawn increasing attention in recent eap writing research, much remains to be investigated regarding what constitutes teaching specificity. this study, adopting a learner-focused perspective, examines how students respond to discipline-specificity when learning in an eap writing class and what the relationship is between learning the writing of disciplines and general academic writing. it used an in-depth qualitative approach and documented three focal students’ learning trajectories of a business-specific genre – case analysis – in an academic english for business course at a chinese university, drawing on data from interviews, the students’ course reflections, and their multiple drafts of case analysis texts. it was found that the students grasped the genre-specific move structure and the specialized vocabulary of case analysis writing, and they also sharpened their academic skills for business study, including assessing information, applying disciplinary knowledge, and making evaluative analysis. however, the students’ learning of case analysis was affected by problems regarding their general academic writing skills, including argumentation and the formality and clarity of language in the academic written register. the issues of learning disciplinespecific writing in combination with disciplinary ways of knowing and doing, and the interplay between learning discipline-specific and general academic writing are discussed. pedagogical implications for teaching specificity in eap writing classes are also suggested. keywords: discipline-specific writing; eap writing classes; genre learning; business case analysis. understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing: a case study in an academic english for business class wei wang fudan university (china) wangwei9906@fudan.edu.cn 165 ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 wei wang resumen ¿cómo se aproximan los estudiantes a las convenciones discursivas de disciplinas específicas cuando aprenden escritura académica? un estudio de caso en una clase de inglés académico de los negocios mientras la enseñanza de la escritura en disciplinas específicas cada vez está despertando un mayor interés en la investigación reciente sobre la escritura en inglés para fines académicos, todavía queda mucho por investigar respecto a lo que constituye la enseñanza de la especificidad de discursos pertenecientes a disciplinas concretas. este trabajo, que adopta una perspectiva centrada en el aprendiz, examina de qué manera responden los estudiantes a la especificidad de la disciplina en cuestión cuando se están instruyendo en la escritura en inglés para fines académicos y qué relación se produce entre el aprendizaje de la escritura específicamente dirigido a disciplinas concretas y la escritura académica general. para ello, se ha adoptado un enfoque cualitativo exhaustivo y se han documentado tres trayectorias focales en el aprendizaje de un género específico del ámbito de los negocios (los análisis de casos) en un curso de inglés académico para los negocios en una universidad china, a partir de datos obtenidos de entrevistas, reflexiones de los estudiantes del curso y de sus múltiples borradores de textos de análisis de casos. estos datos han evidenciado que los estudiantes consiguieron identificar la estructura específica de este género y su vocabulario especializado, y que también mejoraron sus destrezas académicas para los estudios de negocios, tales como la evaluación de información, la aplicación de conocimientos propios de la disciplina o la realización de análisis valorativos. sin embargo, el aprendizaje de las convenciones de los análisis de casos se vio afectado por problemas relacionados con las destrezas que los alumnos tenían en la escritura académica general, entre las que destacan la argumentación y la formalidad y claridad lingüísticas en el registro académico escrito. en este artículo se discute acerca de la conveniencia de que el aprendizaje de las convenciones discursivas específicas de una disciplina se produzca en combinación con formas de saber y de hacer propias de esa disciplina, así como acerca de la interacción que se produce entre el aprendizaje de la escritura académica general y el de disciplinas específicas. también se sugieren algunas implicaciones pedagógicas para la enseñanza de esa especificidad en las clases de escritura en inglés para fines académicos. palabras clave: escritura en disciplinas específicas, clases de escritura de inglés con fines académicos, aprendizaje de géneros, análisis de casos de negocios. 166 1. introduction in english for academic purposes (eap) writing research, the argument for highlighting discipline-specificity has risen to prominence in the most recent decade. the scholarship of teaching discipline-specific writing emphasizes the “literacy skills which are appropriate to the purposes and understandings of particular academic and professional communities” (hyland, 2002: 385) and maintains that addressing specificity comprises effective teaching of eap writing (zhu, 2004a; gardner, 2016). proposed approaches to discipline-specific writing pedagogy include guiding students to explore and examine specific discourse conventions in their own disciplines, exposing students to multiple academic literacies through contrasting different disciplinary experiences, engaging students in discipline-specific authentic writing tasks, and utilizing corpora of disciplinary genres as pedagogical tools (e.g., johns, 2008; cotos, link, & huffman, 2016; gardner, 2016). the central issue of “what constitutes teaching specificity” (zhu, 2004a: 44) is a focus of particular interest in eap writing research. hyland (2002) sees specificity as situated in disciplinary communities and embedded in practices of knowledge construction and communication processes, arguing that the “ways of disciplinary texts vary not only in their content but in different appeals to background knowledge, different means of establishing truth, and different ways of engaging with readers” (p. 391). likewise, zhu (2004a) and flowerdew (2016) believe that the specificity of eap writing encompasses particular linguistic features, unique thought processes, and communicative practices associated with specific disciplines. carter (2007) deepens insights into the relationship between discipline-specific writing and disciplinary practices from a learner-focused perspective, that is, he sees the ways of “writing” in disciplines as students’ response to disciplinary ways of “doing,” defined as four meta-genres (problem-solving, empirical inquiry, research from sources, and performance), and he argues that discipline-specific writing in this sense is critical to the ways of “knowing” in disciplines. carter (2007) contributes a valuable learner-focused perspective to understand what constitutes teaching specificity, but only a few studies have adopted this approach to investigation, and the understanding of teaching specificity, especially in eap instructional context, still needs further research efforts. hammouda (2008) demonstrates the connection between learning discipline-specific writing and the disciplinary ways of knowing and doing by tracking a geology student’s acquisition of a genre through the understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 167 construction of his disciplinary identity, which embodies specialist knowledge frames and practice. different from hammouda’s focus on a long-term and practice-based genre acquisition in the disciplinary community of practice, kuteeva and negretti (2016) and kaufhold (2017) shift attention to the learning of discipline-specific writing in eap classes. kuteeva and negretti’s cross-discipline study (2016: 36) shows that students’ development of genre knowledge is “linked to their perception of knowledge-making practices in their respective disciplines”; similarly, kaufhold (2017) finds that students’ building genre knowledge requires connecting disciplinary studies to the interrelated epistemological, thematic and discoursal aspects of academic writing. these studies touch upon the relation between discipline-specific writing and the disciplinary way of knowing, but their focus is more on genre knowledge development than on the discipline-specificity of writing, so the findings are limited concerning the interplay between writing in disciplines and the disciplinary ways of knowing and doing. it is worth continuing research efforts to explore from a learner-focused perspective what constitutes teaching specificity of academic writing in relation to disciplinary ways of knowing and doing in eap classes. teaching specificity in eap writing classes also gives prominence to the issue of the relationship between discipline-specific and general academic writing abilities in course design, but existing studies are inconclusive about the issue in eap teaching practice. the two types of writing are now seen as “ends of a continuum” rather than as “a dichotomy”: towards the “general” end are the writing skills entailed by the academic written register in general, and towards the “specific” end are those specific to writing in different disciplines (dang, coxhead & webb, 2017: 961; cai, 2016; gardner, 2016; hyland, 2016). researchers suggest that general eap writing instruction could help undergraduate students to develop a more academic writing register (crosthwaite, 2016), which could be transferred across task types and disciplines, though with complexities concerning differences in task types and disciplines (james, 2010). teaching discipline-specific writing does not mean excluding general academic writing skills, but how to integrate general academic writing into that instruction, an area which has had increasing attention recently, is still a problem needing further research. for example, cai (2016) reports that the learning of general lexical bundles in academic writing relies on the learning of move-specific lexical phrases, indicating an emphasis on specific vocabulary. in contrast, peters and wei wang ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190168 fernández (2013: 236) find that the lexical needs of english for specific purposes (esp) students (of architecture) are more for the “shared terminology of science disciplines and academic discourse at large” than for architectural terminology, suggesting that instruction needs to emphasize general academic vocabulary. similarly, lancaster’s study (2016) of both discipline-specific and general expressions of academic stance in students’ texts highlights shared rhetorical expectations for expressing a critical stance as part of a “general novice academic stance that may be implicitly expected in students’ coursework writing across a range of contexts” (lancaster, 2016: 236). while discipline-specificity is increasingly emphasized in teaching eap writing, how to teach specificity in relation to disciplinary ways of knowing and doing and how to appropriately address the general requirement for the formal academic written register in instruction to better meet students’ needs for writing in disciplines are two important issues in need of further exploration. to address the two issues, the study reported here takes a learner-focused perspective and looks into students’ approach to learning a discipline-specific genre, case analysis writing, in an academic english for business course. it adopts an in-depth qualitative approach to documenting three focal students’ learning experiences, aiming to answer the following two research questions: • how do the students respond to the discipline-specificity of case analysis writing when learning in an eap class? • what is the relationship between case analysis writing and general academic writing in the students’ learning process? 2. the business-specific genre – case analysis case analysis is one of the most common and important disciplinary genres in business courses that feature case-based teaching and learning (esteban & cañado, 2004; nathan, 2013). as a “student coursework genre” (gardner & nesi, 2013: 25), case analysis assesses students’ written response to actual cases in business practice, including “[applying] business concepts, theory, and knowledge to the analysis of business problems and business decisionmaking processes” (zhu, 2004b: 120); its specificity lies in the analytical, problem-solving, persuasive, rhetorical, and teamwork skills that are valued understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 169 in business studies. the definition and description of case analysis has subtle differences in different educational contexts linked with similar terms for the genre, such as case study, case report, and case critique. gardner and nesi (2013: 35) clarify that the “defining feature of case studies is the inclusion of recommendations, while [case] critiques include evaluation as central, and explanations offer a more neutral explanation”. similarly, nathan (2013, 2016a) distinguishes between case critique, case report, and case analysis, noting specific requirements of students’ response to cases, such as analysis, evaluation, role-taking, or recommendations. despite such differentiation, it can be seen that case analysis, as the assessed student writing intended for business study, entails students assuming dual roles: the institutional role, that is, to demonstrate their understanding of disciplinary concepts, theories, and analytical tools, and the professional role – to apply their disciplinary knowledge to actual business practice for making decisions and solving problems (forman & rymer, 1999; zhu, 2004b), which is largely shaped by the typical “learning situation” – problem solving in business study (carter, 2007: 395). problem-oriented writing tasks are proposed for teaching case analysis writing in academic writing classes (zhu, 2004b). in the current study, case analysis is defined as students’ written response to case method education in business courses, entailing business-specific academic writing proficiency, the display of discipline specialist knowledge, and application of the knowledge to analysis, evaluation, and explanation of actual business practice. it is a medium-level assessed writing task for academic novices (sophomores and juniors) (gardner & nesi, 2013), close to case critique and case analysis classified by nathan (2013)1. the basic move structure, as adapted from nathan (2016b) and bangeni (2013), includes four major moves (with sub-moves), as shown in figure 1. given the dynamic conception of genre as a situated response to social exigency (miller, 1994; forman & rymer, 1999), it is worth pointing out that case analysis targeted in an eap writing class also embodies a pedagogical purpose (forman & rymer, 1999), that is, to familiarize students with the formal, rhetorical, and process dimensions of the genre and to prepare them for the academic skills required. in the present study, the students’ response to the discipline-specificity of case analysis is examined in terms of their understanding of the move-step structure, the use of specialized vocabulary, and the performance of case information assessment, persuasion of personal opinions, and communication with formality and clarity, which reflect the “purposes, conventions, and resources for communicating wei wang ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190170 competently in [the case analysis] genre” (forman & rymer, 1999: 106) for business study. 3. the study 3.1. context of the study the academic english for business course belongs to the eap curriculum offered to all undergraduate students across campus by the college english centre at a key university in mainland china. the selective course aims to meet students’ needs for studying business through the medium of english. students attending the course are usually sophomores or juniors from the business school. the course consisted of 16 weeks of lectures (90 minutes per week) and tutorials (two hours per week). the instruction framework was composed of two parallel sections: academic reading and academic writing in business. the reading part was designed to strengthen students’ academic skills of comprehending, summarising and synthesizing information from english materials and to expand their vocabulary of specialized terms in business. understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 171 figure 1. move structure of case analysis in business. adapted from nathan’s (2016b) “a genre-based study of case response writing on an mba programme”, journal of academic writing 6: 126, and from bangeni’s (2013) “an exploration of the impact of students’ prior genre knowledge on their constructions of ‘audience’ in a marketing course at postgraduate level”, english for specific purposes 32: 250. 3 t the parallel writing part targeted the specific genre of case analysis in business study. for the writing instruction, i followed the esp genre-based approach and placed emphasis on genre analysis and meta-communication of the move structure, rhetorical strategies, lexicogrammatical features, and communication processes. the discipline-specific skills of assessing information, making analysis, persuading audiences, and brief and concise communication were also part of the genre-based instruction (see details of the writing syllabus in appendix a). the pedagogical purpose was to strengthen students’ genre awareness, rather than imposing the genre features as prescriptive rules. for genre-focused eap writing practice, i utilized the step-by-step task of case analysis writing on the basis of the course reading materials (see appendix b), following the problem-oriented writing task design (zhu, 2004b). the writing practice consisted of three staged tasks in correspondence to the writing instruction and the students’ writing procedures: (a) shaping a case analysis – working out an outline (assigned at the end of course session 1 and submitted in session 4, including two to three drafts); (b) pilot writing – writing a few paragraphs of the analysis and evaluation move (assigned at the end of session 4 and submitted in session 7, including two drafts); and (c) completion of the case analysis (about 1,200 words long; assigned at the end of session 10 and submitted at the end of the semester). students obtained teacher feedback on each assignment and had teacher assistance with the writing practice in tutorials for addressing any difficulty or problem arising in the learning process. 3.2. participants three students from the class participated in the study on a voluntary basis. for ethical concerns, the study was conducted one week after the course had finished and all students were graded; i emailed the whole class (12 students) to inform them about the purpose and design of my study, and asked them to contact me within one week if they were interested to participate. three students (yan, hong, and wu, pseudonyms) replied to me and became participants in the study by signing participant consent forms. yan (female) and wu (female) were majors of management in their sophomore year, while hong (male) was a junior majoring in marketing. they all intended to apply for exchange programmes of overseas universities, but had received no formal eap writing instruction previously. wei wang ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190172 the students had an upper-intermediate level of english proficiency, as they had finished college english iii (the advanced english for general purposes course at the university) and passed the proficiency test (including reading, writing, and listening) before attending the eap class. they were native speakers of chinese, with english as a foreign language. 3.3. data sources and analysis the focal students were invited to write about their reflections on learning case analysis writing in the class. based on their written reflections, i conducted semi-structured interviews with them for their further commentaries on the learning experiences in the eap class. the interviews were conducted in chinese2 so as to put the students at ease and were guided by the following topics: (a) responding to the instruction of case analysis writing; (b) doing eap writing tasks; and (c) understanding case analysis writing (see appendix c). while these topics served as a guide to the proceedings of each interview, the participants were encouraged to mention anything they thought was relevant or important to their learning experiences. the method of discourse-based interviews was also used as part of the semi-structured interviews for seeing into the writing processes behind the students’ texts and the underlying reasons for particular writing choices. the interviews were audio recorded with the participants’ permission and transcribed verbatim afterwards. each transcript was divided into extracts in terms of interview topics and issues, and then numbered in sequence. the focal students’ written texts in the course (multiple drafts of outline, two drafts of the pilot writing, and the complete case analysis texts) (see appendix d) were collected for examining their progress in learning case analysis writing. the written texts also complemented the students’ selfreported retrospection of learning experiences from the other data sources. the interviews and students’ course reflections were analysed by the method of constant comparison (corbin & strauss, 2008; neuman, 2011). the cyclic procedure of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding was repeated for generating the major themes common to the focal students’ response to discipline-specificity in the learning process. for each participant’s interview transcript, the extracts that contained information relevant to the research questions were marked and compared with sequent extracts. the marked extracts of similarities were classified and the primary analytical categories were generated from them. the primary categories of all participants’ interview transcripts were then compared and analysed to generate the key understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 173 concepts common to all the participants. the key concepts were then applied to the interview transcripts to select more data that could consolidate these concepts. for example, the following three of wu’s interview extracts “i was learning ‘microeconomics’ in the same semester. the textbook provided some explanation of third-degree price discrimination. i found that the knowledge matched my analysis of flight ticket pricing strategies in china eastern airlines” (extract 15), and “yes, this part explains why the price discrimination strategy can increase the profits of china eastern airlines, and basically the explanation was drawn from my microeconomics textbooks”(extract 17), and “with my knowledge of microeconomics, i had no problem in understanding and applying relevant concepts” (extract 19) were marked as similar to each other and categorized as “drawing on disciplinary knowledge from content courses”. similar primary categories also emerged from hong and yan’s interview data, such as “utilizing concepts and theories in content courses” (hong) and “relying on readings in content courses” (yan). the three similar categories were then shaped into a key theme “making connection to discipline-specific content courses”. the key theme was then applied to the interview data for selecting more extracts that could illustrate it. the students’ course reflections were analysed in the same way. the students’ written texts were analysed both at the macro-level (move structure and genre-specific academic skills) and the micro-level (lexicogrammatical features). for the macro-level analysis, the move structure of case analysis (see figure 1) was referred to, while the variation of the actual move structure of each student’s text was assessed in the analysis as well. the correspondent academic skills required by each move, such as analytical skill and argumentation (in terms of toulmin’s model)3 required by move 2 and 3, were also examined through the textual analysis. for the micro-level analysis, the participants’ texts were examined for the use of specialized vocabulary, formality of academic writing, and clarity of conveying meaning for effective business communication, which are priorities of writing in business courses (zhu, 2004b); the examples of those lexicogrammatical features were noted, numbered, and evaluated in analysis. the results of textual analysis and the themes from constant comparison were then integrated to answer the two research questions of this study. wei wang ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190174 4. findings the major themes emerging from data analysis are reported in terms of the two research questions; illustrative data are presented accordingly. 4.1. research question 1: students’ learning response to the disciplinespecificity of case analysis writing 4.1.1. applying the move structure flexibly for specific cases a typical learning response common to all the focal students when they were working on the outline of their case analysis (writing task 1) is that they applied the move structure flexibly for shaping their specific writing. the students worked out the outlines as required, but they reported that it was no easy job, as they needed to address the specifications of their individually focused cases before shaping the writing appropriately into a formal case analysis. yan recalled: i think the move structure we learned and discussed in class served as guidance on my writing. but even with the structure i still spent much time organizing my writing [yan’s focused case is coca cola’s marketing strategy in china]. i needed to consider the connection between different parts of the case information, the flow of reasoning, and the way to organize all the parts into a whole… that was quite difficult. (yan, interview, extracts 7, 12). yan’s outline follows the prototypical move structure of a case analysis, clearly marking the major moves and the key points of content. hong mentioned that he made adjustments to the move structure when dealing with his focused case (coca-cola’s branding strategy in india): here is a change i made to the text organization: i have two parallel issues identified in move 2 – brand positioning and brand association, so in move 3, for each issue there are sub-moves of information assessment, applying concepts, and making evaluation. it is different from the sample move structure we discussed in class, but it fits in with my analysis. (hong, interview, extract 8) in hong’s outline, the two parallel sections 2.2 (brand positioning) and 2.3 (brand association) display what he mentioned in the interview (see figure 2), showing his flexible application of the move structure to his own writing situation. understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 175 similarly, wu described the writing procedure by which she first drafted the outline according to the specifications of her focused case (price discrimination strategy by china eastern airlines), and then checked it with the prototypical move structure to see whether the outline included the necessary components of a case analysis (wu, interview, extracts 2, 3). an example of wu’s outline is illustrated in figure 3: the “body” part was organized around two questions of the central issue as well as the answers to the questions, which substantiated the sub-moves of applying relevant theories and evaluating the business practice. all the focal students reported that, following the outlines, it was then quite easy to complete their case analysis (writing task 3). analysis of the students’ texts shows that all the texts included the following moves: presenting case background information, identifying issues typical of focused cases, wei wang ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190176 i figure 2. hong’s outline of case analysis (part 2 of draft 2, unedited). s n e e gurfi 2 u o’sgno. h isslyan aesaf c oetlinu n, uft 2raf d ort 2a(p ).dteiden c e o i 3 ! ! ! i figure 3. wu’s outline of case analysis (the “body” part of draft 2, unedited). a h l e gurfi 3. s’wu ofne ilout 2,tafrdoftparody”b“the (s ysianalcase of .ed)tunedi2, d i y g p p 9 n assessing case information, making evaluation, and conclusion (see appendix e). the students had grasped the move structure and content of a formal case analysis required by business study. 4.1.2. making connection to discipline-specific content courses another salient learning action as the response to the discipline-specificity of case analysis writing is that the focal students proactively made connection to their study in disciplines, including the content courses they took and the learning resources they had, when they prepared for the subject-matter content of their case analysis, in particular, identifying issues typical of focused cases and making evaluation from initial information assessment. hong reported: when i was attending this course [academic english for business], i was also taking a course in my school, “enterprise management”. i learned about branding strategies in that course, including new concepts such as brand association. i thought it would be a good idea to apply the concepts to my writing. (hong, interview, extract 1) hong also remarked in his course reflections, “it was not difficult to get suitable concepts for my case analysis… the writing did require a knowledge base in business [emphasis added]” (hong, course reflections, extract 12). likewise, wu recalled: i was learning “microeconomics” in the same semester. the textbook provided some explanation of third-degree price discrimination. i found that the knowledge matched my analysis of flight ticket pricing strategies in china eastern airlines. (wu, interview, extract 15) move 2 and move 3 in the focal students’ outlines (e.g., see figure 2, 3) also reveal that they had defined the typical issues of focused business practice and worked out the appropriate content accordingly. 4.1.3. emphasis on assessing case information the focal students also attached high priority to working with information provided by case materials or collected from outside sources, a specific ability required by case analysis writing as well as business study. understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 177 yan recalled the painstaking process of searching for and synthesizing data from the focused coca-cola case: i intended to do a rigorous analysis with solid evidence. … it took a lot of effort to get useful information. for example, i checked the annual report of coca-cola. the information was overwhelming, so i had to filter the data carefully and picked up the relevant data that could be used in my analysis of the nickname bottle marketing activity. (yan, interview, extracts 2, 19) wu also remarked on the importance of working with information in her writing process: writing a case analysis is not presenting my personal assumption; it depends on the assessment of relevant information about the actual business practice. theories could be useful, but the analysis still needs to be supported by data from actual business practice. (wu, course reflections, extract 22) the following account is an example of how wu managed to obtain the data regarding the passenger load factor from the annual report of china eastern airlines: to see the effect of the price discrimination strategy on the profits of china eastern airlines, i needed information about its passenger load factor. i spent much time looking for reliable statistics. … i first checked the annual report in shanghai, but didn’t find any data concerning the passenger load factor, though there were data of its annual returns. then i checked the hk report, and luckily got the statistics i needed. (wu, interview, extract 8) information assessment is also foregrounded in the students’ texts of draft paragraphs (writing task 2), illustrated as follows: … coca-cola’s “nickname bottle” won the grand effie in the greater china region in 2013. the sales data provided by coca-cola’s financial statement of 2014 reveals that this project has boosted its sales by more than 10%. besides, the social media interaction has reached 2.6 million person-time by september, 2014. (yan, pilot writing, draft 1) … in addition, coca cola creates an advertisement “eat cricket, sleep cricket, drink only coca cola” in consideration of the extreme popularity of cricket in india. besides, one advertisement is created to commemorate diwali which is a festival that heralds hope and instills a joy into the indian youth. (hong, pilot writing, draft 1) wei wang ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190178 … according to china civil aviation annual report, around 90% of the total airline transport turnover is captured by four major airlines or groups … in 2014, leaving only about ten per cent for other minor airlines. (see figure 1) … (wu, pilot writing, draft 1) 4.2. research question 2: the relationship between learning case analysis writing and general academic writing based on the findings of students’ learning response to the disciplinespecificity of case analysis writing concerning research question 1, this section presents the results that show how the students’ learning of case analysis writing is interrelated to their general academic writing abilities, answering research question 2: what is the relationship between case analysis writing and general academic writing in the students’ learning process? 4.2.1. problems with argumentation while the students emphasized information assessment in their learning of case analysis writing, the argumentation needed to generate evaluation from the information assessment was found to be weak. for example, in wu’s pilot writing (writing task 2, draft 1), the part that analysed the condition of adopting the price discrimination strategy by china eastern airlines lacked sufficient argumentation: … [1] according to china civil aviation annual report, around 90% of total airline transport turnover is captured by four major airlines or groups […] in 2014, leaving only about ten per cent for other minor airlines. (figure 1) [2] therefore, customers hardly can take flights without getting in contact with one of the major airline enterprises, and china’s civil aviation market is undoubtedly an oligopoly. (wu, pilot writing, draft 1) as wu explained in the interview, she wrote this paragraph to show that china’s civil aviation market being an oligopoly was a prerequisite for china eastern airlines’ adoption of the price discrimination strategy. in terms of toulmin’s (1958, 2001) model of argumentation, sentence 1 in the above extract provides data (the dominant turnover by the four major airlines in china), and sentence 2 is the claim (china’s civil aviation market is an oligopoly). it lacks a warrant that being an oligopoly is the condition for the airlines’ adoption of price discrimination. this part of the understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 179 argumentation was strengthened in the revised draft (sentence 2 and 3), shown as follows: … [1] according to china civil aviation annual report, around 90% of the total airline transport turnover is captured by four major airlines or groups […] in 2014, leaving only about ten per cent for other minor airlines. (see figure 1) [2] therefore, it is of little possibility for customers to take flights without getting in contact with one of the major airline enterprises, and china’s civil aviation market is an oligopoly. [3] in this circumstance, the market mechanism no longer works and the major airlines are now price givers instead of price takers. thus, it is possible for those corporations to adjust the airfares without fearing for consumer defection, which makes the conditions ripe for the practice of third-degree price discrimination [emphasis added]. (wu, pilot writing, draft 2) yan had a similar problem in pilot writing (draft 1). she made an evaluation of coca-cola’s “nickname bottle” campaign, as the following extract shows: in 2013, coca-cola’s “nickname bottle” won the grand effie in the greater china region, which is a great honour for a project. the business practice illustrates that coca-cola marketing is shifting from consumer impressions to consumer expressions. their current core business principal [sic] is “focus on the social marketing and information technology”. (yan, pilot writing, draft 1) the argument in the above excerpt fell short of reason or data that the claim “coca-cola marketing is shifting from consumer impressions to consumer expressions” should rest on. in the revised draft, supporting evidence and exposition was added, but still needed improvement, shown as follows: … this business practice [“nickname bottle” campaign] empowered consumers to create their own content about coca cola brands and share it throughout their networks. this was an initial attempt of consumer expression [emphasis added]. as joe tripodi, the coca-cola’s chief commercial officer, said, coca-cola’s marketing is shifting from consumer impressions to consumer expressions…. (yan, pilot writing, draft 2) the problem with argumentation was still found in the students’ final texts (writing task 3): claims were made without sufficient data or reason. although parts of the inadequate argumentation at the pilot writing stage had been revised with teacher feedback, the rest of move 2 and move 3 wei wang ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190180 composed at the final stage still displayed instances of the problem. for example, the following excerpt from wu’s text (move 3) made an analysis of the reasons why third-degree price discrimination strategy can cause profit increase: [1] there are several reasons why the third-degree price discrimination strategy can lead to the increase of china eastern airlines’ revenues. [2] the first reason is that it could capture consumer surplus and thus earning larger profits. [3] separating its business consumers from leisure travellers and setting diverse prices are apparently better for all consumers than charging the same price between the lowest and the highest ones. [4] if being charged the same price, though the group of business consumers would pay less for the airfares, the group of leisure travellers may hesitate to buy the tickets or turn to other means of transportation, such as high-speed rails or trains. [5] as a result, the profits of the airline company will decrease. (wu, case analysis, paragraph 6) the paragraph shows that capturing consumer surplus was one reason for profit increase. the evidence of “setting diverse prices” is provided in previous paragraphs, but more data or reason is necessary for reaching the claim that the “profits of the airline company will decrease” as a result of charging all consumers the same price. 4.2.2. struggling with formality and clarity of the use of language all focal students reported that a major challenge in their pilot writing stage (paragraph writing) was writing in formal academic english. wu mentioned: i had written the case analysis in chinese in my content courses, but had not written it in english before. this was the first time i wrote it in english, so i had to deliberately think about how to transfer those chinese formal expressions into the english ones. it’s quite demanding, as i was not sure what words were more formal [emphasis added]. (wu, course reflections, extract 10) yan recalled her writing process: … the less formal words easily came into my mind, but the formal words not. i had to change those words already in my mind to the more formal ones, but sometimes i couldn’t come up with good choices. (yan, interview, extract 24) understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 181 hong commented, “… academic writing requires formal expressions, not the colloquial ones or the casual ones. i often reminded myself of the language requirement, but i often felt uncertain whether the words i used were academic or not [emphasis added]” (hong, interview, extract 13). another problem with language use at the pilot writing stage is the clarity of conveying meaning in english. the following are some instances from the students’ paragraph writing that need improvement in clarity: many potential consumers knew these endearing bottles through social platforms and were pushed to purchase coca-cola by their friends [emphasis added]. (yan, pilot writing, draft 2) … india is undergoing a rapid and potential change in some aspects like social perception, people’s taste to daily life, and people’s hobbies and interests and so on [emphasis added]. (hong, pilot writing, draft 2) …, it is of little possibility for customers to take flights without getting in contact with one of the major airline enterprises …. (wu, pilot writing, draft 2) as regards the final writing task (the completion of a case analysis), it was found that all the students’ texts of case analysis improved in formality, but still revealed problems of clarity. one sign of the improvement in formality was the appropriate use of specialized vocabulary throughout the texts, for example: against the background of more different consumption demand and higher market saturation [emphasis added], it is urgent to … (yan, case analysis, paragraph 4, sentence 2) … consumer touch points [emphasis added] have multiplied, and the old, onesize-fits-all approach has given way to precision marketing [emphasis added] … (yan, case analysis, paragraph 11, sentence 1) … there lurked its branding strategies in the new niche [emphasis added]: coca-cola not only …, regarding branding as the source of added value [emphasis added] … (hong, case analysis, paragraph 1, sentence 4) coca-cola’s successful penetration [emphasis added] into indian market is mainly attributed to its brand positioning [emphasis added] and brand associations [emphasis added]. (hong, case analysis, paragraph 5, sentence 1) the reason … is that the fixed costs [emphasis added] in airline businesses are high while the marginal costs [emphasis added] are relatively low. (wu, case analysis, paragraph 8, sentence 1) wei wang ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190182 another aspect of progress in formality is that colloquial words and expressions were seldom used in the final texts. instead, formal expressions were intentionally used, for example: in sum, consumer impression and data technology will exert an increasingly important effect [emphasis added] on branding. (yan, case analysis, paragraph 11, sentence 6) … the sales data … reveals that this project has boosted its sales [emphasis added] by more than 10% … (yan, case analysis, paragraph 9, sentence 8) behind such a formidable [emphasis added] success, there lurked its branding strategies in the new niche: coca-cola not only …, but also adjusted branding tactics [emphasis added] to the local conditions in india, … (hong, case analysis, paragraph 1, sentence 4) therefore, it is evident that [emphasis added] china eastern airlines has succeeded in … with regard to [emphasis added] their preferences. (wu, case analysis, paragraph 5, sentence 5) in interviews about the final writing stage, the students, instead of reporting difficulties they encountered at the pilot writing stage, recalled their personal experiences of utilizing various language resources for improving the formality of their writing, such as the on-line corpora of formal expressions and sample sentences, dictionaries, and disciplinary textbooks in the english language. yan reported: i remember that i searched for academic english expressions online. for example, i used an online academic phrasebank. it is useful because it provides academic phrases and sample sentences for different rhetorical functions, such as defining terms, describing quantities, and explaining causality. i can replace the informal or emotional words in my draft with formal ones from the website. (yan, interview, extract 10) hong spoke of a similar learning experience of using online language resources for improving formality in case analysis writing: when i felt that a word seemed informal and i didn’t know what the formal substitute was, i would check it on iciba [http://www.iciba.com/]. it is an online translation tool. i input a chinese expression, and the website would provide several english words of similar meaning along with a list of sample sentences. i think it is an advantage of iciba to provide sample sentences, understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 183 because i can see the usage of seemingly similar words in a different context. in this way, i could decide which word i actually needed for my writing not only in relation to its meaning, but also its usage. (hong, interview, extract 15) wu referred to textbooks of the english language in her content courses for formal expressions, for example: i found that there were relevant formal expressions in the textbook microeconomics [pindyck & rubinfeld 2013] from my microeconomics class [english-medium instruction]. i directly borrowed some formal expressions. it helped me a lot with my writing. (wu, interview, extract 16) however, the lack of clarity of presenting information and opinions, a problem emerging from the pilot writing stage, still remained in the final texts of the learners’ case analysis. the three focal students all admitted that, as it was the first time they wrote a case analysis in english, they needed to frequently shape in their mind the meaning in chinese and then translate it from chinese to english. there were frequent vague expressions in their texts, similar to those found in their draft paragraphs, for example: separating its business consumers from leisure travellers [emphasis added] and setting diverse prices are apparently better for all consumers than charging the same price between the lowest and the highest ones [emphasis added]. (wu, case analysis, paragraph 6, sentence 3) … coca-cola gained two leading actors who were shown as [emphasis added] chatting mates in an advertisement …. (hong, case analysis, paragraph 4, sentence 9) … in order to enhance the flexibility, the company granted consumers freedom to custom-order a nickname bottle with their own name in different channels [emphasis added]. (yan, case analysis, paragraph 6, sentence 1) 5. discussion by documenting three focal students’ learning of a business-specific written genre in an eap class, this study examined the learners’ responses to the discipline-specificity of the genre and the relationship between learning discipline-specific writing and general academic writing. the students’ capability of addressing the specifications to produce their own case analysis wei wang ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190184 texts (such as adjusting the move structure to fit in with their focused cases and choosing the appropriate formal words for individual writing situations) shows that they achieved not only the “knowing what” but also the “knowing how” of discipline-specific writing. an important reason for the students’ “knowing how” could be that they proactively connected writing tasks in the eap class to their study in content courses, which reflects that they were learning the writing of disciplines through disciplinary ways of “doing” and “knowing” (carter, 2007: 410). as shown by the findings, the focal students drew on subject-matter knowledge from their content courses and applied relevant concepts and theories to analysing the central issues of their focused cases, and they placed particular emphasis on assessing information about actual business practice. such learning actions indicate their taking the roles of “disciplinary thinker” and “problem-solver” (forman & rymer, 1999: 103; bangeni, 2013), which are required by the case method in business education. assuming such roles and taking corresponding actions in the learning process reflect the students’ response to the discipline-specificity of business study that prioritizes the “imparting of disciplinary knowledge” and the “applied professional nature” (bangeni, 2013: 250, 256). it suggests that learning discipline-specific writing in eap classes can be integrated with disciplinary ways of doing and knowing, thus strengthening the empirical basis for understanding what constitutes teaching specificity in eap writing classes. the findings also manifest some problems in the focal students’ response to requirements for the general academic writing register, pointing to an interplay between learning discipline-specific and general academic writing in eap classes. one problem is that the students’ ability to construct a sustained argument still needs further development. as shown by the textual analysis, the problem of lacking sufficient data or reason before reaching a claim, which emerged at the pilot writing stage and was pointed out by teacher feedback, still remained in the final texts of the students’ case analysis. this problem weakened the persuasiveness of communication required by case analysis writing. it indicates that the persuasive ability highlighted in the case analysis genre specifically and the argumentation ability required by the formal academic writing register in general (hirvela, 2017) could pose a major challenge for academic novices like the focal students in this study. further, the two aspects appear integrated with each other in that the specific requirement of persuasion in business study rests upon the argumentation ability of logically appropriating data, reason, understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 185 warrant, and claim, and meanwhile that argumentation ability needs to be substantiated through the business-specific practice of information assessment and evaluative analysis, given that “effective argumentation is situated” (johns, 2017: 80). the interaction between learning discipline-specific and general academic writing skills is also reflected by the students’ response to the use of language. it is noted that the students mentioned no particular efforts in learning the use of specialized vocabulary in business, their final texts displaying a good use of such vocabulary. but for the use of general academic lexical phrases, the students reported deliberate efforts of using online corpora, translation tools, or textbooks from content courses as support; and they made obvious progress in formality when composing the final texts. it shows that the general vocabulary required by the formal academic written register could be more of a challenge to these undergraduate students than the use of discipline-specific terminology, which concurs with peters and fernández (2013). another persistent problem of lacking clarity of expression also suggests that the focal students were probably not sufficiently proficient in the use of language required by the formal academic written register. the problem with lack of clarity in the use of language could in turn weaken the students’ ability to make brief and concise communication which is specifically required by business study (zhu, 2004b), as seen in their texts. given the interplay between learning discipline-specific and general academic writing, when teaching the writing of disciplines in eap classes we need to pay due attention to students’ general academic writing skills. 6. pedagogical implications and future research this study has implications for teaching discipline-specificity in eap writing classes. writing instructors should pay more attention to the link between discipline-specific writing and disciplinary ways of doing and knowing, especially in homogeneous classes of similar disciplinary fields. for example, knowledge-construction practice in business study, such as information assessment and decision-making concerning real-life business practice, can become a part of genre analysis tasks and discussions about case analysis writing, and genre-focused writing tasks can be tailored more in line with typical learning situations in students’ disciplines, such as problem-solving, wei wang ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190186 empirical inquiry, and research from sources (carter, 2007). while addressing discipline-specificity could be a priority of eap writing instruction, instructors also need to consider that students’ learning of specificity, especially academic novices like undergraduate students, interacts with their general academic writing abilities, as discussed above. for example, the instruction on persuasiveness required by case analysis writing could be combined with instructional frameworks of argumentation (e.g., wingate, 2012; pessoa, 2017). likewise, the emphasis on disciplinary vocabulary can be expanded to academic lexical bundles that are not specialized terms but are commonly used for meaning construction in discipline-specific genres, as a way to enhance students’ english proficiency of writing in disciplines. instructors also need to help students develop learning strategies for general academic writing, such as using online corpora, translation tools, or textbooks from content courses, as reported in the study. this may more effectively help students to address the complexity of academic writing in disciplines. nonetheless, given the limitations of the study, its findings and pedagogical implications should be considered tentative. the data are limited to a small number of participants and a specific instructional context, and provide evidence only about the students’ learning experience over a relatively short period of time. to strengthen the pedagogical potential of the findings, future studies could look into the connection between students’ learning of discipline-specific writing in eap classes and their actual academic writing practice in disciplines on a long-term basis; comparative analysis of students’ approach to writing of disciplines in the two contexts can deepen the insights into teaching specificity in eap writing classes that this study has explored. acknowledgements i would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful comments. this study was supported by shanghai planning office of philosophy and social science (project no. 2018byy011). article history: received 01 november 2018 received in revised form 12 may 2019 accepted 20 april 2020 understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 187 references wei wang ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190188 bangeni, b. 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(2011). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches, 7th ed. boston, ma: pearson education. pessoa, s. (2017). “how sfl and explicit language instruction can enhance the teaching of wei wang holds a phd from the university of sydney. she is a lecturer in college of foreign languages and literature, fudan university (china), teaching eap courses. her research interests include eap writing, genre teaching and learning, and esp genre studies. she has published in english for specific purposes and university of sydney papers in tesol. notes 1 case critique refers to “written case responses with primary focus on use of business theory for analysis and evaluation of strategies and actions employed by individuals or organisations within the studied business case”; and case analysis refers to “written case response in which writers analyse a case and identify key factors influencing events and actions in the case (may be closely linked to evaluative tasks)” (nathan, 2013: 59). 2 the interview extracts reported in the article were translated by a chinese-english bilingual colleague in a similar research field. 3 as regards the use of toulmin’s (1958, 2001) model of argumentation for the analysis of case analysis writing, also see bangeni (2013). understanding students’ approach to discipline-specificity when learning eap writing ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 189 argumentation in the disciplines”. journal of second language writing 36: 77-78. peters, p. & t. fernández (2013). “the lexical needs of esp students in a professional field”. english for specific purposes 32: 236-247. toulmin, s.e. (1958). the uses of argument. cambridge: cambridge university press. toulmin, s.e. (2001). return to reason. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. wingate, u. (2012). “‘argument!’ helping students understand what essay writing is about”. journal of english for academic purposes 11: 145-154. zhu, w. (2004a). “faculty views on the importance of writing, the nature of academic writing, and teaching and responding to writing in the disciplines”. journal of second language writing 13: 29-48. zhu, w. (2004b). “writing in business courses: an analysis of assignment types, their characteristics, and required skills”. english for specific purposes 23(2): 111-135. iberica 13 ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract china’s medical research has been growing in visibility at the international level in recent years. contributing to this development is the english-publishing policy now often found in the country’s major hospitals. in this paper, i report a study conducted at the orthopedics department of a major hospital in east china. based on interviews with eleven orthopedic surgeons who are expected to publish both chinese and english (sci) papers (with the latter privileged), i describe their reactions to the publication policy and their approaches to fulfilling the publication requirement. the paper will end by calling for more contextualized research that brings forth the voices of english as an additional language (eal) researchers in various academic and professional contexts. keywords: medicine, clinician researchers, chinese doctors, publication policy, the pressure of publication. resumen m é di c os c h i no s m an e ja nd o l a p re s i ón q ue im pl i c a l a e xig e nc i a d e p ub l ic ar la investigación en china en el contexto médico ha adquirido mayor visibilidad internacional en los últimos años. a su desarrollo han contribuido las políticas de publicación en inglés que hoy por hoy están presentes en los principales hospitales del país. en este artículo presento un estudio realizado en el departamento de ortopedia de un hospital importante ubicado en el este de china. basándome en entrevistas realizadas a once cirujanos de la especialidad que tienen la intención de publicar artículos en chino y en inglés en revistas con índices de prestigio (que dan preferencia a los escritos en inglés), describo sus reacciones a las políticas de publicación y cómo enfocan la exigencia de publicar. este artículo concluye reclamando la necesidad de conseguir una investigación más contextualizada que se haga eco de las voces de los investigadores que chinese medical doctors negotiating the pressure of the publication requirement yongyan li university of hong kong (china) yongyan@hku.hk 107 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 107 ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128 yongyan li utilizan el inglés como lengua complementaria en distintos contextos académicos y profesionales. palabras clave: medicina, investigadores clínicos, médicos chinos, políticas de publicación, presión para publicar. 1. introduction previous research on eal (english as an additional language) scholarly publishing has mostly been conducted in higher learning institutions concerning university academics (see for example, lillis & curry, 2010; moreno et al., 2012; mur dueñas, 2012; bocanegra-valle, 2014 or muresan & pérez-llantada, 2014). much less known is what happens in a professional context, such as a hospital, where clinical doctors may be under the pressure of publication. the study to be reported in this paper will address this gap in the literature. drawing upon interviews with eleven doctors in the orthopedics department of a major hospital in east china, the study aims to find out how the doctors react to the department’s publication requirement, and how they position publishing in english-medium sci journals versus publishing in national chinese-medium journals. 2. context in anglo-american medical settings, patient-care has often been cited as a major factor that takes time away from doctors’ research (goldacre et al., 1999; lloyd et al., 2004). similarly, in a survey conducted in 2007 involving about 2,000 chinese doctors in six affiliated hospitals of peking university in beijing, “no available time” was cited as a major barrier to engaging in research activities (hu et al., 2011). in another more recent online survey responded to by around 16,400 doctors in china, nearly 70% of the respondents cited “lacking time” as a major barrier to research (following about 80% who cited “lacking resources”); in addition, nearly 45% of the respondents believed that “one can be a good doctor without doing any research” and over 60% reported their main driving force for doing research is for promotion, compared with less than 30% saying “for the sake of improving clinical skills” (dingxiangyuan, 2012). there thus seems to be a contradiction between clinical practice and research in the general perception of chinese doctors. 108 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 108 however, research output, traditionally in the form of publication in national journals, has long been connected to promotion at chinese hospitals. domestic medical journals, numbered around 1,000 in total (about one-fourth of the total number of scientific journals in china) (shen, jiang & zheng, 2010) have always been an important publication outlet for chinese medical researchers. as of 2012, 600-odd of the medical journals, as better-regarded ones, are included in the catalog of zhongguo keji lunwen tongjiyuan qikan, or the so-called tongjiyuan catalog.1 of these indexed medical journals, the ones published by the chinese medical association (zhonghua yixuehui), commonly called zhonghua journals, are given the highest regard. other than domestic publishing, chinese doctors’ research has been increasingly published in international journals over the past decades (smith, 1994; hu et al., 2011). of the new generation of doctors, those who are able to publish internationally have typically obtained phd in china in the recent decade2 and work in the so-called level 3-grade a (sanji jiadeng) hospitals, the highest-graded hospitals in the country.3 at some of these major (teaching) hospitals in china, “sci papers” started to become a buzzword from the early 2000s, in tandem with the building of the sci momentum in chinese universities. for example, at the west china (huaxi) hospital, one of the largest hospitals in china, an “sci paper fund” was set up in 2004 to provide monetary reward to its staff to encourage the publication of sci papers. when the hospital was ranked the first in 2005 in terms of the number of sci papers among all the hospitals in china, it was a great source of pride (yi, 2006). a growing number of analytical reports of individual level 3-grade a hospitals’ sci output is being published in national journals, testifying to the importance attached to sci publication at these hospitals (see huang et al., 2006; che et al., 2008; zhang & yu, 2011). in 2010, the ten most productive hospitals generated a total of 2,884 “international papers” (in the sense of being listed in sci or medline) (istic, 2011). as publication output is the major contributor to a hospital’s “achievement in scientific research” (often quantified in grade points) in evaluation contributing to the overall standing of the hospital, it is not surprising that there is a general match between the top 10 in the league of “the best hospitals in china in 2010” (a project undertaken by fudan university in shanghai) and the ten most sci-productive hospitals in the same year (istic, 2011; sun, 2011). in terms of “clinical research”, which is presumably largely attributable to “clinician researchers” (canadian institutes of health research, 2002; yanos chinese medical doctors negotiating the pressure ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128 109 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 109 & ziedonis, 2006), the internationally published output from china accounts for a modest 3.36% of the total output in the world during 2001-2011 (istic, 2011). it can be suggested that an enormous number of clinician researchers elsewhere in the world, both in anglophone and nonanglophone settings, are engaged in research for publication, often in english. finding out how these “double agent” (yanos & ziedonis, 2006: 249) dual-identity professionals respond to the publication pressure should rightfully fall within the domain of interest of eap research, because the clinician researchers, especially those in non-anglophone settings, are among the potential clients of eap practitioners who are committed to delivering support through training in eap academic writing and publication skills (cargill & o’connor, 2006; cameron et al., 2009) or through editorial services (burrough-boenisch, 2006). 3. literature background the current importance attached to sci publication in chinese hospitals is not an isolated phenomenon. it exemplifies a global trend of privileging english-medium publication and of worshiping center-based citation indexes and journal ranking lists (see, among others, salager-meyer, 2008; flowerdew & li, 2009; li & flowerdew, 2009; lillis & curry, 2010; ferguson et al., 2011; mur dueñas, 2012; bocanegra-valle, 2013). as a manifestation of the trend, at the institutional level, managerialism overrules and rewards “academics who willingly restrict their work to duties and activities that provide the greatest measurable, visible output for the lowest risk and least effort” (willmott, 1995: 1024; italics in original). academics’ publication achievement in english-medium journals, frequently tied to journal impact factors, leads to the researchers as well as their institutions being rewarded in material forms (for instance, cash prize and allocation of research funds) as well as symbolic forms (for instance, promotion for individuals and higher ranking in a league table for an institution). for individual researchers, the pressure of publishing has an emotional impact (clinton, 1995; graham & stablein, 1995; rakoff, 1995; casanave, 2014). when one’s professional welfare (for instance, career advancement and sometimes income) hinges upon one’s research output, the emotional impact of the pressure can be profound, potentially engendering feelings of “uncertainty, frustration, fear, and anger” (graham & stablein, 1995: 117). yongyan li ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128110 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 110 eal researchers, by having to address the english language burden (benfield & feak, 2006; englander, 2009) and other disadvantages such as the lack of resources in some contexts (canagarajah, 2002), can only be even more sensitive than their english-speaking counterparts to the impact of the publication pressure. while acknowledging the feeling of pressure that may be commonly experienced, research has also demonstrated that successful eal researchers tend to have a productive “psychological orientation” whereby “they are deeply immersed and invested in the work of science” (keranen, encinas & bazerman, 2012: 387-388). understandably, eal researchers would usually find it easier and less stressful to publish in first language national journals, although these journals, except for the top-tier ones, tend to be accorded a lower status than the average international english-medium journals in institutional assessment (hanauer & englander, 2013). research has shown that multilingual scholars do not just publish domestically for convenience; they do so to engage in local research activities and to target the applied community of local practitioners (petersen & shaw, 2002; flowerdew & li, 2009; li & flowerdew, 2009; lillis & curry, 2010). in the case of eal clinician researchers, who are researchers and practitioners at the same time, writing in a first language for national journals would be a natural part of their publication pursuance. 4. the present study following ethical clearance, between april-august 2012 i made a series of visits to the orthopedics department of a level 3-grade a hospital located in an economically well-off region in east china. this particular research site was chosen both due to the department’s reputation in research (having been reported in local media) and due to accessibility facilitated through some personal connection. the hospital is affiliated to the medical school of a nearby research-based comprehensive university; it is also the teaching hospital of another few medical universities/schools in the city. my main research activities at the department included observing the doctors’ daily activities, interviewing a group of doctors and a cohort of medical students, gathering documents, and attending specialist section-based research meetings. the primary dataset used for the present study consists of interviews with eleven doctors in the department for whom there is an sci (english) publication requirement. chinese medical doctors negotiating the pressure ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128 111 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 111 4.1. the publication policy at the orthopedics department under the leadership of a research-minded director, the orthopedics department has had a publication policy since 2007. the policy spells out a stratified publication requirement for three different groups of doctors. the first two groups (a minority in the department), older and not holding phds, are only required to publish in domestically indexed (tongjiyuan) journals; while for a third group, made up of 16 doctors at the time of the study, sci publication is compulsory. according to the latest version of the policy, implemented from january 2013, the third group of doctors should publish one sci paper every year. publishing in domestically indexed journals is also required, but regular tongjiyuan papers (at the rate of two such papers a year) can be substituted by sci or zhonghua papers – that is, one sci or zhonghua paper being equivalent to two regular tongjiyuan papers. in addition, publishing an sci paper in a journal with an impact factor of above 4 is equivalent to publishing two sci papers. cash reward applies to overfulfillment only and is related to the impact factor of an sci journal in which one publishes.4 penalties in the forms of reduction of income, suspension from clinical practice (up to three months or longer), and not receiving endorsement for professional development opportunities overseas are imposed for not fulfilling the publication requirement. the department’s publication policy document was signed off as having been the collective decision of the department’s central team, comprised of the director, two deputy directors, two senior doctors, and four head nurses. one of the two deputy directors, himself in the third group noted above and a participant in the present study (to be referred to as d1 below), explained that in fact he wrote the policy following the director’s proposal, but having negotiated unsuccessfully with the director for a less demanding requirement for his group.5 4.2. research questions the study reported here focuses on answering two questions concerning those doctors in the orthopedics department who are required to publish sci papers: 1) how do they react to the department’s publication policy? and 2) how do they publish in both english and chinese? yongyan li ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128112 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 112 4.3. participants eleven of the 16 doctors who are required to publish sci papers accepted my invitation for an interview, due to their availability during my visits to the department between april-august 2012. the table in the appendix presents a profile of these eleven participants, in terms of their age group, rank, training path, year of joining the department as staff, study/professional development experience outside mainland china, and the number of firstauthored english and chinese papers published (including accepted) during 2007-august 2012.6 these eleven doctors had an average age of 34 and belong to four specialist sections of the department: d1 and d4 are in two separate sections, d8 and d9 are in another section, while all the rest are in yet another section, led by the department director. as the table in the appendix indicates, all hold a phd degree except two who were pursuing phd at the time of the study (d8 and d9) – in recent years, only phd holders promising in research and publication have been hired in the department. the eleven participants published a total of 93 chinese papers and 62 english (sci) papers from 2007 to august 2012.7 it should also be mentioned that (not shown in the table) at the time of the study d2 was finishing up in-service post-doc research (2009-2012), while d4, d6 and d12 were starting post-doc; in addition, eight of the participants had had the experience of attending international conferences overseas.8 finally, in terms of english preparation, all the participants had passed the national-level college english test (cet) “band 6” (compulsory for non-english majors in china studying at the master’s level) (zheng & cheng, 2008). yet on the whole, the participants have only received limited training in english academic writing, typically in a one-semester course in the phd program. they admitted that they had learned to write english papers mainly by reading journal articles and practising on their own. other than self-studying and having received a modest amount of training in academic writing, it is likely that for most of the participants, the study/professional experience overseas or in hong kong as well as overseas conference attendance have had a positive effect on their academic writing ability development. 4.4. data collection and data analysis a topic guide (arthur & nazroo, 2003) which included but went beyond the two areas of focus of the present study was used for semi-structured chinese medical doctors negotiating the pressure ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128 113 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 113 interviews with the individual doctors. the interviews, lasting 40-60 minutes each and recorded with a digital device, were conducted in mandarin chinese in quiet areas of the wards where the participants work. the interview transcripts were then coded in nvivo 9. in coding the part of the data used for this study, i employed “reacting to the publication policy” and “fulfilling the chinese and the english publication requirement”, two phrases that respectively corresponded to the two research questions, as the first-level codes to organize data. they functioned as “bins” to hold the second-level codes which were derived directly from the transcripts. a simple coding structure was hence built in a relatively straightforward manner for the purpose of the present study. the coding structure will be reflected in the headings of the following section of findings. 5. findings 5.1. reacting to the publication policy 5.1.1. feeling of pressure for all the participants in the study, despite their heavy clinical workload, it is research and publication that constitute the main source of pressure. by reference to the publication policy, d6 said: “the assessment is based on publication, so it is the main source of pressure. clinical work is more conventional, repetitive, and does not give you too much pressure.” to d5, the policy was “quite tough” and created an obsessive concern in daily life: “with this policy, every day i would think of it – what about the paper, the progress, and what to do next?” about half of the doctors interviewed expressed concerns to various degrees at the prospect of having to fulfill the publication requirement, especially the sci requirement, such as by making the following observations, often mentioning the challenge of managing both clinical duties and research: i wonder if my laziness is increasing, i feel it’s less smooth than before. previously i could write a paper in 1-2 months; now i need 2-3 months to write one. (d7) there’re other things, such as preparing for the external inspection, etc., things unrelated to research, you have to do. so the time [for research] can’t be guaranteed. (d9) yongyan li ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128114 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 114 d10, a junior doctor, was torn between learning clinical skills and doing research: “research is what the director cares about; but as a doctor you must learn clinical skills first”. yet he felt he must not slack off on research, for “our director has said: ‘if you’re one step behind, you’ll fall behind at every step”’ – that is, falling a step behind could lead to falling behind in everything that is based on competition, such as promotion, award winning, grant application, and overseas professional development. aside from their busy clinical schedule, the participants would “squeeze time” (as they often referred to during the interviews) for research, making full use of “evening time, long holidays and weekends” (d4). d8 described how he spends evening time: “i usually go to sleep at 1am (…) with five to six hours – two hours i can check up things for operations, and three to four hours i read papers, looking for new ideas”. 5.1.2. positive outlook feeling of pressure was expressed by all the participants. yet compared with those who expressed concerns about meeting the publication requirement, d2, d3, d4, d8, and d10 seemed to display more of a positive outlook and determination. d2 suggested three reasons underlying the need to do research and publish in english: “for personal survival, for personal development, and for international communication”. d2’s account on “personal development”, in particular, was based on an interest in research: doing operations day after day is not interesting; i don’t want to do operations sometimes. but if you do some research, you’ll let others know your work at least; you can be known for your “representative work”. (d2) d8, who has published the largest number of sci papers since 2007 among all the participants (despite the fact that he was only just admitted into a phd program at the time of the present study), expressed a strong dedication to research: apart from performing operations, the most interesting thing is when you discover problems in performing operations, how do you deal with them, and how do you research and solve them. i think this is a very interesting process. as long as you have interest, even if you sleep one hour less every day, what difference does it make? (d8) chinese medical doctors negotiating the pressure ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128 115 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 115 d4, who was once suspended from clinical practice for not fulfilling the publication requirement, but worked on four papers (including three english papers) based on finished projects during his half-year suspension and later published them all, spoke with a measure of determination: “all of us have pressure. (…) having pressure is good; no pressure means no progress. ‘live in jeopardy, and die in coziness’.”9 in addition, both d3 and d10 suggested they did not feel writing english papers posed major difficulty for them, and emphasized reading journal articles widely to learn the genre through self-study (mur dueñas, 2012). to d3, an english paper “does not have to be on something big; something with a bit of clinical significance can be turned into a very good paper”; and to d10, the focus is the research itself: “if your work is good, there should be no big problem writing up the paper”. 5.1.3. questioning and resistance compared with the doctors just referred to, d9, who had published a few chinese papers but just one case report in english, had a more passive and negative attitude toward research and publishing, saying: “i will just aim to fulfill the requirement. enjoyment? hard to say”. d11, a junior doctor, verbalized what might be also on some others’ mind: research can’t be strictly time-tabled. for some prospective [clinical] research, you need to collect data and do quantitative analysis; basic research takes even longer time. i think finishing a certain number of papers within a certain number of years is quite difficult. (d11) notably, d1, who wrote the department’s publication policy according to the director’s instructions and tried in vain to negotiate a more lenient version of it (see note 5), was both critical of the policy and yet clear about the need to implement such a policy in view of the assessment criteria adopted at the higher level, as shown in the following interview excerpt: d1: winning awards and big grants brings you much more fame than treating a few patients. who knows you if you’ve cured a few patients. the policy in china is luring doctors to diverge from their professional duties. this is awful. researcher: but you’re one of the policy-makers in your department. yongyan li ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128116 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 116 d1: there’s no way out. you have to cater for the demand of the health ministry. the evaluation of doctors has to include this part, for if you do badly on this, you lose points here and you won’t get the research funds. then you can’t do anything. (interview, august 3, 2012) d1 claimed that his target would be to “make sure that i fulfil the requirement” and “make sure that i do not over-fulfil the requirement”, implying that he enjoyed being a clinical doctor better than writing papers. 5.2. fulfilling the chinese and the english publication requirement 5.2.1. prioritizing english publishing as reflected in the publication policy, publishing in the average domestically indexed chinese journals and publishing in sci journals does not carry the same weight, with the latter enjoying much more prestige. not surprisingly, the doctors would reserve the best part of their work for the latter. talking of publishing chinese and english papers from the same project, several participants mentioned they believe “dual publication” of the same work in both english and chinese is increasingly considered unacceptable; their general practice is to write the most interesting part of a project into english papers targeted for sci journals. d6, for example, described: my original idea will be presented in an sci paper; there may be branches, which i write into a chinese paper. so there is no overlap. patients may be similar, but they (the english paper and the chinese paper) reflect different things. (d6) similarly, d10 pointed out “the more significant part of the work is written into english”, and “you may convey a similar clinical message in both, but the content should not be entirely the same”. d11, referring to a chinese paper under review and his published english papers, which had all been derived from his phd project, admitted “there was only one variable” in his chinese paper, while the english papers involved “many more variables”, with a “more comprehensive design”. chinese medical doctors negotiating the pressure ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128 117 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 117 5.2.2. publishing in domestic journals most of the participants also publish in chinese. “because it is also required (in the publication policy)” tended to be an answer provided straight away by the participants when asked why they write chinese papers and publish in national journals. in fact, a majority of the participants have published more chinese papers than english papers, exceptions being d6, d10, and d11 who joined the department only recently, between 2009 and 2011, and d8, who actually joined the department in 2004, earlier than most of the participants (as shown in the appendix). as relatively recent phd graduates, the first english publications of d6, d10, and d11 constituted their fulfilment of the graduation requirement (two sci papers being the minimum requirement commonly found in major chinese universities nowadays for phd students in science and medicine); they would still need time to build up their chinese publication record. d8 was an exceptional case: he had long been working with some japanese collaborators on projects and focusing on publishing in english only. the participants felt it “relatively easy” to publish in national journals, except publishing in the prestigious zhonghua journals. but they did not publish in chinese journals just because it was more convenient to do so. they tended to point out that publishing domestically enables them to reach the frontline orthopedic surgeons in china: “to let others know about you” as well as “to exchange with domestic colleagues”. it seems the doctors’ perception of a low level of challenge in domestic publishing is in line with their unfavorable comments about national journals: compared with overseas journals, the average national journals may adopt “a lower standard”, report work that is “not rigorous enough” and is “suspicious in credibility”, as they put it. these doctors do aim for a high standard for their own work as far as they can, however, as evidenced by the fact that 32 (34.4%) out of 93 of the total chinese papers published by this cohort between 2007-august 2012 came out in zhonghua journals. 6. discussion the foregoing section has demonstrated how a group of orthopedic surgeons at a major hospital in china respond to the publication pressure, given the installment of a publication policy in their department which requires both chinese and english (sci) publication but privileges the latter. yongyan li ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128118 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 118 it is striking that at the orthopedics department featured in the study, an sci-required doctor who has not fulfilled the publication requirement will be penalized: suspension from clinical practice for a certain period of time, income reduction, and being barred from overseas professional development. clearly, these physicians are officially expected to be “clinician researchers”. yet unlike their anglo-american counterparts whose research time is officially part of the workload (canadian institutes of health research, 2002; yanos & ziedonis, 2006), these chinese clinicians are expected to “squeeze time” for research apart from their busy clinical schedule. the high-stakes publication requirement has created much pressure upon the participant doctors, with a discernible emotional impact (clinton, 1995; graham & stablein, 1995; rakoff, 1995; casanave, 2014). it is revealing that d1, who spelt out the policy as a deputy director of the department according to the director’s proposal, both tried (unsuccessfully) to negotiate a less demanding requirement for his colleagues and was highly critical of the sci mandate. such a requirement, in his view, interferes with doctors’ commitment to their primary duty – that is, treating and saving the lives of patients. yet despite potential resistance (whether they voiced it or not during the interviews), most of the participants in the study, especially those who displayed a positive outlook (d2, d3, d4, d8, and d10) during the interviews, seem to be “deeply immersed and invested in the work of science” (keranen, encinas & bazerman, 2012: 387-388), and conscientiously play their dual roles as clinician researchers; in striving to fulfil (and over-fulfil as far as possible) the publication requirement, they not only aim for “survival”, but also for “self-development” and “international communication”, as articulated by d2. indeed, in a positive light, the chinese doctors such as the focal participants in the study have been instrumental in enhancing the visibility of china’s clinical medical research in the world; at the same time, by actively participating in international publishing, they overcome potential “academic parochialism” (pérezllantada, plo & ferguson, 2011: 23). the participant doctors also publish domestically to meet the chinese publication requirement. perhaps partly because chinese papers are easier to write, according to the participants, most of them have published more chinese than english papers. through national publishing the doctors aim to reach to the frontline orthopedic surgeons in the country, much like the chinese medical doctors negotiating the pressure ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128 119 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 119 localor regional-level commitment displayed by some multilingual academics in previous research (see petersen & shaw, 2002; flowerdew & li, 2009; li & flowerdew, 2009; lillis & curry, 2010). nevertheless, the premium placed upon sci papers in the department’s publication policy is unambiguously reflected in the doctors’ practices, for they would endeavor to present a “significant” (d10) and “comprehensive” (d11) picture in an english paper targeted for an sci journal, and submit a paper of lower standard or limited scope to a national journal. this strategy seems understandable, and may be a common practice among multilingual researchers nowadays, and at times may even be rendered necessary (for instance, with a national journal’s strict page limit). on a further positive note, using different strategies to write chinese versus english papers resulted from the same project may have helped the participants to avoid “dual publication”, i.e., reporting exactly the same work in a chinese paper and a corresponding english paper, a practice considered acceptable in some circles in china (see wen & gao, 2007) but noted by a few participants as increasingly unacceptable in medicine. nevertheless, this kind of differentiation does seem to perpetuate a scenario of the best research less likely getting published in chinese journals, and the bulk of domestically published papers being considered to be of limited value and not read or cited by those who aim to publish at the international level (salager-meyer, 2008; cyranoski, 2010; “publish or perish”, 2010).10 in the study reported in this paper, the participant doctors are mostly in their 30s, having recently obtained or currently pursuing phd. importantly, they possess the english skills to write english papers (even though some clearly have a stronger track record of english publications than others), attesting to the primacy of english proficiency in gaining legitimacy in participating in international publication (man et al., 2004; salager-meyer, 2008; tietze, 2008; moreno et al., 2012; bocanegra-valle, 2013 & 2014). the implementation of a “stratified” publication policy – that is, having different publication requirement for different categories of doctors, at these doctors’ department is presumably effective, from the point of view of incrementing both the chinese and the english publication output of the department. nevertheless, one might suspect that such stratification could lead to unequal access to research resources (funding, research activities, literature databases etc.) among the doctors in the department. ammon (2006) has insightfully pointed out that those who do not possess english skills are effectively excluded from “publishing in the most influential journals” (page yongyan li ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128120 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 120 9) and from the activities of “the ‘core’ of their field’s scientific community” (page 10). the demarcation between publishing in the indigenous language and publishing in english and the privilege conferred to the latter have farreaching implications. what tensions are created in a local setting and what impact this has for the development of a discipline and for global knowledge-making would merit continued research. 7. implications in the publication policy of the participants’ department, as is often the case with the assessment schemes elsewhere in china (shao & shen, 2011; li, 2014) as well as in other parts of the world (duszak & lewkowicz, 2008; lillis & curry, 2010; mur dueñas, 2012; muresan & pérez-llantada, 2014), journal impact factors feature prominently. but this convenient assessment tool does not lead to fair evaluation of researchers’ work. the european association of science editors (ease) (2010: 1) issued a statement in november 2007 to address the wide-spread “inappropriate use of impact factors”, proposing that: (…) journal impact factors are used only – and cautiously – for measuring and comparing the influence of entire journals, but not for the assessment of single papers, and certainly not for the assessment of researchers or research programmes either directly or as a surrogate. a recent initiative of the kind is the san francisco declaration on research assessment published in may 2013 “calling for the scientific community to eliminate the role of journal impact factor (jif) in evaluating research for funding, hiring, promotion, and institutional effectiveness” (winchester, 2013). in line with the spirit of these manifestos, there have also been calls for alternative means of evaluating researchers’ work (see lawrence, 2008). in china, for the assessment of medical doctors, there are now signs of giving more weight to clinical performance, rather than higher degrees and publications (ha’rbin medical university-first school of clinical medicine, 2012). nevertheless, the current wide-spread importance attached to publishing in english-medium journals listed in center-based citation indexes, with the convenience it provides for assessment exercises and the overall accommodationist stance of the researchers themselves, is not likely to diminish in the near future. chinese medical doctors negotiating the pressure ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128 121 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 121 as a small-scaled exploratory study relying on interviews as the primary source of data (although it was in the context of a larger project at the research site), the research reported in this paper has obvious limitations. however, it is hoped that it has shed some light upon a non-academia context of research for publication, and provided a reference point for comparison for future research of the kind conducted in other contexts. the study further indicates that more research that investigates the impact of publication policies and of course, the actual unfolding of research activities, in various eal academic and professional settings should be conducted. with respect to chinese researchers, such studies would help to develop a more balanced understanding of their publishing practices, in contrast to the (often unfavorable) impression that some journalistic reports (see qiu, 2010) may create. contextualized research heavily bears upon the equality issue, as it brings forth the voices of eal researchers themselves and provides an empirical basis for seeking solutions to both context-bound and more universal problems in relation to the enterprise of academic publishing and knowledge-making in a globalized world. finally, the study also indicates that china is a “market” yet to be explored by eap practitioners, for there is clear evidence that academic writing/publication skills training (cargill & o’connor, 2006; cargill, o’connor & li, 2012) and editorial services (li & flowerdew, 2007; lu, 2011) provided by eap professionals are sorely needed by chinese researchers in a great variety of institutional contexts. acknowledgements i would like to thank the participants for their time and support to the study, and three anonymous reviewers’ constructive feedback on an earlier version of the paper. the study was supported by the faculty research fund of the faculty of education, university of hong kong. 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(2011). “is editing the roadblock to the internationalization of chinese academic journals?” journal of zhejiang universityscience b 12: 503-506. man, j. p., j. g. weinkauf, m. tsang & d. d. sin (2004). “why do some countries publish more than others? an international comparison of research funding, english proficiency and publication output in highly ranked general medical journals”. european journal of epidemiology 19: 811-817. ministry of education (prc). (2012, january 17). “number of postgraduate students by academic field (regular higher education institutions)”. url: http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business /htmlfiles/moe/s6208/201201/129600.html [28/05/13] moreno, a. i., j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópeznavarro & i. sachdev (2012). “spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty writing research articles for english-medium journals: the impact of proficiency in english versus publication experience”. ibérica 24: 157-184. mur dueñas, p. (2012). “getting research published internationally in english: an ethnographic account of a team of finance spanish scholars’ struggles”. ibérica 24: 139-156. muresan, l-m. & c. pérez-llantada (2014). “english for research publication and dissemination in bi-/multiliterate environments: the case of romanian academics”. journal of english for academic purposes 13: 53-64. pérez-llantada, c., r. plo & g. r. ferguson (2011). “‘you don’t say what you know, only what you can’: the perceptions and practices of senior spanish academics regarding research dissemination in english”. english for specific purposes 30: 18-30. petersen, m. & p. shaw (2002). “language and disciplinary difference in a biliterate context”. world englishes 21: 257–375. prc health ministry (1989). yiyuan fenji guanli banfa [managing hospitals by levels and grades]. beijing: prc health ministry. prc health ministry (2012). “2011 nian woguo weisheng shiye fazhan tongji gongbao [a statistical report on the health service in china, 2011]”. center for statistics information. url: http://www.moh.gov.cn [17/10/12] “publish or perish” (2010, sep 16). editorial. nature 467: 252. 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 124 yongyan li teaches at the faculty of education of the university of hong kong. her research interests focus on eal (english as an additional language) researchers writing for publication and eal students writing in academic disciplines. notes 1 zhongguo keji lunwen tongjiyuan qikan [the catalog of chinese s&t tongjiyuan periodicals] is included and updated in the journal citation report for chinese s&t periodicals released annually by the institute of s&t information of china (istic). the frequency of citations, citation rate, the rate of funded papers etc. are among the criteria adopted by the istic to select periodicals to be included in the tongjiyuan catalog each year. 2 according to the statistics released by the ministry of education of the prc in january 2012, 5,545 medical students graduated from phd programs in 2011, and the expected number of phd graduates in medicine in 2012 was 9,682 (ministry of education, 2012). chinese medical doctors negotiating the pressure ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128 125 qiu, j. (2010). “publish or perish in china”. nature 463: 142-143. rakoff, v. m. (1995). “on being published: a contemporary preoccupation” in l. l. cummings & p. j. frost (eds.), 237-245. salager-meyer, f. (2008). “scientific publishing in developing countries: challenges for the future”. journal of english for academic purposes 7: 12132. schwarz, m. r., a., wojtczak & t. zhou, (2004). “medical education in china’s leading medical schools”. medical teacher 26: 215-222. shao, j. & h. shen (2011). “the outflow of academic papers from china: why is it happening and can it be stemmed?” learned publishing 24: 95-97. shen, m., w. j. jiang & s. s. zheng (2010). “china’s medical periodicals: from localization to internationalization”. learned publishing 23: 303311. smith, r. (1994). “chinese medical journals: getting in touch”. british medical journal 309: 74. sun, g. (2011). “fudan ban ‘2010 niandu zhongguo zuijia yiyuan paihangbang’ jiexiao [fudan university releasing ‘the best hospitals in china in 2010’]”. url: http://www.fudan.edu.cn/ fudannews/ 2011/1123/29401.html [10/08/12] tietze, s. (2008). “the work of management academics: an english language perspective”. english for specific purposes 27: 371-386. wen, q. & y. gao, (2007). “dual publication and academic inequality”. international journal of applied linguistics 17: 221-225. willmott, h. (1995). “managing the academics: commodification and control in the development of university education in the uk”. human relations 48: 993-1027. winchester, e. (2013, may 16). “scientific insurgents say ‘journal impact factors’ distort science”. url: http://www.medicaldaily.com/ articles/15626/20130516/scientific-insurgents-journal -impact-factors-distort-science.htm [26/05/13] yanos, p. t., & ziedonis, d. m. (2006). “the patient-oriented clinician-researcher: advantages and challenges of being a double agent”. psychiatric services 57: 249-253. yi, y. (2006). “xie zai huaxi yiyuan 2005 nian sci lunwen shu quanguo yiliao jigou paiming diyi zhi ji [west china hospital’s sci output ranked the first]”. url: http://www.39kf.com/yyjj/biotechnology /01/2006-12-21-308204.shtml [10/08/12] zhang, c. & d. yu (2011). “sci shoulu yixue yuanxiao he yiyuan lunwen de lixing fenxi [an analysis of the sci output of medical universities and hospitals]”. zhonghua yixue tushu qingbao zazhi [chinese journal of medical library information science] 20: 18-20. zheng, y. & l. cheng (2008). college english test (cet) in china. language testing 25: 408-417. 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 125 3 according to the regulations of the yiyuan fenji guanli banfa [managing hospitals by levels and grades] issued by the prc health ministry (1989), public hospitals in china are divided into three levels: level 1, level 2, and level 3 (with ascending merit). each level covers three grades: a, b, and c (with descending merit). level 3 hospitals have teaching duties in the higher education sector. a level 3-grade a (sanji jiadeng) hospital, apart from being affiliated to a medical university or the medical school of a comprehensive university and thus being their teaching hospital, may also serve as a teaching hospital for other universities to which it is not officially affiliated. in 2011, china has 881 level 3-grade a hospitals (prc health ministry, 2012). 4 specifically, for impact factor ≤4.0, rmb5,000 (around us$806, according to the exchange rate between rmb and us dollars at the time of the study) is rewarded; for impact factor >4.0 and ≤8.0, rmb10,000 (around us$1,612) is rewarded; and for impact factor >8.0, rmb15,000 (around us$2,418) is rewarded. 5 before the new policy was final, an interim version required two sci papers every three years for the third group of doctors, as d1 proposed in negotiating with the department director. this interim version was later vetoed by the director, who insisted upon one sci paper a year. 6 a variety of training paths can be seen in the table in the appendix: “b.s.m. – mmed”, “mmed – phd” and “b.s.m. – mmed – phd” are straight entrance programs, where one usually only receives the final degree. see schwarz, wojtczak and zhou (2004) for medical education in china’s medical schools. 7 in the department’s annual summaries of publications, except in occasional instances, there was no indication as to whether a research paper, a case report, or a review was published. however, with reference to the interview data, it can be said with confidence that a great majority of the number of publications noted here are research papers. these english papers were almost always published in international journals; only one was published in an english-medium national sci journal. 8 d2, d3, d4, d5, d7 and d8, had attended conferences overseas for three to more than ten times in the past five years. only d9, d10 and d11 had never attended a conference overseas by the time of the study. 9 this is a famous line (chinese pinyin: sheng yu youhuan, si yu anle) from mensius, a collection of the essays by mensius (bc372-bc289), known for his development of the thoughts of confucius (bc551-bc479). 10 as an example of the consequence of important medical research published in chinese being overlooked and not reaching an international audience, in a report entitled “bird flu data languish in chinese journals” and carried in nature in august 2004 (cyranoski, 2004: 955), we learned “[p]otentially alarming findings on the avian influenza epidemic currently [at that time] sweeping southeast asia went largely unnoticed because they were published in chinese-language journals”. yongyan li ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128126 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 126 appendix: a profile of the eleven doctor participants. chinese medical doctors negotiating the pressure ibérica 28 (2014): 107-128 127 yongyan li ibérica 28 (2014): …-… appendix: a profile of the eleven doctor participants. 3 6 5 4 9 6 10 12 1 4 2 62 no s. o f f irs tau th or ed e ng & ch in p ap er s (in cl ac ce pt ed ) 20 07 au g 20 12 ch in es e e ng lis h 14 12 14 9 15 3 13 0 11 2 0 93 st ud y / p ro fe ss io na l de ve lo pm en t e xp er ie nc e ou ts id e m ai nl an d ch in a 1ye ar c lin ica l o bs er va tio n in th e us ½ -y ea r c lin ica l o bs er va tio n in f ra nc e ½ -y ea r c lin ica l o bs er va tio n in it al y 1ye ar s tu dy in h on g ko ng d ur in g ph d; ½ -y ea r c lin ica l o bs er va tio n in th e uk 1ye ar s tu dy in h on g ko ng d ur in g ph d 3ye ar p hd s tu dy in h on g ko ng no ne ½ -y ea r c lin ica l o bs er va tio n in j ap an ; ½ cli ni ca l o bs er va tio n in th e us no ne no ne 3ye ar p hd s tu dy in h on g ko ng to ta l ye ar o f jo in in g th e de p as st af f 19 94 20 03 20 07 20 05 20 07 20 09 20 07 20 04 20 04 20 11 20 11 tr ai ni ng p at h b. s. m . m m ed (1 98 719 94 ); in -s er vic e ph d (2 00 620 09 ) b. s. m . ( 19 91 -1 99 5) ; m m ed (1 99 720 00 ); ph d (2 00 020 03 ) b. s. m . ( 19 93 -1 99 6) ; i nse rv ice m m ed (2 00 120 04 ); ph d (2 00 420 07 ) b. s. m . ( 19 95 -2 00 0) ; m m ed ph d (2 00 020 05 ) b. s. m . m m ed ph d (1 99 820 07 ) b. s. m . m m ed (1 99 920 06 ); ph d (2 00 620 09 ) b. s. m . m m ed (1 99 720 04 ); ph d (2 00 420 07 ) b. s. m . – m m ed (1 99 920 06 ); in -s er vic e ph d (2 01 220 15 ) b. s. m . m m ed (1 99 720 04 ); in -s er vic e ph d (2 01 120 14 ) b. s. m . m m ed ph d (2 00 220 11 ) b. s. m . m m ed (2 00 120 08 ); ph d (2 00 820 11 ) ra nk ch ie f d oc to r as so cia te ch ie f d oc to r as so cia te ch ie f d oc to r as so cia te ch ie f d oc to r at te nd in g do ct or at te nd in g do ct or at te nd in g do ct or at te nd in g do ct or at te nd in g do ct or re sid en t re sid en t ag e gr ou p 41 -4 5 36 -4 0 36 -4 0 31 -3 5 31 -3 5 31 -3 5 31 -3 5 31 -3 5 31 -3 5 26 -3 0 26 -3 0 do ct or d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7 d8 d9 d1 0 d1 1 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 127 06 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:22 página 128 iberica 13 ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract given the increasing importance assumed by online health forums as a form of doctor-patient communication, this study describes the types of dialogic and polylogic interactions that develop in this type of communicative event, focusing on a corpus of threads drawn from an “ask a doctor” forum in the area of cardiology. adopting a discourse analytical approach, the investigation illustrates how these forums may popularize biomedical knowledge. after describing the shifting conceptualization of popularization, we present a new conceptualization of web 2.0 popularization which we call “oblique popularization”, as it is indirect, user-generated, dialogic and polylogic, and targeted. in particular, this study characterizes the online health forum as a web 2.0-style popularization tool. it does so not only because biomedical information communicated to a single inquirer is also available to the whole population, but also because the function of the online forum as a medium of popularization is discursively acknowledged by the participants. the study also explores what explanatory tools (such as definitions, analogies, exemplifications, and generalizations) are used by the experts to present complex or technical information. the analysis shows that biomedical information is circulated on a health forum by a complex network of participants, and that e-patients’ posts may also serve as prompters of popularization. keywords: online health forum, health communication, doctor-patient interaction, discourse analysis, popularization strategies. resumen l a p o pu l ar iz a c ió n de l a i nf o rm ac i ón b i omé d ic a e n un f oro de s al u d o nl i ne dada la creciente importancia que han adquirido los foros de salud online como una forma de comunicación entre doctor y paciente, este estudio busca describir popularizing biomedical information on an online health forum patrizia anesa and antoinette fage-butler university of bergamo (italy) & aarhus university (denmark) patrizia.anesa@unibg.it & fage-butler@asb.dk 105 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 105 ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 p. anesa & a. fage-butler los tipos de interacciones dialógicas y polilógicas que se desarrollan en este tipo de acto comunicativo. para ello, el estudio se centra en un corpus de secuencias comunicativas de un foro “pregunte a un doctor” en el área de cardiología. el estudio adopta el marco del análisis del discurso para ilustrar cómo se populariza o divulga el conocimiento biomédico. tras describir la cambiante conceptualización de la noción de popularización, proponemos una nueva conceptualización de la popularización de la web 2.0 que denominamos “popularización oblicua”, en tanto que es indirecta, generada por el usuario, dialógica y polilógica, así como con un objetivo o propósito concreto. en particular, el presente estudio caracteriza el foro de salud online como una herramienta de popularización de perfil web 2.0 en tanto que la información biomédica se comunica no solo al individuo que pregunta sino también a toda la población. además, la función del foro online como medio de popularización es igualmente reconocida a nivel discursivo por los participantes. el presente estudio también explora qué estrategias aclaratorias (definiciones, analogías, ejemplos, generalizaciones) utilizan los expertos para presentar información compleja o información especializada. el análisis muestra que la información biomédica se distribuye en un foro de salud mediante un complejo entramado de participantes y que son los correos electrónicos de estos participantes los que sirven para construir la popularización. palabras clave: foro de salud online, comunicación sobre salud, interacción doctor-paciente, análisis del discurso, estrategias de popularización. introduction the internet revolution has had important implications for the ways in which patients gather information. it has led to the evolution of a new communication paradigm in health communication known as health 2.0 or medicine 2.0 (van de belt et al., 2010) due to the use of web 2.0 communication technologies where content is user-generated. the new dynamics generated by the health 2.0 paradigm have made patients more knowledgeable and active in the care process, hence modifying patientphysician interactions. in particular, e-patients that characterize the paradigm of e-medicine are increasingly proactive (ferguson, 2008) and do not represent merely passive recipients of information. for instance, both on patient-patient and doctor-patient forums, patients not only initiate threads, but also contribute to disseminating biomedical information by offering comments that have informative and educational functions in that their posts may help other participants co-construct knowledge about a certain 106 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 106 topic. what emerges is a shifting paradigm where the patient is not only provided with information, but also arguably plays an active role in the popularization of biomedical knowledge. the internet clearly has great potential in terms of the dissemination of health knowledge: for instance, a survey conducted in the us reveals that 72% of internet users in the america seek health information online (fox & duggan, 2013). even though there is broad agreement that online interactions should complement (but not substitute) traditional face-to-face encounters, for some people health forums represent the primary way of accessing medical information for convenience or financial reasons. it is therefore imperative to investigate the interactions developing there, also from a discursive perspective, in order to observe how language used in authentic texts may reflect specific interactional and communicative practices. indeed, the spread of online health communication brings with it an increasing range of research questions which need to be addressed in that they potentially affect the approach to medical information both from an organizational and individual perspective. knowledge asymmetries are at the core of doctor-patient interactions and the roles are to some extent clear and pre-determined even on an online forum. however, the knowledge asymmetries that underpin the interactions on online forums are particularly complex. on the one hand, certain traits of the doctor-patient consultation are clearly present, but the nature of the online exchanges gives them particular aspects. two main research questions are explored in this study: (1) how “ask a doctor” forums such as that investigated in the present paper can be defined as having popularizing functions, and (2) in light of previous work on popularization strategies by calsamiglia and van dijk (2004), what explanatory structures are used to communicate specialized information to patients. this paper correspondingly has two main focal points: (1) it contributes to supporting the view of what we define as “oblique popularization” which is reflected in the threads of patients and medical professionals, and which we identify as a particular type of popularization, and (2) it examines the popularization strategies which are employed to explain biomedical concepts in online health communication. thus, the paper initially explores the theoretical concept of popularization with particular reference to the popularization of biomedical information and the co-construction of knowledge in an online health setting, focusing on the interaction between medical professionals and patients in order to set the popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 107 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 107 framework for the empirical analysis. subsequently, after a presentation of the methodological approach, the analytical section focuses on the discursive realization of popularization processes, with particular attention being devoted to the use of explanatory tools. more specifically, we examine the approaches used to communicate biomedical information across knowledge asymmetries on the “ask a doctor” forum of the doctorslounge site (doctorslounge, 2012). we compare the strategies used on this forum with those identified in previous studies of popularization in offline newspaper articles (e.g. calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004) with the aim of observing whether similar approaches to communicating biomedical concepts are evident in online communication too. here, the dialogic form of the data examined in this paper is particularly valuable as it helps to indicate patients’ satisfaction or otherwise with the answers provided. thus, the main contribution of the paper is that of improving current understandings of popularization as a discursive accomplishment in online media. popularization given that this article contributes to existing popularization theory with the notion of “oblique popularization”, it is important to situate this new concept against the backdrop of existing theory. as will be seen below, popularization theories have evolved over time, acquiring new meanings, whilst others have fallen out of fashion. many of the more recent understandings of popularization reflect a constructionist approach, in line with the constructionist trend within social science research (e.g. burr, 2003: 1; alvesson & sköldberg, 2009: 15). shifting conceptualizations of popularization in the canonical form of popularization, the sender is assumed to possess authoritative, expert scientific knowledge (myers, 2003: 266), whilst the public is “typically viewed as large, diffuse, undifferentiated and passive” (whitley, 1985: 4), a “blank slate of ignorance on which scientists write knowledge” (myers, 2003: 266). a common metaphor for the popularization process is “translation” (e.g. bucchi, 1998: 4), where expert, esoteric knowledge is “translated into ordinary language for public dissemination” (whitley, 1985: 6). in the canonical approach, simplification (bucchi, 1996: p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128108 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 108 376) is crucial. the complexity of knowledge is deemed to shrink in the process of popularization, as reflected in the model which represents popularization as a funnel with the broad end reflecting experts’ knowledge and the narrow end reflecting receivers’ knowledge (bucchi, 1996: 381; 1998: 13). the canonical understanding of popularization is characterized by a one-way transmission or dissemination model of communication (whitley, 1985; bucchi, 1996: 376; myers, 2003), and it is assumed that the public’s acquisition of knowledge has “few social consequences” (whitley, 1985: 5). other definitions of popularization have also emerged. whilst still appealing to the transmission model, whitley (1985: 12) points out that recontextualization is an important element of popularization. mcelheny (1985: 277) also questions the assumption that the public is passive and indifferent to expert knowledge, stating that popularization often “arises from a strong demand from the public for such information”. similar to myers (2003: 269) who cites health and risk as areas of specific interest for the general public, mcelheny (1985: 281) identifies health and environmental issues as being of general concern to publics who are “eager for such information”. he pushes the argument further, making the foucauldian point (cf. foucault, 1991) that popularizers of science have a governmental function as they determine the horizons for discussion about scientific matters amongst the public (mcelheny, 1985: 277). on that basis, he also argues that humanistic and social science scholars should critically investigate the contours of the topics of popularization. in viewing experts as defining what the public needs to know, this perspective on popularization assumes a one-way directionality in information flow from expert to lay. over the years, the canonical view of popularization (described inter alia by hilgartner, 1990; bucchi, 1998; grundmann & cavaillé, 2000) has been subjected to further review and critique. hilgartner (1990: 528), for example, points out that “popularization is a matter of degree”, suggesting that the sharp dividing line between expert and lay should be replaced with the notion of a spectrum. gülich (2003), in his examination of spoken interactions, also questions the boundary between expert and lay participants (see also sarangi, 2001, on the concept of “lay expertise” and “expert laity” and myers, 2003: 267, who problematizes the categories of “expert” and “lay”). a co-constructive approach emerges from the conceptualization of popularization as recontextualization (calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004). moreover, the concept of context models (cf. van dijk, 2009) seems to confirm the nature of popularization as a co-constructive process in that popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 109 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 109 these models are “construed and dynamically updated by the participants” (van dijk, 2009: vii). in this regard, gotti (2014: 23) notes that “popularization is thus not just seen as a category of texts, but as a recontextualization process that implies relevant changes in the roles taken on by the actors and institutions involved, and their degree of authoritativeness”. in keeping with this constructionist approach to popularization, recent popularization studies reflect the general “discursive turn” in the humanities and social sciences more generally (weatherall, 2002: 146). moirand (2003: 191) notes the non-linear, cyclical quality of popularization, where information that has been subject to popularization enters an “interdiscursive memory bank”, thereby also rejecting the “atomistic” (whitley, 1985: 4) understanding of the public as consisting of isolated individuals in traditional popularization theory. an intertextual approach is adopted in calsamiglia and lópez ferrero (2003), who examine the use of reported speech and expert knowledge in texts, also reflecting a view of popularization as discursive and constructive. oblique popularization? the basic thesis of this paper is that “ask a doctor” online forums constitute complex examples of popularization processes. “ask a doctor” forums are very different to the live patient-doctor encounter in the clinic as the main function of the forum is to provide information rather than diagnose and treat individual patients, and online forums are public, whereas the clinical encounter is private. both of these features – informationprovision and the public nature of online forums – contribute to the popularizing qualities of “ask a doctor” forums. we examine first more specifically the evidence for “ask a doctor” forums having a popularizing function, and then explain what we mean by “oblique”. online health forums as popularization following bucchi (1998), popularization processes imply the presence of a recognized expert, a recognized non-expert, and a type of information which is specialized but presented in a way that is assumed to be understood by a lay public, in that it is meant for the populus. consequently, “ask a doctor” forums may be seen as particular forms of popularization for several reasons. p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128110 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 110 first, these sites serve ostensibly as a means of imparting complex biomedical information on the part of the experts in an accessible way. second, the interactions, while initiated as one-to-one exchanges, gradually become a repository of clinically relevant health information on a vast array of medical subjects that reflect the real concerns of individual patients and are available for the (internet-accessing) public’s perusal. in the forum we examine, threads can receive hundreds, even thousands of views revealing the extent of their popularity, in line with the view of popularization as (ideally) involving the public at large (calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004: 371; luey, 2010: 26). the posts are visible to those who have not registered on the website and who may just be “passing by”. there is often the exhortation to “lurk”, and it is highlighted that browsing does not require any registration (doctorslounge, 2012). thus, while popularization is traditionally intended for a mass audience, forums such as the “ask a doctor” forum explored here have a more restricted, but potentially large, number of readers. third, popularization is generally understood as “mass popularization”, involving a mass audience, and often relying on mass media. the widespread use of the internet as a medium allows us to include it among the mass media which may have popularizing objectives/effects. the online health forum as “oblique” popularization popularization has been aptly defined as: a social process consisting of a large class of discursive-semiotic practices, involving many types of mass media, books, the internet, exhibitions and other genres of communicative events, aiming to communicate lay versions of scientific knowledge, as well as opinions and ideologies of scholars, among the public at large [original emphasis] (calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004: 371). popularization is thus generally intended to communicate scientific knowledge to the general public. the kind of popularization that takes place on an online forum is significantly different, and we define it as “oblique”. in this case the interaction is user-generated and initially concerns a specific group of participants, but indirectly may involve a considerably larger number of other potential users. more precisely, typical interactions on the online forum analyzed here may be represented as concentric circles. the inner circle includes those immediately involved in the question and answer communication (e.g. patient 1 and professional 1). the next level includes others who contribute to that discussion (patient n and professional n), popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 111 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 111 although this may be an empty level if the only contributors are patient 1 and professional 1. the outer circle involves the lurkers – any other potential users. oblique popularization on an online forum differs from traditional forms of popularization in the following aspects. firstly, the e-patient starting the thread usually has a specific objective (e.g. to obtain an expert’s opinion on a diagnosis or treatment). they may not wish to learn about a particular medical area more generally (e.g. to learn about how the heart works), which is expected by someone reading popularization texts which have a clearly informational and educational agenda (shinn & whitley, 1985: vii). secondly, traditional popularization texts are often written and delivered by people who are technically non-specialists or act as a bridge between experts and laypeople (ciapuscio, 2003). however, in the case of online forums, the experts themselves, as well as other participants with different types and degrees of knowledge, are responsible for posting the comments. thirdly, unlike canonical forms of popularization which have to do with direct communication to a mass audience, the process taking place in an online forum addresses one (or a few) specific readers directly, and indirectly the public at large. popularization is generally meant as a one-to-many interaction, but online forums involve interactions that are both one-to-one and indirectly one-to-many. in other words, the information provided is meant for the one user who specifically asked about it, but it is made public and indirectly has a popularizing function. thus, popularization may not be p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128112 popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): …-… other participants in the thread: patient n and professional n the dyad: patient 1 and professional 1 other potential users figure 1. participants on an online forum. oblique popularization on an online forum differs from traditional forms of popularization in the following aspects. firstly, the e-patient starting the thread usually has a specific objective (e.g. to obtain an expert’s opinion on a diagnosis or treatment). they may not wish to learn about a particular medical area more generally (e.g. to learn about how the heart works), which is expected by someone reading popularization texts which have a clearly informational and educational agenda (shinn & whitley, 1985: vii). secondly, traditional popularization texts are often written and delivered by people who are technically non-specialists or act as a bridge between experts and laypeople (ciapuscio, 2003). however, in the case of online forums, the experts themselves, as well as other participants with different types and degrees of knowledge, are responsible for posting the comments. thirdly, unlike canonical forms of popularization which have to do with direct communication to a mass audience, the process taking place in an online forum addresses one (or a few) specific readers directly, and indirectly the public at large. popularization is generally meant as a one-to-many interaction, but online forums involve interactions that are both one-to-one and indirectly one-to-many. in other words, the information provided is meant for the one user who specifically asked about it, but it is made public and indirectly has a popularizing function. thus, popularization may not be the primary purpose of the exchange, but it assumes an important function within the communicative process. moreover, an online forum describes a public space which constitutes a virtual area for discussion on a specific topic (antelmi, 2011). consequently, an online health forum also differs from other types of online arenas in that it selects from the wider public 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 112 the primary purpose of the exchange, but it assumes an important function within the communicative process. moreover, an online forum describes a public space which constitutes a virtual area for discussion on a specific topic (antelmi, 2011). consequently, an online health forum also differs from other types of online arenas in that it selects from the wider public an audience which is specifically targeted because it shares similar conditionrelated concerns (antelmi, 2011: 287; see also anesa, forthcoming). table 1 summarizes the main differences between traditional forms of popularization and the characteristics of oblique popularization on an online health forum. to sum up, popularization is not intended here in its more general sense, but rather as an indirect form of popularization, which can be called oblique and interpreted as a “secondary effect” on the totality of readers, not only the one who initiates a thread. indeed, the information provided is aimed at one person, but the data also reveal that there is awareness amongst all users of a wider group of (potential) users. methodological approach this analysis is based on a corpus which consists of 129 threads available on the public forum of the doctorslounge website (doctorslounge, 2012); the total number of tokens is approximately 236,000. selection criteria for the corpus were thematic consistency (cardiology); recency (from 2009 onwards); interactivity (at least five posts in a thread); and collaboration (at least two different users). in particular, the selection of threads that consisted of at least five posts was intended to capture the interactivity of the medium. in fact, even though interactivity is an intrinsic potential of online forums, many of the threads on doctorslounge have a reactive popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 113 p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): …-… an audience which is specifically targeted because it shares similar conditionrelated concerns (antelmi, 2011: 287; see also anesa, forthcoming). table 1 summarizes the main differences between traditional forms of popularization and the characteristics of oblique popularization on an online health forum. popularization oblique popularization popularizing purpose primary secondary user-initiated no yes addresses directly a mass audience directly a specific audience and indirectly a broader audience interaction primarily monologic one-to-many dialogic and polylogic one-to-one and one-to-many targeted less specifically targeted more specifically targeted table 1. features of oblique popularization. to sum up, popularization is not intended here in its more general sense, but rather as an indirect form of popularization, which can be called oblique and interpreted as a “secondary effect” on the totality of readers, not only the one who initiates a thread. indeed, the information provided is aimed at one person, but the data also reveal that there is awareness amongst all users of a wider group of (potential) users (see section 4.1). methodological approach this analysis is based on a corpus which consists of 129 threads available on the public forum of the doctorslounge website (doctorslounge, 2012); the total number of tokens is approximately 236,000. selection criteria for the corpus were thematic consistency (cardiology); recency (from 2009 onwards); interactivity (at least five posts in a thread); and collaboration (at least two different users). in particular, the selection of threads that consisted of at least five posts was intended to capture the interactivity of the medium. in fact, even though interactivity is an intrinsic potential of online forums, many of the threads on doctorslounge have a reactive (consisting simply of one reply) and not interactive aspect. moreover, given the study’s particular focus on popularization strategies, the selection of threads with at least five posts allows us to delve into the participants’ reactions to specific biomedical explanations as subsequent posts provide a valuable form of feedback on previous ones. it may certainly be argued that threads with only one response still potentially represent a form of popularization. however, for the purpose of this study, focusing on longer threads allows us to gain deeper insights into the interactional dynamics taking place. 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 113 (consisting simply of one reply) and not interactive aspect. moreover, given the study’s particular focus on popularization strategies, the selection of threads with at least five posts allows us to delve into the participants’ reactions to specific biomedical explanations as subsequent posts provide a valuable form of feedback on previous ones. it may certainly be argued that threads with only one response still potentially represent a form of popularization. however, for the purpose of this study, focusing on longer threads allows us to gain deeper insights into the interactional dynamics taking place. the site we chose represents a web 2.0-style medium where longer threads often explain, in quite elaborate terms, likely biomedical scenarios as well as medical histories and symptoms. thus, this medium allows for insights into the dissemination of biomedical information and the circular sharing of such information among participants (as well as information from individuals in absentia such as friends, doctors, acquaintances, whose views are cited on the forum). among the different sites available for analysis, doctorslounge was chosen because it offers many advantages. first, it provides an ongoing tally of how many views each thread receives, which illustrates the popularity of the individual threads, a function that was not shared by the other sites we had considered. second, the site also provides specific information on the professionals who post the answers (such as their job, qualifications, and country) which is important in relation to their role as experts. third, the approach to the public was interesting from a popularization standpoint as doctorslounge also has an educational function, in that typically patients can learn more about a specific topic thanks to the information posted by other participants. the service is completely free, and patients are encouraged to read other patients’ posts and are occasionally directed to other relevant articles on specific conditions and treatments, written by professionals and available elsewhere on the website. fourth, the forum on doctorslounge has a particularly clear layout. it is organized into different disciplinary fields, which are then further subdivided into specific sections. each section deals with a specific medical area, thus enhancing thematic consistency. fifth, the public nature of the posts is made evident on doctorslounge, limiting the room for ethical issues on the use of data. in this regard, it is up to individual users to make sure they remove any identifying information, and they are expressly told that they need to be responsible for concealing information that could lead to their identity being revealed. p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128114 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 114 an initial coding was performed using qda miner lite, a program that supports the qualitative coding of text by multiple coders. for this analysis, the coding focused on discursive, textual and stylistic features. first, we manually coded aspects of patients’ posts that acted as prompters of popularization, such as requesting clarification, attempting to paraphrase, asking for repetition, etc. then we focused on popularization devices with particular reference to how they are used by professionals. in this regard, special attention was devoted to the identification of “explanatory structures”) which are used to connect old and new knowledge for popularization purposes (following calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004: 374). for example, coding was used to identify denominations, metaphors, definitions, descriptions, reformulations, paraphrases, exemplifications, and generalizations (following calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004) with attention being devoted to the emergence of other potential explanatory structures, such as analogies or other figures of speech which may assume an explanatory function. analysis complex network of participants the process of information dissemination on the forum does not lie exclusively in the hands of the professionals. rather, experts often highlight how patients’ contributions could be valuable for other readers. indeed, the process of sharing information does not only assume the form of expertpatient, but also patient-patient and even patient-expert, and displays aspects of circularity through different participants and potential future readers. the following statements from experts underline the learning benefits for a broader network of beneficiaries: (1) thanks for touching base with us and for sharing a potentially very valuable bit of information! (2) great to hear from you and really happy to have you drop us a positive update, which really could be useful to a lot of doctors (and patients, too). this is not to assume that in other types of interaction the co-construction of knowledge does not involve mutuality, cooperation and reciprocity, but simply that such processes are made public on a health forum. in particular, popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 115 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 115 the communicative process taking place on the forum is not exclusively a doctor-patient dyadic interaction like that which is possible in the privacy of the clinical consultation, but rather a complex series of relationships. participants constantly reflect awareness that the interactions in the threads can benefit others, and this point is expressed by both professionals and patients in their exophoric references to other readers. for example, the professionals’ answers often have a twofold purpose: firstly, to reply to a specific patient and to address his/her health concerns; secondly, to make those answers generally understood so that they provide a repertoire of medical information for all potential patients interested: (3) for the sake of possible interested readers who my [sic] visit this thread […] (4) that exam should pretty much put your (and everyone else’s) mind at ease. (5) i’d like to insert here, for the sake of any passing readers, that three days of indigestion, even three hours of it, is a red flag and should be investigated, especially in men over the age of 50. these references also reflect the process of generalization as well as provide evidence of “oblique” popularization. new information is circularly, intertextually and interdiscursively presented, in that it is not presented in a dyadic form, but all the participants contribute to the sharing of information by eliciting or offering different points of view. references to other patients by patients who are similarly aware of the enormous potential of the forum in terms of knowledge sharing are also present. the comments they receive are not only useful to the individual patient but constitute a gamut from which all passing readers may draw. a sense of community emerges, and this seems to be enhanced by a communion of purposes and intentions shared with patients who may experience similar situations: (6) i [sic] notice this has been veiwed [sic] by 34859 people. (7) i will get some answers (which i’ll post on here in case others can relate to my unfortunate situation) (8) so if it’s ok, i’ll post what i find out for everyone’s benefit. p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128116 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 116 a patient may also act as a messenger and a link between experts, showing a continuum between the online interaction and the face-to-face one, as the two forms of consultation are not necessarily mutually exclusive. the offline-online boundaries are often intertwined, as information gathered offline may be reframed online and vice versa: (9) thank you so much! i have printed off your answer and will be taking it with me tomorrow to the naturopath and the cardiologist. these processes also demonstrate that information is communicated not only to laypeople but also “through” laypeople. e-patients as prompters of popularization e-patients’ activity on a health forum is very complex and goes from asking for information to formulating their own hypotheses, from narrating their medical histories to checking understanding, indirectly contributing to the popularization of biomedical information. on a forum, explanatory strategies are based on knowledge asymmetries which are not only assumed (as they would be in a more typical popularization text) but are also expressed verbally. by initiating threads, e-patients initiate online interactions which may have indirect popularization effects. for example, they may need clarification of certain biomedical notions, and ask for definitions of technical terms: (10) one last thing, on my echo report it said ‘in the apical views the ivs appears mildy [sic] dyskinetic’ what does that mean? patients may also expressly state that they need help in understanding and framing test results, given their technical nature: (11) mild prolapse of anterior leaflet of mitral valve with trival [sic] mr. >normal lv dimention [sic] with normal function. what does it mean. the inquiry is often formulated in such a way as to ask for the general meaning of a concept plus its specific significance: (12) the monitor said this was five beats of aivr. what is aivr, and is it something i should be worried about? popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 117 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 117 (13) also, can you explain the systolic bowing and if that is a problem? (14) just wondering about something that was mentioned after echo about the lung pressure slightly high! what is it and what are the implications of “slightly”. what patients need is often a specific understanding of a concept in a given context, rather than its abstract definition, which they can find through other means. (15) the report from my echo last week was normal except it reported that the apex of the left ventricle is hypokinetic. i understand the meaning of the word hypokinetic, but can you explain what significance this has? in other circumstances, patients paraphrase and reframe a concept and then ask for confirmation of their interpretation. such reformulation is an example of their proactive role in popularizing biomedical information. although the main objective of this type of clarification is individual, it is possible that other readers may find this clarifying too. (16) does this mean that the low iron is not the likely culprit? (17) does this mean that 200 bpm isn’t dangerous for me because i start high anyway? (18) would you be able to briefly explain what these results mean? i’m assuming it is a normal, but fast, reading and that is why it looks abnormal. am i right? e-patients demonstrate both experiential knowledge, which is often acknowledged by the expert, as well as familiarity with biomedical terminology and technical information (fage-butler & nisbeth jensen, 2013). such patients are often active in referring to other sources in order to encourage information-sharing. this is in line with hardey’s (2001) observation that medical information on the internet is provided by a vast range of participants, and that patients also assume the role of producers of medical information. for example, references to other sections of the site which are deemed useful are evident: (19) i also read something about that we should be careful when using warfarin with depressed patients (here http://www.doctorslounge.com /hematology ... rfarin.htm). p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128118 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 118 with a similar purpose, references are also made to other external sites: (20) i was surfing the web and found the bicuspid foundation (http://www.bicuspidfoundation.com) website where it mentioned the possibility of bav patients developing aneurysms in their early 50’s. patients’ posts make it possible to observe developments in the interaction and to investigate how different “knowledges” constantly intermingle and are reciprocally influenced in the processes of discursive co-construction. experts’ explanatory tools explanation plays a fundamental role in popularization processes. drawing on the explanatory tools identified by calsamiglia and van djik (2004), the analysis focuses on the ones that emerge more significantly in our corpus, namely definitions, figures of speech (with particular reference to metaphors), exemplifications and generalizations. definitions among the different explanatory tools used by experts are definitions, which aim to “explain unknown words” (calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004: 379). popularization texts frequently make use of definitions which consist of hypernyms and superordinate nouns followed by a specification (often in relative clauses, see anesa, forthcoming). manifest definitions are often introduced by definitional verbs such as “call”, “define”, etc: (21) first, your husband is having occasional premature ventricular contractions (pvcs). when these occur as every other beat (a regular beat followed by a premature beat followed by a compensatory pause, then repeat ad nauseum) it is called “bigemeny” everyday words used to explain a phenomenon are often followed by a parenthetical technical definition intended to help the patient who made the initial inquiry and other potential readers to understand further technical references to that phenomenon: (22) this trio of defects (commonly called “tetralogy of fallot”) […] quite commonly, the parenthetical definition is preceded by the disjunctive conjunction or: (23) you have high blood pressure (or prehypertension). (24) pulmonary hypertension (or cor pulmonale, abbreviated “cp” for future reference). popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 119 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 119 elsewhere, the technical term is followed by the description of its meaning. parenthetical reformulations are based on the process of linking a new concept with something the reader may be familiar with (cf. ciapuscio, 2003). as gotti (2011: 185) aptly states, this type of juxtaposition establishes “a semantic equivalence” which is similar to the structure of definitions in a monolingual dictionary: (25) orthostasis (getting lightheaded upon standing after being at rest) […] (26) is it considered idiopathic (without known cause)? definitions are sometimes provided in answer to a specific request on the part of the patient: (27) what that means is there is mild outward bowing or distortion of the forward (frontmost) of the two leaflets, which is minimal criteria for diagnosis of “prolapse” (it could be a lot more “floppy” but is very little). (28) trivial regurgitation means just that, very minor and trivial, inconsequential but noted. in other cases, specific definitions are accompanied by further explanation of terms that are assumed to be potentially complex for the patients: (29) what dysautonomia means, literally, is “dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system.” the autonomic nervous system is that part which controls a lot of normally unnoticed functions, such as heart rate and output regulation, moment-to-moment blood pressure regulation, and even dilation of blood vessels, especially capillaries in the skin. while this can be an essential and physical (though poorly understood) syndrome, it is also definitely a part of various anxiety syndromes. (30) tell your doctor you’d like to be checked for nystagmus which is that simple “watch my finger” test for bpv. if your eyeballs bounce on the horizontal plane (sounds weird but trust me on this) then that’s what it is, and there’s over-the-counter medication that’ll almost always handle that. (31) in some clinics, at least here in the us, mvp syndrome without a finding of mvp is called dysautonomia, meaning a malfunction or inappropriate responses by the autonomic nervous system, which is what mvp syndrome is anyway. p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128120 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 120 sometimes the origin of a term is also explained. even though it may not have been requested, it is deemed important in order to understand a particular phenomenon. (32) the problem rarely happens out of the blue, but it can show up fairly abruptly, which is how the word “attack” came into use. (33) the term “neurasthenia” is an antique word no longer used in medical circles, primarily because it was generally applied to people who were thought to be weak or tired because of emotional disorder — in the “all in your head” sense. it was once also a catch-all term for what was probably chronic fatigue syndrome and other not-yet-recognized disorders for which there was no diagnostic criteria. in an asynchronous forum such as doctorslounge, e-patients do not generally ask for aseptic definitions, which can be easily obtained through research. rather, requests often refer to the specific significance of a phenomenon in relation to a particular case. in this regard, experts may metadiscursively stress the ability and the willingness of the readers to understand specific terminology, thus highlighting a reduction of assumed knowledge asymmetries: (34) in the critical care setting post mi (i’m going to assume you’ve done enough research to understand these terms) […] these processes are in line with the evidence that some patients display substantial technical knowledge about a particular phenomenon. tropes tropes often allow us to reframe complex notions through familiar concepts or experiences. in particular, the use of metaphors in clarifying scientific concepts in science education is well-recognized (e.g. niebert, marsch & treagust, 2012). explanations based on this process are particularly useful in online interaction in that other tools immediately available in face-to-face encounters (such as gestures or other extra-verbal tools) are generally not used in a forum. more specifically, our data show a considerable presence of metaphorical expressions. a metaphor has been defined as a cross-domain mapping popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 121 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 121 where meanings are projected from the source domain to the target domain (lakoff & johnson, 1980; kertész, 2004). in keeping with the role of metaphor in popularizing discourse (calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004) and science education more generally (e.g. bucchi, 1998; kertész, 2004), metaphors are also used in this “ask a doctor” forum. the online expert exploits metaphors as an explanatory tool to convey biomedical information to the patients: (35) the “normal lv dimension with normal function” means your left ventricle, which is the real workhorse part of the heart, is working perfectly [italics added] (36) i think your best bet right now may well be to see the general practitioner/family physician, as he can (and often should) act as “quarterback” for the specialists and help to prioritize the care your mom needs [italics added] (37) it’s all very technical and involves both electrical and plumbing issues [italics added] similes are also employed to describe particular phenomena or to depict particular feelings or sensations: (38) they can feel like a little flick of flutter sometimes, while at other times they can feel almost like a kick in the chest [italics added] personification is also occasionally used: (39) i think this is probably the anxiety “talking” in a new symptomatic dialect [italics added] expressions that employ technological references are quite common and are used to explain specialized biomedical concepts. metaphors drawing on this domain include the following: (40) otherwise i think it’s just going to take a little while for things to “reset” themselves, but that is fairly normal, given all the circumstances [italics added] (41) here’s what seems to be going on: you are probably “wired” for panic disorder, but are only on the fence with it (so far, so good) [italics added] p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128122 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 122 similarly, idiomatic expressions based on the technological domain are also present: (42) there is some controversy about why this is, with some arguing it is the result of subconscious concerns playing out “under the radar”, while others suggest, rightfully so, that panic attacks are a seizure-like event, originating in the temporal lobe of the brain, and so can come on without any intellectual content being involved [italics added] exemplification hyland (2007: 270) describes exemplification as “a communication process through which meaning is clarified or supported by a second unit which illustrates the first by citing an example”. exemplification allows the reader to focus on a more familiar experiential concept, which otherwise may remain expressed in abstract terms, and to link that concept to concrete and specific situations: (43) electrolye [sic] solutions are ok used in regular dietary supplements for most of us...for example gatorade and powerade are both over the counter electrolyte preparations. however, having a cardiac dysrhythmia can be caused from many reasons other than and electrolyte imbalance. (44) the suspicion would fall to the most insidious probable cause which, in your aunt’s case would be an undiscovered malignancy or connective tissue/autoimmune disease (lupus, for example). generalization an important aspect of popularization is generalization, which exploits processes that are the reverse of those used by exemplification (calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004: 383). starting from a specific case involving a specific patient, the expert may draw more general conclusions which are applicable to a vast number of potential readers, thus fulfilling informative as well as educational purposes: (45) you raised a very important question early on: can this dysfunction go away? for the sake of possible interested readers who my visit this thread, it is unlikely (as i’m sure you now know) that any degree of valve dysfunction will go away on its own, especially aortic valve dysfunction. popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 123 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 123 (46) bear in mind that young, otherwise healthy women quite often have serious heart problems overlooked by doctors because women tend to develop heart disease later in life (statistically). generalization is very useful on an online forum where interaction not only involves the actual users posting in a specific thread but also external readers through the use of exophoric references. concluding remarks given the increase in the use of the internet amongst patients and the implications of readily available biomedical information for the evolution of the e-patient, health communication research is increasingly focusing on online exchanges (e.g. fage-butler & nisbeth jensen, 2013; hu et al., 2012; nimrod, 2013). the aim of this study was not to present generalizable conclusions, but rather to offer some insights into the popularizing role that online health forums may assume. we took as our point of departure the idea that the internet has great potential in terms of popularizing medical knowledge. in particular, we investigated an asynchronous online forum, where participants displaying different types of knowledge are virtually connected. in this paper, we identify this genre as a vehicle of popularization, which emerges first of all from the large number of views that some of the posts receive. an online forum is not only an arena for gathering, verifying or commenting on information but is also a locus where the co-construction of knowledge takes place and where the popularization of biomedical information assumes new contours, being determined not by dyadic communication but rather by a multi-source network of exchanges. adopting a discourse analytical approach with a particular explicative agenda, we aimed at unveiling the structures of discourse which allow an online health forum to become a popularization tool, through the interaction of different identities and perspectival knowledges (fage-butler, 2013). the study identifies how a forum may support a form of popularization which we have as defined as “oblique”. the concept of oblique popularization differs substantially from the core assumptions of traditional popularization (see myers, 2003), which was considered to mean the transfer of (simplified) knowledge to passive audiences (e.g. shinn & whitley, 1985; myers, 2003). the active participation of patients in online exchanges has p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128124 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 124 radically transformed their role (hardey, 2001). thus, the traditional doctorpatient relationship of biomedicine makes way for dynamics which enhance patients’ competence and incentive to learn and share information (antelmi, 2011) with an online community which consists of experts, semi-experts, non-experts, patients experiencing an illness, as well as their relatives and friends: in fact, anyone who happens to be interested. besides identifying and characterizing online health forums as having an oblique popularizing function, the other major contribution of this article relates to its investigation of how such popularization takes place on a forum. it is generally accepted that science is made accessible to non-experts through a process of translation. indeed, popularization has traditionally been seen as an intra-linguistic, inter-generic and inter-stylistic translation. however, if we want to use the concept of translation to define popularization, it has to be intended in its most creative and productive sense (anesa, forthcoming) where popularization implies recontextualization, reconceptualization and co-construction (calsamiglia & van djik, 2004). in particular, the popularization of biomedical information on online health forums also has particular features. it is generated by multiple contributors, whose polyphonic voices contribute to providing information not only for the registered users involved in the thread but for a variety of potential readers. in this regard, threads often succeed in bringing together various pieces of information and sources of medical knowledge, which are no longer the exclusive property of one group of participants, but develop along a continuum that involves intra-, interand extraspecialist categories (anesa, forthcoming). thus, the knowledge expressed in online forums should not be considered a vulgarization of science (luey, 2010: 25) but a recontextualized form of knowledge which is constructed through expository tools which are different from those used in intra-specialist contexts. more specifically, among the explanatory tools present on the online forum we examined, the ones emerging most evidently are definitions, analogies, exemplifications and generalizations. medical discourse, like other specialized discourse types, has traditionally been considered inaccessible for laypeople (mcgregor, 2006: 8), and it is expected that biomedical experts may need to use accommodation and simplification strategies to respond to their patients’ questions. however, some e-patients’ use of highly technical terminology in online patient-patient communication suggests that they are acquiring complex biomedical knowledge (fage-butler & nisbeth jensen, 2013), and are able to participate popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 125 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 125 actively in popularizing knowledge. as the present paper illustrates, expertise and laity assume particular contours on an online health forum. e-patients may be first time users and be searching for some preliminary advice or opinion; they may describe their symptoms or their conditions in very simple terms, circumventing any technical vocabulary. however, they may also have read extensively about certain conditions, in which case their posts display a high level of technicality. the varying and heterogeneous nature of epatients’ epistemic status is one that merits further inquiry, particularly as this complexity has implications for medical practitioners. to conclude, new media such as online forums bring with them new communicative dynamics which affect medical discourse at large (antelmi, 2011). telemedicine systems, for instance, also represent an interesting empirical site to explore a specific type of patient-health care provider interaction (robinson et al., 2011). future research in this area could include a comparison between asynchronous forums such as the present and synchronous chats to evaluate how popularization is performed in contexts in which e-patients interact with online experts in real time in situations which are more akin to face-to-face clinical interaction. moreover, other popularization tools such as thematic blogs or specific popularization sites could be used for contrastive analyses, and could also help to indicate the possible level of genre hybridization (bhatia, 2004) taking place. article history: received 12 february 2014 received in revised form 1 july 2014 accepted 3 july 2014 references p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128126 alvesson, m. & k. sköldberg (2009). reflexive methodology: new vistas for qualitative research. london: sage. anesa, p. (forthcoming). “explaining science: the popularization of scientific evidence in a jury trial” in v.k. bhatia, s. sciarino & e. chiavetta (eds.), variation in specialised genres: standardization and popularization. tübingen: gunter narr. antelmi, d. (2011). “social demand and the new media italian forums dealing with healthcare”. pragmatics and society 2,2: 282-300. bhatia, v. (2004). worlds of written discourse: a genre-based view. london: continuum. bucchi, m. (1996). “when scientists turn to the public: alternative routes in science communication”. public understanding of science 5,2: 375-394. bucchi, m. (1998). science and the media: alternative routes in scientific communication. london: routledge. burr, v. (2003). social constructionism. 2nd ed. london: routledge. calsamiglia, h. & c. lópez ferrero (2003). “role and position of scientific voices: reported speech in the media”. discourse studies 5,2: 147-173. calsamiglia, h. & t.a. van dijk (2004). “popularization discourse and knowledge about the genome”. discourse & society 15,4: 369-389. 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 126 popularizing biomedical information ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128 127 ciapuscio, g.e. (2003). “formulation and reformulation procedures in verbal interactions between experts and (semi) laypersons”. discourse studies 5,2: 207-33. doctorslounge (2012). “ask a doctor”. url: http://www.doctorslounge.com/forum.htm [08/10/13]. fage-butler, a.m. (2013). “including patients’ perspectives in patient information leaflets: a polyocular approach”. fachsprache 35, 3,4: 140154. fage-butler, a.m. & m. nisbeth jensen (2013). “the interpersonal dimension of online patient forums: how patients manage informational and relational aspects in response to posted questions”. hermes 51: 21-38. ferguson, t. (2008). “e-patients: how they can help us heal healthcare” in j.a.l. earp, e.a. french & m.b. gilkey (eds.), patient advocacy for health care quality: strategies for achieving patient-centered care, 93-120. sudbury, ma: jones and bartlett publishers. foucault, m. (1991). “governmentality” in g. burchell, c. gordon & p. miller (eds.), the foucault effect: studies in governmentality, 7386. chicago: university of chicago press. fox, s. & m. duggan (2013). health online 2013. pew research center’s internet & american life project. url: http://www.pewinternet.org/files/oldmedia/files/reports/pip_healthonline.pdf [17/01/2015]. gotti, m. (2014). “reformulation and recontextualization in popularization discourse”. ibérica 27: 15-34. gotti, m. (2011). investigating specialized discourse. bern: peter lang. grundmann, r. & j.p. cavaillé (2000). “simplicity in science and its publics”. science as culture 9,3: 353-389. gülich, e. (2003). “conversational techniques used in transferring knowledge between medical experts and non-experts”. discourse studies 5,2: 235-263. hardey, m. (2001). “‘e-health’: the internet and the transformation of patients into consumers and producers of health knowledge”. information, communication & society 4,3: 388-405. hilgartner, s. (1990). “the dominant view of popularization: conceptual problems, political uses”. social studies of science 20,3: 519-539. hu, x., r.a. bell, r.l. kravitz & s. orrange (2012). “the prepared patient: information seeking of online support group members before their medical appointments”. journal of health communication 17,8: 960-978. hyland, k. (2007). “applying a gloss: exemplifying and reformulating in academic discourse”. applied linguistics 28,2: 266-285. kertész, a. (2004). cognitive semantics and scientific knowledge: case studies of the cognitive science of science. amsterdam: john benjamins. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago: university of chicago press. luey, b. (2010). expanding the american mind: books and the popularization of knowledge. massachusetts: university of massachusetts press. mcelheny, v.k. (1985). “impacts of present-day popularization” in t. shinn & r. whitley (eds.), expository science: forms and functions of popularization, 277-282. dordrecht: d. reidel publishing company. mcgregor, s. (2006). “roles, power and subjective choice”. patient education and counseling 60,1: 5-9. moirand, s. (2003). “communicative and cognitive dimensions of discourse on science in the french mass media”. discourse studies 5,2: 175-206. myers, g. (2003). “discourse studies of scientific popularization: questioning the boundaries”. discourse studies 5,2: 265-279. niebert, k., s. marsch & d.f. treagust (2012). “understanding needs embodiment: a theoryguided reanalysis of the role of metaphors and analogies in understanding science”. science education 96,5: 849-877. nimrod, g. (2013). “online depression communities: members’ interests and perceived benefits”. health communication 28,5: 425-434. robinson, j.d., j.w. turner, b. levine & y. tian (2011). “expanding the walls of the health care encounter: support and outcomes for patients online”. health communication 6,2: 125-134. sarangi, s. (2001). “on demarcating the space between ‘lay expertise’ and ‘expert laity’”. text 21,1,2: 3-11. shinn, t. & r. whitley (1985). “editorial preface” in t. shinn & r. whitley (eds.), expository science: forms and functions of popularisation, vii-xi. dordrecht: d. reidel publishing. van de belt, t.h., l.j. engelen, s.a. berben & l. schoonhoven (2010). “definition of health 2.0 and 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 127 patrizia anesa holds a phd in english studies from the university of verona. she is a member of the research centre on specialized discourse (cerlis) at the university of bergamo and she also cooperates with a number of international organizations as a consultant in the field of discourse, conversation and frame analysis. her research interests lie mostly in the area of specialized discourse and communication processes across knowledge asymmetries. antoinette fage-butler gained her phd in knowledge communication from aarhus university, denmark, at the department of business communication where she is currently assistant professor. her main research interests are within online health communication (doctor-patient and patient-patient), ethical aspects of health communication, and poststructuralist approaches to discourse and genre. p. anesa & a. fage-butler ibérica 29 (2015): 105-128128 medicine 2.0: a systematic review”. journal of medical internet research 12,2: e18. van dijk, t.a. (2009). society and discourse. how social contexts influence language and talk. cambridge: cambridge university press. weatherall, a. (2002). gender, language and discourse. hove: routledge. whitley, r. (1985). “knowledge producers and knowledge acquirers: popularisation as a relation between scientific fields and their publics” in t. shinn & r. whitley (eds.), expository science: forms and functions of popularisation, 3-30. dordrecht: d. reidel publishing. 07 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:47 página 128 iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 417-420 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.417 metadiscourse in digital communication: new research, approaches and methodologies larissa d’angelo, anna mauranen & stefania maci (eds.) cham: palgrave macmillan, 2021. 154 pages. isbn: 9783030858131 the past four decades or so have witnessed burgeoning research on metadiscourse due to its growing role in the fields of discourse analysis, pragmatics and language teaching. nonetheless, most of the research work in the field revolves around the written academic genre (hyland, 2017; d’angelo & consonni, 2021). very few studies have so far attempted to explore less well-trodden areas such as digital communication genres, although there is a strong and growing interest in how people develop meaning-making in a digital environment (d’angelo & consonni, 2021). the volume under review, metadiscourse in digital communication, edited by larissa d’angelo, anna mauranen & stefania maci, is thus considered a timely response to this “new wave” (d’angelo & consonni, 2021, p. 24) of metadiscourse studies. the book contains seven chapters, with one introductory chapter and six curated papers presented at the 2nd metadiscourse across genres conference (mag 2019). in the opening chapter, the editors d’angelo and maci provide an excellent overview of past and current research on metadiscourse and highlight the innovative trend emerging from the field, i.e., metadiscourse use in digital communication. the end of the chapter presents a concise summary of each of the six contributions. in chapter 2, mauranen shows her interest in the extent to which the lessresearched written dialogues (also referred to as ‘digital dialogues’) differ from spoken monologues and spoken dialogues in english as a lingua franca situations. she therefore examines metadiscourse use in research blog comment threads (i.e., a hybrid of writing and dialogue), monologic speech and dialogic speech, thereby drawing a comparison of discourse types 417 book reviews (monologue vs. dialogue) and modes (written vs. spoken). the main finding is that dialogic discourses differ greatly from monologic discourses in metadiscourse functions. meanwhile, spoken and digital dialogues are extremely similar, although a fine-grained analysis reveals differences in entity types referred to as well as the presence of attribution and evaluation. finally, the author explains the differences and raises several methodological issues. interested in a different, multimodal blog format, ädel (chapter 3) focuses on the vlog (i.e., video blog), where she analyzes metadiscourse use and other related ‘meta’ phenomena. based on an in-depth qualitative analysis of a sample vlog, the author concludes that digital communications prompt researchers to revisit the existing metadiscourse theories and to pay attention to other forms and resources related to metadiscourse, such as semiotic resources, synchronous intertextuality and metacommunication. finally, she envisions a ‘meta’ wave or ‘reflexive turn’ as a promising avenue for future metadiscourse research. rather than just focusing on analyzing digital discourses, malavasi in chapter 4 compares metadiscourse use between the prototypical genre (i.e., research articles) and the increasingly popular digital genre (i.e., blog posts). drawing upon hyland’s (2005) interpersonal model, the author quantitatively and qualitatively explores the interactive and interactional metadiscourse devices in research articles and blogs written by the nobel prize winner paul krugman. the results show greater use of interactive expressions in research articles but a preponderance of interactional expressions in blog posts, illustrating how different genres target different readerships. moving on to online genres of scientific knowledge dissemination, sanchoguinda in chapter 5 brings up graphical abstracts, a rather underrepresented genre in the metadiscourse research field. based on an eclectic analytical framework, the author scrutinizes the use of metadiscourse in the graphical abstracts from various sources. her findings reveal the important role of graphical abstracts in the democratization of science, especially when visual metadiscourse is regarded as ‘narrative transformers’ and ‘stylization’ is treated as a phenomenon that can both enhance and hinder scientific meaning. the chapter concludes with some suggestions offered to scientists, institutions and policymakers. chapter 6 by delibegović džanić and berberović concerns advertisements that contain visual elements and modified phraseological units as textual reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 417-420418 elements. the authors argue that conceptual blending theory can explain the construction of the meaning of text-image advertisements. to support this point, they analyze two advertisements within conceptual blending theory and visual metadiscourse frameworks. they conclude that conceptual blending is useful in achieving the creativity and effectiveness of multimodal advertisement discourse and that visual elements, aided by textual elements, play a significant role in understanding and interpreting advertisements. biri in the final chapter (chapter 7) shifts the discussion to metadiscourse use in social media discourses. she adapts ädel’s (2006) reflexive model and applies this framework to compare the use of personal and impersonal metadiscourse across three social media platforms and four contentious topics. the results indicate frequency and function differences in metadiscourse use across the platforms, suggesting that different social networking sites have different technological affordances, such as discussion structure and text length. the author ends the chapter by stressing the necessity of remodeling the existing analytical frameworks of metadiscourse and of adapting the traditional criteria of metadiscourse identification for dialogic online genres. taken together, the seven finely selected chapters in this volume keep up to date with the latest developments in metadiscourse study and reflect the recent trends towards digital forms of communication. to the best of my knowledge, it is the first book devoted to exploring the use of metadiscourse in digital communication. more importantly, it offers new and valuable insights into the way digital channels have altered today’s communication practices, in both academic and non-academic settings. additionally, it enriches the field’s understanding of metadiscourse (including its use and role) and expands approaches to targeting metadiscourse in digital genres. finally, praise should be given for the high quality of the print. yet this monograph is not without its limitations. first, the seven chapters are not grouped thematically, which may lead readers to question why they are laid out in that particular way. that said, this kind of arrangement is perhaps not unreasonable due to the relatively limited number of chapters and themes included in the monograph. the second flaw may also be associated with the first one. this edited volume does not provide good coverage of the diverse methods that can be applied to metadiscourse studies in digital forms of communication. that is, while discourse-analytic procedures understandably dominate the studies presented in those reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 417-420 419 chapters, other methods that are of potential interest to readers, such as ethnographic approaches and experimental designs, are not present in any of them. by and large, this volume edited by d’angelo, mauranen and maci is a valuable reference for scholars and graduate students who engage in the research of discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and genre analysis. as a reader, i appreciate it as a stimulating read and recommend incorporating it into our reading materials and resource collection. received 08 july 2022 accepted 30 august 2022 reviewed by gang yao beijing foreign studies university (china) jose.gyao@gmail.com references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 417-420420 ädel, a. (2006). metadiscourse in l1 and l2 english. john benjamins. d’angelo, l., & consonni, s. (2020). a tale of three waves: or, concerning the history and theory of metadiscourse. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 40, 13-34. hyland, k. (2005). metadiscourse: exploring interaction in writing. continuum. hyland, k. (2017). metadiscourse: what is it and where is it going? journal of pragmatics, 113, 1629. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.03. 007> iberica 13 corpus analysis for descriptive and pedagogical purposes. esp perspectives. maurizio gotti and davide s. giannoni (eds). bern: peter lang, 2014. 432 pages. isbn: 978-3-03431516-6. gotti and giannoni’s corpus analysis for descriptive and pedagogical purposes analyses and describes esp language and settings following a corpus methodology. it offers the state of art in (a) corpus methodology, (b) corpusbased language description, and (c) pedagogical applications. section 1 “examines some general questions concerning the relationship between the field of corpus linguistics and that of specialised discourse.” (page 13) flowerdew differentiates between “bottom-up analyses” and “top-down approaches”, and concludes that corpus analyses are much determined by the software used, the purpose of the investigation, and that it focuses on syntagmatic matters. bondi integrates corpus linguistics and genre studies with the aim of showing how corpus linguistics can be used to “heighten learners’ awareness of language in use” (page 45) and to support “authorial voice and reader orientation” (page 47). for instance, the author claims “you” is used in popular discourse whereas “we” is used more frequently in academic journals to show epistemic modality. cheng explores two-word co-occurrences in order to identify phraseology tendency in english, and suggests directions for developments in phraseological research and pedagogy. her findings show that there exist “word co-occurrences that are specific to different sections of empirical journal articles” (page 84). this finding suggests that such co-selections tend to be more generic in the discussion, literature review and abstract than in the other sections of the ras, in which they are more specific in nature. nesi investigates citation practices in the bawe corpus. she centres on intext citation in four sub-disciplines and explains in detail the corpus query techniques used. her findings show that interdisciplinary variation regarding in-citation practices is widespread, that several learning activities should be reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 279-300 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 262 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 262 carried out with the aim of facilitating students’ practices. the methodology used can also serve for reproducing more studies and for illustrating the kind of teaching activities that may be necessary to help students to cope with citation problems and difficulties. pérez-llantada reviews critically “the main research trends used to analyse genres by means of multilingual corpora” (page 107), examines the reasons behind the small number of contrastive analyses regarding academic english, and discusses some of the main challenges to be faced if large-scale empirical studies of academic english would be undertaken. her main conclusions cast serious doubts on the same concept of academic english as this is mostly used in the literature. section 2 describes analyses of selected linguistic features, carried out with the use of relevant specialised corpora and covering subject matters such as law blogs, newsroom discourse and astronomy. staples and biber analyse the use of grammatical stance devices in medical discourse, particularly those used in nurse-patient interactions. their findings indicate that nurses and patients use stances differently to speakers in general conversation. partington has two research aims (a) to examine “how speakers mark importance both at local and more macro levels” in a particular discourse type (page 143); (b) to demonstrate that the combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses is very effective in investigating “importance marking” in discourse. he uses a corpus comprising transcripts of talks downloaded from the ted website (https://www.ted.com/) to describe several types of importance-markers and signal their role in discourse organisation and evaluation and demonstrates its usefulness at macro and micro levels. he finishes by opening up several lines of research. garzone focuses on “blawgs”, i.e. “blogs used by the legal and professional community to exchange scholarly opinions, to debate topical issues and discuss important legal cases” (page 167). the author finds that “individualistic self-expression” is maintained in contrast to the typical characteristics of legal discourse, which aims to use impersonal features. she also finds that there are some linguistic devices, e.g. the second-person pronoun, which are used to build a sense of community and that metadiscourse devices are also used in order to approach the author’s own experience. crespo investigates female authorial voice between 1700 and 1900 in the coruña corpus of english scientific writing. after explaining the main reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266 263 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 263 characteristics of the preface as a genre, she analyses contractions, firstperson pronouns, pronoun “it”, second-person pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, “not”-negation, emphatics, causative subordination, discourse particles, indefinite pronouns, hedges, amplifiers, private verbs, possibility modals and some adverbial subordinators. she offers results segmented by century, genre, and frequency. these reveal that women reassess their presence in texts, although there are some differences regarding the three main variables under investigation. moskowich and monaco also investigate women’s authorial voice in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. their analysis focuses on the expression of abstraction, as this can be observed by studying linguistic devices such as the use of certain conjuncts, passive clauses, “by”-phrases and subordinating conjunctions. they find that women writers of scientific texts also used an impersonal style. facchinetti offers insights in using corpus linguistics methods for compiling a bilingual glossary (english and italian) of 498 entries of newsroom language. each entry contains (a) a brief explanatory definition; (b) two examples of use from italian newsroom jargon; (c) the equivalent entry in english; (d) phonetic transcription of its pronunciation; (e) two examples in english; (f) if applicable, lexico-grammatical information specifying peculiarities of lemmas and equivalents; (g) if applicable, subheadwords; and (h) examples of use. salvi analyses the construal of political and banking language for institutional purposes by integrating a quantitative analysis of her small corpus with a critical discourse approach, which allows her to deal with issues such as cultural keywords and interpersonality. her main finding is that in institutional settings facts and propaganda are interchangeable. johnson uses a corpus-based approach to investigate “risk” as perceived in two periods of british history. her findings indicate that “risk” has changed. in 1993, risk was mainly perceived in connection with medical and economic problems, whereas in 2005 risk is mostly associated with violence and victimisation. the third section “presents chapters dealing with the use of corpus resources for the teaching of specialised discourse” (page 18). coxhead “looks at links between corpus linguistics, esp, vocabulary, and pedagogy” (page 289). she observes the challenges of working with corpora in esp classrooms, offers some clues regarding the importance of specialised reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266264 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 264 vocabulary and the use of corpora for identifying specialised vocabulary, and comments the characteristics of some corpora and corpus tools, e.g. kilgarriff ’s sketch engine. liardét observes uses of grammatical metaphor in a learner corpus of chinese students by integrating systemic functional linguistics and corpus linguistics. she analyses the learners’ deployment of grammatical metaphor with the aim of integrating the findings in a writing syllabus which will empower “learners to achieve advanced proficiency” (page 324). schmied includes the role culture and discipline play in his analysis of the personal pronouns, modal auxiliaries, and cohesive linkers found in the zama corpus, i.e. a corpus compiled with ma theses at stellenbosch university. the author finds that discipline conventions are important whereas individual and group-specific differences are not relevant at all. hiltunen and mäkinen analyse the use of formulaic language by nonnative speakers of english. they compare several corpora and indicate that the teaching of formulaic language is necessary and that differences in their use are not correlated with native language but with personal choice. mansfield describes how she uses corpora in the classroom to increase the language awareness of graduates enrolled at the university of parma. her chapter shows several uses of corpora for language learning and teaching, two of which merit my attention: (a) the use of corpora allows students and instructors to search for meaning in context; and (b) using corpora leads learners to be more creative. in general, this volume is another important contribution to the field of corpus linguistics and i strongly recommend it. it has three main characteristics. the first one is that it offers interesting works with publiclyavailable corpora, and these can be replicated. the second one is that it also includes works with in-house corpora, whose results must be taken as an act of faith. finally, some chapters offer a good view of the state-of-art in corpus linguistics, something that is always welcome. received 14 june 2016 accepted 15 june 2016 reviewed by pedro a. fuertes-olivera universidad de valladolid (españa) and university of stellenbosh (south africa) pedro@emp.uva.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266 265 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 265 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 discurso turístico e internet julia sanmartín sáez (ed). madrid/frankfurt: iberoamericana/vervuert, 2012. 288 págs. isbn: 978-84-8489-614-2. la importancia de internet en el mundo del turismo hoy en día es innegable. agencias de viaje, turoperadores, hoteles, empresas de transporte, etc., tienen en internet no solo un medio de información y promoción, sino que realizan gran parte de su actividad comercial en los medios digitales. sin embargo, y a pesar del creciente interés en el análisis del discurso turístico, no se prodigan estudios que tengan como objeto los géneros turísticos en la web. este volumen precisamente se ocupa del análisis de los diferentes géneros discursivos del turismo en internet. el libro se estructura en nueve capítulos independientes que analizan diversos aspectos del tema común. todos los estudios que integran este libro se nutren de un mismo corpus léxico, el corpus multilingüe de turismo de valencia (comet.val). el primero de los capítulos (“el discurso del turismo en internet: hacia una caracterización de sus géneros”, virgina gonzález garcía) se dedica al problema de la caracterización de los discursos turísticos en los diferentes géneros. así la autora aborda el estudio cuantitativo y cualitativo de los diferentes géneros discursivos presentes en páginas electrónicas relacionadas con el turismo concluyendo que en la web conviven géneros menos formales caracterizados por elementos conversacionales y rasgos propios del discurso oral con géneros más elaborados que emulan los estilos propios de los medios escritos. los nuevos géneros impulsados por la web 2.0 que suponen la aparición de modelos discursivos de carácter interpersonal abren un nuevo e interesante campo de investigación. en el siguiente capítulo (“páginas web privadas e institucionales: el uso de la adjetivación en un corpus inglés español de promoción de destinos 225 reseñas/book reviews 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 225 turísticos”, nuria edo marzá) se aborda un estudio contrastivo del uso de adjetivos en inglés y español en diferentes páginas electrónicas. tras una introducción en la que se centra el tema en la importancia de la adjetivación en el lenguaje promocional de destinos turísticos, la autora analiza el peso específico que los adjetivos tienen en el corpus estudiado, la frecuencia de aparición, su clasificación, la aparición en estructuras y colocaciones específicas y la relación existente entre adjetivación y género promocional. del análisis de las normativas turísticas y de cómo las denominaciones oficiales de alojamientos turísticos se recogen en diferentes páginas electrónicas de establecimientos hoteleros se ocupa el estudio siguiente (“de las normativas turísticas a las páginas electrónicas de promoción de hoteles: la clasificación hotelera desde la perspectiva lingüística”, julia sanmartín sáez). la autora se centra en tres comunidades autónomas: andalucía, galicia y valencia, destacando la variedad de las denominaciones oficiales, así como el uso impreciso y ambiguo que las diferentes páginas web privadas e institucionales hacen de estas denominaciones. por último el estudio aborda el problema de la ambigüedad de las diferentes denominaciones, proponiendo que cada legislación autonómica incluya una definición de los diferentes términos bajo cuatro grandes campos semánticos: hotel, hostal/residencia turística, pensión y casa rural, evitando la confusión que el diferente uso de la terminología puede producir en el usuario. el siguiente artículo (“páginas web institucionales de promoción turística: el uso metadiscursivo interpersonal en inglés y español”, francisca suau jiménez) aborda el metadiscurso interpersonal como paradigma del análisis de los géneros turísticos de promoción, así como la persuasión como una de las funciones más destacadas de muchos de los géneros y discursos de especialidad, incluyendo el turístico. la persuasión se muestra de forma muy diferente en las dos lenguas objeto de estudio. en inglés aparecen marcadores actitudinales y de compromiso, en español se materializa con marcas metadiscursivas como los realzadores, destacando los adjetivos calificativos atributos como los más representativos. el género, la lengua y la especialidad resultan elementos imprescindibles a la hora de analizar los diferentes géneros discursivos, incluido el turístico. el capítulo siguiente (“el niño como actor social en el discurso turístico: un estudio de análisis crítico de la construcción discursiva de una identidad de consumidor”, rosana dolón herrero) se ocupa de la construcción de la identidad infantil en páginas de promoción turística institucionales en inglés. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256226 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 226 para el análisis la autora ha recogido las referencias al niño y las formas léxicas que representan su identidad como individuo y como parte del grupo familiar: child, kid, family y sus plurales children, kids y families, tanto en lo que se refiere a su frecuencia de aparición como a su colocación y función sintáctica. la forma en que aparecen estos términos conforman una construcción de la identidad del niño como consumidor que necesita ser aconsejado o guiado. se concluye argumentando la necesidad de que el discurso de las páginas web dirigidas a los niños como consumidores debería integrar las voces de estos niños y las de sus progenitores. del análisis de las innovaciones léxicas de las revistas online especializadas en turismo y viajes se ocupa el siguiente artículo (“revistas sobre turismo y viajes en internet: palabras para novedades, voces como novedad”, maría estornell pons). los nuevos servicios y productos de la industria turística precisan de nuevos términos que los describan. asimismo aparecen voces que se refieren a otras realidades pero que se utilizan de forma novedosa para otros conceptos relacionados con los denotados por la voz original. los marcadores metadiscursivos de las palabras en los textos analizados y la interpretación de su significado son objeto de la segunda parte del capítulo. de los aspectos metadiscursivos de estas palabras destacan las marcas tipográficas que caracterizan, sobre todo, a los préstamos y que no suelen aparecer en las voces de nueva formación. los dos tipos de voces aparecen en algunos casos con algún tipo de explicación de su significado, marca metadiscursiva que indica la novedad del vocablo. sin embargo en la mayor parte de los casos no se produce esta aclaración del término, pudiendo hacer que el texto sea incomprensible para el lector no especializado. el siguiente estudio (“turistas francófonos en españa: análisis de testimonios y relatos de viajeros en blogs y foros de internet”, maría elena baynat monreal) se ocupa de los “cibergéneros” de los blogs y foros francófonos sobre españa como destino turístico. los relatos de viajeros de los siglos xix y xx contribuyeron a sentar las bases de un género que se ha visto reflejado en los medios digitales, aunque con grandes diferencias, ya que ha evolucionado en otras formas de expresión. de la detección de estos rasgos clásicos del relato de viajes que aparecen en blogs y foros, así como del análisis lingüístico del contenido se ocupa la última parte de esta contribución. siguiendo con el estudio de los elementos interpersonales de los diferentes “cibergéneros”, el siguiente artículo se ocupa de los libros de visita de las reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 227 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 227 páginas web de hoteles (“e-libros de visitas: estudio de hoteles franceses y españoles”, mercedes lópez-santiago). los libros de visita virtuales son una muestra de la interacción del cliente con el establecimiento hotelero. para el análisis del corpus se atiende a la finalidad de los comentarios y a su tipología. para estudiar las características lingüísticas de estos mensajes se atiende a su contenido y a su forma. el volumen concluye con un capítulo dedicado a los estudios sobre el discurso turístico y al análisis de los corpus generales y especializados (“la evaluación de la calidad del discurso turístico traducido en internet”, ángela almela sánchez-lafuente). la autora aborda el análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo del corpus comet.val en español e inglés. para el primer tipo de análisis se compara este corpus con otros dos, uno especializado y otro general, concluyéndose que los resultados obtenidos avalan la hipótesis de que el turístico es un discurso semi-especializado, en comparación con otros discursos de especialidad. el análisis cualitativo revela numerosos errores ortográficos e imprecisiones en la traducción de los términos, necesitándose una revisión más exhaustiva por parte de profesionales para que se convierta en una herramienta verdaderamente útil para una industria de gran importancia como es la turística. este volumen supone una aproximación analítica a los nuevos géneros discursivos que surgen a partir del uso generalizado de internet y se convierte así en una útil herramienta, no solo para especialistas y estudiantes de turismo, sino también para lingüistas y terminólogos y responsables de la gestión de recursos turísticos. [reseña recibida 25 septiembre 2013] [reseña revisada recibida 27 marzo 2014] [reseña revisada aceptada 11 mayo 2014] reseñado por miguel ángel gonzález macías universidad de cádiz (españa) miguel.macias@uca.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256228 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 228 iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 345-349 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.345 corpus linguistics for english for academic purposes. vander viana & aisling o’boyle (eds.) london/new york: routledge, 2022. 260 pages. isbn 9781-138-74208-6. studies central to english for academic purposes (eap) have highlighted methodological innovations over the past decade. in particular, the development of corpus linguistics (cl) has provided researchers in this area with novel approaches to look at, or reconsider, the core issues in eap that were addressed based on limited data, thus breathing new life into the field of english language education. in corpus-based/corpus-driven eap studies, language data plays an integral part in attesting and expounding theoretical frameworks/models, in which corpora are viewed as ‘assets’ possessing academic value instead of merely some sort of resources. in this respect, data processing and data management appear to be the prerequisites for methodological innovations in eap studies, revealing a paradigmatic shift from ‘knowledge-based exploration’ towards scientific discovery (szalay & gray, 2006; hey et al., 2009). it should be noted, nonetheless, that scholarship pertaining to cl-eap discussions is commonly seen in academic journals, thus showing a lack of monographs, or edited volumes, which are specifically designed to bring together such methodological innovations from a holistic perspective. as researchers with more than 20 years of experience in eap, esp (english for specific purposes) and efl (english as a foreign language) teaching in new zealand and china, we believe that viana and o’boyle’s recent work entitled corpus linguistics for english for academic purposes can be seen as a much-welcomed publication that attempts to address the above issue. the book is of particular interest to audiences such as novice language researchers, teachers, educators and students of all tertiary levels, because it elucidates for readers a panoramic review of the key notions, practices and research applications of corpus approaches for the eap community, and it offers, with real-world examples, hands-on data processing techniques to 345 book reviews 1 issn 1139-7241 e-issn 2340-2748 ! those wishing to combine quantitative and qualitative analyses for their eap studies. funded by the british academy under vander viana’s skills innovator award, the book under review contributes to presenting theoretical underpinnings of cl, and foregrounds the interplay between corpus investigations and eap research by mining the ‘treasure-trove’ of empirical data. with regard to its contents, the book consists of ten chapters, and exhibits a variety of academic merits by motivating readers to address challenges in the changing educational landscapes. first of all, a range of fundamental concepts, such as corpus, context and genre/register, are neatly identified and clarified with an extensive account of their connotations and expansions, and therefore researchers can have a clear clue of how to manage terminology appropriately in their studies. for instance, when discussing eap in its context (chapter 2), viana and o’boyle delineate the idiosyncrasy of academic discourse in terms of epistemology and taxonomy (spoken, written and computer-mediated), emphasising that it represents a highly ‘controlled’ language type which is associated with the way language is used in particular contexts to disseminate ideas and knowledge, to encourage critical thinking, and to facilitate social and institutional communication. readers would be aware of the context of an utterance, and understand academic discourse as “the way that individuals collaborate and compete with others, to create knowledge, to educate neophytes, to reveal learning and define academic allegiances” (hyland, 2009, p. 2). second, the book helps bridge an important gap in the literature by investigating the cl-eap interface (chapters 3 to 6) with regard to discourse taxonomy. in the current study, viana and o’boyle define a corpus as “an electronic collection of [naturally occurring] texts” that are “wide encompassing” and can “fulfil a specific communicative purpose in a given context” (p. 23), and they argue that “new configurations in the methodological paradigm and/or knowledge source may bring about professional changes” (p. 51). this would mean that cl can bring a number of advantages to the eap community, such as facilitating data retrieval and processing, implementing situated learning and teaching, providing tools for contrastive inter-/intralingual analyses, reconfiguring eap practices, as well as developing numerous skills for eap research. with regard to corpus diversity and corpus compilation, viana and o’boyle highlight the variations (spoken and written academic english, diachronic change in academic discourse, and academic genre comparisons) relevant to the eap reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 345-349346 community, with a particular focus on specialised corpora. in order to ‘marry’ cl and eap in a more feasible way, they suggest the need to build a variety of specialised corpora, such as discipline-specific corpora, efl corpora, corpora of extended written genres by postgraduate students, academic popularisation corpora, eap teacher corpora, and corpora of computer-mediated academic discourse. they also summarise the differences between illustrative levels of corpus specialisation (i.e., educational level, major, and type of essay), and set 24 criteria for specialised corpus compilation (e.g., medium, genre, field, language, time, availability, text length, text production circumstances, and level of interactivity). in addition, useful techniques for corpus analysis for eap are introduced with the aid of antconc toolkits, ranging from wordlist and concordance to collocation and n-grams. researchers will benefit greatly from reading this because language data obtained from corpus analysis will either provide them with empirical evidence to examine existing theories/hypotheses, or ‘drive’ them to observe the invisible rules behind such data. third, the book familiarises readers with data-analytic techniques for analysing different types of academic discourse (chapters 7 to 9), which specifically include descriptive analysis, predictive analysis and prescriptive analytics. with descriptive analysis, researchers can describe the features of data in static statistics, such as frequency. a typical example can be seen when viana and o’boyle analyse the turns between students and teachers drawing on data from the unitalk corpus, in which they found that the average length of the student turn is 18 words whereas that of the tutor turn is 45 words. predictive analysis involves inferential statistics to generalise the features of language use (academic discourse in this context), with which researchers can draw evidence-based conclusions to predict potential patterns, universal features (see feng, 2020) and future tendencies. prescriptive analytics enables researchers to take influential factors into consideration, such as resources and modelling, and implement plans for decision-making based on corpus data. in this respect, viana and o’boyle reemphasise mccarthy’s (2021) claim that “[c]ollocability disrupts the belief that lexical items can simply be dropped into grammatical slots to produce well-formed sentences” (p. 10) by exemplifying genre-specific collocations (e.g., calibrate system and adopt system). in terms of the monograph’s contents, the text produced is logically organised with precise and concise academic language, outlining a detailed framework of integrating cl into eap research. as aforesaid, all the key reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 345-349 347 notions are defined clearly with rich background information, and therefore even novice researchers and students without the expertise in corpusbased/corpus-driven eap studies will not find the book too hard to follow. additionally, visualisation techniques and well-crafted examples are incorporated into the explanations of theories and principles, making readers self-motivated to explore, in breadth and depth, more potential scaffolding skills and progressive methods in cl-eap discussions. another notable strength of the monograph lies in viana and o’boyle’s offer of three types of in-text tasks, that is, ‘activate your knowledge’, ‘check your understanding’, and ‘apply it to your context’, all of which make the text not merely a fascinating read for its own sake, but more of a practice-based guidebook to ‘situate’ readers in context-specific scenarios. readers would feel like sitting vis-à-vis the authors and engage with them throughout these chapters. furthermore, a total of more than 300 references provides readers with a collection of valuable resources pertinent to the interplay between cl and eap. with such references, readers are encouraged to return to the book’s index and extensive resources to look at similar arguments, mapping their thoughts with regard to the state-of-the-art in this research field and coming up with novel ideas for methodological innovations in eap studies. by and large, viana and o’boyle’s present work offers an excellent foundation for either in-class instruction or self-study. for us eap and esp teachers and practitioners, it appears that many cutting-edge discussions in the monograph help respond to the query on how cl can support the eap community in the changing educational landscapes, and therefore it deserves our enthusiastic recommendation. received 25 september 2022 accepted 16 march 2023 reviewed by haoda feng centre for intercultural maritime translation, dalian maritime university (china) haoda_feng@163.com acknowledgements this work was supported by national office for philosophy and social sciences under grant [21byy046]. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 345-349348 references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 345-349 349 feng, h. (2020). form, meaning and function in collocation: a corpus study on commercial chinese-to-english translation. routledge. hey, t., tansley, s., & tolle, k. (2009). the fourth paradigm: data-intensive scientific discovery. microsoft research. hyland, k. (2009). academic discourse. continuum. mccarthy, m. (2021). innovations and challenges in grammar. routledge. szalay, a., & gray, j. (2006). science in an exponential world. nature, 440, 413-414. redalyc.the semiperiphery of academic writing. discourses, communities and practice. k aren bennett (ed). basingtoke: palgrave macmillan, 2014. 296. pages. isbn: 9781137351203 ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa mur dueñas, pilar the semiperiphery of academic writing. discourses, communities and practice. k aren bennett (ed). basingtoke: palgrave macmillan, 2014. 296. pages. isbn: 9781137351203 ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 222-225 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542013 cómo citar el artículo número completo más información del artículo página de la revista en redalyc.org sistema de información científica red de revistas científicas de américa latina, el caribe, españa y portugal proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542013 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542013 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542013 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org the semiperiphery of academic writing. discourses, communities and practice karen bennett (ed). basingstoke: palgrave macmillan, 2014. 296 pages. isbn: 9781137351203. the semiperiphery of academic writing: discourses, communities and practices, edited by karen bennett, focuses on academic practices in the european “semiperiphery”, that is, in geographically and economically peripheral countries to the european centre, taking a much welcome critical approach. the book comprises 12 chapters divided into 3 even parts. in the introduction, the editor discusses the significant role of academic practices in this “buffer zone” and the inevitable tensions created especially as a result of increasing pressures to publish in english and adopt centre norms and values. the four chapters in part 1 “discourses in tension” deal with the conflicts created when traditional academic styles prevailing in local, national language contexts are influenced by other dominant, international, writing models. karen bennett’s chapter focuses on the epistemological and ideological implications of the pressure on portuguese historiographers to publish in centre journals. this has also brought about changes in portuguese academic discourse style, putting it at risk, as revealed by her study on distinguishing discourse features of traditional portuguese academic discourse in texts submitted for translation into english within a 5year span. in the second chapter, based on a corpus of english-medium chapters and journal articles published by czech linguists, olga dontcheva-navratilova shows how their discourse has undergone changes, especially as regards their citation choices and their construction of authorial presence by means of personal and impersonal structures. overall, czech linguists seem to be gradually turning more global, adopting conventions prevailing in anglophone publications and abandoning discursive practices characteristic of czech academic discourse. in the third chapter, dimitra vladimirou explores the international conference of greek linguistics as a semiperipheral space of academic communication. her analysis reveals that locality plays a relevant role in the semiperiphery, as reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 218 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 218 attested by the number of linguists choosing to communicate in greek in such a forum, by the high proportion of greek-medium sources referenced and by the construal of collective identities through personal reference choices in her corpus of greek articles published in one of the conference proceedings. closing part 1, anna gonerko-frej reports on the answers provided by polish students to a questionnaire on their perceived problems with english academic writing. whereas they seem to be aware of the differences between english and polish academic discourse, in line with the findings reported by cross-cultural research, they do not acknowledge them as being the expression of different cultures. gonerko-frej sees the solution to the tension between the two academic cultures in the adoption of an elf (english as a lingua franca) approach to teaching english academic writing, focusing on globally effective rhetorical choices enabling (polish) writers to express their own voices and ideas rather than seeking to imitate anglophone models. part 2 “communities in conflict” focuses on further tensions that arise within particular disciplines, especially in the humanities, when publication practices in english are imposed. in the first chapter sally burgess approaches academic writing practices in a semiperiphery context par excellence, the spanish one. she shows how institutional policies in this context are promoting core anglophone research publishing practices, already dominant in urban disciplines, such as chemistry or physics, also in rural ones, such as history. this has triggered different reactions by humanities’ scholars, including that of resistance, contesting these impositions coming from core science and pursuing publications in their native language or in other languages. rita queiroz de barros’ chapter also focuses on the research publication practices of humanities scholars, but in the semiperiphery context of portugal. her study shows lower rates of publication in english than in portuguese by scholars at the faculty of letters of the university of lisbon and their attitudes towards the use of elf. whereas a high proportion of the respondents would positively regard english as the language of publication and teaching in higher education, this is hardly seen as achievable, mainly due to the perceived portuguese scholars’ and students’ low proficiency in english. based on interview and textual data, mirela bardi and laura-mihaela muresan analyse the perceptions and attitudes of romanian scholars at the bucharest university of economic studies towards using english as the medium of research publication. their answers highlight their view of writing for publication as reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 219 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 219 a complex, multi-level task. they tend to adopt an attitude of acceptance and their textual practices attest to it, complying with the norms of international high-stake english journals. in the last chapter of this second part rafaella negretti recounts the experiences of three interviewed italian humanities scholars working in the centre, as they had to reconcile discursive and cultural differences as well as to undergo epistemological changes when pressed to publish in english to pursue an academic career outside italy. the three of them share a far from uncritical attitude of acceptance, showing awareness of the ideological, social and professional implications of adopting english academic discourse in their publication practices. in part 3 “publication practices” the focus moves to the analysis of publication decisions taken by scholars and also journal editors, paying special attention to their goals and motivations. hacer hande uysal’s chapter depicts turkish scholars’ publication practices in a turkish-medium university and in an english-medium one. she shows how the adoption of centre-oriented approaches to research has increased publication output – though not necessarily quality. the scholars’ survey answers indicate how state publication policies are differently implemented locally. in the next chapter, bojana petrić focuses on english-medium publications in serbia. she analyses the attitudes of their editors as regards the motivations for using english and the nature of their journal. whereas the reasons for using english are varied, the most widely reported one is that it allows making the research of serbian scholars noticeable to an international audience, these journals thus having a centrifugal force. also varied are the views on the nature of their journal. petrić underlines the idea that national/international should be regarded as a cline and that such publications can be seen as a translocal phenomenon enabling knowledge flows between local contexts and beyond them. matko maruśić and ana maruśić describe their experience as editors of an english-medium journal in croatia seeking to gain visibility and recognition by adopting centre practices. they highlight its lights, pointing out the interesting roles and varied editorial tasks undertaken, but they also stress its shadows, when conflicts and tension arise as a result of the enforcement of centre publishing values in a national context in which different academic practices may be expected. in the last chapter, taking a different perspective on the semiperiphery, małgorzata sokoł argues that the academic weblog can be considered a semiperipheral genre. her study of weblogs by polish academics shows that they are rather stabilized in terms of structure and reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230220 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 220 have a common communicative purpose, sharing knowledge and information as well as educating. the academic weblog encodes conflicts as they mix the public and the private, the individual and the communal as well as the personal and the factual domains. web-mediated communication poses numerous challenges to the academia, which will have to reconcile traditional, long-established media of scholarly exchange with emerging, web-based ones. karen bennett closes the book by highlighting the high degree of consistency reported within the european semiperiphery in her concluding chapter entitled “combating the centripetal pull in academic writing”. numerous tensions between traditional and modern writing styles, values and epistemologies, between hard sciences and humanities, between local and global practices seem to originate as a result of the embracement of centre-oriented english academic practices, especially as promoted by state policies across the european semiperiphery, but also, as pointed out by bennett, as a result of their equation with modernization and progress. there are, thus, centripetal forces leading to the assumption of dominant centre academic practices, which have significant implications for national language-medium journals and national specialized academic discourses as well as for epistemologies and for the decisions taken by scholars within particular disciplines. nevertheless, some centrifugal forces also seem to be at stake in the european semiperiphery as reported in several of the chapters, showing scholars’ and journal editors’ concerns with the adoption of dominant values and practices. the book focuses on the european semiperiphery, but it also stems from that semiperiphery and, thus, plays its role “simultaneously sanctioning the values emanating from the centre while refreshing it with new perspectives brought from outside” (page 3). indeed, new perspectives from outside are brought about by its contributors, especially as they draw on sources beyond centre high-profile journals. this is crucial if, as stressed by bennett, we want to stop or combat the centripetal forces driving us to homogenized, monolingual, empiricist, centre-oriented academic practices. received 25 april 2015 accepted 26 april 2015 reviewed by pilar mur dueñas university of zaragoza (spain) pmur@unizar.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 221 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:45 página 221 redalyc.clil in higher education. towards a multilingual language policy. inmaculada fortanet-gómez. bristol: multilingual matters, 2013. 285 pages. isbn-13:978-1-84769-935-0 (pbk) ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa sancho guinda, carmen clil in higher education. towards a multilingual language policy. inmaculada fortanetgómez. bristol: multilingual matters, 2013. 285 pages. isbn-13:978-1-84769-935-0 (pbk) ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 214-217 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542012 how to cite complete issue more information about this article journal's homepage in redalyc.org scientific information system network of scientific journals from latin america, the caribbean, spain and portugal non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542012 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542012 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542012 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org clil in higher education. towards a multilingual language policy inmaculada fortanet-gómez. bristol: multilingual matters, 2013. 285 pages. isbn-13: 9781-84769-935-0 (pbk). monographs like fortanet’s have been long-awaited in our national and blooming panorama of research into language and education within tertiary environments: it takes one step beyond english-medium instruction (emi) to grapple with the more ambitious goal of implementing multilingualism through a clil-based pedagogy (content and language integrated learning). against a backdrop of political ideology regarding the use of english, castilian and valencian, the author unfolds a rigorous study that discloses the obstacles and efforts which every multilingual policy entails, rises brilliantly to the challenge of describing the linguistic and educational reality at her institution (universitat jaume i in castellón, henceforth uji), and paves the way for other universities to follow. the book culminates a coherent research trajectory focused on university internationalization and academic discourse (fortanet gómez, 2008, 2011, 2012; fortanet gómez & bellés fortuño, 2005, to cite a few instances of her work). contents are organized into three sections that successively and gradually lead us from a “big picture” of multilingualism and multilingual education to the particular situation of the uji. while the first part provides a theoretical perspective of basic definitions, features, goals, approaches, conditioning factors and realizations of multilingualism as individual and social practice, the second analyzes its role in higher education at an institutional, regional, national, and supranational level, taking into account the sociopolitical context, so influential on language policies, as well as the linguistic and pedagogical components involved. these two components comprise, respectively, the languages of instruction, research and administration, and a useful review of foreign language teaching currents and trends — clil made prominent among them — and of the multilingual policies brought to fruition by different universities worldwide. to the language and pedagogy aspects, the profiles and perceptions of students and academic and reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 214 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 214 administrative staffs (termed “the human factor”) are added. in the third and last block, much more contextualized, fortanet scrutinizes the uji’s case. she scientifically details her research objectives and method and the institutional background, and proposes alternatives for a trilingual policy in several spheres of action and adjustments for assessment, follow-up and evaluation. this investigation is completed with a conclusion that summarizes and justifies the chapters and an appendix gathering questionnaires, data tables, and an extensive bibliography that reflects the thorough documentation process conducted. the strong points of the volume are indeed many. firstly, fortanet realistically advocates explicit instruction in calp (cognitive academic linguistic proficiency) and the involvement of all sectors of the university population to achieve a successful implementation of clil in tertiary settings. this realism is also patent in her portrait of the uji’s asymmetrical linguistic scenario, where the predominance of valencian as l1, due to a feeling of cultural identity, does not automatically mean an overall high calp competence matching that of bics (basic interpersonal communication skills) in that language. secondly, lay readers are presented with the essentials and antecedents necessary to understand clil and taken gently by the hand to further levels of complexity that enable them to devise and develop their own clil projects and models, because one of the messages launched by the author is that there is no single clil methodology. in this sense, we readers appreciate her straightforward expression of her own stance: “what i have presented in this book follows a logical line of argument, my line of thought” (page 245) and her cogent exposition of reasons why she is in favour of paying more attention to disciplinary discourses, of training content lecturers in the identification and production of genres and registers relevant to their profession, and of teaching them how to scaffold learning in student-centred classrooms. scaffolding learning in a student-centred paradigm demands mastering the bics of everyday interaction between instructors and apprentices, even acquiring strategies to engage with audiences, arouse interest, stimulate participation and group work, and organize, stage, and signpost argumentation according to the ways of the professional community. this standpoint of making language and genres salient is shared by a number of well-known clil scholars and overtly emphasized by lyster and ranta (1997), dafouz and núñez (2009), airey (2012), smit and dafouz (2012), ball and lindsay (2013), hüttner and smit (2013), arnó-maciá and mancho-barés (2015), and basturkmen and shackleford (2015). reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 215 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 215 as noted by basturkmen and shackleford (2015), content teachers should engage in “language-related episodes” to explain and correct errors in disciplinary utterances and written texts, highlighting their rhetorical sequences and social conventions. this encouragement of linguistic tasks contrasts starkly with the reluctance shown by the physics teachers interviewed in sweden by airey (2012), who elude such mission by claiming “i don’t teach language”. with regard to this clash of impressions, and given my keen interest in teacher education, in fortanet’s study i have missed some insights into the willingness of content teachers to undertake language tasks and change their current class dynamics in accordance to the clil principles. likewise, i am left wondering how language teachers would react towards undergoing a specific language-in-interaction test of the come (copenhagen masters of excellence programmes) type, mentioned by fortanet on page 170, to accredit their lecturing proficiency. if they are the ones to coach content teachers and hold the reins of internationalization together with other members of the educational community at their centres, should not they prove their skills first, to set the example? how gladly would they accept being video-taped and faced with a native’s verdict on their own speech, and with having to respond to a spontaneous round of questions? who trains the trainers? because a degree in english philology, english studies or linguistics does not ensure fluency nor pedagogical expertise and today it is not infrequent to find students and content teachers more fluent and conversant with language use than the language teachers supposed to help them overcome emi difficulties, most often civil servants who for decades have not needed to update their english and have survived with a fossilized idiolect, or who adduce research or management as alibis for not refreshing the language. it would have been certainly illustrative to include some basic statistics and anonymized sound bites to display a range of attitudes and opinions, which would describe this two-way reluctance wave and its impact. another gap i would have liked to see bridged, but appears acknowledged by the author in the conclusion (page 237), is the lack of data on the benefits exerted by trilingual education (and specifically by calp in english) on calp performances in the l1 and l2. all in all, clil in higher education has much to offer to clil and emi researchers, practitioners, and university authorities. it not only packages well-sourced information about multilingual policies and practices and delivers it in an accessible manner, but is also thought-provoking, inspiring fresh reflections and proposals. and although it may not have been the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230216 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 216 original remit of the book, there is a subtle hint at opening a couple of pandora’s boxes (those of language teachers’ accreditation and content instructors’ discursive responsibilities), which in the long run can only translate into upgrading teaching and learning standards. received 22 march 2015 accepted 23 march 2015 reviewed by carmen sancho guinda technical university of madrid (spain) carmen.sguinda@upm.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 30 (2015): 209-230 217 airey, j. (2012). “‘i don’t teach language’, the linguistic attitudes of physics lecturers in sweden” in u. smit & e. dafouz (eds.), integrating content and language in higher education. gaining insights into english-medium instruction at european universities. aila review 25: 64-79. arnó-macià, e. & g. mancho-barés (2015). “the role of content and language in content and language integrated learning (clil) at university: challenges and implications for esp”. english for specific purposes 37: 63–73. ball, p. & d. lindsay (2013). “language demands and support for english-medium instruction in tertiary education. learning from a specific context” in a. doiz, d. lasagabaster & j.m. sierra (eds.), english-medium instruction at universities. global challenges, 44-61. bristol: multilingual matters. basturkmen, h. & n. shackleford (2015). “how content lecturers help students with language: an observational study of language-related episodes in interaction in first year accounting classrooms”. english for specific purposes 37: 87–97. dafouz, e. & b. núñez (2009). “clil in higher education: devising a new learning landscape” in e. dafouz & m. guerrini (eds.), clil across educational levels. experiences from primary, secondary and tertiary contexts, 101-112. madrid: richmond publishing. fortanet gómez, i. & b. bellés fortuño (2005). “spoken academic discourse: an approach to research on lectures”. revista española de lingüística aplicada 1: 161-178. fortanet gómez, i. (ed.) (2008). hablar inglés en la universidad. docencia e investigación. oviedo: septem ediciones. fortanet gómez, i. (2011, october 8). “critical components of integrating content and language in spanish higher education”. across the disciplines 8(3). url: http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/clil/fortanetgomez.cfm [21/03/15] fortanet-gómez, i. (2012). “academics’ beliefs about language use and proficiency in spanish multilingual higher education” in u. smit & e. dafouz (eds.). aila review 25: 48-63. hüttner, j. & u. smit (2014). “clil (content and language integrated learning): the bigger picture. a response to: a. bruton. 2013. clil: some of the reasons why… and why not. system 41 (2013): 587-597”. system 44: 160-167. lyster, r. & l. ranta (1997). “corrective feedback and learner uptake: negotiation of form in communicative classrooms”. studies in second language acquisition 19: 37-66. smit, u. & e. dafouz (2012). “integrating content and language in higher education. an introduction to english-medium policies, conceptual issues and research practices across europe” in u. smit & e. dafouz (eds.). aila review 25: 1-12. 11 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:44 página 217 07 esteve.qxp ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126 abstract this article deals with the comparison of the lexical features of two texts from a diachronic point of view. interest in lexical comparison arises from the fact that the two texts belong to a specialised field within medicine –ophthalmology– and both can be considered of the same genre. the linguistic analysis focuses on morphological and etymological aspects, based on previous studies with a historical perspective in the field of medicine (norri, 1992). as a result of the study, different implications concerning the use of words from the germanic native stock or from other sources, together with the different social and scientific changes, are shown in this article. key words: medical english, historical linguistics, lexicology, corpus linguistics resumen la terminología médica a través de los siglos: rasgos distintivos de un estudio cronológico en el campo de la oftalmología este artículo trata de comparar las características léxicas de dos textos desde una perspectiva diacrónica. este interés en la comparación léxica surge del hecho de que los dos textos pertenecen a un campo de especialidad dentro de la medicina –oftalmología– y ambos se pueden considerar del mismo género. el análisis lingüístico se centra en aspectos morfológicos y etimológicos, criterios basados en estudios anteriores sobre el inglés médico desde una perspectiva histórica (norri, 1992). como resultado de este estudio, destacan las diferentes implicaciones sobre el uso del vocabulario de origen germánico o de otras fuentes, junto con los diferentes cambios científicos y sociales que se muestran en este artículo. palabras clave: inglés medico, lingüística histórica, lexicología, lingüística de corpus medical terminology across the centuries: distinctive features of a chronological study in the field of ophthalmology maría josé esteve ramos universitat jaume i resteve@ang.uji.es 111 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 111 introduction survival makes a difference in natural selection, and the resources for the historical study of language are no exception. in this sense, materials related to medicine and other areas of science have been in many cases luckily preserved and it seems obvious that the purpose of the text may have facilitated its survival and conservation through the years. the result is a vast collection of materials which offers an excellent opportunity for the study of language in these contexts. a highly increasing interest in the use of the diachronic perspective to study scientific issues and texts is reflected in different publications (sournia, 1994; atkinson, 1996; salager meyer & défives, 1998; salager-meyer, 1999; among others). these studies suggest that a historical approach to the analysis of the language used in a particular field of knowledge can provide valuable results. in other words, as atkinson (1996: 334) recalls, “the study of scientist's communicative practices across historical times is a crucial aspect in the study of science.” even though the idea of specific language sounds modern, older specialist texts show a remarkable degree of specificity. they can be interestingly compared with their contemporary homologues, allowing for a diachronic focus on esp, especially in areas of high specificity, such as ophthalmology, or fields with substantial textual sources. in this article, i offer an overview of the lexicon of two texts dealing with ophthalmology, and compare the results obtained according to its morphological composition and etymology. this study may serve as an incipient basis for a diachronic description of the discourse of ophthalmology. medical terms have evolved over the centuries; however, the different stages in the evolution of terms related to sickness and health do not run parallel with the increasing efficiency of medicine or the development of language in general. the delimitation of these periods is also quite subjective. sournia (1994: 692) commented that “over the centuries, physicians´ terminological imagination has been fertile, but an over-luxuriant neology has resulted in a rapid turn-over, and the percentage of ‘wastage’ has been high.” all in all, medical vocabulary usage is intrinsically connected to the evolution of medicine and complementary to the evolution of language in general. research has focused on specific periods of the english language, ranging from the work done in the field of medieval studies to the studies based on the use of medical english today (see, for example, webber, 1994; williams, 1996; or nwogu, 1997; valero & calle, 1997). only some linguists adopted the diachronic point of view for their research, for instance, atkinson (1996), salager-meyer (1996), or mcconchie (1997) analysed texts within an average range of 300 years. the issue then is to consider why a diachronic perspective may be relevant. mª josé esteve ramos ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126112 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 112 the relevance of a diachronic perspective diachronic approaches to linguistic studies have been widely considered as an interesting –and to some extent– necessary complementation to synchronic studies: as adams (1973: 5) points out, this is because the distinction between synchrony and diachrony drawn by saussure, which has had a profound effect on linguistic studies since 1916, effectively precluded the study of word-formation, where synchrony and diachrony are most fruitfully considered together. (bauer, 1993: 3) thus, the diachronic perspective helps and complements similar studies in other areas that have traditionally been more benefited from this approach, as it is the case of literary or historical analysis. however, recent studies have shed some light upon the history of scientific writing and its different discourse aspects (norri, 1992, 1998). the example of atkinson’s (1996) work shows an approach in which studies on language for specific purposes (lsp) –including, of course, medical language– based their classification of texts on the writer’s and reader’s roles and their evolution in time. atkinson analysed transactions of the royal society published over the past 330 years, and studied the evolution of scientific research writing in english from 1675 to 1875. some of his conclusions confirmed the above mentioned approach of his study: findings indicate that: (a) research writing in the 17th-18th centuries was substantially influenced by communicative norms of author-centred genteel conduct; (b) greater attention to methodology and precision in the interest of scientific specialisation brought about pronounced textual changes in the 19th century, although gentlemanly norms were still in evidence [...]. (atkinson, 1996: 33) additionally, salager-meyer & défives (1998), studied the use of hedges from a diachronic perspective, and described their results according to socio-historical and pragmatic factors. these studies also revealed the importance and the need for continuing research in the diachronic study of medical texts. moreover, in a different article, salager-meyer (1999) emphasised the importance of a diachronic approach to scientific discourse: applied linguistics and especially those interested in discourse and genre analysis studies of scientific discourse, are showing a growing interest in the diachronic analysis of older scientific texts. the main motivation of these studies is to gain insight into the history and development of scientific thinking, of the scientific community and of the process and construct of special purpose knowledge. lsp (languages for specific/special purposes) diachronic research is thus mainly concerned with the evolutionary changes in textual macro/micro structure, language and style in a particular disciplinary culture. (salager-meyer, 1999: 279). even though we focus on one specific discourse of medicine, it is still too wide in scope for a comprehensive diachronic study of its vocabulary. i have then chosen the medical terminology across the centuries ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126 113 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 113 field of ophthalmology, as it is possible to trace treatises as far back as the 11th century and expand the traditional diachronic perspective in the study of scientific lexical evolution to its origin.1 this particular sub-field of medicine is especially appropriate to be studied diachronically as opposed to other areas of medicine because as singer (1962: 640) stated: “from an early date the treatment of ailments of the eye has stood somewhat apart from the rest of medical practice.” the treatises have been selected for the present study according to the assumption that: the more specialised and technical vocabulary is much denser in the academic and surgical treatises than in the remedy books, where the lexicon is on the whole somewhat elementary. (norri, 1992: 291) selected material and their characteristics two texts have been chosen: de egritudinibus oculorum, generally attributed to benvenutus grassus (late 14th century) and on the diseases of the eye, written by w. f. mittendorf (19th century). both of them belong to the major sub-discipline, ophthalmology, and both are manuals showing a common purpose: to describe the symptoms and the cure of ocular disorders. both texts have the same structure: first, the description of the diseases, and after that, the remedies. the similarities and differences regarding the specialised vocabulary used in the two texts constitute the basis for the description of its evolution. the time span separating the chosen texts is wide enough for a historical comparison of the lexical features. the first text is a late 14th century treatise on the diseases of the eye, edited by l. eldredge and based on four manuscripts that have survived to our days. it was written by a recognised practitioner of the time known as benvenutus grassus.2 in that period, the language used by different medical practitioners reflected the existing social differences between them, separating the “relatively few university-trained physicians like chaucer’s “doctor of phisik” from the unlatined others, specifically, the on-the-job-trained surgeon, barber-surgeon, apothecary, apprentice, cunning man, wise woman, lay sister in a convent, and midwife” (robbins, 1970: 394). however, the distance between the university doctor and the lay practitioner or leech (using the old english term) was not as rigid as one should think. often, lunaries, recipes, or astrological recommendations written in english (norri, 1992: 28) were included in complicated theoretical treatises in latin and greek. the question, then, is who would use this material or what it was intended for. apparently, the exchange of information between all levels of medical practitioners was more than sporadic. in england, until the middle of the fifteenth century at least, many professional, mª josé esteve ramos ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126114 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 114 ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126 medical terminology across the centuries specialised, and technical subjects were presented in latin. this principle applied to theology, law, alchemy, astrology, and medicine, although in some of the disciplines, english was slowly coming into recognised, terminological usage. the second text, a manual on diseases of the eye and ear for the use of students and practitioners (1881), was written by w. f. mittendorf, who worked as a surgeon at the new york eye and ear infirmary. more specifically, he was an ophthalmic surgeon at bellevue hospital out-door department and assistant to the chair of ophthalmology and otology at bellevue hospital medical college. edited by putman and sons in 1881 in new york, the manual was conceived as a tool for an educated audience, specialists or medical students as its author explained in the preface: the want of a short practical manual of the diseases of the eye and ear in the english language has long been felt by the medical student. i have, therefore, at the request of many members of my private classes, given in this little book my lectures upon these subjects, somewhat enlarged. (mittendorf, 1881: preface) despite the fact that most of the volume is devoted to the eye, there is also a second part on the diseases of the ear. the reason for this association, which was frequent during the 19th century, was made explicit by the author himself: i have thought that it would be of additional value to give, together with the description of the diseases of the eye, a short account of the diseases of the ear, which deserve more attention from the general practitioner than has been accorded to them. (mittendorf, 1881: preface) it has 429 pages of text and 18 pages of illustrations, and the plates shown before the appendix containing coloured illustrations of the diseases described in the book. it has an appendix at the end with a glossary in alphabetical order. it is important to note that in this period, medicine was going through a golden age, and the development of the socalled “medicine of observation” (sournia, 1994: 696) in the 19th century brought an increase of new vocabulary, especially in the second half of the century. medicine at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century incorporated vocabularies from the many sciences it drew from. an important contribution was that of chemistry –organic chemistry in particular– together with bacteriology, which became the leading research area thanks to scientists such as pasteur. ophthalmology also started to take off as an independent area thanks to the ophthalmoscope, which allowed a real insight of the eye. in the last quarter of the 19th century, specialisation was a fact, and this required a new organisation of the work in the academic and scientific community: by the next period, 1875, extreme development has taken place in terms of research becoming contextualized in research communities working on similar problems. literature reviews are relatively common, and typically exhaustive. problem115 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 115 statements and attempts to link projects to more general concerns are also prominent [...]: it clearly represents the will to report research exhaustively, which pervaded this period. other indices of this trend are the large average number of pages devoted to each article […]; the first appearance of tables of contents for individual articles; and the extremely large numbers of results reported in quantitative articles [...] this must result at least partly from having to organise, in some comprehensible way, the enormous amounts of information contained in the articles. (atkinson, 1996: 348) in terms of language, from the beginning of the 19th century onwards we can consider that the founding of our contemporary english had been laid. the 19th century language with its constant increase in vocabulary started a tendency which continues in our present times, when some of the new words are the product of recent technology or derive from new concepts in the various scientific fields. both texts share similar characteristics, although some parts of the general macrostructure are not totally equivalent when compared. as expected, the prognosis section is missing in mittendorf ’s text, given the evolution of the scientific method used in diagnosing. diagnosis is precisely the second part in the structure of the volume followed by treatment, which includes chemical solutions in contrast with the more homeopathicoriented proposals of the 14th century text. the following example illustrates how chemical solutions are introduced in this last section of the 19th century manual: mild astringent lotions, such as: r. alum. gr. v; tinct. opii simp. gtts x; aq. camphor. 3i, instilled into the eye, two drops at a time, three times a day, are of great service. (mittendorf, 1881: 24) a remarkable innovation is the use of the ophthalmoscope, which contributes immensely to the accuracy in the disease descriptions. it appeared in 1850 and represented a turning point in this area of medicine; such an important fact is referred to in the book: “[...] whilst the study of the affections of the choroid, the retina, and the optic nerve, which is only possible with the ophthalmoscope” (mittendorf, 1881: preface). this ophthalmoscope not only enabled the physician to observe and classify abnormalities of the retina, but it proved to be extremely valuable in the measurement of errors of refraction in the eye. in this sense, the book also includes a chapter –the last one– devoted to accommodation and refraction, something that was very recent at that time. criteria and method for the study the methodology in this study uses computer resources available. the use of concordancers to extract data for linguistic analysis has been frequent in recent diachronic linguistic studies. according to rissanen (2000: 7), mª josé esteve ramos ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126116 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 116 computerized corpora can be said to have revolutionized the study of the history of english. corpora as such do not increase our knowledge of the language of the past; they are based on manuscripts and editions available [...] corpora give us an opportunity to master huge quantities of textual material, to collect and sort evidence with a speed and level of accuracy that the scholars of earlier decades could only have dreamt of. (rissanen, 2000: 7) the software used in this research project is the programme monoconc pro, version 1.0, one of a wide range of text analysis software. it can be used with large corpora, as well as for complex text searches. other characteristics are that the loaded corpus can be modified at any time, and information about frequency and collocation patterns can be easily obtained. the lexical study of the selected words is based on several criteria, taking norri’s (1992) study and his classification as a major reference. this means that the principles of classification adopted to study the etymology of the words are three: (i) the origin of the word, according to its germanic (gmc) or nongermanic (non-gmc) origin; (ii) the word-formation process of the word, defining its morphology as simplex or complex (following bauer, 1993), and (iii) the identification of the semantic properties of the word, focusing on the use -or notof the metaphor. the corpus contains a total of 188,035 words, i.e.: the sum of benvenutus’ text (21,601 words) and mittendorf ’s text (166,434 words). the different scales reflected in graph 1 and 2 below correspond to the different amount of words in each case. the total number of examples reflected in each column showing the three different variables used have been calculated by adding the different occurrences. the overlapping words in both texts also show similarities in their frequency percentage within each text. out of 62 selected words, 9 of them were used in both texts: the percentages reflect the sum of the percentages belonging to the different occurrences of the same word, as is reflected in table 1. medical terminology across the centuries ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126 117 14th century text 19th century text blode 0.10% blood 0.10% cause 0.05% cause 0.07% cateract 0.08% cataract 0.11% day/days/daye 0.12% day 0.10% eye/eye/eyon/ey3e, ey3en 1.64% eye/eyes/eyeball 1.01% pacyent/pacyentes 0.33% patient 0.29% poynt 0.06% point 0.07% tyme 0.10% time/times 0.27% water 0.12% water 0.08% table 1. occurrences and percentages of the overlapping words. 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 117 linguistic analysis the results obtained suggest that the method used may be relevant since it reveals interesting facts that require comment. needless to say, although results and the conclusions drawn apply only to the analysed corpus, it seems probable that similar data may be obtained in corpora related to other medical english sub-disciplines. however, and despite the fact that further research is needed to validate this hypothesis, it is hoped that these results will encourage further diachronic lexical studies in scientific texts. the words in table 1 showing the similar frequency values in both texts are only 9 out of 62. the reasons for this may be found in the percentages that are also very similar (with the exception of tyme [0.10%] and time [0.27]), a fact which would indicate a similar usage of the overlapping vocabulary. the words with a high frequency have not been found in the 19th century text. their use has diminished, perhaps due to the change of method, as it may be the case of words like lynen, or aloes. the change of narrative structures in scientific discourse is reflected in the low frequency of the word men in the 19th century. instead, the use of passive to express impersonality in the 19th century is found, showing an evolution of the discourse in this context. by contrast, in the first text, this very same type of meaning, as we indicated above, is expressed through the use of men: […] such oþer, or with any infecte ayre that [[men]] calle blastyng, wherthough the ey wex […] the absence of the word humor in the second text is also representative of the evolution of medical knowledge. in fact, humor occurs in the 19th century text, but all the occurrences show the word modified by aqueous (24 items) or by vitreous (31 examples). this reveals the use of this word as part of a fixed term denoting a specific part of the anatomy of the eye, while in the 14th century text it has a much more general sense. similarly, the word vnce does not appear in the 19th century, probably due to the evolution in treatment, in which this unit of measure is not used. the words syght and vision are also interesting. syght occurs in the 14th century text, but not in the 19th century one. the reverse happens with vision, occurring in the 19th century text, but not in the 14th century one. this fact may be interpreted as a transfer of meaning from syght to vision, changing the gmc word for a non-gmc one in order to express the same concept. this would be in line with the general results shown in graphs 1 and 2, discussed below. syght (sight, as it is spelled nowadays) has remained, however, as a more lay term to denote the concept. similarly, the words sekenes and disease present this change in a transfer of meaning. the lay word for disease would be mª josé esteve ramos ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126118 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 118 sickness, presenting the gmc stock as identified with the more popularised version of the specialist vocabulary of medicine. norri’s (1992: 102-103) findings show “that simplex terms of germanic origin are terms with a primary medical meaning: this group represents the earliest layer of english medical vocabulary.” another observation derived from the results refers to the fact that the more detailed the knowledge of the eye anatomy, a larger quantity of this vocabulary occurs in the second text. this is most likely due to an improvement in medicine. examples of this increasing vocabulary are, among others: iris, lens, lid, fibres, cornea, conjunctive, ciliary, cell, retina, sclera, nerve, choroid and vessels. all these words –from non-gmc stock– have a more descriptive function within the treatise. by contrast, the terminology of the gross anatomy is still mostly of gmc origin, supporting norri’s (1992: 71) results: it has been pointed out that although modern medical english relies heavily on technical terms composed of foreign elements, “the foundation or substrate is still ‘plain’ english.” (dirckx, 1986: 44) generally, the words that have not appeared in the frequency results of the second text belong to the vocabulary more closely related to treatment processes, since the description was less important in the 14th century due to the little knowledge of the anatomy in this period: aloes, egg, wyne, suger, powder, plaster, oynement, nedyl, medycyne, lynen and cure. among these words, six of them (aloes, suger, powder, oynement, medycyne and cure) are from non-gmc stock, whereas four terms (egg, wyne, plaster and nedyl) are of gmc origin. this shows a stronger presence of vocabulary of native stock at that stage, which will gradually change into non-gmc. these results seem to support norri's study of the names of sicknesses: simplex terms of gmc origin typically denote common and well-known ailments or afflictions. [...] the largest group of names of sicknesses, covering a multitude of disorders both physical and mental, consists of simplex terms and derivatives of foreign origin. adoptions from french with no direct latin counterpart tend to form part of the more fundamental and everyday medical vocabulary. (norri 1992: 285) the analysis of the vocabulary in the 19th century text confirms this. however, a more detailed study considering a corpus made from texts of different periods would allow us to trace how this change was produced and when. in terms of frequency, it has been observed that in both texts, as expected, the word eye and its variants is the noun with the highest frequency. in the 14th century text, the words with the highest frequencies are related to method or procedure. however, in the 19th century one, the most frequently occurring words refer to descriptive items referring to anatomy, revealing the particular increase of knowledge in this field of medicine. the word humor does not appear in the second text in the frequency list, although it has a presence of 0.0395% in examples that will be referred to below. this may be due to medical terminology across the centuries ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126 119 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 119 the withdrawal of certain medical theories concerning humours, which will start to be questioned from the renaissance onwards, in a period where works like vesalius’ de humani corporis fabrica will mark a new era in the history of science. apart from the overlapping terms, their absence in both texts may lead to interesting questions. it may seem obvious –from the point of view of medical history– that words like humor do not appear in the selected words according to the criterion of frequency. however, a further search of this word in the 19th century text reveals an interesting feature concerning collocation: it is always modified by the latin adjectives aqueous (24 instances) and vitreous (31 instances), establishing a fixed pattern within the terminology used in the 19th century treatise. the lexical study proposed established a classification according to origin (gmc/nongmc), morphology (simplex/complex) and meaning (metaphorical use/non-metaphorical use). in relation to origin, our general results show a shift that can be observed between the amount of words of gmc origin and of simplex morphology towards an increase of non-gmc words also increasing in complex morphology (see graphs 1 and 2 below). these respond to the initial claim about the evolution of medicine as a science, which suggests that specialised vocabulary increases as science keeps spreading new terms among the different related areas (sournia, 1994: 696). the new vocabulary is taken, as the results show, from non-gmc stock, at least as far as ophthalmology is concerned. further distinction in terms of origin between these words and the non-gmc stock seems to pose a difficult problem, as norri (1992: 286) points out: it often proves impossible to dissociate the french from the latin influence, and for many names of sicknesses a joint source is probable. words of french and latin provenance include common terms, and also rarer items of a more technical kind. a different matter is to distinguish a specialised from a lay origin of the word. in the first text, the lexicon seems to have originated with an already specific meaning in the native language, with the exception of examples like colour, maner and place which are non-specifically medical. this is an issue also referred to by dirckx (1986: 44): many of the most used medical terms have been taken from lay english and date back much farther than modern scientific medicine. some of these mean the same thing to the physician that they mean to the layman (heart, measles, wound) [...] though many english medical terms come of as stock, others entered our language from french during the norman period (pain, plague, bowel). besides english words of literal denotation, there are many which are used figuratively in medicine […]. dirckxs strongly argues that the gmc stock is still an essential part of medical language: no matter how thickly our speech and writing are strewn with technical terms, the foundation or substrate is still “plain” english. moreover, a great many technical mª josé esteve ramos ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126120 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 120 terms used by speakers of english are native to the language rather than importations or coinages from the learned tongues. (dirckx, 1983: 23) this position may be argued, but i shall leave further discussion on this matter for another more related essay, since this subject requires complementary research. concerning morphology, graphs 1 and 2 show a shift towards the increase of complex words in the second text. as explained above, the results are presented reflecting the total amount of occurrences (as numbers indicate on the left) of each of the variables used: norri’s (1992: 286) findings suggest that “derivatives of english origin consist almost exclusively of suffix formations. english writers rarely practised prefixation.” contrasting his findings with our results –in benvenutus’ text– two derivatives are found: begynnyng and sekenes, one of them bearing prefix: the findings made in the study of derivatives suggest interesting possibilities for further research. a corpus of emode medical texts, for example, could provide important material for comparison, particularly with regard to the development of prefixation and the use of foreign suffixes. the latter types of word-formation probably become gradually more frequent after 1550. (norri, 1992: 287) although “some foreign suffixes, including -ance and -ity, were never widely used with native words” (norri 1992:140), data confirming norri's results can be added given that after a quick survey of the examples in benvenutus text, i found no examples of words with the suffix -ity, and 23 examples of words with the suffix -ance, none of medical terminology across the centuries ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126 121 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 gmc non-gmc metaphor simplex complex graph 1. results in the 14th century text. graph 2. results in the 19th century text. 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 gmc ngmc metaphor simplex complex 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 121 them of native origin. this may establish a further line of research. dirckx (1986: 44) also referred to this issue: anyone who is superficially acquainted with modern medical terminology knows that latin and greek play a dominant part in its composition. some words have been taken over from the classical languages without much change in form – for example, syncope and pharynx from greek, axilla and delirium from latin. others are compounds or derivatives built up in english from stems and affixes borrowed from greek (microaerophillic, pericardiectomy) or latin (radiolucent, seroconversion) or from combinations of the two (rectosigmoid, neurovascular), or by mixture of classical material with english (endartery, hemiblock)or other languages, including mediaeval german (antiscorbutic) and arabic (alkalosis). another result obtained in this study concerning morphology is that all the selected words are nouns, mainly because, as dirckx (1983: 23) pointed out, “technical terminology consists largely of nouns”. moreover, as webber (1996: 41) observed in her research on medical english abstracts, “the majority of metaphors belong to the nominal group.” however, the use of other elements of lexicon as adjectives, verbs, etc., may also be considered in terms of a complete exploration of the vocabulary behaviour in these texts. the search for metaphors in my study was limited to the most frequently used words in both texts, so the results obtained are not entirely reliable. a few examples of a metaphorical use of a word were found in the first treatise, de egrutidinibus oculorum. all of them were metaphors by comparison using like. no metaphor was found among the most frequently used words in the second text. however, it can be pointed out that some words, such as cataract 3 or corn,4 are metaphorical in themselves. this case appears to be quite common: the feeling of pain and discomfort associated with a sickness gives rise to several metaphors. the effect could be sudden and piercing (sti(t)che, schot(h)e, burning (fire), or gnawing (frette). schot(h)e also expresses the idea of elves and other malicious spirits shooting their arrows into the human body. fire was used either for an inflammation or a rise in temperature. (norri, 1992: 108) when benvenutus is describing the types of cataracts, he distinguishes between two words, one of lay origin and from gmc stock, and another of a specialised origin and from non-gmc stock: the third is an ungula or pterygium, a tumour-like growth that processes across the eye from one corner. in middle english it is called a nail (that is, a fingernail) [sic] or a web, and in modern english a pterygium, from the greek pterugion meaning “wing,” perhaps because it was thought to look like an insect’s wing. (eldredge, 1996: 16) this example reflects a difference between the use of a word from a lay source and another word of a non-gmc origin used as a technical term, which keeps its mª josé esteve ramos ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126122 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 122 metaphorical meaning. continuing with the discussion of the metaphorical use of a word, norri (1992: 109) identified a phenomenon already labelled by ullman (1977: 155) as “semantic borrowing”. metaphors that follow this pattern were created by copying a latin model. an example of this was found in benvenutus text in the following concordance: […] and the arabies clepen it lamesarca, that is in latyn aqua putrefacta, in englisshe [[water yroted]] in the ey3e […] however, no instance of this was found in the second text. as already mentioned, the present study was limited only to the most frequently used words, and a further study is needed to describe possible metaphors used elsewhere in the text. concluding remarks several conclusions may be drawn from the present study. on the one hand, there is a decrease in the number of simplex words of gmc origin as we move from the 14th to the 19th century. on the other hand, in the 19th century the percentage of nongmc words increases substantially. it can be observed that there is a lack of the words initially denoting procedure. we find a substitution of these words in figure 2 for non-gmc terms. it has also been shown that there is a corresponding increase in the number of complex words from one period to another. this non-gmc vocabulary is always associated to less accessible types of text, with a restrictive audience and a more professional and selected academic community: the diachronic evolution observed in the use and frequency of reference patterns over the 185 years studied reflects the conceptual shift from a non-professionalised, privately and individually-based medicine to a professionalised and specialised medicine, a technology-oriented medical research and a highly structured scientific community. (salager-meyer, 1999: 279) parallel to this specialisation in terminology, it is also important to bear in mind that a more popular type of text also appears addressed to the lay public in order to disseminate medical matters of general importance (e.g. scientific american). as for the methodology of this study, several considerations are worth comment. results show that corpus linguistics has proved to be useful in my analysis: it has made it possible to obtain a considerable amount of data with a speed and accuracy that would not have been viable otherwise. the fact that the computer programme provides the linguistic context of the word has helped to trace other extra-linguistic factors, and it has been fundamental when identifying a metaphorical use of a word: medical terminology across the centuries ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126 123 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 123 the wealth of corpora surrounding us make it possible to trace linguistic processes and developments much more accurately and from more angles than before, with reference to a number of extralinguistic factors, be they sociolinguistic, regional or genre-based. and best of all; there does not seem to be any end to the expansion, or explosion, of database resources supporting the study of english historical linguistics and philology. (rissanen, 1999: 142-3) in this sense, many different corpora are being created for different purposes. rissanen (2000: 7) strongly argued in favour of the creation and potential of corpora which are specially designed for linguistic research, even more particularly, as applied to historical linguistics evidence in specific contexts: corpora have freed us from months and years of painstaking pencil work and from the straitjacket of worn-out examples appearing in older dictionaries and historical grammars. he continued by inviting researchers to create corpora: i hope it will encourage scholars to avail themselves of the wealth of electronic evidence surrounding them –and to create new corpora for general and specific purposes. (rissanen, 2000: 14) the possibility of working with specialised corpora from different periods of history would bring up grounds for comparison between different specialised linguistic contexts and will permit to draw parallel lines in the evolution of scientific language. this would not only apply to lexical studies, but also to genre studies, and many other fields in the humanities. the use of frequency as the main criterion for obtaining data has proved to be useful to establish a comparison between the first two variables presented, the distinction between simplex or complex, and the variable considering the origin of the word, gmc or nongmc. however, as it has been explained above, the third variable has not benefited much from the application of this criterion. few or no examples have been found, the initial hypothesis being very optimistic about the metaphorical use of words in medical vocabulary. however, far from considering this a constraint, a methodological reflection shall be undertaken in order to find better methods of dealing with the study of metaphor in medical english from a chronological perspective. among several other features to be considered for further research, hedging seems a very relevant one. although this linguistic device, so much attached to scientific discourse, has been widely studied in contemporary scientific discourse, no diachronic study of this device has been carried out in detail: to the best of my knowledge, no lsp study has been undertaken on the diachronic evolution of hedges in academic scientific discourse. it is true that a few recent works; mª josé esteve ramos ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126124 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 124 such as bazerman (1988), atkinson (1992, 1996) and valle (1993) refer to the hedging phenomenon in 18th and 19th century scientific prose, but they only do so in vague and general terms (i.e. not in a systematic fashion) what is more, their findings are controversial. bazerman (1988), for instance, argues that hedges did not play a significant role in early scientific writing, and that it is a phenomenon which has developed over the years, particularly in the course of the 20th century. by contrast, shapin (1984), skelton (1988), kubui (1988) and varantola (1990) share the opinion that hedging is an old skill and has always been an unavoidable problem. (salager-meyer, 1999: 136) there is much more to be done in the field of diachronic studies of languages in specific contexts. our contribution may provide a starting point in order to establish the grounds for potential research on the topic, which has already awakened the curiosity and interest of many scholars. an example of current related research is found in the so-called “uppsala project”: the "uppsala project" on the historical evolution of swedish languages for special purposes has been reported in a series of publications, primarily in swedish but also in english. [...] the uppsala group have explicitly distanced themselves from what they call the "american" approach to lsp and scientific discourse, which they see as being overly text-oriented and lacking a "societal" dimension. their purpose has been to describe changing text structures and the development of specialised terminology, within an overall societal perspective. (valle, 1999: 47) finally, we may conclude that more studies following this same approach are bound to explore scientific discourse from a different angle that may discover linguistic and non-linguistic features of specialised vocabularies. this will assist the understanding of not only the linguistic devices, but also the evolution of genres, as well as the specialised terminologies, among other significant issues. acknowledgements i would like to express my gratitude to the reviewers whose suggestions and advice have greatly improved the final version of this paper; and to the editor, for his patience. i am also indebted to dr. santiago posteguillo, who has always encouraged me to pursue research, and has taught me so many things; to him, my deepest gratitude. (revised version received june 2006) medical terminology across the centuries ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126 125 atkinson, d. (1996). “the philosophical transactions of the royal society of london, 1675-1975: a sociohistorical discourse analysis.” language in society 25: 333-371. bauer, l. (1993). english wordformation. cambridge: cambridge university press. curzan, a. (2000). “english historical corpora in the classroom. the intersection of teaching and research.” journal of english linguistics 28,1: 77-89. references 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 125 mª josé esteve ramos ibérica 12 [2006]: 111-126126 dirckx, j. h. (1983). the language of medicine: its evolution, structure and dynamics. new york: praeger. dirckx, j. h. (1986). “the technical language of medicine.” emp newsletter 3,1: 43-46. eldredge, i. e. (ed.) (1995). the wonderful art of the eye. a critical edition of the middlle english translation of his de probatissimo arte oculorum by benvenutus grassus. michigan: michigan state university press. mcconchie, r. (1997). lexicography and physicke. the record of sixteenth-century english medical terminology. oxford: clarendon press. mittendorf, w. f. (1881). a manual on diseases on the eye and ear for the use of students and practitioners. new york: putnam and sons. norri, j. (1992). names of sicknesses in english, 1400-1550: an exploration of the lexical field. helsinki: academia scientiarum fennica. norri, j. (1998). names of body parts in english, 1400-1550. helsinki: academia scientiarum fennica. nwogu, k. n. (1997). “the medical research paper: structure and functions.” english for specific purposes 16,2: 119-138 rissanen, m. (1999) “early english corpora and the story of standardisation.” in a. bringas, d. gonzález, j. pérez, e. rama, & e. varela (eds), “woonderous ænglissce” selim studies in medieval english language, 133144. vigo: universidade de vigo. servicio de publicaciones. rissanen, m. (2000). “the world of english corpora. from caedmon to the computer age.” journal of english linguistics 8,1: 7-20. robbins, r. h. (1970). “medical manuscripts in middle english.” speculum 45: 393-415. salager-meyer, f. (1996). “from ‘mr guthrie is profoundly mistaken…’ to ‘our data do not seem to confirm the results of previous study on…’: a diachronic study of polemicity in academic writing (1819-1995).” ibérica 1: 5-28. salager-meyer, f. (1999). “referential behaviour in scientific writing: a diachronic study (18101995).” english for specific purposes 18,3: 279-305. salager meyer, f. & g. défives (1998). “from the gentleman’s courtesy to the expert’s caution: a diachronic analysis of hedges in academic writing (1810-1995)” in i. fortanet, s. posteguillo, j. c. palmer, & j. f. coll (eds.), genre studies in english for specific purposes, 133169. castelló: universitat jaume i. servei de publicacions. singer, c. (1962). a short history of medicine. oxford: clarendon press. sournia, j. c. (1994). “les phases évolutives du vocabulaire médical français.” meta 29,4: 692-700. ullmann, s. (1977). semantics. an introduction to the science of meaning. oxford: blackwell. valero, c. & c. calle (1997). “contrastive analysis of finite verb profiles in eight medical abstracts” in r. marín & a. romero (eds.), lenguas aplicadas a las ciencias y la tecnología: aproximaciones, 219223. cáceres: universidad de extremadura. valle, e. (1999). a collective intelligence. the life sciences in the royal society as a scientific discourse community 1665-1965. turku: anglicana turkuensia no. 17. webber, p. (1994). “the function of questions in different medical journal genres.” english for specific purposes 13,3: 257-866. webber, p. (1996). “metaphor in medical english abstracts.” unesco alsed-lsp newsletter 19,1: 35-52. williams, i. (1996). “a contextual study of lexical verbs in two types of medical research report: clinical and experimental.” english for specific purposes 15,3: 175-197. 1 “diachronically speaking, this means that texts produced within a given culture or context will gradually change, i.e. if conditions and frames change within a society, the texts produced will evolve” (salager-meyer, 1999: 280). 2 the existence of this author is attested only by his work and not much is known about him; however, further information can be found in articles published by the editor of the text (eldredge, 1999). 3 “galen calls a cataract, literally “falling fluid,” and the classical latin suffusio, a pouring down, is a claque of the greek. (arabic al ma’ al-nazil, falling water, is also calqued on the greek). classical latin cataracta, a rapid, a waterfall, was at some point in the medieval period substituted for suffussio, possibly by constantinus africanus in the late eleventh or early twelfth century. [...] the substance was thought to be a corrupt fluid, something that originated within the eye itself ” (eldredge, 1996: 13). 4 norri (1992: 107) explains: “a morbid swelling or growth of roundish shape was known as a corn or a kernel. the former word was used particularly for a stye on the eyelid (cf. modern hordeolum), or a pustule on the eye.” notes 07 esteve.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 126 iberica 13 ibérica 31 (2016): 63-82 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract tourism is a global cultural industry and one of the world’s largest international trades (thurlow & jaworski, 2011). as far as tourism is understood as an agent and channel of globalisation (pritchard & jaworski, 2005), it makes sense to investigate it from a critical perspective and analyse how its discourse shapes the tourist experience. the aim of this study is to explore ways in which hotel websites project a place identity for the hotel and, in doing so, for the town or city in which the hotel is located. i will ask how, and in what ways, this representation relies on socio-cultural conventions, which in turn may influence the discursive construction of the social actor “tourist”. using critical discourse analysis (see e.g. fairclough, 1999, 2002) as a framework, i will also draw on halliday’s (1985) transitivity system to identify the representational choices underlying the semantic encoding of the services the hotel offers made by the promoter of the hotel on its website. using the concordancing tool antconc 3.4.2 (anthony, 2014), i will trace patterns of use, allowing for a further qualitative analysis of the data. the study is also of interest to the tourist industry inasmuch as it offers an insight into the social construction of a “tourist” identity, shaped according to prevailing symbols and codes in modern society. keywords: discourse of tourism, critical discourse analysis, hotel webpages, qualitative corpus analysis, place identity. a twofold commodification of “place” in hotel websites and its consequences for the discursive creation of a tourist identity rosana dolón herrero universitat de valència (españa) dolon@uv.es 63 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 63 ibérica 31 (2016): 63-82 rosana dolón herrero resumen l a d ob l e m e rc a nt il i z ac i ón d e l a c a te g orí a “ l ug ar ” e n p ág i na s w e b h ot e l e ra s , y s us c o ns e c u e nc i as pa ra l a c r e ac i ón d is c urs i v a d e u na id e nti da d d e tur is ta el turismo representa una industria cultural global, y es uno de los mayores comercios internacionales (thurlow y jaworski, 2011). entendido como agente y canal de globalización (pritchard y jaworski, 2005), cobra sentido investigar el turismo desde una lente crítica, y analizar de qué manera su discurso da forma a la experiencia turística. mi objetivo es analizar cómo la página web hotelera proyecta una identidad de lugar para el hotel y a su vez de su ubicación. tengo interés en hallar de qué manera dicha representación se apoya en convenciones socio-culturales, que pueden influir en la construcción discursiva del actor social “turista”. partiendo del análisis crítico del discurso (ver e.g. fairclough, 1999, 2002), me remonto al sistema de transitividad elaborado por halliday (1985) para identificar las elecciones de representación que subyacen a la codificación semántica de los servicios que el hotel ofrece, y que realiza el promotor del hotel a través de la página web. el uso de la herramienta de concordancias antconc 3.4.2 (anthony, 2014), me permite aislar patrones de uso, y aplicar a posteriori un análisis cualitativo a las muestras seleccionadas. el estudio es de interés también para la industria turística, al ofrecer una visión de la construcción social de una identidad “turística”, creada a partir de los símbolos y códigos que prevalecen en la sociedad moderna. palabras clave: discurso del turismo, análisis crítico del discurso, páginas web hoteleras, análisis cualitativo de corpus, identidad de lugar. 1. introduction the power of tourism in a globalized society has been explored extensively (see e.g. dann, 1996; heller 2003; pritchard & jaworski, 2005; favero, 2007; thurlow & jaworski, 2010, 2011). indeed, the social, economic and political impact of tourism has become so pervasive that the tourist can be said to embody a metaphor for the world he/she lives in (dann, 2002). tourism websites as a genre have received a great deal of attention (see e.g. dann, 1996; hallett & kaplan-weinger, 2010; hung & law, 2011; koskensalo, 2012; dolón, 2014), yet much of this research has focused almost exclusively on the genre as a marketing tool. this is particularly the case with hotel websites (see e.g. cheng & ab hamid, 2011; hsie, 2012). 64 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 64 my interest in the promotional genre of the hotel website lies in analysing its potential to construct a discursive identity of place. while engaged in persuading, encouraging and even seducing the potential tourist to use the services offered by a hotel, the discourse practice of such websites creates a place identity for the hotel and its location. this frames the tourist experience in terms of the consumption of place, and implies the notion of commodification of place identity (see e.g. urry, 1990; pritchard & morgan, 2001; heller, 2003; hallett & kaplan-weinger, 2010; thurlow & jaworski, 2010; torkington, 2012): tourists consume the symbolic characteristics and values attached to the discursive projection of the place. the study of identity has been a major focus in tourism research (see e.g. urry, 1995; dann, 1996; pritchard & morgan, 2001; mccabe & stokoe, 2004; favero, 2007; suen, 2009). starting from a dynamic, social constructivist approach, it is interesting to characterize the discursive creation of a “tourist” identity while analysing how a hotel website constructs and projects a place identity for itself and for the town or city in which it is located. 2. the hotel website: promoting tourism in postindustrial capitalism although webpages in general have been studied extensively (see e.g. porter, 2004; shepherd, watters & kennedy 2004; santini, 2007), the literature on tourism websites understood as discourse practices, and not specifically as commercial/marketing tools, is not as extensive as one might expect. as arfin bin salim et al. (2012: 136) observe, this is so despite tourism being “an intensely social and communicative business” given the pervasive nature of its socio-economic and political weight in today’s society (thurlow & jaworski, 2011). tourism websites are efficient promotional media: being essentially informative and persuasive, they offer a rich characterization of the tourist destination. consequently they reveal themselves as an important means for the representation of place, and as such contribute significantly to travellers’ decision-making processes in choosing a destination (afin bin salim et al., 2012: 139). they also portray a hidden dialogue between the tourist institution or business and the potential customer, one which might exhibit interpersonal persuasive strategies (suau-jiménez, 2012). a twofold commodification of “place” in hotel websites ibérica 31 (2016): 63-82 65 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 65 hotel websites engage in the activity of promotional marketing, offering a representation of the destination that reflects the way a tourist is meant to look at it. the hotel and its location are, therefore, represented as sociocultural constructions rather than as simple physical spaces (aitcheson & reeves, 1998: 51), ones which enclose a set of symbolic characteristics that are commodified for the consumption of the prospective tourist. in doing so, the discourse practice enacted by the hotel promoter can be said to have the potential to shape the identities of the hosts, the tourists, the tourist attractions and the place destination itself (pritchard & jaworski, 2005). this representational potential is important, inasmuch as it empowers the hotel, for whom the hotel webpage constitutes an important tool in leading the prospective tourist to a particular vision of the cultures and places represented, offering a specific characterization of cultural otherness (favero, 2007). what we see here is a process of globalization, one which capitalizes on “the elaboration, representation and display of cultures, places and the world” (favero, 2007: 52). interestingly enough, hotel websites can be said to promote a world vision of diversity, of the “different experience” (urry, 1990, 1995), yet with an underlying interest in controlling this representation. it can be claimed, therefore, that hotel websites project framed characterizations of place, offering experiences to the tourist that are only possible within these “regulated spaces” (favero, 2007: 67). 3. the discursive construction of an identity “place” the culture of tourism promotes and sells symbolic capital, of which “place” is a major exponent. tourists are encouraged to see and experience other places, where a tourist’s perspective and imagination shape the individual’s expectations and knowledge about the world that surrounds us (thurlow & jaworski, 2010). tourism is to be understood in terms of symbolic consumption aimed at attaining pleasurable experience, which is also expected to be different from everyday life (urry, 1990, 1995). the discursive articulation of place contributes to the construction of both individual and collective identities (torkington, 2012: 72) inasmuch as touristic representations utilise and reflect identity while marketing places (pritchard & morgan, 2001: 168). as torkington (2012: 76) notes, we can understand “place” identity as an intrinsic link between place(s) and the multiplication of the individual and collective self. this reflection leads us to rosana dolón herrero ibérica 31 (2016): 63-8266 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 66 think of a dialectical relationship holding between the discursive construction of the identities of tourists and that of places, where places are given meanings and identity traits by people (both individuals and the collective entity) and places may be said to shape tourists’ identity in some way. it is a discourse practice that shows how place is constituted and is also constitutive of who we are (see dixon & durrheim, 2000; benwell & stokoe, 2006). the symbolic consumption of “place” in the tourism industry necessarily conveys a polarisation between a “here” and a “there”, i.e. a place that is known and familiar to the everyday experience of the tourist as opposed to a place that is different and somewhere else. this echoes a parallelism in the discursive construction of the tourist identity, which recreates the tension between the individual self and the “tourist” self. these juxtapositions recall the concept of “otherness”, where the tourist engages in a social activity, “capturing glimpses of ‘other’ worlds at high speed, and bringing these glimpses home in the shape of material culture (such as souvenirs or photos)” (favero, 2007: 57). when we think of “place” in terms of “otherness”, the consumption of a “different” location, the tourist comes to embody some kind of temporary “lifestyle migrant” (torkington, 2012). in our context this lifestyle migration is to be understood as the activity of tourism itself, where the tourist temporarily embraces lifestyle values that a particular place evokes in his/her mind as pleasurable experiences. commodification of place necessarily involves commodification of language and identity, since the promotional discourse of hotel websites is intended to sell a symbolic representation of place, and calls forth the construction of social actors (see e.g. van leeuwen, 1996) whose mental representations of the values of a place are being addressed. this commodification of language and identity is, as heller (2003: 474) observes, an unavoidable consequence of our globalized economy 4. the study when considering how “place” is discursively constructed on hotel websites, two place representations seem to interact in what at first glance looks like symbiotic interplay: the website promotes the hotel as a destination in itself, while at the same time depicting itself as a place within a twofold commodification of “place” in hotel websites ibérica 31 (2016): 63-82 67 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 67 a place, a threshold to the location the tourist is set to enjoy as the targeted destination. the hotel consequently offers a specific “place” experience within a broader one, and hence we can expect the hotel’s webpage to construct discursively a twofold place identity, where the broader space of the location “lends” its symbolic values to highlight the “place” values of the hotel space; and vice-versa, where the hotel location is represented in such a way that it adds value to the broader space of the town, city or other location the tourist seeks to enjoy. 4.1. research objective the paper explores how place identity is discursively constructed in terms of its complexity, as described above. a qualitative analysis will be presented of how hotel promoters project through their discursive behaviour on hotel websites a place identity for both the hotel and its host location. more specifically, my aim is to establish what shape this twofold place representation takes, and how this may affect considerations about the discursive creation of a tourist identity. the starting point here will be that of a social constructivist approach to identity, where identity in itself does not in principle exist in isolation, but is construed discursively, and is shaped according to the social pressures at play (see e.g. de fina, schiffrin & bamberg, 2006). ultimately, the use of homogenised discourse practices with prevailing, unchallenged forms that may call for emancipatory discourse behaviour, will also be questioned. 4.2. research framework and procedure the methodological framework to be used is critical discourse analysis (cda), itself evolved from critical linguistics (kress & hodge, 1979), and drawing in particular on halliday’s (1985) functional view of language, as well as being influenced by critical theorists such as foucault and habermas. more specifically i begin with the socio-cultural approach developed by fairclough (see e.g. 1999, 2002), which considers discourse as a social practice, where social structure, social action and agency are dialectically related. discursive constructions of forms of dominance, power abuse, and general social inequalities are among the main areas of research within this framework. my interest in the present study, however, lies rather in challenging a hypothetical perpetration of forms of place representations, often standardized by a global culture. fairclough (see e.g. 2002) claims that rosana dolón herrero ibérica 31 (2016): 63-8268 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 68 we understand discourse as a relatively “stabilised” form of social activity, recreating “specific” forms of both language use and social interaction. one of the purposes of cda is to challenge social or semiotic structures that are often accepted and hence consciously or unconsciously legitimised as common and familiar practices (see e.g. fairclough, 2002). recalling habermas’ concept of emancipatory knowledge interest, chouliaraki and fairclough (1999: 29) argue for the development of language practices that assert particularity and individuality, as a means of emancipation from increasingly homogenised discourse practices. such a concern advocates a need for critical language awareness that necessarily implies a challenge to prevailing discourse practices. chouliaraki and fairclough (1999: vii) note that in service economies specifically, language itself has become part of the service, the goods being produced having an increasingly linguistic character. this commodification of language is understood as a form of and contribution to globalisation in that it perpetrates homogenised language use. chouliaraki and fairclough (1999) encourage the study of language awareness as a central concern in cda, in order to challenge and unveil conventional uses that serve to cancel out particular and individualistic identities. as noted above, halliday’s (1985) transitivity system has been of considerable use in my analysis. the choice of a specific transitivity pattern encompasses specific types of process representation, which correspond to ways of representing reality. i am particularly interested in the representation of material processes, where the process is encoded in terms of “doing”, with the hotel in subject position standing as the “doer”, the actor in charge of the process in halliday’s (1985) terms. the present study is also corpus-driven, which allows for access to large amounts of data on patterns of linguistic use and systematic choices therein (see e.g. hundt, nesselhauf & biewer, 2007). baker (2006: 13) reflects on the importance of corpus-driven research enhancing critical linguistic studies, noting the potential of these for uncovering other discourses that underlie, quite often subtly, the discourse practice under analysis. the research procedure was as follows: a corpus of 224 hotel websites was compiled from our research team’s database (cometval). these represented an equal proportion of one-, threeand five-star hotels from both the uk and the usa. attention was also paid to the geographical locations of hotels, making sure that these were distributed throughout the a twofold commodification of “place” in hotel websites ibérica 31 (2016): 63-82 69 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 69 two countries, avoiding the possibility of certain geo-spatial conditions outweighing others, and thus resulting in a balanced representativity in the corpus (see e.g. atkins, clear & ostler, 1992). all the hotel websites were fully exploited, that is, the entire text which they contained was subjected to analysis in each case. from the 224 websites considered, a total of 964,649 word tokens were compiled. the antconc 3.4.2. (anthony, 2014) concordancing tool was used to trace systematic choices of clause construction patterns with either of the forms the hotel/our hotel/(name of the hotel)/we in subject position, followed by either of the verb phrases offer(s)/do(es) offer/provide(s) (you with) or give(s) plus predicate. this yielded a total of 359 clause samples representing material processes with the hotel standing in agentive role as “doer”, the social actor offering a series of services. these clauses conformed to one or more of the thirteen categories, set out in tables 1 and 2 below, in terms of what service category is being provided, with 12.5% of the examples corresponding to the process of the hotel offering an explicit place reference, either to the hotel itself or to the host location. since my interest here lies in the discursive representation of place, it is these forty-five samples relating to the category of place that have been analysed. 5. results and analysis the samples were distributed into groups, each corresponding to specific socio-semantic representations of place. for the sake of brevity, uses of the rosana dolón herrero ibérica 31 (2016): 63-8270 a twofold commodification of “place” in hotel websites ibérica 31 (2016): …-… predicate. this yielded a total of 359 clause samples representing material processes with the hotel standing in agentive role as “doer”, the social actor offering a series of services. these clauses conformed to one or more of the thirteen categories, set out in tables 1 and 2 below, in terms of what service category is being provided, with 12.5% of the examples corresponding to the process of the hotel offering an explicit place reference, either to the hotel itself or to the host location. food & drink abstract/vague concepts place rooms/ accommodation events (social & professional) general & specific services 32 49 45 47 51 41 8.9% 13.6% 12.5% 13.1% 14.3% 11.5% affiliation/ information privacy transportation price benefits & packages internet amenities & gifts fitness & beauty recreation/sport 13 8 49 6 4 8 6 3.6% 2.2% 13.6% 1.7% 1.1% 2.2% 1.7% table 1 and 2. distribution of categories. since my interest here lies in the discursive representation of place, it is these forty-five samples relating to the category of place that have been analysed. 5. results and analysis the samples were distributed into groups, each corresponding to specific sociosemantic representations of place. for the sake of brevity, uses of the hotel/our hotel/(name of the hotel)/we in subject position, when followed by any of the verb phrases offer(s)/do(es) offer/provide(s) (you with) or give(s), were excluded from the listed clause samples. group 1: the hotel represented as a retreat from city’s activities 1) a romantic, relaxing, and rejuvenating retreat in downtown san francisco. 2) a tranquil retreat from the vibrant energy of waikiki beach. 3) the ultimate escape just moments away from the thrill and excitement of the walt disney world’s resort. 4) the added perk of free access to private garden facilities that can instantly transport you from the hustle and bustle of it all. 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 70 hotel/our hotel/(name of the hotel)/we in subject position, when followed by any of the verb phrases offer(s)/do(es) offer/provide(s) (you with) or give(s), were excluded from the listed clause samples. group 1: the hotel represented as a retreat from city’s activities 1) a romantic, relaxing, and rejuvenating retreat in downtown san francisco. 2) a tranquil retreat from the vibrant energy of waikiki beach. 3) the ultimate escape just moments away from the thrill and excitement of the walt disney world’s resort. 4) the added perk of free access to private garden facilities that can instantly transport you from the hustle and bustle of it all. in these four examples the hotel is portrayed as a place that functions as a retreat for the traveller. this is understood as providing a haven of calm and relaxation away from the city. example (3) adds the meaning of escape, where the hotel somehow “rescues” the tourist from the activity offered by the city. example (4) is worth highlighting in that the hotel is said to offer a place within its own place, somewhere that contrasts with what the city offers: as if by magic, the hotel’s garden transports the guest to a green space, which somehow helps to cancel out the effects of the city. in this sense, the hotel is also depicted in the image of “rescuer”. in example (1) the hotel is not limited to this “repairing” role, but has its own perks, offering the guest romanticism and even a sense of rejuvenation. group 2: the hotel as a starting point/headquarter for trips/activities 5) a number of familiarisation trips throughout the year where you can experience the hotel, its changes and take advantage of the great activities that are planned for you. 6) a range of experiences for guests looking to try our national drink including private distillery tours with a qualified whisky connoisseur. 7) dinner, bed & breakfast, self-catering cottages and a base for outdoor activities. 8) tours with hotel pick-ups from the hollywood area, from the los angeles and lax (los angeles international airport) area, and from the anaheim area. a twofold commodification of “place” in hotel websites ibérica 31 (2016): 63-82 71 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 71 tours which commence at the hotel are a common service provided by a hotel. companies offering trips or visits to city attractions often advertise their services within the hotel, with flyers and other advertising material being displayed at the reception. this is mutually beneficial, since these businesses gain customers while the hotel adds value to its clients’ stay through facilitating access to such activities. in example (7) the hotel explicitly labels itself as a sort of headquarters for tourist activities. in both (6) and (8) we are led to see the hotel as giving its guests something extra if they choose to make these trips via the hotel. this is especially salient in (6), where the visitor is invited to experience not just a normal distillery tour but a “private” one with “specialists”, marking it out as special and thus especially attractive. it is worth noting that this perk of exclusive treatment is offered specifically to guests who use the hotel as the base for their excursions and trips. interestingly enough, in (5) the tour is conceived of as taking place inside the hotel, projecting the hotel itself as a tourist highlight in the city. group 3: the hotel as an ideal location due to proximity to city’s highlights 9) ideal proximity to an exciting array of manhattan things to do in chelsea. 10) 2 great pensacola hotels, both provide lodging accommodations near naval air station pensacola and nttc corry station. 11) premier accommodation in the heart of cardiff city centre, just a few minutes’ walk from the millennium stadium and five minutes from cardiff ’s central train and bus station. 12) hours of excitement on our four lighted tennis courts, conveniently located across from walt disney world swan. 13) a marvellous london location close to the tower bridge and tower of london. the characteristic of the hotel highlighted here is related to its proximity to the city’s features and attractions. by turning the factor of distance into a distinct value, the hotel is projected as both comfortable and convenient, and makes experiencing the city easy and immediate for the guest. through such uses of language the hotel does not present itself as a destination per se, a place to be enjoyed, but simply as a hassle-free means of enjoying the city. group 4: the hotel represented as a facilitator of access to city’s attractions and transportation facilities rosana dolón herrero ibérica 31 (2016): 63-8272 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 72 14) easy access to the subway, and midtown manhattan is just minutes away. 15) effortless access to vibrant nightlife, cutting-edge art galleries, and chic boutiques and restaurants. 16) bed and breakfast accommodation within a short walking distance of edinburgh’s major tourist destinations. 17) unlimited access to all manx heritage sites, giving you the flexibility and freedom to create your own story of mann. 18) shuttle service to and from logan international airport, jfk subway station, as well as various local medical and convention centers. here, the hotel advertises convenient access to places that guests may want to visit, thereby projecting itself as a facilitator of easy ways to participate in the tourist activities that the city has to offer. in doing so the hotel portrays itself as co-promoter of the city as a tourist destination. group 5: the hotel represented as a facilitator of the guest’s enjoyment of the city 19) a free left luggage service whereby you can leave your luggage in reception on the day of departure and enjoy a hassle free day in london. 20) a host of discounted breaks and packages so you can get the best out of your stay in edinburgh. 21) secure, comfortable accommodation and all the information you’ll need to make the most of your time in edinburgh. the idea of facilitator acquires new meaning here, where luggage storage, along with discount packages, comfort and availability of information, are highlighted as services aimed at the further enhancement of the guest’s enjoyment of the city. the hotel projects itself as a place that will take from the tourist any burden or handicap that may interfere with the full tourist experience available in the city. group 6: the hotel represented as a destination in itself 22) a fabulous location, superb service and great prices. 23) a sleek, ultra modern destination for savvy vacationers and business travellers. 24) an inspiring destination for celebration. a twofold commodification of “place” in hotel websites ibérica 31 (2016): 63-82 73 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 73 25) an inspired and sophisticated setting for all your meetings and events in exciting san francisco. 26) the perfect place for both business and pleasure. the ideal waikiki beach location for your hawaii meetings, celebrations or special events. 27) the historic kuumba library, adjoining mezzanine lobby and elegant balcony. 28) two double rooms with en-suite bathrooms and views of the garden and beyond. 29) the relaxed elegance of an edwardian country house with stunning architecture and mature gardens guaranteed to create an exquisite backdrop. 30) traditionally furnished en-suite bedrooms, a restaurant, oak beamed courtyard and bar with a fine reputation and attractive courtyard. 31) at the burnham hotel: the warm setting with dark wood and pops of gold and red does its part to lure your mind to a laidback place. 32) *also let us know if you would like to arrange a show round and view our facilities we offer. in examples (22) and (33) we find the simplest portrayal of place, devoid of symbolic value, where the hotel is presented merely as a location (22), a place that offers a series of facilities (33). examples (23-26), on the other hand, add significant meaning when representing the hotel as a destination, addressing guests who seek to use the hotel as a functional space for the celebration of social and business events. other uses (27 and 28) highlight specific locations within the hotel as enjoyable features. also of interest are examples (29-31) which note specific architectural characteristics, ornamental features and even notable construction materials, all of which contribute to the creation of a specific atmosphere and ambience. group 7: the hotel represented as offering some blend between the location of the city and the hotel itself 33) a stylish place to enjoy the quintessential all-american city. (orlando) 34) first class accommodation, glasgow hospitality and traditional scottish fayre. 35) the luxurious living standards of elegant new orleans combined with personal attention and an unwavering commitment to your happiness. rosana dolón herrero ibérica 31 (2016): 63-8274 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 74 36) a blend of treatments as inspiring as the city itself. (new york) 37) a landmark boston setting. 38) * most hotels give you a room; we give you an entire city. the above examples illustrate an interesting blending of two places: the hotel itself and the city. this gives rise to interesting collocations such as “glasgow hospitality” (35) and “landmark boston setting” (38), in which websites attempt to linguistically encode the fact that hotel offers a blend of the two locations, both of which can be enjoyed by the tourist. group 8: the hotel represented as displaying centrality, location in a central position 39) an exclusive address in the heart of fashionable back bay. 40) signature kimpton hotel hospitality and acclaimed style in the heart of downtown boston. 41) everything you need to create the perfect wedding right here in the heart of the windy city. 42) some of the best corporate meeting rooms in edinburgh and the opportunity to enjoy private dining in edinburgh’s city centre. the physical position of the hotel in the city centre is not highlighted because it favours easy access and proximity to the city’s tourist attractions, but rather the idea is conveyed that it belongs to the very essence of the city. this centrality confers on the hotel the added status of a city landmark. group 9: the hotel represented as offering a sense of home 43) a relaxed home-from-home for locals and visitors alike: you can be assured of all the comforts and luxuries. 44) a clean, comfortable and quiet home away from home, in the center of boston’s back bay. these two examples are interesting in that they exploit the spatial notion of “home” and the symbolic meanings attached to it. instead of projecting itself as a place with a significance that operates in combination with its host city, the hotel represents itself as a place that is located at a distance from home yet offers home-related features, such as comfort, cleanliness and relaxation. a twofold commodification of “place” in hotel websites ibérica 31 (2016): 63-82 75 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 75 group 10: the hotel represented as offering easy access to functional services in neighbourhood 45) civil or humanist service, and we are very lucky to have the church right beside us if you would like a church service then join us. functional services that the hotel’s neighbourhood offers are rarely mentioned. in fact, our corpus contains just one example, in which the hotel’s proximity to a church is noted. 6. discussion our analysis illustrates how the hotel and its host location are projected through the hotel webpage as a tourist destination, with examples referring to the material process of offering (in its form of encoding: “giving”, “offering”, “providing”), with the hotel (in its forms “the/our hotel”, “we”, “name of the hotel”) in agentive position as explicit “doer” of the action. of the forty-five examples, only eleven were found in which the hotel was represented as a place destination in itself [group 6]. in these cases, a series of adjectives (“inspiring”, “perfect”, “sophisticated”, “fabulous”, “ultra-modern”, “sleek”) were used as a means of recreating a specific hotel atmosphere; reference to high-quality construction materials and specific architectural features also contributed to this. however, it is worth noting how many of these representations of the hotel’s atmosphere and ambience are addressed solely to tourists planning social or professional events. the six examples listed in group 7 show an interesting form of place representation, with the hotel projected as a kind of blend with the city, where the tourist accesses through the hotel both the city’s and hotel’s highlights. in most examples [groups 2, 3, 4 and 5] the hotel is portrayed as a facilitator for the tourist’s full enjoyment of the city, offering comfort, convenience, information and other benefits, revealing itself essentially as a place for another place. while it is true that the hotel is seen here as a sort of entrance to the city, it also takes on the function of an exit, the space of retreat from the city’s activities. the four examples in group 1 express this idea, where such a retreat is associated with calm, relaxation and even a form of escape from the bustle and stress of the city. rosana dolón herrero ibérica 31 (2016): 63-8276 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 76 this strong attachment of the hotel to the representation of a larger place takes a different shape in group 8, whose four examples portray the hotel as a city highlight, with its very central position making it a city landmark. it can be said that the hotel here takes on the symbolic place values of the city. the two examples in group 9 are interesting, in that the hotel is projected as a home away from home. the experience of “otherness” typically associated with tourist experiences (see urry, 1990, 1995; favero, 2007) thus seems to be cancelled, as the hotel displays home-related features rather than projecting an idea of “otherness” and difference. summarizing, we can think of two place representations holding for the hotel. in the first of these, in most examples [groups 1-5] the hotel can be said to portray itself as a place that is subordinated to its location, inasmuch as it stands as a space reference to make the full enjoyment of the larger space possible, lifting any burden, handicap or difficulty from the tourist in this regard. these twenty-one examples rely, then, on a socio-cultural construction of place, where the city is the space for action, for getting tired, for excitement and hassle, and the hotel is a place that both prepares the tourist for this experience and provides the consequent relief and rest. this in turn contributes to an identity construction of the tourist in terms of how they are expected to interact with the place “hotel” and the broader place location. the hotel as a “doer” in the analyzed samples of material processes, in explicitly offering things to the tourist, projects a tourist who is a social actor, one who is active, gets involved and tired in the city, and one to whom the hotel offers a gateway and a place of recovery and relief, “mothering” the tourist into and out of the city. the hotel is portrayed as a facilitator, as a base for or retreat from the city and contributes to the promotion of the city, yet does so at the expense of offering a specific frame for what both the city and the hotel have to offer. on the other hand, the eleven examples in groups 7, 8 and 10 represent the hotel as a place that benefits from the symbolic values attached to the location to which it belongs. the hotel is discursively constructed as being part of the city or as borrowing its perks, and the tourist is portrayed as experiencing the city while experiencing the hotel, rather than using the hotel as a gateway to the larger location. this in turn recreates the identity of a tourist who seeks to find the symbolic values and characteristic features of the city to be embodied in the hotel itself: a tourist who does a twofold commodification of “place” in hotel websites ibérica 31 (2016): 63-82 77 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 77 not want to detach the place experience of the hotel from that of the larger location. apart from these two ways of hotel representation, always in combination with the city, the eleven examples in group 6 project the hotel as a destination in itself, and thus as totally detached from the larger place in which it is located. however, in doing so, the hotel is projected as recreating a sensorial experience, creating a specific ambience, which conjures up a specific, one could say “restricted”, touristic hotel experience. these examples were also found to explicitly address a specific profile of a tourist who uses the hotel for business or social events. the “voice” behind the website, then, seems to differentiate between a type of tourist identity that pursues access to and enjoyment of the larger location that hosts the hotel, and one whose activity revolves around the hotel itself, the latter being clearly identified with guests that celebrate social or professional events on its premises. the least represented examples are the two samples of group 9, where the hotel is portrayed as a home away from home. this confirms, through contrast, urry’s (1990, 1995) characterization of “otherness”, the tourist seeking to visit places that are different from home. 7. conclusions this study has shown how the two place categories are discursively constructed in a corpus of hotel websites, and has shed light on the resulting projection of specifically framed tourist identities. the critical awareness that the current analysis has promoted makes clear that further research in this area would be useful, challenging thus far uncontested discourse practices. as thurlow and jaworski (2011: 3) observe, “tourism plays a powerful role in reshaping cultural practices”. it is interesting to challenge the discursive characterization of the tourist found in these texts, which hinges on prevailing socio-cultural constructions, where discourse shapes the tourist experience and the tourist identity, framing and hence restricting it in a significant manner. this study has been one possible starting point towards an emancipatory discourse for hotel webpages, where hotel promoters have the chance to offer a new, culturally updated and revised characterization of a “place” identity, both for the hotel itself and for its larger host location, and consequently for the tourist as a social actor and for tourism as a cultural activity. rosana dolón herrero ibérica 31 (2016): 63-8278 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 78 acknowledgements this paper was written within the framework of a research project funded by the ministry of science and innovation, spain (now ministry of economy and competitiveness), reference ffi2011-24712, lexical and discursive analysis of parallel and 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(1995). consuming places. london: routledge. 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 80 investigación concedido por el ministerio de economía y competitividad (anterior, ministerio de ciencia e innovación), referencia ffi2011-2472, análisis léxico y discursivo de corpus paralelos y comparables (español, inglés y francés) de páginas electrónicas de promoción turística. 2011-2014. a twofold commodification of “place” in hotel websites ibérica 31 (2016): 63-82 81 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 81 05 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:29 página 82 iberica 13 ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this article reports on a research project investigating communication at several international events held in italy and focusing on grapes and wine. it also incorporates subsequent research and presents the project as a case to illustrate the way different notions of community were considered during the research process and to examine contextual factors such as relationships, roles and level of expertise of interactants. the article draws on a series of studies to provide a richer picture of the complexity of relations characterizing communicative events in international professional contexts, especially when expertise, knowledge sharing and knowledge creation come increasingly into play. it also gives attention to how project outcomes led to new research and data collection, course development and further interdisciplinary collaboration. keywords: intercultural and international business communication, business discourse, professional communication, community of practice, industry events. resumen i nv e s t ig a nd o l a c o mu ni c ac ión y l a s c om uni d ad e s pr of e s i on al e s e n l o s e n c ue n tr os in te rn ac io na l e s este artículo describe un proyecto en el que se investiga la comunicación en diversos encuentros internacionales del sector empresarial vitivinícola celebrados en italia. también incorpora investigación derivada de dicho estudio y presenta el proyecto como ejemplo con el que ilustrar la manera en que se consideraron diversas nociones de comunidad durante el proceso investigador, asimismo pretende examinar factores contextuales como relaciones, roles y niveles de experiencia entre los participantes. el artículo se inspira en diversos estudios para investigating communication and professional communities at international events gina poncini zayed university (united arab emirates) gina.poncini@zu.ac.ae 131 ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150 gina poncini aportar una imagen más completa de la complejidad de las relaciones que caracterizan los eventos comunicativos en contextos profesionales internacionales, especialmente en aquellos casos en los que entran en juego la experiencia y el hecho de compartir y generar conocimiento. también se presta atención al modo en el que los resultados originales han generado nueva investigación, la recogida de nuevos datos, el desarrollo de cursos y la colaboración interdisciplinaria adicional. palabras clave: comunicación intercultural e internacional en los negocios, discurso empresarial, comunicación profesional, comunidad de práctica, encuentros empresariales. introduction in recent years, research on communication in intercultural and international business settings has given greater attention to the business context and more generally the need to go beyond texts themselves (bhatia, 2004; bhatia & bremner, 2012; bhatia et al., 2013). while the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of participants may influence interactions in different ways, a range of other factors also comes into play, from professional roles to relationships, from level of expertise to shared knowledge. in addition, in terms of training and learning, the role played by socialization, situated learning, communities of practice, and participation in professional contexts outside the classroom has also been recognized (lave & wenger, 1991; wenger, 1998; bremner, 2012). the growing interest in english used as a lingua franca in business (see, among others, poncini, 2002, 2003 & 2004a; nickerson, 2005; rogersonrevell, 2007 & 2008; louhiala-salminen & charles, 2006; ehrenreich, 2010), and more specifically “business english as a lingua franca” (belf) as termed by louhiala-salminen, charles and kankaanranta (2005) and later “english as business lingua franca” (kankaanranta & louhiala-salminen, this volume), implies a focus on settings involving participants from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. here, too, it is important to take into consideration the wider professional context as well as the immediate circumstances when investigating discourse in multilingual settings and in particular the use of english as a lingua franca alongside the occasional use of other languages. even when the focus of research is other than code-switching, giving attention to switches between languages in naturally occurring spoken 132 interactions provides a richer understanding of intercultural encounters. language alternation holds the potential to facilitate communication in business settings by achieving cooperation and comprehension (charles, 2002), with other languages besides english providing “help” (louhialasalminen, 2002) when business communication takes place in english. research on multicultural business meetings conducted mainly in english has illustrated how the occasional use of languages other than english serves particular purposes – see, for instance, poncini (2003 & 2004a), on meetings with participants from up to 14 countries using english as a lingua franca, or virkkula-räisänen (2010) on multilingual meetings involving finnish and chinese participants with a finnish manager acting as mediator. in the meetings analyzed by poncini (2003), different languages were used during parts of the meetings to facilitate understanding, ensure correct product details, and highlight an interpersonal element in the company’s relationship with each distributor, while at the same time underlining the multicultural nature of the group. indeed, the use of different languages may serve practical needs or represent a cooperative element and is thus worthy of attention when examining international and intercultural business communication, even when communication takes place mainly in english. moreover, interactions may shape and be shaped by other contextual features such as those connected to business relationships and the individual expertise of meeting participants. the analysis of transcribed recordings of multicultural business meetings (poncini, 2002 & 2004a) showed that one particular participant, a finnish distributor, was seen to use a range of discursive strategies in different interchanges during the meeting. in one interchange he uses a number of positive lexical items to initiate a change in a company decision. in another he uses explicit and implicit negative language and questions in raising an issue connected to packaging. in one case, this speaker’s stance on a product manual was explicitly critical, while in another interchange he hedges his use of implicit negative evaluation when personally testing the performance of a product and inviting the chair of the meeting to examine the product. many of this distributor’s evaluations relate to his role in the business relationship, his own business activity and his expertise. his awareness of the limits connected to the performance of a product, for example, stem from his own technical expertise. in short, the variety of linguistic choices made by the finnish participant during interactions at different points of the meetings suggests that situational factors related to business activities, technical expertise and investigating communication and professional communities ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150 133 the history of the relationship play a role in his discourse. in the context of the meetings investigated, it would be difficult to attribute a particular strategy to this participant’s national cultural background. likewise, the finnish manager whose communication was examined in virkkularäisänen’s (2010) study was seen to adjust to goals of the business community – his own as well as his manager’s – and consequently shift between the participant roles of author, animator and principal (goffman, 1981), with the study also showing how an individual can exploit language as part of a broader semiotic repertoire to accomplish tasks and align toward different roles. besides situational factors, the wider business context itself may encompass local as well as global issues and agendas, some more apparent than others. the international wine industry, for example, represents an interesting blend between global and local because of the local elements important to grape growing and wine making, such as climate, soil, local culture and traditions. regional associations of wine producers and grape growers, together with the individual firms they represent, continue to face new challenges calling for innovation, knowledge sharing and internationalization. local and regional governments and other institutions, departments of agriculture, and other local firms in the agro-food industry are also involved in this process. boundaries between various types of organizations thus become blurred when events, research, and other initiatives are promoted and organized. this article reports on a research project investigating communication at international events in the wine industry organized in northern italy. it draws on a series of studies to provide a richer picture of the complexity of relations characterizing communicative events in global professional contexts, especially when expertise, knowledge sharing and knowledge creation come increasingly into play. it also describes how insights emerging from the analysis and continued contact with some of the event participants led to new data collection and interdisciplinary collaboration, and it incorporates some of this subsequent research. the rest of the article is organized as follows. the next section provides background on the industry events and draws on the series of studies to illustrate the way different notions of community were considered at certain points of the research process and to examine contextual factors such as business relationships, roles and level of expertise. the article then discusses key findings from one of the studies, which focuses on spoken discourse at one of the events. the concluding remarks include considerations based on the 2009 event gina poncini ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150134 and new data collection, giving attention to how project outcomes led to new research, course development and increased interdisciplinary collaboration. a series of events: new visions for communicating the future the first convention dedicated to nebbiolo grapes was held in sondrio, valtellina, in the lombardy region of italy. this grape variety is grown mainly in northern italian regions and less so in “new world” wine producing nations such as the u.s. and australia. participants attending the first convention were from italy, the u.s., mexico, australia, south africa and switzerland and consisted of vineyard owners, researchers, journalists, experts on viticulture and wine from around the world, members of the local community, and others involved with the organization. participants from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds were thus included, and members of different professional communities sharing a common interest were involved from the start. a similar range of participants characterized the second convention held two years later in the piedmont region of italy and the third convention, held in sondrio three years later, though in this case there were fewer participants from abroad. the conventions lasted 2-3 days, and i was invited to speak about my research and work at the second and third conventions, where i was also a participant-observer. starting the project: methods and data more than a year before the first convention took place, permission was obtained from the organizers to conduct research and collect data at the event. methods and data included participant observation, semi-structured interviews with participants, audio recordings of interactions (transcribed and analyzed), analyses of websites (conducted prior to the event), and written texts such as emails that organizers and participants sent to each other before the event and made available to the author after the event. after preliminary research conducted the year prior to the convention (see poncini (2004b) on how websites and brochures for wineries communicate local elements to international audiences) and data collection at the event itself, it became apparent that the international wine industry is characterized by a unique intersection between global and local: it involves international investigating communication and professional communities ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150 135 markets as well as local elements such as climate, soil, local culture and traditions, important to viticulture and wine making. research that began with the first convention, then, represented an opportunity to explore the rich and complex backgrounds that individuals bring to professional encounters in international business contexts and to investigate which contextual factors might influence – and be influenced by – the interaction. the research project followed the author’s earlier work (poncini, 2004a), which had already shown that in approaching intercultural interactions it is limiting to view participants as representatives of a national culture, attributing interactional style to the national culture of an individual speaker. a range of other factors may also be involved to varying extents, from professional roles to relationships, from level of expertise to shared knowledge, along with any issues and agendas that intertwined with the wider professional context. “looking at things differently” – whether the immediate interactional context, other situational factors, or the wider social, historical or economic context – became key from the start of the research process and when involvement with the convention and industry continued through 2009 and beyond. looking at things differently leads to richer results and holds the potential for a more innovative approach and a greater impact (rusk, poncini & mcgowan, 2011). indeed, this is a key point emerging from the project. spoken discourse: professional worlds and shared practices one of the studies investigated spoken discourse during a winery visit organized in conjunction with the first convention – poncini (2007) reports on the study. data consist of audio recordings, which were transcribed, and field notes were taken during observations. at the beginning of the visit an italian wine producer accompanied two producers from california as they visited his facilities. the three wine producers first spoke about their respective businesses while touring the wine-making facilities. the group then tasted several wines in a meeting room, where they were joined partway through by a group of participants from croatia: a wine producer with an interpreter, and several journalists. at this point the group came to be characterized by participants who not only were from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, but also represented different professional communities. in addition, the group shared common interests, being at this particular event, and the study underlined their display of particular shared practices. although other factors besides the changing group composition gina poncini ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150136 during the visit must be kept in mind (for instance, individual style or level of skill and comfort speaking english), and despite limits characterizing research on spoken interactions in groups (see kerbrat-orecchioni, 2004), some considerations can be made about the intercultural interactions examined at the event. for example, the analysis of transcribed spoken data and field notes showed similarities in the way these participants used (or withheld) evaluative language during the tasting. the owner of the winery, for example, did not use evaluative language while others tasted wine but rather waited in silence. looking at this as “simply” intercultural interaction would clearly be missing the rich wider picture, as can be seen in the next section, which presents methods and findings drawn from selected examples. more specifically, the analysis undertaken for this particular study focuses on the use of evaluation (thompson & hunston, 2000) and specialized lexis concern ing grape growing, wine making and wines, with attention given to knowledge already shared by interactants and the linguistic means with which they build shared knowledge and common ground. the example below illustrates how, during the first day of the visit, the positive value of experimenting and trying different things is built up by the three speakers – two wine producers from the u.s. (called “tom” and “denise” in the study) and one from italy (“stefano” in the study) both denise (see excerpt 1, line 5) and tom (see excerpt 1, lines 6 and 7) implicitly evaluate this as positive, with denise in line 5 shifting speaker roles and using “like you said” to refer to stefano’s earlier mention of experimenting. tom signals his agreement by back-channelling (“exactly” shown between double parentheses in line 5), and in lines 6 and 8 he uses repetition to indicate they have tried different fermentation at different temperatures. both tom and stefano use “yeah” and “yes” throughout the exchange, while other choices signalling interpersonal involvement include lexical repetition in lines 12 and 13 by denise and stefano. in this example and the ones that follow, inaudible speech or speech that cannot be distinguished by the recording is displayed by means of parenthesis with no text in between brackets “( )” with any distinguishable words included, while overlapping speech and contextual information is shown between double parenthesis “(( ))”. excerpt 1: 1 denise no but but we’re interested ‘cause we’re still learning 2 stefano yeah investigating communication and professional communities ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150 137 3 denise we’ve only produced for five years now and it’s every year 4 stefano yeah yeah 5 denise and every year you have to experiment ((tom: exactly)) like you said and try something different to know the correct temperature, the correct length 6 tom we’ve done very cold fermentation 7 stefano yes 8 tom we’ve done very warm 9 stefano it’s uh nebbiolo needs a temperature , at the beginning of the maturation to extract the ( ) ((denise: colors)) ( ) 10 tom yeah 11 stefano the colors, but i think it’s dangerous to ( ) 12 denise just too fast 13 stefano yes too fast at the temperature 14 tom yeah what begins to be noticeable in this part of the visit is the kind of common ground represented by the recognition of the issue of color connected to wines made with nebbiolo grapes (line 9, despite inaudible speech, shows that denise’s overlapping speech includes mention of “color”). the data here and elsewhere shows the question of (nebbiolo wine) color be considered of value to people interested in nebbiolo, whether wine producers or other professionals and experts. excerpt 1 provides an indication of how the analysis also draws on goffman’s (1981) participation framework, with denise’s comments in line 5 referring back to stefano’s earlier mention of experimenting and his positive view of it while at the same time expressing her similar viewpoint. goffman (1981) distinguishes between the different roles which participants in a situation can take on, as opposed to a single category of speaker and a single category of hearer, intended in the acoustical sense. an unratified participant may be a “bystander” or an “overhearer” (inadvertent, non-official listener) or an “eavesdropper” (engineered, non-official follower of talk). goffman’s (1981) “production formats” relate to the role of the speaker, who can be animator, author and principal. levinson (1988) refers to these as “production roles”. the “animator” physically utters the word(s), the “author” represents the origin of the beliefs and sentiment (and perhaps also composes the words), and the “principal” is the person whose viewpoint or position is expressed. the speaker’s role may involve all three. although some scholars, including levinson (1988), have further systematicized goffman’s (1981) categories gina poncini ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150138 (see also kerbrat-orecchioni, 2004), what is of interest here is shifts in participant roles rather than all possible participant roles. heightened interpersonal involvement and collaboration in the data for the first part of the winery visit, the tour of facilities and the wine tasting in the meeting room, it is especially noticeable that as the three speakers continue to exchange information about professional experiences, as shown in excerpt 1, they make linguistic choices contributing to heightened interpersonal involvement. this is done mainly by means of frequent back-channelling (some of it overlapping), repetition, explicit agreement, evaluative language, switches to italian, and occasional laughter, as illustrated in excerpt 2. latched speech is indicated by the use of “=” right before and/or after the latched item. excerpt 2: 1 tom with sugar (left) ((stefano: yes)) for fermentation 2 stefano uh because what we want to do, the barrique (draws) a net (that keeps the) color 3 denise that’s what we learned ((stefano: the teacher)) yesterday= 4 stefano =the teacher told yesterday morning= 5 denise =two days ago maybe= 6 stefano =yesterday= 7 denise =ok= 8 stefano =yesterday morning, professor [last name deleted] ((denise: yeah)) he told sure that the small barrel= 9 denise =you get better color 10 tom (yeah) 11 stefano you keep more color 12 tom always in the barrels you get more colors 13 stefano the problem is that too, you don’t want to cover ((denise: no)) the ( aroma) with the grape with the oak ((denise: no)) 14 denise mm hmm 15 stefano and in fact it’s because we don’t use any uh uhm, american oak? 16 denise right neither do we ((stefano: no sorry but)) no no we don’t like it ((tom laughs)) 17 stefano no i think it’s good for other kinds of ((denise and tom: unintelligible overlap)) ((denise: for [grape variety 1])) 18 tom but not for nebbiolo 19 denise but not for nebbiolo 20 stefano maybe [grape variety 2] can also be interesting with great result investigating communication and professional communities ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150 139 21 with nebbiolo it’s my opinion 22 denise no no 23 tom i agree= 24 denise =we agree ((everyone laughs)) 25 tom we tried it all 26 denise french and slovenian the first twelve lines illustrate the importance given to the issue of color, with speakers using repetition and overlapped and latched speech to express their agreement. two of the speakers refer to a presentation made by a professor the day before, thus illustrating shifts in participation frameworks in lines 3-8 as they also establish which day of the convention he spoke. after that, they focus on kinds of oak, and denise and tom use different means to agree with stefano’s negative view of american oak in lines 13 and 15, while in line 17 stefano qualifies his statement by specifying that the evaluation depends on the kind of grape variety involved. for example, denise first agrees in line 16; then refers to the behavior they have in common (not using american oak) and states they do not like it, using “we” to refer to their respective winery. another example is tom’s rephrasing in line 18 of stefano’s evaluation as to the relevance of american oak for certain grape varieties, echoed by denise in line 19. toward the end of excerpt 2, tom and denise explicitly agree with stefano in their latched speech (lines 23-24), with tom using “i” to evoke his individual identity, and denise again using “we” to speak for their winery, the two of them or possibly the group of three, potentially contributing to greater common ground. speakers thus highlight their shared viewpoints in a range of ways. moreover, stefano shows face concerns when he says he is sorry (overlap in line 16) about his negative evaluation of american oak, recognizing that tom and denise are from the same country as the origin of the name of the oak. the cumulative effect of using the features thus far discussed is that the speakers “create shared worlds and viewpoints” which reinforce relationships, as discussed by carter and mccarthy (2004: 69). the three speakers also collaborate to produce specialized terms in english when these terms were first introduced in italian during discussions in english, and they used more italian as the visit pro gressed – see poncini (2007) for a discussion. excerpt 3 below provides an example of what can be called “a collaborative effort” to produce the english term for a specialised term first used in italian. though denise, who speaks italian, gina poncini ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150140 appears to have understood stefano’s use of the italian raspo (“grape stalk” or “stem”) in line 1, when stefano hesitates in line 3, denise takes on a cooperative role and supplies the english “de-stem” (which stefano confirms in line 5), showing she shares knowledge of this aspect of winemaking and is aware of language concerning the process, both in english and italian. excerpt 3: 1 stefano we remove the the raspo 2 denise uh huh 3 stefano uhm 4 denise sì uh, de-stem 5 stefano yes ok the speakers also built on common ground created at the event by taking on the role of “animator” to refer to comments or viewpoints expressed earlier by a different convention speaker or to comment on common ground emerging during the interaction, for example wine-making processes. as a result of using these and other discursive strategies, the speakers converge to build “shared worlds and viewpoints”, even when local elements are involved (for instance, using the same yeast; using a “cold (dry) room” to dry grapes, called a fruttaio in the wineries located in the region of the convention). the highly evaluative language used by the three participants concerns not only specific wines, but also their own activities and their identity as wine producers. for example, positive values emerging from the discourse include the desire to experiment, to learn, to exchange experiences, and to build the positive status of nebbiolo wines in the world, as shown in excerpt 4. excerpt 4: 1 tom this is beautiful 2 denise uh huh it’s 3 stefano ((inaudible speech he asks them something)) 4 denise like canella ((translation: cinnamon)) 5 stefano è anche bello confrontarsi ((translation: it’s good too to compare experiences)) 6 yesterday, professor [ln deleted], the last one told that we ( ) need, we don’t need nebbiolo from other countries, but it’s good for us to have from other country because it show the value of the grape variety investigating communication and professional communities ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150 141 7 denise it shows value of grape value, absolutely [two units deleted] 8 stefano many people say “i like nebbiolo” but very few drink nebbiolo, so we must do our best to make sure people drink nebbiolo 9 denise and the quality and the education 10 the cosa più importante è che la persona non solo le persone che comprano e bevono ma anche chi produce deve sapere come si può fare un nebbiolo più buono [...] ((translation: the most important thing is that the person not only the people who buy and drink nebbiolo but also whoever produces it must know how a better nebbiolo can be made)) this evaluative status of nebbiolo as representing a special grape variety and wine is supported by other data such as emails that organizers and invited participants sent to each other prior to the event and made available to the author after the event (poncini, 2005) and the technical and historical presentations made during the first two days of the event. intersecting professional communities as indicated earlier, the three wine producers introduced above are joined by five croatians: three journalists, at least one of whom spoke italian, and a wine producer with an interpreter. although for technical reasons the transcriptions of this part of the visit are not as complete as those for earlier parts, the use of in-depth field notes while listening to the audio-recording and reviewing transcriptions allow this part of the visit to be described. indeed, compared to the first part of the visit, interactions taking place with the entire group present in the meeting room are characterized by longer speaking turns, little back-channelling, and longer periods of silence during the wine tasting. these features are in turn related to a nonverbal characteristic of this part of the visit: most of the croatians took notes during the discussion or at least during stefano’s replies (although stefano and/or denise may have taken occasional notes during the visit, this was not as evident during observations). as a result, stefano’s speech at times took the form of a short monologue (or at least a longer speaking turn). moreover this part of the visit was characterized by additional configurations of interaction, such as simultaneous discussions in lower voices. for example, one of the croatians, the wine producer, was accompanied by a croatian interpreter who spoke to him in a low voice (not picked up by the recording equipment) during parts of discussions in english. sometimes italian was used, since the journalist taking the most active role also spoke gina poncini ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150142 italian. however, following a specific request by another croatian participant to speak english, the main language used was english. the analysis of one extract shows how, in response to a question about yeast by one of the croatians, stefano provides information in a longer turn (poncini, 2007: 303-304). he appears to presuppose shared knowledge about the role of yeast and the issue of the color of nebbiolo by including expressions such as “you know there are yeast that …” and “you heard that nebbiolo does not have color, just …”, he thus avoids the risk of “offending” or appearing condescending to any participants who already have this knowledge, while at the same time he provides this information to any participants who were previously unaware of it. this pattern contrasts to the way yeast was discussed earlier by the three producers, who engaged in repetition, back-channelling, agreement and evaluation, both implicit and explicit, with the result of highlighting shared knowledge and shared values. the second part of the visit involving a larger group that includes journalists thus takes on a more task-oriented nature. to sum up, the last part of the visit – the wine tasting and discussion which came to include the croatian journal ists, wine producer and interpreter – appears to be more task-oriented and focused on information provision. compared to the parts of the visit involving the three wine producers, with the larger group present there is very little back-channelling, overlap and repetition on the part of the interactants. as a result, the main speaker, stefano, takes longer turns that take the form of short presentations or monologues. in general, less evaluative language is used, and when it is used it concerns the wines tasted. while linguistic choices provide information and help to build shared knowledge, they seem less aimed at building “shared worlds and viewpoints” and more task-oriented. professional roles, communities and repertoires some of the differences in discourse patterns noted in the data and illustrated above may relate to the professional roles and values of the participants, though national culture and individual style may also influence communication. for example, concerning professional activities in this particular setting, the “younger” wine producers, whether from the u.s. or italy, seem to share an interest in learning and exchanging experiences and viewpoints about making wine, both technical aspects as well as commercial investigating communication and professional communities ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150 143 and promotional aspects. this interest is closely intertwined with their professional and person al interest in producing wines. the journalists, on the other hand, must report on the event, the wines, and the wineries producing them, and they need to obtain information (and taste wines) to help them meet this goal. the croatian wine producer, in contrast, seems to seek specific information with his own activity in mind since he does not share information about his own winery and methods with others present. it is conceivable that all participants also aim to build relationships throughout the three-day event to help them further their professional activities and interests. whatever the professional role of the participants – wine producers or journalists – they were seen to share repertoires of ways of doing things, for example, verbal and nonverbal practices during the wine tasting. the notion of community of practice (lave & wenger, 1991; wenger, 1998) is of interest for research in such settings because of its emphasis on practices and values (see bhatia, 2004; bhatia et al., 2013). in the study, interactants come from different linguistic, cultural and professional backgrounds yet share certain values and practices in connection with the wine industry. while the data is too limited to make generalisations, the present investigation provides evidence of the rich and complex backgrounds that interactants bring to intercultural encounters. indeed, not only (national) culture and linguistic backgrounds come into play, but also professional roles, goals and values. the idea that an event-related community possibly emerged during the first convention is based on this and the other studies conducted in connection with the event – see, for instance, poncini (2004b & 2007) who addresses issues of shared knowledge and representation. communication before the actual event may have also helped to build a sense of community in relation to the event and its themes; for example, an analysis of email communication between organizers and invited international participants (poncini, 2005) highlighted the way interactants built up common ground and shared knowledge before the actual convention, in a sense constructing a kind of event-related community. such a community would seem to share some characteristics with other notions of community, for example discourse community as discussed by swales (1990), place discourse community (swales 1998), and communities of practice (lave & wenger 1991; wenger 1998; bhatia et al., 2013). moreover, it could be viewed as a “nebbiolo eventrelated community” even in the presence of overlapping professional communities, for example wine producers, journalists, and other local actors. gina poncini ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150144 looking at things differently throughout the research process also came to include a greater awareness of the wider social, cultural and economic context: not only the business side of wine and its consumption but also viticulture – the actual growing of grapes – and more generally research, dissemination, the role of local and regional associations, legislation, tradition, innovation and so on. in the wine-producing area of valtellina, for example, the mountainsides consist of terracing done centuries ago to make more terrain for cultivating grapevines on the slopes, and today the dry stone walls serve the same purpose and also help prevent landslides. harvesting the grapes is labor intensive, while the terraced slopes and the landscape contribute to the character of the area. the grapes and the wine made from them thus represent connections to wider social, economic, cultural, environmental and political issues. local issues and the special nature of a grape or wine may be understood and taken for granted by members of a particular community sharing the same knowledge, but these special aspects need to be communicated effectively if they are to be appreciated outside the community as well (poncini, 2004b & 2007). the analysis of spoken and written texts highlights the different ways shared knowledge is built up with a view to increasing the appreciation of local features. outcomes and concluding remarks the ideas described in the previous section as well as others emerging from research conducted at the first convention were further developed as a result of participation-observation as an invited speaker at the second and third conventions in 2006 and 2009, observations and interviews at smaller related events in 2011-2012, and travel to australia wine regions in late 2011, where the research focus was on winery visitor centers and data included interviews with winery owners and employees who communicate with visitors. interestingly, while technical information about wine was also available at many of the wineries visited in south australia, what stood out was the way the “visitor centre” of some wineries also presented materials and exhibits about local culture, history, flora and fauna – aspects other than those strictly related to wines – and the way the “community of wineries” in one wine region displayed an explicitly cooperative approach not only in their promotional materials but also in the way they referred visitors to other wineries in the community. investigating communication and professional communities ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150 145 focusing specifically on outcomes from the continuation of the research project and participant-observation activities at the third nebbiolo grape convention in 2009, these included more contact with selected participants, with the project moving towards action research and collaboration, including efforts to develop applications and increase relevance to individuals and professional communities involved in the settings under study. at the 2009 convention, the overlapping and intersecting communities observed earlier during the research project were more evident, and in addition they included 25-30 students from a master’s program in viticulture and enology at an italian university. the third convention included a forum titled “a style called nebbiolo: new visions for communicating the future”, which brought together participants with different backgrounds to discuss the wine grape nebbiolo from various perspectives; speakers included an architect-designer; a (female) producer of nebbiolo wines from california; an academic-applied linguist (communication and discourse, this author) who had done research on the earlier nebbiolo conventions; a well-known sociologist from the area; and the head of a locally-based wine-related research foundation. athough it could be said that the first nebbiolo grapes convention held five years earlier had an original, interdisciplinary approach, the title of the special forum introduced above underlines the organizers’ interest in new visions and communication as a theme for the overall event in 2009. concerning outcomes on the academic side, interdisciplinary collaboration resulted from contact during the convention with researchers and professors of viticulture, which in turn led to the opportunity to develop a case study examining the different learning settings, especially those outside the classroom, connected to an interuniversity master’s program in viticulture and enology. the case study gives attention to the intersecting professional communities characterizing different learning settings and considers related notions such as discursive hybridity and levels of hybridity (roberts & sarangi, 1999), with expert-novice roles and communities of practice relevant. indeed students had opportunities to interact with wine producers, business owners, and representatives of institutions, in many cases using not only the italian but also the english language to do so. further interdisciplinary collaboration followed, in particular the development of research communication courses for ph.d. students in agriculture, forestry and food sciences at the university of turin, italy, in 2010, with further initiatives concerning research communication courses and workshops taking place across disciplines at the university of milan through 2013. gina poncini ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150146 just as research connected to nebbiolo grapes 2004 brought to light shared practices across professional communities and the notion of an eventrelated community (for instance, wine tasting, the use of certain discursive strategies to build common ground and exchange expertise), so does later research based in northern italy underline changes underway, particularly different ways to consider wine: a less “technical” and narrow approach, mirroring the idea behind the forum “a style called nebbiolo new visions for communicating the future”. indeed, the less “specialized” approach was observed in late 2010 at a nebbiolo wine-tasting event in a medium-sized town on lake como, where young people had the opportunity to taste nebbiolo wines in an “unstructured way” in a small bar with live music. in short, less of ritual was displayed, evident when the person serving wine swirled the wine in the wine glass before handing it to some of the patrons, even though swirling, which draws oxygen into the wine, is normally done by whoever is tasting the wine at these events. this more informally structured event was held in conjunction with a more “conventional” winetasting held earlier in restaurant and was the result of a conscious choice, as confirmed by the journalist / consultant who organized the 2009 forum and who was also involved with both of the more recent events (personal communication). the co-existence of different events suggests that the question is not one of choosing between approaches or taking a specialist or “purist” position, but rather finding a way for different approaches to complement each other. “seeing things differently” in this respect leads back to broader questions regarding changes underway at the global and local level and the role of communities – communities of practice or other kinds of communities – in navigating such changes. 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(2010). “linguistic repertoires and semiotic resources in interaction: a finnish manager as a mediator in a multilingual meeting”. journal of business communication 47: 505-531. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. cambridge: cambridge university press. gina poncini, ph.d., is associate professor in the college of business, zayed university, united arab emirates. her current work focuses on female entrepreneurship and communication and ethics in the financial services industry. she is a member of the board of directors of the association for business communication (abc) and has also served as abc vice president for europe. notes 1 contextual information included in the excerpts indicates when there may have been a question or comment from one of the croatian participants that was only partially picked up by the recording equipment. 2 a community of practice (lave & wenger 1991: 98, paraphrased in bhatia 2004: 149) can be viewed “as a set of relations among persons, activities and the world over time and in relation with other tangential and overlapping communities of practice”. investigating communication and professional communities ibérica 26 (2013): 131-150 149 iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.139 abstract the article provides an analytical description of the pragmatic level of sports blogs, identifying the main communicative strategies used in sports blogs and describing the communicative tactics as well as their linguistic operationalisation. the pragmalinguistic approach is used to identify the linguistic features, communicative and pragmatic goals of the blog, shedding light on the mechanisms that make blogosphere language into an effective tool for interactive communication. the research examines both verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication in english-language sports blogs from 2020-2022. we conclude that modern sports blogs are data-driven and interactive, characterized by a transition from a descriptive to an analytical approach to the story. keywords: internet communication, sports blog, blogosphere, communication strategies, communication tactics. resumen blogs deportivos: estrategias comunicativas en el discurso deportivo contemporáneo el presente artículo ofrece una descripción analítica del nivel pragmático de los blogs deportivos mediante la identificación de las principales estrategias comunicativas utilizadas en los blogs deportivos, la descripción de sus tácticas comunicativas y su operacionalización lingüística. se utiliza un enfoque pragmalingüístico para identificar los rasgos lingüísticos y los objetivos comunicativos y pragmáticos del blog, de tal modo que se arroja luz sobre los mecanismos que convierten al lenguaje de la blogosfera en una herramienta eficaz para la comunicación interactiva. este trabajo examina los aspectos sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian & oles goian taras shevchenko national university of kyiv (ukraine) tbelka3112@gmail.com, oliagavr@gmail.com, vitagoian@gmail.com, olesgoian@gmail.com 139 ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian & oles goian verbales y no verbales de la comunicación en los blogs deportivos en inglés de 2020-2022. se llega a la conclusión de que los blogs deportivos modernos se basan en datos, son interactivos y se caracterizan por la transición de un enfoque descriptivo de la noticia a otro analítico. palabras clave: comunicación en internet, blog deportivo, blogosfera, estrategias de comunicación, tácticas de comunicación. 1. introduction nowadays people want to be constantly aware of the events taking place in the world, and the topic of sports is no exception. the important role here is played by mass media, especially the internet, which is a source of both objective information and subjective or even highly engaged material. in blogs, for example, the author seeks not only to inform the reader about the current events, but also to influence them. bloggers want to attract readers, interest them, and build a lasting connection with them, and therefore, they use a range of linguistic-discursive strategies as well as multimodal affordances (roig marín, 2017). the effective and accurate use of these strategies and resources holds the key to the successful and prosperous development of the blog, fostering continued interest among the blog’s readers (zou & hyland, 2020). the blogosphere occupies an honorable place among other spheres of internet communication. due to its popularity, blogs are increasingly becoming part of people’s lives, and even gradually becoming the main source for finding information and entertainment. anyone can become a blogger without giving their name and without investing any money in creating their own content. success depends on talent and imagination. this, of course, is an advantage. but, on the other hand, a huge number of blogs, both successful and unpopular, have appeared recently, so fierce competition is currently ranging in this area. today, in order to acquire a large and loyal audience, bloggers have to work hard to create gripping content and choose the right means to organize their material. this study focuses on english language sports blogs, which can be considered a type of internet discourse. our aim is to study and describe the features of sports blogs as a type of internet discourse, identifying the main communicative strategies and tactics used by the authors of english language sports blogs, as well as their linguistic means of realization. 140 accordingly, the present study addresses the following questions: what communicative strategies and tactics are used by the sports bloggers to become and remain influencers in this sphere? do the strategies used in sports blogging overlap with each other? responses to these questions will provide a deeper understanding of the role sports blogging plays in contemporary sports discourse. to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the authors used the pragmalinguistic approach, the essence of which is to highlight communication in the broadest sense. according to allwood (1976), the field of pragmatics includes the study of factors that determine what information is actually communicated by the addresser and received by the addressee of the message. it is about different communicative intentions, their goals, motives and reasons, as well as the relationship between the intention of the sender, the reaction of the recipient and all systems of emotions and relationships. for this study, the authors selected the top 4 football blogs (ranked at the top of the top 50 sports blogs), i.e., the sports blogs which occupy the highest positions in standard popularity ratings, which focus on football (soccer) events (www.holdoutsports.blogspot.com; www.thefootballfaithful.com; www.foottheball.com; www.sportsaldente.com). as for time limits, we focused on the last 3 years as providing the most recent evidence, despite certain limitations on the attendance of sports events, competitions and championships because of the covid-19 pandemic. 2. literature review a significant amount of communication today takes place online, in a variety of formats. new media technologies and the interactive possibilities of internet communication have led to the emergence and development of new discursive formations in which individuals interact in online spaces social networks, forums, chats, blogs (aleksandrova, mendzheritskaya & malakhova, 2017, pp. 98-99). research interest among the scientific community has centered on the modification of existing types of communication when transferred to the digital sphere, and the adaptation of written communication to new conditions. the activity and development of sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 141 society in these conditions depends on its ability to perceive messages, satisfying individual and collective communicative needs. the lexicalsemantic, linguistic-stylistic, syntactic and graphic linguistic means available in the blogosphere (herring et al., 2005; babenko & shekera, 2017), and the sociocognitive features of blogs (dean, 2010), have already been studied. numerous research papers by authors such as herring, blood, bouvier, chik, crystal, dean, jones, hafner, and kompantseva indicate a steady scientific interest in internet communication. currently, communication on the internet is a focus of interest for scientists in several areas, including genre, communication, media linguistics, cognitive-discursive study. communication in the internet environment has certain linguistic features which has made it the subject of specific research that comprehensively studies the functional features of new language styles and forms online, including the blogosphere (kompantseva, 2007; littauer et al., 2012; jurida, 2013; tomaskova, 2021). the blogosphere is best understood as a collection of all blogs built on constant communication between bloggers and readers, since in the blogosphere environment, submission is closely related to the perception and exchange of information. the origin of the term “blog” dates back to 1998, and according to a study by blood (2000), was originally associated with the placement of links and comments on the internet sites of users. in 1998, programmer garrett compiled a list of similar websites and published it on his website. these links were a kind of notes for the internet traveler (from the english log – logbook), by analogy with the ship’s logbook. later the creators of similar sites sent him links to their pages to add to the list, and thus the first community of bloggers appeared. today, the term “blogosphere” means the totality of all blogs as a community of communication, or a social network, as blogs contain links to each other, including links in comments and subheadings (herring et al, 2005, p. 107; dean, 2010; kian, burden & shaw, 2011, p. 32). the essential feature of the blog as a type of internet communication is its dialogic nature, which is reflected in the structure of the blog, providing the opportunity for users to comment. according to bouvier (2015, pp. 153-154), their interactive nature may mean that blogs are a more reliable source of information for internet users compared to traditional media. the blogosphere today covers a significant volume of communication in the internet space. as noted by zhyhalina (2009, p. 213), blogging today is becoming one of the most popular formats for communication, which is far tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian & oles goian ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162142 ahead of personal pages, chats, and forums, in terms of the number of users. some researchers on internet communication note that due to their polyphony and their combination of markers of oral and written, formal and informal features internet texts combine elements of many traditional genres (askehave & nielsen, 2005; herring et al., 2013, p. 9). building on this, ulyanova (2017) expands the existing scientific ideas about the varieties, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of genres inherent in the modern blogosphere. this internet genre constitutes a stable polycode type of internet communication, in which technical characteristics condition the features of the language. we can define a blog as a type of internet communication, published on a website, that contains dated multimedia records, arranged in reverse chronological order. blogs create the environment in which group and mass communication are realized, through unique combinations of media, pragmatic, structural and semantic, linguistic and stylistic features. the blog is a tool for professional self-presentation and for building networks of communicative interaction (nardi et al., 2004, p. 41; zou & hyland, 2020). obviously, social media users create messages in order to initiate further communication, involving communicators in an implicit dialogue (expressing agreement / disagreement with the content of the message, approval, admiration). a blog is an unconventional genre of internet communication that exists only in virtual reality. therefore, blogs are addressed to everyone and at the same time to no one. a feature of modern blogging is the lack of uniform standards and clear rules regarding the content and external representation of the blog. however, communication in the blog is subject to a number of regulations: there are no real (but only virtual) participants in the communication, no time limits and no pauses in the structure. the main requirement is to attract the readers’ attention and constantly provide new information (dergach, 2020, p. 292). there is no single standard of exactly how and what to talk/write about, or what a blog should look like. however, in order to become popular today and encourage people to follow a blog, you need to make a lot of effort, create truly high-quality and interesting content, and gather a group of people with common interests around you. content is important to bloggers because it represents their freedom of selection and presentation. what many bloggers find most compelling about blogs is the ability to combine the immediately real and the genuinely personal (miller & shepherd, 2004, p. sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 143 8). according to dergach (2020, p. 291) at present one can observe “an active tendency to the evolution of the functional resource of the media language, that is explained by the democratization of information space”. this is manifested mainly “in the expansion of verbalization of the author’s vision of certain events, their interpretation and commentary or the ability of recipients to comment on blog information content” (dergach, 2020, p. 293). as blogging evolves and becomes increasingly competitive, it is not enough to just create an attractive page, one needs to appeal to a real audience. one of the characteristics of blogs is their multimedia nature, the simultaneous use of several semiotic systems in the communication process, for example, a visual and audio channel. multimedia is also manifested in the connection of verbal text with non-verbal components, i.e., graphics, pictures, photos, animations (pohrebniak, 2020, p. 232). moreover, the multimedia nature of blogs is reinforced by hypertextuality as its integral component (steblyna, 2016, p. 57). this gives blogs the opportunity to expand the horizons of their influence, or even to be transferred in whole or in part to other platforms. hypertextuality provides the possibility of unlimited information presentation. speaking about sports blogging, we should note that sports blogging combines elements of internet discourse, media discourse and sports discourse. according to shuhaiev (2019, p. 173), as a genre of media discourse, sports blogging is aimed at influencing and stimulating the recipient/addressee. the communicative goal of the sports blog is to inform readers about facts, news, notable moments, and well-known personalities in the world of sports, focusing on positive or negative moments from an objective-subjective position. a sports blog is distant in time from the sports event in question, but only by a small amount of time, because otherwise the information would lose its novelty. as a rule, a sports blog has the following main components and features. it comprises short paragraphs describing outstanding moments of the game, where the text can be divided into thematic sections about relevant incidents within the game, important events or sportspeople highlighted in the main part of the text. another structural feature of the blog is that it is equipped with a feedback mechanism. the addressee can comment on the addresser’s posts, agree or enter into a controversy with them. all comments are displayed on a special link, so all blog readers can see them and can join the tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian & oles goian ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162144 discussion on the topics proposed by the addresser. sports blogs possess all the features of hypertextuality. the texts are accompanied by hyperlinks (different social media, personal web pages of the people mentioned), quotes with links to twitter or other sources of information, photos, and videos of the key players or moments of the game, which perform an additional informative function. there is no traditional introduction or greeting as in the journalistic article, as the blog post usually starts with the most memorable moment of the game with an informative statement or rhetorical question. until recently, the linguistic aspects of the sports blogosphere have rarely been studied, but now academic research in this area is actively responding to social events in the communicative internet space. various aspects of communicative interaction in blogs (herring et al., 2004; zemliakova, 2010; abusa’aleek, 2015) have now been comprehensively studied, multidisciplinary research on blogs has been carried out: psycholinguistic (nardi et al., 2004), sociocognitive (dean, 2010), national and cultural (combi, 2016). however, the communicative and pragmatic features of the sports blogosphere need further study. to analyse the blog as a type of internet communication we need to establish a link between the communicative goals of the blogger and the means of their implementation. 3. methodology using the pragmalinguistic approach, the authors identified and analysed the main communicative strategies and tactics used. a number of other methods of linguistic analysis were also applied, namely: (i) linguistic stylistic analysis (to clarify the role of individual lexical and textual elements in the implementation of the communicative and pragmatic intention of the participants); (ii) contextual analysis (to observe language in context, compare it and define the evaluative functions for expressing the main content and additional implicit information); (iii) general analysis and synthesis of information (for practical identification of the lexicalgrammatical and communicative-pragmatic features of the sports blog). the research methods of linguistic observation and systematization of the data were also used. sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 145 4. findings communication in sports blogging is becoming increasingly effective due to the appropriate use of communicative strategies and tactics. the present study identified the communication strategies in sports blog posts and found five main strategies. in the material analysed, five main communicative strategies were identified: informative, evaluation, self-presentation, regulatory and metacommunicative strategies, which were implemented by different sets of communicative tactics. the main and most frequently used strategies in english sports blogs are presented in table 1. table 1. strategies of english sports blogs and their communicative goals. this division is notional to some extent because in the real situation of communication authors do not clearly identify their goals and there may be some mixing: for example, providing information occurs alongside presenting factual information with the expression of personal opinion or an amateur analysis of ongoing sports events. in what follows, we discuss each strategy and the tactics used within each one. informative strategy sports blog posts are mostly stories about recent or past events and activities where bloggers create a verbal and visual presentation of this information. within the framework of the informative strategy, seven communicative tactics were defined: 1. the tactic of concise and neutral presentation of information. the factual information is expressed both verbally and through infographics, as the blogger aims not so much to evaluate anything, but to provide readers with information about the subject of the message (1): (1) the 19-year-old scored during borussia dortmund’s 2-1 defeat at manchester city on wednesday and is now the highest-scoring english tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian & oles goian ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162146 ! strategy communicative goal informative to inform the reader evaluation to express personal thoughts, evaluations, emotions self-presentation to create an image of a blogger regulatory to change the behavior of the interlocutor, the course of the communicative event metacommunicative to attract the interlocutor’s attention, initiate communication, make sure how the communication channel works teenager in champions league history. (www.thefootballfaithful.com – september 15, 2022) in the next case the blogger accompanies the textual form of presenting information with video attached to the text of the post (see figure 1). this combination of verbal and visual forms is used to realize the tactic mentioned above: the streaker changed direction and displayed some impressive moves by slipping to the ground and changing direction to avoid a couple of security guards. figure 1. the combination of verbal and visual forms. 2. the tactic of presenting external information is realized through the hypertextual form of the blog. each blog has a set of hyperlinks on social networks like twitter, facebook, or instagram (see figures 2-3), intended either to share this blog or to add extra information about an event, data, outstanding sportsperson or a blogger, which can be obtained by clicking the highlighted names or corresponding title of a blog post by another author: figure 2. hyperlinks on social networks. sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 147 ! (www.holdoutsports.blogsport.com – july 30, 2022) f ! (www.thefootballfaithful.com – august 16, 2022) f ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ( offehtwww. ! moc.luffuhtiafllabtoo – 61tsugau ! )2202,6 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! figure 3. hyperlinks on events, data or famous people. 3. by using the tactic of specification, the blogger refers to the relevant information (names, clubs, place and time of the event, participants and relationships between them, etc.), to make their blog more informative for everyone. it helps better understand the essence of the blog post. here is an example of parenthesis that gives extra information about the relevant sports club of the above-mentioned football player (2): (2) the biggest example is manchester united capturing the signings of ibrahimovic (psg), pogba (juventus) and mkhitaryan (dortmund) during the season they’d play the europa league. (www.foottheball.com – may 25, 2022) moreover, infographics help the blogger create the full informative picture covering ongoing issues with accurate detailed information (statistics, previous experience, achievements, etc.) (see figure 4): figure 4. infographics for specification. 4. the explanation tactic serves to give extra information to the reader through explanation of the essence and significance of the current event (3-4). (3) mcgregor, who became the fifth oldest player in champions league history at 40 years and 226 days, kept rangers in the game at 0-0 and made two penalty saves … (www.thefootballfaithful.com – september 15, 2022) (4) there are some things in football which are never said out loud but are accepted as the norm. at valencia or a west ham united, if a player does tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian & oles goian ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162148 ! (www.thefootballfaithful.com – september 20, 2022) f ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ( tooffoehtwww. 3 ! moc.luffuhtiafllabt – 2rebmetpse ! )2202,02 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! (www.foottheball.com – may 25, 2022) f ! ! 4 ! ( ffowww. ! moc.llabehttooffo – 02,52yma ! )220 ! o ! 4 ! c ! h ! r ! o ! ( ! m ! 2 ! e ! . ! o ! o ! ! n ! l ! r ! . ! m ! o ! r ! ( ! e ! n ! i ! n well, it’s an underwritten pact that he will look to move on to a “bigger” club. (www.foottheball.com – may 25, 2022) 5. presenting information is achieved by the tactic of historical reference, that is the extra information about the previous achievements and results of a sportsman (5-6): (5) the mannschaft were knocked out of the 2018 world cup in the group stages and would want to redeem themselves in qatar. (www.foottheball.com – may 25, 2022) (6) it has been there since the year 1956 and clubs compete in their respective leagues to qualify for europe. (www.foottheball.com – september 17, 2022) 6. the tactic of annotating information from the original source is one of the ways to filter information in review posts, in which bloggers can briefly present the information not from one but from several sources, which reflects the informative focus of the post (7-8): (7) the telegraph are reporting that the reds are leading the race for bellingham, with jurgen klopp having made ‘no secret’ of his admiration for the former birmingham city player. klopp discussed how his leading transfer targets were not available during the summer, increasing speculation that bellingham was on the club’s shortlist. (www.thefootballfaithful.com – september 15, 2022) (8) according to the sun, that figure makes ramos an attainable target for erik ten hag who is working on a reduced budget following the club’s record summer spending spree. (www.thefootballfaithful.com – september 20, 2022) this tactic involves a summary of the content of the original source with reference to it without evaluative judgements by the author. in the analysed material, annotation of information is carried out not only for verbal written sources, but also for media content, full acquaintance with which requires a long time (9). (9) in his dialogue with goal, messi confirmed that he actually did desire to leave the club. he justified his reason for the same and his desire to play elsewhere so as to win more trophies. [watch video] “i wanted to go because i thought about living my last years of football happily. lately i have not found sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 149 happiness within the club” (www.foottheball.com – september 5, 2020) 7. the tactic of direct citation with reference to the original site or hyperlink to the relevant post is also used by bloggers (10). (10) “i’m extremely pleased. he’s showed a lot of character and a lot of guts,” gerrard told sky sports. (www.thefootballfaithful.com – september 19, 2022) evidenced by the researched material, at the present stage in the hypertext environment of the internet, direct citation (see figure 5), to give the information message authenticity, tends to give way to hyperlinks. figure 5. direct citation. using these tactics, bloggers try to present information as objectively as possible, giving the readers the opportunity to determine their own attitude to it. evaluation strategy given that a blogger is a charismatic personality who acts as a role model for a great number of people, the position of the blogger is more clearly presented through use of explicit and implicit evaluation strategies. the study identified the following tactics for implementing this strategy: 1. the tactic of condemnation or approval is implemented by means of adjectives which explicitly reflect the evaluative attitude of the blogger. the bloggers not only provide explanations and comments on the original source, but also give a certain assessment which marks their subjectivity, mostly expressed in a succinct, restrained way (11-14). (11) the current situation is bad and the argentine is helpless. he doubts the future success of the 2019-20 campaign as well (www.foottheball.com – july 18, 2020); tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian & oles goian ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162150 ! (www.foottheball.com – september 14, 2022) f e ( ( (12) his challenge on jack grealish was high, reckless and rash, with his attempt to plead his innocence falling on deaf ears after a waist-high studs-up challenge on the england winger. (www.thefootballfaithful.com – september 19, 2022) (13) from lionel messi’s stunning header against manchester united to ronaldo’s incredible overhead kick against juventus, we have witnessed some magical moments throughout the years. (www.foottheball.com – september 17, 2022) (14) galtier, therefore, is a true match. (www.foottheball.com – november 4, 2021) 2. the tactic of interpretation implicitly expresses assessment by means of: • modality (15): (15) recalled to the rangers side, the veteran goalkeeper could hardly have done more to keep his side in the contest against napoli. (www.thefootballfaithful.com – september 15, 2022) • metaphors (16): (16) this overperformance was one of the best in europe. with adeyemi and an improved defence, they could finally have an excellent chance to dislodge bayern munich’s iron grip on the bundesliga. (www.foottheball.com – may 25, 2022) 3. the comparison tactic is a kind of implicit assessment which reveals the blogger’s attitude to the issue. the combination of both explicit and implicit assessment can be seen in example (17): (17) no wonder losing him [messi] feels so shocking, then so numbing, like losing a limb. (www.foottheball.com – september 9, 2020) 4. the tactic of direct citation with hyperlinks implements the evaluation strategy by adding the assessment of outstanding people (sportsmen, coaches, etc.): sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 151 figure 6. direct citation with a hyperlink. considering the key purpose of the sports blog, i.e., to inform the reader of the latest sports events from the perspective of a blogger, a subjective perception is inevitable. therefore, the evaluation strategy reasonably goes with or overlaps with the informative one (18). (18) the club has always emphasized developing players rather than buying them, a hugely successful tactic. – except informing, the blogger adds his subjective assessment of the event. (www.foottheball.com – may 25,2022) it is worth mentioning that a sports blog is a story or/with an analytical commentary of the latest sports events with the elements of evaluation provided by sports bloggers themselves. thus, the interconnection between the informative and evaluative strategies is evident (19). (19) xhaka has created an average of two chances per game and has three assists in seven league games, just one less than the past two seasons combined. operating in the inside left channel, it is a position that maximises xhaka’s ability on the ball, while he has the tactical intelligence to cover the marauding runs of oleksandr zinchenko or kieran tierney from full-back. (www.thefootballfaithful.com – september 21, 2022) self-presentation strategy a special place in the blog is taken by self-presentation strategies, which are performed both explicitly and implicitly. these are implemented by: 1. the descriptive tactic of the blogger’s life reference. this is presented by a brief abstract about the blogger, and demonstrates the key facts about the blogger to create their image with or without the corresponding picture and a hyperlink to his/her personal web page on twitter, facebook, instagram or other social networks (see figures 7, 8). tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian & oles goian ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162152 ! 2 % •% 3 ( (www.thefootballfaithful.com – september 15,2022) f figure 7. blogger’s life reference with a photo figure 8. blogger’s life reference without a visual form. notably, due to their explicit presentation in the blog, the above-mentioned examples instantiate an overlap between informative, evaluative, selfpresentation, regulatory and metacommunicative strategies. 2. the tactic of identification with the audience or ongoing blog comprises the elements of inclusive deictic ‘we’, which denotes a circle of people to whom the blogger and the readers belong, united by common values and worldview (20-21): (20) a lot of clubs are actively involved in the transfer market as we speak. (www.sportsaldente.com – july 22, 2022) (21) having witnessed the ugly side of the event, we respect messi and shall continue to. we hope to see you play well, wherever you may go! (www.foottheball.com – september 5, 2022) as we see in the example above this tactic is accompanied with evaluation strategy to create a common attitude of praise for the football player. 3. the tactic of subjective modality to reflect the author’s confidence, uncertainty, their doubts about the situation, some cases, the player’s capabilities, or the validity of the referee’s decision. this is achieved by using relevant adverbs, such as surely, undoubtedly, perhaps (22-23): sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 153 ! (www.foottheball.com – may 25, 2022) f ! (www.holdoutsports.blogspot.com – july 30, 2022) f (22) manchester united have produced many great legends, and ryan giggs is undoubtedly one of them. (www.foottheball.com – september 17, 2022) (23) perhaps, this list below can answer your question. (www.thefootballfaithful.com – january 24, 2022) regulatory strategy this is one of the main strategies in sports blog communication, which is used to influence the readers’ attitude, namely to persuade, command or request the audience to follow the blogger’s intention. it is aimed at transforming the worldview of the addressee, to make them get interested in the blog or event. the regulatory strategy is implemented through: 1. the tactic of request that guides the reader’s actions or thoughts, like “add comment” (see figure 9), “reply”, “share” (see figure 10), “read replies”, with hyperlinks which make them follow the directive utterance. it provides the blogger with feedback, and thus ensures that the communication is effective. figure 9. the tactic of request (hyperlink “add comment”). figure 10. the tactic of request (hyperlink “share”). a typical directive “follow me on …” with a hyperlink to the relative network of this sports blog (twitter, facebook, instagram) is mentioned in the brief life review block about the blogger (24). (24) about michael james tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian & oles goian ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162154 ! ! ! (www.sportsaldente.com – august 5, 2022) ! ! ! (www.foottheball.com – may 25, 2022) moonlighting as a blogger to pursue my interest and enjoyment of sports. former high school and division i athlete (now a “retired” family man) that loves watching and discussing all sports. follow me on twitter (@holdoutsports) and like holdout sports on facebook. (www.holdoutsports.blogspot.com – july 30, 2022) 2. the tactic of emphasizing information to focus the addressee’s attention on a certain event. it makes the reader concentrate on that exact statement in the post. it is achieved by means of: • adverbials of different types (time or purpose) (25) once again, before the 2020-21 campaign, they had to sell top-scorer victor osimhen along with key defender gabriel. not to be deterred, galtier identified top replacements in burak yilmaz. (www.foottheball.com – november 4, 2021) • inversion (26) not only did he shape the future of barcelona, he would also be the inspiration for many a player and future manager, with pep guardiola’s brand of football firmly based on the principles of his former coach. (www.thefootballfaithful.com – march 24, 2021) 3. the tactic of intrigue which allows the blogger to use interrogative sentences that make the readers confused for a moment. at the same time the blogger does not wait for feedback, since there are no pauses in the structure of the blog and no time limits, but rather she/he gives the immediate answer to the question that is of interest for the audience. she/he directs the flow of the addressee’s thoughts: first, he/she makes them stop and think, and then he/she guides them to the answer. moreover, the blogger determines what the readers are interested in and attaches the hyperlink (see 27 and figure 11) for further information. this tactic is used at the very beginning or in the middle of the blog post. (27) where to watch english premier league in the us, uk and australia? we have all the answers to your questions. for example, where can one watch the english premier league? you will find the answer in this article, so don’t stop reading. (www.sportsaldente.com – july 22, 2022) sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 155 figure 11. hyperlink to keep the readers intrigued. metacommunicative strategy regarding the implementation of the metacommunicative strategy, it demonstrates the specificity of the blog as a type of internet communication, which illustrates the bloggers’ understanding of their blogs as personal space. metacommunicative elements available on the new media are divided into the following: (i) pictorial metacommunicative elements (emoticons, emojis, stickers); (ii) alphabetical metacommunicative elements (abbreviations, words, phrases); (iii) intuitive metacommunicative elements (nonverbal – voice tone, silence, pauses). metacommunicative elements of face-to-face communication are understood as the non-verbal cues (tone of voice, body language, gestures, facial expressions, etc.), whereas sports blogs as instances of internet communication covers only pictorial and alphabetic elements. these either enhance or disallow what the blogger means owing to the hypertextual features of the blog. therefore, the metacommunicative strategy here is implemented by: 1. the tactic of grabbing the reader’s attention via hyperlinks to other social networks or other blog posts. looking at the informative, neutral but colourful, and vivid infographics (see figure 12) the readers understand that they are to click and shift to the next post or the site on the other social network that this blog links to. figure 12. colourful infographics. tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian & oles goian ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162156 ! (www.foottheball.com – march 23, 2021) f ! (www.sportsaldente.com – august 5, 2022) f 2. the tactic of providing extra information. here is an example of direct citation in sports blog where this tactic is implemented by means of pictorial metacommunicative elements, namely stickers (blue bird as a symbol of twitter, blue and yellow hearts – the colors of the ukrainian flag – denote the blogger’s support for ukraine in its hardest times) and alphabetical ones (word ‘follow’ in a blue colour, the typical colour of twitter) with hyperlinks to the networks they link to (see figure 13): figure 13. the tactic of providing extra information (hyperlinks to the networks). notably, the above-mentioned tactic implements both metacommunicative and regulatory strategies by focusing the reader’s attention and regulating it by underlining the words behind the messages (textual, graphic). 3. the tactic of the graphic expression of speech prosody. the use of graphic means gives the opportunity to the addresser (a blogger, sportsperson, coach, an outstanding person) to express their emotions as a reaction to the ongoing sports event. it is implemented by punctuation devices and uppercase letters. here is an example of a story accompanied by a capitalized statement “full-time job” which evokes the relevant ideas about the efforts of the football players and the intensity of the moment in the minds of the target audience (28): (28) … they jokingly suggest that it is a competition made up of people who take up “actual farming” as their full-time job and then play football after their respective shifts. (www.foottheball.com – march 23, 2021) the next hypertextual direct citation from the website of manchester city uses punctuation, particularly an exclamation mark at the end of the sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 157 ! sentence, which adds expressiveness to the evaluative meaning of the sentence (see figures 14, 15). it creates an additional level of emotional perception of the event. figure 14. the graphic expression of speech prosody (exclamation mark). figure 15. the graphic expression of speech prosody (exclamation mark and capitalization). the above-mentioned hypertextual direct citation is a unique example of sports blog strategies overlapping. the metacommunicative strategy is implemented through the tactic of graphic expression of speech prosody by using upper case in the directive utterance, duplication of the letters with acoustically lengthened vowels, an exclamation mark and emojis that demonstrate a hyper-emotional reaction and favourable evaluative attitude of the addresser towards the sportsman, as well as the adjective “ridiculous” in its positive and comparative degrees. moreover, this message, delivered in the form of direct citation due to its hypertextuality (hyperlinks to the source of the utterance) and pictorial metacommunicative elements (emojis), greatly attracts the readers’ attention, encouraging them to read it and even to visit the linked website. therefore, it also implements the regulatory strategy. evidently, this commentary about the ongoing actions also makes use of the informative strategy. all in all, we consider that the metacommunicative strategy is predominantly applied in close connection with other strategies used in the blogs. tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian & oles goian ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162158 ! (www.foottheball.com – april 5, 2021) f ! ! ! (www.thefootballfaithful.com – september 15, 2022) f 5. conclusion this study of the dynamics of sports blogs was performed in line with the pragmalinguistic approach, which helped us identify the development of their linguistic features, communicative and pragmatic goals, through the study of mechanisms that make the language of the blogosphere as an effective communicative tool. the study of the english-language sports blog presented in the article made it possible to define sports blogs as a dynamic type of internet communication, which is characterized by specific communicative, pragmatic, and linguistic characteristics. from the results of the study, the authors of the article can conclude that sports bloggers use a number of strategies and tactics that allow them to generate feedback from the addressees, guaranteeing two-way communication that will ensure continuing audience interaction. informative, evaluation, self-presentation, regulatory and metacommunicative strategies are considered along with the tactics of their implementation. to attract and retain readers, sports blogs should use a variety of the strategies and tactics analysed here, thereby achieving effective communication. we would like to conclude this study by pointing to the possibility of further research on the sports blogosphere as an important digital genre. further, our conclusions could serve as a basis for further study of the peculiarities of the construction and functioning of sports discourse in general. article history: received 7 august 2022 received in revised form 14 november 2022 accepted 30 december 2022 references sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 159 abusa’aleek, a. o. 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(2020). academic blogging: scholars’ views on interacting with readers. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 39, 267-294. http://www.revistaiberica.org/index.php/iberica/arti cle/view/84/39 tetiana biletska is a ukrainian scientist, associate professor at the department of english philology and intercultural communication in scientific and educational institute of philology at taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, phd in german languages, the author of articles on discourse analysis and pragmatics. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5376-4819 olha havryliuk is a ukrainian scientist, associate professor at the department of english philology and intercultural communication in scientific and educational institute of philology at taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, phd in german languages, the author of research articles on sports discourse. orcid id: https://orcid.org/00000002-0365-3248 vita goian is a ukrainian scientist, head of the department of cinematography and television arts in the institute of journalism at taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, doctor of science in social communications, professor, member of the national union of journalists of ukraine. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1207-3800 oles goian is a ukrainian scientist, head of the department of television and radio broadcasting in the institute of journalism at taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, doctor of science in philology, professor, the author of textbooks and manuals, scientific articles and publications in theory of radio journalism and development of non-state broadcasting in ukraine. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4264-2613 sports blogging: communicative strategies in contemporary sports discourse ibérica 45 (2023): 139-162 161 iberica 13 ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the main purpose of this article is to describe the experience achieved when implementing practical classes of english for tourism so as to bridge the gap between the professional world of the tourism industry and what students learn at university. in this article we will first introduce the concept of “digital storytelling” (lambert, 2006; gregori-signes, 2008a, 2008b & 2010; alcantuddíaz, 2008 & 2011) and briefly describe some of the projects that have already been developed at the university of valencia as well as the use of digital stories in the promotion of touristy products. we will then argue that digital storytelling can be considered a productive type of activity which fits the demand of the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) with regard to implementing the use of information and communication technologies (icts) within the curriculum. additionally, it helps to improve traditional skills development, mainly speaking and writing along with researching, collaborative tasks and working with computers. thirdly, we will depict and discuss authentic examples of digital stories produced by undergraduate students registered in the course “communication in english language in tourism i”. key words: icts, digital storytelling, english for tourism, competences, cefr. resumen “ c om pa rt e tu e xpe r ie n c ia ” . re l a to d ig ita l e n i ng l é s p a ra t ur is m o el objetivo principal de este artículo es describir la experiencia obtenida al poner en marcha ciertas actividades prácticas en inglés para turismo con el fin de acortar la distancia existente entre lo que se aprende en la universidad y el mundo profesional de la industria del turismo. en este artículo, presentaremos ‘share your experience’. digital storytelling in english for tourism1 maría alcantud-díaz, alicia ricart vayá and carmen gregori-signes universitat de valència (spain) maria.alcantud@uv.es, alicia.ricart@uv.es & carmen.gregori@uv.es 185 ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204 m. alcantud-díaz, a. ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes en primer lugar el concepto de “relato digital” (lambert, 2006; gregori-signes, 2008a, 2008b y 2010); alcantud-díaz, 2008 y 2011) y describiremos brevemente algunos de los proyectos que han sido realizados en la universidad de valencia, así como diversas experiencias que incluyen el uso de relatos digitales para la promoción de productos turísticos. a continuación, explicaremos cómo el relato digital se puede considerar un tipo de actividad productiva que se adapta a las exigencias de marco común europeo de lenguas con respecto a la inclusión de tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en el programa curricular. además, ayuda a mejorar y desarrollar las competencias tradicionales, principalmente la expresión oral y escrita además de la investigación, el trabajo colaborativo y el trabajo con diferentes aplicaciones informáticas. en tercer lugar, describiremos y comentaremos ejemplos auténticos de relatos digitales creados por los estudiantes universitarios matriculados en la asignatura “communication in english language in tourism i”. palabras clave: tics, relato digital, inglés para turismo, competencias, marco común europeo de lenguas. 1. introduction this research work describes a project which started in 2010 at the university of valencia (spain). this project consisted in introducing a new kind of activity, namely digital storytelling, in the curriculum of those students who atended the course “communication in english language in tourism i” in their first year of the new degree of tourism. digital storytelling with educational purposes was introduced in 2006 at the university of valencia. as explained in gregori-signes (2008a, 2008b & 2010), it was first introduced with second year students who were asked to develop a personal narrative of their choice. this article portrays the hands on experience carried out in the course of english for tourism connecting the learning process of the language in higher education to the real working world by developing more professional competences. to be precise, the aim was that students would feel the professional world of the tourism industry. therefore, the aim of this article is threefold: our first step will be to introduce the concept of “digital storytelling” (lambert, 2006; robin, 2006, 2008a & 2008b; gregori-signes, 2008a, 2008b & 2010; alcantud-díaz, 2008 & 2011). with this purpose, we will illustrate some of the projects that have already been developed at the university of valencia including some digital stories in the promotion of 186 touristic products. secondly, we will proceed to elucidate that digital storytelling can be considered a tool which fits the demand of the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) concerning the use of the new information and communication technologies (icts) within the syllabus of this subject. additionally, we will show how digital storytelling helps to improve conventional competences regarding speaking, writing, listening and reading apart from researching, collaborative tasks and the use of new software. thirdly, we will depict some examples of digital stories produced by undergraduate students attending the course “communication in english language in tourism i”. the students were asked to develop an original product related to the industry of tourism and to promote it in two ways: by means of a digital story and a brochure. the students mostly produced personal narratives having to do with travelling experiences and some other activities which could be used by a travel agency or any other business related to the world of tourism as an advertising tool. in other words, a different kind of touristy promotion, not just by means of denotative images but from a connotative point of view, from personal experiences. 2. what is digital storytelling? the classical model of digital storytelling was developed by the center for digital storytelling in the 1990s. lambert (2006) states that the beginning of digital storytelling dates from around 1993 with authors such as dana atchey from the mid 1990s, john lambert, nina mullen and patrick milligan. digital storytelling is a form of self-presentation through multimedia (hull & nelson, 2009). digital storytelling is a new form of narrative that shares characteristics with more traditional means of storytelling and with novel types of selfexpression narratives. some well-known authors in the field of digital storytelling, like robin (2006, 2008a & 2008b) and barrett (2006a & 2006b) state that digital storytelling is a good way to engage students in both traditional and innovative ways of telling a story. students learn how to combine some basic multimedia tools (for example, graphics, animations, etc.) through activities as diverse as doing research, writing, delivering presentations, using technology, interviewing, improving interpersonal skills, learning problem-solving techniques, and assessment expertise. share your experience ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204 187 hence, what is so new about digital storytelling? we go through life transmitting our experiences and those of others. rephrasing ochs (1998: 185), it is unimaginable not recounting what you read in a book or saw in a film, not being able to hear or see or read dramas crafted by others; not having access to conversations, printed texts, pictures or films that are about events framed as actual or fictional. imagine not even composing interior narratives to and for yourself. in lambert’s (2010: v) own words: “as we are made of water, bone, and biochemistry, we are made of stories.” digital storytelling provides students with the possibility of sharing their stories, their experiences with their identities involved and making them available for different targets, for instance, as it is the present case, for the tourism industry, getting in touch at the same time with icts. according to robin (2006) the traditional genres that have enabled the transmission of the above mentioned interior narratives up to the arrival of digital storytelling can be divided into three groups: firstly, those related to narrative among which we can distinguish: personal expression (characters, places, situations, memories, etc.); myths and legends; and short stories. the second group is labelled as “information/expository” and is made up of summaries and reports; reviews; directions and instructions; and biographies. finally, there is the so called “persuasive” group which consists of: advertisements; descriptions/conclusions; analysis and conclusions; analysis/persuasive; comparison and contrast; and cause and effect. nowadays, globalization and one of its most powerful tools, the internet, has expanded the space of digital storytelling offering new options to share stories on the world wide web. some web 2.0 digital narrative forms are: blogs, myspace, wikis, social net-working sites, to mention but a few. hence, one of the characteristics of digital storytelling is that they are narratives with ordinary people’s stories digitalized and displayed on publicly available websites and made through cultural institutions in society. in line with this, couldry (2008: 374) defines digital storytelling as the “whole range of personal stories now being told in potentially public form using digital media resources”. so, what is different from other storytelling forms? digital storytelling is story-oriented, disciplined (it controls the form, the quality and the efficiency of the process) and authentic (because it includes the teller’s voice, personal raw material and archives that already exist) tool. according to qiongli (2009), digital storytelling uses multimedia tools but a simple technology; it m. alcantud-díaz, a. ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204188 uses found materials (by exploiting pre-existing archives) and fosters collaborative creativity (by means of more or less intensive workshops). as a media form, digital stories are small-scale compared to television and other big media, since they last between two and five minutes. they are made with off-the-shelf equipment and techniques and free software, thus, productions are not expensive. small-scale digital storytelling products are centred on the narrators’ personal experience and usually told with their own voice (lundby, 2008). following lambert (2010), this kind of stories should include seven essential elements which are: a personal point of view, a dramatic question to be answered, the gift of the narrator’s clarity of voice, a certain pacing in the narration, an economy of text and images, a powerful soundtrack and an emotional content, together with the elements added by robin and pierson (2006): the purpose of the story, quality of the images, video and other multimedia elements and good grammar and language usage. what are then the differences between digital stories and other types of web 2.0 narratives? what makes digital storytelling different from other types of web 2.0 narratives is that it is a workshop based genre whose starting point is a group process named by lambert (2010) “story circle”. digital storytelling involves teaching programs that bring big organizations and professional experts into skin-to-skin contact with “ordinary citizens”. digital stories are created through both an interactive and individual or group work process. this process is based on the premise which states that: (…) stories move in circles. they don’t move in straight lines. so it helps if you listen in circles. there are stories inside stories and stories between stories, and finding your way through them is as easy and as hard as finding your way home. and part of the finding is getting lost. and when you’re lost, you start to look around and listen. (lambert, 2010: v) while elaborating the story, students are supervised in order to develop the plot and text of their digital stories (lambert, 2006). no workshop is required to put up a self-representational short video on youtube or your personal profile on facebook and myspace (lundby, 2008). in order to create a digital story there are several things one may need: a digital camera, a microphone with a good quality preferably, internet access, video-editing software, which is free, image editing software (also free), a computer, music files (mp3 or cd) or sourced from copyright free music sites and a scanner. the expectation is that all sides get something valuable from the experience share your experience ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204 189 and perhaps a more added value to take away and keep. diversity, experimentation, flexibility, and openness to change are more likely to produce valuable outcomes than fixed rules. 3. impact of digital storytelling as robin (2008b: 221) argues, “what makes these tools so compelling is the nature of what has come to be known as user contributed content, social media and web 2.0”. in turn, roush (2006: 1) states that these technologies “are part of a transformation from “one-to-many communication on the web” to “many-to-many communication, and that traffic and conversation naturally cluster around content, such as videos, photos, blog posts, and bookmarks”. as a result, digital storytelling has got two major areas of impact, education and advertising. 3.1. educational digital storytelling digital storytelling is considered an effective instructional tool because it provides the user with different types of literacy: digital, global, technological, visual and information literacy. additionally, they give rise to different kinds of competences such as those related to research, writing, organization, technology, presentation, interview, interpersonal skills, problem-solving and assessment. besides, sadik (2008: 489) states that “the interaction between students, the flow of ideas and thinking aloud encourage students to foster active learning, in which users discover and address gaps in their understanding when explaining concepts to others”. in turn, barrett (2006a) found that digital storytelling facilitates the convergence of four student-centred learning strategies: student engagement, reflection for deep learning, project-based learning, and the effective integration of technology into instruction. furthermore, castelló et al (2011) together with robin (2006) and barret (2006a) state that digital storytelling is considered a strategic teaching method since it is appealing to students, who are involved in an active rather than a passive process. digital storytelling creates an atmosphere of exciting learning because it gives students a new writing purpose. digital storytelling is also considered a strategic teaching method because it weaves in all subject disciplines. aside from the innovative point of view (since it brings together new m. alcantud-díaz, a. ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204190 technologies with more traditional means of teaching and learning), another characteristic of educational digital storytelling is its motivational aspect. this is so because once students carry out their digital storytelling presentations and share their experience with their peers, it becomes a quite rewarding activity. furthermore, as stated by gregori-signes (2008b), it promotes creativity due to the multiple tools, both traditional and multimedia that the students will necessarily have to combine and master in order to produce the story (graphics, animated graphics, video, animation, text, photos, synchronous/asynchronous audio transmission (paul & fiebrich, 2005). moreover, as an educational tool herrera-gutierrez et al. (2009) explains that it offers personal as opposed to merely instructional ways of presenting teaching/learning material, since the final product will always have the personal mark of the author. 3.2. commercial practice: tourism one of the commercial applications of digital storytelling was found by qiongli (2009). qiongli depicts the “converse gallery”, a promotional program for the sports brand “converse” which asked their consumers to create a 24-second film embodying the values and spirit of the brand from their personal stories (<www.conversegallery.com>). the organizers of the promotional program wanted “non-professional commercials but the customer’s authenticity, originality, and creativity” (qiongli, 2009: 232). the reason for this is the style in which advertising presents that: (…) actually affects our sense of ourselves as storytellers. if i can get more attention for the kind of shoes i wear or the style of my hair at one-tenth the conscious effort of explaining what the heck is wrong or right about my life in a way that moves you, why not take the simpler route instead? status and recognition, in our consumer culture, is an off-the-rack item. (lambert, 2010: 3) moreover, digital storytelling has been demonstrated to be convenient in commerce because of its low cost of content product development. thus, it originates a market-guaranteed product. this fact has been reflected in the addition of constant and rich suppliers, apart from a large contribution by what humphreys and grayson (2008: 11) call “prosumers” (a blend for the terms “consumer” and “producer”). in turn, as qiongli (2009) explains, travel and adventure stories are often the subject of digital stories, but the form is yet to be used in any noteworthy way in the field of cultural tourism due to the fact that personal perspectives can help find the sense of share your experience ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204 191 authenticity they pursue. a multimedia form enables better cross-cultural understanding; personal archives of travel pictures and videos are a great resource for digital storytelling. stories can be about a personal experience in a city, a restaurant, cultural events, places and many others and, in this way they can give outsiders a connection with the local community (see lambert, 2006). in this sense, two examples of the use of digital storytelling are firstly, the dst program at the australian centre for the moving image (acmi 2005)2 which is a “contemporary arts site in most australian tourism manuals and maps”; and secondly, the experiment carried out by hp labs3 which have created a multimedia storytelling service (storycast) that fosters the capture, creation and sharing of stories by means of their mobile phones or digital cameras (qiongli, 2009). this service can be used to create a wide gallery of useful personal information on a determined place which can work on the sake of tourism promotion. one last example of the use of digital storytelling is the advertisement created for the fizzy drink coca-cola by the advertising agency santo buenos aires and adapted for the spanish market by mccann erickson madrid4. this advertisement, current winner of the spanish golden tp to the best advertisement, is named “reasons to believe” (see figure 1) and alternates bits and pieces of full of positivism narratives starred by anonymous people who showed with their true stories that a better world is possible, with images of a class full of children singing the song whatever by the group oasis. m. alcantud-díaz, a. ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204192 share your experience ibérica 27 (2014): …-… wide gallery of useful personal information on a determined place which can work on the sake of tourism promotion. one last example of the use of digital storytelling is the advertisement created for the fizzy drink coca-cola by the advertising agency santo buenos aires and adapted for the spanish market by mccann erickson madrid4. this advertisement, current winner of the spanish golden tp to the best advertisement, is named “reasons to believe” (see figure 1) and alternates bits and pieces of full of positivism narratives starred by anonymous people who showed with their true stories that a better world is possible, with images of a class full of children singing the song whatever by the group oasis. figure 1. digital storytelling in a coca cola advertisement. moreover, it is noteworthy to mention that new coined terms are growing around the digital world within the world wide web. we can firstly find the so called the “generation c” (which captures the huge amount of user-created content on the web: weblogs, reviews, comments to pictures and so on). from these outputs, the meaning of “c” has extended to creativity, since most of these participations and contributions are the outcome of generation c’s creativity. a second term is that of “netizens”, those who actively engage in communities through participation, contribution or creation (see hauben, 1992)5. additionally, we find “prosumers”, that is, consumers who are also producers (toffler, 1981)6. the global generation c phenomenon has been quickly taken up by the commercial world. for instance, where customers’ homemade short films are used in commercial advertising or personal photographs appear on the label of soft drinks. moreover, it is noteworthy to mention that new coined terms are growing around the digital world within the world wide web. we can firstly find the so called “generation c” (which captures the huge amount of user-created content on the web: weblogs, reviews, comments to pictures and so on). from these outputs, the meaning of “c” has extended to creativity, since most of these participations and contributions are the outcome of generation c’s creativity. a second term is that of “netizens”, those who actively engage in communities through participation, contribution or creation (see hauben, 1992)5. additionally, we find “prosumers”, that is, consumers who are also producers (toffler, 1981)6. the global generation c phenomenon has been quickly taken up by the commercial world. for instance, where customers’ homemade short films are used in commercial advertising or personal photographs appear on the label of soft drinks. in china the “prosumer” transformation can be largely seen in the “do it yourself ” phenomenon. this generation is characterised by: virtual community building, flash animation, online literature creation, multimedia blogging, online game designs, digital video creation and writing and performing original music. if we take generation c as the main target of digital storytelling, the market demand is quite clear, and is based on their desire to develop self-talent, and to have fun. another issue regarding digital storytelling and advertising and tourism is what has been named “cultural tourism”. it can be defined as “the movement of persons to cultural attractions away from their normal place of residence with the intention to gather new information and experience to satisfy their cultural digital storytelling” (bonet, 1998: 187). tourism no longer simply focuses on the transportation, accommodation and destinations, but places increased emphasis on the understanding of local cultures and the experiences of authentic local lifestyles (qiongli, 2009). thus, how can we transmit an intangible lifestyle and culture effectively and efficiently? this can be done by paying attention to reminiscing. how can digital storytelling offer an effective reminiscing service? digital storytelling enhances the connections between places and people, it bridges the past and the present and transmits cultural experiences through local memories and daily life stories. additionally, it offers a multimedia expression for the post-travel experience. it can evoke communication among multiple cultures by encouraging tourists to share their experiences. share your experience ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204 193 some of the benefits which digital storytelling brings to the tourism industry are that it enriches tourist destinations and attractions, it preserves and explores local culture and it shows the authentic experience of cultural tourism. furthermore, digital storytelling develops cross-cultural understanding. cultural export is another challenge for digital storytelling. in this sense, digital storytelling provides multilingual versions of stories, which can include subtitles, translations, voice-overs etc. when creating a digital story it must be remembered that the final digital story should be a product of one’s own creation, therefore the work of others should always be respected – that is, copyright material cannot be used without permission and/or recognition. it is crucial to keep the right balance in a copyright system between total control and total freedom to sustain creativity. 4. introducing students to digital storytelling “communication in english language for tourism i” is a first-year course whose syllabus is based on english for specific purposes, namely, for the field of tourism. this subject aims to give students the opportunity to enhance their english and to develop their competences in listening, reading, speaking and writing in english. in addition, students are asked to expand their tourism specific vocabulary and to increase their fluency and confidence in using english in professional contexts related to the tourism industry. since one of the main aims in jobs related to tourism is to connect people (which means to connect cultures), one of the main aims this degree seeks is to enhance students’ communication skills in multicultural contexts. thus, by asking our students to create a digital story related to the tourism industry, we were therefore asking them to apply the theoretical principles acquired in the course using a new form of expression (see alcantud-díaz, 2011). 4.1. instructional workshop the purpose of asking the students to create a digital story related to tourism was twofold: firstly, to promote creativity, that is, the students were asked to create original stories; secondly, to allow them to put into practice the vocabulary and grammatical devices and generic conventions learnt throughout the year. m. alcantud-díaz, a. ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204194 the first step to be taken in order to introduce digital storytelling to inexperienced students was to organize a compulsory one-hour-and-a-half introductory workshop. in this workshop students were shown examples of digital stories, informed about the generic conventions of the genre and were introduced to the software (for example, photoshop 3, audacity, windows movie maker, etc). 4.1.1. formal instruction previous to the elaboration of the digital story educational digital storytelling was introduced to the classroom following these steps: firstly we introduced the conventions of the genre advertising and promoting by means of the units in walker and harding (2009) and using power point presentation. then, a workshop on digital storytelling was carried out for our students in which they learned the different steps needed in order to create their digital stories and how to use the free software recommended (microsoft photo story 3 or windows movie maker, and many others). furthermore, they were provided with many web pages in which they could find more information7 related, for instance, to the searching of sound and images. afterwards they had to get into groups and start with the creative process: (i) write the script of an advertisement in which most of the knowledge achieved this term was patent and upload it onto the aula virtual (av, henceforth. this is the university of valencia virtual learning platform) before the predetermined deadline; (ii) look for images and match them to the text so as to fill in a storyboard, for which a sample was provided on the av to the resource section. this storyboard had also to be uploaded onto the av before its predetermined deadline also. (iii) finish the stories and record the voice over. upload it onto the av. during the formal introduction to the genre of digital storytelling, the students were presented with a list of requisites and limitations having to do with the organization and creation of the digital short story. these are summarized as follows: • group-work: 34 students maximum • all the students had to participate and appear in the story (either adding their voice, acting or both). • length: stories had to be between 3 and 5 minutes long. share your experience ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204 195 • subtitles were not to be used unless they were necessary. • the final version had to be an original product of their creativity. in sum, they had to create an original and creative digital story by choosing the topic, writing the script, building up the characters and the plot, recording the voice over and seeking images and sounds. in other words, the students had to become the director of a film in which they had to demonstrate their skills in order to communicate their ideas visually, and, of course, to advertise a product. to achieve this aim, they had to become literate in free software such as microsoft photo story 3, windows movie maker, apple imovie and adobe photoshop element. the script, as well as the storyboard and the digital story had to be uploaded onto the av (to the activities section). 4.1.2. presentations in class all the digital stories were eventually presented in class so that all of them could be watched by the students. a peer evaluation (see appendix 1) was the tool used in this presentation so that the whole class could get some feedback of this activity. additionally, a survey on digital storytelling was also provided to the students as a means of determining the utility of this tool (see appendix 2). this questionnaire was filled in by a total of 55 students who were asked questions such as: do you think digital storytelling as free software is a useful learning tool? or, do you think digital storytelling has helped you, as a learner, through the topics selected by the teacher? and some others. our results showed that more than a half of the students had not attended a digital storytelling workshop before, as they were in their first year, in fact, almost half of them argued that the workshop had not been long enough to understand the tool. however, despite their poor knowledge of the tool, the vast majority agreed that digital storytelling is a useful learning tool that helped them to learn a variety of things along with the english language: develop their creativity, make good presentations, to work in a team, to work under pressure, to use some programs, to learn vocabulary, to learn how to work in a team and to communicate in english, and so on. additionally, most of the students regarded digital storytelling as a useful tool “bridging” different subjects, among which they mention: economics, management and promotion, marketing and nature, publicity, history, new technologies and many others. m. alcantud-díaz, a. ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204196 with the questionnaire, we can also depict students’ topic preferences. our results show that the top topic for a digital story is “destination” followed by “travel agency” and “culture and heritage”. on the other hand, they do not seem to like topics such as “escape and enlightment” or “specialist holidays”. as far as team work is concerned, in most groups workload seemed to have been distributed evenly among members, and they did not lack motivation arguing that the project was fun and that they were excited about the idea of creating a digital story. 4.1.3. evaluation the students got the average mark of this task by means of a double evaluation: a peer evaluation and a teacher one. the former took place in the presentations session. the students were provided with a questionnaire sheet (see appendix 1 again) in which they had to score diverse aspects of their class mates’ digital stories. the teacher evaluation was based on the evaluation grid provided by bernard robin (see appendix 3). each student’s project achieved a mark between 1 and 4 according to this table. 4.1.4. first workshop of english for tourism in order to motivate our students, we made the decision of organizing a workshop-contest so as to give an award to the three best digital stories from all the groups in the first year of english for tourism (a total of 6 groups, about 150 students). the procedure was as follows: the peer evaluation in each class was also used to decide which digital stories were the top two in every group. therefore, thirteen digital stories were finally selected to be presented in the first workshop of english for tourism. some scholars that belonged to different fields – economics, tourism and english studies – were invited to become part of the jury that was to decide on the winners (some travel agencies and publishing companies provided us with dictionaries and suitcases which worked as awards). our intention was to provide the workshop with some useful conferences for the students, the presentation of the digital stories and of the winners of the awards. we organized this workshop as an end-of-the-term party to share the work of the rest of the students, to meet students from other courses and to attend real conferences in english. thus, we worked all the competences related to the application of knowledge to the real world and those related to group work. share your experience ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204 197 5. conclusions in the first part of the article we have briefly described digital storytelling, its differences with other types of narratives and how it is implemented in the classroom in an attempt to adapt to the principles included in the cefr. we have then proceeded to describe digital storytelling as a practical commercial tool for the tourism industry and the impact of digital storytelling in such different fields as education and commerce. then, we have depicted a practical example of the conception and development of an activity based on digital storytelling for english for tourism. finally, we have described the process used to introduce our students to the world of digital storytelling starting with the instructional workshop and finishing with the public presentations in class of their digital stories and their evaluation. with regard to the competences embedded in this activity, we have dealt with all those competences regarding researching, synthesizing, time management and getting organized because they had to meet deadlines, to search for information related to the new genres proposed and to synthesize in order to create a project. additionally, we agree with sadik (2008: 502) in that: (…) students were encouraged to think more deeply about the meaning of the topic or story and personalize their experience and also clarify what they knew about the topic before and during the process of developing and communicating their stories. in addition, digital storytelling provided a real way to help students learn how to use new technology effectively in their learning. however, there was sometimes an excessive and occasionally unnecessary use of distracting digital effects on some of the stories and quite bad quality of voice and images that appeared in some others. despite these lacks, we can confirm that our students enjoyed our proposal of putting together their thoughts and their creativity in the service of the professional field of their choice, tourism. in turn, they worked competences related to tics since they had to use some tools from av which they had not previously used. besides, they increased their use of different computer programs like ms word, photo story 3, movie maker, to mention but a few. furthermore, digital storytelling necessarily involved competences related to speaking, listening, writing and reading and the digital portfolio competences related to writing and reading. moreover, the competences related to working in groups have been covered too. m. alcantud-díaz, a. ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204198 the results achieved with this tool are very satisfactory considering that the groups needed over ten hours both to do the script of the digital story and to produce it. internet was the main source to collect images and music for digital stories, however many of the students were even more creative resorting to their own pictures and music cds. in conclusion, we can state that the experience of creating a digital story was well accepted by the majority of the students who rated the experience “very good” or even “excellent”. conversely, some students affirmed they would have needed more time for their digital stories since it is a very time-consuming activity. also, as it was to be expected, dealing with new software was a challenge but also a problem for some of them. nevertheless, we can affirm that they regard the creation of digital storytelling as a new and original kind of homework and in general it has helped them not only to learn the language but improve their computer knowledge or make friends among other things. [paper received 10 july 2012] [revised paper accepted 27 january 2013] references share your experience ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204 199 alcantud-díaz, m. (2008). “innovation, motivation and sustainable development in second cycle of english” in l. gómez chova et al. (eds.) (cdrom). alcantud-díaz, m. (2011). “a new way of creating detective short stories as an example of getting language and literature in contact” in s. maruenda & b. clavel-arroitia, b. (eds.) multiple voices in academic and professional discourse: current issues in specialized language research, teaching and new technologies, 442-452. cambridge: cambridge scholars. barrett, h.c. (2004). tutorials for digital storytelling. url: http://electronicportfolios.org/ digistory/ [15/07/11] barrett, h.c. (2006a). “researching and evaluating digital storytelling as a deep learning tool” in c.m. crawford et al. (eds.), 647-654. barrett, h. c. (2006b). digital stories in eportfolios: multiple purposes and tools. url: http:// electronicportfolios.org/digistory/purposesmac.html [15/07/11] barrett, h.c. (2007). “researching electronic portfolios and learner engagement: the reflect initiative”. electronic portfolio issue, journal of adolescent and adult literacy 50: 436-449. bonet, l. (1998). “cultural tourism” in r. towse (ed.), a handbook of cultural economics, 166172. chaltenham: edward elgar. castelló, m., m. corcelles, a. iñesta, g. bañales & n. vega (2011). “la voz del autor en la escritura académica: una propuesta para su análisis”. revista signos 44: 105-117. couldry, n. (2008). “mediatization or mediation? alternative understandings of the emergent space of digital storytelling”. new media & society 10: 373-391. crawford, c.m., r. carlsen, k. mcferrin, j. price, r. weber & d.a. willis (eds.) (2006). proceedings of society for information technology & teacher education international conference 2005. chesapeake, va: aace. gómez chova, l., d. martí belenguer & i. candel torres (eds.) (2008). inted2008, proceedings of the international technology, education and development conference, 3-5 march (cdrom).valencia: iated. gregori-signes, c. (2008a). “integrating the old and the new: digital storytelling in the efl classroom”. greta 16: 43-49. url: http://issuu com/gretagranada/docs/ 2008_complete_new_/ 1?e=4847257/6077790 [23/01/14] dr. maría alcantud-díaz has been an associate lecturer at the english and german studies at the facultat de filologia traducció i comunicació for 6 years and she is currently working as a full-time lecturer at the facultat de magisteri, both at the universitat de valència. belonging to the anglotic research group, she designs and manages training courses for students and teachers interested in digital storytelling as an educational tool which bridges directly with the professional world. dr. alicia ricart vayá is a full-time lecturer at the university of valencia from 2010 where she has taught english for tourism and english language. she has also been a teacher of esp at the universidad politécnica de m. alcantud-díaz, a. ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204200 gregori-signes, c. (2008b). “practical uses of digital storytelling” in l. gómez chova et al. (eds.), url: http://www.uv.es/gregoric/ digitalstorytelling /digital_story_ index.html [23/01/14] gregori-signes, c. (2010). “el relato digital desde una perspectiva socio-educativa”. unpublished paper presented at jornada creando relatos digitales. barcelona, 21 march. barcelona: edulab, universitat de barcelona. url: http://greav.ub. edu/relatosdigitales/jornada/videos/conferencia_ carmen_gregori.html [23/01/14] herrera gutierrez, g., c. gregori-signes, m. samblás beteta, j. sevilla peris, r. montes maya & r. abellán royuela (2009). “cuadernia, una herramienta multimedia para elaborar materiales didácticos”. @tic,revista d’innovació educativa 2. url: http://cefd.uv.es/index.php/attic/article/view/ 94/122 [22/01/14] hull, g.a. & m.e. nelson (2009). ”literacy, media, and morality: making the case for an aesthetic turn” in m. prinsloo & m. baynham (eds.), the future of literacy studies, 199-227. houndmills: palgrave macmillan. humphreys, a. & k. grayson (2008). “the intersecting roles of consumer and producer: a critical perspective on co-production, co-creation and prosumption”. compass 2: 963-980. lambert, j. (2006). digital storytelling: capturing lives, creating community, 2nd ed. berkeley, ca: digital diner press. lambert, j. (2010). digital storytelling cookbook. berkley: center for digital storytelling. lundby, k. (ed.) (2008). digital storytelling mediatized stories. self-representations in new media. new york: peter lang. ochs, e. (1998). “narrative” in t.a. van dijk (ed.), discourse as structure and process, 185-207. london: sage. paul, n. & c. fiebrich (2005). the elements of digital storytelling. url: http://www.inms.umn. edu/elements [21/10/11] qiongli, w. (2009). “commercialization and digital storytelling in china” in j. hartley & k. mcwilliam (eds.) story circle, digital storytelling around the world, 230-244. oxford: blackwell. robin, b. (2006). “the educational uses of digital storytelling” in c.m. crawford et al. (eds.), 709716. robin, b. (2008a). “the effective uses of digital storytelling as a teaching and learning tool” in j. flood, s. heath & d. lapp (eds.), handbook of research on teaching literacy through the communicative and visual arts, 429-440. new york: lawrence erlbaum. robin, b. (2008b). “digital storytelling: a powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom”. theory into practice 47: 220-228. robin, b. & m. pierson (2006). “a multilevel approach to using digital storytelling in the classroom” in c.m. crawford et al. (eds.), 708-716. roush, w. (2006). “yahoo’s web 2.0 overhaul”. mit technology review. url: http://www. technologyreview.com/infotech/16883/ [22/05/07] sadik, a. (2008). “digital storytelling: a meaningful integrated approach for engaged student learning”. educational technology research 56: 487-506. toffler (1981). the third wave. new york : bantam books. walker, r. & k. harding (2009). english for tourism i. oxford: oxford university press valencia for eight years. she carried out her european phd in 2008. her main research fields are esp, contrastive rhetoric, corpus analysis, discourse analysis and translation in english and spanish. dr. carmen gregori-signes is a full-time lecturer at the university of valencia. her publications and presentations include papers on multimodal and media discourse analysis, applied linguistics and language education. her most recent research focuses on the integration of information and communication technologies (ict) in schools and community centers through the use of digital storytelling; and on the role of ict in second language learning and teaching. notes 1 this article is framed within the research project diversidad y (des)igualdad en la literatura infantil y juvenil contemporánea (1990-2012) (uv-inv-precomp13-115502) funded by university of valencia. 2 url: http://www.acmi.net.au/ 3 reporters from red herring magazine are set to try out a new hp (hewlett packard) labs multimedia storytelling service called storycast. for further information see url: http://www.hpl.hp.com/about/ 4 url: http://www.puromarketing.com/9/12176/razones-para-creer-coca-cola-premio-mejor.html 5 see url: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/609/530 6 url: http://trendwatching.com 7 the most recommended pages were url: http://www.uv.es/gregoric and url: http://fp.coe.uh.edu/ brobin/homepage share your experience ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204 201 appendix 1: peer evaluation sheet. m. alcantud-díaz, a. ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204202 m. alcantud-díaz, alicia ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes ibérica 27 (2014): …-… appendix 1: peer evaluation sheet. g ro up nu m be r did you like the product? quality of images quality of sound and music script (did you like it?) length (too long, too short?) tl-ts original and creative does it suit the marketing and promotion conventions studied in class? total (figures) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 appendix 2: feedback questionnaire on digital storytelling. share your experience ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204 203 share your experience ibérica 27 (2014): …-… appendix 2: feedback questionnaire on digital storytelling. 1 have you ever attended a digital storytelling workshop? yes no 2 was the length of the workshop you attended enough to understand this tool? yes no 3 do you think ds as free software is a useful learning tool? yes no 4 have you used any other ict tools? if so, which ones? 5 compared to other ict tools, how would you rate the usefulness of ds? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6 do you think ds has helped you, as a learner, through the topics selected by the teacher? yes no 7 what for? /what was it useful for? 8 do you think ds is useful for “bridging” different subjects? yes no 9 in what way? / if so, could you name a few subjects that can come together using ds? 10 how many people were there in your group? 1 2 3 4 5 11 did all the members of the group work approximately the same amount of time? yes – no 12 did all the members of the group have more or less the same motivation and interest in the project? yes – no 13 could you explain your previous answer? 14 what topic(s) have you chosen for your ds? you may tick more than one destination accommodation itinerary transport package holiday holidays with a difference travel agency others (specify) _______________________ 15 how long have you been working in your ds script? o less than 5 hours o between 5 -10 hours o more than 10 hours 16 how long have you been working in producing the ds? o less than 5 hours o between 5 -10 hours o more than 10 hours 17 how did you obtain the images for your ds? o internet o your pictures o scanner o power point 18 and the music? o internet o your own cds 19 if you had to rate your experience using ds (form the idea, to the script, storyboard and recording), how would you describe it? please, explain your answer. o excellent o very good o good o not so good o poor 20 is there any other comment you would like to do related to ds? appendix 3: teacher evaluation sheet (as provided by b. robin at url: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh. edu/archive/pdfs/samplerubric.pdf) m. alcantud-díaz, a. ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes ibérica 27 (2014): 185-204204 m. alcantud-díaz, alicia ricart vayá & carmen gregori-signes ibérica 27 (2014): …-… appendix 3: teacher evaluation sheet (as provided by b. robin at url: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/archive/pdfs/samplerubric.pdf) category 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point 1. purpose of story establishes a purpose early on and maintains a clear focus throughout. establishes a purpose early on and maintains focus for most of the presentation. there are a few lapses in focus, but the purpose is fairly clear. it is difficult to figure out the purpose of the presentation. 2. point of view the point of view is well developed and contributes to the overall meaning of the story. the point of view is stated but does not connect with each part of the story, although an attempt is made to connect it to the overall meaning of the story. the point of view is stated but no attempt is made to connect it to the overall meaning of the story. the point of view is only hinted at, or is difficult to discern. 3. dramatic question a meaningful dramatic question is asked and answered within the context of the story. a dramatic question is asked but not clearly answered within the context of the story. a dramatic question is hinted at but not clearly established within the context of the story. little or no attempt is made to pose a dramatic question or answer it. 4. choice of content contents create a distinct atmosphere or tone that matches different parts of the story. the images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors. contents create an atmosphere or tone that matches some parts of the story. the images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors. an attempt was made to use contents to create an atmosphere/tone but it needed more work. image choice is logical. little or no attempt to use contents to create an appropriate atmosphere/tone. 5. clarity of voice voice quality is clear and consistently audible throughout the presentation. voice quality is clear and consistently audible throughout the majority (85-95%) of the presentation. voice quality is clear and consistently audible through some (70-84%)of the presentation. voice quality needs more attention. 6. pacing of narrative the pace (rhythm and voice punctuation) fits the story line and helps the audience really "get into" the story. occasionally speaks too fast or too slowly for the story line. the pacing (rhythm and voice punctuation) is relatively engaging for the audience. tries to use pacing (rhythm and voice punctuation), but it is often noticeable that the pacing does not fit the story line. audience is not consistently engaged. no attempt to match the pace of the storytelling to the story line or the audience. 7. meaningful audio soundtrack music stirs a rich emotional response that matches the story line well. images coordinated with the music. music stirs a rich emotional response that somewhat matches the story line. images mostly coordinated with the music. music is ok, and not distracting, but it does not add much to the story. not coordinated with images. music is distracting, inappropriate, or was not used. 8. quality of images images create a distinct atmosphere or tone that matches different parts of the story. the images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors. images create an atmosphere or tone that matches some parts of the story. the images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors. an attempt was made to use images to create an atmosphere/tone but it needed more work. image choice is logical. little or no attempt to use images to create an appropriate atmosphere/tone. 9. economy of story detail the story is told with exactly the right amount of detail throughout. it does not seem too short nor does it seem too long the story composition is typically good, though it seems to drag somewhat or need slightly more detail in one or two sections. the story seems to need more editing. it is noticeably too long or too short in more than one section. the story needs extensive editing. it is too long or too short to be interesting. 10. grammar and language usage grammar and usage were correct (for the dialect chosen) and contributed to clarity, style and character development. grammar and usage were typically correct (for the dialect chosen) and errors did not detract from the story. grammar and usage were typically correct but errors detracted from story. repeated errors in grammar and usage distracted greatly from the story. iberica 13 ibérica 21 (2011): 49-70 issn 1139-7241 abstract this paper investigates patterns of rhetorical convergence and divergence in pairs of ra abstracts (english-spanish and spanish-english) published in the journal ibérica. to that end, a total of 84 pairs of author-translated ra abstracts were analyzed. based on the results of a pilot study, the following rhetorical patterns were analyzed in the corpus: text-referring expressions, degree of epistemic commitment, amplified attitude, self-mention, and periphrastic (e.g. multi-word) expressions. in addition, selected authorial input was requested to seek further explanations about the variation across these two languages. for text-referring expressions, broad cross-linguistic convergence was found in the expressions used and the degree to which the text is given agency. by contrast, the abstracts in spanish were found to include greater degree of epistemic commitment, more amplified expressions of attitude, more self-mention, particularly in the plural first person, and periphrastic equivalents. authorial input indicated that some of these diverging patterns were due to collocational differences but they were also influenced by beliefs about what is more natural in spanish. our results suggest that there may be specific lexical bundles performing intensifying functions in spanish that deserve further investigation. these findings may have implications for esp pedagogy and translation studies. keywords: contrastive rhetoric, metadiscourse, abstracts, translation, academic discourse. resumen similitudes y diferencias en pares de resúmenes de investigación en español e inglés: el caso de ibérica investigamos patrones de similitud y diferencia en pares de resúmenes de artículos de investigación con versiones en inglés y español publicados en ibérica. tracing convergence and divergence in pairs of spanish and english research article abstracts: the case of ibérica moisés perales-escudero and john m. swales university of michigan (usa) moisesd@umich.edu & jmswales@umich.edu 49 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 49 ibérica 21 (2011): 49-70 m. perales-escudero & j. m. swales para tal fin, analizamos 84 pares de resúmenes con ambas versiones escritas por los autores. a partir de un estudio exploratorio, analizamos los siguientes aspectos: expresiones que se refieren al texto, grado de compromiso epistémico, actitud, mención del autor, y expresiones perifrásticas. solicitamos la colaboración de algunos autores para contar con explicaciones adicionales acerca de la variación entre estos idiomas. encontramos similitudes en las expresiones que se refieren al texto en cuanto a las palabras usadas y el uso del texto como sujeto gramatical. por otro lado, los resúmenes en español muestran un mayor grado de compromiso epistémico, expresiones de actitud más amplificadas, más mención del autor, y uso de perífrasis. los autores indicaron que algunas de estas divergencias pueden deberse a diferencias entre las colocaciones que son típicas de estas lenguas, pero también a sus creencias respecto de lo que resulta más natural en español. los resultados sugieren que existen en español ciertos “paquetes léxicos” con función intensificadora. estos resultados pueden ser relevantes para la enseñanza del inglés con fines específicos y los estudios de traducción. palabras clave: retórica contrastiva, metadiscurso, resúmenes, traducción, discurso académico. introduction in genre analysis, swales (1990) concluded that abstracts were an underresearched genre from a discourse-analytic perspective. in these terms, he instanced only an unpublished study of 14 abstracts in neurology by rounds (1982), and a 1985 chapter by graetz, who, inter alia concluded that “the abstract is characterized by the use of the past tense, third person, passive, and the non-use of negatives” (graetz, 1985: 125). subsequent developments, both in the abstracts themselves (hyland, 2000) and in analyses thereof, have led to considerable modification of the first three of graetz’s conclusions. as for the fourth conclusion, the virtual absence of negatives, we are not aware of any studies that have attempted to validate this very interesting finding. twenty years later, however, it is no longer possible to claim in general that the abstract remains “under-researched”. in a fairly recent bibliographic overview entitled “recent linguistic research into author abstracts: its value for information science”, montesi and urdiciain (2005) list 28 studies of research article abstracts since 1990, to which can be added a few additional pre-2005 studies and a fair number that have since appeared. the disciplinary fields from which the abstracts have been drawn are mostly 50 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 50 language sciences, biology and medicine, although both hyland (2000) and stotesbury (2003) offer elaborate multi-disciplinary studies covering many fields. in addition, there has been comparative work between english and other languages: there are papers dealing with german (busch-lauer, 1995), swedish (melander, swales & fredrickson, 1997) norwegian (dahl, 2004 & 2009), portuguese (johns, 1992), french (van bonn & swales, 2007) and arabic (al-harbi & swales, 2011). more pertinently to the topic of this paper, there have been at least eight investigations comparing spanish and english abstracts, including valero garcés and calle-martínez (1997), martín-martín (2003), lorés (2004), lorés-sanz (2009), and burgess and martín-martín (2010). one of the major themes and major findings in the previous literature as a whole is that ra abstracts exhibit quite wide disciplinary variation (hyland, 2000; stotesbury, 2003), and even this broad conclusion does not encompass the effects of those increasing number of journals that are adopting “structured” as opposed to continuous-text formats (hartley, 2004). since the focus of this paper is on the abstracts in ibérica (the official journal of the european association for languages for specific purposes – issn 11397241), we will focus discussion of previous research to those studies that have examined what might be called “the language sciences”. however, such a decision, while apparently neatly circumscribing on the surface, is in fact not without difficulties. as readers will recognize, the language sciences is a surprisingly “broad tent”, even if probably not more so than other fields that straddle the traditional divisions between the humanities and the social sciences, such as anthropology. so, when it comes to making comparisons, this range should give us pause. for instance, martín-martín (2003) analyzed abstracts from experimental phonetics, a field closely allied with the hard sciences, while dahl (2004) investigated the abstracts for the kind of “argumentative” papers found in formal and theoretical linguistics – papers that tend to rely on scholarly discussion of constructed language examples. ceteris paribus, it is therefore reasonable to expect powerful sub-disciplinary differences and particularities. even when we further focus on applied linguistics per se, divergences are not hard to detect as the different subfields are prone to giving more or less attention to such issues as statistical validation, experimental design and pedagogical applications. even if sub-disciplinary differences (samraj, 2002) can be controlled when comparing two (or more) corpora of abstracts, there remains the issue of the comparability of the “sources” of those two corpora, especially when we tracing convergence and divergence ibérica 21 (2011): 49-70 51 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 51 take into account the arguments put forward by connor and moreno (2005) for “maximum similarity” between two corpora. essentially, there must remain doubts about whether – or to what extent – it is possible to make useful comparisons between “big” international english-language journals and “small” national or regional ones publishing in other languages, largely because of the confounding variables that intervene (swales, 2004). these would include differences in author and reader expectations, differences in acceptance rates and editorial processes, differences in the size and interconnectedness of the parent discourse communities (burgess, 2002), and likely differences in the reception histories of the accepted articles. for example, van bonn and swales (2007) eventually concluded that their comparison of abstracts between the journal of linguistics in britain and the bulletin de la société de linguistique de paris was largely vitiated by differences in status, even though each was the leading journal in the field in its respective country. as they note: the “journal of linguistics” is the official organ of the linguistics association of great britain, whose members receive copies at a greatly reduced rate. the journal is found in libraries worldwide, and it can be expected that competition for space is high, the review and editing processes arduous, and the kudos for publishing therein considerable. none of these factors would seem to apply to a similar extent to the bulletin. (van bonn & swales, 2007: 105) although some of these differences may be being reduced by the trend toward electronic publishing on the web, they still suggest that contrastive rhetoric researchers would do better to choose “small” regional englishlanguage journals as one pivot of a cross-linguistic comparison rather than the current prevailing practice of opting for high-impact isi journals.1 following the example of swales and van bonn (2007), we have attempted to resolve the comparability problem by examining the paired spanish and english abstracts from a single journal – ibérica, the official organ of the european association for languages for specific purposes. as readers may anticipate, this attempted resolution retains some minor attendant problems. for one thing, the readership of the two languages is still likely to be somewhat divergent; those reading the english abstracts and the english articles are likely to be more geographically diverse than those reading the spanish-language texts. for another, it is clear that in the case of any particular article, one of the two required abstracts will be written before the m. perales-escudero & j. m. swales ibérica 21 (2011): 49-7052 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 52 other. in effect, we have a “parent” abstract and a “sibling” one, the latter being some version/translation of the former. in such a context, we may no longer expect to find much difference in the rhetorical shape or “move structure” of the two paired abstracts, and, as a result, our findings provide a different perspective than those studies that have focused on the move structure of this part-genre, such as bittencourt dos santos (1996), hyland (2000), lorés (2004), pho (2008) and lorés-sanz (2009). on balance, though, we believe that, in the procedures we have adopted, the advantages considerably outweigh the disadvantages. for example, these procedures allow us to research authors’ perceptions on the rhetorical and/or stylistic variations in the languages they use and also to uncover patterns of divergence in micro-level discoursal features that can be of interest to esp instructors and translators. corpus and methodology the corpus for our study consisted of 84 author-written2 pairs of abstracts of research articles published in the ibérica journal between the years of 2001 (issue 3) and 2009 (issue 18); the requirement that all articles be accompanied by bilingual abstracts was not introduced until issue 3. we had excluded from the corpus a couple of articles with a french abstract and a number of invited lead articles (19 in all) written by esp experts working outside spain. our initial assumption was that the journal editors had produced the spanish translations of these abstracts written by these academics working in nonspanish-speaking countries, and this was confirmed by the current editor. we excluded these to avoid the findings being affected by the idiolectal stylistic preferences of long-running editors. the source language for these abstracts was determined by looking at the language the paper was written in, and for this it was presumed that the language a paper was written in was the source language for the abstract (a fact later confirmed, see below). as a result, english turns out to be the source language of 57 of these abstracts, while spanish is the source language of the remaining 27. the 84 articles and pairs of abstracts were written by academics working at spanish universities, largely specializing in applied discourse analysis and lsp/esp. high proficiency levels in the two languages as well as astute insights into the behaviors of academic registers in those languages can therefore be presumed – as indeed was confirmed by the email responses to be discussed below. tracing convergence and divergence ibérica 21 (2011): 49-70 53 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 53 the articles were then examined paying attention to the following discoursal aspects: text-referring expressions, degree of epistemic commitment, amplified attitude, self-mention, and periphrastic equivalents. an additional stylistic category that turned out to be germane was the use of periphrastic (multi-word) equivalents in spanish to shorter stretches of text in english. these four features had been previously explored as being of interest in a pilot study (swales & perales-escudero, 2009) based on a subsection of the previous corpus. we contacted by mail the authors of those abstracts showing variation in one or more of these categories (except text-referring expressions) to solicit any insights that they may have with regard to these cross-linguistic divergences and to their translation processes. although textbased interviews about an author’s own work have become fairly common in this field (hyland, 2000), it is much rarer for investigators to ask authors to respond to their bilingual texts, particularly when, as in our case, the interviewees have very considerable metalinguistic awareness. below are the questions that were asked in the letters: • we presume that you wrote the abstract first in the same l1 as the rest of the paper, and then wrote the “other language” abstract. can you confirm this? • did you write the version in the other language yourself ? did the journal editor write it or edit it? did anybody else play a hand in it? the particular pairs of linguistic expressions we were interested in were listed in the letter, and were followed by a request to share any insights about them, as in the example below. in the second sentence we see an interesting difference between the spanish version and the english version. the spanish version reads “identificamos el marco predominante…” whereas the english version reads “we also try to define the current prevailing set…” we are wondering if you would be so kind to look at those and share with us any particular insights about your processes of composition and/or what these differences may reveal regarding stylistic or rhetorical preferences when writing abstracts in spanish versus writing abstracts in english. the responses to these queries were collected and analyzed using open coding. m. perales-escudero & j. m. swales ibérica 21 (2011): 49-7054 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 54 results authorial input fifteen out of the 35 contacted authors responded to our requests for input, a very reasonable response rate given the often-large time lag between the composition of the paper and our email message. all confirmed our guess that the abstract was first written in the same l1 as the rest of the paper. also all 15 of them wrote the english versions, but at least one had it revised by a native speaker of english. the same author used the help of what she calls “a spanish expert” to revise the spanish version. in response to our item-specific questions, all of the authors indicated that they had followed in introducing divergences between the texts what seemed to them to be language that was “more natural”, “more fitting”, or “sounded better”. five of them indicated explicitly that they believe that there are differences in the degree of periphrasis that is acceptable in english versus spanish academic prose; as one of them puts it “spanish is more periphrastic than english”, or as another said “we prefer to write shorter sentences in english”. three authors also mentioned that they explicitly avoid literal translations. another three authors mentioned collocational differences and/or differences in “lexical chunks” as reasons for diverging choices. more specific metalinguistic comments are discussed along with the relevant examples in the section below. text-referring expressions most of the 84 paired bilingual abstracts (57 for english-language articles and 27 for those written in spanish) contain one or more text-referring expressions, such as “this paper examines …”. by text-referring expressions (tres) we mean those lexical items that make reference to the whole of the accompanying article, rather than to some part of it, as in “these results suggest …”. we start by looking first at the nouns used to make a self-referring textual reference. the numbers of occurrences are shown in table 1. tracing convergence and divergence ibérica 21 (2011): 49-70 55 english tre nouns spanish tre nouns paper 59 artículo 46 study 19 estudio 20 article 15 trabajo 21 analysis 2 análisis 1 research 2 investigación 2 survey 1 work 1 total 99 total 90 table 1. text-referring nouns in english and spanish abstracts. 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 55 the relatively small difference in the totals seems to be due to a certain spanish preference for using personal pronouns, as in the pair below. in this and all other relevant examples we provide a literal translation to english of the spanish text in square parentheses in cases where the author’s own english version is different enough from the spanish version to warrant this literal translation.3 the number in parenthesis at the end of each entry represents the code we assigned to the paper; the first letter in that code indicates the papers’ source language (s=spanish, e=english); italics have been added as appropriate. example 1: describimos el uso de estrategias de atenuación en 40 artículos de revisión … this paper describes the use of hedges in 40 review articles … [we describe the use of hedging strategies in 40 review articles …] (s20) in general, it would seem that “study” and estudio are regular translationequivalents (catford, 1965), and that “paper” becomes translated by artículo or trabajo, and that artículo often becomes “paper” in the english versions. a further sign of the sophisticated understanding of the connotations of english by the abstract writers is shown by the treatment of the spanish text-referring term, trabajo (“work”). in fact, the one occurrence of “work” in the english sub-corpus is not in fact a direct translation of trabajo: example 2: este artículo de carácter interdisciplinar establece una correlación entre los modos cognitivos… [this article of interdisciplinary character establishes a correlation between the cognitive modes…] the purpose of this interdisciplinary work is to establish a correlation between culture … (s16) as the ibérica authors clearly recognize, “work”, which can occur in english as text-referring lexical item, is primarily associated with longer and highly significant written products, such as “the collected works of charles darwin”, and thus should be avoided for a standard research article.4 this insight, however, is not always shared by graduate students with a portuguese or spanish mother tongue. for instance, dayrell and aluísio (2008) found that in 84 draft english abstracts written by brazilian graduate students in the sciences (broadly defined), text-referring “work” was used 32 times, in contrast to only five uses in a comparable corpus of 84 published abstracts in the same fields. in discussion with english language staff at madrid polytechnic in 2007, the second author was told of the problematic use of m. perales-escudero & j. m. swales ibérica 21 (2011): 49-7056 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 56 “work” in the english-language abstracts accompanying engineering undergraduate final research projects. a more striking divergence between the two sub-corpora concerns the use of prepositional phrases with tres, as in the following: example 3: in this paper, i propose a translation approach to metaphor teaching in the classroom … en este artículo, proponemos un enfoque translativo de enseñanza de metáforas… [in this article, we propose …] (e42) these formulaic openings are twice as common in the spanish texts, there being 25 instances in contrast to only 12 in english. the reason for this difference does not lie – as it does for some languages – in any reluctance on the part of spanish to follow an inanimate subject with an animate “volitional” verb because it is easy to attest sentence openings such as the following: example 4: este estudio intenta demostrar la pujanza de las metáforas en el vocabulario técnico… this study attempts to show the power of metaphors in spanish and english … [this study attempts to demonstrate the power of metaphors in technical vocabulary …] (s26) example 5: this article explores an aspect of the processing perspective in l2 learning … este artículo pretende reflexionar sobre un aspecto de la perspectiva del procesamiento de segundas lenguas… [this article intends to reflect on an aspect of the language processing perspective…] (e40) one further sign of the english skills of these abstract authors is that there are no instances of anybody attempting a literal translation of the reflexive passive, as in *“in this work are studied the differences …”. however, burgess and martín-martín (2010) found a couple of examples in their psychology abstracts and this structure is not unknown in the academic english written by brazilians (johns, 1992). a final observation to be made in this sub-section concerns the use of premodifiers with the tre nouns. as expected, in both sub-corpora the demonstratives “this” and este are most often chosen; beyond that, there is a tracing convergence and divergence ibérica 21 (2011): 49-70 57 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 57 greater preference in the spanish texts for presente, with 22 instances, as opposed to just eleven uses of “present” in english. however, there are a number of cases where the spanish member of the pair has este while the english one has “present”, suggesting something of a free stylistic choice in this regard. variation in rhetorical elements and periphrasis three rhetorical dimensions were found to display patterns of variation in the spanish abstracts with regard to their english equivalents: stronger epistemic commitment realized by either less hedged or more boosted statements; more amplified attitude; and greater authorial presence. in addition, periphrastic equivalents in spanish to more succinct stretches of text in english provided another relevant stylistic category. these divergences were found to be present in 38 of the 84 pairs of abstracts in the sample, that is, in 45% of the total. sometimes these patterns conflated in the same phrase or clause, as in example 6 below: example 6: there was a statistically significant difference in … uno de los resultados más destacados fue que existe una relación estadísticamente significativa … [one of the most significant results was that there is a statistically significant difference …] (e9) here the statement of results in the spanish version is preceded by a multiword booster that is absent in the english version. this instance was thus double-coded as stronger epistemic commitment and a periphrastic equivalent. table 2 below shows the number of spanish abstracts with occurrences of each pattern of variation as well as the total number of occurrences. pattern no. of abstracts no. of occurrences it is worth noting that papers showing these features can be found in all the issues of ibérica that were analyzed but two, suggesting a somewhat uniform m. perales-escudero & j. m. swales ibérica 21 (2011): 49-7058 pattern no. of abstracts no. of occurrences stronger epistemic commitment 11 11 amplified attitude 7 7 more self-mention 11 14 periphrastic equivalents 30 39 table 2. occurrences of diverging rhetorical patterns in the sample. 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 58 distribution of these patterns across time. each specific pattern is discussed in its own sub-section below. stronger epistemic commitment eleven of the spanish abstracts use verbs and qualifiers that show a greater degree of epistemic commitment to propositions than do their english equivalents. in most cases, the commitment is to the results of the research being reported, but in at least one case the commitment signals what is to be taken as common, accepted knowledge: example 7: one of the means for the spreading of those new developments … es bien sabido que uno de los mecanismos esenciales para la difusión de los nuevos avances … [it is well known that one of the essential mechanisms for the diffusion of new advances …] (e28) there are two ways that stronger epistemic commitment is signaled. more frequently, the stronger commitment is realized either by amplified boosting in the spanish versions, i.e. a booster present in the english version is also present in the spanish version in amplified form. for example: example 8: learners’ performance denoted the positive effects of explicit instruction … el análisis de los datos obtenidos reveló los efectos positivos de la instrucción … [the analysis of the data revealed the positive effects of …] (e21) alternatively, some spanish versions seem more committed to the truthfulness of propositions because they include bare assertions where the english versions have a hedged statement. example 9: to our knowledge, little research has been carried out on rpa writing … hay aún escasas publicaciones sobre cómo los científicos españoles … [there are few publications on how spanish scientists …] (e24) or, the spanish version includes a booster where the english version does not, as in the example below. example 10: this is to be a functional, stylistic linguistics … esta nueva área representa un enfoque funcional … [this new area constitutes a functional approach …] (e2) tracing convergence and divergence ibérica 21 (2011): 49-70 59 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 59 however, there are cases, based on observations from the authors we contacted, that indicate that the stronger epistemic commitment in spanish can stem from a perceived collocational pattern in this language that diverges from the english equivalent. consider example 11: example 11: … which supports the idea that the model presented can be easily extended… … lo cual confirma la idea de que el modelo presentado se puede extender … [… which confirms the idea that the model presented can be extended…] (e29) the authors of the abstract from which the above fragments have been drawn explained that using the expression lo cual apoya/sostiene la idea did not sound natural to them, and that they also thought confirma la idea to be a common collocation in spanish. example 12: it has been observed that the analysis of elements traditionally associated… es un hecho observable que los estudios que han abordado el área… [it is an observable fact that studies that have approached the area…] (e38) in example 12 our respondent noted, “english is more subtle. you need more hedging for instance. spanish is more ‘straightforward’, so to speak”. amplified attitude following hyland (2005), attitude markers do not qualify the truth value of propositions but rather construct writers’ affective stance(s) towards propositions, as in expressions of surprise or importance. in this sense, seven articles showed instances of more amplified attitude in their spanishversion abstracts. in most instances, the amplified attitude was found in statements evaluating previous research or relevant constructs. in the two examples below, the spanish qualifier fundamental replaces either a hedge (example 13) or a less strong attitude marker (example 14) in the english versions. example 13: … the role that the internet may play in helping us attain this objective … … en un proceso en el que el internet juega un papel fundamental … [… in a process in which the internet plays a fundamental role…] (e20) example 14: el concepto de género tiene un papel fundamental en la enseñanza y aprendizaje… m. perales-escudero & j. m. swales ibérica 21 (2011): 49-7060 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 60 the concept of genre has an important role in the teaching and learning… [the concept of genre has a fundamental role in the teaching and learning…] (s7) the author of example 14 mentioned that she chose fundamental because “it is stronger and there is something strange in ‘tiene un papel importante,’”, thus suggesting both a perception of a cultural difference and a collocational divergence as reasons behind her choice. the perception of a cultural difference was echoed by the author of example 15 below, who suggested that “maybe in spanish we are allowed to exaggerate a little”. example 15: …the term ‘engineering’ is rarely used. … parece sorprendente la ausencia del término ‘ingeniería’. [… the absence of the term ‘engineering’ seems surprising] (e34) in other instances, attitude markers are attached to statements of results in spanish where they are absent in english, as in example 16: example 16: we argue that one of the main strategies used to attract the readers’ attention … nuestro argumento principal es que una de las estrategias principales que se usan… [our principal argument is that one of the main strategies that are used…] (e38) self-mention the last of the discoursal features we discuss is pronominal self-mention in our paired abstracts. in fact, eleven of the abstracts in the corpus use selfmention in the spanish version where the english version does not. in four of these, and in six instances, this self-mention occurs in statements summarizing the topic of the article, as in: example 17: describimos el uso de estrategias de atenuación en 40 artículos de revisión… this paper describes the use of hedges in 40 review articles… [we describe the use of hedging strategies in 40 review articles…] (s20) in five other papers and instances, the self-mention was connected to statements of results, as in example 28. the two remaining papers used selfmention when discussing previous research. example 18: descubrimos que los estudiantes emplean una cierta variedad de marcadores tracing convergence and divergence ibérica 21 (2011): 49-70 61 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 61 discursivos… the main findings were that students employed a variety of discourse markers… [we found that the student employ a certain variety of markers …] (s3) however, there are some instances of the converse tendency whereby the english abstract contains first person pronouns and the spanish member of the pair does not. in the single-authored papers, there were five instances of this trend; in most cases, the spanish authors had instead opted to use an impersonal reflexive verb. more generally, 40% of the spanish abstracts for the single-authored articles contain first person pronouns/verb morphology, thus suggesting, as might be expected, that these forms of self-mention (up to a maximum of four) are a fairly common but by no means an expected – or indeed required – rhetorical choice. however, only four of the single-authored papers chose to employ the singular variant, two with a spanish source language and two with an article written in english. in one case, we can see an interesting stylistic/rhetorical choice: example 19: in this paper, i propose a translation approach… en este artículo proponemos un enfoque traslativo… [in this article we propose a translational approach…] (e21) by far the most frequent choice for ibérica authors when writing on their own is to use the plural option, “we” or -mos. we know there has been much attention to this feature in recent spanish-english contrastive studies (murdueñas, 2008; burgess & martín, 2010), but our discussion here will be necessarily limited because of space considerations. although burgess and martín-martín (2010) argue that the choice of “we” for single-authored papers is less author-intrusive and egocentric than the singular alternative, in our view this position represents a continental european perspective – indeed, a very similar phenomenon was noted by van bonn and swales (2007) in the english abstracts of papers by lsp scholars working in france. however, to us, from a north american perspective, this use of “we” by a single author strikes us, in today’s globalizing climate, as somewhat hortatory and overbearing. in effect, “i” is just me, but if “we” is being used to represent nothing but my own work or my own thoughts then that suggests, at least to us and to hyland (2001), a taking on of some wider representative role and authority. we do not mean this as a criticism of the continental usage, but we wish to note that, when used in english, “we” for singlem. perales-escudero & j. m. swales ibérica 21 (2011): 49-7062 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 62 authored papers might give a slightly different impression than the author might have intended. this is then as an example of a cross-cultural divergence in the stylistic interpretation of a specific rhetorical feature. at the end of this story, therefore, we see a small sign that one feature of spanish academic writing (the preference for pluralizing single-author first person statements) has, as it were, leaked over to their english-language abstract texts. periphrastic equivalents this is a fuzzy, stylistic rather than discoursal, category that we applied to all cases where the spanish versions showed more linguistic elaboration than their english equivalents. it is worth noting that in some cases this category overlaps with the previous ones, as illustrated by example 7 above which we reproduce again below: example 7: one of the means for the spreading of those new developments in the different technologies is … es bien sabido que uno de los mecanismos esenciales para la difusión de los nuevos avances … [it is well known that one of the essential mechanisms for the diffusion of new advances …] (e28) cases like this example were double-coded and counted accordingly. there were 12 instances of such double-coding out of the total 39 occurrences of periphrastic equivalents. in three instances, the periphrasis was due to the inclusion in spanish of additional information that was absent in english. presumably these extra elements of content were incorporated in order to provide some further orientation for spanish readers, as was indeed mentioned by the author of example 20), or, as the authors of example 21) pointed out, this may be reflective of a perception that it is natural for spanish to be more periphrastic than english. example 20: this trend of research adopts the cognitive/experientialists approach proposed in lakoff (1987), sweetser (1990), or fauconnier (1997), among others. estos estudios siguen una tendencia cognitiva, según proponen lakoff (1987), sweetser (1990) o fauconnier (1997) entre otros y que, asimismo, se ha elegido en este estudio. tracing convergence and divergence ibérica 21 (2011): 49-70 63 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 63 [these studies follow a cognitive trend, as proposed by lakoff (1987), sweetser (1990) or fauconnier (1997) among others, and which has also been chosen in this study] (e38) example 21: … se han seleccionado un grupo de expresiones verbales que, por su relevancia en dicho proceso, pueden considerarse representativas del mismo. … i have selected a group of significant phrases which refer to the most representative events of the above-mentioned process. [… a group of verbal expressions have been selected which, because of their relevance to said process, can be considered representative of the same process] (s2) example 22: much literature has been written… a este respecto, disponemos de numerosos artículos… [in this regard, we have available to us numerous articles…] (e28) while it is beyond the scope of this study to characterize the functional and structural nature of these instances of additional information, we note that in some cases it seems relatable to textual (a este respecto) or interpersonal (disponemos) themes as in example 22. as illustrated by examples 23 and 24 below, in some cases there exist in spanish what appear to be lexical bundles (or n-grams) that authors opted to employ instead of one-word translation-equivalents because, as three authorrespondents pointed out, they seemed “more natural” or “sound better” in spanish. these periphrastic alternatives included poner de manifiesto, poner de relieve, and ser testigos de. all of these are used when stating or commenting on results. in all these examples, it would have been possible for the authors to use a one-word lexical item in spanish; it can therefore be hypothesized that academic and scholarly spanish continues to have some predilection for multi-word expressions: example 23: este análisis contrastivo también pone de manifiesto que … the contrastive analysis, furthermore, demonstrates that… [it has been put into manifestation that…] (e12) example 24: los resultados … son testigos de la función de lingua franca asumida por el inglés … these results … stress the function of english as a lingua franca… [these results are witnesses to the function of lingua franca assumed by english] (s5) m. perales-escudero & j. m. swales ibérica 21 (2011): 49-7064 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 64 in functional terms, these periphrastic equivalents are used seven times in expressions of epistemic commitment, four times in expressions of attitude, and, interestingly, 19 times in purposive statements, as the following illustrations attest: example 25: the aim of this paper is to analyze some of the linguistic means … el objetivo primordial de este artículo es analizar algunos de los medios lingüísticos … [the primordial objective of this article …] (e13) example 26: … and to show how the concept of genre colony can be used to organize the syllabus of an english for engineering course … … y hacer una propuesta de cómo se puede organizar un syllabus de inglés para ingeniería … [… and to make a proposal of how an english for engineering syllabus can be organized …] (s7) example 27: con el fin de llamar la atención sobre este territorio virgen, presentamos en este trabajo … to fill this gap, this paper proposes an attempt to classify these units. [with the goal of calling attention on this virgin territory, we present in this paper …] (s6) example 28: we focus on the distinction between cultural metaphors and culturally-adapted new metaphors … nos proponemos estudiar la diferencia entre metáforas convencionales … [we intend to study the differences between conventional metaphors …] (e43) the author of example 25 explicitly mentioned that he believes “objetivo primordial” to be, in his own words, “a chunk” in spanish. the authors of the other examples again mentioned that spanish is more periphrastic and that straight literal translations “wouldn’t be natural”. the latter assertion suggests that collocational and “chunking” divergences may operate for this particular area of purposive phraseology. final considerations this study makes, we believe, a small contribution to the growing literature aimed at comparing contemporary english and spanish academic prose, tracing convergence and divergence ibérica 21 (2011): 49-70 65 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 65 indeed a literature well represented in the pages of ibérica. by choosing a corpus of paired texts from the same journal, many of the difficulties associated with comparing international and national publications have been avoided. by choosing a corpus of texts written by language specialists, many of whom with a superb command of written english, the study is not sidetracked by errors or infelicities in either sub-corpora, or indeed by the products of commercial translators. further, the email responses from a selection of the authors represented in the corpus reveal very considerable insight into the stylistic and collocational patterning of the two languages in the areas of those authors’ professional expertise. the very nature of this study, its data and its attendant investigative procedures, move the focus away from the move structure or rhetorical shape of abstracts that has become such a feature of recent discourseanalytic research into this part-genre, as perhaps singly and most recently best represented by lorés-sanz (2009), who examined abstracts in terms of whether they adopted an imrd or cars model. instead, our approach does not center on what is being communicated in an abstract (e.g. “indicative” v. “informative”), but on how it is being communicated. as might be expected, the divergences between the spanish texts and the english ones are relatively small; indeed, they are nothing like those uncovered for (peninsular) portuguese by karen bennett (2007 & 2009). even so, the differences, while often small and subtle, remain significant both intrinsically (as a reflection of linguistic-cultural propensities), but also practically as they are relevant to advanced learners of either language and to professional translators. one of the differences we have found is the presence of stronger epistemic commitment in the spanish abstracts, which seems to align with the conclusions of divasson cilveti and león pérez (2006), who found that abstracts written in english by spanish doctors made little use of hedging. this would suggest that spanish-speaking writers of academic abstracts are more comfortable with higher degrees of epistemic commitment. as one of respondents commented “english is more subtle. you need more hedging. spanish is more straightforward”. our study also suggests that there are multi-word expressions of epistemic modality in spanish that may be more frequent in certain genres or registers than their one-word equivalents, such as poner de manifiesto, poner de relieve, and ser testigos de. it is also possible that these express slightly different degrees of epistemic commitment, but that is not clear from our limited data. and, m. perales-escudero & j. m. swales ibérica 21 (2011): 49-7066 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 66 while it seems clear that these expressions may fall under the general category of intensifiers or boosters, it is not clear how they would be classified under existing taxonomies of spanish intensifiers, such as that by mendiluce cabrera and hernández bartolomé (2005). we think that, under that taxonomy, the category of empirical expressions, or expresiones de empirismo might be the most appropriate one, since these multi-word expressions are associated with expressions of results and seem to indicate “objetividad científica y, en consecuencia, un matiz de convencimiento” (mendiluce cabrera & hernández bartolomé, 2005: 79), that is scientific objectivity and, consequently, a degree of commitment, presumably to the results, which are the defining criteria for this category according to these authors. however, more occurrences in more contexts would need to be analyzed in order to affirm this with any certainty. finally, the results also have implications for translation training. for example, if indeed these lexical bundles and other periphrastic forms of expression proved to be rhetorically salient and/or more frequent than their single-word equivalents in spanish prose, it may be important to make students of translation aware of this divergence. in a world where english continues to be the preferred language of academic publications and seems to be encroaching in academic registers of other languages (bennett, 2007 & 2009; burgess & martín-martín, 2010), it can be argued that one important role of translators is to preserve whatever uniqueness there is to the rhetorical patterns of other languages by using those that are most distinct from english whenever appropriate. it follows that translator trainees and other language professionals may need to be made aware of the existence of such distinct patterns in a more systematic fashion. we hope our study is also a modest contribution in that direction. acknowledgements we would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and insights that have, we hope, led us to produce an improved version of our paper. 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(2004). “some characteristics of argumentative abstracts”. akademisk prosa 2: 4967. dahl, t. (2009). “author identity in economics and linguistics abstracts” in e. suomela-salmi & f. dervin (eds.), 123-134. dayrell, c. & s. aluísio (2008). “using a comparable corpus to investigate lexical patterning in english abstracts written by non-native speakers”. lrec 2008 workshop on comparable corpora, 61-66. url: http://repository.dlsi.ua.cs/251/ 1/workshops/w12_p [02/01/10] divasson cilveti, l. & i.k. león pérez (2006). “textual and language flaws: problems for spanish doctors in producing abstracts in english”. ibérica 11: 61-79. flowerdew, j. (ed.) (2002). academic discourse. harlow, essex: pearson education. graetz, n. (1985). “teaching efl students to extract structural information from abstracts” in j.m. ulign & a.k. pugh (eds.), reading for professional purposes: methods and materials in teaching languages, 123-135. leuven: acco. hartley, j. (2004). “current findings from research on structured abstracts”. journal of the medical library association 92: 368-371. hyland, k. (2000). disciplinary discourses: social interactions in academic writing. london: longman. hyland, k. (2001). “humble servants of the discipline? self-mention in research articles”. english for specific purposes 20: 207-226. hyland, k. (2005). “stance and engagement: a model of interaction in academic discourse”. discourse studies 7: 147-171. johns, t.f. (1992). “it is presented initially’: linear dislocation and interlanguage strategies in brazilian academic abstracts in english and portuguese”. ilha do desterro 27: 9-32. lorés, r. (2004). “on ra abstracts: from rhetorical structure to thematic organization”. english for specific purposes 22: 25-43. lorés-sanz, r. (2009). “different worlds, different audiences: a contrastive analysis of research article abstracts” in e.suomela-salmi & f. dervin (eds.), 187-198. martín-martín, p. (2003). “a genre analysis of english and spanish research paper abstracts in experimental social sciences”. english for specific purposes 22: 25-43. melander, b., j.m. swales & k.m. fredrickson (1997). “journal abstracts from three academic fields in the united states and sweden: national or disciplinary proclivities?” in a. duszak (ed.), culture and styles of academic discourse, 251272. new york: mouton de gruyter. mendiluce cabrera, g. & a.i. hernández bartolomé (2005). “la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico: una propuesta de clasificación para los estudios contrastivos inglés-español”. ibérica 10: 63-90. montesi, m. & b.g. urdiciain (2005). “recent linguistics research into author abstracts: its value for information science”. knowledge organization 32: 64-78. 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 68 moisés perales-escudero is a doctoral candidate in english and education at the university of michigan. he works in cross-cultural text analysis and reading comprehension. forthcoming publications include the split infinitive past and present (jengl), and texts and contexts: literacy in mexican efl teacher education (universidad autónoma de puebla, méxico). although john m. swales officially retired from the university of michigan in 2007, he remains active on a number of eap-related projects. forthcoming publications (both with christine feak) include navigating academia: writing supporting genres and creating contexts: writing introductions (university of michigan press) notes 1 as both anonymous reviewers have pointed out, a comparison with high impact isi journals would remain appropriate if the researcher’s objective is to develop tools for non-native academics to publish their articles in such journals. 2 we have decided to label these abstracts as “author-written” rather than “author-translated” since the tracing convergence and divergence ibérica 21 (2011): 49-70 69 mur-dueñas, p. (2008). “analyzing engagement markers cross-culturally: the case of english and spanish business management research articles” in s. burgess & p. martín martín (eds.), english as an additional language in research publication and communication, 197-213. berlin: peter lang. pho, p. d. (2008). “research article abstracts in applied linguistics and educational technology: a study of linguistic realizations of rhetorical structure and authorial stance”. discourse studies 10: 231-250. rounds, p.l. (1982). “hedging in written academic discourse”. (mimeo) department of linguistics, university of michigan. samraj, b. (2002). “disciplinary variation in abstracts: the case of wildlife behavior and conservation biology” in flowerdew, j. (ed.), 4056. suomela-salmi, e. & f. dervin (eds.) (2009). cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspectives on academic discourse. amsterdam: john benjamins. stotesbury, h. (2003). “evaluation in research article abstracts in the narrative and hard sciences”. journal of english for academic purposes 2: 327-341. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. (2004). research genres: explorations and applications. new york: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. & s. van bonn (2007). “similarities and differences in french and english eap research article abstracts: the case of asp” in k. fløttum (ed.), language and discipline perspectives on academic discourse, 260-276. newcastle: cambridge scholars publishing. swales, j.m. & m.d. perales-escudero (2009). “matched pairs of spanish and english research abstracts: do the differences lie in the details?” paper presented at the fifth conference on intercultural rhetoric and discourse. ann arbor, michigan, june 13 2009. valero garcés, c. & c.m. calle-martínez (1997). “contrastive rhetoric and esp: a cross-linguistic analysis of finite verb profiles in english and spanish medical abstracts”. alsed-lsp newsletter 20: 22-36. van bonn, s. & j.m. swales. (2007). “english and french journal abstracts in the language sciences: three exploratory studies”. journal of english for academic purposes 6: 93-108. 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 69 authors who responded to our queries indicated that they did not “translate” the abstracts but instead sought to produce a new abstract in spanish. of course, this production of a new abstract in another language involves translational processes, which is why we have kept “translation” as a keyword. further, our results, as those of other studies in contrastive analysis, may have some relevance for translators; this provides additional rationale for retaining “translation” as a keyword. 3 we do this in order to provide readers unfamiliar with spanish with some sense of the stylistic originality of the language. in no way do we intend these literal translations as a critique of the abstract authors’ translations or of the spanish language itself. 4 this anglophone use is somewhat comparable to the use of oeuvre in french. m. perales-escudero & j. m. swales ibérica 21 (2011): 49-7070 03 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 10/03/11 17:19 página 70 iberica 13 ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126 issn 1139-7241 abstract the need to name and communicate to others new concepts in specific domains of human activity leads to the formation of new terms. however, many of the technical words in english are not new from the point of view of form. they rather derive from the common stock of general language: new lexical units are built from already existing forms and/or meanings. the original form is used for naming a new concept by adding a distinctive specialized lexical feature while keeping some semantic features of the original concept. in this paper, we aim at explaining and visualizing the nature of some of the processes that allow for the construction of new senses in technical words through a branching and expanding process, as explained in the lexical constellation model. the analysis is performed on three words widely used in telecommunication english: “bus”, “hub” and “chip”. the understanding of the process may be of great help for learners of esp in general and technical english in particular. key words: new meanings, technical english, lexical constellations, terminology. resumen la construcci�n de nuevos significados en ingl�s t�cnico bajo la �ptica del modelo de constelaciones l�xicas la necesidad de denominar nuevos conceptos para posibilitar la comunicación en dominios específicos de la actividad humana favorece la formación de términos nuevos. sin embargo, muchas de las palabras técnicas en inglés no son building new meanings in technical english from the perspective of the lexical constellation model camino rea rizzo and aquilino sánchez pérez universidad de murcia (spain) camino.rea@um.es & asanchez@um.es 107 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 107 ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126 c. rea rizzo & a. sánchez pérez realmente nuevas en su forma, sino que derivan del vocabulario utilizado en el lenguaje general: nuevas unidades léxicas se construyen sobre formas y/o significados ya existentes. en este artículo, se explica y visualiza la naturaleza de algunos de los procesos que permiten la construcción de nuevos sentidos en palabras técnicas mediante la ramificación y extensión de significados. siguiendo el modelo de constelaciones léxicas, se analizan tres palabras utilizadas con frecuencia en el inglés de las telecomunicaciones: bus, hub y chip. la comprensión de tales procesos puede ser de gran utilidad para el aprendizaje del inglés con fines específicos en general y, concretamente, del inglés técnico. palabras clave: nuevos significados, inglés técnico, constelaciones léxicas, terminología. introduction new words reflect new concepts and new things, and new concepts and things require new words to name them. an old question in semantics and lexicology is “what a word is” (lyons, 1980 & 1995; cruse, 2004; hoey, 2005; almela, 2006, among others). from the point of view of meaning, words or lexical units are often described in terms of “semantic features”, that is, as bunches of semantic properties that become distinct units and differentiate in some way from each other. the explicit description of those features or properties constitutes the core of definitions of words in dictionaries (nattinger & decarrico, 1992; almela, sánchez & cantos, 2004; sánchez & almela, 2004; sánchez, 2005). defining words implies “defining” their boundaries. however, the boundaries and organization of features in lexical units are not always clear or transparent (kilgarriff, 1993; jorgensen, 1990; yarowsky, 2000; hoey, 2005; almela, 2006; joyce, 2008), among other reasons, because the same word or form may enclose more than one meaning, at times totally unrelated (consider “bank” = sloping raised land, especially along the sides of a river, and “bank” = organization for investing, keeping, borrowing, etc., money), but most often closely connected in meaning and sharing some of the defining features (consider “give” = 1. to offer something to someone; 2. to put into the possession of another for his use, etc.). the assertion by kilgarriff (2006: 43), “there is no decisive way to identifying where one sense of a word ends and the next begins”, reveals a key problem in sense identification, and its correlate, sense disambiguation. the more we know about words and meanings and the way they relate to 108 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 108 each other, the more it becomes evident that meaning is not easily enclosed into the formal elements we call words or senses as traditionally considered or as dictionaries may suggest. meaning spreads in language as a complex web of semantic relationships, organized in an intricate network, with multiple connections in a multi-dimensional space. the structure of the neural network itself is probably the best model to look at when looking for structural similarities. cantos and sánchez (2001) propose a constellationlike organization when explaining lexical dependency and attraction. cantos and sánchez’s (2001) “lexical constellation model” provides a suggestive description of the structure of meaning as it appears in larger structures (for example sentences) and in smaller lexical units (traditionally called “words”). moreover, we also consider that this model can also be used to describe one of the processes, semantically based, through which new meanings and senses are permanently created, in general and in the field of technical english in particular. together with this, the model will also shed some light on the nature of polysemy, synonymy, antonymy and homonymy. the lexical constellation model in daily use, a constellation refers to a group of celestial bodies or stars, with boundaries of some kind, perceived as forming a pattern; that is, a constellation implies an organized set of elements or units related to each other in some way. out of this basic meaning, cantos and sánchez (2001) apply the term to lexical semantics and complex lexical units with elements inside which keep some kind of relationship to each other and submit to a hierarchical organization. they assume that “each sentence unit is formed by minor units and these in their turn are formed by other minor units and so on, which indicates that each unit is a structure formed by other substructures, and each sub-structure by sub-sub-structures, etc.” (cantos & sánchez, 2001: 222). additionally, they also assume a hierarchical structure whereby each element is directly or indirectly dependent on other elements. the lexical constellation they seem to bear in mind resembles the solar system, with a central sun around which planets and moons orbit. figure 1 shows a visual picture of the model, which allows for a multimensional interaction and connection among the units or elements within the construct. any element may connect with any other element in many directions. this potential for describing multiple connectivity is of building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126 109 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 109 great help in understanding the semantic web and the intricacies of lexical relationships inside and across words. meanings in fact are far from adjusting to linear connectivity. figure 1 illustrates how the core meaning of c is shared by three other lexical units, while d connects with c and e and this one shares its meaning with two other lexical nuclei. lexical units result from the clustering of semantic features perceived as units by the speakers. those units however should not be viewed as isolated entities; they may share part of their features with other lexical units, so that the units intervening in the same set of connections are not fully independent regarding their semantic properties. such interconnectivity is the very foundation of a lexical constellation. in this study, we will take advantage of cantos and sánchez’s (2001) lexical constellation model to describe the potential and behaviour of semantic features to shape meanings and senses (including new ones) within the lexical unit traditionally called “word”. connections between the various constituents of the lexical unit we call “word” and with other lexical units (other words) are of various kinds, but they are governed by and rooted in one or more of the defining semantic features, while the rest are left aside. some of the features taken from the nucleus plus the addition of one or more new features may also build new meanings or senses, in such a way that the base features kept serve as a link to the original meaning or sense, while the new ones added are capable of shaping new meanings or senses. the fact that new senses are often based on older ones, the complexity of the connections among lexical units and changes that affect meaning but not the form through which it is transmitted is a permanent source of ambiguity, hence of possible misunderstanding. the lexical constellation model c. rea rizzo & a. sánchez pérez ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126110 ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 3 assume that each sentence unit is formed by minor units and these in their turn are formed by other minor units and so on, which indicates that each unit is a structure formed by other sub-structures, and each sub-structure by sub-substructures, etc.” (cantos & sánchez, 2001: 222). additionally, they also assume a hierarchical structure whereby each element is directly or indirectly dependent on other elements. the lexical constellation they seem to bear in mind resembles the solar system, with a central sun around which planets and moons orbit. figure 1 shows a visual picture of the model, which allows for a multimensional interaction and connection among the units or elements within the construct. any element may connect with any other element in many directions. this potential for describing multiple connectivity is of great help in understanding the semantic web and the intricacies of lexical relationships inside and across words. meanings in fact are far from adjusting to linear connectivity. figure 1 illustrates how the core meaning of c is shared by three other lexical units, while d connects with c and e and this one shares its meaning with two other lexical nuclei. figure 1. the structure of a lexical constellation. lexical units result from the clustering of semantic features perceived as units by the speakers. those units however should not be viewed as isolated entities; they may share part of their features with other lexical units, so that the units intervening in the same set of connections are not fully independent regarding their semantic properties. such interconnectivity is the very foundation of a lexical constellation. in this study, we will take advantage of cantos and sánchez’s (2001) lexical constellation model to describe the potential and behaviour of semantic features e d c 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 110 constitutes a powerful tool for describing those processes, which sometimes – as already mentioned – lead to ambiguity and in any case trigger many new meanings and senses. the urge for new words technical english abounds in new words. the field of science discovers new realities, enlarges the comprehension of natural phenomena, conceives novel machines and devices, and there is a pressing need for new words to name the new things and concepts generated around them. technical english faces as well the problem of ambiguity, deeply embedded in the language and heavily affecting the identification of senses in polysemous words. the fact that english is an international language for professional communication, the urge for standards in the industry in order to avoid misinterpretations or misunderstanding, and machine translation demand high precision in the use of terms, and more especially in new terms. aecma simplified english, created by the european association of aerospace manufacturers (aecma) in the 1980s, is a case in point to illustrate the urge for accuracy. it was first developed for the aerospace industry. the aim was to restrict and define the words used in manuals and official communications or industrial specifications, in such a way that polysemous words should only be used with one single sense. aecma simplified english is therefore a controlled language, with precise specifications that affect not only vocabulary but also grammar; it is clearly an attempt at avoiding ambiguity, a common characteristic of natural language. any simplified language will prescribe, for example, that a polysemous word, like “open”, should only be used to mean “to move something to a position that is not closed” (= to open the door), and not as “to begin” (= to open the olympic games). in doing so, ambiguity and misinterpretation is avoided. keeping to those simplified standards in language use requires important restrictions and gets close to what might be termed a “special language or code”. generating new meanings and new senses the task of building a simplified language is difficult to implement, since it goes precisely against the natural tendency to expand meanings adding new elements to already existing ones and consequently increasing complexity. building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126 111 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 111 there are various mechanisms for generating or creating new elements in the lexical component of language. one of them, for example, are coinages, a second one is based on the derivation of new forms from already existing ones (through affixation), a third one consists of directly borrowing from other languages, and there is a fourth one which is more subtle and takes place within the semantic unit itself, with no changes in the form of the word. this fourth source of vocabulary enlargement is at the basis of polysemy, because new meanings are added to the same form and hence various concepts or things (“denotata”) are associated to one single concept or thing (“denotandum”). the process of building new lexical units from already existing meanings is economical from the point of view of the effort required from the speakers. it is so because (i) the same formal “platform” is used for naming a new concept or thing, and (ii) part of an already existing semantic unit or construct is taken as the basis for the new semantic unit (new meaning or sense), to which one or more features are added. the added features function as differentiating properties against other lexical units, especially against the ones covered by the same form. the new meaning is not totally different from the other meanings covered by the word – they still share some semantic features –, but it keeps distinct contrastive features against the rest of meanings or senses within the same constellation. if we analyse the word “heart”, for example, we can easily visualize the web of semantic features interconnected, as shown in figure 2. c. rea rizzo & a. sánchez pérez ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126112 building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 5 generating new meanings and new senses the task of building a simplified language is difficult to implement, since it goes precisely against the natural tendency to expand meanings adding new elements to already existing ones and consequently increasing complexity. there are various mechanisms for generating or creating new elements in the lexical component of language. one of them, for example, are coinages, a second one is based on the derivation of new forms from already existing ones (through affixation), a third one consists of directly borrowing from other languages, and there is a fourth one which is more subtle and takes place within the semantic unit itself, with no changes in the form of the word. this fourth source of vocabulary enlargement is at the basis of polysemy, because new meanings are added to the same form and hence various concepts or things (“denotata”) are associated to one single concept or thing (“denotandum”). the process of building new lexical units from already existing meanings is economical from the point of view of the effort required from the speakers. it is so because (i) the same formal “platform” is used for naming a new concept or thing, and (ii) part of an already existing semantic unit or construct is taken as the basis for the new semantic unit (new meaning or sense), to which one or more features are added. the added features function as differentiating properties against other lexical units, especially against the ones covered by the same form. the new meaning is not totally different from the other meanings covered by the word – they still share some semantic features –, but it keeps distinct contrastive features against the rest of meanings or senses within the same constellation. if we analyse the word “heart”, for example, we can easily visualize the web of semantic features interconnected, as shown in figure 2. figure 2. lexical constellation of “heart”. central part (of anything) central part (of anything) heart: physical organ in persons/animals. shape of a heart thoughts, emotions, feelings core / centre / essence love, devotion, sympathy… card (with figure of heart) courage 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 112 the core feature of “heart” is the physical organ in people and animals. human beings have traditionally considered the “heart” as the most important organ for life. the senses covered by this word have developed along three main features or expanding directions: (i) being the core or centre of something, (ii) having the shape of a “heart”, and (iii) keeping the emotions and feelings attributed to this organ in human beings (sánchez, cantos & almela, 2009b). altogether, the meanings of the lexical constellation of “heart” may be specified in eight different semantic senses, as follows: 1. the hollow, muscular organ in a vertebrate animal that receives blood from the veins and pumps it through the arteries by alternate dilation and contraction. 2. the human heart considered as the central part or core of something. 3. the human heart considered as the essence of something. 4. the human heart considered as the center or source of emotions, personality attributes, etc. 5. any of the various humane feelings, like compassion, love, devotion, enthusiasm, etc. 6. courage and bravery, as rooted in the heart. 7. something like a heart in shape; conventionalized design or representation of a heart, shaped like this. 8. a red figure of a heart stamped on a playing card, or a playing card marked with a conventionalized figure of a heart. the senses are hierarchically organized, so that the ones lower in rank are contained in the higher ones (sánchez, cantos & almela, 2009a & 2009b). and the distance from each other increases as more features are added in each one of the directions. the three directions of “heart” are rooted in the central meaning of “heart” (a physical organ), which is viewed from different perspectives: as the core of something, as the source of emotions and feelings, and as something having a similar shape. the meaning at the end of each direction enlarges the semantic gap regarding the meanings in other directions. if the process of addition of meanings went on, the stage could be reached in which the end-meanings would be so distant from each other that their common source could be hardly visible or recognizable. building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126 113 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 113 the building of lexical constellations in technical english the process of formation of new words and meanings in technical english shares the mechanisms described in the previous paragraphs. we will consider here the formation of new technical words from the perspective of the lexical constellation model, as already described. shaping or coining new meanings without changing the denotandum and enlarging the lexical constellation is not exclusive of technical english though. the model itself (shaping or generating new things reshaping older ones, or recombining the existing elements available) is not exclusive of language either. it is present everywhere around us, in the world we live in. rea (2008) has analyzed in depth the characteristics of the technical vocabulary in telecommunication english. the analysis is based on a fairly representative sample of technical language, a five million word corpus of telecommunication english. one of the conclusions points out that many of the technical words in english are connected to or derive from common language and there is evidence of a regular word transfer from the general to the subject domain language. in fact, in the ranking of the 1,000 most statistically significant word families in the corpus, 20% corresponds to those registered in the “general service list of english words” (west, 1953). furthermore, the quantitative criteria established to determine the specialized character of a word have detected that many members of those families are given a technical use (“system”, “packet”, “net”, “server”, “filter”, “path”, “host”, “flow”, “stream”, “threads”, “wave”, “model”, “type”, etc.). on the other hand, a qualitative detailed analysis in context also reveals the specialized meaning of some forms that the application of quantitative criteria fails to discriminate automatically (“bus”, “linear”, “log”, “mapping”, “memory”, “noise”, “program”, “radio”, “shell”, “signal”, “window”, etc). the fact that many of the technical words derive from general language is fully relevant regarding our thesis here. the resource to the common lexical stock of the english language is the quickest way to have easy and “comfortable” access to new words. words habitual in telecommunication english (“execute”, “scroll”, “paste”, “flux”, “terminal”, “earth”, “memory”, “drag”, “window”, “coil”, “energy”, “positive”, “firewall”, “shell”, “gate”, “host”, “packet”, “resistance”, “print”, “program”, “icon”, “drain”, “load”, “plate”, “bus”, “hub”, “chip”, etc.) are all of them used in c. rea rizzo & a. sánchez pérez ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126114 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 114 habitual communication outside the technical field. the words have been semantically enriched by developing a specific and additional sense proper of the technical field in which they are used. their specialized meaning is likely to be comprehensible from their meaning in a general context. some authors call them quasi-technical words (sager, dungworth & mcdonald, 1980; alcaraz, 2000). we will apply the lexical constellation model (cantos & sánchez, 2001) as the tool of analysis for “bus”, “hub” and “chip” – three widely used words in telecommunication english. in doing so, we will discover the relationships and connections between the new technical meaning generated and the “old meaning or meanings” in which the new sense is rooted or from which it derives. (a) “bus” “bus” is a recent word in english (dated in 1832, as an abbreviation of the latin dative plural of “omnis”, omnibus). it appears 711 times in the technical corpus compiled by rea (2008). this same word appears 1,711 times in the general corpus lacell1. the keyness of the term (269.7) is high in the technical corpus, as expected, and the ratio of occurrence is 2.25 higher if compared to its frequency in general english. cald (cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary, 2003) defines the word as “a large vehicle in which people are driven from one place to another”. webster’s dictionary offers a similar definition: “a vehicle carrying many passengers; used for public transport.” to this definition a new sense, or perhaps two, have been added in some dictionaries. the new oxford dictionary of english includes one, webster’s does not include any technical definition, and technical dictionaries and encyclopaedias include one or two: one of the sets of conductors (wires, pcb tracks or connections in an integrated circuit) connecting the various functional units in a computer (foldoc dictionary). a bus is a subsystem that transfers data or power between computer components inside a computer or between computers. unlike a point-topoint connection, a bus can logically connect several peripherals over the same set of wires (wikipedia). the basic meaning of “bus” in general dictionaries is notoriously simple from a lexical point of view; it appears in most dictionaries with only one building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126 115 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 115 meaning (= a vehicle carrying many passengers). the two senses found in technical english have been added as a further specification from the original one. the functional meaning of “bus” as “a vehicle used to transport people from one place to another” is transferred to the structural characteristics of the computer, where various devices interact with each other. the device with the function of facilitating such information to other devices is called “bus”, as examples (1) and (2) reveal:2 (1) the values so obtained can be sent to the chip through the i 2c bus, or can be used in the simulink environment to simulate either the chip alone or the complete system controlled by the fuzzy chip. (2) a von neumann architecture computer has five parts: an arithmeticlogic unit, a control unit, a memory, some form of input/output and a bus that provides a data path between these parts. as an extension to the physical device facilitating communication from and to other devices in the computer, the same word is also applied to the transfer system as a whole, i.e. the set of devices involved and the process mediated by them. this is shown in example (3): (3) there are many different types of bus transfers, typically, memory read, memory write, i/o read, i/o write and interrupt. each type of transfer is called a bus cycle. a bus transfer takes place in stages called bus states. a clock regulates the states; for expanded local buses, the cpu generates the clock signals that control the bus. for a system bus, the bus controller may either have its own clock or use a system-wide clock. bus transfer requests are sent through bus-request lines and are resolved by the bus arbiter. the convention of resolving bus requests is called a bus protocol. figure 3 illustrates the lexical constellation of this term. the word “bus” had originally three identifying features: (i) a (motor) vehicle (with a specific shape), (ii) to transport (from one place to another), and (iii) people (being transported). in this case, one of the core meanings of “bus” is kept (transportation), while the means for such a function changes and applies to a different physical device (an electronic chip), and the object of transportation is not people but information. the hierarchy of the constellation is consequently enriched and enlarged with a new branching node (transportation of information), out of which two senses derive: (i) the electronic device serving this function in a computer and (ii) the system (several interconnected devices and wiring) that facilitates the transfer of c. rea rizzo & a. sánchez pérez ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126116 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 116 information in larger computing systems. from a lexicological perspective, the economical side of the new meaning is obvious, since an old form is preserved, as well as a part of its lexical content. the selection of some features in the lexical unit “bus”, by enlarging the semantic field of “vehicle” and the object of “transportation”, allows for new meanings, which keep their dependency on the original semantic unit while at the same time they gain enough independence to become different. (b) “hub” “hub” is not as frequent as “bus” in the telecommunication corpus (rea, 2008). it occurs 245 times (about 1/3 of the occurrences of “bus”), but its keyness in the technical corpus is high (445.4) and the ratio regarding the lacell corpus is very high (11.77). the definition of “hub” in cald reads as follows: 1. the central or main part of something where there is most activity. 2. the central part of a wheel into which the spokes (= bars connecting the central part to the outer edge of the wheel) are fixed. webster’s dictionary defines the same term in a similar way: 1. the central part of a car wheel (or fan or propeller etc) through which the shaft or axle passes. 2. the chief center of activity. this word was first recorded in the 16th century, but was only widely used in the 19th century in connection with bicycles, referring to the central part of the wheel. soon afterwards it was also used to designate a “center of interest building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126 117 building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 9 electronic chip), and the object of transportation is not people but information. the hierarchy of the constellation is consequently enriched and enlarged with a new branching node (transportation of information), out of which two senses derive: (i) the electronic device serving this function in a computer and (ii) the system (several interconnected devices and wiring) that facilitates the transfer of information in larger computing systems. from a lexicological perspective, the economical side of the new meaning is obvious, since an old form is preserved, as well as a part of its lexical content. the selection of some features in the lexical unit “bus”, by enlarging the semantic field of “vehicle” and the object of “transportation”, allows for new meanings, which keep their dependency on the original semantic unit while at the same time they gain enough independence to become different. figure 3. lexical constellation of “bus”. (b) “hub” “hub” is not as frequent as “bus” in the telecommunication corpus (rea, 2008). it occurs 245 times (about 1/3 of the occurrences of “bus”), but its keyness in the technical corpus is high (445.4) and the ratio regarding the lacell corpus is very high (11.77). the definition of “hub” in cald reads as follows: 1. the central or main part of something where there is most activity. 2. the central part of a wheel into which the spokes (= bars connecting the central part to the outer edge of the wheel) are fixed. webster’s dictionary defines the same term in a similar way: 1. the central part of a car wheel (or fan or propeller etc) through which the shaft or axle passes. 2. the chief center of activity. this word was first recorded in the 16th century, but was only widely used in the 19th century in connection with bicycles, referring to the central part of the wheel. soon afterwards it was also used to designate a “center of interest or activity or importance”. the new technical meaning derives from the core bus: a vehicle to transport people transportation of information system in computers device in computers 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 117 or activity or importance”. the new technical meaning derives from the core feature of the word. in computing, “hub” keeps the value of “center of something” and it applies to devices or computers connected to a central one, both as hardware and serving the purpose of information exchange: a hub is a central node in a network; a device connected to several other devices. in arcnet, a hub is used to connect several computers together. in a message handling service, a number of local computers might exchange messages solely with a hub computer. the hub would be responsible for exchanging messages with other hubs and non-local computers. the idea of centrality is also kept when the term is used in electrical engineering: a circular device on which the magnetic tape is wound. this meaning is illustrated in the technical corpus (rea, 2008) with examples as the following: (4) all these networks are co-ordinated by a master earth station known as a hub that both enables the rest of the remote terminals to establish their communications channels and keeps an overall control of the network. (5) another use of wireless lan technology is to support nomadic access by providing a wireless link between a lan hub and a mobile data terminal equipped with an antenna, such as a laptop computer or notepad computer. (6) each packet the hub receives is sent out to every system connected to the hub. the lexical constellation of “hub” is shown in figure 4: c. rea rizzo & a. sánchez pérez ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126118 c. rea rizzo & a. sánchez pérez feature of the word. in computing, “hub” keeps the value of “center of something” and it applies to devices or computers connected to a central one, both as hardware and serving the purpose of information exchange: a hub is a central node in a network; a device connected to several other devices. in arcnet, a hub is used to connect several computers together. in a message handling service, a number of local computers might exchange messages solely with a hub computer. the hub would be responsible for exchanging messages with other hubs and non-local computers. the idea of centrality is also kept when the term is used in electrical engineering: a circular device on which the magnetic tape is wound. this meaning is illustrated in the technical corpus (rea, 2008) with examples as the following: (4) all these networks are co-ordinated by a master earth station known as a hub that both enables the rest of the remote terminals to establish their communications channels and keeps an overall control of the network. (5) another use of wireless lan technology is to support nomadic access by providing a wireless link between a lan hub and a mobile data terminal equipped with an antenna, such as a laptop computer or notepad computer. (6) each packet the hub receives is sent out to every system connected to the hub. the lexical constellation of “hub” is shown in figure 4: figure 4. lexical constellation of “hub”. the building of a new sense for “hub” (electronic device as a center for distributing/sharing information) is efficient in terms of the effort it takes: the new tool/thing appropriates an already coined word, and the concept is built by selecting a semantic feature from the original word and extending the application of this feature to other tools or things. in that case, the core meaning of “being central to something (an object, device or function)” is kept; only the function (exchange of information) and the object (electronic device) changes. the hub: center of wheel (bicycle) of activities of electronic device in a network of circular device in magnetic tape 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 118 the building of a new sense for “hub” (electronic device as a center for distributing/sharing information) is efficient in terms of the effort it takes: the new tool/thing appropriates an already coined word, and the concept is built by selecting a semantic feature from the original word and extending the application of this feature to other tools or things. in that case, the core meaning of “being central to something (an object, device or function)” is kept; only the function (exchange of information) and the object (electronic device) changes. the expansion of the original lexical unit covered by “hub” takes place (i) extracting the core feature of an already existing lexical unit (something is the center of something [of a wheel]), (ii) generalizing this same feature with the potential to be applied to other things or concepts, and (iii) applying this core feature to a different tool or concept. the coinage of new senses with this scheme may therefore be applied to multiple objects or concepts adjusting to an extremely simple and potentially rich process. (c) “chip” “chip” is nowadays a very frequent term in computing. the telecommunication corpus has registered 1,229 occurrences of this form (rea, 2008), against 353 in the lacell corpus. the keyness of “chip” is very high (2,340), as it is the ratio of occurrence against a general corpus of english (13.22). according to the online etymology dictionary, “chip” derives from old english (“small piece of wood”, separated by cutting). its sense as “a thin slice of foodstuffs” is found in the second part of the 18th century. the meaning of “potato chip” is registered in the 19th century the technical meaning of the term is later on applied to electronic devices in computers in 1962. modern english dictionaries differ significantly in the amount of senses registered for that word. cald includes three general meanings for “chip” together with a technical one (number 4 below): 1. a long thin piece of potato that is fried and usually eaten hot. 2. a thin slice of fried maize, banana or other food which is eaten cold. 3. a small piece that has been broken off a larger object, or the mark left on an object such as a cup, plate, etc. where a small piece has been broken off it: wood chips. polly fell and knocked a chip out of her front tooth. 4. a very small piece of semiconductor, especially in a computer, that contains extremely small electronic circuits and devices, and can perform particular operations. building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126 119 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 119 webster’s dictionary online includes a more detailed account of meanings (seven general meanings plus two technical ones – numbers 2 and 7 below): 1. a small fragment of something broken off from the whole; “a bit of rock caught him in the eye”. 2. (nautical) a triangular wooden float attached to the end of a log line. 3. a piece of dried bovine dung. 4. a thin crisp slice of potato fried in deep fat. 5. a mark left after a small piece has been chopped or broken off of something. 6. a small disk-shaped counter used to represent money when gambling. 7. electronic equipment consisting of a small crystal of a silicon semiconductor fabricated to carry out a number of electronic functions in an integrated circuit. 8. a low running approach shot. 9. the act of chipping something. “chip” as a technical term in the sense registered in 7 (“electronic equipment consisting of a small crystal …”) is used in computing with two senses: 1. an integrated circuit (silicon die). 2. more specifically, a microprocessor. in telecommunications new meanings have also evolved from the original technical sense, as follows: 1. in satellite communications systems, the smallest element of data in an encoded signal. 2. the most elemental component of a spread spectrum signal when it is decompressed in time; that is, the longest duration signal in which signal parameters are approximately constant. 3. in micrographic and display systems, a relatively small and separate piece of microform that contains microimages and coded information for search, identification, and retrieval purposes. c. rea rizzo & a. sánchez pérez ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126120 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 120 the different meanings are evidenced in our technical corpus (rea, 2008) as shown in examples (7) to (10): (7) 8k-byte sewd cache chip consists of 489,000 transistors on a die size of 0.853 x 0.827 cm and is implemented in 0.8 um dlm cmos process operating at 60 mhz. (8) these new developments require changes to the frequency multiplier in the transmitter and the inclusion on the chip of part of the network for implementing the electromagnetic transitions for wideband interconnects. (9) this is achieved by using a technique which introduces a code to represent a symbol of the transmitted message. a code is made up of a number of binary digits (bits), each one of which is referred to as a chip. the whole code consisting of all of the chips representing a symbol takes up the same time span as the original symbol. thus if a single symbol is represented by a code of 8 chips, the chip rate must be 8 * the symbol rate. (10) the performance of a synchronous system with random sequences is on average the same that of an asynchronous system. a random sequence can be generated by selecting independently each chip of the sequence which can take the value v with equal probability. the lexical constellation of “chip” is more complex than the ones for “bus” or “hub” and is particularly interesting because the senses coined in computing first and in telecommunications later reveal a significant enlargement of the constellation with the addition of more senses, as shown in figure 5. the lexical constellation of “chip” perfectly illustrates the incremental and diverging enlargement of meanings, anchored around a central core and evolving through partial feature selection from the already existing lexical features and the addition of new features that cater for new things or concepts. the process of enlargement in the constellation is based on the original “small piece resulting from cutting something from a whole” (most often a piece of wood). the resulting piece is a slice, rather thin if compared to the whole. the shape of this cut piece (thin slice) gives origin to the “thin slice of a fried potato” or “fried maize” and is also at the basis of the “thin slice of silicon” used in computing for integrating electronic circuits. the feature “small” is kept in telecommunications for referring to the “smallest amount of data or signals” transmitted, or for directly naming a microimage building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126 121 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 121 in a micrographic system. on the other hand, the small electronic device containing circuits gives rise to a new sense when it is applied to the microprocessor itself (which includes the thousands of built-in circuits contained in the chip). conclusions there is a need for new words or new senses in technical english, based on the new and innovative technical and electronic devices and the functions they provide. the lexical constellation model offers a useful and powerful method to explain how meanings and senses are structured and how they expand, taking the ones already shaped as a basis for creating new ones. on the one hand, the new meanings derive from partially transforming older ones, recombining new features with already existing ones. consequently, the system itself and the speakers gain in economy and efficiency, since new meanings result from a partial reprocessing of existing elements. the new c. rea rizzo & a. sánchez pérez ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126122 building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 13 from cutting something from a whole” (most often a piece of wood). the resulting piece is a slice, rather thin if compared to the whole. the shape of this cut piece (thin slice) gives origin to the “thin slice of a fried potato” or “fried maize” and is also at the basis of the “thin slice of silicon” used in computing for integrating electronic circuits. the feature “small” is kept in telecommunications for referring to the “smallest amount of data or signals” transmitted, or for directly naming a microimage in a micrographic system. on the other hand, the small electronic device containing circuits gives rise to a new sense when it is applied to the microprocessor itself (which includes the thousands of built-in circuits contained in the chip). figure 5. lexical constellation of “chip”. conclusions there is a need for new words or new senses in technical english, based on the new and innovative technical and electronic devices and the functions they triangular wooden float at end of a log line chip: small fragment broken off from whole a piece of dried bovine dung thin slice small electronic device (silicon die) act of chipping small diskshapedcounter used as money mark left by broken fragment of fried potato of fried maize smallest element microprocessor of data of signal microimage 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 122 meanings are built (i) taking advantage of already existing forms, and (ii) selecting and keeping specific lexical features from the core meaning, while others are left aside; to the bunch of selected lexical features some new lexical features are added and a new unit is born. the process is efficient in terms of effort, and economical in terms of new resources required. the constellation-like process of enlarging the meanings or senses covered by the same linguistic form follows and adjusts to the web-like and hierarchical organization of meanings. on the other hand, it must be acknowledged the lexical structure resulting from this process contributes significantly to ambiguity in language use. this is the problem that machines, automatic translation and science face, particularly, when maximum accuracy is required or recommended. the lexical constellation model (cantos & sánchez, 2001) proves to be efficient in explaining and visualizing the generation of new meanings with ecological efficiency, recombining the new with the old; and we may predict that such a process will tend to be applied more frequently whenever the urgency for new meanings is higher. after all, the language is a system of communication created by human beings and as such, cannot be different from other systems governing life and activity in the universe. finally, learners of efl in general, and especially learners of esp, will find in the lexical constellation model an efficient tool for comprehending how new meanings pop up from already existing ones and taking advantage of already existing forms. for a similar reason, vocabulary acquisition and expansion will be more easily and efficiently consolidated. [paper received march 2010] [revised paper accepted june 2010] references building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126 123 alcaraz, e. (2000). el inglés profesional y académico. madrid: alianza editorial. almela, m. (2006). from words to lexical units: a corpus-driven account of collocation and idiomatic patterning in english and englishspanish. frankfurt: peter lang. almela, m., a. sánchez & p. cantos (2004). “lexico-semantic mapping of meanings in english and spanish. a model of analysis” in j.m. bravo (ed.), 11-41. bravo, j.m. (ed.) (2004). a new spectrum of translation studies. valladolid: universidad de valladolid. cantos, p. & a. sánchez. (2001). “lexical constellations: what collocates fail to tell”. international journal of corpus linguistics 6: 199228. cruse, a. (2004). meaning in language: an introduction to semantics and pragmatics. oxford: oxford university press. 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 123 dr. camino rea is a part-time assistant lecturer at the english department at the university of murcia, and a full-time teacher at the language centre at the technical university of cartagena. her main research interests are esp and corpus linguistics. she is a member of lacell research group. dr. aquilino sánchez is a full professor at the english department at the university of murcia. his research and teaching have centred on foreign c. rea rizzo & a. sánchez pérez ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126124 hoey, m. (2005). lexical priming. a new theory of words and language. london: routledge. jorgensen, j.c. (1990). “the psychological reality of word senses”. journal of psycholinguistic research 19: 167-190. joyce, t. (2008). “mapping word knowledge in japanese: constructing and utilizing a large-scale database of japanese word associations” in proceedings of the large-scale knowledge resources. construction and application, 116131. heidelberg: springer verlag. kilgarriff, a. (1993). “dictionary word sense distinctions: an enquiry into their nature”. computers and the humanities 26: 365-387. kilgarriff, a. (2006) “word senses” in e. agirre & p. edmonds (eds.), word sense disambiguation. algorithms and applications, 29-46. berlin: springer verlag. lyons, j. (1980). language, meaning and context. cambridge: cambridge university press. lyons, j. (1995). linguistic semantics: an introduction. cambridge: cambridge university press. nattinger, j. & s. decarrico (1992). lexical phrases and language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. rea, c. (2008). el inglés de las telecomunicaciones: estudio léxico basado en un corpus específico, (tesis doctoral) murcia: servicio de publicaciones de la universidad de murcia. url: http://www.tesisenred.net/tdr-0611109134048/index_cs.html [17/01/2010] sager, j.c., d. dungworth & p.f. mcdonald (1980). english special languages. principles and practice in science and technology. wiesbaden: brandstetter verlag kg. sánchez, a. (2005). “estructuración semántica y redes léxicas de ‘hand’ y ‘mano’” in f. garrudo & j. comesaña (eds.), estudios de filología inglesa en honor de antonio garnica, 391-430. sevilla: servicio de publicaciones de la universidad de sevilla. sánchez, a. & m. almela (2004). “polysemy and sense discrimination in lexicography” in j.m. bravo (ed.), 141-174. sánchez, a., p. cantos, & m. almela (2009a). “desambiguación automática de significados mediante el contexto en términos polivalentes: prototipo aplicado al inglés y al español” in c. bretones callejas, j. fernández sánchez, j. ibáñez ibáñez, m. garcía sánchez, m. cortés de los ríos, s. salaberri ramiro, m. cruz martínez, n. perdú honeyman & b. cantizano márquez (eds.), applied linguistics now: understanding language and mind / la lingüística aplicada actual: comprendiendo el lenguaje y la mente, 1499-1515. almería: aesla/universidad de almería. sánchez, a., p. cantos & m. almela (2009b). “in search of a new model for wsd: a multi-layered lexical constellation model” in a. sánchez & p. cantos (eds.). a survey on corpus-based research / panorama de investigaciones basadas en corpus, 1235-1241. murcia: asociación española de lingüística del corpus. west, m. (1953). a general service list of english words. london: longman. yarowsky, d. (2000). “word sense disambiguation” in r. dale, h. moisl & h. somers (eds.), handbook of natural language processing, 629-624. new york: marcel dekker. ——(2003). cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary. cambridge: cambridge university press. ——-. foldoc. the free on-line dictionary of computing. url: http://www.foldoc.org [17/01/2010] ——-. online etymology dictionary. url: http://www.etymonline.com [17/01/2010] ——-. webster’s online dictionary. url: http://www.websters-online-dictionary.com [17/01/2010] ——-. wikipedia. url: http://en.wikipedia.org [17/01/2010] 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 124 language teaching and learning, cognitive processes in language learning, lexicology, monolingual and bilingual lexicography and corpus linguistics. he is the head of lacell research group. notes 1 lacell is a 20 million word corpus compiled by the research group lacell at the university of murcia. lacell is a general purpose corpus of contemporary english. more information can be found at url: http://www.um.es/grupos/grupo-lacell/quees.php 2 all the given samples related to the telecommunication domain come from the corpus specialised in telecommunication engineering english (rea, 2008). building new meanings in technical english ibérica 20 (2010): 107-126 125 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 125 05 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:05 página 126 iberica 13 ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract audiovisual translation (avt) has been exhaustively studied from various perspectives such as cross-cultural studies or reception studies. more recently, attention has been paid to its value in teaching foreign languages. however, in spite of the numerous descriptive papers on the didactic potential of avt, relatively few are based on empirical research and even fewer when referring to the teaching of english for specific purposes (esp). thus, this case study aims to contribute to this field by taking the pulse of the didactic opportunities that avt, in particular subtitling, offers in esp and to provide a sample of activities that enhance the development of the skill of listening comprehension by the use of materials which are real and attractive to students. keywords: esp, listening skills, avt, subtitling, didactics. resumen tendiendo puentes entre la traducción audiovisual y el inglés para fines específicos la traducción audiovisual (tav) ha sido analizada en profundidad desde distintos prismas como los estudios interculturales o los de recepción. en los últimos tiempos, se ha prestado mayor atención a su valor en la enseñanza de idiomas. sin embargo, a pesar de los numerosos artículos descriptivos sobre el potencial didáctico de la tav, muy pocos se basan en investigaciones empíricas y aún son menos los que lo hacen en el contexto de la enseñanza del inglés para fines específicos (ife). es por ello que este estudio de caso pretende contribuir a este campo considerando las oportunidades didácticas que la tav, y en particular la subtitulación, ofrece en el ife y ofreciendo una muestra de building bridges between audiovisual translation and english for specific purposes1 pilar gonzález-vera universidad de zaragoza (spain) pilargv@unizar.es 83 ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102 pilar gonzález-vera actividades que favorezcan el desarrollo de la destreza de comprensión auditiva a través del uso de materiales reales y atractivos para el estudiante. palabras clave: ife, destrezas auditivas, tav, subtitulación, didáctica. 1. introduction the role of avt for didactic purposes is more and more prominent. an example of this is the publication of the didactics of audiovisual translation (díaz-cintas, 2008). this volume compiles valuable contributions by leading scholars presenting the place of avt in teaching english as a foreign language. research on the different modalities of avt for the development of language skills has been carried out by talaván and costal (2017) who work on the potential of intralingual dubbing in efl, navarrete (2018) who concentrates on audio description and by talaván and ávila-cabrera (2015) who focus on dubbing and subtitling. the thorough research by talaván (2017) can be regarded as a cornerstone of the use of subtitling in efl. likewise, the studies by incalcaterra (2009, 2018) and lertola (2012) prove the importance of subtitling for vocabulary acquisition. talaván and rodríguez-arancón (2014) also carry out interesting research on the use of subtitling for the development of written skills. while their studies focus on the impact of avt on vocabulary learning and the improvement of writing, this study intends to show the potential of avt for the development of the skill of listening. the emphasis on the importance of listening is increasing in english as a foreign language (efl) teaching. studies on the importance of listening in efl have been given a boost (nunan, 2002, p. 238) since in the 1980s krashen’s (1982) ideas about the role of comprehensible input in second language acquisition (sla) gained prominence. however, the methods of approaching listening have barely varied in the classrooms and its implementation has hardly changed. the conventional strategy of listening to the audio tracks of the material included in the course book has remained the only resource in most cases despite some recent lines of research that back the use of authentic materials. in light of this scenario, this research has a two-fold aim: to contribute to previous studies that evaluate the impact of the use of authentic materials in efl teaching (gilmore, 2007; hwang, 2005); and to provide a sample of activities based on audiovisual translation that can be carried out for the development of listening skills in english for specific purposes (esp) 84 classes (cf. rodríguez-arancón and ávila cabrera’s (2019) subespskills project to improve written production skills in esp). in order to do that, this article will first offer a theoretical view on the teaching of listening skills and the dilemma of whether to use authentic materials or not; second, it will present a case study conducted in the course of technical english at the school of engineering and architecture in the university of zaragoza. 2. listening skills listening can be defined from different perspectives. a broad definition, which will be our point of departure, is “the process of identifying and understanding the speech of the speakers. it involves understanding “the speaker’s accent or pronunciation, speaker’s grammar and vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning” (nomass, 2013, p. 111). listening can also be described in terms of four related activities: sensing, interpreting, evaluating and responding (steil, barker and watson, 1983, pp. 30-36) and it can be classified into five types –discriminative, comprehensive, critical, therapeutic, and appreciative (wolving & coakly, 1982, p. 35). for the present study we will concentrate on comprehensive listening, which helps a listener to understand a message; and on the listening activities of sensing and interpreting – the former referring to receiving messages verbally and nonverbally, and the latter to the process of understanding. 2.1. listening as part of communication while writing and speaking make up the so-called output skills in efl, learning, listening and reading form the input skills and “constitute the basic tools of learning as well as the prime media of social intercourse” (goldstein, 1940, p. 1). whereas the importance of reading has not been questioned, it was not until the late 1940s that listening was taken seriously and study committees were established despite the fact that rankin found in 1926 that this skill was the most frequently used mode of human communication (feyten, 1991, p. 173). research has demonstrated that adults spend 40-50% of communication time listening, 25-30% speaking, 11-16% reading, and about 9% writing (rivers, 1984, p. 331). similarly, listening comes first as “the key to achieving proficiency in speaking is developing proficiency in listening comprehension” (dunkel, 1986, p. 100). in other words, the development of communicative competence and oral building bridges between audiovisual translation and english for specific purposes ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102 85 fluency “is achieved by putting the horse (listening comprehension) before the cart (oral production)” (rhodes, 1987, p. 46). the importance of listening as an input skill is also highlighted in krashen’s (1992, p. 409) input hypothesis that states that language is acquired by understanding messages that constitute the ‘comprehensible input’. this language input can be understood by listeners despite them not understanding all the words and structures in it. giving learners this kind of input helps them acquire language naturally, rather than learn it consciously. the comprehensible input should attempt to offer the acquirers the possibility to move a bit beyond their current level of competence, acquiring a new aspect of language that the acquirers have not mastered yet but are prepared to address (‘i+1’). the new structures will be understood with the help of context or extra-linguistic information. in addition, krashen (1992, p. 411) supports the idea that “‘exposure’ is primarily of benefit to the intermediate acquirer. for second language acquisition, living in the country helps most when the acquirer already understands at least some of the language”. 2.2. listening as a skill acquired through education in the late 1990s, field (1998, p. 111) noticed that although the teaching of listening had become more sensitive to the learner’s needs, lessons remain predictable in form and content. the continuous disregard of communicative skills in language classrooms was justified by the belief that they were developed “through exposure of the language and practice of grammar” (hedge, 2000, p. 228). as a consequence of this, neither did books include many sections to training listening and speaking skills, nor did teachers devote much time to such practice in their classes (gilakjani & sabouri, 2016, p. 123). the lack of suggested listening activities in books leads teachers to pay more attention to writing and reading and, as a result of this, students face great struggles to progress in listening. teachers’ awareness of students’ critical difficulties with listening is the first step towards developing effective listening strategies to solve their problems with listening (gilakjani & sabouri, 2016, p. 123). 2.3. listening as part of communication in the late 1990s, field (1998, p. 111) noticed that although the teaching of listening had become more sensitive to the learner’s needs, lessons remain predictable in form and content. the continuous disregard of pilar gonzález-vera ibérica 41 (2021): 83-10286 communicative skills in language classrooms was justified by the belief that they were developed “through exposure of the language and practice of grammar” (hedge, 2000: 228). as a consequence of this, neither did books include many sections to training listening and speaking skills, nor did teachers devote much time to such practice in their classes (gilakjani & sabouri, 2016, p. 123). the lack of suggested listening activities in books leads teachers to pay more attention to writing and reading and, as a result of this, students face great struggles to progress in listening. teachers’ awareness of students’ critical difficulties with listening is the first step towards developing effective listening strategies to solve their problems with listening (gilakjani & sabouri, 2016, p. 123). 3. effective listening. authentic and non-authentic materials in order to improve listening comprehension abilities, nunan (2002, p. 241) proposes effective listening courses that will be characterised by: using materials that would be based on a wide range of authentic texts, including both monologues and dialogues. including schema-building tasks before the listening activities. giving learners opportunities to progressively structure their listening by listening to a text several times and by working through increasingly challenging listening tasks. presenting listening tasks in which learners are told what they are listening for and why. these tasks should include opportunities for learners to play an active role in their own learning. including personalised contents which will answer the learners’ needs. on account of this, we can draw the following valuable conclusions: 1) the importance of the use of authentic materials, 2) the need for pre-listening activities that scaffold the learning process, 3) the use of an i+1 that must be appealing and motivating for students, and 4) students’ engagement would be achieved by providing personalised contents in response to the students’ needs, for example by providing contents which will be useful at work. building bridges between audiovisual translation and english for specific purposes ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102 87 the preference for authentic materials has been expressed in the last few years by scholars like gilmore (2007) or hwang (2005) who maintain that non-authentic materials have the disadvantage of contributing to the adaptation of a teacher-centred model, which is usually associated with a lack of involvement of the students in the activities and their subsequent demotivation, not to mention the handicap of portraying unreal language and contexts. likewise, mendelson (2006, p. 76) underlines the fact that nonauthentic materials do not reflect features of the spoken language, as they are ultimately written texts that are then recorded: for example, in nonauthentic materials words are clearly uttered without hesitations or external noises. in these materials it may also be difficult to convey what mendelson (1994) understands by simt (the setting, the interpersonal relationships, the mood and the topic). the simt gathers different types of signals that contribute to the understanding of the message. while setting relies on extralinguistic signals like visuals or background sounds, interpersonal relations and mood rely on paralinguistic signals like voice quality, the distance between speakers or facial expressions. topic, in turn, is a compilation of linguistic, extralinguistic and paralinguistic signals and can be deduced from the sum of information provided by setting, interpersonal relations and mood. the complexity of piecing together and deciphering all these signals is reduced when using av authentic materials, not only since they clearly reflect simt but also because their visual information helps hearers to confirm or modify their initial guess from the lexical signals. at this point, we have to say that it is not our intention to show a view of the use of non-authentic materials, but to go for a combination of both types of materials based on the different learning stages, as mendelson (2006, p. 76) called for. non-authentic materials would be more convenient for the early stages, as they comprise strategies that teach students “how to” listen. these materials are found in textbooks which still offer helpful guidance and are the central resource in many spanish efl classrooms. nevertheless, their excessive use can be counterproductive. authentic materials, for their part, would be more advisable for later stages for testing the students’ listening. in these cases, students must be prepared to infer in a contextual framework the meaning of new words and cope with conversational features as happens in a real life situation. authentic materials count on language that is not graded or simplified and they are not preconceived to revolve around a teaching aim, unlike instructional materials. audiovisual authentic texts include a wide variety of materials such as films, pilar gonzález-vera ibérica 41 (2021): 83-10288 tv series, websites, commercials, the news and videogames, which give the student access to the information through more than one channel. the choice of the materials must be made according to the potential needs of the students, with a view to generating motivation. in the case of esp the instruction of language is intrinsically linked with their future needs for work. bearing in mind that a proficient level of english is one of the requirements most in demand, and that the students are self-conscious about their low level in listening (murphy & rodriguez-manzanares, 2010; gonzalez-vera & hornero corisco, 2016), the aim of the esp lecturer is to foster the students’ confidence and development of listening skills in real contexts. we have observed that the scarcity of listening activities in esp books is great, and even greater if they are based on authentic materials. this situation contrasts with the fact that at present there are a lot of entertaining tv series and documentaries that revolve around the students’ interests and can be used as listening training materials. it is true that designing listening activities around these texts may require a considerable effort but the possibility of getting positive results may make this worthwhile. this was one of the determining factors in conducting a case study based on the use of subtitling to serve as an example to develop and improve listening skills in esp. 4. case study 4.1. context and participants this pilot experience within the educational environment was carried out in the course “technical english” which lasts for 13 weeks and involves 2.5 hours a week of classroom training. apart from instruction in listening skills, the course entails the development of reading comprehension as well as of the use of english with a special emphasis on technical vocabulary and conventions in written and oral production. at the end of the course, the students enrolled in the course have to take an exam in which all these skills are assessed at b1 level. a total number of 80 participants from the different specialities of engineering and architecture who were in the final year of their bsc were gathered for this research. they were divided into two groups of 40 people building bridges between audiovisual translation and english for specific purposes ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102 89 each: group a and group b. group a, the experimental group, did the listening activities based on authentic materials, two video clips which were subtitled for this research; while group b did the listening activities using the same clips but without subtitles. 4.2. methodology the present study is structured in three stages: 1) a pre-questionnaire that aims to shed light on the students’ development of the different skills involved in language learning and, especially, on the way in which they build listening skills, 2) a series of listening activities built on authentic materials (with subtitles for group a and without subtitles for group b), and 3) a post-study analysis that involves, on the one hand, the comparison of the students’ results in the activities proposed and, on the other hand, a personal questionnaire in which students assess the activities and their level of engagement. 4.3. materials 4.3.1. questionnaires the materials included two questionnaires, an initial questionnaire distributed via moodle at the beginning of the project and a postquestionnaire at the end. apart from these questionnaires, there were three tests based on two video clips edited for our specific purposes which formed the basis of our study. the pre-questionnaire was designed in an attempt to find out: a) what level of command of english language (according to the cefr) the students had, b) if the students had any certificate in english, c) the students’ perception of their levels in the different skills, d) how often the students use the internet and av materials e) the frequency with which they watch av materials both inside and outside the classroom, f) the av modality in they prefer to watch av materials (original version without subtitles, subtitled in english, subtitled in spanish or dubbed material). pilar gonzález-vera ibérica 41 (2021): 83-10290 once the activities had been done, a final questionnaire concerning the students’ personal opinion about the activities proposed was sent out. its aim was to complement the information received from the objective test results. thus, students were asked: a) whether they prefer listening activities that followed traditional formats or those based on subtitling; b) to describe the usefulness of the activities for improving their linguistic skills in listening, reading and vocabulary; c) to describe the increase in their self-confidence in their general use of english; d) whether the proposed activities were entertaining and motivating or not; e) what type of clips or programmes they would like to work with in the future; and f) the factors that made the listening activity attractive. 4.3.2. av texts two texts were chosen for this study. the first one was a television documentary from the bbc about the strongest materials in the world which was broadcast in january 2016. the second one, from 2014, was taken from the television series top gear and was about hybrid cars. the choice of these texts was justified by the following factors: a) the real aspect. both texts are tv programmes and besides this they were broadcast quite recently which adds a certain proximity in time. this makes the students feel, on the one hand, they can apply and test their language knowledge by understanding a real text and not a stage-managed graded text; and, on the other hand, they could be more strongly attracted by the up-to-date material they are dealing with. b) the theme. materials and their properties and hybrid cars are two of the topics covered by the syllabus of the course. in addition, these two topics had been repeatedly chosen by the students for their oral presentations, which indicates their interest in these issues. building bridges between audiovisual translation and english for specific purposes ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102 91 c) the level of the texts (i+1) and the students’ familiarity with the specific, technical vocabulary used. as stated before, we agree with the idea of combining non-authentic and authentic materials and the benefits of scaffolding learning. the students previously practised with similar materials taken from a student’s book2 that introduces specific vocabulary about the properties of materials and about the features of hybrid cars, which are the two topics presented in the clips. although these clips also include vocabulary and certain comparative structures that students do not know when they watch the clips, the previous acquisition of key vocabulary about those topics allows them to deduce words and expressions they do not know, achieving the i+1 stage, and enabling them to grasp the information required in the listening test. in both cases the clips were self-contained and edited to last no more than six minutes, following the recommendations of scholars like talaván (2013). thus, the understanding of the scene selected does not depend on the scenes that precede or follow it and, as the clips are short, the loss of concentration and possible demotivation of students is avoided (talaván, 2013; bolanos-garcia-escribano, 2017). for this research, captions were added to the clips. these captions are “written words added onto the clip: e.g. standard subtitles, captions for accessibility, annotations or intertitles” (sokoli, 2015, p. 129). in the clip on the strongest materials in the world, which lasts 5 minutes, four captions were added. they were four questions in english which fragmented the clip into four parts (figure 1). the answer to each question is revealed in approximately the following minute where the students have to find out the information. in this way, the students were led throughout the activity in the listening comprehension process. this activity is designed to recall the format of open-ended question activities. meanwhile, the four-minute clip from top gear was subtitled in english in its entirety. in this case the captions include some gaps preceded by a number reminiscent of the format of “fill in the gaps” activities (figure 2). pilar gonzález-vera ibérica 41 (2021): 83-10292 4.3.3. tests three of the most common test formats –fill in the gaps, open questions and multiple choice questions– are chosen for testing students’ skills. in the bbc documentary about materials open questions and multiple choice formats are selected bearing in mind the type of programme that combines long descriptive voice-over discourses with interviews. in this case, students have to extract and gather different pieces of information in order to answer the questions. top gear is, in turn, a clip where the host’s interventions are full of numerical and technical data, and where the content of specific information is much higher in terms of the quantity of words uttered, which in our opinion makes this clip more favourable for a gapfill exercise. 4.4. procedure students in group a are exposed to the clip on the strongest materials in the world. after viewing the first av text three times, students have to answer the building bridges between audiovisual translation and english for specific purposes ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102 93 figure 1. caption added to the strongest materials in the world. t figure 2. example of caption created for the clip from top gear. t questions embedded as captions in the clip. these subtitles help them divide the text into sections that revolve around the questions asked. in addition, students have to take a test, handed out before viewing the clip, consisting of six multiple-choice questions –in paper format, each fragment having one or two of these questions. students in group b, by contrast, see the clip without subtitles, although they have access to the visual information provided by the images. besides, they are also provided with a brief glossary. they listen to the clip the same number of times as the students from group a and then they take the same test presented in paper format which is also handed out before watching the clip. regarding the test based on top gear, a list of numbers is handed out to group a students before watching the clip. each of these numbers matches with the numbers that go before the gaps embedded in the subtitles of the clip. they watch the clip three times. group b students listen to it the same number of times, but they can only have access to the original clip without subtitles. they are given a written test that follows the traditional format of gapfill listening exercises. 4.5. results 4.5.1. pre-questionnaire the materials included two questionnaires, an initial questionnaire distributed via moodle at the beginning of the project and a postquestionnaire at the end. apart from these questionnaires, there were three tests based on two video clips edited for our specific purposes which formed the basis of our study. the pre-questionnaire, which covered aspects ranging from the students’ command of english language to their familiarity with the use of av materials, reveals that 71.95% of the students do not have any certificate in english and the level of the majority of those who have (18.35%) is b1. according to the students’ perception, they describe their proficiency in english as intermediate (57%) and lower-intermediate (26.7%); 10.1% of those remaining consider it to be upper-intermediate and low percentages are found in the case of advanced (4.2%) and beginners (2%). regarding their language skills (table 1), as a whole we observe that reading is the skill in which most of the students feel more confident, contrasting with the other input skill, listening, in which they declare themselves to be on lower levels of the scale. in addition, the students state that their pilar gonzález-vera ibérica 41 (2021): 83-10294 vocabulary knowledge is average, and they admit their weakness in oral skills. the second part of the pre-questionnaire shows a positive change in traditional praxis in the classroom with the incorporation of digital and authentic materials, as 81.6% of the students admit having used internet and av materials in class. the materials preferred are films (36%) and the dvds in the student’s book (34.7%); clips from youtube and tv shows only represent 16.3% and 13%, respectively. the questionnaire also reveals that the relatively high self-reported frequency of watching av texts in english (often (25.5%) and sometimes (23.7%) versus hardly ever (20.2%) and never (2.1%)) is a strength we should not forget. we should take advantage of this aspect of student motivation as a valuable ally. lastly, although the modality preferred is dubbing (52.7%), the value of subtitles seems to be appreciated more and more, being used in english by 17.4% of the students and in spanish by a still higher percentage, 24.7%. 4.5.2. tests as indicated previously, students had to take two tests with different formats. the first clip, the strongest materials in the world, was accompanied by a test that included a section with open questions and another with multiple choice questions. the scores (figure 3) of group a, (av format), were distributed in the open questions test as follows: 0 (5%, 2 students), 2 (17.5%, 7 students), 4 (10%, 4 students), 6 (15%, 6 students), 8 (27.5%, 11 students), 10 (25%, 10 students), which means that 27 students (67.5%) achieved 6 or more. group b obtained very weak results in the same test: 0 (20%, 8 students), 2 (25%, 10 students), 4 (32.5%, 13 students), 6 (10%, 4 students), 8 (5%, 2 students) and 10 (7.5%, 3 students), which means that only 9 students (22.5%) achieved 6 or more. building bridges between audiovisual translation and english for specific purposes ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102 95 skill very bad bad fair average good very good reading 0% 2.1% 6.1% 38.8% 42.67% 8.33% listening 4.2% 40% 20.1% 14.3% 29.4% 2% speaking 2% 45% 16.2% 24.4% 10.3% 2.1% vocabulary 2% 45% 16.2% 24.4% 10.3% 2.1% table 1. language skills t 0 (20%, 8 students), 2 (25%, 10 s the second test consisted of a multiple choice exercise (figure 2). the results (figure 4) of group a were mainly satisfactory, concentrating in the 6 to 10 range –0 (0%, none), 2 (2.5%, 1 student), 4 (5%, 2 students), 6 (40%, 16 students), 8 (22.5%, 9 students) and 10 (30%, 12 students), which means that 37 students (92.5%) achieved 6 or more. in group b they were more equally distributed: 0 (5 students), 2 (15%, 6 students), 4 (12.5%, 5 students), 6 (22.5%, 9 students), 8 (20%, 8 students) and 10 (20%, 8 students), which means that 25 students (62.5%) achieved 6 or more. the differences in results between groups were not notable, except the fact that in group a none obtained a score of 0 while in group b 12.5% did. in the third test based on the series top gear, the students had to fill in the blanks with one to two words that were used in the audio (figure 5). group a were given a gapped text in the form of subtitles, whereas group b were given a written text with the same number of spaces as in group a’s case and the students only had access to the audio. the words removed from the text were mainly figures and technical vocabulary related to car features. no one in group a or group b obtained a score of 0. however, scores below 6 pilar gonzález-vera ibérica 41 (2021): 83-10296 figure 3. results in the open question test. t ! "! #! ! " # $ % &! 78!9-':*;!/<'-51!72 ='*)$;$-#*3!>-':*;!/<'-51!?2 ! "! #! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! e gurfi ! ! " /;*:'-978! ! ! ! e 3. .tsetnoitseuqnepoehtnistlusre # $ % 7215-'< :'!>-3*#-;$$)*=' ! ! ! &! 2?15-<'/;!*: ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! figure 4. results in the multiple choice test. i ! "! #! ! " # $ % &! 78!9-':*;!/<'-51!72 ='*)$;$-#*3!>-':*;!/<'-51!?2 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "! #! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! gfi e ur ! "! ! " /;*:'-978! ! ! ! e 4 ts teeicoh cleltipu me th inltsuse. r . s # $ % 7215-'< :'!>-3*#-;$$)*=' ! ! ! &! 2?15-<'/;!*: ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! were mostly found in group b –2 (20%, 8 students) and 4 (27.5%, 11 students), only 7.5% of students (3 students) from group a failed the test, yet even they obtained a score of 4. nine students from group b (22.5%) achieved a score of 6 and a similar number of students (10 students, 25%) a score of 8. however, the number was considerably reduced in the case of obtaining a score of 10 (2 students, 5%). while almost 50% (19 students) of group b failed the test, conversely, 47.5% (19 students) of group a students got a score of 8, followed by 10 (32.5%, 13 students) and 6 (12.5%, 5 students). the following figure (table 2) summarises the results of group a and b in the three tests: according to the results, the most significant differences between group a and b in the number of failing scores (scores under 6) arise in test 1. it is noteworthy that captions were especially useful for not failing the test with open questions (test 1). the fragmentation achieved by the captions served to mark the extracts in which the information could be found. in this way, building bridges between audiovisual translation and english for specific purposes ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102 97 figure 5. results in the filling the gaps test. t i ! '! ! " # $ % &! 78!9-':*;!/<'-51!72 ='*)$;$-#*3!>-':*;!/<'-51!?2 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! '! ! " </;*:'-978! ! ! ! # $ % 7215-'< :'!>-3*#-;$$)*=' ! ! ! &! 2?15-<'/;!*: ! ! ! e gurfi ! ! ! e 5 ts tespa ge thg filline th inltsuse. r . 2 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! score test 1 (open question) test 2 (multiple choice) test 3 (fill in the gaps) 0 a students (%) b students (%) a students (%) b students (%) a students (%) b students (%) 2 2 (5%) 8 (20%) 0 5 (12.5%) 4 7 (17.5%) 10 (25%) 1 (2.5%) 6 (15%) 8 (20%) 6 4 (10%) 13 (32.5%) 2 (5%) 5 (12.5%) 3 (7.5%) 11 (27.5%) 8 6 (15%) 4 (10%) 16 (40%) 9 (22.5%) 5 (12%) 9 (22.5%) 10 11 (27.5%) 2 (5%) 9 (22.5%) 8 (20%) 19 (47.5%) 10 (25%) 6 ! 27 (67.5%) 9 (22.5%) 37 (92.5%) 25 (62.5%) 37 (92%) 21 (52.5%) table 2. results in the three tests. a i ! ! ! erosc on)itsquen peo(1tste 0 a )%(stnedust b %(stnedust on) )echoiceplitulm(2tste te )% a )%(stnedust b )%(stnedust a st )psgahetn illfi(3tste )%(stnedust b )%(stnedust 2 )5%(2 )20%(8 4 )5%17.(7 )25%(10 6 )10%(4 )5%32.(13 8 )15%(6 )10%(4 10 )5%27.(11 )5%(2 !6 )5%67.(27 )5%22.(9 tabl 0 )5%12.(5 )5%2.(1 )15%(6 )5%(2 )5%12.(5 3 )40%(16 )5%22.(9 5 )5%22.(9 8 )%0(2 19 )5%92.(37 )5%62.(25 37 e tabl 2 .tss teere the th inltsuse. r )20%(8 )5%7.( )5%27.(11 )12%( )5%22.(9 )5%47.(19 )25%(10 )92%(37 )5%52.(21 d captions worked as a “help-guide” helping students in the comprehension process. in the other two tests (2 and 3) the differences between the students who pass and who fail the tests in group a and b were not so marked. however, it can be observed that the number of students who obtained a score of 8 and 10 was dramatically higher in the case of group a. the “help-guidecaptions” in clip 1 and the captions included in clip 2 that worked as a kind of transcript proved valuable in following the discourse. in addition, in the case of test 3, the students felt more confident, as they themselves explained after taking the test. the captions included let them identify certain words which were crucial for the understanding of the clip and the general understanding of the clip made them feel more confident. 4.5.3. post-questionnaire in the final questionnaire, aimed at the students who worked with the subtitled clips, they were asked whether they prefer listening activities that followed traditional formats or those based on subtitling, the latter being chosen by 75% of the students. the students were also asked about the usefulness of the activities based on av materials in terms of different linguistic skills. when they had to assess their value for developing listening skills, their response was positive: 48.75% considered them to be very useful and 37.5% useful enough, and lower percentages were for not useful enough (13.75%) and not useful (0%). similar results were found for vocabulary enhancement where 86.25% of the students appreciated the benefits of these activities, saying they were useful enough, and 13.75% said they were very useful. lastly, reading skills did not obtain such good results although they understood they were useful in some way: 57.5% answered “not useful enough”, 28.75% “useful enough”, 13.75% very useful and 0% “not useful”. equally good results were achieved when they were asked if there was an increase in their self-confidence in their general use of english. most of them admitted to being satisfied (57.5%) and some of them to being very satisfied (7.5%). a significant percentage of students, 35%, still estimated that this was not enough. this was justified by their demand for more exercises of this type in order to be completely satisfied. when asked what kind of clips or series they would like to work with on future occasions, the students proposed the following: pilar gonzález-vera ibérica 41 (2021): 83-10298 car and motorsport clips like top gear how it’s made? master piece of engineering top 10 architecture programmes about renewable energies this provides us with information about their interests and with ideas of what type of programmes they may find inspiring and motivating. lastly, students considered the following factors decisive in making these listening activities attractive: being entertaining: 42,5% the topic being related to their interests and having some connection with their degrees: 32,5% having visual information that helps them contextualise and understand the discourse: 25% none of them indicated the speed/pace of the narrator or the accent used as factors that could make these texts easy to follow. in sum, if we conduct a swot analysis of this study of using captions for improving listening skills, we can conclude that among its strengths are: 1) that these activities achieved the development of several skills (reading, vocabulary enhancement, spelling, etc.) at the same time; 2) they were appealing for our students as they could appreciate a practical application that was a source of motivation; and 3) these activities can be implemented inside and outside class via learning platforms like moodle. we have to add that the students’ self-awareness of the need to improve this skill was another motivational factor. with regard to the weaknesses, the time required to select, edit and subtitle the clips is considerable. nevertheless, the opportunity of peer correction and feedback in the case of the multiple choice and gapfill exercises could be an optimal solution. likewise, the possibility of designing new activities that cover a wider range of topics would lead to the creation of a bank of clips, an opportunity that would also address the threat of having in the same class a group composed of students that belong to different specialities with different interests. building bridges between audiovisual translation and english for specific purposes ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102 99 5. conclusions students have traditionally undergone conventional training in listening skills which is limited to listening activities based on the use of audio tracks. in these non-authentic materials, words are clearly uttered without hesitations or external noises that can interfere with the speaker’s discourse and the accent preferred for these recordings is received pronunciation (rp). in spite of being designed for didactic purposes, poor results in listening tests (woottipong, 2014; gonzalez-vera & hornero corisco, 2016) have been the norm for a long time and, unfortunately, this does not seem to be changing, as the students admitted in their initial questionnaire. there has been an evolution in the study of ways to develop listening skills. these studies have gone from the use of non-authentic to authentic materials. however, the number of case studies on the different strategies to improve listening when using authentic materials has not evolved at the same pace. although an increasing interest has been paid in the last decades to studies on the use of different modalities of avt for the improvement of language skills, thanks to scholars like lertola (2012), talaván (2013, 2017), talaván and rodríguez-arancón (2014), gambier et al. (2015), talaván and ávilacabrera (2015), talaván and costal (2017), navarrete (2018) and gonzalezvera (2019). the quantity of studies based on avt modalities for the development of listening in esp is still limited. thus, this case study was conceived with the intention of serving as an example of the use of subtitling to improve the teaching and learning of listening skills in the esp class. after confirming in the initial questionnaire the level of our students with regard to english and listening skills, in particular, we conducted research based on the use of authentic av texts and subtitling for fostering the development of listening skills in the case of esp. this study revealed that results were better in all those instances in which the implementation of the activities relied on subtitling. the results from the implementation stage were backed up by the information obtained in the post-questionnaire and final exam, which was the same across both groups. finally, we can conclude by saying that this study is one of the first steps towards confirming the validity of the results of previous research and an attempt to expand the potential of avt in the teaching of esp. for the pilar gonzález-vera ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102100 future, we would like to consider the possibility of a comparative analysis between a group with a conventional syllabus based on traditional methodologies and another following an avt based-syllabus, which could explore the feasibility and full potential of avt in esp classes. article history: received 17 september 2019 received in revised form 07 april 2020 accepted 30 may 2021 references building bridges between audiovisual translation and english for specific purposes ibérica 41 (2021): 83-102 101 bolaños garcía-escribano, a. 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(2014). the use of reverse subtitling as an online collaborative learning tool. the interpreter and translator trainer, 8(1), 84–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 1750399x.2014.908559 talaván, n., & ávila-cabrera, j. j. (2015). first insights into the combination of dubbing and subtitling as l2 didactic tools. in y. gambier, a, caimi & c. mariotti (eds.), subtitles and language learning (pp. 149-172). peter lang. talaván, n., & costal, t. (2017). idub – the potential of intralingual dubbing in foreign language learning: how to assess the task. language value, 9, 62–88. http://dx.doi. org/10.6035/languagev.2017.9.4 wolving, a., & coakly, c. (1982). listening. brown. woottipong, k. (2014). effect of using video materials in the teaching of listening skills for university students. international journal of linguistics, 6(4), 200–212. iberica 13 ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the main goal of this study is the application of appraisal theory (martin & white, 2005) developed in the framework of systemic functional linguistics to wine tasting sheets. firstly, whether this text type meets the defining requirements specified by swales (1990) for the discursive genre will be verified. 110 tasting sheets in spanish and english extracted from the internet have been grouped into four corpora corresponding to the country of origin of the wine: spain, australia, california and new zealand. an analysis undertaken with wordsmith tools has demonstrated the positive polarization of all the texts and the existence of cultural differences reflected in the use of fruit-related terms, adjectives oenological terms and “oenological culturemes” (wislocka breit, 2012). an unforeseen result of the study was the strong contrast observed between the free and literary manner of the english and the concise style of spanish tasting sheets. keywords: genre, tasting sheet, appraisal theory, winespeak, cultureme. resumen f ic h a de c a ta de v i no e n e s p añ ol e in g l é s e n e l m ar c o d e l a t e or ía de l a v al ora c i ón el objetivo principal de este estudio es la aplicación a las fichas de cata de vino de la teoría de la valoración (martin & white, 2005), desarrollada en el marco de la lingüística sistémica funcional. en primer lugar, se verifica si este tipo textual cumple con los requisitos definitorios de género especificados por swales (1990). 110 fichas de cata en español y en inglés extraídas de internet han sido agrupadas en cuatro corpus, correspondientes al país de procedencia del vino: españa, australia, california y nueva zelanda. el análisis, realizado con el programa wordsmith tools, ha demostrado la existencia de una polarización positiva de los textos y de marcadas diferencias culturales plasmadas en el appraisal theory applied to the wine tasting sheet in english and spanish bozena wislocka breit universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) bwislocka@eui.upm.es 97 ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 bozena wislocka breit empleo de adjetivos, términos relacionadas con frutas y colores, términos enológicos y “culturemas” enológicos (wislocka breit, 2012). el estilo libre y literario presente en los textos anglófonos contrasta con el estilo contenido y sobrio de las fichas de cata españolas. palabras clave: género, ficha de cata, teoría de la valoración, lenguaje del vino, culturema. 1. introduction the remarkable increase in quality wine consumption observed in the western world in the last three decades has triggered consumers’ needs for a more in-depth knowledge about wine. the domain specific language used for the comments is referred to as “wine talk” or “winespeak”. pervasive and ubiquitous in all types of media, this winespeak discourse shortly became an object of interest among linguists and wine writers alike. the scale of the phenomenon, even limiting the scope of the research only to spain, can be easily envisaged: popularizing books were published by falcó, marqués de griñón (2004), manel barba (2002), d’este (2002), ratti (2000). spanish wine tasting lexicon has become a subject of lexical and historical studies by ibáñez rodríguez and sanchez nieto (2006) or pivot (2007); and lerat (2006) analysed it as a case of a specialised language. the use of oenological terms in the press was examined by armentia, caminos marcet and marín murillo (2005) and capanaga (2004) dived into intricacies of wine advertising in the spanish press. caballero and suárez-toste, either individually or as co-authors, have published several articles on aspects such as winespeak’s imagery (caballero & suárez-toste, 2010); use of metaphors (caballero & suárez-toste, 2008) or verbs of motion (caballero, 2007). the use of wine lexicon in the esp and esl domains has been studied by goded (2008) and also labrador-piquer and morote magán (2011). negro alousque (2011) has analysed the use of metaphor (2011). three international congresses on wine culture and language were organised by the university of valladolid in 2004, 2008 and 2011 (see ibáñez rodríguez, sánchez nieto & gómez martínez, 2006 & 2010). well ahead of europe, lehrer (1983/2009) was the first linguist to analyse this specialized language in united states; while silverstein (2003 & 2004), who had coined the term “oinoglossia”, was interested mainly in the anthropological aspects subsumed in the american winespeak. undeniably, 98 the contemporary wine specialized language cannot be understood without parker’s tasting notes, highly influential in europe due to their financial consequences for the winemakers (sage, 2007). they also became subjected to linguistic scrutiny by caballero and suárez-toste (2008 & 2010), which results are embodied in the research mentioned above; other european scholars like paradis (2009 & 2010) or hommerberg (2011) also analysed in detail parker’s notes linguistic features. in this paper our aim is, in the framework of systemic functional linguistics and more precisely, within the appraisal theory as developed by martin and white (2005), to show some of the specific features and linguistic and intercultural differences in wine tasting sheets (also known as “wine tasting notes”) written in english and spanish. 2. methodology six red wines namely: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, tempranillo, pinot noir, shiraz/syrah and cabernet sauvignon blended with merlot were tasted and the results reflected in 110 wine tasting sheets drafted by their winemakers in english and spanish. all texts were extracted from the internet and distributed into four corpora created ad hoc corresponding to the following winegrowing regions: spanish d.o somontano (24 sheets), california (30 sheets), australia (30 sheets) and new zealand (26 sheets). tasting comments – that is, the verbalization of wine tasting process’ results performed by the cellar’s winemaker or oenologist – were subsequently analysed with the wordsmith tools programme, and also manually, producing measurable data reflecting: (i) use and frequency of specific oenological lexemes; (ii) presence of terms related to fruits and colours; and (iii) certain number of scholarly, or unexpected in such contexts, expressions. that data has been subsequently examined in the frame of appraisal theory. 3. core features of wine tasting sheets since the standard technical tasting sheet recommended by the international organisation of vine and wine (oiv)1 is not mandatory, each winery/cellar tends to design one of its own, resulting in a number of fairly free variants. however, over the span of the last decade, internet’s unavoidable influence has produced an increasingly assimilating tendency both in their content and appraisal theory applied to the wine tasting sheet ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 99 layout. the information offered both compulsory and/or discretionary, includes the following data: • name of the cellar/winery; • vintage; • grape variety/varietal; • date of the harvest; • vineyard’s main characteristics; • description of the vinification process; • acidity (ph), sugar contents (brix) and alcohol; • proper tasting comments; • food pairing; • serving temperature; and, • peak drinking/storing period. tasting comments used to be the core element, always included in the technical sheet, regardless of the medium; however, the follow-up research carried out subsequently has shown that numerous spanish wineries, following the new world style, have started to obviate this section.2 the two most essential features of the “tasting comments” which are the object of the present study are, on the one hand, their virtual existence (that is, internet medium) and, on the other, the fact that their evaluation has always been performed by a taster personally invested in the winemaking process: be it an in-house or external oenologist, a winemaker owner of the winery, its commercial representative, or a copywriter; all of them aiming at the maximisation of the wine sales. this clarification is crucial as an assessment performed by a professional wine critic is to be immune from any personal involvement or financial interest in the tasted wine. table 1 provides a selection of tasting sheet variants i have encountered in the spanish, californian, australian and new zealand wineries’ websites. the row corresponding to the above defined class of tasting notes writers has been shaded. it should be borne in mind that these types cannot be considered exhaustive, or mutually exclusive, since constraints affecting the genre “tasting sheet” are not very strict. bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120100 4. the wine tasting sheet as “genre” according to swales’ (1990) typology, the genre “tasting sheet” fulfils the definition of a communicative event, whose format is structured but flexible, is used in the context of a particular discourse community and whose full control, including transgressions, is reserved to experts. its complementary features, as based on lakoff ’s (1990) criteria, can be described as follows: • formal it has to meet certain characteristics predetermined by the community it is written for. • non reciprocal, hence monologic as it is a one-way discourse whose author remains anonymous or, even if a name is provided, appraisal theory applied to the wine tasting sheet ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 101 appraisal theory applied ibérica 27 (2014): …-… author channel / medium goal sections credibility milieu cellar’s / winery’s winemaker professional publications and / or statistical strictly professional information purely technical very high health and food authorities; winemakers’ professional circles cellar’s / winery’s winemaker winery’s internal tasting sheets; internet information provided to the clients information about the vineyard, harvest & vinification; details of tasting phases: colour, nose and palate medium / high professional circles, possible buyers and wine enthusiasts professional & traditional wine critics / gurus specialized magazines, general press, web pages professional & general public information details of tasting: colour, nose, palate, food matching medium / high directly proportional to the critic’s local or universal authority modern critics using new technologies internet including video recordings non standard information provided through a non standard channel colour, nose, palate; everything is optional as granted by the audience significant in their habitual milieu,limited or nonexistent in the rest wine enthusiasts internet’s forums, web pages, individual’s blogs sharing information & achieving certain celebrity & prestige colour, nose, palate low / medium usually limited to the internet table 1. tasting sheet genre and its variations. 4. the wine tasting sheet as “genre” according to swales’ (1990) typology, the genre “tasting sheet” fulfils the definition of a communicative event, whose format is structured but flexible, is used in the context of a particular discourse community and whose full control, including transgressions, is reserved to experts. its complementary features, as based on lakoff’s (1990) criteria, can be described as follows: • formal it has to meet certain characteristics predetermined by the community it is written for. they do not expect to be questioned about the message. in the new world, due to the tasting note being directly integrated into the website, there has always been a factual possibility of contact between the author of the note and its reader; however, even though the traditionally anonymous spanish comments ignored any such possibility of interaction, presently it is becoming possible due to the internet medium and its globalizing influences. • non spontaneous – as it is either written to order, or it is one of the obligations inherent to the job performed; • public – the objective of the tasting sheets is to be universally accessible, with the sole exception of the new world’s websites requirement of having reached the minimum age established for alcohol consumption; • and finally aimed at a specific purpose the most evident being to inform; the second, less explicit, but equally important, to coax the prospective buyer into the acquisition of the wine, and the third one, the least obvious, almost subliminal, yet very significant, to generate a feeling of membership of an elitist oenological community. while, as stated by bhatia (2004: 112), transformations undergone by a genre must not endanger its integrity, numerous changes have been taking place in the spanish wine tasting comments on various levels. the traditional tasting note, concise and sober in style, has been submitted to a globalizing transformation giving rise to unknown features such as providing the number of bottles produced. one plausible explanation could be an imitation of the new world’s tasting note style. another, in my opinion more convincing, is the “feeling of membership of an elitist oenological community” (as stated above) which probably is the true reason for offering it in the first place. finally, the reason could also be what bhatia calls “invasion of territorial integrity”: (…) it is often the case that informative functions are more likely to be colonized by promotional functions that any other (…) a number of such instances of mixed genres are getting established and are being given innovative names, as in the case of infomercial, infotainment or advertorial”. (bhatia, 2004: 89) bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120102 table 2, also based on the research carried out, reflects the most significant differences perceived among the analysed corpora which, in my opinion, are mostly due to cultural – that is, traditional, and partially to technological aspects. during the first stage of my research i have had an opportunity to observe how even highly specialized domains like oenological language are being affected by globalization. some of the most outstanding changes observed in a number of somontano tasting notes are listed below as a way of example: • loss of anonymity of the author of the comments reinforced sometimes by a winemaker’s photo, or even a family’s history3. • details of the estate, harvest and vinification process become as important as the sensory analysis itself4. • classical oenological lexicon and style are counterbalanced by a more personal and literary manner: un trago de pasión, una pizca de paraíso auténtico. blanco somontano conseguirá que tu alma entre en calor. una sonrisa larga, nunca amarga.5 (“a gulp of passion, a dash of true paradise. white somontano will make your soul feel warmth. a long, never bitter, smile”). • wine’s names become imaginative and have a story to it, e.g. vicious6, chesa7, monte ondina8. • detailed food pairing is provided9, contrasting with the previous staple recommendations. • option to buy wines online is offered, unavailable until then10. • a completely new presentation of the wine tasting sheet, language independent, is provided in form of the spider web graph11. • winery becomes a place for social events12. • detailed number of the bottles produced starts to be given13. table 2 reflects the situation in somontano wineries, as compared to australia, california and new zealand in 2010. appraisal theory applied to the wine tasting sheet ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 103 genre flexibility requirement (swales, 1990) paired with the marketwise policy of taking advantage of all available resources, have resulted in a wide adoption of digital media, and while this stage since long has been achieved by the new world cellars, for numerous somontano wineries it is yet under process. while foreign markets requirements, compelling spanish wineries’ websites to become complex and interactive, may stay behind these tendencies, there is nothing yet available of the kind of live audio-visual bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120104 bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): …-… table 2. main differences observed among the wine tasting sheet corpora. genre flexibility requirement (swales, 1990) paired with the marketwise policy of taking advantage of all available resources, have resulted in a wide adoption of digital media, and while this stage since long has been achieved by the new tasting sheet sections somontano australia california new zealand disclosure of the winemaker’s identity habitually anonymous full name, photo and biodata are often provided full name, photo and biodata are often provided full name, picture and biodata are often provided detailed information about the winery, its history, tasting room, other details hardly if ever profuse details regarding winery’s history, awards, owner’s family, etc. details, such as virtual tasting room visit, social events organised, etc. winery’s history, awards, previous vintages tasting sheet style always impersonal 1st person plural appears sometimes 1st person plural appears sometimes usually impersonal technical data provided in a “laboratory” style always at the beginning usually at the end, small fonts usually at the end, small fonts not always provided traditional oenological lexicon exclusively traditional, but also literary figures and style oenological lexicon, but free or fairly literary style oenological lexicon, but free or fairly everyday language metaphors and other literary figures only those proper of oenological lexicon poetical and descriptive phrases e.g.:“…it is a testament to both vintage and the vineyard…” full liberty: “…exoskeleton of fine tannin…” absence of “negatively” marked terms total absence total absence freely admitted: e.g.:“ feral fox” freely admitted e.g.: “a hint of hedge-pig nest” details regarding harvesting, vinification, etc. unusual in small wineries, more frequent in the big ones usually very complete, often a specific section of a website exhaustive no fixed model, but often with number of details aging in a bottle / best for drinking very seldom, mostly for reserva wines yes yes yes food pairing and serving temperature classical: reds with meats and cheeses, white with fish and poultry specific dishes suggested, e.g. roast lamb & rosemary jus not always specific dishes suggested: ossobuco and daube, with red fleshed game such as venison (cervena), hare and ostrich… wine purchase directly from the website not possible always frequently always performances such as reflected elsewhere. nevertheless, these multimodal and multimedia wine tasting comments confirm beyond dispute the ability of the genre to transform itself including “hybridization” or “mixing”, as already signalled by bhatia (2004: 88). 5. systemic functional linguistics as a framework for the study of wine tasting sheets the three metafunctions defined in halliday’s (1989) systemic functional linguistics (sfl), in whose frame martin and white (2005) have subsequently developed their appraisal theory, namely: ideational, interpersonal and textual seem to match the three essential functions of a tasting note: (i) to inform; (ii) to allure; and (iii) to confirm the membership of a specific and exclusive discourse community. even though only the first one is explicit, the second is essential to the winery’s commercial success; meanwhile the goal of the third one is subliminal and aimed directly at the consumer. a condition sine qua non for these communication aims to be accomplished is that the winemaker writing the message and the reader receiving it share, at least partially, previous sensory experiences. simultaneously, if the terms used by the author of the evaluation are excessively unconventional, communication will be hindered and eventually might become abstruse: the important point about such associations is that they communicate best in the context of what is already familiar. in such contexts words, on their own, carry no meanings; it is the experience that gives them the desired effect. (…) the innovation, the creativity or the exploitation becomes effective only in the context of the already available and familiar. (bhatia, 2004: 188) even the neologisms, the ever changing buzzwords extremely common in winespeak, appear only in the contexts where their interpretation is fairly obvious (lehrer, 2003). their use is determined not so much by a true need to make up for a lexical void, but rather to reinforce the feeling of the membership of a specific discourse community. appraisal theory applied to the wine tasting sheet ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 105 6. ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions in wine tasting sheets there is no question that sensory experiences are determined by the social milieu and that their imprint becomes crucial in setting the mode of interaction between the individuals who communicate with each other, as shared environments produce common experience and understanding. the three metafunctions differentiated in the sfl: ideational, interpersonal and textual reflect the accumulated individual knowledge (ideational), interpersonal communication skills (interpersonal) and, finally, the manner in which a message needs to be elaborated and transmitted in order to fulfil its goal (textual). 6.1. ideational the largest part of the oenological lexicon is made up of olfactory and gustatory terms which, admittedly, cannot be shared in the same way it happens with what is perceived visually or aurally. highly individualistic, even eccentric use of terms applied to describe the wine’s aroma or bouquet explains the initially derogative connotation of the term “winespeak” coined for wine-tasting language. extremely unusual references and observations referred to wine seemed to exceed an ordinary consumer’s expectations, generating rejection and mockery, as it was often reflected in press commentaries: they are seeking readers’ favourite examples of “ridiculous wordspeak” when it comes to wine. here are some examples so far: “describing it in terms of musk or pine or peat? i don’t know, it sounds like something you’d find on a forest floor rather than in a glass,” wrote dbcurrie. “i still think discussing wine’s legs is silly sounding,” wrote reader bytemyfoot. (parker, 2008) habitually uncultivated senses of smell and taste either preclude good perception of specific odours, or at least, diminish the faculty of their recognition. this lack of comprehension on the one side and seemingly capricious use of such terms on the other, have led to a suspicion that wine tasting is completely arbitrary and, should it be really so, tasting notes could be as well produced by a computer, just like the two examples below: premature almost second-rate syrah. throws out green tea, structured spice and forceful peach. drink now through 2005. bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120106 tightly woven almost french-oaked sparkler. drops bing-cherry, soggy pineapple and atomic traces of marmalade. drink now through april.14 unremitting presence of these semi-technical oenological terms in the media has slowly allowed for their wider acceptance which, eventually, should enable sensory experiences thus described to be shared and comprehensible to both wine critics and wine enthusiasts. 6.2. interpersonal the type of interaction taking place between two communicating individuals is called “negotiation” by martin and white (2005: 33) as it implies existence of a power hierarchy between the two. five different tasting sheet variants (see table 1), with four clearly differentiated author categories, may lead to a conclusion that public exhibition of one’s comments about wine is open to anybody. however, it should be borne in mind that the intrinsic weight of these comments, and even the manner in which they are expressed, are subordinated to the author’s prestige and position within their discourse community. only those whose authority is either recognized beforehand, or assigned by default, may require responses or actions: and as language – as expression and action – is simultaneously the construal and the construction of reality, these system networks reflect, in their limited way, the conception of reality of each interlocutor and the system of social values that motivate their speech behaviour. (bartlett, 2004: 72) as it can be inferred from table 1, the hierarchical position of wine critics depends not only on their authority in the domain, with the gurus like parker, robinson, or halliday outstanding in the field, but also on the discourse community within which the tasting note is delivered. an evaluation published by a winery on paper, without mentioning the author’s identity and labelled as “sensory” or “organoleptic” analysis, appears to acquire the status of an unquestionable scientific truth. conversely, if the tasting note is signed by a specific person, be it a winemaker or vinery owner, and published on the internet, albeit it still enjoys an authoritative status, it becomes susceptible of admitting different evaluations. 6.3. textual the goal of the textual metafunction in wine tasting domain is the cohesion of the information provided by the tasting entwined with martin and white’s appraisal theory applied to the wine tasting sheet ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 107 (2005) “negotiation of power”: it is the proof of a wine critic’s authority, even if the style of their tasting observations needs to be tailored to the discourse community expectations to which it is addressed. although spanish consumers are used to the traditional style authoritative and straightforward remarks about wine, in the english speaking new world a clear need to mitigate the dominant position exercised by the in-home wine evaluator has resulted in a significant change in the attitude and style of a tasting note. the, until then, unquestionable opinion has been transformed into an informed and skilled observation yearning to be shared equally by its author and by the wine consumer. suddenly it is not only the wine itself which is worth supplying profuse sensory details, but also the long road travelled to elaborate it; hence a considerable portion of the tasting sheet deals with the soil characteristics, cultivation, harvesting and vinification processes. the total length of these sections may become considerably greater than that of the tasting analysis itself. however, this desired proximity, action generating reaction, close contact between the “author” and the “reader”, can only be immediate if those two can really interact, as within the internet, and if the sensory experiences described are intrinsically shared. the message contained in the tasting comments needs to remain within the possibilities considered as usual: a field of human experience is composed of recurrent sequences of activities. because they are recurrent, any sequence is to some extent predictable within a field, so that variations from such sequences are counter expectant. (martin & rose, 2003: 101) 7. applying appraisal theory to wine tasting sheets the appraisal theory, first addressed by iedema, feez and white (1994) and eggins and slade (1997), was further developed by martin and white (white 2001; martin & white, 2005). the concept has been defined as follows: the term ‘appraisal’ is used as a cover-all term to encompass all evaluative uses of language, including those by which speakers/writers adopt particular value positions or stances and by which they negotiate these stances with either actual or potential respondents. (white, 2001: 2) a few years later the above definition was rewritten and amplified by adendorff (2004: 206): bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120108 in particular it seeks to provide an account of how language construes the interpersonal relationships of solidarity and power. it encompasses aspects of grammar which, in other contexts, have been grouped variously under headings such as modality, hedging, evidentiality, attitude and stance. appraisal is mainly realized lexically although it can also be realized by whole clauses. martin and white (2005: 38), as presented in figure 1, divide the appraisal resources existing in a language into three broad semantic domains: engagement, attitude and graduation. 7.1. the engagement and attitude domains “engagement” and “attitude” are particularly important for tasting notes, as they reflect the winemaker’s position towards the produced wine and the winemaking process itself. their professional and commercial commitment inherent to the post is to elaborate not merely a favourable, but a truly enticing judgement which, however, cannot be made explicit – in spite of being the second essential goal of a tasting note: to allure and convince. this implicit aim is achieved through two differentiated options: the first, “monoglossic”, places winemaker’s authority well above the reader’s, as it is usual in “spanish style” unquestionable evaluations. the “heteroglossic” character of the second, implying previous, intrinsical existence of divergent voices, diminishes the rejection usually associated with such an imposed appraisal theory applied to the wine tasting sheet ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 109 bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): …-… a field of human experience is composed of recurrent sequences of activities. because they are recurrent, any sequence is to some extent predictable within a field, so that variations from such sequences are counter expectant. (martin & rose, 2003: 101) 7. applying appraisal theory to wine tasting sheets the appraisal theory, first addressed by iedema, feez and white (1994) and eggins and slade (1997), was further developed by martin and white (white 2001; martin & white, 2005). the concept has been defined as follows: the term ‘appraisal’ is used as a cover-all term to encompass all evaluative uses of language, including those by which speakers/writers adopt particular value positions or stances and by which they negotiate these stances with either actual or potential respondents. (white, 2001: 2) a few years later the above definition was rewritten and amplified by adendorff (2004: 206): in particular it seeks to provide an account of how language construes the interpersonal relationships of solidarity and power. it encompasses aspects of grammar which, in other contexts, have been grouped variously under headings such as modality, hedging, evidentiality, attitude and stance. appraisal is mainly realized lexically although it can also be realized by whole clauses. martin and white (2005: 38), as presented in figure 1, divide the appraisal resources existing in a language into three broad semantic domains: engagement, attitude and graduation. figure 1. an overview of appraisal resources (martin & white, 2005: 38). raise lower sharpen soften a p p r a i s a l engagement attitude graduation monogloss heterogloss force focus affect appreciation judgement evaluation, seemingly placing the winemaker’s and oenologist’s opinion on the same level of authority as the wine consumers’. 7.2. the appreciation resource of the three concepts belonging to the domain of “attitude”: “affect”, “judgement” and “appreciation”, only the third one is significant in the wine tasting linguistic analysis. as regards “affect”, wine tasting for professional reasons does not evoke any true emotions, with the possibly only exception of the overall pleasure generated by its quality. nevertheless, this sensation is being “experimented” by the drinker as a “beneficiary” of the process and not as its “agent”. “judgement”, according to martin and white (2005), implies social or moral evaluation, grade of fulfilment or achievement of the established social norms and goals; therefore it has no application to wine tasting. hence, only the concept of “appreciation”, which can be further differentiated into the notions of “reaction”, “composition” and “valuation”, will stay within the scope of the present study. as argued by martin and white (2005), these three terms are related to mental processes, albeit can be directly linked to the wine tasting procedure: “reaction” is linked with emotion: “[wine] youthful, lively and alluring”15; “composition” is related to the sensory perception: “highly structured tannic core”16; “all framed by chalky, drying and faintly bony tannins”17 and finally the “valuation” proper, in this case the definite and all-encompassing outcome of wine-tasting. all these concepts are further developed in the following section. 8. corpus-based case study according to moskovich (1982), even a small sample can be representative if a specific tendency is thus properly reflected. the representativeness of the study was ensured through the selection, in the four analysed regions, of the same six types of red wine previously listed, namely: cabernet sauvignon; cabernet sauvignon blended with merlot; merlot; pinot noir, shiraz/syrah and tempranillo. since the knowledge of the kind of grape, and the vinification process it was submitted to, allows the wine critic to forecast many of the wine characteristics with considerable accuracy18, i endeavoured to prove that the most significant divergences in wine evaluation were due to cultural differences and to a lesser extent to the wine itself. bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120110 8.1. winemaker’s heteroglossic and monoglossic commitment while the specific use of verbs in parker’s (2008), therefore english, tasting notes has been extensively researched by caballero (2007), their conspicuous dearth in the spanish wine comments (wislocka breit, 2010 & 2012) has not deserved the same linguistic attention. those scarce which appear are used in attributive function reflecting static situations: presenta un sorprendente color19 (“presents a surprising colour”), aparecen los tostados20 (“toasty nuances appear”), tiene un final largo y persistente21 (“has a long and lingering finish”). wine is not the “agent” but the “beneficiary”, such an impersonal description of the gustatory processes resembles closely a scientific report. oenologist’s and winemaker’s lack of personal commitment is close to absolute, any personal investment is avoided producing a quasi-objective statement, nonetheless it must be remembered that this style has been perpetuated in spain throughout its entire wine-growing history. only one instance of personal commitment was identified in the spanish corpus in form of a possessive pronoun nos22 (“us”), but even then it was an “all inclusive form” and not truly first person plural. this fairly extreme characteristic, fully truthful a few years ago, now needs to be nuanced, as traditional spanish tasting notes have been significantly modified by foreign market requirements and their oenological lexicons, gradually making them resemble the sought after new world style. english notes, on the contrary, reveal a completely different approach: wine and aromas act on their own: “pinot noir leaps from your glass”23, “spicy prune nuances amalgamate to produce”24, “a rich, ripe entry taunts the mouth”25, “its layers unfold to reveal”26. this dynamic style and personification of wine constitute an opposite extreme of the distant and self-restrained spanish tasting note. as the winemaker’s and oenologist’s name appears explicitly on the sheet, wine evaluation becomes personal and committed; however this turns out to be an advantage and a drawback: on the one hand the wine’s quality can be credited to a specific person, but on the other the status of professional unquestionability traditionally enjoyed by the spanish winemakers is irretrievably lost. personal involvement proper of the new world style frequently brings about personal forms such as: “we find in our vineyards”27 or “we believe it will develop”28. 8.2. evocative and inscribed appreciation according to martin and white (2005) “evaluation” can be inscribed, i.e. overtly expressed, or evocative, through induced feelings. both interact in the appraisal theory applied to the wine tasting sheet ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 111 tasting note, since intrinsically positive terms such as “ripe”, “rich”, “savoury”, “wonderfully fresh” appear in parallel to words invoking agreeable connotations linked to youth and childhood: “marshmallow”29, “life savers confectionery”30, “manuka honey”31 or metaphors of freedom and wilderness: “fur of an animal”32, “like a briar growing through straw mulch after recent rain”33. however, the poetically inspired writer of the note needs to keep in mind that an excessively imaginative tasting note may result hilarious or pretentious to a non-initiated. it did happen with the just mentioned expression of “a briar growing…”34 a third possibility, as signalled by adendorff (2004: 206) when he points out that “[a]ppraisal is mainly realized lexically although it can also be realized by whole clauses”, appears when words which, by themselves, do not convey intrinsically positive connotations – for example, “long”, “structure”, “complex”, “layer” become positively marked due to their oenological collocations: “long finish”, “powerful structure”, “complex amalgam”, “rich layers” or even: “intense dark fruit core”, “luscious in character and sporting silky, rather than harsh, tannins”35. obviously, this practice is also present in the spanish tasting notes, and even though there are no youth or childhood invocations, no wilderness or nature, the sought after sensation of “exclusivity” is obtained through their specific style resulting from the accumulation of oenological terms and seemingly exotic or less known fruits like “cassis”, grosella negra (“blackcurrants”), frutos del bosque (“forest fruits”) or frutos negros (“dark/black fruits”). 8.3. lexico-semantic analysis the three components of “appreciation”: “reaction”, “composition” and “valuation” present a striking parallel with the three tasting stages: “visual”, “olfactory” and “gustatory” proper. spanish tasting notes generally include all of them; therefore we might visually have un profundo color cereza (“a deep cherry colour”), from the olfactory point of view: nariz sugestiva y compleja (“complex and insinuating nose”) and regarding taste: paladar suave y redondo (“soft and round palate”). conspicuous accumulation of terms referring to fruit such as those already mentioned above: “cassis”, “blackcurrants” or “forest fruits” is not truly meant to evoke factual sensory experiences, since very few spaniards have experimented their real taste, but rather to arouse alluring and exotic sensations. english “deeply scented black forest cherries36, “wafts of toasted marshmallows”37, “nicoise black olive tapenade”38 pursue the same goal significantly increasing positive bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120112 connotations thus produced; comprehension and use of exotic and literary terms as any discourse community specific jargon, additionally confirm the membership of such an exclusive social community. purely statistical data obtained from the corpora analysed with the wordsmith tools regarding “fruit class” show that these terms build up an average of 4.1% of a spanish tasting note contents, 4.6% of californian, 6% of new zealand and 6.3% of australian ones. if spanish wines were to be exported to australia, the self-restrained style of their tasting notes, linked with the reduced range of the fruits mentioned, would probably negatively clash with australian consumers’ expectations produced by the varied scope of australian fruits options.39 8.3.1. gustatory and chromatic adjectives another striking feature of the wine tasting notes written by their makers is their absolute lack of negatively marked terms; seemingly, all those wines do not ever have any objectionable features. invariably, the adjectives encountered are either intrinsically charged with positive connotations, or acquire them through the context, spanish: gran (“great”), sabroso, (“savoury”), intenso (“intense”), carnoso (“fleshy/meaty”), maduro (“ripe/mature”), prolongado (“lingering/lasting”) are seamlessly paired with english: “rich”, “ripe”, “smooth”, “long” or “balanced”. adjectives like complejo and “complex”, persistente and “persistent”, profundo and “deep”, etc. which could be negative in a different context, are always positive in the wine lexical domain (lehrer, 1983/2009: 15). adjectives expressing wine colour are outstandingly important in the spanish notes, as innumerable shades of “red” are further modified and complemented: rojo granate bien cubierto (“deep garnet red”), rojo granate de gran intensidad (“exceedingly intense garnet red”), rojo rubí con tonos teja de gran intensidad (“ruby red with intense tile red nuances”), rojo guinda con tonos violetas (“morello cherry red with violet nuances”), intenso rojo (…) picota (“intense cherry red”). yet even these references do not easily find correspondence in english, as in this language the principal wine colour reference, if used, is not “ruby” or “bigarreau/morello cherry”, but “crimson”, “rich plum with crimson hues”, “glistening purple”, “opaque black red colour” even “deep garnet hue with its cusp of purple”. complete lack of any colour/visual references in california tasting notes results rather atypical, especially taking into account that, as it is appraisal theory applied to the wine tasting sheet ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 113 internationally acknowledged, it is the very first stage of a wine evaluation, never ignored. one plausible explanation of this culturally marked omission might be due to local norms, obliging winemakers to identify on the label the specific varietal, or their meritage, used to produce the wine bottled inside, implying thus its hue (red, white or rosé). the explicit colour description, considered superfluous in california and remarkably important elsewhere, is independent of the scientifically measured data regarding red colour light frequency; its significance is due to the stylistically marked terms used to describe it. conspicuous accumulation of words with highly positive connotations like: “garnet”, “ruby”, “crimson” or “purple” contributes to the creation of an overwhelmingly select and desired setting. 8.3.2. specialized oenological terms “textured tannins”, “matured in oak”, “medium bodied”, “midpalate”, these terms reinforce the semi-conscious feeling of belonging to an exclusive discourse community within which their use is natural, necessary and expected by the reader. from the viewpoint of appraisal theory their purpose seems rather neutral, acting as scaffolding providing the unnoticeable yet essential support and structure. since wine, with its corresponding oenological terminology, has always been present in spanish culture and history, even specialized expressions like aromas primarios (“primary aromas”), estructura tánica (“tannin structure”) or un retrogusto fino (“fine aftertaste”) are not considered scholarly. conversely, english winespeak only recently has become fairly familiar among ordinary people and “tight-grain french oak barrels”, “medium weight palate” or “a palate of gravely tannins” still do not belong to everyday vocabulary and are tilted as either professional or snobbish jargon. the only truly erudite oenological term encountered in the analysed spanish corpus was empironeumático40 (“smelling burnt”). 8.3.3. scholarly terms and “culturemes” table 3 below provides a selection of seemingly most unusual english oenological terms extracted from the compiled corpora. the acronyms can be easily identified as: cs = cabernet sauvignon; pn = pinot noir; shishiraz; m = merlot; csm = cab. sauvignon blended with merlot; t = tempranillo. a corresponds to australia; c to california; nz to new zealand; numbers identify specific wines from the corpora whose tasting notes had been analysed. bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120114 common terms employed in an unusual way together with the truly unusual references are particularly interesting from the viewpoint of appraisal theory, even despite their contradictoriness with the previously cited principle: “variations from such sequences are counterexpectant” (martin & rose, 2003: 101). they foster certain aura of exoticism, attraction and poetry, “weaves a tapestry of flavors centered on a concentrated core of currant, black cherry”41; “manuka honey complexity”42; “flirting strawberry creamy yogurt and freshly cut rhubarb aromatics unwittingly entice…”43. purely technical oenological terms, like those mentioned in the previous section, seem too “dry” to create a sensation of something exceptional, exotic and highly desired. these qualities do not need to be accurately defined; it is precisely their indefiniteness, which makes the wine so desirable. however, the enticement thus conveyed unavoidably requires having previously shared similar sensory experiences; cultural gaps which emerge when there are none have given rise to concepts such as “culture bump” minted by archer (1986) or “cultural word” proposed by newmark (1988). these expressions, proper to their specific oenological discursive groups, with no cultural equivalent in a different oenological language, have been thus defined as “oenological culturemes” (wislocka breit, 2012). appraisal theory applied to the wine tasting sheet ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 115 bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): …-… california australia new zealand contribution weaves a tapestry of flavour centered on a concentrated core of currant, black cherry, blackberry and sweet cigar smoke… (csm-ca-3) flirting strawberry yoghurt creamy and freshly cut rhubarb aromatics unwittingly entice (shi-a-1) greet the nose and fuse with wafts of toasted marshmallow (pn-nz2) infused with brambly blackberry fruit… (csm-ca-5) reminiscent of life savers confectionary (pn-a-1) savoury thorny understory like a briar growing through straw mulch after recent rain (pn-nz-2) on your patio, or a hearty pasta dish enjoyed by the fire (shi-ca-2) mineral acidity and fine lacy tannins (csm-a-1) sweet fleshy grilled crimson plums on a bed of grated roast beetroot (pn-nz-2) unmistakable richness or decadence (m-ca-5) a slight gaminess (pn-a-3) manuka honey complexity (pnnz-2) darkness of tea leaf, humid forest, and a feral quality, like the fur of an animal or the nape of a neck (pnca-4) the meaty element gives way to a very fragrant musk, lavender and talcum powder note. (pn-a-1) run through the palate as smoothly as a humvee over judder bars on an ocean boulevard (pn-nz-2) a splash of bacon fat (pn-ca-5) nicoise black olive tapenade (shica-5) …even coating of talc-like tannins (cs-a-4) the wine has the intensity of a babbling brook (pn-nz-2) chinese camphor (shi-ca-1) hibiscus tea (t-ca-4) dusty spice (t-ca-4) a barrel-fermented vapour net entraps (shi-a-1) flavours are marshalled into clean, well defined lines by a stern palate edge (pn-nz-2) smoked butcher block (shi-ca-1) boar sausage, cured meat (shi-ca5) …developing a sooty mineral edge (cs-a-5) florals arrive and evaporate into kind of strawberry transparency (pn-nz-5) western aspect of madder lake (tca-2) edgy acidity and fine gritty mineral tannins (t-a-1) table 3. unusual english referents. 9. conclusion in this paper i have tried to show that wine tasting sheets can be rightfully considered “genre” as they fully comply with the linguistic requirements as signalled by swales (1990) and bhatia (2004). the systemic functional linguistics approach has resulted particularly suitable for analysing texts with specific communication goals, such as tasting notes. the three metafunctions differentiated within sfl: ideational, interpersonal and textual, coincide to a great extent with the three goals of a wine tasting sheet: (i) to inform; (ii) to allure, and (iii) to provide the feeling of membership of an exclusive group of people knowledgeable about wine. while certain measurable data provided explicitly within a tasting sheet contribute to its technical, therefore objective, appearance, the main goal of a tasting note remains 9. conclusion in this paper i have tried to show that wine tasting sheets can be rightfully considered “genre” as they fully comply with the linguistic requirements as signalled by swales (1990) and bhatia (2004). the systemic functional linguistics approach has resulted particularly suitable for analysing texts with specific communication goals, such as tasting notes. the three metafunctions differentiated within sfl: ideational, interpersonal and textual, coincide to a great extent with the three goals of a wine tasting sheet: (i) to inform; (ii) to allure, and (iii) to provide the feeling of membership of an exclusive group of people knowledgeable about wine. while certain measurable data provided explicitly within a tasting sheet contribute to its technical, therefore objective, appearance, the main goal of a tasting note remains subliminal: to convince the prospective reader into buying this specific bottle of wine. since excessively overt advertising would entail diminishing the semitechnical appearance of a tasting note as offering neutral, measurable information, its content needs to be drafted in subtle yet effective words, charged with positive connotations. these differentiated lexical means include, among others: • evoked sensory sensations. • reminiscences from childhood and youth. • exotic and alluring effects. • savoury local and exotic fruits. • enthralling flavours. • variety of intrinsically positive adjectives. • positive contamination of substantially neutral terms. • accumulation of specialized oenological terms. • unusual and culturally marked references. the above inevitably leads to a conclusion that any genre whose aim is to stimulate a factual or emotional response from the receiver and, especially, the wine tasting sheet, may, and should be, analysed in the appraisal theory frame, as defined by martin and white (2005). despite the technical bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120116 measurable data contained in such texts, intrinsic cultural differences are manifest, even among different english discourses; therefore a careful sociolinguistic grounding needs to be performed before any translation to another language is attempted. simultaneously, since marketwise globalizing policies usually act outside any linguistic constraints, mutual permeability, even though clearly biased in favour of the new world style, is streaming diverse idiosyncratic features into a number of core characteristics, implicitly shared and/or expected by all producers and consumers. doubtlessly, this phenomenon will be even more noticeable in languages lacking their own established oenological tradition and lexis. 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(2008). “discussing wine to excess”. the new york times, 1 december. url: http://well. blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/discussing-wine-toexcess/ [12/03/12] pivot, b. (2007). diccionario del amante del vino. madrid: espasa calpe. ratti, r. (2000). cómo degustar los vinos. manual del catador. madrid: ediciones mundi-prensa. sage, a. (2007). “the emperor of wine and the attack over a question of taste”. the times, 26 october. url: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life _and_style/food_and_drink/wine/a [28/06/09] silverstein, m. (2003). “indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life”. language & communication 23: 193-229. silverstein, m. (2004): “‘cultural’ concepts and the language-culture nexus”. current anthropology 45: 621-645. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis. english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. white, p.r.r. (2001). appraisal website homepage. introductory guide to appraisal. url: http://grammatics.com/appraisal/appraisalguide/ appraisalguidewpfiles.html [15/05/13] wislocka breit, b. (2010). “rojo picota vs. mulberry: análisis contrastivo de frutas y colores en la cata” in m. goded rambaud (ed.), 145-156. wislocka breit, b. (2012). aplicación de la teoría de la valoración a las fichas de cata de vino en inglés, español y polaco y sus respectivas traducciones desde una perspectiva intercultural. unpublished doctoral dissertation. madrid: uned. young, l. & c. harrison (eds.) (2004). systemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis. studies in social change. london: continuum. bozena wislocka breit, educated in poland and spain, presently teaches technical translation in the school of computer science, technical university of madrid (upm). her research interests include intraand intercultural nuances in translation (“culturemes”), appraisal theory, moocs, winespeak and wine-tasting sheet genre. notes 1 see oiv’s website at url: http://www.oiv.org 2 see, for instance, url: http://www.bodegapirineos.net/?ids=641 [15/05/13] 3 url: http://www.bodega-ottobestue.com [15/05/13] 4 url: http://www.bodegairius.com/productos.html [12/03/12]; currently see: http://web.archive.org/ web/20120822232002/http://www.bodegairius.com/productos.html [15/05/13] 5 url: http://www.bodegasabinasa.com/ [15/05/13] 6 url: http://www.bodegasestada.com/vinos_autor/index.htm [15/05/13] 7 url: http://www.bodegaschesa.com/vinedos.html [15/05/13] 8 url: http://www.monteodina.com/esp/sender.asp [15/05/13] 9 url: http://www.bodegasmeler.com/vistas/producto/meler-chardonnay.aspx [12/03/12] 10 url: http://www.bodegaslaus.com/tienda.php?idioma=esp [15/05/13] 11 url: http://www.bodegapirineos.net/?ids=641 [15/05/13] 12 url: http://www.bodegaslalanne.es/bodas-en-lalanne.html [15/05/13]; 13 url: http://www.bodegassers.es/ [15/05/13] 14 url: http://www.gmon.com/tech/output.shtml [15/05/13] 15 url: http://www.grangeforsale.com/forsale.php?grange=1389 [15/05/13] 16 url: http://www.bravantevineyards.com/index.cfm?method=products.productdrilldown&productid= df4f8c57-1cc4-81ae-753d-dc82512afb91&pageid=7be0a8e0-082a-9916-533e-47840b2b4352&sortby= displayorder& [15/05/13] 17 url: http://www.wineaway.com.au/app/shop_detail.php?id=000333 [15/05/13] 18 url: http://aromadictionary.com/winewhitelist.pdf; url: http://aromadictionary.com/wineredlist. pdf [15/05/13] 19 url: http://somontano.uvinum.es/vinas-del-vero-cabernet-sauvignon-2004 [15/05/13] 20 url: http://somontano.uvinum.es/vinas-del-vero-cabernet-sauvignon-2004 [15/03/13] 21 url: http://www.sibaritia.com/vinos/leonor-lalanne-merlot-crianza-p-194.html [15/05/13] 22 url: http://www.vinogusto.com/es/vinos/espana/aragon/somontano,co:tinto,p:vinos-12-hatsa-25euros?pg=6 [15/05/13] 23 url: http://assets3.casellawines.com.au/assets/rlaspzclh8pw2c1/yt-pn.pdf [15/05/13] appraisal theory applied to the wine tasting sheet ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120 119 24 url: http://web.archive.org/web/20081014014112/http://www.okahuestate.co.nz/site/index.php/ content/wine_detail/merlot_cabernet1 [15/05/13] 25 url: http://vinolist.com/wine/1109475/1998-russian-river-valley-la-petite-etoile-vineyard-fumeblanc-sonoma-county-reserve-merlot.html [15/05/13] 26 url: http://www.gallosonoma.com/varietals/sonoma-reserve-pinot-noir.asp [12/03/12] 27 url: http://www.kenswineguide.com/wine.php?wine=4063 [15/05/13] 28 url: http://www.grovemill.co.nz/wines/view/1040 [29/03/10] 29 url: http://www.margrainvineyard.co.nz/tastings/index.html#riversedgepinotnoir [22/03/09] 30 url: http://www.darenberg.com.au/sites/default/files/tastingnotes/2007_the_feral_fox_pinot_ noir.pdf [15/05/13] 31 see note 29 32 url: http://www.wine.com/v6/hanzell-pinot-noir-2006/wine/102114/detail.aspx [15/05/13] 33 see note 29 34 url: http://www.goseewrite.com/2010/02/funny-wine-tasting-notes/ [15/05/13] 35 url: http://www.atasteofmonterey.com/assets/files/newsletters/newsletter_03_2011.pdf [15/05/13] 36 url: http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/533498/putting-wines-into-words [15/05/13] 37 see note 29 38 url: http://web.archive.org/web/20121009035756/http://www.peayvineyards.com/archive_syrah. shtml [15/05/13] 39 obviously this observation has been invalidated by the on-going changes in spanish tasting notes style. 40 url: http://www.bodegassierradeguara.es/htm/es/prod2/control?zone=pub&sec=prod2&pag= ver&id=17&loc=es [15/05/13] 41 url: http://chwine.com/lot-55-2005-napa-valley-meritage [15/05/13] 42 see note 29 43 url: http://www.penfolds.com/en/wines/icon-luxury-range/rwt.aspx [15/05/13] bozena wislocka breit ibérica 27 (2014): 97-120120 08 artiga.qxp ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 abstract epistemic lexical verbs (hyland, 1998) constitute essential elements in conveying different interpersonal meanings, among those judgment, certainty, doubt, and evidence, aiding speakers both to project themselves into the speech and to maintain interesting relationships with audiences. supporting sinclair’s (1991) contention that meanings are clustered into lexicogrammatical patternings, and not in isolated items, this paper explores the phraseology accompanying the most representative epistemic lexical verbs (elvs) in university lectures. by applying corpus-based methodology, we also illustrate the functional variability of think –the most salient of these lexical verbs–, especially the roles it performs when hedging the discourse and complying with politeness conventions as part of interactional and metadiscoursal strategies. at a textual level, results indicate that lecturing speech favors the proliferation of evaluation markers that appear to be arranged in several recurrent formal patterns. this clearly entails potential for pedagogical purposes and esp syllabuses. key words: academic speech, lectures, stance, lexical units, interpersonal pragmatics resumen la interacción semántico-pragmática de la presencia del autor en la fraseología de las clases magistrales los verbos epistémicos (hyland, 1998) constituyen elementos esenciales en la transmisión de múltiples significados interpersonales, entre los que se incluyen el juicio, la certeza, la duda o la evidencia, contribuyendo de manera eficaz a que los hablantes se proyecten dentro del discurso y establezcan relaciones interesantes con la audiencia. de acuerdo con los postulados de sinclair (1991) que argumenta que los significados no se codifican de forma aislada sino que tienden a formar estructuras lexicogramaticales, este estudio pretende explorar la fraseología típica de los verbos epistémicos (elv) más frecuentes en clases magistrales. asimismo, se ilustrará mediante la metodología del análisis de corpus, la variabilidad funcional de think, por ser el más frecuente de dichos verbos léxicos, en the semantic-pragmatic interface of authorial presence in academic lecturing phraseology maría rosario artiga león universidad de zaragoza charomar21@wanadoo.es 127 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 127 particular las funciones que desarrolla matizando el discurso y conviniendo con los mandatos de la cortesía dentro de las estrategias de interacción y metadiscurso. a nivel textual los resultados indican que este tipo de discurso universitario favorece la proliferación de indicadores de evaluación que forman diversos patrones tipo, lo que implica un enorme potencial para su aplicación práctica en los currículos de inglés para fines específicos. palabras clave: discurso académico, clases de universidad, posición de autor, unidades léxicas, pragmática interpersonal introduction far from being neutral or straightforward towards the information conveyed writers/speakers tend to include affective meanings such as their own attitudes and evaluation in addition to propositional content. over the last several years, linguists have become increasingly interested in the ways speakers and writers express judgments and even personal feelings to support their arguments and validate their claims. such investigations have been carried out from different perspectives and under several labels, including “attitude” and “modality” (halliday, 1994), “evaluation” (hunston, 1994), “affect” (ochs, 1989), “evidentiality” (chafe & nichols, 1986), “hedging” (holmes, 1988; hyland, 1996, 1998; markkanen & schröder, 1997), “appraisal” (martin, 2000), and “stance” (biber & finegan, 1988, 1989; beach & anson, 1992; barton, 1993; conrad & biber, 2000). although these terms cover slightly overlapping areas, they all refer to writer/speaker point of view about the state of affairs or the information transmitted. this paper will primarily adhere to biber and finegan’s (1988) concept of stance, which refers to the ways speakers and writers convey their personal feelings and assessments in addition to propositional content. these authors define “epistemic stance” as the degree of certainty or evidence towards the content; it is roughly modalization in halliday’s (1994) terminology, whereas “attitudinal stance” conveys more personal feelings, and “style stance” relates to the speaker’s or writer’s comment on the way in which the information in a clause is presented. stance has been used as an umbrella word comprising several heterogeneous textual features. among the devices deployed to index stance, epistemic lexical verbs (hyland, 1998), heretofore elvs, such as think, suggest, feel and seem are essential to encode judgment and carry out evaluative functions, both in written and spoken academic registers (hyland, 1998; biber et al., 1999). as stated above, these elements help perform the interpersonal function of language and are part of modality systems, which broadly refer to “a speaker’s attitude towards, or opinion about, the truth of a proposition expressed” and “extends to their attitude towards the situation or event described by a sentence” (simpson, 1993: 47). maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144128 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 128 whereas the proliferation of these stance markers in conversational settings has already been pointed out by several researchers (biber et al., 1999; hunston & thompson, 2000), the situation in the academic spoken registers has been somewhat neglected so far and studies have been more sporadic (mauranen, 2000, 2001; poos & simpson, 2002; swales & burke, 2003; simpson, 2004). in lecturing, being this an instructional genre, speakers easily resort to elvs by adopting various positions to project themselves into the speech: assessing knowledge, doubting some aspects, commenting on propositions, indicating the source of the information, agreeing/disagreeing, and making alliances and commitments, among others: we also know that academic speech tends to be heavily hedged, although, as poos and simpson (2002) have suggested, not only for the traditional reasons of modesty and uncertainty, but also (at least in instructive speech) as a way of socializing students into the sensitivities of a particular discipline. (swales & burke, 2003: 1) information in lectures, although planned beforehand and possibly somehow previously rehearsed, is delivered online and interaction tends to share the characteristics of both face to face and spontaneous exchanges (swales, 1990; mauranen, 2000). teachers generally favor audience oriented devices and appear accessible and encouraging providing personal support and allowing relaxed, informal encounters. from a different perspective, epistemic elements are not usually selected in isolation; rather, they tend to cluster in formulaic lexical chunks (sinclair, 1991; hunston & sinclair, 2000). as nattinger and decarrico (1992: 11) put it, they make “lexical phrases” typically “consisting of a syntactic frame that contains slots of various fillers, and run the gamut from completely fixed unvarying phrases to phrases that are highly variable.” these lexicalized composites seem to be fixed not only in their form but also in their functional application. therefore, in the expression of meanings, it could be reasonable to describe sense and structure together, as sinclair (1991: 65) concurs, “it seems that there is a strong tendency for sense and syntax to be associated.” he further argues that “speakers have meanings which they want to make and that these meanings naturally attract to themselves phraseologies which incorporate lexis and grammar” (sinclair, 1991: 31). it is then likely that certain structural patterns select similar words for particular meanings. on pedagogical grounds, this suggests that rather than teaching isolated lexical elements, english for specific and academic purposes instruction should pay closer attention to complex patternings to convey meanings successfully since “fluent and idiomatic control of a language rests to a considerable extent on knowledge of a body of ‘sentence stems’ which are ‘institutionalized’ or ‘lexicalized’” (pawley & syder, 1983: 191) in order to help learners’ production achieve native-like accuracy. from a pedagogical point of view, in an attempt to bridge the gap between research the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 129 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 129 and teaching, our study will be relevant to detect lecture comprehension verbs selecting recurrent lexical gambits, which will be of interest for those wanting to communicate effectively in the academic world. in the light of these considerations, my aim in this paper is twofold, firstly to identify the routine composites and to observe the frequency and recurrence of these clusters describing the correlates that accompany elvs as pillars on which the conceptual load of lectures is framed. secondly, i will focus on the verb think, to illustrate the pragmatic effects of elvs within a context of use. although any attempt to discuss and assess the implications this research might have for teaching english for academic purposes (eap) and english for specific purposes (esp) falls outside the scope and length of this article, some general pedagogical considerations will also be sketched out at the end of this paper. analytical procedures the corpus chosen for the present study consists of 14 lectures, a total number of 152,810 words, chosen randomly out of the 62 lectures available in micase (michigan corpus of academic speech in english), and it is the only electronic compilation that contains samples of real academic speech events that i know of. micase is an appropriate resource since it includes authentic data recorded in a university setting and also covers four different domains of knowledge: social sciences and education, humanities and art, physical sciences and engineering, and biological and health science. the lectures were analyzed by using the concordance program wordsmith tools 3.0 (scott, 1999), which allows rigorous contextual investigations and, additionally, enables horizontal and vertical study of concordances, essential in the identification of frequently-occurring sequences of items and phraseology. corpus-based research was used to provide empirical evidence in order to reveal much more about grammatical features and to enable investigation of the actual patterns of use in addition to structural descriptions. in a preliminary stage of the research, elements not found to have epistemic meanings in the context of use were discarded, which happened in nearly half of the tokens (734 out of 1,347). we resorted to an expert native scholar (see acknowledgements) for clarification on some of the doubtful meanings these elvs conveyed as this task was not always straightforward considering there exist fuzzy and overlapping instances difficult to discern in this slippery category of lexical verbs. then, in the first stage of this study, a quantitative analysis of the frequencies observed by the different items under study was carried out to find out the most recurrent elvs in the genre. later, by using corpus-based analytical techniques, we maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144130 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 130 were able to document the different structural patterns by which speakers mark stance using several lexical and syntactic resources available. finally, the focus of analysis was turned to the pragmatic domain to study the communicative functions the verb think carries out in the context of university lectures. results and discussions quantitative results in an initial search, the frequency distribution these elvs score in the corpus was observed to identify which tokens are favored in university lectures. following hyland (1998), biber et al. (1999), and hunston and thomson (2000), on the most recurrent lexical verb items conveying epistemic meanings to encode stance in speech and academic settings, the following verbs were selected: admit, appear, argue, assume, believe, calculate, claim, conclude, consider, doubt, estimate, exhibit, feel, figure, guess, imagine, indicate, infer, judge, not know, note, notice, predict, seem, show, speculate, suggest, suppose, suspect, and think. results of the frequencies found in the corpus are illustrated in table 1. the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 131 lexical verb total number of counts counts with epistemic meaning average number of counts per 10,000 words comparative percentage admit 2 1 0.06 0.13% appear 36 10 0.65 1.36% argue 18 11 0.71 1.49% assume 41 35 2.29 4.76% believe 29 22 1.43 2.99% calculate 6 2 0.13 0.27% claim 8 3 0.19 0.40% conclude 9 6 0.39 0.81% consider 21 6 0.39 0.81% doubt 1 estimate 23 1 0.06 0.13% exhibit 5 1 0.06 0.13% feel 58 15 0.98 2.04% figure 28 3 0.19 0.40% guess 25 15 0.98 2.04% imagine 23 6 0.39 0.81% indicate 6 3 0.19 0.40% infer 3 1 0.06 0.13% judge 10 3 0.19 0.40% not know 105 73 4.77 9.94% note 47 4 0.26 0.54% notice 45 12 0.78 1.63% predict 11 6 0.39 0.81% seem 57 57 3.73 7.76% show 90 10 0.65 1.36% speculate suggest 35 13 0.85 1.77% suppose 65 38 2.48 5.17% suspect 2 2 0.13 0.27% think 538 375 24.50 51.08% total 1,347 734 (55%) 48.03 100% table 1. total number of tokens of epistemic lexical verbs in lectures micase (152,810 words). 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 131 quantitatively speaking, think scores the highest frequencies, more than 51% of the total number of elv tokens, followed by other items such as not know (9.94%), seem (7.76%), suppose (5.17%), assume (4.76%), and believe (2.99%). in the case of know, only negative tokens expressing uncertainty were selected since no epistemic meanings were found in the affirmative form of this verb. all these six recurrent items at the top of the rank are favored by conversational settings (biber et al., 1999), whereas other verbs which show insignificant or null frequencies (admit, calculate, claim, doubt, exhibit, indicate, infer, judge, speculate, and suspect) correspond to verbs more characteristic of written registers. thus, our results corroborate previous findings1 on the subject by hyland (1998) and biber et al. (1999). in the following stage of this research, admitting that some associations in the dichotomy of form and function can be found in elvs, we set to identify the lexical bundles that constitute specific linguistic realizations to mark stance. phraseological correlates of epistemic lexical verbs in lectures adhering to sinclair’s (1991) and hunston and thompson’s (2000) contention that lexis and grammar constitute a single phenomenon and not two separate systems, this section illustrates how the language of stance tends to be realized in linguistic units displaying a varied range of structural possibilities. the analysis below will be centered on the six most frequent elvs in the selected corpus, think, not know, seem, suppose, assume and believe (81.74% of the total number of counts) since the comparative frequencies of some of the remaining verbs were not considered significant. the corpus displays several grammatical and lexical patterns containing epistemic lexical verbs to convey different evaluation meanings as illustrated in table 2: maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144132 elvs total tokens passive elvs pattern 1: + that-clause pattern 2: parenthetical sentence pattern 3: + to infinitive pattern 4: + to epist. verb think 375 4 280 66 30 not know 73 5 5 seem 57 6 2 29 suppose 38 34 2 1 33 assume 35 2 19 2 4 believe 22 1 9 3 3 total 600 41 6.83% 321 53.5% 79 13.16% 62 10.33% 37 6.16% table 2. phraseological correlates of the most frequent epistemic lexical verbs in lectures micase (152,810 words). 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 132 pattern 1: personal/impersonal subject + epistemic lexical verb + (that)-clausal complement this pattern is by far the most recurrent verbal composite since all these epistemic markers allow this structure. in our corpus more than half of the frequencies 383 out of a total of 734 (321 out of 600, a 53.5%, in the most frequent verbs), show this patterning. moreover, some authors even include these elvs in the category of ‘believe-type verbs’ (givón, 1993; nöel, 2002). although explicit that is frequent as illustrated in examples 1 and 2, that is more usually omitted (example 3). in these three instances the matrix verb conveys the speaker’s stance towards the content of the forthcoming proposition; in the first example the lecturer indexes the source of the evidence for his/her claim whereas in the second and third elvs are used to somehow add speculation towards the content of the propositions. (1) […] but they still don't metastasize as well as d-one-twenty-two. foso this suggests that there are additional factors that the immune system yes is one factor but there are other factors […] (lel175su106)2 (2) […] so the world that marx was seeing, was one of increased worker exploitation, and marx believed that as this worker exploitation became utterly unbearable […] (lel220juo71) (3) […] so can i explain for example the fact that if i go, how's everybody doing? you all assume i'm, more likely happy, than unhappy […] (lel500ju034) apart from a that-clause, other alternative subordinate sentences can be found as is the case of why, where, what, whether and if, these being commonly associated with not know. thus, in example 4 not know hedges a subordinate sentence with what mitigated by a proliferation of other stance markers (‘i think’, ‘might’, ‘exactly’, conditional sentences …), and in example 5 the verb conveys uncertainty towards the following conditional sentence. (4) […] that pun is in the spanish and i think if you were only reading the english, you might just, you know think it's a typo. i don't know exactly what the translators should've done there, they could've called it fleambo instead of limbo or something i don't know, but anyway […] (les300su103) (5) […] but i don't know if that's the latest and greatest technology in uh i just know some systems used to work that way and i don't know if that's still the case, but horizthe chebyshev travel occurs whenever you have two independent […] (les330jg052) semantically, these verbs index judgment, ranging from speculating about the truth of the complement clause in one way or another, especially through mental and cognitive the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 133 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 133 verbs3, to indicating deduction about the claim (guess, suggest, estimate, calculate …). conveying certainty towards the truth of the proposition is illustrated in example 6 through an emphatic cleft sentence, whereas example 7 evinces how guess encodes speaker’s deduction on the upcoming information. it is also noticeable how these elvs anticipate other lexical evaluators, particularly adjectives and adverbs (‘clearly’, ‘really’, ‘quite’, ‘important’, ‘good’ …) in both examples. (6) […] what i think that the the paper clearly does, is it shows that the kinds of sophistication that are in the option value or the stochastic dynamic program models, are really quite important […] (les280jg138) (7) […] they're all equated with the japanese syllabary, the japanese kana. uh there're forty-seven kana. i guess that's a good way to remember how many kana there are. (lel140su074) apart from the recurrent mental process verbs, others describe more emotional or attitudinal states, particularly feel. it is interesting to note that feel conveys fuzzy connotations blending opinion and feeling as shown in example 8 where both meanings overlap. besides, there is a further group of elvs that, rather than marking the nature of the following sentence, provide evidence or report on the source of the evidence for the speaker’s comment, mainly appear, seem and show. this can be seen in example 9 where seem encodes the justification for the lecturer’s reasoning. (8) […] you don't have to say i love you all you have to do is give somebody food, and that indicates a relationship. (and) i feel that when i read this. (les300su103) (9) […] so, it seems to me that, if we understand the plot in relation to what the spanish really says, it really means, when it happens you are bound forever. (lel300su076) the subject of these epistemic verbs controlling the complement clause can sporadically be explicit (10 times out of 375 in the case of think), although pronoun reference is much more frequent, being usually the first person singular, i, therefore the lecturer, who openly evaluates, judges or gives opinion. in the six most recurrent elvs, i scores 330 out of 600 maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144134 epistemic lexical verb i pronoun we pronoun you pronoun it pronoun think 256 13 13 4 not know 60 5 3 seem 3 20 suppose 1 1 4 6 assume 4 15 3 2 believe 6 2 2 1 total 330 55% 36 6% 25 4.1% 33 5.5% table 3. pronoun reference in lectures micase. 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 134 frequencies (55% of the total number of counts) as illustrated in table 3. alternatively, yet not so frequently, we find the first person plural, we, by which speakers make a general reference also involving the audience (36 cases out of 600, 6%, in the six most frequent elvs). other personal pronouns include you, a clear indicator of the interpersonal function of language (25 counts, 4.1%, out of 600). you can show ambiguous reference but it usually relates to the audience and it is a further way for lecturers to bring students into the speech. in example 10 we can see instances of you (‘you may think’), explicit reference (‘your teacher may not think’) and also first person singular pronoun (‘i think’). here think together with modals and adverbial modifiers (‘may’, ‘like’, ‘really’) indicates speculation. impersonal pronoun reference (33 counts, a 5.5% of the total number of tokens) commonly correlates with seem (20 hits out of a total of 33 in the most common epistemic lexical verbs) and also appear (5 out of 10 hits). these copular verbs are usually followed by a subject predicative and perform a linking function so that the subject predicative directly characterizes the subject as seen in example 11. seem can also enact the personal reference and subjective position by adding the object –to me as seen in example 12. some of these verbs such as suggest, seem, appear, show, indicate and predict happily combine with both personal and impersonal pronoun reference. (10)[…] if you write a paper which is like graded, you know based on your, teacher's interpretation of your paper and you may think it's like really, mhm great and your teacher (may,) not think the same way and i think that that also causes like a little problem, cuz, as far as like, grades are concerned […] (lel185su066) (11)[…] and these matrix metalloproteases again help to break down the extracellular, matrix. it appears that both of these families of proteases they do somewhat different things and both of them are needed in order to get efficient […] (lel175su106) (12)[…] so, it seems to me that, if we understand the plot in relation to what the spanish really says, it really means, when it happens you are bound forever. (lel300su076) pattern 2: i + epistemic lexical verb (parenthetical sentences) swales and malczewski (2001: 149) refer to this pattern as ‘epistemic parentheticals.’ parenthetical clauses are independent sentences which occur freely in different positions and interrupt the ongoing discourse at any point to qualify any part of the speech. conrad and biber (2000) even label them as ‘comment clauses’ acting as stance adverbials, used to “explicitly mark a proposition as the speaker’s opinion or to convey some level of doubt” (conrad & biber, 2000: 70). these authors contend the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 135 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 135 that their use is limited to conversational registers and usually correlates with mental and cognitive verbs, especially think, believe, not know, feel, guess, imagine and suppose. table 2 reveals 79 instances of parenthetical clauses (13.16% of the total number of tokens) in the six most frequent elvs selected for the analysis. in monologic speech, as is the case in lectures, these units help break the flow of speech and allow speakers to express more tentative meanings. example 13 shows speaker’s reservations on the information and in example 14 the lecturer hedges his/her claim in order not to appear too categorical about what he previously admitted; in both cases parentheticals enable non-commitment to propositions. (13)[…] now let me describe for you one, simple experiment, which makes this point. this is on the next page i believe of the coursepack. page, twenty-two. (lel175su106) (14)[…] trying to find out whether there's a relationship between birth control pill usage, and cancer risk, and i think i said there is no single experiment it's not like there's one right answer it's a very complicated question how scientists go about […] (lel175su106) similarly, they can also be found at moments when lecturers hesitate or feel insecure in relation to the information transmitted, especially conveying complex conceptualizations in order to allow teachers time to find the best way to solve difficulties. in this sense, the use of ‘parentheticals’ can be associated with several hesitation pointers such as repetitions or other metatalk devices making linguistic chunks when the discourse is not smooth. in example 15 the speaker resorts repeatedly to this pattern as a hesitation marker at a moment of particularly difficult argumentation. (15)[…] overgeneral i thought. i mean, you can find other references, especially in the new testament, i think that, that uh, indicate that it's a gift and i um, i think, no i don't think it i don't think it's i don't think it's looked down upon but i think in terms of um, i just i really don't like, um, when they say, it jui mean it's ar […] (les605su080) pattern 3: impersonal/personal subject + epistemic lexical verb active/passive + clausal to infinitive epistemic verbs are also frequently followed by a non-finite clause (62 out of 600 cases, a 10.33%, in the six most common elvs, see table 2). however, this is restricted to seem and suppose in the selected corpus. this pattern rather than qualifying the proposition, evaluates the preceding subject, as can be seen in the examples below. the passive construction is slightly more common than its active counterpart (41 maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144136 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 136 tokens out of 600, a 6.83%, see table 2), being more formal and impersonal and making the attribution of the stance not explicit or ambiguous. passive epistemic verbs enable speakers to either minimize full responsibility for their claims, protect their face or detach themselves from what is being talked about. the agent of the clause can be usually retrieved but, at times, it is difficult to decide on the hidden person behind the impersonal expression. accordingly, this pattern tends to be preferred in those cases when lecturers present information that has not yet been proved or whose evidence is still unknown as in example 16 or when they refer to a general belief instead of manifesting his/her own views (example 17). in this example 17, the use of agentless passive patterns implies a lack of any specified human agency and contributes to impersonalization and a higher avoidance of any personal reference. (16)[…] this seems to be in contradiction, to another prescription. and the prescription that often run runs counter to to this, is foreign policy […] (les495ju063) (17)[…] i didn't find very much um on the christian views, of the song of songs but um it's supposed to be the romance of jesus and the church with mary as the chief female figure. (les605su080) interestingly, both passive and active structures can also be sporadically accompanied by a passive infinitive adding further impersonalization to the utterance; something quite unusual in other conversational settings. suppose is the verb that most commonly resorts to this typology in our corpus (‘is supposed to be supported’, ‘they are not supposed to be finished’, ‘was supposed to be chosen’ …). in example 18, the unknown and blurred attribution is indexed to speculate about the content without clearly indicating the source of the judgment. (18)[…] i mean the countries that were most affected by those missiles that were supposed to be deployed in western europe, um, england, there were four countries england netherlands germany and italy. (les495ju063) pattern 4: noun/adjective/verb + epistemic lexical verb infinitive + that-clause another recurrent pattern containing elvs is that of the infinitive form after either a noun (‘temptation’, ‘tendency’, ‘reason’ …), an adjective (‘likely’, ‘interesting’, ‘difficult’ …) or even other alternatives such as a verb followed by infinitive (‘have’, ‘make’, ‘want’ …). this pattern accounts for 37 cases (6.16%) in the six most common elvs in our data as seen in table 2. in the example below we can observe how the epistemic lexical infinitive verb qualifies the upcoming that-clause proposition by making a hedged general assumption the lecturer disagrees with. the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 137 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 137 (19)[…] so, there's always this temptation to think that evolution is moving us, in a direction towards always higher performance that's not what evolution is doing at all. evolution is a pr […] (lel500ju034) as regards the phraseology these stance markers usually reflect, it is recurrent to find different types of hedging, including prepositions such as ‘like’ and adverbs ‘sort of ’ and ‘just’, either following or preceding the epistemic verbs making sentences blurred or more fuzzy and adding ambiguity to the speaker’s position. these associations, typically restricted to informal conversational settings, are frequent with feel and seem as illustrated in example 20, where reformulation and the epistemic modal and adverbs contribute to further tentativeness. (20)[…] and even though some of what they produce might seem like, it's you know geared to, uh, disaffected women, or people of color or seeks to show, uh poor people a little bit. that that's all kind of a mask. (lel220juo71) evidence makes it also clear that these lexical verbs do not often occur in isolation, on the contrary, they seem to cluster with other stance devices including prosodic features, discourse fillers, evaluative adjectives, adverbs and modality markers, especially modal verbs, shaping mutually supporting associations that allow speakers to index more epistemic meanings, usually making sentences less likely and more tentative. in example 21 we can see suggest preceding two evaluative adjectives. the most commonly found modal verb in our corpus is the conversational ‘can’, which usually collocates with imagine and think, another typical association is ‘should’ and know. ‘may’, ‘might’ and ‘would’ are currently found with think, seem, suggest, suppose … hedging the discourse, as seen in example 22 above. (21)[…] when she goes into the dark room that is no longer dark, with pedro. in fact, i would suggest to you that, one of the great things about this novel is that it works with an enormous set of oppositions. (les300su103) (22)[…] if you write a paper which is like graded, you know based on your, teacher's interpretation of your paper and you may think it's like really, mhm great and your teacher (may,) not think the same way and i think that that also causes like a little problem […] (lel185su066) overall, it is frequent to find high traffic of these epistemic lexical verbs making bundles as observed in examples 23 and 24; this proliferation of stance markers allows speakers to achieve their purposes more effectively, not only to facilitate lecture comprehension but also to soften power status inequalities between speakers and audience. this feature correlates with mechanisms of spoken registers and includes retrace and repair, reformulation, clarification, pauses and other hesitation markers, characteristic of improvised speech. maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144138 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 138 (23)[…] so along with stock options which i think is a great idea, i think, you know, some kind of like, the company should_ i mean for_ i guess brenda is not in control other than uh, you know, re-saying to the company what she thinks is uh_ somehow getting a company, organization […] (lel185su066) (24)[…] especially in the new testament, i think that, that uh, indicate that it's a gift and i um, i think, no i don't think it i don't think it's i don't think it's looked down upon but i think in terms of um, i just i really don't like, um, when they say, it jui mean it's archaic language obviously but when they say he knew he lay with her it just seems like, a chore […] (les605su080) in the next section, attention will be focused on the contextual use of think, the most representative epistemic lexical verb in the corpus (51.08%, more than half of the total number of occurrences and a frequency of 24.5 items per 10,000 words) to interpret the functional variability and pragmatic implications of this epistemic marker within the context of academic lectures. pragmatic dimension of epistemic lexical verbs think emerges as the most salient epistemic lexical verb marker in our corpus and performs several communicative functions. primarily, think is a recurrent epistemic stance marker and commonly indexes the speakers’ opinion about the content, a characteristic function of academic speech where lecturers, as members of a discourse community, indicate degree of certainty, comment on the evidence, assess knowledge, or commit themselves towards the information presented in a more subjective and persuasive manner. this position of stance is also associated with personal authority and power but since speakers limit their claims to their personal opinion they also give their audience freedom to refute or disagree with them. therefore, the principle of solidarity usually reflected in this instructional genre (swales, 1990) is not disrupted. in examples 25 and 26 speakers give their own tentative views about the content. on some occasions, meanings are blurred and it is not clear whether the utterance is a declaration of opinion or of uncertainty, as in example 26. (25)[…] the meaning of the metaphor with um the rabbinic metaphor or a feminist metaphor or if there's like, a mix of both. i think i think it probably could be a mix of both like, i think both interpretations are valuable i think like, the feminist interpretation is […] (les605su080) (26)[…] make the bass rise by half steps until he gets there. okay same kind of thing going on here only i don't think it's very funny. i don't think it would be much exaggeration at all to say that that one interval the rising half step is the basis of the development section. (les420mg134) the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 139 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 139 at other times, rather than expressing evaluation towards content, think acts as an attitude marker to convey more personal views and feelings. this function is typical of conversational exchanges but it is also present in academic settings. through attitude markers lecturers rather than conveying judgment towards content, show alliances with the information. speakers make use of interpersonal resources to establish relations with audiences and index their own point of views, which promotes conviviality. we can also note that this verb in the affirmative encodes some kind of agreement or certainty whereas disagreement and uncertainty correlate more with negative forms. according to nattinger and decarrico (1992), ‘i think’ is one of the most frequent lexical phrases used in lectures for signaling agreement and disagreement. in example 27 uncertainty seems to be close to criticism towards previous views on the bible whereas example 28 reveals more some degree of likelihood. in both examples think anticipates lexical markers of evaluation. (27)[…] ch on the rabbinic um, research of it. but um ... yno i i don't think that the bible is wholly againanti, sexuality. but i do think that, um, it's, very cautious maybe even overly cautious. in a modern sense. (les605su080) (28)[…] okay. uh he's a lotta fun. i think i think ueda akinari's interesting. uh cuz his plots are so interesting they have such interesting twists. uh house amid the thickets […] (lel140su074) a further functional variable of “think” corresponds to that of metadiscourse device to organize and signal discourse conveniently as suggested by schiffrin, 1980; crismore et al., 1993; mauranen, 2001; swales and malczewski, 2001, and simpson, 2004, among others. these discourse management elements are part of the rhetoric of this genre and proliferate in pedagogic settings where an effective transmission of information is aimed at. again, speakers resort to the interpersonal elements of language to establish rapport with audiences about the upcoming speech, draw attention towards some specific aspects or demand participation and feedback. in example 29 think appears as an attention-getter to make things salient to students and in example 30 it is used to seek for students’ participation by eliciting their response. in both instances think forms part of metadiscourse elements enhancing teacher classroom control. (29)[…] tita chencha and john dried the bedroom, the stairs, and the bottom floor. and so it goes from stairs to stairs. i think that this section is really a paradigm for the way the whole book functions. (lel300su076) (30)[…] hold it within the vesicle so that it can't be targeted ...? you're whispering the answer, what? whatta you think? no, you don't know? the cholesterol for (xx) yes, l-d-l receptors. (lel175su106) a recurrent pragmatic functional category of think in the corpus is that of hedging the discourse in various ways. hedges (hyland, 1996, 1998; markkanen & schröder, maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144140 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 140 1997) constitute rhetorical elements aimed at avoiding categorical claims and diminishing the force of bald assertions which fit perfectly in spoken genres. it is usually hard to pinpoint the exact purpose of hedges since their meanings commonly overlap but they are frequently intended to: � show cautious positions and tentativeness, allowing students to contradict speaker’s opinions (e.g. ‘i think this is a kind of complicated uh uh statement’; ‘i think it’s not perhaps quite as clear as in the english’; ‘i don’t think it’s looked down upon’ …) � make criticism smoother (e.g. ‘your statement was a little, i thought, overgeneral’; ‘i think you’re grown ups, some of you, i think, have gone to great pains and at great length’ …) � give advice or recommendations that would otherwise sound too pushy (e.g. ‘i don’t think i have to read it verbatim’; ‘i think you would much more quickly get more’ …) � show sympathy and agreement (e.g. ‘i think what you are saying makes sense’ …) � simply appear vague or ambiguous (e.g. ‘i think that’s sort of what is going on’; ‘we think we know what’s real what reality is, something which has a little bit of i would think a folksy element’ …) in truth, we observe in the corpus that lecturers generally adopt positions of modesty; therefore, most of the meanings of hedges can be related to politeness (brown & levinson, 1987) enabling speakers not to impinge on the negative face of audiences by manifesting too harsh assertions. in this example the lecturer’s avoidance of categorical positions is evinced by the use of several hedges additionally downtoned by modals and adverbs. (31)[…] that pun is in the spanish and i think if you were only reading the english, you might just, you know think it's a typo. i don't know exactly what the translators should've done there, they could've called it fleambo instead of limbo or something […] (les300su103) finally, think appears as a discourse filler or floor maintaining filler (poos & simpson, 2002) at moments of hesitation, allowing speakers time to regain the flow of speech or at times when the transmission of information is not smooth. in this function think usually clusters in bundles with other epistemic markers and with additional discourse markers. indicators of spontaneous speech including pauses, reformulation, retrace and repair, stammering and repetitions are frequent as we can see in example 32 where the speaker seems to have probably lost the train of thought. the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 141 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 141 (32)[…] my question actually. um, i think i think that she's talking, i mean it's i think she's talking um, i think it's the bride and her friends are talking, uh, or um, her ... i think it's her friends actually, talking to her. right. (les605su080) undoubtedly, since stance markers overlap and bundle, it is particularly difficult in most cases to establish speakers’ real intentions and to pinpoint on the specific function think performs in the discourse. it is therefore more accurate to conclude that it is a multifunctional element to convey several communicative meanings. concluding remarks by tracing recurrent phraseological units in academic speech, corpus evidence showed that university lectures do not seem to be neutral or objective. on the contrary, this genre appears to be persuasive and highly evaluative making frequent use of elvs, among other devices, to index speakers’ personal stance. data suggested that among the items under study, judgmental verbs especially think were the most recurrent followed by much more sporadic elements such as not know, seem, suppose, assume and believe. also, in spite of the freedom and openness that characterizes the syntax and lexis of conversation, we found patterns associated to meanings. these verbs form distinctive lexical structures of use and recurrent patternings that correspond to semantic meanings. particularly salient was the use of these epistemic lexical verbs to frame that-clauses whose propositions they evaluate and to introduce other lexical markers of evaluation, mostly adjectives and adverbs. there was also a correlation of this structure with first person pronouns that make opinions more prone to criticism and give the discourse a flavor of subjectiveness. the analysis also showed how these units cluster at moments making bundles to attain their purposes more effectively. from a pragmatic viewpoint, elvs have shown to function as rhetorical devices that help connecting language to producers establishing participatory relationships with audiences in various different ways. the pragmatic effects of stance as a linguistic enactment of interpersonal meanings have included in the analysis above evaluating messages, marking difficulties in the transmission of information, hedging the discourse and complying with politeness conventions. lecturers rather than adopting categorical positions seemed to manifest their views and project their own persona in a mitigated way, encouraging solidarity and fostering a participatory and convivial atmosphere within the classroom. on pedagogical grounds, this small scale study has shed some light on the convenience of instructing students into recurrent phraseology and into the maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144142 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 142 the semantic-pragmatic interface ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144 143 pragmatic meanings elvs convey. moreover, the study might make us think of this category of lexical verbs as an essential open typology to mark stance positions that should be paid attention to in the curricula. in all, non-native speakers should be aware of the role stance markers perform in order to avoid pragmatic failure and being at the risk of sounding too categorical or impolite in their exchanges. acknowledgments thanks are due to dr. g. r. ferguson (university of sheffield) for his sound advice on the analysis of elvs and to dr. c. pérez-llantada (university of zaragoza) for her comments on previous drafts of this paper. i also want to express my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers of ibérica for their helpful suggestions. 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(2001). “reflexive academic talk: observations from micase” in r.c. simpson and j.m. swales (eds.), corpus linguistics in north america. selections from the 1999 symposium, 165-178. ann arbor: university of michigan. nattinger, j. r. & j. s. decarrico (1992). lexical phrases and language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. references 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 143 maría rosario artiga león is a teacher of english at the escuela oficial de idiomas “lázaro carreter” of zaragoza and a phd student at the english department of the university of zaragoza. she is currently working on a corpus-based thesis about stance in academic speech. her main research interests are pragmatics, esp, eap, corpus linguistics and applied linguistics. maría rosario artiga león ibérica 12 [2006]: 127-144144 nöel, d. (2002). believe-type matrix verbs and their complements. corpus-based investigations of their functions in discourse. gent: university of gent. ochs, e. (ed.) (1989). “the pragmatics of affect.” special issue of text 9,3: 7-25. pawley, a. & f. syder (1983). “two puzzles for linguistic theory: nativelike selection and nativelike fluency” in j. c. richards & r. w. schmidt (eds.), language and communication, 191226. new york: longman. poos, d. & r.c. simpson. (2002). “cross-disciplinary comparisons of hedging: some findings from the michigan corpus of academic spoken english” in r. reppen, s. m. fitzmaurice & d. biber (eds.), using corpora to explore linguistic variation, 3-21. amsterdam/ philadelphia: john benjamins. schiffrin, d. (1980). “metatalk: organisational and evaluative brackets in discourse.” sociological inquiry 50: 199-236. scott, m. (1999). wordsmith tools, version 3.0. oxford: oxford university press. simpson, p. (1993). language, ideology and point of view. london: routledge. simpson, r. c. (2004). “stylistic features of academic speech: the role of formulaic expressions” in u. connor & t. a. upton (eds.), discourse in the professions: perspectives from corpus linguistics, 37-64. amsterdam: john benjamins. sinclair, j. m. (1991). corpus concordance collocation. oxford: oxford university press. swales, j. m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j. m. & b. malczewski (2001). “discourse management and new-episode flags in micase” in r. c. simpson & j. m. swales (eds.), corpus linguistics in north america. selections from the 1999 symposium, 145-164. ann arbor: university of michigan. swales, j. m. & a. burke (2003). “‘it’s really fascinating work’: differences in evaluative adjectives across academic registers” in p. leistyna & c.f. meyer (eds.), corpus analysis. language structure and language use, 1-18. amsterdam – new york: john benjamins. 1 hyland (1998) and biber et al. (1999) agree that think, know, seem, suppose, assume and believe are recurrent in conversational settings. 2 according to micase index of transcripts, the lectures used for this research correspond to the following file identification and file names: lel115ju090: intro anthropology lecture lel140su074: japanese literature lecture lel175su106: biology of cancer lecture lel185su066: behavior theory management lecture lel220juo71: intro communication lecture lel300su076: fantasy in literature lecture lel500ju034: intro psychology lecture les280jg138: labor economics lecture les300su103: american literature lecture les330jg052: graduate industrial operations engineering lecture les420mg134: beethoven lecture les485mg006: graduate physics lecture les495ju063: political science lecture les605su080: women in the bible lecture 3 these mental and cognitive verbs are the most frequent in our corpus and include think, believe, assume, suppose, suspect... notas 08 artiga.qxp 20/09/2006 13:51 pægina 144 redalyc.design und implementierung von form fokussierungsaufgaben im interaktiven inhaltsund bedeutungsorientierten daft1-unterricht. eine fallstudie im rahmeneines aktionsforschungsprojekts ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa bosch-roig, gloria design und implementierung von form fokussierungsaufgaben im interaktiven inhaltsund bedeutungsorientierten daft1-unterricht. eine fallstudie im rahmeneines aktionsforschungsprojekts ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 37-60 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa erhältlich in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542003 wie zitieren komplette ausgabe mehr informationen zum artikel zeitschrift homepage in redalyc.org wissenschaftliche informationssystem netzwerk von wissenschaftliche zeitschriften aus lateinamerika, der karibik, spanien und portugal wissenschaftliche non-profit-projekt, unter der open-access-initiative http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542003 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542003 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542003 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 zusammenfassung die folgende fallstudie ist das resultat eines aktionsforschungsprojekts, das mit deutschstudenten im letzten jahr des tourismusstudiums an der universität der balearen durchgeführt wurde. die studie geht der frage nach, wie formfokussierungsaufgaben im interaktiven inhaltsund bedeutungsorientierten deutschunterricht eingesetzt und implementiert werden können, damit eine qualitativ bessere bzw. sprachlich korrektere und komplexere lernerproduktion erreicht werden kann. schlüsselwörter: formfokussierungsaufgaben, interaktiver inhaltsund bedeutungsorientierter unterricht, lernerproduktion. abstract d e s ig n an d imp l e me n ta ti on of f or m f oc u s in g t as k s in t h e i nte r ac t iv e c on te n to ri e nt e d c l a s s ro om of g e r man f o r t ou ri s m. a c a s e s tud y in th e c o nte x t o f a n a c ti on r e s e ar c h p ro j e c t the following case study is the result of an action research project that was conducted with students of german in the final year of tourism studies at the university of the balearic islands. the study addresses the question of how design und implementierung von formfokussierungsaufgaben im interaktiven inhaltsund bedeutungsorientierten daft1 unterricht. eine fallstudie im rahmen eines aktionsforschungsprojekts gloria bosch-roig universitat de les illes balears (spain) gloria.bosch@uib.es 37 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 37 ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 gloria bosch-roig form focusing tasks in the interactive content-oriented german classroom can be used and implemented in order to achieve a qualitatively better and more correct and complex language learner output. keywords: form focusing tasks, interactive content-oriented german classroom, learner output. einleitung aufgabenorientierter unterricht (tblt)2 stellt seit mitte der 80er jahre eine starke form von kommunikativem fremdsprachenunterricht dar, bei der die bedeutungsvermittlung und die sprachflüssigkeit gegenüber der sprachform und der korrektheit im vordergrund stehen. seitdem sind vor allem in den 90er jahren (vgl. pica, kanagy und falodun, 1993) zahlreiche forschungsarbeiten veröffentlicht worden, die sich mit fragen der aufgabentypologie und ihrer auswahl zum gezielten einsatz im unterricht für eine bessere sprachaneignung befasst haben. inzwischen hat sich, wie zahlreiche veröffentlichungen bezeugen, der aufgabenorientierte fremdsprachenunterricht fest in vielen sprachkursen und lernbüchern etabliert (vgl. ellis, 2003; nunan, 2004; van den branden, 2006; eckert, 2008). es handelt sich hierbei jedoch um keine fest definierte methode, sondern vielmehr um einen didaktischen ansatz, welcher auf einer reihe von allgemeinen prinzipien basiert. diese können als a) diskursund lernerzentriertheit und als b) inhaltsund bedeutungsorientierung zusammengefasst werden und, obgleich es verschiedene varianten und versionen von aufgabenorientiertem unterricht gibt, weisen die unter dieser unterrichtsform integrierten varianten oft folgende merkmale auf (ellis, 2009, 2012): 1. die aufgaben schaffen kontexte für einen authentischen, natürlichen sprachgebrauch. 2. es findet fokussierung auf die sprachform statt. (an dieser stelle soll festgehalten werden, dass formfokussierung kein prinzipielles merkmal von tblt ist.) im sinne von ellis und long gehen wir hier von der annahme aus, dass tblt effizienter ist, wenn focus on form, d.h. wenn aufmerksamkeit auf die sprachstruktur und nicht nur auf die spachbedeutung stattfindet (long, 1983a, 1988; ellis, 1994). 38 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 38 die art der formfokussierung fällt jedoch unterschiedlich aus. so ist für long (1985) korrektives feedback ausreichend, während für andere autoren wie skehan (1998) und ellis (2003) pre-task und post-task phasen notwendig sind. auch nehmen diese forscher hinsichtlich der frage nach dem einsatz von formfokussierungsaufgaben (focused tasks) verschiedene positionen ein: aufgaben, die zum ziel haben, eine sprachform oder sprachstruktur zu trainieren, finden bei long und ellis ihre befürworter, wogegen skehan unfocused aufgaben vorzieht (ellis, 2012: 197). formfokussierungsaufgaben bieten die möglichkeit, bestimmte strukturen in einem sinnvollen kontext zu trainieren. aus diesem grund werden wir im folgenden der frage nachgehen, unter welchen bedingungen formfokussierungsaufgaben im interaktiven inhaltsund bedeutungsorientierten deutschunterricht eingesetzt und implementiert werden können, damit eine qualitativ bessere bzw. sprachlich korrektere und komplexere lernerproduktion erreicht werden kann. die kognitionshypothese die von robinson (2001, 2002) formulierte kognitionshypothese bietet einen theoretischen rahmen, der uns ermöglicht, voraussagen über die aufgabenausführung anhand ihres designs und ihrer implementierungsvariablen zu machen. er unterscheidet zwischen resourcedirecting und resource-dispersing variablen und definiert die ersten als jene variablen, welche die kognitiv-konzeptuellen anforderungen an die aufmerksamkeit der lerner auf spezifische sprachressourcen beinflussen und somit zur entwicklung der lernersprache führen. resource-directing variablen fördern den zugang zum sprachsystem; die lerner sind u.a. in der lage, grammatikalische aspekte wie die zeitformen (präsens vs präteritum) zu unterscheiden oder deiktische ausdrucke wie „das“ , „hier“ , „dort usw.“ zu benutzen. sie beziehen sich sowohl auf hiesige aktuelle ereignisse als auch auf die vergangenheit und können andererseits einen simplen informationsaustausch bzw. die begründung von intentionen, gedanken und verhältnissen verlangen. dagegen stellen resource-dispersing variablen perfomativ-prozedurale anforderungen an die lernenden und führen zu mehr automatisierung. die erhöhte komplexität entlang dieser resource-dispersing variablen dient dazu, die verarbeitungsbedingungen, unter denen authentische sprache oft verwendet design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 39 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 39 wird, zu simulieren, sodass ein zeitechter zugang zu den bereits vorhandenen und entstehenden sprachressourcen gefördert wird. zu diesen variablen zählen u.a. die planungszeit oder das hintergrundwissen vor der aufgabenausführung, die überschaubarkeit der aufgabenstruktur sowie die einteilung der aufgabe in verschiedene phasen oder schritte. nach robinson (1995, 2001, 2003) ist die steigerung der kognitiven anforderungen bzw. der komplexität von aufgaben dem lernprozess in vielerlei hinsicht förderlich, denn die lernenden werden den input gründlicher verarbeiten und auf ihre sprachproduktion aufmerksamer, was u.a. zu einer beschleunigung in den entwicklungsphasen ihrer interimsprache führen wird: i argue that increasing the cognitive demands of l2 tasks will in general lead to greater functional differentiation of learner language use, and a greater attention to output, and depth of processing of input, with the consequences of a) speeding development through stages of interlanguage and of b) increasing the likelihood of attending to, and noticing aspects of input presented to learners during task activities and retaining these for subsequent use. (robinson, 2003: 53) interaktionsfaktoren unter den teilnehmern bei der aufgabenausführung wie z.b., ob ein informationsaustausch stattfindet oder ob die teilnehmer sich untereinander kennen, sind bei den task conditions bedeutend. bei der task difficulty spielt die eigene wahrnehmung der lerner hinsichtlich der einfachheit oder schwierigkeit einer aufgabe die zentrale rolle. individuelle faktoren (kognitive oder affektive) machen die lernerunterschiede aus. wir werden uns im folgenden besonders mit den komplexitätsvariablen der aufgaben befassen. gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): 37-6040 gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): …-… task complexity task conditions task difficulty cognitive factors a) resource-directing +/few elements +/here and now +/no reasoning demands b) resource-dispersing +/planning +/single task +/prior knowledge interactional factors a) participation variables +/open/closed one-way/two-way convergent/divergent b) participant variables gender familiarity power/solidarity learner factors a) affective variables motivation anxiety confidence b) ability variables aptitude working memory intelligence tabelle 1. task complexity, condition and difficulty (robinson, 2001). wir werden uns im folgenden besonders mit den komplexitätsvariablen der aufgaben befassen. robinson macht voraussagen über den zusammenhang von aufgabenkomplexität und flüssigkeit, korrektheit und komplexität bei der lernerproduktion und behauptet, dass bei einer steigerung der komplexität der resource-directing variablen die sprachflüssigkeit beeinträchtigt werden kann, auch wenn die förderung von korrektheit und komplexität bei der sprachproduktion dabei erreichbar ist. eine steigerung der komplexität bei den resource-dispersing variablen kann dagegen einen negativen einfluss auf die korrektheit, komplexität und auch flüssigkeit der sprachproduktion haben, weil dabei der zugang zum l2-sprachsystem erschwert wird: increasing complexity along resource-directing dimensions can be expected to lead the learner to attempt to map the increasing conceptual/functional requirements of tasks onto speech, in such a way as to affect fluency negatively, but, in selected domains, to facilitate the development of increased accuracy and complexity of production. in contrast, increasing complexity along resourcedispersing dimensions can be expected to affect fluency, as well as accuracy and complexity, negatively, since it creates problems for learners attempting to access their current repertoire of l2 knowledge. (robinson, 2003: 59) wenn der schwierigkeitsgrad der variablen, welche die kognitiven faktoren beeinflussen, manipuliert wird, ist eine variabilität in der flüssigkeit, korrektheit oder diskurskomplexität bei der lernerproduktion zu erwarten. im folgenden wird ein schema nach robinson (2001) präsentiert, welches den komplexitätsgrad (von 1 einfach bis 5 komplex) einer aufgabe darstellt, wobei bei der 5. und letzten stufe wir vor einer authentischen bzw. im wirklichen leben anzutreffenden aufgabe stehen. in dem hier darzustellenden fall sollen die lerner anhand einer stadtkarte informationen ermitteln. die pädagogische sequenzierung wird in fünf schritten auf einer progressionslinie vervollständigt, wobei drei resource-dispersing variablen (planning time, single task und prior knowledge) und eine resource04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 40 robinson macht voraussagen über den zusammenhang von aufgabenkomplexität und flüssigkeit, korrektheit und komplexität bei der lernerproduktion und behauptet, dass bei einer steigerung der komplexität der resource-directing variablen die sprachflüssigkeit beeinträchtigt werden kann, auch wenn die förderung von korrektheit und komplexität bei der sprachproduktion dabei erreichbar ist. eine steigerung der komplexität bei den resource-dispersing variablen kann dagegen einen negativen einfluss auf die korrektheit, komplexität und auch flüssigkeit der sprachproduktion haben, weil dabei der zugang zum l2-sprachsystem erschwert wird: increasing complexity along resource-directing dimensions can be expected to lead the learner to attempt to map the increasing conceptual/functional requirements of tasks onto speech, in such a way as to affect fluency negatively, but, in selected domains, to facilitate the development of increased accuracy and complexity of production. in contrast, increasing complexity along resource-dispersing dimensions can be expected to affect fluency, as well as accuracy and complexity, negatively, since it creates problems for learners attempting to access their current repertoire of l2 knowledge. (robinson, 2003: 59) wenn der schwierigkeitsgrad der variablen, welche die kognitiven faktoren beeinflussen, manipuliert wird, ist eine variabilität in der flüssigkeit, korrektheit oder diskurskomplexität bei der lernerproduktion zu erwarten. im folgenden wird ein schema nach robinson (2001) präsentiert, welches den komplexitätsgrad (von 1 einfach bis 5 komplex) einer aufgabe darstellt, wobei bei der 5. und letzten stufe wir vor einer authentischen bzw. im wirklichen leben anzutreffenden aufgabe stehen. in dem hier darzustellenden fall sollen die lerner anhand einer stadtkarte informationen ermitteln. die pädagogische sequenzierung wird in fünf schritten auf einer progressionslinie vervollständigt, wobei drei resourcedispersing variablen (planning time, single task und prior knowledge) und eine resource-directing variable (few elements) manipuliert werden. wir werden dieses schema auf unsere aufgabe anwenden, um den komplexitätsgrad näher zu bestimmen. das pluszeichen (+) soll als „trifft zu“ und das minuszeichen (-) als „trifft nicht zu“ zu verstehen sein. design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 41 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 41 formfokussierungsaufgaben unter „aufgabe” versteht man einen arbeitsauftrag, der von den lernenden sprachlich zu lösen ist. wir unterscheiden im daft-unterricht, je nach ihrer funktion, produktvon prozessorientierten aufgaben (bosch, 2012). bei den kommunikativen (produktorientierten) aufgaben liegt der fokus auf dem inhalt und auf der bedeutungsvermittlung, wobei der gebrauch der fremdsprache und die sprachauthentizität hinsichtlich der kommunikationssituation durch die integration von pragmatischen, soziolinguistischen und interkulturellen elementen erzielt werden. prozessorientierte aufgaben dienen zur konkreten realisierung einer kommunikativen aufgabe und können je nach ihrer funktion als metakommunikative, metasprachliche und metakognitive aufgaben (bosch, 2012) zusammengefasst werden. metakommunikative strategien treten bei planungprozessen sowie bei form-bedeutungs-aushandlungsprozessen (negotiation of meaning) auf, die lerner untereinander durchführen, um eine bestimmte kommunikative aufgabe zu lösen oder ein kommunikatives ziel zu erreichen. metasprachliche strategien haben die sprachform zum ziel; es handelt sich um stark reflexive und interaktive momente des lernens, bei denen noticing und negotiation of form im vordergrund stehen. metakognitive strategien helfen den lernern, den eigenen lernprozess zu monitorisieren und zu steuern. selbstkorrektionen und reformulierungen bzw. die modifizierung und anpassung des outputs sind dabei zu beachten. aufgaben können aber auch nach anderen kriterien, wie dem design und den implementierungsvariablen, typologisiert werden. in diesem gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): 37-6042 design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): …-… directing variable (few elements) manipuliert werden. wir werden dieses schema auf unsere aufgabe anwenden, um den komplexitätsgrad näher zu bestimmen. das pluszeichen (+) soll als „trifft zu“ und das minuszeichen (-) als „trifft nicht zu“ zu verstehen sein. map task versions and pedagogic sequence dimensions of complexity simple 1 2 3 4 complex 5 planning time (before speaking) + single task (route marked) + + prior knowledge (a familiar area) + + + few elements (a small area) + + + + (simplified data/map) (authentic data/map) tabelle 2. increasingly cognitively complex versions of a map task (adapted from robinson, 2001). formfokussierungsaufgaben unter „aufgabe” versteht man einen arbeitsauftrag, der von den lernenden sprachlich zu lösen ist. wir unterscheiden im daft-unterricht, je nach ihrer funktion, produktvon prozessorientierten aufgaben (bosch, 2012). bei den kommunikativen (produktorientierten) aufgaben liegt der fokus auf dem inhalt und auf der bedeutungsvermittlung, wobei der gebrauch der fremdsprache und die sprachauthentizität hinsichtlich der kommunikationssituation durch die integration von pragmatischen, soziolinguistischen und interkulturellen elementen erzielt werden. prozessorientierte aufgaben dienen zur konkreten realisierung einer kommunikativen aufgabe und können je nach ihrer funktion als metakommunikative, metasprachliche und metakognitive aufgaben (bosch, 2012) zusammengefasst werden. metakommunikative strategien treten bei planungprozessen sowie bei formbedeutungs-aushandlungsprozessen (negotiation of meaning) auf, die lerner untereinander durchführen, um eine bestimmte kommunikative aufgabe zu lösen oder ein kommunikatives ziel zu erreichen. metasprachliche strategien haben die sprachform zum ziel; es handelt sich um stark reflexive und interaktive momente des lernens, bei denen noticing und negotiation of form im vordergrund stehen. metakognitive strategien helfen den lernern, den eigenen lernprozess zu monitorisieren und zu steuern. 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 42 zusammenhang spricht u.a. nunan (1989) von pedagogic und real world tasks, long (1983) von one-way und two-way tasks, duff (1986) von convergent oder divergent tasks und ellis (2001, 2003) von open oder closed tasks, focused oder unfocused tasks. wir möchten hier besonders auf die convergent tasks (konvergente aufgaben) und auf die focused tasks (formfokussierungsaufgaben) eingehen, da sie das objekt unserer fallstudie darstellen. unter focused tasks sind nach ellis (2012: 200) die folgenden zu verstehen: focused tasks are tasks that have been designed to provide opportunities for communicating using some specific linguistic feature (typically a grammatical structure). however, focused tasks must still satisfy the task definition criteria. for this reason the target linguistic feature of a focused task is “hidden” (learners are not told explicitly what the feature is). wir verwenden im folgenden den begriff „formfokussierungsaufgabe” und meinen in anlehnung an ellis kommunikative bzw. produktorientierte aufgaben, bei denen bestimmte strukturen und sprachformen vorkommen sollten. bei der implementierung dieser aufgabe erwarten wir die anwendung von metasprachlichen und metakognitiven strategien, durch die negotiation of form (lyster, 2002) und outputmodifizierung bzw. -anpassung stattfindet. konvergente aufgaben bezeichnen jene kommunikativen aufgaben, bei denen informationen ausgetauscht werden und eine gemeinsame lösung oder entscheidung angestrebt wird. hierbei sind kompetenzen wie beschreiben, erklären, nachfragen, vergleichen, begründen, zustimmen oder ablehnen besonders relevant. mit dem einsatz dieses aufgabentyps erwarten wir bedeutungsaushandlungsprozesse bzw. metakommunikative strategien (negotiation of meaning), die zur outputmodifizierung bzw. anpassung führen. die fallstudie zielgruppe die folgende fallstudie ist im rahmen eines aktionsforschungsprojekts an der tourismusfakultät der universität der balearen mit deutschstudenten im letzten jahr ihrer ausbildung durchgeführt worden. das sprachniveau der design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 43 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 43 teilnehmer bei kursanfang enstprach dem niveau a2 nach dem europäischen referenzrahmen für sprachen, da sie insgesamt 120 deutschunterrichtsstunden bescheinigten. das zu erreichende niveau bei kursende wurde auf b1/1 nach dem europäischen referenzrahmen festgelegt. die aufgabe wurde in der zweiten kurswoche durchgeführt. der deutschunterricht war von beginn der ausbildung an aufgabenorientiert, d.h. interaktiv, inhaltsund bedeutungszentriert mit proaktiven und reaktiven formfokussierungsphasen.3 focus on forms4 wurde vermieden. die aufgabe, die wir im folgenden vorstellen werden, stellt einen fall von focus on form dar. problemformulierung unsere untersuchung wurde durch die beobachtung motiviert, dass bei der freien und spontanten produktion der studenten eine sehr hohe interne variabilität auftritt. wenn komplexen aufgaben eine lange planungsund vorbereitungsphase vorausging, war der output qualitativ sehr gut, wobei die komplexität der syntax, die korrektheit und anwendung neuer wörter und strukturen als entscheidendes definitionsmerkmal einer qualitativ sehr guten lernerproduktion herangezogen wurden. fehlten planungsund vorbereitungsphasen, sank die qualität der lernerproduktion besonders stark, worunter vor allem die korrektheit litt, auch wenn das kommunikative ziel erreicht wurde. aus diesem grund wollten wir gezielt im unterricht formfokussierungsaufgaben einsetzen, um zu prüfen, ob sie trotz mangel einer planungszeit zu einer qualitativ besseren lernerproduktion beitragen könnten, und wenn das der fall ist, die dafür notwendigen voraussetzungen ergründen. aufgabenplanung und –design im rahmen der folgenden aufgabe sollte innerhalb der gruppe eine begründete entscheidung über die reservierung eines hotels getroffen werden. es handelte sich um eine konvergente aufgabe, bei der bestimmte strukturen und kollokationen verwendet werden sollten. die aufgabe war den studenten bekannt, da sie eine ähnliche vor-aufgabe durchgeführt hatten. acht strukturen bzw. kollokationen wurden vor der eigentlichen aufgabe eingeführt. das material war authentisch: es handelte gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): 37-6044 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 44 sich um internetanzeigen von hotels auf mallorca, die die studenten selbst ausgesucht und mitgebracht hatten. wir hatten den studenten keine planungszeit vor der aufgabenausführung gewährt. nach dem im ersten abschnitt eingeführten komplexitätsschema resultiert für unsere formfokussierungsaufgabe der folgende komplexitätsgrad: eine vor-aufgabe in zwei phasen ging der eigentlichen formfokussierungsaufgabe voraus: phase 1 die studenden erhielten drei anzeigen verschiedener hotels (gästehaus, stadtund berghotel) sowie den folgenden text,5 der zur aufgabenkontextualisierung und zur einführung der strukturen diente, die die lerner für die aufgabenausführung gebrauchen würden. wir haben uns für den lindenhof entschieden. uns ist ruhe und frische luft wichtig. wir legen auch auf angebote für kinder wert. der lindenhof ist preisgünstiger als das hotel bregenzer berge. gehört der reiterhof eigentlich zum gästehaus? danach müssen wir uns noch erkundigen die im textauszug unterstrichenen strukturen waren für die studenten nicht markiert; sie sollten selbst diese sprachelemente identifizieren. in dieser phase wurde proaktive und reaktive formfokussierung in form von explizitem feedback bzw. elizitierungen und metasprachlichen strategien wie conciousness-raising-fragen durchgeführt. wir stellten ihnen design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 45 gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): …-… aufgabe: eine begründete entscheidung treffen dimensions of complexity simple 1 2 3 4 complex 5 planning time (keine planungszeit) + single task (zwei teile) + + prior knowledge (ja) + + + few elements (8 strukturen) + + + + (simplified) (authentic) tabelle 3. increasingly cognitively complex versions of a task. eine vor-aufgabe in zwei phasen ging der eigentlichen formfokussierungsaufgabe voraus: phase 1 die studenden erhielten drei anzeigen verschiedener hotels (gästehaus, stadt und berghotel) sowie den folgenden text,5 der zur aufgabenkontextualisierung und zur einführung der strukturen diente, die die lerner für die aufgabenausführung gebrauchen würden. wir haben uns für den lindenhof entschieden. uns ist ruhe und frische luft wichtig. wir legen auch auf angebote für kinder wert. der lindenhof ist preisgünstiger als das hotel bregenzer berge. gehört der reiterhof eigentlich zum gästehaus? danach müssen wir uns noch erkundigen die im textauszug unterstrichenen strukturen waren für die studenten nicht markiert; sie sollten selbst diese sprachelemente identifizieren. in dieser phase wurde proaktive und reaktive formfokussierung in form von explizitem feedback bzw. elizitierungen und metasprachlichen strategien wie conciousness-raising-fragen durchgeführt. wir stellten ihnen fragen wie z.b.: nennen sie die infinitivform von „entschieden“. braucht dieses verb weitere elemente? und wenn ja, welche? phase 2 in dieser phase arbeiteten die studenten in dreiergruppen. sie erhielten drei neue hotelanzeigen mit kurzen informationen und mussten sich für ein hotel entscheiden. gleichzeitig wurden ihnen schriftliche fragen mit weiteren strukturen vorgegeben, die ihnen zur steuerung des dialogs helfen und die sie 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 45 fragen wie z.b.: nennen sie die infinitivform von „entschieden“. braucht dieses verb weitere elemente? und wenn ja, welche? phase 2 in dieser phase arbeiteten die studenten in dreiergruppen. sie erhielten drei neue hotelanzeigen mit kurzen informationen und mussten sich für ein hotel entscheiden. gleichzeitig wurden ihnen schriftliche fragen mit weiteren strukturen vorgegeben, die ihnen zur steuerung des dialogs helfen und die sie aktiv anwenden sollten: wo möchten sie ihre ferien verbringen? was ist ihnen im urlaub wichtig? wofür interessieren sie sich (nicht)? worauf legen sie (keinen) wert? wonach müssen sie sich noch erkundigen, bevor sie buchen? in dieser phase wurde wie in phase 1 sowohl proaktive als auch reaktive formfokussierung durchgeführt. den studenten wurden in keiner der zwei phasen schriftliche aufgaben vorgelegt, wobei die vor-aufgabe hauptsächlich auf die (mündliche) kommunikation fokussierte und in der ersten phase expliziter auf die sprachform eingegangen wurde. formfokussierungsaufgabe phase 1 wir baten die studenten, nach einer hotelanzeige im internet zu suchen und sie in die nächste unterrichtsstunde mitzubringen. wir machten ihnen dabei keine weiteren angaben. phase 2 die studenten wurden in vierergruppen eingeteilt. wir beachteten dabei, dass leistungsschwache und leistungsstarke lerner in der gruppe ausgewogen vertreten waren. es war keine vorbereitungsphase vor der durchführung der eigentlichen aufgabe eingeplant. phase 3 wir forderten die studenten auf, anhand ihrer hotelanzeigen eine diskussion zu führen und eine begründete entscheidung zu treffen. dabei machten wir sie nur darauf aufmerksam, dass sie zunächst die information über ihre hotels teilen sollten. lehrer waren bei der durchführung der aufgabe nicht anwesend gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): 37-6046 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 46 forschungsmethodologie die teilnehmer an der fallstudie waren vier tourismusstudenten (zwei frauen und zwei männer) im letzten ausbildungsjahr beteiligt. was die leistung der teilnehmer angeht, war die verteilung ausgewogen: zwei von ihnen wurden als leistungsstark und die anderen als leistungsschwach eingestuft. da nicht alle gruppen während der durchführung der aufgabe parallel aufgenommen werden konnten, haben wir lediglich die ergebnisse einer gruppe untersucht. datensammlung und –analyse die komplette interaktion der gruppe wurde mit einem diktiergerät aufgenommen. wir wollten einerseits überprüfen, ob die studenten die strukturen und kollokationen, die wir in der vor-aufgabe eingeführt hatten, auch verwendeten und andererseits beabsichtigten wir, die komplexität und korrektheit des diskurses zu überprüfen. das gespräch wurde anschließend transkribiert und analysiert. ergebnisse flüssigkeit, komplexität und korrektheit des diskurses im gesprächsverlauf von 9:54 minuten wurden insgesamt 113 turns gezählt, was 11,8 turns pro minute ergibt. die gesprächszeit zwischen den sprechern s1, s2 und s4 war relativ ausgewogen verteilt. auffällig ist hier nur sprecher s3, der einen häufigen gebrauch von der l1 macht, sich später nur durch zwei bestätigungsfragen (sequenzen 0060 und 0068 im anhang) am ganzen gespräch beteiligt und schon nach 4:20 minuten das gespräch aufgibt. das gespräch verlief mit kurzen unterbrechungen von maximal 3sekunden-pausen. design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 47 gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): …-… datensammlung und –analyse die komplette interaktion der gruppe wurde mit einem diktiergerät aufgenommen. wir wollten einerseits überprüfen, ob die studenten die strukturen und kollokationen, die wir in der vor-aufgabe eingeführt hatten, auch verwendeten und andererseits beabsichtigten wir, die komplexität und korrektheit des diskurses zu überprüfen. das gespräch wurde anschlieβend transkribiert und analysiert. ergebnisse flüssigkeit, komplexität und korrektheit des diskurses im gesprächsverlauf von 9:54 minuten wurden insgesamt 113 turns gezählt, was 11,8 turns pro minute ergibt. die gesprächszeit zwischen den sprechern s1, s2 und s4 war relativ ausgewogen verteilt. auffällig ist hier nur sprecher s3, der einen häufigen gebrauch von der l1 macht, sich später nur durch zwei bestätigungsfragen (sequenzen 0060 und 0068 im anhang) am ganzen gespräch beteiligt und schon nach 4:20 minuten das gespräch aufgibt. das gespräch verlief mit kurzen unterbrechungen von maximal 3-sekundenpausen. turn-taking frequenz s1 29/25.6% s2 44/39 % s3 7/6.2% s4 33/29.2% tabelle 4. gespräch-turns in %. nur drei der eingeführten strukturen und kollokationen in der vor-aufgabe tauchten im gespräch wieder auf. zweimal finden wir „ich entscheide mich für”, wobei das reflexivpronomen jedoch einmal nicht richtig verwendet wird. an anderer stelle kommt „eine entscheidung treffen” vor; hier wird zwar das verb richtig benutzt, aber das substantiv „entscheidung” falsch ausgesprochen. die struktur „sich interessieren für“ kommt zweimal zum einsatz, wobei das pronomen jedoch einmal falsch dekliniert wird. 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 47 nur drei der eingeführten strukturen und kollokationen in der vor-aufgabe tauchten im gespräch wieder auf. zweimal finden wir „ich entscheide mich für”, wobei das reflexivpronomen jedoch einmal nicht richtig verwendet wird. an anderer stelle kommt „eine entscheidung treffen” vor; hier wird zwar das verb richtig benutzt, aber das substantiv „entscheidung” falsch ausgesprochen. die struktur „sich interessieren für“ kommt zweimal zum einsatz, wobei das pronomen jedoch einmal falsch dekliniert wird. wir haben die syntax analysiert und insgesamt 73 sätze gezählt, wovon 68 (93%) hauptsätze und nur 5 (7%) nebensätze sind. zu den meistverwendeten konjunktionen zählen die koordinierenden konjunktionen (und, aber). insgesamt 46 (63%) der sätze waren fehlerfrei, aber kein nebensatz mit den konjunktionen weil oder dass wurde richtig gebildet. die dass-konjunktion wird in beiden fällen als übergeneralisierung für eine relativkonstruktion eingesetzt. zu dem zeitpunkt der untersuchung wurden noch keine relativpronomen eingeführt. gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): 37-6048 design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): …-… frequenz von strukturen und kollokationen eine entscheidung treffen 1 ferien verbringen 0 gehören zu + dativ 0 sich entscheiden für + akk. 2 sich erkundigen nach + dativ 0 sich interessieren für + akk. 2 wert legen auf + akk. 0 dativ + wichtig sein 0 tabelle 5. gebrauchsfrequenz von strukturen und kollokationen. wir haben die syntax analysiert und insgesamt 73 sätze gezählt, wovon 68 (93%) hauptsätze und nur 5 (7%) nebensätze sind. zu den meistverwendeten konjunktionen zählen die koordinierenden konjunktionen (und, aber). komplexität der syntax hauptsätze 68/93% koordinierende konjunktionen 12 aber 4 oder 1 und 7 nebensätze 5/7% kausale konjunktionen 3 weil 3 dass-konjunktion 2 tabelle 6. hauptund nebensätze in zahl und %. insgesamt 46 (63%) der sätze waren fehlerfrei, aber kein nebensatz mit den konjunktionen weil oder dass wurde richtig gebildet. die dass-konjunktion wird in beiden fällen als übergeneralisierung für eine relativkonstruktion eingesetzt. zu dem zeitpunkt der untersuchung wurden noch keine relativpronomen eingeführt. design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): …-… frequenz von strukturen und kollokationen eine entscheidung treffen 1 ferien verbringen 0 gehören zu + dativ 0 sich entscheiden für + akk. 2 sich erkundigen nach + dativ 0 sich interessieren für + akk. 2 wert legen auf + akk. 0 dativ + wichtig sein 0 tabelle 5. gebrauchsfrequenz von strukturen und kollokationen. wir haben die syntax analysiert und insgesamt 73 sätze gezählt, wovon 68 (93%) hauptsätze und nur 5 (7%) nebensätze sind. zu den meistverwendeten konjunktionen zählen die koordinierenden konjunktionen (und, aber). komplexität der syntax hauptsätze 68/93% koordinierende konjunktionen 12 aber 4 oder 1 und 7 nebensätze 5/7% kausale konjunktionen 3 weil 3 dass-konjunktion 2 tabelle 6. hauptund nebensätze in zahl und %. insgesamt 46 (63%) der sätze waren fehlerfrei, aber kein nebensatz mit den konjunktionen weil oder dass wurde richtig gebildet. die dass-konjunktion wird in beiden fällen als übergeneralisierung für eine relativkonstruktion eingesetzt. zu dem zeitpunkt der untersuchung wurden noch keine relativpronomen eingeführt. 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 48 gebrauch von diskursstrategien in den interaktionssequenzen im folgenden werden wir versuchen festzustellen, welche strategien im laufe des gesprächs zu einer modifizierung der lernerproduktion führen, und ob diese strategien die aushandlung der sprachform bzw. der bedeutung zum ziel haben. f o cu s o n f o r m und outputmodifizierung durch s ca f f o l d in g {00:13} 0001 s1 ich interessiere mir für das julia country house hotel, weil ...es ist ...¿cómo se dice cerca? {00:29} 0002 s2 in der nähe {00:30} 0003 s1 in der? {00:31} 0004 s2 in der nähe {00:32} 0005 s1 in der tiene la playa cerca {00:38} 0006 s2 der strand ist in der nähe {00:40} 0007 s1 der strand ist in der nähe vom hotel s1 verwendet seine l1, um nach der richtigen form zu fragen. das wort nähe steht ihm nicht zur verfügung und s2 unterstützt ihn erfolgreich dabei, bis er den richtigen satz sagt. {03:31} 0017 s3 ich interessiere mich für melià beach house hotel ehhh weil....mhh…nähe... lo que tú habías dicho antes... nähe in dem strand..ehhh ist ehhh das hotel eh hat spa eh eh suites ehh zwei pools? {04:10} 0018 s2 schwimmbads {04:12} 0019 s3 schwimmbads, zwei schwimmbads und ein großes jardín? garten {04:19} 0020 s2 garten {04:20} 0021 s3 garten, ein großes garten mhhh lo demás no sé cómo se dice mhhh design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 49 gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): …-… sprachliche korrektheit sätze insgesamt 73 davon fehlerfrei 46/63% tabelle 7. fehlerfreie sätze in %. gebrauch von diskursstrategien in den interaktionssequenzen im folgenden werden wir versuchen festzustellen, welche strategien im laufe des gesprächs zu einer modifizierung der lernerproduktion führen, und ob diese strategien die aushandlung der sprachform bzw. der bedeutung zum ziel haben. focus on form und outputmodifizierung durch scaffolding {00:13} 0001 s1 ich interessiere mir für das julia country house hotel, weil ...es ist ...¿cómo se dice cerca? {00:29} 0002 s2 in der nähe {00:30} 0003 s1 in der? {00:31} 0004 s2 in der nähe {00:32} 0005 s1 in der tiene la playa cerca {00:38} 0006 s2 der strand ist in der nähe {00:40} 0007 s1 der strand ist in der nähe vom hotel s1 verwendet seine l1, um nach der richtigen form zu fragen. das wort nähe steht ihm nicht zur verfügung und s2 unterstützt ihn erfolgreich dabei, bis er den richtigen satz sagt. {03:31} 0017 s3 ich interessiere mich für melià beach house hotel ehhh weil....mhh…nähe... lo que tú habías dicho antes... nähe in dem strand..ehhh ist ehhh das hotel eh hat spa eh eh suites ehh zwei pools? {04:10} 0018 s2 schwimmbads {04:12} 0019 s3 schwimmbads, zwei schwimmbads und ein groβes jardín? garten {04:19} 0020 s2 garten {04:20} 0021 s3 garten, ein groβes garten mhhh lo demás no sé cómo se dice mhhh s3 drückt seine unsicherheit durch mehrmaliges nachfragen in der l1 aus. in diesem fall war das scaffolding durch s2 nur teilweise erfolgreich und führte nicht zur vollständig richtigen form. 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 49 s3 drückt seine unsicherheit durch mehrmaliges nachfragen in der l1 aus. in diesem fall war das scaffolding durch s2 nur teilweise erfolgreich und führte nicht zur vollständig richtigen form. {04:35} 0022 s1 ich empfehle ihnen das hotel, weil es ist in die natur. keine...wir nehmen no.. wir nehmen keine auto benutzen. das...in ehhh..es kostet dreihundertsiebenunddreißig pro.. für zwei tage and it incluido es? {05:01} 0023 s2 inklusive {05:01} 0024 s1 it is inklusive doppelzimmer mit frühstück ohne transfer s1 fragt nach der richtigen form anhand seiner l1, worauf s2 ihm diese vermittelt; es gelingt s1 jedoch nicht ganz, inklusive korrekt zu gebrauchen, sodass er dabei eine weitere l2, englisch in diesem fall, verwendet. {08:59} 0082 s2 das ist die beste hotel, dass ich habe ahhhh ¿buscado cómo es? geguckt {09:07} 0083 s2 okey {09:10} 0084 s1 gesucht gesucht {09:11} 0085 s2 gesucht {09:12} 0086 s1 gesucht s2 verwendet seine l1, um nach der richtigen form zu fragen und gibt selbt eine alternative zum gesuchten wort, s1 macht dann ein angebot, das von s2 angenommen wird. f o cu s o n f o r m und outputmodifizierung durch selbstkorrektion {02:03} 0014 s4 okey, ich möchte lieber in eiren, in einen in eine ferienwohnung gehen. das ist ein wohnung für von drei bis fünf personen. es ist in cala de san vicenç in pollensa. sie kostet dreihundertneunundzwanzig euro für eine woche. {02:37} 0016 s4 ja, das ist sehr gut. die wohnung steht circa zweihundertfünfzig meter vom strand. ahh es ist viele restaurants in der nähe. es hat drei zimmerwohnung ahhh mit drei gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): 37-6050 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 50 schlafzimmers und es gibt eich auch eine terrasse, eine große terrasse, küche ahhh und es ist für vier erwachsene und für kinder auch. s4 erkennt unstimmigkeiten in seiner produktion und korrigiert sich selbst erfolgreich. hier kommt bei s4 der monitor (krashen, 1985) zum einsatz6. die sprachproduktion wird mit dem gelernten regelwissen verglichen und modifiziert. bei der sprachsequenz 0014 stellt s4 das angebot vor und hat zeit die äußerung zu überprüfen, denn es findet noch kein dialog statt. bei der sequenz 0016 verlangsamt s4 die sprachproduktion, um den monitor einzusetzen. {09:37} 0103 s2 genau, in adults area oder erwachsene area {09:41} 0104 s1 erwachsene area {09:41} 0105 s4 erwachsene area s2 versucht seine erste aussage, die er auf englisch macht, auch in der zielsprache, d.h. auf deutsch, zu vollziehen. es gelingt ihm aber nicht ganz, trotzdem wird diese alternative von s1 und s4 für richtig gehalten und direkt übernommen. f o cu s o n f o r m und outputmodifizierung durch r e ca st {09:26} 0093 s1 aber ich mochte der die suite mit {09:30} 0094 s2 mit {09:31} 0095 s1 mit schwimmbad reservieren {09:31} 0096 s2 mit privatpool {09:32} 0097 s1 ja, privatpool {09:33} 0098 s4 mit privatpool s2 korrigiert die aussage von s1 implizit, indem er die richtige form nennt und diese direkt von s1 und s4 übernommen wird. f o c u s o n m e a n i n g und outputmodifizierung durch bestätigungsfragen {06:15} 0048 s2 aber hier nicht in diese area nicht. die kinder area ist hier und das ist die erwachese area. hier keine kinder. {06:25} 0049 s4 hier entspannung meinst du design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 51 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 51 {06:28} 0050 s2 ja ja {06:29} 0051 s4 aber in {06:31} 0052 s2 ein pool nur für erwachener, ein restaurant nur für erwachsener {06:35} 0053 s4 ach so ist nett dieses hotel, ja {07:30} 0066 s2 und wir haben alles inklusive {07:34} 0067 s4 okey {07:36} 0068 s3 alles inklusive? {07:38} 0069 s2 alles, alles, wasserpark, sportzentrum, fitnessraum...alles... essen trinken den ganzen tag {07:08} 0059 s2 eine woche in welche zimmer? in einen familiensuite oder ein suite mit privatpool? {07:14} 0060 s3 privatpool? {07:14} 0061 s2 privatpool ja, das ist dreihundert euro per zimmer in den drei gesprächssequenzen finden bedeutungsaushandlungen in form von confirmation checks (bestätigungsfragen) statt, die s2 zur outputmodifizierung, d.h. zur näheren erklärung seiner aussage führen. f o cu s o n m ea ni ng und outputmodifizierung durch wiederholungen {05:12} 0027 s4 am strand oder? {05:13} 0028 s1 no, neben dem strand {05:16} 0029 s2 das ist vor dem strand {05:19} 0030 s4 vor dem strand {05:21} 0031 s2 mein hotel {05:21} 0032 s2 ein klein weg direkt zum strand {08:19} 0076 s2 ungefähr sechshundert euro pro person eine woche {08:26} 0077 s4 sechshundert {08:27} 0078 s2 eine woche sechshundert euro pro person s2 ergänzt seine aussage anhand der wiederholungen von s4. gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): 37-6052 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 52 f o cu s o n m ea ni ng durch informationsergänzungen {06:42} 0054 s2 und wir haben auch eine angebot für der balearen leute, das ist hundertachtunddreißig euro bettzimmer {06:53} 0055 s1 pro tag {06:54} 0056 s4 pro tag {06:55} 0057 s2 pro tag s1 stellt fest, dass die information, die s2 vermittelt, nicht deutlich bzw. komplett ist und ergänzt sie. s4 imitiert s1 und wiederholt die aussage. schließlich wird die neue information von s2 bestätigt. zusammenfassung und schluss unsere formfokussierungsaufgabe hat nicht zu einer höheren sprachkomplexität und -korrektheit der lernerproduktion geführt, auch wenn das gespräch im allgemeinen flüssig abläuft und nur ein teilnehmer das gespräch teilweise aufgibt. es tauchen nur zwei der eingeführten strukturen auf und keiner der nebensätze wird richtig gebildet. das deutet auf robinsons hypothese hin, nach der die erhöhung des schwierigkeitsgrads der resource-dispersing variablen, wie der mangel an planungszeit, an vorkenntnissen als auch die struktur der aufgabe einen negativen einfluss auf die komplexität und korrektheit der produktion haben. die vorausgegangene vor-aufgabe scheint auch keinen positiven einfluss auf diese zwei aspekte ausgeübt zu haben. in den interaktionssequenzen ist die anwendung von metakommunikativen, metasprachlichen und metakognitiven strategien zu beobachten, die zu einer outputmodifizierung und z.t. zur entwicklung der lernersprache geführt haben. negotiation of form findet durch scaffolding, selbstkorrektion und recasts statt, negotiation of meaning durch bestätigungsfragen, wiederholungen oder informationsergänzungen. in den phasen, in denen informationen über die hotels ausgetauscht werden, findet negotiation of form häufiger statt. in den entscheidungsund konsensphasen ist mehrmals negotiation of meaning zu beobachten. logischerweise müssen lerner in der informationsphase formfunktionsbeziehungen herstellen und ihre ressourcen zugänglich machen. design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 53 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 53 dagegen sind sie in den entscheidungsund konsensphasen mehr auf den inhalt und auf die bedeutung konzentriert. um eine auf sprachkorrektheit und sprachkomplexität abzielende formfokussierungsaufgabe im interaktiven inhaltsund bedeutungsorientierten daft-unterricht zu erreichen, reicht das design einer aufgabe wie die hier vorgestellte nicht aus. es ist darüberhinaus notwendig, auf die struktur bzw. grammatikalische form fokussierende prozessorientierte conciousness-raising vor-aufgaben zu planen, in denen metasprachliche strategien intensiver eingesetzt und strukturen expliziter trainiert werden können und noticing seitens der lerner stattfinden kann. es wäre an dieser stelle wünschenswert, in einer zukünftigen untersuchung die frage zu beantworten, inwieweit eine solche vor-aufgabe zusammen mit einer planungsphase direkt vor der ausführung der aufgabe einen positiven einfluss auf die flüssigkeit, komplexität und korrektheit der lernerproduktion bewirken könnte. artikel geschichte: artikel eingegangen im 20 januar 2014 revidieren im 17 oktober 2014 überarbeiteter artikel angenommen im 18 oktober literaturverzeichnis gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): 37-6054 bosch, g. (2012). “aufgabenorientierung mit proaktiver formfokussierung als didaktisches konzept für den deutschunterricht im tourismus”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 23: 157-172. duff, p. (1986). “another look at interlanguage talk: taking task to task” in r. day (ed.), talking to learn: conversations in second language acquisition, 147-181. rowley: newbury house. eckert, j. (2008). “task-based language learning and teaching – old wine in new bottles?” in j. eckert & s. siekmann (eds.), task-based language learning and teaching: theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical perspectives, 13-46. frankfurt am main: peter lang. ellis, r. (1994). the study of second language acquisition. oxford: oxford university press. ellis, r. (2001). “investigating form-focused fnstruction” in r. ellis (ed.), form-focused instruction and second language learning, 1-46. malden ma: blackwell. ellis, r. (2003). task-based language learning and teaching. oxford: oxford university press. ellis, r. (2009).“task-based language teaching: sorting out the misunderstandings”. international journal of applied linguistics 19/3: 222-46. ellis, r. (2012). language teaching, research & language pedagogy. sussex: wiley-blackwell. fotos, s. & h. nassaji (eds.) (2007). form-focused instruction and teacher education. studies in honor of rod ellis. oxford: oxford university press. krashen, s. (1981). second language acquisition and second language learning. oxford: pergamon press. krashen, s. (1985). the input hypothesis: issues and implications. london: longman. krashen, s. (1992). “teaching issues: formal grammar instruction: another educator comments”. tesol quarterly 26: 409-411. long, m. (1983a). “does second language 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 54 dr. gloria bosch-roig ist dozentin für deutsche sprache, literatur und landeskunde an der universität der balearen. sie hat sich an zahlreichen anerkannten nationalen und internationalen publikationen beteiligt und ist autorin didaktischer materialien für deutsch für den tourismus im hueber verlag. ihre letzte herausgabe teaching foreign language for tourism. research and practice ist 2013 im peter lang verlag erschienen. fußnoten 1 deutsch als fremdsprache für tourismus. 2 task-based language teaching 3 reaktive oder spontane formfokussierung ist bedeutungszentriert und wird nicht geplant; sie geschieht aus der unterrichtssituation heraus, wenn die lehrenden auf lerneräußerungen oder kommunikative design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 55 instruction make a difference? a review of research”. tesol quarterly 17: 359-382. long, m. (1983b). “native speaker/non-native speaker conversation and the negotiation of comprehensible input”. applied linguistics 4: 126141. long, m. (1985). “a role for instruction in second language acquisition: task-based language teaching” in k. hyltenstam & m. pienemann (eds.), modelling and assessing second language acquisition, 77-99. bristol: multilingual matters. long, m. (1988). “instructed interlanguage development” in l. beebe (ed.), issues in second language acquisition: multiple perspectives, 115141. new york: newbury house. long, m. (1991). “focus on form: a design feature in language teaching methodology” in k. de bot, r. ginsberg & c. kramsch (eds.), foreign language research in cross-cultural perspective, 39-52. amsterdam: john benjamins. lyster, r. (2002). “negotiation in immersion teacher-student interaction”. international journal of educational research 37: 237-253. nunan, d. (1989). designing tasks for the communicative classroom. cambridge: cambridge university press. nunan, d. (2004). task-based language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. pica, t., r. kanagy & j. falodun, (1993). “choosing and using communication tasks for second language research and instruction” in g. crookes & s. gass (eds.), task-based learning in a second language, 9-34. bristol: multilingual matters. robinson, p. (1995). “attention, memory and the ‘noticing’ hypothesis”. language learning 45: 283331. robinson, p. (2001). “task complexity, cognitive resources, and syllabus design: a triadic framework for examining task influences on sla” in p. robinson (ed.), cognition and second language instruction, 287-318. cambridge: cambridge university press. robinson, p. (2002). “learning conditions, aptitude complexes and sla: a framework for research and pedagogy” in p. robinson (ed.), individual differences and instructed language learning, 113-135. amsterdam: john benjamins. robinson, p. (2003). “the cognitive hypothesis of adult, task-based language learning”. second language studies 21: 45-107. sheen, r. (2002). “key concepts in elt, ‘focus on form’ and ‘focus on forms’”. elt journal 56: 303304. skehan, p. (1998). a cognitive approach to language learning. oxford: oxford university press. van den branden, k. (ed.) (2006). task-based language teaching: from theory to practice. cambrigde: cambridge university press. 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 55 missverständnisse reagieren. bei der proaktiven formfokussierung dagegen werden mögliche lernschwierigkeiten bei form-bedeutungszuordnungen in einer entstandenen interaktion vorhergesehen und die aufmerksamkeit der lernenden wird auf die problematischen strukturen gelenkt (ellis, 2001: 2224; fotos und nassaji, 2007: 13). 4 ‘focus on form’ derives from an assumed degree of similarity between first and second language acquisition positing that the two processes are both based on an exposure to comprehensible input arising from natural interaction. however, it is also assumed that there are significant differences in the two processes: that exposure is insufficient to enable learners to acquire much of the second-language grammar, and that this lack needs to be compensated for by focusing learners’ attention on grammatical features. ‘focus on forms’, on the other hand, is based on the assumption that classroom foreign or second language learning derives from general cognitive processes, and thus entails the learning of a skill hence its being characterized as a ‘skills-learning approach’. as such, it comprises three stages: 1. providing understanding of the grammar by a variety of means (including explanation in the l1, pointing out differences between the l1 and the l2. 2. exercises entailing using the grammar in both noncommunicative and communicative activities for both comprehension and production. 3. providing frequent opportunities for communicative use of the grammar to promote automatic, accurate, use (long, 1988, 1991 in sheen, r. (2002). “key concepts in elt, `focus on form´ and `focus on forms´”. elt journal 56/ 3: 303-304). 5 text aus dem buch alltag, beruf und co. b1/1. hueber verlag. 6 krashens non-interface-position (krashen, 1981, 1985, 1992) besagt, dass explizit erlerntes regelwissen nur bewusst abrufbar ist. der monitor kann nur eingesetzt werden, wenn lernende sich beim sprechen auf die sprachliche form konzentrieren und genug zeit haben, ihr wissen abzurufen. bei referaten oder reden können lernende ihren beitrag mit hilfe des monitors korrigieren und überarbeiten. in dialogsituationen oder im gruppengespräch muss dagegen die interimssprache verwendet werden, denn, im gespräch auf die eigene sprachproduktion konzentriert zu bleiben, führt dazu, zwar korrekte aber weniger partnerorientierte äußerungen zu produzieren. gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): 37-6056 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 56 appendix design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 57 gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): …-… appendix transkription s1,s2,s3,s4 gesprächsteilnehmer (xxxx) unverständliche passagen … pausen unter 3 sekunden {00:13} 0001 s1 ich interessiere mir für das julia country house hotel, weil ...es ist ...¿cómo se dice cerca? {00:29} 0002 s2 in der nähe {00:30} 0003 s1 in der? {00:31} 0004 s2 in der nähe {00:32} 0005 s1 in der tiene la playa cerca {00:38} 0006 s2 der strand ist in der nähe {00:40} 0007 s1 der strand ist in der nähe vom hotel {00:45} 0008 s3 que la playa estaba cerca del hotel {00:47} 0009 s1 cerca del hotel, sí {00:48} 0010 s3 ya, pero eso en mallorca casi todos los hoteles...cerca de las playas {00:52} 0011 s1 menos los que están en el centro {00:54} 0012 s2 so das ist ins hotel cala mandia resort. es ist auch in der nähe von hotel. es ist ein vier sterne hotel. wir haben hier …ehhh {01:07} 0013 verschiedene suites. es ist ein bisschen teuer aber es ist sehr gut als zum beispiel ich hab..ehh wir haben hier zimmer-suites mit privatpool. sind teuer kostet dreihundert euro pro tag für vier personen, zwei erwachsene, zwei kinder und es hat auch ein ahh wasserpark, sportsplätze mit ahh kinderclub ahh fünf schwimmbads und ahhh das ist all inklusive. für mich ist die beste option, dass wir haben...im moment. {02:03} 0014 s4 okey, ich möchte lieber in eiren, in einen in eine ferienwohnung gehen. das ist ein wohnung für von drei bis fünf personen. es ist in cala de san vicenç in pollensa. ah sie kostet dreihundertneunundzwanzig euro für eine woche. {02:36} 0015 s2 das ist toll {02:37} 0016 s4 ja, das ist sehr gut. ahh die wohnung steht circa zweihundertfünfzig meter vom strand. ahh es ist ah viele restaurants in der nähe. es hat drei zimmerwohnung ahhh mit drei schlafzimmers und es gibt eich auch ah eine terrasse, eine groβe terrasse, küche ahh und es ist für vier erwachsene und vier kinder auch. {03:31} 0017 s3 ich interessiere mich für melià beach house hotel ehhh weil…mhh…nähe... lo que tú habías dicho antes nähe in.. in dem strand ehhh ist ehhh das hotel eh hat spa eh eh suites ehh zwei eh pools? {04:10} 0018 s2 schwimmbads {04:12} 0019 s3 schwimmbads, zwei schwimmbads und ein grosses jardín? garten {04:19} 0020 s2 garten {04:20} 0021 s3 garten, ein grosses garten mhhh lo demás no sé cómo se dice…mhhh {04:35} 0022 s1 ich empfehle ihnen das hotel, weil es ist in die natur. keine...wir nehmen… no.. wir nehmen keine auto benutzen. das...in ehhh..es kostet dreihundertsiebenunddreiβig eh pro.. für zwei tage and it incluido es? {05:01} 0023 s2 inklusive {05:01} 0024 s1 it is inklusive doppelzimmer mit frühstück ohne transfer {05:06} 0025 s4 und wo liegt das hotel genau? {05:08} 0026 s1 das hotel liegt in lluchmajor {05:12} 0027 s4 am strand oder? {05:13} 0028 s1 no, neben dem strand {05:16} 0029 s2 das ist vor dem strand {05:19} 0030 s4 vor dem strand 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 57 gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): 37-6058 design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): …-… {05:21} 0031 s2 mein hotel {05:21} 0032 s2 ein klein weg direkt zum strand {05:24} 0033 s1 lo has vendido tan bien que lo vamos a tener que coger (gelächter) {05:29} 0034 s2 es que trabajo allí {05:30} 0035 s1 ah vale ya ya ya (lacht) (xxxx) {05:32} 0036 s1 …was machen wir? {05:45} 0037 s2 reisen wir mit kinder oder nur uns? {05:49} 0038 s4 haben sie kinder? {05:51} 0039 s1 ich habe keine kinder {05:53} 0040 s2 das ist für familien und kinder aber erwach es it auch ein erwachsene zon plus achtzehn {06:02} 0041 s4 ich möchte lieber {06:04} 0042 s2 kinder können nicht da gehen {06:05} 0043 s4 ich möchte lieber mhh ein ahhh ruhiges hotel {06:10} 0044 s2 das ist ruhig auch {06:12} 0045 s4 ja, aber es {06:12} 0046 s2 viele personen aber ruhig {06:13} 0047 s4 viel, viele kinder da {06:15} 0048 s2 aber hier nicht in diese area nicht. die kinder area ist hier und das ist die erwachese area. hier keine kinder {06:25} 0049 s4 hier entspannung meinst du {06:28} 0050 s2 ja ja {06:29} 0051 s4 aber in {06:31} 0052 s2 ein pool nur für erwachener ein restaurant nur für erwachsener {06:35} 0053 s4 ach so! ah ist nett dieses hotel ja {06:42} 0054 s2 und wir haben auch eine angebot für der balearen leute, das ist hundertachtunddreiβig euro bettzimmer {06:53} 0055 s1 pro tag {06:54} 0056 s4 pro tag {06:55} 0057 s2 pro tag {07:02} 0058 s1 wie viele kostet das for für eine woche? {07:08} 0059 s2 eine woche in welche zimmer? in einen familiensuite oder ein suite mit privatpool? {07:14} 0060 s3 privatpool? {07:14} 0061 s2 privatpool ja, das ist dreihundert euro per zimmer {07:18} 0062 s4 nein, nein, nein, das geht nicht. das ist sehr teuer {07:19} 0063 s1 eine woche zweitausendeinhundert {07:22} 0064 s1 wie viele leute für zimmer? {07:26} 0065 s2 vier, vier personen. no, no es tanto {07:30} 0066 s2 und wir haben alles inklusive {07:34} 0067 s4 okey {07:36} 0068 s3 alles inklusive? {07:38} 0069 s2 alles, alles, wasserpark, sportzentrum, fitnessraum...alles... essen trinken den ganzen tag {07:50} 0070 s4 und gibt es? ahhhh {07:52} 0071 s2 wir haben auch ein spa {07:56} 0072 s4 gibt es ahhh restaurants oder diskothek in in der nähe? ich meine... {08:02} 0073 s2 im hotel auch eine diskothek, eine disko (gelächter) {08:11} 0074 s4 okey {08:14} 0075 s2 ist teuer aber...wir haben alles da {08:19} 0076 s2 ungefähr sechshundert euro pro person eine woche {08:26} 0077 s4 sechshundert {08:27} 0078 s2 eine woche sechshundert euro pro person {08:30} 0079 s4 okey {08:32} 0080 s2 stimmt's? {08:33} 0081 s4 ehh okey, wir sollen eine einschadung treffen, ist das ins hotel cala mandia resort gut für ihnen? (xxxx)…okey 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 58 design und implementierung ibérica 30 (2015): 37-60 59 gloria bosch-roig ibérica 30 (2015): …-… {08:59} 0082 s2 das ist die beste hotel, dass ich habe ahhhh ¿buscado como es? geguckt {09:07} 0083 s2 okey {09:10} 0084 s1 gesucht gesucht {09:11} 0085 s2 gesucht {09:12} 0086 s1 gesucht {09:14} 0087 s4 okey..so {09:17} 0088 s2 reservieren wir? {09:19} 0089 s1 wollen wir in? {09:20} 0090 s1 wollen wollen wir reservieren? {09:21} 0091 s4 wollen wir in cala mandia gehen? {09:24} 0092 s2 wissen sie wo ist? {09:26} 0093 s1 aber ich mochte der die suite mit {09:30} 0094 s2 mit {09:31} 0095 s1 mit schwimmbad reservieren {09:31} 0096 s2 mit privatpool {09:32} 0097 s1 ja, privatpool {09:33} 0098 s4 mit privatpool {09:34} 0099 s1 was denkst du? {09:35} 0100 s4 okey {09:36} 0101 s1 was denken sie? {09:37} 0102 s4 ja {09:37} 0103 s2 genau, in adults area oder erwachsene area {09:41} 0104 s1 erwachsene area {09:41} 0105 s4 erwachsene area {09:43} 0106 s2 perfekt {09:43} 0107 s4 genau, okey {09:45} 0108 s2 so, ich reserviere morgen das {09:50} 0109 s4 reservierst du die {09:52} 0110 s2 ja, ich kann das reservieren {09:54} 0111 s4 okey {09:54} 0112 s1 sehr gut {09:54} 0113 s4 gut 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 59 04 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:53 página 60 iberica 13 ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 issn 1139-7241 abstract in today’s increasingly globalised yet disconnected world, especially in the contemporary context of a turbulent political landscape, there has been an increasing effort made by socio-political leaders at solidifying alliances and drawing support from different corners of the world in order to neutralize policies. drawing on a multidimensional framework, in particular, critical discourse analysis and membership categorization analysis, this paper explores the various strategies employed by political leaders, attempting to reconcile disparate perspectives in the face of increasing socio-economic inter-connection and political dependence. more often than not, it was discovered, political leaders drew upon the somewhat “illusory” notion of “international community”, turning it into a tool of persuasion and membership category. in doing so, this paper aims to illustrate how the creation of illusive categories and perceptions are intended as a means of drawing support from diverse political leaders and projecting a united front before scrutinizing press and public. keywords: critical discourse analysis, membership categorisation analysis, political press conferences, solidarity, diplomatic language. resumen la creación del concepto de comunidad en política internacional: estudio de las ruedas de prensa políticas en el mundo presente, cada vez más globalizado y sin embargo fragmentario, y en especial en el convulso panorama político actual, los líderes socio-políticos se esfuerzan en crear alianzas y conseguir apoyos desde todas partes para hacer más aceptable su forma de gobierno. el presente artículo investiga, dentro de un building community in international politics: a study of political press conferences aditi bhatia city university of hong kong (china) abhatia@cityu.edu.hk 117 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 117 ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 aditi bhatia marco multidimensional, concretamente el análisis del discurso y el análisis de categorización de la afiliación, las distintas estrategias que los líderes políticos emplean para intentar reconciliar, dentro de esa creciente (inter)dependencia política y socio-económica, posturas bastante dispares. reflejamos cómo, en la mayoría de las ocasiones, los líderes políticos se aferran a la noción un tanto ficticia de “comunidad internacional”, convirtiéndola en una herramienta persuasiva y de categorización de la afiliación. el objetivo de este trabajo es ilustrar cómo mediante la creación de esas categorías y percepciones ficticias se pretende obtener el apoyo de líderes políticos de distinto signo y, a la vez, proyectar una imagen de unidad frente al escrutinio de la opinión pública y la prensa. palabras clave: análisis crítico del discurso, análisis de categorización de la afiliación, ruedas de prensa políticas, solidaridad, lenguaje diplomático. introduction there has been a multitude of work done on political discourse; studies which explore various facets of politics, including the role of evasion in political talk (harris, 1991), political broadcasts and interviews (atkinson, 1988; scannell, 1991), political language in general (chilton, 1985; biletzki, 1997), the correlation between media and politics (van dijk, 1993; schaffner, 1997). within the more general context of political discourse, political press conferences have also been the specific subject of study, particularly presidential press conferences (smith, 1990; eshbaugh-soha, 2003) which focus on issues of “show business and politics” and dramatic license in political broadcasts (jennings, 1968), broadcast political talk (davis, 1997; reinsch, 1968), politicians and media hostility in press conferences (ryfe, 1999), press conferences and public relations (manheim, 1979), and press and political campaigning (barkin, 1983). however, given the complex interplay that takes place between political leaders, often representing opposing ideologies, there has been relatively less work done on press conferences that take place between different political leaders (bhatia, 2006; ekstrom, 2006). whereas bhatia (2006) using critical discourse analysis takes a closer look at diplomatic language used to communicate political differences in a positive way to smooth out ideological discrepancies that often divide prominent political figures, ekstrom (2006) using conversational analysis focuses on how floor is accessed and regulated in political press conferences within the context of institutional interaction and model of power. 118 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 118 this paper, following the above-mentioned earlier work by bhatia on press conferences, aims to explore not just the diplomatic language used to negotiate ideological differences, but rather the social practice of building solidarity between nations in order to establish a sense of community. political press conferences (ppc), especially the ones analysed in this paper, represent dialogues between two political leaders, sometimes from similar political schools of thought, sometimes diametrically opposed. the resulting dialogue is often formulaic as an attempt is made to portray a positive diplomatic front. political press conferences give an indication of how ideologies are discussed and negotiated, and how various rhetorical strategies are employed in order to arouse trust and build solidarity within international politics, between political leaders. rhetorical strategies here can be understood as specific recurrent patterns in the data set. these rhetorical strategies give shape to intended train of thought, an argument, or a belief that coheres to reflect the theme of solidarity, a general motivation for the employment of such strategies. the political press conferences analysed can be seen as a sub-category of a much broader category of “press conferences” constituting “conventionalized communicative events covering many domains, such as sports, religion, business, law, and medicine, among many others” (bhatia, 2006: 175). political press conferences can be viewed as a sub-category of this genre, although even then it would be difficult to rigidly define its boundaries. the political press conferences analysed are a mix of two and three-party conferences between leaders from around the world taking place on an international platform. the press conferences take place over an eightyear period, from 2001 to 2009 representing a predominating volatile political landscape, coloured largely by the bush presidency, illustrating deep rifts in relations, and taking place at a time when multilateralism needed to be pursued. such conferences were aimed at sanctioning actions, justifying policies and building plentiful alliances and continuing to an era of new administrations, yet similar socio-political clashes. the rhetorical strategies employed by political leaders illustrate efforts to unite the global community against global issues like terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and climate change; to invoke responsibility and a desire to fight against the conceived notions of threat in unwilling states, to take preemptive action in order to defend citizens of the world. the rhetorical strategies thus employed are the following: “overcoming differences” which through expressions of intimacy and friendship aim to recruit allies in building community in international politics ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 119 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 119 support of actions; overcoming differences leads to the “construction of an ‘international community’”, a category that serves to create solidarity through the homogenisation of all “good” and willing nations; inclusion in such a category implies possession of certain values; and lastly, the members of the “international community” are reminded that being part of this particular category and possessing certain values compel that certain actions be taken, therefore the rhetorical strategy of “invocation of responsibilities” is employed. the content of the political press conferences can be seen as clichéd and repetitive to a great extent. despite the implied spontaneity, such conferences are very formulaic, complementing the equally ritualistic structure of the conferences themselves, often entailing an opening statement, individual speeches, a question-answer session, and the closing (bhatia, 2006). such an organised structure of a political press conference enables the achievement of a positive, diplomatic front, generally following the principles of political politeness (harris, 2001) and grice’s maxims of quantity and relevance (grice, 1975). although many reasons factor into the occurrence and frequency of political press conferences, including how comfortable political leaders are at making a statement in front of a scrutinising press and ultimately public; however, the occurrences of two/three-party political press conferences are more dependent on the international political environment. if the government is in need of multilateral support or is in a potentially controversial foreign policy situation, then the number of press conferences may increase in an attempt to gain support, make amends, or withdraw the policy, though the latter seems unlikely. the ritualistic nature of press conferences also lends the content of speech a certain amount of predictability. methodology for its analysis, this paper draws on a data set that consisted of political press conferences ranging from 2001 to 2009, between leaders of different nations, particularly in the context of the turbulent war on terror. the primary data set was supported by reports, articles and analyses drawn from various national and international newspapers and magazines, which include the new york times, the washington post, south china morning post, time, newsweek, asia today, and international herald tribune, in addition to numerous others. aditi bhatia ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140120 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 120 the negotiation and alliance-building strategies employed in the political press conferences analysed illustrate the layered interaction that takes place between political leaders. each statement is expertly put together by an experienced team of speechwriters and diplomats, and delivered to give the impression that social unity and political solidarity are viewed as prerequisites by political leaders to reach any sort of decision. closer, and more accurate, analysis of such multi-layered and complex interaction requires an appropriately multidimensional approach. the multidimensional framework employed for analysis of the press conferences consists of two primary approaches: 1) integration of certain aspects of critical discourse analysis (cda) (fairclough, 1989) has been useful for textual analysis, especially for the diffusion of, to whatever extent possible, the complexity of power relations within socio-political and institutional structures. cda makes relatively more comprehensible this complex mesh of power relations, which appear even more overwhelming when we begin to decipher the ideological intentions behind the diplomatic strategies used to build solidarity. it is essential to consider these relationships between text, context, and sociocultural practice, which produce ideological and power-laden discourses. cda is thus a useful approach to integrate in the methodological framework in order to achieve multidimensionality since it is concerned with assembling contextual evidence of many sorts in order to build the richest possible interpretive framework. investigation of data through cda includes “description of text, interpretation of the relationship between text and interaction, and explanation of the relationship between interaction and social context” (fairclough, 1989: 109). aspects of fairclough’s approach, when integrated in the framework, allow the analysis of linguistic elements of the discourses collected that “show up their generally hidden detriments in the system of social relationships, as well as hidden effects they may have upon that system” (fairclough, 1989: 5). 2) conflicts and contestations between powerful political parties engender many delineating categories resulting in the prioritisation of one version of reality over another. more specifically, these categories are a result of a more powerful social group outcasting a less powerful minority group. in order to discover the intentions building community in international politics ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 121 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 121 and ideologies of participants, who create and diffuse various representations of reality and membership categories, certain aspects of membership categorisation analysis (mca) (jayyusi, 1984; sacks, 1992) are also drawn upon. mca suggests that categorisation is deliberate, has a purpose, and derives from the common sense people possess, which itself has its basis in ideology. an analysis of membership categories and membership categorisations can enable, to whatever extent possible, the discovery of the impact of habitus (bourdieu, 1990) on the way we receive and perceive the world. we categorise not necessarily on the basis of what is objectively true, but rather what we believe to be true. although over the years mca as a tradition has gained its own share of followers (hester & eglin, 1997; lepper, 2000; eglin & hester, 2003), many of whom have attempted to forge a closer link between conversational analysis (ca) and ethnomethodology, there are still certain critics, schegloff (2007), most notably, who have argued that extending work on categorisation must consider the whole range of analytical tools offered by ca over the last 35 years. in particular, schegloff (2007) argues for more specific inquiries into how ordinary workings of talk activate categorisation devices for involved parties, and how analysts “show parties’ orientation to the categories they want to claim are at play” without specifically and verbally admitting to those categories (schegloff, 2007: 477). schegloff mentions that work on mca must take into account the juxtaposition between “a possible description with that which it purports to describe in order to recognize it as a possible description, and in order to undertake next actions predicated on its adequacy” (schegloff, 2007: 481). mca is useful since it consists of “a formal analysis of the procedures people employ to make sense of other people and their activities…[it] has a strong pragmatic component – it orients towards practical action … delimiting one’s own moral, social and religious characteristics as well as those of opponents” (leudar, marsland & nekvapil, 2004: 244). elements of mca will be useful in analysis since mca can be seen, to some extent, as a textual analysis of the category sets people employ to negotiate power and ideology within sociopolitical relations. aditi bhatia ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140122 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 122 building solidarity and community is an important “process” within international politics. it involves the employment of the strategy of cooperation and overcoming differences on the part of political leaders; overcoming differences involves the identification of membership categories such as the construction of an “international community”, often creating dichotomies and boundaries between different groups within the sociopolitical world. membership categories further involve the identification of certain values that members of a particular category should possess, such as civility and unity; these values emphasise what qualities are required to obtain membership. the categorisation of certain groups and the identification of the values required for the members of such categories demand that political leaders employ the strategy of invocation of responsibilities, which aims to recover differences between political parties, by reminding them that to qualify as members of a certain category, they should act on the aims and fulfil the agendas of that particular category. overcoming differences international politics is rife with ideological and power-fuelled tensions and, in order to overcome differences, political leaders often try to gather support and consensus by building alliances and solidarity, since raising a relatively national issue to a more global level does not always necessitate a multilateral response to it. political press conferences often bring together two individual leaders who may or may not bring to the table their individual agendas. if the case should be that two leaders meet to collaborate but do not share entirely similar perceptions, considerable political politeness and negotiation, which makes use of “language to cajole, persuade, threaten, induce, drive, blackmail, intimidate, and flatter” (bell, 1995: 50), is involved. praise, flattery, and expressions of immediate intimacy are often used to create goodwill. this sort of interactional exchange can be characterised as part of goffman’s (1959: 107-128) distinction between front-stage and back-stage behaviour: the performance of an individual in a front region may be seen as an effort to give the appearance that his activity in the region maintains and embodies certain standards (…) back-stage may be defined as a place, relative to a given performance, where the impression fostered by the performance is knowingly contradicted as a matter of course. building community in international politics ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 123 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 123 some illustrative examples include (italics added): (extract 1) the prime minister is a man of his word. he is a man of great ability, deep conviction, and steady courage. he has my admiration, and he has the admiration of the american people. our two countries are joined in large tasks because we share fundamental convictions. (bush, bush-blair ppc, 8/4/03) (extract 2) tony blair is a leader of conviction, of passion, of moral clarity, and eloquence. he is a true friend of the american people. the united kingdom has produced some of the world’s most distinguished statesmen, and i’m proud to be standing with one of them today. the close partnership between the united states and great britain has been and remains essential to the peace and security of all nations. (bush, bush-blair ppc, 17/7/03) (extract 3) in all these efforts, the american people know that we have no more valuable friend than prime minister tony blair. as we like to say in crawford, he’s a stand-up kind of guy. he shows backbone and courage and strong leadership. i thank him and cherie for coming. i thank the british people for their strength and their unyielding commitment to the cause of liberty. (bush, bush-blair ppc, 16/4/04) (extract 4) on north korea, we have total convergence of views with the american president (...) so really it is a pleasure to work with barack obama. we work regularly together. he knows that france is a friend of the united states. we basically coordinate on all major issues and we are determined to continue that. barack, welcome. welcome to your family. (sarkozy, sarkozy-obama ppc, 6/6/09) the extracts above illustrate the almost mechanical and repetitive nature of negotiation and intimation of friendship in political press conferences. in the extracts above the recurrence of terms such as “friend” (extracts 3 and 4), “commitment” (extract 3), “conviction” (extracts 1 and 2), “courage” (extract 1), “family” (extract 4), all of which aim to reiterate the closeness between two leaders by acting out of the same semantic force, in conjunction with “great ability” (extract 1), “distinguished statesmen” (extract 2), “stand-up kind of guy” (extract 3), “pleasure to work with” (extract 4) reinforce a sense of unity and sociability between leaders and nations. reflecting the strategy of unification, bi-nomials such as “prime minister and i”, “friends and allies” (two of the more preferred collocations); in addition to “our two countries are joined in large tasks” (extract 1); and “the close partnership between the united states and great aditi bhatia ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140124 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 124 britain” (extract 3), “we have a total convergence of views” (extract 4), or even the use of the first name basis, “barack, welcome” in extract 4, emphasise the alliance between two leaders, especially in front of international audiences and the media, from which should leaders turn away could cause a loss of face. it is because of this somewhat overly emphatic relationship often expressed between two closely allied countries, of which america and britain are an apt example, that leaders cannot easily distance themselves entirely or retrench too explicitly on earlier commitments. great britain is represented as a civilised country, and blair as a person with “moral clarity” (extract 2) because of their “unyielding commitment to the cause of liberty” (extract 3). however, many media and news analysts did not at the time see the alliance between the us and uk as anything more than blair being “america’s ‘poodle’ (…) bush is the british p.m.’s albatross (…) blair’s stand has also cost heavily in europe. britain was once first among equals in the pantheon of european union leaders. no longer” (mcguire & wolffe, 2003). one reason for the impression that media analysts had of blair could possibly have been that, even though the level of solidarity and rapport was more evident and intense between the two men as compared with other political leaders, blair, for various reasons which could include decorum, culture or strategy, was comparatively more passive in verbalizing his praise for bush. more importantly, it is possible to assume that due to media scrutiny, many a times overly eager attempts to initiate immediate camaraderie and intimacy in political press conferences are labelled as a farce or mock. it is possible to regard the use of such expressions of unity and intimacy as forms of “emo-political blackmail” (bhatia, 2006: 186), somewhat along the lines of political politeness, which serves to prevent the opposite speaker from acting otherwise so as not to cause his counterpart loss of face. unlike everyday face-to-face conversation, a considerable amount of power, dominance and influence is exerted on an international platform, along with immediate and sometimes forced friendship. there have also been many critics who have accused administrations in the past, especially the bush administration, of exploiting their power and influence in order to persuade international leaders to follow suit, as an article from sydney morning herald (smh) notes: washington has said that its decision to bar opponents of the war on iraq such as france, germany and russia from $us18.6 billion ($25 billion) in us building community in international politics ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 125 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 125 reconstruction projects is appropriate and an inducement for countries to commit troops and provide other support (…) it suggests that president george bush is in no mood to forgive key allies that opposed the war and thwarted his effort to gain united nations backing for the invasion of iraq (…) (holland, 2003: 1) the strategy of “flattery”, often employed by political leaders, can be viewed in two ways: the positive reinforcements given about the talk itself, and the kind of positive reinforcement given in the case of allies and friends such as britain or france (in the case of the current obama administration), which is seen to provide unrestricted support. between leaders who share a more positively allied relationship, praise is often directed at the person in addition to the talks, for example bush was generous with his praise for blair the “person”, blair the “leader”, and blair the “valuable friend” (extract 3); however, between countries who share more troubled, uncertain relationships, praise is often more conservative, shorter and generally only in the form of assessments about the talk not the leader specifically: (extract 5) i look forward to having a very good discussion about our relations, as well as what we’re going to do as people who love freedom about terrorism. and i want to thank you very much for your strong statements of support for the american people, and your strong statement against terrorist activities. it meant a lot to us. (bush, bush-megawati ppc, 19/9/01) (extract 6) i would like from the outset to say that there was a very useful and very open business-like conversation. this, no doubt, was a meeting that has been expected, both in this country and the united states of america, and on which not only the future of our two country depends but also, to a large extent, the trends of world development. (medvedev, medvedev-obama ppc, 6/7/09) extracts 5 illustrates bush’s appreciation and praise for the discussions that he shared with megawati, the former president of indonesia: “i look forward to having a very good discussion about our relations” (extract 5), indicating that at point in time megawati and bush did not share the closest of relations, but being one of those “people who love freedom” megawati’s “strong statements of support for the american people” while it did not match blair’s “unyielding commitment to the cause of liberty” (extract 3), her “strong statement against terrorist activities” did hold significance for the american people. similarly, in extract 6 the current president of russia medvedev comments on the “very useful and very open business-like aditi bhatia ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140126 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 126 conversation” he shared with the current us president obama, which can be perceived as a very professional compliment given to the “nature” of the talks, which took place due to the importance they hold for the “trends of world development”. very unlike the more personal praise and support sarkozy, the current president of france, bestows upon obama. there is often a subtle difference between the terms used to express personal closeness, and personal distance with professional agreeability, and if the terms of praise of close leaders, such as bush and blair, are juxtaposed with allies who are less staunch in their support for america, one finds that praise and flattery, though evoked in political press conferences, range on a solidarity scale: “great ability, deep conviction, and steady courage” (extract 1), “he has my admiration” (extract 1), “passion” (extract 2), “moral clarity” (extract 2), “close partnership” (extract 2), “valuable friend” (extract 3), “stand-up kind of guy” (extract 3), “great pleasure to work with” (extract 4), “welcome to your family” (extract 4) all connote a relatively more intimate friendship. such praise comes across as relatively more personal, more emotive, in turn hinting to the “type” of person a political leader might be, or wants to be thought of by othersmoral, passionate, pleasure, family, courageous. this can be compared to “strong statement” (extract 5), “very good discussion” (extract 5), “open business-like conversation” (extract 6) all of which come across as less personable, implying a more formal and often “diplomatically-in-limbo” relationship. discursive construction of “international community” as part of the rhetorical strategy of overcoming differences, membership categories are created within which all those in favour of a particularly powerful country’s actions, all democratic and honest nations, form part of an “international community”. the “international community” here may be considered as a self-organised group that is united by common beliefs, interests and commitments, but is “further constituted through a set of membership rules and procedures which admit persons to membership within the group, and thus to category incumbency” (jayyusi, 1984: 26). all those opposed to the ideals of more dominant countries otherwise find themselves excluded from this rather beneficial in-group that leads the world. building community in international politics ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 127 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 127 (extract 7) and we believe that free nations must advance human rights and dignity across the world. we believe that the just demands of the international community must be enforced, not ignored. we believe this so strongly that we are acting on our convictions. (bush, bush-blair ppc, 8/4/03) (extract 8) the president and i also discussed our hopes that iran will make the right choice and take advantage of the international community’s willingness to negotiate, and how we will renew our efforts to deliver security and peace for both the palestinians and israel. (brown, brown-obama ppc, 1/4/09) (extract 9) (…) north korea has a choice: it can continue down the path of confrontation and provocation that has led to less security, less prosperity, and more isolation from the global community, or it can choose to become a full member of the international community, which will give a better life to its people by living up to international obligations and foregoing nuclear weapons. (obama, hu jintaoobama ppc, 17/11/09) (extract 10) i fully respect president obama’s peace efforts for the international world order (…) iran has to respect the rules of the international community. and we certainly wish and hope and trust that this small window in the reduction of nuclear weapons may consolidate and strengthen. (zapatero, obama-zapatero ppc, 13/10/09) the international community is often represented as a collection of “free nations” (extract 7) who work together in order to “advance human rights and dignity across the world” (extract 7), ensure that the “just demands” made are fulfilled (also extract 7), and “renew efforts to deliver security and peace” (extract 8). the international community is portrayed as working towards the advancement of an “international world order” (extract 10), nations and citizens part of the international community are granted “a better life” (extract 9), disengagement from the community is often seen as being the equivalent of “confrontation and provocation” leading to “less security, less prosperity, and more isolation from the global community” (extract 9), which was seen to be the case with iraq prior to the war at the time of the bush administration, and is often seen as being the case with north korea and iran on matters of nuclear proliferation, and sometimes a point of contention between developing and developed nations on the matters of global climate change. the international community displays qualities of democracy, goodness, and a “willingness to negotiate” (extract 8); by implication, nations not part of the international community are aditi bhatia ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140128 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 128 viewed as inflexible and unwilling to commit to diplomatic discussion. the international community is portrayed as lawful and rule-oriented (“iran has to respect the rules of the international community” – extract 10), they quote laws and resolutions which countries have to follow “to become a full member” (extract 9), though the point of contention is always who decides what these rules are. as the current russian prime minister, and former president, putin stated, “if decisions are being made by just one member of the international community and all the others are required to simply subscribe to support those decisions, this is something that we would not find acceptable” (putin, blair-putin, ppc 30/4/03). nevertheless, in political press conferences the concept of “international community” almost becomes a sort of membership category used to decisively homogenize the more succumbing parts of the world, defining common features shared by nations considered to be members, while manipulating the more adamant parts on the basis of their lack of these features. to build solidarity and community is, perhaps, less complicated in everyday interaction than in political interaction since there is constant assertion of political oneupmanship, and conflicts between political parties generally have much more widespread consequences. often positive diplomatic ties are sought by political leaders when they are in need of allies regarding certain actions hoping to be taken. in such cases where less support and more criticism regarding the actions taken is faced, it is common for leaders to emphasise the support that they have acquired thereby minimising the lack of support from those who oppose them. as blair mentioned in one press conference: (…) i think it is important to recognize the strength of our alliance – yes, there are countries that disagree with what we are doing. i mean, there’s no point in hiding it; there’s been a division (…) go and ask those other countries why they’re not with us, and they will give you the reasons why they disagree. but i think what is important is to bear in mind two things. first of all, there are an immense number of countries that do agree with us. i mean, i hear people constantly say to me, europe is against what you’re doing. that is not true. there is a part of europe that is against what we are doing. there are many existing members of the european union, and virtually all the new members of the european union, that strongly support what we are doing. so there is a division, but we have many allies. (blair, bush-blair ppc, 27/3/03) in the extract above blair attempted to counter-balance the “part of europe that is against what we are doing” by highlighting the “strength of our building community in international politics ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 129 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 129 alliance”. the acknowledgement that “there are countries that disagree with what we are doing” was subdued by the claim that there “are many existing members of the european union, and virtually all the new members of the european union, that strongly support what we are doing” creating a vigorous parallelism. following grice’s maxim of quantity, which countries were in support of and opposed to was not mentioned. in such cases the “discoursal process of re-imagining “international community” is an essential element in the political project of re-constituting international relations” (fairclough, 2005: 53). however, glosserman (2003) counterargued that what bush and blair referred to as a large international coalition was in fact “‘a la carte multilateralism’, picking and choosing … allies and mechanisms as circumstances dictate”. this was similar to the more recent debate surrounding the recent global climate change copenhagen accord (cop 15) where the support of a few handpicked nations, namely brazil, india, china, and south africa, who put together the accord with america, was seen as being representative of the international community. as venezuelan representatives, who denounced the accord, claimed, the final document was made behind closed doors, and that developed countries, those most responsible for global warming, want to solve climate problems by throwing small amounts of money around. the venezuelan delegate (…) said on saturday that only twenty-five countries participated in writing the document l-7, the draft of the final summit resolution that the chair of the summit “noted”, and that was not voted on. (pearson, 21/12/09; italics added) the membership category of “international community” often includes a collection of nations that have already offered their support, rather than being used as a tool of persuasion, an incentive, to draw the more detached and unconvinced nations. the membership category in this case has a contradictory function, whereby it might unite in-group incumbents but, instead of recruiting more new category members, it outcasts those not part of the group, somewhat negating the purpose of building community and solidarity in international politics. it is even possible to make the claim that elicitation of support within the international community may not necessarily be actual attempts to reach out to unwilling nations, but rather a diplomatic display of support already garnered, much in the form of selfjustification for actions taken. relations between nations are historically aditi bhatia ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140130 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 130 moulded and thickly layered with preconceived ideologies; often many times common suspicions on part of nations, solidified over years of mistrust, are harder to overlook or dissipate. furthermore, it is even possible that nations that have shared relations characterised by dominance and struggle over time may become more submissive. therefore, building community in politics may just be a historical process, and not something that can be attempted for specific policies and actions, but established over time. as such, searching for solidarity within international politics could possibly be a form of justification for the public eye more than anything else. political press conferences do, however, present a unique opportunity for political leaders to meet and negotiate their individual socio-political agendas and perspectives in order to “achieve the right strategic partnership between the main countries of the world” (blair, blair-putin ppc 30/4/03). as the current prime minister of italy, berlusconi, mentions, …we really need to support and develop the culture of union and cohesion, and certainly not nurture the culture of division. selfishness, narcissism and division shall never win. we need to revive the huge strength of cohesion. and this has to be a vital force, able to plan and build something. (berlusconi, bush-berlusconi ppc, 21/7/03) it might be for this reason that during his presidency bush tried to extend an arm of friendship towards many previously forgotten directions, one such example being india, which not until long ago was negligent on the bush administration’s black-and-white view of the world (…) india began the bush era as an incidental blip on the margins of the radar screenan unfamiliar place that could possibly serve as a counterweight to china. after september 11, it has re-emergedat the centre of a resurgent pax americana dream. (chawla, 2001: 24) the formation of certain categories further requires distinguishing them by establishing category values; it involves identifying descriptor designators (jayyusi, 1984) that can be seen as a way of labelling and distinguishing the members of the category. descriptor designators serve to unite members of a particular category, in this case the “international community”, by emphasising the common qualities and goals of category members. emphasising the common values shared by category members can be seen building community in international politics ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 131 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 131 as strengthening the in-group boundary of the willing nations, the favoured nations that form part of not only the international community but who often earn themselves an upgrade to the “civilised” world. (extract 11) it is for the people of iraq to say, here’s how civilized people must live. here’s how you protect minority rights. here’s how you protect the rights of religious people. and here’s how civilized people should live if they’re going to provide hope for the future. (bush, bush-blair ppc, 16/4/04) (extract 12) the terrorists know they face defeat unless they break the spirit and commitment of the civilized world. the civilized world will not be frightened or intimidated. (bush, bush-blair ppc, 28/6/04) (extract 13) the united states and the united kingdom have stood together through thick and thin, through war and peace, through hard times and prosperity – and we’ve always emerged stronger by standing together… and i know that we both believe that the relationship between our two countries is more than just an alliance of interests; it’s a kinship of ideals and it must be constantly renewed. (obama, brown-obama ppc, 1/4/09) in order to strengthen and maintain support amongst existing alliances attempts are often made to strengthen standards of membership category. the civilised world, of which willing nations are members, is often ascribed positive values of “spirit” and “commitment” (extract 12) that are juxtaposed with the language of negative action of those who stand on the outside of the civilized world, namely perceived terrorist groups and nations (“frightened”, “intimidated” – extract 12). extract 11 goes a step further and prescribes how civilised society should live and function, acting on past frames of experience, through the instructive “here’s how”, which due to its listing in a set of three can also be seen as an effective instrument in eliciting unifying applause (atkinson, 1988). it is implied in the extract that there is no “hope for the future” if the rules of civilised society are not followed. it is not an uncommon occurrence when “political evocations of the future tap into – indeed, pray upon – the public’s general anxiety about the inherent ambiguity and indeterminacy of the future in order to influence social perceptions, cognitions, and actions” (dunmire, 2005: 484). the civilized international community is often portrayed in political press conferences as abiding by certain values that make their policies and actions distinctive, and place them in a more desirable league; they not only show aditi bhatia ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140132 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 132 spirit, commitment, and a “willingness to negotiate” (extract 8) but share a “a kinship of ideals” (extract 13). these ideals, gray (2003) argues, are western ideals, as “western societies are governed by the belief that modernity is a single condition, everywhere the same and always benign (…)being modern means realizing our values – the values of enlightenment …” (gray, 2003: 1). these ideals require that nations remain allied “through thick and thin, through war and peace, through hard times and prosperity” (extract 13), this extract reading almost like marriage vows, requiring a staunchness in commitment on part of members of the international community. invocation of responsibilities with civilisation comes responsibility and political press conferences often find leaders attempting to unite nations for any particular course of action by invoking a sense of responsibility within them. actions based on these global ideals of an international community can be interpreted as sourcing from the deontological approach to moral action that defines “an action as right if, and only if, it is in accordance with a moral rule or principle, which may be based on revelation or laid out by reason or command universal rational acceptance” (wijze de, 2002: 213). (extract 14) it is a cynical world that says it’s impossible for the iraqis to run themselves. it is a cynical world which condemns iraq to failure. we refuse to accept that. we believe that the iraqi people are capable, talented, and will be successful in running their own government. (bush, bush-blair ppc, 8/4/03) (extract 15) history shows us that when nations fail to cooperate, when they turn away from one another, when they turn inward, the price for our people only grows. that’s how the great depression deepened. that’s a mistake that we cannot afford to repeat. (obama, brown-obama ppc, 1/4/09) (extract 16) the truth is that today’s global problems require global solutions. and at this week’s summit, where leaders representing 85 percent of the world’s economy are gathering together, this summit cannot simply agree to the lowest common denominator. we must stand united in our determination to do whatever is necessary. (brown, brown-obama ppc, 1/4/09) building community in international politics ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 133 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 133 (extract 17) the major challenges of the 21st century, from climate change to nuclear proliferation to economic recovery, are challenges that touch both our nations, and challenges that neither of our nations can solve by acting alone. that’s why the united states welcomes china’s efforts in playing a greater role on the world stage a role in which a growing economy is joined by growing responsibilities.  (obama, hu jintao-obama ppc, 17/11/09) during the bush administration unwilling nations were remonstrated by bush as behaving in a cynical manner by contributing to the war on terror, and “it is a cynical world which condemns iraq to failure” (extract 14). the pronoun “we” could be seen as metonymic of america and its allies who were not cynical since they “refuse(d) to accept” that iraqis cannot “run themselves” because “iraqi people are capable, talented, and will be successful in running their own government” (extract 14). extract 18 again creates a parallelism, which reinforces the message being put across. this is a presupposition based on a relatively subjective conceptualisation of social reality indicating that discourses include imaginaries representations of how things might or could or should be. the knowledge of the knowledge-economy and knowledge-society are imaginaries in this sense projections of possible states of affairs, ‘possible worlds’. these imaginaries may be enacted as actual (networks of) practicesimagined activities, subjects, social relations, etc. can become real activities, subjects, social relations (…) (chiapello & fairclough, 2002: 195) an attempt was made to enhance the solidarity of the civilised world, which claims to be democratic and values the basic right of every human being – freedom – emphasising the needed to remain committed to the cause and values it was endorsing, and it seems that bush’s argument for the continuing presence of troops and military action was to honor their commitments to the iraqi people. it is interesting to note in this instance “behind the supposedly democratic conceptions (…) that seem to underpin all the democratic governments of this global world, lies a restricted conception of democracy at the social level” (pardo, 2001: 94). bush’s motivation behind the proliferation of freedom and liberty in the world was also interpreted as signalling the capacity to say and do anything he wanted to (…) the “bush doctrine” in foreign policy has signified freedom for the us to wage preemptive strikes aditi bhatia ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140134 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 134 anywhere it wishes at anytime, and the unilateralist bush administration foreign policy has signified freedom from major global treaties ranging from kyoto to every conceivable international effort to regulate arms and military activity … (kellner, 2004: 46) powerful leaders often exploit whatever advantages the status of their nations offer, in order to place themselves in a position where they can influence and pass judgment of any kind – religious, moral, ethical, political, cultural, social – on another nation or institution in order to persuade others to act in accord with their own agenda. influence here is the exertion of power used to create hegemony rather than voluntary harmony and solidarity. van dijk (1993: 249-50) refers to such influence and power as dominance, defining it as the exercise of social power by elites, institutions or groups... process may involve such different “modes” of discourse – power relations as the more or less direct or overt support, enactment, representation, legitimation, denial, mitigation or concealment of dominance, among others. similarly, bell (1995) describes three primary constituencies of “political action language”: power, influence and authority. influence is too broad a category to label with a set meaning. bettinghaus and cody (1994) distinguish between six types of influence: informational, referent, expert, reward, coercive and legitimate (power generated from status quo). in the case of these political press conferences what is evident is a combination of reward, referent and legitimate influence that enables political leaders to use their political positioning, their interdependence, and right as members of an international community to determine to some extent another nation’s behaviour and cooperation. in talking about influence and power, grice’s (1975) notion of “implicatures” is also invoked, especially conversational implicatures “derived from a general principle of conversation plus a number of maxims” (brown and yule, 1983: 31), whereby information that cannot be made explicit in speeches following diplomatic discourse is implied through various other means (wilson, 1990). invocation of responsibilities is an oft-repeated rhetorical strategy which political leaders seem to draw upon in order to exert their own authority, while attempting to unite nations by reminding them that failure to be responsible extends beyond political differences to “the price for our people” (extract 15), to “major challenges of the 21st century, from climate building community in international politics ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 135 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 135 change to nuclear proliferation to economic recovery (…) [that none of the] nations can solve by acting alone” (extract 17) and to the example that history shows us “when nations fail to cooperate (…) that’s how the great depression deepened” (extract 15). pressure to live up to expectations and responsibilities is exerted by placing emphasis on the “global-ness” of problems (“today’s global problems require global solutions” – extract 16). community is built through emphasis on unity, with the use of several repetitive phrases that act out of the same semantic force: “price for our people” (extract 15) where people are not distinguished according to their citizenship, but viewed collectively, as people of the world; “mistake we cannot afford to repeat” (extract 15) where consequences of failure to live up to responsibilities extend beyond political exclusion to affect the world collectively, elevating the impact of disunity; “we must stand united in our determination” (extract 20); “growing economy is joined by growing responsibilities” (extract 17). finding faith and building community within international politics is not a matter of just holding talks, it is a process that involves the careful negotiation of rhetorical strategies such as “overcoming differences” which draws on praise and flattery to strengthen alliances, further creating membership categories such as that of “international community”, which unites members of the in-group by reinforcing their common values, qualities and objectives: the maintenance of democracy, the advancement of peace and security, and civility. membership categories are further strengthened through descriptor designators that act as labels prescribing the sort of behaviour expected of members, and, finally, category members are reminded that possession of such values and the responsibility of being part of the in-group necessitate action. conclusion the role of political press conferences in turbulent socio-political contexts is not only to present a joint and united front between leaders, but also to make attempts to strengthen solidarity and build community between willing nations. this is crucial considering the social role that political figures have come to play through the mediatisation and dramatisation of politics and government. political leaders are representatives of their population, and thus answerable to them. it is therefore an increasing necessity to engender aditi bhatia ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140136 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 136 support and trust in their leadership and administration abilities by ensuring the public and media of a positive front. as smith and smith (1994: 192) reiterate, “for successful presidents trust, competence, and consistency are a troika of horses pulling together (…) when one of those horses comes up lame (...) the president driving the wagon is in crisis”. building a sense of unity is necessary in order to strengthen relations and ensure support for present and future actions; and in the case of political leaders building community and encouraging unity amongst disparate and cooperative nations is not only crucial to political continuity and success, but a difficult and complex task. the analysis of the data set found that what ensued in the press conferences was a process of triangular communicative negotiation, which generally involved two political leaders contesting their individual realities amongst themselves; it involved the creation of certain categories which attempted to strengthen solidarity between agreeable nations, while out-casting those who lacked the required values of the membership category; and finally it involved negotiating the outcome of the talks with the media, which would eventually trickle the information into the layman’s social sphere. the discourse analysed in this paper was explored in terms of power to unite and divide different groups of thinkers, in order to legitimise just a prioritised nation or nations’ “versions” of reality, according to which actions should be measured and taken. this was done through the use of certain rhetorical strategies, which aimed to illustrate that not only were efforts being made on part of powerful administrations to reach out to unwilling nations, but nations not accepting the hand of friendship were part of a band of inflexible and confrontational leaders who went against everything that free and civilised nations stood for. this highlights the paradoxical nature of political press conferences, and the even more contradictory nature of alliance-building in international politics, whereby certain measures are taken to strengthen membership categories that build solidarity and in-group identity amongst cooperative nations, while at the same time creating stringent dichotomies which outcast and negate nations that hesitate to fall into such a pre-fixed division of the political landscape. most importantly, what emerged from the analysis was the power of the genre (bhatia, 2006) of political press conferences, whereby the realities of politics take a backseat to the nature and function of the genre; where regardless of the players or socio-political issues at stake, whether it is bush building community in international politics ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 137 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 137 or obama gracing the lectern, or whether the issue being discussed is nuclear proliferation or global climate change, the intensely conventionalized nature of political press conferences determines the construction, interpretations and value of the discourse generated. 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(1997). culture in 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 138 aditi bhatia is an assistant professor in the department of english at the city university of hong kong. her research interests include discourse analysis of political, professional and institutional contexts, in particular the discourses of terrorism and the environment. she has been published in international journals such as journal of pragmatics, world englishes, and discourse & society, and is currently engaged in an international project on collective argumentation in the climate-change debate. building community in international politics ibérica 21 (2011): 117-140 139 action: studies in membership categorization analysis. studies in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. washington, d.c.: university press of america. holland, s. 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(1999). “betwixt and between: woodrow wilson’s press conferences and the transition toward the modern rhetorical presidency”. political communication 16: 77-93. sacks, h. (1992). lectures on conversation volume i & ii. oxford: blackwell. scannell, p. (ed.) (1991). broadcast talk. london: sage. schaffner, c. (ed.) (1997). analyzing political speeches. london: short run press. schegloff, e.a. (2007). “a tutorial on membership categorization”. journal of pragmatics 39: 462482. smith, c. (1990). presidential press conferences: a critical approach. new york: praeger. smith, c.a. & k.b. smith (1994). the white house speaks: presidential leadership as persuasion. westport: praeger. van dijk, t.a. (1993). “principles in critical discourse analysis”. discourse & society 4: 249283. wijze de, s. (2002). “defining evil: insights from the problem of ‘dirty hands’”. the monist 85: 210238. wilson, j. (1990). politically speaking. oxford: blackwell. 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 139 06 iberica 21.qxp:iberica 13 09/03/11 18:09 página 140 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this study aims to investigate the stance phrases used by agricultural science and economics scholars to establish their identity and authority in academic discourse. adopting a corpus-driven approach, this study first retrieved 2to 5grams from two self-built corpora consisting of agriculture and economics research articles and then classified them functionally by following the three metafunctions in systemic functional linguistics (sfl). statistical comparisons show that agriculture researchers use cognitive, attitude, and hedging phrases more frequently, while the economics corpus contains significantly more evidentiality phrases. this paper contributes to the categorization of stance phrases by synthesizing and refining existing stance classifications and incorporating the reason-oriented dimension. the findings can enrich our understanding of disciplinary variation in academic discourse, and can inform academic writing pedagogy with respect to curriculum design and materials development. keywords: classification framework, corpus-driven approach, disciplinary variation, cognitive stance, natural language toolkit. resumen la expresión de la posición mediante colocaciones en el discurso académico: variación disciplinar en la presencia de los autores el objetivo de este artículo es analizar las colocaciones que emplean los investigadores de ingeniería agronómica y economía para marcar su posición (stance) como autores, y, así, establecer su identidad y autoridad en el discurso académico. desde un enfoque dirigido por corpus o corpus-driven, se han recuperado en primer lugar los n-gramas de orden 2, 3, 4 y 5 de dos corpus stance phraseology in academic discourse: cross-disciplinary variation in authors’ presence jihua dong & louisa buckingham shandong university (china) & the university of auckland (new zealand) dongjihua@sdu.edu.cn & l.buckingham@auckland.ac.nz 191 ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 jihua dong & louisa buckingham propios compuestos por artículos científicos de ingeniería agronómica y economía y, posteriormente, se han clasificado con criterios funcionales de acuerdo con las tres metafunciones de la lingüística sistémico-funcional. a través de comparaciones estadísticas, se ha evidenciado que los investigadores de ingeniería agronómica utilizan más colocaciones de naturaleza cognitiva, actitudinal y mitigadora con mayor frecuencia, mientras que el corpus de artículos de economía contiene un número significativamente mayor de colocaciones de carácter evidencial. asimismo, este artículo presenta una aportación respecto a la categorización de las colocaciones que permiten marcar la posición (stance) del autor, ya que sintetiza y mejora las clasificaciones ya existentes e incorpora una dimensión de naturaleza racional dentro del concepto de stance. los resultados obtenidos enriquecen nuestra comprensión de la variación disciplinar en el discurso académico y pueden ser de gran utilidad para la didáctica de la escritura académica en relación con el diseño del currículum y el desarrollo de materiales. palabras clave: marco de clasificación, corpus-driven, variación disciplinar, posición cognitiva, natural language toolkit. 1. introduction over the past few decades, research articles (ras) have become one of the most prevalent genres for the scholarly dissemination of knowledge, and a medium through which academics can attain recognition, and build their reputation within the academic community. in teaching practice, ras are often treated as exemplars for students to emulate (feak & swales, 2011; hyland, 2008) and have been drawn upon extensively as reading materials in the esp/eap courses of various levels in higher education (hood, 2010). disciplinary variation has become a central focus of esp studies to meet the local labour market demand for university graduates with specific skill sets (tao & gao, 2018), and the needs of an increasing number of academics and students who use english as an additional language for research, publishing and educational purposes. the interest in disciplinary variation is also grounded upon the assumption that each community may select or prioritize its unique norms, values, and ways of communication (van dijk, 1997). as indicated by previous studies (cortes, 2004; hewings & hewings, 2002; hyland, 2008), writers in different disciplinary communities tend to employ different linguistic features to align themselves with community practice. a central focus in this line of research is stance features in ras. stance plays a pivotal role in 192 facilitating effective communication between writers and anticipated readers and in constructing social relations between writers and readers (hyland & jiang, 2016), as it not only enables academic writers to establish their identity and construct an authoritative persona during communication but it also allows authors to engage readers and present their propositions in a persuasive manner. substantial efforts have been made to tease out stance features in academic discourse, and a variety of terms have been used, such as evaluation (hunston & thompson, 2000; hunston, 2011; breeze, 2018), appraisal (martin & white, 2005), metadiscourse (hyland, 2005b), engagement (hyland, 2005a), stance (biber, 2006; hyland, 2005a; di carlo, 2015), voice (bowden, 1999; fogal, 2019; matsuda, 2001; matsuda & tardy, 2007), modality (coates, 1987; nuyts, 2001), and evidentiality (chafe & nichols, 1986; wierzbicka, 1994). hunston (1994; 2011) and martin and white (2005) use the terms evaluation and appraisal framework respectively to refer to an umbrella concept concerning evaluative stance. evaluative language is seen as expressing “an attitude towards a person, situation or other entity” with the characteristics of subjectivity which are “located within a societal value-system” (hunston, 1994: 210). by contrast, martin and white’s framework (2005) encompasses a broader scope, including engagement (attributing the source for attitudes and opinions in discourse), attitude (centers on the aspects of affect, judgment, and appreciation), and graduation (concerned with the gradability of feelings). in addition, biber et al. (1999), hyland and tse (2005), hyland (2005b), and simpson-vlach and ellis (2010) use the term evaluation to refer to a sub-set of linguistic devices within the category of attitude. also, previous studies have examined particular linguistic elements that can be equated with one of the sub-categories of broader classification schemes (biber et al., 1999), such as attitude markers in the metadiscourse framework (hyland & tse, 2005; hyland, 2005b) and evaluation in the afl (simpson-vlach & ellis, 2010). biber et al. (1999) focus on the emotional attitude (e.g., surprisingly, unfortunately); hyland (2004; 2005a) considers this concept in his categories of boosters (e.g., clearly, obviously, highly) and attitude markers (e.g., important, hopefully, remarkable). simpson-vlach and ellis (2010) concentrate on the value-laden and attitudinal aspect within the category of evaluation, including linguistic markers, e.g., important role in, it is important (to), it is necessary (to), (it) is clear (that), and it is difficult. stance phraseology in academic discourse: cross-disciplinary variation in authors’ presence ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 193 some previous explorations of stance have considered it to represent a type of metadiscourse marker (i.e. hyland, 2005a, 2005b; hong & cao, 2014). for instance, according to hyland’s (2005a) model, stance, which was distinguished from engagement, was generally regarded as being composed of the subcategory of hedges, boosters, attitude markers and self-mentions, and viewed as a sub-category of metadiscourse markers. the term engagement, in contrast, denotes linguistic devices employed by writers to relate to their readers (hyland, 2001, 2005). both stance and engagement in this model were considered to be types of interactional metadiscourse markers (used to involve the writer and the reader in the text) in the metadiscourse framework proposed by hyland (2005b). this framework presents a more differentiated understanding of stance compared with his earlier work that considered stance more generally as “the way that writers project themselves into their texts to communicate their integrity, credibility, involvement, and a relationship to their subject matter and their readers” (hyland, 1999: 101). modality in this study is used to refer to a speaker’s commitment and detachment to propositional information (stubbs, 1996). the modality aspect of authors’ projection resembles the notion of hedges (1998a; 2005a), as they both convey authors’ presence in terms of certainty, uncertainty, and imprecision. in contrast, evidentiality is concerned with authors’ endeavors to signal the source of particular propositions (chafe & nichols, 1986) and evidentiality-related linguistic devices to represent a linguistic category “whose primary meaning is the source of information” (aikhenvald, 2004: 3). as suggested previously, these two concepts are two semantically distinct categories (greco, 2018). one strand of stance studies has concentrated on stance phrases, which refers to recurring contiguous word sequences that convey the meaning and function of stance. previous studies have principally focused on identifying stance phrases and exploring their functions (biber, conrad & cortes, 2004; hunston, 2011; hyland, 2008; römer, 2008; simpson-vlach & ellis, 2010). for instance, biber et al. (2004) examined four-word sequences in classroom teaching and textbooks and developed a functional taxonomy, including stance expressions, discourse organizers, and referential expressions. they included epistemic (certainty, uncertainty, possibility, and imprecision) and attitudinal (desire, obligation/directive, intention/predication, and ability) within the category of stance, and analyzed them from the perspective of personal and impersonal functions. likewise, hyland (2008) investigated four-word bundles in research-focused genres (ras, doctoral dissertations, jihua dong & louisa buckingham ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214194 and master’s theses) and differentiated stance from engagement using the metadiscourse framework. in this taxonomy, he restricted stance to linguistic devices which convey a writer’s attitudes and evaluations (e.g., are likely to be, may be due to, and it is possible that). in a recent attempt to identify the pedagogical utility of formulaic language, simpson-vlach and ellis (2010) compiled the academic formulas list (afl) and treated stance phrases as one of the main formulaic categories. the list was derived from a large-scale corpus-driven study, and differentiated between phrases in spoken and written academic texts. the focus on the phrase as a pedagogically useful unit of analysis reflects the idea that a text is comprised of a “repertoire of multi-word patterns” (sinclair, 1991: 108). as the meanings of most words are usually influenced by the collocating words, focusing on phrases also contributes to removing some of the ambiguities that are likely to arise in word-based analyses. one notable trend in stance phrase research has emerged in the examination of their interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary features (cortes, 2004; hyland, 2008; hyland & tse, 2005; koutsantoni, 2004; stotesbury, 2003). for instance, cortes (2004) investigated formulaic expressions in published and students’ writing in the disciplines of history and biology, and found that biology researchers used more possiblity stance markers. likewise, hyland (2008) examined formulaic expressions in the academic discourse of four disciplines and found that researchers in the hard sciences often minimized their presence, while their peers in the soft sciences displayed a more explicit presence and employed more interpretive expressions. taken together, these cross-disciplinary studies identified notable variation in the way disciplinary writers use formulaic expressions to convey their stance and communicate with the anticipated readers. however, our understanding of cross-disciplinary stance-taking features remains incomplete, and bondi (2007) identified the need for a finer grained examination of disciplinary features to meet the needs of enhancing academic literacy of students from diverse disciplines. this study thus proposes to examine writers’ rhetorical use of stance devices in the written discourse of agriculture and economics. different epistemological assumptions underlie each of these two disciplines and the discursive practices that typify each have an impact on authors’ projection in the text and the formulation of their propositions (bondi, 1999; del saz rubio, 2011; jiang & hyland, 2015; nesi & gardner, 2012). research in agriculture is analytical in nature and empirically based on observable experience (del stance phraseology in academic discourse: cross-disciplinary variation in authors’ presence ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 195 saz rubio, 2011; martinez et al., 2009). research in economics, on the other hand, tends to subscribe to a quantitative paradigm (becher & trower, 2001; bargiela-chiappini & nickerson, 2002) and often involves the construction and testing of models, with the purpose of formulating economic forecasts to provide an evidence-informed basis for governmental bodies and business institutions’ decision making (bazerman, 2010: 281). durrant (2017: 11) identifies agriculture and economics as “central disciplines within the commerce cluster”. within this broad category, he observes that economics displays greater linkages with science and technology, while agriculture is associated with the life sciences. previous work has examined the use of stance in each of these disciplines separately (see for instance, del saz rubio, 2011; martinez et al., 2009; lancaster, 2014; mauranen, 1993). a comparative approach can reveal the discipline-specific nature of research texts in these two fields and identify differences in how disciplinary writers rhetorically position themselves. such findings can have pedagogical relevance, as stance-taking has been deemed “an elusive concept” (mauranen & bondi, 2003: 269). many students and novice writers have been reported to encounter great difficulties in constructing stance in the introduction of papers and dissertations (feak & swales, 2011), establishing critical stance in writing literature reviews (bruce, 2014), synthesizing and critiquing in literature reviews of doctoral theses (boote & beile, 2005), discussing and commenting on research results (lim, 2010), and using certainty and affect stance appropriately in academic discourse (hyland & milton, 1997). overall, despite the aforementioned important roles of the two academic disciplines and the difficulties students often encounter with the use of stance, few studies have focused on recurring stance phrases in these two academic disciplines. therefore, this study investigates the stance-taking practice of disciplinary writers in published academic texts and will address the following research questions: (1) what stance phrases are commonly used in the ras of agriculture and economics? (2) how can reason-oriented stance expressions be integrated into the existing stance classification frameworks? (3) what disciplinary variation can be found in the use of the stance phrases in the two disciplines? a secondary purpose of this study is to use the stance phrases retrieved through a corpus-driven approach to sort out the categorization of stance phrases by using the metafunction of sfl (systemic functional linguistics). jihua dong & louisa buckingham ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214196 in the following section, we elaborate on the justification for sorting out the stance categorization and for using metafunction in sfl. 2. theoretical framework previous research has yielded several stance classification frameworks. for instance, hunston (2011) identifies the functions of evaluation as status, value, and relevance, which correspond to the three moves of an evaluative act, namely identifying and classifying an object to be evaluated, ascribing a value to that object, and identifying the significance of the information. martin and white’s (2005) appraisal framework consists of engagement, attitude, and graduation, which are concerned with how authors construe their authorial persona during the construction of the text. based on the data extracted from conversation, academic, and news registers, biber et al. (1999) divide stance into three sub-types, namely epistemic, attitudinal, and style. in addition, simpson-vlach and ellis (2010) classify stance into hedges, epistemic, obligation and directive, ability and possibility, evaluation, and intention/volition and prediction on the basis of high-frequency phrases extracted from the michigan corpus of academic english (micase). hyland (2005a) views stance from an interactional perspective and categorizes stance features into hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mention. these classification schemes have enriched our understanding of the characteristics and functions of stance phrases and laid the foundation for empirical and theoretical research centered on stance theory. nevertheless, a close analysis indicates that most of the above stance classification schemes mainly focus on the aspects of attitude (related to feelings or values), hedges (conveying certainty or estimation), and evidentiality (indicating the source of a proposition). it is surprising that a further important dimension of stance, authors’ reason-oriented presence, which contributes to the authors’ construction of their persuasive persona, has not received due attention in the previous classification schemes. the reason-oriented dimension of stance has attracted growing attention from researchers recently. for instance, swales (2002) investigated the common cognitive verbs co-occurring with the subject i, such as i think, i guess, i hope, i believe, and i suppose in micase, and found that cognitive verbs constituted an important linguistic feature in spoken genre. in the afl compiled by simpson-vlach and ellis (2010), emphasis was placed on the stance phraseology in academic discourse: cross-disciplinary variation in authors’ presence ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 197 knowledge-oriented aspect of stance by acknowledging that “epistemic stance phrases have to do with knowledge claims or demonstrations, expressions of certainty or uncertainty, beliefs, thoughts, or reports of claims by others” (506) and included cognitive phrases, such as assumed to be, considered as, determined by, argued that, and have shown that, in this category. aull and lancaster (2014) viewed logical expressions (of course, however) as one essential part of stance in their analysis of the writing of first-year university students and that of upper-level undergraduate students and published academics. in addition, lancaster (2016) included relational markers (however, but, nevertheless) in his analysis of undergraduates’ stance-taking practice, under the title of disclaim markers, and found that this aspect of selfprojection constitutes an important element of academic writing. taken together, the cognitive dimension represents how authors project their mental processing of knowledge, and works as an essential linguistic device for writers to “negotiat[e] meanings with the reader” (lancaster, 2016: 19). considering the importance of this dimension in constructing authors’ persuasive persona and the endeavors that have been made in the abovementioned literature, it is surprising that this dimension has not been incorporated into the common analytical framework of stance studies. therefore, this study attempts to incorporate the reason-oriented dimension of authors’ presence into the stance classification framework in accordance with the theoretical underpinning of this study, namely the three sfl metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal, and textual (halliday, 1994). according to sfl, language is a social semiotic system organized in relation to the aforementioned three metafunctions. the ideational function is concerned with how language is used in relation to the experiential world. it is composed of experiential and logical functions: the first covers the rhetorical devices that construct meanings around the world; and the second is relevant to the linguistic forms that build “logical–semantic relationships between one clausal unit and another” (halliday, 2003: 17). the interpersonal function refers to the social relationship construed by the language resource for the purpose of building the relationship in communication. the textual function relates to the syntactic systems used to construct coherent and wellorganized discourse. drawing on this framework, hunston and thompson (2000) undertook a detailed analysis of evaluation and identified that evaluation performs the following functions: (1) expressing opinions, reflecting the value system of authors and their community; (2) maintaining relationships, concerned with building and maintaining relations between jihua dong & louisa buckingham ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214198 writer and reader; (3) organizing discourse, concerned with the use of linguistic devices to structure a text. 3. corpus and methods 3.1. corpora the corpora were compiled from the electronic versions of empirical ras in agriculture and economics, as empirical ras play a dominant role in disseminating research findings in these academic disciplines. in order to ensure the papers selected were representative of empirical ras in the two disciplines, we took into account the corpus design criteria suggested by biber (1993), i.e., sample size, range of text types, and the range of linguistic distributions. to ensure the range of text types, this study focused on the texts taken from the reading lists which were prepared by experienced scholars in the disciplines of agriculture (n=25) and economics (n=20) to the master’s candidates under their supervision. the papers selected mainly represent empirical studies in the fields of horticulture, crop genetics and breeding studies, crop cultivation studies, plant resources studies, and seeds studies in the discipline of agriculture; and banking studies, corporate economics, investment management, accounting, and public economics within the discipline of economics. we achieved a satisfactory distribution range by choosing the phrases that occurred in at least 10% of the texts in each corpus, as discussed in section 3.2.2. the recommended articles were taken from a wide range of different journals in agriculture (n=133) and economics (n=128). all the journals are peer-reviewed and sci or ssci indexed. the agriculture research article corpus (arac) consisted of 372 ras, with 1,669,396 tokens, and the economics research article corpus (erac) was composed of 283 ras, with 1,352,973 tokens, following the removal of the non-text sections, namely tables, figures, references, and acknowledgements. 3.2. research procedures 3.2.1. extraction in retrieving stance phrases, this study focused on recurring n-grams involving 2to 5-word sequences, as the word sequences in this range are stance phraseology in academic discourse: cross-disciplinary variation in authors’ presence ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 199 more frequent (i.e., biber et al., 1999; ellis, simpson-vlach & maynard, 2008; simpson-vlach & ellis, 2010). although 2-word sequences were excluded in some previous phrases studies (i.e., simpson-vlach & ellis, 2010) to ensure the manageability of the data, it has been reported that bigrams (like tend to and seem to) play an important role in conveying authors’ stance (biber et al., 1999; hyland, 2005a); hence bigrams were included in this study despite the data-processing demands involved. the two corpora were first lemmatized. although it is argued that lemmatization may hide the collocation differences among different forms of a lemma (cortes, 2008; hoey, 2005), lemmatization was carried out in the process of phrase extraction for the following two reasons. firstly, the phrases retrieved based on the lemmatized texts allow us to recognize “the different inflectional forms of the same lemma as the same word type” (lu, 2014: 91) and analyse them as a unified form when appropriate, thus helping identify some phrases which may otherwise be excluded due to their low frequencies in the concordance list, and so can allow for a more comprehensive inclusion of the phrases examined in this study. in addition, the lemmatization facilitates the quantitative analysis of the phrases examined as it yields one identical raw frequency and one mutual information (mi) score for a phrase lemma regardless of its different inflectional forms. the lemmatization was applied to the two corpora at the word-level with the natural language toolkit (bird, 2006). in this study, the lemmatization was considered only in the process of retrieving phrases. during the analysis of the stance phrases, the original forms of the formulaic stance phrases were considered in order to examine the phrases in context and determine their functional coding. the lemmatized corpora were each uploaded to collocate (barlow, 2004) to retrieve the phrases. when the phrases were extracted, the range of 2to 5grams was selected in the search field of the software. the software produced a long list of phrases, accompanied by their respective frequencies and mi scores. mi score is often used as a parameter for comparative information (simpson-vlach & ellis, 2010), thus no threshold score was applied in this study. 3.2.2. filtering in identifying the phrases to be included in this study, both automatic and manual selections were conducted. the combination was chosen in order to jihua dong & louisa buckingham ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214200 reveal more of the “inherent nature of evaluative items” (stotesbury, 2003: 331). in the automatic selection, the threshold for the inclusion of phrases was set following the general practice of corpus-based studies (i.e., biber et al., 1999; simpson-vlach & ellis, 2010). that is, the frequency level used as a cut-off was 10 instances per million words, a relatively low end of the threshold value used by corpus linguists, with the purpose of retrieving relatively less restricted data. the distributional range of the phrases was 10%; that is, the phrases selected had to occur in at least 10% of the articles in each corpus. given that one of the main purposes of this study is to identify the phrases with pedagogical value in the two disciplines, the formula teaching worth (ftw) metric (simpson-vlach & ellis, 2010) was also employed as one parameter in this study to provide evidence for the teaching value of the formulaic expressions. according to simpson-vlach and ellis (2010), this parameter “enables a reliable and valid rank ordering of the formulas” (496), thus ftw was just used as an index for the value of instructional purposes, but could “not provide a threshold cutoff score” (496). so no cut-off score was applied to this parameter in this study in accordance with simpsonvlach and ellis’s (2010) suggested practice. 3.2.3. collapsing although filtering from the perspective of frequency, range, and ftw score yielded a relatively short list of pedagogically useful stance phrases, there still existed a number of overlapping phrases, which were further dealt with through the ‘collapsing’ stage. this entailed grouping together phrases which could be subsumed within the same phrase entry, such as interesting to, [be] interesting, and it [be] interesting to. the formulaic expressions within one entry were then merged into one phrase by following the principles of semantic completeness and structural independence. to be specific, semantically incomplete phrases were collapsed in favor of semantically complete strings. for example, in terms and terms of were merged into the word string, in terms of, because the latter is relatively complete in meaning and possesses higher pedagogical value. the structural dependent strings, such as [be] possible, [be] possible to, possible to, and it [be] possible were trimmed, because these strings do not possess as high structural independence and pedagogical importance as it [be] possible to. it is necessary to point out this step was only applied to overlapping phrases, while the original forms of non-overlapping phrases were retained as retrieved from the corpora. stance phraseology in academic discourse: cross-disciplinary variation in authors’ presence ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 201 3.3. analysis in this step, we first determined whether the semantic meaning of a phrase, obtained from the above-mentioned corpus-driven approach, is related to stance meaning. then we categorized the phrases by judging the semantic meaning in accordance with the metafunction of sfl. in instances where the meanings and functions were not clear, three experts in linguistics, agriculture, and economics were consulted to determine the meanings and functional categories of the phrases respectively. all nine experts were experienced academics with doctoral degrees and a number of publications in their research domains. in rating the phrases, the informants were first provided with training on the stance classification procedure. they were then provided with fifty samples randomly selected from the concordance lines containing both the co-text and contexts, together with the descriptions and examples of stance categories. they were then asked to rate the phrases on a scale of 1 (no agreement) to 10 (complete agreement) from the following two perspectives: (1) whether they thought the phrases delivered authorial projection in the texts; (2) whether they thought the phrases could be subsumed into particular categories. as indicated by the statistic test of kendall’s coefficient of consistency1, w value was 0.91 (p < 0.05) for the first rating, and 0.87 (p < 0.05) for the second rating. this indicates a high degree of consensus and reliability on the informants’ judgment on the stance phrases’ relatedness and functional categorization. (the classification scheme is discussed in detail in section 4). as regards the normalized frequency, two main approaches have been previously used to measure the normalized frequency of phrases, namely against the number of tokens in the respective corpus (biber, cornrad & cortes, 2004; hyland 2008; simpson-vlach & ellis, 2010) and against the number of texts in a corpus (cortes, 2004). although there may be some controversy in the approaches used for the measure, this study followed the general practice and measured the normalized frequency against the number of tokens in the corpora. in order to explore the specific use of stance phrases in the two corpora, the frequency of the categories of stance phrases was further analyzed using the log-likelihood (ll) statistic. this statistic test has been commonly employed to assess the statistical significance of differences in words or phrases between different corpora (botley, 2006; jiang, 2015; oakes, 1998; rayson & garside, 2000; simpson-vlach & ellis, 2010). since the ll statistic does not jihua dong & louisa buckingham ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214202 assume that data are normally distributed, it is considered to be more reliable in text analysis than statistics based on assumed normal distributions as “normal distribution overestimates the significance” (dunning, 1993: 65). 4. results and discussion this section presents the stance categorization scheme (scf) that was constructed after the analysis of the phrases retrieved in the above steps (section 4.1), and the statistical comparison of the stance phrases used in the two corpora (section 4.2). 4.1 the hybrid model of stance features as mentioned in section 2, previous stance frameworks, such as biber et al. (1999), hyland (2005a, 2005b), hunston (2011), and simpson-vlach and ellis (2010) unanimously converged on the following aspects, namely attitude (emotion or evaluation-oriented aspect, related to feelings or values), hedges (modality-oriented aspect, conveying certainty or estimation), and evidentiality (evidentially-oriented aspect, indicating the source for a proposition). based on the analysis of the stance phrases retrieved from the corpus, the present study introduced reason-oriented stance, termed ‘cognitive stance’, into the stance classification scheme as an independent stance category, alongside the other three aspects of stance, namely attitude, modality, and evidentiality. the descriptions and examples of stance phrase categories are presented in table 1. stance phraseology in academic discourse: cross-disciplinary variation in authors’ presence ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 203 cognitive stance phrases are mainly used to “formalize the logic of discourse, and clarify the principles of reasoning” (rescher, 2005: 1). their use reflects the writer’s reason-oriented presence in expressing assertions and constructing knowledge, mainly in the form of logic al relation (in addition, because of, and explained by) and mental processing act (take into account, assume that, and consider that) towards entity or proposition. as suggested previously, the cognitive phrases displayed a notable co-occurrence with evidentiality expressions (dong & buckingham, 2018a). this collocational relationship enables writers to “ground their analytical behaviour in the evidence or source introduced by reference markers” (dong & buckingham, 2018a: 124). this dimension shares a strong relationship with the ideational function, particularly the logical function within sfl. according to the logical metafunction of the ideational function within sfl, cognitive phrases fall into the following types, namely judgment, analysis, inference, and metacognition stance. judgment stance covers the knowledge-building expressions in terms of definition, connotation, denotation, interpretation, ability, function, characteristics, and classification, etc. inference stance is concerned with authors’ reasoning and speculation when making assertions. this sub-category is composed of show that, indicate that, and it is demonstrated that, etc. the expressions often signpost a conclusive statement informed by evidence or data following logical induction or deduction. metacognitive stance concentrates on authors’ mental processing in the form of understanding, interpreting, and reasonable analysis of the knowledge or jihua dong & louisa buckingham ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214204 category sfl metafunction descriptions examples cognition ideational function linguistic markers related to writers’ reason-oriented evaluation of a proposition when expressing assertions and construing knowledge in discourse in contrast, due to, imply that, take into account, etc. evidentiality ideational/ textual function expressions used to point out the source for certain statements or link to a certain textual position in construing the text flow. other authors, it is wellknown that, this paper, as shown in, etc. attitude interpersonal function expressions conveying writers’ affective or evaluative presence towards or assessment of a proposition. it is interesting to, it is essential that, play an important role, etc. hedges interpersonal function rhetorical devices expressing writers’ degree of caution, modesty, and humility when making statements. appear to, seem to, may be, to some degree, etc. table 1. the functional classification of stance phrases. c statements. this category includes expressions such as it is noted that, it is considered that, and take into account. in contrast with this reason-oriented projection delivered by cognitive stance, attitude stance represents authors’ evaluation-oriented involvement. this aspect is concerned with the recurring expressions that manifest authors’ sentiments in presenting opinions or propositions (biber et al., 1999; hunston, 2011; martin & white, 2005). attitudinal stance phrases comprise evaluative markers (it is important, play an essential role), and formulations expressing a subjective impression (it is interesting to, it is surprising that). corresponding to the interpersonal metafunction, attitude stance phrases appeal to their emotionally-oriented engagement in processing knowledge or assertions. hedges are devices used to display due caution, modesty, and prudence in their statements construction (hyland, 1998). similar to attitude stance, hedging markers (seem to, it is likely) also correspond to the interpersonal function as they assist writers to establish a close rapport with readers by softening the tone of a claim. hedging stance phrases not only reduce the risk of being criticized for proposing new statements, but also allow writers to assume “dialogic tones” (bakhtin, 1981: 294) and moderate the strength of their opinions. this type of rhetorical device is regarded as a “manipulative non-direct sentence strategy of saying less than one means” (hübler, 1983: 23) and a process to reduce the strength of a statement (zuck & zuck, 1986). evidentiality stance refers to the discourse markers that locate the sources of statements and direct readers’ attention to particular information in the textual description (crismore, 1990). the sources of evidentiality are seen to be directed to self-mention (this study, our paper), extra-reference (previous studies, previously reported), shared knowledge (it is generally accepted that, it is well known that) and intra-textual (as described above, shown in table 1). by attributing a statement to a certain source, evidentiality stance establishes an ‘evidentiality’ persona (boye & harder, 2009; chafe & nichols, 1986; wierzbicka, 1994) and also contributes to constructing a coherent and cohesive text and a multi-voiced or heteroglossia feature of academic discourse (martin & white, 2005). specifically, self-mention expressions are concerned with the rhetorical devices directing the primary source of particular statements to the study, paper or author, including in the present study, in this paper, and to our knowledge. stance phraseology in academic discourse: cross-disciplinary variation in authors’ presence ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 205 such phrases can initiate a knowledge-knower structure, in which the writer is represented as a knower to provide further indication of the relative strength of social or cognitive relations in the discourse (hood, 2010: 172). in contrast, extra-reference stance phrases, such as according to or by other authors, direct readers’ attention to statements from an outer source. such stance phrases often reflect the multi-voiced or heteroglossic nature of statements (martin & white, 2005: 37) as it uses others’ voices to express authors’ opinions, and traces the statement source to previous studies or writers. intra-textual expressions relate to the rhetorical devices that can direct information into a specific position in the textual organization, including as shown in table, and see figure. such expressions function to link an argument or proposition with evidence indicated in a figure or table, or a source mentioned in other sections. by doing so, these expressions create the link between one element and other parts of the text (vande kopple & crismore, 1990). shared knowledge concerns linguistic markers conveying commonsense knowledge assumed to be shared by readers within a certain discipline (hyland, 2005a). the phrases include it is well known that, it is clear that, and it is widely accepted that. 4.2. the cross-disciplinary comparison of stance phrases table 2 presents the descriptive and log-likelihood statistics of the stance phrases used in the two disciplines. as can be seen, cognitive phrases are most frequently used, and account for more than half of the total stance phrases in the two corpora. the cross-disciplinary comparison shows that the agriculture corpus contains significantly more cognitive phrases (ll=144.01, p=0.00). by employing reason-based cognitive stance, writers are able to shed light on their reasoning process with respect to the proposition delivered in the subsequent clause. example (1) shows a case in which the inference verb phrase, suggest that, is used to make an explicit statement related to knowledge construction. (1) the results suggest that changes in soc contents induced by the conversion from fields to grassland or vice versa are primarily caused by changes in the mineral associated soc pool. (arac#058:2) jihua dong & louisa buckingham ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214206 hedging phrases are the second most frequently employed type, accounting for about one-fifth of the total cases. this suggests that these disciplinary writers have an inclination to mitigate their presence and exercise prudence in making strong claims. the mitigation of a claim also has the effect of attenuating readers’ potential opposition to the proposition. this effort in expressing caution may also be perceived, by some experienced readers, as a form of manifesting authors’ contribution or the originality of particular propositions, because the hedged component signals the authors’ speculative position. as shown in table 2, the occurrences of hedging phrases are significantly higher in the agriculture corpus, showing that agriculture researchers are more likely to assume a cautious attitude when constructing their texts. this can be seen in (2), in which it is likely that expresses the writer’s circumspection with respect to the reported finding. (2) wlcc treatments had 3 years of winter legume cover crop input and it is likely that there was a significant buildup of both labile c and n in these systems compared to the ncc systems. (arac#009:2) the third most frequent type of stance phrase in the two corpora is evidentiality stance. these phrases enable writers to identify the source of certain statements, guide readers through the elaboration of an argument, and steer them to a specific point in the text (hyland, 2005b). the statistical analysis shows that the economics corpus contains more evidentiality phrases, and in particular, self-mention phrases. this strong self-presence may be attributed to the research paradigms economics research subscribes to. such research usually requires the construction of models that can be used for purposes of prediction, which thus enable economists to exercise a relatively higher degree of objective control over the research procedure compared to agricultural scientists. example (3) shows a case where the selfstance phraseology in academic discourse: cross-disciplinary variation in authors’ presence ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 207 t ( ! categories raw frequency normalized frequency (per million) percentage ll sig agr. econ. agr. econ. agr. econ. cognitive 19204 13636 11503.56 10078.55 56.11% 55.22% 144.01 0.00 hedges 7916 5200 4741.83 3843.39 23.13% 21.06% 140.27 0.00 evidentiality 3484 3496 2086.98 2583.94 10.18% 14.16% -79.47 0.00 attitude 3619 2362 2167.85 1745.79 10.57% 9.57% 67.91 0.00 total stance 34223 24694 20500.23 18251.66 100% 100% 194.72 0.00 note: sig stands for p-value; the ll ratio is significant at the 0.05 level. table 2. descriptive and log-likelihood statistics for stance phrases categories in agriculture and economics corpora. mention marker is used to initiate the research focus of this study, namely investigating whether any significant difference exists in the default and operating risk of government-owned banks. (3) this study investigates whether any significant difference exists in the default and operating risk of government-owned banks with respect to private banks. (erac#074:3) the analysis of the attitude stance phrases in the two corpora shows that most of the attitudinal presence is expressed in the form of an evaluation, as in (4) which contains the evaluative phrase play an important role. the high frequency of this type of marker indicates that these disciplinary texts tend to appeal to readers’ appreciation of the value of a statement. notably, the occurrence of this dimension is found to be much less frequent than the cognitive dimension, indicating that researchers in the two disciplines have a tendency to express greater rational than emotional commitment in text construction. (4) fungal hyphae and polysaccharides of microbial origin play an important role in soil aggregation. (arac#46:2) the frequency of attitude stance is significantly higher in agriculture academic discourse (ll=67.91, p=0.00), indicating that agriculture researchers are more likely to show their evaluation-oriented presence in ras. one of the possible reasons is that agriculture researchers tend to employ a larger amount of firsthand data, which are commonly observed or collected in their fieldwork or laboratory analysis. thus, attitude stance phrases allow agriculture researchers to reveal their personal involvement in research procedures and potential subjectivities in the interpretation of findings. in contrast, the less frequent use of attitude phrases may be attributed to the model-based reasoning in economics discourse identified by bondi (2006), which is “either developed through scenarios and simulations or tested with empirical data or simulations” (59). this feature thus permits little space for researchers in economics to express their subjective presence in their academic presence. 5. conclusion this study has presented an integrated stance classification framework by exploring the rhetorical use of stance phrases, and examining the disciplinary jihua dong & louisa buckingham ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214208 variation of the stance phrases in the academic disciplines of agriculture and economics. to this end, this study extracted the most frequent 2to 5-grams from two self-built corpora consisting of ras in agriculture and economics and classified them functionally into cognitive, evaluation, hedges, and evidentiality stance by following the metafunctions in sfl. drawing upon the extended definition given by hyland (1999), this framework brings together previous classification schemes and extends stance classification by including the cognitive dimension, which denotes the reason-oriented dimension, as an independent category in the classification scheme. the results show that these two disciplines (agriculture and economics) share a substantial number of academic conventions and also display significant disciplinary variation in their use of stance phrases. the findings suggest that academics tend to present a differing degree of stance phrases to align themselves with the community conventions of their respective disciplines. these differences in the use of stance phrases are in line with biber et al. (2004) and hyland (2008), who found considerable disciplinary variation in academic writing. by “instantiating the aspects of community’s values” (hyland, 1999: 115), stance phrases align writers with academic conventions, and contribute to writer’s ability to present information as knowledge to the respective disciplinary community. the appropriate use of stance phrases thus can assist researchers to conform to community expectations (hunston, 1994). pedagogically, the discipline-specific stance phrases and their specific use in ras are of value to esp/eap practitioners and students or novice researchers in the two fields. the findings can be operationalized as strategies for students and novice researchers to develop their generic knowledge of disciplinary conventions. in particular, the findings can be drawn upon by practitioners in classroom or workshop-based training to assist novice writers in these disciplines to gain the skills and confidence in employing the appropriate type of stance markers in alignment with discipline-specific practices. the stance phrases retrieved in this study can serve as the searching items or teaching resources for corpus-based teaching (dong & buckingham, 2018b) and datadriven learning in academic writing instruction. it should be noted that this study only scratches the surface of stance expressions by examining 2to 5-grams, and thus excludes single words (such as perhaps and maybe), which also express stance. finally, the focus of this study was limited to empirical ras in two academic disciplines; an exploration of stance features in a wider range of disciplines and in studies stance phraseology in academic discourse: cross-disciplinary variation in authors’ presence ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 209 which employ different research paradigms would enable a more comprehensive view of stance features in academic discourse. acknowledgements the authors gratefully acknowledge the support received from the national education examinations authority and british council english assessment research grant, young taishan scholars program, and moe (ministry of education in china) project of humanities and social sciences (no. 18yjczh190). article history: received 1 october 2018 received in revised form 6 april 2020 accepted 30 april 2020 references jihua dong & louisa buckingham ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214210 aikhenvald, a.y. 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(2006). theories of judgment: psychology, logic, phenomenology. cambridge: cup. martinez, i.a., s.c. beck & c.b. panza (2009). “academic vocabulary in agriculture research articles: a corpus-based study”. english for specific purposes 28(3): 183-198. matsuda, p.k. & c.m. tardy (2007). “voice in academic writing: the rhetorical construction of author identity in blind manuscript review”. english for specific purposes 26(2): 235-249. matsuda, p.k. (2001). “voice in japanese written discourse: implications for second language writing”. journal of second language writing 10(1): 35-53. mauranen, a. & m. bondi (2003): “evaluative language use in academic discourse”. journal of english for academic purposes 2(4): 269-271. mauranen, a. (1993). “contrastive esp rhetoric: metatext in finnish-english economics texts”. english for specific purposes 12: 3-22. nesi, h. & s. gardner (2012). genres across the disciplines: student writing in higher education. cambridge: cup. jihua dong is professor, qilu young scholar, and taishan young scholar in the school of foreign languages and literature at shandong university, china. her research interests include corpus linguistics, corpus-based teaching, academic writing, and discourse analysis. she has previously published in english for specific purposes, international journal of corpus linguistics, journal of english for academic purposes, and system, among others. louisa buckingham is a senior lecturer in applied language studies and linguistics at the university of auckland. she has a broad range of research interests which include the use of corpus linguistics as a methodology to explore discourse. she has published in various journals including tesol quarterly, system, journal of english for academic purposes, and english for specific purposes. stance phraseology in academic discourse: cross-disciplinary variation in authors’ presence ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214 213 nuyts, j. 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(1994). “semantics and epistemology: the meaning of ‘evidentials’ in a cross-linguistic perspective”. language sciences 16(1): 81-137. zare, j., a. eslami-rasekh & a. dabaghi (2017). “importance marking: giving reference to the highlighted discourse in academic lectures”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 33: 213-234. zuck, j.g. & l.v. zuck (1986). “hedging in newswriting” in a.m. cornu, j. vanparijs & m. delahaye (eds.), beads or bracelets: how do we approach lsp: selected papers from the fifth european symposium on lsp, 172-181. oxford: oup. notes 1 the specific information on how to conduct this test is available in kraska-miller (2013). jihua dong & louisa buckingham ibérica 39 (2020): 191-214214 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper reports the findings of a multifaceted investigation into the communicative needs of using english as a business lingua franca (or belf) in three types of companies in mainland china: state-owned, privately-owned, and multinational companies. the findings were derived from online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with chinese business professionals. the findings suggest that english has played an increasingly important role in the workplace communication in mainland china, especially in multinational companies. using english has become a business convention in multinational companies, although the extent of its use differs depending on various contextual factors, primary among which are a professional’s duties and english proficiency. the findings also illustrate that culture plays a role as important as language in belf communication at work. for example, social interaction, due to both cultural and linguistic reasons, has long been an issue concerning and challenging chinese business professionals. cultural differences may not be an insurmountable barrier, but the lack of cultural sensitivity and knowledge can cause a disruption in communication or lower the chance of promotion in a company. keywords: english as a business lingua franca, communicative needs, culture, needs analysis, intercultural business communication. resumen el inglés como lengua franca para la comunicación en el contexto laboral chino: un acercamiento mixto a una comparación de las necesidades comunicativas percibidas english as a lingua franca in chinabased workplace communication: a mixed approach to a comparison of perceived communicative needs yao yao & bertha du-babcock the chinese university of hong kong (shenzhen, china), wenzao ursuline university of languages (taiwan) yaoyao@cuhk.edu.cn, enbertha@gmail.com 345 ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 yao yao & bertha du-babcock este artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación sobre las necesidades comunicativas para el uso del inglés como lengua franca de los negocios en tres tipos de compañías en china continental: estatales, privadas y multinacionales. los datos se han obtenido mediante cuestionarios en línea y entrevistas semiestructuradas con profesionales chinos del ámbito de los negocios. los resultados sugieren que el inglés ha ido adquiriendo una importancia cada vez mayor en la comunicación que se produce en el lugar de trabajo en china continental, en especial en las compañías multinacionales. el uso del inglés se ha convertido en una práctica habitual en las compañías multinacionales, si bien es cierto que su alcance difiere en función de varios factores contextuales, entre los que destacan el tipo de obligaciones de cada profesional y su nivel de inglés. estos datos también muestran que la cultura ejerce una influencia tan importante como la propia lengua en la comunicación en inglés como lengua franca en contextos laborales del mundo de los negocios. por ejemplo, la interacción social, por razones tanto culturales como lingüísticas, ha sido durante mucho tiempo un asunto que ha preocupado a los profesionales chinos del mundo de los negocios, para los que suponía un desafío. si bien las diferencias culturales no constituyen una barrera infranqueable, la falta de sensibilidad y de conocimiento cultural puede causar problemas de comunicación o bien reducir las posibilidades de promoción en una compañía. palabras clave: inglés como lengua franca en el mundo de los negocios, necesidades comunicativas, cultura, análisis de necesidades, comunicación intercultural en el mundo de los negocios. 1. introduction the rapidly globalized economy of china has shown that intercultural business communication between people from china and the rest of the world has broadened and deepened, with an increasing number of people from other countries now working in china-based multinational companies or indigenous chinese organizations (du, 2015). in such a multilingual and multicultural environment, companies tend to choose english as their official corporate language to cope with the challenges of intercultural business communication and coordination (charles, 2007), with companies in china following this trend (kankaanranta & lu, 2013; yuan, 2009). english has gradually become the lingua franca (elf) used by business professionals coming from various cultural backgrounds (evans, 2013), or in other words, it represents a business lingua franca (belf) (kankaanranta & louhiala-salminen, 2010). elf was defined on the voice website as “an additionally acquired language system which serves as a common means of 346 communication for speakers of different first languages”. this definition suggests that “it does not exclude native speakers of english (henceforth ness), since elf is not the same as english as a native language, and must therefore be ‘additionally acquired’ by ness too.” (jenkins, cogo, & dewey, 2011, p 283). building on the concept of elf, belf can be defined as a shared language used in the business domain by speakers with different mother tongues (louhiala-salminen, charles, & kankaanranta, 2005). in addition to language, the current “world flattening” (friedman, 2007) phase of economic globalization also recognizes the importance of culture in intercultural business communication (bargiela-chiappini, nickerson, & planken, 2013). one study conducted by the economist intelligence unit (eiu) in 2010 reported that cultural sensitivity and language proficiency are recognized as two vital and essential abilities for a successful international business career. these findings have confirmed the importance of language and culture abilities needed for business professionals to perform successfully in today’s multicultural workplaces. language and culture are also interconnected in that belf is not a “cultureless” language, but is a dynamic professional language that can create new operational cultures (charles, 2007). since belf speakers use the language following different sociopragmatic rules (louhiala-salminen & charles, 2006), they bring their own cultural characteristics into belf communication. in this sense, “belf communication is inherently intercultural” (kankaanranta & louhialasalminen, 2010, p. 205). having an expanding collaboration with the rest of the world, china increasingly requires numerous talents who are competent in intercultural communication skills. consequently, business english (be) teaching has been playing an increasingly significant role in university education in mainland china. in the early 2000s after china joined the world trade organization (wto), be was officially added to the higher education curriculum with the aim of cultivating highly skilled graduates with combined language and business skills (bargiela-chiappini & zhang, 2013). more remarkably, the year 2007 witnessed a major breakthrough in the history of be teaching as the ministry of education granted one university the qualification of offering a be program as an undergraduate major. according to education online (www.eol.cn), a platform for china’s educational information service accredited by the ministry of education, english as a lingua franca in china-based workplace communication ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 347 up to 2018 more than 650 universities and colleges have provided a be program for undergraduate study in china. in order to facilitate the be curriculum development, much has been written by chinese scholars about the teaching, learning and use of english for business communication (wu, 2013). a notable feature in this line of research is the focus on needs analysis, which is most often the initial step conducted to understand what is supposed to be provided for learners (bhatia & bremner, 2012). in an academic context, there have been many studies examining the needs of be learners in china (e.g., dai & liu, 2016; wu, 2012; xie, 2016). dai and liu’s (2016) study revealed that 79.65% of the respondents regarded the be related courses as not career-oriented and that 53.98% of them felt the current teaching materials hardly matched their career development plans. the finding is a manifestation of the gulf between the current be teaching at school and the demands of career development after school (wu, 2012). dai and liu’s finding also reflects that previous studies may not have extensively examined the communicative needs of using english as a lingua franca in china’s workplaces and that many needs analysis studies are largely focused on the perspective of language needs, with little or no consideration of culture, which is recognized as indispensable for today’s intercultural (business) communication. to fill this research gap, the present study aims to conduct a needs analysis about english use in china’s business context by answering two research questions (rqs). rq1 examines the extent to which english is used at work in mainland china. rq2 investigates the role of culture in belf communication at work. it is hoped that the present study can better inform language learners, education practitioners, and organizations about what kind of communicative needs are found at work from the perspectives of language and culture. with a clear knowledge of communicative needs, researchers and practitioners can gain better insights into how to invest the time and resources necessary to achieve an advanced level of intercultural communicative effectiveness. 2. literature review use of the needs analysis to determine the use of english as a communicative code at work has drawn plentiful attention from researchers, yao yao & bertha du-babcock ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370348 in an attempt to bridge the gap between classroom textbooks and real-world practices (brown, 2016). over the last two decades, researchers have engaged in needs analysis in geographically dispersed contexts such as thailand (gass, 2012), japan (cowling, 2007) and finland (charles & marschanpiekkari, 2002). china has also recognized the importance of analyzing english needs. evans (2010, 2013) conducted a large-scale investigation into the use of english in hong kong’s four key service industries. however, mainland china is categorized as one of the expanding circle territories (kachru, 1985) where english has traditionally played a limited role in chinese society and is basically learned as a foreign language in the education system. accordingly, the situation in mainland china contrasts with that of hong kong where english has long been used as an official language due to its colonial history. furthermore, according to graddol (2006), china, as a rising giant economy, would “determine the speed at which other asian countries, such as thailand, shift to a global english model” (p. 94), which suggests the significance of doing research on english use in china. pang, zhou, and fu (2002) conducted a survey examining the influence of china’s wto membership on business professionals’ language use in five cities of zhejiang province. they found that despite acknowledging the importance of english skills, chinese professionals did not use english as frequently at work as expected. although e-mails, contracts, faxes and forms were identified as the major media that required english in written communication, those tasks were often assigned to professionals with high english language proficiency. therefore, for most chinese professionals, the communicative needs of using english were limited to filling in forms with figures or simple words and phrases. however, according to evans (2010, p.155), “as far as workplace communication is concerned – the language (english) is increasingly being used both externally and internally in many expanding circle contexts”, which contradicts the research findings of pang et al. (2002). one possible reason for such a contradiction can be that the study was conducted over 15 years ago, and therefore, the role of english in china’s workplace has been changed due to the rapid development of technology and globalization. as li and moreira (2009, p.41) contended, “the knowledge of english as an international business language is becoming more crucial than ever” in china’s enterprises since 2001. more recently, zhang and guo (2015) investigated chinese professionals’ linguistic choices between mandarin chinese, english, and dialects1 in large state-owned petrochemical companies in the cities of xi’an and beijing. english as a lingua franca in china-based workplace communication ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 349 they identified several noticeable attributes regarding professionals’ linguistic choices. firstly, the chinese language functions as a common medium in the workplace and the interplay between mandarin chinese, english, and dialects was pragmatic, thereby enhancing communication efficacy and relation building. secondly, echoing pang et al. (2002), zhang and guo found that english was not as frequently used as was originally imagined under the influence of economic globalization. even if there was a need to speak a foreign language, it was often the case that selected staff would handle the communication rather than the professionals themselves. however, their study only provided a picture of how english was used in state-owned companies. with multinational companies (mncs) out of the picture, zhang and guo’s (2015) study can hardly provide comprehensive insights into the linguistic landscape of the chinese business world today. according to louhiala-salminen and kankaanranta (2011), in addition to language competence, multicultural competence was also required by business professionals to perform effective global communication. plenty of preceding studies (e.g., cowling, 2007; du-babcock, 2013a; du-babcock &tanaka, 2013b) have reported that cultural differences and language skills are closely linked to misunderstandings or ineffective intercultural communication. as suggested, belf has the characteristics of multiculturalism and multilingualism due to its users’ (including nes) different linguistic and cultural backgrounds (kankaanranta &louhialasalminen, 2013). based on the literature review, two observations stand out. one is that limited information is known about the needs of english use in today’s chinese business contexts. another is that both language and culture competencies are important for professionals to engage in intercultural communication. therefore, the present study aims not only to examine the role of language (belf) in different types of companies in mainland china (rq1), but also to investigate the perceived role of culture when using belf for communication at work (rq2). 3. methodology a mixed-method approach was employed for the data collection consisting of a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews. the online questionnaire was used to answer rq 1 investigating the english use in three types of companies, while the interviews aimed to answer rq 2, exploring yao yao & bertha du-babcock ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370350 the interaction between culture and language by triangulating, explaining and supplementing the statistical findings. 3.1. online questionnaire the online questionnaire was developed to look into the needs of using english at work in mainland china from the perspectives of chinese business professionals. the items in the questionnaire (see appendix 1) were adapted from the instrument developed by louhiala-salminen and kankaanranta (2011) to examine (a) the proportion of the english used with native english speakers (nes) and non-native english speakers (nnes) and (b) the proportion of their language use between english and chinese. although we acknowledge that both chinese and non-chinese professionals are able to comment on english needs, in the present research we focus only on chinese business personnel for two reasons. first, we wanted to investigate if there is an increase in english use in the chinese business context, considering the results of previous studies that english was not often used in the workplace (e.g., pang et al., 2002, zhang & guo, 2015). in this case, non-chinese speakers may not be able to estimate the proportion of their language use between english and chinese. second, chinese professionals can provide more reliable information about how cultural differences (particularly between chinese culture and other cultures) influence their belf communication. therefore, collecting data from chinese business professionals’ practices and experiences can help us arrive at a better understanding of the issues in question. considering that the respondents’ first language was chinese, the questionnaire was composed in chinese. according to oscarson (1997), respondents can more truthfully self-rate their performance if the questionnaire is composed using respondents’ first language as compared to when the questionnaire is composed in their target language. a backtranslation method (dörnyei & taguchi, 2010) was used after initial translation, which involved an independent translator turning the translation in chinese back into the original language (english) and then comparing the two english-version texts. it turned out that the two english versions corresponded well with each other so that both instruments investigated the same aspects. the questionnaire respondents were first recruited using a convenience sampling because they were the acquaintances of the researcher, followed by english as a lingua franca in china-based workplace communication ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 351 a snowball sampling method (dörnyei, 2007) where existing respondents helped recruit future respondents from their acquaintances. in total, 248 chinese business professionals completed the online questionnaires in april and may, 2017. since the main selection criterion was that the respondents should be chinese business professionals who need to use english in their workplace, 21 respondents who answered that they did not use english at all (0%) in their jobs were not included in any statistical analysis. therefore, a sample of 227 respondent questionnaires was applied in the data analysis. as shown in table 1, a clear majority of the respondents were young professionals under 30 years old, who held junior or mid-level positions in their companies. in terms of the nature of the company they worked in, 71 were state-owned companies, 57 were privately owned companies, and 99 were mncs (such as the united states, the united kingdom, and japan). the questionnaire data were analyzed by using spss (version 24). the reliability of the instrument was determined by cronbach’s alpha test (α = .97), indicating a “very good” degree of reliability. the means were calculated and one-way analysis of variance (anova) was conducted to examine if the means were statistically different from each other. 3.2. semi-structure interviews semi-structured interviews were used because interviewing is suitable to a large degree for exploratory studies (daniels & cannice, 2004), as is the case yao yao & bertha du-babcock ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370352 gender male 93 female 134 job rank junior 96 middle 114 senior 17 company ownership state-owned 71 privately-owned 57 multinational 99 age group 20-25 59 26-30 98 31-35 54 over 35 16 table 1. demographic information of questionnaire respondents (n=227). the means were calculated and one-way a with the present study on belf in the context of mainland china. it also allows interviewers to ask open-ended or probing questions to gain an indepth knowledge about interesting issues as they arise or to clarify the respondents’ views or perceptions (gillham, 2005). the interviews for the study were conducted based on an interview guide that outlined the questions to be discussed (see appendix 2). the interviewees were recruited from the questionnaire respondents. respondents were asked to provide their contact information if they would like to participate in follow-up interviews. nineteen of them left their email addresses when answering questionnaires. according to kassim and ali (2010), when choosing participants for the needs analysis, mncs should be approached instead of national industries, so we contacted the respondents working in mncs. for the respondents working in national companies, those who reported using english for over 40% of communication were also considered suitable for the study. eleven interviewees accepted our invitation to participate in the interviews and sent back their signed consent forms. table 2 describes the demographic information about the interviewees. for confidentiality, the interviewees’ identifications were replaced with letters (a-k). the interviewees were working in different types of companies, which ensured the richness of information elicited for qualitative analysis. for the interview questions, responses were categorized and analyzed accordingly by using nvivo (version 11) for facilitating the cross-referencing and quantification of the interviewees’ responses in each category or subcategory. english as a lingua franca in china-based workplace communication ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 353 the interviewees were working in different types of c interviewee gender age job rank company ownership a m 31 electrical engineer state-owned b f 32 hr executive mnc (swiss) c f 27 it technician mnc (uk) d f 31 accountant mnc (usa) e f 31 purchasing mnc (usa) f f 29 customer service mnc (uk) g f 32 project manager privately-owned h m 33 hr supervisor mnc (german) i f 31 logistics executive mnc (netherlands) j m 31 marketing executive mnc (usa) k f 22 logistics executive privately-owned table 2. demographic information of interviewees (n=11). 4 the interviews were audio-recorded and conducted in chinese, the participants’ first language. the data collected from the interviews were transcribed and translated into english for further content analysis. qualitative content analysis (mayring, 2000) was used as a method for systematically reporting the meaning of interview data. according to schreier’s (2014) sequence of steps for this method, the preliminary analysis involved reading and annotating the translations together with coding, comments, and observations. successively, the interview data were further analyzed to identify any missing information regarding the issues concerned and also for patterns showing shared topics, ideas, and values concerning needs regarding belf use in the business context of mainland china. 4. findings this section reports the findings regarding perspectives on english use in china-based workplaces and its interplay with chinese language use. it commences by demonstrating the ownership-based findings from questionnaires, which generally provide a linguistic landscape of language use at work. the section then proceeds to explore the nature of using english in the workplace and the interactive relationship between cultural differences and language use by presenting the qualitative findings. 4.1. quantitative findings rq1 examines the use of english at work in mainland china. to answer rq1, two aspects regarding the communicative needs of english use are examined by comparing the proportion of (a) the english used with nes as to with nnes and (b) their language use between english and chinese. the respondents were asked to estimate the percentages (0% 100%) relating to their communication in english (see appendix 1). we understand that it is hardly possible for anyone to be able to accurately determine the percentage. however, due to the exploratory nature of this study, the focus is on observing general trends with descriptions of relationships and estimated values, rather than aiming for completely accurate values. 4.1.1. english as a lingua franca in communicating with nes and nnes in workplaces yao yao & bertha du-babcock ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370354 concerning the proportion of english language use by chinese business professionals in communicating with nes and nnes, the results show that, on average, english used with nnes (64.15%) was approximately twice that of the amount used with nes (35.84%) (see figure 1). in comparing the percentage means of each company type, the result shows that chinese professionals working in non-mncs used belf significantly more with non-native english speakers than with native english speakers, while those working in the multinationals used belf slightly more with non-native speakers. one reason might be that almost half (47.27%) of the mncs from the sample were associated with native english-speaking countries such as the us and the uk. hence, it is not surprising that the respondents under this category reported that the frequency of communicating with nes visa-vis with nnes was not very different (47.65% and 52.33% respectively). in spite of this, it still suffices to conclude that in today’s business world in china, professionals need to communicate in english with nes and, to a larger extent with nnes. 4.1.2. the proportion of communication in english vis-a-vis in chinese concerning the proportion of english vis-a-vis chinese used in the workplace, figure 2 presents the mean scores of using each language code at work in percentage. the result indicates that english was not perceived to be frequently used either in state-owned companies (25.01%) or in privately owned companies (32.91%). in contrast, 54.06% of communication taking place in mncs was perceived by the respondents to be fulfilled in english, which outweighs the use of chinese (46.04%) for workplace communication. to further investigate the significance of the difference english as a lingua franca in china-based workplace communication ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 355 figure 1. the proportion of communication in english with nes vis-a-vis with nnes. between the mean values, one-way anova was conducted. the result shows that there was a significant difference in the percentage of using english vis-a-vis chinese between three types of companies, f (2, 224) = 43.81, p < 0.001, and post hoc tests showed that the difference was significant between the non-mncs (including state-owned and privatelyowned companies) and mncs. the findings of the quantitative analysis suggest that english, mostly used with nnes, has played an important role in workplace communication in mainland china, especially in mncs. however, although figures 1 and 2 provide a general trend of english use in different types of the company, neither of them offers any clue as to the reasons behind the observed trend. the following qualitative findings can unravel the nuances associated with english use at work. 4.2. qualitative findings rq2 investigates the interactive relationship between culture and language in multicultural workplaces. to answer rq2, semi-structured interviews were applied to further examine the nature of using belf at work in three types of companies in two aspects: (1) the interplay between english and chinese in workplace communication; and (2) the role of culture in belf communication at work. 4.2.1. the interplay between english and chinese in workplace communication yao yao & bertha du-babcock ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370356 figure 2. the proportion of chinese vis-a-vis english used at workplaces. to further explore belf use in chinese workplaces, questions 1-3 (see appendix 2) were asked to all interviewees. confirming the finding from quantitative analysis, interview data indicated that chinese was always used as the default language in day-to-day communication in non-mncs and that english was only used when there were non-chinese speakers involved. documents circulating in the company were mostly written in chinese with only a few written in english and chinese when colleagues in overseas branches were involved. one respondent who worked in a privately owned logistics company in shanghai remarked: english is only used when i need to communicate with our overseas business partners; for example, from the us, mexico, india, and hong kong. most of the time, we emailed each other and sometimes used phone calls if something urgent needs to be dealt with. (participant k). as expected, non-mncs tend to employ a greater number of chinesespeaking staff and be less involved in intercultural business communication than their multinational counterparts (evans, 2013). thus, chinese professionals employed by non-mncs reported that they used chinese significantly more than english as their working language, which echoes the findings by zhang and guo (2015). as mandarin chinese is the national language in mainland china, it is commonly used as an unmarked medium of communication to facilitate the interaction between chinese professionals from different geographical parts of the country. by contrast, respondents working in mncs shared different stories. participants c and d reported that they needed to use english all the time at work, no matter who they were communicating with chinese or nonchinese speakers. considering the scope (multinational) of their company businesses and the standard practices of their own professions (information technician and accountancy), we can understand that english played a more prominent role at work. other interviewees who were also working in mncs stated that professionals tended to use english as the medium of communication in all information exchange (usually by emails), especially when in contact with other departments rather than their own. as one participant remarked: we chose to use english for work-related communication when colleagues from a different department were involved, while we usually use chinese to communicate with colleagues from the same department. although it is not english as a lingua franca in china-based workplace communication ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 357 a company policy, we are inclined to write in english for cross-departmental communication. (participant f). participant j provided one practical clue that justifies the use of english here: “it would be better if we could use english because some documents, reports and emails, are to be checked by or forwarded to foreign managers or clients.” her comment accords with recent research in europe (kankaanranta & planken, 2010) and hong kong (evans, 2013); that the main reason for communicating in english is that emails, most of the time, need to be routed to non-chinese speakers. whereas the reason for using english in communicating with non-chinese speakers is self-obvious, the reason for its use in intracultural communication is less apparent. the interviewees reported that english was used even when it was a chinese-to-chinese interaction and there was no corporate policy stipulating this practice. although it was agreed that it could be more effective to use chinese for communication among chinese workers, the participants generally preferred to write in english, even if it risked causing confusion or misunderstanding due to limited language proficiency. the reason for such practices emerged from the participants’ responses. chinese professionals are inclined to use english rather than chinese in intracultural communication to strengthen their professionalism and the importance and formality of the communication. such a way of conducting business seems to have become a unanimously accepted convention or a reflection of the culture of mncs, though it is often not written in company policy, as one interviewee commented: it would be the best if you can use the other party’s mother tongue (chinese) for communication because anyone would feel comfortable when interacting in their native languages. however, for workplace communication, you must use english to show professionalism and formality, so even if you dislike using it, you still need to. however, for personal communication, you don’t have to use english if you don’t like it. (participant b). interestingly, as revealed by the interviewees, we observed an interplay phenomenon of using spoken chinese but written english in mncs (see also chan, 2014; evans, 2010). several participants mentioned that they prefer using chinese when engaging in informal communication such as reminding a colleague or following up with a telephone call to further discuss the content of an english email. participant f shares her practice as follows: yao yao & bertha du-babcock ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370358 we use chinese for dealing with informal or trivial things like reminding a colleague to help follow up a case. we wouldn’t specially write an english email to that colleague just for a reminder. he may regard me as crazy…. instead of directly calling, when something really complicated happened, i would write him an email first in english, which allows the other party enough time to digest the message. later, i would call him for a further discussion in chinese. i found it’s the most efficient way for communicating in such situations. (participant f) . moreover, chinese also played a more important role when professionals found that their chinese colleagues were not proficient enough in speaking english. participant j commented: english would only be used for email communication or at the meetings where non-chinese speakers are involved. as many sales managers in other areas are not competent in communicating in english, we are therefore inclined to use chinese . the findings reported so far have shown an increasing use of english in internal communication in china-based mncs, although not as a deliberate policy but as an ad hoc practice (e.g., business culture/convention). it is therefore no coincidence that all multinational-based interviewees mentioned that english language skills would serve as a barrier to chinese employees’ career development. “in several foreign companies where i have worked, i found that salespeople who were proficient english speakers stood out in the eyes of overseas superiors,” observed participant e, “the current trend of job hunting or promotion, you don’t need to be an expert in your field, but you must be a proficient english speaker.” this comment reflects that high english language skills enable individuals working in mncs to enhance their effectiveness of workplace communication and career advancement. in all, while chinese still plays a dominant role in the communication system of non-mncs, english and chinese play important complementary roles in mncs, with these two codes enjoying virtually equal status as communication media in the workplaces. the extent to which chinese business professionals need to use english at work takes many factors into consideration. the primary factor would be its usage by those who are actually involved in the communicative activity. if interlocutors speak different mother tongues, belf would naturally be used without question. if the communication involves only chinese speakers, other contextual english as a lingua franca in china-based workplace communication ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 359 factors are taken into consideration in terms of language choice. one key factor is the level of significance and formality assigned to the communication. if the communication implies a high degree of importance and formality, english, rather than chinese, is often used as the communicative language code. 4.2.2. the role of culture in belf communication at work to investigate the role culture plays in belf communication at work, questions 4-6 (see appendix 2) were asked. six interviewees commented that cultural differences do not have an obvious impact on their daily work communication. participant a working in a state-owned company commented, “since our communication is only related to work, discussing technical issues, culture has little impact on my work.” from his comments, it appears that cultural differences have little influence on belf communication in terms of professional genre, considering the profession of the interviewee (an electrical engineer). as pointed out by du-babcock and babcock (2007), professionals from each particular discourse community, within or across organizations, industries, and countries, have common or similar education and experience, so they acquire a shared professional knowledge base, although possibly to various degrees. in this case, cultural differences may not extensively affect the language used in these specified disciplines. however, the other five interviewees, especially those working in mncs, commented that cultural diversity did play an important role in their belf communication at work. knowing foreign counterpart’s culture and being able to have small talks about topics of mutual interest facilitates off-work communication and rapport, especially when chatting with superiors: in day-to-day work, whether you can write an english email well or not does not matter much. however, if your (spoken) communication is good, you can socialize well with your english-speaking boss at or after work, and have a better performance in the meeting, which in turn would make a difference to your future career development in the company. (participant d) . participant d’s remarks implied that professionals who can socialize or communicate well with their superiors have a better opportunity to get ahead in the company. this remark aligns with guo and gallo (2017) in that many local chinese felt those who were promoted are individuals with a good yao yao & bertha du-babcock ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370360 command of english and who are more familiar with western styles of communication. indeed, social talk takes on a distinguished role in workplace communication (holmes, 2005) because sound socialization with foreign colleagues and superiors can facilitate rapport building and maintenance. although chinese business professionals acknowledged the importance of having social talk in the workplace, they did not frequently socialize with their foreign counterparts. as participant i remarked: “many colleagues always try to avoid face-to-face encounters with foreign superiors because chinese professionals often feel embarrassed without knowing what to say and how to say it”. as for “not knowing how to say it”, this implies that chinese professionals may not have a good mastery of these language skills to socialize at work. according to du-babcock and babcock (2007), the vocabulary of a relational genre in which social talk is included originates from general language, so it is different from the vocabulary used in other genres such as professional or commercial genres. therefore, despite having a good knowledge of profession-specific vocabulary, chinese professionals may still have little idea of how to socialize appropriately in english. as for “not knowing what to say”, this suggests that the low frequency of social talk at work may be related to cultural differences. hence, chinese professionals often have little idea of what to say in small talk so as to establish and maintain relationships with their foreign colleagues. as participant h reported: it is easy for us (chinese) to have a common topic to chat about for socialization because, nowadays, we know what happened in others’ life from wechat (a platform called “moments” designed for users to share what is happening in life among friends). our german colleagues, however, can’t (either because they don’t use wechat or they don’t understand chinese language). consequently, we chinese have nothing but work to talk about with german colleagues. also, what concerns chinese and germans is totally different. chinese may be concerned about the sky-rocketing cost of buying an apartment, while germans may care about destination to go for summer vacation. (participant h). participant h’s remarks explain the reason why chinese professionals are reluctant to have social talk with their foreign co-workers at work. the use of different social networking tools (e.g., wechat used by chinese and facebook used by their foreign colleagues) for keeping social connections english as a lingua franca in china-based workplace communication ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 361 can be the primary reason. without knowing each other’s lifestyle beyond work, it becomes difficult for chinese professionals to initiate social conversations with expatriate colleagues. moreover, participant h later supplemented this idea by noting that in chinese culture it is often regarded impolite and disrespectful for subordinates to ask superiors many questions about their personal life. this concern may also explain why chinese professionals deliberately avoid socializing with their foreign superiors. therefore, apart from limited language skills, cultural differences were also discovered to inhibit chinese professionals’ being engaged in social interactions, considering the differences between chinese and western culture (hofstede, 2001). this finding highlights the fact that even if business professionals use a shared language for communication, different cultural backgrounds influence the way they communicate and the topics they discuss. cultural differences may also lead to miscommunication in developing mutual understanding between chinese professionals and other belf speakers. as participant a said, “just like we chinese have no problem understanding each other’s jokes and those westerners can understand each other well too. but we can hardly get the “haha” point when a westerner tries to entertain us with jokes, which often makes all of us feel embarrassed at that moment.” when facing these difficulties arising from cultural differences, the interviewees found that even if they had cultural sensitivity for intercultural communication, they often felt at a loss as to how to adjust their behavior or language to meet various situational needs of communication. participant f complained that “i know that i need to adjust, but i don’t know how to, because there are too many different situations, americans, koreans, israeli, russians, just too many.” the interviewees’ comments indicate that how culture influences belf communication at work depends on one key factor: the genre of discourse involved in professionals’ communication. cultural differences influence belf communication in relational genres (e.g. social talk) more than in professional genres (e.g. specialized languages used by specialists, such as lawyers or engineers) (du-babcock & babcock, 2007) , which is manifested in three aspects: the way chinese professionals communicate with foreign colleagues; the topics they discuss; and the mutual understanding of each other’s meanings. whereas cultural differences were not found to be an insurmountable barrier, the present study suggests that professionals should not only be sensitive to cultural factors that might cause a disruption in communication, but also be informed of cultural knowledge that might yao yao & bertha du-babcock ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370362 facilitate interpersonal relationships, especially with overseas superiors who often have the power to decide on an employee’s promotion within the company. 5. implications presenting multiple perspectives on the use of english vis-à-vis chinese in china’s three types of companies, the study has three important pedagogical implications for business english instructors and learners. first, the study suggests a trend in which english has played an unprecedentedly crucial role in workplace communication in mainland china, especially in mncs. while chinese is a dominant language code in non-mncs for communication, both english and chinese are used as the principal working languages and play important complementary roles in mncs, with both languages enjoying virtually equal status as media of communication. english has become a corporate language in mncs, although the extent of its use differs due to various contextual factors, primary among which are a professional’s duties and english language proficiency. this finding is significant given that few studies have investigated this issue across contemporary chinese business contexts. also, it contradicts the results from pang et al’s (2002) study that the value of english at work was generally underestimated and that the use of language was insufficient for doing business. the interplay between english and chinese in workplace communication as informed in this study not only emphasizes the importance of developing good proficiency in both languages for business professionals to fulfill tasks at work, but also highlights the necessary skills of always choosing an appropriate language code to meet the needs of various communication situations. moreover, since the language plays an important role for intercultural communication, it is necessary to understand how the language structures and communicative tasks are interrelated in the given setting so as to efficiently deliver the interlocutors’ purpose and accomplish effective communication (martins, 2017). for example, the style of business letters can vary because this genre usually depends on the relationship between the interlocutors involved. also, business letters can have a wide range content type, such as requesting information, apologizing, or conveying goodwill. therefore, in addition to language knowledge, belf english as a lingua franca in china-based workplace communication ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 363 instructors and trainers need to enhance learners’ awareness of intercultural business context such as the relationship with interlocutors and the purpose of their interactions. second, the study offers detailed information regarding the role of culture for belf communication at work. the influence arising from culture is extremely obvious in one particular communicative activity, namely, social talk at work. the present study reveals that social talk has long been an issue of concern to chinese professionals, and our findings confirm that in addition to linguistic issues, cultural issues also affect or even hinder the communicative competence of chinese professionals in their working contexts. although chinese professionals use elf for communication, the language deficiency and cultural differences are likely to prevent them from initiating or maintaining social conversations with other belf users such as foreign clients, colleagues, and superiors in the workplace. therefore, it is important for both learners and professionals to be equipped with the knowledge and skills in both language and culture to succeed in belf communication. third, despite an academic fascination with needs analysis in language learning and use, the study underlines the need to view culture as one indispensable element influencing belf use in the contemporary workplace. in other words, belf communication is more than just speaking a foreign language. business professionals need to show tolerance toward the differences between cultural backgrounds and language proficiency. yet, this is not enough for those who intend to achieve more than just getting their work done, as it is also necessary for professionals to understand what cultural differences are and what specific adjustments should be made in order to reach a balance between the target culture and home culture. in this case, business professionals should be trained not only to raise their intercultural awareness (baker, 2011), but also to enrich their cultural knowledge so as to adjust their communicative behaviors. for example, business professionals need to understand that the different communicative styles may result in the power distance between the two different cultural societies (hofstede, 2001). because of this, the chinese professionals coming from a high power distance cultural society may feel hesitant to socialize with their foreign superiors. with the possible impact of cultural difference, this poses another challenge to the belf and intercultural communication instructors. to ensure that learners can efficiently manage various intercultural communication situations, it is important that yao yao & bertha du-babcock ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370364 instructors and trainers teach learners about the different types of cultural knowledge. these types of cultural knowledge include the knowledge of national culture, organizational culture, professional culture, and business culture. learners also need to be informed of both the uniqueness and the limitations of different cultural dimension frameworks (e.g., hall, 1959; hofstede, 2001; trompenaars & woolliams, 2004). in this way, they can refer to the appropriate framework when applying the theories to practicing intercultural communication, either in class or at work. in doing so, learners and professionals can enhance their intercultural understanding and be well trained and prepared for working in an intercultural business setting. moreover, considering that business professionals often encounter a situation where meanings cannot be understood due to cultural differences, it is necessary for them to be equipped with appropriate communicative strategies to deal with such situations so that smooth communication can be attained. for example, it is necessary for business professionals to be skillful at applying verbal or non-verbal solutions to construct mutual understanding. in brief, to succeed in intercultural communication, business professionals need to keep in mind three factors: intercultural awareness, cultural knowledge, and communication strategies. 6. conclusion the present study provides a multifaceted investigation into the communicative needs of english used in three types of enterprises in mainland china. drawing on both quantitative and qualitative research methods, the analyses focused on the perceived belf communication with native and non-native speakers of english, the perception of their language use in english and chinese, and the role of culture in belf communication. admittedly, the results of this study should be interpreted with some caution due to its limitations. the present study has the typical limitations of selfreport data such as social desirability bias and response bias. nevertheless, the general criticisms of self-reported methods have been exaggerated (crampton & wagner, 1994; lindell & whitney, 2001; spector, 2006), and empirical evidence has suggested that people are capable of providing information by reflecting on their own communication behavior (riggio & riggio, 2001). thus, the findings of this study can effectively contribute to knowledge expansion in belf research. english as a lingua franca in china-based workplace communication ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 365 findings suggest that belf has played an increasingly important role in the workplace communication in mainland china. the qualitative analyses reveal that while chinese remains the dominant communication mode in chinaowned enterprises, english and chinese are the principal working languages that have played important complementary roles, particularly in multinational corporations. moreover, we also recognize the importance of culture in intercultural business contexts, where cultural diversity can have an impact on workplace communication. cultural differences may not be an insurmountable barrier, but lack of the cultural sensitivity and knowledge can cause a disruption in workplace communication or can lower the chance of promotion in a company for indigenous employees. considering the importance of cultural impact, future research should further investigate other key aspects to which instructors of belf/intercultural communication should pay special attention, so as to enhance chinese 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(2014). “qualitative content analysis” in u. flick (ed.), the sage handbook of qualitative data analysis, 170-183. london: sage. spector, p.e. (2006). method variance in organizational research. organizational research methods 9(1959): 221-232. trompenaars, f. & p. woolliams (2004). business across cultures. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. wu, y. (2012). “an empirical study on needs analysis of college business english course”. international education studies 5(2): 216-221. wu, y. (2013). “business english as a lingua franca (belf)”. international education studies 6(10): 130-138. xie, q. (2016). “investigating non-english major undergraduates’ needs and perceptions of business english teaching in a chinese university”. the asian journal of applied linguistics 3(2): 185-198. yuan, w. (2009). “effectiveness of communication between american and chinese employees in multinational organizations in china”. intercultural communication studies xviii (1): 188-204. zhang, z. & y. guo (2015). “linguistic choices in the chinese workplace” in l.tsung & w.wang (eds.), contemporary chinese discourse and social practice in china, 163-184. amsterdam: john benjamins. notes 1 mandarin chinese is the official language of china and there are other dialectical groups as well such as min, wu, and yue. under each group, there are many individual dialects. for example, cantonese is the standard form of yue chinese. appendix 1. questions for online questionnaire 1. the proportion of communication with native speakers versus non-native speakers of english please estimate what percentage (0% 100%) of your communication in english takes place with a. native speakers of english? b. non-native speakers of english? note: those whose mother tongue is english are the native speakers of english. e.g. british, americans, canadians, australians, and new zealanders. 2. the proportion of communication in language (english vis-a-vis chinese) please estimate what percentage (0% 100%) of the communication at work is conducted in a. chinese? b. english? appendix 2. interview questions questions below are concerning the communicative needs of using belf at work in terms of two aspects, language and culture. language-related questions 1. with whom do you communicate in english at work? why? 2. what kind of tasks do you have to perform in english at work? 3. how important is it for you to use english in your job? why? culture-related questions 4. how do you perceive cultural differences in belf communication? why? 5. how will the cultural differences influence communication at work? why? 6. based on your personal professional experience, what types of activities and tasks can be impacted or affected by cultural issues? please explain and provide examples from your own personal experience english as a lingua franca in china-based workplace communication ibérica 39 (2020): 345-370 369 iberica 13 ibérica 27 (2014): 15-34 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the paper takes into consideration the evolution of the concept of popularization and of its main techniques of realization in the last few decades. at first, the use of definitions in popularization discourse is investigated and compared to the practices followed in argumentative and pedagogical texts. special attention is then devoted to the strategies of reformulation and of recontextualization that are often adopted in this process, and exemplifications are provided to highlight the main functions fulfilled by the use of these rhetorical tools. the social importance of popularization is subsequently highlighted together with a discussion of the possible manipulative risks that may be encountered, particularly for argumentative or promotional purposes. the analysis carried out shows the great complexity of the popularization system, which implies therefore the adoption of an integrated approach in order to clearly identify and carefully describe the various aspects involved in this process. keywords: popularization, reformulation, recontextualization. resumen r e f or mu l ac i ón y re c o nt e xtu al i z ac ió n e n e l d is c urs o de di v ul g ac i ón el presente artículo se centra en la evolución del concepto de divulgación y de las principales técnicas por las que se ha llevado a cabo en las últimas décadas. en primer lugar se investiga el uso de definiciones en el discurso de divulgación y se compara con las prácticas empleadas en los textos argumentativos y pedagógicos. seguidamente se presta especial atención a las estrategias de reformulación y recontextualización que más se adoptan en este proceso, al tiempo que se aportan ejemplos que pretenden resaltar las principales funciones que se cumplen con la utilización de estas herramientas retóricas. después se subraya la importancia reformulation and recontextualization in popularization discourse maurizio gotti università di bergamo (italy) m.gotti@unibg.it 15 ibérica 27 (2014): 15-34 maurizio gotti social de la divulgación y se argumenta en torno a los posibles riesgos de manipulación existentes, especialmente aquellos con fines argumentativos o promocionales. el análisis llevado a cabo demuestra que el sistema de divulgación goza de una gran complejidad, lo que trae consigo la adopción de un enfoque integrado que permite identificar con claridad y describir de forma pormenorizada los distintos aspectos implicados en este proceso. palabras clave: divulgación, reformulación, recontextualización. 1. popularization discourse the construct of popularization has attracted several studies, although their discussions have not always led to unanimous conclusions. there is a basic consensus, however, as to the role of this process, which is usually identified with the conveyance of specialist knowledge for information purposes. the main factor that distinguishes a popu la rization from a fully specialized text is the lack of discussion, in the former, of new scientific knowledge added to the discipline’s concep tual base. the mere lack of innovative theoretical arguments is not suf fi cient evidence, however, of a popularization process. some genres provide no advancement of disciplinary knowledge and yet con stitute instances of specialized communication: among these are the review article, the abstract and other genres whose function is main ly informative or comparative of different methodological ap proaches or research projects. the main criterion for distinguishing be tween fully specialized texts and popularizations is the different audience targeted. popularization in fact addresses not an expert group within the discipline but an audience of non-specialists. a satisfactory profile of textual differences is possible if we con sider not only the audience’s competence but also the main pur pose of such texts. publications written primarily for non-specialists ope rate at no fewer than two different levels: pedagogic texts and popularizations. the former aim to provide students with the “secon dary culture” (widdowson, 1979: 51) expected among scholars in the disci pline; specialized discourse is presented therefore in “disci pli nary” terms, to equip the reader with conceptual and terminological re sources suited to the subject content; terminological features are ad dressed systematically, removing any ambiguity of the meaning of new expressions appearing in the discourse as a form of training for new specialists. typical examples of such texts are undergraduate text books and instruction manuals. 16 popularizations target instead a wide reading public and deal with specialized topics in a language close to general discourse and to the layman’s everyday experience. the purpose here is chiefly informative and seeks to extend the reader’s knowledge rather than develop a secondary conceptual system. typical forms of this type of discourse are popular scientific magazines, books published for a wide readership, videocassettes and specialized articles in daily newspapers. in popularizations, the illu stra tion of processes and phenomena is less technical – which usually means less specialized terminology. disciplinary terms are not em ployed systematically but given occasionally. the different purposes of various text genres also influence the expository technique employed: while pedagogic material shows a constant tendency to assi mi late not only the content but also the language and style of the “secondary culture”, popularizations remain as close as possible to the primary culture and its language, introducing select terms in a way that replicates the semantic content of general language. several studies have been devoted to the analysis of the discourse of popularization (for an overview see shinn & whitley, 1985; gregory & miller, 1998; myers, 2003). interest in popular science texts has been shown by scholars working in different disciplinary communities: for example, rhetoricians seeking to relate scientific discourse to other discourses (fahnestock, 1986), scientists interested in the relation between science and society (whitley, 1985), science communication scholars interested in the practices of journalists and media professionals (lewenstein, 1995). a different methodological approach has been adopted in the analysis of case studies in a historical perspective; for example, bazerman’s (1999) study of edison has shown how this important innovator employed a range of genres and played a variety of roles to popularize his inventions. other interesting studies in a historical perspective are cooter and pumfrey (1994) and secord (2000), which have investigated the great development of the phenomenon of popularization in the victorian period. another line of research has focused on the linguistic features of popularising texts, often examined in comparison with research articles in scientific journals. differences have been pointed out at various levels: textual form, sentence subjects, grammatical voice, verb choices, modality and hedging, and rhetorical structure (myers, 1990, 1991 & 1994; valle, 1996; calsamiglia, 2003). some of the main features investigated are metaphors (gülich, 2003), narratives (seguin, 2001), imagery (miller, 1998) and specific expressive functions (for example, definition, denomination, description, reformulation and recontextualization ibérica 27 (2014): 15-34 17 exemplification, generalization, paraphrase or reformulation) considered typical of popularization discourse. as regards the definitional function, the research carried out by the present author has shown that terminological definition is realized differently – both in quantitative and qualitative terms – in the various kinds of texts taken into consideration. terminological definition is not so pervasive in specialized discourse, where the meaning of certain expressions is taken for granted within the disciplinary community. indeed in specialized discourse, the author only employs definition when a new term is coined, or new meanings are attached to existing words within the discipline or borrowings from other disciplines or the general language. this produces highly subjective utterances, which in english take on the following appearance: we shall call the unit in which the quantity of employment is measured the labour-unit; and the money-wage of a labour-unit we shall call the wage-unit. (keynes, 1936/1973: 41, quoted in gotti, 2011: 183) my definition is, therefore, as follows: (...) (keynes, 1936/1973: 15, quoted in gotti, 2011: 183) in a pedagogic setting, definitions are quite frequent and typically display the following forms: p is named x. (where x is the specialized term and p its periphrasis) x is p. definitions in popularizations involve a far more limited use of specialized lexis. moreover, the first-person subject never appears in definitions from popularizations, whose purpose is informative rather than innovative or interpretative. when definitions are provided, the technique most commonly adopted is juxtaposition – a process whereby the specialized term is followed by its periphrasis, with the two separated by a comma, dash, parenthesis or the disjunctive conjunction “or”: more than 99 per cent of atmospheric water vapor is in the troposphere, the turbulent, weather-producing zone below about 40,000 feet. (discovery: 40, quoted in gotti, 2011: 184) interestingly, the definition may contain metalinguistic items that en code an authorial comment of the periphrasis. such comments show that the maurizio gotti ibérica 27 (2014): 15-3418 popularizer is aware of the semantic approximation inherent in the suggested periphrasis, which is perceived as an imperfect ren dering of the original term. this is signalled by such expressions as “a little”, “like”, “a sort of ”: the brain is a sort of computer. these expressions occur almost exclusively in popularizations, since the degree of approximation is incompatible with the nature of fully specialized texts. sometimes approximation is signalled by the use of inverted commas, often employed to con note metaphoric uses of language. the following utterance illustrates this type of metalinguistic process: in addition, the reactor core would be surrounded by a blanket of depleted uranium which, by absorbing neutrons, could be used to “breed” new pluto nium, for reuse in the core. (scientific american: 28, quoted in gotti, 2011: 188) 2. popularization as reformulation popularization has often been described as a reformulation process; that is, a kind of redrafting that does not alter the disci plinary content – object of the transaction – as much as its language, which needs to be remodelled to suit a new target audience. in the process, information is transferred linguistically in a way similar to periphrasis or to intralinguistic translation. this phenomenon is also favoured by the widespread use of metaphor and simile in popularising processes. both techniques establish a direct link with the public’s general knowledge, which makes the content easier to identify. a trial by jury represents a typical example of the knowledge asymmetries that may exist among the various participants, some of whom are legal experts and some non-experts. the former category comprises professionals such as lawyers and judges, while jurors and witnesses usually have a nonlegal background. as jurors and witnesses play a relevant role in a trial, it is of the utmost importance that they should be able to understand all the communication going on in court, including the legal terms used and their implied concepts. as anesa’s (2012) analysis has shown, there are various moments in which both the judge and the lawyers devote time and efforts to explain the legal jargon the jurors come across. one of such moments is at the beginning of the trial, when the jury is instructed about the various procedures used in court. the great importance reformulation and recontextualization ibérica 27 (2014): 15-34 19 of this phase has often been underlined, as misunderstanding of legal principles may have a detrimental effect on the outcome of the trial. this explains the vast literature related to the formulation of jury instructions, aiming in particular at the improvement of their comprehensibility (dumas, 2000, ellsworth & reifman, 2000, heffer, 2008, tiersma, 2010). as the understanding of these instructions is crucial, the judge often offers to supply further information in case of doubt or incomprehension: the court: the next phase of the trial is another orientation. this orientation, however, is a little more specific, because it now deals with some of the dos and don’ts of this new job that you have. like everything else in this state, this has been reduced to a script for me to read. when you realize that this script was prepared by lawyers and judges, it will soon become very apparent to you that this is not only not the most entertaining material you’ve ever heard, but, in addition to that, it might sound confusing and a little convoluted. don’t worry about it. we’re going to be talking about very basic concepts, and i will try to interject where all the legalese is some commonsense approach to this. (anesa, 2012: 131) as can be seen, in offering to popularize the legal jargon, the judge adopts a kind of language which is very different from the very formal style typical of his role. the language he uses is simple and the tone is conversational and humorous, comprising sarcastic remarks (“like everything else in this state, this has been reduced to a script for me to read”) and euphemistic comments (“this is not (…) the most entertaining material you’ve ever heard”). the judge is aware of performing a popularising task and likens his present function to that of a law lecturer: the court: (…) and so i’ve never personally taught any law school class, but i’m going to give you a judge’s version of legalese 101. whenever … we are ruled, the lawyers and i are ruled by what we call objections. basically the ground rules for how a trial is conducted. and they are rules of evidence. and from time to time a question might be asked and the one lawyer will think that the answer to that question might be objectionable for some reason. so that lawyer is going to say objection and will give me a reason why i should either sustain or overrule the objection. now, the reason i’m basically here is sort of the referee of this match that’s going on. so my job is to make the call. if i overrule the objection, what that means is you’re going to hear the question and you will hear the answer. (anesa, 2012: 137) maurizio gotti ibérica 27 (2014): 15-3420 as can be seen in the quotation above, to make his words more understandable the judge uses figurative language, comparing his role to that of a referee and using sports expressions (“i’m basically here (…) sort of the referee of this match that’s going on. so my job is to make the call”). furthermore, the judge provides definitions in simple language, usually recurring to everyday paraphrases: the court: so overruled means that you get to hear the question and the answer. sustained means you’ll hear the question but no answer. don’t dwell on it, worry about it, or hold it against one or the other lawyers. they’re doing their jobs. in other words, that’s just part of the process by which we control the trial. (anesa, 2012: 138) also during the trial, the judge inserts explanations of procedures or legal terms whenever he deems it necessary to facilitate the jurors’ work. again in doing this he adopts a colloquial tone and a figurative language rich in sports metaphors: the court: ladies and gentlemen, since this is the first of probably many of these sidebar conferences, i think we ought to talk about that. the purpose of a sidebar conference is very simple. i have a choice when the lawyers want to talk to me before something that doesn’t directly deal with you. and that is, i can have all of you leave the courtroom or i can make ophelia here come over here and sit on a step, and we have a little football huddle and we discuss it. now, don’t strain an ear trying to hear what it is we’re talking about, because if it’s meant for you to hear you’re going to hear it, and if you don’t hear it, you weren’t going to hear it anyway. (anesa, 2012: 139) this popularising task is often performed by lawyers too, who are anxious to make sure that the legal terms employed are understood correctly. in fulfilling this function, they too recur to figurative language and analogies with personal experiences. for example, to explain the difference between “simple negligence” and “gross negligence” a lawyer might provide the following exemplification based on an everyday situation: “simple negligence occurs when you are eating a plate of beans and you spill a bean on your tie. when you spill a whole knifeful of beans on your tie, that’s gross negligence” (quoted in aron, fast & klein, 1996: 12). analogies and exemplifications are often used by lawyers to explain abstract legal principles and to make elusive legal concepts more easily understandable. to increase its effectiveness, figurative language is often used in a personalized way, commonly involving reformulation and recontextualization ibérica 27 (2014): 15-34 21 the jurors themselves, as can be seen in the following explanation of the notions of “actual possession” and “constructive possession”: mr. dusek: and you heard there was actual possession and constructive possession. you are in possession of the badge that’s on you now. you have active control of that. these water bottles in front of you, you have constructive possession of them. you have control over them, but you do not have active control of them. it’s not in your possession right now. (anesa, 2012: 177) particularly in the concluding phase of the trial, when the attorneys in their closing arguments are trying to convince the jury of their own theses, the explanation of terms is sometimes made more vivid and personal by reference to a particular tragic moment in one’s life. this can be seen in the following quotation, where the defendant’s lawyer is trying to make sure that the concepts of “proof beyond reasonable doubt” and “abiding conviction” are perfectly clear to the jurors: mr. feldman: and you have to take those words and feel whether you’re so convinced that the conviction will never, never go away. it’s so strong that it’s the kind of belief you have that if you’ve got a loved one on a respirator, a terrible decision to have to make, somebody dying, it’s on you to make the decision to pull the plug. only with an abiding conviction would you do so. (anesa, 2012: 190-191) the use of striking figures of speech such as the ones seen here also has a very important argumentative function and this explains why they are so frequently and skilfully employed by lawyers in their speeches not only to clarify terms and concepts but also to persuade the jury. 3. popularization as recontextualization popularization often involves not only a reformulation of specialized discourse, but also a “recontextualization” (calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004: 370) of scientific knowledge originally produced in specific contexts to which the lay public has limited access. this recontextualization implies a process of adaptation of popularization discourse to the appropriateness conditions of the new communicative events and to the constraints of the media employed, which have become quite varied in their nature and are often used in an maurizio gotti ibérica 27 (2014): 15-3422 integrated way. a typical example can be found in health information, which has become pervasive in the media occurring in news stories, documentaries, medical and science programs, health promotion campaigns. all these media are used to cover advances in medical treatments and new drugs, alert their audiences to health risks, promote the value of taking care of the self and act as advocates for change on socio-political issues like medical funding and health service delivery (gwyn, 2002; seale, 2002 & 2004). however, this new communicative approach generally involves a transformation of the original discourse, as the knowledge to be disseminated is recreated in a different communicative situation for the lay audience. in the media, the journalist or reporter assumes a very active role as manager of the reformulation of the text produced by specialists and now destined for a new public. in this approach, the journalist carries out a creative reelaboration which implies more than mere terminological adjustments and involves all linguistic levels from the structure of the new text to its communicative function, from a change in register to a consideration of the public’s prior knowledge of the subject matter. moreover, the final text is dependent on the extremely hierarchical internal organization of the media, as each news item is usually subjected to revision at different levels. according to this new approach, popularization is thus not just seen as a category of texts, but as a recontextualization process that implies relevant changes in the roles taken on by the actors and institutions involved, and their degree of authoritativeness. the recontextualization process starts from a first structuring step by means of which the encoder first addresses his/her audience and tries to arouse their interest by creating a “scenario” (moirand, 2003: 177) – that is, sketching out a possible situation which might engage with the interlocutors’ everyday activities. also in presenting the information, in order to facilitate the interlocutors’ comprehension the journalist tries to align with their everyday experience through the mention of facts and concepts that are typical of daily life. to make his/her presentation more convincing, the popularizer commonly chooses those illustration procedures – basically, metaphors and concretizations – which help him/her explain even complex facts. the comparison with everyday reality and the recourse to concretization is meant to facilitate comprehension of abstract information and distant situations. this analytic approach enables the researcher to focus not only on the final text but also on the intermediate steps of the communication process, which reformulation and recontextualization ibérica 27 (2014): 15-34 23 constitute important stages in which the message is reformulated according to the new addressees. the reformulation process may have relevant consequences as in some cases it can, in turn, have an impact on the original texts produced by scientists (see lewenstein, 1995). the communication of science is thus seen as a cyclic process in which discourses on science interact dynamically, the scientific community providing knowledge for dissemination among the general public, and popularization, in turn, critically influencing the production of scientific knowledge. some new forms of popularization have also blurred the clear-cut distinction between authors and audience of popularizing texts. this is the case of wikipedia, which – by allowing real-time publication of individual content without any previous editorial revision – facilitates a continual cooperation between writers and readers in the elaboration of the various entries (ray & graeff, 2008). this feature confers a high degree of instability on these texts, which become fluid and increasingly dynamic. the multiple authorship of the popularizing items has also weakened their generic integrity, as the various entries have a highly heterogeneous style, mixing the traditional form of the encyclopedic entry with other generic forms such as those of travel guides, scientific review articles, manuals, advertisements, obituaries or magazine articles. moreover, thanks to the technological affordances offered by the new medium the entries have become more complex, combining the texts with other resources, such as links to further wikipedia articles, inclusion of pronunciation of the words and other hypertextual options. the provision of health information is widely distributed across the media by means of television, radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet, and provides a constant and readily accessible supply of health care information and advice. to fulfil their informative and educational function, the media try to reach all kinds of people, of all ages, and therefore also make use of those channels which are meant to reach specific audiences, such as publications targeted at men, women or teenagers. although their common goal is to inform about advances in medical treatments and new drugs, warn about health risks, and promote the value of taking care of the self, they do so in different ways and using the style and language which is appropriate to the audience they are addressing. for example, the analysis carried out by mckay (2006) shows that to talk about health risks, teen magazines like dolly and girlfriend make use of a type maurizio gotti ibérica 27 (2014): 15-3424 of “teenspeak” – that is, a language which imitates the jargon of teenagers and which tries to convey a conversation-like quality as in advice from peers. some of the features of this teenspeak identified by mckay (2006: 316-317) are the following: • imitations of teen slang like “bestie” for “best friend”, “fave” for “favourite”, “spesh” for “special”. • prolongation of vowels, for example “dolly doctor confidential sooo totally sealed” or “tooooooo gross”. • overuse of “cos” for “because”. • first person plural (“we all love chocolate”). • representations of typescript which attempt to mimic conversation and “scream” drama, concern, innuendo: exclamation marks, scare quotes, stress, question marks, dollar signs, bullet points and increasingly larger font size to indicate increasing importance. • questions like “how far are other girls going?”; “the ugly disease, could you have it?”; “will your year be magic or tragic?”; “what’s wrong with my love handles?”; which are meant not only to reinforce the narrow concerns but also the alleged insecurities of this group. • directives like “fix your freaked out skin” or “read this now”. to convey health information, rather than an argumentative or informative approach, the articles often recur to personal narratives by those who have experienced a health threat or an illness and want to share their experiences with an audience already intensely interested in personal, emotional details. in order to enable readers to benefit from the experiences of others, these individuals’ stories are recontextualized as “reality” situations: for example, “how i beat anorexia”; “i had a secret abortion at 16”; “how mental illness changed my life”. similar experiences are often clustered together in multiple mini-narratives, accompanied by photographs, usually not of the persons concerned but of the “generic” type, with images of young women or a group. these texts are often accompanied by sidebars or text boxes containing additional information. indeed, [w]hile adult personal narratives (related to, say, cancer survival, overcoming medical odds, or dealing with mental illness), may convincingly incorporate reformulation and recontextualization ibérica 27 (2014): 15-34 25 wider and wiser perspectives and evaluations of the meanings of the experience, teen narratives are less able to do this credibly, and need to extend other discursive strategies. (mckay, 2006: 318) so, for example, girlfriend’s “the big issue” (march, 2004) includes regular information on obesity and diet in a mix of personal experience, advice from dieticians, a separate personal narrative in the sidebar, a block of information from weight management experts, and another of celebrity attitudes to weight and body shape; a url for facts and advice is included. a later article in dolly, “obesity crisis: how not to be a victim” (june, 2004) uses advice from a health professional interspersed with short paragraphs of personal experience accompanied by editorial evaluations like: these days, naomi’s and renee’s low activity levels are seen as “normal”, but our weight problems are made worse because we’re not eating any less to compensate for being “couch potatoes”. (mckay, 2006: 319) in “i had a secret abortion at 16” (girlfriend, march, 2004) the accompanying text box gives statistics on teen pregnancy, vague contraceptive advice, warnings about sexually transmitted infections, a directive to talk to an adult “you trust”, and a website for more information. dolly’s feature on abortion (december, 2003) also uses personal stories, weblinks and includes text boxes on facts including cost, the legal situation and contraception, and offering alternatives to abortion from a christian organization. as mckay remarks, the multi-faceted approach to teen health risk messages allows separate voices to come through where peers can tell it like it is, celebrities can be quoted, and where expert voices position young women together into seeking help, finding solutions, or dealing with friends who are taking risks. (mckay, 2006: 319) 4. social importance of popularization as a result of the recontextualization process, the mass media are no longer seen as passive mediators of scientific knowledge, but as active participants in the production of novel information and new opinions about science and scientists, often including views that do not derive from scientific sources. nowadays information technology, biology and biotechnology have made maurizio gotti ibérica 27 (2014): 15-3426 spectacular advances and have become the stars of the sciences. the importance of their findings and their great relevance to our everyday life well justify the growing interest evinced by the population, concerned as they are about the quality of life as a first priority. viewed from this new perspective, popularization often provides explanations in terms of the social meaning of the events in question, which is indicative of an increased social awareness of risks. as scientific or technological innovations also have political implications, their presentation in popular forms may pose a challenge to traditional views and established behaviour. rather than “explaining” science, this new type of popularization sets out to explain the social meaning of such events, with the consequent creation of interdiscursive texts mixing informative and explanatory discourse with other scientifically-unrelated matters of more general public concern. moreover, the wider the debate, the bigger the number of different speech communities that have to be targeted by the media: the political, scientific, economic, industrial, professional and business worlds, that is, communities which are, themselves, not only mediators of the original scientific discourse but also generators of their own opinions. the monologal intertext (that is, the voice of science or of a particular given scientific community) makes way, then, for a plurilogal intertext (moirand, 2003), made up of the opinions of the different communities called upon by the mediator. the latter, in turn, may be torn between several different enunciative poles, many of which – although not possessing the knowledge of the experts in the field – may be very powerful in influencing the political and economic worlds. in this process of interdiscursive expression, the recontextualization of scientific knowledge may run the risk of deviation and utilization for other ends. their dependence on other institutions and organizations for most of their information and advertising often makes media managers and journalists deeply consider what and especially how to publish (or not to publish) about science, scientists and scientific knowledge, as part of a complex process of news production (bell & garrett, 1998). therefore, the main focus of the analysis of popularization discourse is no longer on how scientists make their style closer to the limited knowledge of a lay audience, but on how journalists work to comply with various concomitant constraints such as public interest and concern, market demands, the newspaper’s ideological slant, and competition from other types of media. an example of how information can be presented in a biased way is the following introductory paragraph explaining the concept of genetic engineering: reformulation and recontextualization ibérica 27 (2014): 15-34 27 genetic engineering enables scientists to create plants, animals and microorganisms by manipulating genes in a way that does not occur naturally. these genetically modified organisms (gmos) can spread through nature and interbreed with natural organisms, thereby contaminating non “ge” environments and future generations in an unforeseeable and uncontrollable way. (url: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/agriculture/problem/genetic-engineering/) this paragraph is not meant to be a neutral or objective presentation, as the use of evaluative words such as by “manipulating”, “contaminating”, “unforeseeable”, “uncontrollable” explicitly assigns negative connotation to the scientific process described. it is not at all surprising to find that the rest of the text goes on arguing against the use of genetic engineering as part of greenpeace’s campaign against gmos. in recent times there has been growing awareness of topics where misunderstanding or lack of proper communication between experts and non-experts can lead to failures in the very activity being undertaken. an important case in point is explanation about diseases and treatments as presented in face-to-face interaction between doctors and patients or reported in medical journals or information leaflets included in medical products. indeed, in the medical field there has been a great change in the last few decades in the amount of information made available to people other than the traditional learned intermediaries – the doctors, pharmacists and other medical workers. many countries have adopted policies which mandate that adequate information be made available about treatments, medication and surgical procedures so that people can participate in an informed way in the management of their own health. the sources of data, however, are not always as transparent and objective as they need to be. there are at least three kinds of “consumer information” documents that are available when a member of the public consults a medical practitioner and is prescribed a course of treatment. when the consumer buys the prescribed medication, it will normally be accompanied by documentation giving details of how the medication is used, what it does, what side-effects it might have, what contraindications there are, the name of the pharmaceutical company that produces the medication, and so on. second, there is documentation that the doctor may have available in his/her office, which includes, for example, general printed material about diet, exercise, health management or information about specific conditions. third, there is documentation available in the doctor’s waiting-room, which people may maurizio gotti ibérica 27 (2014): 15-3428 choose to pick up, take away and read. these leaflets are usually glossy and contain catchy phrases to better attract the readers. these features are meant to enhance the main function of these texts, which, far from exclusively offering information and advice, are mainly advertisements for specific products. sometimes this is relatively obvious, as the name of the product advertised is prominently displayed in the text. of course, there is also a mention of its claimed medical benefits, and this, accompanied by the placement of the leaflets in the racks of the doctor’s waiting-room, carries the implication that the medical professionals endorse these claims. in other cases, instead, the advertising function of the leaflet is not so obvious. for example, some leaflets meant to promote the use of specific drugs point very strongly to the conclusion that only medication can be effective. only in the fine print can people realise that the leaflet is produced by a well-known pharmaceutical company that produces this kind of medication. in other cases the implications of a message derive from the ambiguity of the text. an example could be the leaflets on osteoporosis analysed by hall (2006). these are written in a style which is typical of a public-good popularising text, providing relevant information as a reply to a series of questions such as “why do we need calcium?”, “could i be at risk of developing osteoporosis?”, “can osteoporosis be prevented?”. this is the typical approach adopted in well-written documents aiming to inform, raise awareness and cause the reader to take action. the authoritativeness and seriousness of the leaflets is enhanced by the use of small-font footnotes referring to the medical literature. however, if examined more closely, the leaflets are shown to possess a promotional function, as they are meant to persuade readers to buy products of the company that has issued the brochures. this process is carried out through a range of steps. at first the leaflets try to persuade readers that they need more calcium than they are currently getting: a lot of people think having a few cups of tea or coffee with milk per day plus a yoghourt is enough, but it isn’t. then they criticise people who try to integrate their calcium intake as a normal part of their everyday diet by insinuating that they are actually making partial or wrong choices according to their own personal likes and dislikes: reformulation and recontextualization ibérica 27 (2014): 15-34 29 many people limit their intake of these calcium rich foods due to personal dislikes, avoidance of fats, cholesterol, or lactose, or simply dieting for weight control. the solution to this unsatisfactory state of affairs is found in the suggestion of a specific product to be bought: taking a calcium supplement such as caltrate is a simple, economical way to ensure you get adequate calcium every day. as they may be accused of fraudulent behaviour, the authors of these leaflets state their claims in a prudent way, with frequent use of hedging and tentative language. typical expressions are: “you may be at risk”, “it can proceed without symptoms”, “a high level can cause problems”, “these factors may increase your risk”, “usually there are no serious complications, but…” (examples from hall, 2006: 278). in this way the leaflets arouse anxiety in the readers, which is further increased by a series of questions such as “have you broken a bone after a minor bump or fall?” and “do you regularly drink heavily?” an affirmative answer to any of these will lead you to believe that “you may be at risk of getting osteoporosis”. the recourse to calcium supplements is then suggested as a final solution to the problems caused by osteoporosis. at the end of his analysis of these pseudoinformative materials, hall (2006: 282) comes to the following conclusion: it seems to me that this is exactly what the advertising material dressed up as an information leaflet does. it creates the illusion (…) that readers can selfdiagnose, weigh risks and make informed choices through their access to authoritative information, but its real purpose is to persuade readers that whatever their health problem, whether they have a specific condition or are members of an at-risk population, the solution in the form of a purchasable product is at hand. 5. concluding remarks the analysis carried out in this paper has shown the great complexity of the popularization system, which implies therefore the adoption of an integrated approach in order to clearly identify and carefully describe the various aspects involved in this process. this integrated approach should cover at least the following areas: maurizio gotti ibérica 27 (2014): 15-3430 a. cognitive dimension the communication of knowledge primarily concerns important changes in the cognitive dimension, deriving from the interaction between specialized knowledge and its popularization. the study of the cognitive dimension should then deal with the analysis of textual phenomena such as thematization, denomination and reformulation, which are involved in the transformation of specialized knowledge into media discourse. this kind of analysis also implies a detailed account of the cognitive structures of different types of knowledge as well as of the strategies of knowledge management of the participants (van dijk, 2003), which presupposes a theoretical component usually ignored in studies of popularization. b. discourse analysis the study of popularization implies an investigation of its forms in terms of textuality, thus aiming to highlight its various components at different levels: intratextually, within a single article, computer hypertext or specific radio/television programme; intertextually, in different articles, hypertexts or radio/television programmes as well as in their source events and texts; interdiscursively, with the analysis of phenomena such as generic bending, generic borrowing, generic hybridization (bhatia, 2004: 128). this complex view of textual analysis will greatly benefit from the insights coming from the exploration of the context and text/context relations strictly connected with the actualization of popularising discourse (duranti & goodwin, 1992). c. critical discourse analysis in view of the important social role played by the phenomenon of popularization, the analysis of its texts should not neglect the perspectives of critical discourse analysis (fairclough, 1992), which can be very helpful in identifying the purposes and functions of textual practices in their move across different settings and discourse communities. the insights deriving from this approach may highlight interesting underlying dynamic patterns and changing trends determined by specific experiences and interests, as well as conflicts and power relations present in more general social environments. reformulation and recontextualization ibérica 27 (2014): 15-34 31 d. media studies as popularization has become an important branch of journalism, the investigation of its relationship with other established genres such as the general article and the report will outline its belonging to a complex system in which popularization constitutes a part of a continuum (myers, 2003) and is strictly connected which the other parts with which it interacts interdiscursively, thus giving rise to more complex and hybrid forms (as in the case, for example, of blogs; see blanchard, 2011; berkenkotter, 2012). moreover, the informative role of a massive spread of knowledge needs to be interpreted in comparison with other functions of the media, particularly with their entertaining aim and their need to reach the widest audience for commercial purposes. e. a semiotic approach as popularization is now practised in a multiplicity of forms (films, hypertext programs, interactive packets, etc.) a multimodal approach is needed to properly interpret the use and function of their various constitutive elements, not only text but also visuals, sounds and other semiotic systems (kress & van leeuwen, 1996 & 2001; rose, 2001; van leeuwen & jewitt, 2001). this wider analysis will enable the researcher to interpret not only the more traditional genres, but also to better understand the products of the latest technologies and their use of visual elements, complex layouts, objects, embodied movement and other semiotic codes (lemke, 1998; miller, 1998). f. an interdisciplinary approach the wide debate on the issues discussed in this paper and the results of recent research projects carried out in this field can thus lead us to the conclusion that in order to reach a full understanding of the complex phenomenon of popularization, the analytical approach should favour the adoption of close interdisciplinary contact and integration, and rely on the methods and findings of the research traditions of different fields. 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(1979). explorations in applied linguistics. oxford: oxford university press. iberica 13 ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in recent years there have been many studies about the discourse of lectures (pérez-llantada & ferguson, 2006; csomay, 2007; deroey & taverniers, 2011). lecturing is the most common speech event in most university classrooms in the world. bamford (2005) defines lectures’ styles as conversational, stressing the interactive nature of the lecture, the main goal of which is to establish contact with the students, and the co-option of the students into a discourse community. however, most of the studies published up to this moment have focused exclusively on the language used by the lecturer and little attention has been paid to the role of multimodality in this particular genre. in our research, we try to identify the non-verbal behaviour that can be of special relevance for the comprehensive communication in the classroom, focusing on questions in two guest lectures in english delivered for a group of spanish students. results indicate that both lecturers use different verbal and non-verbal strategies to foster interaction, adapting to the characteristics of their audience. the final objective of this study is twofold: i) to use the results in our courses for training spanish lecturers on teaching in english; and ii) to use these results for eap undergraduate courses, as it has been observed that body language needs awareness raising in order to facilitate transfer from mother tongue to another language. keywords: multimodality, lectures, questions, academic discourse. resumen m ul t imo da l i da d pa ra l a c o mun ic ac i ón c o mp l e ta e n e l a ul a : p re g u nta s e n c l as e s ma g i s tra l e s in v ita d as en los últimos años se han realizado muchos estudios sobre el discurso de las clases magistrales (pérez-llantada y ferguson, 2006; csomay, 2007; deroey y multimodality for comprehensive communication in the classroom: questions in guest lectures inmaculada fortanet-gómez and mª noelia ruiz-madrid universitat jaume i (spain) fortanet@uji.es & madrid@uji.es 203 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 203 ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224 i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid taverniers, 2011). las clases magistrales son el acto de comunicación más común en la docencia universitaria de todo el mundo. bamford (2005) define el estilo de la clase magistral como conversacional, destacando el carácter interactivo de las clases, cuyo principal objetivo es establecer contacto con los estudiantes, y la integración de éstos en la comunidad discursiva. sin embargo, la mayoría de los estudios publicados hasta ahora se han centrado exclusivamente en el lenguaje verbal utilizado por el profesor y se ha prestado muy poca atención al papel de la multimodalidad en este género en particular. en nuestra investigación, intentamos identificar el comportamiento no verbal que puede ser de especial relevancia para la comprensión completa en el aula, centrándonos en las preguntas que formula el profesor, a partir de un estudio de dos clases invitadas impartidas a un grupo de estudiantes españoles. los resultados indican que los dos profesores utilizan diferentes estrategias verbales y no verbales para incentivar la interacción, adaptándose a las características de su público. el objetivo final de este estudio es doble: 1) utilizar los resultados en nuestros cursos de formación del profesorado para impartir docencia en ingles; y 2) para las asignaturas de las titulaciones de grado, ya que se ha observado que el lenguaje corporal necesita ser destacado y observado para facilitar la transferencia de la lengua materna a otra lengua palabras clave: multimodalidad, clases magistrales, preguntas, discurso académico. 1. introduction lectures have been traditionally considered as the most prominent speech event in the classroom in higher education (pérez-llantada & ferguson, 2006; csomay, 2007; deroey & taverniers, 2011). lectures can be defined as the specialized communicative practices of education that are concerned with the transmission and acquisition of knowledge in an academic context. the importance of understanding and defining the micro and macro structure of this genre has attracted the attention of researchers in academic discourse analysis who have pointed out the relevance of these studies for teacher training and for the creation of english language teaching materials (pérez-llantada & ferguson, 2006; crawford camiciottoli, 2007; smit, 2010). along this line, flowerdew (1994: 14) notices the importance of looking into “the linguistic and discoursal features learners need to be familiar with in order to understand a lecture and what, therefore, should be incorporated into esl courses.” he also focuses on the benefits research on university lectures could have for lecturers, since “knowledge of the 204 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 204 linguistic/discoursal structure of lectures will be of value to content lecturers in potentially enabling them to structure their own lectures in an optimally effective way.” in response to this growing awareness of the lecture comprehension needs of second language learners and lecturers, over the last two decades a great amount of research (dudley-evans, 1994; thompson, 1994; young, 1994; flowerdew & miller, 1995; pérez-llantada & ferguson, 2006; csomay, 2007; deroey & taverniers, 2011) has been dedicated to understanding the global structure of the lecture as a genre and the discourse features that characterise it. one of the models proposed for lecture organization is based on the problem-solution pattern (olsen & huckin, 1990; dudley-evans, 1994; flowerdew & miller, 1995). however, results from research showed that this is a simple structure and that lecture structure is frequently influenced by the nature of the discipline (dudley-evans, 1994; flowerdew & miller, 1995). thompson (2003) and young (1994) analysed lectures from a rhetorical perspective. in this sense, thompson (2003) identified a series of moves in lectures introductions and young (1994) from a more comprehensive perspective describes this particular genre as a series of interweaving phases which do not occur in any particular order and can be recurrent throughout the lecture. in addition to the content phase and the example phase, he also defines three metadiscursive phases functioning to ensure the successful transmission of the information: “discourse structuring”, “conclusion” and “evaluation”. young (1994) also identifies “interaction phases”, where the lecturer establishes a relationship with the audience by means of interactive metadiscursive features such as questions, imperatives and comprehension checks and it is these interactive phases what draws our attention in this paper since, according to hyland (2005: 11), making the participants aware of the discourse devices used in this particular phase can help “[s]peakers (…) seek to ensure that the information they present is not only distinct and intelligible, but also understood, accepted and, in many cases, acted upon”. hyland (2005) focused on the metadiscursive devices that result in interaction. according to him, in this sense, speakers should learn that “[a]ddressees have to be drawn in, engaged, motivated to follow along, participate, and perhaps be influenced or persuaded by a discourse” (hyland, 2005: 11). in our case, we need to view guest lectures as interactive means and therefore we must examine their interactive metadiscursive features in terms of the lecturer’s projection of the target audience’s perceptions, interests and needs. multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224 205 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 205 in this sense, hyland’s (2005: 50) model recognizes two dimensions of interaction, on the one hand, the “interactive dimension”, which concerns the lecturer’s awareness of a participating audience and the way he or she seeks to accommodate its previous knowledge, interests and expectations. the use of resources in this category focuses on ways of organizing discourse in order to respond to the audience’s needs. within this dimension, we find: i) transition markers – that is, conjunctions and adverbials phrases which help the audience interpret pragmatic connections between steps in an argument; ii) endophonic markers – that is, expressions which refer to other part of the speech); and iii) evidentials – that is, attribution to a reliable source which establishes an authorial command of the subject and provides support for arguments. on the other hand, the “interactional dimension”, which concerns the way lecturers conduct interaction by making his or her views explicit and involving the audience by allowing them to respond to the unfolding text. metadiscourse here is essentially evaluative and engaging, clearly revealing the extent to which the writer seeks to construct the discourse with the audience. the discourse features included in this dimension are: i) hedges – these are features which allow the lecturer to emphasize the subjectivity of a position by allowing presenting information as an opinion rather than a fact and therefore open to negotiation; ii) boosters – these are features that emphasize certainty and construct rapport by marking involvement with the topic and solidarity with the audience; iii) attitude markers – that is, they convey surprise, agreement, importance, obligation and so on; iv) self-mention – it refers to the degree of explicit presence in the text measured by the frequency of first-person pronouns and possessive adjectives); and v) engagement markers – these are devices that explicitly address the audience, either to focus their attention or include them as discourse participants. i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224206 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 206 in sum, interactive devices address the audience’s expectations on genre by means of recognisable patterns, whereas, the interactional devices focus more directly on the participants in the interaction seeking a more active role of the audience. in this research, we pay attention to the lecturers’ discourse and the way they adapt it to the audience – “interactive dimension”, in terms of hyland (2005: 49). previous studies have focused on the analysis of the interactive metadiscourse devices (pérez-llantada, 2005; bowker, 2012) looking into the function they have within the different phases of the lecture. yet, such analyses were widely thought as being primarily verbal, and therefore only the words uttered were analysed as seen above. however, with the introduction of the video and the dramatic evolution of multimodal web resources, this idea needs to be revisited. indeed, it has become increasingly evident to researchers (o’halloran, 2004; baldry & thibault, 2006; queroljulián & fortanet, 2012) that to understand communication patterns, the analysis of language alone is not enough, since attention is most of the times drawn to the visual information derived from some of the most commonly recognized aspects of non-verbal behaviour, notably facial expression, and perhaps certain gestures that, in many cases, are essential to the communication process. indeed, it is especially important to make students and lecturers aware of verbal and non-verbal characteristics of classroom discourse, since as mentioned in the introduction, it is fundamental for the field of teacher training and creation of english language teaching materials. the present study follows a multimodal discourse analysis (mda) perspective (querol-julián, 2010; querol-julián & fortanet, 2012). mda argues that as all discourse is inherently multimodal, it is not possible to achieve a complete understanding of spoken discourse unless both linguistic and non-linguistic features are jointly analysed. mda has been applied to a considerable number of modes and discourses. multimodal studies embrace two main areas: i) multimodality in language and language systems; and ii) multimodality in other systems. the present study focuses on language systems, on human-to-human-interaction (norris, 2004) taking place in guest lectures through the combination of questions and gestures. in this area, the use of two or more of the five senses for the exchange of information is fundamental in order to convey a comprehensive communication process. the main objective of this paper is, thus, to analyse non-verbal elements, especially gestures as a complement and often as a key factor in the multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224 207 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 207 interpretation of the function of questions in guest lectures as interactive or interactional metadiscourse devices. as already remarked, lectures are prominent speech events in academic spoken discourse and therefore they have attracted the attention of researchers in academic discourse analysis. however, very few of them have paid attention to non-verbal material such as intonation, stress, pauses and gestures. to our knowledge, only thompson (2003), who deals with intonation, and crawford camiciottoli (2007), who looks into non-verbal behaviour of the lecturers, have taken this perspective. in this paper, we intend to complement their work by analysing how speakers use non-verbal strategies, in order to complete the meaning of their discourse. two most commonly analysed functions of discourse in lectures have been “structuring”, that is the metadiscourse used to give a coherent structure to these speech events (thompson, 2003; crawford camiciottoli, 2004; redeker, 2006), and “interaction”, the language used to establish a relationship between the lecturer and the audience (fortanet, 2004; morell, 2004; pérez-llantada, 2005; crawford camiciottoli, 2005, 2007 & 2008). both functions can be performed by questions in lectures. thompson (2003: 10) points out that metadiscourse markers “can come in the form of a question which is immediately answered by the lecturer”. other researchers, such as redeker (2006: 342), go further and identify markers like “okay?” as “interactional (cross-speaker) realizations of end-ofsegment markers”. on the other hand, crawford camiciottoli (2008: 1217) focuses the interactive function of lectures on the use of questions and adds a second interactional function to them, “[q]uestions are therefore interactional as they draw readers into the argument and ethos of a text. yet, at the same time, they may also be interactive when used to manage the flow of information and guide readers through the text”.1 following the analysis of previous research on lecture discourse, we decided to analyse the use of questions and the functions they may have in specific classroom monologues, namely guest lectures. in addition to the publications already revised, three articles were especially illustrative for this study, those by bamford (2005), querol-julián (2008) and chang (2012). bamford (2005) analysed adjacency pairs and series of questions in lectures. however, as we will see below, the results she obtains and the conclusions she reaches are not coincident with our results, even though i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224208 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 208 she also includes in her corpus guest lectures but for italian students. querol-julián (2008) and chang (2012) pose very exhaustive classifications of question types in lectures, which will be of great interest for the elaboration of the taxonomy to be used in this paper. both authors take as a point of departure thompson (1998) and crawford camiciottoli’s (2008) classification of questions in two categories: “content-oriented” and “audience-oriented”. these groups relate questions to the two main functions of the discourse of lectures, as explained above, structuring content and interaction with the audience. within these two categories, they propose a specific taxonomy of subtypes: 1) content-oriented questions • focusing information: it is a question posed and immediately answered by the lecturer. the speaker is structuring content and calling the attention of the audience. • stimulating thought: these are frequently rhetorical questions which do not have an answer. the aim is to encourage the student to reflect about the question. • examples: questions used by the lecturer as examples of what s/he is exposing, as they may be more stimulating than mere statements. 2) audience-oriented questions • eliciting response: the lecturer asks the audience a question expecting their immediate response. • invitation to formulate a question: the lecturer invites the audience to participate by asking questions. • class management: these questions are part of the metadiscourse the teacher has to use to manage the elements of the speech event (written and visual materials, the physical space of the classroom, time, etc.) • seeking agreement: the lecturer needs to confirm that the students agree with her/him in the arguments presented. • requesting confirmation or clarification: it is usually found after students’ interventions when the lecturer needs to check if s/he has understood correctly what the student meant. multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224 209 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 209 • confirmation checks: the lecturer needs to confirm the students have correctly understood the information presented. they may be, or not, answered verbally or nonverbally by the students. it should be pointed out that some researchers do not consider comprehension checks (for example, “okay?”, “right?”) in their analysis of questions in lectures. the reason given is that “they are not true questions, but primarily manifestations of individual speaking habits as lecturers do not really engage with students or wait for their reaction” (crawford camiciottoli, 2008: 1221). however, as will be seen in section 3, this is not always the case, and we have decided to include them in our taxonomy as confirmation checks. another fundamental aspect to be analysed in this paper is the role of gestures in the interpretation of the function of questions. several studies have focused on the relationships of the body movements to the speech production process (birdwhistell, 1970; kendon, 1980; querol-julián, 2008). the mda model to analyse non-verbal resources that co-occur with linguistic evaluation considers the analysis of two aspects: “kinesics” and “paralanguage”. kinesics include the study of “gestures” (kendon, 1980 & 2004; mcneill, 1992), “head movements” (goodwin & goodwin, 1987; schegloff, 1987; mcclave, 2000; kendon, 2002), “facial expression” (ekman & friesen, 1969; kendon, 1981), and “gaze” (kendon, 1967; argyle et al., 1981), and can be catalogued as “iconic”, “metaphoric”, “beats” and “deictics”. these gestures can accomplish different functions in discourse, that is, they can be considered as referential, cohesive, interactive or pragmatic discourse elements (morris, 1977; bavelas et al. 1992; kendon, 2004) and they can interact with the speech by showing synchrony, adding meaning or going beyond (mcneill, 1992). as for paralanguage, poyatos (2002) distinguishes three categories: “voice qualities” – for example, “loudness” and “syllabic duration”; “qualifiers” or “voice types” – such as “breathing control”; and “differentiators” – like, “laughter”; as well as the functions they accomplish in the discourse. the main objective of this paper is to analyse non-verbal elements, especially gestures as a complement and often as a key factor in the interpretation of the function of questions. in order to illustrate the importance of these nonverbal elements, two guest lectures are analysed and the most outstanding elements are identified and interpreted. the hypotheses that we pose in this research are the following: i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224210 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 210 h1: most questions in lectures have an interactive function. h2: non-verbal behaviour is essential for a comprehensive communication in the classroom. 2. method in order to prove our hypotheses, in a preliminary study we analysed two guest lectures delivered in 2007 and 2008 at universitat jaume i to students of the bachelor degree of english studies2. these belonged to a larger corpus called masc (multimodal academic spoken corpus) compiled by the research group grape. table 1 summarizes the characteristics of both lectures. the lectures were video-recorded and transcribed. both lectures were delivered in the context of particular subjects and the audience consisted of the students attending that class. in both cases, the students had been told that they had to report on the lecture in their next class. it should be pointed out that students in spanish universities are not used to pose questions, especially in their first courses, as there is no tradition of interactive lectures in secondary education. interaction is much more frequent in graduate courses. 2.1. analysis both lectures were first watched by the researchers to have a first impression of the similarities and differences. only the monologue by the speaker was analysed, so the introduction by the hosting professor and the question and answer section were not considered. the reason is the time for questions was multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224 211 i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): …-… lecture lecturer audience no. of words length words per min. (wpm) lec-1 english native speaker used to teaching native speakers 3rd year students compulsory english grammar theory subject 30 students 7.985 50m 159.7 lec-2 non-native speaker of english used to teaching non-native speakers 1st year students optional esp subject 60 students 4.716 47 m 100.3 table 1. characteristics of the guest lectures analysed. the lectures were video-recorded and transcribed. both lectures were delivered in the context of particular subjects and the audience consisted of the students attending that class. in both cases, the students had been told that they had to report on the lecture in their next class. it should be pointed out that students in spanish universities are not used to pose questions, especially in their first courses, as there is no tradition of interactive lectures in secondary education. interaction is much more frequent in graduate courses. 2.1. analysis both lectures were first watched by the researchers to have a first impression of the similarities and differences. only the monologue by the speaker was analysed, so the introduction by the hosting professor and the question and answer section were not considered. the reason is the time for questions was much shorter in the second lecture, and what we were really interested in was the monologue by the teacher. aspects such as speech rate, use of visuals, posture and attitude of the speaker were closely observed and compared. then, the transcriptions of the lectures were manually analysed to search interrogation marks. the number of occurrences was counted and the questions were classified with regard to their function and according to the following taxonomy based on chang (2012), thompson (1998), crawford-camiciottoli (2008) and queroljulián (2008): audience-oriented questions (a-o) 1. eliciting response (e.r.) 2. class-management /engagement (c.m.) 3. soliciting agreement (s.a.) 4. confirmation checks (c.c) 5. requesting confirmation / clarification (r.c.) content-oriented questions (c-o) 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 211 much shorter in the second lecture, and what we were really interested in was the monologue by the teacher. aspects such as speech rate, use of visuals, posture and attitude of the speaker were closely observed and compared. then, the transcriptions of the lectures were manually analysed to search interrogation marks. the number of occurrences was counted and the questions were classified with regard to their function and according to the following taxonomy based on thompson (1998), crawford camiciottoli (2008), querol-julián (2008) and chang (2012): audience-oriented questions (a-o) 1. eliciting response (e.r.) 2. class-management /engagement (c.m.) 3. soliciting agreement (s.a.) 4. confirmation checks (c.c) 5. requesting confirmation / clarification (r.c.) content-oriented questions (c-o) 1. focusing information (f.i.) 2. stimulating thought (s.t.) 3. examples (ex) the gestures and other types of non-verbal behaviour, such as stress and pauses, accompanying the main types of gestures, regarding gaze, head, hand and arm movements, were analysed according to querol-julián’s taxonomy (2010). verbal and non-verbal discourse was interpreted in relation to how lecturers adapt to the audience they have. finally, in order to obtain further qualitative information concerning their intention each lecturer was asked to provide their opinion about the interpretation we had given to their own performance in the examples analysed. 3. results and discussion the first general observation of the lectures immediately showed differences between the two lectures. lect-2 had a slower speech rate (see wpm in table 1), the lecturer was much more visual dependent (both written paper and i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224212 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 212 slides) and frequently stopped to check comprehension and observe the attitude of the audience. she was also static and sitting down. in lect-1 the lecturer was standing and moving along the front part of the classroom sometimes pointing and looking at the screen. his speech rate was quicker; his speech was informal and independent from any visual support and did not stop so often to confirm comprehension. there was an evident difference of lecturer’s attitude in front of the audience. in order to accurately analyse the results, we estimated the frequency of questions for every 1,000 words in both lectures for the total number of questions, “audience-oriented” and “content-oriented” questions, as well as those “eliciting response” and “confirmation checks”, which were the most frequent functions. table 2 summarizes the results. the first finding to stand out is the total number of questions which, after the estimation of frequency, seems significantly higher in lect-2 (n=86, rate=18.2). regarding “audience-oriented” questions, we see that even though the number of occurrences coincides in both lectures, when estimating the frequency for every thousand words, there is a significant difference, 15.5 for lect-2, as compared to 9.1 for lect-1. the frequency in the case of “content-oriented” questions is not so significant, however. we have also checked the distribution of “audience-oriented” and “contentoriented” questions in both lectures and the results show that whereas the former represent 80.2% of the total in lect-1 (n=73; rate=9.1), they are 85% in lect-2 (n=73; rate=15.5). all findings show that, if compared to lect-1, lect-2 focuses on the audience rather than on the content. moreover, when observing the two main functions of “audience-oriented” questions, that is, “eliciting response” (e.r.) and “confirmation checks” (c.c.), the frequency appears to be similar for the former in both lectures, but the latter are twice as frequent in lect-2 (n=37; rate=7.8). “confirmation checks” are usually declarative clauses followed by tag words such as “okay”, “right” or “yes”, multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224 213 multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): …-… 1. focusing information (f.i.) 2. stimulating thought (s.t.) 3. examples (ex) the gestures and other types of non-verbal behaviour, such as stress and pauses, accompanying the main types of gestures, regarding gaze, head, hand and arm movements, were analysed according to querol-julián’s taxonomy (2010). verbal and non-verbal discourse was interpreted in relation to how lecturers adapt to the audience they have. finally, in order to obtain further qualitative information concerning their intention each lecturer was asked to provide their opinion about the interpretation we had given to their own performance in the examples analysed. 3. results and discussion the first general observation of the lectures immediately showed differences between the two lectures. lect-2 had a slower speech rate (see wpm in table 1), the lecturer was much more visual dependent (both written paper and slides) and frequently stopped to check comprehension and observe the attitude of the audience. she was also static and sitting down. in lect-1 the lecturer was standing and moving along the front part of the classroom sometimes pointing and looking at the screen. his speech rate was quicker; his speech was informal and independent from any visual support and did not stop so often to confirm comprehension. there was an evident difference of lecturer’s attitude in front of the audience. in order to accurately analyse the results, we estimated the frequency of questions for every 1,000 words in both lectures for the total number of questions, “audience-oriented” and “content-oriented” questions, as well as those “eliciting response” and “confirmation checks”, which were the most frequent functions. table 2 summarizes the results. total lect-1 qs per 1,000 words lect-1 total lect-2 qs per 1,000 words lect-2 a-o 73 9.1 (80.2%) 73 15.5 (85%) a-o (e.r.) 28 3.5 16 3.4 a-o (c.c.) 31 3.9 37 7.8 c-o 18 2.2 (19.8%) 13 2.7 (15%) total 91 11.3 86 18.2 table 2. numbers and frequency rates of questions (qs) in lectures 1 and 2. the first finding to stand out is the total number of questions which, after the estimation of frequency, seems significantly higher in lect-2 (n=86, rate=18.2). regarding “audience-oriented” questions, we see that even though the number of 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 213 which carry on the interrogation intonation; questions “eliciting response” are most often wh-questions (more common in lect-1) or “yes/no” questions (more common in lect-2), as illustrated in the following examples: (1) so, how many of you are familiar already with corpus linguistics? (lect-1) (e-r) (2) this is why hedges are also ways of being more precise, yes? (lect2) (c-c) once the classification of questions had been analysed, we watched the recordings again to check on non-verbal behaviour. two aspects in particular called our attention. first, the use lecturers make of “okay?”, which had already been noticed due to the difference in frequency observed in both lectures. the second aspect was the use of a series of questions (clusters), which could be observed when looking at the complete transcripts. this latter aspect was made more evident when watching the videos, in which we could see the non-verbal behaviour of the speakers. 3.1. the use of “okay?” the tag “okay?” is very frequent in both lectures. in lect-1, it is used 19 times, and in lect-2, 34 times. following crawford camiciottoli (2008: 1221) we had decided not to consider comprehension checks in the questions taxonomy, since “they are not true questions, but primarily manifestations of individual speaking habits as lecturers do not really engage with students or wait for their reactions”. she even states that as “the lecturers continue to speak after “okay?” without pausing for audience response”, “[t]his raises doubts about whether these items are actually comprehension checks or simply manifestations of the habits of individual lecturers” (crawford camiciottoli, 2007: 108). however, a close observation of the lecturer’s nonverbal behaviour accompanying the 34 tokens of “okay?” in lect-2 made us change our minds. while crawford camiciottoli’s objections could perfectly apply to lect-1, in lect-2 we find these comprehension checks with their true function, as can be observed in the following examples. (3) so, if – if we look at all of the verbs that occur with that-clauses, okay? so, taking only that-clauses right now, it turns out there are – there are over 200 different verbs that occur with that-clauses. so, that’s overwhelming if we want to think about teaching i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224214 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 214 [unintelligible] students, but if we look at the frequency of information, it turns out that only four verbs are extremely common and those are think, say, know, and guess. and here’s the frequencies, okay? so, think, say, know, and guess. so, it turns out that while this is – it could be regarded as a complex syntactic construction, (lect-1) (50’38’’-51’04’’) in this excerpt of lect-1 “okay?” occurs twice. the first one is almost unnoticeable, since the speaker lowers his voice when saying it. the second one can be heard but does not add anything to the speech nor to the interaction between speaker and audience. he does not make any gesture to focus his attention towards the audience, nor does he stop and wait for a reaction. he is even looking at the slides with his back towards the audience as shown in figure 1. if we look now at example (4) from lect-2, we observe how different the nonverbal behaviour is in terms of stress of the tag word “okay”, the pause that follows it, and the attitude of the speaker waiting for a reply from the audience. (4) (…) to send, to submit your results and your claims and your conclusions to the scientific community at large, okay? so you want, the other scientists to accept, or to agree with you. (…). so hedges also help scientists to present themselves as cautious, coy, coy significa lo mismo, no lo sé lo puse para que supieran la palabra, significa también este cauteloso, okay? humble and modest servants of the discipline, (…) you want to be diplomatic and humble, hedges are also used to anticipate peers’ criticism what i was referring to before as the boomerang phenomenon, okay? if you hit you can expect to be hit back and they also allow researchers to take (rhetoric) precautions, all this is intimately related okay? (lect 2) (44’52’’-46’12’’) multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224 215 multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): …-… comprehension checks with their true function, as can be observed in the following examples. (3) so, if – if we look at all of the verbs that occur with that-clauses, okay? so, taking only that-clauses right now, it turns out there are – there are over 200 different verbs that occur with that-clauses. so, that’s overwhelming if we want to think about teaching [unintelligible] students, but if we look at the frequency of information, it turns out that only four verbs are extremely common and those are think, say, know, and guess. and here’s the frequencies, okay? so, think, say, know, and guess. so, it turns out that while this is – it could be regarded as a complex syntactic construction, (lect-1) (50’38’’-51’04’’) figure 1. body-language of the lecturer after “okay?” in lect-1. in this excerpt of lect-1 “okay?” occurs twice. the first one is almost unnoticeable, since the speaker lowers his voice when saying it. the second one can be heard but does not add anything to the speech nor to the interaction between speaker and audience. he does not make any gesture to focus his attention towards the audience, nor does he stop and wait for a reaction. he is even looking at the slides with his back towards the audience as shown in figure 1. if we look now at example (4) from lect-2, we observe how different the nonverbal behaviour is in terms of stress of the tag word “okay”, the pause that follows it, and the attitude of the speaker waiting for a reply from the audience. (4) (…) to send, to submit your results and your claims and your conclusions to the scientific community at large, okay? so you want, the other scientists to accept, or to agree with you. (…). so hedges also help scientists to present themselves as cautious, coy, coy significa lo mismo, no lo sé lo puse para que supieran la palabra, significa también este cauteloso, okay? humble and modest servants of the discipline, (…) you want to be diplomatic and humble, hedges are also used to anticipate peers’ criticism what i was referring to before as the boomerang phenomenon, okay? if you hit you can expect to be hit back and they also allow researchers to take (rhetoric) precautions, all this is intimately related okay? (lect 2) (44’52’’-46’12’’) 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 215 as figure 2 shows, after saying the first “okay?” the lecturer stops, looks at the audience and waits for their reaction, trying to find out if they have understood her argument. this also occurs in 3 out of the 4 occurrences in this excerpt. actually, only one occurrence of “okay?” in lect-1 seems to provoke a reaction by the audience, laughter, but it is not the comprehension check they react to but the previous comment by the speaker “since nobody raised their hand anyway, you won’t tell me if you’re sad, okay?” (lect-1). on the contrary, in lect-2, 3 out of 4 occurrences of “okay?” have an answer by the audience. moreover, the function of “okay?” is made more relevant at the end of the lecture, when 8 occurrences are found in 440 words, emphasizing so the willingness of the speaker to check whether the audience has understood the key ideas of the lecture, as she tries to summarize them. actually, the concern of the speaker about the comprehension of the audience is also emphasized in this excerpt when she introduces an explanation in spanish of a term she assumes the students may not know. thus, the joint analysis of verbal and non-verbal behaviour has provided a more comprehensive interpretation of the use of “okay?” in these two lectures, though further research will be needed in order to corroborate if the uses observed in this research are generalised or respond to an individual choice. 3.2. clusters another outstanding feature of the lectures analysed is the use of clusters. clusters or series of questions had already been noticed by bamford (2005), who gives them two possible functions: to elicit an answer by means of reformulations of the first question, and to underline the problematic aspects of the discussion and the lack of an answer, stimulating thought. the first function seems to be the most commonly found in lect-1 where 38 out of 102 questions are involved in clusters. the speaker finds it very difficult to elicit i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224216 i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): …-… figure 2. body language of the lecturer after “okay?” in lect-2. as figure 2 shows, after saying the first “okay?” the lecturer stops, looks at the audience and waits for their reaction, trying to find out if they have understood her argument. this also occurs in 3 out of the 4 occurrences in this excerpt. actually, only one occurrence of “okay?” in lect-1 seems to provoke a reaction by the audience, laughter, but it is not the comprehension check they react to but the previous comment by the speaker “since nobody raised their hand anyway, you won’t tell me if you’re sad, okay?” (lect-1). on the contrary, in lect-2, 3 out of 4 occurrences of “okay?” have an answer by the audience. moreover, the function of “okay?” is made more relevant at the end of the lecture, when 8 occurrences are found in 440 words, emphasizing so the willingness of the speaker to check whether the audience has understood the key ideas of the lecture, as she tries to summarize them. actually, the concern of the speaker about the comprehension of the audience is also emphasized in this excerpt when she introduces an explanation in spanish of a term she assumes the students may not know. thus, the joint analysis of verbal and non-verbal behaviour has provided a more comprehensive interpretation of the use of “okay?” in these two lectures, though further research will be needed in order to corroborate if the uses observed in this research are generalised or respond to an individual choice. 3.2. clusters another outstanding feature of the lectures analysed is the use of clusters. clusters or series of questions had already been noticed by bamford (2005), who gives them two possible functions: to elicit an answer by means of reformulations of the first question, and to underline the problematic aspects of the discussion and the lack of an answer, stimulating thought. the first function seems to be the most commonly found in lect-1 where 38 out of 102 questions are involved in clusters. the speaker finds it very difficult to elicit responses from the audience, and tries to make them reply by repeating the same question or a reformulation several times (see example 5). (5) so, how many of you feel like you need an introduction to corpus linguistics or how many of you are familiar already? so, how many of 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 216 responses from the audience, and tries to make them reply by repeating the same question or a reformulation several times (see example 5). (5) so, how many of you feel like you need an introduction to corpus linguistics or how many of you are familiar already? so, how many of you are familiar already with corpus linguistics? okay, let me ask the question, the other one, we’ll see if still nobody raises their hand. so, how many of you [laughter] – which – which way [will i be] asking? i don’t remember. how many of you uhm, don’t know anything about corpus linguistics? (lect-1) (5’59’’-6’28’’) if we observe the video frames in figure 3, we see that the speaker is looking at the audience, waiting for their reply, he raises his arm and moves his hand to attract the audience’s attention. he even laughs and says as for himself “which way will i be asking?”, which provokes the audience’s laugh, but apparently no clear reply. a second function is also present in lect-1, although it is not stimulating thought, as sustained by bamford (2005). instead, the lecturer is inviting the audience to focus on the information he is trying to transmit, as we can see in example (6), although this second function is much less frequent than the first one. in this case, the speaker poses a question and then answers it himself. (6) well, why is that? what’s going on here that would cause this difference? (lect-1) what we see here is that the speaker finds it very difficult to check if the audience is following his line of argument and he tries to elicit answers from the audience that confirm they understand. however, there is a large number of students in the classroom, a factor which greatly conditions students’ contribution (hansen & jensen, 1994). he is a native english-speaker and an multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224 217 multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): …-… you are familiar already with corpus linguistics? okay, let me ask the question, the other one, we’ll see if still nobody raises their hand. so, how many of you [laughter] – which – which way [will i be] asking? i don’t remember. how many of you uhm, don’t know anything about corpus linguistics? (lect-1) (5’59’’-6’28’’) figure 3. body language of the lecturer when using clusters of questions in lect-1 if we observe the video frames in figure 3, we see that the speaker is looking at the audience, waiting for their reply, he raises his arm and moves his hand to attract the audience’s attention. he even laughs and says as for himself “which way will i be asking?”, which provokes the audience’s laugh, but apparently no clear reply. a second function is also present in lect-1, although it is not stimulating thought, as sustained by bamford (2005). instead, the lecturer is inviting the audience to focus on the information he is trying to transmit, as we can see in example (6), although this second function is much less frequent than the first one. in this case, the speaker poses a question and then answers it himself. (6) well, why is that? what’s going on here that would cause this difference? (lect-1) what we see here is that the speaker finds it very difficult to check if the audience is following his line of argument and he tries to elicit answers from the audience that confirm they understand. however, there is a large number of students in the classroom, a factor which greatly conditions students’ contribution (hansen & jensen, 1994). he is a native english-speaker and an expert in his field (two aspects that can be intimidating for the students), and there is no tradition of frequent interaction between teacher and students in spanish universities, especially in undergraduate studies. concerning lect-2, the presence of clusters is not significant in comparison to lect-1. clusters in lect-2 do not have a significant interactive role in the discourse. as “content-oriented” questions, they are used to structure the speech and stimulate thought. their function is clearly to focus on the information she is trying to transmit as can be seen in example (7): (7) why do scientists hedge this discourse, that is, what is the rationale what is – what are the motivations for hedging, why do we hedge? ok? basically there are four reasons for hedging. (lect-2) 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 217 expert in his field (two aspects that can be intimidating for the students), and there is no tradition of frequent interaction between teacher and students in spanish universities, especially in undergraduate studies. concerning lect-2, the presence of clusters is not significant in comparison to lect-1. clusters in lect-2 do not have a significant interactive role in the discourse. as “content-oriented” questions, they are used to structure the speech and stimulate thought. their function is clearly to focus on the information she is trying to transmit as can be seen in example (7): (7) why do scientists hedge this discourse, that is, what is the rationale what is – what are the motivations for hedging, why do we hedge? ok? basically there are four reasons for hedging. (lect-2) all in all, we have observed how these two lecturers make use of different resources, either verbal or non-verbal, in order to draw the attention of the audience. lect-1 prefers clusters of questions accompanied by gestures, whereas lect-2 opts to use the confirmation check “okay?” followed by a pause. the joint analysis of verbal and non-verbal behaviour has paved the way for a more effective understanding of the communication value of these discursive resources. the subjects of this research, the lecturers acting as speakers, were asked about their opinions on the results obtained and our interpretations. they corroborated our explanations, indicating the relevance of the audience in their choice of verbal and non-verbal behaviour, and added some more points. lect-1 is used to teaching north american students, who are more prone to asking questions if they do not understand or want to get more information about a certain point. he tries to elicit a response from the audience by means of reformulating his questions and calling the audience’s attention with gestures. however, lect-2 believed that some of the gestures she uses may be due to the fact that she is french, and “french speak a lot with their hands, so to speak”3, and even though her english is native-like she cannot speak so spontaneously and naturally as an english-native speaker. she also has a good knowledge of the spanish-speaking undergraduate students, and acts accordingly since she has been living in a latin american country for over 35 years. these students are not used to participating in the class and therefore the lecturer needs to check their comprehension more intently. i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224218 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 218 4. conclusions and pedagogical implications in this paper we have analysed the use of questions in guest lectures from a multimodal perspective, following the classifications of querol-julián (2008) and chang (2012). most of the conclusions drawn would not have been possible by looking just at the words, the transcriptions of the lectures. though this can be considered a preliminary study whose results need to be corroborated with a larger corpus, we think there is enough evidence to state that discourse analysis cannot be complete unless there is a joint study of verbal and non-verbal behaviour. we illustrated the importance of non-verbal behaviour with an analysis of two guest lectures delivered for an audience of english studies students in a spanish university. we have interpreted the results presented in this paper as closely related to the characteristics of the speakers and the audience they were speaking for (see again table 1). the first observation made was that lect-2 was delivered at a slower pace than lect-1, it had frequent pauses and was much more visual dependent. concerning genre definition, our joint analysis of verbal and non-verbal elements confirm the interactive nature of guest lectures in the line of previous studies, whose focus was mainly verbal (hyland, 2005; pérezllantada, 2005; bowker, 2012). our first hypothesis “most questions in lectures have an interactive function” is confirmed by the results which prove that most questions in guest lectures are “audience-oriented”, mainly trying to check comprehension and to elicit a response from the audience. “comprehension checks” were especially common in lect-2, where the speaker made a constant effort to confirm that the audience had understood the lecture and could follow her argument. these results are in line with those obtained by pérez-llantada (2005) and bowker (2012), who highlight the lectures’ use of questions as interactive metadiscourse devices that pave the way for a more asymmetrical relationship between lecturers and audience and that afford a more fluent negotiation of understanding and meaning of the content delivered, particularly when lecturers and audience do not share the same linguistic or cultural background as it is the case in the present study. however, further research with a larger corpus will add some more information about the use, classification and role of questions in lectures in both dimensions, interactive and interactional. the second hypothesis “non-verbal behaviour is essential for a comprehensive communication in the classroom” also seems to be multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224 219 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 219 confirmed by means of the analysis of two outstanding features in the two guest lectures: the use of “okay?” and of clusters of questions. though some previous authors such as crawford camiciottoli (2008) had disregarded “okay?” and other confirmation checks when analysing questions in lectures, a close analysis of non-verbal behaviour has disclosed their relevance when they are used with the appropriate stress, gestures and pauses which complete their verbal meaning. our results are, thus, in contrast to those obtained by crawford camiciottoli (2008). in her corpus of british and american lectures, half of them delivered as guest lectures, she observed that, in general, questions were more scarce in comparison with our corpus (4.9 per 1,000 words; vs 13.9 questions per 1,000 words in our corpus) and that “content-oriented” wh-questions were more frequent than “audience-oriented” “yes/no” questions. this researcher, as indicated above, disregarded in this study “comprehension checks” such as “okay?” notwithstanding, in another of her research publications (crawford camiciottoli, 2007), she acknowledged the presence of “okay?” with a frequency of 2.1 per 1,000 words in a multidisciplinary corpus of lectures, similar to our results for lect-1, but far from those obtained for lect-2 (7.2 per 1,000 words). gestures also support the use of clusters. these clusters are repetitions or reformulations of questions accompanied by gestures and intonation which try to call the audience’s attention in order to elicit a response (see figure 3). in this sense, results from the non-verbal analysis seem to be in line with previous studies (csomay, 2006) that related the use of wh-constructions with a more conversational style of lectures, in which lecturers often expand on and elaborate ideas. in the case of lect-1, the speaker, an experienced lecturer used to teaching north american students, tries to adapt his lecture to third-year students in a class of linguistics, considering they already have a good knowledge of the language and, therefore, he does not need to speak at a slower pace and can explain informally and without too much visual support. however, he tries to elicit some responses from the audience to check their understanding. when he does not obtain a reply, he tries to reformulate his questions by using clusters trying to re-elaborate and expand on the original idea, even introducing some funny comments, to confirm the audience is following his arguments. his language is accompanied by gestures such as extending his arms, raising them towards the audience with movements from one side to the other to invite all the audience to respond. he also raises his voice and stops talking waiting for a reply. i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224220 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 220 in the case of lect-2, the speaker is an experienced non-native englishspeaking lecturer used to teaching english to non-native english-speaking students. her audience consists of first year students and the lecture is inserted in a subject dealing with english specific discourse. she tries to make her speech easily understandable by slowing down and asking very often about their comprehension by means of declaratives followed by comprehension checks, mainly “okay?” her comprehension checks are accompanied by gestures such as looking at the audience, pointing at them, and creating silence in order to invite their response. the opinions of the lecturers, the subjects of this research, have corroborated our interpretation of the results. this small scale study provides a qualitative analysis of the functionality of the guest lecturers’ questions. however, we have to recognise its limitations especially due to the reduced number of lectures. in the future and as further research, it will be interesting to cross-check or compare these results with a larger corpus in order to corroborate the findings. among the variables to check in this wider study could be gender, age, academic background and experience, or discipline. the conclusions drawn from this study lead us to reflect on some pedagogical implications closely related to the use of the english language as a medium of instruction where it is learned as a foreign language. indeed, in some higher education settings students have to deal with complex discourses from both a disciplinary and a linguistic (foreign language) perspective, and therefore it is interesting to focus on the features of the teacher discourse and how it is adapted by experienced lecturers to the characteristics of the audience. how to do this adaptation is not something usually taught to novice teachers, especially those who have to use english as a language of instruction. in line with what other researchers have suggested about the pedagogical applications of their research results, (pérez-llantada & ferguson, 2006; crawford camiciottoli, 2007; queroljulián, 2010; smit, 2010), we think the findings presented here could contribute on the one hand to a better design of teacher training in this context, considering not only what to say but also how to express linguistic and non-verbal meaning. on the other hand, these findings could enhance students’ learning process, since paying attention to gestures when lecturers ask questions can help in their understanding and thus facilitate learners’ knowledge construction. multimodality for comprehensive communication ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224 221 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 221 acknowledgements we would like to thank the two lecturers in the guest lectures in the corpus for their collaboration in this research. this study has been developed as part of the research project funded by the ministry of science and innovation of spain (ref. ffi2011-24269) [paper received 2 august 2013] [revised paper received 9 january 2014] [revised paper accepted 2 february 2014] references i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224222 argyle m., r. ingham, f. alkema & m. mccallin (1981). “the different functions of gaze” in a. kendon a. 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(1998). “why ask questions in a monologue? language choice at work in scientific and linguistic talk” in s. hunston (ed.), language at work. selected papers from the annual meeting of the british association of applied linguistics, 137-150. clevedon: multilingual matters. thompson, s. e. (2003). “text-structuring metadiscourse, intonation and the signalling of organisation in academic lectures”. journal of english for academic purposes 2: 5-20. young, l. (1994). “university lectures macrostructure and micro-features” in j. flowerdew (ed.), 159-176. 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 223 dr. inmaculada fortanet-gómez is a senior lecturer and researcher at universitat jaume i (castellón, spain). she coordinates the group for research on academic and professional english (grape). her research interests focus on mda and clil. her research has been published in english for specific purposes and journal of english for academic purposes, among others. her latest publication is clil in higher education (multilingual matters, 2013). dr. mª noelia ruiz madrid is a senior lecturer and researcher at universitat jaume i (castellón, spain). she is a member of the group for research on academic and professional english (grape). her research focuses on mda, genre and icts and language learning. her more recent publications have appeared in peter lang and international journal of english studies, among others. notes 1 in her paper, crawford camiciottoli talks about “text” since she looks at written texts comparing them to lectures, though this word could perfectly be replaced by “speech”. 2 the authors asked for the two lecturers’ permission which was granted to them for the analysis and for the publication of the images that appear in this paper. 3 personal communication by email (30/03/2013) i. fortanet-gómez & mª n. ruiz-madrid ibérica 28 (2014): 203-224224 10 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:25 página 224 iberica 13 ibérica 26 (2013): 55-76 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the overall aim of this paper is to detect whether there is language variation in a setting such as international business communication, in which interaction is expected to be precise and concise. in order to achieve this, the research aims of this paper are, first, to detect whether there is variation in the internal organization of e-mails; second, to analyse the moves and steps in the e-mails (swales, 1990; bhatia, 1993) and the changes in the organization patterns; and, third, to establish whether the variation in the internal organization and the moves of the e-mails interfered with the exchange of ideas. the corpus used in this study was made up of authentic texts, consisting of one hundred e-mails, written by business managers from india and china, who communicate in english with their counterparts in order to report business issues at their offices, which are subsidiaries of an international company specialising in the manufacture of machinery. firstly, we analysed the moves of the corpus taking into consideration the standard structure of e-mails, following the proposal made by bhatia (1993). secondly, we detailed the steps used in moves 5 and 6 as the non-native speakers of english varied the structure of these moves. thirdly, we contrasted the results obtained in the analysis of the moves and steps in the e-mails and discussed whether move variation in international business communication is due to the influence of the cultural or linguistic background of the writer. the conclusions show that the influence of the mother tongue of the speakers of english as an international language is changing the use of english in asian countries. keywords: business english, e-mails, variation, moves, steps. resumen l a v ar ia c ió n de l i ng l é s e n l o s c o rr e os e l e c t rón ic os de l os p aí s e s a s iá ti c o s el objetivo principal de este artículo es detectar si existe variación en el lenguaje en la comunicación de los negocios internacional, en la cual se espera que exista variation of english business e-mails in asian countries maría luisa carrió-pastor and rut muñiz-calderón universitat politècnica de valència & universidad católica de valencia (spain) lcarrio@upvnet.upv.es & rut.muniz@ucv.es 55 ibérica 26 (2013): 55-76 m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón una interacción precisa y concisa. para poder responder este objetivo general, las cuestiones que se abordan en este artículo son, primero, detectar si existe variación en la organización interna de los correos electrónicos; segundo, analizar los movimientos y pasos que se siguen en los correos electrónicos (swales, 1990; bhatia, 1993) y los cambios en los patrones de organización; y, tercero, establecer si la variación en la organización interna y los movimientos de los correos electrónicos interfieren en el intercambio de ideas. el corpus utilizado en este estudio está compuesto por textos reales y consiste en cien correos electrónicos escritos por empresarios de india y china, que se comunican con sus socios para informar sobre temas de negocios en sus oficinas, sedes de una empresa internacional que está especializada en la fabricación de maquinaria. en primer lugar, analizamos los movimientos del corpus considerando la estructura estándar de los correos electrónicos, siguiendo la propuesta de bhatia (1993). en segundo lugar, detallamos los pasos que se utilizaron en los movimientos 5 y 6 ya que hallamos variación en esos dos movimientos. en tercer lugar, comparamos los resultados obtenidos en el análisis de los movimientos y los pasos en los correos electrónicos y comentamos si la variación de los movimientos en el inglés de los negocios se debe a la influencia de la cultura o los antecedentes culturales del escritor. las conclusiones demuestran que la influencia de la lengua materna está influyendo en el uso de una lengua franca como es el inglés en los países asiáticos. palabras clave: inglés de los negocios, correos electrónicos, variación, movimientos, pasos. introduction in recent years, the economies of asian countries have undergone significant development and, as a consequence, many business transactions are carried out between speakers of radically different languages and cultures. they have to use an international language to communicate; and, in most cases, english is the language chosen. the effects of the communicative role played by english in these asian countries are well established in the literature (scollon, 2000; kachru, 2005 & 2011; adamson, 2006a & 2006b; chen, 2006; kirkpatrik, 2007; sailaja, 2009). these effects include changes in vocabulary and structures, reflecting some traits of the mother tongues. as a result, the use of english as a lingua franca in heterogeneous settings has led to the incorporation into discourse of characteristics that are not typical of anglo-saxon culture. the english language is undergoing change, with new ways to communicate being developed in countries with different cultural and social backgrounds. 56 business communication provides clear examples of this. as an example, specific attention to business interaction and the rhetorical features used in business letters has been paid by researchers such as louhiala-salminen (1996), okamura and shaw (2000), pinto dos santos (2002), palmer-silveira (2004), ruiz garrido (2004), nickerson (2005), flowerdew and wan (2010), bremner (2008), palmer-silveira, ruiz-garrido and fortanet-gómez (2008), carrió pastor and muñiz calderón (2010a & 2010b) or muñiz calderón (2012). taking into account that english is used as a lingua franca in business interactions between companies that offer their products all over the world, it is not surprising that different speakers may vary the way they transmit information depending on their mother tongue and their cultural background. in this way, intercultural differences in settings such as international business communication are relevant and should be considered when interpreting discourse (gimenez, 2001; louhiala-salminen, charles & kankaanranta, 2005; van dijk, 2008 & 2009; louhiala-salminen & kankaanranta, 2012; giménez-moreno & skorczynska, this volume). the occasions where intercultural divergence causes discoursal differences are referred to as language variation in this paper. in a sense, this is the reason why studies of intercultural communication are so important to understand language change (pan, scollon & scollon, 2002; scollon, scollon & jones, 2012; carrió-pastor, 2013; carrió pastor & candel mora, 2013). language does not express the thoughts of human beings in a straightforward manner. the way discourse is arranged, the reasons why we choose particular vocabulary and the way we express our ideas vary depending on the social context, the culture and the intention of the speaker. we are all unique in the way we communicate. this is the main hypothesis of this paper; that is, each speaker communicates in a different way and, just as each person’s physical appearance is unique, so language is also arranged and expressed by every human being in a unique way. in order to provide evidence for this hypothesis, we selected a field of study in which linguistic conventions should be static to guarantee effective communication. the research questions of this study are as follows: 1. is there variation in the internal structure of business e-mails written in english by speakers of other languages? 2. can we detect changes in the organizational patterns (moves and steps) of international business e-mails taking into account the importance of clarity in this field of study? variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): 55-76 57 3. does variation in the internal organization of e-mails written by speakers of different cultural backgrounds interfere with the exchange of ideas in international business communication? moves and e-mails swales (1990) introduced the cars model, which consists of three moves that describe how research paper introductions are structured by native english speakers (that is, establishing a territory; establishing a niche; and occupying the niche). a further proposal was made by dudley-evans (1994), in which the moves are the following: information move, statement of result, finding, expected outcome, reference to previous research, explanation, claim, limitation and recommendation. with regards to business communication, bhatia (1993) also identified several moves: establishing credentials, introducing the offer, offering incentives, enclosing documents, soliciting response, using pressure tactics and ending politely. further studies on moves have used these classifications of moves or added others, depending on the medium of communication or genre (biber, conrad & reppen, 1998; henry & roseberry, 2001; peacock, 2002; sun, 2004; biber, connor & upton, 2007). in this study, we have based the analysis of the e-mails on the classification proposed by bhatia (1993), as the moves he proposes reflect more precisely the characteristics of the corpus analysed. as indicated above, we focus on the variation that can be detected in the moves of e-mails. despite its obvious importance in an era of globalisation and an increasing number of multinational companies, little empirical research has been carried out in this field of study. in this sense, we would like to raise non-native english speakers’ (nnes) awareness on cross-cultural differences in the structuring of business e-mails and to help them compete with native speakers for jobs with multinational companies. some of the patterns followed in the structure of e-mails have already been identified by crystal (2001), but we consider that these patterns should be updated given the impact of e-mails on language development, as gimenez (2006) stated. more specifically, the language used in business e-mails has been analysed by many researchers, such as barson, frommer and schwartz (1993), warshauer (1995), barron (2000, 2002 & 2003), vries and meij (2003), biesenbach-lucas (2005), gimenez (2000 & 2006), carrió-pastor m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): 55-7658 and muñiz calderón (2012a), and carrió-pastor and muñiz calderón (2012b). all of them highlight in their research that the typical communicative patterns to communicate vary when we compare speakers with different cultural backgrounds. regarding the structures of e-mails, gimenez (2006), jensen (2009) and ho (2009) analysed the use of specific discourse strategies in e-mail communication, although these focused on the relations between the participants. more recently, economidou-kogetsidis (2011) also analysed the type of supportive moves, but centred her research on lexical/phrasal modifiers used by students. in this paper, we consider it useful to think of a field of research as consisting of a series of established moves, and yet different ways of communicating (that is, variation) should be taken into account. nowadays, e-mails play an important role in the exchange of information and this is why it is important to detect language changes in order to identify new linguistic traits and incorporate these into language learning strategies. as economidou-kogetsidis (2011: 3193) explains: (…) there are as yet no established conventions for linguistic behaviour in email communication (…) most academic syllabi lack explicit instruction in email writing. as a result, both native and non-native speakers are often faced with uncertainties regarding style and politeness strategies in e-mail interaction. we agree with this author and this is why this paper focuses on the identification of the different moves employed in e-mails and the cultural influences in their structure when written by nnes. the study material we have analysed a corpus of one hundred business e-mails sent or received by the sales department of an international exporting company based in spain. these e-mails were written during a period of two years, from 2009 to 2011, by nnes from india and china. english is the lingua franca used for all business interactions in this company and the most usual medium of communication inside and outside the offices is e-mail, using laptops or smartphones. the use of english is compulsory even between staff who share another language as their mother tongue, so that all employees can understand other colleagues and be understood by them. variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): 55-76 59 the english language proficiency of the employees is high (c1 or c2 level of the common european framework), as this is a compulsory condition of employment at the company. it is necessary to take into account for the interpretation of the results of the corpus analysis that countries such as india and pakistan were formerly british colonies and belong to the outer circle of english (kachru, 2005); however, china belongs to the expanding circle of english (kachru, 2005). the corpus made up of one hundred e-mails was selected from a larger corpus of one hundred and forty e-mails. fifty e-mails from the corpus had been written by fifty indian employees and fifty e-mails had been written by fifty chinese employees. we did not include in the corpus the e-mails with less than two hundred words. the total amount of words included in the body of the e-mails was 34,708 words. the e-mails written by indian businessmen included a total of 17,424 words and the e-mails written by chinese businessmen a total of 17,284 words. the topic of the e-mails largely concerned the weekly reports by the company employees reporting their counterparts about different issues of importance. method the analysis was carried out manually because our main purpose was to detect variations in the internal organization of e-mails and we were unable to find any computer tool that could filter the data we were interested in. the analysis was carried out in several stages. firstly, all the e-mails were carefully read and classified according to the two different nationalities of the writers: chinese and indian. secondly, the e-mails were classified according to the moves they included. in order to carry out the analysis, we drew up an initial framework adapted from bhatia (1993) and shown in table 1, to identify the moves in the e-mails. m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): 55-7660 m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): …-… moves m.1 referencing m.2 greeting/establishing credentials m.3 introducing the offer m.4 offering incentives m.5 using pressure tactics m.6 enclosing documents m.7 soliciting response m.8 ending politely table 1. initial classification of moves in e-mails following bhatia (1993). thirdly, the managers informed us that the company provided some guidance in order to facilitate communication and ensure that the information of interest was supplied, with the company being conscious of the need for some guidelines due to the different linguistic backgrounds of their employees. the moves proposed by the company for these e-mails are shown in table 2: moves m.1c reporting about the client/company visited m.2c reporting about the participants (customers) m.3c reporting about the agent participant m.4c reporting about the x company representative m.5c establishing the negotiation/description m.6c summarizing/concluding the outcome of the negotiation (follow up) table 2. moves in e-mails as suggested by the company. as we can see, the company suggested two moves less than those in the initial proposal for this study (see table 1). after reflecting on both classifications, we decided to use both frameworks, in order to classify and contrast the moves and variation found in the business e-mails in more detail. finally, the moves detected in the corpus were classified with a code denoting the move employed (for instance, m.1 is the code for the first move in bhatia’s proposal and m.1c is the code for the first move in the company model) and the results analysed. the results found in the steps of moves 5c and 6c are further discussed in the results section as variation in the writing of e-mails was found. several examples were also extracted from the corpus to comment our findings. the occurrences found in the moves were counted and the percentages and statistical data were also detailed in order to identify the results which were significant for the analysis. in order to calculate whether the results extracted from our corpus were significant, the software spss was used. we based our analysis on the indications provided by herrera soler, martínez arias and amengual (2011) and the standard error of the difference between independent proportions was estimated. the variations considered significant were analysed in depth and finally, the conclusions of this study were then drawn. thirdly, the managers informed us that the company provided some guidance in order to facilitate communication and ensure that the information of interest was supplied, with the company being conscious of the need for some guidelines due to the different linguistic backgrounds of their employees. the moves proposed by the company for these e-mails are shown in table 2: as we can see, the company suggested two moves less than those in the initial proposal for this study (see table 1). after reflecting on both classifications, we decided to use both frameworks, in order to classify and contrast the moves and variation found in the business e-mails in more detail. finally, the moves detected in the corpus were classified with a code denoting the move employed (for instance, m.1 is the code for the first move in bhatia’s proposal and m.1c is the code for the first move in the company model) and the results analysed. the results found in the steps of moves 5c and 6c are further discussed in the results section as variation in the writing of e-mails was found. several examples were also extracted from the corpus to comment our findings. the occurrences found in the moves were counted and the percentages and statistical data were also detailed in order to identify the results which were significant for the analysis. in order to calculate whether the results extracted from our corpus were significant, the software spss was used. we based our analysis on the indications provided by herrera soler, martínez arias and amengual (2011) and the standard error of the difference between independent proportions was estimated. the variations considered significant were analysed in depth and finally, the conclusions of this study were then drawn. variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): 55-76 61 m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): …-… moves m.1 referencing m.2 greeting/establishing credentials m.3 introducing the offer m.4 offering incentives m.5 using pressure tactics m.6 enclosing documents m.7 soliciting response m.8 ending politely table 1. initial classification of moves in e-mails following bhatia (1993). thirdly, the managers informed us that the company provided some guidance in order to facilitate communication and ensure that the information of interest was supplied, with the company being conscious of the need for some guidelines due to the different linguistic backgrounds of their employees. the moves proposed by the company for these e-mails are shown in table 2: moves m.1c reporting about the client/company visited m.2c reporting about the participants (customers) m.3c reporting about the agent participant m.4c reporting about the x company representative m.5c establishing the negotiation/description m.6c summarizing/concluding the outcome of the negotiation (follow up) table 2. moves in e-mails as suggested by the company. as we can see, the company suggested two moves less than those in the initial proposal for this study (see table 1). after reflecting on both classifications, we decided to use both frameworks, in order to classify and contrast the moves and variation found in the business e-mails in more detail. finally, the moves detected in the corpus were classified with a code denoting the move employed (for instance, m.1 is the code for the first move in bhatia’s proposal and m.1c is the code for the first move in the company model) and the results analysed. the results found in the steps of moves 5c and 6c are further discussed in the results section as variation in the writing of e-mails was found. several examples were also extracted from the corpus to comment our findings. the occurrences found in the moves were counted and the percentages and statistical data were also detailed in order to identify the results which were significant for the analysis. in order to calculate whether the results extracted from our corpus were significant, the software spss was used. we based our analysis on the indications provided by herrera soler, martínez arias and amengual (2011) and the standard error of the difference between independent proportions was estimated. the variations considered significant were analysed in depth and finally, the conclusions of this study were then drawn. m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): …-… moves m.1 referencing m.2 greeting/establishing credentials m.3 introducing the offer m.4 offering incentives m.5 using pressure tactics m.6 enclosing documents m.7 soliciting response m.8 ending politely table 1. initial classification of moves in e-mails following bhatia (1993). thirdly, the managers informed us that the company provided some guidance in order to facilitate communication and ensure that the information of interest was supplied, with the company being conscious of the need for some guidelines due to the different linguistic backgrounds of their employees. the moves proposed by the company for these e-mails are shown in table 2: moves m.1c reporting about the client/company visited m.2c reporting about the participants (customers) m.3c reporting about the agent participant m.4c reporting about the x company representative m.5c establishing the negotiation/description m.6c summarizing/concluding the outcome of the negotiation (follow up) table 2. moves in e-mails as suggested by the company. as we can see, the company suggested two moves less than those in the initial proposal for this study (see table 1). after reflecting on both classifications, we decided to use both frameworks, in order to classify and contrast the moves and variation found in the business e-mails in more detail. finally, the moves detected in the corpus were classified with a code denoting the move employed (for instance, m.1 is the code for the first move in bhatia’s proposal and m.1c is the code for the first move in the company model) and the results analysed. the results found in the steps of moves 5c and 6c are further discussed in the results section as variation in the writing of e-mails was found. several examples were also extracted from the corpus to comment our findings. the occurrences found in the moves were counted and the percentages and statistical data were also detailed in order to identify the results which were significant for the analysis. in order to calculate whether the results extracted from our corpus were significant, the software spss was used. we based our analysis on the indications provided by herrera soler, martínez arias and amengual (2011) and the standard error of the difference between independent proportions was estimated. the variations considered significant were analysed in depth and finally, the conclusions of this study were then drawn. results and discussion in the first part of the analysis, the corpus was scrutinized for the moves proposed in table 1. we used this classification of moves for the first round of the analysis of the e-mails, as it included more detailed aspects than the classification proposed by the company. in this study we considered whether the cultural or linguistic background produced variation in the structure or moves of business e-mails, interfering with their comprehension. the results obtained in this initial analysis can be observed in table 3, the percentage shown in brackets refers to the total of fifty e-mails analysed from each group. we can see that all the e-mails analysed contain moves 1, 2, and 8, and that none of them include moves 5 or 6. it would seem that the latter moves are not used by either group of writers because the e-mails in question are sent as reports to other members of the company; thus, the use of pressure tactics or the enclosing of documents seems to be unnecessary given that the purpose is merely to provide internal information. bhatia (1993) suggested these moves for letters presenting products and for self-promotion in business settings, but these were not the aims of the e-mails analysed. these results demonstrate that the purpose for which the e-mails are written must be taken into account when analysing the moves followed by the writers. finally, differences between the indian and chinese writers can be seen in the frequency of the use of moves 3, 4 and 7. chinese writers prefer to use moves 3 and 4 (introducing the offer and offering incentives), whereas indian writers prefer move 7 (soliciting a response from their counterparts). in summary, most of the e-mails in both groups include the moves described by bhatia (1993). examples 1 and 2 display the analysis of two e-mails from the corpus. m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): 55-7662 variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): …-… results and discussion in the first part of the analysis, the corpus was scrutinized for the moves proposed in table 1. we used this classification of moves for the first round of the analysis of the e-mails, as it included more detailed aspects than the classification proposed by the company. in this study we considered whether the cultural or linguistic background produced variation in the structure or moves of business e-mails, interfering with their comprehension. the results obtained in this initial analysis can be observed in table 3, the percentage shown in brackets refers to the total of fifty e-mails analysed from each group. indian group chinese group moves occurrences % occurrences % m.1 referencing 50 100 50 100 m.2 greeting/establishing credentials 50 100 50 100 m.3 introducing the offer 16 32 26 52 m.4 offering incentives 12 24 20 40 m.5 using pressure tactics 0 0 0 0 m.6 enclosing documents 0 0 0 0 m.7 soliciting a response 40 80 30 60 m.8 ending politely 50 100 50 100 table 3. analysis of the moves in the e-mails from india and china based on bhatia (1993). we can see that all the e-mails analysed contain moves 1, 2, and 8, and that none of them include moves 5 or 6. it would seem that the latter moves are not used by either group of writers because the e-mails in question are sent as reports to other members of the company; thus, the use of pressure tactics or the enclosing of documents seems to be unnecessary given that the purpose is merely to provide internal information. bhatia (1993) suggested these moves for letters presenting products and for self-promotion in business settings, but these were not the aims of the e-mails analysed. these results demonstrate that the purpose for which the e-mails are written must be taken into account when analysing the moves followed by the writers. finally, differences between the indian and chinese writers can be seen in the frequency of the use of moves 3, 4 and 7. chinese writers prefer to use moves 3 and 4 (introducing the offer and offering incentives), whereas indian writers prefer move 7 (soliciting a response from their counterparts). in summary, most of the e-mails in both groups include the moves described by bhatia (1993). examples 1 and 2 display the analysis of two e-mails from the corpus. example 1: moves followed by writers from india. m.1: durgeshwari garments pvt ltd. ghaziabad delhi : m.2: participants client: mr. roshan (owner) example 1: moves followed by writers from india. m.1: durgeshwari garments pvt ltd. ghaziabad delhi : m.2: participants client: mr. roshan (owner) participants agent: ravchem-delhi participants gfk: sai/pavan m.3: mr.roshan had come to our demo-centre in bangalore this week. they are looking to invest in laser & g-2 technology. they make 3000 jeans per day & market demand in b segment in delhi is growing. we were quite surprised to see customers in this segment looking to invest in laser/g-2. m.4: they are keen to set up this in the laundry in tronicaghaziabad town. we have given laser machine demonstration & g.2 machine samples were explained in detail. main concern for laser & g-2 was running this equipment well. they regularly visit thailand & guanghou will be happy to see machines even in this market in running/production facility. we did suggest customer to buy laser only-they are keen to invest in both. m.7: please, send them conditions m.8: best, sai with mrroshan example 2: moves followed by writers from china: m.1: ningbo youngor group m.2: dear jose, m.3: back from ningbo youngor group, feeling good since learn more about g2 and our customer. youngor plan to purchase more g2 if is workable. meanwhile, they interesting on bigmac, which we need to discuss later. meet ngai shing mr yu. he told me that yujia bought the domestic one and will inform me when they visit yujia next times. m. 4: aware the domestic one from company jing yida in panyu china. will visit there to check more in detail on their machine and come back vicente. shall send them machine samples. golden win group factory has postponed to june 04. variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): 55-76 63 m.7: let me know your opinion m.8: best regards channal jeanologia sl in the second part of the analysis, we classified the moves of the e-mails according to the recommendations given by the company (see table 2) in order to establish whether the writers followed the instructions of the company or if there was variation in the moves in the e-mails. the results of the analysis of the e-mails from india and china with regard to these six moves are shown in table 4. the percentage refers to the total of fifty emails from each group. the results of both groups show that the writers followed the instructions of the company in the first four moves and included all the information required. therefore, no variation has been found in the first four moves. however, variation has been found in the use of moves 5c and 6c, as can be seen in table 4. examples 3 and 4 display e-mails which follow the moves established by the company. we can observe that the purpose of these moves is just to report about the company, the participants, the local agent and the representative of the company, but the e-mails include all the information that should be reported to other offices and the description of the process in move 5c and move 6c. moves 1c, 2c, 3c and 4c are merely informative. example 3: moves 1c, 2c, 3c and 4c employed by indian writers: m.1c: this week was mainly in kingpin delhi show & bangalore visit with mr enrique. arvind exports mysore road bangalore m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): 55-7664 variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): …-… indian group chinese group moves occurrences % occurrences % m.1c reporting about the company visited 50 100 50 100 m.2c reporting about the participants in the meeting 50 100 50 100 m.3c reporting about the local agent 50 100 50 100 m.4c reporting about the representative of the x company in the meeting 50 100 50 100 m.5c establishing the negotiation description 42 84 28 56 m.6c summarising/ concluding the outcome of the negotiation (follow up) 50 100 36 72 table 4. results of the moves proposed by the company in the e-mails from india and china. examples 3 and 4 display e-mails which follow the moves established by the company. we can observe that the purpose of these moves is just to report about the company, the participants, the local agent and the representative of the company, but the e-mails include all the information that should be reported to other offices and the description of the process in move 5c and move 6c. moves 1c, 2c, 3c and 4c are merely informative. example 3: moves 1c, 2c, 3c and 4c employed by indian writers: m.1c: this week was mainly in kingpin delhi show & bangalore visit with mr enrique. arvind exports mysore road bangalore m.2c: participants customers: mr. hemanna t (consultant) mr shrinivas naik (laundry head) m.3c: participants agent: vijay-ravchem m.4c: participants x co: sai example 4: moves 1c, 2c, 3c and 4c employed by chinese writers: m.1c: yujia garment finishing limited m.2c: participants client: mr tommy m.3c: participants ngai shing: mr. chen ka ki m.4c: participants x co.: rafa / channa move 5c and 6c were analysed in more detail as we observed variation in their use. as most of the e-mails followed different strategies in establishing the description of the negotiation and in summarising and concluding the negotiation, we listed the steps followed in the e-mails in order to compare the results and the structures used. table 5 displays the steps and occurrences found in move 5c, confirming the hypothesis of this study; this is to say, there is variation in the structural organisation of texts produced by writers with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. move 5c was proposed by the company with regard to establishing the description of the negotiation and in the analysis of the corpus we identified ten different communicative sequences or steps. m.2c: participants customers: mr. hemanna t (consultant) mr shrinivas naik (laundry head) m.3c: participants agent: vijay-ravchem m.4c: participants x co: sai example 4: moves 1c, 2c, 3c and 4c employed by chinese writers: m.1c: yujia garment finishing limited m.2c: participants client: mr tommy m.3c: participants ngai shing: mr. chen ka ki m.4c: participants x co.: rafa / channa move 5c and 6c were analysed in more detail as we observed variation in their use. as most of the e-mails followed different strategies in establishing the description of the negotiation and in summarising and concluding the negotiation, we listed the steps followed in the e-mails in order to compare the results and the structures used. table 5 displays the steps and occurrences found in move 5c, confirming the hypothesis of this study; this is to say, there is variation in the structural organisation of texts produced by writers with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. move 5c was proposed by the company with regard to establishing the description of the negotiation and in the analysis of the corpus we identified ten different communicative sequences or steps. variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): 55-76 65 m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): …-… indian group chinese group m.5c establishing the description of the negotiation occurrences % occurrences % s.1 establishing the objective of the visit/meeting 2 4 28 56 s.2 establishing the description of the negotiation 12 24 28 56 s.3 providing information about the customer 34 68 0 0 s.4 providing information about the context (industrial sector, country, etc.) 8 16 6 12 s.5 setting forth the client’s plans and intentions 42 84 6 12 s.6 setting forth the client’s demands 16 32 0 0 s.7 providing information about the client’s reaction 16 32 2 4 s.8 providing information about the decisions made 4 8 4 8 s.9 providing information about problems 4 8 0 0 s.10 giving a personal opinion 24 48 4 0 table 5. steps (s.) followed for move 5c in the e-mails from india and china. it can be seen that in the e-mails from india, step 5, setting forth the client’s plans and intentions, was the most commonly used step in move 5c. step 3, providing information about the client, was also widely used, being the second most common step (68%). the third most frequently used step was step 10, in which the writer gives a personal opinion. however, it is noteworthy that steps 4, 8 and 9 were rarely included in the structure of the move. only a few writers considered it important to provide information about the decisions made, the context or any problems. in the chinese group, steps 1 and 2, establishing the objective of the visit or meeting and the description of the negotiation, were the most common. it is worth noting that chinese writers did not employ most of the steps in move 5c. the chinese writers did not provide as much information as the indian writers with regard to the description of the negotiation. communication was more concise in the chinese e-mails, as can be seen in examples 5 and 6. example 5: steps followed in move 5c in the e-mails from india. s.1: met mr. bakshi for business prospects. we had a meeting for g-2 plus machine. s.2: made them see laser & g-2 technologies. we made detailed presentation on water-less denim & tricast with laser s.3: they make 3000 jeans per day & market demand in b segment in delhi is growing. we were quite surprised to see customers in this segment looking to invest in laser/g-2. we were shocked to hear that for wholesale price of rs 400(approx. 8.8 usd) jeans, they are able to command rs 100(2.2 usd approx.) for wash/dry process!!!!. labour is getting expensive & cannot find even if they are ready to pay. next two to four years horizon many customers will be it can be seen that in the e-mails from india, step 5, setting forth the client’s plans and intentions, was the most commonly used step in move 5c. step 3, providing information about the client, was also widely used, being the second most common step (68%). the third most frequently used step was step 10, in which the writer gives a personal opinion. however, it is noteworthy that steps 4, 8 and 9 were rarely included in the structure of the move. only a few writers considered it important to provide information about the decisions made, the context or any problems. in the chinese group, steps 1 and 2, establishing the objective of the visit or meeting and the description of the negotiation, were the most common. it is worth noting that chinese writers did not employ most of the steps in move 5c. the chinese writers did not provide as much information as the indian writers with regard to the description of the negotiation. communication was more concise in the chinese e-mails, as can be seen in examples 5 and 6. example 5: steps followed in move 5c in the e-mails from india. s.1: met mr. bakshi for business prospects. we had a meeting for g-2 plus machine. s.2: made them see laser & g-2 technologies. we made detailed presentation on water-less denim & tricast with laser s.3: they make 3000 jeans per day & market demand in b segment in delhi is growing. we were quite surprised to see customers in this segment looking to invest in laser/g-2. we were shocked to hear that for wholesale price of rs 400(approx. 8.8 usd) jeans, they are able to command rs 100(2.2 usd approx.) for wash/dry process!!!!. labour is getting expensive & cannot find even if they are ready to pay. next two to four years horizon many customers will be forced to invest in technology. final selling price to wholesale market is between rs 300 to rs 400 per jeans. s.4: urban-outfitters main brand has moved out 40% production out of india. business gain has flown to vietnam market. the area has many labour problems & getting dry process staff is not easy situation. s.5: they are keen to see the machine in bangalore in week-12 in our democentre. may-2011 want to go to spain to visit our head office. customer is very interested to this in our demo-centre & also develop samples. they have plans to think about laser technology for new laundry. m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): 55-7666 s.6: immediately they want to see the equipment in running condition. in addition they would like to send some samples make it in g”, then get convinced on savings before final decision to purchase! s.7: they were quite impressed with g-2 samples shown. they have liked the samples presented in laser. they are quite interested in laser technology. s.8: mr shabir has asked for g-2 plus machine offer. they have agreed for laser machine amc. s.9: claim to have used the machine well-but production manager issues in production. s.10: if denim project comes then we have chance for investment. happy to see they get an order for 1.2 lakhs pcs from levis europe. this customer to change mindset– is going to take lot of effort/time for usage g-2 usage. example 6: steps followed in move 5c in the e-mails from china. s.1: this trip is by requested from customer to review the cds in bulk production. this trip major purpose to understand the market in hanoi and get chance to meet customer through their new product introduction exhibition and technical seminar for garment industry. s.2: none. s.3: tung shing sewing machine company limited has established in vietnam around 19 years already, and they are well known company, currently they are work as agent for many foreign brand. this company is factory with sewing + laundry in same district and this model becomes more and more in vietnam. they have 400 workers for factory. their major customer are tommy/ burberry/ justis /a&f/ core/ white house/ so denim (korea)/ jc penny. monthly production is 150,000 pcs denim per month, plus 100,000 to 150,000 pcs per month for knit and others. s.4: during visiting, “next” brand is approaching them and taking factory audit. philips explicit his point of view on garment market status, many factories will turn to build up in-house laundry, although currently many laundries still using illegal way to avoid water treatment issue. s.5: but, they plan to build a new laundry which 3 times bigger than existing, in order to improve their capability. they would like to place variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): 55-76 67 future orders keeping vietnam situation prospects. mr. allen clearly explicit that company will not interest to purchase g2. s.6: none. s.7: for this meeting customer focus on develop small laundry by using ngai shing washing / dryer machines, although like, before close the meeting, have brought up cds dyestuff for this customer and looking forward to visit them after chinese to develop more on cds. i met their technical manager, and they are not really interest in our technology indeed. s.8: billion horse confirmed will import the g2 and laser through ngai shing, and also purchase an extra process such as ventilation system. s.9: none. s.10: if tung shing becomes our agent in vietnam. that makes double win-win situation for all of us. the statistical analysis revealed important differences between the two groups of speakers. specifically, differences were found in the use of the steps establishing the objective and the description of the negotiation, providing information about the client, setting forth the client’s plans and intentions, providing information about the client’s reaction and giving a personal opinion. this indicates that the use of these steps varied according to the cultural background of the non-native speakers of english. the analysis indicated that indian writers employed steps 3, 5, 6, 7 and 10 significantly more frequently, whereas chinese writers used steps 1 and 2 significantly more frequently while using fewer discourse strategies than indian writers. the level for statistical significance was taken as p≤0.05 for both cases. finally, table 6 shows the results of the analysis of the variation found in use of the steps of move 6c, which concerns summarizing and concluding the negotiation. we detected five steps in this move in both groups of e-mails. m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): 55-7668 m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): …-… s.5: but, they plan to build a new laundry which 3 times bigger than existing, in order to improve their capability. they would like to place future orders keeping vietnam situation prospects. mr. allen clearly explicit that company will not interest to purchase g2. s.6: none. s.7: for this meeting customer focus on develop small laundry by using ngai shing washing / dryer machines, although like, before close the meeting, have brought up cds dyestuff for this customer and looking forward to visit them after chinese to develop more on cds. i met their technical manager, and they are not really interest in our technology indeed. s.8: billion horse confirmed will import the g2 and laser through ngai shing, and also purchase an extra process such as ventilation system. s.9: none. s.10: if tung shing becomes our agent in vietnam. that makes double winwin situation for all of us. the statistical analysis revealed important differences between the two groups of speakers. specifically, differences were found in the use of the steps establishing the objective and the description of the negotiation, providing information about the client, setting forth the client’s plans and intentions, providing information about the client’s reaction and giving a personal opinion. this indicates that the use of these steps varied according to the cultural background of the non-native speakers of english. the analysis indicated that indian writers employed steps 3, 5, 6, 7 and 10 significantly more frequently, whereas chinese writers used steps 1 and 2 significantly more frequently while using fewer discourse strategies than indian writers. the level for statistical significance was taken as p≤0.05 for both cases. finally, table 6 shows the results of the analysis of the variation found in use of the steps of move 6c, which concerns summarizing and concluding the negotiation. we detected five steps in this move in both groups of e-mails. indian group chinese group m.6c summarising and concluding the negotiation (follow up) occurrences % occurrences % s.1 establishing actions to be taken 38 76 36 72 s.2 establishing the action owners 50 100 18 36 s.3 summarising the client’s situation 0 0 4 8 s.4 providing information about the client’s reaction/decision 0 0 4 8 s.5 recommending strategies to follow and concluding 14 28 2 4 table 6. results of the steps (s.) employed for move 6c in the e-mails from india and china. all the participants of the indian group included step 2, while only 36% of the chinese writers considered it important to establish who the person to perform all the participants of the indian group included step 2, while only 36% of the chinese writers considered it important to establish who the person to perform the action would be in move 6c. this may be due to cultural influences on the writers’ part. the statistical analysis indicated that there were important differences in the use of steps for setting action owners, recommending strategies to follow and concluding. the statistical results indicated that indian writers employed steps 2 and 5 significantly more frequently, but the differences found in the results for steps 1, 3 and 4 cannot be considered significant and it can therefore be said that the use of these steps by both groups was similar. the level for statistical significance was taken as p≤0.05 in these steps. it should also be noted that around 70% of the writers of both groups included step 1 – that is, establishing the actions to be taken. in business, this is a very important issue to take into account. also, few writers from either group employed steps 3 or 4 – that is, summarising the client situation and providing information about the client’s decision. one would expect these steps to be important when concluding a negotiation; however, the results for both groups do not reflect this. the writers did not follow the same structure in the e-mails, avoiding the use of recommendations or of information about the decision of the client. the reporting of how the negotiation was concluded is important as the managers are then better informed and can react accordingly, and may better manage future contact and business negotiations with the customers. however, the chinese writers decided not to include information relating to several of the steps in move 6c. we can observe several examples of these occurrences found in the corpus in examples 7 and 8. example 7: steps of move 6c from indian e-mails. s.1: continue the initial link & later mr jayant-madura. & mr alex-laser co can take over for the consultancy project. push for meeting date for gonzalo visit in april-2011 with customer already given offer to mr hemanna for g-2 plus@180000 euro. check the laser amc for 2 machines in april/may-2011. s.2: in charge: sai with mr bakshi s.3: none. s.4: none. s.5. g2 essential spares follow up for stock. getting meeting for more variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): 55-76 69 factories in sri lanka next visit! need to check after new year april-2011/ mr vir spending some time on g2 usage example 8: steps of move 6c from chinese e-mails. s.1: will check with ngai shing for official contract. check the result after customer came back. s.2. i will do trial by myself and send return those trial samples after make trial. s.3: mr wong explicit that affected by economy status, all investments will freeze for this year. but, for cds, is under developing. s.4. mr alick present they do agree our g2 function. but, he does not have any right to make decision and recommend me to contact hk office, which we had visited before. mr allen clears explicit that company will not interest to purchase g2. for this meeting customer focus on develop small laundry by using ngai shing washing / dryer machines, although like, before close the meeting, have brought up cds dyestuff for this customer and looking forward to visit them after chinese to develop more on cds. s.5: as the coming half year, vietnam is my priority focus country, we fly more often and arrange customer meeting. will further discuss this with them when go there in mid-august. also worry the maintenance job task. by joining an exhibition and visit more vietnam, believe our product could launch into vietnam in short period time examples 7 and 8 demonstrate that the arrangement of e-mails changes depending on the nationality of the writer. the writers from china provide greater explanations within each step whereas the indian writers are more concise and do not elaborate to any great extent in their messages. these examples do not follow the same tendency than examples 3, 4, 5 and 6 as chinese writers tend to be more concise, but it seems they consider that summarising and concluding the negotiation should be explained in detail, as seen in examples 7 and 8. finally, figure 1 provides a visual representation of the results shown in tables 5 and 6, regarding the steps employed by the indian writers, and figure 2 illustrates the steps used by the chinese writers in moves 5c and 6c. m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): 55-7670 move 5c move 6c step 1 2 38 step 2 12 50 step 3 34 0 step 4 8 0 step 5 42 14 step 6 16 step 7 16 step 8 4 step 9 4 step10 24 step 1 step 1 step 2 step 2 step 3 step 3 step 4 step 4 step 5 step 5 step 6 step 7 step 8 step 9 step10 0 10 20 30 40 50 6 move 5c move 6c 0 step 1 step 1 step 2 step 2 step 3 step 3 step 4 step 4 step 5 step 5 step 6 step 7 step 8 step 9 step 10 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 move 5c move 6c move 5c move 6c step 1 2 38 step 2 12 50 step 3 34 0 step 4 8 0 step 5 42 14 step 6 16 step 7 16 step 8 4 step 9 4 step10 24 step 1 step 1 step 2 step 2 step 3 step 3 step 4 step 4 step 5 step 5 step 6 step 7 step 8 step 9 step10 0 10 20 30 40 50 6 move 5c move 6c 0 step 1 step 1 step 2 step 2 step 3 step 3 step 4 step 4 step 5 step 5 step 6 step 7 step 8 step 9 step 10 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 move 5c move 6c a comparison of the two figures reveals the differences in the moves and steps employed by the writers, with these varying according to their mother tongue and cultural background. we can observe when contrasting both figures that the steps in moves 5c and 6c are followed in quite a different way by the writers from india and china. variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): 55-76 71 variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): …-… figure 1. steps in moves 5c and 6c employed by indian writers. figure 2. steps in moves 5c and 6c employed by chinese writers. a comparison of the two figures reveals the differences in the moves and steps employed by the writers, with these varying according to their mother tongue variation of english business e-mails ibérica 26 (2013): …-… figure 1. steps in moves 5c and 6c employed by indian writers. figure 2. steps in moves 5c and 6c employed by chinese writers. a comparison of the two figures reveals the differences in the moves and steps employed by the writers, with these varying according to their mother tongue conclusions in the first stage of the analysis, most of the variation found in the moves proposed by bhatia (1993), and shown in table 3, centered on moves 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. the writers in both groups employed moves 1, 2 and 8. these moves represent the basic compulsory parts of e-mails: referencing, greeting and ending politely. however, it should be emphasised that the lack of occurrences of moves 5 and 6 is due to the nature of the e-mails included in the corpus. as they are reports from managers to the headquarters of the company, there is no need to use pressure tactics or enclose documents. on the other hand, variation was found between the non-native speakers of english in the use of moves 3, 4 and 7. chinese managers introduced the offers received and solicited a response; in contrast, indian managers solicited a response but did not include moves 3 and 4. in the second stage of the analysis no variations were detected in the first four moves – that is, the writers followed the company’s proposal for the structuring of their e-mails. most of the writers included six moves in the emails, although variation was seen in the use of moves 5c and 6c. at a more detailed level of analysis, variation was found in the use of different steps. on the one hand, move 5c concerned the description of the negotiation and it was subdivided into ten steps. the first step established the objective of the visit or meeting: the indian writers did not include this step in move 5c, while chinese writers often considered it important to do so (56%). the reason for this may be that the chinese writers of this study tended to express their ideas in a concise, precise and direct way, getting straight to the point (s.1 and s.2), whereas the indian writers preferred not to specify the objective of the visit, focusing on establishing the client’s plans and intentions (s.5) or providing information about the client (s.3). the analysis of the e-mails also revealed a preference by the indian writers for giving lengthy descriptions and additional information, whereas the writers from china were more synthetic and precise (see s.5 and s.7 in examples 5 and 6). the results for step 10, giving a personal opinion, also showed that the indian writers expressed their personal opinion in detail and the writers from china again employed a concise and brief style. on the other hand, move 6c, summarising and concluding the negotiation, was subdivided into five steps in order to identify the variation more precisely. variation was observed in form of the inclusion or omission of steps 2 and 5. step 2 established the person responsible for the follow-up of m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): 55-7672 the negotiation, and the indian writers included this in their e-mails, whereas the chinese writers chose not to do so. step 5 involves recommending strategies to follow and the indian writers included this, whereas the chinese writers did not consider this to be important. summing up, it was found that indian and chinese managers included standard information in their e-mails, such as the participants, the name of the company, the local agent, the representative (moves 1, 2, 3, 1c, 2c, 3c and 4c); however, the moves that involved descriptions or concluding remarks were not so frequently included. the writers preferred not to give personal opinions or describe future strategies. by contrasting the results obtained in moves 5c and 6c, it can be seen that most of the indian e-mails included more steps and information than the chinese e-mails (compare figures 1 and 2). we believe these findings support the research undertaken by rogerson-revell (2007) cheung (2011), carrió-pastor and muñiz calderón (2012a), carrió pastor and muñiz calderón (2012b), and weninger and kan (2013) in the sense that english used as a lingua franca in a business environment tends to vary, depending on the cultural, linguistic or social background of the speaker. after analysing the steps employed in these e-mails, it is our position that communication was not impaired when chinese writers did not include several steps in their e-mails; nevertheless, some relevant issues were not included, such as providing information about problems, and this could be problematic for the company. our recommendation is that especial care should be taken regarding e-communication training in international companies. managers should be aware of the fact that staff with different mother tongues may not use the same discourse strategies when communicating in english and this could lead to certain company information being lost. despite the fact that english is used as a global language, writers show their linguistic background when they communicate. further research could be carried out by contrasting this corpus of e-mails written by asian writers with e-mails written by non-native speakers from other countries, as the descriptive analysis of the english used by non-native speakers requires further study. other aspects such as the use of rhetorical aspects of english in international business english could also be included in further analyses. 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(2009). society and discourse. how social contexts influence text and talk. cambridge: cambridge university press. mª luisa carrió-pastor is a senior lecturer of english language at universitat politècnica de valència and a member of the applied linguistics department. her research areas are contrastive linguistics, variation and error studies as well as the analysis of academic and professional discourse. rut muñiz-calderón is a senior lecturer of english language at universidad católica de valencia, where she teaches at the faculty of business administration. her research areas are contrastive linguistics and the analysis of professional discourse. m.l. carrió-pastor & r. muñiz-calderón ibérica 26 (2013): 55-7676 vries, b. van der & h. meij (2003). “using e-mail to support reflective narration”. international journal of educational research 39: 829-838. warshauer, m. (1995). email for english teachers: bringing the internet and computer learning networks into the language classroom. alexandria, va: tesol. weninger, c. & k.h.-y. kan (2013). “(critical) language awareness in business communication”. english for specific purposes 32: 59-71. iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.47 abstract informing and engaging the public in new scientific findings is becoming increasingly important. graduate students are thus encouraged to develop skill in writing for an audience beyond their discipline. this article concerns writing by master’s biology students of an assignment-type modelled on news and views articles. published news and views articles, which are written by experts, summarise and critique a newly published study for the wider scientific community. to be convincing, academic writers must project an authoritative stance towards their topic and developing this ability is important for postgraduate students. they also need to be skilled at engaging readers, taking account of their readers’ prior knowledge and their readers’ need for recognition as disciplinary members. using hyland’s (2018) model of interactional metadiscourse, this article compares a corpus of 30 news and views assignments by master’s biology students with 55 biology news and views articles written by experts. we found that experts were skilled at using stance resources to project an authoritative identity, while students hesitated to explicitly include themselves in their writing; students’ use of stance resources also reflected the limited nature of their topic knowledge. students were relatively skilled at using engagement resources to include readers in the text, but some misjudged the audience and wrote for a broader, less knowledgeable audience. suggestions are made for how these findings can be used to guide students in expressing an authoritative stance and engaging their audience. keywords: stance, reader engagement, postgraduate writing, science writing, metadiscourse experts and students writing about science for a more general audience jean parkinson & zihan yin victoria university of wellington (new zealand) & australian national university (australia) jean.parkinson@vuw.ac.nz, zihan.yin@anu.edu.au 47 ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 jean parkinson & zihan yin resumen expertos y estudiantes que escriben sobre ciencia para un público más general informar y hacer partícipe al público de los nuevos descubrimientos científicos es cada vez más importante. por ello, se anima a los estudiantes de posgrado a que también desarrollen su capacidad de escribir para un público no especializado en su disciplina. en este artículo se analiza cómo redactan los estudiantes de máster de biología un trabajo basado en el modelo de los artículos “news and views”. este tipo de artículo, escrito por expertos, resume y critica un estudio reciente para la comunidad científica en general. para ser convincentes, los autores deben proyectar una posición de autoridad hacia su tema. desarrollar esta capacidad es importante para los estudiantes de posgrado. también deben ser hábiles para atraer a los lectores, teniendo en cuenta el conocimiento previo y su necesidad de reconocimiento como miembros de su disciplina. utilizando el modelo del metadiscurso interaccional de hyland (2018), el presente artículo compara un corpus de 30 tareas de “news and views” realizadas por estudiantes de biología de máster con 55 artículos de “news and views” de biología escritos por expertos. este trabajo evidencia que los expertos eran hábiles en el uso de recursos que proyectan una posición de autoridad, mientras que los estudiantes eran reticentes a incluirse de forma explícita en su escritura; el uso que los estudiantes hacían de recursos para marcar su posición (stance) también refleja su limitado conocimiento del tema. los alumnos fueron relativamente hábiles a la hora de utilizar marcas de compromiso (commitment) para incluir a los lectores en el texto, pero algunos no identificaron bien a sus lectores y terminaron escribiendo para un público más amplio y menos informado. por último, se ofrecen sugerencias sobre el modo en que se pueden utilizar estos resultados para guiar a los alumnos en la expresión de una posición de autoridad y en la apelación de su audiencia. palabras clave: posición (stance), participación del lector, redacción de posgrado, redacción de ciencia, metadiscurso 1. introduction learning to be appropriately critical in reviewing literature is important for postgraduate students (swales & lindemann, 2002; kwan, 2008). students must express a critical stance towards their subject matter and show a collegial relationship with their readers by gauging readers’ knowledge and disciplinary allegiances. focusing on the writing of biology master’s students, this article uses hyland’s (2018) metadiscourse framework to analyse writers’ expression of stance towards published research, and their engagement with 48 readers. in this article, we compare two related genres: published news and views articles and student assignments modelled on news and views articles (hereafter n&v). written by experts, n&v articles provide a summary of the findings of a newly published study and a critique of the study. published in nature-branded journals, n&v articles are addressed to the wider scientific community, rather than to those researching the topic. they are thus an example of the trend towards open science, involving the communication of scientific findings to a broader audience (fecher & friesike, 2014), examples of which include blogs (luzón, 2013) and news articles (miller, 1998). the specific aims of n&v articles are firstly a description of the research and, significantly, a critical assessment. this combination of summarising a study, critiquing it, and writing for an audience within the discipline but outside the topic makes this genre useful in developing graduate students’ critical literacy. 1.1. using professional genres as student assignments many student assignments are based on professional genres. examples are student case study assignments in business and engineering, which have similarities with and support development of professional writing in these fields. however, the difficulties for students in assuming professional identities and values in such assignments have been documented in studies such as esteban and cañado (2004), who describe the difficulties for students of assuming a different role from their usual academic/student role. such assignments function to give students experience of professional genres and induct students into the values of the profession. as berkenkotter and huckin (1993) note, in acquiring a genre, we also acquire the values of the community that uses the genre. thus, in learning to write a professional genre, students acquire linguistic features which are an expression of professional values, practices and identities (duff, 2008). likewise, student literature reviews, which have similarities with literature reviews in academic articles, function to scaffold students into a valued formal academic style, and draw students into the academic values of using literature in constructing arguments. however, student assignments based on professional genres differ in purpose and audience from the genres on which they are based, posing a complication for student writers (freedman et al., 1994); this is also true of n&v articles and the student assignments modelled on them. published n&v articles have the purpose of keeping the wider community informed experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 49 by summarising and critiquing a new study; in contrast, the purposes of student n&v assignments include improving graduate students’ skill at critiquing literature and at recontextualising a study for a broader audience. n&v articles are addressed to the wider scientific community, but while n&v assignments simulate an article addressed to the scientific community, their reader is the course instructor. students therefore have the difficulty of writing with an authoritative stance, despite being relative novices. another difficulty is addressing the broader research community, while being aware of their instructor as their real reader. to investigate their success in dealing with these difficulties, this article uses hyland’s (2018) stance and engagement framework, described in the next section. 1.2. theoretical framework: writer stance and reader engagement a variety of approaches has been used in studying the language that writers use to signal their opinions and attitudes. these approaches include stance (biber & finegan, 1989), evaluation (hunston & thompson, 2000), and appraisal (martin & white, 2005). hyland’s (2018) metadiscourse framework includes writer stance and reader engagement as elements of interactional metadiscourse. stance refers to language that writers use to convey an attitude toward their subject. it enables the writer to give their assessment of how likely, how important, how innovative the subject matter is. reader engagement refers to the language writers use to include the reader and to show assumptions about the readers’ membership of the discipline. both an authoritative stance and features that make the reader feel included function to persuade readers to accept the arguments that the writer advances. hyland’s framework includes four different stance features: attitude markers, boosters, hedges, and self-mention. attitude markers, used by academic writers to project an academic and critical stance towards research findings, are of three types (mur-dueñas, 2010). these are assessment (e.g. elegant and powerful in example 1), emotion (e.g. surprising in example 2) and significance (remarkably and contribution in example 3). example 1 king et al.1 present an elegant and powerful method to study the lysine carboxylome. [expert bsnv21]1 example 2 jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7850 this is surprising, noting how simple, reliable, and well understood the rat’s vs i region is [student nvsws12] example 3 this represents […] a remarkably large contribution for a single study to make [expert bsnv48]1 boosters, used to emphasise the significance of research findings, are also of three types (hyland & zou, 2021). certainty boosters indicate writer conviction (e.g. clearly and demonstrated in example 4). extremity boosters emphasise the extremes of a continuum (e.g. best in example 5 emphasises the value of the method used in the study being reviewed). intensity boosters amplify emotive strength (hyland & zou, 2021) as exemplified by particularly in example 6. example 4 the current study clearly demonstrated the physiological consequences of activating preand post-synaptic gabab receptors. [student, nvsws30] example 5 gong et al.2 report one of the best tools so far for the optical monitoring of neuronal activity [expert bsnv11] example 6 a particularly impressive discovery by the authors was the specificity of ocnh for lys-co2. [expert bsnv21] by using hedges writers show appropriate caution. plausibility hedges share with the reader the writer’s assessment of likelihood (might and speculate in example 7); rounders concern assessments of precision (generally in example 8); downtoners moderate the strength of a statement (just and only in example 9). example 7 the authors do report an interesting association of the 53 risk alleles with increased levels of circulating biomarkers for liver damage, on the basis of which one might speculate that this association is due to liver damage from excess liver fat [expert bsnv9] example 8 it seems likely to be generally true for dna targeting by crispr–cas enzymes [expert bsnv55] experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 51 example 9 previously, just one na+-binding regulator was known, the nhar transcription factor, which is only known to regulate a handful of genes. [expert bsnv41] using attitude markers, boosters and hedges, writers persuade the reader by giving their assessment of how important, significant, and likely the ideas being discussed are. such judgements support the writer’s display of authority and expertise. to an even greater extent, writers present themselves authoritatively through explicitly mentioning themselves (e.g. i, we, one) (see one in example 7) and their responsibility for ideas and actions. reader engagement features show recognition of the presence of the reader; through their use, the writer creates a relationship with the reader. hyland’s (2018) framework includes five means of engaging readers: use of reader pronouns, asides, questions, directives and references to shared knowledge. reader pronouns (e.g. inclusive we, our and us) explicitly including the reader in the text (in example 10 the reader is recognised as knowledgeable about the field of animal communication). example 10 this work strengthens our growing understanding of the field of animal communication. [student nvsws16] using asides (see example 11), which share the writer’s opinion or experience with the reader, the writer treats the reader as a fellow member of the discipline, almost as someone known to the writer. example 11 although a threefold difference could have conferred a substantial early relative advantage, the important question is not (and never was) what level of complexity could be reached with mitochondria [expert, bsnv37] by using questions, writers steer readers’ thoughts in a particular direction, as seen in example 12. example 12 although, what happens when so much glutamate gets stored in astrocytes, isn’t it toxic? [student nvsws20] jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7852 similarly, directives (e.g. note that…) guide the readers’ interpretation of the text. by referencing shared knowledge (of course…; well-known), the writer positions the reader as a disciplinary member. writers of academic texts use stance and engagement features to assist them to advance an argument and gain reader agreement with their arguments (mur-dueñas, 2010; hyland, 2018). these features help them write authoritatively and persuasively, displaying an appropriate disciplinary identity. the ability to project themselves as authoritative while at the same time engaging and convincing the reader is important for n&v article authors. the n&v author is an expert in the field of the scientific study being assessed who is writing for peers who are less knowledgeable in the sub-discipline than the author is. to be persuasive, the writer must acknowledge the reader as a fellow disciplinary insider while not overloading them with technical detail. for students, writing a n&v assignment is a complex task, because despite being novices, they must display an authoritative identity and use stance features to persuade readers of their arguments. they must also write inclusively for an imagined audience which is more general than their usual academic audience and less knowledgeable about the topic than they are, and this must be achieved without patronising the reader. 2. prior studies of stance and engagement hyland’s (2005b) study of stance and engagement in research articles in eight disciplines indicates that discipline is an important factor associated with variation in the signalling of writer stance and attempts to engage readers. he reports higher frequencies of stance and engagement devices in the humanities and social sciences than in science and engineering, suggesting the reason that the humanities and social sciences are more interpretive and thus use more hedges and markers of writer attitude in order to be persuasive. of interest for our study is that of the eight disciplines in hyland (2005b), biology had the lowest frequency of reader engagement features, with only 16.4 engagement markers per 10,000 words (compared for example to 48.5 in physics). except for hedges, stance features in biology were also comparatively low. similarly, hyland (2004a) found that biology postgraduate students used less self-mention and fewer engagement markers of the six disciplines in that study. experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 53 in recent years, several studies have focused on stance and engagement features in genres that recontextualise science for a general audience. depending on the genre, the audience can range from non-experts to members of the broader science community. audience is likely to be less predictable than the audience of a research article (zou & hyland, 2020). in science blogs, luzón (2013) found a range of strategies that engage readers, including humour, reader pronouns, questions, and popularising features like intertextual references. zou and hyland (2019) found that writers mentioned themselves more frequently in blogs than in research articles, suggesting that blogs are less formal and show greater reader-writer closeness. they also found significantly more reader pronouns (we, us, our) in blogs. doing more to ensure readers feel included may be more necessary given the less predictable audience. investigating another recontextualising genre, three-minute thesis presentations, hyland and zou (2021) found a higher frequency of stance markers than in research articles or academic blogs: with strict limits on time and a non-expert audience, speakers need to do much to persuade their audience. interestingly, they found more frequent stance markers in science than in social science presentations. our own prior study (yin & parkinson, 2021), comparing stance features in research articles and the n&v articles, found a greater frequency of all stance features excepting self-mention in n&v articles than research articles. however, we did not investigate student use of stance features. in the present study, we therefore investigate how students use stance resources to project an authoritative persona, as well as how they engage with readers in n&v assignments compared with expert use of these resources in published n&v articles. having reviewed prior studies of genres that recontextualise science and noted their more frequent use of stance and engagement resources, we now review studies of stance and engagement features of student writing. hyland’s (2004a) study of 240 doctoral and master’s dissertations in 6 disciplines (three in science and engineering) found phd writing to be closer to the writing of experts than master’s writing. phd writers used a greater frequency of all stance and engagement features than master’s students, except for attitude markers. most significantly, phd writers mentioned themselves far more than master’s students. hyland (2005a) concerned 64 final year undergraduate project reports. he found that published articles use more than double the frequency of reader jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7854 engagement devices. the difference for reader references was particularly marked (5.5/10,000 words for students and 24.8/10,000 words for experts). in interviews, students reported their view of academic writing as impersonal and objective and viewed use of reader engagement devices such as questions as inappropriate. the influence of educational experiences on use of stance and engagement features is suggested by two studies of undergraduate writing. firstly, lee and deakin (2016) stress the effect of prior teaching. they compared stance and engagement features in highand low-graded argument essays by undergraduate students whose first language was chinese and who were studying at a us university. successful essays contained a higher frequency of hedges, although use of boosters and attitude markers was similar. by comparison with l1 essays, the esl essays avoided self-mention. they suggest the chinese students’ reluctance to show their authorial presence reflects prior learning experiences that stressed an impersonal objective stance. a second study, by li and wharton (2012), notes the effect of current teaching. their study concerned two groups of chinese esl writers, one china-based, and the other uk-based. they found low self-mention by the china-based group (5.5/10,000 words), but high use by the uk-based group (126.4/10,000 words). they suggest this corresponds to differences in tutor feedback on student writing in the two contexts. they also found that the china-based group used more boosters and fewer hedges than the ukbased group. they explain that in the chinese rhetorical tradition writers make strong assertions to promote persuasiveness. another study, by lancaster (2016), compared patterns of stance and reader engagement in highand low-graded writing in economics. interviews with instructors showed that skill in use of these patterns influenced instructors’ judgements of writers’ critical reasoning. although the n&v genre is increasingly assigned to science graduate students at a range of universities (e.g., university of technology sydney; the australian national university; university of michigan; university of notre dame, usa)2, few studies have investigated their linguistic features. in particular, no studies known to us have investigated student writing of the n&v genre. to do so, this study considers the following research questions: 1. how does use of stance and reader engagement resources compare in published n&v articles written by expert scientists and n&v-style student assignments? experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 55 2. how does use of stance and engagement resources in n&v articles and n&v-style student assignments allow writers (a) to project an authoritative identity and (b) to construct a relationship with readers. 3. method 3.1. context students’ whose writing is analysed in this study were enrolled in a master’s programme in biology at an australian university. the programme was a regular master’s programme rather than an eap programme. the class included both australian students (generally first language speakers of english), and students from other countries, most of whom spoke english as a second language. similarly, the educational background of the students varied between those who had done their prior studies in australia and those who had studied in their home countries. thirty students gave informed consent3 for their writing to be analysed. also, the course instructor agreed to be interviewed about the assignment aims, and four students agreed to be interviewed about their experience of the assignment. we discuss the course and assignment in section 4. 3.2. the corpora thirty student assignments were collected from 2021 to 2022. fifty-five n&v articles, published between 2015 and 2022, were collected from a variety of nature-branded journals from the broad discipline of biology. five articles were collected from each of 11 different journals. this range of biology journals matches the similar breadth of interest of the student assignments, which ranged in topic from molecular biology to conservation biology. table 1. the corpora of student assignments and expert news and views articles to analyse the corpora, hyland’s (2018) list of interactional metadiscourse markers was supplemented by additional attitude markers identified by murjean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7856 " " t student assignments expert n&v articles number of texts/writers 30 55 words in corpus 29384 59878 average words per text 979.5 1088.7 dueñas (2010). also, all expert and student texts were read by the first author and additional markers were identified to supplement hyland’s list. this supplemented list is reflected in the counts and instances of stance and engagement markers in tables 2 to 12. wordsmith tools was then used to search the corpora for all instances of each marker of stance (hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-mention) and engagement. these markers were examined in context and coded to ensure they were functioning metadiscursively. markers of each type were quantified, and the two corpora were compared. stance markers were deemed frequent in the expert corpus if they were used 10 or more times; in the student corpus the level was set at markers used 5 or more times. levels of 6 for experts and 3 for students were used for engagement markers, which were less frequent than stance markers. the levels for frequent use for experts was set at twice that for student writers because the student corpus was half the size of the expert corpus (see tables 3, 6, 9 and 12). 4. the purpose of the assignment the assignments were collected from a master’s biology course intended to benefit students’ prospects for advancement in a biology career. the course focuses on preparing students for communication with both a scientific and a popular audience. in an interview, the course instructor outlined the assignment aim as allowing students: to communicate a complex scientific issue […] to communicate it to a more general audience, and also critically analyse [it] in their own words, so they can reflect on the robustness and the background, and the novel aspects of the research. the instructor reported that the course prepares students for a range of careers. in addition to academic careers, students go into health-related fields, environmental consulting, or teaching. in these contexts, “if they were talking to academics, specialists, it’s a little bit easier, but […] they need to be able to communicate the science to their colleagues, like to a non-specialist audience”. this is interesting as it shows the value placed by this master’s programme on communicating science to a public audience (fecher & friesike, 2014), and on teaching students to communicate with an audience beyond academia. thus, the intended audience of the assignment must be experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 57 carefully considered by student writers. instructions in the assignment prompt include that: you can assume that your reader has some knowledge of biology but is not a specialist in the area of your article. […] articles should not read like textbooks: most readers will have a general scientific background but specialized terminology should be avoided. you will be assessed on how well you have explained your article for the general reader. your assessors may not be experts in the area of the article you have chosen. the assignment is thus a complex task in that student writers must critique complex research while presenting an academic stance. they must present themselves as being an authoritative disciplinary insider. while taking account of a reader who is not an “expert in the area of the article”, they must avoid talking down to the reader by making the assignment “read like textbooks”. one student interviewed commented on the difficulty of striking the right balance between explaining complex information in an accessible way without patronising the reader: i think the hardest part is actually simply finding the information enough for like a general audience. i think you know the papers that we’re working with are really technical, so having to like really simplify and make sure that explaining [without] oversimplifying is the hardest for me. this shows student awareness of the need to take audience needs into account. the same student gave the following example of using synonyms to achieve this balance: my paper had worked a lot with like erythrocytes. so instead of using ‘erythrocytes’, i used ‘red blood cells’. 5. stance and engagement resources in n&v articles compared with n&v assignments in this section we address our first research question by comparing stance and reader engagement resources used in published n&v articles by expert scientists with those in n&v assignments. jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7858 5.1. attitude markers in expert and student writing as table 2 shows, expert texts used more attitude markers per 10,000 words, but this difference did not reach significance. table 2. attitude markers in student n&v assignments and expert n&v articles although expert and student writers used a similar number of attitude markers overall, table 3 shows that experts used a broader range of attitude markers than students. experts used a significantly wider range of assessment markers (which signal novelty and interestingness), and they used a wider range of attitude markers overall. this is likely to be at least partly because of experts’ more sophisticated expression and greater experience of writing. table 3. range of different attitude markers used in in student n&v assignments and expert n&v articles as mur-dueñas (2010) found in business management research articles, most attitude markers in our study are used seldom but a few are frequently used. table 4 shows the markers used frequently in each set of writing. markers used frequently in both sets of texts are bolded in table 4. table 4. frequent attitude markers in student n&v assignments and expert n&v articles experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 59 " " students expert log-likelihood n % / 10,000 words n % / 10,000 words attitude markers 326 110.9 723 120.7 1.63 ns assessment 199 61.0% 67.7 449 62.1% 75.0 1.45 ns emotion 24 7.4% 8.2 62 8.8% 10.4 1.01 ns significance 103 31.6% 35.1 212 29.3% 35.4 0.01 ns " " attitude markers student expert total number of attitude markers assessment 65 115 194 emotion 12 21 48 significance 27 42 58 total 103 178 300 " " attitude markers students experts assessment expected, first, new, novel, unknown, challenge, interesting, limited, insight comprehensive, successfully, first, new, novel, challenge, challenging, interesting, interestingly, unclear, limited, comprehensive powerful significance significant, key, critical, important essential, importantly, notably, major, key, important emotion surprising impressive for both groups, frequent assessment markers emphasised whether the critiqued research was novel, interesting, and the extent to which findings were limited or comprehensive. frequent in student but not in expert writing was successfully (example 13), while powerful (example 1 above) was frequent in expert but not student writing. successfully assesses the fact that the researchers managed to achieve a goal, while powerful assesses the level of excellence in achieving a goal. example 13 the authors have successfully demonstrated that the glutamine transporter is regulated by electrical activity [student nvsws13] in introducing the idea of limitations of the study being critiqued, student writers frequently used unknown (see table 4); instead experts used unclear (see table 4), followed by suggestions for the future direction that researchers could take to fill this gap (example 14). in contrast, student writers merely stated that something was unknown (example 15) or more vaguely said it could be researched in future. example 14 while the biological relevance of these distinct patterns is currently unclear, it provides a starting point for interrogation through future hypothesisdriven experiments. [expert, bsnv42] example 15 their work only alleviates the mechanism of one form of glutamate recycling, where it is left unknown as to the other possible sources of glutamate [student, nvsws13] as table 4 shows, students’ most frequent emotion marker (signalling emotional judgements) was surprising, as in example 2. surprising could signal student writers’ limited level of knowledge compared with experts. experts’ most frequent emotion marker was impressive (example 16) suggesting the experts’ greater experience in assessing research findings on a range from impressive to less impressive. example 16 this is an impressive achievement, because intact mammalian tissue is opaque and can be naturally fluorescent [expert bsnv11] jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7860 5.2. boosters table 5 shows that student writers used significantly more certainty boosters than expert writers, but significantly fewer extremity boosters. students used certainty boosters such as found, demonstrated and clearly (see example 4), stressing their strong commitment to the claims and the findings of the reviewed studies. experts used the extremity boosters least, most, completely and best more frequently than the student writers, (example 5 and example 17). this suggests that student writers expressed more certainty about what they said, but that experts were better placed to judge the quality of the studies on a continuum and identify excellent work; in example 17 an expert favourably compares the reviewed study to most studies today. table 5. boosters in student n&v assignments and expert n&v articles example 17 figure 1 … incorporates … metrics to provide a more comprehensive analysis … than is typically performed in most metagenome studies today [expert bsnv4] similar certainty boosters were used frequently by expert and student writers (table 6). however, some certainty boosters used only by students and not by experts could be argued to reflect an overly certain attitude: obviously, prove, sure, really, certainly, proved (example 18). little difference was found in the range of boosters used by students and experts. table 6. frequent boosters in student n&v assignments and expert n&v articles experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 61 " " students experts log-likelihood n % / 10,000 words n % / 10,000 words boosters 285 97.0 494 82.5 4.66, p < 0.05 certainty 265 93.0% 90.2 419 84.8% 70.0 10.23, p < 0.01 extremity 7 2.5% 2.4 55 11.1% 9.2 15.76, p < 0.0001 intensity 13 4.6% 4.4 20 4.0% 3.3 0.61 ns " " boosters student assignments expert n&v articles certainty known, knowledge, discovery, proved, know, shows, thought, evidently, demonstrate, clearly, clear, evidence, finding, show, showed, demonstrated, found established, knowledge, clear, thought, reveal, shown, discovery, demonstrate, demonstrated, find (v), finding, indeed, show, evidence, found intensity very particularly extremity most (at) least, most example 18 transcription factor rorγt has been proved to be an essential part of transcriptional programming (ivanov et al.1). [student nvsws27] 5.3. hedges overall, table 7 shows that student writers used slightly fewer hedges/10,000 words than expert writers, but this difference was not significant. table 7. hedges in n&v assignments and expert n&v articles however, expert writers used significantly more rounders. these stress the approximate nature of data or findings, so they show how certain or exact they are; they allow writers to make generalisations, which student writers may lack the knowledge to do. also, as table 8 shows, expert writers used a wider range of hedges. table 8. range of different hedges used in student assignments and expert n&v articles interestingly as table 9 shows, the rounders frequently used by expert writers suggested meanings of typicality (generally, largely, typically, usually, often) (see generally in example 8 above), while the rounders frequently used by student writers suggested meanings of approximation (about, around) (example 19). jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7862 " " students experts log-likelihood n % / 10,000 words n % / 10,000 words hedges 439 149.4 933 155.8 0.53 ns plausibility 345 78.6% 117.4 724 77.6% 120.9 0.20 ns rounders 35 8.0% 11.9 119 12.8% 19.9 7.73, p < 0.01 downtoners 59 13.4% 20.1 90 9.6% 15.0 2.92 ns " " hedges students experts total number of markers plausibility 40 60 92 rounders 11 22 23 downtoners 5 10 18 total 56 92 133 " table 9. frequently used hedges in student assignments and expert n&v articles example 19 they claimed that around 300 extracted proteins were identified as rbps in arabidopsis [student nvsws6] in expressing plausibility (estimation of likelihood), students relied heavily on the modal verbs may, could and would (example 20). this finding agrees with that of hyland (2004a, p. 140), who found may, could and would to be among the highest frequency items in his corpus of postgraduate theses. these modals accounted for 54% of the students’ plausibility hedges, compared with only 36% in the expert data. experts used a wider range of hedges than students, using more lexical verbs to express plausibility than student writers (indicates, seem(s), propose, predict, appears etc.) and a wider range of downtoners (e.g. broadly, merely, see example 9). in particular they used a wider range of rounders (e.g. generally, largely, typically, see example 8). example 20 this remarkable finding … may indeed also contribute to our understanding of pathophysiology at the synapse. [student nvsws17] 5.4. self-mention student writers used no self-mention at all (see table 10). this agrees with hyland’s (2004a) finding that master’s students were unlikely to mention themselves in their writing. expert writers used self-mention rather sparingly, and this was mostly exclusive we (example 21), or exclusive one, our or i (example 7). thus, expert writers stressed their own role in the ideas in their article, while none of the student writers felt able to foreground themselves by use of self-mention. a log-likelihood test showed this difference to be significant. experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 63 " " hedges students experts plausibility can, may, could, would, potential, might, suggests, suggested, possibility, possible, likely, potentially, implying, assumed, propose may, could, might, would, can, potential, suggests, likely, possible, suggest, probably, potentially, unclear, suggested, perhaps, possibility, indicates, seems rounders about, around, mainly, tend to generally, largely, typically, usually, often downtoners only, just only, almost " example 21 thus, we are tempted to speculate that a core component of the antibacterial response is direct killing mediated by mitochondria… [expert bsnv12] table 10. self-mention in expert writing 5.5. engagement markers overall, students used more engagement markers than experts. this difference, not quite significant at the p < 0.05 level, is accounted for by significantly higher use by students of reader mention (table 11). table 11. engagement markers in students and expert writing compared with hyland and jiang’s (2016) findings for biology research articles, both students and experts in the current study used reader engagement resources more frequently. this was particularly the case for reader mention (used 1.8 times per 10,000 words in hyland and jiang, 2016). also used far more frequently by both groups of writers in this study than by biology research articles (hyland & jiang, 2016) were questions and reference to shared knowledge. an exception is that hyland and jiang (2016, p. 33) report higher frequencies for directives in biology research articles than in our study. jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7864 " " e self-mention expert log-likelihood we (exclusive) 8 one (exclusive) 6 our (exclusive) 1 i 1 total 16 12.78, p < 0.001 / 10,000 words 2.7 " " student expert log-likelihood n % / 10,000 words n % / 10,000 words engagement markers 165 56.2 279 46.2 3.55 n.s. reader mention 67 40.6% 22.8 66 23.7% 11.0 17.22, p < 0.0001 appeals to shared knowledge 35 21.2% 11.9 100 35.8% 16.7 3.12 n.s. questions 33 20.0% 11.2 56 20.1% 9.4 0.68 n.s. directive 30 18.2% 10.2 44 15.8% 7.3 1.88 ns asides 0 13 4.7% 2.2 10.38, p < 0.01 r e reader mention as table 11 shows, students included the reader significantly more often than expert writers, using the pronouns inclusive we, our and us (example 10, example 22). example 22 if we can know the mechanism of this alternative metabolic pathway, we will have a further understanding of the apicomplexans parasite and will also help us provide a more complete solution for drug design. [student nvsws10] student writers also used you and your (example 23), which were unused by experts. example 23, from a student, has a textbook/journalistic style rather than a research article style: firstly, an everyday illustration is used involving the reader (you) cutting their finger while chopping vegetables; secondly, although the student writer is addressing a reader who is a trained biologist, or at least a member of the science community, they “translate” the technical term “regenerate” into lay language, “heal”, which could be viewed as patronising. instead, as suggested by the student we interviewed, regenerate could be replaced with heal. judging how much to simplify for readers requires judgement for students, making this “the hardest part” as one of our student interviewees noted (section 4). example 23 if you get hurt on your finger while chopping vegetables, the skin can regenerate (heal) after a few days [student nvsws20] although they did not use you and your, experts did use us, our and we, but significantly less often than students (see table 11). experts also used the more formal inclusive one (example 24), which was unused by students. example 24 why was the mitochondrion initially necessary then, if not for energetics? this question is inherently flawed. rather, one should ask: what was its immediate benefit when engulfed? [expert bsnv37] asides although experts used asides sparingly, student writers used none at all. in an aside, the writer adds their own personal comment and judgement. experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 65 because expert writers know more, they are more likely to have welldeveloped opinions and judgements (see example 11). appeals to shared knowledge experts used appeals to shared knowledge more than students, but this difference did not reach significance. this was the most common of the five reader engagement categories used by experts. the most common marker used by both groups was the marker of logical reasoning ‘it is adj to’ (e.g. example 25). example 25 thus it is reasonable to imagine that the mechanism is analogous to that of cas9 [expert, bsnv55] expert writers also used humorous titles such as the pun in example 26, or titles that employ shared/common metaphors more commonly than student writers. luzón (2013) reports humour in science blogs, and carter-thomas and rowley-jolivet (2020) report a similar use of catchy titles in three-minute thesis presentations, where they serve as a hook to draw in the audience. example 26 synapses get together for vision (expert bsnv6) directives writers in both groups had a tendency to use the obligation modals need to, must, and should, (example 27) and both groups of writers used fewer directives in the form of lexical verbs. use of modal verbs was particularly pronounced in the student writing. example 27 to depict a big picture of circadian clock regulation, further researches of these three pathways should be the main direction of future. [student nvsws14] questions experts and students used questions to engage readers equally often. a difference was that students invariably used questions framed as interrogatives (with a question mark). example 12 is from a student, and jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7866 example 24 is an expert example. experts also quite frequently framed questions as “a question that arises is…” or similar. as table 12 shows, a limited range of markers were used with any frequency. of interest is the frequent expert use of markers of typicality established, normally, conventional, typical (example 28). because they know more, they have knowledge of what is typical that students lack. table 12: frequent engagement markers in student assignments and expert n&v articles example 28 this suggests that peptidergic signalling is probably mediated by neuropeptide diffusion through tissues and not by synaptic wiring typical of bilaterian nervous systems. [expert bsnv36] 5.6. comparing frequency of stance and engagement features in n&v with frequencies in other genres in sections 5.1-5.5, we compared use of stance and engagement features of student n&v assignments and expert n&v articles. in this section we consider how both of these genres compare with other genres: research articles (hyland, 2005b, p. 187), academic blogs (zou & hyland, 2019, p. 720) and postgraduate theses in biology (hyland, 2004a, p. 144) (figure 1). figure 1 clearly shows that in terms of frequency of stance features, student n&v assignments and expert n&v texts are situated below academic blogs and above both research articles and postgraduate theses in biology. the exception is that both student n&v assignments and expert n&v articles research articles have a lower frequency of self-mention than either research articles or postgraduate theses in biology. experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 67 " " engagement marker students experts reader mention we, our, us, you, your we, our, us, one appeals to shared knowledge it is adj to, humorous title, of course, we know, well known it is adj to, humorous title, established, normally, conventional, typical questions ? ?, ‘question’ directivemodals should, need to, must should, need to, must directive see asides (n) ( ), — i figure 1. stance features in student and expert n&v compared with research articles, blogs, and postgraduate biology theses. figure 2 compares our findings for engagement features in student n&v assignments and expert n&v articles with biology research articles hyland (2005b, p. 187) and academic blogs (zou & hyland, 2019, p. 720)4. again, the general trend is for the frequency of engagement features for student n&v assignments and expert n&v texts to be less than academic blogs and higher than research articles. the exception to this trend is that research articles use more directives than the n&v genres. figure 2. engagement features in student and expert n&v compared with research articles and blogs. figures 1 and 2 indicate how the n&v genre, whether written by experts or students, compares with research articles, biology theses and blogs. like blogs, the n&v genre recontextualises research originally written in the jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7868 " " attitude boosters hedges self-mention academic blogs 185 149,9 247,7 103,9 student assignments 110,9 97 149,4 0 expert n&v articles 120,7 82,5 155,8 2,7 biology research articles 29 39 136 34 postgrad biology theses 15,5 30,5 82,1 5,7 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 fr eq ue nc y/ 10 ,0 00 w o rd s " " reader pronouns shared knowledge questions directives asides academic blogs 53,1 15,8 23,5 14,8 0,6 student assignments 22,8 11,9 11,2 10,2 0 expert n&v articles 11 16,7 9,4 7,3 2,2 biology research articles 1 1 1 13 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 fr eq ue nc y/ 10 ,0 00 w o rd s more formal and restrained expression in research articles and theses. however, being intended for a disciplinary audience, it is more cautious in expression than academic blogs and does not share the level of engagement of blogs, whose intended audience is more general than n&v articles. 6. projecting an authoritative identity and constructing a relationship with readers in expert n&v articles and student assignments in the previous section we compared use of stance and engagement resources in expert and student writing. this section builds on this to address our second research question by discussing use of stance and engagement resources (a) to enable writers to project an authoritative identity and (b) to construct a relationship with readers. 6.1. stance differences: projecting an authoritative identity we begin this section by summarising and discussing the stance features in student compared with expert n&v writing, and what this implies for the values and identities being projected (berkenkotter & huckin, 1993; duff, 2008). we then move on to consider how the roles and identities of n&v writers, whether student or expert, differ from those expressed when scientists write other genres. expression of stance in the two data sets suggested that experts used a variety of stance features that reflect their identity as experts and demonstrate their greater insight and knowledge than the student writers. understandably, student writers were more likely to use stance features suggesting limited knowledge. as shown in figure 1, zou and hyland (2019) found that academic blogs, aimed at a general audience, have significantly more attitude markers, than research articles which tend toward reticence. between these two frequency extremes is the frequency of attitude markers in both n&v genres in our study (figure 1), reflecting an audience of disciplinary insiders rather than a more general audience as in blogs. comparing the attitude markers used by the two groups in our study, those signalling assessment and emotion supported the impression of greater knowledgeability of the experts. both groups frequently commented on novelty and interestingness (table 4). experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 69 however, successfully (example 13) was only frequent in student writing while powerful (example 1) was only frequent in expert writing. successfully shows student writers commenting favourably that the researchers achieved their goals, while experts assessed how well the researchers achieved their goals. this difference could be interpreted as reflecting experts’ greater ability to judge the level of achievement of the research. their use of attitude markers also showed experts’ deeper perspective on the field. an example is students’ frequent use of unknown in talking about limitations of the study being reviewed compared with experts’ frequent use of unclear combined with a specific suggestion for future research (table 4, example 14, and example 15). this demonstrates how stance features show an experts’ identity as an experienced, knowledgeable researcher who can situate a study within past and future research. in contrast, student writers understandably don’t share this depth of perspective of the field. also suggesting experts’ knowledge is students’ and experts’ different use of attitude markers signalling emotion. students’ most frequent marker was surprising, possibly suggesting inexperience. experts’ most frequent marker was impressive, suggesting that experts’ experience enabled them to make this assessment of where the research finding sits on a range from impressive to less impressive, just as they are able to judge a study as powerful or less powerful. these expressions of emotion in both n&v genres in our study could nevertheless be regarded as restrained and academic when compared with those (e.g. impressed, happy, guilty, excited) found in a study of blogs by luzón (2013). an expert identity was also expressed via boosters. student writers used significantly more boosters overall than experts, as well as significantly more certainty boosters. student writers chose to convince readers by stressing how certain they were; this high frequency of boosters corresponds with zou and hyland’s (2019) findings for blogs. experts used more extremity boosters, such as most and best, significantly more frequently, showing their greater ability compared with student writers to make judgements concerning the expected range (example 5, example 17). this agrees with experts’ use of assessment markers (e.g. powerful and impressive) which also show experts’ ability to judge the range of research. in contrast, students frequently used some certainty boosters which were avoided by experts including prove and obviously (also found to be very common in blogs by zou and hyland, 2019). these project an overly certain tone, reflecting limitation in student writers’ expression. experts by jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7870 comparison had greater control of the academic scientific register and their significantly wider range of attitude markers and hedges as resources for expressing stance are part of their more nuanced control of this register. another stance resource that contributed to expert’s expression of a knowledgeable identity was their use of significantly more rounders, hedges that provide an assessment of approximation (see table 9, example 8). meanings implying typicality were used particularly frequently by the experts but not by the student writers. knowledge of what is typical requires a broader knowledge of the field, which the expert writers have. self-mention was also important in enacting an expert identity. as murdueñas (2007) found, in research articles authors use self-mention to stress the novel contribution of their research. the use of self-mention is somewhat different in n&v articles where it is used to stress that authors are expressing their own opinion and making their own assessment. experts used exclusive we, one, our or i to take responsibility for what they said. the expert writers were clearly confident stressing their own role in the ideas being expressed. in stark contrast, there was absence of use of these resources by students, which agrees with a finding by hyland (2004a) that biology postgraduate students used the lowest frequency of self-mention of the six disciplines in that study. hyland and jiang (2016) note that these resources denote authority; they also guide the reader through the argument. in contrast, students’ lack of exclusive we, one, our or i shows hesitation in enacting an expert identity. another consideration is that students may be orienting to the academic context; through the period of their academic studies, it is likely that they have been discouraged from using these resources. this finding of students avoiding self-mention corresponds to that of hyland (2004a), who found that the more experienced phd writers in his study used self-mention far more than master’s students, who said in interviews that they avoid doing so. our findings in this study emphasise how linguistic features express the values and identities of a genre (duff, 2008). although authors of n&v articles and authors of research articles belong to the same community, they play a different role in writing the two genres. our findings show how n&v writers shift the linguistic features of their writing to express an identity that is less circumspect than that required when writing a research article. the greater frequency of attitude markers and boosters in n&v writing compared with research articles shows that the authors shift to be more experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 71 evaluative and more committed to their opinions in that their role as a n&v author is to place the research in a broader perspective for readers and consider the future possibilities of the research field. comparing the student n&v writing with the expert n&v writing it is clear that the experts express a far more expert identity. however, comparing both n&v genres with research articles and blogs (fig 1), we see that the students have been successful in shifting their stance to be more evaluative and less detached than a research article or thesis. this suggests the value of the n&v genre as a means of developing critical evaluation. 6.2. reader engagement: constructing a relationship with readers in contrast to hyland’s (2004b) finding that final-year undergraduate projects in hong kong used only half as many instances of the reader engagement strategies of research articles, students in this study used about the same amount as experts. compared with the undergraduates described by hyland, the students in the current study, being master’s students, were more advanced in their discipline, and were more likely to already identify as biologists. importantly, the assignment task required them to view themselves as writing for fellow biologists. however, comparison with hyland and jiang’s (2016) analysis of biology research articles shows that published n&v articles do far more to engage the reader than research articles. it is likely that the less specialised readership of the n&v article requires more emphasis on community and commonality. student writers in our study included the reader significantly more often than expert writers, using inclusive uses of we, our and us (example 10, example 22) although still not to the same extent as in blogs (zou & hyland, 2019). by this means, student writers constructed themselves as part of a community of biologists which includes both themselves and the readers. this is interesting when taken in conjunction with absence of self-mention by student writers and might suggest that students identify more with their own perspective as readers rather than as experts in the field. in contrast, as indicated by expert use of self-mention, the expert writers’ perspective was firmly as a knowledgeable authority critiquing a new study in their field. this suggests the students were partially enacting a reader identity while the expert writers were enacting an identity as an authority. student writers also used you and your, which were absent from the expert writing. as discussed in relation to example 23, use of these pronouns jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7872 sometimes suggested a textbook style, in which the writer is constructed as a “knower” compared with the reader. this impression was also promoted by translation of technical terms into lay language, suggesting a reader that is less knowledgeable than the writer. this misconstrues the readers’ level of knowledge, whether the imagined reader is a biologist reading a n&v article, or the course instructor reading an assignment. to address a community that includes the writer and readers, experts avoided you and your, instead using us, our and we, although less often than students. experts also used one (example 24), which is more formal than us, our and we and was unused by students. thus, experts’ use of reader pronouns showed more distance and formality than students. another feature in the expert writing suggesting greater formality and less reader engagement was use of questions. as hyland (2002b) notes, questions, although an important strategy in engaging readers, are avoided in research articles, and indeed hyland and zou (2019) found far greater use of questions in blogs than in research articles. students used more questions than experts and in this way were more engaging of readers than experts, student writers also framed questions as interrogatives, using a question mark. in contrast, experts frequently framed questions as “a question that arises is…”, which is more formal and arguably less engaging. appeals to shared knowledge were used by the expert writers more frequently than by the student writers. this may reflect expert writers more central membership of the biology research community and their greater awareness of the knowledge shared amongst readers. both shared knowledge and asides were used by experts more frequently than blog writers (zou & hyland, 2019) or research article writers (hyland 2005b). in our study, asides were used by experts but not students. experts used asides to share deeper insights as well as their own opinions and knowledge with readers. an aside treats the reader almost as a friend. use of asides constructs expert writers as part of a community that shares the same values. it also shows greater confidence to share their own opinions and insights. as experts in their field, they are aware that their judgements will be acceptable to readers. this is not the case with the student writers who as relative novices have less knowledge and are as yet unknown in their field. although there were some differences in use of engagement features in the two corpora in our study, comparing both n&v genres with research articles and blogs (fig 2), as figure 2 shows, the students have been successful in experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 73 shifting their expression so that it falls between expression in blogs and in research articles to more or less the same extent as expert n&vs. they have been successful recontextualising research for an audience that is broader than the audience of a research article, yet narrower that the audience of blogs. 7. conclusion in conclusion, and as might be expected, students were less skilled at enacting an expert identity than experts. two important factors contributed to this, with the first being avoidance of personal pronouns that explicitly mention themselves and take responsibility for ideas being advanced. this avoidance reflects firstly their possible sense that they are not yet authorities in this field, secondly their inexperience of academic writing at this level, as well as their student identity. another contributing factor was students’ less expert use of stance resources, such as attitude markers that stressed their limited knowledge and use of certain boosters suggesting an overly certain tone. in contrast, experts were skilled at enacting an expert identity through use of pronouns stressing their own responsibility for their ideas. experts also signalled this by their use of attitude markers, hedges and boosters that made clear their experience and knowledge of the field and consequent ability to judge the worth of new research. this greater knowledge of the field meant they were better able to use hedges (rounders) to generalise and extremity boosters to compare the excellence of the study being discussed with others in their experience. however, although less skilled at enacting an expert identity than experts, it is clear from our findings that students have been successful in appropriately shifting their stance from the more cautious expression found in research articles and theses in the direction of the more enthusiastic expression of popular science as reflected in blogs. students made good use of questions to engage readers. they also used more reader pronouns, although sometimes tended to be a bit patronizing, suggesting they had not quite judged the intended readers accurately. again, their greater knowledge meant that experts were better able to include the reader through use of asides and appeals to shared knowledge. jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7874 7.1. implications for teaching our findings have implications for teaching, either by biology professors introducing the n&v assignment to their postgraduate students or by esp teachers involved in this teaching. these suggestions build on multiple prior studies which suggest the benefits of developing writer identity by guiding students’ analysis of expert practices. for example, hyland (2002a) suggests allowing students to analyse the use of personal pronouns in a typical research paper in the students’ discipline. swales and lindemann (2002) discuss guiding graduate students to analyse research article abstracts before writing one themselves. similarly, in teaching the n&v assignment, classroom discussion and analysis of an expert n&v article and identification of both stance and engagement features would be useful. firstly, teaching should address with students the need for writers to include themselves in their texts to project an authoritative academic identity (hyland 2002a). real examples from professional n&v articles could be used to show how experts achieve this, and the contexts in which they use self-mention in their writing. attention could also be given to how experts use rounders and meanings of typicality (such as generally, largely, typically, usually, often) to make generalisations. in addition, experts’ use of extremity boosters (such as most and best) in judging quality would be useful. once again real examples from n&v articles could be used to demonstrate to students how experts achieve this. further classroom discussion should be given to who the intended readers of a n&v article are. the benefits of students’ considering who their intended reader is have been discussed in many studies. for example, studies such as forman and rymer (1999), gardner (2012), and freedman et al. (1994) have found that students tend to address the instructor as audience rather than the ‘imagined’/intended audience such as a client. although the assignment prompt in this assignment stressed that intended readers were disciplinary insiders and that a textbook tone should be avoided, some students still produced writing that was a bit patronising. discussion of how expert texts include readers through appeals to shared knowledge, humour and asides would be useful. article history: received 13 november 2022 received in revised form 23 february 2023 accepted 2 march 2023 experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 75 references jean parkinson & zihan yin ibérica 45 (2023): 47-7876 berkenkotter, c., & huckin, t. n. (1993). rethinking genre from a sociocognitive perspective. written communication, 10(4), 475509. https://doi.org/10.1177/074108839301000 4001 biber, d., & finegan, e. 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(2013). public communication of jean parkinson teaches in the school of linguistics and applied language studies at victoria university of wellington. she has published widely on science and technology discourse. zihan yin has taught applied linguistics and esl/eap at universities in australia, new zealand and china. zihan’s recent publications include the co-edited book multifunctionality in english: corpora, language and academic literacy pedagogy. notes 1 here and throughout the article, notations such as ‘bsnv21’ and ‘nvsws12’ refer to texts from our expert and student corpora respectively. 2 links to task descriptions at these institutions may be found at: https://handbook.uts.edu.au/ subjects/details/91817.html; https://programsandcourses.anu.edu.au/2019/course/biol8291/second% 20semester/7680; http://www.umich.edu/~pwlab/grading%20criteria.pdf; https://www3.nd.edu/ ~mpfrende/evolutionary_biology/assignments%202017/assignment%201%20-%20news_views.pdf 3 ethical approval for the authors to collect student assignments and to interview instructor and students was granted by australian national university (record number 12073) 4 hyland (2004a) did not report on frequency for each engagement feature. experts and students writing about science for a more general audience ibérica 45 (2023): 47-78 77 science in blogs: recontextualizing scientific discourse for a diversified audience. written communication, 30(4), 428-457. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0741088313493610 martin, j. r., & white, p. r. 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(2021). critical review of literature: the case of the news and views genre. journal of english for academic purposes, 51, 100972. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2021. 100972 zou, h., & hyland, k. (2019). reworking research: interactions in academic articles and blogs. discourse studies, 21(6), 713-733. https://doi. org/10.1177/1461445619866983 zou, h. j., & hyland, k. (2020). managing evaluation: criticism in two academic review genres. english for specific purposes, 60, 98-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2020.03.004 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper aims at quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing the use and distribution of informality features in a comparable corpus of research articles (ras) written by l1 chinese scholars (css) and l1 english scholars (ess) across four disciplines. the normalized frequencies of eleven informal features were calculated and compared first between ess’ and css’ ras in the same discipline and then across the four disciplines. four features, namely first person pronouns, pronominal anaphoric reference, sentence-initial conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs, and imperatives, were identified to be the contributing factors and analyzed qualitatively. the results demonstrate that: (i) there is significant difference in the use of informality features between ess and css with css employing informality features less frequently than ess; (ii) disciplinary variations are present with physics ras sounding more informal and linguistics ras more formal; (iii) the distribution of specific informality features presents a diversified picture: css’ use of first person pronouns and pronominal anaphoric references is less frequent, and their use of imperatives and sentence-initial conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs is more frequent than ess’. these findings shed light on teaching academic writing and provide writers with some guidance about stylistic choice. keywords: informality features, corpus, cross-disciplinary, academic writing, style. resumen estudio de los rasgos de informalidad en la escritura académica de investigadores ingleses y chinos de diferentes disciplinas en un corpus comparable a comparable-corpus-based study of informal features in academic writing by english and chinese scholars across disciplines gao xia beihang university, beijing (china) gaoxiasjtu@126.com 119 ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140 gao xia este artículo analiza cuantitativa y cualitativamente el uso y la distribución de rasgos de informalidad en un corpus comparable compuesto por artículos de investigación de cuatro disciplinas escritos por dos grupos de investigadores conformados de acuerdo con su lengua materna: el chino o el inglés. para ello, se han calculado las frecuencias normalizadas de once rasgos de informalidad y se han establecido comparaciones entre investigadores chinos y angloparlantes de la misma disciplina, por un lado, y entre las cuatro disciplinas, por otro. se han identificado cuatro mecanismos especialmente relevantes, que han sido objeto de un análisis cualitativo: los pronombres de primera persona, la referencia anafórica pronominal, las conjunciones y adverbios conjuntivos en posición inicial, y los imperativos. los resultados demuestran que (i) existe una diferencia significativa en el uso de rasgos de informalidad entre investigadores anglófonos y chinos, ya que los investigadores chinos los emplean con menor frecuencia; (ii) existen algunas variaciones entre disciplinas, dado que los artículos de física resultan más informales que los de lingüística; (iii) la distribución de algunos rasgos de informalidad específicos evidencia un panorama más heterogéneo: los investigadores chinos emplean con menor frecuencia los pronombres de primera persona y las referencias pronominales anafóricas, mientras que recurren con mayor frecuencia que los angloparlantes a los imperativos y a las conjunciones y adverbios conjuntivos en posición inicial. estos resultados arrojan luz sobre la enseñanza de la escritura académica y ofrecen a los investigadores algunas orientaciones acerca de ciertas elecciones estilísticas. palabras clave: rasgos de informalidad, corpus, pluridisciplinar, escritura académica, estilo. 1. introduction a widespread general assumption in recent years is that writing in many domains has become less formal (e.g. fairclough, 2001; foster, 2005; hyland & jiang, 2017). informality is said to have “invaded a large range of written and spoken domains once characterized by formality (journalism, business correspondence, administrative documents, etc.)” (hyland & jiang, 2017: 40). whether this trend has spread to academic writing has become a growing interest of applied linguistics (e.g. atkinson, 1999; biber & gray, 2016; hyland & jiang, 2017; mair, 1998). some diachronic corpus-based studies found a gradual shift from the detached, objective style to the more personal, involved trend in academic prose (mair, 1998; taavitsainen, 2002; hyland & jiang, 2017) while others found little influence of colloquialization on academic writing (seone & loureiro-porto, 2005; biber & gray, 2016). studies either focused on the use of particular lexical and grammatical 120 features regarded as informal such as first person pronouns (flowerdew, 2001; hyland, 2002; harwood, 2005; martínez, 2005; mur dueñas, 2007; lafuente, 2010), imperatives (swales et al., 1998), pronominal anaphoric references (swales, 2005; gray & cortes, 2011; wulff, römer & swales, 2012), contractions (wang & wang, 2017), and sentence-initial conjunctions (bell, 2007) or lumped together all informal features and considered their total occurrence as evidence of more or less informality (chang & swales, 1999; hyland & jiang, 2017). informality of academic writing was interpreted as containing spoken features (barton, 1994; lillis, 2013), deploying a narrative style (biber, 1988), or using high percentages of verbs, prepositions, and pronouns etc. (heylighen & dewaele, 2002) in different studies. while these investigations have shed light on professional writers’ stylistic practices, few of them have focused on any particular writer groups and explored how informality is represented in their writing. that is, analyses available tell us little of how writers’ linguistic backgrounds interact with disciplinary conventions to impact their stylistic choice in academic writing. in this paper we research how informality is represented in research articles (ras) by l1 chinese scholars (css) and l1 english scholars (ess) across four disciplines. by investigating what types of informal features css and ess use in their ras and in what way their use differs, we hope to gain better understanding of the extent to which writers’ linguistic backgrounds and disciplines influence their stylistic choice. 2. prior research on the (in)formality of academic writing formality of writing has long been of interest in the study of language and discourse. it is difficult to define as readers claim a piece of writing as (in)formal based mainly on their instinct or general impression. some researchers associated informality with everyday oral conversation in polar opposite to formal written language (atkinson, 1999; barton, 1994; lillis, 2013) and defined spoken-like features such as involvedness, interaction, redundancy, false starts etc. as typical of informal style. others, however, dismissed the modality distinction and defined formality according to the situation or context a discourse event occurs or the targeted audience or purpose (heylighen & dewaele, 2002). that is, formal discourse occurs a comparable-corpus-based study of informal features in academic writing by english and chinese scholars across disciplines ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140 121 when one addresses an educated audience and needs to be precise, coherent, articulate, and convincing. some studies on academic writing argue that (in)formality of a discourse is the occurrences of interwoven features prescribed by writing textbooks and journal style guides. chang and swales (1999), for example, in their survey of 40 style manuals, identified and investigated the use of 10 most commonly mentioned informal features in ras and reported prominent use of some features (e.g., demonstrative pronoun this, sentence-initial conjunctions/adverbs) across disciplines and disciplinary preference for particular features (e.g., less contractions in statistics). hyland and jiang (2017) furthered this line of study and investigated the use of 10 informality elements in 360 published ras from 1965 to 2015 to find an increase of around 2% in the use of informality features with writing in hard science disciplines becoming more informal and that in social science slightly more formal. though residing at the slow end of “a cline of openness to innovation ranging from ‘agile’ to ‘uptight’ genres” (hundt & mair, 1999: 221), academic writing does change over time. academics have paid close attention to this change and explore whether ra writing becomes more (in)formal. for example, atkinson (1999), tracking changes in ras published from 1675 to 1975, found that scientific writing in the early 20th century became less author-centered and more abstract and object-centered. textual changes in the 21st century, nonetheless, were interpreted by mair (1998), based on the brown family corpora, as becoming more informal and colloquial. similarly, taavitsainen (2002) in her historical discourse analysis discovered a more personal or subjective trend in scientific discourse. seone and loureiroporto (2005), by comparing scientific english writing at three time periods, pointed out however that the oralization tendencies occur basically in the first half of the 20th century. biber and gray (2016) supported this finding and reported little influence of colloquialization on the discourse style of academic prose but strong influence on popular written registers based on a contrastive diachronic study on the use of colloquial features in written registers. other comparative studies investigated the use of informality features in learners’ academic writing. be they studies examining one category like writer/reader visibility (e.g., petch-tyson, 1998; mccrostie, 2008) or studies comparing a range of syntactic and lexical features (e.g., shaw & liu, 1998; hinkel, 2003; lee, bychkovska & maxwell, 2019), a similar conclusion was drawn, namely that learners’ academic writing was infused with spoken, gao xia ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140122 informal language features. among them, a study by crawford (2005) found that german, spanish and bulgarian learners used more spoken features (personal pronouns, contractions, etc.) than native speakers, a study by granger and rayson (1998) reported that french learners overused many lexical and grammatical features typical of speech, and a study by gilquin and paquot (2007) provided further evidence for this claim reporting that learners of different backgrounds tend to use spoken features in their academic writing. more specifically, studies by ma (2002), pan (2012), wang and wang (2017), wen (2009), and xiao (2013) had chinese learners, including undergraduate and graduate, english major and non-major students, as research targets and found their writing full of spoken features. both non-native and native novice writers are reported to lack register awareness and confuse or mix the use of informality features in their academic writing. an empirical corpus-based study into writers’ stylistic choice in ra writing may reveal expert writers’ practice and serve as reference for novice writers. previous studies make no distinction between the stylistic choices made by different writer groups in ra writing. further investigation is needed to explore how informality is represented in ras by writers of different backgrounds and whether efl writers’ background impacts their stylistic choice. the present study intends to address this issue by investigating the distribution and use of informality features in english ras by ess and css across four disciplines. following hyland and jiang (2017) and chang and swales (1999), we consider the total occurrence of informal features as the representation of ra informality and propose that the informality of a discourse is a concept of more or less rather than of yes or no. the selection of informality features and qualification for the selection will be discussed in section 3.2. hopefully, a better understanding of writers’ stylistic choice and its relationship with writers’ backgrounds and disciplines will be gained to provide implications for eap writing pedagogy. 3. data and methods 3.1. the corpus in this study we used the beijing collection of academic research essays (beijing care) as the data source. compiled at the department of foreign languages, beihang university, the beijing care is a new comparable corpus consisting of ess’ (26 million words) and css’ ras (11 million words) from a comparable-corpus-based study of informal features in academic writing by english and chinese scholars across disciplines ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140 123 2010 to 2016 across 25 disciplines. ras included in the es and cs sub-corpus were downloaded from the same journals (the top seven regarding their rankings of impact factors) in each discipline from elsevier databank. the first author of each article was identified as the main author, whose name and affiliation served as the classifying criteria. based on and adapted from wood (2001), “the first author with an english name and being at an institute in the inner circle of countries—britain, america, canada, australia, and new zealand was taken to be an es; and the first author using pinyin to romanize his/her chinese name and based at universities in mainland china was taken to be a cs” (gao, 2016: 16). articles co-authored were included if the first author met the selection criteria so that proper quantity of articles can be downloaded to ensure suitable corpus size. this decision was made due to the limited number of css’ single-authored articles (e.g., only 8 in the cs computer sub-corpus). the study reported here was based on a subsection of the beijing care-ras in four disciplines: linguistics, management, physics, and computer science, selected as representing soft/pure, soft/applied, hard/pure, and hard/applied respectively based on becher’s (1989) taxonomy of disciplines. the detailed composition of this subsection is listed in table 1. based on the composition of the cs sub-corpora, we selected ras in the same journal issue from the es sub-corpora to make the corpus sizes of es and cs sub-corpora in the same discipline comparable. that is, we included all the ras in the cs sub-corpora and only part of ras in the es sub-corpora. 3.2. informality features to be studied following hyland and jiang (2017), we calculated the sum of the normalized frequencies of informal features to represent the degree of ra informality. eleven features of informality (see table 2), ten of them selected and adapted from hyland and jiang (2017) and chang and swales (1999), were our research target as these features were commonly listed in textbooks (e.g., swales & feak, 2012: 22-25), frequently mentioned in style manuals and writing guidebooks (chang & swales, 1999: 147), and gao xia ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140124 linguistics management physics computer total css 368,159 (56) 300,674 (55) 328,467 (73) 316,074 (55) 1,313,374 (239) ess 367,744 (41) 304,909 (41) 327,070 (56) 316,022 (51) 1,315,745 (189) total 735,903 (97) 605583 (96) 655,537 (129) 632,096 (106) 2,629,119 (428) table 1. sizes in tokens of the subsection (the number of ras). researched in previous studies as representative of informal style (e.g., hundt & mair, 1999; lee, bychkovska & maxwell, 2019). we, in accordance with the recognized associations between the pronominal use of demonstratives and informal style and the determiner use of demonstratives and formal style, limited the pronominal anaphoric reference to include this, that, these and those and excluded it mainly because it is impossible to determine when the use of pronoun it is informal as it cannot be used as a determiner and followed with a noun phrase. the imperative was added into the list for it is “an effective, although tricky, persuasive device” and has been “neglected by many scientific research writing and style manuals” (swales et al., 1998: 3). “neither the apa nor the mla style manual seem to acknowledge the use of imperatives as a possible grammatical structure for the scholarly writer” (swales et al., 1998: 4). imperatives are nonetheless employed by many academics in their ras to unleash themselves from an objective, impersonal style (chang & swales, 1999) and hence were included here. 3.2. procedures the corpus was pos-tagged using claws 7.0 (fligelstone, pacey & rayson, 1997), which has consistently achieved 96-97% accuracy. antconc (anthony, a comparable-corpus-based study of informal features in academic writing by english and chinese scholars across disciplines ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140 125 features examples 1. first person pronouns to refer to the author(s) (i, we, me, us, my, our, mine, and ours) in task 1, we examined the ideational meta-function of punctuations. 2. unattended anaphoric pronouns (this, that, these, those) that can refer to antecedents of varying length this indicated that participants read sentences for comprehension.) 3. split infinitives: an infinitive that has an adverb between to and the verb stem … to verbally describe the location of the objects… 4. sentence-initial conjunctions or conjunctive adverbs and in the following section we will discuss … 5. sentence-final prepositions this is the problem we try to deal with. 6. listing expressions and so on, and so forth, etc., used when ending a list 7. second person pronouns/determiners to refer to the reader you, your 8. contractions don’t, can’t, let’s, etc. 9. direct questions is there any difference between the two groups? 10. exclamations someone should hire this man! 11. imperatives see table 4 for…, suppose that…, consider…, etc. table 2. list of informal features. ! 2011) was used to carry out the quantitative analysis of informality features, which was supplemented with qualitative analysis as follows: 1) some informality features, such as pronouns, listing expressions and exclamations, were retrieved easily by the software and then manually checked in context. as regards the first person pronouns, all the instances not referring to the author(s), or the discourse community were left out (such as i in i.e., us abbreviating ‘united states’, i as an algebraic variable, etc.). listing expressions when ending a list were picked out and saved for later analysis. other features were extracted using a regular expression query based on their syntactic structure. all the features extracted were then checked manually line by line to ensure that they were a target feature. instances within quotes or examples were deleted. 2) the frequencies of informality features were calculated and normalized at 10,000 words. comparisons were made first between ess’ and css’ ras in the same discipline and then across the four disciplines. 3) qualitative analyses concentrated then on the use of first person pronouns, pronominal anaphoric reference, sentence-initial conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs, and imperatives as they were identified to be the contributing factors to informality. typical patterns were summarized and illustrated with examples. 4. results and discussion 4.1. use variations between writer groups table 3 shows that informal features appear frequently in both sub-corpora with more than 100 occurrences per 10,000 words, comparable to but less than the average 168-171 occurrences per 10,000 words reported in hyland and jiang (2017). the overall figures are largely influenced by the frequencies of four main features: first person pronouns, pronominal anaphoric reference, sentence-initial conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs and imperatives, which account for 94.86% to 98.16% of all informal elements across the subcorpora. the results suggest that both css and ess rely on similar informal features in ras. this conforms to the finding reported in hyland and jiang (2017) that first person pronouns, sentence-initial conjunctions/adverbs, and unattended reference comprise the majority of informal features used in ras. despite the strictures stated in textbooks and style guides against the use of informal features (e.g., “avoid using i, we, and you in traditional academic gao xia ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140126 writing” (vandermey et al., 2012: 79), unattended reference is “a common stylistic error” and always reflects “poor mechanical style” (pfeiffer & adkins, 2010:646), “don’t use but at the beginning of a sentence in written english” (longman dictionary of contemporary english online)), professional writers seem to acknowledge the meta-discoursal functions these features realize in organizing text, constructing writer visibility and orienting readers and employ them frequently in ras across disciplines. significant difference has been identified in the use of informality features in ras by css and ess as revealed by the results of the log-likelihood test (loglikelihood=227.24, p<0.001). css are found to use less informality features in their ras (css vs. ess: 135.06 vs. 147.69 cases/10,000 words), which suggests css’ proneness to closely follow the stylistic conventions compared with ess’ liability to “push gently at the boundaries of convention” (casanave, 2010: 2). although both groups rely on similar informal features, they differ in distinct ways. while css tend to employ more sentence-initial conjunctions/adverbs, imperatives and listing expressions, they utilize less first and second person pronouns, pronominal anaphoric reference, exclamations, direct questions, and split infinitives than ess and appear to observe proscriptive rules more strictly. given the rare occurrences (fewer than 5 items in any single l1/discipline cell of table 3) and little impact of the seven informal features on the final scores (the totaling of all instances of all features), we will not elaborate these differences in turn. qualitative analysis in section 4.3 will focus on the four contributing features. a comparable-corpus-based study of informal features in academic writing by english and chinese scholars across disciplines ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140 127 es cs ling mana phys comp ling mana phys comp 1st person pronouns 43.5 75.5 102.2 62.1 47.3 55.5 93.4 90.7 2nd person pronouns 0 0.72 0 1.93 0.46 0 0.03 0.13 split infinitives 2.34 2.49 1.99 4.24 1.52 2.93 1.16 3.35 listing expressions 0.027 1.12 0.489 0.759 1.44 0.566 0.792 2.63 contractions (let’s) 0 0.033 0.031 0.032 0.054 0 0.03 0.063 sentence initial conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs 21.10 22.83 18.38 16.52 18.80 24.15 19.70 21.74 pronominal anaphoric reference 42.937 42.373 44.822 40.662 28.140 31.296 24.660 30.594 imperative 0.435 6.592 18.253 8.259 8.529 8.348 8.738 8.700 sentence final preposition 0.408 0.394 0.489 0.570 0.299 0.333 0.457 0.190 exclamation 0.027 0.033 0.397 0.127 0.027 0 0 0 direct question 2.311 1.902 0.703 0.728 1.766 0.732 0.274 0.728 total 113.085 153.987 187.754 135.927 108.335 123.855 149.241 158.825 table 3. normalized frequencies (*10,000 words) of informality features in cs & es ras. 4 4.2. variations across disciplines cross-disciplinary variation in the use of informality features was found in both es (log-likelihood=686.23, p<0.001) and cs sub-corpora (loglikelihood= 468.96, p<0.001). there is much higher use of informality features in hard science disciplines (physics and computer science as illustrated in table 3 in both cs and es sub-corpora). for ess, the average frequencies range from 187.75 cases per 10,000 words in physics to only 113.09 cases in linguistics. informality features in css’ ras are particularly dense in physics and computer science, but much less in linguistics. previous studies nonetheless reported higher use of informality features in soft science disciplines, for example, in philosophy in chang and swales (1999) and in sociology in hyland & jiang (2017). disciplines and informality features selected in these studies are different, which may account for the divergence in findings to some extent. imperatives, the contributing factor identified in chang and swales (1999) and the present study, are not included in hyland and jiang (2017). pronoun it, comprising a major share of use in chang and swales (1999) and hyland and jiang (2017), is excluded in the present study. though all classified as representing hard science disciplines, physics, statistics, and biology ras seem to differ greatly in the use of informal elements with physics ras featuring high frequency of first person pronouns and imperatives, statistics high frequency of imperatives, and biology low frequency of pronouns. by employing we + verb, our + methodologyor result-related noun patterns and imperative sequences such as consider ~, see ~, let ~ be ~ etc. frequently, physicists make themselves visible in ras and create active reader engagement. in (1), physicists use the we formula to present research findings and results and indicate their ownership of the findings, declare their responsibility for and commitment to the opinions. (1) from the plots in fig. 15 we see that indeed there is now a significant fraction of very small weights, because many of the replicas fit the new data rather badly. (phys041101ra) 4.3. variations in the use of specific features first person pronouns, pronominal anaphoric reference, sentence-initial conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs and imperatives comprise the majority of informality features (see table 3) and thus will be discussed in turn in this section. gao xia ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140128 first person pronouns, accounting for the largest share of informality features, have very different occurrences in es and cs sub-corpora. ess in physics and management employ first person pronouns significantly more frequently, while english computer scholars use them less frequently than their chinese peers. the difference between es and cs linguists is too slight to be significant, with more occurrences in css’ ras (47.3/43.5 cases/10,000 words respectively). this seemingly higher use might be explained by hypercorrection (canagarajah, 2002) as chinese linguists, in the course of their career experience, may observe the variation and thus hypercorrect to conform to the es pattern. the higher use in ras by chinese computer scholars is, nevertheless, difficult to explain and calls for further research. the null occurrence of self-reference using i in all eight single-authored ras by chinese computer scholars suggests that they are prone to present their work as a group using ‘we + verb’ and ‘our + noun’ patterns as they may consider the findings more accessible or acceptable to readers when using inclusive we and our (gao, 2018). previous studies have reported similar less frequent use of first person pronouns in css’ ras (hyland, 2002; liu, 2011). flowerdew (2001) and martínez (2005) likewise report that spanish scholars’ english ras feature lower authorial presence than ess’. these findings suggest that efl writers in general use first person pronouns less frequently in english ras. that is, efl writers seem to prudently hide behind their propositions to sound more objective and impartial whereas ess are more willing to construct visible authorial presence in ras. physics ras in both es and cs sub-corpora are prominent with the most frequent use (102.2/93.4 cases per 10,000 words). the frequent use of involved, interpersonal feature in physics ras contradicts the stereotype: the impersonal and objective style of hard science ras stated in writing manuals. similar usage patterns have been reported in hyland (2001) on physics and biology and in lafuente (2010) on urology. this suggests that academics in some hard science disciplines favor the use of first person pronouns to modulate their relationship with their readers and the discourse community. “self-mention might vary with different assumptions about the effects of authorial presence and rhetorical intrusion in different knowledge-making communities” (hyland, 2001: 213). disciplinary conventions exert a strong influence on ra writers’ construction of authorial presence and identity as evidenced by the obviously more frequent use of first person pronouns in physics ras. the examples (2-5) extracted from the corpora illustrate how, by a comparable-corpus-based study of informal features in academic writing by english and chinese scholars across disciplines ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140 129 strongly linking themselves to their findings, writers can solicit recognition for both: (2) to maintain brevity, we do not tabulate the results; however, we find that the mean ipounprc of our sample is 120%. (mana011201rach) (3) we find from fig. 9(a) that at 08 bst on 20 march, the dust weather has occurred in the south part of mongolia, inner mongolia, xinjiang, gansu provinces and beijing. (comp020401rach) (4) in fact, using traditional measures of elaboration –considering the use of dependent clauses– we would conclude that the opposite was the case: that conversation is more elaborated than academic writing. (ling051009ra) (5) from table 1, we can see that the pearson 2x2 for time derivative of barycentric period, ……, drive the null hypothesis h0: the time derivatives of period and frequency of pulsars obey benford’s law, to be accepted. (phys051001rach) pronominal anaphoric reference refers to the pronominal use of this, that, these and those, which, as a cohesive device, occurs frequently in academic prose (swales, 2005). eap textbooks and journal manuals, however, warn writers against the pronominal use and recommend instead the determiner use: the ‘demonstrative + noun phrase’ pattern (e.g., american psychological association, 2001; lunsford, 2003; swales & feak, 2004). css in all four disciplines used fewer pronominal anaphoric references than ess (loglikelihood=31.15, p<0.01). their far less frequent use might be explained by a teaching effect as eap teachers “stressed the advantages of following this with a suitable summary/interpretive noun” (swales, 2005: 8) to avoid the so-called unclear referent. similar instruction can also be found in the apa style manual: writers are advised to ‘eliminate ambiguity’ by attending this with noun phrases (american psychological association, 2001). unattended that is the only sub-category used more frequently by css and therefore worth mentioning here. efl such as chinese, polish and swedish learners are also reported to use that as demonstrative pronoun more frequently than their native peers (petch-tyson, 2000; leńko-szymańska, 2004; wang & sun, 2006). css and learners “have clearly developed an awareness that distal demonstratives, particularly that, are less marked than proximal ones” (leńko-szymańska, 2004: 7) and they consciously or unconsciously opt for the unmarked form to shift reference focus or emphasize or evaluate an argument. when providing further explanation for gao xia ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140130 or comment on the previous statement, chinese physics and computer science scholars sometimes employ the pattern ‘that means …’ as illustrated in (6-7). css seem to marginalize or other-attribute the proposition by using ‘that means …’. ess more frequently use ‘this means …’ to signal the referent of this “as the focus of attention for the subsequent text” (mccarthy, 1994: 274). the run-on sentence structure in (7) is original in the ra, which implies that the writer continues the information flow without recognizing the shift of focus by using ‘that means …’. (6) usually, non-linear statistical models outperform …. that means … (comp031101rach) (7) the prerequisite for using … is that …, that means …. (phys051203rach) adverbs often occur in the mid-position of sentences in academic writing, while in informal english they are instead placed at the beginning or end of sentences (swales & feak, 2004, 2012). css are found to use more sentenceinitial conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs in their ras (84.39 cases/10,000 words) so as to build “an explicit linkage between two stretches of discourse” (gao, 2016: 22). tendency to front conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs to sentence-initial position has also been discovered in japanese (narita, sato, & suguira, 2004), swedish (altenberg & tapper, 1998), french (granger & tyson, 1996), and hong kong (field & yip, 1992) efl learners’ academic writing. both css and efl learners attempt to ensure cohesive ties between sentences with explicit sentence-initial conjunctions/adverbs. as the most frequent causal linking adverbial, therefore is used by css 89.5% of the time clause-initially (823 out of 920 occurrences). some css “erroneously identify something as a cause simply because it occurs before the claim they are making or presenting” (gao, 2016: 22). as illustrated in (8), we cannot derive any cause-and-effect relation between the two sentences. therefore is superfluous as the logical relationship between the two sentences is expressed clearly by i.e. another linking adverbial with significant use divergence between css and ess is meanwhile. its occurrence in ess’ ras is rare (5 cases) compared to 85 instances in css’ ras. css almost invariably place meanwhile at sentence-initial position (82 out of 85 occurrences) to express, in addition to simultaneity, addition and contrast (39 out of 82 occurrences). meanwhile in (9) may be substituted by however, as it points out the contrast between ‘5db’ and ‘much smaller’. a comparable-corpus-based study of informal features in academic writing by english and chinese scholars across disciplines ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140 131 (8) now, let k = 0,1,2 ... [kmax]+1, and set the step size as δε = 0.01. therefore, i.e., k = 0, 1, 2 ..., 92. (mana071202rach) (9) in the lowest two modes, the differences of tnlr between the proposed method and ref2 is about 5 db. meanwhile, the absolute value of dsn for the proposed method is much smaller, which means ... (ling091302rach) imperatives, though viewed as imposing face-threatening acts, appear in academic prose with varying frequency (swales et al., 1998). the use of imperatives in ras by ess and css varies greatly (log-likelihood=445.15, p<0.001). css in linguistics, management and computer science use imperatives more frequently and chinese physicists use fewer than their english peers. when cross-disciplinary variations are investigated, we can see physics in both es and cs sub-corpora tops the rank. this corroborates swales et al.’s finding that fields, “which tend to produce texts that not only consist of solid paragraph blocks, but also contain mathematical, experimental or illustrative elements […] may require rather more specific forms of reader-text management” (swales et al., 1998: 102). when the lexico-syntactic patterns of imperatives are summarized, we can see css and ess employ similar patterns frequently: ‘see ~’, ‘note ~’, ‘suppose ~’, ‘consider ~’, ‘let us ~’, ‘let a verb b’, ‘assume ~’, ‘notice ~’ and ‘recall ~’. other imperative patterns and lexical choices occurring more than once are also summarized in table 4. as shown in table 4, the ‘see ~’ imperatives occur most frequently in our corpus. two typical patterns are found, namely, ‘see ~’ and ‘for ~ see ~’. the most frequent nouns occurring in these patterns are figure, table, section, appendix or references. both ess and css employ the see imperatives for two purposes: meta-discoursal to point the readers’ attention to some sections in the paper or citational to cite relevant literature. writers frequently employ the see imperatives to engage readers with the information flow by directing them to other parts of the text or relevant literature for further information. the shares of citational use are larger than those of inter-textual reference. the second most frequent imperative pattern is ‘note (that) + clause’, used as an attention-getting device. both ess and css tend to use this pattern “to draw the reader’s attention to a crucial or unexpected argument […] by setting an emphatic tone” (swales et al., 1998: 106). the occurrences of the note imperative are particularly dense in physics. while chinese physicists keep to the ‘note that…’ form, some native physicists insert adverbs into the gao xia ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140132 pattern as in ‘note, however, that…’, ‘note also that …’, and ‘first, note that…’. in addition to drawing readers’ attention to an important point, writers also employ the ‘note that…’ imperative to give further explanation. for example, ‘note that in the expression above we have denoted …’, which gives further explanation for the formula, and ‘note that c1(x) should be an even function of x …’, which demonstrates the difference between c2(x) and c1(x) further. though infrequently (once only), both es and cs computer scholars use the note imperative to compare the practice in the present study with that in relevant literature as in ‘note also that hinckley et al. reported …’ and ‘note that although horn et al. classified …’. a comparable-corpus-based study of informal features in academic writing by english and chinese scholars across disciplines ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140 133 es ling es mana es phys es comp cs ling cs mana cs phys cs comp see ~ 7 129 206 132 257 90 127 74 note ~ 3 20 142 38 23 34 98 51 consider 0 17 72 15 3 19 2 7 suppose 1 5 6 17 7 22 6 35 let us 4 2 76 7 4 0 21 3 let a verb b 0 8 34 38 6 54 6 64 assume 0 5 3 2 1 7 2 22 notice 1 0 6 2 0 3 17 4 recall 0 11 18 0 0 4 2 2 take 0 0 8 0 2 1 1 4 define 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 1 put 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 observe 0 2 13 0 0 0 0 0 remember 0 0 3 2 1 0 0 0 presume 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 say 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 imagine 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 select 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 retrieve 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 use 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 look up 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 determine 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 develop 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 give 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 calculate 0 0 0 0 4 13 0 1 look at 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 créate 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 generate 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 compare 0 0 0 0 1 0 5 2 avoid 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 choose 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 table 4. the occurrences of imperatives in the eight sub-corpora. the pattern ‘suppose that ~’ is another one used in all four disciplines by both ess and css albeit infrequently. css’ frequency of use is higher than that in es sub-corpora. css more often use the suppose imperatives in further explaining a calculus or formula as in ‘suppose l is the length of …’, ‘suppose r is a set on x * y…’, and ‘suppose then that (a, u, v)s(a, u, v)s’. they mention a possible situation for the formula using the suppose imperative, and then go on to discuss the potential effects this situation might have. in addition to giving further explanation of a calculus, chinese computer scholars employ this imperative to begin the statement of a theorem or an example (e.g., ‘theorem 1. suppose that (gm, sigm, verm) is …’, ‘corolary 1. suppose that …’, and ‘example 1. suppose alice and bob are …’). the consider imperative is also widely used by both ess and css except l1 english linguists. scholars commonly use the patterns such as ‘consider ~’, ‘consider for example ~’, and ‘as an example, consider ~’ to further illustrate a point or discussion with exemplification. for example, l1 english computer scholars use ‘as an example of this, consider youtube’ to further illustrate the web 2.0 applications and chinese management scholars use ‘consider the numerical example which was discussed …’ to provide further explanation for the proposed approach in the previous sentence. while css’ use of the consider imperative is lower and mainly relegated to the further illustration category, ess’ use is higher and has one more lexical pattern ‘first/second/next/finally/now…, consider ~’, which serves as ‘topic-initiator’ to introduce a new topic. the coselections 1) between a temporal or sequential adverb and 2) between the exemplification phrase and the consider imperative decide the different rhetorical functions being realized, that is, to start a new topic or to give further illustration. the information flow of the text either proceeds into the next stage as in the first pattern or is blocked as in the second one. css’ neglect of the co-selection pattern may result in the far less ‘topic-initiator’ cases in their ras. “the selection of different ‘consider ~’ patterns not only reflects the rhetorical function of a certain expression, but may also signal to the reader something of the nature of the argumentation at this point in the author’s text” (swales et al. 1998: 105). therefore, more exposure to real text is needed for css to sense the co-selection between patterns and their signaling functions. the use of ‘let us ~’ pattern is rare in other disciplines except in physics. it is the most explicit invitation in all the imperatives and sounds less imposing than the direct ‘verb ~’ pattern. both english and chinese physicists use the ‘let us ~’ imperative more often: in the beginning of a paragraph or a section gao xia ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140134 to introduce a new topic (e.g., ‘first, let us briefly review …’, ‘let us begin with …’), to make a suggestion by involving the readers into the action you are making (e.g., ‘let us take <ϕ0>≠0 <ϕ1>=0’, ‘let us define …’), to elaborate the argument by giving examples (e.g., ‘let us take … as an example’, ‘let us consider … as the first example’), or to direct the readers’ attention towards the subject you want to consider next (e.g., ‘let us consider the set of poles …’), or to “recapitulate previous examples to provide further evidence for an argument” (e.g., ‘let us recall that all vacua …’) (swales et al. 1998: 12). the illustration so far demonstrates that in academic writing scholars use imperatives, except for ‘see ~’, mainly to “lead the readers through the argument” (huddleston, 1971: 59). the use of the see imperatives is for citation and inter-textual reference, which serves a kind of text organization purpose. some imperative patterns are used across disciplines and may be acceptable either for reader engagement or as tools for economy in academic writing. when using the explicit ‘let us ~’ pattern, the authors tend to establish a closer link with the readers and make them feel that they are “on a par with the author” to be included in the discussion (webber, 1994: 264), whereas the ‘verb ~’ imperatives sound more imposing like a command or request. the distribution of the four contributing informality features discussed so far does not present a unanimous pattern, with css employing first person pronouns and pronominal anaphoric references less frequently and imperatives and sentence-initial conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs more frequently than ess. that is, the distribution of specific informality features does not necessarily conform to the general pattern discovered based on the sum. we, in this study, calculate and add the frequencies of informality features and consider the sum as representing ra informality. it is worth considering whether the sum of parts equals the whole. scholars may be invited to rate the degree of ra formality and the results of which might be compared with the total occurrences of the informality features to see if the sum of parts correlates with human rating. the finding here implies that the general tendency illustrated by the sum blurs the use difference of specific features. 5. conclusions this study, based on the comparable corpus of es and cs ras, has investigated the distribution of eleven informality features across four a comparable-corpus-based study of informal features in academic writing by english and chinese scholars across disciplines ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140 135 disciplines and between two writer groups. the contrastive analysis revealed that css seem to stick to the proscription rules more strictly and employ less informality features in their ras. through instruction or observation in practice, css may be discouraged and avoid the use of informality features consciously to make their writing more formal and acceptable to journal editors. the difference in use of informality features between ess and css, however, must be heavily hedged as the identifying criteria for ess and css are rather vague and the input of reviewers and editors has not been considered here. though emails were sent to one-tenth of the first ra authors in the cs corpus to confirm their native speaker status, there might be some authors who meet the criteria but have received education abroad and therefore confound the data. we in this study assume that only the people listed as authors are responsible for the language used in ras. the copy-editing process and journal reviewers’ or editors’ contribution are acknowledged but not included in our research focus. in future work interviews or a survey may be conducted to establish the influence of editors or other stakeholders in the writing process and on writers’ stylistic choice. disciplinary variation in the use of informality features has been corroborated in the present study. ras in hard science disciplines are found to contain more informality features, which deviates from the findings of previous research (chang and swales, 1999; hyland & jiang, 2017). further discussion is needed for the verification of association between the delineation of soft and hard science disciplines and the use of informality features in ras. the selection of informality features in the present study is mainly based on previous literature (swales et al., 1998; chang & swales, 1999; hyland & jiang, 2017). the validity of this method –lumping together the occurrences of all the features and calculating the sum as the representation of ra informality– needs further verification. as stated above, the sum blurs the use variation of particular features. equal treatment of all informal features with no distinction in the degree of informality is also worth discussion as features such as an occasional exclamation seem to have greater impact on the reader than an additional use of i. how to quantify and represent the slippery concept of ra informality in a better way calls for further investigation. a full picture of the potential use differences of informality features in academic writing between writer groups needs further contrastive analyses gao xia ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140136 covering writers of other linguistic backgrounds. further complementary analyses, including qualitative studies, are needed to gather observations on how efl scholars make strategic use of informal features in their ras. the results reported here may have pedagogical implications as informality “may create additional complexities in the relationships the writer is seeking to build with readers and further increases to the compositional burden of novices” (hyland & jiang, 2017: 49). for example, imperatives, used to be considered as an informal feature, seem acceptable in ra writing as evidenced by their use frequencies in both es and cs sub-corpora. scholars across disciplines employ imperatives to draw readers’ attention to a particular point or for engagement. “while style guides generally recommended authors to avoid them”, these so-called informality features have been “legitimized in english academic writing” (hyland & jiang, 2017: 46). to what extent the use of informality features is acceptable in ras calls for further investigation. their occurrences in published ras across disciplines may well imply gatekeepers’ more liberal attitudes towards their use. acknowledgements i am grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their extremely valuable comments and suggestions. they have helped me enhance the quality of the paper significantly. all the remaining errors are my own responsibilities. article history: received 24 september 2019 received in revised form 18 january 2020 accepted 30 april 2020 references a comparable-corpus-based study of informal features in 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(1994). “the function of questions in different medical journal genres”. english for specific purposes 13: 257-268. gao xia is an associate professor of english at beihang university in china. she earned her phd in linguistics at shanghai jiao tong university in 2006. her research interests cover corpus linguistics, english for academic purposes and second language acquisition. gao xia ibérica 39 (2020): 119-140140 wen, q. (2009). “a study of changes of register features in learner english”. journal of foreign languages 4: 2-10. wood, a. (2001). “international scientific english: the language of research scientists around the world” in j. flowerdew & m. peacock (eds.), research perspectives on english for academic purposes, 71-83. cambridge: cup. wulff, s., u. römer & j. swales (2012). “attended/unattended this in academic student writing: quantitative and qualitative perspectives”. corpus linguistics and linguistic theory 8(1): 129-157. xiao, f. (2013). “an investigation into how oral/written register features relates to grade levels and esl writing quality”. foreign languages in china 10(6): 65-71. iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract while there is consensus on the definition of a comparable corpus, there is little or no agreement on what makes a corpus comparable or how to assess comparability. a comparable corpus consists of two or more collections of texts (subcorpora) in different languages or different language varieties, which are similar in some way. but in what way? according to mcenery and xiao (2007: 20), proportion, genre, domain, and time constitute the main criteria when compiling a comparable corpus and must match in the different languages for the corpus to be considered comparable. however, in previous studies (lópezarroyo & roberts, 2017), it has been shown by the analysis of two specialized comparable corpora that these criteria work well for certain fields, but not all. in the present study, we examine comparability from the point of view of the purpose for which a comparable corpus is to be used. in order to do that we have compiled a comparable corpus of 150 tasting notes in english and spanish written by two experts in the field in spain and in usa and published in the same decades; according to mcenery and xiao (2007) our corpora meet all the criteria to be comparable. however, our methodology focused on the analysis of aspects such as content, format and style of the genre under study for the comparability of corpora will prove that proportion, genre, domain, time and size are not valid enough for comparing comparable corpora. keywords: comparable corpus, comparability, purpose, tasting notes. resumen sobre la comparación de corpus comparables podemos afirmar que, hoy en día, no existe un acuerdo unánime sobre los criterios para compilar un corpus comparable o sobre cómo evaluar la comparabilidad de un corpus. un corpus comparable es una colección de textos en diferentes lenguas o variaciones que son similares en ciertos aspectos. pero, ¿en cuáles? según mcenery y wilson (2007: 20), la proporción en las muestras, el género, campo y tiempo deben ser los criterios principales a la hora de can comparable corpora be compared? belén lópez arroyo actres-universidad de valladolid (spain) belenl@lia.uva.es 43 ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 belén lópez arroyo compilar un corpus comparable y deben ser los mismos en las diferentes lenguas. sin embargo, estudios previos (lópez-arroyo & roberts, 2017) demuestran que estos criterios pueden no ser válidos en todos los campos. en el presente estudio, analizamos la comparabilidad desde el punto de vista del propósito del corpus. para ello, hemos compilado un corpus comparable de 150 fichas de cata en inglés y 150 en español escritas por dos autoridades del campo y publicadas en las mismas décadas; según mcenery y xiao (2007) nuestros subcorpus reúnen todos los requisitos para ser comparables. sin embargo, nuestra metodología, centrada en el análisis de otros factores tales como el formato, el contenido y el estilo, demostrará que únicamente la proporción, el género, el campo, el tiempo y el tamaño no son siempre suficientes a la hora de comparar corpus. palabras clave: corpus comparable, criterios de comparación, propósito, fichas de cata. 1. introduction “a comparable corpus is one which selects similar texts in more than one language or variety,” according to the eagles expert advisory group on language engineering standards guidelines (1996). the eagles report considers that a comparable corpus allows linguists to compare different languages or varieties in similar circumstances of communication, but avoids the inevitable distortion introduced by the translations found in a parallel corpus. however, for a comparable corpus to be an effective tool, the texts must be “similar.” and, as the eagles group stated in 1996, “there is as yet no agreement on the nature of the similarity” (1996: 12). this issue of similarity was addressed to some extent by mcenery and xiao (2007: 20), who stated that multilingual comparable corpora are to include “the same proportions of the texts of the same genres in the same domains in a range of different languages in the same period”. in other words, according to these authors, proportion, genre, domain, and time constitute the main criteria when compiling a comparable corpus and must match in the different languages for the corpus to be considered comparable. the problem is that these external criteria do not always guarantee that the different language subcorpora in a comparable corpus match, because the same genre may be used to address a different audience or may show different features in its construction in different languages. in fact, the same genre, when compared interlinguistically, may show differences in content or in style, making it difficult to draw valid contrastive conclusions (lópezarroyo & roberts, 2016: 399). 44 in a previous study (lópez-arroyo & roberts, 2017), two specific purpose comparable corpora built using two genres (abstracts and wine tasting notes) were examined, to see whether the criterion of genre, supplemented by the criteria of proportion, domain, and time, is sufficient to build comparable corpora, as mcenery and xiao (2007) have suggested. the analysis of the abstracts and wine tasting notes corpora showed that the criteria for compilation of a comparable corpus proposed by mcenery and xiao (genre, proportion, domain and time) work well for certain fields, but not all, and that the degree of comparability varies from one corpus to another. in the present study, we will examine the comparability of a comparable corpus from the point of view of the purpose for which it is being used. in other words, we will attempt to answer the following question: is a given comparable corpus comparable enough to meet the researcher’s specific needs? we will begin by examining the concept of comparability and by reviewing different methods of assessing the comparability of comparable corpora. then, we will present our own corpora: a comparable corpus of 150 tasting notes in english and spanish written by two experts in the field in spain and in usa and published in the same decade; both corpora have the same number of samples; according to mcenery and xiao (2007) our corpus meets all the criteria to be comparable. however, our methodology states that other criteria should be taken into to the consideration for the comparability of comparable corpora; the analysis of aspects such as content, format and style of the genre under study will prove that genre, domain, time and size are not valid enough for comparing comparable corpora. our second research question is, are corpora always comparable? 2. concept of comparability we can say a corpus is a comparable corpus if its components or subcorpora are collected using the same sampling frame and similar balance and representativeness (mcenery, 2003: 450); for example, the same proportions of the texts of the same genres in the same domains in a range of different languages (or language varieties) in the same sampling period. however, the subcorpora of a comparable corpus are not translations of each other. rather their comparability lies in their same sampling frame, which allows for the collection of similar texts. can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 45 the concept of comparability is thus related to that of similarity, which is a concept characterized by vagueness. moreover, the concept of similarity in terms of corpora is a complex one. one has to pursue this notion of similarity across languages, cultures, text varieties or genres, and circumstances of communication. and, since we are talking about corpora – as opposed to just texts – we must consider similarity in relation to both form and content. the form of corpora will be of interest to those who actually construct them. in other words, one needs to consider the size of the corpus, in terms of number of texts and words, and the nature of the individual texts in terms of words, sentences, and paragraphs. the content of corpora is of paramount importance in the construction of comparable corpora, and guidelines on what to look for should be drawn up for this purpose. one needs to start by looking at the similarity of the texts in relation to their structure, their style and their function. is the structure important? for example, are they formal, carefully constructed texts – as with legal texts, or are they informal, loosely organized discourse – as with transcriptions of conversation. then one needs to look at their function in the source culture. do the texts have a specific social or cultural importance that needs to be taken into consideration? all these considerations complicate the concept of similarity and comparability. as sharoff points out (2013: 113), “the notion of comparable corpora rests on our ability to assess the difference between corpora which are claimed to be comparable, but this activity is still art rather than proper science.” despite the quantitative measures employed to detect similarities and differences between subcorpora, there is no consensus on how to assess the comparability of a comparable corpus. this led maia (2003: 34) to conclude that “comparability is in the eye of the beholder”. this is not a satisfactory state of affairs, for we do not want to base important linguistic conclusions on sources that may be subjectively selected. we could avoid subjectivity if we could assess how comparable, or similar, two subcorpora are. 3. comparable corpora and their purpose li (2012: 35) suggests that “the way we define comparability should depend on the target applications in consideration,” since different applications might prefer comparable corpora of different genres. for example, ni et al. belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6846 (2009) built multilingual corpora from wikipedia for use in cross-lingual text classification (using texts labeled in one language to help classify texts in another language) and cross-lingual document reference (matching a given document in one language with related documents in another language). to serve these applications, they used a group of “universal” topics to model documents from different languages. however, such topic modeling is not required for comparable corpora to be used for bilingual lexicon extraction or for contrastive analysis of grammatical features. our study is based on the same premise, that the definition of comparability and the degree of comparability required in a comparable corpus depends on the purpose for which it is established, the use to which it is to be put; apart from that, we also want to test whether comparable corpora are always comparable. 4. compilation of the english/spanish comparable corpus: wine tasting notes the basis of our study is an english/spanish comparable corpus of wine tasting notes. wine tasting notes, a genre used in oenology, are standardized texts, used either during professional wine tasting or when new wines are released, to record the different organoleptic features or components of a wine. wine tasting notes can be considered as a subsidiary genre of wine tasting technical sheets since they often form part of the latter and have the same function, one that is relevant for the professional discourse community. wine tasting notes are short texts typically organized in three different sections that correspond to the three steps in any wine tasting procedure: “the assessment of wine’s colour, its smell (metonymically referred to as its nose / nariz in english and spanish), and its mouth-feel (a stage that involves smell, taste, and touch, is metonymically referred to as the wine’s palate /boca, and may be ‘de-composed’ into several stages” (caballero, 2017: 69). peynaud (1987), distinguishes three discourse communities dealing with tasting notes according to the writer: the professional taster, the amateur presenting a wine to guests at a dinner tasting, and a wine journalist writing for the readers of a wine magazine. he goes on to discuss several ways of talking about the taste of wine depending on circumstances, training and the taster’s state of mind. can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 47 it seems obvious that such a variety of types of writers will produce different types of tasting notes that could not be considered comparable because of their differences in style, the format and the way to render knowledge to readers. 4.1. corpus compilation considering the facts stated above, our starting point was to focus on tasting notes written by one type of discourse community in english and spanish so as to be able to adjust comparability. we restricted our corpus to tasting notes written by experts. the expert seeks clarity and precision above all in his expression. his style is strict and economical but his comments are reasoned; his conciseness is not due to a lack of imagination but to a choice of the most precise words, and in his reports he only uses terms with an accepted and agreed meaning. in spite of his skills, his language should be simple and intelligible to all. where technical terms are concerned he will refrain from defining smells by analogy with little known chemical substances (lópez-arroyo & roberts, 2017: 375). we compiled a corpus of 300 tasting notes produced by the best known and most influential wine critics writing in the two languages under study here: for english, robert parker, an american wine critic with an international reputation, who developed a 100-point wine-scoring scale; for spanish, josé peñín, the most successful wine writer and journalist in the spanish speaking world today. both these wine writers warrant a corpus of their own not only because of their importance in the wine tasting world, but also because of the distinctive style of their tasting notes. it could be argued that by compiling a corpus of wine tasting notes written by only two authors, the results could be more concerned with the analysis of their styles rather than the representativity of the genre; however, parker and peñín represent a group of wine critics in english and spanish respectively who publish thousands of wine tasting notes a year and address a vast audience. in the present paper, we take the samples written by parker and peñín as representatives of the wine critics in journals such as the advocate and guía peñín. belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6848 5. methodology and results as we can see, our corpus meets mcenery and xiao’s (2007) criteria for comparing corpora. same genre and domain (wine tasting notes), same period of time (2005-2015) and same participants (wine critics writing their own publication). however, our starting point was that those criteria do not seem to be always enough for a corpus to be comparable. that is why our methodology takes one step further and analyzes the samples in terms of format, style and content to test the degree of comparability between the two corpus under study. 5.1. differences in content despite the apparent consensus that all tasting notes cover at the very least the colour, nose, and palate of wines (caballero, 2007, 2009, 2017; caballero & suarez-toste, 2008: 383), wipf (2010: 15), using a concrete example, rightly points out that this is not always the case: “certain parts are left out, whereas others are added”. however, it is rare to find a tasting note that covers all the above moves and steps. a previous study on the content of tasting notes (lópez-arroyo & roberts, 2016) written by experts, journalists publishing in wine journals and wineries revealed that, in english, if a key move is dropped, it is invariably appearance (66% of the samples did not include the section appearance). so, the next step is to see a) whether that is the case in the wine critics corpus and b) if it is left out more in one language than in the other. table 1 above shows that only 28% of the tasting notes in our english corpus include appearance. while one might wonder why parker seems to buck the trend in english (see above) to gloss over the appearance of a wine, there is a simple explanation for his inclusion of colour in most of his tasting notes. in the early 1970s, he devised a system to taste and score wines. and, although he claims that this is not a scientific system, it looks at the colour, bouquet and taste of a wine, each of which is worth a certain number of can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 49 h s en total no. of tasting notes no. of tasting notes without appearance robert parker subcorpus 150 42 (66%) table 1. number of tasting notes without the appearance move in the english corpus. points. by awarding five points for the colour, 15 for the bouquet and 20 for the palate and texture, on top of a base score of 50 that each wine starts with, parker built a numerical scale that not only helped demystify wine for a generation of budding oenophiles but would go on to become the most powerful rating system in the world of wine. inclusion of colour, then, is necessary for his scoring system to work properly. however, even parker does not always cover colour in the verbal expression of the wine tasting process, i.e. in the description of the wine in the tasting note. is the same true in spanish? (see table 2 below). only 2 % of the spanish samples do not include appearance, which indicates that overall appearance figures far more frequently in spanish wine tasting notes than in the english ones. peñín’s systematic inclusion of appearance could perhaps be explained by the fact that he too, like parker, uses a 100-point scoring scale to grade wines and therefore needs to explicitly include the visual aspect. but the similarity among his tasting notes suggests another explanation: that peñín uses a template to prepare his notes, a template that starts with colour. in summary then, appearance is most often omitted in parker’s tasting notes, which is not the case in spanish. it is interesting to note that even though both parker and peñín include appearance in their own method to evaluate wines, parker does not follow it on a regular basis (66% of the samples did not include it). apart from that, it is also interesting to see that the best known writers of wine tasting notes in english and in spanish, parker and peñín, both adhere in their notes to the presentation of the three steps of the wine tasting process analysis of appearance, aroma and taste – but that their influence on their respective colleagues in this regard is not obvious, as other wine critics writing in english and spanish wine journals often omit the appearance move much more than they do. 5.2. differences in format in a previous study (lópez-arroyo & roberts, 2016), which was based on a belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6850 en total no. of tasting notes no. of tasting notes without appearance josé peñín subcorpus 150 3 (2%) table 2. number of tasting notes without the appearance move in the spanish corpus. i corpus of 100 english notes and 100 spanish notes produced by wineries, wine critics and wine journalists, we had noted two different formats used to write these notes. some notes were produced in the form of a paragraph of running text, with no clearcut divisions between the various parts of the note. others separated the main parts of the note (appearance, aroma, taste) and distinguished them clearly by using subheadings. we also noticed that the divided format was used much more frequently in spanish than in english. all this led us to wonder if one format was more favoured in one language than the other (see table 3 below). while, in the light of our previous study, we were not expecting a large number of english notes with divided format, now we were nonetheless surprised not to find a single one. however, the lack of divided format notes can perhaps be explained in terms of certain stylistic features which will be analyzed in the following section. it is surprising to see that all the samples in the spanish corpus (150) use the divided format. example (1) shows an example of parker tasting notes where no appearance and no divided format are included: (1) subtle and racy, with lemon rind, vanilla cream and dried pineapple. very spicy and intense. full-bodied, with great length and flavor. electrified yet refined, with medium sweetness and a wonderful finish. i love the class of this, and the length. has afterburners. here is an example of peñín’s tasting notes: can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 51 i en total no. of tasting notes no. of tasting notes using running text format no. of tasting notes using divided format robert parker subcorpus 150 150 (100%) 0 table 3. formatting of wine tasting notes in the english corpus. en total no. of tasting notes no. of tasting notes using running text format no. of tasting notes using divided format josé peñín subcorpus 150 0 150 (100%) table 4. formatting of wine tasting notes in the spanish corpus. e ! i (2) color cereza borde granate. aroma intensidad media, hierbas de tocador, fruta escarchada. boca sabroso, especiado, taninos maduros. (color cherry, deep red rim. aroma medium intensity, dressing table herbs, candied fruit. taste savoury, spiced, ripe tannins). while peñín does not start each major part on a separate line, it is clear that he has 3 divisions, which he entitles color, aroma and boca. and although these subtitles are, strangely enough, not separated from what follows by a colon, they are clearly meant to be subtitles. the fact that all of peñín’s tasting notes follow exactly the same pattern further leads us to believe that this wine taster is using a prepared template that consists of the three subtitles and that he adds a few words after each subtitle to compose his tasting note. in summary, the divided format is popular in the spanish corpus, whereas the running text format is definitely the preferred option for parker. considering this opposite tendency, can we consider that both corpora are comparable in format? 5.3. differences in style however, we feel that the greatest differences between the two corpora of tasting notes are at the level of style. style is seen here as the conscious or unconscious selection of a set of features from all the possibilities in a language. it is considered as any situationally distinctive use of language – a characteristic of groups as well as of individuals. (crystal, 1987: 66). stylistic differences are apparent in examples three and four presented below: (3) this was a bucket of jammy berries, vanilla and cooked sugar. with the texture of motor oil, heat like rocket fuel and flavors of a jammy berry pie, one sip was two sips too much. perhaps as a dessert sauce, poured over vanilla ice cream, this would work. but as a wine, it was not my style. the wine was poured double blind by one of my friends thinking i would like it, if i did not know what it was. he was wrong. while i can see why some people would like this wine, (which is why it scored 80) i am positive the wine and i will both be better off if we do not meet again. (4) color cereza claro. aroma fruta fresca, intensidad media, franco. boca fresco, frutoso, sabroso. (color light cherry. aroma fresh fruit, medium intensity, honest. taste fresh, fruity, savoury). belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6852 the first difference that drew our attention was that peñín’s tasting notes are verbless. he defines wines using almost a telegraphic style, just with nouns and adjectives. on the other hand, parker tends to use a more complex discourse or style, addressing the reader, expressing openly his opinion, and using superlatives. these facts made us expand our criteria to analyse tasting notes in terms of the style authors used to see the extent in the differences between the two subcorpora. as stated above, while the stylistic differences can, to some extent, be attributed to individual choices, our preliminary analysis of the comparable corpus led us to believe that there were characteristic features distinguishing different categories of tasting notes in the two languages under study. in fact, we identified six distinctive features that appeared in the two corpora examined and which are listed below: 1. superlatives 2. figurative language 3. personal intervention 4. addressing the reader 5. conversational style each of these will be defined, analyzed and discussed in the following sections. 5.3.1. superlatives tasting notes — and those who write them — are often mocked, because the language can be too flowery, the descriptions overblown, the flavours impossible to believe. the first stylistic feature we therefore wish to examine, the use of superlatives, reflects this tendency towards hyperbole and exaggeration. we wish to see if this feature is found in most tasting notes or mainly in tasting notes in english. the term “superlatives” is used here as a generic term to cover not only the grammatical sense of the superlative expressions or forms of adjectives or adverbs, but also something embodying the highest form of a thing, as well as expressions of abundant praise. it includes the following elements: (i) strict superlatives in the grammatical sense (highest, the most measured) can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 53 (ii) words expressing intensity in the broadest sense of the word (quintessential, extraordinarily, pure perfection) (iii) different ways of designating a wine: (this beauty, this youngster). (iv) words expressing the concept of the wine being incomparable: (historic, classic) (v) words denoting the concept of plenty, of weight, of power: (massive, loads of) obviously, there are other elements that could fit into the category of superlatives, but we felt that the five listed above covered the category adequately. each of these elements was examined in each of the subcorpora, using either formal patterns (est for english superlative adjectives) or specific lexical items. the list of items searched in english and the results are found in table 5 below: belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6854 element examined items searched robert parker subcorpus strict superlatives -est 2 the most 14 total 16 words expressing intensity quintessential 2 extraordinary 15 perfect 4 exceptionally 3 extraordinarily 2 perfectly 2 (pure/near) perfection 2 total 30 different ways of designating a wine this beauty 3 this/a modern-day legend 2 total 5 words expressing the concept of the wine being incomparable historic 1 classic 8 never seen before 1 total 10 words denoting the concept of plenty, of weight, of power massive 8 loads of 2 total 10 total of all superlatives 71 table 5. results of the analysis of superlatives in the english corpus. what does this table reveal? first and foremost, it shows a clear difference in the use of superlatives from one corpus to the next: the parker corpus is prolific in their use. this positioning of the corpus in relation to superlatives is understandable from one point of view: wine critics generally see themselves as guides, “leading readers on a quest to explore what is most beautiful, fascinating, distinctive, curious, delicious and moving in wine” (asimov, 2014). they are generally not wine scientists who feel a certain obligation to stay neutral and objective. so, it makes sense that the parker corpus uses superlatives to define wine. what is somewhat surprising, however, is the fact that robert parker, inventor of the seemingly objective 100-point wine scoring scale, is most given to using superlatives, although he has admitted that emotions do matter, contrary to the apparent objectivity of the 100-point scale: “i really think probably the only difference between a 96-, 97-, 98-, 99and 100-point wine is really the emotion of the moment” (tobley-martínez, 2007: 46). there is no doubt that parker shows his emotions through the use of superlatives in his tasting notes. he admitted as much when he said: “as a consumer advocate, you are required, expected, to express your opinion and the consumer can agree or disagree. do i sometimes overdo it and get carried away? no doubt about it” (tobley-martínez, 2007: 46). can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 55 element examined item searched josé peñín subcorpus strict superlatives mejor 0 uno de los más 0 total 0 words expressing intensity excelente 0 perfecto 0 intenso 1 intensamente 0 ligeramente 0 sencillamente 0 perfección 0 total 1 different ways of designating a wine personal 0 único 0 clásico 0 total 0 words denoting the concept of plenty, of weight, of power fuerte 0 potente 13 total 13 total of all subcorpora 14 table 6. results of the analysis of superlatives in the spanish subcorpus. f o 5 b first, in our spanish corpus, wine was not designated by superlatives. hence there is one less category for comparison among the subcorpora than in english. second, contrary to what was noted in english, the leading authority among spanish writers of wine tasting notes has a very sober style. overall, then, both the english and spanish subcorpora reveal an opposite trend in the levels of use of superlatives: great use as seen in the parker corpus in english and little use in the peñín corpus in spanish. 5.3.2. figures of speech besides exaggeration, wine tasting notes are known for their constant use of figures of speech. caballero (2007, 2010) points out that imagery is a salient characteristic of wine critics’ language – as conspicuously illustrated in tasting notes – and she identifies four categories of imagery in particular: metonymical expressions which allude either to discrete entities or to one of their characteristics (ripe aromas, apple flavour), (b) similes (wines that taste or smell like a fruit cocktail), (c) terms borrowed from other sensory experiences (wines that smell sweet), and (d) metaphorical language (wines described as fortified, tightly-knit, or broad-shouldered, and qualified as shy, monolithic, or square). although she mentions scholars who have dealt with metaphors in wine language (gluck, 2003; peynaud, 1987; amoraritei, 2002; lehrer, 1983 and 1992), she bemoans the fact that insufficient attention has been paid to figures of speech in wine language. the situation has changed to a large degree since 2007, with many more researchers including caballero herself, suarez-toste, wipf and others discussing this topic in general, and in particular metaphors, often using tasting notes as a corpus. the general consensus is that tasting notes are full of imagery because of the shortage of terms available to articulate smell and taste experiences. while a quick read through a few tasting notes is enough to convince you of the importance of imagery in them, there are a few specific questions that are of interest to us: a) does imagery dominate equally tasting notes in both languages in our corpus? b) besides metaphor, which is the main figure of speech in tasting notes, what other figures of speech occur often enough to be worthy of attention? and c) is the imagery restricted to the description of the wine or is it also found in the presentation of the critic’s reaction to the wine? belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6856 to see whether imagery dominates equally in tasting notes in both english and spanish, we looked at our english and spanish corpora and identified the number of tasting notes containing figures of speech (as opposed to those that did not) (tables 7 and 8 below). the above table reveals that figures of speech abound in parker subcorpus. in some cases, a tasting note may have only one clear-cut figure of speech, as in the following example, where the metaphorical schema “wine is a person” is evident, with the focus on age: (5) young and fruit-forward, the 2007 cabernet opens with aromas of dark berry fruit. soft and supple on the palate, its bittersweet chocolate, vanilla toastiness and olive notes enhance the bouquet. its rich, long finish adds complexity and depth to the wine. its youth is evident when tasting in comparison to its predecessors. like all the cabernets, the 2007 has the structure and the richness to allow it to develop well for at least an additional ten years. in other tasting notes, several different figures of speech are found one after the other in the same tasting note, where the nose is described using a simile (like breaking a perfume bottle), the aromas are personified by the word “jumping”, and the wine is presented as a woman, full-bodied but not elegant: (6) this wine had the most pronounced nose of the evening. but was it too much of a good thing? the nose was the equivalent of breaking a bottle of perfume in the sink. the aromas kept jumping from the glass into my nose with pepper, prunes, armangnac, creamy black fruit & a touch of vanilla ice cream. to say the wine was very full bodied and dense is an understatement! the flavors were very deep and the alcohol was not over the top at 13.5%. the mouth relished the deep black fruit interspersed with jammy black & red fruit. this tannic finish lasted close to 50 seconds. not what i’d call elegant, but i get the quality. can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 57 en total no. of tasting notes no. of tasting notes containing figures of speech no. of tasting notes not containing figures of speech robert parker subcorpus 150 135 (90%) 15 (10%) table 7. figures of speech in the english corpus. t but whether there is a single figure of speech or several in the tasting notes, the majority of english tasting notes (90% in the english subcorpus) contain them. there is therefore little doubt that figures of speech are a salient feature of english tasting notes. the situation is a bit different in spanish, where the peñín corpus reveals very few figures of speech, as only 3 of its tasting notes (6% of the total) contain them. we have already indicated that peñín uses a very sober style in his tasting notes, which could explain the lack of imagery in them. his notes are also very brief and to the point, which further limits the use of imagery. however, interestingly enough, our spanish corpus, in contrast to the english corpus, did not contain a single tasting note with only one figure of speech. and even in english, there are more tasting notes containing several figures of speech than those containing only one. this further confirms the dominance of figures of speech in both english and spanish tasting notes. of all the figures of speech found in our corpus, there is no doubt that metaphor is predominant. but it is by no means the only one found in tasting notes. presented below (examples 7 to 16) is a sample of other figures of speech taken from the english and the spanish corpora. parker corpus: (7) this is the kind of wine to send chills even up my spine.  (8) this wine is akin to eating candy. (9) it will take its place in the pantheon of all the great la mission hautbrions ever made. (10) a skyscraper-like mouthfeel. (11) all those qualities wrap delicately over the mouth with lasting intensity. (12) it did not float my boat. belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6858 en total no. of tasting notes no. of tasting notes containing figures of speech no. of tasting notes not containing figures of speech josé peñín subcorpus 150 3 (6%) 147 (94%) table 8. figures of speech in the spanish corpus. w h (13) i am positive the wine and i will both be better off if we do not meet again. the figures of speech were not all easy to categorize, as some could be interpreted in more than one way. however, we can confidently state that, in addition to metaphor, we found metonymy (“mouth” for flavour), simile (“this wine is akin to eating candy”) personification (“the wine and i will both be better if we do not meet again”) and, above all, idiom1 “it did not float my boat”). a sample of figures of speech other than metaphor in spanish is found below: peñín subcorpus: (14) explosión de fruta roja (fruit explosion). (15) con recorrido (long finish). (16) boca fresco (fresh palate). in spanish, there are examples of metonymy (boca) and personification (“con recorrido”), as in english, but none of simile or idiom. the diversity of figures of speech is therefore much less in spanish than in english. finally, in the english corpus, but not in the spanish one, figures of speech are used not only to describe the wine (given the acknowledged lack of terms available for this purpose), but also to describe the critic’s overall reaction to the wine. one wine did not “float” parker’s boat; another “sent chills up” his “spine”; in more than one note, parker was “knocked out” by the wine! in other words, figures of speech are not only used in tasting notes to compensate for a lack of distinct wine-tasting terms, but have become the signature of tasting notes. this is the case in english but not so in spanish. 5.3.3. personal interventions wine tasting notes, which constitute the verbal translation of the experience of wine tasting, have two different functions: descriptive on the one hand, and evaluative on the other. and, according to lehrer (2009: 7), “the evaluative dimension is important and permeates every other dimension, including the descriptive ones.” but judging wines is by its nature subjective, as has been clearly shown by a series of experiments conducted by robert can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 59 hodgson at the california state fair wine competition2 (david derbyshire, “wine-tasting: it’s junk science”, the observer, 23 june 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junkscience-analysis). the subjectivity shows up in wine tasting notes in at least two different ways: first, certain wine critics feel it incumbent on them to use the first person, to put their personal stamp on the note and the judgement it contains; second, certain tasting notes contain what are clearly personal opinions, but without the use of the first person. both constitute what we have termed personal interventions. the first person covers both the first person singular (i, etc.) and the first person plural (we, etc.). it should be noted that the impression created by the use of the first person singular is somewhat different from what results from the use of the first person plural. the first person plural aligns the writer with the winery or the wine producer, and thus involves the writer less intimately with the wine evaluation, although more so than if no personal pronouns were used. the first person singular is an overt indication of the writer’s personal feelings about the wine being described. it is easy to identify the use of the first person in english notes by searching for i, my, me, mine (1st person singular markers) on the one hand, and we our, us, and ours (1st person plural markers) on the other. given the omission of subject pronouns in spanish, object pronouns, possessives, and verb forms had to be examined to determine first person reference in this language. presented below (tables 9 and 10) are tables showing first person singular and first person plural use in the english and spanish corpora, followed by a few concrete examples. (17) not what i’d call elegant, but i get the quality. the parker corpus contains notes written by individual wine critics, who are speaking in their own name; it is therefore logical for these notes to have far more 1st person singular reference and almost no 1st person plural reference. belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6860 i en total no. of tasting notes no. of tasting notes containing 1st person singular reference no. of tasting notes not containing 1st person singular reference robert parker subcorpus 150 42 (28%) 108 (72%) table 9. personal interventions in the english corpus. ( the spanish corpus reveals, once again, the opposite trend. the comments made above with reference to first person reference in the parker corpus contrasts the peñín corpus, which contains no first person reference at all; this lack of first person reference is, however, in keeping with peñín’s sober and detached style. personal interventions are revealed more often than not by the use of the first person. however, occasionally a comment is made which is clearly a subjective opinion, but which is not prefaced by “i feel that” or an equivalent expression. an example of such comments is found below: (18) great now, this is going to be insane later. 5.3.4. address to the reader the more personal style, marked by the personal interventions discussed above, is heightened in some cases by the writer directly addressing the reader. this is done either by the use of the second person (you/your/yours) or by the use of the imperative (“enjoy it moderately chilled”). we will now examine to what extent each of these features figure in the english and spanish corpora. surprisingly, the analysis of the english and spanish corpora shows the same trend: neither parker nor peñín addresses the reader in their notes. it would seem that neither of these two authorities feels the need to establish a personal contact with the reader through direct address. another way to address the reader is through the use of imperatives to present the writer’s recommendations. instead of saying “this wine should not be drunk for five years” or “i recommend that this wine not be drunk for five years”, the writer says “do not drink this wine for five years”. there are instances of such imperatives in all three english corpus: (19) drink: 2010-2040. can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 61 en total no. of tasting notes no. of tasting notes containing 1st person singular reference no. of tasting notes not containing 1st person singular reference robert parker subcorpus 150 0 0 table 10. personal interventions in the spanish corpus. t a however, they are not frequent in the english corpus, and such imperatives are not found at all in the spanish corpus since peñín’s tasting notes are verbless. 5.3.5. conversational style personal interventions by the writer and the address to the readers, both discussed in the preceding sections, could be considered part of the conversational style that seems to characterize a number of tasting notes. however, in this section we will examine some linguistic features characteristic of spoken language, informal language and familiar language, which are all found in conversational style. for english, the features analyzed are taken from those presented by leech & svartvik (1975: 28-31; 2002: 9-18, 30-34) as language variety indicators. unlinked clauses: in informal speech, two neighbouring clauses or sentences may be grammatically unlinked, leaving the connection between them implicit and to be inferred by the reader. (leech & svartvik, 2002: 195) this phenomenon is seen in all three english subcorpora, as the following examples show: (20) subtle and racy, with lemon rind, vanilla cream and dried pineapple. very spicy and intense. full-bodied, with great length and flavor. electrified yet refined, with medium sweetness and a wonderful finish. i love the class of this, and the length. has afterburners. contracted verb forms: some english auxiliary verbs have contracted forms (i’m instead of i am) and the use of the contractions is common in spoken and informal english. (leech & svartvik, 2002: 253) (21) frankly, i could have drunk the entire barrel sample if it hadn’t been my first appointment of the day (at 8:15 a.m.)! (22) we haven’t seen a clinet this good since the late jean-michel arcaute’s stunning duo of 1989 and 1990. comment clause in end-position: comment clauses are so called because they do not add much to the information in a sentence, but comment on its truth, the manner of saying belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6862 it, or the attitude. they are only loosely related to the rest of the main clause they belong to and are marked off from it in written english by commas. while they can occur in front-, midand end-positions in the sentence, the end-position is mainly restricted to informal speech. (leech and svartvik, 1975: 217). there was no example of comment clauses in the english corpus. ellipsis of that between clauses: while leech and svartvik talk primarily about the omission of that before a nominal clause in informal use (i knew he was wrong) (leech and svartvik, 1975: 249), we have extended this to cover the omission of that before other types of clauses as well: (23) la mission haut-brion has made so many great wines over the last 100 years, it would be stupid to say the 2009 somehow exceeds this estate’s great classics. emotive emphasis: leech and svartvik (2002: 159-163) indicate a number of ways emotion is emphasized in speech. some of these ways are discernible in some of the english corpus. exclamations: (24) bravo! (25) it’s a beauty! emphatic so and such: (26) [t]his precocious pomerol was tasting unusually well for such a young barrel sample. intensifying adverbs and modifiers: (discussed in some detail above). (27) the 2009 ausone, was produced at probably twice the yields of the absolutely remarkable 2008. in addition to these grammatical elements indicative of a conversational style, the tasting notes contain lexical elements that are informal in nature. some examples are provided below: can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 63 (28) [l]oads of black berry and black currant fruit (instead of a large quantity of). (29) [i]s blend of 65% cabernet sauvignon and the rest primarily merlot with a dollop of cabernet franc has a whopping 14.5% alcohol (a dollop of instead of a small amount of; whopping instead of huge). in summary, there are signs of a conversational style in some tasting notes. conversational style in the spanish subcorpora was examined in light of the features of colloquial language in spanish identified in nueva gramática de la lengua española (2009-2011), and in gramática descriptiva de la lengua española (carreter: 1999). those features found in the corpus include the following: unusual word order: no sample found. verbless sentences: this covers the lack of a verb or the lack of a finite verb in the main clause: (30) color cereza, borde violáceo (cherry red in color, purple rim). repetition of words to show intensity: no sample found use of abbreviations: no sample found use of general words: the use of somewhat vague, non-specific words is considered an element of colloquial language. (31) en boca algo dulzón (32) boca fácil comment phrase/clause in end-position: this is the spanish counterpart of the english comment clause in end-position. no samples found. while there are some features of conversational style in the spanish corpus (verbless sentences and use of several words), the spanish corpus is far more formal and reflective of written language than the corresponding english corpus. 6. conclusion the purpose of the paper was to examine the comparability of a comparable corpus from the point of view of the purpose for which it is being used. we belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6864 had hypothesized that situational characteristics such as the domain, genre and communicative purpose, time criteria and settings, established by mcenery and xiao (2007), for the comparison of corpora, might not be valid enough in many cases. we have shown that by analysing other aspects such as format, content and style, in addition to mcenery and xiao`s, comparability of comparable corpora can be guaranteed. however, our methodology has also proved that sometimes a given comparable corpus, within a given genre, in a given domain and made up of samples published in the same period of time, shows such low levels of correspondence that only differences can be taken out from that comparison. here, in table form (table 11), is a summary of the similarities and differences between the two subcorpora in each language. instead of specific numbers, we use plus and minus signs to indicate the relative presence or absence of a given feature in a given subcorpus. as we can see there are identifiable features present in or absent from one subcorpus compared to the other to the extent that even though the content is the same, the style is opposite in most of the cases. that statement leads us to conclude that even though some other criteria seem to be necessary when setting up a comparable corpus, sometimes comparison of the same genres in two different languages brings out more differences than similarities. genres can be so different interlinguistically that no similarities can be identified. this answers our research questions: to what extent can comparable corpora be compared? this depends mainly on the purpose of the corpus and the research it is being set up for on the other hand, our study has shown that certain genres cannot be compared interlinguistically, if the purpose of the comparable corpora is to look for similarities. can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 65 h h feature en rp es jp content: appearance + + format: divided ! + style: verbless ! + style: superlatives + ! style: figures of speech + ! style: 1st person reference + ! style: address to reader ! ! style: conversational style ! ! table 11. similarities and differences between tasting notes. however, our conclusions do not claim that only identical samples can be compared but that other aspects should be take into account (such as the purpose of the corpus and the research) when using comparable corpora. an interesting follow-up study to this one would be to set up a general corpus of wine tasting notes in english and in spanish (without identifying the origin of the notes) and see if different types of tasting notes could be identified by analysis of the same features we have examined. in other words, one could try to place tasting notes into at least two different categories – wine critics and notes from wineries or notes from wine journals – on the basis of the features they contain. article history: received 28 july 2018 received in revised form 22 july 2019 accepted 30 april 2020 references belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6866 amoraritei, l. (2002). “la métaphore en oenologie”. metaphorik.de 3: 1–12. asimov, e. (2014). “a wine critic’s realm isn’t a democracy”. url: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/ 04/23/dining/a-wine-critics-realm-isnt-a-democracy. html? [15/07/2018]. caballero, r. (2007). “manner-of-motion verbs in wine description”. journal of pragmatics 39: 2095–2114. caballero, r. (2009). “cutting across the senses: imagery in winespeak and audiovisual promotion” in c. forceville & e. urios-aparisi (eds.), multimodal metaphor, 73-94. berlin and new york: mouton de gruyter. caballero, r. (2017). “from the glass though the nose and the mouth”, terminology 23(1): 66-88. caballero, r & e. suarez-toste (2008). “translating the senses. teaching the metaphors in winespeak” in f. boers and s. lindstromberg (eds.), cognitive linguistic approaches to teaching vocabulary and phraseology, 241–260. berlin and new york: mouton de gruyter. crystal, d. (1987). “the structure of language” in d. crystal (ed.), the cambridge encyclopaedia of language, 15–21. cambridge: c.u.p. derbyshire, d. (2013). “wine-tasting. it’s junk science”. url: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-scienceanalysis. [09/01/18]. eagles. url: http://www.ilc.cnr.it/eagles/ corpustyp/corpustyp.html [02/07/18]. gluck, m. (2003). “wine language. useful idiom or idiot-speak?” in j. aitchison & d.m. lewis (ed.), new media language, 107–115. london: routledge. http://www.wsj.com lázaro carreter, f. (1999). gramática descriptiva de la lengua española. madrid: real academia de la lengua. leech, d. & j. svartvik. (1975). a communicative english grammar. london: longman. leech, d. & j. svartvik j. (2002). a communicative english grammar. london: routledge. lehrer, a. (1983/2009). wine & conversation. new york: oxford university press. li, b. & e. gaussier (2010). “improving corpus comparability for bilingual lexicon extraction from comparable corpora” in: s. acedanski, & a. przepiórkwski (eds.), proceedings coling’10, 644-652. stroudsburg: association for computational linguistics. li, b. (2012). measuring and improving comparable corpus quality. unpublished doctoral dissertation. université de grenoble. lópez-arroyo, b. & r.p. roberts (2014). “english and spanish descriptors in wine tasting terminology”. terminology 20(1): 125-149. belén lópez arroyo is an associate professor in esp at the university of valladolid (spain). she currently teaches esp and translation and corpus linguistics in the english studies degree. her research interests include terminology, contrastive analysis and translation. she is author of several articles and books related to contrastive analysis of scientific and professional genres and its implication for translation. in the actres team she is in charge of the rhetoric of expert-to-expert discourse (in different areas) as well as of terminology and its applications for developing writing aids in english for spaniards. along with other members of the actres group she is the author of semi-automatic writing generators aids in the field of oenology. notes 1 there is some disagreement about whether idioms are figures of speech or not. for instance, idioms are not included in the list of top figures of speech provided by david crystal (1987: 70) or richard nordquist (“top 20 figures of speech” http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/20figures.htm). can comparable corpora be compared? ibérica 39 (2020): 43-68 67 lópez-arroyo, b. & r.p. roberts (2015). “unusual structures in wine tasting notes: an englishspanish contrastive analysis”. languages in contrast 15(2): 162-181. lópez-arroyo, b. & roberts, r.p. (2016). “differences in wine tasting notes in english and spanish”. babel 62(3): 370-401. lópez-arroyo, b. & r.p. roberts (2017). “genre and register in comparable corpora: an english/spanish contrastive analysis”. meta 62(1): 114-136. maia, b. (2003). “what are comparable corpora?” in s. neumann & s. hansen-schirra (eds.), proceedings of the corpus linguistics workshop on multilingual corpora: linguistic requirements and technical perspectives, 27-34. lancaster: lancaster university. mcenery, a. & z. xiao (2007). “parallel and comparable corpora. what are they up to?” in g. james & g. anderman (eds.), incorporating corpora: translation and the linguist, 1-35. clevendon: multilingual matters. ni, x., sun, j.-t., hu, j., & chen, z. (2009). “mining multilingual topics from wikipedia”. in j. quemada & g. león (eds.), www 09’. proceedings of the 18th international conference on world wide web, 1155–1156. acm: new york. nordquist, r. (2014). “top 20 figures of speech”. url: http://grammar.about.com/od/ rhetoricstyle/ a/20figures.htm. [22/05/2018]. peñín, j. 2009. guía peñín de los vinos de españa. madrid: grupo peñín. peynaud, e. (1987). the taste of wine: art and science of wine appreciation. san francisco: the wine appreciation guild. real academia de la lengua española. 2009. nueva gramática de la lengua española. url: http://www.rae.es/recursos/gramatica/nuevagramatica [06/05/2018]. sharoff, s. (2013). “measuring the distance between comparable corpora between languages” in s. sharoff, r. rapp, p. zweigenbaum & p. fung (eds.), building and using comparable corpora, 113-130. berlin: springer. tobley-martínez, t. (2007). “the lone wolf: a conversation with wine critic robert parker”. the banner url: http://www.naplesnews.com/ community/bonita-banner/wine_festival_lone_wolf [11/06/18]. wipf, b. (2010). wine writing meets mipvu: linguistic metaphor identification of tasting notes. ma thesis. unpublished. amsterdam: vrije universiteit. however, given that, essentially, a figure of speech is any unit of speech that cannot be properly understood with a literal interpretation, since figurative language is used and given that an idiom fits that description entirely, we have included idioms as a category of figure of speech. 2 each panel of four judges was presented with their usual “flight” of samples to sniff, sip and slurp. but some wines were presented to the panel three times, poured from the same bottle each time. the results were compiled and analysed to see whether wine testing really is scientific. the first experiment took place in 2005. the last was in sacramento earlier this month. hodgson’s findings have stunned the wine industry. over the years he has shown again and again that even trained, professional palates are terrible at judging wine. results from the first four years of the experiment, published in the journal of wine economics, showed a typical judge’s scores varied by plus or minus four points over the three blind tastings. a wine deemed to be a good 90 would be rated as an acceptable 86 by the same judge minutes later and then an excellent 94. 3 in the case of this category, which includes several individual items that have been analyzed, we have extrapolated the results. 4 in the case of this category, which includes several individual features that have been analyzed but not quantified, we have made an overall judgement. belén lópez arroyo ibérica 39 (2020): 43-6868 iberica 13 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 abstract this paper analyzes the reasons why in a group of 85 engineering students, some were not able to pass our english for specific purposes courses (esp surveys one and two). they took two tests, grammar surveys one and two, and completed a questionnaire, prior to beginning of the courses. the tests focused on grammar points of increasing complexity, and the questionnaire gathered information about factors influencing learner differences. anova analyses showed a significant positive effect of the grammar surveys on the esp surveys. amongst the items included in the questionnaire, only one variable, “previous academic performance” (pap), showed up as having a significant positive effect on the esp surveys. it seems then, that the marks obtained in these esp surveys depend exclusively upon the results obtained in the grammar surveys, and upon the pap of the students. the findings are discussed in terms of our degree of responsibility in the learning process of our students, and on predictable performance patterns. key words: esp courses, learning process, adult language learners, performance predictability. resumen ¿est�n mis alumnos de ingenier�a ling��sticamente preparados para recibir mis cursos de ife? este artículo analiza las razones por las que en un grupo de 85 estudiantes de ingeniería, algunos no fueron capaces de aprobar nuestros cursos de inglés para fines específicos (esp survey one y esp survey two). antes de comenzar los how linguistically ready are my engineering students to take my esp courses? joseba m. gonzález ardeo universidad del país vasco / euskal herriko unibertsitatea fipgoarj@lg.ehu.es 147 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 147 cursos, realizaron dos pruebas, grammar survey one y grammar survey two, y cumplimentaron un cuestionario. las pruebas se centraban en puntos de gramática de complejidad creciente, y el cuestionario recogía información sobre factores que influyen en las diferencias entre estudiantes. el análisis de varianza (anova) mostró un efecto significativo positivo de los grammar surveys en los esp surveys. entre los ítems incluidos en el cuestionario, sólo una variable, previous academic performance (resultados académicos previos), demostró tener un efecto significativo positivo en los esp surveys. parece entonces que las notas obtenidas en estos esp surveys dependen exclusivamente de los resultados obtenidos en los grammar surveys y en los resultados académicos previos de los estudiantes. los resultados obtenidos se tratan a nivel de nuestra responsabilidad en el proceso de aprendizaje de nuestros alumnos, y en patrones predecibles de resultados. palabras clave: cursos de ife, proceso de aprendizaje, estudiantes adultos de lenguas, predicción de resultados académicos. introduction when we were students, some of our classmates were better language learners, objectively measured, than others even though we all were exposed to similar teaching, used the same learning material and had similar opportunities to practice english. however, teachers know that not all learners behave in exactly the same way. while some students always adopt a very active role, others prefer to remain neutral or even passive towards learning. there are some students who progress very fast, apparently with little effort, whereas others put a lot of work into learning and they obtain poor results. there are also students who prefer to learn things by heart while others opt for learning through practice. therefore, it stands to reason that the existence of learners with different capacities and abilities seems to be a fact well worth researching. factors influencing learner differences when learning a language are usually grouped under headings such as “cognitive” (intelligence, language learning aptitude, cognitive style, learning strategies), “affective” (attitudes towards language learning, motivation for language learning), and “physical and psychological” (age, gender, personality), but other taxonomies are also possible, for instance, “individual variables” (intelligence, linguistic aptitude, personality traits, cognitive style), “socio-structural variables” (age, gender, socio-cultural level, social setting), “psycho-social variables” (attitude, motivation), and “psycho-educational variables” (l2 learning context). all joseba m. gonzález ardeo 148 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 148 these variables have been often analyzed both for children and for adults (wenden, 1986; oxford & nyikos, 1989; ehrman & oxford, 1990). moreover, gardner (1985) developed a model of education to explain the relationship between certain factors and the learning of a second language, thus showing that the variables under all those aforementioned headings should not be regarded as mutually exclusive or independent since quite often the effects of some interact with others. in any educational program at the university level, both the students and the lecturers are individuals whose performances can be evaluated. any independent observer would agree with the statement “the most frequently evaluated individuals are usually the students”. however, that part of the labor force from a university not engaged in administrative duties, but in lecturing ones, is well aware that there are many different mechanisms to evaluate its performance which, by the way, affects careers not only from a professional point of view, but also from an economical one. but, who decides whether a student should or should not take the course a member of the teaching staff has designed or is about to design? in many programs, entrance is nearly an automatic process since no selection or entrance test is required. in other words, prerequisites of knowledge or skills are not necessarily connected to those needed in the learning process of the target language but to factors such as “branch of engineering the student is enrolled in”, “number of credits necessary for completing his/her degree”, and so on. this is then the background used to plan a research study where the students’ readiness for taking specialized esp courses was one of the variables evaluated, together with certain performance-related indicators. the term “readiness” is not used arbitrarily, but quite deliberately since it takes into account the extent to which the students were potentially ready to take the esp courses offered within a particular institution. tests to filter out candidates who do not yet display readiness in many parts of the world, nation-wide university entrance examinations include a section where knowledge of a foreign language, mainly english, is assessed in addition to assessments of academic subjects such as mathematics, chemistry, history or art. nevertheless, this pre-selection how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 149 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 149 process does not always guarantee in itself linguistic homogeneity since the minimum level required to pass it is rather easily attained. one of the tasks of lecturers is to carry out achievement tests and/or formal assessments which usually come at the end of a long period of learning. their main purposes are, on the one hand and from the lecturer’s point of view, to show who will be prepared to cope best in the target situation and, on the other hand and from the learners’ point of view, to provide the key to promotion to a more advanced course or simply to fulfill a “pass” requirement in order to complete the different courses engineering studies are divided into. but, what happens with those individuals who do not pass these assessments? what is the lecturer’s degree of responsibility for their failure? to what extent are other agents responsible? were they ready, linguistically speaking, to take the course they were offered? engineering students in esp courses are usually grouped according to factors such as expected level of language ability, expected language learning aptitude that, at least in theory, should bring homogeneity to the groups, and this together with a more objective factor, that is, the branch of engineering the student is enrolled in. this amalgam of factors will not necessarily help lecturers predict future performances of these students. brown et al. (1994) remind us that as providers of education it is important to step back and consider why teachers assess. among the reasons why assessment is useful, the most frequently mentioned are “motivation”, “creating learning activities”, “feedback to the student (identifying strengths and weaknesses)”, “feedback to the staff on how well the message is getting across”, and “to judge performance (grade/degree classification)”. however, “quality assurance (internal and external to the institution)” has been recently included in this set. regarding grouping, the most rational criterion appears to be based on language ability. for this reason, it was our purpose to measure students’ language abilities not only after taking our courses but also before taking them, with a clear purpose in mind, namely, to know how ready our engineering students are for esp instruction. an objective way of tackling this issue seems to be concentrated in the word “assessment”, but new questions arise. how and what should be assessed? keeping in mind the above questions, a questionnaire and two tests were designed. the former included items to gather as much information as possible regarding the linguistic background of the students. the latter were joseba m. gonzález ardeo 150 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 150 connected to the learning objectives of the syllabus the students were about to take. thus, the following hypotheses were put forward: main hypotheses: 1.1. students will exhibit appreciable differences when tested on specific language learning, depending upon their previous academic performance within the field of english for general purposes. 1.2. grammar surveys carried out prior to the esp courses will tell us in advance which students would pass or fail the esp tests the first time around. secondary hypotheses: 2.1. variables such as age, gender, mother tongue, personality traits, social setting and educational level, will not affect performance in the esp courses administered. 2.2. variables such as language background, attitude towards esp, motivation, former teachers’ efficiency, language learning aptitude, previous academic performance, communicative aptitude, and phonetic coding ability will affect performance in the esp courses and their corresponding assessments. main hypothesis 1.1 posits a correlation between the degree of linguistic proficiency in the general english of the students and their chances of success in the esp courses. hypothesis 1.2 predicts that there will be performance differences in the esp tests, between those who pass and those who do not pass certain grammar surveys used as filters. secondary hypothesis 2.1 considers a negative correlation between some variables (age, gender, mother tongue, personality traits, social setting and educational level) and the learners’ performances in the esp tests. hypothesis 2.2 assigns better expected results in the esp tests to learners with a rich linguistic background, a positive motivation and attitude towards esp, and a positive feeling about the students’ former teachers’ efficiency, their own language and communicative aptitude, and their phonetic coding ability. how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 151 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 151 participants the study was completed in the basque country. the participants were 85 engineering students from the industrial technical engineering college in bilbao (itec-b) in the 19-24 age range. their performances were evaluated before and after taking two short specialized esp courses. they belonged to the four different branches currently studied within the industrial section, namely, mechanical engineering (30 students), electrical engineering (15), industrial electronic engineering (27), and industrial chemical engineering (13). most students enter the college via two local options: 1) high school; 2) vocational training. the former follows a much more theoretical approach than the latter but, in the case of english as a subject matter, grammar is the main focus of attention in both groups. original variables and research instruments independent variables these were measured by means of a self-report questionnaire (see appendix i) that provided raw data on the learners’ physical and psychological factors (age, gender, and personality trait), affective factors (attitude towards esp, motivation), cognitive factors (language learning aptitude, communicative aptitude, phonetic coding ability), and socio-educational factors (mother tongue, social setting, educational level, language background, former teachers’ efficiency, and previous academic performance). moreover, an item on the use of english as a means of instruction in subjects other than english was included in the questionnaire. the age variable can be easily measured, and this is not the case with other important sla factors. it has been generally taken for granted that young learners learn languages more easily than adults but research seems to indicate that this is only the case when it comes to pronunciation. gender is a variable traditionally related to the linguistic development of l1 and l2. in both cases, two types of studies have been carried out: quantitative and qualitative. in the former, the differences between linguistic developments of males and females are merely stated. in the latter, a more recent one, results demonstrate convincingly that the language reflects social joseba m. gonzález ardeo 152 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 152 structures and power hierarchies between sexes. gender cannot be considered an isolated variable since, related to other variables (e.g. race, age, social status), it reflects the social hierarchical structure (giles & robinson, 1990). when teenagers are evaluated most studies agree (burstall, 1975), and they state that girls obtain better results than boys. however, when adult students’ results are compared, in most studies (liski & putanen, 1983), no differences are observed. as far as the students’ mother tongue is concerned, it is generally believed that bilingual students acquiring a third language outperform monolingual ones. many studies show that bilingualism has a positive effect upon l3 acquisition (albert & obler, 1978; clark, 1987). however, other studies show that bilinguals do not present any real advantage over monolinguals (gonzález, 2004). ringbom (1985) suggests that bilingualism has positive effects upon l3 acquisition when the languages are learnt within the same context. this is the case for most bilingual students in the basque country. all native basque speakers speak spanish, although the opposite is not true. the item is pertinent to the topic under discussion, when dealing with monolinguals and bilinguals, since the students may present differences when comparing l2 acquisition and l3 acquisition (cenoz & genesse, 1998; gonzález, 2004). teachers could foster certain attitudes towards language learning that could have direct and/or indirect influences on the students’ personality profile. confidence in the teacher is vital, and s/he should create the best possible atmosphere in the classroom so that learners can overcome any anxiety they may feel since we learn best when we are relaxed. however, despite any effort made in that direction, the student’s involvement in the teaching and learning tasks is a basic ingredient for success in language learning. in other words, extroversion, tolerance of ambiguity, low anxiety, a disposition to take risks and ‘anomie’ seem to indirectly correlate in most cases with language success. given these results, personality becomes an important factor in the acquisition of communicative skills but the connection is not so close in terms of pure linguistic ability. in fact, lightbown and spada (1993: 39) state that “it is probably not personality alone, but the way in which it combines with other factors that contributes to second language learning”. social setting is one of the classical variables included when acquisition and performance are evaluated. social groups develop communicative ways that facilitate cooperation and coexistence among their members (giles & robinson, 1990). in this way, communicative practice reflects social power how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 153 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 153 from the members of a group. the differences become social deficits when the groups are different and the standards of one of the groups dominate. this deficit is due to the comparison of groups from various statuses and, without comparison, no disadvantage would exist (giles & robinson, 1990). the way the educational level variable has been considered in this research is somewhat exceptional since this is a peculiarity of the students from our college. our two main student recruitment sources come from vocational training and higher certificate. the language background variable was included to check not only the extent the groups of students differ from each other, but also to filter the motivation variable since the fact of taking voluntary english courses could be considered as connected to motivation. if motivation exists, success in language learning is almost guaranteed (ellis, 1985; gardner, 1985). according to gardner (1985), the different components of motivation are effort+setting and desire to achieve goals+attitudes. effort is the first element in motivation and, according to gardner, it may be triggered by several factors such as social pressures, a great achievement need, etc. setting and desire to achieve goals is the component that serves to channel the effort. finally, motivation will vary depending on the different attitudes individuals possess toward the learning of the language. then, these two affective factors, attitude and motivation, should somehow be represented in this study since motivation plays a key role in sla. besides, learning environments or communities also shape attitudes and motivation toward the learning of the target language (gonzález, 2003). the reason why an item on “former teachers’ efficiency” was included in the questionnaire can be justified if the teachers’ responsibility to motivate is considered. teachers’ role in motivating students appears to be closely related to success in language learning, at least when in primary and secondary school. at university, the lecturer’s function is closer to that of “facilitator” or “provider of materials” as the learners must take over more responsibility for their own learning, thus becoming more autonomous. then, our expectations in connection to this question are related to the past, and they consist of knowing the extent to which students were motivated by their english teachers. aptitude is the natural ability people have to learn languages and all of us possess it to varying degrees. researchers are interested in aptitude, a natural joseba m. gonzález ardeo 154 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 154 aptitude for languages, as a predictor of performance. skehan (1989: 38) believes that “aptitude is consistently the most successful predictor of language learning success”. the student’s performance when learning english for general purposes is named previous academic performance in the questionnaire. this factor is not usually included in taxonomies on individual factors in a learner’s development but linguistic background is a priori connected to future linguistic performance, at least, when differences between secondary school and university are evaluated. communicative aptitude is another important factor in sla, and new versions of the already existing aptitude tests should be devised with the purpose of measuring not only grammatical, memory and analytical language abilities but also the learner’s capacity to communicate meaning. current definitions of communicative competence or communicative language ability no longer talk of the dichotomy between competence and performance, but lecturers are usually aware of the existence of learners with different capacities and abilities in their classrooms, that is, provision should be made for both “strong” and “weak” learners. nevertheless, this is not easy at the university since in most cases the same information is provided to all students. phonemic or phonetic coding ability –the ability to discriminate and recall new sounds– is one of the four main components in language aptitude in carroll & sapon’s (1959) modern language aptitude test. although the correlation between this factor and the ability to communicate meaning may not be clear, it has been included because important differences amongst students at the itec-b are usually present. why certain items were included in the questionnaire but not others is just a matter of choice. matters do not seem to be fully clarified with respect to intelligence, an item that apparently should have been included in the questionnaire, from the point of view of its relationship with sla. in fact, some researchers (genesse, 1976) seem to indicate that intelligence may influence the acquisition of some skills associated with sla, particularly those used in the formal study of an l2, but others (lightbown & spada, 1993) consider that no correlation between intelligence and l2 communicative learning exists. how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 155 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 155 dependent variables these were measured via different kinds of tests, two grammar surveys (a multiple-choice test and a cloze test), and the official esp examinations administered in the itec-b, esp survey one and esp survey two. on the other hand, three instruments were employed to collect data for this study: a questionnaire on factors influencing learner’s development, two tests on english grammar and usage (before the esp courses), and two official examinations (after the esp courses). 1) questionnaire the first instrument consisted of the aforementioned questionnaire (see appendix i) that students were invited to complete. the items selected pursue a priori a clear goal, namely, to see to what extent there is a correlation between the differences of individuals in the previously mentioned factors, and their performances. 2) readiness tests pre-university students are supposed to be trained in grammar and usage but year in, year out, dramatic differences among individuals belonging to the same group are observed. if the expected level of grammar and usage guarantees, to some extent, correct understanding of the language used in the esp courses, then, some kind of test based on grammar and usage would shed new light on the causes of poor marks attained by certain students in the official examinations. the importance of grammar in sla has been highlighted by a considerable body of research (doughty & williams, 1998; purpura, 2004) showing that language learning is enhanced when grammar instruction is both form and meaning-based and when the development of a learner’s explicit and implicit knowledge of grammar is emphasized. one of the major uses of language tests mentioned by bachman (1990: 54) was taken into account, that is, “indicators of abilities or attributes that are of interest in research on language, language acquisition, and language testing”. the first test administered “readiness test 1 (grammar survey one –a multiple-choice test–)” was adapted from those tests designed by swan & walter (1997) and, in much the same way, it was divided into three main sections. the first one focused on basic grammar points: determiners (articles, possessives and demonstratives, etc.); pronouns and nouns; joseba m. gonzález ardeo 156 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 156 comparatives and superlatives; be, do and have; modal auxiliary verbs (basic rules); present tenses; and basic sentence-structures; prepositions (in, at, to); etc. the second referred to intermediate grammar points: some and any; much, many, etc.; adjectives and adverbs; word order (adverbs with the verb); like/as; have (got); modal auxiliary verbs; future tenses; perfect and past tenses; passives; infinitives; preposition + -ing, indirect speech; structures with if, unless, in case, etc.; relative who, which and that; etc. eventually, the last section included advanced grammar points such as noun + noun; order of adjectives before nouns; modal auxiliary verbs (special problems); future tenses after if and when; tenses with since and for; passives; to …ing; negative sentence structures; dropping sentence beginnings; non-identifying relative clauses; opposite vs. in front of; etc. by using this unbiased-for-allthese-students source of information, it could be guaranteed that the answers to the items were neither “canned” nor rehearsed. the multiple-choice test included ninety items (30 items per section) but, following the above mentioned line of work (swan & walter, 1997), they could contain one or more correct answers (a degree of difficulty an adult university student should a priori be able to overcome). in fact, the ninety items contained 116 correct answers out of 299 potential choices. moreover, the sections were clearly separated (one sheet of paper per section) and were entitled “basic”, “intermediate”, and “advanced” respectively. everybody had to fill in test number one before completing test number two and lastly test number three. another point to be mentioned here is that all correct answers were given a “+1” mark (e.g. an item with two correct answers was given a “+2” mark), while wrong answers were given a “-0.25” mark. this strategy was followed with a clear intention, on the one hand to penalize errors –the penalty was chosen approximately and using the logic of arithmetic– and, on the other, to minimize “guesstimates”. moreover, the research carried out is not invalidated by the penalizations due to the way the results were used. these test formats are far from reflecting authenticity of language or the placement of language in context (real-world speech does not extend to multiple choice conversations!), but subjective marking, and the associated problems of reliability, were overcome by using them. besides, all these adult students are familiarized with this type of task. in order to somewhat crosscheck those problems, a complementary readiness test (grammar survey two –a cloze test) was also administered to how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 157 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 157 the students. thirty words –any part of speech– were randomly removed from a text (this task is both objective and integrative, and one can draw on a wider range of language abilities). the topic chosen for the text was selected after carefully considering the situation. “a career in engineering” was a text that described jobs and degrees of responsibility an engineer might expect to face. the criterion followed when marking this test was the same as the one mentioned above, that is, a “+1” mark for correct answers and a “-0.25” mark for wrong ones. only a restricted range of skills in language ability was measured and evaluated. skills like reading, writing, listening, speaking, pragmatics, sociolinguistic competence, etc. were not evaluated due to local features –they seldom are part of a formal assessment in secondary school. cloze procedure has often been used in well-known test batteries (brown, 1978). cloze tests are regarded as objective testing techniques, and also integrative (brown, 1983), since a large number of items are tested, full linguistic, semantic and stylistic context is provided for each item, the technique operates beyond the sentence level, and the learner has to draw on a wide range of language sub-skills in order to complete the test successfully. a quick look at the principles of language testing shows the tension that exists in language testing in general, since, for example, the more reliable a test is, the less valid it is likely to be. cloze tests sacrifice validity in favor of reliability and they focus on receptive skills rather than on productive ones, mainly because they try to be a backward-looking assessment to see to what degree the usage-based syllabuses have been assimilated by the learner. the cloze test from grammar survey two is a norm-referenced test. a passing grade tells you very little about what the learner can actually do with the language but the combination of both tests (multiple choice + cloze test) fulfills some characteristics which are generally thought to be desirable for a formal test: 1) they have high utility since a lot of feedback to assist in the planning of these esp courses is given; 2) they discriminate between stronger and weaker students; 3) their practicality –in terms of equipment required, and time to set, administer, and mark– was high; 4) they are reliable because of the scoring, but lack validity as a result of not assessing all the skills. in order to enhance test validity and fairness, potential sources of unfairness in testing have been eliminated or, at least, minimized. these include items such as external pressures, availability of information about the tests, the joseba m. gonzález ardeo 158 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 158 assessment tools themselves, and possible unfairness due to the most vulnerable element in the testing process, the human marker (kunnan, 2000). the students were also divided into two subgroups per branch. the former, student subgroup one, included individuals with a potentially favorable enough attitude towards english in general based on the results obtained in grammar survey one and grammar survey two, and the latter, student subgroup two, included the rest. maximum potential marks in both tests were 116 and 30 respectively (overall base = 146). then, our previous “good-enough” consideration means that all those students who got 60 or more marks were, at least potentially, good enough to take the courses (60 out of 146: approximately 41%), that is, student subgroup one (s1) ≥ 60 and student subgroup two (s2) < 60. these cut-off scores were somewhat arbitrarily chosen but with a clear idea in mind, to sort out the groups. in our agenda, s2 would include the students who undoubtedly failed (≤41 out of 100), and s1 would include those who passed (≥50 out of 100) as well as those who were close to the pass mark (>41 but <50 out of 100), and deserved, subjectively, “an opportunity”. the students showed the following distribution: mechanical engineering (s1/s2: 16/14), electrical engineering (s1/s2: 11/4), industrial electronic engineering (s1/s2: 20/7) and industrial chemical engineering (s1/s2: 9/4). 3) formal assessments the third instrument used for comparing purposes consists of two formal assessments (esp survey one and esp survey two). these students can sit for one and/or for the other. those from the sample sat for both examinations. the structure of the formal assessments focuses mainly on tasks an engineer might fulfill in a local firm, that is, reading comprehension on topics connected to his/her branch of engineering (e.g. how to remove the cylinder head in a diesel engine and what a close scrutiny of the combustion chamber could reveal –high oil consumption, over-fueling, overheating, etc.), listening comprehension (e.g. listen to the following descriptions:… now, match them to these instruments or tools: a voltmeter, an oscilloscope, a heat sink, wire-clippers, a megger…), or tasks the student might need to accomplish (e.g. study some advertisements and select a suitable job for which an applicant could apply, and write a letter of application). in order to test how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 159 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 159 writing, the test takers are asked to develop some kind of text (e.g. list the main elements you need for assembling a universal motor and explain the function of each element). language functions are also tested (e.g. expressing reason: fill in the gaps inserting one of the following prepositions –for, out of, from, with– “he did it … gratitude”, “i know it … experience”, “i’m just asking … interest”, “the plants died … want of water”,…). speaking is also evaluated –monologue or dialogue– (e.g. describe how the ph of a certain fluid is measured). most tasks are familiar to the students through their content lecturers but the linguistic tools to accomplish them in the target language are provided by the esp lecturer. overall marks range from 0 to 100 (both limits are very uncommon), and a normal distribution is regularly observed. the validity period of scores –grammar survey one and two– is considered to be long enough (>2 semesters) to affect performance positively in esp survey one and two. the results of our students before taking the esp courses (readiness tests), will be compared with those obtained after taking them (formal assessments). the information obtained from the questionnaire will be used to try to explain the existing correlations between both groups of tests. results descriptive analyses student subgroup one (s1) and student subgroup two (s2) are the names given to the subgroups into which the entire group was divided, i.e. those students considered potentially valid to take the esp courses (s1), and those whose command of general english was not, in theory, high enough for completing the courses successfully (s2). in order to carry out the statistical analyses corresponding to the data obtained, the spss (statistical package for the social sciences) program was used. joseba m. gonzález ardeo 160 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 joseba m. gonzález ardeo the validity period of scores !grammar survey one and two! is considered to be long enough (>2 semesters) to affect performance positively in esp survey one and two. the results of our students before taking the esp courses (readiness tests), will be compared with those obtained after taking them (formal assessments). the information obtained from the questionnaire will be used to try to explain the existing correlations between both groups of tests. results descriptive analyses student subgroup one (s1) and student subgroup two (s2) are the names given to the subgroups into which the entire group was divided, i.e. those students considered potentially valid to take the esp courses (s1), and those whose command of general english was not, in theory, high enough for completing the courses successfully (s2). in order to carry out the statistical analyses corresponding to the data obtained, the spss (statistical package for the social sciences) program was used. s gso + gst sso sst s1 (n=56) s2 (n=29) 82.28 47.23 62.14 46.75 60.64 44.34 table 1. mean marks per group of students. at first glance (table 1), there is a clear correlation between the marks attained, both in esp survey one and two, by students from s1 and s2. as a whole, students from s1 pass both examinations, esp survey one and two, while students from s2 fail both. table 2 shows the items included in the questionnaire, the options chosen within each item (see appendix i), the marks obtained in grammar survey one plus two, and the marks obtained in esp survey one and two. it is difficult to compare learners of different ages if the contexts and environments in which learning may take place are considered, but the overall experience accumulated n = number of individuals gso = grammar survey one (max. 116) gst = grammar survey two (max. 30) sso = esp survey one (max. 100) sst = esp survey two (max. 100) 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 160 sat first glance (table 1), there is a clear correlation between the marks attained, both in esp survey one and two, by students from s1 and s2. as a whole, students from s1 pass both examinations, esp survey one and two, while students from s2 fail both. table 2 shows the items included in the questionnaire, the options chosen within each item (see appendix i), the marks obtained in grammar survey one plus two, and the marks obtained in esp survey one and two. it is difficult to compare learners of different ages if the contexts and environments in which learning may take place are considered, but the overall experience accumulated by a student at the age of 19 and that s/he may have accumulated at the age of 23/24 may differ significantly. this is the reason why performances with the age variable were compared. it can be observed that the mean marks of the different age groups differ importantly when mean values of grammar survey one plus two are compared (see table 2). however, the results do not differ that much when esp surveys are compared. the best overall results coincide with ages 20 and 21, and the worst with the oldest individuals. table 2 also shows the following: 1) differences between men and women (at first sight, female students outperformed male ones, but the margin is rather narrow); 2) bilinguals (18+25) outperformed monolinguals (42) by a narrow margin; 3) only 10 students out of 85 considered themselves introverted (a priori surprisingly, these students outperformed the extroverts); 4) most students come from the city or from towns, while just a few come from rural settings (the differences between them are negligible); 5) the differences between both groups in terms of performance are not clearly disparate when “educational level” is considered; 6) those students who had voluntarily taken english courses as well as compulsory ones outperformed rather clearly those who had only taken compulsory courses; 7) no unfavorable attitudes towards esp are expressed by the students from the sample and, at first sight, the-more-favorable-attitude-you-have-the-better seems to be true; 8) most students (73 out of 85) describe their level of motivation as simply “motivated” (the more motivated the students are, the better they apparently perform, but this is neither importantly nor always true in certain cases); 9) only those students who considered their former teachers “very efficient” passed (with credit) all the tests and assessments (some of the results obtained by those who chose the option “very deficient” are rather surprising); 10) those who describe their language aptitude as “very positive” obtained outstanding results in comparison with the others; 11) present how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 161 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 161 performance seems to be undoubtedly conditioned by past performance; 12) only those students who considered their communication aptitude “very good” clearly outperformed the others; 13) the differences between the groups are not very important unless those differences that take place between the first and the last group are observed; and 14) only two students had attended a trilingual program (both performed extremely well in all surveys). when the results obtained by the students are grouped according to their branch of engineering (table 3), no striking differences amongst the branches are observed. joseba m. gonzález ardeo 162 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: …-… 13 q options gso+gst sso sst age (q1) 1 (n=15) 2 (n=28) 3 (n=20) 4 (n=17) 5 (n=5) 68.85 74.59 78.65 58.10 59.10 55.53 59.39 61.55 50.82 49.00 53.13 58.14 55.00 52.52 52.80 gender (q2) 1 (n=48) 2 (n=37) 68.44 72.76 56.56 57.32 53.58 57.02 mother tongue (q3) 1 (n=18) 2 (n=42) 3 (n=25) 71.81 68.81 71.79 58.77 54.52 59.52 57.77 54.09 54.80 personality trait (q4) 1 (n=10) 2 (n=75) 74.50 69.77 62.40 56.16 57.00 54.82 social setting (q5) 1 (n=16) 2 (n=69) 69.40 70.53 59.37 56.31 54.87 55.13 educational level (q6) 1 (n=10) 2 (n=75) 72.65 70.01 61.20 56.32 54.30 55.18 language background (q7) 1 (n=75) 2 (n=10) 68.77 82.00 55.94 64.00 53.70 65.40 attitude towards esp-est (q8) 1 (n=10) 2 (n=62) 3 (n=13) 85.00 68.65 67.00 62.30 56.20 56.00 65.50 53.14 56.30 motivation (q9) 1 (n=8) 2 (n=73) 3 (n=4) 103.13 66.84 68.38 71.13 55.42 55.25 66.50 53.99 52.25 former teachers’ efficiency (q10) 1 (n=6) 2 (n=71) 3 (n=5) 4 (n=3) 80.16 69.00 73.05 77.50 66.00 55.49 62.00 63.33 65.66 54.21 59.40 47.33 language learning aptitude (q11) 1 (n=8) 2 (n=73) 3 (n=4) 111.31 65.97 67.68 80.62 54.36 55.50 73.62 53.05 55.00 previous academic performance (q12) 1 (n=7) 2 (n=71) 3 (n=7) 127.00 67.76 39.64 84.85 55.97 38.28 79.71 54.36 37.71 communicative attitude (q13) 1 (n=7) 2 (n=64) 3 (n=12) 4 (n=2) 109.57 71.02 47.58 47.12 76.28 57.76 41.66 52.50 75.00 55.98 40.41 44.50 phonetic coding ability (q14) 1 (n=5) 2 (n=58) 3 (n=19) 4 (n=3) 77.90 74.75 58.57 46.58 59.60 59.13 50.78 47.66 62.20 56.13 52.26 40.66 english means of instruction (q15) 0 (n=83) 3 (n=2) 69.12 120.37 56.01 93.50 54.09 96.00 table 2. mean values of performances depending on questions q1 to q15 and their options table 2 also shows the following: 1) differences between men and women (at first sight, female students outperformed male ones, but the margin is rather narrow); 2) bilinguals (18+25) outperformed monolinguals (42) by a narrow margin; 3) only 10 students out of 85 considered themselves introverted (a priori surprisingly, these students outperformed the extroverts); 4) most students come 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 162 normality tests were carried out for all quantitative variables (see table 4). it can be observed that the five variables fulfill normality. model diagnosis the purpose of this section is to check what variables the marks obtained in esp survey one and two depend upon. the independent variables considered were q1, q2, q3, q4, q5, q6, q7, q8, q9, q10, q11, q12, q13 and q14, as well as the re-codified variable referred to the group of students s (s1 if marks of gso+gst≥60; s2 if marks of gso+gst<60). q15 was not considered due to the almost constant distribution of data. in order to simplify calculations, anova (analysis of variance) analyses with a single independent factor were carried out first. the candidate variables to be part of the final model are given by the result of these analyses. the analyses were independently undertaken for both variables, esp survey one and two. model analysis for dependent variable “esp survey one” inter-individual anova analyses were carried out for each and every independent variable, one by one (except for q15 as previously mentioned). taking a .05 significance level as a reference, the values taken by variables s, q9, q11, q12, and q13 create significant differences in the marks of esp survey one. a new anova analysis with these five independent variables as a whole, but without interactions, was carried out: how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 163 ibérica 13 [2007]: …-…14 those students who considered their communication aptitude “very good” clearly outperformed the others; 13) the differences between the groups are not very important unless those differences that take place between the first and the last group are observed; and 14) only two students had attended a trilingual program (both performed extremely well in all surveys). when the results obtained by the students are grouped according to their branch of engineering (table 3), no striking differences amongst the branches are observed. branch gso+gst sso sst mecheng (n=30) 66.63 57.47 55.20 eleceng (n=15) 71.83 58.40 57.87 indeleceng (n=26) 74.03 56.00 54.00 indchemeng (n=14) 69.75 55.71 53.86 total (n=85) 70.33 56.89 55.08 table 3. mean marks per branch of engineering. normality tests were carried out for all quantitative variables (see table 4). gso gst gso+gst sso sst n normal parameter a, mean typical deviation kolmogorov-smirnov’s z asymptotic sig. (bilateral) 85 55.9529 19.96863 1.072 .201 85 14.3735 4.70809 .972 .301 85 70.3265 24.23702 1.054 .216 85 56.8941 15.74879 1.275 .077 85 55.0824 17.01555 .707 .699 a. the contrast distribution is the normal one. table 4. kolmogorov-smirnov test for a sample. it can be observed that the five variables fulfill normality. ibérica 13 [2007]: …-…14 obtained outstanding results in comparison with the others; 11) present performance seems to be undoubtedly conditioned by past performance; 12) only those students who considered their communication aptitude “very good” clearly outperformed the others; 13) the differences between the groups are not very important unless those differences that take place between the first and the last group are observed; and 14) only two students had attended a trilingual program (both performed extremely well in all surveys). when the results obtained by the students are grouped according to their branch of engineering (table 3), no striking differences amongst the branches are observed. branch gso+gst sso sst mecheng (n=30) 66.63 57.47 55.20 eleceng (n=15) 71.83 58.40 57.87 indeleceng (n=26) 74.03 56.00 54.00 indchemeng (n=14) 69.75 55.71 53.86 total (n=85) 70.33 56.89 55.08 table 3. mean marks per branch of engineering. normality tests were carried out for all quantitative variables (see table 4). gso gst gso+gst sso sst n normal parameter a, mean typical deviation kolmogorov-smirnov’s z asymptotic sig. (bilateral) 85 55.9529 19.96863 1.072 .201 85 14.3735 4.70809 .972 .301 85 70.3265 24.23702 1.054 .216 85 56.8941 15.74879 1.275 .077 85 55.0824 17.01555 .707 .699 a. the contrast distribution is the normal one. table 4. kolmogorov-smirnov test for a sample. it can be observed that the five variables fulfill normality. 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 163 it is observed (see table 5) that although the model is correct, certain variables do not sufficiently discriminate the values of esp survey one enough so as to be included in the final model. the variables with a higher significance value (q9, q11, and q13) were eliminated, one by one. as a result of this process, the significance value is now below .05 for all the variables (see table 6). significance therefore, it can be stated that the marks obtained in assessment esp survey one will depend upon variables s and q12, namely, the marks obtained in grammar survey one and two and the pap of the students. as a result of studying this dependence and after estimating the different variables, it can be observed that the best marks in esp survey one belong to those students that fulfill the following conditions: 1) grammar survey one + grammar survey two ≥ 60; 2) very good pap. conversely, the students who attained the worst marks were those who got less than 60 marks (gso+gst) and whose pap was bad. this evidence is corroborated by results from table 7, i.e. the mean values the students would attain for each category of variables s and q12. joseba m. gonzález ardeo 164 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 ibérica 13 [2007]: …-… 15 model analysis for dependent variable “esp survey one” inter-individual anova analyses were carried out for each and every independent variable, one by one (except for q15 as previously mentioned). taking a .05 significance level as a reference, the values taken by variables s, q9, q11, q12, and q13 create significant differences in the marks of esp survey one. a new anova analysis with these five independent variables as a whole, but without interactions, was carried out: significance corrected model intersection s q9 q11 q12 q13 .000 .000 .009 .902 .427 .010 .123 table 5. significance values of independent variables s, q9, q11, q12 and q13. it is observed (see table 5) that although the model is correct, certain variables do not sufficiently discriminate the values of esp survey one enough so as to be included in the final model. the variables with a higher significance value (q9, q11, and q13) were eliminated, one by one. as a result of this process, the significance value is now below .05 for all the variables (see table 6). significance corrected model intersection s q12 .000 .000 .003 .000 table 6. significance values of independent variables s and q12. therefore, it can be stated that the marks obtained in assessment esp survey ibérica 13 [2007]: …-… 15 in order to simplify calculations, anova (analysis of variance) analyses with a single independent factor were carried out first. the candidate variables to be part of the final model are given by the result of these analyses. the analyses were independently undertaken for both variables, esp survey one and two. model analysis for dependent variable “esp survey one” inter-individual anova analyses were carried out for each and every independent variable, one by one (except for q15 as previously mentioned). taking a .05 significance level as a reference, the values taken by variables s, q9, q11, q12, and q13 create significant differences in the marks of esp survey one. a new anova analysis with these five independent variables as a whole, but without interactions, was carried out: significance corrected model intersection s q9 q11 q12 q13 .000 .000 .009 .902 .427 .010 .123 table 5. significance values of independent variables s, q9, q11, q12 and q13. it is observed (see table 5) that although the model is correct, certain variables do not sufficiently discriminate the values of esp survey one enough so as to be included in the final model. the variables with a higher significance value (q9, q11, and q13) were eliminated, one by one. as a result of this process, the significance value is now below .05 for all the variables (see table 6). significance corrected model intersection s q12 .000 .000 .003 .000 table 6. significance values of independent variables s and q12. therefore, it can be stated that the marks obtained in assessment esp survey joseba m. gonzález ardeo one will depend upon variables s and q12, namely, the marks obtained in grammar survey one and two and the pap of the students. as a result of studying this dependence and after estimating the different variables, it can be observed that the best marks in esp survey one belong to those students that fulfill the following conditions: 1) grammar survey one + grammar survey two ! 60; 2) very good pap. conversely, the students who attained the worst marks were those who got less than 60 marks (gso+gst) and whose pap was bad. this evidence is corroborated by results from table 7, i.e. the mean values the students would attain for each category of variables s and q12. intersection s q12 esp survey one 38.286 [s=1] [s=2] 9.443 0.000 [q12]=1 [q12]=2 [q12]=3 [q12]=1 [q12]=2 [q12]=3 37.12 11.16 00.00 37.12 11.16 00.00 84.85 58.89 47.72 75.41 49.45 38.28 table 7. mean values per category of variables s and q12. model analysis for dependent variable “esp survey two” one again, as many inter-individual anova analyses as independent variables were carried out (except for q15). for a .05 significance value, variables s, q7, q9, q11, q12, and q13 create significant differences in the marks of esp survey two. the analysis with these five independent variables as a whole, without interactions, shows the following: 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 164 model analysis for dependent variable “esp survey two” once again, as many inter-individual anova analyses as independent variables were carried out (except for q15). for a .05 significance value, variables s, q7, q9, q11, q12, and q13 create significant differences in the marks of esp survey two. the analysis with these five independent variables as a whole, without interactions, shows the following: the model is correct (table 8) but some variables do not discriminate the values of esp survey two enough so as to be included in the final model. in order to achieve this, the variables with a higher significance value were eliminated one by one, starting with q11, since this one showed the highest significance value. later on, q13, q9, and q7 were eliminated. now, the significance values are below .05 (see table 9). the conclusion reached by following this process is similar to the one obtained for the variable esp survey one, that is, the marks obtained in esp survey two will depend upon variables s and q12. again, the best marks are attained by those students who fulfill the same two previous conditions: 1) grammar survey one + grammar survey two ≥ 60; 2) very good pap. the worst marks are for students who: 1) gso+gst<60; 2) pap = bad. when this dependence is studied and after estimating the different variables, the best marks in esp survey two, as in esp survey one, belong to those students that fulfill: 1) grammar survey one + grammar survey two ≥ 60: 2) very good pap. once again, this evidence is corroborated by results from table 10, i.e. the mean values the students would attain for each category of variables s and q12. how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 165 ibérica 13 [2007]: …-…16 q12. intersection s q12 esp survey one 38.286 [s=1] [s=2] 9.443 0.000 [q12]=1 [q12]=2 [q12]=3 [q12]=1 [q12]=2 [q12]=3 37.12 11.16 00.00 37.12 11.16 00.00 84.85 58.89 47.72 75.41 49.45 38.28 table 7. mean values per category of variables s and q12. model analysis for dependent variable “esp survey two” one again, as many inter-individual anova analyses as independent variables were carried out (except for q15). for a .05 significance value, variables s, q7, q9, q11, q12, and q13 create significant differences in the marks of esp survey two. the analysis with these five independent variables as a whole, without interactions, shows the following: significance corrected model intersection s q7 q9 q11 q12 q13 .000 .000 .020 .252 .411 .894 .081 .533 table 8. significance values of independent variables s, q7, q9, q11, q12 and q13. the model is correct (table 8) but some variables do not discriminate the values of esp survey two enough so as to be included in the final model. in order to achieve this, the variables with a higher significance value were eliminated one by one, starting with q11, since this one showed the highest significance value. later on, q13, q9, and q7 were eliminated. now, the significance values are below .05 (see table 9). how linguistically ready significance corrected model intersection s q12 .000 .000 .002 .000 table 9. significance values of independent variables s and q12. the conclusion reached by following this process is similar to the one obtained for the variable esp survey one, that is, the marks obtained in esp survey two will depend upon variables s and q12. again, the best marks are attained by those students who fulfill the same two previous conditions: 1) grammar survey one + grammar survey two ! 60; 2) very good pap. the worst marks are for students who: 1) gso+gst<60; 2) pap = bad. when this dependence is studied and after estimating the different variables, the best marks in esp survey two, as in esp survey one, belong to those students that fulfill: 1) grammar survey one + grammar survey two ! 60: 2) very good pap. once again, this evidence is corroborated by results from table 10, i.e. the mean values the students would attain for each category of variables s and q12. intersection s q12 esp survey one 37.714 [s=1] [s=2] 11.46 00.00 [q12]=1 [q12]=2 [q12]=3 [q12]=1 [q12]=2 [q12]=3 30.53 08.74 00.00 30.53 08.74 00.00 79.71 57.91 49.17 68.25 46.45 37.71 table 10. mean values per category of variables s and q12. factorial analysis of main components an overall vision of the problem can be achieved by means of the main 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 165 factorial analysis of main components an overall vision of the problem can be achieved by means of the main components method, factorial analysis, for the quantitative variables esp survey one, esp survey two and grammar survey one + grammar survey two. this gives a two-dimensional view of how these three variables (sso, sst, gso+gst) could be represented, and to study these variables with respect to the most representative variables (s, q1 … q14). bartlett’s test is carried out first in order to apply the main components method. it can be observed (see table 11) that the three variables (gso+gst, sso and sst) are explained by the first component. the fact that a single variable (component) is enough for explaining the three variables indicates a close correspondence or relationship amongst them. it was assumed that a close relationship between the variables esp survey one, and esp survey two, and the variable q12 would exist. if the cases are labeled by means of q12 (see graph 1), it can be clearly observed that high values in the first component (high values in sso, sst, and gso+gst) correspond to those students that chose option 1 in q12 joseba m. gonzález ardeo 166 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 ibérica 13 [2007]: …-… 17 one + grammar survey two ! 60; 2) very good pap. the worst marks are for students who: 1) gso+gst<60; 2) pap = bad. when this dependence is studied and after estimating the different variables, the best marks in esp survey two, as in esp survey one, belong to those students that fulfill: 1) grammar survey one + grammar survey two ! 60: 2) very good pap. once again, this evidence is corroborated by results from table 10, i.e. the mean values the students would attain for each category of variables s and q12. intersection s q12 esp survey one 37.714 [s=1] [s=2] 11.46 00.00 [q12]=1 [q12]=2 [q12]=3 [q12]=1 [q12]=2 [q12]=3 30.53 08.74 00.00 30.53 08.74 00.00 79.71 57.91 49.17 68.25 46.45 37.71 table 10. mean values per category of variables s and q12. factorial analysis of main components an overall vision of the problem can be achieved by means of the main components method, factorial analysis, for the quantitative variables esp survey one, esp survey two and grammar survey one + grammar survey two. this gives a two-dimensional view of how these three variables (sso, sst, gso+gst) could be represented, and to study these variables with respect to the most representative variables (s, q1 … q14). bartlett’s test is carried out first in order to apply the main components method. it can be observed (see table 11) that the three variables (gso+gst, sso and sst) are explained by the first component. the fact that a single variable (component) is enough for explaining the three variables indicates a close correspondence or relationship amongst them. joseba m. gonzález ardeo kaiser-meyer-olkin’s sample fitting measurement .702 communalities initial extraction bartlett’s sphericity test: approx. chi-squared df sig. 160.517 3 .000 gso+gst sso sst 1.000 1.000 1.000 .979 .897 .962 extraction method: main components analysis total variance explained components matrix a components total % of variance % accumulated 1 2 1 2 3 2.485 .353 .162 82.843 11.774 5.383 82.843 94.617 100.000 gso+gst sso sst .885 .946 .898 .443 -3.9e-02 -.394 extraction method: main components analysis extraction method: main components analysis a. two components extracted table 11. kmo and bartlett’s test. it was assumed that a close relationship between the variables esp survey one, and esp survey two, and the variable q12 would exist. if the cases are labeled by means of q12 (see graph 1), it can be clearly observed that high values in the first component (high values in sso, sst, and gso+gst) correspond to those students that chose option 1 in q12 (continuous arrow in graph 1). conversely, negative values in the first component (low values in sso, sst, and gso+gst) correspond to students that chose option 3 in q12 (discontinuous arrow in graph 1). 3 2 1 2 3 2 2 2 2 3 2 22 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 joseba m. gonzález ardeo kaiser-meyer-olkin’s sample fitting measurement .702 communalities initial extraction bartlett’s sphericity test: approx. chi-squared df sig. 160.517 3 .000 gso+gst sso sst 1.000 1.000 1.000 .979 .897 .962 extraction method: main components analysis total variance explained components matrix a components total % of variance % accumulated 1 2 1 2 3 2.485 .353 .162 82.843 11.774 5.383 82.843 94.617 100.000 gso+gst sso sst .885 .946 .898 .443 -3.9e-02 -.394 extraction method: main components analysis extraction method: main components analysis a. two components extracted table 11. kmo and bartlett’s test. it was assumed that a close relationship between the variables esp survey one, and esp survey two, and the variable q12 would exist. if the cases are labeled by means of q12 (see graph 1), it can be clearly observed that high values in the first component (high values in sso, sst, and gso+gst) correspond to those students that chose option 1 in q12 (continuous arrow in graph 1). conversely, negative values in the first component (low values in sso, sst, and gso+gst) correspond to students that chose option 3 in q12 (discontinuous arrow in graph 1). 3 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 22 2 2 2 2 1 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 166 (continuous arrow in graph 1). conversely, negative values in the first component (low values in sso, sst, and gso+gst) correspond to students that chose option 3 in q12 (discontinuous arrow in graph 1). conclusions esp survey one and two assess, in theory, both general english proficiency and the ability to use “engineering” english. a restricted topic domain could result in an invalid “proficiency” rating. for this reason, these formal assessments try to be as integrative as possible, minimize subjectivity when scoring, and include as realistic tasks as possible. in these days of “communicative testing” these three conditions seem to be the recipe for success when assessing knowledge in a foreign language. grammar survey one and two only have a few similarities with esp survey one and two, but the information provided by the former was necessary to give a proper answer to the title of this paper: how linguistically ready are my engineering students to take my esp courses? then, considering the tests carried out and the results obtained, the following conclusions can be stated: 1) the success of our students can be rather easily predicted once grammar survey one and two are taken and information about their previous academic performance is gathered; 2) the marks obtained in the formal assessments, esp survey one and two, depend upon the marks obtained in grammar survey one and two, as well as upon the previous academic performance of the students. how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 167 ibérica 13 [2007]: …-…18 3 .162 5.383 100.000 sst .898 -.394 extraction method: main components analysis extraction method: main components analysis a. two components extracted table 11. kmo and bartlett’s test. it was assumed that a close relationship between the variables esp survey one, and esp survey two, and the variable q12 would exist. if the cases are labeled by means of q12 (see graph 1), it can be clearly observed that high values in the first component (high values in sso, sst, and gso+gst) correspond to those students that chose option 1 in q12 (continuous arrow in graph 1). conversely, negative values in the first component (low values in sso, sst, and gso+gst) correspond to students that chose option 3 in q12 (discontinuous arrow in graph 1). 3210-1-2 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 2 2 2 3 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 23 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 22 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 graph 1. cases labeled by means of q12. 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 167 the feeling that the battle is lost before it begins, because of failings in previous language study and the poor level of knowledge with which some students come to the university, is founded on facts. in other words, the results obtained confirm main hypotheses 1.1 (students will exhibit appreciable differences when tested on specific language learning, depending upon their previous academic performance within the field of english for general purposes.) and 1.2 (grammar surveys carried out prior to the esp courses will tell us in advance which students would pass or fail the esp tests the first time around.), as well as secondary hypothesis 2.1 (variables such as age, gender, mother tongue, personality traits, social setting and educational level, will not affect performance in the esp courses administered.). this is not the case with hypothesis 2.2 (variables such as language background, attitude towards esp, motivation, former teachers’ efficiency, language learning aptitude, previous academic performance (pap), communicative aptitude, and phonetic coding ability will affect performance in the esp courses and their corresponding assessments.), since most variables, all but one (pap)., evaluated through this hypothesis do not significantly affect performance in esp survey one and two. a straight-forward corollary could be as simple as this: students should take grammar survey one and two (or any equivalent test) prior to enrolment and then take or not take the courses depending on the marks obtained so that success can be guaranteed to a certain extent. moreover, if their previous academic performance was bad, they are potential candidates for failure. it seems then that, no matter how efficient the lecturer is, the students are linguistically predestined in our esp courses, and the teacher’s share of responsibility in their failures appears to be negligible. acknowledgements i would like to thank the following colleagues for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper: patricia edwards rokowsky and josé castro calvín. any absurdities that may remain are, of course, my own. (revised paper received november 2006) joseba m. gonzález ardeo 168 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 168 references dr. joseba m. gonzález ardeo (bachelor of engineering; master in foreign trade; ph.d. in organizational communication; master in tefl) is associate professor and teaches esp at the university of the basque country. his current research priorities fall within the scope of multilingualism and english for specific/academic purposes. how linguistically ready ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 169 albert, m. l. & l.k. obler (1978). the bilingual brain. new york: academic. bachman, l. (1990). fundamental considerations in language testing. oxford: oxford university press. brown, j. d. (1978). english as a second language placement examination. los angeles, ca: tesl section english department, university of california. brown, j. d. (1983). “a closer look at cloze: validity and reliability” in j. w. oller, jr. (ed.), issues in language testing research, 237-250. rowley, ma: newbury house. brown, s., c. rust & g. gibbs (1994). strategies for diversifying assessment in higher education. oxford: oxford centre for staff development. burstall, c. (1975). “factors affecting foreign language learning: a consideration of some recent research findings”. language teaching 8: 1-21. carroll, j. & s. sapon (1959). modern language aptitude test-form a. new york: the psychological corporation. cenoz, j. & f. genesse (1998). “psycholinguistic perspectives on multilingualism and multilingual education” in j. cenoz & f. genesse (eds.), beyond bilingualism: multilingualism and multilingual education, 16-32. clevedon: multilingual matters. clark, j. (1987). curriculum renewal in school foreign language learning. oxford: oxford university press. doughty, c. & j. williams (1998). “pedagogical choice in focus on form” in c. doughty & j. williams (eds.), focus on form in classroom second language acquisition, 197-261. cambridge: cambridge university press. ehrman, m. & r. oxford (1990). “adult language learning styles and strategies in an intensive training setting”. modern language journal, 74: 311-327. ellis, r. (1985). understanding second language acquisition. oxford: oxford university press. gardner, r. (1985). social psychology and second language learning: the role of attitudes and motivation. rowley, ma: newbury house. genesse, f. (1976). “the role of intelligence in second language learning”. language learning 26: 267-280. giles, h. & w.p. robinson (eds.) (1990). handbook of language and social psychology. chichester: wiley. gonzález, j. m. (2003). “attitude towards english and esp acquisition as an l2 or l3 at university”. ibérica 6: 109-133. gonzález, j. m. (2004). “esp courses and linguistic achievement of engineering students in the basque country”. vial 1: 75-110. kunnan, a. j. (ed.) (2000). fairness and validation in language assessment. cambridge: ucles. lightbown, p. m. & n. spada (1993). how languages are learned. oxford: oxford university press. liski, e. & s. putanen (1983). “a study of the statistical foundations of group conversation tests of spoken english”. language learning 33: 225-246. oxford, r. & m. nyikos (1989). “variables affecting choice of language learning strategies by university students”. modern language journal 73: 291-300. purpura, j. e. (2004). assessing grammar. cambridge: cambridge university press. ringbom, h. (1985). foreign language learning and bilingualism. finland: abo. skehan, p. (1989). individual differences in second language acquisition. london: arnold. swan, m. & c. walter (1997). how english works. a grammar practice book. oxford: oxford university press. wenden, a. (1986). “what do second language learners know about their language learning? a second look at retrospective accounts”. applied linguistics 7: 186-205. 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 169 appendix i (variables) questionnaire and options. joseba m. gonzález ardeo 170 ibérica 13 [2007]: 147-170 joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 13 [2007]: …-…22 bran branch of engineering [(mecheng)/(eleceng)/(indeleceng)/(indchemeng)] q1 q2 q3 q4 q5 q6 q7 q8 q9 q10 q11 q12 q13 q14 q15 age [19(1)/20(2)/21(3)/22(4)/23-24(5)] gender [male(1)/female(2)] mother tongue [basque(1)/spanish(2)/basque/spanish(3)/other(4)] personality trait [introverted(1)/extrovert(2)] social setting [rural(1)/city-town(2)] educational level [vocational training(1)/higher certificate(2)/over 25(3)] language background [compulsory english courses at school(1)/compulsory english courses at school + voluntary english courses(2)] attitude towards esp [very favourable(1)/favourable(2)/neutral(3)/unfavourable(4)/very unfavourable (5)] motivation [very motivated(1)/motivated(2)/low motivation(3)/no motivation(4)] former teachers’ efficiency [very efficient(1)/efficient(2)/deficient(3)/very deficient(4)] language learning aptitude [very positive(1)/positive(2)/negative(3)/very negative(4)] previous academic performance [very good(1)/fair(2)/bad(3)/very bad(4)] communicative aptitude [very good(1)/fair(2)/bad(3)/very bad(4)] phonetic coding ability [very high(1)/high(2)/average(3)/low(4)/very low(5)] has english ever been a means of instruction in subjects other than ‘english’? (eis) [no(0)/yes all my subjects were taught in english(1) my school programme was bilingual –english/spanish or basque-(2) my school programme was trilingual –english/spanish/basque-(3) others(4)] 08 joseba.qxp 6/4/07 09:07 página 170 redalyc.¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales?” variación de la segunda persona tú en los mensajes publicitarios ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa serrano, ma josé; hernández, ma isabel ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales?” variación de la segunda persona tú en los mensajes publicitarios ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 105-128 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542006 how to cite complete issue more information about this article journal's homepage in redalyc.org scientific information system network of scientific journals from latin america, the caribbean, spain and portugal non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542006 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542006 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542006 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen la variación entre la expresión y la omisión de los sujetos pronominales en español responde a las propiedades cognitivas de la prominencia y de la informatividad textual. estas generan distintos significados en el discurso que pueden ser aprovechados con intenciones comunicativas concretas, como es la persuasión en el caso de la publicidad escrita. a partir del análisis de un corpus de mensajes publicitarios escritos procedentes de revistas de entretenimiento femeninas que contienen la segunda persona del singular tú, se comprobará que la omisión tiende a proveer al mensaje de un significado generalizador que indica los beneficios y bondades que otorgará el producto o acción publicitada, mientras que la expresión restringe la atención sobre el referente del posible consumidor. asimismo, es posible encontrar combinaciones de expresión y omisión en un mismo mensaje, lo cual da lugar también a un efecto comunicativo especial. palabras clave: variación, sintaxis, sujetos, cognición, publicidad. abstract “ ¿ p or qu e tú l o v al e s o p or qu e l o v a l e s ?” v ar ia ti on o f th e s e c o nd -p e rs o n tú i n a dv e r ti si ng m e s s ag e s expressed and omitted variants of the pronominal subjects in spanish may be explained according to cognitive salience and textual informativeness. these cognitive properties contribute to creating different meanings in discourse that perform concrete communicative goals, as is the case of print advertising messages. a corpus compiling this textual typology will serve to analyze the communicative functions conveyed by either the expressed or omitted variant of “¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ” variación de la segunda persona tú en los mensajes publicitarios1 maría josé serrano y maría isabel hernández toribio universidad de la laguna y universidad complutense (spain) mjserran@ull.edu.es & ihtor@ccinf.ucm.es 105 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 105 ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio the second-person tú. whereas the former focuses on the referent of the pronoun as unique or exclusive consumer of the product, the latter displays the pragmatic attention over the whole message involving a wider and more generalized recipient of the advertising content. both variants can also be used in the same message this also implying a meaning according to certain communicative purposes. keywords: variation, syntax, subjects, cognition, advertising. 1. introducción es sabido que el pronombre de segunda persona del singular tú del paradigma pronominal español sitúa deícticamente al interlocutor o audiencia en el contexto comunicativo y posee la capacidad de orientar el contenido hacia su referencia prototípica deíctica y singular. sin embargo, a menudo este se aleja de la deixis interlocutiva de la segunda persona y ofrece distintas posibilidades referenciales que se transforman en grandes recursos significativos en el discurso y en la interacción comunicativa. una de esas posibilidades es la de aludir a una referencia indeterminada que no es el receptor real, lo que indica que el pronombre (o la desinencia verbal si no está expreso) puede involucrar a cualquier otra persona más allá de la segunda, o incluso a una pluralidad amplia e indeterminada. así pues, la segunda persona tú va más allá de una denominación concreta y singular, apuntando en ocasiones a una referencia imprecisa o genérica que ha recibido la denominación de “tú inespecífico” o “impersonal” (entre otros autores, carrasco, 1980: 163; seco, 1989; hernanz, 1990a, 1990b; gómez torrego, 1992: 13; fernández soriano y táboas baylín, 1999: 1732). de hecho, investigaciones recientes demuestran que el uso de la segunda persona expresa u omitida puede constituir un recurso de objetivación discursiva que surge cuando el hablante expresa sus propias ideas mediante el uso de esta persona (“cuando ø tienes sueño, lo mejor es dormir”) (serrano y aijón oliva, 2012, 2014; serrano, 2013c). en cualquier caso, el referente y las funciones que desempeñe en un discurso determinado como el publicitario deberán establecerse contextualmente entre un variado rango de expresiones lingüísticas orientadas a la persuasión (alcaide lara, 2001; fuentes rodríguez, 2012). se puede apuntar a que el variado potencial referencial de la segunda persona constituye un valioso recurso expresivo que adquiere mayor relevancia 106 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 106 cuanto más específico y determinado sea el objetivo comunicativo. los textos publicitarios poseen las características apropiadas para que la segunda persona sea utilizada con unos intereses no precisamente concretados en la indexación de una segunda persona concreta y específica y ello porque esos mensajes están dirigidos a un conjunto de potenciales destinatarios imaginarios ausentes en la interacción a los que se desea convencer o persuadir para que realicen un determinado consumo, o bien se adhieran a una causa social o idea. partiendo de ello, el objetivo general de este trabajo es estudiar cómo se realiza la referencia al destinatario a través de la categoría pronominal de la segunda persona del singular tú (expresa u omitida) en los mensajes publicitarios escritos. para ello nos apoyaremos en las nociones teóricas de prominencia cognitiva e informatividad textual, que nos permitirán comprobar los valores estilísticos que se derivan de la expresión u omisión de la segunda persona tú, así como de su posición preverbal o posverbal en este tipo de discurso (cf. serrano 2013c). 2. metodología y corpus para llevar a cabo esta investigación hemos utilizado textos del corpus publiling, 243 textos de mensajes publicitarios escritos procedentes de revistas femeninas de entretenimiento en sus ediciones españolas (telva, marie claire, woman y elle) y de los suplementos dominicales xl semanal (diario abc) y yo dona (diario el mundo). estos textos fueron recopilados y etiquetados entre los años 2010 y 2014. todos ellos contienen la segunda persona del singular en sus variantes expresa y omitida. consideramos que un corpus de estas características puede ser de gran utilidad para corroborar algunas conclusiones sobre los sujetos pronominales obtenidas en otros estudios previos; entre ellas, que el sujeto omitido adquiere un significado basado en la prominencia cognitiva, mientras que el expreso lo hace en función de la informatividad textual (aijón oliva y serrano, 2013; serrano, 2013b). así pues, los objetivos de esta investigación son los siguientes: a) determinar los valores derivados de la expresión u omisión, así como de la posición (preverbal o posverbal) de la segunda persona tú en los mensajes publicitarios del corpus publiling. b) comprobar cómo el discurso publicitario corrobora algunas tendencias generales de la lengua española sobre la expresión u omisión del pronombre, ya constatadas en anteriores trabajos. ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 107 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 107 la metodología empleada para el análisis de estos textos será fundamentalmente cualitativa a partir del estudio de las propiedades cognitivas y discursivo-pragmáticas de la variación de la segunda persona, si bien se aplicará también un análisis cuantitativo de las variantes consideradas como relativas, esto es, se medirá su frecuencia de expresión (preverbal o posverbal) y de omisión a través del cálculo de porcentajes con el programa estadístico goldvarb lion (sankoff, tagliamonte y smith, 2012). el análisis cuantitativo permitirá no solo confirmar la representatividad de la presencia variable de la segunda persona en los textos analizados, sino también el contraste con los resultados obtenidos en estudios previos (aijón oliva y serrano, 2013; serrano, 2013b), lo cual permitirá corroborar la existencia de algunas tendencias generales sobre los significados que revela la variación de la segunda persona en la lengua española. 3. marco teórico 3.1. prominencia cognitiva e informatividad textual: la variación entre la expresión y la omisión de la segunda persona del singular tú como recurso de significado y estilo la variación entre la expresión y la omisión de los sujetos en español ha sido objeto de numerosos estudios desde distintos enfoques y perspectivas, tanto gramaticales como discursivo-pragmáticos y sociolingüísticos (enríquez, 1984; bentivoglio, 1987; silva-corvalán, 2001, entre otros). sin embargo, el enfoque que adoptaremos en este trabajo considera que la particularidad que posee la lengua española para que la segunda persona tú pueda aparecer expresa u omitida no es una mera cuestión sintáctica con algunas repercusiones discursivas, sino, ante todo, un caso de variación que obedece a determinadas propiedades cognitivas que terminan por crear un estilo comunicativo en el discurso (serrano, 2011: 159; serrano y aijón oliva, 2011; aijón oliva y serrano, 2013). a) la “prominencia cognitiva” constituye una conceptualización en virtud de la cual algunas unidades lingüísticas o sus referentes se encuentran activados en el enunciado o son accesibles, debido a lo cual no es necesaria su formulación (chafe, 1976; ariel, 1990; gundel y fretheim, 2009; langacker, 2009: 112). obsérvese el enunciado: tú tienes que salir de casa y ø tienes que coger el paraguas porque llueve. es obvio que es innecesario formular de nuevo el maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128108 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 108 sujeto (léxico o pronominal) en la segunda cláusula ya que este se puede recuperar fácilmente del enunciado anterior, por lo tanto, cuando el sujeto está omitido puede considerarse prominente cognitivamente. b) el concepto de informatividad textual se relaciona con el nivel de procesamiento mental que requiere un texto en función del grado de novedad o de imprevisibilidad que tiene para sus receptores (beaugrande y dressler, 1997: 201); esto es, alude al grado de conocimiento que se tiene del mismo, pero, aún más importante, al esfuerzo que implica su comprensión (serrano, 2013b: 275-279). por ello, si el sujeto aparece expreso en el enunciado adquiere informatividad textual, es decir, queda resaltado o subrayado pragmáticamente: “hoy cocinas tú”. de ese resalte o subrayamiento pragmático se derivan numerosas funciones comunicativas, algunas de las cuales sirven adecuadamente a los objetivos del discurso publicitario. asimismo, como se demostrará en este trabajo, ambas propiedades cognitivas son variables en función de la colocación preverbal o posverbal del sujeto pronominal; el primero será más prominente y el segundo más informativo. la conceptualización de la prominencia cognitiva y de la informatividad textual en el discurso nos permitirá entender el funcionamiento de estas dos variantes en la interacción comunicativa e interpretar los múltiples significados que con ellas se generan en relación con algunas variables, tales como el tipo de texto en el que se utilizan y las diferentes estructuras sintácticas y discursivas. 3.1. el discurso publicitario y la segunda persona como marca de personalización del texto la finalidad del discurso publicitario resulta obvia y no es otra que la persuasión para que el destinatario termine realizando la adquisición del producto o servicio publicitado. en principio, pudiera parecer que como fórmulas persuasivas solo serían suficientes aquellas que están directamente relacionadas con el producto y que permiten tanto darlo a conocer como ensalzar sus cualidades. sin embargo, resulta muy conveniente también la personalización del anuncio con estrategias de acercamiento al destinatario. si el anunciante pretende de alguna forma generar empatía, ha de transmitir la sensación de tener en cuenta a su interlocutor del mismo modo que lo ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 109 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 109 haría en la conversación cotidiana cara a cara. de ahí que sean frecuentes aquellas estrategias para intentar conseguir dicha empatía, en concreto los recursos que permiten que el texto apele de forma directa o bien haga referencia al interlocutor potencial, tales como “enunciados interrogativos”, “enunciados exhortativos”, “vocativos”, “expresiones de referencia personal”, “interjecciones y desinencias verbales o pronombres personales” (ferraz martínez, 1993; myers, 1994; fuertes-olivera et. al, 2001; robles ávila, 2004; hernández toribio, 2006: 69-118). en un tipo de comunicación social en la que no existe relación personal entre los interlocutores como lo es la publicitaria, el anunciante ha de construir un modelo de destinatario en función del cual elaborar sus mensajes. el destinatario es aquel receptor u oyente a quien el emisor dirige el mensaje de forma intencionada. si en la conversación cotidiana entre dos interlocutores el destinatario está predispuesto a recibirlo, en la interacción publicitaria la situación resulta más compleja, porque no todos los oyentes o lectores potenciales a los que va dirigido el mensaje terminan siéndolo de forma efectiva. es más, siguiendo la distinción propuesta por ducrot (1984), adaptada por fuentes rodríguez y alcaide lara (2002: 171-172) para analizar el discurso publicitario en su concepción polifónica de la enunciación, podríamos distinguir entre las figuras del “alocutario” o aquel a quien considera como destinatario de su mensaje; los “destinatarios indirectos”, previstos por el locutor aunque no estén integrados en la relación de alocución propiamente dicha; y el “auditorio” o aquellos otros destinatarios no previstos por el locutor, pero que pueden oír o leer el mensaje. si nos centramos en la expresión y la omisión del pronombre personal de segunda persona del singular, comprobaremos que estas marcas lingüísticas remiten a los tipos de destinatario mencionados anteriormente, en sintonía con las características del discurso publicitario. por una parte, la publicidad intenta llegar al mayor número de consumidores, de ahí que resulte conveniente la alusión al destinatario – anónimo, masivo, heterogéneo – de una forma más genérica, algo que se consigue en mayor medida mediante la desinencia verbal. por otra parte, aunque la publicidad intente conseguir la adhesión del mayor número de consumidores, sus manifestaciones lingüísticas entran deliberadamente en aparente contradicción con esta pretensión. en algunos casos, puede haber especial interés en crear en él la ilusión de sentirse único y esto es algo que se consigue en los mensajes publicitarios mediante la formulación expresa de la segunda persona, que a su vez se matiza mediante las posibles variables de expresión (preverbal o maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128110 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 110 posverbal) y omisión. de esta forma se satisface el anhelo de acercamiento a un destinatario anónimo con el que se simula una conversación de “tú” a “tú”. por lo tanto, la referencia a la segunda persona en el mensaje publicitario resulta más que justificada. 4. análisis y resultados 4.1. la variación de la segunda persona en el mensaje publicitario de forma general, la variante omitida del pronombre de segunda persona es la más frecuente en los textos publicitarios analizados, corroborando así la tendencia general de la lengua española (enríquez, 1984; silva-corvalán, 2001; aijón oliva y serrano, 2013: 79-118, entre otros). sin embargo, aunque es posible identificar el referente del pronombre simplemente con las desinencias verbales, en numerosas ocasiones este aparece también expreso o explícito (hernández toribio, 2006: 70-72; 2008) como puede comprobarse a partir de los porcentajes obtenidos a través del análisis cuantitativo (tabla 1). si bien la tendencia mayoritaria es la omisión del pronombre, no resulta desdeñable la frecuencia de la expresión. por otra parte, se puede comprobar que es frecuente que en el mismo anuncio alternen ambas opciones (expresión y omisión del pronombre), pero lo significativo es que parece operarse cierta especialización en su empleo, como comprobaremos en los siguientes apartados. 4.2. la omisión de pronombre cuando el sujeto aparece omitido en el discurso, esto se debe a que su presencia es innecesaria ya que ha sido previamente mencionado y su referencia está activada en la interacción o en el contexto comunicativo. pero, en los textos que nos ocupan, la omisión no solamente parte de una referencia consabida o compartida por el interlocutor (presuponemos que el discurso publicitario va dirigido de una forma clara e inequívoca a la segunda ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 111 m. j. serrano & m. i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): …-… simula una conversación de “tú” a “tú”. por lo tanto, la referencia a la segunda persona en el mensaje publicitario resulta más que justificada. 4. análisis y resultados 4.1. la variación de la segunda persona en el mensaje publicitario de forma general, la variante omitida del pronombre de segunda persona es la más frecuente en los textos publicitarios analizados, corroborando así la tendencia general de la lengua española (enríquez, 1984; silva-corvalán, 2001; aijón oliva y serrano, 2013: 79-118, entre otros). sin embargo, aunque es posible identificar el referente del pronombre simplemente con las desinencias verbales, en numerosas ocasiones este aparece también expreso o explícito (hernández toribio, 2006: 70-72; 2008) como puede comprobarse a partir de los porcentajes obtenidos a través del análisis cuantitativo (tabla 1). casos porcentaje expresión 83/243 34% omisión 160/243 66% tabla 1. porcentajes de expresión y omisión de la segunda persona del singular. si bien la tendencia mayoritaria es la omisión del pronombre, no resulta desdeñable la frecuencia de la expresión. por otra parte, se puede comprobar que es frecuente que en el mismo anuncio alternen ambas opciones (expresión y omisión del pronombre), pero lo significativo es que parece operarse cierta especialización en su empleo, como comprobaremos en los siguientes apartados. 4.2. la omisión de pronombre cuando el sujeto aparece omitido en el discurso, esto se debe a que su presencia es innecesaria ya que ha sido previamente mencionado y su referencia está activada en la interacción o en el contexto comunicativo. pero, en los textos que nos ocupan, la omisión no solamente parte de una referencia consabida o compartida por el interlocutor (presuponemos que el discurso publicitario va dirigido de una forma clara e inequívoca a la segunda persona), sino que, además, cumple determinadas funciones comunicativas más concretas en el contexto, encaminadas en todo caso a la persuasión sobre el consumo. es sabido que la ausencia del pronombre expreso implica que este queda fuera de la escena comunicativa, su referencia es pues, difusa, indeterminada, queda sugerida exclusivamente a partir de la desinencia verbal. la ausencia de necesidad de subrayar un referente concreto hace que el enunciado en el que aparece la desinencia alusiva a una segunda persona quede resaltado frente a esta; en otras palabras, es el contenido el que se desea subrayar, no la referencia, como ya han 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 111 persona), sino que, además, cumple determinadas funciones comunicativas más concretas en el contexto, encaminadas en todo caso a la persuasión sobre el consumo. es sabido que la ausencia del pronombre expreso implica que este queda fuera de la escena comunicativa, su referencia es pues, difusa, indeterminada, queda sugerida exclusivamente a partir de la desinencia verbal. la ausencia de necesidad de subrayar un referente concreto hace que el enunciado en el que aparece la desinencia alusiva a una segunda persona quede resaltado frente a esta; en otras palabras, es el contenido el que se desea subrayar, no la referencia, como ya han advertido algunos autores (silva-corvalán, 2001: 162). en los mensajes publicitarios, esto constituye un recurso comunicativo que pone de manifiesto la necesidad de que el destinatario del mensaje centre su atención sobre todo el enunciado y no sobre el referente de la segunda persona. aún así, esta referencia genérica a la segunda persona resulta conveniente porque la naturaleza del discurso publicitario exige la presencia de marcas de personalización del texto. de ahí que en la publicidad sean muy frecuentes ejemplos como (1)-(4). en ellos puede observarse que la indexación de la desinencia verbal puede interpretarse como dirigida hacia un destinatario ideal al que pretende involucrarse con el mensaje publicitario, pero, lo más importante es que, en virtud de la prominencia cognitiva que caracteriza a la omisión del pronombre, los contenidos del mensaje pueden ser interpretados como de interés o incumbencia para cualquier consumidor; así, en (1) se alude a la posibilidad de tener asistencia médica cuando se necesite. en este ejemplo cabe observar que hubiera sido posible hacer explícito el pronombre personal expreso, pero parece existir mayor interés en centrar la atención en el contenido del mensaje, en las bondades o prestaciones del seguro médico anunciado, más que en el hipotético referente del pronombre. (1) ø tendrás el médico que quieras y donde ø quieras. lo que no te aseguramos es que sepa esquiar. (seguros dkv, telva885/en13) en (2), la ausencia de pronombre explícito permite inferir que la desinencia verbal incluye como posible beneficiario del producto de consumo a cualquier lector del mensaje, considerado como parte del público. es decir, no solo al alocutario, sino también a los destinatarios indirectos e incluso al auditorio (ducrot, 1984). de hecho, hay que notar que se repiten dos lexemas verbales: “necesitas” y “compra” que remiten a acciones o contenidos verbales de común aplicación a todos los individuos de una sociedad. además, la interpretación genérica de la segunda persona del maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128112 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 112 singular se ve favorecida por el tiempo verbal en indicativo (fernández soriano y táboas taylín, 1999). (2) todo lo que ø necesitas cuando ø lo necesitas. alimentación y bebidas. perfumería y droguería. ocio y regalos. sólo opencor te sienta así de bien. porque sólo en opencor ø compras lo que te gusta, como a ti te gusta. +comodidad. porque ø compras cuando te viene bien […]. (telva885/en13) la ausencia de un referente concreto que proporciona la omisión del pronombre de sujeto permite la interpretación amplia del contenido del mensaje publicitario. esta idea explica que la ausencia del pronombre sea más frecuente en aquellos mensajes a los que se quiere dotar de cierta amplitud referencial2, que va paralela al producto que se ofrece, cuyas bondades y beneficios se presentan como accesibles y compartidos por todos los lectores e incluso por el emisor, como se observa en (3). (3) cuando ø acudes a una de nuestras tiendas en españa no solo ø estás comprando el mueble que más se ajusta a tu estilo en las mejores condiciones posibles. ø estás llenando tu vida de decoración con los muebles de una marca inspirada en ti, en tu realidad, en lo que es verdaderamente importante. kiona, una actitud, un compromiso con las personas. (elle302/nov11) otro aspecto que debe ser tenido en cuenta es que el significado mencionado se matiza y se concreta también a partir de la naturaleza intrínseca del mensaje publicitario y de su estructura gramatical, tal y como se observa en enunciados exhortativos, interrogativos y condicionales, que definimos a continuación. en estos enunciados resulta más frecuente la omisión del pronombre. a) enunciados exhortativos. como actos de habla directivos que son, los enunciados exhortativos activan la interpretación de incitación a la acción en el interlocutor (méndez garcía de paredes, 2000: 21), de modo que la exhortación constituye un recurso especialmente apto para el mensaje publicitario, ya que a través de él se realizan consejos, recomendaciones, sugerencias e incluso peticiones, más que órdenes o mandatos (alcoba y poch, 2006; hernández toribio, 2006: 237). el propio significado del modo imperativo parece suficiente para incitar al destinatario al producto de consumo, razón por la que esta forma verbal ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 113 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 113 aparece con el sujeto omitido y resulta ser una de las formas más frecuentes en el discurso publicitario. el uso de un verbo sin sujeto explícito basta para identificar una cláusula como imperativa, lo que podría justificar la escasa frecuencia con que aparece el sujeto expreso en este tipo de estructuras en español en general (aijón oliva y serrano, 2012: 150). esto convierte al uso del imperativo con sujeto omitido casi como en categórico en todos los tipos de textos, lo cual es extensible también a los mensajes publicitarios. el valor persuasivo de orientación, recomendación o consejo que se desprende del uso de las formas de imperativo en la publicidad parece claro. además, la presencia del sujeto en esos enunciados resultaría forzada, como se observa en (4). (4) ø viaja a la provenza cada día con le petit marsellais. ø vive lo natural. ø recorre los auténticos aromas provenzales y descubre la eficacia de sus ingredientes naturales. (telva876/ab12) la forma imperativa conduce a la misma interpretación generalizadora del resto de las variantes con sujeto omitido. (5) todas las niñas sueñan con ser mayores, pero no saben que de mayores todas soñamos con seguir siendo niñas. ¡con fiat 500, siéntete ø de nuevo como una niña! entra en fiat.es y descubre ø cómo conseguir una barbie con su propio fiat 500. (telva860/dic10) varias son las razones por las que consideramos que la presencia del sujeto en la estructura de los enunciados propuestos resultaría forzada. por una parte, no aparecen ocurrencias del imperativo de forma aislada, sino en una sucesión de enunciados exhortativos. además, la presencia del pronombre podría incluso contribuir en cierta medida a imprimir a este acto de habla otro grado de fuerza ilocutiva diferente al del “consejo”, “recomendación” o “sugerencia”. interpretamos precisamente los actos directivos registrados en los textos publicitarios como la manifestación lingüística de un acto ilocutivo admonitorio del tipo “sugerir” o “aconsejar”, “recomendar”, pero no tanto de uno conminatorio como “ordenar” o “exigir”, es decir, como actos exhortativos no impositivos, aquellos que el hablante procura que el oyente realice primariamente en beneficio de sí mismo, incluso como “peticiones” corteses, puesto que se dan una serie de circunstancias, hay aspectos formales que contribuyen a ello (haverkate, 1994: 24, 163). por ello, se suelen exponer buenas razones con las que impulsar al destinatario a actuar, se aventuran bajo determinados supuestos o hipótesis todo tipo de maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128114 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 114 situaciones que se realizarán si se cumple la acción principal que manifiesta el imperativo, se evita hacer mención explícita al acto de compra y, si se menciona, se señala alguna ventaja que se obtendrá con ello (hernández toribio, 2006: 235, 2006: 107-111). y son precisamente estos aspectos los que parecen querer resaltarse, todos aquellos en los que se pretende que el destinatario del mensaje centre su atención. b) enunciados interrogativos. la interrogación es la forma que más nítidamente refleja el carácter de propuesta sometida a la consideración del otro, en virtud de su propia estructura gramatical (escandell vidal, 1988: 581). en la cláusula interrogativa está focalizado el contenido informativo que el interlocutor debe proporcionar (bosque y gutiérrez-rexach, 2009), lo que en el mensaje publicitario constituirá la información que ofrezca el propio anunciante a partir de la formulación de dicha estructura interrogativa. esta se convierte en un recurso mediante el que se simula tener en cuenta al destinatario, pero lo más importante es que se trata de una estrategia que permite también al emisor o anunciante encauzar la argumentación a favor de sus intereses. de ahí la conveniencia de realizar una referencia más genérica al destinatario mediante la omisión del pronombre. en los textos publicitarios, el empleo de los enunciados interrogativos configura una especie de ficción dialógica, ya que nadie puede responder o replicar, al menos como lo haría en una conversación cotidiana; al mismo tiempo, responde al intento de establecer contacto con el destinatario y al interés del emisor por desarrollar la información fundamental del texto. para ello, las interrogativas que aparecen en los textos publicitarios se presentan bajo formas diversas: como preguntas reales, como interrogativas marcadas en las que se aventuran informaciones sobre el producto cercanas a la manifestación de certeza absoluta o hipótesis, o como ofrecimientos (sánchez corral, 1991: 197; méndez garcía de paredes, 2000: 12-13; hernández toribio, 2006: 111-117). por tanto, como cabría esperar, estas estructuras interrogativas no se formulan como inquisidoras de información, sino, al contrario, como introductoras de información nueva y así constituyen un recurso para llamar la atención sobre el contenido. a partir de todas estas características básicas, la omisión del pronombre de segunda persona se presenta como la solución idónea para conformar el enunciado interrogativo en el texto publicitario, precisamente porque proporciona un significado generalizador y no focaliza en ninguna persona concreta del paradigma pronominal. en (6) puede observarse la relevancia del verbo factivo “saber”, al que se subordina una proposición de ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 115 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 115 complemento directo en la que se manifiesta una información relacionada con el producto. (6) te descubrimos las claves del nuevo sistema de limpieza profesional de olay. tan eficaz que ha puesto de acuerdo a prestigiosos centros médico estético. ¿ø sabías que el 84% de los dermatólogos afirma que una mala limpieza facial es la principal causa de los problemas de la piel? y es que nuestra piel está expuesta continuamente a factores como el maquillaje, la contaminación y el sebo que causan deshidratación y tono desigual: dos de los factores que más envejecen nuestra piel [… ] (telva888/ab13) se trata de “interrogativas marcadas”, es decir, aquellas en las que están presentes marcadores o indicadores de orientación interrogativa (escandell vidal, 1999: 3978). en este tipo de interrogativas, muy frecuentes en publicidad, se aventuran proposiciones, cercanas a la manifestación de certeza absoluta. si se recurre a estos enunciados es por la conveniencia que presenta la estructura interrogativa al someter una propuesta a la consideración del destinatario, solicitando su atención y, por lo tanto, tenerlo presente (hernández toribio, 2006: 114-116). en los mensajes publicitarios es también habitual que se recurra a enunciados interrogativos que desde un punto de vista formal son interrogaciones neutras o no marcadas, pero que en realidad constituyen ofrecimientos (escandell vidal, 1999: 3977), como en (7). (7) ¿ø quieres disfrutar al máximo cuando conduces? con el nuevo ypsilon de lancia todo es posible. (telva876/ab12) de igual modo, al final del enunciado puede aparecer una pregunta modalizadora o retórica cuya respuesta sea previsible en términos generalizadores y positivos. preguntas como ¿te imaginas? o ¿aún no reconoces su nueva cc cream? tampoco apuntan a la obtención de una respuesta determinada, sino que evocan a conocimientos o sensaciones imaginariamente compartidas por un conjunto de individuos, en este caso, confirmar los beneficios de una crema que se presupone no solo novedosa, sino también conocida por sus grandes propiedades (8). (8) las cc creams marcan tendencia en todo el mundo. y es que sus exclusivas formulaciones consiguen mejorar y unificar el rostro y la hidratación de la piel al instante. ahora nosotras también podemos maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128116 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 116 disfrutar de su revolucionaria tecnología gracias a olay. ¿aún no reconoces ø su nueva cc cream? (telva893/sep13). como hemos podido comprobar, si bien son distintos los enunciados interrogativos a los que se recurre en los textos publicitarios, todos presentan algo en común: la omisión del pronombre, que permite aludir a una referencia generalizadora a partir de la cual lo que realmente se pretende destacar no es el destinatario, sino la información del producto que en esos mismos enunciados se aventura, presentándola como de alcance general a cualquier destinatario. c) enunciados hipotéticos o condicionales. por su parte, las construcciones condicionales, debido a su estructura bipolar, constituyen también un marco sintáctico muy apto para el mensaje publicitario, ya que en la prótasis se expresa un contenido de alcance común formulado como instrucción a partir de la partícula “si”, mientras que en la apódosis se expresa la consecuencia de haber seguido dicha instrucción. en principio, las estructuras condicionales formuladas en tiempo indicativo no exigen la presencia del sujeto, de modo que la relación hipotética entre ambas partes de la estructura condicional hace que, siguiendo los datos obtenidos en este trabajo, los contenidos se puedan interpretar también de forma generalizadora o amplia (9). (9) si la ø pruebas, ø sucumbes. lait corporel. biotherm (elle299/ag10) en definitiva, podríamos apuntar a que la omisión del pronombre de segunda persona en los textos publicitarios coaparece en aquellos mensajes cuyo producto se considera de alcance general o común para la sociedad, o se tiene la intención de presentarlo como tal. esto se produce a partir de la menor precisión referencial o prominencia cognitiva que aporta la desinencia verbal, que añade un significado generalizador que permite vincular el contenido publicitario con un espectro amplio de consumidores. 4.3. la expresión del pronombre de forma contraria, la informatividad que conlleva la expresión del pronombre produce variados significados que resultan como consecuencia de que el referente del mismo emerge a la escena comunicativa, está presente y ello permite interpretar el enunciado focalizando o subrayando pragmáticamente dicho referente. de este modo, el pronombre tú se ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 117 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 117 convierte en el centro informativo del mensaje (zubizarreta, 1999; bosque y gutiérrez-rexach, 2009: 678-679; serrano, 2013b: 276-280, entre otros). cabe esperar, por tanto, que en los textos publicitarios la posibilidad de expresar la segunda persona promueva un significado diferente al generado mediante la omisión. así pues, si con la omisión se pretende promover el alcance generalizador del objeto de promoción, la presencia explícita de tú hace recaer la informatividad sobre el referente del pronombre, disminuyendo paralelamente la que se presta al resto del mensaje. como sucedía con la omisión del pronombre, este valor que se deriva de la presencia, se matiza y concreta en determinadas estructuras gramaticales propias del discurso publicitario. a) tú + verbo (vales, mereces). en el ejemplo (10) se percibe que el peso de la argumentación recae sobre el pronombre tú (tú lo vales) mientras que el resto del enunciado queda relegado informativamente. se trata de un “acto valorativo de halago” en el que se ensalzan las cualidades de la destinataria y, por lo tanto, resulta muy justificado que aparezca el pronombre personal tónico puesto que se pretende destacar el referente al que atribuir dichas cualidades. (10) combate los signos de la edad en un gesto. el primer anti-edad de l’oréal paris. porque tú lo vales. l’oréal. (telva874/feb12). resulta muy llamativo que el texto o el enunciado donde aparece la variante expresa de la segunda persona tú tiende a ser más corto y conciso que en aquellos en los que se omite y, además, suele ser el eslogan del mensaje (porque tú lo vales), lo que adquiere sentido si se tiene en cuenta que el mensaje está elaborado con vistas a que la atención recaiga sobre el pronombre. el principal protagonista de los mensajes publicitarios es el referente de la segunda persona, donde, a diferencia de aquellos sin sujeto explícito, se desea indicar que este es una persona diferente, singular, merecedora exclusiva del producto de consumo y capaz de tomar decisiones con respecto al mismo. otras estructuras lingüísticas o elementos textuales también favorecen la presencia del pronombre. nótese como el pronombre tú aparece con lexemas verbales como poder o saber que refuerzan la responsabilidad del sujeto sobre la acción, dando a entender la mencionada exclusividad del referente de la segunda persona (11). maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128118 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 118 (11) el 100% de las lavadoras prefieren una mancha de grasa a una de césped. el 100% de las madres, justo lo contrario. porque tú sabes mejor que nadie que el deporte es una actividad ideal para que tus hijos lleven una vida activa y saludable. coca-cola (telva890/jun13) b) tú + verbo (puedes, sabes, decides, eliges). asimismo, es muy frecuente que la expresión de la segunda persona venga acompañada de verbos como decidir o elegir o saber (como en el ejemplo anterior), que presentan al interlocutor como agente imprescindible en el proceso de decisión de consumo (véanse los ejemplos 12 y 13). (12) te estamos esperando. tú decides cuándo. hazte cliente y disfruta de 6 meses sin comisiones de mantenimiento y administración, y transferencias nacionales y 1ª tarjeta, gratis. (bankia, elle142/ag14) (13) ¿cansada de estar cansada? floradix. con la regla se pierde una parte del hierro que tu organismo necesita para mantener su normal energía y vitalidad. […]. con floradix recupera el hierro que necesitas para recargar tus pilas. floradix, rico en hierro y vitaminas, es el complemento alimenticio de gran tolerancia y agradable sabor ideal ante cualquier necesidad de un aporte extra de hierro. con floradix, tú eliges. cansada o…¡encantada de ser mujer! (xls/nov14) c) tú + adverbio de foco. el pronombre tú puede incluso ir acompañado de partículas focales como también, o del adjetivo mismo (a). los adverbios de foco destacan aquella parte de una construcción que se quiere resaltar con algún propósito, que en este caso es el pronombre de sujeto (sánchez lópez, 1999: rodríguez rosique, 2008; rae, 2009). también no solo destaca al segmento al que acompaña, sino que, además, presupone la existencia de otras personas que ya han conseguido el beneficio descrito. como puede observarse en el ejemplo (14), los mensajes construidos con tú también aconsejan al destinatario unirse o participar en un grupo imaginario al que se presupone conocedor de las bondades de lo publicitado. en un discurso argumentativo como el publicitario, el tópico de cantidad actúa como un principio persuasivo de extraordinaria eficacia (gutiérrez ordóñez, 1997: 28). (14) munición anti-manchas. el nuevo strivectin eclaircissant uniformisant posee propiedades que causarán sensación entre las mujeres con problemas de manchas cutáneas. gracias a la tecnología nia-114 tm, su acción combate las manchas con una indiscutible ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 119 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 119 eficacia. en 8 semanas muchas mujeres han recobrado el cutis luminoso de su juventud. tú también puedes hacerlo. (strivectin en exclusiva en sephora, telva874/feb12) especialmente relevante resulta la expresión del pronombre y el adverbio de foco también cuando se le pide al destinatario mediante un imperativo la realización de una acción, siendo los únicos casos en los que se anula la tendencia general analizada en 4.2. (15) 8 de cada 10 patitos de goma eligen ir con correos. si los que más saben de envíos nos eligen, elígenos tú también. con la oferta de paquetería de correos, todos los envíos tienen un plazo de entrega garantizado. entra en concorreos.com y disfruta de hasta un 25% de descuento en nuestra oferta de paquetería. y podrás ganar un año de envíos sin coste (xls/nov14) como apuntábamos en 4.2., las construcciones imperativas con sujeto expreso son muy infrecuentes; los ejemplos que hemos obtenido suelen venir acompañados de también y otros elementos como misma, mitigando con ello el peso pragmático que aporta el sujeto expreso en las estructuras exhortativas. observemos, además, el valor contrastivo que adquiere el pronombre en estas construcciones: (16) depilación. hazlo tú misma. obtener resultados profesionales sin salir de casa es posible. los nuevos ítems de la depilación son fáciles de utilizar en cualquier parte del cuerpo. ¡descúbrelos! (wom260/may14) 4.3.1. la colocación variable del sujeto expreso a todo lo anteriormente expuesto podemos añadir que es de esperar que la posición del sujeto expreso (preverbal o posverbal) aporte en este tipo de texto matices distintos al significado de singularidad o exclusividad que hemos percibido en esta variante. la proporción de sujetos en posición preverbal en los mensajes publicitarios no es arbitraria; los porcentajes indican que la colocación posverbal, siguiendo la tendencia general de la lengua española (al igual que la omisión) es bastante menos frecuente que la preverbal. además, aunque son muy escasos, es necesario separar del cómputo total aquellos casos donde el pronombre se expresa, pero no el núcleo verbal (como por ejemplo: gas natural, siempre tú), que constituyen un 12% del total (tabla 2). maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128120 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 120 cuando se sitúa en posición preverbal, el referente se considera información conocida y de la que se parte para la predicación, debido a que en esta posición el sujeto es más prominente o accesible que su variante posverbal (serrano, 2012: 111). así pues, es muy usual que el pronombre tú aparezca situado en esta posición en estructuras atributivas adscriptivas (tú eres), con las que se pretende atribuir al referente una cualidad en su grado máximo, partiendo de la premisa de que el mensaje va dirigido a alguien concreto: la segunda persona tú. (17) con dodot, todo el cuidado que necesita desde el primer día. durante sus primeros meses de vida, tu bebé necesita muchos cuidados y tú eres su mejor apoyo. (xls1392/jun14) es también frecuente la posición preverbal del pronombre tú en ese otro tipo de estructuras en las cuales se incide en situar al interlocutor, no solamente como ser único o singular, sino además como protagonista, capaz de elegir el mejor producto o de emprender acciones beneficiosas para la sociedad (apartado 4.3.). esto viene dado a partir de la agentividad que proporciona la colocación preverbal del sujeto (serrano, 2012: 112-216). en cambio, la posición posverbal implica una reducción de la agentividad de la persona gramatical y un incremento de la afectación del referente del sujeto, que se concreta en una mayor focalización o resalte pragmático (aijón oliva y serrano, 2013: 72-76), lo cual puede constituir un recurso muy apropiado para el mensaje publicitario, ya que el pronombre queda destacado en la posición final de la cláusula o del propio mensaje. esto lo hace proclive, además, para constituir el término de una comparación en las construcciones como tú, que realzan un nuevo matiz de esa singularidad que pretende otorgarse al consumidor potencial. (18) elogy ahora es una nueva marca urbana y activa como tú. descúbrela (elle302/nov11) de forma similar, el significado cognitivo de la colocación posverbal, que conlleva, como hemos señalado, una afectación u objetualización del ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 121 m. j. serrano & m. i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): …-… casos porcentaje tú preverbal 54/91 59% tú posverbal 26/91 28% independiente 11/91 12% tabla 2. porcentajes de colocación preverbal o posverbal del sujeto expreso. cuando se sitúa en posición preverbal, el referente se considera información conocida y de la que se parte para la predicación, debido a que en esta posición el sujeto es más prominente o accesible que su variante posverbal (serrano, 2012: 111). así pues, es muy usual que el pronombre tú aparezca situado en esta posición en estructuras atributivas adscriptivas (tú eres), con las que se pretende atribuir al referente una cualidad en su grado máximo, partiendo de la premisa de que el mensaje va dirigido a alguien concreto: la segunda persona tú. (17) con dodot, todo el cuidado que necesita desde el primer día. durante sus primeros meses de vida, tu bebé necesita muchos cuidados y tú eres su mejor apoyo. (xls1392/jun14) es también frecuente la posición preverbal del pronombre tú en ese otro tipo de estructuras en las cuales se incide en situar al interlocutor, no solamente como ser único o singular, sino además como protagonista, capaz de elegir el mejor producto o de emprender acciones beneficiosas para la sociedad (apartado 4.3.). esto viene dado a partir de la agentividad que proporciona la colocación preverbal del sujeto (serrano, 2012: 112-216). en cambio, la posición posverbal implica una reducción de la agentividad de la persona gramatical y un incremento de la afectación del referente del sujeto, que se concreta en una mayor focalización o resalte pragmático (aijón oliva y serrano, 2013: 72-76), lo cual puede constituir un recurso muy apropiado para el mensaje publicitario, ya que el pronombre queda destacado en la posición final de la cláusula o del propio mensaje. esto lo hace proclive, además, para constituir el término de una comparación en las construcciones como tú, que realzan un nuevo matiz de esa singularidad que pretende otorgarse al consumidor potencial. (18) elogy ahora es una nueva marca urbana y activa como tú. descúbrela (elle302/nov11) de forma similar, el significado cognitivo de la colocación posverbal, que conlleva, como hemos señalado, una afectación u objetualización del referente, promueve una valoración superlativa del mismo, colocándolo en el extremo más alto de una comparación ideal (véase ejemplo 19). (19) ¿tu pelo seco y encrespado te desespera? ¡tranquila, tiene solución! con muy poquito esfuerzo puedes conseguir un precioso pelo liso que esté hidratado y suave como la seda. se acabó envidiar el pelo de otras, ahora serás tú quien despierte envidias. (telva887/mar13) 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 121 referente, promueve una valoración superlativa del mismo, colocándolo en el extremo más alto de una comparación ideal (véase ejemplo 19). (19) ¿tu pelo seco y encrespado te desespera? ¡tranquila, tiene solución! con muy poquito esfuerzo puedes conseguir un precioso pelo liso que esté hidratado y suave como la seda. se acabó envidiar el pelo de otras, ahora serás tú quien despierte envidias. (telva887/mar13) el atributo no solo resalta una propiedad atribuida al sujeto, sino que hace que sea identificado como único portador de dicha cualidad en su más alto grado. por ello, en aquellas cláusulas donde el pronombre aparece expreso, pero no el núcleo verbal, aparece también en posición final, indicando de nuevo que el referente de tú es alguien único, singular y potencial consumidor exclusivo del producto (20). (20) avisa a tu marido que mañana al despertarse, encontrará a otra mujer en su cama. tú. (sampar de sephora, telva887/mar13) 4.3.2. la coaparición de la expresión y de la omisión del pronombre de sujeto t ú es posible que un mismo texto contenga las variantes expresa (preverbal o posverbal) y omitida de la segunda persona. en estos casos es interesante analizar cómo se distribuyen en el texto las variantes y qué significados producen. en el corpus publiling hay un total de 33 ejemplos de mensajes publicitarios en los que coaparecen ambas variantes, lo que constituye solo un 13,5% del total. entre ellos hay que distinguir aquellos casos en los que hay un pronombre expreso que aparece en una construcción independiente tales como ¿y tú? ¿eres singularista?, que resultaron ser infrecuentes (2,1%) (tabla 3). los datos cuantitativos corroboran en cierta medida las explicaciones cualitativas, esto es, existe una especialización discursivo-pragmática de cada maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128122 ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ibérica 30 (2015): …-… el atributo no solo resalta una propiedad atribuida al sujeto, sino que hace que sea identificado como único portador de dicha cualidad en su más alto grado. por ello, en aquellas cláusulas donde el pronombre aparece expreso, pero no el núcleo verbal, aparece también en posición final, indicando de nuevo que el referente de tú es alguien único, singular y potencial consumidor exclusivo del producto (20). (20) avisa a tu marido que mañana al despertarse, encontrará a otra mujer en su cama. tú. (sampar de sephora, telva887/mar13) 4.3.2. la coaparición de la expresión y de la omisión del pronombre de sujeto tú es posible que un mismo texto contenga las variantes expresa (preverbal o posverbal) y omitida de la segunda persona. en estos casos es interesante analizar cómo se distribuyen en el texto las variantes y qué significados producen. en el corpus publiling hay un total de 33 ejemplos de mensajes publicitarios en los que coaparecen ambas variantes, lo que constituye solo un 13,5% del total. entre ellos hay que distinguir aquellos casos en los que hay un pronombre expreso que aparece en una construcción independiente tales como ¿y tú? ¿eres singularista?, que resultaron ser infrecuentes (2,1%) (tabla 3). casos porcentaje expresión u omisión 205/243 84,4% expresión y omisión 33/243 13,5% independiente 5/243 2,1% tabla 3. porcentajes de coaparición de las variantes expresa y omitida del pronombre tú. los datos cuantitativos corroboran en cierta medida las explicaciones cualitativas, esto es, existe una especialización discursivo-pragmática de cada una de las variantes, que es utilizada en los textos publicitarios con distintos fines comunicativos. la omisión tiende a proveer al mensaje de un significado generalizador que indica los beneficios y bondades que otorgará el producto o acción de consumo, mientras que la expresión restringe la atención sobre el destinatario de ese consumo. por ello, cuando en un mismo texto coaparecen ambas variantes, cabe preguntarse cuál es la intención comunicativa que se persigue con ello. en primer lugar, es necesario observar cómo se suceden y se ordenan las formas en la construcción del mensaje (tabla 4). 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 122 una de las variantes, que es utilizada en los textos publicitarios con distintos fines comunicativos. la omisión tiende a proveer al mensaje de un significado generalizador que indica los beneficios y bondades que otorgará el producto o acción de consumo, mientras que la expresión restringe la atención sobre el destinatario de ese consumo. por ello, cuando en un mismo texto coaparecen ambas variantes, cabe preguntarse cuál es la intención comunicativa que se persigue con ello. en primer lugar, es necesario observar cómo se suceden y se ordenan las formas en la construcción del mensaje (tabla 4). si bien los casos y las frecuencias no son lo suficientemente abundantes como para extraer conclusiones definitivas, sí es posible determinar algunas coincidencias con lo obtenido en el análisis cualitativo previo. las sucesiones de variantes más frecuentes son la combinación de “omisión” + “expresión preverbal” (57,5%) y la de “expresión preverbal” + “omisión” (36,3%). en el primer caso, se trata de mensajes relativamente extensos donde no se expresa el sujeto a lo largo del mismo, pero que terminan con una frase corta con el pronombre expreso en posición preverbal. la estructura del mensaje es la siguiente: se presentan los contenidos de acuerdo a las características ya descritas que proporciona la prominencia cognitiva (generalización, amplitud de destinatarios, desfocalización del referente, etc.) y se culmina con la indexación concreta del lector a través de la expresión en el eslogan o “claim” del anuncio. en el ejemplo (21), el texto presenta una progresión de lo general a lo particular; la primera parte comienza exponiendo los beneficios del uso del producto: muchas personas lo han probado, olvídate de los problemas de tránsito, toma activia, para terminar con una instrucción precisa en una construcción exhortativa: ¡únete tú también! (21) muchas personas lo han probado… y 9 de cada 10 notan la diferencia. compromiso activia 14 días. ¡y olvídate ø de los problemas de tránsito! tomaø activia con bífidus actirregularis durante 14 días y ø notarás la diferencia. ¡únete tú también! (yodo/mar13) ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 123 m. j. serrano & m. i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): …-… casos porcentaje omisión + expr. prev. 19/33 57,6% omisión + expr. posv. 0 0 expr.prev + omisión 12/33 36,3% expr.posv + omisión 0 0 omisión+ expr.+omisión 2/33 6,1% tabla 4. porcentajes de sucesión de las variantes expresa y omitida del pronombre tú. si bien los casos y las frecuencias no son lo suficientemente abundantes como para extraer conclusiones definitivas, sí es posible determinar algunas coincidencias con lo obtenido en el análisis cualitativo previo. las sucesiones de variantes más frecuentes son la combinación de “omisión” + “expresión preverbal” (57,5%) y la de “expresión preverbal” + “omisión” (36,3%). en el primer caso, se trata de mensajes relativamente extensos donde no se expresa el sujeto a lo largo del mismo, pero que terminan con una frase corta con el pronombre expreso en posición preverbal. la estructura del mensaje es la siguiente: se presentan los contenidos de acuerdo a las características ya descritas que proporciona la prominencia cognitiva (generalización, amplitud de destinatarios, desfocalización del referente, etc.) y se culmina con la indexación concreta del lector a través de la expresión en el eslogan o “claim” del anuncio. en el ejemplo (21), el texto presenta una progresión de lo general a lo particular; la primera parte comienza exponiendo los beneficios del uso del producto: muchas personas lo han probado, olvídate de los problemas de tránsito, toma activia, para terminar con una instrucción precisa en una construcción exhortativa: ¡únete tú también! (21) muchas personas lo han probado… y 9 de cada 10 notan la diferencia. compromiso activia 14 días. ¡y olvídate ø de los problemas de tránsito! tomaø activia con bífidus actirregularis durante 14 días y ø notarás la diferencia. ¡únete tú también! (yodo/mar13) en otro ejemplo, como el (22), se inicia con una pregunta con sujeto omitido ¿qué quieres…?, que se responde con frases cortas: la música más cañera…vivir a tope. el objetivo comunicativo del mensaje no es otro que prevenir los accidentes de tráfico ocasionados por el consumo de alcohol, de modo que la presencia del enunciado final tú verás lo que te mola involucra directamente al referente, situándolo como responsable de que esos accidentes sigan ocurriendo o no. la fuerza pragmática de la expresión (de nuevo, ocasionada por la informatividad, además de por la agentividad de la posición preverbal del pronombre) resulta muy útil para cumplir este objetivo comunicativo. (22) ¿qué quieres ø conseguir con el alcohol? la música más cañera. vivir a tope. 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 123 en otro ejemplo, como el (22), se inicia con una pregunta con sujeto omitido ¿qué quieres…?, que se responde con frases cortas: la música más cañera…vivir a tope. el objetivo comunicativo del mensaje no es otro que prevenir los accidentes de tráfico ocasionados por el consumo de alcohol, de modo que la presencia del enunciado final tú verás lo que te mola involucra directamente al referente, situándolo como responsable de que esos accidentes sigan ocurriendo o no. la fuerza pragmática de la expresión (de nuevo, ocasionada por la informatividad, además de por la agentividad de la posición preverbal del pronombre) resulta muy útil para cumplir este objetivo comunicativo. (22) ¿qué quieres ø conseguir con el alcohol? la música más cañera. vivir a tope. tú verás lo que te mola. (ministerio de sanidad y consumo, xls/mar10) como se observa en el ejemplo anterior, el texto que contiene la omisión suele ser más extenso que aquel donde aparece la variante expresa. no obstante, es posible encontrar también mensajes cortos donde coexiste la omisión con la expresión, como en el siguiente (23), si bien el efecto comunicativo puede considerarse el mismo. (23) por algo somos la compañía que garantiza una mayor cuota porcentual de cobertura para que siempre ø tengas cuando tú la necesites (elle329/feb12) en la segunda construcción más frecuente, la de los mensajes que contienen “expresión preverbal” + “omisión”, la estructura del mensaje es similar; el pronombre expreso aparece en la parte final del mensaje: donde tú nos digas y termina con la omisión del mismo, porque ya es prominente, como ni pagues ø de más ni te asegures de menos ø (24). (24) reconoce ø que odias ir al taller. solo por eso no hace falta que ø vayas. con el servicio de reparación direct recogemos tu coche, lo reparamos en uno de nuestros talleres y lo devolvemos donde tú nos digas. ø vente a direct y ni pagues ø de más ni te asegures ø de menos. (xls/nov14) maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128124 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 124 la coaparición de las variantes expresa y omitida de la segunda persona en un mismo texto es menos frecuente que el único uso de una u otra, lo cual viene a confirmar que el significado de cada variante se transforma en un recurso comunicativo apropiado para el objetivo que se quiera conseguir con el mensaje publicitario. en los casos de combinación de ambas variantes, que sea la sucesión “omisión” + “expresión preverbal”, seguida de “expresión preverbal” + “omisión” es explicable por la continuidad discursiva; ambas variantes son prominentes cognitivamente aunque en grado distinto (como ya hemos explicado) y permiten activar o desactivar el referente de la segunda persona según lo requiera el propósito comunicativo. 5. conclusiones el mensaje publicitario posee una estructura lingüística y unos objetivos comunicativos concretos: suele ser más o menos corto, conciso, directo y pretende obtener del interlocutor imaginario o audiencia una acción, que es la de consumir un producto o adherirse a una causa. esta naturaleza hace que la forma del contenido deba ser minuciosamente articulada para que ese objetivo se cumpla con efectividad, y para ello la variación sintáctica y, concretamente la de los pronombres personales, ofrece grandes posibilidades de significado. la prominencia cognitiva que conlleva intrínsecamente la omisión del pronombre proporciona un significado generalizador, precisamente porque la referencia de la persona queda en un segundo plano pragmático con respecto al propio mensaje; se pretende incidir en que el contenido publicitario puede llegar a un grupo de consumidores amplio e indeterminado. contrariamente, la expresión, por ser más informativa, concentra la atención sobre el referente, lo cual es adecuado para aquellos mensajes publicitarios donde se desea apuntar al consumidor como ser único y exclusivo, responsable o merecedor del producto o de la idea patrocinada. siguiendo la tendencia general de la lengua española, en la publicidad predomina la omisión del pronombre de sujeto, pero la expresión admite más posibilidades variables: puede venir colocada en posición preverbal o posverbal y complementada por diversos adverbios que matizan o puntualizan también cognitivamente el significado de exclusividad o de focalización pragmática que promueve en las construcciones donde aparece, tales como también, solo, etc. por último, aunque en menor medida, es también frecuente que en un mismo mensaje coaparezcan la expresión y la omisión del pronombre. en estos casos, la ¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128 125 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 125 solución más común es la sucesión de “omisión” + “expresión preverbal”, lo cual es acorde con lo obtenido aisladamente en el análisis cualitativo de cada variante. es previsible que deliberadamente se presente el contenido de forma gradual a partir de la generalización que proporciona la variante omitida y culmine con una indexación directa al interlocutor a través de la forma expresa en posición preverbal. en definitiva, el uso expreso u omitido del pronombre de segunda persona tú constituye un recurso significativo con grandes posibilidades comunicativas en el discurso publicitario, lo que confirma, una vez más, que la variación gramatical no es simplemente una cuestión formal, sino un recurso de significado que se pone de manifiesto en todos los planos lingüísticos y que repercute de manera significativa en la interpretación del contenido. historia del artículo: recibido 9 agosto 2014 artículo revisado recibido 1 octubre 2014 aceptado 10 octubre 2014 bibliografía maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128126 aijón oliva, m.a. y m.j. serrano (2012). “la posición del sujeto pronominal en las cláusulas no declarativas”. onomázein 26,2: 131-164. aijón oliva, m.a. y m.j. serrano (2013). style in syntax. investigating variation in spanish pronoun subjects. bern: peter lang. alcaide lara, e. 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(1991). retórica y sintaxis de la publicidad (itinerarios de la persuasión). córdoba: universidad de córdoba. sánchez lópez, c. (1999). “los cuantificadores i. sus clases, las estructuras cuantificativas” en i. bosque y v. demonte (eds.). gramática descriptiva del español, 1025-1128. madrid: espasa calpe. sankoff, d., tagliamonte, s. y e. smith (2012). goldvarb lion: a variable rule application for macintosh. department of linguistics, toronto: university of toronto. seco, m. (1989). gramática esencial del español. madrid: espasa-calpe. serrano, m.j. (2011). sociolingüística. barcelona: ediciones del serbal. serrano, m.j. (2012). “el sujeto pronominal usted/ustedes y su posición: variación y creación de estilos comunicativos”. spanish in context 9,1: 109-131. serrano, m.j. (2013a). “variación sociosituacional de la colocación del sujeto pronominal en textos conversacionales”. spanish in context 10,2: 261283. serrano, m.j. (2013b). “de la cognición al discurso: el efecto de la prominencia cognitiva y la informatividad textual en el estudio de la variación de los sujetos pronominales”. estudios de lingüística de la universidad de alicante 27: 275299. serrano, m. j. (2013c). “el pronombre tú como recurso objetivador en español: variación textual y discursiva”. borealis. an international journal of hispanic linguistics 2,1: 179-197. serrano, m.j. y m.a. aijón oliva (2011). “syntactic variation and communicative style”. language sciences 33: 138-153. serrano, m.j. y m.a. aijón oliva (2012). “cuando tú eres yo: la inespecificidad referencial de tú 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 127 maría josé serrano es catedrática de lingüística general de la universidad de la laguna (tenerife, españa). sus áreas de investigación son la variación sintáctica, la pragmática y la lingüística cognitiva. entre sus publicaciones más recientes destacan el libro style in syntax. investigating variation in spanish pronoun subjects (miguel a. aijón oliva y maría josé serrano, peter lang, 2013), y artículos en revistas como spanish in context, language sciences, language & communication o folia lingüistica. maría isabel hernández toribio es profesora en la universidad complutense de madrid. entre sus líneas de investigación se encuentra el análisis pragmalingüístico de discursos de especialidad como el publicitario, cinematográfico o el turismo 2.0. entre sus publicaciones destacan: el poder de la palabra en la publicidad de radio (octaedro, 2006) y “actos de cortesía valorizadora (cumplidos y halagos) en el cine argentino actual” (spanish in context, 2014). notas 1 este trabajo constituye uno de los resultados del proyecto de i+d denominado proyecto puente al plan nacional de investigación 2014, vicerrectorado de investigación e internacionalización, universidad de la laguna. 2 de hecho, como ya se ha comprobado en otras investigaciones, la ausencia del pronombre tiende a proveer al enunciado de un estilo tendente a la objetivación, que es graduable y reformulable en las distintas personas gramaticales y en los distintos textos donde se utilizan (serrano 2012, 2013a). maría josé serrano & m.i. hernández toribio ibérica 30 (2015): 105-128128 como recurso de objetivación en el discurso”. nueva revista de filología hispánica 60,2: 541563. serrano, m.j. y m.a. aijón oliva (2014). “discourse objectivization, social variation and style in the use of spanish tú”. folia linguistica 48 (1): 225-254. silva-corvalán, c. (2001). sociolingüística y pragmática del español. washington: georgetown university press. zubizarreta, m. l. (1999). “las funciones informativas: tema y foco”, en i. bosque y v. demonte (eds.), gramática descriptiva de la lengua española. entre la oración y el discurso, 4215-4244. madrid: espasa-calpe. 07 iberica 30_iberica 13 13/10/15 19:54 página 128 iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.23 abstract at a time when multilingualism is spreading across university contexts all over the world, this article focuses on the major repercussions that the coexistence of different languages has on language for specific purposes (lsp). after analysing the interface between lsp and multilingualism, the university of the basque country upv/ehu is put forward as a very good case in point of how multilingual universities are endeavouring to face the many challenges that the multilingual turn entails. the article underscores the need to foster collaboration not only between content and lsp specialists, but also between lsp practitioners in different languages. resumen la expansión del multilingüismo en la educación superior y sus repercusiones en las lenguas para fines específicos nos encontramos en un momento histórico en el que el multilingüismo se está convirtiendo en una característica intrínseca de las universidades a lo largo y ancho del planeta, por lo que este artículo aborda las importantes repercusiones que la coexistencia de diferentes lenguas conlleva para la enseñanza de lenguas para fines específicos (lfe). tras analizar la interacción entre lfe y multilingüismo, el artículo se centra en el caso de la universidad del país vasco/euskal herriko unibertsitatea (upv/ehu) a modo de ejemplo de cómo las universidades multilingües tratan de hacer frente a los diversos retos que este multilingüismo plantea. el artículo defiende la necesidad de fomentar la colaboración no solo entre especialistas de contenido y lengua, sino también entre el profesorado de lfe de diferentes lenguas. the spread of multilingualism in higher education and its repercussions for language for specific purposes david lasagabaster university of the basque country upv/ehu (spain) david.lasagabaster@ehu.eus 23 ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 david lasagabaster introduction multilingualism has become a buzzword in education in general and in applied linguistics in particular in the last two decades and, albeit at a slower pace than at pre-university levels, its impact has also reached higher education. this can be illustrated by the increasing use of the term ememus (english medium education in multilingual university settings), which has recently been popularized by dafouz and smit (2020), led by an unprecedented rise of multilingualism at tertiary level. from a european perspective, european institutions have played a paramount role in the importance attached to multilingual learning, as they have bent over backwards to promote multilingualism in the continent since 1995, the year when the white paper on education and training was published (european commission, 1995). this initiative aimed at fostering the use of additional languages as means of instruction for future generations of students with a view to bolstering mobility, strengthening the internationalisation process and european identity among the younger generation, while linguistic diversity in europe was underpinned. one of the main lines of action included in this document set forth the objective that all european citizens should develop proficiency in three european languages, in an attempt to stop foreign language learning from being a possibility only available to an elite. in the following years, the commission of the european communities (2008), in a document entitled multilingualism: an asset for europe and a shared commitment, invited “member states and the other eu institutions to endorse the crosscutting policy framework for multilingualism” (p. 15). universities in particular were asked to “equip students with strong language skills regardless of their fields of specialisation” (p. 10), because multilingualism enables university students to gain opportunities for landing a job and helps them build multilingual capital to enhance their careers. when referring to the term multilingualism, the first stumbling block that needs to be overcome has to do with its multiple status and the many different meanings attributed to it (franceschini, 2011). in this paper multilingualism is defined as the active use of more than two languages, a definition that is based on three main reasons. first, although a quick review of the literature in the field would confirm that the umbrella term “multilingualism” habitually includes “bilingualism”, the latin prefixes “bi” and “multi” literally mean “two” and “many” respectively, which would lead 24 us to conclude that both terms should not be used interchangeably. second, whereas it is rather habitual to use two languages equally well, this similar level of proficiency is more complex to achieve when three or more languages are involved. and third, researchers who delve into multilingualism and multiple language learning (cenoz, 2013; de angelis, 2007; dewaele, 2010; fox et al., 2019; jessner, 2006) have recurrently underscored that there are significant differences between the learning of a second language and the learning of third or additional languages. in this vein, jessner (2006: 13) bluntly concludes that “nowadays it is known that learning a second language differs in many respects from learning a third language.” researchers also concur that bilinguals benefit from some advantages over monolinguals when it comes to learning an additional language, due to their wider experience as language learners and their more developed learning strategies based on their l2 learning practice, on which they rely to learn the l3. at a time when multilingual practices are advancing across university contexts all over the world, this article aims to analyse how the spread of multilingualism at university affects language for specific purposes (lsp) by paying particular attention to a multilingual (albeit officially bilingual) university located in spain. the main goal of this article is thus to underscore the benefits of building stronger ties between lsp professionals of different languages in multilingual university contexts. the interface between multilingualism and lsp lsp is one of the many fields that are subsumed under the applied linguistics umbrella term. this research field that “originated in a need to teach academic reading and writing skills to undergraduates in different fields” (mauranen, 2022, p. 7) has significantly expanded in recent decades and currently tackles many other communicative aspects alongside their psychological and sociological dimensions, ranging from the understanding of lectures to the development of oral presentation skills, to name but two. lsp explicitly connects learning the language in the classroom with using it in the academic and working spheres and the professions. the aforementioned spread of multilingualism entails different challenges that still are far from having been met in most higher education institutions. as siemund (2023, p. 244) puts it, “most of the world currently appears to be the spread of multilingualism in higher education and its repercussions for language for specific purposes ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 25 converging on some bilingual or trilingual model in which english plays a crucial role.” the strong presence of english in many education systems all over the world has substantially contributed to this multilingual situation, and this has clear repercussions for lsp teaching, as future professionals need to develop some form of multilingual repertoire to remain competitive and functional in our current globalised world. as a result of multilingual language policies, graduate and undergraduate students find themselves needing to get acquainted with the specific language of each of the different languages used as medium of instruction in their institutions. however, since its inception in the 1960s the lsp field of research has tended to be mainly constrained to english, to the extent that it was first established as a discipline as english for specific purposes (esp) (hall, 2013; sánchez-lópez, 2013). the titles of two of the most prestigious journals in the field (english for specific purposes and journal of english for academic purposes) also seem to attest to this and, in fact, they have set the course for the lsp research field irrespective of the language concerned. although languages other than english (lotes) are also used in lsp courses, such as german (see byrnes, 2013) and spanish (pastor cesteros, 2022; sánchez-lópez, 2013) courses delivered in colleges and universities in the united states and spain, there is little doubt that english remains hegemonic in the lsp field of practice and research. against this anglocentric approach to lsp, the current multilingual universities demand a much larger language scope and the lsp domain ought to include lotes. moreover, new approaches to language teaching propose pedagogical practices that regard students’ linguistic repertoires as a resource rather than a problem. different authors (hibbert & van der walt, 2014; garcía & wei, 2014; lasagabaster & garcía, 2014) defend the need to discard the traditional view of multilingualism where the different languages in contact become separate entities. conversely, they propose a more open and flexible view aimed at fostering the synergies of the languages in contact, rather than avoiding their simultaneous use. the different languages of instruction should thus not be seen as competing but rather as a complement to each other, which is why lsp practitioners should foster the continuous flow between languages by designing tasks in which all the languages are seen as an asset. but translanguaging practices should not be limited to the movement among linguistic repertoires and should also include multilingual and multimodal sign-making practices to scaffold content learning in multilingual classrooms (tai, 2022). an additional asset david lasagabaster ibérica 45 (2023): 23-4626 can be found in the fact that research indicates that translanguaging often becomes an essential component of content teaching rather than simply a practice reserved for socio-affective purposes (such as establishing rapport) or classroom management (genc et al., 2023). lsp students have to become acquainted with the specialised language and norms of each disciplinary culture, so that they become able to produce spoken and written products that comply with the discipline concerned. the need to scaffold the transition from everyday to scientific language requires students to be exposed to many examples of the typical discourse of each discipline in their different languages, so that they eventually succeed in participating effectively in multilingual academic or professional communities. with this in mind, the officially bilingual spanish higher education institutions merit attention, as they are a very good case in point of the efforts exerted to provide lsp not only in english but also in lotes. the spanish context in the 20th century the end of franco’s dictatorial regime (1939-1975) led to the 1978 constitution which, apart from being the basis of a return to democracy, acknowledged all the minority languages spoken in spain that had traditionally played second fiddle or none at all in many social spheres, including education. the advent of democracy facilitated autonomous governance of different regions, which was accompanied by the launch of campaigns for literacy in regional languages in order to reverse the language shift. since the main minority languages (basque, catalan and galician) acquired co-official status with spanish in 1978, efforts to revive these languages have been made, as well as to design language planning to counteract minority language loss. not only have european institutions been concerned about the development of foreign languages during the last three decades, but they have also worked for the protection of minority languages. in fact, the european charter for regional or minority languages came into force in 1992 under the auspices of the council of europe to promote historical minority and regional languages (although the decision to consider a language regional or minority lies in the hands of the national states). despite the fact that the charter has changed basic conditions for the better for several minority languages, some the spread of multilingualism in higher education and its repercussions for language for specific purposes ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 27 voices consider that these initiatives have mainly been limited to paying lip service to european minority-language diversity while visible results are conspicuous by their absence. it is evident that the situation has improved in the last few decades, but in many european countries there is still a lack of appreciation of their internal linguistic and cultural diversity. we could take france as an example, since it signed the charter in 1999, but it has not yet ratified it and, therefore, it has never come into effect because the french constitutional council decided to censor part of the molac law on the protection and promotion of regional languages. this rejection was based on the grounds that the teaching of regional languages through immersion is unconstitutional, as the french constitution reads that the language of the republic is french, which implies its exclusive use in education. other countries such as spain, however, have boosted the normalisation of minority languages to a greater degree, which has resulted in decentralised educational systems at both pre-university and university levels in which multilingualism has become the norm rather than the exception. in fact, minoritised language-medium education is seen as a lynchpin in language revitalisation strategies. the co-official status of minority languages has led to their use as a means of instruction at university. in addition, and as a result of the rapid spread of english-medium instruction (emi) programmes, universities have seen the proliferation of a multilingual curriculum in which different languages (the minority language, spanish and english) are used to teach content. these bilingual regions have also included other foreign languages (e.g. french and german) to a lesser extent and have ended up putting together multilingual policies (cots et al., 2014; fortanet-gómez, 2013). the internationalisation process has thus forced these bilingual universities to strike a balance between the reverse language shift process and the need to be part of the globalised higher education environment and to respond to its linguistic pressures (cots et al., 2016). from an international perspective, the multilingual situation in spain will help to inform lsp, as most studies in the field tend to focus on english while disregarding minority languages. spain’s multilingual language policies may thus contribute to opening new research agendas in lsp, since the types of academic multiliteracies that these multilingual university settings have implemented are well worth looking into. to take a couple of examples outside europe, let us briefly focus on the tips of the african continent. morocco is a multilingual nation in which arabic and tamazight are official david lasagabaster ibérica 45 (2023): 23-4628 languages, while the languages of the university system are french and arabic. however, moroccans use the moroccan variety of arabic (known as darija) in their everyday life and the local student body is also made up of speakers of tamazight and spanish (particularly in the northern regions closer to spain). an increasing number of students are also taking emi courses, as in recent years there has been wide support for replacing french with english (r’boul, 2022). in south africa, many universities implement dual instruction in afrikaans and english, while they also develop materials in local african languages for study support (van der walt, 2013); in the same way, students at the universitat autonòma of barcelona use catalan to clarify english concepts, their plurilingual repertoires acting as a resource in classroom interaction (moore & dooly, 2010). these are very good examples of how widespread multilingualism is at tertiary level, although all too often it remains hidden and underresearched. a multilingual person possesses different languages in their linguistic repertoire, some of them being more active whereas others are less often used. the term dominant language constellation (dlc) was coined and discussed by various authors (aronin & singleton, 2012; lo bianco & aronin, 2020) to make reference to the particular languages which are sufficient to live in a multilingual environment during a particular period of time (aronin, 2022). although the linguistic repertoire of a multilingual speaker may include skills in many different languages, a dlc encompasses only those that are most active, which tend to be “typically three languages that together ensure the performance of the functions of human language. these would often be a local language, a country’s official language and an international language” (aronin 2022, p. 160). the dlc concept, therefore, nicely fits in with contexts such as spain in general, and the case of teachers and students at the university of the basque country upv/ehu in particular. the basque context in this part of the paper i will focus on the basque autonomous community (bac henceforth), because its situation clearly determines the reading for the basque speaking community as a whole. it has to be considered that, with the exception of a few courses at the université du pau et des pays de l’adour, basque is hardly present in french universities, and the spread of multilingualism in higher education and its repercussions for language for specific purposes ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 29 its presence in the two universities in navarre is much smaller than is the case in the universities located in the bac. the basque language has historically been characterised by its minority status, surrounded by the two powerful and international languages spanish and french. in the last 40 years the education system has played a paramount role in the process of making people basque-speaking, and basque universities have become key actors in the recovery of the minority language. although they are the source of the next generation of basque-speaking professionals, very little has been published in english about their linguistic situation, since most of the papers published in international journals and books zoom in on pre-university levels (cenoz, 2008). basque higher education institutions obviously have a role of paramount importance in the normalisation of the minority language, since they have to face the basquisation of their different degrees with a view to providing society with basque-speaking graduates ready and prepared to use the language in all social spheres. there are three universities in the bac, all of which are officially bilingual in basque and spanish, having in addition striven to foster emi programmes. the three universities are: the university of the basque country upv/ehu, deusto university, and mondragon university. the upv/ehu is the largest of the three and the main research institution in the bac, which is why special heed will be paid to this institution in order to analyse the links between lsp and multilingualism. a case study: the university of the basque country upv/ehu the upv/ehu is the only public university in the bac and currently has over 45,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and 5,600 lecturers and researchers, more than 60% of whom are qualified bilingual teachers in basque and spanish, while 1,330 are accredited to teach in a foreign language. the upv/ehu has played a paramount role in the standardisation of the basque language, a process that involved the unification of a small but dialectically very diverse language, resulting in a standard form that was rapidly embraced by basque society in a short period of time compared to many other standardisation processes (salaburu, 2015). as a result of this commitment to bolster basque language and culture, 98% david lasagabaster ibérica 45 (2023): 23-4630 of compulsory subjects at the ba level are offered in basque and, in 2020, 64 phd dissertations were written and defended in basque. lsp courses in basque are available in many degrees and teachers receive the support of the institute for the basque language (euskarako institutoa/instituto de euskara), which was founded in 1996. the institute’s main objectives include the development of lexicon and scientific terminology while helping to spread the use of basque in the professions, since future professionals should be able to carry out their jobs in the two official languages. among many other tasks, the institute is also responsible for the following open access resources: – the basque grammar online: an open access grammar that is continuously updated. – the corpus of contemporary basque: it contains more that 355 million words drawn from books and newspaper articles published in the 21st century. – the observatory of linguistic calques, which encompasses semantic, lexical-syntactic, morphological, morphosyntactic, discursive level, phraseological and other types of calques. – the comparative corpus: this is a corpus made up of texts translated into four languages: basque, spanish, english and french. it includes 171 books totalling more than 51 million words. – the “classic of thoughts” corpus: it consists of 130 books totalling 10.7 million words. – zio corpus: a collection of texts published by the upv/ehu that contains some of the most important scientific texts of the world translated into basque and aimed at standardizing scientific language in basque. this collection covers many fields of knowledge and the translations are meant to serve not only the academic community but also anyone interested in science. this application offers the public both the original language versions of these texts and their basque translation in order to enable any user to access scientific terms in their original contexts. – legal corpus: this is a specialised corpus based on legal and academic texts which contains 7.2 million words collected in 595 documents. it is updated every year. the spread of multilingualism in higher education and its repercussions for language for specific purposes ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 31 – patterns of frequency in the basque lexicon: this online application offers the public the opportunity to search for the frequency of structural patterns in the basque lexicon. – dictionaries: among others, this tool provides open access to dictionaries such as the dictionary of contemporary basque, a spanish-basque dictionary, a legal dictionary, and the dictionary of basque literature. – online teaching materials: through this tool, teaching materials in a wide variety of different degrees are available online and specialised terms can be found in their context of use. alongside the courses in basque and spanish, the upv/ehu launched its so-called multilingualism programme (mp) in 2005. the main objective of this programme is to enable students to take subjects in english (only a few courses are taught in french). among the goals of this programme, i would like to highlight the one that makes reference to the need to improve local students’ english proficiency while providing them with specialised language and access to research in the foreign language. it is also worth mentioning that emi teachers are required to hold a c1 level on the european framework of reference for languages. the implementation of this multilingual language policy results in some core subjects having three groups (one in each language) from which students can choose the language in which they wish to take a specific subject in. nowadays, more than 800 subjects are taught in english and 21 master’s programmes are entirely or partially delivered in english. some 340 courses (called english friendly courses) delivered in spanish also include their teaching guide and programme outline in english, and office hours and exams (among other activities) can also be completed in english. these courses are aimed at international students taking part in exchange programmes who have some command of spanish, but prefer to use english in some particular situations, such as an exam, because they do not feel proficient enough to carry it out successfully in spanish. the upv/ehu has also designed a plan to offer emi subjects in various degrees amounting to 30 credits so that students have the necessary number of courses to earn an emi mention in their specialisation. the upv/ehu currently offers 107 degrees in 20 faculties, the range of degrees being very varied and comprehensive. when it comes to lsp, the presence of basque for specific purposes (bsp) and esp/eap courses varies significantly depending on the degree under consideration. for david lasagabaster ibérica 45 (2023): 23-4632 example, there are several bsp courses in the journalism degree, three in the law degree, two in a few degrees (i.e. architecture, biology), one in quite a few degrees (e.g. psychology, geology, creation and design, in different degrees in the field of engineering, philosophy, business management, or nautical and maritime transport), and none in many others (such as dentistry, chemistry, medicine, pharmacy, sociology, physiotherapy, or food science and technology). although the majority of the bsp courses in journalism are compulsory, this is exceptional because in all the other degrees they are optional. the same variability can be observed with regards to esp/eap, albeit with a smaller presence in most faculties, as the degrees range from one course (e.g. architecture, history, and nautical or maritime transport) to none (e.g. biology, business administration, chemistry, geology, psychology, food science and technology, labour relations and social work, medicine, philosophy, or sociology). in the case of esp/eap, all the courses are optional except for the esp course in history. it is interesting to note that the degrees with the highest number of emi courses are the ones where there is a lower number of esp/eap courses, with the exception of the degrees in the field of engineering, where esp/eap courses are common (but just a single course). this lack of lsp is especially significant in the field of business and economics. last but not least, the only degree entirely taught in english (double bachelor’s degree in business and economics) offers neither bsp nor esp/eap courses. a second degree (biomedical engineering) entirely taught in english will be launched in the 2024/25 academic year, but nor does it contemplate offering any esp/eap course. the conclusion to be drawn is therefore that the spread of emi has pushed lsp out. lsp and the multilingual challenge one of the risks that the rapid spread of emi entails is that university authorities and those in charge of designing the different degrees believe that, by simply exposing students to emi courses, lsp will be learnt by osmosis. research has recurrently shown that emi lecturers focus their classroom discourse almost exclusively on content, while episodes on language are conspicuous by their absence (airey, 2020; arnó-maciá & mancho-barés, 2015; lasagabaster & doiz, 2022) and tend to be related to the spread of multilingualism in higher education and its repercussions for language for specific purposes ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 33 comprehension breakdowns (lasagabaster, 2022a). as a result of this widespread teaching practice, emi students receive little lsp support and are usually left to work out the rules of the subject discourse by themselves. nevertheless, emi stakeholders assume that through emi their english proficiency improves (especially subject-specific english) without having any significant detrimental effect on content learning, but this is just an impressionistic feeling (arnó-maciá & aguilar-pérez, 2021). this has even led institutions to doubt the necessity of esp professionals: emi programmes are seen as fierce competitors that challenge their function and relevance in this new context (bocanegra-valle & basturkmen, 2019; dafouz, 2021), in which exposure to english is augmented via content courses. the discussion about whether english should be taught by esp/eap specialists or by subject specialists has often been put on the table (basturkmen, 2019; belcher, 2009). interestingly, both emi lecturers and students tend to believe that language issues should not be dealt with in content classes (airey, 2020; doiz et al., 2018 and 2019), while emi teachers feel apologetic when tackling language issues (martinez et al., 2021). similarly, many researchers tend to “reject the notion that emi should be regarded as clil [content and language integrated learning], because most of the practitioners find this impossible to imagine” (breeze & sancho guinda, 2022, p. 189). since the belief that language teaching falls outside the remit of emi lecturers is deep-seated, lsp courses become fundamental to provide students with the linguistic support they need and demand. but in order to achieve these aims, collaboration should reach lsp professionals and content teachers of the different languages. it is a truism that all content teachers are language teachers, irrespective of whether they are teaching in their l1, l2, l3 or lx. however, although “the role of content lecturers is to create disciplinary literate graduates” (airey, 2020, p. 344), they reject viewing themselves as teachers of disciplinary discourse. it should be remembered that both emi and lsp “have their raison d’être in disciplinary content, inextricably linked with their associated discourses and genres (which are seldom taught by content teachers)” (sancho guinda, 2023, p. 149). this is the reason why the lsp teachers’ role becomes paramount, as they could support content lecturers when it comes to mobilising various linguistic and non-linguistic resources to make discipline-specific knowledge david lasagabaster ibérica 45 (2023): 23-4634 accessible. content teachers should rely on multilingual and semiotic resources and this requires collaboration and training. doiz, lasagabaster and pavón (2018) found that emi students would welcome assistance with technical vocabulary and demanded the support of language specialists not only with vocabulary but also with writing activities that they usually find challenging. in fact, they reported that when they had received such lsp support, the positive impact on their language output had been immediate. in particular, emi students requested lsp professionals to help them with academic language in their compositions, pronunciation and preparation of oral presentations. they also saw this collaboration between content and lsp specialists as a motivational boost. lsp is characterised by its focus on students’ needs (basturkmen, 2023; bocanegra-valle, 2016), to the extent that belcher (2009, p. 3) labels it as “a learner needs-based approach.” its objective should thus be to work on the tasks and activities that students will carry out in the language concerned and, particularly, on those that students find more complex and demanding in their study settings (flowerdew, 2019) and that will allow them to bridge the gap between current and target competencies. collaboration between lsp specialists in different languages language plays a key role in shaping discipline specific knowledge and identity (bond, 2020). the multilingual turn in education should also reach higher education and help to overcome the predominant parallel monolingualism that rules over language policies, norms and classroom practices, as in nordic university settings examined in kuteeva, kaufhold and hynninen (2020). on too many occasions the monolingual mindset permeates policies and documents, as can be seen in the document entitled competency framework for teachers of eap of the british association of lectures in english for academic purposes (baleap, 2008), which does not include a single reference to multilingualism or multilingual resources in its taxonomy of eap teacher competencies. this is just an example of the dire need to promote collaboration not only between lsp and content teachers, but also between lsp practitioners in different languages. in her call to challenge cross-disciplinary boundaries, dafouz (2021) stressed the need to build stronger bridges between emi and the spread of multilingualism in higher education and its repercussions for language for specific purposes ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 35 esp/eap, as i have just done in the previous section, but in this paper i would like to go a step beyond and underscore the benefits of cementing closer ties between lsp professionals of different languages if multilingualism is to be fostered. the affordances that such collaboration could bring to lsp professionals and learners should not be ruled out, because the learning of academic language and disciplinary literacies should include all the languages used in each context, that is, all the languages that are active in the dlc of a particular university setting. this holistic approach argues against only-one-language ideologies that research studies have unearthed in different university settings, be it in minority-language-medium instruction (serna-bermejo & lasagabaster, 2022) or emi (breeze & roothooft, 2021; kim & tatar, 2017; sahan & rose, 2021), while it calls for resistance against monolingual educational practices. as van der walt (2013) points out, it is the dominant paradigms of foreign language teaching that are to be held responsible for the tradition of keeping languages apart. this trend to stick to the language of instruction and maintain other languages outside the classroom is driven by the widespread belief that only immersive settings can help to fulfil language learning aims. the study by serna-bermejo and lasagabaster (2022) in the upv/ehu reveals that this monolingual mindset is found even in universities in which three languages are used as means of instruction, a context in which we might believe that multilingual teaching practices may be more likely to be accepted by stakeholders. however, research shows that not only are language policies based on a monoglossic lens unrealistic and potentially harmful, but they are also far from reflecting the realities of multilingual classes in the ever more internationalised university classrooms (see paulsrud et al., 2021). whereas the switch from one language to another is the natural behaviour in multilingual settings, it is frowned upon in formal contexts such as the university classroom, due to the top-down language policies that foster monolingual ideologies. in response to such linguistic constraints, translanguaging “proffers an ontological, epistemological and axiological shift in thinking about language use and bilingualism in the classroom” (sahan & rose, 2021, p. 3). in addition, this inter-language collaboration would help to make lsp teachers more aware of multilingual developments and more attuned to linguistic diversity and differences between languages. this brings us to the pluriliteracies teaching for deeper learning (ptdl) model proposed by coyle and meyer (2021). these authors state that, in order to achieve deeper learning across languages, there is a need to focus on the david lasagabaster ibérica 45 (2023): 23-4636 development of disciplinary specific literacies. in this model deeper learning is defined as the successful internalisation of conceptual content knowledge and the automatisation of subject specific strategies, procedures and skills, a process that rests on learner’s acquisition of disciplinary literacies. according to these authors, pluriliteracies (defined as the promotion of disciplinary or subject specific literacies in more than one language) help to foster the development of a deeper conceptual understanding through the specific contents of the subject matter. in ememus settings the successful implementation of such model demands the collaboration of the different language specialists, since learning cannot be separated from the different languages that make up students’ linguistic repertoires. in multilingual universities, students’ progression should be manifested via their ability not only to demonstrate understanding, but also to communicate knowledge in the university’s different working languages, that is to say, their ability to tackle the dlc needed to succeed in their academic multilingual environment by promoting subject literacy development. as a matter of fact, although there is a lack of research in multilingual university contexts (mazak & carroll, 2017), studies seem to indicate that the adoption of plurilingual pedagogies brings esp gains (e.g., llanes & cots, 2022). lsp professionals thus need to adapt their teaching and materials to capture the particularities of each discipline in each language (doiz & lasagabaster, 2022; kuteeva & airey, 2014; mu et al., 2015), despite their lack of training in materials development (bocanegra-valle & basturkmen, 2019). this demands a turn toward multilingual and multiliteracy language tutoring (gustaffson & ganobcsik-williams, 2016) which will help teaching staff and students to “value diverse language resources and academic experiences and thus echo discourses of democratisation and diversification” (kaufhold & yencken, 2021, p. 8). unfortunately lsp teachers “may not be able to depend on the existing course designs and ready-made instructional materials in the same way that their colleagues” teaching the general language concerned may be able to do (basturkmen, 2023, p. 3). more often than not, lsp teachers have to adapt materials or develop their own materials because they may find the available materials of little relevance to their students. whereas there are many high quality available materials for esp, teachers often have to supplement or adapt these materials due to the specialized nature of courses (charles & pecorari, 2015) and to increase authenticity and specificity (belcher, 2009), a situation that is aggravated in the case of minority languages. multilingual materials development becomes thus an the spread of multilingualism in higher education and its repercussions for language for specific purposes ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 37 impending need. this is a complex task, as lsp professionals have to negotiate between students and subject specialists in different languages. that is why, ideally, lsp professionals should be competent in the different languages used as means of instruction in their institution and multilingual competence should be regarded as a merit when recruiting teaching staff. teacher collaboration could in any case help to overcome the multilingual hurdles stemming from the coexistence of different languages. however, bocanegra-valle and basturkmen (2019) found that spanish esp teachers usually work on their own, they are frequently the only teacher for a particular subject (this is the case in the upv/ehu, where there is only one esp teacher in each faculty) and they miss the opportunity to talk to colleagues and share experiences, beliefs, drawbacks, achievements and challenges with them. in the upv/ehu, if language barriers were eliminated, there is no reason why the esp/eap teacher could not engage in exchanges with the bsp teacher (who is usually also on their own in each faculty), as they will have many issues in common, while such collaboration would also help them to overcome feelings of isolation. from an international perspective, esp/eap teachers could collaborate with lsp colleagues in other languages within their own institution, which would allow them to place greater emphasis on the use of multilingual teaching practices as a pedagogical resource. this inter-language collaboration could take the form of discussion sessions between lsp teachers in different languages in which they could reflect on ways of collaboration and make suggestions for joint work and how multilingual teaching practices could be modelled and implemented. it is worth noting that, as breeze and sancho guinda (2022) point out, the fact of not belonging to the same department may even become an advantage rather than a hurdle: “if those people are not from their immediate department/area, this is sometimes better, because the deep rivalries that sometimes exist between close colleagues can hinder productive professional exchange” (p. 193). in the case of students, they could easily become aware of the benefits of such multilingual teaching practices by making them reflect on the habitual multilingual demands in many (if not all) professions. in this vein, duarte (2022) observed at a dutch university that students’ attitudes towards using plurilingual approaches were positive, while the participants also believed that the affordances of plurilingual teaching practices outweighed the david lasagabaster ibérica 45 (2023): 23-4638 constraints. we should not forget that an increasing number of students themselves come from multilingual contexts, that is, contexts in which more than two languages are spoken. this multilingual approach should be complemented by multimodal practices, as “everyday workplace literacies are complexly and jointly mediated by a complex array of languages, genres, actors, tropes, objects, media, and modes” (fraiberg, 2018, p. 66). another possible course of action to bolster inter-language collaboration could be to rely on corpus research experts, who could work on different languages and try to provide support to lsp teachers. therefore, research projects should encompass not only the ubiquitous english, but also other languages such as minority languages, which would enormously benefit from such collaboration. multilingual glossaries would be the first need to spring to mind. the dictionaries available at the upv/ehu and mentioned above only involve two languages and they are either basque-spanish or englishspanish dictionaries, but none of them includes the three working languages at the institution. although the current basque-spanish version must have been most welcome, there is no doubt that law students at the upv/ehu would find it very useful to have the three languages in the legal dictionary at their disposal on the university’s website (alberdi et al., 2022), since emi courses are also part of their degree. multilingual universities should thus decide on what type of research is needed to develop the necessary multilingual materials for their students. at initial stages this ideal will obviously only be realised in small experiences, but with clear-cut mid-term and long-term objectives that should progressively move towards an increasing number of disciplines and materials. these small steps would undoubtedly help in the quest for linguistic democratisation, the institutional support for language ecologies and language diversity, and the achievement of language policies that would approach international and national languages (including the minoritised ones) on an equal basis. conclusions in this article i have tried to take lsp outside its anglo-centric comfort zone, as multilingualism is becoming an ever more inherent feature of universities worldwide (kuteeva et al., 2020). nowadays one of the biggest challenges of higher education institutions is to tackle the coexistence of different languages and the place of all these languages in their linguistic ecosystem. but the spread of multilingualism in higher education and its repercussions for language for specific purposes ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 39 multilingualism is not only about how to achieve a smooth coexistence of languages: it should also be about how to boost multilingual teaching practices. and lsp practitioners have a vital role to play in this respect. although there is scarce research focusing on the extent to which students’ understanding of disciplinary concepts is influenced by minority-languagemedium instruction and emi, research does clearly indicate that language matters are not paid the attention they deserve (airey, 2020: lasagabaster, 2022a). this leads us to conclude that lsp courses, far from being redundant, are of the utmost importance, since the lack of training in the necessary specialist discourse can negatively affect students’ learning of content matter. although the lsp field of research has traditionally been too often constrained to english or esp/eap, multilingualism represents nowadays not only a robust area of investigation but also an objective aimed at by both european institutions and universities. however, it is evident that there is the risk that the hegemonic position of english be camouflaged “behind a call for multilingualism” (dafouz & smit, 2020, p. 54). if our current undergraduates are to function effectively in academic and professional contexts, they must be enabled to carry out diverse tasks in the different languages required by their context. at university level, teaching staff usually work on their own and collaboration (whenever it exists) tends to be limited to the same language (lasagabaster, 2018), but it is high time to take action. the multilingual turn demands collaboration from lsp professionals working in different languages, while lsp materials should also reflect the multilingual world we live and work in, rather than provide a monolingual approach to languages in which they seem to develop in watertight compartments. at a time when universities are becoming increasingly multilingual, attempts to impose monolingual practices “can only be seen as relics of a bygone era” (hibbert & van der walt, 2014, p. 4). the big challenge ahead is therefore to cater for lsp in the national language, the minority language, english as the global lingua franca, and (if viable) in an additional foreign language. although the languages to be included in dominant language constellations (dlcs) (aronin & singleton, 2012; lo bianco & aronin, 2020) will spark debates in many contexts, it seems beyond doubt that this is an issue that needs to be tackled by higher education institutions. since english enjoys a higher status than the local languages in many fields, heated debates can be expected, as stakeholders david lasagabaster ibérica 45 (2023): 23-4640 may feel that universities’ language ecology is being jeopardized. in some contexts, as highlighted by r’boul (2022, p. 3), emi is seen as a threat to the current “efforts for the decolonisation of the university in postcolonial contexts in the global south”, and this may also be the case in other contexts with minority languages in the global north. a multilingual approach and the implementation of models such as the pluriliteracies teaching for deeper learning (ptdl) (coyle & meyer, 2021) can help to smooth and defuse linguistic tensions, while societal and individual multilingualism is not ignored anymore. this balance between the local and the global poses one the major challenges for universities, as multilingual students are still “seen mostly in deficit terms” (van der walt, 2013, p. 130) in many universities around the globe. the upv/ehu has made a huge investment in developing basque for specific purposes (bsp) and has enormously contributed to overcoming the perception that minority languages are not suitable for academic purposes, but the next step to be taken should consist in underpinning lsp from a multilingual approach. this is a task that all multilingual universities should embark on, as future graduate students will inextricably need such multilingual training. multilingualism is here to stay and, at the micro-level, lsp professionals should start to take the multilingual bull by the horns and demand support from their institutions. at the macro-level, universities should produce multilingual speakers and writers who are able to rely on their multilingual resources in their future academic and professional endeavours. but this requires both pre-service and in-service professional development courses that boost the development of flexible multilingual pedagogies; however, most universities provide few or no teaching training courses whatsoever (lasagabaster, 2022b). in fact, surveys reveal that lsp teacher training provision is very limited irrespective of the language concerned, whether it be the l1, l2 or l3 (basturkmen, 2019; ding & campion, 2016), but if higher education institutions really aim at multilingual development, they could start by reversing this situation. acknowledgements this work was supported by the spanish ministry of science and innovation [grant number pid2020-117882gb-i00] and the basque government [grant number it1426-22]. the spread of multilingualism in higher education and its repercussions for language for specific purposes ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 41 article history: received 3 april 2023 received in revised form 5 may 2023 accepted 11 may 2023 references david lasagabaster ibérica 45 (2023): 23-4642 airey, j. 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(2023). multilingual development: david lasagabaster is professor of applied linguistics at the university of the basque country upv/ehu, spain. his research revolves around emi (english-medium instruction), clil (content and language integrated learning), attitudes and motivation, and multilingualism. he has published widely in international journals (applied linguistics, english for specific purposes, language teaching, ibérica, international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, journal of multilingual and multicultural development, the modern language journal, studies in higher education, language teaching research, language and education, system, tesol quarterly, etc.), books and edited books. among others, he has co-edited english-medium instruction at universities: global challenges (multilingual matters, 2013), motivation and foreign language learning: from theory to practice (john benjamins, 2014), and language use in english-medium instruction at university: international perspectives in teacher practice (routledge, 2021). he is the author of english-medium instruction in higher education (cambridge university press, 2022). the spread of multilingualism in higher education and its repercussions for language for specific purposes ibérica 45 (2023): 23-46 45 english in a global context. cambridge university press. tai, k. w. h. (2022). translanguaging as inclusive pedagogical practices in english-medium instruction science and mathematics classrooms for linguistically and culturally diverse students. research in science education, 52, 975-1012. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-021-10018-6 van der walt, c. (2013). multilingual higher education: beyond english medium orientations. multilingual matters. iberica 13 ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract emotion is part and parcel of all kinds of human experience and as such plays an important role in all discourse types, including professional discourse. in the 21st century more than ever, the proper channeling and expression of our emotions at the workplace has come to be considered a sign of emotional intelligence, powerful leadership, and (harmless) persuasion skills. however, persuasion can also be used as a weapon to lie and manipulate people’s emotions. meibauer (2018) notes that lying and deception play an important role in business and trade, and this is obviously the case in the business of fake news. in this article we analyze the genre of fake news within professional journalistic discourse. we carry out a qualitative sociopragmatic analysis of samples of political and scientific fake news in english, and show how this kind of journalism aims at manipulating readers’ emotions not only through the use of prototypical lies (i.e. assertions whose content the speaker believes to be false, uttered with the intention of deceiving the hearer), but mainly by means of complex discourse-pragmatic strategies such as the skillful manipulation of the three chief evaluative subsystems, attitude, engagement and graduation (martin & white, 2005), the triggering of false inferences and the display of misleading images, thus playing with the scalarity of lying. this in turn leads us to some important conclusions showing that the fact that the linguistic expression of falsity can be scalar is intimately connected with the concepts of “bullshit” (frankfurt, 2005) and “post-truth” (keyes, 2004): a good story that somehow touches readers’ emotions, even if it is deceiving, prevails over a true story, because the readers choose to accept as true what makes them “feel good”. keywords: emotion, persuasion, manipulation, fake news, post-truth, bullshit, scalarity of lying. emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse: the case of fake news laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie uned (spain), vu amsterdam (netherlands) lalba@flog.uned.es, lachlan_mackenzie@hotmail.com 17 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 17 ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie resumen e m oc i ón , me n ti ra s y “ b ul l s h i t” e n e l d is c urs o p e ri od ís t ic o : e l c as o d e l a s n ot ic i as f a l s as / f al s e a d as o “ f a k e n e ws ” la emoción forma parte de todas las formas de la experiencia humana, y, como tal, juega un papel importante en todos los tipos de discurso, incluyendo el discurso profesional. en el siglo xxi más que en ninguna otra época, la canalización y expresión apropiadas de las emociones en entornos laborales se ha convertido en un signo de inteligencia emocional, gran liderazgo e (inocuas) habilidades de persuasión. a pesar de ello, la persuasión se puede usar también para manipular las emociones de las personas. meibauer (2018) explica que la mentira y el engaño juegan un papel importante en los negocios y el comercio, lo cual es obviamente el caso del negocio de las noticias falsas (o mejor dicho, falseadas) o “fake news”. en este artículo investigamos el género de las noticias falseadas a través del análisis cualitativo sociopragmático de ejemplos de este tipo de noticias en inglés, y mostramos cómo esta forma de periodismo apunta a la manipulación de las emociones de los lectores, no solamente mediante mentiras prototípicas (es decir, aseveraciones cuyo contenido el hablante cree falso, pero que son producidas con la intención de engañar al oyente), sino también y principalmente con estrategias pragmático-discursivas complejas, tales como la manipulación hábil de los tres subsistemas evaluativos principales, actitud, compromiso y graduación (martin y white, 2005), la activación de inferencias falaces o el uso de imágenes engañosas, jugando así con la escalaridad de la mentira. esto, a su vez, nos lleva a sacar conclusiones importantes que muestran que el hecho de que la expresión de lo falseado puede ser escalar tiene una conexión estrecha con los conceptos de “bullshit” (frankfurt, 2005) y “posverdad” (keyes, 2004): una buena historia que de alguna manera toque las emociones de los lectores, aun si es engañosa, prevalece sobre la historia verdadera porque los lectores eligen aceptar como verdadero aquello que apela a sus pasiones y, por tanto, los hace “sentir bien”. palabras clave: emoción, persuasión, manipulación, noticias falsas/falseadas, posverdad, bullshit, escalaridad de la mentira. “the decision to tell the truth or to lie is a pragmatic decision.” jörg meibauer (2018: 370) 1. introduction it has now been established (see mackenzie & alba-juez, 2019, for examples of recent work) that emotion permeates all discourse genres, from everyday 18 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 18 conversation to journalistic discourse (cf. alonso belmonte, 2019) or even scientific discourse (cf. sancho-guinda, 2019). emotion is inextricably linked to persuasion, as can be clearly perceived in journalistic discourse, where persuasion can be used to heighten readers’ sensitivity to a given issue, or on the contrary, to manipulate their emotions, stances and beliefs. the first kind of persuasion works with what cockcroft et al. (2014: 85) refer to as the “emotion which deepens and illuminates our understanding”, and the latter with “the emotion that clouds an issue”, what cicero referred to as perturbatio. journalists who are good persuaders are also skillful instigators of emotion because they know that the way we feel about something influences our rational judgement (alba-juez, forthcoming). the relation between persuasion and emotion is double-edged, however: on the one hand, we cannot think properly unless we also feel as a prior condition (damasio, 1999), but on the other, as cockcroft et al. (2014: 85) have pointed out, “there is also the contradictory assumption that emotion tends to distort the truth of our perceptions”. this emotionally driven distortion of truth is precisely what seems to be happening when certain journalists produce what has been called “fake news”. in this study we will examine fake news on the web as a discourse genre1 which has its own distinctive linguistic and sociopragmatic features, given not only by the genre itself but also by the medium through which it is spread (in this case, the internet). as we will show, a key identifying feature of fake news is its lack of concern with the truth, so what makes this genre distinctive has much less to do with the literal meaning of the language used than with the discursive-pragmatic strategies deployed in order to cheat or mislead the reader, such as the manipulation of the different sub-systems of appraisal (martin & white, 2005) or the triggering of deceptive inferences by means of fallacies and the like. a distinction needs to be drawn between fake news that (like a counterfeit banknote) appears to be genuine and what is nowadays called infotainment, which blatantly makes no effort to tell the truth or give objective information, but which aims above all to entertain the audience, irrespective of ethics or reliability. however, with the rise of social media as the principal source of both information and amusement, for many members of the public the distinction between malicious and merely entertaining communication has become blurred. the most salient feature of the texts emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 19 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 19 that result from this blend of apparent seriousness and unabashed flippancy is that their creators are playing with shared cultural knowledge, the information and emotions conveyed in the text, the emotions triggered in the audience, and the consequent emotional implicatures (e-implicatures, schwarz-friesel, 2010, 2015) that are sparked off. regarding the latter, it appears to be the case that infotainment-style fake news triggers eimplicatures of the “you’ll like this news and feel good about it” kind, in certain cases appealing to some of human beings’ basest instincts, such as feeling good when somebody else fails or suffers (in german, schadenfreude),2 or feeling good because one is different from someone who is supposedly corrupt or evil. readers’ emotional response to this kind of text may render them susceptible to the confirmation bias fallacy3 (barclay, 2018), which leads them to accept some information as good and true simply because it aligns with their own thoughts and beliefs, without first considering whether it may be false or fake. this kind of manipulation of the truth is very much connected to such concepts as bullshit (frankfurt, 2005) or post-truth (keyes, 2004; harari, 2018: 231-244). the manipulators, in producing their deceptive discourse, are playing, as we shall see, with the scalarity and imprecision of lying (meibauer, 2018). the corpus used for our analysis consists of samples of fake news, both in english and in spanish, from different online newspapers, magazines and social networks. in our analysis of emotion in this news, we have looked into its linguistic manifestations, paying special attention to the discourse and sociopragmatic aspects because both the expression of emotion and the decision to tell the truth, lie or deceive are intersubjective in nature and therefore constitute pragmatic phenomena. we have taken our own definition of “emotion in discourse” as our point of departure: […] we view emotion as a (dynamical) system of language which interacts with the system of evaluation but whose main function is the expression of the speaker’s feelings, mood or affective experience. it is a multimodal discourse process, which permeates all linguistic levels but also manifests itself in non-verbal ways, presenting different stages and forms (influenced by variables such as pragmatic expectations or common-ground knowledge) according as the discursive situation and interaction changes and evolves. (alba-juez & mackenzie, 2019: 18). thus, in our corpus we have examined not only the literal meaning of the texts but also the different kinds of inferential meaning triggered by the words used, laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5020 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 20 as well as the macrostructure of the text, the pictures included, and any other accompanying semiotic variables, all of which contribute to the fulfilment of the writers’ intentions to manipulate the readers’ emotions and stance for their own (political, financial, etc.) benefit. this eventually has led us to reflect upon and then taxonomize the different kinds of manipulation deployed in the genre of fake news, as will be shown in section 5. in the remainder of this article we shall first present some theoretical considerations about the genre of fake news (section 2) and the deployment of emotion, persuasion and manipulation in journalistic discourse (section 3), to be followed by an account of the methodology adopted (section 4), the analysis of two samples of fake news in english (section 5) and finally, our conclusions. 2. journalistic discourse, fake news, lies, bullshit and post-truth 2.1. journalistic discourse at the end of the 20th century, norman fairclough (1995) was already warning his readers about the great power of the mass media to influence knowledge, beliefs, values, social relations and social identities, and because of this conviction he advocated for the recognition of the analysis of media discourse as an important element within contemporary research. fairclough also called our attention to the fact that reporter/audience identities and relations are more complex than might seem at first sight for, among other things, “in addition to the knowledgeable reporter informing the interested citizen, there is an element […] of the media artist entertaining the viewer as consumer” (1995: 4). this element has brought about a tension between information and entertainment, which is indicative of the tendency for the media to become increasingly conversationalized4 and “marketized” (1995: 10), a phenomenon that nowadays is associated with the above-mentioned notion of “infotainment”. for these reasons, fairclough argues in favor of the idea that the analysis of texts cannot be treated in isolation from the analysis of discursive and sociocultural practices, an idea to which we adhere in the research presented here. indeed, we see the discourse genre of fake news as a sociocultural practice which in the 21st century presents specific features that are affected and influenced by the explosion of social media emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 21 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 21 and internet communication in general. ethical norms of objectivity and impartiality are paramount in good journalism, but the explosion of the internet has paved the way for a kind of journalism that is prone and sometimes even compelled to deviate from these norms, and which therefore has developed its own distinctive features. in consonance with genre theory, then, we understand that “texts which are doing different jobs in the culture will unfold in different ways, working through different stages or steps” (eggins & martin, 1997: 236). our aim in this work is to unravel those different “jobs and ways” in the genre of fake news. 2.2. but… what is fake news? is fake news just news which is false? the answer is not simple: fabricators of fake news play with variables such as human emotions, the shared knowledge between journalists and audiences, and the different dimensions of language and discourse. in most cases, fake news is not totally false, but rather a distorted version of something that really happened or a manipulated account of true facts. in his study of the role of lying in the evolution of language, dor (2017: 46) distinguishes between what we could call “bad lying” (i.e. lying with the exploitative intention of making a profit at the expense of other individuals) and “good lying” (i.e. lying with non-exploitative, pro-social intentions, normally connected with politeness). even though, as we shall see, fake news does not always involve a complete lie, it can be said to belong to the former kind of linguistic interaction, and it is therefore a subgenre characterized by deceitful communication. dor does not write about fake news, but his reflections on lying and human language are largely applicable to the role that lying and cheating play in fake news. interestingly, he argues (2017: 44) that “every system of honest communication also allows for cheating, which from the point of view of natural selection seems to be a more advantageous strategy than honest communication”. there must exist, indeed, certain payoffs to the production of fake news at both ends of the communication process. dor explains that “language is deceivers’ heaven” (2017: 50), and when the participants’ interests converge, there is normally no need for honest signaling, and therefore they will work together, disregarding the possibility that their coordinated action may involve partial or even rampant lying. again, this is what seems to happen in the fake news situation: the reader may or may not know or suspect that the news is fake, but if it aligns with her political/philosophical/personal views and makes her “feel good”, laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5022 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 22 she will accept it and tune into it: “what is required is a good story: an object for imagination” (dor, 2017: 50), regardless of its veracity. as asr and taboada (2019a) point out, one of the most recent incarnations of fake news was is to be found in the articles that favored or attacked either hillary clinton or donald trump during the 2016 us presidential election, but in fact present-day fake news is not only about politics, but also about health (notably the supposed dangers of vaccination), celebrities or practically anything else that could interest the public at large. lazer et al. (2017: 1094) accordingly define 21st-century fake news broadly as “fabricated information that mimics news media content in form but not in organizational process or intent”. fake news comes in different forms, but there is no universal agreement as to which these forms are. barclay (2018) divides fake news into three broad categories, namely: 1) mercenary fake news: this has no political agenda and is created for the purpose of making money (in the digital market owners of websites that include paid ads receive a certain amount of money each time someone clicks on one of their pages). clickbait articles with sensationalistic headlines which have a flimsy connection with the actual content of the article also belong to this category. 2) fake news with an agenda: this category includes propagandistic fake news which has been intentionally created to promote a specific agenda (political, social, etc.). conspiracy theories are found within this type of fake news. 3) satirical fake news: this is an entirely different subgenre of fake news, which consists of satirical, humorous stories, in many cases including a political or social commentary. among several current websites, the onion (www.theonion.com) in the us and el mundo today (www.elmundotoday.com) in spain are leading sites of satirical fake news. the danger of this kind of news is that despite being satirical, it can be misunderstood as “serious” by certain readers.5 this third category will not be discussed in this work, because in line with dance (2019), we believe it cannot be considered as “authentic” fake news. dance defines fake news as “intentionally factually incorrect news that is published to deceive and misinform its reader”, and he points out that a) it emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 23 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 23 is the component of intentionality that separates fake news from misreported news, which is a normal phenomenon in journalism and is corrected once the error is detected; b) the “factually incorrect” component of the definition is the essence of fake news, and c) the third component, “deceive and misinform”, is what separates fake news from parody and satire, as neither of these intends to deceive their reader nor do they intend to be treated as fact. as for the themes of fake news, golbeck et al. (2018) identify the following: 1) hyperbolic position against one person or group (e.g. trump, clinton, obama, islam, refugees). 2) hyperbolic position in favor of one person or group (e.g. trump, clinton, obama, islam, refugees). 3) discrediting a normally credible source. 4) racist messaging. 5) paranormal theories. 6) conspiracy theories. golbeck et al.’s (2018) list of themes, however, is not exhaustive. in our own investigation we have found that nowadays any topic can be subject to distortion in a piece of fake news. the practice of fabricating information, however, is nothing new from the historical point of view. people have been inventing stories ever since human beings appeared on planet earth, but what makes the problem most serious nowadays is the great speed with which fake news spreads through the internet and the social media, as shown by recent research such as that of vosoughi et al. (2018), who in their study of the spread of stories through twitter found that fake news diffuses and goes viral significantly faster and with a wider reach than true stories. their results show that a false story was 70% more likely to be retweeted than a true one. one possible explanation for this is that fake news tends to be more striking or shocking and therefore appeals to the human tendency to pay more attention to sensational negative events (cf. sachsman, 2017). also, as harari (2018b) wittily states, the truth is, truth has never been high on the agenda of homo sapiens. if you stick to unalloyed reality, few people will follow you. false stories laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5024 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 24 have an intrinsic advantage over the truth when it comes to uniting people. 2.3. bullshit all of the above considerations have led us to believe that the practice of fabricating news has indisputable connections with the practice of bullshitting (frankfurt, 2005). in some significant way, fabricators of fake news are trying to bullshit their audiences. in his philosophical approach to the theoretical study of bullshit, frankfurt bases his definition of the term on black’s (1982) definition of humbug, which he considers to be a politer synonym of bullshit. black (1982: 23) defines humbug as “deceptive misrepresentation, short of lying, especially by pretentious word or deed, of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings or attitudes”. and frankfurt (2005) adds that apart from sharing all these characteristics with humbug, the concept of bullshit involves the following additional features: bullshitters have a lack of concern with truth: it is not that they fail to get things right, they in fact do not even care about getting them right. bullshitting involves a kind of bluff.6 the essence of bullshit is not that it is false, but that it is fake and phony. people tend to be more tolerant with bullshit than with lies: the bullshitter may not deceive us about the facts, but what s/he necessarily attempts to deceive us about is his/her enterprise, what s/he is up to. in the work of the bullshitter there is a kind of laxity which resists or eludes discipline and rigor. frankfurt (2005: 6) observes that “the realms of advertising and of public relations, and the nowadays closely related realm of politics, are replete with instances of bullshit so unmitigated that they can serve among the most indisputable and classic paradigms of the concept”. and we would like to add that the realm of fake news, too, can be considered a paradigmatic case of bullshit, for it is clear that it meets all the above requirements: it shows a lack of concern with the truth, it involves some kind of bluff, its essence lies in the fact that it is fake (not necessarily false) and therefore lacks rigor, and it allows the bullshitters to hide their real intentions, given the fact that emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 25 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 25 people are more tolerant of bullshit than of plain lies. as frankfurt points out, the words of one of the characters (mr. simpson) in eric ambler’s dirty story (ambler, 1967) illustrate this point: although i was only seven when my father was killed, i still remember him very well and some of the things he used to say.... one of the first things he taught me was, “never tell a lie when you can bullshit your way through.” the very essence of bullshit lies in the lack of a commitment to being truthful, in an indifference to how things really are (frankfurt, 2005: 8-9), both of which are distinctive features of fake news. rather than having an interest in deliberate lying (which would involve an intentional violation of truth), manufacturers of fake news feel themselves to be exempt from the constraints of the truths surrounding the point in question, and therefore are prepared to fake the context and whatever else in order to deceive their audiences, which, according to frankfurt, “is less a matter of craft than of art. hence the familiar notion of the ‘bullshit artist’” (2005: 13). for all of the above reasons, bullshit can be a greater enemy of the truth than lies. frankfurt warns his readers about the implications of the contemporary proliferation of bullshit, reflected in various forms of postmodernist skepticism which deny that we can have any reliable access to an objective reality. and here is where the concept of post-truth, which has widely been associated with fake news, comes to the fore. 2.4. post-truth harsin (2018: 1) points out that post-truth “is sometimes posited as a social and political condition whereby citizens or audiences and politicians no longer respect truth (e.g. climate science deniers or birthers)7 but simply accept as true what they believe or feel”. although this condition has been identified by ethicists for millennia, the specific contours of post-truth are a 21st-century phenomenon whose recent origins can be found in “the anxious elite negotiation of mass representative liberal democracy with proposals for organizing and deploying mass communication technologies” (harsin, 2018: 1). like many other concepts, post-truth presents definitional problems: it is paradoxically not interpreted as a kind of truth, but rather as something that is beyond truth; truth is left behind as a phenomenon of the past. experts and, in particular, scientists who are committed to rational argumentation, are dismissed as irrelevant and possibly obstructive. laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5026 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 26 post-truth communication is usually divided into two types: disinformation and misinformation (stahl, 2010). misinformation refers to the spreading of inaccurate or false information while one mistakenly thinks one is sharing accurate information, while disinformation involves the deliberate spreading of false or inaccurate information. however, both concepts are closely linked, for “disinformers may produce misinformers” (harsin, 2018: 7). fake news is a subcategory of disinformation which in many cases differs from false information or lies in the sense that its core propositions may be contextualized by real facts. harsin explains that promotional culture is another factor in the post-truth cultural ambience, arguing that culture and social relations have been powerfully transformed by the role of communication in new forms of consumer capitalism – the latter’s hyperpromotional stage, with no small effects on perceptions of honesty, truth claims and trust-granting (harsin, 2018: 12). he, too, associates post-truth with frankfurt’s (2005) notion of bullshit, given the observation that bullshit-friendly communication has become accepted in a broad array of human practices. harsin also points out that the synergistic agencies of post-truth favor highly emotional communication, in that the participants in the post-truth culture put their trust (i.e. an emotional commitment) in what is being communicated. the promotional industries, politics and now even some forms of journalism (by means of fake news) are taking advantage of this trust/truth identification to target their audiences emotionally and thereby to attain their political or financial aims. müller-thyssen (2018) pertinently extends the definition of post-truth to put the focus on its recipients. he argues that all definitions of post-truth leave aside the fundamental aspect of the openness of consumers of news to being influenced (= bullshitted) even when they know consciously that reality is being faked. “in this crazy world”, müller-thyssen points out, posttruth manufacturers appeal directly to the philias and phobias of their audiences, who are bored and confused by data and statistics, and who are even thankful for a good story that transforms the truth of the facts into a manipulated truth of the passions [our translation] (müller-thyssen, 2018: 65). emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 27 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 27 in the light of the connections between fake news, bullshit, post-truth, emotion and persuasion, let us in the next section turn more specifically to the implications for journalistic discourse. 3. emotion, persuasion and manipulation in journalistic discourse sancho-guinda (2019) notices that although emotion has traditionally been associated with the arts, it is nowadays linked to other fields such as architecture, politics, science and journalism, a phenomenon which can be characterized as a change of paradigm: there has been an emotional turn in the professions. within the journalistic profession, the use of persuasion and the appeal to readers’ emotions are not limited to fake news but are acknowledged characteristics of journalistic discourse in general. newsworthiness has many aspects, eight of which have been recognized by bednarek (2019): eliteness, personalization, impact, recency, consonance, positivity, negativity, and proximity, but one of the most important is the extent to which the news can impress, surprise or shock readers. good persuaders are normally skillful instigators of emotions: they know that the way their audiences feel about something will influence their rational judgements and even the decisions they make. but how does the persuasion used in “true” and serious journalism differ from that used by fake news manufacturers? cockcroft et al.’s (2014: 85) account of the distinction, mentioned in section 1, between the “emotion that tends to distort the truth of our perceptions” and that “which illuminates and deepens our understanding of it” seems to be key to answering this question. alongside the positive kind of persuasion which tries to build credibility by using logical arguments and appealing to emotions that will clarify an issue rather than cloud it, there is also persuasion that depends on emotions that undermine reliable understanding. the negative character of the latter’s appeal to emotions puts it on a par with the practice of manipulation, a discourse/rhetorical strategy that we view as an essential component of the characterization of fake news as a genre. from a discourse-analytical sociopragmatic perspective, in order for a discourse to be considered “manipulative”, it is of the utmost importance to examine the different types of context surrounding the communicative event in question, including the broad cultural, personal, cognitive, social, laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5028 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 28 and emotive contexts. it is therefore crucial to contemplate, among other things, the socio-emotional relationship between speaker and audience, the different footings or roles taken by each of them at different moments, the purpose of the event, the shared knowledge of the participants, and the cognitive frames within which their interaction is being carried out. from a cognitive (relevance-theoretical) perspective, maillat and oswald (2011: 7-8) view manipulation as “an attempt at controlling the context selection process of an utterance u by making a set of assumptions c so salient as to make them inescapable from a cognitive point of view”. the so-called “flashbulb contexts” (brown & kulik, 1977) are very pertinent here: these refer to highly salient memories which are extremely emotional and subjectively permanent in nature (e.g. the 9/11 attacks on the usa in 2001) and which are used by skillful manipulators in the knowledge that they are overwhelming and thus inescapable. in her lesson about the elements of persuasion, díezprados (2019, module 9) warns us about this when she points out: “make sure that emotion is used ethically”, and “beware that a speaker may use your emotions for his/her own profit, not yours”. maillat and oswald (2011) present two main kinds of fallacies or rhetorical devices used for manipulative purposes: 1) the ad verecundiam fallacy and 2) the ad populum fallacy. the former consists in resorting to the voice of an individual deceptively introduced as an “expert” to present an argument as indisputable, and the latter in presenting an argument as strong just because “everybody says so”. manufacturers of fake news have recourse to both these fallacies, as we will show in our analysis when, for instance, a piece of fake news about climate change hinges on the testimony of supposed experts to rebut and discredit serious scientific articles on the matter, or when a piece of fake news is repeated, republished or retweeted numerous times (e.g. the news that associated hillary clinton with the murder-suicide of an fbi agent in 2016) on the assumption that if “everybody says so”, it must inevitably be valid. barclay (2018: 92) includes several other kinds of fallacies present in the discourse of fake news, such as the ad hominem fallacy (which focuses on some flaw in a person rather than on his/her opinion or arguments), confirmation bias (i.e. the above-mentioned tendency to focus only on information that supports what you already believe) or the divine fallacy (which involves attributing anything that cannot be readily explained to some supernatural power). there are cognitive explanations for people’s susceptibility to being deceived by these fallacies. in researching the phenomenon of misinformation, schwarz emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 29 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 29 (2004) and ecker et al. (2014) have observed that metacognitive attributes such as “ease of retrieval” or “familiarity of information” are used by individuals as heuristics to assess likelihood. this implies that, for instance, when some news is tightly integrated into the network of a reader’s beliefs, it is likely to be easily accessible and have greater subjective plausibility. in the same light, wolfe and griffin (2018: 297) show the importance of understanding “belief influences”, because “they introduce a number of potential factors that can influence processing and mental representation of information” (2018: 298), and they suggest that beliefs and the knowledge, emotions and goals they trigger could have their greatest impact in situations where readers choose which texts to read and when to read them, as well as how they will elaborate on and think about those texts, as is the case with fictional narratives or – we deem it appropriate to add – (fake) news. 4. methodology the study presented here is qualitative in nature, attempting to examine the social practice of fake news and to elucidate the discourse-pragmatic features that characterize it as a journalistic subgenre within the broad context of 21stcentury mass and social media digital communication. as such, our approach is complementary to other methodologies in the area of fake news, such as computational detection (e.g. shu, sliva, wang, tang & liu, 2018), datamining (e.g. asr & taboada, 2019a) or initiatives like the training of journalists and other stakeholders to combat fake news (e.g. rehm, 2018; peters, rider, hyvönen & besley, 2018). 4.1. research questions and main hypothesis this article should be seen as our first attempt to find answers to the following research questions: 1) what are the discourse-pragmatic strategies used by the writers of fake news and the contextual elements that characterize it as a genre? 2) how is emotion expressed, handled and manipulated in the discourse of fake news? 3) how are the different subsystems of appraisal (martin & white, 2005) used and combined in fake news? laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5030 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 30 4) what is the relationship between truth, post-truth, lies and “bullshit” (frankfurt, 2005) in the discourse of fake news? 5) what types of manipulation are found in the discourse of fake news? in tackling these questions, we have noticed that the answers will be more complex than might have been expected, for our results show that fake news is a multifarious genre that not only includes news that is merely false. in most cases it cannot be said that the journalist is simply lying or not telling the truth, for the engineered discourse-pragmatic strategies go in many more complex directions than that, extending from the manipulation of true facts in order to trigger false implicatures or presuppositions, to the skillful combination of the different subsystems of appraisal (where manipulated affect and emotion play an important part) and the different variables involved, and the use of misleading images or videos accompanying the headline or body of the news. our working hypothesis, derived from the above questions, is the following: the identifying features of the social discursive practice of fake news are mainly found in a combination of textual and contextual variables, such as the management and manipulation of the stance and emotion systems, the alignments (footing) of the participants within their frame, the (cultural/social/political/emotional) expectations of these participants, and the inferences triggered from and drawn out of this news. 4.2. the corpus used as asr and taboada (2019a) point out, the first question we need to answer in addressing fake news is what we consider to be a representative instance. taking into account the above definitions (lazer et al., 2018; dance, 2019) of fake news in which the aspects of intentionality and deception are crucial, when sorting out the news to be analyzed in this study we considered only fake news that belongs to barclay’s (2018) first two categories, i.e. mercenary fake news and fake news with an agenda, because although his third category (satirical fake news) may also be misinterpreted as true or serious news by some readers, it lacks the “intention to deceive” component which, in our view, is essential to this kind of social practice. one significant issue related to fake news is the problem of sourcing. as bråten, stadler and salmerón (2018: 141) point out, “professional emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 31 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 31 gatekeeping is essentially lacking on the internet, with posted documents often lacking explicit review policies and quality control”. other studies, such as andreassen and bråten (2013) or gottlieb and wineburg (2012), suggest that people’s prior values and attitudes play a role in the critical evaluation of source information, which was a particularly important issue in our search for fake news to build our corpus. when engaged in this endeavor, we found two main obstacles: first, it was somewhat problematic to distinguish fake from true content, and second, it was not easy to trace the origin of the news or to find instances of “authentic fake news” on the web or social media, given that in many cases (as for example when the news was published on facebook) it was deleted very shortly thereafter, once it had been identified as fake. considering all of the above, we resorted to fact-checking sites such as www.snopes.com or egregious fake news sites such as www.whatdoesitmean.com. in addition, we collected several pieces that we received via whatsapp or found on twitter and other social networks. we also considered the now defunct fake news site the denver guardian. another source has been asr and taboada’s (2019b) corpus of fake news (containing a total of 1,380 news articles), which includes articles from different sites, such as the us election dataset, the buzzfeed dataset (collected from nine facebook pages), and a great amount of news from the above-mentioned www.snopes.com as well. in their search for this news, asr and taboada (2019a) explain that –as we had also noticed in our own explorations– some of the links on the snopes site do not actually point to the source article; they just provide contextual information for fact-checking the claim in the fake news, without making the original source available. for the sake of testing our hypothesis, however, we did not analyze all the news in the asr and taboada corpus, for such an enterprise would exceed the purposes of this study. 4.3. assessing the validity of our hypothesis in order to test our hypothesis, we performed a discourse-pragmatic analysis of many samples of fake news from the corpus covering different themes (e.g. politics, climate change, the gossip press) and different formats (e.g. online newspaper, whatsapp video, facebook post). we looked into the different types of manipulation and distortion of the truth and the way bullshit (as described in section 2.3) was ‘administered’ by means of discursive and (socio-)pragmatic resources. the following were the main aspects scrutinized (though not the only ones): laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5032 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 32 the way emotion is expressed at the different linguistic levels in persuasion of the negative type, be it in an invoked (i.e. covert) or inscribed (i.e. overt) manner; the use and combination of the various dimensions of evaluation/appraisal (martin & white, 2005) and the emotion processes (alba-juez & mackenzie, 2019) expressed and intended to be awakened in the readers; the alignments or footing (goffman, 1981) taken by the journalists and other participants; the different ways in which facts and people’s stances and emotions are manipulated by means of linguistic and sociopragmatic strategies (e.g. the use of logical fallacies, or the triggering of misleading implicatures). 5. sample analysis 5.1. total fake: the ‘denver guardian’ clinton article a prototypical instance of a conspiracy theory within the type of fake news that has a political agenda was the very popular untrue story posted on the now no longer existent denver guardian8 site on november 5, 2016, three days before the us presidential election of that year. the article, which was entitled “fbi agent suspected in hillary email leaks found dead in apparent murder-suicide”, went viral on facebook (with more than half a million shares) and alleged that an fbi agent investigating clinton had been found dead in a house fire in maryland. (see the whole text of the article in appendix 1.). the denver guardian site was registered anonymously and built using wordpress, but it was later found out that the site was operated by jestin coler (the founder and ceo of disinfomedia and owner of several other fake news sites), who on his personal website (http://jestincoler.com) openly admits doing morally questionable but legal things, such as writing and publishing fake news articles for payment. the article scrutinized here thus is not only “fake news with an agenda”, but also belongs to the “mercenary” type described in section 2.2. despite being totally fake, this news is believed to have strongly influenced the election and to have been one of the main causes of clinton’s failure and trump’s consequent success. among other things, coler himself acknowledges on the first page of his site that the fbi emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 33 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 33 agent was a fictional character. furthermore, the news quoted “walkerville police chief pat frederick” in maryland, and it was later confirmed that there is no town called walkerville in maryland, but walkersville, and that this town did not have a police department. as can be seen, coler was here playing with the cognitive fact that when we read we go for the general meaning and do not stop to check every single letter, and that even if the readers noticed that there was a missing ‘s’ in the name, the normal deduction would have been that this was a typo. the first thing that stands out in the eyes of a discourse analyst when reading the headline is that the writer of the article is trying to bullshit (frankfurt 2005) the reader by making use of the pragmatic mechanism of inference. and we use the term “bullshit” and not “lie to” here because the journalist is not saying directly that hillary clinton was implicated in the (supposed) murder but guides the reader towards inferring that this must have been the case. as we saw in section 2.3, the bullshitter may deceive us about the facts, but their main aim is to deceive us about their enterprise, something that coler has also clearly accomplished here by hiding his identity, the political agenda and the financial aims behind his writing. coler thus resorts to several misleading strategies that affect both form and meaning such as: misspelling of words. use of capital letters in the headline. use of strong emotional words (e.g. murder-suicide), thereby creating a negative semantic prosody associated with hillary clinton. deceit of the readers by making them believe some fictional characters (the fbi agent) or places (the town) are real. inclusion of false or misleading photos accompanying the headline (in this case the picture of a house on fire and two firefighters). use of “sub-headlines” in the middle of the text, also in capitals, with sensational words and in a different color (breaking: president obama to issue hillary a “blanket pardon” to avoid future prosecution). use of a “flashbulb context” (brown & kulik, 1977) like that of a murder-suicide and a fire. laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5034 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 34 manipulation of language, people and facts: in order to influence the readers’ emotions and stance towards the topic in question, the following kinds of manipulation are found in the article: a) manipulation of the appraisal systems: in what pertains to the general intended meaning of the article, it is clear that coler manipulates the engagement system to issue an indirect judgement, so that he cannot be accused of having made the judgement himself and thus indirectly implying that the clintons may have been behind all this. thus, as seen in the excerpts below, he resorts to heteroglossic engagement (“investigators believe” use of inverted commas, attribution of the belief to conspiracy theories, etc.) to let the audience make the judgement themselves. this is of course very ironic, considering that coler himself is the conspirator who made up the whole story. notice the negative prosody as well (in the terms between quotes): investigators believe fbi agent, michael brown, 45, “shot and killed” his 33-year-old wife, susan brown, late friday night before “setting the couple’s home on fire and then turning the gun on himself ”. conspiracy theories are running rampant throughout many alt-right media outlets, leading many to believe this was another “hit job” by the clintons in “retaliation” for the fbi email leaks so close to the presidential election. media outlets like alex jones’ infowars and wnd are running with the theory that globalist “assassins”, working for the clintons, had the brown family “murdered” and their home “burned to destroy” any possible evidence. b) manipulation of footing: the way engagement is handled has a close relationship with the footing or alignments of the participants in the article. coler does not commit himself to saying this really happened and therefore cannot be said to be the principal (i.e. the participant responsible for talk in goffman’s 1981 terms) because he is not asserting that the clintons are behind this but rather attributing this thought to “conspiracy theories” or what other people believe, thus emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 35 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 35 making use and abuse of the ad populum fallacy, in the knowledge that most people will not verify whether this is true or not and will therefore spread the news and make it sell. thus, the principal role here is attributed to an unreliable source which may not be identified as such by the common reader, who will therefore simply accept this news as true. in addition, the author role (i.e. the one who creates talk) is hidden, for at the time the article was published, coler’s name was not included in the news. the only role that could be (partially) identified was that of the animator (i.e. the participant that produces talk), which in this case was the denver guardian online newspaper, which as we know, was also fake. c) manipulation of the source of information: fake quotes are frequently accompanied by false source information in order to make them appear legitimate (in this case, the writer refers to infowars as a reliable source of information, when in fact infowars is itself a producer of fake news; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/infowars). by using the ad verecundiam fallacy, coler is here literally making fun of his readers. d) manipulation of the pragmatic meanings inferred: as taboada (2019, personal communication) has confirmed, it is very difficult to characterize fake news by its “purely linguistic” features only. the characteristic which we have found common to all the instances analyzed is not so much the language used, but the fact that its authors play with the cultural knowledge shared between them and the readers, the inferences triggered, the emotions conveyed in the text and those triggered in the audience, and the consequent emotional implicatures sparked off. in this case, as we have seen, the writer plays with the indirect meanings that are deduced from the text of the article and the negative emotions that will be aroused in the readers after thinking that the clintons could have been the instigators of this (fake) murder-suicide. thus, trump’s followers will be more convinced to vote for their candidate, by means of the confirmation bias fallacy, and some undecided people will probably be influenced to at least position themselves against clinton, which leads us to the next kind of manipulation found in this article and in fake news in general. laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5036 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 36 e) manipulation of stance: the manipulation of the inferences triggered by the text aims at a subsidiary kind of manipulation, namely manipulation of the readers’ stance. there is a constant invoked negative evaluation of clinton’s reputation which attempts to manipulate the readers’ stance in a negative direction. f) manipulation of frame: goffman’s (1974) concept of frame (i.e. the way in which social actors organize their experience in terms of recognizable activities) is also useful for the present analysis, for it pushes beyond the simple speaker/hearer dyad and explores a deeper reality which includes multi-party talk and multi-party audiences. indeed, fairclough (1995: 39) points out that in media discourse we not only have reporters and their audience, but “various categories of public domain ‘third party’ who may be involved” (politicians, trade unionists, scientists and experts of various other types, academics and so forth), as well as ordinary people who may act as witnesses or represent typical behaviors or reactions, commonly referred to as “vox pop”. a key question is how these participants’ identities are constructed within their frames of action. as we have seen, some of the activities of the different social actors involved in the clinton news are hidden or distorted. first of all, cole hides his identity (it was only after the elections that he came to be known as the author and principal of the news), and the real activities of the denver guardian are hidden as well. in addition, many of the activities described in the article are not simply distorted but entirely made up, including their social actors (the fbi agent, the town, the police department). hillary clinton is however a real social actor, but the inferences triggered about her activities are totally misleading. having considered a particularly gross example of manipulative fake news, let us now turn to a rather different and more subtle type of manipulation, in which the news is presented as though it were scientifically justified. 5.2. fake science: an attack on valid climate change research the online article shown in appendix 2 was published on the breitbart site, described on wikipedia as “a far-right syndicated american news, opinion emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 37 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 37 and commentary website founded in mid-2007 by conservative commentator andrew breitbart”, and is available at http://archive.is/vsrus. the standard far-right viewpoint on climate change is that it is a hoax devised by forces in society whose aim is to undermine the free operation of industry and markets. these anti-capitalist forces, it is contended, are aided and abetted by influential scientists who conspire with them because of their own political leanings. the author james delingpole can thus be seen as defending a conspiracy theory which explains scientists’ warnings about unbridled global warming as deriving from a sinister attempt to undermine the welfare and comfort we currently enjoy (or are supposed to enjoy). firstly, before progressing to analyzing the different types of manipulation present in the article, let us consider its linguistic properties. it is worthwhile observing that the author betrays his lack of scholarly credentials in his mixing of style levels and in his inability to handle complex sentences grammatically. consider the sentence in fact, the magnitude of their historical data adjustments, that removed their cyclical temperature patterns, are totally inconsistent with published and credible u.s. and other temperature data. here the author not only fails to use correct subject-verb agreement or the correct relative pronoun for a non-restrictive relative clause (which, not that) but also is illogical in comparing the consistency of a “magnitude” with “data”, i.e. a comparison of like with unlike. just as ‘spam mail’ is often given away by the poor use of grammar and spelling, so fake articles – which have not gone through the rigorous processes of peer-reviewing and editing to which all scientific papers are submitted – often inadvertently reveal their spuriousness to the critical reader. as mentioned above, however, many readers do not have the time or interest to read with this degree of discernment. poor writing, it seems, does not detract from an article’s power to manipulate its readers. let us now consider how this is done. a) manipulation of stance, the source of information and the subsystems of appraisal: the stance adopted by the author is already apparent in the title, which states that “much of ” recent global warming is a “fabrication”, i.e. intentionally invented disinformation. this is typical of current exchanges in which the purveyors of fake news are at pains to accuse honest communicators, e.g. scientists, of being fake: in this way, the fakers wish the readers to draw the inference that they are in fact providing genuine and correct information. the stance taken by the writer thus aligns with the overall goals of the website where the article appeared, and the piece is designed to inflame the laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5038 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 38 emotions of the average consumer of the breitbart site, who is expected to reject “establishment” warnings about the devastating effects of climate change and indeed to ignore the increasingly obvious ongoing extreme weather events. what the author is doing here, then, is to manipulate the stance of the reader in this respect. b) manipulation of genre: the tone of the article is generally serious and is entirely lacking in the obvious trappings of infotainment-style fake news. what the author is doing is to manipulate the discourse genre of popular-scientific articles: several aspects of the text are reminiscent of genuine, emotionally neutral texts designed to make scientific findings accessible to a lay audience. among these are the use of a graph, the repeated references to data, the claim that the article is derived from a “peer-reviewed study”, the provision of a hyperlink to that study, as well as a scholarly style of writing that involves nominalizations and abstractions (adjustment, magnitude, …) as well as technical expressions and their abbreviations, as in global average temperature datasets (gast).9 c) manipulation of the readers’ emotions: the author also seeks to manipulate the emotions of the readership. under the veneer of scientific objectivity, various emotions make themselves manifest to the reader, both inscribed (i.e. explicit) and invoked (i.e. implicit, but palpably present). this is apparent in the author’s strategy of personalizing the debate, pitting three individually named scientists on the climate change denial side, with whom he aligns, against what is implied to be the mighty orthodoxy of three large organizations, in this way characterizing the two sides of the debate in emotionally charged heroic and anti-heroic terms (invoking our emotional solidarity with the underdog in a david and goliath situation). one of these “heroic” scientists is described (inscribed) as “a veteran statistician” (with all the positive valence of the word veteran in the us), and positive invoked emotion attaches to the suggestion of interdisciplinary cooperation among experts from different fields, a “meteorologist”, a “statistician” and a “climate scientist”. the scientists are said to have achieved “conclusive findings”, with the positively valenced implication that these are unimpeachably true.10 in all these ways, the author uses e-implicatures to align the reader with the cause he supports. emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 39 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 39 d) manipulation of frame and the semantic-pragmatic meanings inferred: delingpole uses the negative semantic prosody associated with the words he chooses to provoke unfavorable feelings towards climatologists and the organizations they work for by not dignifying them with the neutral title “scientist” but dismissing them as “alarmists”, highlighting with this choice of word their supposed appeal to citizens’ emotions, in particular imputing to them an ignoble desire to make the population unnecessarily afraid. in this way, the author also disguises his own emotional strategy, since by ascribing emotional motivations to his opponents, he can position himself as neutral and reliable. there is also an element of ad hominem in the author’s mockery of their imagined speech patterns (“hottest evah”), where the implied pronunciation of ever is designed to suggest a lack of seriousness, like spoilt valley girls whose response to everything is “whatevah”. even organizations that generally have been held in high regard, like nasa (whose scientific and engineering credentials are second to none), noaa (the [us] national oceanic and atmospheric administration) and the uk’s met office, are bundled together and again categorized as “alarmist”, i.e. as organizations with a subjective rather than objective message. they are accused of using “adjusted” or “corrupted” data, as opposed to what is objectively true of the data they use, which is that, in keeping with the best scientific practice, they are “corrected” or “updated” as new information becomes available. the words adjusted and corrupted, as well as fabricated in the headline, have negative connotations, especially the latter because of the association with corrupt, possibly suggesting immoral or illegal influence on their work, and their use will spark off negative emotions among the readership. in these ways, the framing of the entire article is such that it bespeaks a manichean us-and-them mentality, in which “we” (the climate change skeptics) are pitted against “them” (the establishment with its supposedly nefarious agenda). e) manipulation of source: the article has been analyzed for its accuracy at the above-mentioned factchecking site snopes (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/climatologyfraud-global-warming/) and a number of falsehoods and falsifications have emerged: (a) the “study” referred to in the article was in fact never peerreviewed in the sense that is standard in science (see (d)) and was never published in a journal but was simply a post on the personal blog of the “meteorologist” ; (b) the “meteorologist” in question does not have a phd but an ‘honorary doctorate’; (c) “cato institute climate scientist craig idso” laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5040 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 40 is an adjunct scientist at the libertarian cato institute, but the institute has not published the “study”; (d) seven scientists are mentioned in the report itself as ‘agreeing with’ the conclusions of the paper, but only one answered an approach from the fact-checking site, stating that he had only peerreviewed the paper in the sense of discussing it with the first author (and anyway it should be recalled that “peer reviewing” does not mean “approving” or “agreeing with”); (e) the article interprets the graph as showing adjustments to raw data (where “raw data” has the connotation of “true data” – which again is scientifically incorrect), but the graph in fact shows changes brought about by updates to already corrected data as a result of scientific advances and the addition of ever more data from disparate sources, including better coverage of the entire planet, not just the us or the northern hemisphere. the fact-checking site shows that the overall effect of the many corrections has actually (and ironically) been to reduce the figures for “dramatic and unprecedented” climate change. what we have seen here, then, is an example of how particular views of economic interests and the associated emotions, principally fear of losing certain luxuries, drive certain authors to dress up those views and emotions as apparently objective science, while in fact manipulating the readers’ knowledge and feelings toward rejecting properly sourced and peer-reviewed science. 6. conclusions our examination of a corpus of fake news, exemplified in section 5 with regard to fake news in politics and in science, has revealed that the authors’ persuasive intention in this subgenre of journalistic discourse is strongly linked to the manipulation of readers’ emotions, although this manipulation is to some extent disguised by the authors’ use of language that does not differ markedly from more honest, objective reporting. as a result, we have been forced to consider the pragmatic strategies at work in the composition of these texts, analyzing them in their sociocultural contexts. what we have found is that the news does not so much contain falsehoods as fallacies and distortions, subtle blends of truths and lies, often designed more to entertain than to inform. this has led us to invoke the concept of “bullshit”, as theorized by frankfurt (2005), as well as that of “post-truth” (harari, 2018a: 231-244), with its blurring or even dissolution of the dividing line between reality and fiction. emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 41 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 41 the data we have briefly considered here have borne out our hypothesis that fake news flourishes thanks to the deliberate rigging of the various systems that underlie communication, notably the system of emotions, and especially such negative feelings as fear, envy and hatred. the defining characteristics of fake news lie less in the linguistic properties of the texts than in the subtle exploitation of alignments and expectations in order to induce inferences that resonate with the perspectives and prejudices of the anticipated readership. we have accordingly observed how fabricators of fake news do not hesitate to abuse not only language, at all levels of analysis, but also other semiotic resources such as images, photos and videos – often presented outside their original context – as well as typography. however, the deepest effects arise from the manipulation of what martin & white (2005) have identified as the subsystems of appraisal, notably by misrepresenting engagement to make a judgement, but also by tampering deceptively with footings and framings in sense of goffman (1974, 1981). purveyors of fake news are also not honest or clear about the sources of their alleged information. they rely heavily on (e-)implicatures to spark off inferences for which there is no literal evidence in their words, for example capitalizing on semantic prosodies to do the work for them. if we are to understand the hold that fake news has on us, we will have to admit that our cognitive and emotional vulnerabilities are being exploited, and it is only by using the tools of pragmatics to unmask this deliberate manipulation that we can hope to combat its nefarious effects. and to conclude, one of harari’s witty reflections: as a species, humans prefer power to truth. we spend far more time and effort on trying to control the world than on trying to understand it – and even when we try to understand it, we usually do so in the hope that understanding the world will make it easier to control it. therefore, if you dream of a society in which truth reigns supreme and myths are ignored, you have little to expect from homo sapiens. better try your luck with chimps. (harari, 2018a: 242). acknowledgements we want to give maite taboada our heartfelt thanks for sending us her excel file of the misinfotext corpus, as well as her 2019 article, co-written with fatemeh torabi asr, on the topic of fake news. we would also like to thank laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5042 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 42 the spanish journalist carlos garcía-hirshfeld for providing us with samples of ‘authentic’ spanish fake news and for guiding us in the decision to classify a piece of news as either fake or true. and last but not least, we owe a debt of gratitude to carmen sancho guinda and ruth breeze for their valuable and insightful comments on the first manuscript of this article. article history: received 15 july 2019 received in revised form 8 october 2019 accepted 11 october 2019 references emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 43 alba-juez, l. 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(2015). “language and emotion: the cognitive linguistic perspective” in u.m. lüdtke (ed.), emotion in language, 157-173. amsterdam: john benjamins. shu, k., a. sliva, s. wang, j. tang & h. liu (2018). “fake news detection on social media: a data mining perspective”. sigkdd explorations 19: 22-36. stahl, r. (2010). militainment, inc.: war, media, and popular culture. new york: routledge. 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 44 j. lachlan mackenzie is emeritus professor of functional linguistics at vu amsterdam. he moved with his edinburgh phd to the netherlands, ultimately devoting himself to the development of functional discourse grammar. editor of functions of language, with research interests ranging over grammar, pragmatics and discourse analysis. key publications: functional discourse grammar (2008) and pragmatics: cognition, context and culture (2016). laura alba-juez is full professor of linguistics at the uned in madrid, spain, with academic experience in five different countries (argentina, mexico, usa, uk and spain) and research interests in discourse analysis, pragmatics and functional linguistics. she has been the principal investigator of several funded projects, and has published fourteen books and numerous scientific articles. latest books: evaluation in context (2014), pragmatics: cognition, context and culture (2016) and emotion in discourse (2019). notes 1 fake news may be considered a variant of journalese, and it could also be said that it somehow “hijacks” the conventional news genre in order to hide certain mercenary or ideological intentions. what is beyond doubt for us is that these facts do not invalidate its character as a distinctive discourse genre. 2 schadenfreude is a complex emotion, where rather than feeling sympathy towards someone’s misfortune, the experiencer feels pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning about or witnessing their troubles, failures, or humiliation. 3 confirmation bias describes the (very human) tendency to focus only on information that supports what you already believe. while ignoring information that contradicts your beliefs (barclay 2018: 94). 4 fairclough (1995: 14) explains that the conversationalization of media discourse has helped to democratize technology and the language of specialized genres in general by making them more accessible to people, thereby creating more “people power”, even if this power is systematically manipulated by the media. 5 by way of example, in march 2017 several chinese publications reported as serious news a satirical story about president donald trump that was originally published as humor in the new yorker. 6 lying and bluffing are both modes of deception, but while the liar is someone who deliberately promulgates a falsehood, the bluffer is typically devoted to conveying (by means of inference) something false. bluffing is more a matter of fakery than of falsity, and hence our certainty of the importance of analyzing fake news and its bullshit from a discourse-pragmatic perspective. emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 45 vosoughi, s., d. roy & s. aral (2018). “the spread of true and false news online”. science 359(6380): 1146-1151. wolfe, m.b. & t.d. griffin (2018). “beliefs and discourse processing” in m.f. schober, d. n. rapp & a. britt (eds.), 295-314. 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 45 7 people who subscribe to or promote the incorrect belief that former us president barack obama was born outside the united states and was therefore ineligible to be president under the provisions of the us constitution. 8 the denver post (https://www.denverpost.com/) later uncovered a series of lies found in the denver guardian site, such as the fact that it claimed to be the “oldest” news source, when in fact it was discovered that it had been registered only a few months before (in july 2016). also, the address listed for the denver guardian newsroom was actually a parking lot (https://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/05/there-is-nosuch-thing-as-the-denver-guardian/). 9 this should be global average surface temperature (gast) datasets. 10 it scarcely needs adding that science is not concerned with “conclusive findings” or “unimpeachable truth”, although this is arguably what a lay readership is hoping to find. in contending that this is what is offered by the three “experts”, the author is, possibly disingenuously, undermining his own claim to scientific validity. laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5046 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 46 appendix 1 https://web.archive.org/web/20161115023815/http://denverguardian.com/2016/11/05/fbi-agent-suspected-hillary -email-leaks-found-dead-apparent-murder-suicide/ fbi agent suspected in hillary email leaks found dead in apparent murder-suicide photo by ada be (cc by 4.0) walkerville, md – an fbi agent believed to be responsible for the latest email leaks “pertinent to the investigation” into hillary clinton’s private email server while she was secretary of state, was found dead in an apparent murder-suicide early saturday morning, according to police. breaking: president obama to issue hillary a “blanket pardon” to avoid future prosecution investigators believe fbi agent, michael brown, 45, shot and killed his 33-year-old wife, susan brown, late friday night before setting the couple’s home on fire and then turning the gun on himself. brown was a 12 year veteran of the washington d.c. metropolitan police department before spending the last six years in the fbi. neighbors saw smoke coming from the brown residence and called 9-1-1 at approximately 11:50 p.m. by the time fire crews arrived on scene minutes later, the entire house was engulfed in flames. “mrs. brown’s death was caused by a gunshot wound prior to the house fire,” walkerville police chief pat frederick said, “while mr. brown’s single-bullet head wound appears to have been self-inflicted.” “the totality of the evidence leads us to believe this is a murder-suicide. we believe he killed her, set the house on fire and then took his own life,” frederick said. the findings support conclusions by investigators saturday that the couple perished in a murder-suicide during which the 4,000-square foot house was intentionally set on fire. authorities outlined a likely scenario based on interviews with neighbors and comments posted on mr. brown’s facebook page. brown is believed to have started the gasoline-fueled fire but spared the life of his beloved beagle, dixie. “prior to the fire, he dropped off the dog at a neighbor’s house,” frederick said. “he put the dog in a neighbor’s backyard.” a neighbor told whag that brown appeared “panicked” though it is unclear whether his wife was dead before or after the dog was removed from their home. the motive behind the killing is still being investigated, but police say brown was a highly respected agent with the fbi and very well liked in the community. “what leads someone to this level of anger and violence with your wife, your loved one, who knows,” said an fbi official who knew the brown family. conspiracy theories are running rampant throughout many alt. right media outlets, leading many to believe this was another “hit job” by the clintons in retaliation for the fbi email leaks so close to the presidential election. media outlets like alex jones’ infowars and wnd are running with the theory that globalist assassins, working for the clintons, had the brown family murdered and their home burned to destroy any possible evidence. fbi director james comey refused to comment at this time but asked for privacy and prayer as the bureau comes to terms with losing “two very close friends.” this is a developing story. emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 47 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 47 appendix 2 http://archive.is/vsrus breitbart 9 july 2017 by james delingpole delingpole: ‘nearly all’ recent global warming is fabricated, study finds much of recent global warming has been fabricated by climate scientists to make it look more frightening, a study has found. the peer-reviewed study by two scientists and a veteran statistician looked at the global average temperature datasets (gast) which are used by climate alarmists to argue that recent years have been “the hottest evah” and that the warming of the last 120 years has been dramatic and unprecedented. what they found is that these readings are “totally inconsistent with published and credible u.s. and other temperature data.” that is, the adjusted data used by alarmist organizations like nasa, noaa, and the uk met office differs so markedly from the original raw data that it cannot be trusted. this chart gives you a good idea of the direction of the adjustments. the blue bars show where the raw temperature data has been adjusted downwards to make it cooler; the red bars show where the raw temperature data has been adjusted upwards to make it warmer. note how most of the downward adjustments take place in the early twentieth century and most of the upward take place in the late twentieth century. according to meteorologist joe d’aleo, who co-authored the study with statistician james wallace and cato institute climate scientist craig idso, this has the effect of exaggerating the warming trend: “nearly all of the warming they are now showing are in the adjustments.” “each dataset pushed down the 1940s warming and pushed up the current warming.” “you would think that when you make adjustments you’d sometimes get warming and sometimes get cooling. that’s almost never happened.” what this means, the report concludes, is that claims by nasa, noaa, and the uk met office that the world is experiencing unprecedented and dramatic warming should be taken with a huge pinch of salt: they all use the same corrupted global average temperature (gast) data. the conclusive findings of this research are that the three gast data sets are not a valid representation of laura alba-juez & j. lachlan mackenzie ibérica 38 (2019): 17-5048 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 48 reality. in fact, the magnitude of their historical data adjustments, that removed their cyclical temperature patterns, are totally inconsistent with published and credible u.s. and other temperature data. thus, it is impossible to conclude from the three published gast data sets that recent years have been the warmest ever – despite current claims of record setting warming. emotion, lies, and “bullshit” in journalistic discourse ibérica 38 (2019): 17-50 49 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 49 00-2 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:41 página 50 iberica 13 ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 abstract the emergence of english as the international language of scientific communication has been so amply documented (e.g. see sano, 2002; ammon, 2003) that its dominance is hardly disputed empirically even by those most critical of this state of affairs. more contested, however, are the effects of this dominance: with two sets of concerns particularly salient: (i) the potential detrimental impact on other languages –even standardised national languages, which are at risk, so it is argued, of being relegated to a lesser role in an incipient global diglossia and of losing domains; and (ii) the communicative inequality produced by the dominance of english between, in particular, native-speaking scientists/academics and non-native scientists, the latter experiencing relative disadvantage, it is sometimes claimed, when it comes to placing their work in high prestige international journals. this paper investigates both these concerns drawing on a combination of bibliometric data, literature survey and conceptual analysis, the purpose being to determine the extent which criticisms relating to domain loss and inequity can be sustained. the paper argues that the risk of domain loss is very real, but that recent language planning interventions may help avert the danger. as regards inequality, we argue that while language is still a barrier for some scholars, it seems to be diminishing in importance, with non-language factors surpassing them as sources of disadvantage. at the end of the paper some tentative suggestions are made for the amelioration of language-based disadvantage in academic publication. key words: global english, scientific communication, publication, inequality, esp. the global spread of english, scientific communication and esp: questions of equity, access and domain loss gibson ferguson university of sheffield g.r.ferguson@sheffield.ac.uk 7 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 7 ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 gibson ferguson resumen la diseminaci�n global del ingl�s, comunicaci�n cient�fica e ife: cuestiones de equidad, acceso y p�rdida de influencia la aparición del inglés como lengua internacional de comunicación científica posee una bibliografía tan extensa (véase, por ejemplo, sano, 2002; ammon, 2003) que su predominio no se presta a disputas empíricas, ni tan siquiera por parte de aquellas voces que se han mostrado más críticas con esta situación. no obstante, lo que sí pueden rebatirse son las consecuencias de esta preponderancia, entre las que destacan dos preocupaciones especialmente sobresalientes: (1) el efecto potencialmente perjudicial sobre otras lenguas (lenguas oficiales, incluso, que corren el riesgo, o al menos así se entiende, de ser relegadas a un segundo plano en lo que podría denominarse los inicios de una diglosia global y de pérdida de influencia); y (2) la desigualdad comunicativa que se produce como consecuencia del predominio del inglés, especialmente, en el seno de la sociedad científica/académica nativa y no nativa, que favorece a la primera en la divulgación de su investigación a través de las publicaciones en revistas internacionales de gran prestigio. en el presente trabajo se estudian estas dos preocupaciones mediante el examen de datos sobre producción científica, la evaluación de bibliografía y el análisis de conceptos; todo ello con el fin de determinar hasta qué punto pueden sostenerse las críticas relativas a la pérdida de influencia y a la desigualdad comunicativa. a lo largo de estas páginas se defiende que el riesgo de pérdida de influencia de la tradición lingüística de una cultura es verdaderamente real pero que este peligro todavía puede evitarse gracias a las distintas intervenciones sobre planificación lingüística que recientemente se han producido. por lo que respecta a la desigualdad, entendemos que, si bien la lengua puede seguir siendo un obstáculo para algunos autores, parece que esta cuestión va perdiendo importancia y que son otros factores no-lingüísticos los que realmente los sitúan en una posición desfavorable. a modo de conclusión, al final del trabajo se aporta una serie de consejos encaminados a mejorar las desventajas de origen lingüístico identificadas y en lo que se refiere a la publicación de trabajos académicos. palabras clave: inglés global, comunicación científica, publicaciones, desigualdad, ife. introduction the rise of english for specific purposes (esp) as a major branch of language teaching in the last half century has been firmly rooted in two key developments: the spread of english as a global language, specifically its 8 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 8 ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 the global spread of english emergence as the dominant international language of academic publication; and second, recognition of language variation, by use as well as user, as a fundamental property of language use. without the first there would, for reason of lack of demand, be no esp –at least on the scale we presently witness. without the second, esp would lack vitality as a distinct enterprise since it is specificity of language learning purpose alongside variation in the production and interpretation of language across and within discourse communities that provide the principal raison d’être for practice and for research. indeed, a key motif in esp/eap research has been “difference”: difference between academic disciplines, between professions, between genres and registers, between discursive practices; differences that, quite justifiably, have been explored in ever finer detail drawing on ethnography, corpora and well as more traditional techniques of discourse analysis. in this paper, however, we move out from these very focused concerns with variation to consider a set of socio-political, equity and planning questions that the current dominance of english as an international language of science poses. central to our discussion are two particular issues: the alleged threat to other languages posed by english and how, if at all, this can be managed; and second, questions of access, equity and inequality in academic publication in a world dominated by english. not so very long ago such a macro-focus might well have been regarded as inappropriate, irrelevant even, it being regarded as the function of the esp practitioner to accommodate pragmatically to prevailing patterns of language dominance and submit to the necessary tasks of devising relevant programmes of language instruction informed by analyses of the texts and communicative practices likely to be encountered by the student. however, with the advent of the critical turn in esp, inspired from within by scholars such as benesch (1996 & 2001) and pennycook (1997 & 2001), and from without by sociolinguistic commentators such as tollefson (1991 & 1995), phillipson (1992) and ricento (2000) has come greater licence to explore the socio-political, and equity dimensions of esp in a world where english sits at the apex of the world language hierarchy (see de swaan, 2001a). a consequence, perhaps, has been a growing body of work (see swales, 1997 & 2004; master, 1998; tardy, 2004) exploring the role of english, some of which we can draw on as we turn first to a descriptive account of the place of english in scientific publication. 9 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 9 english as the international language of science the current dominance of english as an international language of academic publication, particularly in the natural and social sciences, has been so amply documented (see, for example, crystal, 1997; graddol, 1997; ammon, 2001a & 2003; swales, 2004) that only a brief descriptive account is needed here. one useful statistical source is ammon (2003), who, drawing on anglosaxon bibliographic databases, reports that by 1995 english accounted for 87.2% of journal publications in the natural sciences (e.g. biology, chemistry, physics, medicine and mathematics) and 82.5% of publications in the social sciences (e.g. sociology, economics, etc). there is, moreover, plentiful diachronic evidence of the increasing hegemony of english. benfield & howard (2000) show, for example, that the proportion of medline journal articles in english has increased from 72.2% in 1980 to 88.6% of the overall total in 1996. a similar picture for the field of chemistry is sketched by sano (2002), who, drawing on the abstracting journal chemistry abstracts (ca), reports that over the period 1970-2000 the share of chemistry journal articles published in english rose from 54.2% to 82.1% overall. significant also, though less widely publicised, is the increased presence of english more generally in higher education in europe, this being most pronounced in northern europe, and within that scandinavia, and least marked in southern europe. among the more widely employed indices used to chart the penetration of english here is the proportion of phd theses written in english and the number of english-medium content courses in operation in european universities (see ammon & mcconnell, 2002). taking the former first, statistics from scandinavia indicate rather strikingly the inroads made by english. for example, reporting on a survey conducted at the university of helsinki faculty of medicine, taavitsvainen & pahta (2003) note that in 2001 118 out of 119 doctoral dissertations were written in english. in the faculty of arts of the same university 50% of 74 doctoral dissertations appearing in 2001-2002 were in english. in sweden a survey of doctoral dissertations across 5 disciplines (chemistry, biology, linguistics, psychology and philosophy) at the university of stockholm reveals a not dissimilar picture (see berg, hult & king, 2001): in 1998 100% of dissertations in chemistry and biology were produced in english, 66% in linguistics, and 50% in each of psychology and philosophy. and a rather similar story could be told for other countries: norway, denmark, the netherlands, and switzerland. a university of oslo (2006) report, for gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3810 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 10 example, states that the most recent academic publication of 70% of staff was in english and that 100% of phd candidates in the faculty of medicine are writing their theses in english. meanwhile, from switzerland, grin & korth (2005) report that there is increasing pressure for research funding applications to the national science foundation to be presented in english. it might be argued at this point, with some degree of justification, that because these various surveys primarily target smaller national communities with a long tradition of using foreign languages (e.g. german in the 19th century) for scientific communication, they may be unrepresentative of wider european trends, especially in the larger countries, and may consequently overstate the degree of anglification of higher education and science. it is useful, therefore, to turn to our second set of indices: the use of english as a medium of university level content courses, most comprehensively and recently surveyed by ammon & mcconnell (2002). their survey shows that even in the larger european countries with sizeable research communities, english has a significant presence as a teaching medium. in germany, for example, there were at the time of the survey 43 higher education institutions offering english-medium courses, mainly at postgraduate level, across a wide range of subjects from automotive engineering to systems design, these courses enrolling both german and foreign students. in france, too, somewhat surprisingly given the general disposition to resist the spread of english as a lingua franca, there are a fair number of mostly graduate courses taught in english: 51, to be precise, across such disciplines as management, engineering and economics (ammon & mcconnell, 2002). smaller scale studies of particular institutions seem, moreover, to corroborate the findings of the ammon & mcconnell’s (2002) macro survey. erling (2002), for example, reports that at the free university berlin alone there were 12 courses taught in english, including a masters programme in agricultural and rural development. thus, there seems no reason to dissent from ammon & mcconnell’s (2002: 171) broad conclusion that: english as a foreign language and major european lingua franca has now spread into most european countries as a language of university teaching, alongside the national official languages. this is true also of “big”/international languages (...) and usually coincides with languages that have played or are still playing an important role in scientific communication. cases in question are france and germany. the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 11 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 11 to be sure, the portrait painted in this quotation needs to be qualified. there are countries, for example, where there are few english-medium university courses reported (spain, for example) and there are “niche subjects”, as ammon & mcconnell (2002: 21) put it, where publications in english account for only a small proportion of research outputs. that said, the cumulative evidence from academic publication statistics, covering both journal articles and doctoral dissertations, and from figures on englishmedium content courses at european universities, when combined with evidence of the ever earlier introduction of english as a school subject (see eurydice, 2005), points unambiguously to language spread of a degree sufficient to provoke justifiable concerns around issues of diversity, equity and identity. the main aim of this paper, however, is not to document the extent of the dominance of english as an international language of science but to examine the consequences, particularly for language diversity and for equity in scientific communication, and to discuss how, if at all, this might be addressed from a policy perspective. a useful preliminary, however, is a brief consideration of the causal factors underpinning the present dominance of english in the scientific domain, for aetiology, to use a medical metaphor, has significance for treatment. cause and agency in the rise of english as an international language of science up to 1914 german was the predominant international language of science (gizycki, 1973). post 1914, however, the language’s status fell into decline, an immediate trigger for which was its banishment post-war from international scientific conferences (ammon, 2001b). a more profound long term cause, however, can be found in the expanding scientific research base of the united states, a resource left untouched by the destruction that the second world war inflicted on the scientific communities of germany and france, and enhanced by the immigration of scientists seeking refuge from the national socialist regime. the cold war stimulus to us scientific research, the development of computer technology, the resourcing of large research-oriented universities all contributed to an expansion in the united states’s share of the world’s research output, and in due course this precipitated a switch from german gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3812 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 12 to english as the principal medium of scientific communication in some of the smaller european countries. haarman & holman (2001), for example, date the reorientation of finnish academic life to english to the 1950’s, highlighting the significance of academic exchange programmes initiated in 1953 that gave finnish academics the opportunity to spend substantial periods of time researching and teaching at us universities. it would be wrong, however, to read into this account any endorsement of the argument that the rise of english as the dominant, international language was, orchestrated, as the linguistic imperialism thesis claims, by the united states and britain, whose commercial and political interests it undoubtedly serves. the principal flaw in the orchestration argument lies in its exaggeration of the potency of top-down promotional efforts, and its neglect, denial even, of the agency of many organisations and individuals in europe, east asia and beyond, who have elected to adopt english as a lingua franca not because they have been told to do so but because they perceive acquisition to be economically and educationally advantageous1. relevant here to understanding the motives of these actors is de swaan’s (2001a) account of the impact of “external network” effects in language spread. very briefly, languages, like some other collective goods, do not diminish in utility with use: on the contrary, the more speakers a language gains, the greater the potential number of interlocutors, the greater the production of texts, and the greater the utility of the language to all those already proficient in it. the operation of these “external network” effects is as well exemplified in the domain of scientific communication as any other: the more switches to english publication occurred, as was the case, for example, with the german angewandte chemie journal re-titling itself applied chemistry, the more the incentives grew for additional researchers to publish in english. and so, it is not difficult to see the expansion of english for scientific/academic communication as assuming a self-perpetuating dynamic of its own, and how, once established, a popular lingua franca like english attracts still further users. similar diffuse, uncoordinated processes are also at work in the expanded use of english in higher education across europe, where university authorities have introduced english medium content courses not through any direct compulsion but because they wish (i) to attract fee-paying international students, (ii) to enhance the university’s international prestige and contacts, and (iii) to develop the english language skills of their staff and students (ammon & mcconnell, 2002; erling, 2002). rational though these actions the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 13 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 13 are, they are, of course, not freely undertaken but conditioned rather by wider structural factors: the globalisation and commodification of higher education in a competitive, market-driven world characterised by the increased mobility of academics and students, and by the increased ease of international communication. from this analysis of the spread of english as substantially uncoordinated and as primarily market-driven, a number of policy implications emerge. foremost is that calls by phillipson (2000 & 2003) and others for the enactment of policies to restrain the spread of english, while wellintentioned, may be unduly optimistic about their potency (see also wright, 2004). this is not to say that the nation state is so diminished in sovereignty that it cannot act in defence of the national language, as we shall see shortly; nor is it to say that the unbridled spread of english is to be lauded. far from it, as we shall see as we now turn to examine two major effects of the global spread of english in the scientific/academic domain, starting first with the threat of domain loss. the global spread of english and the threat of domain loss in discourses on language spread and language endangerment english has sometimes been described as a “killer language” (skuttnab-kangas, 2003: 33). but such metaphors are inappropriate, for languages cannot themselves act agentively, only their speakers. as mufwene (2001: 12) points out: language do not kill languages; their speakers do, in giving them up, although they themselves are victims of changes in the socio-economic ecologies in which they evolve. even so, there remains a case to answer, for global linguistic diversity is clearly diminishing, and there are situations of language contact with english where the consequences have been very adverse for indigenous vernaculars (e.g. irish, scots gaelic, australian aboriginal languages). on the other hand, there are also cases of contact where the sociolinguistic outcomes have not been at all threatening: for example, in what mufwene (2002) refers to as the former exploitation colonies (e.g. nigeria, ghana, zambia, malaysia), where there is ongoing language loss certainly but where shift has not been to english but to other regional languages, some of which function as gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3814 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 14 indigenous lingua francas (e.g. swahili in east africa, malay in indonesia/malaysia). a more nuanced account is needed therefore; one that explains why contact in some sociolinguistic situations (e.g. in the british isles, australasia) has had more detrimental consequences than in others. plausible here is the generalisation that english tends to undermine indigenous local languages when it becomes a vernacular for a substantial segment of the population. where, on the other hand, it is not a vernacular but a lingua franca, and a lingua franca for a minority at that, as appears to be the case in most former exploitation colonies, there is much less threat to indigenous languages. “languages or dialects can be threat to each other when they compete for the same functions”, as mufwene (2002: 24) reminds us. turning now from the global picture to our specific area of interest, europe, rather similar points can be made. there is little evidence that english poses an existential threat to the standardised national languages of european states, even the smaller ones (e.g. norwegian), for, despite globalisation, these still retain sufficient autonomy to implement protectionist policies, reserving a privileged place for national languages in such public domains as education and administration. additionally, these national languages index valued identities to an extent that english, an instrumental lingua franca cannot (oakes, 2005), this considerably reducing the likelihood of any wholesale language shift. but this argument does not address the principal concern of most commentators, which is not so much of english “killing” other languages as of relegating them to a lesser role in an incipient global diglossia where indigenous national languages are left, in pennycook’s (2000) words as “static markers of identity”, as languages of informal, less prestigious domains, with english in control of high prestige domains of higher education, scientific communication and transnational business. such points tend to be made most forcefully, and most pertinently, with respect to scientific communication, the concern reaching its greatest intensity in smaller countries, such as in scandinavia, where english has made the greatest inroads. for example, commenting on the situation in sweden, gunnarsson (2001) suggests that the trend to increased publication of research in english will lead eventually to register atrophy; that is, as scientific writing in swedish or other languages declines, there will be a slow impoverishment of the language’s lexical and stylistic resources through under-use, just as a limb withers if not exercised. gunnarsson (2000) adds that characteristically the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 15 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 15 swedish discourse patterns will be replaced by anglo-american ones, that researchers may lose their ability to discuss science in swedish, and that eventually the quality of swedish research will suffer. gunnarsson, it should be said immediately, is not a lone academic voice. similar views have been expressed by a number of scholars across a range of scandinavian countries (e.g. berg, hult & king (2001) on swedish; jarvad on danish cited in preisler (2005)). indeed, the possibility of english taking over the domain of scientific/academic communication has been a staple of intellectual debate for the last two decades in sweden (hult, 2005; oakes, 2005) and beyond. in denmark, for example, the state of the danish language has been debated in parliament (the folketing) and a working group established to consider proposals to strengthen the danish language viz á viz english (davidsen-nielsen, 2004). this followed the convening of a national conference in 1998 to debate the growing influence of english (preisler, 2005). in sweden, similarly. growing concern about the displacement of swedish from academic and research domains led to the swedish language council’s publication of a draft action plan for the promotion and protection of swedish. subsequently, in 2002 a parliamentary committee, charged with reviewing the draft proposals of the swedish language council, published its conclusions in a report titled mål i mun: förslag till handlingsprogram för svenska språket, many, but not all, of whose policy recommendations were later incorporated in a social democratic government bill titled best language –a concerted language policy for sweden presented to parliament in september 2005 (hult, 2004; regeringkansliet, 2005; linn & oakes, 2007 forthcoming). in norway, meanwhile, the newly reorganised norwegian language council published a report in 2005 titled norsk i hundre setting out proposals for strengthening the status of norwegian, and almost simultaneously, in march 2006, the university of oslo brought forward recommendations for a university language policy to address the increasing encroachment of english into the domains of research and higher education (university of oslo, 2006). the measures recommended in these various reports and bills do, of course, vary from country to country but the underlying thrust is broadly the same: to maintain swedish, norwegian, danish as “complete” languages, capable of discharging functions across all domains, including research and higher education. in pursuit of this goal the swedish “best language” bill, like the norsk i hundre report, recommends a policy of parallel-lingualism, that is, the gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3816 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 16 dual use of swedish (or norwegian) alongside english in research and higher education. an example would be full, extensive national language summaries of doctoral dissertations written in english. most detailed in its policy proposals for higher education is the university of oslo’s (2006) language policy report, which distinguishes four areas of language use within the broad domain of higher education: research, teaching, dissemination of research and administration, for each of which specific recommendations are made. thus, for the latter two the report stipulates that the language used should be norwegian. for teaching, a distinction is drawn between lower levels, where the primary language should be norwegian, and upper levels, where use of a foreign language medium is permissible; for research, meanwhile, the principle of parallel-lingualism is commended (see above). funding systems should not favour any particular language of publication. finally, and significantly for esp practitioners, the report recommends the establishment of a university centre for language assistance, one of whose responsibilities would be the provision of such services as editing, revising and proof-reading. turning now from a descriptive account of policy measures to an assessment of the risk of domain loss, we can immediately acknowledge that the statistics cited above do indicate a very real threat. that said, there are reasons to regard the risk as less dire than portrayed in the 2004 remarks of the incoming director of the norwegian language council2, sylfest lomheim (cited in linn & oakes 2007 forthcoming): … the future of our mother tongue is not safe. those who don’t know it are not keeping up. there is no law of nature which states that written norwegian will be going strong in 100 years (…). the swedes have of course long since seen the writing on the wall and got to work.3 one is that a number of authors (e.g. berg, hult & king, 2001; petersen & shaw, 2002; preisler, 2005) point out that there remains a considerable degree of variation between, and within, disciplines in proportions of academic publication in english, this tending to be greatest, and closest to 100%, in the natural sciences, and least marked in the humanities and disciplines such as law, whose subject-matter is substantially local and culture-encumbered. for this reason the language situation in the academic domain is not best characterised as one of diglossia but rather one where a rather complex pattern of academic bilingualism prevails, albeit with english playing an increasingly intrusive role (berg, hult & king, 2001). the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 17 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 17 one of the more refined portraits of such academic bilingualism is petersen & shaw’s (2002) study of publication practices in the faculty of business administration at aarhus school of business in denmark. they show that in a range of disciplines (e.g. economics, finance, information science) between a half and a third of published outputs between 1996 and 1998 appeared in danish, the choice of language of publication being influenced by such factors as author’s attitude, degree of localisation of the topic discussed, genre, departmental publication culture, and discourse community addressed. preisler (2005), similarly, reporting on his own academic field, english studies, comments that some research continues to be published in danish and that at national-level academic conferences plenary sessions are delivered in danish. informal discussion fluctuates between danish and english depending on the participants. again, then, the picture is not one of diglossia but of a rather complex academic bilingualism. caveats are in order, however, for the disciplines studied by petersen & shaw (2002) are applied ones, seeking to communicate research findings to local practitioners, and it is understandable therefore that they continue to publish a significant proportion of their outputs in danish. in the “hard” science disciplines, by contrast, the subject matter is universal rather than local, and the primary audience the international scientific community not local practitioners, and so one would expect a much greater proportion of publication to be in english, as indeed appears to be the case. even so, it is debateable whether the trend to english as the exclusive language of publication in the “hard” sciences should necessarily be depicted as a process of domain loss, for, as preisler (2005) plausibly argues, given the size of the danish national community and its scientific community, publication in an international lingua franca is, and may well always have been, necessary to maintain a wide readership for danishoriginated scientific research, not to mention its quality and relevance. if publication did not take place in english, it would need to be in some other language of wider communication, and so, just as one cannot lose something one never had, it is problematic to present scientific publication in english as a domain loss for danish. indeed, some commentators such as haarman & holman (2001), rather than stressing the loss to finnish of using english as the primary language of scientific publication, choose to highlight the gains: finland’s decision to favour english as its primary vehicle for scientific research has enabled the country, perhaps unexpectedly, to assume a major gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3818 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 18 role, both active and passive, in the process of globalisation. (haarman & holman, 2001: 256) also relevant here is preisler’s (2005) observation that the “scientific domain” actually comprises at least two areas of use, these being research publication and university teaching, not forgetting the research process and the dissemination of findings. the status of danish as a language of scholarship would only truly suffer, he goes on to argue, if, in addition to research publication, university teaching and locally-relevant applied research were to go over to a language other than danish, a switch that has as yet not taken place. another reason for taking a more measured view of the risk of domain loss is that, as we have seen, measures are now being taken to promote the use of scandinavian national languages in such areas as university teaching, research dissemination, and summaries of theses4. of course, it is entirely possible that these may turn out to be ineffective in curbing the further incursion of english. indeed, the policy of parallel-lingualism invites scepticism not just because the details of implementation are clouded but because it seems to run counter to the widely accepted sociolinguistic principle that languages are best maintained when used in separate, distinct domains rather than for similar functions in one domain. that said, the measures proposed, if not yet fully implemented, do signal that a significant sector of influential opinion has now mobilised in defence of the national language and the identity values it embodies. and this is important, for, as oakes (2005) observes, identity considerations tend to be an underrated force pushing against trends to uniformity and homogenisation. besides, the defensive measures outlined previously can be expected to stiffen resistance to the use of english at least in some areas of use (science teaching, for example). the most sensible stance to adopt, then, may be one of qualified, watchful optimism. certainly, if one takes academic publication in the hard sciences to be the crucial domain of interest, then the threat of an english take-over is very real and present. if, however, the relevant domain under threat is defined more broadly as one of academic/scientific communication in higher education, then domain loss is far from assured, and the very fact that it has become a topic of public debate is a positive indicator. we now turn to our second major focus: access and equity in scientific publication in english. the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 19 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 19 issues of access and equity in scientific/academic publication in english several commentators (e.g. de swaan, 2001b; wright, 2004) have remarked on the undeserved and substantial advantages accruing to native speakers from the global dominance of english, not least in the field of academic publication. they are undeserved in that whereas native speakers acquire the language naturalistically in childhood, second language users (and the societies they come from) incur the considerable costs of formal study, books, teachers and so on, not to mention the time and effort expended. moreover, through the operation of external network effects these second language users add to the utility of the language for all other users, including native speakers, who, in economic parlance, enjoy “location rent” in as much as they benefit from a resource towards the cost of whose production they make comparatively little contribution. the bulk of critical comment, however, is not so much focused on these advantages as on the disadvantage of non-native speakers, and more generally on inequalities in the domain of scientific/academic publication. there are claims, for instance, that scholars from non-english speaking or “periphery” backgrounds are disadvantaged when it comes to placing their work in high prestige international journals (canagarajah, 1996 & 2002; tardy, 2004); that work not published in english tends to be undervalued or even ignored, thereby falling into the domain of “lost science” (gibbs, 1995; phillipson, 2001; tardy, 2004); and that the gatekeeping practices of us or british editors may bolster the dominance of anglo-american discursive norms (de swaan, 2001b; tardy, 2004). there have also been calls for greater tolerance on the part of anglo-american journal editors and reviewers toward deviance from native linguistic norms and for non-native writer’s right to “linguistics peculiarities” (ammon, 2000: 112). clearly, then, there is a fairly widespread sense of disquiet, with the charges made of sufficient gravity to merit systematic investigation. the key issues can be summarised as follows: (i) to what extent are there country-based variations, and inequalities, in academic knowledge production, and do these indicate inequalities? (ii) if there are inequalities, to what extent do linguistic factors, specifically non-native speaker status in a world dominated by english, contribute to these –independent of other nonlinguistic/non-discursive factors? gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3820 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 20 (iii) to what extent are inequalities, where they exist, exacerbated by discriminatory practices on the part of journal editors and reviewers? our main interest, of course, is in the second of these broad questions –i.e., in the role linguistic factors play in international journal publication, but we will unavoidably also need to consider non-linguistic/non-discursive factors, if only to attempt to isolate the former from the latter. first, however, we turn to first question above: the extent of inequality in scientific/academic research publication. inequality in scientific/academic publication: the bibliometric evidence the production of high quality scientific research is quite evidently an expensive business, requiring not just an established research infrastructure (well-stocked libraries, laboratories and specialised equipment, well-educated scientists, complex logistical support) but also the commitment of substantial financial resources on a stable and sustained basis to research, the productivity of whose outcomes may not easily be foreseen. it is to be expected, then, that differences in research output may well mirror national differences in wealth distribution across the world, and this in fact seems to be borne out by most macro bibliometric statistics. table 1, for example, drawing on figures published by the european commission (2003), shows that in 2001 the united states, the european union and japan, some of the world’s wealthiest societies, collectively accounted for 78.3% of the world’s published scientific research. 1995 1998 2001 king (2004) notes meanwhile that 32 countries, inclusive of the g8 and the former eu-15, account for 98% of all highly cited papers5, with the world’s remaining 162 countries accounting for 2%. world regions % of publications the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 21 the global spread of english inequality in scientific/academic publication: the bibliometric evidence the production of high quality scientific research is quite evidently an expensive business, requiring not just an established research infrastructure (well-stocked libraries, laboratories and specialised equipment, well-educated scientists, complex logistical support) but also the commitment of substantial financial resources on a stable and sustained basis to research, the productivity of whose outcomes may not easily be foreseen. it is to be expected, then, that differences in research output may well mirror national differences in wealth distribution across the world, and this in fact seems to be borne out by most macro bibliometric statistics. table 1, for example, drawing on figures published by the european commission (2003), shows that in 2001 the united states, the european union and japan, some of the world’s wealthiest societies, collectively accounted for 78.3% of the world’s published scientific research. 1995 1998 2001 usa 33.9% 31.6% 31.0% eu-15 35.8% 37.5% 37.2% japan 9.2% 9.9% 10.1% total (%) 78.9% 79.0% 78.3 % table 1. publication shares (%) in world scientific output by eu-15, usa, japan (european commission, 2003). king (2004) notes meanwhile that 32 countries, inclusive of the g8 and the former eu-15, account for 98% of all highly cited papers 5 , with the world’s remaining 162 countries accounting for 2%. world regions % of publications (1995-1999) % publication growth rate (1995-1999) eu-15 29.4% (40,108) 6.5% nafta (usa, canada, mexico) 23.2% (31,620) -0.7% developed asian countries (japan, korea, taiwan, singapore) 18.3% (25,047) 10.9% other european countries (russia, ukraine) 8.6% (11,705) 5.4% asian countries (china and hong kong) 6.3% (8,554) 26.2% eu candidate (transitional) countries 4.8% (6,535) 8.5% other asian countries(india and pakistan) 3.9% (5,293) 4.6% oceania (australia and nz) 1.7% (2,356) 3.1% south american countries 1.4% (1,898) 21.1% efta countries (iceland, norway , switzerland) 1.3% ( 1,776) 8.9% other countries (israel, south africa) 1.0% (1,399) 7.6% asean -4 (indonesia, malaysia, philippines, thailand) 0.1% (205) 20.9% 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 21 homing in on specific disciplines and publication rates by country, a not dissimilar picture emerges. table 2 provides a breakdown by world regions of the number of publications and publication growth rates in the field of the material sciences over the period 1995-1999. again, we see that the three regions of the eu, north america and developed pacific rim countries together account for a very large proportion of total published output with less wealthy regions (e.g. south america, south asia) accounting for a relatively small share. significantly, though, the highest publication growth rates over the last decade or so have been in what may (1997: 795) refers to as “scientifically emerging countries” such as china and hong kong. a further interesting point is that the three very wealthy efta countries of norway, iceland and switzerland have a larger share of outputs than the much more populous but poorer asean countries and nearly as large share as the whole of south america, suggesting that we also need take account of publications in relation to population size. this is done in table 3, which, drawing on the entire science citation index (sci) over a 14 year period 1981-1994 (see may, 1997: 794), displays the top twelve countries ranked by publications per head of population. once again, there is evidence of a strong association between national wealth and research output with 5 of the 12 countries above ranking as among the world’s ten richest states as determined by gnp per capita (world bank, 2006) and all the others falling in the high income category. conversely, there is no representation in this list for any middle or low income country. interestingly, the four highest ranking countries above are non-anglophone, though this is balanced by the fact that five others are gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3822 ibérica 13 [2007]: …-… 13 japan 9.2% 9.9% 10.1% total (%) 78.9% 79.0% 78.3 % table 1. publication shares (%) in world scientific output by eu-15, usa, japan (european commission, 2003). king (2004) notes meanwhile that 32 countries, inclusive of the g8 and the former eu-15, account for 98% of all highly cited papers 5 , with the world’s remaining 162 countries accounting for 2%. world regions % of publications (1995-1999) % publication growth rate (1995-1999) eu-15 29.4% (40,108) 6.5% nafta (usa, canada, mexico) 23.2% (31,620) -0.7% developed asian countries (japan, korea, taiwan, singapore) 18.3% (25,047) 10.9% other european countries (russia, ukraine) 8.6% (11,705) 5.4% asian countries (china and hong kong) 6.3% (8,554) 26.2% eu candidate (transitional) countries 4.8% (6,535) 8.5% other asian countries(india and pakistan) 3.9% (5,293) 4.6% oceania (australia and nz) 1.7% (2,356) 3.1% south american countries 1.4% (1,898) 21.1% efta countries (iceland, norway , switzerland) 1.3% ( 1,776) 8.9% other countries (israel, south africa) 1.0% (1,399) 7.6% asean -4 (indonesia, malaysia, philippines, thailand) 0.1% (205) 20.9% totals 100% 136,496 table 2. publications and publication growth rates (%) by world regions in the material sciences 1995-1999 (european commission, 2003). 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 22 english-speaking, suggesting though not confirming, that anglophone status could have some influence on quantity of published research output. scandinavian countries, one may note, feature prominently in the list, these having both a high gnp per capita and, by repute, populations with high level skills in english. there remains, however, substantial variation among the rich countries in publication outputs, which suggests that factors beyond wealth play a role, commonly mentioned among which are research culture (the propensity to reward academics according to their publications), a well-established research tradition, and less rather than more hierarchical university structures. there is no decisive evidence for any one of these, however. we can conclude, then, that while the bibliometric statistics cited above are certainly coarse, not taking account, for instance, of the growing trend toward collaborative co-publication, they do broadly confirm that there are, as expected, marked regional and country-based variations in published research outputs across the globe, and that in that sense there are inequalities mirroring more general socio-economic inequalities. this being so, we can now turn to the far complex question of the role of linguistic factors in scientific publication rates. linguistic factors and scientific/academic publication rates in assessing the claim that scholars from non-anglophone backgrounds are disadvantaged relative to native speakers in placing their research outputs in high prestige international journals there are three main kinds of evidence the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 23 ibérica 13 [2007]: …-…14 the number of publications and publication growth rates in the field of the material sciences over the period 1995-1999. again, we see that the three regions of the eu, north america and developed pacific rim countries together account for a very large proportion of total published output with less wealthy regions (e.g. south america, south asia) accounting for a relatively small share. significantly, though, the highest publication growth rates over the last decade or so have been in what may (1997: 795) refers to as “scientifically emerging countries” such as china and hong kong. a further interesting point is that the three very wealthy efta countries of norway, iceland and switzerland have a larger share of outputs than the much more populous but poorer asean countries and nearly as large share as the whole of south america, suggesting that we also need take account of publications in relation to population size. this is done in table 3, which, drawing on the entire science citation index (sci) over a 14 year period 19811994 (see may, 1997: 794), displays the top twelve countries ranked by publications per head of population. rank country papers published per head of population 1 switzerland 167 2 israel 152 3 sweden 147 4 denmark 127 5 canada 127 6 netherlands 109 7 finland 107 8 uk 104 9 usa 100 10 new zealand 99 11 norway 96 12 australia 93 table 3. scientific publications per head of population: top 12 countries (may, 1997: 794). once again, there is evidence of a strong association between national wealth and research output with 5 of the 12 countries above ranking as among the world’s ten richest states as determined by gnp per capita (world bank, 2006) and all the others falling in the high income category. conversely, there is no representation in this list for any middle or low income country. interestingly, the four highest ranking countries above are non-anglophone, though this is balanced by the fact that five others are english-speaking, suggesting though not confirming, that anglophone status could have some influence on quantity of published research output. scandinavian countries, one may note, feature prominently in the list, these having both a high gnp per capita and, by repute, populations with high level skills in english. 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 23 that we can appeal to, each of which is problematic in its own way: bibliometric statistics, attitude surveys of academics/scientists, and ethnographically-oriented case studies. let us consider each in turn. the bibliometric evidence in addition to the macro bibliometric surveys cited above, which point to an increasing globalization of scientific research with a greater proportion of the total volume of published research originating in non-anglophone countries (e.g. china, japan), there are a number of smaller scale studies that examine the proportions of papers contributed by non-native speaking scholars (nnss) or countries in specific disciplines or journals. an example would be wood (2001), who concludes on the basis of one year’s issues (1997-98) of the journals nature and science that while there may be financial or material resource impediments to “periphery” scholars publishing their work, the barriers of language are not in themselves that formidable: … 49.5% of papers in science and 40.6% of papers in nature, or an average of 45.6% of ras (research articles) in these two journals are written by nnss. (…) from the data here, the linguistic barriers for nnss to be published in even the most prestigious journal do not seem to be that high. (wood, 2001: 79-80) sano (2002), meanwhile, reports that the share of chemistry papers originating from non-english-speaking countries rose from 31% in 1970 to 58% in 2000.6 similar trends are noted by swales (2004), who reports that the percentage of tesol quarterly articles of us provenance has fallen from above 90% in 1984 to a still high 50% in 2000; by master (1999), whose 1999 editorial for the esp journal remarks on the growing number of contributions from non-native authors (up to 8.7 per issue from 1996); and by benfield & feak (2006), who comment that over the period 2003-05 around 60% of submissions to the journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery were from non-native authors. they add that “…the acceptance rates of eil-authored manuscripts is essentially the same as that for native speakers” (benfield & feak, 2006: 1728). these observations, one might add, are broadly in line with the statistics in table 2 showing a very marked growth in the quantity of publications originating in china, hong kong and other gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3824 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 24 developed pacific rim asian countries (e.g. japan, korea) –in short, a growing globalisation of scientific research published in english. the evidence suggests, then, that there is no fundamental, insuperable english language barrier to publication in international journals. however, because the bibliometric data highlight outputs rather than research or writing-up processes, it does not allow us to conclude that there is no linguistically-based disadvantage suffered by non-anglophone researchers, who, in all probability, do exert themselves considerably more to secure publication of their research. to gain a better understanding of this putative disadvantage, it is necessary, therefore, to turn to other kinds of data, starting with attitude surveys. attitude surveys on the matter of perceptions of disadvantage, the survey evidence is, as one might anticipate, mixed and rather inconclusive. tardy (2004), for example, cites a number of authors who feel that non-native scholars are indeed disadvantaged relative to native english-speaker academics, yet the findings of her own survey of international graduate students in the united states present a more qualified picture. all questionnaire respondents (n=45) believed that there were beneficial aspects to the use of english as an international language of science, but at the same time thirty-six of these same respondents identified disadvantages –the time needed to learn english to a high level, for example. a similar picture emerges from a survey of swiss researchers’ attitudes to english as an international language of science carried out by murray & dingwall (2001). in this instance 41% of respondents (n=250) thought the dominance of english was a slight disadvantage in their careers and 8% a major handicap, but 27% believed it was actually an advantage with a further 24% seeing it as having no effect either way. these findings are not dissimilar to ammon’s (1990) survey of german scientists, where 55% of the sample reported no sense of disadvantage in their ability to communicate in english, but they do contrast with those of truchot’s (2001) 1984 strasbourg survey, which found that 60% of the french scientists sampled considered themselves disadvantaged relative to native english-speaking researchers. flowerdew (1999a), meanwhile, found that 68% of the 585 hong kong academics surveyed believed themselves to be disadvantaged relative to native speakers in publishing their research. the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 25 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 25 drawing any definitive conclusion from these various surveys is very difficult. the questions and samples are very different, and the responses are influenced by who the respondents believe themselves to be in competition with and by how good they believe their english is. then there is the influence of personal and national background: swiss researchers from a relatively small, officially multilingual country may be more easily reconciled to the use of english to transcend the limits of the national science community than, say, french scientists, whose language, once a lingua franca competitor of english, has now been displaced from that function. what one can say, however, is that attitudes to the dominance of english as the dominant international language of science are ambivalent. some acknowledge the advantage of an international language of scientific communication, but there is, too, a widespread, if not universal, sense that non-anglophone researchers are disadvantaged relative to native englishspeaking researchers when it comes to publication in english. surveys, however, are not the best instrument for gauging the scale or nature of this possible disadvantage; for that, closer, more detailed studies of writing and publication processes are more suitable. case studies there is now a growing body of literature on the academic writing of multilingual non-anglophone scholars, some of which focuses on the textual features of such writing, some on writing practices and processes, and some on the challenges of securing journal publication. it is on this last area that we now concentrate, though we recognize the potential relevance of the other two areas as well as the complementary literature on peer reviews (e.g. gosden, 2003; hewings, 2004). especially significant here is work by flowerdew (1999b, 2000 & 2001) on hong kong academics, by curry & lillis (2004) on hungarian, slovak and spanish psychologists, by burrough-boenisch (2003) on dutch scientists, and by kourilova (1998) on slovak medical researchers’ english language submissions to bio-medical journals. also of importance, and a topic for later discussion, is canagarajah’s (1996, 2002 & 2003) work on the particular difficulties “periphery” scholars face in writing for international publication. summarising this body of literature for the light it collectively casts on questions of equity and access in academic knowledge production is not an gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3826 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 26 entirely easy matter, for the contexts and disciplines studied are diverse and many studies, being ethnographically inclined, comprise relatively small numbers of subjects. nonetheless, a number of general trends and conclusions can be elicited, if tentatively. the first is that the literature tends to confirm what one might suspect a priori: writing in english does present an additional burden for some nonanglophone researchers. the three scholars in curry & lillis’s (2004) case study, for example, all refer, with great plausibility, to the extended time and effort needed to write for publication in english, not to mention the time and opportunity cost of learning and maintaining english skills to a high level. the case studies by flowerdew (2000) and li (2006) also attest to the often prolonged processes of revision and resubmission undergone by nonanglophone scholars, often in response to language and style-based criticisms; and burrough-boenisch (2003) amplifies the picture through her discussion of the degree to which non-anglophone manuscripts are subjected to revisions at the hands of copy-writers, reviewers, and professional “language correctors”. at a finer level of linguistic detail, meanwhile, flowerdew (1999b: 254) reports that his sample of hong kong academics (n=26) feel handicapped by a “less rich vocabulary” and “less facility of expression” generally. burrough-boenisch (2003) highlights multilingual authors’ problems with word order, word choice and register, while kourilova (1998) hypotheses that shortcomings in slovak writers’ understanding of the pragmatics of the english modality system may cause them to modulate their claims inappropriately. from studies of peer reviews, finally, come some evidence (see benfield & howard, 2000) that critical comments on language and writing quality may be significantly more frequent for second language users than anglophone writers. these various bits of evidence are certainly disparate, deriving as they do from studies examining different aspects of the writing-publication process, but they do collectively support the impression that for some multilingual scholars linguistic factors do constitute an additional obstacle to negotiate on the path to academic publication. that said, a number of qualifications are in order, the first being that many of the individual scholars featuring in case studies (e.g. ig in curry & lillis, 2004; chen in li, 2006) do in the end achieve publication. a second qualification is that there is, quite evidently, considerable variation in the extent to which language, independent of other factors, is experienced as an impediment, depending on discipline, journal the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 27 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 27 targeted, academic seniority, and, very probably, the level of english proficiency of the scholar, though this rarely features explicitly as a variable of enquiry. this leads us fairly directly to our second major point, on the concept of the non-native speaker in academic knowledge production. many of the studies cited above (e.g. kourilova, 1998; flowerdew, 1999b) invoke the concept of the non-native speaker in discussions of the challenges facing multilingual scholars. this is understandable, for the native/non-native dichotomy is well-established and has a certain convenience for distinguishing two populations of writers. however, there are a number of reasons for questioning its utility, coherence and relevance. first, the boundaries of native-speakerhood are now under serious scrutiny (see davies, 2003), and second, if the notion of native-speakerhood has meaning, it would seem to refer most accurately to the acquisition of syntactic and phonological knowledge from early childhood socialisation and not to the acquisition of writing, let alone academic writing, which requires prolonged formal education, socialisation into academic literacy practices and a gradual accretion of competence in specialised disciplinary discourses (see hyland, 2000 & 2006). with regard to the acquisition of this specialised competence, the nativespeaker and the non-native speaker both start out as novices, a position of parity that the native/non-native dichotomy obscures, but that is noted by some of the editors from flowerdew’s (2001) study, who remark that many of the problems of hong kong/chinese authors are shared by their native speaker counterparts (see also swales, 2004). this is not to say that nativespeakerhood confers no advantage at all. it may do so with particular regard to intuitions of grammaticality, and it may do so if one construes “native speaker” as a proxy term for long-term residence in the united states or the uk, this being conducive to higher levels of english language proficiency and, thence, to greater control over the formal resources of vocabulary and grammar as drawn on in academic writing7. the key dimensions of difference, then, are not so much native or non-native speaker status as expertise (novice or expert) and proficiency, the significance of the latter being underscored if one bears in mind the frequency with which so-called non-natives display greater facility in academic writing than natives, whose performance levels are in fact very variable. a third final reason for disputing the utility of the native/non-native dichotomy is that both categories are indiscriminatingly loose and heterogeneous. thus, in the native-speaker category, for example, one would gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3828 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 28 probably have to include authors from such places as singapore, india, wales, south africa, ghana and kenya, where english is all too commonly the first language of literacy, if not the mother tongue. researchers from some of these countries can readily be identified as advantaged, not so much because they are native-speakers but because they work in prosperous, wellfunded, amply networked research settings. others, on the other hand, particularly those from africa, are, judging by academic publication statistics, significantly disadvantaged, indeed more disadvantaged than bilingual eil scholars8 from, say, hong kong/china, japan or hungary, who despite their non-native status seem to be managing to increase their share of global academic outputs (see table 2). patterns of disadvantage would seem, then, to cut across the native/nonnative distinction, the prime reason being that there are many non-language and non-discursive impediments to academic publication, many of which have been ably explored by canagarajah (1996, 2002 & 2003). it is to these that we now turn briefly. the role of non-language constraints on academic publication the very evident disparity in academic knowledge production between rich and poor regions (e.g. africa, south america), illustrated in table 2, provides strong support for cangarajah’s (1996 & 2002) claims that “periphery” scholars are very significantly impeded by scarce financial and material resources: for example, poorly equipped laboratories and libraries, limited access to specialist journals, scant funding for empirical research, and, at the extreme end of the spectrum, no photocopying facilities, limited supplies of paper, outdated information technology facilities. the effects of such scarcity are, canagarajah (2002) suggests, pervasive and far-reaching, leading, for example, to an inability to keep in touch with fast-moving developments in scientific disciplines and, therefore, to difficulties in composing suitable literature reviews and in moving beyond what some of the editors in flowerdew’s (2001: 135) survey refer to as a “parochial” outlook. accompanying, and compounding, many of these problems is scholarly isolation from the “conversations of the discipline”, deriving from some combination of geographical distance from the “centre”, inefficient communications, lack of financial support for conference participation, and the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 29 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 29 the absence of a critical mass of local scholars engaged in specialised research fields. this isolation (off-networked status) makes it more difficult to acquire knowledge of the publishing conventions of metropolitan journals and of the discourses expected in particular disciplinary communities through “legitimate peripheral participation” (lave & wenger, 1991)9. canagarajah (2003: 198) is eloquent on this point: … the problem for me –when i tried to publish from sri lanka– was that i was so off-networked from scholars in the center that my peripherality was too excessive: the publishing practices of the insiders in the west became insufficiently transparent, the legitimacy of the practices i was adopting was questionable; surrounded by local academics who did not see the value of publishing and were distanced from scholars who were actively publishing, my ability to practice was severely curtailed. also unhelpful here, of course, is that some of the genres surrounding academic publication (e.g. peer reviews, editors’ letters, covering submission letters) are partially occluded and therefore opaque to off-networked scholars, the same being true of uncodified and variable publishing conventions ranging from the formatting of manuscripts to the epistemological preferences of particular journals. and beyond material and networking disadvantage, differences in academic culture may also constrain publication. for example, there are settings, not exclusively in the “periphery”, where there is little urgency for publication –not just because teaching loads are heavy and second teaching jobs common but because rewards are allocated on the basis of one’s position in hierarchies delineated by patronage and seniority rather than by publishing output. difficult to assess, finally, are claims by some “periphery” scholars (e.g. the hong kong academics in flowerdew’s (1999a) study) that prejudice on the part of “centre” editors and reviewers constitutes an additional obstacle to publication (see question (iii)). one of the difficulties is that, because discrimination is by its very nature often concealed, it is no easy matter to assemble evidence that goes beyond anecdote. another is that publication in high-prestige international journals is difficult. most submissions are rejected, and it is possible, therefore, that the high rejection rate itself engenders suspicion. that said, and the uncertainties acknowledged, one can advance a tentative, provisional hypothesis, which is that while there are clearly many instances of discrimination, and even more of semi-conscious bias against publications from non-traditional sources (see ross et al, 2006), gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3830 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 30 such discrimination is not so widespread or systematic that it in itself constitutes a major barrier to publication. central to this tentative claim are the bibliometric statistics showing a steady growth in the number of publications from authors and regions outside the traditional centre. but it is also true that an increasing number of reviewers are themselves bilingual users of english as a lingua franca and that an increased number of journals are opting for a double-blind peer review process, both these trends reducing the likelihood of discrimination. one might also mention here flowerdew’s (2001) study of editors’ attitudes in the field of applied linguistics, which provide no evidence of discrimination: on the contrary, most editors reported themselves as being positively sympathetic to non-native submissions. the limitation here, of course, is that this is a small-scale study confined to a single discipline and drawing on self-report data. clearly, then, further studies are needed but for the moment we cannot conclude that discrimination per se is a major factor in disadvantage. conclusion in this overview paper we have focused on two major and adverse consequences of the rise of english as the dominant language of scientific/academic publication: the threat of domain loss, perceived as particularly acute in some of the smaller european countries most exposed to english (e.g. in scandinavia), and the alleged disadvantage of nonanglophone scholars, relative to native speakers, in the field of academic publication. the aim has been to assess the extent and severity of both these problems, and now in the conclusion we summarize some of the principal findings, starting with the issue of domain loss. concluding remarks on the threat of domain loss anxiety about domain loss seems amply justified when one considers the dominance of english in natural/social science publication and the growing use of english as a university teaching medium. clearly, if such trends continue, or intensify, swedish, norwegian and other national languages may no longer find a use in scientific communication, and registers and lexical resources may eventually be lost. that situation has not yet arrived, however, and there are, we argued, some the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 31 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 31 reasons to believe it may be averted. first, the current situation cannot be adequately represented as one of diglossia. it is rather one where a complex academic bilingualism obtains in that some disciplines still publish in national languages, while in others informal scientific communication (beyond the pages of academic journals) continues to be transacted in national languages. a second factor is that universities, language agencies and national governments are alert to the threat and have begun to take measures to maintain norwegian, swedish, etc. as “complete” languages, including, for example, the introduction of a policy of parallel-lingualism and the imposition of limits on the use of english for university level teaching. finally, the important role of language in constructing national identities may help hold the encroachment of english in check. clearly, however, the situation remains precarious. the measures outlined above turn out to be ineffective, and the language planning interventions necessary will be complex, for a delicate balance has to be struck between the maintenance of national languages across all domains and the on-going need for english in a world of increasing academic mobility in ever more market-oriented higher education systems and in a globalising research environment. in short, this is a test case for language planning, whose final outcomes are as yet unknown. concluding remarks on inequalities in academic knowledge production statistics show that there are indeed significant imbalances in published research outputs between world regions, and in the preceding sections we have focused on both linguistic and non-linguistic contributory factors with a view to estimating the relative weight of the former compared to the latter. the conclusion emerging is that while english remains a barrier to publication for some scholars, it is non-language factors that constitute the greater impediment. several strands of evidence converge to support this hypothesis. first, inequalities in research output between regions closely mirror established patterns of socio-economic inequality, cutting across the anglophone/nonanglophone distinction. second, bibliometric statistics show a rapid growth in publications from a number of non-anglophone regions (e.g. the pacific rim countries), this corroborating claims by some commentators (e.g. sano, gibson ferguson ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-3832 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 32 2002; swales, 2004; benfield & feak, 2006) that in particular disciplines the proportion of submissions from non-native authors is on the increase. third, small scale studies of the problems experienced by non-anglophone scholars writing for publication (e.g. flowerdew, 1999b & 2001), and of peer review studies (e.g. gosden, 2003), suggest that many of these problems are in fact shared by so-called “native” writers, casting further doubt on the relevance of the already much criticised native/non-native distinction. of more import, it would seem, are degree of experience/expertise in academic publication and proficiency in certain kinds of academic written discourse in english, this varying in both native and non-native populations. a possible reason for the waning of the linguistic factor in disadvantage, one might add, is that knowledge of english is increasingly regarded in many countries as a necessary, basic skill (see graddol, 2006) and not as an optional foreign language with the result that english skills are now more commonplace and more widely distributed than was once the case. that said, diminished importance does not mean of no account, and there is evidence (see curry & lillis, 2004) that many scholars (particularly, perhaps, of an older generation) find that writing in english requires extra time and effort for the production of less than optimal written texts. ameliorative actions are, therefore, required, and it is to these that we turn finally, albeit briefly. recourse to a neutral lingua such as esperanto is sometimes mooted, but, on anything other than a minor scale, is impractical (see li, 2003) because, as we have argued, the spread of english as an international lingua franca is substantially a market-driven bottom-up process not amenable to control by any one country or organisation. it is likely, therefore, that any amelioration of linguistic disadvantage will flow from more modest interventions, possibly including: • the long term de-anglicisation of english, allowing bilingual eil authors to identify themselves, and be identified, as authoritative users of their own lingua franca variety (with its own peculiarities –see ammon, 2000) as opposed to imperfect writers of a standard british or american standard english; • the establishment of journal-based editing and language services for bilingual eil authors; • on-going work by esp/eap practitioners in non-anglophone universities, with provision and funding available for them to extend the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 33 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 33 their services beyond students to academic staff. far from strengthening the hegemony of english, this work should be regarded as an important contribution to the amelioration of language-based disadvantage; • the cultivation of a greater sense of responsibility on the part of relatively privileged anglophone researchers for assisting their nonanglophone disciplinary peers with their english, perhaps through co-publication or editing advice (see benfield & feak, 2006). any reduction of language-based disadvantage flowing from such measures is unlikely, of course, to have much impact on the larger problem of nonlanguage-based inequalities in academic publication, which, because they are related to wider disorders of development and wealth distribution, are even more intractable. that said, there are measures (e.g. preferential journal subscription rates for low income countries, more open access publishing, more supportive institutional links) that can help mitigate some of the inequalities,10 but space limitations regrettably preclude further discussion of these here. a final comment, of some possible consolation perhaps, is that the contemporary dominance of english is, in all probability, a temporary, timebound phenomenon. in the future other lingua francas are likely to challenge its pre-eminence, just as they did in the past, as lankester’s 1883 presidential address to the british 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(2000). ideology, politics and language policies: focus on english. amsterdam: john benjamins. ross, j., c. gross, m. desai, y. hong, a. grant, s. daniels, v. 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 36 dr. gibson ferguson currently lectures at the university of sheffield, where he is the program director of the ma in applied linguistics. his recent publications include language planning and education (2006) with edinburgh university press and language in language teacher education (2002) with john benjamins. his principal research interests are in language planning and sociolinguistics, esp and teacher education. notes 1 it is true, of course, that the united states and britain promote english through agencies such as the british council and the united states information agency (usia), but so do almost all the major oecd countries: spain, japan, germany, or france –spain through the instituto cervantes, japan through the japan language foundation, germany through such agencies as the goethe institut and carl duisberg gesellschaft, and so on. and one should not really be surprised at these promotional activities, for foreign policy, including the export of the national language, has long been recognised as animated principally by national selfinterest. 2 presumably, the remarks were designed to mobilise public opinion rather than present a dispassionate considered view. 3 the remarks are from the national daily dagbladet of march 2004, as translated by linn & oakes. 4 also under consideration is the provision of financial support for the production of national language textbooks (see university of oslo, 2006). the global spread of english ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 37 hachinski, r. gibbons, t. gardner & h. krumholz (2006). “effect of blinded peer review on abstract acceptance”. the journal of the american medical association (jama) 295: 16751680. sano, h. (2002). “the world’s lingua franca of science”. english today 18: 45-49. skuttnab-kangas, t. (2003). “linguistic diversity and biodiversity: the threat from killer languages” in c. mair (ed.), the politics of english as a world language, 31-52. amsterdam: rodopi, asnel papers 7. swales, j. (1997). “english as tyrannosaurus rex”. world englishes 16: 373-382. swales, j. (2004). research genres. cambridge: cambridge university press. taavitsvainen, i. & p. pahta (2003). “english in finland: globalisation language awareness and questions of identity”. english today 19: 3-15. tardy, c. (2004). “the role of english in scientific communication: lingua franca or tyrannosaurus rex?”. journal of english for academic purposes 3: 247–269. tollefson, j. (1991). planning language, planning inequality. london: longman. tollefson, j. (ed.) (1995). power and inequality in language education. cambridge: cambridge university press. truchot, c. (2001). “the language of science in france: public debate and language policies” in u. ammon (ed.), 319–328. university of oslo (2006). in the next hundred years: the university of oslo and language in that age of internationalization. recommendation of the committee on language policy at the university of oslo. url: http://www.uio.no/om_uio/innstill inger/ 06/sprakpolitikk/report.pdf [19/11/06] wood, a. (2001). “international scientific english: the language of research scientists” in flowerdew, j. & m. peacock (eds.) research perspectives on english for academic purposes, 7183. cambridge: cambridge university press. world bank (2006). world bank development indicators 2006. washington dfc: world bank publications. wright, s. (2004). language policy and language planning. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 37 38 ibérica 13 [2007]: 7-38 gibson ferguson 5 the database here is the very comprehensive thomson isi (8,000 journals; 36 languages). (see king, 2004) 6 sano’s database is chemical abstracts, the largest in the field of chemistry. 7 social constructionist and academic literacies approaches to academic writing may underplay the importance of these formal resources. 8 the acronym eil stands for english as an international language. 9 it also makes it more difficult to learn that locally valid knowledge, and ways of speaking this knowledge, may not always transfer easily, or travel well to, to the centre –where high-impact journals are published (see blommaert, 2005) 10 canagarajah (2002) has some useful suggestions to make on this topic. one can also endorse the comments of king (2004: 315), who writes: “the cycles of poverty and dependence will only be broken by capacity-building between nations of high and low science intensity, often characterized as the north and the south”. 11 from the report of the fifty-third meeting of the british association for the advancement of science, 1883. london: john murray. 02 ferguson.qxp 11/4/07 16:41 página 38 iberica 13 ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this study explores the rhetorical structure of introductions that are followed by an independent literature review (l) section. it is motivated by an increasing use or even the prevalent use of both the introduction and l sections in the opening phase of empirical research articles in many disciplines and the lack of systematic genre-based investigation of introductions with a following l section. based on a detailed examination of 30 introductions with a subsequent l section in applied linguistics, this study found that they generally can be classified into two categories according to their communicative functions and structures. they are the traditional cars type that largely follows the classic “create a research space” (cars) model and the innovative two-move orientation type. some featured elements used in the introductions with a subsequent l are identified and the “two-move orientation” approach is formulated for the rhetorical structure of this new type of introductions. the interesting links between introduction and l are also suggested. the study contributes to our understanding of the structure and function of this important part-genre in a new generic context (that is, introductions being followed by an independent l section) and illuminates the current genre-based teaching of introduction writing. keywords: introductions, research articles, rhetorical structure, genre. resumen i nn ov a c io ne s e n l as e s tr uc t ur ac i ón de l a s in tr od uc c i on e s de a rt íc u l os d e i nv e s t ig a c i ón : e l c a s o d e l a li ng ü ís t ic a ap l ic ad a en el presente trabajo se estudia la estructura retórica de las introducciones que preceden a la sección de revisión bibliográfica (b) en un artículo de investigación. innovations in structuring article introductions: the case of applied linguistics ling lin hong kong polytechnic university (china) kathycarly920@gmail.com 129 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 129 ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 ling lin su motivación radica en un uso incrementado o incluso la prevalencia de secciones de introducción o secciones b en la fase de apertura de un artículo de investigación empírica en muchas disciplinas, así como la falta de investigaciones sistemáticas basadas en los géneros en torno a las introducciones que preceden a una sección b. partiendo del examen pormenorizado de 30 introducciones con sus secciones b subsiguientes y pertenecientes a artículos de investigación en lingüística aplicada, este trabajo ha constatado que existe una clasificación general en dos categorías conforme a las funciones y estructuras comunicativas. suelen basarse en el modelo cars (“creación de un espacio de investigación” en sus siglas en inglés) y, de forma innovadora, registrar dos movimientos. se señalan algunas características utilizadas y se formula el enfoque de una “orientación hacia dos movimientos” para la estructura retórica de este nuevo tipo de introducciones. se sugiere, además, las existencia de vínculos interesantes entre las secciones de introducción y b. este estudio sirve para comprender mejor la estructura y la función de esta parte importante del género del artículo de investigación en un nuevo contexto (como son las introducciones que predicen a una sección b independiente); pero, además, sirve para arrojar una luz sobre la enseñanza de la redacción de introducciones conforme al género en el que se encuentran. palabras clave: introducciones, artículos de investigación, estructura retórica, género. 1. introduction increasing awareness and concern about the growing use of english as an academic lingua franca (ferguson, 2007) and the long-term dominance of anglo-american discursive norms in the publication world has given rise to a substantial body of research on various aspects of the genre of english research articles (ras), e.g., its macro-structure, the rhetorical organization of its major sections, to name just a few. regarding the macro-structure of the ra, the classic introduction-method-results-discussion (imrd) model determines that there are four major sections in a “conventional” empirical article (namely, the introduction, method, results and discussion sections) with the introduction as the only single section in its opening phase. given the important position and pivotal role of the introduction section, its rhetorical structure has in the past three decades attracted considerable scholarly attention, whose major focuses concern its variations across disciplines (samraj, 2002), sub-disciplines (ozturk, 2007) and cultures (lee, 2001; hirano, 2009; sheldon, 2011). a number of studies have also explored the interrelationship between the introduction and other parts of the ra 130 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 130 such as abstracts in samraj (2005). these studies mostly used swales’s (1990) influential “create-a-research-space” (cars) model and its revised version (swales, 2004) as the basis of their analyses and generally validated the effectiveness of the models in accounting for the rhetorical structure of the introductions. however, the existing studies either only studied introductions in the traditional imrd context (nwogu, 1997; kanoksilapatham, 2005; loi, 2010) or did not define clearly the generic context of the introductions they analyzed (anthony, 1999; samraj, 2002; hirano, 2009) – that is to say, whether the introductions selected appeared as the only section in the opening phase of the ras or they were used in combination with other sections before method, such as the literature review (l) section (lin & evans, 2012; pérez-llantada, 2013). as such, they have not yet systematically studied the rhetorical structure of the introductions that are followed by an independent l section. this would seem to be an important omission, because the use of both introduction and l before method has become a common practice in contemporary research writing in many disciplines (yang & allison, 2004; kwan, chan & lam, 2012; lin & evans, 2012; pérezllantada, 2013) and to what extent, if any, the introductions used before the l section differ structurally from the traditional ones, especially those studied in the imrd context, remains unknown. the importance of l and the prevalent use of the “new” type of introduction (that is, the introductions with a subsequent l) have been demonstrated by a recent comprehensive survey of the macro-organization of empirical ras based on a large corpus of 780 ras selected from the 2007 volume of prestigious journals from 39 disciplines in the fields of applied sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities (lin & evans, 2012). this study shows that over half (51.7%) of the empirical ras investigated employ both introduction and l sections in the opening phase. in many disciplines (such as electronic and information engineering, management and marketing, industrial and systems engineering), over 80% of the empirical ras have used the l section between introduction and method. analogous findings are yielded from kwan, chan and lam (2012), who studied evaluations of prior scholarship in the l section of ras in the two sub-fields of information systems. by defining the l section as the section(s) between the introduction and the methodology sections where previous literature is reviewed, they found that in the two source journals following a strong behavioral science research, 100% and 93.02% of the ras published in them respectively have innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 131 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 131 used an l while in the other two respective journals that show a strong design science research paradigm, 82.86% and 92.43% of the ras published in the specified period came with an l. therefore, the l section is almost an obligatory part-genre of the ras in this field. the use of the l section as an expanded ra constituent on the theme of the traditional imrd is frequently found not only in traditional journal articles without the new online elements (research highlights, graphical abstracts, interactive graphs, embedded videos, hyperlinks) as support or enhancements, but also in the “article of the future” prototypes in disciplines such as business and palaeogeography, as reported in pérez-llantada (2013). in view of the possible influences from the neighboring section on the structural movements and configurations of the introductions and the increasing use of the l section after the introductions documented in recent studies (kwan, chan & lam, 2012; lin & evans, 2012; pérez-llantada, 2013), the rhetorical structure of the introduction section that is followed by a usually elaborate l section is an unexplored issue that merits systematic genre-based investigation. perhaps due to this research gap and a lack of research-informed accounts on how to structure this kind of introductory phase consisting of both introduction and l in the current writing manuals and reference books, our student writers often feel baffled in this regard and pose questions like the following: (1) is there any difference between the introduction with a subsequent l and the stand-alone i without a following l in terms of their structures and functions? if yes, what is it? (2) if the usually lengthy l section is used for reviewing previous literature, do we still need to review previous studies in introduction (as suggested by the classic cars model)? (3) given that there is an additional section – l – used in the introductory phase, is there any connection between the introduction and l? to bridge the research gap and facilitate our research writing teaching and training, these questions will be addressed by the present study. another interesting question this study explores is whether the traditional cars model (swales, 1990 & 2004) is still applicable to account for the rhetorical organization of the introductions in a “new” generic context – that is, being followed by the l section. ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154132 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 132 to answer these questions, the current study conducted a genre-based structural analysis of 30 article introductions with a subsequent l in applied linguistics. the reason for choosing this discipline is that it is one of the many disciplines where research writers favor using both the introduction and l in the opening phase of the empirical ras (see lin & evans, 2012). through this analysis, significant findings have been obtained on the schematic structure and communicative function of the particular group of introductions with a following l section, including the identification of the two-move structure for the innovative orientation-type introduction. 2. the study 2.1. data collection to accomplish the research aims, 30 ra introductions followed by an l in applied linguistics were collected. these introductions were all drawn from empirical ras published in the 2011 volume of the following five highimpact journals: english for specific purposes (esp), language learning (ll), applied linguistics (al), tesol quarterly (tq), and studies in second language acquisition (ssla). excluding the special issue where all published works were written on the same theme, which may possibly influence the rhetorical structure of the ras, the present author searched for all the introductions that fulfil the selection criterion – being followed by a clearly distinguishable l section – from the remaining issues until the required number (namely, six) of the introductions were selected from each journal. among the 30 selected introductions, 14 are headed “introduction” whereas as many as 16 are non-labeled. this is because most source journals such as tq , ll and ssla require their submitted manuscripts to follow the specifications of the apa publication manual (2010), which maintains that the introduction does not need to have a heading that labels it as introduction due to its clearly identifiable position in the article. all these introductions feature a clearly distinguishable l section employed after them. in this study, the l section refers to the section(s) placed between the introduction and method sections that provide varieties of “background” to the study such as the contextual, theoretical and methodological background (lin & evans, 2012). after these 30 introductions were collected, each of them was assigned a number, al1 through al30 for ease of reference. the next sub-section specifies the two stages of analysis. innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 133 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 133 2.2. data analysis 2.2.1. categorizing introductions before identifying the move structure of the genre, it is essential to understand the overall rhetorical purpose of the texts in the genre (biber, connor & upton, 2007). with the help of an expert genre analyst who is an associate professor having conducted a wide range of applied linguistics research for many years, the researcher, after multiple careful readings of the introductions, discovered that a considerable number of them indeed do not function to create a research space for the study when they are followed by an l (see table 1). they also exhibit very different schematic structures from those of the traditional introductions as suggested by the conventional cars model. therefore, based on their major communicative purposes, the 30 introductions were firstly classified into two groups: the traditional cars group and the unconventional group consisting of introductions that are not cars-like. as shown in table 1, 18 out of the 30 introductions fall into the traditional cars group, indicating that they are conventional introductions displaying a close affinity to the cars model. among the 12 unconventional introductions, there is one special case termed “building on the writer’s own previous research” while the other 11 consistently reflect a distinct two-move structure with their purposes of identifying an issue to be addressed and informing the readers of the about-to-be-presented research. for this distinct group of introductions, an innovative two-move structural model – the two-move orientation approach – was proposed to account for their rhetorical organization (see appendix 1). this two-move orientation type and the traditional cars type are the two dominant categories of introductions with a following l section identified in the present data. thus, their systematic structural analysis was undertaken using the frameworks detailed in sections 2.2.2 and 3.2 respectively. ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154134 innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): …-… section employed after them. in this study, the l section refers to the section(s) placed between the introduction and method sections that provide varieties of “background” to the study such as the contextual, theoretical and methodological background (lin & evans, 2012). after these 30 introductions were collected, each of them was assigned a number, al1 through al30 for ease of reference. the next sub-section specifies the two stages of analysis. 2.2. data analysis 2.2.1. categorizing introductions before identifying the move structure of the genre, it is essential to understand the overall rhetorical purpose of the texts in the genre (biber, connor & upton, 2007). with the help of an expert genre analyst who is an associate professor having conducted a wide range of applied linguistics research for many years, the researcher, after multiple careful readings of the introductions, discovered that a considerable number of them indeed do not function to create a research space for the study when they are followed by an l (see table 1). they also exhibit very different schematic structures from those of the traditional introductions as suggested by the conventional cars model. therefore, based on their major communicative purposes, the 30 introductions were firstly classified into two groups: the traditional cars group and the unconventional group consisting of introductions that are not cars-like. categories of introductions traditional cars orientation no. of introductions 18 (60%) 11 (36.7%) ave. length per text (no. of words) 700.7 343 proportion of the entire ra (%) 7.9 4.1 table 1. two major categories of introductions: their frequencies, average lengths and proportions in the full ras. as shown in table 1, 18 out of the 30 introductions fall into the traditional cars group, indicating that they are conventional introductions displaying a close affinity to the cars model. among the 12 unconventional introductions, there is one special case termed “building on the writer’s own previous research” while the other 11 consistently reflect a distinct two-move structure with their purposes of identifying an issue to be addressed and informing the readers of the about-to-be-presented research. for this distinct group of introductions, an innovative two-move structural model – the two-move orientation approach – was proposed to account for their rhetorical organization (see appendix 1). this two-move orientation type and the traditional cars type are the two dominant categories of introductions with a following l section identified in the present data. thus, their systematic structural analysis was undertaken using the frameworks detailed in sections 2.2.2 and 3.2 respectively. 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 134 as for the only single introduction (al 14) that is styled and structured very differently from the two major types, it is not suited for genre analysis. this unique case seems a “relaxed, story-telling” type that starts with introducing the present study and then recounts the author’s whole research experience and process. in accounting for his research story, the author firstly stated what he had done on the topic previously, then pointed out the link of his previous study to the initial design of the present one, and finally described how he further reshaped his research design by integrating his observations and thoughts during the research process. the entire introduction as a selfnarrative account is unlike the traditional argumentative cars type, which usually emphasizes niche establishment and occupation. while this introduction shows that the study it reports builds on the writer’s own previous research, in its subsequent l section, the writer did review numerous previous studies by others and point out the gaps to be filled by his study. corresponding to its special structure, this “building on the writer’s own previous research” introduction is stylistically featured by a strong authorial voice and the frequent use of the first person pronoun “i” (eleven times) and its accusative case “me”. this special kind of introduction seems more likely constructed by disciplinary experts with adequate authority and substantial research experience on particular topics, which enable them to confidently show the readers that their studies are an accumulation of experience along particular research lines. although there is only one introduction of this type identified in the present data and we do not know how frequently expert writers favor this type in other disciplines, it is still worth being described. the description of this introduction not only gives readers a sense of structural variability of the introductions with a following l in applied linguistics, but provides useful reference for the future similar research of a larger scale in other disciplines. as displayed in table 1, orientation introductions are nearly half of the traditional cars introductions both in terms of their length and their proportions in the whole articles. this could largely be explained by the different content elements and structural components in them, which is further discussed in section 3.2. 2.2.2. analyzing the structure of the two major types of introductions a two-level rhetorical analysis (moves and sub-moves) was undertaken of the two dominant categories of introductions: the traditional cars type and innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 135 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 135 the innovative orientation type. in this study, moves are considered for “characterize[ing] a genre as prototypical rather than obligatory” (lewin, fine & young, 2001: 36). regarding move constituents, the reason for preferring “sub-moves” to the contrasting pair of concepts “steps” and “strategies” (bhatia, 2001; kwan, 2006) is that “sub-moves” is a more inclusive term that is more applicable to the present analysis, whereas “steps” predicts the obligatory nature of the move constituents that occur in a fixed sequence and “strategies” indicates the opposite. however, in referring to relevant previous studies, the original terms the authors used (like “steps” or “strategies”) are retained. two other important principles were also adhered to: first, imperatives rather than gerunds and present principles were used to label the moves and submoves for foregrounding writers’ actions, as practised in stoller and robinson (2013). further, in the coding analysis, for a few sentences reflecting more than one rhetorical function, only the most salient one was considered (ozturk, 2007; del saz-rubio, 2011; sheldon, 2011). swales’s (1990 & 2004) cars model was taken as a starting point for analyzing the 18 conventional cars introductions. the move-level analysis is comparatively straightforward as the three moves of the model (namely, move 1 “establish a territory”; move 2 “establish a niche”; and move 3 “present the present work”) were found prototypical in the present data (see section 3.1). however, the coding and analysis of the sub-moves is more taxing, as there are a variety of sub-moves identified, including the majority set out in swales’s two versions of the cars model, two elements newly devised in this study (that is, sub-move 3.3 “state theoretical frameworks/positions” and sub-move 3.6 “indicate the literature review content” presented in appendix 2) and several others proposed in recent introduction studies (for example, del saz-rubio, 2011). as such, the three major moves with all these identified move elements constitute an integrated cars model (see appendix 2) that served as the coding framework for analyzing the traditional cars introductions. as shown in appendix 2, for the moves and sub-moves conceptually shared in swales’s two versions of the cars model yet with different labels, their terms in the revised version were followed if they were present in the data. therefore, for instance, move 3 in the integrated cars model is “present the present work” rather than the metaphorical term “occupy the niche” used in the 1990 model. ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154136 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 136 with respect to the sub-moves, in his revised model swales compressed all options in move 1 into an exclusive broad category “topic generalization of increasing specificity”, which is all-encompassing yet apparently overgeneralized and not helpful for identifying interesting strategies employed by the authors (del saz-rubio, 2011; sheldon, 2011). to overcome this limitation, this study followed del saz-rubio (2011) in maintaining the separation of the three sub-moves “claim centrality” (s1.1), “make topic generalizations of increasing specificity” (s1.2) and “survey items of previous research” (s1.3) while further classifying sub-move 1.1 “claim centrality” into “claim importance in research world” (s1.1a) and “claim importance in real world” (s1.1b) (samraj, 2002 & 2005). although some genre scholars such as samraj (2002) and kwan (2006) have noted the confusions about differentiating “making topic generalizations” and “reviewing items of previous research”, the two original steps within move 1 in swales’s 1990 model, this analytical difficulty generally does not exist in this study. the instances of “topic generalizations” in this study were mostly nonresearch phenomenon or practice description – see example (1) – and the summarized research state or established knowledge claims – see example (2) – with few cases being introductions of theoretical constructs/concepts – see example (3) – which could be attributed to the applied nature of the discipline (namely, applied linguistics) as well as the author’s postponing of substantial reviews of research activities to the subsequent l. (1) advanced english for academic purposes (eap) language learners encounter many challenges as they move through their education and begin producing academic written texts within their chosen discipline. (al 19) (2) research has shown that the acquisition of second-language (sl) grammar and pragmatics differs for foreign language (fl) and sl contexts (bardovi-harlig & dornyei, 1998; kasper & rose, 2002; kasper & schmidt, 1996...). (al 1) (3) ... the typological generalization called the noun phrase accessibility hierarchy (npah; keenan & comrie, 1977), the systematic way in which languages differ with respect to the types of rcs they allow. (al 2) concerning the sub-moves associated with niche establishments, in addition to the “negative” and “positive” warrants, “suggest implicitly innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 137 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 137 inconsistencies precluding gap signaling” newly devised in del saz-rubio (2011) and having been alluded to as early as in samraj (2002) was found in the present corpus, thus being incorporated into the integrated cars model. the only instance of this sub-move is provided below: (4) ... some recent studies that have investigated the issue of pragmatic and grammatical acquisition have found evidence in support of the hypothesis that sl environments foster awareness of pragmatic appropriateness, whereas fl environments focus on grammatical accuracy (e.g., bardovi-harlig & dornyei (...) however, evidence has also been reported that english fl (efl) speakers showed a higher sensitivity to pragmatic errors than their english sl (esl) counterparts (niezgoda & rover, 2001). these somewhat controversial findings in the existing research ... (al1) within move 3, sub-moves 3.2, 3.4, 3.5 and 3.7 in the integrated cars model were drawn from swales’s (1990 & 2004) cars model. sub-move 3.1 (“announce research purposes, focuses, research questions, or hypotheses”) is a combination of step 1 (“announcing present research descriptively and/or purposively”) and step 2 (“presenting rqs or hypotheses”) of move 3 in the revised cars model. this combination practice performed by kwan (2006) in her genre analysis of the literature review chapters of doctoral dissertations was found applicable to the present data analysis and was thus adopted. two new special elements perhaps characterizing the discipline and the cars introductions with a following l are “state theoretical frameworks/positions” (s3.3) and “inform the literature review content” (s3.6), as illustrated in examples (5) and (6), respectively: (5) ... it is argued throughout the present article that not only are multiword expressions much more common than popularly assumed, but they are also difficult for readers to both accurately identify and decode – even when they only contain very common words. (al18) (6) two areas of current literature will be reviewed. first, the effect of practice on the acquisition of cognitive skills ... second, the effects of time distribution ... (al 26) as for the innovative orientation-type introduction, a two-move orientation approach (2.2.1) was postulated for their discourse structure ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154138 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 138 based on the general procedures for conducting a corpus-based move analysis expounded in biber, connor and upton (2007), with the help of the expert genre analyst who has provided advice for the classification of introductions. as this new type of introductions is the focus of the present study, more explications and clarifications of its functions and structural components will be presented in section 3.2. after developing the integrated cars model and the two-move orientation approach as coding protocols of the two major types of introductions through repeated pilot-coding exercises and substantial discussions with the expert genre analyst, the researcher used winmax’s qda program (maxqda, 2012) to code all texts. a trained coder who is an applied linguistics phd candidate coded independently six texts (around 33.3%) from the traditional cars group and five texts (around 45.5%) from the innovative two-move orientation group for our inter-coder reliability check. our agreement percentages all exceeded 86%, generally indicating the validity of and consistency in our coding and analysis. any remaining few discrepancies were resolved through discussion, criteria checking and further clarification. 3. results and discussion 3.1. the traditional cars introductions previous studies have mostly confirmed the strong explanatory power of swales’s cars model in that it is generally stable at the move level with modifications mainly suggested at the sub-move level by other genre scholars (for instance, anthony, 1999; samraj, 2002). in line with this, the three moves of the cars model are found prototypical in the conventional cars introductions in the present study, though only move 1 is obligatory (see table 2). this suggests that a noticeable number of introductions still bear a structural resemblance to the cars model even when they are followed by a usually lengthy l section that could possibly take over some communicative roles originally performed by them. innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 139 ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): …-… suggests that a noticeable number of introductions still bear a structural resemblance to the cars model even when they are followed by a usually lengthy l section that could possibly take over some communicative roles originally performed by them. moves individual counts no. of introductions with the move (%) move 1 establish a territory 36 18 (100%) move 2 establish a niche 30 16 (88.9%) move 3 present the present study 22 17 (94.4%) table 2. frequency counts of the three moves. only two out of the 18 cars introductions (al2, 30) have move 2 missing while the only introduction without a move 3 is al 22, which is characterized with four consecutive alternations between move 1 and move 2 (see table 3). although a few introductions omit either move 2 or move 3, the repeated use of the three moves are common, as can be seen from their individual counts. observed patterns no. of articles (%) examples introductions following swales’s cars model 1-2-3 4 (22.2) al1, 16, 17, 19 1-2-1-3 2 (11.1) al4, 25 1-2-1-2-3 2 (11.1) al18, 23 1-2-3-2-3 1 (5.6) al3 1-2-3-1-2-3 1 (5.6) al21 1-2-1-2-3-2-3 1 (5.6) al10 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-3 1 (5.6) al20 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2 1 (5.6) al22 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-3 1 (5.6) al5 introductions deviating from the strict swales’s cars model 1-3 2 (11.1) al2, 30 1-3-1-2-3 1 (5.6) al6 1-3-1-2-1-3 1 (5.6) al26 total no. of ras 18 (100) table 3. examples of the move configurations. table 3 summarizes the move structure of this group of introductions. generally congruent with the findings reported in most previous introduction studies on a similar discipline or sub-discipline (like ozturk (2007) on second language acquisition and second language writing; hirano (2009) on english for specific purposes; and lee (2001) on english education), this study found that a significant proportion (66.7%) of the cars introductions involve cyclicity, mostly with the repetition of two – for example, 1-2-1-2-3 (al 18, 23) – or three moves – for example, 1-2-1-2-3-2-3 (al 10). however, the archetypal 1-2-3 structure is still the most common pattern and another three structures gaining 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 139 only two out of the 18 cars introductions (al2, 30) have move 2 missing while the only introduction without a move 3 is al 22, which is characterized with four consecutive alternations between move 1 and move 2 (see table 3). although a few introductions omit either move 2 or move 3, the repeated use of the three moves are common, as can be seen from their individual counts. table 3 summarizes the move structure of this group of introductions. generally congruent with the findings reported in most previous introduction studies on a similar discipline or sub-discipline (like ozturk (2007) on second language acquisition and second language writing; hirano (2009) on english for specific purposes; and lee (2001) on english education), this study found that a significant proportion (66.7%) of the cars introductions involve cyclicity, mostly with the repetition of two – for example, 1-2-1-2-3 (al 18, 23) – or three moves – for example, 1-2-1-2-3-23 (al 10). however, the archetypal 1-2-3 structure is still the most common pattern and another three structures gaining prominence are 1-2-1-3, 1-2-12-3 and 1-3. as stated before, only two introductions do not contain a move 2, suggesting the central role played by this core component in the conventional cars introductions. despite four introductions showing salient deviations from swales’s cars model and the existence of varied move structures, all introductions commence with move 1 and close with move 3, except al 22 comprising four alternations between move 1 and move 2, as aforementioned. ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154140 ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): …-… suggests that a noticeable number of introductions still bear a structural resemblance to the cars model even when they are followed by a usually lengthy l section that could possibly take over some communicative roles originally performed by them. moves individual counts no. of introductions with the move (%) move 1 establish a territory 36 18 (100%) move 2 establish a niche 30 16 (88.9%) move 3 present the present study 22 17 (94.4%) table 2. frequency counts of the three moves. only two out of the 18 cars introductions (al2, 30) have move 2 missing while the only introduction without a move 3 is al 22, which is characterized with four consecutive alternations between move 1 and move 2 (see table 3). although a few introductions omit either move 2 or move 3, the repeated use of the three moves are common, as can be seen from their individual counts. observed patterns no. of articles (%) examples introductions following swales’s cars model 1-2-3 4 (22.2) al1, 16, 17, 19 1-2-1-3 2 (11.1) al4, 25 1-2-1-2-3 2 (11.1) al18, 23 1-2-3-2-3 1 (5.6) al3 1-2-3-1-2-3 1 (5.6) al21 1-2-1-2-3-2-3 1 (5.6) al10 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-3 1 (5.6) al20 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2 1 (5.6) al22 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-3 1 (5.6) al5 introductions deviating from the strict swales’s cars model 1-3 2 (11.1) al2, 30 1-3-1-2-3 1 (5.6) al6 1-3-1-2-1-3 1 (5.6) al26 total no. of ras 18 (100) table 3. examples of the move configurations. table 3 summarizes the move structure of this group of introductions. generally congruent with the findings reported in most previous introduction studies on a similar discipline or sub-discipline (like ozturk (2007) on second language acquisition and second language writing; hirano (2009) on english for specific purposes; and lee (2001) on english education), this study found that a significant proportion (66.7%) of the cars introductions involve cyclicity, mostly with the repetition of two – for example, 1-2-1-2-3 (al 18, 23) – or three moves – for example, 1-2-1-2-3-2-3 (al 10). however, the archetypal 1-2-3 structure is still the most common pattern and another three structures gaining 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 140 figure 1 displays the frequency of sub-moves within each major move. within move 1, the generalization element (s1.2) is the only obligatory submove, suggesting the importance of providing general background knowledge and contextualizing the research study in general sense in the introductions used before l. as for reviewing specific research activities, this element is frequently moved to l and only used in just over half (55.6%) of the introductions. this contrasts with the obligatory nature of this element maintained in swales (1990) and recorded in many follow-up structural analyses of the introductions without a subsequent l such as the introduction in the imrd context studied in kanoksilapatham (2005). therefore, much less use of reviewing individual research items to establish the territory is a prominent feature of the introductions with a following l, even though they mainly reflect the communicative function and move structure of the cars model. the following text excerpts illustrate typically how the author just referred to the previous studies by listing them in a non-integral citation (shown in italics) when summarizing the research state of the field in introduction – see example (7) – while reviewing at length and critically the cited studies by using a number of integral citations (see the italicized part) in the subsequent l section – see example (8): (7) the few studies that have addressed unattended this (moskovit, 1983; steinberg, kaufer, & geisler, 1984; geisler et al., 1985) have innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 141 innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): …-… prominence are 1-2-1-3, 1-2-1-2-3 and 1-3. as stated before, only two introductions do not contain a move 2, suggesting the central role played by this core component in the conventional cars introductions. despite four introductions showing salient deviations from swales’s cars model and the existence of varied move structures, all introductions commence with move 1 and close with move 3, except al 22 comprising four alternations between move 1 and move 2, as aforementioned. figure 1 displays the frequency of sub-moves within each major move. within move 1, the generalization element (s1.2) is the only obligatory sub-move, suggesting the importance of providing general background knowledge and contextualizing the research study in general sense in the introductions used before l. as for reviewing specific research activities, this element is frequently moved to l and only used in just over half (55.6%) of the introductions. this contrasts with the obligatory nature of this element maintained in swales (1990) and recorded in many follow-up structural analyses of the introductions without a subsequent l such as the introduction in the imrd context studied in kanoksilapatham (2005). therefore, much less use of reviewing individual research items to establish the territory is a prominent feature of the introductions with a following l, even though they mainly reflect the communicative function and move structure of the cars model. figure 1. sub-move frequency within moves in the traditional cars introductions. the following text excerpts illustrate typically how the author just referred to the previous studies by listing them in a non-integral citation (shown in italics) when summarizing the research state of the field in introduction – see example (7) – while reviewing at length and critically the cited studies by using a number of integral citations (see the italicized part) in the subsequent l section – see example (8): 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 141 focused on prescriptive uses and reader interpretations, with little empirical focus on the linguistic environment surrounding such structures. (al 19) (8) few studies have focused specifically on the use of demonstratives in anaphoric reference and in relation to text cohesion. the studies that do exist primarily focus on the pronominal use, which may be a consequence of the prescriptive rules that exist. for example, moskovit (1983) seeks to determine when pronominal this constitutes ‘broad reference’ (...) moskovit attempts to determine when broad reference is unclear by examining 28 examples (...) steinberg et al. (1984) and geisler et al. (1985) question moskovit’s interpretations (...) although these early studies offer a starting point, they focus on establishing prescriptivism, a practice which has in some circles fallen out of fashion. in addition, the research methodologies are problematic (...) furthermore, these studies focus primarily on the use of pronominal this, and little (if any) attention is paid to demonstrative determiners ... (al 19) in the l section, the detailed review of the studies referred to in the preceding introduction establishes the link between the two sections and recreates the research space for the study. the linking of this sort is frequently found in the introductions with a following l, including the traditional cars type and the orientation type. regarding the two varieties of centrality claims, “claim importance in research word” (66.7%) is much more frequently employed than “claim importance in real world” (16.7%). although a similar tendency occurred in writers’ choices of two gap-indication sub-moves (that is, research gap indication is far more favored), sub-move 2.1b (33.3%) is still a prominent element, reflecting the great concerns of this discipline with real-world language-related problems. this could also be perceived from the frequentlycited definition of applied linguistics by chris brumfit (1995: 27): [applied linguistics is] the theoretical and empirical investigation of realworld problems in which language is a central issue. both the “positive” warrant and sub-move 2.3 are used in only one traditional cars introduction. the only instance of the latter has been presented in section 2.2.2. of the seven variations realizing move 3, subling lin ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154142 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 142 move 3.1 is most frequently employed (88.9%), followed by the method statement (38.9%) and the statement on announcing research significance (33.3%). as for the two new elements identified in the present study, submove 3.3 and sub-move 3.6 are respectively used in 16.7% of the introductions. their degrees of importance need to be further examined by using a larger data set in this discipline. table 4 demonstrates the frequently-used sub-move configurations within each move. the fact that the number of the sub-moves integrating these patterns is either one or two and the most frequently used patterns for the three moves are all a single sub-move structure indicates that the traditional cars introductions used before l are not densely structured. however, there are a wide range of choices in the combined use of different submoves within each move. besides the patterns listed in table 4, there are many more different patterns (for example, s2.1b+s2.1a for move 2, s3.1+s3.5 for move 3), suggesting that these introductions are flexibly structured at the sub-move level. 3.2. two-move orientation introductions besides the classic cars introductions, previous studies have identified other types of introductions with different structures, like the specificgeneral introductions in the humanities and the problem-focused introductions in law (feak & swales, 2011). in this study, an innovative type (namely, the two-move orientation introduction) is identified among the introductions with a following l. as aforementioned, unlike the cars introductions, two-move orientation introductions do not function to create a research space for the study but mainly to identify the issue to be addressed and inform the readers of the innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 143 innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): …-… table 4 demonstrates the frequently-used sub-move configurations within each move. the fact that the number of the sub-moves integrating these patterns is either one or two and the most frequently used patterns for the three moves are all a single sub-move structure indicates that the traditional cars introductions used before l are not densely structured. however, there are a wide range of choices in the combined use of different sub-moves within each move. besides the patterns listed in table 4, there are many more different patterns (for example, s2.1b+s2.1a for move 2, s3.1+s3.5 for move 3), suggesting that these introductions are flexibly structured at the sub-move level. move sub-move configuration count no. % of intro m1 s1.2 (make topic generalizations of increasing specificity) 13 50 s1.1a+s1.2 (claim importance in research world+ make topic generalizations of increasing specificity) 4 22.2 s1.3 (survey items of previous research) 3 16.7 s1.2+s1.1a (make topic generalizations of increasing specificity+ claim importance in research world) 3 16.7 m2 s2.1a (indicate a research gap) 22 72.2 s2.1b (indicate a problem or need in real world) 4 11.1 m3 s3.1 (announce research purposes, focuses, research questions or hypotheses) 6 33.3 table 4. frequently-used sub-move configurations in the three moves (no. of occurrences ≥3). 3.2. two-move orientation introductions besides the classic cars introductions, previous studies have identified other types of introductions with different structures, like the specific-general introductions in the humanities and the problem-focused introductions in law (feak & swales, 2011). in this study, an innovative type (namely, the two-move orientation introduction) is identified among the introductions with a following l. as aforementioned, unlike the cars introductions, two-move orientation introductions do not function to create a research space for the study but mainly to identify the issue to be addressed and inform the readers of the research to be undertaken. they are essentially the brief, prologue-style introduction described in lin & evans (2012: 156). an example text of an orientation-type introduction (al9) is provided in appendix 3. the two-move orientation approach (appendix 1) is formulated for the rhetorical structure of orientation introductions. it contains two prototypical moves: move 1 “identify the issue” and move 2 “present the study”. move 2 is obligatory as it is used in all 11 orientation introductions while move 1 is present in ten of them as al 15 is a single-move (namely, move 2) introduction. therefore, the two moves are essential in realizing the communicative functions of this type of introduction. 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 143 research to be undertaken. they are essentially the brief, prologue-style introduction described in lin & evans (2012: 156). an example text of an orientation-type introduction (al9) is provided in appendix 3. the two-move orientation approach (appendix 1) is formulated for the rhetorical structure of orientation introductions. it contains two prototypical moves: move 1 “identify the issue” and move 2 “present the study”. move 2 is obligatory as it is used in all 11 orientation introductions while move 1 is present in ten of them as al 15 is a single-move (namely, move 2) introduction. therefore, the two moves are essential in realizing the communicative functions of this type of introduction. in terms of move configurations, after al 15 containing only a move 2 excluded, eight out of the other ten orientation introductions follow strictly the canonical pattern “m1-m2”. as for the other two introductions, al7 (m1-m2-m1-m2) and al 13 (m2-m1-m2) display the cyclical structure. in all, most of the new types of introductions displaying the two-move structure are regularly and simply structured at the move level. the next two sub-sections detail the elements within the two moves. the same as in explicating the integrated cars model, for the sub-moves that generally correspond to those in the cars model, their definitions are not repeated due to space limitation. 3.2.1. move 1 “identify the issue” in the two-move orientation approach, move 1 is divided into three submoves. sub-move 1.1 (“survey non-research phenomena/practices or general knowledge claims of the field”) shares mostly the propositional content and semantic attributes of sub-move 1.2 “make topic generalizations” in the traditional cars model. the instances of this submove are commonly general statements on the research state of the field, explanations of the key theoretical constructs/ concepts, accounts of the general beliefs on the theme, or descriptions of the non-research phenomena or activities. in al 9 (see appendix 3 for detail), two segments illustrate this sub-move. generally, the element of the specific review of individual studies does not exist in this type of introductions and thus there is no difficulty in distinguishing sub-move 1.1 and the specific literature review element. it is not surprising since this group of brief, prologue-style introductions simply ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154144 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 144 identifies the topic, purpose and structure of the paper and does not engage in a focused, gap-creating review of the literature, which has become a major task of the subsequent l (lin & evans, 2012). in this regard, al 9 again provides a good example. it does not contain any review of previous studies on the theme (namely, the usefulness of imagery in the form of pictorial illustrations and etymological notes in idiom dictionaries), which is however included in the subsequent l. one extract from l illustrates this: (9) extensive research has been conducted by boers and his colleagues into the effects of mental imagery evoked by etymological elaboration (...) gallese and lakoff (2005: 4) propose that in order to understand a concept such as grasp (...) a positive influence of etymological elaboration on form and meaning retention has been reported in boers (2001) (...)the question whether the strategy of etymological elaboration is equally effective (...) is addressed by boers et al. (2004a) (...) in boers et al. (2008), students’ position on the verbalizer/imager continuum was correlated with their scores on the idiom comprehension ... (al 9) owing to the absence of the detailed review of previous studies and the substantial niche-establishment move as well as much fewer complex recursive move patterns in these orientation introductions, their length and proportions in the whole article are around a half of the conventional cars introductions (see section 2.2.1). sub-move 1.2 (“establish importance of the field”) resembles the centrality-claim element in the cars model. however, among the ten instances of this sub-move, only one establishes importance in the research world and the other nine do so in the real world, which contrasts with what is revealed in the traditional cars introductions (3.1). sub-move 1.3 (“suggest value of the issue”) is the special element in this type of introductions. although orientation introductions do not have a substantial niche-establishment move for justifying the study, they often use one or two sentences concisely indicating the potential value of a research issue which is worth studying. though this sub-move is absent in al9 (see appendix 3), an example is provided here to illustrate it: (10) ... the way in which raters assess lexis in writing is an area which should be of interest to a broad range of english language educators. (al 13) innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 145 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 145 after suggesting the value of a research issue, for most of the cases the author immediately declares what he or she is going to do, hence this submove often being followed by sub-move 2.1. the three sub-moves are prototypical constituents of move 1 since they have been used in most of orientation introductions (63.6%, 72.7% and 72.7% respectively) (see figure 2). however, they co-occur in varied patterns and only al 28 uses them in the canonical linear pattern of “1-2-3” (see table 5); in nine out of the 11 move 1 instances, the number of sub-moves integrating move 1 is no more than three and only four move 1 instances involve cyclicity. all these suggest that move 1 structure of orientation introductions is very flexible and irregular but not heavily informationloaded. ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154146 innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): …-… owing to the absence of the detailed review of previous studies and the substantial niche-establishment move as well as much fewer complex recursive move patterns in these orientation introductions, their length and proportions in the whole article are around a half of the conventional cars introductions (see section 2.2.1). sub-move 1.2 (“establish importance of the field”) resembles the centralityclaim element in the cars model. however, among the ten instances of this sub-move, only one establishes importance in the research world and the other nine do so in the real world, which contrasts with what is revealed in the traditional cars introductions (3.1). sub-move 1.3 (“suggest value of the issue”) is the special element in this type of introductions. although orientation introductions do not have a substantial niche-establishment move for justifying the study, they often use one or two sentences concisely indicating the potential value of a research issue which is worth studying. though this sub-move is absent in al9 (see appendix 3), an example is provided here to illustrate it: (10) ... the way in which raters assess lexis in writing is an area which should be of interest to a broad range of english language educators. (al 13) after suggesting the value of a research issue, for most of the cases the author immediately declares what he or she is going to do, hence this sub-move often being followed by sub-move 2.1. figure 2. sub-move frequency within moves in two-move orientation introductions. the three sub-moves are prototypical constituents of move 1 since they have been used in most of orientation introductions (63.6%, 72.7% and 72.7% respectively) (see figure 2). however, they co-occur in varied patterns and only ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): …-… al 28 uses them in the canonical linear pattern of “1-2-3” (see table 5); in nine out of the 11 move 1 instances, the number of sub-moves integrating move 1 is no more than three and only four move 1 instances involve cyclicity. all these suggest that move 1 structure of orientation introductions is very flexible and irregular but not heavily information-loaded. observed sub-move patterns examples single sub-move sub-move 3 only al7 two sub-move configurations 1-3 al8, 27 1-2-1 al9 1-2-1-2-1 al7 2-1 al29 2-3 al11, 12 3-2-3 al13 three sub-move configurations 1-2-3 al28 1-2-1-2-3 al24 table 5. different sub-move combinations within move 1. 3.2.2. move 2 “present the study” move 2 comprises six sub-moves. among them, four (s2.2, s2.3, s2.4 and s2.6) are the same as those in swales’s two versions of the cars model. sub-move 2.1 is formed by integrating step 1 and step 2 of move 3 in the revised cars model, following kwan (2006). this is also the first sub-move for move 3 in the traditional cars introductions. the reason has been stated in section 3.1 and also applies here. sub-move 2.5 (“indicate the literature review content”) is a unique element found in the introductions with a following l. it is different from the element “outlining the paper”, which indicates the content of each major part of the ra. instead, it only suggests what will be presented in the forthcoming l section, as illustrated below: (11) the sections below review key theoretical concepts and various studies which have investigated creativity and language play for language learning. (al 8) the sub-moves for move 2 in orientation introductions is basically the same as those for move 3 in the traditional cars introductions except that the element “state theoretical frameworks/positions” is absent in these much shorter orientation-style introductions. the tendency in using sub-moves for presenting the study in two-move orientation introductions is also similar to that in the traditional cars introductions: sub-move 1 as an obligatory element is most frequently used, followed by the method statement (36.4%). all the other submoves are only used in a few introductions. 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 146 3.2.2. move 2 “present the study” move 2 comprises six sub-moves. among them, four (s2.2, s2.3, s2.4 and s2.6) are the same as those in swales’s two versions of the cars model. sub-move 2.1 is formed by integrating step 1 and step 2 of move 3 in the revised cars model, following kwan (2006). this is also the first sub-move for move 3 in the traditional cars introductions. the reason has been stated in section 3.1 and also applies here. sub-move 2.5 (“indicate the literature review content”) is a unique element found in the introductions with a following l. it is different from the element “outlining the paper”, which indicates the content of each major part of the ra. instead, it only suggests what will be presented in the forthcoming l section, as illustrated below: (11) the sections below review key theoretical concepts and various studies which have investigated creativity and language play for language learning. (al 8) the sub-moves for move 2 in orientation introductions is basically the same as those for move 3 in the traditional cars introductions except that the element “state theoretical frameworks/positions” is absent in these much shorter orientation-style introductions. the tendency in using sub-moves for presenting the study in two-move orientation introductions is also similar to that in the traditional cars introductions: sub-move 1 as an obligatory element is most frequently used, followed by the method statement (36.4%). all the other sub-moves are only used in a few introductions. sub-move combinations within move 2 vary greatly (see table 6). however, “sub-move 1 only” is the most frequently used configuration and the number of sub-moves integrating this move in most of its instances is only one or two. these confirm again that the rhetorical structure of this type of introductions is generally flexible yet straightforward. in all 11 orientation introductions, sub-move 1 is invariably present despite the different submove combination patterns used within move 2, which indicates the importance and prominence of this element. these frequently used patterns identified for the two moves further our understanding of this innovative type of introductions used before l and have high reference value for the teaching of introduction writing in eap classrooms. innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 147 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 147 4. conclusion compared to other genre-based introduction research, the present study is unique in its focus on the rhetorical organization of introductions that are followed by an independent l section in view of the increasing use or even the prevalent use of both introduction and l sections in the opening phase of empirical ras in many disciplines (kwan, chan & lam, 2012; lin & evans, 2012; pérez-llantada, 2013). the results reveal a discernible influence from the use of a subsequent l on the introductions both in the structural and functional terms. these introductions exhibit a mixture of rhetorical organizations in that 60% of them identified as the traditional cars type display a close affinity to the cars model while another significant proportion of them (around 37%), termed the orientation type, consistently exhibit a two-move structure suggested in the orientation approach simply to identify a research issue of potential value and to inform the readers of the research to be undertaken. although the traditional cars group of introductions generally follow the cars model at the move level, they manifest some special features characterizing their generic context (that is, being followed by an l) and the nature of the chosen discipline, like the use of the newly devised sub-moves “indicate the literature review content” and “state theoretical frameworks/positions”, and much less use of the element for reviewing specific research studies, which is often shifted to the subsequent l section. in two-move orientation introductions, the element for reviewing individual research items is even absent. they do not have the substantial “niche-establishment” move either as they do not intend to create a research space for the study based on a focused, gap-creating literature review. ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154148 innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): …-… sub-move combinations within move 2 vary greatly (see table 6). however, “sub-move 1 only” is the most frequently used configuration and the number of sub-moves integrating this move in most of its instances is only one or two. these confirm again that the rhetorical structure of this type of introductions is generally flexible yet straightforward. in all 11 orientation introductions, submove 1 is invariably present despite the different sub-move combination patterns used within move 2, which indicates the importance and prominence of this element. these frequently used patterns identified for the two moves further our understanding of this innovative type of introductions used before l and have high reference value for the teaching of introduction writing in eap classrooms. observed sub-move patterns examples single sub-move sub-move 1 only al7, 13, 24, 27, 28 two sub-move configurations 1-2 al13, 29 1-4 al12, 15 1-6 al7, 9 three sub-move configurations 1-2-3 al11 four sub-move configurations 1-3-2-5 al8 table 6. different sub-move combinations within move 2. 4. conclusion compared to other genre-based introduction research, the present study is unique in its focus on the rhetorical organization of introductions that are followed by an independent l section in view of the increasing use or even the prevalent use of both introduction and l sections in the opening phase of empirical ras in many disciplines (kwan, chan & lam, 2012; lin & evans, 2012; pérez-llantada, 2013). the results reveal a discernible influence from the use of a subsequent l on the introductions both in the structural and functional terms. these introductions exhibit a mixture of rhetorical organizations in that 60% of them identified as the traditional cars type display a close affinity to the cars model while another significant proportion of them (around 37%), termed the orientation type, consistently exhibit a two-move structure suggested in the orientation approach simply to identify a research issue of potential value and to inform the readers of the research to be undertaken. although the traditional cars group of introductions generally follow the cars model at the move level, they manifest some special features characterizing their generic context (that is, being followed by an l) and the nature of the chosen discipline, like the use of the newly devised sub-moves 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 148 instead, they employ the featured elements “suggest value of the issue” and “indicate the literature review content”. the two major types of the introductions identified differ in terms of their lengths, functions and structures. in addition to the differences indicated above, at the move level, the traditional cars introductions are much more complexly structured for involving much cyclicity while most two-move orientation introductions are regularly and straightforwardly structured. at the sub-move level, they are both flexibly yet simply structured with no dense use of elements. because of their different structural components, communicative functions and content elements involved, two-move orientation introductions are generally much shorter than the traditional cars introductions. all these revealing findings and the interesting links between introduction and l suggested in this paper are illuminating and valuable to the genrebased teaching of article introduction writing given that there is currently a lack of published advice on how to construct the introductions used before l and the possible similarities and differences between this kind of introduction and the traditional introductions without a following l, like those in the imrd context. our student writers, especially those coming from the disciplines where the use of both introduction and l in the opening phase of the ras is favoured, need to be made aware of the structural variability of the introductions, the special features the introductions with a subsequent l exhibit, and the possible logical links between introduction and l. this study only focuses on a single discipline (that is, applied linguistics); therefore, future research could extend the present study by studying introductions with a subsequent l in many other disciplines to assess the newly proposed two-move orientation approach and to examine the possible cross-disciplinary variations in structuring this particular group of introductions. more insights are needed into disciplinary practices in arranging propositional contents and functional elements respectively in the two adjoining sections – namely, the introduction and l sections. innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 149 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 149 acknowledgements i am grateful to editor prof. ana bocanegra for her editorial advice and the reviewers for their helpful comments and support in the publication of this paper. [paper received 29 august 2013] [revised paper received 13 november 2013] [revised paper accepted 29 november 2013] references ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154150 anthony, l. (1999). “writing research article introductions in software engineering: how accurate is a standard model?” ieee transactions on professional communication 42: 38-46. apa publication manual (2010). publication manual of the american psychological association, 6th ed. washington, dc: american psychological association. bhatia, v.k. (2001). “analyzing genre: some conceptual issues” in m. hewing (ed.), academic writing in context: implications and applications: papers in honour of tony dudleyevans, 79-92. birmingham: university of birmingham press. biber, d., u. connor & t.a. upton (2007). discourse on the move: using corpus analysis to describe discourse structure. amsterdam: john benjamins. brumfit, c. (1995). “teacher professionalism and research” in g. cook & b. seidlhofer (eds.), principle & practice in applied linguistics: studies in honour of h.g. widdowson, 27-41. oxford: oxford university press. del saz-rubio, m.m. (2011). “a pragmatic approach to the macro-structure and metadiscoursal features of research article introductions in the field of agricultural sciences”. english for specific purposes 30: 258-271. feak, c.b. & j.m. swales (2011). creating contexts: writing introductions across genres. ann arbor: university of michigan press. ferguson, g. (2007). “the global spread of english, scientific communication and esp: questions of equity, access and domain loss”. ibérica 13: 7-38. hirano, e. (2009). “research article introductions in english for specific purposes: a comparison between brazilian portuguese and english”. english for specific purposes 28: 240-250. kanoksilapatham, b. (2005). “rhetorical structure of biochemistry research articles”. english for specific purposes 24: 269-292. kwan, b.s.c. (2006). “the schematic structure of literature reviews in doctoral theses of applied linguistics”. english for specific purposes 25: 3055. kwan, b.s.c., h. chan & c. lam (2012). “evaluating prior scholarship in literature reviews of research articles: a comparative study of practices in two research paradigms”. english for specific purposes 31: 188-201. lee, s. (2001). a contrastive rhetoric study of korean and english research paper introductions. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of hawaii. lewin, b.a., j. fine & l. young (2001). expository discourse: a genre-based approach to social science research texts. london: continuum. lin, l. & s. evans (2012). “structural patterns in empirical research articles: a cross-disciplinary study”. english for specific purposes 31: 150-160. loi, c.k. (2010). “research article introductions in chinese and english: a comparative genre-based study”. journal of english for academic purposes 9: 267-279. maxqda (2012). verbi software. consult, sozialforchung, gmbh, berlin, germany. nwogu, k.n. (1997). “the medical research paper: structure and functions”. english for specific purposes 16: 119-138. ozturk, i. (2007). “the textual organization of research article introductions in applied linguistics: 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 150 ling lin is undertaking a doctoral degree in applied linguistics at the hong kong polytechnic university. her primary research interests include english for academic and professional purposes, discourse analysis and corpus linguistics. she has recently published several articles on research writing in english for specific purposes and the asian esp journal. innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 151 variability within a single discipline”. english for specific purposes 26: 25-38. pérez-llantada, c. (2013). “the article of the future: strategies for genre stability and change”. english for specific purposes 32: 221-235. samraj, b. (2002). “introductions in research articles: variations across disciplines”. english for specific purposes 21: 1-17. samraj, b. (2005). “an exploration of a genre set: research article abstracts and introductions in two disciplines”. english for specific purposes 24: 141-156. sheldon, e. (2011). “rhetorical differences in ra introductions written by english l1 and l2 and castilian spanish l1 writers”. journal of english for academic purposes 10: 238-251. stoller, f.l. & m.s. robinson (2013). “chemistry journal articles: an interdisciplinary approach to move analysis with pedagogical aims”. english for specific purposes 32: 45-57. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. (2004). research genres: explorations and applications. cambridge: cambridge university press. yang, r.y. & d. allison (2004). “research articles in applied linguistics: structures from a functional perspective”. english for specific purposes 23: 264-279. 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 151 appendix 1: the two-move orientation approach appendix 2: the integrated cars model ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154152 innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): …-… appendix 1: the two-move orientation approach move 1 identify the issue sub-move 1.1 survey the non-research phenomena/practices or general knowledge claims of the field sub-move 1.2 establish importance of the field sub-move 1.3 suggest value of the issue move 2 present the study sub-move 2.1 announce research purposes, focuses, research questions, or hypotheses sub-move 2.2 summarize research methods sub-move 2.3 preview main findings sub-move 2.4 state the significance of the present research sub-move 2.5 indicate the literature review content sub-move 2.6 outline the article structure appendix 2: the integrated cars model move 1 establish a territory sub-move 1.1 claim centrality 1.1a claim importance in research world 1.1b claim importance in real world sub-move 1.2 make topic generalizations of increasing specificity sub-move 1.3 survey items of previous research move 2 establish a niche sub-move 2.1 indicate a gap 2.1a indicate a gap in research 2.1b indicate a problem or need in real world sub-move 2.2 present positive justifications sub-move 2.3 suggest implicitly inconsistencies precluding gap signaling move 3 present the present work sub-move 3.1 announce research purposes, focuses, research questions, or hypotheses sub-move 3.2 summarize research methods sub-move 3.3 state theoretical frameworks/ positions sub-move 3.4 preview main findings sub-move 3.5 state the significance of the present research sub-move 3.6 indicate the literature review content sub-move 3.7 outline the article structure innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): …-… appendix 1: the two-move orientation approach move 1 identify the issue sub-move 1.1 survey the non-research phenomena/practices or general knowledge claims of the field sub-move 1.2 establish importance of the field sub-move 1.3 suggest value of the issue move 2 present the study sub-move 2.1 announce research purposes, focuses, research questions, or hypotheses sub-move 2.2 summarize research methods sub-move 2.3 preview main findings sub-move 2.4 state the significance of the present research sub-move 2.5 indicate the literature review content sub-move 2.6 outline the article structure appendix 2: the integrated cars model move 1 establish a territory sub-move 1.1 claim centrality 1.1a claim importance in research world 1.1b claim importance in real world sub-move 1.2 make topic generalizations of increasing specificity sub-move 1.3 survey items of previous research move 2 establish a niche sub-move 2.1 indicate a gap 2.1a indicate a gap in research 2.1b indicate a problem or need in real world sub-move 2.2 present positive justifications sub-move 2.3 suggest implicitly inconsistencies precluding gap signaling move 3 present the present work sub-move 3.1 announce research purposes, focuses, research questions, or hypotheses sub-move 3.2 summarize research methods sub-move 3.3 state theoretical frameworks/ positions sub-move 3.4 preview main findings sub-move 3.5 state the significance of the present research sub-move 3.6 indicate the literature review content sub-move 3.7 outline the article structure 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 152 appendix 3: al9 as an analysis example of two-move orientation introductions innovations in structuring article introductions ibérica 28 (2014): 129-154 153 ling lin ibérica 28 (2014): …-… appendix 3: al9 as an analysis example of two-move orientation introductions to show clearly how the move and sub-move analysis is conducted, the text is not paragraphed as its original version but rearranged according to different submove units. to facilitate readers’ understanding, some sub-moves are signaled as shown in the bold part below. 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 153 07 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 22/09/14 19:23 página 154 iberica 13 lingüística y didáctica del texto de especialidad. aplicaciones metodológicas para la enseñanza del inglés académico y profesional m. pilar durán escribano. madrid: editorial académica española, 2012. 258 págs. isbn: 978-3-659-01899-2. la investigación y enseñanza del inglés para fines específicos (ife) continúa creciendo, debido a la importancia de la lengua inglesa como medio de comunicación internacional en el contexto académico y profesional. en el presente volumen durán muestra un panorama general de la lingüística y la didáctica del texto de especialidad, centrándose en las destrezas de la lectura y la escritura con el objetivo de mejorar la competencia comunicativa del alumnado universitario. el libro consta de ocho capítulos y está estructurado en dos bloques. la primera parte consiste en una revisión de la didáctica de las lenguas para fines específicos (lfe), las aportaciones de los distintos enfoques y la definición de los conceptos lingüísticos más relevantes. en la segunda parte se presenta un estudio experimental para la evaluación de textos de especialidad con fines didácticos. en la introducción se plantea el objetivo principal del trabajo: establecer unos criterios de selección de textos adecuados para la enseñanza del ife teniendo en cuenta los rasgos de textualidad aplicados al contexto de un alumnado concreto. el primer capítulo está dedicado al estudio del estado de la cuestión de la didáctica del ife y se presentan cinco enfoques didácticos basados en los principios de la lingüística aplicada: el análisis del registro, el enfoque nocional-funcional, el análisis del discurso, la lingüística textual y el análisis de género. en el segundo capítulo se revisan en profundidad las aportaciones del análisis del discurso, la lingüística textual y el análisis de género a los enfoques didácticos de la enseñanza del inglés para fines académicos (ifa). reseñas / book reviews ibérica 27 (2014): 217-234 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 215 se exploran los conceptos de discurso, texto y género, se encuadra el discurso científico dentro de una comunidad discursiva concreta, se aplican los componentes de la situación de comunicación a los escritos y se analizan las funciones del discurso más frecuentes en los textos científicos. asimismo, se definen los rasgos de la textualidad y se menciona otro elemento fundamental dentro de las propiedades del texto: el contexto. la autora propone una clasificación de los textos científicos basada en los rasgos textuales mencionados con anterioridad. el tercer capítulo se centra en el estudio de los géneros lingüísticos científicos y técnicos. después de una revisión pormenorizada sobre los conceptos tipo de texto y género, se propone una definición de género y se exponen las características lingüísticas de los géneros científicos. el cuarto capítulo versa sobre las funciones de la lectura en la enseñanza del inglés científico y técnico desde distintos enfoques: como elemento didáctico, como aducto lingüístico (input) y como proceso interactivo. con respecto a los criterios para la selección de textos, se citan varios autores y se analizan los expuestos por nuttall (1996), que la autora va relacionando con los rasgos de textualidad. también se aborda el tema de las fórmulas de legibilidad de los textos. el capítulo 5 recoge el estudio experimental realizado y basado en los rasgos de textualidad y explica cómo dichos rasgos, aplicados al contexto del alumnado, influyen en la compresión del texto. la muestra la constituye un grupo de alumnos de la escuela técnica superior de ingeniería de minas de la universidad politécnica de madrid matriculados en asignaturas de inglés aplicado. se presenta un cuestionario con diez preguntas, nueve de ellas relacionadas con los rasgos de textualidad y la décima, que pretende comprobar el grado de comprensión del texto. asimismo se plantean una serie de hipótesis sobre las relaciones de dependencia entre los rasgos de textualidad. en el capítulo 6 se aceptan las hipótesis planteadas en el trabajo tras el análisis de los datos obtenidos, quedando demostrada la relación de dependencia entre los rasgos de textualidad entre sí y en relación con la comprensión del texto. también se acepta la correlación positiva entre la deducción del significado general y de los términos específicos con el conocimiento del tema, la organización del contenido informativo y la aceptabilidad de los textos. con respecto a la cuarta hipótesis planteada, no se aprecia una relación significativa entre el índice de legibilidad del texto y la comprensión lectora. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 27 (2014): 205-238216 en el capítulo 7 se presenta una serie de actividades encaminadas a mejorar la lectura y basadas en los resultados y conclusiones alcanzadas. se proponen actividades organizadas de acuerdo con los rasgos de textualidad analizados y otras complementarias, entre ellas actividades que fomenten la redacción con buen estilo. en el capítulo 8 se exponen las conclusiones alcanzadas sobre la relación entre los rasgos de textualidad y la selección de textos y se presentan algunas futuras líneas de investigación. esta publicación constituye una lectura muy interesante para los docentes de ife, pues supone una reflexión sobre cómo la elección de textos basada en los rasgos de textualidad y las características del alumnado a que se dirige puede ayudar a éstos en la comprensión de los textos y por tanto en la mejora de su competencia comunicativa. las pautas marcadas por la autora y las actividades propuestas la convierten en una publicación muy recomendable para aquellos profesores que quieran fomentar las destrezas de la comprensión y redacción de textos especializados en sus cursos de ife. [reseña recibida 23 enero 2013] [reseña revisada aceptada 7 marzo 2013] reseñado por maría vázquez amador universidad de cádiz (spain) maria.vazquez@uca.es bibliografía reseñas / book reviews ibérica 27 (2014): 205-238 217 nuttall, c. (1996). teaching reading skills in a foreign language, 2ª ed. oxford: heinemann. iberica 13 ibérica 37 (2019): 245-248 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 multimodality across communicative settings, discourse domains and genres. veronica bonsignori, belinda crawford camiciottoli (eds). newcastle-upon-tyne: cambridge scholars publishing, 2016. 268 pages. isbn: 978-1-4438-1107-1. the volume edited by veronica bonsignori and belinda crawford camiciottoli has its origin in the workshop multimodal perspectives on language teaching and research (university of pisa, 2015), where the contributions collected in the volume were first presented. the publication stresses the pivotal role multimodality plays in “live” communicative events. as van leeuwen states in the foreword, “[m]ultimodality matters. it is not just an add on, a matter of style. it partakes meaningfully in the representational as well as in the interpersonal and textual functions of communication” (page ix). in general terms, the edited volume deals with multimodality in diverse communicative settings, and pays particular attention to the interplay of different semiotic modes and to the way the meaning of verbal expressions is reinforced by nonverbal elements. more specifically, it highlights the great importance of multimodality in language teaching and learning. the book is composed of ten chapters divided in two sections: the five chapters in the first part revolve around multimodal resources employed in teaching contexts and activities, considering also learners with disabilities. in the second part, composed of five chapters as well, multimodality is discussed as a fundamental element of communication in different genres (e.g. ted talks, political interviews, film genres) and domains (e.g. legal discourse, political discourse). in chapter 1, maría carmen campoy-cubillo explores the role of different communicative modes in the process of listening comprehension. multimodal listening is discussed as a macro-skill composed of several micro-skills that involve the understanding of different inter-connected modes within a single communicative unit. the chapter discusses diverse 245 reseñas/book reviews 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 245 criteria for multimodal listening task design, but focuses particularly on two issues (question types and task administration) because of the central role they play in multimodal listening implementation. in chapter 2, gloria cappelli and sabrina noccetti investigate how to improve the way adult learners with dyslexia process lexical input, and this through multimodal and multisensory activities. to this end, they develop a case study which compares two groups of italian dyslexic learners in the process of acquiring specialised english vocabulary through two different methods, one of them highly multisensory and multimodal. the results obtained confirm that multimodal and multisensory learning methods, by making lexical inputs more easily processable for dyslexic students, contribute to the successful acquisition of specialised vocabulary by those learners. the contribution by belinda crawford camiciottoli (chapter 3) also consists of a case study which examines how verbal (e.g. questions, imperatives) and non-verbal (e.g. co-speech gesture) modes of communication interact in lecturer-audience interpersonal episodes in an academic lecture. specifically, the video recording and transcript of a political philosophy lecture (available online) are analysed, using the software elan to annotate the cooccurrence of verbal and non-verbal elements during the lecture. ultimately, the study shows how the interplay of different modes in lecturer-audience interactions contributes to strengthen meanings and enhances comprehension. chapter 4, by vicente beltrán-palanques, discusses the importance of taking into account the multimodal dimension of pragmatic competence (which involves pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic knowledge) in teaching second and foreign languages. since communication is naturally multimodal, the interplay between diverse modes is an essential issue to be addressed regarding the development of pragmatic competence in language learning. from this standpoint, the author proposes a multimodal pragmatic conversational approach for teaching speech acts, and ultimately highlights the centrality of multimodal pragmatic competence in language learning. in chapter 5, elena davitty proposes a multimodal approach to study the communicative dynamics of dialogue interpreting (di), one which takes into account both the verbal and embodied resources (e.g. gesture, gaze) at play in interpreter-mediated dialogue situations. it is also argued that all the parties involved in interpreter-mediated interactions (and not just the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 245-248246 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 246 interpreter) contribute to the multimodal co-construction of meaning. hypotheses are tested through the analysis of extracts from authentic data from a multimodal and multiparty standpoint. as a conclusion, it is suggested that this kind of research may help improve the practice of professional interpreters, as well as positively influence their training process. chapter 6, by silvia masi, considers the increasing use of ted talks in foreign language teaching as a tool to develop listening comprehension skills and teach how to use gestures. the study specifically explores the interaction between verbal utterances and arm and hand gestures in ted talks, and, through the analysis of three talks on socio-economic topics, discusses how co-speech gesture may facilitate meaning understanding in international contexts like those where ted talks take place. in chapter 7, silvia bruti addresses the role of body language and gestures in the construction of meaning in political interviews, and compares male and female styles. specifically, she analyses in detail the cbs news programme 60-minute interview with president obama and the then secretary of state hillary clinton, aired in january 2013. clinton’s and obama’s gestures in the interview are contrasted with their gestural performance in two other interviews. also, both politicians’ speech is compared to that of other politicians (male and female) in tv interviews in order to see if clinton’s and obama’s speech style is gender-related. it is concluded that obama’s and clinton’s speech, body language and gesture preferences in the main interview do not follow gender-related patterns, but rather depend on the topic of discourse and the context of enunciation. the contribution by veronica bonsignori (chapter 8) discusses the interplay of non-verbal elements (e.g. gestures, gaze) and verbal rhetorical strategies (e.g. parallelism, metaphor) in political discourse. the aim of the study is to shed light on the way different semiotic resources cooperate in political contexts to construct meaning. to this end, selected fragments from two political drama films -the ides of march (2011) and the iron lady (2011)are annotated with elan and analysed from a multimodal perspective. it is also pointed out that the multimodal analysis of political films may constitute a useful tool for research and teaching in esp due to films being crafted for native speakers of a language. in chapter 9, daniele franceschi offers a multimodal analysis of trial language. the selected data consist of some audio-visual fragments from the trial of the south african athlete oscar pistorius. the analysis focuses on the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 245-248 247 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 247 questioning techniques and speaking styles employed by both defence and prosecuting lawyers, which are examined in terms of their lexical-semantic and socio-pragmatic features, as well as considering the non-verbal elements that accompany speech. the study aims to contribute to the analysis of trial discourse in english-speaking countries other than us and uk, while doing so from a multi-semiotic perspective. finally, chapter 10, by gianmarco vignozzi, deals with the multimodal representation of idiomatic expressions in selected disney animated films. the examples analysed show how the complexity of meaning of idioms is translated to the multi-semiotic nature of film to achieve humorous and double entendre effects, as well as an effective construction of meaning. finally, a reception study involving children and adults is suggested for further research, which would serve to test, among other things, which semiotic elements are perceived as pivotal in the multimodal representation of idioms. overall, the studies that compose the volume represent novel contributions to research on multimodality from different methodological approaches and techniques (multimodal discourse analysis, multimodal transcription, and multimodal annotation software, to name a few). because of the variety of topics covered, the book may appeal to researchers working on multimodality in general, and also to those with an interest on particular discursive genres and domains (e.g. political discourse, trial language). it may be highly informative as well for foreign language teachers who want to learn about ways of implementing multimodal learning techniques in their classroom. received 26 february 2019 accepted 01 march 2019 reviewed by adriana gordejuela institute for culture and society, university of navarra (spain) agordejuela@unav.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 245-248248 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 248 iberica 13 multimodal analysis in academic settings. from research to teaching. edited by belinda crawford camiciottoli and inmaculada fortanet-gomez. london / new york 2015: routledge (paperback 2018) this volume, which was published first in 2015 and now has appeared in paperback format, is interesting in at least two ways that make it relevant to write a review of it today, despite the fact that the content is not new. mainly, it takes on a topic not often treated in depth in the field of studies of academic communication, viz., oral communication. furthermore, and not least important, due to the number of studies on different aspects of oral academic communication, it is an interesting example of the variety of ways in which multimodal studies based upon systemic-functional analysis approache this complex object of research. the book consists of an introduction followed by ten chapters. the first six take on the study of conference contributions, while the last four deal with multimodal/oral communication in or for the classroom. all of the chapters fall within a well-defined frame of interest and form a coherent whole, but are sufficiently different to render a diversified picture of the common topic. in what follows i want to highlight this coherent diversity. the chapter by zuocheng zhang (“disagreements in plenary addresses as multimodal action”) aims to “explore how disagreements are accomplished by plenary speakers at academic conferences”. it analyses the multimodal meaningmaking devices involved in presenting four types of disagreement in two plenary talks. the focus of analysis is set on modalities such as spoken language, hand movement, head movement, facial expression, posture, and gaze. the study identifies individual systems in combining these modalities when performing the disagreement characteristic of professional academic practice. the chapter “contrastive multimodal analysis – conference plenary lectures in english and spanish” by noelia ruiz-madrid and inmaculada fortanet-gomez, analysing various semiotic systems, intends to demonstrate “how the relationship among them adds a particular pragmatic value to the linguistic message conveyed”. focus is upon the study of asides, starting from a linguistic analysis and moving on to paralinguistic (voice quality, voice reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 255-260 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 255 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 255 differentiator) and kinetic (gestures, head movement, facial expression, gaze) resources. two plenary lectures (one spanish, one english) are examined, containing 25 and 39 asides, respectively. one rich aside sequence is selected from each talk for deep analysis of the multimodal interaction. conclusions are mainly methodological and concern the usefulness of this type of analysis for describing complex communicative processes of this sort, with a focus on didactic settings. in the chapter “intensifying adverbs in academic spoken discourse”, miguel f. ruiz-garrido examines in presentations the most common intensifiers used to modify adjectives and their accompanying paralinguistic (pitch, silence, syllable duration) and kinesic (hand movement, head movement, body movement) features. four presentations by female presenters are studied (two spanish and two english). paralinguistic and kinesic resources support linguistic intensification, but no deep systematicity is found. however, it is suggested that it would be sensible to explore this phenomenon further in order to find common patterns and apply these in teaching. the chapter by giuliana diani (“visual communication in applied linguistic conference presentation”) investigates types of visuals (i.e. slides) in powerpoint conference presentations as well as the relations between the macro structure of the presentation and the imrd structure of research articles. she investigates 56 ppt presentations from three conferences and categorises the slides into scriptural, numerical, figurative, and graphical. the vast majority (75 %) are scriptural, whereas the rest are evenly divided. the structure found generally deviates from the imrd sequence, due to differences in the communicative situation. in her chapter “a multimodal approach to persuasion in conference presentations”, julia valeiras jurado uses ethnographic methods to study the use of semiotic modalities for making conference presentations more persuasive. she analyses one conference presentation delivered by two presenters and investigates the following modalities: verbal text, paralanguage (intonation, pauses, non-verbal vocalizations), kinesics (gestures, body posture, head movements, gaze), visuals on screen, and written text projected on screen. the chapter by christine räisänen (“there is more to multimodality than discourse features and nonverbal behaviors”) is different from most of the others in that it does not rely upon an empirical study. instead, it is a reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 255-260256 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 256 theoretical contribution proposing that we should include not only modalities which communicators control (internal modalities), but also modalities with power to influence communication without communicators governing them (external modalities). along this line of thought, she proposes to include the matter around the communication (e.g., artifacts and spatial layout) in her multimodal analysis. hence, she proposes to proceed in the ethnographic direction, especially visible in valeiras jurado’s contribution. the chapter “elaborating explanations during opencourseware humanities lectures” by belinda crawford camiciottoli, investigates the interplay between the linguistic expressions of explanation and the cooccurring non-verbal signals in humanities lectures from yale university’s opencourse website. five lectures are analysed. the verbal expressions of explanation (dominantly: argumentation) are taken as a basis and supplemented by an analysis of the co-occurring features ‘prosodic stress’, ‘outward gaze’, and ‘gesturing’. the finding is that nonverbal signals are used to reinforce verbal meaning and promote an atmosphere that facilitates learning. juan carlos palmer-silveira’s “multimodality in business communication” analyses three student presentations from a training course in this genre and delves into body language as a visual aid. different from the other empirical chapters in the volume, this chapter studies communicative instances from the normative point of view of the course: have the students acquired the intended skills? the chapter thus appears to have more of a didactic than a research orientation. the features analysed are ‘stage’, ‘hands’, ‘eye contact’, and ‘head movement’, which interweave in an encompassing picture of the interaction of body language constituents in such presentations, together with a number of normative utterances on the desirable use of those constituents’ (students should …). the chapter “assessing multimodal listening” by mari carmen campoycubillo and mercedes querol-julián resumes the didactic focus. it does not contain an empirical analysis but presents instead a theory-based suggestion of a set of criteria for assessing listening tasks based upon videotexts in foreign language teaching. apart from verbal aspects, extralinguistic features (visual context, visual information, aural information, kinesics, proxemics) and paralinguistic features (qualities, qualifiers, differentiators) are proposed. finally, silvia bruti’s chapter “teaching learners how to use pragmatic reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 255-260 257 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 257 routines through audiovisual material” is also a proposal for a didactic approach, in which multimodal analysis and especially multimodal transcription may be used in order to teach the pragmatic features of conversational interaction. two examples are presented of the relevant insights that may be obtained from a multimodal transcription of two different film clips. in addition to modalities such as kinesics and proxemics, others more akin to film semiotics are studied, such as shot description (medium shot, close-up shot, etc.) and audio track and music. this choice of features to include in the transcription appears broad, if the goal is to let students become aware of features of conversational interaction. looking at the volume as a whole, two characteristics are prominent. the first, more methodologically oriented, is the implicit ideal of most contributions to render system-based insights on the genres or linguistic varieties studied, preferably in the form of generalisations. there is a methodological challenge hidden here: the number of possible modalities to study is by definition unlimited in the field of multimodality studies (cf. räisänen’s suggestion of including the agential role of non-human agents). in order to make this approach viable, the studies in the volume therefore sensibly limit the number of modalities included, typically to paralinguistic and kinetic features, but still keep a considerable number of analytic dimensions. furthermore, they restrict the number of communicative instances studied to between one and five, hence dominantly following an ethnographic and qualitative approach (one exception is diani’s study of a total of 1680 slides). however, although many authors explicitly describe the limited size of their communicative samples as both a characteristic and a limitation, this fact does not prevent them from making such claims as “our findings have shown that certain intensifying adverbs are quite frequent in academic spoken english and spanish, …” (p. 78), based upon two spanish and two english conference contributions. consequently, although the authors show a clear awareness of the need to limit the object of study in order to cope analytically, there is still a wish to give a ‘big picture’ of academic spoken discourse from a multimodal standpoint. interestingly, the second characteristic actually points in the opposite direction, towards a more qualitative than quantitative approach. all the chapters comment upon the didactic use of their findings, but regularly not in the form of systems of characteristics deduced from the studies. rather, they suggest that students use the same approach in their study of communicative instances as in this study and thus become able to perceive reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 255-260258 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 258 the interaction between verbal and paraor non-verbal modalities. this is a sensible way to control the high number of interacting factors (i.e.. the different features studied in the chapters). it has been a pleasure to read this book, which i can recommend to everyone interested in how to investigate and teach multimodal communication in the academic field. received: 15 april 2019 accepted: 17 april 2019 reviewed by jan enberg aarhus universitet (denmark) je@cc.au.dk reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 255-260 259 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 259 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 260 01 editorial.qxd disciplinary identities: individuality and community in academic discourse ken hyland. cambridge: cambridge university press, 2012. 236 pages. isbn: 978-0-521-19759-5. disciplinary identities is an intelligent blend of synthesis and innovation. with it, ken hyland coherently follows the trail of his previous work, in particular that of disciplinary discourses (2004), whose final chapters constitute his present point of departure, and of those articles explaining the tension between positioning (authorial stance and visibility) and “proximity” (the conformity and “engagement” with communal constraints and expectations) to take a broad view of academic identity through a constructivist approach. indeed the works on identity currently circulating are, as hyland states in his preface, diverse and massively numerous, and therefore one must have powerful reasons for launching another book onto the market. disciplinary identities, suffice it to say, is not only justified but also welcome because of three very strong points: first, its conjugation of shared knowledge and new findings – the latter regarding hardly explored representational genres such as academic bios, theses acknowledgments, prize applications and academic homepages; second, its eclecticism, both theoretical and methodological, which enriches the current landscape of research into academic interpersonality and provides us with a versatile arsenal of tools; and third, an ample conceptual coverage leading to suggestive directions for further studies. among them are the connection between identity and multimodality (the author’s survey of academic webpages reminds us that identities are relational, multimodal and semiotic), the whys and wherefores of generic bending, issues of disciplinary and discursive appropriation and hybridization, the diachronic evolution of selfand group branding, the erosion of genres by individual style, or the variation of content and form across channels and media (oral, written, multimodal, traditional and digital) and throughout educational levels. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 229 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 229 a comprehensive nine-chapter structure vertebrates the scope of this monograph deductively. from an initial description of the context in chapter 1 (that is, of the notion and dynamics of disciplinary cultures), the conceptual funnel progressively narrows down by specifying the object of study in chapter 2 (the interplay between proximity and positioning), the linguistic frameworks and methods of investigation available, which comprise conversation, narrative, corpus and critical discourse analysis (chapter 3), and by displaying a catalogue of understudied representational genres in chapter 4 (theses acknowledgments, prize applications and academic webpages). academic bios, by contrast, have been separated from the former genres to elaborate on their thematic and encoding intricacies in chapter 5, while nonrepresentational genres (or at least not so overtly representational) such as undergraduate reports, and others already extensively dealt with in disciplinary discourses, as is the case of research articles and book reviews, are reserved to illustrate features of authorial visibility in chapters 6-8. in them hyland contemplates writer voice (even idiolects), and to do so he refines his perspectives on stance and engagement (basically gathered in his 2002, 2005 and 2010 articles), relating them to a constellation of factors that mediate communicative choices and consequently chisel identity: culture, discipline, genre, reputation, seniority, and gender. simply put, identity is a matter of what we really are and do, of what we think we are and do, and ultimately, hyland argues, of how we express such thought. identity is but the product of an ongoing negotiation that agglutinates three major opposing pairs across the mediating variables enumerated above: essentialism/dynamism, sameness/difference, and communality/individuality. we could add a fourth one, the tandem fears/desires (lemke, 2008), which impels us to conquer a successful reputation so as to become full group members, and thus our bios speak of ourselves in terms of educational backgrounds, employment (mobility and institutional prestige), teaching experience (time and specialization), research publications (number and impact), roles (community services), and awards and achievements. some of these imposed themes may be prioritized over others depending on the discipline and writer’s emphasis, certainly permitting wide leeway for self-representation within word limits. however, a sort of tacit code of trans-academic politeness dictates that, out of modesty, tact, or shame – and whatever the field – there be, for example, no mention of average teaching evaluation results, and the same applies to regional and national teaching-quality rankings in university websites. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256230 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 230 when john swales and i knew we were going to review disciplinary identities for different journals, our immediate reaction was to dissect hyland’s discursive identity and test on him the “practice what you preach” adage. swales highlighted his engagement with the reader through a clear prose and the inclusion of summaries at the end of each chapter, and also noticed his self-effaced use (in humble service of the discipline?) of first-person pronouns, very similar to that of his hong kong undergraduates, analysed in chapter 6. the direction of such mimesis remains a mystery to us (it seems eventually all things come round full circle), although hyland’s self-mentions increase considerably in the second half of the book. instead i have turned my gaze to his blurb bio and his liking for hyperinformative titles, which straight off from the table of contents help readers raise accurate expectations and contribute to the mnemonic function of the summaries and conclusions to come. binary and triadic titles juxtaposing the chapters’ keywords predominate, slightly outnumbering colon-organised ones that distinguish generalities from specificities and problems from methods at either side of the colon, whereas a couple of titles formulated as rhetorical questions arouse suspense and set in a dialogic tone. concerning his blurb bios, the one here is a minimalist combination of employment and seniority, a profile common to his other solo-authored books and differing curiously from the quantification of experience and editorial fertility in the jackets of his edited volumes. blurb bios are not infallibly written by authors/editors, but they do edit them and have the final word. another trait already inherent in hyland’s academic imprint is the recurrent and collectively-coined metaphor whereby we qualify him as a scholar: that of the “toolbox supplier”. inevitably, there are omissions in every work, and this metaphor leads me to comment on two aspects i have missed along my reading, one of them being precisely the methodological link with cognitive linguistics as a tool for the study of selfand community-created tropes, which are subtle signs of identity. the other is some discussion on the feeling of cultural “in-betweenness” and the sense of identity gained or lost through english as a lingua franca. above these minor gaps, disciplinary identities is, no doubt, a great book. on the one hand, it recapitulates the panoramas given by preceding esp and eap research through corpus and discourse analysis and by a variety of areas ranging from semiotics, narratology, or sociolinguistics within applied linguistics, to sociology, anthropology, psychology and philosophy reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 231 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 231 outside it. on the other, it travels further afield to discover and inspire fresh sites of identity. i cannot help re-metaphorizing hyland as a skilful army sapper clearing the way and building bridges that enable us to cross safely to other shores, some apparently remote. after all, sappers carry sophisticated toolkits with them. [review received 24 september 2012] [revised review received 13 january 2013] [revised review accepted 2 february 2013] reviewed by carmen sancho guinda universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) carmen.sguinda@upm.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256232 hyland, k. (2002). “authority and invisibility: authorial identity in academic discourse”. journal of pragmatics 34: 1091-1112. hyland, k. (2004). disciplinary discourses: social interactions in academic writing. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. hyland, k. (2005). “stance and engagement: a model of interaction in academic discourse”. discourse studies 7: 173-191. hyland, k. (2010a). “constructing proximity: relating to readers in popular and professional science”. journal of english for academic purposes 9: 116-127. hyland, k. (2010b). “community and individuality: performing identity in applied linguistics”. written communication 27: 159-188. lemke, j. (2008). “identity, development and desire: critical questions” in c.r. caldas-coulthard & r. iedema (eds.), identity trouble. critical discourse and contested identities, 17-42. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 232 maquetación 1 escribir a través del currículum. una guía de referencia. bazerman, c., j. little, l. bethel, t. chavkin, d. fouquette y j. garufis (eds). córdoba: universidad nacional de córdoba, 2016. 266 pages. isbn: 978-950-33-1300-8. escribir a través del currículum. una guía de referencia se publicó en 2016 con el apoyo de la universidad nacional de córdoba. el volumen es una traducción al español del original inglés reference guide to writing across the curriculum, publicado en 2005 por bazerman et al. en el marco de la colección reference guides to rhetoric and composition editada por el mismo bazerman. al igual que la edición original en inglés, la traducción al español se ha publicado de forma digital y gratuita con el objetivo de llegar a un amplio espectro de lectores y servir como punto de referencia para la enseñanza y la investigación en el ámbito latinoamericano. la edición en español de escribir a través del currículum incluye tres secciones inéditas: un prefacio escrito por los co-editores del libro, profesores de la facultad de ciencias de la comunicación de la universidad nacional de córdoba; un prólogo escrito por bazerman y traducido al español por ávila reyes; y una introducción del editor de la obra en español, federico navarro. en conjunto, las tres secciones contribuyen a que esta edición en español represente un verdadero esfuerzo para contextualizar el movimiento escribir a través del currículum (wac, por sus siglas en inglés) en américa latina, más allá de ofrecer una traducción de la obra en inglés. en el prefacio, los autores y co-editores del volumen, castaño, orellana, ávila y pinque, presentan brevemente el contexto político, social y educativo que caracterizó argentina durante las últimas décadas y que dio lugar a iniciativas wac en este territorio, en las que la traducción y publicación de este volumen se enmarcan. en esta breve presentación destacan algunos paralelismos con la situación estadounidense presentada de forma más extensa en el capítulo 2, que le permiten al lector comparar, aunque sin profundizar, los dos contextos. en el prólogo, bazerman se dirige a los profesores en una reflexión que subraya el valor de wac y de la escritura en general para la educación y el reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 221-223 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 221 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 221 aprendizaje, subrayando la versatilidad de este enfoque, que hace que sea un modelo idóneo y adaptable a diferentes contextos educativos y marcos disciplinares, y la importancia de que los estudiantes (y los profesores) comprendan “que una participación efectiva en el mundo disciplinar depende de la articulación en su escritura” (página 30). en la introducción, el editor del volumen en español, federico navarro, profundiza más en la descripción del movimiento wac en latinoamérica ya esbozada en el prefacio. esta sección del libro constituye una herramienta muy valiosa para aquellos lectores interesados en comprender a fondo no solo el movimiento wac, sino también cómo se ha desarrollado y adaptado para contestar preguntas y solucionar problemas específicos de américa latina. además, esta sección ofrece una rica selección de fuentes bibliográficas recientes y específicas para el contexto latinoamericano que complementan las referencias incluidas en los capítulos originales del libro. el volumen cuenta con los mismos once capítulos de la versión original, organizados en tres partes. los tres capítulos de la primera parte, “el movimiento de escribir a través del currículum”, definen los conceptos clave del enfoque wac en relación con diferentes contextos educativos y de investigación investigadores (capítulo 1); trazan la historia del movimiento wac en el reino unido y los estados unidos (capítulo 2), y detallan las características y la evolución de los primeros programas de escritura que implementaron este modelo (capítulo 3). los cinco capítulos de la segunda parte, “enfoques de la teoría y la investigación”, describen las características de los programas y cursos wac en los diferentes niveles educativos, desde la escuela primaria hasta el posgrado (capítulo 4); las conexiones entre wac y el enfoque escribir para aprender (capítulo 5) así como entre wac y la retórica de la ciencia, retórica de la investigación y escribir en las disciplinas (capítulo 6); los problemas que derivan de las particularidades del discurso en un área disciplinar dada (capítulo 7) y el papel del estudiante (capítulo 8). finalmente, la tercera parte, “recomendaciones prácticas”, incluye tres capítulos que se centran en detallar nuevas direcciones programáticas relacionadas con diferentes tipos de cursos y programas, desde centros de escritura hasta modelos de aprendizaje-servicio (capítulo 9); valorar y evaluar la implementación de modelos pedagógicos wac (capítulo 10); y ofrecer una selección de lecturas complementarias organizadas por reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 221-223222 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 222 disciplinas que comprenden matemáticas, inglés, lengua y literatura, psicología, economía e historia (capítulo 11). en general, el volumen cumple con creces su propósito de dar a conocer el movimiento y el enfoque wac a lectores hispanohablantes y así promover el debate en torno a los desarrollos futuros de las teorías pedagógica y prácticas docentes vinculadas con este. cabe destacar que la traducción de estos capítulos no solo es acertada, sino que incorpora numerosas notas al pie de página que explican, contextualizan, profundizan y amplían conceptos, temas, momentos históricos y fuentes, lo que enriquece la experiencia del lector hispanohablante y le ayudan a interpretar wac y trasladar sus principios al ámbito latinoamericano. la traducción de esta obra central del movimiento wac crea un espacio disciplinar y terminológico en español que contribuye a definir el campo de wac en latinoamérica y así a promover su expansión. los lectores interesados apreciarán sobre todo la extensa bibliografía que acompaña la obra y que no siempre se encuentra referenciada o accesible en español, y las detalladas descripciones de cursos, programas e implementaciones en el aula que hacen que este libro constituya un excelente punto de partida para el diseño y la evaluación curricular. por sus características y los temas tratados, este libro es un excelente recurso para los investigadores latinoamericanos que trabajan en el campo de la lectura y escritura, los estudiantes de posgrado que se acercan al movimiento wac por primera vez, los profesores interesados en desarrollar cursos o implementar actividades de clase, y los directores de programas o centros educativos que quieran diseñar programas según los principios del enfoque wac. recibida 8 march 2018 aceptada 9 march 2018 reseñado por elisa gironzetti university of maryland (the united states of america) elisag@umd.edu references bazerman, charles (2005). reference guide to writing across the curriculum. parlor press llc. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 221-223 223 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 223 01 editorial.qxd editorial communication in tourism 2.0: redefining roles, restating ‘the traditional’, reaching the world we are witnesses of and first-hand participants in a new era of tourismrelated genres and tourist-mediated information whose origin lies in digital technology. the rapid evolution of social media into major opportunities and challenges for the hospitality and tourism sector (sparks et al., 2013) has caused a profound restructuring of the ‘architecture’ of the industry and has even led to the coinage of a new term to refer to the phenomenon: tourism 2.0 or cybertourism. tourism 2.0 benefits from the many applications offered by web 2.0, among which online applications and web services, blogs, forums, and social network sites deserve a special mention. communication in tourism 2.0 is thus characterised by a series of aspects that necessarily enhance the sharing and transmission of knowledge and experiences, including openness, interactivity, mass collaboration, global connection, social networking, and so forth. consequently, tourism 2.0 has paved the way for the creation of a hyper-connected community of practice that uses new technologies and social networks to add a multidimensional and more democratic perspective to the tourist experience. as noted by bassaler (2012), with tourism 2.0 consumers can now plan trips better and find the best deals, get information anytime and anywhere, and share their experiences. the tourist that was once a mere semi-passive entity even in her/his own tourist experience management is now a prolific producer of electronically available user-generated content (schmunk et al., 2014) through which to communicate key attributes and experiences related to sights, accommodation and destinations (dickinger & lalicic, 2014). with the cybertourism phenomenon, the tourist 2.0 is increasingly managing her/his tourist experience through the internet. therefore, as calvi (2012) concedes, the tourist 2.0 has more expertise than ever in the informationsearching process and knows how to take advantage of all the ibérica 31 (2016): 9-14 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 00 iberica 31_01 editorial.qxd 18/4/16 19:27 página 9 communicative channels in order to satisfy his/her specific motivations, which the tourism industry is also able to intercept and support. in fact, companies find a wealth of possibilities in social networks, such as improved knowledge of consumers and trends, the ability to anticipate performance, control of online brand image, and direct contact with consumers to better understand their needs, among others. mastering tourism 2.0 necessarily implies mastering the new forms of communication it has imposed. in fact, as durán (2012) observes, generalised access to the internet when looking for information or trying to contract products or tourist services has generated new communication possibilities. on the one hand, traditional genres have become more accessible and consequently more persuasive, interactive and direct, and, on the other hand, new forms of communication have arisen where the content-producers are the very same tourists that transmit their opinions, suggestions and recommendations, through traveller forums, blogs, etc. with a mainly informative function (calvi & bonomi, 2008; sanmartín, 2012; calvi, 2014). the articles published in this special issue show how tourism 2.0, or cybertourism, has led to new modes of communication that have arisen and revolutionised essential aspects of its discourse and yielded relevant sociolinguistic implications. since the migration of genres to the more advanced, interactive and direct online platform has necessarily implied, as already explained, a redefinition of roles, a restatement of traditional concepts and an increase in the possibilities and information available, this volume thus deals with the evolution experienced by tourism and tourismrelated communicative issues in recent decades. this evolution, as this special issue reflects, has given rise to the creation of new genres belonging to an interactive and accessible form of communication (bonomi, 2011), as well as to the hybridisation of already existing genres, to new forms of instruction and business management, and to a redefinition of roles and concepts in keeping with current times. in the opening article, mª vittoria calvi analyses and reflects on the travel guide as a typical tourist genre by evaluating the main transformations it has experienced in the era of tourism 2.0. by analysing some excerpts extracted from recent tourism texts, the author concludes that migration to a virtual environment has changed the presentation, distribution and amount of information transmitted as well as the style of travel guides, blurring the editorial ibérica 31 (2016): 9-1410 00 iberica 31_01 editorial.qxd 18/4/16 19:27 página 10 boundaries between the traditional descriptive guidebook and the promotional leaflet and contributing to intensify the hybridisation between different genres. in their contribution, elena bárcena, elena martín monje and maría jordano present the curricular design of a subject on english for specific purposes from the degree in tourism at the spanish national distance learning university, uned. the authors analyse the quantitative data compiled in former editions of the subject, inviting the reader to reflect on the model of tourism 2.0 in the subject of english for tourism, while dealing with its main methodological and technological aspects, which are presented and analysed together with the challenges of such a teaching modality and its complex didactic scenario. through the qualitative analysis presented in her article, rosana dolón explores ways in which hotel websites project a place identity for the hotel itself and, in doing so, also for the town or city where it is located. the author reflects on how this representation relies on sociocultural conventions, which in turn may influence the discursive construction of the social actor tourist. fei-wen cheng’s article shows how a multimodal analysis can add insight to brand formulation by investigating the way two luxury hotel chains represent and promote themselves through their respective websites. the textual analysis presented explores how a composite corporate identity is linguistically codified at the lexical level, while the image analysis unveils how it is manifested in the representational and interactive meanings of the choices of image. ángel felices presents in his article the results of the computer-assisted language learning (call) project entitled autonomous learning of specialized vocabulary in english for tourism, which has proven to be a useful complementary task to materials from international publishers in english as a foreign language. this project promotes autonomous learning in a more realistic, authentic professional context, serving as a model for the development of similar e-learning platforms in other regions or countries. in her article, maría-josé luzón puts forward the main features of elf interactions in travel blogs, which enable social interaction among members of communities with shared travelling interests and in which english is most often used as a lingua franca. the purpose of the research presented is thus to analyse the features of english as a lingua franca (elf) interactions in editorial ibérica 31 (2016): 9-14 11 00 iberica 31_01 editorial.qxd 18/4/16 19:27 página 11 travel blogs and to explore some strategies used by participants in blog discussions to achieve shared understanding and show belonging to an elf community. in line with calvi’s article, giovanna mapelli’s paper also deals with the guidebook and its reconfiguration and even hybridisation as a genre, bringing about significant changes in the textual patterns as well as in the relevance of the information transmitted in these texts. in her article, and with a view to identifying the characteristics of the genre, the author presents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the vocabulary and interpersonal metadiscourse of different kinds of travel guides 2.0., which are subsequently compared with traditional guides and other informative promotional texts. in her article about neology and its contexts of use, julia sanmartin offers a pragmalinguistic analysis of the eco-logical, the sustainable and the environmentally-friendly in legal genres and in web genres of tourist promotion. accordingly, through her research she attempts to unveil whether there is a correlation between neologisms that include a sense of “protecting the environment” and that are created either with the affix ecoor through a syntagmatic composition with the adjectives “sustentable”, “sostenible” and “ecológico” in two parameters. finally, francisca suau-jiménez’s paper explores how interpersonality, as a framework for analysis, is always necessarily conditioned by contextual variables. the article is based on the analysis of two prototypical tourism web genres: traveller forums and promotional tourism websites. in it, the author claims that valuable data on the construction of interpersonality in terms of promotion/persuasion and evaluation/advice in non-academic genres can be provided by stance and engagement voices, bringing new data to the interpersonality framework and thus helping to fine-tune this model. some book reviews on the topic dealt with in this special volume have also been included for the interest of our readership. it is hoped that the readers find them relevant and insightful. finally, i would like to thank and congratulate dr. carmen pérez-llantada, editor-in-chief of ibérica, and her editorial team (concepción ornamontesinos, oana maria carciu and diana giner) for their dedication, effort and impeccable work, as well as for all their kindness to me. thank you. my sincere gratitude also goes to all the reviewers, both from the editorial board and the international advisory board as well as the external reviewers editorial ibérica 31 (2016): 9-1412 00 iberica 31_01 editorial.qxd 18/4/16 19:27 página 12 who, despite the scarce time allowed to us by academic life, have found the will and way to contribute to make this volume possible. all of them have supported ibérica’s quality standards over the past semester and their collaboration is very much appreciated.our special thanks to iberica’s board members marta aguilar, mª enriqueta cortés, mercedes eurrutia, rosa giménez, honesto herrera, laura m. muresan, claus-peter neumann, mª ángeles orts, juan carlos palmer, marisol velasco, mª teresa cabré, françoise salager-meyer, mike scott and sven tarp. the external ad hoc reviewers are the following, listed alphabetically: erdem akbas (erciyes university, turkey) helen basturkmen (university of auckland, new zealand) laurie bauer (victoria university of wellington, new zealand) marisa blanco (universidad del rey juan carlos, spain) ruth breeze (universidad de navarra, spain) barbara de cock (université catholique de louvain, france) alejandro curado (universidad de extremadura, spain) emma dafouz (universidad complutense de madrid, spain) isabel durán (universidad complutense de madrid, spain) maria joão ferro (lisbon polytechnic institute, lisbon accounting and business school (labs – iscal), portugal inmaculada fortanet (universitat jaume i, castellón, spain) pedro fuertes olivera (universidad de valladolid, spain) patrick goethals (universiteit gent, belgium) richard hallet (northeastern illinois university, us) isabel hernández toribio (universidad complutense de madrid, spain) merja koskela (university of vaasa, finland) becky siu chu kwan (the city university of hong kong, hong kong) daniel leung (modul university, vienna, austria) theresa lillis (the open university, uk) helder fanha martins (lisbon polytechnic institute, lisbon accounting and business school (labs – iscal, portugal) laura mariottini (sapienza università di roma, italy) emilie moore (universitat internacional de catalunya, spain) ana pellicer-sánchez (university of nottingham, uk) sara piccioni (università degli studi “g. d’annunzio”, italy) ana roldán-riejos (universidad politécnica de madrid, spain) sonsoles sánchez-reyes (universidad de salamanca, spain) nadežda silaški (university of belgrade, serbia) editorial ibérica 31 (2016): 9-14 13 00 iberica 31_01 editorial.qxd 18/4/16 19:27 página 13 peter shaw (stockholm university, sweden) carmen valero garcés (universidad de alcalá de henares, spain) all through this volume, which i have proudly co-edited, many significant and complementary aspects, whether lexical, discursive, sociolinguistic, instructional, etc., regarding tourism 2.0 have been put forward and dealt with in an attempt to comprehensively show how the new kind of communication fostered by cybertourism has already led to a redefinition of roles and to a restatement of traditional concepts. as a result, tourism has become an even more global, multidimensional, democratic and participatory phenomenon capable of reaching and involving the whole world with just a click. nuria edo-marzá universitat jaume i, castellón (spain) nedo@ang.uji.es editor of the special issue of ibérica references editorial ibérica 31 (2016): 9-1414 bassaler, j. (2012). generation y and new technologies: tourism 2.0. retrieved from: http://www.orangebusiness.com/en/blogs/enterprisingbusiness/tourism/generation-y-and-newtechnologies-tourism-20 [2016/01/30]. bonomi, m. (2011). “el lenguaje del turismo en la web 2.0” in e. liverani & j. canals (eds.). el discurso del turismo. aspectos lingüísticos y variedades textuales, 127-148. trento: tangram edizioni scientifiche. calvi, m.ª v. (2014). “guía de viaje y turismo 2.0: los borrosos confines de un género”, conferencia inaugural del simposio internacional discurso y géneros del turismo 2.0, universitat de valència, 2-4 de abril de 2014. calvi, m.ª v. (2012). “palabras y cultura en la lengua del turismo”. pasos. revista de turismo y patrimonio cultural. editorial. 10,4: 1-3. calvi, m.ª v. y m. bonomi (2008). “el lenguaje del turismo: de los textos especializados a la comunidad del viajero” en c.r. navarro, r.m. rodríguez abella, f. dalle pezze y r. miotti (eds.), la comunicación especializada, 181-202. berlín: peter lang. dickinger, a. & l. lalicic (2014). “how emotional do we get? a closer look into the trip advisor dialogue” in z. xiang & i. tussyadiah (eds.), information and communication technologies in tourism 2014. 239-252. switzerland: springer international publishing switzerland. durán muñoz, i. (2014). “aspectos pragmáticolingüísticos del discurso del turismo de aventura: estudio de un caso”. revista normas, 4: 49-69. sanmartín, j. (ed.) (2012). discurso turístico e internet, madrid/frankfurt, iberoamericana vervuert (colección: lingüística iberoamericana, 48). schmunk, s., w. höpken, m. fuchs & m. lexhagen (2014). “sentiment analysis: extracting decision-relevant knowledge from ugc” in z. xiang & i. tussyadiah (eds.), information and communication technologies in tourism 2014, 253-265. switzerland: springer international publishing. sparks, b., h. perkins & r. buckley (2013). “online travel reviews as persuasive communication: the effects of content type, source, and certification logos on consumer behaviour” tourism management, 39: 1-9. 00 iberica 31_01 editorial.qxd 18/4/16 19:27 página 14 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 44 (2022): 1-6 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.1 editorial it is our pleasure to introduce the fall issue of ibérica, the second one produced under the new editorship of ruth breeze and maria kuteeva with the help of our insightful reviewers and dedicated editorial assistants. all our journal activities are now conducted through the ojs platform, and we would like to thank the aelfe board and the president of aelfe, alejandro curado, for their continued support of the journal and feedback on our editorial activities. we also express our gratitude to the editorial and international advisory boards who have helped to build up the reputation of ibérica. the journal continues to consolidate its international scope and outreach, both in terms of submissions and peer reviewing. the contributors to this issue are affiliated with universities across different continents, including countries such as china, finland, iran, malaysia, poland, singapore, spain, and the usa. issue 44 contains 15 research articles and 3 book reviews that cover different areas of lsp research, ranging from classical genre analyses of the research article (ra) and its different sub-sections, to digital genres and online science popularisation, and to various aspects of teaching and learning lsp. the range of topics included in this issue attests to recent developments in the field of lsp and its intersections with other fields, such as professional communication and english-medium instruction. in this issue, we launch a new “forum” section, whose aim is to provide space for critical reflections on our research field and to explore new directions for future research. we are delighted to have anna mauranen as first contributor to this new section, as her cutting-edge research has been shaping our understanding of academic discourse and the use of english as a lingua franca for several decades. in her “forum” contribution to this issue, anna mauranen raises and discusses an important question: where is spoken interaction in lsp? drawing on the latest state-of-the art reviews and her own long research experience, she argues that there are two reasons why lsp studies need to embrace spoken interaction: one has to do with pedagogical and practical applications, and the other with the need to move our field of inquiry forward and to address gaps in our understanding of how human 1 ibérica 44 (2022): 1-6 editorial communication takes place and how it varies across different settings of specialised communication. we are also happy to feature an opening article by our former editor-inchief carmen sancho guinda, whose dedication and professional expertise have been vital for establishing ibérica’s reputation in international journal rankings. in her opening article, carmen sancho guinda explores an emerging digital genre of technology disclosures with a particular focus on the concept of ‘narrative focalisation’. drawing on a theoretical framework combining netnography, narrative inquiry, critical genre and multimodal analysis, and positioning theory, she examines 134 samples of technologies portfolios and 12 samples of comic-book renderings. her analysis shows how the hybridity generated by digital affordances has an impact on the narrative and promotional strategies. the following five articles focus on the genre of the research article (ra). hon tun chang and becky kwan examine what researchers in information systems cite in their literature review sections. they employ swales’ seminal cars model and their own semantic typology of citations to examine semantic attributes of source ideas that are cited in different parts of the literature review. among other things, their findings show that distinct types of source ideas are associated with specific moves/steps of the literature review, and that original ideas from the source texts are recontextualised to different extents in order to advance the ra authors’ own arguments. based on these findings, chan and kwan propose pedagogical applications for the teaching of this part-genre. jason miin-hwa lim and xianqing luo zoom in on succinct summaries of research methods in ethnic studies and industrial relations through a genreanalytical lens. they found that these succinct summaries contain a recurrent use of prepositional phrases expressing data sources, cardinal numerals accentuating subjects’ involvement, post-modifying structures describing samples, and verb-infinitive/preposition structures signalling facilitation. in line with previous research on disciplinary differences in academic genres, their study also found some differences between the two disciplines, which can serve as a basis for pedagogical applications. the following paper by ana moreno takes an intercultural rhetoric approach to an embedded “bad news” genre: research limitations. her analysis shows differences between the rhetorical strategies adopted by researchers writing in english and in spanish. thus, the authors of 2 ibérica 44 (2022): 1-6 editorial english-language ras tend to mitigate the potentially negative effect of limitations by including implications for future practice. in spanish, the authors are more likely to surround limitations by explications to display their research expertise or to mitigate them by references to external factors. moreno concludes by calling for a critical intercultural awareness in writing for research publication. the fourth paper dealing with the ra genre examines information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers. wei-ning cheng and christopher s. g. khoo found significant differences in information-argument profile across the three types of ras reporting on investigative research, development and evaluation research, and descriptive research, and identified differences in sequential patterns. their contribution to the field of lsp includes the coding scheme for information-argument types in research papers and a method for analysing sequential patterns. the last paper dealing with the ra analyses how writer identity is discursively constructed by authors working in the field of management. iga lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis, and łukasz sułkowski look at the ways in which two groups of writers – the experienced and the novice – construct their authorial identities. they found that novice writers employ more interpersonal features to involve readers, while the more experienced ones make linguistic choices to establish their authority in the text. the following two papers are broadly concerned with communicating science to the general public. jingxin jiang and fei victor lim resort to multimodal discourse analysis to explore how a ted-talk presenter orchestrates her speech, visuals, and hand gestures to achieve her communicative purposes. their analysis shows how the three modes work together to communicate scientific ideas to, and engage with, the general audience. next, anna tereszkiewicz and magdalena szczyrbak examine proximity in polish medical popularisation youtube videos. interestingly, they apply an analytical framework developed for the study of popularisation discourse in english to the data in polish. their findings point towards a variety of multimodal strategies for establishing proximity along the facets of organisation, argument, credibility, stance, and engagement. rosa giménez-moreno and alicia ricart-vayá engage with a relatively new but rapidly developing genre of online medical consultations. their focus is on the control and expression of emotions, an important affective dimension of these remote interactions. their comparative analysis of 3 ibérica 44 (2022): 1-6 editorial doctor-patient interactions in peninsular spanish and british english highlights how specific stance and register variation mechanisms influence the emotional domain. they also illustrate how doctors communicating in spanish tend to act in a more cautious and detached manner, while their english-speaking counterparts resort to more varied strategies to achieve engagement, empathy, and emotional comfort. teaching and learning lsp is the focus of the following three articles. hao liu, hu qiu and zuocheng zhang provide an activity theory perspective on the flipped esp classroom. their study examined how chinese university students experience learning news english through pre-class micro-lesson videos. it identified notable differences between the teacherdesigned pre-class activity system and the activity system actually experienced by the students and discussed possible complications. in the next article, arif bakla and ali karakaş report on the results of a survey conducted with 249 study participants including native, native-like and non-native english-speaking researchers. their study compares how the academic writing practices among the three groups differ in terms of their use of technology, strategies and dictionaries. despite some foreseeable differences in the use of technologies and dictionaries between the nearnative and the non-native groups, their study also identified some common challenges in academic writing for all three groups. in the following article, hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai, and catherine snow explore academic reading status and the challenges experienced by graduate students in applied linguistics. the authors administered a questionnaire to 194 students, asking them to assess their own academic reading skills. this survey was complemented with interviews. the results indicate that information literacy was the weakest domain in the students’ self-reports. other reported challenges included shortage of time, content knowledge, critical literacy, writers’ language style and generic features of texts, teachers’ high expectations and vague instructions, insufficient statistical literacy, and insufficient interaction with peers. all three studies suggest how their findings can inform pedagogical practices. in a related field of enquiry, maría dolores rodríguez melchor and andrew samuel walsh’s article deals with the rapidly growing phenomenon of english-medium instruction. their focus is on spanish emi lecturers’ attitudes towards emi and their perceptions of teaching practices. drawing on the data collected through a survey and focus groups at a spanish 4 ibérica 44 (2022): 1-6 editorial university, they identify the distinction between emi lecturers’ implicit and explicit assessment of their students’ use of english. the last two articles in this issue focus on the language of specific professional domains: photography and cosmetics. drawing on the data from photography blogs, iryna mykytka examines acronyms and neighbouring categories – such as alphabetisms, abbreviations, blends, and clippings – in the language of photography. her study focuses on the structure and other characteristics of this specific type of discourse, and offers a possible classification based on the analysis of these features. last but not least, maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos and fatima azzahraa el yamlahi explore the metonymic relation between a cosmetic brand name and a product with a focus on moroccan brands. their study identifies a low frequency of reduction metonymy, which is largely outnumbered by its converse operation, i.e. expansion metonymy. the authors argue that the conscious use of these mechanisms by brand designers can help to boost brand identity and build a favourable brand image. the issue finishes with three reviews of recently published titles, including two research-based edited volumes and a textbook: metadiscourse in digital communication: new research, approaches and methodologies, edited by larissa d’angelo, anna mauranen and stefania maci; approaches to specialized genres, edited by kathy ling lin, isaac n. mwinlaaru and dennis tay; and researching discourse: a student guide, edited by christopher hart. these recent publications deal with timely and cutting-edge research topics and with methodological issues in the study of lsp. as always, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to our reviewers. without your competence and dedication, ibérica would not be where it is today. the articles included in this issue have benefited greatly from insightful and constructive comments by our external reviewers: robin anderson, martín aoiz pinillos, marcelino arrosagaray auzqui, antonio bañón hernández, an cheng, jesús garcía laborda, anthony gould, christoph hafner, isabel herrando, niina hynninen, kevin jiang, kayo kondo, irena kuzborska, paula lópez rua, elisa mattiello, lisa mcgrath, tarja nikula, jean parkinson, lorena pérez hernández, carmen pérez sabater, bojana petrić, hanne roothooft, hans sauer †, giuseppina scotta di carlo, heli tissari, rachel whittaker, and joanna zou. we are also grateful to the members of our editorial team, to associate editor begoña bellés fortuño, and to book reviews editor jesús garcía laborda for their 5 valuable contributions to producing this issue and for their dedication to the journal. ruth breeze, university of navarra (spain) maria kuteeva, stockholm university (sweden) editors-in-chief iberica@aelfe.org editorial ibérica 44 (2022): 1-66 01 editorial.qxd editorial this spring issue contains more articles than ever despite having been assembled under most difficult circumstances, the covid-19 pandemic. it also starts a new period with the adoption of english as the only language for publication. the contributions presented here belong to four major research strands: academic writing, corpus linguistics, legal discourse, and the lingua franca for specific purposes. our guest article, by ken hyland and feng (kevin) jiang, attests to diachronic changes in academic prose over the past fifty years and questions some of the prescriptions and recommendations from style manuals, namely those referring to demonstrative ‘this’, existential ‘there’ and first-person pronouns. their multidisciplinary corpus-driven analysis shows that the advice found in style manuals and writing guides does not reflect current academic writing practices and that corpus evidence should inform the work of language and communication instructors. in this regard, articles 5-11, four of which support their claims with corpus data, seem to corroborate the need for specificity in the teaching and appraisal of academic writing, that is, to promote awareness of and adjustments to different disciplines, genres, and even national cultures. in her contrastive study on the presence of informal features in research articles written by l1 english and l1 chinese scholars across four disciplines, gao xia (article 5) reports notable differences between cultures and fields: chinese researchers tend to write more formally than their english colleagues and to use fewer first-person pronouns and pronominal anaphora, but more imperatives and sentence-initial adverbials. as for disciplinary variation, the highest use of informality features is detected in physics, and the lowest in applied linguistics. advancing into the cultural variable through qualitative methods, the next two articles may suggest valuable pedagogical implications. yongyan li and xiaohao ma (article 6) delve into the current contextualised practices of emerging eap teachers to help graduate students develop the capabilities necessary to engage in international academic communication. the responses of twenty participants from eighteen chinese universities, located in eleven cities all over the country, reveal the important role played by ibérica 39 (2020): 9-14 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 factors as diverse as institutional leadership, goal orientation according to the educational level (master’s versus doctorate, the latter more oriented towards publication), or the use of corpora and eap textbooks. this focus on variability in academic writing is narrowed down in wei wang’s exploration (article 7) into what really constitutes ‘disciplinary specificity’ and what the relationship between writing-for-the-disciplines and general academic writing is. she adopts a learner-centred perspective and an in-depth qualitative approach that enable her to document three learning trajectories of a business-specific genre, the case analysis, in an academic english for business course at a chinese university, and to examine how general academic writing interferes with such learning. within this disciplinary approach and also carrying considerable pedagogical potential, the following two studies trace authorial imprint in research articles from four disciplines. jihua dong and louisa buckingham (article 8) apply the systemic functional linguistics framework and a corpus-driven approach in order to investigate the stance phrases preferred by agricultural science and economics scholars to define their identity and exercise their expert authority in academic discourse. in addition to refining and enriching existing stance taxonomies, the authors find a more frequent use of cognitive, attitude and hedging phrases among agricultural scholars, whereas evidentiality phrases concentrate significantly in the economics corpus. similarly, but under a corpus-based perspective, yin ling cheung and louwena lau (article 9) look into the use of first-person pronouns as voice markers and argument enhancers by english literature and computer science scholars. their results do not bear out the initial hypothesis that, in the absence of objective fact, literature writers build stronger authorial roles by means of first-person pronouns, so as to gain credibility and persuasiveness. rather, the findings appear to dissolve the traditional divide between hard and soft sciences in this respect. with a yet more specialised gaze on the research article genre, thi ngoc phuong le and minh man pham (article 10) tackle prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation of organisational patterns in mechanical engineering, a field so far under-researched. they scrutinise the resultsdiscussion section in a small-sized corpus of articles that employ different research methods (experimental, theoretical and mixed) and conclude that rhetorical complexity is affected by those three different disciplinary contexts. a last research genre, the academic blog, is investigated by hang (joanna) zou and ken hyland, who collect academics’ perceptions of the editorial ibérica 39 (2020): 9-1410 challenge posed by the genre to engage with readers (in other words, to raise their interest and persuade them) and find out about common rhetorical practices. drawing on more than twenty interviews with scholars from a range of disciplines and with varying degrees of familiarity and experience with blogs, the authors compare their informants’ impressions and blogwriting routines with those held and conducted when writing research articles. the conclusion is that the rhetorical practices in blogs exhibit a mixture of academic and disciplinary conventions. a reflection on the comparability of corpora, supported with empirical data and written by belén lópez arroyo (article 2), is followed by a pair of articles offering corpus-based and corpus-driven characterisations of outreach and professional discourses (articles 4 and 5, respectively). while literature on the topic establishes similarity as the main requisite for corpus comparability, this being broken down into the criteria of proportion, genre, domain and time, previous studies by lópez arroyo demonstrate that these do not suffice in some fields. in her view, the purpose of use, together with aspects such as content, format and genre style, should be taken into account, as evinced by her corpus of 150 expert tasting notes from spain and the usa in english and spanish and published in the same decades. following this reflection, the corpus-based characterisation of medical cancer terms provided by antonio jesús láinez ramos-bossini and maribel tercedor sánchez (article 3) discloses a generalised use of specialised medical terms by patients sharing their concerns in online cancer forums. the authors’ scrutiny of a 60-million-word corpus with a three-step method points to the fields of anatomy, treatment, hospital and symptoms as the chief vocabulary sources and to a remarkable incidence of dictionarydefined medical terms. next, rosana dolón herrero (article 4) offers insights as to how high-end hotel websites craft a sense of belonging and entitlement for their 4/5-star guests; that is to say, they create an in-group similarity allowing them to embrace cultural otherness, which epitomizes the tourist experience. with a corpus-driven approach and a blended framework merging critical discourse analysis (bourdieu’s notion of habitus and fairclough’s sociocultural approach) and systemic functional linguistics (halliday’s account of the transitivity system), the author addresses the words ‘different’ and ‘distinct’ as markers of otherness and privilege. two articles represent legal discourse in this issue. the first, by jasmina ðorđević (article 12), describes a classroom experiment for determining the editorial ibérica 39 (2020): 9-14 11 impact of computer assisted language learning (call) on the understanding of modal verbs in legal english and for assessing the level of student motivation in an esp course. through a mixed method joining quantitative and qualitative error analysis, questionnaires and group discussion, the author confirms the hypothesis that call improves modal verb understanding and motivation when chosen over conventional face-toface classroom learning environments. the second paper dealing with legal discourse, by krisda chaemsaithong and yoonjeong kim (article 13), integrates van leeuwen’s social actor representation method into halliday’s transitivity analysis to peruse the polarised discursive practices of the prosecution and the defense in capital trials. it argues that aggravating and mitigating factors are morally and normatively constructed in real time by the interactants, whose reference and transitivity choices may incline verdicts towards the death penalty. the status of two vehicular languages for specific purposes, english and arabic, is the object of research of the last pair of contributions. yao yao and bertha du-babcock (article 14) highlight the increasingly important role of english in the workplace across mainland china, especially in multinational companies. using online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with chinese business professionals from state-owned, privatelyowned and multinational companies, they discovered that, although communication in english has become a convention in the latter, the extent of its use depends upon various contextual factors, among which are the type of duty and the level of linguistic proficiency. lack of cultural sensitivity, moreover, may disrupt communication and lower promotion chances inside the company. analogously, the recent expansion of arabic for specific purposes (asp) drove marco golfetto (article 15) to probe into the motivations, professional orientations, needs and language learning histories of more than 200 arabic majors enrolled in ba and ma degree courses in language and cultural mediation in italy. quantitatively and qualitatively discussed, the findings of his survey show that students’ interests are primarily instrumental and target very specific areas, such as politics, diplomacy, administration, and the media. the study, in sum, paves the way for future needs analyses of asp teaching and learning. the book reviews that complete the issue evaluate the volumes comunicar en la universidad y en la vida profesional (by ricardo-maría jiménez-yáñez, 2020), and temas actuales de terminología y estudios sobre el léxico (co-edited by miguel ángel candel-mora and chelo vargas-sierra, 2017). although both books editorial ibérica 39 (2020): 9-1412 are written in spanish, they can reach a wide specialist audience and their reviews in english clearly and accurately signal their strengths and weaker points. from jiménez-yáñez’s work, inés jordán marqués underlines its progressively built organisation and its useful combination of guidelines, activities and theoretical input. candel and vargas’ work stands out, in miguel ayerbe linares’ judgement, for its ample diversity of disciplinary languages, and for its detailed description of methodologies and challenges in specialised translation. as ever, i will end this editorial by thanking all the external reviewers who have so generously lent us their time and expertise. the scholars mentioned below in alphabetical order collaborated with the journal from july to december, 2019: francisco j. alonso almeida (universidad de las palmas de gran canaria, spain) isabel balteiro fernández (universidad de alicante, spain) marina bondi (università degli studi di modena e reggio emilia, italy) carla botella tejera (universidad de alicante, spain) jiemin bu (foreign language school, zhejiang guangsha college of applied construction, china) louisa buckingham (the university of auckland, new zealand) carole chaski (the institute for linguistic evidence, delaware, usa) viviana cortés (georgia state university, usa) maría belén díez bedmar (universidad de jaén, spain) jihua dong (the university of auckland, new zealand) tatjana ðurović (university of belgrade, serbia) inmaculada fortanet gómez (universitat jaume i, spain) rosa giménez moreno (universitat de valència, spain) sarali gintsburg (universidad de navarra, spain) victoria guillén nieto (universidad de alicante, spain) michael hammond (university of warwick, uk) janet ho (lingnan university, hong kong, china) francisco miguel ivorra pérez (universitat de valència, spain) mirella marotta peramos (universidad complutense de madrid, spain) lisa mcgrath (sheffield hallam university, uk) eva maría mestre i mestre (universitat politècnica de valència, spain) nicolás montalbán martínez (universidad de murcia, spain) adil moustaui sghir (universidad de navarra, spain) noelia navarro-gil (universidad complutense de madrid, spain) editorial ibérica 39 (2020): 9-14 13 maria-ionela neagu (university of ploiesti, romania) concepción orna montesinos (universidad de zaragoza, spain) carmen pérez-llantada auría (universidad de zaragoza, spain) xuyan qiu (the open university of hong kong, china) mercedes querol julián (universidad internacional de la rioja, spain) ana maría roldán riejos (universidad politécnica de madrid, spain) michele sala (università degli studi di bergamo, italy) julián sancha vázquez (universidad de cádiz, spain) francisca suau-jiménez (universitat de valència, spain) judith turnbull (università degli studi di modena e reggio emilia, italy) julia valeiras-jurado (universiteit gent, belgium) rosana villares maldonado (universidad de zaragoza, spain) on behalf of ibérica’s staff, i also want to welcome two new members of the editorial board: elisabet arnó i maciá (universitat politècnica de catalunya), formerly president of aelfe, and guzmán mancho barés (universitat de lleida), whose experience as researchers will be a priceless asset to the journal. we all hope that this issue will enrich the panorama of languages for specific purposes by awakening new academic interests and stimulating interconnections between our varied methodological approaches and areas of research. it is also our wish that the knowledge we disseminate should foster reflection on communication strategies and contribute to their improvement, especially during the present healthcare and social crisis and its aftermath. carmen sancho guinda universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) iberica@aelfe.org editor-in-chief of ibérica editorial ibérica 39 (2020): 9-1414 iberica 13 patient-centred communication: discourse of in-home medical consultations for older adults kayo kondo bristol: multilingual matters, 2022. 240 pages. isbn: 9781800415881 the clinical encounter entails a complex interpersonal communicative act, which transcends mere physical examination. patient-centered communication (pcc), as we understand it today, is a challenge for medical professionals, who should not only understand the illness but also the patient’s experience of it. a series of communication skills are thus required to lay the foundations of the patient-physician relationship. in patient-centred communication: discourse of in-home medical consultations for older adults, kayo kondo provides a detailed study of home consultations by analyzing the formation and development of patient-physician expressions, which characterize communication in the specific context of tokyo. the calgarycambridge guide, used in medical education for clinical interviews, is here incorporated as a support in the exploration of communicative behaviors, and although it adapts small aspects to the japanese reality, its scope of application is international. the interventions are studied from the point of view of brown and levinson’s politeness theory, focusing on some cultural aspects that contrast with those of the western world. in this book, the reader will find how the concepts and theory of pcc in physician-elderly patient interactions are applied to real life. the book has eight chapters, which could be grouped into three parts. first, we find the theoretical framework and the justification of the approach from which the research is carried out (chapters 1 and 2). secondly, there is the development of the study itself, where the methodology is presented and the analysis of the doctor-patient interviews is developed in detail (chapters 3 to 7). finally, the book closes with a part in which the pertinent observations for sharing knowledge are presented along with a series of practical recommendations (chapter 8). as far as the theoretical framework is concerned, the starting point is in pragmalinguistics, from which a politeness model valid for all cultures was created (brown & levinson, 1987). according to these authors, reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 350-353 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.350 350 we all have an image that we should maintain and that we negotiate in communicative encounters with others. there are a series of strategies to mitigate threats, which are known as politeness strategies. these positive politeness strategies are intended to avoid giving offense by highlighting friendliness. in the 1990s, this theory became a subject of discussion among linguists, as the concept of positive or negative image is understood differently in the asian world. in this context, the reader will be able to discover the complex role played by japanese honorifics in clinical discourse, as they are grammaticalized. kondo also studies intercultural communication and the cultural dimensions that come into play in politeness strategies, analyzing examples of high and low context communication (hall, 1976) or the overlap between power distance and individualism or collectivism (hofstede, 1991). in the second part of the book, the author explains an ethnographic, observational study of real clinical interactions in the homes of twenty-eight patients, complemented by semi-structured interviews with clinicians and field notes (chapters 3 to 7). two categories are established, those concerning the positive image of the patient, that is to say, those referring to the perception that others have of their interlocutor (chapters 4 and 5), and those concerning the negative image, regarding the speaker’s protection of his territory (chapters 6 and 7). in pcc, the physician must first identify the problems that the patient needs to address by making general observations and gradually moving from open to closed questions. attentive listening to the patient is necessary, which is evidenced by repetitions, paraphrases and interpretations, and by showing empathy and acceptance. the author explains the concept of clinical empathy by differentiating between cognitive and emotional empathy, as well as the difference between empathy and sympathy. positive facial expressions, gestures, non-verbal means of expression, tone and pitch of voice, silences, etc., come into play here. in the first phase referring to the positive image, closed questions, interruptions and criticisms would potentially not be part of pcc, although it is true that exceptions are clearly observed. as far as the negative image is concerned, the structure of the clinical interview includes working towards shared decision-making and respect for the patient’s space and freedom, issues that are present throughout the communicative exchange. kondo thus examines offering suggestions, verification questions on the understanding of the subject, and questions or comments that show linguistic deference, prior to the physical examination of the patient. in this sense, directives or reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 350-353 351 prescriptions and advice without giving personal space would be considered as potentially inappropriate. many of the elements studied in these chapters have a different value in japanese culture, such as some expressions of empathy, sharing of certain information or contact. for this reason, the analysis carried out in this work is highly attractive to the reader. the third and last part of the book (chapter 8) points out not only the cultural importance of the communicative encounter in pcc, but also emphasizes the relevance of the role of the family in consultations, given its significant positive impact. other important aspects are also included, such as the communication problems that can be generated by intercultural barriers related to cultural beliefs about medical care, such as expectations about gender, age, roles, sensitive topics, or bad news. the book delves into the importance of communication training in health education, which also seems to maintain the trend of changing from the biomedical model to the psychosocial model. pcc is not always feasible, since other aspects should also be considered, not only cultural ones, but also those that depend on the country’s type of health system. in short, in “patient-centered communication: discourse of in-home medical consultations for older adults”, it is made clear that linguistic politeness depends on culture, and that the concept of face is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that is conditioned by the context. kondo opens the way for future research focused on complementary aspects of communication, such as non-verbal communication or clinical records. the book has a fresh and natural style, easy to follow, very pleasant for the linguist who is perhaps not so accustomed to clinical topics, and at the same time, the author’s confidence in the subject is evident, given her background and personal context. in this sense, it is a clearly interdisciplinary work that is very valuable to both health professionals and language experts. furthermore, her research makes a substantial contribution to communication for specific purposes, as it develops a valid tool for the linguistic analysis of clinical consultations in a specific context. finally, the fact that the interviews are conducted with older adults makes the topic of greater interest today and could reach a wider audience. nowadays, given the increasing life expectancy, the aging population is growing constantly and their care is a challenge for health practitioners, who not only have a large number of patients, but are exposed to difficult conversations in a potentially end-of-life context. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 350-353352 article history: received 20 march 2023 accepted 26 april 2023 reviewed by alicia hernando-garreta atlantes global observatory of palliative care, institute for culture and society, university of navarra (spain) ahernandoga@unav.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 350-353 353 brown, p., & levinson, s. c. (1987). politeness: some universals in language usage. cambridge university press. hall, e. t. (1976). beyond culture. doubleday. hofstede, g. (1991). cultures and organizations: software of the mind. mcgraw-hill. iberica 13 traducción económica: entre profesión, formación y recursos documentales daniel gallego hernández (ed). soria: diputación provincial de soria, 2014. 223 páginas. isbn: 978-84-96695-945-8. la investigación traductológica en españa cuenta con obras relevantes que han funcionado como impulsoras de los estudios especializados en traducción científico-técnica y jurídico-económica, bien reflejadas en algunas bibliografías como las de ortega y martínez (2006) sobre el ámbito jurídicoeconómico, martínez y ortega (2007) sobre el científico-técnico, o la bibliografía general de franco aixelá (2001-2106) conocida como bitra. estos cuatro ámbitos han venido conformado tradicionalmente el grueso de la denominada “traducción especializada” frente a la “traducción general” y cuya oposición con el tiempo ha ido quizás perdiendo fuerza frente a nuevas realidades, fragmentaciones y complejidades en las que la multimodalidad y las nuevas tecnologías han acaparado nuevas líneas de investigación y también nuevos métodos y corrientes (empiricistas, sociológicas, cognitivistas…) para abordarlas. en este contexto, la línea de investigación del editor (y que tiene su punto de partida más importante en gallego, 2012) es, en su conjunto, una reivindicación de la investigación centrada en la traducción económica de forma extensiva y a la par independiente, en toda su dimensión y complejidad. resulta relevante, por tanto, su innovación metodológica de separar lo económico de lo jurídico y de unir en varias ocasiones a los escasos investigadores interesados en el ámbito, bien para publicar una obra conjunta sobre la traducción económica (gallego, 2015a), bien para celebrar el i congreso internacional de traducción económica, comercial, financiera e institucional que se celebró del 29 al 31 de mayo de 2014 en la universidad de alicante. este encuentro puede y debe considerarse una primicia e incluso un hito en la historia de la traducción especializada en economía en españa (gallego, 2015b). la defensa de la etiqueta “traducción económica” como el conjunto de diferentes denominaciones interrelacionadas pero tradicionalmente dispersas (traducción de negocios, traducción financiera, traducción comercial, reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 279-300 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 253 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 253 traducción mercantil, traducción bursátil…) tiene la virtud de agrupar una serie de estudios, en principio heterogéneos, como los que aquí encontramos. la obra consta de diez trabajos precedidos de una presentación del editor, en la que se nos adelanta el objetivo principal del libro: por un lado, actualizar los contenidos formativos a la realidad de la práctica profesional del traductor económico; por otro, revisar los recursos documentales para que sean más complejos e inteligentes y que “eliminen el ruido informativo o condensen las informaciones necesarias para optimizar la práctica de la traducción” (página 15). este es un aspecto original del libro: se reivindica la aportación del traductor profesional para extraer resultados en lo formativo. en este sentido, en el primer artículo, tolosa igualada, recoge las respuestas de 164 traductores a los que ha preguntado por la frecuencia y la dirección (directa o inversa) de determinados textos económicos para la combinación inglés-español. en sus resultados, la traducción económica es el segundo tipo que más volumen de trabajo genera después del ámbito jurídico. por lo que respecta a los documentos concretos, los encuestados señalan el contrato de compraventa como traducido “a menudo” y otros cinco como traducido “a veces” (correspondencia, escrituras de compraventa, cuentas anuales, escrituras de constitución de sociedades y contratos de servicio). el orden se altera ligeramente cuando se cruzan los datos con la dirección de la traducción. el siguiente trabajo de espinosa gadea es otro ejemplo de un traductor profesional que presenta una propuesta didáctica sobre un tipo de producto financiero: los fondos de inversión. en su opinión, la documentación relativa a los fondos posee una complejidad en su comprensión y traducción que la convierte en un ejemplo modélico para que el alumno de traducción pueda abordar posteriormente otros textos más sencillos, invirtiendo el orden tradicional de traducción general y traducción especializada. considero de interés el epígrafe sexto, en el cual se ofrece una buena explicación del producto fondo de inversión y sus agentes implicados. el siguiente artículo, de mateo martínez, es relevante porque constata la escasa atención que la traducción económica recibe en los planes de estudio de traducción e interpretación de las universidades españolas. se argumenta que es más útil usar la rúbrica “traducción de negocios” para incluir la traducción de textos económicos, financieros y comerciales, y salvar así la difícil separación entre los aspectos jurídicos y económicos. después de analizar los planes de estudio de los 25 centros universitarios reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266254 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 254 estudiados, mateo extrae conclusiones interesantes sobre las diferencias halladas entre las universidades públicas y privadas y sobre las universidades que conservan itinerarios completos de traducción jurídico-económica. según su estudio, son solo cuatro las universidades españolas cuyos grados de traducción e interpretación incluyen materias específicas de traducción de negocios. en la segunda parte del trabajo el autor reflexiona sobre cómo debe abordar el profesor de traducción de negocios las diversas subcompetencias. el siguiente artículo, de román mínguez, consiste en una sólida unidad didáctica de una asignatura de traducción económica inglés-español de tercer curso de grado, con una serie de ejercicios dirigidos a fomentar las subcompetencias documental, textual, terminológica, temática y profesional. el acta del consejo de administración de una sociedad anónima y el informe anual de una empresa sirven de modelo para perfilar los objetivos de su actividad docente en el aula, incluyendo la subcompetencia profesional, que, con ayuda de debates y lecturas de revistas y foros, deben acercar al alumno al mercado profesional de la traducción económico-financiera. el quinto y el sexto artículo de este monográfico se basan en dos proyectos de innovación docente de las universidades de granada y alicante respectivamente. le poder, por su parte, describe cómo sus estudiantes desarrollaron la competencia temática y la competencia instrumental profesional de la asignatura de traducción jurídica, económica y comercial con la ayuda de profesores del departamento de economía. se ilustran las cinco actividades y el trabajo final que llevaron a cabo los estudiantes, dirigidos a superar los obstáculos cognitivos de los textos. a continuación, vargas sierra desgrana el modelo didáctico por el que planifica el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje virtual de la traducción de páginas web de contenido económico a sus estudiantes de máster. basándose en el aprendizaje orientado a proyectos y en el aprendizaje basado en problemas, el capítulo organiza el proceso de adquisición de la competencia instrumental con la ayuda el modelo twitt, un modelo dividido en cinco fases en cada una de las cuales se desarrollan las competencias tecnológicas y documentales por un lado, y las relativas a la traducción en entornos electrónicos y colaborativos, por otro. destacan las instrucciones para conseguir el entorno colaborativo y de intercambio de información en el grupo. fuertes olivera expone en su artículo las características que deben tener los diccionarios online, ejemplificadas en el diccionario de contabilidad. muy reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266 255 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 255 interesante resulta su reflexión sobre cómo la documentación y la búsqueda terminológica suelen aparecer de forma separada en el proceso de traducción, dando por hecho que la información factual (conceptual) y la información lingüística (terminológica) que necesita el traductor para producir su texto meta son diferentes. en su propuesta de tipología funcional, los diccionarios model t ford permiten al usuario definirse a sí mismo y marcar la actividad para la que necesitan ayuda. finalmente, se describen las virtudes y el modo de funcionamiento de los diccionarios de contabilidad frente a los glosarios tradicionales. en el trabajo siguiente, suau jiménez compara los marcadores metadiscursivos interpersonales en el subcorpus sobre textos de comercio y textos de la prensa dentro de comenego. la autora defiende que los patrones metadiscursivos que subyacen en cada lengua son fundamentales para generar traducciones de calidad, pues contienen un sustrato sociocultural que varía según la lengua, el género y la especialidad. en un breve análisis comparativo del patrón metadiscursivo entre el subcorpus de textos comerciales y de la prensa, puede verse cómo las diferencias en cuanto a la pronominalización, la automención, los atenuadores o los realzadores del discurso reflejan las funciones persuasiva e informativa respectivamente. christian vicente es el único autor de este volumen compartido que realiza su docencia e investigación fuera de españa. en su caso, los estudiantes aprenden español de los negocios en francia. más concretamente, el autor se centra aquí en dar unas pautas sobre cómo recopilar errores en las unidades fraseológicas producidas por estos alumnos. para este fin se ayuda del diseño de un corpus de exámenes y trabajos escritos por los propios estudiantes, así como de una clasificación de los errores en seis categorías. rodríguez inés, por último, presenta la metodología de construcción del corpus piloto para el inglés comenego. el corpus parte de siete categorías discursivas en las que se distribuyen los textos: científica, comercial, didáctica, legal, organizativa, prensa y técnica. en la página 190 se ofrece un listado de los tipos de textos, que se han complementado con una encuesta realizada en 2013 y cuyos resultados parciales se ofrecen en el trabajo de tolosa igualada en este mismo volumen. el resto del trabajo explica la metodología seguida para encontrar los textos, para alimentar la plataforma y para registrar sus correspondientes metadatos. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266256 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 256 en resumen, el presente monográfico de hermeneus es una aproximación de calidad a la didáctica de la traducción económica. hay que saludar la combinación de los autores que vienen de la práctica profesional con investigadores consolidados, así como el buen trabajo por parte de los profesionales que han didactizado sus materiales; los investigadores, por su lado, también han presentado trabajos aplicados que van en consonancia con lo que el título de la obra y el editor persiguen: el éxito de la retroalimentación que posibilita que los investigadores creen recursos que sean realmente útiles para los traductores profesionales. recibida 03 mayo 2016 aceptada 09 mayo 2016 reseñado por ana medina reguera universidad pablo de olavide (españa) ammedreg@upo.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266 257 franco aixelá, j. (2001-2016). bitra (bibliography of interpreting and translation). url: http://dti.ua.es/en/bitra/introduction.html. doi: 10.14198/bitra [03/05/2016] gallego hernández, d. (2012). traducción económica y corpus: del concepto a la concordancia. aplicación al francés y al español. alicante: publicaciones universidad de alicante. gallego hernández, d. (2015a). “exploring research in business translation”. intralinea special issue: new insights into specialised translation. url: http://www.intralinea.org/ archive/article/2153. [03/05/2016] gallego hernández, d. (2015b). current approaches to business and institutional translation. bern: peter lang. ortega arjonilla, e. & b. martínez lópez (2006). “recursos bibliográficos sobre traducción, redacción y terminología en los ámbitos jurídico y económico (español, francés, e inglés)”. trans 10: 171-180. martínez lópez, b. & e. ortega arjonilla (2007). “recursos bibliográficos sobre traducción, redacción y terminología en los ámbitos científicotécnico, audiovisual y multimedia”. trans 11: 288295. 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 257 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 29-42 issn 1139-7241 abstract in this paper i offer a brief personal reflection on what strikes me as the main features of this period, focusing on increased specialization, the coming to dominance of genre and corpus analyses, the opening up of teaching paradigms related to social participation, identity and learner experience, and the growth of non-anglo practitioners in research and publishing. keywords: english for academic purposes, genre, corpora, identity, english for publication purposes. abstract “el pasado es el futuro con la luz encendida”: reflexiones en el 20º aniversario de aelfe en el presente artículo realizo una breve reflexión personal sobre aquellos asuntos que a mi juicio son los más sobresalientes de este periodo. para ello me centraré en el aumento de la especialización, en cómo los análisis y estudios de corpus y género han alcanzado un papel dominante, en la apertura de paradigmas docentes relacionados con la participación social, en la cuestión de identidad y en la experiencia de los aprendices, así como en el crecimiento de profesores no anglosajones dedicados a la investigación y su consiguiente publicación. palabras clave: inglés con fines académicos, género, corpus, identidad, inglés con fines de publicación. introduction aelfe has chosen to mark its 20th anniversary with a celebration of languages for specific purposes (lsp), inviting a variety of people to reflect “the past is the future with the lights on”: reflections on aelfe’s 20th birthday ken hyland university of hong kong (china) khyland@hku.hk 29 ibérica 24 (2012): 29-42 ken hyland on their impressions and experiences of what has occurred in the field during that time. there is certainly lots to talk about. aelfe’s short but distinguished life has coincided with the emergence of lsp as a distinctive and healthy field of endeavour, so that lsp – and particularly the sub-discipline of english for academic purposes (eap) which i’ll be mainly talking about – is an activity at the forefront of language research and teaching today. controversies continue and unresolved questions remain, and while we might hesitate to characterize it as a full-blown paradigm shift, the last 20 years represents a movement towards a research-informed view of targeted language instruction which was really just getting off the ground in 1992. in the next few pages i offer a brief personal reflection on what strikes me as the main features of this period, focusing on increased specialization, the coming to dominance of genre and corpus analyses, the opening up of teaching paradigms related to social participation, identity and learner experience, and the growth of non-anglo practitioners in research and publishing. eap now and then in the last 20 years eap has done a good job of consolidating a position at the forefront of language education. with english, for the time being, sweeping away linguistic heterogeneity in the name of globalization and a free market of knowledge, eap is now a major industry, supported by a burgeoning weight of journals, books, conferences and doctoral dissertations and taught in units, departments and centres in almost every university where students need to study in english. teachers in higher education, in fact, have done extremely well in meeting the challenges involved in helping massive numbers of students to gain control of the peculiar conventions of academic english to navigate their learning. the scale of this challenge was only really becoming apparent when aelfe published the first issue of its journal ibérica, and back in those more tranquil days before performance reviews and bureaucratization took a firm grip, eap seemed an altogether more straightforward endeavour. through the 1970s and 80s cognitivists and structuralists had held the theoretical floor and teachers were left to either roll up their sleeves and teach a sometimes apparently random array of grammar patterns or sit back and watch students struggle through a series of process drafts. this was beginning to change when ibérica became a twinkle in its creators’ eyes and theoretical interest 30 turned to more contextual understandings of language environments and the advantages of analyzing the situations in which students would have to use language. this is not to say that nothing of interest was going on before this. the journal english for specific purposes had been around since 1980 and, as swales’ (1985) episodes in esp shows, research had been emerging since the late 1960s which sought to describe (mainly scientific) texts through the pioneering efforts of ewer and latorre (1969), selinker (for instance in trimble et al., 1981), trimble (1985) and swales himself (1990). while researchers were unpacking the features of academic discourse, others were questioning conventional wisdom, and particularly the kind of advice being given to student writers in textbooks and style guides. janet holmes (1988), for instance, found massive discrepancies in the ways that hedging was presented in a selection of efl textbooks compared with what went on in real life while greg myers (1992) showed that subject textbooks made poor teaching sources as they did not represent the sort of interactions that students needed to write their own texts. the “moral imperative” driving the home-made production of materials was well underway as teachers responded to their students’ need for more nuanced types of english with a blizzard of photocopied texts and tasks. at the same time “relevance” and “authenticity” were becoming synonyms for teacher professionalism, corporate eyes were turning to the commercial possibilities of this new market for its products and by the early 1990s all leading publishers had textbooks on specialised uses of english (see url: http://www.uefap.com/materials/history/eap_hist.htm). the debate on the value of a mass-produced response to local needs which continues today was getting into full swing. by 1992, then, there was a fairly sound understanding of english academic contexts and the next 20 years is to some extent the story of the expansion of this research, by more people and in more areas, and of its filtering into classroom practices. eap has come to represent the default response of the elt profession to language education in higher education, having reached the status of near orthodoxy without ever being recognized by those outside of it. a brave new world of specialisation at this time i had been teaching esp for a few years in saudi arabia, where i had been at the tail end of the pioneering esp project at king abdulaziz the past is the future with the lights on ibérica 24 (2012): 29-42 31 university, and had just moved from papua new guinea (png) to take up a job in new zealand. these were exciting times in university language teaching and i was lucky enough to have worked in png with esp stalwarts like bill robinson and colin baron, who were organizing their classes in innovative ways to link esp tasks to students’ disciplinary work. colin’s approach, for example, was to get his civil engineering students to design, build and test model rice silos and cranes using newspaper and string, then to write reports on the process. i had also started to read the genre work emerging from australia by jim martin (1985) and fran christie (1985) and even had my first proper research paper published. this appeared in relc journal (hyland, 1990) and was based on an analysis of the argumentative essay scripts written by png high school students which stood in towering piles around my office. shortly after, and beyond my wildest dreams, my wife fiona and i managed to publish a paper in espj on syllabus types in esp, based on our png business english course “go for gold” (hyland & hyland, 1992). back then it seemed like we had all the answers: the advice we got was to ignore our intuitions and write our syllabuses and materials using as detailed a needs analysis as time allowed, probably looking at the kinds of texts that our students had to read and write. we were not, for the most part, too concerned with things like the possibility of conflicting stakeholder perspectives, individual student identities, the degree of disciplinary specificity, the need for locally appropriate methodologies, or, crucially, what kind of analysis this might involve. but while esp had reached a sound starting point with the question “why are these students learning english?”, some esp writers regarded needs analysis as an impartial and scientific process designed to measure goals with precision and accountability; a way of joining the dots between particular students and particular curricula. teachers soon realised things were not this simple and through the 90s increasingly gained confidence in their interpretations of both their students and their students’ texts. they came to recognize that their professionalism involved drawing on their values, beliefs and philosophies of teaching and learning rather than an ability to read off a course from an apparently objective situation. at the time, and this still tends to haunt many english teachers today, was a concern about the depth of knowledge they needed of a subject. increasingly, however, this confidence crisis has been replaced by a new self image where teachers see themselves as literacy specialists and not subject ken hyland ibérica 24 (2012): 29-4232 specialists. recognizing that it is their ability to identify key features of genres, translate them into effective materials and then deliver them in the classroom which comprises their expertise, they saw they did not need to be experts in disciplinary content but they did need to have some awareness and feel for a particular vocational area. this, together with a growing sense that universities comprise a plurality of literacies, and with some universities “embedding” literacy specialists in particular faculties, helps account for the trend towards increased professional specialization. the jack-of-all-trades eap teacher, while still part of the university landscape, has largely morphed into a specialist in one or two areas, such as engineering or law, life sciences or fine arts. they have focused their knowledge and sharpened their skills in a particular disciplinary area, satisfying a curiosity or interest in the subject, or perhaps in response to growing familiarity with particular discourses. this move towards specialization among teachers and curricula has perhaps been the major classroom change in eap over the past twenty years. back in the 1980s there were plenty of voices raised against subject-specific teaching. hutchison and waters (1987) and george blue (1988), for instance, felt the emphasis should be on learners and learning rather than on target texts and practices, while writers like ruth spack (1988) believed that language teachers could never teach specialists discourses effectively. things have changed enormously since then. coming from a liberal arts/rhetoric background spack had no faith in eap teachers and did not understand applied linguistics. she therefore misjudged the professionalism of teachers and their willingness to engage with the texts and practices of the disciplines and so failed to foresee how far the pragmatic needs of the classroom would drive teachers’ attempts to overcome their “outsider” status. the explosion of research into the writing of academic disciplines over the last 20 years means we are far better informed about texts than we were back then and so better able to advise students on their subject studies, particularly on their reading and writing. in many ways, and despite appearances to the contrary, this specialization has accompanied a revised understanding of what it means to focus on the learner. following the ideas of lisa delpit (1988), patricia bizzel (1992) and others, teachers came to recognized the frustrations of students who were taught using “hands-off ” process classroom approaches. stepping back to let students “find their voice” and express personal meanings (so-called “learner-centred” methods) were not feasible in eap contexts, yet the learner’s familiarity with a particular subject matter and interest in getting the past is the future with the lights on ibérica 24 (2012): 29-42 33 good grades were powerful motivating factors which teachers have sought to harness in their pedagogies. crucial to this shift is a constructivist position which recognizes the importance of language in the construction of knowledge and disciplinary identity and a greater respect for students’ subject knowledge, interests and perceptions. this has accompanied a fresh appreciation of how process might be integrated with product: “product”, seen as a purpose-driven creation, means treating grammar as a resource for crafting disciplinary specialized meanings rather than as atomized curiosities; while “process” is no longer merely a series of unscaffolded drafts but a wider concept of contextually-situated research and reflection. “what does the corpus say?” changes in research at around the time aelfe was established i registered for a part-time phd at the university of queensland in australia, deciding to look at scientific writing. i was beginning to read patricia bizzel (1992), chuck bazerman (1988), greg myers (1990) and john swales (1990) and encounter the idea that authors shaped texts for their readers and how this meant they were influenced by the potential response of those readers to write in particular ways. following up references in these texts i found myself reading sociologists of science like karin knorr-cetina (1981), bruno latour (latour & woolgar, 1979) and nigel gilbert and michael mullkay (1984), all of whom showed how scientific consensus is socially constructed through discourse. this was exciting stuff as it meant that certain ways of saying things not only carried the individual position of a writer but also the values and beliefs of a discipline. while the sociologists did not get their hands dirty delving into the linguistic nuts and bolts of this consensus, it was obvious that there was plenty to research. i hit upon hedging for my phd. this was then largely the preserve of serious, larger-than-life linguists like geoffrey leech and frank palmer, who saw modality as an abstract grammatical category, and of epistemic philosophers, who were often more concerned about “how” we can know rather than how we made claims about this. i thought it would be interesting to look at how scientists talked about how they knew something, or actually how they tried to persuade others of what they felt they knew. this seemed to be linked to how the apparently “author evacuated” prose of the sciences allowed writers to construct a stance and ken hyland ibérica 24 (2012): 29-4234 themselves as credible insiders. i settled on biology to study, which seemed a relatively accessible discipline enamoured of rhetorical flourishes and elegant models, and i set about collecting what i grandly called my “corpus”: sixteen research articles photocopied in an hour in the library. i mention this as it illustrates another major shift since aelfe came into being: the rise of the corpus. the last twenty years, in fact, have witnessed a transformation in not only the amount of research conducted into academic and professional discourse, but also the ways that it is conducted, with genre and corpus analysis crowding out alternative methods to such an extent that it is now almost impossible to think of doing eap research without a corpus. both methods have contributed enormously to how we understand the language used in particular contexts. swales’s genre analysis in 1990 was arguably the most influential book in the history of eap (google scholar shows 6500 citations to it as i write in february 2012) and its impact touches almost every paper on academic discourse since then. while other versions of genre were being used in the 1980s, to empower working class australian school kids and unpack the subconscious rhetorical understandings of various us writer groups, swales brought to eap a socially informed theory of language and an authoritative pedagogy based on research of texts. here was a method which helped us to see the realities of social communities, and particularly disciplines, as constituted through their recurrent use of conventionalised forms; it showed us how individuals used language to develop relationships, establish communities and get things done. it also opened up research into the ways genres differed across disciplines and language groups and so encouraged research into languages other than english and the ways speakers of those languages used english. genre analysis provided us first with plausible descriptions of genre staging and then of features of register, style, lexis and other rhetorical features to be found in particular texts. as text analysis software for personal computers was appearing around this time, we gleefully fed these features into our concordancers, looking for the ways that imperatives, hedges, personal pronouns, passives, and other potentially productive items behaved. this not only gave us language data which represented a speaker’s experience of language in a restricted domain, but we also learnt a great deal about a whole range of genres that nobody had noticed or cared about before. acknowledgements, journal descriptions, submission letters and promotion applications all had their moments in the sun, and revealed evidence of the past is the future with the lights on ibérica 24 (2012): 29-42 35 typical patterning in (mainly) written discourse. we also began to discover a lot of things we did not know about academic language, particularly when we delegated the task of identifying features to the computer in what tognini-bonelli (2001) calls “corpus-driven” studies. some surprising high frequency lexical items and keywords have emerged as well as some previously unanticipated collocations, but the discovery of semantic prosodies, or the meanings created by routine associations, and the role of lexical bundles and extended collocations in structuring discourse, have been genuinely fundamental to the ways we think about language. of particular interest to me (and after all, this is a reflective paper) are the ways that corpora have been taken up to show how participant relationships sit at the heart of language use and of academic persuasion. there is now almost a cottage industry of corpus research demonstrating how some feature or another helps reveal the writer’s awareness of the text’s context and the readers which form part of that context. while not synonymous with identity, these features perhaps provide the most immediate access to its rhetorical construction because they focus on what individuals do to project themselves within a shared professional context. they reveal most clearly how writers, in pursuing their personal and professional goals, embed their writing in a particular discipline through approved discourses. this has told us a great deal about the workings of the disciplines and how we might understand “community” and how persuasion is accomplished through framing ideas in reader-familiar ways. it has also generated a great deal of improved teaching materials which help learners to become both more disciplinary-sensitive and self-aware writers, better able to construct appropriate authorial selves. however, because it is a method which privileges community practices over individual preferences, often neglecting actual texts in favour of a focus on specific features, corpus analysis has come under fire for “fetishizing” data at the expense of what real people are doing in the world. this kind of decontextualisation is not a disaster, of course, particularly when corpora are used by teachers and researchers as a resource to test intuitions and see how things work in particular genres. it is also rewarding when we are just studying a text to familiarize ourselves or our students with a genre. it does mean however, that we have also seen something of a correction over the past 20 years; a parallel growth in qualitative studies into lsp. as corpora get ever larger and analytical tools ever more complex, qualitative, more ethnographic, studies have continued to grow apace and contribute to what ken hyland ibérica 24 (2012): 29-4236 we know about the activities surrounding the production and reception of texts and how participants actually understand what they are doing with them. everybody’s doing it: global publication a decade into aelfe’s life, liz hamp-lyons and i persuaded elsevier to launch the journal of english for academic purposes, which we edited together for seven years until i moved to co-edit applied linguistics. this experience partly prompts the final major change i want to mention in this reflection: the increasing participation of multilingual scholars in research and publishing. during this time the publishing world, including the bits of it relevant to us, has been enormously enriched by the perspectives brought by non-anglo scholars from around the world. this obviously has had many consequences, but i just want to mention three which impact lsp teachers most heavily: our participation as reviewers; our involvement in teaching “writing for publication” courses; and the pressure we have to get ourselves published (for instance hyland, 2009). the expression “publish or perish” has probably never been as cruelly applicable as it is today. universities in many countries now require their staff to present at international conferences and, more crucially, publish in major, high-impact, peer-reviewed anglophone journals as a pre-requisite for tenure, promotion and career advancement. academics all over the world are increasingly less likely to publish in their own languages and to find their english language publications cited more often. ibérica itself, an international, peer reviewed journal with a european editorial board and published in english is a good example of this trend. publication equals “productivity” and is used as a crude measure of worth, with institutions conferring promotion and tenure on the length of cvs. most recently, universities in asia and the middle east have started to make doctoral graduation and tenure dependent on acceptance in the most prestigious isi journals and government agencies such as the chinese academy of sciences are rewarding such publication with large cash bonuses. participation in this global web is thus no longer optional for many academics. all this activity has placed considerable strain on journals and reviewers. while publishers celebrate the additional revenue in subscriptions and article downloads it creates, editors view the massive increase in submissions with the past is the future with the lights on ibérica 24 (2012): 29-42 37 considerable alarm as the deluge threatens to overwhelm an already shaky peer review system. submissions to applied linguistics, for example, have doubled in the last ten years, leading to additional pressures on reviewers with almost 750 invitations to over 500 reviewers in 2010. multiply this by 50 or more international journals in the field (thomson isi has 54 journals in this category and tesol lists 75 journals on its website) and we can see the system is under serious strain. colleagues labour under increasing pressure at work and have less time to review papers, but the additional work falls on all of us who are active in our profession. the problem is exacerbated by increasing submissions from students who are encouraged by their teachers and supervisors to submit to journals for the experience, laying the onus of (under) graduate training on unpaid and overburdened volunteer editors and reviewers. all this would not matter if the increase in submissions was accompanied by increased diversity of perspective and fresh avenues of research. clearly there are colleagues publishing now who bring something novel and exciting to our field, but very often we find disappointing papers which simply retread all too familiar ground – or dig ever deeper holes in it. the increased demands on academics to publish has also impacted on us as eap practitioners increasingly find themselves called upon to venture into this unfamiliar terrain to improve the writing for publication skills of colleagues from other departments. writing for publication can be a laborious task involving constantly reworking the rhetorical goals of a paper to more clearly meet the perceived needs of readers of a particular community and journal. it not only involves control over the apparently arcane conventions of a variety of english, but also decisions about which journal to submit a finished paper, how to navigate reviewers’ comments, and (often) how to interpret editors’ decisions. these requirements are daunting to all academics, and it might well be, as john swales has suggested, that the most important distinction in publishing is not between native and non-native english speakers, but between novices and experienced academics – between newbies and those who know the ropes. this is an area where linguistic research has outstripped pedagogy and we are still far from understanding whether the linguistically, socially and disciplinary heterogeneous individuals we lump together in this category actually form a single group at all. whoever we find in these classes, however, this is an expanding and important new challenge for us as teachers which is only likely to increase. ken hyland ibérica 24 (2012): 29-4238 the final, and rather obvious, point to make here is that we are all increasingly part of this expanding web of scholarship. the stick of institutional demands and the carrot of personal satisfaction present a dual motivation to see our work in print. as language education, eap and specific purposes teaching generally become more recognized, more widespread and more professional, and as publishing outlets increase, opportunities and encouragement to share our research, our ideas and our teaching innovations become greater. this is an excellent development and the sign of a maturing field of study. research and publication strengthens our claim to disciplinary status and our identities as teachers and researchers. moreover, the situated learning theorists and social constructionists are certainly right when they argue that the redrafting involved in response to journal reviewers is not just the transformation of a text, but also the apprenticing of an individual writer into the knowledge constructing and using practices of a discipline. the local interactions that occur in negotiating the passage of a paper to publication is a mode of learning, of professional development. the encouragement that lsp gives us to research the texts and practices of our students and their disciplinary communities helps to apprentice us into a professional community of our own. it gives us a greater understanding of the field and of a community of readers who may read and make use of the research we conduct. i think that this increased research and publishing activity has been one of the major changes in the past 20 years and has worked to tie us more closely into a global web of professional and social associations, reinforcing a sense of community and fortifying an emerging discourse community. a never ending story i have to repeat that all this is just an individual take on some of the important changes over the 20 years since aelfe came into being and how these have connected to me personally. it goes without saying that any description of the field will always be partial and will always reduce the complexity and fluidity of what it seeks to describe. i also acknowledge the risks in taking this on. we live in an age in which unifying explanations and narratives of progress are rightly viewed with suspicion. i certainly do not want to sound triumphalist. it is true that eap has travelled a long way in the past is the future with the lights on ibérica 24 (2012): 29-42 39 the last two decades, driven by widening access policies, the increased movement of students and academics around the world and, of course, by the steamroller effect of english in scholarly communication. but there has by no means been an unproblematic and straightforward advance from there to here. eap has its shortcomings and limitations, and important questions, issues and difficulties remain which are likely to occupy practitioners for more years to come. what success eap has had is largely due to the fact that it keeps its feet firmly on the ground and tries to make its research relevant to understanding the communicative realities of the academy and the classroom. this endeavour is often sidetracked, but eap’s commitment to linguistic analysis, to contextual relevance, and to the classroom replication of community-specific communicative events are its main strengths. this research has, however, principally focused on texts and less how people use them and what they mean for those people. as a result, it has largely neglected questions raised by pennycook (1997), benesch (2001) and others concerning the political interests which underlie disciplinary practices and the role of power in educational settings. we have generally been more concerned with “critical thinking” as pedagogic goals, teaching students abstract reasoning and problem solving skills, divorced from “critical practice” and an active engagement with social positioning. how students experience their lives, their studies and their disciplines often remains unexplored yet may generate critical insights into issues which are meaningful for learners and to our professional activities. the privileging of “text” above “practice” can lead us to treat language, and in particular writing, as primarily a linguistic, and perhaps even an autonomous, object rather than something which is socially embedded in particular lives, disciplines and contexts of use. this general reluctance to critically engage with the values of institutional goals and practices has been accompanied by a vulnerability to claims that eap ignores students’ cultures, treating what goes on outside the university as largely irrelevant to learning. the field, in fact, is somewhat polarized at present as we attempt to balance broad generalizations about corpora from which we can generate teaching materials with the sociocultural individualities and identities of students as championed by brian street, theresa lillis and others of the “academic literacies” school. it is likely that we will see a growing move away from texts to more ethnographic, participant-oriented research into the practices which surround their use. such a perspective will teach us more about our ken hyland ibérica 24 (2012): 29-4240 students, but will also allow us to draw more on the conceptual frameworks of insiders to round out our understanding of individuals, texts and communities. finally, eap has more mundane and everyday problems in establishing its value and status in universities and we are likely to see further struggles in this area. eap’s relatively low standing in universities seems partly due to antiquated conceptions of language by subject specialists and a tendency by eap units to work “for” rather than “with” these subject specialists. teachers have, in the past, often too readily adopted a support role to departments rather than developing and then asserting our own independent subject knowledge and skills. adopting what ann raimes (1991) once graphically referred to as “the butler’s stance” works to de-professionalise teachers and allows universities to marginalize eap units. for too long we have allowed the dinosaurs who advocate the teaching of grammar drills or shakespeare to undergraduate engineers to get their voices heard in decisionmaking. the fact that the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge involves an encounter with a new and dominant literacy is often lost on faculty members who see students’ communication difficulties as weaknesses which can be fixed up with a few english classes rather than a shift in epistemological perspective and literacy practice. in such circumstances it is easy for both learners and teachers to reify these powerful academic and professional literacy practices; to see them as autonomous, abstract and beyond their control. in this way eap becomes an exercise in language repair. only by taking the core principles of research and specificity seriously can we hope to succeed in undermining this “single literacy” view among faculty and to replace “remedial” approaches to teaching with those that address students’ own perceptions and practices of writing. while we recognize these issues, eap has yet to seriously confront them. it has, however, taken up the enormous challenges involved in trying to tackle the huge growth and diversity of student needs in universities around the world by putting its trust in language research and basing its teaching on this research. i expect this to continue as we also look to our shortcomings. i also expect to see these same issues guide our activities to aelfe’s next big anniversary. happy birthday aelfe! [paper received 2 february 2012] [revised paper accepted 22 may 2012] the past is the future with the lights on ibérica 24 (2012): 29-42 41 ken hyland is professor of applied linguistics and director of the centre for applied english studies at the university of hong kong. he has  published over 150 articles and 18 books on language education and academic writing. he was founding co-editor of the journal of english for academic purposes and is now co-editor of applied linguistics. references ken hyland ibérica 24 (2012): 29-4242 bazerman, c. (1988). shaping written knowledge. madison, wi: university of wisconsin press. benesch, s. (2001). critical english for academic purposes. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. bizzel, p. (1992). academic discourse and critical consciousness. pittsburgh: university of pittsburgh press. blue, g. (1988). “individualising academic writing tuition” in p. robinson (ed.), academic writing: process and product (elt documents 129), 9599. london: modern english publications. christie, f. (1985). “language and schooling” in s. tschudi (ed.), language, schooling and society, 21-40. portsmouth, new hampshire: boynton/cook. delpit, l. (1988). “the silenced dialogue: power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children”. harvard educational review 58: 280298. ewer, j.r. & g. latorre (1969). a course in basic scientific english. london: longman. gilbert, g.n. & m. mullkay (1984). opening pandora’s box: a sociological analysis of scientists’ discourse. new york: cambridge university press. holmes, j. (1988). “doubt and certainty in esl textbooks.” applied linguistics 9: 21-44. hutchison, t. & a. waters (1987). english for specific purposes. cambridge: cambridge university press. hyland, k. (1990). “a genre description of the argumentative essay”. relc journal 21: 66-78. hyland, k. (2009). “english for professional academic purposes: writing for scholarly publication” in d. belcher (ed.), english for specific purposes in theory and practice, 83-105. ann arbor: university of michigan press. hyland, k. & f. hyland (1992). “go for gold: integrating process and product in esp”. english for specific purposes 11: 225-42. knorr-cetina, k. (1981). the manufacture of knowledge – an essay on the constructivist and contextual nature of science: oxford: pergamon press. latour, b. & s. woolgar (1979). laboratory life: the social construction of scientific facts. beverly hills: sage. martin, j. (1985). factual writing: exploring and challenging social reality. geelong: deakin university press (republished by oxford university press, 1989). myers, g. (1990). writing biology: texts in the social construction of scientific knowledge. madison, wi: university of wisconsin press. myers, g. (1992). “textbooks and the sociology of scientific knowledge”. english for specific purposes 11: 3-17. pennycook, a. (1997). “vulgar pragmatism, critical pragmatism, and eap”. english for specific purposes 16: 253-269. raimes, a. (1991). “instructional balance: from theories to practices in the teaching of writing” in j. alatis (ed.), georgetown university roundtable on language and linguistics, 238-249. washington, dc: georgetown university press. spack, r. (1988). “initiating esl students into the academic discourse community: how far should we go?” tesol quarterly 22: 29-52. swales, j. (ed.) (1985). episodes in esp: a source and reference book on the development of english for science and technology. oxford: pergamon press. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. tognini-bonelli, e. (2001) corpus linguistics at work. amsterdam: john benjamins. trimble, l. (1985). english for science and technology: a discourse approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. trimble, l., l. selinker, e. tarone & v. hanzeli (1981). english for academic and technical purposes: studies in honor of louis trimble. rowley, mass: newbury house. redalyc.editorial ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa pérez-llantada, carmen editorial ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 9-14 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542001 cómo citar el artículo número completo más información del artículo página de la revista en redalyc.org sistema de información científica red de revistas científicas de américa latina, el caribe, españa y portugal proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542001 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542001 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542001 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org editorial like previously published issues, this new issue of ibérica (fall 2015) instantiates the international scope of the journal, as it compiles the work of scholars from three different geographical areas, europe, south-america and asia. the issue also illustrates the rich diversity of theoretical and empirical approaches that the field of languages for specific purposes embraces. it is also worth noting in this editorial that ibérica is a multilingual journal, and thus invites contributions in five academic languages – english, french, german, portuguese and spanish. instantiating ibérica’s multilingual language policy and its support to multilingual publishing practices, this issue includes contributions in four languages. the first contribution to this issue is an invited original article by a key player in the field of lsp, françoise salager-mayer, (universidad de los andes, mérida, venezuela). in her article, entitled “peripheral scholarly journals: from locality to globality”, salager-meyer critically discusses different problems that scholarly peripheral journals are confronted with today. salager-meyer offers very relevant insights into the implications of the “publish or perish” dilemma for these journals. she also raises concern towards problems related to the local context in which these journals are produced. salager-meyer assesses the challenges that these journals face so as to increase their visibility and sensibly advocates a local journals’ shift to internationalization as a way of increasing the visibility and disseminating the research conducted in peripheral countries – thus reaching a global readership. the original article by gloria bosch-roig (universitat de les illes balears, spain) is entitled “design und implementierung von formfokussierungsaufgaben im interaktiven inhaltsund bedeutungsorientierten daft-unterricht. eine fallstudie im rahmen eines aktionsforschungsprojekts”. in this article, the author explains how synergies can be established between the field of languages for specialized purposes (lsp) and the field of second language acquisition and second language learning (sla/sll). bosch-roig conducts action research and, in this article, she reports an interesting case study involving an interactive content-oriented german classroom in tourism studies. she argues that form-focusing tasks are pedagogically beneficial. throughout the article the ibérica 30 (2015): 9-14 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 00 iberica 30_01 editorial.qxd 13/10/15 19:52 página 9 author offers evidential data that supports the claim that form-focusing taskbased instruction is associated with a qualitatively enhanced as well as more correct and complex language learner output. leonardo campillos llanos and hiroto ueda, from the universidad autónoma de madrid (spain) and the university of tokyo (japan) respectively, contribute to this issue with an original article entitled “frecuencia y dispersión léxicas en textos médicos divulgativos en español”. in this article, the authors carry out a lexicometric study of biomedical popularizations published in spanish. they describe the frequency, dispersion and use of lexical categories (i.e. nouns, adjectives, verbs, eponyms and adverbs ending in “-mente”) in the selected corpus. common content words and common function words, as well as the lexical richness of nouns and adjectives in these text exemplars, are illustrated throughout. this contribution is of particular interest to lexicographers engaged in the study of vocabulary features of biomedical discourse (research popularizations in spanish). it also offers an insightful lexicographic analysis that can be very valuable for professionals in the biomedical field. content and language integrated learning (clil) in the context of higher education is the main topic addressed in the original article by emilee moore, joan ploettner and mandy deal (universitat internacional de catalunya and universitat autònoma de barcelona), entitled “exploring professional collaboration at the boundary between content and language teaching from a chat approach”. in this article the authors explore the complexities that emerge during collaboration between teaching professionals from different areas of expertise when they engage in clil experiences. using the framework of cultural historical activity theory (chat), moore, ploettner and deal provide insightful views on teacher cognition and the way interdisciplinary dialogue is constructed among teachers so as to scaffold the accomplishment of dual learning objectives of clil courses. the original article by maría josé serrano and maría isabel hernández (universidad de la laguna), entitled “¿porque tú lo vales o porque lo vales? variación de la segunda persona tú en los mensajes publicitarios”, examines various aspects of terminological variation in the discourse of print advertising. serrano and hernández compile a corpus of advertisements for textual analytical purposes. the analysis focuses on the strategic use of the second person pronoun (“you”) in these texts. the authors illustrate the editorial ibérica 30 (2015): 9-1410 00 iberica 30_01 editorial.qxd 13/10/15 19:52 página 10 variation in the use of this pronoun and argue that this variation influences the construction and reception processes of these texts. it is claimed that the presence or the absence of this pronoun performs metadiscursively as it underpins, the authors explain in the paper, different rhetorical goals and communicative intentions. they conclude that the cognitive salience of the omitted pronoun targets at a broader and diversified audience of consumers – thus placing the distinctive underlying pragmatic nature of the pronoun in the background. federico navarro, affiliated to universidad de buenos aires, universidad nacional de general sarmiento and consejo nacional de investigaciones científicas y técnicas (argentina) contributes to this issue with an original article entitled “business plan: a preliminary approach to an unknown genre”. this contribution provides a detailed description of the genre of the business plan, a relatively unexplored genre to date, although it is included in the curricula of economics degrees and is also widely used in the business practice. using corpus linguistics methodology, navarro takes a genre-based socio-discursive perspective to explain the rhetorical organization of business plans. in the light of the findings, the author also offers several pedagogical recommendations for business writing courses. the use of cross-linguistic analyses of this occluded genre is recommended for the formal instructional practice so that students understand how business plans are constructed across different linguacultural environments. ana maria pujol dahme (universitat de barcelona) and moisés selfa sastre (universitat de lleida) contribute with the original article entitled “the transition from university to publication: register and interactional metadiscourse features in immunology research written in catalan and english”. in this article the authors conduct a longitudinal study in order to investigate two different stages of academic literacy development. they compare a small corpus of master’s theses written in catalan and research articles written in english, both sets of texts written by the same scholars. the authors analyze several register-related features (namely, syntactic complexity, lexical density and lexical diversity) as well as interactional metadiscourse features (stance and engagement markers) in the two genres. they also assess the extent to which university students become competent in the use of the academic written register and, in particular, the use of interactional metadiscourse markers in texts written for research publication purposes. editorial ibérica 30 (2015): 9-14 11 00 iberica 30_01 editorial.qxd 13/10/15 19:52 página 11 the last original article included in this issue is co-authored by sabela fernández-silva and nelson becerra rojas (pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso, chile). their contribution is entitled “la variación terminológica en la comprensión y producción de textos académicos: propuesta de representación en un diccionario especializado de aprendizaje de psicología”. these authors investigate terminological variation in a corpus of research articles and assess the results of a test evaluating the level of students’ knowledge of terminological variation in the field of psychology through both comprehension and production tasks. their findings show that intra-textual term variation is used as a cognitive and discursive resource that assists knowledge transfer and text cohesion. the authors interestingly report how students become aware of the usefulness of this cognitivelinguistic resource, even if they find it challenging to identify certain variation parameters and use variation properly in communicative tasks. finally, a proposal for a learners’ dictionary is presented in which different types of term variation are included with a view to helping users understand the cognitive and discursive potential of terminological variation. this fall issue also includes several reviews of recent published work, which are expected to be of interest to ibérica’s readers. nuria rodríguez pedreira reviews the book lenguas de especialidad, traducción, fijación. langues spécialisées, figement et traduction, edited by pedro mogorrón huerta and salah mejri. this edited volume is a relevant compilation of scholarly approaches that address different issues related to the translation of specialized texts. it examines different aspects related to the translation of terminology and is therefore of interest to specialists in terminology, lexicology and specialized lexicography. carmen sancho guinda also contributes to this volume with a review of inmaculada fortanet-gómez’s book, clil in higher education. towards a multilingual language policy. this is a thought-provoking volume containing very valuable insights into the ambitious goal of implementing multilingualism through a clil-based pedagogy at a university level – a book of particular interest to researchers, practitioners and university policy makers. pilar mur dueñas provides a useful descriptive and critical account of the semiperiphery of academic writing. discourses, communities and practice, edited by karen bennett. this book is a rich compilation of case studies and ethnographic studies that investigate the language challenges that nonanglophone scholars face when they publish in english-medium journals. the review by ismael arinas pellón is a succinct summary of the book editorial ibérica 30 (2015): 9-1412 00 iberica 30_01 editorial.qxd 13/10/15 19:52 página 12 dialogicity in written specialized genres, co-edited by luz gil-salom and carmen soler-leal. this volume focuses on a representative repertoire of written genres to explore aspects of interpersonality, writer-reader relations and the expression of authorial identity at a textual level. it is a significant scholarly contribution, including multidisciplinary perspectives on genrebased dialogicity. the last book reviewed in this issue is manual de escritura para carreras de humanidades, edited by federico navarro. the author of this review, maría luisa blanco gómez, explains that this is an academic writing manual targeted both at undergraduate students and teachers in the field of the humanities. blanco gómez describes the volume as a valuable bibliographic resource to support the acquisition and development of academic literacy skills at a university level. finally, i would like to thank the members of the editorial board and the international advisory board for contributing to the journal with their expertise and generous time and for making ibérica a high quality scientific publication. their work makes an indispensable contribution to the peer review process. their commitment should therefore be acknowledged here. these have been (in alphabetical order): marta aguilar (universitat politècnica de catalunya, spain), mª enriqueta cortés (universidad de almería, spain), mercedes eurrutia (universidad de murcia, spain), rosa giménez (universitat de valència, spain), victoria guillén (universidad de alicante, spain), honesto herrera (universidad complutense de madrid, spain), maria kuteeva (stockholm university, sweden), laura m. muresan (bucharest university of economic studies, romania), clauss-peter neuman (universidad de zaragoza), mª ángeles orts (universidad de murcia, spain), juan carlos palmer (universitat jaume i, spain), francoise salager-meyer (universidad de los andes, venezuela), carmen sancho (universidad politécnica de madrid, spain), mike scott (aston university, uk), chelo vargas (universidad de alicante, spain) and marisol velasco (universidad de valladolid, spain). i would also like to thank the following scholars, who were invited to review for ibérica in the past six months and kindly accepted the invitation. their expertise, detailed comments and valuable feedback are very much appreciated. they are, in alphabetical order: guadalupe aguado (universidad politécnica de madrid, spain) erdem akbas (erciyes university, turkey) ismael arinas (universidad politécnica de madrid, spain) editorial ibérica 30 (2015): 9-14 13 00 iberica 30_01 editorial.qxd 13/10/15 19:52 página 13 helen basturkmen (university of auckland, new zealand) magdalena bielenia-grajewska (university of gdansk, poland) maría luisa blanco (universidad rey juan carlos, spain) ana bocanegra (universidad de cádiz, spain) isabel durán (universidad complutense de madrid, spain) fiona english (university college london, uk) karen englander (york university, toronto, canada) pamela faber (university of granada, spain) davide gianonni (university of bergamo, italy) patrick goethals (universiteit gent, belgium) richard hallet (northeastern illinois university, us) isabel hernández toribio (universidad complutense de madrid, spain) daniel leung (modul university, vienna, austria) laura mariottini (sapienza universit’a di roma, italy) brian paltridge (university of sidney, australia) sara piccioni (università degli studi “g. d’annunzio”, italy) sonsoles sánchez-reyes (universidad de salamanca, spain) maría sanz julián (universidad de zaragoza, spain) paul sarazin (lancaster university, uk) peter shaw (stockholm university, sweden) nadežda silaški (university of belgrade, serbia) ursula wingate (king’s college london, uk) last but not least, my sincere thanks go to the members of the editorial team, for their hard-work and generous time and for their invaluable support in all the editorial and managerial tasks. in closing, i hope that the range of theoretical and empirical explorations compiled in this issue is of interest to the readers of ibérica. i also hope that they enjoy and profit from reading a selection of contributions that reflect the wide-ranging scope of investigative work in lsp today. the scholarly views provided by the contributors can certainly enhance our understanding of specialized languages. carmen pérez-llantada universidad de zaragoza (spain) llantada@unizar.es editor-in-chief of ibérica editorial ibérica 30 (2015): 9-1414 00 iberica 30_01 editorial.qxd 13/10/15 19:52 página 14 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 87-102 issn 1139-7241 abstract this paper looks at a single discipline, known as “medical communication” within academic medicine and language for medical purposes in languages for specific purposes, and offers a brief retrospective of research and educational thinking, with particular reference to the idea of “common ground”. keywords: english for medical purposes, academic medicine, medical communication, writing research, communicative skills. resumen inglés con fines médicos y medicina académica: buscando un “terreno común” el presente artículo estudia una única disciplina, que recibe el nombre de “comunicación médica”, como parte de la medicina académica y la lengua con fines médicos en el contexto general de lenguas para fines específicos, y ofrece una breve retrospectiva sobre la investigación y el pensamiento educativo presentado especial atención a la idea de alcanzar un “terreno común”. palabras clave: inglés para fines médicos, medicina académica, comunicación médica, investigación escrita, destrezas comunicativas. introduction in the early 1980s, ray williams and others, working at aston, a uk technological university which concentrated then as now on science and english for medical purposes and academic medicine: looking for common ground john r. skelton and jan whetstone university of birmingham (united kingdom) j.r.skelton@bham.ac.uk & j.whetstone@bham.ac.uk 87 ibérica 24 (2012): 87-102 j.r. skelton & j. whetstone engineering disciplines, made a determined effort to bridge the gap between “languages for specific purposes (lsp)” – what non-native speakers (nns) get by way of language support – and “communication studies” – what native speakers (ns) get. this was at a time when communication skills, to use the more common term, was getting off the ground in science and technology disciplines in uk: aston civil engineering students at that time held mock public enquiries as part of their course. the outcome of the aston initiative was an elt document (williams, swales & kirkman, 1984) called common ground: but the idea was, and to some extent still is, perhaps, ahead of its time. this paper therefore looks at a single discipline, known as “medical communication” within academic medicine (am), and “language for medical purposes” (lmp) in lsp, and offers a brief retrospective of research and educational thinking, with particular reference to the idea of “common ground”. our experience is that the approach of lsp specialists, though they are normally thought of as working with nns students, can be comfortably used with ns. we suggest that the central ethos of lsp is its habit of applying the same principles flexibly, to a range of circumstances, paying careful attention not merely to the language of the subject discipline (which is routine), but also its value system (for instance, see ferguson, 1997), which is less routine: and that dealing with ns learners is simply an application of these principles. within am in the uk, of immediate relevance is the uk general medical council (gmc) advice for students and teachers colloquially known as “the values doc”.1 to exemplify this we draw on our experience of working with “doctors in difficulty”, as they are called, at the interactive studies unit (isu) at birmingham university medical school.2 looking back: academic medicine and the “communications skills” industry as far as am is concerned, the whole point of looking at communication is the recognition that there is more to “being a good doctor” than clinical expertise. a reasonable starting-point for formal research into healthcare communication is a remarkable study by fawkes et al. (1955). barbara fawkes was one of the great nurse-educators of the 20th century, this early 88 paper is a database study (40 recorded conversations) which offers a list of 25 “skills”, many of which appear almost verbatim in contemporary lists: “listen to the patient”, “repeat pertinent words”, “use encouraging expressions such as ‘hmmm’ and ‘yes’”, and the like. the idea of “communication” consisting in this way of an open-ended list of skills reflects a major tradition in am.3 no less ahead of its time is a corpus-based study, as we might now call it, of medical language (bridge, 1962). the structure of the consultation was first considered at around the same time, particularly through byrne and long’s (1976) classic study. byrne and long suggested there were six “phases” to the consultation:4 phase i the doctor establishes a relationship with the patient.  phase ii the doctor either attempts to discover or actually discovers the reason for the patient’s attendance. phase iii the doctor conducts a verbal or physical examination or both. phase iv the doctor, or the doctor and the patient, or the patient (in that order of probability) consider the condition. phase v the doctor, and occasionally the patient, detail further treatment or further investigation. phase vi the consultation is terminated usually by the doctor. it is easy to see how the lmp teacher could add probable language realisations to each phase – “nice to see you” (phase i); “what can i do for you?” (phase ii); “can i just have a little listen to your chest?” (phase iii); and so on. neither author had language expertise, and their work was subjected to a polite demolition job some years later by eliot mishler (1984), but it has had enormous influence. byrne and long’s (1976) approach resembles a kind of embryonic genre analysis and, though the phrase itself has no currency in am, the concepts of genre analysis are often echoed, particularly by debra roter through her development of bales’ interaction analysis (bales, 1950). over the years, roter has developed the highly-regarded “rias” (“roter’s interaction analysis system”) (see for instance roter, 2006) which, particularly in the us, is widely used. the next milestone was the so-called “toronto consensus statement”, published in the british medical journal. the statement asserted: english for medical purposes ibérica 24 (2012): 87-102 89 it has been repeatedly shown that the clinical skills needed to improve [communication] problems can be taught and that the subsequent benefits to medical practice are demonstrable, feasible on a routine basis, and enduring. (simpson et al., 1991: 1387) the idea that communication matters may seem obvious to readers, but the paper was a watershed. few medical schools in uk and usa took communication very seriously in 1980 – these days they do, or they hit serious problems with their regulatory bodies. since the turn of the century, the calgary-cambridge methodology (kurtz, silverman & draper, 1998; silverman, kurtz & draper, 1998; see the skillscascade website) has been widely adopted.5 the approach involves teaching “skills” said to be of proven effectiveness. from the linguist’s point of view, the skills themselves are poorly defined and frequently overlap. but they are eminently teachable. the same is true of maguire and pitceathly (2002), a frequently recommended summary. finally, in the last few years, another quasi-genre approach has come into increasing use. this is the “sbar” methodology, first developed in the armed forces6. the central idea is that, for instance when “handing over” a patient to a colleague, one should firstly describe the “situation”, then offer “background”, give an “assessment” and make a “recommendation” (hence, sbar). for example, “mr x is on this medication to alleviate his breathing difficulties. he has a long history of problems connected with asthma. the immediate problem is improving slowly. i recommend his medication is reviewed at 4 pm”. looking back: academic medicine and writing research am has a high level of engagement with issues of language. in uk the process has been helped by the fact that the two leading uk-based generalist journals in the field have had highly literate editors: richard smith at the british medical journal, and richard horton at the lancet. a major theme of am writing-about-writing is the inevitable focus on the risk of fraud. an excellent starting point is a paper written by horton for smith’s bmj (horton, 1995). horton begins: “be careful when reading this article. my purpose is to persuade”, and goes on to discuss “hyperbole”, and peer review, which: j.r. skelton & j. whetstone ibérica 24 (2012): 87-10290 (…) frequently ignores a factor that, to the doctor or scientist, may be thought too trivial to devote much attention to: the manipulation of language to convince the reader of the likely truth of a result. (horton, 1995: 985) since leaving the british medical journal smith has produced an exhilarating book, called the trouble with medical journals (smith, 2006) which is about – well, just that. amongst other things, peer review is a particular source of irritation for him, too: “it is slow, expensive, ineffective, something of a lottery, prone to bias and abuse, and hopeless at spotting errors and fraud” (smith, 2006: 8). as much of this brief overview of am and lmp implies contrasting approaches to research, it is worth quoting smith’s standpoint. he is no reductionist: as his book makes clear, he admires thomas mann, which hardly suggests a low tolerance of ambiguity. nevertheless: i’m suspicious (…) of ideas that are supposed to be so profound and complex that they cannot be expressed in language that everyone can understand. there may be such ideas, but i don’t know any. (smith, 2006: 5) the biggest change in am research in recent years has been the rise of evidence-based medicine (ebm), which has set up more and more precise specifications both for the conduct and reporting of research trials.7 whether misrepresentation or fraud can be controlled by battening down the structural hatchways like this is an interesting speculation. looking back: language for medical purposes the story of am, then, is that “good communication” is something all doctors need. and research into both spoken and written communication has moved towards a kind of unacknowledged, but often sophisticated, form of ga, coupled by skills lists which carry conviction within the field, but lack linguistic coherence. within lsp, healthcare was one of the earliest testing-grounds for the sinclair-coulthard school of discourse analysis (see for instance bruton, candlin & leather, 1976). the mid-1980s saw some excellent book-length studies with a generally anthropological or sociological flavour to them: mishler (1984) has already been mentioned, but there are also west (1984), and fisher and todd (eds.) (1983). english for medical purposes ibérica 24 (2012): 87-102 91 salager-meyer, one of the leading figures in lmp (see in particular the “medicine and language” section of the elsevier encyclopedia of language and linguistics, which she edited in 2006) also gives a fascinating historical account of some aspects of medical writing (salager-meyer & defives, 1998; salager-meyer, 1999). in terms of the more recent past, maher’s (1986: 113) excellent review argues for “a recognition of the combined sociological and linguistic character of language learning”. another study from the 1980s still cited is prince, frader and bosk’s (1982) early work on hedging. it is worth noting that of these three distinguished academics, prince is a linguist, frader a paediatrician with considerable expertise in medical humanities, and bosk a sociologist and medical ethicist. for written lmp, there is – inevitably – work on the research article (ra). li (2009) gives an account. but the field has also, increasingly, moved beyond the ra, and in doing so has moved towards a level of rapprochement with am. as regards methodology, there have been a few studies which have used corpus-based techniques to look, for example, at doctor-patient interaction (skelton & hobbs, 1999), and the language of teenagers on a health advice website (harvey et al., 2007). as regards topics, tipton (2005) for example, in a special issue of journal of applied linguistics edited by sarangi and candlin, looks at case presentations, building on anspach (1988) and cicourel (1999), and describes a course in the area for international medical graduates (imgs). an interesting recent development has been the way that emp has reflected contemporary trends in medical education, and sought to build them into courses – see belcher (2009) for a rationale. there has been a movement in medical education since the early 1970s towards problem-based learning, or pbl (see for instance neufeld & barrows, 1974; barrows, 1996). there have been many linguistically relevant studies here, and an issue of discourse processes (vol. 27, no. 2, 1999) was devoted to it. legg (2007), for example, reports on the way that english language support for medical students in hong kong undertook a genre analysis of pbl tutorials. she quotes frederiksen (1999: 137): “participants must be able to understand the reasoning process as it is unfolding through the discourse of interaction” (legg, 2007: 344). wood and head (2004), in a study based in brunei, make a similar point: j.r. skelton & j. whetstone ibérica 24 (2012): 87-10292 it is proposed that such an approach can not only teach  the  kinds of processes that are traditionally taught in eap, but also … [foster] the kinds of learning and study skills that pbl develops. the relevant thing here is the clear understanding that “teaching the language” is a means, not an end. as regards teaching materials, that much-used textbook, easily the bestknown in the field (glendinning & holmstrom, 1987), has always had close links with medical specialist informants – and it shows. the tokyo medical university website8 offers free access to a wide range of interesting materials and hoekje (2006) offers an excellent description of contemporary practice. beyond that, there is a better understanding within am of the challenges imgs and nns medical students face. hoekje and tipton (eds.) (2011) provide a very useful overview of key issues, as does eggly (2002). roberts and colleagues (see for instance roberts et al., 2000 & 2005) have made contributions of some influence within am. this returns us to the starting point. if the aim of lsp is to be centred on the purposes for which language is used, then the need to work across disciplines is central. roberts and sarangi (2003) offer an account of their own consultancy with the royal college of general practitioners (rcgp); they conclude, unsurprisingly, that one must try to bridge the gap, and that it is hard. it is an unfortunate irony perhaps that papers about bridging the gap can be heavily skewed towards abstract theorising of a kind viewed with suspicion in am. the present: the professional self and common ground the point we began with, that the “good doctor” is more than just a mechanic of the body, has come to assume overwhelming importance. we shall discuss this in a uk context, since we know this best, but see also the us initiative from the mid 1990s, “project professionalism”.9 within the uk, the two driving factors have been the repercussions from the shipman affair10 and the enquiry into the problems at bristol royal infirmary (bri).11 shipman was a british gp who murdered an unknown number, but english for medical purposes ibérica 24 (2012): 87-102 93 certainly several hundreds, of his patients. the appalling nature of his crimes forced a reappraisal of the concept of “fitness to practise” – of who should be allowed to be a doctor. shipman after all passed his exams. the bri affair involved the sub-standard care that very young children with serious heart problems received at one uk hospital. the government enquiry, known as the kennedy report, was crucial in changing the uk environment. of note is its authoritative, and beautifully written, introduction. in consequence, it was suggested, there was a need to “broaden the notion of competence”. six areas were suggested: area 1. skills in communicating with patients and with colleagues; area 2. education about the principles and organisation of the nhs, how care is managed, and the skills required for management; area 3. the development of teamwork; area 4. shared learning across professional boundaries; area 5. clinical audit and reflective practice; area 6. leadership. these six areas form the backbone of the work we do. “communication” (and language) are part of the overall development of the responsible professional, who is a reflective practitioner with an awareness of the workplace environment, and uses language to achieve professional goals within it. within am, professionalism is the term used, and it is now a central issue. the leading names in the field are stern and papadakis, and their nejm paper (stern & papadakis, 2006) summarises the issues well. note too that the european journal of internal medicine recently (2009) ran a special issue on the topic.12 we turn now to the work that we undertake with doctors (and a few dentists) who are referred to us for remedial support. working with “doctors in difficulty” these individuals are inevitably referred under the label of “communication difficulties”, but this phrase can cover more or less any of the six areas identified above. in the great majority of cases, the apparent deficiencies j.r. skelton & j. whetstone ibérica 24 (2012): 87-10294 result from a range of underlying problems: they tend not, in themselves, to “be” the problem. we exemplify this below with reference to four distinct cases, anonymised and with a couple of non-significant details altered for the purpose of confidentiality. all doctors work with us on a one-to-one basis. in uk there is a national doctors in difficulty programme to support qualified doctors who are still in training.13 it differentiates between “trainees in difficulty”, “trainees with difficulties” and “difficult trainees”. these are defined, respectively, as those failing to progress satisfactorily (mainly via assessment hurdles), those facing shorter term problems such as family health issues or moving house, and thirdly those whom others find it hard to work with. it is rare for us to encounter a doctor who does not fall into at least two of the above categories.14 two assumptions are often made in uk about doctors with communication difficulties. one is that they are likely to be speakers of a first language other than english. secondly, and by implication, they are likely to be international medical graduates (imgs). indeed, 73% (24/34) of trainees referred in 2009, for example, were imgs, 65% (34/52) in 2010. but such figures are not particularly helpful. they include non-uk graduates who are monolingual english speakers (irish, say), for example. on the other hand, we see uk graduates who are not native english speakers (for instance, hong kongese) and uk graduates who are multi-lingual or bilingual (for instance, british asian), as well as monolingual uk graduates. beyond that, we also encounter doctors in difficulty from much more complex backgrounds. in fact, we are faced with four typically conflated issues: language background, current/previous citizenship, perceived/self-identified ethnicity and place of graduation. what is important is that we are able to work with them in essentially the same way, merely shifting the focus towards or away from “lmp issues” depending on the doctor. we are less frequently asked to work on a doctor’s doctor-patient communication than on communication with colleagues. this touches closely on areas such as “teamwork” and “leadership” in obvious ways, and a lot of what we do comes under the general heading of “interactive management”, particularly given the current emphasis in am on the “multidisciplinary team” (mdt) – junior and senior doctors, nurses, theatre operatives, etc. english for medical purposes ibérica 24 (2012): 87-102 95 in the example cases that follow we have endeavoured to show a typical range of the referral issues we come across on a fairly regular basis and also how we approach remediation issues. success depends on insight and an acceptance that the doctor has responsibility for reflection and, as appropriate, change. the actual training process is typically as follows. there is a preliminary meeting with the doctor to assess educational needs (and often, also, to allow the doctor to put his or her own case – perhaps that the potentially stigmatising label of “doctor in difficulty” is unjust). this is followed by a number of one-to-one sessions, often working with a simulated patient who takes the role of a patient or colleague, so that the doctor can practise in a rich-context simulation. occasionally, then, a referral may appear very straightforward with communication issues focussing purely on language delivery. this can be illustrated in our first case, dr.a. dr. a: “just” language skills? dr. a possessed a good level of english, although with a strong accent, affecting both segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation. she was as a result sometimes difficult to understand. this therefore raises serious issues of patient safety. note that most imgs have to demonstrate ability in english before being allowed to practise in uk. the normal route is through ielts (band 7), followed by further tests (known as “plab”), where “communication” forms part of a wider clinical assessment. her problems define her as a “difficult trainee”, additionally, appraisal concerns could lead to “a failure to progress satisfactorily”. her willingness and enthusiasm to remedy problems was apparent throughout her two meetings. strategies adopted, however, sometimes worked against her. a good example concerns initial advice to break up the flow of her delivery as a way of giving the listener a little longer to process what she was saying. in the second session there was an element over overcompensation, with significant pauses following the simulated patient’s answers, leaving the latter rather “unsettled”, in his words. a pause to assist the listener’s understanding, in other words, had lengthened into a slightly embarrassing silence. j.r. skelton & j. whetstone ibérica 24 (2012): 87-10296 this overcompensation extended into other aspects of dr. a’s interaction – both in terms of language and behaviour. she was encouraged to consider the effects of her rather exuberant body language and vocal delivery on her patient, as well as her over-hastiness to rephrase her utterances, often unnecessarily, in her endeavour to make information accessible. her doubts about her language use were in a sense often unfounded, as temporary confusion came often from misplaced word stress only rather than choice of lexis – though the effect was, nevertheless, that it was a struggle to understand her. our job here then was not to coach her purely in “use of language” but rather to develop her own insight into the effects of her language strategies and make minor adjustments from gauging patient and colleague reaction. however, despite dr a’s intelligence and eager co-operation with the training process, there were issues of insight. she perhaps came to us expecting us to offer “english lessons”. and, while there was a clear need to improve her pronunciation, what was principally at stake was emphasising the need for reflection on her performance, and as far as we were able to do so, giving her a vocabulary to reflect with. this is a constant theme in our work, and is also central to problem-based learning as it is practised in am, and briefly described above. dr b: using language as theory dr. b, although also an img, came with a different agenda. his annual review of training had recommended additional training in communication and teamworking. here, by category definition, was a “doctor in difficulty”, failing to progress satisfactorily. he was a competent speaker of english. by implication then, the issues labelled “communication” (that is, communicating with colleagues) would appear to be not language problems, but arising as a direct result of problems cited with teamworking. however, a 360º appraisal exercise (such appraisals are very common, and consist typically of 8 to 12 colleagues offering confidential comments) subsequent to the review offered no evidence at all of problems with colleagues. confidential discussion revealed a very difficult relationship with a senior closely involved in his training. this matters because a team where not all members are on effective speaking terms is a team which poses a risk to patients. there had been a variety of strategies undertaken to repair this one problematic relationship, english for medical purposes ibérica 24 (2012): 87-102 97 without success, and this was beginning to impact on the doctor’s health and well-being. this is a good example of an initial category of difficulty extending into a more complex area of concern. supporting the doctor was a sensitive process, not least because it seemed likely that the senior doctor was in large part responsible for the “difficulty”. discussion, however, enabled us to explore in some detail the nature of repair strategies attempted at different points, not from the point of view of actual language used but from a wider appreciation of the style of talk and behaviour adopted. as we have done with a wide variety of doctors, we introduce the doctor to basic speech act theory. this allows a framework for discussion of the difference between the intended purpose of the speaker and perception of the hearer. for example, it seemed there were cultural issues: dr b’s own culture had different, more overtly deferential, ways of demonstrating respect to senior colleagues, for instance. we suggested, therefore, that a lengthy silence in response to a challenging remark may have been intended as respectful acceptance, but perceived as resentment, or inappropriately submissive. similar dilemmas may have resulted from attempts to justify actions, which could be perceived as being anywhere on a continuum between appropriate confidence and disrespectful arrogance. here then, the remediation strategies, though in one sense obviously drawing on expertise in linguistics, followed lines which would have been equally appropriate in working with native speaking professionals in any field. dr c: uk-born doctors: attitude driving language dr. c was a (caucasian) british doctor, uk educated, with a clear communication problem, occurring with patients and families. she was not a trainee. dr. c was essentially a doctor “with difficulties”, for various reasons. most notably these featured her own previous, serious illness and career development. she did in fact show insight into how her consulting style was unsettling to patients, in that her rather business-like, no-nonsense approach often made them feel, to pick up this word again, “depersonalised”. this may be a strength in other medical contexts, most obviously in the sbarstyle swift, concise, confident clinical handover valued in hospitals, and dr. c perceived her abruptness as being efficient. j.r. skelton & j. whetstone ibérica 24 (2012): 87-10298 basic “language” choices made were more problematic with dr. c than with the doctors discussed so far, resulting in the role-player feeling at times “taken aback” by comments which were perceived as confrontational or, at best, dismissive. occasionally, an attempt at humour would misfire: she told us of a patient who had said “i want to stop taking those tablets because my skin was awful before”. dr. c responded, it seems “well, it is now!”. quite: one can see why this might not work. underlying everything with dr. c was a sense that her previous serious illness had made her intolerant of patients with ostensibly minor problems, such as the skin condition above. the question was therefore first and foremost one of the doctor’s attitude. did she perceive the real issue? if so, did she have the motivation to change? and if she did, would she work to improve her interpersonal skills and language choices? conclusions this paper is a reflection on two separate research and educational traditions which have developed more or less independently. on the other hand, it is also intended to be a reflection on how much “common ground” there is, both at the level of research, where the traditions have felt their way towards a broadly genre-based approach, and also at the level of education. as regards educational interventions in particular, we have tried to show, with the doctors we discuss, that there is no clear divide between those with language problems tout court and those with professional problems which surface in language use. we would argue that if “communicative competence” means anything in the professional context, it means the development of a professional persona which is, and can project itself as, honourable, competent, committed, and so on. and, beyond that, the aim is to help students develop the resources they need to self-monitor and reflect. the strengths of the lmp tradition over the last 30 years are the expertise it has brought to bear on textual analysis. its central weakness is, inevitably, that it has not always understood medical values. for all the work on the ra in medicine, for example, there is little evidence of an understanding of the epistemology rather than the language. english for medical purposes ibérica 24 (2012): 87-102 99 in this respect, there has been recent debate (upton, 2012) on the merits of a “wide-angle” and “narrow angle” approach to lsp. the issue is, in an educational world of limited resources, how “specific” can one be? well, the more specific the better of course. but we would argue also that an understanding of the general ethos of lsp is central, since it is this which guarantees the willingness to work with flexibility, and to make the imaginative leap, as necessary, into the value system of the learner. 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(1997). “teacher education and lsp: the role of specialized knowledge” in r. howard & j. brown (eds.), teacher education for lsp, 8089. clevedon: multilingual matters. fisher, s. & a.d. todd (eds.) (1983). the social organization of doctorpatient communication. washington, dc: center for applied linguistics. frederiksen, c. (1999). “learning to reason through discourse in a problem-based learning group”. discourse processes 27: 135159. glendinning, e. & b. holmstrom (1987). english in medicine. cambridge: cambridge university press. harvey, k., b. brown, p. crawford, a. macfarlane & a. mcpherson (2007). “‘am i normal?’ teenagers, sexual health and the internet”. social science and medicine 65:771-781. hoekje, b. (2006). “medical discourse and esp courses for international medical graduates (imgs)”. english for specific purposes 26: 327343. hoekje, b.j. & s.m. tipton (eds.) (2011). english language and the medical profession: instructing and assessing the communication skills of international physicians. innovation and leadership in elt, vol. 5. bingley: emerald group. horton, r. (1995). “the rhetoric of research”. british medical journal 310/6985: 985-987. english for medical purposes ibérica 24 (2012): 87-102 101 kurtz, s., j. silverman & j. draper (1998). teaching and learning communication skills in medicine. abingdon: radcliffe medical press. legg, m. (2007). “from question to answer: the genre of the problem-based learning tutorial at the university of hong kong”. english for specific purposes 26: 344-367. li, l-j. & g-c. ge (2009). “genre analysis: structural and linguistic evolution of the englishmedium medical research article (1985–2004)”. english for specific purposes 28: 93-104. maguire, p. & c. pitceathly (2002). “key communication skills and how to acquire them”. british medical journal 325/7366: 697-700. maher, j. 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(2006). the roter method of interaction process analysis. url: http://www.rias.org/manual [15/03/12] salager-meyer, f. (1999). “referential behavior in scientific writing: a diachronic study (1810-1995)”. english for specific purposes 18: 379-405. salager-meyer, f. & g. defives (1998). “from the gentleman’s courtesy to the scientist’s caution: a diachronic study of hedges in scientific writing (1810-1995)” in i. fortanet, s. posteguillo, j.c. palmer & j.f. coll (eds.), genre studies in english for academic purposes, 133-172. castelló: universitat jaume i. salager-meyer, f. (ed.) (2006). “medicine and language” in k. brown (editor-in-chief). encyclopedia of language and linguistics. amsterdam: elsevier. silverman, j., s. kurtz & j. draper (1998). skills for communicating with patients. abingdon: radcliffe medical press. simpson, m., r. buckman, m. stewart, m. lipkin, d. novack & j. till (1991). “doctor-patient communication: the toronto consensus statement”. british medical journal 303/6814: 1385-1387. skelton, j.r., hobbs, f.d.r. (1999). “concordancing: exploring the uses of languagebased research in medical education”. the lancet 353:108-111. skelton, j.r. (2008). language and clinical communication: this bright babylon. abingdon: radcliffe. skelton, j.r. & f.d.r. hobbs (1999). “concordancing: exploring the uses of languagebased research in medical education”. the lancet 353: 108-111. smith, r. (2006). the trouble with medical journals. london: royal society of medicine. stern, d.t. & m. papadakis (2006). “the developing physician – becoming a professional”. new england journal of medicine 355: 1794-1799. tipton, s. (2005). “improving international medical graduates’ performance of case presentations”. journal of applied linguistics and professional practice 2: 395-406. upton, t.a. (2012). “lsp at 50: looking back, looking forward”. ibérica 23: 9-28. west, c. (1984). routine complications: troubles with talk between doctors and patients. bloomington, in: indiana university press. williams, r., j.m. swales & j. kirkman (eds.) (1984). common ground – shared interests in esp and communication studies (elt documents 117). oxford: pergamon press. wood, a. & m. head (2004). “‘just what the doctor ordered’: the application of problem-based learning to eap”. english for specific purposes 23: 3-17. john r. skelton is a graduate in literature, and in linguistics. he is now professor of clinical communication at birmingham university college of medical and dental sciences (cmds). he is director of quality for all cmds courses, (including the 2000-strong mbchb) and director of the interactive studies unit. he holds an mrcgp, awarded for services to uk primary care. jan whetstone is a graduate in modern languages, and in english for specific purposes. she is a member of the isu team, working with undergraduate medical students and postgraduate doctors, including the doctors in difficulty programme. she also examines international english for the british council and cambridge university examination boards. notes 1 general medical council (gmc) (“the values doc”). url: http://www.gmc-uk.org/ education/undergraduate/professional_behaviour.asp [08/05/12] 2 see url: http://www.isu.bham.ac.uk [08/05/12] 3 see the calgary-cambridge model at url: http://www.skillscascade.com/handouts/ccguide1.htm [08/05/12] 4 for this and other “models of the consultation”, as they are commonly known, see url: http://www.skillscascade.com/models.htm [08/05/12] 5 for a detailed critique, however, see skelton (2008). 6 national health service sbar. url: http://www.institute.nhs.uk/quality_and_service _improvement_tools/ quality_and_service_improvement_tools/sbar_-_situation_-_background_-_ assessment_-_recommendation.html [08/05/12] 7 for an introduction, see the bandolier website (“evidence-based thinking about healthcare” at url: http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/ [08/05/12]. for issues around the reporting of trials see the consort statement website at url: http://www.consort-statement.org/ [08/05/12] 8 see url: https://www.emp-tmu.net/ [08/05/12] 9 to learn more about “project professionalism” from the american board of internal medicine at url: http://www.abimfoundation.org/resource-center/bibliography/~/media/files/ resource%20center/project%20professionalism.ashx [08/05/12] 10 see the reports which arose from the shipman inquiry 2002-5 at url: http://www.shipmaninquiry.org.uk/reports.asp [08/05/12] 11 for which see the bristol royal infirmary enquiry (2001), also known as “the kennedy report” at url: http://www.bristol-inquiry.org.uk/final_report/report/index.htm [15/05/12] 12 the journal of internal medicine is an imprint of elsevier and can be found at url: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/european-journal-of-internal-medicine/ [02/08/12] 13 doctors worldwide are normally regarded as “trainees” for ten years or more after their medical degree. 14 note that we also see doctors “not in training”, many of whom refer themselves. j.r. skelton & j. whetstone ibérica 24 (2012): 87-102102 iberica 13 lexicography in the 21st century. in honour of henning bergenholtz sandro nielsen & sven tarp (eds). amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins, 2009. 343 pages. isbn: 978-90272-2336-4. lexicography in the 21st century is a collection of papers published in recognition of the work of professor henning bergenholtz. the book aims to describe the state-of-the-art in recent lexicography and puts forward new theoretical and practical proposals in this field. it contains fourteen contributions authored by highly regarded international scholars from canada, denmark, germany, iceland, norway, south africa, spain and sweden, and who have published both dictionaries and authoritative works on metalexicography. the papers are relevant contributions to the field of lexicography and contribute to the comprehensive scope of topics contained in this book, which addresses mainly lexicographers, but also anyone interested in lexicography. the volume opens with a biographic introduction by the editors on professor henning bergenholtz, and ends with a list of his most important published works, presented in chronological order. notes on the contributors and a subject index are also provided at the end of the book. the contributions examine a wide range of aspects concerning lexicography. the book is divided into five parts, each consisting of multiple chapters dealing with the specific topic devoted to the part in question. part i, entitled “the dictionary, dictionary structures and access routes”, addresses in-depth several aspects of a metalexicographic nature, i.e., data access, functions, article structures and dictionary reviewing. this part starts with the contribution by rufus h. gouws in which horizontal macrostructure ordering – niching and nesting – is evaluated with the focus on dictionary access and lexicographic functions. in the next paper, sandro nielsen proposes a theoretical and applied framework developed by the author to be used as a benchmark for writing reliable reviews both for printed and electronic dictionaries. the following paper is authored by sven tarp where he explores some of the new and endless possibilities – reseñas / book reviews ibérica 20 (2010): 167-204 issn 1139-7241 186 08 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:23 página 186 expressed in the form of new article structures – offered by information technologies to retrieve noise-free lexicographic data. in the fourth chapter, herbert ernst wiegand distinguishes the different types of hybrid textual structures of dictionaries by means of tree diagrams and presents a comprehensive typological excerpt of hybrid text constituent structures. part ii, “dictionary functions and users”, deals with particular aspects concerning, as the title suggests, the functions and users in the specific dictionaries under study. the first paper, authored by sven-göran malmgren, discusses different information categories in swedish monolingual dictionaries from the point of view of text production. in the following paper, patrick leroyer deals with a functional transformation of existing lexicographic tools for tourists so that their communicative, cognitive, operative and interpretative information needs can be fully satisfied in various specific tourist situations. in the third chapter, lars s. vikør first analyzes and evaluates the terminology of language planning proposed by bergenholtz and gouws (2006), after which the author deals with the role that the major official spelling dictionaries play in scandinavia and the netherlands. part iii, “subject-field classification and introductions”, comprises two chapters dealing with the topic of subject in dictionaries from two different perspectives. in the first one, bo svensén reviews the subject-field classification scheme in the nordic dictionary of lexicography and offers a reorganized subject-field classification model for metalexicography, along with a compilation of metalexicographic terms in english. in the second chapter, pedro a. fuertes-olivera analyzes the encyclopaedic information in systematic introductions contained in various business dictionaries, proposing consequentially a systematic introduction model for accounting dictionaries. part iv, entitled “data retrieval and corpus lexicography”, also has two chapters exploring the role of corpus in lexicography and presenting new applications for consulting electronic lexicographic resources. the opening paper, authored by d. j. prinsloo, can be divided into two main parts: the first one presents a general scenario describing briefly corpus compilation, annotation and exploitation, and the second provides a commented list of different resources that can be used for lexicographic purposes. franziskus geeb opens his paper entitled “lexicographical data in natural-language reseñas / book reviews ibérica 20 (2010): 167-204 187 08 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:23 página 187 systems” with a state-of-the-art section concerning human-machine communication, focusing on the relation between chatbots and lexicography. then, the author presents the electronic dictionary platform called looked4you, which includes a chatbot that can be interrogated for lexical information, explaining in detail how information is structured and formalized in chatbots. part v, “collocations and phraseology”, contains three chapters that provide descriptions of dictionaries in respect to the way information is represented and formalized at a syntactical level. in the first paper, marie-claude l’homme begins with an introduction on how collocations have been treated in several specialized dictionaries, and proceeds to give an account of the methodology used for encoding and organizing collocations in dictionnaire de l’informatique et de l’internet (dicoinfo), an online database which contains computing and internet terminology. the following paper by jón himar jónsson presents the main characteristics of an ongoing electronic lexical semantic wordnet project for the icelandic language, which serve the author as a basis for exploring the value of an independent phraseological description, for describing the phraseological dictionaries feeding the project with lexicographic information, and for analyzing how this information is structured and presented. finally, the paper by thomas herbst analyzes how several english learner dictionaries apply word class labels to express syntagmatic relations, to conclude that there are differences in terminology, and thus arguing in favour of a dictionary grammar to standardize this matter. the author also considers the different models employed to represent collocational information in both english collocations dictionaries and learner dictionaries, highlighting the fact that the wide range of devices used to present this combinatorial information proves the importance of collocations for learner dictionaries. this volume is a collection of interesting papers that sheds light on the research that is currently carried out in the field of lexicography. it brings together the expertise and in-depth knowledge of a number of highly regarded international scholars – thus, scientific interest is guaranteed. one of its other strengths is its wide subject scope, since each contribution is devoted to a specific topic – all unique. even though the articles deal with a different topic, they are integrated and inter-linked to form a coherent whole. the structure of the book is highly appropriate and the editors have done a magnificent job in its distribution. however, i have personally missed in the introduction an explanation of the contents of each part constituting the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 20 (2010): 167-204188 08 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:23 página 188 book, so that readers have a global idea of what they are going to find in the volume beforehand. in spite of the in-depth studies and specificity of the topics dealt with in the contributions, one notes the effort put into the authors’ papers to produce a pedagogic and easy-to-read article. for example, wherever possible, every quotation, example or lexical unit appearing in a language other than english has been translated into this lingua franca. moreover, most of the contributions begin with an illustrative introduction that gives the reader a point of departure, although some articles lack a conclusion or discussion section that could have helped the reader to sum up and arrive at an understanding of what has been discussed, as well as new lines of research arising from the study. in conclusion, lexicography in the 21st century. in honour of henning bergenholtz is a highly recommended book for lexicographers or linguists interested in lexicography who want to broad and deepen their knowledge in the current research carried out by leading scholars in this field. [review received may 2010] reviewed by chelo vargas universidad de alicante (spain) chelo.vargas@ua.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 20 (2010): 167-204 189 bergenholtz, h. & r.h. gouws (2006). “how to do language policy with dictionaries?” lexicos 16: 13-45. 08 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:23 página 189 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156 issn 1139-7241 abstract intercultural text-based research has shown remarkable differences in the rhetorical structure and devices of research articles (ras) in different linguistic/cultural contexts of publication, including the spanish local context and the english international context. however, not much attention has been paid to the research article (ra) writing process, which can throw light into the publication practices of second language (l2) scholars in particular disciplinary fields and which can help unveil their main writing difficulties. in this paper i focus on the “text histories” of a team of spanish researchers in the field of finance who struggle to get their research articles published internationally in english. these text histories correspond to 24 papers drafted and (re)submitted over the past 5-6 years. the analysis focuses on the extent to which they aim to publish their ras in english, how they cope with writing their texts in english, their success in such a task and the kind of negative comments included in the referee reports they receive. results show that this team of l2 scholars almost exclusively write their ras in english and aim at publishing them in englishmedium international journals; for this demanding task, they draw on a number of strategies. they are partially successful in that they have managed to publish half of their ras in the first site where they were submitted. their manuscripts received a lot of negative comments; especially relevant is the inclusion of a high number of unspecific negative comments related to language or style in major revision reports. looking into the writing process can be of great help to provide l2 scholars with useful guidelines on drafting their ras in english for international publication and to gain an insight into the forces driving international publication in this context. getting research published internationally in english: an ethnographic account of a team of finance spanish scholars’ struggles pilar mur dueñas universidad de zaragoza (spain) pmur@unizar.es 139 ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156 pilar mur dueñas keywords: english for academic purposes (eap), english for research publication purposes (erpp), intercultural rhetoric, scholarly writing, research article. resumen publicar la investigación en inglés en el ámbito internacional: una visión etnográfica sobre las dificultades de un grupo de investigadores españoles en el campo de las finanzas la investigación textual intercultural ha mostrado importantes diferencias en la estructura y mecanismos retóricos de los artículos de investigación en diferentes contextos lingüísticos y culturales de publicación, incluido el contexto local español frente al contexto internacional inglés. sin embargo, la investigación no ha prestado tanta atención al proceso de escritura de los mismos, lo cual podría proporcionar detalles sobre las prácticas de publicación de académicos no nativos en campos disciplinares concretos y podría así mismo revelar sus principales dificultades en dicho proceso. en este artículo me centro en las “historias textuales” de un grupo de investigadores españoles en el campo de las finanzas que hacen numerosos esfuerzos por publicar los resultados de su investigación en revistas internacionales en inglés. estas historias textuales corresponden a 24 artículos que han redactado y (re)enviado para su publicación en los últimos 5-6 años. se analiza hasta qué punto tienen como objetivo publicar sus artículos en inglés, cómo afrontan dicho proceso, los resultados que obtienen y el tipo de comentarios negativos que reciben en los informes de los evaluadores. los resultados muestran que este equipo de investigadores escribe sus artículos casi de modo exclusivo en inglés y tiene como objetivo su publicación en revistas internacionales en dicha lengua; para esta ardua tarea hacen uso de numerosas estrategias. se puede considerar que han obtenido resultados relativamente buenos ya que han conseguido publicar la mitad de sus artículos en las revistas a las que fueron enviados en un principio. sus manuscritos han recibido abundantes comentarios negativos; es especialmente relevante la inclusión de un gran número de comentarios poco específicos en relación con el estilo o la lengua en informes que sugieren una gran revisión. indagar en el proceso de escritura de este género académico puede resultar de gran ayuda para proporcionar a los investigadores para quienes el inglés es su segunda lengua directrices útiles en la redacción de sus artículos en dicha lengua para su publicación en el contexto internacional, así como para desvelar las fuerzas que mueven la publicación en dicho contexto. palabras clave: inglés para fines académicos (ifa), inglés con fines de publicación, retórica intercultural, escritura académica, artículo de investigación. 140 introduction english has no doubt become “the” language of publication in the academia. most high impact journals are nowadays published in english, and getting one’s research article (ra) accepted in any of them is a great concern for scholars worldwide. for spanish scholars english ras are the key to their academic promotion and to institutional rewards (moreno, 2010). the need to get research published in journals indexed in the isi web of knowledge (isi wok) or journal quality list (jql) is rather pressing in many fields worldwide. the spread of english in the academia has generated many studies on english for research publication purposes (cargill & burgess, 2008) from an intercultural text-based perspective. this research has shown remarkable differences in the rhetorical structure and style prevailing in different linguistic/cultural local contexts of publication and the english international context. it has been extremely prolific in spain, focusing on different genres: abstracts (martín martín, 2003 & 2005; martín martín & burgess, 2004; lorés-sanz, 2006 & 2009a; bellés-fortuño & querol-julián, 2010), book reviews (moreno & suárez, 2008, 2009 & 2010; suárez & moreno, 2008; lorés-sanz, 2009b) and ras (mur-dueñas, 2007 & 2010; pérez-llantada, 2010a). some intercultural research has also been recently undertaken to explore the possible transfer process of common rhetorical features in first language (l1) local publications to second language (l2) international publications in english or the possible accommodation process to the common rhetorical conventions of the latter (burgess, 2002; mur-dueñas, 2009; pérez-llantada, 2010b). this research has focused on text products and has not considered how texts are created throughout the publication process. an approach which also looks into the writing process and brings the scholar(s) into the centre of research is called upon to understand the many ways in which published academic texts are shaped (burroughboenisch, 2003; li & flowerdew, 2007). this understanding, which comprises and should bring together textual analyses in the light of wordface professionals and gatekeepers (shashok, 2008), will provide results on which to build tools and guidelines which facilitate the non-native scholars’ sometimes daunting task of making their research visible in international english-medium publications. some previous analyses have already emphasised the writing process of research production by focusing on the analysis of referee reports. these getting research published internationally ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156 141 studies have analysed the type of comments included in the reviews of native and non-native scholars’ both accepted and rejected papers (gosden, 2003; hewings, 2006; belcher, 2007; bornmann, wymuth & daniel, 2010; mungra & webber, 2010). they generally conclude that comments on language, style or rhetorical conventions are frequently included, but they do not seem to play a decisive role in the rejection of contributions by either native or non-native speakers. these studies are restricted to one source of data, i.e. the referee reports of a particular journal. a deeper insight into the ra writing process can be gained by looking at scholars’ “text histories” (lillis & curry, 2006a & 2010). text histories comprise original texts, second and subsequent versions, referee reports, editors’ letters and other information regarding the interaction with gatekeepers (lillis & curry, 2010). all this information can allow us to better understand l2 scholars’ difficulties in writing their ras for publication and also to dig into the “broader practices and politics surrounding academic text production in a global context” (lillis & curry, 2010: 3). some such ethnographic analyses have been carried out focusing on the research (outcomes) of scholars in the periphery, or also referred to as off-network scholars (belcher, 2007): slovakian biomedical scholars (kourilova, 1998), hong kong scholars from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds (flowerdew, 1999 & 2000), mexican scientists (englander, 2006), psychology scholars in hungary, slovakia, portugal and spain (curry & lillis, 2004; lillis & curry, 2006a, 2006b & 2010), or chinese graduate students in different fields (li & flowerdew, 2007). as acknowledged by flowerdew (1999: 246), “[a]attention needs to be focussed on individual scholars because it is important to discover the perceptions, problems, and strategies used by nns scholars in writing for publication in english”. some recent research has placed spanish scholars and their publication practices at the centre of research. fernández-polo and cal varela (2009) report on the current use, needs and attitudes towards english of the research and teaching staff at a particular spanish university gathered by means of a survey. they find that, although the local languages are favoured for a number of tasks, scholars at this institution predominantly spread the results of their research in english both through publication and conference presentations. they further unveil the scholars’ positive attitudes towards the use of english in the academia even though they consider research findings dissemination in english to be highly time-consuming and costly. ferguson, pérez-llantada and plo (2011) and pérez-llantada, plo and ferguson (2010) pilar mur dueñas ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156142 also look into the practices, perceived needs and attitudes towards the use of english for international academic communication at another spanish institution. they report on the results of a survey answered by 300 staff members and they further analyse the particular practices and perceptions of a group of 10 senior academics in social and physical sciences through detailed interviews (pérez-llantada, plo & ferguson, 2010). the interviewed scholars seem to feel at a disadvantage for having to read, write and publish in english but seem to resign themselves to the situation and use any necessary means to have their voices heard outside the national borders. the emphasis of this research has lied on the researchers’ perceptions and values as regards the use of english in their academic life. it, however, has not focused on the actual writing process that spanish scholars undergo. it is the aim of this paper to explore the ra writing practices of a group of spanish researchers in the faculty of economics of a spanish university through an analysis of their text histories. these text histories comprise text trajectories (drafts and subsequent versions of their papers), referee reports, editors’ letters, their answers to those reports and letters as well as their answers to questions on the steps followed in composing their texts in english, and on their views and perceptions. the text histories can reveal much about the challenge and difficulties that seeking international publication entails for them, even if they belong to the expanding circle (kachru, 1992). special emphasis is placed on: the extent to which these non-native scholars aim at publishing in english and/or in english-medium sites, and their strategies to overcome potential difficulties in the l2; their degree of success in turning their research into publishable outcomes; the kind of negative comments they get from reviewers and editors, especially comments related to language and style; and how they react to them. 2. participants and methods the participants on whom this paper focuses are four scholars in the department of finance and accounting at a spanish university: two of them are junior scholars whereas two are rather senior. one of the senior scholars has, in fact, supervised the phd theses of the two junior scholars. they are rather active researchers, attending international conferences, presenting their research at different fora in their field, and working as visiting academics at several european institutions. they tend to publish their papers jointly and sometimes also with other colleagues from the same department. in general getting research published internationally ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156 143 they do not face any financial or material problems of other off-network researchers (canagarajah, 1996) but they do not enjoy much institutional support through editorial services or other means, as seems to be the case in northern european countries (burrough-boenisch, 2003). they attended an eap course under my responsibility in 2007-2008. from the course onwards i started to become more familiar with the problems they encountered when drafting their ras in english for international journals in their field, specifically in order to meet the recommendations, or sometimes requests, of referees and editors. they generously gave me access to all the reviewing material corresponding to their successful and not so successful publications since 2004; we have had frequent meetings and email correspondence on their views on publishing in english, on the difficulties this entails for them, on their reactions to reviewers’ (negative) comments on their research articles, etc. following lillis (2008) three-level conception of ethnography within academic writing, the second level, “ethnography as methodology” is undertaken in this study in that there has been sustained engagement in the participants’ writing practices and context and different types of data have been accordingly compiled. the text histories revolve around 24 different papers and their publication has followed different paths in each case. the trajectories of each paper were discerned to determine whether they had finally been published and, if so, whether they had been published in the journal it was first submitted to, and what steps had been followed towards publication in english in terms of revision, proofreading and resubmission. both positive and negative comments in the referee reports and the editor letters corresponding to each of the papers were extracted, coded on whether the decision on the specific paper had been a rejection or a major revision1 and on the target of criticism following bornmann, wymuth and daniel’s (2010) taxonomy. special attention was paid to the extent to which language or style-related comments were included and the scholars’ response to these particular comments. 3. analysis of the “text histories” 3.1. writing and publishing in spanish vs. writing and publishing in english the informants’ text histories reveal that only two articles have been published in spanish journals. in one case the spanish journal was their first pilar mur dueñas ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156144 choice to send the paper, in the other case their publication in a spanish journal came as a result of a rejected paper in two prestigious international journals. in one further case, their article was rejected first by an international publication and later on by a spanish journal. this made them stop working on it and leave the paper aside. only one of their two articles published in spanish journals was written in spanish. these scholars consider that even if their articles are published in low-impact national journals they will reach a wider audience if they are written in english than if they are written in spanish. as this seems to be a spread view among spanish academics, at least in the area of business and economy, many spanish journals in their field are encouraging publications in english. by looking into their text histories from 2004 until the present, it becomes clear that scholars have moved from having their ras translated into english to drafting the first version in english themselves. then, when editors suggest it, they have their manuscript revised or proofread by an author’s editor. as they acknowledge, they are now able to accomplish the writing of their papers in english as a result of an improvement in their writing skills in english through mainly self-study and self-teaching and also through a gradual engagement in international networks. as they recount, they have kept updated with international bibliography, actively reading english publications, paying attention not only to content but also to language and style. they have, thus, become (un)consciously familiar with some of the rhetorical conventions of international publications in their field. also, it is interesting to see that in many cases they do not tend to have their texts sent to an author’s editor before submission. one of the reasons they give for this is that it is too expensive and they only want to “invest” in it once they know that they have a chance for acceptance, that is, after getting a major revision decision. a second reason they provide, and as stems out of some editor letters, each journal (through the editor) recommends a particular proofreader or an agency. so they prefer to wait for these guidelines and go through revision only once, trying to save up time and money. as will be shown below, and concluded by previous studies (hewings, 2006; belcher, 2007; bornmann, wymuth & daniel, 2010), they could be right in taking this decision as it seems that stylistic and language comments are generally emphasised in referee reports judging major revision of their papers but not to the same extent in reports recommending rejection. it remains unclear, however, whether upon pre-submission revision, the review process would be eased, getting other than major getting research published internationally ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156 145 revision reports and/or whether rejections could actually turn into major revision reports. 3.2. publication outcomes: rates and strategies three of the informants’ papers have finally not reached publication in any journal. this has usually been the case of papers sent to journals with a high impact factor and which have taken too long to review their papers. as one of the participants put it “too bad we waited so long for a rejection”. the long awaiting time together with sometimes rather devastating comments made these scholars give their papers up on three occasions. only half of their articles have been finally published in the first journal to which they were first submitted. in some cases the rejection decisions were accompanied by a recommendation to send the paper to a given journal, in other cases it was the scholars’ decision to resubmit it to a different journal, possibly not indexed in isi wok or jql. it is remarkable to see their efforts to get an article accepted for publication at one rather prestigious journal. they submitted a paper back in 2004 to this journal, but it was rejected and finally sent to a lower-rank journal, which readily accepted it. they tried again the following year with a different paper, but the same process took place. they received a rejection decision and decided to publish it in a different journal not included in the jql. finally, in 2007, after an arduous task of revision and redrafting once a major revision decision was received, they were successful at getting one of their articles published at the given journal. it may be the case that after three years (2004-2007) during which they wrote 14 articles, they had better learnt to manage comments, suggestions and decisions on their papers; that is, their success may be the result of their own learning both of academic literacy in their field and of publishing skills. nevertheless, after this boost and other successful publications around that time, in 2008 they aimed for one of the best ranking journals with a very high impact factor, but they received a rejection decision. 3.3. referee reports and editor’s letters: comments, suggestions and requests following bornmann, wymuth and daniel’s (2010) taxonomy on thematic areas that are drawn upon in referee reports2, the most common ones this group of scholars have received on both major revision and rejection decisions refer to: relevance of contribution pilar mur dueñas ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156146 (examples 1 to 3), design/conception (examples 3 and 4) and methods/statistics (example 5): (1) the authors need to indicate why their work is so important from the beginning of the paper (introduction part). (major revision) (2) this paper should be clearer and more detailed about its importance and potential contributions. (rejection) (3) right at the beginning the authors need to provide a clear discussion of what is their objective and why it is interesting and how it contributes to the literature. more discussion of data. state clearly what you want to do and how the data is useful. (major revision) (4) it is not clear how these hypotheses relate to existing theories. they should be built on more solid theoretical ground with thorough discussion. (rejection) (5) unfortunately, the paper falls short of its goals. the main problems are twofold: the dataset is not adequate for the objectives of the paper and the methodology employed is deeply flawed. (rejection) negative comments on the relevance of contribution and on the design/conception are found both in major revision and rejection reports, whereas negative comments on methods/statistics feature mainly in rejection reports. negative comments related to style or language are very frequent in major revision referee reports. in this respect, as acknowledged by the participants and clearly seen in the examples below, “reviewers are quick to complain about ‘the english’” (shashok, 2008: 4) in a rather general way and without pointing at the specific problems they perceive. this is in line with kourilova’s (1998) and gosden’s (2003) results in which most comments on language were unspecified. it may be due to their lack of expertise in this respect, which does not allow them to do so. or as kourilova (1998: 111) states, “reviewers either do not feel like doing the job of language subeditors, or they often just have an uneasy feeling but are unable to pinpoint what makes a paper written by a non-native speaker un-english”. following hewing’s (2006) list of possible language-related targets of criticism, in the case of the reports these spanish scholars got, they are repeatedly to do with getting research published internationally ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156 147 clarity. according to mungra & webber’s (2010) taxonomy of language comments, they correspond to “not well written/use of english” and “lack of clarity” comments. no specific comments are made on other possible language criticisms such as grammar and syntax, lexis, spelling, punctuation, register or cohesion. some examples of these are: (6) the writing needs to be improved substantially. (major revision) (7) i felt the paper could be improved on the exposition. (major revision) (8) in many places, the arguments are vague or confusing. (...) the writing quality of the paper is far below what is expected. (...) the writing quality of the paper is not good enough. attached are numerous handwritten suggestions, but even these are not enough. if you need to hire a professional to fix the language then please do so. (major revision) (9) the methodological part is very long and not clear. the presentation and discussion of the empirical analysis is not clear. the abstract is not clearly written. (major revision) there are also common criticisms on the organization and structure of their articles, to which mungra & webber’s (2010) refer as “discourse and rhetorical comments”. some examples of these are: (10) a nice written paper according to my opinion should have a separate part where the authors make the literature review. (rejection) (11) the logic of this paper is not concrete and the paper is not well organized. it would be more logical and easier to read if the author(s) can restructure the paper in the following way ... (major revision) these comments on language and style point to the fact that referees in this field seem to feel that they need to comment both on the content and scientific rigor but also on how accurately, precisely or how persuasively in their view new scientific knowledge is communicated. some of the above comments appear to refer to possible cross-cultural rhetorical differences in that the way spanish scholars present the information may not match the expectations of members of the editorial boards of international journals, pilar mur dueñas ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156148 who are very commonly north american in this discipline. it appears that they require l2 scholars to conform to the prevailing rhetorical conventions of international publications in english in their field. as indicated above, it is when these spanish scholars receive such language or style-related comments on major revision reports that they look for professional help. because their institution does not cater for their needs through in-house editors and/or academic literacy researchers, they need to hire professional help, usually an author’s editor who does more than “fixing the language” as claimed by shashok (2001) but not acknowledged by one of the reviewers. in some cases the scholars have not been very pleased with the work of wordface professionals, and they have sent their papers to different professionals and agencies until they seem to have found one which responds to their needs. nevertheless, as mentioned above, they prefer to wait to see whether the editor recommends a particular editor to avoid a double expense. these scholars have also undergone criticism on their english once their text had been revised by a native speaker. possibly as a result, it is now customary, at least in the scholars’ field, that agencies issue a certificate, stating that their article has been revised which may read as the following example: this document certifies that the manuscript titled “xxx” was edited for proper english language, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and overall style by one or more of the highly qualified native english speaking editors at xxx. neither the research content nor the authors’ intentions were altered in any way during the editing process. documents receiving this certification should be english-ready for publication however, the author has the ability to accept or reject our suggestions and changes. to verify the final edited version, please visit our verification page. if you have any questions or concerns over this edited document, please contact ... ethical issues concerning revision are inferred from such a certificate. the agency seems to respond to the ethical dilemma described by burroughboenisch (2003), by stating that only suggestions and changes referring to the language were included and that the authors have the last word in incorporating them, but yet leaving the door open for editors to consult what the proposed changes were. although editors do not usually demand such a certificate, scholars who have paid for a service have the means to prove it. they had to do so when, after a revision of their paper, they getting research published internationally ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156 149 received criticism on their english and encouraged to look for professional help, to which they answered: we are sorry about the english style but both versions we sent had been revised by a copy editor company: xxx (see attached document). we will try our best for the revised version and we will probably contact with your recommended services in order to obtain the best style possible. 3.4. keys to (partial) success in general, this team of finance spanish scholars has been rather successful throughout 6 years in getting their research published internationally and trying to become visible in the international research arena. their (partial) success lies on their persistence and good handling of feedback. they always write detailed responses to every point raised by the referees or editors when it is a major revision decision and even when it is a rejection one. in my opinion, they have been and are really good at interacting with the gatekeepers, duly responding to content negative comments to the best of their knowledge, seeking external help to address language and style-related negative comments, and overall trying to learn from each submission process. they take it as a gradual learning process in which they are becoming more and more academic literate. nonetheless, at times they feel that reviewers, and especially editors, are too hard on their final decisions. one of their recent complaints had to do with the editor’s final decision on a major revision, when in their view of the reviewers’ comments would have only qualified for a minor revision decision. the difference does not lie on the amount of work they will have to put into reshaping the paper, which will be the same (addressing each of the points raised by the referees) but a financial one. the editor’s final decision comes accompanied by the following conclusion after summarising the reviewer’s comments: so i would characterize this as a revise-and-resubmit where the paper has to fundamentally change in one direction or the other. please be advised that a new submission fee of $100 will be required with the revision. i look forward to receiving your revised manuscript. overall only the scholars’ conscientiousness together with the financial support they receive by regional and national authorities allow them to half pilar mur dueñas ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156150 of the times reach the standards required to get their ras published in the international english-medium journals aimed at. as a result, the junior scholars can be qualified for tenure-track positions, the more senior scholars’ research activity can be evaluated positively (moreno, 2010) and all of them together can get funding through competitive grants allowing them, in turn, to carry on with their research. 4. final remarks this study has aimed at contributing to english for academic purposes (eap) and intercultural rhetoric from an ethnographic perspective focusing on the struggles of a team of non-anglophone finance researchers at a spanish university in seeking international publications in english. they have greatly learnt through constant re-submission processes and reached great visibility through a number of rather significant publications. this ethnographic study seems to further corroborate the claim that authorial persistence is key to successful publication (flowerdew, 2000; belcher, 2007), that is, “willingness to continue revising and resubmitting when faced with extensive critical commentary from reviewers can result in publication” (belcher, 2007: 1). the numerous comments received on the style of their ras, and more specifically on their clarity without any further recommendations, point at the need for professional linguistic guidance and support from within their institution so that their efforts find still better results. close collaboration of eap linguists and discourse analysts, wordface professionals and scholars may not only “lead to improvements in peer review practice and better research on this complex process” (shashok, 2008: 3), but it may also bring about better results in terms of publication rates of non-native scholars reaching top-indexed journals. the proposal made by flowerdew (2000) to run programmes in which peers meet together to receive formal instruction in academic writing and be mentored by subject and language specialists will be very much welcome by these non-native scholars, and very possibly by many others in a similar situation. in order to provide non-native scholars with appropriate support in their research writing practices, other initiatives and training interventions carried out in different non-anglophone contexts should also be born in mind, inter alia those reported by sengupta (2003) and cargill and o’connor (2006). getting research published internationally ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156 151 finally, further ethnographic analyses should be carried out to explore the extent to which the publishing skills of scholars outside english dominant contexts differ in other cultural contexts and also in other disciplinary contexts. the work of the spanish psychologist reported by curry and lillis (2004) and lillis and curry (2006a & 2010) is rather different from the research activity of the spanish finance scholars reported here. in the field of psychology there seems to be a perceived need by scholars to carry on publishing in spanish and in other languages other than english, whereas that does not seem to be the case in finance. ethnographic research based on scholars in other cultural contexts, slovakia (kourilova, 1998), hong kong (flowerdew, 1999 & 2000), the netherlands (burrough-boenish, 2003), mainland china (li & flowerdew, 2007) have provided evidence on the different writing process that scholars undergo in those specific cultural contexts. further research which combines text-based and ethnographic analyses is needed to shed more light on the complex issue of international scholarly publication. further studies could look into the differences between first and second, or even third versions, of the scholars’ papers to explore how the comments were discursively addressed and what the consequences and implications of those changes were. also, the changes and corrections suggested and incorporated by the wordface professionals could be examined, as well as whether they are in line with the results reported by text-based intercultural research. these combined disciplinary-specific textual and ethnographic analyses are future venues of research worth pursuing. the results should lead to guidelines and resources so that l2 scholars are better prepared to face the struggles of publishing their research in international english-medium journals. acknowledgements this contribution is part of a research project financed by the spanish ministry of science and innovation, plan nacional de i+d+i (2008-2011), ref: ffi2009-08336. an earlier version of this paper was presented at the seminar “ethnographies of academic writing in a global context: the politics of style” held on 16th july 2010 at the open university in milton keynes (uk). pilar mur dueñas ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156152 i would like to express my gratitude to the participants of this case study on which this article draws for their time, support and interest in this research. 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(2007). “‘i/we focus on…’: a crosscultural analysis of self-mentions in business management research articles”. journal of english for academic purposes 6: 143-162. mur dueñas, p. (2009). “logical markers in l1 (spanish and english) and l2 (english) business research articles”. english text construction 2: 246-264. mur dueñas, p. (2010). “attitude markers in business management research articles: a crosscultural corpus-driven approach”. international journal of applied linguistics 19: 50-72. pérez-llantada, c. (2010a). “the discourse functions of metadiscourse in published academic writing: issues of culture and language”. nordic journal of english studies 9: 41-68. pérez-llantada, c. (2010b). “researching into english for research publication purposes from an applied intercultural perspective” in m. f. ruizgarrido, j.c. palmer-silveira & i. fortanet-gómez (eds.), 25-41. pérez-llantada, c., r. plo & g. ferguson (2010). “‘you don’t say what you know, only what you can’: the perceptions and practices of senior spanish academic regarding research dissemination in english”. english for specific purposes 30: 18-30. ruiz-garrido, m.f., j.c. palmer-silveira & i. fortanet-gómez (eds.) (2010). english for professional and academic purposes. amsterdam: rodopi. sengupta, s. (2003). “developing and evaluating a web-based resource for writing research articles”. assessment and evaluation in higher education 28: 489-504. shashok, k. (2001). “author’s editors: facilitators of science information transfer”. learned publishing 14: 113-121. shashok, k. (2008). “content and communication: how can peer review provide helpful feedback about the writing?” bmc medical research methodology 8: 3-11. suárez, l. & a.i. moreno (2008). “the rhetorical structure of literary academic book reviews: an english-spanish cross-linguistic approach” in u. connor, e. nagelhout & w. rozycki (eds.), contrastive rhetoric: reaching to intercultural rhetoric, 147-168. amsterdam: john benjamins. pilar mur dueñas is a lecturer at the universidad de zaragoza (spain). her research interests include genre analysis, corpus analysis, intercultural rhetoric and academic writing. she is a member of the research groups: interlae (inter personalidad en el lenguaje académico escrito at url: www.interlae.com) and eneida (equipo nacional de estudios interculturales sobre el discurso académico). notes 1 none of informants’ papers had been readily accepted or accepted upon minor revisions. 2 these include relevance of contribution, writing/presentation, design/conception, methods/statistics, discussion of results, reference to literature and documentation, theory, reputation or institutional affiliation of the authors, ethics. getting research published internationally ibérica 24 (2012): 139-156 155 iberica 13 ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146 issn 1139-7241 abstract interdiscursive collaborative construction of professional genres (bhatia, 2004 & 2010; bremner, 2006; smart, 2006) within the framework of “communities of practice” (lave & wenger, 1991) can be viewed as a useful instrument for developing writing expertise to initiate novice writers into the conventions of corporate writing. drawing on evidence from public relations (pr) writing contexts in hong kong, the paper focuses on the dynamics of participation in collaborative pr practice and on the deconstruction of the collaborative process as evidenced in the deconstruction of various drafts (from brainstorming to the final product) and through the perceptions of some of the key pr practitioners in the industry. the paper will have implications for our understanding of interdiscursivity in genre theory (bhatia, 2010) and for the collaborative writing process within the academy as well as in the workplace. keywords: interdiscursive collaboration, genre theory, community of practice, writing, public relations. resumen c ol a b ora c i ón i nte r di s c u rs iv a e n e l ámb i to d e l a s re l a c io ne s pú bl ic a s la construcción de los géneros profesionales mediante la colaboración interdiscursiva (bhatia, 2004 y 2010; bremner, 2006; smart, 2006) en el marco de las “comunidades de práctica” (lave y wenger, 1991) puede entenderse como un instrumento útil gracias al cual es posible desarrollar cierta experiencia en los procesos de escritura iniciando a los escritores noveles en las convenciones de la escritura corporativa. basándose en las evidencias obtenidas en el ámbito de la escritura en el contexto de las relaciones públicas en hong kong, el presente interdiscursive collaboration in public relations contexts1 vijay k. bhatia, rodney h. jones, stephen bremner and anne peirsonsmith city university of hong kong (china) vjkbhatia1@gmail.com, enrodney@gmail.com, stephenb@cityu.edu.hk, enanneps@cityu.edu.hk 127 ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146 v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. peirson-smith trabajo se centra en la dinámica de participación en la práctica colaborativa en dicho ámbito así como en la deconstrucción del proceso colaborativo tal y como se demuestra en la deconstrucción de diversos borradores (desde la tormenta de ideas inicial hasta que se obtiene el producto final) y mediante las percepciones de algunos de los expertos clave en el sector de las relaciones públicas. el presente trabajo tendrá repercusiones en lo que respecta a nuestra comprensión de la interdiscursividad en la teoría de géneros (bhatia, 2010) y al proceso de escritura tanto en el ámbito académico como ocupacional. palabras clave: colaboración interdiscursiva, teoría de géneros, comunidad de práctica, escritura, relaciones públicas. introduction professional discourse, particularly in public relations (pr) contexts, often presents significant challenges for the development of writing expertise in the academy. recent research in critical genre theory (bhatia, 2004 & 2010; bremner, 2006 & 2010; smart, 2006) indicates that part of the reason for some of the difficulties could be attributed to lack of understanding of the real nature of professional discourse as an interdiscursive collaborative phenomenon rather than a simple exercise in discursive construction of professional genres as such. drawing on some of the research findings from a larger project on collaborative writing in the creative communication industry in hong kong, this paper identifies two related aspects of discursive practices in public relations contexts, that is “interdiscursivity” (as used in bhatia, 2010) and the process of interdiscursive collaboration, and illustrates how these discursive processes are used to achieve professional goals in public relations companies in hong kong. the study will have implications for developing writing expertise to initiate novice writers into the conventions of corporate writing, particularly in pr contexts. the evidence comes from public relations writing contexts in hong kong, particularly from the analyses of various drafts and the finished products, interdiscursive collaborative contributions by the participants involved in specific public relations tasks, and interviews with experienced pr professionals in several hong kong pr firms. more generally, the paper brings into focus some of the important contributing factors and processes to the construction of specialist pr genres, with particular emphasis on the dynamics of participation in collaborative pr practice, highlighting the complexities of the collaborative process at work, and compares them with what goes on in the academy. 128 design of the study as briefly mentioned above, data for the study comes from an ethnographic investigation conducted over two years (2008-2010) focusing on the perceptions of pr managers in hong kong regarding their use of english in the pr industry. the aim was to use some of the key aspects of what geertz (1973) called interpretative ethnography, as demonstrated in smart’s (1998a, 1998b & 2006) doctoral work, where he studied professional banking practices in a canadian bank. we decided to use those ethnographic procedures that we thought would make it possible for us to understand and describe what was happening in professional contexts in a range of pr firms in hong kong. the procedures used were extensive semi-structured interviews of key professionals in the pr industry, participant-in-action observations, discourse and genre analyses of documents (drafts as well as finished products), researcher diaries, etc., all of which allowed us to get involved in several pr research sites through observation and participation, and to produce what geertz (1973: 3) calls a “thick description” of how professionals perform their day-to-day tasks, which also provided us with opportunities to catch professionals in action at specific moments in time and space, and understand their practice. the data comprised several hour-long open-ended interviews with more than 15 pr executives working in 10 public relations firms (six small and medium-sized firms, and four large multinationals established in hong kong and the asian region). the 15 pr executives, who made available their narratives of experience in the pr industry, consisted of both local hong kong chinese (6) and expatriates from england, australia and north america (9). the interview data were transcribed and analyzed in order to identify some of the important themes emerging from their perceptions. we also conducted follow-up interviews to seek their clarifications, wherever considered necessary. in the course of the investigation, a research assistant was also placed as an intern in some of these firms for a period of three months each, during which time she conducted participant observation, collected texts related to the campaigns in which she was involved, recorded various formal and informal interactions in the workplace, and kept a detailed reflective diary about her experiences and her ongoing socialization into the corporate cultures of the companies in which she was placed. this ethnographic data was supplemented by more formal interviews with various staff working in interdiscursive collaboration in pr contexts ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146 129 these firms, including senior managers, novice copywriters and consultants. one of the reasons for undertaking this study was to investigate the real nature of writing practices in the pr industry as compared with what was happening in the academy, especially in professional communication classrooms2. we thought that it would be interesting to compare the pedagogical context with the real professional context in the workplace in which students are often required to perform in professional communication activities. over the years we had discovered that the pedagogical tasks in the academy resulted in incoherent and fragmented texts as a result of the requirement of equal efforts on the part of participating students, which often lead to unequal contributions. moreover, there was little perception of learning among participants, as most of them treated communication tasks as part of an assessment exercise. compared to this, the professional pr context appeared to be very different, in that, it clearly indicated that unequal rights in pr contexts lead to equal contributions; often the complete drafting being done by one individual with frequent use of templates, which are positively discouraged in the academy because of concerns about plagiarism. unlike collaborative writing tasks in the academy, there was a conscious effort on the part of senior pr executives to encourage learning from collaboration. we shall now give substance to these claims by discussing some of the key findings of the study focusing on the interdiscursive nature of pr discourse and its collaborative construction, with particular emphasis on the collaborative process, its creativity, the use of templates, and revision as a learning process. key findings interdiscursivity in pr discourse professional discourse is generally rich in interdiscursivity (bhatia, 2008, 2010 & 2012). writing in the professions, especially in pr contexts, is essentially an interdiscursive phenomenon, which takes place in sociopragmatic space (bhatia, 2010) where professional identities and, more specifically, public relations are negotiated through a dynamic range of professional genres in order to achieve specific professional goals and objectives. one of the reasons for this interdiscursive character of professional writing seems to be the consequence of widespread v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. peirson-smith ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146130 collaboration within and across specific communities of practice (faigley & miller, 1982; ede & lunsford, 1985 & 1990; freedman & adam, 1996). colen and petelin (2004: 136) rightly point out that “[c]ollaborative writing is pervasive in the contemporary corporate workplace. north american research reports that nine out of ten business professionals produce some of their documents as part of a team”. in the pr industry this kind of collaborative effort involves a variety of clients and pr specialists in a specific firm, at one level, and within a specific firm itself, different members of the team are involved in the designing and writing of a particular document. this aspect of interdiscursive collaboration in the construction of pr genres, whether they are company and client meetings, advertisements, press releases, web designs, or proposals seems to be a reflection of bakhtin’s (1991) assertion that all texts are essentially heteroglossic in nature. like bakhtin, kristeva (1980) also believed that all texts are constructed from preceding and anticipated texts, and every new text negotiates the textual voices of others before it. in a similar manner, foucault (1972) also maintains that texts are the consequence of what he calls discursive formations, which is echoed in fairclough (1995), where he claims that interdiscursivity highlights the normal heterogeneity of texts in being constituted by combinations of diverse genres and discourses transforming the past or prior texts into the present. scollon (2001) also reiterates that the combination of genres, registers, situations and communities of practice are appropriated as significant aspects of mediated action. more recently, bhatia (2010) provides a comprehensive view of interdiscursivity in genre theory, especially in the context of professional genre, viewing it as creative appropriation or manipulation of prior formulations of discursive actions within and across professional practices and cultures to construct new and creative forms of professional genres. collaboration in the pr industry collaboration in the pr industry is both involvement and disengagement that largely depends on one’s ability to work in a team. the industry seems to put a high premium on teamwork because it is an important aspect of the discursive process in this industry, which often runs on a tight schedule. a senior executive from a medium-sized pr company3, talking about the importance of teamwork has this to say on the termination of an employee: because … the gentleman ... who worked on one of ... the last speeches with interdiscursive collaboration in pr contexts ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146 131 our … client, eh was working with this for nine months, and then in the end i decided to terminate ... his contract. and i would say third of the reason for that termination was the inability to work within the team. he continued, we really need … everyone to be able to work together … and … [be] constructively critical ... of everyone’s output. i suppose in that sense we’re sort of quite flat in terms of the … structure of the organization … teamwork is also important because it brings into focus different kinds of abilities that participants have which contribute to the discursive process in an efficient way. another senior executive from a medium-sized pr company points out: … in terms of the whole collaborative process … you can get … too close to the document. you start missing things … you know you’ve been working on it … for example, in terms of style…my writing style … tend to be sort of quite long sentences. the words are fine, but that’s long sentences. and we all have our little talents and … we need to … put it through a hot wash. so … everything is ... extremely collaborative and ... we might … at a certain point, if someone’s not been working on the document at all, that’s quite useful by the time you get to draft … ten ... depending on what the client wants. one thing specifically distinctive about teamwork in the pr industry that is remarkably different from teamwork in the academy is the nature and extent of credit given to individual participants in the team. as mentioned earlier, teamwork in the academy works on some kind of democratic principle, that every member is expected to contribute equally to the collaborative process and to get equal credit, partly due to the fact that the discursive task is viewed as part of an assessment process. in the pr industry, on the other hand, it is never a question of who does what and how much; it is important to finish the job effectively to turn it into a pragmatic success. another senior executive of a pr firm highlighted the nature of partnership in the collaborative process as follows, particularly looking at who contributes what at what point: it definitely won’t be one person writing one section, because the writing style of each person is different. combining different people’s work may produce something very strange. combining the writings may need more v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. peirson-smith ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146132 time than writing the drafts all by oneself … we will first hold a meeting to discuss ... make sure we agree on the direction, or highlighting points ... that is the key points of the content ... and then one person will write the drafts. another pr executive from a large international firm reiterates this in the following manner. it’s hard to tell who generated the original idea because we had had too many brainstorming meetings. sometimes it might be that someone else has suggested an idea, which is not adapted but it inspired me to come up with another idea. in that case i still give the credit to the one who inspired me… but everyone is involved in it. it is interesting to note that in the academy, collaboration takes a very different form. there is always an expectation of equal participation by all members of the group because of the nature of assessment associated with such tasks. although the task is labelled as a group project, the assessment is often individual, which strangely enough results in fragmented texts, which is not the case in real life professional contexts. creativity in pr discourse another important aspect of interdiscursive collaboration in pr discourse is its creativity, which again is rather different from creativity in other kinds of writing, for instance, in literary works. in pr discourse, it is not simply a property of the text or the end product; more importantly, it is a function of the collaborative social processes, the discursive tools employed, the kind of social relationships that facilitate them, and the ways novices are socialized into these creative discursive actions (jones et al., 2012). the process of collaborative and creative construction of pr documents, including company and client meetings, promotional texts, press releases, podcasts, and proposals, involves a large number of interrelated texts. creativity lies in the way these texts are integrated and reframed to achieve a particular kind of communicative objective often through brainstorming in smaller groups, researching various aspects of audience uptake, in an attempt to construct press releases, writing speeches, arranging appearances on talk shows, developing case studies, and assembling press kits (aronson, spetner & ames, 2007). creative collaboration in pr writing is thus a matter of how multiple texts are jointly coordinated to accomplish a particular set of goals within individual campaigns (aronson, spetner & ames, 2007). interdiscursive collaboration in pr contexts ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146 133 individual texts thus are not necessarily seen as creative in themselves, as is most often seen in academic contexts, but are viewed as creative if and when they contribute to the objectives of the pr activity. in other words, texts are seen as parts of “coordinated (and) purposeful actions” (reddi, 2009: 400) designed to solve particular problems and meet particular overall objectives. creativity is located not so much in the discursive products as in the coordinated actions through which different kinds of discursive products are crafted and deployed in different ways during the course of a campaign. use of templates one of the interesting issues that surprised us most in the discursive actions of pr specialists was its use of what they referred to as templates, or what jones et al. (2012: 154) call “discourses in place”. in all of the firms we studied, the creation of texts, whether they were proposals, press releases, speeches or brochures, was often based on previously used templates. as one account executive in a medium-sized firm put it: if some text can be reused, then we reuse it. we may just change some of the information like the name or background of the clients, because what the clients want is sometimes very similar. for proposals, we may only have to change the services information and the budget. if it’s a press release, we sometimes just need to update the facts and figures. it was interesting to note that pr companies normally work with two rather different kinds of support they seem to get from earlier discourses, which the pr professionals call “templates” and “boilerplates”. “templates”, for them refer to the rhetorical frameworks already used by the company for a specific construction of genre, which can be reused in subsequent exercises of the same kind or genre with modifications, additions of new content, whereas “boilerplates” refer to items of content, which can be reused, or often provided by the clients, which can be inserted in the framework with necessary adjustments. it may be pointed out that nearly all the standard genres that a pr writer is generally engaged in have a template which gives them the rhetorical framework that he or she has to work within, and which underpins the usefulness and efficacy of the genre framework (swales, 1990; bhatia, 1993 & 2004) that has been so very popular in most forms of esp work. in most instances of the discursive construction in pr contexts that we had the occasion to study, we found that appropriateness of the available v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. peirson-smith ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146134 template was almost taken for granted; it was only a matter of pulling out the right one from the repository of such rhetorical forms that every pr company seemed to have. when asked about the frequent use of templates, a senior executive of a pr form said: templates are like ... the logo of a company or brand. when people receive that template, they know instantly that it is from mercedes benz. there is some information that we always put at the beginning or particular part(s) of the writings, people who get used to receiving our press releases will know instantly that the writing is from mercedes benz. it can also save their time because they know exactly where to find what information. the main reason for the use of templates is to save time but, perhaps more importantly, to stay consistent. it is interesting to note that in the corporate world there seem to be templates for every type of writing and they rarely hesitate to reuse them wherever possible, often updating facts and figures, if and when required. he continues, citing press releases as an example. normally you do not have to draft the press release because the client has already sent you the information. what you need to do is just to modify the information a bit and present it in a press release format. in this case, the “press release format” normally used by this firm acted as the template within which the boilerplate provided by the client was inserted. templates, on the other hand, almost always come from the firm and constitute an important part of the firm’s discursive culture, heritage and branding. the purpose of templates is not just to assist the firm in producing texts more efficiently, but also to assist readers, especially media professionals, in using these texts more effectively as genre. as one senior account executive put it: our templates are like our company brand. when people get stuff from us, they know instantly what to do with it. there’s some information, for instance, that we always put at the beginning or in particular parts of the text. people who get used to receiving our press releases will know instantly where to find what information. some companies make templates and boilerplates, in the form of previously authored press releases, proposals and other texts, available to employees online through secure servers or on shared hard drives. a senior manager of a large multinational firm described his company’s practices like this: interdiscursive collaboration in pr contexts ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146 135 so for example if you’re trying to put together a new business proposal, basically you just log on and you can download every case study that (name of firm) has ever done on that kind of product or service and just dump the information into your own presentation without having to ask somebody or put out a mass email, and that’s being constantly updated with every single thing that comes out of this firm, and we have dedicated people who’re actually managing these resources to make sure they’re being built up and that the right resources are easy to find. nearly all the practitioners we talked to, however, cautioned us against assuming that the appropriation of previously written texts or previously designed templates was either easy or uncreative. it involves, they told us, complex practices of decision making which include not just selecting the best texts to appropriate but also adapting them in creative ways to fit new products or new goals. the same senior manager quoted above, for example, said: when you’re writing something, you should never have to start from scratch, so you have to start by thinking, right, what have we done before that’s applicable here? if the objective is to launch a new car in china you might actually find that the proposal that we did to launch a new plane in china is the most appropriate template, or if it is to launch a regional line of mobile phones, we actually launched a regional line of enterprise software which might actually be a good fit, right? so all that stuff ’s up there, and readily available to everybody, so the key issue is deciding which document is most like the one you are about to write. a manager from another firm emphasized that creativity requires reusing previously written materials in a “good way”. “to a certain extent, this can be a challenge to your writing skills”, she said. “you can’t simply copy-andpaste. you have to think about the effective pitching angle”. one major theme that ran through our discussions and observations, was that creative texts were not much use without a good creative idea at the foundation of a given campaign, and good ideas that addressed particular goals for particular clients at particular points in time were much more difficult to reuse. one manager said, “sometimes people would go and cut and paste something and they would get it wrong, because they’re not only cutting and pasting the structure and the content but also the creative idea, which you know, may not be appropriate for every context”. another described creative processes as existing in a kind of hierarchy: v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. peirson-smith ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146136 it’s sort of the hierarchy of creativity right? so, at the top is the campaign theme and it has to be something clever, twisted or it makes the target audience think about something differently and behave differently, and then below that are the creative tactics, and then below that there’s the creative content which often involves doing things that are actually fairly ordinary, so what determines whether something is creative at the bottom of the food chain depends on that central strategic or interesting thing that’s decided at the top. in fact, we often observed, especially in small and medium-sized firms, these hierarchal dyads developing into mentoring relationships in which the focus of the superior’s feedback was as much on developing the junior staff member’s writing ability as on improving the draft. an entry in our research assistant’s reflective diary describes one such relationship like this: in this meeting, (supervisor’s name) and i sat down together to talk about the changes he made on the draft, and he explained the reasons why he had made these changes. he gave many useful suggestions and comments … in terms of language use, he focused a lot on the words, pointing out which words i had been overusing and suggesting some more specific words … as for content, he added several constructive suggestions in the ‘notes to editors’ of the press release. he also gave positive feedback and encouraging comments, “i was so happy and impressed by this. if i had to grade this, i would give it an a+!” of course, such relationships do not always grow out of the hierarchical face systems associated with the drafting process. the managing director of a medium-sized firm, for example, related her past experiences working in much less successful hierarchal dyads: i’ve worked for pr bosses who ask you to write a press release and seem to take great delight in telling you that it sucks without indicating how it can be improved and then you go through endless rounds of time wasting trying to get it right until the deadline looms and the boss does it himself scrapping all of your work. but even worse, the release then goes to the client who sends it back full of edits and nasty comments about it being useless and then your boss blames you again and you’re back at the start of a time wasting cycle. so it’s not like because you are more senior so you don’t have to draft … no, this is not my style. because i have worked in agencies before, i don’t like this kind of hierarchy. i think it should be teamwork. we all work together to serve the clients. we are more result-oriented. with less hierarchy, our co-operation is better. interdiscursive collaboration in pr contexts ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146 137 discursive process we now look at the actual writing process through the drafts of an intended press release from one of the medium-sized pr firms. although they seem to have a good idea of the rhetorical form – that is, the template, the content or what is referred to as boilerplate, needs to be worked out. in most cases, it starts off with a brainstorming session involving all the members of the team, including the senior and the very junior ones. we shall consider three of the ten drafts actually constructed at various stages, to illustrate what goes on as part of the discursive process. the first illustration (see appendix 1) comes from the second brainstorming meeting based on the notes from one of the members. although we do not find anything of substance here, it demonstrates how some of these tasks begin from scratch. a few drafts later, the document starts giving shape to some parts of the boilerplates, which is given in appendix 2. even here, the information is somewhat sketchy and we do not find any clear indication of the expected rhetorical form at this stage. however, this draft is significant in that the senior team member starts giving detailed feedback on the draft submitted by the team. as we can see the feedback is typically in the form of handwritten notes on the printed draft, and not through track changes on the marked up electronic versions. the main purpose of such feedback from the senior member is to make learning a priority, rather than just the revision of the draft. the senior member (chief executive) of the pr firm confirms this when he points out: well, ... i … believe … in using any … revision process as a … sort of educational process as well. … i’ve worked in other consultancies where the editing process is done by an email or file transfer from one person to another. and …you can do it by a track change ... in a pressured environment of … a pr firm where time is often quite tight … if i were just to edit it on a screen, email it back, generally … your subordinate will just go accept changes. after several subsequent drafts, the expected final shape emerges using the standard template, which is indicated in the version in appendix 3. revision as educational process feedback by the teacher in academic contexts is often seen as part of the assessment process, and is rarely seen or used as educational process, which v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. peirson-smith ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146138 could be attributed to the time pressure and other classroom constraints on the teacher and the attitude of students who often view teachers as assessors in such tasks. in pr contexts, on the other hand, in spite of the constraints of time and the unlimited number of drafts involved, feedback is often seen as a learning opportunity for junior participants who value such opportunities for learning the genre in question, especially the use of lexicogrammar favoured in expert communication. let us look at an example of the use of lexico-grammar in the specialised pr genre (changes highlighted in italics): revision: example china resources property limited: strategy plan for harbour road garden draft crpl will work closely with lcsd and assure the quality of maintenance and management is above standard after the revitalisation project is completed. the new garden will be a better design and equipped leisure space to serve the needs of wan chai residents and workers. revision crpl will work closely with lcsd and assure the highest quality of maintenance and management is above standard after the revitalisation project is completed. the new garden will be a better, more modern open design and equipped with pleasant leisure space to serve the needs of wanchai residents and crpl building tenants and adjacent office workers. the concern and value of such revision work is highlighted in the statement from the chief executive of a medium-sized pr firm quoted earlier. concluding remarks considering the pr industry as a key site of engagement to study what lave and wenger (1991: 89) call “legitimate peripheral participation” in a “community of practice”, this paper has made an attempt to underpin “interdiscursivity” in collaborative discursive actions of a number of pr firms from hong kong. the discursive process often takes place in a relaxed and collegial environment where employees at various levels put their efforts together as a team to brainstorm the basics and to discuss content as input to the chosen template for the textual genre in question. the study clearly interdiscursive collaboration in pr contexts ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146 139 demonstrates the interdiscursive character of pr discourse, whether it is an advertisement, a press release, a podcast or a proposal. every genre in question goes through a rather critical and creative cycle of discursive acts, often based on rhetorical forms (templates) used by the firm on earlier occasions and reused in order to save time and effort and also as the logo or brand identity of the firm. the creativity in pr discourse comes not necessarily from new content but from the complex practices of decision making which include not just selecting the best texts to appropriate but also adapting them in creative ways to fit new products or new goals. the study also demonstrates the nature of collaboration in pr contexts, which seems to be very different from what happens in a similar activity within the academy. in the academic context, we often believe in equal contribution from all the participants, sometimes on all aspects of collaboration, which leads to fragmented texts, as they are written by several people and then put together; whereas in the workplace, though everyone is involved in brainstorming the content of the genre, often only one person is given the task of drafting the text, and others come back to it to offer their critical and constructive comments during its multiple drafts before it is finalized after careful editing. it is often difficult for participants to offer critical and constructive comments to other participants in academic contexts. collaborative exercise in the workplace is also different from that in the academy in another respect. whereas group work as part of a curriculum is most often seen as an assessment task, and hence very little learning takes place through such collaborative actions, collaboration in the pr industry is essentially seen as learning, where feedback on drafts is often critical and constructive in handwritten form, because the idea is to improve on the draft and often one has to go through several rounds of drafts. collaboration in the pr context we have seen was both involvement and disengagement, in the sense that though everyone is supposed to participate in the discursive act, that is, in the writing of complete drafts, they are involved in the process of selecting content, and then again in the form of detached constructive as well as critical feedback. besides, this study highlights one of the most important and crucial challenges facing present-day pedagogy, that is, the issue of plagiarism in professional and academic assessment. as we noticed, the workplace relies heavily on the use and reuse of established templates; however, in academic contexts, any borrowing or appropriation of content and its use in academic v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. peirson-smith ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146140 assessment is considered negative and hence dispreferred. neither of these views is incorrect. the truth of the matter seems to be that interdiscursive appropriation, which includes reframing, reformulating, and recontextualizing, is a desirable skill and should form a necessary part of most academic writing curricula or professional training programmes. any form of legitimate appropriation, as discussed in the earlier sections of this paper, should become an important and desirable skill as part of academic training and should focus on giving credit to other voices wherever necessary. finally, the study also contributes to our understanding of interdiscursivity in genre theory, especially in the context of professional discourse, which unfortunately is one of the less explored areas of genre theory. [paper received 05 july 2012] [revised paper accepted 16 december 2012] references interdiscursive collaboration in pr contexts ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146 141 aronson, m., d. spetner & c. ames (2007). the public relations writer’s handbook, san francisco: jossey-bass. bakhtin, m.m. (1991). the dialogic imagination: four essays. austin: university of texas press. bhatia, v.k. (1993). analysing genre: language use in professional settings. london: longman. bhatia, v.k. (2004). worlds of written discourse: a genre-based view. london: continuum. bhatia, v.k. (2008). “towards critical genre analysis” in v.k. bhatia, j. flowerdew & r. jones (eds.), advances in discourse studies, 166-177. new york: routledge. bhatia, v.k. (2010). “interdiscursivity in professional communication”. discourse and communication 21: 32-50. bhatia, v.k. (2012). “critical reflections on genre analysis”. ibérica, 24: 17-28. bremner, s. (2006). the construction of workplace writing: texts, contexts and interaction in an academic administration. unpublished phd dissertation, city university of hong kong. url: http://lbms03.cityu.edu.hk/theses/abt/phd-enb2107091xa.pdf [01/02/13] bremner, s. (2010). “collaborative writing: bridging the gap between the textbook and the workplace”. english for specific purposes 29: 121132. colen, k. & r. petelin (2004). “challenges in collaborative writing in the contemporary corporation”. corporate communications 9: 136145. ede, l. & a. lunsford (1985). “let them write together”. english quarterly 18: 119-27. ede, l. & a. lunsford (1990). singular texts/plural authors: perspectives on collaborative writing. carbondale, il: southern illinois university press. faigley, l. & t.p. miller (1982). “what we can learn from writing on the job”. college english 44: 557569. fairclough, n. (1995). critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. new york: longman. freedman, a. & c. adam (1996). “learning to write professionally ‘situated learning’ and the transition from university to professional discourse”. journal of business and technical communication 10: 395-427. foucault, m. (1972). the archaeology of knowledge. new york: pantheon books. geertz, c. (1973). the interpretation of cultures. new york: basic books. glaser, b.g. & a.l. strauss (1967). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies of qualitative research. new york: aldine de gruyter. vijay k. bhatia has research interests in genre analysis of academic and professional discourses in legal, business, newspaper, advertising contexts. he has widely published in all these areas as research articles, books chapters, edited volumes, and individually written books. two of his books analysing genre: language use in professional settings (longman, 1993) and worlds of written discourse: a genre-based view (continuum, 2004), are widely used by researchers in genre theory and practice. some of his recent research projects include analyzing genre-bending in corporate disclosure documents, and international arbitration practice: a discourse analytical study. in which he leads research teams from more than 20 countries. rodney h. jones is associate professor of english at city university of hong kong. his research interests include mediated and multimodal discourse analysis, intercultural communication,  and health communication.  he is co-author (with ron and suzanne scollon) of intercultural communication: a discourse approach, 3rd edition (wiley, 2011), coauthor (with christoph hafner) of understanding digital literacies: a practical introduction (routledge, 2012), and author of discourse analysis: a resource book for students (routledge, 2012) and health and risk communication: an applied linguistic perspective (routledge, 2013). stephen bremner works in the department of english at city university of hong kong, where he teaches courses relating to professional communication. his main research interest is workplace writing, in particular the processes surrounding the construction of texts, and the ways in which students make the transition from the academy to the workplace. v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. peirson-smith ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146142 jones, r.h., v.k. bhatia, s. bremner & a. peirsonsmith, (2012). “creative collaboration in the public relations industry” in r.h. jones (ed.), discourse and creativity, 148-172. harlow: pearson education. kristeva, j. (1980). “word, dialogue and novel” in j. kristeva (ed.), desire in language, 64-91. oxford: blackwell. lave j., & e. wenger. (1991). situated learninglegitimate peripheral participation. cambridge: cambridge university press. reddi, v.v.n. (2009). effective public relations and media strategy, new delhi: phi learning pvt. scollon, r. (2001). mediated discourse: the nexus of practice. london: routledge. smart, g. (1998a). “mapping conceptual worlds: using interpretive ethnography to explore knowledge-making in a professional community”. the journal of business communication 35: 111127. smart, g. (1998b). knowledge-making in a central bank: the interplay of writing and economic modeling. unpublished ph.d. dissertation. mcgill university, montreal. url: http://wac.colostate. edu/books/selves_societies/smart/ [01/02/13] smart, g. (2006). writing the economy: activity genre and technology in the world of banking london: equinox. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. anne peirson-smith, phd is an assistant professor in the department of english, city university of hong kong. she teaches and researches fashion culture and communication, popular culture, public relations, advertising and branding and has published various articles in these areas. she has also recently co-authored a book, public relations in asia pacific: communicating beyond cultures (wiley, 2009). notes 1 the paper draws extensively on the work done under an rgc, hksar funded gre project (no. 9041281), led by dr. rodney h. jones, and entitled collaborative writing in the creative communication industries: professional and pedagogical perspectives. 2 the academic context is the ba degree in “english for professional communication at the city university of hong kong and many of the students after completing their degree are employed in the pr industry in hong kong. on this programme, the students are required to do a two-semester attachment to outside companies working on their projects, which often involve professional communication work, many of them in the pr industry. 3 all the perceptions of pr executives variously quoted in this study have been anonymised to protect the identities of various firms and their employees. interdiscursive collaboration in pr contexts ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146 143 appendix 1: notes from the second brainstorming meeting. v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. peirson-smith ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146144 v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. pierson-smith ibérica 25 (2013): …-… appendix 1: notes from the second brainstorming meeting. appendix 2: notes from subsequent drafts. interdiscursive collaboration in pr contexts ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146 145 interdiscursive collaboration in pr contexts ibérica 25 (2013): …-… appendix 2: notes from subsequent drafts. appendix 3: final text using the standard template. v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. peirson-smith ibérica 25 (2013): 127-146146 v.k. bhatia, r.h. jones, s. bremner & a. pierson-smith ibérica 25 (2013): …-… appendix 3: final text using the standard template. iberica 13 ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper provides an example of a thorough needs analysis previous to the syllabus planning of a business english (be) course at a catalan university. three types of sources for linguistic needs are considered. firstly, the institutional foreign language (fl) policy of the university, which requires a cefr level b1 for all graduates. secondly, students’ needs, collected through an entry test and a self-report questionnaire, which provide statistical evidence of the effect of experience abroad and number of years studying english on results of the entry test and perceptions of their own reading skills. lastly, the opinions of six local business people representing the main sectors with international activity in the area of influence of the university. these business representatives, gathered in a focus-group discussion session, emphasize the importance of comprehension skills and accuracy in be lexical selection for international business. the triangulation of these data reveals the need to enhance communicative efficiency in business routine tasks in the be syllabus, instead of promoting approaches oriented towards native-speaker models. finally, inconsistencies are revealed between institutional and business representatives’ expectations regarding students’ fl target level. keywords: needs analysis, business english, internationalization, higher education. resumen i nte r na c i ona l i z ac i ón d e l a c o mu ni c ac i ón e n e l ing l é s d e l o s n e g oc i os : un a ná l i s is de ne c e s id ad e s a tre s ni v e l e s este artículo ofrece un ejemplo de un exhaustivo análisis de necesidades previo a la planificación de un curso de inglés empresarial en una universidad catalana. internationalization of business english communication at university: a threefold needs analysis guzman mancho-barés and enric llurda universitat de lleida (spain) gmancho@dal.udl.cat & ellurda@dal.udl.cat 151 ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170 g. mancho-barés & e. llurda las necesidades se han establecido a partir de tres tipos de fuentes. en primer lugar, la política institucional de la universidad en lo que se refiere a lenguas extranjeras, para las cuales se requiere un nivel de b1 según las directrices del mcerl para todos los graduados. en segundo lugar, las necesidades de los estudiantes, recogidas a partir de un test de entrada y de un cuestionario, que proporcionan evidencia estadística del efecto de haber realizado estancias en el extranjero y también del número de años estudiando inglés en los resultados del test y en las percepciones acerca de sus propias habilidades. finalmente, las opiniones de seis empresarios representantes de los principales sectores con actividad internacional en el área de influencia de la universidad. los representantes empresariales, reunidos en un grupo de discusión, enfatizan la importancia de las habilidades receptivas así como de la corrección en la selección del léxico específico para llevar a cabo actividades empresariales a nivel internacional. la triangulación de estos datos revela la necesidad de potenciar en el programa de inglés empresarial la eficiencia comunicativa en situaciones comerciales, en lugar de promover un enfoque orientado al modelo de hablante nativo. finalmente, se muestran algunas discrepancias entre las expectativas institucionales y las de los representantes empresariales en lo que se refiere al nivel de competencia adecuado. palabras clave: análisis de necesidades, inglés para negocios, internacionalización, educación superior. 1. introduction the indisputable dominant role of english in higher education institutions (hei) and businesses is experienced all over the world. in spain, however, the percentage of citizens who can speak english is very low as compared to other european countries (european commission, 2012). research around the world confirms that english is an intrinsic part of communication in a wide range of international settings, both at universities (coleman, 2006; graddol, 2006) and in businesses (louhialasalminen, charles & kankaanranta, 2005; rogerson-revell, 2007; ehrenreich, 2010). universities have progressively internationalized their curricula so as to increase the number of international students, and to increase local students’ foreign language (fl) command (doiz, lasagabaster & sierra, 2011). in turn, multinational corporations have also progressively adopted english as the corporate lingua franca with the objective of becoming more competitive and more visible in the business world (truchot, 2002). 152 in order to shed more light on these phenomena, a closer look at institutional, pedagogical and professional ins and outs is necessary. do universities have specific linguistic policies regarding the internationalization of their curriculum? what do prospective employers think about business students’ need of english? how do stakeholders justify the need of english for professional career development in business? what type of english is it that is used in business courses at university and while doing international business interactions? this article aims to provide a needs analysis about the teaching and learning of business english (be) in the business studies degree offered at the spanish university of lleida (udl), taking into account the role of business english as a lingua franca (belf) in international commercial transactions. it takes into account all relevant stakeholders: the institution, the students and the businesses in the city of lleida and its area of influence. by using a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, we explore how these stakeholders shape the process of needs analysis, and how their views on english have an impact on the syllabus design of be. therefore, we aim to study the following issues: 1. the role of fl learning in the university policy documentation 2. the level of competence of business students in english when they begin the be course 3. the recommendations given by local business experts about be needs and belf all in all, this article aims at complementing existing research on be needs analysis. 2. needs analysis it is commonplace to present needs analysis as a cornerstone of english for specific purposes (esp) syllabus design. hutchinson and waters (1987) and dudley-evans and st. john (1998) bestow needs analysis a prominent place in the sequence of course design due to the very nature of esp as a focused, learner’s need-oriented type of course. in fact, one important difference between an efl syllabus and an esp syllabus within a hei is the lack of previous thorough needs analysis of the former, leading into what abbot internationalization of business english communication ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170 153 (1981) has termed a tenor situation, acronym for “teaching english for no obvious reason”. defining “needs analysis” is a problematic issue. chambers (1980: 28), after an exercise of linguistic analysis of the term “needs analysis”, concludes that “if needs analysis does not mean the analysis of needs, then it must refer to analysing in order to establish needs, i.e., what one needs to know”. the learner is a pivotal element for s/he has gained attention as point of reference for needs analysis: specifically learners’ wants and lacks and how they accommodate when a language program is implemented (allwright, 1982). additionally, thanks to the broadening of linguistic analysis to include disciplines such as sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and other crossdisciplinary approaches to language and communication, current pedagogical needs include not only the language in “target situations” (that is, functions and form), but also the “dynamic and strategic competencies needed to effect, maintain or change roles and relations within particular contexts or domains of discourse” (tajino, james & kijima, 2005: 29). we side with the opinion that be is a specific variety of esp that “is often a mix of specific content (relating to a particular job area or industry), and general content (relating to general ability to communicate more effectively, albeit in business situations)” (ellis & johnson, 1994: 3). this definition urges the needs analyst to do research on be trainee(s) to find out their particular sector and department, and the most likely business target situations in which s/he will be using english (frendo, 2005). in the event that a be training program is found at a hei, as is our case, we believe that such a program can stop being a tenor program, and its syllabus can reflect not only institutional needs, and students’ language needs, but also actual business needs of insider local stakeholders, all the more important because these professionals may become be students’ prospective employers. 3. hei internationalization and belf the university of lleida (udl) is a bilingual hei in the catalan-speaking area of spain. this hei is not an exception of the process of university internationalization in europe. in fact, its policy-focused white papers (internationalization plan 20061, teaching policy plan 20072, language policy plan 20083, action plan of internationalization 20124) aim at providing guidelines to g. mancho-barés & e. llurda ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170154 curriculum and syllabus designers about how degrees could internationalize their curricula by implementing either fl medium instruction or lsp tuition. this trend is common in other non-english speaking heis (wätcher & maiworm, 2008), and is justified because of the interest of language learning as a result of the process of internationalization. in fact, language learning is an important milestone of the new european higher education area, as mentioned in the bologna declaration5. as a result, heis in nonenglish speaking countries undergo a process of “englishization” (coleman, 2006), as a way to compete with the major english-speaking universities in the attraction of international students (graddol, 2006), and the preparation of local students for a global market (doiz, lasagabaster & sierra, 2011). this process that has been labelled as “internationalization at home” (wätcher, 2003). therefore, english-medium instruction (emi) is growing in european universities, with the number of programs exclusively offered in this language rapidly increasingly (wätcher & maiworm, 2008), even in contexts where there is a long esp tradition (fortanet-gómez & räisänen, 2008). such a trend may be justified by the importance that english appears to have in the performance of universities in international quality rankings. this has been shown by horta (2009), who claims that five out of the ten best positioned european universities in international rankings are based in the uk, and other three mainly use english as their language of instruction, in spite of being based in non-english speaking countries. only the remaining two predominantly use a language other than english (that is, french). resulting from the udl’s white papers mentioned above, curriculumdesigners opted for two compulsory esp courses in the new bolognaadapted business studies degree implemented since 2009-2010, thus preferring this option over emi. it is in this academic context that be instructors have set out a needs analysis for this subject, aiming at finding out the needs of future graduates as established by three stakeholder groups: (i) the institution and its policy regarding fl learning; (ii) students who are going to be the recipients of the be courses; and (iii) the representatives of the local exporting business sector in which graduates will need to look for employment opportunities. the needs analysis in this paper has included local business stakeholders’ opinions because, as stated by cowling (2007), professional insiders’ views and expertise provide valuable information and knowledge about specific occupational tasks, functions and language forms and usage. considering internationalization of business english communication ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170 155 that up to 90% of these international corporate communication contexts exclude native-speakers of english (pullin, 2010), we may conclude that those interactions are mostly conducted in belf, which was defined by louhiala-salminen, charles and kankaanranta (2005: 403-404) as follows: belf refers to english used as a ‘neutral’ and shared communication code. belf is neutral in the sense that none of the speakers can claim it as her/his mother tongue; it is shared in the sense that it is used for conducting business within the global business discourse community, whose members are belf users and communicators in their own right – not ‘non-native speakers’ or ‘learners’. research on (b)elf shows that communication may be successful (pullin, 2010), but using belf may also result in communication problems, typified by gerritsen and nickerson (2009) as lack of comprehensibility, cultural differences and stereotyped associations. it is also important to note how belf and, more generally, elf are characterized by a disregard of the english native speaker as the model, as their main goal is reaching international intelligibility among speakers of different first languages (seidlhofer, 2011). 4. methodology this study combines different sorts of data and analytic methods through a process of triangulation. we have followed a qualitative and a quantitative approach: the qualitative research is based on an inductive method, by which data provide the analytical categories; the quantitative approach is based on a deductive method in which the relationship of different variables may provide insights about the causes and their potential effects. with these principles as points of reference, this research analyzes these sources of data: university policy documentation; students’ data taken from an entry test from a commercial be textbook, and a self-report questionnaire on language command and experience as language-learners; and local stakeholders’ opinions obtained through a focus-group discussion session. the data derived from the focus group session were audio-recorded and transcribed. here are the details of the three types of data collected: a) documents: university policy documentation regarding englishmedium instruction and esp. g. mancho-barés & e. llurda ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170156 b) students’ data: entry test on be taken from a commercial textbook.6 c) self-report questionnaire consisting of one self-assessment grid of perceived cefr level (council of europe, 2001: 26-27); the selfassessment checklist of b1 level attainment in reading7; responses to a questionnaire asking be first year students (n=129) about their previous english learning experiences. d) focus group: one session with local business stakeholders representative of exporting local industries. 5. data analysis this section explores the data obtained from the analysis of the university language policy documentation, students’ data, and local business stakeholders’ view. the data are examined considering the institutional target level in fl competence, the be students’ language level and the role of belf in the syllabus-design process. moreover, we particularly focus on the udl as a case in point, with the goal of providing an epitome of what is currently happening in many other universities in similar bilingual contexts, in which the two local languages have to make room for english, the current international lingua franca. 5.1. udl’s language policy since 2006, the udl has issued white papers which aim at implementing internationalization strategies. among their recommendations, improvement of students’ fl command stands out from the rest. firstly, the internationalization plan (ip), issued in 2006, results from the institution’s need to position itself internationally. specifically, the ip’s mission is to promote inward and outward mobility, curriculum internationalization and internationalization-at-home strategies (p. 4). the main aim of this policy is the increase of the numbers of students participating in outward mobility programs, because of the students’ low command of fl – as stated in the european university association’s assessment report on the udl.8 the ip advocates the increase of englishmedium instruction to increase students’ command in fls, which eventually may lead to an increase in the number of students participating internationalization of business english communication ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170 157 in exchange programs. furthermore, the udl issued in 2012 a regulation of the ip with the name action plan of internationalization, which clearly lists the institutional objective of increasing the presence of emi subjects with the goal of improving local students’ command of english, among others. secondly, the teaching policy plan, issued in 2007, settles down institutional strategic competences, such as “show command in a foreign language” (page 25). to promote this linguistic competence, the plan suggests emi together with content and language integrated learning (clil) as teaching strategies. however, no further mention is made about which organizational strategies should be adopted in order to implement either emi or clil courses in the curricula. thirdly, the language policy plan¸ issued in 2008, briefly mentions the general aim of promoting the use of emi to develop fl proficiency. later, in 2010, the university issued the regulation of this plan9, which directly states that students should be in possession of a cefr level b1 when they graduate. such certification can be obtained by taking lsp or emi-subjects, or by writing a ba final thesis in a fl, among others. all in all, udl’s language policy aims at improving students’ fl command, and the bologna-adapted degrees are intended to contribute towards this goal. in our case, business studies curriculum-designers decided to offer two compulsory be courses in the first year with an approximate cefr target level b1 and no other emi/clil courses in mind. 5.2. students’ data in this section we will offer some data relative to the students participating in the be courses at udl, based on an entry test and a self-report questionnaire distributed at the beginning of the first semester of their first university year. we will now proceed to briefly describe both instruments. as already stated, the test was one provided by a be textbook. it consisted of a series of questions divided into five sections: “listening”, “skills”, “vocabulary”, “reading” and “language”. the combination of these five sections produced a maximum total of 44 points. results ranged from 11 to 42 (mean=26.1; sd=7.7). the self-report questionnaire included questions on their previous experience learning english and a self-evaluation grid according to the g. mancho-barés & e. llurda ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170158 cefr descriptors. based on this, students came up with an assessment of their level of english in each different skill, ranging from a1 to c1. in order to avoid an excessive load of information, we will now just refer to the results in two of these skills “reading” and “speaking” (see table 1), and we will do so because they represent two very important linguistic skills in be, as emphasized by the business representatives in the focus group discussion: the capacity to read and understand documents and the capacity to speak and socialize in informal settings. additionally, we administered an 8-item check-list corresponding to reading skills that they should possess if they had a b1 level in reading, and we classified the students in two groups: b1 readers (those who answered affirmatively to 6 or more of the items: 75% and above) and non-b1 readers (those who responded affirmatively to less than 6 items). another classification was established between those who had and those who had not ever taken an english course abroad (table 2). as can be seen in table 1 and table 2, the number of students who claim to have attained a b1 level or higher (b2 and c1) in reading skills and students who we decided to classify as b1-readers are exactly the same (69%). we were actually surprised by such a coincidence as we expected to find variation due to the inconsistency that sometimes may be found in responses obtained using different instruments, and also due to the arbitrariness in internationalization of business english communication ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170 159 internationalization of business english ibérica 26 (2013): …-… thirdly, the language policy plan¸ issued in 2008, briefly mentions the general aim of promoting the use of emi to develop fl proficiency. later, in 2010, the university issued the regulation of this plan9, which directly states that students should be in possession of a cefr level b1 when they graduate. such certification can be obtained by taking lsp or emi-subjects, or by writing a ba final thesis in a fl, among others. all in all, udl’s language policy aims at improving students’ fl command, and the bologna-adapted degrees are intended to contribute towards this goal. in our case, business studies curriculum-designers decided to offer two compulsory be courses in the first year with an approximate cefr target level b1 and no other emi/clil courses in mind. 5.2. students’ data in this section we will offer some data relative to the students participating in the be courses at udl, based on an entry test and a self-report questionnaire distributed at the beginning of the first semester of their first university year. we will now proceed to briefly describe both instruments. as already stated, the test was one provided by a be textbook. it consisted of a series of questions divided into five sections: “listening”, “skills”, “vocabulary”, “reading” and “language”. the combination of these five sections produced a maximum total of 44 points. results ranged from 11 to 42 (mean=26.1; sd=7.7). the self-report questionnaire included questions on their previous experience learning english and a self-evaluation grid according to the cefr descriptors. based on this, students came up with an assessment of their level of english in each different skill, ranging from a1 to c1. in order to avoid an excessive load of information, we will now just refer to the results in two of these skills “reading” and “speaking” (see table 1), and we will do so because they represent two very important linguistic skills in be, as emphasized by the business representatives in the focus group discussion: the capacity to read and understand documents and the capacity to speak and socialize in informal settings. reading speaking cefr levels no. students % no. students % a1 4 3.1 18 14.0 a2 35 27.1 55 42.6 b1 67 51.9 45 34.9 b2 20 15.5 7 5.4 c1 2 1.6 2 1.6 total 128 99.2 127 98.5 table 1. self-report based on cefr on reading and speaking. g. mancho-barés & e. llurda ibérica 26 (2013): …-… additionally, we administered an 8-item check-list corresponding to reading skills that they should possess if they had a b1 level in reading, and we classified the students in two groups: b1 readers (those who answered affirmatively to 6 or more of the items: 75% and above) and non-b1 readers (those who responded affirmatively to less than 6 items). another classification was established between those who had and those who had not ever taken an english course abroad (table 2). b1 reader courses abroad grouping criteria no. students % no. students % yes 89 69 14 10.9 no 40 31 115 89.1 total 129 100 129 100 table 2. students’ grouping. as can be seen in table 1 and table 2, the number of students who claim to have attained a b1 level or higher (b2 and c1) in reading skills and students who we decided to classify as b1-readers are exactly the same (69 %). we were actually surprised by such a coincidence as we expected to find variation due to the inconsistency that sometimes may be found in responses obtained using different instruments, and also due to the arbitrariness in setting the cutting point between b1 readers and non-b1 readers at 75%. somehow, we believe that this coincidence gives more support to the validity of these self-reported data. in any case, self-evaluations using the cefr scales appeared to be fairly accurate as differences in these scales could predict different results in the entry test (anova, p<.05). finally, students stated the number of years they had been studying english. as we may see in table 3, most of them had taken english in secondary education and part of their primary education (more than 6 years as a whole). no. of years no. of students % up to 610 16 13.8 7-8 12 9.3 9-10 29 22.5 11-12 49 38.0 13-15 10 7.8 total 116 91.4 table 3. number of years studying english. in order to better understand the conditions that affected the language proficiency and skills of our students, we ran a series of statistical tests in order to look for potentially significant variables that could help us to explain the differences of the entry test results.11 considering one of the general aims stated setting the cutting point between b1 readers and non-b1 readers at 75%. somehow, we believe that this coincidence gives more support to the validity of these self-reported data. in any case, self-evaluations using the cefr scales appeared to be fairly accurate as differences in these scales could predict different results in the entry test (anova, p<.05). finally, students stated the number of years they had been studying english. as we may see in table 3, most of them had taken english in secondary education and part of their primary education (more than 6 years as a whole). in order to better understand the conditions that affected the language proficiency and skills of our students, we ran a series of statistical tests in order to look for potentially significant variables that could help us to explain the differences of the entry test results.11 considering one of the general aims stated above (the level of competence in english of business students when they begin the be course), we established two related hypotheses: hypothesis 1: students with experience abroad will have a higher level of proficiency than students who lack such experience. hypothesis 2: amount of years of instruction will have a direct effect on level of proficiency. for hypothesis 1, we ran a t-test comparing the results obtained by the two groups (with or without experience taking courses abroad) in the entry test as well as the self-reported levels of the cefr.12 the results show significant differences (p<.05) in the entry test scores obtained by students who had taken courses abroad (x=31.4) and those who had not (x=25.8). differences were also found in self-evaluations of reading skills (x=3.29 vs. x= 2.80). however, there were no significant differences between those two groups in their self-evaluation of speaking skills. the mean scores were x=2.71 for those who had been abroad, and x=2.33 for those who had not, which probably indicates that all of them, including those who had taken courses g. mancho-barés & e. llurda ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170160 g. mancho-barés & e. llurda ibérica 26 (2013): …-… additionally, we administered an 8-item check-list corresponding to reading skills that they should possess if they had a b1 level in reading, and we classified the students in two groups: b1 readers (those who answered affirmatively to 6 or more of the items: 75% and above) and non-b1 readers (those who responded affirmatively to less than 6 items). another classification was established between those who had and those who had not ever taken an english course abroad (table 2). b1 reader courses abroad grouping criteria no. students % no. students % yes 89 69 14 10.9 no 40 31 115 89.1 total 129 100 129 100 table 2. students’ grouping. as can be seen in table 1 and table 2, the number of students who claim to have attained a b1 level or higher (b2 and c1) in reading skills and students who we decided to classify as b1-readers are exactly the same (69 %). we were actually surprised by such a coincidence as we expected to find variation due to the inconsistency that sometimes may be found in responses obtained using different instruments, and also due to the arbitrariness in setting the cutting point between b1 readers and non-b1 readers at 75%. somehow, we believe that this coincidence gives more support to the validity of these self-reported data. in any case, self-evaluations using the cefr scales appeared to be fairly accurate as differences in these scales could predict different results in the entry test (anova, p<.05). finally, students stated the number of years they had been studying english. as we may see in table 3, most of them had taken english in secondary education and part of their primary education (more than 6 years as a whole). no. of years no. of students % up to 610 16 13.8 7-8 12 9.3 9-10 29 22.5 11-12 49 38.0 13-15 10 7.8 total 116 91.4 table 3. number of years studying english. in order to better understand the conditions that affected the language proficiency and skills of our students, we ran a series of statistical tests in order to look for potentially significant variables that could help us to explain the differences of the entry test results.11 considering one of the general aims stated abroad, felt rather unable to speak fluently in english, and the experience obtained had not been sufficient to overcome that limitation. for hypothesis 2, the procedure consisted in conducting a spearman rho’s correlation between scores of entry test, self-evaluation of reading skills, and raw number of years studying english. statistical analyses were all conducted using spss software. the spearman rho correlation involving “results of entry test”, “previous years of english study”, and ”self-assessment of reading skills” gave moderate but significant correlations in all cases but one (see table 4). thus, the number of previous years of study of english did significantly correlate with the test scores but not with reading skills. one possible explanation for this lack of correlation could be that the reading skills developed along the years of study of english were different from those stated in the cefr. reading skills, however, did correlate with the entry test results, which provides further evidence of the validity of the instruments used in the study. these results partially support hypothesis 2, which predicted that years of previous study would affect language proficiency level. it seems to be the case if we look at the test scores but not so when we look at their cefr self-assessment. in this section, we have characterized the students in our program. the most immediately observable element refers to the great diversity among students regarding their previous english proficiency level, with results in the entry test ranging from 11 to 42. another relevant piece of data is their self-assessment of speaking skills, clearly lower than reading skills, probably due to a long tradition of neglect of speaking skills in catalan schools. still, only two thirds of students declare having b1 reading skills, which means that one third of all students are below the expected reading level for all students at the end of post-obligatory secondary education, and many more are below the expected speaking level. we must bear in mind, as well, that all students had already taken several years of english, with a fairly even distribution between those who had studied from five to ten years and those who had studied for a longer period of time. the number of years studying english appears to have internationalization of business english communication ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170 161 internationalization of business english ibérica 26 (2013): …-… above (the level of competence in english of business students when they begin the be course), we established two related hypotheses: hypothesis 1: students with experience abroad will have a higher level of proficiency than students who lack such experience. hypothesis 2: amount of years of instruction will have a direct effect on level of proficiency. for hypothesis 1, we ran a t-test comparing the results obtained by the two groups (with or without experience taking courses abroad) in the entry test as well as the self-reported levels of the cefr.12 the results show significant differences (p<.05) in the entry test scores obtained by students who had taken courses abroad (x=31.4) and those who had not (x=25.8). differences were also found in self-evaluations of reading skills (x=3.29 vs. x= 2.80). however, there were no significant differences between those two groups in their self-evaluation of speaking skills. the mean scores were x=2.71 for those who had been abroad, and x=2.33 for those who had not, which probably indicates that all of them, including those who had taken courses abroad, felt rather unable to speak fluently in english, and the experience obtained had not been sufficient to overcome that limitation. for hypothesis 2, the procedure consisted in conducting a spearman rho’s correlation between scores of entry test, self-evaluation of reading skills, and raw number of years studying english. statistical analyses were all conducted using spss software. the spearman rho correlation involving “results of entry test”, “previous years of english study”, and ”self-assessment of reading skills” gave moderate but significant correlations in all cases but one (see table 4). thus, the number of previous years of study of english did significantly correlate with the test scores but not with reading skills. one possible explanation for this lack of correlation could be that the reading skills developed along the years of study of english were different from those stated in the cefr. reading skills, however, did correlate with the entry test results, which provides further evidence of the validity of the instruments used in the study. these results partially support hypothesis 2, which predicted that years of previous study would affect language proficiency level. it seems to be the case if we look at the test scores but not so when we look at their cefr self-assessment. variables entry test years of study reading skills entry test 1 .431** .488** years of study .431** 1 .130 reading skills .488** .130 1 ** p<.01 table 4. spearman rho correlation among variables. in this section, we have characterized the students in our program. the most immediately observable element refers to the great diversity among students an influence on the results obtained in the entry test but not in the perception of their own reading skills. another important figure indicates that the number of students with study abroad experience amounts to 11% of the total, and a comparison between these students and those with no experience abroad shows that this factor significantly affects perceptions of reading skills but does not affect perceptions of speaking skills. 5.3. local business representatives’ focus-group discussion in this section, we will analyse the data obtained from local businesses with regard to the english-related training needs of business students. we will first offer a profile of the participating companies, followed by an account of their views on the use of english in their economic sector and the business communicative skills valued in their companies. 5.3.1. company profiles representatives from local internationally-positioned companies were gathered together for a focus group session. by definition, a focus group session consists of an unstructured interview with several speakers at the same time.13 in this sense, we are in line with long (2005: 36) that: unstructured, or open-ended, interviews allow in-depth coverage of issues and have the advantage of not pre-empting unanticipated findings by use of predetermined questions, categories, and response options, a potential limitation of structured interviews and questionnaires. several companies were contacted according to the following criteria: (i) their local presence in the lleida area; (ii) exporting tradition; (iii) high entrepreneurial activity; (iv) different economic sectors represented. eventually, seven companies or associations were chosen, although only six spokespersons finally attended the focus group session, given that company 1 and company 2 shared the same representative.14 the university teaching staff were represented by two be instructors (the two co-authors of this paper), the business studies degree coordinator, and the head of the department of english and linguistics. company 1 belongs to the food and vegetable sector. specifically, they produce, import and export stonefruit and pome fruit. they basically use english for international buying and selling operations, which imply g. mancho-barés & e. llurda ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170162 telephoning and travelling for a meeting or to a fair, either as professional visitors or as exhibitors. e-mailing is done in english. company 2 belongs to the wine sector. they produce bottled wine, and sell more than 70% of their production to more than 25 countries. they use oral english on a daily basis for promoting products, in meetings, product exhibitions, fair attendance, and, finally, in sales operations. as in the previous company, e-mails are mostly written in english. company 3 is a multinational company in the sector of capital goods. they use english as a corporate language when holding international meetings, when surveying clients’ engineering needs, and when interacting orally with international partners while carrying out collaborative engineering design and development processes. company 4 works in the construction industry. it exports precast concrete products to europe and to the middle east, and imports construction products from china. they mainly use written english for exportation purposes to countries where french is not spoken, and to communicate with chinese producers and intermediaries. company 5 is an ict consultancy. the ict production process is carried out collaboratively with employees from all over the world who use english to communicate (e-mailing or call conference). they also employ english orally and in written form with its suppliers and customers. company 6 is a financial consultancy with basically local, but also a number of international, clients. they primarily use english in writing and for emailing purposes, which deal basically with the validation of corporate agreements signed by local and international partners. company 7 is a human resources consultancy. their clients are (i) exporting spanish multinational companies, with open job positions either in backoffice or as export area managers; (ii) foreign multinational companies based in spain, whose staff needs english to report to headquarters; (iii) spanish companies, who have outsourced financial operations, for which english is the main working language. 5.3.2. views expressed in the focus group as said above, we conducted a group discussion session with representatives of the exporting companies based in the university’s area of influence. their internationalization of business english communication ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170 163 business experience would help us to pinpoint which business communicative skills are needed by local business students. some of the views expressed are as follows: firstly, local businesses are characterized as mainly composed of smes, belonging to the agro-food sector with an acute exporting awareness: the productive system is not in english (…) the agricultural sector [is shaped into] small family companies (…) when their kids reach the accelerator pedal of the tractor, they [the kids] have no holidays and start working (…) [and] start to travel with their father. and the kid is supposed to have taken some english lessons [at school or private lessons] but they are not used [to employing english], except to catch a taxi or to ask for a towel to the receptionist of the hotel. but to carry out business, the truth is that [these business people] they need someone [a business student] coming from your university degree [business degree]. there is some presence of multinationals in the form of subsidiaries, too: there are companies that come here [lleida] from abroad. and they need their subsidiary and administrative work to be done in english (…) there are companies from the area of veterinary, or food industry, which are belgian, or [dealing with] computers from germany… secondly, according to the local experts, english is mostly employed in the corporate sales department: “if you work for a company whose productive process is not in english (…) you can struggle along, because what is important is (…) the sales department”. also, participants stressed the value of knowledge about the financial concepts associated with the firms’ commercial operations: our [lleida business] main international relationships will be this merchandise flux, of commercial operations. therefore, these people [students] should be used to talking about carriage and transportation, logistics, raw materials, price. all in all, they should manage all these concepts very well, which belong to the processes of a business: buying, selling, transporting (…) and they should also manage very well the financial concepts associated to these processes. thirdly, on the basis of the local experts’ trading experiences, participants emphasized that be communicative skills are much needed for the following activities related to sales: travelling abroad arrangements, sales g. mancho-barés & e. llurda ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170164 demonstration presentations (at different settings), client needs analysis, after-fair small talk, and client e-mailing and telephoning: “they [students] will have to know which business situations they will come across as executive managers (…) they will have to make a phone-call about a tender issue”. fourthly, belf experience makes its way in the group session, to the extent that cooperativeness will make up for the possible misunderstandings in intercultural communication styles. complementary to this, native-like pronunciation becomes an issue, as the business spokespersons have more problems understanding a native speaker than speakers of elf: “we speak a lot on the phone with people whose accent of english is not british. and this is an advantage for me, as we all can go at our own pace and it [the phone conversation] is successful”. also, the local business representatives give oral fluency more importance than oral accuracy for successful business exchange: “oral expression (…) is essential as most of the exportation and sales activity is carried out in fairs or in the context of a personal interview”. all in all, some representatives emphasize that belf principles (that is to say, common ground and communicative cooperation) may be helpful for successful oral communication¸ with a particular emphasis on the importance of oral comprehension: comprehension and [oral or written] production in business is important, because if you don’t understand what you are being told there’s no business. if you understand what you are being told, you’ll find your way to make yourself understood. however, comprehension is the most important [aspect of business communication]. not only is “oral comprehension” important in business according to stakeholders, but also accuracy in technical vocabulary use. the semantic fields mentioned are marketing, accounting, freight and transportation, logistics, and price. additionally, the stakeholders appreciate the knowledge of technical vocabulary of terms derived from the agro-food industry, because of the importance of this economic sector in the area of lleida: “someone [an executive] working for the fruit industry, will have to know how to say [fruit] size, varieties, hectares, tonnes …” finally, regarding fl attitudes, local experts agreed on the need to overcome the face-threatening act of using english at international meetings: “you’re going to come with me [local stakeholder talking], right? and you talk. let’s see how you manage”. moreover, the little amount of exposure to english internationalization of business english communication ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170 165 instruction that students will have experienced at the end of their business studies could be increased if be instruction focussed on raising language awareness, to the extent that be students regard english as a basic tool for their professional career, and they become self-motivated to keep on learning english. in all, local business representatives agree that, in their companies, the department in which english is most likely to be used is the corporate sales department, with the activities of client-relationship maintenance, and international business transactions. regarding belf, native-speaker models are not seen as the model for syllabus design; and communicative cooperation, rapport and small talk are valued, resulting directly from the duty of client-relationship maintenance. local stakeholders regard oral comprehension and the accurate use of technical vocabulary important for successful business communication. finally, be instructors are advised to help students to develop a positive attitude towards be learning for professional and career development purposes. 6. conclusions some elements appear from the three-fold analysis conducted in this study. it is rather clear that syllabus planning needs to pay closer attention to the aspects identified as crucial by the local business people, and thus greater attention to oral skills and specific vocabulary training are necessary. however, the concept of belf needs to be taken into account in order to avoid any attempt to incorporate native-speaker-oriented approaches in the development of oral skills, therefore focusing upon developing communicative efficiency in the target situations related to business activities. another finding is the impact of stays abroad on students. students with experience abroad perform better at the entry test and rate their own language skills better, which supports the results of previous studies – see llanes (2011) for a critical review on the impact of study abroad on second language gains. besides, research conducted with english teachers (llurda, 2008) shows that prolonged stays in english-speaking countries increase their awareness of english as a lingua franca as opposed to english as a native language. therefore, in addition to contributing to an improvement of language skills, stays abroad also help learners relax from the tension g. mancho-barés & e. llurda ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170166 coming from the perceived need to develop native-like oral skills in order to “adequately” speak the language. finally, some tensions among the different stakeholders become also apparent. a primary tension relates to levels of language competence, and it is derived from the discrepancy between the officially required level (b1), business people perceived needs for a successful development of business operations (roughly equivalent to b2 specification in the cefr), and students actual level of competence (very diverse, ranging from a1 to c1). be courses alone cannot provide a solution to this tension. whereas university officials require that all business graduates achieve a b1 level, and business people expect be courses to grant a level of competence that appears to be equivalent to b2, it seems too optimistic to claim that 12 credits (that is, 120 teaching hours) of esp will bring all students to a b1 level. the situation requires extra help in the shape of more exposure to english through the promotion of emi or clil-based courses, which would ensure that all students have a chance to reach the intended minimum level determined by the institution and ideally the level determined by local business people as well. in any case, with the purpose of bridging the needs of the three stakeholders mentioned, the focus of our be courses at the udl is placed on designing business routine tasks where technical vocabulary is learnt and practised. these tasks are rich with learning activities following a non-native speaker teaching model; that is, these activities particularly engage students in oral exchanges devoted to promote students’ development of oral fluency over oral accuracy. any teaching unit in our be syllabus is complemented with tasks which help students to raise their language awareness, in general, and their condition of long-life english learners while pursuing a professional career in business in particular. acknowledgements this study was possible thanks to the funding obtained through project 0821/28 and project ffi2012-35834 financed by the university of lleida and the spanish ministry of education and competitiveness, respectively. 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(2002). key aspects of the use of english. language policy division. directorate of school, out-of-school and higher education. dgiv. council of europe, strasbourgh. url: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/source/truchoten. pdf [09/02/13] wätcher, b. (2003). “an introduction: internationalisation at home in context”. journal of studies in international education 7: 5-11. wätcher, b. & f. maiworm (2008). english-taught programmes in european higher education: the picture in 2007. boon: lemmens. guzman mancho-barés holds a phd in english studies. he is a lecturer at the department of english and linguistics at the university of lleida (spain), where he teaches business english in the degree of business studies since 2009-2010. his research combines a double focus on esp and call. enric llurda holds a phd in english and lectures at the department of english and linguistics (university of lleida). he specializes in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, multilingualism, and language teaching. he has edited the book non-native language teachers. perceptions, challenges and contributions to the profession (springer, 2005), and co-authored la conciencia lingüística en la enseñanza de lenguas (graó, 2007) and plurilingüismo e interculturalidad en la escuela (horsori, 2010). notes 1 url: http://www.udl.cat/export/sites/udl/serveis/ori/fitxers_descxrrega/pla_internacionalitza cio2. pdf [14/06/12] 2 url: http://www.udl.es/export/sites/udl/serveis/oqua/formacio/pla_director_de_docencia.pdf [14/06/12] 3 url: http://web.udl.es/rectorat/sg/bou/bou101/acord153.htm [14/06/12] 4 url: http://www.udl.cat/export/sites/udl/serveis/ori/fitxers_descxrrega/poi-udl_12-16.pdf [26/02/13] 5 see, for instance, url: http://www.bologna-bergen2005.no/docs/00-main_doc/030919berlin_ communique.pdf [14/06/12] 6 lansford, l. (2010) market leader : intermediate. business english test file, 3rd ed. harlow: longman. 7 url: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/portfolio/documents/appendix2.pdf. [06/06/10] 8 url: http://www.oqua.udl.cat/export/sites/oqua/modules/adjunts_informes_avaluacio/institu cional _udl/eua_2005_informe_extern_catala.pdf. [20/06/12] 9 url: http://web.udl.es/rectorat/sg/bou/bou123/acord224.htm. [14/06/12] 10 there was only one person with just one year of experience. the remaining had all studied english from 5 to 6 years. 11 given that the entry test is based on a commercial be textbook targeting the intermediate proficiency level, we conveniently equated the results of the test to levels of proficiency, although we are well aware of the problems in establishing so. 12 the levels of the cefr were given a numerical value (a1=1; a2=2; b1=3; b2=4; c1=5) so that we could apply a t-test comparing the students who had taken courses abroad and those who had not. 13 url: http://www.bris.ac.uk/depts/deafstudiesteaching/dissert/qualitative%20methodologies.htm [07/06/12] 14 the six companies are identified by a number, instead of their names, in order to preserve their anonymity. internationalization of business english communication ibérica 26 (2013): 151-170 169 maquetación 1 medical discourse in professional, academic and popular settings. pilar ordóñez-lópez, nuria edo-marzá (eds). bristol/buffalo/toronto: multilingual matters, 2016. 224 pages. isbn: 978-1-7830-9625-1. medical discourse in professional, academic and popular settings is a newly edited volume by pilar ordóñez-lópez and nuria edo-marzá and published by multilingual matters, particularly as part of the series language at work, which, in general terms, seeks to disseminate workplace research. the edited volume reviewed here represents an updated collection of chapters that explore medical discourse from various perspectives. medical discourse, as shown in this volume, appears not to be exclusively limited to health professionals; rather, it is part of a wider audience, including, for example, patients or professionals of different fields. nowadays, medical discourse is somehow more accessible to the general public (pilegaard, 2007) and medical knowledge is then part of society, who may make judgements and evaluate it (weingart, 2002). this particular edited volume is a relevant and welcome contribution that serves to understand how medical discourse is constructed as well as to reflect upon the issue of successful medical communication. this edited volume consists of nine chapters, including an introductory chapter by the editors. in chapter 1, pilar ordóñez-lópez and nuria edo-marzá present a brief overview on medical discourse, discuss the importance of conducting research in this particular area, and report how this type of discourse has evolved from a more professionallyoriented perspective towards an interactive and social perspective. this introductory chapter also serves to provide an overview of the chapters included in the edited volume. as reported in what follows, chapter 2 focuses on the study of textual variation in medical discourse; chapter 3 and 4 centre on different medical genres, training and the importance of developing communication skills; chapter 5 and 6 examine textual genres that are particularly addressed to patients; chapter 7 and 8 focus on the use of metaphors in medical discourse on cancer; and finally, chapter 9 explores the use of metaphors in the discourse of mindfulness. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 224-227 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 224 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 224 chapter 2, by maurizio gotti, examines variation in medical discourse used for academic purposes. following a corpus-based approach, the author examines the relationship between sociocultural identity factors and textual variation. the author presents an overview of the evolution of medical discourse in academic contexts, a revision of some current projects that focus on specialised discourse in english in different academic areas, and discusses the results of the cerlis project. this study reveals that the affiliation of writers (professional, ideological or ethnic-geographic) seems to influence medical discourse and participants’ rhetorical positioning. in chapter 3, vicent salvador explores the structure and content of clinical case reports, which can be found in some specialised academic periodicals and consist of the written story of the patient. this study shows that clinical case reports, as a medical narrative, may serve to construct patient identity. the author suggests that the inclusion of clinical case reports as a genre in medical journals may contribute to the elaboration of a more personalised, albeit scientific, discourse. the pedagogical value of clinical case reports for students and professionals is also highlighted here. chapter 4, by begoña bellés-fortuño, presents a corpus-based analysis of two different types of genres, particularly scientific research articles and popular science articles. the author attempts to compare and contrast these two genres in terms of evaluative language and discourse markers to explore whether popular science articles can be pedagogically appropriate for health science students. this study shows that popular science articles, which tend to be less complex than scientific research articles, can be regarded as a suitable pedagogical tool for health science students, especially in their first academic courses, when students’ knowledge of scientific academic writing is still scarce. in chapter 5, morten pilegaard examines ethics in authentic informed consent documents from an integrative perspective, which involves drawing on systemic functional linguistics, genre theory, translation theory and discourse analysis. this study reveals that there is a general lack of ethicalness, showing, for example, instances of structural patterns, choice of lexical items, and pragmatic choices that may be inappropriate. furthermore, it is observed that, in general, communication between the professional and the addressee seems to lack appropriateness. the author argues that a patient-centred perspective is fundamental and that communication should be adapted to patient knowledge and information needs. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 224-227 225 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 225 chapter 6, by vicent montalt and isabel garcía-izquierdo, focuses on oral and written modes from a holistic perspective, particularly following a translation studies perspective to identify cultural and conceptual asymmetries between patients and doctors. also, drawing on the calgarycambridge guide, the authors attempt to identify the interaction between these two modes in consultation genre. this study suggests that written and visual information can benefit oral consultations, and identifies various principles and criteria concerning patient’s perspective, timing for information delivery and comprehensibility, which, in turn, may be exploited from research and pedagogical perspectives. in chapter 7, ignasi navarro i ferrando conducts a corpusbased study that seeks to explore cognitive functions of metaphors (e.g. categorisation and conceptualisation) and discourse communicative functions (e.g. deliberate and novel usage) in research papers, scientific news and press articles in which the topic of cancer is addressed. this study shows a characterisation of metaphor use across the three genres and suggests that the use of metaphors seems to be genre-specific. for example, the author finds that in more specialised genres metaphors tend to be used more unconsciously, whereas in press articles they are used more deliberately. chapter 8, by martí domínguez and lucía sapiña, examines metaphors in medical discourse on cancer in spanish press in order to see how they contribute to shape an image of the disease. to do so, the authors focus on three significant events that involve three famous sports personalities. as the authors report, war metaphors are commonly used to refer to cancer, thereby evoking a rather negative image of the disease. this study suggests that war metaphors are widely used in media discourse when cancer is addressed, even though some contexts allow for the use of other type of metaphors, such as sport metaphors. finally, in chapter 9, antonio-josé silvestre-lópez presents a study that focuses on metaphors in the discourse of mindfulness. following a cognitive linguistic approach, this study seeks to explore what the analysis of spoken discourse in mindfulness may show about the mental representations involved in the mindfulness experience and practice. this study reveals the activation of a set of idealised cognitive models, which can benefit discourse coherence and, therefore, expand participants’ understanding. analysing this type of discourse seems to serve to improve reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 224-227226 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 226 mindfulness teaching practices effectiveness, while becoming a relevant data source for psychological experiments. overall, the chapters included in this edited volume are theoretically wellgrounded from various perspectives and disciplines, and undoubtedly represent a relevant contribution to the field of medical discourse. at a personal level, i should state that medicine and health issues have attracted my interest, especially in recent years, and the chapters included in this edited volume have encouraged me to learn more about medical discourse from a research perspective. however, in reading the volume, one may notice that, despite the fact that the guiding threat of this edited volume is medical discourse, the multiple diversity of the aspects covered unfortunately seems to result in lack of homogeneity and unity. taking into account this reality, it seems complex to envisage a concrete and homogeneous audience. despite these limitations, this edited volume is an excellent contribution to the area of specialised language and therefore is highly recommendable to both researchers and language teachers whose academic and/or teaching interests lie in the specific domain of medicine discourse. received 1 may 2018 accepted 3 may 2018 reviewed by vicent beltrán-palanques universitat jaume i (spain) vbeltran@uji.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 224-227 227 pilegaard, m. (2007). “advances in medical discourse analysis: oral and written contexts, edited by maurizio gotti and françoise salager-meyer”. lsp and professional communication 7(2): 113-118. weingart, p. (2002). “the moment of truth for science: the consequences of the ‛knowledge society’ for society and science”. embo reports 3(8): 703-706. 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 227 iberica 13 ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract travel blogs constitute a new platform where travelers can tell about their travel experiences and share information and impressions with their readers. most travel blogs incorporate commenting capabilities, which enable social interaction among members of communities with shared traveling interests. english is most often used as a lingua franca, facilitating interaction among people with different l1 backgrounds and transcending the native/non-native distinction. the purpose of this research is to analyze the features of english as a lingua franca (elf) interactions in travel blogs and explore some strategies used by participants in blog discussions to achieve shared understanding and show belonging to an elf community. the small corpus consists of 36 blog discussions taken from 12 blogs where the commenters belong to different l1 backgrounds. the corpus was analyzed qualitatively to determine whether some strategies used in elf interactions (make it normal, backchanneling, codeswitching, and metacomments) occur in travel blogs and, if so, how they contribute to identity and community construction. keywords: travel blogs, elf, interactional strategies, online communication, identity. resumen c ar ac te rí s ti c as de l as in te r ac c i on e s e n i l f e n l os bl o g s d e v i a je : e l tr ab a jo i nt e ra c c i ona l de l o s v i aj e ro s los blogs de viajes constituyen una nueva plataforma donde los viajeros cuentan sus experiencias y comparten información e impresiones con sus lectores. la mayoría permiten comentarios, lo que posibilita la interacción social entre miembros de comunidades que comparten un interés por viajar. con frecuencia features of elf interactions in travel blogs: travelers doing interactional work maría-josé luzón universidad de zaragoza (españa) mjluzon@unizar.es 127 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 127 ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148 maría-josé luzón se usa el inglés como lengua franca, para facilitar la interacción entre interlocutores con lenguas maternas diferentes. el objetivo de esta investigación es analizar las características de las interacciones en inglés como lengua franca (ilf) en blogs de viajes y determinar las estrategias usadas por los participantes en las discusiones para negociar el significado y alcanzar mutua inteligibilidad. el corpus analizado está formado por 36 discusiones tomadas de 12 blogs donde participan hablantes de diferentes lenguas maternas. el corpus fue analizado de forma cualitativa para determinar si algunas estrategias usadas en interacciones en ilf (aceptar como normal, backchanneling, cambio de código, y metacomentarios) aparecen en los blogs de viajes y cómo contribuyen a la creación de la identidad y a construir solidaridad y cohesión grupal. palabras clave: blogs de viajes, ilf, estrategias interaccionales, comunicación online, identidad. 1. introduction social media have changed radically the way travelers search, produce and use travel-related information (akehurst, 2009). blogs are one of the several forms of social media that tourists use as an alternative to traditional travel guides to inform their decisions. blogs are personal journals consisting of regularly updated posts arranged in reverse chronological order, where readers are often allowed to contribute comments. they are, therefore, a platform both for self-expression and for social interaction and information sharing (schmidt, 2007; myers, 2010). they offer travelers an open space to share their personal travel experiences and to interact with the interested readers, which generates collaboratively produced information (wenger, 2008). this exchange and collaborative construction of information is facilitated by the use of english as a lingua franca (elf). as travel blogs are usually public and anyone can contribute to the discussion, english is used by bloggers with different language backgrounds who want to reach an international audience. the use of elf enables bloggers and their readers to construct cross-linguistic virtual communities, where members have shared traveling interests. as a result of the increasing popularity of travel blogs, a considerable body of research has been conducted on the impact of blogs on tourists and their uses in marketing. research has focused mainly on the influence of blogs on decisions regarding destination, on the representation of destinations in blogs or on blogger satisfaction (e.g. akehurst, 2009; volo, 2010). only a few 128 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 128 studies have analyzed the discursive features of travel blogs or the processes of identity construction and meaning negotiation in which bloggers engage (e.g. goethals, 2013, 2015; lee & gretzel, 2014) and, to my knowledge, there is no study of the use of elf in travel blogs. this research focuses on the interactional strategies deployed by communities of travel bloggers and commenters from different l1s when using english as the lingua franca to communicate internationally. more specifically, the purpose of this paper is to analyze four strategies used in elf interactions to signal solidarity, display a shared identity and construct community (make it normal, backchanneling, code-switching, and metacomments) in order to determine whether these strategies occur in travel blogs and the bloggers’ motivation for using them. 2. travel blogs there are many different types of blogs, which vary in terms of authorship (e.g. individual blogs, institutional blogs, community blogs, corporate blogs), format (e.g. textual blogs, audioblogs, videoblogs, lifelogs) or topic (e.g. personal blogs, travel blogs, technology blogs, style blogs, political blogs). a common dichotomy is that between blogs which focus on external events and those that focus on the blogger’s personal life (blood, 2002). this is not, however, a clear-cut distinction, since most blogs mix “topic” and “personal” elements (vettorel, 2014). travel blogs, in particular, combine personal blogging with topic blogging. travelers publish narratives about their own personal travel experiences with the purpose of providing useful and trustworthy information about destinations for a wide audience (lee & gretzel, 2014). travel blogs may deal with any travel-related aspect, e.g. describing places and local lifestyles, explaining how to apply for a visa, advising on what to do or see at the destination (wu & pearce, 2014). they may therefore have different communicative purposes: they may focus on a description of what has been done in the journey, on information of practical interest for the readers, on the evaluation of the journey, with recommendations or advice against certain aspects, or on the narrative itself, reflecting on the journey or narrating a story (goethals, 2013). lee and gretzel (2014: 39) describe them as both “multimedia versions of traditional travel diaries or scrapbooks”, which combine written text and photos taken by the blogger (and sometimes video and audio), and “venues for social interaction”, through comments features of elf interactions in travel blogs ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148 129 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 129 from readers, who may ask questions or contribute further content about any aspect (e.g. must-see places, where to buy or eat). thus, although they present stories of the tourist’s personal experience at a specific destination, travel blogs are intended for interaction with an audience of similarly minded travelers (lee & gretzel, 2014). the description of travel blogs above shows that they display the features that according to herring (2012b: 2) characterize web 2.0 technology: “participatory information sharing; user-generated content; an ethic of collaboration; and use of the web as a social platform”. travel blogs share these features with other modes of 2.0. tourism communication, like wikitravel, tourist review and rating websites (e.g. tripadvisor) or microblogging in social networks (e.g. twitter, facebook). however, the blog seems to be the best suited tool to create and maintain a community of likeminded travelers. while wikitravel is topic-oriented, providing information on tourist destinations, and review websites focus on evaluation and recount of personal experience of a specific product, blogs “provide a holistic understanding of the tourist experience” (munar, 2010: 15), with a focus on journey narrative, experience sharing and community creation. as narratives of travel experiences and venues for social interaction, travel blogs provide the reader with a picture both of the bloggers’ individual and social identities. the participants in travel blog interactions usually belong to different linguacultures1 and therefore they do not constitute a speech community as defined in the traditional way. they constitute, however, a community of practice (cofp) as defined by wenger (1998). he gives three defining features of cofps: mutual engagement in shared practices, participation in jointly negotiated enterprise, use of a shared repertoire of member resources. these resources include linguistic resources, like a shared language. elf is a lingua-cultural resource used by many cofps whose members do not share a first language to negotiate how to communicate within the community (cogo, 2010). individuals who interact through a specific travel weblog or through a network of blogs form a “community of blogging practice”: a group of people “who share certain routines and expectations about the use of blogs as a tool for information, identity, and relationship management” (schmidt, 2007: 1409). maría-josé luzón ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148130 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 130 3. strategies to construct solidarity relations and identity a significant amount of recent research on elf has focused on the interactional work or pragmatic strategies that participants in spoken elf interactions use to achieve communicative effectiveness (e.g. mauranen, 2006; cogo, 2009, 2010). firth (2009b: 162-163) claims that “‘competence’ in elf interactions, then, entails not so much mastery of a stable and standardized code or form, but mastery of strategies for the accomplishment of accommodation of diverse practices and modes of meaning”. he states that successful lingua franca interactions appear to be characterized by the use of pragmatic strategies to achieve “communicative alignment, adaptation, local accommodation and attunement” (firth, 2009b: 163). in addition to strategies intended to prevent and solve misunderstandings and negotiate meaning (mauranen, 2006; cogo, 2009), interactants also resort to strategies intended to express cooperativeness, construct solidarity and show their belonging to the community of elf speakers (house, 2003). in one of the earliest studies of interactional work in elf communication, firth (1996) identified two strategies in elf telephone conversations that could be regarded as acts of cooperation and supportive talk: the “let it pass” principle and the “make it normal” principle. the “let it pass” principle holds that “the hearer lets an unknown or unclear action, word, or utterance ‘pass’ on the (common sense) assumption that it will either become clear or redundant as talk progresses” (firth, 1996: 243). when employing the second strategy (“make it normal”), the hearer makes the speaker’s erroneous form (e.g. non-standard grammatical form) look normal. the hearer focuses on the content instead and accepts the erroneous form. these are accommodation strategies, by means of which participants in elf interactions adapt their linguistic behavior towards the hearer’s language use (hülmbauer, 2007). more recent research has identified a great variety of elf interactional strategies intended to signal involvement and support and foster cooperativeness and group cohesion. pitzl, breiteneder and klimpfinger (2008) found different types of lexical innovations in a subcorpus of voice2 (viena-oxford international corpus of english). elf speakers used these lexical innovations to increase clarity and reduce potential ambiguity (e.g. use of “increasement” instead of “increase”), reduce redundancy, regularize irregular forms (e.g. “thinked”) or fill a lexical features of elf interactions in travel blogs ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148 131 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 131 gap when speakers cannot recall a word (pitlzl et al., 2008). similar lexicogrammatical features, deriving from processes of regularization and redundancy reduction (e.g. invariable tags, pluralization of uncountable nouns), increased explicitness, and lexical creativity, were also found to be frequent in the personal blogs by italian bloggers analyzed by vettorel (2014). similarly, in the spoken interactions analyzed by hülmbauer (2007), elf speakers sometimes used non-standard or unconventional forms in order to adapt their language to each other and establish rapport. other supportive strategies used by the elf speakers participating in meierkord’s (2000) study are backchanneling, both verbal (e.g. mhm, right, yeah, i see, yes) and non-verbal (e.g. head nods), supportive laughter and excessive use of cajolers (e.g. you know, you see). backchanneling is used not only to show active listening and involvement, but also to elicit more speech and signal agreement (cogo & dewey, 2012). strategies used to express group belonging are also highly frequent in elf interactions. for instance, elf speakers accommodate to each other by coconstructing pro-tem (i.e. pro tempore, temporary) idiomatic expressions online for their own local purposes (seidlhofer, 2009). according to seidlhofer (2009: 195), these expressions serve to show belonging to the “here-and-now group” and thus create a “shared affective space”. kalocsai (2011) found that elf students developed shared negotiable resources to construct friendship and build an erasmus family, e.g. a set of negotiated forms used to accomplish everyday tasks such as greetings, thanking or apologizing. code-switching has also been found to be one of the most prominent linguistic resources to construct solidarity and group cohesion both in spoken and online elf interactions (cogo, 2009; vettorel, 2014). in elf contexts code-switching is often used to signal a multilingual identity and the speaker’s membership to individual elf communities of practice, and to indicate rapport to the interlocutor’s culture and create a friendly atmosphere (cogo, 2009; klimpfinger, 2009; vettorel, 2014). vettorel (2014) found that italian bloggers using elf in their blogs blended in linguistic elements (single lexical items, short phrases or longer passages) both from their l1 and from other languages for several communicative purposes, but specially to signal different cultural affiliations. plurilinguality is exploited by the bloggers in her corpus “to express aspects related to their cultural and multicultural identities” (vettorel, 2014: 293) and to refer to concepts related to the cultures of the groups they are part of and want to show an affiliation to. another strategy found in vettorel’s (2014) corpus to show group maría-josé luzón ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148132 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 132 belonging was comments about the participants’ self-perceived inadequate proficiency of the language. these comments create in-group bonding ties with the other participants that share a common status of non-nativeness. the use of plurilingual resources in elf settings is related to the fact that for elf users english is the language of communication, while their l1s are (usually) their language of identification, the language they are bound to (klimpfinger, 2009). therefore, elf speakers in every elf situation may incorporate their l1 or the l1 of their interlocutors to show cultural affiliation. code-switching enables the speakers to create identities in every elf situation anew, as proposed in the face model developed by o’driscoll (2001) to explore identity in multilingual settings. this model proposes three aspects of face (ethnolinguistic, cosmopolitan and polite), which can be instantiated through language choice, and conceptualizes identity as an outcome of the interaction. research on tourism discourse has also shown that language choice is a resource for identity construction and that code-switching and metapragmatic comments can act as in-grouping and out-grouping devices (jaworski et al., 2004; cappelli, 2013; goethals, 2015). the notion of language crossing, i.e. “switching into languages that are not generally thought to belong to you” (rampton, 1995: 280), has been used to discuss the functions and representations of local languages in tourism discourse. jaworski et al. (2004), for example, in their study of the use of non-english local languages in british tv holiday programs, found that the instances of crossing into local languages enabled the viewers to construct their identities as members of the community of (international-british) tourists. metacomments (i.e. metalinguistic and metapragmatic comments) on incomprehensibility of the local languages were also found to serve the function of creating social boundaries between the “self ” and the “other” (the locals). 4. corpus and method the material for the present study consists of a small corpus of elf interactions in travel blogs. the data analyzed are 36 blog discussions (i.e. blogposts and the comments that they triggered), taken from 12 travel blogs, where interlocutors from different lingua-cultures participate. since the main purpose of this study is to analyze elf strategies in blog interactions, the features of elf interactions in travel blogs ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148 133 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 133 first criterion to select travel blogs was the presence of a high number of comments to the posts, that is, their popularity as a platform to exchange information. popular travel blogs were identified through searches in google using the keywords “popular travel blogs” and “top travel blogs”. the search yielded a list of several sites which had put together their lists of the best/top travel blogs, e.g. “the top 50 travel blogs” (www. theexpeditioner.com/the-top-50-travel-blogs), “top 100 travel sites” (www.brendansadventures.com/top-100/), “top 100 travel blogs” (www. nomadicsamuel.com/top100travelblogs). most of the top blogs were present in more than one of these sites. to create the corpus, i explored the blogs listed in these sites and selected those that met the following criteria: (i) most of the posts had a high number of comments (more than twenty); (ii) the posts received comments from commenters with different l1 backgrounds. the commenters’ l1 background was determined through the references to their nationality in the comments and in their own blogs (or facebook pages). appendix i lists the twelve blogs from which posts have been taken. ten blogs were written by anglophone speakers and two by non-anglophone speakers (a danish blogger and a norwegian blogger). however, as pointed out above, all the blogs are used for interaction among speakers from different l1 backgrounds (including english3). two of the bloggers are american expats, who blog not only about their travels, but also about their life in the host country (spain and italy). most of the bloggers give detailed personal information about themselves, e.g. nationality, studies, jobs, reasons for deciding to travel, number of countries they have visited. except the two expat bloggers, all the other bloggers present themselves as world travelers and adventurers (i’m a fearless adventurer, currently traveling my way around the world, globe-trotting for almost a decade) and in the “about” page they all talk about their passion for traveling and about the high number of countries they have visited (i’ve visited around 80 countries on 6 different continents). most of them also present themselves as writers, their writing activity resulting from their desire to share their experiences. they describe their blogs as very different from other types of travel information: places where they share extreme experiences (e.g. being caught in a tsunami) or useful tips. these features are probably the reason why posts in these blogs receive a high number of comments from the travel blogging community. from each of these blogs a sample of posts was selected following again the criteria of high number of comments and authorship of the comments: only maría-josé luzón ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148134 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 134 comment discussions among speakers from different lingua-cultural backgrounds were selected. i did not select the same number of posts and comments from each blog because of the variability in the length, function and authorship of comments in the different blogs, e.g. in some blogs most comments were short responses intended to show approval, while in others commenters contributed longer comments mostly intended for the exchange of information. in total, 36 posts (with 1,211 comments) were collected. the study focuses on four strategies that the relevant literature has identified as being used for solidarity, involvement, group cohesion and identity creation: make it normal, backchanneling, code-switching and metacomments (meierkord, 2000; hülmbauer, 2007; cogo & dewey, 2012; vettorel, 2014). the first step consisted in a preliminary reading of the corpus to see whether these strategies were present in the data. then, selected examples were analyzed qualitatively, rather than in quantitative terms. hülmbauer (2007) and vettorel (2014) argue that a qualitative approach appears particularly appropriate to study the communicative processes taking place in elf interactions, since this approach can reveal tendencies and unconventional ways to reach communicative goals even in small corpora. rather than quantifying, my purpose is, therefore, to show how these strategies are exploited in travel blogs. 5. results the preliminary analysis of the corpus provided data on the purpose, content and type of language in comments in travel blogs. many of the comments are clearly intended to establish and strengthen bonds within the community of blogging travelers. comments to posts were found to be used to thank for the information in the post (great info! thanks for sharing all the details), wish the other a good time (hope you have a fantastic time in chiang mai!, happy travels), empathize and express shared ground and experience (i agree fully, i can totally relate to this), compliment on the post and express approval (e.g. wow, great post, awesome pics, this is superinteresting), tell about personal experiences and feelings, and ask for and give advice. despite the variety in the function of comments, the underlying purpose is always sharing, collaboration and group maintenance. that is why the language style is very personal and informal and displays all the features that are used in other types of blogs to express involvement and solidarity, e.g. emoticons, ellipsis, features of elf interactions in travel blogs ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148 135 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 135 features of oral discourse (luzón, 2011). the following examples illustrate some of the functions listed above and the kind of language related to these functions: (1) c4: hi earl, i will be flying round trip to bucharest (alone) on november 23 for 1 week and was wondering if you could comment on my itinerary. (wanderingearl) (2) c: hi jodi, what beautiful photos! thank you for posting, i’m currently planning a trip to japan with my husband in june. takayama wasn’t on our radar at all and now i’m anticipating visiting there the most! just one question, which ryokan did you stay at there? thanks so much! (legal nomads) example (1) shows how travelers use blogs to get very specific information from reliable and personal sources. example (2) includes some of the typical moves in comments: showing approval, thanking the blogger, telling the blogger that the post has persuaded him/her to visit a place, and asking questions. both examples suggest a personal, in-group relation between interactants, with the use of names to address each other. in the remaining of this section i will discuss the four strategies on which this research focused: make it normal, backchanneling, code-switching and metacomments. 5.1. make it normal colloquial and informal language and non-standard forms were frequent in the travel blogs analyzed (example 3). this is not necessarily the result of the use of elf, since non-standard orthography and syntax are characteristic of computer-mediated communication (herring, 2012a). (3) c: hey brendan, my girlfriend and i are looking for our next backpacking destination, were really interrested in south america but dont know exactly where at the moment. a friend of ours told us that argentina is one of the greatest place and one of the cheapest as well, but we dont know how much should we save up for that trip (…) thank you for replying and have a nice day (brendan adventures). maría-josé luzón ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148136 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 136 some non-standard grammatical forms seem to be the result of loosened grammatical norms and occur both in comments by native and non-native speakers, e.g. apostrophe omission (e.g. your or its instead of you’re or it’s), apostrophe inclusion (you’re instead of your), lower case pronoun i. however, there are also many other non-standard forms that seem to result from the commenter’s level of proficiency (example 4). (4) b: when it happens it is always a good idea to look around for see if you can find the bag (…) c: wow, i don’t know what i would do in this situation and you sounded so calm. i would had been shaking all over in panic. good luck with your travels. b: hi yinglan. i think that if i did not know that the situation was just temporary i would have been more in a panic-mood (places, people, stories) when participants use what prescriptivists would consider grammar mistakes or errors, co-participants do not seem to be concerned with language correctness. both the blogger and the other commenters reply without making any reference to the “errors”. example (4) presents some comments from a long discussion, triggered by the post “when you are stuck abroad alone without money”, where both native and non-native speakers of english participate. the blogger (b) and some commenters use some infelicitous forms, but the conversation keeps flowing, with the participants focusing on the message and not on language proficiency. this is consistent with research showing that even when participants in elf interactions produce non-standard linguistic forms, the speakers are willing to accept their less proficient interlocutors’ english and adapt to it (haegeman, 2002; hülmbauer, 2007; firth, 2009a). none of the participants in the discussions in the blog corpus presents himself/herself as learners and none of them (not even the native speakers) adopts the role of language expert: they are peer travelers and the focus is on the message and on maintaining the community through the sharing of experiences. firth (2009a) reports similar findings in his study of work-related elf interactions. the interactions contain many examples of non-standard language use, but the language proficiency of the participants (low or high) is not topicalized or commented on, attention being focused on accomplishing expedient business goals and “maintaining convivial ‘business’ relationships” (firth, 2009a: 149). features of elf interactions in travel blogs ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148 137 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 137 5.2. backchanneling backchanneling, a common resource in elf interactions (meierkord, 2000; cogo & dewey, 2012), is very frequent in elf blog comments to show listenership, i.e. the reader shows that he/she is following the blog and is interested in the story. (5) c: cool stories mate (sounds uncannily similar to mine!) – sounds like you’ve had an awesome few years! long may in continue. b: ha! i can imagine. considering how long we’ve been on the road it would be more strange not to have a few good tales to tell (nomadic samuel) (6) c1: my favorite ice cream is chocolate with salty liquorice sauce, it’s so delicious! b: mmmmmm…it is the best! c2: wow! what a craving to have at 30,000 feet. *laugh* (nomadic samuel) as in examples (5) and (6), backchanneling often takes the form of expressions of approval and interest. the language used in example (5) contributes to creating an intimate relationship and reveals the commenter’s and blogger’s desire to show that they are “birds of a feather”, members of the same group, with similar interests and similar experiences to tell. the discussions analyzed displayed a high number of occurrences of some elements characteristic of e-grammar (herring, 2012a) that function as backchannels: parenthetical metadiscursive devices (mmmmmm, wow), expressions of laughter, including “performative predications” (*laugh*), representations of laughter (hahahaha), acronyms such as lol, or emoticons. emoticons are especially frequent, to the point that in some discussions most of the comments include an emoticon (e.g. the discussion triggered by the post “an unusual love for finnish salmiakki” in nomadic samuel). 5.3. code-switching forty-three comments in the corpus contained examples of code-switching. code-switching in elf interactions does not always result from a lack of language knowledge, but it is often a creative way to facilitate intercultural communication, to express a multilingual identity, and to signal solidarity and group membership (cogo, 2009; klimpfinger, 2009). there are two different maría-josé luzón ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148138 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 138 types of switches: into the speaker’s first language and into an ln (a coparticipant’s l1) (pölzl, 2003; klimpfinger, 2009). both types of switches occur in the travel blog discussions analyzed. examples (7) to (10) illustrate switches into the writer’s l1: (7) c: if you ever get to this part of romania, it would be great to meet and show you around! pa! (wanderingearl) (8) c: marhaba samuel! shukran for visiting my blog about my adventures (and misadventures) living & travelling in the middle east! now it’s my turn to scour your blog for south east asia stories (…), mashallah very soon! (nomadic samuel) (9) c: wow, what a beautiful collection of photos. (…) wonderful! (…) one small note: the shinto shrine gates are “torii” with two i’s, not one; “tori” with one i refers to birds. it would be great if you could fix that; every time i read about a torii gate, i kept thinking about birds. hehe. anyway, great post; thank you. and akemashite omedetoh!!! (legal nomads) (10) my daughter (…) loves the salmiakki almost as much as her dad (me). last friday she found my box of salmiakkis, and brought that to me and said “auttaa” (means help in finnish) and wanted me to open it. (nomadic samuel) in this corpus the most common types of switches are speech acts (e.g. thanking), greetings and interjections, as illustrated in examples (7) to (9). many of them are what klimpfinger (2009) calls “emblematic switches”: tags, exclamations or parentheticals from a language other than english placed in the elf utterance. for instance, in example (7) the commenter uses pa [bye] to express solidarity and make the blogger feel welcome to romania. example (8) presents a comment by a blogger that in her own blog writes in taglish5. in the example there are three switches: marhaba [welcome], shukran [thanks] and mashallah (an arabic word used to show appreciation and praise, and to remind that everything is achieved by the will of allah). the commenter’s switches to arabic show her desire to signal her multicultural identity. this is a clear example of what pölzl (2003) refers to as “culture laden” switches, which export cultural concepts into the elf community. in addition, the arabic words evoke qualities such as exoticism and authenticity, which are key concepts in tourism communication (jaworski et al., 2004; cappelli, 2013). this helps to construct the commenter’s own blog as an exotic place and thus encourage readers to visit it. features of elf interactions in travel blogs ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148 139 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 139 in example (9) the switch is one of the devices used by the commenter to convey solidarity and thus mitigate a possibly face-threatening act. after asking the blogger to correct a spelling mistake, which has cultural relevance, the commenter resorts to laughter (hehe), expressions of approval and thanking and code-switching – akemashite omedetoh [happy new year] – to convey intimacy and make up for the correction. the emblematic switch into japanese acts as an invitation for the addressee (a traveler in japan) to share the commenter’s culture and to co-construct an interculture. in example (10) the switch helps to depict a scene from a distinctly finnish cultural landscape and thus show the commenter’s loyalty to his lingua-culture. all these examples of switches into the commenter’s own l1 illustrate how code-switching creates a multilingual identity, with english being used to emphasize the commenters’ cosmopolitan face and the l1 their ethno-linguistic face (o’driscoll, 2001). interestingly, although in spoken elf interactions the speakers who switch into their l1 sometimes translate the expression into english to make sure that their interlocutors understand (pölzl, 2003), in the comments analyzed in this study switches into l1 were not translated into english (except in two occurrences; see example 10), not even in the cases where the commenter could assume that the blogger or the other commenters were not fluent enough to understand the original. the fact that the blog discussions are not synchronous communication, and that, therefore, readers can look up the meaning of the switches if they do not understand, may account for this absence of translation. in addition, this absence may reflect the commenter’s involvement in a process of inter-culture construction (klimpfinger, 2007). instead of translating cultural concepts unfamiliar for the readers, the commenter invites the reader to accept them as part of the inter-culture that is being co-created in this particular elf situation and thus the switch serves to construct group-solidarity. in the corpus there are also switches into an ln, used as a way to signal rapport and act politely. (11) post: romania road trip c: hey earl! i’ve been following your blog for years now and actually posted a comment right before you first came to romania (…) b: salut ilinca – ha, that’s funny…small world (wanderingearl) (12) c: as a romanian part of the desperation that wrapped us up and maría-josé luzón ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148140 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 140 quickly united us (…) to beat the corrupted system against all odds, thank you for genuinely understanding what happened and how much it meant for all of us. b: hey elena – multumesc for sharing your thoughts here! (wanderingearl) (13) c: hi brendan! i am argentinean living in the us (…) what would you say would be a daily budget for patagonia? (…) b: hola angie, como estas! paraguay is much cheaper (…) c: hola brendan! i think you may have misread my comment jajaja, i am visiting patagonia, not paraguay b: ayyy dios. i swear i’m not drunk (brendan adventures). in examples (11) and (12) the blogger uses the ln to greet and thank his interlocutors in their own language, the switch serving to instantiate his polite face (o’driscoll, 2001). example (12) consists of one comment to the blogger’s post on presidential elections in romania (c) and the blogger’s answer (b). the commenter thanks the blogger for understanding the situation in romania and the commenter responds with a switch into romanian to express his solidarity with and closeness to the romanian people. in example (13) both the blogger and the commenter switch into spanish, the commenter’s l1. after the blogger has switched into spanish to accommodate to her argentinian interlocutor and show rapport, the commenter also switches into spanish to acknowledge the blogger’s appreciation of her l1: even the verbal expression of laugh is in spanish (jajajaja). these “responsive switches”, which are also found in the blog data analyzed by vettorel (2014), contribute to creating an intimate atmosphere and an affective shared space, where participants can engage in friendly talk about common interests. some interesting examples of code-switching occur in blogs by expat anglophone speakers who switch into the language of the country where they live. example (14) shows a fragment of a post by an american expat in spain and a comment by a spanish speaker: features of elf interactions in travel blogs ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148 141 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 141 (14) post: “breaking: expat blogger goes on the lam after spaniards threaten to eat her newborn” fragments from post i just couldn’t believe it! my mother-in-law threatened to ‘comersela’ as soon as she saw the poor baby! (…) *blog may be on hiatus for a bit, cariños. i got bigger cagadas to fry these days. comment c1 (spanish speaker): ja, ja, ja, very good post, a very sharp satire, you know, the spaniards like us pezqueñines, angulas, chanquetes, cochinillo, cordero lechal. keep your little princess away from the jaws of family, friends, acquaintances and passers. and especially, congratulations to the parents and welcome to the princesita. b: muchisimas gracias, jesús! (passtheham) in this example, the blogger does not present herself as a traveler but as an expat, writing probably for compatriots and for friends in the host country (spain). she makes reference, ironically, to the spanish use of the verb comer [to eat] to express affection for babies. estar para comérselo/la is used to express that a baby is cute. although the switch comérsela helps to establish a boundary between the expat community and the spanish hosts, with the expats sharing similar experiences with the local language, the humorous and ironical mood of the post suggests that the switch has an empathetic and affective social function vis-à-vis spanish speakers. there are other switches that reflect the blogger’s intention to indicate a special bond to the spanish culture and create an intimate relationship with her spanish readers: cariños is an expression of affection and cagadas makes reference to her baby’s poo. the commenter’s switches into his l1 to make reference to the spanish culture: pezqueñines, angulas, chanquetes, cochinillo, cordero lechal are typical spanish dishes consisting of baby animals. princesita is an affectionate term to refer to little girls, used here by the spanish speaker to emphasize the welcome to the spanish culture. the blogger answers back with a new switch into spanish to reinforce her affiliation to the spanish lingua-culture. examples (15) and (16) belong to another blog by an american expat in italy. in the blog she often switches into italian to index her bicultural identity. most of the switches are greetings or isolated words or phrases, used to maría-josé luzón ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148142 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 142 connect with her italian readers, who also code-switch, but there are also fragments where english and italian alternate (e.g. example 16). (15) c: ma che brava! great post as usual. (…) i hope you have fun too. best wishes for 2015. ciao bella. b: ha, ha, ha…i love how you got hubbie a pair too! (…) buon anno (vinovitaviaggi) (16) c: i have read your article 4 times already and can’t get enough! it’s so sweet the way your are talking about our caffè that is almost touching! (…) but moka is the very first thing i put in my suitcase every time i move out, because i just can’t get up from the bed if i know that my caffè is not there …… what about all the other variants to those “normal” orders? what about all those long structured names, like un caffè macchiato freddo in tazza grande? :) b. hi silvy!!!! sei proprio carina….mi fai ridere! you packed the moka!! ha ha, ha…sei fantastica! poi…hai ragione….i have a friend who always ordered: “caffe d’orzo – tazza grande” ha, ha, ha…. buona domenica! (vinovitaviaggi) in example (15) the commenter is an italian expat in england, so the codeswitching on both parts is used to indicate that they belong to the same group, sharing an anglopohone/italian culture. in example (16) the commenter uses code-switching to emphasize her ethnolinguistic face by referring to concepts related to the italian culture (our caffé, moka, caffè macchiato freddo in tazza grande), which are shared and understood by the interlocutors. the blogger answers by alternating the two languages in order to emphasize her bicultural identity and signal her strong bond to the italian culture: this is a clear example of the use of code-switching as an indicator of strong integration into a culture and not the result of deficient knowledge of the language. in addition to code-switching, participants in blogs also indicate solidarity and belonging to the community of elf users by using english to refer explicitly to aspects of their own culture and nationality (examples 17 to 20). the references help the speakers construct their bi-cultural identities and their belonging to a community of cosmopolitan travelers who interact in english but may belong to other lingua cultures: (17) you can take an asian out of the country, but you can’t take the asian out of us. what can i say, i need my soy sauce (gqtrippin) features of elf interactions in travel blogs ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148 143 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:30 página 143 (18) thanks for warming my finnish heart. (nomadic samuel) (19) hope you enjoy portugal, my country! (legal nomads) (20) b: woah! never even heard about salmiakki coffee. oh, the ice cream was one of my favs c: they serve salmiakki coffee in the salmiakkikioski b: that gives me a great reason to go back when i’m in helsinki again (nomadic samuel) the travel blogs in the corpus are platforms for interaction among members from different lingua-cultures, who have the opportunity to share aspects related to their primary culture with other members of the travel blogging community. example (20) is interesting because the cultural reference (salmiakkikioski, with no further explanation) could be an attempt to signal in-grouping with the participants in the interaction, by establishing social boundaries between travel bloggers (who are already familiar with or have a genuine interest in aspects of the local culture) and tourists. 5.4. metacomments in the corpus analyzed there were only three comments on the use of language or the interactants’ communicative behaviour (examples 22 to 24), although this scarcity of comments may be due to the small size of the corpus. (21) b: i just couldn’t believe it! my mother-in-law threatened to ‘comersela’ as soon as she saw the poor baby! (…) c: (anglophone speaker) ah, the literal spanish! (…). enhorabuena on the baby (…) (passtheham) (22) one small note: the shinto shrine gates are “torii” with two i’s, not one; “tori” with one i refers to birds (…) every time i read about a torii gate, i kept thinking about birds (legal nomads) (23) just one minor correction. although salmiakki is also known as “salty liquorice”, it’s not actually a kind of liquorice. salmiakki is ammonium chloride (nomadic samuel) unlike in the corpus of blogs analyzed by vettorel (2014), none of the participants in the travel blogs commented on their (lack of) proficiency or on their status as non-native speakers. however, one of the commenters maría-josé luzón ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148144 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:31 página 144 wrote the following statement in her self-presentation in her own blog (leandra adventurera blog), written in taglish: writes from the heart, in my imperfect taglish. so please don’t call the grammar police. :). she ironically conceptualizes “taglish” as imperfect, but this is the language she identifies with and claims the right to use this language for communication. in example (21) an english native speaker sighs ah, the literal spanish! after the blogger’s anecdote about how some metaphorical meanings of spanish words may be difficult to understand for english speakers. the ironic comment and the subsequent switch into spanish illustrate the complexity of expats’ identity. they simultaneously signal in-grouping of expats in spain and suggest the bonding of the expats in this interaction with the spanish lingua-culture. in examples (22) and (23) the non-anglophone commenters correct the use of their l1 by another participant or clarify aspects related to their primary culture, in both cases mitigating face threat (one small note, minor correction) and suggesting that this is a common error (every time i read about a torii gate, also known as ‘salty liquorice’). the comment in example (23) is triggered because both the blogger and the commenters (finnish and non-finnish) refer to salmiakki as “liquorice” and one of them as “salty liquorice”. through comments (22) and (23) the writers express a loyalty to their culture, and emphasize their ethnolinguistic face, while inviting the others to share “insider cultural knowledge”. 6. conclusions this paper has analyzed four elf strategies used by participants in travel blog discussions. the analysis has revealed that participants in these blog interactions resort to several strategies to support interaction, show listenership and rapport, construct solidarity and signal affiliation as members of the community of travel bloggers. the make it normal and backchanneling strategies are typical of elf contexts, but they are also promoted by the supportive and collaborative nature of the blog genre: this is an open space where people from different places can share information, thoughts and experiences. the make it normal strategy and the lack of comments on the participants’ use of english reveal the norms negotiated within the community of travel bloggers. english is a linguistic resource owned by the community to achieve two goals: construct and maintain relations within the virtual community, features of elf interactions in travel blogs ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148 145 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:31 página 145 and share within the community. proficiency in english does not seem to be an issue of discussion, and the members of the community do not perform the role of english language experts or learners, but of peer travelers. as in firth’s (2009b) study, achieving the interactional goals of the community somehow requires deflecting attention away from language proficiency. code-switching is clearly triggered by the elf context: travel blogs provide a space where speakers with different lingua-cultures meet and can switch between languages, thus engaging in a dynamic process of identity creation. blog participants use their plurilingual resources to express their multilingual identity, show their belonging to an international community of travel bloggers, and, in the case of switches into an ln, express rapport to a culture different from their own. acknowledgements this research has been carried out within the national research project ffi2012-37346 (spanish ministry of economy and competitiveness) and the project h21 (gobierno de aragón and european social fund). article history: received 6 april 2015 received in revised form 20 august 2015 accepted 16 december 2015 references maría-josé luzón ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148146 akehurst, g. 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(2010). “bloggers’ reported tourist experiences: their utility as a tourism data source and their effect on prospective tourists”. journal of vacation marketing 16,4: 297-311. 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:31 página 147 maría josé luzón is senior lecturer at the university of zaragoza, spain. she holds a phd in english philology and has published papers on academic and professional discourse and on language teaching and learning in the field of english for specific purposes. her current research interests include the analysis of online academic genres, especially academic blogs, and the study of elf (english as a lingua franca) in specialized discourses and in online communication. notes 1 the term lingua-culture refers to the cultural dimension of language and implies that culture and language are inseparable. 2 voice is a corpus of english as it is spoken by non-native users. 3 native speakers are not excluded from elf communication. elf is “any use of english among speakers of different first languages for whom english is the communicative medium of choice” (seidlhofer, 2011: 7). 4 in the examples, c (c1, c2) refers to comments by readers, b refers to comments by the blogger, i.e. to answers by the blogger to previous comments. 5 “taglish” is tagalog with american terms. appendix i list of blogs from which posts to make up the corpus have been taken: adventurous miriam (http://adventurousmiriam.com/) brendan adventures (http://www.brendansadventures.com/top-100/) gqtrippin (http://gqtrippin.com/) legal nomads (http://www.legalnomads.com/) neverendingfootsteps (http://www.neverendingfootsteps.com/) nomadic matt (http://www.nomadicmatt.com/) nomadic samuel (http://nomadicsamuel.com/) pass the ham (http://passtheham.com/) places, people, stories (http://www.placespeoplestories.com/) twenty-something travel (http://twenty-somethingtravel.com/) vino vita viagi (http://vinovitaviaggi.com/) wandering earl (http://www.wanderingearl.com/) maría-josé luzón ibérica 31 (2016): 127-148148 08 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:31 página 148 berica 13 ibérica 16 [2008]: 169-182 abstract for most of its history of undergraduate medical english instruction at belgrade university, translation was a major part of teaching and assessment. educational reforms in the early 21st century resulted in a shift towards content-based instruction with the focus on reading comprehension and less translation. the paper analyses the new role of translation in the reformed serbian curriculum. a brief history of medical english instruction is outlined. the role of lexicon and the level of discourse within the teaching of english translation in the serbian curriculum are explored. some suggestions for the improvement of medical english translation in the serbian curriculum are offered. it has been shown that translation is a valuable skill to be mastered. translation exercises allow instructors to recognize language-related comprehension problems. furthermore, teaching translation is important in that future medical professionals are able to recognize different medical genres and structural differences between english and serbian. key words: medical english, reforms, translation, lexicon, medical genres. resumen el papel de la traducci�n en la docencia universitaria del ingl�s m�dico durante la mayor parte de la historia de la docencia del inglés médico en la universidad de belgrado, la traducción ha constituido un asunto prioritario como técnica docente y de evaluación. las reformas educativas acometidas a comienzos del siglo xxi trajeron como resultado el cambio hacia una docencia basada en contenidos, mucho más centrada en la comprensión lectora y mucho menos en la traducción. en el presente trabajo se estudia el nuevo papel que ha adquirido la traducción en las titulaciones serbias tras la reforma. en primer lugar se esboza la historia de la docencia del inglés médico. seguidamente se analiza el the role of translation in undergraduate medical english instruction1 sofija micic university of belgrade (serbia) smicic@ptt.rs 169 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 169 papel que juegan el léxico y el discurso en la docencia de la traducción al tiempo que se ofrecen sugerencias encaminadas a mejorar la técnica docente de la traducción del inglés médico como parte del currículum académico en serbia. la traducción se presenta como una destreza muy valiosa a dominar por parte de los alumnos y, por lo que respecta a los docentes, los ejercicios de traducción posibilitan el diagnóstico de posibles problemas lingüísticos. por último, la enseñanza de la traducción resulta muy importante en el sentido de que capacitará a los futuros profesionales médicos a reconocer los distintos géneros del lenguaje médico especializado así como las diferencias existentes entre las lenguas inglesa y serbia. palabras clave: inglés médico, reformas, traducción, léxico, géneros médicos. introduction since the mid-20th century, english has become the lingua franca for medical research, and english terms have been imported into many languages. the predominance of english gives native speakers a competitive advantage over those who have to acquire sufficient linguistic skills to communicate their results (berghammer, 2006). some authors have written about the struggle with english by non-native speakers. benfield calls this weak appreciation of the conventions of discourse in english the “english language burden” (elb) (benfield, 2007: 363). for most of its history, english for specific purposes (esp) has been dominated by english for academic purposes (eap), and by the subspecialty english for science and technology (est) (swales, 1988). eap continues to dominate internationally (johns & dudley-evans, 1993). eap and esp are now commonly referred to as international scientific english (ise). the common feature of this discourse community is the skilful use of english to write science. scientific research, not language, is the focus and this has interesting consequences for the teaching of est. if english is seen as ise, it forms part of science, and is therefore also an integral part of “becoming a scientist” nowadays (wood, 2001). medical english instruction at belgrade university school of medicine is in its 20th year. it is compulsory in the first and second years. a graded examination after the second year was changed to a pass/fail evaluation in 2005. until 2000, translation from and into english had been included in such exams, but was replaced by reading comprehension. classes are mostly sofija micic ibérica 16 [2008]: 169-182170 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 170 in english, and translation is still a part of the course because physicians must be able to recognize different medical genres and structural differences between english and serbian. today, this new content-based approach therefore includes grammar, vocabulary, translation and reading comprehension. this paper explains why we still continue to teach medical translation. relevant translation objectives and recommendations are outlined. a brief history of medical english instruction at belgrade university our main principle is to build upon our students’ high school english, develop cognitive academic competence, and discipline-specific language competence, in line with recommendations by chimbganda in the african context (chimbganda, 2000). we differentiate between courses for young students and courses for doctors. those for the former are “wide-angle courses”, developing broad skills for the future. “broad” means that a range of target events are covered, whilst “narrow” implies concentrating on one or two skills (dudley-evans & st john, 1998). traditionally, medical english courses for young students have focused on reading; but now speaking and listening are considered equally important. from 1987 to 2004, the grammar-translation method was dominant, whilst the main feature since 2004 has been content-based instruction. according to wang and bakken (2004), esl learners’ perception of english courses is restricted to instruction in grammar; they have little knowledge of audience awareness, rhetorical patterns, coherence, tones, and composition skills and strategies, and initially our students were no different. the grammar-translation method implies that the students are taught the target language based on their native language, serbian. this requires high linguistic and grammatical awareness. rather than to situations, students link what they want to say to the equivalent source language structures, and it takes much longer to become fluent in the target language. with this approach, however, they learn how to use tools such as grammar books and dictionaries, and how to adequately decode new structures. our students were expected to translate from english to serbian and vice versa. they performed well translating into serbian, but not into english, and this affected examination success. teaching students to learn structural sentence the role of translation ibérica 16 [2008]: 169-182 171 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 171 patterns did not, however, enable them to use those patterns in communication. in 1999, this approach was considered outdated, and was gradually abandoned in favour of a content-based approach. a content-based approach means that what is read and why it is read are determined by the need to acquire particular information rather than to learn a discrete language point. content serves as the principle for determining course content (kirschner & wexler, 2002). to achieve the primary goal, students must perceive an improvement in their english vocabulary and reading fluency (kirschner & wexler, 2002). the content should derive from the students’ major academic discipline and physicians need to be able to read the literature in their field in english with proficiency. in eap courses in efl settings, reading remains the primary focus, complemented by speaking, listening and writing (kirschner & wexler, 2002). the aim is to encourage them not to translate everything into their native language so they develop a feel for the target language similar to that for their native language. this is known as the “communicative” approach. classes are mostly in english; moreover, translation into serbian is still a part of the course, and is considered necessary. the combination of a contrastive and a communicative method has been successful and involved developing a new textbook based on authentic materials focusing on the communicative approach (micic, 2007a). training focuses on three goals: (1) text structure in different languages; (2) languages for specific purposes (lsp); and (3) the special domain –i.e., the medical register. text structure is often complex and represents a major difficulty. reading and re-reading of short texts with different subjects, and parallel reading of textbooks in the source and target languages are used. idiomatic and idiolectic aspects, such as special terms, false friends, and eponyms need explanation, as does the effect of source language and poor writing on the way medical terms are used in texts. training therefore involves intensive use of printed and electronic documentation, and instructors must ensure that connections between language and subject matter knowledge are made, and that information transfer encourages and stimulates the creativity of the students to seek expert advice when necessary (lee-jahnke, 1998). sofija micic ibérica 16 [2008]: 169-182172 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 172 the role of translation in the serbian curriculum our students are studying medicine not translation, but still need to develop language awareness. because language is closely related to subject-matter knowledge, translators must know the subject they are addressing, not only to master translation problems successfully, but also to identify potential pitfalls (berghammer, 2006). it is definitely productive to give them exercises on new subject matter at the beginning of the training so they gain a better understanding (reeves-ellington, 1998). selinker (1979) proposes nine areas for instruction: common language words used technically, relative strength of claims made by language users, contextual paraphrases, grammatical choice, modal words, rhetorical structure, punctuation structure, and connectives (douglas, 2002). translation requires more than exchanging terms or phrases between languages, adhering to grammatical rules, and choosing the appropriate register. it is a meaning-focused activity concerned with mental processes of analysis and synthesis, communicative language use, the reproduction of structured discourse, and the sharpening of comprehension skills (al-kufaishi, 2004). the role of lexicon within the teaching of english translation in the serbian curriculum vocabulary learning and teaching relate to both receptive understanding of language and its productive use. difficulties arise from lack of vocabulary and confusion between similar-sounding words (jordan, 1997). in esp/ise, differences are made between terms or specialist vocabulary and semitechnical, subtechnical or context-independent academic words that occur with high frequency across disciplines (jordan, 1997). words can have special meanings in specific fields, or one or more “general” english meanings, or have an extended meaning in specific fields (trimble, 1985). students must be aware of the difference between sub-medical and proper medical terminology because the choice depends on the audience (wakabayashi, 1996). coxhead and nation (2001) write about four categories: high frequency words; the academic vocabulary (sub-technical vocabulary); technical vocabulary; and low frequency words. greek and latin are still the basis for medical terminology (mcmorrow, 1998) because they are precise and internationally comprehensible (berghammer, 2006). greekand latin-based terms can be analysed from prefixes, roots and suffixes so that the meaning is readily understood (for the role of translation ibérica 16 [2008]: 169-182 173 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 173 instance, “ultramicrotomy”: “ultra” = “excess, beyond”; “micro” = “minute, small”; “tomy” = “cutting” (hence, “the technique of cutting into very thin pieces”). there is no widely accepted language of medicine in medical publications in serbian. popular terms once tended to be used, but this is not justified as such publications are written for professionals (slavkovic, 2004). when writing for a scientific journal, one serbian author may use the term rilizing hormon, another oslobadjajuci hormon, and a third liberin (micic, 2004) to mean “releasing hormone”. terms are often cognate with the equivalent term in the students’ first language and only pose pronunciation difficulties (“diagnosis” = dijagnoza, or “pneumonia” = pneumonija). non-cognate terms, especially subtechnical concepts, need explanation and a different pedagogical approach (“history” = anamneza, or “strain” = naprezanje). english has a synonym in everyday speech for many medical terms, such as “hemorrhage/bleeding”, or “myopia/shortsightedness”. the choice of word depends on the audience. a major difference between scientific serbian and scientific english is the former’s partiality for the learned word (“itching” = pruritus, “clotting” = koagulacija). the third lexical feature of esp/ise are noun strings plus necessary adjectives (less often verbs and adverbs) forming a concept with a “single noun” idea (compounds). the english language of medicine is full of such compounds. the fast growth of scientific knowledge in the past half century has generated many new terms, particularly multiterm words, such as “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” (berghammer, 2006). attempts to translate compounds into a language that does not compound usually result in long and unwieldy phrases (trimble, 1985). examples: “gonadotropinreleasing hormone” = hormon koji oslobadja gonadotropin, “arsenic-fast virus” = virus rezistentan na arsenik. vocabulary may be gathered to facilitate cognitive processing in three ways: first, as situational and metaphor sets; second, collocations –lexical sets, the members of which collocate with each other; and, third, lexical phrases –chunks of language that are characteristic of genre moves (dudley-evans & st john, 1998). lists of technical terms can be developed by compiling dictionaries or by using corpus-based frequency counts (coxhead & nation, 2001). the latter is very relevant for technical writing because of subtle usage differences (kerans, 2006). the original text should sound as “natural” as possible in the target language, meaning that word-for-word translation is inappropriate. translators learn to identify units of meaning, usually sofija micic ibérica 16 [2008]: 169-182174 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 174 collocations. collocations and their target language equivalents belong to the implicit knowledge gained by experienced translators. in this sense, corpus linguistics tells us that translation equivalence is not something that latently always exists: translation equivalence has to be construed (teubert, 2004). monolingual and bilingual dictionaries play a critical role in translation and its teaching. many students use bilingual dictionaries, but need to be able to use monolingual dictionaries to be advanced users of the language. bilingual dictionaries provide synonyms, and it can be difficult to select the best. monolingual dictionaries provide guidance on usage, style, and context of use (jordan, 1997). in-depth medical knowledge is necessary to enable fine judgments on the appropriateness of a term (wakabayashi, 1996). by using examples, students also benefit from instruction in verb pattern codes, the use of prepositions, phrasal verbs, (un)countable nouns, by using examples (huang, 1985; jordan, 1997). scientific dictionaries need to be frequently updated. glossaries from companies, specialized articles from the medical press, research reports, and medical textbooks available in several languages are therefore also basic reference works (lee-jahnke, 1998). the basic meaning of a word in a dictionary may not be the same as the meaning it will have in the context in hand (for instance, “ambulance” is not ambulanta (“ambulatory service” or “outpatients’ department”) but “vehicle for patient transport”). knowing the current blend of standard english from all scientific and technological sources, including new eponyms, acronyms, abbreviations and trade names is just as important (mcmorrow, 1998). this principle has been applied in a new bilingual medical dictionary by micic (2007b). the level of discourse within the teaching of english translation in the serbian curriculum even if a student has a good bilingual dictionary, this is not enough. translation errors often occur because words are not translated in isolation and the context almost always has some effect on the meaning. for example, the term “cervical cancer” is usually translated as rak vrata which is an incorrect equivalent meaning “cancer of the neck” (not the neck between the head and body). the problem of “meaning” can be traced back to the rigidity and frequent irrelevancy of meanings given in dictionaries (sinclair, 1998). translated texts also often show signs of source language interference, leading to inauthenticity, but grammatical and lexical features in both the the role of translation ibérica 16 [2008]: 169-182 175 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 175 target and source languages may be equally authentic in both (james, 1999). the student must also know that the core purpose of specialised medical texts consists of an exact description and classification of concrete phenomena: objectives, changes, analytical processes, measures to be taken, methods, causes and effects (lee-jahnke, 1998). features of scientific texts are: nominalization of verbs and adjectives, technical terms, extended nominal groups, tentative language, causal and reasoning verbs, and impersonal language and passivisation (parkinson, 2000). medical writing style implies a certain degree of impersonality, avoidance of prolixity, exact description, fixed methods of reporting, hypothesising (mcmorrow, 1998), and conveying the impression of objectivity (nash, 1990). for example, “he was discharged home in good condition” is a common phrase, and it would be inappropriate to transform it into “they discharged him home in good condition.” knowledge of the phraseology of the genre (i.e. a command of the semi-prestructured phrases that occur in medical papers) will help students to understand and create meaning (marco, 2000). medical jargon is full of sequences of words and idioms which may sound unusual in everyday speech. for example, the phrase “the patient complains of ...” has nothing to do with the patient “complaining”, but means that the patient “is presented with”. case reports follow strict conventions that determine the phrases used to describe a particular medical situation. for example, “the postoperative course was uneventful”: the term “uneventful” cannot be literally translated. to change or ignore the standard phrases is to fail to adhere to the conventions of the target text, making it sound less professional and perhaps even compromising its scientific credibility (berghammer, 2006). still worse, inaccuracies in medical translations may have serious clinical consequences (o’neill, 1998). ribes and ros (2006) advise against translating papers from native languages into english; instead, authors should write in english directly, based on a published article that closely resembles the paper they wish to produce. traditional translation activities in the classroom are aimed at a single and particularly biased reader: the teacher. the artificial character of this situation may lead to a lack of motivation in producing texts that would appeal to other potential readers. the instructor’s feedback also influences the student’s performance (lee-jahnke, 1998). translation as part of a comprehensive course is used to highlight rhetorical devices that give prominence to items of information in an argument (alkufaishi, 2004). sometimes it is needed to (self-) diagnose problems with sofija micic ibérica 16 [2008]: 169-182176 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 176 complex sentences and highlight areas of language that need further study (grammar or vocabulary) or the appropriate style (abstract). the aim is also to help students gain a sense of when they really need to translate, because some take time to translate out of habit, even though they have already understood a phrase (although some always will translate). translation practice also helps students to gain deeper understanding of abstract information structure and research article design and structure. some suggestions for the improvement of medical english translation in the serbian curriculum translation is an activity that has to be repeated. after students have produced a first draft, teachers should pose questions in the margin, underline problem areas, suggest alternatives for consideration, suggest terminology research strategies (bilingual medical dictionaries, encyclopaedic dictionaries, textbooks, articles, internet searches), and suggest where they might need help with concepts. grammar is of secondary importance. students should be encouraged to show their translation to an expert in the medical field in question for their opinion. our experience has shown that students gain adequate experience from instruction in translation from english into serbian. translation exercises from serbian into english have provided little benefit because they seem to be too linguistically demanding for medical students who are trained to become medical doctors, not professional translators. we should follow recommendations for problem-based teaching: • encourage independent thinking and the recognition of strengths and weaknesses • foster critical self-evaluation skills • build self-confidence • develop flexibility and adaptability • improve capacity for learning in general (waters & waters, 2001). when faced with the problem of finding equivalents for terms not listed in medical dictionaries, basic recommendations are (wakabayashi, 1996): • make use of all the information in the text. • use a reverse medical word-finder, which works backwards from a definition of the term. the role of translation ibérica 16 [2008]: 169-182 177 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 177 • read english texts on similar topics and select plausible terms that seem to fit. completion of words in an english text with an appropriate term (multiple choice or blanks) is an excellent exercise (wakabayashi, 1996). adult learning is facilitated by mutual understanding and a respectful context. collaboration and learning with peers and partners who have shared goals and diverse perspectives encourages persistence and application which helps adult learners become more reflective, confident, and self-directed (merriam & caffarella, 1999; wang & bakken, 2004). team-teaching is also of the utmost importance. team-teaching means that the language and subject teachers work together in the same classroom (dudley-evans, 2001). thus eap teachers can only deliver work effectively if they have the active cooperation of subject teachers, inside and outside the classroom, with regard to content and expectations. swales (1988) summarized the roles of the three participants, the students, the subject teacher and the language teacher as follows: the language teacher prepares the material for the session in co-operation with the subject teacher and runs the session; the subject teacher is an advisor clarifying the points about the subject and evaluating the students’ contributions, and the students raise questions (dudley-evans, 2001). other developments in team-teaching include sessions on writing of classroom genres such as examination answers, project reports or the dissertation (johns, 1995), and an experiment in slovenia where the language teacher co-operated with subject teachers in the department of chemical education and computing (vukadinovic, 1998). the latter model increased the relevance of the english class and enabled a number of “grey areas” to be covered (like the structure of a laboratory report), and also reduced the problem of the isolation of the eap teacher. eap courses developed in isolation run the risk of losing their dynamism (dudley-evans, 2001). co-operation and collaboration between experienced applied linguists and specialists in the subject matter on all levels are therefore paramount (benfield & feak, 2006). conclusion good translation requires good knowledge of the mother tongue and the foreign language. major problems with this in serbia are insufficient competence in serbian and the unstandardised serbian “language of sofija micic ibérica 16 [2008]: 169-182178 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 178 medicine”. both make the medical english instructor’s work truly challenging. in our courses, translation exercises into serbian allow us to diagnose language-related comprehension problems so that we can take appropriate action. the focus of our courses is on active peer group discussion of real texts. our students often resort to translation whether we think they need to or not; our aim is to give them the right guiding principles when doing so. translators are their own lexicographers; this implies constant and intensive reading of the medical literature in both languages (van hoof, 1998). research is needed into the way words behave in certain subject areas and the general discourse functions of academic vocabulary (coxhead & nation, 2001). the necessary knowledge of the subject matter may be acquired through reading the relevant reference material which is easy to obtain. we want our students to become good technical translators with our guidance for their own purposes. they should be aware that although they may be proficient in english and good experts, they are not technical translators, and should know when to seek the help of expert medical linguists. 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(1979). “on the use of informants in discourse analysis and language for specific purposes”. international review of applied linguistics 17: 189215. sinclair, j. (1998). “the lexical item” in e. weigand (ed.), contrastive lexical semantics, 1-24. amsterdam: john benjamins. slavkovic, v. (2004). “neke nase zablude o jeziku medicinske struke”. medicinski casopisi i clanci: drugi strucni sastanak – zbornik radova, srpski arhiv za celokupno lekarstvo, posebno izdanje, 56-61. swales, j. (1988). episodes in esp. new york: prentice hall. teubert, w. (2004). “units of meaning, parallel corpora, and their implications for language teaching” in u. connor & t.a. upton (eds.), applied corpus linguistics –a multidimensional perspective, 172-189. new york: rodopi. trimble, l. (1985). english for science and technology. a discourse approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. van hoof, h. (1998). “the language of medicine: a comparative ministudy of english and french” in h. fischbach (ed.), 49-65. vukadinovic, n. (1998). when chemistry is bonded with english: a case study of teamteaching. copenhagen: mimeo. wakabayashi, j. (1996). “teaching medical translation”. meta xli: 356-365. wang, m. & l.l. bakken (2004). “an academic writing needs assessment of english-as-a-second-language clinical investigators.” the journal of continuing education in the health professions 24: 181-189. waters, a. & m. waters (2001). “designing tasks for developing study competence and study skills in english” in j. flowerdew & m. peacock (eds.), 375-389. wood, a. (2001). “international scientific english: the language of research scientists around the world” in j. flowerdew & m. peacock (eds.), 71-83. 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 180 and morley scholar (2004/05, 2007), editor of the column “language of medicine” in “serbian archives of medicine” and emwa epdc member since 2007. note 1 a shorter version of this work was presented at the 2nd mediterranean editors and translators meeting in barcelona, spain, 27-28 october 2006. special thanks for useful comments to alistair reeves, a friend and fellow linguist in wiesbaden, germany. the role of translation ibérica 16 [2008]: 169-182 181 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 181 09 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:40 página 182 iberica 13 languages for specific purposes in the digital era. elena bárcena, timothy read, jorge arús (eds). heidelberg/new york/dordrecht/london: springer, 2015. 354 pages. isbn: 978-3-319-02222-2. research on computer-assisted language learning (call) applications for the teaching and learning of languages for specific purposes (lsps) is a vivid area in the linguistics field. the book languages for specific purposes in the digital era introduces a representative state of the art of methodological and technological innovation in the teaching and processing of linguistic domains. this book is not only intended for an academic audience, but for those interested in the way that computers and people work with domainspecific languages. the sixteen chapters provide a state-of-the-art vision of research and present knowledge in the interrelated fields of computer-based learning/teaching and processing of specialized domains. readers will discover different ways in which computational applications can facilitate the teaching and learning of lsp and related subjects, information regarding the different aspects of research and sublanguages, in addition to information about computational linguistics, call, and corpora. this book is divided into four sections, beginning with general issues regarding learning languages using computers, central questions related to lsp, the different roles that both teachers and learners play, specificity of materials, genre, and skills development. the first chapter deals with the role of information technology (it) in our society, and how it has contributed to transforming educational practices. technology is playing an important role in shaping education into new formats, which has inevitably led to a reappraisal of the roles that teachers and students play. the chapter continues to discuss lsp as a multidisciplinary activity and how it can be integrated in lsp. the second chapter focuses on how teaching on-line is a rapidly expanding phenomenon in language teaching, and particularly in english teaching. this chapter discusses that learners with lower proficiency levels tend to prefer face-to-face tuition and classroom interaction, whereas intermediate and advanced learners are more prone to investigate into more autonomous reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 279-300 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 258 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 258 learning scenarios. it also points out that the internet is slowly becoming a crucial part of english teaching practice. chapter 3 presents i-agent, a complete system available for real instructors to integrate collaborative work done online and face-to-face classroom lessons, via moodle. the atlas (artificial intelligence for linguistic applications) research group is cooperating in the development of i-agent (intelligent adaptative generic english tutor), a project that tries to merge intelligent computer assisted language learning (icall) with face-to-face instruction with an innovative approach. chapter 4 tackles the importance of assessment, which comes from both its influence in the way teachers and students address language teaching and learning and the changes it might introduce as far as methodologies, approaches and behavior of all participants in the language learning process are concerned. it also explores the assessment process of the basic skills tested by the cambridge esol first certificate in english examination (fce) and the ways in which the ingenio online preparatory materials contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of the assessment in both student self-assessment and tutor assessment. the second section of the book encompasses four chapters that deal with computer-assisted experiences for developing language skills and competences. the definition and understanding of lexicography discussed illustrate that present internet dictionaries are much more than digital versions of tangible dictionaries, as they can be turned into language learning and teaching tools. this chapter presents several possibilities for teaching and learning business english. the following chapter presents an example for teaching legal english through moodle glossary tasks. web-based collaborative tasks have recently been experimented in different areas of higher education and platforms such as moodle have made it easy for learners to publish their work in attractive formats. the chapter concludes by describing the design and implementation of two collaborative legal glossary-writing tasks, over two successive years, as part of a university legal english course. another chapter discusses the teaching and learning of specialized vocabulary through icts in general and, specifically, on computer-supported teaching and learning of maritime english (me) vocabulary. it seeks to show how computer-based instruction can be used in an esp course in order to learn specialized vocabulary. it argues that adding computer-based reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266 259 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 259 technology to this type of courses fosters collaborative work among students. the last chapter in this section presents a practical application of wikis for learning business english as a second language. it argues that wikis provide teachers with a clear insight into the development process of tasks carried out by students, allowing an overall evaluation of the knowledge construction process. additionally, the chapter expresses how teachers and students, who know and manage icts, acquire skills that help them to adapt to new technologies. the third section of the book explores corpus-based applications for teaching and processing (sub)languages. the first chapter presents a genre-based approach to the teaching of legal and business english. a team of teachers of language for specific purposes (lsp) and teachers of specialized translation agreed to work together in order to design and implement two lsp courses, which are part of the degree program in translation and interpreting of the university jaume i in spain. the chapter analyzes the impact of corpora on lsp teaching, presents the gentt example corpus of specialized discourse and discusses how lsp teachers and learners can efficiently use these tools. another example of innovative methods for lsp-teaching presented is the use corpora to teach business russian. during the last twenty years much work has been carried out on corpus development but this has had little effect in foreign language teaching, as the use of corpora for pedagogical purposes has not become commonplace. the chapter presents a practical use of corpora to facilitate vocabulary acquisition and to enhance students’ ability to recognize, and use, expressions in an appropriate context in business russian and other lsp subjects. the third chapter in this section provides an example of automatic specialized versus non-specialized text differentiation. the aim is to show that it is possible to differentiate specialized texts from nonspecialized texts written in latin languages by analyzing some grammatical features and not only lexicon. the last chapter explores the potential of corpus use in translation training by describing the new approaches which incorporate software in a danish translation course design. the chapter explains how learner’s autonomy in the field of specialized translation was increased thanks to the combination of functional translation strategies, genre analysis and corpus analysis. the last part of the book details natural language processing. one chapter is devoted to ecolexion, a multilingual terminological knowledge base. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266260 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 260 ecolexion is addressed to users who want to increase their knowledge of the environment with the objective of text generation or comprehension. it discusses ecolexion and explains how it provides a coherent information system. another chapter presents new approaches to audiovisual translation. corpus-based studies are a new and very useful tool for audiovisual text analysis. after detailing the empirical methods proposed by corpus linguists and how computing tools can be used for the analysis of audiovisual discourse, the author introduces the analysis of the corsubil corpus, a corpus of bilingual subtitles in english and spanish. the next chapter deals with pragmatics and presents the formalization of the pragmatic level into an annotation framework called ontolingannot. with this framework six pragmatic categories which can be used to annotate dialogues and texts are shown. the chapter starts by stating the background, then the pragmatic units, the attributes and values, the relationships that hold between the pragmatic units, and ends with the evaluation results and the main contributions of the framework. the last chapter of the book reviews the intended goals of the book, which sought to offer valuable insights and approaches that will help to shape future call and lsp research, teaching and learning. the fields of lsps and call have been nurturing each other intensively. researchers and readers interested in both fields have now a chance to enhance their knowledge thanks to the insight provided along this volume, as it represents one of the first comprehensive volumes to combine the use of technology and lsp issues. received 08 june 2016 accepted 13 june 2016 reviewed by ferran costa grel (grup de recerca en llengües) universitat d’andorra (andorra) fcosta@uda.ad reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266 261 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 261 02 meyer.qxp ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-21 abstract this article explores how the web can serve as a resource for teaching modality in english to prospective teachers of esl, efl and esp. the first section demonstrates how texts taken from two different registers on the web can be used to teach epistemic modality (e.g. how modal verbs such as may and could express notions of probability and certainty). the second section explores how the michigan corpus of academic spoken english (micase) can be searched to study deontic modality, specifically how the expressions should and might want to are used by teachers and advisors to give advice to students. the discussion demonstrates that teaching grammar is most effective when it is based on real data rather than contrived and decontextualized examples in grammar books. key words: corpus linguistics, the world wide web, data-driven learning, modality resumen lingüística del corpus, la web y la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa el presente artículo explora cómo la web puede servir de recurso para el aprendizaje de la modalidad en inglés por futuros profesores de inglés para segunda lengua, inglés como lengua extranjera e inglés para fines específicos. la primera parte del artículo explica cómo textos procedentes de dos registros distintos y obtenidos de la web pueden aplicarse a la enseñanza de la llamada modalidad epistémica (en concreto, los verbos modales como may y could para la expresión de probabilidad y certeza). la segunda parte del artículo se centra en el estudio de la modalidad deóntica utilizando el michigan corpus of academic spoken english (micase) y lo ilustra analizando las expresiones should y might want to, utilizadas éstas por profesores e instructores para dar consejos a los estudiantes. finalmente, el apartado de discusión valora la mayor efectividad de la enseñanza de la gramática basando ésta en ejemplos de uso real del idioma, a diferencia de los ejemplos inventados o descontextualizados que ofrecen las gramáticas clásicas. palabras clave: lingüística de corpus, internet, aprendizaje basado en corpus, modalidad until recently, corpus analyses had to be based on one or more of the many corpora available, such as the brown corpus (containing edited written american english) or corpus linguistics, the world wide web, and english language teaching charles f. meyer university of massachusetts boston meyer@cs.umb.edu 9 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 9 the british national corpus (comprised of spoken and written british english). however, the emergence of the world wide web and the vast amount of texts available on it has prompted many linguists and language teachers to conduct their corpus analyses using data from the web. as de schryver (2002) observes, the web can be used as or for a corpus. to exploit the web as a corpus, one can use webcorp, an online concordancing program that can be used to search for words and phrases on the web (morley, 2006). to exploit the web for a corpus, one can use kwikfinder, a program that allows for the collection of texts off the web for inclusion in a custom-made corpus of the user's design (fletcher, 2005).1 the web has additionally proven useful as a gateway to existent corpora: web-based interfaces are now available for searching such corpora as the british national corpus (bnc) or the michigan corpus of academic spoken english (micase). one of the distinct advantages of all of these web-based technologies is that they enable quick and easy access to corpus data. in the past, one had to purchase a corpus and software tools before conducting any analyses. now, it is possible to use, for instance, the freely available view (variation in english words and phrases), a textual analysis program that is available online,2 and that can be used to conduct sophisticated searches of the british national corpus. although web-based technologies have many applications, i will focus in my discussion on how i have used these technologies to educate future teachers whose goals are to teach english for specific purposes or english as a foreign/second language. background the approach i take to presenting grammar to my students is grounded heavily in the methodology of data-driven learning (ddl). ddl, as described by tim johns, is intended "to confront the learner as directly as possible with the data, and to make the learner a linguistic researcher […] [someone who is able] to recognize and draw conclusions from clues in the data […]" (johns, 2002: 108). in other words, instead of having students read grammar books and then, perhaps, complete exercises based on made-up sentences, instructors present a point of grammar by having students study, say, conditional clauses in a corpus and then draw their own conclusions based on the examples they find. strictly speaking, my students are teachers, not learners of english. but i find that many of them, particularly the americans, have a poor understanding of english grammar. in the american educational system, grammar is often not taught in english classes for native speakers, or it is presented very traditionally and prescriptively, with discussions based exclusively on notional definitions of grammatical categories ("a charles f. meyer ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-2110 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 10 noun is a person, place, thing, or idea"). many of the non-native speakers of english in my classes know grammar well, but need exposure to the use of grammatical constructions in real rather than contrived linguistic contexts. i have therefore found that ddl is a very useful methodology for teaching all aspects of grammar to my students. in fact, although the literature on ddl promotes this methodology for use with all levels of second language learners of english, it works best for advanced learners, who speak and write english adequately but are interested in exploring some of the more advanced points of english grammar. to teach grammar in this manner, i have devised a series of grammatical exercises that use the web as a medium of instruction. in the sections below, i discuss how i use ddl to teach modality in english. throughout the discussion i cite sources that i either refer to in class or have my students read prior to class. modality in english although theories of modality abound, most discussions recognize the difference between deontic (or root) modality and epistemic modality. while deontic modality "involve[s] some kind of intrinsic control over events," epistemic modality is more concerned with "human judgment of what is or is not likely to happen" (quirk et al., 1985: 219). if i say to a student of mine "you should study hard for tomorrow's exam," i am using the modal verb should deontically: i am attempting to regulate my student's behavior by telling her what she needs to do. if, on the other hand, i say to the student "study hard and you should do well on the exam," i am using should epistemically: i am making a judgment that her success on the exam is predicated upon her studying hard. if i had used will instead of should, my certainty of her success would have been even higher. students can typically grasp the general distinction between epistemic and deontic modality. however, when they have to apply the distinction to each of the individual modal verbs, modality can become a difficult notion to grasp, largely because there are subtle semantic and pragmatic differences between the choice of the various modal verbs. moreover, grammatical treatments of modals assign a range of different meanings for the modals: quirk et al. (1985: 221) posit seven meanings for the modals; mindt (1995: 164) seventeen meanings. my goal in presenting modality is to not overwhelm my students with all of the potential meanings of modal verbs. instead, i have developed two modules for investigating epistemic and deontic modality: one based on the choice of modals (and certain adverbs such as perhaps) to express varying degrees of probability in texts taken from two different registers, and a second based on the use of two directives-you might want to and you should-in two registers of micase. my goal in both modules is not only to demonstrate that the meanings of modals are corpus linguistics, the www, and elt ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-21 11 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 11 interrelated, but to show, as biber et al. (1999: 489) demonstrate, that modal usage varies considerably by register: that meaning is very context dependent and closely associated with the goals of the speaker/writer in a particular communicative situation. epistemic modality my discussion of epistemic modality is based on an analysis of two texts taken off the web from two different registers: scientific writing and press reportage. to represent scientific writing, i selected a semi-technical report on the topic of global warming ("climate change impacts on the united states" [cambanis, 2000]). to represent press reportage, i used a newspaper article describing shi'ite resistance in iraq (cambanis, 2005). after downloading the texts from the web, i used a shareware program, "htmasc,"3 that removes all html markup from a document, and produces a markupfree text file suitable for use in any text analysis program. since the two texts were of different length, i excerpted approximately 1000 words from each so that valid statistical comparisons between them could be made. each text was loaded individually into a freeware concordancing program called "simple concordance program."4 i use this concordancing program rather than others (such as wordsmith tools) because it is suitable for basic concordancing tasks and freely available for students to download and use on their own. in class, i have students suggest modal verbs and adverbs expressing varying degrees of probability that we can search for in each of the texts. after retrieving examples, we construct tables and discuss concordance views. table 1 lists the linguistic items examined and their raw frequencies in each of the texts. even though the two texts are relatively short, table 1 reveals some notable differences in the occurrence of markers of modality in each. the modal verbs in table 1 express differing degrees of probability: can, could, may, and might mark relatively low degrees of probability, and will and would relatively high degrees. all of the adverbials are members charles f. meyer ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-2112 marker climate change shi'ite resistance modal verb can(not) 5 1 could 4 0 may 1 0 might 0 1 will 9 6 * would 1 2 adverbial/modal combinations will probably 1 0 could possibly 2 0 will (very) likely 5 0 total: 28 total: 10 *4 instances in quoted speech; 1 instance in reported speech table 1. markers of modality in two texts. 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 12 of a class of content disjuncts that, according to quirk et al. (1985: 620), express "some degree of doubt": probably, possibly, and (very) likely. in general, as biber et al. (1999: 489) report, modals of possibility (with the exception of could) are more common in academic writing than news; in contrast, modals of high probability (which they categorize as expressing "prediction") are more common in news. that modals of low probability occurred more commonly in the climate change article is not surprising: as many of the examples in the concordance views in figure 1 illustrate, what is known about the causes of climate change is still being determined. the modals in each of the examples below express varying degrees of certainty: “unforeseen changes” may be the result of “unanticipated” events; increased “crop production” might affect the cost of food; it is possible that “changes in agricultural productivity” will affect global distributions of food. there are also very likely to be unanticipated impacts of climate change during the next century. such "surprises" may stem from unforeseen changes in the physical climate system […] it is also possible that a rise in crop production in fertile areas could cause prices to fall, benefiting consumers. effects of climate variability and change on us agriculture will depend critically on changes in agricultural productivity elsewhere, which can shift international patterns of food supply and demand. somewhat unexpected is the frequency of the modal will, which expresses a higher degree of certainty than may or could. but note that many of these instances are tempered by the use of adverbials expressing doubt: corpus linguistics, the www, and elt ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-21 13 may century. such "surprises" may stem from unforeseen changes in can long-lived infrastructure can be designed taking projected clim egy.//adaptation measures can, in many cases, reduce the magnit nt. adaptations, however, can involve trade-offs, and do involv uctivity elsewhere, which can shift international patterns of f could ems due to climate change could possibly have negative conseque oduction in fertile areas could cause prices to fall, benefitin that some us food exports could increase, depending on impacts will ore widespread ecosystems will also be vulnerable to climate ch st. reduction in snowpack will very likely alter the timing and r example, sea-level rise will very likely cause further loss o recreation such as skiing will very likely be reduced, and air nd air conditioning usage will very likely increase.//highly ma ting of sea ice in alaska will further damage forests, building ry likely.//these changes will, at minimum, increase discomfort agriculture, many farmers will probably be able to alter croppi d our potential responses will likely depend in part on impacts figure 1. concordance views (global warming). 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 13 reduction in snowpack will very likely alter the timing and amount of water […] many farmers will probably be able to alter cropping and management […] the infrequency of low probability markers of modality in the shi'ite resistance article is a consequence of the nature of reportage: reporters write about the facts of a particular news story. as illustrated in figure 2, when a low probability marker is used, reporters may simply be interpreting the facts as they see them: many clerics and politicians consider themselves sadrists even though they might not take orders from moqtada, a junior cleric with much less stature than his father, who was the top shi'ite cleric in iraq when he was killed in 1999. many of the instances of will also come not from the reportage itself but from quotes or reported speech: ''we will be the judges in the parliament," sheikh declared. ''if we see that a decision has been influenced by the americans, we will denounce it and boycott it." he [jabouri] said he will work from outside the political system, coordinating closely with sheikh, to block any constitution that's not sufficiently islamic or gives too much autonomy to kurds. deontic modality i use a similar strategy in presenting more pragmatically conditioned uses of modals, their so-called deontic meanings. to illustrate this use of modals, i have students examine the difference in usage of the constructions you might want to and you should using examples taken from micase (the michigan corpus of academic spoken english).5 this is a very large corpus (currently 1,848,364 words in length) consisting of spoken american english occurring in various academic contexts. it has a search interface available for free online, and can easily be used in a technology enhanced class containing a computer with internet access that is connected to an lcd projector. charles f. meyer ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-2114 can s of our new constitution cannot ignore this book," amri said might sadrists even though they might not take orders from moqtada, will s american stooges.//''we will be watching in the national as nced by the americans, we will denounce it and boycott it."// american interests.//''we will be the judges in the parliamen d by islam.//''everything will be conducted according to the ed iraqi alliance leaders will have to answer clerics who acc ng," he said.//he said he will work from outside the politica would , and arab nationalism he would bring to the body.//yesterday il of shi'ite clerics who would review -and have the author figure 2. concordance views (shi'ite resistance). 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 14 within searle’s (1976) taxonomy of speech acts, constructions containing you might want to and you should having deontic meanings are classified as ‘directives’: speech acts that attempt to get someone to do something. in the examples below, taken from advising sessions, both you should and you might wanna are directing individuals to do something: inquire about personal characteristics in the first example, and think about taking a particular course in the second example. i think you should think about, your strengths and interests (adv700ju047) yeah. you might wanna take polish or you might say to yourself well gee, i want, uh you know i want biology or, or biomedical engineering (adv700ju023) although both of these examples are directives, they are different kinds of directives than those found in imperative sentences such as close the door. both you should and you might want to are not necessarily commanding someone to do something. instead, they are offering advice. in addition, the force and directness of the two forms differ markedly. you might want to would be classified as a mitigated directive (or command). within the context of an advising session, such a directive is pragmatically quite desirable. as mitchell (2003: 143) notes, a speaker who backs up his directives with a considered judgment of what is in the performer’s interest makes them more palatable to the hearer than directives based on the apparently arbitrary exercise of the speaker’s authority or volition. in other words, a student coming to an advising session does not expect (at least in the american context) to be told what to do. instead, he/she wants to explore options with an advisor. thus, a form such as you might want to serves this communicative goal quite well. however, even though this form is well suited to this communicative context, you should, the more direct form, occurs as well. to explain the usage of this form, it is necessary to investigate further variables: gender, the power relationships between speakers, and differences in the force of directives used in an advising session vs. office hours. research has shown that gender is a variable in the use of directives. for instance, west (1998) investigated the types of directives used by male and female doctors in conversations with their patients, a communicative context somewhat analogous to college professors issuing directives to students during office hours. west (1998: 341) found that mitigated directives, such as the example below, were much more commonly used by female doctors than male doctors: physician: we:ll, you could try: taking .h two: ev’ry four hou::rs if yuh needed to:…you could take that many an’ see: an’ that’s.h it’s a ver:y strong medicine fer arthri [:tus.] corpus linguistics, the www, and elt ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-21 15 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 15 overall, as table 2 demonstrates, females used you might want to much more frequently than males.6 even though females predominated in both of the genres, it is nevertheless striking that only one male used this form.7 gender differences, however, only partially explain the usage of the two forms. table 2 reveals that females do not necessarily use you might want to instead of you should. in fact, in most instances (80%), they use you should. this usage requires the examination of additional variables: the power relationships between speakers and considerations of politeness and tact. table 3 lists the usage of the two forms by academic role. there are two ways of looking at power relationships in the table. first of all, in all contexts, students will be lower on the power hierarchy in conversations they have with graduate students, staff, and faculty. however, there is an additional power hierarchy holding between the three roles listed in table 3, with graduate students lowest on the hierarchy and faculty highest. thus, in a conversation with a student, a graduate student might feel less of a superordinate than a faculty member would and thus, as the figures suggest in table 3, use you might want to more frequently than you should. however, the figures for graduate students in table 3 need to be interpreted somewhat cautiously, since 26 of the 31 instances were uttered by a single speaker. for faculty members, however, their status on the power hierarchy neutralizes any gender differences in the use of the two forms: while two instances of you might want to can be attributed to female faculty members, the 12 instances of you should were split among five male and seven female faculty members. related to academic role is the register in which the two forms were used. all instances of the two forms attributed to staff occurred only in the register of advising. for graduate students and faculty, the forms occurred only in the register of office hours. charles f. meyer ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-2116 advising and office hours form male female you might want to/wanna 1 51 you should 15 59 total 16 110 table 2. modal breakdown by gender. role you might want to/wanna you should total graduate student 31 (54%) 22 (46%) 53 staff 19 (37%) 31 (63%) 50 faculty 2 (5%) 12 (95%) 14 table 3. modal breakdown by academic role. 8 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 16 while directives are given in both of these registers, the type of advice given in a directive varies considerably in the two genres, and is subject to one maxim of leech’s (1983: 132) politeness principle: the tact maxim, which states that one should “minimize cost to other, maximize benefit to other.” and different kinds of directives, leech (1983: 107) notes, will violate this maxim in varying degrees. because peel these potatoes does not maximize benefit to other, it is relatively low on the scale of politeness. in contrast, have another sandwich does maximize benefit and is thus high on the scale of politeness. an examination of the various uses of you might want to and you should reveals that the two forms interact with the tact maxim in very different ways. in an advising session, students meet with staff members—university employees who do not teach—to discuss their academic schedules. on one level, staff members are providing a service to students and thus are engaged in a type of customer/client discourse. on another level, however, advisors have knowledge that is vital to a student’s academic career—knowledge of degree requirements, course prerequisites, and so forth. therefore, this knowledge places the advisor in a position of power over the student. given this kind of relationship between student and advisor, it is not surprising to see a mixture of the two forms in this register: the more direct form you should as well as the mitigated you might want to. although you should is relatively low on the politeness hierarchy of leech’s tact maxim, the examples below would hardly be characterized as impolite: so maybe you should take the one-eighty-five one-eighty-six you realize that you're going to lose the a-p credit, if you take one-eighty-five and one-eighty-six. [s3: mhm] but, four credits, aren't going to make you or break you. (adv700ju023) you should do your senior audit next fall (adv700ju047) you should take intro comp next semester. (adv700ju047) the main difference between these examples and those with you might want to is that you might want to presents an option as one choice among many. in the first two examples below, the choices are implicit; in the third example, they are explicitly given: well you might wanna major in english (adv700ju047) okay so that sounds like you might want to take a mathematics class next semester, do you remember what math you placed into? (adv700ju047) but you might wanna sign up for astronomy one-eleven or you know intro to astronomy. (adv700ju047) corpus linguistics, the www, and elt ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-21 17 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 17 in meeting with an instructor during office hours, in contrast, students are more clearly in a subordinate position relative to their instructors. for this reason, if the 26 examples of you might want to attributed to one graduate student are removed, you should predominated in this register. in addition, the role of directives is different in this register. as the examples below illustrate, instructors are not presenting options to their students; they’re directly telling them what they need to do to write better papers or have a clearer understanding of a concept: in general you should do this throughout the paper too. you need to go through and ask yourself what the point of each paragraph is, right? um and make sure it has a point, and make sure it says what its point is, okay? (ofc115su060) so probably actually what you should do is go back and actually just, um, read this one more time, go back and read the crawford one more time, and see if there're any sort of other sort of arguments that help you out. (ofc115su060) but if you're thinking about it at all you should think of it as a system, of of signs and pointers to your reader, that that allows that person to see your logic and to anticipate your logic. (ofc300ju149) don't interpret your confidence interval level, with just one interval. you should interpret it as being looking at many intervals. (ofc575mu046) you should know the poem well enough so that you can make a point about it and make an argument about it. (ofc300ju149) mitigated forms do occur, but they can raise unintended consequences, such as a student misinterpreting the directive as presenting options when in fact fairly explicit advice is being given. for instance, in the examples below, are instructors merely suggesting possible changes in student papers, or insisting that they be made? it doesn't change your argument necessarily, but you might wanna qualify it in that kinda way (ofc115su060) o you you might wanna say that, in order to understand um, the, programs and sort of missions of, these two organizations, [s5: mhm ] we have to understand them within the context of, the, you know political and economic situations in these two cities. right? (ofc115su060) that's one of the factors that you might want to consider for noisy-or, and, another one is the fact that you don't know thathat these four causes are not complete, (ofc270mg048) charles f. meyer ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-2118 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 18 you might wanna focus on those. and then just think about the coloration variation and the variation of weaves, and see where that leads you. (ofc320su153) many non-native speakers of english have told me that they find mitigated directives such as these quite difficult to interpret, especially if they are used by a teacher— someone from whom they expect explicit and direct advice. conclusions with the increased emphasis in language instruction on the use of authentic material, the web has become an increasingly important resource for teachers to draw upon. to facilitate data-driven learning, the web provides instructors with a wide variety of texts that they can use to illustrate points of grammar, software (such as concordancing programs) that can display linguistic information from the texts being analyzed, and web-based interfaces to corpora such as micase or the british national corpus. while i have described in detail how i have used the web to discuss modality in english, i have used data taken from the web for other purposes, such as studying collocations and usage trends. for instance, shortly following the first bush/kerry debate in the autumn of 2004, i downloaded a transcript of the debate, and created two files: one containing bush’s responses to questions and the other kerry’s responses. using kfngram (a program for studying collocations),9 i had my class analyze “lexical bundles” in the debate: “multi-word sequences,” as biber et al. (2004) define them, that occur repeatedly in texts. although biber et al. (2004) restricted their discussion to four-word lexical bundles, such as what does that mean, because of the relatively short length of the debate responses, we investigated lexical bundles of three-words or more that occurred more than three times. we discovered, for instance, that kerry used numerous “stance bundles,” constructions that “express attitudes or assessments of certainty that frame some other proposition” (biber et al., 2004: 384): i’m going to (11 occurrences), we need to (9), we have to (7), i believe that (6), i have a (6), and you have to (6). as a challenger for president, we noted, kerry used these bundles to discuss precisely what he would do if elected president. the web is also a good resource for tracking usage trends. during a discussion of the movement in english towards gender-neutral language, i asked one of my classes to supply examples of words in english ending in -man (e.g. chairman) that have equivalent forms ending in -person (e.g. chairperson). someone wondered whether the word fisherman had undergone a similar shift and become fisherperson. i commented that for me this was an awkward expression. but a quick check with google revealed numerous instances of fisherperson, such as the example below: corpus linguistics, the www, and elt ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-21 19 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 19 a fishing rod supporting device allows a fisherperson to wear it at waist-level for handsfree support of a fishing rod. (“portable handsfree fishing rod supporting device,” ) as this and other examples i have discussed in this article illustrate, the web provides data for analysis that are not readily available from either textbooks or the repository of knowledge that instructors bring with them to class; it is an interactive medium allowing for engagement with the material being presented; discussions can be tailored to the specific point of grammar being covered; and because the web contains current and often interesting material, it can overcome the sometimes monotonous and decontextualized discussions of grammar so prevalent in textbooks. for these reasons, all language teachers should consider the web a resource that is as indispensable as a textbook. (paper received april 2006) charles f. meyer is professor of applied linguistics at the university of massachusetts boston, where he teaches students studying to be teachers of esl and efl. he is very interested in how linguistic corpora can be used to gain insights into the english language and is author of english corpus linguistics: an introduction (cambridge university press, 2002). charles f. meyer ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-2120 references biber, d., s. johansson, g. leech, s. conrad & e. finegan (1999). longman grammar of spoken and written english. harlow: longman. biber, d., s. conrad & v. cortes (2004). “if you look at….lexical bundles in university teaching and texbooks.” applied linguistics 25: 371-405. cambanis, t. (2000). “climate change impacts on the united states: the potential consequences of climate variability and change.” the national assessment synthesis team, us global change research program. [accessed on march 16, 2006]. cambanis, t. (2005). “iraq's hardline shi'ites vow to resist us agenda.” boston globe (feb. 12). de schryver, g.-m. (2002). “web for/as corpus: a perspective for the african languages.” nordic journal of african studies 11,2: 266-282 (also available at: http://tshwanedje .com/publications/webtocorpus.pdf) fletcher, w. h. (2005). “concordancing the web: promise and problems, tools and techniques” [accessed on april 5, 2006]. johns, t. (2002). “data-driven learning: the perceptual challenge” in b. kettemann & g. marko (eds.), teaching and learning by doing corpus analysis, 107-117. amsterdam: rodopi. leech, g. (1983). principles of pragmatics. london: longman. mindt, d. (1995). an empirical grammar of the english verb. berlin: cornelsen. mitchell, k. (2003). “had better and might as well: on the margins of modality?” in r. facchinetti, m. krug & f. palmer (eds.), modality in contemporary english, 129-149. berlin: mouton de gruyter. morley, b. (2006). “webcorp: a tool for online linguistic information retrieval and analysis” in a. renouf & a. kehoe (eds.), the changing face of corpus linguistics, 283296. amsterdam: rodopi. quirk, r., s. greenbaum, g. leech & j. svartvik (1985). a grammar of contemporary english. london: longman. searle, j. (1976). “a classification of illocutionary acts.” language in society 5: 1-23. west, c. (1998). “not just "doctor's orders": directive-response sequences in patients visits to women and men physicians” in j. coates (ed.), language and gender: a reader. oxford and malden, ma: blackwell [originally published in 1990 in discourse and society 1: 85-112]. 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 20 corpus linguistics, the www, and elt ibérica 12 [2006]: 9-21 21 1 fletcher (2005) also provides an overview of the many ways that linguists are using the web to conduct corpus-based research. 2 developed by mark davies and available at: http://view.byu.edu/. 3 available from bite’n’byte http://www.bitenbyte.com/. 4 developed by alan reed and available from textworld.com http://www.textworld.com/. 5 http://micase.umdl.umich.edu/m/micase/. 6 for ease of reference, i will refer to this form as you might want to, even though the micase transcription system distinguishes between both want to and wanna. 7 according to demographic information taken from the micase website (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/ eli/micase/micasestats.htm), in the register of advising, 56.5% of speakers were females and 14.2% males; in the register of office hours, the breakdown was 67.9% females and 26.9% males. 8 excluded from this table were a small number of instances of you should used by undergraduate students (5) and researchers (4). although undergraduates figure prominently in micase, in the registers of advising sessions and office hours, they are not in a position to issue directives to staff or faculty. 9 developed by william fletcher and available for download at: http://www.kwicfinder.com/kfngram /kfngramhelp.html. notes 02 meyer.qxp 20/09/2006 13:40 pægina 21 ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174 abstract this paper aims at demonstrating that metaphor is not simply a literary device, but an integral part of everyday language. the theory of conceptual metaphor suggests that our conceptual system is fundamentally metaphorical. concepts arise from our everyday interaction with the world and semantic structure reflects the conceptual structure. metaphor, therefore, is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. based on these assumptions, we analyzed a terminological dictionary on environmental law in order to find metaphorically used lexical items. then, for every such item we tried to determine its most literal meaning in another context. in order to do so, we applied the method for identifying metaphor developed by the pragglejaz group (2007). the results confirm the pervasiveness of metaphor and indicate how polysemy is motivated. moreover, there seems to be no clear boundaries between literal and figurative language. keywords: cognitive semantics, conceptual metaphor, primary metaphor, terminology, terminological dictionary. resumen identificación de metáforas en un diccionario terminológico el presente artículo pretende demostrar que el fenómeno de la metáfora no es simplemente un recurso literario sino que también forma parte integral del lenguaje diario. la teoría da la metáfora conceptual sugiere que nuestro sistema conceptual es en gran parte metafórico. los conceptos se forman a partir de nuestras interacciones diarias con el mundo que nos rodea y las estructuras semánticas reflejan la estructura conceptual. la metáfora, por lo metaphor identification in a terminological dictionary maity siqueira, ana flávia souto de oliveira, dalby dienstbach hubert, galeno faé de almeida and larissa moreira brangel universidade federal do rio grande do sul (brazil) maitysiqueira@hotmail.com, anaflavia10@gmail.com, dalby@terra.com.br, galenos@gmail.com & larissabrangel@gmail.com 157 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 157 tanto, es dominante en nuestro quehacer cotidiano, no solamente en el lenguaje sino también en el pensamiento y en la acción. partiendo de estos supuestos, analizamos un diccionario terminológico sobre legislación medioambiental con el objetivo de encontrar elementos léxicos utilizados metafóricamente. así, intentamos determinar el sentido más literal de cada uno de esos elementos en otros contextos. los procedimientos que aplicamos para la identificación de metáforas fueron los desarrollados por pragglejaz group (2007). los resultados confirman la presencia dominante de metáforas y explican las causas que motivan la polisemia. asimismo, parece que no existen fronteras definidas entre el lenguaje literal y el figurado. palabras clave: semántica cognitiva, metáfora conceptual, metáfora primaria, terminología, diccionario terminológico. 1. introduction metaphors have been the subject of academic debate for at least 2,000 years and were seen, for most of this time, as an ornamental feature of language. today, such a perspective is considered to be a classical view of metaphors, according to which metaphors are only a kind of addition to ordinary language, used as stylistic devices to enhance language effects. in recent decades, the phenomenon of the metaphor has increasingly gained attention, especially in the works of linguists and philosophers, and has been a focus of interest for researchers in lexical studies and its related disciplines. among these disciplines, terminology has emerged as a prescriptive discipline as opposed to a descriptive consideration of language, and has only gradually moved towards becoming a part of general linguistics. at first, the idea that specialized and technical texts could admit polysemous terms or definitions was rather unwelcome. objectivity and precision were considered to be essential elements of technical and scientific languages in order to attain informational accuracy. figurative, vague or ambiguous language, therefore, could not be accepted in such environments. according to temmerman (2000), the objectivist beliefs of traditional terminological approaches see metaphors as an undesirable element pertaining to figurative language that, as such, should be replaced by a literal equivalent. however, the author proposes the need for a new approach in terminology that takes into account the recently developed studies of metaphor in specialized languages. one of her postulates is that metaphor plays a central role in lexicalization processes. m. siqueira et al ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174158 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 158 ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174 metaphor identification a consensus has emerged that research in the field of terminology must broaden its scope to incorporate linguistic diversity in all of its aspects, including the figurative one (weissenhoffer, 1995; cabré, 1998; temmerman, 2000; finatto, 2001). nevertheless, research focusing on metaphors is still rare in terminology (temmerman, 2000; fuertes-olivera and pizarrosánchez, 2002; dias, 2004; huang, 2005) and we have no knowledge of any study focusing specifically on the primary metaphor theory within this area of research. this paper aims to investigate the occurrence of primary metaphors in terms and definitions in a terminological dictionary on environmental law: the dicionário de direito ambiental (krieger et al., 2008) –hereafter dda. from a descriptive and textual perspective in terminology, an interface is proposed between the conceptual metaphor theory (which comprises the primary metaphor theory) and the sociocognitive theory of terminology.1 2. theoretical foundations the conceptual metaphor theory –developed by lakoff and johnson (1980) to deal with metaphors– is an experientialist approach and is based on two central ideas. first, metaphor is not a matter of language itself, but it plays a central role in the way we conceptualize the world, because the human mind operates with concepts that connect metaphorically with other concepts of a similar structure (lakoff & johnson, 1980; gibbs, 1999). second, reasoning has an embodied experiential basis. this approach treats metaphor as a systematic correspondence or mapping between two conceptual domains: the source domain, typically more concrete, structured or accessible to the senses, which serves as a source of inferences; and the target domain, typically more abstract, less structured, to which inferences are applied. accordingly, for instance, people have coherently organized knowledge about the conceptual domain size, upon which they rely to understand the conceptual domain importance. this is the mapping found in the conceptual metaphor importance is size. in this metaphor, size is the source domain and importance is the target domain. conceptual metaphors are instantiated by means of linguistic expressions known as linguistic metaphors. one uses expressions such as “the internet was one of the greatest inventions of the last century” when referring 159 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 159 metaphorically to an important event. image schemas –which are relatively abstract conceptual representations originating directly from our daily interaction with the environment and from observation of the world in which we live– can provide the concrete basis for these metaphorical mappings (johnson, 1987). because they are the first concepts to emerge in the human mind and because they are related to sensory perceptual experience, such schemas are not rich in details, rather, they are abstract concepts which originate from repetitive instances of embodied experience (johnson, 1987). according to lakoff and johnson (1980), such experience gives rise to the conceptual structure: the cognitive system that represents and organizes experience in such a way that it can serve as a basis for linguistic expression. consequently, it could be said that semantic structure reflects conceptual structure, which has its origins in embodied experience. image schemas are not restricted to a single sense. although in everyday language the term “image” is restricted to visual perception, in cognitive linguistics its application includes all kinds of sensory perceptual experience (johnson, 1987). some image schemas are: container, part-whole, center-periphery, linkage, source-path-goal, balance. in line with the experientialist approach, grady (1997) developed the theory of primary metaphors, which postulates that some conceptual metaphors emerge from correlations between different dimensions of basic recurrent and co-occurring embodied experiences. an example of a primary metaphor is the conceptual metaphor difficulty is heaviness. when carrying a heavy object, people experience some degree of difficulty and physical discomfort –independently of their culture. the heavier the object is, the more difficult this experience will be. hence, heaviness and difficulty are two recurrent and co-occurring experiential domains that exemplify a conceptual mapping between a source domain (heaviness) and a target domain (difficulty). therefore, primary metaphorical mappings emerge from basic co-occurring physical cognitive experiences and are potentially universal. that is to say, given the universal embodied experiences on which they are based, it is expected that these metaphors might occur in distinct languages and cultures worldwide, in different linguistic environments. considering the nature of the object –a technical scientific dictionary on environmental law– the present research draws from a terminological theory based on postulates of cognitive semantics: the sociocognitive theory of m. siqueira et al ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174160 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 160 terminology. this approach, developed by rita temmerman (2000), upholds that part of scientific and technical knowledge is understood through our sensory perception, as a result of the interaction between language, the mind, the human body and the world. one of the tenets of the sociocognitive theory of terminology, which is in line with the experientialist approach, is in opposition to the idea that there is an absolute and unconditional truth that can be described through denotative and literal aspects, from a synchronic perspective of language. temmerman (2000) believes that language cannot be reduced to a conscious and literal level, and that diachronic analyses are often essential to understanding the meaning of a term at a certain moment in a given discipline. contrasting with the principles of the general theory of terminology, the sociocognitive theory of terminology proposes that, in relation to the units of understanding, both univocity and polysemy, as well as synonymy, can be functional, and that figurative expressions are part of terminological descriptions. adopting a mixed approach to terminological metaphors, fuertes-olivera and pizarro-sánchez (2002) propose that metaphors in specialized contexts can have both a conceptual and an aesthetic role. the aesthetic role refers to the surprise and/or delight effects the metaphor eventually cause on the users. in our research, however, due to the very nature of primary metaphors (i.e., unavoidable and pervasive in our daily life), this kind of impact does not seem to apply. 3. material and methods the dicionário de direito ambiental (krieger et al., 2008) was chosen due to the fact that it is a technical scientific dictionary written in brazilian portuguese2. the analysis of the dictionary was carried out through manual inspection of its entries, definitions and observations. founded in the conceptual metaphor theory (lakoff & johnson, 1980), this study deals with the identification and description of linguistic and conceptual primary metaphors encountered in the afore-mentioned dictionary. the search for metaphorical occurrences in the dictionary was undertaken individually by each member of the research group and the instances metaphor identification ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174 161 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 161 selected were later discussed collectively. however, due to the vagueness and the open-ended character of metaphors, to subjectivity in determining what is really metaphorical and to a lack of established parameters that could apply to the identification of metaphors (conceptual and linguistic) group decisions often became much more complex. for this reason the research also involved the elaboration and systematic application of criteria that favored a clearer and more objective identification of the metaphorical instantiations in the dictionary. initially, the analysis of metaphorical instantiations in the dictionary was based on the metaphor identification procedure, mip (pragglejaz group, 2007). this procedure systematizes a series of methods which reflect, to a certain extent, the metaphor identification process that had been carried out by the research group. hence, metaphor identification involved: 1. reading all the terms, definitions and observations in the dictionary. 2. identifying potentially metaphorical lexical items. 3. (a) determining their contextual meaning. (b) searching for a more basic meaning of the lexical item. (c) comparing the basic and the contextual meanings of the items and determining the extent to which they contrast. 4. identifying potentially metaphorical lexical items. for the purposes of this research, more basic meanings were the ones conforming to the criteria suggested by the pragglejaz group: more concrete (accessible to the senses), related to the functioning of the body (motivated by the human body sensory motor apparatus), more accurate (cognitively more structured) and historically older. with the aim of more accurately determining the meaning of the lexical items when analyzing the terminological dictionary, we relied on two contemporary brazilian dictionaries: novo dicionário aurélio (ferreira, 2004) and dicionário eletrônico houaiss (houaiss, 2001). the latter being more useful for our purposes due to the fact that it includes more historical and etymological information. for the english examples presented in this article, we relied on the cambridge advanced learners’ dictionary (cambridge, for short) and on the oxford advanced learners’ dictionary (oxford, for short). m. siqueira et al ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174162 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 162 the application of the mip will be demonstrated with a lexical unit taken from the entry “tuna and tuna-like fishes”3, in the dda: “vivem em profundidade e apresentam grande valor commercial” [they live in deep waters and have a great market value]. we point to the lexical unit “great” and its contextual meaning: “large in amount, size or degree” (cambridge). we understand that “big” (cambridge) is the most basic contemporary meaning of this unit. when we compare those two meanings of “great”, we notice that the contextual meaning contrasts with the most basic meanings, even though it can be understood in comparison with them. in fact, we can think of the tuna’s market value in terms of an entity bounded by a surface, that is, a physical object whose size can be measured. moreover, large physical objects tend to be more evident, significant and influential. in such a case the lexical unit “great” is marked as metaphorical. the group’s concern in formulating a set of criteria to support the analysis and description of the respective metaphors led to the creation of two other criteria, over and above those mentioned previously. the first one relates to the productivity of the conceptual metaphor, and the second one to the linguistic metaphor’s possible resistance to literal paraphrases. in so far as the productivity of a certain conceptual metaphor is concerned, we attempted to determine whether other metaphorical expressions could be created out of it, in addition to the one initially identified. for these other metaphorical expressions, the repetition of the same lexical items is not a pre-requisite. in other words, it is not the reiteration of the metaphorical lexical item of a linguistic metaphor that indicates the productivity of the conceptual metaphor, but the linguistic metaphors themselves. the productivity of a metaphor can be used as a tool to reveal the degree of metaphoricity of its linguistic instantiation. furthermore, productivity can be taken as an indicator of the recurrence of a conceptual metaphor in the different contexts within the corpus, which are, in this case, the dictionary entries, definitions and observations. as for the lexical unit “great”, the conceptual metaphor importance is size can be identified in the definition of the entry “tuna and tuna-like fishes”. this conceptual metaphor is highly productive, as it is realized in many linguistic expressions in the dda: metaphor identification ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174 163 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 163 (i) proteínas biologicamente ativas com grande grau de pureza [biologically active proteins with a high4 level of purity] (ii) no processo de fusão nuclear [o hidrogênio] produz grande liberação de energia [in the nuclear fusion process hydrogen produces a high energy liberation] (iii) sítios de características naturais raras, singulares ou de grande beleza cênica [sites with natural features which are rare, peculiar or have a great scenic beauty] (iv) equipamentos de pequeno impacto ambiental [tools of “little” environmental impact] (v) a possibilidade de ingerir água é pequena [the possibility of ingesting water is “small”] therefore, we can verify the productivity potential of the conceptual metaphor importance is size and consequently suggest that the degree of metaphoricity of such a linguistic instantiation is quite high. the second criterion is intended to determine whether there is at least one paraphrase of the linguistic metaphor at issue that could be employed as a synonymous lexical unit with a more basic meaning. in this case, we consider as literal the paraphrase which least departs from the meaning of the linguistic metaphor. in the following excerpt, taken from the dda, “preservação de ecossistemas naturais de grande relevância ecológica” [preservation of natural ecosystems of high ecological relevance], we can propose “great ecological relevance” with no significant variation in meaning of the linguistic metaphor. if a literal paraphrase is not possible in the specific context, i.e., if the attempt to find a more basic lexical unit results in significant distortion of the meaning conveyed by the sentence, then the inescapability of the metaphor is evident. thus, we assume that the contextual meaning of the lexical unit analyzed is the only one that is possible in this situation. in the following example, “produto imediato do cruzamento entre linhagens geneticamente diferentes” [the immediate outcome of the crossing between genetically different lineages], a literal paraphrase is not satisfactory. when we compare the meaning of “crossing” in this context “a mixture of two different things which have been combined to produce something new” (cambridge) to its more basic meaning “to go across from one side of something to the other” (cambridge), it can be considered m. siqueira et al ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174164 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 164 metaphorical. however, at first, we could not find any lexical unit in portuguese that conveyed its most specific meaning without being weakened in this context. “crossing” in this case was considered to be a polysemic item with a metaphorical origin. when trying to determine the level of metaphoricity of the instantiations, we can think of a continuum ranging from what was considered to be highly metaphorical to what was less typically metaphorical, i.e. whose metaphoricity was not consensual within the group. 4. analysis 4.1 highly metaphorical occurrences the cases considered to be highly metaphorical were those in which it was possible to satisfactorily determine a difference between a metaphorical use (more abstract) of the lexical unit in the context of the dda and a literal use (more concrete or basic). we used both of the previously mentioned dictionaries to determine the literal use of the lexical units. after determining the different uses of the lexical unit, the next step consisted of identifying the conceptual metaphor and the mappings which allowed such linguistic expressions. the following analysis describes the cases in table 1, marked as highly metaphorical. literal us (a) dentro [in] as for the lexical item dentro [in], its contextual use in the following sentence in the dda was considered clearly literal: “mares, rios e lagos existentes dentro do território de um estado” [seas, rivers and lakes in the territory of a metaphor identification ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174 165 literal use metaphorical use (a) lagos existentes dentro do território [existing lakes in the territory] lavagem dentro de 24 horas [washing in (“within”) 24 hours] (b) através da seção transversal de um escoamento [through the cross section of an outflow] através de profundas mudanças estruturais na sociedade [through deep structural changes in the society] (c) os pontos mais altos [the highest peaks] alto valor econômico [high economic value] table 1. literal and metaphorical uses. 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 165 state]. in this case, the meaning of the lexical item is closer to what we considered the idealized cognitive model which represents “in”. this model might also include a vertical component of three-dimensionality, as in “in a box” or “in the house”; however, the two-dimensional aspect appeared to be satisfactory to point out its literal aspect in the example. in this case, the idealized cognitive model which represents “in” is the container schema. on the other hand, the next example was considered metaphorical: “sem posterior lavagem dentro de 24 horas” [with no further washing in 24 hours]. in this case, the lexical unit was taken as being used in a different context from the one considered literal, as it treated the length of a day (24 hours) as a container. aside from those two examples, the first with a more literal and the second with a more metaphorical meaning, the container schema can also be observed in the examples below, ordered according to an increasing scale of abstraction. (i) camada gasosa, situada dentro da atmosfera [layer of gases, located in the atmosphere] (ii) propagação de vibrações mecânicas (...), dentro da faixa de freqüência de 16hz [emission of mechanical vibrations in the frequency range 16hz] (iii) troca de materiais entre as partes vivas e não vivas claramente definidos dentro do sistema [material exchange between living and non-living parts clearly defined in the system] (iv) que explore (...) imóvel rural, dentro de condição de rendimento econômico [which exploits rural real estate, in the condition of economic revenue] the container schema is related respectively to: (i) the layer of gases defined as atmosphere; (ii) the frequency range 16hz; (iii) what is considered a system; (iv) the set of conditions of economic revenue. the perception of similar structural correlations between different domains is a reasonable hypothesis to explain these changes in meaning. a more abstract domain is understood in terms of a more concrete domain; in other words, simpler conceptual structures are mapped in order to structure more complex concepts. the perception of these structural correlations (or mappings) does not seem to depend on the etymology of the lexical unit, m. siqueira et al ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174166 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 166 since we can observe the container schema with similar structural correlations in all examples. in the example “sem posterior lavagem dentro de 24 horas” [with no further washing in 24 hours], the container schema is also combined with the conceptual metaphor time is space, that is, the abstract domain time tends to be understood in terms of the concrete domain space. we can experience with our bodies the measurement of physical spaces, whereas measuring time is not easily accessed by the senses, and we usually deal with it artificially, with resources such as clocks. these and subsequent examples testify that the source domain space is highly productive to express the target domain time, as we can notice in several everyday linguistic instantiations that use spatial relations to express temporal relations, as in the following examples: “we are far from winter”, “my birthday is near”, “the time for change has come”, and “our deadline has been moved up”. (b) através [through] as for the lexical unit através [through], its different meanings are a result of mappings based on the source-path-goal schema, which allows for understanding a more abstract domain in terms of a more concrete domain. the meaning conveyed in the first example below was considered literal, whereas the second one was considered metaphorical. (i) volume de fluido que passa por unidade de tempo, através da seção transversal de um escoamento [volume of a fluid which passes per units of time, through the cross section of an outflow] (ii) o homem só poderá integrar-se perfeitamente na biosfera através de profundas mudanças estruturais [man can only integrate perfectly into the biosphere through radical structural changes] in sentence (i), the fluid goes from a specific point (source) through a cross section (path) towards a point (goal). in a similar way, in sentence (ii), the man in a specific condition (source) undergoes radical structural changes (path) to a certain condition (goal). between the more concrete use of “through” in (i) and the more abstract use in (ii), we can notice several intermediate meanings whose level of abstraction can be considered as increasing, as in the examples below. in (iii), for instance, metaphor identification ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174 167 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 167 the substance goes through a physical path in ligneous tissues, and in (iv) a path to be followed seems to be made out of the sequence of generations. (iii) alta difusibilidade através dos tecidos lenhosos [high diffusibility through the ligneous tissues] (iv) mantenha a sua homogeneidade através de gerações sucessivas [maintain their homogeneity through subsequent generations] (v) de outros organismos colocados em seu genoma através de técnicas de adn recombinante [from other organisms placed into its genome through recombining dna techniques] (vi) instrumento internacional bilateral, através do qual um país industrializado (...) pode compensar suas emissões [bilateral international instrument, through which an industrialized country (…) may compensate its emissions] (vii) objetiva uma melhor qualidade de vida através da transformação da sociedade industrial [aims for a better quality of life through changes in industrial society] (c) alto [high] in the examples with the lexical unit alto [high], the image of a physical entity with spatial orientation –in this case, verticality– is mapped onto an abstract concept (e.g. degree). this abstract concept uses other systems which have height as an intrinsic property (e.g. hill). in the excerpts below, such a metaphorization applies to both physical and concrete entities, such as the molecular weight of elements, and more abstract ones, such as the economic value of a product. (i) os pontos mais altos de uma seqüência de morros [the highest peaks of a series of hills] (ii) elementos metálicos de alto peso molecular [metallic elements with high molecular weights] (iii) energia (...) com alto teor de carbono e hidrogênio [energy (…) with high levels of carbon and hydrogen] (iv) manter um alto nível de segurança nuclear mundial [to maintain a high level of world nuclear security] (v) constitui ambiente especial de alto valor econômico [constitutes a special environment with a high economic value] m. siqueira et al ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174168 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 168 therefore, it can be noticed that the several senses of a lexical unit are connected to each other through a “chain of meanings”. moreover, we can state that the correlation between the senses is open-ended as well as subjective. the polysemy of lexical units such as dentro [in], através [through] and alto [high], among others, are not arbitrary but highly motivated. 4.2 less typically metaphorical occurrences we considered less typically metaphorical those cases in which a literal meaning could not be determined in another context and whose metaphorical extensions seemed to depend at least in part on diachronical or etymological aspects. these cases point to a clear metaphorical origin. the lexical items lesão [injury], centro [center], banco [bank/bench] and visar [to look at/to target/to aim at], whose uses appeared to be less clearly metaphorical, are analyzed below. (a) lesão [injury] the indetermination of the word lesão comes from its apparent primary meaning. the first meaning found in the dictionaries we consulted, either lesão in portuguese and “injury” in english, parallels the following definition: “to harm yourself or somebody else physically” (oxford). in the dda this physical meaning seems to be extended through metaphorical or metonymical processes by means of personification in order to refer to the environment or to the law as if these two “entities” were living beings. the lexical item “injury” occurs twice in a definition for the word “damage”, where the affected “entities” are not human, but rather a “property” and the “environment”. it also occurs in two other definitions where the injured “entity” is a “diffuse interest” (uma lesão ao interesse difuso) or a “right” (prevenir qualquer lesão de direito). although the physical meaning seems to be extended through a metaphor or a metonymy to refer to more abstract domains –such as rights or the environment (seen as living beings)– this correlation was not evident. (b) centro [center] for our purposes, another lexical item with less typically metaphorical uses was centro [center], as the following examples show: metaphor identification ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174 169 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 169 (i) rede circular, de malha fina, com pesos na periferia e um cabo fino no centro, pelo qual é puxada [fine-meshed circular net with weights on its extremity and a thin handle at its center, by which it is pulled] (ii) as espécies citadas acima ocorrem no centro e norte do país [the species mentioned above exist in the center and north of the country] (iii) lotes de colonização que se destinam a constituir o centro da comunidade, incluindo as residências dos trabalhadores [colonization plots which are meant to form the center of the community, including workers’ houses] (iv) o ambiente é mantido o mais próximo do natural, devendo conter, centro de visitantes, museus, outras facilidades e serviços [the environment is kept as natural as possible, necessarily including a visitors’ center, museums, other facilities and services] the lexical item “center” can be used in a literal way, as: “shoot the center of the target”, “the vase was placed in the center of the table” and “our house has a central location”. and it can also be used in a more abstract way, i.e., without a physical or spatial center as reference. here we have a centerperiphery schema, according to which something in the center is more important than something in the periphery. the conceptual metaphor important is central arises from those mappings, and generates sentences such as “she considers herself the center of attention”, “peripheral questions must be left aside until the central problem can be solved”, “money is at the center of many arguments”. aside from these examples, the lexical item “center” also occurs in expressions such as: visitors’ center, study center, health center and community center. in these cases, more than a centrality meaning, the item refers to a specific physical space, which is a place of common interests and activities. this meaning seems to remain the same even when a physical space is not defined, as in: “that region is a drug dealing center” and “this city has become a center of cinematographic production”. when “center” appears in noun phrases, we can again distinguish a literal use (health center) from an abstract one (center of cinematographic production). apparently, in such cases the item “center”, which derives from a metaphor, forms another literal nucleus of meaning that can be expanded again in a metaphorical way. m. siqueira et al ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174170 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 170 (c) banco [bank/bench] the occurrences with the lexical item banco [bank/bench] were also considered less typically metaphorical due to some peculiarities in their possible extensions. the first thing to be considered here is the question: are the two meanings of banco homonyms or an example of polysemy? some brazilian portuguese dictionaries consider it to be a homonym, putting the word in two different entries: one (ferreira, 2004) treats it as a case of homonym, giving it two different entries –“bench” (furniture) and “bank” (financial institution). and the other (houaiss, 2001) presents the item as a case of polysemy, assigning it a single entry with several senses. aside from a possible common origin of the two meanings of banco, if considering only the meaning of “bank”, we have an example which is very close to the discussion of the item “center”. the meaning of “bank” (financial institution) is gradually extended to refer to places in which other entities are saved: “development bank”, “germplasm bank”, “data bank”, “bank of ideas”. (d) visar [to look at/to target/to aim at]5 as for the lexical item visar, its contextual use in the following sentences in the dda is another example of what might be considered less clearly metaphorical: (i) caçador que visa fim exclusivamente esportivo [the hunter who aims at an exclusively sporting purpose] (ii) produção visando seu plano de abastecimento [the production aiming at its supply plan] (iii) ação visando recompor área [an action aiming at the restoring of an area] (iv) visando ao bem da coletividade [aiming at the good of the community] in all these cases the meaning of visar is “to aim at”. however, it can also have a more literal meaning in portuguese, as in “ele visou a presa e atirou” [he targeted the prey and fired a shot]. or another even more literal meaning, as in “sentada no sofá, ela visava os objetos na sala” [sitting on the sofa, she would look at the objects in the room]. despite a possible division between a more literal meaning (“to target” or “to look at”) and another more metaphorical one (“to aim at”) for the same lexical item, what is being discussed here is the fact that, in portuguese, one metaphor identification ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174 171 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 171 meaning of visar (“to target” or “to look at”) is rarely used or almost in disuse. therefore, a possible “metaphorical origin” would depend, in this case, on considerations of an etymological and diachronic nature. for this reason, it can be claimed that nowadays in portuguese the lexical item visar is practically restricted to meaning “to aim at”, and could no longer be considered a metaphor because of a fossilization process. this is what would be traditionally called a “dead metaphor”. however, if we consider the strong productivity of the verb ver [“to see”, from which visar stems] (which appears in many expressions alluding to the physical meaning of the word to conceptualize other actions), it does not make much sense to consider it a dead metaphor. all these extensions of meaning are possible because of the ways in which we conceptualize the action of seeing. it is from these extensions that the conceptual metaphors aiming is seeing, knowing is seeing and many others arise. although the verb ver is less typically metaphorical, it seems to be very metaphorically productive if we consider the diachronic perspective. 5. conclusions because we could not find pre-established criteria in the specialized literature, it was necessary for the group to create its own criteria to identify metaphors. the discussions focused on determining what could be a more literal or a more metaphorical meaning of each lexical item. afterwards, using the criteria developed by the pragglejaz group (2007) and adding the criteria developed by our group –conceptual metaphor productivity and metaphor resistance to literal paraphrases– identification became clearer and more objective than before. nevertheless, we noticed that some level of subjectivity was always present when we investigated metaphors. according to the group’s assessment, the metaphors found in the dictionary (dda) were divided into highly metaphorically cases –those with a stronger delimitation between literal and metaphorical meanings– and less typically metaphorical cases –those with a less categorical delimitation. such classification, however, was mainly operational, since there was no clear edge delimiting them. moreover, we noticed that although it is possible to divide literal and metaphorical uses of a lexical item, between these two extremes there is a m. siqueira et al ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174172 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 172 continuum of meaning, and one or more of its concrete meanings can be considered more central or highly metaphorical in a family of related meanings. confirming the first hypothesis of this research, we could verify that the reason why conceptual metaphors appear in abundance in this terminographical work is because they are inherent to language. some of these metaphors, such as dentro [in], através [through] and alto [high], are basically inescapable. furthermore, as we can notice from the examples lesão [injury], centro [center], banco [bank/bench] and visar [to look at/to target/to aim at], all of them analyzed in this paper, metaphorical extensions seem to be one of the main reasons for the polysemy of lexical items. (revised paper received november 2008) references metaphor identification ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174 173 cabré, m.t. (1998). “elementos para una teoría de la terminología: hacia un paradigma alternativo”. el lenguaraz 1: 5977. cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary. url: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/default.asp? dict=cald [02/20/2008]. dias, j.g. (2004). terminologia: a função da metáfora na formação dos termos. unpublished doctoral dissertation —university of são paulo, são paulo (brazil). ferreira, a.b. de h. (2004). novo dicionário aurélio da língua portuguesa. 3rd ed. curitiba: positivo. finatto, m.j.b. (2001). definição terminológica: fundamentos teórico-metodológicos para sua descrição e explicação. unpublished doctoral dissertation — federal university of rio grande do sul, porto alegre (brazil). fuertes-olivera, p.a. & i. pizarro-sánchez (2002). “translation and ‘similarity-creating metaphors’ in specialised languages”. target 14: 43-73. gibbs, jr. r.w. (1999). “taking metaphor out of our heads and putting it into the cultural world” in r. gibbs, g. steen (eds.), 145-166. metaphor in cognitive linguistics. amsterdam: john benjamins. grady, j. (1997). foundations of meaning: primary metaphors and primary scenes. unpublished ph.d. dissertation. university of california, berkeley. houaiss, a. (2001). dicionário eletrônico houaiss da língua portuguesa. version 1.0. rio de janeiro: objetiva. huang, c. (2005). a metáfora no texto científico de medicina: um estudo terminológico da linguagem sobre aids. unpublished master’s thesis —federal university of rio grande do sul, porto alegre (brazil). johnson, m. (1987). the body in the mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. chicago: university of chicago. kövecses, z. (2002). metaphor: a practical introduction. new york: oxford university press. krieger, m.g., a.m.b. maciel, j.c.c. rocha, m.j.b. finatto & c.r. bevilacqua (2008). dicionário de direito ambiental: terminologia das leis do meio ambiente. rio de janeiro: lexicon. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago: university of chicago press. oxford advanced learner’s dictionary (2006). oxford: oxford university press. pragglejaz group (2007). “mip: a method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse”. metaphor and symbol 22: 1-39. temmerman, r. (2000). towards new ways of terminology description: the sociocognitive approach. amsterdam: john benjamins. weissenhoffer, p. (1995). conceptology in terminology theory: semantics and word-formation. wien: termnet. yu, n. (1998). the contemporary theory of metaphor. philadelphia: john benjamins. 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 173 dr. maity siqueira is an adjunct professor in linguistics at the federal university of rio grande do sul, where she teaches linguistics, cognitive semantics, terminology and psycolinguistics. her research interests include the metaphor phenomenon, particularly its interface with the studies of terminology and memory. coordinates the projects metaphors in an environmental law dictionary and metaphor and memory. ana flávia souto de oliveira is a master’s student in terminology and lexicography. bachelor’s degree in english/portuguese translation from the federal university of rio grande do sul. she studies cognitive semantics and its relation with terminology and lexicography. researcher in the project metaphors in an environmental law dictionary. dalby dienstbach hubert is an undergraduate student of humanities (emphasis in translation) at the federal university of rio grande do sul. researcher in the project metaphors in an environmental law dictionary. galeno faé de almeida is a master’s student in terminology and terminography at the federal university of rio grande do sul. media worker and translator with interests in congitive linguistics and communication. researcher in the project metaphors in an environmental law dictionary. larissa moreira brangel is an undergraduate student of humanities (emphasis in translation) at the federal university of rio grande do sul. researcher in the project metaphors in an environmental law dictionary. notes 1 although temmerman (2000) uses the expression “unit of understanding” instead of “term”, in this study we sometimes loosely employ the word “term”. we did not specifically analyze metaphorical lexicalizations (metaphorical terms) nor their specificity in the structuring of environmental law: our main purpose was to analyze the metaphorical occurrences in this linguistic environment. 2 although the research was carried out with portuguese terms, some of the items were translated into english for the purposes of the present article. 3 the term in english is the equivalent to the original entry words atum e afins as presented in the dda. 4 in examples (i) and (ii), a literal translation for grande would be “great”. however, since “high” is a more appropriate translation, it will be maintained. 5 in portuguese, the verb visar stems from the verb ver. the verb ver means “to look at” or “to see”, while visar, from metaphorical extension, can mean “to aim at” or “to target”. ibérica 17 [2009]: 157-174 m. siqueira et al 174 10 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 174 iberica 13 ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper presents findings from a study exploring the teacher education needs of experienced english for specific purposes (esp) instructors. it discusses data from interviews with 19 experienced in-service teachers of esp in two spanish universities. the interviews aimed to develop an understanding of the teachers’ views of esp teaching, the kinds of knowledge and skills they required and the forms of support that could be of benefit to them. results suggested that the teachers perceived needs in five areas: course development, knowledge of the target discipline, knowledge of language use in the target discipline, peer collaboration, and professional development opportunities. it is hoped that findings from the present study are illuminating for the esp teaching profession and drawn on in future teacher development initiatives in the local context. keywords: needs analysis, esp teachers, teacher needs, teacher education and development, experienced teachers. resumen e s t ud io d e l a s ne c e s i d ad e s d e f o rma c i ón de l pr of e s o ra do e x pe r ime n ta do d e i fe e n l a u ni v e rs i da d e s p añ ol a en este trabajo se investigan las necesidades del profesorado de inglés para fines específicos (ife) en el caso concreto de profesores experimentados. se presentan y estudian los hallazgos obtenidos a partir de las entrevistas realizadas a 19 profesores experimentados de ife y actualmente en activo en dos universidades españolas. las entrevistas tenían por objeto comprender la visión que tienen estos profesores sobre la enseñanza de ife, ahondar en los conocimientos y las destrezas que asumen como necesarios en su quehacer docente, así como identificar el tipo de apoyo que podría resultarles beneficioso en el ejercicio de investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers in spanish universities ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen university of cadiz (spain), university of auckland (new zealand) ana.bocanegra@uca.es, h.basturkmen@auckland.ac.nz 127 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 127 ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen su profesión. los resultados indican que los profesores experimentados de ife perciben la existencia de necesidades en cinco ámbitos concretos: desarrollo curricular, conocimiento de la disciplina meta, conocimiento del lenguaje especializado propio de la disciplina meta, colaboración entre iguales y oportunidades para el desarrollo profesional. es de esperar que la metodología seguida y los resultados obtenidos en este estudio sirvan de guía para el ejercicio de la profesión docente en el área y para el desarrollo de iniciativas de formación del profesorado a nivel local. palabras clave: análisis de necesidades, profesores de ife, necesidades del profesorado, formación y desarrollo del profesorado, profesores experimentados. introduction needs analysis (or needs assessment) is a prolific area of research in the field of english for specific purposes (esp) but the construct of “needs” has always been approached from and for the learner, and with a view to improving curriculum design and materials development (flowerdew, 2013; bocanegra-valle, 2016). teacher needs are invariably overlooked in the discussions regarding needs assessment, and this may explain the paucity of research on this matter. this paper explores experienced in-service esp teachers in two spanish universities with the aim of identifying their needs as teaching professionals and gaining a better understanding of the forms and features of esp teacher expertise. “experienced teachers” refer here to teachers who have had several years of teaching experience, as opposed to “inexperienced” or “novice teachers”, who are starting in the teaching profession or have poor teaching experience. esp teaching in spain has expanded over the past twenty-five years and engages teachers in most university english departments (aguado de cea & curado fuentes, 2012); however, very little is known about what kinds of knowledge, skills and abilities these esp teachers need and how they are acquired and developed. current literature has served to raise awareness and provide some generalised views (mainly from anglophone contexts) but empirical research is still very limited and notably absent from needs analysis studies. moreover, tesol courses across the world are increasingly offering modules on esp but they are not necessarily well informed by what teachers need in this area. to the best of our knowledge, research into esp teacher needs in the spanish context is inexistent and, therefore, this exploratory study aims to advance this issue and partly fill this gap. 128 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 128 brief review of the literature on esp teacher education and teacher needs even though esp rose as a field of applied linguistics more than five decades ago (upton, 2012), esp teacher education and development1 is a rather under-explored area – two notable exceptions are mcdonough and french (1981), and howard and brown (1997). literature is certainly scarce in this field, which is surprising given the demanding nature of this kind of teaching (basturkmen, 2014) and the increasing demand for esp teachers world-wide (ding & campion, 2016). hall (2013) suggested that the limited interest in the topic might relate to this field connection with the communicative language teaching approach which privileged learners’ purposes and placed the focus on the learners – therefore, pushing teachers to the background and undermining any research interest on their education and development. whereas there is a substantial body of research in relation to teacher education in general, and to foreign language teacher education and development in particular, research into esp teacher education shows a clearly different picture.2 investigations like hüttner, smit and mehlmauerlarcher (2009), alexander (2012), campion (2016), tao and gao (2018) or basturkmen (2019) attest, however, that there is some emerging interest in this topic. these and other related works are outlined below. teacher education programmes teacher needs and how these can help to provide a basis for the design, implementation and evaluation of esp teacher education programmes were studied by master (1997) and richards (1997). peter master investigated the abilities and experience needed by esp teachers in the united states in order to teach academic, professional, vocational or sociocultural esp. before that, keith richards had explored the interests and concerns of esp teachers in a small language school by collecting data as a participant observer over fifty days and arrived at the conclusion that the professional lives and beliefs of esp teachers around the world needed in-depth exploration. professional qualifications the need for professional qualifications based on the earlier provision of suitable courses was identified by jordan (2000) as a part of a larger investigation on teacher needs. more recently, campion’s (2016) findings investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 129 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 129 revealed that specific qualifications for the teaching of academic english appear useful but only if combined with previous teaching experience and a range of informal development activities. tao and gao (2018: 11) have taken a step further by stressing “the need for increased professional development opportunities” in the case of those language teachers who need to transform their careers to become esp teachers in rather different parts of the world (like asia, american universities or the european higher education area). hall (2013) suggested that a three-module teacher training course focused on pedagogy, context-embedded language and discourse analysis, and management would provide esp teachers with a set of essential knowledge and abilities. it is precisely with this similar aim of providing guidance for teachers (particularly less experienced) and equipping them with the technical skills and professional capabilities that teachers need, that the association baleap developed the competency framework for teachers of english for academic purposes (eap). the framework sets out goals for teacher learning and professional competencies, and has informed some existing literature (e.g. alexander, 2012); however, what remains unexplored is how esp teachers do or can come to acquire and develop these skills and capabilities. disciplinary knowledge the knowledge of the subject-matter of a discipline is an issue which has long been present in most debates around esp teaching. ferguson (1997) was concerned with how much subject-matter knowledge a well-qualified esp teacher should possess. he argued that it was not possible to establish “a quantity” and after analysing a number of theoretical arguments, empirical studies and practical accounts based on classroom experience, he claimed that teachers should possess “specialised knowledge”, which involved the needs for knowledge of disciplinary culture, knowledge of the epistemological basis of different disciplines, and knowledge of genre and discourse analytic skills. in the same vein, master (2005) observed that it is not easy to find an answer to how much specialist knowledge successful esp teachers need mainly because of the variation of esp teaching (in terms of learners, goals, settings or materials) and because each esp field requires a different degree of expertise. ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150130 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 130 pedagogical knowledge the broader issue of what specific knowledge is required by esp teachers has probably attracted the widest interest and the existing empirical work. in 2000, jordan conducted a survey among 73 teachers from 32 british universities/colleges and explored the changes, difficulties and needs that affected teachers and their work. respondents noted four main groups of needs, two of which referred to more enhanced pedagogical knowledge (development of materials adapted to the real needs of students, and improved teaching of key vocabulary). likewise, from a survey conducted among a group of teachers that had attended an eap teacher development course alexander (2007) found that participants expressed their needs as general and specific, and that specific needs focused on the development of pedagogical knowledge – like the need to understand the conventions and expectations of the academic context or to develop students’ critical and analytical skills. more recently, huang (2018) focused on the assessment literacy of 35 eap canadian instructors and explored their perceptions about testing and assessment together with their related professional development needs. when transitioning from teaching general to academic english the development of the specialised knowledge of academic conventions appears to be the greatest challenge. this was found by campion (2016) who looked into the teaching experiences of six british teachers and explored the potential value of specialist teacher education programmes in addressing teacher needs in such transition. internationalisation of higher education institutions one of the key strategies within the european higher education area (ehea) and some other parts of the world is the internationalisation of programmes and degrees. following this trend, content and language integrated learning (clil) or english as a medium of instruction (emi) have emerged in higher education as approaches which might compete with esp courses and challenge the status quo of esp teachers. more particularly, the roles of english in higher education have changed from “subject” in esp courses to “tool” in emi settings, and “subject, tool and mediator” in clil programmes (dafouz & smit, 2017: 297). even though esp teacher needs in clil or emi education contexts is at present an issue in need of empirical research and further investigation, some literature suggests that the arising investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 131 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 131 situation has an impact on the current roles and the professional development of esp teachers, and therefore opens up new challenges and needs in the profession: esp teachers as need analysts for clil courses (ruizgarrido & fortanet-gómez, 2009), esp teachers supporting content lecturers as clil tutors (woźniak, 2017), esp teachers in need of more clil methodology training (yang, 2016) and more disciplinary-centred esp education programmes (banegas, 2018), esp teachers as discipline-adapted course designers (arnó-macià & mancho-barés, 2015) or opportunities for closer collaboration between content and esp teachers in a so-called “adjunct model” (arnó-macià & mancho-barés, 2015). the study context and participants we interviewed 19 esp teachers (5 male and 14 female) from two spanish universities with an average esp teaching experience of 21 years (see appendix a). both universities place more focus on esp (rather than eap) because courses are mainly developed with a view to preparing students for their target professional needs. all teachers had a b.a., thirteen a ph.d. in english philology, and had completed a general methodological course (which is compulsory in spain to get into secondary education teaching). no teacher in this study possessed a specific tesol-related qualification or had received any formal training in esp (two participants had attended occasional workshops on esp teaching). nearly all (n=17) started teaching esp “by chance”. they have been involved in teaching esp for over thirty different target disciplines/professions, to undergraduates in all cases, and some at master’s level and to in-service professionals. data collection and analysis the data in this study were drawn from the replies to parts of a semistructured interview that not only focused on esp teacher needs but also investigated teachers in developing materials and their principles and practices in this field (see basturkmen & bocanegra-valle, 2018). participants had prior access to the interview protocol so that they could reflect on their replies and bring evidence to support their comments. interviews lasted around 45 minutes each, they were digitally recorded and the recordings were transcribed. ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150132 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 132 for the analysis of the data we used a mixed methods approach in which participants’ replies to the interview questions were identified and counted, but examined qualitatively.3 the data were analysed in five stages. first, we went through the transcripts to get a general idea of each participant and how the whole interview had developed. it is here that the parts of the interview under study (background questions and part two) were identified and delimited (see appendix b). then, we focused on the background questions to get an individual profile of each participant and a general profile of the whole group. after this, we closely examined each interview transcript and listed and tallied the replies to each question against the names of the participants who had responded in a similar way or with a similar idea in mind. this provided us with a list of statements per question and participant together with its corresponding counts. next, we closely examined this list and coded the statements in two stages as suggested in qualitative-research literature (e.g. saldaña, 2009; silverman, 2005; dörnyei, 2016): first we annotated the texts with keywords and expressed them in the form of categories or codes (open coding); then we refined the categories and grouped the codes into a dozen themes (axial coding). last, we collated our findings with the existing literature through a process of inductive coding, and reformulated the initial codebook into five themes and fifteen subthemes as shown in table 1. investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 133 ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 113-132 whole interview had developed. it is here that the parts of the interview under study (background questions and part two) were identified and delimited (see appendix b). then, we focused on the background questions to get an individual profile of each participant and a general profile of the whole group. after this, we closely examined each interview transcript and listed and tallied the replies to each question against the names of the participants who had responded in a similar way or with a similar idea in mind. this provided us with a list of statements per question and participant together with its corresponding counts. next, we closely examined this list and coded the statements in two stages as suggested in qualitative-research literature (e.g. saldaña, 2009; silverman, 2005; dörnyei, 2016): first we annotated the texts with keywords and expressed them in the form of categories or codes (open coding); then we refined the categories and grouped the codes into a dozen themes (axial coding). last, we collated our findings with the existing literature through a process of inductive coding, and reformulated the initial codebook into five themes and fifteen sub-themes as shown in table 1. themes and sub-themes participants (n=19) 1. course development needs 16 a.! needs assessment 9 b.! teaching skills 12 c.! autonomy 9 d.! materials use and development 15 e.! motivation 13 2. knowledge of the target discipline/profession/industry 16 a.! engagement in disciplinary community 10 3. knowledge of language use in the target discipline/profession/industry 15 a.! situational language 7 b.! situational vocabulary 6 c.! genres and text types 6 d.! disciplinary culture awareness 10 4. peer collaboration 15 a.! collaboration with peers 15 b.! collaboration with content teachers 10 5. professional development opportunities 19 a.! support for novice teachers 19 b.! support for experienced teachers 19 c.! ongoing professional development 17 table 1: esp teacher needs: themes and sub-themes. findings and discussion esp teacher needs were identified with regard to the participants’ replies to part 2 of the interview (see appendix b) and following the iterative analysis process noted above. needs are presented as the main themes have emerged along the interviews, and discussed in turn. 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 133 findings and discussion esp teacher needs were identified with regard to the participants’ replies to part 2 of the interview (see appendix b) and following the iterative analysis process noted above. needs are presented as the main themes have emerged along the interviews, and discussed in turn. course development needs nearly all the teachers (n=16) highlighted the central role they accorded to learners’ needs in their courses. they saw needs-based instruction as the core of esp teaching. they stressed the importance of selecting the right topics and language (discipline/profession relevant) for the syllabus and emphasized the importance of analysing target situations to know what was required. as one participant said, “you have to research the language and the needs before teaching the course” (eva). teachers talked about the specific skill set of esp teaching as one that included designing activities and tasks that resemble real life (in the target discipline/profession). they felt that they needed good skills in promoting class interaction and engaging students in conversations but that they also needed to be willing to accept learners’ suggestions (the idea of shared expertise) and be ready to move from one target discipline to another. around half felt they needed to be able to encourage autonomous learning (as their learners would have to continue learning english for their discipline/profession beyond esp instruction) and talked about the importance of promoting self-direction and independent learning. almost all the teachers referred to the need to be able to develop materials that met target needs. for most this involved selecting from and adapting already existing (sometimes published) esp materials (like textbooks) and for others it involved adapting authentic materials and devising new materials. they all felt a necessity to develop, select or adapt materials which demonstrate language use in the discipline/profession. it was important for around two thirds of the teachers to be skillful in increasing motivation because some students appeared unmotivated, particularly when the discipline was not the preferred degree choice of the students. it has become clear from the data that teachers need pedagogical knowledge and teaching skills. this refers not only to the knowledge of basic teaching principles but also to the teacher ability to make the language of a target ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150134 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 134 discipline teachable – that is, the need “to be effective teachers” (hall, 2013: 5540). it also involves an awareness of those pedagogical issues that are most appropriate for the teaching context (how to promote a particular skill, how to encourage active participation, how to manage the group and how to assess language development) so that teachers are good users of the target language and understand how the target language works (jourdenais, 2009). such level of awareness leads many participants to see themselves as involved in too many tasks (the jack-of-all-trades teacher depicted by hyland, 2012) because not only do they have to study and learn about the teaching context but also investigate it in view of successful teaching performance (belcher, 2006; hall, 2013). lack of training in pedagogical practices, such as testing and assessment (huang, 2018) or materials development (basturkmen & bocanegra-valle, 2018), makes, in these participants’ view, a significant difference with general english language teaching (elt). the need for a variety of materials already expressed in jordan (2000) has also been highlighted by these teachers together with the need for assessing, selecting, adapting, creating and developing new materials that, firstly, meet the needs of the learners and the target discipline/profession and, secondly, address students’ levels and the size of learner groups. accepting that materials development has been a major activity since the beginning of esp courses (belcher, 2006), we have observed that (i) the original goal of providing learners with useful materials adapted to their target needs has evolved and expanded; and (ii) there is also a need for providing materials which prioritize motivation and self-direction. last, the introduction of independent learner strategies in esp courses for self-direction and learner autonomy is an issue which has gathered little interest in the literature (e.g. mozzon-mcpherson, 1997) but has been identified elsewhere as a relevant teacher need (alexander, 2007; upton, 2012). the promotion of self-direction and autonomy in view of lifelong learning is one of the main tenets of the ehea, to which the spanish university (like other eu universities) must adhere. knowledge of the target discipline/profession/industry most participants (n=16) stated that knowledge of the target discipline is “absolutely necessary” or “very desirable” for successful esp teaching. the reason underlying such need is, as one participant put it, because “the more investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 135 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 135 you know, the best you are going to give in this tuition” (blanca). comments also revealed that a lack of disciplinary knowledge reflected poorly on teachers: “i don’t feel confident when they [learners] talk about all those things […]. i am not going to teach them how it works but, once they know how it works, i should know because they ask me in their conversations” (ines). most of the teachers felt an acute need for engagement or full integration in the disciplinary community so as to feel “respected”, “valued” and “credible”. as one participant (victoria) noted, if the esp teacher is not integrated, s/he will feel “an outsider”, “an alien”, and will not be respected or valued. these issues of “respect” and “value” were explicitly pointed out by almost a third of the whole group. one participant (claudia) remarked on the importance to appear “credible” before content colleagues and to achieve this she worked in a research group of the discipline so as to know “what is accepted and what is not in the area”. disciplinary knowledge has been studied in the esp literature as content knowledge, subject-matter knowledge or specialist knowledge. participants in this study believed that the amount and depth of disciplinary knowledge required are difficult to quantify and vary along with teaching experience and the students’ levels. these findings concur with earlier works discussed in the literature review (i.e. ferguson, 1997; master, 2005). for these teachers general knowledge about the discipline is necessary in early teaching stages (students are apprentice in the discipline), but the more expert the learners, the more information about the content area an esp teacher needs (even up to a level of “immersion”, as one participant pointed out). also, as another participant explained, students in higher levels (that is, master’s degrees or close to graduation) will demand more content depth in texts and activities if compared with students in lower courses (freshmen). the demanding nature of the teaching context in terms of disciplinary knowledge needs is a major concern. esp teachers, usually with a humanitiesbiased education as it is the case here, should not be expected to master the substantive content of the learners’ discipline (ferguson, 1997). this group of esp teachers shares this view; however, they feel indirectly forced to acquire and develop disciplinary knowledge for successful teaching and if they do not wish to feel uncomfortable. it stands out that many teachers may find the specialist content areas of their esp learners “unfamiliar, uninteresting, and even intimidating” (belcher, 2006: 139), some others, may just not feel at ease or comfortable. ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150136 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 136 esp settings host a very special teacher-student relationship and entail the concept of “shared expertise”, that is, “the learners are likely to have more experience and knowledge than the teacher in the specific area being targeted” (hall, 2013: 5537). such special relationship and the concept of “shared expertise” have been observed by these study participants and different actions on the esp teacher’s part to overcome any possible obstacles have been suggested. the interviews revealed that the ways these teachers developed disciplinary knowledge were varied and largely self-initiated. in the absence of specific support, teachers have employed different strategies to meet their content knowledge needs, and choices depend on the disciplinary knowledge level to be attained and the purposes pursued: reading popular science and exploring esp textbooks to get a general idea of the discipline; reading relevant books and journal articles is recommended once basic disciplinary knowledge has been acquired; attending disciplinary lectures and invited talks delivered at the institution; holding conversations with content teachers about the discipline and the profession; helping content colleagues to improve their english and chatting over relevant topics in the discipline in english; or getting involved in an inter-disciplinary research group. the need for respect and full integration in the disciplinary community noted by our participants may be interpreted as a consequence of “teachers’ attempts to overcome their ‘outsider’ status” (hyland, 2012: 33). it is not only a question of acquiring the knowledge and skills that are expected but also of “being able to engage in and contribute to the construction of meanings that are important to the community as a competent member of that community” (tsui, 2011: 33). these participants aim at reaching the goal of building themselves an identity that is positively valued by both content teachers and students (that is, the community) and this need for engagement in the disciplinary community may be explained on the basis of lave and wenger’s (1991) “legitimate peripheral participation” tenets. knowledge of language use in the target discipline/profession/ industry most participants (n=15) cited the need to develop and master some kind of pedagogical disciplinary knowledge. in particular, how language is used in a particular discipline, how specific vocabulary features in a particular discipline, and the genres and text types which are characteristic and how investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 137 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 137 they contribute to communicating within the discipline. as participants explained, “it’s not just words, it’s more than that. it’s the situation, the way you use this vocabulary” (blanca), and this is because, in comparison with elt, “i am teaching professionals, future professionals, so i want my students to be good professionals so the aim, the objective, the focus is absolutely different” (alberto). some participants argued that the teaching of the most common technical terms would suffice: “you have to be familiar with the vocabulary, at least with the most frequently used terms” (yolanda). but for others the more teaching experience, the more vocabulary and the more specialisation are necessary: “i’m also lost sometimes in spite of the 20 years because so much to know, so many words” (eva). a third of the teachers talked about the need to learn about the most common genres in the target discipline/profession and explore the rhetorical structure of specialised texts so as to introduce genres as a learning tool in their courses. by way of example, one participant (eva) elaborated on this issue and described in detail the way she introduced genres as a learning tool in her course (e.g. certificates from classification societies to naval engineering students). she was aware of her need to design and develop a course (or at least some activities of the course) on the basis of the instances of types of oral and written discourse that her students were expected to face in the target profession; therefore, she investigated samples of specialised discourse and also the situations in which such discourse occurred. last, teachers commented that a discipline embraces a particular culture and, hence, there arises a need for disciplinary culture awareness. for more than half of the participants the knowledge of some disciplines is difficult to acquire and, as a result, disciplinary knowledge may or may not be a challenge depending on the target discipline: “you need to have knowledge of the subject and it depends as well on the subject” (laura). the view that emerges thus far is that different disciplines attract different students and, therefore, different teaching approaches are felt to be needed. some teachers provided clear examples of such differences like “engineers are practical, they do not like oral discussions and see them as a waste of time” (esther); “they have visual minds so they love watching videos showing what engineers think and how they work” (victoria). they highlighted that teaching esp is faced with different demands depending on the target discipline. for instance, mario and eva explained that there exists plenty of ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150138 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 138 textbooks in some areas (business, for instance) whereas in others (like naval engineering) there are very few; as a consequence, they felt a higher or lower need to design and develop their own teaching materials, and even selecting or adapting effectively from what was available became at times more important than developing new materials. from this group of participants it becomes clear that language knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and disciplinary knowledge on their own are not sufficient to function in an esp context. teachers need to go beyond the simple mastery of language systems, they need to know about how language is used in specific contexts, they need to develop genre and discourse analytical skills and they have to establish effective ways to represent disciplinary knowledge to students. it is assumed that esp teachers are required to assist students in developing not only the target language but also the discoursal requirements and related skills that are necessary to function in a professional community. for these teachers, esp was essentially teaching discourse as it occurs within a discipline and promoting effective ways to communicating in a target profession. for instance, they saw the teaching of specialized vocabulary as teaching learners how to apply and use it within the discipline (i.e. situational knowledge). it was also important to be aware of the most salient language features so as to place a greater focus on them. likewise, it was of utmost importance to understand the situations in which the language is used, the discourse of the discipline, the forms and features of communication in the target profession, and the nature of the communicative events that usually take place (i.e. conceptual knowledge). the teaching of vocabulary was understood as key for the mastery of the language of the target discipline/profession and how to make vocabulary teachable was an important concern; however, the amount and degree of specificity of vocabulary to be dealt with are issues that remain unanswered. it also deemed necessary for these esp teachers to explore the most common genres in the disciplines and the rhetorical structure of specialised texts. this point was already raised by ferguson (1997: 87) in his understanding that teaching esp very often involved “teaching language for a genre-specific purpose”. among the different approaches to the investigation of disciplinary discourse identified in the literature, genre analysis and corpus analysis stand out as the most common. texts are the primary source for exploring the language and discourse features of a discipline and investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 139 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 139 understanding how language relates to the target context. they may also inform learning materials and textbooks so that they become more contextcentered and closer to real life discourse. esp teachers need to gain knowledge of these two areas as appropriate (ferguson, 1997; belcher, 2006; basturkmen, 2010; hall, 2013) since the esp approach to discourse and genre has exerted the largest influence on practitioner knowledge (ding & bruce, 2017). the tesp (teaching esp) module introduced at the english department of the university of vienna is a good example of how genre analysis and corpus linguistics can inform esp/eap teacher education given that esp teachers are often faced with “the difficult task of teaching many esps, including unfamiliar or newly emerging genres” and “the impossibility of predicting the genres that future esp teachers might be teaching in the next 40 years of their professional lives” (hüttner, smit & mehlmauerlarcher, 2009: 100). these teachers’ concern with disciplinary cultures suggests that there can be no single model for esp teaching and that differences across disciplines need to be taken into account (ferguson, 1997). each discipline has its own way of thought and embodies different difficulties, learning priorities, teaching goals and educational challenges. thus, esp teachers need to be aware of such potential differences and ready to overcome them. importantly enough, learners have different learning styles depending on the target discipline/profession and this also has an influence on the way they expect (and like) to be taught. these interviews have provided some fine examples of disciplinary culture differences as based on the participants’ own experience. peer collaboration most teachers (n=15) voiced the need for greater collaboration with their peers. lack of peer collaboration was seen as a cause of regret. as one participant remarked, “we should have meetings and we should talk about our needs but we don’t do that” (david). another said, “sometimes we have the same problems, we don’t talk about them and we don’t know how to deal with them and perhaps, you know, something that works very well in english for nurses for example could be also useful in english for lawyers” (lucia). these teachers’ suggestions for collaboration with other esp teachers included: peer tutoring; peer observation; working with experienced home colleagues; using experienced colleagues’ materials that have proved efficient; organizing meetings with esp colleagues regardless of their experience (so as to share common problems or teaching ideas); informal or brief discussions ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150140 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 140 among esp home colleagues on issues related to everyday practices. two thirds wished for closer contact with content teachers and, although opportunities to do this had been limited, two teachers described particular positive experiences. laura, for example, talked about having received help from a colleague at the law department in designing her english for law syllabus. last, three of the teachers felt it would be beneficial if they could attend content lectures (related to their esp branch of teaching). the lack of personal and professional contact with disciplinary teachers and the isolation from other teachers doing similar work are problems that arise in the literature (e.g. belcher, 2009) as a “social need” (basturkmen, 2019: 328). collaboration among peers is known to have favourable effects on esp teachers and strengthen “the value of informal learning opportunities” (ding & campion, 2016: 552). also, moments of informal or brief conversations between teachers (“tiny talks”) have been found to benefit teacher education development (zoshak, 2016). peer observation involves esp novice or experienced teachers observing other esp experienced teachers or content teachers during class time. following these participants’ comments, mobility programmes may offer a good opportunity to attend similar courses in other universities, both at home or abroad, and meet other teachers teaching similar esp learner groups. peer collaboration also involves collaboration with content teachers. this means a step further in the roles that language and content teachers have acquired in the field. for this group of participants esp teachers may benefit from this collaboration in selecting topics/content for the course (i.e. designing a course syllabus), sharing and solving problems about terminology, finding authentic materials and relevant learning resources (particularly those which are not accessible to non-content teachers), designing and developing materials, clarifying conceptual knowledge, or solving problems about common practices in the target discipline/profession. it stands out that none of the interviewees showed concern about clil or emi programmes when voicing this need; therefore, this collaboration may not be understood in the terms of the “adjunct model” anticipated by arnó-macià and mancho-barés (2015). professional development opportunities all these esp teachers (n=19) reported the need for teacher support at any stage of their career given that they had been “prepared to teach general investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 141 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 141 english” (lucia) and not esp. besides the peer collaboration already noted, and which was understood as a kind of teacher support, these participants pointed at the organization of courses adapted to the needs of both novice and experienced teachers. for three participants, a good solution would be to include a module on esp teaching as a part of the english philology degree. for almost two thirds, former experience in teaching english or spanish as a foreign language was also helpful when faced with esp teaching duties. all participants felt that both novice and experienced teachers should receive some form of support. five of them stressed that support needs change along with the passing of time and for two of them new education changes (such as those required by the ehea – e.g. clil and emi approaches) also place new demands on teachers for which they have received little or no training. this idea concurs with similar findings in other settings (e.g. banegas, 2018). the need for continual professional development regardless of years of experience was mentioned by almost all participants. also a clear need for engagement in collaborative reflections (i.e. sharing experiences, beliefs and concerns, and reflecting on how to improve their teaching practices and professional development) was identified. three participants believed that, if compared with elt, ongoing professional development was much more necessary in this teaching context. for some others, disciplinary knowledge justified on its own the need for continual development. this was an issue of concern particularly among those participants involved in a very wide variety of target disciplines. teresa is a case in point: after eighteen years in the esp profession she moved from teaching agriculture to industrial engineering and was faced again with the need to develop disciplinary knowledge in view of successful teaching. the literature suggests that typically only some teachers who come to teach esp have received formal training (basturkmen, 2010). also, the provision of more esp teacher education opportunities and more programmes in language education offering esp as an area of specialisation has been advocated (hamp-lyons, 2011; hall, 2013; basturkmen, 2014). these esp teachers have not received any specific training in esp and they have learnt from practice and by gaining experience over the years; their general elt education and training provides them with a strong background and a very rich practical knowledge, but this needs to be supplemented by specialized teacher training (hall, 2013; campion, 2016). ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150142 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 142 both novice and experienced teachers need support. participants suggested that novice teachers should be provided with support regarding: the target esp branch; differences between teaching general english and esp; how to conduct a needs analysis; how to identify discipline-related linguistic features; genre-based approaches to investigating and learning; how to facilitate the acquisition of specialised vocabulary; how to develop courses and materials; and how to carry out esp-related research. support to experienced teachers may be attained through peer collaboration, as discussed above, attendance to introductory/general courses on particular disciplines so as to be acquainted with content knowledge and its relevance for esp teaching, running of specific workshops (e.g. materials assessment), organisation of refreshing courses focused on pedagogical issues (e.g. classroom management), setting up of online forums so as to exchange ideas and practices with other esp teachers in other universities. the little provision for professional development in esp is a matter of concern (hamp-lyons, 2011; campion, 2016); however, esp teachers can at present collaborate, discuss and develop on common professional topics (for details about current opportunities see hamp-lyons, 2011; hall, 2013; basturkmen, 2014; ding & campion, 2016). this group of teachers adopted a number of coping strategies by which they have developed their teaching expertise – e.g. reading books and journals on esp, attending conferences on esp and related fields, watching videos with professionals at work, learning from what other colleagues around spain are doing if faced with similar courses (by discussing practices at conferences or by reading scientific articles). these strategies are informal developmental paths found by esp teachers given the absence of some kind of direct formal guidance for professional development and, following tsui (2011), as a result of the ways in which they personally interact within their specific contexts of work and the possibilities that are opened up for their professional learning. as campion (2016) found, informal activities are very valuable for the development of teachers’ specialist knowledge (rather than teaching skills) and for becoming successful in this context. lastly, findings have lent strong support to the idea that engagement in reflective teaching provides teachers with professional development opportunities. this, as jourdenais (2009: 655) puts it, assists teachers in “enhancing their own classroom practices” and “expanding the domain of language education research”. investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 143 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 143 conclusions the insights gained from this group of participants suggest that experienced esp teachers have a plurality of interrelated necessities, concerns, expectations, lacks and wants. contrary to previous work which focused on individual needs this study has profiled five main groups of needs that suggest clear pointers for future action in the local context: specific training and qualifications in the field of esp, enhanced disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge, peer collaboration initiatives at various levels and provision of continual professional development opportunities. many findings in this study concur with those featuring in general second language teacher education and development (e.g. jourdenais, 2009; tsui, 2011) in that the way we think about how teachers learn to teach, how teachers teach second languages, or what constitutes their professional development trajectories are at the core of teaching education. they are also supported in some respects by some of the few studies on esp teacher needs (see ferguson, 1997; jordan, 2000; alexander, 2007). however, new findings like those related to engagement in the disciplinary community, disciplinary culture awareness, support or professional development strategies illustrate the complex nature of teacher education and development as a field of enquiry and open up new avenues for exploration. by way of example, the suggestion of taking advantage of teaching mobility programmes as a form of peer collaboration and professional development would require the redefinition of the roles of those involved (and the corresponding agreements between institutions) but, hopefully, would contribute to sharing and importing best practices in esp teaching. it would also have implications for the internationalisation of institutions and, hence, for the globalisation of the esp teaching profession. to what extent esp teachers may take advantage of these mobility programmes and in what ways their teaching practices may be redefined are issues which, at present, remain unanswered. acknowledgements our thanks to these 19 esp teachers for generously sharing their time and expertise with us. also thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions for change. article history: received 5 october 2018 received in revised form 26 april 2019 accepted 13 may 2019 ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150144 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 144 references investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 145 aguado de cea, g. & a. curado fuentes (2012). “esp in spain: goals, achievements and prospects”. asp 62: 91-107. alexander, o. 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(2018). “a call for critical dialogue: eap assessment from the practitioner’s perspective in canada”. journal of english for academic purposes 35: 70-84. hüttner, j., u. smit & b. mehlmauer-larcher (2009). “esp teacher education at the interface of theory and practice: introducing a model of mediated corpus-based genre analysis”. system 37: 99-109. hyland, k. (2012). “‘the past is the future with the 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 145 ana bocanegra-valle is senior lecturer at the university of cadiz, spain, where she teaches maritime english to undergraduates and master’s students. she has conducted research on needs analysis, maritime english discourse, and english for research publication purposes. she is at present book review editor for the journals esp today (university of belgrade) and resla (john benjamins). helen basturkmen lectures on the mtesol programme at the university of auckland, new zealand. she has written two books on english for specific purposes (lawrence erlbaum, 2006; palgrave macmillan, 2010) and was editor of english for academic purposes in the critical concepts in linguistics series (routledge, 2015). ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150146 lights on’: reflections on aelfe’s 20th birthday”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 24: 29-42. hyland, k. & p. shaw (eds.) (2016). the routledge handbook of english for academic purposes. abingdon: routledge. jordan, r.r. (2000). “eap: the human dimension – changes, difficulties & needs”. iatefl esp sig newsletter 17: 17-21. jourdenais, r. (2009). “language teacher education” in m.h. long & c.j. doughty (eds.), the handbook of language teaching, 647-658. oxford: blackwell. lave, j. & e. wenger (1991). situated learning. legitimate peripheral participation. cambridge: cambridge university press. master, p. (1997). “esp teacher education in the usa” in r. howard & g. brown (eds.), 22-40. master, p. (2005). “research in english for specific purposes” in e. hinkel (ed.), handbook of research in second language teaching and learning, 99115. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. mcdonough, j. & t. french (eds.) (1981). the esp teacher: role, development and prospects. elt documents 112. london: the british council. mozzon-mcpherson, m. (1997). “the lsp teacher and independent learning strategies” in r. howard & g. brown (eds.), 176-185. richards, k. (1997). “teachers of specific purposes” in r. howard & g. brown (eds.), 115-126. ruiz-garrido, m. & i. fortanet-gómez (2009). “needs analysis in a clil context: a transfer from esp” in d. marsh, p. mehisto, d. wolff, r. aliaga, t. asikainen, m.j. frigols-martin, s. hughes & g. langé (eds.), clil practice: perspectives from the field, 179-188. jyväskylä: university of jyväskylä. saldaña, j. (2009). the coding manual for qualitative researchers. london: sage. silverman, d. (2005). doing qualitative research. london: sage. tao, j. & x. gao (2018). “identity constructions of esp teachers in a chinese university”. english for specific purposes 49: 1-13. tsui, a.b.m. (2011). “teacher education and teacher development” in e. hinkel (ed.), 21-39. upton, t. (2012). “lsp at 50: looking back, looking forward”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 23: 9-28. woźniak, m. (2017). “esp in clil degree programmes”. esp today 5: 244-265. yang, w. (2016). “esp vs. clil: a coin of two sides or a continuum of two extremes?”. esp today 4: 43-68. zoshak, r. (2016). “‘tiny talks’ between colleagues: brief narratives as mediation in teacher development”. language teaching research 20: 209-222. 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 146 notes 1 in this study no distinction between “teacher education” and “teacher development” is made because, as claimed by ding and campion (2016: 548), in the field of esp these are overlapping terms “due to significant changes which are occurring in the broad field of teacher education”. 2 as hewings (2002) attested, the journal english for specific purposes only published 10 articles on teacher education in 20 volumes between 1980 and 2001 and this was the topic that awakened the least interest. a closer look at the same journal from 2002 to date (october 2018) shows that teacher education accounts for just three articles in the past 16 years (volumes 21 to 53). this journal, ibérica, has also published three articles on the topic in 36 volumes (from 1999 to fall 2018). 3 a “mixed method” study involves “the mixing of quantitative and qualitative methods or paradigm characteristics” (dörney, 2016: 163) so that both approaches are integrated at one or more stages of the research process. investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 147 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 147 appendix a. participants in this study ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150148 investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 113-132 that awakened the least interest. a closer look at the same journal from 2002 to date (october 2018) shows that teacher education accounts for just three articles in the past 16 years (volumes 21 to 53). this journal, ibérica, has also published three articles on the topic in 36 volumes (from 1999 to fall 2018). 3 a “mixed method” study involves “the mixing of quantitative and qualitative methods or paradigm characteristics” (dörney, 2016: 163) so that both approaches are integrated at one or more stages of the research process. appendix a. participants in this study participant (pseudonym) esp teaching experience (+ other) (years) esp field esp target students alberto 13 nursing, tourism, business, public administration, wine industry undergraduates, master’s, in-service workers alvaro 7 (+9) nursing, tourism, law, information technology, business undergraduates antonio 34 criminology, business, economics, chemistry, engineering, accounting undergraduates blanca 30 (+2) business, public administration, industrial relations undergraduates claudia 12 (+13) telecommunications, professional communication, writing for engineers undergraduates, masters’ cristina 22 (+1) electronics, telecommunications, academic writing undergraduates david 20 (+10) mechanics, electronics, computing engineering undergraduates esther 27 (+13) shipbuilding, marine engineering, port logistics undergraduates, in-service naval architects, masters’ eva 21 (+2) shipbuilding, navigation, radioelectronics undergraduates, in-service naval architects ines 25 engineering, business, tourism, public administration, advertising, marketing, public relations, wine industry undergraduates, master’s irene 16 (+3) journalism, dentistry, sports, economics, energy and mining engineering undergraduates laura 15 (+3) tourism, business, nursing, marketing, finance, law undergraduates lucia 10 (+10) business, tourism undergraduates mario 24 (+2) health science, business, industrial relations, electrical and civil engineering undergraduates monica 10 (+8) tourism, writing for academic publishing underand post-graduates, academics paula 32 (+2) telecommunications, technical translation, reading for telecommunications undergraduates teresa 18 (+6) agricultural and industrial engineering, academic english, scientific english undergraduates, phd students victoria 35 tourism, civil engineering undergraduates yolanda 25 (+5) aeronautical engineering undergraduates 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 148 appendix b. interview protocol (adapted) investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers ibérica 38 (2019): 127-150 149 ana bocanegra-valle & helen basturkmen ibérica 38 (2019): 113-132 appendix b. interview protocol (adapted) part two: teacher needs 1. could you tell us about how/why you started teaching esp? how did you come to teach esp? 2. in your view is teaching esp different from teaching general english? 3. did you know about esp teaching when you started? how did you learn? can you recall any specific learning experiences? 4. have you done teacher training, a course, reading on teaching esp? if so, what topics did the course focus on? 5. what skills/knowledge do you think are needed by esp teachers? are the skills/knowledge different compared to those needed by the general english teacher? 6. do you feel particularly competent in certain areas of teaching esp? how did you develop this competence? 7. are there any skill or knowledge areas in which you feel less competent or confident? would you like support in this and if so, what form of support would you prefer? 8. in your opinion, what would be a good form of support for a) novice esp teachers? b) experienced esp teachers? 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 149 04 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:49 página 150 01 editorial.qxd narratives in academic and professional genres maurizio gotti, carmen sancho guinda (eds). bern: peter lang, 2013. 511 pages. isbn: 978-3-03431371-1. narratives in academic and professional genres occupies a much needed space in which professionals have for long coveted. the area of academic genres has been dealt with extensively; however, the professional area, whether communication in the workplace or the study of minor genres in the professions, such as photographic narrative in annual reports, the narrative of patents, aviation catastrophes or the journalistic obituary, have been practically ignored. recently, however, scholars have recognized the need to further investigate this area of scholarship. this dense volume contributes to show the possible interactivity that may exist between academic and professional genres. the volume narratives in academic and professional genres offers an ample space for discussion addressed to narratology in two main areas of academic and professional communication. in the first part, entitled “narratives in academic genres”, anna mauranen’s study investigates how research findings are reported in conference presentations through narrative elements. in her discussion, she analyzes the different narratives of “me”, “us” and “them”; through the first pronoun, the listener is invited to identify “with the speaker’s perspective” (page 62), while “us” and “we” draw “the hearers into the research group’s perspective” (page 57). the position of authors in the narrative with regard to audiences is also approached by carmen daniela maier and jan engberg in their paper on “narrator’s types and roles” in several academic generic forms in the field of visual communication; in their analysis they recognize the difficulty of approaching such a genre. linguistic features in historical narratives are described by marina bondi in her corpus of 425 academic and popular papers in which specific meanings are drawn from “prototypical place deictics here/there” (page 139). in turn, rosa lorés-sanz approaches history book reviews written in english and spanish as “the most prominent evaluative genre” (p. 195) by discussing their reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 233 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 233 rhetorical structure and discoursal features. pilar mur dueñas also brings an intercultural view of english and spanish research articles manifested through scholars’ narrative of their own research. among her main conclusions we find that both cultural groups share similar conventions when recounting their research, while at the same time she underscores the fact that english texts show a higher percentage of personal over impersonal narrative acts (70.3% and 29.7%, respectively); in spanish texts, however, the results are practically reversed (27.9% and 72.1%, respectively) (page 225). christoph a. hafner, lindsay miller and connie ng kwai-fun et al. adopt a pedagogical approach and look at the structure of student narrative writing in english for science and technology. they look at the subject from different angles, namely through the use of digital media and how to create a digital story, science class projects, with special emphasis on the organization of a scientific documentary. this paper draws from digital storytelling advocates as being a powerful classroom tool, as we are reminded in today’s teaching/learning literature (jason ohler, 2006). some studies refer to less formal academic narratives, such as begoña bellés fortuño’s paper in which she examines classroom asides as a “recurrent pragmatic feature in academic lectures” (page 74) ; the analysis is based on a corpus extracted from micase (the michigan corpus of academic and spoken english). according to her results, asides are basically evaluative in nature. christine feak’s analysis, in turn, is on narrative styles in university public meetings, namely board of regents meetings, in which opportunities are provided to citizens to address governing boards although she contends that these “meetings appear to be more a ritual that serves to preserve an identity through the embedded narratives” (page 99). again, using a storytelling strategy, yiannis gabriel provides a very personal reflection on researchers as storytellers and the stories’ role in academic discourses. maría josé luzón analyzes what she calls “academic blogs” as having a widely diversified nature; through them “bloggers create their online identity [projecting] a persona made up both of professional and personal/social traits” (page 191). the final study of this first part, by luisa caiazzo, is on the “about” page of british university websites and their evaluative vs. factual contextual environments. among other conclusions, she underscores the role of “time, aspect and voice (…) in shaping the narrative” (page 271). the second section of this collection of papers is entitled “narratives in professional genres”. quoting therese riley and penelope hawe (2005), reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256234 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 234 brian paltridge states in his “afterword” that this type of research allows us “to see the world through the eyes of others” (page 497). in fact, some of the papers in this section are more on the side of research into academic than into professional genres, such as françoise salager-meyer, maría ángeles alcaraz ariza and marianela luzardo briceño‘s paper in which they analyze medical titling practices and authorship in case report narratives. however, they contend that case reports are often used as purely a professional communication device but that this trend has also led “towards a more scientific medicine” (page 314). marco de martino takes up the issue of illness narratives in which he foresees patients with a serious disease moving from passivity towards activity: “in witnessing their illness experience and sharing it with other people, they turn fate into experience and also show a sense of ethical responsibility” (page 338). other papers in this second half of the volume underscore the importance of narratives about climate change, as in kjersti fløttum’s paper, which are often characterized by their use of “calibrated and rigorously defined expressions for uncertainties” (page 289), and for which she would advocate more research on the matter. legal narratives also find their place in this volume with papers like ruth breeze’s and patrizia anesa’s. while anesa points out that people are by nature storytellers (page 363), legal narratives have little to do with storytelling because the narratives are interwoven with technical accounts and stories. as breeze remarks, “the development of the narrative is recursive, with repetition of key incidents through multiple accounts, and revisiting of specific aspects that hold the key to possible legal implications” (page 360). ismael arinas pellón’s paper also hinges around patent technicalities from the world of commerce and legal principles in his discussion on intellectual property. in another paper, carmen sancho guinda introduces narratives related to aviation catastrophes, what she calls genre hybrids, for which she poses a series of questions concerning authorship and narrative adequacy. she parallels the rhetorical structure of this narrative scheme with the moves contained in the research article abstract. transparency in such narratives seems to be one main issue, especially derived from the freedom of information act, but also authorship, which are composed, as sancho guinda suggests, not only by “narratives of authority putting forward the opinions and decisions of a group of experts, but they are also crafted by witnesses and the families and professional relations of those involved in or affected by the disaster” (page 408). the final two papers deal with two issues not usually found in applied linguistics studies. elizabeth de groot, through a study of annual reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 235 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 235 reports, looks into the complexity of photographic narrative in business genres; then, isabel corona marzol analyses multimodality in british newspapers offering a narrative composite resulting from cross-fertilization of neighboring genres. the contents of this volume are aimed at a wide readership, both professional and academic. they provide food for thought on important research areas which are not usually covered by other essay collections. from the pedagogical point of view, the different approaches to the interactivity between academic and professional genres offered in this volume also add additional material for teaching and learning practices. even though we may disagree with some minor appreciations, we are sure it is a welcome addition to today’s research and that it will also stimulate further research in these and other related areas. thus, we fully recommend this collection of essays since it deepens into areas often ignored in today’s research. [review received 20 march 2014] [revised review received 05 june 2014] [revised review accepted 13 june 2014] reviewed by carmen piqué-noguera universitat de valència (spain) carmen.pique@uv.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256236 ohler, j. (2006). “the world of digital storytelling”. educational leadership 63: 44-47. riley, t. & p. hawe (2005). “researching practice: the methodological case for narrative inquiry”. health education research 20: 226-236. 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 236 iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 7-16 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.7 a matter that has baffled me about lsp research for quite some time is the relative lack of interest in spoken language. wait, you may say, isn’t there a noteworthy body of studies on conference presentations and lectures, and more recently, newer genres like 3mt presentations on their way to become trendy topics? yes, i’m aware of that, and am happy to acknowledge the important work in those areas, but what i am concerned about is that there seems to be almost no interest at all in interactive speaking. since my own research domain has been essentially academic discourse, i’m primarily talking about that here, but there is reason to believe the phenomenon holds more widely as well. just to be sure, i went through what three leading lsp journals, ibérica, english for specific purposes, and jeap had published over the last five years, and i found no more than ten papers altogether that had investigated spoken interaction. this is a minute proportion (2-3% in my quick estimate of all the papers), and although there were also some corpus studies with data which lumped together monologic and dialogic speech to look for a given phrase or sequence, and some papers on online communication that might be considered dialogic, the vast majority of what was published dealt with written genres, and a smallish minority with monologic speech, such as lectures and presentations of different kinds. the emphasis on written, mostly published text types, resonates with hyland and jiang’s (2021) recent bibliometric survey of esp. one of the reasons for this preference for the written word may lie in tradition and the nature of the research field. clearly, lsp is a domain of applied linguistics, and originated in a need to teach academic reading and writing skills to undergraduates in different fields. it has certainly come a long way from its early days of teaching specialist terminology. applied concerns are nevertheless still primary in the field, which may go some way towards explaining why writing remains the central interest, and why lectures where is spoken interaction in lsp? anna mauranen university of helsinki (finland) anna.mauranen@helsinki.fi 7 ibérica 44 (2022): 00-00 anna mauranen and presentations are top priorities in the spoken mode. after all, undergraduates need to understand lectures and make presentations, aspiring academics want to make effective conference talks, and recent phds may want to dazzle future employers with their 3mt presentations. the research field has expanded and developed in many ways over time, as evinced in hyland and jiang’s (2021) recent study as well as charles’s (2022) survey of conference presentation topics in baleap from the mid-1970s. the latter paints a fresh picture of the field. conferences are transitory but repeated events, attended by practitioners along with researchers, therefore sites where trends and new ideas are passed on much faster than is possible through the publication process. a conference focus also nicely complements bibliometric studies like hyland and jiang’s, which reflect published research and their citations. unsurprisingly, though, the frequent topic areas are not widely different in conferences from those prominent in publications and citation indexes. however, pedagogical interest seems even more prominent in charles’s study, with students, courses, and assessment among the top 10% of topics. what is common to both perspectives on the field’s changing as well as enduring interests is the observed expansion and diversification of research topics over the decades, together with a distinct emphasis on the written word and the monologic mode. it needs to be remembered that both overviews only investigated english, not the entire field of specialised communication. however, we can assume that the broad outlines would remain substantially similar if the whole field was included, given the proportion of english in specialised communication, with perhaps the exception of a characteristically english-language bias on international research publications, which is unlikely to be repeated in other languages to the same degree. it would nevertheless be interesting to see comparable surveys of lsp in other languages. would the main interests and research topics remain the same if english was not included at all, or are the foci of lsp language-dependent, and if so, to what degree and in which respects? even if we continue with the tacit assumption that esp roughly equals lsp despite the caveats, two questions remain: how exclusively applied should – or can – an ‘applied’ research field be, and why is interactive speech not of interest to lsp? to address the question of applied research first, and specifically how useful applied research really can be on its own, i posit that the close 8 interdependency of applied and fundamental research is the cornerstone of any applied field. applied research necessarily makes use of concepts, analytical frameworks and research methods developed in basic research. lsp is no exception: for example, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, statistical methods, and pedagogical theories all come from fundamental research in different fields. discourse analysis inspired a major transformation in lsp research in the 1990s, very much in the spirit of the time. this originated in swales’s analyses of research article introductions in the late 1980s, which he then published in his seminal book on genre analysis in 1990. the notions of discourse, specifically the concept of ‘move’, and genre as social action arose in different domains of basic research but were skilfully synthesised by swales into a new research approach and combined with a pedagogical perspective. it shifted the focus of specialised communication to texts that academic experts write, and, more importantly perhaps, it shifted the interest in the field to original research of target texts from a novel viewpoint. more generally, how we think about language reflects the ways in which language is conceptualised in current theories and findings from basic research. our current understanding of language holds for example that an individual’s linguistic repertoire is a changing and heterogeneous whole, that different languages are not located in different brain regions, that each of an individual’s languages, including those they only know rudiments of, unavoidably influence each other, and that bior multilinguals are not only more common in the world than monolinguals but different from them in many respects that are advantageous to the multilingual. a conceptualisation of language that accepts these notions as relevant has meant notable change since the beginnings of lsp studies in the 1960s. moreover, our general notions of language keep evolving and feeding into applied research. we may see things very differently again in the next decade or two. this does not mean that applied research is doomed to remain at the receiving end of fundamental research. to begin with, the synthesis of concepts and methods, often from more than one field of basic enquiry, tends to be unique to a given applied field, as has been the case in studies of specialised communication. swales’s (1990) move analysis is a case in point. applied research can also contribute to basic research. many questions, for example the interest in multilingualism, have arisen from practical concerns, because real-life issues do not revolve around the perfect monolingual that where is spoken interaction in lsp? ibérica 44 (2022): 7-16 9 was postulated as ‘normal’ through the best part of the 19th and 20th centuries’ linguistic thinking. one of my favourite examples of applied interests changing theoretical perceptions is dictionary compilation, which changed dramatically by the publication of the first corpus-based dictionary (cobuild) in 1987. in the compilation process, it turned out that elements like collocations and multi-word units that are not reducible to the established categories of linguistic research such as morphemes, words, or clauses, are in fact repeatedly occurring and essential building blocks of language, and that the concrete meanings of lexical items that often first come to mind are not in effect their most frequently used meanings. these observations gave an enormous boost to corpus linguistics. which, in turn, became an essential tool for researchers and practitioners in specialised communication. and if we look at contemporary research articles published in lsp, studies of multi-word units by corpus means are a normal part of the current researchers’ toolbox. i think, therefore, that studies of specialised communication, like any other applied field, should also carry out research that isn’t inherently applied in the sense that it aims at some tangible or immediate improvement in professional practices. not infrequently, i have seen papers offered to an applied journal that are clearly based on curiosity-driven descriptive or theoretical research by nature but have included a sentence or two at the end about the applicational benefit that the investigation might have. often these imagined applications emit a somewhat glued-on feel to the reader, but at the same time they convey an awareness of the expectations of the field, or, perhaps, the publication forum. the question arises whether this really is necessary for the benefit of the field or the author. if we look at research in specialised communication or applied linguistics more widely, we find studies that pursue a deeper understanding of phenomena that are relevant to the field without obvious applications. such research can be important to the development of the field insofar as it explores questions that arise from our interest in specialised communication even if there are no immediately applicable or tangible findings in sight. those may come later, and it may take time. or perhaps the knowledge is simply not suitable for anything beyond satisfying our need to know and to understand. disciplinary history, for example. it goes beyond my imagination how it could benefit professional practices, but it certainly adds to the self-understanding of both researchers and practitioners. anna mauranen ibérica 44 (2022): 7-1610 some strands of research spread fast and wide outside their origins, like the genre analytical approach that was so influential in analysing research reporting but was also adopted for analysing other academically relevant texts with practical utility such as grant proposals, which are in demand among scientists and scholars both outside and inside lsp. but it also spread to texts outside academia that were common in for instance business or tourism. we find genre analyses of typical promotional genres concerned with hotel websites, holiday resorts, brands of sports clothing or fishing tackle, in other words genres with instrumental value for some branch of specialised communication. a research approach can also become so generally accepted as relevant to the field that its usefulness is taken for granted. for example, the genre analytical approach was also applied to texts not likely to be particularly central to practitioners, such as author’s acknowledgements or book prefaces. such genres may offer fresh glimpses on, say, historical developments, or varying traditions or cultural practices depending on their analytical angle, but their contribution will perhaps be more in the category of ‘nice to know’ than ‘essential to know’ or have practical implications. based on my observations from the three lsp journals it looks like basic research is certainly represented in the publications, mostly of a descriptive kind, or concerned with methodological issues, and occasionally also as theoretical papers. yet the overwhelming interest seems to centre around analysing scientists and scholars or students’ writing and pedagogical interventions into either comprehending texts or lectures. specialised communication outside academia is present but with a smaller share. the impression that comes across from a glimpse at the last five years is therefore a strong emphasis on academia and pedagogical interest. moving on to my second question, which concerned the lack of interest in interactive speech in the field of specialised communication – why indeed this lack of interest in dialogic speech? one reason may simply be the weight of tradition, and what have been perceived as the key objectives in lsp, such as student writing and, increasingly, research writing for publication, especially in eap. the field has of course originated in pedagogic interests, which is not perhaps a goal set so much by practitioners themselves as their employers. and the motive to continue along this path is hardly declining. with the growing fascination, even obsession, with university rankings, and a consequent emphasis on research publication achievements, pressure has where is spoken interaction in lsp? ibérica 44 (2022): 7-16 11 been mounting on academics to publish, preferably in high-ranking international journals. as a result, universities in many countries are willing to invest in training their staff and students in research writing skills. improving writing skills to boost their competitiveness may also be high on the agenda of individual academics. it is therefore also likely to come up in needs analyses. however, if we target teaching strictly on needs as perceived by academics and other professionals or their employers at a given moment, we risk underestimating our own research-based knowledge and understanding of issues and priorities. i have seen something like this happen in different universities. my first personal experience from a very long time ago comes from the time i was a phd student. together with my colleague we offered a course in academic writing for academic employees, which we both had done research on, but which was then a new thing in our university. there was nevertheless great interest among scientists and scholars. ahead of the course, we dutifully ran a needs analysis among those selected to attend. they told us about their wishes concerning grammar and vocabulary and elegant turns of phrase. we addressed the most frequently expressed needs, albeit from a perspective they did not expect, but they took this in their stride. however, we gave them something else they did not expect, namely a text linguistic perspective on research papers. after their initial surprise, this turned out to be what we received most praise for in the feedback questionnaire – in other words, they felt having benefited most from something they had not asked for. our approach was new, and being researchers themselves, they appreciated a new take on things. this is not just an individual success story. people in non-language research fields are not usually able to articulate clearly what they might ask from a language course, because their notions about language most likely derive from their school days. therefore, if nas tell us that course participants want brilliant presentation skills, for example, it might just be possible to smuggle in some discussion skills on the side. but to do this successfully we need research. we need research-based understanding of academic discussions of various kinds: conference discussions, undergraduate and graduate seminars and tutorials, thesis defences, laboratory work, and many others. there are, of course, myriads of fundamental studies already in existence and being done at this very moment concerning conversation, with whole linguistic schools dedicated to it, like conversation analysis and interactional linguistics. neither of these anna mauranen ibérica 44 (2022): 7-1612 is particularly interested in specialised communication, though, but more engaged with everyday conversations. to understand the kinds of spoken interaction that are relevant to specialised communication, it takes scholars whose research priorities lie in that direction. dialogic interaction is very different from monologue, whether written or spoken, in certain important respects. above all, it takes place in real time, and cannot be pre-planned, because it is a collaborative effort. it is also very fast compared to reading or writing. in dialogue (or polylogue, which academic discussions typically are, but i use ‘dialogue’ to cover both), speakers and hearers are the same people, alternating in speaker and hearer roles in rapid succession. they need to adapt their speech continually to each other. they negotiate not only meaning and language between themselves as the discourse progresses into unforeseen directions, but engage in recipient design to make themselves understood, and in verbal and nonverbal feedback and backchannelling to indicate how they are following their interlocutor’s talk. to be successful, spoken interaction in a cognitive sense requires that interactants are able to align their linguistic representations and their situation models sufficiently to maintain a meaningful conversation. this is no mean task whichever language you do it in, and of course misunderstandings occur in all circumstances. in brief, then, dialogic speech is dynamic, unpredictable, and fast, and therefore demanding. you may want to object by pointing out that precisely because speaking is so fundamental to humans, we can expect virtually everyone to be able to participate in conversations. yes, we can, in the sense of everyday conversation. but specialised discussions require special skills that are comparable to differences in types of writing. we hardly assume that anyone who can write a christmas card can by the same token write up a research paper if they have done the research. while presentation skills are unquestionably important for students and academics alike, academia is especially heavily built upon argumentation and critical discussion in spoken interactions, which are scarcely easier genres to master than presentations. all phd theses are examined, and in many traditions around the world this takes place in an oral examination, like a viva or disputation, where the candidate is to defend their work. this is usually an unnerving one-off occasion where the stakes are high, and you hope to be able to put on your best performance. nevertheless, properties of the written thesis have been analysed from innumerable angles in lsp, but i have where is spoken interaction in lsp? ibérica 44 (2022): 7-16 13 not found many papers on the actual thesis examination interaction. some academic traditions also carry out oral examinations for master’s theses, but few papers have been published on these, either. unlike presentations, discussions cannot be prepared in advance, though the requisite skills can be trained. thus, one might think that such demanding skills should attract a wealth of research together with pedagogic interest. that dialogic academic speech is a neglected, but much-needed topic area, came up in papers in my journal search that dealt with dialogic interaction. one which focuses on conference discussion sessions points out that “asking questions and making comments in conference q&a sessions can be challenging for novice academics” xu (2022: 63). i absolutely agree. i should think that this is a skill that would benefit phd students about to attend their first conferences, and certainly postdocs seriously orienting to an academic career. language professionals obviously cannot tell what counts as a good question or comment in a field outside their expertise any more than they can tell what makes a good research paper – but they can tell many things about the way people go about doing these activities with obvious success. i found in my own recent research (mauranen in press) that thesis examination events revealed fascinating things about academic discourses and their variation, as did conference and graduate seminar discussions. what is worth noting in the present context is that they differed radically from spoken monologues, but not substantially from digital dialogues. there is thus something about the dialogic mode that is special and differs from the monologic mode. there are vast possibilities for doing important and relevant research for understanding academic communication that also enriches applications for pedagogic and other purposes. for example, most academics and students are multilingual these days, or, perhaps it’s more appropriate to say that the applied linguistics research community is more aware of multilingualism than it has been in the past. the globalised reality of academia has become more and more apparent over the last few decades with increasing international research collaboration and student mobility, but everyday multilingual practices haven’t received the research attention in proportion to these changes. publications do investigate non-native lecturers’ and conference presenters’ linguistic expression, but most everyday university practices take place in dialogic interaction. there is normally a matrix anna mauranen ibérica 44 (2022): 7-1614 language that interactions are primarily framed in, but in addition to that, speakers’ other language resources also surface and probably lead to borrowing and blends. how common this is, what forms is assumes, under what circumstances it is more common and when less so, and how it facilitates or hinders communication are all important questions if we try to understand communication in academia and eventually help it run as smoothly as possible. nonverbal and paraverbal communication is also a worthy topic whether we deal with multilingual, monolingual, novice, or expert dialogic communication. i noted only a single paper on the topic in the three journals over the last five years, but the field is potentially vast, including nonverbal communication between presenters and their listeners. apparently, people’s inherent ability to take in their listeners’ or interlocutors’ nonverbal communication varies widely, but this is the case with many skills that can nevertheless be improved with training. this is important for all those whose professions involve good presentation and dialogic skills, and worth taking up by researchers in linguistic communication analysis. it is worth considering to what extent specialised communication research could also help improve practices in their own areas of research, in addition to that of others, and to providing courses or solving practical problems. for example, by analysing effects of factors like longer and shorter discussions, both of which are found in academic conferences, we might find out what length might be more conducive to generating new ideas and insights. we can also explore social factors in discussions such as subtle exclusion or inclusion, exercise of power and struggles over it by means of discussion acts. in this forum paper i have been trying to point out the paucity of research in spoken interaction in specialised communication, a topic area i would like to encourage researchers to take on board. there is an obvious need for skills of spoken interaction in more than one language in many walks of life, not least academia. understanding how spoken interaction works effectively is important for making our courses and other applications of specialised communication research more relevant to the needs of professional communities. moreover, research into spoken interaction is important for the field of enquiry to go forward as a research field, because it is so fundamental to human communication and there are major gaps in our general where is spoken interaction in lsp? ibérica 44 (2022): 7-16 15 understanding of how it takes place and how it varies in the diverse settings of specialised communication. this is a question of basic research, which has implications beyond the special field of lsp, and it’s important for any domain of scientific enquiry that wants to be taken seriously to have something to offer outside its own range. references anna mauranen ibérica 44 (2022): 7-1616 charles, m. (2022). eap research in baleap 1975–2019: past issues and future directions. journal of english for academic purposes, 55. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2021.101060> hyland, k., & jiang, f. (2021). delivering relevance: the emergence of esp as a discipline. english for specific purposes, 64, 13-25. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2021.06.002> mauranen, a. (in press). reflexively speaking. metadiscourse in english as a lingua franca. de gruyter. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis. cambridge university press. xu, x. (2022). a genre-based analysis of questions and comments in q&a sessions after conference paper presentations in computer science. english for specific purposes, 66, 63-76. iberica 13 ibérica 37 (2019): 65-86 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract most universities now target graduate employability as an indicator of their educational self-efficacy. undergraduate english-for-specific-purposes syllabi also include a number of market-wise soft skills such as presenting and negotiating as learner outcomes. however, esp assessment remains languagebound. this study follows a quantification approach of the impact of multimodal factors in 140 recorded business pitches and 376 written investor reports. it provides statistical evidence of the impact of non-verbal elements on pitch success, revealing in turn an implicit conflation of non-verbal aspects and soft skills in academic assessment. further analysis on the start-up valuation (a result of funds raised and equity released, in real-life terms) and their success factors (as justified in investor reports) makes it possible to infer that non-verbal elements are more directly related to pitch success than verbal aspects. a qualitative-quantitative analysis of investor reports confirms the minimal presence of linguistic elements as reasons for investment, and the primary focus on paralinguistic features to explain business decisions, which is the exact opposite to the reasons why esp raters assign grades. in view of both these findings, it seems empirically evident that the theoretical problem posed by assessment discrepancy is indeed present: target soft-skills cannot be readily measured through grades and, conversely, grades do not necessarily reflect the acquisition of these skills. as a potential remedy, the need for a multimodal rubric-based improved method for assessment is put forward, so as to better align assessment and module targets expectations. keywords: business english, multimodality, evidence-based assessment, presentations, non-verbal communication. beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native businessenglish pitches antonio jiménez-muñoz universidad de oviedo (spain) jimenezantonio@uniovi.es 65 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 65 ibérica 37 (2019): 65-86 antonio jiménez-muñoz resumen m ás al l á d e l i di om a: un a ná l is i s mu l ti mod a l d e l é xi to e n l a s pr e s e nt ac i on e s d e e s tud i an te s n on ati v o s d e i ng l é s d e ne g o c io s actualmente, la mayor parte de las universidades utilizan la empleabilidad de sus graduados como indicador de su propia eficiencia educativa. sus asignaturas de inglés para fines específicos incluyen como objetivos de aprendizaje una serie de microdestrezas requeridas en el mercado laboral, tales como hacer presentaciones o saber negociar. sin embargo, la evaluación de estas asignaturas sigue muy ligada al idioma. el presente estudio sigue un enfoque cuantitativo del impacto de los factores multimodales en 140 presentaciones de negocios grabadas y 376 informes escritos de inversores. el estudio proporciona evidencias estadísticas del impacto de los elementos no verbales en el éxito de las presentaciones. el análisis de las tasaciones de las start-ups y sus factores de éxito permite deducir que los elementos no verbales están más directamente relacionados con el éxito. un análisis cualitativo y cuantitativo de los informes de los inversores confirma el mínimo papel que desempeñan los elementos lingüísticos como razones para la inversión y muestra que las decisiones de negocios residen en los elementos paralingüísticos, lo cual es contrario a los criterios seguidos por los evaluadores de inglés para fines específicos. como consecuencia de estos resultados, empíricamente parece evidente que hay un problema teórico de discrepancia en la evaluación: las microdestrezas no se pueden medir a través de las notas y, a la inversa, las notas no reflejan necesariamente la adquisición de estas destrezas. como solución, se ofrece un modelo de evaluación multimodal, basado en rúbricas, que permite acercar la evaluación a los objetivos. palabras clave: inglés para los negocios, multimodalidad, evaluación basada en evidencias, presentaciones, comunicación no verbal. 1. introduction years of economic recession have contributed to the establishment of graduate employability as a primary target for universities around the world. once assumed as a by-product of tertiary education, the employment rate of graduates and post-graduates is now a weighted indicator of the success of universities worldwide (shanghai, 2018; quacquarelli symonds, 2019). this establishes a closer relationship between educators and the labour market: if educational success is measured by employability, then it must be observed as a curricular target, which requires module designers and policy-makers to constantly explore market needs. reportedly, this not the case: in media 66 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 66 coverage, universities “often receive the strongest criticism on the poor employability assets graduates possess”, assumedly on the grounds of an “outdated and irrelevant curriculum” or the persistence of “traditional teaching methods and the absent of career guidance” (tran, 2015: 207). however debatable the issue might be, it is certainly true that there is evidence that students in the last decade have been persuaded of the idea that their degree is insufficient for market demands, and that employers often fail to perceive this market-oriented turn at universities (o’leary, 2017; tymon, 2013). most of the suggested solutions have revolved around the distinction between so-called hard and soft skills, the former being knowledge-based and degree-specific, and the latter more context-oriented and transferable. in their pan-european study on business undergraduates, andrews and higson (2008: 413) already identified a number of key competencies sought after by employers, such as: professionalism; reliability; the ability to cope with uncertainty; the ability to work under pressure; the ability to plan and think strategically; the capability to communicate and interact with others, either in teams or through networking; good written and verbal communication skills; information and communication technology skills; creativity and self-confidence; good self-management and time-management skills; a willingness to learn and accept responsibility. even in areas where staff shortages are common (such as engineering or medicine) there is an evident need for a certain skill-set to complement the hard skills acquired during professional-training degrees. employers report the need for planning and evaluation, self-guided research and leadership (buunaaisie, manyara, annett, bird, bray, ige & evans, 2018), critical analysis and multidisciplinary thinking (rao, 2014), and interpersonal skills (inti & beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches ibérica 37 (2019): 65-86 67 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 67 latih, 2018). additionally, entrepreneurship and self-employment have grown as an alternative to being hired, since persistent changes in overall employment structure in the last decade have limited company ability to incorporate new graduates (o’connor, 2013). some recent studies have argued that entrepreneurial teaching programmes have impacted student skills positively (fayolle & gailly, 2015; karlsson & moberg, 2013). universities have been recommended to “employ teaching and learning methods that encourage individuals to behave proactively” through “student led approaches […] and experiential learning such as business simulations and scenarios” (bell, 2016: 13). in sum, there has been serious concern about the gap between graduate skills and work environment requirements. researchers have located several desirable skill-sets, but most soft-skills research has failed to acknowledge that, in non-anglophone contexts, the ability of graduates to use english proficiently is also crucial, and that “english is playing an ever-more prominent role in the curriculum […] in all countries and at all levels” (erling, 2015: 61). however, in a business context these english skills relate to english as a lingua franca (elf): cultural awareness is a priority for employers, particularly as multinationals have come to dominate markets. some years ago theorists suggested that students “should have open minds and generosity towards other people; know how to behave in other cultures and how to communicate with people with different religions, values and customs, and not be scared of coping with new and unfamiliar issues” (wächter, 2003: 39). due to the rise of multinationals and globalisation, it is becoming clear that using english proficiently within a multinational and multicultural setting is an implied requirement for new graduates entering the job market, and not just a desirable addition. in the last decade, universities worldwide have promptly responded to both challenges: they have redesigned their curricula to suit more skills-based pedagogical targets, and have provided students with experiences to enhance their english and multicultural skills. in particular, in addition to the already-existing student exchanges with international universities, most tertiary institutions in non-anglophone countries have relied on fostering english as a medium of instruction (emi) and esp provisions as part of internationalisation at home (iah), in order to tackle the aforementioned linguistic and cultural targets and to “improve student preparedness for a globalized/internationalised world” (beelen, 2011: 257). emi, which entails the teaching of academic subjects through english, has experienced antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 65-8668 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 68 a sustained growth (wächter & maiworm, 2014; dearden, 2015) as a direct result of university attempts to add language targets to existing programmes of study, and to offer more content-based integration than the more linguistically-focused targets of esp modules. this move has been in close connection with iah as the “purposeful integration of international and intercultural dimensions into the formal and informal curriculum for all students within domestic learning environments” (beelen & jones, 2015: 69). the inclusion of both formal and informal curricular targets is highly relevant here: iah has set cross-curricular and informal curriculum targets that formal module assessment has failed to include as evidence of learning. in emi, language is notably absent in module assessment, since content lecturers have largely refused to integrate linguistic targets (aguilar & muñoz, 2014; dafouz, camacho & urquia, 2014), despite english proficiency being one of the main drivers for emi. in both emi and esp, soft skills have been included extensively within module design as outcomes (spring, 2015) so as to improve employability, particularly in business-related areas (fisher & friedman, 2015). however, these very same skills have not been graded explicitly in task-oriented assessment. hence, there is a severe mismatch between formal and informal curricular targets (soft skills, english, cultural awareness, entrepreneurship, etc.) and the actual assessment instruments in both emi and esp. this conflation of the assessment of soft skills in esp/emi is clearly problematic on a number of levels. first, it voids the validity of student attainment of these soft skills, since it erases any trace of objective evaluation and feedback on these skills. secondly, it creates a negative washback effect, since those elements which are not assessed risk being perceived as ancillary by learners and instructors. finally, it impairs the adequate teaching of other curricular targets (such as content in emi or language in esp) since fostering these skills in class leaves less time for targets students will be actually assessed on. ultimately, if evidence of these informal achievements is tenuous, employers may have doubts about formal learning outcomes as well. therefore, it is paramount to improve module assessment in emi/esp by including these skills within the evaluation pool. this way, such a move would substantiate these soft skills as module targets (as they indeed stand in modern syllabi), and also align student workload and assessment more closely. how to do this, however, may not be evident; literature on measuring soft skills has stressed that “traits and outcomes are measured using beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches ibérica 37 (2019): 65-86 69 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 69 performance on some task or set of tasks” (heckman & kautz, 2012: 4) and that it is possible to observe these skills empirically if decomposed in smaller, more directly observable elements (balcar, 2014), which is current practice in high-profile human resources (fan, wei & zhang, 2017). this omission of soft-skill assessment targets is also a point of concern for esp, which has generally relied on the four basic skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening as a way to conceptualise assessment. modern tertiary esp modules such as business english also include soft skills as curricular targets. business english has a tradition of designing modules through the assessment of learner needs, which are tailored to the specific labour market (hind & moss, 2011). business english modules include in their design notions of non-verbal communication, active listening, several modalities of giving and receiving feedback, understanding information presented in various forms (such as graphs, charts, or diagrams) that typically require decision-making, problem-solving or further negotiation with others through digital and non-digital channels. oral communication tasks in business english typically include interacting, delivering presentations, persuading individuals or audiences, negotiating and problem-solving through a number of channels such as face-to-face, phone or it-mediated communication, and students can work individually or as part of a team. in this sense, business english modules have simulated real-life conditions (and, therefore, the soft skills involved). abilities such as presenting to a specialised audience include in their effectiveness observable verbal, written, and non-verbal material, body language, visual interaction and other modes that must be individually assessed to evidence learning outcomes. a particular task criss-crossing business english with entrepreneurship is the business pitch, where entrepreneurs present a start-up with the goal of raising funds. this particular subtype of business presentation is inherently multimodal, since it uses different communication modes (such as speech, text, audio-visual material and body language), and it combines presentation with improvisation, responding to questions and negotiation (o’halloran & smith, 2011). for example, presenters may make a point orally, then exemplify it with a diagram, and use eye contact and gestures to draw attention to the visual and explicate previous ideas, again re-checking for understanding via eye contact or check-up questions. the constant interaction between aural and visual modes has led some researchers to draw increasing attention to the visual dimension and to explore its interaction with speech in visually-aided presentations (charles & ventola, 2002; tardy, antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 65-8670 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 70 2005). some have stressed the theoretical importance of body language for the effectiveness of the presentation, especially as a way to increase interpersonal rapport (hood & forey, 2005). others have explored the influence of paralinguistic resources to express evaluative interpersonal meaning in business contexts (hatton, 2007; furnham & petrova, 2010). these studies generally find that non-verbal features play an important role in conveying meaning, intensifying declarative and evaluative discourse, and particularly in conveying speaker attitude beyond the actual words uttered. these modes offer different realisations, and they can be combined or sequenced in various manners as per their intended purposes (kress, 2003; morell, 2015). this is particularly relevant if the participants are multicultural or their english proficiency requires some communication repair. in educational emi/esp contexts (or in elf work environments such as multinationals, for that matter) it may seem the case that coordinating semiotic resources such as images, writing, layout, sound, gestures, speech and other audio-visual material (kress, 2010) may be more important than showing a good command of the spoken language. these studies observe the interaction of verbal and non-verbal cues, and hint at the importance of combining these for effective communication, but have not attempted a quantitative assessment of the relative importance of each particular element involved. the research presented here targets a quantification approach (rowley-jolivet, 2015) of such impact by analysing a substantial corpus of business pitches in an entrepreneur-simulation task within a business english module at a spanish medium-sized state university between 2010 and 2018. it shows how it is possible to explore quantitatively which factors have greater impact on presentation successfulness, as evidenced from the money raised for student fantasy start-ups. secondly, it explores how to align assessment with the very ambitious list of typical curricular targets in these esp business modules: problem-solving, decisionmaking, working within an international context, performing in various multicultural contexts, adapting to new situations, engaging in oral and written production, applying cultural aspects from texts to behavioural and simulation models, and using communicative strategies in english to argue, explain, give further details, state opinions, make plans or projects, apologise and promote a product, plan and give oral presentations in english on business-related topics. such analysis may achieve two major targets: on the one hand, to evidence which modal element (speech delivery, pace, eye-contact, gesture, beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches ibérica 37 (2019): 65-86 71 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 71 positioning, etc.) has a greater degree of effectiveness; on the other, to confirm the potential dissonance between the language-based grades assigned and intended curricular outcomes, so as to enable more coherent assessment tools within modern esp modules. 2. research questions to better guide the stages of inquiry, analysis, and reporting, the following research questions are put forward: q1. do paralinguistic elements have a greater impact on pitch effectiveness? q2. which verbal or non-verbal elements are significantly more successful? q3. is there any correlation between money raised and student grades? q4. do investors value verbal elements as a deciding factor in their comments? 3. method and participants as a semester-long project for their business english module (free elective, 6 ects, 4th-year, 1st-semester) students create a fantasy start-up, typically set around a flagship product or service. after ideation and market research, students design a guided business plan for growth, including the following aspects: short introduction to your company and flagship (main) product or service. company analysis: what products and/or services do you offer now and/or what will you develop and offer in the future? industry analysis: how big is/are your market(s) and how are they changing? what trends are affecting them and are these good for your future success? competitive analysis: who are your competitors and what are each antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 65-8672 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 72 of their key strengths and weaknesses? in what areas will you have or gain competitive advantage? how? customer analysis: who are your target customers? why? what are their needs? marketing plan: how will you reach your target customers? what promotional tactics and marketing channels will you use? how will you price your products and/or services? management team: who comprises your current team and who would you hire? operations plan: what is your action plan? what are the milestones you must accomplish to go from where you are now to where you want to be at year’s end? at the end of five years? financial plan: how much external funding (if applicable) do you need to build your company? in what areas will these funds be invested? what are your projected revenues and profits over the next one to five years? what assets must you acquire? these elements are central to the preparation of a 7-minute pitch where students deliver the previously-designed business plan, modelled on bbc game show dragon’s den. presenters may use a variety of material, from multimedia to realia, so as to show their proof-of-concept models to their classmates, who act as potential investors. the pitch is followed by a 5minute follow-up where presenters are asked for clarifications, outline the financial aspects of the business, and negotiate equity (i.e. a stake of their business in exchange for investment) with their classmates, who role-play as prospective investors with a pre-allocated budget of £100,000. investors can fund a sole start-up or distribute their money between up to three projects. at a later stage, investors justify their decisions in writing, thus producing a short report on each start-up they funded. although the money raised by students would act as proof of their success in real life, this aspect is not observed in the assessment of their pitch: students are assigned a grade by their instructor as per their linguistic performance, towards an expected common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) level b2. students are assessed on the basis of their use of grammar and specialised vocabulary within this level, but no other multimodal factors are taken into account. in other words, no beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches ibérica 37 (2019): 65-86 73 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 73 assessment criteria gauge their use of body posture, eye-to-eye contact, signposting, voice projection, audience engagement, improvisation, negotiation, turn-taking and other soft skills, even if their importance is practised and discussed in class as part of preparation towards presentations, and these skills feature as explicit module targets. participants between 2010 and 2018 belonged to several nationalities. they were tested at the beginning of the module, being cefr b1 or higher. for statistical purposes, all cefr values are normalised following a descriptor-based method (jimenez-munoz, 2014). as the course was a free elective module, spanish-to-foreign student balance depended entirely on opt-ins, but the class was decidedly multicultural in every cohort, and the syllabus included entrepreneurial and labour-related topics within an international context. pitch presenters were recorded on video as proof of assessment. for the 140 individual pitches that make up the corpus of this study, the nationality breakdown is as follows, with no anglophone participants: this mix of spanish and international students is infrequent in spanish classrooms, where students are mainly local. additionally, interaction among these national and international students was heightened by the business pitch simulation: not only did they share the classroom, but they also acted as an active audience, engaging in open negotiation after the pitch. typically, pitch presenters faced a mixture of nationalities, business cultures, and elf uses that they needed to respond to. for the purposes of this research, these video-recorded pitches were analysed and graded in terms of language, but also non-verbal cues, paralinguistic semiotics, their use of multimedia and realia, and a number of antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 65-8674 antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 64-84 nationality students percentage of total spanish 61 43.57 turkish 18 12.86 italian 14 10 german 13 9.29 french 11 7.86 mexican 8 5.71 portuguese 5 3.57 polish 4 2.86 czech 3 2.14 guinean 2 1.43 japanese 1 0.71 table 1. participant nationalities this mix of spanish and international students is infrequent in spanish classrooms, where students are mainly local. additionally, interaction among these national and international students was heightened by the business pitch simulation: not only did they share the classroom, but they also acted as an active audience, engaging in open negotiation after the pitch. typically, pitch presenters faced a mixture of nationalities, business cultures, and elf uses that they needed to respond to. for the purposes of this research, these video-recorded pitches were analysed and graded in terms of language, but also non-verbal cues, paralinguistic semiotics, their use of multimedia and realia, and a number of other factors which may have had a direct influence on their success. separating and grading these elements in detail enables a quantitative analysis to reveal which elements had a greater impact on student achievement, measured both in real-life terms and the original grade given. this would uncover three major aspects. first, explaining which of these multimodal aspects has a greater impact on awarded grade, its significance, and whether verbal elements are indeed more tightly related to the grade given than non-verbal aspects, as implied by assessment criteria. secondly, whether real-life targets (such as money raised and equity relinquished) have any discrepancy with evaluative course targets. finally, whether soft skills are directly observable through these more detailed indicators. from each recorded pitch, a complex dataset was extracted from the videos, including the following 40 variables: -! presenter details: id, sex, age, nationality, l1, cefr entry level -! presenter – english-skills appropriateness and accuracy (human-rated, qualitative range 1-100, higher is better): grammar accuracy, grammar variation, grammar appropriateness, vocabulary accuracy (key words), vocabulary variation, vocabulary appropriateness (register), discourse markers, pace, accuracy in intonation and modulation (chunking, sentence stress). 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 74 other factors which may have had a direct influence on their success. separating and grading these elements in detail enables a quantitative analysis to reveal which elements had a greater impact on student achievement, measured both in real-life terms and the original grade given. this would uncover three major aspects. first, explaining which of these multimodal aspects has a greater impact on awarded grade, its significance, and whether verbal elements are indeed more tightly related to the grade given than nonverbal aspects, as implied by assessment criteria. secondly, whether real-life targets (such as money raised and equity relinquished) have any discrepancy with evaluative course targets. finally, whether soft skills are directly observable through these more detailed indicators. from each recorded pitch, a complex dataset was extracted from the videos, including the following 40 variables: presenter details: id, sex, age, nationality, l1, cefr entry level presenter – english-skills appropriateness and accuracy (humanrated, qualitative range 1-100, higher is better): grammar accuracy, grammar variation, grammar appropriateness, vocabulary accuracy (key words), vocabulary variation, vocabulary appropriateness (register), discourse markers, pace, accuracy in intonation and modulation (chunking, sentence stress). presenter – non-verbal skills appropriateness and accuracy (humanrated, qualitative range 1-100, higher is better): eye contact, gestures (hands), posture, positioning, closeness, movement presentation (human-rated, qualitative range 1-100, higher is better): font style, font size, contrast, images, text-to-image balance, integration with discourse, lack of redundancy original grade assigned (human-rated, normalized qualitative range 1-100, higher is better) start-up: title, money raised, equity relinquished interaction – verbal (human-rated, qualitative range 1-100, higher is better): responding, improvisation, revisiting, completion interaction –non-verbal (human-rated, qualitative range 1-100, higher is better): eye contact, gestures, posture, positioning, closeness, movement beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches ibérica 37 (2019): 65-86 75 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 75 the dataset was then explored quantitatively using r software 3.5.1 for rsquared and adjusted r-squared pearson correlation coefficients between codependent variables, with a significance threshold of alpha 0.05. the rsquared test indicates the extent to which two variables are linearly related (with relative values between -1 and 1), and the adjusted r-square adapts to the number of predictors in the model to avoid chance, thus offering a more tailored result. additionally, a mixed-methods approach was followed to further analyse 376 investor reports in which lenders motivated their investment choices. these reports were codified qualitatively using maxqda 18 computer-assisted mixed methods text analysis software. in turn, codification data results were further analysed quantitatively, so as to allow further interpretation of the hard statistical data above. 4. results a regression matrix of the 40 variables shows the significant bivariate correlation between these elements when they act individually as dependent variables of the rest; p-value was 0.034, which is below the alpha 0.05 significance threshold, and therefore rules out variable independence. that is to say, it reveals the relation of a dependent variable (such as money raised by start-ups or grade awarded by rater) with an independent variable (such as grammar accuracy or eye contact). thus, it is possible to determine whether it can be inferred that one or various independent variables (such as gestures or text-to-image balance) have an impact on the dependent variable under scrutiny (such as the grade given or the money raised). this is a fact hardly observable for the whole cohort within the classroom (other than intuitively), and more so when only language targets are being assessed and paid attention to. in real life, it can be safely assumed than a presenter in a pitch would be judged solely on two product-oriented factors: money raised from investors, and the equity retained. table 2 shows those variables with greater impact on the money exchanged for equity by the investors. with the exception of vocabulary accuracy, the rest of the variables are prominently non-verbal, and their correlation with the money raised is high. the more appropriate and accurate the use of hands or eye contact is, the more money raised for the start-up, and so forth: antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 65-8676 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 76 the second of the real-life factors (the equity retained by presenters in exchange for investor’s money) shows that, understandably, there is a very strong correlation between the money raised and the equity retained. however, this is less interesting than the fact that most of the same nonlinguistic variables above also play a role in decisions, but their relative impact is significantly lower in most cases. since equity is negotiated after the pitch, it seems that the clarity of presenter responses (but also their ability to revisit the presentation, keep eye contact and appropriate closeness) in interactive negotiation has a greater impact than in the pitch itself: unlike in real life, in the classroom students were assigned a grade for their performance; that is to say, assessment was process-oriented (how they did) rather than focused on the actual outcome (how much they raised for which equity, and the start-up resulting valuation). although language-related factors were not individually assessed when the original grade was awarded, table 4 shows that the discrimination of language-bound variables such as cefr entry level or vocabulary accuracy indicates a strong correlation with the assigned grade, but also that some non-assessed elements such as pace, revisiting content or text-to-image balance also play a role: beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches ibérica 37 (2019): 65-86 77 antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 64-84 in real life, it can be safely assumed than a presenter in a pitch would be judged solely on two product-oriented factors: money raised from investors, and the equity retained. table 2 shows those variables with greater impact on the money exchanged for equity by the investors. with the exception of vocabulary accuracy, the rest of the variables are prominently non-verbal, and their correlation with the money raised is high. the more appropriate and accurate the use of hands or eye contact is, the more money raised for the start-up, and so forth: rank variable pair r-squared adjusted r-squared 1 gesturehands ~ moneyraised 0.8777 0.8775 2 eyecontact ~ moneyraised 0.8352 0.835 3 textimagebalance ~ moneyraised 0.7978 0.8976 4 intonationmodulation ~ moneyraised 0.7881 0.7879 5 vocabularyaccuracy ~ moneyraised 0.7679 0.7676 6 integrationdiscourse ~ moneyraised 0.6921 0.6897 7 pace ~ moneyraised 0.6432 0.6431 8 responding ~ moneyraised 0.6219 0.6216 9 closeness ~ moneyraised 0.6133 0.6131 10 eyecontactinteraction ~ moneyraised 0.5881 0.5877 table 2. top 10 adjusted r-squared coefficients (money raised). the second of the real-life factors (the equity retained by presenters in exchange for investor’s money) shows that, understandably, there is a very strong correlation between the money raised and the equity retained. however, this is less interesting than the fact that most of the same non-linguistic variables above also play a role in decisions, but their relative impact is significantly lower in most cases. since equity is negotiated after the pitch, it seems that the clarity of presenter responses (but also their ability to revisit the presentation, keep eye contact and appropriate closeness) in interactive negotiation has a greater impact than in the pitch itself: beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches ibérica 37 (2019): 64-84 rank variable pair r-squared adjusted r-squared 1 moneyraised ~ equityretained 0.9474 0.9472 2 responding ~ equityretained 0.6459 0.6456 3 eyecontactinteraction ~ equityretained 0.6145 0.6143 4 revisiting ~ equityretained 0.5961 0.5959 5 closeness ~ equityretained 0.5524 0.5522 6 vocabularyaccuracy ~ equityretained 0.5289 0.5286 7 integrationdiscourse ~ equityretained 0.52111 0.52107 8 discoursemarkers ~ equityretained 0.4956 0.4954 9 pace ~ equityretained 0.4256 0.4255 10 eyecontact ~ equityretained 0.4133 0.4131 table 3. top 10 adjusted r-squared coefficients (equity). unlike in real life, in the classroom students were assigned a grade for their performance; that is to say, assessment was process-oriented (how they did) rather than focused on the actual outcome (how much they raised for which equity, and the start-up resulting valuation). although language-related factors were not individually assessed when the original grade was awarded, table 4 shows that the discrimination of language-bound variables such as cefr entry level or vocabulary accuracy indicates a strong correlation with the assigned grade, but also that some non-assessed elements such as pace, revisiting content or text-to-image balance also play a role: table 4. top 10 adjusted r-squared coefficients (original grade). since student investors had to justify their decisions in a report, it is possible to scrutinise these texts qualitatively through bottom-up coding of comments in these reports. in the corpus, there are 376 short investment justification reports (150-200 words) on these 140 start-up pitches. the reason that there are more reports than pitches has to do with the fact that students were allocated a budget of £100,000 and allowed to split it into up to three start-ups. consequently, some 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 77 since student investors had to justify their decisions in a report, it is possible to scrutinise these texts qualitatively through bottom-up coding of comments in these reports. in the corpus, there are 376 short investment justification reports (150-200 words) on these 140 start-up pitches. the reason that there are more reports than pitches has to do with the fact that students were allocated a budget of £100,000 and allowed to split it into up to three start-ups. consequently, some students decided to invest in more than one start-up, thus generating more than one report. these texts were codified using maxqda, in a process which was semi-automated; codes (i.e., the reasons given to invest) were created manually as arising from reading the texts, and then excerpts were codified both through the use of key words and manually in every text. as the process was inductive, it integrated most of the 40 multimodal variables above, but also other factors stemming from investors’ comments, such as usefulness or potential profitability. a total of 1,956 coded items were tagged in discourse extracts, with 38 different reasons given for investment. quantitative analysis of these coded items yielded the following results: antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 65-8678 beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches ibérica 37 (2019): 64-84 table 3. top 10 adjusted r-squared coefficients (equity). unlike in real life, in the classroom students were assigned a grade for their performance; that is to say, assessment was process-oriented (how they did) rather than focused on the actual outcome (how much they raised for which equity, and the start-up resulting valuation). although language-related factors were not individually assessed when the original grade was awarded, table 4 shows that the discrimination of language-bound variables such as cefr entry level or vocabulary accuracy indicates a strong correlation with the assigned grade, but also that some non-assessed elements such as pace, revisiting content or text-to-image balance also play a role: rank variable pair r-squared adjusted r-squared 1 cefrentrylevel ~ gradeawarded 0.9261 0.9258 2 vocabularyaccuracy ~ gradeawarded 0.8851 0.8849 3 pace ~ gradeawarded 0.7972 0.7967 4 grammaraccuracy ~ gradeawarded 0.7865 0.7863 5 discoursemarkers ~ gradeawarded 0.7661 0.7658 6 intonationmodulation ~ gradeawarded 0.7461 0.7459 7 grammarvariation ~ gradeawarded 0.6692 0.6690 8 revisiting ~ gradeawarded 0.5211 0.5208 9 integrationdiscourse ~ gradeawarded 0.5163 0.5161 10 textimagebalance ~ gradeawarded 0.5053 0.5051 table 4. top 10 adjusted r-squared coefficients (original grade). since student investors had to justify their decisions in a report, it is possible to scrutinise these texts qualitatively through bottom-up coding of comments in these reports. in the corpus, there are 376 short investment justification reports (150-200 words) on these 140 start-up pitches. the reason that there are more reports than pitches has to do with the fact that students were allocated a budget of £100,000 and allowed to split it into up to three start-ups. consequently, some antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 64-84 students decided to invest in more than one start-up, thus generating more than one report. these texts were codified using maxqda, in a process which was semi-automated; codes (i.e., the reasons given to invest) were created manually as arising from reading the texts, and then excerpts were codified both through the use of key words and manually in every text. as the process was inductive, it integrated most of the 40 multimodal variables above, but also other factors stemming from investors’ comments, such as usefulness or potential profitability. a total of 1,956 coded items were tagged in discourse extracts, with 38 different reasons given for investment. quantitative analysis of these coded items yielded the following results: rank coding occurrences percentage of total coded items percentage of total pitches 1 idea/usefulness 284 14.52 75.53 2 profitability 179 9.15 47.61 3 internationaloutlook 86 4.4 22.87 4 confidence 72 3.68 19.15 5 eyecontact 67 3.46 17.82 6 integrationdiscourse 54 2.76 14.36 7 clearenglish 52 2.66 13.83 8 textimagebalance 48 2.45 12.77 9 vocabularyapropriateness 41 2.1 10.9 10 closeness 33 1.69 8.78 table 5. top 10 reasons for investment (investor reports). in the reports, student investors focused on the product, and commented repeatedly on the fact that the project presented was a good, innovative idea (investor 32) to cover an unexplored market niche (investor 27) that could yield profits in the future not only in europe, but in other areas (investor 117). investors sometimes referred to the confidence and personality of the presenter (investor 58) and occasionally commented on the fact that the presentation was in very clear english (investor 84), with good vocabulary (investor 247), or that it was a sound, very well integrated discourse (investor 29) where the audiovisual really helped selling the idea (investor 312). comments on the fact that the presenter was looking at the audience all the time (investor 78) and he or she was close and responsive (investor 99) are scarcer but nevertheless present. 5. discussion 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 78 in the reports, student investors focused on the product, and commented repeatedly on the fact that the project presented was a good, innovative idea (investor 32) to cover an unexplored market niche (investor 27) that could yield profits in the future not only in europe, but in other areas (investor 117). investors sometimes referred to the confidence and personality of the presenter (investor 58) and occasionally commented on the fact that the presentation was in very clear english (investor 84), with good vocabulary (investor 247), or that it was a sound, very well integrated discourse (investor 29) where the audio-visual really helped selling the idea (investor 312). comments on the fact that the presenter was looking at the audience all the time (investor 78) and he or she was close and responsive (investor 99) are scarcer but nevertheless present. 5. discussion results show that there is, prima facie, a discrepancy between real-life conditions and academic assessment. these two evaluations of the same multimodal speech act reflect upon strikingly dissimilar aspects: the pitch as a linguistic performance and its practical outcome in real-life terms. while esp scholars have defined modern evaluation as process-oriented, where performance is criterion-referenced, interactive and aiming at fostering intrinsic motivation (douglas-brown, 2003), failing to take account of multimodal aspects in assessment complicates the correct evaluation of acts where language is only one factor. it has been suggested that mode “combinations can lead to improved performances” as it may “compensate for verbal deficiencies” and effective presenters “tend to use a variety of modes that often overlap but work together to convey specific meanings” (morell, 2015: 149). however, it seems that, for investors, the actual language uttered by presenters in communication and interaction was less relevant than kinesic or proxemic elements: eye contact, integration of discourse with visuals, text-to-image balance or closeness weighed more in their decisions than clear english or vocabulary accuracy (cf. table 5). on the other hand, the task rater seemed to have paid little attention to non-linguistic elements. this is problematic on two counts: it ignores much of the ongoing nonverbal communication, and it fails to foreground soft skills as the learning outcomes specified in the curriculum and practiced through curricular implementation. to discuss our research questions may help to illuminate these issues further. beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches ibérica 37 (2019): 65-86 79 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 79 theoretically, in every specialised domain there are different “multimodal affordances” (airey & linder, 2009) which connect the interplaying elements and settings, but their relative importance is always subject to a “disciplinary affordance that underpins appropriate holistic meaning-making” (linder, 2013: 44). the results above show the quantification of these multimodal elements within business pitches and their relative impact on grades or investor decisions. our first research question asks whether paralinguistic elements have a greater impact on pitch effectiveness. clearly, there is a perceived imbalance in the importance of paralinguistic elements in real-life situations. tables 2 and 3 above showed how these elements correlate with money raised or equity retained more closely than linguistic factors. however, pitch effectiveness is measured in real-life terms by the money raised, the equity retained, and the difference from the actual investment required by the start-up to cover heading costs. it follows that, to align with real-life assessment, esp task evaluation necessitates discipline-specific knowledge. even if students were partially graded on money raised, for a task grade to reflect skill acquisition subject knowledge is needed: pitch successfulness cannot be measured solely on money raised, but on a more complex success ratio (percentage of investment required actually raised / equity relinquished), assigning a total valuation to each start-up. on average in our dataset, investors paid £32,246 in exchange for 26.6% of the shares, which yields an average whole-company valuation of £121,225. this value (calculated for each start-up) can be further tested against linguistic and nonlinguistic variables in the dataset, yielding the relative impact of every pitch multimodal element in real-life valuation. table 6 averages the correlation of all english-related factors (such as grammar, vocabulary, intonation, etc.) and non-linguistic elements (such as gestures, eye contact, positioning, etc.), thus revealing their distinct degree of effectiveness: there is a significant correlation between the successful use of non-linguistic elements and the start-up valuation obtained by students, and a weaker correlation between company worth and language performance, something which was also observed in tables 1 and 2 above when correlating these variables against money raised and equity retained. this makes it possible to antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 65-8680 antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 64-84 real-life valuation. table 6 averages the correlation of all english-related factors (such as grammar, vocabulary, intonation, etc.) and non-linguistic elements (such as gestures, eye contact, positioning, etc.), thus revealing their distinct degree of effectiveness: rank variable pair r-squared adjusted r-squared 1 nonlinguistic (avg) ~ valuation 0.7152 0.7149 2 linguistic (avg) ~ valuation 0.4588 0.4586 table 6. adjusted r-squared coefficients (valuation). there is a significant correlation between the successful use of non-linguistic elements and the start-up valuation obtained by students, and a weaker correlation between company worth and language performance, something which was also observed in tables 1 and 2 above when correlating these variables against money raised and equity retained. this makes it possible to infer that, empirically, non-verbal elements are more directly related to pitch success than verbal aspects, which reveals the esp gap between language-bound and skill-bound assessment criteria. the second research question ponders on the individual impact of verbal or nonverbal elements on effectiveness, measured in table 7 below through start-up valuation. it lists the elements with the highest correlation, unearthing the importance of several linguistic aspects hitherto unnoticed when observing money raised only: table 7. top 10 adjusted r-squared coefficients (valuation). while using hand gestures, keeping eye contact and making a balanced used of visuals are successful elements in the business pitches, it is now revealed that some linguistic factors (such as the presenter’s previous cefr level, vocabulary 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 80 infer that, empirically, non-verbal elements are more directly related to pitch success than verbal aspects, which reveals the esp gap between languagebound and skill-bound assessment criteria. the second research question ponders on the individual impact of verbal or non-verbal elements on effectiveness, measured in table 7 below through start-up valuation. it lists the elements with the highest correlation, unearthing the importance of several linguistic aspects hitherto unnoticed when observing money raised only: while using hand gestures, keeping eye contact and making a balanced used of visuals are successful elements in the business pitches, it is now revealed that some linguistic factors (such as the presenter’s previous cefr level, vocabulary accuracy and intonation) also play an important role in the valuation, implicitly. this importance is, as commented above, less evident in investor reports, thus highlighting the fact that english is an expected scaffold for the pitch and generally overlooked in conscious reporting. our third research question wondered about the correlation between money raised and student grades. it is very weak (0.092), particularly when compared with the other factors analysed in table 2. this highlights a major fact: if the goal is to put soft skills into practice by putting together a pitch and negotiate for investment, then why are students judged merely on their oral performance? likewise, if there is considerable attention given in class to the non-linguistic aspects of presenting, why are students graded solely on their language performance? the four graders involved were interviewed on their assessment methods, and they all commented on grammar and vocabulary accuracy, pace and intonation appropriateness, and some on a holistic evaluation of task effectiveness. however, they largely failed to mention gestures, eye-contact and other non-verbal factors in the assessment beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches ibérica 37 (2019): 65-86 81 antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 64-84 real-life valuation. table 6 averages the correlation of all english-related factors (such as grammar, vocabulary, intonation, etc.) and non-linguistic elements (such as gestures, eye contact, positioning, etc.), thus revealing their distinct degree of effectiveness: table 6. adjusted r-squared coefficients (valuation). there is a significant correlation between the successful use of non-linguistic elements and the start-up valuation obtained by students, and a weaker correlation between company worth and language performance, something which was also observed in tables 1 and 2 above when correlating these variables against money raised and equity retained. this makes it possible to infer that, empirically, non-verbal elements are more directly related to pitch success than verbal aspects, which reveals the esp gap between language-bound and skill-bound assessment criteria. the second research question ponders on the individual impact of verbal or nonverbal elements on effectiveness, measured in table 7 below through start-up valuation. it lists the elements with the highest correlation, unearthing the importance of several linguistic aspects hitherto unnoticed when observing money raised only: rank variable pair r-squared adjusted r-squared 1 gesturehands ~ valuation 0.8762 0.8759 2 eyecontact ~ valuation 0.8166 0.8164 3 textimagebalance ~ valuation 0.7787 0.7785 4 intonationmodulation ~ valuation 0.7523 0.7521 5 vocabularyaccuracy ~ valuation 0.7216 0.7214 6 integrationdiscourse ~ valuation 0.6624 0.6623 7 pace ~ moneyraised 0.6221 0.6219 8 responding ~ valuation 0.5836 0.5834 9 closeness ~ valuation 0.5534 0.5531 10 eyecontactinteraction ~ valuation 0.5486 0.5484 table 7. top 10 adjusted r-squared coefficients (valuation). while using hand gestures, keeping eye contact and making a balanced used of visuals are successful elements in the business pitches, it is now revealed that some linguistic factors (such as the presenter’s previous cefr level, vocabulary 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 81 rubric, although they had all practised and commented on them in class. as aforementioned, this represents a major problem for skills-based assessment in the first place, and ultimately for curricular validity. statistically, the difference between academic and real-life assessment is significant, since the correlation between grades and valuation is relatively weak, at 0.2213 rsquared and 0.2211 adjusted r-squared. this demonstrates quantitatively that the theoretical problem posed by assessment discrepancy is indeed present: target skills cannot be measured through module grades and, conversely, grades do not necessarily reflect the acquisition of these skills. the tenuous correlation among these factors is crucial, because curricular design established learning outcomes that cannot be ensured (merely expected, without sufficient ground) to have been achieved. our last research question asked whether investors valued language elements as a deciding factor in their report comments. report analysis findings reveal that student investors seemed to overlook linguistic elements. they are not language professionals (nor are they doing a linguistics degree), and therefore their focus is primarily on content. however, of the fact that they ignored the obvious (that a presentation must be given in good english to be effective) is problematic, particularly as it seems to challenge the traditional idea that observer affect is determined by language factors (krauss, apple, morency, wenzel & winton, 1981; chen, yao & kotha, 2009). these results may suggest that the reasons which make the pitch successful transcend multimodal analysis, at least partially. that is to say, from the report analysis, only 23.8 percent of presentations can have their success in receiving funds associated with verbal or non-verbal elements to some degree, but languagerelated elements account for a meagre 2.56 percent in total. however, some of the coded reasons are intersected by multimodal elements: while there are clearly non-modal indicators (such as the idea itself, or its profitability) the effect of the combination of proficient english and gestures or discourse integration with images, and written text may have played a role in the confidence observed by investors. similarly, what is referred to as clear english may have been appreciated as such because of an adequate pace, grammar and pronunciation, which are aspects virtually unmentioned in these reports. a sub-disciplinary affordance is relevant here: there seems to be little evidence of the impact of multimodal elements in investor reports because the investment is target-oriented, which means that investors seem to value the idea and economic prospects over anything else. the relative absence of multimodal elements in reports has more to do this heightened antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 65-8682 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 82 focus on economic viability and potential return on investment than the actual reflection on their role in effectiveness. 6. conclusions the qualitative-quantitative approach to the multimodal analysis of business pitches has indicated that non-verbal cues, paralinguistic elements, presenter use of multimedia and realia, and a number of other factors influence success in real-life terms, as measured by start-up valuation. disaggregating these elements and analysing them individually showed that the use of hands, eye contact, visuals and voice modulation explains student success in raising funds better than language proficiency. conversely, the impact of paralinguistic features remains scant on student grades within the module, despite relatively strong correlations among some of the non-verbal elements and achievement. this highlights a methodological discrepancy between linguistic and skills-based learning outcomes, and implicit resistance to incorporating multimodal and real-life factors like assessment criteria in such simulations. therefore, an improved method for assessment is needed: one that includes both speech and other modalities, including task effectiveness under simulation, to better match the real-life skills targeted by curricular design. this is not a new idea; canale & swain (1980) already pointed to the importance of non-verbal communication in testing criteria so that classroom discourse and real contexts are aligned. however, the issue has failed to be addressed systematically (particularly in esp, in light of the findings above) and there is still a need for a “communicative testing model which is grounded in a wider, multi-dimensional interpretation of what is believed to constitute communicative behaviour and oral language proficiency” (pillar, 2011: 24). such improvement can be achieved through rubrics which not only include multimodal aspects but also interpersonal modes. this shift is already in progress; the new cefr includes mediation so as to “move away from the four skills, as one of the four modes of communication, that is: reception, interaction, production and mediation” (council of europe, 2018). to attempt a congruent alignment with skills-based approaches, task outcomes (in discipline-related real-life terms) should also be included in the rubric. the benefits would include better assessment (with clearer evidence of learning objectives as descriptors of the assessment tool itself) and enhanced beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches ibérica 37 (2019): 65-86 83 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 83 circularity: the learning of the communicative procedures and devices used to transmit the targeted disciplinary knowledge or accomplish the disciplinary task are explicitly taught, and as important in the assessment of the task as the task outcome itself. this may be useful for both those who would like to integrate soft skills into their assessment and esp lecturers willing to include multimodal aspects as well, in light of their impact on communication. such a fine-grained rubric, in which the many elements above are gauged, would provide a formative assessment tool affecting english learners’ multimodal text production and performance beyond existing theory-driven models (hung, chiu & yeh, 2013). the findings of this research may contribute towards the establishment of more evidence-based assessment within esp contexts, as it exemplifies how the use of research and theory can inform the selection of assessment targets, methods and processes. as noted in the pursuit of multimodal curricula, “multimodal communication environments require broader, more integrated epistemologies: one must be able to entertain multiple perspectives and multiple strategies for communication” (fordham & oakes, 2013: 315). this multiplicity also affects esp: not only beyond the assessment of the basic four skills, but also beyond language itself, and into multimodality and measurable skills as proof of complex literacies towards employment-enabling education. article history: received 28 july 2018 received in revised form 08 november 2018 accepted 16 november 2018 references antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 65-8684 aguilar, m., & c. muñoz (2014). “the effect of proficiency on clil benefits in engineering students in spain”. international journal of applied linguistics 24: 1–18. airey, j., & c. linder (2009). “a disciplinary discourse perspective on university science learning: achieving fluency in a critical constellation of modes”. journal of research in science 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(2014). “measuring the impact of clil on language skills: a cefr-based approach for higher education”. language value 6: 28-50. karlsson, t., & k. moberg (2013). “improving perceived entrepreneurial abilities through education: exploratory testing of an entrepreneurial self efficacy scale in a pre-post setting”. international journal of management education, 11: 1-11. krauss, r. m., w. apple, n. morency, c. wenzel, & w. winton (1981). “verbal, vocal, and visible factors in judgments of another’s affect”. journal of personality and social psychology 40,2: 312-320. kress, g. (2003). literacy in the new media age. london: routledge. 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 85 antonio jiménez-muñoz is an assistant professor within the department of english, german, and french philology at the universidad de oviedo, spain. he has also taught linguistics and esp at kent, hull and, more recently, oxford. his main interest is the acquisition of esp in english-asa-medium-of-instruction contexts, particularly in those degrees related to economics, on which he publishes regularly. antonio jiménez-muñoz ibérica 37 (2019): 65-8686 kress, g. (2010). multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. london: routledge. linder, c. (2013). “disciplinary discourse, representation, and appresentation in the teaching and learning of science”. european journal of science and mathematics education 1,2: 43-49. morell, t. (2015). “international conference paper presentations: a multimodal analysis to determine effectiveness”. english for specific purposes 37: 137-150. o’connor, a. (2013). “a conceptual framework for entrepreneurship education policy: meeting government and economic purposes”. journal of business venturing 28,4: 546-563. o’leary, s. (2017). “graduates’ experiences of, and attitudes towards, the inclusion of employability-related support in undergraduate degree programmes; trends and variations by subject discipline and gender”. journal of education and work, 30: 84-105. pillar, g. (2011). “a framework for testing communicative competence”. partium journal of english studies 2: 24-37. quacquarelli symonds (2019). qs world university rankings. url: https://www. topuniversities.com/qs-world-university-rankings/ [01/09/19]. rao, m. (2014). “enhancing employability in engineering and management students through soft skills”. industrial and commercial training, 46: 42-48. rowley-jolivet, e. (2015). “quantification in conference talks and proceedings articles in engineering”. english for specific purposes 38: 1122. shanghairanking consultancy (2018). “academic ranking of world universities”. url: http://www.shanghairanking.com/arwu2018.html [25/09/18]. spring, j. (2015). economization of education: human capital, global corporations, skills-based schooling. new york: routledge. tardy, c. (2005). “expressions of disciplinarity and individuality in a multimodal genre”. computers and composition 22,3: 319-326. tomlinson, m. (2008). “ ‘the degree is not enough’: students’ perceptions of the role of higher education credentials for graduate work and employability”. british journal of sociology of education 29: 49-61. tran, t. (2015). “is graduate employability the ‘whole-of-higher-education-issue’?”. journal of education and work 25,3: 207-227. tymon, a. (2013). “the student perspective on employability”. studies in higher education 38,6: 841-856. wächter, b. (2003). “an introduction: internationalisation at home in context”. journal of studies in international education 7: 5-11. wächter, b., & f. maiworm (2014). english-taught programmes in european higher education: the state of play in 2014. bonn: lemmens. watkins, h., & r. smith (2018). “thinking globally, working locally: employability and internationalization at home”. journal of studies in international education 22,3: 210-224. 03 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:18 página 86 iberica 13 intercultural business communication and simulation and gaming methodology victoria guillén-nieto, carmen marimón-llorca & chelo vargas-sierra (eds.). bern: peter lang, 2009. 392 pages. isbn: 978-3-03911-688-1. in intercultural business communication and simulation and gaming methodology, victoria guillén-nieto, carmen marimón-llorca and chelo vargas-sierra serve up an interesting set of articles on intercultural business communication (ibc). it is important to assume, from the very beginning, that ibc is a complex disciplinary endeavour, as many studies in the last fifty years have clearly highlighted. thus, hall (1959 & 1966), hofstede (1980 & 1983), trompenaars and hampden-turner (1997) or schwartz (1999) have pointed out fairly different perspectives that should be considered while analysing communication. in fact, we cannot avoid studying intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, or national perspectives in order to understand the way someone can communicate within a business framework. it is important to analyse how anyone can improve his/her competence in order to communicate effectively in a business-based environment. some years ago bargiela-chiappini and nickerson (2003) stated that interculturality should play an important role in order to communicate effectively in business settings. thus, the fundamental constructs of communication involve an array of well-established and highly developed fields of enquiry. there are many approaches, theories and methodologies that tend to overlap. among those methodologies which can help us improve our communicative competence in business settings is the simulation and gaming methodology, a target of this book as well. the volume is divided into three main sections: an introductory section “explaining intercultural communication”, comprising three different chapters. the second section, devoted to “applied linguistic research on intercultural business communication”, is clearly the longest one, being formed by seven contributions. finally, the third section, “simulation and gaming methodology as a vehicle for communicative competence in intercultural business settings”, comprises three different texts. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 20 (2010): 167-204 issn 1139-7241 194 08 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:23 página 194 the initial section tries to explain the diverse nature of intercultural communication from the perspective of different disciplines. the first chapter of this section, “crossing disciplines in intercultural communication research”, written by one of the editors of the volume (guillén-nieto), tries to establish some parameters related to intercultural communication, offering an interesting overview on some previous analyses on the topic. this state of the art study is then followed by a text on how cultural orientations have an influence on certain nonverbal and verbal patterns of behaviour within cross-cultural communication between spaniards and britons. escandell-vidal tries to offer a new view on intercultural communication from a sociocognitive perspective in “social cognition and intercultural communication”, the second chapter of this initial section. she has observed how different disciplines play an important role when people try to communicate ideas or emotions in a social environment. different fields of study such as neuroscience, cognitive psychology or linguistics have an important effect while communicating in intercultural settings. finally, mateo and yus study “business language from a cognitive perspective” in the third chapter of this initial unit. the need to update socio-cultural information in a wide variety of business communication exchanges, always from an inferential-social perspective, implies that international companies should always pay attention to the cognitive and cultural layout of its members, even in those cases where the language shared is the same. after establishing a critical framework in its initial part, the second section of the book deals with specific efforts on applied linguistic research related to ibc. in the first chapter in this section, “intercultural negotiations: theories revisited”, grindsted pays attention to the two different levels implied within negotiations (instrumental and interactional). being a communicative process, the author points out that social constructivism may be a good answer to analyse in detail all the different parameters that should be considered when developing a negotiation process within an intercultural framework. on the other hand, ronkainen, the author of “multi-cultural meetings”, the second contribution in this section, observes the way that finnish people interact with business professionals from other countries, paying attention to the way that different aspects (dominance, personal relations, cultural contexts, or meeting tactics, among others) affect the way business people act while at meetings. campos-pardillos and balteirofernández analyse the influence of culture on the linguistic understanding of legal aspects within real estate marketing in the third chapter of this reseñas / book reviews ibérica 20 (2010): 167-204 195 08 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:23 página 195 section, “building bridges … and properties aplenty: cultural problems in spanish marketing for real estate prospective british buyers”, highlighting that there are great asymmetries while translating some web-pages on the topic. they aptly observe that the problems in those translations have to do with cultural differences between buyers and sellers, and not necessarily on the erroneous use of english grammar. similar conclusions are drawn by garcía-yeste in the following chapter, “the language of graphic advertising in spain: bridging the cultural gap”, where he analyses the cultural values that tend to define the spanish advertising style, observing with further detail all the linguistic features which might reflect those values. his results point out the need for any advertising company to make an effort to adapt the messages to the receivers’ cultural frame. díaz-pérez, the author of the fifth chapter of this second section, “perspective selection and politeness in the production of face-threatening acts in english and spanish”, focuses on two different speech acts (requests and complaints), to point out that both the specific characteristics of the group of speakers and the communicative situation will have an influence on the choice of perspective in the production of face-threatening acts. the author considers that english native speakers tend to use negative politeness more often that their spanish counterparts, trying to convey a message in a less threatening way for the hearer. martínez-linares, in “from hiding the speaker to persuasion: se-passive and se-impersonal constructions”, provides an interesting analysis on the different kinds of se-constructions in spanish, basing the study on a set of 30 business-related newspapers. she examines with broad detail the different functions that se-passive and se-impersonal sentences perform in communication. politeness strategies are also analysed by marimón-llorca in the final chapter of this second section, “cultural models and social discourses in business: the case of ideological-politeness strategies in service encounters”. in this contribution the author has collected information taken from 30 books and web pages, offering information related to market techniques and customer service. being mainly written by north american and british authors, the use of positive politeness conveys a positive image, despite the fact, pointed out by the author, that in their original cultures negative politeness is often preferred in social interactions. the third section of the book pays specific attention to simulation and gaming theory in intercultural business settings and is, in my view, the most interesting part of the book. garcía-carbonell and watts offer a relevant reseñas / book reviews ibérica 20 (2010): 167-204196 08 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:23 página 196 analysis of previous studies on the topic in their initial chapter, “principles of simulation and gaming methodology in language acquisition”. this review of the state of the art of simulation and gaming methodology sets the tone for an extremely thought-provoking text on how the simulation and gaming methodology can be applied in linguistic contexts. it is rising who, in her chapter devoted to “business simulations as a vehicle for language acquisition”, develops an empirical study based on this methodology. after carrying out a study comprising 772 university students, she points out that simulation is a highly effective methodology in order to teach english to foreign language students in the university classroom. it is very useful to observe the general guidelines that rising offers in order to adapt business games within the english language classroom. finally, and to round everything up, hofstede, pedersen and hofstede add a final chapter, “the synthetic cultures model as a simulation and gaming methodology for intercultural sensitization and training in business settings”, containing a selection of excerpts from their work exploring culture, published in 2002. being a brief summary on their previous work, it does not add much information, but it can be used as a nice introduction to how the ten synthetic culture profiles are identified in their original work. despite not being a very common way to round things up, this last chapter can be very useful for those becoming interested in the field of intercultural communication. in summary, i believe this book can be a valuable tool for everyone interested in intercultural communication, complementing interesting contributions previously published on the topic. [review received july 2010] reviewed by juan carlos palmer-silveira universitat jaume i, castellón (spain) palmerj@ang.uji.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 20 (2010): 167-204 197 bargiela-chiappini, f. & c. nickerson (2003). “intercultural business communication: a rich field of studies”. journal of intercultural studies 24: 315. hall, e.t. (1959). the silent language. new york: doubleday. hall, e.t. (1966). the hidden dimension. new york: doubleday. hofstede, g. (1980). culture consequences: international differences in work-related values. newbury park, ca: sage. hofstede, g. (1983). “national cultures in four 08 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:23 página 197 reseñas / book reviews ibérica 20 (2010): 167-204198 dimensions: a research-based theory of cultural differences among nations”. international studies of management and organization 13: 46-74. hofstede, g.j., p.b. pedersen & g. hofstede (2002). exploring culture: exercises, stories and synthetic cultures. yarmouth, me: intercultural press/nicholas brealey. schwartz, s.h. (1999). “a theory of cultural values and some implications for work”. applied psychology: an international review 48: 23-47. trompenaars, f. & c. hampden-turner (1997). riding the waves of culture: understanding cultural diversity in business. london: nicholas brealey. 08 iberica 20.qxp 20/9/10 17:23 página 198 imprimir iberica 13 ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-80 abstract the integration of a genre-based and a corpus-based instruction in esp learning (swales, 1990; tribble, 2000; ferguson, 2001; flowerdew, 2005) has proved to be a suitable theoretical framework for describing the lexis of construction and architecture university textbooks, such as the sample compiled in the construction textbooks corpus (ctc). this paper is a contribution to the study of the formal and semantic profiles of the lexis of this particular genre type and, by way of illustration, focuses on the case study of the lemmas build and construct. from a formal standpoint, the ctc reveals that the noun building (the first content word in the ctc) is six times more frequent than the verb build, and the noun construction (third in frequency) is eleven times more frequent than the verb construct. semantically, the corpus displays a prevalence of technical meanings which refer to building and construction as the activity or business of erecting edifices or structures. by observing the lexical profile of construction textbooks, this paper will finally consider possible teaching/learning implications. key words: esp, genre analysis, lexis, textbooks, construction engineering. resumen ������� ���� ������ ������������������������������������� ����� ���� ����� ��� �������� ����������� ����� ����� la integración del análisis de género y el análisis de corpus en la enseñanza de ife (swales, 1990; tribble, 2000; ferguson, 2001; flowerdew, 2005) ha demostrado ser un marco teórico adecuado para describir el léxico de los libros de texto universitarios de construcción y arquitectura, como los capítulos de muestra recopilados en el corpus de libros de construcción (ctc). este a contribution to the lexis of construction engineering textbooks: the case of building and construction concepción orna montesinos universidad de zaragoza (spain) conorna@unizar.es 59 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 59 ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-80 concepción orna montesinos artículo pretende ofrecer una descripción de carácter preliminar del léxico de este género y, a modo de ejemplo, se centra en el análisis de concordancias de los lemas build y construct. desde un punto de vista formal, el corpus ctc revela que el sustantivo building (la palabra más frecuente en el corpus ctc) es seis veces más frecuente que el verbo build, mientras que el sustantivo construction (la tercera más frecuente) es once veces más frecuente que el verbo construct. desde un punto de vista semántico, el análisis del corpus demuestra la prevalencia de los significados técnicos que se refieren a building y construction como la actividad o el negocio de construir edificios o estructuras. tras el estudio del perfil léxico de los libros de construcción, el presente artículo abordará las posibles implicaciones pedagógicas. palabras clave: ife, análisis de género, léxico, libros de texto, construcción civil. introduction the integration of genre-based and corpus-based approaches to teaching/learning esp has been one of the major pedagogical pillars in the past decades (swales, 1990; tribble, 2000; ferguson, 2001; flowerdew, 2005). literature on the topic contends that understanding the genres of the discipline not only provides learners with insight into the lexical features of specific texts types, but also provides useful input as regards the discoursal and socio-rhetorical conventions of a given discourse community. from a social-constructivist perspective (berkenkotter & huckin, 1993; jonassen et al., 1993; wilson, 1997), learning the different genres or textual typologies of a specialized community allows esp students to develop an understanding of how this community constructs and transmits disciplinary knowledge. together with a genre-based approach, instruction based on corpus data likewise proves to provide learners with both language knowledge and context-sensitive knowledge of language in use. as advocated by linguists such as biber et al. (1999), flowerdew (2005), tribble (2000), hunston (2002), paltridge (2006), or simpson-vlach and leicher (2006), among others, the recognition of models through corpus-based instruction favours a more inductive, and at the same time in-depth, approach to the genrespecific profile of lexical features in the different disciplinary discourses. from the multifarious constellation of genres in esp contexts, only a few authors have paid closer attention to the textbook genre (myers, 1995; swales, 1995; hyland, 1999; turner & kearsey, 1999; conrad, 2001; 60 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 60 ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-80 a contribution to the lexis of construction koulaidis et al., 2002; ward, 2001; moore, 2002). according to dimopoulos et al. (2005) the specialized linguistic code of discipline-specific textbooks is objective and non-personal and it is characterized by the use of specialized terminology and notation, syntactic complexity, heavy use of the passive voice, the use of nominalizations, the reference to the taxonomy of various entities, the expression of complex information, the development of arguments and conceptual entities. however, no detailed lexical account of this specific textual typology can be found despite the fact that the textbook genre is most likely the first type of genre undergraduates come across in their university life. the aim of this paper is to develop a corpus-based analysis of two near synonyms, building and construction, as used in a small-size corpus of 223,520 words from construction and architecture university textbooks, the construction textbooks corpus (ctc). the concordancing analysis of the ctc corpus will determine the lexico-syntactic and semantic profile of two high-frequency words in construction and architecture, building and construction and the corresponding verbs build and construct, and will help define their domain-specificity as well as its semanticallyand contextually discipline-dependence. relying on the corpus-based observation of the lexical profile of vocabulary items in construction textbooks the paper will finally envisage possible teaching/learning implications for an upper intermediate esp course such as that offered to construction engineering students at the university of zaragoza. theoretical background of the study the question of how members of a discourse community use the language is always the starting point of any genre analysis (berkenkotter & huckin, 1993; bhatia, 1997 & 2002; chapman, 1999; bazerman et al., 2003; hyland, 2003). since genres provide information not only on the text but also on the activity sphere in which it operates, the relation of the members of the community, the audience roles or the uses of the text become a form of what berkenkotter and huckin (1993: 485) call “situated cognition”, “a product of the activity and situation in which it is produced” because “writers acquire and strategically deploy genre knowledge as they participate in their field’s or profession’s knowledge-producing activities”. the teaching/learning of genres enables learners to get immersed into the professional, academic and occupational communities (swales, 1990; bhatia, 61 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 61 1997; dudley-evans, 1997). apprentices need to get to know the disciplinary and professional conventions of the language of the field and the way the genre is manipulated for rhetorical purposes by its users in order to be accepted in the discipline community and to achieve professional success. it is the lexico-syntactic and semantic profiles of specialized genres –and not simply specialized vocabulary– that distinguishes general vs. specialized discourse. esp learners will develop genre consciousness as they become familiar with the texts these genres produce, with the conventions and rhetorical features that characterize the appropriate use of the language in specific disciplinary knowledge areas. in the case of esp learners, usually non-native english speakers with limited language skills, the teaching of the actual genres which they are likely to need in their future professional life is a most efficient approach. new trends, influenced by sociolinguistics, consider genres as cultural resources which are learnt through social contact (miller, 1984; chapman, 1999; hyland, 2003). in a constructivist framework, and more specifically a socialconstructivist one, instruction must help learners develop understanding of the conventions of the language as used in different communicative situations and for different communicative purposes. as stated above, since university textbooks are likely to be the first approach to professional genres for undergraduate students, they represent a good starting point to focus on the basics of academic and professional writing, the main rhetorical patterns, the generic features of the discourse, its content, textual forms, composing practices, and reading processes. in sum, the textbook acquires a sociolinguistic role which allows the presentation and dissemination of specialized knowledge and establishes a relationship between the reader and the author with a subsequent formative influence. the first step in tackling the issue of corpus design will be to answer tribble’s question (1997, conclusion section, para. 2): “which corpora [do] learners need –what are the right models for specific learners with specific (or general) needs?”. in order to develop effective lexical profiles, considerations such as the size of the corpus, its length, the number of text samples, the range of text categories (or registers) that samples are selected from, the balance and integration of the corpus must be carefully considered (biber, 1993a & 1993b; curado fuentes, 2001). a corpus should aim for adequate coverage, homogeneity, balance and representativeness of the language from which it is chosen. it should include a diversified range of registers of the language as a whole and thus, an adequate variety of concepción orna montesinos ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-8062 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 62 categories and texts from each category to avoid the prevalence of one category over the others while including the right varieties of the language for the intended uses of the corpus. a digitalized corpus will be the source that will inform teachers’ appreciation of linguistic usage and will help them make informed choices as to what vocabulary, grammar or discoursal aspects are to be introduced in the classroom. thus, it becomes the source of relevant teaching materials based on empirical data rather than on intuition (flowerdew, 1996; nelson, 2000 & 2006; godwin-jones, 2001; kennedy & miceli, 2001; curado & edwards, 2003; mudraya, 2006). students need authoritative models for their own language behaviour and current, updated materials adjusted to the everchanging scientific world, which will highly improve their motivation when studying professionally-oriented texts in connection with their interests. research methodology the first stage of the present research was to compile a corpus of textbooks for construction and architecture: the construction textbooks corpus (ctc). the texts were taken from the sample chapters offered for review by elsevier publishers (available at http://books.elsevier.com). the compilation of the ctc is an ongoing process (it currently accounts for about 1,000,000 words), with new samples being added for future research. the present preliminary study is based on a sample of texts from the ctc covering two areas and six subareas of knowledge: “architecture and built environment” (“design and planning”, “sustainability”, “urban design”) and “building and construction” (“conservation and restoration”, “construction management”, “services and materials”), which amount to a total number of 223,520 words. it is worth noting that although the samples were chosen randomly, basically depending on availability, the selection turned out to be a balanced once, matching the distribution of knowledge areas taught in a construction degree (see figure 1). as specified in the introduction, the aim of this paper was to provide a preliminary contribution to a more extensive future description of textbooks at a lexical/lexico-syntactic level. larsen-freeman (2003) recommends that the interpretation of any linguistic unit should be characterized by the study of three dimensions: form, meaning and function. the present analysis is intended to cover the first two dimensions, form and meaning and, a contribution to the lexis of construction ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-80 63 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 63 therefore, represents a first step of a more ambitious study of the lexicosyntactic features of textbooks which should undoubtedly be based not only on lexical combinations but also on such notions as semantic prosody or textual colligation. the paper takes hunston’s (2002: 167) approach to “pattern grammar” defined as “an approach to language which maintains the generalising characteristics of grammatical descriptions while prioritising the behaviour of individual lexical items”. pattern grammar, being a link between lexis, grammar and meaning, is applied to the study variation in a technical register such as construction textbooks. the analysis relies on the study of the lexical profile of the nouns building and construction, and the verbs build and construct. building and construction are the two most common nouns in the ctc and the two most relevant ones for a construction discipline. together with statistical frequencies, the present study also looked at the form and meaning of build/building and construct/construction, eventually inferring the implications for language teaching. the corpus-based analysis, generated with wordsmith tools 4.0 (scott, 1999) offered both qualitative and quantitative results associated with two near synonyms, defined by xiao and mcenery (2006: 105) as “lexical pairs that have very similar cognitive or denotational meanings, but which may differ in collocational or prosodic behaviour.” the analysis of the corpus will determine the patterns of usage of those two nouns and verbs focusing on their form and meaning. adhering to curado’s claim (2001: 106) that “the main aim in terminology studies is to create specialised dictionaries that concepción orna montesinos ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-8064 figure 1. total number of words. urban design 30,571 14% sustainability 24,711 11% design and planning 39,593 18% conserv ation and restoration 34,766 16% construction management 56,974 24% serv ice and materials 36,905 17% 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 64 reflect knowledge fields and concepts where these are related to the property of lexical use restriction” we will take the definitions offered by contemporary english dictionaries as a starting point, with the aim of determining which meanings of build/building and construct/construction are relevant for the construction discipline as reflected in the ctc corpus. in a later stage we analyzed the lemmas build and construct assuming that these two near synonyms are not only the most frequent but the two most specifically relevant ones in a construction corpus. as seen in table 1 building and construction are two of the three most frequent content words; the plural form buildings is the fifth one. although design is the second most frequent content word, it must be pointed out that the 627 occurrences of design include both the uses as a verb and as a noun. the noun building is the most frequent content word in the ctc corpus with a frequency of 38.38 per 10,000 words whereas construction ranks third with a frequency of 22.95. the analysis of the “key” and “key-key” words of the ctc corpus also proved the relevance of the nouns building and construction. a “key word” is defined by scott (1997: 234) as “a word which occurs with unusual frequency in a given text”, which “does not mean high frequency but unusual frequency, by comparison with a reference corpus” and “key-key-words” are “words which are key in a large number of texts of a given type” (scott, 1997: 237). the comparison of the ctc frequency list with the british national corpus (bnc) (leech et al., 2001) shows that building and construction are the first two “key-key” words in the construction discipline (see table 2). a contribution to the lexis of construction ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-80 65 rank in freq. word freq. in corpus freq. per 10,000 texts 1 23 building 858 38.38 34 2 30 design 627 28.05 34 3 36 construction 513 22.95 29 4 51 work 392 17.53 32 5 52 buildings 371 16.59 29 6 54 quality 353 15.79 26 7 58 used 329 14.71 35 8 59 urban 326 14.58 20 9 62 development 319 14.27 32 10 65 new 312 13.95 35 table 1. ten most common content words in ctc. 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 65 the following section describes the formal and semantic profiles of the lemmas build and construct in the selected sample of texts from construction engineering textbooks. the case of � ��� and ����� �: formal aspects the nouns: � ������ and ����� ���� as tables 3 and 4 show, the lemma build has a much higher frequency than construct (2.5 times more frequent): rank word frequency % concepción orna montesinos ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-8066 key word ctc freq. ctc% bnc freq. bnc%* keyness 1 building 858 0.38 18,643 0.02 3,517.25 2 construction 513 0.23 6,289 2,650.22 3 design 627 0.28 12,852 0.01 2,637.71 4 buildings 373 0.17 6,581 1,673.02 5 urban 326 0.15 5,371 1,503.84 6 quality 353 0.16 16,223 0.02 964.20 7 procurement 117 0.05 285 943.97 8 climate 185 0.08 2,782 884.85 9 bricks 136 0.06 934 848.60 10 temperature 199 0.09 4,343 813.62 table 2. ten first key words in ctc and bnc (*only significant % are shown). table 3. lemma build. rank word frequency % 23 noun building 828 57.20 23 verb building 30 2.07 52 noun buildings 373 25.80 174 verb built 131 9.05 800 verb build 34 2.35 800 noun build 2 0.14 1886 noun builders 14 0.97 2.708 verb rebuilt 9 0.62 2.789 noun builder 8 0.55 3.282 verb rebuild 7 0.48 4.801 verb rebuilding 4 0.28 6.317 noun buildability 2 0.14 6.318 verb builds 2 0.14 8.743 noun buildup 1 0.07 11.526 noun newbuild 1 0.07 13.385 adjective unbuildable 1 0.07 13.386 verb unbuilt 1 0.07 1,448 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 66 the preference for nominalization in the discourse of construction textbooks, as in many other scientific and technical genres, explains that the verbs build and construct are far less common than the corresponding nouns building and construction as shown in figures 2 and 3. also the most common clusters in the ctc corpus show the higher frequency of the nouns (tables 5 and 6): a contribution to the lexis of construction ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-80 67 table 4. lemma construct. rank word frequency % 36 noun construction 513 89.40 1.016 verb constructed 28 4.88 2.422 verb construct 10 1.74 2.961 noun reconstruction 8 1.39 4.403 verb constructing 4 0.70 4.404 adjective constructional 4 0.70 5.222 noun constructions 3 0.52 9.142 noun constructability 1 0.17 9.143 adverb constructively 1 0.17 12.275 verb reconstructed 1 0.17 12.276 verb reconstructing 1 0.17 574 figure 2. occurrences as a verb or noun of build. figure 3. occurrences as a verb or noun of construct. v erb 8% noun 92% noun 86% v erb 14% cluster freq. 1 noun of the building 106 2 noun building act 1984 77 3 noun the building act 47 4 noun the building regulations 41 5 noun of a building 35 6 verb the built environment 18 7 noun of historic buildings 17 8 noun the building is 16 9 noun the building in 14 10 noun to the building 12 table 5. top ten clusters with build in ctc. 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 67 a shown in table 7, the noun building functions as a singular noun in 828 cases (68.94%) and as a plural noun in 373 cases (31.06%). 32.64% of the nouns are premodified by the articles the (279) and a (113) and 18.07% by 217 adjectives such as “historic”, “tall”, “new”, “commercial”, “dangerous”. the noun construction is a singular noun in 513 (99.41%) occurrences and a plural one in 3 (0.58%) occurrences. 116 (22.48%) occurrences of “the” and 14 of “a” (2.71%) accompany construction(s). they are premodified by 43 (8.33%) adjectives (“lean”, “residential”, “sustainable”, “total”). the verbs: � ��� and ����� � the most common verbs following the nouns building and buildings are frequently passive constructions, much more common in the present (83.33%) than in the past tense (16.67%). these verbs have both technical (“arranged”, “built”, “constructed”, “designed”, “maintained”, “occupied”, “overdesigned”, “repaired”, “secured”, “situated”) and non-technical meanings (“classified”, “changed”, “considered”, “controlled”, “discussed”, “exposed”, “given”, “included”, “involved”, “perceived”, “presented”, “provided”, “pulled”, “reduced”, “used”). building and buildings are also followed by modals expressing obligation, necessity or recommendation concepción orna montesinos ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-8068 cluster freq. 1 noun the construction industry 39 2 noun design and construction 32 3 noun of the construction 24 4 noun the uk construction 22 5 noun uk construction industry 22 6 noun in the construction 21 7 noun the construction of 16 8 noun of lean construction 12 9 noun the construction process 10 10 noun construction industry is 9 table 6. top 10 clusters with construct in ctc. modifier no. of cases % the 279 23.23% a 113 9.40% adjective 217 18.07% + building(s) the 116 22.48% a 14 2.71% adjective 43 8.33% + construction(s) table 7. modifiers of building(s) and construction. 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 68 (“must”, “need”, “should”), which, together with the high frequency of such noun phrases as “building regulations” or “building act”, suggest the texts are being written to offer advice on what to do at the different sectors and stages of the construction business. present passive verbs (76.92%) and past verbs (23.08%) (“consider”, “begin”, “remember”, “continue” or “establish”) also follow construction(s). the use of the passive, especially frequent in expository prose, places the focus on the recipient of the action rather than on the agent, usually irrelevant or unknown. this conveys an objective, non-personal character to the scientific discourse (biber et al., 1999; dimopoulos et al., 2005). future research will try to determine whether the preference for present passive constructions after the nouns building and construction is a generic feature which reflects the fact that textbooks report on facts, truths or processes not related with time, rather than on narrating events. as a verb the most frequent verbal form of build and construct is the participle. “built” is used as a participial adjective in 61 cases (“built environment”, “built asset(s)”, “built form”) and “constructed” in 4 cases (“constructed products”). participles also appear in “-ed clauses” that function as a postmodifying participle clause (15 “built” and 9 “constructed”). these clauses, more frequent in academic prose both in terms of frequency and proportionally (biber et al., 1999: 606-631), correspond to the passive in finite clauses and can be paraphrased: “[b]uilt in 1740, these two rooms = these two rooms, which were built in 1740,”; “drains and cesspools constructed by the owner = drains and cesspools which were constructed by the owner”. also common in the ctc are “-ing verb” forms (26 “building” and 4 “constructing”) (“([b]uilding adequate sea defences around bangladesh and many other such delta are …”; “perhaps by constructing larger or taller”), “to-infinitives” (15 “to build” and 8 “to construct”) (“qualitative intuitive understanding on which to build”; “the materials to construct tall buildings”) and the bare infinitive (11 “build” and 2 “construct”) (“design build contractors and management contractors”; “to produce a design and construct package”). the corpus shows a significant predominance of the passive forms of the verbs build and construct (see tables 8 and 9) (“the professionalism with which it was built, necessary for a building to be built”; “the vast majority of pipelines are constructed of carbon steels”). it is worth noting that, although present passive forms are more common with the verb construct, as with other a contribution to the lexis of construction ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-80 69 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 69 verbs in the ctc, past passive constructions of build are significantly more common. verb forms no. of cases % from these tables we can observe that the ctc corpus reveals high percentages of non-personal forms of the verbs build and construct as well as of passive constructions. the case of � ��� and ����� �: semantic meanings this section looks into the contextual semantic meanings of the nouns building and construction and the verbs build and construct in the construction discipline. according to the merriam-webster’s dictionary (1993) the verb build “stresses the fitting together of parts or materials to form the thing desired” whereas the verb construct “lays stress upon the problem or intricacy of the process of fitting the parts together, often implying more skill and intelligence than build.” as the corpus itself reveals, “[c]onstruction is not concepción orna montesinos ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-8070 verb forms no. of cases % built (participle) 76 38.60 building 26 13.20 (was/were) + built 21 10.70 (be) + built 16 8.12 to build 15 7.61 build (bare infinitive) 11 5.58 (am/is/are) + built 8 4.06 build(s) (present) 6 3.05 built (past) 5 2.54 (have) + built 5 2.54 modal + build 4 2.03 (be) + building 4 2.03 197 table 8. verb forms of build. verb forms no. of cases % constructed (participle) 13 33.30 to construct 8 19.00 (am/is/are) + constructed 6 14.30 (be) + constructed 6 14.30 constructing 4 9.52 (was/were) + constructed 2 4.76 construct (bare infinitive) 2 4.76 42 table 9. verb forms of construct. 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 70 just building; civil engineering is a very important part of total construction activity in the uk” (cartlidge, 2004: 20). the merriam-webster’s (1993) and the collins cobuild (2000) dictionaries were used to produce a list of their meanings, both technical (t) and non-technical (n-t), in the ctc corpus. no technical glossaries were used for the analysis since they offer very basic definitions of the lemmas build and construct or they do not define the words at all. glosses, other dictionaries, colleagues and native scholars helped corroborate our decisions in this semantic categorisation. the nouns: � ������ and ����� ���� when compared to verbal semantic categories, the nouns building and buildings represent 86% of the total occurrences of the lemma build, all of them with technical meanings. meaning building (n) no. of cases % the more common of the meanings of building designates “a constructed edifice” (“le corbusier described a building as a “machine for living in””) designed to stand more or less permanently (“[t]he degree of wear depends on the type of structure and material of the building”), occupying a space of land (“requirements for the location, the building, the rooms, the components of the building and the facilities to be provided in the building itself ”); covered by a roof and more or less completely enclosed by walls (”with windows in it which forms the outer boundary of the building”; “the building form can be a solid and continuous barrier between inside and outside”; “the total area of the building, including all of the above plus the exterior walls”). it is designed for occupancy (“the end users, i.e. the actual persons who occupy and use the building”); and serves different uses (“give buildings a social meaning”; “[a] building can also represent something cultural – perhaps something religious”): as a dwelling (“absorb different residential building types from apartment buildings to terraced houses”), workplace (“commercial”, “office”, “the new york life insurance + a contribution to the lexis of construction ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-80 71 meaning building (n) no. of cases % t constructed edifice 486 58.70% t the business of assembling materials into a structure 228 27.50% t the act or practice of making, erecting, or establishing 104 12.60% t the art of fabricating edifices 10 1.21% total 828 table 10. distribution of semantic meaning of building. 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 71 building”), or shelter (“building as protection against climate, enemies etc.”; “how much shelter from the climate a building has to provide”). scoring almost 30% of the total nominal occurrences, building is used to refer to “the business of assembling materials into a structure”, which involves the management of people trades and activities (“building + act” (86 occurrences), “regulations” (68), “industry” (13), “contract(s)” (6), “procurement” (5), “contractor(s)” (4), “codes” (4), “quality” (4), “professionals” (2), “standards” (2)). in 12.60% of the occurrences building means “the act or practice of making, erecting, or establishing” (“hundreds of experiments in the building of fortified towns and churches”; “this energy is used in the building of city structures”). it refers to the “building+site” (4 occurrences), “technology” (2), “project” (11), “components” (2), “elements” (4), “practice” (4), “work” (18) or “process” (6). finally only 10 instances of building designate “the art of fabricating edifices” (“the mediaeval manner of building was here never extinct”; “committed to re-establishing the relationship between the art of building and the making of community”). the noun “build up” appears twice in the corpus with the non-technical meaning that refers to “a gradual accumulation of something” (“which reduced the bass build up”; “the problem of a build up in static electricity”). the noun construction accounts for 92% of the occurrences of the lemma construct and, like building, its semantic meaning in the ctc is only technical. meaning construction (n) no. of cases % more than half of the occurrences (58.70%) correspond to the meaning of “the business of building” (“construction is big business”; “construction is one of the most hazardous industries”). the “construction industry” (75 occurrences) involves trades (”the choices facing customers and managers involved in construction appear bewildering”), people (“the number of concepción orna montesinos ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-8072 meaning construction (n) no. of cases % t the business (trades, people and activities involved) 301 58.70% t the act of putting parts together 98 19.10% t the form or manner in which something has been put together 91 17.70% t the science or study of building or erection 22 4.29% t something built or erected 1 0.19% total 513 100% table 11. distribution of semantic meaning of construction. 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 72 people employed in construction as a proportion of the total workforce”) such as “clients”, “contractor(s)”, “manager(s)”, “supervisor”, “professionals” and activities (“construction is a very diverse activity, operating at a variety of levels”) which are financially and legally managed (“project(s)”, “procurement”, “construction firm(s)”, “management”, “contract(s)”, and “enterprises”). almost 20% of the nominal items refer to “the act of putting parts together” (“tenders were called and evaluated, the contract awarded and construction commenced”; “the different phases of construction of the building complex”); not only of different types of edifices (“home”, “churches”, “amphitheatres”, “cathedrals”) but also of “highways”, “infrastructure”, “columns”, “a steel frame clad”, “embankment”, “dams”, “sewers”, “drains” or “steps”. with a slightly lower frequency building means “the form or manner in which something has been put together”; using particular materials (“the construction is of thick plaster and heavy wood with a deeply coffered ceiling”; “contemporary construction of a steel frame clad with a curtain wall”), tools and methods (“a specific challenge in construction is that every design has to meet multiple requirements”; “achieving efficient construction with available materials and techniques”). another minor, very scarce meaning is “the science or study of building or erection” (“the move to a new theory based methodology for construction”; “the concept holds much promise for construction”). only one instance of the meaning “something built or erected” was found in the ctc (“an entirely new construction”). the verbs: � ��� and ����� � verbal semantic categories of build and construct represent comparatively lower percentages of occurrence (14% and 8% respectively). with a technical meaning in 82.20% of the occurrences as a verb, build conveys the meanings shown in table 12. almost 35% of the verbal items mean “to construct an edifice by joining parts and materials together” (“a traditional brick-built house”; “a wall built in lime mortar”; “walling built with pre-cast blocks”); for a dwelling (“the poor man who was building a hut”; “a building to be built”; “purpose-built student living accommodation”) or, more frequently, referring to large or massive structures such as cities (”one cannot easily build charleston anymore”); elements in cities (“massive defence walls, the ancient ruins”; a contribution to the lexis of construction ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-80 73 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 73 “adequate sea defences”), public buildings (“the flavian amphitheatre”; “airport terminals”; “the great temple of ammon”). scoring second in frequency (29.90%) the participle “built” is used as a synonym of constructed and refers to “that part of the physical surroundings which are people-made or people-organized”; from buildings and other major structures, roads, bridges and the like, down to lesser objects such as traffic lights, telephone and pillar boxes (”built+environment”; “form”; “heritage”; “infrastructure”). “built assets” are possessions or resources having value. with a lower frequency of occurrence (16.80%) build also means “to cause to be constructed” (“housing that had to be built […] for industrial workers”) or “to be responsible for the building of something” (“building in seaside communities”; “build on in-fill or flood zones”); especially to be in charge of the business of the different trades involved in building: the development of the project (“design and build”; “a project is to be built in phases”), its quality (“excellent build quality”, “build on a site that…”; “build cynically”; “building in value”), its financial management (“provided the financing”; “to build between…”) or its security (“to be built safely”). the phrasal verb “build into” occurs once, meaning “to make it in such a way that all or part of it is inside the wall, rock, etc.” (“the blocks were built into the north wall of the acropolis”). non-technical meanings of build represent only a 17.80% of the total occurrences. build means “to fashion, develop or cause to develop according to a systematic plan by a definite process, or on a particular base” (11.20%) concepción orna montesinos ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-8074 meaning build (vb) no. of cases % to construct an edifice 69 35.00% to be part of the physical surroundings 59 29.90% to be responsible for the business of building 33 16.80% t (into) to make something part of a wall 1 0.51% total 162 82.20% to fashion, develop, cause 22 11.20% (up) to get bigger or higher 6 3.05% (on) to use as a base for further development 4 2.03% n-t (into) to make it part of something 3 1.52% total 35 17.80% table 12. distribution of semantic meaning of build. 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 74 (“relationships”; “capacity”; “a successful business”; “an organization”; “collaborative working”); or “to increase or enlarge” (“awareness-building”; “value, wealth and enjoyment of nations”). combining with particles (only in 6.60% of the total occurrences), it carries the following meanings: “build up” = “to gradually get bigger or higher as a result of something being added to it” (“gases are building up in the upper atmosphere”; “to build up deeper expertise”); “build on” = “to use as a base for further development” (“build on + the earlier work, the experience, previous chapters”); and “build into” = “to make it part of something” (“value is created and built into the product”; “building the costs of building evaluation into construction projects”). the verb construct represents 8% of total occurrences of the lemma. technical meanings of the verb construct account for 95.20% of the occurrences. the most recurrent meaning is “to form, make or create a building” (“orchestral halls”; “salons”; “church”; “theatro farnese”; “trinity church”). it is sometimes a positively valued building (“massive aqueduct systems”; “tall buildings”; “a building larger or taller, good buildings”), parts of a building (“column”; “concrete pad”; “drains”; “cesspools”; “floor”; “walls”), or other constructions (“monuments”; “bridges”) erected by putting together parts or elements (“constructed of fired clay bricks”; “of carbon steels”). the remaining 5% correspond to the meaning “to create” (“construct the work”; “construct the team”). conclusions and pedagogical implications the aim of the present study was to offer a contribution to the study of lexical features in one of the academic genres undergraduate students are most frequently exposed to: the genre of university textbooks. more specifically, the paper has concentrated on the analysis of the formal and a contribution to the lexis of construction ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-80 75 meaning construct (vb) no. of cases % t to form, make or erect a building 40 95.20% n-t to create a building 2 4.76% total 42 100% table 13. distribution of semantic meaning of construct. 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 75 semantic profiles of the lemmas build and construct in order to understand the context-sensitive behaviour of specialized lexis in the construction engineering field. as regards the formal aspects of these two lemmas, the ctc corpus has shown that the nouns building and construction are two of the three most frequent nouns in construction textbooks. the high frequency of nouns (building is 6.1 times more frequent than build and construction is 11.1 times more frequent) in our corpus, contributes to demonstrating that nominalization is a characteristic feature of scientific-technical textbooks (dimopoulos et al., 2005), as it has been found in many other technical registers. the most frequent verbal categories of build and construct are nonpersonal forms, particularly participles. the recurrence of passive constructions suggests possibilities for future research. on the other hand the semantic analysis described above yields the following preliminary observations. firstly, the analysis of the lemmas build and construct suggests the absolute prevalence of technical meanings over the more figurative ones in the noun forms of these two lemmas. quite similarly, the verbal categories of build and construct have displayed very low percentages of non-technical meanings. findings suggest that the most common semantic meaning of building is that of “edifice” rather than that of “activity”, while construction is almost uniquely “the act or business of erecting structures”. as verbal categories both build and construct show a recurrence of the same technical meaning, “the business of ”. although we are aware of the limited size of the sample of texts taken from the ctc, it is interesting to note that this meaning (“the business of ”) is not usually mentioned by dictionaries, which rather define those verbs as “the act of ” or “the science of ”. on pedagogical grounds this preliminary study shows potential for the teaching/learning of esp, particularly of esp reading comprehension skills. as this minor-scale study has evinced, we think that dictionaries offer many potential meanings of words, which sometimes appear to be ambiguous or indeterminate. however, it is the actual text that determines the meaning of a specific word or lemma. thus, we agree with stubbs (2001) that dictionaries offer fixed meanings, sometimes invisible, invented or decontextualized and based on the individual word. since the contextual factors determine the actual meaning of the word, rather than on individual words, understanding the meaning of a word in context should be based on the combination of words. this is consistent with previous studies on the linguistic and professional constraints of specialized registers (luzón marco, concepción orna montesinos ibérica 16 [2008]: 59-8076 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 76 2000; curado fuentes, 2001; sánchez hernández, 2002; cortes, 2004; mudraya, 2006; nelson, 2006). in addition, the meaning of words in a discipline, which sometimes shows considerable differences in use from a general register, can be discovered from observation of specialized lexis and identification of the patterns that are prevalent in that given register (hunston, 2002). in the case of the ctc, the analysis of build, and particularly of construct, has shown the prevalence of technical meanings in spite of the fact that dictionaries offer a range of non-technical meanings. the case study of the lemmas build and construct has intended to be just the first step to determine the lexical profile of the language of construction and architecture in the genre of textbooks. as such, it should obviously be followed by the analysis of the functional features (larsen-freeman, 2003). this will be the breeding ground of my ongoing research goals. in any case, the preliminary description of the lexis in construction engineering textbooks that this paper has sought to envisage will eventually help to make informed decisions for the improvement of teaching and learning procedures in an esp course related to construction management and civil engineering. students should be cautious in the use of dictionaries, translating texts, learning how to discriminate noun from verbal categories, identifying the most recurrent meanings and, most importantly, becoming aware of the context-sensitive use of words. the lexical approach taken by this paper would also be valid for other technical genres, for example, technical reports for construction management, for professional communication or for research goals. this, i believe, will contribute to better equip students for the use of genres in university settings. 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(2000). “genres, keywords, teaching: towards a pedagogic account of the language of project proposals” in l. burnard & t. mcenery (eds.), rethinking language pedagogy from a corpus perspective. papers from the third international conference on teaching and language corpora. (lodz studies in language). hamburg: peter lang. url: http://www.ctribble.co.uk/text/genre.htm [29/04/08] turner, s. & j. kearsey (1999). “evaluating textbooks: the role of genre analysis”. research in science and technological education 17: 35-43. ward, j. (2001). “est: evading scientific text”. english for specific purposes 20: 141-152. wilson, b.g. (1997). “reflections on constructivism and instructional design” in c.r. dills & a.a. romiszowski (eds.), instructional development paradigms, 1-21. englewood cliffs, nj: educational technology publications. xiao, r. & t mcenery (2006). “collocation, semantic prosody, and near synonymy: a cross-linguistic perspective”. applied linguistics 27: 103-129. _____. (1993). merriam-webster’s collegiate dictionary, 10th ed. springfield, mass: merriamwebster. _____. (2000). collins cobuild english dictionary. london: harpercollins. 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 79 04 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:32 página 80 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract since move analysis was proposed by swales (1990), numerous studies have adopted this method to explore organisational patterns in different sections of research articles in a range of disciplines. however, research articles in mechanical engineering have attracted scant attention in genre analysis research. this paper will be among the first to identify move structures of the resultsdiscussion section of research articles in this under-explored discipline. to this end, it draws on a corpus of 18 original research articles that employ different research types (experimental, theoretical and mixed). the findings show the prototypicality as well as variability in genre practices associated with different disciplinary contexts. the findings have important implications for the design of corpora used in genre analysis. keywords: move analysis, rhetorical structure, mechanical engineering research articles, inter-/intra-disciplinary variation. resumen prácticas genéricas en artículos académicos de ingeniería mecánica: prototipicidad y variación intradisciplinar desde que swales (1990) propuso el análisis de movimientos retóricos, son numerosos los estudios que han adoptado este método para explorar los patrones de organización en diferentes secciones de los artículos de investigación de varias disciplinas. sin embargo, los artículos de investigación en ingeniería mecánica apenas han despertado el interés de la bibliografía sobre el análisis de géneros. este trabajo es uno de los primeros que identifica estructuras de genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham university of auckland (new zealand) & the university of danang – university of technology and education (vietnam) phuong.le@auckland.ac.nz, pmman@ute.udn.vn 243 ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham movimientos retóricos en la sección de resultados-discusión de artículos de investigación de esta disciplina, apenas explorada hasta ahora. para ello, se ha analizado un corpus de 18 artículos originales que recurren a diferentes tipos de investigación (experimental, teórica y mixta). los resultados muestran la prototipicidad y la variabilidad que se producen en prácticas asociadas con diferentes contextos disciplinares. estos resultados tienen importantes implicaciones para el diseño de corpus empleados en el análisis de géneros. palabras clave: análisis de movimientos, estructura retórica, artículos de investigación en ingeniería mecánica, variación interdisciplinar e intradisciplinar. 1. introduction research articles (hereafter ras) are considered to be the primary mode of conveying new knowledge within an academic context (yang & allison, 2003; pho, 2008; lim, 2010 & 2011; basturkmen, 2012). understanding how ras in a particular discipline are constructed structurally and linguistically is of great importance since it can enable students to communicate more effectively in their target discourse community (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995). in the field of english for specific purposes (esp), genre analysis, conceptualised most notably by swales (1990) in his influential work on the rhetorical structure of the ra introduction, has become a useful tool in explicating important features of genres, including organisational patterns (realised by moves and steps), as well as linguistic features. a move is “a discoursal or rhetorical unit that performs a coherent communicative function in written or spoken discourse” (swales, 2004: 228). while the concept of move captures the communicative purpose of a segment of text at a more general level, a step is the rhetorical means of realising the function of moves (yang & allison, 2003: 370). motivated by swales’s approach, a multitude of studies have explored various aspects of genre, including move structure and/or linguistic features, functional variation in different genres, and genre variation in different cultural contexts, or a combination of these research strands. as genres are characterised by communicative purposes and content that can be recognised by members of a discourse community (swales, 1990), gaining genre knowledge involves first recognising structures and patterns of language use associated with a specific genre. there has been extensive research examining rhetorical structures of individual sections of ras in a 244 single discipline, for example in applied linguistics: abstract (dos santos, 1996), discussion (basturkmen, 2009); software engineering: introduction (anthony, 1999); management: introduction (lim, 2012); forestry: introduction (joseph, lim, & nor, 2014); biomedical: methods (musa, khamis, & zanariah, 2015); dentistry: discussion (basturkmen, 2012); management: methods (lim, 2006); sociology: results (brett, 1994); medicine: imrd sections (nwogu, 1997); chemistry: a-imrd sections (stoller & robinson, 2013). while analysts agree that a specific genre shares some features in terms of rhetorical structures and linguistic mechanisms, they also acknowledge variability in a single genre that can be associated with different cultural contexts: research paradigms (quantitative, qualitative, mixed) (e.g. lim, 2010), linguistic (sheldon, 2009), institutional (pho, 2008), or disciplinary cultures (hyland, 1998 & 1999; peacock, 2002; ozturk, 2007; vazquez & giner, 2008; peacock, 2010; lim, 2011). for instance, lim (2010) explored possible effects of research methods employed in ras on genre practices by looking at the similarities and differences in the way researchers in applied linguistics and education comment on their findings in the results sections of ras adopting different methodologies: quantitative, qualitative and mixed. he calculated the number of occurrences of commentary instances based on the number of times one commentary type appears without being interrupted by another. the finding showed that there were no statistically significant differences in commentary practice between ras using different research types. it is clear that genre-based research agendas have multiple strengths. they have provided great insights into writing conventions in many different contexts. the past studies have also drawn attention to the effect that contextual factors may have on rhetorical choices, thus challenging the view that genre practices are monolithic. in addition, the findings from the genrebased research has greatly informed the teaching and learning of language for specific purposes. however, further research is needed for several reasons. first, little is known about writing practices characterising many other disciplines. studies into ras in individual disciplines have offered indepth understandings of genre practices typical of the fields. many more similar studies can be undertaken to provide the important information in other under-researched disciplines. further understandings of genre conventions in a specific discipline have also been achieved through comparisons and contrast with others, and a genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 245 myriad of studies have explored unity and variation in textual properties among many different disciplines. in many large genre projects (e.g. cotos, huffman, & link, 2015; cotos, link, & huffman, 2016; cotos, huffman, & link, 2017), however, there seems to be a lack of explanations for the similarities and differences that may reflect characteristics associated with the disciplines being examined. the description resulting from the large-scale analysis thus tends to be reduced to a generalisation among ras belonging to different disciplines. the findings may be of less pedagogical value for students who wish to comprehend underlying factors shaping the conventions adopted in their field of study and research. in brief, small-scale genre analysis research, coupled with views elicited from expert informants, is still important if insights into specific fields are to be gained. the second reason is that results obtained from the past studies need to be verified in further research. different studies employ many different approaches to identifying moves and steps, leading to different results and different interpretations of the results. these approaches differ mainly in the unit of analysis and the unit of realisation. in many studies (e.g. cotos et al., 2016), the unit of analysis is the sentence, meaning that if multiple sentences constitute a move/step, a tag is assigned to each sentence. in others (lim, 2010), the unit of analysis can be the sentence or many sentences, meaning that if multiple non-interrupted sentences express the same function, one tag is assigned to the sentences. in some studies (yang & allison, 2003), a move/step is realised by a sentence without consideration into units below the sentence level. in others (kanoksilapatham, 2003), a move/step can be realised by any grammatical units as long as it contains a propositional meaning. the differences in the way rhetorical units are identified can imply two things. first, this poses a challenge to make comparisons and contrast between results obtained from different studies. second, the results obtained can be partial, as they are limited to a particular analytical approach. these implications necessitate further investigation, even of the same phenomenon, using various approaches to yield more reliable information on textual properties for a particular discipline. third, genre analysis research often focuses on some textual aspects in a small number of articles, with an exception of, for instance, the study by cotos and her colleagues, as move identification is such an arduous task that it is not possible to explore all features related to a particular discipline. further research is therefore still needed to provide a fuller picture of the discipline. as a response to these research needs, our study continues the thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266246 current body of genre-based research in one under-explored discipline – mechanical engineering – by exploring structural features of ras in the discipline and possible variation within the community. to the best of our knowledge, no research to date has explored intra-disciplinary variation in the structural features of mechanical engineering articles on the level of research methods that are adopted in the articles. the current research focuses on the results-discussion section. the decision was made after we surveyed 30 randomly selected articles in mechanical engineering, and found that the majority of them have a combined results and discussion section, which accords with lin and evans’s (2012) finding that a hybrid results and discussion section is common in mechanical engineering articles (158). furthermore, this section is an important venue realising the main goal of an academic article because in this section, researchers present and discuss findings of their study, and make new knowledge claims to show how their study contributes to the field (brett, 1994; basturkmen, 2009). our study provides an analysis of the prototypicality and diversity in genre practices by examining two research questions: 1. what are the moves and steps used to realise the resultsdiscussion section of articles in mechanical engineering? 2. are there any differences in move structure among articles that use different research methods? to address these questions, in the section that follows, we delineate procedures for constructing the corpus, and outline methods of move analysis. we then present results from rhetorical analyses and, where possible, discuss these findings with reference to the relevant literature. we close the paper with a review of the main findings, implications, and directions for future research. 2. materials and methods 2.1. corpus construction first, we developed a sampling frame, consisting of categories and subcategories representing the language being examined in the present study genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 247 (see table 1). sources from which texts were selected to represent the hierarchical system were high-quality journals (ranked q1 according to journal citation report) in mechanical engineering. several criteria were further applied during the selection of ras. first, the articles should be written by different authors to avoid any idiosyncrasies. second, the articles within the same article type should be sourced from different journals to ensure that the corpus is as representative as possible. third, the articles should be published in recent years with the year of 2011 as the oldest to minimise possible variation in time. the fourth criterion is that the articles should have an integrated results-discussion section, followed by a stand-alone conclusions section. the sections may have conventional headings (e.g. ‘results and discussion’, ‘conclusions’), or varied functional headings (e.g. ‘simulation results and discussion’, ‘summary’). the sampling frame served as a basis for the selection of articles included in the corpus. the second author, who has domain knowledge in mechanical engineering, identified high-ranking journals and selected articles based on the sampling frame and the pre-established criteria. it turned out to be difficult to find one article falling within the time frame, and therefore an article from 2008 was included in the corpus. given the very small number, it can be assumed that there is almost no significant effect on the representativeness of the whole corpus. a list of the articles finalised for the corpus can be found in the appendix. the pdf files of the articles were downloaded and saved in names uniquely representing the categories/subcategories they belong to. 2.2. methods of analysis 2.2.1. move analysis approach we adopted an inductive approach to move analysis, meaning that we did not use any analytical frameworks proposed in the literature, in order to allow for the identification of communicative functions that are distinctive of thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266248 article types no. or articles publication years experimental (ex) 6 2011-2016 theoretical (th) 6 2011-2016 mixed (mx) 6 2011-2016 table 1. sampling frame. t mechanical engineering articles. in fact, we did not find any move-step frameworks identified specifically for the group of articles in the present study. however, we consulted relevant existing analytical schemes (e.g. kanoksilapatham, 2003; yang & allison, 2003; cotos et al., 2015; musa et al., 2015; cotos et al., 2016), and recycled their move/step labels, yet with more detailed explanations of the functions performed by the moves/steps to avoid any confusion. in the present study, we identified moves/steps based on the content of the text, as well as linguistic cues, as it has been suggested that these two aspects are closely intertwined, and both play crucial roles in the interpretation of communicative functions. it should be noted however that content and context was given priority over linguistic signals, especially misleading ones, when pragmatic interpretations of particular text segments were made. 2.2.2. move analysis procedures following previous studies (cotos et al., 2016; moreno & swales, 2018), the identification of moves/steps in the present study involved two main phases: segmenting the section into meaningful functional-semantic discourse units and categorising the segments into a workable move-step scheme. phase 1: we read the whole article to gain a broad understanding of the content, although the focus is on the results-discussion section. we then read the section carefully and broke it into meaningful functional-semantic units. these discourse units can be realised by any grammatical unit such as a sentence, a clause, a phrase, a group, or even a word. however, the basic unit of analysis was the sentence, which was further detailed in table 2. there are many instances in the present corpus where there are not clear clause boundaries due to inappropriate use of punctuation (see, as an example, the extract from th6 in table 2). in these situations, content and linguistic signals were used to decide the type of sentence and the segmentation rule to follow. after the texts were segmented into discourse units, these units were labelled, and their communicative functions were recorded. phase 2: based on their communicative functions, the functional-semantic discourse units segmented in the first phase were categorised into a tentative move-step scheme. the two phases of coding were repeated for each of the articles. the tentative coding scheme was constantly reviewed and revised during the genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 249 fragmentation and categorisation of each text. the product of the procedures was a coding scheme that contains a significant number of categories including many moves, steps and sub-steps. this coding scheme was then revised so that the number of categories was reduced. the substeps under the steps were not included in the final coding scheme but incorporated into the functional descriptions of the moves/steps. after identifying the move structure and patterns of variation, we attempted to explore underlying factors shaping prototypical and individual rhetorical choices in the mechanical engineering articles. to do this, we drew on our own speculations, domain knowledge of the second author, and insights from three mechanical engineering informants, who are researchers at one university in new zealand. 2.2.3. coding tools and coders the segmentation and classification were conducted on the article pdfs using the software nvivo. the two authors of this paper together coded the texts, which involved extensive discussions. we are well aware that the process of move/step identification involves a degree of subjectivity (crookes, 1986; holmes, 1997; anthony, 1999). joint coding and multiple discussions between the authors can enhance the reliability of coding. thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266250 genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 251 !! se nt en ce ty pe se gm en ta tio n sc he m e ex am pl es fr om th e co rp us se nt en ce wi th on e in de pe nd en t cla us e o ne ov er al l co m m un ica tiv e fu nc tio n wi th ou t m or e sp ec ific fu nc tio ns o ne ta g fo r t he s en te nc e <r ep or t r es ul ts > s pe ci fic al ly , w he n th e lo ca tio n of o 2 in je ct io n m ov es o ut w ar d fro m th e in ne r r in g, th e hi gh -te m pe ra tu re z on e so m ew ha t m ov es d ow ns tre am . < /r ep or t r es ul ts > [t h1 ] o ne ov er al l co m m un ica tiv e fu nc tio n wi th m or e th an o ne sp ec ific fu nc tio n o ne ta g fo r t he s en te nc e ad di tio na l t ag s fo r o th er e le m en ts o f t he s en te nc e <l oc at e in fo rm at io n> < re po rt re su lts > m as s flu x va ria tio n of t he p re se nt n um er ic al s im ul at io n re su lts ve rs us d eg re e of s ub -c oo lin g … < /r ep or t r es ul ts > ar e de sc rib ed in f ig . 8 . < /l oc at e in fo rm at io n> [m x1 ] se nt en ce wi th m or e th an on e in de pe nd en t c la us e th e cla us es p er fo rm in g th e sa m e ov er al l co m m un ica tiv e fu nc tio n o ne ta g fo r t he s en te nc e ad di tio na l ta gs f or o th er e le m en ts o f th e se nt en ce ( as ne ed ed <r ep or t r es ul ts > m or eo ve r, it is o bv io us th at c on du ct io n is th e do m in an t m ec ha ni sm a t t he a ir re gi on in hi gh er a sp ec t r at io … , b ut th e na tu ra l c on ve ct io n pl ay m aj or ro le a t a ir re gi on … . < /r ep or t r es ul ts > [m x3 ] th e cla us es pe rfo rm in g di ffe re nt ov er al l co m m un ica tiv e fu nc tio ns di ffe re nt ta gs fo r t he c la us es in th e se nt en ce ad di tio na l ta gs fo r o th er e le m en ts o f t he cl au se s ( as n ee de d) <a cc ou nt fo r r es ul ts > th e in cr ea se d he at tr an sf er b et w ee n tw o ph as es b rin gs th ei r t em pe ra tu re c lo se to ea ch o th er < /a cc ou nt fo r r es ul ts > <r ep or t r es ul ts > th us th e flu id p ha se a nd s ol id p ha se te m pe ra tu re fi el d lo ok s im ila r a t h ig he r v al ue s of h , < ex pl ica te re su lts > w hi ch re ve al s th at th e so lid a nd fl ui d ph as es a re in a st at e of th er m al e qu ili br iu m < /e xp lic at e re su lts >. < /r ep or t r es ul ts > [t h6 ] ta bl e 2. s eg m en ta tio n pr ot oc ol . 3. results and discussion in this section, we present noticeable move/step phenomena emerging from the analyses of the results-discussion section, including the overall schematic structure, the move/step range and coverage, and cyclical patterns. first, we describe general trends, and compare, when possible, the textual features of the articles in mechanical engineering with those in other disciplines. it should be stressed that the comparison is not a direct one, given the differences between the present study and those in the past in terms of the section being examined (results-discussion vs. results/discussion/discussion-conclusions section) as well as the segmentation scheme (multi-layer coding vs. sentence as the unit of realisation). we then turn to exploring individual differences in the structural features of the mechanical engineering articles using different research types. 3.1. prototypicality in this sub-section, we describe the move-step framework identified from the corpus and their associated properties including the range (referring to the number of articles that contain a particular move/step), the coverage (how much of the results-discussion text a move/step is realised in) and the cyclicity (the repetition of moves/steps and the co-occurrence of moves/steps). 3.1.1. move/step framework table 3 outlines the communicative functions of the results-discussion section. the move/step framework proposes the most common sequence of occurrence of moves/steps, but does not imply a simply fixed order. the actual occurrence follows a logical presentation of scientific arguments, as noted by cotos et al. (2015: 55). table 4 shows the range and the coverage of the moves, and figure 1 provides the range on the step level of the most frequent moves (those occurring in at least half of the texts in the corpus). thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266252 genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 253 communicative functions move 1 provide background information step 1 restate aims and objectives step 2 provide background knowledge step 3 refer to previous studies step 4 restate study procedures move 2 provide information about the methodological approach step 1 provide a context for the methodological approach step 2 restate the method step 3 describe the method step 4 restate important notes about the method step 5 validate the method move 3 present results of the study step 1 justify reasons for reporting specific results step 2 state notes about the presentation of results step 3 report results step 4 report supporting results step 5 report conflicting results move 4 validate the results step 1 state the source(s) for comparison step 2 acquire data from other sources step 3 report comparison results based on data obtained from different sources or situations step 4 account for agreement or mismatch step 5 explicate comparison results step 6 comment on the reliability of the results and the method move 5 comment on the results step 1 explicate the results step 2 account for the results step 3 evaluate the results move 6 summarise the results move 7 evaluate the study step 1 indicate limitations move 8 make deductions step 1 make suggestions step 2 recommend future research other functions locate information make announcements indicate the structure of the section announce moves or steps provide clarifications define terms explain table or figure elements table 3. framework of communicative functions in the results-discussion section. smretenifde gifroelbatnialpex e tabl 3. omcofkorewamfr r nemeleerug ts stulesrhe tn ionsituncfe viatcunimom ucsdi s .noitcesnoissu e e . overall, in the results-discussion section, researchers remind readers about the contextual information (move 1) and most importantly the methodological approach (move 2) to show that the reported results have been achieved in an organised manner. these two moves feature in the majority of the articles. in fact, move 2 can be merged into move 1 as they both provide background information to prepare for the presentation of results, and this has been done in many previous move-step schemes (e.g. yang & allison, 2003; basturkmen, 2012; nordrum & eriksson, 2015). however, restating various aspects of the methodology emerges as a thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266254 communicative functions range coverage no. of occurrences average no. of occurrences move 1 "#$! %$! &&%! '()! move 2 #*$! &&$! &*"! "(+! move 3 &,,$! *%$! )#)! --(&! move 4 "-$! &&$! &*-! %(#! move 5 &,,$! &#$! +)*! &*(&! move 6 &&$! ,(*$! )! ,(-! move 7 &&$! ,(-$! *! ,(+! move 8 -#$! +$! &"! &(,! locate information &,,$! &)$! +%'! &)(-! indicate the structure of the section --$! ,()$! '! ,(-! announce moves or steps ),$! ,(+$! &-! ,(%! define terms +$! ,()$! %! ,(*! explain table or figure elements +"$! ,("$! &&! ,('! table 4. the range, coverage and number of occurrences of the moves. ii ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! r ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! s ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! evitacinummco snoticnfu nra 1evmo "#$ 2evmo #*$ 3evmo &,,$ 4evmo "-$ 5evmo &,,$ 6evmo &&$ 7evmo &&$ 8evmo -#$ oniatmornfie locat &,,$ e thteaicdin --$ ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! eg egarevco fo.no sencerurcoc "#$ %$ &&% #*$ &&$ &*" &,,$ *%$ )#) "-$ &&$ &*&,,$ &#$ +)* &&$ *$,( ) &&$ -$,( * -#$ +$ &" &,,$ &)$ +%' --$ )$,( ' ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! .onegareav of sencerurcoc )'( +"( &--( #%( &&*( -,( +,( ,&( -&)( -,( ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! e thteaicdin he tofe uructrst onisect --$ sevomecnuonan epsstor ),$ smretenifde +$ roelbatnialpex tsnemle ereufig +"$ e tabl 4. ange,rthe ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! --$ )$,( ' ),$ +$,( &+$ )$,( % +"$ "$,( && he tofesencrurcocofbernumand age erovc ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! -,( %,( *,( ',( .esovmhe ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! figure 1. the range of the steps of the most frequent moves (moves 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). p r s e e . 1e gurfi . she tofange rthe 1,esovm(esovmequentrftosmhe tofepsts .5)and 4 3,2,1, prominent feature in the mechanical engineering results-discussion texts, and is therefore treated as a separate category. in move 1, providing background knowledge without or with citations (move 1 step 2 and move 1 step 3) together occurs very frequently in the corpus, which is not surprising as new knowledge is cumulatively built on the basis of prior well-established research. restating study procedures – mentioning key activities in the study (move 1 step 4) is also frequent. move 1 step 2: two-phase flow regime is susceptible to inlet flow conditions and is developing along the flow direction. [ex2] move 1 step 4: before examining nanofluids with vg, several tests have been done to compare between the results of …. [mx5] in move 2, describing the methodological approach (move 2 step 3) occurs in the majority of the texts, showing that this is a conventional practice in mechanical engineering discourse. furthermore, ensuring the validation of the method (move 2 step 5) before the demonstration of the results, although present only in the mx articles, is a practice that has not been found in the results/discussion-conclusions section of articles in other disciplines. the presence of these communicative functions in the resultsdiscussion section suggests that it is important for the mechanical engineering articles to highlight that the results being reported are obtained from a credible, clear method. move 2 step 3: in the present experiment, the axial location of flow visualization and inlet conditions were kept constant. [ex2] move 2 step 5: the maximum deviation from the numerical results to the experimental ones is within 9.3%, while that from the theoretical results to the experimental ones is within 11.3%, which proves the feasibility and reliability of the theoretical and numerical models. [mx6] after providing important background knowledge, mechanical engineering researchers present results to indicate how the study addresses the research problems raised in the previous sections (move 3). this move occurs in all the articles and takes up nearly half of the text, showing that reporting results is the main function in the results-discussion section of mechanical engineering articles. genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 255 move 3 step 3: specifically, when the location of o2 injection moves outward from the inner ring, the high-temperature zone somewhat moves downstream. [th1] in most of the articles, researchers validate the reported results by directly or indirectly comparing the results of the study with those in the literature or those obtained from different research methods (move 4). direct comparisons occur when data obtained from the study and from other sources are visually placed in juxtaposition in tables/figures, while indirect comparisons involve presenting a specific result of the study and then commenting on whether it is similar to or deviant from findings of other studies. move 4 step 3: the akers correlation, however, shows an inconsistent trend when compared to the test data attributed to a singular transition point for the majority of the cases. [ex5] comparing the results of the study with those in the literature is also a conventional practice in the results/discussion/results-discussion section of research articles in hard sciences like civil engineering and biomedical (kanoksilapatham, 2015), environmental engineering and chemical engineering (maswana, kanamaru, & tajino, 2015), applied chemistry (nordrum & eriksson, 2015), biochemistry (kanoksilapatham, 2005) and in soft sciences like applied linguistics articles (pho, 2013). however, the practice of direct comparisons stands out as a distinctive feature in the result-discussion section of the mechanical engineering articles, and can relate to the inquiry norms of article types in this discipline, which will be discussed in more detail in sub-section 3.2. validating the results is also another way of verifying the method in mechanical engineering, especially in mx articles. based on the results of comparison, researchers indicate the credibility of the method (move 4 step 6). move 4 step 6: therefore, the numerical simulation of present work is credible. [mx2] it is clear that comparing results in mechanical engineering is not only to strengthen the reliability of the results but also to emphasise the credibility of the method used to obtain the results. the practice of validating the method and the results obtained reflects the epistemological properties of a hard-applied science like mechanical engineering. mechanical engineering investigates and describes phenomena that are usually complex and abstract thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266256 with varying degrees (for example heat transfer within components of a nuclear plant, or air streams). understandings of these phenomena are gained based mainly on the theoretical and/or experimental examinations under particular assumptions and conditions, of samples or models representing a real-life system with which the phenomena are studied. in order for these insights to be extended into the knowledge of the actual system, the method used and the results obtained must be proved to be trustworthy. furthermore, results obtained in mechanical engineering research are usually utilized to inform the design and improvement of the system to enhance its applicability. it is therefore important to convince readers of the reliability of the method and the results. in all the texts, researchers comment on the main findings (move 5) by interpreting the results (move 5 step 1), accounting for the results (move 5 step 2) or evaluating the results (move 5 step 3). step 1 and step 2 occur in the majority of articles, while step 3 is not common. this finding is also in line with previous move studies (yang & allison, 2003; pho, 2013; cotos et al., 2016) that found that evaluating results is not as frequent as interpreting results and/or accounting for results. move 5 step 1: it is thus recognized that varying oxygen inlet pattern almost has no influence on the performance of coal gasification. [th1] move 5 step 2: that is mainly due to the fact that the surface tension and viscosity of power law fluid in lower shear rate constrains the sheet expansion by damping the inertia force of impinging jet [17]. [ex3] the current finding that providing background information to prepare for the presentation of results (move 1 and move 2), demonstrate results (move 3), and commenting on the results (move 5) occur very frequently in the results-discussion section of mechanical engineering articles accords with findings of previous studies into results/results-discussion section of articles from other disciplines (e.g. yang & allison, 2003; kanoksilapatham, 2005; pho, 2013). these functions seem to be universal in academic articles regardless of disciplinary communities. before establishing additional research territory, researchers summarise the results (move 6), but this function occurs in only 1-2 articles. they then evaluate the study (move 7) in terms of its limitations (move 7 step 1) and draw implications in view of the findings (move 8) by making suggestions (move 8 step 1) and outlining future research directions (move 8 step 2). genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 257 however, these functions are not found to be common in the present corpus. this finding is very similar to that of cotos et al.’s (2016) study, in which stating the value, noting implications and proposing directions steps were not found to be very common in the discussion/conclusions section of the mechanical engineering sub-corpus. in contrast to move/step conceptualisations of similar sections (results/discussion-conclusions) provided in many previous studies, stating significance of the study is not found in the results-discussion section of mechanical engineering texts. this is because the significance of the study is often mentioned in the abstract or near the end of the introduction section. it is rather understandable why indicating limitations and suggesting research directions are not common in mechanical engineering articles. mechanical engineering can be categorised as an urban research domain, in which a large number of researchers are engaged in a small number of research problems (becher & trowler, 2001: 106). the competition in mechanical engineering is therefore very intense, and the pace of publication is often very fast. indicating too many limitations of the research can reduce the chance of being accepted in academic journals. furthermore, due to the cut-throat competition, mechanical engineering researchers tend to keep to themselves research ideas that can otherwise be lost if shared. they are more likely to make suggestions for further research if they are confident that the proposals can only be fulfilled by their capacity and within their resources. in mechanical engineering, it is more common for researchers to offer suggestions on practical applications. in addition to the move/step categories, the results-discussion section of mechanical engineering articles consists of the “other functions” category, which includes: define terms – provides definitions of a particular term and can occur whenever a new term is introduced. explain table or figure elements – explains symbols or signs used in tables or figures and occurs when a table or figure is mentioned. locate information – serves as a pointer indicating information and directing readers to relevant parts of the study. announce moves or steps – announces upcoming moves/steps. indicate the structure of the section – announces upcoming subsections. thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266258 explain table and figure elements is not found in previous move/step frameworks. it is possible that it belongs to the function of reporting results. locate information occurs in all the texts. when co-occurring with report specific results, this function is equivalent to statement of results in peng’s (1987) framework of moves/steps in the discussion section of chemical engineering articles, which also occurs almost invariably. this suggests that this function is quite prominent in natural sciences, possibly because constant reference is made to quantitative displays when results are presented. the announcing functions have also been found in previous studies, but received various treatments. some studies (e.g. yang & allison, 2003) include them in the framework of communicative functions. in other studies (brett, 1994; jin, 2016), they are treated as a separate category called metatext. we follow the second convention as segments of this type do not contain new propositional meanings, but signal the meanings in the upcoming discourse. 3.1.2. cyclical patterns most of the moves and steps are highly recycled, as indicated by the average number of occurrences that is greater than 1.0 (table 4). the cyclical nature in article sections is also found to be very common in previous move studies (e.g. holmes, 1997; peacock, 2002; yang & allison, 2003). however, some differences can be observed in terms of the number of occurrences and patterns of co-occurrence between the mechanical engineering texts and those in other disciplines. all the frequent moves in the present corpus have a higher number of occurrences than those in yang and allison’s (2003) results/resultsdiscussion section of applied linguistics articles. most notably, reporting results and commenting on the results (interpreting, accounting for, comparing, and evaluating the results) occur 33.1 and 22 times per section in the mechanical engineering corpus, while these moves have an average of 7.9 and 5.0 occurrences in the applied linguistics corpus. these two practices also occur less frequently in other engineering disciplines examined in maswana et al.’s (2015) study, with an average of 16.7 and 8.1 times in chemical engineering; 11.4 and 9.3 in environmental engineering; 5.3 and 6.0 in electrical engineering; 1.4 and 2.3 in structural engineering; and 1.3 and 1.7 in computer science results texts. the difference is apparently more pronounced between mechanical engineering and applied linguistics. although this striking difference could genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 259 be due to many factors such as the segmentation protocols and the length of the section involved, it would suggest that the mechanical engineering results-discussion section is more complex in terms of move structure than the applied linguistics results/results-discussion section. the former presents results in more detail, puts more efforts into establishing their meanings, provides more explanations for the results, and compare them with the literature. the comparisons with the other engineering disciplines however show a mixed result: the distinction is less marked between mechanical engineering and chemical/environmental engineering, but more discernible between mechanical engineering and electrical/structural engineering, computer science. it would be a challenge to interpret the differences between mechanical engineering and other engineering disciplines, due to the difference in the sections being examined and especially lack of information about which unit of analysis and realisation was used to identify the moves and steps in maswana et al.’s (2015) study. the cyclicality of the moves and steps leads to the formation of patterns of co-occurrence. the present corpus has an average of 15.4 cycles per section, which is significantly greater than the means in holmes’s (1997) corpus of political science and sociology articles (3.5 and 2.7). it must be emphasised again that the comparison is relative as the number of cyclical patterns depends on frameworks of analysis and the corpus size. it seems, however, that the results-discussion section of hard applied sciences like mechanical engineering is more complex than the social science discussion texts. altogether, we can draw a tentative conclusion that the results-discussion section of hard sciences like mechanical engineering has higher complexity than soft sciences such as applied linguistics, political science, and sociology, with significantly more occurrences of moves/steps and greater numbers of cyclical patterns. it is possible that such disciplinary variation reflects the nature of mechanical engineering discourse, which often involves thick and detailed descriptions of complex processes and behavior. greater numbers of move/step occurrences and cycles identified in the present study may also highlight the role of the segmentation scheme, which allows multilayer coding at the sentence level and a range of grammatical units conveying rhetorical functions, in disentangling the complexity and subtlety in the way the results-discussion is structured in the mechanical engineering texts. thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266260 3.1.3. intradisciplinary varation table 5 presents the number of occurrences of the most common and extensive moves and their constitutive steps. the information provided is used to, rather than quantify differences given the limited amounts of data, decide where to look for possible variation in the way knowledge is constructed in different types of article in mechanical engineering. articles using different research methods are most noticeably differentiated in terms of how the method used and the results obtained are validated in the results-discussion section, as shown in the profile of move 2 and move 4, more particularly in move 2 step 5 validate the method, move 4 step 3 report comparison results based on the data obtained from different sources or situations, and move 4 step 6 comment on the reliability of the results and the method. in the results-discussion section, mx articles validate the method, while this function is rare in the ex and th articles. mx articles adopt two main ways to ensure that the results are reliably obtained from credible methods. one is to devote a sub-section to validating the method (move 2 step 5) before the demonstration of the results. the other involves directly comparing data obtained from different methods/studies (move 4 step 3), and then explicitly indicate the reliability of the method (move 4 step 6). the presence of these communicative functions in mx articles ties in with one of their main objectives, which is to cross-validate the methods (experimental and theoretical) and prove the workability of the triangulation approach. in contrast, ex and th articles do not validate the method in a separate sub-section in the results-discussion section; nor do they state its credibility. one possible reason is that validating the method is not part of the research aims that ex and th articles need to fulfil, and thus the results-discussion section is not an appropriate place for method verification. in fact, nearly all of them validate the method in the preceding section – methods. in general, most mx articles verify the method in the results-discussion section, while ex and th articles typically do this in the methods section. articles employing different methods also differ in the way they validate the results (move 4 step 3). most mx articles directly compare data, while ex and th articles tend to make indirect comparisons. this can be explained by the characteristics of each research paradigm. mx articles need to present results obtained from two different methods, and therefore they compare genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 261 results directly by placing together two sources of data. in contrast, ex and th articles contain data acquired from one method, either experimental or theoretical, so they are more likely to present their results and compare them with those in the literature. it is noted, however, some ex and th articles also directly compare results to verify their data. two ex articles (ex2 and ex5) make direct comparisons of data because they describe complex processes, and agreement or deviation is more easily revealed and observed when different sets of data are visually presented. in addition, two th articles (th2 and th4) directly compare different sources of data, and indicate whether their data are supported with evidence, because it is through this practice that they claim the reliability of the method that has not been validated in the methods section. 4. conclusions the present study identifies the move structure of the results-discussion section of mechanical engineering academic articles. an analysis of the whole article would obviously help interpret move/step results more accurately as there is an inter-relationship of rhetorical structures in different article sections. this small-scale study provides an insight into mechanical engineering academic discourse by exploring shared and differential textual features within this discipline, and thus makes an addition to genre-based thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266262 communicative functions mx (relative mean) ex (relative mean) th (relative mean) move 1 step 1 0.85 0.1 0.4 step 2 0.3 2.6 0.4 step 3 0.85 2.7 1.05 step 4 1.05 1.2 0.8 move 2 step 1 0 0.85 2.65 step 2 0.1 0.25 0 step 3 1.4 2.45 2.15 step 4 0.2 0 0 step 5 6.25 0 0 move 4 step 1 0 0.1 0 step 2 0 1.4 0 step 3 (direct comparison) 2.45 3.35 1.4 step 3 (indirect comparison) 0.5 1.9 1.1 step 4 0.65 1.15 0 step 5 0 0.3 0 step 6 0.45 0 0 move 5 step 1 2.4 0.95 3.95 step 2 6.3 7 5.85 step 3 0.45 0.3 0.25 table 5. the number of occurrences of the steps of moves 1, 2, 4 and 5. 4 studies that have been conducted in a range of disciplines, and further extends this extant body of research within an under-studied discipline like mechanical engineering. the prototypical rhetorical structure of and move/step-related phenomena identified in the results-discussion section of the mechanical engineering articles that use different research methods share several features with those in other disciplines, but also contain many rhetorical functions and strategies characteristic of knowledge-making practices inherent in the mechanical engineering field. overall, in the results-discussion section, mechanical engineering researchers tend to emphasise the validity of the methodological approach used to obtained the results in their studies and the vigour of their results. the present study has highlighted subtle intra-disciplinary variation; in more particular, the articles using different research traditions have distinctive ways of verifying the methods and results reported. the findings also point to interdisciplinary variation, most notably between mechanical engineering and the soft science fields in terms of the organisational complexity. variation between mechanical engineering and other engineering fields has also emerged. it should be stressed however that the conclusions drawn from these interdisciplinary differences should be treated as suggestive in nature as they have been observed based on the comparisons of the data sets that are not very compatible in certain respects or lacking in critical information such as the corpus sizes, the sections being analysed, the coding schemes adopted, and the move/step label definitions. the findings have several implications. first, genre analysis can be carried out at different levels if more subtle differences are to be uncovered. second, the finding on the genre variation within a single discipline highlights the importance of balancing components in a corpus for genre analyses. many of the genre-based studies have examined corpora consisting of a certain number of articles in a particular discipline. it remains an open question as to whether these corpora take into consideration other important disciplinerelated factors such as research types and sub-disciplines that, as is evident from the present study, contribute to variation within the discipline. the third implication is that coding below the sentence level and keeping the unit of realisation open to meaningful units in any grammatical form is important for the identification of more subtle rhetorical functions, since it has been shown that the current scheme is able to capture communicative functions in the mechanical engineering texts that may be ignored in previous frameworks. finally, genre-based research investigating discipline-specific genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266 263 structural features like the present study can provide a useful resource for producing pedagogical activities for writing instruction in specific disciplines to help raise students’ awareness of typical rhetorical norms as well as possible variation. acknowledgements we are grateful to associate professor michael barlow for his comments on the earlier versions of this paper. special thanks also go to the mechanical engineering informants, who provided their perspectives on the discourse of mechanical engineering articles. article history: received 19 december 2018 received in revised form 18 july 2019 accepted 20 april 2020 references thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266264 anthony, l. 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(2008). “beyond mood and modality: epistemic modality markers as hedges in research articles. a cross-disciplinary study”. revista alicantina de estudios ingleses 21: 171–190. yang, r. & d. allison (2003). “research articles in applied linguistics: moving from results to conclusions”. english for specific purposes 22: 365-385. thi ngoc phuong le & minh man pham ibérica 39 (2020): 243-266266 thi ngoc phuong le is doing research in applied linguistics and language teaching at the university of auckland, new zealand. her research interests include genre analysis, academic discourse, english for specific purposes, and corpus linguistics. minh man pham is a lecturer at the department of mechanical engineering, the university of danang – university of technology and education in vietnam. his research interests include renewable energy, heat transfer, apply thermal engineering, and fluid mechanics system. he is currently undertaking research on high-efficiency solar power systems. appendix article code article information mx1 shokouhmand, h., & zareh, m. (2014). experimental investigation and numerical simulation of choked refrigerant flow through helical adiabatic capillary tube. mx2 wang, j., ma, h., zhu, q., dong, y., & yue, k. (2016). numerical and experimental investigation of pulsating heat pipes with corrugated configuration. mx3 malekshah, e. h., & salari, m. (2017). experimental and numerical investigation of natural convection in a rectangular cuboid filled by two immiscible fluids. mx4 longeon, m., soupart, a., fourmigué, j.-f., bruch, a., & marty, p. (2013). experimental and numerical study of annular pcm storage in the presence of natural convection. mx5 ahmed, h. e., ahmed, m. i., & yusoff, m. z. (2015). heat transfer enhancement in a triangular duct using compound nanofluids and turbulators. mx6 xiao, x., zhang, p., shao, d. d., & li, m. (2014). experimental and numerical heat transfer analysis of a v-cavity absorber for linear parabolic trough solar collector. ex1 zhao, g.-y., li, y.-h., liang, h., han, m.-h., & hua, w.-z. (2014). control of vortex on a non-slender delta wing by a nanosecond pulse surface dielectric barrier discharge. ex2 takamasa, t., hazuku, t., & hibiki, t. (2008). experimental study of gas–liquid twophase flow affected by wall surface wettability. ex3 ma, y.-c., bai, f.-q., chang, q., yi, j.-m., jiao, k., & du, q. (2015). an experimental study on the atomization characteristics of impinging jets of power law fluid. ex4 dannemand, m., johansen, j. b., kong, w., & furbo, s. (2016). experimental investigations on cylindrical latent heat storage units with sodium acetate trihydrate composites utilizing supercooling. ex5 ghim, g., & lee, j. (2016). experimental evaluation of the in-tube condensation heat transfer of pure n-pentane/r245fa and their non-azeotropic mixture as an orc working fluid. ex6 okello, d., foong, c. w., nydal, o. j., & banda, e. j. k. (2014). an experimental investigation on the combined use of phase change material and rock particles for high temperature (!350 °c) heat storage. th1 chen, c.-j., hung, c.-i., & chen, w.-h. (2012). numerical investigation on performance of coal gasification under various injection patterns in an entrained flow gasifier. th2 lin, w., feng, y., & zhang, x. (2015). numerical study of volatiles production, fluid flow and heat transfer in coke ovens. th3 ireka, i. e., & chinyoka, t. (2013). non-isothermal flow of a johnson–segalman liquid in a lubricated pipe with wall slip. th4 hosain, m. l., bel fdhila, r., & daneryd, a. (2016). heat transfer by liquid jets impinging on a hot flat surface. th5 deng, z., hui, k., zhang, y., & cao, y. (2016). numerical simulation analysis of the flow field and convective heat transfer in new super open rack vaporizer. th6 jiang, c., shi, e., hu, z., zhu, x., & xie, n. (2015). numerical simulation of thermomagnetic convection of air in a porous square enclosure under a magnetic quadrupole field using ltne models. table 6. list of the mechanical engineering research articles used for move analysis. redalyc.business plan: a preliminary approach to an unknown genre ibérica issn: 1139-7241 iberica@aelfe.org asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos españa navarro, federico business plan: a preliminary approach to an unknown genre ibérica, núm. 30, 2015, pp. 129-153 asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos cádiz, españa available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542007 how to cite complete issue more information about this article journal's homepage in redalyc.org scientific information system network of scientific journals from latin america, the caribbean, spain and portugal non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542007 http://www.redalyc.org/comocitar.oa?id=287042542007 http://www.redalyc.org/fasciculo.oa?id=2870&numero=42542 http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=287042542007 http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=2870 http://www.redalyc.org ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the business plan has been widely included in the curricula of economics degrees and is key to business practice worldwide, but has not been studied from a socio-discursive perspective yet due to restrictions in its social, spatial, and temporal circulation. based on interviews and a qualitative analysis of a corpus of 38 texts written in spanish, i aim to provide a preliminary description of the genre. results indicate that a chain of four phases is associated to a continuum of social settings organized through entrepreneurial/corporate and expert/training variables; its rhetorical structure includes “describing present/potential situation of the company and market” and “describing future processes of strategic actions regarding the marketing, production, and financial plans”. this analysis offers methodological innovations to account for occluded genres, encourages the contrastive study of the business plan in different cultural and linguistic environments, and assists business teachers with a situated picture of the genre. key words: professional discourse analysis, genre analysis, spanish for specific purposes, rhetorical structure, business writing. resumen p l a n de ne g oc i os : a ná l is i s p re l i mi na r de un g é ne r o de s c o no c i do el plan de negocios ha sido ampliamente incluido en el currículum de las carreras de economía y es fundamental en las prácticas de negocios alrededor del mundo. sin embargo, aún no ha sido estudiado desde una perspectiva sociodiscursiva debido a las restricciones en su circulación social, espacial y temporal. partiendo de entrevistas y del análisis cualitativo de un corpus de 38 business plan: a preliminary approach to an unknown genre federico navarro universidad de buenos aires; universidad nacional de general sarmiento; conicet (argentina) navarro@filo.uba.ar 129 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 129 ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 federico navarro textos escritos en español, intentaré brindar una descripción preliminar del género. los resultados muestran que el plan de negocios integra una cadena de cuatro etapas que se asocia a un continuo de entornos sociales organizados según las opciones emprendedor/corporativo y experto/estudiantil; su estructura retórica incluye los movimientos “describir la situación presente/potencial de la compañía y el mercado” y “describir procesos futuros de acciones estratégicas para el plan de marketing, producción y financiamiento”. este análisis ofrece innovaciones metodológicas para el estudio de los llamados géneros ocultos, promueve el estudio contrastivo del plan de negocios en distintos marcos culturales y lingüísticos, y brinda a los docentes de economía una descripción contextualizada del género. palabras clave: análisis del discurso profesional, análisis de géneros, español para fines específicos, estructura retórica, escritura de negocios. 1. introduction professional discourse consists of a range of genres that carry out the specific goals of the private and state organizations they belong to. these genres are dominant, standardized, and institutionally regulated communicative practices that play a key role in disciplinary and professional cultures (hyland, 2004 [2000]) and therefore must be acquired by newcomers. they can be sorted out according to their setting (academic vs. non-academic), their level of expertise (training vs. expert) and their predominant mode (written vs. oral) (navarro, 2012). the business plan (bp) is a professional genre of the utmost importance to the business practice (adamovsky, 2009). it aims to present the method or strategy to conduct certain business in a period of time, usually trying to convince the reader of both the feasibility of the business idea and the benefit of their participation in it. this genre has been widely included in the curricula of university degrees such as economics and management in argentina and also worldwide, as well as related postgraduate studies and small business incubators that aim to strengthen entrepreneurs (miguez, 2007). in addition, entrepreneurship policies in latin america have grown substantially during the last decade, although “the number of growth-oriented and innovative ventures in our region is limited” (kantis & federico, 2012: 2), and they usually include the preparation and evaluation of a business plan to be implemented. therefore, research literature on the genre written by experts in management has been 130 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 130 increasing lately, and also a greater amount of printed and online resources explaining how to write successful bps is now available. macmillan and subba narasimha (1987) study a corpus of 82 bps supplied by five new york city venture capital firms to identify the characteristics of the financial projection and the plan structure in funded plans (27 out of the 82). regarding structure, they count the number of pages for each section in the corpus and find that successful bps show a balance between marketing, finance, management and production. as can be noticed, this study pays no attention to linguistic or rhetorical variables such as content, style, communicative goals or cultural environment. karlsson and honig (2009) show quantitative data about the importance of the business plan for new ventures since the 1970s: 10 million business plans are written each year and many prestigious universities hold bp competitions. nevertheless, these authors challenge the common assumption that this genre is necessarily linked to successful business performance. they analyse six new projects in a university-associated business incubator in sweden, claiming that writing a bp is “part of a symbolic act to gain legitimacy for their actions” (karlsson & honig, 2009: 28), especially when confronted with university-educated actors; however, later on, entrepreneurs stop updating their bps and insulate their daily work from a formal plan (in what these authors call “loose coupling”). although these claims are relevant to understand the actual use of bps in new businesses from a strategic institutional perspective on a multiple case study, the article does not analyse social or discursive features of the genre, nor does it study the bp as a genre family and chain. kirsch, goldfarb and gera (2009) try to determine how the presentation and content of the bp influence funding decisions in an unusually large corpus of funding requests (including bps as well as other related genres) from the united states. based on a literature review of previous findings, they establish a list of content clues that might be linked to endorsement; for example, “business planning documents that reference team information are more likely to receive funding”. nonetheless, when these clues are then tested in the corpus, little evidence to support the hypothesis above can be found. in sum, they claim that there are “limited external benefits accrue from the production of formal business planning documents” as to submit such texts “is, at best, a ceremonial act” (kirsch et al., 2009: 509), a conclusion in line with karlsson and honig’s (2009) position. they business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 131 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 131 hypothesize that since writing bps has become an accessible, standardized practice, investors rely on other channels for decision-making. however, kirsch et al. (2009) do not study genre dimensions either, such as how the different subgenres in their corpus (bp, executive summary, powerpoint presentation, company profile, etc.) are rhetorically related. in addition, they take the bp’s rhetorical structure for granted as “the sections commonly referred to in entrepreneurship textbooks” (2009: 499). this position understands genres as frozen, monolithic, non-situated text structures, and writing as a transparent, self-evident activity. on the contrary, other researchers such as delmar and shane (2003) find a correlation between planning documents and business success. they study business planning in 223 new ventures in sweden. however, like the previous articles, these authors are only interested in the role of planning in the creation of new organizations, but not on the bp as a genre. in fact, they do not analyse bps; they just ask interviewees if a written bp has been completed. on the other hand, they focus on planning, whereas writing is considered a simple process of “documenting” (2003: 1165) the analysis, evaluation and development of the project. what’s more, they do not pay attention to cultural variables: “our theory for the value of business planning is based on the general characteristics of human beings and [...] does not depend on the culture or institutional environment in which new venture creation occurs” (2003: 1183). additionally, there is a wide range of textbooks that explain how to develop a business venue following step-by-step instructions. mckeever’s book, for instance, considers that writing is the very way to develop business projects: “usually one person has the vision and energy to take an idea and turn it into a business by writing a business plan” (2007: 2); thinking of business and writing about it are considered part of the same process. therefore, these books do provide interesting insights into the genre’s goals, circulation and structure because they aim to scaffold the actual writing process. however, they are essentially not pieces of research; they tend to offer “tips” based on personal experiences or shared knowledge, together with prototypical examples of the bp genre. in conclusion, although these textbooks offer valuable insights on the characteristics of the bp, their claims are still to be investigated. as this short literature review shows, it is hard to find studies of the bp from a linguistic or discursive point of view, despite the genre’s professional, academic, institutional, pedagogic, and economic relevance. it is striking how federico navarro ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154132 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 132 little is known about the socio-discursive features of a genre required in numerous business courses. scientific journals interested in applied linguistics, languages for academic purposes, discourse studies, writing studies or academic and professional literacy have not yet identified this research gap. the widespread circulation of the bp in academic settings poses additional challenges as to how professional genres are hybridized for pedagogical reasons and how professional skills and genres are institutionalized in the academic curricula (cassany & lópez, 2010; parodi, ibañez, venegas & gonzález, 2010). generally speaking, professional discourse analysis, although a growing field (bhatia, 2002), still needs to accommodate its diverse theoretical influences, methodologies, and targeted social settings and genres to develop a solid, common framework. in particular, spanish for specific purposes lacks visibility and development (cassany, 2004), it has so far overlooked many professional, non-academic genres (montolío, 2007; montolío & lópez, 2010), and it has only recently focused on discourse features. i have studied the bps written in academic and professional settings since 2010 and have presented some preliminary results elsewhere (navarro, 2012, 2013). this research is framed within an innovative writing program for advanced university students in argentina (moyano & natale, 2012). in this paper, i aim to provide a comprehensive socio-discursive description of the bp in (argentine) spanish. in particular, i attempt to address the following research questions: 1) which are the bp’s settings? 2) what is the chain of subgenres that complete the bp? 3) which are the bp’s subtypes depending on their circulation and socio-rhetorical goals? 4) what is the basic rhetorical structure of the bp? the answers to these questions can draw a first clear picture of an unknown, occluded genre that business students, entrepreneurs and executives have to write worldwide. due to the relative lack of actual exemplars of the genre, it is necessary to elucidate these research questions with textual but especially ethnographically-informed evidence. this includes in-depth interviews with bp’s writers and teachers and critical review of textbooks written by field experts, as explained below. business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 133 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 133 this account will help understand the spanish bp genre configuration and design specific writing courses and textbooks. in addition, this study will enhance our knowledge of professional communication practices and genres among other disciplinary and professional cultures. for instance, a better understanding of the contrast between professionally-oriented and pedagogically-oriented subtypes of the same genre provides a useful perspective for classifying genres and designing appropriate courses according to their institutional setting. 2. corpus and methodology an ethnographically-informed (gardner, 2008), textography approach (swales, 2004) to the analysis of the corpus is adopted. this approach provides a situated, contextualized basis for textual descriptions and combines discourse analysis with interviews, institutional documents, and textbooks. as gu (2002) points out, the analysis of isolated texts underestimates the social active processes where texts are produced. indeed, an ethnographically-informed approach is particularly relevant when studying genres that circulate within disciplinary and professional cultures the discourse analyst does not belong to. within spanish for specific purposes, montolío (2007) advocates the importance of studying the communicative context of text production and the need to collaborate with the writing expert when studying professional genres. on the one hand, interviews provide enriching participants’ insights that can support claims about the genre as long as research context and methodological detail is provided by the analyst (mann, 2011). on the other, a critical approach to institutional and teaching materials such as textbooks, syllabi and entrepreneurship competitions’ requirements can help uncover and systematize implicit, non-technical perspectives on the linguistic features of the genre. in particular, occluded and confidential genres (swales, 1996) pose a particular challenge to corpus construction and analysis. many business genres such as the bp are strictly confidential and therefore textual corpora are usually small. an ethnographically-informed perspective can help balance the relative lack of real samples. for this paper, eight formal semi-guided interviews in spanish have been carried out between 2010 and 2012. i interviewed business, economy and engineering professors in public and private university degrees (a, b, c); federico navarro ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154134 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 134 graduate students (d, e); coordinators, professors and entrepreneurs in business incubators (f, g); and a professor and dean of a private economy faculty (h). interviews were face-to-face at or near the institutions and companies where the interviewees work or study and lasted for around 45 minutes each. the bp is closely linked to educational contexts, either within formal degrees or business incubators. this is the reason i focused on interviewees associated to teaching and learning environments: university deans, professors and students, on the one hand, and business incubators directors, professors and students, on the other. accordingly, the results presented in this paper are especially relevant to educators, students and researchers that belong or are interested in those settings. in addition, many of the interviewees are or have been entrepreneurs themselves as this inside know-how and experience is relevant to obtain a teaching position or a learning vacancy. questions cover curricular positioning of the bp genre (subjects and degrees, professors’ profiles, pedagogic strategies, common mistakes and misunderstandings, evaluation and feedback), academic and professional genre features (cultural and situational contexts, rhetorical structure, extension, flexibility, modes, types, writing models), and contrasts (crosscultural academic-professional differences). the answers to the questionnaire, together with syllabi and writing guides, are essential to render experts and students perspectives as actual writers and readers of the genre. the textual corpus consists of 38 texts written originally in argentine spanish. there are three text groups: public syllabi and writing guides associated with universities and training centres (9), including two argentine published textbooks (miguez, 2007; adamovsky, 2009); available bp models or fictional examples (4); and actual samples (25). these texts are also distinguished according to their setting and scope: undergraduate university training (16); entrepreneurial training (6); expert entrepreneurial (11), many of which have obtained financial support or started actual business; and expert corporate (5) (see below for more details on these categories). entrepreneurial training is a borderline category as the genre samples include both pedagogic (learning how to write a bp) and professional (writing a feasible bp) goals at postgraduate studies or small business incubators. actual expert bps in the corpus, assisted or not, are scarce (11) because of their brief and confidential circulation, but for the purposes of this paper they are sufficient. these particularly hard to find texts were mostly obtained business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 135 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 135 through private, laborious requests to individual entrepreneurs and small business competition winners. genres are staged, goal-oriented, purposeful, socially-situated activities (martin & rose, 2008). i therefore aimed to depict the hierarchical and sequential rhetorical structure (swales, 1990, 2004) of functions or stages that are teleologically oriented. as this first textual approach to the genre is exploratory, i qualitatively analysed the sections each sample explicitly shows; i identified the function or functions of each section and i tried to link them to a more abstract stage; and i eventually developed a prototypical rhetorical structure most samples follow to a greater or lesser degree. metadiscourse signals such as titles, subtitles and frame markers (hyland, 2005) were taken into account as they usually label stages and make functions explicit. the study of other textual and visual elements, albeit enriching for further analysis of the genre, was beyond the scope of this study. the general labels i use for each stage emerged mainly from the interviews but were later adjusted and specified in subcategories based on textual analysis. the resulting prototypical structure shows remarkable coincidences in most samples regarding general stages and sequence, but there is variation as to which specific subfunctions each general stage covers. 3. results and discussion 3.1. the social context of the bp cultures involve potentially definable sets of genres that are recognizable by their members (martin & rose, 2008). the bp genre is related to economics and management. based on interviews and institutional materials, it is possible to refine this agreed wide social context and identify different settings where the genre varies its main goals and, accordingly, its textual features. the following four settings are organized in a continuum, ranging from professional performance to academic training: corporations, entrepreneurship, small business incubators, and business university degrees. all the interviewees belong or have belonged to one or more of these settings and they naturally refer to them; this means both that the distinction is clear to bps writers and readers and that the settings are not totally independent, at least in argentina. federico navarro ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154136 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 136 first, the bp can be found in the market of entrepreneurship and corporations. the dichotomy between corporations and entrepreneurship, although not clear-cut, distinguishes large, solidly-founded companies from small emerging business. readers include other entrepreneurs, consultants, investors, “business angels”, bank managers, potential partners, small business competition juries, managers of existing companies and corporations, employees, etc. the textual features of a given bp will vary depending on whether it is meant to circulate within existing companies that are looking to expand into new business units or to seek funding to create a new company, as explained below. second, the bp can be found in small business incubators, entrepreneurial centres, and professionally-oriented postgraduate studies (miguez, 2007). this entrepreneurial training is a borderline category as it provides training, assistance, and support, often associated with academic centres for specific professional goals. these courses are aimed at professional entrepreneurs with different skills and expertise, academic or not. as a result, writing teams are highly multidisciplinary, and management roles are specialized. professors and assistants also display varied multidisciplinary backgrounds including management, entrepreneurship, and academic expertise. pedagogic goals such as learning how to write a bp strictly depend on writing one that is feasible and can actually be implemented. the writing process is framed by writing guides, text models, and checklists. it may also be assisted by specific software, but the use of actual bps is rare. finally, the bp can be found in undergraduate subjects pertaining to most university degrees and related to business and economics. in this setting, the bp is an advanced training genre that aims to teach undergraduate students how to develop and conduct certain professional business as a working team. this pedagogic turn of the genre’s original goal impacts on many of its textual features, as explored below. the genre usually displays a more general curricular goal that recycles, integrates, and puts into practice skills and knowledge (for example, legal, financial, and statistical) acquired in previous subjects (adamovsky, 2009). the resulting text sums up relevant contents of the syllabus, establishes links with students’ future professional performance, and usually guarantees graduation. students work in teams, brainstorm, and evaluate different business ideas. they develop and write the bp and are permanently assisted by professors with a workshop methodology. business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 137 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 137 3.2. the scope of the bp genre academic genres are usually visible, published texts that aim to reach as many readers as possible for as long as possible. only recently occluded or restricted genres have drawn the attention of discourse analysts (swales, 1996). however, this is a common feature of professional, non-academic genres that seriously obstructs corpus construction and analysis (parodi et al., 2010). in addition, this feature challenges many of our assumptions about professional writing and our established methodologies to study it. it is therefore relevant to study the genre’s scope, lifespan, and accessibility. the bp shows a very restricted scope. on the one hand, texts remain unpublished and are strictly confidential. the contents of the bp often include sensitive information about companies and markets, and may incorporate profitable ideas. therefore, they are limited to a few readers. in the case of expert entrepreneurial bps (see below), readers must execute a confidentiality agreement (miguez, 2007) before getting access to the actual text. on the other hand, the bp’s restricted scope refers to its limited temporal and spatial circulation. the bp’s strategy is based on updated market data, especially in the case of the corporate bp that can afford to gather such data, so its life span is extremely short. in addition, it usually reaches a small number of readers that have previously met the writer in a shorter presentation. interviewees emphasize the importance of adapting and adjusting entrepreneurial bps to every specific reader’s needs, expectations, and background. indeed, the lack of specific reader-orientation of the bp is a common, significant shortage. 3.3. the bp chains the bp proper is just the main phase of a genre chain (swales, 2004) with a specific chronological order. this chain includes four sequential phases (miguez, 2007) that depend on the reader’s interest and access to the whole document. first, the (five-line or sixty-second) “elevator pitch”, which provides the reader/hearer a short summary of the business idea in order to eventually move to the next phase. second, the (two-to-three-page) executive summary, which persuades the reader of the potentiality of the business opportunity and strategy based on key data about the market, the company, the necessary funding, and the estimated profit. third, the (ten-slide) federico navarro ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154138 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 138 multimodal presentation (powerpoint), where the bp team tries to persuade the audience through a one-on-one meeting. fourth, the (thirty-page) bp proper. advanced textbooks and interviewees agree on this sequence: lo más común es de menor a mayor. [...] [el primer contacto,] si es alguien que no conocés, sería un elevator pitch o lo mismo en resumido. [...] y es un seguir con un resumen o sumario ejecutivo. y pasar de eso ya es como que, bueno, si [hay] un inversor y está interesado, va a querer ver más detalle. entonces ahí te reunís, o se lo pasás en un powerpoint y el tipo te empieza a preguntar, o le mandás el plan de negocios. el resumen ejecutivo ya filtra un montón. (interviewee f) [it usually expands gradually. [...] [the first contact], if it’s someone you don’t know, would be an elevator pitch or the same but short. [...] and that’s followed up by an executive summary. and moving on from that is like, well, if [there’s] an investor and is interested, he will want to see more details. then you meet, or you show a powerpoint and the guy starts asking, or you send him the business plan. the executive summary already filters a lot]. some of these phases can be enlarged, combined, inverted or omitted depending on the kinds of bp (see below). in educational settings, for instance, the academic and entrepreneurial bp usually combines the executive summary and the bp proper in one single phase before the powerpoint presentation. the total length of the bp also varies: shorter in the professional setting, longer in academically-based settings. 3.4. the bp family the bp is actually not a single genre but an umbrella term for a genre family or system (martin & rose, 2008) with a core of common features. a genre family is different from a genre chain. the latter refers to a sequence of genres that need to occur so as to reach a common goal whereas the former refers to slightly different genres for slightly different goals. the bp family basically aims to present the method or strategy to conduct and manage certain business in a period of time. within this family, there are two general types of bps: the entrepreneurial bp, which aims at starting up new companies, and the corporate bp, which aims at managing existing companies. according to an interviewee: business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 139 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 139 existen los planes de negocios para presentar a inversores cuyo principal objetivo es dar a conocer una oportunidad a interesados en invertir en proyectos de alto potencial. [...] en general tiene un formato de comunicación muy orientado a conseguir recursos. [...] además están los planes de negocios corporativos dentro de grandes empresas o pymes de más antigüedad, que generalmente son preparados por distintos miembros de un equipo pero con fuerte centralización de un gerente o líder de proyecto. en términos de comunicación es similar [al primer plan de negocios], pero no tiene marketing hacia afuera; va hacia adentro, porque es un documento de trabajo hacia adentro, orientado a los empleados o a los directorios y accionistas. estos últimos [planes de negocios] están más focalizados en la estrategia para la acción de una empresa en marcha. (interviewee b) [there are business plans to show to investors; their main goal is to present an opportunity to those interested in investing in high-potential projects. [...] in general, they have a communicative format oriented to obtain funding. [...] on the other hand, there are the corporate business plans within large companies and older smes, which are generally written by different members of a team but with a clear control of a manager or project leader. they are similar [to the former bps] in communicative terms, but have no marketing outwards; it goes inwards because it’s an internal working document, oriented towards employees or managers and shareholders. these [bps] are more focused on the action strategy of an ongoing company]. these different specifications of a common general goal redound to multiple differences (explored below) between both genre types. at the same time, the genre’s goal can either focus on training future professionals or developing actual bps that are supposed to be implemented. this new set of variables distinguishes between academic training and an expert bp. in truth, training bps are always entrepreneurial so the genre family includes three types: training entrepreneurial, expert entrepreneurial, and expert corporate, which are associated with the continuum of the four social settings explored above and the genre’s goals. this is shown in the following table: federico navarro ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154140 f. navarro ibérica 30 (2015): …-… companies, and the corporate bp, which aims at managing existing companies. according to an interviewee: existen los planes de negocios para presentar a inversores cuyo principal objetivo es dar a conocer una oportunidad a interesados en invertir en proyectos de alto potencial. [...] en general tiene un formato de comunicación muy orientado a conseguir recursos. [...] además están los planes de negocios corporativos dentro de grandes empresas o pymes de más antigüedad, que generalmente son preparados por distintos miembros de un equipo pero con fuerte centralización de un gerente o líder de proyecto. en términos de comunicación es similar [al primer plan de negocios], pero no tiene marketing hacia afuera; va hacia adentro, porque es un documento de trabajo hacia adentro, orientado a los empleados o a los directorios y accionistas. estos últimos [planes de negocios] están más focalizados en la estrategia para la acción de una empresa en marcha. (interviewee b) [there are business plans to show to investors; their main goal is to present an opportunity to those interested in investing in high-potential projects. [...] in general, they have a communicative format oriented to obtain funding. [...] on the other hand, there are the corporate business plans within large companies and older smes, which are generally written by different members of a team but with a clear control of a manager or project leader. they are similar [to the former bps] in communicative terms, but have no marketing outwards; it goes inwards because it’s an internal working document, oriented towards employees or managers and shareholders. these [bps] are more focused on the action strategy of an ongoing company]. these different specifications of a common general goal redound to multiple differences (explored below) between both genre types. at the same time, the genre’s goal can either focus on training future professionals or developing actual bps that are supposed to be implemented. this new set of variables distinguishes between academic training and an expert bp. in truth, training bps are always entrepreneurial so the genre family includes three types: training entrepreneurial, expert entrepreneurial, and expert corporate, which are associated with the continuum of the four social settings explored above and the genre’s goals. this is shown in the following table: focus academic training professional performance social setting undergraduate business university degrees postgraduate university studies and small business incubators entrepreneurship companies and corporations genre goals teach how to develop a business seek funding with institutional support seek funding expand into new business units genre types training entrepreneurial expert entrepreneurial expert corporate table 1. the bp family and its social settings. 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 140 the expert corporate bp is written by the manager of an existing and usually large company. it aims to present the method or strategy to conduct and manage a new service or product in a period of time, so it implies the creation of a new business unit within the company. in this regard, it mirrors the entrepreneurial bp except that the new company is based on an existing one. readers are generally in-house, usually employees or other managers within the company as it is normally a working document about corporate actions. its main goal is managing and informing its internal readers, but not persuading – as in entrepreneurship – because the company already has the necessary resources to financially support the plan after it is technically approved. however, the corporate bp can sometimes aim at external readers of the company when new investors and strategic partners are sought. corporate bps show a high level of management know-how and experience as well as updated market information. as an interviewee points out: la empresa cuenta con muchas más fuentes y mayor calidad de información para abastecer el plan de negocios; el plan de negocios suele ser más extenso y más rico en análisis de mercado, porque la empresa corporativa tiene acceso a mucha más información cara que el emprendedor no está en condiciones de pagar. (interviewee g) [a company has many more sources and better information quality to inform the business plan; the business plan is usually longer and richer in market analysis because the corporate company has access to much more expensive information that the entrepreneur cannot afford]. moreover, the level of uncertainty of business success – a key factor in entrepreneurship – is relatively low. its location within an existing, resourceful company enables an accurate depiction of the new business unit’s situation and needs. this highly valuable information also explains why managing and informing is its main goal. the expert entrepreneurial bp is written by an entrepreneur or a usually multidisciplinary entrepreneurial team. this bp type aims at presenting the method or strategy to conduct and manage a new company in a period of time. this presentation seeks to persuade: the project needs to convince the reader of both the feasibility of the business idea and the benefit of their participation in it. in this way, the entrepreneurial team searches for financial support and strategic know-how and contacts in the target market to actually create the company. business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 141 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 141 there are hybrid, borderline cases between the expert corporate and entrepreneurial bps. in such cases, the bp is an in-house document that helps systematize the project and share it with the entrepreneurial team and specialized advisors. the bp can also aim to help already existing small and medium enterprises that after a period of growth decide to systematize or reconsider their business idea and are looking for investors or partners. readers – investors and “business angels”, bank managers, potential partners, small business competition juries – are in general external, not familiarized with the project, the entrepreneurial team, or even the business area, but usually specialized in entrepreneurship and high-risk investments. entrepreneurship involves creativity and innovation to offer a product or service that the current market allegedly lacks. but the bp manages a future, still inexistent company. in addition, the entrepreneurial team does not have enough resources to provide comprehensive market information (although professional entrepreneurs are usually familiar with the product or service), and management experience is usually not extensive. as a result, the entrepreneurial bp does not focus on providing comprehensive, up-dated data. instead, it tries to persuade the reader about the commitment and involvement of the entrepreneurial team handling the business project. the following table sums up the main contrasts between the expert corporate and entrepreneurial bps. the bp taught at undergraduate management programs is the entrepreneurial kind. however, this setting shifts from its original goal: it aims to train students on how to present the method or strategy to conduct and manage certain business in a period of time, work with partners in teams, integrate previous knowledge, and put it in practice. although many federico navarro ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154142 f. navarro ibérica 30 (2015): …-… readers – investors and “business angels”, bank managers, potential partners, small business competition juries – are in general external, not familiarized with the project, the entrepreneurial team, or even the business area, but usually specialized in entrepreneurship and high-risk investments. entrepreneurship involves creativity and innovation to offer a product or service that the current market allegedly lacks. but the bp manages a future, still inexistent company. in addition, the entrepreneurial team does not have enough resources to provide comprehensive market information (although professional entrepreneurs are usually familiar with the product or service), and management experience is usually not extensive. as a result, the entrepreneurial bp does not focus on providing comprehensive, up-dated data. instead, it tries to persuade the reader about the commitment and involvement of the entrepreneurial team handling the business project. the following table sums up the main contrasts between the expert corporate and entrepreneurial bps. expert corporate expert entrepreneurial circulation internal external company existing potential writer manager entrepreneurial team main reader managers/employees investors/potential partners focus sensitive information commitment management experience + market knowledge + uncertainty + funding + table 2. contrasting the expert corporate and entrepreneurial bps. the bp taught at undergraduate management programs is the entrepreneurial kind. however, this setting shifts from its original goal: it aims to train students on how to present the method or strategy to conduct and manage certain business in a period of time, work with partners in teams, integrate previous knowledge, and put it in practice. although many discursive features of the training entrepreneurial type emulate the expert entrepreneurial one, there are a number of relevant differences. first, the entrepreneurial team is highly homogenous as it consists of classmates from the same program, so multidisciplinarity is poor. second, instructors evaluate previous skills and knowledge. as a result, some aspects of the bp such as the financial analysis are especially stressed. as an interviewee explains: por ahí el [plan de negocios] del estudiante lo podría llegar a encontrar más sólido desde la cuestión técnica, formal, y en el otro [el plan de negocios experto] me 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 142 discursive features of the training entrepreneurial type emulate the expert entrepreneurial one, there are a number of relevant differences. first, the entrepreneurial team is highly homogenous as it consists of classmates from the same program, so multidisciplinarity is poor. second, instructors evaluate previous skills and knowledge. as a result, some aspects of the bp such as the financial analysis are especially stressed. as an interviewee explains: por ahí el [plan de negocios] del estudiante lo podría llegar a encontrar más sólido desde la cuestión técnica, formal, y en el otro [el plan de negocios experto] me parece que voy a encontrar más la pasión de la persona, va a escribir en términos más de pasión porque es [sobre] lo que le interesa hacer. (interviewee c) [i may find the student’s [bp] more solid from a technical, formal point of view, and it seems to me that i’m going to find more of the person’s passion in the other [the expert bp], he/she is going to write more in terms of passion because it is [about] what he/she wants to do]. third, students have a basic understanding of the market’s specificity; therefore key aspects for an actual business are neglected: investor’s return rates, realistic risks, initial plan of actions to set up the business, etc. fourth, students tend to use typically academic genres, strategies, and resources when writing the text, such as impersonal structures and academic introductions. fifth, the actual readers of the training entrepreneurial bp (the course instructors) are highly familiar with the business concepts because they have been tutored during its writing process. however, the texts show less targeted readers than those of the expert bp. 3.5. the rhetorical structure of the bp although fully accounting for the complex rhetorical structure of the bp’s family and its potential variations exceeds the scope of this paper, in this section i attempt to start pinpointing its major features and rationale. all the informants seem to have a clear idea of the specific rhetorical structure of the entrepreneurial bp – or the hybrid entrepreneurial-corporate bp for small and medium enterprises (smes) – in both expert and academic types. this explicitness is probably due to the fact that the structures they refer to usually organize their courses and publications. in the case of the academic bp, an interviewee explains that the course is sequenced according to the genre sections advanced students have to hand in: business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 143 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 143 la parte 1 es la definición del negocio, que brinda las características básicas, la parte 2 es el análisis del mercado, y la parte 3 es el plan de marketing; esa es la primera entrega, esas tres. y después viene la parte de producción, recursos humanos, y financiera, que es la segunda [entrega] y final. y un plan de negocios anda entre las 60 y las 100 páginas. (interviewee c) [part 1 is the definition of the business, which provides its basic features, part 2 is the market analysis, and part 3 is the marketing plan; this is the first deadline. and then there’s the production section, human resources, and the finances, which is the second and last [deadline]. and a business plan may be around 60 to 100 pages long]. based on the “sections” the interviewees mention and the textual analysis, it is possible to depict an abstract, sequenced rhetorical structure of common and minimally-required functions and subfunctions, as shown in the following table. the table distinguishes three fields whenever necessary: functions, subfunctions, and labels normally used for functions/subfunctions in spanish. “identifying the plan” is the first sequenced function of the genre and shows multimodal elements that help identify the bp’s general variables (authors and functions, contact information, company, company logo, date, title, list of contents, and relative position in the main text). it includes the cover of the main text and its table of contents. the second function is “summarizing the plan” and consists of a mini (2 or 3 pages long) bp that is read independently as a previous phase in the genre chain and includes full relevant information to persuade the reader of the value of the business concept. this key function is labelled “executive summary”. federico navarro ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154144 function subfunction label 1.1. frame cover (carátula) 1. identifying the plan 1.2. contents table of contents (índice) 2. summarizing the plan executive summary (resumen ejecutivo) 3.1. company (compañía) 3. describing present/potential situation 3.2. market (mercado) 4.1. marketing plan (plan de marketing) 4.2. production plan (plan de producción) 4. describing future processes of strategic actions 4.3. financial plan (plan financiero) 5. providing further information appendix (anexos) table 3. entrepreneurial bp’s rhetorical structure. 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 144 an extract is provided below. it’s the first paragraph of a two-page long summary of a blueberry crop project in entre ríos, argentina, from 2006. 1) el proyecto c consiste en una plantación de 40 has. de arándanos con una inversión total de $4.81 millones (u$1.55 millones al cambio del 28/03/06) en un período de cuatro años. la tir [tasa interna de retorno] estimada del proyecto es de 25.6% (a 25 años) con un van [valor actual neto] de $1.96 millones (tasa de corte 20%). dado que se espera vender la producción de primera calidad como fruta fresca para exportación, los ingresos estarán ligados al dólar, solo sujetos a variaciones de precio en los ee.uu., y por ende la tir se puede considerar también en dólares. (c bp, 2006) [c project consists of a 40 hectares blueberries plantation covering a total investment of $ 4.81 million (u$1.55 million on 03/28/06 exchange rate) during a four-year period. the estimated project irr [internal rate of return] is 25.6% (in 25 years) with a $1.96 million net [net present value] (20% rate cut). as the first quality production is expected to be sold as export fresh fruit, the incomes will be bounded to the dollar, only subject to price variations in the usa, and therefore the tir can also be considered in dollars.] in this paragraph, the project is explained through metadiscourse resources (consists of). in addition, detailed financial figures that may sound appealing to investors are provided. as a result, this extract aims to attract the reader’s attention with a direct and efficient description of the project, the necessary investment and the possible profit. “describing present/potential situation” and “describing future processes of strategic actions” are the core functions of the bp. they can be better differentiated as descriptions of the present or potential static situation (of the company and the market) and of the future process of development. “describing present/potential situation” provides a relevant depiction of actual contextual variables and the existent/potential company’s organization. it covers at least two subfunctions. “company” locates the company within the market sector or industry and introduces its main features: the business concept, product/service, structure, size, culture, staff, and resources. the following paragraph appears after “definición del negocio” [business definition] label. the 39-page-long bp was written within an entrepreneurship course supported by the government of the city of buenos aires in 2009, and the writing process was computer-aided. the business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 145 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 145 business is currently developing, with some customers but without partners or investors yet. 2) f es una nueva consultora de comunicación, que se especializa en brindar asesoramiento, diagnóstico, planificación estratégica e implementación de acciones comunicacionales personalizadas en relación a las necesidades del cliente. el esfuerzo está focalizado en trabajar simultáneamente con el cliente para elaborar planes de trabajo y soluciones a medida de acuerdo con las necesidades comunicativas que la coyuntura requiera. cuenta con la tecnología, los recursos y las ideas necesarias para abastecer a profesionales, [y] pequeñas y medianas empresas ya sea potenciando, reconfigurando o estableciendo nuevos patrones para el desarrollo de su negocio. (f bp, 2009) [f is a new communication consultant, which specializes in providing assessment, analyses, strategic planning and communicational action implementation according to the clients’ needs. the effort is placed on working simultaneously with the client to elaborate working plans and custom solutions according to communicative needs that the context requires. it counts with the necessary technology, resources and ideas to provide professionals, [and] small and medium enterprises either potentialising, reconfiguring or establishing new patterns to develop your business.] this text states clearly the target client of the company and its service. several metadiscourse and evaluative resources help understand the scope (specializes in...), the relevant aspects (the effort is placed on...) and its value (necessary). the client ambiguously moves from a third-party position (the client) to a direct interlocutor (your business). “market” explores external aspects regarding, if relevant, the macroenvironment (political, social, economic, and legal variables) and especially the microenvironment (market’s size, potential sales, competitors, and clients). the following extract is taken from an 18-page-long 2009 bp that aimed to found a publishing house that designed and published high quality books, magazines and newspapers. the process of developing the business plan was supported by the government of the city of buenos aires and the business currently exists: federico navarro ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154146 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 146 3) comparación con la competencia • los equipos de arte de las editoriales están saturados de trabajo y nosotros les podemos ofrecer resolución de proyectos a costos acotados por nuestra estructura flexible. • los estudios de diseño editorial son pocos, tienen más experiencia en el negocio que nosotros. son nuestros competidores directos. • los estudios de diseño que se dedican al diseño gráfico general pueden resolver las publicaciones, pero muchas veces los profesionales del área buscan diseñadores especializados, ya que tiene sus propios códigos y convenciones. • las empresas editoras suelen tener estructuras más grandes que la nuestra porque se agrega la actividad comercial. • con respecto a los diseñadores independientes contamos con mucha experiencia en el área y manejo de equipos de trabajo editorial. nuestra debilidad sería que nuestros precios sean mas altos. (e bp, 2009) [competence comparison • publisher’s art teams are overworked and we can offer them project solutions at low prices based on our flexible structure. • publishing design studios are scarce, they have more business experience than us. they are our direct competitors. • design studios dedicated to general graphic design can assist with publications, but professionals in the area frequently look for specialized designers as they have their own codes and conventions. • publishing houses usually have larger structures than ours because they have commercial activity. • regarding independent designers, we have a lot of experience in the area and in handling editorial teams. our weakness would be that our prices are higher.] this bullet list explores different categories of competitors. each of them is analysed in terms of their strengths and weaknesses and compared to the project’s. quantifiers (scarce), frequency adverbs (usually), comparative structures (larger structures) and modals (can offer) realize that goal. as a consequence, the reader can have a clear idea of the position of the business within the specific market. “describing future processes of strategic actions” presents the specific strategies and actions to take in order to set up – or relaunch – and develop business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 147 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 147 the company. the “marketing plan” describes aspects such as price, sales, service, communication, distribution, and positioning strategies. the “production plan” specifies material resources (equipment, supplies, facilities, location) and specific operations (stock management, production cycles) to develop and produce/provide the product or service. the “financial plan” is more technical and expands on previous contents. it analyses variables such as investments, sales projection, cash flow, benefits, etc., and monitors possible deviations of expectations and risks. the following extract is taken from a 37-page-long bp that won naves (a small business incubator) 2010 entrepreneurship competition in “best business idea” category. it aims to produce biodiesel from micro-algae and is currently developing. 4) estrategia general de marketing a nivel local, se entregarán muestras del producto durante la etapa de instalación y puesta a punto de las instalaciones con objeto de dar a conocer el nuevo producto y de recibir retroalimentación sobre las necesidades y usos que encuentren los potenciales clientes. en el largo plazo, la estrategia general de marketing para el mercado externo consistirá en desarrollar contactos directos con compradores, dando a conocer los productos a través de la participación en eventos o ferias internacionales, con la ayuda de fundación exportar y/u otras instituciones de promoción commercial. (a bp, 2010) [general marketing strategy locally, product samples will be delivered during the establishment and improvement of the facilities so as to introduce the new product and obtain feedback on the needs and uses potential clients find. in the long term, the general marketing strategy for the foreign market will consist of direct contact development with purchasers and product presentations through participation in international events or fairs with the support of exportar foundation and/or other commercial promotion institutions]. this short extract explains how the project will introduce its production both locally and internationally. the strategy covers very specific steps to be followed, associated with very particular events. each of the contents explored above may deserve a subsection of their own depending on each bp. in a sample in spanish, for instance, the labels business and company as well as product cover company whereas financial plan, offer to investors, and risks cover the financial plan. federico navarro ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154148 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 148 finally, “providing further information” is a marginal function that provides additional data on the contents of previous sections, including the complete cvs of the team members, bibliographical sources, etc. some professional samples offer further information on demand or attach files within an email, instead of providing it beforehand in the text. there are some variables that might modify the bp’s prototypical rhetorical structure and each function’s relative length and depth. for instance, an interviewee distinguishes between products and services as the focus of the business, but also expands this distinction even further: la tipología puede ser tan amplia como industrias existan. una vez que dividís en productos y servicios, dentro de productos podés diferenciar en consumo masivo o productos de marca y de lujo, y en servicios podés categorizar por negocios a negocios (empresas que le venden a empresas) o por empresas que le van a vender a personas (a consumidores finales). [...] genéricamente y en ítems a desarrollar, hay mucha diferencia entre un plan de negocios de productos y uno de servicios. (interviewee g) [the typology can be as wide as industries exist. once you distinguish between products and services, within products you can differentiate between mass consumption or branded and luxury products, and within services you can categorize into business to business (companies that sell to companies) or into companies that sell to people (to end users). [...] typologically and regarding items to write, there’s a lot of difference between a product business plan and a services one]. other variables include existing or potential sme, an investor or partner as reader, and academic training or professional performance as main goal. further research should determine the relative impact of these distinctions on the rhetorical structure of the genre. 4. conclusion many advanced university students are required to write a bp to put in practice their expertise and obtain their degree. entrepreneurs need to write solid, persuasive bps to obtain financial support and add strategic partners. small and medium enterprises write bps to relaunch the company after a period of growth. managers have to write in-house bps to start additional business units when new products or services are to be offered. as this business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 149 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 149 summary of the bp continuum of varied social settings discusses, the genre has a fundamental professional, academic, institutional, pedagogic, and economic importance. this situation is not limited to argentina. the bp is an unknown genre within discourse studies, probably due to its very limited scope, lifespan, and accessibility. texts remain unpublished and are strictly confidential, readers are selected cautiously, and bps are worthy only for a very short period of time before they become out-of-date and need to be rewritten. as a result, corpus development is really challenging, and discourse analysis demands creative ways of dealing with the genre. this is why i claim that understanding the bp as a genre contributes to our more general understanding of how to study professional genres. the findings presented in this paper show the importance of an ethnographicallyinformed approach that critically includes those findings involved in text production and considers other textual, indirect sources. in addition, the bp simply cannot be studied without referring to the complex genre chain and family it implies. the bp proper is just the main and last phase of a genre chain with a specific chronological order that includes three previous phases. this genre chain shows variations according to the specific genre type and social setting within the bp family. the most salient contextual variables distinguish between training/expert and entrepreneurial/corporate bps, although other variables (related to the business type) modify its textual features. the expert entrepreneurial bp is probably the most interesting type, as it plays a key role in entrepreneurship and is used in educational settings. it aims to present the method or strategy to conduct and manage certain new business in a period of time, and seeks to convince the reader of both the feasibility of the business idea and the benefit of their participation in it. its basic hierarchical and sequenced rhetorical structure includes two core functions (“describing present/potential situation of the company and market” and “describing future processes of strategic actions regarding the marketing, production, and financial plans”). this paper’s initial findings need to be tested in follow-up studies, multicultural corpora need to be enlarged, and detailed textual evidence needs to be explored. in addition, it would be enriching to expand the occupations of interviewees, especially regarding large companies and entrepreneurs unfamiliar with the formal education system. however, they provide an appealing albeit preliminary picture of a complex and unknown federico navarro ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154150 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 150 genre that has not been studied before from a socio-discursive perspective. what’s more, this paper offers methodological innovative strategies to account for occluded, confidential genres and to distinguish subtypes within a genre family. from an educational point of view, this analysis of the business plan can be helpful for students in specific training courses, as previous interdisciplinary experiences with other genres in the same institutional setting suggest (navarro & chiodi, 2013). when the social circulation, the goals and the rhetorical structure of the genre are explicitly taught, students find it easier to write consistent texts because they can understand and satisfy the expectations of the expert members of the community. teaching more delicate differences between genre subtypes and social contexts is also enlightening as students can write situated variations of the same general genre. article history: received 1 january 2015 received in revised form 19 may 2015 accepted 19 may 2015 references business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 151 adamovsky, g. 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(2004). “la lectura y la escritura de géneros profesionales en epfe” in v. de antonio, r. cuesta, a. van hooft, b. de jonge & m. ruiz (eds.), actas del segundo congreso internacional de español para fines específicos, 40-64. ultrecht: instituto cervantes. cassany, d. & c. lópez (2010). “de la universidad al mundo laboral: continuidad y contraste entre las prácticas letradas académicas y profesionales” in g. parodi (ed.), alfabetización académica y profesional en el siglo xxi. leer y escribir desde las disciplinas, 347-374. santiago de chile: ariel. delmar, f. & s. shane (2003). “does business planning facilitate the development of new ventures?” strategic management journal 24,12: 1165-1185. gardner, s. (2008). “integrating ethnographic, multidimensional, corpus linguistic and systemic functional approaches to genre description: an illustration through university history and engineering assignments” in e.h. steiner & s. neumann (eds.), esflcw 2007: data and interpretation in linguistic analysis, 1-34. saarbrücken: universität des saarlandes. url: http://scidok.sulb.unisaarland.de/volltexte/2008/1688/ gu, y. (2002). “towards an understanding of workplace discourse: a pilot study for compiling a spoken chinese corpus of situated discourse” in c. candlin (ed.), research and practice in professional discourse. hong kong: city university of hong kong press, 137-186. hong kong: city university of hong kong press. hyland, k. (2004 [2000]). disciplinary discourses. social interactions in academic writing. michigan, usa: the university of michigan press. hyland, k. (2005). metadiscourse: exploring interaction in writing. london: continuum. kantis, h. & j. federico (2012). “entrepreneurial ecosystems in latin america: the role of policies”. paper presented at the international research and 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 151 federico navarro is a teacher and researcher at uba, ungs and conicet. he has been writing program administrator at high school and university. he has published his research in argentina, chile, mexico, spain, portugal, switzerland and the united states. he has coauthored escribir para aprender (2013) and edited manual de escritura para carreras de humanidades (2014). federico navarro ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154152 policy roundtable, march 11-12, 2012, liverpool, uk. karlsson, t. & b. honig (2009). “judging a business by its cover: an institutional perspective on new ventures and the business plan”. journal of business venturing 24: 27-45. kirsch, d., b. goldfarb & a. gera (2009). “form or substance: the role of business plans in venture capital decision making”. strategic management journal 30: 487-515. macmillan, i.c. & p.n. subba narasimha (1987). “research notes and communications: characteristics distinguishing funded from unfunded business plans evaluated by venture capitalists”. strategic management journal 8,6: 579-585. mann, s. (2011). “a critical review of qualitative interviews in applied linguistics”. applied linguistics 32,1: 6-24. martin, j.r. & d. rose (2008). genre relations: mapping culture. london: equinox. mckeever, m.p. (2007 [1984]). how to write a business plan. 8th edition. berkeley, ca: nolo. miguez, d. (2007). el emprendedor profesional. un integrador para la creación de empresas dinámicas. buenos aires: milton merlo. montolío, e. (2007). “lingüística, retórica y procesos argumentativos en las corporaciones” in a. escofet, b. de jonge, a. van hooft, k. jauregui, j. robisco & m. ruiz (eds.), actas del tercer congreso internacional de español para fines específicos, 17-34. ultrecht: instituto cervantes. montolío, e. & a. lópez (2010). “especificidades discursivas de los textos profesionales frente a los textos académicos: el caso de la recomendación profesional” in g. parodi (ed.), alfabetización académica y profesional en el siglo xxi. leer y escribir desde las disciplinas, 215-245. santiago de chile: ariel. moyano, e. & l. natale (2012). “teaching academic literacy across the university curriculum as institutional policy. the case of the universidad nacional de general sarmiento (argentina)” in c. thaiss, g. bräuer, p. carlino, l. ganobcsikwilliams & a. sinha (eds.), writing programs worldwide: profiles of academic writing in many places, 23-34. west lafayette, indiana: parlor press/wac clearinghouse. navarro, f. (2012). “¿qué son los géneros profesionales? apuntes teórico-metodológicos para el estudio del discurso profesional” in a. cristófalo & j. ledesma (eds.), transformaciones culturales. debates de la teoría, la crítica y la lingüística en el bicentenario, 1294-1303. buenos aires: uba. navarro, f. (2013). “la enseñanza de géneros profesionales en la universidad. el caso del plan de negocios en carreras de economía” in s. nothstein, c. pereira & e. valente (eds.), cultura escrita y políticas pedagógicas en las sociedades latinoamericanas actuales, 1520-1533. los polvorines: ungs. navarro, f. & f. chiodi (2013). “desarrollo interdisciplinario de pautas de escritura, revisión y evaluación de textos académico-profesionales. el caso del informe final de práctica profesional supervisada en ingeniería industrial” in l. natale (ed.), el semillero de la escritura. las tareas escritas a lo largo de tres carreras de la ungs, 173-204. los polvorines: ungs. parodi, g., ibáñez, r., venegas, r. & c. gonzález (2010). “identificación de géneros académicos y géneros profesionales: principios teóricos y propuesta metodológica” in g. parodi (ed.), alfabetización académica y profesional en el siglo xxi. leer y escribir desde las disciplinas, 249-289. santiago de chile: ariel. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cup. swales, j.m. (1996). “occluded genres in the academy: the case of the submission letter” in e. ventola & a. mauranen (eds.), academic writing. intercultural and textual issues, 45-58. amsterdam /philadelphia: john benjamins. swales, j.m. (2004). research genres. exploration and applications. cambridge: cup. 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 152 appendix interview questionnaire business plan: a preliminary approach ibérica 30 (2015): 129-154 153 f. navarro ibérica 30 (2015): …-… and the united states. he has coauthored escribir para aprender (2013) and edited manual de escritura para carreras de humanidades (2014). appendix interview questionnaire plan de negocios en la universidad 1. ¿en qué materias y carreras se utiliza? 2. ¿qué perfil tienen esas materias en relación con el resto de materias del grado? 3. ¿qué perfil tienen los docentes? 4. ¿qué rol tiene? ¿qué objetivo persigue su enseñanza? 5. ¿cómo se elabora? ¿expansión de una idea o escritura sucesiva? 6. ¿qué tipo de correcciones y feedback se brinda? 7. ¿qué errores típicos pueden hallarse? 8. ¿cómo se evalúa? 9. ¿qué partes o apartados tiene (optativos, obligatorios, orden, etc.? 10. ¿qué extensión tiene? ¿qué soporte se usa? 11. ¿qué modelos tienen los alumnos? 12. ¿leen trabajo de otros alumnos? ¿tienen pautas de escritura? 13. ¿cómo se inserta el género en el resto de tareas de escritura del grado? plan de negocios en la empresa 1. ¿qué tipos de planes de negocios hay? 2. ¿cuál es el objetivo del género? 3. ¿qué partes tiene? ¿qué grado de flexibilidad presentan las partes? 4. ¿cómo circula? 5. ¿qué modelos y estándares existen? 6. ¿en qué se diferencia el género escolar del profesional? 7. ¿qué dificultades encuentran los alumnos al insertarse profesionalmente? plan de negocios en español 1. ¿qué particularidades tiene el plan de negocios en la lengua local? 2. ¿en qué se diferencia de los modelos anglosajones o de otro origen? 3. ¿qué particularidades de cultura empresarial local explican las particularidades discursivas? 4. ¿qué dificultades enfrentan los emprendedores cuando tienen que escribir planes de negocios en otros idiomas y ámbitos? 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 153 08 iberica 30_iberica 13 11/10/15 19:43 página 154 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract academic writers represent themselves in their texts in different ways, notably through use of first person pronouns to construct an authorial voice and enhance arguments. this study examines how expert writers in the disciplines of literature and computer science use first person pronouns. the hypothesis is that in the absence of objective fact, literature writers resort to frequent use of first person pronouns backed by stronger authorial roles to build credibility and convince readers, while computer science writers avoid first person pronouns in line with conventional wisdom in the hard sciences. the findings suggest that the general dichotomy between hard and soft sciences regarding first person pronouns usage may not apply in all cases. our study discusses the similarities and differences in the disciplinary conventions in literature and computer science, thus making contributions towards pedagogy and scholarship of the role of first person pronouns in voice construction in academic texts. keywords: authorial voice, academic writing, english literature, computer science, journal articles. resumen la voz del autor en la escritura académica: un estudio comparativo de artículos de investigación en revistas de literatura inglesa y de ciencias de la computación los autores de artículos académicos se representan a sí mismos en sus textos de diferentes maneras, en especial a través del uso de pronombres de primera persona para construir su voz como autores y realzar sus argumentos. este authorial voice in academic writing: a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science yin ling cheung & louwena lau national institute of education, nanyang technological university (singapore) yinling.cheung@nie.edu.sg, llsw1301@gmail.com 215 ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 yin ling cheung & louwena lau estudio examina cómo los escritores experimentados de dos disciplinas (literatura y ciencias de la computación) emplean pronombres de primera persona. la hipótesis es que los investigadores de literatura, en ausencia de datos objetivos, recurren a un uso frecuente de los pronombres de primera persona y a la adopción de una voz mucho más personal para otorgar credibilidad a su discurso y convencer a los lectores, mientras que los investigadores de informática evitan los pronombres de primera persona, como es habitual en las ciencias puras y aplicadas. los resultados sugieren que la dicotomía general que suele establecerse entre las ciencias “duras” (puras y aplicadas) y las “blandas” (humanidades y ciencias sociales) en relación con el empleo de pronombres de primera persona no siempre se manifiesta. asimismo, este trabajo discute acerca de las similitudes y diferencias en las convenciones disciplinares en literatura y en ciencias de la computación, de tal forma que contribuye a la pedagogía y al estudio del papel de los pronombres de primera persona en la construcción de la voz del autor de textos académicos. palabras clave: voz del autor, escritura académica, literatura inglesa, informática, artículos de investigación. 1. background of the study in the study of academic writing, the projection of a writer’s identity on the page has been a continuing focus of research interest. the interweaving of language and identity suggests the presence of the writer is inevitable inwriting and has been explored through the concepts of voice and stance. while they are acknowledged as central to the social interaction between reader and writer in a text, definitions of each vary. according to hyland (2012), stance largely involves the writer’s expression of attitudes and assessment of knowledge in a text to say something new, while voice, which is more reader-oriented, concerns the framing of knowledge according to disciplinary conventions. hewings (2012) sees stance as the textual characteristics involved in persuasion, evaluation, and judgements, while voice takes on a wider perspective, involving the construction of writer identity. research into voice thus helps to locate the “person behind the written word” (hirvela and belcher, 2001: 85), perceived by the reader. whether this is an actual person, a persona or identity created to suit audience, context and purpose, the creation of a strong authorial voice is important in building a credible “discoursal self ” (ivanič, 1998: 24) to persuade and engage readers and is considered integral to good writing. 216 at higher level of academic writing, constructing an appropriate authorial voice that aligns with disciplinary conventions is considered essential if writers are to be deemed competent by the discourse community (harwood, 2005c; hyland, 2010). the ability to frame knowledge in ways the reader values, by reshaping the language used by others in the same institutional context, adds to writer-reader interaction. a strategy used by writers to create authorial voice is the use of first person pronouns, probably the strongest indicator of a writer’s presence in the text. some studies focusing on first person pronouns across disciplines have revealed differing usage conventions for first person pronouns in the socalled hard and soft sciences. in the hard sciences, the writer’s presence in the text is frequently downplayed, heightening perception of the objectivity and reliability of research activities and methods. conversely, in the humanities and social sciences, personal reference appears to be more important in establishing credibility and making clear one’s contribution to the field in the absence of empirical proof (hyland, 2005). while the dichotomy between hard and soft sciences is used as a convenient way of categorising academic disciplines (harwood, 2005a; hyland, 2001, 2002), the reality is disciplinary conventions are dynamic and these assumptions may not always hold. for example, sword (2012) found higher percentages of first person pronouns in the hard disciplines compared to the soft ones in her study comprising 500 articles across 10 disciplines. hyland and jiang (2016) found that first person pronouns in the hard disciplines had increased while certain soft disciplines featured fewer such pronouns in 360 journal articles from four disciplines over 50 years. in many studies so far, it has been found that the first person plural, we, is the most prominent in academic writing. according to mccarthy (2015), some researchers still insist on the collective we even though articles may be individually authored. this is especially true of the hard sciences, where there is need to balance significance of one’s research but portray a modest persona in doing so. it is not uncommon to find the first person plural in single-authored articles performing an assortment of roles, while the first person singular i is barely visible or may be completely absent (harwood, 2005c; hyland, 2001; kuo, 1999; yakhontova, 2006). due to its prevalence, some studies have focused on the inclusive and exclusive use of we which can be used to refer to the writer, the writer and the reader, the writer and disciplinary colleagues or humankind in general (mccarthy, 2015; wu & zhu, 2014). writers have taken advantage of this ambiguity to achieve aims a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 217 such as building rapport with readers, thereby expediting acceptance and concurrence of claims (harwood, 2005b); diminishing responsibility by attributing a point of view to a whole community; or highlighting current issues. though fewer in number, other studies have investigated the full range of first person pronouns forms, providing insights into how writers differ in their use of these pronouns in different disciplines. for example, carciu (2009) found in her study of biomedical writing that our, considered a weaker form compared to we, was used to convey a more tentative position, whereas lafuente millán (2010) saw it as a strong marker of ownership in his study across four different disciplines. at present, a complete mapping of all disciplinary conventions remains to be achieved; many sub-disciplines and smaller fields such as statistics, performing arts, and literature, have yet to be examined. factors such as the pressure to publish and perception of their readers as a specialised audience requiring less explicit engagement, could change the way writers present themselves and interact with their audience (hyland & jiang, 2016). there are also limitations in the taxonomies developed by researchers including beerits (2016), harwood (2005a), lafuente millán (2010), macgrath (2016) and sheldon (2009) to facilitate the qualitative analysis of first person pronouns because they were developed specifically for the corpora in the respective studies and hence may not be generalisable. therefore, much scope remains for research into how writers use first person pronouns to achieve the goals of conveying their personal intentions in alignment with disciplinary conventions, as they interact with audiences in different disciplines. by comparing the use of first person pronouns in literature and computer science, we aim to investigate the general patterns of first person pronoun use in hard and soft disciplines. according to biglan (1973), hard science fields are paradigmatic; that is, all members of the field subscribe to a shared set of underlying theories. in computer science, well-designed experimental work to test theories or provide proof is valued (zobel, 2014). the authorial voice thus takes on the role of the researcher in an empirical process, whereas in literature, one seeks to coax readers to accept the “informal logic and audience appeals” (wilder, 2005: 83) through a strong authorial voice, in the absence of empirical evidence. the views proffered in literary writing are personally motivated and multiple interpretations of works increase an yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242218 understanding of an issue (stevens & stewart, 1996). this view of the soft and hard fields was affirmed in a study of ras in second language writing (slw), a sub-discipline of applied linguistics and computer networks and communications (cnc), a sub-discipline of computer science (zhang & cheung, 2017). it was found that in cnc papers, readers were assumed to possess a certain level of background knowledge and thus writing was more tightly-structured and standardised, following predictable paths. in slw, knowledge is more subjective, varying due to the influence of social, cultural and historical factors. consequently, writers had to argue for the validity of their own study against alternative interpretations. given the differences in structuring knowledge, epistemic beliefs and research processes, the two contrasting fields of literature and computer science can serve as foils for one another by throwing peculiarities of the other into sharp relief, thereby uncovering patterns of use to add to our knowledge of academic genres and contribute to pedagogy and student understanding of voice construction. the research questions for this study are as follow: 1. what disciplinary variations emerge in the frequency of first person pronoun forms and roles in literature and computer science ras? 2. how do the functional roles behind the first person pronouns differ in literature and computer science ras? 2. analytical framework tang and john’s (1999) taxonomy, based on systemic functional linguistics (sfl), links linguistic forms of first person pronouns to their various functions in the text. the taxonomy was adopted for this study to analyse first person pronoun functions in hard and soft disciplines. the taxonomy comprises six possible identities for first person pronouns in academic writing imbued with degrees of authorial power. the taxonomy has provided the basis for other researchers to scrutinise a variety of corpora including ras written by l1 and l2 researchers within one discipline (e.g. dontcheva-navrátilová, 2013); across disciplines (e.g. mcgrath, 2016); across different languages and disciplines (e.g. muñoz, 2013; sheldon, 2009); and in phd theses (e.g. starfield & ravelli, 2006). the a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 219 adaptations involved conflating identities or adding new identities to tang and john’s (1999) framework. however, these new roles were specific to the corpora in the respective studies. for this study, two new roles, researcher and explainer, were added to better accommodate the dataset and facilitate qualitative analysis (see table 1). • ‘i’ as researcher. the researcher describes, explains and provides the rationale for conducting research by providing an overview of the landscape, justifying the approach and defining terms. in this role, the writer demonstrates his expertise of the topic, drawing on his knowledge of the field, the research done so far and pulling in references from external sources when necessary and appropriate to provide a rationale for the current study. this role is more prominent in the literature papers where the researcher weaves the perspectives proposed into an argument in the absence of a methodological section. in other words, the researcher is a guide through the argument and not the structure of the text, thus while the architect has an overview of the flow of the article, the researcher has an overview of the flow of the proposition or argument. • ‘i’ as explainer of the research process. the explainer is akin to a class teacher demonstrating application of formulas and explaining assumptions. the explainer interprets results and information presented in diagrams and tables for the research process and is pertinent only to computer science ras. unlike the guide role which is involved with textual organisation throughout the article, the explainer specifically takes the reader through the steps in the research process detailed in the article. hence, it is mainly associated with the methodology section of the computer science papers. in addition to the new roles detailed above, some adjustments have been made to the guide and architect roles: the guide draws the attention of the reader to a specific point in the article, while the architect controls the overall flow of the article and is commonly found near the beginning of the article or section where the author informs the reader of the structure of the whole article or the following section. the revised coding scheme is shown as follows: yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242220 3. methodology to address the research questions, a corpus of 160 ras (80 computer science and 80 literature) totalling about 1.3 million words was collated from journals listed in the arts and humanities, and science citation indexes by clarivate analytics. eleven journals selected from each discipline capture intra-genre variation (see appendix a). single-authored papers were selected, to avoid bias or inadvertently increase the frequency of first person plural pronouns in the study due to multiple-authored papers. the articles span 20 years from 1991 to 2011, the time frame determined by accessibility a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 221 meaning typical expressions ‘i’ as representative “…generic first person pronoun, used as a proxy for a larger group of people …reduces the writer to non-entity.” (p. s27) our languages, our nation’s bicentennial, our society, enable us, taught us ‘i’ as guide “…writer as guide during the reader’s journey…locates reader and writer together in the time and place of the essay, draws reader’s attention to points plainly visible within the essay.” (p. s27) as we saw, as we have seen, we now turn, let us denote, let us assume, we have the following ‘i’ as architect “…foregrounds person who writes, organises, structures and outlines the material in the essay.” (p. s28) in this paper we will, in this section we discuss, we prove later, we conclude in section 5, in the rest of the paper ‘i’ as recounter of the research process “…recounts various steps in the research process…which might include reading source texts, interviewing subjects, collecting data and so on.” (p. s28) we ran the simulation, our training set consisted of, we have also performed tes ‘i’ as explainer (new role found only in computer science papers) ….demonstrates step-by-step how various formulas are applied, explains assumptions made… interprets results which relate to findings resulting from research. we get, we have, we assume, we conclude that, we find, we know, we can say ‘i’ as researcher (new role) … explains and provides rationale for carrying out research, provides overview of landscape, justifies approach and defines terms…references material external to the topic or text, draws from the writer’s own experience. we define, we discuss we refer the reader to, the models we employ, we are never told, turns our attention towards, reminds us, we are told ‘i’ as opinion holder “…shares an opinion, view or attitude with regard to known information or established facts.” (p. s28) we believe, we feel, we leave as a future challenge, i argue, we wish, we suggest ‘i’ as originator “…involves the writer’s conception of ideas or knowledge claims advanced in essay…calls for the writer to present or signal these as new in the essay.” (p. 29) we find, we introduce, i argue, i affirm, i suggest, my contention, my claim, my point table 1. coding scheme for first person pronoun roles (adapted from tang & john, 1999). to soft copies of the articles due to journals’ moving walls. each of the 20 years is represented in the dataset for both disciplines, though they were not pulled with equal distribution from each year. the intention was to capture changes in academic writing in the disciplines, but no clear diachronic trends emerged from the data. the antconc version 3.4.4 concordancer was used to identify all occurrences of i, we, us, our, ours, me, my and mine, in the articles, excluding abstracts, footnotes, acknowledgements, references, tables, diagrams and captions. the corpus was compiled manually to ensure instances of first person pronouns highlighted by the concordancer were valid. descriptive statistics of the corpus are shown in table 2. the plural form we, which was most frequent in both disciplines, was classified into inclusive and exclusive uses to determine which was more dominant in the respective sub corpora. possible writer intentions are discussed. 3.1. coding the data 3.1.1. pronouns and co-text to control disparities in the data due to varied article lengths, frequencies of first person pronouns were normalised per 10,000 words. all first person pronouns were manually coded. each pronoun was examined in context to determine its functional role. during coding, the linguistic environment surrounding the pronoun was important to determine its role. factors taken into consideration included (a) immediate co-text, i.e., text within the same sentence; (b) wider linguistic environment, i.e., sentences which occur before or after the sentence featuring the pronoun; (c) verb which co-occurs with the pronoun; and (d) position of pronoun in the article. for example, in (1), the immediate co-text suggests this could be classified as explainer since it involves the discussion of an equation: yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242222 each of the 20 years is represented in the dataset for b t literature ras typical expressions no. of ras 80 80 total no. of words 662165 638632 mean no. of words 8277 7983 table 2. descriptive statistics of the corpus. t 3 (1) furthermore, we will consider problems where f is restricted to a bounded domain ω e rn. this is particularly important when the variables x are related to physical quantities which are bounded in the real world. (cs26) however, the sentences are in the introduction of the article. this is unusual as the explainer role normally occurs after information such as the purpose of the paper, the approach and definition of terms. considering preceding and following sentences, as well as the auxiliary verb will, which suggests future intention, we coded it as the researcher, discussing what he intends to show in the paper. 3.1.2. overlapping of roles some researchers referencing tang and john’s (1999) taxonomy either conflated the roles of guide and architect (dontcheva-navrátilova, 2013) or excluded one (lafuente millán, 2010; martín, 2003). in this study, the guide draws the attention of the reader to a specific point in the article, while the architect controls the overall flow of the article. the guide can reference what is ahead or has gone before and can be found throughout the article, but the architect role is commonly found near the beginning of the article or section to inform the reader of the structure of the whole article or following section. overlaps in other categories have been found in previous studies (leedham & fernandez parra, 2017; mcgrath, 2016) and are also encountered in the current corpus. in (2), the phrase in this paper, suggests we could be classified as architect, but the verbs present and are derived in the following sentence suggested that an originator role was more appropriate and this pronoun was coded as such. (2) i n th i s pa pe r, w e pr e se nt the sugeno integral semantics of linguistic quantifiers in which a quantifier is represented by a family of fuzzy measures [35] and the truth value of a quantified proposition is computed by using sugeno’s integral [35]. several elegant logical properties of linguistic quantifiers are derived including a prenex normal form theorem. (cs59) adopting mcgrath’s (2016) approach in general, where two roles seem to be present in one pronoun, it would be assigned the role for which the case is stronger. a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 223 3.1.3. dual roles in one sentence in literary texts that feature complex sentences, different pronouns can be perceived to perform different roles in the same sentence. for example, the presence of the adverbs earlier and now in (3) may suggest that the two pronouns should be classified as guide but the verb suggest and adverb also seem to indicate that the author is putting forth a claim that the novel is taking on a different function, thus giving the second pronoun an originator role. (3) i h a ve n o t ed e ar l i e r that the novel may be read as hysterical symptom; what i w o ul d n o w l ik e to su g g es t is that the novel also performs the function of masquerade. (lit45) 3.1.4. subjectivity in coding during data coding, a degree of subjectivity can occur as interpretation of language can vary. furthermore, unfamiliarity with literature and computer science could be a factor influencing interpretation. 3.2. reliability measure an ma in applied linguistics student enrolled in a university in singapore served as co-rater. two rounds of inter-rater agreement were calculated for separate sub-sets of data using cohen’s kappa and final inter-rater reliability was 0.82. the second author of this paper looked through the whole corpus to ensure consistency in coding. means and standard deviations of pronouns in each role were calculated before independent t-tests were carried out with ibm spss 23 to determine the differences between the two subcorpora. the alpha was set at .05 for all the inferential analyses in this study. 4. results and discussion the findings reveal the number of first person pronouns in computer science ras was more than 2.5 times the number in literature articles (see table 3), unlike the findings in previous studies (harwood, 2005b; lafuente millán, 2010). authorial voice was conveyed without use of these pronouns in only eight computer science articles, whereas all the literature articles featured at least one instance of a first person pronoun (see table 4). yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242224 therefore, the difference in first person pronoun use between computer science and literature ras is not whether these are absent or present, but rather, how and the degree to which writers in these disciplines utilise these self-mention markers to persuade readers and present results. while associating certain characteristics with hard and soft disciplines is convenient for classification, the findings here suggest these should not be always assumed to be the case (cf. sword, 2012). as competition is more intense in a large field like computer science, the use of first person pronouns can act as a strong persuasive force, facilitating solidarity with the reader (hyland, 2010) and engendering a promotional tenor (harwood, 2005b) in a crowded research space. the increasing recognition of human agency in the process of scientific discovery could also account for a higher frequency of first person pronouns in the computer science ras. in the case of literature, while first person pronouns are employed to create a credible persona and strengthen arguments, writers also use other strategies to construct a strong authorial voice, such as framing opinion as assumed truth, using agentless passive constructs and extensive use of metadiscourse markers. though all ras were single-authored, plural pronouns (we, us, our, ours) dominated both fields. conversely, the singular pronouns (i, me, my, mine) occurred three times more in literature. table 5 summarises the descriptive statistics of the first person pronouns in the corpus. a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 225 authorial voice in academic writing: a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): xx-xx a strong persuasive force, facilitating solidarity with the reader (hyland, 2010) and engendering a promotional tenor (harwood, 2005b) in a crowded research space. the increasing recognition of human agency in the process of scientific discovery could also account for a higher frequency of first person pronouns in the computer science ras. in the case of literature, while first person pronouns are employed to create a credible persona and strengthen arguments, writers also use other strategies to construct a strong authorial voice, such as framing opinion as assumed truth, using agentless passive constructs and extensive use of metadiscourse markers. total per 10,000 words liiterature 662165 30.00 computer science 638632 76.24 table 3. raw and normalised occurrence of first person pronouns in ras literature computer science no. of articles % no. of articles % i 8 10% 71 89% we 69 86% 73 91% us 49 61% 62 78% our 55 69% 50 63% ours 2 3% 2 3% me 2 3% 6 8% my 5 6% 48 60% mine 0 0% 5 6% table 4. articles featuring occurrences of first person pronouns though all ras were single-authored, plural pronouns (we, us, our, ours) dominated both fields. conversely, the singular pronouns (i, me, my, mine) occurred three times more in literature. table 5 summarises the descriptive statistics of the first person pronouns in the corpus. literary scholars’ use of first person pronouns spreads out among the eight pronominal forms, probably due to the language proficiency which literary writers are expected to display, resulting in a wider range of expressions and textual structures in the construction of a strong authorial voice. 4.1. analysis of most commonly occurring pronominal forms 4.1.1. we the most preferred pronoun the we pronoun occurred four times as much in the computer science subcorpus as in the literature subcorpus, in line with the collaborative nature of knowledge creation in hard sciences, where computer scientists mark their individual contributions and also display appropriate collegiality. in literature, the high frequency of we demonstrates that, while the individualistic, unique point of view conveyed via the i is expected, this has to be tempered by a more communal tone at appropriate junctures. however, writers exploit the ambiguity of the first person plural, switching seamlessly between its inclusive and exclusive forms to achieve desired effects within the same article. in (4), where the writer regards readers to be literary scholars, it is inclusive; but it excludes those not in this category. (4) as literary critics working within interdisciplinary studies, w e are interested in authors who drew the medical laboratory into the imaginative landscape of the novel…(lit69) inclusive we dominated (90%) in the literature ras, where it strengthened arguments by creating a more familiar tone to enhance interaction with readers. though we occurred four times more in the computer science articles, it was distributed between the exclusive (56%) and inclusive (44%) yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242226 yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): xx-xx literature computer science raw mean sd raw mean sd we 837 10.48 15.99 3871 48.44 53.57 our 220 2.75 3.94 537 6.71 10.33 us 287 3.58 3.57 271 3.34 5.42 ours 2 0.03 0.16 5 0.06 0.46 i 504 6.30 5.01 161 2.00 9.47 my 113 1.41 1.78 21 0.26 1.43 me 17 0.21 0.79 3 0.04 0.25 mine 5 0.06 0.26 0 0.00 0.00 total 1985 3.10 7.11 4869 7.61 25.03 table 5. mean and sd for first person pronouns in ras literary scholars’ use of first person pronouns spreads out among the eight pronominal forms, probably due to the language proficiency which literary writers are expected to display, resulting in a wider range of expressions and textual structures in the construction of a strong authorial voice. 4.1. analysis of most commonly occurring pronominal forms 4.1.1. we the most preferred pronoun the we pronoun occurred four times as much in the computer science subcorpus as in the literature subcorpus, in line with the collaborative nature of knowledge creation in hard sciences, where computer scientists mark their individual contributions and also display appropriate collegiality. in literature, the high frequency of we demonstrates that, while the individualistic, unique point of view conveyed via the i is expected, this has to be tempered by a more communal tone at appropriate junctures. however, writers exploit the ambiguity of the first person plural, switching seamlessly between its inclusive and exclusive forms to achieve desired effects within the same article. in (4), where the writer regards readers to be literary scholars, it is inclusive; but it excludes those not in this category. (4) as literary critics working within interdisciplinary studies, we are interested in authors who drew the medical laboratory into the imaginative landscape of the novel…(lit69) inclusive we dominated (90%) in the literature ras, where it strengthened arguments by creating a more familiar tone to enhance interaction with readers. though we occurred four times more in the computer science articles, it was distributed between the exclusive (56%) and inclusive (44%) forms. the slightly higher number for the exclusive we in computer science could be attributed to the discipline’s preference for using we rather than i to reflect the communal nature of knowledge conventions (yakhontova, 2006; harwood, 2005a) as the former is used as a strategic tool to maintain a balance of authority and humility. forms. the slightly higher number for the exclusive we in computer science could be attributed to the discipline’s preference for using we rather than i to reflect the communal nature of knowledge conventions (yakhontova, 2006; harwood, 2005a) as the former is used as a strategic tool to maintain a balance of authority and humility. since scientists are expected to display a modest collegial persona, the use of we over i may reduce the force of imposition (myers, 1989). we was used extensively in the explainer role to take the reader though the methodology in computer science ras. by alternating between the inclusive and exclusive we, writers gave the impression readers were participants in a joint process through the methodology and drew on the strength of the discourse community (harwood, 2005b) to establish themselves as confident professionals with strong technical expertise. in (5), through the use of the inclusive we, the writer assumes readers possess shared knowledge about the field. (5) note that when w e test the past temporal operators in the if clause against the past history, w e do not have to traverse the entire past history of temporal predicates. (cs20) where we is used for structuring the text, making decisions for methods or processes involved and making claims, it is exclusive. in (6), although we is used, in this context, it is the writer who is putting forth the proposal for the control schemes, thus showing his expertise in the field. (6) in the following w e will propose two control schemes that will accomplish the above objective. (cs2) for the literature ras, the role behind the highest number of we pronouns is that of researcher, while it was the second highest for computer science. plural pronouns were used to involve readers in the elaboration of arguments and persuade them about the soundness of the interpretations proposed by the writers. 4.1.2. our more frequent in computer science than literature similar to findings in lafuente millán’s study (2010) where the possessive adjective our was more frequent in hard disciplines, it is the second most frequently used pronominal form in computer science occurring more than twice as frequently compared to literature. a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 227 in the computer science ras, our was most often (64%) used to express ownership. at other times (26%), it complemented the inclusive we and built communality by suggesting the reader’s joint involvement with the writer in the empirical process, as seen in (7) or when discussing the field with the reader. to a smaller extent, our was also used by writers to hedge their claims (10%) such as in (8) below, where the writer takes on the role of opinion holder to offer his perspective, using the plural pronoun “our feeling is that…”, opening the space for others who may feel differently. (7) we may thus restrict o ur attention to a formula of the form (u1,…uk) * (u1,…uk, x), where the um+1,…uk are actually xi quantified from further outside. (cs29) (8) ou r feeling is that it is not easy to find a simple and significant extension to evaluable formulas because there are relatively few formulas that are equivalent…(cs12) literary scholars used the pronoun inclusively to suggest writer and reader agree on something or that what they say can be generalised to humankind in general. the pronoun in (9) seems to implicate a larger community beyond the writer and reader of the article as morals and morality are usually upheld at societal level. (9) these terms are unmistakably moral but are no longer a part of o u r moral vocabulary. (lit2) 4.1.3. similar frequencies of us in both subcorpora the pronoun us was third most frequent in the corpus but used to different effects in the two disciplines. in computer science, almost half (46%) were let us imperatives, commonly followed by verbs such as consider, assume, suppose, take and look. the reader is assumed to be an intellectual equal and invited to participate in examining the methodology and evaluation in the research process. the writer in (10) presupposes the reader has ability to analyse the phenomena under discussion. such invitations exert a strong rhetorical effect on attracting readers’ interest, endorsing the recommended approach and acknowledging validity of the writer’s work (fløttum, kinn & dahl, 2006). (10) let us here analyze the simplifications in the discretization of the continuous mixture that its usage enables. (cs61) yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242228 at times let us did not include the reader (4%) but rather assumed their indulgence or ratification, as conveyed by the expressions let us put it bluntly or let us make the following comments. in contrast, let us was almost absent from literature ras, constituting only 4% of the us pronouns in these papers as the writer does not involve his reader in an empirical fact-finding process. in the literature papers, us was used mainly to enhance reader involvement and textual coherence as illustrated by (11) where the pronoun is used to remind readers of how an insight into socio-economic conditions can add to deeper understanding and appreciation of the text. (11) social and economic conditions also help us to resituate texts in their cultural moment. (lit18) 4.1.4. i the second most common pronoun in literature ras based on the greater subjectivity of literature, i was the second most frequent pronoun in the literature ras. it was present in 89% of literature ras compared to 10% of computer science ras. the unambiguous reference to the writer could be reflective of the discipline that values originality in interpretation and relies on an assertive authorial voice to carry the arguments in the absence of empirical evidence. in (12), the singular first person pronoun takes on the role of originator as the writer openly backs her claim with i would argue and differentiates her view from that of another member in the field, by beginning the sentence with on the contrary. (12) on the contrary, i would argue that the women are seen to be using the limited means available to them to settle their disputes, and that the level of resourcefulness which they are obliged to display in doing so is evidence of the gender-specific nature of their efforts. (lit39) the frequency of the first person pronouns in this study has also uncovered intradisciplinary variations. in the computer science subcorpus, i was absent in a majority of the articles but was heavily used in a handful. this finding is consistent with previous studies of expert writing in computer science where the occurrence of i was low (harwood, 2005a) or completely absent (kuo, 1999), thus making it hard to generalise about the use of the pronoun. similarly, in the literature ras, though the i pronoun was used by most writers, it was absent in some articles, possibly due to factors such as a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 229 sociocultural or individual author preferences which may contribute to the construction of authorial voice of writers in academic fields. 4.1.5. my is used to claim ownership the possessive adjective my was featured in more than half the number of articles in the literature ras but appeared in a mere five articles in computer science. the majority of the uses of my in literature (85%) and computer science (77%) conveyed ownership while the remainder were perceived to be hedges or referential. previous studies have found my to be non-existent in the hard sciences. harwood’s (2005a) study of writing in computer science does not feature the pronoun while in lafuente millán’s (2010: 42) study, my was found to be non-existent in the hard science disciplines but “slightly more frequent” in applied linguistics and business studies. however, in donchevanavrátilová’s (2013: 16) paper, they were rare. the presence of my in computer science in this study suggests that conventions shape rather than dictate writing in the disciplines and there is leeway for individual choices in the use of these pronouns. in literature, the use of my is important to convey the assertiveness of the writer when making a claim as in (13), where the originator role is fronted by the possessive adjective. the writer makes clear her difference of opinion from an exhaustive study in unequivocal terms, taking ownership of her point of view. (13) celeste turner wright remarks in her exhaustive study of this figure in elizabethan literature... in m y view, however, the antiusury tradition did not simply become extinct as england embraced the ethos of capitalism. (lit20) apart from expressing ownership, the pronoun was used as a hedge in small number of instances (6%) where the writer acknowledges the subjectivity of the argument or limits of his/her expertise in the role of a researcher as seen in (14). (14) to the best of m y knowledge there is no hard evidence to support the links between cantos and kestoi, no document, letter, no explicit reference. (lit34) similarly, in computer science, the pronoun expressed ownership (77%), though there were a higher number of hedges (19%), perhaps reflecting the more communal culture of the discipline. in (15) below, the writer cites his yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242230 experience, allowing for others who may have had different experiences and uses it is suggested in the next sentence to lessen assertiveness in putting across his proposition. (15) in particular, m y experience with pdmosa says that pdmosa algorithm performs reasonably well for continuous function problems with not too many variables. it is suggested that all algorithms should be used to generate a larger set of optimal solutions... (cs50) the examination of first person pronoun frequencies in the corpus reveal that they are important in creating a credible persona to persuade the reader, acknowledge works of others and promote one’s own contributions (hyland, 2009). these objectives would have influenced the frequency and use of the pronouns in the corpus. 4.2. functional roles of first person pronouns 4.2.1. continued learning the most powerful roles in the tang and john (1999) taxonomy adopted for this study are those of researcher, opinion holder, and originator. these account for about 85% of first person pronouns in the literature subcorpus. they account for less than 30% of roles fronted by first person pronouns in the computer science ras. this suggests that literary scholars used first person pronouns to project themselves assertively in their texts. differences in the functional roles of the first person pronouns in literature and computer science were found to be statistically significant for representative, guide, architect and opinion holder, though cohen’s d ranged between modest to moderate (see table 6). a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 231 authorial voice in academic writing: a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): xx-xx literature computer science mean sd mean sd t df p representative 0.01 0.02 0.00 0.02 1.95 158 0.05 guide 0.03 0.04 0.11 0.14 -5.14 158 0.00 architect 0.02 0.02 0.06 0.08 -5.09 158 0.00 researcher 0.20 0.23 0.17 0.27 0.88 158 0.38 opinion holder 0.07 0.09 0.03 0.07 3.00 158 0.03 originator 0.64 0.05 0.06 0.08 0.26 158 0.80 tabe 6. independent t-test findings for functional roles (!=.05) 4.2.1. representative – one among others the slightly higher number of pronouns in literature could be due to the discipline’s association with the human condition. in the computer science subcorpus, one article in the sub-field of artificial intelligence accounted for almost half the occurrences of the role where the writer was discussing the developments in the field to date. since reference is made to many rather than the few, this role is represented by the plural pronouns we, us and our as the writer identifies as one in a larger group in (16) below. (16) … shaw stresses in pygmalion that such clues, in an era unduly sensitized to the social import of language, may indicate not only our past, and our present, but may also determine our future:…(lit11) 4.2.2. more overt textual organisation in computer science through guide and architect personal intrusions into the text for the purpose of organising discourse are less frequent in the literature ras, similar to dontcheva-navrátilová’s applied linguistics corpus (2013). in a discipline known for its rhetorical dexterity reflected in the journal articles presented as a single, continuous essay, such overt organisation of the text in the architect role might be less preferred, unlike computer science ras which feature marked sections. when both subcorpora are compared, these roles occur more frequently in the computer science subcorpus, in contrast to lafuente millán’s (2010) observation that more first person pronouns were used in the soft science fields to organise information because of less linear arguments and more flexible structures. this attests to the uniqueness of the disciplinary conventions in literature. literature scholars weave textual signposting into their essays and metadiscourse markers such as frame markers, transitions and code glosses were used to structure flow of arguments in literature articles, accounting for lower frequency 4.2.1. representative – one among others the slightly higher number of pronouns in literature could be due to the discipline’s association with the human condition. in the computer science subcorpus, one article in the sub-field of artificial intelligence accounted for almost half the occurrences of the role where the writer was discussing the developments in the field to date. since reference is made to many rather than the few, this role is represented by the plural pronouns we, us and our as the writer identifies as one in a larger group in (16) below. (16) … shaw stresses in pygmalion that such clues, in an era unduly sensitized to the social import of language, may indicate not only o u r past, and o u r present, but may also determine o u r future:…(lit11) 4.2.2. more overt textual organisation in computer science through guide and architect personal intrusions into the text for the purpose of organising discourse are less frequent in the literature ras, similar to dontcheva-navrátilová’s applied linguistics corpus (2013). in a discipline known for its rhetorical dexterity reflected in the journal articles presented as a single, continuous essay, such overt organisation of the text in the architect role might be less preferred, unlike computer science ras which feature marked sections. when both subcorpora are compared, these roles occur more frequently in the computer science subcorpus, in contrast to lafuente millán’s (2010) observation that more first person pronouns were used in the soft science fields to organise information because of less linear arguments and more flexible structures. this attests to the uniqueness of the disciplinary conventions in literature. literature scholars weave textual signposting into their essays and metadiscourse markers such as frame markers, transitions and code glosses were used to structure flow of arguments in literature articles, accounting for lower frequency of the architect. the guide role occurs more frequently than architect as they often make reference to specific points in the text rather than its overall structure. the architect function emerged more frequently in computer science with more than 300 instances compared to 72 in literature. the higher occurrence of the architect role in making explicit the organisation of the yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242232 paper could be reflective of disciplinary discourse where knowledge-making practices display a linear progression and steps in the process have to be evident for other researchers to replicate methods. although architect seems to be a textual function, this role was used by writers in both disciplines to establish expertise by differentiating their work from others, such as the first i in (17) and we in (18). (17) it is these plays that i want to consider here; and since i believe the issue of truth and promise to be a source of major misunderstanding in the interpretation of henry iv, m y primary emphasis will be on this, the greatest of the histories. (lit38) (18) despite the fact that the original two-estimate system considered a and b as absolute endpoints, in this paper w e define these estimates as determined fractiles. (cs48) in computer science, the guide role is invoked when the first person pronoun is used with adverbs such as “now”, “next”, “first” and “here”. in literature ras, expressions such as “as we shall see”, “as i have already shown” signal the guide role. the guide reminds readers of what has been discussed or what is to follow. in (19), the reader is reminded of a topic which was discussed previously with the phrase we will return. the use of i with the verbs want make for assertive claims of ownership over the content and flow of argument, even though in a weaker functional role. (19) we will return to the discrepancy between story and discourse regarding the mode of historical representation, but for the moment, i want to consider the implications of the “monumentalism” through which the characters approach history. (lit19) let us and let’s are also used in this category in computer science articles to invite readers into the process as willing participants in the textual dialogue as seen in (20). (20) le t’ s consider the water jug problem in ai [53,73]. (cs10) 4.2.3. recounter of the research process no instances of this role were found in the literature subcorpus. references about the writer’s previous experiences featured in some articles were related a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 233 as personal anecdotes such as (21) rather than steps in an experimental process. (21) a guard, happily waiving the rules, took m e down to the stacks, and there it was, its soft brown and buff cover as i had last seen it well over half a century before in the guest lounge of a holiday camp patronized by skilled low-paid workers. (lit49) in the computer science subcorpus, this role was second least frequently fronted by first person pronouns, comprising 2% of the pronouns used, perhaps because the focus is on methodology detailed in the ras. the exclusive we and i front these roles which reinforce the researcher’s expertise by summarising the procedures which may have been carried out prior to the writing of the paper as seen in (22). (22) in order to assess the contribution of the board’s operationalized code provisions and cases, i conducted a series of experiments, including ablation experiment. (cs46) 4.2.4. explainer of the research process the explainer is a new role added to the tang and john (1999) taxonomy based on analysis of first person pronouns in the computer science subcorpus. in this role, the we pronoun collocates with verbs such as “have”, “obtain”, “get”, “assume”, “find” and “note” to guide readers through complex calculations involving models and formulas. by taking advantage of the fuzziness between the inclusive and exclusive forms of the first person plural pronoun, writers can create the impression that readers are participants in the process, even if we may refer to the multiple researchers who could be behind a single-authored paper. this role accounted for 54% of the total number of first person pronoun references in the computer science subcorpus as proof of formulas and calculations involved in the steps or stages in the articles. in (23), the writer reinforces this joint process with the reader not only by using the first person plural, but also issuing an invitation to do so with the phrase let us consider. (23) l et u s stress that isomorphism is necessary but not sufficient for ag-equivalence, or, in other terms, ag-equivalence is a stronger condition of topological similarity. for showing this, w e present the following example. l e t u s consider the two isomor phic polyhedral s and s’ in fig. 14. (cs41) yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242234 use of the exclusive we and possessive pronouns mark the writer’s ownership of the methodology as illustrated in (24), while in (25), the pronouns are used to show they are up-to-date with developments by commenting on results and comparing these to findings by other researchers. (24) o ur development emphasizes 2-dimensional arrays. since w e do not build fractional rows or columns, the values must be integers. (cs39) (25) overall, o u r computed results agree well with the experimental data, the largest discrepancy being of the order of 5%. ou r results are as accurate as veeramani et al (2007) but not as satisfactory as those of feng and michaelidis (2009b). (cs78) 4.2.5. the researcher – providing the background and developing arguments the researcher sets the stage for the research process by providing background information such as research carried out thus far, the rationale for the chosen approach and the goals of the study undertaken. the role is more prevalent in literature ras, referenced by some 60 percent of first person pronouns. more amenable writer-reader interaction through the use of the plural pronouns is important in literature where the argument must be sustained throughout the article. in fact, occurrences of the plural pronouns we, us and our were the most commonly used pronouns in this role in the literature subcorpus. in (26), the researcher leads the discussion with the reader, elaborates and provides evidence to support propositions put forth. (26) before w e can make any conjecture, w e should step back for a moment and consider the conditions under which w e might rightly claim to have found a solution. (lit50) writers in the corpus also discussed the limitations of their studies in this role. in computer science articles, computer scientists display humility and communality by highlighting limitations of their own methods or research as seen in (27). in literature, the limitations discussed may be attributed to lack of details in the text as shown in (28). (27) however, i have not compared gac-on-x against bounds or range consistency, so can offer no conclusions on the relative merits of different levels of consistency. (cs76) a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 235 (28) for example, w e cannot, and therefore, do not gain access to the “tone of fervid veneration [and] religious regard” with which garth speaks of his vocation (p.250). (lit58) the researcher in both disciplines employed rhetorical questions and examples to establish expertise or make claims. these provided opportunities for writers to demonstrate knowledge of a topic or justify a differentiated approach to an issue. however, where the first person pronouns are used in declaring new claims as a result of their arguments and justifications in the researcher role, the role will be considered that of originator. for example, in (29) below, the first instance of the personal pronoun i would be deemed an originator putting forth a different (and therefore original) perspective, while the researcher (using we) takes over with the explanation and justification of that perspective. (29) …what makes it both natural and necessary to ask the question in the first place – is, i would suggest, the quaint obscurity of the term ‘irreverence’ and of its contrary ‘reverence’…we feel too uncomfortable using ‘reverence’ in some of its traditional applications because of a certain undemocratic, patriarchal, and superstitious cast that the term seems to have acquired. (lit2) in the extract from a computer science paper (30) below, the role behind the pronoun has been coded as the researcher when making a reference to an external source in explaining the theory under discussion. whereas in (31), drawn from the same paper, the pronoun fronts a new perspective about polynomials and thus would be considered originator. (30) as in lankford’s approach, w e get a constraint-solving problem, but which is now in the first order theory of the reals. (cs57) (31) as in lankford’s approach, w e get a constraint-solving problem, but which is now in the first order theory of the reals. (cs57) 4.2.6. greater prominence of opinion holder in literature papers the opinion holder is more pertinent in literature than computer science (see table 6) since interpretations carry the ideational content in literature ras. this role occurred more than twice the number of times in the literature than the computer science subcorpus. computer scientists use yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242236 less of this role as in scientific fields, knowledge previously confirmed by the discourse community takes on the mantle of universal truth and opinion matters less than objective fact (hyland, 1998). the use of first person pronouns with verbs such as “believe”, “wish”, “propose”, “prefer” and modals such as “can”, “could” and “might” allow for alternative views thus inviting readers to add their voices to the debate (doncheva-navrátilová, 2013; carciu, 2009). in the opinion holder role, apart from offering opinions about previous research or issues in question, writers also evaluated their own work. though the plural pronouns were most common in portraying a humble demeanour seen in the use of modals and the verb seem in (32), the singular possessive pronoun mine in the phrase mine is admittedly a minority view was used to downplay one’s interpretation in (33). (32) still, one may ask whether some of the n factors in agarwal and matoušek’s higher dimensional bounds could be replaced by polylogarithmic factors. ou r method does not seem to yield new results here. (cs74) (33) as i see it, ennui is an especially good site for just this kind of analysis, although m i ne is admittedly a minority view: even so historically and theoretically astute a reader of edgeworth as seamus deane holds to the position that edgeworth’s fiction is “not an analysis but a symptom of the colonial problem the country represented.” (lit43) while writers may avoid threatening the positive face of disciplinary colleagues, (34) and (35) seem to go against this grain. in (34), the singular first person pronoun and verb argue could make for more disagreement. despite the use of our to minimise the visibility and agency of the writer in (35), the noun inability and adverb + adjective very alarming seem to be critical of the writer. (34) though some readers and critics consider his aesthetic tenets to be ironic a hasty conclusion, i would argue one of wilde’s maxims from the preface to the picture of dorian gray (1890) explains the dwarf ’s tragic mistake.27 (lit79) (35) the inability of o ur most ingenious designers to make even the simplest systems completely foolproof is very alarming. (cs17) a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 237 4.2.7. originator – linking authors and their claims in the corpus, the originator role came to the fore when both computer science and literature writers used self-markers to link themselves with their claims, suggesting to the reader that both the claim and claim-maker were worth noting (harwood, 2005c). the most unambiguous form of self-reference, the singular pronoun i, was preferred by literary scholars when making claims and declaring their interpretations. almost half the total number of occurrences of i in the literature subcorpus were concentrated in this role, often accompanied by the verb “argue”. this suggests that writers are expected to emerge in their writing to put forth their claims as the credibility of the person behind the claim is of utmost importance in absence of objective fact (hyland, 2007). in (36), the writer takes ownership of her readings through use of the singular pronouns, but also limit her claims to one possible interpretation. (36) … in m y readings of moll flanders and roxana, i interpret the figure of the woman as the embodiment of a “purer” or more purely imaginative, version of capitalism... (lit20) the lower occurrence of originator in computer science articles compared to other roles could be due to the focus on methodology where the explainer role is more pertinent. in computer science ras the role was marked by the exclusive we rather than i as seen in (37). the writer hedges the use of the exclusive we with the adverb “quite” and comparative adjective “simpler”, rather than declaring his procedure is “better than” collani and sheil’s (1989). (37) therefore, w e conclude that the above maximization procedure is not only quite efficient, but also simpler to solve than collani and sheil’s procedure (1989). (cs16) writers in both disciplines also used the less visible us and our in (38) and (39) to downplay their claims about the wider implications or limit the generalisability of their conclusions. however, these are balanced by “but must always” in (38), and “important implication” in (329) to stress their commitment to their claims. (38) disgrace urges u s to see that human rights can never be certain or absolute outside of a purely fictional state, but must always proceed from a tragic yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242238 recognition both of the perplexities of the human condition and of the insurmountably difficult, ethically precarious real-world choices that inescapably must be made. (lit59) (39) an important implication of o ur results is that there’s a randomized polynomial time approximation scheme for the permanent that works for almost every bipartite graph. (cs19) 6. conclusion this study contributes to the scholarship of first person pronouns in academic writing in two ways. firstly, our findings appear to challenge the generally established view that a hard science features fewer instances of first person pronouns compared to a soft discipline. the frequency of first person pronouns in computer science ras exceeds the number found in the literature subcorpus by 2.5 times. this finding seems to be a departure from previous studies (e.g. lafuente millán, 2010) and shows greater use of first person pronouns in academic writing is not peculiar to the soft disciplines. this reversal of first person pronoun frequencies associated with the hard and soft paradigm calls into question the approach of studies that cluster several disciplines together into ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ categories for comparison and analyses of linguistic features, including first person pronouns. instead, it could be more fruitful to focus on comparisons of single disciplines, one from each of the hard and soft sciences to identify common and dissimilar features across the hard/soft divide. another contribution of this study is the addition of the new roles of researcher and explainer to the tang and john (1999) taxonomy, which rendered it an efficient analysis framework for the requirements of the data. the role of researcher is germane across both hard and soft disciplines in this study and may be used in other disciplinary corpus studies of first person pronouns. whether ras contain a specific methodological section, researchers are required to discuss and justify their approach, elaborate arguments, cite references and draw from his or her own knowledge. similarly, the role of explainer could also be pertinent in the analysis of writing in other disciplines where experimental or methodological processes are sequentially detailed in ras. apart from contributing to theory and research, at the practice level, our study may guide novices in academic writing for whom the lack of familiarity a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242 239 with disciplinary conventions is a stumbling block. it is assumed that newcomers will automatically develop target discourse practices. by highlighting linguistic resources available in different disciplines and their rhetorical effects on disciplinary knowledge, our study may help novice researchers and those seeking publication in postgraduate programmes with decisions about when and how to intrude into their texts in alignment with disciplinary conventions. eap teachers and instructors could utilise the findings to raise awareness of the continuum of authorial presence and authority to the attention of new writers in the disciplines. this can assist them in thinking about how to modulate the degree of intrusion into their text and its effect on readers (beerits, 2016). for students who are required to be familiar with academic writing conventions across multiple disciplines could build an inventory of first person pronoun practices and conventions in an informed manner. this paper provides valuable reference material for authors penning guidebooks for academic writing who can cite the findings to illustrate relevance of personalised pronouns to authorial voice and point out that high levels of writer-reader interactivity are not always the domain of softer sciences. because each individual discipline has its own particular purposes, practices and norms, our findings may not be generalisable beyond the specific disciplines of literature and computer science. the taxonomy applied is specific to the data examined here and may not be relevant with different sets of data. though individual preference could have accounted for intradisciplinary variations found in the subcorpora, interviews with the ra writers were beyond the scope of this study. similarly, preferences for pronoun forms in specific functional roles were not examined in detail here and could be an area for future research. article history: received 15 november 2018 received in revised form 11 june 2019 accepted 26 april 2020 references yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242240 beerits, l. 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(2012). stylish academic writing. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. cheung yin ling earned her ph.d. in linguistics from purdue university, usa. she is associate professor at the national institute of education, nanyang technological university, singapore. she specializes in academic writing and writing instruction. she has published in journals such as system, the asia-pacific education researcher, and relc journal. louwena lau earned her m.a in applied linguistics from national institute of education, nanyang technological university, singapore. she specializes in english as a second language writing. appendices yin ling cheung & louwena lau ibérica 39 (2020): 215-242242 tang, r. & s. john (1999). “the ‘i’ in identity: exploring writer identity in student academic writing through the first person pronoun”. english for specific purposes 18: 23-39. wilder, l. (2005). “the rhetoric of literary criticism revisited: mistaken critics, complex contexts and social justice”. written communication 22(1): 76119. wu, g. & y. zhu (2014). “self-mention and authorial identity construction in english and chinese research articles: a contrastive study”. linguistics and the human sciences 10(2): 133158. yakhontova, t. (2006). “cultural and disciplinary variation in academic discourse: the issue of influencing factors”. journal of english for academic purposes 5: 153-167. zhang, w.y., & y.l. cheung (2017). “understanding engagement resources in constructing voice in research articles in the fields of computer networks and communications and second language writing”. the asian esp journal 13(3): 72-99. zobel, j. (2014). writing for computer science. london: springer. authorial voice in academic writing: a comparative study of journal articles in english literature and computer science ibérica 39 (2020): xx-xx cheung yin ling earned her ph.d. in linguistics from purdue university, usa. she is associate professor at the national institute of education, nanyang technological university, singapore. she specializes in academic writing and writing instruction. she has published in journals such as system, the asiapacific education researcher, and relc journal. louwena lau earned her m.a in applied linguistics from national institute of education, nanyang technological university, singapore. she specializes in english as a second language writing. appendices appendix a: list of literature and computer science journals literature journals computer science journals 1 college literature acm transactions on modeling and computer simulation 2 contemporary literature applicable algebra in engineering, communication and computing 3 modern fiction studies artificial intelligence 4 modern philology computer standards & interfaces 5 new literary history computers & chemical engineering 6 pmla computers & electrical engineering 7 nineteenth century literature computers & industrial engineering 8 studies in english literature ieee transactions on computers 9 studies in philology ieee transactions on reliability 10 the review of english studies journal of the acm 11 twentieth century literature the international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering iberica 13 ibérica 29 (2015): 15-34 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the concept of metadiscourse – the ways in which writers and speakers interact through their use of language with readers and listeners (also referred to as metalanguage and metapragmatics) – has received considerable attention in applied linguistics in recent years, particularly in the study of academic discourse. conceptualised within the applied linguistics context of developing optimal descriptions of genres as a basis for a genre-based pedagogy, this article first reviews some of the different approaches to metadiscourse, highlighting how the concept is construed in different ways by different researchers. the article then discusses a number of problematic issues in metadiscourse research: metadiscourse as textual or interpersonal; the size of the linguistic unit in metadiscourse research; the multi-functionality of metadiscourse items; and the issue of representativeness in corpus research on metadiscourse. the second part of the article focuses on the concept of signalling nouns (sns) (abstract nouns which carry particular pragmatic meanings in discourse), a feature of discourse not usually included under the rubric of metadiscourse. it is argued, however, that sns represent an important resource for making writers’ (or speakers’) intended meanings clear. in this second part of the article, a first section introduces the notion of sn and a second section discusses how sns might be incorporated into a model of metadiscourse. a final section of the paper concludes with a summary and some comments on pedagogic application. keywords: metadiscourse, academic discourse, signalling nouns, corpus linguistics, genre, genre-based pedagogy. revisiting metadiscourse: conceptual and methodological issues concerning signalling nouns john flowerdew city university of hong kong (china) enjohnf@cityu.edu.hk 15 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 15 ibérica 29 (2015): 15-34 john flowerdew resumen r e v is a nd o e l m ar c o de l me ta d is c u rs o : a s pe c tos c on c e p tua l e s y me to do l óg ic o s s o b re e l a ná l is i s de no mb re s re f e r e nc i al e s en los últimos años se ha prestado especial atención en lingüística aplicada al concepto de metadiscurso – el modo en que los escritores y los hablantes interactúan a través del lenguaje con sus lectores y oyentes (también referido como metalenguaje y metapragmática) – en concreto, al estudio del discurso académico. este artículo revisa en primer lugar algunos de los distintos enfoques del metadiscurso conceptualizado dentro del marco de la lingüística aplicada para la descripción de géneros y como base para la pedagogía basada en género, destacando cómo este concepto está concebido de manera distinta por diferentes investigadores. el artículo aborda también algunos problemas relacionados con la investigación del metadiscurso: el metadiscurso textual o interpersonal; el tamaño de la unidad lingüística en la investigación del metadiscurso; la multifuncionalidad de los elementos de metadiscurso y aspectos sobre la representatividad en investigación con corpus de metadiscurso. esto concluye la primera parte del artículo. la segunda parte se centra en el concepto de nombres referenciales (nrs) (nombres abstractos que transmiten significados pragmáticos en el discurso), elementos discursivos que no siempre se incluyen dentro del marco del metadiscurso. se argumenta, no obstante, que estos nombres representan un recurso discursivo importante para clarificar la información que transmiten los escritores (o hablantes). en esta segunda parte del artículo, una primera sección introduce la noción de nr y la segunda sección hace una valoración sobre cómo los nrs podrían incorporarse en un modelo de metadiscurso. la última sección del artículo concluye con un resumen y algunos comentarios sobre aplicación pedagógica. palabras clave: metadiscurso, discurso académico, nombres referenciales, lingüística de corpus, genero, pedagogía basada en género. 1. introduction in an earlier article (flowerdew, 2011), i argued that a genre-based pedagogy in language teaching should focus not just on one type of meaning, meaning as action, which is the case in many situations, but also on two other types of meaning: content (propositional meaning) and identity (the way people use language to project their individual or professional persona). in this article, i would like to consider a further area of meaning, that of metadiscourse, which is also deserving of our attention if we are to come up with as complete descriptions as possible of discourse and genres that may 16 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 16 carry over to practice, especially in terms of identifying form-function relationships (while at the same time recognising that such relationships are variable and flexible). metadiscourse refers in very broad terms to “discourse about discourse”. the topic has been the focus of research for some forty years or more – at least since harris (1959). the field really developed, however, in the 1980s, with a number of important early theoretical contributions appearing during that period (williams, 1981; vande kopple, 1985; beauvais, 1989; crismore, 1989). a further notable contribution was that of mauranen (1993). the field received a considerable boost to its popularity and a new methodological departure with two corpus-based monographs which appeared at about the same time in the 2000s: hyland (2005) and ädel (2006). since these two landmark publications, there have been further journal articles and a special journal edition devoted to the topic (ädel & mauranen, 2013). at the same time, parallel work has been going on in metapragmatics (verschueren, 2004), which can be similarly defined as metadiscourse, although work on the former tends to focus more on spoken language, as opposed to written language, which tends to be the focus of work on metadiscourse. in addition, work in metapragmatics tends to be more theoretical, whereas work on metadiscourse often (at least more recently) adopts a more empirical approach. finally, i may point out that metadiscourse falls under the more general rubric of metalanguage, the latter being one of the six functions of language identified by jacobson (1960). the definition given above of metadiscourse as “discourse about discourse” is rather vague and indeed the whole notion of metadiscourse has been described as fuzzy (ädel, 2006: 22-23; hyland, 2005: 16). all understandings of the term agree, however, that metadiscourse is concerned with nonpropositional meaning. communication can be viewed as occurring on two levels. there is the level of the propositional content and there is the metalevel of how to interpret the propositional content. metadiscourse refers to the latter level. the role of metadiscourse is thus to direct rather than to inform (williams, 1981). its role is to signal the communicative intent of the writer/speaker and show how the propositional level of the discourse is to be interpreted on the part of the reader/listener. some writers draw a parallel with halliday’s three metafunctions of language: ideational, interpersonal and textual. the ideational function corresponds to revisiting metadiscourse ibérica 29 (2015): 15-34 17 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 17 propositional meaning, while the interpersonal and textual functions are the domain of metadiscourse. the interpersonal dimension of metadiscourse “helps writers express their personalities, their evaluations of and attitudes toward ideational material, shows what role in the communication situation they are choosing, and indicates how they hope readers will respond to the ideational material” (vande kopple, 2002: 2-3). the textual dimension of metadiscourse is the dimension which organizes the text into a coherent message. while this distinction is helpful in highlighting two dimensions of meaning within metadiscourse, it nevertheless disguises the holistic nature of meaning and the fact that any stretch of text will carry with it simultaneously all three levels. this, indeed, is one of the problems when it comes to developing taxonomies of linguistic features which are associated with different aspects of metadiscourse, as we shall see. 2. some models of metadiscourse if metadiscourse is a whole level of meaning, the counterpart to propositional meaning, then we will be dealing with a huge area of linguistic forms that have the potential to express, or realise, this level of meaning. various researchers have created taxonomies of metadiscoursal features, starting with vande kopple (1985), who divided metadiscourse according to the two hallidayan metafunctions of textual and interpersonal, the textual category including text connectives, code glosses, illocution markers and narrators, and the interpersonal category being broken down into validity markers, attitude markers and commentaries. table 1 shows these categories, along with glosses and examples of each. crismore, markkanen and steffenson (1993) revised this classification somewhat, keeping the textual/interpersonal classification, but further breaking down the textual component into textual and intertextual markers. hyland (2005) tried to break away from the textual/interpersonal classification, claiming that all metadiscourse is interpersonal insofar as it “takes account of the reader’s knowledge, textual experiences and processing needs and that it provides writers with an armoury of rhetorical appeals to achieve this” (page 41). the textual function, for hyland, is an enabling function which does not operate independently of the ideational and interpersonal functions (2005: 43). hyland (2005) classifies metadiscourse according to two major classes: interactive (to guide the reader through the john flowerdew ibérica 29 (2015): 15-3418 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 18 text) and interactional (to involve the reader in the text). both of these classes incorporate both interpersonal and textual functions, according to hyland (2005). table 2 shows this model, including categories and examples. according to ädel and mauranen (2010), two different traditions can be identified in the study of metadiscourse. the first of these, which includes revisiting metadiscourse ibérica 29 (2015): 15-34 19 john flowerdew ibérica 29 (2015): …-… textual metadiscourse text connectives to help show how parts of a text are connected to one another. includes sequencers, (first, next, in the second place), reminders (as i mentioned in chapter 2), and topicalizers, which focus attention on the topic of a text segment (with regard to, in connection with) code glosses to help readers to grasp the writer’s intended meaning. based on the writer’s assessment of the reader’s knowledge; the words used to define, explain, or delimit do not expand the propositional content of the text but help (no examples given except a gloss of a german word) validity markers to express the writer’s commitment to the probability or truth of a statement, including hedges (perhaps, may, might), emphatics (clearly, undoubtedly), and attributors which enhance a position by claiming the support of a credible other (according to einstein). narrators to inform readers of the source of the information presented – who said or wrote something (according to smith, the prime minister announced that). interpersonal metadiscourse illocution markers to make explicit the discourse act the writer is performing at certain points (to conclude, l hypothesize, to sum up, we predict). attitude markers to express the writer’s attitudes to the propositional material he or she presents (unfortunately, interestingly, i wish that, how awful that). commentaries to address readers directly, drawing them into an implicit dialogue by commenting on the reader’s probable mood or possible reaction to the text (you will certainly agree that, you might want to read the third chapter first). table 1. summary of vande kopple’s classification system for metadiscourse (adapted from hyland, 2005:32). crismore, markkanen and steffenson (1993) revised this classification somewhat, keeping the textual/interpersonal classification, but further breaking down the textual component into textual and intertextual markers. hyland (2005) tried to break away from the textual/interpersonal classification, claiming that all metadiscourse is interpersonal insofar as it “takes account of the reader’s knowledge, textual experiences and processing needs and that it provides writers with an armoury of rhetorical appeals to achieve this” (page 41). the textual function, for hyland, is an enabling function which does not operate independently of the ideational and interpersonal functions (2005: 43). hyland (2005) classifies metadiscourse according to two major classes: interactive (to guide the reader through the text) and interactional (to involve the reader in the text). both of these classes incorporate both interpersonal and textual functions, according to hyland (2005). table 2 shows this model, including categories and examples. revisiting metadiscourse ibérica 29 (2015): …-… category function example interactive help to guide the reader through the text resources transitions frame markers endophoric markers evidentials code glosses express relations between main clauses refer to discourse acts, sequences or stages refer to information in other parts of the text refer to information from other texts elaborate propositional meanings in addition; but; thus; and finally; to conclude; my purpose is noted above; see fig in section 2; according to x; z states; namely; e.g.; such as; in other words interactional involve the reader in the text resources hedges boosters attitude markers self mentions engagement markers withhold commitment and open dialogue emphasize certainly or close dialogue express writer’s attitude to proposition explicit reference to author(s) explicitly build relationship with reader might; perhaps; possible; about; in fact; definitely; it is clear that; unfortunately; i agree; surprisingly; i; we; my; me; our; consider; note; you can see that table 2. hyland’s model of metadiscourse (based on hyland, 2005) according to ädel and mauranen (2010), two different traditions can be identified in the study of metadiscourse. the first of these, which includes those models reviewed so far, takes a broader view and includes both the textual function (referring to the text itself) and the interactional function (indicating the relation of the writer to the reader); this model they label integrative, or interactive. the other model, they refer to as non-integrative or reflexive. this model is narrower and is restricted to what broader approaches classify under the textual function. in hallidayan terms, the broad view includes both the textual and the interpersonal functions, while the narrow view includes the textual function only. (this view, it may be noted, seems to contradict hyland’s argument that all metadiscourse is both interpersonal and textual). representative of the narrow view and the focus on the writer’s commentary on the on-going text is mauranen (1993) who prefers the term “reflexivity” to metadiscourse1. reflexivity, for mauranen, is divided into “highly explicit reflexivity” and “reflexivity of low explicitness”. table 3 shows her categorisation, along with examples. 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 19 those models reviewed so far, takes a broader view and includes both the textual function (referring to the text itself) and the interactional function (indicating the relation of the writer to the reader); this model they label as integrative, or interactive. the other model, they refer to as non-integrative or reflexive. this model is narrower and is restricted to what broader approaches classify under the textual function. in hallidayan terms, the broad view includes both the textual and the interpersonal functions, while the narrow view includes the textual function only. (this view, it may be noted, seems to contradict hyland’s argument that all metadiscourse is both interpersonal and textual). representative of the narrow view and the focus on the writer’s commentary on the on-going text is mauranen (1993) who prefers the term “reflexivity” to metadiscourse1. reflexivity, for mauranen, is divided into “highly explicit reflexivity” and “reflexivity of low explicitness”. table 3 shows her categorisation, along with examples. the final model i will refer to here is that of ädel (2006). ädel’s model, which, following mauranen (1993), she also refers to as reflexive, is a compromise between the broad and narrow views (ädel, 2006: 180). ädel defines metadiscourse as follows: metadiscourse is text about the evolving text, or the writer’s explicit commentary on her ongoing discourse. it displays an awareness of the current text or its language use per se and of the current writer and reader. (2006: 20) following on from this, metadiscourse, for ädel, can be divided into “metatext” and “writer-reader” interaction. metatext “spells out the writer’s john flowerdew ibérica 29 (2015): 15-3420 john flowerdew ibérica 29 (2015): …-… reflexivity of high explicitness references to the text the paper, in this article, in the following section discourse labels to illustrate, as noted earlier, this argument addressing the reader note, recall, the reader reflexivity of low explicitness internal connectors however; second; also discourse labels question; it is reasonable to think; (our present data) show references to the text now; as a first step addressing the reader there is reason to remember table 3: mauranen’s “reflexive” model of metadiscourse the final model i will refer to here is that of ädel (2006). ädel’s model, which, following mauranen (1993), she also refers to as reflexive, is a compromise between the broad and narrow views (ädel, 2006: 180). ädel defines metadiscourse as follows: metadiscourse is text about the evolving text, or the writer’s explicit commentary on her ongoing discourse. it displays an awareness of the current text or its language use per se and of the current writer and reader. (2006: 20) following on from this, metadiscourse, for ädel, can be divided into “metatext” and “writer-reader” interaction. metatext “spells out the writer’s (and/or the reader’s) discourse acts, or refers to aspects of the text itself, such as its organisation and wording, or the writing of it” (page 36). examples given by ädel from her data (page 37) are “i would like to discuss the topic”, “i stated above”, “i would like to emphasise” and “i will also give suggestions”. writerreader interaction “refers to linguistic expressions that are used to address readers directly, to engage them in a mock dialogue” (page 37). examples given by ädel from her learner data (page 37) are “but how did it start?”, “your second question may be”, “let me tell you the truth”, “well, why do i draw this conclusion?” and “[l]et’s first make a definition of the words”. table 4, shows ädel’s two basic types of metadiscourse further broken down into sub-types according to whether they are “personal” or “impersonal”, along with examples of each. 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 20 (and/or the reader’s) discourse acts, or refers to aspects of the text itself, such as its organisation and wording, or the writing of it” (page 36). examples given by ädel from her data (page 37) are “i would like to discuss the topic”, “i stated above”, “i would like to emphasise” and “i will also give suggestions”. writer-reader interaction “refers to linguistic expressions that are used to address readers directly, to engage them in a mock dialogue” (page 37). examples given by ädel from her learner data (page 37) are “but how did it start?”, “your second question may be”, “let me tell you the truth”, “well, why do i draw this conclusion?” and “[l]et’s first make a definition of the words”. table 4, shows ädel’s two basic types of metadiscourse further broken down into sub-types according to whether they are “personal” or “impersonal”, along with examples of each. 3. some issues in metadiscourse theory in this section i will discuss a number of issues in metadiscourse theory. i have selected these issues for discussion, first, because they are important in themselves and, second, because i will return to them later in my discussion of sns. revisiting metadiscourse ibérica 29 (2015): 15-34 21 revisiting metadiscourse ibérica 29 (2015): …-… metatext writer-reader interaction personal personal impersonal text/codeoriented participantoriented writeroriented readeroriented participantoriented reader oriented t hirdly,… t he above-m entioned list… in other w ords,… t he question is… a definition of… involves… t his essay w ill prim arily deal w ith… as w e have seen… in our discussion above… if w e take… as an exam ple… a s i have show n… m y conclusion is that… b y… i m ean… a s a w riter, i w ould like to argue that… as you have seen… y ou m ight w ant to read the last section first… i know you think that… c orrect m e if i’m w rong, but… n ow , dear reader, you probably… d oes this sound… to you? metadiscourse figure 4: ädel’s model of metadiscourse (ädel, 2006: 38, adapted). 3. some issues in metadiscourse theory in this section i will discuss a number of issues in metadiscourse theory. i have selected these issues for discussion, first, because they are important in themselves and, second, because i will return to them later in my discussion of sns. 3.1. metadiscourse as interpersonal or textual an issue that has already come up more than once in the above brief review of the literature is that of the relationship between the claimed interpersonal and textual functions of metadiscourse. as we have seen, early theoreticians such as vande kopple, divided metadiscourse according to these two types of meaning. however, as ädel has noted, the understanding of the term “textual” departs from that of halliday. for halliday, the textual function is concerned with cohesion, theme/rheme and given/new. vande kopple’s “text connectives” would seem to fit in here, but the other categories she classifies as textual – code glosses, validity markers and narrators – seem to go beyond this. they seem to be more interpersonal, in fact. validity markers (words like “perhaps”, “may”, “might”, “undoubtedly”), to take just one of these sub-categories, would be 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 21 3.1. metadiscourse as interpersonal or textual an issue that has already come up more than once in the above brief review of the literature is that of the relationship between the claimed interpersonal and textual functions of metadiscourse. as we have seen, early theoreticians such as vande kopple, divided metadiscourse according to these two types of meaning. however, as ädel has noted, the understanding of the term “textual” departs from that of halliday. for halliday, the textual function is concerned with cohesion, theme/rheme and given/new. vande kopple’s “text connectives” would seem to fit in here, but the other categories she classifies as textual – code glosses, validity markers and narrators – seem to go beyond this. they seem to be more interpersonal, in fact. validity markers (words like “perhaps”, “may”, “might”, “undoubtedly”), to take just one of these sub-categories, would be classified as markers of modality, according to halliday, and thus come under the interpersonal function. another point made by ädel (2006: 17) is that the textual and interpersonal functions are not at the same level. if the primary function of metadiscourse is to guide readers or listeners in how to interpret the propositional content of the text, then this is clearly interpersonal rather than textual. ädel (2006: 17) points out that, in line with this view, mauranen (1993) argues that a textual function for metadiscourse is superfluous and that the fundamental function is interpersonal. as we have also seen, hyland joins mauranen and ädel in this view and sees all metadiscourse as interpersonal. i will return to this issue very briefly in my discussion of sns. 3.2. the size of the linguistic unit because metadiscourse is a functional phenomenon, it goes without saying that there is no single formal linguistic category which can be identified as its mode of realisation. it can be noted from the examples given in the above literature review, that metadiscourse units may take the form of individual words, phrases, clauses or even whole series of clauses. indeed, the unit of analysis tends to vary according to the analyst, some preferring larger units and some smaller. ädel (2006: 41) suggests that smaller units are more useful if a researcher is interested in finding out the greatest possible differences and uses of metadiscourse across texts, while larger units of analysis are more useful if a researcher is interested in distinguishing between metadiscourse and nonmetadiscourse across texts. ädel and mauranen (2010) refer to the former john flowerdew ibérica 29 (2015): 15-3422 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 22 approach as “thin” and the latter as “thick”. the thin approach, they argue, is more suited to quantitative methods and the thick approach is better suited to more qualitatively oriented methods. ädel (2006: 52) also makes the point that, if the sentence is taken as the unit of analysis, then it is not possible to maintain the precept that metadiscourse is non-propositional, because there are bound to be propositions in whole sentences (or clauses). however, this is to assume that smaller units cannot carry propositional meaning, which is not the case. another, more convincing, argument presented by ädel, is that, in employing the larger unit, a whole clause or sentence is likely to carry with it more than one metadiscoursal function (a point i will return to in the next section on multi-functionality). for corpus-based approaches (e.g. hyland, 2005; ädel, 2006), a further advantage of smaller units is that a much larger number of search terms can be employed (e.g. hyland, 2005, includes some 300 items in his inventory of metadiscourse items). with the corpus approach, however, one cannot be sure that a given item is always employed in its metadiscoursal function. as hyland states, “[i]t must be remembered, of course, that all items can realize either propositional or metadiscoursal meanings and that many can express either interactive or interpersonal meanings” (page 218). based on this, hyland argues that every item should be studied in its sentential context. although hyland may argue that every item should be treated in such a way, it is not clear if this is actually the case in his own work. this is not such a big problem if the aim of a study is to compare two corpora, provided that the same list of search terms is used in each. however, it does mean that no categorical statements can be made about the frequency of metadiscourse items in any given corpus. claims can only be made in relative terms, comparing one (sub-)corpus to another. in the case of ädel (2006), on the other hand, with the use of a smaller set of items than hyland’s 300 (she searched on subject forms of first and second person pronouns for her personal metadiscourse category and 61 words and lemmas for her impersonal category), makes it clear that the non-metadiscoursal items were eliminated from her counts (by manual analysis) and she is thus able to make clear-cut claims about the frequency of the metadiscourse items she includes in her searches. 3.3. the multi-functionality of metadiscourse items another issue in metadiscourse research is the fact that items recognised as metadiscursive may perform more than one function at the same time. this revisiting metadiscourse ibérica 29 (2015): 15-34 23 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 23 problem is greater the larger the unit of analysis, as already noted above. for example, in hyland’s model (see table 2) “my purpose is noted” is given as an example of a frame marker; however, “my”, which is a part of this unit, is given as an example of an engagement marker. so there is clearly overlap here. to give another example, in ädel’s model (table 4), “my conclusion” is given as an example of the personal – writer oriented category (presumably because of the “my”), but, although it is not given as an example, “conclusion” could also be classified as impersonal –text/code-oriented (by analogy with the two examples given of “question” and “definition”). the solution adopted by ädel (2006: 25) to the problem of multifunctionality is to decide on one of the possible functions as primary and to classify the item accordingly. this problem is less likely to arise, it can be pointed out, if single items are taken as the unit of analysis. 3.4. representativeness in corpus-based approaches to metadiscourse the sampling procedures of ädel and hyland referred to in the previous paragraph highlight the fact that such corpus approaches can only give a description of a well-defined sample of (potential) metadiscourse rather than covering the full range of metadiscourse in a given corpus. hyland (2005: 29), for example, states that he does not include indicators of affect or lexical evaluation (e.g. evaluative adjectives) in his model, because an operationalization of the model at such a level of delicacy would be impractical. another problem with empirical studies of metadiscourse highlighted by hyland (2005: 30) is that of “insider opacity”, i.e. how discourse communities may have understandings of metadiscoursal features which are inaccessible to the analyst. this is particularly the case if the analysis is of academic discourse, which may involve a lot of “insider” language. such language, of course, cannot be incorporated into corpus searches unless the analyst is helped by a specialist informant or informants. a further issue with corpus approaches is how to balance out the different categories in any model. if we take a taxonomy such as that of hyland (2005), for example, which has two major categories (interactive and interactional), with five sub-categories in each, an issue is how to avoid overor under-representing a category in the searches. for example, in his inventory of search terms, hyland has far fewer code glosses than he does boosters. presumably, these lists are derived from a word and/or clusters john flowerdew ibérica 29 (2015): 15-3424 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 24 frequency list. but does the higher representation of one category as compared to another indicate that this category is more important or significant in metadiscourse terms than the other? that is to say, does it play a bigger role in communicating how the message is to be interpreted by the reader/listener? this issue is especially important when it comes to pedagogical application. as has been noted on many occasions (e.g. swales, 2002), high frequency does not always mean high pedagogical priority2. to make a final point concerning the representativeness of corpus findings, i offer the following quotation from ädel (2006: 48): a review of the literature on metadiscourse makes it clear that, for the most part, scholars do not mention methods of counting, let alone the difficulties involved. if we do not know how the findings of a study have been arrived at, it is difficult to have confidence in it; we do not know how representative it is. this is a basic issue in any form of academic research. in this respect, the models offered by hyland (2005) and ädel (2006) are admirable in presenting inventories of the metadiscourse items used in their searches. 4. metadiscourse and signalling nouns having reviewed some models of metadiscourse and considered some theoretical issues, as indicated in my introduction, i will now consider the notion of sn and how this category might fit into a model of metadiscourse. 4.1. the notion of signalling noun the notion of sn has its origins in work by winter (1977). winter identified three types of vocabulary which are important in establishing relations between clauses: type 1 consists of subordinators such as “although”, “except”, “unless”, and “whereas”; type 2 is made up of sentence connectors such as “as a result”, “however”, “indeed”, and “therefore”; and type 3 is made up of open class items3 – nouns, verbs and adjectives –that have the potential to connect clauses in a similar way to the type 1 and type 2 items. it is the nouns in this group that provided the inspiration for the notion of sns (see also work by e.g. francis, 1986, 1994; revisiting metadiscourse ibérica 29 (2015): 15-34 25 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 25 ivanič, 1991; and schmid, 2001, among others for similar work). although i will focus on sns here, i may mention briefly that the other parts of speech (type 1 and type 2 vocabulary) have the potential of contributing towards metadiscourse. for example, winter’s type 1 and type 2 items correspond to hyland’s “transition markers” category of interactive resources, or stance markers (hyland, 2005: 49)4. sns are abstract nouns like “fact”, “idea”, “possibility”, “problem”, and “result” which are non-specific in their meaning when considered in isolation and specific in their meaning by reference to their linguistic context. the following are some examples in the context of the clause or nominal group: (1) the fact is that we’ve all eaten genetically-modified crops (2) the hypothesis that the chemical beginnings of life can occur in atmospheres that are only mildly reducing (3) the point is not to go through all the steps (4) the possibility of curing sexual psychopaths (5) the situation where you’ve had to make a choice between two things in each of these examples, the sn (in bold) is realized, or specified, in the text which is underlined. sn specifics may also be found not in the same clause or nominal group as the sn, but in adjoining clauses, sentences, or even longer stretches of text, as exemplified in the following examples, where it is to be noted that the realization may either precede or follow the sn: (6) this geometry is probably favored because the trans configuration leaves a vacant low-energy orbital that can be occupied by the two d electrons. according to this explanation… (7) several factors have led price to become a more important component of marketing strategy. first, economic dislocations in the late 1970s and early 1980s made consumers more price-sensitive. second, competition from lower-priced foreign imports has led american firms either to try to compete on a price basis, or to escape price competition by going after high-price segments. third, companies have realized the benefits of segmenting markets by price and are offering high-, medium-, and lowpriced brands in a product line. finally, deregulation in many industries has led to greater price competition, increasing the importance of price. john flowerdew ibérica 29 (2015): 15-3426 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 26 it is important to note that sn is a functional notion, not a formal one. abstract nouns have the potential to act as sns, but they are only counted as sns if they are realized in the surrounding text, as in the above examples. although unspecific in meaning in isolation, an sn nevertheless indicates how the piece of discourse to which it refers (referred to as its specifics, or its realization) is to be understood. it is a “fact”; it is a “hypothesis”; it is a “possibility”; it is a “point”, it is a “situation”; it is an “explanation”; it is (several) “factors”. the relations between an sn and its specifics are in fact complementary, each affecting the meaning of the other; the sn provides the specific meaning for the sn, but the sn indicates how the specifics are meant to be understood in relation to the surrounding discourse. the important point for the argument of this paper is that the sn performs a metadiscoursal function, in indicating how the stretch of text to which it refers is to be interpreted, whether this be in the same clause or across clauses. it may also be noted that sns perform a textual function in allowing for the distribution of information across and within clauses, although space precludes a discussion of this issue. in my research with richard w. forest (flowerdew & forest, 2015), we have used three sub-corpora of lectures, textbook chapters and journal articles split further into 12 disciplines across the natural and social sciences. the corpus is referred to as the flowerdew corpus of academic english (fcae) and it consists of approximately 650,000 words. one of the most striking findings in this work is that sns occur more than twice as frequently in the social sciences as they do in the natural sciences (the split is approximately 70/30). the reason for this is that natural sciences make greater use of technical terms, which reduces the need for sns. the overall average frequency across the whole corpus is one sn per 37 words, an indication of the importance of this category, although there is considerable variation in frequency across disciplines and genres. the total count of different sn types in the fcae is 845. we have classified sns into six major semantic categories, as follows: • acts, which refer to material actions or events, e.g. “application”, “conversion”, “reaction” • locutions, which refer to verbal activity, e.g. “declaration”, “question”, “statement”; revisiting metadiscourse ibérica 29 (2015): 15-34 27 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 27 • ideas, which refer to mental phenomena, e.g. “feeling”, “idea”, “thought”; • facts, which represent information about the world, “effect”, “result”, “thing”; • modal facts; which construe probability, usuality, obligatoriness, inclination, and ability, e.g. “duty”, “possibility”, “probability”; • circumstantial facts, which present information in terms of how, when where and why, e.g. “manner”, “period”, “way”. classifying sns in this way allows us to compare disciplines and genres in terms of these semantic categories. our findings are fairly consistent in ranking the semantic categories in the following order in terms of frequency, with little variation across genres and disciplines: fact, idea, circumstantial fact, locution, act and modal fact. this tells us, in very broad terms, that academic discourse in general is concerned with, first, representing the focus of the discourse as facts; then, with discussing ideas; next, with considering the circumstances of those facts, and ideas; and after that, with presenting the locutions (most probably by others) with regard to those facts. the functions of representing actions or facts about the world in terms of their probability are less frequent than the four others. one type of sn which, following, e.g. francis (1986, 1994) and ivanič (1991), we refer to as text nouns, nouns which refer to parts of the text, nouns like “section”, “paragraph”, and “paper”, is also worthy of mention with regard to the literature on metadiscourse, given that it is included in metadiscourse taxonomies (e.g. mauranen, 1993; hyland, 2005). one related feature of sns that we have discovered in our corpus work is that many words which may function as sns occur in prefabricated patterns, as adjuncts, e.g. “as a result”, “for example”, “in fact”, “in principle”. we have not counted examples such as these as sns, because they have become grammaticalised, as adjuncts. adjuncts such as these would fit into winter’s type 2 vocabulary rather than his type 3. they would also fit into some models of metadiscourse. they perform a similar function to sns, but are not counted as sns. john flowerdew ibérica 29 (2015): 15-3428 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 28 5. signalling nouns and metadiscourse starting with vande kopple’s metadiscourse category of “illocution marker”, which “make explicit to our readers what speech or discourse act we are performing at certain points in our texts” (page 84), most models of metadiscourse have something similar. hyland’s category “frame marker” refers to “discourse acts” (page 49) and ädel (2006), has a category “metatext”, which “spells out the writer’s (and/or the reader’s) discourse acts” (page 36). in spelling out discourse acts, as should be clear from the above examples, we are in the territory of sns. while vande kopple presents only illocutionary verbs as examples of such markers, most such verbs have their nominal counterparts. thus where vande kopple gives the examples “hypothesize that”, “to sum up”, “we claim that”, and “i promise to”, we could equally well substitute nominal (sn) versions such as “my hypothesis is that”, “my conclusion is that”, “my claim is that”, or “my promise is that”. two writers on metadiscourse do include nominal markers. they are ädel, who includes “question”, “definition”, “discussion”, “example”, and “conclusion” as examples of her “metatextual” category of metadiscourse and hyland (2005), who includes the following nominals as frame markers: “aim”, “focus”, “goal”, “intention”, “objective”, and “purpose” (see appendix). such nominals as these provided as examples by ädel and hyland, it should be clear from the above section on sns, are prime examples of potential sns. however, ädel only has five examples of sns and hyland has just 6, while in the fcae, as mentioned above, there is a total of 845 different sn types5. all of these sns “spell out the writer’s discourse acts” to use ädel’s terminology (page 36), so a strong case can be made for including them in any model of metadiscourse. the reason, i think, why vande kopple and others focus on illocutionary verbs rather than their nominal counterparts is probably because their approach is primarily theoretical6. a lot has been written about illocutionary verbs (also referred to as “performatives”), at least since austin (1962) and searle (1969), while the literature on what we might refer to as the sn phenomenon has a much lower profile. one interesting model of metadiscourse that i have not reviewed above, but is of interest in this respect, is that of beauvais (1969). the title of beauvais’s contribution is “a speech act theory of metadiscourse” and his model takes as its starting point illocutionary verbs. he defines metadiscourse as “illocutionary force indicators that identify expositive illocutionary acts” (page 15). although the starting point is illocutionary verbs and illocutionary acts, which are signalled revisiting metadiscourse ibérica 29 (2015): 15-34 29 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 29 by such verbs (“expositive illocutionary acts”), beauvais allows for “secondary expositive illocutionary acts”, which may include nominal counterparts of illocutionary verbs7. nevertheless, the default category in beauvais’s model, which is a theoretical one, not an empirical one, is still the illocutionary verb. if we take a corpus-driven approach and look in the fcae, we find, in fact, that nominal (sn) forms are far more frequent than their verbal counterparts. “i/we hypothesise/hypothesize” does not occur at all in the fcae (“we hypothesize” occurs once), while “hypothesis/hypotheses” occurs 90 times as an sn in the fcae8. similarly, there are no occurrences of “i/we claim”, while there are 77 instances of “claim” as an sn in the fcae. to give a third example, there are again no instances of “i/we promise”, while “promise” as an sn occurs 21 times in the fcae9. so the point i want to make in this section is that sn is a category that has been overlooked somewhat in models of metadiscourse and it might be taken into account more seriously in any theoretical or empirical approach to the topic. the question that follows is how would such a model be operationalized in a corpus-based study? flowerdew and forest (2015) provide an inventory of all of the sns in the fcae and this could form the basis for searching in other academic corpora10. one would probably not want to use all 845 sn types as search terms, but a selection of the most frequent could make up the inventory. in my introduction to the section of this article concerning issues in metadiscourse theory, i said that i would return to these issues in my discussion of sns, which is what i will now do. so, first, let me turn to the issue of the textual and interpersonal functions. a distinctive feature of sns is that both of these functions are important for sns. insofar as they indicate to the reader/listener what type of meaning to attach to a stretch of text, they can be considered to be interpersonal. but, insofar as they link up parts of a text they at the same time perform a textual function (see flowerdew, 2003 for more on this). next, let us consider the size of the unit of analysis. in the above discussion, for a number of reasons which i will not repeat here, i have suggested that smaller items may be better than larger items as the unit of analysis. with sns, we obviously have a single item unit, so this is an argument in support of this approach. it makes the issue of counting much easier, with each unit being counted only once. concerning the issue of multi-functionality, because we are dealing here with single-word john flowerdew ibérica 29 (2015): 15-3430 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 30 items, this would seem to be an advantage and less of an issue. finally, concerning the representativeness issue, if representativeness is the goal, in the 845 items from the fcae, we have a fairly comprehensive list on which to base searches. however, other academic corpora, representative of other genres and disciplines, might contain other sn types not appearing in the 845 word list and the blind application of the fcae list might not be appropriate. needless to say, an application of the list to other non-academic corpora would complicate matters further. so this is an issue that needs addressing in any application designed for maximum representativeness. researchers would need to search their corpus to identify additional sn types. but, of course, they could use the 845 word list as a stop list, which would be likely to cover most of the sn types occurring in the corpus, especially if it was an academic one. space precludes further discussion of how sns might be operationalized in a model of metadiscourse, but i hope to have given a flavour of how such a procedure might be put into practice. 6. conclusion in this article i have reviewed a selection of models of metadiscourse and have discussed a number of important issues in metadiscourse theory: metadiscourse as interpersonal or textual; the size of the linguistic unit in metadiscourse research; the multi-functionality of metadiscourse items; and the issue of representativeness in corpus-based approaches to metadiscourse. i have then introduced the notion of sn, showing how the theory has been developed. finally, i have argued that sns represent an important resource for communicating intended meaning, i.e. that sns are metadiscoursal, and that the category might be incorporated into models of metadiscourse. in my introduction, i situated this article in the context of the need to come up with optimal descriptions of genres as a basis for a genre-based pedagogy. this article has identified metadiscourse as an important dimension of such a description and has argued that sns should be a part of such a description. metadiscourse, and within that sns, can easily be introduced into a consciousness-raising model of genre-based pedagogy (swales, 1990), where students can be invited to interpret, produce and critique their use (pérez-llantada, 2006: 82). such an approach can make revisiting metadiscourse ibérica 29 (2015): 15-34 31 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 31 learners aware of how metadiscursive patterns in the text can help to decipher the author’s intended message, can show how authors can guide readers/listeners to intended meanings and can indicate how a text hangs together, or coheres. at the same time, in terms of production, such an approach can empower learners to go beyond propositional meaning, introducing them to ways to make their intended meanings clear and signpost to their readers/listeners how to proceed through the text. article history: paper received 13 december 2014 revised paper accepted 17 january 2015 references john flowerdew ibérica 29 (2015): 15-3432 ädel, a. (2006). metadiscourse in l1 and l2 english. amsterdam: john benjamins. ädel, a., & a. mauranen (2010). “metadiscourse: diverse and divided perspectives”. nordic journal of english studies 9(2): 1-11. url: http://ojs.ub. gu.se/ojs/index.php/njes/issue/current [17/january/2015]. austin, j.l. (1962). how to do things with words. new york: oxford university press. beauvais, p.j. (1989). “a speech act theory of metadiscourse”. written communication 6: 11-30. biber, d. (1988). variation across speech and writing. cambridge: cambridge university press. crismore, a. (1989). talking with readers: metadiscourse as rhetorical act. new york: peter lang. crismore, a., r. markkanen & m.s. steffenson (1993). “metadiscourse in persuasive writing: a study of texts written by american and finnish university students”. written communication 10(1): 39-71. flowerdew, j. (2003). “register specificity of signalling nouns in discourse” in c. meyer & p. leistyna (eds.), corpus analysis: language structure and language use, 35-46. amsterdam: rodopi publishers. flowerdew, j. (2011). “action, content and identity in applied genre analysis for esp”. language teaching 44(4): 516-528. flowerdew, j. & r.w. forest (2015). signalling nouns in english: a corpus-based discourse approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. francis, g. (1986). “anaphoric nouns”. discourse analysis monographs 11. university of birmingham. francis, g. (1994). “labelling discourse: an aspect of nominal-group lexical cohesion” in m. coulthard (ed.), advances in written text analysis, 83-101. london: routledge. harris, z. (1959). “the transformational model of language structure”. anthropological linguistics 1,1: 27-29. hyland, k. (2005). metadiscourse: exploring interaction in writing. london: continuum. ivanič, r. (1991). “nouns in search of a context: a study of nouns with both openand closed-system characteristics”. international review of applied linguistics 29,2: 93-114. jacobson, r. (1960). “closing statements: linguistics and poetics, style in language” in t.a. sebeok (ed.), style in language, 350-76. new york: wiley. noble, w. (2010). “understanding metadiscourse use: lessons from a ‘local’ corpus of learner academic writing”. nordic journal of english studies (special issue on metadiscourse) 9,2: 145-169. pérez-llantada, c. (2006). “signaling speaker’s intentions in university lectures. towards a phraseology of textual metadiscourse in academic speech” in c. pérez-llantada & g.r. ferguson (eds.), english as a glocalization phenomenon. observations from a linguistic microcosm, 59-88. valencia: prensas de la universidad de valencia. schmid, h.-j. (2000). english abstract nouns as conceptual shells: from corpus to cognition. berlin: mouton de gruyter. 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 32 john flowerdew is a professor in the department of english, city university of hong kong. his research and teaching is in the field of applied linguistics, focusing on discourse studies (including academic discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, political discourse analysis and corpus-based approaches) and language education. he has authored or edited 14 books and special editions of journals and has published over 100 book chapters and internationally refereed journal articles. he serves on the editorial boards of a range of international journals and book series and is regularly invited to give plenary talks at conferences internationally. he is concurrently a visiting professor at the centre for corpus approaches to social science (cass) at lancaster university. his latest book (with r.w. forest) is “signalling nouns in english: a corpus-based discourse approach” (cambridge university press). notes 1 space precludes a listing of many other examples of the narrower approach, but one example would be that of noble (2006). 2 in corpus terms, the question of where priority should lie can be at least partially answered by work with learner corpora (e.g. ädel, 2006; noble, 2006). such work can indicate where learners’ main difficulties lie. 3 winter claimed type 3 to be a closed set of some 100 items, but this claim has subsequently been refuted and the number of such items has been shown to be an open set (flowerdew & forest, 2015). 4 hyland (2005: 49) states: “transition markers are mainly conjunctions and adverbial phrases which help readers interpret pragmatic connections between steps in an argument. they signal additive, causative and contrastive relations in the writer’s linking, expressing relations between stretches of discourse”. 5 pérez-llantada (2006: 73), in her study of metadiscourse in a spoken academic corpus, also identifies what she refers to as “phoric nouns” (examples she gives are “thing”, “question”, “point”, “issue” and “idea”) as realising metadiscursive functions. revisiting metadiscourse ibérica 29 (2015): 15-34 33 searle, j.r. (1969). speech acts. cambridge: cambridge university press. tognini-bonelli, e. (2001). corpus linguistics at work. amsterdam and philadelphia: john benjamins. vande kopple, w.j. (1985). “some explanatory discourse on metadiscourse”. college composition and communication 36: 82-93. vande kopple, w.j. (2002). “metadiscourse, discourse, and issues in composition and rhetoric” in e. barton & g. stygall (eds.), discourse studies in composition, 91-113. cresshill, nj: hampton press. verschueren, j. (2004). “notes on the role of metapragmatic awareness in language use” in a. jaworksi, n. coupland & d. galasinski (eds.), metalanguage: social and ideological perspectives, 53-73. berlin: mouton de gruyter. swales, j.m. (2002). “integrated and fragmented worlds: eap materials and corpus linguistics” in j. flowerdew (ed.). academic discourse, 150-164. london: longman, pearson education. williams, j. (1981). style: ten lessons in clarity and grace. boston: scott foresman. 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 33 6as opposed to using a “corpus-driven” approach and starting with discourse and then developing the theory (tognini-bonelli, 2001). 7 “secondary acts do not use or imply first-person subjects; instead, they attribute the expositive act to someone other than the speaker/writer of the discourse or text” (beauvais, 1989: 22). 8 to be fair, the passive form “hypothesized/hypothesized” does occur, 12 times. 9 the fact that nominal forms are more frequent than verbal ones is not surprising, given what we already know about academic discourse and its high frequency of nominalization (e.g. biber, 1988). 10 schmid (2000) also has an extensive inventory, which could be merged with that of flowerdew and forest (2015). john flowerdew ibérica 29 (2015): 15-3434 03 iberica 29.qxp:iberica 13 29/03/15 21:44 página 34 iberica 13 ibérica 19 (2010): 155-164 issn 1139-7241 gilles fauconnier by ana roldán riejos universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) aroldan@caminos.upm.esis the ins and outs of human cognition in the construction of meaning professor gilles fauconnier is a distinguished research professor in the department of cognitive science at the university of california san diego. he is considered one of the most influential scholars of our age in language and communication. fauconnier is one of the founders of cognitive linguistics through his work on pragmatic scales and mental spaces and the author of a number of books on linguistics and cognitive science, including mental spaces: aspects of meaning construction in natural language (cambridge university press, 1994), mappings in thought and language (cambridge university press, 1997) and the way we think (with mark turner, basic books, 2002). the extremely coherent framework on conceptual blending and mental spaces developed in his work has gained worldwide recognition. his recent research explores conceptual integration, compression of conceptual mappings, and emergent structure in language and beyond. after having the honour and pleasure to invite and meet him in the seminar “mental spaces and conceptual blending” that he conducted in the applied linguistics department at the universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) in june 2008, prof. gilles fauconnier has been as kind as to answer all the questions for this interview for ibérica, the journal of aelfe. his words will surely receive the attention of many linguists in spain, europe and beyond, especially of those colleagues working in the lsp area. ana roldán (ar): a great deal of languages for specific purposes (lsp) research is done on teaching and language learning. according to conceptual integration theory, are there any cognitive factors that may boost or improve learning a foreign language? gilles fauconnier (gf): in learning a foreign language many (if not most) of our cognitive capacities are recruited. the aptitude for conceptual 155 entrevista con... /an interview with... 08 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:41 página 155 ibérica 19 (2010): 155-164 ana roldán riejos integration is one of the necessary conditions for learning a language, whether native or not. in learning one’s native language, a multitude of conceptual integrations are unconsciously built up and then firmly entrenched. they are so deeply part of our thinking that we take them for granted, in spite of their tremendous complexity. we have no easy conscious access to the vast networks that we come to master expertly. the challenge of learning a foreign language is to build integrations (at many levels) different from the ones we take for granted in our native language. for adults, the learning process, although still largely unconscious, involves explicit, conscious, and therefore effortful, construction of conceptual integrations that approximate those of the target language being learned. teachers cannot teach this directly; they can only prompt students to engage in the novel constructions. but, as for the teaching of mathematics, awareness of the formidable cognitive task faced by the student will help the teacher give optimal guidance and understand where the students’ mistakes or confusion may be coming from. to learn a new language, adults need to deconstruct the powerful entrenched conceptual integrations of their native language. ar: in a recent article with mark turner1 you said that “the study of conceptual mappings, including metaphoric mappings, has produced great insights over the past several decades, not only for the study of language but also for the study of such subjects as scientific discovery, design, mathematical thinking, and computer interfaces”. do you consider that innovation in science and technology also depends on conceptual operations such as blending? do you think that innovators are aware of bringing and integrating different inputs together? can this be taught? gf: yes, conceptual integration (aka blending), especially of the doublescope variety, has been shown to play a key role in scientific innovation performed by humans. innovators can be made aware of some aspects of the integration processes that they master unconsciously. we don’t know if conscious knowledge of this kind actually facilitates innovation. it certainly provides no general recipe for innovating, but it may give us useful tools for assessing innovative power after the fact. so, for example, mathematics has changed over the years: new notions of number (such as “irrational”, “complex”, “transfinite”) have emerged through powerful conceptual integrations achieved cognitively and culturally by generations of mathematicians. this we can see and analyze in detail as we look back at the discoveries that were made, but the analysis does not predict subsequent advances or conceptual changes, because the realm of possibilities is immense. 156 08 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:41 página 156 ar: you have shown that conceptual integration is essential in constructing meaning, and in addition to semantic features typical of lsp such as meaning shrinking and meaning extension, it seems that meaning creation in lsp has a lot to do with analogy. do you think that conceptual blending theory would be a valid instrument to address research in lsp? gf: yes, the conceptual blending framework provides a general way of addressing the multiple mappings and emergent structures involved in constructing wide arrays of meaning. this goes far beyond notions of shrinking, extension, or analogy, which are fairly superficial. chapters 8, 11, 13 and 17 of wwt2 offer detailed case studies of category extension and emergent meaning from this broader perspective. the generalizations offered by conceptual blending theory should be useful to lsp research, and it should allow for more precise and detailed analyses. ar: the same article1 states that: “the message for all of us metaphor theorists is that we need to go far beyond the usual focus on cross-domain mapping and inference transfer. we need to face squarely the far greater complexity of integrations that lie behind observable metaphorical conceptual systems”. according to this, would it be possible to explain better scientific and technical language by finding more networks and connections through conceptual integration analysis? gf: undoubtedly, a deeper understanding of the rich networks that humans are capable of building helps to make sense of the emergent scientific and technical language. scientists need language that simultaneously evokes existing conceptions while at the same time building new ones. children learning “fractions”, for instance, are easily confused by the non-intuitive properties of this new kind of number. the word “fraction” evokes two conceptual inputs, proportions, and partitions, which need to be integrated with the notion of number. but the novel “scientific” term, “fraction”, applies to a new emergent structure (rational numbers), which the children must explore and master. the same is true of many scientific terms which are misunderstood or applied improperly. ar: mental spaces are dynamic packages of information operating in practically any type of complex or simple communication. in the case of lsp, don’t you consider that they are restricted (not open to everyone) and depend on knowledge and expertise? gf: expertise in any domain is the ability to manipulate specialized conceptual networks. this is true of domains that are widely shared in a culture, such as the understanding of physical space, with spatial terms such as “on”, “over”, “across”, “through”, ... and it is equally true of domains an interview with... gilles fauconnier ibérica 19 (2010): 155-164 157 08 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:42 página 157 that are restricted to cultural subgroups, like chess, or basketball, or winetasting. humans have the general capacity of building wide arrays of mental spaces in any situation (widely shared or more restricted). but specialized expertise and knowledge in a restricted group is precisely the capacity to build elaborate mental space configurations not available outside of the group. so, the same series of chess moves can be described to a beginner and to a grandmaster. both are capable of moving the pieces on the board in accord with the description. but the grandmaster will “automatically”, i.e. with little conscious effort, construct elaborate mental space configurations based on many other games and strategies stored and linked in his/her mind. as each move is described, the grandmaster will be predicting other moves, considering and evaluating alternatives, and so on. the beginner is not equipped to do any of this. so even though the beginner and the master both understand the positioning of the chess pieces, the mental configurations they come up with are vastly different. it may be said that they understand the same description very differently, and that the mental space networks available to the grandmaster are “restricted”, i.e. not available to the novice. ar: as you say, it is amazing the human faculty to integrate and to create meaning through double-scoping networks. nevertheless, can we explain why the human mind can be easily manipulated by ideology, media, etc.? gf: the fact that humans engage in elaborate meaning construction does not shield them from manipulation, on the contrary. manipulation uses existing unconscious integrations and networks to trigger further integrations that humans are very good at doing (and like to do). the very solidity of these integrations (we perform them unconsciously at lightning speed) validates emerging belief. at the level of consciousness, we experience emerging belief as obvious and inevitable. propaganda and manipulation rely above all on the rich existing networks that we possess unconsciously and live by in everyday circumstances. their persuasive power derives in large part from the fact that we have no conscious access to the complexity of the manipulation, even though our mind/brains are its instrument. ar: what is your opinion of critical metaphor analysis? do you think that this emerging framework can benefit from conceptual integration theory? gf: metaphor analysis (including “critical metaphor analysis”) is indeed very useful, and illuminates fundamental aspects of our thought processes. ana roldán riejos ibérica 19 (2010): 155-164158 08 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:42 página 158 however, the source-target inferential model turns out to be overly simplistic. it does not properly address the key issues of emergent structure and compression. this is where the deeper and more general framework of conceptual integration can help to forge more sophisticated and revealing analyses. ar: integration networks are not static, they are dynamic structures and can be innovated continuously, do you believe that this might be a way to transmit ideology in our society? how can we be aware of this action? gf: my answers to the previous questions apply to this one as well. there is indeed a perpetual ongoing change in the dynamics of any culture and its internalization in the minds of individuals, even if the same language expressions continue to be used. the hidden complexity of our backstage cognition and its unconscious nature make it impossible to be aware in real time of what is happening. only explicit analysis of the kind evoked in the preceding question, and applied to specific phenomena, can bring out some of the awesome mechanics of ideological transmission. ar: in your view, are there major constraints in cognitive operations? which ones? gf: any scientific theory is a system of constraints on the world. the law of gravity, for example, tells us how objects will fall, and thereby excludes other imaginable worlds where objects would fall differently or not at all. in that sense, cognitive operations are constraints on how the mind/brain can work, with different constraints for different species. this is what searle called the constitutive principles of a theory (or of a game, or other social activity). typically, in addition to these constitutive constraints, scientific theories also introduce governing constraints that add further limitations to the laws or operations discovered. the cognitive operations of conceptual integration have been divided in a similar way. there are constitutive principles defining certain operations, e.g. double-scope blending, compression of vital relations, or pattern completion in emergent structures. and then there is a long list of governing constraints (optimality principles), which drastically pare down the possible networks. they include seven principles of compression and other constraints such as topology, pattern completion, web, unpacking (see chapter 16 of wwt). ar: is it right that analogy is one of the main operations in human thinking? gf: yes, analogy is crucial to human thinking. but “analogy” is a vague term that we use in everyday life in all kinds of ways. modern cognitive science an interview with... gilles fauconnier ibérica 19 (2010): 155-164 159 08 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:42 página 159 proposes precise psychological models of analogy. such models have typically not taken into account conceptual blending, which makes them overly simplified, and incomplete. in my view, a more general cognitive notion is that of “conceptual mapping” and such mappings are used to construct integration networks of all kinds. the labels that we use in everyday language, such as “analogy”, “similarity”, “metaphor”, apply to surface products. when we analyze these surface products in greater detail, we find that each one is constructed through a variety of conceptual mappings and integrations. it rarely fits a single one of the “ordinary” categories. these issues are discussed and exemplified in some detail in the article generalized integration networks.3 ar: would you say that metonymy plays a distinct role from metaphor in conceptual blending? are compression and decompression processes involved? gf: the term “metonymy” covers different kinds of mapping and compression. “metaphor” is also not a unified notion: different kinds of conceptual blends correspond to what we might call metaphors in everyday language. compression in integration networks gives rise to metaphor and metonymy, but in quite different ways. the overarching goal of compression and integration is to achieve human scale: an action scenario that involves few participants and takes place in a short time. in metaphors, this is typically done by using one integration input that is already compressed, and projecting that compression to the blended space. for example, a long protracted economic competition between corporations with thousands of people can be described as “ford knocked out chrysler”. in the blended space, there are only two participants in a short round of boxing. the precompressed “boxing” input has been integrated with the complex economic competition. metonymy compresses vital relations directly. for example, in “nixon bombed hanoi”, a long chain of causal relations is compressed: nixon making a decision, the decision being transmitted through a complex chain of command (officials, generals, officers, ...), the decision being implemented by individual officers, soldiers, pilots, and finally bombs being dropped. the compression yields a “human scale” event with only two participants, nixon and hanoi, and a single action (bombing). the vital relation compressed in this example is cause-effect. there are at least a dozen such vital relations (e.g. part/whole, representation, change, identity). notice that we don’t call “nixon bombed hanoi” a metaphor. there is, alas, nothing figurative about it.3 ana roldán riejos ibérica 19 (2010): 155-164160 08 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:42 página 160 ar: in some disciplines such as architecture and publicity, for example, the interpretation of one image often requires associating (or dissociating) from different mental spaces. is this an easy cognitive task? do you agree with the saying “an image is worth a thousand words”? gf: visual blends are very powerful, because they allow us to perceive simultaneously the most relevant input spaces and the blended space. successful advertisers and cartoonists are able to convey a huge amount of information and inference with a single image, by prompting the viewer to instantaneously construct a vast integration network. this is also part of ideological manipulation, as discussed before. more generally, architecture, design, and art achieve spectacular integrations, which make up our esthetic experience, while satisfying specific practical goals, such as living and working in a building. in that sense, they associate, compress and decompress wide arrays of mental spaces. (see mark turner’s book the artful mind, and examples in wwt, such as bypass, toblerone)5. ar: are conceptual networks related to frames and scripts? gf: frames and scripts are frequent inputs to integration networks. novel frames emerge in blended spaces, and can then themselves become conventional in a culture or subculture. in the metaphorical example of “ford knocking out chrysler”, the familiar frame of boxing is used for one input, and a novel frame of corporations fighting is created. ar: you frequently give seminars and courses all over the world; do you believe that there are independent lines of thought in linguistics nowadays or on the contrary they are somehow connected? gf: unfortunately, the many lines of thought in linguistics (and in psychology or cognitive science) are difficult to reconcile, let alone unify. my own work deals with “backstage cognition”, the “dark matter” of semantics, that operates unconsciously in our minds, and is prompted but not directly reflected by overt language structure. what my collaborators and myself look for are the many ways in which language prompts for the cognitive construction of elaborate meaning in context. traditionally, the focus of linguistics has been quite naturally (even if perhaps mistakenly) on the visible grammatical structures, and their variation across the world’s languages. of course, even within the traditional paradigm, there are very different lines of thought which seem hard to reconcile. what linguists do have in common is their deep appreciation for the formidable hidden complexity of language and its usage. this complexity is not apparent to humans in everyday life: our an interview with... gilles fauconnier ibérica 19 (2010): 155-164 161 08 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:42 página 161 brains are built to hide from us the multiple linguistic layers of cognitive complexity, so that language seems to describe the world directly and straightforwardly. in itself, this is a desirable feature of our conceptual systems, parallel to our ignorance of how we walk, grasp, or push: we just do it, and thankfully do not have to think consciously of the brain and motor system that make our actions possible. ar: professor fauconnier, you are fluent in various languages, do you consider that this fact might have had an influence on your understanding of meaning? gf: it certainly helps to know more than one language in order to appreciate the relative arbitrariness of patterns that we feel are essential. but i know several monolingual scholars who have given us key insights into the nature of language and thought. ar: you are not only an eminent linguist but also an engineer and a mathematician. in your opinion, has your education shaped your work production? gf: fields like cognitive science have developed in order to cut across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. typically, researchers in fields that aim to be interdisciplinary have backgrounds with diversity, and this is certainly desirable. for me, familiarity with the kinds of generalizations and abstractions found in mathematics was very helpful and did indeed shape my work production. it encouraged me to look beyond the apparent structures of language for deeper generalizations about human thinking. ar: why are you interested in studying the origin of language, do you find any connections with language acquisition in children? gf: so many linguists and philosophers have been tempted to speculate about the origin of language that in 1866, the powerful société linguistique de paris forbade research on this topic. what turner and i noticed is that “double-scope blending” is necessary for the activities of modern cognitive humans, such as art, science, technology, religion, and language, and that there is no evidence for it in other species. this prompted us to develop a detailed hypothesis for the biological emergence of double-scope integration and its underlying key role in making human thought and language what they are. human children are born with this capacity, and taking it into account sheds light on the amazing learning abilities of infants and children (see williams, 20056). ar: finally, are you preparing any new publications on cognitive linguistics? would you like to add something else? ana roldán riejos ibérica 19 (2010): 155-164162 08 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:42 página 162 gf: i continue to write on the general themes evoked above. the lectures i gave in beijing in 2008 are being published under the title cognitive construction of meaning. the mysteries of causal compression are one focus of my current work. [interview received january 2010] notes 1 fauconnier, g. & m. turner (2008). “rethinking metaphor” in r. gibbs (ed.), cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought, 53-66. new york: cambridge university press. 2 wwt: fauconnier, g. & m. turner (2002). the way we think. new york: basic books. 3 fauconnier, g. (2009). “generalized integration networks” in v. evans & s. pourcel (eds.), new directions in cognitive linguistics, 147-160. amsterdam: john benjamins. 4 see my papers: fauconnier, g. (2005). “compression and emergent structure” in s. huang (ed.), language and linguistics 6: 523-538. in press: “causal compressions”. 5 turner, m. (ed.) (2006). the artful mind: cognitive science and the riddle of human creativity. oxford: oxford university press. the bypass: wwt, page 67. toblerone: wwt, page 135. 6 williams, r. (2005). material anchors and conceptual blends in time-telling. ph.d. dissertation. university of california san diego. an interview with... gilles fauconnier ibérica 19 (2010): 155-164 163 08 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:42 página 163 08 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:42 página 164 maquetación 1 power, persuasion and manipulation in specialised genres: providing keys to the rhetoric of professional communities. maría ángeles orts llopis, ruth breeze and maurizio gotti (eds). bern, switzerland: peter lang, 2017. 368 pages. isbn: 978303-43-3012-1. the volume edited by maria angeles orts, ruth breeze and maurizio gotti assembles a comprehensive and innovative collection of studies that take a constructivist approach to analysis of genres as tools available to professional communities to generate their practices and discourses. professions are regarded as “specialised communities aiming to dominate, police and protect their particular area of expertise” (page 10). thus, professions and the institutional frameworks they have created are strongly connected to ideologies, power and legitimation, often constituted and manifested through language. genre theory connects language study with disciplinary cultures by exploring the role of language in constructing and expressing social reality. it offers a generous conceptual framework to analysts interested in exploring professional communication. the studies collected in this volume investigate a comprehensive range of professional environments and an impressive variety of discourses, from intensely explored ones such as media, business and legal discourses to less frequently analysed ones such as surrogacy websites or air-accident dockets. they explore very specific and well-defined discourses and describe clearly the methodological tools they use in order to highlight specific instances of language use. in line with the comprehensive range of professional environments, complex corpora were analysed using appropriate discourse and rhetorical analysis instruments. each study has strong theoretical underpinnings while the analyses integrate textual, rhetorical and socio-pragmatic elements. they do so in order to show how language promotes the interests of professional groups, often through persuasion and manipulation. these are the key concepts that provide the organisation principle of the volume: the chapters in part i are dedicated to concepts of manipulation while those in reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 228-231 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 228 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 228 part ii look at discourses centred on persuasion. the distinction between the two concepts is sometimes difficult to establish and indeed, many of the studies in the volume detect both manipulation and persuasion strategies in the discourses they analyse. the introduction to the volume does admit this rather blurred distinction and adds a necessary explanatory element: the volume groups together studies on texts where “manipulation seems to dominate” and “studies where more open-ended forms of persuasion are discussed” (page 16). studies dedicated to analysis of media reporting, to editorials or texts that construct institutional profiles and interests are grouped in the first category, while genres intended for promotional, educational and conflict resolution situations are grouped in the second part. the volume appears very ambitious in scope, with clear interest for the diversity of professional fields, of genres and specific discourses, of methodological and analytical tools. through diversity of discourses, corpora and research methods the volume makes an impressive, outstanding contribution to the understanding of genre as a valuable analytical tool. the research findings communicated by the studies contribute to increasing awareness of the power and versatility of genres in exploring professional communication strategies. the section “power through manipulation” is opened by the study by vijay. k. bhatia and aditi bhatia, which investigates the creation of hybrid genres in the media and explores the concept of interdiscursivity as a key factor in the “construction, interpretation, use and exploitation of media genres” (page 32). “interdiscursive appropriation” of discourse and generic features helps create “an illusion of objectivity” (bhatia & bhatia, 2017: 32) and indicates manipulative intent and effect. the discourse of globalisation in international organisations is the focus of the article by ana bocanegra-valle. the study highlights the connection between discourses and institutional frameworks through well-evidenced analysis of the use of discourse to construct institutional dominance. the power of discourses as tools to further institutional interests and to exert control is convincingly demonstrated by the analysis. shirley carter-thomas and elizabeth rowley-jolivet have investigated syntactic resources used to deploy power in medical journal editorials as opinion vehicles of an elite, highly regulated professional community. their article analyses the diverse communicative functions of editorials and reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 228-231 229 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 229 compares editorials with research articles, texts with different communicative functions and a covert rhetoric. texts posted on the websites of surrogacy organisations were analysed by giuliana elena garzone in order to highlight rhetorical and discursive strategies institutions use to present themselves as highly professional and trustworthy. the focus on ethical arguments, the attempt to influence the emotions of the audience while appealing to rational thinking are rhetorical tools revealed by analysis of these websites. the use of face-work as an ideological instrument in judicial discourse is explored in the study by esther monzo-nebot. the analysis reveals linguistic elements used to portray the victim and the offender and demonstrates how face-work can influence public perception in cases where the victim is a member of an unprivileged group while the perpetrator belongs to a dominant group. the 2015 uk higher education green paper and the social media debate that accompanied its introduction are analysed in the chapter by pascual perezparedes. the study used corpus-aided discourse analysis methods and social data mining techniques to explore the role of keywords in shaping discourses of power and manipulation in higher education policy. the second section of the volume is dedicated to genres that display persuasive features deriving from a more balanced power relationship between participants. some of the chapters in this section centre around specific themes, (eg. violence against women) while others approach specific professional fields (eg. banking, arbitration, etc). acknowledging that professional genres are associated with “purposeful, strategic action” (page 196) the study by antoinette mary fage-butler uses critical genre analysis of campaign materials meant to promote genderequality and to advance health-promoting, ethical changes. the analysis is based on bhatia’s concept of interdiscursive analysis that invites analysts to look at the multiple discourses integrated in genres. website promotion of banking products is the genre selected by daniel gallego-hernandez. the author used a pilot corpus of business and economics texts in french, spanish and english, which were classified according to a rigorous set of criteria and analysed using the software antconc. the significance of the findings for translation practice is highlighted and so are the implications for teaching business translation. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 228-231230 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 230 acknowledging the expansion of arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution method, diana giner investigates persuasion in legal discourse with particular reference to a collection of arbitral awards. persuasion is displayed through the rhetorical strategies of intensification, hedging and attitude and help construct the line of argumentation justifying the final decision. the discourse of dispute resolution is investigated in the chapter authored by maurizio gotti, in which alternative dispute resolution strategies – arbitration and mediation/conciliation – are thoroughly examined in the context of their legal tradition and the local culture. a comparison of western and eastern traditions highlights the roles played by power and persuasion in the practice of arbitration and proposes a perspective that may change the role of arbitrators and arbitration practice. business relations and the way companies create their international, global corporate image is the focus of the study by juan c. palmer-silveira. texts presented by spanish, european and north american corporations were analysed in order to highlight the persuasive use of language by companies attempting to strengthen their international profile. discourse as both the product of power relations and as a means of exercising power is investigated in relation to risk communication strategies in the chapter by carmen sancho guinda. the structure of online aviation accident dockets issued by the national transportation safety board is related to their prevention role and displays a “discursive hybridization character” (page 313). supreme court majority and dissenting opinions are the genre analysed by holly vass in the final chapter of the section. both types of decisions carry salient information about judicial practice and attempt to convince the public of the robustness of their reasoning, thus becoming highly persuasive documents. the studies in this volume highlight the role of language as both representing and constituting reality. they discuss the significance of their findings for advancing genre theory and analysis, for the practice of teaching and translation, etc. this can only help widen the readership of this volume which makes a very informative and relevant resource for researchers, practitioners and students alike. received 15 may 2018 accepted 18 may 2018 reviewed by mirela bardi bucharest university of economic studies (romania) mirela.bardi@incontext.ro reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 228-231 231 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 231 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 43-54 issn 1139-7241 abstract the article reviews a number of key esp projects over the last 40 years and makes some predictions for the future of esp and its link with developments in transnational education. the author describes the political and economic conditions behind the spread of english as a global language which in turn are driving the development of esp programmes and projects. he makes a plea for a greater awareness of the systemic contextual aspects of esp programmes and believes that esp project implementation can be made more successful by applying aspects of educational innovation theory. keywords: eap projects, transnational education, english as a global language, language policy, educational innovation. resumen proyectos de ife, inglés como lengua global y el desafío del cambio el presente artículo examina diversos proyectos relacionados con el inglés para fines específicos (ife) desarrollados durante los últimos cuarenta años y hace algunas predicciones para el futuro de ife y su conexión con los avances en la educación transnacional. el autor describe la situación política y económica que sustenta la propagación del inglés como lengua global que a su vez contribuye al desarrollo de programas y proyectos relacionados con el ife. asimismo demanda una mayor sensibilidad sobre los aspectos contextuales sistémicos de los programas de ife y cree que la implantación de proyectos de ife puede alcanzar un mayor éxito si se aplican modelos teóricos que guarden relación con la innovación educativa. palabras clave: proyectos de ife, educación transnacional, inglés como lengua global, política lingüística, innovación educativa. esp projects, english as a global language, and the challenge of change chris kennedy university of birmingham (united kingdom) c.j.kennedy@bham.ac.uk 43 ibérica 24 (2012): 43-54 chris kennedy introduction i have been asked together with other contributors to this celebratory volume to add a few thoughts reflecting my experience in the english for specific purposes (esp) field over the last 20 years or so. i am very happy and honoured to do so since a celebration of aelfe’s 20th anniversary is entirely appropriate, but it also gives me the opportunity through ibérica to look historically at esp developments and gain a longer-term perspective on the esp profession and its associated activities. a historical perspective is sadly lacking in esp and elt in general (notable exceptions are dudley-evans & st john, 2001; howatt, 2004; upton, 2012), but perhaps this volume will encourage others to look at esp developments from a critical-historical view so that we can say esp has come of age. without history we remain “provincial in time” (magee, 1998), and the profession is weaker as a result. esp and elt although esp has certain characteristics that are highlighted more than in “general” elt (for instance, concepts such as “surrender value” and “specific” versus “general” language issues), we should not regard esp as separate from elt. elt deals with the same questions as esp, and although a number of issues are more salient in certain esp contexts, many “differences” are more perceived than real (though nonetheless important for that) deriving from such political questions as professional identity and expertise. furthermore both esp and elt are part of educational and indeed social processes, a fact which has been neglected in the past. restrictions or concentrations of expertise that have been expressed through the designation of esp as an area within its own right have their strengths of course. esp can be a highly focused activity engaging specialisation that promotes positive change, but it can also result in a neglect of fundamental educational issues and a lack of awareness of educational innovation theory which can lead to a blinkered approach hampering the success of esp programmes. esp and the socio-political background so i wish in this article to develop the notion of esp being part of broader concerns since i have found during my involvement with esp that socio44 political concerns have proved crucial in the formulation and successful implementation of esp programmes. these socio-political issues are connected to three aspects: 1) the spread of english as a global language; 2) language and language-in-education policy; and 3) curriculum innovation and change; which in their turn have influenced esp research, teaching, and learning. we have experienced over the last 30 years the spread of the market economy and political systems supporting that ideology, though it may be we are at the time of writing experiencing a crisis and a questioning of the wholesale acceptance of market economy philosophies (see sandel (2012) as an example of an alternative view). such economic and political systems and their pervasive effect on language and language programmes have also been contested in the work for example of fairclough (2010), and block, gray and holborow (2012) who deplore the marketisation of education and the spread of neo-liberal ideologies. societies are also changing from highly structured rational systems to looser less stratified ones and are moving towards operations characterised by fuzziness and complexity, multiple identities, and criticality. these developments have influenced educational systems which have moved from structural to discourse-based approaches, from teacher control to learner individualism and autonomy, from transmission of knowledge to enquiry; and from book learning to new technologies (kennedy, 2011). i shall return to these developments and their applicability to esp later in this article. linked to such economic and political developments has been the trend towards globalisation characterised by a compression of time and space, rapid technological change, population mobility, the ignoring of national boundaries by business organisations, and, as a reaction against globalisation, a process of localisation and hybridisation, and new centres of action and expertise other than those traditionally located in the west. such globalisation processes have resulted in changes in the status and use of english and especially in the spread of english as a global language (kennedy, 2010). the spread of english raises a number of questions which affect esp. such issues include: • a re-evaluation of kachru’s three circles model which criticised the power and influence of inner circle native speakers; • the ownership of english; esp projects ibérica 24 (2012): 43-54 45 • the gate-keeping function of english; • the development of new varieties of english, both local varieties and english as an international language and as a lingua franca; • the spread of western values and cultures; • the control or promotion of the spread of english. although i will not have time to cover all these issues in this article, important though they are, the final item in the list above brings us to the question of language policy and we shall see later just how much esp has been and still is influenced by national and institutional language policies (kennedy, 2001). we shall also see how esp programmes have been implemented, raising issues in change and innovation theory. these broader issues are very relevant to esp programmes and in what follows i shall try to demonstrate the relevance, taking esp projects as my theme. umessp my first experience of large-scale esp project work was the university of malaya english for special purposes project (umespp) which clearly illustrates the various socio-political strands i have been describing. after malaysian independence in 1957, a policy to establish malay as the national language and support a malay identity was gradually implemented throughout the education system. there was a shift over 14 years completed in 1980 (hashim, 2009) from a colonial english-medium education to independent malay-medium. an unsurprising consequence of the shift was a fall in levels of english competence among malay university students who still needed english skills (especially reading skills) for access to their subject literatures in, for example, science and engineering, and who would also be required to have a working knowledge of english when entering the job market, especially if they were wishing to join international companies. in response to these english language needs, a language centre had been set up in the university of malaya, and from 1974 to 1978 an esp project (umespp) managed by the british council and funded by the british aid agency oda (overseas development agency – now dfid – department for international development) operated with the university of birmingham under john sinclair as consultant partners. we can see clearly in chris kennedy ibérica 24 (2012): 43-5446 this instance the systemic nature of esp with linkage between local malaysian ideologically-driven language policies, external development agencies wishing to maintain influence over a politically important socioeconomic area, and project development in esp. we can also see the beginnings of an awareness of english as a global language and, something i shall mention briefly later, the importance of a knowledge of the theory and practice of innovation. the esp materials developed as part of the project were highly innovative and signalled a clear move away from structural approaches to a communicative and more task-based approach to reading skills in particular. the materials were ahead of their time, and as an innovation perhaps too far ahead of their time. certainly when published by nelson in 1982 as skills for learning they did not sell especially well (university of malaya, 1982). sinclair and coulthard’s towards an analysis of discourse had been published in 1975 and birmingham at the time was at the forefront of discourse analysis. sinclair as consultant to the project welcomed the opportunity to design reading materials based on a theory of written discourse, an approach he had trialled previously with concept 7-9, a set of materials derived from a theory of spoken discourse. because the malaysian students were drawn from a variety of disciplines, the selection of texts had to be fairly “wideangle”, from social science and science themes written for a general audience. a decision was also made to use “authentic” texts. the materials were challenging for the students and far removed from approaches to text as a linguistic object (talo) which they and the teachers were used to, instead treating text as a vehicle for information (tavi) (johns & davies, 1983) and as an interaction between writer and reader. the theory-driven discourse-based approach to the materials resulted in lively and engaging exercises which moved students away from transmission approaches towards interpretation and enquiry. umespp was a successful esp project in that it produced innovative materials demonstrating that a discourse-based approach to materials could work; it involved local malaysian teachers and lecturers and trained them to design and write the materials (several project participants went on to successful careers in elt); and it was a model for international collaboration and cooperation. however, in terms of longer term implementation the project was not as successful as it might have been. it demanded a high level of linguistic and content knowledge and familiarity with new methodological esp projects ibérica 24 (2012): 43-54 47 approaches from the language centre teachers responsible for teaching the materials. in-service seminars were regularly held but with hindsight, the project managers probably underestimated how much training and development was required. the major problem outside the control of the project participants was that the malaysian language policy to convert an english-medium educational system to malay-medium was coming to successful completion. the policy had been implemented at secondary school level, and shortly after the ending of umespp was introduced also at tertiary level. students who, under the former language policy would have been educated through an english-medium system, were arriving at the university of malaya as products of a malay-medium secondary school system and were beginning to be educated through malay at the university of malaya. the level of english of those attending the esp courses at the university was therefore understandably dropping so that the umespp materials were proving too difficult for current and future student audiences. as a consequence, within a few years, the umespp materials were abandoned, and the language centre was teaching general english from an established international textbook using a situational approach. the case illustrates a principle of educational change that all stakeholders should be taken into account when designing materials, and also clearly reveals how national language policy can influence pedagogical decisions taken further down the educational system. i do not want to suggest at this point that umespp was unique. there were several significant esp innovations during the 1970s. the british council had run a esp project similar to umespp in columbia (published as reading and thinking in english in 1979 with widdowson as series editor) which was discourse-based though less influenced by a sinclairian than a widdowsonian view of discourse already exemplified in the english in focus series (series editors: allen & widdowson, 1974 onwards). the nucleus series (series editors: bates & dudley-evans, 1976 onwards) was perhaps the most successful in terms of impact of all the published materials that resulted from an esp project. although originating in tabriz university in iran, the materials appealed to both teachers and students in esp institutions in other parts of the world. one of the factors contributing to its success was that it took a new (at the time) notional-functional approach to esp which appealed to practitioners who recognised materials design that took a step forwards, away from a traditional structural approach, but at the same time one in which they could recognise traces of the former familiar approach. chris kennedy ibérica 24 (2012): 43-5448 the nucleus materials were therefore sufficiently innovative to raise interest and motivation in both teachers and learners, but not so revolutionary that they presented too great a challenge, which arguably the discourse approach of umespp did. this notion of a zone of acceptability is an important condition for successful change. finally the brazilian esp project was one of the few projects to become embedded in a higher education system (holmes & celani, 2006). the tunisian esp project i have already mentioned above both the influence of politics and language policy on esp, and esp as educational innovation. each of these elements was present in the next esp project with which i was involved in the 1980s, the objectives of which were to set up an esp resources centre and to advise existing esp units based in universities throughout tunisia and help them if required with materials design and teacher development. this was an oda/british council project which had been requested by the tunisian government who were concerned at one level that tunisian undergraduates and postgraduates were not able to engage internationally in their subject disciplines because of a lack of english language skills. at another level, the project was responding to changes in government language policies which were legislating for the greater use of arabic as a national and of english as an international language (thereby having the secondary effect of decreasing the use of french by tunisians both nationally and internationally). the tunisian esp project demonstrated that esp is not solely a linguistic activity and that esp projects need to learn from innovation theory if successful implementation is to occur. for instance, context is all-important. in this case, undergraduate students did not need english to graduate so motivation was not high. esp units were staffed by teachers seconded from secondary schools who were poorly paid (many had other teaching jobs in order to make ends meet) and lacking in esp training. the project is more fully described in kennedy (forthcoming) but what emerged was that esp projects take place within complex interrelating systems and that both topdown and bottom-up strategies, what i have termed an “ecological approach” (kennedy & tomlinson, forthcoming) is most effective. esp projects ibérica 24 (2012): 43-54 49 esp projects in central europe after this burst of activity in esp project work in the late 1970s and early 1980s, aid-funded esp project work declined. dfid changed its priorities and transferred funds from english language development to social intervention programmes alleviating poverty, arguing that elt was a resource that could be paid for by those requiring it, signalling a clear market economy solution to elt provision. the political collapse of the soviet union in the 1990s and the consequent independence of the central european states changed these views. the newly independent governments changed their language policy, replacing russian with english as the first foreign language. the west saw the independence of the central european states from the ussr as an opportunity to develop new markets. to achieve this market penetration the former state-driven economies had to be changed to market-based economies. the english language became a driver to achieve these ideological objectives since it was felt that an alternative political and economic ideology could best be accessed through english. western businesses and management consultant firms set up branches in central europe, and the need for english to act as a lingua franca between those “selling” the new ideology and those “buying” it became acute. britain’s foreign and commonwealth office (fco) was given a dedicated budget managed by the british council to develop several educational projects including esp projects in central europe to raise english language standards so that the ideology of the market economy could be more effectively spread. a description of these projects can be found on the british council teaching english website (see url: teachingenglish.org.uk/transform/policy-makers/our-elt-projects/esp). i shall mention just one of the esp projects, the prosper project (bardi et al., 1999). the project ran from 1991 to 1999 and was motivated by the postsoviet union political changes in that it was designed to reform the teaching and learning of esp in 16 higher education institutions in romania and raise english language levels of those destined for the international job market in such sectors as engineering and economics. prosper provides a rare example of an extensive evaluation of an esp project’s impact and through a full description of the project’s evaluation methodology provides guidance and key findings generalisable to other esp projects. these findings include: the creation of a culture of ownership and chris kennedy ibérica 24 (2012): 43-5450 responsibility for all stakeholders in the project; the importance of communication so that stakeholders are fully informed; and the necessity for process learning, flexibility and delegation amongst project participants to encourage commitment amongst teams (bardi, 2012), all points derived from what we know about successful educational innovations. we can see once more in this example the interlinking of politics, language policy, english as a global language, and innovation theory in the successful implementation of an esp project. since the projects of the 1990s there has been little expansion in esp projects at the national level funded by development agencies. this may change for example in the arab world once the political situation stabilises as there is likely to be a demand for educational and english language development projects after the chaos and confusions of the “arab spring” revolutions and esp projects may well be a part of such funded development. esp, internationalisation, and transnational education although large-scale development-funded esp project work has declined, esp project work of a somewhat different character is expanding. its spread is connected with globalisation and the language policies particularly of international businesses, who are requiring, because english is increasingly used in international business domains, a bior multi-lingual workforce with english as one of the working languages. those seeking to work with such organisations wish to be educated at tertiary level at least partly if not entirely in english-medium institutions. in the past the inclination of such students would have been to complete their education in english-speaking countries such as usa, uk and australia, and indeed the majority still do, but many are seeking alternatives either in their own countries or in other countries offering transnational education where institutional language policies dictate that learning and teaching should take place in english. these transnational education trends are well-documented for example in british council, 2004 & 2008; oecd, 2011; and the special issue of higher education policy (mok, 2012). student demand for english-medium education has resulted in universities world-wide acknowledging the necessity for english-speaking subject specialists at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and for staff themselves esp projects ibérica 24 (2012): 43-54 51 to have access to english as an academic language for publication and career advancement. such international interest in english for academic purposes (eap) has, as we have seen from the projects i have described above, existed for many years. there is now a journal dedicated to eap (journal of english for academic purposes), and ibérica itself has been publishing articles in the area for about 13 years. the process of internationalisation has accelerated, however, and universities where english is the medium of learning and teaching either in certain subjects or throughout the institution have expanded. indeed ibérica marked this development with a special issue devoted to the theme of english-medium education (ibérica 22, 2011). the institutions especially those that are fully english-medium are often privaterather than state-funded, and examples of good practice can be found for example in turkey at the university of bilkent and middle east technical university (metu) in ankara, and sabanci university in istanbul. such examples reveal that english-medium tertiary institutions are not always in those geographical areas historically associated with the english language. thus malaysia and singapore are eager to use their greater historical familiarity with the english language to develop transnational hubs attracting students from outside their countries, but south korea, japan, thailand, kazakhstan and china are also setting up such hubs recruiting transnational students and increasing their income streams from new student markets. there are also examples of joint programmes across englishmedium institutions, two of the most noteworthy perhaps being the linked uk-china programmes between liverpool university and xi’an jiaotong university, and that between nottingham university and ningbo university which offer students the opportunity to study for split english-medium degrees in both the uk and the chinese institutions. such educational policies have important consequences for esp and eap. students enter such english-medium institutions generally from school where they have studied in their own language and have been taught a few hours per week of english as a foreign language. they need to increase their english language competence as quickly as possible after joining their university so that they can access their content subjects at tertiary level through the medium of english. the response to such a problem is generally the setting-up of english language centres where the students follow intensive english language programmes for at least one preparatory year so that in their second year they are able to start their subject content learning in science or finance for example through the medium of english. such chris kennedy ibérica 24 (2012): 43-5452 challenges have led to highly innovative materials and methodologies among language centres, reported in the academic press and at international conferences, but there are also less widely reported and under-researched issues about the management of such programmes and their leadership. transnational education will continue to expand and its development will provide new challenges for esp and eap over the next 20 years. conclusion this has been a personal and inevitably partial account of past esp developments with gaps and omissions that other contributors to this issue of ibérica will no doubt fill. i have for example excluded comments on genre analysis, on the technological advances that have resulted in the important role that corpus linguistics plays in esp research and to a lesser extent in pedagogy, and on the intercultural nature of esp work. i have not mentioned the neglect of english for occupational purposes (eop), which i hope will change with more attention given to this area of esp work. i have tried to demonstrate however the societal motivations behind esp projects and have indicated the political context in which esp operates. in particular i hope to have demonstrated the complexity of esp projects and the drivers of esp english as a global language, national and institutional language policy, and innovation and change. i congratulate aelfe on its valuable contribution to the esp profession over the last 20 years, and wish it all success over the next 20 years in providing a forum for discussion of some of the ideas i and others have presented in this issue of its associated journal. [paper received 18 july 2012] [revised paper accepted 23 july 2012] references esp projects ibérica 24 (2012): 43-54 53 allen, j.p.b. & h.g. widdowson (eds.) (1974). english in focus series. oxford: oxford university press. bardi, m., g. chefneux, d. comanettchi & t. magureanu (1999). the prosper project. bucharest: british council. bardi, m. (2012). “measuring the impact of the prosper project in romania” in c. tribble (ed.), managing change in elt, 179-186. london: british council. bates, m. & t. dudley-evans (eds.) (1976). nucleus series. london: longman. block, d., j. gray & m. holborow (2012). neoliberalism and applied linguistics. london: routledge. british council (2008). international student mobility in east asia. london: british council. chris kennedy has worked as teacher, trainer, adviser, academic and manager in africa, europe, the middle east, asia, and south america. his research and publications focus on curriculum innovation, language policy, and english as global language, and the inter-relationships between them, with interests also in linguistic landscapes, professional communication and applied corpus linguistics. he is a past president of iatefl. he is professor in tefl and applied linguistics at the university of birmingham uk, teaching on campus and distance masters and phd programmes. chris kennedy ibérica 24 (2012): 43-5454 british council (2004). vision 2020. london: british council. dudley-evans, t. & m. st john (2001). developments in esp. cambridge: cambridge university press. fairclough, n. (2010). critical discourse analysis. london: longman. hashim a. (2009). “not plain sailing: malaysia’s language choice in policy and education”. aila review 22: 36-51. holmes j. & m. celani (2006). “sustainability and local knowledge”. english for specific purposes 25: 109-122. howatt, a. (2004). a history of elt. oxford: oxford university press. johns, t. & f. davies (1983). “text as vehicle for information”. reading in a foreign language 1: 119. kennedy, c. (2001). “language use, language planning and esp” in j. flowerdew & m. peacock (eds.), research perspectives on eap, 25-41. cambridge: cambridge university press. kennedy, c. (2010). “learning english in a global context” in s. hunston & d. oakey (eds.), introducing applied linguistics, 84-93. london: routledge. kennedy, c. (2011). “challenges for language policy, language and development” in h. coleman (ed.), dreams and realities: developing countries and the english language, 24-38. london: british council. kennedy, c. (forthcoming). “models of change and innovation” in k. hyland & l. wong (eds.), innovation and change in english language education. kennedy, c. & b. tomlinson (forthcoming). “implementing language policy and planning through materials development” in b. tomlinson (ed.), applied linguistics applied: applications of theories of applied linguistics to materials development for language learning. london: continuum. magee, b. (1998). confessions of a philosopher. london: phoenix press. mok, k.h. (2012). higher education policy. special issue on “transnational education and student mobility in asia”, vol. 245, issue 2, june 2012. oecd (2011). education at a glance 2011: oecd indicators. url: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/61/ 2/48631582.pdf [23/07/12] sandel m. (2012). what money can’t buy: the moral limits of markets. london: allen lane. sinclair, j. & r.m. coulthard (1975). towards an analysis of discourse. oxford: oxford university press. university of malaya (1982). skills for learning development. hong kong: thomas nelson/university of malaya press. upton, t.a. (2012). “lsp at 50: looking back, looking forward”. ibérica 23: 9-28. widdowson, h.g. (ed.) (1979). reading and thinking in english series. oxford: oxford university press. 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this article uses the semantic tagging tools provided by wmatrix3 to investigate the discourse of corporate annual reports to shareholders from leading ukbased companies in four sectors: pharmaceuticals, food, mining and finance. six potentially interesting areas of commonality are identified (change, inclusion, size: big, important, cause and effect, and time: begin). concordance lines from these areas in each subcorpus are then analysed qualitatively to identify the presence of shared value-systems in the discourse of the reports. a contrastive analysis is then conducted which reveals differences between the four sectors in the keyness of areas such as safety, strength, newness and focus, as well as colleague and client orientation. these findings are discussed in the light of previous research on business communication. finally, some advantages of using semantic tagging over standard corpus linguistic tools are discussed. keywords: corporate discourse, annual reports, semantic tagging, corpus linguistics, business communication, values. resumen l a i nv e s t ig a c i ón d e l di s c ur s o e v al u at iv o e n i nf o rm e s a nu al e s me d ia nt e e t iq ue ta d o s e má nti c o este artículo utiliza herramientas de etiquetado semántico proporcionadas por wmatrix3 para investigar el discurso de los informes anuales corporativos dirigidos a los accionistas de empresas ubicadas en el reino unido y pertenecientes a los siguientes sectores: sector farmacéutico, alimentación, minería y finanzas. se identifican seis áreas de interés potencial (cambio, inclusión, tamaño: grande, importante, causa y efecto, y tiempo: inicio). se analizan las líneas de concordancia de cada una de estas áreas en cada subcorpus researching evaluative discourse in annual reports using semantic tagging ruth breeze universidad de navarra (spain) rbreeze@unav.es 41 ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 ruth breeze de forma cualitativa con el fin de identificar la presencia de sistemas de valores compartidos en el discurso de estos informes. posteriormente, se lleva a cabo un análisis contrastivo, que revela diferencias entre los cuatro sectores respecto a las palabras clave utilizadas, de áreas tales como seguridad, fortaleza, novedad y enfoque, así como en orientación hacia colegas y clientes. se comentan los resultados obtenidos a la luz de la investigación previa en el ámbito de la comunicación empresarial. finalmente, se hace una valoración de algunas ventajas que conlleva la utilización de etiquetado semático frente a herramientas estándar empleadas en lingüística de corpus. palabras clave: discurso corporativo, informes anuales, etiquetado semántico, lingüística de corpus, comunicación empresarial, valores. 1. introduction corporate discourse has long been a focus of interest for applied linguists, and a substantial volume of research exists into the way that language is used in the business world. one genre that is attracting increasing attention is the corporate annual report, which came into existence as a mainly factual document intended to inform shareholders about company performance, but which has now developed into a complex genre with a number of different communicative purposes (bartlett & jones, 1997; stanton & stanton, 2002; ditlevsen, 2012; breeze, 2015). according to bhatia (2010), companies’ annual reports generally combine at least four different discourses, namely accounting discourses, legal discourses, the discourse of economics, and public relations discourse. these are not evenly distributed across the report, but tend to be concentrated in specific sections, with a major division between the first and second half of the report. the second half, with its sober presentation and dense print, contains the factual information required by law. this is presented through accounting discourse (represented in technical data and auditors’ statements), and legal discourse in the form of disclaimers (de groot, 2014; breeze, 2015), although the discourse of economics may also figure here in the interpretive paragraphs accompanying the numerical information. by contrast, the first half of the report, with its “magazine” format, has taken on a significant public relations role over the last thirty years or so (ditlevsen, 2012), providing narratives which show “who the company is and what its values are, what its businesses are and how successful they have been” (courtright & smudde, 2009: 258). the promotional discourse of this part is also blended with the discourse of 42 economics, and it should be noted that the latter is deployed strategically to recontextualise and interpret the facts, sometimes with a considerable degree of licence (bhatia, 2010). given the multifaceted nature of this complex genre, it is not surprising that researchers have often chosen to centre on one particular section or aspect. for example, considerable research efforts have focused on the “letter to shareholders” (vázquez orta & foz gil, 1995; abrahamson & amir, 1996; hyland, 1998; smith & taffler, 2000; bhatia, 2004; craig & amernic, 2004), while there has been a recent surge of interest in particular themes such as readability (clatworthy & jones, 2001), accuracy in corporate disclosure (abraham & shrives, 2014) or visual style (davison, 2010), and multimodality (de groot et al., 2006), as well as certain aspects of stakeholder response (rutherford, 2005; de groot, 2014) or specific sectors such as banking (malavasi, 2010). however, perhaps because of the complex nature of the reports, or their presumed overlap with other areas of promotional discourse, so far less attention has been paid to the ethos or value system that runs through the public relations discourse of annual reports in general, and the possible differences between companies in different sectors. the present paper centres on the first half of the report, which most clearly embodies the company’s discursive self-presentation and is not constrained by legal requirements. as sandell and svensson state (2016: 9), annual reports “do much more than report financial performance; they partake in the symbolic production and reproduction of reality”, and this is particularly evident in the first section, whose contents, wording and general presentation are designed to index particular values that enhance the company’s image. research into values in discourse in other areas has often been conducted using corpus linguistic tools which involve the identification of keywords and comparison of word frequencies across corpora (hyland, 1997; giannoni, 2010). however, it is clear that standard corpus data such as frequencies and keyness are only capable of providing part of the story. innovative semantic tagging tools such as wmatrix3 (koller et al., 2008; rayson, 2008) can go further, in that rather than identifying particular words that are salient, they can also pinpoint semantic areas that are especially important. by using such tools it has been possible, for example, to establish that doctor-patient communication contains frequent references to the semantic field of “violence”, materialised in words such as “fight” or “battle” (semino, 2008; semino et al., 2015). since many different words may semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 43 be used to convey the same idea, it is likely that on the level of simple word frequencies, or even keyness values, none of these words will attain significance individually. however, taken together as a semantic field, they can be visualised as an area that is surprisingly important. semantic tagging has already been applied to business discourse by authors interested in metaphor. for example, kheovichai (2015) uses semantic tagging to identify potential metaphor scenarios in an academic business corpus, proceeding by scanning the semantic categories found for semantic domains “that seemed incongruent with the discourse of business science” (page 160), and then analysing the concordance lines manually. he did not specify any frequency cut-off point for this, and thus was able to include very low frequency items in his results. he identified scenarios involving war, sport, games, journeys, machines, living organisms, and buildings, all of which, in his interpretation, appeared to centre on the source domain of a bounded space. importantly, he noted that source domains close to each other generate clusters of metaphorical expressions, so it is not necessarily appropriate to examine these at the lexical level, since exploration at the semantic level is likely to be more fruitful. semantic tagging also holds great promise for the study of values in discourse. in particular, semantic analysis should shed light on the underlying mind-set, that is, the values and assumptions which underpin what is considered to be effective communication in a given context. previous discourse studies using corpus tools to uncover disciplinary value systems (hyland, 1997; giannoni, 2010; breeze, 2011) have generally relied on mixed methods, using quantitative criteria to identify areas of interest, which are then followed up by qualitative analysis. the recent addition of semantic tagging to the analytical toolbox opens up new possibilities in this respect, as researchers go beyond mere recurrence of lexical items to examine salient areas of meaning. in the present article, a mixed-methods approach to investigating values in discourse is extended and refined by the application of semantic tagging to a corpus of annual reports from four different areas: the pharmaceutical industry; supermarkets and the food industry; mining; and financial services/fund management. these sectors are all important for the uk economy but also provide some degree of contrast. semantic tagging was used to identify key areas of meaning, and to compare the subcorpora both across semantic areas and within each area. the principal research questions ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): 41-6644 were therefore: i) can semantic analysis help identify the values present in annual reports; ii) what values are prominent; and iii) how do these values vary between the sectors chosen? 2. material and method a corpus was built from the 2013 edition of 16 annual reports published on the websites of major public limited companies listed on the london stock exchange, all of which had been listed on the ftse 100 within the previous ten years. four companies were selected from each of the following sectors: the pharmaceutical industry; food and supermarkets; financial services and fund management; and mining. the annual reports all fell naturally into two parts: the first consisted of general information about the company, its areas of business, performance and aspirations for the future; while the second contained the information required by law, including the audit reports, balance sheets, information about corporate governance, and so on. these parts were clearly distinguishable in terms of format, since the first part was visually attractive, making use of a variety of graphic and photographic techniques to create a magazine-like presentation, while the second part had smaller print and contained large quantities of numerical data in the form of soberly-presented tables or line graphs. for the purposes of this study, the first part of each annual report was saved in text format. the resulting texts were then assembled to constitute the four subcorpora (descriptive data are provided in table 1). each subcorpus was then uploaded to wmatrix3 (kindly provided by dr. paul rayson, ucrel, university of lancaster; see rayson, 2008). briefly, wmatrix3 uses the ucrel semantic analysis system to tag corpus tokens according to 21 broad semantic fields (emotion, life and living things, entertainment, etc.), each subdivided into a large number of different subsections (archer et al., 2002). thus category i (money and commerce), for example, is subdivided into 22 different sections and subsections reflecting different aspects of money: for example, the term “invest” would semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 45 ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): …-… identify areas of interest, which are then followed up by qualitative analysis. the recent addition of semantic tagging to the analytical toolbox opens up new possibilities in this respect, as researchers go beyond mere recurrence of lexical items to examine salient areas of meaning. in the present article, a mixed-methods approach to investigating values in discourse is extended and refined by the application of semantic tagging to a corpus of annual reports from four different areas: the pharmaceutical industry; supermarkets and the food industry; mining; and financial services/fund management. these sectors are all important for the uk economy but also provide some degree of contrast. semantic tagging was used to identify key areas of meaning, and to compare the subcorpora both across semantic areas and within each area. the principal research questions were therefore: i) can semantic analysis help identify the values present in annual reports; ii) what values are prominent; and iii) how do these values vary between the sectors chosen? 2. material and method a corpus was built from the 2013 edition of 16 annual reports published on the websites of major public limited companies listed on the london stock exchange, all of which had been listed on the ftse 100 within the previous ten years. four companies were selected from each of the following sectors: the pharmaceutical industry; food and supermarkets; financial services and fund management; and mining. the annual reports all fell naturally into two parts: the first consisted of general information about the company, its areas of business, performance and aspirations for the future; while the second contained the information required by law, including the audit reports, balance sheets, information about corporate governance, and so on. these parts were clearly distinguishable in terms of format, since the first part was visually attractive, making use of a variety of graphic and photographic techniques to create a magazine-like presentation, while the second part had smaller print and contained large quantities of numerical data in the form of soberly-presented tables or line graphs. for the purposes of this study, the first part of each annual report was saved in text format. the resulting texts were then assembled to constitute the four subcorpora (descriptive data are provided in table 1). pharmaceuticals food mining finance tokens 109,588 70,998 65,251 80,825 standardised ttr 38.27 39.01 37.64 36.53 table 1. descriptive data from the four subcorpora. be tagged as i1.1 (money and pay), while “profitable” would be tagged as i1.1+ (money: affluence), “debt” or “loss” would be tagged as i1.2 (money: debt), and so on. since the first stage was to establish the key semantic areas in each subcorpus, it was necessary to select a reference corpus. the most obvious choices appeared to be the bnc business or the bnc information corpora available on wmatrix3. to establish which corpus was likely to be most appropriate, lists of key semantic areas for the finance subcorpus were generated using both potential reference corpora. as can be seen from table 2, the differences in results were relatively small, since 23 of the top 30 categories were shared. areas related to money, numbers and business were key when either reference corpus was used, that is, the reports were strongly oriented towards money, numbers and business even when compared with another business corpus. more interestingly, semantic fields such as “time: beginning” and “evaluation: good” were also salient in both, as were areas related to size and strength. regarding the differences, by using bnc business as a reference corpus, it was possible to pinpoint the ways in which these subcorpora were different from business documentation in general, i.e. in the frequency of geographical terms, references to change, etc., whereas when bnc information was used, some key areas identified were related to common themes when discussing business activity (money, green issues). the decision was therefore made to use bnc business as a reference corpus, since this would help to pinpoint any areas of value that were more important in these reports than in general business literature. ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): 41-6646 semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): …-… each subcorpus was then uploaded to wmatrix3 (kindly provided by dr. paul rayson, ucrel, university of lancaster; see rayson, 2008). briefly, wmatrix3 uses the ucrel semantic analysis system to tag corpus tokens according to 21 broad semantic fields (emotion, life and living things, entertainment, etc.), each subdivided into a large number of different subsections (archer et al., 2002). thus category i (money and commerce), for example, is subdivided into 22 different sections and subsections reflecting different aspects of money: for example, the term “invest” would be tagged as i1.1 (money and pay), while “profitable” would be tagged as i1.1+ (money: affluence), “debt” or “loss” would be tagged as i1.2 (money: debt), and so on. since the first stage was to establish the key semantic areas in each subcorpus, it was necessary to select a reference corpus. the most obvious choices appeared to be the bnc business or the bnc information corpora available on wmatrix3. to establish which corpus was likely to be most appropriate, lists of key semantic areas for the finance subcorpus were generated using both potential reference corpora. as can be seen from table 2, the differences in results were relatively small, since 23 of the top 30 categories were shared. areas related to money, numbers and business were key when either reference corpus was used, that is, the reports were strongly oriented towards money, numbers and business even when compared with another business corpus. more interestingly, semantic fields such as “time: beginning” and “evaluation: good” were also salient in both, as were areas related to size and strength. bnc business only bnc business and bnc information bnc information only giving interested geog. terms inclusion measure: distance constraint change business, general attentive business, selling cause-effect in power money: pay numbers time: beginning drama danger quantities eval: good useful important investigate time: period money: affluence ethical size: big money: cost tough, strong belong group understanding knowledgeable wanted confident able, intelligent money, general degree table 2. top 30 semantic areas in finance subcorpus, using bnc business and bnc information as reference corpora. regarding the differences, by using bnc business as a reference corpus, it was possible to pinpoint the ways in which these subcorpora were different from business documentation in general, i.e. in the frequency of geographical terms, references to change, etc., whereas when bnc information was used, some key areas identified were related to common themes when discussing business activity (money, green issues). the decision was therefore made to use bnc in order to identify values shared by the four subcorpora, a search was conducted for the top 30 key semantic categories for each subcorpus. common potentially value-related areas were identified, and then analysed using quantitative frequency counts for lexical items, complemented by qualitative examination of concordance lines. then, to explore possible differences between the value systems of the four subcorpora, all semantic areas found to have high keyness, measured as log likelihood >130, were identified in each subcorpus (log likelihood (ll) is the level of statistical significance of the difference between the frequencies of a particular semantic area in the two corpora; the larger the ll, the more certain we can be that the difference is not a coincidence, cf. rayson, 2008). the potential values evoked by these in the subcorpora were then investigated. 3. results analysis of the 30 areas with the highest keyness scores revealed considerable overlap between the four subcorpora. by way of illustration, the top 12 non-merged categories for each subcorpus are shown in table 3. as might be expected, “medicine, science and technology” and “disease” ranked high in the subcorpus of pharmaceutical companies, while “substances, solid” was high on the list for mining companies, and “food” and “farming, horticulture” were important in food companies. in finance, predictably, “money and pay”, “numbers” and “business generally” headed the list. rather more interestingly, the area associated with “tough, strong” was salient in the finance subcorpus, while “time: new and young” was important in the food industry and in pharmaceuticals. on the other hand, semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 47 ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): …-… business as a reference corpus, since this would help to pinpoint any areas of value that were more important in these reports than in general business literature. in order to identify values shared by the four subcorpora, a search was conducted for the top 30 key semantic categories for each subcorpus. common potentially value-related areas were identified, and then analysed using quantitative frequency counts for lexical items, complemented by qualitative examination of concordance lines. then, to explore possible differences between the value systems of the four subcorpora, all semantic areas found to have high keyness, measured as log likelihood >130, were identified in each subcorpus (log likelihood (ll) is the level of statistical significance of the difference between the frequencies of a particular semantic area in the two corpora; the larger the ll, the more certain we can be that the difference is not a coincidence, cf. rayson, 2008). the potential values evoked by these in the subcorpora were then investigated. 3. results analysis of the 30 areas with the highest keyness scores revealed considerable overlap between the four subcorpora. by way of illustration, the top 12 nonmerged categories for each subcorpus are shown in table 3. rank pharmaceuticals food mining finance 1 medicine, science, tech food substances, solid money and pay 2 numbers business, selling numbers numbers 3 disease money and pay industry business generally 4 money and pay farming, horticulture money and pay in power 5 business generally measurement: distance actions, making business: selling 6 size: big numbers measurement: weight geographical names 7 objects generally geographical names cause and effect time: beginning 8 business: selling business generally money: cost and price useful 9 time: new and young size: big substances, material drama 10 cause and effect time: new and young geographical names ethical 11 anatomy, physiology important business generally tough, strong 12 quantities time: beginning belonging to group cause and effect table 3. top 12 semantic areas for each subcorpus. as might be expected, “medicine, science and technology” and “disease” ranked high in the subcorpus of pharmaceutical companies, while “substances, solid” was high on the list for mining companies, and “food” and “farming, horticulture” were important in food companies. in finance, predictably, “money and pay”, “numbers” and “business generally” headed the list. rather more interestingly, the area associated with “tough, strong” was salient in the finance subcorpus, while “time: new and young” was important in the food industry and in pharmaceuticals. on the other hand, there was some degree of similarity there was some degree of similarity between the lists for the four subcorpora, which all included the obvious categories “business generally”, “numbers”, “money and pay”, but which also shared certain other categories (for example, “cause and effect” appears in the top 12 in three of the four subcorpora). to explore the commonality between the four subcorpora further, i then identified the ten categories which occurred in the top thirty key semantic areas of all four subcorpora. four of these categories (“money: pay”, “numbers”, “business, generally”, and “danger”) were examined in some depth, but were eventually excluded from the present study on the grounds that they almost always indexed items that referred to technical aspects of business: to profits and other aspects of company results, to financial risks, and to market behaviour in general. although technical discourse is obviously far from free of ideological content, from a reading of the concordance lines it seemed that these areas were less closely related to the more general fields of meaning indexed in the other six (“change”, “inclusion”, “size: big”, “important”, “cause, effect”, and “time: begin”), and would require a different analytical approach. the salience of these six semantic areas in the four subcorpora is illustrated in graph 1, below. as graph 1 shows, these six semantic areas had high keyness values in all the subcorpora, but with some degree of variation between them. in what follows, i investigate the implications of this, looking at the semantic areas ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): 41-6648 semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): …-… between the lists for the four subcorpora, which all included the obvious categories “business generally”, “numbers”, “money and pay”, but which also shared certain other categories (for example, “cause and effect” appears in the top 12 in three of the four subcorpora). to explore the commonality between the four subcorpora further, i then identified the ten categories which occurred in the top thirty key semantic areas of all four subcorpora. four of these categories (“money: pay”, “numbers”, “business, generally”, and “danger”) were examined in some depth, but were eventually excluded from the present study on the grounds that they almost always indexed items that referred to technical aspects of business: to profits and other aspects of company results, to financial risks, to market behaviour in general, and to risk. although technical discourse is obviously far from free of ideological content, from a reading of the concordance lines it seemed that these areas were less closely related to the more general fields of meaning indexed in the other six (“change”, “inclusion”, “size: big”, “important”, “cause, effect”, and “time: begin”), and would require a different analytical approach. the salience of these six semantic areas in the four subcorpora is illustrated in graph 1, below. graph 1. keyness (log likelihood) of the six semantic areas selected for study in the four subcorpora. as graph 1 shows, these six semantic areas had high keyness values in all the subcorpora, but with some degree of variation between them. in what follows, i investigate the implications of this, looking at the semantic areas in general, and then exploring the lexical items that are most typical of each in their particular context within the annual reports. fhetstsilhetn eewtbe lalerengsesnisub“esiroegcat niatrecderash eigoretacrheot in2 1pto bu srue oeerth tilanommocehterolpxeto wsierogteacnteethdneid annualn ingigtagc antisem ncillah chiw,apororubcs pdaneynom“”,serbmun“”,yl end aeusac“,eplmxae(se . )aroprocb ocbusruehtneewtebyt tyirthptoethinderruccohichw ursescodirts repoannual ousobvihetd udelnc osalchihwtub”,ayp hetn israppea”tc nehti,rehtrarop aticnamesyekty sare wsierogteacnteethdneid ourf.apororubcsllaof “ddna,”yllareneg,ssenisu“b htmoedduclexylalutenev athtsemtiedexdnisaywal fre rny paomcofstcpesarheot hough tlak.siro tnd a,larnege eramot, ntenocl aicglooeid edatelryelsoclsesle erweasar cin“, ”egnahc“(ixsrethoeth owdan,”)niegbe:mit“dan itsihtfil tyirthptoethinderruccohichw y:onem“(seigoretaceshetofour osnidenimaxeerew)”regna“d nuorge htnoydutstenesrpe h ubfostcepsalacinhcetotdrre mo t,kssirlaincnao t,stulse ousobvisiesourcsdilachnicethough tfogindae sneilencdaoroncche fosdelalerenge rome htoted opim“, ”igb: eizs“, ”niosluc antenida e riueqrdluo yal ibfhti aticnamesyekty sare ,”srbenum“,y”pay: erewtub,htpedemo tsomaleyhtathtsdn dnastropot:ssenisu n iourvihabetkeram ofeeomrafy lous eshetthatd emeestis niedexdnignieanmf , t”ce, esuac“, t”nta e ht.achorpapcality idtstlli g h citnamsexsiseehtfoecneilsa b1, .woel iaroprocbsuruehtnis aerac nidetarstullis g hpra 1hpagr . )doohilekilgol(ssenyke ydutsrofdetcelessaeracitnamesxisehtfo aroprocbusruofehtniy . xiseseht,wsohs1hpagras edemsohtiwtub,aroprocbsu osntioalicpimethteatigsevin itel aicxleethginrlopxeneth co porerlnnuaahetn hitiwxtent ibér amesx ynekegh hid hasaeracint mehtneewtebnoitairavfoeerge ticnamesetht aginkolo, isthfo t somerat athsm aefol aicpty .stpor 35ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 7 hetllan isuelvassyne is,wolltahwni.m dnal, areneginsaera rlauticrapirethinhca in general, and then exploring the lexical items that are most typical of each in their particular context within the annual reports. regarding the actual frequency of tokens relating to each semantic area within each corpus, graph 2 shows these data as percentages of the total number of words in the corpus. interestingly, the percentages are fairly similar in all the data sets (pearson correlation coefficient: r=1 significant at p<0.01). the largest differences between the percentages were for “cause, effect”, which accounts for 1.2% of the tokens in the mining corpus, but less than 0.9% of the tokens in all the other corpora. in what follows, these six main categories are analysed in terms of their functions in the ideology of corporate reporting. within each category, the frequency of salient lexical items is discussed, and examples of typical uses are provided. 3.1. change under the semantic tag “change”, the most popular words in all corpora were “develop” and “development”. semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 49 ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): …-… graph 2. percentage of tokens belonging to salient semantic categories in each corpus. regarding the actual frequency of tokens relating to each semantic area within each corpus, graph 2 shows these data as percentages of the total number of words in the corpus. interestingly, the percentages are fairly similar in all the data sets (pearson correlation coefficient: r=1 significant at p<0.01). the largest differences between the percentages were for “cause, effect”, which accounts for 1.2% of the tokens in the mining corpus, but less than 0.9% of the tokens in all the other corpora. in what follows, these six main categories are analysed in terms of their functions in the ideology of corporate reporting. within each category, the frequency of salient lexical items is discussed, and examples of typical uses are provided. 3.1. change under the semantic tag “change”, the most popular words in all corpora were “develop” and “development”. table 4. top word families in each subcorpus for category “change” (relative frequency). ebreezh rut 2hpagr . ekotfoegatnecrpe neuqelautcaehtgnidragre rg,suprcoeach swohs2hap tseretni.suprocehtnisdrwo on italerorcon sraep(stesatda ecrpehetn eewtbesencerdi niimhetn insokethetof2%1. .aropro creth oeth xisesehtswolltahwin seirogetaccitnamestneilasotgnignolebsn hcaeotgnitalersnekotfoycn foesagtcenerpasa atde eshts iaferasegatnecrepeht,ylgnit tantacgniis1 =r:nteicoec e ”tce,eusac“erewsgeant 9%0.n hatsselbut,pusorcng ni esylanareaseriogetacniam suprochcaenis . nihtiwaeracitnames foerbmunaltote htf ehtllaniralimisylr tsgeralhet.01)0.p<t sountccah chiw,” llan insokethetof9% r iehtfosrmetnid xiseseht,swolltahwin oygoloediehtnisnoitcnfu tilacixeltneilasf oycneuqefr ovipr d.de geanhc1.3. ahc“gatcitnamesehtredun ”tnempoleve“ddna”poleve“d knra slacituecamraph esylanareaseriogetacniam cf n hitiwng.itporeretaporor elpmaxedna,dessucsidsismet sdrworalupoptsomeht,”egna ”. food gninmi r iehtfosrmetnid hetetach caen erasesulacipytf ose erwearoprocllanis encnafi 5 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…8 1 )04.0(polevde 2 )01.0(egnach 3 )0(trevnco 4 )0(elitalvo 4e tabl . n iesiliamfd orwtop )52.0(polevde 4.0(polevde tsujad )3.1(0 )40.0(rucoc )11.0(egnach 10.0(elitalvo )0(elitalvo be 01)0.(e com elr(hange”c“yegoratcorfpusorubcsh eacn )14 )32.0(polevde )61.0(egnach ) elitalvo )1.0(0 01) )10.0(trevnco )yequencrfe viatel . ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): …-… graph 2. percentage of tokens belonging to salient semantic categories in each corpus. regarding the actual frequency of tokens relating to each semantic area within each corpus, graph 2 shows these data as percentages of the total number of words in the corpus. interestingly, the percentages are fairly similar in all the data sets (pearson correlation coefficient: r=1 significant at p<0.01). the largest differences between the percentages were for “cause, effect”, which accounts for 1.2% of the tokens in the mining corpus, but less than 0.9% of the tokens in all the other corpora. in what follows, these six main categories are analysed in terms of their functions in the ideology of corporate reporting. within each category, the frequency of salient lexical items is discussed, and examples of typical uses are provided. 3.1. change under the semantic tag “change”, the most popular words in all corpora were “develop” and “development”. rank pharmaceuticals food mining finance 1 develop (0.40) develop (0.25) develop (0.41) develop (0.23) 2 change (0.10) adjust (0.13) occur (0.04) change (0.16) 3 convert (0) change (0.11) volatile (0.01) volatile (0.01) 4 volatile (0) volatile (0) become (0.01) convert (0.01) table 4. top word families in each subcorpus for category “change” (relative frequency). ebreezh rut 2hpagr . ekotfoegatnecrpe neuqelautcaehtgnidragre rg,suprcoeach swohs2hap tseretni.suprocehtnisdrwo on italerorcon sraep(stesatda ecrpehetn eewtbesencerdi niimhetn insokethetof2%1. .aropro creth oeth xisesehtswolltahwin seirogetaccitnamestneilasotgnignolebsn hcaeotgnitalersnekotfoycn foesagtcenerpasa atde eshts iaferasegatnecrepeht,ylgnit tantacgniis1 =r:nteicoec e ”tce,eusac“erewsgeant 9%0.n hatsselbut,pusorcng ni esylanareaseriogetacniam suprochcaenis . nihtiwaeracitnames foerbmunaltote htf ehtllaniralimisylr tsgeralhet.01)0.p<t sountccah chiw,” llan insokethetof9% r iehtfosrmetnid xiseseht,swolltahwin oygoloediehtnisnoitcnfu tilacixeltneilasf oycneuqefr ovipr d.de geanhc1.3. ahc“gatcitnamesehtredun ”tnempoleve“ddna”poleve“d knra slacituecamraph esylanareaseriogetacniam cf n hitiwng.itporeretaporor elpmaxedna,dessucsidsismet sdrworalupoptsomeht,”egna ”. food gninmi r iehtfosrmetnid hetetach caen erasesulacipytf ose erwearoprocllanis encnafi 5 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…8 1 )04.0(polevde 2 )01.0(egnach 3 )0(trevnco 4 )0(elitalvo 4e tabl . n iesiliamfd orwtop )52.0(polevde 4.0(polevde tsujad )3.1(0 )40.0(rucoc )11.0(egnach 10.0(elitalvo )0(elitalvo be 01)0.(e com elr(hange”c“yegoratcorfpusorubcsh eacn )14 )32.0(polevde )61.0(egnach ) elitalvo )1.0(0 01) )10.0(trevnco )yequencrfe viatel . table 4 shows the top word families in each subcorpus for the semantic area “change”, with the relative frequency in brackets (the relative frequency is calculated by wmatrix3 as a percentage of the total number of words in the corpus). this is not surprising in pharmaceuticals and food, where the development of new drugs or products is an important part of the company’s activities: 1. the discovery and development of a new vaccine is a complex process that typically takes between 10 and 12 years (pharma). in mining, the use is rather broader. in example 2, for example, development seems to refer to areas of company activity in general: 2. we have operations, exploration and development projects in australia, namibia, mozambique and canada. (mining) it is also used to index general areas of corporate activity as in the phrase “sustainable development”: 3. …the approach that it has adopted to identify and prioritise its material sustainable development risks. (mining) however, “develop” is also often used more specifically (perhaps even euphemistically) to refer to mining itself: 4. rio tinto announced that all funding and work on underground development of oyu tolgoi would be delayed. (mining) the concept of development is also frequently applied to areas other than scientific experimentation: 5. talent and leadership development. we aim to attract and retain the most talented people by investing in training and development that is tailored to individuals’ needs and recognises the potential of our employees. (pharma) interestingly, the noun “development/s” was at least twice as frequent as the verb forms in mining and pharmaceuticals, perhaps owing to the specialised use of the term “development” to mean creation of a new drug or exploitation of a new mine. by contrast, there were similar numbers of verb forms and noun forms in both the food and the finance subcorpora. one interesting feature uncovered by this exploration was that the lexical items tagged as “change” often go beyond objective reporting, clearly moving into the area of promotional discourse ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): 41-6650 6. our approach to r & d includes our strategy for open innovation for the diseases of the developing world, which seeks to stimulate innovation and enhance the productivity of our research process. this research has transformed our approach to intellectual property and external partnerships. (pharma) 7. the toronto office services our burgeoning canadian client base. (finance) the evaluative associations of the items tagged as “change” are overwhelmingly positive. only “volatility” is generally negative in its associations: 8. this is despite periods of volatility and weak market sentiment during the second half of the year, which saw a broad sell-off across global markets, with some emerging economies being particularly hard hit. (finance) 3.2. inclusion the high salience of words related to the semantic area of inclusion is particularly interesting. as table 5 shows, the most frequent single headword in all four subcorpora was the verb “include”, which seems to be used very often to convey the impression that more things could be mentioned, as in the following example from finance: 9. we have teams of skilled investment professionals across a range of investment strategies including equities, fixed income, property and solutions to serve our institutional and retail clients. (finance) the word “include” is patently an instance of vague language used to suggest that a comprehensive list would be much longer: 10. nonetheless, we have not abandoned specialist products where there is semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 51 ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): …-… the evaluative associations of the items tagged as “change” are overwhelmingly positive. only “volatility” is generally negative in its associations: 8. this is despite periods of volatility and weak market sentiment during the second half of the year, which saw a broad sell-off across global markets, with some emerging economies being particularly hard hit. (finance) 3.3. inclusion the high salience of words related to the semantic area of inclusion is particularly interesting. rank pharmaceuticals food mining finance 1. include (0.32) include (0.22) include (0.35) include (0.19) 2. integrate (0.04) comprise (0.03) contain (0.03) integrate (0.03) 3. involve (0.04) involve (0.01) comprehensive (0.02) comprise (0.03) 4. comprise (0.02) comprehensive (0.01) involve (0.02) involve (0.02) table 5. top word families in each subcorpus for category “inclusion” (relative frequency>0.02). as table 5 shows, the most frequent single headword in all four subcorpora was the verb “include”, which seems to be used very often to convey the impression that more things could be mentioned, as in the following example from finance: 9. we have teams of skilled investment professionals across a range of investment strategies including equities, fixed income, property and solutions to serve our institutional and retail clients. (finance) the word “include” is patently an instance of vague language used to suggest that a comprehensive list would be much longer: 10. nonetheless, we have not abandoned specialist products where there is demand. these include our suite of high yield products, strengthened by the arrival of the artio team. (finance) 11. westmill foods specialises in supplying uk restaurants and wholesalers with high-quality ethnic foods including rice, spices, sauces, oils, flour and noodles. (food) alternatives to “include”, such as “encompass”, “span”, “involve”, “comprise”, and “integrate”, are used less frequently, but to the same end. 12. the workforce spans multiple nationalities, ethnicities, languages and cultures in developing countries. (mining) 13. the development of any pharmaceutical product candidate is a complex, risky and lengthy process involving significant financial, r&d, and other resources. (pharma) the frequent use of such terms is reminiscent of the category of “vague quantification” identified by banks (1998) in scientific writing. the allusion is to multiple entities, some of which will be mentioned, others not, presumably demand. these include our suite of high yield products, strengthened by the arrival of the artio team. (finance) 11. westmill foods specialises in supplying uk restaurants and wholesalers with high-quality ethnic foods including rice, spices, sauces, oils, flour and noodles. (food) alternatives to “include”, such as “encompass”, “span”, “involve”, “comprise”, and “integrate”, are used less frequently, but to the same end. 12. the workforce spans multiple nationalities, ethnicities, languages and cultures in developing countries. (mining) 13. the development of any pharmaceutical product candidate is a complex, risky and lengthy process involving significant financial, r&d, and other resources. (pharma) the frequent use of such terms is reminiscent of the category of “vague quantification” identified by banks (1998) in scientific writing. the allusion is to multiple entities, some of which will be mentioned, others not, presumably owing to constraints of space. the notion that “run ons” like “etc.” or “and so on” are symptoms of a careless writing style may explain why report writers opt for verbs to express vague notions of plurality. interestingly, then, the semantic tag “inclusion” seems to point to the presence of what could be termed, adapting from perelman and olbrechtstyteca (1969), a “rhetoric of vague quantification”. 3.3. size: big the frequency of the semantic area “size: big” evidently reflects a key aspect of the discourse of these annual reports. in particular, the concordance lines obtained indicated the values of “growth” and “expansion”. all four subcorpora include many instances along the lines of: “enhance and expand our facilities”, “excellent revenue and earnings growth”, “address the rapidly growing demand for cardiovascular medication”, “maintaining, upgrading and expanding our facilities”. ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): 41-6652 semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): …-… owing to constraints of space. the notion that “run ons” like “etc.” or “and so on” are symptoms of a careless writing style may explain why report writers opt for verbs to express vague notions of plurality. interestingly, then, the semantic tag “inclusion” seems to point to the presence of what could be termed, adapting from perelman and olbrechts-tyteca (1969), a “rhetoric of vague quantification”. 3.3. size: big the frequency of the semantic area “size: big” evidently reflects a key aspect of the discourse of these annual reports. in particular, the concordance lines obtained indicated the values of “growth” and “expansion”. all four subcorpora include many instances along the lines of: “enhance and expand our facilities”, “excellent revenue and earnings growth”, “address the rapidly growing demand for cardiovascular medication”, “maintaining, upgrading and expanding our facilities”. rank pharmaceuticals food mining finance 1 grow (0.57) grow (0.43) expand (0.17) grow (1.36) 2 expand (0.08) large (0.07) grow (0.15) large (0.09) 3 large (0.06) big (0.07) large (0.04) expand (0.06) 4 expand (0.06) substantial (0.04) table 6. most frequent word families in “size: big” (relative frequency >0.02). in fact, “growth” and “grow” were among the most frequent lexical items associated with this area, followed by “large” and “expand” (see table 6). in food, even when instances of “grow” referring to food crops were discounted manually, “grow” was still the most frequent size-related word family. in fact, “growth” is a topos in the discourse of economics (white, 2003), where it is one of the principal metaphors used to present quantitative progress, perhaps because – despite obvious problems with the organic source domain, the “growth” metaphor lends itself to narrative integration. interestingly, as table 6 shows, “large” and “big” often occurred in the comparative or superlative forms in all the subcorpora (e.g. in finance, “large” (n=21), “larger” (11), “largest” (27); in food, “big” (n=18), “bigger” (4), “biggest” (7), while “large” (3), “larger” (4), “largest” (23); in mining “large” (21), “larger” (6), “largest” (32); in pharmaceuticals, “large” (27), “larger” (5), “largest” (31)). the abundant use of terms relating to large (but unspecific) size seems to be a further aspect of the rhetoric of “vague quantification” identified in section 3.3 above. 3.4. important exploration of the semantic field that wmatrix3 labels “important” in these corpora revealed considerable variety in the lexis used to reflect this idea. in fact, “growth” and “grow” were among the most frequent lexical items associated with this area, followed by “large” and “expand” (see table 6). in food, even when instances of “grow” referring to food crops were discounted manually, “grow” was still the most frequent size-related word family. in fact, “growth” is a topos in the discourse of economics (white, 2003), where it is one of the principal metaphors used to present quantitative progress, perhaps because – despite obvious problems with the organic source domain, the “growth” metaphor lends itself to narrative integration. interestingly, as table 6 shows, “large” and “big” often occurred in the comparative or superlative forms in all the subcorpora (e.g. in finance, “large” (n=21), “larger” (11), “largest” (27); in food, “big” (n=18), “bigger” (4), “biggest” (7), while “large” (3), “larger” (4), “largest” (23); in mining “large” (21), “larger” (6), “largest” (32); in pharmaceuticals, “large” (27), “larger” (5), “largest” (31)). the abundant use of terms relating to large (but unspecific) size seems to be a further aspect of the rhetoric of “vague quantification” identified in section 3.3 above. 3.4. important exploration of the semantic field that wmatrix3 labels “important” in these corpora revealed considerable variety in the lexis used to reflect this idea. table 7 shows the most frequent lemmas found in the four corpora under this heading (verbs were considered, but did not reach a relative frequency of 0.02 in any instance). this seems to point to low lexical variation: the lemmas with the highest relative frequency far outstripped all the other items on the list. word combinations were also rather limited. semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 53 ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): …-… rank pharmaceuticals food mining finance nouns value (0.22) value (0.22) value (0.21) value (0.18) priority (0.02) priority (0.02) priority (0.04) priority (0.03) adjectives key (0.18) key (0.18) key (0.15) key (0.2) major (0.08) major (0.08) significant (0.11) significant (0.08) significant (0.08) significant (0.08) major (0.7) important (0.04) important (0.04) important (0.04) important (0.05) main (0.03) central (0.02) major (0.03) main (0.02) adverbs significantly (0.02) significantly (0.02) significantly (0.05) significantly (0.02) table 7. most frequent lemmas in category “important” (relative frequency >0.02). table 7 shows the most frequent lemmas found in the four corpora under this heading (verbs were considered, but did not reach a relative frequency of 0.02 in any instance). this seems to point to low lexical variation: the lemmas with the highest relative frequency far outstripped all the other items on the list. word combinations were also rather limited. table 8. main collocations of “key” and “significant” in the mining and food subcorpora (ll>14). table 8 shows the main co-occurring pairs including “key” and “significant” in the mining and food subcorpora. as above in the case of “size” and “inclusion”, the discourse of “importance” serves to enhance the company and its activities, often in a rather unspecific way. the following examples illustrate how words in this category are scattered through the text, heightening the tone of importance. 14. we have significantly enhanced our innovation capability by establishing numerous alliances and licensing opportunities. (pharma) 15. most importantly though, they share the common goal and belief that looking after our clients needs is our number one priority. (finance) table 8 shows the main co-occurring pairs including “key” and “significant” in the mining and food subcorpora. as above in the case of “size” and “inclusion”, the discourse of “importance” serves to enhance the company and its activities, often in a rather unspecific way. the following examples illustrate how words in this category are scattered through the text, heightening the tone of importance. 14. we have significantly enhanced our innovation capability by establishing numerous alliances and licensing opportunities. (pharma) 15. most importantly though, they share the common goal and belief that looking after our clients needs is our number one priority. (finance) the frequency of such words points to a discourse of urgency and significance, linked to discourses of efficiency (see section 3.5), while at the same time, the low lexical variation (tables 5 and 6) also suggests that this way of writing has become conventionalised in this genre. 3.5. cause and effect word families that group together in the semantic area “cause and effect” include “result”, “generate”, “impact”, “base” (including “on the basis of ”), “relate”, “responsible”, “cause”, and so on. ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): 41-6654 ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): …-… table 7. most frequent lemmas in category “important” (relative frequency >0.02). table 7 shows the most frequent lemmas found in the four corpora under this heading (verbs were considered, but did not reach a relative frequency of 0.02 in any instance). this seems to point to low lexical variation: the lemmas with the highest relative frequency far outstripped all the other items on the list. word combinations were also rather limited. mining food collocation log likelihood collocation log likelihood key locations 67.84 key brands 78.30 key indicators 58.38 key part 42.55 key performance 53.88 key delivering 19.61 key indicator 44.11 key suppliers 17.16 key management 39.48 key success 17.16 key financial 37.41 key business 8.71 significant costs 33.24 significant year 32.94 significant overrun 32.13 significant progress 21.83 significant incidents 25.39 significant growth 19.60 significant improvements 20.33 significant sales 14.60 significant cost 17.41 significant risks 15.51 table 8. main collocations of “key” and “significant” in the mining and food subcorpora (ll>14). table 8 shows the main co-occurring pairs including “key” and “significant” in the mining and food subcorpora. as above in the case of “size” and “inclusion”, the discourse of “importance” serves to enhance the company and its activities, often in a rather unspecific way. the following examples illustrate how words in this category are scattered through the text, heightening the tone of importance. 14. we have significantly enhanced our innovation capability by establishing numerous alliances and licensing opportunities. (pharma) 15. most importantly though, they share the common goal and belief that looking after our clients needs is our number one priority. (finance) table 9 shows the most frequent word families from this area in each subcorpus with their relative frequencies (<0.02). it might not seem surprising that “result” should be the most frequent word family in all the subcorpora, because annual reports are quintessentially about reporting results. however, the subcorpora do not include the “hard” financial data from the second part of the reports, where we might expect the word “result” to be used very often in a technical sense. in fact, the concordance lines for “result” (singular) are almost all about causality, rather than financial results: 16. the reorganisation of our balance sheet since the year end will lower interest charges and result in an improved dividend cover in the future. (food) notably, 45.76% of all the instances of “result” in these subcorpora were part of the combination “as a result”: 17. we were able to achieve this as a result of the experience and capability of our in-country team. (food) 18. as a result, world demand for antibiotics and novel therapeutic approaches remains high and will continue to grow. (pharma) however, “results” (plural), which accounted for around 50% of the instances of the word family “result”, was usually associated with financial results: 19. management presents these results externally to meet investors’ requirements for transparency and clarity. (pharma) semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 55 semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): …-… the frequency of such words points to a discourse of urgency and significance, linked to discourses of efficiency (see section 3.5), while at the same time, the low lexical variation (tables 5 and 6) also suggests that this way of writing has become conventionalised in this genre. 3.5. cause and effect word families that group together in the semantic area “cause and effect” include “result”, “generate”, “impact”, “base” (including “on the basis of”), “relate”, “responsible”, “cause”, and so on. rank pharmaceuticals food mining finance 1 result (0.16) result (0.21) result (0.20) result (0.17) 2 impact (0.09) produce (0.07) due to (0.11) base (0.10) 3 relate (0.06) impact (0.06) produce (0.10) impact (0.09) 4 responsible (0.05) generate (0.05) base (0.09) generate (0.07) 5 base (0.05) responsible (0.05) impact (0.08) relate (0.05) 6 cause (0.04) effect (0.03) relate (0.06) responsible (0.04) 7 effect (0.03) base (0.03) factor (0.04) due to (0.04) 8 generate (0.03) attribute (0.04) attribute (0.03) 9 determine (0.03) responsible (0.03) 10 effect (0.03) table 9. most frequent word families in “cause and effect” (relative frequency >0.02). table 9 shows the most frequent word families from this area in each subcorpus with their relative frequencies (<0.02). it might not seem surprising that “result” should be the most frequent word family in all the subcorpora, because annual reports are quintessentially about reporting results. however, the subcorpora do not include the “hard” financial data from the second part of the reports, where we might expect the word “result” to be used very often in a technical sense. in fact, the concordance lines for “result” (singular) are almost all about causality, rather than financial results: 16. the reorganisation of our balance sheet since the year end will lower interest charges and result in an improved dividend cover in the future. (food) notably, 45.76% of all the instances of “result” in these subcorpora were part of the combination “as a result”: 17. we were able to achieve this as a result of the experience and capability of our in-country team. (food) 18. as a result, world demand for antibiotics and novel therapeutic approaches remains high and will continue to grow. (pharma) however, “results” (plural), which accounted for around 50% of the instances of the word family “result”, was usually associated with financial results: 19. management presents these results externally to meet investors’ requirements for transparency and clarity. (pharma) the variety of lexical items used to express cause and effect was fairly wide: 20. due to the change in product mix, we achieved double-digit growth in profitability. (pharma) 21. we focus on those areas where scientific advances have opened up new opportunities that we consider most likely to lead to significant medical advances. (pharma) 22. our strategy … seeks to stimulate innovation and enhance the productivity of our research process. (pharma) in ideological terms, the frequent use of these words suggests that the writers of the reports habitually represent the things that happen in terms of direct causality: good decisions produce good results, adverse situations have a negative impact. the ethos of the annual report can thus be seen to reflect a worldview that is both utilitarian (seeking the maximum good in the most efficient way) and consequentialist (the rightness of the act depends on its consequences) (stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, 2015). the seeming clarity of this utilitarian-consequentialist vision (good results are the consequence of our effective actions, while negative events are produced by external factors) is an important feature of company self-presentation in this genre. 3.6. time: begin the semantic area “time: begin” is one of the more unexpected findings in the top 30 key areas of all four subcorpora. this area contains words related to continuity, and in these subcorpora is mainly accounted for by the high presence of verbs and adjectives relating to ongoing or sustained activity. it is noticeable from table 10 that “continue” dominates this particular semantic field, which also includes items such as: “go on”, “sustain”, “sustained”, “long-standing”. it generally has a positive prosody here, ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): 41-6656 ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): …-… the variety of lexical items used to express cause and effect was fairly wide: 20. due to the change in product mix, we achieved double-digit growth in profitability. (pharma) 21. we focus on those areas where scientific advances have opened up new opportunities that we consider most likely to lead to significant medical advances. (pharma) 22. our strategy … seeks to stimulate innovation and enhance the productivity of our research process. (pharma) in ideological terms, the frequent use of these words suggests that the writers of the reports habitually represent the things that happen in terms of direct causality: good decisions produce good results, adverse situations have a negative impact. the ethos of the annual report can thus be seen to reflect a worldview that is both utilitarian (seeking the maximum good in the most efficient way) and consequentialist (the rightness of the act depends on its consequences) (stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, 2015). the seeming clarity of this utilitarian-consequentialist vision (good results are the consequence of our effective actions, while negative events are produced by external factors) is an important feature of company self-presentation in this genre. 3.6. time: begin the semantic area “time: begin” is one of the more unexpected findings in the top 30 key areas of all four subcorpora. this area contains words related to continuity, and in these subcorpora is mainly accounted for by the high presence of verbs and adjectives relating to ongoing or sustained activity. rank pharmaceuticals food mining finance 1 continue (0.34) continue (0.26) continue (0.26) continue (0.48) 2 remain (0.10) remain (0.09) remain (0.14) remain (0.13) 3 ongoing (0.03) ongoing (0.03) ongoing (0.05) ongoing (0.03) 4 sustain (0.05)* * not including sustainable, sustainability table 10. most frequent word families in “time: begin” (relative frequency >0.02). it is noticeable from table 10 that “continue” dominates this particular semantic field, which also includes items such as: “go on”, “sustain”, “sustained”, “longstanding”. it generally has a positive prosody here, associated with sustained effort on the part of the company itself, presumably with a view to linking recent actions to past actions and showing continued purposeful activity: 23. we continued to manage our costs tightly and were pleased to deliver savings ahead of the targets we set out when we launched our major productivity initiatives. (food) associated with sustained effort on the part of the company itself, presumably with a view to linking recent actions to past actions and showing continued purposeful activity: 23. we continued to manage our costs tightly and were pleased to deliver savings ahead of the targets we set out when we launched our major productivity initiatives. (food) the high keyness of this area not only suggests that the companies in question wish to present a dynamic view of time, fitting with an ideological framework favouring action, activity and consequentialism, but also indicates that they situate their present efforts within a long-term pattern, thus projecting what might be termed “proactive stability” or “sustained dynamism”. 3.7. areas of contrast between sectors as was mentioned above, it was unsurprising that some of the most outstanding areas of salience were most strongly linked to the area of the companies’ activities (e.g. for annual reports in the food sector, areas such as farming (ll 747.41) and food (ll 1214.41)), so these areas are not analysed here. however, categories like those outlined above (“cause and effect”, “time: begin”, etc.) which are not immediately related to the companies’ activities offer considerably more interest. other potentially interesting salient semantic areas which did not reach the top 30 in all four subcorpora (ll >130 in at least one subcorpus) are shown in graph 3, which also displays their log likelihood in each subcorpus. semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 57 semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): …-… the high keyness of this area not only suggests that the companies in question wish to present a dynamic view of time, fitting with an ideological framework favouring action, activity and consequentialism, but also indicates that they situate their present efforts within a long-term pattern, thus projecting what might be termed “proactive stability” or “sustained dynamism”. 3.7. areas of contrast between sectors as was mentioned above, it was unsurprising that some of the most outstanding areas of salience were most strongly linked to the area of the companies’ activities (e.g. for annual reports in the food sector, areas such as farming (ll 747.41) and food (ll 1214.41)), so these areas are not analysed here. however, categories like those outlined above (“cause and effect”, “time: begin”, etc.) which are not immediately related to the companies’ activities offer considerably more interest. other potentially interesting salient semantic areas which did not reach the top 30 in all four subcorpora (ll >130 in at least one subcorpus) are shown in graph 3, which also displays their log likelihood in each subcorpus. graph 3. semantic areas with keyness (ll >130) in at least one subcorpus. one significant outlier in which the mining industry diverges from the other subcorpora is that of safety: the semantic area related to “safe” is not prominent in any of the other subcorpora. by the reverse logic of corporate communication, this hints at levels of danger associated with mining as compared with, say, managing money, and the heightened need to legitimise companies in this sector as responsible employers (see breeze, 2012). aerasihtfossenyekhgiheth ivcimanydatneserpothswi naytivitca,noitcagniruovfa s tretnseerpriehtetautsi tsevitcaorp“detebthgmi annualn ingigtagc antisem eggusylnotona ocehttahts st dinahtwignitt,emitfow ei oslatub,msilaitneuqesnocdn gnolanihtiw th, nrtteapte m”smianyddeniatsus“ro”ytilibat ursescodirts repoannual noisteuqnis einapmo krwoemalacigoloed yehttahtsetacidnio rpsuth thawng itceoj m”. 7.3. wtebtsartnocfosaear wati,evobadenoitnemswaas some erwce enialsfoeasar epralunanr.ge.(esitiviact 41)1214.ll(nd a41)747. edniltuoe sohte kilesiroegcat wh erlyteiademimt onerahic laitnetoprehto.tseretniermo sr ullani03potehthcare hpargninwosh o slah chiw3, srotcesneew foemostahtgnisirprusnuswa ea are htotedknilylgnortsts easar,roectsdoe htnistroep lnaanoterasaeraesheto s,)41) ”,dane sauc“(e voabed itietivca’sienapmocethtodtela citnmaestneilasgnitseretniyll saeltani031>l(lraorpocbus n ihood ilkeilog lrihetysaplsdio gnidnatstuotsomeht tfoea ’senipaomche ll(gnimarfaschus ,rveeowh.erhed eysl )c.et”,niegbe:mit“ lybareidsnocrositie tondidhcihwsaerac rea) surpocbusenots .pusorubcsh caen 3hpagr . eracitnamse whnireiltuotnacingiseon senotsaeltani)031>ll(ssenyekhtwisae evidyrtsudnigninimehthciwh suprocbus . rehtoehtmosegre t:ytsafotahts iaroprocbsu aroprocbusrethoethfoynain egnadfolsevlet atsinhisth iehehtdna,yenmogniganma ee s(seryolpeme lbisnopesras ibér mseeht afs“otedatelrea arc itan oprocfoicgloesreverethyb. a sagininmithwdteiacossare smiitigelotdeendenethgi mcoe ee ,ezeebr .2012) 35ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 15 tennimorptonsi , ntioaicnummoctearo , yas, ithwderapmoc roectssihtniesianpm semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): …-… the high keyness of this area not only suggests that the companies in question wish to present a dynamic view of time, fitting with an ideological framework favouring action, activity and consequentialism, but also indicates that they situate their present efforts within a long-term pattern, thus projecting what might be termed “proactive stability” or “sustained dynamism”. 3.7. areas of contrast between sectors as was mentioned above, it was unsurprising that some of the most outstanding areas of salience were most strongly linked to the area of the companies’ activities (e.g. for annual reports in the food sector, areas such as farming (ll 747.41) and food (ll 1214.41)), so these areas are not analysed here. however, categories like those outlined above (“cause and effect”, “time: begin”, etc.) which are not immediately related to the companies’ activities offer considerably more interest. other potentially interesting salient semantic areas which did not reach the top 30 in all four subcorpora (ll >130 in at least one subcorpus) are shown in graph 3, which also displays their log likelihood in each subcorpus. graph 3. semantic areas with keyness (ll >130) in at least one subcorpus. one significant outlier in which the mining industry diverges from the other subcorpora is that of safety: the semantic area related to “safe” is not prominent in any of the other subcorpora. by the reverse logic of corporate communication, this hints at levels of danger associated with mining as compared with, say, managing money, and the heightened need to legitimise companies in this sector as responsible employers (see breeze, 2012). aerasihtfossenyekhgiheth ivcimanydatneserpothswi naytivitca,noitcagniruovfa s tretnseerpriehtetautsi tsevitcaorp“detebthgmi annualn ingigtagc antisem eggusylnotona ocehttahts st dinahtwignitt,emitfow ei oslatub,msilaitneuqesnocdn gnolanihtiw th, nrtteapte m”smianyddeniatsus“ro”ytilibat ursescodirts repoannual noisteuqnis einapmo krwoemalacigoloed yehttahtsetacidnio rpsuth thawng itceoj m”. 7.3. wtebtsartnocfosaear wati,evobadenoitnemswaas some erwce enialsfoeasar epralunanr.ge.(esitiviact 41)1214.ll(nd a41)747. edniltuoe sohte kilesiroegcat wh erlyteiademimt onerahic laitnetoprehto.tseretniermo sr ullani03potehthcare hpargninwosh o slah chiw3, srotcesneew foemostahtgnisirprusnuswa ea are htotedknilylgnortsts easar,roectsdoe htnistroep lnaanoterasaeraesheto s,)41) ”,dane sauc“(e voabed itietivca’sienapmocethtodtela citnmaestneilasgnitseretniyll saeltani031>l(lraorpocbus n ihood ilkeilog lrihetysaplsdio gnidnatstuotsomeht tfoea ’senipaomche ll(gnimarfaschus ,rveeowh.erhed eysl )c.et”,niegbe:mit“ lybareidsnocrositie tondidhcihwsaerac rea) surpocbusenots .pusorubcsh caen 3hpagr . eracitnamse whnireiltuotnacingiseon senotsaeltani)031>ll(ssenyekhtwisae evidyrtsudnigninimehthciwh suprocbus . rehtoehtmosegre t:ytsafotahts iaroprocbsu aroprocbusrethoethfoynain egnadfolsevlet atsinhisth iehehtdna,yenmogniganma ee s(seryolpeme lbisnopesras ibér mseeht afs“otedatelrea arc itan oprocfoicgloesreverethyb. a sagininmithwdteiacossare smiitigelotdeendenethgi mcoe ee ,ezeebr .2012) 35ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 15 tennimorptonsi , ntioaicnummoctearo , yas, ithwderapmoc roectssihtniesianpm one significant outlier in which the mining industry diverges from the other subcorpora is that of safety: the semantic area related to “safe” is not prominent in any of the other subcorpora. by the reverse logic of corporate communication, this hints at levels of danger associated with mining as compared with, say, managing money, and the heightened need to legitimise companies in this sector as responsible employers (see breeze, 2012). on the other hand, reports in the drugs and food industry are remarkable for their insistence on “newness”, materialised in the keyness of “time: new and young”. in the case of food, this “newness” refers to new business operations, but also notably to the freshness of the product, and, more frequently, the innovative nature of the production method or packaging. 24. we have long supported british farming and this year we achieved 100 per cent british sourcing for all our fresh pork. (food) 25. the relaunch of ryvita crispbread in new foil-fresh packaging drove increased sales. (food) in the pharmaceuticals industry, although “new” is still the most frequent word in this category, “innovate” and its derivatives come second. the stress here is on cutting-edge science, rather than on freshness and swift delivery: 26. people are still willing to pay for differentiated, innovative medicines that transform lives. (pharma) 27. omthera, a specialty pharmaceutical company based in the us, focused on the development and commercialisation of new therapies for dyslipidaemia. (pharma) interestingly, while the pharmaceutical and food industries seem to have a preference for large quantities (“quantities: much and many”), small quantities seem to have a higher keyness factor in mining (“quantities: little”). it is evident that “much and many” point to use of the rhetoric of vague quantification (see above, in section 3.2), as in the following examples: 28. associated british foods is a diversified group of food, ingredients and retail businesses selling into more than 100 countries worldwide. (food) 29. ovaltine made further progress in its developing markets of asia and south america. (food) ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): 41-6658 the keyness of “quantities: little” would seem to point in the opposite direction, suggesting the smallness of things that are potentially negative, again, with a potentially legitimatory function: 30. during the second half of 2013, a consistent message from gold miners has been the need to reduce operating costs. (mining) 31. 30 per cent reduction in the rate of new cases of occupational illness. (mining) typical objects of “reduce” include costs, debt, emissions and energy consumption. in this, it seems that the ethos of mining companies is shaped by the need for control (perhaps related to the need to appear environmentally friendly with a view to legitimation) rather more than is that of the other sectors. however, “reduce” also appears with other objects, such as profits, revenues, values and share prices, which are undoubtedly indicative of negative results for the companies in the mining sector, perhaps linked to the financial crisis. another interesting feature of graph 3 is that the semantic areas of “wanted” and “attentive” are prominent in pharmaceuticals, finance and mining, which is mainly due to the frequency of items such as strategy, aim, policy, programme and objective, on the one hand, and focus, on the other. it would appear that these three sectors are, at least explicitly, more highly strategy-driven than the food sector. “giving” is a prominent area in food and finance, which coincide in the prominence of lexical items related to “provide”, “supply”, “distribute” and “contribute”. notably, the financial sector appears to represent its activities rather as though it were providing a physical product like food: 32. they complement our organic efforts to broaden and strengthen our distribution channels and product mix. (finance) 33. … by finding attractive and innovative investment opportunities globally to provide products which consistently meet our clients’ investment needs both now and into the future. (finance) a similar dynamics seems to be operating in the semantic fields of “helping” (service, support, benefit, help, enable) and “giving” (provide, distribute, contribute, give). here, particularly pharmaceuticals and food companies stress their social role, using lexical items related to support, help, care and service. semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 59 34. a number of non-governmental organisations and the world health organization, are leading efforts to support regions and countries in prioritising and introducing wider healthcare provision. (pharma) the finance sector also echoes this discourse – but here, the semantic area is dominated by the notion of “service”: 35. …a highly regarded global asset management group founded on providing the highest levels of investment performance and client service. (finance) on the other hand, “giving” has a low keyness value in mining, and “helping” has none, which suggests that the companies in this sector do not portray themselves as providing benefits to society in this way. finally, the field “tough, strong” is also worthy of some attention. most of the items tagged thus belong to the family of “strong”, followed by “robust”, “tough” and “resilient”, and refer – in all the annual reports – to financial performance, as in the following example: 36. with the strength of the group’s balance sheet and strong cash generation we have every reason to be confident in the continuing development of the group. (finance) this area is particularly salient in the annual reports from the financial sector, where “strong” seems to be used as a multipurpose positive evaluative adjective. in combinations such as “strong balance sheet”, “strong investment performance”, “strong track record” and “strong capital base”, “strong” seems to be virtually synonymous with “good”. the selection of this term points to a desire to create a more dynamic or “masculine” style (in the sense outlined by hofstede, 1998), which seems particularly characteristic of the financial sector. interestingly, food is the outlier in the area of “investigate”: the other subcorpora – particularly pharmaceuticals and finance – seem to be more research-driven. in brief, the overall pattern that emerges from graph 3 is as follows. • annual reports from the pharmaceutical industry stand out in their predilection for “time: new and young”, with an emphasis on innovation. this sector seems to blend high keyness for the ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): 41-6660 service-oriented values like “giving” and “helping” with the achievement-oriented values grouped under “attentive” (focused, etc.), “wanted” (strategies, aims, etc.) and “tough, strong” (strong, strengthen, robust). pharmaceuticals also gives greatest prominence to stressing large quantities, which ties in with its high keyness score on the category “inclusion” (see above), and points again to the rhetoric of vague quantification discussed above. • food is the only sector with an emphasis on “work and employment: professionalism” (colleagues, reputation), which suggests a greater emphasis on the human factor in its selfpresentation. as is logical, “giving” and “helping” are also important here, since the food industry is traditionally concerned with providing goods for public consumption. one interesting point is the keyness of “time: new and young”, which is accounted for by the prominence of lexis such as “new” and “fresh”, which have a particular relevance in this sector. • finance annual reports stand out from the others in their emphasis on strength (“tough, strong”), and the importance of research (“investigate”). they are also characterised by the prominence they give to “helping” and “giving” (service, distributing, providing), which, as in the case of the pharmaceuticals sector, is combined with achievement-oriented semantic areas grouped under “attentive” (focus, etc.) and “wanted” (strategy, aim). • mining annual reports stress superlative self-presentation (“evaluation: good”), strategic action (“wanted”), and high focus (“attentive”). however, they also contain more safety-related content (“safe”) and make more reference to small as well as large quantities, perhaps reflecting a need to display control (“quantities: many, much” and “quantities: little”). 4. discussion the annual reports of the four sectors analysed here coincide in reflecting a discourse of size, importance and power, with an underlying notion of time framed as sustained dynamic action that is both strategic and focused, and a deterministic philosophy of cause and effect that attributes success to the company’s agency and difficulties to external factors. these results coincide semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 61 broadly with those obtained by other researchers such as malavasi (2010), who researched banks’ annual reports using standard corpus linguistic tools and found evaluative adjectives falling into the categories of efficiency, importance and client-orientation. similar to our finding that time was conceptualised as dynamic, underpinned by strategic actions, her analysis also pointed to a strong future orientation, with many purposive verbs used to underscore the company’s priorities. like white (2003), we also found a strong reliance on the concept of growth, which can be best understood as an aspect of size and importance, and which fits with the rhetoric of vague quantification explained above. as in the texts discussed by bhatia (2004, 2010), craig and amernic (2004), or courtright and smudde (2009), the prevailing ethos uncovered by our study is one that privileges positive actions and results, and thereby marginalises less satisfactory ones. the findings of the present study fundamentally concur with previous research suggesting that business-related discourse is underpinned by a powerful, positivist rhetoric that sustains the symbolic order within the late capitalist system (craig & amernic, 2004), and that texts like the annual report reflect “the prevailing and hegemonic myths of the cultural and political environment within which the organisations operate” (sandell & svensson, 2016: 21). moreover, the broad area of overlap between reports from the four sectors serves as evidence of the essentially repetitive, predictable nature of such texts, reflecting what has been termed “discursive isomorphism”, that is, a tendency towards the homogenisation of corporate communication to reflect the prevailing rationalised concepts of what constitutes an appropriate or efficient practice (dimaggio & powell, 1983). regarding bhatia’s discourses of public relations and economics (2010), even though the former ostensibly predominates in these corpora, it is clear that the latter ultimately sustains these values of size, growth, causality and sustained action: company self-representation feeds on wider macroeconomic discourses. taken together, the annual reports in this corpus rely on a common substrate in the ethos of utilitarian capitalism, which favours size, strength and competition, high focus and sustained dynamism. although the areas of commonality are more striking, the differences between sectors also warrant discussion. first, slight traces of discursive struggle are apparent if we look carefully at areas such as “quantities: little” in the mining subcorpus. as previous research has shown, companies endeavour to legitimise their actions by pre-empting possible criticism, particularly when the sector they represent has been under fire (craig & amernic, 2004; breeze, ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): 41-6662 2015). drawing on institutionalised accounts that minimise blame and deflect criticism is “critical for the maintenance of organisational legitimacy and survival” (sandell & svensson, 2016: 21). to detect the presence of these discourses it is important to read between the lines, and to approach possible divergence from predicted patterns with sensitivity. other contrasts are equally interesting. while three of the sectors appear to embody a positive vision of their social role as givers and providers, it is only the food sector that noticeably pays lip-service to the importance of the human factor within the company. moreover, the strength-focus-knowledge orientation of the financial sector can be seen to contrast with the ethos of working-serving in the food sector, or the strongly forward-pushing discourses of the pharmaceutical sector. further research is needed to discover more about how the different business sectors construct persuasive discourses about themselves, and to explore possible differentiation between companies within one sector. regarding methodology, the use of semantic tagging rather than manual examination to locate areas of interest has both advantages and disadvantages. analysis of individual items on word-lists, though timeconsuming, might allow for greater sensitivity to polysemy, semantic prosody and ideological implications. yet, once relevant single items have been isolated and scrutinised, the researcher is faced with the onerous secondary task of re-grouping them thematically in order to paint the broader picture. in the present study, the situation was in some sense reversed: reliance on a tagging system designed to find a pre-determined set of semantic categories allowed the initial search, and classification of the data, to be conducted more easily. on the other hand, since this method works with pre-established tags, it is not sensitive to complex interrelations between categories, and does not allow for the emergence of new categories in the intersection or overlap between existing ones. further refinement of the semantic tagging system will probably resolve some of these issues, but it is likely that genre-specific or discipline-specific tagging will be necessary to provide optimum results in the long term. 5. conclusions semantic tagging using wmatrix3 has made it possible to identify and analyse the underlying value systems of annual reports across four sectors, semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 63 shedding light on a shared ideological adherence to values of size, dynamism, sustained action and causality. it has also pinpointed axiologically-loaded areas, such as serviceor safety-orientation, in which sectors differ. exploration of relevant concordance lines from key semantic areas has shed new light on the the promotional discourses of annual reports. acknowledgements the author wishes to thank dr. paul rayson, ucrel, university of lancaster, uk, for providing access to wmatrix3. she is also grateful for the support she received from the gradun project, instituto cultura y sociedad, university of navarra, spain. article history: received 18 april 2016 received in revised form 19 august 2016 accepted 20 august 2016 references ruth breeze ibérica 35 (2018): 41-6664 abraham, a. & p.j. shrives (2014). “improving the relevance of risk factor disclosure in corporate annual reports”. the british accounting review 46: 91-107. abrahamson, e. & e. amir (1996). “the information content of the president’s letter to shareholders”. journal of business finance and accounting 23: 1157-1182. archer, d., a. wilson & p. rayson (2002). introduction to the usas category system. url: http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/usas/usas%20guide.pdf [20/01/2018] banks, d. (1998). “vague quantification in the scientific journal article”. asp 19-22: 17-27. bartlett, s. & m.j. jones (1997). “annual reporting disclosures 1970-1990: an exemplification”. accounting, business and financial history 7: 6180. breeze, r. (2011). “disciplinary values in legal discourse: a corpus study.” ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes (aelfe) 21: 93-116. breeze, r. (2012). “legitimation in corporate discourse: oil corporations after deepwater horizon.” discourse and society 23,1: 3-18. breeze, r. (2015). corporate discourse. london: bloomsbury. bhatia, v.k. (2004). worlds of written discourse. london: continuum. bhatia, v.k. (2010). “interdiscursivity in professional communication”. discourse and communication 21: 32-50. clatworthy, m. & m.j. jones (2001). “the effect of thematic structure on the variability of annual report readability”. accounting, auditing & accountability journal 14: 311-326. courtright, j.l. & p.m. smudde, (2009). “leveraging organizational innovation for strategic reputation management”. corporate reputation review 12: 245-269. craig, r.j. & j.h. amernic (2004). “enron discourse. the rhetoric of a resilient capitalism”. critical perspectives on accounting 15: 813-851. davison, j. (2010). “[in]visible [in]tangibles: visual portraits of the business élite”. accounting, organizations & society 35: 165-183. de groot, e. (2014). “corporate communication ruth breeze has a ph.d. in applied linguistics and has researched and published widely in the area of discourse analysis applied to media language and specialised language. she is a member of the gradun research group in the instituto cultura y sociedad at the university of navarra, spain. her most recent books are corporate discourse (bloomsbury academic, 2015) and the edited volume interpersonality in legal genres (peter lang, 2014). semantic tagging in annual reports discourse ibérica 35 (2018): 41-66 65 and the role of annual reporting. identifying areas for further research” in v.k. bhatia & s. bremner (eds.), the routledge handbook of language and professional communication, 235-254. oxford and new york: routledge. de groot, e., h. korzilius, c. nickerson & m. gerritsen, (2006). “a corpus analysis of text themes and photographic themes in managerial forewords of dutch-english and british annual general reports”. ieee transactions on professional communication 54: 1-17. dimaggio, p.j. & w.w. powell (1983). “the iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields”. american sociological review 48: 147-160. ditlevsen, m. 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(2008). metaphor in discourse. cambridge: cambridge university press. semino, e., z. demjén, j. demmen, v. koller, s. payne, a. hardie & p. rayson (2015). “the online use of ‘violence’ and ‘journey’ metaphors by cancer patients, as compared with health professionals: a mixed methods study”. bmj supportive and palliative care (published online first). smith, m. & r. taffler (2000). “the chairman’s statement – a content analysis of discretionary narrative”. accounting, auditing & accountability journal 13: 624-647. stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. (2015). url: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ stanton, p. & j. stanton (2002). “corporate annual reports: research perspectives used”. accounting, auditing & accountability journal 15: 478-500. vázquez orta, i. & c. foz gil (1995). “the persuasive function of lexical cohesion in english: a pragmatic approach to the study of chairman’s statements”. estudios ingleses de la universidad complutense 3: 87-100. white, m. (2003). “metaphor and economics: the case of growth”. english for specific purposes 22: 131-151. 01 editorial.qxd editorial the past volume of ibérica was a special issue on the 20th anniversary of our european association of languages for specific purposes (aelfe). the whole volume has been greatly appreciated by aelfe members and highly welcomed by lsp readers worldwide who have accessed the enlightening works of most members of the journal international advisory board through open access academic platforms. only time will tell if ibérica no. 24 has been a landmark in the life of aelfe, and hence of ibérica, but, in the meantime, we can enjoy reading its name in the international academic publication scene and seeing how it “collocates” with other highly-reputed lsp and linguistics-related journals around the globe: lsp research around the globe is published in lsp-specific journals, often with a focus on english for specific purposes (e.g., anglais de spécialité [asp], the asian esp journal, english for specific purposes, esp across cultures, esp world, fachsprache, ibérica, journal of english for academic purposes, taiwan international esp journal [tiespj]), and in more general linguistics-related journals (e.g., aila review, applied linguistics discourse studies, discourse and society, language learning & technology). (lafford, 2012: 15) in the field of linguistics, 199 journals are at present (september 17th, 2012) oa: the only high-quality lsp journal that is oa is ibérica. other pedigreed lsp-related journals, such as english for specific purposes, journal of english for academic purposes, teachers of english for speakers of other languages quarterly, applied linguistics, journal of second language writing, etc. are not oa. (salagermeyer, 2012: 62) new ideas and issues in lsp are often first addressed in the three leading journals in the field: english for specific purposes: an international research journal, ibérica (journal of aelfe, the european association of languages for specific purposes), and journal of english for academic purposes. (upton & connor, 2013: 8) comments such as these above, together with the increasing inclusion of the journal in index lists and data bases, attest the growing reputation of ibérica in today’s lsp research. in line with this, i am very pleased to announce that ibérica has been, or will shortly be, included in three new relevant lists: miar, carhus plus+ and redalyc. ibérica 25 (2013): 9-14 issn 1139-7241 9 by the end of 2012 ibérica began to appear in the database “information matrix for journal ranking” (or miar, for short, following its catalan abbreviation) with an index rate of 7.614. also, ibérica will be listed in carhus plus+ as from 2013 in the updated lists to be released this present year. carhus plus+ is an evaluation system that assesses scientific journals in the areas of social sciences and humanities both in spain and abroad and classifies them by applying an indicator – known as icds – that measures the impact of journals in scientific databases and index lists. carhus plus+ has been developed by the catalan agency for management of university and research grants and is commissioned by the spanish general directorate of research. because both miar and carhus plus+ offer a relevant measurement of research quality in the fields of the humanities, they are taken into account by the spanish ministry of education and the national agency for the assessment of research activity (cneai, following its spanish abbreviation) when evaluating the productivity of researchers in spanish universities in view of accreditation and tenured promotion. redalyc is the network of scientific journals published in latin america and the caribbean, spain and portugal hosted by the autonomous university of mexico (uaem) and, very probably, the most reputed open access data base for the spanish-speaking academia. after an in-depth assessment of this journal, its policy, evaluation procedures, admission/rejection criteria and published volumes, redalyc has accepted ibérica for next inclusion in its updated lists and awarded the journal with its corresponding certificate. redalyc’s work and contribution to the global spread of scientific knowledge is prompted by the belief that “the science that cannot be seen, does not exist”, or put it the other way around, “science does not exist if it cannot be seen”; indeed, this timely inclusion will contribute to boost the scientific visibility of ibérica worldwide and, particularly, among latin american countries. the opening paper of ibérica no. 25 is authored by richard f. young, m.a. (oxford), m.a. (reading), ph.d. (pennsylvania) and currently professor of english linguistics at the university of wisconsin-madison, where he teaches courses in sociolinguistics, english syntax, second language acquisition, and research methods. professor young’s abiding research passion is to understand the relationship between the use of language and the social contexts that language reflects and creates, and his contribution to this volume of the journal, “learning to talk the talk and walk the walk: editorial ibérica 25 (2013): 9-1410 interactional competence in academic spoken english”, is a good example of this. he has always seen such a relationship as dynamic and reflexive, and his research has focused on change – how newcomers learn to participate in the practices of a new community. four of his books indicate that interest: variation in interlanguage mor phology (lang, 1991), talking and testing (benjamins, 1998), language and interaction (routledge, 2008), and discursive practice in language learning and teaching (wiley-blackwell, 2009). he has published over 50 articles in journals and anthologies and serves on the editorial boards of three major journals (language learning, studies in second language acquisition, and journal of applied linguistics). he has held visiting professorships in the u.s., germany, and malaysia, and is currently visiting professor at the national institute of education in singapore. during 20056, he served as president of the american association for applied linguistics and chaired the 14th world congress of applied linguistics. until 2004, he served as a consultant to educational testing service during a major redesign of the toefl test. in his contribution to ibérica, professor young presents the theory of interactional competence and depicts the ways speakers co-construct talk as episodes of “interactive practices” by deploying six particular kinds of resources: (i) a knowledge of rhetorical scripts; (ii) a knowledge of register; (iii) a knowledge of patterns of turn taking; (iv) a knowledge of topical organization; (v) a knowledge of the appropriate participation framework; and (vi) a knowledge of the means for signalling boundaries and transitions. such six resources form the basis of “interactional competence” which, if compared with “communicative competence”, is local, practice-specific and co-constructed by participants in their interaction. to illustrate his discussion, professor young compares the conversations between teaching assistants and undergraduate students during office hours on maths and italian as a foreign language at an american university. his main conclusions allow for the identification of common interactional features that characterize office hour conversations as a genre on its own and yield discipline-specific modes for reasoning in which “topics arise, persist, and change in conversation and by the semantic relations between adjacent topics” (page 31). the next three chapters are of a lexical-based nature. first, philippa mungra and tatiana canziani explore the lexis of clinical case histories, as a branch of medical english, and put forward a wordlist, specific to clinical medicine, after their compilation of an ad hoc mid-size corpus. next, inmaculada editorial ibérica 25 (2013): 9-14 11 álvarez de mon y rego and carola álvarez-bolado sánchez focus on sense neologisms and the language of computer science to identify the new meanings developed by five particular spanish terms in the domain of videogames. their study, developed over a ten-year corpus from a specialized spanish newspaper, is a good example of how common words in everyday spanish acquire new meanings in a different domain. last, nadežda silaški and tatjana đurović analyse the contribution of conceptual blending theory to the construction and understanding of novel blends in english within the field of business and economics. in particular, this study reports on the difficulties faced by these esp learners when trying to understand novel blends in their texts and illustrates how misinterpretations may arise from differing cultural backgrounds, phonological similarities or metaphorical images. in line with the topic of metaphors, the paper by ana roldán-riejos and paloma úbeda mansilla departs from conceptual metaphor theory to analyse the unprompted use of metaphor and the occurrence of metaphor as a descriptive verbalizer in the civil engineering context. by comparing the engineering students’ and the professional engineers’ reponses to a questionnaire, this study highlights the dynamicity of metaphor in civil engineering language, the widespread use of general metaphors in both groups of users and the particular employment of field-specific metaphors among the latter. the next three papers deal with differing esp contexts (public relations and tourism industries on the one hand, and academic writing on the other) and languages (english, spanish and english/turkish) but share the common ground of genre theory and the analysis of written discourse. first, vijay k. bhatia, rodney h. jones, stephen bremner and anne peirson-smith make use of the construct “community of practice” to explore the collaborative writing process in corporate writing in general, and, particularly, in the public relations (pr) context. bhatia and colleagues discuss key notions in professional discourse and the pr industry (such as interdiscursivity, collaboration, creativity and use of templates) and look at the actual writing process of a pr firm through the drafts of an intended press release. the next paper deals with the language of blogging and the genre of travel blogs that spanish-speaking tourists (hence, “bloggers” and non-professional writers) write in community blogs after their return from a trip around belgium. here, patrick goethals provides authentic examples from a pilot corpus of travel blog pieces that help to illustrate the main features of such editorial ibérica 25 (2013): 9-1412 emerging genre. last in this genre-based group of papers is the chapter by neslihan önder, who investigates from a cross-cultural perspective the move-step structure and the promotional elements present in blurbs. onder bases her work on the study of a 26,537-word corpus from 95 blurbs extracted from the online bookshops amazon uk (in the uk) and okuoku tr (in turkey), and her findings may guide other researchers from different languages and cultures interested in blurb writing. the last research paper in this volume explores the effect of strategy based instruction on achievement test scores in mixed language ability groups within an esp course in a higher education setting. here, violeta jurkovič brings into question the justification for explicit strategy based instruction in such groups of learners, stresses the relevance of metacognitive awareness for successful language learning, and encourages the implementation of strategy instruction that takes into account different levels of language competence among esp learners. six reviews complete this volume. anabel borja albi looks at the different interdisciplinary issues that prevail in the current research on law and language; carmen sancho-guinda discusses how criticism is accomplished in scholarly writing; shaeda isani depicts discursive features and identity issues in professional language; rafael alejo-gonzález explores the impact of figurative language in the field of business and economics; isabel negro details a model of analysis of the construction engineering discourse from a corpus-based methodological approach; and, last, marisol velasco-sacristán discusses a collection of essays on the interface between linguistics and cognition. i would like to thank the members of the editorial board who have contributed to the ongoing work of the journal with their suggestions and thorough evaluations during this past semester. these have been: marta aguilar, inmaculada álvarez de mon, elena bárcena, maria enriqueta cortés, alejandro curado, mercedes eurrutia, rosa gimenez, victoria guillén, javier herráez, honesto herrera, maria kuteeva, marisol velasco, mª ángeles orts, juan carlos palmer, ramón plo, carmen sancho guinda, chelo vargas and michael white. likewise, special thanks go to the invited external reviewers who have collaborated with the journal during this past semester by assessing submitted manuscripts. these have been, in alphabetic order, the following: ana mª saorín (universitat jaume i), anna lópez samaniego (universitat de editorial ibérica 25 (2013): 9-14 13 barcelona), bárbara eizaga rebollar (universidad de cádiz), carmen pérezllantada (universidad de zaragoza), carmen piqué-noguera (universitat de valència), emma dafouz (universidad complutense de madrid), francisco rubio cuenca (universidad de cádiz), ignacio vázquez orta (universidad de zaragoza), izaskun elorza (universidad de salamanca), josé luis berbeira gardón (universidad de cádiz), mª ángeles moreno (universidad de la rioja), mª del mar robisco (universidad politécnica de madrid), maria vittoria calvi (university of milan, italy), marisa blanco (universidad rey juan carlos i), mercedes roldán (universidad de jaén), miguel ángel candel (universidad politécnica de valencia), noa talaván (universidad nacional de educación a distancia), paloma lópez zurita (universidad de cádiz), pedro fuertes olivera (universidad de valladolid), rosa alonso alonso (universidad de vigo), ruth breeze (universidad de navarra), sonsoles pérez-reyes (universidad de salamanca), tomás conde (universidad del país vasco), and yolanda ruiz de zarobe (universidad del país vasco). ana bocanegra valle universidad de cádiz (spain) editor of ibérica references editorial ibérica 25 (2013): 9-1414 lafford, b.a. (2012). “languages for specific purposes in the united states in a global context: commentary on grosse and voght (1991) revisited”. the modern language journal 96, focus issue: 1-27. salager-meyer, f. (2012). “the open access movement or “edemocracy”: its birth, rise, problems and solutions”. ibérica 24: 55-74. upton, t.a. & u. connor (2013). “language for specific purposes: overview” in c.a. chapelle (ed.), the encyclopedia of applied linguistics, 110. oxford: wiley-blackwell. doi: 10.1002/ 9781405198431.wbeal0891 01 editorial.qxd english-medium instruction at universities. global challenges aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster, juan manuel sierra (eds). bristol: multilingual matters, 2013. 221 pages. isbn-13: 978-1-84769-814-8. the aim of this book is to offer a critical view of english-medium instruction (emi) program implementation and its impact on differing political, economic, cultural, linguistic and educational situations in europe and the rest of the world. divided into five sections, its content focuses on the first four sections, while the last section presents the comments of the editors on some of the main topics discussed. the introduction by the editors and a foreword by jim coleman complete the volume. part 1 features chapter 1 where robert wilkinson reflects on the economic, social and political motives and challenges for the rapid expansion of emi at maastricht university in the netherlands. beginning with a few students and the implication of dutch, french and german, english soon took over as the only language of instruction. attracting international students, providing a globalized knowledge, and keeping the institution high up in the international ranking have been accounted as the three main reasons for offering emi programs. content selection, a change in methodology, and content and language staff collaboration have been essential for the success of emi programs at maastricht, while multiculturalism as opposed to élites, ghettoisms and career benefits still remain weighty challenges. part 2 deals with language demands of emi on stakeholders. in chapter 2 christa van der walt and martin kidd analyze the impact of emi in south african institutions, where english is used along afrikaans as the language of instruction in most universities. the research carried out focused on the influence of bi-literacy on performance in multilingual educational settings. for the purpose, a reading comprehension test was conducted in english with a summary of the content in afrikaans or in english. the authors conclude that although adding material in a first language may be helpful in improving students’ performance in english, the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 237 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 237 summary format does not seem to be particularly useful by itself, as biliteracy practice in teaching and assessment should be encouraged with set strategies and materials. phil ball and diana lindsay’s chapter 3 centers upon their experience as teacher trainers at the university of the basque country. the study shows teachers’ perceptions concerning their domain of english and teaching skills, especially when dealing with the elaboration of teaching materials. moreover, lecturing to larger groups, stimulating student participation or the use of reading strategies would feature as key issues in content and language integrated learning (clil)-based programs. other key issues dealt with in this paper are the concerns about pronunciation and oral interaction as well as assessment criteria. part 3 features the tensions and issues concerning trilingualism, i.e. english plus other two languages, in hong kong, the basque country and catalonia. chapter 4 is dedicated to analyze the tensions existing between the three vehicular languages at heis in hong kong: english, the local cantonese and the national putonghua (mandarin). language policies based on enhancing bi-literacy and trilingualism amongst higher education students have been a source of controversy amongst students and staff at the chinese university of hong kong, mainly due to the expansion of emi courses and the unsatisfactory situation of local cantonese-speaking students. in his welldocumented paper, david li concludes that however controversial, the contribution of the majority languages is viewed by citizenries as a linguistic and economic capital, widening the future prospects of undergraduates and setting heis within international standards. in chapter 5, aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster and juan manuel sierra focus their study on a series of questionnaires to gather the views of local and international students at the university of the basque country, where english is used as a third language of instruction together with spanish and basque. students had to express their views on critical issues such as the presence of international students, the impact of english on basque, or the role of basque in a multilingual university context. the feedback was mostly positive except for the concern expressed by those students whose mother tongue was basque for the expansion of english at the expense of their first language. in chapter 6, josep m. cots focuses on language intervention, beliefs and practices as the three components of language policy which might reveal reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256238 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 238 ambiguities and tensions in the implementation of emi at the university of lleida. cots shows the ambiguities and excessive regulations of the institution concerning language intervention. as for beliefs, neither students nor lecturers are confident enough with their command of english to get involved in an emi situation. finally, language practices based on content and language experts’ collaboration reveal that in addition to language competence, there should be a methodology shift from a lecture-centered to a learner-centered approach. in chapter 7 taina saarinen and tarja nikula analyze the relationship between international policies and practices in finnish polytechnics and universities. based on official study programs and on interviews with teachers and students, they show how english is understood as self-evident in the degree descriptions for international degree programs with no explicit mention of bilingualism. hence, emi programs in finnish heis do not seem to comply with the clil agenda although finland ranks first in the proportion of institutions offering degree programs in english. the authors arguably conclude that emi may not be associated with language policies, finland’s heis being a vivid example of it. chapter 8 is based on a research carried out by ofra inbar-lourie and smadar donitsa-schmidt at a teachers’ education college in israel. two research questions were posed to both prospective teachers and students concerning the use of emi in content courses. the small group of students who voluntarily chose to take an emi course had a high command of english, which made their views of language improvement an irrelevant issue. no language objectives where set and neither methodology nor content selection was considered in the study. the authors, however, assume the limitations of their research. part 4 deals with institutional policies at universities in a variety of geographical and socio-political contexts. in chapter 9 ofelia garcía, mercè pujol-ferran and pooja reddy analyze the impact of emi in two very different heis whose names are not given: a community college in the bronx and a university with a dense population of international students. they show how language policies and ideologies in the us are biased by economic and political issues, thus disregarding immigrants’ native languages in favour of english monolingualism. bilingualism amongst international students is perceived as a financial asset while immigrant students are treated with caution and their bilingualism is seen rather as problematic. the results reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256 239 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 239 of the study are very restrictive and might have been more relevant if contrasted with data from other heis. finally, in chapter 10, elana shohamy provides a critical view of emi, based on the analysis of three problematic issues when institutions are too quick in implementing emi programs: achievement of academic content, the difficulties encountered by minority language students, and assessment. after going through the success experienced with language immersion programs in bilingual contexts, shohamy states the widespread use of english as a high prestige language instead of the national languages in academic settings. she concludes that the use of emi at universities is mainly driven by ideological and economic reasons while discriminating students whose english proficiency is not high enough to cope with academic knowledge. overall, this volume makes us aware of the pitfalls and challenges of implementing academic content programs through a foreign language and particularly through english at tertiary education institutions throughout the world competing to stay high in the ranking of internationalization. the variety of experiences within differing political, cultural and sociolinguistic contexts brings to the fore critical issues such as the role of students, staff and administration, together with the impact of emi programs on language ecologies. considering language objectives, new teaching methodologies or content and language experts’ collaboration contributes to the clarifying view of this book, which should be a highly recommended reading for language policy makers at heis in their commitment to improve multilingualism amongst their students and foster internalization policies, emi and clil practitioners, as well as researchers and teacher trainers. [review received 1 march 2014] [revised review received 9 june 2014] [revised review accepted 12 june 2014] reviewed by francisco rubio cuenca universidad de cádiz (spain) paco.rubio@uca.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 28 (2014): 225-256240 11 iberica 28.qxp:iberica 13 24/09/14 22:04 página 240 iberica 13 ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract research on scholarly publishing has focused predominantly on bi/multilingual researchers’ experiences and practices of publishing in english with scant attention paid specifically to their motivation and language choice for bi/multilingual publishing. drawing on data collected from 318 chinese university faculty members, this study examines bilingual researchers’ motivation (i.e., interest value, utility value, cost, and ability self-concept) and language choice (i.e., first language only, english only, or both english and first language) for publishing their research articles, and factors that may influence their motivation and language choice. mixed-design anovas revealed clear language-, discipline-, and overseas experience-based differences in their motivation, and complex interactions among language, discipline, and overseas experience. a multinomial logistic regression found significant effects of disciplinary background, overseas experience, and perceived ability to write english research articles on participants’ choice of publishing in chinese only or in both chinese and english. these results provide some evidence against the seemingly unstoppable spread of english as the language of publication and the widely-held view of utility as the single most important driving force behind it, and point to a complex and multidimensional picture of chinese researchers’ motivation and language choice for scholarly publishing. keywords: expectancy-value theory, language choice for publication, motivation for bi/multilingual publishing, writing for publication. resumen m ot iv a c ió n y e l e c c i ón de l e n g ua p ar a l a pu bl i c a c ió n a c a dé mi c a e n l a s u ni v e rs i da de s c h i na s chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice for scholarly publishing jun lei & tianmin jiangm ningbo university (china), sichuan international studies university (china) rayjun.lei@outlook.com, jtm@sisu.edu.cn 51 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 51 ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 jun lei & tianmin jiang la investigación sobre la publicación académica se ha centrado principalmente en las experiencias y prácticas de investigadores bilingües y multilingües al publicar en inglés. apenas se ha prestado atención específicamente a su motivación y su elección de lengua para la publicación bilingüe o multilingüe. con base en los datos recopilados de 318 profesores de diferentes facultades chinas, en este trabajo se examina la motivación de investigadores bilingües (valor de interés, valor de utilidad, coste, autoconcepto de capacidad) y su elección de lengua (solo la primera lengua, solo inglés, ambas lenguas) a la hora de publicar artículos de investigación, así como los factores que pueden influir en ello. por medio de anovas de diseño mixto se han detectado claras diferencias relacionadas con la lengua, la disciplina y la experiencia en el extranjero en lo que respecta a la motivación, y también se ha identificado una compleja interacción entre la lengua, la disciplina y la experiencia en el extranjero. a través de una regresión logística multinomial se han advertido que el bagaje de los participantes en sus disciplinas, su experiencia en el extranjero y su percepción sobre su propia capacidad de escribir artículos de investigación en inglés son variables que tienen efectos significativos en la decisión de publicar únicamente en chino o también en inglés. estos resultados proporcionan argumentos en contra de la expansión aparentemente imparable del inglés como lengua de publicación y del punto de vista generalizado de que la utilidad es el único motivo subyacente, o, al menos, el más importante, y apuntan hacia un panorama complejo y multidimensional de la motivación y de la elección de lengua para las publicaciones académicas por parte de los investigadores chinos. palabras clave: teoría de expectativa-valor, elección de lengua para publicaciones académicas, motivación para la publicación bilingüe y multilingüe, escritura académica. 1. introduction the past few decades have witnessed the ever accelerating global dominance of english as a language of research communication (ammon, 2001; lillis and curry, 2010). however, despite the seemingly unstoppable spread of english in scholarly publishing, researchers in english-as-an-additionallanguage (eal) contexts may still need or want to publish in local or regional languages. there is some evidence that bi/multilingual scholarly publishing is still common in various eal countries, such as china (zheng & gao, 2016), japan (casanave, 1998), poland (duszak & lewkowicz, 2008), romania (muresan & pérez-llantada, 2014), and spain, slovakia, hungary and portugal (lillis & curry, 2010). 52 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 52 the bi/multilingual publishing reality notwithstanding, previous research has focused primarily on eal researchers’ english publishing practices with relatively little attention paid specifically to their motivation and language choice for bi/multilingual publishing (duszak & lewkowicz, 2008; gnutzmann & rabe, 2014; lópez-navarro et al., 2015). this body of research has suggested that eal researchers may be motivated to publish in english or their first language for various reasons, and that a series of “ecological variables”, such as national, institutional, and disciplinary contexts, may influence their motivation and language choice (baldauf, 2001; lópez-navarro et al., 2015). however, most studies in this line of research are case studies or qualitative interview studies. although they have greatly enhanced our understanding of eal researchers’ motivation and language choice for scholarly publishing, they are not well equipped to reveal broad patterns and show how potential influencing factors may impinge on them (lin et al., 2014; lópez-navarro et al., 2015). in response, this study builds on and extends the findings from these studies by employing quantitative methods to examine chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice for publishing in english and chinese, and factors that may influence them. 2. literature review 2.1. motivations for bi/multilingual publishing eal researchers’ motivations to publish in english or their first language have been shown to centre on perceived utility, intrinsic value, ability selfconcept, cost of publishing in that language, among others (lin et al., 2014; lópez-navarro et al., 2015). to begin, their motivations to publish in english appear to revolve around the perceived utility of english scholarly publishing. in particular, publishing in english is often associated with such utilitarian goals as getting promotion and tenure (duszak & lewkowicz, 2008; martín et al., 2014), establishing international recognition and reputation (burgess et al., 2014; muresan & pérez-llantada, 2014), and obtaining monetary rewards (hanauer & englander 2011; lillis & curry, 2010). given the primacy of english and western-based index metrics like sci, ssci, or a&hci in research assessment, international english publication is often more valorised than publication in local languages (ferguson et al., 2011; huang, 2011; salager-meyer, 2014). in addition to utilitarian goals, eal chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 53 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 53 researchers may also publish in english to, among others, obtain wider readership and greater impact (huang, 2011; lópez-navarro et al., 2015) and establish and maintain international networks (curry & lillis, 2010; duszak & lewkowicz, 2008). however, eal researchers’ ability self-concept and perceived cost of english scholarly publishing may demotivate them to publish in english despite high utility associated with it (lillis & curry, 2010; uzuner, 2008). a large body of literature has explored linguistic disadvantages perceived by eal researchers relative to native-english-speaking researchers (burgess et al., 2014; hanauer & englander, 2011; lópez-navarro et al., 2015). for instance, 80 % of the chinese mainland doctoral students in li’s (2002) study and 68% of the 585 hong kong researchers in flowerdew’s (1999) research reported feeling disadvantaged in english scholarly publishing compared with nativeenglish-speaking researchers. additionally, research has shown that publishing in english may place additional burdens on eal researchers, because not only does writing a research article in english tend to take them more time and effort (shin et al., 2014; tardy, 2004), but acquiring the skills needed to publish in english also requires them to invest extra time and effort (ammon, 2001; burgess et al., 2014; salager-meyer, 2008). the mexican scientists in hanauer and englander’s (2011) study, for example, perceived writing a research article in english to be 24% more difficult and to generate 11% more dissatisfaction and 21% more anxiety than writing a research article in spanish. nevertheless, some researchers have argued that eal researchers may not necessarily feel such a sense of disadvantage (ferguson et al., 2011; hyland, 2016) and that native-english-speaking researchers tend to face similar challenges because scholarly publishing has more to do with expertise and practice than with language competence (hyland, 2016; swales, 2004). in contrast to the principally utilitarian motivations for publishing in english, eal researchers’ motivations to publish in their first language seem to be more related to intrinsic satisfaction emanating from the published work itself (hanauer & englander, 2011), the solving of the ‘puzzle’ (lam, 2011, cited in lópez-navarro et al., 2015), or the like. for example, while viewing publishing in english as being extrinsically motivated for its “greater symbolic capital in terms of recognition”, gentil and séror (2014: 23) characterised “the pleasure of ‘wordsmithing’ in french” and “the intellectual satisfaction of developing deeper insights through bilingual work” as intrinsic motivation for scholarly publishing. relatedly, eal jun lei & tianmin jiang ibérica 38 (2019): 51-7454 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 54 researchers may also be motivated to publish in their first language because of their emotional or ideological attachments to their first language or home academic community, such as to protect local languages and journals (duszak & lewkowicz, 2008; mcgrath, 2014), promote research of local concern (muresan & pérez-llantada, 2014; petersen & shaw, 2002), communicate research to the local community (kuteeva & mauranen, 2014; salager-meyer, 2014), and respond to invitations for contribution from local colleagues or publishers (burgess et al., 2014; martín et al., 2014). these motivations aside, eal researchers are also likely to publish in their first language for other motives, such as to obtain national recognition (duszak & lewkowicz, 2008; martín et al., 2014), establish and maintain the local network (casanave, 1998; huang, 2011), and meet institutional requirements for promotion (burgess et al., 2014; salager-meyer, 2008). 2.2. influences of disciplinary background and overseas study experience eal researchers’ divergent motivations to publish in english and their first language seem to hinge on a series of ecological variables at the macrolinguistic, microlinguistic, and individual levels (baldauf, 2001; lópeznavarro et al., 2015). one factor that stands out concerns disciplinary knowledge-making and -disseminating practices. different disciplines have different cultures, conventions, and practices, which tend to lead to differing motivations for publishing and varying publishing practices (gnutzmann & rabe, 2014; lópez-navarro et al., 2015). it has been shown that english tends to be more prevalent as a language for publication in hard disciplines than in soft disciplines (ferguson, 2007; martín et al., 2014). as ammon (2007:124) observed, “[t]he preference for english is much stronger in the pure or theoretical sciences than in the applied sciences and especially the humanities”. this disciplinary discrepancy may have to do with differing degrees of internationalisation of different disciplines with hard disciplines being generally more internationally-oriented and soft disciplines more locally-oriented (kuteeva & mauranen, 2014; petersen & shaw, 2002). lópez-navarro et al. (2015: 945), for example, pointed out that “research on basic aspects of nature is viewed as being most likely to be of interest to an international readership, whereas research conducted in social sciences and humanities is generally more locally oriented”. another factor that may bear on eal researchers’ motivation and language choice for bi/multilingual scholarly publishing is their overseas experience or chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 55 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 55 lack thereof (casanave, 1998; li & hu, 2017; shin et al., 2014). studies (casanave, 1998; shin et al., 2014) have found that overseas-trained eal researchers tend to feel more competent and comfortable publishing in english than in their first language because of their overseas training. shin et al. (2014: 470), for example, revealed that “[r]esearch performance is improved by integration into transnational professional networks, professional linkages with colleagues and supervisors in the overseas country where the doctorate was earned”. moreover, salager-meyer (2008: 125) observed that there may be differences in both perceived difficulty and cost in writing an english research article between overseasand home-trained eal researchers with the former likely to find it “less difficult and less timeconsuming” than the latter. however, several studies (shi, 2002; tardy, 2004) have shown that returnee eal researchers may find themselves isolated and faced with an array of difficulties in continuing to publish in english. specifically, returnee eal researchers may have to juggle different research cultures, conventions, and practices and “manage the competing and sometimes conflicting demands of writing in two languages” (casanave, 1998: 196; see also shin et al., 2014). the preceding review raises several concerns over eal researchers’ motivation and language choice for scholarly publishing. to begin, although research has shown that eal researchers may be motivated to publish in a language for various reasons and that publishing in different languages is associated with varying utility and intrinsic interest values, it is not clear exactly how their motivations for publishing in english versus local languages differ or overlap, and how they choose the languages for publication. for instance, there is still no consensus on whether and to what extent eal researchers are linguistically disadvantaged compared with their native-english-speaking counterparts (ferguson et al., 2011; hyland, 2016), particularly regarding their abilities to publish in english versus their first language and the cost involved in this (hanauer & englander, 2011; huang, 2011). moreover, there is a paucity of systematic investigations into the factors influencing eal researchers’ motivation and language choice for bi/multilingual publishing. in view of these and other concerns, several researchers (duszak & lewkowicz, 2008; gnutzmann & rabe, 2014; huang, 2011; lópez-navarro et al., 2015) have called for more research on eal researchers’ motivation and language choice for bi/multilingual publishing, and factors that may impinge on their motivation and language choice. in response to this call, this study set out to address the following research questions: jun lei & tianmin jiang ibérica 38 (2019): 51-7456 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 56 rq1. what are chinese university faculty’s motivations (i.e., interest value, utility value, cost, and ability self-concept) for writing research articles? rq2. what are their actual language choices for publication? rq3. do their motivations for research article writing differ as a function of language, disciplinary background, and overseas experience? rq4. how are their disciplinary background, overseas experience, and motivations for research article writing associated with their language choices? 3. method 3.1. participants a total of 318 faculty members from various higher educational institutions across mainland china participated in this study. at the time of data collection, they were attending a six-month english language training programme preparing them for overseas academic exchanges. there were 230 (72%) participants from the disciplines of science, technology, and medical sciences (stm) and 82 (26%) from the humanities and social sciences (hss). six (2%) participants did not report their disciplines. eighty-five percent of the participants (n = 269) had no prior overseas study experience, whereas 14 % of them (n =  46) reported having had an average of 18.35 (sd = 26.91) months of overseas study experience. three participants (1%) did not report their overseas study experience. of the participants (n = 304) who reported their academic ranks, there were 33 (10%) professors, 170 (54%) associate professors, 98 (31%) lecturers, and 3 (1%) instructors. seventy percent of the participants aged between 31 and 40, with another 10%, 18%, and 2% aged between 21 and 30, 41 and 50, and 51 and 60, respectively. there were 147 (46%) female and 171 (54%) male participants. 3.2. instrument a survey instrument was used to collect the data. the instrument comprised a demographic section, the english research article writing motivation inventory (erawmi), and the chinese research article writing motivation inventory (crawmi). the demographic section elicited participants’ age, chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 57 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 57 gender, academic rank, discipline, overseas study experience, and respective number of english and chinese published research articles. the erawmi and the crawmi were adapted from lin et al.’s (2014) rawmi, which was developed to assess eal graduate students’ motivations to write english research articles. drawing on eccles and colleagues’ (eccles, 2009; eccles et al., 1983) model of expectancy-value theory and gardner’s (2006) socioeducational model of second language learning motivation, lin et al.’s (2014) rawmi comprised five factors, namely interest value, utility value, cost, ability self-concept, and connectedness value. the first four factors were culled directly from eccles’ framework, whereas the last one was an identity-related construct that operationalised eccles’s attainment value by recourse to the construct of integrativeness in gardner’s motivation model. while interest value, utility value, cost, and connectedness value related to subjective task values, ability self-concept concerned expectations for task success. specifically, interest value assessed interest in and enjoyment of writing english research articles. utility value measured the usefulness of writing english research articles for obtaining long-term goals or external rewards. cost evaluated effort and price required to write english research articles successfully. connectedness value assessed perceived value of writing english research articles for establishing and maintaining connections with the disciplinary community. finally, ability self-concept measured one’s confidence in one’s ability to successfully write english research articles. in the subscales of interest value, utility value, cost, and connectedness value, participants were asked to rate on a 1-to-5 likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree) to what extent they agreed with each statement. in the ability self-concept subscale, participants were asked to indicate on a 1-to-5 likert scale (1 = strongly unconfident; 5 = strongly confident) to what extent they were confident in carrying out the activity presented in each statement. the rawmi went through both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and demonstrated good psychometric properties (lin et al., 2014). in particular, the cronbach’s alphas for its subscales ranged from .81 to .90, indicating good internal consistency. as the rawmi measured english research article writing motivations, we created a corresponding inventory (crawmi) assessing chinese research article writing motivations and renamed rawmi as erawmi to fit the purpose of this study. to facilitate our participants’ comprehension, both inventories were presented in simplified chinese. a principal-axis factoring analysis was conducted on each inventory jun lei & tianmin jiang ibérica 38 (2019): 51-7458 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 58 using the promax rotation method to check the factor structures of the erawmi and crawmi in this study. the principal axis factoring analyses confirmed the overall structure of the rawmi (lin et al., 2014), except that the factors of utility and connectedness value in the original instrument loaded on the same factor in both the erawmi and crawmi, indicating that the two factors were indistinguishable in the current sample.1 as a result, they were combined to form a new utility scale. the internal consistency estimates for the factors of both inventories ranged from .80 to .96. all intercorrelations except that between interest value and cost in the erawmi and that between cost and ability self-concept in the crawmi were significant. these results show evidence of reasonably acceptable convergent validity for both inventories. to facilitate interpretation, the factor scores were scaled to the same metric (1-5) for item scores. 3.3. data collection and analysis we used wenjuan xing (http://www.sojump.com/), an online survey tool widely used in mainland china, to collect the data. specifically, we explained in class announcements the purpose of the study: to find out chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice for english and chinese scholarly publishing. we invited potential participants to answer an online survey and forwarded them a link to it. one week later, we sent the link to them again with a reminder encouraging those who had not answered the survey to answer it within a week. the survey was prefaced with an informed consent statement informing participants of the purpose of the study, their rights not to participate, and our commitment to protect confidentiality and anonymity. to examine the effects of publication language, disciplinary background, and overseas academic experience on participants’ research article writing motivation, a mixed-design three-way anova was conducted respectively on their scores on each of the four subscales identified in the exploratory factor analyses. in each case, discipline (hss vs. stm) and overseas study experience (with ose vs. without ose) were the between-subjects variables; language (english vs. chinese) was the within-subjects variable. as regards participants’ actual language choice, they could publish either in chinese only, english only, or in both chinese and english. therefore, a multinomial logistic regression was performed to explore the associations of their disciplinary background, overseas study experience, and motivation for research article writing to their language choice with the former three sets of chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 59 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 59 variables as the predictors and the last one as the criterion variable. to facilitate interpretation of the results, all the motivation factor scores were standardised to a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1 (tabachnick & fidell, 2007). 4. results 4.1. effects of language, disciplinary background, and overseas study experience on motivation table 1 presents the descriptive statistics for the erawmi and crawmi by language, disciplinary background, and overseas study experience. table 2 summarises the anova results for interest value, utility value, cost, and ability self-concept. as shown in table 2, the anovas detected a significant main effect of language on interest value, utility value, cost, and ability selfconcept. the participants as a whole reported significantly greater interest (3.12 vs. 2.88) and ability self-concept (3.39 vs. 2.72), but significantly lower utility value (3.67 vs. 3.96) and cost (3.20 vs. 3.58) in chinese than in english research article writing. the anovas also identified a significant main effect of discipline on cost with the hss participants (m = 3.65, se = 0.12) reporting significantly greater cost of research article writing (english and chinese combined) than their stm counterparts (m = 3.13, se = 0.06). no significant main effect of overseas study experience was found. jun lei & tianmin jiang ibérica 38 (2019): 51-7460 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 60 more interestingly, a significant interaction effect between language and discipline was found for interest value, utility value, and cost, indicating that the significant main effects of language on these factors noted above were qualified by discipline. figures 1-3 display the interaction effect on each factor, respectively. as shown in figure 1, the hss participants reported significantly greater interest in chinese research article writing (m = 3.29, se = 0.15) than not only their reported interest in english research article writing (m = 2.85, se = 0.16) but also their stm counterparts’ reported interest in both english (m = 2.91, se = 0.09) and chinese (m = 2.95, se = 0.08) research article writing. as figure 2 shows, the stm participants reported significantly lower utility value of chinese research article writing chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 61 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 61 (m = 3.38, se = 0.08) than not only their reported utility value of english research article writing (m = 4.04, se = 0.07) but also their hss peers’ reported utility value of both english (m = 3.89, se = 0.12) and chinese (m = 3.95, se = 0.15) research article writing. similarly, as shown in figure 3, the stm participants reported significantly lower cost of chinese research article writing (m = 2.70, se = 0.08) than not only their reported cost of english research article writing (m = 3.55, se = 0.07) but also their hss counterparts’ reported cost of both english (m = 3.61, se = 0.14) and chinese (m = 3.70, se = 0.15) research article writing. jun lei & tianmin jiang ibérica 38 (2019): 51-7462 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 62 moreover, there was a significant interaction effect between discipline and overseas study experience on utility value. figure 4 plots the interaction effect for english and chinese research article writing separately. although both interactions were statistically nonsignificant, they showed clear contrasting patterns between the participants’ perceived utility of english and chinese research article writing. as shown in figure 4, while the hss participants with overseas study experience perceived considerably higher utility value of english research article writing than did their peers without overseas study experience, the stm participants with overseas study experience perceived markedly lower utility value of chinese research article writing than did their peers without overseas study experience. chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 63 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 63 finally, and notably, the anovas also revealed a significant three-way interaction on ability self-concept. as figure 5 shows, while the participants rated similarly on ability self-concept in chinese research article writing regardless of their discipline and overseas study experience, the hss participants without overseas study experience (m = 2.38, se = 0.10) rated considerably lower on ability self-concept in english research article writing than did the stm participants both with (m = 2.79, se = 0.13) and without (m = 2.92, se = 0.06) overseas study experience as well as the hss participants with overseas study experience (m = 2.80, se = 0.25). 4.2. associations of disciplinary background, overseas study experience, and motivation with language choice the participants had published an average of 5.91 (n =  317, sd =  10.99) english research articles and 14.63 (n = 316, sd = 15.78) chinese research articles. one hundred and ninety-seven (62%) participants had published (at least one research article) in english, and 293 (92%) in chinese. while 180 (57%) participants had published in both english and chinese, 113 (35%) and 17 (5%) had published only in chinese and english, respectively. eight participants (3%) had published neither in chinese nor in english. the multinomial logistic regression run to examine the associations of disciplinary background, overseas study experience and motivations with language choice demonstrated acceptable model fit, r2 = .44 (cox & snell), .54 (nagelkerke); χ2(20) = 163.33, p < .001. table 3 presents a summary of the results from the multinomial logistic regression with the chinese only group as the reference group. as shown in the table, disciplinary jun lei & tianmin jiang ibérica 38 (2019): 51-7464 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 64 background, overseas study experience, and perceived ability in english research article writing significantly predicted whether the participants published in chinese only or in both chinese and english. the odds ratio for discipline indicated that as the disciplinary background changed from hss (0) to stm (1), the change in the odds of publishing in both chinese and english rather than in chinese only was 0.05. in other words, the odds of a stm professor publishing in both chinese and english compared to publishing only in chinese were 20 (1/0.05) times more likely than for a hss professor. similarly, the odds ratio for overseas experience showed that as the overseas study experience changed from without (0) to with (1) overseas study experience, the change in the odds of publishing in both chinese and english relative to chinese only was 0.32. in other words, the odds of a professor with overseas study experience publishing in both chinese and english compared to publishing only in chinese were 3.13 (1/0.32) times more likely than for a professor without overseas experience. finally, the odds ratio for perceived ability in english research article writing demonstrated that with one unit increase in perceived ability to write english research articles, the change in the odds of publishing in both chinese and english compared to publishing only in chinese was 2.31. in other words, participants with a one unit increase in their perceived ability to write english research articles were 2.31 times more likely to publish in both chinese and english than in chinese only. no predictors were found significant in distinguishing the english only and the chinese only groups. another multinomial logistic regression run with the english only group as the reference group indicated that none of the predictors was significant in distinguishing the english only and the both chinese and english groups, either. in view of the peculiar standard error (.000) for disciplinary background in distinguishing the english only and the chinese only groups, a cross-tabulation was run between disciplinary background and language choice, which revealed that all of the 17 participants who published in english only came from the stm. this along with the small sample size in the english only group might have contributed to the predictors’ failure to significantly distinguish it from the other two groups. as a whole, the model accounted for 54% of the variation in the criterion variable (nagelkerke’s r2 = .54) (tabachnick and fidell, 2007) and classified 79.6% of the participants correctly, with 71.0% of the chinese only group and 92.3% of the both chinese and english group being classified correctly. chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 65 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 65 however, no participants were accurately classified into the english only group. this might also have to do with the small number of participants in this group and the empty cell at the intersection of hss and english only. still, the model is useful in that it significantly distinguishes two of the largest groups and correctly classifies nearly four-fifths of the participants. 5. discussion the anovas have yielded several significant effects of language, discipline, and overseas experience on participants’ motivation for research article publishing. with regard to language effects, the study detected significant differences between their ratings on all four motivational factors for english and chinese research article writing. first, while the participants’ mean rating on interest value for chinese research article writing was just above the midpoint of 3, that for english research article writing was below it. this indicated that jun lei & tianmin jiang ibérica 38 (2019): 51-7466 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 66 overall, the participants did not seem to enjoy very much either english or chinese research article writing. in addition, the participants perceived greater utility value and cost but lower ability self-concept in english than in chinese research article writing. these findings are congruent with the findings from previous studies, which found publishing in english to be generally more valuable but more effortful than publishing in their first language for eal researchers (flowerdew & li, 2009; lópez-navarro et al., 2015; shin et al., 2014) and eal researchers to be less confident in their abilities to publish in english than in their abilities to publish in their first language (hanauer & englander, 2011; martín et al., 2014). significant disciplinary effects were also found on interest value, utility value, and cost. first, there was a significant main effect of discipline on cost, indicating that the hss participants perceived greater cost of research article writing than did the stm participants. one plausible explanation for this might be that research articles constitute a more common and valued form of publication for the stm than for the hss (becher & trowler, 2001; petersen & shaw, 2002; shin et al., 2014). therefore, with greater familiarity with and more practice in research article writing, the stm researchers may perceive a lower cost of it than their hss counterparts. second, disciplinary effects moderated the language effects on interest value, utility value and cost discussed earlier. notably, only the hss participants’ mean rating on interest in chinese research article writing exceeded the middle point of 3, indicating that they generally enjoyed writing chinese research articles. this might be related to the local orientation of the hss, which might have enabled the hss participants to derive pleasure and enjoyment from engaging with and contributing to the local community (gentil & séror, 2014). moreover, the stm participants reported a relatively low utility value of chinese research article writing. this could be explained by the entrenched internationalisation of the stm, which may have rendered local publication less valuable (burgess et al., 2014; petersen & shaw, 2002). furthermore, the stm participants also reported a relatively low cost of chinese research article writing, which, as discussed earlier, could be attributed to their greater familiarity with and more practice in research article writing relative to their hss counterparts. compared with language and discipline, overseas study experience had smaller effects, only significant for utility value of research article writing and ability self-concept in english research article writing. specifically, while the overseas-trained hss participants perceived greater utility value of english research article writing, the overseas-trained stm participants perceived lower chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 67 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 67 utility value of chinese research article writing. in addition, the home-trained hss participants reported particularly low ability self-concept in english research article writing. these findings suggest that overseas study experience might have boosted the hss participants’ perceived utility value and ability self-concept in english research article writing but decreased the stm participants’ perceived utility value of chinese research article writing. this again might have to do with the differing degrees of internationalisation of the hss and stm (gnutzmann & rabe, 2014; kuteeva & mauranen, 2014; petersen & shaw, 2002). because the hss group tend to be less internationalised than the stm, overseas study experience is more likely to increase the former’s than the latter’s perceived utility value and ability self-concept in english research article writing. conversely, because of entrenched internationalisation, the stm tend to perceive low utility value of chinese research article writing and overseas study experience is likely to further decrease it. finally, with regard to language choice for publication, a great majority of the participants published either in both chinese and english or in chinese only with a very small proportion of them (5%) publishing in english only. this suggests that despite the seemingly unstoppable spread of english as a lingua franca for research communication, chinese still remains to be a vibrant language for publication for chinese university faculty and bilingual publishing appears to be a common practice for many of them. regarding the associations of participants’ disciplinary background, overseas study experience, and motivation for english and chinese scholarly publishing with their language choice, the multinomial logistic regression showed that stm researchers were far more likely to publish in both chinese and english compared to chinese only than their hss peers. notably, the participants who published in english only were all from the stm. these differences might have to do with the fact that stm are more internationalised and more universally-oriented, whereas hss are more locally-based and -oriented (gnutzmann & rabe, 2014; kuteeva & mauranen, 2014; li & flowerdew, 2009; petersen & shaw, 2002). therefore, while stm researchers are more likely to publish in english and by extension in both english and chinese, hss scholars are more inclined to publish in chinese only. the multinomial logistic regression also found significant and positive associations between overseas study experience and perceived ability in jun lei & tianmin jiang ibérica 38 (2019): 51-7468 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 68 english research article writing on the one hand and the likelihood of publishing in both chinese and english compared to chinese only on the other hand. these findings indicated that overseas study experience and higher perceived abilities to write english research articles were likely to lead participants to publish in english. however, it is worth noting that despite this tendency, only a small proportion of the participants published in english only. this suggests that english does not seem to have replaced chinese as the predominant language for publication for chinese university faculty (ferguson, 2007; huang, 2011). 6. conclusions this study has yielded several noteworthy findings about bi/multilingual researchers’ motivation and language choice for bi/multilingual scholarly publishing. most notable among them is the vibrancy of chinese as a language of academic publication for chinese university faculty. also noteworthy is the participants’ overall low interest in both english and chinese research article writing with only the hss participants reporting moderate interest in chinese research article writing. another notable finding of the study concerns participants’ privileging of english over chinese scholarly publishing on the one hand and limited perceived abilities in english research article writing on the other. furthermore, it is also worth noting that participants’ choices of publishing in chinese only or in both chinese and english were significantly associated with their disciplinary background, overseas study experience, and perceived ability to write english research articles. together with other findings discussed earlier, these findings provide some evidence against the seemingly unstoppable spread of english as the lingua franca for scholarly publication and the widely-held view of utility as the single most important driving force behind it, and point to a complex and multidimensional picture of chinese eal researchers’ motivation and language choice for scholarly publishing. the findings of this study need to be interpreted with caution because of its several limitations. first, we classified participants’ disciplinary backgrounds into the hss and stm, which might have glossed over more nuanced disciplinary differences. future research should adopt a finer-grained delineation of disciplinary boundaries and probe potentially subtler disciplinary differences in eal researchers’ motivation and language choice chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 69 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 69 for scholarly publishing. second, this study focused only on research article publishing. as noted earlier, different disciplines may privilege different forms of publication. there is thus a need for future research to examine eal researchers’ motivation and language choice for different forms of publication. this research could broaden our understanding of disciplinary differences in scholarly publishing. third, because of its cross-sectional design, this study was not equipped to establish causal relationships between researchers’ motivation and language choice. future research could take a longitudinal approach and help us better understand how eal researchers’ motivation and language choice for scholarly publishing are related to each other, and whether and how their motivation and language choice and the relationships between them change over time. despite these limitations, the findings of this study provide several useful implications. first, chinese university faculty’s varying perceived values and ability self-concepts for research article publishing suggest that while it is important to beware of differences between groups, it is also critical to acknowledge heterogeneity within groups and take a contextualised rather than essentialised approach to these differences. second, the significant associations of overseas study experience and perceived ability to write english research articles with the likelihood of publishing in both chinese and english rather than in chinese only suggest a need to provide chinese university faculty with overseas training and to foster their abilities to write english research articles in order to promote bilingual publishing. finally, participants’ relatively low interest in both english and chinese research article writing and low ability self-concept in english research article writing also point to a need for training and/or editorial support on research article writing. in view of the multifarious differences identified in this study, such training and editorial support should be discipline-specific, and better still, individual-specific. acknowledgements we would like to thank the participants for their participation and cooperation. this study was supported by the moe (ministry of education in china) project of humanities and social sciences (grant number: 15yjc740084). article history: received 23 april 2018 received in revised form 31 october 2018 accepted 1 november 2018 jun lei & tianmin jiang ibérica 38 (2019): 51-7470 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 70 references chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 71 ammon, u. 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(2016). “academic publishing and the myth of linguistic injustice”. journal of second language writing 31: 58-69. kuteeva, m. & a. mauranen (2014). “writing for publication in multilingual contexts: an introduction to the special issue”. journal of english for academic purposes 13: 1-4. li, y. (2002). “writing for international publication: the perception of chinese doctoral researchers”. asian journal of english language teaching 12: 179-193. li, y. & j. flowerdew (2009). “international engagement versus local commitment: hong kong academics in the humanities and social sciences writing for publication”. journal of english for academic purposes 8: 279-293. li, y. & g. hu (2017). “chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience: comparative perspectives on overseas-trained and home-trained scholars”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 33: 71-96. 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 71 jun lei, ph.d., is a professor of applied linguistics at the faculty of foreign languages, ningbo university, china. his research interests include academic literacies, language education policy, and second language writing. his research in these areas has appeared in elt journal, english for specific purposes, language learning, language policy, system, and tesol quarterly. tianmin jiang is an associate professor at sichuan international studies university, china. his research interests include academic literacies, second language writing and translation studies. his papers have appeared in international journal of translation and translation journal. correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to this author. tianmin jiang sichuan international studies university, 33 zhuangzhi road, shapingba district, chongqing, 400031, china. email address: jtm@sisu.edu.cn. jun lei & tianmin jiang ibérica 38 (2019): 51-7472 lillis, t. m. & m. j. curry (2010). academic writing in a global context: the politics and practices of publishing in english. london: routledge. lin, m.-c., y.-s. cheng & s.-h. lin (2014). “development of a research article writing motivation inventory”. tesol quarterly 48: 389400. lópez-navarro, i., a. i. moreno, m. á. quintanilla & j. rey-rocha (2015). “why do i publish research articles in english instead of my own language? differences in spanish researchers’ motivations across scientific domains”. scientometrics 103: 939-976. martín, p., j. rey-rocha, s. burgess & a. i. moreno (2014). “publishing research in englishlanguage journals: attitudes, strategies and difficulties of multilingual scholars of medicine”. journal of english for academic purposes 16: 5767. mcgrath, l. 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(2002). “how western-trained chinese tesol professionals publish in their home environment”. tesol quarterly 36: 625-634. shin, j. c., j. jung, g. a. postiglione & n. azman. (2014). “research productivity of returnees from study abroad in korea, hong kong, and malaysia”. minerva 52: 467-487. swales, j. (2004). research genres: explorations and applications. oxford: oxford university press. tabachnick, b. g. & l. s. fidell (2007). using multivariate statistics, 5th ed. boston: pearson. tardy, c. m. (2004). “the role of english in scientific communication: lingua franca or tyrannosaurus rex?”. journal of english for academic purposes 3: 247-269. uzuner, s. (2008). “multilingual scholars’ participation in core/global academic communities: a literature review”. journal of english for academic purposes 7: 250-263. zheng, y. & x. gao (2016). “chinese humanities and social sciences scholars’ language choices in international scholarly publishing: a ten-year survey”. journal of scholarly publishing 48: 1-16. 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 72 notes 1 one possible reason for this discrepancy might be that while the participants in lin et al.’s study were graduate students, those in our study were university faculty members. research has shown that connectedness or networking plays a crucial role in publication success (lillis & curry, 2010; shin et al., 2014). meanwhile, as noted earlier, scholarly publishing is often associated with various utilitarian goals, such as securing promotion and tenure, gaining recognition and reputation, and obtaining monetary rewards. therefore, under tremendous pressure to publish, the chinese university faculty in this study perceived connectedness to be part of the utility value of research article publishing. another possible explanation for the indistinguishability of utility and connectedness value observed in this study concerns the inherently strong correlation between utility and attainment value (eccles, 2009; lin et al., 2014), the latter of which the connectedness value in lin et al.’s instrument was based on. in particular, the correlation between utility and connectedness value in lin et al.’s study was .87. chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice ibérica 38 (2019): 51-74 73 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 73 01 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 21:47 página 74 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract appropriate knowledge of learners is fundamental for planning successful courses. especially in europe, we often lack a precise idea of the background and aspirations of the students of arabic. surveys on this topic are all the more meaningful in the case of arabic for specific purposes (asp), a field in expansion that should be oriented according to real needs. this study investigates 205 students majoring in arabic and enrolled in ba and ma degree courses in linguistic and cultural mediation in italy. the materials used consist in a questionnaire of 51 items enquiring into the students’ motivations, job orientations, and language learning history. the sets of items are rated through a 7-point likert scale and validated with cronbach’s α test. the results are discussed through descriptive statistics and different groups of learners are compared by using inferential statistics. the population surveyed often took arabic because of instrumental motivations related to the development of professional skills. students are interested in specific linguistic areas, such as politics, diplomacy, administration, media, but also areas of business and tourism, and translation. the secondary education received also affects learners’ orientations. needs analysis highlights which specific courses are perceived as more relevant and also helps set a framework for further developments in the teaching of asp. keywords: arabic for specific purposes, learners of arabic, motivation, professional orientations, needs analysis. resumen hacia el árabe para fines específicos: una encuesta de estudiantes que se especializan en árabe con expectativas profesionales towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations marco aurelio golfetto università degli studi di milano (italy) marco.golfetto@unimi.it 371 ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 marco aurelio golfetto para planificar cursos con éxito, es fundamental conocer bien al público de las actividades de aprendizaje. con frecuencia, en especial en europa, es muy escaso el conocimiento que se tiene de los antecedentes y las aspiraciones de los estudiantes de árabe. este hecho es todavía más patente en el caso del árabe para fines específicos (asp, por sus siglas en inglés), un campo en expansión que debe satisfacer necesidades reales. esta investigación estudia una población de 205 estudiantes que actualmente se están especializando en árabe y están matriculados en los cursos de licenciatura y maestría en mediación cultural y lingüística en italia. los materiales utilizados consisten en un cuestionario con 51 elementos que indagan las motivaciones de los estudiantes, sus orientaciones laborales y su historial de aprendizaje de idiomas. las distintas agrupaciones de elementos se clasifican con una escala likert de 7 puntos y se validan con la prueba α de cronbach. los resultados se interpretan por medio de estadísticas descriptivas y se comparan los diferentes grupos de estudiantes utilizando estadística inferencial. en su mayoría, la población encuestada ha elegido estudiar árabe por motivaciones instrumentales relacionadas con el desarrollo de habilidades profesionales. el interés de los estudiantes se concentra en áreas lingüísticas específicas tales como la política, la diplomacia, la administración o los medios de comunicación, pero también en áreas de los negocios y el turismo, y en la traducción. el análisis de necesidades deja entrever que la educación secundaria recibida afecta a la orientación de los alumnos, así como a su percepción de qué cursos específicos son más relevantes. los resultados obtenidos en este estudio, por tanto, pueden ayudar a establecer un marco para futuras directrices en la enseñanza de asp. palabras clave: árabe para fines específicos, estudiantes de árabe, motivación, orientaciones profesionales, análisis de las necesidades. introduction in the last two decades enrollment in arabic courses has witnessed a major shift. after 9/11 the students who take arabic at university increased in both number and level of achievement in the usa, where arabic has become one of the “critical-need languages”, according to the national administration (taha, 2007). a similar general shift is also ongoing in italy. here too, a greater demand for specialized courses in arabic is quickly emerging as students start to gain proficiency faster than before, due to the growing number of those already acquainted with arabic when they first begin attending university. little research has been conducted on these students’ actual needs so far, but a needs analysis is relevant to determine which varieties of professional arabic are more in demand. thorough enquiry in 372 this regard is also appropriate in order to set up a framework for the emergent field of arabic for specific purposes (asp) and to develop syllabi, learning materials, and teaching methods for the most urgently needed varieties. the aim of this study is to determine the motives and professional orientations of the students taking arabic at a major public university in italy and to sketch an outline of their learning needs and profile. the setting of the survey, two degree courses in mediation, is particularly appropriate as it provides a preliminary skimming of the target population: students taking these courses are less interested in koranic studies or literature than their peers and more concerned with acquiring an effective professional profile. this is the first study carried out in a european continental context that pays specific attention to the learners’ professional orientation by supplying a large number of items with a highly sensitive scale. the study also provides a focus on the students’ foreign language (fl) educational history and uses parametric and non-parametric testing to ascertain possible differences among the subgroups of the surveyed population. state of the art students of arabic have been surveyed as regards their motivational orientations1 mostly in the us and us related language institutes. an early sample of a questionnaire-based study is belnap (1987), which surveyed 24 universities in the us and canada, with a total of 568 students. the study offers insights regarding improvements the students would like to see in their courses. kuntz and belnap (2001) widens the perspective and at the same time moves it out of the us borders. the article focuses on the beliefs about language learning held by 71 us students attending 2 arabic programs in morocco and yemen and 17 of their local teachers. it highlights how the conceptions of learners and instructors can diverge in many regards. belnap (2006) reports another mass survey of over 600 students from 37 institutions. it highlights the variety of reasons for which students enroll in arabic courses, such as the desire to learn about arab culture, understand the press, travel, and interact with natives. kenny (1992) provides an early enquiry about motivation and attitudes of heritage arabic learners, whereas husseinali published two articles surveying motivational orientations of mixed groups. the first study (2005) is based towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 373 on open interviews with 3 students and shows how the learners’ achievement, motivation, and perception of the relevancy of what is being learnt in class to their goals are all features connected to each other. the second study (2006) uses statistics to determine the initial motivations of 120 students. it identifies 3 major types of orientations, focuses on the differences between subgroups, and highlights the specificity of cultural and language heritage learners, which the author gathers in one and the same group. the paper by winke and weger-guntharp (2006) is similar to the previous survey in some regards but it covers over 320 learners from 11 north-american institutions. it discloses how different levels of proficiency can articulate different motivations, by making some of them salient when progressing from a lower to a higher level, or after sociopolitical changes. simpler in its approach and smaller as regards the surveyed population, brosh’s study (2013) relies on a questionnaire and interviews to enquire into motivational orientations with attention to the inner-self theory, whereas taha (2007) surveys 142 students at a hbcu by focusing on two main points: the utilitarian and the integrative dimensions of learning arabic. seymour-jorn (2004) also sheds light on an americanarab students’ community in milwaukee, where learning arabic is mostly aimed at maintaining cultural identity and relationships to their internationally located families. temples (2010) shifts the focus from university to lower secondary level. the study divides the surveyed subjects of a charter school into three groups (language heritage, cultural heritage, and foreign language learners), trying to link them to their motivational orientations as an alternative to their proficiency levels. the surveyed learners’ age further decreases in engman’s (2015) study, that focuses on cultural and language heritage students at primary school. by observing class activities and carrying out interviews, the research interrogates the way in which the students’ religious identity intersects with their social and academic identities. like husseinali (2006), engman also reaches the conclusion that religion can serve as a resource for learning arabic even in the absence of actual family links to the language itself. further studies are related to the learning of arabic in settings different from us universities. ghenghesh (2010) surveys 140 learners from 35 countries studying arabic in tripoli. the article offers a wide variety of tables with statistics-based data collected through quantitative and qualitative methods. it also investigates the decline of motivation with age, and the marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398374 possible reasons for this. the teacher’s role, as well as contact with native speakers, is stated as fundamental in motivating the learners. al-khawaldeh et al. (2014) carries out research on classical motivational orientations of 90 students of different nationalities in two jordan universities, highlighting statistical differences between individuals according to their continent of origin. kaseh et al. (2010) surveys 225 students in malaysian universities and reaches the conclusion that, although the results support the appropriateness of deci and ryan’s (1985) intrinsic/extrinsic motivational model, a newly derived religious motivational subscale seems to encompass both types of motivations. finally, students of arabic and their opinions on the target language have also been recently surveyed in spain. aguilar and fernández fondría (2016) investigate the motivations, self-perception of efficacy and learning preferences of over 400 students of different ages and from diverse education contexts. methods participants 205 students participated in this survey. they were students majoring in arabic in ba or ma degree courses in linguistic and cultural mediation at the main university of milan (università degli studi) in a.y. 2018-20192. all the subjects were studying arabic and another european or non-european language in parallel as a requirement for their degree. another requirement was to study the cultures related to the chosen languages and a number of other courses from: international organizations, international politics, history, economics, comparative law systems, sociology, cultural geography, media system, professional translation, and so forth. a detailed profile of the participants in the survey is given below. instruments the materials used in this study consisted of a questionnaire made up of 51 items. the items were divided into 3 sections. section 1 (q1-q21) investigated the learners’ motivational orientations for studying arabic. it consisted of 19 randomly ordered items that focused on different types of scales grouped into three main factors: extrinsic, intrinsic, and relational/integrative. the items presented were based on previous research surveys and adapted with a certain degree of freedom due to the specificities towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 375 related to arabic. especially relevant in the composition of this part of the questionnaire were: ely (1986), wen (1997), and husseinali (2006). further models were also used in order to integrate it, such as dörnyei and taguchi (2010), gonzales (2010), gonzales and lopez (2016), and noels et al. (2000)3. a 7-point likert scale was used to grade the students’ preferences, where number 1 corresponded to “disagree completely” and number 7 corresponded to “perfectly agree”. the cronbach’s α coefficient reliability index of this section was .76. section 2 (q22-q37) investigated the participants’ professional orientations. 15 options were offered, selected according to previous informal interviews with students and different stakeholders. in this case a 7-point likert scale was also proposed to express the respondents’ preferences. the cronbach’s α coefficient of this session was .75. section 3 (q38-q51) collected personal information. this comprised general statistical details and information on the participants’ language learning history. procedures the questionnaires were administered to the students in early 2018-2019 during regular arabic lessons. the researcher visited the classes more than once in order to reach the widest audience possible. the responses of each individual participant were encoded using excel. descriptive statistics were used to profile the surveyed population, its language history, and the average responses for the two initial sessions. nonparametric tests, such as the mann whitney test and the kruskal-wallis test, were later used to compare the responses of the participants according to gender, degree level, ethnic background, and secondary education. results and discussion surveyed population as for the composition of the surveyed population, 175 (85.4%) of the subjects were female, whereas only 30 (14.6%) were male (q38). on the whole, female students were thus by far the majority of students attending the arabic classes. when considering the degree levels (q40), 168 (82%) of the participants were ba students, while 37 (18%) were ma students. see figure 1 for the distribution of the participants according to the class attended. marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398376 surprisingly, the survey did not highlight an evident attrition rate within the ma degree between the first and second years, as has been observed in other surveys. instead, the attrition was evident between the two degree levels, with a much lower number of graduate students attending classes of the ma degree. according to their self-evaluation (q49), the participants in the survey had different levels of proficiency in arabic. given the classes attended and the period in which the questionnaire was handed out (mid of the first semester), the majority positioned themselves between levels a1 (35.6%) and a2 (27.3%). only rarely did they estimate that they were at a lower level (a0: 8.8%), or at a higher one (b1: 13.2%; b2: 6.7%; c1 and c2: 8.3% in all). 5.4% of them claimed to be native speakers. most of the respondents were aged between 19 and 24 years old (q39). in most cases, the students were in line with their expected curriculum. this helps contain the attrition rate. see table 1 for the distribution of the participants according to their age. towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 377 " " figure 1. academic standing of the students of arabic in 2018-2019. s a " ba1; 28% ba2; 27% ba3; 27% ma1; 8% ma2; 10% 1ma 8% ma " " " 2ma ; 10% " " " " " " ba3; 27% 1ma ; 8% " " " ba1 ba2; 27% " " " ba1; 28% 27% " " " " " " 1.e gurfi edaac " " " nicibaarfostnedutsehtfognidnatscim 2018 e " " " 2018-2019. h " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " a " median mean min max ba1 19 22 18 60 ba2 20 21.1 19 43 ba3 21 24 20 73 ma1 23 23.2 22 29 ma2 24 24.5 22 31 table 1. distribution of participants’ age. " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " ba1 ba2 " " " naidme name nmi xma 19 22 18 60 20 121. 19 43 " " " " " " " " " " " " ba3 1ma 2ma tabl " " " 21 24 20 73 23 223. 22 29 24 524. 22 31 age.’spanticitparofon ibutirtsid1.e tabl d " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " as for the country of birth (q42), 174 (84.9%) of the respondents were born in italy, whereas 31 (15.1%) were natives of other countries. 20 (9.7%) of those born out of italy were natives of arabic countries. see figure 2 and table 2. as for the languages spoken by the subjects in their families (q42), 153 (74.6%) spoke only italian, 18 (8.8%) spoke only arabic, 22 (10.7%) spoke either arabic or italian, 12 (5.9%) spoke other languages (see figure 3). this highlights a fairly high rate of plurilingual subjects. marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398378 " " figure 2. countries of birth of the participants (general percentages). country of birth frequency italy italy 174 arabic countries morocco 8 egypt 7 tunisia 2 kuwait 2 lebanon 1 other countries albania 2 chad 2 china 1 israel 1 japan 1 nigeria 1 romania 1 ukraine 1 uruguay 1 table 2. countries of birth of the participants (details). italy; 85% arabic countries; 10% other countries; 5% " " iountabiar 10% " " 10% esirountcherot ; 5% " " " " " " " " esirountccabiar ; 10% " " ylita ; 85% 10% " " " " " " " " e gurfi 2. rtnuco lyita ibaarra irricounttr " " crel pareneg (tsnaipticra pef th othirf b osie foyrtnuco b htir yncqueefr ly lyita 174 ci esi occormo 8 tpyeg 7 aistuni 2 tiwaku 2 lebanon 1 " " .)segtanec y " " " " ehot irricounttr " " lebanon 1 r esi ainabal 2 dach 2 anich 1 lerais 1 japan 1 airegni 1 ainamro 1 eniaruk 1 yauguur 1 " " " " " " 2.e tabl " " laidet(spanticitparhe tofh trbiofesirountc " " .)s " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " the italian secondary school education system is made up of numerous types of schools that can greatly vary in different respects. the secondary school attended holds a relevant position in the student’s academic career, particularly because of the quality of teaching, the autonomy it develops in the learners, the study load the students are acquainted with, and the language educational track it offers, as well as the learning methods that are used to teach the students. when dealing with young adult learners, as is the case for university, their extant learning attitudes, beliefs, and motivations, should be held in high consideration when devising the teaching methodology for classes. figure 4 shows what schools the surveyed students attended before university (q43). foreign languages high schools were by far the most represented (41.5%). this has definitely good implications for the learners, as it means that they have already undergone a thorough language education before starting their university career. students attending this kind of high school usually learn 3 modern fls and, in addition to these, they may also towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 379 " " figure 3. languages spoken in the respondents’ families. italian; 74% both (arabic and italian); 11% arabic only; 9% other; 6% " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " yonlcabiar ; 9% " " 9% herot ; 6% " " " " " " " " an)ialtiand cabiar(h bot ; 11% " " ita " " nailita ; 74% " " " " " " languages3.e gurfi " " amf’spondentesrhe tn ien pokslanguages " " esili . " " " " figure 4. secondary schools attended by the respondents. f " 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% secondary school in the country of origin other business or tourism high school technical or vocational curriculum high school liberal arts, sciences, or social sciences high school foreign languages high school study latin. therefore, they develop solid linguistic knowledge, are used to attentive linguistic analysis, and also learn how to best deal with formalistic approaches to language teaching. they are experienced in achieving fl international certifications and are sensitive to their importance. respondents who attended tourism or business high schools were dramatically less in number (11.2%). tourism high schools have some similarities to the previous kind of schools, as here the students may also study up to 3 fls. the teaching method used is communicative. there is no formalistic approach to the fl and the linguistic analysis is only studied in a functional perspective. the workload is also lighter, but a good deal of attention is usually paid to international certification and exchange programs, through which the fls are studied in context. liberal arts, science and social science high schools were attended by 24.9% of the respondents. although these kinds of school offer wide cultural foundations, promote autonomy in the learners and train them to face a thorough intellectual workload, they also leave an imprint that can be quite formalistic (especially for students learning both ancient greek and latin). despite being well appreciated in general, these schools can offer less in terms of a modern fl education. finally, 19% of the students opted for secondary schools with technical or vocational curricula. they were taught one fl, although it was less relevant in their curriculum. marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398380 " " f " 1 fl 2 fls 3 fls 4 or more fls total frequency 55 33 37 80 205 percentage 26.8% 16.1% 18.1% 39.0% 100.0% table 3. number of fls studied at secondary school by the respondents. " " fls frequency percentage english 201 98.0% french 108 52.7% spanish 89 43.4% latin/ancient greek 75 36.6% german 54 26.3% arabic 14 6.8% chinese 7 3.4% russian 2 1.0% japanese 1 0.5% hebrew 1 0.5% polish 1 0.5% table 4. fls studied at secondary school by the respondents. " effects of secondary education can thus be evaluated in different regards. the first one is the type and number of languages the respondents were exposed to in their previous career (q44). only 1 out of 4 students had previously studied just one fl; 1 out of 3 studied 2 or 3 fls; and 39% studied 4 or more. these generally encouraging data can foretell the learners’ confidence when facing new linguistic challenges; however, the kinds of language that were studied can lessen this positive perspective. only very rarely, in fact, were students familiar with languages of completely different linguistic families that used non-latin alphabets. beside those studying ancient greek, only a limited number of respondents had previous contact with languages such chinese, russian, japanese, hebrew, and/or arabic itself. see table 3 and table 4 for details. as late contact with a new language makes its acquisition more difficult, and even more so when its structures are unlike that of the mother tongue, studying arabic becomes more challenging for most of the respondents. furthermore, the expectation of a heavy cognitive load for learning arabic may also prevent the students from taking another lctl, or a language commonly perceived as demanding (q45). finally, as can be noticed from the tables, the languages studied at university normally overlap with those studied at secondary schools. university is less a place for language novelties in this regard. see table 5 and figure 5 for detailed information. towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 381" " " figure 5. other requirement language studied at university according to degree levels. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% english french spanish chinese german japanese hindi russian other ba students ma students a second effect of the secondary education received was that respondents proved to be sensitive towards international fl certifications (q47). more than 2 out of 3 achieved at least one of these certifications, whereas 22% received 3 or more (figure 6 and table 6). inferential statistics highlighted a significant difference between types of schools (p .0005 with fisher’s exact test), with the predictably highest number of certified students among those who attended foreign languages high schools. students from secondary schools with technical or vocational curricula also achieved a good number of certifications on the whole. this is because arabic heritage students –who attended in most cases these kinds of schools– proved to be very attentive to the international certifications. marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398382 " " language frequency percentage ba ma total ba ma total english 79 21 100 47.0% 56.8% 48.8% french 33 5 38 19.6% 13.5% 18.5% spanish 25 5 30 14.9% 13.5% 14.6% chinese 11 3 14 6.5% 8.1% 6.8% german 8 2 10 4.8% 5.4% 4.9% japanese 7 1 8 4.2% 2.7% 3.9% hindi 2 0 2 1.2% 0.0% 1.0% russian 2 0 2 1.2% 0.0% 1.0% other 1 0 1 0.6% 0.0% 0.5% total 168 37 205 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% table 5. other requirement language studied at university according to degree levels. " " figure 6. number of certifications achieved by the respondents. no certification; 31% 1 or 2 certif,; 46% 3 or more certif,; 22% no response; 1% a further long-lasting effect of the secondary education received was especially evident in the performance at the annual assessments for arabic (q48; see table 7). fisher’s exact test highlighted a statistically significant difference according to the types of secondary schools attended (p .0070). the students who performed better were those who had attended liberal arts, sciences, or social sciences schools: all of them sat for their exam successfully and 51.4% achieved top evaluations. the average evaluation for the students from foreign languages secondary schools was somewhat lower, but 50% of them received top marks. on the contrary, 41% of the students who attended secondary schools with technical or vocational curricula failed or did not sit for any arabic exams. the same percentage achieved top evaluation, with this subgroup mostly made up of arabic heritage students. it should be noted that a statistic difference of p .0055 was also recorded when comparing the performance of the students who studied latin and ancient greek at secondary school to that of all the others. linking the formalistic approach the students got used to when studying these languages and the teaching styles and methods of assessment in use at university can help explain this result. towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 383 " " certifications ba1 % ba2 % ba3 % ma1 % ma2 % no certification 42.1 25.5 26.8 17.6 35.0 1 or 2 certif. 40.4 54.5 46.4 47.1 40.0 3 or more certif. 17.5 20.0 25.0 29.4 25.0 no response 0.0 0.0 1.8 5.9 0.0 total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 table 6. number of certifications achieved by the respondents according to their degree level (percentage). " " " foreign languages liberal arts, or sciences tourism or business technical or vocational other in country of origin total no exam 7 (10.9%) 0 (0.0%) 3 (27.3%) 7 (41.2%) 3 (27.3%) 1 (16.7%) 21 (14.4%) 18-22 4 (6.3%) 3 (8.1%) 0 (0.0%) 1 (5.9%) 2 (18.2%) 2 (33.3%) 12 (8.2%) 23-26 21 (32.8%) 15 (40.5%) 4 (36.4%) 2 (11.8%) 2 (18.2%) 3 (50.0%) 47 (32.2%) 27-30 32 (50.0%) 19 (51.4%) 4 (36.4%) 7 (41.2%) 4 (36.4%) 0 (0.0%) 66 (45.2%) total 64 37 11 17 11 6 146 table 7. distribution of the average evaluations in arabic achieved according to the secondary education received. motivational orientations this section of the questionnaire highlights the reasons that led the respondents to choose arabic. the items were divided into 3 scales: 7 items pertained to extrinsic motivation factors (2 to circumstantial factors and 5 to instrumental reasons), 7 to intrinsic motivation factors (2 related to stimulation of the language/perception of self-efficacy, 3 to desire of knowledge, 2 to desire of understanding), and 5 to relational/integrative factors (i.e. relation, affiliation and/or integration)4. generally speaking the group that scored highest was that of intrinsic motivation. extrinsic motivation the group of extrinsic motivation scored an average mean of 4.03 out of 7 on the likert scale. five items were related to instrumental reasons, either by focusing on the utility of the language, or in relation to the respondents’ desire for career and economic enhancement5. the idea that arabic “can provide more employment opportunities” (q5) collected strong agreement (5.38). this factor turned out to be even more motivating than the opportunity for higher wages or more professional responsibility (q6). to be considered “an expert in migration or terrorism” (q9) was the least endorsed reason for studying arabic in this group (4.3), although not everybody agreed (the standard deviation (sd) was quite wide). given that working with migrants was well appreciated (see below), respondents possibly disagreed with the proposed expertise in terrorism (see also the q34 result). higher evaluations were given to the relevancy of arabic “for world economy and finance” (q11) (4.82), and especially for “working in the field marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398384 " " " figure 7. average proficiency levels for annual assessments of arabic (frequency). 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 ba2 ba3 ma1 ma2 18-22 23-26 27-30 of international politics” (q10), which scored the highest in this session (5.56). this highlights how the language related to international politics and diplomacy is a great requirement for these students. both the items of the circumstantial subscale (“i had a (second) fl as a degree requirement and had no other choice” (q1) and arabic “is easier to me, as i am already familiar with it” (q3)) achieved extremely low means. therefore, none of the students felt that they were forced to choose arabic or saw it as a shortcut to achieve graduation. on the contrary, arabic was freely decided upon with determination and this can explain the low rate of initial attrition and foretell a good deal of engagement, if motivation is correctly sustained. intrinsic motivation the second scale was related to intrinsic motivation, i.e. studying the language for itself, for one’s inherent pleasure, curiosity, or interest in the activities one can do with the language. the average mean was 5.13. respondents were very positive about both arabic per se and about the pleasure of learning it: arabic “is fascinating, exotic and less banal than other languages”6 (q2) scored 5.67, whereas “i like learning a challenging language and being effective” (q4) scored 5.09. in the students’ spontaneous beliefs, arabic is an original education choice and strongly stimulating despite its fame as a ‘difficult’ language. the motives related to the desire to acquire the ability to read texts were rated from middle to middle-high: reading press and other sources of information about the arab world (q17) raised the strongest enthusiasm (5.34), followed by reading classical or modern arabic literature (q15) and philosophical or religious works (q16). studying arabic to get to know its culture was also linked to empathy, desire for new awareness and discovery of different standpoints on reality: “arabic is useful to understand other individuals/people’s perspective of the world” (q13) scored the highest among all the items of the questionnaire (6.29, with a very low sd). the utility of arabic for “better understanding the events of our times” (q12), was also very well valued. the mann whitney test highlighted some difference in this regard between the ba and ma students (p .0424), with younger students displaying additional enthusiasm. these results suggest that teaching arabic should never be detached from attentively teaching the related system of values, beliefs, heritage, and arts. towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 385 relational/integrative motivation relational/integrative motivation is used in this study as a very broad label for a set of motivational orientations, from cultural appreciation to willingness to explore the arabic environment, and from developing a relationship with the arab people to pursuing a (stronger) social affiliation or (re)acquisition of cultural identity. the items were in some cases more directly addressed to heritage learners, to whom a separate study will be devoted (forthcoming). the average mean of the integrative scale was 4.37. the interest for travelling to mena (q7) scored medium-high (4.57), but the students showed much less enthusiasm about changing their life setting and settling in an arab country (q8). the decidedly positive attitude of the respondents toward encountering others was confirmed in 2 further items: “i would like to be able to meet new and different people” (q14), which scored very high and the lowest sd of the entire questionnaire (1.1) and “i would like to talk to arabic-speaking friends or relatives” (q18). the last item was arabic “is useful to understand my family cultural or religious heritage” (q19). it scored only 2.36 but this low rating was due to its restricted focus on the family heritage, that excluded the largest part of respondents. table 8 and figure 8 show all these results in detail. marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398386 " " type motivational orientations mean median sd circumstantial m. requirement, no alternatives (q1) 1.29 1 0.875 easiness, familiarity (q3) 2.15 1 2.014 extrinsic m. more work opportunities (q5) 5.38 6 1.358 better-paid job (q6) 4.75 5 1.547 expertise in migration and terrorism (q9) 4.3 4 1.779 relevancy for world politics (q10) 5.56 6 1.384 relevancy for world economy (q11) 4.82 5 1.619 intrinsic m. fascination for the language (q2) 5.67 6 1.447 challenge, self-efficacy (q4) 5.09 5 1.602 understanding contemporary events (q12) 5.75 6 1.323 understanding others’ perspectives (q13) 6.29 7 1.125 reading arabic literature (q15) 4.22 4 1.797 reading arabic philosophy, or religion (q16) 3.61 3 1.889 reading arabic press (q17) 5.34 6 1.547 relational/ integrative m. travelling to mena (q7) 4.57 5 1.597 settling in mena (q8) 3.54 3 1.733 meeting different people (q14) 6.27 7 1.1 talking to friends/relatives (q18) 5.09 6 1.997 family cultural/religious heritage (q19) 2.36 1 2.291 table 8. detailed results for the items that relate to the motivational orientations. as for the differences in the means among subgroups of respondents, only rarely were these highlighted in this section. for example, there was no significant difference between male and female respondents. however, the secondary education received seemed to play an important role. in some cases, this was possibly due to the link between specific kinds of subgroups (such as the heritage learners) and the secondary schools they more frequently attended. in other cases (q3, q19), instead, the statistically different ratings were linked to the specific educational focus promoted by the schools attended. for example, students previously enrolled in business or tourism high schools were more strongly motivated to study arabic because of its expected relevancy in the world economy (5.91 vs. the general 4.82, with p .0088). conversely, students from schools where they were taught ancient greek or latin scored a lower mean in the integrative motivation scale (4.02 vs 4.44, with p .0293). professional orientations the second part of the questionnaire aimed at enquiring into the respondents’ expectations about their future employment. this part of the survey is particularly relevant towards understanding what specific areas of towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 387 " " " 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 77 " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " 2 3 4 5 6 " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " 0 1 " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " figure 8. means for the items that relate to the motivational orientations. a " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " e gurfi 8 fosnae. m n " " " l oantioativo me th totelat rea thsm iteer th fo " " " sntiotanriel o . w " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " asp are more urgent in view of the students’ employment. 14 pre-selected items plus an open one were proposed to elicit the students’ occupational preferences. the items can be grouped into the following sectors: internationalism (3), local mediation (3), tourism (2), business (2), translation and others. the average score on the scale of internationalism, i.e. jobs as mediator at an international level, was 5.12. the first of the 3 items connected to this subscale was related to the world of media, such as newspapers, the internet, and tv broadcasts (q22), and it scored medium high (4.48). both working “in the field of diplomacy or international politics” (q23) and “for national/international institutions or organizations that operate in the arab countries” (q26) received high scores, respectively 5.12 and 5.83. the latter result also recorded the lowest sd (1.38). among the 3 jobs proposed for mediation at the local level (working “in the field of health care mediation” (q27), “as a cultural mediator for state institutions (municipalities, settlement visa offices, and so forth)” (q28), and “as a cultural mediator in schools, refugee centres, charities and so forth” (q29)), it was the second one that scored the best (5.38). the items related to tourism were rated 4.01 on average. a job “as a tour leader for arab tourists in italy, or italian tourists in the arab countries” (q25) was better evaluated than working “in the field of tourist promotion, designing and promoting holiday packages from and to arab countries” (q24). the average score for the business subscale was 3.83, with a much better performance of working “in companies trading with arab countries (as sales personnel or a representative abroad)” (q30; 4.74) rather than “in the promotion of halāl goods or goods for families of arab origin living in italy” (q31). finally, all the remaining items had a very low rating, with the only exception of “interpreter, translator, or employee at a publishing house” (q32), which was rated middle to high, at 4.7. working “in the army or security” (q34) was very little appreciated, probably because this is perceived as a sensitive area. a position in international finance (q35), on the contrary, might seem attractive, especially for the role that arabic is expected to play in the world economy, but that was not the case again, possibly because islamic finance is still perceived as a hardly achievable market niche. the most striking result, however, was regarding the strategic sector of energy and oil (q33), that marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398388 resulted in a mean of only 2.25, the lowest ever of this second section of the survey. the reason for this score may be a misconception of the real potential of this sector. as for the free option, in four cases the field of education (as a teacher/professor of arabic) was suggested as a desired professional position. table 9 and figure 9 show the results of all the single items. towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 389 " " " t " type professional orientations mean median sd international med. press, information (q22) 4.48 5 1.825 international politics and diplomacy (q23) 5.12 6 1.83 international organisations (q26) 5.83 6 1.38 local med. healthcare mediation (q27) 4.18 4 2.048 mediation for state institutions (q28) 5.38 6 1.57 mediation in schools, refugee centres (q29) 5.25 6 1.663 tourism promotion of tourism (q24) 3.83 4 1.952 tour guide (q25) 4.19 4 1.96 trading trading with arab countries (q30) 4.74 5 1.897 promotion of goods (q31) 2.99 3 1.776 other interpreter, translator (q32) 4.70 5 1.894 energy and oil (q33) 2.25 2 1.591 armed forces, security (q34) 2.37 1 1.858 financial consultant (q35) 2.6 2 1.879 table 9. detailed results for the items that relate to the professional orientations. " " a 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 " " 7 " " " " " " " " 1 2 3 4 5 6 " " " " " " " " 0 " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " figure 9. means for the items that relate to professional orientations. a " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " e gurfi 9 snae. m " " riel oaniossfero p totelat rea thsm iteer th fo " " sntiotanrie . l " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " when it comes to inferential statistics, mann whitney tests and kruskalwallis tests were carried out in order to highlight significant differences according to the following parameters: academic standing, degree level, gender and types of secondary schools. among the students attending the ba courses, a statistically significant difference with the mann whitney test was recorded for the professions related to tourism: at the beginning of their academic carrier the respondents were significantly more oriented to work both in the promotion of tourism and as tour guides. in the first case, the scores recorded were 4.06 for ba1 and ba2 respondents, and 3.02 for ba3 respondents (p .0011). in the second case, the means were even more divergent, as the average evaluation for working as a tour guide was 4.52 for the first subgroup and 3.36 for the second (p .0004). the only other degree-level based difference was related to working in companies trading with arab countries (q30). this appealed considerably more to the ma respondents (5.46 vs 4.58, with p .0124). as for the difference between genders, this was also present in some items. female participants were more motivated to work for national or international institutions operating in the arab countries (q26), as cultural mediators in schools and refugee centres (q29), or for state institutions (q28). on the contrary, male respondents were only slightly more oriented to engage in the oil and energy sector (q33). see table 10 for the means and the differences between male and female subjects. the kruskal-wallis tests also highlighted differences in four professional orientations according to the types of secondary schools the respondents attended. for example, respondents studying ancient greek and/or latin, i.e. students considered to have a stronger secondary education track, were even less oriented towards employment in security or the armed forces marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398390 " " professional orientations male female p value international organisations (q26) 5.10 5.95 .0297* mediation for state institutions (q28) 4.77 5.48 .0212* mediation in schools, refugee centres (q29) 4.66 5.35 .031* energy and oil (q33) 2.83 2.15 .0174* (*=statistically significant difference) table 10. professional orientations: comparison of the means for male and female respondents. t " " m f (q34) (1.84 vs 2.49, with p .0338). even more relevantly, a divergence was recorded for both the items connected to the area of business (q30 and q31), with p .0003 and p .0296 respectively. students who attended business or tourism high schools and schools with technical or vocational curricula were more inclined to favour these jobs. they also had higher expectations about working in the field of finance (q35) in comparison to their peers (p .0005). in short, schools for tourism and business or with technical or vocational curricula provided higher motivation for the related kinds of employment, thus confirming how the educational background can have a deep and long-term influence on one’s academic and professional career. asp students’ needs the aim of this study was to better understand the students’ profile and detect their linguistic needs. knowledge of the target audience, with their language acquisition background, learning peculiarities, motivational dimensions, professional aims constitutes the first step that the teaching process should take in a learner-centred perspective. needs analysis of the students’ professional orientations is a fundamental requirement (long, 2005, 2013) especially in the perspective of arabic for specific purposes (asp). the students’ requirements can help the language professionals give precedence to the development of teaching materials and syllabi for those variants of arabic that require more urgent attention in the occupational perspective7. although professional needs and other specific features can vary according to place, context, target audience, time, and so forth, priorities and possibly general guidelines for teaching and material development should be agreed upon on a large scale as a common foundation for asp. after a few decades of more or less successful attempts in facing circumscribed disciplinary needs (see esseesy, 2017) via the autonomous development of teaching materials, asp now seems to have reached a turning point. it has started defining itself, its goals, potentials, limits, perspectives, and professionals’ roles, and entering the methodological debate with other lsps that have a longer tradition and among which english, the “tyrannosaurus rex” in the lsp room (upton, 2012), plays a special role. methodological implications can be drawn from this comparison. being part of this wider category of lsp, asp should also be rooted in the towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 391 communicative approach (northcott, 2013). in this sense, it should be dominated by a pragmatic dimension that makes it “the language for getting things done… [in which] the practical application and use of the language overrides other aspects of language learning” (harding, 2007: 6). as well as being accurate, asp has to be effective. furthermore, asp must start addressing a number of relevant issues that are presently being dealt with by the other languages. these are in particular: proportions of language and contents that must be taught (unknown contents cannot be taught in an unknown language) proportions of the skills involved focus on words/structures, text/purposes, genres, context, and interactions (upton, 2012) use of professional authentic/pedagogical tasks degree of the specificity of the courses (johns & dudley-evans, 1991) and actual meaning of the word “specificity” (see huckin, 2003) focus on language strategies, rhetoric, and strategy-based methodologies responsibility of the teacher/freedom of the learners (aly, 2017) degree of required teacher’s disciplinary/contents expertise degree of cooperation of teachers and disciplinary experts (dudley-evans, 2001) attention to adult learners (golfetto, 2016). at a more operative level, the theoretical reflection, which shapes and frames any decision, must be paired with more practical and operational concerns to answer the students’ needs in a scientific and appropriate manner. thus syllabi, teaching methods, and materials that are coherent with the general theoretical framework should be consequently developed. needs analysis is fundamental in these other regards. not only does it help to select the asp variant that best meets the learner’s orientations (which have to be verified with information on the actual post-lauream employment rates, through permanent dialogue with professional associations, chambers of marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398392 labour and worker unions), but it is also applicable to the language itself, in order to understand which language items (vocabulary, structures, functions, genres and so forth) need to be taught. once the target asp variant and its items have been established, the syllabi can be designed at the local level according to the resources available in the institute (funding, contact hours, professionals) and the general curriculum supplied, on one side, and the learners’ knowledge gaps (esseesy, 2017: 195), on the other. as brown (1995: 20; see also trace et al., 2015: 6) highlights, when the goals and objectives of the course are established, all the further steps proceed in line with this: expected proficiency outputs; assessment methodologies; material selection, manipulation and development; teaching methods and techniques to be used. however, all this “is not a purely linear process”: teaching must be systematic, but it also has to be open, flexible and ever-evolving. the materials must be tested in class in a research-action perspective, facing and solving the arising problems according to new emerging needs. the syllabi to devise can greatly vary regarding their contents, based on the teacher’s intuition of greater appropriateness. preference should be given to the task-based approach (murphy, 2018), which literature for language teachers often presents as the most natural choice for lsp for various reasons: it is grounded on the communicative approach, as learners remain focused primarily on the communicative purpose rather than purely linguistic contents; it promotes real-world-like usage of language and strategies by setting the solution of real-world problems as goals; it promotes autonomy and increases the students’ motivation and empowerment8. despite the criticism of some who have objected against the suitability of syllabi based on tasks to young and novice learners, robinson (2009) highlights how these can be sequenced independently from linguistic grading and in a way to minimize and then progressively increase the initial cognitive demand, in order to optimize “opportunities for attention allocation to language form” (303). finally, according to contemporary lsp prescriptions, the course design of asp should turn to discourse-based and genre-based approaches. this means attention to rhetorical structures and functions in a real-usage and communicative perspective. and it also means an attentive selection of varied and representative textual genres to highlight the use of language in context (swales, 2000) as well as their rhetoric and “new” rhetoric (upton, 2012). given the multiple purposes of genres, their socially and culturally related nature and understanding, and their modification over time, a simple product-based view of learning that encourages acquisition of fixed patterns and models of genres should be avoided. conversely, the teacher should towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 393 allow for variation by combining the genre acquisition with “learning about genres”, i.e. genre awareness (johns, 2008; paltridge, 2011). conclusion it is clearly not the sole students’ responsibility to determine what professional fields are most relevant to them. the decision of what varieties of arabic should be taught is to be made also at different levels, according to the local community’s needs, national interests, actual vocation of the degree, and available resources. this, as well as the responsibility of providing syllabi appropriately devised for the goals, fall on the teaching personnel and syllabus planners. however, inquiry into the students’ needs analysis is a fundamental step towards a teaching approach centred on the learners. this survey, which was carried out on a selected population of university students representing a typical target for the teaching of asp, has provided a wide picture of their professional demands. additionally, it has also supplied information on other relevant issues that have hardly been explored in literature, such as information on these students’ learning background and features of educational continuities between their secondary and post-secondary education. all the learners surveyed have proved certain of the usefulness of arabic for their career. their professional interests were partially divergent, but strongly oriented to such fields as international politics and diplomacy, press, mediation in administration offices and immigration centres, and although to a lesser extent to some areas of trading and tourism, and translation. the linguistic needs of each of these sectors can vary greatly from one to another as regards the appropriate vocabulary, the set of communicative functions, the genres knowledge and awareness, the rhetorical strategies, and other features, such as written skills or oral proficiency in relevant geographical variants that students must be taught in order to acquire appropriate professional skills. each of them therefore requires specific attention and individually oriented curricula that need to be devised. the professional prompt was not the sole that led the students to major in arabic. one thing that all the learners shared was their interest for the target culture and an open and encouraging intercultural attitude. this cultural motivation is an even stronger stimulus than the professional one, and it marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398394 requires that any variety of arabic must be taught alongside the arabic cultural heritage, in both its educated and more popular features. to conclude, the instrument used in this survey, which was readapted and expanded from previous studies and collected different kinds of motivations, was validated and proved effective in inquiring into the students’ orientations, their educational background and learning needs. it can deservedly serve for future research carried out in this field. article history: received 26 may 2019 received in revised form 4 september 2019 accepted 29 june 2020 references towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 395 aguilar, v. & l. fernández (2016). “la conciencia lingüística de los estudiantes de árabe en españa” in f. moscoso garcía & a. moustaoui sghir (eds.), identidad y conciencia lingüística, 75-116. madrid: servicio de publicaciones de la uam. al-khawaldeh, m., a.n. al-jarrah & f. al-rabee (2014). “dāfi‘iyyat ta‘allum al-‘arabiyya ladā alnāṭiqīn bi-ghayrihā 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(2007). “arabic as ‘a critical need’ foreign language in post-9/11 era: a study of marco aurelio golfetto (phd, ca’ foscari university of venice) is postdoctoral fellow at the university of milan (italy), where he is carrying out research on the teaching of arabic as a foreign language by focusing on arabic for specific purposes and learners’ needs. he has published in english and italian and taught at various universities (venice, macerata and milan). notes 1 it should be borne in mind that “there is a major distinction between orientation and motivation. orientation refers to reasons for studying a second language, while motivation refers to the directed, reinforcing effort to learn the language” (gardner & macintyre, 1991: 58). this paper will be using the types of motivations to denote the related orientations while not necessarily reflecting a specific level of motivation (ryan, 1985); subsequently, the word “motivation(s)” might occasionally be used in its broader sense. 2 at present, there was no compulsory attendance of classes for any of the degree programs. 3 one is indebted to gardner (in particular 1985) for first reviewing the studies on motivation and attitudes and discussing different related issues. noteworthy attempts to integrate different constructs and frameworks relating to the motivation were also carried out in particular by noels et al. (2000), noels (2001), macintyre et al. (2001), and carreira (2005). 4 literature on motivation and motivational constructs involve different fields, from psychology to education. the classical distinction is based on the idea of endogenous/exogenous dichotomy, which was followed by deci and ryan’s self-determination theory (1985). it is now assumed that the two kinds of motivation are located on a continuous dimension rather than being mutually exclusive. the articulation of the motivational construct used here mostly relies on noels 2001 model. it gives though additional emphasis to the (relational/) integrative motivation. towards arabic for specific purposes: a survey of students majoring in arabic holding professional expectations ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398 397 students’ attitudes and motivation”. journal of instructional psychology 34(3): 150-160. temples, a.l. (2010). “heritage motivation, identity and the desire to learn arabic in u.s. early adolescents. journal of the national council of less taught languages 9: 103-132. trace, j., t. hudson, & j.d. brown (2015). “an overview of language for specific purposes” in j. trace, t. hudson & j.d. brown (eds.), developing courses in languages for specific purposes, 122. manoa, hawaii: national foreign language resource center. upton, t.a. (2012). “lsp at 50: looking back looking forward”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 23: 9-28. wahba, k.m., l. england & z.a. taha (eds.). (2006). handbook for arabic language teaching professionals in the 21st century. volume i. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. wahba, k.m., l. england & z.a. taha (eds.). 2017. handbook for arabic language teaching professionals in the 21st century. volume ii. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. wen, x. (1997). “motivation and language learning with students of chinese”. foreign language annals 30(2): 235-251. winke, p.m. & h.d. weger-guntharp (2006). “why students in the u.s. are learning arabic: a study of motivation at the college-level”. journal of the national council of less commonly taught languages 3: 7-33. 5 an ultimate turning point in the studies on the instrumental motivation is gardner and macintyre (1991). 6 being eurocentric in nature, the term “exotic” was clearly meant to be provocative and catalyze the students’ more naive perceptions. 7 asp items can be successfully integrated at an early stage, in case the target group of learners has peculiar requirements, the classes have definite goals and the available contact time is limited. nevertheless, it is clearly not the author’s conviction that the standard curriculum of arabic must be reorganized in any case and by any means. 8 diglossia and variation make the concept of communication in arabic more sophisticated. as communicative proficiency is not simply the ability to converse, to use a communicative approach and to promote real-world-like usage of the language do not mean to reduce arabic to its sole colloquial (often dialectal) varieties. it is even more so when some linguistic fields of asp are concerned, as those highlighted in the questionnaire results: in these cases, communication (either written or oral) is more likely to take place in the standard variety (msa). marco aurelio golfetto ibérica 39 (2020): 371-398398 iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.191 abstract according to the national market and competition commission (“comisión nacional del mercado y la competencia”, “cnmc”), 40% of domestic users do not understand their electricity bill. this paper analyses whether the bill, which is mandatory for all domestic consumers by law (consumers with contracts under 15 kw), is written in plain language. plain language is an essential requirement to achieve the right to understand. this right should be respected and promoted especially by the public administration. the research focuses on the analysis of the model of the regulated electricity bill in spain, from a double perspective. first, we analyse whether the text complies with the standards of textuality coming from text linguistics (beaugrande & dressler, 1981), by means of a qualitative approach. next, a quantitative methodology is used to identify whether the invoice complies with the grammatical recommendations of plain language. the starting hypothesis considers that the text of this document was written without taking into account the recommendations for plain language from the grammatical perspective, nor have the particularities implied by the reception and comprehension of its contents in a given pragmatic context been observed. the results tend to confirm our hypothesis and, where appropriate, we offer alternative forms of wording that would facilitate a better understanding of the concepts registered in the bill. the current electricity bill has been drawn up as an administrative legal document whose elaboration did not take into account either its recipients or the usefulness that this document should have had for them. keywords: transparency, plain language, electricity bill, standards of textuality, discontinuous text, legal-administrative texts, consumer rights. plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde universidad católica de murcia (spain) bsubiela@ucam.edu, amgalvez@ucam.edu, mmiralles@ucam.edu 191 ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde resumen lenguaje claro y derecho a entender en la factura eléctrica regulada en españa según la comisión nacional del mercado y la competencia (“cnmc”), el 40% de los usuarios domésticos no entienden su factura eléctrica. este trabajo analiza si la factura, que por ley es obligatoria para todos los consumidores domésticos (consumidores con contratos de menos de 15 kw), está redactada en un lenguaje sencillo. el lenguaje sencillo es un requisito indispensable para lograr el derecho a entender. este derecho debe ser respetado y promovido especialmente por la administración pública. la investigación se centra en el análisis del modelo de factura eléctrica regulada en españa, desde una doble perspectiva. en primer lugar, se analiza si el texto cumple con los estándares de textualidad provenientes de la lingüística del texto (beaugrande y dressler, 1981) mediante un enfoque cualitativo. a continuación, se utiliza una metodología cuantitativa para identificar si la factura cumple con las recomendaciones gramaticales del lenguaje claro. la hipótesis de partida considera que el texto de este documento ha sido redactado sin tener en cuenta las recomendaciones para el lenguaje claro desde la perspectiva gramatical, y que tampoco se han observado las particularidades que implica la recepción y comprensión de sus contenidos en un contexto pragmático dado. los resultados tienden a confirmar la hipótesis y, cuando corresponde, se ofrecen formas alternativas de redacción que facilitarían una mejor comprensión de los conceptos. la factura eléctrica vigente ha sido redactada como un documento jurídico administrativo cuya elaboración no tuvo en cuenta ni a sus destinatarios ni a la utilidad que este documento debe tener para ellos. palabras clave: transparencia, lenguaje simple, factura de electricidad, estándares de textualidad, texto discontinuo, textos jurídico-administrativos, derechos del consumidor. 1. introduction one of the main reasons for regulating the electricity bill by law is to ensure consumers receive the information about their electricity consumption and the costs related to it in the clearest, most transparent way possible, as well as ensuring maximum ease of comparison with other electricity providers. such is required by the european union in directives (2009/72ce, 2019/944ce), recommendations (user-friendly bill template and list of essential items1) and various studies (european commission consumers, health, agriculture and food executive agency, 2018 and council of european energy regulators, ceer, 2021). directive 2019/944 has been transposed into 192 spanish law through legislation and is still in force through the resolution of april 28th 2021, which establishes the minimum content required and the template of the electricity bill to be used by the main marketers (dirección general de política energética y minas, 2021). this resolution determines the template form to be followed by every bill received by consumers with a regulated tariff (voluntary price for retail consumers, “pvpc” in its spanish acronym) and the minimum content required for consumers in the free market with low tension supply up to 15kw. therefore, the content of all electricity bills for domestic consumers is fixed by law, both for the free market and the regulated market, a total of nearly 28 million users (national market and competition commission, cnmc, 2022, p. 40). still, despite the regulation, most consumers do not understand their electricity bill. according to the organisation of consumers and users (ocu, 2022), only 11% of users understand their electricity bill. the “cnmc”, through their domestic panel (“panel de hogares” in spanish) has consistently declared the electricity bill is not understood by the vast majority of consumers (cnmc, 2016, 2021, and 2022). it must be noted that, despite the fact that the current bill template was introduced in 2021, it is still very similar to the one introduced in 2014.2 the electricity market in spain is complex and the concepts that appear on the bill are complex too. still, there are many examples in history where aiming for a form of user-centred communication has succeeded in presenting complexity in a simple and accessible way. an iconic example of this is harry beck’s diagram of london’s tube map, introduced in 1932 (cartwright, 2015). beck’s initiative meant putting aside topographic maps, which were very precise but very complex, and adopting schematic maps, less representative of reality, but much more useful. the recent initiative of madrid’s city council to draw up a traffic fine that is easier to understand has been a success (montolío & tascón, 2020). communicating clearly “means delivering easily, straightforwardly, simply and efficiently relevant information to citizens using any of the current channels [...] adapted to its specific traits” (montolío & tascón, 2020, p. 151). pacios et al. (2016, p. 722) also find that “making information available is not enough to achieve transparency”. they add that information, in order to be considered transparent, must be presented “in adequate language and form, and must be comprehensible for all different types of recipients”. therefore, to achieve transparency, plain language is essential. according to the plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 193 international plain language federation (iplf, plain language definitions, 25) “a communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information” (plain language definitions, 25). one of the areas where the need to introduce plain language has been pressing is in legal-administrative texts: for reference, see the work of cassany (2005), montolío (2012 and 2019), alsina naudi (2018) or da cunha and escobar (2021), as well as several guides for clear communication by several public administrations, such as the european commission (2015), the community of madrid (comunidad de madrid, 2019) or the government of aragón (gobierno de aragón, 2020). according to marazzato (2018, p. 164), plain language “is based on five pillars: target public, purpose, structure, design and, especially, the wording of the content, according to standards of grammar, cohesion and coherence”. therefore, a text written in plain language is not achieved solely by the application of a series of syntactic rules or textual formulas, it requires a plan that puts the user (target readers) at the centre and takes its use (purpose) into consideration. the main recommendations when it comes to drafting plain texts can be put into two categories: grammar (aspects related to discourse, morphosyntax and lexicon) and pragmatics (aspects related to cohesion, coherence, or the purpose of the text, for instance). the electricity bill has received little attention from academics, despite its important contents. there have been efforts to encourage energy efficiency through informative strategies in bills (bichsel et al., 2019) or to apply blockchain technology to the billing process (nour et al., 2022 and hlaing & nyaung, 2019). the only research on the user’s comprehension of this document is focused on design and form (subiela hernández et al., 2019 and subiela hernández et al., 2022), but it does not analyse linguistic aspects. 2. methodology before defining the methodological tools used, we must define the object of study in detail, which is why we will first address the categorisation of the regulated electricity bill as a text. once the features of the object of study have been defined, we will present the methodological material and tools used. blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214194 2.1. categorisation of the object of study 2 . 1 . 1 . t h e r eg ul at ed el ec t ri c i ty bi l l as a d i sc o n ti nu o u s t ex t the classification of texts by form addresses the question of how the text is formally presented. (organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd), 2010) there are four types: continuous, discontinuous, mixed, and multiple. according to this categorisation, the electricity bill is a discontinuous text, because “texts with a discontinuous form are organised by presenting information in a non-sequential way” (archugar cited in durán, 2019, p. 378). this form of discontinuous text allows them, according to casas sánchez et al. (2018) to act “[...] as graphic organisers used to facilitate the explanation and the comprehension of information” (p. 96). as highlighted by casas sánchez et al. (2018) this is the most widely used type of text in contemporary social activity and its reading is related to one’s surroundings and daily life. discontinuous texts allow for the autonomy of the recipient, who will determine the value of the elements of the text depending on the interpretation they make of the text’s communicative purpose, structure and full sense based on their previous knowledge. therefore, due to the reasons stated, discontinuous texts can also be challenging in terms of comprehension and interpretation if the target reader does not possess any previous knowledge or familiarity with the information presented (vössing et al., 2017). 2 . 1 . 2 . t h e r eg ul at ed el ec t ri c i ty bi l l as a s p ec ia l i se d te xt the regulated bill is also an expository text since its communicative purpose is to present information in a clear and organised way. depending on the target recipients, expository texts can be classified as informative texts or specialised texts (álvarez, 2000). since the target reader of the electricity bill is the general public with no specialised knowledge, this document is (or, rather, should be) an informative text. however, if we analyse the textual features of the bill without taking the intended recipients into consideration, we observe formal traits typical of specialised texts. according to cabré castellví (2002), the general agreement on the characterisation of specialised texts is that they are verbal products of specific communicative registers whose theme is a specialised area of knowledge, which respect specific rhetorical and style traditions, present plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 195 lexical specificity and certain morphosyntactic tendencies, and tend to display abundant non-linguistic resources to represent specialised information. the regulated bill has a specific communicative register within the administrative field, respects a specific formal style (discontinuous text), displays specialised lexicon (specialised terms, syntagmatic compounds, acronyms, etc.), tends towards nominalisation at the morphological level, and offers a controlled syntax. lastly, it includes statistical graphs to present specialised information visually. according to these criteria, we can consider bills to be specialised texts. nevertheless, to conclude what level of specialisation they belong to, it would be necessary to undertake an additional study of reception and analysis, which is not included in this investigation. what does seem evident is that the regulated electricity bill is a text addressed to the general public, but the information it presents is specialised and it displays controlled syntax and specialised lexicon impeding its full comprehension. for this reason, we are inclined to think we are working with a specialised informative text, defined by cabré castellví (2002, p. 28) as “widely distributed texts meant for a public to which the information is relevant, but who do not have specific knowledge on the matter”. 2 . 1 . 3 . t h e r eg ul at ed e l ec t ri c i ty bi l l as a l eg a l a dm i n is tr a t iv e te x t finally, regarding the field criteria, the regulated electricity bill is a legaladministrative text, since it comes from the public administration and it is legally binding. although the bill is issued by each supply company (the main marketers, “comercializadoras de referencia”, “cor”), it respects the form and content established by the government through laws. which means it is part of what vilches and sarmiento (2011, p. 24) call “administrative discourse”, in which authors identify language that is “obscure for most citizens” (p. 17). this situation has sparked the appearance of several initiatives directed towards improving legal-administrative language, especially focusing on grammar. the most significant in spanish have been analysed and systematised by da cunha and escobar (2021), whose scheme is used as the basis of the grammar analysis undertaken in this investigation. 2.2. material and method the methodology was developed keeping in mind the characterisation of the text explained above. in order to address all its special features, the regulated blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214196 bill must be analysed with a double approach: qualitative, from the perspective of text linguistics (beaugrande & dressler, 1981), which will allow us to analyse contextual content like pragmatics; and quantitative, from the perspective of text grammar (casado velarde, 1993), which will allow us to pay more attention to the linguistic form. therefore, the analysis of the object of study is approached with a mixed methodology developed from general to specific (top-down). the qualitative analysis is undertaken first, allowing us to analyse the interpretative context of the bill, and, after that, we turn to the quantitative analysis of the formal features of the text. this order allows us to establish a dialogical relationship between them to triangulate the interpretation of the results. the object of study is the electricity bill templates published in the resolution made on april 28th, 2021 by the general directorate for energy policy and mines (dirección general de política energética y minas, 2021), which establishes the minimum content required and the electricity bill template to be used by the main marketers; specifically, the template for consumers with pvpc (see annex i in the mentioned resolution) and the template for consumers with pvpc and social bonus (included as annex ii in the resolution). 2 . 2 . 1 . q ua l i ta ti v e m et h o d o l o g y : l i n gu i st ic a na l y s i s to undertake the qualitative analysis, the standards of textuality proposed by beaugrande and dressler (1981) are applied. these standards allow us to assess the communicative value of a given text. the context analysis of the object of study is designed keeping in mind the target reader of the bill (domestic consumers): a general recipient who does not have specialised education or training to interpret the bill (also, among the recipients of the bill there are people classified by law as “severely vulnerable”, who are described as people at risk of social exclusion). the analysis has been carried out in compliance with the following standards of textuality, organised in four categories as follows. the text-centred standards are coherence and cohesion. to analyse coherence, we take into consideration whether the information contained in the bill can be interpreted consistently with the previous knowledge of the world held by the recipient. regarding cohesion, the analysis takes into consideration not only the typical recipient, but also the textual characteristics (in this case, those of discontinuous texts and specialised texts). plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 197 the standards focused on the sender and the receiver of the text are intentionality (sender) and acceptability (receiver). the sender’s intentionality must be to provide information about the consumption and price of electricity in the most clear and transparent way possible (as required by law). the acceptability of the recipient is their predisposition towards the text (understood as their ability to perceive the bill as clear and coherent in its communicative purpose). the standards focusing on the communicative situation (the context) are informativity and situationality. the informativity of the electricity bill is the new information it offers to the recipient. for informativity to be effective, the sender must keep in mind the typical recipient and their level of previous knowledge on the matter, aiming to achieve an informative balance between the known information (topic or theme) and the new information (rheme). in this case, the topic is the electricity market and its regulation, and the rheme is the consumption and price of electricity consumed in each bill. situationality is closely linked to informativity. the relevance of the content of the bill in the context of the typical recipient is analysed. the relevance of the bill is undeniable for consumers (since it is imposed by the abovementioned laws). finally, the standard of the relationship of the bill with other texts is intertextuality. it is the relationship the recipient must establish with their previous readings of similar texts to be able to interpret the text at hand. to analyse this standard, we consider the most common form of bills for the payment of goods and services in the consumer market, in contrast with the electricity bill. 2 . 2 . 2 . q ua l i ta ti v e m et h o d o l o g y : l i n gu i st i c g r a m m at i ca l a na l y si s the formal analysis is undertaken from the perspective of text grammar, based on the results obtained by da cunha and escobar (2021). their recommendations are organised in three categories: discourse, morphosyntactic and lexical, which is why the analysis adjusts to these three levels. nevertheless, those three levels are unlikely to be traceable in all the textual units of the document, since it is a discontinuous text. discourse and syntactic structures in the electricity bill are less relevant than the lexicon chosen to name each piece of information, for instance. therefore, the analysis will especially focus on the lexical level. where full syntactic structures appear (subject, verb, complements), the analysis is blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214198 extended to the morphosyntactic level. finally, in the cases where a group of related syntactic structures is identified (by means of a full stop, no new paragraph; or a full stop, new paragraph), discourse analysis will be implemented. the lexical level is also analysed based on the glossary of terms of the electricity bill offered by the “cnmc” on their website. this glossary is available because the laws that introduced the 2021 bill template require this (dirección general de política energética y minas, 2021, p. 52073). in order to analyse the text, the content of the bill is organised following these units of analysis: field, concept and value. by field we understand each section in which the information is divided (usually separated in the design by a frame), whereas the concept refers to the specific information located in each field, and the value is the specific figure that corresponds to each concept. in total, 157 units of text were analysed, of which, eight correspond to “fields”, 67 to “concepts”, and 82 to “values”. the last field of the regulated bill, portraying the “origin and environmental impact of the consumed electricity”, was not included in the analysis because it is not described in the template of the object of study. to collect the information, we elaborated a worksheet (table 1) where the three levels of language are analysed and their compliance with the recommendations proposed by da cunha and escobar (2021) is determined. to complete the lexical analysis, we search for the expression (field, concept, or value) in the glossary of terms of the “cnmc”, when we consider that specialised terms are being used. the distinction between specialised or general terms was performed as follows: first, we used the spanish dictionary, diccionario de la lengua española (dle), of the real academia española (rae, 2010) as the primary source to document specialised terms belonging to a specific scientific discipline or area. if the term was not in the dle, our secondary source of reference was the corpus de referencia del español actual (crea), to discern if a term is commonly used in current language. in the cases where we offer a suggestion for a new wording, we used synonyms with a much higher use rate than the original terms. to document archaic or unused terms we also used the dle of the rae. lastly, to distinguish concrete words from abstract words, we use the notions of abstraction and concretion of the nueva gramática de la lengua española (ngle) (2009), and the same applies if the term refers to a concrete concept in the values or fields of the bill. plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 199 the worksheet was tested in a pilot study in which all the researchers participated and from which some corrections were introduced. the data were collected using a database (excel) whose analysis was triply revised by all the researchers from which the results were exploited and analysed. table 1. grammatical analysis worksheet. source: own elaboration based on da cunha and escobar (2021). 3. results 3.1. results and recommendations from the qualitative analysis the analysis of text-centred standards (coherence and cohesion) shows that the knowledge of the world that is available to the typical receiver of the bill is insufficient to allow them to interpret it. this is due to the shortcomings of the standard of informativity which will be discussed below. with regard to cohesion, the sentence sequences that exist in the bill are almost nonexistent, given that we are dealing with a discontinuous text. in these cases, the syntactic and semantic relationships that would achieve cohesion must be reconstructed by drawing inferences from the design of the document. however, the design does not facilitate these inferences, as subiela hernández et al. (2022) have shown, making it extremely difficult for the receiver to establish cohesion within this text. blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214200 ! ! field/concept/value text analysis level recommendation id yes/no comments discourse use short sentences d1 use short paragraphs d2 use discursive connectors to link and organise ideas d3 one single topic per paragraph d4 morphosyntactic use active voice instead of passive voice m1 use the structure “subject+verb+complement” m2 avoid the abuse of subordinate clauses m3 avoid the use of gerunds m4 formulate ideas in positive rather than in negative terms m5 mention the subject of the actions m6 lexical use common words instead of specialised terms l1 slang, acronyms, syntagmatic compounds and terms registered by the rae as belonging to a specific field or discipline. explain the meaning of terms if necessary l2 in accordance with the cnmc’s glossary use precise rather than ambiguous words l3 seeking univocity of words eliminate unnecessary words l4 avoid the use of archaisms l5 in accordance with rae’s dle use concrete rather than abstract words l6 in accordance with rae’s ngle table 1. grammatical analysis worksheet. source: own elaboration based on da cunha and escobar (2021). 3. results 3.1. results and recommendations from the qualitative analysis the analysis of text-centred standards (coherence and cohesion) shows that the knowledge of the world that is available to the typical receiver of the bill is insufficient to allow them to interpret it. this is due to the shortcomings of the standard of informativity which will be discussed below. with regard to cohesion, the sentence sequences that exist in the bill are almost non-existent, given that we are dealing with a discontinuous text. in these cases, the syntactic and semantic relationships that would achieve cohesion must be reconstructed by drawing inferences from the design of the document. however, the design does not facilitate these inferences, as subiela hernández et al. (2022) have shown, making it extremely difficult for the receiver to establish cohesion within this text. the standards focusing on the sender (intentionality) and the receiver of the text (acceptability) present several problems. intentionality fails due to the features of the text: the use of specialised terminology, the absence of syntax and other elements at the grammatical level (which will be analysed later) show that the form in which the regulated bill is written does not meet its intentionality: the electricity bill should be an informative text, since it is addressed to a non-specialised general public. however, the bills under study have certain characteristics that make them specialised texts. regarding acceptability, the electricity bill is an unacceptable text for a large number of recipients, according to the studies performed by the “cnmc” (2016, 2021, 2022), as it does not enable them to understand the information in a clear and consistent manner. in fact, 64% of users do not know whether they have a contract with the free market or with the regulated market (cnmc, 2019, 15th november). this information is actually included in the bill. the results of the analysis of the standards focusing on the communicative situation (context) also evince some errors. the level of informativity of the bill is low as the typical recipient lacks sufficient knowledge about the electricity market (topic or theme) and is therefore unable to fill in the interpretative gaps to understand the new information (comment or rheme) provided by the document. moreover, lexical choices are specialised (discussed below), which, in turn, do not facilitate access to this new information either. from the point of view of situationality, the electricity bill is relevant to the context in which it is received and even essential for the consumer to be aware of what they are paying for the energy consumed. however, the inability of the typical recipient to understand the information contained in the bill has led to the total loss of the relevance of the document, as the recipient has internalised that it is a useless text. finally, in relation to the standard of intertextuality, the fact that the reader is not familiar with the specialisation of the text hinders its interpretation because the target audience cannot draw on their prior knowledge of other similar texts in order to understand the electricity bill. the form and content of other bills with which the recipient may be more familiar (bills for goods and services of use and consumption such as furniture, household appliances, home improvements, etc.) are very different from the electricity bill. likewise, the various intertextual references to legislation or regulations from which the contents of the bill derive are not accessible to the typical recipient, precisely because of the characteristics of administrative legal texts, which make them “obscure” to most recipients. plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 201 this analysis through the standards of textuality evince that the main problem of the electricity bill is the lack of planning, since it was not taken into account that the potential receiver is a non-specialised reader. similarly, it is also the result of a lack of planning not to have considered the (even legal) aim of this document: that the non-specialised reader understands the concepts invoiced in a simple and transparent way. precisely, most guides with recommendations for clear communication and plain language (european commission, 2011; community of madrid, 2017; prodigioso volcán, 2021; government of aragon, n.d.) consider that the first step in drawing up user-centred documents is planning, that is, thinking about the recipient of the document, their needs and their knowledge of the subject matter. 3.2. results and recommendations from the quantitative analysis the quantitative analysis of the document, from the perspective of text grammar, yielded the following results. the results are linked to the qualitative results, especially in terms of providing alternative wording. at the level that we have called “field”, which corresponds to the labels or titles of the different sections of the bill, most of the recommendations on plain language are met. as mentioned in the previous section, the recommendations at the discourse level are not applicable since they are short constructions and do not constitute paragraphs. in addition, the recommendation to use connectors for linking and ordering the information (d3) is not performed by the verbal text, but by means of the design (bold, tabs and frames that organise all the information corresponding to each field). the arrangement of each one of the fields in the document also constitutes part of the organisation of the text, prioritising those placed at the top of the page. these features are characteristic of discontinuous texts and depend precisely on the design of the bill. similarly, at the morphosyntactic level, the analysis is not applicable: the classic structure of subject + verb + complement (m2) is not used in any case. for these reasons, the lexical level is the actual protagonist. 7 of the 8 fields identified in the regulated bill comply with the plain language recommendations for the lexicon. the exception is the field “desglose de la factura” (bill itemisation), which does not comply with the l1 recommendation. although the verb “desglosar” (itemise) is not registered in the dle as specialised terminology, the definition used in the bill is the fourth and last one, so we recommend replacing it with a more common blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214202 expression such as “detalle” (detail). in fact, according to the crea, the word “desglose” has an incidence of 120 occurrences in 23 documents, while the word “detalle” offers 6086 occurrences in 2999 documents, which means that it is more commonly used. in general, discourse and morphosyntactic analysis do not apply to 75% of the units of analysis at the concept level and, likewise, they are not applicable at the value level in any case. therefore, the results for concepts and values are concentrated at the lexical level. in fact, the recommendation with the highest number of non-compliances is the l1, with a total of 22 texts using specialised terms instead of common words. 6 of these texts are identified as values, 15 as concepts, and one as field. this represents 14% of the total texts of the bill. in second place, the l4 recommendation accumulates 18 non-compliances, that is,11.5%. there are also 15 non-compliances with the l6 recommendation, which is 10% of the total number of units analysed. on the other hand, the l5 recommendation is met in 100% of cases, both at the level of concept and value. the remaining results of the lexical analysis at the concept and value levels can be found in tables 2 and 3. table 2. non-compliances with lexical recommendations at the concept level of analysis. table 3. non-compliances with lexical recommendations at the value level of analysis. detailed results of the most significant non-compliances are given below. the concept of “compensación de excedentes” (surplus compensation) does not comply with the plain language recommendations, as it uses specialised terms instead of common ones (l1) which, moreover, are not explained, either in the bill itself or in the “cnmc’s” glossary. likewise, it does not comply with the l6 recommendation, as it is not specified what is plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 203 ! ! at the concept level and, likewise, they are not applicable at the value level in any case. therefore, the results for concepts and values are concentrated at the lexical level. in fact, the recommendation with the highest number of non-compliances is the l1, with a total of 22 texts using specialised terms instead of common words. 6 of these texts are identified as values, 15 as concepts, and one as field. this represents 14% of the total texts of the bill. in second place, the l4 recommendation accumulates 18 non-compliances, that is,11.5%. there are also 15 noncompliances with the l6 recommendation, which is 10% of the total number of units analysed. on the other hand, the l5 recommendation is met in 100% of cases, both at the level of concept and value. the remaining results of the lexical analysis at the concept and value levels can be found in tables 2 and 3. l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 compliances 52 (78%) 59 (88%) 66 (98,5%) 60 (90%) 67 (100%) 58 (87%) non-compliances 15 (22%) 8 (12%) 1 (1,5%) 7 (10%) 0 9 (13%) total 67 (100%) 67 (100%) 67 (100%) 67 (100%) 67 (100%) 67 (100%) table 2. non-compliances with lexical recommendations at the concept level of analysis. table 3. non-compliances with lexical recommendations at the value level of analysis. detailed results of the most significant non-compliances are given below. the concept of “compensación de excedentes” (surplus compensation) does not comply with the plain language recommendations, as it uses specialised terms instead of common ones (l1) which, moreover, are not explained, either in the bill itself or in the “cnmc’s” glossary. likewise, it does not comply with the l6 recommendation, as it is not specified what is meant by the word “excedentes” (surplus). according to l1 and l6 recommendations, and in order to improve the standards of textuality (intentionality and acceptability in particular), this ! ! at the concept level and, likewise, they are not applicable at the value level in any case. therefore, the results for concepts and values are concentrated at the lexical level. in fact, the recommendation with the highest number of non-compliances is the l1, with a total of 22 texts using specialised terms instead of common words. 6 of these texts are identified as values, 15 as concepts, and one as field. this represents 14% of the total texts of the bill. in second place, the l4 recommendation accumulates 18 non-compliances, that is,11.5%. there are also 15 noncompliances with the l6 recommendation, which is 10% of the total number of units analysed. on the other hand, the l5 recommendation is met in 100% of cases, both at the level of concept and value. the remaining results of the lexical analysis at the concept and value levels can be found in tables 2 and 3. table 2. non-compliances with lexical recommendations at the concept level of analysis. l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 compliances 76 (93%) 77 (94%) 81 (99%) 71 (87%) 82 (100%) 76 (93%) non-compliances 6 (7%) 5 (6%) 1 (1%) 11 (13%) 0 6 (7%) total 82 (100%) 82 (100%) 82 (100%) 82 (100%) 82 (100%) 82 (100%) table 3. non-compliances with lexical recommendations at the value level of analysis. detailed results of the most significant non-compliances are given below. the concept of “compensación de excedentes” (surplus compensation) does not comply with the plain language recommendations, as it uses specialised terms instead of common ones (l1) which, moreover, are not explained, either in the bill itself or in the “cnmc’s” glossary. likewise, it does not comply with the l6 recommendation, as it is not specified what is meant by the word “excedentes” (surplus). according to l1 and l6 recommendations, and in order to improve the standards of textuality (intentionality and acceptability in particular), this meant by the word “excedentes” (surplus). according to l1 and l6 recommendations, and in order to improve the standards of textuality (intentionality and acceptability in particular), this concept should be called, for instance, “descuento por energía autoproducida” (discount for selfproduced energy). almost half of the concepts in the “datos del contrato” (details of the contract) field (6 out of 13) do not meet the plain language recommendations, especially at the lexical level. the concept “código unificado de punto de suministro cups” (unified cups supply point code) is particularly significant. it does not comply with the l1 recommendation because it uses a syntagmatic compound as well as acronyms (typical of specialised discourse) instead of common words. according to the cnmc’s glossary, this concept is the “identificador unívoco de la vivienda donde se presta el suministro” (identifier of the dwelling where the supply is provided). although the glossary adds that it is used and needed, among other things, to change from one supply company to another, the lexicon used in the bill itself does not reveal this function. this is serious because it constitutes a barrier to switching energy suppliers, contrary to the recommendations of the european commission by means of the ceer report (2021). in accordance with plain language recommendations, this concept could simply be referred to as “identificador de la vivienda” (dwelling identifier). taking into account the intentionality, informativity and situationality of the text and in order to ensure its comprehension and usefulness (which is essential to switch to another supply company), another option could be “código de cambio” (switching code). therefore, noncompliances with the l4 and l6 recommendations are also observed. the concept “tipo de contrato” (type of contract) is clear; however, its value is expressed as an acronym (“pvpc”) which is not explained, although it is accompanied by the specification “mercado regulado” (regulated market). this acronym is considered a specialised term, therefore, this value does not comply with the l1 recommendation, but it is explained in the “cnmc’s” glossary, so it does comply with the l2 recommendation. the glossary’s explanation of the acronym also fails to comply with the l4 recommendation, as the term “pequeño consumidor” (retail consumer) is unnecessary: the regulated tariff is, by law, only for retail consumers (contracts up to 15 kw). in line with plain language recommendations, and again with the aim of improving communicative effectiveness (in the standards of intentionality, acceptability, etc.), the name of the tariff “precio blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214204 voluntario para el pequeño consumidor” (voluntary price for retail consumer) should be simplified to, for example, “tarifa regulada” (regulated tariff), so that the addition of “mercado regulado” (regulated market) could be omitted. the concept of “peaje de transporte y distribución” (transmission and distribution tolls) is also clear, although the noun “tasa” (fee/tax) is more common and should replace “peaje” (toll), according to the crea. the main problem lies in the value accompanying this concept, which is specified through digits and acronyms (“2.0 td”) without any kind of clarification, thus failing to comply with the l1 recommendation. the glossary does not specify what “2.0 td” means either (it does not comply with the l2 recommendation), it merely states that it is the name of the transmission and distribution tariff. the same applies to the concept “segmento de cargos” (charge segment) and the value that accompanies it, which are not specified either in the bill or in the “cnmc’s” glossary, making it impossible to understand them (they do not comply with the l1, l2, and l6 recommendations). following the implementation of the current bill template in july 2021, the different distribution tariffs for retail consumers were grouped into a single tariff, called 2.0 td. all regulated tariff users are obliged to have this modality, so its inclusion in the “datos del contrato” (details of the contract) field is not necessary (since it is inherent to the regulated tariff). the same is true for the value of the “segmento de cargos” (charge segment), which is always 1 for the 2.0td fee. therefore, it also fails to comply with the l4 recommendation. regarding the concepts “referencia del contrato de suministro” (reference of the supply contract) and “referencia del contrato de acceso” (reference of the access contract) they comply with all the recommendations from a lexical point of view, except for the l1: the use of the word “número” (number) instead of “referencia” (reference) would be more common, according to the crea. moreover, from the perspective of textual standards, these two concepts show the need for the consumer to have a broader prior knowledge of the electricity market (“theme”) so that they can understand the existence of two contracts with two different companies (“rheme”): the one that markets electricity (“contrato de suministro”/ supply contract) and the one in charge of its transmission and distribution (“contrato de acceso”/ access contract), which is therefore in charge of dealing with network breakdowns and emergencies. the use of these specific terms clashes with the intentionality, informativity and situationality plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 205 of the text. in accordance with these textual standards, it would be more appropriate to replace the term “referencia del contrato de acceso” (reference of the access contract) with “número de contrato para averías y urgencias” (contract number for breakdowns and emergencies), since that is its main function. in the “información de consumo eléctrico” (information about the electricity consumption) field, the m2 recommendation is not met from a morphosyntactic point of view. the structure used includes the subject followed by a circumstantial complement, a copulative verb, and an attribute; instead of the recommended structure of subject + verb + complement. in addition, the m6 recommendation is not totally met because a syntactical subject (“el consumo”/ consumption) is introduced, instead of a semantic subject (“el consumidor”/ the consumer), who is the actual doer of the verb according to meaning, –as well as the addressee of the invoice that should be user-centred. therefore, instead of sentences such as “su consumo en el periodo facturado ha sido xxx” (your consumption in the invoiced period has been xxx), the following structure should be used: “usted ha consumido xxx en el periodo facturado” (you have consumed xxx in the invoiced period). the same recommendation can be applied to the rest of the concepts in this field. instead of “su consumo medio diario en el periodo facturado ha sido de xxx” (your average daily consumption in the invoiced period was xxx), it would be more effective to say “usted ha consumido una media diaria de xxx” (you have consumed a daily average of xxx). at the lexical level, the l1 recommendation is met by almost all the concepts in this field, except for “energía excedentaria compensada” (compensated surplus energy), which also fails to meet the l2 and l3 recommendations. it would be more appropriate to use the term “energía autoproducida sobrante” (excess self-produced energy). this would reduce the terminological density and, therefore, the specialisation of the text. the concepts and values of the field “destino del importe de la factura” (destination of the invoice amount) comply with most of the recommendations of plain language from the grammatical approach. however, concepts such as “pagos por capacidad” (capacity payments) or “anualidades del deficit” (deficit annuities) do not comply with the l2 and l6 recommendations. in addition, acronyms that are not explained are also used, thus violating the l1 recommendation. regarding the pragmatic analysis, understanding the content of the bill only with the information provided in it is very difficult, unless the recipient possesses a vast, prior blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214206 knowledge about the electricity market, because the necessary inferences cannot be established. the “desglose de la factura” (bill itemisation) field is one of the most important for the consumer to understand what they are paying for and to compare offers. it is noteworthy that this information, very relevant according to the european commission, is relegated to the second page of the bill. the detail of the different regulated amounts to be paid is very precise. however, the information about the cost of energy consumed is deficient. this cost, which is based on the price of energy in public auctions according to supply and demand at any given time, does not provide further details, which makes it impossible to know the real cost per kwh in each electricity time band. this circumstance has generated numerous complaints from different consumer associations, because it makes it impossible for a user of the regulated tariff to compare what they pay for the energy consumed with other options on the free market, thus contradicting one of the main demands of the european commission stated in its directive 2019/944. in this case, it is not a matter of recommending a clearer alternative wording, but of requesting the incorporation of this information to comply with the standards of informativity and situationality. beyond this anomaly, there are two concepts in this field that do not respond to the plain language recommendations. these are “facturación por energía excedentaria del autoconsumo” (billing for surplus energy from selfconsumption) and “ajuste límite de compensación por autoconsumo” (compensation limit adjustment for self-consumption). although these are two concepts that will only appear in the bills of those users who have systems for self-production of energy, they do not comply with most of the recommendations at the lexical level, since they use specialised terms (l1), are not explained in the “cnmc” glossary’s (l2) and use abstract words (l6). once again, alternative wordings are proposed taking into account the intentionality of the text. thus, “facturación por energía excedentaria del autoconsumo” (billing for surplus energy from self-consumption) should be replaced, for instance, by “compensación por energía sobrante autoproducida” (compensation for excess self-produced energy), in accordance with the provisions of royal decree 244/2019 of april 5, 2009. likewise, the concept “ajuste límite de compensación por autoconsumo” (compensation limit adjustment for self-consumption) should be called, in coherence with its real function, “límite a la compensación por energía sobrante autoproducida” (compensation limit for excess self-produced energy). plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 207 the “información para el consumidor” (consumer information) field is the least characteristic of discontinuous texts, since it is composed of 5 paragraphs that, in general, comply with the recommendations at the discourse and morphosyntactic levels. specialised, ambiguous or abstract terms are not identified at the lexical level. in this field, the main problems are located in the pragmatic analysis. firstly, the regulated bill template for consumers with a social bonus (published in the annex ii of the royal decree) should eliminate from this field the first paragraph, which refers to the possibility for consumers with regulated tariffs to sign contracts with the free market. as indicated by the “cnmc” (2021, march 25) in its report on the regulated electricity bill template: “this information may be misleading since it is unlikely that the beneficiaries of the social bonus could choose a free market supplier and obtain a more favourable price” (p. 12). it should be noted here that the social bonus is only available for regulated tariffs, i.e., if a regulated tariff user with a social bonus changes their contract to the free market, they lose the right to the social bonus. thus, this paragraph is not relevant to the context in which the bill will be received (vulnerable consumers), and it is, therefore, a problem of situationality. 4. discussion and conclusions in general, we can conclude that the regulated electricity bill template analysed has room for improvement, both from the perspective of the text grammar and from that of text linguistics. in view of the results obtained, it does not seem that the principles of plain language and the actual right to understand have been taken into account in the drafting of the regulated electricity bill template that is currently in force in spain. in spite of the high compliance with the grammatical recommendations of plain language observed, the results of the pragmatic analysis show that the standards of textuality are not met and, therefore, reading and interpreting the content of the bill in context fails due to a clear lack of textual planning. these results demonstrate the need for methodological triangulations when it comes to analysing texts. a first interpretation of the quantitative results might suggest that the text analysed largely complies with the plain language recommendations, as the percentage of non-compliance is low. however, we should contrast these results with those obtained through the qualitative analysis, which reveal the serious deficiencies of the text. blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214208 the application of the recommendations offered in this work would enable us to make the text more acceptable to receivers and, therefore, to recover its relevance (in terms of situationality) as an essential text for understanding and optimising electricity consumption and its costs, comparing offers and switching suppliers if necessary, in line with the demands of the european commission (eu directive 2019/944, ceer report, recommendations on periodic electricity bill, etc.). to achieve this objective, it is a priority to rethink (and replan) the document by putting the target reader at the centre and shifting the complexities of the market to the side. it is necessary to reduce the specialisation level of the text and adapt it to an informative register that, if possible, emulates the format and language used in other types of invoices with which the typical receiver is more familiar (in order to meet the requirements of the standard of intertextuality). this conclusion, the outcome of the qualitative analysis, is also endorsed by the results of the formal analysis: an important part of the grammatical recommendations goes in the direction of simplifying the syntax and, especially, the lexicon, that is: of making the text more informative. perhaps a misinterpreted commitment to transparency is one of the reasons causing the low levels of understanding of the current bill. as this study has shown, many concepts incorporated in the text could be eliminated without producing any potential harm to the typical recipient’s right to understand, since it is not within the recipient’s power to do anything to change them. for instance: concepts such as “peaje de transporte y distribución” (transmission and distribution tolls) and “segmento de cargos” (charge segment) have unique and mandatory (unchangeable) values for domestic consumers in the current bill template. in fact, their presence in the bill is contrary to the ceer’s recommendation (2021, p. 27), “about the need to prioritise and reduce content in order to make the bill consumer friendly”. however, this drive for transparency is missing in the absence of an itemisation of energy costs. reference has already been made to the seriousness of this circumstance throughout the text, but these conclusions cannot be closed without demanding the urgent need for the cost per kwh for each invoicing band to be detailed. if the bill is to be used to compare offers, as demanded by the european commission, this information must be included without any excuses. it has been observed that the names of certain concepts seem to hide their real function, making it difficult for the consumer to understand their plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 209 meanings. for example, the concept “ajuste límite de compensación por autoconsumo” (compensation limit adjustment for self-consumption) hides the fact that it is a limit on the sale of self-produced energy that has not been consumed, so that the bills never become positive for the consumer, i.e. generating income for the consumer due to the fact that more energy has been fed into the grid than has been consumed. something similar can be said about the “código unificado de punto de suministro cups” (unified supply point code cups), whose main utility (the change of supply company) is diluted behind the selected lexicon. finally, it is remarkable that the references to the free market have not been eliminated from the regulated bill template for users with a social bonus, contrary to what the cnmc itself requested in their report. it is an indispensable condition to apply for the social bonus to be on the regulated market, which means that, from a pragmatic point of view, the free market option should not be mentioned for these users. it is important to highlight that a bill written in plain language alone cannot solve the high levels of incomprehension generated by this document. this analysis has evinced the complexity of the electricity market and the need for consumers to have a better understanding of it, as they are not specialised recipients. this educational effort is necessary so that the information contained in the bill (rheme) can be interpreted in context from a frame of reference (theme) that allows the necessary inferences to be made. with a better knowledge of the “theme” or topic, the target reader would be able to fill in the interpretative gaps the bill (rheme) poses. this would not only allow the reader to interpret the bill in a congruent way, but it would also help to achieve a better informative balance in its interpretation, as it would greatly reduce the knowledge that the reader is ignorant of. this analysis has not addressed the way in which information on the origin of electricity and its environmental impact is provided on the bill. however, the documentation phase has revealed that, although the national energy mix combines clean and polluting sources, only consumers in the free market can opt for 100% clean energy suppliers, while regulated tariff users are doomed to assume their energy is more polluting than the national average. beyond the regulations, this circumstance deserves a study from the point of view of its coverage by the media. blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214210 acknowledgements this paper was funded by the project pmafi-02/21 of the programme of financial aid for group research investigation projects at the catholic university of murcia. project start: 14th of december, 2021. project end: 14th of june, 2024. article history: received 9 january 2023 received in revised form 13 april 2023 accepted 14 april 2023 references plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 211 alsina naudi, a. 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(2019). estrategias pedagógicas para el desarrollo de la lectura inferencial. educación y ciencia, 23, 367-382. https://doi.org/10.19053/ 0120-7105.eyc.2019.23.e10304 european commission (n.d.). sample energy bills. european commission’s web site. retrieved september 6, 2022, from https://commission. europa.eu/live-work-travel-eu/consumer-rightsand-complaints/energy/energy-supply-policyinformation_es european commission, consumers, health, agriculture and food executive agency. (2018) consumer study on pre-contractual information and billing in the energy market improved clarity and comparability: final report. publications office. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2818/770778 european commission, directorate-general for translation (2015). how to write clearly. publications office of the european union. https:// op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/ 725b7eb0-d92e-11e5-8fea-01aa75ed71a1 european parliament (2009, july 13). directive 2009/72/ec of the european parliament and of the council of 13 july 2009 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity and repealing directive 2003/54/ec. official journal of the european union. http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/ 2009/72/oj european parliament (2019, june 5). directive (eu) 2019/944 of the european parliament and of the council of 5 june 2019 on common rules for the internal market for electricity and amending directive 2012/27/eu. official journal of the european union. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/ 2019/944/oj gobierno de aragón (2020). manual de estilo de lenguaje claro. criterios para la redacción de textos claros en internet. https://www.aragon.es//comunicacion-y-lenguaje-claro-en-el-portal-deservicios-del-gobierno-de-aragon hlaing, k.m., & nyaung, d.e. (2019). electricity billing system using etherreum and firebase. international conference on advanced information technologies (icait), 217-221. https://doi.org/10. 1109/aitc.2019.8920931 https://www.boe.es/eli/es/res/2021/04/28/(1) iplf = international plain language federation (n.d.). what is plain language. iplf web site. retrieved september 6, 2022 from https://www. iplfederation.org/plain-language/ marazzato sparano, r. (2018). lenguaje claro, traducción e idiosincrasias del idioma. aportes para la comprensión lectora. orientación y sociedad, 18(2), 163-177. ministerio para la transición ecológica (2019, april 5). real decreto 244/2019, de 5 de abril, por el que se regulan las condiciones administrativas, técnicas y económicas del autoconsumo de energía eléctrica. boletín oficial del estado (boe). https://www.boe.es/eli/es/rd/2019/04/05/244 montolío, e. (2012). la modernización del discurso jurídico español impulsada por el ministerio de justicia. presentación y principales aportaciones del informe sobre el lenguaje escrito. revista de llengua i dret, 57, 95-121. http://revistes.eapc.gencat.cat/index.php/rld/article /view/2426/n57-montolio-es.pdf montolío, e. (2019). la clarificación del discurso judicial. estado de la cuestión y propuestas lingüísticas de optimización. revista del ministerio fiscal, 8, 72-95. https://www.fiscal.es/documents/ 20142/b35363a9-d8ad-c67c-0867-ab068a10762e montolío, e., & tascón, m. (2020). el derecho a entender. la comunicación clara, la mejor defensa de la ciudadanía. catarata. blas-josé subiela-hernández is a professor and researcher at universidad católica de murcia (ucam). graduate in information sciences (advertising and public relations branch) from ceu san pablo (valencia) and phd in communication from ucam. his research focuses on graphic design, clear communication and citizens’ right to understand. he is currently leading a research project to improve the understanding of the regulated electricity bill in adpure research group. alba maría gálvez-vidal is a professor and researcher at universidad católica de murcia (ucam). graduate in translation and interpreting and phd in arts and humanities from universidad de murcia, she has a master’s degree in european comparative literature from the same university, as well as a master’s degree in secondary school training by ucam. her lines of research include discourse analysis, phraseology, and literature and its translation. maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde is a professor and researcher at universidad católica de murcia (ucam). graduate in information sciences (advertising and public relations branch) from universidad complutense de madrid (ucm) and phd in communication from ucam. plain language and the right to understand in the regulated electricity bill in spain ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214 213 nour, m., chaves-ávila, j. p., & sánchez-miralles, á. (2022). review of blockchain potential applications in the electricity sector and challenges for large scale adoption. ieee access, 10, 47384-47418. https://doi.org/10.1109/ access.2022.3171227. ngle = real academia española y asociación de academias de la lengua española (2009): nueva gramática de la lengua española. espasa. ocu = organisation of consumers and users (2022, october 21). cómo descifrar la factura de la luz. https://www.ocu.org/vivienda-y-energia/gasluz/consejos/como-descifrar-la-factura-de-la-luz oecd = organisation for economic co-operation and development (2010). pisa 2009 results: what students know and can do. student performance in reading, mathematics and science. oecd. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264091450-en pacios, a.-r., vianello-osti, m., & rodríguezbravo, b. (2016). transparency and access to information on research projects in spanish public universities. profesional de la información, 25(5), 721-729. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2016.sep.02 prodigioso volcán (2021). el derecho a entender. comunicación clara. prodigioso volcán. https://www.prodigiosovolcan.com/pv/comunicacio n/assets/comunicacionclara.pdf subiela hernández, b. j., miralles gonzálezconde, m. a., & sánchez hervás, d. (2019) propuesta de diseño claro y transparente para la factura eléctrica regulada en españa. graficajournal of graphic design, 7(13), 11-20. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/grafica.125 subiela hernández, b. j., sánchez hervás, d., & miralles gonzález-conde, m. a. (2022). el derecho a entender en la nueva factura eléctrica regulada en españa: análisis desde el punto de vista del diseño. revista española de la transparencia, 14, 101-130. https://doi.org/10. 51915/ret.199 vilches, f., & sarmiento, r. (2011). manual de lenguaje jurídico-administrativo. dykinson. vössing, j., stamov-roßnagel, c., & heinitz, k. (2017). text difficulty affects metacomprehension accuracy and knowledge test performance in text learning. journal of computer assisted learning, 33(3), 282-291. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12179 she is specialized in creativity in communication and advertising strategies, she belongs to adpure research group with which she investigates how both graphic design and structure and writing of texts affect comprehension, in order to provide criteria that encourage public and private institutions to respect citizens’ right to understand. notes 1 available in https://commission.europa.eu/live-work-travel-eu/consumer-rights-and-complaints/ energy/energy-supply-policy-information_es 2 both templates can be compared in their respective publications in the boletín oficial del estado. the most relevant change is the addition of the time bands in the 2021 template. the other contents remain unchanged. blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba maría gálvez-vidal & maría ascensión miralles gonzález-conde ibérica 45 (2023): 191-214214 iberica 13 ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-88 abstract approaches to the linguistic characteristics of computer-mediated communication (cmc) have highlighted the frequent oral traits involved in electronic mail along with features of written language. but email is today a new communication exchange medium in social, professional and academic settings, frequently used as a substitute for the traditional formal letter. the oral characterizations and linguistic formality involved in this use of emails are still in need of research. this paper explores the formal and informal features in emails based on a corpus of messages exchanged by academic institutions, and studies the similarities and differences on the basis of their mode of communication (one-to-one or one-to-many) and the sender’s mother tongue (native or nonnative). the language samples collected were systematically analyzed for formality of greetings and farewells, use of contractions, politeness indicators and non-standard linguistic features. the findings provide new insights into traits of orality and formality in email communication and demonstrate the emergence of a new style in writing for even the most important, confidential and formal purposes which seems to be forming a new sub-genre of letter-writing. keywords: cmc, asynchronous communication, formality, informality, email style. resumen oralidad y escritura, formalidad e informalidad en la comunicaci�n por correo electr�nico estudios sobre las características lingüísticas de la comunicación por ordenador han resaltado la presencia frecuente de rasgos orales en el correo electrónico junto con las características propias del lenguaje escrito. pero el correo electrónico es hoy en día un nuevo medio de intercambio de información en orality and literacy, formality and informality in email communication carmen pérez sabater, ed turney & begoña montero fleta universidad politécnica de valencia (spain) cperezs@idm.upv.es, eturney@idm.upv.es & bmontero@idm.upv.es 71 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 71 ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-88 carmen pérez sabater, ed turney & begoña montero fleta entornos sociales, profesionales y académicos, usado con frecuencia en sustitución de la carta formal tradicional. las características orales y la formalidad lingüística patente en este uso del correo electrónico no están lo suficientemente investigadas. este artículo analiza las características formales e informales del correo electrónico a partir de un corpus de mensajes enviados y recibidos entre instituciones académicas y estudia las similitudes y diferencias teniendo en cuenta su modo de comunicación (uno a uno o uno a muchos) y la lengua materna del remitente (nativo o no nativo). los correos electrónicos que componen el corpus han sido analizados teniendo en cuenta la formalidad de los saludos iniciales y las despedidas, el uso de contracciones, los indicadores de cortesía y las características lingüísticas no normalizadas. los resultados nos ofrecen un punto de vista novedoso acerca de la oralidad y formalidad en la comunicación por correo electrónico y confirman el auge de un nuevo estilo de escritura utilizado incluso para comunicar temas importantes, confidenciales y formales que puede llegar a crear un nuevo subgénero en la redacción de cartas. palabras clave: comunicación electrónica, comunicación asincrónica, formalidad, informalidad, estilo del correo electrónico. 1. introduction while language studies were traditionally based on written text, today much emphasis is laid on oral text and on the interaction between orality and literacy. a case in point is email communication which, although written, has a style that has been defined as “computer conversation” (murray, 1991) or “written speech” (maynor, 1994) because of the frequent oral traits found in it. this feature seems to have been intrinsic to email, especially in its early days, when it was mainly used by computer specialists to communicate informally and its style was closer to a form of conversation than to a traditional letter. as marks (1999) argues, the idea of immediacy implied in these early email exchanges contributed to give rise to its conversational tone. however, the extended use of email in the last decade in social, professional and academic settings, frequently taking the place of the traditional formal letter, has changed this situation, with more formal traits being carried over to emails. as yates (2000: 233) points out, computermediated communication (cmc) and electronic mail represent “a new stage in the history of letter writing”. emails have altered the way we write, the genres we use and how we send and receive information (peretz, 2005). this mixture of styles found in emails has led many authors to stress that cmc clearly contains oral traits along with features characteristic of the 72 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 72 written language (murray, 1991; maynor, 1994; yates, 1996; baron, 1998 & 2000; crystal, 2001; yus, 2001; posteguillo, 2003; pérez sabater, 2007). these changes in the use of email and styles have been accompanied by transformations in the fundamental concepts underlying the academic study of computer-mediated communication. initial research in cmc was largely dominated by research paradigms taken from the field of information systems that highlighted the limitations of on-line communication: the information richness theory (irt) paradigm developed by daft & lengel (1984) considered cmc as a “lean” communication medium in comparison with face-to-face communication. similarly, the cues-filtered-out approach drew particular attention to the lack of social cues, like body language and intonation, in cmc. such views of computer-mediated communication tended to alert to dangers of antisocial behaviour, like flaming1, “lengthy, aggressive” messages (crystal, 2001: 54), and to predict that email would be useful only for certain simple communication tasks. these negative views of cmc, which emphasized its impoverished nature in comparison with face-to-face communication, were not borne out in field studies and were questioned in the 1990s. ngwenyama & lee (1997: 164), for example, working within the critical social theory paradigm and drawing on the work of habermas2, posit “a rich, multi-layered, contextualized formulation of communicative interaction in electronic media”, claiming that: when people communicate, they do not send messages as electronically linked senders and receivers. they perform social acts in action situations that are normatively regulated by, and already have meaning within, the organizational context. as organizational actors, they simultaneously enact existing and new relationships with one another as they communicate. (ngwenyama & lee, 1997: 164) the work of walther (1992 & 1996), within the social-emotional model of cmc, has also cast doubt upon initial findings that viewed cmc as an impaired communication medium due to the lack of nonverbal cues. walther (1992: 52) suggests that “users may develop relationships and express multidimensional relational messages through verbal or textual cues”. walther’s research has led to the influential hyperpersonal model of computer-mediated communication, according to which, besides impersonal and interpersonal communication, cmc allows the possibility of hyperpersonal communication as it paradoxically allows users to more orality and literacy, formality and informality ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-88 73 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 73 control over their presentation of self than in face-to-face communication (walther, 1996). within such a framework, it may be interesting to examine the presentation of self in emails written in different social situations and to examine if the linguistic devices used in this presentation of self exhibit cultural variations depending on the writer’s mother language. a lot of research into cmc to date has focused on the linguistic characteristics of electronic communication and on the formal and informal features based on group-based asynchronous communication. however, relatively little has been published on the characteristics of private email exchanges in academic settings. in this paper we compare different linguistic features of emails in english on the basis of their mode of communication (one-to-one or one-to-many) and the sender’s mother tongue (native or nonnative). the study is based on 100 private institutional mails exchanged by university representatives dealing with the topic of student exchange programs totalling 11,900 words. the linguistic features analysed are: 1. formality of greetings and farewells; 2. the use of contractions; 3. the number of politeness indicators per message; and 4. the number of non-standard linguistic features per message. our initial hypotheses, based on previous research, are that computermediated communication reflects the informalization of discourse (fairclough, 1995) and that cmc is not homogeneous but is made up of a number of genres and sub-genres that carry over distinctive linguistic features of traditional off-line genres. in this context, it was assumed that one-to-many emails would display features associated with formal business letters, whereas one-to-one emails would be less formal. the aim of the study is to corroborate these hypotheses and to determine if native and nonnative writers display the same level of formality. 2. methodology in order to study the degree of formality of emails an analysis was made of a corpus of email messages exchanged by members of academic institutions on the topic of student exchange programs. a total of 100 email messages were analysed: 25 one-to-many native messages, 25 one-to-one native messages, 25 one-to-many non-native messages and 25 one-to-one noncarmen pérez sabater, ed turney & begoña montero fleta ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-8874 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 74 native messages. in the examples we have changed the names and the email addresses of all the persons involved. in the parameter of the formality of greetings and farewells, the presence of traditional epistolary conventions was examined by taking into account two factors. firstly, each message’s greeting and sign-off were assigned values along a continuum of 0 to 1 using the criteria shown in table 1. these criteria provide an ad hoc measure of formality/informality insofar as they were established after an initial examination of the corpus. thus, greetings beginning with “dear mr/dr + second name” were considered very formal, “dear + first name” formal, “hello + name” informal, and “hi” or “hey” very informal. similarly, sign-offs like “yours sincerely” were rated as very formal, “regards” or “best wishes” informal and “cheers”, “bye” or “kisses” very informal. to assign the numerical value each message was examined by two of the authors and in cases of doubt by all three. formality of greetings and closings secondly, the number of steps involved in the farewell was counted, that is if there is a one step closing (“yours faithfully”) or a two step closing with a pre-closing (“i look forward to hearing from you. yours faithfully”). in the parameter of contractions, the number of the total possible contractions were counted, the full forms used (“i am”) and the actual contractions made (“i’m”). verbal politeness indicators such as “please” or “thank you” were calculated per message. in the parameter of non-standard linguistic features, misspellings (“wich” instead of “which”), occurrences of non-standard grammar and spelling (“u r” instead of “you are”), paralinguistic cues (“write soon!!!”) and emoticons (“:-)”) were counted per message. orality and literacy, formality and informality ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-88 75 ibérica 15 (2008): …-…4 genres that carry over distinctive linguistic features of traditional off-line genres. in this context, it was assumed that one-to-many emails would display features associated with formal business letters, whereas one-to-one emails would be less formal. the aim of the study is to corroborate these hypotheses and to determine if native and non-native writers display the same level of formality. 2. methodology in order to study the degree of formality of emails an analysis was made of a corpus of email messages exchanged by members of academic institutions on the topic of student exchange programs. a total of 100 email messages were analysed: 25 one-to-many native messages, 25 one-to-one native messages, 25 one-to-many non-native messages and 25 one-to-one non-native messages. in the examples we have changed the names and the email addresses of all the persons involved. in the parameter of the formality of greetings and farewells, the presence of traditional epistolary conventions was examined by taking into account two factors. firstly, each message’s greeting and sign-off were assigned values along a continuum of 0 to 1 using the criteria shown in table 1. these criteria provide an ad hoc measure of formality/informality insofar as they were established after an initial examination of the corpus. thus, greetings beginning with “dear mr/dr + second name” were considered very formal, “dear + first name” formal, “hello + name” informal, and “hi” or “hey” very informal. similarly, sign-offs like “yours sincerely” were rated as very formal, “regards” or “best wishes” informal and “cheers”, “bye” or “kisses” very informal. to assign the numerical value each message was examined by two of the authors and in cases of doubt by all three. formality of greetings and closings very formal, separate from message body 1.0 very formal non-separate 0.9 formal separate 0.8 formal non-separate 0.7 informal separate 0.4 informal non-separate 0.3 very informal separate 0.2 very informal non-separate 0.1 no greeting or farewell 0 table 1. assignation of formality degree. secondly, the number of steps involved in the farewell was counted, that is if there is a one step closing (“yours faithfully”) or a two step closing with a preclosing (“i look forward to hearing from you. yours faithfully”). 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 75 3. results and discussion 3.1 formality of greetings and farewells the first feature analysed is that of the formality of greetings and farewells. there is ample literature on the role and nature of greetings in face-to-face communication. most scholars would agree with duranti (1997) that, far from being a mere formula, a mere “courteous indication of recognition” of the interlocutor, as searle & vanderveken (1985: 216) argue, the act of greeting implies that a social encounter is taking place “under particular socio-historical conditions and [that] the parties are relating to one and another as particular types of social personae” (duranti, 1997: 89). duranti’s “rich” interpretation of greetings parallels ngwenyama & lee’s (1997: 164) insistence that in cmc we encounter “social actors”, “performing social acts” within an “organizational context”. it is not surprising therefore that in research into cmc too, and more especially in studies of email, the nature of greetings and farewells has received a great deal of attention. herring (1996a: 96) includes them in her proposal of a basic electronic message schema as “epistolary conventions”. a number of scholars have classed greetings and farewells as the most salient structural features of an email (de vel et al., 2001; bunz & campbell, 2002; abbassi & chen, 2005). duranti’s claim that greetings are rich in social meaning would seem to be borne out by studies of greetings and closings in email. thus, abbassi & chen (2005: 69) claim that, in forensic linguistics, these features “have been shown to be extremely important for identification of online messages”. bunz & campbell (2002) have studied the important role played by greetings and farewells in setting the tone of email interactions. in the framework of accommodation theory, they examined how structural politeness markers, like explicit greetings and closings, and verbal politeness markers, like “please” and “thank you”, influence the extent to which individuals accommodate to politeness markers. they found that “[v]erbal politeness indicators alone did not result in overall more polite responses, but structural politeness indicators did” (bunz & campbell, 2002: 19). the results of the analysis of our corpus are shown in table 2. these results largely conform to our initial hypotheses and corroborates lan’s findings (2000), but with interesting variations. it is clear that, in one-to-many messages, the greetings are very formal (1.0, the highest possible score, for carmen pérez sabater, ed turney & begoña montero fleta ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-8876 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 76 natives and 0.93 for non-natives). as regards one-to-one communication both native and non-native salutations are more informal: 0.51 for natives and 0.74 for non-natives. in one-to-one communication, non-native writers are more formal for all categories (see also ancarno, 2005), possibly because they feel insecure linguistically. the sharp asymmetry between the formality of salutations and farewells of native one-to-many emails (1.0 vs. 0.41) is striking. although more research is needed in this area, a tentative explanation may be that the information and formality of the sign-off is being transferred to the email’s header and the electronic signature. formality of greetings and farewells our study suggests that both native and non-native writers seem to be acutely aware of the importance of greetings and farewells: in both cases there is a clear distinction between the level of formality in messages to many individuals, which tend to be very formal and those addressed to a single person, which tend to be less formal. the formal openings of the emails to many individuals may reflect the fact that the writer is aware of his/her role as an organizational actor, that s/he is relating to the others in the social persona of representative of his/her institution. the formality of the greeting also suggests that there is a clear carryover from traditional business letters, that cmc genres are “developments of and related to previous written genres” as yates (2000: 246) claims. these formal greetings are clearly politeness markers that seek to establish or maintain group cohesion by attending to the recipient’s face needs3. almost all the greetings are inclusive (“dear colleagues/dear partners/dear all”). only one email used the traditional “dear sir” or “madam”. the greetings in one-to-one emails are, in general, markedly less formal but there is a great deal of variation, depending on a number of factors. one important factor is evidently whether there has been previous correspondence or not. in the latter case, we find openings similar to those of formal letters as example 1 shows. in the case of native emails addressed orality and literacy, formality and informality ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-88 77 c. pérez sabater, e. turney & b. montero fleta ibérica 15 (2008): …-…6 greetings are very formal (1.0, the highest possible score, for natives and 0.93 for non-natives). as regards one-to-one communication both native and non-native salutations are more informal: 0.51 for natives and 0.74 for non-natives. in oneto-one communication, non-native writers are more formal for all categories (see also ancarno, 2005), possibly because they feel insecure linguistically. the sharp asymmetry between the formality of salutations and farewells of native one-to-many emails (1.0 vs. 0.41) is striking. although more research is needed in this area, a tentative explanation may be that the information and formality of the sign-off is being transferred to the email’s header and the electronic signature. formality of greetings and farewells salutation farewell steps one-to many native 1.0 0.41 1.12 one-to-one native 0.51 0.53 1.08 one-to-many non-native 0.93 0.51 1.18 one-to-one non-native 0.74 0.61 1.69 table 2. formality of greetings and farewells. our study suggests that both native and non-native writers seem to be acutely aware of the importance of greetings and farewells: in both cases there is a clear distinction between the level of formality in messages to many individuals, which tend to be very formal and those addressed to a single person, which tend to be less formal. the formal openings of the emails to many individuals may reflect the fact that the writer is aware of his/her role as an organizational actor, that s/he is relating to the others in the social persona of representative of his/her institution. the formality of the greeting also suggests that there is a clear carryover from traditional business letters, that cmc genres are “developments of and related to previous written genres” as yates (2000: 246) claims. these formal greetings are clearly politeness markers that seek to establish or maintain group cohesion by attending to the recipient’s face needs 3 . almost all the greetings are inclusive (“dear colleagues/dear partners/dear all”). only one email used the traditional “dear sir” or “madam”. the greetings in one-to-one emails are, in general, markedly less formal but there is a great deal of variation, depending on a number of factors. one important factor is evidently whether there has been previous correspondence or not. in the latter case, we find openings similar to those of formal letters as example 1 shows. in the case of native emails addressed to acquaintances there is a great deal of variety, but “dear + first or second name” represents over 50% of the corpus, while the conversational greetings “hi” and “hello” make up less than 10%. in two cases, it would seem that the lack of a greeting is intended to express a certain brusqueness as the message is about a failure to meet appropriate deadlines. 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 77 to acquaintances there is a great deal of variety, but “dear + first or second name” represents over 50% of the corpus, while the conversational greetings “hi” and “hello” make up less than 10%. in two cases, it would seem that the lack of a greeting is intended to express a certain brusqueness as the message is about a failure to meet appropriate deadlines. it is, of course, important to remember that lack of formality may, in the case of one-to-one messages in situations of on-going communication, be associated with the informal language used with friends, as we can see in example 2, where lack of formality is accompanied by a mention of interest in the recipient’s weather situation. it is in this kind of one-to-one message that we find something of the conversational immediacy mentioned by marks (1999: 9): “[t]he mere fact that email gives a suggestion of immediacy seems to give rise to a more informal, conversational tone”. finally, it may be interesting to note that the variation between one-to-one and one-to-many greetings is greater for native writers, which perhaps suggests that they are more sensitive to the social nuances involved. this might also be indicative of the fact that native carmen pérez sabater, ed turney & begoña montero fleta ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-8878 orality and literacy, formality and informality ibérica 15 (2008): …-… 7 from: "kelly realy" ierkelly@oklahoma.ac to: via@upvnet.upv.es subject: program dates date sent: 17 nov 2006 00:15 dear mr. mayordomo, i am writing on behalf of nick ryers from university of oklahoma, international exchange programs office … example 1. one-to-one native speakers. it is, of course, important to remember that lack of formality may, in the case of one-to-one messages in situations of on-going communication, be associated with the informal language used with friends, as we can see in example 2, where lack of formality is accompanied by a mention of interest in the recipient’s weather situation. date: 25 feb 2002 15:03 from: "ken o'hara" kohara@maths.dit.ie subject: re: examination to: carmen@upvnet.upv.es organization: dublin institute of technology priority: normal o.k. carmen, thanks for that. when is the end of semester exam? i saw a satellite picture of east of spain clear of cloud while we are covered. however may is usually nice here. ken example 2. one-to-one native speakers. it is in this kind of one-to-one message that we find something of the conversational immediacy mentioned by marks (1999: 9): “[t]he mere fact that email gives a suggestion of immediacy seems to give rise to a more informal, conversational tone”. finally, it may be interesting to note that the variation between one-to-one and one-to-many greetings is greater for native writers, which perhaps suggests that they are more sensitive to the social nuances involved. this might also be indicative of the fact that native command of the language permits variation as a natural phenomenon directly connected to their communicative capacity. sign-offs seem to be a lot less formal than greetings and the asymmetry is especially marked for one-to-many native emails. both points require further research, but, as we have suggested above, a tentative explanation, in the case of one-to-many communication, may be that in emails in which the writer is clearly orality and literacy, formality and informality ibérica 15 (2008): …-… 7 from: "kelly realy" ierkelly@oklahoma.ac to: via@upvnet.upv.es subject: program dates date sent: 17 nov 2006 00:15 dear mr. mayordomo, i am writing on behalf of nick ryers from university of oklahoma, international exchange programs office … example 1. one-to-one native speakers. it is, of course, important to remember that lack of formality may, in the case of one-to-one messages in situations of on-going communication, be associated with the informal language used with friends, as we can see in example 2, where lack of formality is accompanied by a mention of interest in the recipient’s weather situation. date: 25 feb 2002 15:03 from: "ken o'hara" kohara@maths.dit.ie subject: re: examination to: carmen@upvnet.upv.es organization: dublin institute of technology priority: normal o.k. carmen, thanks for that. when is the end of semester exam? i saw a satellite picture of east of spain clear of cloud while we are covered. however may is usually nice here. ken example 2. one-to-one native speakers. it is in this kind of one-to-one message that we find something of the conversational immediacy mentioned by marks (1999: 9): “[t]he mere fact that email gives a suggestion of immediacy seems to give rise to a more informal, conversational tone”. finally, it may be interesting to note that the variation between one-to-one and one-to-many greetings is greater for native writers, which perhaps suggests that they are more sensitive to the social nuances involved. this might also be indicative of the fact that native command of the language permits variation as a natural phenomenon directly connected to their communicative capacity. sign-offs seem to be a lot less formal than greetings and the asymmetry is especially marked for one-to-many native emails. both points require further research, but, as we have suggested above, a tentative explanation, in the case of one-to-many communication, may be that in emails in which the writer is clearly 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 78 command of the language permits variation as a natural phenomenon directly connected to their communicative capacity. sign-offs seem to be a lot less formal than greetings and the asymmetry is especially marked for one-to-many native emails. both points require further research, but, as we have suggested above, a tentative explanation, in the case of one-to-many communication, may be that in emails in which the writer is clearly acting as a representative of his/her institution, the formality of the sign-off is being transferred to the electronic signature. 3.2 contractions the use of contractions is a clear marker of informality in written english and reflects the use of shortened forms in conversation (quirk et al., 1985; biber et al., 2002). table 3 shows the results for contractions in the corpus analysed: the total possible contractions, the full forms used and the actual contractions made. contractions the analysis of the corpus surprisingly revealed a very small percentage of contractions in native emails (0.87% and 1.81%). this in part may be due to the fact that secondary education students in the united states and the united kingdom are taught never to use contractions in formal writing. baron (2004) also obtains a smaller percentage of contractions than expected in her study about the language of telephone text messages. in our study, apart from the small number of contractions used in the messages, it is also important to mention the fact that contractions were more frequent in non-native emails (10.64% and 8.87% vs. 0.87 and 1.81). the greater use of contractions by non-native participants may reflect real stylistic differences for this informality marker. although non-native speakers tend to be more formal in most parameters of this study such as salutations and farewells, in contractions they are less formal. this seems to constitute a significant stylistic variation between native and non-native speakers. orality and literacy, formality and informality ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-88 79 c. pérez sabater, e. turney & b. montero fleta acting as a representative of his/her institution, the formality of the sign-off is being transferred to the electronic signature. 3.2 contractions the use of contractions is a clear marker of informality in written english and reflects the use of shortened forms in conversation (quirk et al., 1985; biber et al., 2002). table 3 shows the results for contractions in the corpus analysed: the total possible contractions, the full forms used and the actual contractions made. contractions possible contractions full forms contractions one-to-many native 116 115 (99.13%) 1 (0.87%) one-to-one native 111 109 (98.19%) 2 (1.81%) one-to-many non-native 47 42 (89.36%) 5 (10.64%) one-to-one non-native 79 72 (91.13%) 7 (8.87%) table 3. contractions. the analysis of the corpus surprisingly revealed a very small percentage of contractions in native emails (0.87% and 1.81%). this in part may be due to the fact that secondary education students in the united states and the united kingdom are taught never to use contractions in formal writing. baron (2004) also obtains a smaller percentage of contractions than expected in her study about the language of telephone text messages. in our study, apart from the small number of contractions used in the messages, it is also important to mention the fact that contractions were more frequent in non-native emails (10.64% and 8.87% vs. 0.87 and 1.81). the greater use of contractions by non-native participants may reflect real stylistic differences for this informality marker. although non-native speakers tend to be more formal in most parameters of this study such as salutations and farewells, in contractions they are less formal. this seems to constitute a significant stylistic variation between native and non-native speakers. although the size of the corpus does not permit any conclusive generalization, it may be interesting to point out that, while native speakers conformed to our initial hypothesis (in percentage terms, there are fewer contractions in the one-tomany emails), non-native speakers did not, as they used more contractions in one-to-many than in one-to-one communication. many cmc researchers such as collot & belmore (1996), baron (1998), gimenez (2000) and herring (2006) point out that the use of contractions is an outstanding characteristic of electronic discourse. however, the results obtained in this analysis show a different tendency. as the writers of these emails have decided not to use contractions in their writings, they have judged it appropriate to represent the institution they work for as formally as possible. example 3, written by a native speaker, shows the absence of this marker of informality. 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 79 although the size of the corpus does not permit any conclusive generalization, it may be interesting to point out that, while native speakers conformed to our initial hypothesis (in percentage terms, there are fewer contractions in the one-to-many emails), non-native speakers did not, as they used more contractions in one-to-many than in one-to-one communication. many cmc researchers such as collot & belmore (1996), baron (1998), gimenez (2000) and herring (2006) point out that the use of contractions is an outstanding characteristic of electronic discourse. however, the results obtained in this analysis show a different tendency. as the writers of these emails have decided not to use contractions in their writings, they have judged it appropriate to represent the institution they work for as formally as possible. example 3, written by a native speaker, shows the absence of this marker of informality. as example 3 shows, the outstanding absence of contractions in most of the emails in this corpus suggests that, although many scholars have characterised computer-mediated discourse as a register where reduction processes usually take place (ferrara et al., 1991), this is not always the case, as this reduction strategy does not occur in our corpus of private institutional messages.4 carmen pérez sabater, ed turney & begoña montero fleta ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-8880 orality and literacy, formality and informality from: "peter, jones" p.jones@cranfield.ac.uk to: maria@ri.usal.es subject: visit date: 30 nov 2006 16:39 dear maria, it was a great pleasure to meet with you last week. thank you very much for your time. we had a superb time in your town. both antonio and irene were very helpful. irene gave us a good tour of the university and the city, we were very impressed. we hope to further our collaboration with you in the coming academic year perhaps to begin with in some industrial projects as we discussed in the meeting. i will contact irene and antonio to discuss these possibilities. thanks again for your effort and time, and please let us know when you visit the uk, we will be delighted to meet with you. best regards, peter. example 3. one-to-one native speakers. as example 3 shows, the outstanding absence of contractions in most of the emails in this corpus suggests that, although many scholars have characterised computer-mediated discourse as a register where reduction processes usually take place (ferrara et al., 1991), this is not always the case, as this reduction strategy does not occur in our corpus of private institutional messages. 4 3.3 politeness indicators measures of politeness indicators have been obtained by counting the number of expressions of gratitude and pragmatic, routine formulae used in the mails. following bunz & campbell (2002), in this parameter we have included verbal markers for politeness such as “thank you”, “please”, “i would appreciate”, “would you please” or “i am very grateful”. we consider in our analysis that the more politeness indicators included in a message, the more formal it is (duthler, 2006). politeness indicators per message one-to-many native 3.22 one-to-one native 2.28 one-to-many non native 1.09 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 80 3.3 politeness indicators measures of politeness indicators have been obtained by counting the number of expressions of gratitude and pragmatic, routine formulae used in the mails. following bunz & campbell (2002), in this parameter we have included verbal markers for politeness such as “thank you”, “please”, “i would appreciate”, “would you please” or “i am very grateful”. we consider in our analysis that the more politeness indicators included in a message, the more formal it is (duthler, 2006). politeness indicators per message as shown in table 4, native emails contain the highest number of politeness indicators per message. native speakers use considerably more semantic politeness indicators than non-native speakers. biber et al. (2002) argue that stereotypic politeness indicators are more typical of english than, for example, honorifics to express personal stance (“would you” or “could you”). it is also worth noting that, whereas native writers use more politeness indicators in the more formal, one-to-many emails than in one-to-one communication, non-native writers use more politeness indicators in one-toone communication. this may constitute a significant stylistic difference between native and non-native writers but, given the size of the corpus, more research is needed to confirm this. example 4 shows an email in which, although the opening and closing structure may be considered informal, four politeness indicators are used in the message. unlike the style of example 4, example 5 shows a very clear oral style in the text: it is a written conversation where the politeness indicator included is also very informal and direct. the abundance of misspellings and grammatical errors may tend to increase the informal tone of the message. the orality of the written text of example 5 is not very common in the corpus studied. it would be a clear example of what the early studies of cmc such as those of yates & orlikowski (1992) or maynor (1994) highlighted –i.e., the informality of electronic discourse. nevertheless, the results of our analysis seem to show a high percentage of politeness indicators in emails because the authors of these messages want to write as orality and literacy, formality and informality ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-88 81 ibérica 15 (2008): …-… 9 best regards, peter. example 3. one-to-one native speakers. as example 3 shows, the outstanding absence of contractions in most of the emails in this corpus suggests that, although many scholars have characterised computer-mediated discourse as a register where reduction processes usually take place (ferrara et al., 1991), this is not always the case, as this reduction strategy does not occur in our corpus of private institutional messages. 4 3.3 politeness indicators measures of politeness indicators have been obtained by counting the number of expressions of gratitude and pragmatic, routine formulae used in the mails. following bunz & campbell (2002), in this parameter we have included verbal markers for politeness such as “thank you”, “please”, “i would appreciate”, “would you please” or “i am very grateful”. we consider in our analysis that the more politeness indicators included in a message, the more formal it is (duthler, 2006). politeness indicators per message one-to-many native 3.22 one-to-one native 2.28 one-to-many non native 1.09 one-to-one non-native 1.31 table 4. politeness indicators per message. 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 81 politely as they would in a traditional institutional letter. it seems that here there is clear carryover from the traditional business letter and memorandum as yates and orlikowski (1992) had argued. 3.4 non-standard linguistic features many researchers in cmc consider non-standard linguistic features one of the most salient elements of electronic discourse (ferrara et al., 1991; maynor, 1994; werry, 1996; baron, 1998 & 2000; murray, 2000; yus, 2001; carmen pérez sabater, ed turney & begoña montero fleta ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-8882 ibérica 15 (2008): …-…10 as shown in table 4, native emails contain the highest number of politeness indicators per message. native speakers use considerably more semantic politeness indicators than non-native speakers. biber et al. (2002) argue that stereotypic politeness indicators are more typical of english than, for example, honorifics to express personal stance (“would you” or “could you”). it is also worth noting that, whereas native writers use more politeness indicators in the more formal, one-to-many emails than in one-to-one communication, non-native writers use more politeness indicators in one-to-one communication. this may constitute a significant stylistic difference between native and non-native writers but, given the size of the corpus, more research is needed to confirm this. example 4 shows an email in which, although the opening and closing structure may be considered informal, four politeness indicators are used in the message. from: "gillian anne forest" g.a.forest@derby.ac.uk to: juan@aq.upm.es subject: conference posters date: 27 jan 2006 13:26 juan hope you are well. [our emphasis] on speaking to gisela at the conference, she said you would be able [our emphasis] to supply us with a disk for the excellent posters that you printed advertising the conference. would you please be kind enough [our emphasis] to forward one to us. many thanks [our emphasis] gill forest european programmes officer international office university of derby phone +44 23 716 1555 example 4. one-to-one native speakers. unlike the style of example 4, example 5 shows a very clear oral style in the text: it is a written conversation where the politeness indicator included is also very informal and direct. the abundance of misspellings and grammatical errors may tend to increase the informal tone of the message. the orality of the written text of example 5 is not very common in the corpus studied. it would be a clear example of what the early studies of cmc such as those of yates & orlikowski (1992) or maynor (1994) highlighted –i.e., the informality of electronic discourse. nevertheless, the results of our analysis seem to show a high percentage of politeness indicators in emails because the authors of these messages want to write as politely as they would in a traditional institutional orality and literacy, formality and informality letter. it seems that here there is clear carryover from the traditional business letter and memorandum as yates and orlikowski (1992) had argued. from: dott.ssa germana rossi to: pilar@idm.upv.es sent: march 09, 2005 3:29 pm subject: teaching staff mobility hallo pilar, how are you ? here is fine, but very busy, as usual. unfortunately, this year i can'y came to valencia, but a colleague of mine: julia romeo jromeo@dns.agrsci.unibo.it, will be happy to came and teach about agrometeorology, if you agree. she will prefer at the end of april. please let her know as soon as possible, if you are interested. [our emphasis] best regards germana rossi example 5. one-to-one non-native speakers. 3.4 non-standard linguistic features many researchers in cmc consider non-standard linguistic features one of the most salient elements of electronic discourse (ferrara et al., 1991; maynor, 1994; werry, 1996; baron, 1998 & 2000; murray, 2000; yus, 2001; crystal, 2001; posteguillo, 2003; herring, 2006). as herring (2006) points out, these features show the ability of users to adapt the computer medium to their expressive needs. the need to write expressively and show affect in electronic discourse is suggested by yates (2000: 249) who claims that “cmc is clearly a medium in which the expressions of affect take place, something one does not expect from written texts in most us/european cultural contexts”. in this paper we follow biber et al. (2002) who consider that the inclusion of non-standard linguistic features is an indication of the informality of the text. the results of the number of non-standard linguistic features per message are shown in table 5. 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 82 crystal, 2001; posteguillo, 2003; herring, 2006). as herring (2006) points out, these features show the ability of users to adapt the computer medium to their expressive needs. the need to write expressively and show affect in electronic discourse is suggested by yates (2000: 249) who claims that “cmc is clearly a medium in which the expressions of affect take place, something one does not expect from written texts in most us/european cultural contexts”. in this paper we follow biber et al. (2002) who consider that the inclusion of non-standard linguistic features is an indication of the informality of the text. the results for the number of non-standard linguistic features per message are shown in table 5. the small number of errors per message is striking; it is probably because writers are aware that they represent their academic institutions and want to be as formal as possible. the smallest number is in non-native speakers, as they may be more concerned about the idea of showing their accuracy in english. this small number of errors per message has also been studied by lan (2000) who claims that non-native speakers are afraid of being judged by their accuracy in english. however, in general the results obtained in this study do not agree with previous important studies on electronic discourse which consider misspelling an important characteristic of this type of discourse such as that of crystal (2001: 111) who argues that “misspellings are a natural feature of the body message in an email […] a contrast with what would happen if someone wrote a traditional letter containing such errors”. some scholars such as yus (2001) suggest that the orality of the electronic text also implies a particular use of grammar and spelling. however, in this study the scores for non-standard grammar and spelling are very low. nor did we appreciate the frequent lack of capital letters in our corpus that maynor (1994) found in her study. in the data of the present study, the grammatical norms of formal letters seem to be firmly in place. orality and literacy, formality and informality ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-88 83 ibérica 15 (2008): …-… 11 be happy to came and teach about agrometeorology, if you agree. she will prefer at the end of april. please let her know as soon as possible, if you are interested. [our emphasis] best regards germana rossi example 5. one-to-one non-native speakers. 3.4 non-standard linguistic features many researchers in cmc consider non-standard linguistic features one of the most salient elements of electronic discourse (ferrara et al., 1991; maynor, 1994; werry, 1996; baron, 1998 & 2000; murray, 2000; yus, 2001; crystal, 2001; posteguillo, 2003; herring, 2006). as herring (2006) points out, these features show the ability of users to adapt the computer medium to their expressive needs. the need to write expressively and show affect in electronic discourse is suggested by yates (2000: 249) who claims that “cmc is clearly a medium in which the expressions of affect take place, something one does not expect from written texts in most us/european cultural contexts”. in this paper we follow biber et al. (2002) who consider that the inclusion of non-standard linguistic features is an indication of the informality of the text. the results of the number of non-standard linguistic features per message are shown in table 5. non-standard linguistic features per message misspellings non standard grammar/ spelling paralinguistic cues/ emoticons one-to-many native 0.11 0.06 0.17 one-to-one native 0.28 0.04 0.04 one-to-many non-native 0.32 0.23 0.55 one-to-one non-native 0.08 0.12 0.50 table 5. non-standard linguistic features per message. 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 83 many scholars have claimed that a characteristic of electronic discourse is the representation of paralinguistic features in written discourse by means of paralinguistic cues such as the use of capital letters to indicate “shouting” and the rhetorical, emphatic use of reduplicated punctuation marks (you don’t know???), and emoticons –i.e., multi-character glyphs normally used to express emotions, like smileys, :-), and frownies, :-(. these strategies “rather than reflecting impoverished or simplified communication, demonstrate the ability of users to adapt the computer medium to their expressive needs” (herring, 2006: 5). nevertheless, in this corpus writers have very rarely used such discourse strategies. the results are similar to those obtained by crystal (2001) or baron (2004). non-native speakers use paralinguistic cues and emoticons more, probably because it is easier for them to use these resources to be creative. the email of example 6, written by a non native speaker, shows one of the few messages where an emoticon is included. although scholars focused mainly on these non-standard features to characterise cmc during the 90’s, recent studies such as climent et al. (2003) and baron (2004) have pointed out that these discourse strategies are often used in texts written by teenagers but are rarely found in other speech communities. the results of our analysis show that electronic messages written by adults in an academic, formal environment display fairly standard english. the typical characteristics scholars have pointed out as specific of cmc vary according to context, thus “patterns of language use in cmc reflect both the capabilities of the medium and the characteristics of the group” (yates & orlikowski, 1993: 14). carmen pérez sabater, ed turney & begoña montero fleta ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-8884 orality and literacy, formality and informality from: thomas fischner tfischner@munchen.de to: maria@upc.es subject: conference posters date: 17 jan 2005 15:14 dear maria, thanks very much for your quick response. yes, the study guide in english you offered would be very helpful. here is my complete postal address (p/o box) so no street is required :-) [our emphasis] thomas fischner lehrstuhl für kommunikationsnetze 80290 münchen germany i am very grateful for your support! regards, thomas fischner example 6. one-to-one non-native speakers. 4. conclusions results tend to suggest that there are significant stylistic and pragmatic differences between emails that can be established on the basis of their mode of communication. we have found that one-to-one emails incorporate more informal, conversational features. this relative informality is expressed most 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:36 página 84 4. conclusions results tend to suggest that there are significant stylistic and pragmatic differences between emails that can be established on the basis of their mode of communication. we have found that one-to-one emails incorporate more informal, conversational features. this relative informality is expressed most clearly in the tone set by the greetings and sign-offs and in the inclusion of more topics related to phatic rather than merely ideational, communication. this informalization is not generally reflected in the formal features of the texts (contractions, misspellings, emoticons, etc.). one line of further research will be to examine if this is true of other forms of cmc such as on-line fora. in the one-to-many mode of communication, we have found that the emails examined exhibit a clear carryover from the traditional formal business letter in almost all aspects except the sign-off. more investigation is required in this area: one hypothesis that may be worth pursuing is that the formality of the sign-off in traditional business letters is being transferred to different formal elements of email (information included in the header and the possibility of including an automatically generated electronic signature). the sensitivity to differences in formality between one-to-one and one-tomany emails would tend to bear out herring’s (2006: 11) point that “despite being mediated by ‘impersonal machines’, reflects the social realities of its users”. finally, the results of the corpus analysed seem to indicate that stylistic and pragmatic features, like structural and lexical politeness indicators, may be a significant parameter delimiting native and non-native varieties. acknowledgements we would like to thank the reviewers and editor of ibérica for their help and their suggestions during the reviewing period of this manuscript. (revised paper received september 2007) orality and literacy, formality and informality ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-88 85 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:36 página 85 references carmen pérez sabater, ed turney & begoña montero fleta ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-8886 abbasi, a. & h. chen (2005). “applying authorship analysis to extremist-group web forum messages”. ieee computer society 20: 67-75. ancarno, c. (2005). “the style of academic e-mails and conventional letters: contrastive analysis of four conversation routines”. ibérica 15: 103-122. baron, n.s. (1998). “letters by phone or speech by other means: the linguistics of email”. language and communication 18: 133-170. baron. n.s. (2000). alphabet to e-mail: how written english evolved and where it is heading. london/new york: routledge. baron, n.s. 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(1994). “the language of electronic mail: written speech?” in g.d. little & m. montgomery (eds.), centennial usage studies, 48-54. tuscaloosa, al: alabama university press. murray, d.e. (1991). “the composing process for computer conversation”. written communication 8: 35-55. murray, d.e. (2000). “protean communication: the language of computer-mediated communication”. tesol quarterly 34: 397-421. ngwenyama, o.k. & a.s. lee (1997). “communication richness in electronic mail: critical social theory and the contextuality of meaning”. mis quarterly 21: 145-167. peretz, a. (2005). “teaching scientific/academic writing in the digital age”. electronic journal of e-learning 3: 55-66. 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:36 página 86 dr. carmen pérez sabater has been lecturing in english at the universidad politécnica de valencia (spain) since 1990 at the higher technical school of computer science, department of applied linguistics. she is currently working in the field of comparative discourse analysis and computermediated communication. ed turney, b.a., m.a., has been lecturing in english at the universidad politécnica de valencia (spain) since 1990 at the higher technical school of computer science, department of applied linguistics. he is working in the field of critical discourse analysis. dr. begoña montero fleta is associate professor of english for specific purposes at the universidad politécnica de valencia, department of applied linguistics. she is mainly involved in the research of scientific discourse (languages for special purposes, critical discourse analysis and terminology). notes 1 crystal (2001: 55) defines “flames” as messages that are “always aggressive, related to a specific topic, and directed at an individual recipient”. 2 for ngwenyama & lee (1997), the german philosopher’s theory of communicative action allows us to orality and literacy, formality and informality ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-88 87 pérez sabater, c. (2007). los elementos conversacionales en la comunicación escrita vía internet en lengua inglesa. phd. thesis, universitat jaume i. url: http://www.tesisenxarxa. net/tdx-0329107-144743/index. html [06/03/08] posteguillo, s. (2003). netlinguistics. castelló: universitat jaume i. quirk, r., s. greenbaum, g. leech & j. svartvik (1985). a comprehensive grammar of the english language. london: longman. searle, j. & d. vanderveken (1985). foundations of illocutionary logic. cambridge: cambridge university press. walther, j.b. (1992). “interpersonal effects in computer-mediated interaction: a relational perspective”. communication research 19: 52-90. walther, j.b. (1996). “computermediated communication: impersonal, interpersonal and hyperpersonal interaction”. communication research 23: 3-43. werry, c. (1996). “linguistic and interactional features of internet relay chat” in s.c. herring (ed.), 47-61. yates, s.j. (1996). “oral and written linguistic aspects of computer conferencing: a corpus based study”, in s.c. herring (ed.), 29-46. yates, s.j. (2000). “computermediated communication. the future of the letter?” in d. barton & n. hall (eds.), letter writing as a social practice. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. yates, j. & w.j. orlikowski (1992). “genres of organizational communication: a structurational approach to studying communication and media”. academy of management review 17: 299-326. yates, j. & w.j. orlikowski (1993). knee-jerk anti-loopism and other e-mail phenomena: oral, written and electronic patterns in computer-mediated communication. mit sloan school working paper 3578-93. center for coordination science, technical report 150. url: http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/ccswp150.html [28/06/06] yus, f. (2001). ciberpragmática. barcelona: ariel. 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:36 página 87 construe communicative richness not simply as a function of the capacity of the channel but as a concept which includes the way a person actively processes information within a specific organizational context. 3 work on face, or the image of self presented and recognised in everyday life, derives from goffman’s (1959) work and is a corner-stone of politeness theory as developed by brown & levinson (1978). 4 one of the reasons why this particular example does not use contractions is not because natives have decided to formal representation of the institution as much as it does represent a rather firm negative response to terminate the socrates link. carmen pérez sabater, ed turney & begoña montero fleta ibérica 15 [2008]: 71-8888 05 perez.qxp 14/3/08 17:36 página 88 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116 issn 1139-7241 abstract reception histories are retrospectives; they look back at publications and ask who has cited them, how often, when, where and why. this paper takes an influential 1996 paper on genre analysis and examines how it has played out intertextually over the 15 years or so since its publication. the main sources used have been google scholar and the web of science. the quantitative results show that it has been primarily, but not exclusively, cited in esp publications. the more qualitative aspect of this investigation reveals that its value for most later commentators lies in its review-article potential to act as an interpretive frame for subsequent work. the paper ends with a discussion of whether today we should accept just “three traditions” for genre analysis and its pedagogical applications or look further afield. keywords: genre, english for specific purposes, systemic functional linguistics, rhetorical genre studies, reception histories. resumen un texto y sus comentarios: sobre la recepción de “genre in three traditions” (hyon, 1996) las trayectorias de recepción de textos son retrospectivas; estudian publicaciones anteriores y se interesan por conocer quién las ha citado, con qué frecuencia, cuándo, dónde y cómo. el presente trabajo recupera un artículo influyente publicado en 1996 sobre análisis de género y examina cómo este ha configurado la intertextualidad en los últimos 15 años aproximadamente que han transcurrido desde su publicación. las principales fuentes utilizadas han sido google scholar y web of science. los resultados cuantitativos demuestran que este trabajo ha a text and its commentaries: toward a reception history of “genre in three traditions” (hyon, 1996)1 john m. swales university of michigan (united states) jmswales@umich.edu 103 ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116 john m. swales sido citado, de forma predominante aunque no exclusiva, en publicaciones relacionadas con el inglés para fines específicos (ife). el aspecto más cualitativo de esta investigación pone de manifiesto que su valor para los investigadores más tardíos guarda relación con su potencial como trabajo de revisión al convertirse en un marco que facilita la interpretación de trabajos posteriores. el presente artículo finaliza con una reflexión y unos comentarios acerca de si aún hoy en día debemos aceptar simplemente la existencia de “tres tradiciones” para el análisis de género y sus aplicaciones pedagógicas o ir más allá de esta concepción. palabras clave: género, ife, lingüística sistémico-funcional, estudios sobre género y retórica, recepción de textos. introduction more than a decade ago, paul, charney and kendall (2001) made a case for giving more attention in rhetorical and discoursal studies of scholarly texts to what happens to those texts after they have appeared. they argue: to move beyond the moment, we need to find ways to gauge the effects of normal scientific texts on readers when they are first published, watch acceptance and rejection over time, and associate those effects reliably with rhetorical strategies in the texts (paul, charney & kendall, 2001: 374) they claim that only in this way can we establish that writing, as well as methodology or findings, may play some part in its text’s subsequent reception, whether that be apparent indifference, noisy controversy, or wellcited approval and adaptation. in consequence, we might imagine that a smooth, well-structured introduction would help garner citations, while another on a similar topic that is disjointed and hard-to-follow would be less successful. in fact, literary scholars had already been pointing out that texts may have both unexpected as well as expected uptakes; for example, merleau-ponty (1974) observed that the audiences at which writers aim are not pre-established, but are instead elicited by reactions to their written products. and here is frank kermode (1985: 36): since we have no experience of a venerable text that ensures its own perpetuity, we may reasonably say that the medium in which it survives is commentary. all commentary on such texts varies from one generation to the next because it meets different needs. 104 of course, certain well-known sayings, proverbs, lines of poetry, and key religious texts perpetuate themselves in oral telling and retellings, but for academic texts, we all depend on commentary, whether unsolicited or whether mediated by lists of required readings, or by reviews, or by recommendations from colleagues or mentors. as it happens, in june 2012, carleton university in ottawa hosted a major conference entitled “genre 2012: rethinking genre 20 years later”, a followup to a smaller gathering held in 1992 at the same venue and with a similar theme (freedman & medway, 1994). not very long after the 1992 carleton conference, sunny hyon published an article in tesol quarterly entitled “genre in three traditions: implications for esl”, that has become quite widely cited, accumulating over 300 hits on google scholar and over 50 citations in the web of science.2 at the 2012 event, many of the leading figures in the development of studies of non-literary genres were present, including martin for systemic functional linguistics (sfl), bhatia, hyland and johns for english for specific purposes (esp), and bazerman, devitt and miller for new rhetoric studies so the purpose of this essay is to try and trace who has been citing the 1996 paper, and when and where, and then perhaps to attempt an answer to the question of why. the 1996 paper and some facts about its origination the published abstract will serve as an aide-memoire and summary of the paper (my emphases added): within the last two decades, a number of researchers have been interested in genre as a tool for developing l1 and l2 writing instruction. both genre and genre-based pedagogy, however, have been conceived of in distinct ways by researchers in different scholarly traditions and in different parts of the world, making the genre literature a complicated body of literature to understand. the purpose of this article is to provide a map of current genre theories and teaching applications in three research areas where genre scholarship has taken significantly different paths: a) english for specific purposes (esp), north american new rhetoric studies, and c) australian systemic functional linguistics. the article compares definitions and analyses of genres within these three traditions and examines their contexts, goals and instructional frameworks for genre-based pedagogy. the investigation reveals that esp and australian genre research provides esl instructors with insights into the linguistic features of written texts as well as useful guidelines for presenting these features in classrooms. a text and its commentaries ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116 105 new rhetoric scholarship, on the other hand, offers language teachers fuller perspectives on the institutional contexts around academic and professional genres and the functions genres serve within those settings. (hyon, 1996: 693) this then was the paper, which was loosely based on the first part of sunny hyon’s phd dissertation, for which i was the advisor, the second half being an eap classroom experiment testing out a genre-based approach to academic reading. some time in the early 1990s, we managed to get funding (the details now escape me) for sunny to spend several months at the university of sydney so that she could familiarize herself with the australian approach to genre and genre-based pedagogy. her original submission to tesol quarterly then was essentially a comparison between the esp and sfl approaches, but one of the anonymous reviewers recommended that sunny do not go with a geographical binary, but rather with a three-part disciplinary framework, now to include new rhetoric (or rhetorical genre studies as it is now more commonly known).3 i also asked sunny by email for her reasons for submitting to tesol quarterly; she replied saying that she had three: tesol quarterly would have the widest audience; tesol quarterly had published little on genre approaches to esl at that time; and “for me as a brand-new scholar, having an article published in tesol quarterly would be pretty special”. possible reasons for the success of the 1996 paper before we look at the citational record, it is worth stepping back and speculating as to which features of the paper might have led to its citational popularity. here are five positive hypotheses for its success: 1. “kairos or timeliness”. in other words, “genre in three traditions” came at the right moment; five years earlier, readers might have reacted with “what’s this all about?”, five years later the reaction might have been “well, we know all this”. as freedman and medway (1994: 1) said at the time with reference to composition studies, “the word genre is on everybody’s lips, from researchers and scholars to curriculum planners and teachers”. 2. “a review article”. the paper provided a cognitive map of the world of non-literary genre studies and, in many fields, review john m. swales ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116106 articles tend to be highly cited. as myers (1991: 46) noted a review article “draws the reader into the writer’s view of what has happened, and by ordering the recent past, suggests what can be done next”. 3. “the magic number 3”. it might be expected that the tripartitite division would appeal particularly to systemic-functional linguists and applied linguistics because of the hallidayan penchant for dividing systems into three (that is, field/mode/tenor; idealtional/interpersonal/textual; three main types of appraisal, three main verb processes, etc.) 4. “esl implications”. since it was published in tesol quarterly, it is possible that the more practical discussion toward the end of the paper would appeal to esl teachers, materials writers and teacher educators. 5. “quotable moments”. the article had some memorable mini-texts or phrases that were frequently picked up later, such as schryer’s (1993) “genres are stabilized for now”, or even swales’ (1996) “occluded genres”. in addition, the article may have been cited because citing authors found that it did not represent their own understandings of the world of genre studies: 6. so those in esp might argue, contra hyon, that esp approaches have, at least on occasion, questioned the prevailing academic ideologies; 7. those in sfl might counter that there are advantages in conceiving of genre more broadly than in the other two traditions; 8. those in rhetorical genre studies might object that it is not true that their approach lacks any substantial instructional pedagogy. 9. and anybody might argue that hyon’s “map” exaggerates or minimizes differences among the three traditions. some quantitative data let us first consider how all the datable citations for hyon (1996) in google scholar are distributed over time: a text and its commentaries ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116 107 although, at first sight, the numbers in table 1 might seem to indicate that the 1996 article has become increasingly popular ever since its appearance, in reality they show only that google scholar’s database has been continually expanding. at the least, however, the figures do confirm that the 1996 article was not a comet that blazed briefly across the scholarly sky and then fell into benighted obscurity; rather, it is probably cited today as much as it ever was. the next question to ask is where it was cited, more particularly which journals carry the most citations. and here we need to remember that in our field google scholar will produce mostly book or dissertation citations, and web of science mostly journal citations. as can be seen in table 2, in each case, the top three journals (english for specific purposes, journal of second language writing and tesol quarterly) all have an english-as-a-second language orientation, while those further down the lists cover a much wider area of applied language studies. i then looked at the individual citing authors in the two databases and wherever possible assigned them to one of the three traditions. in some cases, this was relatively easy, such as placing jim martin in systemic functional linguistics, carol berkenkotter in rhetorical genre studies and ken hyland in english for specific purposes; in others it was more difficult, john m. swales ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116108 period no. of cites in google scholar 1996-1999 21 2000-2003 37 2004-2007 56 2008-2011 61 table 1. chronology of citations in google scholar. a journals no. of cites in g journals no. of cites in 4 4 l 3 applied linguistics 2 t 3 2 s 3 modern language j 2 j 3 2 t journals no. of cites in google scholar journals no. of cites in web of science english for specific purposes journal 12 journal of second language writing 12 journal of second language writing 11 english for specific purposes journal 11 tesol quarterly 4 tesol quarterly 4 linguistics and education 3 applied linguistics 2 tesl-ej 3 journal of pragmatics 2 system 3 modern language journal 2 journal of english for academic purposes 3 research in the teaching of english 2 table 2. citing journals (google scholar 79/301; web of science 45/51). a either because i knew little or nothing about the author, or because a particular individual did not seem to “fit” into a particular tradition. here are the findings: the table 3 figures reinforce the previous ones; a preponderance of citations from the esp “tradition”, but with fairly substantial uptakes from the other two. these trends are further consolidated when we look at the more frequent individual citing authors such as for english for specific purposes an cheng, pedro martín-martín, ken hyland and ann johns, for systemic functional linguistics frances christie and jim martin, and carol berkenkotter for rhetorical genre studies. selected citational details hyland (2004) divides citations into four categories: block quotations, direct quotes, paraphrases and summaries. no block quotations from the 1996 paper were found, and very few direct quotes, the following example being one of a mere handful: (1) although hyon (1996, p. 695) has pointed out that “… many esp scholars have paid particular attention to detailing the formal characteristics of genres while focusing less on the specialized functions of texts and their surrounding social contexts”, this sociocultural context has been addressed in more recent esp genre-based work. (flowerdew) this suggests then that the paper is not being cited for its memorable quotes (hypothesis 5). in contrast, most of the citations are parenthetical, often placing hyon (1996) in a group along with others. the most common of these groupings is shown in the next example: a text and its commentaries ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116 109 traditions no. of cites in google scholar no. of cites in web of science english for specific purposes journal 52 20 systemic functional linguistics 11 11 rhetorical genre studies 3 2 table 3. presumed associates of each “tradition” in google scholar and web of science. t (2) when it comes to defining genres there is multiplicity of overlapping theories along with a range of competing terminologies (see hyon, 1996, johns, 2002). (bruce) given the frequent pairing of the 1996 paper with ann johns’ (2002) edited volume, genre in the classroom: multiple perspectives, it is worth looking at this book in more detail. there are nine citations of the 1996 paper in the collection, five of which are parenthetical, three by johns herself in her introduction, and one each by hyon (2002) and samraj (2002) in their chapters. three of the four remaining are these (my emphases): (3) yet, as hyon (1996) and others have noted, there are considerable differences among therists and practitioners about how genre should be described and what this means for the classroom. (johns) (4) as far as pedagogical application of the two approaches is concerned, as hyon (1996, p. 701) noted, the focus of the australian and esp approach is … (flowerdew) (5) in her widely-quoted state-of-the-art article, hyon (1996) distinguished three “worlds” of genre scholarship … (flowerdew) the last of these three is particularly interesting because it introduces the evaluative modifier “widely-quoted”; in fact, i found surprisingly few of these, noting in addition only three occurrences of “useful” and one of “influential”. the remaining citation of the 1996 paper in the 2002 volume is quite long, but is worth quoting in full: (6) many of us working to develop genre-based language pedagogy in australia have been quite surprised to lift our heads from day-today challenges of curriculum and syllabus design, materials development and classroom implementation to find that the diverse work we have been involved in for several years across many educational sectors and all states of the commonwealth is now collectively known as the work of the “sydney school” (hyon, 1996). it is quite flattering in one sense to be seen as a force in the field deserving our own label, especially for those of us who live in sydney, but there is also a danger that the label becomes as reductive of what we do pedagogically as it is of where we live geographically. (feez) john m. swales ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116110 apart from the wry and poignant voice of a rare practitioner, this commentary is notable for its criticism of the reductionist “sydney school” label, a criticism reiterated by jim martin at the ottawa conference, who there argued that the sfl approach was not only a national movement in australia, but also one with strong adherents internationally. as it happens, sunny hyon was not the originator of the term “sydney school”, even if her 1996 paper has inadvertently been largely responsible for its profusion. of the relatively few longer discussions of the 1996, benesch’s (2001) treatment is largely descriptive, except for: (7) that is, the primary goal is to help students fulfill the requirements of academic and professional settings so that they can “succeed” (p. 700). (in chap. 3, i discuss this goal as an ideological stance; for now, i accept hyon’s terms.) two others are johns et al. (2006) and swales (2009), both of whom question a simple tripartite division. johns can serve as an illustration of this kind of problematization. here is her opening sentence: (8) the term genre has been interpreted in a variety of ways by experts from a number of traditions. hyon in her 1996 tesol quarterly article, separated genre theorists and practitioners into three camps: … (johns et al.) and this is her opening to the conclusion of the round table discussion: (9) in the introduction to this paper, it was suggested that following hyon (1996), genre theory and pedagogies might be divided into a few different camps and/or approaches; however, the situation is much more complex than that, as we have seen from the expert comments in this article. (johns et al.) on the whole though, as berkenkotter noted in a 2006 blog, hyon’s categories “have stuck”, as can be seen from this recent and final citation: (10) hyon (1996) originally distilled, and more recently tardy (2009) and flowerdew and wan (2010) and bawarshi and reiff (2010) have discussed current approaches to genre analysis as falling into three broad schools of thought. (lockwood) a text and its commentaries ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116 111 discussion in this reception study of the 1996 paper, there have emerged few surprises. as in much of our field, we can see the regular accretion of citations over time – with under-recognized implications for the narrow citational windows used for measuring impact factors by the major databases. further, most of these citations are parenthetical, with a decent minority integral, and including a small number of direct quotations, but no block quotes. most citations are short, neutral and summative, with a few overtly positive and a very few demurring, as in the feez quotation cited above (see example 6). most are from within esp, but there are also a good number of others from elsewhere, including such outliers as an article on musical genres from the american sociological review. in almost all cases, citers use just her family name, there being just four cases where “hyon” is prefaced by “sunny” – one in a chinese paper, one from an article in computers and composition, and two from me in my 2009 chapter (belated recognition from the dissertation advisor?). all of the above findings are largely what we might expect from a well-cited but non-controversial article in applied language studies. if, however, we probe into which aspects of the 1996 paper have been picked up in later commentaries, an interesting pattern does emerge. most citations reference the opening pages of the hyon article, with very few references to its closing esl-implication pages, thus suggesting that hypothesis 4) is disconfirmed. further, most of these citations occur in the opening pages of the citing works (articles, chapters, monographs, theses, etc). in effect, the 1996 paper is quoted for its map-making achievement, and its review of the “three traditions” is typically used by the citing works as a “framing device”. in other words, hyon’s frame is reperformed again and again as a mechanism for structuring new introductory material, especially when the previous literature is being invoked and incorporated. this, then, is the principal legacy of the 1996 paper. as for the other hypotheses, there may well be a kairotic effect, although it has proved hard to trace and impossible to document. hypothesis 3), the magic number three, is also unproven and was, in any case, not really meant to be taken seriously. rather, hyon (1996) has succeeded essentially because of its value as a review paper, and here it is worth quoting again myers’ (1991: 46) conclusion that such an article, if well done, “draws the reader into the writer’s view of what has happened, and by ordering the recent past, suggests what can be done next”. my own conclusion from attending the 2012 “rethinking genre” john m. swales ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116112 conference in ottawa would be that the three traditions essentially survive, although with some attempts to find some middle ground along the three sides of the triangle. that said, in the limited space available, it is worth considering whether the invocation of “three schools” some 16 years after the appearance of the hyon article does not represent a rather exclusionary conceptualization. there are, in fact, two further possible candidates: the brazilian approach to genre (vian, 2012) and the academic literacies movement, sometimes known as the “new london school”. the former is known for its attempts to meld esp-type and sfl-type genre analysis, along with a more critical approach (critical discourse analysis), plus influence from franco-swiss socio-discursive interactionism, as advocated by jeanpaul bronckart and colleagues. as bawarshi and reiff (2010) have observed, the brazilian synthesis suggests that rhetorical, linguistic and sociological approaches can be interconnected, with useful results of our understanding of genres and how they can be taught. the other candidate is the academic literacies approach as represented by such people as roz ivanič, theresa lillis and brian street. this movement argues that esp in particular has been excessively textual, rather than focusing on actual academic practices. lillis and scott (2007: 10-11) argue: one important consequence of pre-identifying the ‘problem’ as textual is that it leads to pedagogy and research that takes text as the object of study, which in turn leads to policy and pedagogical ‘solutions’ which are overwhelmingly textual in nature. the main other focus of the new london school that differentiates it from esp and perhaps sfl is that it tends to resist standard academic perceptions such as relative homogeneity of student populations, the relative stability of disciplines, or the power and authority of instructors. members of the school claim that, as a result, esp is too “accommodationist”, thus suggesting some alignment with certain figures in the us-based genre studies movement. it is now 20 years since the 1992 genre conference and also now 20 years since the founding of aelfe. since the articles in ibérica, the journal of the association, have increasingly used the concept of genre as a guiding framework for subsequent linguistic and discoursal analysis, especially in this century, it is not hard to see that hyon (1996) remains a useful heuristic for establishing that framework. a text and its commentaries ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116 113 and a final thought would be whether a new form of genre-based pedagogy may not in the near future emerge in spain given the current spanish strength in studies of academic discourse, as represented by this very journal, the eneida project, and volumes such as pérez-llantada’s (2012) scientific discourse and the rhetoric of globalization. [paper received 23 july 2012] [revised paper accepted 1 august 2012] references although john m. swales officially retired from the university of michigan in 2007, he remains active on a number of eap-related projects. recent publications (both with christine feak and the university of michigan press) john m. swales ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116114 bawarshi, a.s. & m.j. reiff (2010). genre: an introduction to history, theory, research and pedagogy. anderson, sc: parlor press. benesch, s. (2001). critical english for academic purposes. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum. freedman, a. & p. medway (eds.) (1994). learning and teaching genre. portsmouth, nh: boynton/cook. hyland, k. (2004). disciplinary discourses. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. hyon, s. (1996). “genre in three traditions: implications for esl”. tesol quarterly 30: 693722. johns, a.m. (ed.) (2002). genre in the classroom: multiple perspectives. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. johns a., a. bawarshi, r. coe, k. hyland, b. paltridge, m. rieff & c. tardy (2006). “crossing the boundaries of genre studies: commentaries by experts”. journal of second language writing 15: 234-249. kermode, f. (1985). forms of attention. chicago: university of chicago press. leeder, c. & j.m. swales (2012). “a reception study of articles published in english for specific purposes from 1990 to 1999”. english for specific purposes 31: 137-146. lillis, t. & m. scott (2007). “defining academic literacies research: issues of epistemology, ideology and strategy”. journal of applied linguistics 4: 5-32. merleau-ponty, m. (1974). the prose of the world. london: heinemann. myers, g. (1991). “stories and styles in two molecular biology review articles” in c. bazerman & j. paradis (eds.) textual dynamics of the professions, 45-75. madison: university of wisconsin press. paul, d., d. charney & a. kendall. (2001). “moving beyond the moment: reception studies in the rhetoric of science”. journal of business and technical communication 15: 372-399. pérez-llantada, c. (2012). scientific discourse and the rhetoric of globalization. london: continuum. schryer, c.f. (1993). “records as genre”. written communication 10: 200-234. swales, j.m. (1996). “occluded genres in the academy: the case of the submission letter” in e. ventola & a. mauranen (eds.), academic writing: intercultural and textual issues, 45-58. amsterdam: john benjamins. swales, j.m. (2009). “worlds of genre – metaphors of genre” in c. bazerman, a. bonini & d. figueredo (eds.), genre in a changing world, 1-13. west lafayette, in: parlor press. vian, o. jr. (2012). “beyond the three traditions in genre studies: a brazilian perspective”. paper presented at genre 2012 – rethinking genre 20 years later. an international conference on genre studies. carleton university, ottawa (26-29 june). include navigating academia: writing supporting genres (michigan elt, 2011) and creating contexts: writing introductions (michigan series in english for academic and professional purposes, 2011). notes 1 a spoken version of this study was presented at genre 2012 – rethinking genre 20 years later. an international conference on genre studies, carleton university, ottawa (26-29 june 2012). 2 these in fact are higher numbers than the two most cited papers in english for specific purposes published from 1990 to 1999 (leeder & swales, 2012). 3 recently, sunny hyon revealed to me that this important – and very useful – anonymous reviewer was none other than brian paltridge. a text and its commentaries ibérica 24 (2012): 103-116 115 maquetación 1 ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 zusammenfassung die berichte amtlicher wirtschaftsinstitutionen waren in zeiten der weltwirtschaftskrise am anfang des 21. jahrhunderts sehr relevant für die gesellschaft, da sie zuverlässige auskünfte über die wirtschaftliche lage gaben. diese berichte wurden auf englisch verfasst und beinhalten zahlreiche metaphern, die in verschiedene sprachen übersetzt werden mussten. ziel dieser arbeit ist die klassifizierung der metaphern nach ihrer typologie, um die übersetzungsmethoden zu untersuchen und zu optimieren. das korpus besteht aus texten des iwf in der quellsprache englisch und ihren übersetzungen ins deutsche und spanische. schlüsselwörter: kontrastive linguistik, übersetzungswissenschaft, wirtschaftssprache, metapherntheorie. abstract m e ta ph o rs i n t im e s of e c on omi c c r is i s : a s tu dy a bo ut th e t ra ns l a ti on of t h e a nn ua l re p or ts o f th e i nt e rn ati on al m o ne t ar y f u nd the reports of official economic institutions were especially relevant for society during the world economic crisis because they conveyed reliable information about the financial situation. these reports were written in english and contained metaphors that must be translated into several languages. this paper investigates the typology of metaphors in economic reports and the need to optimize the current translation strategies. for this, a parallel corpus composed metaphern in zeiten der wirtschaftskrise: eine studie über die übersetzung der jahresberichte des internationalen währungsfonds carmen mateo gallego and guadalupe ruiz yepes hochschule heilbronn (germany) carmen.mateo-gallego@hs-heilbronn.de & guadalupe.ruiz-yepes@hs-heilbronn.de 69 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:42 página 69 ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes by texts from the imf will be used to compare the english source language text with their translations into spanish and german. keywords: contrastive linguistics, translation theory, language of economics, theory of metaphors. 1. einführung das erscheinen von neuartigen metaphern hat mit der verbreitung von texten über die weltwirtschaftskrise am anfang des 21. jahrhunderts zugenommen. der überwiegende teil dieser texte stammt aus dem englischen und beinhaltet viele metaphern, die anhand unterschiedlicher methoden übersetzt werden. als korpus dieser arbeit wird das kapitel über entwicklungen in der weltwirtschaft und auf den globalen finanzmärkten aus dem englischsprachigen jahresbericht des internationalen währungsfonds (iwf) von 2010 analysiert und mit seinen übersetzungen ins spanische und deutsche verglichen. für die weltwirtschaft stellte das jahr 2010 aufgrund von instabilität, rettungspaketen für eu-länder und zunehmender verschuldung eine besondere herausforderung dar. die bewertungen des iwf dienen als maßstab für die globale volkswirtschaft, und seine jahresberichte werden von mehr als tausend banken, regierungsbehörden und universitäten auf der ganzen welt gelesen (eine auflistung der abonnenten steht auf der webseite der institution zur verfügung). im mittelpunkt dieser arbeit stehen folgende forschungsfragen: welche metapherntypen erscheinen im jahresbericht 2010 des iwf? welche methoden werden für die übersetzung dieser metaphern verwendet? existieren übersetzungsmethoden, die noch nicht postuliert wurden? einen paradigmenwechsel leitete die bekannte metapherntheorie von lakoff und johnson (1980) ein, die die kognitive oder konzeptuelle metapher postulieren. sie vertreten die meinung, dass metaphern allgegenwärtig sind und zu vernunft und handeln des menschen gehören. die autoren unterscheiden zwischen strukturmetaphern, orientierungsmetaphern, ontologischen metaphern und bildmetaphern, und zwar je nach beschaffenheit der quelldomänen. da der erste analyseparameter dieser studie den schwerpunkt auf die typologie legt, werden im folgenden zunächst alle metaphern des korpus nach den oben genannten vier typen 70 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:42 página 70 von metaphern kategorisiert. danach wird ein zweites klassifikationskriterium im hinblick auf kognitive metaphern innerhalb der wirtschaftssprache angewandt. dieses kriterium wurde vom wirtschaftswissenschaftler henderson (1982) postuliert und unterscheidet zwischen drei gruppen von metaphern je nach funktion und spezialisierungsgrad innerhalb der wirtschaftssprache. die erste gruppe besteht aus metaphern, die eine rein ornamentale funktion haben, die zweite aus metaphern der standardsprache, und zur dritten gruppe gehören metaphern, die spezifische probleme der wirtschaft darstellen oder die ideen und theorien der fachdisziplin erweitern. die klassifizierung nach den kriterien von lakoff und johnson (1980) sowie die auf die wirtschaftssprache fokussierende differenzierung nach henderson (1982) ermöglichen es, übereinstimmungen zwischen beiden klassifikationen darzustellen. ein weiterer analyseparameter bezieht sich auf die übersetzungsmethoden, die für die deutsche und die spanische version des korpus verwendet wurden. dobrzyńska (1995) beschreibt drei mögliche übersetzungsmethoden für metaphern, die in vielen studien ab ende der 90er jahre thematisiert werden. die erste ist die methode “metapher durch gleiche metapher” (m g m), die zweite funktioniert nach dem prinzip “metapher durch eine andere metapher” (m1 g m2) und die dritte methode lautet “metapher durch umschreibung oder paraphrase” (m g p). diese drei methoden wurden tatsächlich sehr häufig anfang des 21. jahrhunderts bei der übersetzung von metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache verwendet (serón 2005; ramacciotti 2012). die ins spanische und ins deutsche übersetzten metaphern des korpus werden je nach verwendeter übersetzungsmethode klassifiziert. bei der klassifizierung wird also zu fragen sein, inwieweit sie sich einer der drei vorgenannten übersetzungsmethoden zuordnen lassen, bzw. ob sich darüber hinaus auch andere, hier noch nicht thematisierte methoden nachweisen lassen. für die identifizierung der metaphorischen ausdrücke in der originalsprache englisch, wird die software linguistic inquiry and word count (liwc) als hilfsmittel eingesetzt, die eine klassifikation der wörter nach wortfeld und nach affektiver bewertung ermöglicht. danach wird eine manuelle suche durchgeführt, um die gesamtheit der metaphern im text zu identifizieren. sie werden alle in eine datenbank metaphern in zeiten der wirtschaftskrise ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 71 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:42 página 71 eingetragen, um die typologie der vorkommenden metaphern sowie die verwendeten übersetzungsmethoden im korpus vollständig zu erfassen. 2. stand der forschung 2.1. kognitive metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache aus der perspektive der kognitiven linguistik besteht jede metapher aus zwei elementen, nämlich sprache und kognition. die kognitive ebene wird “kognitive oder konzeptuelle metapher” genannt und steht in engem zusammenhang mit unserer wahrnehmung und unserem kulturellem hintergrund. konzeptuelle metaphern werden durch die formulierung a ist b repräsentiert, wie beispielsweise zeit ist geld1 (lakoff und johnson, 2011:15). die eigenschaften der quelldomaine (geld) werden gedanklich auf die zieldomaine (zeit) übertragen und diese übertragung kann sich in zahlreichen sprachlichen metaphorischen ausdrücken, wie “zeit investieren”, “zeit kosten”, “zeit gewinnen” oder “zeit verlieren” (ebd.: 15) widerspiegeln. solche äußerungen werden als “sprachliche metaphorische ausdrücke” oder “sprachliche metaphern” bezeichnet. lakoff und johnson (1980) erklären das nebeneinanderbestehen von sprachlichen und kognitiven elementen innerhalb einer metapher wie folgt: […] metaphor is typically viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. for this reason, most people think they can get along perfectly without metaphor. we have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language, but in thought and action (lakoff und johnson, 1980: 454-455). sowohl in der übersetzungswissenschaft wie in der kontrastiven linguistik ist die differenzierung zwischen kognitiven und sprachlichen metaphern von großer bedeutung. trim (2007: 28) weist darauf hin, dass die unterscheidung in sprachliche und konzeptuelle metaphern bei der bestimmung von parallelen zwischen sprachgemeinschaften wesentlich ist. wenn es um die übersetzung von metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache geht, ist englisch die häufigste quellsprache, d. h. die mehrheit der texte ist in dieser sprache verfasst und wird in zahlreiche andere sprachen übersetzt. bei der übersetzung aus englischen wirtschaftstexten handelt es sich nicht nur um die übertragung von einer sprache in eine andere, sondern auch um die transposition verschiedener kognitiver modelle (vgl. zheng, 2015). c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): 69-9272 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:42 página 72 wie in der einführung erwähnt unterscheiden lakoff und johnson (1980) zwischen vier gruppen von kognitiven metaphern, die eine ähnliche grundstruktur besitzen, jedoch einige unterschiede bezüglich ihrer beschaffenheit aufweisen. die erste gruppe bilden die sogenannten strukturmetaphern, die einen konkreten herkunftsbereich auf einen abstrakten konzeptuellen zielbereich übertragen. als beispiel sei die zuvor erwähnte konzeptuelle metapher zeit ist geld (lakoff und johnson, 2011: 15) und die dazugehörenden sprachlichen metaphern “zeit kosten”, “zeit gewinnen” oder “zeit verlieren” genannt (ebd.: 15). “diese verbindung zwischen den domänen ist nur unidirektional, das heißt, dass eine rück-abbildung des zielbereichs auf den herkunftsbereich nicht möglich ist” (jäkel, 2003:55). die orientierungsmetaphern bilden die zweite gruppe und beziehen sich auf den physischen raum, zum beispiel in der phrase “wirtschaftliche produktivität ist oben” (soddemann, 2013: 28). dabei lassen sich konzeptualisierungen wie gut ist oben und schlecht ist unten erkennen (vgl. ebd.: 28). die nächste gruppe bilden die ontologischen metaphern, die sich dadurch auszeichnen, dass abstrakte realitäten als physische entitäten, gegenstände, gefäße, substanzen und personen dargestellt werden, wie zum beispiel in dem satz “die wirtschaftskrise ist ein gegner” (ebd.: 24). zuletzt ist noch eine vierte gruppe von metaphern zu nennen, die auf gemeinsamen visuellen formen zwischen zwei elementen basiert. das sind die sogenannten bildmetaphern (lakoff und johnson, 1987). sie werden wie folgt beschrieben: “metaphor that maps conventional mental images by virtue of their internal structure” (lakoff, 1987: 219), wie beispielsweise “italien ist ein stiefel” oder “ich habe eine maus für den pc gekauft” (cuenca und hilferty, 1999: 104-105). während die ersten drei kognitiven metapherntypen zahlreiche korrelationen und ähnlichkeiten zwischen den domänen hervortreten lassen, erlauben bildmetaphern nur eine visuelle verbindung zwischen den domänen. ab den 80er jahren erleben die theorien über metaphern in wirtschaftstexten einen aufschwung. henderson (1982), mccloskey (1983) und charteris-black (2000) stimmen darin überein, dass metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache für das verständnis wirtschaftlicher theorien und phänomenen unerlässlich sind (vgl. cardini, 2014). die abstrakten vorgänge der wirtschaft, wie beispielsweise transaktionen, kapitalflüsse, einkäufe, verkäufe und währungswerte lassen sich durch metaphern für den leser verständlicher darstellen. metaphern in zeiten der wirtschaftskrise ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 73 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:42 página 73 bisher wurden in bezug auf die typologie der metaphern in der fachsprache der wirtschaft anhand verschiedener kriterien unterschiedliche klassifikationen postuliert. wie schon erwähnt bezieht sich henderson (1982) auf den spezialisierungsgrad und die ästhetik der metapher innerhalb der wirtschaftssprache und unterscheidet drei typen: dekorativmetaphern dienen der ausgestaltung oder abbildung, standardmetaphern sind auch in der allgemeinsprache zu finden, und fachspezifische metaphern stellen spezifische probleme der wirtschaft dar oder erweitern ideen und theorien der fachdisziplin. dagegen fokussieren klamer und leonard (1994) auf die funktion der metapher in wirtschaftstexten und unterscheiden zwischen drei typen: pädagogische metaphern helfen, wirtschaftliche vorgänge besser zu verstehen, heuristische metaphern haben die funktion, neuartige ideen und konzepte zu benennen, und bildende metaphern stellen die spezifischen termini der fachdisziplin dar. anfang des 21. jahrhunderts formuliert höppnerová (2006) eine ähnliche klassifikation wie henderson (1982), die die gleichen kriterien zum ausgangspunkt nimmt. diese umfasst ebenfalls drei typen: terminologiebildende metaphern, die termini der fachsprache der wirtschaft darstellen, stilistische metaphern, die auf die schönheit des textes abzielen und pragmatischen metaphern, welche einfluss auf das textverständnis des lesers nehmen. in den bestehenden klassifikationen von metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache stimmt die mehrheit der autoren in einem typ überein. hierbei handelt es sich um die fachspezifischen metaphern. die anderen typen sind alle eher heterogen und beziehen sich auf verschiedene aspekte. in der vorliegenden arbeit werden alle metaphern des korpus einer qualitativen und quantitativen analyse unterzogen. der erste parameter der untersuchung basiert auf der metaphernklassifikation von lakoff und johnson (1980). damit lässt sich feststellen, welche typen der kognitiven metapher im korpus am häufigsten auftreten. das zweite kriterium verengt den fokus auf metapherntypen innerhalb der wirtschaftssprache. daher liegt es nahe, die vorgefundenen metaphern nach der klassifikation von henderson (1982) zu kategorisieren. sowohl diese klassifikation als auch die kriterien, auf denen sie basiert – spezialisierungsgrad und ästhetik der metapher – werden häufig für die untersuchung von metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache verwendet. lindstromberg (1991: 215) stellt diese klassifikation den drei funktionen von metaphern nach lakoff und turner (1989) gegenüber: image metaphors, generic-level metaphors and specific-level metaphors. skorczynska und deignan (2006) ziehen ebenfalls die c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): 69-9274 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:42 página 74 klassifikation von henderson (1982) heran, um die metaphorik von texten aus zwei quellen mit verschiedenem spezialisierungsgrad und heterogenem zielpublikum zu vergleichen. das von ihnen analysierte korpus besteht aus wissenschaftlichen abhandlungen über wirtschaftsthemen und aus presseartikeln aus fachzeitungen. die anwendung der klassifikation von lakoff und johnson (1980) und derjenigen von henderson (1982) ermöglicht es, bestehende gemeinsamkeiten zwischen beiden zu erkennen. im folgenden werden die drei metapherntypen nach henderson (1982) mithilfe von beispielen des korpus dargestellt und detailliert beschrieben. • die dekorativmetapher dient wie der name sagt der dekoration oder abbildung. im iwf-jahresbericht von 2010 befindet sich zum beispiel der satz: countries came together in a spirit of solidarity. die gleiche information kann auch neutral formuliert werden. ein konstruiertes beispiel für eine neutrale formulierung dieser information lautet: countries have shown solidarity2. • die standardmetapher ist auch in der standardsprache zu finden. beispielsweise findet man im korpus den satz: the crisis is not yet completely behind us. die metapher behind us kann im sinne eines ereignisses, das vergangen ist, auftreten3. • die fachspezifische metapher stellt spezifische probleme der wirtschaft dar oder erweitert ideen und theorien der fachdisziplin, wie zum beispiel die ausdrücke capital flows oder human capital. diese gruppe bezieht sich auf terminologisch lexikalisierte metaphern, die neologismen innerhalb der fachsprache bilden. sie sind außerdem als tote metaphern bekannt, weil sie kaum noch als metaphern zu erkennen sind, sondern nur als fachliche begriffe der wirtschaft. dagegen werden auffällige metaphern als neuartige oder lebendige sprachbilder wahrgenommen. loma (2011) vergleicht die grammatischen kategorien der fachspezifischen metaphern auf englisch und spanisch und stellt fest, dass die englische wirtschaftssprache dazu neigt, vor allem verben und adjektive mit metaphorischen sinn zu gebrauchen, während die spanische sprache mehr zu substantiven und nominalphrasen tendiert. nach der analyse der metaphern gemäß den zwei gewählten klassifikationen werden nun die methoden der übersetzung ins spanische metaphern in zeiten der wirtschaftskrise ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 75 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:42 página 75 und ins deutsche untersucht, um gemeinsamkeiten zwischen den parametern der studie zu identifizieren. 2.2. metaphern in der kontrastiven linguistik die verbindung zwischen den domänen einer metapher wird in der kognitiven linguistik als mapping bezeichnet und stellt einen schwerpunkt bisheriger kontrastiver analysen dar. außerdem wird das erscheinen von fachbegriffen aus verschiedenen disziplinen in der wirtschaft – von eckartsberg (1983) crossfertilization genannt – sehr häufig in kontrastiven analysen thematisiert. beispielsweise erforscht die arbeit von boers und demecheleer (1997) die begriffe der medizin, der geographie und militärwesen in englischen, niederländischen und französischen texten. die autoren zeigen, dass die drei wortfelder in den wirtschaftlichen metaphern immer wieder erscheinen, wenn auch die häufigkeit je nach sprache variiert. ein weiteres beispiel stammt von charteris-black und ennis (2001), die sich mit spanischen und englischen zeitungen zum thema “krise an der börse” befassen. beide sprachen teilen konzeptualisierungen von wirtschaftsvorgängen als organismen, als bewegungen im raum oder als naturkatastrophen. allerdings zeigt die studie, dass die metaphern der spanischen sprache häufiger den ausdruck persönlicher stimmung abbilden, während in der englischen sprache das wortfeld der nautik bevorzugt wird. charteris-black und ennis (2001) nennen als möglichen grund hierfür die religiöse tradition der spanischen kultur im gegensatz zur englischen, die eine enge verbindung mit dem wasser und der seefahrt aufweist. es gibt unzählige analysen von westlichen sprachen, die das konzeptuelle mapping, die crossfertilization der metapher und ihre kulturellen, emotionellen oder ideologischen inhalte vergleichen wie gómez parra et al. (1999), charterisblack und musolff (2003), gilarranz (2008), rojo und orts (2010) und negro alousque (2011). englisch ist mit sicherheit in studien über wirtschaft die am meisten untersuchte sprache. “jeder, der sich in der finanzund wirtschaftswelt auskennt, weiß, dass die englische sprache sehr oft als internationale lingua franca fungiert” (konovalova und ruiz yepes, 2016: 97). deshalb wird das englische in fast jeder der bisherigen kontrastiven studien behandelt. metaphern als sprachübergreifende phänomene rücken erst ab ende der 90er jahre in den fokus. eine der ersten, kontrastiven studien, diejenige von deignan et al. (1997), basiert auf einem mit polnischen englisch-studenten (auf fortgeschrittenem niveau) durchgeführten experiment, die eine liste c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): 69-9276 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:42 página 76 wirtschaftlicher metaphern in ihre muttersprache übersetzen mussten. die autoren hatten sich zum ziel gesetzt, die translatability der jeweiligen metapher auf kulturelle parallelen zwischen beiden sprachen hin zu überprüfen. sie fanden heraus, dass die meisten übersetzungsprobleme4 durch je unterschiedliche kulturelle verbindungen zwischen einzelnen funktionalen domänen in ausgangsund zielsprache verursacht wurden. serón (2005) beschäftigte sich mit englischen texten von finanzanalysten aus dem zeitraum von januar 2002 bis mai 2005 und deren übersetzung ins spanische. in der überwiegenden mehrzahl der fälle wurde sowohl im ausgangstext als auch in der spanischen version jeweils eine semantisch identische oder affine metapher verwendet. alle bisherigen arbeiten stellen fest, dass die strategie der wörtlichen übersetzung immer dann möglich ist, wenn das mapping zwischen quelldomain und zieldomain in beiden sprachen vorliegt (vgl. zheng, 2015). im zusammenhang mit der vorliegenden arbeit ist mirzoyeva (2014) zu nennen. die autorin hat sich im bereich der metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache ein ähnliches ziel gesetzt. sie vergleicht die übersetzungsstrategien von englischen texten ins russische unter berücksichtigung der verbindung von außersprachlichen faktoren und übersetzungsproblemen. hierzu führt sie eine sowohl quantitative als auch qualitative untersuchung aller metaphern des ihrer studie zugrunde liegenden korpus und der darin verwendeten methoden der übersetzung ins russische durch. trotz vieler untersuchungen über die metapher in der wirtschaftssprache wurde die verbindung zwischen typologie der metapher und übersetzungsstrategie weder in der kontrastiven noch in der kognitiven linguistik bislang erforscht. 2.3. zu den methoden der übersetzung von metaphern in der translatologie finden sich abweichende definitionen des begriffs metapher. samaniego (1996) trägt in ihrer deskriptiven studie die wichtigsten definitionen seit 1920 zusammen. die ersten arbeiten erwähnen übersetzungsprobleme allgemein und schlagen strategien vor, die einen einblick in die problematik gewähren, aber für spezialisten nicht genug sind. ogden und richards (1923) nennen die emotionalen funktionen als übersetzungsproblem im hinblick auf die metapher, aber sie geben keine definition dazu. die ersten arbeiten der 70er jahre zeigen das geringe interesse an metaphern in der übersetzungswissenschaft und die vagen metaphern in zeiten der wirtschaftskrise ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 77 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 77 begriffsbestimmungen, die bis dahin existierten. in dieser disziplin forschten erst ab ende der 70er jahre vázquez ayora (1977), newmark (1988) und van besien und pelsmaekers (1988). in ihren studien beschäftigen sie sich ausführlich mit der problematik und erarbeiten sowohl eine klassifikation der metaphern als auch eine auflistung der übersetzungsstrategien zur weiterentwicklung der disziplin. besonders relevant sind aber die beiträge, die sich der übersetzung der metapher als sprachübergreifendem prozess und interkulturellem transfer widmen. newmark (1988) hat in seiner veröffentlichung approaches to translation die thematik im detail untersucht. laut newmark besteht der bisher schwerwiegendste fehler der forschung über metaphern darin, diese lediglich als rhetorische figuren der poetischen sprache zu betrachten (vgl. ebd.: 84). der autor ordnet die metapher je nach gebrauch und entwicklung innerhalb der sprache ein und beschreibt ausführlich sieben übersetzungsprozesse (ebd.: 88-91): • reproducing the same image in the tl. • replacing the image in the sl with a standard tl image, which does not clash with the tl culture. • translation of metaphor by simile, retaining the image. • translation of metaphor (or simile) by simile plus sense, or occasionally metaphor plus sense. • conversion of metaphor to sense. • translation of metaphor by the same metaphor combined with sense. • deletion. if the metaphor is redundant or serves no practical purpose, there is a case for its deletion, together with its sense component. die analyse von newmark (1988) ist bis heute einer der umfassendsten zur thematik der übersetzung von metaphern (vgl. samaniego 1996). auf der grundlage von newmarks (1988) klassifikation schlägt dobrzyńska (1995) drei methoden der übersetzung von metaphern vor. dieser ansatz ist in studien zur metaphorik von wirtschaftssprache bis heute der am meisten verwendete und beschränkt sich auf die übertragung der domänen der metapher der quelltexte in die zieltexte. die drei methoden nach dobrzynska (1995) sollen im folgenden dargestellt und mittels beispielen aus dem englischen iwfjahresbericht von 2010 mit ihrer spanischen übersetzung erläutert werden: c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): 69-9278 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 78 • m g m: metapher durch die gleiche metapher the global economy is recovering / la economía mundial está recuperándose. • m1 g m2: metapher durch eine andere metapher the availability of credit fell / el crédito se paralizó. • m g p: metapher durch umschreibung emerging from the great recession / indicios de reactivación tras la gran recession. fuertes olivera (1998), serón (2005) und ramacciotti (2012) befürworten für das linguistische binom englisch-spanisch ebenso diese drei strategien. bisherige vergleichende studien zum spanischen und englischen zeigen, dass die wörtliche übersetzung von metaphern in der mehrheit der fälle anwendbar ist. selbst mit einer kulturell so weit entfernten sprache wie der chinesischen teilt die englische sprache konzeptualisierungen über die wirtschaft, die gleichermaßen die methode der wörtlichen übersetzungen ermöglichen. mit dem prozess der globalisierung und dem austausch von informationen in verschiedenen sprachen tendieren die kognitiven modelle von menschen selbst aus distanten kulturen zu gewissen annäherungen. dies ermöglicht in vielen fällen eine wörtliche übersetzung, die den kontakt zwischen beiden kulturen bereichert (vgl. zheng, 2015). die vorliegende arbeit untersucht auch, ob – neben den oben genannten methoden – weitere strategien zur übersetzung von metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache existieren, die bislang in der forschung noch nicht thematisiert wurden. 3. korpus das korpus besteht aus dem kapitel developments in the goblal economy and financial markets des iwf-jahresberichts von 2010 in der quellsprache englisch sowie deren direktübersetzungen ins deutsche und spanische. der iwf ist eine sonderorganisation der vereinten nationen, die im juli 1944 gegründet wurde. gegenwärtig gehören dem iwf 188 länder an, und sein sitz ist in washington d.c. in den usa. seine publikationen werden weltweit von einzelnen interessenten sowie von institutionen, hauptsächlich universitäten und regierungen gelesen, die abonnenten der onlinebibliothek des iwf sind. metaphern in zeiten der wirtschaftskrise ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 79 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 79 das korpus hat sowohl im englischen original als auch in den beiden übersetzten versionen eine länge von drei din-a4-seiten5. diejenigen unter den gefundenen kognitiven metaphern, die darin mehrmals vorkommen, wurden nur einmal berücksichtigt; demgemäß wurden insgesamt 141 metaphern untersucht. das kapitel über entwicklungen in der weltwirtschaft basiert auf materialien aus zwei publikationen des iwf: world economic outlook und global financial stability report (vom april 2010). es dient als kurze zusammenfassung der internationalen wirtschaftlichen lage und stellt die wichtigsten ereignisse des fraglichen jahres und deren folgen für die entwicklung der weltwirtschaft dar. genauer, unter berücksichtigung der hintergründe bezieht sich das ausgewählte kapitel des berichts 2010 auf die ereignisse der weltwirtschaft, die seit 2008 stattfanden, wie der absturz von lehman brothers und die späteren auswirkungen, die dieses ereignis auf den finanzmärkten hatte. außerdem werden die von den einzelnen ländern und regierungen umgesetzte politische maßnahmen häufig in bezug auf wachstumsraten und risikoverhalten thematisiert. die spanische und die deutsche version sind direktübersetzungen aus dem englischen, so dass es sich um ein paralleles korpus handelt, das einen vergleich von strategien zur übersetzung von metaphern zwischen beiden zielsprachen erlaubt. alle publikationen des iwf werden auf englisch verfasst, ins arabische, chinesische, französische, deutsche, portugiesische, russische und spanische übersetzt und in der online-bibliothek veröffentlicht. die übersetzer und dolmetscher des iwf gehören der abteilung language services an und kommen aus allen regionen der welt. sie sind als stammpersonal oder als externe übersetzer beschäftigt. die übersetzten dokumente haben einen überwiegend informativen charakter, d. h. sie dienen zur orientierung des lesers und verfolgen, zumindest dem eigenen anspruch nach, keine juristischen und/oder politischen zwecke. die übersetzungstätigkeit in institutionen erfolgt normalerweise unter hohem zeitdruck, da die texte eher umfangreich sind und abgabefristen meist zeitnah gesetzt werden. 4. methodologie die metaphern des korpus werden in der reihenfolge ihres auftretens in eine datenbank eingetragen und anhand verschiedener kriterien c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): 69-9280 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 80 kategorisiert. als erstes kriterium wird der typ der jeweiligen metapher im quelltext analysiert. dazu werden zwei verschiedene klassifikationen angewandt. in die erste spalte der datenbank wird der kognitive typus jeder metapher nach lakoff und johnson (1980) eingetragen. in der zweiten spalte wird der jeweilige typus der kognitiven metaphern innerhalb der wirtschaftssprache nach henderson (1982) erfasst. das zweite hauptkriterium der analyse bezieht sich auf die übersetzungsstrategien. für dieses kriterium werden die strategien von dobrzyńska (1995) angewandt, die bei der übersetzung von metaphern in der wirtschafssprache sehr verbreitet sind. in einer spalte der datenbank sind die verwendeten methoden in der spanischen übersetzung, in einer weiteren spalte die verwendeten methoden in der deutschen übersetzung enthalten. diese art der quantitativen analyse ermöglicht es, das verhalten der zwei variablen typus und übersetzungsmethode zu beschreiben. außerdem bietet diese methodologie die möglichkeit herauszuarbeiten, ob bisher nicht thematisierte kategorien gemäß den obigen klassifikationen vorhanden sind. folgende abbildungen zeigen die datenbank der analyse: 5. analyse 5.1. typologien der kognitiven metaphern die am häufigsten vorkommenden metapherntypen sind strukturmetaphern. diese stellen zur beschreibung der krise oder der metaphern in zeiten der wirtschaftskrise ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 81 titulo breve ibérica 36 (2018): …-… das zweite hauptkriterium der analyse bezieht sich auf die übersetzungsstrategien. für dieses kriterium werden die strategien von dobrzy!ska (1995) angewandt, die bei der übersetzung von metaphern in der wirtschafssprache sehr verbreitet sind. in einer spalte der datenbank sind die verwendeten methoden in der spanischen übersetzung, in einer weiteren spalte die verwendeten methoden in der deutschen übersetzung enthalten. diese art der quantitativen analyse ermöglicht es, das verhalten der zwei variablen typus und übersetzungsmethode zu beschreiben. außerdem bietet diese methodologie die möglichkeit herauszuarbeiten, ob bisher nicht thematisierte kategorien gemäß den obigen klassifikationen vorhanden sind. folgende abbildungen zeigen die datenbank der analyse: abbildung 1: datenbank der studie für die spanische übersetzung abbildung 2. datenbank der studie für die deutsche übersetzung. 5. analyse 5.1. typologien der kognitiven metaphern die am häufigsten vorkommenden metapherntypen sind strukturmetaphern. diese stellen zur beschreibung der krise oder der wirtschaft unter anderem verbindungen mit den semantischen feldern krankheit/gesundheit, maschinen, naturkatastrophen und wasserströmungen her, wie in den folgenden kurzen textbeispielen: the recovery is proceeding at varying speeds; financial sectors were healthy; oder the crisis was transmitted across the globe. die zweithäufigste gruppe bilden die orientierungsmetaphern, die sich durch ortsangaben auf den physischen raum beziehen. genügen mögen hier die beispiele financial reform must also be high on the policy agenda und rising unemployment. den dritthäufigsten typus stellen die ontologischen metaphern dar, die abstrakte realitäten als physische entitäten, nämlich als gegenstände, uiretirktpuhaetiwezsda rüf.neigetartssgnuztesreüb )5991(aks!yzrbdo anewgan rbrevrhesehcarpssfahcstrwi den in hodetemn etndeewrve veedi ninedohtemnetednerw heizebesylaanredmu eid nedrewmuiretirks se etserbüerdeibe id,tdan vgnzu tetier redetlapsrenieni.dnsi en iung,ztesrbeün hecsnipasrde negnuztersebünehcstuedr edn evebrlotuti eidfuahcisth von n egietartsedi erdnihapetmno netadr edind isnk ba etlpasn eretiewrneie .netlahtn nevitatitnauqredtaresedi sreübdnusupytnelbairva medieogihodoltemesedi ta kterietisameth emgeniroeg negieznegnudlibbaedneglfo sad,sethcilgömreesylaan ebierhcsebuzedohtemsgnuzte ögm iteebrauzsuarehit ekhlic n, isaslkengiboendäßem nenoitakfi lanaredknabnetadeidn :eys iwezrednetlahrve teteibmedreßau.ne htcnirhesbiob n, .dnisnednarhovn etda:1gnudlibab gnudlibab 2. etda rüfeidustredknabne setberüsche spanie di esreübehcstuedeidrüfeidustredknabne zungset gnuzt . eysaln5. a iognkredneogiolypt1.5. mmokrovnetsguähmaedi ubierhcsebruznelletsesedi nedtimnegnudnive s anem ssawdnunehportsatakrutna :neleipsiebtxte evocereth nveiti nrehpatme dnisnepytnrehpatemnednem striwredredoesikrredgnu itan eg/tiehknarknredlefnehsc edniewi,rehnegnumörtsres eegniavtagneecorpsi .nrehpatemrutktsd merednaretnuahcs ,nenihscam,tiehdnsu nezruknedneglne ; srotceslaicnanfi p y tlaeherwe red; o sisirceth beppugretsguähtiwezedi sisyhpnedfuanebagnastor eleipsibe mmrrlaicnanfi ntemoyune irdned. fuätth n etätilaerektartbsaedi,rda ib pgygp sorcadettimsnartsaw olgehts patemsgnureitneioreidnedlib günge.neheizebmuarnehcs cilopehtnoiheboatsum tonoiednlletessupytntes lmnän,etätintehecsiphyssla b 36ca iér 810(2 ): …-… 11 ; eb . hcrudhciseid,ehp eidreihnegömneg ne und gnsiri ehptaemnehcisglo ,ndeätnsgeegslah ci 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 81 wirtschaft unter anderem verbindungen mit den semantischen feldern krankheit/gesundheit, maschinen, naturkatastrophen und wasserströmungen her, wie in den folgenden kurzen textbeispielen: the recovery is proceeding at varying speeds; financial sectors were healthy; oder the crisis was transmitted across the globe. die zweithäufigste gruppe bilden die orientierungsmetaphern, die sich durch ortsangaben auf den physischen raum beziehen. genügen mögen hier die beispiele financial reform must also be high on the policy agenda und rising unemployment. den dritthäufigsten typus stellen die ontologischen metaphern dar, die abstrakte realitäten als physische entitäten, nämlich als gegenstände, gefäße, substanzen und personen, darstellen. innerhalb dieser kategorie sind die personenmetaphern, sogenannte personifikationen, die zahlreichste untergruppe. ein beispiel dazu ist folgender ausdruck: banks still face considerable challenges. die zweithäufigste untergruppe innerhalb der ontologischen metaphern sind solche, die substanzen evozieren, wie liquidity risk management. folgende abbildung zeigt die prozentsätze der metapherntypen nach der kognitiven klassifikation von lakoff und johnson (1980) im quelltext: der zweite angewandte klassifikationsparameter ist die klassifikation nach henderson (1982). gemäß dieser lassen sich die kognitiven metaphern der wirtschaftssprache in dekorative, in standardmetaphern oder in fachspezifische einteilen. alle metaphern des korpus wurden anhand dieser klassifikation eingruppiert. anschließend wurde nach verbindungen und ähnlichkeiten zwischen der kognitiven typen im allgemeinen und der c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): 69-9282 c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): …-… gefäße, substanzen und personen, darstellen. innerhalb dieser kategorie sind die personenmetaphern, sogenannte personifikationen, die zahlreichste untergruppe. ein beispiel dazu ist folgender ausdruck: banks still face considerable challenges. die nächsthäufige untergruppe innerhalb der ontologischen metaphern sind solche, die substanzen evozieren, wie liquidity risk management, gefolgt von ontologischen metaphern von gefäßen wie asset bubbles. folgende abbildung zeigt die prozentsätze der metapherntypen nach der kognitiven klassifikation von lakoff und johnson (1980) im quelltext: abbildung 3. prozentsatz der metaphern nach der kognitiven typologie von lakoff und johnson (1980). der zweite angewandte klassifikationsparameter ist die klassifikation nach henderson (1982). gemäß dieser lassen sich die kognitiven metaphern der wirtschaftssprache in dekorative, in standardmetaphern oder in fachspezifische einteilen. alle metaphern des korpus wurden anhand dieser klassifikation eingruppiert. anschließend wurde nach verbindungen und ähnlichkeiten zwischen der kognitiven typen im allgemeinen und der typen der kognitiven metapher innerhalb der wirtschaftssprache nach henderson (1982) gesucht. die standardmetapher ist die häufigste kategorie, gefolgt von fachspezifischen und dekorativen metaphern. die mehrheit der gefundenen fachspezifischen metaphern sind gleichzeitig strukturmetaphern, die feste konzeptualisierungen über die wirtschaft darstellen. darüber hinaus gehören viele dieser fachspezifischen metaphern dem fachgebiet der medizin an, wie capital injections und recovery sowie dem fachgebiet der technik wie collapse und downturn. darüber hinaus ist es bemerkenswert, dass die mehrheit der rein fachspezifischen metaphern der wirtschaft wie global growth, small and medium-sized enterprises, recession oder advanced economies orientierungsmetaphern sind, weil sie sich auf den physischen raum sowie auf die größe oder die menge beziehen. c. go ellgao etma .g& yepeszrui osrepdnuneznatsbus,eßge nnanegos,nrehpatemnenosrpe iebnei glstiuzadleisp enllach uäthshcänied. d,ehclosdnisnrehpatme manma ten onovt lgeg, yepes seidblahrenni.nelletsrad,neno kinosrpeetn zae id,ennoiat rhl :kcursduaredneg litsnba lbahrenineppurgrtenue ,nereizoveneznatsbuseid novnrehptaemnehcisglotono eiddniseirogetkares .uppegrrentuethscier elbarisnocecll nehcisglotonored eiw ksiriuqli iewneßäfeg tesas sebubbl gnuildbbaednelgof. on itkaissalkn veitkognirde mredetzätsnezorpiedt igezg 1980)(on ohnsjund alvon hcanneptynrehptaem tllueqmi1980) :tex gnudlibab 3. hpatemredztastnezopr akletdnwaegnaetiwezrde .)2891(nosrednhe ßämge alnoveigoloptynevitingokredhcannreh eidtsiretemarapsnoitakissa tingokeidhcisnessalreseid )0891(nosnhojdnuffok . noitakissakl h cna dnrehpatemnevit er arokedniehcarpssahcstrwi dnerhapetme lla.enleitnei deneßilchsna.terippurgnei pytenvitingokerdenchsizw striwredblaennirehpatme eidtsirehpatemdradnatsedi itakordeund n.rpheatemn ve gitiezhcielgdnisnrehpatme srdahacstriwedirübe rehpatemnehcsfiizepshcfa n und a donrehptaemdradntasin, etiv ddanhanendruwsuprokesd negnudnivehcanedrwu gllamienp terddnuenneiem nosrednehhcanehcarpssahcs tgleg,eirogetkaetsguähe negerdetihehremeidn. ketseid,ehpateutkurts hörgeusnahirüberadn.ellets zdiemrdetebihgecafmde dibhfdi ht ehczepshcafinred noiatkisaslkeresid netiekhcilnähdnu ingokerdenpyt netiv .thcuseg)2891( nov hcfa nehscizesp n hecsizpehscafn ne negnureisilautpeznok resedielevin ehör eiwn,an iz lati iki ll und 6 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…12 sntioc und ryevocre wso nurntdow issuainhrebürad. atemnehcsfiizepshcfa n rphe mume sserirpetnedzesi dnisnrehpatemsgnureitneior zbengeemedirodeößergedi edteibeghcafmedeiw nhcetr iedssadewsnekremebset is eiwhacstriwrde obalgl , nossiecre rode adv csisyhpnedfuahciseisliwe, n.heeiz eiwkin esllco und itehrhemie n ierrde htowgr , sm and lal seionomced eancadv fuaewiosmuarnehc 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 82 typen der kognitiven metapher innerhalb der wirtschaftssprache nach henderson (1982) gesucht. die standardmetapher ist die häufigste kategorie, gefolgt von fachspezifischen und dekorativen metaphern. die mehrheit der gefundenen fachspezifischen metaphern sind gleichzeitig strukturmetaphern, die feste konzeptualisierungen über die wirtschaft darstellen. darüber hinaus gehören viele dieser fachspezifischen metaphern dem fachgebiet der medizin an, wie capital injections und recovery sowie dem fachgebiet der technik wie collapse und downturn. bemerkenswert ist außerdem, dass die mehrheit der rein fachspezifischen metaphern der wirtschaft wie global growth, small and medium-sized enterprises, recession oder advanced economies orientierungsmetaphern sind, weil sie sich auf den physischen raum sowie auf die größe oder die menge beziehen. sämtliche dekorativen metaphern des korpus schließlich stimmen mit der typologie der strukturmetaphern überein. so sind die metaphern the fragile recoveries are exposed to new shocks und the threat of contagion overshadows the recovery beide dekorativ, weil die ästhetische funktion dominiert und weil sie gleichzeitig die strukturmetapher die krise ist eine krankheit widerspiegeln. folgende abbildung zeigt die prozentsätze der oben genannten metapherntypen gemäß der klassifikation der kognitiven metaphern der wirtschafssprache nach henderson (1982) im quelltext: 5.2. vergleich der übersetzungsmethoden die methode “metapher durch die gleiche metapher” (m g m) ist die am metaphern in zeiten der wirtschaftskrise ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 83 titulo breve ibérica 36 (2018): …-… sämtliche dekorativen metaphern des korpus schließlich stimmen mit der typologie der strukturmetaphern überein. so sind die metaphern the fragile recoveries are exposed to new shocks und the threat of contagion overshadows the recovery beide dekorativ, weil die ästhetische funktion dominiert und weil sie gleichzeitig die strukturmetapher die krise ist eine krankheit widerspiegeln. folgende abbildung zeigt die prozentsätze der oben genannten metapherntypen gemäß der klassifikation der kognitiven metaphern der wirtschafssprache nach henderson (1982) im quelltext: abbildung 4. prozentsatz der kognitiven metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache nach henderson (1982). 5.2. vergleich der übersetzungsmethoden die methode “metapher durch die gleiche metapher” (m " m) ist die am häufigsten verwendete methode in beide sprachen. hier kann folgende metapher als beispiel dienen: fiscal vulnerabilities wurde als vulnerabilidades fiscales ins spanische und als fiskalische schwachstellen ins deutsche übersetzt. allerdings ist diese tendenz im deutschen weiter verbreitet als im spanischen. des weiteren ist festzuhalten, dass die methode “metapher durch eine andere metapher” (m1 " m2) in der spanischen übersetzung häufiger verwendet wird als in der deutschen. beispielsweise enthält der satz the outlook is subject to considerable uncertainty ein adjektiv mit metaphorischem sinn, und zwar subject to, das auf spanisch durch ein anderes adjektiv ersetzt wurde, obwohl das gleiche adjektiv in der spanischen sprache vorhanden ist. die übersetzung ins spanische lautet: las perspectivas continúan rodeadas de considerable incertidumbre. das adjektiv rodeadas stammt aus dem verb rodear und hat die bedeutung von “umschließen”. die dritte thematisierte methode “metapher durch umschreibung” (m " p) wurde nur in seltenen fällen verwendet, und nur in der spanischen übersetzung. beispielsweise wird die metapher a key task in der spanischen version umschrieben und durch una de las tareas más atemnevitarokedehciltmsä lopty pheatemuruktrtsrdeeogi wenotdseoereas erievocre evocereth v,itakordedeibe rutkurtseidgitiezhcielgesi .nlegeipsredwi cilßeilhcssuproksednrehpa medind iso sn.ierüben rphe coshw und noctaerhteth hetsäediliewv, ntioknufehctis mr etsiesirkeiderhapet evebrlotuti redtimnemmitshc n rpheatem elaeth swahsrevonoigatn il ewdnut rieinmodn tiehknarkenie eidtgiezgnudlibbaedneglfo rdeon itkaissalkrdeß ämge tllequmi)2891(nosrednhe ex nnanegneboredeztästnezopre iwrden rpheatemn veitkognir :tex nepytnrehpatemnetn h cnahecaprssfhacstri gnudlibab 4. tingokredztastnezopr esrebüredhcieglrev2.5. ehcarpsstfahcstriwredninrehpatemnevit neodhtemgsnuzte )2891(nosrednhehcan . “edohtemedi atme durrphe rven etgshä ohtemetednwe :enenidelipseibsal lnuvl acfis sinasp e chsialkssaldnue ch hctsue d imznedne tesiet dis tsineretiewsde netlahuztsfe ”rehpatme edni) 2m"1(m eib.enchsteuderdnisal eisp niatcernue lbaisnco nei ottcesu hcisnapsfuasad, ”rpheatemheciegledih cdur (m nakrehi.nehcarpsediebniedo ilibareln stie slaedrwu aernlvu achwchse ehsctueds ninellest nap s imlst aiteerbre vritee wne “edohtemeidssad,n hpatme uähgnuztersebünehcsinapsr e ztasredtlähtneseieswle eth chsirohapetmtimvitekan inehcrud ervitekaeserdan (m maeidtsi)m" rehpatemedneglnn eslcasiliba sin s gnidrella.tztserebü .nehcisn dre hcur e erdane nei tednerwevr egfiu drwi ottceussikooltuo arzwdnu,nnisemch lhowboe,druwztetser üb srden iv iktedjahecieglsda t: teulaehcisnapssin psla erbmrecin tivkasad. eßeilhcsmu“novgnutuedbe bung”iehrcsmuh cdur "(m nutzesrebünehcisnapsredin umon isrevn hecsnipasrde ib n ndehavorhecaprsn hecsnipas daornaúnitnocsavitcerep saro revmeds uatmmast etreisitamehtettirdeid.”ne elläfnenetlesnir unerduw) p emieddirweisewlsiepiseb. gn h cdurund n beeihrcsum aun b 36ca iér 810(2 ): …-… 13 .tsi gnuztesreübedi elbarisnocs br raro u edithand rehpatem“edohtem r undnu,tednerwevn rehptae ksatka in smásaeratsal 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 83 häufigsten verwendete methode in beide sprachen. hier kann folgende metapher als beispiel dienen: fiscal vulnerabilities wurde als vulnerabilidades fiscales ins spanische und als fiskalische schwachstellen ins deutsche übersetzt. allerdings ist diese tendenz im deutschen weiter verbreitet als im spanischen. des weiteren ist festzuhalten, dass die methode “metapher durch eine andere metapher” (m1 g m2) in der spanischen übersetzung häufiger verwendet wird als in der deutschen. beispielsweise enthält der satz the outlook is subject to considerable uncertainty ein adjektiv mit metaphorischem sinn, und zwar subject to, das auf spanisch durch ein anderes adjektiv ersetzt wurde, obwohl das gleiche adjektiv in der spanischen sprache vorhanden ist. die übersetzung ins spanische lautet: las perspectivas continúan rodeadas de considerable incertidumbre. das adjektiv rodeadas stammt aus dem verb rodear und hat die bedeutung von “umschließen”. die dritte thematisierte methode “metapher durch umschreibung” (m g p) wurde nur in seltenen fällen verwendet, und nur in der spanischen übersetzung. beispielsweise wird die metapher a key task in der spanischen version umschrieben und durch una de las tareas más importantes übersetzt. der sinn der metapher key wurde durch das adjektiv importante – wichtig – ersetzt, obwohl die gleiche metapher in der spanischen sprache möglich gewesen wäre: idiomatisch korrekt ist nämlich die genaue entsprechung una tarea clave6. für die deutsche übersetzung von key wurde die methode m g ø angewandt. die übersetzung lautet: eines der […] ziele. es ist bemerkenswert, dass in anderen kapiteln des jahresberichts 2010 der ausdruck key tasks durch die methode m g m als schlüsselthemen ins deutsche übersetzt wurde. die methode “metapher durch weglassung” (m g ø) findet sich ebenfalls in beiden sprachen – insbesondere in der spanischen version –, wird aber in der oben genannten klassifikation von dobrzyńska (1995) nicht erwähnt. in diesem fall werden die metaphern nicht übersetzt, und die information wird dementsprechend im zieltext weggelassen. zuletzt ist festzuhalten, dass verschiedene übersetzungen der gleichen metapher zu finden sind. so taucht monetary tightening in der spanischen übersetzung gleichermaßen als endurecimiento monetario und als restricción monetaria auf. in der deutschen fassung entsprechen dieser metapher ebenfalls zwei wiedergabemöglichkeiten: einschränkungen auf dem geldsektor und straffung der geldpolitik. c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): 69-9284 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 84 folgende abbildungen zeigen eine übersicht über das verhältnis der je verwendeten übersetzungsmethoden in beiden zielsprachen. beide sprachenpaare englisch-spanisch und englisch-deutsch teilen konzeptualisierungen über die wirtschaft, die die übersetzungen von metaphern in zeiten der wirtschaftskrise ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 85 c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): …-… importantes übersetzt. der sinn der metapher key wurde durch das adjektiv importante – wichtig – ersetzt, obwohl die gleiche metapher in der spanischen sprache möglich gewesen wäre: idiomatisch korrekt ist nämlich die genaue entsprechung una tarea clave6. für die deutsche übersetzung von key wurde die methode m " ø angewandt. die übersetzung lautet: eines der […] ziele. es ist bemerkenswert, dass in anderen kapiteln des jahresberichts 2010 der ausdruck key tasks durch die methode m " m als “schlüsselthemen” ins deutsche übersetzt wurde. die methode “metapher durch weglassung” (m " ø) findet sich ebenfalls in beiden sprachen – insbesondere in der spanischen version –, wird aber in der oben genannten klassifikation von dobrzy!ska (1995) nicht erwähnt. in diesem fall werden die metaphern nicht übersetzt, und die information wird dementsprechend im zieltext weggelassen. zuletzt ist festzuhalten, dass verschiedene übersetzungen der gleichen metapher zu finden sind. so taucht monetary tightening in der spanischen übersetzung gleichermaßen als endurecimiento monetario und als restricción monetaria auf. in der deutschen fassung entsprechen dieser metapher ebenfalls zwei wiedergabemöglichkeiten: einschränkungen auf dem geldsektor und straffung der geldpolitik. folgende abbildungen zeigen eine übersicht über das verhältnis der je verwendeten übersetzungsmethoden in beiden zielsprachen. abbildung 5. bei der übersetzung von metaphern ins deutsche angewandte methoden. c. go ellgao etma .g& yepeszrui stentaro sred.tztesrübe tentaro – githcwi – ztetser wneseweghcilgömehcarsp gnuhcerpsten eavlca eartuna edohtme .tdnawegnaø"m rndean issda,trewnskerembe yepes rpheatemrdenn is key edrwu hapetme cheilge idlhowbo,zt tsitkerrokhcsitamoidi:eräw e6. nuztesrebüehcstuedeidrfü senie:tetualgnuztesrebüeid htcirbesehrajsden letpiakn er e v iktedjasdah cdur enchsianpserdnierh euanegeidhcilmän eidedruwyeknovgn tsise.eleiz]…[red k ucdrusarde2010 s kssatkey dh cdur dothemie .deurwtztesrübe “edohtemedi ehpatme r dur aprsn deibe ench – dnosebsin kaissalkn enntnagen obe tio llfa rehpatemeidnedrwe xtetleizmind heceprsntemde vssad,netlahuztstsitztelzu tchautos.dnisendnzu mo slan ßeamrheciegl meciren lthesslühcs“lsam"med ung”ssaglewh c nfi) ø"(m niosrevnehcisnapsredinered hicn)5991(aks!yzrbodnovn rebüthcinnr eiddnu,tztse n.essalggeew ednegnuztesrebüenedeihcsrev inethgitatenmo apsredin iraetnomotenim o slaund ristre ”neme ehctsuedsin edn inllsafnebehicst n – irebadirw, rden mesiednit. nhäwret h e rdiwnoitarmfoin rehpatemnehcielgre ebünehcisn gnuzters ariatenomnóiccri .fau gl i ung ssafn hecsutderden :netiekhcilgömebagredewi ei kitidpollegrde . gieznegnudlibbaedneglfo tesrbeün etndeewrve etmsgnzu eprsnteung apetmeresidench dlegmanegnnärhcsnei sadrebüthcisrebüenieneg arpselizendeibniendohet ench eizwsleneberhap rotke und rst lährevs tn jeredis .en 6 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…14 gnudlibab 5. esreübredibe waegnaehcstudesninrehpatemnovgnuzte nedohtemetdnwa . titulo breve ibérica 36 (2018): …-… abbildung 6. bei der übersetzung von metaphern ins spanische angewandte methoden. beide sprachenpaare englisch-spanisch und englisch-deutsch teilen konzeptualisierungen über die wirtschaft, die die übersetzungen von metaphern durch gleiche metaphern zulassen. allerdings wird diese methode in der deutschen version um etwa zwanzig prozent häufiger verwendet, vor allem wenn es sich bei den fraglichen englischen ausdrücken um neuartige metaphern handelt. dahingegen wurden viele metaphern in der spanischen version durch eine andere metapher übersetzt, und zwar auch dort, wo die gleiche metapher in der spanischen sprache möglich gewesen wäre. beispielsweise wurde die metapher when the dust (of the crisis) had settled [...] ins deutsche durch die gleiche metapher übersetzt: “nachdem sich der staub gelegt hatte”. im spanischem text wurde eine andere metapher angewandt: cuando la turbulencia amainó [...]. das bedeutet: “als die turbulenz nachließ […]”. die methode m1 " m2 ist im vorliegenden korpus in beiden zielsprachen am zweithäufigsten anzutreffen. in den meisten fällen wurde eine andere metapher verwendet, die einen ähnlichen sinn aufweist. so wurde the crisis was transmitted swiftly across the globe mit die krise pflanzte sich rasch […] quer über die ganze welt fort wiedergegeben. die methode der umschreibung (m " p) wurde im spanischen text zweimal verwendet, in der deutschen version dagegen kein einziges mal. abschließend ist anzumerken, dass die methode m " ø in der spanischen version neun mal auftaucht, während sie in der deutschen version nur ein einziges mal vorkommt. außerdem entspricht dem einzigen fall von m " ø in der deutschen version auch in der spanischen evebrlotuti gnudlibab 6. tesreübredibe neeraapnehcarpsedibe bünegnureisilautpeznko ider zn rpheatemhecieglh cdur awteumon isrevn hecsutde hcilganediebhcissennwe waegnaehcsinaspsninrehpatemnovgnuzt hcsilg ilgnednuhcsinasp zuetserbüe ide id,chstriwe i n.essaulz eiddrwisgnidrelal vergehänteozrpg inzawza munekcürdsaunehcsilgneneh nedohtemetdnwa . hcsi neliethcstude nerhapetmnovengnzu redniedohtemese mellavor,tndeewrve n nerhapetme gitareu g n deurwn gengehiad.tlndeha etserbüerhapetme erdane nei öglmhecaprsn hecsnipasrde rehpatme newh t seth tztesrüberpheatemheciegl aeni eedru wtxe tmehscinasp ]..nó aiam t: “teuede bsa. d al itsi2m"1medohtemedi gäuhteizw .nertuznanest hnän neieedi,tndeewrve lic g nipasrden in rpheatemelevin e idow,trodchauarzwdnu,ztet pisieb.eräwn esewgeh ciögl dttleesdahisrceth sin “: hcna ub atsrdeh cismde :tdnawegn arehpate meredn a cu dsal lubru tie ]…[eßilachnz en iebnisuprkonednegeilrovmi eedruwnelläfnestiemnedni uwost. iseuaninsnehlic apg h cduron isrevn hecsni nierhapetme cheilge edideurwesiewslepi dhcrudehctsueds ie ”etthagtelgeub mi. aicnelubrutalnacu ”] . i man hecaprsleizn de emerednaenie rehpta edru sawsisirceth ethssorcaiftlywsdittemsnatr ttleganzedirübe dewi etnehcsinapsmiedruwp) a.lamsgeinzien iken gegeda vnehcsinapsredniø" en ienuron isrevn hecsutde ø"mnovlalfengzinei ib bloge e tmi etznaesirkedi umrededohtemedi.nebegegred lamiewztxe den i,tndeewrve n,kereumnzatsind ßeeihlcbsa ,thcuaualamnuennoisrev ußea.tmkomvorlamsgeinzi chaunoiservenchsteuderdni b 36ca iér 810(2 ): …-… 15 reuq]…[hcsarhcis "m(gnubierhcsum revn hecsutderde nosi edissda m edohtme rednieisdnerhäw mdehtciprsntemder enchsianpserdnich 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 85 metaphern durch gleiche metaphern zulassen. allerdings wird diese methode in der deutschen version um etwa zwanzig prozent häufiger verwendet, vor allem wenn es sich bei den fraglichen englischen ausdrücken um neuartige metaphern handelt. dahingegen wurden viele metaphern in der spanischen version durch eine andere metapher übersetzt, und zwar auch dort, wo die gleiche metapher in der spanischen sprache möglich gewesen wäre. beispielsweise wurde die metapher when the dust (of the crisis) had settled [...] ins deutsche durch die gleiche metapher übersetzt: nachdem sich der staub gelegt hatte. im spanischem text wurde eine andere metapher angewandt: cuando la turbulencia amainó [...]. das bedeutet: “als die turbulenz nachließ”. die methode m1 g m2 ist im vorliegenden korpus in beiden zielsprachen am zweithäufigsten anzutreffen. in den meisten fällen wurde eine andere metapher verwendet, die einen ähnlichen sinn aufweist. so wurde the crisis was transmitted swiftly across the globe mit die krise pflanzte sich rasch […] quer über die ganze welt fort wiedergegeben. die methode der umschreibung (m g p) wurde im spanischen text zweimal verwendet, in der deutschen version dagegen kein einziges mal. abschließend ist anzumerken, dass die methode m g ø in der spanischen version neun mal auftaucht, während sie in der deutschen version nur ein einziges mal vorkommt. außerdem entspricht dem einzigen fall von m g ø in der deutschen version auch in der spanischen version die entscheidung für dieses verfahren. die metapher an environment of unprecedented cooperation wurde sowohl im spanischen als auch im deutschen weggelassen. 5.3. ergänzung der übersetzungsmethoden im korpus sind metaphern zu finden, deren bedeutungen in den zieltexten beeinflusst, intensiviert oder gänzlich geändert wurden. allerdings werden diese fälle in der oben genannten klassifikation nicht berücksichtigt, weil sie sich nur auf die übertragung von zieldomäne und quelldomäne von einer sprache in die andere beziehen. die beispiele des korpus dieser studie zeigen, wie einige metaphern, die durch die methode m g m übersetzt wurden, veränderungen in bezug auf den sinn aufweisen. hierzu nur wenige beispiele: der metaphorische satz the past year has been a roller coaster for the global economy wurde im deutschen korpus wie folgt übersetzt: das vergangene jahr bescherte der weltwirtschaft eine veritable achterbahnfahrt. die metapher bleibt gleich, weil die domänen c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): 69-9286 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 86 “achterbahn” und “weltwirtschaft” im zieltext beibehalten werden, aber die negative bedeutung der information über die weltwirtschaft erfährt durch die verwendung des verbs “bescheren” und des adjektivs “veritable” eine intensivierung. das gewählte verb “bescheren” wird in diesem satz mit einer gewissen ironie gebraucht, da es sonst eine positive bedeutung hat. in der spanischen version wurde die metapher des quelltextes umschrieben: el año pasado estuvo lleno de altibajos para la economía mundial. diese version teilt mit, dass die weltwirtschaft im vergangenen jahr vielen schwankungen unterworfen war. ebenso wird die personifikation central banks have already begun to reduce […] durch die methode m g m ins spanische übersetzt, und zwar wie folgt: los bancos centrales ya están reduciendo […]. die personifikation ist genau die gleiche in der zielsprache, weil dort die konzeptualisierung von banken als personen gleichermaßen vorhanden ist. allerdings weicht der sinn leicht ab. in der spanischen version steht, dass die banken schon am reduzieren sind, weil das verb “anfangen” weggelassen wurde. die deutsche version überträgt jedoch den genauen sinn des originaltextes, einschließlich der personifikation: haben jedoch die zentralbanken bereits damit begonnen […] zu reduzieren. außerdem wurden im korpus metaphern gefunden, die aufgrund der methode m1 g m2 auffällige übersetzungsversionen aufweisen. zu zitieren wäre hier die phrase advanced economies were the most significantly affected by the financial crisis. der ausdruck significantly affected impliziert ein konzept, das die krise als krankheit wahrnimmt. im spanischen wurde eine andere, den sinn des originaltextes verändernde metapher verwendet: la crisis asestó el golpe más duro a las economías avanzadas. in dieser version wird die krise als ein aktives element dargestellt, die den “fortgeschrittenen volkswirtschaften einen schweren schlag versetzt7”. eine wörtliche übersetzung wäre auch im spanischen zieltext möglich gewesen, allerdings entschied sich der übersetzer für eine freie version. ins deutsche wurde der sinn vom englischen dagegen wörtlich übersetzt: die fortgeschrittenen volkswirtschaften waren am schwersten von der krise betroffen. des weiteren finden sich im korpus beispiele für die methode m g p. die personifikation countries adopted a countercyclical stance wurde in der spanischen version folgendermaßen übersetzt: en el terreno fiscal, se impuso una orientación anticíclica. die länder wurden im quelltext als aktive entitäten angesehen, die eine antizyklische haltung einnehmen. demgegenüber wurden die länder in der spanischen version nicht genannt, und die assertion wurde durch einen unpersönlichen satz zum ausdruck gebracht. außerdem wird der sinn des metaphern in zeiten der wirtschaftskrise ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 87 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 87 verbs adopted verändert. im zieltext steht, dass es ihnen aufgezwungen wurde, diese maßnahmen zu ergreifen. ins deutsche wird der sinn des quelltexts durch die gleiche metapher übertragen: […] nahmen länder eine gegenzyklische haltung ein. zuletzt wird auch die methode m g ø verwendet, obwohl die zielsprache die gleiche metapher erlauben würde. beispielsweise wurde bei der übersetzung des satzes aggressive measures delivered in an environment of unprecedented cooperation auf eine übersetzung der metapher environment of unprecedented cooperation sowohl im spanischen als auch im deutschen verzichtet, obwohl der sinn in beiden zielsprachen problemlos wiedergegeben werden könnte. für solche weglassungen lassen sich verschiedene gründe anführen, wie beispielsweise begrenzungen in der länge des zieltextes oder die möglichkeit, dass die übersetzer den satz als widerspruch angesehen und deshalb die metapher ausgespart haben. 6. schlussfolgerungen die schlussfolgerungen dieser studie basieren auf den quantitativen und qualitativen ebenen der analyse. die erste schlussfolgerung hat zum schwerpunkt die typologie der metaphern und bezieht sich auf die beiden angewandten klassifikationen. alle gefundenen dekorativen metaphern innerhalb der wirtschaftssprache nach der typologie von henderson (1982) stimmen mit den strukturmetaphern von lakoff und johnson (1980) überein. diese verbindung ist allerdings nur unidirektional, denn nicht alle strukturmetaphern verfügen innerhalb der wirtschaftssprache über einen dekorativen charakter. die zweite schlussfolgerung hat ebenfalls die typologie zum schwerpunkt und bezieht sich lediglich auf die klassifikation von henderson (1982). diese klassifikation wird in wissenschaftlichen abhandlungen über metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache weiterhin verwendet, auch wenn sie großes verbesserungspotenzial aufweist. die kategorien “standard” und “dekorativ” und ihre definitionen überschneiden sich. der metaphorische ausdruck: when the dust (of the crisis) had settled [...] ist beispielsweise dekorativ und kann gleichzeitig auch eingang in den standardgebrauch einer sprache gefunden haben, wo er nicht auf wirtschaftliche krisen zu beziehen ist, sondern auf andere phänomene. in dem satz regulatory reform does not go hand in hand with […] gehört der ausdruck to go hand in hand der standardsprache c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): 69-9288 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 88 an und hat zugleich eine dekorative funktion, wenn er in der wirtschaftssprache benutzt wird. daher ist eine präzise und klare definition und klassifikation der kognitiven metaphern innerhalb der wirtschaftssprache notwendig. die untergliederung in dekorative, standardund fachspezifische metaphern erfordert eine ergänzung durch neue wissenschaftliche beiträge. außerdem zählt die mehrzahl der rein fachspezifischen metaphern der wirtschaftssprache wie global growth, small and medium-sized enter prises, recession, oder advanced economies zu den orientierungsmetaphern, da sie sich auf den physischen raum bezieht. diese metaphern sind in der wirtschaftssprache lexikalisiert und gehören zur spezifischen terminologie der wirtschaft. die dritte schlussfolgerung bezieht sich auf die übersetzungsmethoden. die studien, die sich mit den methoden der übersetzung von metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache beschäftigen, gehen von lediglich drei methoden aus (m g m, m1 g m2 und m g p), obwohl auch eine vierte methode, “metapher durch weglassung” (m g ø), durchaus verbreitet ist. sowohl in der deutschen als auch in der spanischen version wird diese methode sogar häufiger verwendet als m g p. wie weiter oben erwähnt, unterscheidet newmark (1988) in seiner arbeit approaches to translation sieben übersetzungsmethoden für metaphern aller möglichen textsorten (siehe punkt 2.3) und grenzt die übersetzungsmethoden “metapher durch weglassung” (m g ø) und “metapher durch umschreibung oder paraphrase” (m g p) voneinander ab. allerdings wird diese klassifikation bei der übersetzung von metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache seit den 90er jahren nicht mehr berücksichtigt. die drei oben genannten methoden nach dobrzyńska (1995) beziehen sich lediglich auf die sprachliche ebene der metapher und ignorieren deren kognitiven aspekte, die aber ein verständnis von metaphern überhaupt erst ermöglichen. beispielsweise sind übersetzungen im korpus zu finden, die den sinn der metaphern beeinflussen, obwohl die domänen sowohl in der herkunftsals auch in der zielsprache vorhanden sind und damit die methode m g m möglich wäre. die verwendung von adjektiven, verben oder präpositionen in der zielsprache, die sich auf die metapher beziehen, können deren bedeutung intensivieren, verändern oder mindern. jedoch wird diese auswirkung in den bisherigen klassifikationen nicht beachtet. darüber hinaus ist bemerkenswert, dass metaphern des quelltextes ohne erkennbaren grund durch eine andere metapher übersetzt wurden, obwohl metaphern in zeiten der wirtschaftskrise ibérica 36 (2018): 69-92 89 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 89 in der zielsprache die gleiche metapher auch möglich gewesen wäre, da beide sprachen die gleichen konzeptualisierungen der wirtschaft teilen. die übersetzungsversionen, die den sinn der metapher beeinflussen, verändern oder weglassen, sind für die translatologie und insbesondere für die erweiterung der theorie der übersetzungsmethoden besonders relevant. genau diese fälle rücken das loyalitätsprinzip der übersetzung neu ins blickfeld. dieser grundsatz bezieht sich auf die leser der zieltexte, die erwarten, dass der inhalt mit der originalversion übereinstimmt (vgl. nord, 1993). für die übersetzungswissenschaft ist es erforderlich, die bisherigen klassifikationen von übersetzungsmethoden von metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache zu ergänzen und zu präzisieren. die übersetzungen sollten sich nicht nur auf die übertragung von domänen und wörtern beschränken, sondern auch deren semantischen und pragmatischen eigenschaften miteinbeziehen. article history: received 30 june 2016 received in revised form 3 may 2107 accepted 4 may 2017 literaturverzeichnis c. mateo 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(2005). “la traducción de la metáfora en los textos financieros: estudio de caso” in m. gracia torres und m.a. bugnot (hrsg.), traducción y cultura: el referente cultural en la comunicación especializada, 205-250. málaga: encasa skorczynska, h. und a. deignan (2006) “readership and purpose in the choice of economics metaphors”. metaphor and symbol 21,2: 87-104. soddemann, k. (2013). die metaphorik im diskurs über die wirtschaftskrise. eine korpuslinguistische untersuchung aus sicht der kognitiven metapherntheorie über die darstellung der jüngsten wirtschaftskrise im sprachgebrauch verschiedener deutscher online-zeitungen. essen: redaktion linse (linguistik-server essen). trim, r. (2007): metaphor networks: the comparative evolution of figurative language. new york: palgrave macmillan. van besien, f. und pelsmaekers, k. (1988). “the translation of metaphor” in p. nekeman, 140-146 vázquez ayora, g. (1977). introducción a la traductología: curso básico de traducción. georgetown: georgetown university press zheng, j. (2015). “translation of metaphors in business english from a cognitive perspective”. international journal of english linguistics 5,2: 132-13. 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 91 carmen mateo gallego hat den studiengang übersetzen und dolmetschen absolviert sowie einen masterstudiengang für international business. zurzeit ist sie wissenschaftliche mitarbeiterin für spanisch an der hochschule heilbronn und beschäftigt sich im rahmen ihrer promotion mit der übersetzung von metaphern in der wirtschaftssprache. überdies befasst sie sich auch mit den einsatz von neuen medien in der fremdsprachlehre und mit digitalen prüfungsformen. guadalupe ruiz yepes ist professorin für spanisch als fachsprache für wirtschaft an der hochschule heilbronn. sie promovierte im bereich übersetzungswissenschaft und beschäftigt sich derzeit mit der kontrastiven analyse der wirtschaftsphraseologie. im rahmen eines forschungsaufenthalts hat sie ein jahr an der aston university verbracht. sie hat übersetzung und sprachen an universitäten in spanien, deutschland, großbritannien und den usa gelehrt. notes 1 kognitive metaphern werden in großbuchstaben geschrieben, um sie von sprachlichen metaphern zu differenzieren. 2 konstruiertes beispiel der autorinnen. 3 laut lakoff und johnson (1980) handelt es sich außerdem um eine orientierungsmetapher. 4 der begriff “übersetzungsproblem” wird in dieser arbeit nach der definition von christiane nord (1991) verwendet. er hat mit faktoren wie der situation, der textsorte oder den konventionen der sprachen und kulturen zu tun. dagegen sind “übersetzungsschwierigkeiten” mit kompetenz und erfahrung des übersetzers in zusammenhang zu bringen. 5 die englische version umfasst 1703 wörter, während die deutsche 1787 wörter und die spanische 2024 wörter enthalten. 6 konstruiertes beispiel der autorinnen. 7 eigene übersetzung des vorangehenden beispiels. c. mateo gallego & g. ruiz yepes ibérica 36 (2018): 69-9292 03 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:43 página 92 ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-24 abstract in this article, i will discuss some contextual factors that play a role in the production of metaphors in real discourse. there are a number of such factors that have this effect (see kövecses, forthcoming). they include the following: (1) the immediate linguistic context itself, (2) what we know about the major entities participating in the discourse, (3) physical setting, (4) social setting, and (5) the immediate cultural context. this article will be limited to the discussion of the first two. key words: context, co-text, discourse, metaphor. resumen la influencia del contexto sobre el uso de la metáfora en el discurso en este artículo examinaré algunos factores contextuales que desempeñan un papel a la hora de generar el uso de metáforas en la construcción del discurso. hay varios factores que tienen este efecto (ver kövecses, en preparación). entre dichos factores, figuran los siguientes: 1) el inmediato contexto lingüístico propiamente dicho, 2) lo que sabemos al respecto de las entidades principales que operan en la generación del discurso, 3) el entorno físico, 4) el entorno social, 5) el contexto cultural inmediato. el presente artículo se ceñirá a los dos primeros factores. palabras clave: contexto, co-texto, discurso, metáfora. the effect of the linguistic context on metaphor use let us provisionally think of discourse as being composed of a series of concepts organized in a particular way. the concepts that participate in the effect of context on the use of metaphor in discourse1 zoltán kövecses eötvös loránd university, budapest (hungary) zkovecses@ludens.elte.hu 11 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 11 ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-24 zoltán kövecses discourse may give rise to either conventional or unconventional and novel linguistic metaphors. suppose, for example, that we talk about the progress of a particular process and want to say that the progress has become more intense. there are many ways in which this can be done. we can say that the progress “accelerates”, “speeds up”, “gains momentum”, “moves faster”, “picks up” or “gathers speed”, and many others. these are all relatively “conventional” ways of talking about an increase in the intensity of a process. they are all based on the conventional generic-level mapping intensity is speed, as it applies to the concept of progress (in relation to a process). the larger metaphors within which the mapping intensity is speed works are also well established ones: progress is motion forward and, even more generally, events are movements. however, the particular concepts that refer to the specific process we are talking about may influence the selection of the linguistic metaphorical expression in talking about the intensity of the progress at hand. the linguistic metaphors we actually use may be much “less conventional” than the ones mentioned above. as an example, consider a headline from the wall street journal europe (6 jan. 2003). it reads (taken from kövecses (2005) and reanalyzed here): the americanization of japan’s car industry shifts into higher gear. here, the process is the americanization of japan’s car industry and the suggestion is that it has become, or is becoming, more intense. instead of describing the property of “increase in intensity” by any of the conventional linguistic metaphors above, or, as a matter of fact, by a large number of additional ones that could be used (such as “galloping ahead”), the author uses the relatively unconventional linguistic metaphor “shifts into higher gear” (which is also an instance of the general metonymy action for result, where shifting into higher gear results in higher speed, that is, we have shifting gear for going faster). such headlines are also discussed by white and herrera (2009). i propose that this particular expression is selected because of the influence of the immediate linguistic context, that is, the concepts that surround the conceptual slot where we need an expression to talk about “an increase in intensity” (of the progress of a process). since the process is that of the americanization of japan’s “car” industry, we find it natural and highly motivated that the author of the utterance uses the expression “shifts into 12 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 12 higher gear” in that conceptual slot in the discourse. since the surrounding context includes the car industry, it makes sense to use the motion of a car, and not the motion of some other entity capable of motion, in the metaphor. it seems to me that the pressure of coherence (i.e., trying to be coherent with the linguistic context) is at work here. jean aitchison (1987) made an interesting observation that bears on this issue. she noted that in newspaper articles and headlines about (american) football games, the names of the teams may select particular metaphors for defeat and victory. she found such examples as follows in the sports pages of american newspapers: “cougars drown beavers,” “cowboys corral buffaloes,” “air force torpedoes the navy,” “clemson cooks rice” (aitchison, 1987: 143). metaphors used in these sentences are selected on the basis of the names of football teams. since beavers live in water, defeat can be metaphorically viewed as drowning; since cowboys corral cattle, the opponent can be corralled; since navy ships can be torpedoed, the opponent can be torpedoed, too; and since rice can be cooked, the same process can be used to describe the defeat of the opponent. the metaphors in the above sentences indicate that the target domain of defeat can be variously expressed as “drowning”, “corralling”, etc., the choice depending on the concepts (in this case, corresponding to the names of the teams) that make up the utterances in which the metaphor is embedded. defeating an opponent is a form of symbolic control, in the same way as the sports activities themselves are symbolic activities. in general, defeating an opponent is conceptualized as physically and/or socially controlling an entity (either animate or inanimate). the high-level, schematic conceptual metaphor defeat is physical and/or social control is pervasive in english (and also in other languages); metaphorical words for this conceptualization abound: “beat”, “upset”, “subdue”, “knock out”, “clobber”, “kill”, “demolish”, “conquer”, “crush”, “dash”, “destroy”, “dust”, “lick”, “overcome”, “overwhelm”, “ruin”, “stump”, “vanquish”, “thrash”, “trample”, “trounce”, and literally hundreds of others. the words all indicate some form of physical or social control. the words “cook” and “torpedo” from aitchison’s (1987) examples could be added to this list, although they seem to be somewhat “less conventional” than the others. since defeat is conceptualized as physical and social control, it makes sense for the author to use the words “cook” and “torpedo” in the conceptual slot in the neighborhood of the concepts rice and navy, respectively. it makes sense because the frame for rice involves cooking and the the effect of context ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-24 13 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 13 frame for navy can involve the weapon torpedo, on the one hand, and because cooking and torpedoing are ways of physically controlling an entity, on the other. there is, however, more complication we need to be aware of. in the sports competition frame, or more specifically, the american football frame, there are two opponents, there is an activity on the basis of which the winner is decided, and a resulting relationship between the two opponents: one opponent defeating the other. given these minimal elements in the frame, we can say that one team defeats another and we can choose a word from the list above to express this meaning. we do this on the basis of the metaphor defeat is physical/social control. however, how do the concepts of rice and navy that are used in the source domain of this metaphor end up in the american football frame? american football teams are not identical to rice and navy; these are concepts that we primarily associate with very different entities, such as plants and the armed forces, respectively. football teams are not plants and armed forces. obviously, they enter the frame because they are the names of the two football teams. they enter it on the basis of the metonymy name for the institution (i.e., name of the team for the team). this metonymy is crucial in understanding the selection of the particular linguistic expressions for defeat. without the metonymically introduced names for the teams, it would be much less likely for the author to use the terms “cook” and “torpedo”. the other two words in the set of examples offered by aitchison (1987), “corral” and “drown”, require similar treatment. we should note, however, that “corralling” and “drowning” are even less conventional cases of talking about defeat than “cook” and “torpedo” are. what nevertheless makes them perfectly understandable and natural in the context is that the frame for american football contains the names “cowboys” and “beavers”. the words “corral” and “drown” are coherent with these names, on the one hand, and they also fit the defeat is physical/social control metaphor, on the other. in other words, there seem to be three constraints on the use of such metaphorical expressions in discourse. first, the words used must be consistent with an element of a conceptual frame that occurs in the discourse (such as those for defeat or progress). this would simply ensure that we use literal or metaphorical linguistic expressions for zoltán kövecses ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-2414 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 14 defeat or progress, and not for something else. second, the linguistic metaphor must be consistent with a high-level, schematic metaphor conventionally used for that element, such as defeat or progress). in the two cases above, they would be defeat is physical/social control and intensity of progress is speed. third, the linguistic metaphors chosen on the basis of such metaphors should (probably “must” would be too strong a word here) be consistent with other more specific elements in the same frame (such as american football and the progress of a process). such more specific elements within the american football frame would be the names of the teams and within the progress of a process the specific process in question (the americanization of japan’s “car” industry). this is not to say that all uses of metaphorical expressions in discourse are motivated by such complex cognitive mechanisms. the linguistic context can play a somewhat more straightforward role in the selection of metaphors. consider the following text: when the electoral commission came to make its choice between referring the case to the police and taking no action it was this defence, described by an authoritative source as showing “contempt” for the law, which helped to tilt the balance –and mr hain– over the edge. (the times, 25 jan. 2008, news 7) the metaphorical expressions that are relevant here are “tilt the balance” and “[tilt] over the edge”. the second metaphorical expression is elliptical in the text, but we can easily supply the word “tilt” to make the sentence complete. why can we do this? we can do it, of course, because the word “tilt” that was used in the first expression also fits the second. we keep it in memory and since it fits, we can supply it again. let us look at some of the details of how this might happen. the metaphorical expression “tilt the balance” is a conventional one and is a linguistic example of the metaphor uncertainty is balance (of the scales) (and certainty is lack of balance of the scales). in the metaphor, making a choice (i.e., eliminating uncertainty) corresponds to tilting the balance. the second expression, “tilt someone over the edge”, is much less conventional than the first. the question is why the word “tilt” gets selected in the second one besides the fact that it is still in memory. clearly, it has to fit, but why does it fit? in the second expression the relevant conceptual metaphor is loss of rational/moral the effect of context ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-24 15 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 15 control is loss of physical control, such as physical fall (into a (deep) hole). the cause of the loss of rational/moral control is the same as the cause that made the commission arrive at a decision –namely, “showing ‘contempt’ for the law”. there are many linguistic expressions that could be used to convey the idea “to cause someone to fall down (into a hole)”, including “push”, “drive”, “force”, “jolt”, “nudge”, “poke”, “prod”, “propel”, “shove”, “press”, “butt”, and so on. of these, the most conventional ones are certainly “push” and “drive”; both of which occur in the idiom “push/drive someone over the edge”. however, in the discourse the author uses “tilt”, which is an additional but somewhat unmotivated possibility to express the idea of causing someone to physically fall down (into a hole). what makes it acceptable and natural, though, is that it fits the metaphor (no matter how unconventionally), on the one hand, and that it is elicited by the word used in the previous linguistic metaphor. in this manner, the phonetic shape of an expression in discourse can function as an elicitor of a metaphorically used expression in the same discourse, provided that the condition of fitting the required conceptual metaphor is also met. the effect of knowledge about major entities in the discourse on metaphor use in other cases, it seems to be our knowledge about the entities participating in the discourse that plays a role in choosing our metaphors in real discourse. major entities participating in discourse include the speaker (conceptualizer), the hearer (addressee/conceptualizer), and the entity or process we talk about (topic). i shall discuss three such examples, involving the topic, the speaker/conceptualizer, and the addressee/conceptualizer –in this order. topic the hungarian daily magyar nemzet (hungarian nation) carried an article some years ago about some of the political leaders of neighboring countries who were at the time antagonistic to hungary. one of them, the then slovak president, meciar, used to be a boxer. this gave a hungarian journalist a chance to use the following metaphor that is based on this particular property of the former slovak president (kövecses, 2005): zoltán kövecses ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-2416 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 16 a pozsonyi exbokszolóra akkor viszünk be atlanti pontot érő ütést, ha az ilyen helyzetekben megszokott nyugati módra “öklözünk”: megvető távolságot tartva. (hungarian nation, 13 sep. 1997) we deal a blow worth an atlantic point to the ex-boxer of bratislava if we box in a western style as customary in these circumstances: keeping an aloof distance. [my translation] confrontational international politics is commonly conceptualized as war, sports, games, etc. there are many different kinds of war, sports, and games, all of which could potentially be used to talk about confrontational international politics. in all probability, the journalist chose boxing because of his knowledge (shared by many of his readers) about one of the entities that constitute the topic of the discourse. in using the metaphor confrontational international politics is boxing, the author is relying both on some conventional and unconventional mappings. what is common to the war, sports, and games metaphors is, of course, that they all focus on and highlight the notion of winning in relation to the activity to which they apply. this is their shared “meaning focus” (kövecses, 2000 & 2002) and this is what makes up the conventional part of the metaphor. the boxer corresponding to the politician and the blows exchanged corresponding to the political statements made are explicitly present in the discourse in question. in addition, we also assume that both boxers want to win and that the participating politicians want the same (whatever winning means in politics). however, the manner in which the boxers box and politicians argue is not a part of the conventional framework of the metaphor. “keeping an aloof distance” probably comes into the discourse as a result of the author thinking about the target domain of politics. in the author’s view, politics regarding meciar should be conducted in a cool, detached manner. what corresponds to this way of doing politics in boxing is that you box in a way that you keep an aloof distance from your opponent. in some cases the multi-faceted nature of the topic can be exploited by a speaker/conceptualizer for humorous effects, as in the following newspaper headline: “foot heads arms body.” we get an explanation of what this could possibly mean from the short letter sent in to the editor of the times: sir, the letters about odd headlines … reminded me of an all-time favourite. in the early 1980s michael foot became the leader of the labour party. he the effect of context ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-24 17 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 17 was also a co-founder of cnd and pushed for nuclear disarmament. mr foot travelled to brussels to chair a lobby group in the european parliament to construct a plan to get rid of the bomb as part of the european election policy. from this came the headline “foot heads arms body”. (the times, letters to the editor, 30 jan. 2008) since the topic involves the various entities, such as foot and disarmament and mr. foot being the chair of the committee that deals with the issue of disarmament, the speaker/conceptualizer had the opportunity to deliberately create a humorous headline. speaker in the previous cases, the metaphor was selected and elaborated as a result of what the conceptualizer knows about the topic. it is also possible to find cases where the selection of a metaphor depends on knowledge about the conceptualizer himself or herself. what is especially intriguing about such cases is that the author’s (conceptualizer’s) knowledge about himor herself does not need to be conscious. the next example, taken from my previous work (kövecses, 2005) but reanalyzed here, demonstrates this possibility. as one would expect, one important source of such cases is the area of therapy or psychological counseling. in a therapeutic context people commonly create novel metaphors as a result of unique and traumatic life experiences. the metaphors that are created under these circumstances need not be consciously formed. the example comes from an article in the magazine a & u (march, 2003) about photographic artist frank jump. frank jump photographs old painted mural advertisements in new york city. he has aids, but he has outlived his expected life span. his life and his art are intimately connected metaphorically. the conceptual metaphor operative here could be put as follows: surviving aids despite predictions to the contrary is for the old mural advertisements to survive their expected “life span.” at first, jump was not consciously aware that he works within the frame of a conceptual metaphor that relies on his condition. in his own words: in the beginning, i didn’t make the connection between the subject matter and my own sero-positivity. i was asked to be part of the day without art exhibition a few years ago and didn’t think i was worthy –other artists’ work was much more hiv-specific. (…) but my mentor said, “don’t you see the zoltán kövecses ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-2418 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 18 connection? you’re documenting something that was never intended to live this long. you never intended to live this long.” [italics in the original] (a & u, march 2003: 27) the mentor made the conceptual metaphor conscious for the artist. i believe something similar is happening in many cases of psychotherapy and counseling. it is clear that the metaphor surviving aids despite predictions to the contrary is for the old mural advertisements to survive their expected “life span” is anything but a conventional conceptual metaphor. the metaphor is created by frank jump as a novel analogy –the unconscious but nevertheless real analogy between surviving one’s expected life span as a person who has aids and the survival of the mural advertisements that were created to be around on the walls of buildings in new york city for only a limited amount of time. in this case, (unconscious) self-knowledge leads the conceptualizer to find the appropriate analogy. the analogy is appropriate because the source and the target domains share schematic structural resemblance; namely, an entity existing longer than expected. the resulting metaphor(ical analogy) is novel and creative and it comes about as a result of what the conceptualizer knows about himself. topic and hearer let us take another example of how the topic can influence the choice of novel metaphors in discourse. as we shall see, the example is additionally interesting because it gives us some idea how the addressee may also be involved in the selection of metaphors by the speaker/conceptualizer. in the comment section of the times (30 jan. 2008), the author congratulates and offers advice to the newly elected head coach of the england football team. his or her specific recommendation is that fabio capello, the new italian head coach, should play david beckham against switzerland in an upcoming game at wembley stadium, despite the fact that beckham did not play top-class football for several months at the time. if beckham is given a chance to play, he will have played on the english national team 100 times, and this would be a nice way of saying good-bye to him as regards his career on the national team. the author of the article explains that he or she is aware that beckham is not fully prepared for this last game on the national team. s/he writes: the effect of context ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-24 19 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 19 beckham is 32. he has not played top-class football since november. los angeles galaxy are sardines not sharks in the ocean of footy. (the times, 30 jan. 2008: 14) how did the author arrive at the novel metaphors according to which the american football (soccer) team, the los angeles galaxy, “are sardines not sharks in the ocean of footy”? in all probability, it is the author’s knowledge about david beckham, the main topic of the discourse, that gives rise to the metaphors. the author (together with us) knows that beckham plays for the los angeles galaxy, a team located in los angeles, which, in turn, is a city on the pacific ocean, and the pacific ocean contains sardines and sharks. in somewhat more technical language, we could say that the frame for beckham as a football player includes the name of the team that he plays for and the place where the team is located, which in turn evokes the frame of the pacific ocean. the frame for the pacific ocean in turn involves the various kinds of fish that live in that ocean. of all these various kinds of fish, why are the los angeles galaxy sardines and not sharks and why is football an ocean? with this question, i wish to indicate that the author’s knowledge about beckham does not provide a full explanation of the novel metaphors used. it is a major part of the story, but probably not the whole story. what we have to take into account additionally are some highly schematic conventional conceptual metaphors, such as the size of social groups is the size of physical entities and social competition is the survival behavior of animals. the former conceptual metaphor is extremely general and probably functions only as a very general constraint on which linguistic expression can actually be selected; the idea of the vastness of the world of football and the many teams participating in it should be conveyed through reference to some huge physical entity (such as the ocean). the latter conceptual metaphor seems to be a special case of the social behavior is animal behavior metaphor. in the world of business competition, english has the conventional metaphorical expression: “big fish eat small fish”. similarly, in football some teams are very powerful (the sharks), but most of them are weak (the sardines) in relation to the powerful ones. the expression “big fish eat small fish” and the underlying conceptual metaphor may in part be responsible for the author using the words “sardines” and “sharks” for some of the strong teams and for the much larger number of weak teams in the world of football. zoltán kövecses ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-2420 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 20 the same article also offers us a glimpse of how knowledge about the addressee can give rise to novel metaphors in discourse. there are two examples in the article that point in that direction. the first one reads: “dear signor capello” [my italics]. this is the first sentence of the article, with which the author addresses the intended recipient of the message – the new italian head coach of the english team, fabio capello. although the use of the word signor could not be interpreted as a metaphor, the fact that the english author addresses the recipient (signor capello), an italian, partly in italian is an indication that, in general, the addressee plays a role in how we select linguistic items for our particular purposes in the discourse. the second example is as follows: “beckham is a good footballer and a nice man: e una bella figura” [italics in the original]. this example comes much closer to being a metaphor, in that a man (beckham) is compared to a figure, a shape –a schematic word for geometric forms. in addition, the comparison is given in italian, which shows that the language of the addressee must have influenced the choice of the metaphor. more generally, a part of what we know about the addressee in all probability plays a role in the selection of the metaphor. personal concern as a special case a further factor that plays a role in producing differential experience and, hence, differential metaphors, includes the differential concerns, or interests, that speakers/conceptualizers may have in their lives. we can think of such differential personal concerns as a special case of the knowledge that speakers/conceptualizers have of themselves. let us look at how this can influence our choice of metaphor in discourse. intense professional interest may lead a person to habitually think about and express target domains in terms of source domains that are based on one’s professional interests. a good way of studying this form of variation is to look at letters in newspapers that are sent in to editors by readers. in hungarian newspapers the authors of the letters often mention their profession. consider the following letter by a hungarian electric engineer concerning the issue of hungary’s new relationship with europe in the late 1990s (taken from kövecses, 2005): otthon vagyunk, otthon lehetünk európában. szent istván óta bekapcsolódtunk ebbe a szellemi áramkörbe, és változó intenzitással, de azóta benne vagyunk – akkor is, ha különféle erők időnként, hosszabbthe effect of context ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-24 21 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 21 rövidebb ideig, megpróbáltak kirángatni belőle. [italics in the original] (magyar nemzet, [hungarian nation] 12 june 1999) we are, we can be at home in europe. since saint stephen we have been integrated/connected to this intellectual/spiritual electric circuit, and with varying degrees of intensity, but we have been in it –even though various powers, for more or less time, have tried to yank us out of it. [my translation] the target domain is hungary’s new relationship to europe in the wake of major political changes in the country in the 1990s. the interesting question is what the source domain is. as the passage makes it clear, many of the words used reflect the professional interest of the author of the letter: “be integrated/connected”, “electric circuit”, “with varying degrees of intensity” are expressions that reveal electricity and electric circuitry as a source domain in the passage. the electric engineer reasons on the basis of his knowledge of this domain. the concept of electricity and electric circuitry as a source domain is not obvious or inevitable for this target and is certainly not the only one that could be used. my claim is that it is made available and its use is facilitated by the professional interest of the person who does the thinking about this particular target domain. doctors, teachers, athletes, scientists, and so on, often take their source domains from their fields of activity to characterize and reason about the various target domains they encounter, talk, and think about. conclusion in this paper, i have discussed some contextual factors that appear to have an effect on the production of metaphors in real discourse. we can think of such cases as instances of metaphorical creativity, which can be called “context-induced” creativity. to the best of my knowledge, apart from some sporadic instances (such as aitchison, 1987; koller, 2004; kövecses, 2005 & 2006; semino, 2008; benczes, forthcoming), the issue of context-induced metaphorical creativity has not been systematically investigated. a considerable portion of novel metaphorical language seems to derive from such contextual factors as the immediate linguistic context and knowledge about major discourse participants, as demonstrated in the paper. it remains to be seen how robust the phenomenon is and whether it deserves serious further investigation. based on an informal collection of data from a variety of newspapers, it appears that the context provides a major source of zoltán kövecses ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-2422 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 22 motivation for the use of many novel metaphors. these metaphors are clearly not, in grady’s (1999) classification, either resemblance or correlation-based cases. they seem to have a unique status, in that they are grounded in the context in which metaphorical conceptualization is taking place. (revised paper received october 2008) references the effect of context ibérica 17 [2009]: 11-24 23 aitchison, j. (1987). words in the mind. oxford: blackwell. benczes, r. (forthcoming). “setting limits on creativity in the production and use of metaphorical and metonymical compounds” in s. michel & a. onysko (eds.), cognitive approaches to word formation. new york: mouton de gruyter. grady, j. (1999). “a typology of motivation for conceptual metaphors. correlations vs. resemblance” in r.w. gibbs & g.j. steen (eds.), metaphor in cognitive linguistics, 79-100. amsterdam: john benjamins. koller, v. (2004). metaphor and gender in business media discourse: a critical cognitive study. new york: palgrave macmillan. kövecses, z. (2000). metaphor and emotion. new york: cambridge university press. kövecses, z. (2002). metaphor. a practical introduction. new york: oxford university press. kövecses, z. (2005). metaphor in culture. universality and variation. new york: cambridge university press. kövecses, z. (2006). language, mind, and culture. a practical introduction. new york: oxford university press. kövecses, z. (forthcoming). metaphor. a practical introduction. 2nd edition. new york: oxford university press. semino, e. (2008). metaphor in discourse. cambridge: cambridge university press. white, m. & h. herrera (2009). “how business press headlines get their message across: a different perspective on metaphor” in j. zinken & a. musolff (eds.), metaphor and discourse, 135152. new york: palgrave macmillan. zoltán kövecses is professor of linguistics at eötvös loránd university, budapest and has been visiting professor at many european and american universities. he is a leading figure in cognitive linguistics with numerous articles and a dozen books to his name, including metaphor. a practical introduction (oxford university press, 2002), the second edition of which is about to appear. notes 1 research for this paper was generously supported by the institute of advanced study, durham university, england, where i was a distinguished fellow in the winter term, 2008. 02 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:48 página 23 iberica 13 ibérica 19 (2010): 33-54 issn 1139-7241 resumen el ámbito universitario es un campo propicio para implementar el aprendizaje activo y el trabajo en equipo de los estudiantes de ingeniería, de modo que su práctica fomente la adquisición de destrezas y competencias que les sean útiles académica y profesionalmente. una de estas técnicas de aprendizaje activo es el “aprendizaje basado en problemas” (abp). si bien su uso se centra mayoritariamente en asignaturas de ciencias, este trabajo presenta parte de los resultados de una experiencia llevada a cabo dentro de una asignatura de inglés para fines académicos y profesionales. en ella, el abp, el trabajo en equipo y la lengua de especialidad se entremezclan de manera natural con el pensamiento crítico, las presentaciones orales y la evaluación de la participación de cada miembro de los equipos a lo largo de las tareas que lo conforman. los resultados que aquí se presentan ofrecen el producto diseñado y consensuado por los once grupos participantes para evaluar una presentación oral así como para autoevaluar y evaluar la participación de cada miembro de los equipos durante el proceso. palabras clave: aprendizaje activo, aprendizaje basado en problemas, trabajo en equipo, lenguas de especialidad. abstract problem-based learning applied to lsp the university context is a favourable place to implement active learning and team working activities. with these, academic and professional skills and competences can be encouraged among engineering students so that they become academically and professionally purposeful. problem-based learning (pbl) is one of these techniques. despite the fact that pbl is mainly used in sciences degrees, this paper presents part of the results obtained with an english for academic and professional purposes course. in this particular case, pbl, aprendizaje basado en problemas aplicado a las lenguas de especialidad mª ángeles andreu-andrés y miguel garcía-casas universidad politécnica de valencia e ies la morería (spain) maandreu@idm.upv.es y mgcasas5@yahoo.es 33 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 33 ibérica 19 (2010): 33-54 m.á. andreu-andrés y m. garcía-casas team working and eap naturally merged in critical thinking, oral presentations and the assessment of each participant’s involvement. results offer the products, designed and agreed by the eleven teams taking part in the experience, which will enable students to self-assess oral presentations as well as evaluate each student’s participation throughout the process. key words: active learning, problem-based learning, team work, languages for specific purposes. hacia el aprendizaje activo para cualquier estudiante el asistir a conferencias y clases –además de documentarse sobre los contenidos de éstas a través de la lectura de artículos y libros– es una parte importante de su aprendizaje. sin embargo, para aprender, de acuerdo con el modelo de kolb (1984), se debe procesar la información que se recibe; para ello se puede partir o bien de una experiencia concreta y directa o de una experiencia abstracta como, por ejemplo, la que se tiene cuando se lee sobre un tema o se recibe información sobre éste. ambos tipos de experiencia se transforman en conocimiento cuando se elaboran, bien reflexionando sobre ellas, bien experimentando con la información recibida de manera activa. de ahí que el término aprendizaje activo comprenda tanto la actitud propia del estudiante como los métodos y técnicas de enseñanza-aprendizaje que hacen que éste esté activo y aprenda de sus errores. el empleo de un enfoque de aprendizaje activo en la educación actual y, más concretamente en enseñanza universitaria, no es una idea nueva ya que fue, con toda probabilidad, el primer método de enseñanza utilizado por el hombre. lorenzen (2001) se refiere a este hecho al mencionar el método prehistórico más rápido y eficaz de entrenar y enseñar a cazar a un joven dentro de una sociedad que vive de la caza, en la que la lucha por la supervivencia es continua: el dejar que observe y luego reproduzca el comportamiento de los demás cazadores experimentados. el mismo autor recuerda que el aprendizaje activo documentado más antiguo se remonta a la época de sócrates y su mayéutica, con la interacción entre los alumnos y el profesor. en el siglo xviii, rousseau –entre otros filósofos– también defiende el aprendizaje activo a través de la experiencia. desde entonces las metodologías activas han pretendido que los estudiantes se responsabilicen de su propio aprendizaje, que sean activos en la 34 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 34 adquisición de conocimientos, que compartan experiencias e intercambien opiniones con los compañeros, que se comprometan con el proceso y con los resultados y, al mismo tiempo, que propongan mejoras, desarrollen la autonomía, el pensamiento crítico, las actitudes colaborativas, las destrezas profesionales y la capacidad de autoevaluación. con todo ello, el alumno se convierte en el centro del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje en el que su formación universitaria ha de ser integral. sin embargo, a pesar de los beneficios que las metodologías activas ofrecen, podemos encontrarnos con reticencias frente a su implementación en el aula por considerarse poco adecuadas para grupos numerosos y en asignaturas sometidas a la presión de un temario que impartir, por ser actividades que restan horas de clase magistral y sobre las que el profesor parece perder el control; por no mencionar el tiempo que el docente universitario debe dedicar también a su propia investigación. al decir esto parece que uno se olvida de la importancia que tiene el tiempo que los estudiantes deben emplear en experienciar y hacer con los materiales y conocimientos que se les ofrecen en lugar de, simplemente, tomar apuntes para estudiarlos y reproducirlos más adelante. si se reflexiona, no es difícil darse cuenta de las destrezas y el entendimiento que el alumnado adquiere al involucrarse en actividades propuestas mediante metodologías activas, lo que por si mismo debería ser motivo suficiente para su empleo en el aula universitaria. de acuerdo con felder y brent (1999) las reticencias al uso de estas metodologías pueden ser fácilmente contra argumentadas puesto que si el objetivo de una asignatura está relacionado con lo que el estudiante aprende frente a lo que el docente le presenta, el objetivo no debe ser cubrir el temario; por el contrario, el profesor debe destacar las partes más importantes de éste –puesto que se adquieren conocimientos y se desarrollan destrezas a través de la práctica repetida y la información de retorno que el profesor proporciona– en lugar de que el estudiante simplemente le escuche y tome nota. estos mismos autores señalan que cuanto mayor sea el número de estudiantes en el aula, mayor será la necesidad de emplear metodologías activas –véase felder, (1997) y mckeachie (2006). un hecho que no implica la incorporación de cualquier tipo de actividad en las clases sin más, si no de lograr que el estudiante se involucre y participe, tal y como lo explica hake (1998) quien presenta mejoras significativas con seis mil estudiantes de cursos introductorios a la física en los que se emplearon métodos interactivos. previamente, di vesta y smith (1979) apuntaron que actividades aprendizaje basado en problemas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-54 35 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 35 más participativas dentro de una clase tradicional influyen significativamente en la cantidad de materia que los estudiantes acaban reteniendo. los resultados obtenidos por redish, saul y steinberg (1997) y laws, sokoloff y thornton (1999) respaldan también la efectividad de metodologías activas que involucren al alumnado en materias puramente politécnicas. aprendizaje basado en problemas el aprendizaje basado en problemas (abp), como estrategia activa de enseñanza-aprendizaje colaborativo, es una de las técnicas que fomentan el trabajo en equipo y la interacción frente al trabajo individual, además de incentivar el aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida. autores como johnson et al. (1998), en un estudio que revisa casi cien años de investigación, demuestran que el trabajo colaborativo mejora los resultados de aprendizaje frente a los obtenidos en el trabajo individual. otros autores como springer et al. (1999) llegan a conclusiones similares al observar que aumentan los logros académicos y mejoran las actitudes de los participantes al proporcionarles un ambiente en el aula que propicia el trabajo en equipo y la mejora de las habilidades personales; hechos que por sí solos deben empujar al docente a su utilización diaria. el abp se desarrolla originalmente para el entrenamiento de físicos de la universidad mcmaster en ontario (canadá) alrededor de 1968, si bien sus orígenes son más antiguos (rhem, 1998). con posterioridad se convierte en una estrategia metodológica que se incorpora en facultades de medicina, enfermería, odontología y veterinaria. en la actualidad se aplica en diferentes disciplinas, tales como: negocios, química, biología, física, matemáticas, educación, ingeniería y lengua y literatura, entre otras.1 basada en el socio-constructivismo contribuye a desarrollar tanto estrategias de resolución de problemas como a fortalecer las destrezas y los conocimientos de los estudiantes en su papel de buscadores de soluciones, de acuerdo con los estudios realizados por diferentes autores a lo largo de los años (barrows, 1986; albenese y mitchell, 1993; jayawickramarajah, 1996; venturelli, 1997; rhem, 1998; maudsley, 1999; jefferson, 2001; hmelo-silver, 2004; morales y landa, 2004; loyens et al., 2006; savery, 2006; jonassen y hung, 2008). los alumnos han de enfrentarse a problemas mal estructurados o de final abierto; es decir, que no cuentan con una respuesta clara o única, tal y como ocurre en situaciones de la vida real. el objetivo fundamental de m.á. andreu-andrés y m. garcía-casas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-5436 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 36 esta estrategia es promover la transferencia del aprendizaje del alumno a situaciones reales a las que, probablemente, se enfrentará en su profesión (mayo et al., 1993). la habilidad para resolver problemas es más que la simple acumulación de conocimientos, se trata de estrategias que ayudan a los estudiantes a analizar situaciones o escenarios y a obtener soluciones significativas (smith, 1995; marzano, 1997; lópez, 1997; dabbagh et al. 2000); de esta forma se fomenta el pensamiento crítico y las destrezas comunicativas dado que, como señala sola (2006a), se enseña a pensar pero no lo que se ha de pensar. en definitiva, se trata de aprender a aprender de manera colaborativa y a ser capaces de encontrar y utilizar recursos de aprendizaje apropiados. toda estrategia metodológica debe llevar aparejada un sistema de evaluación acorde con los objetivos de enseñanza-aprendizaje que se persigan; de ahí que la puesta en práctica de una técnica activa como el abp requiera un cambio en la evaluación y no un examen al más puro estilo tradicional, que en la mayoría de los casos, como afirman mctiernan et al. (2007), detecta lo que el alumno no sabe en lugar de lo que realmente conoce y sabe hacer. el fracaso puede estar asegurado si sólo se quiere medir los conocimientos que los estudiantes son capaces de recordar en un momento dado en lugar de valorar lo que saben hacer con ellos y su proceso de adquisición. papel del docente el papel del docente es fundamental en el abp, puesto que requiere un cambio significativo en la manera en que organiza el período de instrucción, dirige el aprendizaje (díaz y hernández, 2002), transmite conocimiento (maxwell et al., 2001) y evalúa (gordon et al., 2001). además de planificar, ha de facilitar y guiar las experiencias de aprendizaje de los estudiantes (smith et al., 2005), de modo que éstos sean capaces de detectar lo que necesitan aprender (y, por tanto, buscar la información necesaria) para solucionar el problema, en lugar de que sea el propio docente quien les facilite todos los recursos (gallagher, 1997; reynolds, 1997). la búsqueda de información por sí misma no es el fin del abp, sino el medio –como señala limón (2006)– para que el estudiante, además de adquirir conocimientos específicos sobre un tema, aprenda a seleccionar la información relevante al problema y a distinguir aquélla que es fiable de la que no lo es. aprendizaje basado en problemas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-54 37 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 37 el problema independientemente del tipo de problema de que se trate, bien sea de diagnóstico, diseño, análisis o toma de decisiones, etc. de acuerdo con allen (1996), woods (1996), jonassen (2000) y oberlander y talbert-johnson (2004), un buen problema se caracteriza por captar la atención de los estudiantes y motivarles para profundizar en los conceptos que introduce. ha de relacionarse con un tema de la vida real, de modo que los estudiantes sientan interés por participar en su resolución, precisa que los participantes tomen decisiones justificadas, basadas en hechos e información que hayan consultado, y al mismo tiempo les exige que expliquen los pasos o procedimientos que han seguido para resolverlo. las cuestiones iniciales de este tipo de problemas deben contar con una serie de características, de modo que los estudiantes trabajen en equipo y precisen de los conocimientos y opiniones de sus compañeros, al dejar el trabajo individual en un segundo plano; entre ellas, cabe resaltar las siguientes: • final abierto, en el que la respuesta correcta no sea única; • conectado a conocimientos aprendidos con anterioridad; • con cierta controversia que permita opiniones diferentes. similitudes y diferencias con otras estrategias metodológicas de trabajo en grupo en ocasiones, los límites entre estrategias pueden aparecer difuminados; de ahí que quepa plantearse la distinción entre el abp y la “simulación” o el “método del caso”, puesto que las tres comparten el mismo marco que guía este aprendizaje experiencial. se puede considerar que quizás la principal diferencia que separa a las dos primeras (abp y simulación) estriba en el hecho de que el abp proporciona al estudiante, además, un proceso autodirigido de aprendizaje en el sentido de que –en su estado más puro– son los alumnos los que deciden qué han de estudiar en base al problema, la situación o la pregunta que conduce su aprendizaje (andreu-andrés y garcía-casas, 2008). mientras con el abp los estudiantes –con la ayuda del profesor/facilitador– comparten conocimientos con los miembros de su grupo de trabajo, acuerdan lo que han de aprender para resolver el problema, discuten, evalúan y deciden los pasos a seguir, la simulación estructura la m.á. andreu-andrés y m. garcía-casas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-5438 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 38 información que los estudiantes reciben para centrar su aprendizaje y aumentar así la efectividad de la estrategia (maxwell et al., 2004). el abp y el método del caso son igualmente similares de acuerdo con hay y katsikitis (2001), si bien la diferencia fundamental gira en torno a la presentación del problema: en el método del caso el problema o situación problemática se acompaña de preguntas u otros recursos, mientras que en el abp sólo se proporciona el problema, por lo que esta estrategia, según macdonald e isaacs (2001), parece centrarse más en lo que los estudiantes hacen en lugar de en lo que hace el docente. las razones para hacer que los estudiantes universitarios trabajen activamente en equipo son convincentes, desde la experiencia de aula que aquí se presenta hasta las diferentes teorías educativas que defienden la idea de que los estudiantes aprenden más eficazmente al interaccionar con otros (lewis, 1951; cartwright y zander, 1953; vygotsky, 1978). estudios como el de smith et al. (2005) observan cómo centenares de trabajos de investigación en enseñanza universitaria han comparado la eficacia del aprendizaje colaborativo y, en particular del abp aplicado especialmente en medicina, frente al aprendizaje individual y competitivo; estos estudios ofrecen una aplastante evidencia del primero sobre los dos últimos, tanto en conocimientos como en destrezas y habilidades que los estudiantes adquieren, si bien advierten del poco uso que al final se suele hacer de estas metodologías activas frente a las clases más tradicionales. hemos de ser conscientes de que no se trata de algo fácil de implementar porque, de acuerdo con oakley et al. (2007), requiere cierto esfuerzo y dedicación por parte de docentes y estudiantes. como docentes podemos encontrarnos con una cierta resistencia inicial a este tipo de estrategia que debemos aprender a modificar puesto que ni estudiantes ni docentes nacen sabiendo trabajar en equipo de manera eficaz o a emplear metodologías activas. la observación, el diálogo y la práctica enseñan a unos y otros a solucionar las disfunciones y a alcanzar los objetivos propuestos. estas disfunciones, como señalan watts et al. (2009), pueden estar relacionadas con variables como el tamaño del grupo, los criterios seguidos en su formación, la determinación del producto que el grupo persigue así como la evaluación del progreso colectivo e individual, además de otras que, según dancer y kamvounias (2005), están relacionadas directamente con el individuo (timidez, inseguridad en la lengua, comportamiento oportunista, etc.). aprendizaje basado en problemas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-54 39 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 39 no obstante, los resultados del estudio de oakley et al. (2007) muestran que el grado de satisfacción de los estudiantes al trabajar en equipo con estas estrategias metodológicas se incrementa conforme van ganando experiencia, aumenta la guía del docente y adquieren habilidad para eliminar de los equipos a los compañeros menos activos e implicados. entre las propuestas que ofrecen a los docentes e instituciones para minimizar las situaciones problemáticas, cabe resaltar las siguientes: • aumentar el uso de tareas y actividades que requieran trabajo en equipo y metodologías activas. • marcar desde el principio del curso qué se hará con los estudiantes que no contribuyan con su trabajo al logro de los objetivos. • proporcionar a los estudiantes pautas claras de cómo trabajar en equipo de manera eficaz. la propia experiencia nos hace ver que evaluar el proceso de trabajo en grupo, junto con la observación en el aula, ayuda a detectar las disfunciones grupales y contribuye a paliarlas antes de que la tarea grupal concluya (andreu-andrés y garcía-casas, 2006). objetivos del estudio los estudiantes de ingeniería han de adquirir una serie de destrezas y habilidades entre las que se encuentran el trabajo en grupo y la resolución de problemas para fomentar su pensamiento crítico y participación, al tiempo que han de ser capaces de diseñar y ofrecer presentaciones orales en lengua materna y extranjera. paradójicamente, pocas asignaturas de su especialidad recurren al trabajo en grupo, a resolver problemas que no sean de respuesta única, a fomentar el pensamiento crítico o a saber cómo diseñar y exponer presentaciones orales aunque se les pida que las lleven a cabo en alguna parte de la asignatura. teniendo en cuenta lo expuesto, se presenta un estudio que plantea el diseño de un abp para que los estudiantes decidan y acuerden entre ellos en qué consiste una presentación oral y qué factores se han de tener en cuenta desde el punto de vista técnico y lingüístico; de modo que adquieran esas destrezas y habilidades de manera activa. si se parte de la premisa de que la mejor manera de enseñar a los estudiantes a trabajar en equipo es hacer que m.á. andreu-andrés y m. garcía-casas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-5440 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 40 trabajen de ese modo, el estudio plantea una serie de tareas en las que dentro de cada grupo unos dependen de los otros (interdependencia positiva), adquieren responsabilidades, papel de jueces y, por tanto, se convierten en evaluadores de su propio trabajo y el de sus compañeros, al tiempo que utilizan lenguaje específico y mejoran sus destrezas comunicativas en lengua extranjera. como objetivos de investigación el presente estudio se plantea encontrar respuestas a las siguientes preguntas: 1) ¿cuáles son las variables que definen una buena presentación oral, según los estudiantes? 2) ¿cómo consideran que debe evaluarse dicha presentación oral? 3) ¿cómo, en su opinión, debe medirse la participación de cada estudiante durante el abp propuesto? procedimiento el número de individuos participantes en la experiencia es de 44 y se trata de alumnos de inglés para fines académicos y profesionales de último curso de ingeniería geodésica y cartográfica, divididos en grupos de cuatro, con un criterio homogéneo grupal y heterogéneo intergrupal, de acuerdo con sus competencias comunicativas en lengua inglesa. para resolver la situación problemática que se les presenta los estudiantes han de realizar una serie de tareas que se detallan a continuación: 1) en primer lugar cada grupo debe diseñar una propuesta de instrumento o servicio mejorado relacionado con la ingeniería geodésica y cartográfica que han de ofrecer a un cliente en una fecha acordada. para ello, pueden hacer uso de la bibliografía de otras asignaturas de su titulación, además de su imaginación e iniciativa. 2) en la segunda tarea cada equipo de trabajo ha de buscar y seleccionar información adecuada sobre presentaciones orales con objeto de decidir en qué consiste una presentación de calidad que les permita mostrar el resultado de la primera tarea cuando llegue el cliente. cuentan para ello con acceso a internet, a la biblioteca de aprendizaje basado en problemas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-54 41 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 41 la universidad y a documentación específica –artículos, ponencias, ficheros de vídeo y audio en inglés, etc.– en la plataforma de soporte al aprendizaje de la asignatura. basándose en la bibliografía consultada sobre presentaciones orales, los equipos deciden preparar una propuesta de rúbrica que les sirva para evaluar (e indirectamente diseñar) una presentación oral de calidad. en dicha rúbrica deben plasmar los criterios que se han de seguir para la evaluación de los resultados de aprendizaje. una vez que cada equipo ha mostrado su propuesta de rúbrica, la clase en su conjunto debe llegar a un acuerdo a fin de conseguir una única rúbrica final que, en opinión de los 44 participantes, permita valorar la exposición de los instrumentos o servicios diseñados por cada equipo en la fecha acordada. 3) la tercera y última tarea exige que cada grupo decida cómo evaluar y autoevaluar la participación de sus miembros a lo largo de todas las tareas anteriores. dado que consideran útiles las rúbricas para alcanzar los objetivos, deciden seguir el procedimiento empleado en la segunda tarea para llegar a diseñar una única rúbrica consensuada que les permita medir la participación de cada uno durante todo el proceso del abp. de acuerdo con jorba y castellas (1997 –en delgado, 2006), se explica a los participantes que las rúbricas de evaluación suelen expresarse de forma matricial de modo que se establecen en ellas los rubros o aspectos que van a evaluarse, los parámetros de evaluación y los criterios de satisfacción para cada uno de los rubros y parámetros. los estudiantes, apoyados en el docente, dan respuesta a las preguntas siguiendo los pasos que, según mctiernan et al. (2007), guían el proceso de aprendizaje en el abp: i. clarificación de términos y conceptos y definición del problema. ii. análisis del problema, formulación de hipótesis y estrategias. iii. resumen del problema. iv. consenso sobre los objetivos de aprendizaje. v. búsqueda de los contenidos de aprendizaje e inicio del autoestudio, investigación. m.á. andreu-andrés y m. garcía-casas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-5442 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 42 vi. propuesta de una posible solución del problema. vii. presentación de la solución al gran grupo. viii. discusión y análisis de los hallazgos. se trata de un problema que puede considerarse sencillo de solucionar a priori; especialmente si, como es el caso, los estudiantes involucrados en el estudio han llevado a cabo diferentes presentaciones en otras asignaturas de su titulación. sin embargo, su puesta en práctica en el aula puede causar más de una sorpresa al comprobar que hasta ese momento ninguno de los participantes se ha planteado críticamente su solución y admiten hacer las presentaciones orales tal cual les parece, condicionados en algunos casos por la cantidad de trabajos que han de presentar en fechas similares y, en otros muchos, porque una vez ofrecidas no reciben retroalimentación alguna del docente correspondiente. el trabajo en equipo se lleva a cabo mayoritariamente en presencia del profesor en sesiones de aula. fuera de las sesiones de aula cada grupo consulta las dudas y plantea las dificultades con las que se enfrenta en horas de tutoría o a través del correo electrónico; esto permite al docente un seguimiento detallado del proceso fuera del aula. con todo ello, el trabajo en equipo, el pensamiento crítico, la resolución de problemas y conflictos, además de las destrezas comunicativas en lengua extranjera y el lenguaje específico se entremezclan de manera natural y directa. análisis de resultados los resultados obtenidos en la investigación tratan de dar respuesta, en primer lugar, a las variables que, en opinión de los estudiantes, definen una presentación oral de calidad y recogen su propuesta de evaluación a través de una rúbrica consensuada. en segundo lugar, ofrecen una segunda rúbrica consensuada para medir el nivel de participación de cada uno durante el trabajo en grupo. para llegar a ambas decisiones, los estudiantes han tenido que pasar por un proceso lento al principio debido, probablemente, a la falta de experiencia con la metodología, pero que conforme se adentran en ella demuestran ser capaces de sacar partido del tiempo de que disponen, así como de la información y las capacidades de cada uno de manera creativa, con organización, responsabilidad e interés. aprendizaje basado en problemas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-54 43 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 43 a) hacia la rúbrica consensuada sobre presentaciones orales de acuerdo con el primer objetivo del estudio, los estudiantes consideran que en una presentación de calidad, para una audiencia determinada, se ha de prestar atención a cuatro variables fundamentales: la estructura, las buenas habilidades comunicativas del orador, las muestras de lenguaje corporal, y el apoyo visual o tecnológico empleado. para obtener la rúbrica diseñada y consensuada por todos para evaluar (y diseñar) una presentación oral, cada equipo presenta al gran grupo su propuesta inicial justificada hasta llegar a una única rúbrica que recoja el sentir de todos a través del diálogo, el pensamiento critico y el consenso (véase apéndice 1)2. llegar a un consenso precisa de una buena dosis de flexibilidad y argumentación por parte de todos los participantes puesto que, como puede suponerse, todos los equipos (11 en total) no diseñan al principio la misma propuesta de rúbrica ni piensan en la misma escala de valoración. el 18% del total de participantes llega a considerar, en un principio, que una escala cuantitativa y cualitativa del 1 al 4 se adecua a los objetivos. el 64% apoya esa idea pero defiende que la escala sea del 1 al 5, una idea que al final acaban aceptando todos los grupos. el 18% restante piensa en una escala exclusivamente cuantitativa del 1 al 3 que ayude a realizar una puntuación rápida. de acuerdo con la clasificación de rúbricas de mertler (2001), el 18% de los participantes escoge diseñar una rúbrica holística que únicamente recoja la puntuación y la descripción de cada puntuación frente al 82% que crea una rúbrica analítica con diferentes niveles de competencia dentro de cada variable porque, en su opinión, ofrece una mayor retroalimentación al estudiante, lo que les permite saber con mayor precisión lo que se espera de ellos como oradores. el 100% coincide en la importancia de valorar tanto el apoyo visual empleado en las presentaciones como el lenguaje corporal de los oradores; sin embargo, mientras el 27% opina que se debe distinguir entre el uso de la lengua, la organización del discurso y la competencia lingüística del orador, el 73% considera que esas tres partes deben agruparse en sólo dos variables: la organización del discurso y el uso de la lengua (para el 30% de ellos) frente a la organización o estructura del discurso y las competencias comunicativas del orador (para el 70% restante); esta última propuesta es la elegida para la rúbrica final. las diferencias intergrupales no sólo obedecen a la escala de valoración y a la estructura de la rúbrica sino también a la descripción de cada una de las m.á. andreu-andrés y m. garcía-casas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-5444 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 44 variables. aquéllos que en principio deciden elegir una escala sólo cuantitativa (18% del total) acaban descartando esa idea al darse cuenta de que la rúbrica única a la que se aspira no sólo debe servir para puntuar a los oradores sino que también ha de servirles de guía para la elaboración de presentaciones orales de calidad. el resto de los participantes (82%) que defienden una escala cuantitativa y cualitativa acaban concluyendo que unos valores de 1 a 5 en cada una de las variables les permiten describir no sólo los valores máximos (lo mejor y lo peor de cada variable) sino tres valores intermedios que les ayudan a considerar aspectos diferenciados entre los dos extremos. una vez consensuados todos estos aspectos, el diseño y redacción de la rúbrica final se alcanza con facilidad. b) la rúbrica única sobre presentaciones orales como puede apreciarse en el apéndice 1, tras presentar cada grupo su propuesta argumentada llegan a la conclusión de que la rúbrica final más adecuada debe ser analítica, con diferentes niveles de competencia dentro de cada variable, y con una escala de valoración de entre 1 y 5 porque les permite, en su opinión, medir mejor los diferentes aspectos que se han de considerar en una presentación. respecto a la estructura propiamente dicha, señalan la importancia de una buena organización de la información y un equilibrio entre el tiempo total de la presentación y el dedicado a cada transparencia. consideran que se ha de ofrecer, asimismo, las referencias consultadas y el orador ha de interaccionar con la audiencia y animar a que los oyentes hagan preguntas desde el comienzo mismo de su intervención; si bien son conscientes de que, según el gusto de cada uno, las preguntas pueden dejarse para el final de la presentación. todos estos aspectos pueden parecer lógicos a los experimentados; sin embargo, no se ha de perder de vista que los participantes que cuentan con experiencia en presentaciones (75% del total), no sólo no han recibido retroalimentación sobre esa experiencia sino que ni siquiera se planteaban hasta antes de iniciar el abp algo tan básico como la necesidad de mencionar las fuentes de información consultadas, por poner un ejemplo ilustrativo; gracias a la experiencia descubren por sí mismos cómo hacer una presentación académica y profesionalmente correcta y no cometer plagio con la información consultada. en cuanto a las destrezas comunicativas del orador, consideran que se debe prestar atención tanto a la fluidez como a la corrección verbal y la claridad aprendizaje basado en problemas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-54 45 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 45 en la pronunciación; sin olvidar un vocabulario cuidado, el control de la voz, la captación de la atención de la audiencia mediante la transmisión de entusiasmo por el tema, la seguridad y el nivel de competencia en el tema que se expone. conclusiones totalmente razonables a las que los participantes llegan tras un tiempo de reflexión, búsqueda y análisis de información seguido de una etapa de argumentación y contra-argumentación razonada. en lo relativo al lenguaje corporal, llegan a la conclusión de que éste, junto con el lenguaje oral, juega un importante papel en toda buena presentación; consideran que los movimientos del orador deben reforzar el mensaje que éste quiere transmitir, además de prestar importancia al contacto visual y a la buena apariencia. al referirse al apoyo visual, defienden la postura de que en cada transparencia se ofrezca una única idea presentada de manera clara y concisa, apoyada en un tamaño de letra adecuado, con un color cuidado que resalte sobre el fondo que se haya elegido sin estridencias y en la que se enfatice las palabras clave. asimismo, indican que si se utilizan gráficos y tablas, éstos han de ser significativos. cabe destacar la sorpresa que a los mismos participantes les causan sus propias conclusiones al reconocer que su idea anterior al abp giraba en torno al “aprovechamiento máximo del espacio”, según sus propias palabras, en cada diapositiva y ofrecer, por tanto, la mayor cantidad de información y texto posible sin plantearse facilitar la lectura a la audiencia. desde el punto de vista del orador, reconocen que la presentación no sólo debe ayudar al auditorio a seguir su discurso, sino también al propio orador al utilizar palabras clave significativas para éste, lo que facilita el discurso e impide la lectura literal de las transparencias. c) hacia la valoración de la participación cuando al estudiante se le ha de evaluar alguna destreza se observa que pone más esfuerzo en hacerlo bien; de igual manera, si se evalúa su esfuerzo y participación en la tarea, con toda probabilidad trabajará con más ahínco en ella. si, además como es el caso, se le pide que defina lo que entiende por participación y señale la mejor manera de poder evaluarla, algo que en principio podría parecerle fuera de su control, pasa a controlarlo, y si además, como señala stiggins (1998), los objetivos y la manera de evaluarlos están claros, los estudiantes los alcanzarán. para llegar al nuevo objetivo, se plantea a los participantes que a través de dos técnicas activas breves (philips 66 y “lluvia de ideas”)3 definan lo que m.á. andreu-andrés y m. garcía-casas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-5446 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 46 entienden por participación en una tarea y cómo evaluarla; para lo cual no cuentan con información alguna a su alcance. es la interacción con los demás miembros de los equipos, sus opiniones, argumentos, esfuerzo en comunicarse y en entender a los demás lo que les lleva a definir una de las contribuciones más apreciadas en el aprendizaje activo. la tabla 1 recoge las principales ideas a partir de las cuales inician el diseño de la rúbrica de evaluación. ¿qué es participación? ¿cómo medirla? de entre todas las definiciones de participación destacan “interaccionar entre las personas de un grupo” y “aportar opiniones y puntos de vista”. autores como powers y rossman (1985) y menzel y carrell (1999) han documentado la relación entre interacción y aprendizaje en el sentido de que si una tarea fomenta la interacción producirá, como resultado, aprendizaje. los estudiantes destacan, asimismo, la importancia de “escuchar” a los demás y de “responder” a lo que los demás planteen; se trata de una escucha activa que, de acuerdo con rovai y barnum (2003), fomenta asimismo el aprendizaje. la experiencia adquirida al elaborar y consensuar la rúbrica sobre presentaciones orales ha facilitado, sin duda, el diseño de la segunda rúbrica. el aprendizaje experiencial en el que están inmersos va mostrando cada vez mejores resultados puesto que desde la primera propuesta el 100% de los participantes considera que esta nueva rúbrica debe ser analítica como la anterior pero con cuatro niveles de competencia dado el esfuerzo que, en mayor medida, todos han realizado. esa experiencia hace también que alcancen pronto el consenso a la hora de señalar las variables que deben medirse; el análisis en voz alta de las dificultades que cada equipo ha tenido que superar a lo largo del abp y que, probablemente serán habituales en su aprendizaje basado en problemas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-54 47 aprendizaje basado en problemas ibérica 19 (2010): …-… 13 ¿qué es participación? ¿cómo medirla? interaccionar entre las personas de un grupo. aportar opiniones y puntos de vista. ofrecer argumentos que sustenten las opiniones. escuchar y respetar a los demás. esforzarse por entender a los demás y por hacerse entender. responder a lo que los demás plantean. probarse a uno mismo. colaborar con los demás. esforzarse en la tarea. según los minutos de intervención. de acuerdo con la calidad de la intervención. según lo que uno escuche a los demás. según el nivel de convencimiento en lo que uno dice. de acuerdo con el trabajo que se aprecie tras cada intervención. de acuerdo con el esfuerzo que se aprecie. tabla 1. la participación según los estudiantes. de entre todas las definiciones de participación destacan “interaccionar entre las personas de un grupo” y “aportar opiniones y puntos de vista”. autores como powers y rossman (1985) y menzel y carrell (1999) han documentado la relación entre interacción y aprendizaje en el sentido de que si una tarea fomenta la interacción producirá, como resultado, aprendizaje. los estudiantes destacan, asimismo, la importancia de “escuchar” a los demás y de “responder” a lo que los demás planteen; se trata de una escucha activa que, de acuerdo con rovai y barnum (2003), fomenta asimismo el aprendizaje. la experiencia adquirida al elaborar y consensuar la rúbrica sobre presentaciones orales ha facilitado, sin duda, el diseño de la segunda rúbrica. el aprendizaje experiencial en el que están inmersos va mostrando cada vez mejores resultados puesto que desde la primera propuesta, el 100% de los participantes considera que esta nueva rúbrica debe ser analítica como la anterior pero con cuatro niveles de competencia dado el esfuerzo que, en mayor medida, todos han realizado. esa experiencia hace también que alcancen pronto el consenso a la hora de señalar las variables que deben medirse; el análisis en voz alta de las dificultades que cada equipo ha tenido que superar a lo largo del abp y que, probablemente serán habituales en su futuro profesional, hace que se planteen como variables el medir la puntualidad para seguir con el trabajo en el aula y fuera de ella, el grado de compromiso de cada miembro con la tarea, el respeto a las opiniones de los demás, la educación y el esfuerzo. d) rúbrica consensuada para evaluar y autoevaluar la participación el apéndice 2 muestra la rúbrica consensuada para evaluar la participación de uno mismo y la de cada uno de los componentes de su propio equipo. como se indica en el epígrafe anterior, los estudiantes prestan atención en este caso a cuatro variables, la primera de los cuales está relacionada con la asistencia de cada uno a las sesiones de trabajo, dando importancia también a la puntualidad para poder continuar con las tareas pendientes. igualmente valoran el grado de compromiso individual, de principio a fin del abp, junto al contenido de la contribución de cada cual, las ideas expuestas, las preguntas y el esfuerzo por 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 47 futuro profesional, hace que se planteen como variables el medir la puntualidad para seguir con el trabajo en el aula y fuera de ella, el grado de compromiso de cada miembro con la tarea, el respeto a las opiniones de los demás, la educación y el esfuerzo. d) rúbrica consensuada para evaluar y autoevaluar la participación el apéndice 2 muestra la rúbrica consensuada para evaluar la participación de uno mismo y la de cada uno de los componentes de su propio equipo. como se indica en el epígrafe anterior, los estudiantes prestan atención en este caso a cuatro variables, la primera de las cuales está relacionada con la asistencia de cada uno a las sesiones de trabajo, dando importancia también a la puntualidad para poder continuar con las tareas pendientes. igualmente valoran el grado de compromiso individual, de principio a fin del abp, junto al contenido de la contribución de cada cual, las ideas expuestas, las preguntas y el esfuerzo por comunicarse en lengua inglesa. asimismo, muestran aprecio por la facultad de escuchar las opiniones de los demás sin interrupciones, respetando puntos de vista diferentes; así como el grado de responsabilidad al realizar la tarea que cada uno se ha comprometido a llevar a cabo. por último, aunque no menos importante, se refieren a la educación en el trato con los demás y al grado de colaboración y ayuda de cada participante. conclusión y acciones futuras se trata de una experiencia que, en un principio, parecía difícil de implementar; sin embargo, los resultados reflejados en los apéndices 1 y 2 –además de en las presentaciones orales ofrecidas por cada uno de los grupos para mostrar su instrumento o servicio– hacen que sigamos diseñando tareas y experiencias que intenten ayudar a los estudiantes a adquirir destrezas que les permitan ser más competentes académica y profesionalmente. más aún, si nos fijamos en el ambiente de trabajo creado y el interés en comunicarse en lengua extranjera. se trata de un proceso a través del cual el pensamiento crítico y la participación han jugado un papel fundamental para alcanzar los objetivos (los productos finales). unos resultados que para algunos quizás pueda parecer poco novedosos si únicamente se pone el acento en ellos y se olvida del proceso seguido y el cambio que ha supuesto para los participantes llegar m.á. andreu-andrés y m. garcía-casas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-5448 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 48 por sí mismos a descubrir en qué debe consistir algo que con cierta asiduidad, y sin ningún cuidado, ha venido realizando la mayoría hasta la fecha. el análisis estadístico de los resultados de auto-evaluación y evaluación de la participación en el abp y las presentaciones orales, obtenidos a través de las dos rúbricas diseñadas por los alumnos, no se incluye en este trabajo cuyo objetivo es la técnica, poco habitual en enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas, y los productos obtenidos a través de ella. sin embargo, una vez realizados los análisis se puede adelantar que no existen diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre cómo ve uno su propio trabajo respecto de cómo lo ven los demás. transformar el diseño de la experiencia de abp, desde el punto de vista metodológico, para poder implementar los objetivos mediante otra técnica o estrategia activa de trabajo en grupo es uno de los objetivos futuros, a fin de poder analizar y comparar resultados de ambas experiencias. cambiar la metodología empleada en el aula conlleva necesariamente un cambio en la evaluación; por tanto, al modificarse la primera se ha de cambiar necesariamente la segunda, de manera que se pueda conseguir que la evaluación por sí misma constituya aprendizaje. tal y como apunta sola (2006b), si insistimos en la evaluación del “qué” y nos olvidamos del “cómo”, muchos de nuestros estudiantes no encontrarán sentido a actividades diseñadas desde el socio-constructivismo. otra acción futura de trabajo, algo más ambiciosa pero igualmente interesante, es el análisis de la eficacia del abp en asignaturas de lenguas para fines académicos y profesionales con estudiantes de ingeniería, teniendo en cuenta los pocos estudios existentes que tratan de su eficacia en disciplinas diferentes a la medicina. 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(2006). aprendizaje basado en problemas. de la teoría a la práctica. méxico: trillas. 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 51 springer, l., m. stanne y s. donovan (1999). “effects of small-group learning on undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering and technology: a meta-analysis”. review of educational research 69: 21-52. stiggins, r. (1998). student centered classroom assessment. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. venturelli, j. (1997). educación médica. nuevos enfoques, metas y métodos. washington: pan american health organization, paltex. vygotsky, l.s. (1978). mind in society. cambridge: harvard university press. watts, f., a. garcía-carbonell, n. martínezalmazora y b. rising (2009). “participation assessment in dysfunctional groups in simulation and gaming” en j. gee (ed.), learn to game, game to learn, 71-92. singapore: society of simulation and gaming of singapore. woods, d.r. (1996). “problem-based learning for large classes in chemical engineering”. new directions for teaching and learning 68: 91-99. mª ángeles andreu-andrés es doctora en filología y profesora titular de universidad. sus principales campos de investigación giran en torno a las metodologías activas y la evaluación. dentro del aprendizaje experiencial y en concreto del campo del juego y la simulación ha publicado diferentes juegos asistidos por ordenador propios para la enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas. en 1997 recibió el primer premio compartido innovalingua por dos juegos didácticos asistidos por ordenador. miguel garcía-casas es doctor en biología y catedrático de instituto. sus principales campos de interés e investigación se centran en la evolución biológica y las metodologías activas. dentro del aprendizaje experiencial ha diseñado y publicado diferentes juegos asistidos por ordenador para la enseñanza-aprendizaje de las ciencias. en 1997 recibió el primer premio compartido innovalingua por dos juegos didácticos asistidos por ordenador. notas 1 a través de la siguiente dirección web de la central queensland university puede accederse a una serie de enlaces que proporcionan recursos en línea de esta estrategia metodológica aplicada a diferentes disciplinas y entornos educativos url: http://pbl.cqu.edu.au/content/online_resources.htm [02/01/09]. la universidad de delaware ofrece bibliografía y ejemplos de problemas en url: http://www.udel.edu/pbl/ [14/02/09]. 2 los apéndices 1 y 2 ofrecen las rúbricas creadas por los estudiantes tal cual las diseñaron en inglés dentro de una asignatura de inglés para fines académicos y profesionales. 3 técnicas de trabajo en grupo que promueven la participación. con la philips 66 se divide un grupo grande en subgrupos de seis personas que hablan cada una durante seis minutos sobre un tema o pregunta propuesta por el docente tras, por ejemplo, el visionado de un documental o la lectura de un texto; también resulta eficaz para detectar los conocimientos previos de los estudiantes sobre un tema determinado. mediante la lluvia de ideas se desarrolla y ejercita la imaginación de los participantes para dar soluciones a problemas. el desarrollo de la sesión se rige por los principios de expresar, en frases cortas y con palabras concretas, todas las ideas sugeridas por la cuestión que se ha propuesto, con libertad y en el momento en que surjan, sin que nadie emita opiniones o juicios sobre ellas ya que el objetivo fundamental es generar ideas originales. m.á. andreu-andrés y m. garcía-casas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-5452 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 52 apéndice 1. rúbrica diseñada y consensuada por los estudiantes para evaluar una presentación oral. aprendizaje basado en problemas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-54 53 m.a. andreu-andrés y m. garcía-casas ibérica 19 (2010): …-…20 apéndice 1. rúbrica diseñada y consensuada por los estudiantes para evaluar una presentación oral. c r it e r ia 5 fully competent performance 4 quite competent performance 3 competent performance 2 poor competent performance 1 unskilled performance s t r u c t u r e good sequence of information & balanced use of time/slide. full references showed. invites to ask questions. good sequence of information but too much time spent in some slides. full references showed. invites to ask questions. too long and not much control of time. most references showed. s/he answers questions but doesn’t invite to ask. he/she forgets some part/s or does not develop some aspects sufficiently. no questions answered. chaotic structure. unbalanced use of time and slides. no references showed. no questions answered. c o m m u n ic a t iv e s k il l s good communicative skills. fluent speech & pronunciation. broad range of vocabulary. enthusiasm about the topic. confident speaker. voice control. competent in the field. good communicative skills. quite fluent speech & pronunciation. good range of vocabulary. he/she tries to catch the audience’s attention. a bit low tone of voice quite competent in the field. some communicative skills. certain fluency. he/she transmits the contents but does not catch the audience’s attention. lack of enthusiasm. poor communicative skills. hesitating and flat tone or low voice. she/he seems nervous. he feels unconfident. some reading off slides. no communicative skills. difficult to hear & understand. hesitant. reading off slides b o d y l a n g u a g e his/her movements remark the message. comfortable, friendly and formal. s/he maintains eye contact. good appearance. not much use of body language (a bit stiffly). certain eye contact. a bit serious. quite good appearance. excessive distracting movements. s/he feels unconfident. do not maintain too much eye contact. no bad appearance. too much smiling. leaning on the table. rigidity. crossed arms (defensive). not much cared appearance. pointing the audience. rubbing nose or face. no eye contact at all. too much walking around. careless appearance. v is u a l a id s one idea per slide. clear, concise and understandable. well distributed. correct font size, colours & background. meaningful graphs or tables. key points emphasized. one idea per slide. no abbreviations or unfamiliar jargon. use of non standard font. some boring or not adequate colours & background. most meaningful graphs or tables. mostly key words emphasized. too much information on slides. incoherency in the use of fonts & format. some distracting graphs or tables. not many key words emphasized. overcrowded slides. inadequate text & background colours. some incoherent use of fonts. distracting graphs or tables. no key words emphasized. overcrowded slides. inadequate graphs or tables, fonts, sizes, colours & background not adapted to the environment. slides difficult to read. chaotic information. 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 53 apéndice 2. rúbrica diseñada y consensuada por los estudiantes para evaluar y autoevaluar la participación del trabajo en grupo. m.á. andreu-andrés y m. garcía-casas ibérica 19 (2010): 33-5454 aprendizaje basado en problemas ibérica 19 (2010): …-… 21 apéndice 2. rúbrica diseñada y consensuada por los estudiantes para evaluar y autoevaluar la participación del trabajo en grupo. c r it e r ia 5 good competence 4 competence 3 some competence 2 limited or no competence a t t e n d a n c e a n d p u n c t u a l it y always attends the group work sessions and arrives on time. always attends the group work sessions and usually arrives on time. generally attends the sessions in which group work takes place – but not on time. rarely attends class sessions where group work takes place. d e g r e e o f c o m m it t m e n t t h r o u g h o u t t h e g r o u p t a s k . c o n t e n t o f p a r t ic ip a t io n actively contributes with many ideas and interesting questions. confident in communication and is always ready to communicate. actively contributes with ideas and questions. has communicative competence and is usually willing to communicate. rarely contributes with ideas or questions. has some language competence and does his/her best to communicate. never contributes with any ideas or questions. doesn’t like to ask questions or participate and doesn’t possess language competence. l is t e n in g t o o t h e r s always listens to others and gives opinions and ideas to others. generally listens to others and gives opinions and ideas. rarely listens to whoever is speaking. does not listen when others are speaking. often interrupts. p r e p a r a t io n almost always prepares what is required. generally prepares what is required. rarely prepares what is required. never prepares what is required. a t t it u d e a n d b e h a v io u r is always wellmannered and tries to help his team-mates. is generally wellmannered and tries to help his teammates. is rarely well-mannered with the rest of his team. is ill-mannered and does not worry about his team-mates. 02 iberica 19.qxp 17/3/10 18:28 página 54 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in china, it has been widely recognized that graduate students urgently need to develop capabilities in engaging in academic communication at the international level, above all through writing and publishing their research in english. this educational need has stimulated the growth of eap and the teaching of english academic writing (eaw) to graduate students across disciplines at chinese universities. in this paper we report an interview-based study which focused on understanding chinese emerging eap teachers’ graduate-level eaw instruction and their endeavors of professional development (pd). our study adds to the limited existing literature on eap practitioners’ contextualized teaching practices and their professional development, and generates insights that can be drawn upon by eap professionals in other contexts. keywords: graduate writing support; teaching academic writing to graduate students; transition from general english to eap; eap teachers’ education and professional development. resumen la escritura académica en inglés en niveles de posgrado: acerca de la instrucción y desarrollo profesional de los profesores chinos de inglés para fines académicos en china está ampliamente reconocida la urgente necesidad que tienen los estudiantes de posgrado de desarrollar capacidades de comunicación académica a nivel internacional, sobre todo por medio de la redacción y publicación de su investigación en inglés. esta necesidad educativa ha alentado el auge del inglés para fines académicos y de la enseñanza de la escritura académica en inglés para chinese eap teachers’ graduate-level english academic writing instruction and their professional development yongyan li & xiaohao ma university of hong kong (hong kong, china), jilin university (china) yongyan@hku.hk, xiaohao@jlu.edu.cn 141 ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 yongyan li & xiaohao ma estudiantes de posgrado de multitud de disciplinas en las universidades chinas. en este artículo ofrecemos los resultados de un estudio basado en una serie de entrevistas que trata de comprender cómo se produce la instrucción de la escritura académica en inglés en el nivel de posgrado llevada a cabo por profesores chinos noveles en la enseñanza del inglés para fines académicos y cuáles son los esfuerzos que realizan en su desarrollo profesional. nuestro estudio ofrece una aportación a la escasa bibliografía acerca de las prácticas docentes contextualizadas de los profesionales de inglés para fines académicos y de su desarrollo profesional y ofrece conocimientos de los que pueden servirse los profesionales del inglés para fines académicos en otros contextos. palabras clave: apoyo en la escritura en posgrado; enseñanza de escritura académica para estudiantes de posgrado; transición del inglés general al inglés para fines académicos; educación y desarrollo profesional de los profesores de inglés para fines académicos. 1. introduction in parts of asia such as china, eap and english academic writing (eaw) instruction for students across disciplines are largely absent in the traditional english curriculum. however, the high expectations on students and academics to publish internationally have stimulated the rise of eap (cheng, 2016) together with eaw instruction in particular for graduate students (li & ma, 2018). insights into graduate-level eaw instruction and the emerging eap teachers’ professional development (pd), as we aim to obtain through an interview-based study to be reported in this paper, will have wider implications beyond the local story. in the following, we will first outline relevant literature and sketch the context to provide a rationale for our study. there has been a burgeoning of reports on courses designed to teach academic writing to graduate students, featuring a variety of geographical and institutional contexts. one understanding that emerged from these reports is that institutional support is crucial for the initiation and sustainable provision of graduate writing support. a holistic institutional response can be deterred by managers failing to understand language teachers’ work or graduate students’ needs for formal instruction on academic writing (beyond an apprenticeship model) (chanock, 2017; simpson, caplan, cox, & phillips, 2016). conversely, where there is recognition of the linkage between writing instruction and a university’s overall mission, a system-level approach and faculty-level initiatives are more likely to be seen (gustafsson, eriksson & 142 karlsson, 2016; lappalainen, 2016; starfield, 2016). in addition, within an institutional context, it seems it is often the language teachers/academic literacy staff who lead the local commitment to academic support for graduate students, irrespective of their training background (esp/eap, tesol, writing or rhetoric studies, language studies, or even literature) and their institutional location (language/writing centre or a language education department). they face various challenges; but having to teach mixed-disciplines classes is a challenge they commonly face (gustafsson et al., 2016; lappalainen, 2016). in regard to the types of graduate-level writing instruction, apart from the setups that provide thesis/dissertation writing support (starfield, 2016), an increasing number of courses are designed to build students’ capacity in research writing or writing for publication, targeting in particular doctoral students (e.g. aranha, 2009; huang, 2014; lappalainen, 2016). the courses often adopt genre-based pedagogies to raise students’ rhetorical consciousness of the research article genre, with swales and feak’s book academic writing for graduate students (1994/2012) sometimes used as a course text (aranha, 2009; huang, 2014). at the same time, journal articles from the students’ own disciplines (cheng, 2018), sometimes incorporating corpus methods (burgess, martín, & balasanyan, 2019; cargill, gao, wang, & o’connor, 2018; león pérez & martín-martín, 2016), are employed as a crucial source of class material, for students’ “individualised learning” (costley & flowerdew, 2017: 5) in a heterogeneous class. other than the instruction oriented to research writing or writing for publication in students’ disciplines, there are also reports of writing instruction focusing on providing support to students’ (including international students’) graduate study (e.g. fredericksen & mangelsdorf, 2014; tribble & wingate, 2013). in the courses that principally target master’s students, a range of genres may be addressed, such as course assignment, oral presentation, research proposal, research report and thesis/dissertation. while the literature on graduate writing instruction rarely addresses the issue of the instructors’ pd, the question of to what extent language teachers can successfully meet the challenge of teaching academic writing to graduate students across disciplines, and what training they need, should be asked (cheng, 2018). this links to the broader issue of eap teachers’ training and pd, an issue which has been under-represented but is gaining prominence in the literature (ding & bruce, 2017). it has long been observed that part of the professionalization process for an eap practitioner is to develop chinese eap teachers’ graduate-level english academic writing instruction and their professional development ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 143 “specialized knowledge”, or knowledge of how a target discipline (of their students’) conceptualizes, investigates and represents the world (ferguson, 1997). for new eap teachers, transitioning from teaching english for general purposes (what they were often trained to do previously) to teaching eap and acquiring the necessary specialized knowledge can be a challenge (ding & bruce, 2017). yet what trajectories of pd are followed by new eap teachers in tackling the challenge is still little known, despite some existing research, which has revealed that teachers during the transition, by entering an unfamiliar field of teaching, can feel insecure and “deskilled” (e.g. campion, 2016). 2. the chinese context at chinese universities, since the early 2000s there has been growing dissatisfaction with the traditional “time-consuming and inefficient” college english teaching (for undergraduate students and similarly for graduate-level instruction) (cai, 2010: 306). an influential argument is that the traditional skill-focused and examination-oriented english teaching should be reoriented toward an eap paradigm, for it is eap, rather than the traditional college english, that would meet the university students’ needs for using english effectively in their academic disciplines and future workplaces (cai, 2010, 2016). on the front of pedagogy, various “academic english” textbooks (e.g. cai, 2014; shi, wu & liu, 2013) have mushroomed. in addition, the western traditions of genre pedagogy (hyon, 1996) were introduced onto the chinese scene in the late 1990s (qin, 2000); the notions of genre, genre analysis and genre pedagogy have been frequent topics, in particular in recent years, in chinese journal articles on english language education. a survey of the chinese literature indicates that there has been growing interest in the esp genre pedagogy (cheng, 2018; swales, 1990) and the australian approach of genre pedagogy (feez, 1998). concurrent with the ongoing eap-turn (although the trend is not without opposition; see cheng, 2016, for a review) we find the endeavors of the new eap teachers, who have generally had no formal training in eap, seeking pd to transition from teaching general english to eap. to understand the eap-turn and the transition, insights gained directly from the emerging eap teachers themselves through interviews are likely to be informative and can lay some groundwork for further research. recent developments in the yongyan li & xiaohao ma ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164144 chinese eap landscape have also made it feasible for us to conduct such an exploratory study. for instance, china eap association (ceapa) has hosted annual conferences since 2015, attracting large numbers of english teachers from all over the country; other eap-related events, including pd programs for eap teachers, are regularly hosted at universities (li & cargill, 2019a). these events enabled us to meet potential participants from a wide spectrum of geographical and institutional backgrounds in captive samples (teddlie & yu, 2007). as will be shown in the following section, we availed ourselves of the opportunities provided by such eap events to conduct our study. 3. methods our study aimed to answer the following two research questions through interviews with a sample of emerging eap teachers from various chinese universities: 1. what is english academic writing (eaw) instruction to graduate students across disciplines like at chinese universities? 2. how do chinese eap teachers engage in professional development (pd) to support their eaw teaching? we identified our teacher participants at three eap events: two eap conferences (hosted respectively by ceapa in may 2017 and by a university in hong kong in june 2017), and one pd program (hosted by ceapa in january 2018). our target participants were those who were teaching or had recently taught eaw to graduate students (either master’s or doctoral students) across disciplines at their universities at the time of our study. a total of 20 participants (16 female and 4 male teachers) were selected and invited to participate in one-on-one semi-structured interviews with informed consent. table 1 presents a profile of the 20 participants.1 chinese eap teachers’ graduate-level english academic writing instruction and their professional development ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 145 the participants came from 18 different universities located in 11 chinese cities (t5 and t6 were in the same university; so were t17 and t18). the universities included ten comprehensive universities, four polytechnic/science and technology universities, two agriculture and forestry universities, one medical university, and one petroleum engineering university. the interview questions were designed to address our research questions. specifically, to understand what eaw instruction was like at a teacher participant’s university, we first asked about the origin and changes of the instruction and key factors that influenced the changes; we then asked about the teacher’s teaching of eaw, including the target students, class size, teaching materials and methods, and assessment. to learn about the participants’ pd, we asked about institutional support for that if any, what they had been doing in seeking pd, and what they aspired to do in their future development. the interviews were conducted by the second author together with several fellow students, who were pursuing phds in eaprelated areas of research in hong kong at the time of the study.2 mandarin yongyan li & xiaohao ma ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164146 teacher gender highest degree (specialization) academic rank) t1 f ma (second language acquisition) associate professor t2 f phd (applied linguistics, focusing on teacher development) associate professor t3 m phd (applied linguistics, focusing on esp) associate professor t4 f phd candidate (foreign linguistics & applied linguistics) lecturer t5 f ma (english language & literature) associate professor t6 m phd (neurolinguistics) professor t7 f phd (economics) lecturer t8 f ma (english language education) associate professor t9 f phd (american history) associate professor t10 f phd (world history) associate professor t11 f ma (translation) associate professor t12 f phd (foreign linguistics & applied linguistics) professor t13 m ma (foreign linguistics & applied linguistics) lecturer t14 f ma (international business) lecturer t15 m phd (literature) associate professor t16 f ma (english language education) lecturer t17 f phd (foreign linguistics & applied linguistics) associate professor t18 f phd (foreign linguistics & applied linguistics) associate professor t19 f phd (psycholinguistics) lecturer t20 f phd (world history) professor table 1. a profile of the 20 participants. chinese, the first language of both the interviewers and the interviewees, was used for all the interviews. the interviews lasted between 20 and 90 minutes, or 45 minutes on average, and were audio-recorded. the interview recordings were transcribed by two research assistants and checked by the second author against the recordings. the chinese transcripts were then coded by the first author in qsr international’s nvivo11 software, following the method of typological analysis (hatch, 2002), and with the main topics covered in the interviews used as predetermined typologies. within the typologies which served as higher-level codes, patterns, relationships and themes were looked for, which led to the creation of lower-level codes. over the duration of three months, the codes were repeatedly checked against the data and a code and re-code strategy was applied; in the process the codes were revised and reshuffled so as to bring out the most important aspects of the dataset that were both commonly shared across the participants and relevant to our research questions. where necessary, clarifications were sought and additional information was gathered from some of the participants via email or wechat, a free messaging app. table 2 summarizes our final coding scheme addressing the two research questions. the coding scheme will serve to structure our findings section below. in the findings section, the interview data extracts included were all translated from chinese into english at the time of composing the present text; the translations were checked against the original chinese version to ensure accuracy. chinese eap teachers’ graduate-level english academic writing instruction and their professional development ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 147 t the coding scheme english academic writing instruction initiation of eaw instruction as part of a curriculum reform process potential structural and curriculum challenges an integrated approach to teaching “academic english” to master’s students teaching writing for publication to doctoral students using journal articles from students’ own disciplines aiming to raise students’ genre awareness professional development continued learning overseas visits on scholarship aspirations for future development to specialize in teaching students from particular disciplines to collaborate with content teachers to undertake eap research table 2. the coding scheme t 4. findings 4.1. english academic writing instruction 4.1.1. initiation of eaw instruction as part of a curriculum reform process without exception, eaw at the participants’ universities was reported to be an institutional response to a system-wide need to reform the english teaching curricula. when recounting the origin of their graduate-level eaw instruction, our participants often described an evolutionary reform process, whereby a previous general english course was gradually transformed into an eap-oriented one, with eaw instruction taking on more weight over time. at t2’s university, for instance, the driving force was a national graduate curriculum reform project overseen by the graduate school, which prompted the streaming of students into a regular and an advanced group in 2015, with the latter group receiving more eap-oriented training, including training in academic writing. t13 shared that his school started to build an esp-eap website and form an eaw teaching team around 2010. in addition, several participants reported multiple rounds of reforms at their universities. t10 talked of three stages of reform: an initial reform around 2008, focusing on exploring the possibility of an eap orientation for graduate students; a second stage, during which different eap-oriented elective courses were created, including a writing course; and the latest stage, characterized by a more extensive focus on eap curriculum. t17 and t18’s university, after likewise undergoing rounds of reform, gradually developed an eaw course system that covered undergraduate students all the way to doctoral students (from level 1 to level 3) (see also li and ma, 2018). a few participants mentioned the importance of leadership in installing eaw instruction. a range of leading figures were mentioned. most often, a director’s role was highlighted: with such a person initiating a course called paper writing and publication in the mid-2000s (t17), designing a reformed eaw course for doctoral students (t19), overseeing the compilation of a textbook to meet the students’ needs (t8), and being the main instructor of an eaw course, while employing some materials brought back from a visit to the u.s. to facilitate the compilation of a textbook on medical writing and publishing in english (t4). there was also sometimes a supportive school dean who “was keen on playing a leading role in curriculum reform” (t8), and a university president who had a vision that doctoral students should be able to use english for academic purposes and who led the creation of a yongyan li & xiaohao ma ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164148 streamlined eap curriculum model that connected the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral english education, incorporating the notions of “task-based” and “output-oriented” teaching (t11). 4.1.2. potential structural and curriculum challenges eap teachers’ institutional locations, their class sizes, the reduced teaching hours allocated, as well as the extent to which their classes are multidisciplinary are implicated in the potential structural and curriculum challenges they face. most of our participants worked in a department of college english, which is a department responsible for teaching non-english majors across disciplines; a few worked in the college english unit within the department of english (where the majority specialize in teaching english majors). it has been observed that at chinese universities, the teachers in the department of college english “are often perceived as instructors rather than academics and as having a lower professional status than that of their colleagues in the department of english who teach english majors” (cheng, 2016: 98). overall, it can be suggested that our participants, as emerging eap teachers in china, who focused on teaching students across disciplines, traditionally had a lower institutional status compared with their counterparts in content disciplines as well as their colleagues teaching english majors (see also li & cargill, 2019a). some of our participants reported affiliation to a graduate english teaching and research section in their department (t4, t8, t10, t17, t18 and t19). the section may only have around 10 teachers; yet their target student population was often large, comprising many hundreds/thousands of students at the university level (li & ma, 2018). the class size varied from 20-30 (t2, t11, t13, t14, t15, and t19), through 30-plus (t9, t16, and t17) and 40-plus (t4, t14, and t16), to 50-plus (t2, t14, and t8), 60-70 (t3), and even up to 80 (t4). eaw instruction was usually offered for master’s and doctoral students in their early candidature. it could be installed as one of three segments on writing taught over the duration of one semester (the other two being “basic writing” and “practical writing”); it could also be part of a semester-long eap course that covered reading and translation. the teaching hours allocated to eaw instruction were often less than what the teachers would have preferred. there was also mention of a trend of institutional mandate for cutting down on the hours of english classes: t20 recounted her team having to reduce the teaching hours of an academic english course (including an eaw component) for master’s chinese eap teachers’ graduate-level english academic writing instruction and their professional development ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 149 students from 180 hours to 120 hours and then to 40 hours, with the target being 20 hours only (for 1 credit at her university), in response to the graduate school guidelines. teaching a multidisciplinary class seems a norm for the participants. such disciplinary heterogeneity was experienced even by teachers who taught students from the same broad discipline (cheng, 2018, p. 26). for example, it was reported by t19 who only taught medical students in her university, by t4 who worked in a medical university, and by t1 who taught at an engineering university. all three participants pointed out that there were wide differences in the sub-disciplines among their students. there were institutional attempts at setting up discipline-based classes: at t13’s university, eap (with eaw being a component) was taught to classes formed according to the broad divisions of engineering, medicine, humanities, social sciences, and sciences; t2 similarly talked of a distinction between humanities/social sciences classes and sciences classes. t8, however, had a mixture of science and social science students in her class. it was commented that free selection of courses at the university level for graduate students contributed to the dominance of multidisciplinary classes (t9, t11, and t17) (li & ma, 2018). 4.1.3. an integrated approach to teaching “academic english” to master’s students the teacher participants aligned their work with an eap orientation, or commitment to supporting students’ disciplinary study and publication in english in the long run. as t16 put it: the main purpose of the course is to help students use english as a medium of study in their discipline. it is not about learning english for the sake of learning it; not about learning college english for general communication. eap is in big demand during the stage of graduate study, as the students are expected to publish in english. (t16). the teachers who mainly taught master’s students often used an “academic english” textbook published in china for teaching. the textbooks usually adopt an integrated approach to developing students’ reading/writing and listening/speaking skills for academic communication. for example, t2 used a theme-based textbook (i.e. cai, 2014), whose units cover such themes as “global warming”, “urbanization”, “e-business”, and “cultural yongyan li & xiaohao ma ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164150 awareness”. following this book, students learn writing skills such as paraphrasing and summarizing, developing topic/supporting sentences, and achieving coherence in writing. t8 and t14, who worked in two different agriculture and forestry universities, used one textbook (i.e. shi, wu, & liu, 2013) that contains theme-based units such as “forestry management”, “biodiversity”, and “wetlands”. like students in t2’s university, their students practiced writing skills such as how to write concluding, cause and effect, and definition paragraphs. additionally, the textbook also introduced students to some skills for reporting results (e.g. describing graphs, processes, dimensions and shapes) and writing abstracts for research articles. t14 believed “only teaching the materials from a textbook no longer appeals to the students”, so she and her colleagues tried to supplement additional materials, including eaw content. yet she reported that with a textbook to cover, the additions were limited. t16 likewise observed that textbooks could be a restriction: “whether we can truly help the students (in their goal of publishing in english) has a lot to do with our textbook and teaching content. i think the existing textbooks have restricted our teaching.” it is hard to assess to what extent these teachers were required to cover a textbook, as there may be institutional differences. additionally, given the typically large enrollment of master’s students in a cohort at a chinese university (li & ma, 2018), several teachers may be involved in teaching parallel classes, which may reduce the flexibility of any one instructor straying away from a textbook. notably, t16 reported that in the next academic year they would aim to guide students to “combine english with their discipline”. they would do so, for instance, by requiring students to submit as part of the assessment a research proposal that is connected to their ongoing research. this indicates an attempt to go beyond a textbook and to make academic english instruction more discipline-specific. 4.1.4. teaching writing for publication to doctoral students about half of our participants, who seemed to focus on teaching doctoral, as opposed to master’s, students, talked about teaching writing for publication. during interviews, these teachers tended to refer to the notion of “genre” (t3, t4, t11, t15, and t18) and the name of “swales [john swales]” (t3, t4, t5, t6, t11, t15, and t18). focusing on the genre of research article, they used journal articles from students’ own disciplines in teaching, and aimed to raise students’ genre awareness. chinese eap teachers’ graduate-level english academic writing instruction and their professional development ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 151 4.1.4.1. using journal articles from students’ own disciplines the participants who talked about teaching writing for publication tended to report using journal articles from their students’ own disciplines as an important source of teaching materials (t3, t4, t6, t11, t12, t13, t15, t17, t18, and t19). where a textbook was involved, it was not a general academic english skills book but a genre-based textbook focusing on the genre of research article or conference presentation (or a combination), and the textbook only played a supplementary role in instruction. for example, t17 and t18 reported using a broad framework from a textbook on international conference communication in english (i.e. hu, shen & fan, 2000); while t19 mentioned borrowing some ideas from a chapter on research paper writing in a textbook on medical writing (i.e. sun, tang, & wang, 2012) but the textbook was not used in class. in their very first teaching session, t3, t17 and t19 would give students an assignment of finding journal articles in their own disciplines. t3’s students were divided into groups based on disciplinary proximity and were expected to send journal articles to him by groups. each of t17’s students was expected to find 5-10 articles preferably written by native-english-speaking authors (for the sake of learning language) from top journals in their field of study to send to her. likewise, t19 shared: “i asked each student to send me 10 papers from their target journals; my teaching examples will come from those articles.” t18 described how journal articles from her students’ disciplines were used in class: we aim to connect to their disciplines. we use the early part of the class time to talk about the structure of the different sections of a research article; then ask the students to study articles in their own disciplines. (t18). using journal articles from students’ own disciplines helped t2, t8, t11 and t18 to handle their heterogeneous classes. in t8’s multidisciplinary class of 50-plus students, there were more science and engineering students than economics and management students. adopting an approach similar to t18’s, she chose to “focus more on science and engineering” but still aimed to address both streams of students: after lecturing on the introduction or methods section, i ask the students to check journal articles in their own discipline to compare with what has been said in class. then for the presentations in the next session, i may pick one science student and one social science student and ask them to demonstrate a comparison of the analysis of their articles. (t8) yongyan li & xiaohao ma ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164152 finally, corpus methods were occasionally used. for example, each of t12’students was expected to build a small corpus of 20 articles selected from high-impact journals. t3 talked about showing corpus evidence generated from a concordancer to students in class. however, corpus use was limited. t19 observed that “building a corpus is quite useful” but her medical students “are very busy” and “there is also not much time in class”; “they may prefer to read a few more papers than building a corpus”. 4.1.4.2. aiming to raise students’ genre awareness several participants pointed out that their publication-oriented eaw instruction consisted less of writing practice than of rhetorical consciousness raising through genre analysis. although t4 required submission of an abstract based on the students’ own (planned) research as part of the course assessment, she pointed out that her writing course did not focus on “training in writing itself ”, but on “genre analysis” instead. “we hope reading-based awareness raising can feed into students’ written production”, she said. similar comments were made by t3 and t17. t17 explained: in fact, i do not ask them to write much; but mainly read and analyze to study the characteristics of an article. given the limited class time, i emphasize to the students that this is in fact a “methodology” course, where they learn a method of analysis, to understand what is a good paper, what is a bad one, and how they should write. then they can practice when it’s time for them to write later. (t17) likewise, t3 reported: “i present a more generic model [of genre analysis], drawing students’ attention to structure and language; then i direct their attention to differences across disciplines.” he also expected the students to “accumulate lexical resources from the papers they selected” and apply those to their own writing in the future. drafting a research article for future submission was not mentioned as a course assignment by any of the participants. instead, they reported assigning a range of “preparatory” tasks designed to raise students’ genre awareness. analysis of the moves, steps and linguistic features of different sections of journal articles in students’ disciplines was a common assignment. t17’s students had “at least 10 such assignments” over a semester and these smaller tasks “do not create much pressure and can be done quickly.” for t19, who taught a class of medical students from various sub-disciplines, it was challenging to find a common ground to engage all chinese eap teachers’ graduate-level english academic writing instruction and their professional development ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 153 students in class. thus she asked them to select topics of general interest (such as “the relationship between smartphone use and sleep quality among college students” and “investigation on the willingness of organ donation among medical students”) and conduct research by using the method of questionnaire survey, and practice writing different sections of an imrd (introduction, method, results and discussion) paper over time (see also li, ma, zhao & hu, 2020). building a discipline-orientation into assignments, t8 asked students to submit a research proposal on a topic in their discipline and a final paper of 2000 words in an imrd-structure by reference to the format of a target journal. t11, like t4 mentioned before, required students to compose an abstract for an article that they wanted to write. t17’s students also needed to submit an end-of-semester writing project, which was a group-produced program book for a mock international conference. 4.2. professional development 4.2.1. continued learning echoing the voice of the chinese teacher participants in an eap pd program in an earlier study (li & cargill, 2019a), the teachers almost unanimously stressed the necessity of engaging in continued learning for pd. their general lack of previous experience with eap and their deeply felt need to develop eap knowledge were described by t7: eap is still a relatively new phenomenon in china. previous training received by teachers had very little eap element. those of us who now engage in eap teaching are probably those who can recognize the value of eap. but to truly understand eap and improve one’s eap competence, i think we still need to invest a large amount of time and effort. (t7) t7’s perceptions were echoed by others and helped to explain the teachers’ observation that teaching eaw to graduate students required much preparation and brought them extra workload (t2, t3, t7, t8, t9, t12, t13, t15, t16, and t19). t10 commented on their challenge as follows: the biggest challenge is you should keep learning new things to keep your teaching up to date, and to motivate students and stimulate their interest in learning. teachers at our age are under big pressure on the fronts of job, promotion, and family; but if you stop learning, you will be left out. the need for updating our knowledge is urgent. (t10) yongyan li & xiaohao ma ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164154 the fact that we met our participants at two eap conferences and one eap pd program indicates that, as busy in-service teachers, they did try to invest “time and effort” (t7) to capture pd opportunities in one way or another. this required overcoming practical constraints such as family duties, busy teaching schedules, and sourcing of funding. 4.2.2. overseas visits on scholarship in china, scholarships to sponsor university teachers’ short-term overseas study come from various sources, including the china scholarship council (http://www.csc.edu.cn), provincial governments and institutions. fifteen of our participants (i.e. 75%) had capitalized on such opportunities of being short-term visiting scholars at overseas universities, with visit duration ranging from one month to one year. of these teachers, ten reported that their overseas visits impacted upon their subsequent eap/eaw teaching or research, as summarized in table 3. t15 spoke of how her overseas visit stimulated her action: “three months after i was back from the uk, i applied for a grant to set up an online platform for our academic writing course. i planned to introduce genre pedagogy.” t3 and t6’s overseas visits, unlike the other participants’, were more research-focused. for t6, the experience of co-authoring research articles with his british colleagues during his visit both informed his teaching of a new writing for publication course to doctoral students and provided authentic examples to draw upon in his teaching. chinese eap teachers’ graduate-level english academic writing instruction and their professional development ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 155 participant and host country aspects of learning that impacted upon subsequent eap/eaw teaching t1 (new zealand) learned about academic discourse analysis; and communicated with other visiting scholars on curriculum design t2 (us) took courses on pedagogy, academic reading and writing, and research methods; learned how to conduct literature research, write literature review, and avoid plagiarism t3 (uk) learning about the research on multilingual scholars’ international publishing t5 (us) attended a discipline-embedded writing course facilitated by the host university’s writing center and observed how the center operated t6 (uk) collaborated with the host university’s colleagues in research and writing for publication t7 (australia) visited the host university’s language center and took an eap course t13 (singapore) took courses on elt, research methods, second language writing research, and genre analysis t15 (uk) took eap courses and gathered teaching materials during the visit and gained access to various resources t17 (us) took eap and academic writing courses for graduate students at the host university t18 (us) learned about corpus building and corpus-based research table 3. ten participants’ overseas visits that influenced their eap/eaw teaching. t 4.2.3. aspirations for future development the teachers expressed aspirations for future development. three targets were highlighted: to specialize in teaching students from particular disciplines, to collaborate with content teachers, and to undertake eap research. 4.2.3.1. to specialize in teaching students from particular disciplines three teachers (t3, t7 and t14) expressed hope for an institutional policy that would designate them to teaching students from particular disciplines: every semester i teach two classes of master’s students. students’ disciplines change all the time for me; but i prefer to focus on teaching students from certain disciplines to know these disciplines better and go deeper in my teaching. (t3) teachers need to develop deep understanding of research article writing in a particular discipline. (t7) i hope there is a policy to match teachers with particular schools. […] choose a discipline, then study the literature in the discipline. […] there may be some common core across disciplines but teaching across disciplines is not helpful for your improvement. (t14) the three teachers all hoped to focus on teaching students in particular disciplines. interestingly, the teachers’ wish coincided with the preference of some students, as we found in a previous study (li & cargill, 2019b). for this to happen, the students believed there should be both “push” from the schools of content disciplines and availability of teachers of english who are willing to pursue disciplinary specialization (li & cargill, 2019b). the teachers’ views quoted above show that there are such willing teachers. 4.2.3.2. to collaborate with content teachers despite accounts of informally providing english editing or consultation to content specialists on a personal level (t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t6, t8, t9, t10, t11, t13, t14, and t19), little teaching-related collaboration between our english teacher participants and content teachers existed. in t13’s vivid description, “there seems to be a natural minefield between disciplines in chinese universities. english language is regarded as a tool, without a disciplinary home.” yongyan li & xiaohao ma ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164156 nevertheless, the idea of such collaboration was supported by all of our participants. as t8 put it, “there has been no such collaboration. but i’m interested. like visiting their lab or inviting them to talk to us english teachers. all very good. it would help us to learn about their disciplines.” at the same time however, various concerns were cited as working against the collaboration: content teachers being too busy (t9, t12, t13, t16), hard to access (t19), perhaps more interested in quick results (t13), and less-than-interested in communicating with english teachers as a result of perceiving their teaching as marginal or unnecessary (t16). additional concerns/problems were: lacking opportunity for collaboration (t10), lacking institution-level support mechanisms (t7, t10, and t15), such collaboration being not cost-effective but bringing extra workload for english teachers (t15), and mixed-disciplines classes posing a barrier to collaboration (t16). t13 related a case of potential collaboration. in preparing to teach an english for mass communication course as one of a series of esp courses being initiated at his university, he sat in the class given by a teacher in mass communication in the first semester; then in the second semester the content teacher also came to attend his english class regularly. yet from t13’s perspective, “i think there’s no need for much communication on the teaching itself; he (the content teacher) teaches his course and i teach mine.” despite this stance, one wonders if the growing series of esp courses at t13’s university might facilitate pedagogical collaborations between language and content teachers in the long run. 4.2.3.3. to undertake eap research at least two of the teachers (t8 and t9) mentioned that their own lack of international publication experience was a drawback in their eaw instruction, expertise-wise and confidence-wise (li & cargill, 2019a). at the same time, a good number of our participants showed an interest in moving beyond their previous specialization (as shown earlier in table 1) to conduct eap research. the pressure of periodic appraisal, which was connected to their academic promotion (t2, t3, t4, t5, t6, t9, t13, t15, and t16), was cited as a factor. apart from such extrinsic motivation, quite a few voiced a genuine interest in eap research. as t8 put it, “i want to do eap research. i think it’s valuable and it’s a future direction; and i believe it can truly inform the teaching of writing to students.” for t9, an aim of her attending eap conferences was “to see what kinds of eap research others are doing”; chinese eap teachers’ graduate-level english academic writing instruction and their professional development ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 157 while t16 felt that her teaching of eaw, conducting related research, and catching pd opportunities were “forming a benign cycle”. the teachers had a variety of research plans. t4 had started to conduct preand post-course comparisons to evaluate her teaching and planned to follow several students to study long-term effects. t7 was interested in finding out about content teachers’ eap requirements for their students. t8 had written a research proposal on studying the discourse features of research articles in agriculture and forestry. t13 intended to set his research against the backdrop of the launching of a series of esp courses at his university and study course design and teacher development. t10, t15, and t16 believed that their future research would be focused on eap/eaw instruction. likewise, centering around her own eaw teaching, t19 planned to follow up on her earlier needs analysis research with a comparative study of peer and teacher feedback on writing. finally, t1 and t18 were both preparing to build a corpus of research articles in engineering disciplines. inadequacy in research training could be a potential concern (li & cargill, 2019a), as t16 commented on the case of her colleagues in general. nevertheless, our teacher participants generally spoke with hope when they talked about their research plans. 5. discussion in the above we presented results from an interview-based study to address two research questions, which focused on understanding chinese eap teachers’ eaw instruction to graduate students across disciplines, and the teachers’ endeavors concerning pd. in the following, we will highlight aspects of our findings for a discussion with reference to the chinese context and relevant literature. firstly, within-institution leadership facilitates the transformation of the traditional general english curriculum to an eap curriculum. local leadership mediates the climate of educational reform (riley & louis, 2000). compared with the university-level managers, the school-level, departmentlevel, or section-level leaders probably have a deeper understanding of the urgency and direction for change. from our limited experience of observation at some chinese universities, unit-level leadership or its absence can have a significant impact on the development of eap or the lack of it for a prolonged period of time, as well as on the teachers’ morale and career paths. on a separate note, it is also worth pointing out that in the chinese yongyan li & xiaohao ma ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164158 context, beyond the institutional level, individuals (including leading figures) are adding impetus to the eap-turn in the country, through publishing, initiating eap events, organizing conferences and pd programs, or posting in wechat eap interest groups. the affordance of wechat, a free messaging app widely used in china, has fostered the dissemination of an “eap spirit” among university english teachers. secondly, the reports of our participants suggest a distinction between master-level and doctoral-level academic writing instruction. this echoes a potential distinction shown in the literature between the writing support for master’s students (e.g. fredericksen & mangelsdorf, 2014; tribble & wingate, 2013) and that for doctoral students (e.g. burgess et al., 2019; cargill et al., 2018; huang, 2014). that is, there tends to be more focus on teaching generic academic writing skills at the master-level but a greater concern for preparing students to write for publication at the doctoral level. the proliferation of “academic english” textbooks in china and their use with master’s (and undergraduate) students seems worth examining in future research. more broadly, the adequacy of the existing published resources for teaching eaw (in china or a different context), and how eap teachers use or adapt them in the classroom, need to be assessed. for teaching writing for publication to doctoral students, our teacher participants were keen to align their teaching with esp genre pedagogy (cheng, 2018; swales, 1990; swales & feak, 1994/2012); yet the details of the instructional practices and possible localization of the genre pedagogy still need to be studied (but see li et al., 2020). our participants reported limited corpus use in their classrooms. yet with a growing interest among chinese eap teachers in corpus methods (e.g. chen & xiang, 2015), these can be expected to be more widely used, for instance, as the teachers learn through pd how corpus methods can be used effectively (see li & cargill, 2019a). it was further found that, unlike some reports on writing for publication courses in the literature (e.g. matarese, 2013), writing an article by sections over time aimed for publication was not set as a course requirement for students by the teachers in our study. this apparently had to do with the time, resources and capacity available for providing guidance to students for such a purpose. participation of content teachers in the instructional and feedback processes can make a difference, although achieving language—content partnership is a challenge, as we will note below. thirdly, our study reveals that chinese eap teachers, like their international counterparts (e.g. campion, 2016), are keen to engage in pd in making the chinese eap teachers’ graduate-level english academic writing instruction and their professional development ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 159 transition from teaching general english to teaching eap. their modest institutional status is likely to become a driving force for them to engage in continued learning to meet new challenges, although it is also likely to disadvantage them in the deployment of resources for pd. notably, a good number of our participants had made sponsored overseas visits where they took eap courses at the host university, visited its language/writing center, had access to resources, or collaborated with overseas colleagues on research. these seemed efficient forms of pd. in the coming years, exchange of eap experience and expertise between china and other countries should be promoted. this can be achieved, for instance, through the collaboration between china eap association (ceapa) and counterpart associations overseas, such as baleap (british association of lecturers in english for academic purposes) (“collaboration with ceapa”, 2018). our participants’ aspirations for future development, concerning specializing in teaching particular disciplines, collaborating with content teachers, and undertaking eap research, all point to the issue of professionalization of eap practitioners. focusing on teaching students from a small range of disciplines will enable eap teachers to study the genres and discourses of those disciplines in depth and develop “specialized knowledge” (basturkmen, 2014; ferguson, 1997) in a process of professionalization. likewise, collaboration with content teachers is also a key feature of eap practitioners’ professional identity (dudley-evans, 2001). yet in china (li & cargill, 2019a, 2019b) and many other contexts (e.g. chanock, 2017), language—content collaboration remains a challenge (see li, 2019, for a review). finally, our participants’ taking actions to become eap practitioner-researchers, or to contribute scholarship to the knowledge base of eap, is exactly what has been called for in the recent literature (basturkmen, 2014; ding & bruce, 2017). in the chinese context, enhancing research training for in-service and future eap teachers would be necessary (li & ma, 2018; li & cargill, 2019a). 6. conclusion our exploratory study was based on one-off interviews mostly conducted at conference sites. it thus has methodological limitations which undercut the depth and richness of the data. nevertheless, a number of implications of the study can be suggested. firstly, the study brought forth the voices of a yongyan li & xiaohao ma ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164160 sample of chinese emerging eap teachers which can be compared with the accounts of eap teachers in other contexts (e.g. campion, 2016). secondly, as eap practitioners’ education and pd starts to receive the attention that it deserves (basturkmen, 2014; ding & bruce, 2017), findings from the research like ours can be drawn upon to inform both the theorization and the practice in this connection, as the research sheds light upon emerging eap practitioners’ lived experiences during a paradigm shift toward eap. thirdly, the description and analysis presented in this paper can potentially encourage eap instructors, whether novice or more experienced, to share and reflect upon their own experiences in their community of practice. finally, our exploratory study has laid some groundwork for follow-up research, which can take the forms of case studies (e.g. of classroom eaw instruction) (li et al., 2020), longitudinal tracking of individual teachers’ pd, and questionnaire surveys on a large scale. the theme of the 2018 tesol china assembly held in shanghai, china (july 19-22, 2018) was “english education in china: striding into a new era”. the theme reflects a truthful picture. the shanghai declaration issued by the assembly proclaimed: “we are determined to take more energetic and sustainable joint action to inject fresh vigor and impetus into english education in china”. it can be anticipated that eap will crucially contribute to the fulfillment of this mission in the years to come. meanwhile, chinese eap practitioners need exchanges with their counterparts from around the world. we hope this paper will encourage moves in this direction. acknowledgements we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and guangwei hu for their constructive feedback on an earlier version of this paper, and thank the editor, dr. carmen sancho guinda, for her kind support. the project was funded by a seed fund for basic research from the university of hong kong, china (project code 201611159043). article history: received 14 january 2019 received in revised form 6 may 2019 accepted 23 april 2020 chinese eap teachers’ graduate-level english academic writing instruction and their professional development ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164 161 references yongyan li & xiaohao ma ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164162 aranha, s. 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(2016). “supporting doctoral writing at an australian university”. writing & pedagogy 8(1): 177-198. sun, q., w. tang & s. wang (2012). practical medical english writing. shanghai: fudan university press. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. & c.b. feak (1994/2012). academic writing for graduate students: essential tasks and skills. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. teddlie, c. & f. yu (2007). “mixed methods sampling: a typology with examples”. journal of mixed methods research 1(1): 77-100. tribble, c. & u. wingate (2013). “from text to corpus – a genre-based approach to academic literacy instruction”. system 41(2): 307-321. research publication purposes pedagogies. she has published in such journals as ibérica, journal of english for academic purposes and science & engineering ethics. xiaohao ma is an english instructor in the school of foreign languages education at jilin university, china. she is interested in the research of english for academic purposes, academic language and literacy development, and english as a foreign language academics and students writing in english. notes 1 it was difficult to clearly distinguish among our participants between the teachers teaching master’s students and those teaching doctoral students, as some taught both groups of students. but it seems many of our participants tended to focus on teaching either master’s or doctoral students, as the interviews indicated. 2 involving a team of interviewers potentially has downsides. however, the use of a chinese-version interview protocol and detailed written instruction on the procedure of the interviews from the project leader (the first author) to the student interviewers helped to enhance consistency in the topics covered across the interviews. yongyan li & xiaohao ma ibérica 39 (2020): 141-164164 iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 1-6 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.7 editorial we would like to welcome readers to this issue of ibérica, which brings together articles from new zealand, ukraine, the usa, china, ghana, hong kong, iran, and of course spain. both the geographical spread and the range of topics covered reflect the journal’s commitment to serving the lsp community across the world and reaching out to contiguous disciplines such as specialised translation and communication. in first place, an cheng’s “forum” article stresses the need for lsp practitioners to learn about disciplinary-specific writing traditions by interacting with faculty, reading published research, and engaging critically with academic writing guidebooks. his paper is entirely aligned with the aims of ibérica in this sense: we need to keep up to date with the way professionals are writing in the disciplines, be aware of work that researchers such as aelfe members are doing, and adopt a critical stance to guidelines that may often be outdated or irrelevant. after this, setting the tone for this spring 2023 issue of ibérica by foregrounding multilingual contexts and practices, david lasagabaster’s guest article examines the complex challenges facing universities that are committed to multilingualism beyond emi, calling for stronger collaboration between lsp professionals working in different languages and disciplines. he shows how current developments in his own university also mean encouraging positive attitudes towards plurilingualism and pluriliteracies, involving changes in teaching practices to embrace the value of linguistic mediation and translanguaging. the first full research paper in issue 45 takes up the challenge set by an cheng by looking at the important topic of research communication, dissemination and popularisation. jean parkinson contributes to the teaching of scientific dissemination and popularisation by examining how master’s students in biology performed in an assignment-type modelled on a scientific dissemination genre. the genre used was exemplified by published “news and views” articles, normally written by experts, which summarise and critique a newly published study for the wider scientific community. parkinson compares a corpus of 30 “news and views” assignments by 1 ibérica 45 (2023): 1-6 editorial master’s biology students with 55 biology “news and views” articles written by experts, and documents the students’ difficulties in judging how to engage with their readership and develop an authoritative voice. in the next article, still on the topic of wider scientific communication, pilar mur dueñas then offers an overview of european project websites, understood as having multiple functions for both internal and external communication. she identifies three main areas that such websites are expected to cover, namely dissemination (i.e., democratising scientific knowledge), promotion (of the group itself, but also of the scientific field in question) and public engagement (whereby the website fulfils an “accountability” function by showing that the project tasks are being completed according to plan). she identifies a range of genres that typically appear in the context of such websites, explaining the relationships that exist between them, and showing how they adapt complex material to address different audiences. continuing with the theme of websites but moving into corporate communications, ana maría fernández-vallejo then presents a useful approach to analysing the communication of sustainability in corporate websites, focusing on contribution of visual affordances to the overall sustainability message. she examines the use of visual artefacts depicting sustainability information by the most sustainable hotel chains on their websites, centring on 330 images from the five most sustainable hotel chains according to the sustainability yearbook 2022, and develops a taxonomy with six categories into which the images on the websites can be classified. the findings demonstrate a clear inclination towards photographs of people, specifically images featuring the “people dimension”, with implications for the way sustainability is conceptualised in this sector. her paper continues the tradition in ibérica of multimodal analysis of corporate communications (see, for example, pérez cañizares, 2022), and we hope it will prompt further contributions. continuing with the theme of internet-based communication but in a very different context, tetiana biletska, olha havryliuk, vita goian and oles goian from the taras shevchenko national university of kyiv then open the interesting area of sports blogs, which has rarely been explored by applied linguists. they identify the main communicative strategies used in sports blogs and analyse their linguistic operationalisation. they show how the bloggers creatively combine information with entertainment, and make frequent use of strategies intended to prompt feedback, thus guaranteeing interaction with their audience and boosting their own popularity. 2 after this, in a paper that addresses the applied linguistics research community, jihua dong looks at how a research topic evolves into a research field, using the principles of bibliometric analysis to address the field of metadiscourse research, which is so familiar to all of us in lsp/lap. the author describes three main stages in the history of metadiscourse research: an emerging stage from 1983 onwards; a maturing stage starting about 2005 in which the scope of metadiscourse was explored and broadened; and finally the flourishing stage (beginning around 2015), in which the research themes and methods established in the two preceding stages receive further development. the author also identifies 12 papers with transformative potential and three particularly significant papers: these highly cited papers were influential because they contained innovations that had not been previously introduced in the studies they cited. ibérica has a tradition of publishing papers on under-researched genres, and issue 45 contributes two interesting papers from very different contexts: the spanish electricity bill and the ghanaian documentation relating to land regularisation, both of which have considerable importance in the societies where they are used, and shed interesting light on the theory and practice of genre analysis. in the first of these, blas-josé subiela-hernández, alba-maría gálvez-vidal and maría-ascensión miralles gonzález-conde provide a detailed analysis of the regulated electricity bill in spain, approaching this topic from a double perspective. first, they ask whether the text complies with standards of coherence, cohesion, informativity and situationality. in the second part, they use quantitative methodology to identify whether this document complies with the grammatical recommendations of plain language. they conclude that despite efforts made to use plain language, the bill is still not comprehensible to the citizens who receive it. in the second of these articles, emmanuel mensah bonsu, joseph afful and guangwei hu present a corpus-based genre analysis of letters of regularisation, which is explained as an extremely important genre in the context of land institutions in ghana. after presenting a move analysis, the authors turn their attention to politeness in this genre, and to the textual manifestations of gratitude. this paper represents a useful contribution to the study of non-academic genres, affording welcome insights into the african context. training is an important theme that has been handled regularly over the years in ibérica, and this issue brings us two papers with a bearing on this subject, one addressing the training of translators in the 21st century, when their profession is being revolutionised by technological advances, the other editorial ibérica 45 (2023): 1-6 3 dealing with teacher training for the growing area of lsp in spanish. first, maría josé varela salinas and ruth burbat dare to break one of the taboos that has prevailed in translator training by bringing deepl and google translate into the classroom. they conclude that tools of this kind have radically changed the work of the professional translator and are here to stay. it is therefore quite logical that post-editing machine translated texts should also be a part of the training programmes offered to students at university level. following on from this, lucía gil de montes-garín and carmen olivasanz provide a useful overview of the training provided for spanish for specific purposes teachers in spanish university master’s degrees. they found 27 modules designed to train teachers for spanish for specific purposes, within which a theoretical perspective appeared to predominate over more practical approaches. interestingly, the most common type of specific area addressed was business and administrative spanish, but some universities also offered courses on teaching spanish related to tourism, the legal-economic field, health professions, and academic purposes. finally, we end the research paper section with two papers that will be interesting to those interested in the practice of scientific or academic writing and how it is taught. building on one of the themes introduced by an cheng in the “forum” article, namely the need to interact with professionals in the discipline in order to understand how they write and what obstacles they encounter, songsha ren and guangwei hu present a case study of doctors in mainland china. this focuses on their scholarly publishing activities, and how they drew on an array of tools and signs to resolve contradictions and further their scholarly publishing endeavours. interviews with two doctors were subjected to a thematic analysis and an activity systems analysis, revealing both difficulties with language and genre, and strategies for overcoming them. this study points to the need for institutional policies and initiatives to support non-native medical doctors aspiring for international publication. in methodological terms this paper is innovative in that it draws on engeström’s (2015) activity system analysis, which helped the authors to bring the less explicit elements of the practitioners’ action out into the open. this article provides valuable pointers for anyone engaged in designing training courses for such professionals. after this, ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour and mostafa nazari focus on the little-understood topic of eap practitioners’ emotions and how these are involved in their identity construction. their paper uses zembylas’s editorial ibérica 45 (2023): 1-64 (2002) three-dimensional framework of teacher emotions to understand the emotional processes that eap teachers go through in terms of their identity and agency. this article opens up the way for further studies on practitioner emotions and identity within lsp contexts (see also breeze & azparren legarre, 2021), and provides an interesting complement to lasagabaster’s guest article on multilingual universities in the present issue. finally, this issue offers three reviews. first, haoda feng reviews corpus linguistics for english for academic purposes, by vander viana and aisling o’boyle (routledge, 2022), explaining how this monograph provides an accessible discussion of key concepts, methods and applications of corpus linguistics that are relevant to the eap community. after this, alicia hernando-garreta provides an overview of kayo kondo’s monograph on patient-centred communication: discourse of in-home medical consultations for older adults (multilingual matters, 2022), a relevant volume for all those interested in patient-centred communication across different settings and cultures. finally, again on the theme of health communication but from a very different perspective, jiayu wang reviews metaphors of coronavirus: invisible enemy or zombie apocalypse? by jonathan charteris-black (palgrave macmillan, 2021), which takes an in-depth look at the moral foundations of metaphors for talking about phenomena related to the pandemic, and contributes to our ongoing understanding of this complex issue. we would like to conclude the introduction to this spring issue of ibérica by bringing together a number of themes that are significant for a journal with our specific mission. as we all know, ibérica is a not-for-profit, open access journal that aims to reach the widest possible readership of practitioners and researchers in the area of languages for specific purposes and professional communication across the world. in times of increasing competition, it is important that we should be true to our own values, aiming to foster integrity and diversity, while aspiring to a high level of academic excellence. it is also essential that we should meet the needs of teachers and professional communities, and that we should give due consideration to the many different settings and languages in which specialised communication takes place. for this reason, we would like to end by thanking all of those members of the professional community who have supported us in this venture. we thank our authors for their excellent contributions and their willingness to adapt to schedules that are sometimes inconvenient. we thank the aelfe editorial ibérica 45 (2023): 1-6 5 board and the president of aelfe, alejandro curado, for their continued support of the journal and their useful feedback on our editorial activities, and we also express our gratitude to the editorial and international advisory boards who have helped to build up the reputation of ibérica over the years. however, our very special thanks also go to our reviews editor jesús garcía laborda, and to the many peer reviewers for this issue, whose work is absolutely essential to guarantee the quality of what we publish: mahmoodreza atai, miguel ayerbe, samuel azasu, olga boginskaya, maria vittoria calvi, nekane celayeta, iria da cunha, ardita dylgjeri, ana maría fernández-vallejo, pilar gerns, frank harslem, bernadette hofer-bonfim, kevin jiang, ricardo-maría jiménez-yáñez, kathrin kaufhold, yongyan li, belén lópez arroyo, laura muresan, raffaella negretti, alan partington, andrea peterlicean, miguel ruiz garrido, miguel vela tafalla, elaine vine, ying wang, christopher williams. we sincerely thank them all for their generosity and dedication. ruth breeze, university of navarra (spain) maria kuteeva, stockholm university (sweden) editors-in-chief iberica@aelfe.org references editorial ibérica 45 (2023): 1-66 breeze, r., & azparren legarre, m. p. (2021). understanding change in practice: identity and emotions in teacher training for content and language integrated learning (clil). international journal of language studies, 15(3), 25-44. engeström, y. (2015). learning by expanding: an activity-theoretical approach to developmental research (2nd ed.). cambridge university press. pérez cañizares, p. (2022). visualising corporate social responsibility: the evolving role of photographs in inditex’s corporate reporting. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 43, 155-178. https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.43.155 zembylas, m. (2002). constructing genealogies of teachers’ emotions in science teaching. journal of research in science teaching, 39, 79-103. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.10010 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 399-403 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 temas actuales de terminología y estudios sobre el léxico miguel ángel candel-mora & chelo vargas-sierra (eds.) granada, españa: comares, 2017, 221 páginas. isbn: 97884-9045-549-4. languages undergo constant change because the realities they express never cease to evolve. the worlds of medicine, the environment, aviation, communication, the humanities, and so on, are continually going through major transformations, as new concepts, objects, tools, procedures and features appear, all of which require the coining of new terms. this is a phenomenon of great importance, not only because of its direct effect on the languages themselves, but also because of the impact it has on the world of translation. it influences many different aspects, from dictionaries, glossaries and terminology databases to the actual training that translators require, and makes it increasingly necessary for us to think of creating flexible databases that are capable of adapting and growing apace with the proliferation of new concepts and terms. within this framework, we can turn for guidance to the volume recently published by miguel ángel candel-mora and chelo vargas-sierra in editorial comares. it consists of nine chapters by specialists from different universities, and particularly from the university of granada. they focus chiefly on technical sciences like engineering, and on biomedical sciences such as medicine and botany, but a few contributions also devote attention to economics and the language of journalism. in the first chapter, juan carlos gil-berrozpe and pamela faber discuss “the role of terminological knowledge bases in specialized translation: the use of umbrella concepts”, within the framework of the environment, starting out from the limitations found in some specialized dictionaries, thesauri and glossaries, which tend to be based more on terms than on concepts. they consider that lexicographical and terminological resources should reflect the way we conceptualize the world around us, because this 399 reseñas/book reviews would allow translators to maintain an even higher level of quality than at present. to this end, they propose that we should revisit the concept of hyponymy, which could be done in various ways, one of which would be to create umbrella concepts, understood as artificial concepts that could be inserted at intermediate levels within a hierarchy, in order to specify the meaning of a hyponymic relationship (p. 13). the use of such umbrella concepts has great potential, according to these authors: not only could it be applied in the framework of the tool ecolexicon (https://ecolexicon. ugr.es/en/index.htm), but it could also be used to improve conceptual networks. the next chapter, “the cognitive bases of terminological variation in medicine”, by maribel tercedor sánchez, discusses the importance, and the contributions, of textual, situational and cognitive contexts to understand the use of terms and their categorization in the field of medicine. this contribution centres on the cognitive dimension of terminological variation in medicine, and has a threefold objective: to study how terminological variants in medicine can be analysed from a situated perspective that reveals a specific dimension of the concept; to reflect on the way in which culture and knowledge of the world influence the names of concepts in the medical field; and finally to classify and register the terminological variations found in the varimed database (http://varimed.ugr.es/index.php?op= acercadecontacto). “keeping track of terminological dependency: english-spanish translation strategies in the medical domain” is the title of the third chapter, by miguel sánchez. by studying the translations of the notions in the subdomain of alzheimer’s disease in english and spanish, the author aims to show the extent to which a correlation exists between the translation strategies used and the degree of terminological dependency between the two languages. juan josé calvo draws our attention to the field of botany in the fourth chapter, which is headed “exchanging good roots: the terminological substitution of proper nouns in botany”. within the framework of botanical fieldwork, the author shows that terminology in botany offers a large number of substitutions, rather than processes of appropriation which, in the author’s view, translation studies would tend to presuppose. in the fifth chapter, “two ways of looking at opinion in journalism: lexicalrhetorical differences in financial columns in english and spanish”, we move reseñas / book reviews ibérica 39 (2020): 399-403400 from the natural sciences to the language of the media, in particular economic journalism. here, maría ángeles orts’s excellent chapter argues that the task of translating economic journalism cannot be reduced to the lexical sphere, but that other important aspects are involved, such as metaphor, rhetoric, pragmatics and metadiscourse. this chapter offers a promising way of applying discourse analysis to translation, since among other aspects, we need to pay attention to the way extralinguistic elements take on considerable importance when we translate a media text. translators need to pay special attention to these elements, since creativity is often needed to cope with culturally embedded neologisms present in the source language. economics also forms the background for the next chapter, by iolanda galanes “conceptual and referential neologisms: innovative vocabulary emerging from the crisis”. setting out from a corpus of press releases on the world financial crisis, which gave rise to the coining of many new words, the author presents some techniques for identifying discursive frameworks that bring to light translations of neologisms in the field of economics. her study offers a detailed account of the typology of linguistic features that can enable us to detect neologisms in newspaper articles about economic issues. it also provides a typology of neologisms, since the process offers several variations. in this sense, her study provides a classification consisting of: terminological neologisms, semantic neologisms, conceptual neologisms, denominative neologisms and referential neologisms. chapter seven, “explicit metalinguistic markers and level of specialization: applications for extracting terminology”, by clara inés lópez-rodríguez, takes us back to the field of medicine. she examines terminological variation as a function of specialization, beginning from the existence of linguistic resources that facilitate the transfer of medical knowledge to a nonspecialized audience. among these, we find the so-called explicit metalinguistic lexical markers, which in turn are an adaptation of the notion of explicit metalinguistic operation developed by rodríguez penagos (2004). the author sets herself the objective of examining the potential of explicit metalinguistic markers for the extraction of terminology in texts for a general readership. in the next chapter, “building ontologies with methontology as a technical resource for specialized translation: ontouav project, a multilingual web ontology (en/fr/es) on unmanned aircraft vehicles (uav) for reseñas / book reviews ibérica 39 (2020): 399-403 401 specialized translation”, written by maría azahara veroz, our attention now turns to aeronautical engineering, and in concrete, to the world of drones, a new technology that has expanded rapidly in recent years in terms both of applications and commercialization, but which is still dogged by legislative problems. the author quite rightly points out that this technological reality also poses challenges for linguistics, owing to the fact that this innovation has opened up a huge need for linguistic tools to use in technical documents, negotiations and agreements on an international level. as we might expect, this demand is also having an impact on specialized translation. this chapter presents ontouav, a multilingual tool designed to solve problems related to communication and specialized translation in the field of aeronautics. the volume closes with melania cabezas-garcía and pamela faber, whose chapter “exploring the semantics of multi-word terms by means of paraphrases” focuses on coastal engineering. starting from the high frequency of multi-word terms, mwts, in specialized languages, they point out that we sometimes encounter difficulty in understanding their meaning correctly in a given context, particularly where translation processes are involved. according to these authors, the inventories of semantic relations often present limitations when it comes to finding a specification of the meaning of such terms. to overcome this difficulty, they adopt an alternative method proposed by nakov & hearst (2006), according to which the process of semantic delimitation of compound terms (mwts) can be rendered easier through the use of paraphrase. in general terms, within the context of translation as a whole, the chapters in this volume cover a wide variety of specialized languages, and thus offer a wealth of perspectives and foci. they explain the advantages and shortcomings of various techniques and tools that have been devised to tackle the new challenges that are arising, which makes this book a useful contribution to the world of specialized translation today. in each case, the introduction to the subject, the explanation of the methodology, and the description of the challenges encountered throughout the analytical process, all mean that the volume should be accessible not only to specialists in the field, but also to advanced students. this book should also receive a wide readership beyond the bounds of academia. some of the studies in this volume have direct relevance for specialized translators, since they offer innovative tools and techniques that can help them to reseñas / book reviews ibérica 39 (2020): 399-403402 optimize their professional activities and enhance the quality of their work. received 03 april 2020 accepted 08 april 2020 reviewed by miguel ayerbe linares universidad del país vasco (spain) miguel.ayerbe@ehu.eus references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 39 (2020): 399-403 403 nakov, p. & m. hearst (2006). “using verbs to characterize noun-noun relations” in j. euzenat & j. domingue (eds.), artificial intelligence: methodology, systems, and applications. aimsa 2006. lecture notes in computer science 4183, 233-244. berlin/heidelberg: springer. rodríguez penagos, c. (2004). “metalinguistic information extraction for terminology”. proceedings of the 3rd international workshop on computational terminology. geneva, 29th august 2004. <http://arxiv.org/ftp/cs/papers/0504/0504074.pdf> [25/03/2020] ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 abstract in this paper we examine the role played by metaphor in a corpus of sixty abstracts on immunology from scientific american. we focus on the distinction between conventional metaphors and culturally adapted new metaphors and discuss the role played by metaphor choice in the communicative purposes of the abstracts and their register features. we argue that one of the main strategies used to attract the reader‘s attention is the combination of highly conventionalized metaphors, which occur more frequently in the corpus, together with what we call “culturally adapted new metaphors”, which display different degrees of creativity and are less frequent in the corpus. conventional metaphors typically reinforce the world view shared by the scientific community and introduce basic ideas on the subject of immunology. culturally adapted new metaphors include a cline from slightly new perspectives of conventional models, to highly creative uses of metaphor. culturally adapted new metaphors appeal primarily to a general readership and not to the scientific community, as they tap human emotions and mythic constructions. these play a crucial role in the abstracts, as they contribute to persuasive and didactic communicative functions in the text. key words: abstract, immunology, culturally adapted metaphor, persuasion, corpus study. resumen las enfermedades infecciosas son monstruos dormidos: metáforas convencionales y metáforas culturales nuevas en un corpus de resúmenes de inmunología en este artículo analizamos el papel desempeñado por la metáfora en un corpus infectious diseases are sleeping monsters: conventional and culturally adapted new metaphors in a corpus of abstracts on immunology1 laura hidalgo downing and blanca kraljevic mujic universidad autónoma de madrid & universidad rey juan carlos (spain) laura.hidalgo@uam.es & blanca.kraljevic@urjc.es 61 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 61 ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 l. hidalgo downing & b. kraljevic mujic de sesenta resúmenes sobre inmunología publicados en la revista scientific american. nos proponemos estudiar la diferencia entre metáforas convencionales y metáforas nuevas adaptadas culturalmente y la relación entre la selección de diferentes tipos de metáforas y la función comunicativa que desempeñan en la caracterización de los rasgos concretos de registro de estos textos. nuestro argumento principal es que una de las estrategias principales que se utiliza en estos textos para atraer la atención del lector es la combinación de metáforas muy convencionales, cuya frecuencia en el corpus es alta, junto con otras metáforas que definimos como “nuevas metáforas adaptadas culturalmente”, en las que se pueden apreciar grados diferentes de creatividad y cuya frecuencia es menor en el corpus. mientras que las metáforas convencionales refuerzan la visión del mundo de la comunidad científica e introducen ideas básicas sobre la inmunología, las metáforas nuevas adaptadas culturalmente están dirigidas a una audiencia general, reflejan la dimensión divulgativa de este tipo de texto y apelan a las emociones y los contenidos culturales míticos. estas metáforas desempeñan una función crucial en los resúmenes, ya que contribuyen a la expresión de la función comunicativa de la persuasión. palabras clave: resúmenes, inmunología, metáfora adaptada culturalmente, persuasión, estudio de corpus. 1. introduction metaphor plays a crucial role in scientific discourse, both as a constitutive instrument of new theoretical concepts and as a creative resource with a communicative and pedagogical purpose (boyd, 1993; charteris-black, 2004; parkinson & adendorff, 2004; reeves, 2005). thus, reeves (2005: 3) points out that: metaphors are inescapable in science just as they are in everyday language. as human beings who must often draw from various domains of experience in order to make sense of new domains of experience, scientists are no different from the rest of us. from a cognitive linguistics perspective metaphor provides us with powerful tools for understanding how scientists work out and communicate abstract ideas. taking as a point of departure lakoff and johnson’s (1980) and lakoff and turner’s (1989) theory of conceptual metaphor, it can be said that the function of metaphor in scientific discourse is to facilitate –especially for non-scientists and science students– the understanding of 62 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 62 more abstract domains, such as time, state, causation, action, purpose and means, by using more familiar domains of experience, such as motion, entities and locations. according to brown (2003: 12): “[metaphor] helps to clarify the nature of scientific creativity and enables us to relate reasoning and communication in science to other domains of thought”. this is achieved through the mapping of a source cognitive domain (e.g. battle) onto a target cognitive domain (e.g. a disease), which does not simply have influence on the way in which the latter is talked or thought about, but also on the way in which it is perceived, structured and experienced. the source domains in metaphors identified in abstracts on immunology mainly consist of the macroscopic entities, while the target domains consist of the generally microscopic elements which are under study. at the same time, the metaphorical reasoning of scientific thought and imagination is constrained by one of the main characteristics of metaphor: the matching between domains is partial; therefore, it highlights certain aspects of the source domain and hides those which are not of the author’s interest. moreover, the inferences made by the reader depending on his or her background knowledge contribute to the power of metaphor. these implications make metaphor a creative force in scientific thinking. in this paper we explore the role played by metaphor in a corpus of sixty abstracts on immunology from scientific american. we set out from the basic assumption that scientific discourse not only provides a description of reality, but, more importantly, it constructs a world view of such a reality by providing a perspective on it. furthermore, science as a field of study can be seen as a cultural system whose members share a set of common values and beliefs. such constructed world views and shared systems of beliefs and values are reflected in the linguistic choices made by the writers and vary in time and across registers in order to adapt to changes in the social, cultural and political arenas. the field of study we have chosen within scientific discourse is the way in which scientists try to explain to a general public how the human immune system deals with disease. the text type we have chosen, the abstract in articles from scientific american, a journal addressed to the general public, is particularly interesting for the analysis of the functions performed by metaphor. this is so because some of its main aims are to introduce in a clear and efficient way the main ideas of the article, and at the same time to persuade the reader and attract his/her attention. thus, metaphors play an important communicative role in these (and other) scientific texts, since they provide the means of making accessible to noninfectious diseases are sleeping monsters ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 63 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 63 scientists and to students of science complex concepts by means of appealing to more familiar domains of experience (see, for example, parkinson & adendorff 2004). as reeves (2005: 23) points out, metaphors “enable us to express the unknown or unseen via the known and the seen”. the present study draws from the insights of cognitive linguistics on the theory of metaphor, but follows an approach which is mostly discoursepragmatic in nature, in that our main aim is that of exploring the communicative motivations for the choices of different types of metaphors in a specific corpus of scientific abstracts. thus, we are interested in analysing how scientists use different types of metaphors to “bring science into familiar domains” (reeves, 2005: 30) and how the choices of specific metaphors are connected to specific communicative functions. 2. re-examining the role of metaphor in scientific discourse: a discourse-pragmatic approach in this paper we take up some well-known approaches to metaphor in discourse (werth, 1994 & 1999; charteris-black, 2004) in order to account for the communicative functions of metaphor in our corpus of scientific abstracts. following charteris-black (2004) we focus on the pragmatic functions of metaphor in discourse, so that metaphors can be defined as follows: a metaphor is an incongruous linguistic representation that has the underlying purpose of influencing opinions and judgements by persuasion; this purpose is often covert and reflects speaker intentions within particular contexts of use. (charteris-black, 2004: 19) a metaphor is a linguistic representation that results from the shift in the use of a word or phrase from the context or domain in which it is expected to occur to another context or domain where it is not expected to occur, thereby causing semantic tension. (charteris-black, 2004: 19) bearing in mind these definitions of metaphor, we argue that the main communicative functions of metaphors in the abstracts of our corpus are, on the one hand to inform and reinforce the world view and the knowledge shared by the scientific community, and, on the other, to appeal to the nonspecialist reader by means of creative metaphors which have a covert persuasive function. l. hidalgo downing & b. kraljevic mujic ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-8264 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 64 furthermore, the concepts of “incongruity” and “shift” in charteris-black’s (2004: 19) definitions are central to a discourse-based view of metaphor, in that the degrees of incongruity and of distance between the domains that are linked account for the degree of creativity of specific occurrences of metaphorical expressions and for the differences in rhetorical and discourse function of the metaphors in the context of the register features of the text. our main objective in the present article is to re-examine the distinction between conventional and new metaphors in order to account for subtle differences which can be observed in the examples of new metaphors in our corpus and which account for the said different discourse functions of metaphor, the informative function and the persuasive function. in our exploration of the various degrees of conventionality and newness of metaphors in the discourse of scientific american, we draw from boyd’s (1993) distinction between “exegetical or pedagogical metaphors” and “theory constitutive metaphors”. boyd describes these two types of metaphors as follows: exegetical or pedagogical metaphors, play a role in the teaching or explication of theories which already admit of entirely adequate nonmetaphorical (or at any rate, less metaphorical) formulations (e.g. “electron cloud”). (boyd, 1993: 485) theory constitutive metaphors, on the other hand constitute at least for a time, an irreplaceable part of the linguistic machinery of a scientific theory: cases in which there are metaphors which scientists use in expressing theoretical claims for which no adequate literal paraphrase is known. (boyd, 1993: 486) constitutive metaphors have an important social and rhetorical function, in that when successful they become “the property of the entire scientific community, and variations on them are explored by hundreds of scientific authors without their interactive quality being lost” (boyd, 1993: 487). the pedagogical function of metaphor in scientific texts has been pointed out on numerous occasions (see, for example, boyd, 1993; brown, 2003; parkinson & adendorff, 2004; reeves, 2005). as argued by parkinson and adendorff (2004) in their comparative study of academic and popularized science texts, popular scientific texts are useful for pedagogical purposes in that they make scientific texts more accessible to students and can be used infectious diseases are sleeping monsters ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 65 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 65 for the teaching of science and scientific writing. the language used in these texts is conceptually simpler than the language used in academic texts, which helps students understand complex scientific concepts. these scholars further point out that asking students “to ‘translate’ from popular to academic genres, and even frame their scientific ideas for a non-scientific audience is valuable to students in that it deepens knowledge of academic scientific register” (parkinson & adendorff, 2004: 394). our main argument in the present study is that metaphor contributes in a crucial way to these rhetorical-discursive functions, and thus plays a crucial role in the manifestation of the linguistic choices which characterise this writing as a text type with specific register features. we thus intend to distinguish, within the recurrent metaphors war, journey, personification and reification, between conventional metaphors, which are used more frequently in the corpus and show a high degree of conventionalisation in the field of immunology (for example, a virus is an aggressor, the immune system is a person, t cells are protectors) and culturally adapted new metaphors, which are less frequent in the corpus, indicate a shift in register use and show various degrees of conventionalisation and newness in the corpus (for example, a virus is an invader, t cells are officers, infectious diseases are sleeping monsters). if we compare the classification of metaphors we propose in the present paper with boyd’s categories of metaphor in science, it can be argued that our category of conventional metaphors includes numerous examples of boyd’s theory constitutive metaphors, that is, those metaphors which are used by scientists to express “theoretical claims for which no adequate literal paraphrase is known” (boyd, 1993: 486). examples of this kind of metaphors are “programmed cell death” and “natural killer”. our category of culturally adapted new metaphors includes two types of metaphors which are not theory constitutive metaphors but include boyd’s (1993) exegetical or pedagogical metaphors. within this category, we have thus identified, first, metaphors which provide a popularised version of a theory constitutive metaphor, such as for example, “cell suicide” instead of “programmed cell death” and “killer t cell” instead of “natural killer”. second, we have identified creative instances of metaphor use, such as a vaccine is the magic bullet. in the former type of pedagogical metaphor, the content of theory constitutive l. hidalgo downing & b. kraljevic mujic ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-8266 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 66 metaphors is rhetorically exploited in order to reactivate their content in new popularised expressions with a potential pedagogical function. however, in the latter, creative uses of metaphor are introduced, not necessarily for a pedagogical purpose but, rather, for a persuasive purpose. both uses enhance the rhetorical colour of scientific american. 3. data and methodology 3.1 data the present study examines metaphors in a corpus of 60 abstracts from the on-line version of the journal scientific american. the abstracts were selected by carrying out a search of the key words “immunology” and “immune system”, in order to restrict the field of analysis of metaphors to the topic of immunology and immunology-related diseases. this means that the abstracts cover a wide range of subtopics dealing with recent discoveries and explanations of specific features of immunology. the abstracts can be grouped under three main sub-topics (1) the functioning of the immune system, in particular, the behaviour of t cells and related cells that play important roles in the immune system, (2) the defense of the immune system in specific diseases such as hiv, allergy, cancer or autoimmune diseases, and (3) the role and function of infectious agents in the process of disease. the abstracts cover a fifteen-year time span, from 1993 to 2008. 3.2 methodology in order to examine the metaphors in the corpus, we first identified the different instances and classified them according to the following categories: a. types of metaphors according to functionality and cognitive features: orientational, ontological and structural metaphors. for this distinction we have followed lakoff and johnson’s (1980) original classification of metaphor types. b. types of metaphors according to conventionality: conventional metaphors and culturally adapted new metaphors. c. types of metaphors according to level of analysis in discourse: micro-metaphors (identification of source and target domains), and megametaphors, together with the process which gives rise to the realization of extended metaphors. infectious diseases are sleeping monsters ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 67 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 67 once the metaphors were identified, we calculated the frequency of the types referred to above, with particular attention to the frequency of functional-cognitive types and the frequency of the two types of metaphors according to degree of conventionality. the approach thus draws partly from the resources of corpus linguistics in the identification and quantification of subcategories of metaphors, but is mainly a discoursebased approach, in that we are interested in exploring how the occurrence of metaphor types is related to their function in the abstracts. 3.3 features of conventional and culturally adapted new metaphors the main claim put forward in this paper, as pointed out before, is to propose a revision of the distinction between conventional and new metaphors, in order to account for different degrees of conventionality or newness. in order to establish this distinction we have examined the following discourse dimensions of analysis of the metaphors in the corpus: • the frequency of metaphor types according to conventionality in the corpus. • the discourse level at which they occur. • the expectation whether the metaphor will occur in a more specialised text or a less specialised text. • the degree of creativity of the metaphors. in order to confirm the expectation whether a metaphor could occur in a more specialised text or would only be expected in a text addressed to the general public, an informant test was carried out by a specialist in immunology.2 the test consisted in, for each metaphor, answering the question whether that expression could be expected to be used in a specialised publication in immunology. taking into account these dimensions, we argue that conventional and culturally adapted new metaphors can be distinguished as follows. the details of these differences are discussed in sections 5 and 6 as follows: l. hidalgo downing & b. kraljevic mujic ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-8268 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 68 discourse features of conventional and culturally adapted new metaphors: 1. with regard to the definition and identification of conventional metaphors: 1.1. conventional metaphors occur frequently in the corpus. 1.2. conventional metaphors occur both at the micro-propositional level and at the discourse level (as megametaphors in werth’s (1994 & 1999) terms or key metaphors in charteris-black’s (2004) terms). 1.3. conventional metaphors do not signal a departure from prototypical generic and register features. 1.4. conventional metaphors are expected to occur both in specialised texts, such as science, and in less specialised texts such as scientific american. 1.5. conventional metaphors do not constitute instances of creative uses of language in that they form part of an expected, conventionalised register pattern. 2. with regard to the definition and identification of culturally adapted new metaphors: 2.1. culturally adapted metaphors occur less frequently in the corpus. 2.2. culturally adapted metaphors occur at the micro-propositional level. 2.3. culturally adapted metaphors introduce a register modification based on relevant socio-cultural experience. 2.4. culturally adapted metaphors are not expected to occur in specialised texts. 2.5. culturally adapted metaphors are instances of creative uses of language. 4. results results of the search of metaphor types in the corpus are shown in tables 1 to 5 and figure 1. table 1 shows the number and frequency of types of metaphor according to type of functionality. the distribution of the total number of metaphors is shown in a, while the distribution of different metaphors (omitting repeated instances) is shown in b. a total of 359 metaphors were identified. of these, 5 are orientational metaphors (1.4%), 298 are ontological metaphors (82.8%) and 56 are structural metaphors (15.8%). the most frequent category is, by far, that of ontological metaphors, followed by structural metaphors and, finally, by orientational metaphors. infectious diseases are sleeping monsters ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 69 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 69 ontological metaphors include mostly personification, container and object metaphors. structural metaphors include mostly journey and war metaphors. the five orientational metaphors we have identified are control is up, power is up, illness is down, evolution is up and good is up. table 2 shows the number and frequency of the most frequent source domains. the most frequent source domain is war (83), followed by person (79), journey (53) and object (37). table 3 shows the number and frequency of the most frequent target domains. the most frequent target domain is the human body (101), followed by illness and disease (68), the immune system (58) and external microorganisms (44). l. hidalgo downing & b. kraljevic mujic ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-8270 type of metaphor by functionality orientational ontological structural total a. total number 5 (1.4%) 298 (82.8%) 56 (15.8%) 359 (100%) b. different metaphors 5 (1.9%) 234 (88.6%) 25 (9.5%) 264 (100%) table 1. types of metaphor by functionality. most frequent source domains war journey person object a. total occurrences 83 (23.1%) 53 (14.8%) 79 (22%) 37 (10.3%) b. different types 56 (21.2%) 19 (7.2%) 67 (5.4%) 32 (12.1%) table 2. most frequent source domains. most frequent target domains human body illness & disease the immune system external microorganisms a. total occurrences 101 (8.1%) 68 (18.9%) 58 (16.1%) 44 (12.2%) b. different types 82 (31%) 46 (17.4%) 48 (18.1%) 26 (9.8%) table 3. most frequent target domains. 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 70 table 4 shows the number, frequency and distribution of metaphors according to degree of conventionality and newness. the most frequent category is that of conventional metaphor, with 239 occurrences, while 120 occurrences of culturally adapted new metaphors have been identified. no significant differences are observed with regard to the distribution of these two types when considering the presence of repeated instances of metaphors. 5. discussion in this section we discuss the results of the analysis of metaphor in our corpus of abstracts on immunology and we examine in detail the discourse features of conventional and culturally adapted new metaphors thus, we analyse the discourse level at which they occur, their nature with regard to register features, especially the compatibility of the metaphor with a specialised register, and the degree of creativity of the metaphor. we also suggest how the two different types of metaphors co-occur in order to create extended metaphors and achieve two different communicative goals. 5.1. choice and function of typical conventional metaphors with regard to the difference between conventional and culturally adapted new metaphors, we have seen in section 4 above that conventional metaphors are twice as frequent in the corpus than culturally adapted new metaphors. with regard to compatibility with specialised registers, conventional metaphors were identified by our informant as being possible in such registers. we argue that the function of conventional metaphors is, on the one hand, that of reinforcing the world view and knowledge of specialised infectious diseases are sleeping monsters ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 71 type of metaphors by conventionality-newness conventional metaphor culturally adapted new metaphor total a. total occurrences 239 (66.6%) 120 (33.4%) 359 (100%) b. different metaphors 175 (66.2%) 89 (33.7%) 264 (100%) table 4. types of metaphor by degree of conventionality vs. newness. 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 71 scientists, and, on the other, that of presenting as a background framework metaphorical mappings which are conventionalised in standard academic discourse. in this sense, the general function of these metaphors within this type of scientific discourse can be said to be mainly expository, though they also have a covert persuasive function in their appeal to specialised scientists and to a general academic audience. examples (1), (2) and (3) illustrate the use of conventional metaphors as specialised terms. these are examples of what are traditionally known as “constitutive” metaphors, in that the metaphorical expression is a key term in the theory which explains the given phenomenon. (1) cell suicide in health and disease … the ability of individual cells to self-destruct when they become superfluous or disordered. this critical process, today called apoptosis, or programmed cell death, was overlooked for decades. (imm021)3 (2) cd4+ t cells fall into two different categories: naive cells and memory cells. (imm008) (3) a second set, the helper t cells that seem to coordinate the immunologic assault, bears the protein cd4 instead. (imm031) in example (1) we find the metaphors a cell is a living entity that commits suicide in the title of the article, and a cell is a machine (“programmed cell death”). these metaphors provide interesting examples of the process by which a new metaphor is introduced in an academic field and is later substituted by the specialised term, in this case, “apoptosis”. thus, our informant explained that while the expression “cell suicide” was possibly used as a specialised term when the phenomenon was first discovered, at present, this phenomenon is referred to technically either by the term “apoptosis”, or by the metaphorical expression “programmed cell death”. thus, the expression “cell suicide” has become informal and non-specialised. the self-destruction metaphor can be understood both in connection to the “suicide” metaphor and to the “programmed death metaphor”. in example (2) we observe another instance of metaphorical expressions which are conventionally used as specialised terms “naive cells and memory cells”. these metaphors refer to whether the cell has had previous contact with an external microorganism or not. as we shall see, memory cells are also referred to in the abstracts in a non-specialised way as l. hidalgo downing & b. kraljevic mujic ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-8272 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 72 “experienced cells”. the expression “helper t cell” used in example (3) is also specialised. examples of highly conventionalised metaphors which form part of the specialised register of immunology are those in examples (4) to (10): (4) we see all comers in the midmanhattan hiv clinic where i work, from healthy asymptomatic carriers of the virus to emaciated men and women suffering from the late stages of aids. (imm034) (5) drugs employing antibodies that recognize proteins found only on cancerous cells tend to work more effectively when paired with a second type of antibody that targets immune cells. (imm034) (6) so far in the u.s. alone, aids has killed more than 350,000 people. (imm060) (7) yet at the same time, this mechanism creates a problem for the individual: some of the molecules to which the system can react are constituents of the body’s normal tissues. because such responses would be harmful, the immune system must go through a series of modifications that prevent selfdestruction. this process is known as tolerance induction. (imm051) (8) and destruction of cd4 cells renders a patient vulnerable to unusual opportunistic infections (ois) that are rarely seen in healthy humans. most patients who die from aids succumb to one or more ois. (imm002) (9) …the typically long delay between infection and the onset of aids. (imm040) (10) … mutations in the gene that codes for emerin. (imm019) in examples (4) to (10) we observe instances of personification (“antibodies that recognize proteins”, “aids has killed”, “opportunistic infections”) object (“carriers of the virus”), and machine (“work more effectively”, “go through a series of modifications”) ontological metaphors, and of journey (“late stages of aids”, “typically long delay between infection and onset of aids”), war (“antibody that targets immune cells”, “renders a patient vulnerable”) and language code (“the gene that codes”) structural metaphors. numerous conventional metaphors identified in our abstracts are conventional metaphors which form part of standard academic discourse. in this sense, we find typical examples of personification (“immunology embraces”, “immunologic research is pointing toward”) and infectious diseases are sleeping monsters ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 73 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 73 reification or object (“to fit immunology into the classical paradigm”) metaphors to refer to scientific research and theories, as in examples (11) and (12): (11) yet the field of immunology embraces more than just the nature and prevention of infections. immunologic research is pointing toward new approaches for treating cancer and diseases that result from lapses or malfunctions in the immune response. (imm047) (12) in that sense, it is easy to fit immunology into the classical paradigm of the unidirectionality of science, proceeding from the basic to the applied. (imm045) example (13) illustrates the use of the metaphor scientific research is a journey (“step by step”), in addition to other metaphors discussed above. example (13) also provides an interesting example of the conventional use of a metaphor typical of academic writing in general terms, scientific theory is a painting (“depicted in broad brush strokes”, “sketched out”) in this particular register of immunology: (13) depicted in broad brush strokes, the hiv virus does its damage by killing vital immune cells, called cd4+ t cells. now for the first time scientists have sketched out in much finer detail how this process occurs, step by step. (imm006) we argue that these metaphors, because they have become conventionalized, do not constitute creative uses of language any longer. because of their frequency and their relation to key underlying themes in immunological research, these metaphors occur both at the micro-propositional level and at the higher discourse level as key metaphors, as we shall show in section 5.3. 5.2. choice and function of culturally adapted new metaphors within the category of culturally adapted new metaphors, we have distinguished two sub-types of metaphors depending on the following criteria: on the one hand, we have identified metaphors which seem to be instances of expressions which are becoming conventionalized for the specific register of texts such as scientific american, in that they occur several times in the corpus and form part of conventional ontological and structural underlying key metaphors, such as personification, object, l. hidalgo downing & b. kraljevic mujic ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-8274 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 74 journey and war. these metaphors, however, are not expected in specialised texts, according to our informant. such metaphors evoke sociocultural information which is accessible from frame knowledge which introduces slight shifts in the register in order to adapt the concepts to specific socio-cultural situations which are either simpler or with which the general reader will be familiar. a typical and recurrent example of this kind of metaphor is the expression “killer t cell” in example (14): (14) these killer t cells attack the rapidly dividing cells. (imm052) this expression was initially used as a specialised term (for example, it can be found in publications of the 1980s) but is hardly used in this way in specialized publications. the corresponding specialised term is “natural killer” or the latin term cytotoxic. curiously, the specialised term “natural killer” –also metaphorical but completely conventionalized in present-day specialised discourse in immunology– does not occur in our corpus, while the expression “killer t cell” occurs several times to refer to a type of lymphocites. this seems to suggest that the expression “killer t cell” is favoured over the specialised term “natural killer” because the former may have a more informal, more affective connotation which triggers the persuasive and pedagogical functions rather than the merely informative one. the second type of culturally adapted new metaphor we have identified is a type of metaphor which occurs only once in the corpus, is not expected in specialised publications, indicates a radical shift in the kind of socio-cultural knowledge that is evoked and shows a highly creative use of language. an example of this kind of metaphor is found in example (15) to refer to the treatment of a disease: (15) (…) the monster was not slain but only asleep. (imm046) in examples such as these, a completely different discourse register is drawn from (fairy tale stories) in order to describe an abstract or complex concept in a highly evaluative and subjective way. these metaphors tap our knowledge of myths and our feelings and emotions related to deeply ingrained cultural constructs. we have found that the difference between culturally adapted new metaphors which are in the process of conventionalization for this register, such as a t cell is a killer, and highly creative new metaphors such infectious diseases are sleeping monsters ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 75 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 75 as an infectious disease is a sleeping monster, is not a clear cut distinction, but rather it can be described as a cline from more conventional less creative instances to less conventional more creative instances. in between the two extremes there are numerous interesting examples of metaphors which draw from familiar source domains in the field of immunology, such as war, and introduce interesting variations according to recent socio-cultural experience. a good example of this kind of metaphor is the one found in example (16): (16) normally, the immune system is able to distinguish friend from foe, ignoring the body’s own components and attacking foreign invaders. unfortunately, the immunologic weapons can, like friendly fire, sometimes turn against the self, causing severe illness and even death. (imm029) in example (16) we can observe the use of a variation of the war metaphor by evoking recent cultural knowledge on war, the concept of “friendly fire”, which co-occurs with other war metaphors. this metaphor can be distinguished from culturally adapted metaphors which are on the more conventional end of the cline, such as “attacking”, “immunologic weapons”, “foreign invaders”, also within the war overarching theme. in fact, these metaphors occur several times in the corpus. examples (17) and (18) illustrate further occurrences of culturally adapted new metaphors which may be classified as intermediate stages of creativity and departure from expected register features. most of them introduce modifications at the micro-propositional level within common overarching themes, such as war and journey: (17) naive immune cells with “false memories” fight like old pros t cells are the killers of the immune system, but like all good soldiers, they need experience before they can perform effectively. indeed, t cells that have fought a particular infection before are much better than their inexperienced counterparts at clearing it from the body. (…) researchers have discovered that some seemingly naive t cells are just as effective against infection as their experienced brethren. (imm009) (18) retroviruses cross little bridges to infect new cells moving on up: yale researchers, using electron microscopy, have visualized viruses traveling from infected cells to healthy counterparts via l. hidalgo downing & b. kraljevic mujic ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-8276 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 76 tiny bridges (…) previous studies found that viruses are ferried from infected to healthy cells by dendritic cells, which are cells that can transport germs without becoming infected themselves (…) infected cells draw the filopodia in and actually suck in the tips of the filaments. then, according to mothes, “viruses ‘surf ’ along filopodia to efficiently infect cells by using the underlying retrograde flow of action”. (imm005) thus, example (17) illustrates the use of very specific metaphorical mappings within the war metaphor, which include the personification of the immune system cells as “good soldiers”. example (18) shows variations of the journey metaphor with adaptations to specific socio-cultural knowledge, such as “bridges”, “ferries” and “surfing”. example (19) illustrates an interesting case, in which a complex abstract source domain, ict technologies and information metaphor, is used to make sense of a complex target domain, how immune response takes place. the fact that an abstract domain is used to make another abstract domain familiar can be explained because the field of ict technologies, although abstract and complex is much more familiar to the general reader than the specific process involved in immune response. (19) cellular zip codes now new research, reported today in the proceedings of the national academy of sciences, reveals that just as zip codes direct mail to particular communities, special molecules that sit on cell surfaces guide the cells through the bloodstream to their tissue destinations. (imm016) in this example we find the metaphors molecules are zip codes, cells are mail and tissues are communities. some of the culturally adapted new metaphors which can be found half way on the creativity and unexpectedness cline are metaphors which use expressions which are typically more informal and colloquial than the language that characterises more specialised texts on immunology. a good example is illustrated in example (20): (20) hiv attacks both experienced and naive t cells in response to hiv infection, the body deploys troops of combatants known as cd4+ t cells to carry out a counter attack. somewhere down the line, infectious diseases are sleeping monsters ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 77 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 77 however, hiv gains the upper hand, dismantling the t-cell system and leaving the body defenseless against the opportunistic infections that characterize aids. exactly how hiv brings the immune system to its knees has been the focus of much research. (imm008) in example (20) we find informal idiomatic expressions such as “gains the upper hand” and “brings the immune system to its knees”, within the general frame of the war metaphor. a further interesting feature of this extract is the co-occurrence of the specialised conventional metaphor “naïve t cells” together with the non-conventional expression “experienced t cells”. finally, we have identified a few very creative instances of metaphorical expression, which involve the use of metaphors which draw from source domains which constitute radical departures from the typical expected themes of immunology. these examples of new metaphors are listed in examples (21) to (24). all of them are ontological metaphors involving personification or object metaphors. the metaphor heads each of the extracts: (22) the immune system is an alchemist’s dream the immune system is an alchemist’s dream. its multifaceted methods of attacking such intruders as bacteria or viruses offer researchers an abundance of compounds and molecular strategies that can extend the scope of medical intervention. using our knowledge of the immune system, we can strengthen its response to a given antigen, direct it to combat an overlooked foe or, in cases of organ rejection, forestall misguided attacks. when successful, these attempts give rise to a kind of gold in therapies to prevent and to treat disease. (imm054) (22) the early immune system is an early vintage wine more than 500 million years ago a set of specialized enzymes and proteins evolved to defend our primitive ancestors against assaults from the outside world. if a microbe breached the shell of some cambrianera fauna, the members of this early vintage immune system would stage a savage but coordinated attack on these interlopers. (imm025) (23) infectious diseases are sleeping monsters throughout the world infectious diseases have always been the leading cause of human death. malaria, tuberculosis, infectious diarrhea and many other illnesses still exact an awful toll in suffering and mortality, particularly in the developing world. for a time, it was widely assumed that infectious diseases had been brought under control in at least the l. hidalgo downing & b. kraljevic mujic ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-8278 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 78 industrialized nations. yet the appearance of aids and the recent resurgence of tuberculosis, including the evolution of strains resistant to many drugs, vividly illustrate that the monster was not slain but merely asleep. (imm046) (24) a vaccine is the magic bullet what they‘ve been looking for, for nearly 20 years, has been a quick kill – the ‘magic bullet‘ that‘s going to provide a stable vaccine for malaria, says john b. dame, an associate professor in the department of infectious diseases at the university of florida. (imm030) 5.3. extended metaphors, megametaphors and the interplay between conventional and culturally adapted and new metaphors to end this discussion, we wish to illustrate the discourse structuring of extended metaphors and the relations between micro-propositional conventional and culturally adapted new metaphors. figures 1 and 2 illustrate how the megametaphors the relationship between the human beings and microbial world is war and disease is a journey are structured. in figure 1, we observe how the war megametaphor takes place by means of a combination of conventional metaphors (fighting off a disease is a battle, bacteria are dangerous enemies, immunotherapy is a weapon), culturally adapted metaphors (autoimmune disease is friendly fire, a virus is a culprit, bacteria are overlooked foes) and culturally adapted new metaphors (a vaccine is the magic bullet). figure 2 shows a similar structure for the megametaphor a disease is a journey, with conventional metaphors such as scientific research is a journey, therapy is a destination and evolution is a journey, culturally adapted metaphors such as the hiv virus is a ferry passenger, hiv infection is a ferry trip and t cells are hiv’s hiding place and culturally adapted new metaphors (a virus is a surfer). infectious diseases are sleeping monsters ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 79 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 79 l. hidalgo downing & b. kraljevic mujic ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-8280 figure 1. the relationship between human beings and microbial world is a war extended metaphor structure – an idealized view. n ew m et ap ho r autoimmune disease is friendly fire a virus is a culprit a vaccine is the magic bullet bacteria are overlooked foes fighting off a disease is a battle bacteria are dangerous enemies immunotherapy is a weapon the relationship between human beings and the microbial world is a war c ul tu ra lly ad ap te d m et ap ho r c on ve nt io na l m et ap ho r m eg am et ap ho r figure 2. disease is a journey extended metaphor structure – an idealized view. n ew m et ap ho r t cells are hiv’s hiding place the hiv virus is a ferry passenger a virus is a surfer hiv infection is a ferry trip scientific research is a journey therapy is a destination evolution is a journey disease is a journey c ul tu ra lly ad ap te d m et ap ho r c on ve nt io na l m et ap ho r m eg am et ap ho r 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 80 6. conclusion in this paper we have examined the metaphors in a corpus of abstracts on immunology and have proposed a revision of the distinction between conventional and new metaphors. thus, we have argued that abstracts on immunology addressed to the general public, such as those examined in scientific american, characteristically display a combination of two main types of metaphors according to degree of conventionality, but that the less conventional metaphors also show a cline in newness, unexpectedness and creativity. while standard conventional metaphors such as viruses are aggressors, the immune system is a machine, scientific research is a journey occur more frequently in the corpus and are expected in more specialised registers as well as in scientific american, what we have defined as “culturally adapted new metaphors” occur less frequently in the corpus and would not be expected in a more specialised publication. however, we have noticed differences in degrees of newness and creativity between metaphors such as a t cell is a killer, an external microorganism is an invader, which seem to be conventionalized for this register, and other more creative metaphors which occur only once, such as infectious diseases are sleeping monsters, which evokes, through personification, a very different register as a source domain for the metaphor. finally, we have argued that the different types of metaphors perform different discourse functions in the abstracts. thus conventional metaphors perform an overt expository function and a covert persuasive function directed at specialised readers, while culturally adapted new metaphors are much more evaluative and affect-loaded and have an overt expository and covert persuasive function directed at the non-specialist reader. (revised paper received september 2008) references infectious diseases are sleeping monsters ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-82 81 boyd, r. (1993). “metaphor and theory change: what is “metaphor” a metaphor for?” in a. ortony (ed.), metaphor and thought, 481-532. cambridge: cambridge university press. brown, t. (2003). making truth: metaphor in science. chicago: university of illinois press. charteris-black, j. (2004). corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. london: palgrave macmillan. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago: university of chicago press. lakoff, g. & m. turner (1989). more than cool reason. chicago: university of chicago press. 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 81 dr. laura hidalgo downing is senior lecturer at the universidad autónoma of madrid. she is the author of negation, text worlds and discourse: the pragmatics of fiction (ablex, 2000). her research interests include discourse pragmatics, stylistics and language variation. dr. blanca kraljevic mujic is senior lecturer at the rey juan carlos university of madrid where she teaches courses on english for specific purposes. areas of research interest include multimodal metaphor and metonymy, advertising discourse and intercultural communication. notes 1 the research carried out for this paper is part of a research project financed by uam-cam for the year 2008 (ccg07-uam/hum-1829). 2 our informant is a phd. in biochemistry by the universidad complutense de madrid (his thesis is entitled t-cell receptor usage in pathologic processes, year 2000). he has worked in immunology related diseases from 1993 to 2003. from 2003 to 2006, he has worked on the tridimensional structure of allergens. his level of english is intermediate, with a good understanding of specialised academic discourse in english. we wish to express our thanks to the informant for his invaluable collaboration. 3 the code number used in each example indicates the topic (immunology) and the number of abstract in the corpus. thus “imm001” stands for abstract 1 in the corpus of abstracts of immunology. l. hidalgo downing & b. kraljevic mujic ibérica 17 [2009]: 61-8282 parkinson, j. & r. adendorff (2004). “the use of popular science articles in teaching scientific literacy”. english for specific purposes 23: 379-396. reeves, c. (2005). the language of science. london: routledge. werth, p. (1994). “extended metaphor – a text world account”. language and literature 3: 79-103. werth, p. (1999). text worlds: representing conceptual space in discourse. london: longman. 05 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:34 página 82 iberica 13 metaphors of coronavirus: invisible enemy or zombie apocalypse? jonathan charteris-black london: palgrave macmillan, 2021. 301 pages. isbn 978-3030-85106-4 the book metaphors of coronavirus: invisible enemy or zombie apocalypse? makes a valuable contribution to the field of cognitive linguistics and the discourse surrounding the covid-19 pandemic. drawing upon haidt’s moral foundations theory (2012), it examines the metaphors regarding covid-19 in the british press and offers insights into the moral bases for people’s decision-making during the pandemic. chapter 1 serves as an introduction, clarifying the background and the aim of the work. the aim of the research is to investigate the metaphors and allegories related to coronavirus pandemic so as to find the moral frames of people’s actions. it also intends to explore how journalists and politicians draw on these moral frames in the pandemic era to motivate public actions and attitudes. charteris-black adopts the moral foundations theory as the theoretical framework, which consists of six pairs of opposites, including care and harm, fairness and cheating, loyalty and betrayal, authority and subversion, sanctity and degradation, and liberty and oppression. charteris-black argues that the opposite of honesty and dishonesty, which is overlooked in haidt’s theory, is in effect a crucial frame that deserves attention in the pandemic discourses, as it pertains closely to species survival. chapters 2 and 3 focus on prevalent metaphors including the “war” frame, the “fire” frame and the “force of nature” frame. in chapter 2, charterisblack explains that the reason why the “war” frame becomes dominant during the pandemic is that “war” is the most prototypical crisis requiring concerted social efforts with life-and-death outcomes. by arousing the moral intuition of care and harm, the “war” metaphor is significant in acknowledging the urgency of the disease and calling for a joint public response. however, some contend that the pandemic is socially and psychologically unlike a war, and an overuse of “war” metaphor has rendered it cliched and less effective (see papers in musolff et al. 2022). by reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 354-358 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.354 354 j c searching “coronaviruses” in the “uk national newspaper” section of the nexis database from 1st february 2020 to 28th february 2021, the study finds that the frequency of the lexical field of “war” in british press changed with the gravity of the pandemic. an empirical online survey was designed to study how people’s behaviour was influenced by metaphor, revealing that public beliefs and responses to the pandemic were not directly or consciously influenced by metaphor. chapter 3 deals with the “fire” and the “force of nature” frames. the fire frame is regarded as an effective metaphor for public health communication purposes, because fire and illness have been long associated with each other for their shared embodied experience of heat and the historical use of fire for sterilization. by activating moral frames of care and harm, fairness and cheating, and loyalty and betrayal, the fire frame serves to call for public action, arouse people’s emotional response, warn the public against improper behaviours, and solicit support for or objection to specific policies. another type of metaphor, the “force of nature” metaphor, construes the coronavirus to be caused by non-human rather than human agency and conveys fatalism about the pandemic. the study also finds that the “force of nature” frame is associated with a preference for the passive voice, because this frame usually topicalizes the affected entity rather than the disease. chapter 4 examines the frames derived from science fiction, including the “zombie apocalypse” frame and the “we are the virus” meme, in which the pandemic is framed as a viral invasion. these science fiction metaphors facilitate the articulation of uncertainty and the exploration of moral issues during the pandemic crisis. charteris-black first explores the zombie metaphor in british press and twitter, identifying a large number of newspaper reports containing the zombie frame. as people have developed a predominant interest in epidemiology due to the zombie movies, this frame can be exploited to motivate people’s preparedness for the pandemic. in chapter 5, the author investigates a range of metaphor-based expressions that are related to science, including “following the science”, “herd immunity”, “flattening the curve”, “spikes” and “circuit breaker”. these metaphors are adopted to render the science of epidemiology intelligible and accessible to the public, and encourage their compliance with the government’s counter-pandemic policies. by tracing the origin of these metaphor-based scientific terms, charteris-black examines the rhetorical effectiveness according to the moral frame of honesty and dishonesty. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 354-358 355 chapter 6 explores the cultural history of disease-related confinement and how the experience influences language and public cognition. “cordon sanitaire” and “quarantine” are traditional reactions to prevent infectious disease from spreading. however, they often caused conflicts between the moral foundations of care and harm, and liberty and oppression in historical praxis. the author also demonstrates how metaphor and metonym relating to “iron lung”, a treatment for polio patients since the 1930s, can be used to highlight the risks of non-preventive actions against covid-19. chapter 7 continues with containment metaphors, for instance, “bubble”, “cocoon”, “protective ring”, “bunker” and “petri dish”. this chapter elaborates on these container frames by considering the nature of the containers, the contents in them, the perspectives on them and the agency of the subjects who fill the containers. the moral intuitions on which these issues are based are further discussed. the rhetorical purposes of these containment metaphors include creating social cohesion, protecting people from harm, demanding compliance with the policies by the majority through expressing shared values and conveying moral intuitions such as care and harm, and loyalty and fairness. chapter 8 centers on metonymy, which according to the author can provide mental access to moral attitudes. the metonym “mask” activates the sense of protection. it appeals to the moral intuitions of care and harm, authority and subversion, loyalty and betrayal, and sanctity and degradation in different cultures. the hazmat suit is seen as a situationspecific metonym for complete protection and is associated with the peaking of covid-19 infections. based on the moral foundation of care, the rainbow metaphor communicates a sense of hope and social cohesion and displays people’s support for the efforts made by national health service workers. chapter 9 discusses how metaphor is used as a discursive strategy for misinformation concerning covid-19. the author introduces magic-related metaphors and illustrates how they are utilized to evaluate covid-19 remedies, sometimes by dismissing them as childish and unfeasible. “miracle cure” is another metaphor adopted to describe seeking for a remedy for covid-19. it is often employed by journalists in an ironical way to expose and condemn misinformation and its perpetrators; this is done by appealing to the moral intuition of honesty and dishonesty. the author then focuses on metaphors in proversus anti-vaccine discourses. the analysis demonstrates how advocates of vaccination activate various frames including fairness, reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 354-358356 honesty and care and harm to promote optimism about the vaccine. by contrast, the anti-vaccine discourse adopts “human-as-animal” metaphor and arouses the moral frames of sanctity, degradation, liberty and care and harm. chapter 10 concludes the whole research. in this part, charterisblack further highlights the importance of honesty in aiding human survival; he advises that only by searching for a common moral framework and maintaining trust in public medicine can humans survive better. in the end, the author reemphasizes that metaphorical language plays a vital role for leaders in regaining trust. with a detailed analysis of the prevailing metaphors in a wide array of epidemic discourses in british press and political speeches by adopting haidt’s moral foundations theory, this work contributes to a better understanding of people’s moral decision-making in a time of pandemic crisis. it explores how journalists and politicians draw on moral frames induced by metaphor to influence people’s decision making. one interesting departure in this volume is that the author also conducted a survey to gauge how far people’s behaviour is indeed influenced by different metaphors. however, it is unclear how the 100 respondents in the survey were selected and sampled: more specific selecting and sampling criteria would make the results more persuasive. a further issue concerns the argument that honesty/dishonesty should be added as one of the moral foundations because honesty is believed to play a vital role in increasing the possibility of human survival, especially at a time of pandemic crisis. nevertheless, charteris-black does not illustrate what honest language exactly is through examples. in view of the important role played by language in displaying honesty and recouping trust, offering instances of honest metaphors would facilitate deeper understanding of this notion. in general, this book is a very timely, innovative and comprehensive work on metaphors of coronavirus. in particular, the crisis of pandemic provides an opportunity to delve into the moral foundations underlying metaphors that have the potential to influence public behaviour and to demonstrate how important language is for human survival. by investigating the moral intuitions reflected in a large corpus of coronavirus metaphors in british press and political speeches, this volume adds to our understanding of metaphor and cognitive linguistics, media and political communication, and critical discourse studies. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 354-358 357 received 28 february 2023 accepted 11 april 2023 reviewed by yue cheng & jiayu wang central china normal university (china) jwang@ccnu.edu.cn references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 45 (2023): 354-358358 haidt, j. (2012). the righteous mind: why good people are divided by politics and religion. pantheon books. musolff, a., breeze, r., kondo, k., & vilar-lluch, s. (2022) (eds.). pandemic and crisis discourse. communicating covid-19 and public health strategy. bloomsbury. iberica 13 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen la guía de viajes se configura como uno de los géneros discursivos más específicos del turismo; entre sus reglas constitutivas se destaca, además del carácter regulativo, el estilo objetivo e impersonal. en las últimas décadas, el advenimiento de la comunicación a través de la red ha tenido importantes repercusiones en la caracterización de este género, modificando algunos de sus aspectos convencionales. el objetivo de este artículo es el de evaluar las principales transformaciones ocurridas en el género de las guías de viaje en la era del turismo 2.0, mediante el análisis de algunos ejemplos extraídos de textos turísticos recientes. ante todo, el entorno virtual modifica la presentación, la distribución y la cantidad de las informaciones que se transmiten; asimismo, se esfuma la frontera entre la guía descriptiva tradicional y los materiales informativos de tipo promocional. por otra parte, las cualidades sociales de la web 2.0 crean en el destinatario un nuevo horizonte de expectativas, propiciando la realización de guías “cooperativas”, al explotar la participación de la comunidad de los viajeros. como consecuencia de estas innovaciones, el estilo objetivo, pretendidamente imparcial, propio de la guía tradicional, se abre a la evaluación subjetiva y al elemento experiencial, ambos procedentes de tradiciones discursivas contiguas (reportaje, literatura de viajes), así como de otros cibergéneros, tales como el foro y el blog, acentuando la hibridación genérica. palabras clave: géneros, cibergéneros, guía de viaje, análisis del discurso. resumen t h e tr av e l g u id e a nd tou ri s m 2 . 0 : th e b l urr e d b ou nd ar ie s of a g e n re the travel guide is one of the most typical genres in tourism discourse. among its main constitutive features one may find its prescriptive character and an guía de viaje y turismo 2.0: los borrosos confines de un género maria vittoria calvi università degli studi di milano (italy) maria.calvi@unimi.it 15 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 15 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 maria vittoria calvi objective and impersonal style. in the last few decades, the rise of internet communication has had an important impact on the configuration of this genre and has changed some of its conventional aspects. this paper aims to evaluate the main transformations that have occurred in this genre in the era of tourism 2.0, by means of the analysis of some excerpts extracted from recent tourism texts. first of all, migration to a virtual environment has changed the presentation, distribution and quantity of information transmitted; besides, the boundaries between the traditional descriptive guidebook and the promotional leaflet have become blurred. on the other hand, the social qualities of web 2.0 generate a new expectation horizon and promote the creation of new “cooperative” travel guides, exploiting the participation of the community of travellers. due to these transformations, the objective and neutral style of the traditional guidebook has shifted towards subjective evaluation and personal narrative. these new elements, coming both from traditional genres, such as reportage and travel writing, and the new cybergenres, such as forums and blogs, have contributed to intensifying the hybridization between different genres. keywords: genres, cybergenres, travel guide, discourse analysis. 1. introducción para poder evaluar las transformaciones ocurridas en la guía de viaje en la era del turismo 2.0, cabe recordar, aunque sea brevemente, el origen y los rasgos peculiares de este género. la guía de viajes (gv) se configura como uno de los géneros textuales más específicos del turismo ya desde el nacimiento, en el siglo xix, de este ámbito de práctica social y profesional; a partir de los años 30 del siglo xix, los nombres de karl baedeker en alemania y john murray iii en inglaterra están indisolublemente asociados a este fenómeno incipiente. las primeras guías pueden considerarse como textos fundadores del discurso del turismo, capaces de expresar los valores propios de dicho sector. esta concomitancia subraya la vinculación entre el desarrollo de una esfera profesional y la creación de un género (genre), entendido como clase de textos dotados de un propósito comunicativo relevante para la comunidad discursiva que lo promueve. el surgimiento y desarrollo de una actividad social, en efecto, favorece la implantación de nuevas prácticas de lenguaje, que derivan en la creación de nuevos géneros, en los que se reconfiguran los modos de organización del discurso disponibles (bajtin 1978 [1998]; adam 2001; charaudeau, 2012; miranda, 2012: 75)1. 16 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 16 los géneros del discurso o géneros de texto”2 son espacios lingüísticos creados socialmente, en los que varían la organización textual, los roles de los interlocutores, la carga informativa, los rasgos lingüísticos recurrentes y las implicaciones extralingüísticas. se pueden clasificar a partir de criterios intratextuales (que comprenden, por ejemplo, las marcas lingüísticas que los caracterizan y la estructura), extratextuales (que se refieren a los rasgos situacionales, las características de los participantes, las comunidades de habla que los utilizan, etc.) y funcionales (que permiten enfocar el propósito comunicativo, las expectativas de los destinatarios, la evolución de los géneros dentro de las comunidades discursivas, etc.) (shiro, 2012: 7-8). ante esta pluralidad de perspectivas, abogamos por las interpretaciones sociocomunicativas e interaccionistas, que conciben los géneros como prácticas comunicativas situadas (situated communicative practices, hanks, 1987), marcos para abordar la actividad discursiva, y también como “instrumentos disponibles y necesarios para la organización del lenguaje en unidades de comunicación” (miranda, 2012: 74). asimismo, tomamos en consideración las interpretaciones cognitivas – que los entienden como esquemas de carácter procesual y multidimensional, que plasman el sistema de conocimientos adquirido a través de la socialización (ciapuscio, 2012: 9192) – y las aportaciones de los enfoques sistémico-funcionales, muy productivos en la descripción de los rasgos de textualidad y las variaciones en el registro (martin, 1997; taboada, 2012). los géneros son cristalizaciones momentáneas, relativamente estables, que evolucionan de acuerdo con las transformaciones de las actividades humanas y los recursos lingüísticos. en el caso de la gv, es evidente que su punto de arranque coincide con la creación de nuevas comunidades de habla – los profesionales del turismo, así como los expertos de los lugares, siendo esta la identidad discursiva más peculiar de los autores de las gv –, que se plantean el propósito de acompañar al turista en sus desplazamientos, proporcionándole tanto documentación sobre los lugares como información práctica. la guía va definiendo sus rasgos genéricos a través de relaciones “interdiscursivas” (fairclough, 1995; adam, 2001; bhatia, 2010) con otros géneros existentes, como los libros de viajes (santulli, 2007), y se convierte en una nueva práctica discursiva, generadora de significados y de expectativas, y en escenario para la producción de valores sociales. es bien conocido el impacto de las guías en el comportamiento de los turistas, tal y como demostró roland barthes (1957) en su conocido estudio de la guide bleu de españa; la gv se guía de viaje y turismo 2.0 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 17 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 17 convierte en agente del control social que la industria del turismo ejerce sobre el público (dann, 1996). en las primeras etapas, el turismo era un fenómeno minoritario y las guías estaban destinadas a un público culto, con una enorme demanda de conocimientos en distintas facetas, tales como arte, geografía, historia, cultura y condiciones económicas de los lugares. en la época del turismo de masas, se alcanzó la máxima imposición de conductas e ideologías, gracias también al crecimiento de géneros contiguos a la gv, como folletos y otros materiales promocionales emitidos por las instituciones y organizaciones turísticas. con el tiempo, han ido cambiando los actores sociales, los acontecimientos, los condicionantes de la producción-recepción, y la gv se ha ido remodelando. los nuevos turistas 2.0 son participantes más activos que el turista de masas y tienen una mayor demanda de información, sobre todo práctica, lo cual los lleva a elegir qué rasgos del género poner en primer plano: sus expectativas generan innovaciones en la arquitectura textual (hanks, 1987; suau jiménez, 2012). a partir de estos postulados teóricos, y tras una asidua frecuentación de sitios y portales de turismo en lengua española3, me propongo evaluar las transformaciones del género guía en la era del turismo 2.0, ponderando los condicionantes del cambio y los rasgos emergentes. me planteo las preguntas siguientes: ¿la gv sigue ocupando el mismo lugar en la clasificación de géneros del turismo (calvi, 2010)? su migración a internet, máxime en la era del turismo 2.0, ¿ha alterado sus rasgos prototípicos? por supuesto, lejos de proponer resultados definitivos, solo cabe ofrecer una instantánea de un género en trance de continua transformación. lo que sí es cierto es que las fronteras entre la guía y los géneros limítrofes se hacen cada vez más borrosas; los rasgos peculiares no desaparecen, sino que se mezclan con otros, acentuando la hibridación discursiva. 2. rasgos prototípicos de la guía de viaje desde su nacimiento, como ocurre con cualquier género discursivo, la gv fue asumiendo su perfil ante los géneros preexistentes de los que derivaba: diarios y literatura de viajes, libros de geografía e historia del arte, y manuales prácticos para viajeros. frente a los primeros, la gv abandona la dimensión autobiográfica para centrarse en una descripción, pretendidamente objetiva, maria vittoria calvi ibérica 31 (2016): 15-3818 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 18 de los lugares, construyendo su lenguaje mediante una combinación de distintos léxicos especializados; la experiencia, sin embargo, se mantiene latente en el entramado textual (calvi, 2006: 32-37; santulli, 2007). de los libros de geografía conserva la riqueza de saber enciclopédico, que selecciona de acuerdo con el planteamiento editorial; con los manuales para viajeros, comparte la inclusión de informaciones prácticas: ambos elementos – secciones descriptivas con contenidos disciplinares y consejos prácticos – están sistemáticamente presentes, aunque en combinaciones distintas. asimismo, se incorporan materiales complementarios, tales como mapas, dibujos y fotografías. en este nuevo ámbito de práctica del lenguaje, el enunciador adopta la identidad de “experto de los lugares”, que cumple el rol de divulgar conocimientos sobre los mismos, así como facilitar información práctica para que el destinatario pueda desenvolverse en ellos. al hacerlo, toma posición sobre diferentes aspectos: de esta manera, la gv se convierte en un instrumento de promoción selectiva de los destinos turísticos, y el emisor en agente que opera en el campo de la actividad turística, destacando lo que merece ser visitado, y contribuyendo a crear y reforzar los estereotipos (baider, burger y goutsos, 2004; antelmi, held y santulli, 2007). de acuerdo con santulli (2007), el rasgo más pertinente de la gv está representado por la función prescriptiva – implícita en la misma denominación del género – que siempre obedece a una determinada ideología o concepción del turismo; la tipología predominante es el discurso procedimental, con especial atención por las formas de la recomendación (gallardo, 2009). también son característicos los recursos de impersonalidad, que atenúan la fuerza prescriptiva y permiten la transparencia del discurso, dotándolo de objetividad. entre ellos, señalamos el ocultamiento del enunciador, rasgo prototípico del discurso especializado (ciapuscio, 1992). al rechazar la experiencia personal, la guía se instala en un eterno presente; la evaluación se lleva a cabo mediante el instrumento textual de la descripción, en la que se remarcan los aspectos positivos, sin escatimar alguna nota crítica. en resumen, la gv define sus parámetros estilísticos y ritualizaciones discursivas siguiendo en buena medida las pautas del discurso especializado (o, mejor dicho, del discurso semi-especializado de carácter pedagógico) – con el que comparte la neutralidad emotiva, la primacía de la función referencial, la búsqueda de precisión y claridad – pero abre amplios espacios discursivos a la transmisión de interpretaciones ideológicas y culturales. guía de viaje y turismo 2.0 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 19 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 19 desde el punto de vista material, la gv se presenta en una amplia gama de formatos y tamaños; es, en todo caso, un objeto social reconocible, que se convierte en “índice” del turista, es decir, en un signo que se encuentra en relación de contigüidad con el turista: aunque cabe su lectura antes del viaje y la sucesiva conservación, la guía es fundamentalmente un compañero de viaje, un objeto identificador del turista junto con otros como la inseparable cámara. la gv es, en rigor, un producto editorial en forma de libro; el formato desplegable o de cuadernillo, en cambio, caracteriza al “folleto”, es decir, una publicación de distribución gratuita, elaborada por instituciones públicas y privadas, también encargada de divulgar conocimientos sobre los lugares e informaciones prácticas, aunque de forma menos exhaustiva. cambian los actores y la situación general de comunicación: a las funciones informativa y prescriptiva, predominantes en la guía, se suma en el folleto la intención marcadamente persuasiva, que comporta la adopción de diferentes parámetros estilísticos. se utiliza preferentemente el discurso impersonal, pero aumentan los recursos de implicación, directa o indirecta, del interlocutor, sobre todo en la vertiente emotiva. se da primacía a la evaluación positiva, con una acumulación de formas metafóricas, léxico culto y adjetivos calificativos, que moldean el tono típicamente “eufórico” de la promoción turística (dann, 1996). guías y folletos, por otra parte, se posicionan en una variada constelación o sistema de géneros (bazerman, 1994), que se distribuyen en las distintas etapas del proceso turístico (calvi, 2011: 26-27). entre los más cercanos a las finalidades de las guías, se encuentran los “reportajes” y “artículos” de las revistas especializadas, que no descartan la mirada subjetiva de la literatura de viajes. 3. evolución del turismo y tecnologías digitales el concepto de género nos obliga a tomar en consideración la evolución histórica del turismo, en sus dos vertientes: la práctica profesional, por un lado, y la experiencia del turista, por el otro. a la primera etapa, en la que el turismo es un fenómeno elitista y fundamentalmente autodirigido, sigue la era del turismo de masas, que implica a estratos cada vez más amplios de población; se produce la industrialización del turismo y su implantación como ritual colectivo, ampliamente heterodirigido, que adquiere toda su fuerza en las tres décadas que siguen a la segunda guerra mundial (savelli, maria vittoria calvi ibérica 31 (2016): 15-3820 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 20 2012). en la sociedad postindustrial, caracterizada por una mayor complejidad social, se despliegan comportamientos turísticos más diversificados y se vuelve a una participación más activa del turista; la búsqueda de autenticidad es la cifra de los nuevos “turismos”, ya en plural, aunque se desarrolla al mismo tiempo una mirada crítica y reflexiva que pone de manifiesto las contradicciones de la pretendida “sostenibilidad”: no hay turismo, por muy solidario que sea, que no produzca impacto en la comunidad receptora (santana, 1997). en definitiva, la cultura postmoderna encuentra en las múltiples dimensiones del post-turismo una de sus expresiones más representativas; el turista postmoderno es una figura en continuo movimiento, que rehúye de los comportamientos masificados y desarrolla sentimientos de pertenencia en el ámbito de pequeñas comunidades; asimismo, los rituales del turismo se llevan a cabo en una dimensión colectiva participada. estas transformaciones, cabe recordar, son anteriores a la irrupción del turismo digital o ciberturismo; pero está claro que el progreso tecnológico 2.0 acelera enormemente el proceso, sobre todo a partir del nuevo milenio. el ciberturista es, al mismo tiempo, resultado de condiciones técnicas tales como la digitalidad, la multisecuencialidad y la conectividad (lópez alonso, 2015: 10) y de nuevas relaciones sociales e identidades, propias de la sociedad postindustrial (savelli, 2012: 274). con la progresiva diferenciación de los turismos (rural, cultural, religioso, verde, etc.), la guía y el folleto van asumiendo una multiplicidad de formas, tanto en el aspecto físico como en la articulación de los contenidos y en las formas discursivas, para adaptarse a las necesidades de los nuevos turistas. la gv mantiene sus rasgos prototípicos, pero se caracteriza, entre otros aspectos, por significativos avances tipográficos, así como una mayor tendencia a la oralización, emotividad, implicación del interlocutor, dinamismo, presencia de notas críticas y elementos disfóricos, sobre todo por lo que se refiere a las guías de mayor difusión y destinadas a un público joven (mapelli y santos lópez, 2010). la comunicación electrónica, por su parte, recoge y amplifica estas instancias. la difusión de las tecnologías digitales da lugar a un modelo de comunicación reticular, en la que todo receptor puede ser al mismo tiempo emisor de un mensaje; asimismo, las nuevas modalidades comunicativas repercuten en la concepción del tiempo y del espacio: se asiste a la disolución del tiempo como continuidad y a la desterritorialización del espacio, que guía de viaje y turismo 2.0 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 21 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 21 tiende hacia el no-lugar del ciberespacio (granieri y perri, 2009; savelli, 2012: 304-306). yus ramos (2010: 97) señala las principales cualidades que distinguen a los géneros digitales de sus equivalentes en papel: además de la multiplicidad de formatos, son de especial relevancia la interactividad y la ubicuidad, es decir, la posibilidad de actuar con otros actores sociales y de acceder a los mismos contenidos desde cualquier parte del mundo. si tenemos en cuenta que la experiencia turística consiste en un desplazamiento, y que buena parte de los géneros turísticos tienen como objetivo el de promover, anticipar y acompañar este desplazamiento, entenderemos el enorme impacto de los nuevos medios en esta parcela de la comunicación. internet ha propiciado el nacimiento de nuevos géneros, tales como la página web de turismo, el foro y el blog de viajeros, que ya han sido estudiados y clasificados, entre otros, por bonomi (2011), goethals (2013), gonzález garcía (2012), lópez alonso (2015) y suau jiménez (2014). asimismo, cabe subrayar la preeminencia de los portales de turismo como tripadvisor, que despliegan amplios espacios de navegación, en los que el turista puede planificar un viaje en todos sus detalles: aun a costa del elevado esfuerzo mental que suponen las distintas operaciones encadenadas (selección de itinerarios, compra de billetes, reserva de hoteles, etc.), en las que se avanza comparando distintas opciones económicas y sopesando el testimonio de otros turistas, el viajero consigue un alto número de efectos cognitivos, con una relevancia final muy positiva (yus ramos, 2010: 83). las cualidades sociales de la web 2.0 crean en el destinatario un nuevo “horizonte de expectativas”, concepto clave en la definición del género (hanks, 1987; todorov, 1991 [1978]). el turista 2.0 pertenece a una especie antropológica muy distinta a la del turista de masas; gracias a su participación en las redes sociales y en la comunidad de viajeros llega a poner en discusión el discurso de los expertos. su demanda de contenidos enciclopédicos es inferior a la del turista “primitivo”, culto y exigente, pero ha crecido enormemente la necesidad de informaciones específicas, desde el tipo de habitación que se va a ocupar, por ejemplo, hasta el lado del avión en el que conviene viajar para gozar de las mejores vistas; más que las propiedades intrínsecas de los destinos, al nuevo turista interesan las experiencias que puede realizar en ellos. la industria turística, por su parte, recoge estas nuevas instancias haciendo del turista en acción el protagonista de la promoción, como es evidente, por ejemplo, en la campaña turística de tourspain i need spain, en cuyos vídeos el turista ocupa siempre el primer maria vittoria calvi ibérica 31 (2016): 15-3822 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 22 plano. otra instancia emergente es la necesidad de compartir las vivencias con otros viajeros; se multiplican, por lo tanto, las situaciones específicas de comunicación que, según destaca charaudeau (2012: 34), son las más sensibles a los cambios genéricos; a la práctica social del turismo se suma la emisión activa de contenidos informativos relevantes. desde cierto punto de vista, todos los contenidos turísticos presentes en la web componen una especie de “guía difusa”, disponible en cualquier momento para la consulta, desde el ordenador, la tableta o el smartphone, mediante los sistemas de geolocalización. por otra parte, siguen existiendo las guías editoriales en papel: aunque internet puede satisfacer en buena medida las necesidades informativas de los usuarios, el esfuerzo cognitivo necesario para encontrar documentación exhaustiva hace que la gv tradicional siga teniendo vitalidad, no solo para los amantes del papel, y se haya ido adaptando a las exigencias del turista de hoy. quizá la clave esté en la interacción entre distintos medios y soportes, en un continuo vaivén entre lo virtual y lo físico. 4. la gv en la clasificación de “linguaturismo” antes de esbozar los rasgos de la gv en el ciberturismo, cabe ahondar un poco más en el lugar que le corresponde en la constelación de géneros turísticos. en calvi (2006: 54-55) propuse una clasificación fundada en criterios formales, funcionales y discursivos. los géneros reseñados (guía, folleto, anuncio, catálogo, artículo, reportaje, documento de viaje y página web) se distinguían a partir del medio de difusión (libro, desplegable, hoja suelta, internet, etc.), la función (o funciones) dominante(s) (informar, dirigir, seducir, etc.), las tipologías textuales recurrentes (descriptiva, argumentativa, instructiva, etc.), así como su relación con la práctica social del turismo, y, en particular, el momento de la fruición – según fuera antes, durante o después del viaje (dann 1996) –, lo que introduce una dimensión secuencial en el sistema de géneros. para la realización del corpus linguaturismo, representativo de los distintos géneros y registros del turismo, se elaboró una clasificación flexible y multinivel, con una sólida base teórica y metodológica4, pero con una finalidad eminentemente operativa. ante la heterogeneidad de los materiales que contienen las gv, presentes también en géneros distintos (por ejemplo, las secciones prácticas de las gv no difieren de las análogas en folletos y guía de viaje y turismo 2.0 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 23 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 23 revistas de turismo), se introdujo la categoría de “macrogénero”, reservando la etiqueta de “género” a los dispositivos situados en un nivel jerárquico inferior. se esbozaron cinco macrogéneros: guía de turismo (publicación editorial en forma de libro u otro soporte), folleto (publicación de distribución gratuita, en forma de cuadernillo, o desplegable), revista de viajes y turismo, catálogo de viajes y página web (calvi, 2010: 23-24). los macrogéneros pueden compartir la fórmula estructural, es decir, la configuración de los elementos que los componen (taboada, 2012: 48), pero divergen por lo que se refiere a los objetivos comunicativos, las identidades y roles de los participantes, así como los aspectos estilísticos. en cuanto al nivel inferior, los géneros prototípicos relacionados con la gv son la “guía descriptiva”, cuya extensión y riqueza informativa varía en función del macrogénero en el que está inserta y del tipo de público al que se dirige; el “itinerario”, variante dinámica de la guía descriptiva, que ordena las etapas de un viaje o de una visita según la sucesión espacial y, a veces, en un marco cronológico; y la “guía práctica”, que comprende informaciones sobre museos, transportes, hoteles y otras instalaciones, agrupadas en fichas, listas y esquemas. el análisis del corpus recogido y etiquetado confirmó la validez de la taxonomía multinivel elegida y su capacidad de reflejar los factores contextuales y los rasgos lingüísticos propios de los distintos géneros. pero las mayores sorpresas las deparó el género más prototípico, la “guía descriptiva”, ya que las guías en formato libro se revelaron más propensas a la personalización del discurso que las digitales (mapelli y piccioni, 2011). esta contradicción se explica teniendo en cuenta que se seleccionaron muestras de las gv en papel preferidas por los viajeros, que optan por un estilo dinámico y orientado hacia el interlocutor. en cambio, muchos de los materiales disponibles en internet cuando se recogió el corpus no eran sino versiones en pdf de los folletos en papel, muy convencionales o incluso anticuados en el estilo: en los años 2008-2009, el turismo digital todavía no había entrado plenamente en la etapa 2.0, aunque ya había muestras abundantes de géneros digitales emergentes como foros y blogs (dann y liebman parrinello, 2007). de todas formas, estos resultados demuestran que ya estaba en marcha la evolución que desdibujaría los confines del género: las fronteras entre géneros, en efecto, presentan zonas nítidas y otras más difusas, como sugieren, entre otros, bhatia (2002) mediante la metáfora de la galaxia, y bronckart (en miranda, 2012: 75) con la de la nebulosa. maria vittoria calvi ibérica 31 (2016): 15-3824 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 24 asimismo, en esta clasificación queda reflejada la fragmentación de formatos que, como veremos, caracteriza a la actual producción de textos turísticos, y queda patente el condicionamiento que el macrogénero ejerce sobre los dispositivos situados en el nivel inferior: la guía descriptiva inserta en la guía editorial, por ejemplo, presenta una riqueza informativa superior a la de otras muestras análogas procedentes de páginas web o folletos. de ahí que la página web, ahora más que nunca, pueda condicionar la configuración de los géneros que alberga. 5. la gv en internet: multiplicidad de formatos y estructura móvil para explorar el estado de la gv en internet, conviene partir de los objetos que los propios usuarios (profesionales y turistas) consideran guías, teniendo en cuenta que la gv corresponde a conocimiento genérico que comparten muchos hablantes; no olvidemos que los géneros deben ser reconocidos como tales por el grupo social que los tiene por propios (carranza, 2012: 106). como primer paso, la búsqueda mediante palabras clave como “guía de viaje”, “guía de turismo” o “ciberguía” reenvía a distintas tipologías de páginas y portales de turismo, que podemos agrupar en los siguientes bloques: (i) páginas web dedicadas a la promoción institucional, creadas por instituciones locales y nacionales; (ii) portales de turismo, que ofrecen contenidos y servicios de varios tipos (por ejemplo, tripadvisor); (iii) páginas creadas por profesionales del turismo, periodistas o blogueros (cuyas identidades no resultan siempre reconocibles), con el objetivo de proporcionar información a los turistas (por ejemplo, http://www.101viajes.com/, http://www.guiarte.com/, http://www.guiasdeviajeonline.com/, http://cityoos.com/, http: //www.guias-viajes.com/, http://guias-viajar.com/, http:// www.minube.com/, http://www.myguiadeviajes.com/) (iv) páginas de editoriales (que, como lonely planet, venden las guías en pdf por capítulos) y periódicos (http://elviajero. elpais.com/)5. guía de viaje y turismo 2.0 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 25 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 25 esta proliferación de agentes engendra un panorama complejo y dispar, más allá de la distinción entre géneros monogestionados (por expertos de la comunicación turística) y géneros plurigestionados o interactivos (lópez alonso, 2015). por un lado, los gestores se sitúan en un contínuum que va desde los “profesionales expertos” propiamente dichos a los “turistas expertos”. por otro lado, como veremos, los sitios interactivos resultan a menudo heterodirigidos. los distintos agentes, por su parte, eligen el/los modelo(s) más cercano(s) a sus objetivos entre los disponibles en la amplia nebulosa de los géneros turísticos, adoptando distintas “posiciones” o “roles” (hanks, 1987; carranza, 2012). también se observa una marcada variación denominativa, que no siempre permite una clara identificación del género: por ejemplo, en turisvalencia (http://www.turisvalencia.es/) encontramos una “guía turística digital” que, lejos de ser interactiva, no es más que un folleto en formato e-pub. las páginas institucionales ofrecen materiales de descarga, a los que se asignan denominaciones tales como “folleto”, “guía turística”, “guía útil” e “itinerarios turísticos”, además de aplicaciones para dispositivos móviles y servicios similares, y la posibilidad de hacer búsquedas personalizadas explotando la iniciativa del usuario. en las páginas creadas por profesionales (grupo 3) predomina la denominación de “guía de viaje(s)”, aunque también se encuentran otras fórmulas como “guía de turismo”, “guía de turismo y viaje”, “guía de + topónimo”. son frecuentes en este tipo de páginas las secciones “blog de usuarios”, “blog de viajes”, “comunidad de viajes”, “relatos de viajes”, “blog de ciudades” y otras similares, que ponen en evidencia la estrecha relación entre guía y blog, como se verá más adelante. cabe destacar una denominación emergente, la de “guía colaborativa”, que se ha aplicado, por ejemplo, a la primera guía use-it de una ciudad española, córdoba; esta red europea (tourist info for young people, http://www.use-it.travel/home) ofrece guías hechas por los jóvenes del lugar para los coetáneos visitantes. poco utilizada es, en cambio, la etiqueta de “ciberguía”. no me propongo un estudio sistemático de esta multiforme y cambiante galaxia de sitios turَísticos, sino un somero análisis de los rasgos emergentes a partir de los elementos estructurales; en los párrafos siguientes, veremos algunos aspectos relativos a la funcionalidad, las identidades discursivas y los tipos de discurso. maria vittoria calvi ibérica 31 (2016): 15-3826 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 26 es bien sabido que la estructura de un sitio web se fundamenta en el hipertexto, que permite una lectura multisecuencial, mediante vínculos entre los distintos niveles; de ahí que el usuario pueda crear sus propios itinerarios de lectura. en cuanto a la gv, la arquitectura hipertextual permite presentarla en múltiples formatos, adaptándola a las necesidades de información de los usuarios. ante la diseminación de sus componentes (descripciones, mapas, itinerarios), el turista puede buscar los contenidos que se combinen de la forma más relevante con su entorno cognitivo (yus ramos, 2010: 98). la ruptura de la linealidad y de la secuencialidad, cuando es explotada convenientemente, aporta beneficios a la producción de la gv, tanto por lo que se refiere a la iniciativa del usuario como para la organización de los contenidos. tampoco las guías tradicionales, por otra parte, se suelen leer de forma secuencial: el usuario que consulte, por ejemplo, un itinerario, encontrará remisiones internas a otras secciones en las que se profundiza la información sobre los distintos lugares; y tendrá que trasladarse a la sección práctica para buscar los datos que necesite. las guías del grupo 3, en particular, se estructuran como hipertextos; el material se distribuye en distintos niveles, permitiendo varios recorridos de lectura. algunos sitios institucionales promueven la interactividad y la iniciativa del usuario. por ejemplo, cartagena turismo (http://www.cartagenaturismo.es/) ofrece una herramienta, cuaderno de viaje, que permite recopilar guías personalizadas, generando documentos imprimibles. la gv se convierte incluso en una aplicación que permite el ensamblaje de materiales dispares; de esta manera, el turista recupera la materialidad de la gv en papel, paliando el esfuerzo cognitivo que requiere la reconstrucción a posteriori del itinerario de lectura hipertextual. si, como observa bronckart (en miranda, 2012: 80), la estructuración de un género depende de la actividad humana a la que está ligado, no sorprende que la gv se organice en partes y secciones atendiendo no solo a los contenidos sino también a la dimensión experiencial: por esto el desarrollo lineal del itinerario se cruza con el eje paradigmático de las descripciones de los lugares. no muy otra es la textura del reportaje o del libro de viaje, en los que los avances en el tiempo y en el espacio se alternan con pausas descriptivas o digresiones históricas. en la web 2.0 la arquitectura se flexibiliza, se descompone y se recompone de acuerdo con las necesidades del usuario. guía de viaje y turismo 2.0 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 27 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 27 también se borran las fronteras entre la gv y los otros géneros. el turista digital, como se ha dicho, puede utilizar como fuente informativa todo tipo de materiales disponibles, desde los contenidos de los sitios institucionales a los blogs, foros de viajeros y redes sociales. hay un amplio grupo social que busca, sobre todo, informaciones prácticas, “experienciales”, mientras que la gv de mayor riqueza informativa queda reservada al público más exigente. 6. funcionalidad: ¿guías o folletos? como se ha visto, el uso de los términos “guía” y “folleto” es muy flexible dentro de las páginas web de turismo, sobre todo las institucionales; en el mundo del papel, el turista tenía más clara la diferencia entre los dos productos. merece la pena subrayar que la intercambiabilidad entre las dos denominaciones puede camuflar el objetivo comercial bajo una apariencia informativo-directiva. un ejemplo representativo es la ya mencionada guía turística de valencia descargable, que contiene, junto con información práctica, un gran número de anuncios publicitarios, y se dirige al turista con el tono propio de la promoción: “esta guía ha sido diseñada para ayudarte a aprovechar al máximo tu visita ofreciéndote las mejores sugerencias para hacer de tu estancia en valencia una experiencia inolvidable”. a menudo, el discurso se caracteriza por la “proximidad simulada” típica de los medios actuales; al estilo elevado de la promoción institucional se sustituye una “despreocupada camaradería festiva” (boni, 2008 [2006]: 33), mediante la cual se procura atraer a los visitantes. este lenguaje de proximidad encubre una finalidad transaccional: la incorporación de las experiencias y evaluaciones de los usuarios, cada vez más frecuente, es una estrategia para aumentar los accesos al sitio. es ejemplar el caso de minube, un portal de turismo que se propone acompañar al turista en la secuencia de actividades que va desde la elección del destino, la planificación del viaje y su realización, hasta la sucesiva (o paralela) compartición con otros viajeros, en un círculo continuo. minube ofrece una herramienta que permite generar una guía en pdf (u otras aplicaciones para el móvil) en la que se combinan fragmentos textuales aportados por los viajeros con otros escritos por la redacción. el usuario elige las secciones (qué ver, qué hacer, dónde comer y dónde dormir); cada una de ellas contiene una serie de apartados que varían de acuerdo con la oferta de los destinos (por ejemplo, aeropuertos / ciudades / de interés maria vittoria calvi ibérica 31 (2016): 15-3828 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 28 cultural / jardines / mercados / monumentos históricos; bares de tapas / de interés gastronómico / restaurantes; albergues / aparthoteles / hoteles / pensiones; etc.). la gama de opciones posibles, por lo tanto, reenvía más al folleto o a la guía práctica que a la gv propiamente dicha. estos productos “polifónicos”, por otra parte, se inscriben en el marco autopromocional del sitio, que utiliza sistemáticamente un tono amigable para enganchar al usuario: ¿quieres conocer la experiencia de otras personas similares a ti sobre tu próximo destino? descubre una nueva forma de viajar. no hay mejor forma de descubrir y decidir tu próximo destino que a través de las recomendaciones reales de otros viajeros, de otras personas con gustos similares a ti (http://www.minube.com/de-que-va [20/04/15]). en definitiva, la confluencia entre guía y folleto supone la contaminación entre el discurso instructivo propio de la guía y el discurso promocional, elativo, típico del folleto y de la publicidad en general; por consiguiente, se acentúan la evaluación positiva, la personalización del discurso y la implicación del interlocutor. incluso las evaluaciones negativas, “disfóricas”, de los viajeros quedan así atenuadas dentro del entorno “eufórico” del sitio. 7. identidades discursivas fluctuantes. la guía colaborativa en la web 2.0 la identidad de los participantes es dinámica y se construye mediante los recursos discursivos y los mecanismos interaccionales disponibles; la multiplicidad determina fenómenos innovadores en la configuración genérica, que son índices del “posicionamiento” del actor (davies y harré 1990) dentro de las coordenadas enunciativas. los géneros son instrumentos de participación en la vida social, de ahí que mediante los cibergéneros se creen grupos que definen su sociabilidad a través de los medios, comunidades globalizadas que tienen el poder de transformar los contenidos ofrecidos. el impacto entre el significado dado como objetivo y el que reelabora el grupo es evidente, por ejemplo, en los géneros más abiertos a la negociación, como los foros. como se ha dicho, el emisor de las guías que se definen como tales en internet tiene una identidad fluctuante, oscilando desde el profesional (representante de las instituciones y organizaciones turísticas, experto de guía de viaje y turismo 2.0 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 29 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 29 turismo, periodista, entre otros) al viajero, cuya credibilidad se fundamenta en su condición de testigo. asimismo, se destacan las formas emergentes de guías “cooperativas” o “colaborativas”, de autores múltiples, que conjugan distintos testimonios personales. sin embargo, cabe precisar, no todos los participantes son protagonistas en calidad de “pares”, sino que se posicionan dentro de roles habilitados por otros, como ocurre en el caso de minube. en la sección “quiénes somos”, este sitio se define como “comunidad de viajeros”, haciendo hincapié en la gestión compartida: bienvenido a los viajes sociales. minube es una comunidad de viajeros para amantes de los viajes que permite a los usuarios inspirarse para decidir sus destinos, planificar sus viajes y compartirlos [sic] todas las experiencias de sus viajes (http://www.minube.com/de-que-va [30/04/15]). igual que otras redes sociales, minube se rige por la capacidad de crear una amplia red de usuarios de los que se controlan gustos y elecciones; la participación es funcional a estos objetivos. la naturaleza del sitio se desvela en declaraciones como la siguiente: “pero minube va mucho más allá: nuestra misión es acompañarte en todo el proceso del viaje, desde la inspiración y la planificación al recuerdo”; aunque se disfraza de comunidad de viajeros, este “nosotros” es excluyente, solo se refiere a la posición ocupada por los gestores del sitio. esto le resta impacto a la “agentividad” de los participantes dentro del campo social de referencia (bourdieu, 1991), pero las innovaciones genéricas y lingüísticas son asimismo evidentes. la gv que propone minube permite la adopción dinámica de diferentes roles: el mismo participante puede ser, en distintos momentos, tanto destinatario como emisor de la comunicación turística, aunque su aportación se sitúa en proceso de construcción decidido por los gestores. el usuario que quiera colaborar debe seguir las pautas establecidas por el sistema, insertando textos y fotografías dentro de las secciones propuestas, como se ha visto. al transmitir su testimonio, el viajero manifiesta la voluntad de colaborar en un proyecto colectivo, aunque no tiene la autonomía de establecer las “reglas del juego”. dentro del poco espacio disponible, los modelos genéricos en los que puede inspirarse son, por ejemplo, la reseña (de instalaciones o atracciones turísticas), la intervención en un foro o red social y el blog6; es decir, fundamentalmente cibergéneros, con predominio del discurso espontáneo, como se ve en el siguiente fragmento, reproducido en su totalidad: maria vittoria calvi ibérica 31 (2016): 15-3830 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 30 bergamo está a unos 40 kms de milán y es una ciudad con aeropuerto low cost, por eso la visitamos. me sorprendió gratamente, tiene castillos, residencias renacentistas, mucho arte, casco medieval, buenos restaurantes italianos. estuvimos sólo una tarde y me hubiera quedado dos o tres días. se divide en bergmo alta y bergamo baja, la baja contratasta [sic] mucho con la alta, al ser una zona más moderna, sin tanto atractivo histórico. en la parte alta me quedo con la piazza vecchia (plaza vieja), es medieval. es el corazón de bergamo y el símbolo de la ciudad, una de las más bellas plazas de italia a la que se asoman edificios y monumentos históricos como la torre cívica, el campanone, que todas las noches a las diez da cien repiques de campana para recordar el toque de queda y la universidad, el edificio que aloja la biblioteca cívica y la fontana preciosa. no os perdáis comer un helado mientras paseas [sic] por la plaza (http:// www.minube.com/rincon/bergamo-a212 [30/04/15]). la aportación informativa es mínima; se destacan, entre otros aspectos, la motivación práctica de la visita (“aeropuerto low cost”), la voluntad instructiva y explicativa (por ejemplo, cuando se añade la traducción “plaza vieja”), la mezcla entre narración y descripción, y las fórmulas convencionales e informales de la recomendación turística (“no os perdáis”). en una perspectiva más amplia, podemos decir que la construcción negociada de significados es un ingrediente esencial de la “guía difusa” – comprensiva de distintos cibergéneros turísticos – mientras que la guía de viaje “colaborativa” no ha alcanzado todavía un formato claramente identificable, a pesar de las potencialidades existentes. 8. las secuencias narrativas y la guía-blog la inserción de la experiencia personal en la comunicación turística es uno de los rasgos dominantes del turismo actual. hay una creciente demanda de autenticidad, en permanente tensión con la tendencia de la industria turística en el mundo globalizado a crear simulacros de diversidad y autenticidad (augé, 1997). la inscripción del yo no es constitutiva del género “guía”, más propenso a la impersonalidad; en los nuevos formatos, sin embargo, se recupera el elemento autobiográfico y la vivencia personal, como es propio del blog. el eterno presente de la guía tradicional es sustituido por la sucesión temporal de la experiencia y el discurso narrativo. guía de viaje y turismo 2.0 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 31 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 31 la acción de comunicar memorias es un fenómeno social; “no está determinada por la mera transmisión de narrativas del pasado, sino también por la reconstrucción situada de esas experiencias en el presente, según los objetivos, y necesidades pragmáticas interpersonales o del grupo social” (bietti, 2011: 752). al relatar el viaje, el turista crea una representación positiva de sí mismo, ya sea como héroe o como víctima; el deseo de dar consejos a otros viajeros que comparten análogos modelos culturales convierte la narrativa en “guía”. por otra parte, como se ha visto, la promoción recontextualiza estos testimonios dentro de sus canales de difusión, utilizándolos como instrumento de promoción (gonzález y sanmartín, 2013). veamos algunos ejemplos extraídos de una de las páginas creadas por profesionales, guías viajar. en su propia denominación, el sitio reenvía al género “guía de viaje”, pero se especifica que las guías ofrecidas se originan de un blog, transformado en proyecto profesional: el blog de viajes guias viajar nació a finales de 2008 con el propósito de transmitir las experiencias de mi viaje turístico a praga y la república checa, de forma que sirviera para ayudar a planificar su propia visita a otros viajeros [...]. en la actualidad, guias viajar es un proyecto profesional de plena dedicación en el que combino mi larga experiencia como viajero desde muy joven, con la de periodista y director de negocios editoriales en revistas y en internet (http://guias-viajar.com/ [20/04/15]). es, al fin y al cabo, la identidad del autor de las guías trasladada a la era de internet; la experiencia previa que quedaba fuera del espacio discursivo de la guía es exhibida como credencial para aseverar lo que se cuenta y se describe. en sitios como este, se aprovechan las ventajas del hipertexto, pero se excluyen las intervenciones reactivas y el discurso resulta siempre planificado. no faltan, sin embargo, elementos innovadores para el perfil del género. la narración constituye, a menudo, una especie de marco motivador, una estrategia epistémica para reforzar la credibilidad: he tenido la ocasión de visitar lisboa y sus alrededores varias veces a lo largo de mi vida, remontándose mi primer viaje a una lisboa pujante de esperanza tras la desaparición de la dictadura portuguesa (http://guiasviajar.com/viajes-portugal/lisboa-consejos-visita-turistica/ [20/04/15]) maria vittoria calvi ibérica 31 (2016): 15-3832 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 32 las secciones descriptivas, con una estructura hipertextual, canalizan la información en forma de “consejos útiles para planificar tus viajes”, es decir, presentan un propósito prescriptivo explícito – en la forma atenuada de la “recomendación” – y una fuerte implicación del interlocutor, incorporado dentro del perímetro del texto. el autor integra la narración personal típica del blog con el “eterno presente” de la guía; generaliza su experiencia, pero sin ocultar el subjetivismo de su visión, ni la intención de orientar la mirada de acuerdo con sus propios conocimientos y sensibilidad, como es propio del reportaje o la literatura de viajes más que de la guía: una de las visitas imprescindibles en tu viaje turístico a lisboa es, sin duda, el castillo de san jorge. más que por las dependencias que vas a poder recorrer por el castillo, el mayor atractivo de tu visita estará en pasear por un recinto fortificado que ha sido protagonista clave en la historia de lisboa y portugal y, sobre todo, por las excelentes vistas panorámicas de lisboa y el estuario del río tajo que vas a poder disfrutar desde sus miradores. a continuación te voy a detallar algunas curiosidades históricas del castillo de san jorge de lisboa, que actualmente es uno de los monumentos más visitados de portugal (http://guias-viajar.com/viajes-portugal/lisboacastillo-san-jorge-curiosidades-datos-historicos/ [30/04/15]). las secuencias narrativas en la 1ª persona también constituyen un rasgo distintivo de los fragmentos que componen las guías “cooperativas” de minube, un sitio que, como se ha dicho, se amolda a una estructura narrativa, basada en la secuencia de acciones que empieza con la elección del destino, sigue con la planificación detallada y se prolonga en el relato que se comparte con otros viajeros. 9. reflexiones finales: nuevos tipos de guía este trabajo se planteaba evaluar el impacto del turismo 2.0 en los rasgos prototípicos del género guía de viaje, valorando también las repercusiones en la clasificación de los géneros del turismo propuesta en calvi (2010). por lo que se refiere al primer punto, se ha visto que la gv mantiene su carácter prescriptivo, procedimental, con predominio de la recomendación, pero muestra también claras señales de transformación, tanto desde el punto de vista estructural como en los rasgos lingüísticos y discursivos. en particular: guía de viaje y turismo 2.0 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 33 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 33 (i) las tecnologías digitales producen una fragmentación de los componentes y proporcionan los medios para reconfigurarlos en múltiples combinaciones; (ii) las cualidades sociales de la web 2.0 favorecen el desarrollo de nuevas comunidades de habla y una pluralidad de identidades discursivas, tanto individuales como colectivas, que se alternan con el enunciador anónimo de las guías tradicionales; (iii) se difuminan las fronteras entre la promoción turística y la divulgación de conocimientos, con una penetración capilar del lenguaje de proximidad, la oralización y la personalización del discurso; (iv) la importancia de la dimensión experiencial del turismo, desde el pre-viaje (elegir y planificar) al post-viaje (narrar, evaluar, compartir), favorece el recurso al instrumento textual de la narración. en cuanto a la clasificación de los géneros del turismo, se debe subrayar, ante todo, que un sitio web es un macrogénero mucho más abarcador que la gv o el folleto en papel, en los que tiene cabida una gama limitada de géneros. aun así, funciona como condicionante, tanto desde el punto de vista estructural como por lo que se refiere a los aspectos discursivos (inclusión de la narración personal, múltiples identidades discursivas, participación colectiva). en particular, se destaca la emergencia de las siguientes modalidades: (i) “guía-folleto”: guía práctica, generalmente de carácter promocional, que, a veces, el usuario puede componer a su medida, obteniendo un producto similar al folleto en papel; (ii) “guía-blog”: guía de autor único, nacida de un blog, caracterizada por la inscripción del enunciador en el marco del texto. es una variante de guía cercana al reportaje y al libro de viaje; (iii) “guía colaborativa”: guía de autor colectivo, caracterizada por la dimensión subjetiva, y cercana a las redes sociales. cabe subrayar, sin embargo, que las denominaciones propuestas solo marcan tendencias y no pueden darse por definitivas. se vislumbran dos tensiones opuestas: por un lado, los usuarios participan en la creación y negociación de maria vittoria calvi ibérica 31 (2016): 15-3834 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 34 los contenidos, proponiendo un abanico de evaluaciones subjetivas y rechazando la falsa objetividad; por otro lado, la industria del turismo se vale de estos perfiles para potenciar su impacto. todavía no emerge un modelo prototípico de “guía 2.0” sino una pluralidad de fórmulas que van desde los productos más cercanos al paradigma tradicional hasta la “guía difusa”, que comprende la totalidad de las fuentes informativas a disposición del turista. por último, en la perspectiva de la lingüística del género, las evoluciones recientes de la gv ofrecen un interesante caso de estudio para evaluar el efecto de las transformaciones sociales en las pautas de un género. en particular, se observa cómo las comunidades discursivas unitarias (expertos de turismo) van dejando el paso a otras, transnacionales, de individuos que comparten competencias no solo en la práctica del turismo sino también en la estructuración de sus géneros prototípicos. article history: received 25 may 2015 received in revised form 15 october 2015 accepted 17 november 2015 bibliografía guía de viaje y turismo 2.0 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 35 adam, j.-m. 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(1996). the language of tourism. a sociolinguistic perspective. oxon uk: cab international. dann, g.m.s. y g. liebman parrinello (2007). “from travelogue to travelblog: (re)-negotiating tourist identity”. acta turistica 19, 1: 7-29. davies, b. y m. harré (1990). “positioning: the social construction of selves”. journal for the theory of social behavior 20: 43-63. fairclough, n. (1995). critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. london: longman. gallardo, s. (2009). “la estructura ilocutiva y la distinción entre géneros discursivos” en g.e. ciapuscio (ed.), de la palabra al texto. estudios lingüísticos del español, 129-162. buenos aires: eudeba. garcía izquierdo, i. (2007). “los géneros y las lenguas de especialidad” en e. alcaraz varó, j. mateo martínez y f. yus ramos (eds.), las lenguas profesionales y académicas, 119-125. barcelona: ariel. goethals, p. (2013). “los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares: un estudio exploratorio de un género turístico”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 25: 147-170. gonzález garcía, v. (2012). “el discurso del turismo en internet: hacia una caracterización de sus géneros” en j. sanmartín sáez (ed.) discurso turístico e internet, 13-49. madrid/frankfurt: iberoamericana /vervuert. gonzález, v. y j. sanmartín (2013) “facebook y discurso turístico: tenor funcional y estrategias pragmalingüísticas en turismo madrid y turismo sevilla” en a. cabedo, j.m. aguilar y e. lópez navarro (eds.), estudios de lingüística: investigaciones, propuestas y aplicaciones, 243253. valència: universitat de valència. granieri, g. y g. perri (eds.) (2009). linguaggi digitali per il turismo. milano: apogeo. hanks, w. f. (1987). “discourse genres in a theory of practice”. american ethnologist, 14, 4: 668-692. lópez alonso, c. (2015). “ciberturismo y transdisciplinaridad” en m.l. piñeiro maceiras, l. chapuis y m. re (eds.), turismo y representación espacial, 7-22. madrid: universidad rey juan carlos. url: https://eciencia.urjc.es/handle /10115/12521 [01/04/15] mapelli, g. y s. piccioni (2011). “taxonomía de los textos turísticos: factores lingüísticos y factores contextuales” en m.v. calvi y g. mapelli (eds.), la lengua del turismo. géneros discursivos y terminología, 47-73. bern: peter lang. mapelli, g. y j. santos lópez (2010). “estudio comparado de las características discursivas de la guía turística” en j. canals y e. liverani (eds.), viaggiare con la parola, 89-102. milano: franco angeli. miranda, f. (2012). “los géneros: una perspectiva interaccionista” en m. shiro, p. charaudeau y l. granato (eds.), 69-86. santana, a. (1997). antropología y turismo. ¿nuevas hordas, viejas culturas? barcelona: ariel. santulli, f. (2007). “il discorso procedurale come tratto distintivo della guida turistica” en g. garzone y r. salvi (eds.), linguistica. linguaggi specialistici. didattica delle lingue, 227-240. roma: cisu. savelli, a. (2012). sociologia del turismo. milano: hoepli. shiro, m. (2012). “introducción” en m. shiro, p. charaudeau, l. granato (eds.), 7-16. shiro, m., p. charaudeau y l. granato (eds.) (2012). los géneros discursivos desde múltiples perspectivas: teorías y análisis. madrid/frankfurt: iberoamericana/vervuert. suau jiménez, f. (2012). “el turista 2.0 como receptor de la promoción turística: estrategias lingüísticas e importancia de su estudio”. pasos. revista de turismo y patrimonio cultural 10, 4 volumen especial palabras y cultura en la lengua del turismo: 143-154. suau jiménez, f. (2014). “dialogic voices of writers and readers in traveller forums through interpersonality” en l. gil-salom y c. solermonreal (eds.), dialogicity in written specialised genres, 137-164. amsterdam: john benjamins. taboada, m. (2012). “los géneros: una perspectiva sistémico-funcional” en m. shiro, p. charaudeau y l. granato (eds.), 45-68. todorov, t. (1991 [1978]). los géneros del discurso. caracas: monte ávila editores. 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 36 maria vittoria calvi, catedrática de lengua española de la universidad de milán, tiene una larga experiencia en la investigación y en la docencia universitaria; es presidenta de la asociación de hispanistas italianos y directora de la revista cuadernos aispi. estudios de lenguas y literaturas hispánicas. es autora de numerosos estudios de lingüística española, con especial atención por la lingüística contrastiva de español e italiano (didattica di lingue affini. spagnolo e italiano, 1995), y las lenguas de especialidad (lengua y comunicación en el español del turismo, 2006). entre sus líneas de investigación más recientes, cabe destacar el contacto entre español e italiano en contextos migratorios (“the use of deixis in the oral narratives of latin american immigrants in italy”, 2015). en campo literario, sus trabajos se han centrado en la narrativa contemporánea y sobre todo en la obra de carmen martín gaite. en este ámbito se destacan sus ediciones de las obras inéditas de la escritora salmantina cuadernos de todo (2002) y el libro de la fiebre (2007), así como los estudios sobre la escritura autobiográfica. notas 1 sobre la teoría del “género” (genre), quisiera destacar la valiosa aportación de los capítulos reunidos en shiro, charaudeau y granato (2012), que ofrecen un exhaustivo panorama de los diferentes enfoques. por encima de la variedad de perspectivas, sobresalen los elementos de cohesión, que hacen de la lingüística del género una de las facetas más prometedoras de la lingüística actual. remito a este volumen para una amplia bibliografía sobre la cuestión. 2 las denominaciones de “géneros del discurso”, “géneros discursivos”, “géneros de texto” y “géneros textuales” se suelen utilizar como sinónimos, o sin precisar distinciones conceptuales. algunos autores como miranda (2012) arguyen que la noción de “discurso” se refiere a la lengua en uso en situaciones concretas, mientras que el texto es una unidad de comunicación que comprende elementos de, por lo menos, una lengua natural y, eventualmente, otras unidades semióticas. 3 me refiero al periodo incluido entre junio de 2013 y abril de 2015. al mismo tiempo, se recogió un corpus de textos procedentes de distintas páginas web de turismo, que analiza giovanna mapelli en este mismo monográfico. 4 la clasificación se basa fundamentalmente en el modelo propuesto en el proyecto gentt (garcía izquierdo, 2007). 5 he visitado estas páginas entre marzo de 2014 y abril de 2015. 6 se encuentran estudios sobre algunos de estos cibergéneros en la sección monográfica dedicada al guía de viaje y turismo 2.0 ibérica 31 (2016): 15-38 37 yus ramos, f. (2010). ciberpragmática 2.0. nuevos usos del lenguaje en internet. barcelona: ariel. 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 37 03 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 38 iberica 13 ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108 abstract when deciding on a case, spanish judges must construe relevant legislation with the help of a body of ambiguous and often mutually inconsistent rules. apart from general principles (e.g. those collected in the constitution), the most significant guideline available for interpreting statutes, subsection 3(1) of the spanish civil code, stipulates that rules shall be interpreted according to “the proper meaning of words”. the vagueness of this provision, based on the idea that language conforms to reality in a univocal manner, goes hand in hand with the principle of judicial independence, under which spanish judges are free to make any decisions they think suitable. this paper describes the principles of statutory interpretation in spain and emphasizes how the application of these rules, together with the concept of judicial independence, sometimes makes statutory interpretation and court decisions a rather unpredictable process. keywords: legal language, legal text type, statutory interpretation, judicial independence, court decisions. resumen el lenguaje del derecho y su interpretaci�n por los tribunales espa�oles a la hora de dictar la resolución que pone punto final a un proceso, los jueces españoles interpretan la ley con la ayuda de un corpus de normas ambiguas y, en muchos casos, incoherentes entre sí. aparte de los principios generales, recogidos por ejemplo en la constitución española, la herramienta más significativa de que disponen estos jueces para comprender y aplicar la letra de las leyes está contenida en el artículo 3.1 del código civil. esta disposición estipula que las normas se interpretarán según “el sentido propio de sus palabras”. la vaguedad de este criterio, que se fundamenta en la idea de la correspondencia unívoca entre lenguaje y realidad, coexiste, además, con el principio de independencia judicial, según el cual los jueces españoles son libres unravelling the language of the law in spanish courts víctor m. gonzález ruiz universidad de las palmas de gran canaria (spain) vgonzalez@dfm.ulpgc.es 93 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:52 página 93 ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108 víctor m. gonzález ruiz de tomar las decisiones que consideren adecuadas. este artículo describe los principios de interpretación legal vigentes en españa, con el objeto de subrayar cómo la aplicación de estos criterios, unida al principio de independencia judicial, convierten la exégesis legislativa y las resoluciones judiciales, en ocasiones, en procesos de resultados imprevisibles. palabras clave: lenguaje legal, género legal, interpretación legal, independencia judicial, resoluciones judiciales. 1. the need for tools to interpret the law the fact that all legal writing needs to be interpreted has been stated, among others, by mellinkoff (1982). even apparently straightforward pieces of legislation must be construed by lawyers and judges if they are to apply them to a set of given facts, or if they have to conclude the meaning of a contract or a will. from a more conservative perspective, it has been argued that clearly drafted documents leave no room for ambiguity and, as a result, require no interpretation at all. according to this approach, a judge should be nothing more than a hands-off intermediary between the unambiguous words of the law and the citizens in most instances. however, this standpoint seems, on the one hand, not to be in contact with the very diverse daily routine of courts and, on the other hand, to lie on a misconception about language by regarding the relationship between word and meaning as unequivocal and self-evident. legal professionals (most notably, judges), aware of the untruthfulness of this belief, have developed and availed themselves over the centuries of rules and principles which help them better understand and apply the texts which they work with. in spain, these rules and principles consist of a limited and rather imprecise set of guidelines which are not arranged in order of rank, and where the decision as to when to use one tool of construction as opposed to another is left to the discretion of courts and public officials. in this paper, i will describe the principles of statutory interpretation employed by spanish courts from a legal perspective, by paying particular attention to the way in which language is regarded in this very specific professional area. i will also argue that the vague wording of the main interpretative provision in spanish law, together with other factors (e.g. the right of its judges to independence in decision making), allow for some uncertainty as far as the outcome of judicial proceedings is concerned. this study will not examine the interaction between the spanish maxims of construction and those of 94 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 94 other countries; that is, the multilingual and multicultural contexts of legislation, as labelled by bhatia et al. (2003), and also dealt with, among others, by sarcevic (1997). 2. the rules of statutory interpretation in spain the set of guidelines to statutory interpretation at the disposal of spanish courts is composed of a single rule of construction (subsection 3(1) of the spanish civil code) which must be applied consistently with: (a) the principles of the spanish constitution; (b) the international law which has been expressly accepted by spain (particularly, ec law); and (c) the decisions made by the two highest courts (i.e., the tribunal supremo and the tribunal constitucional). in addition, spanish courts may also invoke legal maxims or aphorisms in order to support their decisions.1 these rules, principles and aids will be described briefly in the following sections. 2.1. subsection 3(1) of the spanish civil code: a general provision on how to interpret the law subsection 3(1) of the spanish civil code may be defined as the single rule of construction for spain’s judges. this rule, generally applicable to any matter covered by law, specifies the method to be followed when construing any piece of legislation and provides a universal approach to statutory interpretation in spain. subsection 3(2) and sections 4 and 5 of this code, likewise, offer other interpretive principles which must not be ignored by courts when applying the law.2 section 3 (1) rules shall be interpreted according to the proper meaning of words, in connection with their context, historical circumstances, previous relevant legislation, and the social reality of the time in which these rules are to be applied. in all cases, the spirit and purpose of the rule must be regarded as an essential tool of construction. unravelling the language of the law ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108 95 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 95 (2) equity shall be considered when applying the law. however, court decisions may only exclusively rely on equity when the particular rule explicitly allows for it. section 4 (1) when a rule does not specifically refer to a certain situation, it may be interpreted by drawing an analogy with another rule covering a similar situation and which has been found to have an identical ratio. (2) criminal, exceptional and temporary rules shall only apply to the situations and within the periods of time expressed in them.3 (3) the provisions in this code shall be regarded as supplementary when applied in connection with distinct matters regulated by other rules. section 5 (1) unless it is otherwise provided, periods of time shall be interpreted as beginning the day after the initial date set in the rule. if the periods are fixed in months or years, they shall be computed including both the initial and final months or years set in the rule. when the final month of any period does not have a day corresponding to the initial date, the period shall be understood to expire on the last day of the final month. (2) in civil matters, periods of time are calculated including non business days. apparently, having to deal with only one compulsory rule of construction (the one expressed in subsection 3(1)) should prevent the courts from taking different directions when making decisions. in other words, legal consistency and certainty should benefit from the judges’ lack of choice as far as rules of construction are concerned. however, far from providing a clear guidance for the application of the law, subsection 3(1) reveals itself as a rather vague statement, which actually allows for any method of interpretation which judges may find effective to arrive at their personal conclusions. thus, the main reason why i characterise this rule of construction as unclear and uncertain is that subsection 3(1) does not express a straightforward rule of construction, but refers to several (potentially contradictory) elements which must be taken into account at interpreting the law. these elements are the following:4 grammatical5 (i.e., the words of the law), logical (i.e., the network of “logical” relationships between its different components), systematic (i.e., its connection with the legal system as a whole), historical (i.e., the way in which the law on a particular matter has developed and changed up to the present time), social (i.e., the social reality of the time in which the law is to be applied), and purposive (i.e., the purpose behind the law, both the motivation of víctor m. gonzález ruiz ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-10896 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 96 legislators and the object expressed in the rule)6. it is possible that legislators intended that these elements be applied simultaneously, but actual practice has demonstrated that they can be used in an alternative manner. by giving more emphasis to any one of these factors in the process of arriving at a decision, courts may pronounce different verdicts before materially identical situations, as the case study in section 3 will show. as a consequence, judges can justify any method of interpretation (e.g. the one which better suits their intention) invoking the words of subsection 3(1). additionally, the main clause of subsection 3(1), “according to the proper meaning of words”, is as imprecise as it gets. even though it is supplemented, after a detaching comma, by the phrase “in connection with”, this expression, which somehow supports the unrealistic principle in claris non fit interpretatio (i.e., clear words need no interpretation) (iturralde sesma, 1989), manifests a concept of language whereby it is possible to convey a “pure” and unambiguous meaning for every word. i understand that, in practice, trying to stick to “the proper meaning of words” leaves courts free to make any decision they consider suitable.7 as it may be the case in other legal systems, the social and the purposive elements are the most frequently adduced by spanish courts when it seems obvious that their verdicts deviate from what the rule apparently stipulates (segura ortega, 2003). in all cases, however, all decisions by judges and public officials in spain, whether they have been made on social grounds or for any of the other reasons laid down in subsection 3(1), must not collide, above anything else, with the principles of the constitution. 2.2. the adherence to the spanish constitution the principles which act as a basis for both the spanish legal system and its social order are those specified in the spanish constitution, which was enacted on 29 december 1978. any decision which seeks to be sanctioned in spain must abide by the provisions in the constitution, as the judiciary organic act 6/1985, of 1 july8, indicates in section 5: 1. the constitution is the primary rule of the spanish legal system and it binds all judges and courts. these shall construe and apply the law in the light of the rules and principles of the constitution, in such a way as they have been interpreted by the spanish tribunal constitucional in all kinds of proceedings. unravelling the language of the law ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108 97 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 97 this requirement also refers to the role of the spanish tribunal constitucional. this court of last resort, which is in charge of determining whether any legal act adheres to the constitution, binds all lower courts and constitutes one of the two sources of precedent in the spanish legal system. as a result, its decisions regarding the interpretation of the constitution must always be observed, and, in case of a presumed conflict between a court decision and any constitutional principle, an appeal may be made to the tribunal constitucional for them to decide on the issue. 2.3. the compliance with ec law and international conventions international treaties to which spain is a signatory also have to be consistent with the constitution, and this requirement inevitably results in the amendment of either of the two texts under discussion (i.e., either the particular international piece of law or the spanish constitution). the decision as to which text is to be modified depends on the imbalance of power between the negotiating parties9. once international treaties and the constitution are no longer in conflict, the former must be published in spain’s official journal in order to become spanish law (a condition stated in section 96 of the spanish constitution). as such, the new international legal principles should not be violated by spanish courts when interpreting any statute. in this respect, ec law is the most notable example of multinational law having an influence on the activity of spanish judges. spain’s accession treaty to the european economic community10, published in the spanish national official journal on 1 january 1986 and ratified the previous year by the parties concerned, included the following provisions regarding the compulsory observance of ec law principles by the spanish legal system: article 2 from the date of accession, the provisions of the original treaties and the acts adopted by the institutions of the communities before accession shall be binding on the new member states [spain and portugal] and shall apply in those states under the conditions laid down in those treaties and in this act. article 3 [...] 2. the new member states undertake to accede to the conventions provided for in article 220 of the eec treaty and to those that are inseparable from víctor m. gonzález ruiz ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-10898 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 98 the attainment of the objectives of that treaty and thus linked to the community legal order, and also to the protocols on the interpretation of those conventions by the court of justice [...]. article 4 1. the agreements or conventions entered into by any of the communities with one or more third states, with an international organization or with a national of a third state, shall, under the conditions laid down in the original treaties and in this act, be binding on the new member states.11 the “reference procedure”, by which domestic courts of the member states refer questions on how to interpret ec legislation to the european court of justice and, subsequently, must abide by the european court’s rulings on that matter, shows the extent to which ec legal principles are to be taken into consideration by national judges. 2.4. a low-key doctrine of precedent, judicial independence and the lack of consistency and certainty in court decisions apart from the binding role of the decisions taken by the european court of justice on matters relating to ec law or institutions, the doctrine of precedent is only very modestly applied in spain. far from the influence it has as a source of law in common law systems12, spanish courts are only bound by the two most superior courts, the tribunal supremo and the tribunal constitucional, which, as a consequence of the principle of authority, determine, when appealed to, the exact meaning of legal rules. this apparent source of certainty and consistency for the “consumers” of the court system very often clashes, however, with the principle of independence of spanish judges, which is laid down as one of their basic rights in sections 12 and 13 of the judiciary organic act 6/1985, of 1 july: section 12 1. in the exercise of their jurisdiction, judges shall be independent from all other judicial and governing bodies of the judiciary. 2. judges and courts shall not correct the application or interpretation of the law made by lower courts (as set by the hierarchy of the spanish courts), unless they have a right to do so under the law as courts of appeal. 3. judges, courts, governing bodies of courts and the general council for the judiciary shall not give any instructions, whether general or particular, to lower courts on the application or interpretation of the law which these may carry out when exercising their jurisdiction. unravelling the language of the law ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108 99 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 99 section 13 everyone shall respect the independence of judges. this principle of independence has been sanctioned by several rulings of the tribunal constitucional. in one of them, the court stated that “a different interpretation of the rules should not be understood in itself as a breach of the right to the equal application of the law”, and that “the use of different criteria at interpreting the law is legitimate, as seen from the perspective of the principle of equality, provided it is reasoned out, reasonable and consistent; that is to say, provided it is not arbitrary” (ruling 161/1989 of the tribunal constitucional). in a further development of this principle, the tribunal constitucional prescribed that one court might use different criteria of construction in different proceedings even though the facts under consideration were materially identical (ruling 42/1993 of the tribunal constitucional). this decision, given in appeal proceedings, stipulated that, in the context of the independence of the courts within their jurisdiction, the requirement of uniformity in the application of the law would be fulfilled when (a) the legal criteria applied in the particular case were “externalised” and reasoned out; and (b) the grounds for the judgement were expressed in the “innovative” decision or, instead, could be easily deduced from it. this means that, as the court put it, the requirement of uniformity in the application of the law by judges and courts lies more on formal aspects than on substantive matters. given the different ideologies, prejudices and intuitions of individual judges, their “freedom” to apply the law actually results in divergent rulings in cases of similar characteristics. moreover, this uncertainty regarding the implementation of the law is reinforced by the facts that (a) there are no official rules of preference for judges in order to choose a method of construction as opposed to another; (b) all interpretive criteria are deemed equally valid and effective; and (c) the judicial system lacks any effective method of control on the activity of the courts (segura ortega, 2003). as a result, citizens find it impossible to guess beforehand at the likely conclusion of their proceedings. 2.5. maxims, presumptions and rules of language a final and even less systematised source of tools of statutory interpretation is the collection of maxims, presumptions and rules of language which spanish courts regard as part of their legal tradition. these “canons of víctor m. gonzález ruiz ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108100 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 100 construction” and substantive legal principles (also called “arguments”) constitute very general and concise statements which have their origin in old judicial doctrines and rulings (escobar de la serna, 1990), and are almost always referred to by their latin expressions. some have been incorporated into legislative provisions, and others convey interpretive criteria which can also be found in written law. the following are some of the most frequently employed by courts as a support for their decisions13: • interpretations producing an absurd result should be avoided (ad absurdum argument).14 • the same rule should be applied in cases for which the law does not make any distinction (ubi lex non distinguit, nec nos distinguere debemus). • in cases with identical ratio, the rule of law should be the same (ubi eadem ratio ist, ibi eadem iuris dispositio esse debet; a pari ratione or “analogy” argument).15 • the express mention of one or more specific things of a particular class “may be taken as tacitly excluding others of the same class which are not mentioned” (gray, 2006: 54) (inclusio unius est exclusio alterius, meaning the same as quod lex dicit de uno, negat de altero; a contrario sensu argument).16 • where a rule allows for a right or behaviour at its highest degree, it will also allow for that right or behaviour at lower degrees (a maiori ad minus argument). • where a rule forbids a behaviour at its lowest degree, it will also forbid that behaviour at higher degrees (a minori ad maius argument). • favourable rules and matters must be applied and interpreted in an extensive manner; on the contrary, unfavourable ones are to be construed in a restrictive way (favorabilia amplianda, odiosa restringenda). • the rights of the individual must not be restrained in a disproportionate way (“proportionality” argument). as it is the case with every other principle of statutory interpretation available in spain, these maxims may or may not be invoked at the pleasure of the courts. again, judges are given a freedom of choice which, in the event, may constitute a detriment to the certainty and consistency of court rulings as a whole. unravelling the language of the law ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108 101 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 101 3. a case study: the prosecution of military service insubordinates in spanish courts in 1992 from what we have seen so far, it could be said that the determining factor in court decisions is the will of the judge, who, depending on the result he wishes to arrive at, employs the method of construction which better leads him to it (segura ortega, 2003). thus, in the instances in which courts have apparently violated the law in their rulings, they mostly allege, as it has been said, that they have relied on a purposive or social approach to legislation (i.e., two of the elements provided as interpretive criteria in subsection 3(1)). as an illustration of the resort to social reasons in order to justify unexpected interpretations of the law, we will refer to the variety of rulings given in the 104 prosecutions of military service insubordinates in spanish ordinary courts in 1992. the assortment of upheld decisions based on the same piece of law and on identical facts demonstrates the lack of consistency of court decisions in spain. in the late eighties and early nineties, a time at which military service was still compulsory for all male citizens in spain, conscientious objection was governed by two acts: (a) act 48/1984, of 26 december, regulating the conscientious objection and the substitutional social service (i.e., prestación social sustitutoria)17; and (b) organic act 8/1984, of 26 december, regulating the appeal proceedings in cases of conscientious objection and its criminal treatment, and repealing section 45 of the tribunal constitucional organic act 2/1979, of 3 october, as amended by the organic act 14/1985, of 9 december, amending the criminal code and the organic act 8/1984, of 26 december, in relation to the military criminal code.18 subsection 2(3) of the latter specified that conscientious objectors who refused to perform the “voluntary” social work intended to replace their service in the armed forces should be imprisoned and pronounced ineligible for any public office: those exempt from the military service because of their conscientious objection (i.e., conscientious objectors) who refuse to perform the víctor m. gonzález ruiz ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108102 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 102 substitutional social service shall be punished with minor imprisonment at its medium and maximum degrees, and shall be pronounced ineligible for any public office during the period of the sentence. as a consequence of the passing of the military service organic act 13/1991, of 20 december19, the spanish criminal code was reformed and it was provided that insubordination proceedings were to be heard in non military courts instead of in military courts, which had been the case so far. with regard to the sentences to be imposed, those for military service insubordinates were leveled up to the ones applicable to insubordinate objectors as laid down in the organic act 8/1984 (i.e., a minimum prison sentence of two years, four months and one day, and a maximum period of imprisonment of six years). under this new act, non military courts were now in charge of trying insubordinates, and criminal proceedings of this kind amounted to 104 in 1992. in a context of growing reaction against the compulsory military service, most accused plainly rejected the armed forces and any substitutional social service on conscientious grounds. given the similarity of the facts under consideration in the different cases, one should have expected a uniform and consistent application of the law; that is to say, the same, or at least similar, rulings in all cases. however, some individual judges, exercising their right to independence, interpreted the provisions in the law in a surprisingly unique manner and presented the several accused with what was described as a “lottery of verdicts”. for example, only about 35% of the people under trial for insubordination were given the minimum prison sentence term stipulated by legislation. the remaining 65% were punished with imprisonment for one year or less20, and, most surprisingly, a few of the accused were acquitted of the crime of insubordination. the first verdict of innocence, which became controversial front-page news, was made on 6 march 1992, by the presiding judge of the madrid criminal court juzgado de lo penal 4, josé luis calvo cabello, and the insubordinate being prosecuted was a 25-year-old man. through an elaborate argumentation, this judge arrived at the discharge of the accused even though he admitted the full force of the applicable legislation and the fact that the prosecuted had refused to perform the substitutional social service required. according to his verdict, the circumstances and the behaviour of the insubordinate, which were not materially different from those of others, gave rise to a conflict between “conscience” and “law” (i.e., the individual unravelling the language of the law ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108 103 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 103 against the state), which had to be solved in favour of conscience or, in other words, in favour of the individual and their dignity. the judge stated that the non performance of the substitutional social service constituted the only means of the accused to preserve his dignity, and that the damage caused by his non performance was of less importance than the one avoided with such a behaviour (atienza, 1992). by virtue of subsequent developments of the law, occurring in parallel with a transformation of spanish social mores and the abolishment, on 31 december 2001, of the compulsory military service and its alternative social service, all crimes connected with these previously compulsory services were eventually removed from the criminal code and the military criminal code.21 as a result, about 4,000 insubordinates (whether still undergoing criminal proceedings or already convicted) were amnestied in 2002. 5. conclusions judge calvo cabello’s acquittal verdict relied on social and systematic grounds, taking into consideration the observance, among others, of the presumption against the disproportionate punishment of individuals. in doing so, the judge turned a blind eye to “the proper meaning of words” of the rule which he was supposed to apply; or, perhaps, he found that “the proper meaning of words” of this rule also offered room for the protection of the dignity of the individual as he considered this to be. anyway, this instance of statutory interpretation shows that, as far as the construction of the law is concerned, the measure as to which meaning of the rule is “proper” and which one is “improper” depends on the prejudices, moral principles and political ideas of the judge in question. and, because statutes have language as their raw material, it may be inevitable that this is so. moreso mateos and maría vilajosana (2004) have pointed out that the great discretion of courts when applying the law is caused, in part, by the limitations of language, a tool which is often ambiguous, vague and with an “open texture”.22 even though agreeing that language may be an obstacle to the interpretation of the law, i believe that it is not its limitations to be blamed, but its richness of meaning in different contexts; and this is precisely the reason why every piece of law must be interpreted in the first place. in spain, the right to independence of judges and their disregard for precedents not coming from the two superior courts, together with the víctor m. gonzález ruiz ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108104 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 104 complex nature of language, account for the uncertainty and inconsistency of some court decisions. paradoxically, solan (1993) describes a somehow similar scenario in us courts, which belong to a common law system where, in principle, the observance of the doctrine of precedent should guarantee the uniformity of its judicial decisions. moreover, some of the features mentioned with regard to the spanish system (e.g. the rules of interpretation are not ordered by rank; some of the principles invoked by courts are mutually inconsistent) may be also applied to the decisions made by common law judges. in this respect, i find the following quote from solan (1993: 92) highly relevant for the discussion presented in this paper: “it can only advance the cause of thoughtful decision making to debate openly which of these principles are to be taken seriously, and what the hierarchical relationship among conflicting principles should be”. for the moment, to rely on “the proper meaning of words” (i.e., an assertion which seems not to recognise the multifaceted nature of language) as the primary method of construction of legal texts constitutes an approach to statutory interpretation which seems neither pragmatic nor effective. (revised paper received october 2008) references unravelling the language of the law ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108 105 almagro nosete, j. (2004). “interpretación de la constitución e interpretación de la ley. razonabilidad e interdicción de la arbitrariedad” in e. bacigalupo zapater, p. lucas murillo de la cueva & r. trillo torres (coords.), el tribunal supremo en el ordenamiento constitucional, 451470. madrid: tribunal supremo. atienza, m. (1992). “un dilema moral. sobre el caso de los insumisos”. claves de razón práctica 25: 16-30. bhatia, v. k., c. n. candlin, j. engberg & a. trosborg (eds.) (2003). multilingual and multicultural contexts of legislation. an international perspective. frankfurt am main: peter lang. escobar de la serna, l. (1990). lecciones de introducción a las ciencias jurídicas. madrid: dykinson. gray, j. (2006). lawyers’ latin. a vademecum. london: robert hale. iturralde sesma, v. (1989). lenguaje legal y sistema jurídico. cuestiones relativas a la aplicación de la ley. madrid: tecnos. mellinkoff, d. (1982). legal writing: sense and nonsense. st. paul, minn: west. moreso mateos, j.j. & j. maría vilajosana (2004). introducción a la teoría del derecho. madrid: marcial pons. sarcevic, s. (1997). new approach to legal translation. the hague, london & boston: kluwer law international. savigny, f.k. (1878). sistema del derecho romano actual. j. mesía & m. poley (trans.). madrid: centro editorial de góngora. segura ortega, m. (2003). sobre la interpretación del derecho. santiago de compostela: universidade de santiago de compostela. sieira mucientes, s. (2004). “la interpretación y aplicación de los derechos fundamentales por el tribunal constitucional: el principio de proporcionalidad” in m.i. álvarez vélez (coord.), 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 105 victor m. gonzález ruiz obtained his phd degree in translation at the universidad de las palmas de gran canaria, spain, where he works as a lecturer on the subject of legal translation. forensic linguistics and audiovisual translation are among his other research interests. notes 1 individual acts may also contain ad hoc interpretive directions. in this paper, we will only refer to generally applicable provisions. 2 in this paper, all legal excerpts are my translation except when noted. to access the original pieces of legislation, the reader may visit, among others, the following web site: <http://noticias.juridicas.com>. 3 subsection 4(2) of the spanish civil code partially corresponds to the provision in subsection 4(1) of the spanish criminal code: “criminal law shall be applied only to the instances expressly set forth in it”. 4 of great influence on spanish legal scholars, savigny’s (1878) theory of statutory interpretation advanced these elements as factors to be taken simultaneously into account when construing the law. even though six elements may be distinguished in subsection 3(1), savigny identified only the first four: grammatical, logical, systematic and historical. 5 this element corresponds to the “literal rule” or plain meaning rule, the oldest rule of construction in english law, which states that “if the words of the statute are in themselves precise and unambiguous, then no more can be necessary than to expound those words in that natural and ordinary sense” (sussex peerage case (1844) 1 cl & fin 85). 6 according to almagro nosete (2004: 453), these elements may be identified in subsection 3(1) as follows: “rules will be interpreted according to the proper meaning of words [grammatical element], in connection with their context [logical and systematic elements], historical circumstances, previous relevant legislation [historical element], and the social reality of the time in which these rules are to be applied [social element]. in all cases, the spirit and purpose of the rule [purposive element] must be regarded as an essential tool of construction.” 7 the civil code includes some special provisions with regard to the interpretation of agreements (sections 1281-1289). in this respect, there is also a plain reference to the principle in claris non fit interpretatio in section 1281: “when the terms in an agreement are clear and leave no doubt as to the intention of the parties involved, its clauses shall be interpreted in a literal way”. 8 ley orgánica 6/1985, de 1 de julio, del poder judicial. 9 in this respect, spain amended its constitution in order to be able to accede to the eec in 1986. 10 instrument of ratification of 20 september 1985 of the treaty made in lisbon and madrid on 12 june 1985 regarding the accession of the kingdom of spain and the portuguese republic to the european economic community and the european atomic energy community (spanish official journal 1, 1 january 1986, pages 3-687). 11 official english version of the european community act concerning the conditions of accession of the kingdom of spain and the portuguese republic and the adjustment to the treaties (official journal of the european union l 302, 15 november 1985, page 23). 12 the doctrine of precedent, as it is understood in common law systems, means that a court must decide víctor m. gonzález ruiz ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108106 escritos en conmemoración del xxv aniversario de la constitución, 41-54. madrid: universidad pontificia de comillas. solan, l. (1993). the language of judges. chicago & london: the university of chicago press. 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 106 in the same way as it has been decided in an earlier case if the facts which are legally relevant (the material facts) are the same. 13 as collected by escobar de la serna (1990: 58-59). sieira mucientes (2004: 42) refers specifically to the principle of proportionality. 14 this roughly corresponds to the “golden rule of construction” of the english system: “[...] the grammatical and ordinary sense of the words is to be adhered to, unless that would lead to some absurdity or inconsistency with the rest of the instrument, in which case the grammatical and ordinary sense of the words may be modified, so as to avoid that absurdity or inconsistency, but not farther” (lord wensleydale in grey v. pearsons (1857) 6 hl cas 61). 15 this argument corresponds to subsection 4(1) of the spanish civil code. 16 english law gives a slightly different wording to this rule of language: expressio unius est exclusio alterius (“expressing one thing excludes another”). 17 ley 48/1984, de 26 de diciembre, reguladora de la objeción de conciencia y de la prestación social sustitutoria. 18 ley orgánica 8/1984, de 26 de diciembre, por la que se regula el régimen de recursos en caso de objeción de conciencia, su régimen penal y se deroga el artículo 45 de la ley orgánica 2/1979, de 3 de octubre, del tribunal constitucional; tal como ha sido modificada por la ley orgánica 14/1985, de 9 de diciembre, de modificación del código penal y de la ley orgánica 8/1984, de 26 de diciembre, en correlación con el código penal militar. 19 ley orgánica 13/1991, de 20 de diciembre, del servicio militar. this act was repealed by the national defence organic act 5/2005, of 17 november (ley orgánica 5/2005, de 17 de noviembre, de la defensa nacional). 20 from january to april 1993, 108 prosecutions to insubordinates took place. 77% of them were given prison sentences of one year or less. 21 organic act 3/2002, of 22 may, amending the criminal code organic act 10/1995, of 23 november, and the military criminal code organic act 13/1985, of 9 december, on criminal matters related to the military service and the substitutional social service (ley orgánica 3/2002, de 22 de mayo, por la que se modifican la ley orgánica 10/1995, de 23 de noviembre, del código penal, y la ley orgánica 13/1985, de 9 de diciembre, del código penal militar, en materia de delitos relativos al servicio militar y a la prestación social sustitutoria). before the enactment of this final act, the legal treatment of these crimes had relaxed thanks to a 1998 act: organic act 7/1998, of 5 october, amending the criminal code organic act 10/1995, of 23 november, in which prison and fine sentences are abolished for the cases of non performance of the compulsory military service and the substitutional social service, and in which the sentence of ineligibility for public office is reduced in these cases (ley orgánica 7/1998, de 5 de octubre, de modificación de la ley orgánica 10/1995, de 23 de noviembre, del código penal, por la que se suprimen las penas de prisión y multa para los supuestos de no cumplimiento del servicio militar obligatorio y prestación social sustitutoria y se rebajan las penas de inhabilitación para dichos supuestos). 22 the other factors mentioned by this author are: firstly, the conflict between different pieces of legislation, which may not be always solved automatically; secondly, the conflict between principles which need to be weighed; and, finally, the existence of legislative gaps, which may be fulfilled either by the a contrario sensu argument or by the “analogy” argument, each of them resulting in opposite rulings. unravelling the language of the law ibérica 18 [2009]: 93-108 107 06 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 107 iberica 13 ibérica 15 [2008]: 165-176 abstract the research literature on metacognitive awareness of reading strategies indicates the need to increase our understanding of readers’ metacognitive knowledge about reading and reading strategies so that individuals develop into active, constructively responsive readers. the study presented here is intended to study the reported strategy use of english for specific purposes (esp) university students, specifically students from the faculty of chemistry and the technical school of engineering at the university of oviedo. specifically, i analyse (1) spanish university esp students’ reported strategy use; and (2) differences, if any, between male and female students in their perceived use of reading strategies while reading academic materials. i conclude that there is a moderate to high overall use of reading strategies and find that students show higher reported use for problem-solving and global reading strategies. moreover, i find that females report significantly higher frequency of strategy use and thend to use support reading strategies more than men. keywords: reading ability, reading strategies, metacognitive awareness, gender. resumen an�lisis de la percepci�n metacognitiva de las estrategias de lectura en el caso de estudiantes universitarios de ife la literatura acerca de la percepción metacognitiva de las estrategias de lectura muestra la necesidad de incrementar nuestra comprensión acerca del conocimiento metacognitivo sobre la lectura y las estrategias de lectura de los lectores para de esta manera convertirlos en lectores activos. el presente trabajo pretende estudiar el uso percibido de estrategias por parte de estudiantes universitarios de inglés para fines específicos (ife), en concreto estudiantes de analysis of esp university students’ reading strategy awareness ana cristina lahuerta martínez universidad de oviedo (spain) lahuerta@correo.uniovi.es 165 10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 165 ibérica 15 [2008]: 165-176 ana cristina lahuerta martínez la facultad de química y la escuela de ingeniería técnica industrial de la universidad de oviedo. en concreto, analizamos (1) el uso percibido de estrategias por parte de estudiantes universitarios españoles de ife; y (2) las posibles diferencias entre hombres y mujeres con respecto a su uso percibido de estrategias durante la lectura de textos académicos. concluimos que se registra un uso entre moderado y alto de estrategias de lectura y que los estudiantes informan de un mayor uso de estrategias de resolución de problemas y estrategias globales. además, encontramos que el uso percibido de estrategias se manifiesta más entre las mujeres y que, en comparación con los hombres, éstas tienden a usar más las estrategias de apoyo. palabras clave: competencia lectora, estrategias de lectura, percepción metacognitiva, género. previous research studies university students of english as a second language and english as a foreign language have to read a large volume of academic texts in english. however, many students enter university education underprepared for the reading demands placed on them (dreyer & nel, 2003). they show inability to read selectively, that is, extracting what is important for the purpose of reading and discarding what is insignificant (benson, 1991). they often present low level of reading strategy knowledge (dreyer, 1998; van wyk, 2001) and lack the strategies needed to successfully comprehend expository texts. also, they often select ineffective and inefficient strategies with little strategic intent (wood et al. 1998). strategic awareness and monitoring of the comprehension process are critically important aspects of skilled reading (pressley & afflerbach, 1995; sheorey & mokhtari, 2001). such awareness and monitoring is often referred to in the literature as “metacognition” which “entails knowledge of strategies for processing texts, the ability to monitor comprehension, and the ability to adjust strategies as needed” (auerbach & paxton, 1997: 240-1). according to sheorey & mokhtari (2001), it is the combination of conscious awareness of the strategic reading processes and the actual use of reading strategies that distinguishes the skilled from the unskilled readers. studies in l1 and l2 contexts show that successful reading strategy use is dependent on whether a strategy is employed metacognitively (carrell et al., 1989; jiménez et al., 1996). studies also show that unsuccessful students lack this strategic awareness and monitoring of the comprehension process (garcía et al., 166 10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 166 1998). these less successful students, who are often unaware of their own cognitive process, must be helped to acquire and use the reading strategies that have been found to be successful (mokhtari & reichard, 2004). recent studies recognize the role of metacognitive awareness in reading comprehension. for instance, sheorey & mokhtari (2001) examine differences in the reported use of reading strategies of native and non-native english speakers when reading academic materials. participants were 302 college students (150 us native-english-speaking and 152 esl students), who completed a survey of reading strategies aimed at discerning the strategies readers report using when coping with academic reading tasks. results of the study revealed, first, that both us and esl students display awareness of almost all the strategies included in the survey. secondly, both groups attributed the same order of importance to categories of reading strategies in the survey, regardless of their reading ability or gender. thirdly, both esl and us high-reading-ability students show comparable degrees of higher reported use for cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies than lower-reading-ability students in the respective groups, and while the us high-reading-ability students seem to consider support reading strategies to be relatively more valuable than low-reading-ability us students, esl students attribute high value to support reading strategies, regardless of their reading ability level. lastly, in the us group, the females report significantly higher frequency of strategy use; this gender effect is not reflected in the esl sample. these authors conclude that it is important for all readers, native and non-native, to be aware of the significant strategies proficient reading requires. teachers can play a key role in increasing students’ awareness of such strategies and in helping them to become active readers. dhieb-henia (2003) investigates into the reading processes of english as a foreign language/english for specific purposes (efl/esp) students with respect to research articles in their speciality area: biology. specifically, two groups of undergraduate biology students (62 in all) from two science institutions took preand post-course reading tests, and 12 participated in retrospection. the purpose of this study was to find if, and to what extent, a metacognitive strategy training course in the study skills and strategies necessary for reading scientific research articles can help esp students in an efl context read more efficiently and rapidly in their subject area. the general hypothesis of this study was that the students who received this strategy training would show enhanced declarative and procedural knowledge (as indicated by their higher scores and lower task-achievement analysis of esp university students reading ibérica 15 [2008]: 165-176 167 10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 167 timings) at the end of the course. the tests and protocols provided evidence of the effectiveness of metacognitive strategy training in improving the subjects’ familiarity with and proficiency in reading research articles, and also of the effectiveness of retrospection as a method for evaluating the subjects’ reading behaviour. dreyer & nel (2003) conducted research on strategic reading instruction. their purpose was to address if the students in the experimental group who followed strategic reading instruction attained statistically and practically significantly higher mean scores on their end-of-semester english, reading comprehension tests and if they differed in terms of their reading strategy use. the participants were 131 first-year english as a second language students taking an english for professional course at the potchefstroom university for che, in south africa. the results indicated that students who received strategic reading instruction attained both statistically and practically significantly higher marks on the reading comprehension tests than the students in the control group did. this was true for successful students, as well as for those considered to be at risk. mokhtari & reichard (2004) also investigated whether significant differences exist between first and second language readers in their metacognitive awareness and perceived use of specific strategies when reading for academic purposes in english. a total of 350 college students (141 us and 209 moroccan) completed an instrument designed to measure their metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. the results revealed that despite the fact that the two student groups had been schooled in significantly different socio-cultural environments, they reported remarkably similar patterns of strategy awareness and reported use when reading academic materials in english. both us and moroccan students demonstrated a moderate to high awareness level of reading strategies. an examination of the type of strategies reported used by the subjects showed that moroccan students reported using certain types of strategies more often than did their american counterparts. these authors conclude that this study’s findings help to explain some of the differences and similarities between second language readers and those reading in their first language, which have only been seen in terms of deficiencies but not in other, presumably more beneficial or even neutral ways. the first conclusion to be drawn from the research literature on metacognitive awareness of reading strategies just reviewed indicates the need to increase our understanding of readers’ metacognitive knowledge ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 15 [2008]: 165-176168 10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 168 about reading and reading strategies so that individuals can develop into active, constructively responsive readers. the studies analysed tend to conclude that it is important for all readers to be aware of the significant strategies proficient reading requires. moreover, they show that students who receive strategic reading instruction improve their reading comprehension performance. these studies also reveal that in general students display some awareness of reading strategies without much difference among native and non-native students in the types of strategies reported to have more often been used. finally, one study (sheorey & mokhtari, 2001) shows that females report significantly higher frequency of strategy use. our study aims bearing all these studies in mind, the present paper is aimed at increasing our understanding of readers’ metacognitive knowledge about reading and reading strategies in the context of esp spanish students. thus, the present study is aimed at assessing the metacognitive awareness and perceived strategy use of esp students who are native speakers of spanish and read academic texts written in english. likewise, i also intend to provide more conclusive results about the gender effect (the females report significantly higher frequency of strategy use). specifically, i will explore these two issues: 1. esp spanish students’ reported strategy use. 2. differences, if any, between male and female students in their perceived use of reading strategies while reading academic materials. subjects the participants in this study were 157 non-native-english speaking spanish students from the university of oviedo. of these, 43.3% were first-year chemistry students and 56.7% were first-year students from the technical school of engineering. with respect to their sex, 48% were women and 52% were men. the students’ average age was 19.44. analysis of esp university students reading ibérica 15 [2008]: 165-176 169 10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 169 data collection the students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies was assessed through the use of the metacognitive awareness of reading strategies inventory (marsi) (mokhtari & reichard, 2002), which was designed for measuring adolescent and adult students’ awareness and use of reading strategies while reading academic or school-related materials.1 the marsi instrument (see table 2 in the appendix) measures three broad categories of strategies including: (1) global reading strategies (glob), which can be thought of as generalized or global reading strategies aimed at setting the stage for the reading act (for instance, setting purpose for reading, previewing text content, predicting what the text is about, etc.); (2) problem-solving strategies (prob), which are localized, focused problem-solving or repair strategies used when problems develop in understanding textual information (for instance, checking one’s understanding upon encountering conflicting information, re-reading for better understanding, etc.); and (3) support reading strategies (sup), which involve using the support mechanisms or tools aimed at sustaining responsiveness to reading (for instance, use of reference materials like dictionaries and other support systems). these three classes of strategies interact with and support each other when used in the process of constructing meaning from text. the marsi instrument was administered during a regular class period. after a brief overview of the purpose of the study, a description of the instrument, and an explanation of the steps involved in completing it, the students were instructed to read each of the 30 statements in the marsi inventory, and circle the number which best described their perceived use of the strategies described in the statements using a likert scale ranging from 1 (i never or almost never use this strategy) to 5 (i always or almost always use this strategy). the students were also advised to work at their own pace. they could take as much time as they needed to complete the inventory. on the average, the students completed it in 12 minutes. results as a first step, we examined the students’ responses in terms of the individual strategies as well as the three marsi categories identified. table ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 15 [2008]: 165-176170 10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 170 1 shows the individual reading strategy preferences of students arranged in descending order by their means (that is, the most favoured or often used to least favoured or least used strategies). type strategy mean students (n=157) in examining reading strategy use among students on the marsi scale, which ranges from 1 to 5 (1 = low strategy use; 5 = high strategy use), we identified three types of use as suggested by oxford & burry-stock (1995) for general language learning strategy use: high (mean ≥ 3.5), medium (mean = 2.5-3.4), and low (mean ≤ 2.4). analysis of esp university students reading ibérica 15 [2008]: 165-176 171 ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 15 (2008): …-…6 type strategy mean students (n=157) prob when text becomes difficult, i reread to increase my understanding. 4.2323 prob when text becomes difficult, i pay closer attention to what i’m reading. 4.2115 prob i try to get back on track when i lose concentration. 4.1346 prob i read slowly but carefully to be sure i understand what i’m reading. 4.0637 prob i try to guess the meaning of unknown words or phrases. 3.9484 glob i use context clues to help me better understand what i’m reading. 3.9481 glob i skim the text first by noting characteristics like length and organization. 3.7452 prob i adjust my reading speed according to what i’m reading. 3.6538 glob i try to guess what the material is about when i read. 3.6282 glob i use tables, figures, and pictures in text to increase my understanding. 3.5541 glob i check my understanding when i come across conflicting information. 3.5355 sup i use reference materials such as dictionaries to help me understand what i read. 3.4581 glob i think about what i know to help me understand what i read. 3.4522 prob i stop from time to time and think about what i’m reading. 3.3399 sup i go back and forth in the text to find relationships among ideas in it. 3.3013 glob i have a purpose in mind when i read. 3.2597 sup i paraphrase (restate ideas in my own words) to better understand what i read. 3.2532 prob i try to picture or visualize information to help remember what i read. 3.1742 glob i decide what to read closely and what to ignore. 3.1090 sup i underline or circle information in the text to help me remember it. 3.0581 glob i check to see if my guesses about the text are right or wrong. 3.0516 glob i use typographical aids like boldface and italics to identify key information. 2.8516 sup i discuss what i read with others to check my understanding. 2.7436 glob i think about whether the content of the text fits my reading purpose. 2.8431 glob i critically analyze and evaluate the information presented in the text. 2.8077 sup i take notes while reading to help me understand what i read. 2.6306 sup i summarize what i read to reflect on important information in the text. 2.5962 glob i preview the text to see what it’s about before reading it. 2.5779 sup when text becomes difficult, i read aloud to help me understand what i read. 2.4076 sup i ask myself questions i like to have answered in the text. 2.3718 table 1. reported reading strategy use: reported reading strategies used most and least. in examining reading strategy use among students on the marsi scale, which ranges from 1 to 5 (1 = low strategy use; 5 = high strategy use), we identified three types of use as suggested by oxford & burry-stock (1995) for general language learning strategy use: high (mean ! 3.5), medium (mean = 2.5-3.4), and low (mean " 2.4). the means of individual strategy items ranged from 4.2115 to 2.3718, indicating a moderate to high overall use of reading strategies according to the established 10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 171 the means of individual strategy items ranged from 4.2115 to 2.3718, indicating a moderate to high overall use of reading strategies according to the established strategy use criteria. this use is only slightly higher if compared with this use in previous studies (sheorey & mokhtari, 2001; or mokhtari & reichard, 2004). eleven of the 30 strategies fell within the high use group (mean ≥ 3.5 or above), 18 strategies registered means between 3.45 and 2.57 indicating medium use. only two of the strategies in the survey were reported to be used with low frequency (mean values ≤ 2.4). we further analysed the data according to the marsi categories. students showed a clear preference for problem-solving strategies followed by global reading strategies and support reading strategies. the four strategies with the highest use are problem solving. we then analysed if there were any differences between male and female students in their self-assessed strategy use. we analysed the data using anova. the results obtained revealed statistically significant differences (p<0.005) for the use of strategies 2 (i take notes while reading to help me understand what i read.), 6 (i summarize what i read to reflect on important information in the text) and 12 (i underline or circle information in the text to help me remember it). women tend to use these strategies more often than men. they are all support reading strategies. concluding remarks in this study, we wanted to explore the metacognitive awareness and perceived use of reading strategies of esp college students while reading academic materials. specifically, we carried out an analysis of spanish esp university students’ reported strategy use, as well as an analysis of possible differences between male and female students in their perceived use of reading strategies while reading academic materials. the previously presented research has enabled us to conclude that there is a moderate to high overall use of reading strategies among spanish esp students when reading their academic materials. this result agrees with previous studies on the matter. moreover, we have found differences in strategy-type use among students. our study shows higher reported use for problem-solving and global reading strategies. in addition, we have found differences between male and female students in their self-assessed strategy use. women tend to report significantly higher frequency of support reading strategy use. this gender effect supports the ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 15 [2008]: 165-176172 10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 172 results found in previous studies which show that females report significantly higher frequency of strategy use although in our research this gender effect is found with respect to only one type of strategies (i.e., support and reading strategies). more research work is needed to go deeply into these two results. thus, we intend to continue this study in the future with a further analysis of students’ higher reported use for some strategies. we will analyse the reason for this preference and what it is related to (reading proficiency, academic background, etc.). similarly, we will carry out more research into the gender effect found with an analysis of the relationship between support reading strategies and reading comprehension performance. this study might indicate whether this type of strategies is or not significant for reading performance and may help explain women’s reasons for their preference for support reading strategies. we can finally extract some pedagogical implications. we think it is important for non-native readers to be aware of the significant strategies proficient reading requires. we, as teachers, can contribute to increase students’ awareness of such strategies and help them become “constructively responsive” readers (pressley & afflerbach, 1995: 80). we believe it is important for metacognitive reading strategies to be part of reading instruction in a foreign language. such instruction can help promote, as sheorey & mokhtari (2001) defend, an increased awareness of the mental processes involved in reading and the development of thoughtful and constructively responsive reading. teaching students to become constructively responsive readers can be a powerful way to promote skilful academic reading, which will, in turn, enhance academic achievement. (revised paper received october 2007) references analysis of esp university students reading ibérica 15 [2008]: 165-176 173 auerbach, e. & d. paxton (1997). “”it’s not the english thing”: bringing reading research into the esl classroom”. tesol quarterly 31: 237-261. benson, m.j. (1991). “university esl reading: a content analysis”. english for specific purposes 10: 75-88. carrell, p., b. pharis & j. liberto (1989). “metacognitive strategy training for esl reading”. tesol quarterly 23: 647-678. dhieb-henia, n. (2003). “evaluating the effectiveness of metacognitive strategy training for reading research articles in an esp context”. english for specific purposes 22: 387-417. dreyer, c. & c. nel (2003). “teaching reading strategies and reading comprehension within a technology-enhanced learning environment”. system 31: 349-365 dreyer, c. (1998). “improving students’ reading comprehen10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 173 dr. ana cristina lahuerta martínez is assistant professor at the university of oviedo. she holds a phd in english philology. her main research areas are second language teaching and learning, reading research and language for specific purposes. she has participated in international conferences and published several papers in specialized journals, including international ones. notas 1 a complete description of marsi, including its psychometric properties as well as its theoretical and research foundations, can be found in mokhtari & reichard (2002). ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 15 [2008]: 165-176174 sion by means of strategy instruction”. journal for language teaching 31: 18-29. garcía g.e., r.t. jiménez & p.d. pearson (1998). “metacognition, childhood bilingualism, and reading” in d. hacker, j. dunlowsky & a. graesser (eds.), metacognition in educational theory and practice, 200-248. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. jiménez garcía, r.t., g.e. garcía & p.d. pearson (1996). “the reading strategies of bilingual latina/o students who are successful english readers: opportunities and obstacles”. reading research quarterly 31: 90-112. mokhtari, k. & c. reichard (2002). “assessing students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies”. journal of educational psychology 94: 249-259. mokhtari, k. & c. reichard (2004). “investigating the strategic reading process of first and second language readers in two different cultural contexts”. system 32: 379-394. oxford, r. & j. burry-stock (1995). “assessing the use of language learning strategies worldwide with the esl/efl version of the strategy inventory for language learning sill”. system 23: 1-23. pressley, m. & p. afflerbach (1995). verbal protocols of reading: the nature of constructively responsive reading. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. sheorey, r. & k. mokhtari (2001). “coping with academic materials: differences in the reading strategies of native and non-native readers.” system 29: 431-449. van wyk, a.l. (2001). the development and implementation of an english language and literature programme for low-proficiency tertiary learners. unpublished thesis. university of the free state, bloemfontein. wood, e., m. motz & t. willoughby (1998). “examining students’ retrospective memories of strategy development”. journal of educational psychology 90: 698-704. 10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 174 appendix analysis of esp university students reading ibérica 15 [2008]: 165-176 175 ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 15 (2008): …-…10 appendix listed below are statements about what people do when they read academic or school-related materials such as textbooks. after reading each statement, circle the number that applies to you using the scale provided: 1 “i never or almost never do this”, 2 “i do this only occasionally”, 3 “i sometimes do this”, 4 “i usually do this”, 5 “i always or almost always do this”. please note that there are no right or wrong answers to the statements in this inventory. type strategy scale glob 1. i have a purpose in mind when i read. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 2. i take notes while reading to help me understand what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 3. i think about what i know to help me understand what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 4. i preview the text to see what it’s about before reading it. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 5. when text becomes difficult, i read aloud to help me understand what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 6. i summarize what i read to reflect on important information in the text. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 7. i think about whether the content of the text fits my reading purpose. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 8. i read slowly but carefully to be sure i understand what i’m reading. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 9. i discuss what i read with others to check my understanding. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 10. i skim the text first by noting characteristics like length and organization. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 11. i try to get back on track when i lose concentration. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 12. i underline or circle information in the text to help me remember it. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 13. i adjust my reading speed according to what i’m reading. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 14. i decide what to read closely and what to ignore. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 15. i use reference materials such as dictionaries to help me understand what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 16. when text becomes difficult, i pay closer attention to what i’m reading. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 17. i use tables, figures, and pictures in text to increase my understanding. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 18. i stop from time to time and think about what i’m reading. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 19. i use context clues to help me better understand what i’m reading. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 20. i paraphrase (restate ideas in my own words) to better understand what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 21. i try to picture or visualize information to help remember what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 22. i use typographical aids like boldface and italics to identify key information. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 23. i critically analyze and evaluate the information presented in the text. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 24. i go back and forth in the text to find relationships among ideas in it. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 25. i check my understanding when i come across conflicting information. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 26. i try to guess what the material is about when i read. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 27. when text becomes difficult, i reread to increase my understanding. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 28. i ask myself questions i like to have answered in the text. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 29. i check to see if my guesses about the text are right or wrong. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 30. i try to guess the meaning of unknown words or phrases. 1 2 3 4 5 table 2. the marsi instrument (mokhtari & reichard, 2002: 259). ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 15 (2008): …-…10 appendix listed below are statements about what people do when they read academic or school-related materials such as textbooks. after reading each statement, circle the number that applies to you using the scale provided: 1 “i never or almost never do this”, 2 “i do this only occasionally”, 3 “i sometimes do this”, 4 “i usually do this”, 5 “i always or almost always do this”. please note that there are no right or wrong answers to the statements in this inventory. type strategy scale glob 1. i have a purpose in mind when i read. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 2. i take notes while reading to help me understand what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 3. i think about what i know to help me understand what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 4. i preview the text to see what it’s about before reading it. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 5. when text becomes difficult, i read aloud to help me understand what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 6. i summarize what i read to reflect on important information in the text. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 7. i think about whether the content of the text fits my reading purpose. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 8. i read slowly but carefully to be sure i understand what i’m reading. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 9. i discuss what i read with others to check my understanding. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 10. i skim the text first by noting characteristics like length and organization. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 11. i try to get back on track when i lose concentration. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 12. i underline or circle information in the text to help me remember it. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 13. i adjust my reading speed according to what i’m reading. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 14. i decide what to read closely and what to ignore. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 15. i use reference materials such as dictionaries to help me understand what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 16. when text becomes difficult, i pay closer attention to what i’m reading. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 17. i use tables, figures, and pictures in text to increase my understanding. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 18. i stop from time to time and think about what i’m reading. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 19. i use context clues to help me better understand what i’m reading. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 20. i paraphrase (restate ideas in my own words) to better understand what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 21. i try to picture or visualize information to help remember what i read. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 22. i use typographical aids like boldface and italics to identify key information. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 23. i critically analyze and evaluate the information presented in the text. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 24. i go back and forth in the text to find relationships among ideas in it. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 25. i check my understanding when i come across conflicting information. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 26. i try to guess what the material is about when i read. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 27. when text becomes difficult, i reread to increase my understanding. 1 2 3 4 5 sup 28. i ask myself questions i like to have answered in the text. 1 2 3 4 5 glob 29. i check to see if my guesses about the text are right or wrong. 1 2 3 4 5 prob 30. i try to guess the meaning of unknown words or phrases. 1 2 3 4 5 table 2. the marsi instrument (mokhtari & reichard, 2002: 259). 10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 175 10 lahuerta.qxp 12/3/08 17:22 página 176 iberica 13 ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-24 abstract this paper describes three different examples of the use of textographies in the researching and teaching of writing. the first is an examination of the exegeses that art and design students write in their masters degrees. in the second example, a group of teachers looked at the writing section of chinese college english tests. the third example describes a course in which second language students carry out an analysis of the kinds of writing that is required of them in their academic studies. each of the projects aims to go “beyond the text” (freedman, 1999) in order to gain an understanding of why the texts are written as they are. keywords: academic writing, genre, ethnographies, textography, researchled teaching. resumen textograf�as e investigaci�n y docencia de la producci�n escrita en el presente artículo se describen tres ejemplos distintos sobre el uso de textografías en la investigación y enseñanza de la destreza de la producción escrita. el primer ejemplo consiste en un examen de las exégesis redactadas por los alumnos de las carreras de arte y diseño para la obtención de sus títulos de máster. en el segundo ejemplo un grupo de profesores examinan la sección correspondiente a la destreza de la producción escrita que figura en las pruebas obligatorias de inglés que se celebran en los centros superiores de china. en el tercer ejemplo se describe un curso en el que los alumnos de segundas lenguas analizan los distintos tipos de producción escrita que se les exige a lo largo de sus estudios académicos. la finalidad de cada uno de estos proyectos radica en ir “más allá del texto” (freedman, 1999) con objeto de llegar a comprender por qué los textos se escriben del modo en el que se escriben. textographies and the researching and teaching of writing1 brian paltridge the university of sydney (australia) b.paltridge@usyd.edu.au 9 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 9 ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-24 brian paltridge palabras clave: escritura académica, género, etnografías, textografía, docencia basada en investigación. introduction this article discusses the use of textographies in the researching and teaching of writing. a textography is an approach to genre analysis which combines elements of text analysis with elements of ethnography in order to examine what texts are like, and why. three examples of textographies are discussed. the first is a study which examined the exegeses that art and design students write in their masters degrees. the second is a study that examined the writing section of chinese college english tests. the third is a writing course for second language graduate students learning to write in academic settings. in each of these examples the analysis moves “beyond the text” (freedman, 1989) in order to explore the context in which the texts are produced as well as reasons for the choices that students make in their writing. in the first example the researcher looks at the students’ writing and tries to gain an insider’s understanding of why the texts are written as they are. in the second example the researchers are teachers who are wanting to uncover what students “need to know” in order to do well in their college english exams. in the third example, the students are the researchers, trying to understand in what way the context in which they are writing impacts on what they write, and why. each of these examples aims to explore not just the particular nature and character of the texts, but also the values that underlie the texts, and the role the texts play in the particular academic setting (johns, 1997). what is a textography? a textography is an approach to genre analysis which combines elements of text analysis with ethnographic techniques such as interviews, observations, and document analysis. it is, thus, something more than a traditional piece of discourse analysis, while at the same time less than a full-blown ethnography (swales, 1998a; swales & luebs, 1995). a textography aims to get an inside view of the worlds in which the texts are written, why the texts are written as they are, what guides the writing, and the values that underlie the texts that have been written (katz, 1999). a particular goal of a textography is to 10 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 10 examine the “contextualization” and the “situatedness” of written texts (swales, 1998a). it aims to do this through an exploration of the texts’ “contextually embedded discursive practices” (swales, 1998a: 112). a textography, thus, aims to provide a “thick description” (geertz, 2007) of the context in which a text is produced in order to gain an understanding of why the text is written as it is. in doing this, textographies make an important link “between studies of language and studies of culture” (davies, 2000: 589). in his book other floors, other voices, swales (1998b) carried out a textography of the kinds of writing that people who worked on three different floors of his building at the university of michigan were engaged in and the kinds of texts that they wrote. he looked at their texts as well as gathered other data to help build up a picture of the site he was examining. together with his research assistants he put together a collection of 80 slides which aimed to give a pictorial sense of the building, the ambience on each floor, the layout of the offices and typical group activities on each of the floors. university documents were examined as were old newsletters held in the university library. swales and his research team talked to past and present employees about the history of the building. he also used observations, document and correspondence analysis, as well carried out text-based interviews with a selected group of employees on each floor of the building. from this material, textual life histories were put together of seven of the people who worked in the building, four from the university herbarium (the section that looks after the university’ collection of dried plants) and three from the english language institute, including swales himself. swales found that people on each floor of his building wrote quite different texts, even though they were all working at the same institution. they also found the writers’ professional and academic histories, and their life commitments had an important influence on what they wrote and how they wrote it. an outcome of the project was a reconsideration of the notion of “discourse community” (swales, 1990). as swales (1998b) points out, neither the university as a whole nor the building in which he carried out his study could be considered a single discourse community, of its own. he then introduces the notion of “place discourse community” to account for this kind of grouping; that is, a group of people who regularly work together, and who use a range of spoken, spoken-written, and written genres that have evolved during the existence of their particular discourse community. what swales’ project tells us is that there is not just the one single discourse community in academic institutions that students have to learn about, or textographies and the researching and teaching ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-24 11 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 11 write for. it also tells us that there may be quite different ways of doing things in parts of an institution which are physically very close to each other. also, different writers within the same part of an academic (or place) discourse community may have their own preferences for ways of doing things, which, if they are important or influential in their particular setting, may influence how other people write as well. swales study, thus, has important theoretical and practical implications for the teaching of academic writing, particularly in esp settings. a textography of art and design exegeses a study that looked at the exegeses that art and design students write in their masters degrees took a similar approach to swales’ work on textographies (paltridge, 2004). an exegesis is a written text which accompanies a visual project submitted as the research component of the student’s masters degree. these texts are similar in some ways to what is called the thesis2 genre, but in many ways, are also quite different. the exegesis expands on the methodology, parameters, and context of the visual project, rather being a stand-alone piece of work in its own right, as is the case with a more traditional research thesis. in this study, a study of the exegeses was combined with an examination of the texts that surrounded the texts. interviews were also carried out with students, advisors, and examiners of the exegeses. this was done in order to explore the particular nature and character of the students’ texts, the values that underlay the texts, and the role the texts played in the particular academic setting; that is, to examine the texts, role and context of the students’ texts (johns, 1997). the ma prospectus, ma publicity material, the postgraduate student handbook, the guide to examiners, examiners’ reports, and the annual report on the ma programme were also examined. six students, three supervisors, three examiners, and the program leader were interviewed for the study. eleven exegeses were examined. each of the interviews followed the same basic format (see figure 1) although space was allowed for interviewees to provide extra information and to elaborate on particular points that had not been covered in the initial set of questions. brian paltridge ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-2412 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 12 the framework for analysis of the data drew on grabe & kaplan’s (1996) notion of an ethnography of writing (see paltridge 2004 & 2006 for further discussion of this). the analysis considered the social and cultural context in which the writing occurred as well as other aspects of the situation in which the texts were written and how these impact upon what a student writes. factors that were considered included: • the setting of the text; • the focus and perspective of the text; • the purpose/s of the text; • the intended audience for the text, their role and purpose in reading the text; • the relationship between writers and readers of the text; • discourse community expectations, conventions and requirements for the text; • the background knowledges, values, and understandings it is assumed the student shares with their readers, including what is important to their reader and what is not; • the relationship the text has with other texts. the analysis, thus, focuses on important contextual aspects of the students’ texts and the situation in which they occur, each of which is strongly interconnected, and interacts with each other. for example, the level of study has an important influence on the student’s text, as does the purpose of the text. the analysis considered the content of the text and, in particular, appropriate content for the text. the acceptability (or not) of certain points textographies and the researching and teaching ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-24 13 ibérica 15 (2008): …-…4 prospectus, ma publicity material, the postgraduate student handbook, the guide to examiners, examiners’ reports, and the annual report on the ma programme were also examined. six students, three supervisors, three examiners, and the program leader were interviewed for the study. eleven exegeses were examined. each of the interviews followed the same basic format (see figure 1) although space was allowed for interviewees to provide extra information and to elaborate on particular points that had not been covered in the initial set of questions. • what is the purpose of the text? • what is appropriate content for the text? • who is the intended audience for the text? • what do you think is the audience’s role and purpose in reading the text? • how would you describe the relationship between the readers and writer of the text? • are there any particular expectations and conventions for the text? • what background knowledge, values, and understandings do you think it is assumed the writer of the text will share with their readers? • how would you describe the relationship between the texts and the visual component that accompanies the text? figure 1. supervisor, examiner and student interview questions. the framework for analysis of the data drew on grabe & kaplan’s (1996) notion of an ethnography of writing (see paltridge 2004 & 2006 for further discussion of this). the analysis considered the social and cultural context in which the writing occurred as well as other aspects of the situation in which the texts were written and how these impact upon what a student writes. factors that were considered included: • the setting of the text; • the focus and perspective of the text; • the purpose/s of the text; • the intended audience for the text, their role and purpose in reading the text; • the relationship between writers and readers of the text; • discourse community expectations, conventions and requirements for the text; • the background knowledges, values, and understandings it is assumed the student shares with their readers, including what is important to their reader and what is not; • the relationship the text has with other texts. ibérica 15 (2008): …-…4 prospectus, ma publicity material, the postgraduate student handbook, the guide to examiners, examiners’ reports, and the annual report on the ma programme were also examined. six students, three supervisors, three examiners, and the program leader were interviewed for the study. eleven exegeses were examined. each of the interviews followed the same basic format (see figure 1) although space was allowed for interviewees to provide extra information and to elaborate on particular points that had not been covered in the initial set of questions. • what is the purpose of the text? • what is appropriate content for the text? • who is the intended audience for the text? • what do you think is the audience’s role and purpose in reading the text? • how would you describe the relationship between the readers and writer of the text? • are there any particular expectations and conventions for the text? • what background knowledge, values, and understandings do you think it is assumed the writer of the text will share with their readers? • how would you describe the relationship between the texts and the visual component that accompanies the text? figure 1. supervisor, examiner and student interview questions. the framework for analysis of the data drew on grabe & kaplan’s (1996) notion of an ethnography of writing (see paltridge 2004 & 2006 for further discussion of this). the analysis considered the social and cultural context in which the writing occurred as well as other aspects of the situation in which the texts were written and how these impact upon what a student writes. factors that were considered included: • the setting of the text; • the focus and perspective of the text; • the purpose/s of the text; • the intended audience for the text, their role and purpose in reading the text; • the relationship between writers and readers of the text; • discourse community expectations, conventions and requirements for the text; • the background knowledges, values, and understandings it is assumed the student shares with their readers, including what is important to their reader and what is not; • the relationship the text has with other texts. 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 13 of view and claims were also considered. another issue that was explored was the intended audience for the students’ texts and how the students’ readers might react to what they read; that is, the criteria they use for assessing the students’ text including what is important to the students’ readers and what is not. a further issue was the relationship between the writer and reader/s of the students’ texts and how this impacts on what the student says in their text; that is, whether the students were “novices writing for experts”, “apprentices writing for admission to an area of study” or both, and the extent to which students have to tell their audience what they already know. other issues included discourse community expectations for the texts, shared understandings between writers and reader/s of the texts, and background knowledge assumed by the texts. this included consideration of the particular expectations, conventions, and requirements of art and design as a field of study, how an exegesis might typically be organized and what style of language a student should use. other considerations were the level of critical analysis required of students and the level of originality expected of them. the project, thus, aimed to uncover the background knowledges, values, and understandings it is assumed that students will share with the readers of their texts. the collection of exegeses examined covered a range of different topics and kinds of visual project. these are summarized in table 1. academic staff and students often used the term “thesis” to refer to exegeses when, in many ways, they were referring to quite a different kind of text and quite a different site of production and assessment from the more traditional research thesis (or dissertation). for example, the academic setting of an exegesis in art and design is different from that of many other academic areas of study in that it is based on a less traditional view of what “research” is, and how it is conceptualized. the weighting of the exegesis also varied between pieces of writing making it hard, in some ways, to compare one outcome with another. the purpose of an exegesis in art and design is also somewhat different from that of a more traditional thesis in that there may be less display of knowledge in the students’ texts, even though students are still writing to convince their reader of what they know and the depth to which they know it. the place of the exegesis in the students’ future lives is also very different from that of many thesis writers in that they are not writing “to become members of an academic community”. visual arts students, one of the brian paltridge ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-2414 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 14 supervisors said, fell into the anomalous situation that when they leave the university, they are no longer required to do the writing that they do there, which is quite different from the situation of people who might continue to do research-based written work after the completion of their masters degree. what is more, art and design students do not need the masters degree to validate their position in the field in the same way that masters students in other areas of study might. exegesis writers, then, are not always writing “for admission to the academy” in the sense that thesis and dissertation writers in other areas of study often are. title of the exegesis the visual project while some academic conventions still hold for writers of exegeses, such as the need to acknowledge sources and to list references, there was much more latitude in these texts in terms of how this could be done. students were still expected to present a coherent argument and to convince their readers, but the ways in which they could do this varied much more than in traditional textographies and the researching and teaching ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-24 15 brian paltridge ibérica 15 (2008): …-…6 completion of their masters degree. what is more, art and design students do not need the masters degree to validate their position in the field in the same way that masters students in other areas of study might. exegesis writers, then, are not always writing “for admission to the academy” in the sense that thesis and dissertation writers in other areas of study often are. title of the exegesis the visual project being chinese an installation of artwork pieces (paintings, chinese papercuts and cabinet boxes) seeing beyond sight: the poetics of line a compilation of line drawings presented in a looseleaf atlas, a public exhibition of line drawings, and an extended piece of poetry in spoken and written form public outdoor furniture design: capturing the ethos of the city a series of benches and tables designed for an outdoor public space myth of the cave: art (?) and the dissection of meaning a set of paintings presented as a cd rom dressing the tarot a set of costumes presented as a portfolio of photographic images, an installation, and a choreographed performance the new pencil: towards developing a challenging curriculum in computer imaging for art and design undergraduate education a poster session of computer generated images natural dying: an evocative expression an exhibition of hand dyed and knitted wearable art deconstructing the inscrutable; wabi sabi, a japanese evaluation of beauty and design a cd rom and installation using ceramics and mixed media still life re-framed an installation of paintings, fruit and vegetables, and mixed media secret site: a investigative narrative of the notion of artistic identity an exhibition of photographs fade away and radiate a set of public installations, incorporating video and work placed on a web site table 1. titles of the exegeses and their visual projects (paltridge, 2004: 91). while some academic conventions still hold for writers of exegeses, such as the need to acknowledge sources and to list references, there was much more latitude in these texts in terms of how this could be done. students were still expected to present a coherent argument and to convince their readers, but the ways in which they could do this varied much more than in traditional theses. there were several cases of students submitting their exegeses after their oral examination, a situation that would never occur within the context of a more traditional approach to thesis examination. students in art and design, then, are more able to resist some of the academic conventions and examination procedures for this 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 15 theses. there were several cases of students submitting their exegeses after their oral examination, a situation that would never occur within the context of a more traditional approach to thesis examination. students in art and design, then, are more able to resist some of the academic conventions and examination procedures for this kind of writing that might hold in more traditional areas of study which have a more established place (and a different role) in the academy. a textography of chinese college english writing a textography of the writing component of the two main chinese university college english tests, college english test 4 (cet 4) and college english test 6 (cet 6) was carried out with a group of english language teachers at a large research university in china (paltridge, 2007). college english refers to compulsory english classes that non-english majors in chinese universities are required to undertake as part of their degree. at the end of their studies many students need to pass a nationally administered college english test in order to graduate from their degrees. the particular aim of the project was to examine expectations and requirements of the writing component of two college english tests, cet 4 and cet 6, two key examinations in chinese university english language education (chinese college english education and supervisory committee, 2007; du, 1998; xu, 2005). this was done so that insights that were gained could be accounted for in college english classes. at present the only material available in china for use in these classes are sets of practice tests, and course books which mirror the format of the tests. there are few public statements on the assessment process, expectations and requirements of the test. the study looked at sample tests, college english teaching materials, model texts provided in college english textbooks and the published curriculum requirements for college english courses. focus group discussions were held with college english teachers. examiners of the test were also interviewed. the writing task that students are required to complete in cet 4 and cet 6 is a guided exercise of no less than one hundred words for cet4 and one hundred and twenty words for cet6. the student’s text usually consists of three paragraphs, made up of a topic paragraph, a developing paragraph and a concluding paragraph. a maximum of 15 points is awarded to the piece of brian paltridge ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-2416 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 16 writing, accounting for 15 per cent of an overall 100 points for the test (du, 1998). if a student gets zero for the writing section of the test, they fail the college english test (jin & yang, 2006). there is, however, no official regulation as to what constitutes a passing score in the test. this is up to each university to decide. there are two aspects to the assessment criteria used for assessing students’ texts: language proficiency and content. this includes accuracy of grammar, accuracy of sentence structure and appropriate use of text structure. students are also expected to show an ability to follow writing instructions. they are expected to show clear organization in their texts as well as the ability to develop an argument. they are also expected to show they are able to write texts that are “complete in content” and “appropriate in diction”; that is, they need to include appropriate content for the writing task and show an ability to use appropriate vocabulary for the text that they write. if students do not cover the content asked for in the instructions, marks are deducted from the student’s grade. the study revealed a number of features that are highly valued in college english writing tests, such as the use of english proverbs, the use of complex sentence structures, the expression of personal opinions, the ability to write to the word limit (students lose marks for writing below the word length), and clear handwriting (assessors grade a lot of texts in a very short time). it also revealed assessment processes, such as the use of “range finder” texts (model texts at a range of different scores) to make an initial assessment of the quality of students’ writing. the use of sample texts is not uncommon for rater training (see white (1984) or cushing weigle (2002), for instance). range finder texts are used in the training of raters for the gre (graduate record examinations) in the us, for example (education testing service, 2004). it is, however, less common for range finder texts to be used in the actual assessment of students’ texts. no use of source texts is required in the students’ texts to support an argument, which is different from much english academic writing. memorization of model texts is approved of in some testing centers, the college english teachers said, but not in others. the relationship between the student’s texts and the range finder answers is also important; that is, the extent to which the student’s text is similar to one of the set of sample texts (which students never see) in terms of content and use of language. through this research, then, we gained insights into the assessment of students’ texts that we would not have gained by looking at the test or at textographies and the researching and teaching ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-24 17 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 17 examples of students’ texts alone. the information that we gathered, beyond the text, is as important for students sitting these tests as information about the texts themselves. all of this knowledge contributes to the genre expertise that students need to develop as they learn to write texts which help them achieve their particular goals. as a number of authors have shown, college english tests have an enormous effect on english teaching in chinese universities. college english tests are also used as a way of measuring the quality of college english teaching in chinese universities (du, 1998; feng, 2003; xu, 2005) as well as, through the publication of statistical data in official documents, as a way of establishing academic reputations for individual institutions (feng, 2003). student pass rates in college english tests are also important for individual teachers for their prospects of promotion (feng, 2001). if foreign teachers go to work in china, as many teachers now do, an analysis of the kind described in this paper can tell them things they need to know that they may not expect, or anticipate, from their teaching of academic writing elsewhere in the world. mcpherron (2006), for example, describes exactly this situation when he went to china to teach in a chinese university and, as he did so, became aware of the pressures of college english tests on the students’ view of what they wanted to be taught. armed with communicative methodologies he went there (and was encouraged by his employer) to help students improve their spoken communicative abilities. the students, however, asked for more grammar and writing practice knowing, no doubt, how much they needed to be able to write for the college english tests. looking at college english textbooks, model answers and practice tests would have provided him with examples of the kinds of texts his students needed to write. it would not, however, have given him an understanding of what students in this particular setting need to know “beyond the text” (freedman, 1999) in order to succeed in this kind of writing, and what teachers need to know in order to help them do this. textographies and student writing textographies are also useful for students who are learning to write in new and different academic settings. woodrow (2006) describes an academic writing course which combines the notion of an ethnography of writing with johns’ (1997) work on “students as researchers” as a way of getting students to investigate the academic setting in which they are writing and the brian paltridge ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-2418 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 18 values and expectations which underlie the texts they are being asked to produce. as with the projects described above, the teaching in this course goes “beyond syntactic structures, vocabulary and composing” (hyland, 2007: 150) to investigate the ways in which language is used in specific writing contexts. as hyland (2007: 149) points out: […] classrooms are now more culturally, socially, and linguistically diverse places than ever before. these students bring with them different identities, understandings, and habits of meaning-making to their learning, and teachers cannot assume that students’ learning experiences will provide them with appropriate writing schemata for their studies. today’s students, further, “come from very different backgrounds than their teachers; they have different intellectual objectives, and they think and learn in different ways” (duderstadt, 2000: 22). they are far more diverse in terms of language background, race, gender, nationality, educational and economic background than the people who teach them, creating new tensions in academic teaching. clearly, then, the teaching of academic writing needs to focus on more than just the development of students’ linguistic competencies. producing an academic text means much more than producing a text that looks like ones that are usually produced in a particular setting (dias et al., 1999). it also includes an understanding of the social and cultural context in which the text occurs as well as how this impacts upon what students can (and can’t) say in their written texts. in her course, woodrow’s (2006) students interview their teachers and ask them questions not just about what they want them to write, but also why they want them to write it. the aim of her course is to train students to “navigate disciplinary contexts rhetorically” (bawarshi, 2003: 154) as well as negotiate the boundaries, values and expectations of the disciplines in which they are writing. the course also aims to help students to uncover the genre knowledge that is required of them to succeed in their particular academic setting. it is only when they are aware of this, she has found, that they are really able to understand what they are being asked to do, and the extent to which they can negotiate what they do, should they wish to do so. woodrow’s (2006) course draws on three key notions, the view of academic literacies, in the plural sense, john’s (1997) work on students as researchers and, again the idea of an ethnography of writing to guide the questions students ask and as a way of them framing the answers to their questions. the notion of academic literacies comes from the work of lea & street textographies and the researching and teaching ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-24 19 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 19 (1998 & 1999) and others (starfield, 2007) who see learning to write in the academy as learning to acquire a repertoire of linguistic practices which are based on complex sets of discourses, identities, and values. the notion of academic literacies is also important in the work of writers such as zamel & spack (1998: ix) who argue that “it is no longer possible to assume that there is one type of literacy in the academy” and one academic culture in the university whose norms and practices simply have to be learnt in order for our students to have access to our institutions, and its ways of writing. johns (1997) recognises the difficulty this creates for students, arguing that we need to train students to “act as researchers”, to ask questions of the texts they are required to produce, of the context in which their texts are located, and the people who will be reading and judging the effectiveness of their texts as a way of helping them write texts that consider the institutional and audience expectations of their particular field of study, as well as the knowledge and skills that are necessary for membership of their academic community. woodrow’s (2006) students carry out an analysis of the social and cultural context in which the text they are writing occurs, and consider how the various components of the situation in which they are writing impacts upon what they write and how they write it. they do this to try and get an insider’s perspective on the institutional and audience expectations for their academic writing as well as unpack the values and requirements they need to negotiate in order to achieve their academic goals. as these students learn, texts and assignments tasks vary according to discipline, task, class, teacher, and a number of other factors (samraj, 2002; johns, 2007). academic genres cannot be taught formulaically. it is essential, then, for students to explore these kinds of contextual factors before they begin reading for, and writing their assignments (johns 2007). as macbeth (2006: 182) has argued: […] all of us enter the university as novices […] even so, those of us who arrive without familiarity of the kinds of writing that will be expected of us usually struggle the most. this seems to be as true of those of us who are native speakers of english as well as those of us who are learning english as another language. the key, then, is “how a newcomer to the academic community goes about learning its sociocultural practices” (macbeth, 2006: 181) and how we might help students to do this. the use of textograhphies, i would suggest, is one way in which this might be done. brian paltridge ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-2420 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 20 conclusion this paper has aimed to show how projects which combine both textual and ethnographic approaches to the examination of academic writing can strengthen the observations made by each of these approaches. as jorgensen & phillips (2002: 153) point out, every research perspective “produces a particular understanding of the phenomenon under study.” the use of one approach in combination with another can be used to provide a fuller, and more explanatory perspective on the question under investigation than just the use of a single approach (see taylor, 2001a & 2001b, for further discussion of this). textographies are one way in which research approaches might be combined in academic writing research, providing a more situated and contextualized basis (swales & luebs, 1995) for understanding student writing in the social, cultural, and institutional setting in which it takes place than might be obtained by just looking at students’ texts alone. projects of this kind, then, examine “the forces outside the individual which help guide purposes, establish relationships, and ultimately shape [student’s] writing” (hyland, 2003: 18). in particular, they can uncover “what can and cannot be said and done” (johns et al., 2006: 244) within a particular genre; as well as the goals, assumptions and values that are presupposed by expert readers of the students’ texts. that is, they can make visible to students the choices and constraints (devitt, 2004) available in the writing they are doing so that they “can locate themselves and begin to participate within these genres more meaningfully” (johns et al., 2006: 245) and, hopefully, more successfully. 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(1998). “the college entrance exam and college english test band 4: effects on english teaching” in k. parry & x. su (eds.), culture, literacy, and learning english: voices from the chinese classroom, 15702 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 21 brian paltridge ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-2422 168. portsmouth, nh: boynton/cook. duderstadt, j. (2000). a university for the 21st century. ann arbor: university of michigan press. education testing service (2004). the gre analytical writing measure: an asset in admissions decisions. princeton. nj: education testing service. feng, a. (2001). “‘bo cai zhong chang’ – a slogan for effective elt methodology for college english education”. reflections on english language teaching 1: 1-22. feng, a. (2003). “in search of effective elt methodology in college english education the chinese experience” in g.l. lee (ed.), teaching english to students from china. singapore: singapore university press. freedman, a. (1999). “beyond the text: towards understanding the teaching and learning of genres”. tesol quarterly 33: 764-768. geertz, c. (2007). “thick description: toward an interpretive theory of culture” in l.f. monaghan & j.e. goodman (eds.), a cultural approach to interpersonal communication: essential readings, 27-28. oxford: blackwell. grabe, w. & r. kaplan. (1996). theory and practice of writing. an applied linguistic perspective. london: longman. hyland, k. (2003). “genrebased pedagogies: a social response to process”. journal of second language writing 12: 17-29. hyland, k. (2007). “genre pedagogy: language, literacy and l2 writing instruction”. journal of second language writing 16: 148-164. jin, y. & h. yang (2006). “the english proficiency of college and university students in china as reflected in the cet”. language, culture and curriculum 19: 21-36. johns, a.m. (1997). text, role and context: developing academic literacies. cambridge: cambridge university press. johns, a.m. (2007). genre awareness for the novice academic student: an on-going quest. plenary presentation at the american association of applied linguistics conference, costa mesa, california. johns, a.m., a. bawarshi, r.m. coe, k. hyland, b. paltridge, m.j. reiff & c. tardy, (2006). “crossing the boundaries of genre studies: commentaries by experts”. journal of second language writing 15: 234-249. jorgensen, m. & l. phillips (2002). discourse analysis as theory and method. london: sage. katz, s.m. (1999). “book review: other floors, other voices: a textography of a small university building”. the journal of business communication 36: 422-425. lea, m.r. & b. street (1998). “student writing in higher education: an academic literacies approach”. studies in higher education 23: 157-172. lea, m.r. & b. street (1999). “writing as academic literacies: understanding textual practices in higher education” in c.n. candlin & k. hyland (eds.), writing: texts, processes and practices, 62-81. london: longman. macbeth, k. (2006). “diverse, unforeseen and quaint difficulties: the sensible responses of novices in learning to follow instructions in academic writing”. research in the teaching of english 42: 180-207. mcpherron, p. (2006). local tensions in elt in the prc and us: issues in globalization. conference presentation, american association for applied linguistics conference, montreal. paltridge, b. (2004). “the exegesis as a genre: an ethnographic examination” in l. ravelli & r. ellis (eds.), analyzing academic writing: contextualised frameworks, 84-103. london: continuum. paltridge, b. (2006). discourse analysis. london: continuum. paltridge, b. (2007). “beyond the text: a textography of chinese college english writing”. university of sydney papers in tesol 2: 149-166. samraj, b. (2002). “texts and contextual layers: academic writing in content courses” in a. johns (ed.), genre in the classroom: multiple perspectives, 163-176. mahwah, nj: laurence erlbaum. starfield, s. (2007). “recent research into student academic writing” in j. cummins & c. davison (eds.), the international handbook of english language teaching. part two, 875890. norwell, mass: springer publications. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. (1998a). “textography: toward a contextualization of written academic discourse”. research on language and social interaction 31: 109-121. swales, j.m. (1998b). other floors, other voices: a textography of a small university building. mahwah, nj: laurence erlbaum. swales, j.m. & m. luebs (1995). “towards textography” in b-l. gunnarson & i. backlund (eds.), writing in academic contexts, 12-29. uppsala: fums. taylor, s. (2001a). “locating and conducing discourse analytic research” in m. wetherall et al. 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 22 brian paltridge, phd, is professor of tesol at the university of sydney where he teaches courses on english for specific purposes, discourse analysis and research methods in language learning. he is author of genre, frames and writing in research settings (john benjamins, 1997), making sense of discourse analysis (aee publishers, 2000), genre and the language learning classroom (university of michigan press, 2001), discourse analysis (continuum, 2006), and with sue starfield, thesis and dissertation writing in a second language (routledge, 2007). with diane belcher, he is editor of the journal english for specific purposes. he is a member of the editorial board for the journal of english for academic purposes and the australian review of applied linguistics. notes 1 this paper is based on a presentation given at the symposium on second language writing held in nagoya (japan), september 15-17, 2007. 2 the terms “thesis” and “dissertation” are used in different ways in different parts of the world. in the us, honours and masters students write “theses” whereas in britain, they write “dissertations”. at the phd level, a us student writes a “dissertation” and a student at a british university writes a “thesis”. in australia, the term “thesis” is used for both the masters and doctoral degrees. textographies and the researching and teaching ibérica 15 [2008]: 9-24 23 (eds.), 5-48. taylor, s. (2001b). “evaluating and applying discourse analytic research” in m. wetherall et al. (eds.), 311-330. wetherall, m., s. taylor & s.j. yates (eds.) (2001). discourse as data: a guide for analysis. london: sage. white, e.m. (1984). “holisticism”. college composition and communication 35: 400-409. woodrow, l.j. (2006). “english in academic settings: a postgraduate course for non-english-speaking background students” in l. khami-stein & a. snow (eds.), designing a new course for adults, 197-217. alexandria, va: tesol. xu, j. (2005). “cet: test or torment”. shanghai star. 20 january 2005. url: http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2005/0120/f o5-1.html [08/10/2007]. zamel, v. & r. spack (1998). “preface” in v. zamel & r. spack (eds.), negotiating academic literacies: teaching and learning across languages and cultures, ix-xviii. mahwah, nj: laurence erlbaum. 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 23 02 paltridge.qxp 12/3/08 17:12 página 24 maquetación 1 ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract digital media have the potential to foster genre innovation and change in scholarly communication, by 1) opening up new, diversified audiences to academics, and 2) facilitating the use of a range of multimodal semiotic resources, that combine word and image, in academic writing. however, relatively little applied linguistic research has investigated innovation in research genres, especially high stakes genres like the research article. in addition, some of the existing literature on the topic has concluded that the addition of digital elements to research articles (for example, embedded video) fails to add significant meaning to the genre, perhaps indicating a poor match between the affordances of digital media and the communicative purposes of the academic writers. this exploratory study provides a multi-dimensional genre analysis of a new research genre in the field of science: the video methods article (vma), published online by the journal of visualized experiments (jove). in order to understand the intertextual communicative context of this genre, community documents were reviewed and two specialist informants were interviewed. a sample of eleven vmas from jove, one per year of publication from 20062016, was examined. the multimodal analysis shows how the vma genre draws on the affordances of digital video in order to meet genuine needs of academic writers. the findings also show some innovation and development in the genre over time, which moves through an initial period of experimentation before settling on a stable generic structure. keywords: genre innovation, digital media, digital literacies, multimodality, english for academic purposes, english for research publication, digital video. genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication: video methods articles in experimental biology christoph a. hafner city university of hong kong (hong kong) c.hafner@cityu.edu.hk 15 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 15 ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 christoph a. hafner resumen i nn ov a c ió n de g é n e ro y e x pr e s ió n mul t im od al e n l a c o mun ic a c i ón a c a dé mi c a : e l v í de o -a rt íc u l o d e m é tod o s e n b io l og ía e x pe r ime n ta l los medios digitales pueden propiciar la innovación de géneros textuales y cambios en la comunicación académica por dos vías: 1) proporcionando a la comunidad científica públicos nuevos, más amplios y diversos, y 2) facilitando el uso de una gama de recursos semióticos multimodales que combinen palabra e imagen. la lingüística aplicada, sin embargo, ha estudiado poco la innovación en los géneros textuales empleados en la investigación, especialmente en aquellos que, como el artículo científico, revisten una importancia fundamental. parte de la literatura especializada, además, ha llegado a la conclusion de que añadir elementos digitales a los artículos científicos (insertando vídeos, por ejemplo) no aporta ningún significado adicional de interés, lo cual tal vez sea indicativo de un desfase entre el potencial tecnológico del medio digital y el propósito comunicativo del autor. el presente artículo analiza, desde una perspectiva multidimensional y exploratoria, un nuevo género de investigación científica: el vídeo-artículo de métodos (vam), que publica en internet la revista especializada journal of visualized experiments (jove). para comprender el contexto comunicativo intercultural del género, se han revisado los documentos de una comunidad disciplinaria, se ha entrevistado a dos informadores especialistas y se ha examinado una muestra de once vams de jove, uno por cada año de publicación de 2006 a 2016. el análisis multimodal muestra cómo el género del vam recurre al potencial del vídeo digital para satisfacer las necesidades comunicativas genuinas de los autores académicos. los hallazgos del estudio evidencian asimismo cierta innovación y desarrollo del género a través del tiempo, desde un período experimental inicial hasta la consolidación de una estructura retórica estable. palabras clave: innovación de género, medios digitales, competencias digitales, multimodalidad, inglés para fines académicos, inglés para la publicación científica, vídeo digital. introduction there have, for some time now, been calls for language and literacy educators to engage with emerging digital and multimodal forms of expression (e.g. new london group, 1996; kress, 2000; belcher, 2004; hafner, chik & jones, 2013, 2015; early, kendrick & potts, 2015). although such new forms of expression have emerged at a dizzying pace in popular contexts, they have been much slower to take hold in the academic context, 16 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 16 where traditional research genres using traditional forms of expression have tended to predominate. relatively little attention has been paid to the ways in which digital media potentially affect academic genres. as pérez-llantada (2016: 24) puts it, “there is therefore a need for stimulating scholarly conversation on issues of genre innovation and change so as to better understand the new forms of research communication in today’s academic settings”. in this article, i hope to contribute to this conversation by exploring an important innovation in scientific research genres, namely, the development of the video methods article. existing applied linguistic research into digital research genres includes work on academic homepages (hyland, 2011), academic blogs (blanchard, 2011; luzón, 2012, 2013), and innovative digital forms of expression in the research article (ra) (pérez-llantada, 2013). given the central importance of the ra in academic genre systems, it is an especially interesting genre to consider. pérez-llantada (2013) investigates the so-called article of the future introduced by the academic publisher elsevier in order to provide academic writers with a number of enhanced elements for expression: an interactive web interface with navigation sidebars, research highlights, graphical abstracts, embedded video and interactive figures and graphs. according to the elsevier website, “the article of the future initiative aims to revolutionise the traditional linear format of the academic paper to make it more dynamic and user-friendly” (zudilova-seinstra, 2013: n.p.). experimenting with the form of scholarly communication in ras is not unusual: for example, a recent special issue of the european journal of information systems examines six alternative representational forms in that discipline (avital, mathiassen & schultze, 2017). however, one possible criticism of initiatives like elsevier’s article of the future is that the simple introduction of new digital elements, for all their potential, fails to add significant new meanings that address the genuine communicative needs of academics. as one critic puts it, the new features are “just lipstick” (pérezllantada, 2013: 222). comparing a corpus of article of the future “prototypes” (i.e. commissioned articles that used the new online elements) with a larger journal article corpus, pérez-llantada examined macro structural and linguistic features and found that the new online elements in the article of the future did not affect “actual text-composing and reception practices” of the ra genre (page 233). however, that study focused on the main text of ras and did not consider the new part genres (for example, embedded videos), where discursive innovations might well be observable. it genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 17 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 17 remains unclear how the ra genre might be developing as a result of innovations in expression resulting from the affordances of digital media. more research that examines the way that academics recruit these affordances in order to serve their communicative purposes is needed. one important affordance of digital media is to allow academics to reach out to and interact with a much wider audience than would be possible through traditional means. academic blogs provide an interesting example of scholarly communication that engages a wider, “diversified” audience in this way (see luzón, 2012, 2013). such blogs are publicly available and allow readers to “write back” to the blog author by posting comments. they likely engage a range of different audiences simultaneously: disciplinary specialists, specialists from related disciplines, as well as non-specialists like policy makers and a popular audience of interested amateurs. the discussions that take place in academic blogs can have a profound impact on research writing. for example, blanchard (2011) describes how the philosopher john s. wilkins acknowledged his “blog readers for comment and discussion” in an article published in the academic journal studies in history and philosophy of the life sciences. similarly, access to this diversified audience could have an effect on the way that academics go about seeking funding. mehlenbacher (2017) examines science-focused crowdfunding proposals on the website kickstarter.com, suggesting the development of a new, hybrid genre of funding proposals aimed at a wider audience. a second important affordance of digital media is to increase the range of semiotic resources available to academic writers, especially by facilitating multimodal forms of expression that combine words, images and other modes. considerable applied linguistic work has gone into this area, with the emergence of the field of “multimodality”, a social semiotic approach to communication (jewitt & kress, 2003; kress, 2010). within this tradition, the work of kress and van leeuwen (2006), which examines the design of visuals, has been especially influential. in the field of esp, we have also seen considerable interest in the way that visuals are recruited in order to communicate, establish identities, and learn disciplinary practices (johns, 1998; rowley-jolivet, 2002, 2004; tardy, 2005; prior, 2013). this work has tended to focus on the use of static images in conference presentations and student assignments and there is therefore a need to extend existing research by examining multimodal expression in academic video genres. christoph a. hafner ibérica 36 (2018): 15-4218 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 18 in view of this background, the aim of this article is to explore how the affordances of digital media may serve to enhance scholarly communication in a meaningful way and, in so doing, contribute to genre innovation and change. in the article, i provide a description of the emerging scientific genre of video methods article: its intertextual and interdiscursive communicative context, its generic structure, its multimodal semiotic features, as well as some observations about how the genre has developed over time. in light of this analysis, i consider how the affordances of the web-based digital video medium potentially affect the generic features observed. i also evaluate the extent to which the features observed can be seen either as innovative or as building on existing features of academic discourse. the study the journal of visualised experiments (jove) this study focuses on a scientific video journal called the journal of visualised experiments, or jove for short. jove was established in december 2006 in order to address a serious problem in science: the difficulty of replicating scientific procedures reported in written protocols in ras. to do so, it employs “video methods articles” (vmas) that draw upon the affordances of digital video in order to visually demonstrate experimental procedures. the use of digital video is intended to enhance the communication of procedures by filling in the gaps encountered in a written protocol with visual information. a video demonstration has the potential to precisely convey minute details of, for example, how researchers must handle equipment in laboratory or surgical procedures. access to such a visual record can in turn save other researchers time and money, as they spend less effort on perfecting techniques to use in their own research. jove therefore presents an interesting example of specialised disciplinary communication that has adopted an innovative form of representation, i.e. digital video, in an attempt to solve a serious communication problem. note that the journal is well respected in the scientific community, being listed in indexes like scopus and pubmed database, with a 2016 impact factor of 1.232 according to journal citation reports. the journal focuses on multiple disciplines in the physical and life sciences, with thirteen areas of interest: behaviour, chemistry, genetics, biochemistry, developmental biology, immunology and infection, bioengineering, engineering, medicine, biology, genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 19 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 19 environment, neuroscience, cancer research. the journal also includes a science education section, which provides a range of video resources to teach the basics of science, from the fundamentals of the biology lab to clinical skills needed by medical doctors. data sources and analytical methods this exploratory study adopts a multi-perspective approach to genre analysis (bhatia, 1993, 2004; hafner, 2010) drawing on multiple sources of data to understand the video methods article (vma) genre. this approach aims to go beyond a formal description of texts to develop an understanding of the genre as a social practice. this involves understanding the intertextual and interdiscursive communicative context within which the genre is situated, including processes of text construction and the social relationships of writers and readers as members of a discourse community that employs the genre in order to achieve strategic communicative goals. in order to develop this more detailed understanding of the communicative context of the genre, researchers may draw on secondary data sources to complement their analysis of text. these include: 1) existing community texts that describe and explain the genre, e.g. handbooks and guidelines; 2) interviews with specialist informants, community insiders, who draw on their expert knowledge in order to explain features observed in the analysis. the present study involved the collection of community texts, namely relevant pages from the jove web site (e.g. “about jove”, “publishing process”, “editorial policies”) and “instructions for authors”. in addition, two specialist informants were consulted and interviewed (for about 3060 minutes) on questions relating to the production process, authoring and reception of the genre. one was moshe pritsker, the ceo and cofounder of jove. the other was raymond wong (a pseudonym), a biologist at the city university of hong kong, who, as well as answering general questions about the genre, provided some feedback on initial analysis. while wong does not have first-hand experience of creating vmas, he is an occasional user of such videos, and jove has approached him in the past to suggest that he might like to author a video about his own research methods. pritsker was interviewed over skype while wong was interviewed in person. both gave informed consent to participate in the study. the interviews were audio recorded and transcribed for later thematic analysis. christoph a. hafner ibérica 36 (2018): 15-4220 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 20 the primary source of data is a set of eleven vmas, one per year from 2006 to 2016 (see appendix for complete citations). in order to sample videos that had achieved clear community acceptance, articles with high numbers of citations in the scopus database were selected. also, selecting one highly cited article per year allows for the observation of potential developments over time in this innovative genre. the selection was limited to articles in the biology subsection of jove in order to limit possible confounding effects of discipline on the genre analysis. biology was a convenient choice for two main reasons: first, many of the highly cited articles in jove appear to come from biology; second, the specialist informant was a biologist and well placed to comment on these articles. vmas appear embedded in a dedicated web page, which, as well as the video, includes a written protocol and a comments section, where readers/viewers can leave comments for authors. therefore, after downloading the selected videos, the related written protocol was downloaded as a pdf file, and comments were also copied for later analysis. table 1 summarises key characteristics of the eleven vmas finally selected for analysis. the vmas selected have received between 14 and 172 citations (81 on average). they are between 8:01 and 16:11 minutes long (11:35 on average). according to the view counter on the jove website they have been viewed between 5,196 and 65,098 times (32,062 on average). they have received between zero and 71 comments (22 on average). the subject matter includes a behavioural test for mice, two different surgical procedures for mice, and a range of lab procedures that aim to detect, identify, map, isolate, quantify, and measure the size of different kinds of biological samples (descriptions in the table are based on the stated aims recorded in the videos). seven out of the eleven samples are available open access, while the other four require a subscription. once identified, the eleven videos were viewed one by one and initial observations were made about the multimodal presentation strategies, including potential genre moves and their multimodal semiotic expression. the spoken narration of the videos was transcribed and selective multimodal transcriptions were made. this multimodal transcription followed a similar procedure to that reported in hafner (2014, 2015), using elan (max planck institute for psycholinguistics, 2018), software that allows the user to create a multidimensional transcription of video. in this procedure, the video was first divided according to the shots observed (typically a robust unit of analysis), with shots further subdivided into visual genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 21 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 21 frames if more than one visual frame was presented in the shot (following baldry & thibault, 2006). the following dimensions were transcribed for each shot: 1) speech, i.e. what was said in the video; 2) action, gesture, gaze performed by visual participants; 3) soundtrack; 4) camera position and perspective, i.e. the vertical angle of the camera, the horizontal angle, and the distance of the shot (close up, medium, long); 5) setting and participants, i.e. where the shot took place and who/what was in it; 6) text on screen. christoph a. hafner ibérica 36 (2018): 15-4222 genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): …-… # year cites comments views length open access? field subject matter vma1 2006 58 3 20,829 10 min 35 yes biology a behavioural test for mice vma2 2007 61 58 24,598 15 min 20 no biology a surgical technique on mice vma3 2008 107 17 55,913 8 min 8 no biology a surgical technique on mice vma4 2009 121 25 19,271 10 min 57 no biology a lab procedure for detecting proteins vma5 2010 107 39 34,048 12 min 24 yes biology a lab procedure to identify binding sites of rna binding proteins vma6 2011 103 71 34,292 10 min 45 yes biology a lab procedure to map binding sites of rna binding proteins vma7 2012 172 27 65,098 9 min 43 yes biology a lab procedure to isolate exosomes vma8 2013 53 1 14,703 16 min 11 yes biology a lab procedure to create a cell free expression system vma9 2014 67 1 63,595 8 min 01 no biology a lab procedure to quantify cellular anchorage vma10 2015 23 0 15,141 11 min 38 yes biology a lab procedure to quantify and measure the size of exosomes vma11 2016 14 0 5,196 11 min 02 yes biology a lab procedure to assess the relative abundance of histone posttranslational modifications table 1. video methods articles selected for analysis. the vmas selected have received between 14 and 172 citations (81 on average). they are between 8:01 and 16:11 minutes long (11:35 on average). according to the view counter on the jove website they have been viewed between 5,196 and 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 22 a qualitative, multimodal genre analysis was performed, attending to relevant visual and verbal cues to identify sections and moves in the video article genre. for example, title frames occupying the whole screen (similar to a heading in text) provided a useful visual cue that sometimes delineated a section of the genre. at the same time, the video narration provided a verbal cue to further identify genre sections and moves. once sections and moves were identified in this way, the multimodal semiotic resources typically employed to realise these moves and sub-moves could be analysed in greater detail. the analysis of text was supported by a thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006) of community documents and transcribed interviews with specialist informants. the approach taken was primarily deductive in nature, with data coded according to the themes of communicative context (audience, purpose, and reader use), composing process (overview, production, script writing, filming, editing, proofing, challenges), and innovation. the entire analysis was facilitated by the use of maxqda (verbi software, 2018), qualitative data analysis software that allows the user to code a range of text types. findings and discussion the intertextual communicative context information about the target audience(s), the purpose of communication, and the process of text construction, can be gleaned from information on the jove website as well as from comments by specialist informants. the following statement from the “about jove” page gives a sense of jove’s mission and intended audience: by allowing scientists, educators and students to see the intricate details of cutting-edge experiments rather than read them in text articles, jove increases stem research productivity and student learning, saving their institutions time and money. like written articles in traditional scientific methods journals, the purpose of the vmas is to share advances in scientific technologies and techniques with other researchers. such methods might be faster, more sensitive, more accurate, more user friendly and more cost effective than existing methods. the statement above also draws attention to the use of the digital video medium to fulfil an important aim of jove, to share methods in visual form, genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 23 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 23 so that the audience can “see… intricate details”. both informants considered the use of this digital video medium as the main innovation of jove, with wong (the biologist informant) confirming that “it saves a lot of time” (interview). pritsker (jove ceo/co-founder) identified the audience(s) for jove articles as follows: audiences are practising researchers, practical scientists who work in the laboratory. so everywhere between professors to postdoc to graduate students to undergraduate, including technicians, basically everybody who does experiments with their own hands and everybody who sometimes has to guide these experiments. and that both in academia but also in biopharma industry. (interview) although articles are sometimes made available in open access format on the internet, neither informant felt that they would appeal to a wider audience of the general public, because of their technical nature. pritsker commented: “it’s a professional resource for professionals” (interview). the process of text construction builds on traditional forms of scientific discourse and extends these into the presentation of content through video. the jove website (“publishing process”) identifies five main steps: 1. manuscript preparation; 2. editorial and peer review; 3. scripting and filming; 4. video editing; 5. proofing and publication. of these five steps, the first two are identical to those required for publication in a traditional scientific methods journal, with scientists submitting a written manuscript for review. pritsker noted: while we have a new media, a new production process, at the same time, we want to preserve the foundation of scientific publishing as we know it, which is peer review based. so we preserve that and then, finishing that we apply this new production process. (interview) christoph a. hafner ibérica 36 (2018): 15-4224 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 24 the last three steps are where the process diverges from traditional publishing, involving the creation of the digital video methods article. two different processes are possible, according to the website (“editorial policies”): 1) “video produced by jove”; or 2) “video produced by author”. the vast majority of submissions fall into the first category. steps three and four of the process involve a jove production team developing a script based on the written manuscript, sending a film crew to the lab to record the procedure, recording a narration using professional voice actors, and finally editing the footage and narration. in the final proofing and publication step, the video is shared with the scientist authors, who may provide feedback and request changes. according to pritsker, jove has developed an extensive infrastructure to support the development of vmas, one that “includes local filmmakers in 25 countries around the world, residing in cities with high concentration of academic institutions”. this makes it possible “to film… practically in every big university around the world” (interview). developing this infrastructure became necessary as scientists were generally not capable of producing high quality vmas without assistance. pritsker commented: our first idea was that eventually, after making a few videos and having them as an example, scientists would submit their own, would make and submit their own videos. and it didn’t work. and the reason it doesn’t work is because making a scientific video is much more complex than making a video for interview for example, right? …so we realise that we have to do it for them… if we want this information out of their heads, we have to do it. (interview) what we see here is a complex process of collaborative authorship, where the production of text is divided in numerous ways, which can be understood using goffman’s notion of “production format”. goffman (1981) points out that production of text can be divided between a principal, whose beliefs and views are represented by the words uttered; an author, who composes those words; and an animator, who acts as the “sounding box” to make the utterances. in the typical case for jove vmas (produced by jove), the principal is the team of scientist authors who produce the written manuscript with the backing of their laboratory and institution. regarding the author, we need to consider not only words but also other semiotic resources, especially visual resources. in both cases, the semiotic resources deployed can be seen as genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 25 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 25 collaboratively authored by the scientist writers and the jove production team: after scientists produce the written manuscript and highlight important parts, the jove production team uses this to create a script. similarly, scientist authors will need to consider how best to visually present laboratory procedures, working with the jove team to supply diagrams as the basis for conceptual animations, demonstrating procedures for a film crew, and providing representations of results to be incorporated into the video. finally, a range of participants animate (i.e. in goffman’s sense of making utterances in) the vma. scientists address the camera to explain procedures and feature in the video as demonstrators. often, these are not the same people, with a more senior scientist explaining a procedure while lab technicians, graduate students, and research assistants take on the demonstrator role. professional voice actors from the jove team animate (again, in goffman’s sense) a narration of the procedures. in order to properly understand the vmas, it is important to note that the videos are just one part of a larger intertextual system, including the video itself, the written article that it is based on, and the website frame that houses both of these texts as well as readers’ comments. these three different kinds of texts may interact and complement one another, drawing on their unique affordances to contribute different kinds of meanings. video provides visual resources capable of extending the meanings made in the written protocol. as wong explained, (…) how a protocol is being executed is being captured visually. so there is like no mistake on how it is being done, especially if, say, if we’re doing micro-injection of dna into eggs, okay, how do you handle the pipette? how deep do you penetrate it? so there’s lots of finer details which are being sort of captured visually (…) (interview) the written protocol provides a complete record of the procedure, including all of the steps that need to be followed, as well as “recipes” that are needed, for example to create particular kinds of materials and solutions. finally, the comments allow scientists to interact, asking for clarifications of procedures where necessary. generic structure analysis of the videos reveals a stable generic structure, summarised in figure 1. christoph a. hafner ibérica 36 (2018): 15-4226 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 26 figure 1 shows seven macro sections. all seven sections are obligatory but they may be realised through different moves. section a, video intro, is a brief opening section, whose purpose is to state the title of the video article. it consists of several frames of text on screen: the jove logo with an accompanying jingle, a black on white title frame displaying the article title, authors and affiliations. these can be followed by another title frame stating that procedures have been approved by relevant ethics committees. section b, overview, provides a summary of the procedure in a conventionalised way: stating the goal, summarising the procedure and explaining significance are all obligatory moves in this section. the overview section draws on a wide range of visuals: conceptual animations, video of procedures, images of raw data, charts and graphs to aggregate results. section c, researcher’s introduction, provides an opportunity for the researcher to engage the audience and introduce the demonstration of procedures. while the section is obligatory, it is realised in a variety of ways and all of the moves identified are optional. visually, the section is primarily realised through a shot of the researcher addressing the camera. genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 27 christoph hafner ibérica 36 (2018): …-… a. video intro b. overview 1) stating the goal 2) summarising the procedure 3) explaining significance c. researcher’s introduction 1) introducing self 2) forecasting the demonstration 3) explaining significance 4) introducing additional researchers 5) inviting the audience d. demonstration 1) introducing apparatus/materials 2) describing steps 3) elaborating on steps 4) explaining/evaluating steps e. representative results 1) summarising procedure 2) presenting results 3) evaluating results f. researcher’s conclusion 1) summarising/recapping the procedure 2) giving tips 3) explaining significance 4) summarising learning 5) wishing viewers well 6) thanking viewers g. closing credits figure 1. generic structure of video methods articles. figure 1 shows seven macro sections. all seven sections are obligatory but they may be realised through different moves. section a, video intro, is a brief opening section, whose purpose is to state the title of the video article. it consists of several frames of text on screen: the jove logo with an accompanying jingle, a black on white title frame displaying the article title, authors and affiliations. these can be followed by another title frame stating that procedures have been approved by relevant ethics committees. section b, overview, provides a summary of the procedure in a conventionalised way: stating the goal, summarising the procedure and explaining significance are all obligatory moves in this section. the overview section draws on a wide range of visuals: conceptual animations, video of procedures, images of raw data, charts and graphs to aggregate results. section c, researcher’s introduction, provides an opportunity for the researcher to engage the audience and introduce the demonstration of procedures. while the section is obligatory, it is realised in a variety of ways and all of the moves identified are optional. visually, the section is primarily realised through a shot of the researcher addressing the camera. the longest section is section d, demonstration, whose purpose is to demonstrate the procedures, key to the vma’s communicative purpose of 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 27 the longest section is section d, demonstration, whose purpose is to demonstrate the procedures, key to the vma’s communicative purpose of sharing techniques. move d2, describing steps, is obligatory and is optionally supported by the other three moves: introducing apparatus/materials, elaborating on steps, explaining/evaluating steps, all of which occur very commonly. the spoken narration is combined with video of demonstrators in relevant lab settings, who perform the procedures. in addition, text may appear on screen, especially where additional information is required, for example the ingredients of a solution that must be mixed as part of the procedure. section e, representative results, aims to provide examples of the kind of results that can be obtained from the procedure. visually, these are represented through images of raw data, and charts and graphs that aggregate results. these are sometimes evaluated by comparing with other techniques in terms of costeffectiveness, sensitivity, speed and so on. section f, researcher’s conclusion, allows the researcher to appear on camera again and re-engage with the audience through the moves listed in figure 1. section g, closing credits, includes title frames with author and institution information, followed by credits for the production team. in this paper, i will focus on sections b, c, and d. section b (overview) because of the range of visuals that it draws on: conceptual animations, footage of the procedure, visual displays of data and results. section c (researcher’s introduction) because in it the researcher addresses the camera directly, engaging with the audience in a novel way that illustrates the hybrid nature of this genre. section d (demonstration) because this is the core of the vma, the move considered most innovative by the expert informants. as the researcher demonstrates the procedure, we can observe an interesting division of labour between different modes like image, spoken narration, and text on screen, which all perform slightly different roles in terms of the kinds of information that they convey. finally, it is interesting to consider how the genre has stabilised over time and this can be observed in the development of a more and more conventionalised generic structure for section b, overview. multimodality in the demonstration section both informants saw the principal innovation of the vma as the use of video to visually demonstrate novel procedures. an analysis of the demonstration section therefore has the potential to show how the affordances of digital video are recruited in order to clearly convey experimental techniques and christoph a. hafner ibérica 36 (2018): 15-4228 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 28 procedures. constraints of space do not permit a full multimodal analysis of every move. instead i will examine how multimodal resources are combined in a short extract from vma8, shown in figure 2. figure 2 shows two shots, the first (shot 37) being an over-the-shoulder view of a researcher standing at a lab bench with an ice bucket on the left and a centrifuge on the right. this is a describing steps move, which uses the imperative form in the narration: “centrifuge the filter apparatuses…” the video shows the researcher placing samples in a centrifuge. text on screen summarises key settings: “6,000 x g | 5 min | 4 °c”, reinforcing the narration. here, the written mode provides viewers with a simultaneous list, introducing the information all at once and preserving it on screen for some time. in contrast, the spoken mode must introduce each element sequentially. this strategy is frequently used with long lists of ingredients that sometimes must be mixed to obtain necessary experimental solutions. shot 38 begins with a describing steps move (“verify that…”) and continues with elaborating on steps (“properly beaten extract will not be turbid…”). this move serves to provide additional information and detail. the video here features a still image of two samples, one good one and one poor one, which are described and compared in the narration. here the visual mode again reinforces the narration as well as elaborating on it by adding visual detail to exemplify the good and bad samples. genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 29 christoph hafner ibérica 36 (2018): …-… settings: “6,000 x g | 5 min | 4 °c”, reinforcing the narration. here, the written mode provides viewers with a simultaneous list, introducing the information all at once and preserving it on screen for some time. in contrast, the spoken mode must introduce each element sequentially. this strategy is frequently used with long lists of ingredients that sometimes must be mixed to obtain necessary experimental solutions. shot 38 begins with a describing steps move (“verify that…”) and continues with elaborating on steps (“properly beaten extract will not be turbid…”). this move serves to provide additional information and detail. the video here features a still image of two samples, one good one and one poor one, which are described and compared in the narration. here the visual mode again reinforces the narration as well as elaborating on it by adding visual detail to exemplify the good and bad samples. 5 min 52 sec (s37) 6 min 04 sec (s38) centrifuge the filter apparatuses, falcon tube uncapped, at six thousand g for five minutes at four degrees celsius, to separate extract and pellet from beads. after centrifugation, verify that each bead beating tube has produced viable extract. properly beaten extract will not be turbid and the pellet will have two distinct layers, as illustrated by the tube on the left. turbid tubes, as shown in the example on the right, must be discarded. figure 2. extract from demonstration section (vma8, shots 37-38). images used with permission. figure 2 shows how the modes of spoken narration, still and moving image, and written text on screen work together in a complementary way. the visual mode clearly plays an important role in this, as images are capable of answering some of the questions that spoken or written texts leave open. in shot 38, the images make it possible to see precisely what is meant by “distinct layers”. at the same time, there are certain kinds of meanings that are typically made through spoken narration, being difficult to capture visually. these include certain kinds of explanations that detail why a particular step has to be carried out in a particular nerhafph ostchri |nim5|gx000,6“s:gnittse htiwsreweivsedivorpedmo snotigniveresrpdance noat tnmeelehcaeecudortnitsmu athtsniederginfotslisgnlo tohs.snoitulosaltenmierpex ithtind)th itarranehtgnicrnier,”°c4 nicudortni,tsilsuoenatlmuisa asrtnconie.mite mosreencrs siygetartssiht.yllaitneuqes deixmebt sumsetimemost a gnibicresda htiwsniegb83 ly(tinbla n ettirwhet,erehon. llanoitmarniehtgn e domenkopse ht,tas desuyltneuqe htwi yrassecenintaboto ierv“(e vomsepts ill bly eithwseutinnocdna)”t…ath t.)”d…tbenot ovemshi llitsaserutaerehoediveth nd ad beircsdeerah chiw,one noiatrarne htcesrneirnaiag mex eto d band agood hetipl lyreporp“(sptesnogtinaroblae nfilonaitddiadeovipro tsveres ogeno,selpmasowtfoegamil hon.itanahetn id erpaomcnd elwasn ybit nogtinaroblaesal .seplmasd ill wt catrxenteaebly .liatdend aon itam roopenodnaenodoo odemluasvihetereh il taedl auisvgindday n im5 s37)(sec 52 n s38)(sec 04 n im6 n im5 tnoclaffa,sesuttuarraapparetliffiehttheguffuirrittrnce nutimve iffiorfforghousand tthousand x sisix atuncapped, o tus,sielcees degrdegrees and actrractextextre atseparseparat beads. 2.e gurfi artsnomdemorftcartex domehtwohswohs2erugfi s37)(sec 52 n ebut ourffourates nutnutes omrromffretlpel yffyirrievve,noitaguffuirrittrnecretteafaft lebia v viadd vecudro psa hebtu and d biururbitturbe notlliwwiactrextextr atrratustustrllias s,ayerayers,lnctiststidi t n in showshown as ubes,td biururbi .dedrrdacsidebtsmu 73stohs,a8vm(noitcesnoita -38). segaim dnallitsnoitarrannekopsfose eft s38)(sec 04 n im6 gnitaebdaebhcaetahtyffy nteae brlyrly beprot. pt. proctrax ele o wwo thave lliwwietlpelhe tand .teflhe tthe on ube the tby ed at ,ghtght,irrihe tthe on e plexamhe tn niosisrme pith wdes u . dnaegamignivomd 6 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…14 domehtwohswohs2erugfi tkrwoneercsnotxetnettiwr lortantropmiansaylpylearcl hatonsitsquehetof nekopst sicerpeesotelbissoptiekma osdinkintareceraereth, etim o ttulcding ibeon,itarrna a yhwlaietdathtsnoiatanlpex dnallits,noitarrannekopsfose wayratnemelpmocanirehtego labcape aresagmias,sihtnie l ni. nepoevaletsxtenitterwro tcnitsid“ybtnamesitahwyles mllyaicptyerat athsginnaemfo ac udelncieshety.lluasvieurpt ircare botasheptsarlcuitarpa dna,egamignivomd edomlausiveht.ywa e mosgnierwsanfoe l segaimeth, 83t ohsn measehtta.”sreyal nekopshguorthedam ofndskin iatrecude arlcuitarpa nituoedi christoph hafner ibérica 36 (2018): …-… settings: “6,000 x g | 5 min | 4 °c”, reinforcing the narration. here, the written mode provides viewers with a simultaneous list, introducing the information all at once and preserving it on screen for some time. in contrast, the spoken mode must introduce each element sequentially. this strategy is frequently used with long lists of ingredients that sometimes must be mixed to obtain necessary experimental solutions. shot 38 begins with a describing steps move (“verify that…”) and continues with elaborating on steps (“properly beaten extract will not be turbid…”). this move serves to provide additional information and detail. the video here features a still image of two samples, one good one and one poor one, which are described and compared in the narration. here the visual mode again reinforces the narration as well as elaborating on it by adding visual detail to exemplify the good and bad samples. figure 2. extract from demonstration section (vma8, shots 37-38). images used with permission. figure 2 shows how the modes of spoken narration, still and moving image, and written text on screen work together in a complementary way. the visual mode clearly plays an important role in this, as images are capable of answering some of the questions that spoken or written texts leave open. in shot 38, the images make it possible to see precisely what is meant by “distinct layers”. at the same time, there are certain kinds of meanings that are typically made through spoken narration, being difficult to capture visually. these include certain kinds of explanations that detail why a particular step has to be carried out in a particular nerhafph ostchri |nim5|gx000,6“s:gnittse htiwsreweivsedivorpedmo snotigniveresrpdance noat tnmeelehcaeecudortnitsmu athtsniederginfotslisgnlo tohs.snoitulosaltenmierpex ithtind)th itarranehtgnicrnier,”°c4 nicudortni,tsilsuoenatlmuisa asrtnconie.mite mosreencrs siygetartssiht.yllaitneuqes deixmebt sumsetimemost a gnibicresda htiwsniegb83 ly(tinbla n ettirwhet,erehon. llanoitmarniehtgn e domenkopse ht,tas desuyltneuqe htwi yrassecenintaboto ierv“(e vomsepts ill bly eithwseutinnocdna)”t…ath t.)”d…tbenot ovemshi llitsaserutaerehoediveth nd ad beircsdeerah chiw,one noiatrarne htcesrneirnaiag mex eto d band agood hetipl lyreporp“(sptesnogtinaroblae nfilonaitddiadeovipro tsveres ogeno,selpmasowtfoegamil hon.itanahetn id erpaomcnd elwasn ybit nogtinaroblaesal .seplmasd ill wt catrxenteaebly .liatdend aon itam roopenodnaenodoo odemluasvihetereh il taedl auisvgindday n im5 s37)(sec 52 n s38)(sec 04 n im6 n im5 tnocl,sesapparetleegnce nutimve gatuncapped, o tus,sielc and e beads. 2.e gurfi artsnomdemorftcartex domehtwohswohs2erugfi s37)(sec 52 n ebut at etlpel ,noitagnecr lebecudro psa hebtu and d be notllact llias lnctdi t n ias ubes,td .deacsidebtsmu 73stohs,a8vm(noitcesnoita -38). segaim dnallitsnoitarrannekopsfose s38)(sec 04 n im6 gnitaebdaebhcaetaht nteaeepctrax ele thave lletlpelhe tand .lon ube the tby ed at on e plexamhe tn niosisrme pith wdes u . dnaegamignivomd 6 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…14 domehtwohswohs2erugfi tkrwoneercsnotxetnettiwr lortantropmiansaylpylearcl hatonsitsquehetof nekopst sicerpeesotelbissoptiekma osdinkintareceraereth, etim o ttulcding ibeon,itarrna a yhwlaietdathtsnoiatanlpex dnallits,noitarrannekopsfose wayratnemelpmocanirehtego labcape aresagmias,sihtnie l ni. nepoevaletsxtenitterwro tcnitsid“ybtnamesitahwyles mllyaicptyerat athsginnaemfo ac udelncieshety.lluasvieurpt ircare botasheptsarlcuitarpa dna,egamignivomd edomlausiveht.ywa e mosgnierwsanfoe l segaimeth, 83t ohsn measehtta.”sreyal nekopshguorthedam ofndskin iatrecude arlcuitarpa nituoedi 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 29 figure 2 shows how the modes of spoken narration, still and moving image, and written text on screen work together in a complementary way. the visual mode clearly plays an important role in this, as images are capable of answering some of the questions that spoken or written texts leave open. in shot 38, the images make it possible to see precisely what is meant by “distinct layers”. at the same time, there are certain kinds of meanings that are typically made through spoken narration, being difficult to capture visually. these include certain kinds of explanations that detail why a particular step has to be carried out in a particular way. elsewhere in vma8, we have an example that depends on a counterfactual statement: (…) add a very small drop of bead cell solution onto the inside of a bead beating tube cap, being careful to not put solution into the outside lip of the cap. otherwise, the bead beating tube will not close sufficiently. (vma8, narration, demonstration) here we see the “functional specialisation” (kress & jewitt, 2003) of different modes, which tend to play slightly different roles: the visual mode can be used to illustrate in detail, while the spoken mode can be used to consider hypothetical situations and provide reasons not demonstrated visually. furthermore, the video text itself is more constrained in terms of time/space than is the accompanying written protocol, so that researchers often refer to the protocol as the most complete account, for example: “refer to the written article for processing steps after dialysis” (vma8, narration, demonstration). thus, the different texts in the jove genre system, with their unique affordances and constraints, also perform different roles and functions: while the video both shows and explains (through affordances of moving image and spoken narration), the written protocol affords the space to provide a complete account. hybridity in the researcher’s introduction section in the researcher’s introduction section, the researcher appears on screen like a host on a television show (for example a cooking programme). the purpose of the section is to engage the audience and introduce the demonstration of procedures by highlighting key points. a number of optional moves, like introducing self, introducing other researchers, and inviting the audience, are clearly designed to engage with viewers and sometimes welcome them into the lab where the demonstration is conducted. of the eleven videos, nine included at least one of these christoph a. hafner ibérica 36 (2018): 15-4230 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 30 engagement-oriented moves in the researcher’s introduction. in this section, the researcher may draw on informal stance and engagement features to construct a professional identity not available in written ras. the section likely resembles other speech events that scientists regularly participate in, like conference presentations for their colleagues or lab demonstrations for their students. the section is therefore replete with hybridity, as it draws both on the discourse of hosted popular media programmes and the discourse of spoken scientific instruction. an analysis of the researcher’s introduction in vma3 demonstrates the hybridity that comes from explicit forms of engagement in this genre and shows also how such engagement is constructed through multiple modes. figure 3 shows the beginning and end of the researcher’s introduction in vma3. shot 13 realises an introducing self move, consisting of a greeting (“hi”) and introduction (“my name is”). the researcher is seated at a computer in an office, facing the camera in a medium length demand shot, with gaze on the audience, a highly engaging visual composition. shot 14 realises a forecasting the demonstration move and is accompanied by diagrams related to the surgical procedure. the camera returns to the researcher as he explains key applications of the procedure, culminating in shot 18, which realises the inviting the audience move. the researcher’s invitation (“so, let’s get started”) is accompanied by embodied action as he raises his lab coat (folded over one arm), stands up and leaves the shot. genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 31 christoph hafner ibérica 36 (2018): …-… demonstration move and is accompanied by diagrams related to the surgical procedure. the camera returns to the researcher as he explains key applications of the procedure, culminating in shot 18, which realises the inviting the audience move. the researcher’s invitation (“so, let’s get started”) is accompanied by embodied action as he raises his lab coat (folded over one arm), stands up and leaves the shot. 1 min 06 sec (s13) 1 min 14 sec (s14) hi. my name is [name omitted] from [name omitted]’s lab at the [institution name omitted]. today i will show you how to collect cerebral… …shots 15-17 omitted… figure 3. extract from the researcher’s introduction (vma3, shots 13, 14 & 18). images used with permission. nerhafph ostchri sidnaevomnoitartsnomde nsurteraremachet.edureocpr itnaimulc,edureocprhetof esereht.evomecneidau actedidobemybedianpmacco sevaeldnapus dnast t. oh seth ersmargaidybdeinapmocca xplehesarhecraeserheto tns silaerh chiw18,hotsn ing i tel,os“(noitativnis’rehcra f(atcoablsihessaire hasnoiact lacigrusehtotdetal ppay kensia sntioalic hetng itnviihetses si)”detratstegs’t ,)mare noervoeddl n im1 man[[nmorroffr]dd]ettimoeman[[nsiemanym.hi ].dd].ittem oema nntiotitus [inet th abla s13)(sec 06 n s’]dd]ettetimoem howou yyou howslliwwiitoday 51stoh…s ed…ttiom17 s14)(sec 14 n im1 …alebrebralererebrcteclolco thow 6 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…16 s18a)(sec 05 n im2 !detratstegs’tel,so 3.e gurfi s’rehcraesreehtmorftcartex s18b)(sec 07 n im2 udortni 18)&14 13,s shot3,amv(on ict . im niosisrme pith wdes usegaim . 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 31 compared to the written article that vmas are based on, the engagement observed in the researcher’s introduction can be seen as an innovative feature of the genre, likely linked to the visual affordances of the video medium. this is to suggest that, because researchers are using video, they potentially engage with their audience in an innovative way. while the section is obligatory, moves that explicitly engage the audience are not. nevertheless, the section provides an opportunity for researchers to engage the audience in a range of ways. it is worth noting that the section sometimes includes an introduction of other researchers, graduate students or research assistants, who will be doing the actual demonstration of the procedures. in this way, the section sometimes highlights the collaborative, team-based nature of scientific study, drawing attention to the different roles adopted by different authors, again in a way that is not seen in written ras. development over time: emergence of a conventionalised overview section comparing early videos with later ones reveals a noticeable development over time, with later vmas showing greater sophistication in terms of the range of multimodal resources used and also showing a more conventionalised and stable generic structure. asked about this, pritsker noted: (…) when we really started, we didn’t know how exactly everything is going to work. and we have to trial our own to make it with these video articles. and actually the first video articles were filmed by me, in laboratory. so my christoph a. hafner ibérica 36 (2018): 15-4232 christoph hafner ibérica 36 (2018): …-… demonstration move and is accompanied by diagrams related to the surgical procedure. the camera returns to the researcher as he explains key applications of the procedure, culminating in shot 18, which realises the inviting the audience move. the researcher’s invitation (“so, let’s get started”) is accompanied by embodied action as he raises his lab coat (folded over one arm), stands up and leaves the shot. …shots 15-17 omitted… 2 min 05 sec (s18a) 2 min 07 sec (s18b) so, let’s get started! figure 3. extract from the researcher’s introduction (vma3, shots 13, 14 & 18). images used with permission. nerhafph ostchri sidnaevomnoitartsnomde nsurteraremachet.edureocpr itnaimulc,edureocprhetof esereht.evomecneidau actedidobemybedianpmacco sevaeldnapus dnast t. oh seth ersmargaidybdeinapmocca xplehesarhecraeserheto tns silaerh chiw18,hotsn ing i tel,os“(noitativnis’rehcra f(atcoablsihessaire hasnoiact lacigrusehtotdetal ppay kensia sntioalic hetng itnviihetses si)”detratstegs’t ,)mare noervoeddl n im1 mamettimoemasiemanym.hi ittem oema nntiotitus [inet th abla s13)(sec 06 n s’timoem howhowsllitoday 51stoh…s ed…ttiom17 s14)(sec 14 n im1 …cteclolco thow 6 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…16 s18a)(sec 05 n im2 !detratstegs’tel,so 3.e gurfi s’rehcraesreehtmorftcartex s18b)(sec 07 n im2 udortni 18)&14 13,s shot3,amv(on ict . im niosisrme pith wdes usegaim . christoph hafner ibérica 36 (2018): …-… demonstration move and is accompanied by diagrams related to the surgical procedure. the camera returns to the researcher as he explains key applications of the procedure, culminating in shot 18, which realises the inviting the audience move. the researcher’s invitation (“so, let’s get started”) is accompanied by embodied action as he raises his lab coat (folded over one arm), stands up and leaves the shot. figure 3. extract from the researcher’s introduction (vma3, shots 13, 14 & 18). images used with permission. nerhafph ostchri sidnaevomnoitartsnomde nsurteraremachet.edureocpr itnaimulc,edureocprhetof esereht.evomecneidau actedidobemybedianpmacco sevaeldnapus dnast t. oh seth ersmargaidybdeinapmocca xplehesarhecraeserheto tns silaerh chiw18,hotsn ing i tel,os“(noitativnis’rehcra f(atcoablsihessaire hasnoiact lacigrusehtotdetal ppay kensia sntioalic hetng itnviihetses si)”detratstegs’t ,)mare noervoeddl n im1 mamettimoemasiemanym.hi ittem oema nntiotitus [inet th abla s13)(sec 06 n s’timoem howhowsllitoday 51stoh…s ed…ttiom17 s14)(sec 14 n im1 …cteclolco thow 6 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…16 s18a)(sec 05 n im2 !detratstegs’tel,so 3.e gurfi s’rehcraesreehtmorftcartex s18b)(sec 07 n im2 udortni 18)&14 13,s shot3,amv(on ict . im niosisrme pith wdes usegaim . 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 32 friends who agreed to do it. it was very unusual at that time, video journals, something unheard of. we see here the gradual development of the video methods article genre. table 2 presents the sections observed in the first five video methods articles in the corpus. vma1 (2006) consists of only two sections of substance: demonstration and representative results. a narrower range of multimodal resources is used in this video: there is no soundtrack and no oral narration of any kind, with text on screen performing the narrative role. in vma2 (2007), the researcher’s introduction and conclusion are added. throughout this video, the researcher verbally narrates the procedures describing what we see happening in the lab, with frequent long pauses as the demonstration catches up with this narration. this narration is at most semi-scripted and the delivery is perhaps similar to what one would observe in an actual lab demonstration with the researcher. in vma3 (2008), the overview section is added, serving to summarise the procedure before it is demonstrated in detail. this is highly scripted and draws on a wide range of visuals, including both still and moving images of the (surgical) procedure being performed in the lab, as well as drawings/diagrams of the procedure with accompanying text on screen. the overview in vma3 is accompanied by a professionally produced narration, performed by a voice actor and added in post production. there is an unobtrusive soundtrack. finally, vma4 (2009) and vma5 (2010) adopt the conventional generic structure with all seven sections present. both present a wide range of multimodal resources, with a sophisticated combination of spoken narration, still and moving images, animated diagrams, text on screen, and soundtrack. genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 33 genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): …-… compared to the written article that vmas are based on, the engagement observed in the researcher’s introduction can be seen as an innovative feature of the genre, likely linked to the visual affordances of the video medium. this is to suggest that, because researchers are using video, they potentially engage with their audience in an innovative way. while the section is obligatory, moves that explicitly engage the audience are not. nevertheless, the section provides an opportunity for researchers to engage the audience in a range of ways. it is worth noting that the section sometimes includes an introduction of other researchers, graduate students or research assistants, who will be doing the actual demonstration of the procedures. in this way, the section sometimes highlights the collaborative, team-based nature of scientific study, drawing attention to the different roles adopted by different authors, again in a way that is not seen in written ras. development over time: emergence of a conventionalised overview section comparing early videos with later ones reveals a noticeable development over time, with later vmas showing greater sophistication in terms of the range of multimodal resources used and also showing a more conventionalised and stable generic structure. asked about this, pritsker noted: (…) when we really started, we didn’t know how exactly everything is going to work. and we have to trial our own to make it with these video articles. and actually the first video articles were filmed by me, in laboratory. so my friends who agreed to do it. it was very unusual at that time, video journals, something unheard of. vma1 vma2 vma3 vma4 vma5 video intro video intro video intro video intro video intro demonstration researcher’s introduction overview overview overview representative results demonstration researcher’s introduction researcher’s introduction researcher’s introduction credits researcher’s conclusion demonstration demonstration demonstration credits researcher’s conclusion representative results representative results credits researcher’s conclusion researcher’s conclusion credits credits table 2. sections observed in vma1 to vma5 (2006-2010). vma1 (2006) consists of only two sections of substance: demonstration and representative results. a narrower range of multimodal resources is used in this video: there is no soundtrack and no oral narration of any kind, with text on 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 33 considering only the overview section in vma3, vma4, vma5, we also see some change over time (recall also that there was no overview present in vma1 and vma2). table 3 shows the moves observed. all three articles contain the summarising the procedure move in their overview section, but again this becomes more complex over time. vma3 (2008) is a simple summary, with narration beginning as follows: the procedure begins with anaesthetising the mouse and the preparation of the surgical site. the mouse is then placed… (vma3, narration, overview). vma4 (2009) is similar but the narration begins by explicitly forecasting the demonstration: in this video we will demonstrate the power of a modified coomassie staining protocol for detecting several nanograms of protein in polyacrylamide gels, using the example of two dimensional gel electrophoresis. (vma4, narration, overview) vma5 (2010) adopts the highly stable and conventional structure that is observed in all subsequent articles in the corpus: stating the goal, summarising the procedure, explaining significance. key elements of the narration are: the overall goal of this procedure is to determine the transcriptome wide binding sites of r n a binding proteins or r b ps. this is accomplished by first using photoreactive nucleocide analogues for in vivo labelling of nascent transcripts. the second step of the procedure… ultimately, results can be obtained that show transcriptome wide binding sites of the r v ps and enable the definition of the r n a recognition element and its binding preferences. (vma5, narration, overview) note the highly formulaic language, variations of which occur in almost all of the subsequent vmas in the corpus: “the overall goal of this procedure christoph a. hafner ibérica 36 (2018): 15-4234 christoph hafner ibérica 36 (2018): …-… screen performing the narrative role. in vma2 (2007), the researcher’s introduction and conclusion are added. throughout this video, the researcher verbally narrates the procedures describing what we see happening in the lab, with frequent long pauses as the demonstration catches up with this narration. this narration is at most semi-scripted and the delivery is perhaps similar to what one would observe in an actual lab demonstration with the researcher. in vma3 (2008), the overview section is added, serving to summarise the procedure before it is demonstrated in detail. this is highly scripted and draws on a wide range of visuals, including both still and moving images of the (surgical) procedure being performed in the lab, as well as drawings/diagrams of the procedure with accompanying text on screen. the overview in vma3 is accompanied by a professionally produced narration, performed by a voice actor and added in post production. there is an unobtrusive soundtrack. finally, vma4 (2009) and vma5 (2010) adopt the conventional generic structure with all seven sections present. both present a wide range of multimodal resources, with a sophisticated combination of spoken narration, still and moving images, animated diagrams, text on screen, and soundtrack. considering only the overview section in vma3, vma4, vma5, we also see some change over time (recall also that there was no overview present in vma1 and vma2). table 3 shows the moves observed. vma3 vma4 vma5 summarising the procedure forecasting the demonstration stating the goal summarising the procedure summarising the procedure explaining significance table 3. moves observed in the overview section of vma3 to vma5 (2008-2010). all three articles contain the summarising the procedure move in their overview section, but again this becomes more complex over time. vma3 (2008) is a simple summary, with narration beginning as follows: the procedure begins with anaesthetising the mouse and the preparation of the surgical site. the mouse is then placed… (vma3, narration, overview). vma4 (2009) is similar but the narration begins by explicitly forecasting the demonstration: in this video we will demonstrate the power of a modified coomassie staining protocol for detecting several nanograms of protein in polyacrylamide gels, using the example of two dimensional gel electrophoresis. (vma4, narration, overview) vma5 (2010) adopts the highly stable and conventional structure that is observed in all subsequent articles in the corpus: stating the goal, summarising the procedure, explaining significance. key elements of the narration are: 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 34 is to…”; “this is achieved by…”; “results can be obtained that show…”. a full multimodal analysis of this section would also be interesting but given constraints of space, such an analysis is not possible here. discussion and conclusions while this exploratory study is based on a limited amount of data, it is nevertheless possible to generate some valuable insights into the vma genre. the analysis shows that this new and innovative genre draws heavily on a range of existing types of scientific text types and interactions, including traditional written methods articles, lab demonstrations and conference presentations. the interview with pritsker, jove’s ceo and cofounder, showed how the genre was conceived of as an extension of a traditional written methods article. the genre, which makes use of digital video with an accompanying spoken narration and opportunities for scientists to “speak to” their audience, is replete with hybridity as the vma combines features of written articles with those of spoken scientific interactions as well as popular media text types. compared to written ras, a number of innovations can be observed in the vma genre. one such innovation is the way that the researcher intrudes into the vma in the researcher’s introduction and researcher’s conclusion sections, often explicitly interacting with and engaging the audience, wishing viewers well in their research, thanking viewers and so on. these strategies are reminiscent of conference presentations, which place importance on the interactional metafunction: getting the talk off to a good start or ending on a warmer note to get question time off to a good start (rowley-jolivet, 2002). in one vma, one even observes a wry sense of humour as a researcher concludes with the comment that: while attempting this procedure it is important to remember that each of the sixty-four steps is critical and has to be performed with hundred per cent accuracy. (vma6, narration, researcher’s conclusion) this observation is interpreted as humorous by a viewer contributing to the comment section, who responds: first i would like to say this latest method is really neat. i also like julian’s comment at the end of the video when he said with a big smirk, “you have genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 35 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 35 to perform each of the 64 steps with 100% accuracy”. :d that is epic. (vma6, comments). such a use of humour is a feature of popularisations (giannoni, 2008) and also present in academic blogs (luzón, 2013), where it is used to “construct solidarity and reinforce common assumptions” (page 448). a second innovation – highlighted by specialist informants – is the reliance on the video medium to convey essential information about procedures, especially in the demonstration section. this makes it possible to use a wide range (and a large quantity) of visuals, something that is not possible to the same extent in written ras. drawing on rowley-jolivet’s (2002, 2004) classification of images in scientific conference presentations, we see the use of: 1) figurative images (e.g. photos/film of the research setting, photos/film of raw data like x-rays or gel photos) to visually communicate procedures and results; 2) graphical images (e.g. charts, graphs, diagrams) to aggregate data and present concepts; 3) ‘scriptural’ images (e.g. section headings, flowcharts); and 4) ‘numerical’ images (e.g. mathematical script). based on this exploratory study, further research is necessary to understand the precise nature of the visual elements of this genre. the analysis of vmas thus suggests some clear genre innovations in terms of the choice of semiotic resources used as well as how these resources are used, including the use of language. in particular, the analysis shows that discoursal identities not available in ras are made possible by the video medium, with much greater engagement (realised through visual and linguistic strategies) unlikely to be found in traditional ras (e.g. the use of “let’s get started” to invite viewers in the researcher’s introduction). this finding contrasts with pérez-llantada’s (2013) study of elsevier’s article of the future, the digitally enhanced ra. that study showed a similar lexical and grammatical profile for the article of the future and contemporary written ras. more research is necessary to precisely identify the nature and extent of lexico-grammatical innovations in vmas. nevertheless, this exploratory study shows how, when digital media is recruited to meet the specific communicative needs of a discourse community, its use can lead to the development of an innovative, hybrid genre that breaks from convention in certain ways. commenting on the kinds of digital enhancements that are beginning to appear in ras, pérez-llantada (2016: 31) notes that christoph a. hafner ibérica 36 (2018): 15-4236 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 36 this type of abstract is visually attractive and explicit at a glimpse, yet, as sancho guinda (2015) notes, it does not extend the information of the standard verbal abstract. the same applies to the interactive figures/tables and charts in the article text, which add very little to the article content. in contrast, the visuals provided in vmas make significant additional meanings possible. the difference here seems to be a genuine match between the purpose of the genre (precisely describing a protocol) and the affordances of the semiotic resources used, especially those of moving images. in vmas, the use of digital media is not just an add-on: it is a crucial feature to deliver essential meanings which frequently get lost in a traditional methods article. in common with some other digital research genres like academic blogs, vmas tend to highlight the process of research, a feature that is of course by design, considering the purpose of the genre to share advances in scientific technologies and techniques. a move that is occasionally seen in the researcher’s introduction section and which would be unlikely to occur in written methods articles is introducing additional researchers, typically laboratory technicians, research assistants, or graduate students, whose specialist expertise lies in conducting the experimental procedures. this move highlights the distributed expertise of scientific teams, a feature that is obscured in written ras, which tend to suppress agency of individual authors and co-authors. unlike many studies of digital research genres, the design of this exploratory study explicitly focused on the dimension of time, by selecting one vma per year for analysis from the inception of the journal in 2006 to 2016. by considering this dimension, the study was able to identify an initial exploratory period, during which proponents of the genre experimented with forms of expression before the genre became relatively stabilised. this is seen especially clearly in the development of the overview section, which was not observed at all in initial videos and which developed a highly conventionalised structure within a relatively short period of time (in this corpus it was observed to emerge in 2008 and become highly conventionalised by 2010). this perspective neatly illustrates the way that recruiting digital media, while providing additional affordances for expression, can also provide challenges. it is a reminder that genres are not static but rather evolve in response to changes in the communicative context, including changes in medium. genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 37 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 37 in terms of its pedagogical implications, this study supports the notion that an important component of communicative competence in the academic context is the ability to understand and construct digital multimodal genres. effective academic communication extends beyond the written mode to encompass the integration of various forms of visuals in both written and spoken texts. at the same time, the study also highlights the way that vmas are collaboratively constructed, with experts in scientific communication (employed by the journal) facilitating the construction of the videos, especially more technically demanding aspects such as filming, editing, and the creation of diagrammatic animations. in spite of this support, those scientists who are able to visually design necessary elements of such vmas are likely to be at an advantage in constructing this genre. given the importance of visual design in academic communication, it would therefore be of great benefit to learners if courses in esp embraced this aspect of academic communication. in order to do so effectively and systematically, esp teachers need an understanding of the affordances of different modes for communicating different kinds of information and the way that these modes can interact. i hope that this article provides a useful step in this direction. acknowledgements i am grateful to the two specialist informants for the time that they devoted to this study. i would also like to thank the editors for their valuable comments on drafts of the manuscript and for giving me the opportunity to contribute this article. article history: received 22 july 2018 received in revised form 13 august 2018 accepted 27 august 2018 references 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(2004). “different visions, 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 39 christoph a. hafner is associate professor in the department of english, city university of hong kong. he has published widely in the areas of english for specific purposes, digital literacies, and language learning and technology. his latest book, english in the disciplines: a multidimensional model for esp course design (with lindsay miller) is published with routledge. appendix: corpus of vmas christoph a. hafner ibérica 36 (2018): 15-4240 different visuals: a social semiotic analysis of fieldspecific visual composition in scientific conference presentations”. visual communication 3,2: 145175. url: https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357040 43038 sancho guinda, c. (2015). “genres on the move: currency and erosion of the genre moves construct”. journal of english for academic purposes 19: 73-87. url: https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jeap.2015.07.001 tardy, c. m. (2005). “expressions of disciplinarity and individuality in a multimodal genre”. computers and composition 22,3: 319-336. url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2005.05.004 verbi software (2018). maxqda, software for qualitative data analysis. berlin. zudilova-seinstra, e. (2013, january 16). “designing the article of the future”. url: https://www.elsevier.com/connect/designing-thearticle-of-the-future [20/07/2018]. christoph hafner ibérica 36 (2018): …-… rowley-jolivet, e. (2002). “visual discourse in scientific conference papers: a genrebased study”. english for specific purposes 21,1: 19-40. doi: 10.1016/s08894906(00)00024-7 rowley-jolivet, e. (2004). “different visions, different visuals: a social semiotic analysis of field-specific visual composition in scientific conference presentations”. visual communication 3,2: 145-175. url: https://doi.org/10.1177/147035704043038 sancho guinda, c. (2015). “genres on the move: currency and erosion of the genre moves construct”. journal of english for academic purposes 19: 73-87. url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2015.07.001 tardy, c. m. (2005). “expressions of disciplinarity and individuality in a multimodal genre”. computers and composition 22,3: 319-336. url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2005.05.004 verbi software (2018). maxqda, software for qualitative data analysis. berlin. zudilova-seinstra, e. (2013, january 16). “designing the article of the future”. url: https://www.elsevier.com/connect/designing-the-article-of-the-future [20/07/2018]. christoph a. hafner is associate professor in the department of english, city university of hong kong. he has published widely in the areas of english for specific purposes, digital literacies, and language learning and technology. his latest book, english in the disciplines: a multidimensional model for esp course design (with lindsay miller) is published with routledge. appendix: corpus of vmas vma1 takao, k., & miyakawa, t. (2006). light/dark transition test for mice. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (1), e104–e104. https://doi.org/10.3791/104 vma2 szot, g. l., koudria, p., & bluestone, j. a. (2007). murine pancreatic islet isolation. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (7), e255–e255. https://doi.org/10.3791/255 vma3 liu, l., & duff, k. (2008). a technique for serial collection of cerebrospinal fluid from the cisterna magna in mouse. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (21), e960–e960. https://doi.org/10.3791/960 vma4 dyballa, n., & metzger, s. (2009). fast and sensitive colloidal coomassie g-250 staining for proteins in polyacrylamide gels. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (30), e1431–e1431. https://doi.org/10.3791/1431 vma5 hafner, m., landthaler, m., burger, l., khorshid, m., hausser, j., berninger, p., … tuschl, t. (2010). par-clip a method to identify transcriptome-wide the binding sites of rna binding proteins. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (41), e2034–e2034. https://doi.org/10.3791/2034 vma6 konig, j., zarnack, k., rot, g., curk, t., kayikci, m., zupan, b., … ule, j. (2011). iclip transcriptome-wide mapping of protein-rna interactions with individual nucleotide resolution. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (50), e2638–e2638. https://doi.org/10.3791/2638 vma7 lässer, c., eldh, m., & lötvall, j. (2012). isolation and characterisation of rna-containing exosomes. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (59), e3037–e3037. https://doi.org/10.3791/3037 vma8 sun, z. z., hayes, c. a., shin, j., caschera, f., murray, r. m., & noireaux, v. (2013). protocols for implementing an escherichia coli based tx-tl cell-free expression system for synthetic biology. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (79), e50762–e50762. https://doi.org/10.3791/50762 vma9 borowicz, s., scoyk, m. v., avasarala, s., rathinam, m. k. k., tauler, j., bikkavilli, r. k., & winn, r. a. (2014). the soft agar colony formation assay. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (92), genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): …-… e51998–e51998. https://doi.org/10.3791/51998 vma10 mehdiani, a., maier, a., pinto, a., barth, m., akhyari, p., & lichtenberg, a. (2015). an innovative method for exosome quantification and size measurement. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (95), e50974–e50974. https://doi.org/10.3791/50974 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 40 genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): 15-42 41 genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication ibérica 36 (2018): …-… vma10 mehdiani, a., maier, a., pinto, a., barth, m., akhyari, p., & lichtenberg, a. (2015). an innovative method for exosome quantification and size measurement. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (95), e50974–e50974. https://doi.org/10.3791/50974 vma11 sidoli, s., bhanu, n. v., karch, k. r., wang, x., & garcia, b. a. (2016). complete workflow for analysis of histone post-translational modifications using bottom-up mass spectrometry: from histone extraction to data analysis. jove (journal of visualised experiments), (111), e54112– e54112. https://doi.org/10.3791/54112 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 41 01 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:19 página 42 iberica 13 ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-22 abstract this paper describes a mixed-method approach to conducting historical genre analysis of case history narratives in psychiatry from the late eighteenth to the beginning of the twenty-first century. using my recent book-length study, patient tales: case histories and the uses of narrative in psychiatry, as an example of this approach, i describe what researchers may gain by integrating the techniques of discourse analysis with textual exegesis and rhetorical analysis. such a repertoire is needed in “wide-angle” studies of histories of the professions in order to capture the complex interactions among sociohistorical, technological, demographic, and epistemological factors in professions that traverse the boundaries between the natural and human sciences. keywords: genre analysis, case histories in psychiatry, historical narrative, antecedent genres, professionalization. resumen el an�lisis hist�rico de g�nero desde una perspectiva ògran angularó: una retrospectiva personal en el presente artículo se describe el enfoque metodológico mixto utilizado para llevar a cabo el análisis histórico del género sobre narrativas de historias de casos en psiquiatría desde finales del siglo xviii hasta comienzos del siglo xxi. basándome a modo de ejemplo en el enfoque utilizado en el volumen que recientemente he publicado patient tales: case histories and the uses of narrative in psychiatry describo el beneficio que los investigadores pueden obtener si integran las técnicas de análisis del discurso con las técnicas de exégesis textuales y análisis retórico. tal repertorio de técnicas es necesario para adoptar una perspectiva “gran angular” por lo que respecta a los estudios de narrativas de profesiones con el fin de aprehender las complejas interacciones existentes entre los factores sociohistórico, tecnológico, demográfico y epistemológico implicados en las a case for historical “wide-angle” genre analysis: a personal retrospective1 carol berkenkotter university of minnesota (usa) cberken@umn.edu 9 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 9 ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-22 carol berkenkotter profesiones que franquean los límites existentes entre las ciencias humanas y las ciencias naturales. palabras clave: análisis de género, historias de casos en psiquiatría, narrativa histórica, antecedente de géneros, profesionalización. introduction although the province of literary theory for many decades, genre analysis has become a thriving, multi-disciplinary enterprise since the mid 1980s, one that has enlisted researchers in applied linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and rhetoric of science. and while much of the work on genre analysis has been stimulated by the concerns of applied linguists, much excitement has also been generated by researchers who integrated research methods from discourse analysis with those from rhetorical analysis. in the book, genre knowledge in disciplinary communication, my colleague, tom huckin and i attempted to do just that. we examined a broad range of genres of academic discourse including the scientific article, conference proposals, a new journal in literary studies, and a graduate student’s papers during his first two years in a rhetoric program. the texts we analyzed were from the academic disciplines rather than from the professions such as law or medicine.2 because genre knowledge was published during a period of compelling interest on many fronts in the birth and development of english scientific prose, it seemed only natural to present the results of our research at conferences for sociologists and historians of science as well as applied linguists, for the american association of rhetoric of science as well as conference on college composition and communication and american association of applied linguistics. this period of ecumenical interest in the rhetorical functions of scientific prose, reached its apex in 2002 with the publication of gross, harmon and reidy’s communicating science, a rigorous examination of the linguistic and rhetorical features of scientific writing over 250 years, as published in several journals in english, french, and german. gross, harmon and reidy’s meticulous analysis of the changes occurring in scientific journals in three languages from the seventeenth century to the present established a bench mark for historical studies of scientific writing. yet there are other forms of professional writing –other professional genres– that have evolved over this period that have not attracted much attention. one of these is a genre that 10 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 10 coupled elements of narrative with those of empirical observation, the “homely” (miller, 1984) case history in medicine. studies of english medical discourse have appeared in this journal (see salager-meyer, 1999; esteve ramos, 2006; mungra, 2007; carciu, this issue) and elsewhere. with the exception of atkinson’s (1992) diachronic study of research articles in the edinburgh medical journal from 1735-1985, and taavitsainen and pahta (2000), however, the medical case history as a narrative with a unique history has been ignored. thus the purpose of this essay is to fill this gap by describing my research on psychiatric case histories from the late eighteenth century to the present time (berkenkotter, 2008a). this research is not a systematic analysis of the changes in the linguistic and rhetorical features of case histories from 1744 until the present time. rather, it focuses on the uses to which case histories of mental illness –as narratives– had been put during this genre’s long history in the asylum, the mental hospital, the clinic and, as well, the published article in medical and psychiatric journals. i was especially interested in tracking down the ways in which case histories were instrumental in psychiatry’s “professionalization” as a knowledge-producing medical art. that it took so long for the “mad doctors” of the eighteenth and nineteenth century to be accepted as bone fide professionals, subject to the same standards of accountability as physiologists and neurologists is part of the story of psychiatry’s lengthy development into a branch of medicine. on the following pages, i take a retrospective look at several factors leading to psychiatry’s professionalization, focusing in particular on the role of narrative in the making of this discipline. history of the research described in the book in the late 1990s, having co-authored with a clinical psychologist two articles on psychotherapists’ case histories (berkenkotter & ravotas, 1997; ravotas & berkenkotter, 1998), i became curious about the “antecedents” of the psychiatric case narrative. how far back could these narratives be traced? did the mundane asylum case history furnish the raw materials for published case histories in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? did published case histories provide new knowledge for this emergent profession? i read many articles and books on the history of psychiatry to determine what research had been conducted on this modest document. not surprisingly, there was a a case for historical “wide-angle” genre analysis ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-22 11 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 11 dearth of research among historians of psychiatry on the “narrative structure” of knowledge in psychiatry. although historians by training use archival material such as case histories, letters, and newspaper accounts to document the social history of psychiatry, these texts constitute the raw materials that the historian mines to construct an account of a famous historical person or to describe a transformative historical moment or series of events. the discursive properties of case histories –as genres subject to multiple exigencies over time– as an object of study for examining the beliefs and values of a particular discourse community seem to have had little interest for the historian of medicine or psychiatry. to the rhetorician of science, however, the growth of the professions in science and medicine is largely mirrored in their changing textual dynamics over time. given my background in genre analysis and rhetoric of science, it seemed an opportune moment to write a book that would trace psychiatry’s evolution as a knowledge-producing profession by examining the uses of patients’ narratives or “patient tales” written by psychiatrists from the asylum age to the era of biomedicine.3 in the resulting book, titled patient tales: case histories and the uses of narrative in psychiatry (university of south carolina press, 2008a), i used a historical perspective to demonstrate that present-day mental health clinical narratives are sedimented from antecedent genres interwoven in institutional practices from earlier periods in the history of psychiatry. there are, as well, other antecedent texts: those published case histories in medical and psychiatric journals from which the history of the profession might be delineated. these two genres are closely related in the sense that the published case history is distilled from the case notes appearing in asylum case books, or more recently, from psychotherapists’ case notes. my inquiry into antecedent genres of the psychiatric case narrative began with the following questions: when in the history of treating and housing the mentally ill had the practice of keeping the institutional record begun? what was the relationship between the practice of institutional record keeping and the published case history? and was the eighteenth and nineteenth century published case history perceived as a knowledge-bearing text, similar to the scientific article? answering these questions would require a research process akin to peeling away the layers of an onion to trace the development of the psychiatric case history from what perhaps was its earliest appearance in an eighteenth century “copy of letter from dr. david kinneir, touching on the efficacy of camphire in manical disorders,” in carol berkenkotter ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-2212 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 12 philosophical transactions of the royal society of london (kinneir, 1727), to the late twentieth century case histories appearing in the “letters to the editor” section of the american journal of psychiatry. using a “wide-angle” research approach to a complex, historical subject matter there is no guidebook for conducting research on a narrative such as the case history and on the psychiatrists who have contributed to its development over the last two centuries. a close reading and analysis of written texts was essential, but it was also important that i integrate close reading (interpretive analysis) with a more systematic approach that involved analyzing narrative elements such as “reported speech” (see tannen, 1989; hickmann 1993; short, semino & culpeper, 1996; ravotas & berkenkotter, 1998). using both of these techniques for analyzing written text enabled me to adjust my research focus from macro(whole text/genre) to micro(lexical, grammatical, syntactical) levels. as well, i needed to be innovative and eclectic in my approach, and i therefore used techniques that ranged from discourse analysis to textual exegesis of primary texts such as nineteenth century patient case histories and asylum superintendents’ letters and diaries. to gain access to these primary materials, during the late 1990s and in 20002003, i spent considerable time pouring over the dusty notes and reports in leather bound nineteenth century casebooks in the archives at the wellcome and wangensteen libraries for the history of medicine. my object of study was the case notes and patient histories written, and in some cases, published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the united kingdom. in order to place this material into the historical contexts in which it appeared, i read many histories of psychiatry and “mental symptoms” (berrios, 1996) elegantly reported by historians including roy porter, edward shorter, germain berrios, bill bynum, gunter risse, john warner, and sander l. gillman. in contrast to the chapters that focused on historical case histories, the chapters that dealt with the decisions and thinking processes of psychotherapists (clinical psychologists) in mental health clinics required that i triangulate discourse analyses of these psychotherapists written texts (i.e., their notes in session and the written reports based on those notes) with a case for historical “wide-angle” genre analysis ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-22 13 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 13 information provided by the therapists who wrote them. accordingly, doris ravotas (a clinical psychologist) and i conducted retrospective interviews with the therapists-authors of these case histories inviting them to act as specialist informants. in the late 1990s, ravotas and i conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with these individuals, who graciously gave us their time for both initial and follow-up interviews. these psychotherapists also walked us through the techniques they used to jot down case notes in session, and then to transform the raw material of the session notes into the formal case report. this latter text culminates in a diagnosis that matches the criteria for a specific mental disorder that had appeared in the american psychiatric association’s (1994) diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder, 4th edition. this diagnosis (and its accompanying numerical code) is required for billing purposes. my goal throughout the book was to construct an account of psychiatry’s emergence and transformation in to a knowledge-producing profession within medicine, a historical process described above as “professionalization”. toward this end, my object of study has been psychiatry’s case history as an evolving genre that nearly went extinct as a knowledge-bearing text during the period of the rise of biomedicine in psychiatry that began in the 1970s. most important in my study have been the “users” of this genre: the alienists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and, finally the psychotherapists, who successively became the practitioners of psychological medicine. overview of the book my purpose in the first few chapters was to show the processes through which the psychiatric case history initially developed out of the institutional context of the hospital and the insane asylum, or “lunatic” asylum as they were often called in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in england and the united states. with the exception of john haslam’s (1810) illustrations of madness and sigmund freud’s psychoanalytic case histories, published case histories in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries remained tethered to their institutional moorings. unlike the scientific article, which developed over time to be a “master-finding system” (gross, harmon & reidy, 2002), the case history remained a linear narrative, the features and conventions of which developed to fill a particular institutional niche, the need for mental carol berkenkotter ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-2214 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 14 asylums and hospitals (and, more recently, mental health clinics) to keep accurate and consistent patient records. in many respects the evolution of psychiatric case histories mirrors the history of psychiatry’s professionalization, as psychiatrists sought to be accepted by colleagues in other more positivist medical sciences, such as physiology or neurology. it is a history of individual, often prominent asylum physicians making innovations that instantiated the widely held views about insanity belonging to a particular historical period. for example, john haslam’s (1810) illustrations of madness eloquently described the diachotomy between reason and madness, a view of the mind widely held by both philosophers and physicians during the scottish enlightment. asylum superintendent, john conolly’s (1858) use of photographs in his published essays reflected his belief that the new technology of photography would furnish empirical evidence of the varieties of insanity. conolly’s argument that it was possible to use photographs of patients’ faces to distinguish between one kind of insanity and another became the basis of nineteenth century pedagogical textbooks by charles bucknill and samual tuke (1858), edward mann (1883), and others. to summarize from these examples, my aim in the first part of the book was to depict the relationship between sociohistorical and professional “exigence” (at different historical moments) and individual physicians’ responses to exigence –i.e., their innovations to the case history’s formal structure and conventions. these innovations are part of the overall process of psychiatry’s long slow march toward acceptance as a profession (see abbott, 1988). obviously, a host of other factors, such as asylum reform movements leading to the 1844 lunacy laws in england and the first professional affiliations and disciplinary forums were synergistic, spreading the communication of new ideas and approaches to the care of the mentally ill among those to whom that care was entrusted. in the sections that follow i take a retrospective look at what –for me– were the most interesting findings of my research into the textual and discursive side of psychiatry’s growth into a mature discipline. narrative functions of the case history over two centuries in the eighteenth century, epistolary case reports of patients with psychiatric problems, like other medical case reports of patients with physical problems, a case for historical “wide-angle” genre analysis ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-22 15 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 15 were based on the baconian view that scientific (and hence, medical) knowledge grew out of the gradual accumulation of observations of nature and natural phenomena. although scientists’ observations were written up in the eighteenth century as epistolary accounts of experiments, physicians’ observations of their patients’ illnesses, the treatment regimen, and its success or failure, can also be seen as “natural histories” of diseases. the interest of these narratives to physician-readers lay in their “news value” (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995), as did the early scientific article in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. news value in psychiatry consisted of case histories of patients with heretofore undiagnosed maladies, the successful use of a new treatment, and occasionally, histories of cases in which a patient’s physical and mental symptoms were interwoven in such a way that the physical problem was deemed to be the cause of the mental disturbance. an example of this genre would be a case in which the author linked a female patient’s mania to a diseased uterus or ovaries. mental illness, or “insanity” (as mental illness was called in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries), was filtered through a materialist lens.4 mental symptoms were thus seen as epiphenomena of somatic disorder –and were treated as such with emetics, purgatives, and narcotics. it was not until the end of the nineteenth century that two physicians –one an austrian (sigmund freud), the other a german (emil kraepelin), both born in 1846– were to develop two competing “thought styles” about mental illness. although ignored in the first half of the twentieth century, kraepelin’s (1902) classification system of mental disorders clinical psychiatry: a textbook for students and physicians, became the basis of the “counterrevolution” in psychiatry that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. by the 1980s in the united states, the rise of a new, research-based diagnostic classification system was mainly directed against the psychoanalytic school with its “metaphysics” of the unconscious and its mechanisms. this new classification system was, in fact, none other than an updated version of kraepelin’s approach to classifying psychopathology, reincarnated in the american psychiatric association’s (1980) diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 3rd edition. the dsm-iii’s classifications were based on empirical studies of large numbers of patients, individuals who had been placed into separate diagnostic groups based on their presenting symptoms. in this newest iteration of a nosological system, some of kraeplinian classifications re-appeared as “research diagnostic categories” (see feighner et al., 1972). carol berkenkotter ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-2216 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 16 although kraepelin’s empiricist approach was more consistent and congenial with the materialist epistemology of nineteenth century psychiatrists in england and america, it was sigmund freud’s influence on psychiatry in europe, england, and subsequently the united states that was more instrumental to the profession’s coming of age. indeed, it was freud who brought psychiatrists out of the asylum and into the clinic, and provided them with a set of techniques for patients’ treatment and cure, rather than simply administering to their most egregious physical symptoms and disturbing behaviors. as well, it was freud who provided both the theoretical scaffolding and the set of practices that constituted what was, arguably, the first full paradigm formation in psychiatry. as generic innovations, freud’s case histories were hybrid forms borrowing conventions from literary as well scientific texts. in particular, he appears to have drawn on the techniques of realist authors of fictional works who were concerned not only with the origins of their fictional characters’ personalities, but also with their inner lives. in the context of freud’s psychoanalytic method, his primary concern was learning the etiology of his patients’ neuroses, and he enlisted his patients in aiding him to unravel their personal histories as a means for reaching down to the roots of their neuroses –or in a few cases– psychoses. although i limited my analysis to freud’s first of his five major case histories, fragments of an analysis of a case of hysteria (1905), each case history is a rich, multilayered narrative that crosses the line demarcating the scientism of his time from hermeneutical (humanistic) inquiry. the multiple techniques that freud used to represent the speech of his patient, “dora” (a pseudonym), and the care he took to report his efforts to provide a putatively verbatim account of what she reported, established the foundation for the modern case narrative in psychodynamic therapy. the patient’s account of his or her life-world, reported verbatim, is still the sine quo non of the psychoanalytic case history. moreover, freud’s attentiveness to the patient’s speech in varying degrees of fidelity highlighted the emphasis that he put upon –for the first time in the history of the psychiatric case history– the idea of talk as the phenomenon that both reveals and conceals meanings that the psychoanalyst works with his patient to uncover, and i should add, recover. for the first six decades of the twentieth century, many of freud’s followers on the continent and in england and america continued to develop and modify his approach, and young psychiatrists were routinely trained during their residencies to use the psychoanalytic approach. despite the supremacy a case for historical “wide-angle” genre analysis ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-22 17 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 17 of the psychoanalytic thought-style for over 60 years, several forces converged during the 1970s and 1980s in the united states that led to the decline of the psychoanalytic approach. these forces included the ascendance of the research-based “biomedical approach,” the rise of a third party payer system, the rapid growth of psychopharmacology, and finally, deinstitutionalization resulting in increasing number of outpatients showing up in emergency rooms and community mental health clinics. these were individuals who required medication and psychotherapy. last but not least in this convergence of forces was the arrival of managed care, or “diagnosing for dollars” (wylie, 1995). the near extinction of published case histories in psychiatry and medicine is an important part of this chapter in american psychiatry. by documenting the changes appearing in articles between 1968 and 2002 in the “clinical and research reports” section of the american journal of psychiatry (ajp), i sought (in one of the later chapters of the book) to show that case history narratives were replaced by large n statistical studies of clinical trials, interrater reliability studies of new diagnostic classifications, and experiments with patients to test hypotheses. the narrative genre of the individual case history nearly vanished from the pages of the ajp after 1984, when the journal’s editorial board decided to stop publishing case reports in the “clinical and research reports” section, relegating them to the briefer and considerably more modest “letters to the editor” section. until 1996, when a new editor took over the journal, the clinical case history languished in the letters section of ajp, its status greatly reduced as was its word count: from 2,200 words to a mere 600. the swing from the preeminence of psychoanalyst’s preoccupation with patients’ narratives to the research psychiatrist’s use of diagnostic criteria to classify mental disorders constituted a sea change in perspective. this new “way of seeing” was textually instantiated in the categories of mental disorder appearing in american psychiatric association’s (1980) diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder, 3rd edition. the dsm-iii brought with it a new “thought-style” (see fleck, [1935] 1979) that was to be the basis of a new biomedical orthodoxy that exists today. conclusion the context-based, rhetorically-oriented, “wide-angle” approach i have described over the last several pages is something that applied linguists might carol berkenkotter ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-2218 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 18 well be reluctant to engage in, given their predilection for text-based, highly focused, systematic studies of disciplinary and professional genres. the finegrained studies that appear in ibérica and other esp and lsp journals have been invaluable in the sense that they have been cumulative since the early 1980s, resulting in a robust body of research that can be translated into instructional practices. as a genre analyst with roots in the rhetorical tradition, i am also influenced by the research conducted in rhetoric of science (e.g. bazerman, 1988; gross, 1996; gross, harmon & reidy, 2002). i chose to use a mixed-method approach in patient tales drawing upon a variety of techniques ranging from textual, discourse, and rhetorical analyses of archival documents, to reading extensively in the history of nineteenth and twentieth century medicine and psychiatry. this kind of text/context approach is needed, i would contend, to capture the complex interactions between socio-historical, technological, economic, and epistemological factors, especially in disciplines such as psychiatry, a profession that traverses the boundaries between the natural and human sciences. (revised paper received april 2009) references a case for historical “wide-angle” genre analysis ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-22 19 abbott, a. (1988). the system of professions: an essay on the division of expert labor. chicago: university of chicago press. american psychiatric association (1980). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 3rd ed. washington, dc: author. american psychiatric association (1994). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th ed. washington, dc: author. atkinson, d. (1992). “the evolution of medical research writing from 1735 to 1985: the case of the edinburgh medical journal”. applied linguistics 13: 337374. bazerman, c. (1988). shaping written knowledge: the genre and activity of the experimental article in science. madison, wi: the university of wisconsin press. berrios, g. (1996). the history of mental symptoms: descriptive psychopathology since the nineteenth century. cambridge: cambridge university press. berkenkotter, c. (2008a). patient tales: case histories and the uses of narrative in psychiatry. columbia, sc: university of south carolina press. berkenkotter, c. (2008b). “genre evolution: the case for a diachronic perspective” in v.k. bhatia, j. flowerdew & r.h. jones (eds.), advances in discourse studies, 178-191. london: routledge. berkenkotter, c. & d. ravotas (1997). “genre as tool in the transmission over time and across professional boundaries”. mind, culture & activity 4: 256-274. berkenkotter, c. & t.n. huckin (1995). genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: cognition/culture/power. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum bucknill, j.d. & d.h. tuke. (1858). a manual of psychological medicine history nosology, description, statistics, diagnosis, pathology, and treatment of insanity with an appendix of cases. london: john churchill. carciu, o.m. (2009). “an intercultural study of firstperson plural references in biomedical writing”. ibérica 18: 71-92. conolly, j. (1858). “on the physiognomy of insanity”. medical times and gazette, no. 1: 2-4; 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 19 carol berkenkotter is professor in the department of writing studies at the university of minnesota. she is the author of patient tales: case histories and the uses of narrative in psychiatry (university of south carolina press, 2008), coauthor with thomas n. huckin of genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: cognition/culture/power (lawrence erlbaum, 1995), and has written articles and book chapters on case histories in psychiatry. carol berkenkotter ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-2220 no. 2: 56-58; no. 3: 134-136; no. 4: 238-241; no. 5: 314-316; no. 6: 397-398; no. 7: 498-500; no. 8: 623-624; no. 9: 81-83; no. 10: 210-212; no.11: 367-369; no. 12: 651-653. esteve ramos, m.j. (2006). “medical terminology across the centuries: distinctive features of a chronological study in the field of ophthalmology”. ibérica 12: 111-126. feighner, j.p., g. robins, s.b. guze, r.a. woodruff, g. winokur & r. munoz (1972). “diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research”. archives of general psychiatry 26: 57-63. fleck, l. [1935] (1979). genesis and development of a scientific fact. translated by f. bradley and t.t. tren. chicago: university of chicago press. freud, s. (1905). fragment of an analysis of a case of hysteria. standard edition. edited by james strachey. vol. 7. london: hogarth press. gross, a.g. (1996). the rhetoric of science, 2nd ed. cambridge, ma:. harvard university press. gross, a.g., j.e. harmon & m. reidy (2002). communicating science: the scientific article from the 17th century to the present. new york: oxford university press. haslam, j. (1810). illustrations of madness: exhibiting a singular case of insanity, and a no less remarkable difference of medical opinion ... embellished with a curious plate. london: rivingtons, robinsons, callow, murray & greenland. hickmann, m. (1993). “the boundaries of reported speech in narrative discourse” in j. lucy (ed.), reflexive language: reported speech and metapragmatics, 63-89. cambridge: cambridge university press. kinneir, d. (1727). “a copy of a letter from dr. david kinneir to dr. campbell … touching on the efficacy of camphire in maniacal disorders”. philosophical transactions 35: 347-351. kraepelin, e. (1902). clinical psychiatry: a textbook for students and physicians. translated by a. r. diefendorf from the 6th edition of kraepelin’s textbook. london: macmillan. li, l.j. & g.c. ge (2009). “genre analysis: structural and linguistic evolution of the englishmedium medical research article (1985-2004)”. english for specific purposes 28: 93-104. mann, e.c. (1883). a manual of psychological medicine and allied nervous diseases. philadelphia: blakiston. miller, c.r. (1984). “genre as social action”. quarterly journal of speech 70: 151-167. mungra, p. (2007). “metaphors among titles of medical publications: an observational study”. ibérica 14: 99-122. ravotas, d. & c. berkenkotter (1998). “voices in the text: the uses of reported speech in a psychotherapist’s notes and initial assessments”. text 18: 211-239. salager-meyer, f. (1999). “from ‘mr. guthrie is profoundly mistaken …’ to ‘our data do not seem to confirm the results of a previous study on’: a diachronic study of polemicity in academic writing”. ibérica 1: 5-28. short, m., e. semino & j. culpeper (1996). “using a corpus for stylistics research: speech and thought presentation” in j. thomas & m. short (eds.), using corpora in language research, 110131. london: longman. taavitsainen, i. & p. pahta. (2000). “conventions of professional writing: the medical case report in a historical perspective”. journal of english linguistics 28: 60-76. tannen, d. (1989). talking voices: repetition, dialogue, and imagery in conversational discourse. cambridge: cambridge university press. wylie, m.s. (1995). “diagnosing for dollars?” family therapy networker june: 23-33. 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 20 notes 1 earlier versions of some of the material in this essay appear in the first and last chapters of patient tales: case histories and the uses of narrative in psychiatry (2008a). i discuss the notion of generic evolution of the case history in a chapter in the collection, advances in discourse studies (2008b), v.k. bhatia, j. flowerdew and r.h. jones (eds). london: routledge. for a recent description and analysis of the evolutionary nature of the medical research article, see li-jaun li and guang chun ge (2009). 2 certainly there are professional scientists not affiliated with universities; however, academic scientists were the subjects of the research we conducted during the late 1980s and early 1990s. 3 little did i realize what an enormous project i had undertaken or how long it would take to complete it. 4 concepts of “mind” or “the psyche” were regarded with suspicion as being too close to the clergy’s jurisdiction. a case for historical “wide-angle” genre analysis ibérica 18 [2009]: 9-22 21 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 21 02 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:49 página 22 imprimir iberica 13 ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128 abstract the purpose of this paper is to apply some recent findings about the meaning of prepositions in cognitive linguistics to some phrasal verbs in esp, namely medical and computer english. we analyse the meaning of some phrasal verbs by applying the cognitive model of prepositions as large networks of related senses with a central spatial meaning that can be extended towards more abstract, metaphorical senses. for this, we have chosen the most obvious spatial scene, that of a container, and the phrasal verbs referring to that container, those which are formed with the particles in and out. a number of metaphorical projections emerge from the analysis that evidences both the unitary meaning of the particles in different contexts and the motivation underlying the apparent arbitrariness of the compounds. those metaphorical projections are but specifications of some common metaphors we can find in more general uses of english, which supports the idea that the model presented can be easily extended to other fields in english as well as to general discourse. key words: phrasal verbs, cognitive linguistics, medical english, computer english, metaphors. resumen �������� ��� ������ � ���������������������������������������� ����� ������ ����������� ��� el objetivo de este trabajo es aplicar algunos hallazgos recientes sobre el significado de las preposiciones en lingüística cognitiva a algunos verbos con partícula en ife, concretamente, inglés médico e inglés de informática. analizamos el significado de algunos verbos con partícula aplicando el modelo a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs in english for specific purposes mª dolores porto requejo and carmen pena díaz universidad de alcalá de henares (spain) mdolores.porto@uah.es & carmen.pena@uah.es 109 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 109 cognitivo de las preposiciones como grandes redes de sentidos relacionados con un sentido espacial central que puede extenderse hacia otros sentidos metafóricos más abstractos. para ello, hemos elegido la escena espacial más obvia, la de un recipiente y los verbos con partícula que se refieren a ese recipiente, los que están compuestos con las partículas in y out. del análisis surgen varias proyecciones metafóricas que demuestran tanto el significado unitario de las partículas en diferentes contextos, como la motivación que subyace a la aparente arbitrariedad de los compuestos. esas proyecciones metafóricas no son más que especificaciones de algunas metáforas corrientes que se pueden encontrar en usos más generales de inglés, lo cual confirma la idea de que el modelo presentado se puede extender fácilmente a otros campos del inglés para fines específicos así como al discurso común. palabras clave: verbos con partícula, lingüística cognitiva, inglés médico, inglés para informática, metáforas. introduction most english grammars define phrasal verbs as idiomatic verbs in which a verb combines with prepositions or particles and creates a different meaning from the original one. the idea is that the particle changes the meaning of the verb in such a way that it is not possible to connect it any more with the dictionary definition of the individual words. moreover, the very same combination of verb and particle seems to mean different things in different contexts, which supports the intuition that the final meaning is absolutely arbitrary. no wonder phrasal verbs are one of the most difficult parts of the lexicon for foreign learners. on the other hand, they are so expressive that they are very widespread in native speech, especially in spoken english and, what is more, new phrasal verbs are constantly being created. if meanings were as arbitrary as could be inferred from the above definition, they would not be so easily interpreted and created by speakers. apparently, what makes phrasal verbs so unpredictable is the meaning of the particles, since prepositions seem to be quite arbitrary themselves, whereas the meaning of the verbs is usually less controversial. besides, as long as the expressions refer to spatial locations and movements, the meanings are quite transparent, but when they refer to more abstract concepts, feelings, relations, etc. the meanings are not so obvious (rudzka-ostyn, 2003). over the past few years, a cognitive approach to the meaning of prepositions has been fruitful in the explanation of their numerous possible uses and how they are all motivated and related to one another. this paper intends to apply m.d. porto requejo & c. pena díaz ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128110 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 110 ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128 a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs those findings to phrasal verbs and see if they also provide a satisfactory explanation for the differences in meaning between the original words and the final compound. still, as there are so many possible variations depending on the contexts where a phrasal verb is used, it will be useful to reduce the analysis to a few specific fields, if only for researching purposes, namely to those of medical english and computer english. this reduction will provide a better understanding of the unitary meaning of the phrasal verbs in question before it can be extended not only to other fields, but also to more general discourse. phrasal verbs and cognitive linguistics traditionally, the semantics of english prepositions and particles has been considered largely arbitrary. a long list of possible uses in different contexts is often provided by textbooks and dictionaries without any apparent relation to one another. this poses a particular problem for students of english as a foreign language, who mostly see english prepositions as idiomatic expressions that must be learnt one by one without a reasonable explanation of their uses. also, since the major nuances of the meaning, and also of the syntax, of phrasal and prepositional verbs lie in these particles, it follows that phrasal verbs constitute a sort of a mystery for foreign learners. they cannot be interpreted by the mere addition of the meanings of their constituents, verb and particle, so they seem to be even more impossible to predict or guess than prepositions alone. however, in the last 25 years, cognitive linguistics has paid great attention to polysemy in general1 and more specifically to prepositions. since the work by brugman (1981) on the meaning of over, many studies have been carried out on prepositions from a cognitive perspective (lakoff, 1987; brugman, 1988; herskovits, 1988; radden, 1989; taylor, 1993; dirven, 1993; vandeloise, 1994; pütz & dirven, 1996; cuyckens & radden, 2002; tyler & evans, 2003, among others). an accurate, rational clarification on the meaning of prepositions will result in a better understanding of phrasal verbs, but not so much work has so far been devoted to them in cognitive linguistics (lindner, 1982; morgan, 1997; dirven, 2001; rudzka-ostyn, 2003). the view that it is possible to establish links among the different senses of a preposition would present the various meanings of a phrasal verb as motivated ones, if not predictable, and so eliminate the idea that they are arbitrary (tyler & evans, 2003 & 2004). apart from the consequences of 111 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 111 ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128 m.d. porto requejo & c. pena díaz this view for the improvement of the learning of english as a foreign language, it will also contribute to the construction of a better model of the semantics of words in general, the way they are stored and organized in our minds, as well as it will better help to elucidate the strategies by which speakers interpret and use them. the cognitive approach considers that all the senses in a polysemous word are related and therefore the meaning of a word can be seen as a big semantic network of related senses. being so, all the possible senses of a preposition would make up a large network of related senses, some of them being more peripheral (i.e., less common or less significant), and some others more central (i.e., basic ones). the core meaning of a preposition is the one that refers to the cognitive domain of physical space, whereas other abstract senses “tend to be derived from concrete, spatial senses by means of generalization or specialization of meaning or by metonymic or metaphoric transfer” (cuyckens & radden, 2002: xiii). in other words, english prepositions encode an abstract mental idealization of a spatial relation, derived from more specific spatial scenes; this is what tyler and evans (2003 & 2004) call the “proto-scene”2. for example, let’s consider the following sentences: (1) i think john is in his room (2) i think john is in the city (3) i think john is in trouble (4) i think john is in love the spatial sense of the preposition “in” is quite obvious in sentences (1) and (2), even if sentence (2) involves a metaphorical perception of the city as a bounded space. far more abstract are the meanings of sentences (3) and (4), in which some abstract concepts, trouble and love, are also perceived as physical entities, as containers that people can get “into” or “out of ”. the relation between “john” and “love” or “trouble” is considered a metaphorically spatial one and this is the reason why the preposition “in” is used. in this network of senses that constitute the meaning of a preposition, conceptual metaphors play a leading role. metaphors are the way in which we usually understand the world around us (lakoff & johnson, 1980). anything beyond what is physical and concrete can only be understood metaphorically. as for the role of the verb in the compound, according to rudzka-ostyn (2003), apart from a few static verbs such as “be”, “sit”, “hold”, etc. most of the verbs used with particles are verbs of motion, either physical (“run”, 112 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 112 “break”, “throw”, etc.) or abstract (“think”, “sell”, “buy”, “refer”, etc.). even those that refer to physical motion are often used to designate abstract, nonvisible changes as in the following examples: (5) to run up the hill (6) to run up expenses (7) to throw out old clothes (8) to throw a person out of a club moreover, the verbs often provide the perspective of the speaker. since spatial scenes can be viewed from different perspectives, each of these views will determine how we conceptualize the scene. this is evidenced in the related meanings of those phrasal verbs with the same particle and similar meanings, such as “go down”/“come down”/“get down”, etc. in this paper we will analyse the meaning of some phrasal verbs by applying the before-mentioned cognitive model that considers the semantics of prepositions as big networks of related senses with a central spatial meaning that can be extended towards more and more abstract, metaphorical senses. for this, we have chosen the most obvious spatial scene, that of a container, and therefore the phrasal verbs with the particles “in” and “out” referring to that container. however, the possibilities are almost unlimited, since phrasal verb meanings are highly dependant on their context of use.3 this pragmatic aspect is even more remarkable when we consider different fields in english for specific purposes. the following sentences are examples of how the same compound can provide very different meanings depending on the context: (9) you have put your shoulder out (10) the doctor decided to put her out during the birth (11) it took them a long time to put the fire out (12) they are putting out a special issue this week (13) the yacht put out to sea in the morning (14) the tree has put out new leaves (15) this printer offers excellent output quality still, we will see that the apparent differences are due to contextual matters and this paper intends to evidence how closely they are related. since there a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128 113 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 113 is such a wide range of possible contexts, and therefore meanings, it is not easy to find a common core to all the senses of a phrasal verb. for this reason, we have constrained our study to a few specific fields, medical and computer english, which will allow us to reduce the number of possible meanings from a pragmatic point of view and consider the similarities underlying the surface differences. this way, all the possible senses of one verb will be better contextualized and will likely be better connected with each other so that we can see all the senses as a unitary meaning. thus, the analysis will be easier and clearer and it will hopefully serve as a sound basis to eventually extend the results to other fields by adding new senses without altering the global meaning. the container metaphor: the meaning of “in” and “out” the container metaphor is one of the most basic and most pervasive ones in our conceptual system. we understand an extended number of abstract concepts in terms of the experiential image-schema of containment (johnson, 1987). according to lakoff and johnson (1980) it is the human body, our physical bounded reality, which is the origin of this metaphor: each of us is a container, with a bounding surface and an in-out orientation. we project our own in-out orientation onto other physical objects that are bounded by surfaces. thus we also view them as containers with an inside and an outside. (lakoff & johnson, 1980: 29) thus, the human body is perceived as a container where we can introduce food or where we can keep emotions and fill it up to the point of a “metaphorical burst” (for instance, in anger or in tears)4. we can then project this conceptualization to external areas, even if they do not have clear, physical boundaries and conceptualize them as containers. therefore, our mind is also perceived as a container “full of ” ideas. what is more, we can metaphorically understand abstract concepts in terms of physical containers, such as the visual field as well as events, actions and states as evidenced by the use of the prepositions “in” and “out” in sentences like “i have him in sight” and “he fell into a depression” (lakoff & johnson, 1980). the linguistic evidence shows that the conceptualization of a particular lm [landmark] as bounded is determined not in absolute terms by its geometry m.d. porto requejo & c. pena díaz ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128114 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 114 (although clearly this does play some part), but rather by virtue of the way in which humans experience and interact with the lm in question (tyler & evans, 2003: 132). moreover, the way in which humans experience and interact with containers, or any other bounded spaces, has a number of functional consequences. according to tyler and evans (2003), these consequences are reflected in the meanings typically associated with the spatial particles “in”, “into”, “out”, “out of ”, and “through”. thus, for instance, containment involves constraining movement, as in the case of a prison cell, which restricts the movements of a convict, but the container can also be conceived as a protection, as in the case of a jeweller’s safe (tyler & evans, 2003). also, if the boundaries of the container are opaque, what is inside remains hidden and can only be seen if taken “out”. the functional elements in the spatial meaning of prepositions are essential to understand how other senses are generated. besides, these functional elements can explain the apparent arbitrariness of the alternation of prepositions. for example, if someone is “in trouble”, this is conceived as a state from which one cannot easily escape, whereas if one is “on the take” or “on the pill”, it is perceived as a choice that can be reversed. therefore, there is a basic spatial meaning in prepositions and a number of metaphorical and metonymical extensions, but also some other associated senses must be taken into account, which derive from the way in which we interact with physical entities in the real world. the schematic meaning of “in” and “out” is a basic spatial scene (tyler & evans, 2003), the mental image of a container to convey the idea that something is or is not inside that container (see figure 1). from this schematic image we can extend that meaning to more metaphorical senses where entities that are not containers can be seen as such. depending on the context, concepts like a human body, an illness, a a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128 115 out in figure 1. basic spatial scene for “in” and “out” 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 115 computer or the internet can be perceived as containers. we will see that the way in which we conceptualize and interact with many non-physical entities are but metaphorical projections of the concept container and the expressions we use to refer to them, especially phrasal verbs with “in” and “out”, are the evidence. the particles “in” and “out” in medical english let us consider first the metaphor the body is a container5 (see figure 2), which can make sense of some phrasal verbs in medical english like: (1) take out they took his appendix out (2) cut out jane had a lump on her neck cut out (3) set in you can see gangrene has set in to your left leg (4) take in she sat taking in breathes of fresh air the average daily intake of iron in a normal diet… (5) breathe in/out the doctor asked her to breathe in and out softly (5) hold in she wanted to cry but held in the tears (6) kick in her hayfever didn’t feel as bad once the antihistamines had kicked in we can also conceptualise buildings as containers, like large boxes where people get “in” or “out of ”. in general uses, the default building to be “in” is home, which explains general phrasal verbs like “stay in” to mean “stay at home”. in medical english this use is reflected in verbs like: m.d. porto requejo & c. pena díaz ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128116 figure 2. the body is a container. they took his appendix out the doctor asked her to breathe in and out softly 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 116 (7) call in we had to call in a doctor because she was feeling really bad (8) look in the stoma nurse will look in again next week however, in medical english, the default place is a hospital (see figure 3), so the hospital is a container, as evidenced in the following examples: (9) come in someone came in with an undiagnosable bleeding (10) go in he went in for a triple bypass operation two days ago or else, the most specific place in a hospital: the room or ward: (11) room in most hospitals have a policy of rooming in mothers and their babies we can also perceive some places without physical boundaries as containers, in this sense when something spreads to occupy a wider area, it can also be conceived as going or spreading “out” (see figure 4). (12) break out an epidemic broke out a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128 117 figure 3. a building (i.e. the hospital) is a container. figure 4. unbounded places are containers. 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 117 or we can consider that the right place for something is its container, so when something is not in the right place to be, then it is “out”: (13) put out you’ve put your shoulder out in a higher level of abstraction, a person’s control area can also be regarded as a container, so anything beyond a person’s reach or availability is commonly referred to as “out of reach” (see figure 5). the same conceptualization is reflected in verbs like: (14) run out the nurse run out of bandages (15) have in do we have any penicillin in? as explained in the previous section, when we consider containers, there are some functional elements we know about from our experience of the world. for instance, a container involves the idea of confinement and therefore some kind of obstacle that must be overcome (tyler & evans, 2003 & 2004). in that sense, we usually perceive that a bad habit is a container that keeps the person trapped inside (see figure 6): (16) get into how did he get into drugs? (17) get out mary managed to get out of smoking m.d. porto requejo & c. pena díaz ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128118 the nurse ran out of bandages bandages figure 5. the area of influence is an unbounded place (i.e., a container). figure 6. a bad habit is a container. smoking mary managed to get out of smoking 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 118 also from our experience of containers, we know that something inside a container is usually hidden from sight, so being unknown is being inside a container (see figure 7). therefore when something unknown is discovered, it is usually conceived as “getting out” (as evidenced by common phrasal verbs in general speech such as “find out” or “come out”) (see figure 8), which explains the meaning of verbs in medical english like the following: (18) break out julie broke out in a disease finally, states are containers, as evidenced in common expressions like “we are in trouble” or “he is in love” (lakoff & johnson, 1980). in medical english, we can find this meaning in verbs like “come out” and “fill in” as in the following sentences: (19) come out he is coming out of the coma (20) fall in he fell in a deep depression a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128 119 figure 7. being unknown is being inside a container. figure 8. revealed is out. julie broke out in a disease 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 119 and just the same as we have seen in (13) that being in the right place is being in, also the right conscious state is in, and when you are unconscious you are “out” (see figure 9): (21) put out the doctor put the patient out for the operation very significant for this particular conceptualization are those verbs which carry both “in” and “out” at the same time like: (22) bring out in it was the lobster that brought me out in this rash all over my body (23) come out in she came out in a nasty rash after touching the poisonous plant by mistake as shown in figure 10, the mental image underlying these sentences is that of someone being taken “out” of a normal, healthy state (as we pointed out above being in the right state is being “in”) and “into” a different state. m.d. porto requejo & c. pena díaz ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128120 figure 9. being unconscious is being out. the doctor put the patient out for the operationor the operation figure 10. states are containers /becoming ill is getting into a container. she came out in a nasty rash after touching the poisonous plant by mistake healthy state disease out in 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 120 the particles “in” and “out” in computer english in the specific field of english for computer science, there is an obvious container: the computer itself.6 the mental image of a container can be easily projected onto that of a computer, mostly because a computer has actually got the shape of a box with chips and circuits inside. firstly, all the components of a computer system (i.e., the monitor, the keyboard, the cpu, speakers, etc.) can be perceived as one whole container. this conceptualization motivates expressions like “built-in speakers” or “built-in modem”. secondly, in a more abstract sense, non-physical concepts, such as the software or data, are conceived as physical entities that can be “introduced” in the computer system as if in a big box. the two possible uses of “plug in” and “plug into” in the following sentences evidence the transition from a physical, spatial sense to a more abstract one (see figure 11): (1) digital cameras can be plugged into a computer to download and edit the photos (2) a plug-in application like acrobat reader is recognized automatically by the browser thus, the computer is a sort of box with not only chips and devices “inside”, but also non-physical entities –i.e., the software, the operating systems, the data. all these are usually conceptualized as physical objects, which we keep in the computer system. the way in which we refer to the computer functions evidences this conceptualization of the computer as a container, and so we usually speak about “storing” information, “moving” files to a folder, or about the lack of “space” in the hard disk. for this reason, compounds with “in” and “out” are so frequent when we speak about what we do with the computer, as in the following examples (see figure 12): a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128 121 figure 11. “plug in”: from concrete to abstract meanings. 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 121 (3) the images were then scanned into a macintosh and the final composition was arranged with adobe photoshop (4) a lightpen is an input device similar to a pen. (5) if the file is not specified, the program will print the output at the screen (6) a person would only have to key in words or phrases and he would have access to any information he wants to have. (7) you should rub out all the unwanted files to get some free space in your disk (8) instructions and data must be fed into the computer moreover, since the computer is seen as a closed container where we keep our belongings, it is quite straightforward that the action of accessing the information stored in a computer without permission is conceived as “breaking” or “hacking into” the container: (9) a few hackers began to use their skills to break into private computer systems and steal money. since the computer is a container that not only stores but also processes the data, we can find a very special meaning of “out” in computer english. consider the following sentences: (10) the computer crunched out all those computations in a fraction of a second. (11) a series of inputs were set up and fed into the computer, which would work out the answers and print them. m.d. porto requejo & c. pena díaz ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128122 instructions must be fed into the computer you should rub out all the unwanted files to get some free space in your disk. figure 12: the computer is a container 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 122 the mental image we can obtain from these sentences is that of a computer processing data for some time and putting out the results at the end of the process (see figure 13). because what comes out of a computer is usually the result of a processing, the output, the meaning of “out” in computer english includes a sense of “getting the results (and giving them out)”. this is also a meaning that can be found in english for general purposes, as in sentence (12), whose mental representation would be similar to that of figure 14: (12) i worked it out in my head this sense of getting the results is also related to “the completion sense” of the preposition “out” in common language.7 in computer english it is quite straightforward that the “output” is not only what the computer “puts out” –i.e., the information that the computer shows on the display, but also the last step of a process performed by the computer, since the data provided has been previously processed and only the final result is given.8 this sense of completion can be easily found in general english as much as in the specific field we are dealing with: a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128 123 figure 13. out is getting the results. the computer crunched out all those computations in a fraction of a second. i worked it out in my head. figure 14. out is getting the results and completion. 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 123 (13) a program is a set of instructions to make a computer carry out a task apart from the computer itself, we can find other projections of the container concept related to the field of computer english. for example, it is typical of online forms and graphical interfaces to present some sort of “boxes” that the user must “fill in” with the required information –i.e., passwords, personal data, etc. (see figure 15): (14) type in your password to access the system (15) fill in the coloured fields of the form once again this meaning of the particle “in” can be found in more general uses as in sentences like: (16) fill in the blanks in the following sentences (17) you can fill in the details by studying the paper at leisure in (16), the blanks are still conceptualized as containers, even if they are not framed or clearly bounded, whereas in (17) the gaps to fill in are metaphorically conceptualized. finally, there is another obvious container that is always present in the language of computers and information technologies: the internet. computer users perceive the internet as a huge box, rather than a network of connected computers. it is conceived as a storage place where they can search for information. this explains the use of the particles “in” and “out” in the compounds “log in” to refer to the action of accessing the internet and “log out” to mean “stop working on it”. (18) please use your new password to log in to the internet service and email m.d. porto requejo & c. pena díaz ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128124 figure 15. boxes in graphical interfaces are containers. type in your password to access the system 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 124 (19) at the end of each internet session, users must log out of the internet. as explained in the section of medical english, the container is not always physically bound, and so, an undetermined area can be also conceived as a container. this explains how out develops a sense of “separation”, as in “branch out” or “sort out” (see figure 16), that can be physical as in sentence (20) or metaphorical, as evidenced by examples (21) and (22): (20) these cables branch out from the main feeder routes to cover the entire distribution area (21) the system sorts out the computer’s memory into blocks (22) let your computer sort out your tasks rather than you doing it all conclusions in this paper we have applied cognitive linguistics insights on prepositions to some phrasal verbs in medical and computer english. as we have seen, prepositions encode mental idealizations of spatial scenes whose meanings, through a process of abstraction, can be extended to other domains to express more abstract concepts. this way, all the possible senses of a preposition, and particularly of a phrasal verb, appear to be related and therefore motivated, instead of constituting a bunch of arbitrary, unconnected senses. this has been made more apparent by reducing the analysis to those phrasal verbs in two specific fields, namely medical english and computer english. a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128 125 figure 16. an unbounded area is a container. 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 125 the container metaphor, which is the spatial scene in the core meaning of the particles “in” and “out”, has proved to be the link between all the senses of the phrasal and prepositional verbs with “in” and “out” in medical and computer english. instead of the traditional list of possible uses of those compounds in different contexts, we now have an image-schema, that of containment, that can be projected onto the different contexts and so explain the meaning of the particle in those combinations. we have seen that the most frequent containers in medical english are the human body and the hospital, whereas in computer english, it is the computer itself and the concept of the internet which are perceived as containers. the analysis of the particles in a constrained domain is only methodological, since it provides a unitary picture of the meaning of the particles by reducing the range of possible context in which they can be used. once the image-schema has been defined, it can be easily projected onto other specific actions or events in different contexts. as a matter of fact, the metaphors considered in this paper are not new ones, but mere specifications of some common metaphors we use everyday. according to lakoff (1993) it is possible to organize metaphors in different levels of abstraction. thus, the metaphor a hospital is a container belongs to the subordinate level of the more general metaphor buildings are containers. also, an illness is a container or a bad habit is a container derives from states are containers, and so on. the subordinate level of metaphors provides richer mental images than those at a more abstract level and this is the reason why it is easier to analyse the meaning of particles in reduced contexts. this paper has aimed at showing how metaphors can explain the meaning of the particles and how a unitary view of their meaning can account for a better knowledge of phrasal verbs in the chosen specific fields. however, further research related to other particles, other metaphors and, obviously other esp branches would be of great interest to this field. (revised paper received january 2008) m.d. porto requejo & c. pena díaz ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128126 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 126 references dr. mª dolores porto requejo received her phd from the universidad autónoma de madrid and has worked at the university of alcalá since 2000, where she teaches esp mostly (medical, legal and it english). her interest in the relationship between mind and language led her to the cognitive linguistics framework, especially to the processes of meaning construction and text interpretation. a cognitive approach to some phrasal verbs ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128 127 brugman, c. (1981). the story of “over”. m.a. thesis. berkeley: university of california. brugman, c. (1988). the story of “over”: polysemy, semantics and the structure of the lexicon. new york: garland. cuyckens, h. & g. radden (eds.) (2002). perspectives on prepositions. tübingen: niemeyer. cuyckens, h. 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(1993). “the contemporary theory of metaphor” in a. ortony (ed.), metaphor and thought, 202-251. cambridge: cambridge university press. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago: the university of chicago press. langacker, r. (1988). a view of linguistic semantics. in b. rudzka-ostyn (ed.), 49-90. lindner, s. (1982). “what goes up doesn’t necessarily come down: the ins and outs of opposite.” cls 8: 305-323. morgan, p. (1997). “figuring out figure out: metaphor and the semantics of the english verbparticle construction”. cognitive linguistics 8: 327-357. porto requejo, m.d. (2006). “making sense of prepositions in computer english” in m.c. pérez-llantada auría, r. plo alastrué & c.p. neumann (eds.), actas del v congreso internacional aelfe – proceedings of the 5th international aelfe conference, 727-732. zaragoza: prensas universitarias de zaragoza. pütz, m. & r. dirven (eds.) (1996). the construal of space in language and thought. berlin: mouton de gruyter. radden, g. (1989). figurative use of prepositions in r. dirven (ed.), a user’s grammar of english: word, sentence, text, interaction, 551-576. frankfurt: peter lang. rudzka-ostyn, b. (ed.) (1988). topics in cognitive linguistics. amsterdam: john benjamins. rudzka-ostyn, b. (2003). word power: phrasal verbs and compounds. a cognitive approach. berlin: mouton de gruyter. taylor, j.r. (1993). “prepositions: patterns of polysemization and strategies of disambiguation” in c. zelinsky-wibbelt (ed.), 151-175. tyler, a. & v. evans (2003). the semantics of english prepositions: spatial scenes, embodied meaning and cognition. cambridge: cambridge university press. tyler, a. & v. evans (2004). “applying cognitive linguistics to pedagogical grammar: the case of over” in m. achard & s. niemeier (eds.), cognitive linguistics, second language acquisition and foreign language teaching, 257-280. berlin: mouton de gruyter. vandeloise, c. (1994). “methodology and analyses of the preposition.” cognitive linguistics 5: 157-184. zelinsky-wibbelt, c. (ed.) (1993). the semantics of prepositions. from mental processing to natural language processing. berlin: mouton de gruyter. 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 127 dr. carmen pena díaz is an esp lecturer at the department of modern philology at alcalá de henares university (madrid, spain). she has previously taught at vigo university (spain) and at louisiana state university (usa). she obtained her phd at santiago de compostela university. her research areas include bilingualism and esp. notes 1 cognitive linguistics considers that polysemy is “the natural order of things” (langacker, 1988: 50; and also cuyckens, 2002: 257). 2 tyler and evans (2003) also argue that the proto-scenes for each spatial particle tend to represent the diachronically earliest uses of the lexical form. 3 it must be noted that cognitive linguistics does not distinguish between semantics and pragmatics since the meaning is considered extensively and everything that affects to the meaning construction is part of it. 4 for a full account of the human body as a container of emotions see kövecses (2000). 5 we follow the common convention of writing metaphors in small capitals. 6 the compounds appearing in this section, as well as most of the examples, have already been discussed in porto requejo (2006). 7 for tyler and evans (2003) the completion sense of “out” is motivated by the correlation in our experience between an entity leaving a container and the process of leaving being complete, and it is evidenced in the meaning of sentences like “this jacket needs to dry out before you wear it again” (tyler & evans, 2003: 204). 8 in rudzka-ostyn (2003) verbs like “figure out”, “carry out”, “work out”, etc. are motivated by the container metaphor in the sense that the state of non-existence or invisibility is a container and the particle “out” is used to express the fact that an object moves out of these states. similarly, in tyler and evans (2003) this use of the particle “out” is an example of the “knowing sense” of “out” –i.e., if something becomes visible it also becomes known, as in the sentence “we figured out the problem”. however, when analysed in the specific field of computer english the senses of “completion” and “getting a result” seem more plausible than just “becoming visible and known”, since there is a whole processing of the information before the results are visible/known. further research would be needed to see if these senses of phrasal verbs with “out” in computer english also work in the general uses of english. m.d. porto requejo & c. pena díaz ibérica 16 [2008]: 109-128128 06 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:37 página 128 ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196 abstract this metaphoric analysis of a quarter-million word corpus of an expert literature (conflict resolution and professional mediation) suggests certain implicit assumptions of the experts and gives us an alternate view of the structure of their thinking. seven highly conventional metaphors are repeatedly used to frame descriptions and explanations, making a complex subject matter more accessible to learners. they have been reported widely in other literatures and genres and are not particular to the field of expertise covered. these metaphors were found in some instances to oversimplify and mislead, mitigated to a degree when combinations of metaphors reconstituted some of the necessary complexity. the seven principal metaphor source domains found are containers, objects, terrain, seeing/viewing, moving, journeying, and structuring. evidence of frequent and diverse mappings argues that these are conceptual metaphors, revealing possible thinking patterns. the combining and alternating of metaphors in mutually complementary ways shows an interdependence among the seven metaphors. these naturally occurring conceptual groupings clarify and elaborate meaning in the texts in a way comparable to inheritance hierarchies. the discussion of the results focuses on ways these metaphors both help and hinder understanding of the field in question. key words: conceptual metaphor, expert literature, corpus analysis, conflict resolution and mediation. when experts educate, what do their metaphors say? complex metaphor structure in the professional conflict resolution literature thomas h. smith mediator in private practice, prague (czech republic) thsmith@concentric.net 175 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 175 resumen cuando los expertos educan, ¿ qué dicen sus metáforas? la estructura de las metáforas complejas en las publicaciones profesionales relativas a la resolución de conflictos el presente análisis del uso de la metáfora en un amplio corpus de literatura experta (la resolución de conflictos y la mediación profesional) sugiere que los expertos operan con ciertas presuposiciones implícitas y nos proporcionan otro punto de vista respecto de la estructura de su pensamiento. se utilizan reiteradamente siete metáforas muy convencionales para plasmar tanto descripciones como explicaciones, y estas metáforas facilitan la comprensión por parte de los no expertos. las metáforas utilizadas no son exclusivas al campo específico en cuestión. su uso puede a veces simplificar de manera excesiva e incluso confundir, pero otros factores del discurso en cuestión mitigan estos efectos negativos. la frecuencia de los dominios fuente (recipiente, objetos, terreno, vista, movimiento, viaje y estructura) apuntan a que se trata de metáforas conceptuales que ponen de manifiesto distintos modelos de pensamiento. el corpus muestra una interdependencia entre las siete metáforas y se evalúan las maneras en que facilitan u obstaculizan la comprensión. palabras clave: metáfora conceptual, literatura de expertos, análisis de corpus, resolución de conflictos y mediación. introduction an understanding of metaphor is especially important for the literature of a teaching-learning community where experts with extensive experience are imparting their understanding of a complex and abstractly structured subject to learners with less experience. such professional literature –here that of conflict resolution and mediation1– records the experts’ insights, theories, techniques and research so as to develop and refine practices and teach those who are moving forward in their careers. will the metaphors usefully frame the subject matter, contribute appropriately in explaining its complexity, support or undermine literal statements, enhance learning, oversimplify or mislead? conceptual metaphor theory (summarized by lakoff & johnson, 1999; kövecses, 2002) is used for theoretical guidance in uncovering the metaphors of this expert discourse. the target domain is the subject or topic being discussed, e.g., a workplace dispute. the source domain is the figurative vehicle, or core conceptual domain, from which new meaning is derived, e.g., thomas h. smith ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196176 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 176 a building in disrepair. applying the convention target domain is source domain to our example we have: an employment dispute is a building in disrepair, which means this workplace dispute is metaphorically understood as a building needing repair. a token or instance of linguistic metaphor (metaphoric linguistic expression) in the corpus (e.g., “cooperation was falling apart”) derived from the source domain is suggestive of a possible conceptual structure. finding numerous, differently worded tokens from the same source domain (e.g., “…doing the groundwork for the project”) extends this structure, increasing confidence that it is conceptual, not simply linguistic. this conceptual structure might be organized hierarchically (lakoff, 1993) where key concepts consist of multiple conceptual metaphors, in turn represented by tokens (charterisblack, 2004) or derive from scenarios, within which are conceptual clusters, in turn composed of tokens (musolff, 2004). the quantity and variety of tokens found that can be meaningfully grouped into identifiable source domains (cameron, 2003) will constitute evidence of metaphors that not only structure authors’ language but also their thoughts. the goal here is to document the conceptual metaphors repeatedly used to describe and explain the target domain –conflict and its resolution– and thereby enhance our understanding of what these particular experts are thinking and saying, discover possible internal inconsistencies, and ask the questions that should lead to better understanding. description of the study method a corpus of approximately 257,000 words was formed from 34 texts representative of north american mediation experts, chosen per bibliographies and supplemented by nominations solicited from seven authorities in the field. the texts include sections of books of single authorship, articles in edited volumes, professional journals and online resources. selections focus on definitions of “conflict” and “methods and tasks of the mediator” for the purpose of sharing best practices among experts and between experts and informed laypeople (see appendix). the corpus was read beginning to end by the author (who is familiar with such material) so as to: (1) track literal statements and main principles, and when experts educate ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196 177 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 177 (2) manually find and record the major metaphors by identifying figuratively used words or groups of words, the strictly literal meaning of which is incongruous or outside of the given context of the target domain (charterisblack, 2004; pragglejaz group, 2007). software for building concordances2 was then applied to the results of (2) to search for words and combinations of words representing major metaphors, to verify which instances were actually metaphorical, and to extract examples. results results following the overview are compressed into descriptions that feature illustrative examples, typical words or phrases from the corpus (between quotes) with metaphoric words italicized. the number of sub-mappings for each conceptual metaphor group and the diversity of examples for each give evidence of their conceptual nature. overview while a large variety of different metaphors were found in the corpus, only those documented throughout this paper appear repeatedly. these are found in seven conceptual groups (see figure 1) and are described in terms of the constituent sub-domain mappings of each. thomas h. smith ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196178 figure 1. conceptual metaphors in conflict resolution and mediation. 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 178 container metaphors throughout the corpus, the metaphoric understanding that conflict itself is a container is illustrated in expressions such as how we “get into conflict” and want to “extricate” ourselves from it; this corresponds to the conventional metaphor difficulties are containers documented elsewhere (lakoff, 1994). part of our conventional knowledge of the source domain of container is that it includes surfaces –sides, walls or membranes that keep some things in and others out. boundaries may be transparent, porous, opaque, sealed or partially open. opening and closure are implicit. objects or substances that move in or out, get stuck, spill, may go in one opening and out another, or may be prodded or dug out. containers have depth and what is deep inside is harder to see than what is accessible at the surface. a simple word or phrase evokes a “container” domain fully pre-structured with these elements, relations and logic that, in turn, are mapped back on the subject being discussed. a thorough search of the corpus for sub-domain mappings of container revealed the following as conceptual in nature: conflict is a container: “the amount of emotional energy he or she continues to put into the conflict” which is “deep”, and into which one may “inject reality;” “closure prematurely” can inhibit being “more open” later on. the resolution of a conflict is a container: “proposals that contain a variety of solutions to satisfy another’s interests” leave “room for movement”. disputants are containers: “the stepmother (…) was unable to contain herself ” may be understood metaphorically to mean feelings, thoughts and needs are inside her; the container walls are perhaps “hiding interests”. mediators “mine” what is “below the surface” and this “opens the way to a solution”. the corpus material further suggests these containers have space where one might see oneself and a revised view of the other. mediation is a container: “developing room within which to negotiate”. this sub-mapping benefits from the literal entailment of a physical room in which mediation takes place, extending it metaphorically to mental “space” for working on the conflict, and to develop a “safe and respectful atmosphere” in which there might be sufficient “bargaining range”. interestingly, the container qualities projected on disputants are when experts educate ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196 179 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 179 generally restrictive, while those projected on mediation seem more liberating. how does it help us to understand the mediation process in “container” terms? to some degree the metaphoric containers are one within another –containers within containers– attracting our attention in turn or simultaneously. they correspond to concepts and categories used to describe and think about conflict and the mediation process. the name of a concept (e.g., “bargaining space”) is a container and its contents (e.g., money, fairness, needs, rights) are the attributes of that concept. the metaphor organizes qualitatively different aspects of the subject material into more universally understood entities in space. note the experts’ literal use of the concept of container and observe how they adapt it for dual literal and metaphoric use, finally making it entirely metaphorical. the corpus gives frequent examples where the expert mediators speak literally about the mediation venue, sometimes referring to its furnishings, physical arrangements, and then metaphorically (as shown above) about its “atmosphere”. “room within which to negotiate” is literally the physical space, just as “bargaining range” is quantity of money; metaphorically they are “the boundaries of the discussion” within which “uncertainty exists” leaving “room for movement”, that is, mental space to think about and make settlement offers. with such extensions of the container metaphor the experts oversimplify, provisionally allowing apprentice mediators to live by this metaphor long enough to gain real-life conflict resolution experience. other metaphors will necessarily be introduced, as we shall see below, but keeping the terms of the container metaphor close at hand can afford thematic continuity. objects metaphors containers entail material contents or objects. these objects may be hard or soft, dense or light, slippery or sticky and substances not easily moved. our everyday experience tells us objects can be seen or otherwise separately sensed. these source domain features promote the conceptualization that whatever we understand to be objects are separable, handleable, manipulable with tools. we can observe, classify, count, and measure them, move and even reshape them to fit together, and choose which ones to use in thomas h. smith ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196180 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 180 constructing something. the four sub-domains of the objects metaphor and their mappings illustrate this: processes are objects: mediators use “a ‘tool box’ of techniques” to assure “option-generation” that produces “the contents of an acceptable solution” depending on what a conflict “consists of”. these metaphors are found in the discussions of conflict resolution processes, which in fact are dynamic, interdependent sequences. by using objects metaphors these processes are conceptualized as objects –independent and readily separable. complex information and emotion are separate, sortable objects: “a mediator can separate the people from the problem” including “factual and emotional information (…) sorted and organized” that “separate inventing from decision-making” and “compromise among conflicting needs”. parts of a conflict are manipulable objects in the hand: “…give him a freer hand in the negotiation” to maneuver “goals and interests (…) in the situation at hand”, and also “pass on (…) ideas and strategies”. the processes are objects metaphor identified above resembles what halliday (1985) and others call grammatical metaphors (summarized by plementitaš, 1998) –when verb phrases describing processes become transformed into nouns or noun-like phrases. with this “objectification”, rather than narrating how various processes interact, experts may simply list the processes as nouns (or objects). dynamic processes then take on attributes of static objects. fewer words are needed which aids memory; events are seemingly disentangled into discrete, additive components, no longer interdependent, but readily reconfigured, deleted, or substituted. metaphors of containers and objects (for example, emotions are put in containers separately from facts) operate in parallel to make a complex process seem simpler. but this inadvertent stripping out of complexity could be harmfully misleading. the following section reports metaphors that (intentionally or not) restore key distinctions using relative locations, connections, and links, reconstituting key dynamics that make a process work. when experts educate ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196 181 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 181 terrain metaphors terrains and landscapes have properties additional to the spatial aspects of containers, such as (starting) points and locations, directions, destinations, gradients, paths and relative distances between locations. objects are often in motion, requiring a gradated space to locate positions and measure distances. the sub-domain mappings of terrain can do this, starting to reconstitute the relationships in a complex process not provided by container and objects alone. conflict is a terrain: “parties (…) have reached a field in which any settlement is preferable”, “the mediator who is familiar with the rugged terrain (…) accompanying parties through their conflict” to “a field of options”. mediation is a terrain: “mediators carry an internal ‘map’ that gives them a sense of familiarity with the general terrain” revealing the line connecting their “positions” and “at this point participants have to decide”. terrain metaphors explain the relative positions of needs, feelings, and arguments, and how close disputants might be to settlement. the above examples of terrain locate conflicting positions and underlying needs in two or three dimensions, refer to their relative proximity, and conceive estimates and comparisons of spatial differences. a chief implication of “terrain” is that it can be mapped. experts in this corpus frequently use maps and mapping to speak of how people think. but any map user will know how maps mislead in numerous ways, being based on assumptions such as a fixed point of view, collapsing of multiple dimensions, and a consistent metric. to project land maps to the idea of maps of knowledge requires more. the notions of direction and relative distance, just found in terrain, could be extended using the enhancements of real cartographers, such as topological representations to extend the idea of distance from two to three dimensions, map overlays showing additional dimensions to project multiple attributes of locations and possible obstacles, and contours that depict paths of greater or less resistance. but resolving a conflict necessitates finding things that have so far not been apparent and other metaphors are needed to describe and explain how this “finding” is done. thomas h. smith ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196182 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 182 metaphors of seeing, viewing and searching a dominant way of experiencing terrain is with the sense of vision –an extremely rich and widely used source domain. the conventional metaphor knowing is seeing (lakoff & johnson, 1999) is exemplified in ubiquitous substitutions of “see” for “know” or “understand” in common parlance. seeing entails integral factors that build upon containers, objects and terrain already discussed. the metaphors from this corpus suggest variations on the conventional metaphor knowing is seeing, namely, thinking is viewing, thinking about something is viewing something, and learning is visually searching. we view movement and action before us. when we are in motion the process is extended as we view stationary objects sequentially. strung together, these make the visual experience of objects in space a metaphoric vehicle for mental or imaginary activity. the physical act of seeing composes sequential fields of vision (terrains) using orientation, focus, angle, frame, approach, point of view, and clarity of view, to provide a metaphorical understanding of thinking. here the sub-domain mappings found in the present corpus extend and elaborate the thinking is viewing metaphors just proposed. thinking in a certain way is viewing from a certain point, approach or orientation: “it is ultimately the reality as each side sees it that constitutes the problem in a negotiation”. people, when unchanging in their thinking are said to be fixed in their “point of view”. this implies distinct locations “from” which they “approach” issues, “superficially or in great depth”, whether “illuminated”, “clear”, and “in full view”, or “hidden (…) disguised”. points in thinking are points focused upon; scope of thinking is scope of vision: “define the scope of the problem” and then “focusing on the issues”, “concentrate on” what “served as the focal point”, “helping the parties notice” what is useful in resolving conflict. resolving conflict is changing orientation: “disputants have to alter their approach to the conflict” by choosing “where you sit”, stepping “in their shoes”, looking through different “lenses”. to see a conflict differently is to “frame each issue” differently, to “look behind opposed when experts educate ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196 183 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 183 positions”, “under those feelings”, “beyond” the dispute”, “where you would like to go rather than about where you have come from”. resolving conflict is searching: the “mediator is (…) helping parties search for an outcome” in “a field full of opportunities”, having “found” where a “creative or healing solution” exits. thinking is believed to be central to conflict, and changed thinking leads to resolution of conflict (gelfand & mccusker, 2001). but expert mediators, like most people, conceive of thinking metaphorically as seeing, as described above. mediators encourage disputants to search the terrain of the conflict, which sometimes is also suggested to be the terrain of the resolution, to find the proper combination of disputants’ needs, interests, options, and opportunities. new or changed thinking that might resolve conflict is metaphorically understood as searching, clearing, clarifying vision. the corpus contains literal descriptions of how disputants are asked to turn from facing each other, re-seat themselves side by side and look forward to the table where related documents lay, an easel or writing board with notes –which stand both literally and figuratively for their dispute: “he could not force sharon to ‘face reality’ (…) but he could help her to look at their options”. the disputants may literally attend to these but, equally important, they gaze at the open space and bare surfaces in front of them where thoughts might metaphorically be projected, ideas formed and solutions explored. rather than focusing on each other, they now turn to the terrain as a workspace where things can be located and constructed. vision can be combined with terrain to locate conflict and solutions in a bounded space, making a metaphorical map of what is thought. for example, vision and terrain together allow one to adjust focus on different points, metaphorically to change one’s thinking. these metaphors gain additional explanatory power when linked to metaphors of bodily movement. metaphors of moving expert mediators in this corpus repeatedly refer to conflict and conflict resolution as involving movement of needs, interests, emotions, thoughts, histories, behaviors, procedures, mediators and the disputants themselves –all metaphorically understood as objects (see above). the generic name thomas h. smith ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196184 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 184 for this metaphor might be conflict is objects moving in opposition to each other, or experience is movement and experience of conflict is objects moving in opposition: “disagreements arise out of clashing assumptions”, “divergent” objects that “oppose” or “block” one another. conflictual emotion is discussed as a hot, pressurized substance contained within an individual. it “fuels conflict”, “spilling over” so as to “permeate” issues, requiring care to “express and release” or to “let an emotion out”. conflictual thought is talked about as largely unmoving, contained as “rigid”, “entrenched perceptions”, “deeply held beliefs”, that disputants “cling to” so as not “to upset their sense of themselves and their world”. conflictual behavior moves so as to be “directed against” others and create “impasses”, or it goes to “the brink”, necessitating a “shift” or “moving away” from difficulties “toward the new”. it must be “moved into an acceptable range” or “the boundaries within which” agreements may occur. if conflict is emotions, thoughts and behavior, all of which are metaphorically understood as objects in oppositional motion, then mediation is the process of altering this motion. a generic metaphor typically organizes our understanding of such processes: an agent exerts some degree of force to move an affected entity (described by lakoff & johnson (1999) as the “event structure metaphor”). in turn, this gives rise to the overall metaphor cause is movement, for which a number of sub-domain mappings found in this corpus are now described. interests are forces (strong interests are strong forces): the term “interest” is very frequently used in the expert literature on mediation. its meaning is specialized, referring to what disputants truly want, compared with their demands or positions. one of many examples in this corpus is “interests motivate people; they are the silent movers behind the hubbub of positions. your position is something you have decided upon. your interests are what caused you to so decide”. needs are forces moving objects in a deep container: another very popular term in this corpus, “needs”, is defined as “deeper levels of interests”, “concerns which motivate all people”. as with “interests”, “needs” refer literally to complex and dynamic social psychological and perhaps neurophysiological processes but are metaphorically understood as physical objects in motion. most often needs are depicted as something located or contained at some depth: “needs when experts educate ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196 185 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 185 should be discussed at a deep enough level that the real forces driving the conflict can be addressed”. mediators are forces that move things: mediators, very prevalently in this literature, “move them [disputants] toward an option that might meet more of their interests”, “move the resolution process forward”, “through a difficult conflict process” at “whatever pace the parties set”, “shifting” as necessary “to help parties to progress” despite “what is blocking people from moving forward”. degrees of force are implied when the mediator uses “persistent prodding”, “probing”, a “nudge” or “push”, sometimes “pressing them hard”, “banging their heads together or twisting their arms”. yet with this proviso: “true change cannot be forced, so the mediator will only support the parties’ efforts and help open doors for them …”. disputants are forces that move things: as negotiators they “move beyond old ways”, “forward”, yet with “cycles of moving toward and away from agreements as parties wrestle with feelings”. by using so many metaphors of movement, conflict resolution experts are describing (in addition to their more literal statements) the diversity of “movers” –emotions, interests, needs, mediators, and the disputants, themselves– and how some movements are conceived as manifestations of conflict and others as agents of conflict resolution. the patterns of movement may seem confusing, for example, when the affected entity –the object moved– later becomes the agent or mover. but this is also realistic because conflict is a dynamical process (coleman et al., 2006) in which results of action at one moment become the cause of action later. how do mediators “move” in such a way as to resolve conflict? this literature instructs mediators literally not to direct or compel the terms of dispute settlement. the experts make literal statements to the effect that settlement terms are to be voluntarily determined by the disputants themselves, and later employ conceptual metaphors such as needs are forces moving objects in a deep container and disputants are forces that move things. experienced mediators, nonetheless, know they can influence whether settlement is achieved and on what terms. this is evident in the broad use of metaphors found in the corpus, such as mediators are forces that move things. despite literal descriptions purporting subtle, facilitative actions and the importance of disputants’ self-motivation, the potent bodily movement metaphors occur repeatedly and imply the use of greater thomas h. smith ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196186 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 186 strength. these conceptual metaphors may well persuade readers that mediation should be more directive than literally stated. moving, combined with terrain and seeing, form a kind of mental space or territory where retrospective and prospective action can be conceived. needs and interests are metaphorically understood as moving, and thus changing, a disputant’s position in a conflict. issues and attitudes move disputants to positions or through impasses, while mediators move disputants through the conflict resolution process to options and alternatives. these locations are seldom very specifically pinpointed on the metaphoric terrain of the conflict resolution task. perhaps, then, the terrain is not specifically enough defined, in combination with the metaphors of moving, to produce a description of the results of such movement. moving includes an implicit pattern of starting from an initial location, proceeding along a path, and heading for a destination. this has been referred to in the literature of conceptual metaphor as a source-path-goal schema (lakoff & johnson, 1999). we shall now see how journey metaphors potentially give this schema enough specificity to conceive action fully. metaphors of journeying the “event structure metaphor” already mentioned (lakoff & johnson, 1999) can reveal important elements in the discourse studied here. this skeletal structure, abstracted from universal experience of bodily movement, is key to conventional understanding of causality (lakoff & johnson, 1999; gibbs, 2006) and forms the basis of a journey. starting and continuing step-by-step on a path involves intermediate, mappable locations in some known proximity to each other, progressing to a destination or goal at the end. obstacles or divergences from this route mean difficulty in reaching the destination. such “common sense” gives an implicit inference structure to journey and prompts us to expect its constituent elements. mediators or disputants invoke journey whenever they discuss where they have been, what they seek, extreme positions taken, various ways to reach their objectives, the lengths they must go, and the like. review of the text examples cited above regarding object, container, viewing, terrain and moving reveals elements of a journey; it largely “sums up” the others. the story of a conflict or an when experts educate ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196 187 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 187 account of the mediation process can readily be understood metaphorically as a journey, as shown by the mappings below. mediation is a guided journey of discovery: as a special case of journeying, this self-propelled process emphasizes “exploring” paths to take; “mediation enables parties to move in one direction for awhile, then backtrack and retrace their steps, reconsider where they see themselves heading and then move forward again in a slightly different (…) direction”. “mediators (…), following the parties as they move through their conflict journey”, “guided the process”, “telling them what to look out for”, “what that route looks like”. more directive mediators “whose mission is arriving at a settlement” make sure that the “negotiations are plotted”, producing “a conceptual road map” that narrows the “discovering” of a destination. mediation is finding, following a path: a dilemma for inexperienced mediators and for disputants, given that each conflict requires its own path to resolution, is “looking for the right path”, “taking those steps”, “working through” to the “constructive path”. other paths can be “dead ends”, “may produce deadlock” so it is important not to have “traveled so far down” the wrong one that it is impossible to “reverse to another path”, or “broaden one’s focus”, to “steer” disputants “toward the wide (…) world”. surmounting difficulties in mediation is bypassing obstacles: what if there is a “setback in their progress?” “the art of dealing with conflict often lies in finding the narrow path between” obstacles or evading a “roadblock in the path of the parties as they struggle to (…) move on”. this includes what “helps the parties get past the emotion of the dispute”. “many (…) lurch from impasse to impasse, and few (…) follow a straightforward path to resolution”, “paths are opened” then “become narrower (…) without such narrowing, closure is very difficult”. quitting mediation is abandoning the search: despite such trials on the journey, mediators “need to… not abandon it when the going gets tough”. should they, “to achieve a settlement”, “abandon the search for [selfdirected] resolution and pursue” a more legalistic approach (e.g., modeled on court procedures) the journey is no longer one of discovery, but of travel to a pre-determined end. one begins the metaphoric conflict resolution journey with a dispute and ends at a resolution or a place affording a different perspective. disputants more or less actively choose their route and take multiple steps, not getting very far without maneuvering around impasses or finding alternative thomas h. smith ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196188 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 188 pathways. a mediator can serve as a guide who frequently travels similar routes and can offer help along the way, but does not make the trip for the travelers. or, the mediator may actually draw the map and then pull or push the disputants along the selected route. metaphors of structuring we have seen that terrain metaphors imply a journey covering the figurative territory of conflict and that of the mediation process. the mental terrain can be established as a virtual map. vision provides various ways to conceive the terrain that is traveled. moving portrays the contents of the conflict terrain as objects in contrary motion, and searching among these objects entails the motive force of disputants, mediators and their attitudes. in the text examples of journey just given above, we find more specificity regarding starting point, relationship of intervening locations, short and long-term destinations chosen, obstacles on the path, and the guide’s (mediator’s) role. a path is not a straight trajectory but the back-andforth of discovery so important to the conflict resolution experts of this corpus. now we find metaphors of structuring that describe the results at the end of the journey. building on all of the other metaphors, structuring as used by these experts significantly reconstitutes the meaning of their discourse that the earlier metaphors, if used alone, would abridge and fragment. resolution of conflict is selecting, assembling pieces: not only must disputants and mediators “collect relevant information” but “pick the one or two items… of greatest importance” that might be “assembled” to form a resolution of the conflict. successful agreement depends on proper assembly of pieces, “integrating these approaches” so “they are parallel (…) and mutually reinforcing”. enduring agreement is building on a good foundation: one must “begin with the underlying basis” that is “central to the mediation” so as to “lay the groundwork”, “lay a foundation of agreed-upon facts upon which a principled solution can be built”. enduring agreement is physical solidity: to “construct” “the strongest agreement possible”, a “solid (…) fundamentally sound agreement”, one must “be firm; be principled yet flexible”. for this the process itself must be properly assembled –with mediators “matching their ‘style’ to the parties’ when experts educate ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196 189 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 189 needs” and “fitting the forum to the fuss” so that a proposal “fits their own needs”, “dovetailing” to create a solid joining to “bedrock concerns” on “cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions [that will] reinforce one another”. this is accomplished through proper “conflict resolution design”, a “conceptual plan” using “building blocks” and attending to “the form of settlement options (…) while tailoring it to their (…) needs” so that all elements are sturdily integrated. building construction and architecture are the source domains for these structuring metaphors –physical activities using mechanical principles–and they are projected onto target domains of mental and verbal activities that the experts are explaining. found here are several entailments of structuring, including planning and design, building standards, matching, measuring, fitting pieces together to build solidly on a strong foundation. discussion evidence is presented of conceptual metaphors in a particular field of expert literature. these are not metaphors introduced for occasional heuristic or ornamental purposes but are salient in the experts’ cognitions by virtue of their frequency and diversity. seven conceptual groups were found, each with two to five sub-domains which, in turn, contained numerous instances or tokens. the metaphors appear repeatedly and systematically throughout the texts and project the conventionally understood, concrete, physical qualities of containers, objects, traveling, building construction, and so forth onto the target domains of central interest to the experts. these target domains (conflict and mediation) are in fact very complex and probably operate literally according to principles of neuroscience, psychology and sociology –disciplines not necessarily well known to readers of these texts. the wide scope (kövecses, 2002; semino, 2005) of the metaphors found, in that they are used for a variety of target domains, means they are well known to almost everyone as evidenced by the wide range of english language discourse in which they occur (lakoff & johnson, 1999; kövecses, 2002; cameron, 2003; charteris-black, 2004; musolff, 2004; richardt, 2005; semino, 2005). these common, easily understood metaphors simplify the target domain –the subject matter to be learned from the expert literature– making it more accessible to learners and promoting thomas h. smith ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196190 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 190 understanding of complex processes they have yet to experience fully themselves. the metaphors are not put forth by the experts as pedagogical or theoryconstituent metaphors (sticht, 1993; steinhart, 2001). nevertheless as learners increasingly participate, putting the terminology and associated ideas to practical use, vocabulary, including the metaphors, would be expected to influence their thinking and help manage the differences between what the experts are explaining and what the learners comprehend (cameron, 2003). however, while facilitating learning, it was noted that some of the metaphor applications reported here are oversimplifications, such as when complex, interdependent processes are metaphorically depicted as unconnected objects. this is misleading, contradictory (musolff, 2004), and can put learners in the epistemic quandary of taking the figurative as literal (sundlöf et al., 2003). presumably the experts themselves would neither claim to believe their metaphors literally nor necessarily subscribe to their implicit assumptions and inference patterns (lakoff & johnson, 1999). yet they may actually think along these simplified lines to the extent they use the metaphors unconsciously. dual literal and metaphoric use of certain terms could compound this. we have seen, for example, how the room in which the target activity (mediation) literally takes place is juxtaposed with psychological space, becoming metaphorically a negotiation “space” with “bargaining range”. literal entailments can heighten saliency of figurative meanings, blurring source and target domain boundaries, making a metaphor seem more natural and its figurative entailments more certain (semino, 2006). however, this study has also reported observations of metaphor that seem to counteract fragmentation, oversimplification, and confusion. rather than depending on inheritance hierarchies (lakoff, 1993) they are structurally interdependent, creating coherent meaning through complimentary interaction. illustrations given earlier show how certain metaphors join together, such as moving and terrain, to summarize multifaceted concepts, provide global coherence (kupferberg & green, 2005) and restore complexity. while experts normally combine and alternate these metaphors naturally and without calculation, conceivably they could enhance their discourse by doing so deliberately, just as metaphors can be extended to beneficial effect (lakoff when experts educate ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196 191 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 191 & turner, 1989; müller, 2005) to project clearer and more accurate conceptualization of target material (smith, 2005). such enrichment of the resulting terminology would be passed on to learners, affording them expanded ways to participate and contribute. this suggests that authors of professional texts such as those studied here would benefit by taking conceptual metaphor consciously into account (charteris-black, 2004), deploying metaphors separately and in combination to better enable learners to comprehend their professional subject matter. examples were given earlier showing how terrain metaphors might be extended using actual cartographic enhancements such as topology and overlays. further extensions are possible by combining vision plus terrain to suggest the metaphorical idea of focus that is adjustable to suit changing distances, spaces, and locations. the metaphor-aware expert could compensate for over-simplifications and distortions while further exploiting metaphoric potency to extend discussions, perhaps making deliberate use of the entire network of the seven interrelated conceptual metaphor clusters found here. (revised paper received october 2008) references thomas h. smith ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196192 cameron, l. (2003). metaphor in educational discourse. london: continuum. charteris-black, j. (2004). corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. new york: palgrave macmillan. coleman, p.t., l. bui-wrzosinska, r.r. vallacher & a. nowak (2006). “protracted conflicts as dynamical systems” in a.k. schneider & c. honeyman (eds.), the negotiator’s fieldbook: the desk reference for the experienced negotiator, 6174. chicago: american bar association books. gelfand, m.j. & c. mccusker (2001). “metaphor and the cultural construction of negotiation: a paradigm for theory and practice” in m. gannon & k.l. newman (eds.), handbook of crosscultural management, 292-314. new york: blackwell publishers. gibbs, r.w. (2006). embodiment and cognitive science. cambridge: cambridge university press. halliday, m.a.k. (1985). an introduction to functional grammar. london: edward arnold. kövecses, z. (2002). metaphor: a practical introduction. new york: oxford university press. kupferberg, i. & d. green (2005). troubled talk: metaphorical negotiation in problem discourse. new york: mouton de gruyter. lakoff, g. (1993). “contemporary theory of metaphor” in a. ortony (ed.), 202-251. lakoff, g. (1994) “conceptual metaphor home page”. url: http://cogsci.berkeley.edu/lakoff/ [03/03/08]. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1999). philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. new york: basic books. lakoff, g. & m. turner (1989). more than cool reason: a field guide to poetic metaphor. chicago: university of chicago press. müller, r. (2005). “creative metaphors in political discourse”. url: http://metaphorik.de [24/04/2006]. musolff, a. (2004). metaphor and political discourse: analogi11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 192 cal reasoning in debates about europe. new york: palgrave macmillan. ortony, a. (ed.) (1993). metaphor and thought (2nd ed.). new york: cambridge university press. plementitaš, k. (1998). “the role of grammatical metaphor in certain types of discourse in english and slovene” in j. ciglar żanić, d. kalogiara & j. jemeršić (eds.), british cultural studies: cross cultural challenges: conference proceedings, 183-187. zagreb: british council. pragglejaz group (2007). “mip: a method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse”. metaphor and symbol 22: 1-39. richardt, s. (2005). metaphor in languages for special purposes. frankfurt am main: peter lang. semino, e. (2005) “the metaphorical construction of complex domains: the case of speech activity in english”. metaphor and symbol 20: 3570. semino, e. (2006). “topic triggered metaphors in political discourse”. paper presented at researching and applying metaphor vi, university of leeds, 10-23 april 2006. smith, t.h. (2005). “metaphors for navigating negotiations”. negotiation journal 21: 343-364. steinhart, e. (2001). the logic of metaphor analogous parts of possible words. (synthese library, volume 299). dordrecht: kluwer academic publishers. sticht, t.g. (1993). “educational uses of metaphor” in a. ortony (ed.), 621-632. sundlöf, a., a. carstensen, l. tibell & j. bernhard (2003). “real models in modelled reality: epistemic confusion when communicating science?” paper submitted to the european science education research association conference, august 2003, url: http://www.isv.liu.se/content/1/c 6/04/61/75/1_esera%202003%20slutversion.d oc [01/07/2007]. when experts educate ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196 193 dr. thomas h. smith’s research interests are metaphor in live dialog, corpus analysis, conscious awareness of conceptual metaphor, and strategies for effective metaphor use in learning situations. he is in private practice as a mediator of family conflicts in prague, and has trained mediators, educators and therapists in several countries on the use of metaphor. notes 1 first professionalized in north america, the practices of mediation and negotiation to resolve conflict are now widely studied and applied in such areas as business, politics, government, community, and family relations. negotiation is when parties or disputants deliberately communicate in order to resolve a conflict mutually. mediation occurs when a neutral third party facilitates the negotiation process. 2 “concordance” version 3.2, r.j.c. watt. appendix corpus sources no. of pages (words ) alfini, j.j. (1997). evaluative versus facilitative mediation: a discussion. url: www.law.fsu.edu/journals/lawreview/frames/244/alfitxt.html 14 (7,283 ) beal, s. & j.a. saul (2001). “examining assumptions: training mediators for transformative practice” in j.p. folger & r.a.b. bush (eds.), designing mediation, 9-19. new york: institute for the study of conflict transformation. 11 (4,421) 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 193 thomas h. smith ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196194 bickerman, j. (1996). “evaluative mediator responds”. alternatives (cpr institute for dispute resolution). (14)70. 1 (429) brown, c.j. (undated, retrieved 2003). facilitative mediation: the classic approach retains its appeal. url: www.mediate.com/articles/brownc.cfm 2 (1,007) burgess, h. & g. burgess (1996). “constructive confrontation: a transformative approach to intractable conflicts”. mediation quarterly 13: 305-322. 18 (7,728) burgess, h., g. burgess, t. glaser & m. yevsyukova (1997). transformative approaches to conflict. url: www.colorado.edu/conflict/transform/index.html 3 (1,025) bush, r.a.b. & r. folger (1994). the promise of mediation: responding to conflict through empowerment and recognition. san francisco: jossey-bass. [pages 81-112 & 191-208]. 48 (15,710) chasin, r., herzig, m. roth, s., chasin, l., becker, c & stains, r. r. jr. (1996) from diatribe to dialogue on divisive public issues: approaches drawn from family therapy. mediation quarterly, (13)4, pp. 323-344. 22 (9,575) currie, c.m. (2001). transformation to what? url: mediate.com/articles/currie2.cfm 2 (855) della noce, d.j. (2002). “in pursuit of theoretical clarity”. family mediation news, spring 2002: 8-9 & 11. 2 (1,449) della noce, d.j., r.a.b. bush & j.p. folger (2001). “myths and misconceptions about the transformative orientation” in j.p. folger & r.a.b. bush (eds.), designing mediation, 50-54. new york: institute for the study of conflict transformation. 5 (1,822) fisher, r., w. ury & b. patton (1991). getting to yes: negotiating agreement without giving in. new york: penguin books [pages 3-143]. 141 (41,452) folger, j.p. & r.a.b. bush (2001). “transformative mediation and third party intervention: ten hallmarks of transformative mediation practice” in j.p. folger & r.a.b. bush (eds.), designing mediation. new york: institute for the study of conflict transformation. [originally published in mediation quarterly 13: 20-36] 17 (7,291) folger, j.p. (2001). “who owns what in mediation?” in j.p. folger & r.a.b. bush (eds.), designing mediation, 55-60. new york: institute for the study of conflict transformation. 6 (2,155) grillo, t. (1996). “respecting the struggle: following the parties’ lead”. mediation quarterly 13: 279-286. 9 (3,709) grocock, m. (undated, retrieved 2003). feedback from the mediation customer. url: www.uww-adr.com/newsletter/newsletter.asp?content_id=2&body=3 2 (788) heyman mediation & facilitation (undated, retrieved 2003). what are the different kinds of mediation? url: www.mediate-facilitate.com/services-mediation2.html 2 (409) hoffman, d.a. (1999). “confessions of a problem solving mediator”. spidr news, (23)3. 2 (1,904) jams, the resolution experts, website: defining the adr spectrum alternative dispute resolution. url: www.jamsadr.com/defining_adr.asp 6 (1,565) kovach, k.k. & l.p. love (1996). “evaluative mediation is an oxymoron”. alternatives (cpr institute for dispute resolution) (14)31. 3 (1,231) kovach, k.k. (2000). mediation: principles and practice (2nd ed.). st. paul: west group. [pages 2-4, 10-15 & 148-161]. 23 (9,072) lande, j. (1998). “how will lawyering and mediation practices transform each other?” alternatives, january 1998. also url: www.mediate.com/articles/lande.cfm. 4 (1,533) levin, m.s. (2001). “the propriety of evaluative mediation: concerns about the nature and quality of an evaluative opinion”. ohio state journal of dispute resolution 16: 267296. 30 (10,326) love, l.p. & j.b. boskey (1997). should mediators evaluate? a debate. url: www.cardozo.yu.edu/cojcr/final_site/articles_notes/vol1_an/boskey_love.htm 14 (9,227) mayer, b. (2000). the dynamics of conflict resolution: a practitioners guide. san francisco: jossey-bass [pages 3-25, 97-118, 140-167 & 168-213] 117 (43,575) 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 194 when experts educate ibérica 17 [2009]: 175-196 195 meierding, n. (2002). “we are all evaluative mediators”. family mediation news, winter 2002, page 10. 1 (578) moore, c.w. (1996). the mediation process: practical strategies for resolving conflict (2nd ed.). san francisco: jossey-bass [pages 14-20, 41-77 & 193-279] 129 (43,434) pitts, d., y. moon & l.b. bingham (2002). individualism, collectivism, & transformative mediation. prepared for submission to the 15th annual conference of the international association for conflict management, june 9-12, salt lake city, utah, [excerpts only]. url: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=305165#paper%20download 1 (297) pope, s.g. & r.a.b. bush (2001). “understanding conflict and human capacity” in j.p. folger & r.a.b. bush (eds.), designing mediation, 61-67. new york: institute for the study of conflict transformation. 7 (2,732) pope, s.g. (1996). “inviting fortuitous events in mediation: the role of empowerment and recognition”. mediation quarterly 13: 287-294. 8 (3,578) riskin l.l. (1996). “understanding mediators’ orientations, strategies, and techniques: a grid for the perplexed”. harvard negotiation law review 1: 7-51. 43 (14,939) rothman, j. (1996). “reflexive dialogue as transformation”. mediation quarterly 13: 345352. 8 (3,334) yorsz, s. (undated, retrieved 2003). a mediator’s style can make a difference in the result of your mediation. url: www.bipc.com/articles-f-m/mediatorstyle.htm 3 (1,216) zumeta, z.d. (undated, retrieved 2003). styles of mediation: facilitative, evaluative, and transformative mediation. url: www.dcba.org/brief/sepissue/1998/art20998.htm 3 (1,456) total = no of pages (words) 707 (257,105) 11 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:52 página 195 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128 issn 1139-7241 abstract this article discusses the development of specialised lexicography during the past twenty years. it first looks at the practical products published in this period and indicates that although the number of specialised dictionaries, encyclopaedias and other lexicographical works have never been bigger, there is no noteworthy development in terms of quality; to this should be added that this branch of lexicography has only to a limited degree exploited the possibilities created by the new electronic media, especially the internet. the article then comments on the theoretical development of specialised lexicography in the period in question. although some positive steps have been taken, it points to an astonishing lack of interest in this type of theoretical work, a fact expressed in the relatively reduced number of publications that does not correspond to the growing flow of practical works published in the same period. finally, the article mentions some of the possible reasons for this lack of interest in theory as well as the challenges in head of specialised lexicography in this respect. keywords: specialised lexicography, specialised dictionaries, online dictionaries, information tools, function theory. resumen lexicografía especializada: 20 años a cámara lenta en el presente trabajo se estudia la evolución de la lexicografía especializada durante los últimos veinte años. en primer lugar se analizan los materiales prácticos publicados a lo largo de este periodo y se señala que si bien el número de diccionarios, enciclopedias y demás trabajos lexicográficos de índole especializada nunca ha sido mayor, el desarrollo alcanzado desde el punto de vista de la calidad no ha sido sobresaliente. a esto habría que añadirse que esta specialised lexicography: 20 years in slow motion sven tarp university of stellenbosch (south africa) & university of aarhus (denmark) st@asb.dk 117 ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128 sven tarp rama de la lexicografía ha sacado muy poco partido a las posibilidades que ofrecen los nuevos medios electrónicos, y especialmente internet. seguidamente se estudian desde una perspectiva teórica los avances de la lexicografía durante este periodo y se señala que, a pesar de haberse alcanzado ciertos logros, se hace muy patente el desinterés en los trabajos de naturaleza teórica. esto se manifiesta por la existencia de un número relativamente reducido de publicaciones que no está en consonancia con el aumento de trabajos prácticos publicados en el mismo periodo de tiempo. por último, se mencionan algunas de las posibles razones que pueden justificar este desinterés en los estudios teóricos así como los consiguientes desafíos que hoy por hoy se encuentran en la vanguardia de la lexicografía especializada. palabras clave: lexicografía especializada, diccionarios especializados, diccionarios en línea, herramientas de información, teoría funcional. introduction in an overall historical perspective, twenty years is a short span of time. but in the middle of a headlong scientific and technological rush, twenty years may rightly be regarded as oceans of time, or at least sufficient time to make considerable progress. it is in this perspective that the relative development of specialised lexicography during the last twenty years should be viewed and reviewed. although the limits of this article do not allow any detailed analysis it should initially be stated that the theoretical and practical achievements of specialised lexicography during the past two decades are rather disappointing, especially when it is recalled that several scholars expected the 1990s to be the golden decade of specialised lexicography after the noteworthy upsurge in general lexicographical discussion and theorymaking during the previous decade or two. specialised lexicography is the branch of lexicography dealing with the theory and practice of dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and other information tools covering areas outside general cultural knowledge and languages for general purposes (lgp), mainly, but not exclusively, disciplines related to technology, natural and social sciences, and humanities. although still frequently referred to as languages for specific purposes (lsp) lexicography, specialised lexicography by far transcends the mere description of the various specialised languages and also treats the very content of these disciplines themselves providing direct, punctual access to their cognitive achievements. 118 in today’s society, frequently (but misleadingly) called the information and knowledge society, with its huge and never-stopping development of technology and science, there is a big and unprecedented need for lexicographical tools that provide quick and easy access to carefully selected and prepared data from which the users may retrieve the punctual information needed to support their cognitive formation or to perform a big variety of specific tasks in their daily life and solve the corresponding problems (tarp, 2007). this is reflected in the ever-growing number of specialised dictionaries and other lexicographical information tools, whether printed or online, that have seen the light during these past two decades. in this view, it is astonishing that quality has not followed quantity. practice the specialised dictionaries and information tools published during the past two decades may be divided into three groups: 1) traditional printed dictionaries; 2) electronic dictionaries published by publishing houses and academic or public institutions; and 3) other online dictionaries. in the first group we register surprisingly few changes and improvements. on the one hand, there is still a considerable number of bilingual – or plurilingual – dictionaries being printed that are virtually word lists with equivalents and almost nothing else, that is without definitions and the grammatical – especially syntactic – data needed to provide qualified assistance to translation as well as foreign-language text production and reception which are the most relevant functions in relation to bilingual dictionaries. some of these dictionaries have even been generated automatically by means of computer programs without the intervention of a trained lexicographer or a subject-field expert for which reason the results are less than confidence-inspiring. such dictionaries may occasionally provide some assistance to their users but more often they create new problems and even mislead them due to the lack of relevant lexicographical data and the existence of direct mistakes. the publishers of these dictionaries seem to follow a deep-seated tradition without paying much attention to the real needs of their users, probably due to the fact that they still sell their products to users in urgent need of lexicographical assistance but with few alternatives (that they are aware of). one of the very few bilingual dictionaries that have tried to swim against the current and experiment with new lexicographical specialised lexicography ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128 119 solutions is kaufmann and bergenholtz’s (1998) english-spanish, spanishenglish twin encyclopedic dictionary of gene technology, a multifunctional specialised dictionary which contains a carefully prepared and well-structured set of data intended to meet the big variety of communicative and cognitive needs that the envisaged user group may have in various situations covered by the dictionary (for a detailed discussion of this dictionary, see tarp, 2005). another innovative dictionary in this respect is fata’s (2009) hungariangerman, german-hungarian fachwörterbuch zur rentenversicherung which is designed as a learner’s dictionary for professional translation students and introduces several new ideas of how to conceive such a dictionary. apart from these “adult” dictionaries, a number of promising bilingual specialised school dictionaries have seen the light in various countries; especially in multilingual countries like south africa and estonia (see for instance kaalep & mikk, 2008). on the other hand, there is as continuous flow of monolingual dictionaries and encyclopaedias which also seem to follow the tradition with no big surprises. some of these are of dubious usefulness, especially those which – most often tacitly – pretend to cater for various cognitive and communicative functions without including, or only partially including, the corresponding lexicographical data. by contrast, others which mainly concentrate on providing up-to-date cognitive information about one or several subject fields are distinguished by their good or even excellent quality. their authors are, as a rule, subject-field experts, sometimes even vanguard researchers, interested in transmitting information about their disciplines and following a laudable tradition going back several centuries. these dictionaries and encyclopaedias from which other specialised lexicographical works could learn a lot, especially in terms of expert knowledge and methodology, are contrarily to all logics seldom analysed and discussed in the theoretical literature and at lexicographical conferences. among them are some of the big encyclopaedias but also specialised monolingual dictionaries like the ones published by oxford university press dealing with archaeology, classical civilization, military history, philosophy, law, economics, sociology, art, music, chemistry, biology, nursing, and a number of other relevant topics. to this list can be added some specialised school dictionaries that have appeared during the last years, for example the south african illustrated dictionary of natural sciences and technology today (basel & banks, 2006) which, like other similar school dictionaries, introduces the school children of various grades to the world of science and technology. sven tarp ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128120 the second big group of specialised lexicographical works are the electronic ones prepared by academic and public institutions or traditional publishing houses. the electronic media, especially the internet, has given a strong impetus to specialised as well as general lexicography with a growing amount of online and other electronic dictionaries published during the past twenty years. however, this impetus has mainly expressed itself in the adaptation of traditional dictionaries to the new media and not in the rethinking of the whole discipline and the maximum exploitation of the new technologies with a view to designing and producing completely new types of high-quality lexicographical tools that may meet the growing demand for quick and reliable information in present society. the big majority of these electronic dictionaries are either “copycats”, that is mere copies of printed dictionaries, or “faster horses”, that is traditional dictionaries with quicker access by means of search engines and links (tarp, 2011). in spite of these limitations, some of them at least maintain the qualities of their printed ancestors in terms of content, while others are of a real dubious quality and usefulness, even if they have been baptised with fancy high-tech names like “terminological knowledge bases” and made from scratch such as the plurilingual inter-active terminology for europe (european union, 2007), probably the world’s most expensive lexicographical work ever. one of the reasons for this obvious contradiction between spending and quality is the theory, if any, and methodology used in these projects as well as the fact that public funding of research and product innovation is frequently wasted in endless projects which seldom get further than the so-called “prototypes”. in a critical review of this situation, fuertes-olivera (forthcoming) writes: the internet has allowed the compilation of new types of information tools, e.g. the so-called terminological knowledge bases. these proliferate around the world, especially because they obtain public money easily, although most of them do not deliver much. for instance, around 90% of the terminological dictionary projects funded by the spanish r+d funding agency are still “prototypes” after several years of continuous and generous funding. however, there are a few dictionaries that have successfully taken the step from “faster horses” to “model t fords” in correspondence with the famous quotation from henry ford, that is dictionaries which based upon an advanced theory of lexicography have made almost full usage of the present technologies. one such an example is the danish, english and spanish accounting dictionaries (diccionarios de contabilidad) which constitute a specialised lexicography ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128 121 series of 13 interconnected danish, english, danish-english and englishspanish dictionaries and another series of various interconnected spanish, english and english-spanish dictionaries (a spanish-english dimension will be added later) that provide assistance to the envisaged user group in a number of specified situations such as first language (l1) and second language (l2) text reception and production, l1-l2 and l2-l1 translation, knowledge about accounting in l1 and l2, etc. as such they are based upon the postulate that “a good dictionary is a monofunctional tool” (bergenholtz, 2011: 187). one of the central ideas behind these two series is the distinction between the data base, which contains all the data, and the individual dictionaries which pop up on the screen by means of the interface and only provide the data needed by the user in each situation. in this way it gives an original and convincing answer to one of the big lexicographical discussions in terms of the possibilities opened by the new technologies: on the one hand the present data bases allow the storing of “as much data as possible” that may be useful for the users in one situation or another, and on the other hand the well-conceived dictionary programmes allow the presentation on the screen of “as little data as possible” in each consultation, thus avoiding unnecessary data which only disturb the quick and easy retrieval of the needed information. the third group of specialised lexicographical works published during the past two decades is made up by the big number of online dictionaries put on the internet by individuals. the appearance of such dictionaries, some of them with very few words, others relatively big and covering a whole discipline or subdiscipline, is probably one of the most surprising but also most welcome developments in recent years. first of all, it must be said that the bulk of these dictionaries are of a very low technological and lexicographical quality due to the fact that the authors, with a few exceptions, do not have the necessary lexicographical skills or programming knowledge to produce high-quality and high-tech dictionaries. it may therefore be problematic to use their dictionaries as anything else than inspiration, never as final resources to substantiate or solve a lexicographically relevant problem. however, the very fact that they are published shows on the one hand that there is a big demand for specialised lexicographical products within a big number of disciplines, and on the other hand that there are plenty of people interested and willing to use their time to make such products available. although they may need lexicographical guidance and technological assistance, this is above all a welcome fact that is auspicious for sven tarp ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128122 the future of specialised lexicography. it is therefore important not to discourage the people behind this trend which probably is an old trend that now surfaces due to the new possibilities provided by the internet for the publication of their efforts. theory a fundamental precondition for raising the quality of specialised lexicographical works is the existence of an advanced theory that may guide the conception and production of such works. however, while specialised lexicographical practice has produced a continuous flow of new results, the corresponding theory has almost been at a standstill during the past two decades. the start was far from disappointing: in 1995 a team of danish scholars published the manual of specialised lexicography where the authors (see bergenholtz & tarp, 1995) discussed a broad variety of topics and gave relevant instructions on how to plan and compile various types of specialised dictionaries. the fact that this manual is still the most quoted book on specialised lexicography is a reflection, on the one hand, of the importance and relevance of such a work, and on the other hand, of the theoretical poverty of the discipline. the manual of specialised lexicography was strongly influenced by the lexicographical function theory, or more precisely, by an early variant of this theory which has subsequently been further refined (tarp, 2008), a development which is still not sufficiently reflected in the theoretical literature on specialised lexicography. since its publication 17 years ago, only a few books and editions treating various aspects of specialised lexicography has seen the light, among them tarp (1997), wang (2001), l’homme (2006), fuertes-olivera & arribas-baño (2008), fata (2009), fuertes-olivera (2010) and leroyer & tarp (forthcoming), to which should be added a few ph.d. theses and various – but still relatively few – articles in books and journals. outside the area of theory-building in the narrow sense of the word, cowie (2009), which includes the term “specialised dictionaries” in its title, deals with the history of english lexicography but only one of the 17 contributions (hoare, 2009) treats scientific and technical dictionaries while the rest discuss dictionaries of synonyms, place-names, personal names, pronunciation, phraseologisms, quotations etc., that is topics more related to general cultural and linguistic knowledge. a refreshing surprise with a new specialised lexicography ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128 123 approach to specialised lexicography is besomi (2011) where a number of experts in the history of economics, that is neither lexicographers nor linguists, use economic dictionaries and encyclopaedias published during the past three hundred years as primary sources in order to analyse how economic thought about crisis and cycles has developed in this period. the books, theses and articles referred to above develop various relevant aspects of specialised lexicographical theory, frequently related to one or a few specific dictionaries, but it is no exaggeration to say that a comprehensive, up-to-date theory of this branch of lexicography is still urgently missing. one of the major problems here is the troublesome relation between lexicography and terminology and the correct understanding of the philosophical status of lexicography (tarp, 2010). although in flagrant contradiction with facts, it is still frequent to meet different variants of the postulate that lexicography deals with general dictionaries while terminology – or terminography – deals with specialised dictionaries, see for instance bergenholtz and kaufmann (1997) and bergenholtz and tarp (2010) who discuss various arguments put forward by scholars from the two “competing camps”. the underlying vision seems to be that lexicography is a subdiscipline of linguistics, or even “applied linguistics”, whereas specialised lexicography is a subdiscipline of “specialised linguistics”, that is terminology. in this view, linguistics and terminology, respectively, are regarded as theories while lexicography, whether general or specialised, is regarded as practice subordinated to these theories. it goes without saying that the use of words and language is not a prerogative of linguists. all scientific theories are formulated by means of language; all scientific discussions take place by means of language. the discussion and definition of central concepts and terms is a normal practice among scientists from all disciplines. linguistics studies language (lgp) and specialised linguistics (terminology) studies specialised language (lsp) from various angles whereas the different sciences, by analogue, study and formulate theories about the phenomena belonging to their respective subject fields. the subject field of specialised lexicography as an independent discipline is the conception, production and use of dictionaries, encyclopaedias and other similar consultation tools whose objective is not to present the scientific achievements of linguistics and terminology but to provide the type of lexicographical data – and only this type of data – from which the users may retrieve the information needed in each consultation. it sven tarp ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128124 may happen, but is very seldom that users consult dictionaries in order to get a description of language, whether lgp or lsp. for some types of specialised dictionaries and similar works the authors have to rely on – but not necessarily to reproduce – the achievements of linguistics and terminology; however, for the production of other types of dictionaries and works, other types of knowledge are required as it is very well reflected in the 650 dictionaries of economics analysed in besomi (2011). the core of specialised lexicography is what is left when an abstraction is made from the various types of specific knowledge needed to produce one or another type of lexicographical work. the development in recent years has clearly shown that lexicography is closely related to information sciences – see bothma (2011), heid (2011), leroyer (2011) and tarp (2011). in fact, dictionaries and other lexicographical works are per excellence information tools with the genuine purpose of meeting the punctual – in contrast to global – information needs of specific types of users in specific types of situations. this means that the producers of these information tools should carefully determine which kind of data is required to solve the needs of the users of their respective tools in the situations covered by these, and after doing so they should also determine which kind of knowledge and interdisciplinary teamwork is necessary to ensure that these data are highquality and confidence-inspiring to the users. this presupposes the existence of an advanced theory different from the ones used within linguistics, terminology and any of the other areas of human knowledge needed to produce the different types of lexicographical works and tools. regretfully, the development of this highly necessary theory has been very slow during the past two decades and does not at all match the growing flow of practical lexicographical works of a dubious usefulness published in the same period and in urgent need for theoretical guidance. challenges specialised lexicography has produced a big and growing quantity of practical products during the past two decades; however, when it comes to the quality of these products and the underlying theory that has to support and guarantee this quality, specialised lexicography – including terminography – has more than anything else been characterised by twenty years in slow motion. as some vanguard projects indicate, there are elements of a good theory that may guide very specific projects but it is nevertheless surprising specialised lexicography ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128 125 that so little has been done to develop a comprehensive, up-to-date theory of this branch of lexicography. the explanation of this deplorable situation is, of course, partially that the existing theoretical work has not been found convincing and attractive by the majority of the community who have preferred to do business as usual and throw themselves into the electronic word without sufficient theoretical baggage or – and this is more or less the same – with an inadequate baggage in this respect. however, there are also some important external factors that may explain this lack of theoretical motivation. one of these is, as already mentioned above, the role played by the public research and development funding agencies that continue to spend a considerable part of their money to finance projects with fancy high-tech names that seldom get further than the so-called prototypes. this practice is by no means a motivation for the development of a theory that may ensure not only the quality of future specialised lexicographical tools, but also the productivity in terms of finishing these projects in less time and with fewer resources. another external factor to be taken into account is the role of the publishing houses. we are living in a world characterised by the production of mass consumer goods where the companies reduce their costs at the expense of a generally declining quality. the publishing houses are no exception to this rule. when they can earn money through the production of more or less automatically generated low-quality dictionaries, they will continue to do so as long as they can sell their products. however, when it comes to other more “serious” dictionaries which, as mentioned above, are fortunately also produced today, it is quite surprising that the publishing houses have still not discovered the philosopher’s stone and taken advantage of it in the sense that they could save a lot of money if they based the production of such dictionaries on an advanced theory which, among other things, could kill two birds with one stone, that is contribute both to a growing productivity and to a higher quality. to sum up, the experience of the past twenty years does not only show that a comprehensive theory of specialised lexicography is necessary in order to raise the quality of its practical products. the experience also shows that such a theory quite clearly needs the right conditions and right environment to grow and prosper. the creation of these conditions and this environment is probably the major challenge today for specialised lexicography. [paper received 22 march 2012] [revised paper accepted 23 may 2012] sven tarp ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128126 references specialised lexicography ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128 127 basel, b. & l. banks (2006). illustrated dictionary of natural sciences and technology today. cape town: maskew miller longman. besomi, d. (ed.) (2011). crisis and cycles in economic dictionaries and encyclopaedias. london/new york: routledge. bergenholtz, h. (2011). “a dictionary is a tool, a good dictionary is a monofunctional tool” in p.a. fuertes-olivera & h. bergenholtz (eds.), 187-207 bergenholtz, h. & u. kaufmann (1997). “terminography and lexicography. a critical survey of dictionaries from a single specialised field” in tarp (ed.), 91-125. bergenholtz, h. & s. tarp (eds.) (1995). manual of specialised lexicography. the preparation of specialised dictionaries. amsterdam: john benjamins. bergenholtz, h. & s. tarp (2010). “lsp lexicography or terminography? the lexicographer’s point of view” in p.a. fuertesolivera (ed.), 27-37. bothma, t.j.d. (2011). “filtering and adapting data and information in an online environment in response to user needs” in p.a. fuertes-olivera & h. bergenholtz (eds.), 71-102. cowie, a.p. (ed.) (2009). english lexicography. volume ii. specialized dictionaries. oxford: oxford university press. european union (2007). inter-active terminology for europe. luxembourg: iate. url: http://iate.europa.eu [20/03/12] fata, i. (2005). ungarisch-deutsches, deutschungarisches fachwörterbuch zur rentenversicherung. szeged: grimm kiadó. fata, i. (2009). das zweisprachige translationswörterbuch für fachsprachen in der wissenschaftlichen theorie und praxis. budapest: tinta könyvkiadó. fuertes-olivera, p.a. & a. arribas-baño (2008). pedagogical specialised lexicography. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. fuertes-olivera, p.a. (ed.) (2010). specialised dictionaries for learners. berlin/new york: walter de gruyter. fuertes-olivera, p.a. & h. bergenholtz (eds.) (2011). e-lexicography: the internet, digital initiatives and lexicography. london/new york: continuum. fuertes-olivera, p.a., h. bergenholtz, s. nielsen, p. gordo gómez, l. mourier, m. niño amo, á. de los ríos rodicio, á. sastre ruano, s. tarp & m. velasco sacristán (2012). diccionarios de contabilidad (a series of interconnected englishspanish and spanish dictionaries). odense: lemma.com. fuertes-olivera, p.a. (forthcoming). “elexicography: the continuing challenge of applying new technology to dictionary making” in h. jackson (ed.), continuum companion to lexicography. london/new york: continuum. heid, u. (2011). “electronic dictionaries as tools: towards an assessment of usability” in fuertesolivera & bergenholtz (eds.), 287-304. hoare, m.r. (2009). “scientific and technical dictionaries” in a.p. cowie (ed.), 47-93. kaalep, h.j. & j. mikk (2008). “creating specialised dictionaries for foreign language learners: a case study”. international journal of lexicography 21: 369-394. kaufmann, u. & h. bergenholtz (1998). diccionario enciclopédico de ingeniería genética español-inglés / encyclopedic dictionary of gene technology. english-spanish. (2 vols.). toronto: lugus. leroyer, p. (2011). “change of paradigm: from linguistics to information science and from dictionaries to lexicographical information tools” in p.a. fuertes-olivera & h. bergenholtz (eds.), 121140. leroyer, p. & s. tarp (eds.) (forthcoming). “not business as usual: specialized lexicography of economics in the 21st century”. thematic edition of hermes 50. l’homme, m.c. (ed.) (2006). processing of terms in specialized dictionaries. new models and techniques. special issue of terminology 12: 2. nielsen, s., l. mourier & h. bergenholtz (2012). accounting dictionaries (a series of 13 interconnected danish, danish-english, englishdanish and danish dictionaries). odense: ordbogen.com. tarp, s. (ed.) (1997). “specialised lexicography and terminology”. thematic section of hermes 18. tarp, s. (2005). “the pedagogical dimension of the well-conceived specialised dictionary”. ibérica 10: 7-21. tarp, s. (2007). “lexicography in the information age”. lexikos 17: 170-179. sven tarp is professor of lexicography at the faculty of business and social sciences at the university of aarhus (denmark) and extraordinary professor at the department of afrikaans and dutch at the university of stellenbosch (south africa). with a ph.d. in specialised lexicography (1993) and a doctor’s degree in learners’ lexicography (2006), he is the editor or coeditor of several specialised dictionaries and has published more than 140 contributions in journals and well-known series. he is one of the founders of the function theory of lexicography. sven tarp ibérica 24 (2012): 117-128128 tarp, s. (2008). lexicography in the borderland between knowledge and non-knowledge. tübingen: niemeyer. tarp, s. (2010). “reflections on the academic status of lexicography”. lexikos 20: 450-465. tarp, s. (2011). “lexicographical and other e-tools for consultation purposes: towards the individualization of needs satisfaction” in p.a. fuertes-olivera & h. bergenholtz (eds.), 54-70. wang, w. (2001). zweisprachige fachlexikographie. benutzungsforschung, typologie und mikrostrukturelle konxeption. frankfurt am main: peter lang. iberica 13 doing visual analysis. per ledin, david machin (eds). los angeles: sage, 2018. 208. isbn: 978-1-4739-7299-5. los elementos visuales están muy presentes en la vida contemporánea y también los textos de especialidad suelen combinarlos con los elementos verbales (o’halloran, 2009). aunque la comunicación visual es un ámbito de creciente interés, todavía carece de métodos analíticos bien definidos. el libro de ledin y machin pretende resolver esta carencia, pues nace con el propósito de dar a conocer la comunicación visual. los autores han profundizado en sus ideas anteriores al respecto y las han organizado con el fin de proponer herramientas claras para analizar una gran variedad de elementos visuales. el subtítulo del libro, “de la teoría a la práctica”, ya deja claro su firme propósito de proporcionar herramientas concretas y demostrar su aplicación. en primer lugar, los autores destacan la popularidad de la que ha gozado la comunicación visual desde las últimas dos décadas, una popularidad originada a partir del volumen reading images de kress y van leeuwen (1996). desde entonces, hemos presenciado la publicación de un gran número de libros y artículos de investigación que examinan los elementos visuales en diversos contextos. el libro subraya esta trayectoria y se fija en la síntesis de conocimientos anteriores acerca de la comunicación visual. los autores opinan que hoy en día el consumismo y la tecnología difunden fácilmente elementos visuales y los convierten en realidades sofisticadas (página 1). estos elementos representan materiales semióticos (página 3) que cuentan con significados sociales (página 6). según ledin y machin, estos contribuyen a la comunicación y merecen ser estudiados con más énfasis porque son un recurso semiótico, al igual que los elementos verbales (página 8). el libro está organizado en nueve capítulos y combina descripciones teóricas con aplicaciones prácticas, cumpliendo así con lo prometido en el subtítulo. en la introducción se define la comunicación visual como el uso de recursos semióticos para comunicar significados sociales específicos (página 8) y se justifica mediante la importancia de los elementos visuales y el contexto de su empleo. a continuación, el segundo capítulo plantea que la principal meta del análisis visual es entender cómo estos elementos producen sus significados sociales (página 15). asimismo, aquí se esbozan los enfoques fundadores de la reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 249-252 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 249 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 249 comunicación visual, amparada por tres áreas: la semiótica social, la multimodalidad y el discurso. en primer lugar, de la semiótica social, derivada de la lingüística sistémico-funcional de halliday (1978), proceden los conceptos básicos de la comunicación visual (página 16). en segundo lugar, la multimodalidad, actualmente en boga, presta especial atención a la codificación de los elementos visuales (página 26). y, en tercer y último lugar, el discurso subraya la influencia de la ideología en la comunicación visual (página 27). en suma, la comunicación visual cuenta con orígenes heterogéneos. el libro admite perseguir un objetivo sumamente ambicioso: proponer las herramientas necesarias para analizar elementos visuales. estas herramientas dependen del tipo de elemento visual, por lo que los capítulos 3-8 se centran en el análisis de seis tipos de elementos visuales diferentes: fotografías (capítulo 3), el diseño de documentos (capítulo 4), embalajes (capítulo 5), el diseño de espacios (capítulo 6), clips de películas (capítulo 7) y la presentación de datos (capítulo 8). los seis capítulos siguen la misma estructura, lo cual facilita la lectura. comienzan con una introducción al elemento visual estudiado, seguida de una serie de ejemplos, y dedican su parte central a la herramienta de análisis en cuestión, para terminar con diferentes sugerencias para investigaciones futuras. los capítulos se ven enriquecidos con varios ejemplos procedentes de periódicos (capítulo 3), carteles de películas (capítulo 4), pantallas de móviles (capítulo 4), revistas (capítulo 4), páginas web (capítulo 3, 4), embalajes (capítulo 5), espacios de aulas, oficinas y restaurantes (capítulo 6), anuncios (capítulo 7), esquemas (capítulo 8) y tablas (capítulo 8). los ejemplos introducen los conceptos que componen las herramientas de análisis propuestas e ilustran cómo llevar a cabo un análisis visual. las herramientas de análisis constituyen la parte central de los capítulos. estas herramientas establecen los conceptos que examinan las distintas partes de los elementos visuales y que ayudan a manifestar su significado. las herramientas parecen estar inspiradas en las obras de barthes y kress y van leeuwen, e incluso en las de otros expertos de la semiótica social y la multimodalidad. por ello, muchos conceptos presentados en las herramientas resultan familiares, si bien el modo en que se definen y se aplican los convierte en una contribución original a la bibliografía de la comunicación visual. además, las herramientas se explican con un lenguaje claro, conciso y divulgativo que facilita su adopción entre los expertos y los no expertos en comunicación visual. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 249-252250 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 250 la conclusión ofrece diversos consejos para el análisis visual. necesitamos identificar qué queremos indagar antes de aplicar las herramientas (página 189), cuyo uso no es aleatorio o impredecible, sino que debe ajustarse a nuestra indagación. así, las herramientas habilitan el análisis visual y pueden desentrañar el poder de los elementos visuales en la sociedad (páginas 192193). el libro termina con las referencias y el índice: por un lado, las referencias anotan los estudios que utilizan los conceptos esbozados en las herramientas que permiten una mayor comprensión y profundización de la comunicación visual en distintos contextos; y, por otro, el índice simplifica la búsqueda de los conceptos en las herramientas y nos guía hacia el contenido necesario. el libro cumple ampliamente con el objetivo prometido en la introducción. su principal ventaja es la recopilación de herramientas para analizar una gran variedad de elementos visuales, así como la inclusión de numerosos ejemplos. resulta gratificante el esfuerzo de los autores al pormenorizar qué es lo que se ha de estudiar en los elementos visuales, aunque en ocasiones las herramientas pueden ser abrumadoras por sus detalles. no obstante, sería preferible que los ejemplos se presentaran después de las herramientas, para, así, ilustrar su aplicación. aunque estos ejemplos proceden de países occidentales, las herramientas propuestas pueden generalizarse a otras culturas (página 193). es de esperar que su validez se compruebe en futuras investigaciones. el volumen reseñado presenta un enorme potencial para las lenguas para fines específicos (lfe), pues multitud de elementos visuales están diseminados en muchos textos, a pesar de que los análisis tienden a centrarse en el análisis del lenguaje, como si los elementos visuales ocuparan un lugar secundario. el área de lfe presta atención a la competencia discursiva (bhatia, 2004), que implica conocimientos tanto lingüísticos como visuales. ya existen conceptos para el análisis lingüístico, pero faltan aquellos que permitan explicar los elementos visuales. por ello, las herramientas propuestas por ledin y machin ayudan a explorar sistemáticamente las diferentes partes que constituyen los elementos visuales y su contribución al discurso (página 9). dado que los textos de especialidad reflejan cierto contexto, es necesario vincular el discurso con su contexto (página 17). la combinación del análisis lingüístico y visual ofrece una excelente oportunidad para comprender cómo se lleva a cabo la comunicación multimodal en los textos de especialidad. cada uno de los capítulos 3-8 se centra en un tipo de elemento visual y ofrece una herramienta amplia que puede enriquecer nuestra indagación. sin reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 249-252 251 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 251 embargo, las herramientas deben ser utilizadas de manera flexible (página 189). estas pueden incorporarse a otros métodos, especialmente el análisis del discurso, el análisis crítico del discurso, la pragmática y los estudios de género, todos ellos métodos favorecidos en el área de lfe. más aún, estas herramientas pueden ser aplicadas independientemente de los elementos verbales, porque analizan elementos visuales. obviamente, sería necesaria una traducción de la terminología en inglés a la lengua meta, y la creación de un glosario bilingüe sería un recurso útil para investigadores hispanohablantes. este libro no exige conocimientos previos especializados y, de este modo, puede captar la atención tanto de los expertos en lfe como de lectores menos duchos en esta área. por consiguiente, promete ser una lectura útil para todo tipo de público, bien sean estudiantes de grado o posgrado, bien investigadores. todos ellos pueden incorporar el análisis visual para investigar textos multimodales en discursos específicos o, si ya lo hacen, pueden mejorar su investigación. el libro combina elementos teóricos y prácticos, lo cual contribuye enormemente a una mejor comprensión. el volumen está redactado en inglés, en un estilo fácil de comprender y con explicaciones muy claras. así pues, este libro ya se ha convertido en una obra de referencia en el área de la comunicación visual y ha logrado un sitio en la bibliografía científica de las áreas relacionadas, sobre todo en la semiótica social y la multimodalidad. es de esperar que nuevos artículos aprovechen las herramientas proporcionadas y que, en consecuencia, apliquen en mayor medida el análisis de la comunicación visual en el área de lfe. recibida 20 noviembre 2018 aceptada 18 febrero 2019 reseñado por kumaran rajandran universiti sains malaysia (malasia) kumaranr@tuta.io referencias reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 249-252252 bhatia, v. (2004). worlds of written discourse: a genre-based view. london: continuum. halliday, m. (1978). language as social semiotic. london: edward arnold. kress, g. & van leeuwen, t. (1996). reading images: the grammar of visual design. london: routledge. o’halloran, k. (2009). “historical changes in the semiotic landscape”. in c. jewitt (ed.), the routledge handbook of multimodal analysis, 98113. london: routledge. 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 252 iberica 13 comunicar en la universidad y en la vida profesional ricardo-maría jiménez-yáñez pamplona: eunsa, 2020. 336 pages. isbn: 978-84-3133458-1. ricardo-maría jiménez-yáñez is an author with extensive classroom experience. in addition to his background in teaching, he has researched on oral and written expression (jiménez-yáñez, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016; jiménez-yáñez & zárate, 2013; jiménez-yáñez et al., 2020). in particular, he has focused on persuasive texts and on written communication in the legal context, on which he has published a book, now in its second edition (jiménez-yáñez, 2016). on this occasion, he reflects on one of the most frequent complaints heard from university lecturers: the fact that undergraduates arrive from their prior studies with deficient communication skills. in most cases, this problem goes unsolved, so young people begin their professional careers without the necessary ability to express themselves correctly and efficiently. faced with this situation, jiménez-yáñez proposes “to abandon the sterile complaint” (p. 15), and search for a solution instead. although this goal is an ambitious one, the author meets it efficiently in this book. comunicar en la universidad y en la vida profesional is hard to classify, as its scope spans from purely theoretical to very practical issues. this array of contents might seem arbitrary at first but, when reading the book, one realises that all the topics addressed are part of a greater aim: to help develop students’ communication skills at all levels. this implies not just knowing the grammatical rules of a language, but also understanding the underlying theory of how communication works, as well as being able to think logically and critically. these capabilities set the basis for all good communication, which is why jiménez-yáñez looks into them first. after laying these foundations, he goes on to explain how to adequately write several types of texts, and sheds light on some rules of the spanish language which frequently lead to confusion. finally, he ends with a small but valuable section devoted to spoken communication. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 39 (2020): 404-408 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 404 the first two chapters focus, respectively, on communicative competence and the characteristics of textuality (“propiedades de los textos”). in the former, jiménez-yáñez draws on the classification of linguistic ability defined by eugen coseriu. coseriu establishes a distinction between three levels of language, each corresponding to a certain degree of language knowledge, knowledge content, and language valuation. in the latter chapter, jiménez-yáñez identifies the characteristics of textuality with the three valuations of language, namely congruence, correction and adequacy. he gives a brief overview of the principles that must be followed and the mechanisms that must be used to attain these characteristics, and does so in an eminently practical way, with examples which clearly illustrate each principle. this is followed by an exquisite collection of quotes on writing from various authors, after which jiménez-yáñez moves on to study some matters related to thought, which he considers relevant to writing because, as he quotes from the intellectual john henry newman (2014:138), “the rule is: first think and then write”. he focuses on idea generation techniques and on critical thought, considered to be especially relevant since, as stated by breeze (2017: 38), “the importance of developing critical cultural awareness in order to build effective intercultural relationships is undisputed in today’s globalised world”. the three ensuing chapters provide insights into elements which are essential to any well-written text: properly constructed paragraphs, coherence, and the correct use of discourse markers. these chapters are followed by others on how to write different types of texts (e-mails, narrations, descriptions, dialogues, expositions, enumerations and argumentations), formulated with a very practical approach. indications are concise, practice-oriented and wellstructured in lists. they are complemented by texts that serve as clear examples and by practical exercises that strengthen the theory and take the learning process to the practical sphere. after concentrating on these textual aspects, which are common to most languages, jiménez-yáñez shifts his attention to spanish, because, as he quotes from montolío (2001: 10), “it is us who argue, but it is the language that will provide us with the guidelines that will enable us to argue, and that will enable others to understand our argumentation”. the author devotes the longest chapter in the book to spelling and grammar rules, as well as to vocabulary. composed of brief explanations and suitable exercises, this chapter reviews some basic rules regarding punctuation and focuses mainly reseñas / book reviews ibérica 39 (2020): 404-408 405 on items that often lead to confusion (such as the semicolon, the gerund or homonymous words that tend to be mistakenly switched). the compilation offered is by no means exhaustive, but it deals with the main difficulties that spanish native speakers usually encounter when writing. the last few chapters address diverse issues: the correct and precise use of lexicon, strategies for academic writing, some recommendations on how to write more legible texts and, finally, spoken communication. the chapter devoted to speech is almost a small manual in itself: it combines a few guidelines with a set of activities that will improve the reader’s communication abilities in one month, by devoting to them just a few minutes every day. on a personal note, i have tried this methodology and, apart from the fact that it is amusing, it does work. my advice is to read the whole book first, as each section builds on the previous ones. afterwards, when a particular chapter is required, one can find it on the table of contents and return to it. despite all its virtues, the work has some flaws. the content of the opening chapters and the specific terminology used in some cases can be a bit too academic for the average reader. apart from that, the fact that one must get in touch with the author to obtain the solutions to the exercises might discourage many students, who would miss one of the book’s most useful aspects, thus losing the chance to learn from their mistakes. nonetheless, the author practises what he preaches, so the book is overall easy to read and understand. combined with the practical methodology and wide scope, these qualities make comunicar en la universidad y en la vida profesional a must-read for all spanish speakers (students and professionals alike) who wish to improve their communication skills. in short, the book firmly positions itself as a reference work in the area of academic and professional discourse and fosters interest in these areas in hispanic linguistics. received 30 march 2020 accepted 02 april 2020 reviewed by inés jordán marqués universitat internacional de catalunya (spain) inesjordanm@uic.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 39 (2020): 404-408406 references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 39 (2020): 404-408 407 breeze, r. (2017). “promoting critical cultural awareness in the international university” in r. breeze & c. sancho guinda (eds), essential competencies for english-medium university teaching, 37-49. cham, switzerland: springer. jiménez-yáñez, r.m. (2013). “¿se puede enseñar a persuadir con las señales del metadiscurso?”. journal of language and law 59: 42-58. jiménez-yáñez, r.m. (2014). “metadiscurso y persuasión: estudio de editoriales de periódicos españoles sobre la muerte de osama bin laden”. discurso & sociedad 8(4): 589-622. jiménez-yáñez, r.m. (2015). “an interview with dr. ruth breeze and dr. florentina taylor on foreign language teaching and learning”, bellaterra journal of teaching & learning language & literature (bjtlll). 8(3), august-september. jiménez-yáñez, r.m. (2016). escribir bien es de justicia, 2nd ed. cizur menor (spain): aranzadi thomson-reuters. jiménez-yáñez, r.m. & b. zárate (2013). “estrategias de aprendizaje de expresión escrita para estudiantes de derecho”. revista lenguaje y textos 37: 83-90. jiménez-yáñez, r.m., d. giner & p. franquet (2020). “estrategias retóricas de persuasión en blogs jurídicos (blawgs) y artículos doctrinales”. discurso & sociedad 14(2). montolío, e. (2001): conectores de la lengua escrita. barcelona: ariel. newman, j.h. (2014). la idea de la universidad. ii. temas universitarios tratados en lecciones y ensayos ocasionales. madrid: ediciones encuentro. iberica 13 ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 issn 1139-7241 resumen en el presente estudio describiremos el género de los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares. empezaremos por situar los diarios de viaje en la taxonomía de textos turísticos elaborada en calvi (2010). luego describiremos más en detalle las diferentes dimensiones discursivas del género: los objetivos comunicativos, los movimientos retóricos más típicos, y la manera en que son presentados los participantes en el evento comunicativo. los materiales empíricos provienen de un corpus piloto de diarios de viaje sobre bélgica, escritos por turistas hispanohablantes, y publicados en el blog de comunidad <losviajeros.com>. palabras clave: diarios de viaje, macrogénero, blog de comunidad, español turístico. abstract t r av e l b l og s w ri tt e n b y n onp ro f e s s io na l s : an e xp l or ato ry a na l ys i s of a t ou ri s m g e nr e in this paper, we describe the genre of travel blogs written by non-professionals. we begin by situating the travel blogs in the taxonomy of tourism texts presented in calvi (2010). then, we will describe in more detail the different dimensions of this genre: its communicative purposes, its most typical rhetorical moves and the way the participants in the communicative event are profiled. the empirical material comes from a pilot corpus on travel blogs, written by spanishspeaking tourists in belgium, which were all published in the community blog <losviajeros.com>. keywords: travel blogs, macrogenre, community blog, spanish for tourism. los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares: un estudio exploratorio de un género turístico patrick goethals university college of ghent / university of ghent (bélgica) patrick.goethals@hogent.be 147 ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 patrick goethals 1. introducción en esta contribución elaboraremos un análisis exploratorio del género de los diarios de viaje publicados por particulares en blogs de comunidades de viajeros. este tipo de diarios de viaje ha despertado el interés del sector turístico y de la investigación en mercadotecnia y comunicación turísticas en particular (véase, por ejemplo, akehurst, 2009; mariné roig, 2010; volo, 2010, para repasos bibliográficos recientes). ya se han aplicado a los diarios diferentes técnicas de análisis de contenido a fin de adquirir conocimientos sobre la imagen de un destino (woodside, cruickshank y dehuang, 2007; tussyadiah y fesenmaier, 2008; wenger, 2008), sobre los motivos de (in)satisfacción de los turistas (crotts, mason y davis, 2009; magnini, crotts y zehrer, 2011) o incluso sobre los lugares que visitan los turistas o sus desplazamientos (kurashima, tezuka y tanaka, 2005). sin poner en entredicho la utilidad de este tipo de análisis, varios autores (bosangit, mccabe y hibbert, 2009; banyai y glover, 2012) han destacado que los análisis de contenido deberían completarse con un acercamiento que tome en consideración las características discursivas de estos textos: los diarios no solo reflejan las experiencias mismas de los turistas, sino también la percepción que tienen de ellas, su manera de darles sentido (sense-making) y la interpretación que tienen de su papel como autor de un diario. queremos contribuir a esta profundización al aplicar algunos conceptos que proporciona el marco teórico del análisis de género. desde los trabajos pioneros de swales (1990) y bhatia (1993), los análisis de género han conocido un auge extraordinario, y, al multiplicarse su número, también se han diversificado. en primer lugar, se ha ampliado el abanico de géneros examinados. siempre se ha prestado mucha atención a géneros escritos por profesionales, por ejemplo géneros académicos y periodísticos, o géneros propios de la comunicación externa como las notas de prensa (hyland, 2009; catenaccio, 2008), pero, más recientemente, también se han estudiado géneros escritos por particulares y publicados en internet (por ejemplo, herring et al., 2004; herring et al., 2006 sobre los blogs). esto se debe a que las fronteras entre la comunicación a cargo de los profesionales y la comunicación por parte de particulares son cada vez más borrosas, ya que los contenidos creados por los usuarios se integran en la política comunicativa de muchas organizaciones (véase, por ejemplo, rubben y van soom (2011) sobre la política comunicativa turística de flandes). en cuanto a los sectores estudiados, recientemente hemos visto las primeras aplicaciones al sector turístico (calvi, 2010), un sector mucho menos 148 estudiado en el mundo de las lenguas para fines específicos que por ejemplo el lenguaje académico, jurídico o económico. en el ámbito del español, calvi y bonomi (2008) y bonomi (2011) han sido los primeros en abordar el fenómeno de los diarios de viaje. adoptando un enfoque lingüístico, estos autores han llamado la atención sobre varias características que comparten los diarios con otros géneros turísticos, como el lenguaje hiperbólico o el uso de un léxico semi-especializado, aunque también han destacado varias características distintivas, como la presencia manifiesta del “yo” o el uso de giros coloquiales. el presente estudio se sitúa en el mismo cruce de intereses: enriquecer el estudio de los géneros mediante la descripción de un género particular y peculiar, y enriquecer el análisis de contenido de los diarios de viaje mediante la aplicación de conceptos que provienen del análisis de los géneros. empezaremos por situar los diarios de viaje en la taxonomía de textos turísticos elaborada por calvi (2010). seguidamente describiremos de un modo más pormenorizado las diferentes dimensiones discursivas del género, y terminaremos por esbozar brevemente posibles aplicaciones del estudio y del corpus compilado. los materiales empíricos provienen de un corpus piloto de 37 diarios de viaje sobre bélgica, escritos por turistas hispanohablantes (casi todos de nacionalidad española). todos los diarios se publicaron en el blog de comunidad <losviajeros.com>, el sitio con el mayor número de diarios de viaje sobre bélgica en el mundo hispanohablante1. el corpus forma parte de un proyecto de investigación más amplio que abarca todos los aspectos comunicativos del turismo español en bélgica. los textos han sido analizados con el programa de análisis cualitativo nvivo9 que, a diferencia de otros programas de análisis de corpus, permite anotar no solo documentos con texto, sino también documentos pdf, fotos o vídeos así como guardar el formato original de los documentos. 2. familia de géneros, macrogénero, géneros y subgéneros nuestro principal marco de referencia es la taxonomía de los géneros turísticos presentada en calvi (2010), una propuesta particularmente interesante por su multidimensionalidad, que permite una múltiple caracterización de los géneros. los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 149 la primera dimensión es la “familia de géneros”, definida por “la comunidad profesional de origen” que produce los textos (calvi, 2010: 22). ejemplos de comunidades de origen son las casas editoriales (que editan, por ejemplo, guías de viaje), las organizaciones institucionales del turismo (que editan, por ejemplo, folletos para promocionar la región) o el sector comercial de los turoperadores (que publican, por ejemplo, catálogos de viajes). los diarios de viaje pertenecen a una categoría residual, la comunidad no profesional (o “informal”) de los particulares. conviene precisar, sin embargo, que los autores particulares de los diarios dependen de iniciativas profesionales para publicar sus textos, y las páginas web en las que se publican los diarios provienen de diferentes comunidades profesionales2: pueden ser iniciativas comerciales, que generan ingresos gracias a los anuncios de publicidad, pero también institucionales, como entes de promoción turística regional, o editoriales, como blogsherpa de lonely planet. de hecho, la descripción de las páginas web es el objeto de la segunda dimensión de la taxonomía de calvi (2010): las páginas web son “macrogéneros” (martin, 1995: 16), “productos tangibles” (calvi, 2010: 23), o marcos físicos en los que pueden producirse simultáneamente diferentes géneros. en la tabla 1 ofrecemos un resumen analítico de los géneros que se publican en el macrogénero de los blogs de comunidades de viajeros, y lo aplicamos a dos casos distintos: patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170150 patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): …-… géneros <losviajeros.com> <viajeros.com> ! diarios de viaje diarios de viaje relatos de viaje (funcionalidad: comentarios a los diarios) sí sí ! consejos/tips de viajeros (informaciones breves sobre un aspecto particular) noticias tips de viajeros ! foros de debate foros de viajes foros de debate ! galerías de fotos galería de fotos fotos de viajes ! artículos (por profesionales, copiados de otras fuentes, posteados por administradores) artículos ! mapas mapas para viajar mapas ! evaluaciones/opiniones sobre alojamiento, restaurantes, actividades, etc. mediante un sistema predefinido de puntuación, p.ej con estrellitas) opiniones ! información sobre hoteles / restaurantes -3 sí ! reserva de hoteles/vuelos/coches -3 buscar … ! buscar contactos: gente que viaja al mismo destino, gente que viaja a tu país, ... (buscar gente y hacer amigos) comunidad ! anuncios googe anuncios google anuncios google ! anuncios sí sí ! varios géneros técnicos de gestión del web (mapa web, aviso legal, política de privacidad, …) varios varios tabla 1. el macrogénero de los blogs de comunidades de viajeros y sus géneros. es evidente que cada web puede tener su enfoque particular4. la web de <losviajeros.com> gira claramente alrededor de los diarios y los foros de viaje, excluyendo funcionalidades como “evaluar/puntuar”, “buscar gente”, o “hacer reservas”, que sí están incluidas en <viajeros.com>. aunque ambas páginas se dirigen al mundo hispanohablante en su totalidad, <losviajeros.com> tiene principalmente contribuciones que provienen de españa, y <viajeros.com> de américa latina. en consecuencia, en <losviajeros.com>, hay más diarios de viaje íntegramente dedicados a bélgica (tipo escapada de ciudad), mientras que en <viajeros.com> la mayoría de los blogs son etapas en un viaje a través de europa. en este estudio exploratorio, nos centraremos en los diarios publicados en <losviajeros.com>. el “género” es, siguiendo a calvi (2010), el primer nivel que puede caracterizarse en términos lingüístico-discursivos. los géneros tienen “autonomía funcional” (calvi, 2010: 24), lo cual significa que pueden realizarse es evidente que cada web puede tener su enfoque particular4. la web de <losviajeros.com> gira claramente alrededor de los diarios y los foros de viaje, excluyendo funcionalidades como “evaluar/puntuar”, “buscar gente”, o “hacer reservas”, que sí están incluidas en <viajeros.com>. aunque ambas páginas se dirigen al mundo hispanohablante en su totalidad, <losviajeros.com> tiene principalmente contribuciones que provienen de españa, y <viajeros.com> de américa latina. en consecuencia, en <losviajeros.com>, hay más diarios de viaje íntegramente dedicados a bélgica (tipo escapada de ciudad), mientras que en <viajeros.com> la mayoría de los blogs son etapas en un viaje a través de europa. en este estudio exploratorio, nos centraremos en los diarios publicados en <losviajeros.com>. el “género” es, siguiendo a calvi (2010), el primer nivel que puede caracterizarse en términos lingüístico-discursivos. los géneros tienen “autonomía funcional” (calvi, 2010: 24), lo cual significa que pueden realizarse de forma autónoma, sin el apoyo necesario de otros géneros. en el apartado siguiente profundizaremos en su descripción. finalmente, cada género puede tener subgéneros, por ejemplo según el tema tratado. en el caso de los diarios de viaje, puede ser pertinente distinguir entre tipos de diarios según el tipo de viaje (vacaciones culturales, vacaciones activas, sol y playa …) o según su duración (desde escapadas hasta viajes de varios meses). en este sentido, es importante enfatizar que la gran mayoría de los textos en el corpus pertenecen a un subgénero particular, que son las escapadas a ciudades, unas vacaciones breves de cuatro o cinco días. 3. el género de los diarios de viajes a continuación describiremos sucesivamente los objetivos comunicativos de los autores y los lectores tal y como se manifiestan en los discursos mismos, los típicos movimientos retóricos que aparecen en los diarios de viaje, la manera en que se perfilan los participantes en el evento comunicativo, y algunas características estilísticas llamativas. 3.1. los objetivos comunicativos para definir los objetivos comunicativos, hemos empezado por examinar el paratexto (el título y la descripción del diario), y los primeros y últimos los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 151 párrafos de cada diario. en estos apartados, hemos identificado los fragmentos en los que se alude de manera explícita a los objetivos comunicativos de los diarios, tanto desde la perspectiva del autor (fragmento 1), como desde la perspectiva de un lector (fragmento 2): (1) os cuento todo lo que vimos para que os hagais una idea y os ayude a organizar vuestra escapadita (raqtm, “escapada a bruselas, brujas y gante”)5 (2) antes de comentar mi viaje, quería agradeceros a todos por vuestros comentarios; de hecho antes de mi viaje estuve un mes recopilando información sobre qué sitios visitar, consejos y demás, me habéis aportado mucho. (tulipina, “bélgica relámpago”) en tono humorístico, el fragmento (3) muestra bien la variedad de objetivos: ayudar a las personas que van a visitar la región, evocar recuerdos a las personas que han estado allí, brindar una lectura amena a personas que leen los diarios por interés y placer personal. (3) espero que la lectura de mi diario os haya resultado amena, y os pueda ayudar en futuros viajes a bélgica. que sirva para recordar a todos los que ya han visitado el país lo que han podido ver allí. y también a los que les guste leer diarios por conocer lugares en los que no han estado. (vamos a todo el mundo que me lío yo solo) (jaspy77, “bélgica: goloso fin de año”) de forma analítica, proponemos definir los objetivos comunicativos de los diarios con respecto a dos ejes. el primer eje refleja la manera en que el autor se acerca al viaje, esto es si hace hincapié en la “realización” del viaje, la “evaluación” del viaje, o la “narración” del viaje. el segundo eje tiene que ver con la orientación interpersonal del diario: la orientación puede ser más bien “íntima”, o más bien “interactiva”. el diario íntimo se presenta como un acto de expresión personal, y un diario interactivo como un acto de comunicación dirigido explícitamente a un público de lectores. evidentemente, una actitud radicalmente íntima no es posible en el tipo de textos que estudiamos, ya que sería contradictoria con el mero hecho de publicar el diario en un sitio público. se trata más bien del grado en que el autor tematiza a su lector en el mundo discursivo del diario, y del grado en que la instancia del lector se vuelve más concreta o específica. patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170152 de la combinación de los dos ejes resultan seis objetivos comunicativos (véase la tabla 2), que, evidentemente, pueden combinarse en un solo relato. en lo que sigue representamos los objetivos comunicativos de forma esquemática, comentamos algunos ejemplos de cada categoría y aplicamos las categorías al corpus de relatos sobre bélgica. cuando el autor se centra en la realización del viaje y adopta una actitud íntima, describe su viaje dejando constancia del mismo, como si estuviera escribiendo un diario personal íntimo, no destinado a ser publicado. la comunicación con el lector se establece mediante el acto de publicar el relato, más que en el acto discursivo mismo. al publicar el diario, el autor crea la posibilidad de compartir sus vivencias con las personas que estén dispuestas a leerlas (volo, 2010). este objetivo “descriptivo” a menudo permanece implícito (“mera descripción”), manifestándose en la ausencia de metacomentarios (fragmento 4), pero también se puede realizar mediante referencias al “interés informativo” que podría tener para los lectores (fragmento 5). (4) etapa: un día en brujas. en nuestra escapada a bélgica de solo tres días, uno de ellos lo dedicamos a conocer brujas. tan solo una hora de tren desde bruselas nos separaba de una ciudad realmente atrayente y hermosa … (escapadadefinde, “caer bajo el hechizo de brujas”) (5) esto no es un diario de un viaje por bélgica como tal, y seguro que está hasta mal escrito. pero de todas formas, voy a contar algo sobre este país por si a alguien le puede interesar. (spab, “gante, brujas, bruselas, amberes y mucho más”) a veces los autores aluden al mismo “interés informativo” mediante una referencia a sus experiencias como lector de diarios: los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 153 patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): …-… (vamos a todo el mundo que me lío yo solo) (jaspy77, “bélgica: goloso fin de año”) de forma analítica, proponemos definir los objetivos comunicativos de los diarios con respecto a dos ejes. el primer eje refleja la manera en que el autor se acerca al viaje, esto es si hace hincapié en la “realización” del viaje, la “evaluación” del viaje, o la “narración” del viaje. el segundo eje tiene que ver con la orientación interpersonal del diario: la orientación puede ser más bien “íntima”, o más bien “interactiva”. el diario íntimo se presenta como un acto de expresión personal, y un diario interactivo como un acto de comunicación dirigido explícitamente a un público de lectores. evidentemente, una actitud radicalmente íntima no es posible en el tipo de textos que estudiamos, ya que sería contradictoria con el mero hecho de publicar el diario en un sitio público. se trata más bien del grado en que el autor tematiza a su lector en el mundo discursivo del diario, y del grado en que la instancia del lector se vuelve más concreta o específica. de la combinación de los dos ejes resultan seis objetivos comunicativos (véase la tabla 2), que, evidentemente, pueden combinarse en un solo relato. en lo que sigue representamos los objetivos comunicativos de forma esquemática, comentamos algunos ejemplos de cada categoría y aplicamos las categorías al corpus de relatos sobre bélgica. énfasis en: actitud íntima actitud interactiva la realización del viaje describir lo que se ha hecho (mera descripción, interés informativo) explicar cómo se puede hacer (utilidad práctica) la evaluación del viaje evaluar retrospectivamente los diferentes aspectos del viaje (evaluación personal) recomendar o desaconsejar ciertos aspectos (recomendación) la narración reflexionar sobre el viaje (reflexión) narrar una historia (narración) tabla 2. los objetivos comunicativos de los diarios de viajes. cuando el autor se centra en la realización del viaje y adopta una actitud íntima, describe su viaje dejando constancia del mismo, como si estuviera escribiendo un diario personal íntimo, no destinado a ser publicado. la comunicación con el lector se establece mediante el acto de publicar el relato, más que en el acto discursivo mismo. al publicar el diario, el autor crea la posibilidad de compartir sus vivencias con las personas que estén dispuestas a leerlas (volo, 2010). este objetivo “descriptivo” a menudo permanece implícito (“mera descripción”), manifestándose en la ausencia de metacomentarios (fragmento 4), pero también se puede realizar mediante referencias al “interés informativo” que podría tener para los lectores (fragmento 5). (4) etapa: un día en brujas. (6) a decir verdad, bélgica nunca me había llamado la atención, (...) hasta que claro … un día aburrido me da por leer diarios en el foro (bendito foro), y veo bélgica es más de lo que pensaba… (davovo, “bélgica exquisita”) pasando al polo interactivo de la primera dimensión, observamos casos en los que el autor dice que quiere “explicar” al lector cómo puede realizar el viaje, o ciertos aspectos del viaje. el “interés informativo” se convierte en “utilidad práctica”. como veremos más adelante, las referencias explícitas a este objetivo son relativamente numerosas. cuando se explicita este objetivo comunicativo, el autor suele partir del supuesto de que sus lectores ya tienen la intención de ir al destino descrito: (7) este es el pequeño diario del viaje que hemos realizado en agosto de 2009 a bélgica mi novia y yo. intentaré explicar todo lo mejor que pueda, para que os sirva de ayuda a los que tenéis pensado viajar a este país. (kimono, “viaje por bélgica-agosto 2009”) los autores pueden hacer alusión al mismo objetivo de utilidad práctica mediante una referencia a su experiencia como lector: (8) espero que quienes los lean les sirva de algo a la hora de hacer su viaje….ya que a nosotros los diarios de los demás y las ayudas en los foros nos han ayudado un montón en los pocos viajes que hemos hecho!! (jaimeysabri, “viaje a bélgica en invierno, en 5 días”) pasamos ahora a la segunda dimensión, la “evaluación del viaje”. se encuentran varios fragmentos en los que el autor empieza o concluye su discurso con una evaluación explícita del viaje. incluso hay un autor que puntúa la ciudad, introduciendo en el diario personal un rasgo conocido de otras aplicaciones sociales: (9) [bruselas] puntuacion de la ciudad: 8,5/10 (arundhati, “bruselas prepara la navidad”) también la evaluación puede tener una orientación íntima o interactiva. el fragmento (10) es un ejemplo de una actitud íntima porque se trata de una reflexión sobre la experiencia personal que no se proyecta hacia los lectores. en el fragmento (11), en cambio, la evaluación retrospectiva personal se patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170154 convierte en el acto interactivo de aconsejar o desaconsejar ciertos elementos a futuros viajeros. (10) conclusión: este viaje fue un respiro para nosotras, un romper con la rutina.. (...) tuvimos muchisima suerte con el tiempo, con la compañia aerea, los hoteles, las visitas.. que más podemos pedir?? (menfis, “carnaval en bruselas”) (11) estas pocas ciudades son algunas de las muchas que pueden visitarse en bélgica, pero tan solo una pequeña muestra de lo que este país ofrece al viajero. (...) ya saben, pásense por bélgica, y comprueben por ustedes mismos lo que les depara. (spab, “gante, brujas, bruselas, amberes y mucho más”) en tercer lugar, el autor puede llamar la atención sobre la narración del viaje. en el fragmento (12) vemos la orientación íntima de esta dimensión, que llamaremos la “orientación reflexiva”, cuando el autor dice muy explícitamente que la narración implica prolongar los recuerdos y rememorar las vivencias: (12) ... me voy a animar a contaros el viaje realizado en el puente de diciembre a bélgica. es ésta una manera de seguir disfrutando del mismo, pues el sentarse a rellenar estas hojas es una forma de prolongar los recuerdos y de dejar reposar las vivencias que se van sucediendo, muchas veces de manera un poco apresurada, por el hecho de tener que apurar el escaso tiempo que tenemos para tantas maravillas por ver. (merche 138, “de encaje y chocolate: diario de un viaje por tierras belgas”) y, finalmente, en el fragmento (13), el autor evoca la dimensión narrativa cuando dice que ha querido hacer una contribución interesante y que espera que el lector lo aprecie (“estrellitas para mi”) y que incluso puede aprender –entiéndase como autor del blog, no como viajerode eventuales críticas. (13) espero no haber sido muy pesado (...) como siempre, os dejo mi mail javi0220@gmail.com por si teneis alguna duda. en el foro también os podré contestar. gracias por leer hasta el final y si te ha gustado estrellitas para mi y sino te ha gustado se admiten críticas que de todo se aprende. (javi0220, “del manneken al big ben 1° parte”) los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 155 a continuación, evaluaremos la importancia relativa de los objetivos comunicativos. así, esperamos poder deducir cuáles son los objetivos que la comunidad (indefinida, por definición) de autores particulares, no profesionales, atribuye mayoritariamente a los diarios de viajes. hemos codificado el paratexto, y los párrafos iniciales y los párrafos finales de los diarios y definido si uno o varios de los objetivos comunicativos se manifiestan en el fragmento. los resultados cuantitativos se refieren al número de diarios en que aparece la categoría. la primera categoría (“mera descripción”) es una categoría residual que significa que el fragmento se limita a describir el viaje factualmente y no comprende referencias a o manifestaciones abiertas de los otros objetivos. las otras categorías pueden aparecer simultáneamente. en la figura 1 se presentan los resultados. queremos llamar la atención sobre algunas tendencias que se manifiestan en estos datos. en términos generales, hay que destacar que un número importante de diarios empieza por describir el viaje realizado sin introducir elementos evaluativos marcados, o sin identificar ningún objetivo comunicativo en particular (“mera descripción”). al final del diario, esto es mucho más raro. por otra parte, también son muy frecuentes los diarios en los que se manifiestan abiertamente los objetivos de ofrecer información práctica y de expresar una evaluación personal. ambos objetivos suelen recogerse de forma explícita al final del diario aunque se realizan de manera patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170156 nombre archivo: 09 iberica 25 ubicación del error donde dice debe decir pág. 145, línea 2 del abstract inglés tourist texts tourism texts pág. 147, pfo 3, línea 4 por el final nvivo9 nvivo9 pág. 148, tabla 1, columna izada, línea 4 un aspecto en particular un aspecto particular pág. 151, tabla 2 en esta tabla hay 3 filas de diferente información que no quedan claras. pego a continuación el ejemplo de a qué tres filas diferenciadas me refiero (pero no para sustituir la tabla). habría que dejar un poco de espacio entre las líneas 2 y 3, y también entre las líneas 5 y 6. pág. 153, último párrafo el último párrafo (gracias por leer...) es parte del ejemplo (13) y no debe ir como párrafo aparte. pág. 154, figura 1 no se ve con claridad la letra. envío la figura de nuevo para volver a insertarla o lo que sea necesario. pág. 159, tabla 4, columna derecha, línea 5 venezolana venezolana pág. 160, línea 2 con su retrato con retratos énfasis en: actitud íntima actitud interactiva la realización del viaje describir lo que se ha hecho (mera descripción, interés informativo) explicar cómo se puede hacer (utilidad práctica) la evaluación del viaje evaluar retrospectivamente los diferentes aspectos del viaje (evaluación personal) recomendar o desaconsejar ciertos aspectos (recomendación) la narración reflexionar sobre el viaje (reflexión) narrar una historia (narración) los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): …-… y los párrafos iniciales y los párrafos finales de los diarios y definido si uno o varios de los objetivos comunicativos se manifiestan en el fragmento. los resultados cuantitativos se refieren al número de diarios en que aparece la categoría. la primera categoría (“mera descripción”) es una categoría residual que significa que el fragmento se limita a describir el viaje factualmente y no comprende referencias a o manifestaciones abiertas de los otros objetivos. las otras categorías pueden aparecer simultáneamente. en la figura 1 se presentan los resultados. figura 1. los objetivos comunicativos en el corpus de blogs turísticos. queremos llamar la atención sobre algunas tendencias que se manifiestan en estos datos. en términos generales, hay que destacar que un número importante de diarios empieza por describir el viaje realizado sin introducir elementos evaluativos marcados, o sin identificar ningún objetivo comunicativo en particular (“mera descripción”). al final del diario, esto es mucho más raro. por otra parte, también son muy frecuentes los diarios en los que se manifiestan abiertamente los objetivos de ofrecer información práctica y de expresar una evaluación personal. ambos objetivos suelen recogerse de forma explícita al final del diario aunque se realizan de manera diferente al principio: la referencia a la utilidad práctica suele producirse en los párrafos iniciales, mientras que la referencia a la evaluación se sitúa en el paratexto, por ejemplo en un título que expresa un juicio de valor. diferente al principio: la referencia a la utilidad práctica suele producirse en los párrafos iniciales, mientras que la referencia a la evaluación se sitúa en el paratexto, por ejemplo en un título que expresa un juicio de valor. en segundo lugar, llama la atención que la categoría “recomendar” sea menos frecuente que la categoría “utilidad práctica” o “evaluación personal”. a nuestro juicio, puede ser un indicio de las normas sociales vigentes acerca del papel de los autores particulares. vemos que los autores destacan más los actos comunicativos de reducida imposición social (ayudar a los futuros viajeros con consejos prácticos, y expresar una evaluación de sus experiencias personales). el acto de recomendar es más impositivo, porque el autor sugiere tener autoridad suficiente para intentar influir en el comportamiento de los lectores. las cifras muestran que los autores no tienen tendencia a enfatizar este objetivo, a pesar de que hoy en día los contenidos generados por usuarios gozan de una gran credibilidad, y a pesar de que los usuarios suelen tener confianza en ellos (bosangit, mccabe y hibbert, 2009). la norma social parece ser, pues, que el autor particular no debe imponerse explícitamente. en el apartado 3.3. sobre los participantes discursivos, y la autoridad del autor volveremos sobre esta afirmación. en tercer lugar, en cuanto a la categoría de la “reflexión”, se observa que las reflexiones sobre la posible significación del viaje, o sobre la significación que puede tener para el autor la escritura del diario, aparecen con mayor frecuencia en el paratexto que en el texto mismo. también retomaremos este dato en la sección 4 al comentar los intentos de ciertos autores de dar un toque literario a su relato. 3.2. movimientos retóricos como es habitual en los estudios de género, intentamos definir los movimientos retóricos recurrentes. el modelo es el resultado de la codificación de una selección de diarios, y está diseñado para poder servir como tertium comparationis para futuros estudios cuantitativos, que tendrán como objetivo identificar las diferencias entre estos diarios y otros textos. por ejemplo, para describir diferencias entre el género de los diarios de viaje y el de las guías de viaje, diferencias interculturales entre autores de diferentes orígenes, diferencias de contenido entre diarios sobre diferentes destinos, etc. como se observa en la tabla 3, distinguimos seis macromovimientos, que pueden subdividirse según el tema o la realización concreta de la función comunicativa. en “organizar la narración” están agrupados algunos los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 157 movimientos que afectan a la narración y a los participantes en el evento comunicativo, principalmente identificar el objetivo comunicativo del diario y abrir y cerrar el relato. a continuación aparecen cuatro macromovimientos informativos, que se distinguen por el tipo de información que ofrecen. en primer lugar, es un tema y una preocupación recurrente describir cómo se puede reunir información sobre el destino, antes o a lo largo del viaje. en segundo lugar, los autores comunican información enciclopédica sobre el destino, por ejemplo explicaciones sobre la historia de las ciudades o los monumentos. la hipótesis es, sin duda, que este movimiento retórico es más típico de las guías de viaje que de los diarios: aunque en los diarios también encontramos informaciones de este tipo, se mitiga a menudo su función, con modalizadores como “no sé” o “no me acuerdo muy bien”, y algunos autores incluso añaden comentarios irónicos del tipo “un poco de historia … menudo rollo ¿no?” (escapadadefinde, “poner una “pica” en flandes”). en la tercera dimensión informativa, el autor comunica qué selección ha hecho entre la oferta turística existente: qué trenes, qué hoteles, qué restaurantes, qué ciudades o monumentos, etc. la utilidad práctica del diario (véase el apartado anterior), a menudo consiste en explicar a los lectores qué selección se puede hacer, o qué actividades se pueden combinar en un día. en cuarto lugar, los autores describen las circunstancias de la visita: el tiempo que hacía, si había mucha gente o poca, si había obras, e incluimos aquí también las referencias a encuentros con otras personas. son típicos contenidos de los diarios que no suelen encontrarse por ejemplo en las guías de viaje. es importante enfatizar que cada uno de estos movimientos informativos puede comprender elementos descriptivos y elementos evaluativos. se podría objetar que describir y evaluar son objetivos comunicativos diferentes, y, por tanto, deberían ser considerados movimientos diferentes, en lugar de dimensiones o realizaciones de un mismo movimiento retórico. la razón por la que proponemos, no obstante, una clasificación basada en los tipos de información es que ésta sigue más de cerca la subdivisión en unidades textuales (párrafos, frases o cláusulas), mientras que las descripciones y evaluaciones se suelen mezclar dentro de la misma unidad. el modelo expuesto debería permitir cuantificar la cobertura textual de los diferentes movimientos retóricos. finalmente, prevemos una categoría que da cabida a diferentes tipos de reflexiones personales y/o filosóficas, que van más allá de las evaluaciones subjetivas en los movimientos anteriores. patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170158 3.3. el evento comunicativo y los participantes los diarios constituyen eventos comunicativos, en los que participan los autores, los lectores y, de manera más indirecta, los compañeros de viaje. a continuación describimos brevemente estos aspectos con el fin de saber qué información se puede inferir de los relatos. empezamos por describir la situación temporal del diario con respecto del viaje realizado. luego describimos en qué medida los relatos ofrecen información sobre los participantes (edad, profesión, origen geográfico, nombre, ...), y, finalmente, haremos hincapié en un aspecto particular de la identidad discursiva del autor, que es su (mermada) autoridad. los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 159 patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): …-… ! organizar la narración • aludir al objetivo comunicativo del diario • abrir y cerrar el relato: por ejemplo, agradeciendo a los lectores ! información sobre: reunir información turística • antes del viaje: pedir y descargar folletos, páginas web, diarios de viaje, … • durante el viaje: guías turísticas, carteles/señalización, información descargada e imprimida, oficinas de turismo, profesionales del turismo, otros viajeros … • señalar problemas de comunicación: en el transporte, la oficina de turismo, los hoteles/restaurantes/bares, las tiendas, la calle, … ! información sobre: el destino (información enciclopédica) • clima • país/región • las ciudades • los monumentos • atracciones • sociedad (costumbres, lenguas, ...) ! información sobre: la selección realizada de la oferta turística • viajes de ida y regreso (compañía, destino, precio, horario …) • transporte durante el viaje • alojamiento (infraestructura, precios, situación) • restaurantes y bares • comidas y bebidas • ciudades visitadas: oferta gratuita (contemplación) • monumentos/museos/atracciones (oferta de pago) • actividades deportivas • gestión del tiempo (qué cosas combinar en un día), itinerario ! información sobre: las circunstancias de la visita • tiempo • situación (obras, ...) • mucha gente/ poca gente • describir encuentros con gente (con profesionales del turismo, gente local, otros turistas compatriotas o no compatriotas, …) • experiencias anecdóticas ! reflexiones personales/filosóficas durante el viaje • comparaciones con el país propio • reflexiones sobre la historia del país de destino, o sobre el pasado común • reflexiones sobre la sociedad del país de destino, y sobre eventuales diferencias interculturales • reflexiones sobre los viajes, la vida, los contactos humanos, … tabla 3. modelo descriptivo de los movimientos retóricos de los diarios de viaje. es importante enfatizar que cada uno de estos movimientos informativos puede comprender elementos descriptivos y elementos evaluativos. se podría objetar que describir y evaluar son objetivos comunicativos diferentes, y, por tanto, deberían ser considerados movimientos diferentes, en lugar de dimensiones o realizaciones de un mismo movimiento retórico. la razón por la que proponemos, no obstante, una clasificación basada en los tipos de información es que ésta sigue más de cerca la subdivisión en unidades textuales (párrafos, frases o cláusulas), mientras que las descripciones y evaluaciones se suelen mezclar dentro de la misma unidad. el modelo expuesto debería permitir cuantificar la cobertura textual de los diferentes movimientos retóricos. 3.3.1. situación temporal en la figura 2, hemos calculado el intervalo temporal entre la fecha de publicación del diario (definida automáticamente) y la realización del viaje. los porcentajes se han calculado con respecto al número de casos “conocidos”. como puede comprobarse, en ocho casos no existe suficiente información para asignar el diario a una de las categorías previstas. llama la atención que son relativamente pocos los diarios publicados durante o inmediatamente después del viaje. el grupo más grande se publica entre un mes y tres meses después del viaje, pero también es relativamente frecuente que pase casi un año, o incluso más tiempo entre el viaje y el relato. los diarios de viaje están, pues, claramente menos ligados a la actualidad que otros tipos de blogs digitales (herring et al., 2004). en unos casos, su objetivo comunicativo incluso radica en reavivar recuerdos lejanos (véase el fragmento (12) anteriormente comentado). aunque no lo hemos cuantificado, también nos ha llamado la atención que se siguen publicando comentarios hasta varios años después de la publicación del diario, a diferencia de lo que suele ocurrir en otros blogs (herring et al., 2004). 3.3.2. los participantes en la tabla 4 reunimos la información sobre la identidad del autor y/o los compañeros de viaje. esta información se puede deducir, en primer lugar, del patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170160 los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): …-… finalmente, prevemos una categoría que da cabida a diferentes tipos de reflexiones personales y/o filosóficas, que van más allá de las evaluaciones subjetivas en los movimientos anteriores. 3.3. el evento comunicativo y los participantes los diarios constituyen eventos comunicativos, en los que participan los autores, los lectores y, de manera más indirecta, los compañeros de viaje. a continuación describimos brevemente estos aspectos con el fin de saber qué información se puede inferir de los relatos. empezamos por describir la situación temporal del diario con respecto del viaje realizado. luego describimos en qué medida los relatos ofrecen información sobre los participantes (edad, profesión, origen geográfico, nombre, ...), y, finalmente, haremos hincapié en un aspecto particular de la identidad discursiva del autor, que es su (mermada) autoridad. 3.3.1. situación temporal en la figura 2, hemos calculado el intervalo temporal entre la fecha de publicación del diario (definida automáticamente) y la realización del viaje. los porcentajes se han calculado con respecto al número de casos “conocidos”. como puede comprobarse, en ocho casos no existe suficiente información para asignar el diario a una de las categorías previstas. llama la atención que son relativamente pocos los diarios publicados durante o inmediatamente después del viaje. el grupo más grande se publica entre un mes y tres meses después del viaje, pero también es relativamente frecuente que pase casi un año, o incluso más tiempo entre el viaje y el relato. figura 2. intervalo temporal entre la realización del viaje y la publicación del diario. “perfil” del autor en el blog de comunidad (y que prevé secciones para definir un nombre, un logotipo – llamado “avatar” –, la ocupación y la localización, además de datos técnicos como el número de intervenciones en el blog, o la fecha de ingreso), y, en segundo lugar, del relato mismo. en general, tenemos que concluir que los autores parecen esforzarse para mantener el anonimato. en el perfil suelen añadir muy poca información: en la mayoría de los casos ni el nombre ni el avatar elegido permiten deducir el sexo del autor. casi nunca se rellena la ocupación e incluso la localización a menudo queda sin definir. así, el valor informativo del perfil se reduce en la práctica a los datos recogidos automáticamente, como la fecha de ingreso, el número de diarios publicados o el número de mensajes en general. de los relatos se puede deducir más información, aunque cabe decir que esto exige una lectura pormenorizada del diario. muy pocos relatos presentan a los protagonistas, y casi siempre se debe deducir el género del autor de breves comentarios tipo “mi marido se echó una siesta”, o se debe deducir la edad del autor de información sobre los precios de los billetes. el mismo deseo de mantener el anonimato se puede ver en el hecho de que en la los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 161 los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): …-… sin datos resultados (los porcentajes en esta columna se han calculado con respecto al número de casos “conocidos”) perfil sexo del autor (avatar, nombre de autor) 21 (57%) mujer: 8 (50%) varón: 7 (44%) pareja: 1 (6%) localización 16 (43%)6 varias ciudades o regiones. salvo una autora (venezolana) todos son españoles ocupación 32 (86%) relato sexo del autor 12 (32%) mujer: 15 (60%) varón: 9 (36%) pareja: 1 (4%) edad del autor y/o los compañeros de viaje 16 (43%) menores de 26 años: 6 (29%) adultos: 12 (56%) adultos con hijos: 2 (10%) adultos y personas mayores: 1 (5%) tipo de grupo 2 (5%) pareja (explícito): 9 (26%) pareja (implícito): 11 (32%) familia con hijos: 2 (6%) grupo de dos amigos: 3 (9%) grupo de 3 a 6 personas: 7 (20%) grupo de 7 a 20 personas: 2 (6%) visita a amigos: 1 (3%) nombre del autor y/o de al menos un compañero de viaje 32 (87%) fotos con retratos 22 (59%) tabla 4. datos sociológicos de los autores y/o los compañeros de viaje. desde el punto de vista de la investigación en turismo, estos datos sugieren que los relatos no son útiles para deducir información sociológica sobre los turistas que visitan la región: la información es muy incompleta (además de ser costosa de reunir). tal vez sí pueda llevar a estudios discursivos más pormenorizados, por ejemplo para comparar el tipo de relatos escritos por autores femeninos y masculinos. 3.3.3. la autoridad del autor la identidad del autor no se limita a los datos sociológicos, sino que también tiene una dimensión discursiva. gelb y sundaram (2002) (citado en volo, 2010: 299) afirmaron a este respecto que los autores de blogs son “autoridades autodesignadas”. sin embargo, en contra de esta afirmación, queremos llamar la atención sobre una serie de fragmentos que revelan que los autores de diarios de viajes más bien tienen tendencia a mitigar su autoridad, o a ironizar sobre ella. mayoría de los diarios no se menciona ningún nombre (87%), ni se publican fotos con retratos (56%). es de esperar que en este sentido los diarios públicos difieran considerablemente de relatos publicados en medios sociales semi-abiertos como facebook. desde el punto de vista de la investigación en turismo, estos datos sugieren que los relatos no son útiles para deducir información sociológica sobre los turistas que visitan la región: la información es muy incompleta (además de ser costosa de reunir). tal vez sí pueda llevar a estudios discursivos más pormenorizados, por ejemplo para comparar el tipo de relatos escritos por autores femeninos y masculinos. 3.3.3. la autoridad del autor la identidad del autor no se limita a los datos sociológicos, sino que también tiene una dimensión discursiva. gelb y sundaram (2002) (citado en volo, 2010: 299) afirmaron a este respecto que los autores de blogs son “autoridades autodesignadas”. sin embargo, en contra de esta afirmación, queremos llamar la atención sobre una serie de fragmentos que revelan que los autores de diarios de viajes más bien tienen tendencia a mitigar su autoridad, o a ironizar sobre ella. así, ponen en duda su experiencia o su talento como narrador (fragmento 14). pero también a la hora de hacer comparaciones o de evaluar el destino introducen elementos mitigadores, tipo “nose” [sic] o “aunque” (fragmento 15), o plantean explícitamente que su juicio puede ser subjetivo y que los lectores deberían juzgar ellos mismos (fragmento 16). incluso es fácil encontrar fragmentos en los que el autor ironiza sobre sus propios conocimientos (fragmento 17). (14) este es nuestro 1er diario de viajes y no sabemos del todo que tal saldrá de modo que no esperéis gran cosa. (jaimeysabri, “viaje a bélgica en invierno, en 5 días”) (15) como resumen, pues me deja muy buen sabor de boca, jeje y no solo por los chocolates y la cerveza! jeje me recuerda un poco a holanda, pero esto es más histórico, nose me ha gustado más aunque son paises diferentes con cosas diferentes para ver. (lord_soth, “belgica: bruselas, brujas y gante”) (16) yo no sé si eso [couques, un tipo de galletas] es así de duro patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170162 siempre, o es que nos dieron alguno ya caducado. en fin, yo no lo recomendaría mucho, pero como sobre gustos no hay nada escrito, también podéis probarlos, que no son muy caros, y opinar vosotros mismos, que tampoco quiero yo arruinar el negocio del pueblo. ☺(bibiana, “casi ocho días recorriendo bélgica”) (17) por el camino nos encontramos con el edificio de la comisión europea (creo, porque con tanto edificio oficial...), (bibiana, “casi ocho días recorriendo bélgica”) de manera muy similar a lo que hemos concluido a propósito de los objetivos comunicativos, estas mitigaciones contribuyen a crear un evento comunicativo poco impositivo: no solo se enfatizan los objetivos comunicativos menos impositivos, sino que los autores se muestran explícitamente humildes y se perfilan también como autores no profesionales. 4. características estilísticas terminamos la descripción del género con unas breves reflexiones sobre dos características estilísticas de los diarios, que son su eventual carácter literario, y el uso de proverbios y de giros idiomáticos. 4.1. ¿estilo literario? como ya hemos observado, varios autores de diarios cuestionan su propio talento como autor, y, de hecho, muy a menudo los relatos parecen tener pocas ambiciones literarias: la narración suele seguir muy de cerca el orden cronológico de los hechos, no hay referencias intertextuales a fuentes literarias, y en unos relatos incluso abundan los errores de lengua y, particularmente, de ortografía. en algunas ocasiones, sin embargo, el autor sí introduce ciertos elementos que podrían conferir al texto un carácter más propiamente literario o reflexivo, y que podrían acercar su relato a los de autores de relatos de viaje literarios (cronin, 2000). un ejemplo es el título “poner una pica en flandes”, que aparece en dos relatos. el título añade una dimensión reflexiva a la descripción del viaje mismo, al evocar la historia compartida de españa y flandes. se trata, de hecho, de una especie de memoria histórica plasmada en la lengua. en el fragmento (18) el autor explica el significado del dicho: los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 163 (18) esta expresión nació en la época de carlos v. en esa época y en las décadas siguientes el imperio español estaba envuelto en varios conflictos, contra turquía, inglaterra, portugal, francia, flandes… en este panorama, belicoso y revuelto, era muy complicado formar un ejército y hacerlo llegar hasta flandes, ya que ante la imposibilidad de atravesar francia, las huestes tenían que pasar por el mediterráneo y desde allí, hasta flandes, por lo que el viaje era largo y costoso. gracias a los “piqueros” soldados con una lanza larga muy efectiva llamada “pica” se consiguió la victoria. así pues, carlos v, consiguió a toda costa, “poner una pica en flandes” es decir, llevar a buen puerto algo muy complicado de resolver. visitar bruselas en enero a pesar del frío y de la nieve no fue como “poner una pica en flandes” fue más bien “coser y cantar”…pero de lo de “coser y cantar” ya lo contaré en otro ocasión… (escapadadefinde, “poner una “pica” en flandes”) sin embargo, este tipo de reflexiones lingüístico-históricas son excepcionales en el corpus, y, principalmente, tienen un alcance limitado, porque ocupan posiciones periféricas. así, en el ejemplo citado, el proverbio se encuentra en el título, y la explicación en el paratexto. pero la reflexión no llega a estructurar el relato mismo: no se elabora, ni se profundiza en ella. el autor incluso llega a cuestionar la relevancia del título cuando dice que no se usa por lo que significa (“realizar una empresa difícil”), ya que el viaje no ha sido difícil, sino todo lo contrario (al final del diario el autor dice explícitamente que “‘poner una pica en flandes’ solo ha sido un título para este diario”). recuérdese a este respecto la observación cuantitativa de que el número de referencias al objetivo comunicativo “reflexión” son más frecuentes en el paratexto que en los párrafos iniciales del diario. se comprueba, pues, que la reflexión se ha añadido como una especie de fachada, como un adorno relativamente ajeno al resto del texto. en el ejemplo siguiente (fragmento 19) vemos otro tipo de técnica para introducir un toque “literario” o narrativo en el relato. se trata de un intento de desplazar el centro deíctico y de vincularlo al marco temporal del relato (“hoy empezamos”). mediante esta técnica de focalización intradiegética (genette, 2007) se puede dar una mayor vivacidad al relato porque sugiere que lo vemos “desde dentro”. comprobamos, sin embargo, que el autor solo maneja el recurso en la primera frase. después, el centro deíctico vuelve a ser patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170164 el momento en que escribe (en el mes de octubre, siete meses después de su viaje), y se usa de nuevo el pretérito para describir el viaje (“vimos”): (19) hoy empezamos nuestro fin de semana en bélgica que esperamos nos ayude a desconectar como siempre un poquito de la rutina del día a día. de los precios no me acuerdo muy bien pero no nos gastamos mucho y os cuento todo lo que vimos para que os hagais una idea y os ayude a organizar vuestra escapadita. vimos 3 ciudades que por supuesto se les puede dedicar más días, pero que si no se tiene tiempo tres es perfecto!! volamos desde madrid el 19 de abril a las 6.45 de la mañana con brussels airlines y llegamos al aeropuerto principal de bruselas a las 9.15. (raqtm, “escapada a bruselas, brujas y gante”) 4.2. uso de proverbios y locuciones: solidaridad lingüística en realidad, el ejemplo que aparece en el fragmento (18) con el proverbio “poner una pica en flandes” revela menos el deseo de incluir reflexiones históricas en el discurso, que el uso frecuente de una técnica de redacción, que es el uso de proverbios o colocaciones idiomáticas. por poner unos ejemplos, el proverbio “donde fueres, haz lo que vieres”, que se repite varias veces, o proverbios como “muerto el perro, se acabó la rabia”, “algo estaba tan bueno que no se lo saltaba un gitano”, “algo se queda en el tintero”, “por mucho madrugar no amanece más temprano”, “nuestro gozo en un pozo”, entre muchos otros. aparte de los proverbios, también las locuciones idiomáticas se usan con mucha regularidad. los viajeros “reponen fuerzas” en 14 diarios, algo “no tiene pérdida” (5 ejemplos), se le “queda una espin(it)a a alguien” (3 ejemplos), “se acabó lo que se daba”, se “cambia de tercio”, etc. al utilizar proverbios y locuciones idiomáticas, los autores recurren a un patrimonio lingüístico, que no es particularmente original, pero sí reconocible para los lectores. opinamos que el uso de este patrimonio compartido contribuye a crear un marco de solidaridad entre el autor y los lectores, lo cual confirma la idea de que los diarios son percibidos en la comunidad discursiva como eventos enfocados en una forma de comunicación poco impositiva, por parte de autores modestos y solidarios con su público. los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 165 5. para concluir: posibles aplicaciones concluimos con un breve repaso de posibles aplicaciones del análisis y de la compilación del corpus de diarios de viajes. tradicionalmente, los estudios de género llevan a aplicaciones didácticas en el sentido de que se enseña a los estudiantes no solo temas de gramática o de vocabulario, sino también las convenciones discursivas del género (hyland, 2007). en el caso de los diarios de viaje, esto es menos relevante, ya que no se trata de un género académico o profesional que los estudiantes deberían aprender a redactar para mejorar sus perspectivas profesionales. sin embargo, el corpus sí podrá explotarse para desarrollar materiales útiles para la didáctica del lenguaje turístico, porque permite a futuros profesionales del turismo no hispanohablantes entrar en contacto directo con el lenguaje utilizado por sus futuros clientes. los diarios constituyen fuentes de lectura y de aprendizaje de vocabulario muy valiosas. piénsese, por ejemplo, en las muy numerosas locuciones idiomáticas que precisamente caracterizan este tipo de discursos. desde una perspectiva analítica, los modelos descriptivos presentados deberían servir para el desarrollo de futuras investigaciones empíricas. concretamente, proveen un tertium comparationis para identificar diferencias entre tipos de diarios de viaje, o entre los diarios de viaje y géneros colindantes, como las guías de viaje, los reportajes, los folletos, o los relatos publicados en sitios web semipúblicos (tipo facebook). además, la aplicación de herramientas de análisis de corpus al corpus digital de diarios podrá generar datos directamente utilizables o requeridos por las instancias oficiales de turismo. el programa nvivo9, que utilizamos en el marco de este proyecto, permite extraer los párrafos en los que se habla de algún monumento o atracción, (o una combinación), o permite generar listas de términos que aparecen en el contexto inmediato. estos datos pueden servir para conocer la valoración de los turistas, aunque también pueden ofrecer una utilidad didáctica. los datos reunidos ya permiten formular ciertas sugerencias para la política comunicativa de las instancias turísticas oficiales. así, por ejemplo, el plan de comunicación más reciente de turismo flandes, relativo al período 20122016, se refiere explícitamente a la importancia del marketing “de boca a boca”, y quiere fomentar la comunicación entre los consumidores en los medios digitales sociales. nuestros datos muestran en todo caso que existe un número considerable de diarios escritos en español sobre bélgica, y que patrick goethals ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170166 se siguen publicando nuevos diarios con bastante regularidad. es evidente que se pueden utilizar estos blogs para promocionar el destino, por ejemplo mediante enlaces en la página web o en mensajes twitter de la instancia oficial (de hecho, ya se está llevando a cabo esta última práctica). pero también existen otros tipos de iniciativas, como la creación de un diario dentro de la web de la instancia oficial (por ejemplo, el diario de un estudiante erasmus en la página de turismo flandes) o un concurso de redacción de diarios (véase volo (2010) sobre el sitio web de tirol, italia). teniendo en cuenta los resultados del análisis de género, pensamos que en estas iniciativas hay que ser consciente del enfoque típico de los diarios, que parecen dar prioridad a la información práctica y la evaluación subjetiva personal, más que al objetivo de recomendar el destino de manera explícita, o a la ambición literaria. además, los autores suelen mantener el anonimato. en iniciativas como un concurso de redacción, probablemente el enfoque será diferente: los autores tendrán que identificarse, y los relatos pueden ser percibidos como más promocionales (es lo que comprobó en efecto volo, 2010). para preservar la credibilidad y la autenticidad de los diarios, podría centrarse en la utilidad práctica, con sugerencias como “ideas de viajeros para visitar bélgica en tres/cuatro/cinco/... días”, pero tal vez la mejor opción sea animar a los turistas a publicar sus relatos en los blogs de comunidades de viajeros existentes, en lugar de introducirlos en la web de la instancia oficial: el marco del macrogénero es lo que parece garantizar la credibilidad de los diarios. 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(1995). “text and clause: fractal resonance”. text 15: 5-42. rubben, m. y e. van soom (2011). user generated content. een verkennend onderzoek naar het belang, de kennis en het gebruik in de vlaamse toeristische sector. toerisme research papers 24 (vol. 24): steunpunt buitenlands beleid, toerisme en recreatie, spoor toerisme en recreatie. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. tussyadiah, i. y d. fesenmaier (2008). “marketing places through first-person stories: an analysis of pennsylvania roadtripper blog”. journal of travel & tourism marketing 25: 299-311. volo, s. (2010). “bloggers’ reported tourist experiences: their utility as a tourism data source and their effect on prospective tourists”. journal of vacation marketing 16: 297-311. wenger, a. (2008). “analysis of travel bloggers’ characteristics and their communication about austria as a tourism destination”. journal of vacation marketing 14: 169-176. woodside, g., f. cruickshank y n. dehuang (2007). “stories visitors tell about italian cities as destination icons”. tourism management 28: 162174. notas 1 una búsqueda mediante combinaciones de las palabras clave “diario(s)”, “blog”, “viaje”, “viajero”, “bruselas”, “brujas”, “bélgica” dio referencias a los sitios <losviajeros.com>, <viajeros.com>, <vacacionamos.com>, y <diariodelviajero.com>. el sitio <losviajeros.com> es el sitio con el mayor número de diarios, escritos por particulares, dedicados exclusivamente a bélgica. 2 volo (2010) distingue entre blogs personales, blogs de comunidades de viajeros, y blogs de destinos turísticos, siendo <losviajeros.com> un claro ejemplo de la segunda categoría. 3 la funcionalidad está poco elaborada, y solo se puede acceder a ella a través del directorio del web, y no a través de la página principal. 4 en <vacacionamos.com>, por ejemplo, los diarios de viaje son poco más que un “cebo” para atraer a visitantes con el fin de ofrecerles todo tipo de aplicaciones comerciales, desde la reserva de hoteles, hasta un tarot del amor o juegos. es un buen ejemplo de lo que bhatia (2004) ha llamado la “colonización de géneros”. 5 citamos los ejemplos tal y como están publicados en los foros, incluidos los errores de lengua o de ortografía. mencionamos el nombre del autor y el título del diario, lo que permite localizar el diario. el texto resaltado en letra cursiva dentro del fragmento apoya nuestra explicación. 6 en dos casos, los autores mencionan una localización ficticia, tipo “aquella estrella de allá”, lo cual ilustra de nuevo que mantener el anonimato parece ser la norma. los diarios de viaje escritos por particulares ibérica 25 (2013): 147-170 169 iberica 13 ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen esta investigación pretende averiguar si existe alguna correlación entre los neologismos que conllevan un valor de “protección del medio ambiente” y se crean con el formante ecoo mediante composición sintagmática con sustentable, sostenible y ecológico, y dos parámetros: el primer parámetro se corresponde con la variación geolectal del español en españa y en américa; y el segundo parámetro, con la inserción de estos neologismos en tres tipos de géneros discursivos del turismo (páginas web comerciales, institucionales y textos legales). para ello, se revisa un corpus de géneros del sector turístico (cometval) con el programa de cuantificación léxica antconc 3.4.1 (anthony, 2014) y se contrasta con la nomenclatura de los diccionarios generales a modo de filtro neológico. el análisis permite constatar el predominio de voces con valor de “protección” en américa, la implicación entre proceso lexicogenético activado y tipo de género discursivo, y la mayor capacidad de ecopara lexicalizar las nuevas formaciones. palabras clave: neología, variación geolectal del español, género discursivo, estrategia pragmalingüística. abstract a b ou t ne o l og y a nd i ts c o nte x ts of u s e : pr ag m al i ng u is t ic a na l ys i s of th e ‘ e c o l og i c a l ’ , t h e ‘ s us ta in ab l e ’ an d th e ‘ e n v ir on me nt al l y f ri e nd l y ’ i n l e g a l g e nr e s a nd in w e b g e n re s of to ur is t ic pr om oti on this research attempts to unveil if there is a correlation between neologisms that include a sense of “protecting the environment” and that are created either sobre neología y contextos de uso: análisis pragmalingüístico de lo ecológico y de lo sostenible en normativas y páginas web de promoción turística1 julia sanmartín saez universitat de valència (españa) julia.sanmartin@uv.es 175 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 175 ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 julia sanmartín saez with the affix ecoor through a syntagmatic composition with the adjectives sustentable, sostenible and ecológico in two parameters. the first parameter corresponds to the geolectal variation of spain’s and latin america’s spanish. the second one corresponds to the appearance of these neologisms in three types of discursive genres in the tourism field (commercial and institutional promotion websites, and legal genres). to this end, a corpus of different genres within the touristic sector (cometval) is analysed by means of antconc 3.4.1 (anthony, 2014), a lexical quantifier tool. its results are contrasted with the nomenclatures provided by general dictionaries, acting as neological filters. the analysis allows us to confirm the predominance of words with a value of “protection” in america, the implication between activated lexicogenetic process and kind of discursive genre, and the greater capacity of ecoto lexicalise new formations. keywords: neology, geolectal variation in spanish, discursive genre, pragmalinguistic strategy. 1. introducción: objetivos, hipótesis y metodología si hasta ahora la tipología turística había tenido presente los tipos de viajeros y sus motivaciones (santana, 1997) – reflejado en denominaciones como “turismo de salud”, “turismo activo”, “turismo lgbt”, etc. – o el tipo de desplazamiento (“turismo interno”), en estos momentos el valor de lo sostenible impregna la sociedad actual (de la universidad sostenible al vicerrectorado de sostenibilidad) y, en concreto, esta actividad con etiquetas como ecoturismo o turismo sostenible. desde el entorno social, las instituciones lanzan eslóganes que reflejan la importancia adquirida por este valor, así: “el turismo del siglo xxi en costa rica será sostenible o simplemente no será”. (www.turismosostenible.co.cr) desde la perspectiva lingüística, el interés por estas unidades queda reflejado en proyectos, como ecosistemauma (2008), dirigido por gloria corpas, cuyo objetivo es la representación conceptual del ecoturismo en un tesauro visual. en otras lenguas se producen iniciativas similares, como la comunicación al congreso internacional de lingüística de corpus de ida ruffolo (cilc, 2015) “the greening of hotels in the uk and italy: a cross-cultural study of the promotion of environmental sustainability of comparable corpora of hotel websites”. la presente investigación analiza los posibles neologismos en español que implican “protección del medio ambiente”, se generan con el formante eco(en ecoturismo) o por composición sintagmática con los adjetivos sustentable, 176 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 176 sostenible y ecológico (en turismo ecológico/turismo sostenible/turismo sustentable) documentados en un corpus de tres tipos de textos del ámbito turístico, tanto en españa como en américa. se parte de la hipótesis de que existen eductos neológicos distintos en función del género y de la modalidad geolectal. por ello, como primer objetivo, se pretende comprobar si la diversidad de procedimientos de formación se puede correlacionar, por una parte, con el tenor del género discursivo y las estrategias pragmalingüísticas implicadas y, por otra, con la variación geográfica. como segundo objetivo e imbricado con el anterior, la investigación se centra en determinar cómo se edifica e infiere el concepto en estos neologismos a partir de sus diferentes cotextos de uso para poder reconocerlos como tales. se consideran neologismos aquellas unidades léxicas o sentidos que se han creado recientemente en la lengua, entendiendo por ‘reciente’ aquel periodo que comprende desde hace diez años hasta el momento actual. dada la dificultad existente en atestiguar de un modo inequívoco la fecha en que surge por primera vez una palabra en la lengua, utilizamos el criterio de exclusión de un corpus lexicográfico como parámetro práctico y primario para confirmar su neologicidad, esto es, el candidato a neologismo no debe registrarse en los diccionarios que constituyen el corpus de exclusión. también se suele emplear el filtro de exclusión en un corpus textual como criterio adicional al anterior y tomar la web como corpus para datar las palabras (cabré y estopà, 2009; estornell, 2009). para el análisis se han considerado, como fuentes de exclusión, tres diccionarios generales, el drae (23ª ed.), de carácter más normativo, y el lema (2001) y el clave (versión en línea), más descriptivos. desde esta posición, los diccionarios se transforman en el punto de partida para discernir lo neológico, pero también constituyen su punto de llegada, dado que tras una permanencia en la lengua durante un periodo cronológico y un uso recurrente, la voz neológica acabará incorporada en el propio diccionario (sánchez manzanares, 2013). sin embargo, con independencia de su consideración como neologismos, nos interesan también voces, como sostenibilidad o ecoturismo, por su vinculación con este estudio. de hecho, hace más de una década, en 2002, la onu declaró el año internacional del ecoturismo2. el corpus se ha compilado con tres tipos de géneros a partir del objetivo descrito. todos los documentos proceden de la base cometval (corpus multilingüe de turismo de la universitat de valència): sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 177 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 177 (i) 360 páginas web de establecimientos de alojamiento turístico de españa (432.092 palabras o “word tokens”) y 457 páginas web de ocho países de américa (argentina, chile, colombia, costa rica, méxico, perú, república dominicana y venezuela) (546.970 “tokens”), centradas en la descripción del establecimiento a través de textos e imágenes, con sus instalaciones y servicios, precios y reserva, con una fuente emisora comercial y una función persuasiva (“alójese en nuestro establecimiento”). (ii) 10 páginas institucionales o portales turísticos oficiales de españa (248.077 tokens) y 16 páginas institucionales de américa (245.319 tokens), los cuales se convierten en una especie de guía turística para el viajero, con una fuente emisora considerada como institucional y una función también persuasiva (“visite nuestro país” y “actividades que puede(s) hacer”). (iii) 42 normativas turísticas de españa (197.387 tokens) y 28 normativas de américa (97.299), con una fuente emisora de tipo legal/jurídico y una función directiva (deber). las normativas son géneros existentes trasladados a la red, en formato pdf, sin modificación (bordonaba, 2008; carpi, 2011); en cambio, las páginas web mencionadas devienen géneros digitales, con sus hipervínculos, interactividad y multimodalidad (bhatia, 2002; gonzález-garcía, 2011), en parte, procedentes de una reconversión de textos tradicionales en soporte impreso. la página web oficial de turismo constituye un “macrogénero” (calvi, 2010) o “género soporte” (sanmartín, 2014), en cuyo diseño se aprecian distintos tipos de textos, si bien, para este trabajo se han analizado los textos más conectados con la guía descriptiva turística. la página web comercial también es un género soporte en cuyo seno se halla el texto descriptivo vinculado a la ficha técnica y al folleto del propio establecimiento. en definitiva, se trata de comprobar si existe alguna correlación entre los datos lingüísticos y las fuentes emisoras: privada-comercial, institucional y legal. en los dos primeros casos, los textos poseen un carácter promocional o divulgativo en el sector turístico, esto es, se dirigen al público lego en la materia, por lo que no existe un nivel de especialización léxica (de emisor especialista a receptor especialista) como sucede en otros géneros del sector. por ello, los neologismos detectados no se pueden etiquetar como “neónimos” ni cabe recurrir a diccionarios especializados como criterio de exclusión lexicográfica. julia sanmartín saez ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198178 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 178 2. sobre los procedimientos de creación y los formantes: el diccionario como punto de partida se han buscado, con ayuda del programa informático antconc 3.4.1 (anthony, 2014), las unidades léxicas creadas mediante el formante ecoy por composición sintagmática con ecológico, sostenible y sustentable, en los tres tipos de géneros señalados, tanto en españa como en américa. los resultados obtenidos han sido los siguientes, teniendo presente que los datos deben relativizarse. así, el número de palabras en cada tipo de género no es equiparable y se han neutralizado algunas apariciones recurrentes de un mismo documento. también debe considerarse que el análisis se ha realizado a partir del educto resultante: en el caso de los adjetivos ecológico, sostenible y sustentable se han estudiado todas sus formas flexivas y sus combinaciones con sustantivos; y en el caso de ecose han revisado todos los eductos, con y sin unión gráfica, antepuesto y pospuesto. desde el punto de vista neológico y con el filtro del corpus lexicográfico de exclusión, el par sustantivo y adjetivo, sostenibilidad y sostenible, y sus correspondientes variantes, sustentabilidad y sustentable, no se pueden etiquetar como voces – o, como sentidos – novedosas, puesto que todas ellas ya se han integrado en el diccionario clave, parcialmente en lema, y en la última edición del drae (23ª) – si bien en este último no se recogen ni la variante sustentabilidad ni el adjetivo sustentable con este sentido. constituyen, sin embargo, palabras esenciales en este análisis para entender la construcción y los usos pragmalingüísticos del discurso ecológico/sostenible en el turismo. muestran la importancia que adquiere este concepto, por la recurrencia de los eductos obtenidos, en la sociedad globalizada de nuestros días, a modo de prueba de la imbricación entre lo sociocultural y lo lingüístico (diki-kiri, 2010). su definición resulta casi la misma en los diccionarios y destaca el ejemplo propuesto al incorporar la combinación desarrollo sostenible, así como el contorno situacional restrictivo (ecología y economía). véase una muestra: sostenible 2. especialmente en ecología y economía, que se puede mantener largo tiempo sin agotar los recursos naturales o causar graves daños al medioambiente. desarrollo, economía sostenible. (drae) sustentable en zonas del español meridional, sostenible. (clave) sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 179 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 179 tanto el adjetivo ecológico como el formante culto ecotambién se han integrado desde hace tiempo en los diccionarios de contraste. reproducimos igualmente las definiciones que de ellos se ofrecen en drae y lema: eco-1 elem.compos.1. significa ‘casa’, ‘morada’ o ‘ámbito vital’. ecología, ecosistema. 2. significa ‘ecológico’. ecoturismo, ecotransporte. (drae) ecológico 1. perteneciente o relativo a la ecología. // 2. realizado sin emplear compuestos químicos que dañen el medio ambiente. agricultura ecológica. // 3. dicho de un producto o actividad: que no es perjudicial para el medio ambiente. combustible ecológico. (drae) ecológico, ca 1. de la ecología o relacionado con ella: equilibrio ecológico, delito ecológico […] 2. que defiende y protege el medio ambiente: medidas ecológicas 3. que no es perjudicial para el medio ambiente: detergentes ecológicos (lema) el elemento compositivo culto eco-1 que inicialmente significaba “medio ambiente” ha incorporado el nuevo sentido o matiz que asume también el propio adjetivo ecológico, como eco-2 “respeto del medio ambiente”, como si de una estructura polisémica se tratara en ambos casos. casado (1999: 5089-5090) precisa que en el caso de econos encontramos ante una homonimia, dado que este formante prefijal eco2con el nuevo sentido de “protección del medio ambiente” procede directamente de un acortamiento del término ecología o ecológico, y coincide formalmente con eco1, formante originario griego (del gr. οἰκο), que ha dado lugar a la voz ecología y que solo tenía el sentido de “ámbito vital o medio ambiente”. adelstein (1998) también lo caracterizaba como un tipo de truncamiento de ecología y resemantización, y estornell (en prensa), señala además que su posible posposición en voces como filosofía eco, constituye una prueba más de su consideración como acortamiento. gonçalves y andrade (2012), en relación con el portugués, consideran este formante como una recomposición. y en el caso del catalán, vallès (2000), desde un modelo dinámico basado en el uso y en el usuario, también lo concibe como un acortamiento de ecològic. así pues, su caracterización estricta como formante en “compuestos híbridos” (freixa y solé, 2004), constituidos por un elemento griego y uno patrimonial, resultaría discutible, al tratarse realmente de un educto formado por dos voces del español, dado que eco2no sería en estos eductos un formante culto (adelstein, 1998). sin julia sanmartín saez ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198180 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 180 embargo, queda como una especie de formación compositiva (como si fuera) culta (cabré, 2006) y, de este modo, la clasificamos: formante determinante eco+ sustantivo determinado, orden propio de las composiciones híbrida y culta (adelstein, 1998). la diversidad de denominaciones que recibe este tipo de formantes responde a su intersección entre la derivación (formante prefijal, prefijoide o segmento prefijal) y la composición (raíz prefija, formante culto, tema culto, elemento pro-compuesto o compositivo culto, etc.). por otro lado, las diferencias de sentido respecto a sostenible/sustentable, a partir de lo reproducido en las definiciones lexicográficas de los diccionarios generales (drae, lema, clave), se basan en una distinta implicación respecto al daño en el medio ambiente (sin daño o con impacto mínimo), en la consideración del medio ambiente como un bien material (“agotar los recursos naturales”) en lo sostenible/sustentable, y la implicación mayor de ecológico respecto a “en el medio ambiente”: ecológico/eco-: ‘medio ambiente’1, ‘respeto/no daño o perjuicio al medio ambiente’2, ‘protección al medio ambiente’3 sostenible/sustentable: ‘mantenimiento en el tiempo de una actividad productiva con un impacto o daño mínimo en el medio ambiente’ ambos adjetivos toman en ocasiones los mismos sustantivos como base y conviven en los mismos cotextos. de ahí, el interés por llevar a cabo un análisis comparativo de ambas unidades. en estudios anteriores (almela, 1999; val álvaro, 1999; freixa y solé, 2004; cabré, 2006; estopà, 2011; gonçalves y andrade, 2012; buenafuentes, 2013; o, especialmente, guerrero y pérez, 2012), ya se han contrastado las diferencias entre las formaciones mediante composición culta y composición sintagmática. estos últimos plantean que la composición culta, vinculada inicialmente a los ámbitos de especialidad, se ha convertido en uno de los procedimientos de formación más importante “gracias al proceso de banalización” (2012: 28), y más concretamente, debido a la labor de los periodistas al divulgar estos neónimos cultos, originados en los diversos campos de especialidad. en principio, aparecen dos motivaciones en las composiciones cultas, la economía lingüística que aporta el formante culto y la aparente “tecnificación” o “dignificación” del educto resultante al imitar un proceso propio de los lenguajes de especialidad, consistente en emplear un recurso procedente de las lenguas clásicas (guerrero y pérez, 2012: 32sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 181 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 181 33). en la misma línea, adelstein (1998) ya postulaba que dichos formantes son económicos y precisos. 3. datos lingüísticos, variación geolectal y género discursivo: análisis lexicológico y estrategias pragmalingüísticas al proceder a la detección de las unidades formales, surge el primer escollo metodológico y la primera inferencia teórica. los eductos con ecogeneran unidades denominativas de forma inmediata3, pero no sucede lo mismo con ecológico o sostenible / sustentable, dado que la adición de estos adjetivos da lugar a meros sintagmas libres: valor ecológico, criterios ecológicos o sensibilidad ecológica. esto supone que muchos de los sintagmas detectados como agrupaciones o “clusters” con el programa antconc 3.4.1 (anthony, 2014) deben ser revisados en el ejemplo textual para comprobar si forman o no realmente unidades sintagmáticas pluriverbales, aptas para integrarse después en diccionarios tras una recurrencia a lo largo del tiempo y consolidación (institucionalización o convencionalización) como unidades denominativas. en los listados de palabras obtenidos por frecuencia (“wordlist”), el léxico global en cada género discursivo resulta dispar, lo cual era esperable. así, en las normativas de ambos lados del atlántico se combinan en las primeras posiciones el léxico condicionado por la fuente, lo legal (artículo, ley, decreto, ordenación, capítulo, etc.) y por el ámbito regulado, lo turístico (turismo, turístico, alojamiento, empresas, actividad, etc.). del mismo modo, palabras como desarrollo y calidad ocupan puestos destacados en ambas zonas, lo que de algún modo implica su consideración esencial en los modelos turísticos legislados. en cambio, sustentable (posición 92) en américa y, sobre todo, sostenible (posición 506) en españa no ocupan puestos similares, lo que de algún modo señala que no adquieren la misma importancia. los procedimientos de creación en las normativas tampoco coinciden puesto que en españa se apuesta por la sostenibilidad (19 recurrencias) y por sostenible (49), sobre todo en desarrollo o turismo sostenible. en cambio, en américa se combina el ecoturismo (26), la sostenibilidad (13)/sustentabilidad (20) y lo sostenible (20)/sustentable (32) – también con turismo o desarrollo. en cualquier caso, sí coinciden en el recurso a sustantivos que nombran, con gran frecuencia, los conceptos más genéricos (turismo y desarrollo sostenible, sostenibilidad), y aquellos julia sanmartín saez ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198182 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 182 inherentes a la propia legislación, pero con menor frecuencia (modelo, manera, gestión, prácticas, empresa, plan, uso, planificación, etc.), y en el uso más reducido de ecológico, en españa (12) y en américa (13), adjuntado a sustantivos menos concretos (sensibilidad, disfrute) o vinculados a la legislación (procesos, valores, equilibrio, conservación, criterios, etc.). ecosolo se documenta en los textos legales en dos eductos en españa (ecoetiqueta e itinerario ecoturístico) y de forma recurrente en américa, pero solo en ecoturismo (26). en el caso de las páginas institucionales los listados también confirman que a cada tipo de género corresponden unas frecuencias de palabras singulares, como son, en este caso, los sustantivos que denominan el objeto de descripción (ciudad, información, turismo, costa, isla, país) y los verbos de localización (estar, encontrarse), de opciones para el turista (poder, disfrutar) o del servicio ofertado (contar con, son). como en las normativas, se aprecia igualmente que en españa predomina la formación exclusiva con sostenible (32) e incluso adicionado a nombres propios (andalucía sostenible)4 y en américa se combinan sostenible (23) y sustentable (3) en función de los países. a veces incluso alternan en la misma frase: con el objetivo de promover el turismo comunitario como actividad sostenible y sustentable […] (www.mintur.gob.ve) también las combinaciones desarrollo sostenible y turismo sostenible ocupan una posición relevante en ambas zonas, en españa (21) y en américa (12), y de forma más esporádica se combina con sustantivos diversos, como, empresa, hotel, uso, programa, manera, modelo, destino, alojamiento, prácticas, etc. además, destaca la frecuencia de sostenibilidad, especialmente en américa (26) frente a españa (8), y, en costa rica, la combinación o coaparición sostenibilidad turística. como diferencia respecto a las normativas, el adjetivo ecológico aparece en lo institucional de manera recurrente – si bien insistimos en que los porcentajes deben relativizarse porque los corpus no son equiparables – en españa (30) y en américa (40) para calificar diferentes tipos de sustantivos (agricultura, ganadería, parcela, granja, finca, productos/recursos, procesos, proyectos, actividades, negocio, bases/senderos, parque, paseos, entorno, paraíso, reserva / actividades, experiencia, aventura/resort, hotel, etc.). estas adiciones no siempre implican una unidad denominativa específica desde la perspectiva conceptual (carácter, forma, manera, uso, viajero, medios de transporte, actividades, etc.) (piera y varela, sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 183 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 183 1999; ruiz gurillo, 2002), con la excepción de combinaciones recurrentes como reserva ecológica. destaca la connotación positiva de algunas bases (riqueza/joya/valor/interés). nótese que en estos casos el adjetivo ecológico solo indica “medio ambiente”. en cambio, cuando se adiciona a sustantivos como razones, programa, protocolo, ordenamiento, etc. se activa el valor de “protección del medio ambiente”. por otro lado, el formante eco-, como en las normativas, solo aparece de forma recurrente en ecoturismo, en españa (6) y en américa (19), y, además, ecoturístico (9) en festival, circuito, destino, proyecto o propuesta. en ambas zonas se documenta el término ecosistema (no neológico), en españa (23) y en américa (31), por la descripción que se hace en estos géneros de los entornos naturales. otros eductos detectados sin apenas recurrencia son: ecoparque, ecomuseo, ecoetiqueta, ecolodge, ecoturista o ecocentro. la presencia global del formante es dispar en ambas zonas: en españa (14) y en américa (33). se han constatado planes estratégicos institucionales para promocionar el ecoturismo y el turismo sostenible en varios países. reproducimos los títulos a modo de muestra del uso de las voces (sustentable, sostenible y ecoturismo) en las diferentes zonas: argentina (plan federal de turismo sustentable, 2011), costa rica (cámara nacional de ecoturismo y turismo sostenible de costa rica), méxico (requisitos y especificaciones de sustentabilidad del ecoturismo, 2006), chile (chile por un turismo sustentable. manual de buenas prácticas del alojamiento turístico, 2011), españa (ecoturismo en españa. guía de destinos sostenibles. espacios naturales y empresas acreditadas con la carta europea de turismo sostenible/plan del marketing del producto ecoturístico en españa).5 en colombia surge una nueva denominación turismo verde y turista verde, que, de algún modo, deviene una metonimia por el color representativo de la naturaleza: turismo verde: sostenibilidad en colombia (www.colombia.travel) por último, en el caso de las páginas comerciales, el listado general de palabras (“wordlist”) también se corresponde con el género discursivo: así los sustantivos más representativos son las descripciones de los alojamientos (hotel, habitaciones, servicios, cama, desayuno, reserva) o verbos como ser, estar, contar con, disponer, disfrutar, etc. en las páginas comerciales ecodeviene un formante sumamente productivo, sobre todo en américa (52) – en españa (14) – asentado sobre bases julia sanmartín saez ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198184 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 184 patrimoniales o anglicismos que aluden a los establecimientos de alojamiento (ecohostel, ecoresort, eco-hotel, ecolodge, eco camping, eco spa, ecoshop, etc.), a las actividades y recursos (ecoparque/proyecto, guía, destino, propuesta, excursiones, ecoturístico, etc.) o al propio usuario (eco turista o eco-aventurero). en estas páginas el formante ecoaparece de forma recurrente como integrante del nombre propio del hotel (hotel eco avenida/eco águilas resort). esto se podría justificar porque ecoes percibido como un formante culto que otorga modernidad e implica no dañar el medio ambiente, lo que en la sociedad actual recibe una valoración positiva. obsérvese que nunca aparece el adjetivo ecológico como integrante del nombre propio, y sería extraño en una posición inicial #ecológico hotel por la significación del adjetivo. en algunos casos ecoy ecológico se asientan sobre las mismas bases (hotel, resort, parque, aventura, etc.). a veces el educto con econo permite inferir el sentido de la unidad (eco-concierge o ecobote), fuera del cotexto; por otro lado, el uso variable del guion6 (eco-huerta) y su separación (eco turista) o no (ecoresort) de la base a la que se adiciona e incluso su posposición (hotel eco) constituyen una prueba de su inestabilidad neológica: uno de los ejemplos de la nueva forma de ecoturismo en colombia son las llamadas casas flotantes, más conocidas como ecobotes o house boats. (www.colombia.travel.es) también el adjetivo ecológico destaca por su recurrencia, especialmente en américa (72) – frente a españa (24) –, al tomar como base aspectos del establecimiento turístico (resort, hotel, complejo, villa, albergue, bed & breakfast, etc.) o actividades y recursos (sendero, excursión, parque, área, reserva, caminata, paseo, entorno, ambiente, aventura, experiencia, etc.). sostenible aparece en las páginas comerciales, si bien no en la misma proporción, en américa (31) y en españa (11), adicionado a sustantivos como turismo, desarrollo, edificio, vida, etc. de nuevo, sustentable solo se registra en américa (9). y, por último, destaca la elevada recurrencia de sostenibilidad en américa (59) – y sustentabilidad (7) – frente a españa (5). en síntesis, las normativas regulan un modelo turístico, por lo que turismo sostenible, desarrollo sostenible, ecoturismo y sostenibilidad constituyen las voces vertebradoras del discurso; en lo institucional, además de estas, se describen los elementos concretos que se etiquetan como ecológicos, y en lo comercial, junto a todo lo anterior, se adiciona ecoa un conjunto de sustantivos a modo de estrategia, ya que connota una serie de valores (“ecológicos”) de un modo sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 185 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 185 indirecto. esta estrategia de uso (o abuso) ha contado incluso con una respuesta de tipo legal (gonzález, 2013) para formantes como bioy, en el caso de ecoha suscitado comentarios críticos en blogs profesionales7 del sector y en glosarios sobre ecoturismo: por ejemplo, en américa latina, al hablarse de ecoturismo o ecotours, con frecuencia se hace referencia a un tipo de turismo o viaje relacionado con la naturaleza; el cual no necesariamente implica una protección del medio ambiente ni un compromiso con la comunidad local (gonzález, 2002: 25). destaca el uso mayoritario de lo “ecológico” en américa, dada la diferencia temática que presentan estas páginas respecto a las de españa: no solo caracterizan los alojamientos, sino que incorporan una descripción extensa de las actividades ofertadas, se ubican en entornos naturales y aparece una pestaña o hipervínculo con misión, visión y valores, conectados generalmente con lo “ecológico” y “sostenible”, lo cual no se suele detectar en españa8. las páginas institucionales también reproducen estos parámetros, especialmente, en costa rica, colombia y república dominicana. estos tres aspectos explican que lo ecológico esté muy presente, como un valor añadido del establecimiento de alojamiento turístico a modo de estrategia de promoción. esto se traslada a un uso abrumador de los formantes ecoy de los adjetivos ecológico y sostenible, respecto al resto de géneros y en relación a españa. de hecho, otra diferencia es la presencia de las variantes sustentabilidad y sustentable en países como argentina, chile y méxico. de los países de américa, destacan por la aparición de estos formantes “ecológicos” costa rica, chile y méxico. véase como resumen de todo lo expuesto la tabla 1: desde la vertiente de la creación léxica, se observa que la formación culta con ecofavorece la lexicalización del educto resultante y su sanción en los diccionarios, como sucede con ecoturismo o incluso se podría dar con ecohotel9, julia sanmartín saez ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198186 sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): …-… la presencia de las variantes sustentabilidad y sustentable en países como argentina, chile y méxico. de los países de américa, destacan por la aparición de estos formantes “ecológicos” costa rica, chile y méxico. véase como resumen de todo lo expuesto la tabla 1: zona españa américa españa web américa españa américa género normativa normativa web comercial web comercial web institucional web institucional corpus tokens 197.387 97.297 432.092 546.970 248.077 245.319 recurrencia 82 124 52 230 84 125 porcentajes 0,04% 0,12% 0,012% 0,04% 0,03% 0,05% tabla 1. formas (eco-, sostenible, ecológico, etc.) con valor de “protección o no daño del medio ambiente”. desde la vertiente de la creación léxica, se observa que la formación culta con ecofavorece la lexicalización del educto resultante y su sanción en los diccionarios, como sucede con ecoturismo o incluso se podría dar con ecohotel9, en cambio, la formación con adjetivos en posible composición disyuntiva (alvar ezquerra, 1993) con ecológico o sostenible/sustentable no permite una lexicalización tan rápida por su proximidad con el mero sintagma libre. de hecho, las dos propiedades generales del compuesto, fijación sintáctica y capacidad denominativa (almela, 1999; piera y varela, 1999; val álvaro, 1999; ruiz gurillo, 2002; alonso, 2012) no se suelen cumplir en los eductos hallados con los adjetivos, por lo que las combinaciones no pueden considerarse estrictamente como compuestos sintagmáticos. en relación con la fijación, se permite, en general, su sustitución por equivalentes como del medio ambiente o sin impacto en el medio ambiente, incorporar formantes de grado y adverbios, y coordinarse con otros adjetivos (hotel muy ecológico, poco ecológico, moderno y ecológico). ahora bien, la frecuencia de coaparición (ruiz gurillo, 2002) se constituiría como una primera etapa para la conversión de una mera combinación o estructura sintagmática recurrente, a veces colocación10, en una unidad sintagmática denominativa. de este modo, complejos más o menos transparentes como desarrollo o turismo sostenible van lexicalizándose. como indican piera y varela (1999), este criterio (la capacidad denominativa y la no estricta composicionalidad) deviene esencial para el reconocimiento de compuestos sintagmáticos. por su parte, ecose asienta sobre sustantivos, para formar seis unidades neológicas que designan tipos de alojamientos (ecohostel, eco resort/ecovillage resort, ecolodge, ecohotel/hotel eco, eco camping, ecobote), siete instalaciones (ecocentro, eco spa, eco boutique, ecoparque/parque ecoarqueológico, ecoshop, eco-huerta, ecomuseo), tres edificaciones (eco construcción, eco surface, 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 186 en cambio, la formación con adjetivos en posible composición disyuntiva (alvar ezquerra, 1993) con ecológico o sostenible/sustentable no permite una lexicalización tan rápida por su proximidad con el mero sintagma libre. de hecho, las dos propiedades generales del compuesto, fijación sintáctica y capacidad denominativa (almela, 1999; piera y varela, 1999; val álvaro, 1999; ruiz gurillo, 2002; alonso, 2012) no se suelen cumplir en los eductos hallados con los adjetivos, por lo que las combinaciones no pueden considerarse estrictamente como compuestos sintagmáticos. en relación con la fijación, se permite, en general, su sustitución por equivalentes como del medio ambiente o sin impacto en el medio ambiente, incorporar formantes de grado y adverbios, y coordinarse con otros adjetivos (hotel muy ecológico, poco ecológico, moderno y ecológico). ahora bien, la frecuencia de coaparición (ruiz gurillo, 2002) se constituiría como una primera etapa para la conversión de una mera combinación o estructura sintagmática recurrente, a veces colocación10, en una unidad sintagmática denominativa. de este modo, complejos más o menos transparentes como desarrollo o turismo sostenible van lexicalizándose. como indican piera y varela (1999), este criterio (la capacidad denominativa y la no estricta composicionalidad) deviene esencial para el reconocimiento de compuestos sintagmáticos. por su parte, ecose asienta sobre sustantivos, para formar seis unidades neológicas que designan tipos de alojamientos (ecohostel, eco resort/ecovillage resort, ecolodge, ecohotel/hotel eco, eco camping, ecobote), siete instalaciones (ecocentro, eco spa, eco boutique, ecoparque/parque ecoarqueológico, ecoshop, eco-huerta, ecomuseo), tres edificaciones (eco construcción, eco surface, ecovivienda) y diversas realidades (eco sostenibilidad, ecoetiqueta, eco-concierge, ecofilosofía, eco turista, ecoaventurero, ecoactividades/ ecoadventure). destaca por su recurrencia (67) ecoturismo (no neológica). resultaría extraña su adición a sustantivos menos concretos (#ecodaño). ecotambién toma como base adjetivos (eco responsable, empresa ecoactiva, programa ecofriendly o hotel ecoamigable), especialmente forma adjetivos como ecoturístico y ecosostenible, que a su vez se integran en numerosas estructuras sintagmáticas (edificio ecosostenible, materiales eco-sostenibles; y destino, guía, propuesta, proyecto, excursiones, itinerario, festival, circuito, actividad + ecoturístico), lo que incrementa la complejidad de los procesos de creación léxica (cabré, 2006). eco mentalízate constituye una prueba del uso lúdico del lenguaje como estrategia persuasiva; y un ejemplo del valor positivo que lo ecológico adquiere: refuerza la imagen positiva del futuro usuario al adquirir estos productos de sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 187 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 187 un modo responsable y comprometido. la posición antepuesta del sufijo ecoquizá focaliza la atención del receptor en lo ecológico como elemento que impregna de un modo esencial al sustantivo posterior. 4. datos lingüísticos, variación geolectal y género discursivo: análisis conceptual y contexto de uso en las definiciones de los diccionarios generales (drae, clave), se aprecia una distinta implicación respecto al medio ambiente de lo ecológico y de lo sostenible, tal y como ya hemos indicado: lo ecoy lo ecológico aluden solo a medio ambiente o respeto y no perjuicio e incluso protección del medio ambiente, y lo sostenible/sustentable considera el medio ambiente como un bien material en el que cabe el mínimo daño. veamos qué sucede con sus eductos y los contextos de uso desde la perspectiva del concepto. los valores de ecoy de ecológico se proyectan en sus respectivos eductos. así, ecoturismo, único sustantivo documentado en los diccionarios y sin la consideración de neologismo, en los diccionarios lema y clave retoma el valor inicial de eco-1 como “medio ambiente”; en cambio, en drae se incorpora el valor de eco2como “respeto o no daño”: ecoturismo m. turismo en contacto con el medio ambiente. el ecoturismo es una alternativa del turismo tradicional. (clave) ecoturismo m. turismo con el que se pretende hacer compatibles el disfrute de la naturaleza y el respeto al equilibrio del medio ambiente. (drae) nótese que la primera definición aquí reproducida – sumamente composicional y transparente – se ajusta más al concepto de turismo de naturaleza, turismo rural (en oposición a turismo urbano) o incluso turismo de aventura o turismo activo, dado que este último tipo desarrolla actividades deportivas en entornos naturales. estos tipos de turismo implican denominaciones específicas para los establecimientos hoteleros, según su ubicación en un entorno (del eco hotel, al hotel urbano o de ciudad, hotel rural u hotel de montaña). desde el punto de vista conceptual (y de las definiciones), se considera como esencial el cotexto para inferir el sentido y las connotaciones de estas unidades. en los eductos con ecoaparece de un modo u otro en los cotextos analizados el eco-2 “respetar el medio ambiente”/“los recursos naturales”, lo julia sanmartín saez ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198188 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 188 que avala y justifica la definición ofrecida en drae, si bien también está presente de un modo simultáneo que su ubicación tenga lugar en entornos naturales. en el caso de los establecimientos hoteleros, se detallan, además, todos los parámetros y criterios para poder catalogarse como tales: nuestras casas rurales están construidas y restauradas conforme a los requisitos de una ecovivienda, respetando nuestro medio ambiente: emplazamiento en la montaña, sin contaminación atmosférica […] (www.balzain.com) ecoturismo en españa. anímate a conocer los espacios naturales de españa de una manera singular y respetuosa con el territorio. (www.info.spain) y en algunos cotextos más escasos (excursiones de eco-aventura) se podría inferir solo su ubicación en la naturaleza: durante el día, puedes explorar el manglar en la reserva natural en busca de aves poco comunes de méxico […] a pesar de que existe una elección considerable de excursiones de eco-aventura y de naturaleza, también es divertido aventurarse en paseos con kayaks y bicicletas […] grupos de observadores de aves y turistas eco-aventureros pueden disfrutar de la comodidad y el servicio del hotel xixim, y aventurarse diariamente a una excursión en la naturaleza. (http://hotelxixim.com) otros adjetivos/sustantivos recurrentes en los cotextos analizados son responsable, conciencia y compromiso: edificio eco-sostenible, equipamiento con alta eficiencia energética, uso responsable del agua […] (www.casabellagracia.com) ecoturismo en colombia. el turismo ecológico o ecoturismo se relaciona en el mundo con los viajes responsables a áreas naturales que preservan y conservan el ambiente y el bienestar de las poblaciones locales. (www.colombia.travel.es) misión: ofrecer el mejor servicio para que nuestros visitantes disfruten de una cómoda estadía rodeados de un entorno completamente natural, concientizándolos de la importancia del cuidado del medio ambiente. visión: ser el destino eco-turístico preferido en boyacá. (www.clublagranja.com) de hecho, en las dos definiciones de la legislación de méxico y de costa rica se indica: sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 189 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 189 ecoturismo: aquella modalidad turística ambientalmente responsable consistente en viajar o visitar espacios naturales sin perturbar […] (nmxaa-133-sfci-2006 requisitos y especificaciones de sustentabilidad del ecoturismo. méxico) obsérvese cómo en el ejemplo anterior de edificio eco-sostenible, se combina ecocon sostenible, dado que este último mantiene el sentido inicial de “mantenimiento en el tiempo de los recursos en general” y con ecose acentúa la idea de “en relación con el medio ambiente”. por ello, se han detectado diversos eductos en los que ambos se combinan (eco sostenibilidad, materiales eco-sostenibles) e incluso cotextos en los que se utilizan ecoturismo y sostenible: consulta el plan de ordenamiento de la zona turística de falcón consolidará el camino hacia el ecoturismo sostenible. (www.mintur.gob.ve) así pues, sostenibilidad y turismo sostenible implican conceptos más abstractos y genéricos que van desde la preocupación por el impacto en el medio ambiente y, por consiguiente, su mínima afectación, a buscar el beneficio para las comunidades locales. dicho de otro modo, interviene directamente el beneficio económico y el respeto por la cultura de las comunidades afectadas. así en andalucía sostenible se alude a la confusión en torno al concepto11 y se describe de un modo muy exhaustivo en qué consiste este programa (explotar los recursos con respeto sociocultural y medioambiental): hay muchos términos similares que pueden generar cierta confusión: ecoturismo, agroturismo, turismo responsable…según la organización mundial del turismo (omt) (…) está enfocado hacia la gestión de todos los recursos de manera que satisfagan todas las necesidades económicas, sociales y estéticas, y a la vez que respeten la integridad cultural, los procesos ecológicos esenciales, la diversidad biológica y los sistemas de soporte de vida. (www.andalucia.org/conoce-andalucia/turismo sostenible/) en el caso del turismo sostenible y de la sostenibilidad, las voces que aparecen en el cotexto son, como en el caso anterior, compromiso y protección, pero también competitividad, rentabilidad, criterios, inversión, principios, estándares, indicadores, políticas, prácticas, programa, modelo, uso, gestión, etc. se pretende fomentar/impulsar el desarrollo [de un turismo] sostenible o de la sostenibilidad turística a través del tiempo (mantener): julia sanmartín saez ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198190 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 190 visión. fomentar el desarrollo turístico sostenible en la república dominicana, mediante la formulación y regulación de políticas, estrategias y acciones que estimulen la inversión turística, garantizar la calidad de la gestión y promocionar la participación comunitaria en las acciones propias del sector (www.sectur.gob.do) en relación con su comportamiento lexicogenético, se insiste en que ecológico se suele combinar con sustantivos de tipo más concreto (sendero ecológico; reserva ecológica) y sostenible con abstractos (programa sostenible). además, en el primer caso sería inviable permutarlo por sostenible, y en el segundo, si se combina con sustantivos más abstractos (razones ecológicas), su significado es transparente y menos lexicalizado. a nuestro entender, la consolidación de unidades denominativas con ecológico y sostenible, a pesar de su elevada composicionalidad o transparencia, depende de tres elementos fundamentales: la existencia de una tipología previa a modo de paradigma léxico (como los tipos de hoteles, de turismo, de parque o de reserva), su uso recurrente en la lengua, y su definición en textos especializados o textos legales como un concepto singularizado. por supuesto, la no composicionalidad del educto constituiría un cuarto factor determinante para su consideración como unidad denominativa. la aplicación de estos cuatro parámetros, dada la posible ausencia de una estricta fijación sintáctica ya apuntada en los eductos obtenidos en el corpus, nos permite reconocer distintos subgrupos. cada uno de ellos exigiría un estudio específico para su determinación, puesto que cada educto cumple los parámetros en mayor o menor medida, y adquiere, además, un valor o sentido distinto respecto a “medio ambiente”, los cuales a veces pueden superponerse, como ya se ha ejemplificado anteriormente: (i) en el medio ambiente1: huella/hotel/turismo + ecológico (ii) no daño del medio ambiente2: agricultura, ganadería, granja, productos/hotel, resort, albergue, bed & breakfast/sistemas de baño, aire acondicionado/turismo + ecológico (iii) protección del medio ambiente3: reserva, parque, sendero + ecológico (iv) daño mínimo en el medio ambiente + actividad económica desarrollo/turismo + sostenible así pues, los diversos valores se activan en función del sustantivo al que acompañan aunque no formen siempre una unidad denominativa. así, el sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 191 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 191 valor de “en el medio ambiente” se adiciona a sustantivos negativos (daño, impacto), positivos (riqueza, valor), o simplemente “ubicados en” o “desarrollado en” (caminata, turismo u hotel); el valor más frecuente, “no dañar”, con numerosos sustantivos de diversa índole (tecnología), y el matiz de “protección”, el menos habitual, suele vincularse con sustantivos como ordenamiento, condición, procesos, política, criterios, etc. inherentes a las normativas o a lo institucional; y con los sustantivos ya citados de parque, sendero y reserva. también se detectan combinaciones quizá próximas al nombre propio como hoja ecológica o bandera azul ecológica (tipos de reconocimiento o distintivos). revisamos, como muestra, la lexicalización de un educto con base vinculada al ámbito de la naturaleza como parque ecológico; esta base se documenta en español en otros compuestos como parque temático, parque de perros, parque multiaventura, parque nacional, etc. la vinculación inicial con la naturaleza de parque lleva al hablante a buscar valores semánticos adicionados para obtener la máxima relevancia en ese contexto, puesto que parque ya entraña “medio ambiente”. los contextos del corpus cometval no posibilitan inferir el sentido y solo añaden matices como “diversión”, “oferta para adultos, jóvenes y niños”: hospedándose en este hotel en acapulco, usted podría ir a diferentes lugares con diversión para toda la familia como el “cici” acapulco mágico, mágico mundo marino de acapulco, aca-zoo o el parque ecológico papagayo, entre muchas otras ofertas para adultos, jóvenes y niños. (www.hotelromanopalace.mx) la búsqueda de este neologismo parque ecológico en google permite obtener numerosos ejemplos o cotextos más definitorios y, por supuesto, casi todos ellos recogidos en fuentes del español de américa. a partir de este y otros cotextos, se infiere que el parque ecológico funciona a modo de una reserva de las especies que contiene y, además, presenta actividades medioambientales de sensibilización, entre otros: parque ecológico municipal el parque fue creado para ofrecer a la comunidad la participación en una variada gama de actividades educativas, recreativas y culturales, donde se aborde la temática ambiental desde distintos enfoques. (…) si bien los diversos ambientes del parque han sido modificados a lo largo de su historia, aún se conserva este patrimonio natural importante, que vale la pena proteger y puede ser utilizado como una herramienta educativa, no solo para valorizar nuestro ecosistema sino julia sanmartín saez ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198192 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 192 también como una forma de integración comunitaria. (http://www.parquecologico.laplata.gov.ar/inicio.htm) curiosamente, parque ecológico alterna con la variante ecoparque, documentada también en el corpus, e incluso con parque ecoarquelógico. en ocasiones, el ecoparque puede mantener solo esa connotación de “diversión en contacto con la naturaleza”, equivalente al término más generalizado en españa, actividades multiaventura, si bien en otras ocasiones se pueden inferir el componente cultural y educativo: nuestros ecoparques están diseñados para que se vivan múltiples aventuras de forma segura, pero sin perder diversión. los parques multi-aventura gozan de diferentes actividades, para que puedas disfrutar de variedad en todo momento. (http://www.aventurariasbaixas.com) ecoparque de trasmiera. en medio del paraíso natural del ecoparque encontrarás una gran oferta cultural con la que completar tus vacaciones. (https://es-es.facebook.com/ecoparquetrasmiera) para mayor complejidad, la voz ecoparque presenta una polisemia neológica, puesto que en españa se utiliza con mayor idiomaticidad al aludir a una “planta o instalación de almacenamiento selectivo de residuos”. 5. conclusiones a las distintas zonas geográficas del español se corresponden unidades denominativas singulares, relacionadas con el binomio conceptual “turismo” y “medio ambiente”; así, la propia elección entre turismo sostenible (en españa, costa rica, colombia, perú o república dominicana) o sustentable (en méxico, argentina y chile) – en venezuela se utilizan ambas variantes. desde la perspectiva cuantitativa, también la adscripción de los países de américa a un turismo en entornos naturales, la estructura de la página web comercial (con valores ecológicos y descripción de las actividades) conlleva un predominio de las voces vinculadas al ecoturismo en américa frente a españa. en esta última, destaca, como el propio eslogan ya indica, una comunidad autónoma: andalucía sostenible. queda pendiente un análisis contrastivo más exhaustivo, centrado exclusivamente en los usos diferenciales de lo “ecológico” en las diversas zonas del español de américa. sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 193 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 193 en cada uno de los géneros discursivos se percibe una preferencia por determinadas unidades léxicas y sus correspondientes procesos lexicogenéticos, en función básicamente del tenor comunicativo, de sus posibles usos estratégicos y de las connotaciones derivadas de los procedimientos de formación: de los principios reguladores de la sostenibilidad de las normativas a través de sustantivos hiperonímicos (sostenibilidad, sustentabilidad, turismo sostenible y desarrollo sostenible); a la adición, además, de la descripción persuasiva de los productos categorizados como ecológicos (senderos ecológicos) en las páginas institucionales a modo de actividades; a los que se suma, a modo de círculo concéntrico, no solo la sostenibilidad en la descripción de los servicios o instalaciones del establecimiento (aire acondicionado ecológico), sino también un uso específico del formante eco(ecoresort). desde la perspectiva lexicogenética, la formación a la manera culta con eco-, además de economía y apropiación de una connotación técnica/culta, sugiere, por un lado, unas notas de modernidad, se constituye como un producto distinto e innovador, y, por otro lado, responde a “algo” relacionado con el medio ambiente: eco mentalízate, un valor focalizado en esa posición inicial. el formante es capaz de sugerir, sin aportar un significado referencial concreto (ecohotel). de hecho, aparecen por esta razón voces cuyo sentido resulta difícil de descodificar (eco-concierge). en cambio, con la referencia a hotel ecológico desaparecen esas notas de modernidad y de novedad, el hotel sigue siendo el mismo, puesto que no hay una modificación inmediata del sustantivo y el adjetivo aporta un claro significado de “no dañar el medio ambiente”. en ambos casos, existe un uso (y abuso) de estos formantes a modo de estrategia de promoción, dada la valoración positiva que adquiere en nuestra sociedad la eco-filosofía. de este modo, todos los agentes implicados en la actividad turística – ecoturismo o turismo ecológico o sostenible – se impregnan de lo ecológico: destino, excursiones, medios de transporte, alojamientos, spa o guía, y hasta el turista se mimetiza en ecoturista o ecoviajero. se aprecia una rápida lexicalización que opera en los formantes cultos con ecofrente a la reticencia de los diccionarios a incorporar como unidades los neologismos generados por sintagmación o disyunción (como parque ecológico) o el propio turismo ecológico o turismo sostenible. por la ausencia de una estricta fijación sintáctica en estas combinaciones o estructuras pluriverbales novedosas recurrentes, deviene esencial su consideración como unidades denominativas y para ello cabe tener presente julia sanmartín saez ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198194 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 194 cuatro parámetros: su recurrencia de coaparición, su pertenencia a paradigmas léxicos o tipologías, su conceptualización en textos de especialidad o normativas y finalmente el grado de composicionalidad; de ahí que resulta imprescindible revisar los cotextos para discernir los diferentes matices y sentidos: del parque ecológico al ecoparque, del ecoturismo al turismo sostenible. de este modo, más allá de lo formal, los diferentes tipos de sustantivos en función de los géneros discursivos también activan los diferentes valores de lo ecológico: huella ecológica “impacto causado por el desplazamiento del turista en el medio ambiente”, hotel ecológico “establecimiento que adopta medidas para no causar daños en el medio ambiente” y programa ecológico “medidas adoptadas para proteger el medio ambiente”. article history: received 30 april 2015 received in revised form 11 september 2015 accepted 16 november 2015 bibliografía sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 195 adelstein, a. (1998). “banalización de términos con formantes de origen grecolatino” en red iberoamericana de terminología (ed.), v simposio iberoamericano de terminología-riterm, 12-17. méxico: riterm. almela, r. (1999). procedimientos de formación de palabras en español. barcelona: ariel practicum. alonso, m. (2012) “sobre por qué un grupo de palabras puede ser una sola palabra sin ser paradójico” en e. montoro (ed.), neología y creatividad lingüística, 115-136. valencia: quaderns de filologia, anejo 77. alvar ezquerra, m. (1993). la formación de palabras en español. madrid: arco. anthony, l. (2014). antconc (version 3.4.1.) [computer software]. tokyo, japan: waseda university. url: http://www.laurenceanthony.net/ battaner, m.p. (dir.) (2001). lema. barcelona: vox bibliograf. bhatia, v.k. (2002). “applied genre analysis: a multi-perspective model”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 4: 3-19. bordonaba, m.c. (2008). “hacia una simplificación del lenguaje jurídico-administrativo en la normativa de turismo rural” en m.v. calvi, g. mapelli y j. santos (eds.), lingue, culture, economía, 13-30. milano: francoangeli. bosque, i. y v. demonte (dirs.) (1999). gramática descriptiva de la lengua española 3. madrid: espasa. buenafuentes, c. (2013). “tratamiento lexicográfico de los compuestos léxicos y cultos en los diccionarios del español”. revista de filología española 93,2: 241-271. cabré, m.t. (2006). “la clasificación del neologismo: una tarea compleja”. alfa. revista de lingüística 50, 2: 229-250. cabré, m.t. y r. estopà (eds.) (2009). les paraules noves. criteris per detectar i mesurar el neologismes. barcelona: universitat pompeu fabra/eumo editorial. calvi, m.v. (2010). “los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo: una propuesta de clasificación”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 19: 9-32. carpi, e. (2011). “lengua e ideología: huellas polifónicas en los preámbulos de la legislación turística española” en m.v. calvi y g. mapelli (eds.), la lengua del turismo. géneros discursivos y terminología, 201-224. berna: peter lang. casado, m. (1999). “otros procesos morfológicos: 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 195 julia sanmartín sáez es profesora titular de lengua española del departamento de filología española de la universitat de valència, miembro del iulma (instituto interuniversitario de lenguas modernas aplicadas) y directora del nodo de neología de la universitat de valència, integrado en la red neoroc. pertenece a dos grupos de investigación (val.es.co. y cometval). ha participado en la compilación de cuatro corpus y en la elaboración de tres diccionarios. se ha especializado en lexicología, lexicografía y análisis del discurso, tal y como atestiguan sus publicaciones, julia sanmartín saez ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198196 acortamientos, formación de siglas y acrónimos” en i. bosque y v. demonte (eds.), 5075-5096. corpas, g. (2001). “en torno al concepto de colocación”. euskera xlvi: 89-108. diki-kiri, m. (2010). “la néologie, temoin des changements sociaux.” en m.t. cabré et ali. (eds.), actes del i congrés internacional de neologia de les llengües romàniques, 91-98. barcelona: iula. estopà, r. (2011). “neologisms at the boundaries of prefixation, composition and syntagmatic composition in catalan: controversial and open questions”. organon 25, 50: 275-291. estornell, m. (2009). neologismos en la prensa: criterios para reconocer y caracterizar las unidades neológicas. valencia: universitat de valència, quaderns de filologia, anejo 70. estornell, m. (e.p.). “del turismo ecológico al ecocoturismo: análisis de las unidades léxicas de un turismo emergente”. círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación (pendiente de revisión). freixa, j. y e. solé (coords.) (2004). llengua catalana i neología. barcelona: meteora. gonçalves, c.a. y k.e. andrade (2012). “el status de los componentes morfológicos y el continuum composición-derivación en portugués”. lingüística 28: 119-145. gonzález, g. (2002). “glosario trilingüe sobre ecoturismo”. l’actualité terminologique/terminolgy update 35, 3: 25. gonzález, l. (2013). “bio”. panacea xiv, 37: 1-2. gonzález-garcía, v. (2012). “el discurso del turismo en internet: hacia una caracterización de sus géneros” en j. sanmartín (ed.), discurso turístico e internet, 13-50. madrid: iberoamericana. guerrero, g. y f.m. pérez (2012). “¿es la composición culta, en la actualidad, el procedimiento más productivo para la creación de neologismos?”. terminàlia, 6: 26-35. url: http://terminalia.iec.cat [05/12/14] maldonado gonzález, c. (dir.) (2012). clave diccionario de uso del española actual. madrid: sm. url: http://clave.smdiccionarios.com/app. php [05/12/14] piera, c. y s. varela (1999). “relaciones entre morfología y sintaxis” en i. bosque y v. demonte (dirs.), 4367-4422. real academia española (2014). diccionario de la lengua española, 23ª ed. madrid: espasa. ruiz gurillo, l. (2002). “compuesto, colocaciones y locuciones: intento de delimitación” en m. gonzález, m. souto y a. veiga (coords.), léxico y gramática, 327-339. editorial tristram: lugo. sánchez manzanares, c. (2013). “valor neológico y criterios lexicográficos para la sanción y censura de neologismos en el diccionario general”. sintagma 25: 11-125. sanmartín, j. (2014). “a propósito de los cibergéneros: el portal oficial del turismo de españa spain.info y el facebook institucional see spain como objeto de análisis”. lea 36, 1: 119148. santana, a. (1997). antropología y turismo ¿nuevas hordas, viejas culturas. barcelona: ariel. val álvaro, j.f. (1999). “la composición” en i. bosque y v. demonte (dirs.), 4757-4842. vallès, t. (2000) “la innovació lèxica en la premsa: un repte per a la lingüística” en t.-cabré et al. (eds.). la neologia en el tombant de segle, 43-53. barcelona: iula, upf. 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 196 el argot de la delincuencia (cuadernos de filología, 1998), diccionario de argot (espasa, 1998) o el chat. la conversación tecnológica (arco libro, 2007), entre otras. recientemente, ha editado el libro discurso turístico e internet (iberoamericana, 2012). notas 1 investigación integrada en el proyecto de investigación concedido por el ministerio de economía y competitividad, referencia ffi2011-24712, análisis léxico y discursivo de corpus paralelos y comparables (español, inglés y francés) de páginas electrónicas de promoción turística, 2011-2014. 2 y en 2002 se elabora un breve glosario trilingüe sobre ecoturismo, de g. gonzález (2002). 3 como también sucede con formantes, como ciberfrente a la mera adición de electrónico o digital. este formante comparte similitudes con ecodesde su propio origen (acortamiento de cibernética) a su proyección social y recurrencia. (www.iula.upf.edu/rec/antenas/2012.11.neo_esp.htm). 4 aunque clave indica la restricción de meridional a sustentable, en la página oficial de andalucía se opta por sostenibilidad y sostenible. 5 en este último texto de carácter más técnico se alude incluso a la tipología de ecoturista, lo cual no aparece en los textos promocionales: ecoturista especializado, ecoturista generalista o naturalista; ecoturista activo, ecoturista educativo. 6 estornel (en prensa) considera que este uso prefijal de ecocon guion es antinormativo y destaca que se documenta tanto unido como separado por las mismas fechas. 7 “en ocasiones se presenta el turismo sostenible como un complemento; una simple manera de diversificar y aprovecharse de cierta moda social: la cosa eco. bajo la etiqueta eco se venden productos […] cuando no lo son.” (www.escadaparural.com/blog/propietarios/turismo-sostenible-y-turismorural/#ecoturismo). en este mismo blog se recogen términos como green washing para aludir al lavado de cara para reconvertir un alojamiento turístico en ecoturístico. 8 existen cadenas internacionales que incorporan estos elementos. así, meliá madrid indica en su página web su compromiso de sostenibilidad. (http://www.melia.com/es/hoteles/espana/madrid/meliamadrid-princesa/sostenibilidad.html). 9 de hecho, es uno de los escasos tipos de hoteles recogidos en el diccionario en línea de la omt, touristerm (www.unwto.org/trad/index.php). 10 véase, entre otros, corpas (2001) para una revisión crítica del concepto de colocación: combinatoria sintagmática recurrente (y reproducibilidad) y restricción y especialización semántica entre sus componentes. 11 la omt define ampliamente el turismo sostenible, en la que se destaca el sustantivo futuro < http://sdt.unwto.org/es/content/definicion >. sobre neología y contextos de uso ibérica 31 (2016): 175-198 197 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 197 10 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 198 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 00-00 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this research explores the impact of computer assisted language learning (call) on the understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english (mmvle) and the level of motivation in an english for specific purposes (esp) course. the hypothesis is that the understanding of the mmvle and the level of motivation will be increased if esp students are allowed to choose call as a preferred learning environment. based on a quasi-experiment, the control group received instruction in a conventional classroom (cc) (face-to-face instruction, white board and paper-based material) and the experimental group received instruction in a call environment (combination of face-to-face and online instruction, web-facilitated). following the principles of a repeated measures research design, the participants’ understanding of the mmvle was measured in four subsequent instances. the detailed quantitative and qualitative error analysis shows that the call group outperformed the cc group. the analysis of the participants’ answers to the additional questionnaire completed at the beginning and at the end of the experiment as well as the group discussion after the experiment confirmed that call positively affected the participants’ motivation toward the subject matter. keywords: computer assisted language learning (call), legal english, modal verbs, understanding, motivation. resumen mejora de la comprensión de los significados de los verbos modales en inglés legal y aumento de la motivación por medio del aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por ordenador improved understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english and increased motivation through computer assisted language learning jasmina đorđević university of niš (serbia) jasmina.djordjevic@filfak.ni.ac.rs 295 ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318 jasmina đorđević este artículo analiza el impacto del aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por ordenador (alao) en la comprensión de los significados de los verbos modales en inglés legal y en el nivel de motivación en un curso de inglés para fines específicos. la hipótesis es que la comprensión de los significados de los verbos modales en inglés legal mejorará y el grado de motivación de los estudiantes de inglés para fines específicos será mayor si estos pueden escoger el aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por ordenador como medio de aprendizaje preferido. con base en un cuasi-experimento, el grupo de control recibió instrucción en una clase convencional (instrucción presencial, pizarra y materiales en papel), mientras que el grupo experimental recibió instrucción en un entorno alao (combinación de instrucción presencial y a distancia, por internet). siguiendo los principios de un diseño de investigación de medidas repetidas, se midió la comprensión de los significados de los verbos modales en inglés legal en cuatro ejemplos. gracias a un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo de errores, se evidenció que el grupo de alao obtuvo mejores resultados que el grupo que recibió instrucción en una clase convencional. por otra parte, los estudiantes respondieron a un cuestionario adicional al principio y al final del experimento, y también tuvo lugar una discusión de grupo tras el experimento, lo cual permitió confirmar que el alao tuvo un efecto positivo en la motivación de los participantes ante el objeto de estudio de este trabajo. palabras clave: aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por ordenador (alao), inglés legal, verbos modales, comprensión, motivación. 1. introduction language learners may show different levels of motivation depending on the overall learning environment they are exposed to, including approaches, instruction designs, techniques, strategies and styles that can be implemented in the teaching and learning (guilloteaux, 2013). the overall learning process should help learners realize on their own why and how much they should learn. in other words, learners should be allowed to participate both in the learning process and the decisions regarding the environment, the approach to learning, type and mode of instruction, styles and strategies, etc. (ryan & deci, 2000; slembrouck, 2000; dörnyei, henry & muir, 2016). an important factor influencing motivation with a potentially significant impact on learning and its outcomes is that of choice, because choice improves attitudes to learning, activity levels, enthusiasm, etc. (brown, 2007). within all the different elements that go into english for specific purposes (esp), the importance of grammar has been re-acknowledged and confirmed 296 (belcher, 2006; ibrahim, 2010; johnson & lyddon, 2016), as have the positive pedagogical implications of computer-assisted language learning (call) in esp (belcher, johns & paltridge, 2011; paltridge & starfield, 2013; walker et al., 2014; felices lago, 2016; bonsignori, 2018). the problem of motivation has also been a frequent topic in recent research regarding esp both in conventional and in call classrooms (brown, 2007; vaičiūnienė & užpalienė, 2010; i̇lin, kutlu & kutluay, 2013; gonzález ardeo, 2016; schug & le cor, 2017). however, the specific impact of call on motivation and grammar learning lacks demonstration, testing and measuring during a real learning process in the context of esp. only a few studies have attempted testing the advantages of call and its impact on motivation in real classroom conditions (sullivan & pratt, 1996; martens, gulikers & bastiaens, 2004; rezvani & ketabi, 2011; tafazoli, nosratzadeh & hosseini, 2014; wang, 2015; felices lago, 2016). these have mostly shown a positive impact. for instance, stockwell (2013) reminds us that students’ engagement with technology boosts learner motivation because of the novelty effect, beauvois (1994) reports that french learners perceived several benefits from computer-assisted classroom discussions and jogan, heredia and aguilera (2001) state that the computerbased interaction between us college students of spanish and chilean students of english proved highly motivational. the present research explores whether the understanding of the meanings of modal verbs in legal english (mmvle) and the level of learner motivation will be enhanced if the students are given the choice to receive grammar instruction in a call environment. 1.1. motivation and the factor of choice a positive impact on the learners’ motivation may be achieved by allowing the individual a certain level of autonomy with respect to the decisionmaking process (brown, 2007). in the context of esp, learner motivation is of crucial importance because esp instruction is based on a learner-centred approach, i.e. it is characterised by a “commitment to the goal of providing language instruction that addresses students’ own specific purposes” (belcher, 2009: 2). since esp syllabuses are oriented towards specialisations the students have chosen, the expected outcome is that “a specific range of vocabulary and a streamlined version of the grammar, all placed within ostensibly appropriate discourse” will ensure language proficiency in the chosen profession (brown, 2007: 159). if a particular esp syllabus is based improved understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english and increased motivation through computer assisted language learning ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318 297 on needs, it is likely to be motivating for learners, who see the obvious relevance of what they are studying (basturkmen, 2014) which is why they should be encouraged to reach goals of achievement through their own selfmotivated efforts (guilloteaux, 2013). this may be accomplished by implementing styles and strategies based on the esp learners’ needs, providing learner autonomy and motivating the students to make individual choices and decisions regarding not only the goals they have set as part of the learning process but also the learning environment, the methodologies and activities implemented in the process (slembrouck, 2000). motivation within a language learning process, esp being one of them, could be increased if students were offered the possibility to choose a preferred learning environment in which they might acquire and internalize specific knowledge predicted by their esp syllabus, thus achieving better learning (sifakis, 2003). a possible choice might be to receive instruction in a learning environment designed for a particular esp course based on call, which would provide recognisable and measurable benefits, such as more individuality and autonomy, faster feedback, self-correction and error management skills, challenging and motivating content, etc. (walker et al., 2014). 1.2. the need for grammar instruction in esp investigations in esp should continue to develop the convergence between research, teaching and learning (belcher, johns & paltridge, 2011; paltridge & starfield, 2013). in this context, grammar has been recognised as a very important micro skill and several arguments for teaching grammar within esp can be listed (belcher, 2006; ibrahim, 2010; basturkmen, 2014; johnson & lyddon, 2016). research related to languages for specific purposes, esp included, has confirmed that learners need information on vocabulary, grammar and stylistic characteristics and that they have to be in “command of the ways in which the grammar of the language works to perform specific functions in specific contexts” (bloor & bloor, 1986: 21-22). the re-established interest in grammar instruction in esp teaching research initiated explorations of grammar instruction based on call as well (i̇lin, kutlu & kutluay, 2013; tafazoli, nosratzadeh & hosseini, 2014; sokolova, golovacheva & cheernaya, 2015; curado fuentes, 2017). i̇lin, kutlu and kutluay (2013) explored the effect of using videos in an esp class and concluded that students were highly motivated to participate in the class and jasmina đorđević ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318298 to use the material outside the classroom. sokolova, golovacheva and chernaya (2015) found that the e-learning esp course offered real-life communicative situations, thus providing an opportunity for the use of the acquired knowledge in professional and everyday language contexts. tafazoli, nosratzadeh and hosseini (2014) compared paper-based and computer-mediated corrective feedback on grammatical accuracy in esp courses and concluded that the latter proved significantly more influential as it enhanced grammatical accuracy among the participants. a more recent study (curado fuentes, 2017) explored the impact of integrating data-driven language learning (ddl) on the learning of english tenses in an esp context. the results indicated better performance in the experimental group who extracted and analysed concordances regarding grammatical points, such as perfect and simple tenses, active and passive voice from specific texts and registers. based on the research presented, call unequivocally influences the understanding of grammar in a positive way. 1.3. the importance of modal verbs modality appears as a linguistic feature generated by different linguistic phenomena whereby modal verbs play a specific role (downing & locke, 2006). two main types of modality are usually distinguished: epistemic and deontic. the former implies the speaker’s believes that a proposition is true in terms of certainty, probability or possibility whereas the latter suggests the speaker’s imposing of obligations or granting permissions so as to intervene in the speech event (downing & locke, 2006). in the context of esp, the use of modal verbs is of crucial importance as they reflect nuances of meanings related to a specific intention or aim within a particular professional context. vassileva (2001) compared the use of modal verbs in academic writing in bulgarian and english and concluded that “bulgarians learn to write by relying on previously written texts (academic writing, in this case) thus following some well-established standards and logical steps” (2001: 100). the main problem bulgarian native speakers seem to face when writing in english for academic purposes is that the standards “seem to be so deeply ingrained in the writers’ cognitive schemata that it turns out to be extremely difficult to overcome them irrespective of the degree of command of the foreign language” (2001: 100). yang, zheng and ge (2015) investigated how native speaker medical research article writers use epistemic modality in their articles. the research showed that they “tend to use low or median value epistemic modal improved understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english and increased motivation through computer assisted language learning ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318 299 expressions […] and epistemic modal expressions with implicitly subjective/objective or explicitly objective orientations” (2015: 9). thus, they “persuade readers mostly through a tentative and objective presentation of their claims” (2015: 9). in legal english “modality is a central feature of prescriptive legal discourse” (williams, 2007: 84). given the specific need to express obligation or prohibition, or to grant permission or authorization, legal texts rely mainly on deontic modality (2007: 83). for instance, research has been devoted to the specific use of certain modal verbs in legal english, such as the use of the modal shall which relates to both the future and the deontic meaning of must (garzone, 2001). in a cross-cultural study, bondi and diani (2010) explored the deontic values of modal verbs by comparing english and italian contracts whereby their conclusions indicate a rather prominent use of modals referring to permission and prohibition in both languages. however, the most relevant finding shows a heavy concentration of the deontic modal shall (it. dovere) in both languages which may be attributed to the fact that contracts signify mandatory rules. the solution to the problem of teaching the meanings of modal verbs both in esp and in le according to the above-mentioned authors is to relate the particular modal to the communicative context. 1.4. research questions esp learners should be allowed to participate in the learning process not only as learners but also as decision makers who make individual choices and decisions regarding the learning process (slembrouck, 2000). therefore, an important factor to consider is that of choice because the provision of choice is empowering (brown, 2007). this research explores whether the students’ understanding of the meanings of modal verbs in legal english (mmvle) and their level of motivation will be enhanced if they are given the choice to receive instruction in a call environment. the mmvle were taught to two groups of students, one in a call environment (call) (a combination of face-to-face and online instruction, web-facilitated) and one based on a conventional classroom (cc) (face-to-face instruction, whiteboard and paperbased material). two research questions were addressed: research question 1: what is the difference in the understanding of the meanings of modal verbs used in le acquired through grammar instruction provided in a call environment and a conventional classroom? jasmina đorđević ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318300 research question 2: is there a difference in the level of motivation between the two groups of participants? 2. method 2.1. participants a total of 50 out of 63 third-year university students taking a three-semester le course (table 1) were treated in a quasi-experiment during the last semester of the course, i.e. sixth semester of their studies. the le course is obligatory within a four-year english language curriculum (anticipated c1 level according to the common european framework of reference for languages). all the participants were native in serbian and had attended obligatory contemporary english language courses (8 classes per week, 3 semesters) based on different teaching approaches before taking the le course. they had not been exposed to any form of call before the experiment. the participants first completed an anonymous questionnaire providing general data and how frequently they used the computer for their le studies (table 1). the students were then asked to choose a preferred learning environment for the purpose of the study: a) call or b) the conventional classroom (cc) (each was fully explained to them). the students were told they could receive language instruction a) based on a combination of faceto-face instruction and online activities conducted in the computer classroom at the faculty or b) based only on face-to-face instruction and paper-based activities in the classroom they usually had their classes in at the faculty. based on the questionnaire, 25 students opted for call who all participated in the research. a total of 38 chose the cc out of which 25 were randomly chosen to participate in the experiment. the remaining 13 improved understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english and increased motivation through computer assisted language learning ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318 301 call cc male 14 14 female 11 11 total 25 25 average age 21 previous english instruction 12 years average use of the computer for le purposes every day table 1. the sample. t students did not participate in the experiment. thus two groups were formed: 1) the control group in the cc and 2) the experimental group in the call environment in the computer classroom. the le syllabus contains a mid-term test and a final exam during each semester of the course, a considerable portion of which is designed as a grammar-proficiency test, english modal verbs in le included. in order to ensure reliability, a grammar-proficiency pretest on the mmvle was conducted prior to the experiment following the structure and form of the grammar-proficiency test taken as part of the final exams at the end of the previous semesters. the results from both the pretest and the test from the final exam taken in the second semester of the le course were correlated thereby yielding a statistically significant coefficient (r = +0.79). after that, the participants completed a questionnaire regarding their attitudes to studying modal verbs (details will be provided in section 3.2). 2.2. the instruction model the experiment relied on the presentation-practice-production instruction model also known as the three ps or ppp because it is a mixture of teaching approaches identified as the mainstream efl teaching style (cook, 2013) and a dominant instruction model in computer-assisted language learning (jarvis, 2015). the presentation stage has the characteristics of situational language teaching, the practice stage those of behaviourism and the production stage those of communicative language teaching which are all relevant to the esp context (brown, 2007; belcher, 2009; basturkmen, 2014). based on ppp, a particular grammatical item is presented, described and explained, practised within an adequate and illustrative communicative context and tested to ensure accurate and autonomous production focused on meaning and aimed at real communicative content. the model was considered adequate as it could easily be adapted to the objectives and the outcomes of the le course as well as to the specific learning environments in both the cc and the call groups, thus ensuring equal conditions in both groups with respect to the instruction model. various techniques may be used for the purpose of teaching grammar, such as problem-solving, explanations, timelines, drills, written practice, pair work, role plays, etc. (basturkmen, 2014; paltridge & starfield, 2013; đorđević, 2016, 2017). for the purpose of teaching grammar based on ppp in call, activities can be designed by means of open-source authoring tools. in order jasmina đorđević ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318302 not to exceed the scope of this research, only the three tools used in the experiment are mentioned here (đorđević, 2015): 1) hot potatoes is a suite of six applications enabling the creation of interactive exercises (multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbledsentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill). such activities provide esp learners with a broader communicative context within which they can identify, practice and understand specific grammar points (paltridge & starfield, 2013). 2) dvolver moviemaker is a web 2.0 tool by means of which cartoons can be created as these are convenient for the purpose of illustrating grammatical items through dialogues related to real situations within any profession (brown, 2007). 3) pbworks is a real-time collaborative editing system enabling the creation of workspaces that provide individual yet easy access to exercises and tasks. in call a workspace is a virtual classroom where content is shared, instruction and feedback are provided, tasks are accessed and completed, and student work is monitored and evaluated. 2.3. materials, procedure and instruments the language instructor who worked with the participants in their le course prepared and conducted lectures, tests and exams, prepared the material used for the purpose of this experiment and conducted, controlled and monitored the experiment in both groups. the content of the material as well as the specific type, form and suitability of instruction are based on 23 years of the instructor’s efl and esp teaching experience. the instructor relied on the coursebook (krois-lindner, 2011) envisaged in the syllabus as the main resource which provides relevant tasks, exercises and activities. to maintain the same conditions for both groups, the exact same exercises were prepared by means of the authoring tools mentioned above which the participants in the call group accessed via pbworks and completed online. the syllabus predicts four grammar units focusing on the mmvle in both written and spoken language (e.g. injunctions, declarations, statements, etc.). the review of the literature (see section 1.3) led to the conclusion that the improved understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english and increased motivation through computer assisted language learning ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318 303 separate mmvle as well as types of modals, semi-modals and modal idioms may be divided in eight groups of meanings: possibility/ probability (can, could, may, might, can’t, must), ability (can, could, be able to), permission (can, could, may, might, be allowed to), prohibition (must not, be not allowed to), advice/ recommendation/ expectation (should, ought to), obligation (must, have to), necessity (need, have to) and absence of obligation or necessity (don’t have to, need not, needn’t have). these groups of meanings are also predicted by the le syllabus the participants are expected to master which is why they were presented, practised and produced in both the call and the cc group in four sessions, each comparing one pair of meanings: 1. possibility/probability and ability, 2. permission and prohibition, 3. advice/recommendation/ expectation and obligation and 4. necessity and absence of obligation or necessity. the procedure consisted of four 90-minute grammar sessions and four measures, one following each session. each pair of modal verbs was presented and practised based on various exercises and tasks. feedback in the cc group was provided directly by the instructor whereas in the call group feedback was integrated as an option provided in the hot potatoes suite used for the online activities. the cc group worked with the textbook while the material used in the call group was online and accessed via the workspace pbworks. 2.4. assessment procedure grammar is best tested by means of discrete-item tests, i.e. individual components of the learner’s knowledge are tested within a specific context (basturkmen, 2014; paltridge & starfield, 2013). the same activities used for the presentation and the practice of grammar items can be used for the production and testing. in the present research, the mmvle were tested based on tasks, such as fill in the gaps, choose the correct answer, match the correct forms, etc. the participants’ understanding of the mmvle was measured in a total of four instances per group based on one test taken at the end of each production stage. each of the four tests focused on a specific pair of the mmvle previously covered in the session (see section 2.3). paper-based tests were prepared for the cc group whereas identical online tests were prepared for the call group. in both groups, the participants had to work with 10 sentences per test. in each test, in five sentences the participants were jasmina đorđević ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318304 expected to choose the correct modal from among four provided choices and in five sentences they were expected to identify the correct meaning, all put in a le context. both groups were given paper-based answer sheets for each test so that they had to circle (a), (b), (c) or (d) for the sentences in the tests depending on the answer they believed was correct. the assessment and analysis of the participants’ understanding of the mmvle followed a clear pattern. first, each participant’s answer sheet was assigned a code (call1, call2, etc. as opposed to cc1, cc2, etc.) and values were assigned to each pair of mmvle covered in the sessions. eventually, 40 sentences were tested during the experiment (10 for each pair of meanings). a sentence was considered incorrect in case of a completely unacceptable modal verb, modal meaning or tense (see section 3.1). 3. results and discussion 3.1. rq1: understanding the meanings of modal verbs in le the most relevant result in this research is related to the total number of correct answers in the tests taken at the end of each production stage in both groups (table 2). the group statistics shows a higher mean value in the call group as opposed to the cc group (14.08 > 10.80). the additional independent samples test confirms that the difference is statistically significant (t = 2.591) (table 3)1. improved understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english and increased motivation through computer assisted language learning ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318 305 t group mean standard deviation standard error mean total no. of correct answers call 14.08 5.377 1.075 cc 10.80 3.342 .668 table 2. group statistics based on the total number of correct answers in all four tests in both groups. t levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means t df sig. (2-tailed) lower upper lower total no. of correct answers 2.591 48 .013 table 3. independent samples test based on the total number of correct answers in both groups. g given that the cohen’s d effect size is considered an appropriate way to measure effect, it was used here to compare the means between the two groups for each meaning. the additional analysis (table 4) indicates that the effect size was large (0.814) for meaning one (possibility/probability and ability), very small (0.025) for meaning two (permission and prohibition), very large (1.00) for meaning three (advice/recommendation/expectation and obligation) and medium (0.561) for meaning four (necessity and absence of obligation or necessity). the results confirm that the instruction in the call environment has a better effect on the understanding of mmvle than the instruction in the cc environment. with the aim to arrive at more relevant findings considering the participants’ understanding of the mmvle, an additional error analysis was performed as this is considered a reliable process of determining the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language (james, 2013; richards, 2015). two additional analyses were performed investigating: 1) the nature and causes of errors and 2) the incidence of errors. 3.1.1. the nature and causes of errors the analysis of the participants’ tests showed that the most common errors in both groups could be referred back to the participants’ failure to distinguish between the meanings of mmvle presented and practised in the first session (possibility/ probability and ability) and the third session (advice/ recommendation/ expectation and obligation). since the tests were discussed with the participants later, the reasons for the errors could be identified. for example, in sentence (4) jasmina đorđević ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318306 paired differences mean std. deviation t cohen’s d pair 1 meaning one – call/cc -1.180 2.256 -3.699 0.814 pair 2 meaning two – call/cc -.020 .869 -.163 0.025 pair 3 meaning three – call/cc -1.660 1.757 -6.682 1.00 pair 4 meaning four – call/cc -1.780 3.160 -2820 0.561 table 4. cohen’s d effect size statistics. w (4) the case against jones and co.____________________ on the stipulation that they ‘unreasonably withhold their consent’ because there is little evidence to confirm it. claiming they don’t like the client would ruin the case. (a) can’t be based (b) will not be based (c) wouldn’t be based (d) might not be based most participants did not recognise a) as the correct answer although they had been presented with can’t as meaning absence of possibility/probability. in the discussion, they all confirmed they automatically eliminated a) because they normally used the modal can with the meaning of ability and they did not consider absence of possibility/probability a possible choice. the participants seemed to have failed to internalise the recently presented meaning of the modal can in the context of le because their previous knowledge of can as used in general english had interfered. in example (8) (8) the procedure has been dragging on for months. all the statements must have been taken by now and the final decision should be made any time soon. (a) prohibition (b) permission (c) probability (d) recommendation most participants opted for d). they stated they believed the meaning to be similar to the serbian meaning of mora. the literal translation of the serbian mora into english is must, but the meaning in serbian may be both obligation and recommendation in an urgent matter in any context. the participants said they perceived the second meaning in serbian to be the one expressed in the english example. when told that the tense should have helped them opt for c), the participants admitted they did not realise the sentence was in the past tense. the error may be referred back to the negative transfer from the participants’ native language to the foreign language whereby the failure to recognise the meaning in the context of le should not be neglected. with respect to the third session, the most representative example was as follows: improved understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english and increased motivation through computer assisted language learning ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318 307 (33) you are aware you __________________ launch a new workplace safety initiative, concentrating on drug and alcohol abuse because you bear the responsibility for the safety of others. reassigning the workers in question to jobs that are less safety-sensitive won’t be enough. (a) must (b) will have to (c) may (d) need the participants did not observe the urgency of the point expressed in the sentence under b). they stated they had problems to distinguish between externally and internally imposed obligation (must vs. have to). when asked if they did not understand this difference in le only or in the context of general english as well, they replied they were not certain. a possible explanation may be that this difference does not exist in serbian which leads to the conclusion that additional context in the target language with reference to le should be provided when teaching this difference. in example (37) (37) every notice of the meeting of the shareholders shall state the place, date and hour: (a) prohibition (b) permission (c) probability (d) recommendation the participants did not realize that the verb shall when used in legal documents indicates obligation beside the meaning of expressing promise or making a declaration. when reminded of these meanings, the participants stated they did not understand the use of the verb shall in le as they knew it as a verb used to express future tense in the first person singular and plural. in this case, negative interference of previous knowledge may again be recognised. given that the nature of errors did not provide relevant information considering the level of understanding of modal verbs, an additional analysis of the incidence of errors was performed. 3.1.2. the incidence of errors it was assumed that if a participant had made two errors with the same pair of meanings, i.e. repeated the same error twice, that participant cannot have jasmina đorđević ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318308 understood the difference in the meanings. these errors were treated as repeated errors within one pair of meanings and the analysis of the tests completed at the end of each production stage showed that most participants (68%) repeated the same error twice per one pair of meanings. an additional cross tabulation between the two groups was performed focusing on the number of repeated errors made by each participant regarding one pair of meanings (table 5)2. the comparison of the number of repeated errors per pair of meanings showed that the call group outperformed the cc group, thus confirming that understanding of the mmvle was better in the call group. for instance, more repeated errors per participant occurred in the cc group than in the call group with 6 repeated errors (8 participants or 32.00% as opposed to 6 participants or 24% each). in comparison to that, a total of 5 participants (20%) in the call group did not repeat any error at all as opposed to only 2 participants (8%) in the cc group. more importantly, no participant from the call group made more than 8 errors by repeating the same error twice whereas in the cc group a total 5 of participants (20.00%) each made 10 such errors. 3.2. rq2: level of motivation between the two groups of participants the second research question was focused on determining whether the choice provided to the participants regarding the preferred learning environment in the le course would have a significant impact on the improved understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english and increased motivation through computer assisted language learning ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318 309 no. of participants per group repeated errors cc call 0 2 5 8.0% 20.0% 2 5 7 20.0% 28.0% 4 3 5 12.0% 20.0% 6 8 6 32.0% 24.0% 8 2 2 8.0% 8.0% 10 5 0 20.0% .0% total 25 25 100.0% 100.0% table 5. cross tabulation of the number of participants with repeated errors in each group. t 3 participants’ motivation, i.e. whether call would motivate the participants to work harder when studying modal verbs. given the limitations of a quasiexperiment focusing both on learning a specific grammar item and motivation, the aim of this research was not to profile or scale the participants’ motivation regarding language learning, but rather to determine if call could have a positive impact on the participants’ motivation in the context of understanding the mmvle so that no elaborate questionnaire was planned. instead, a questionnaire with five multiple choice close-ended questions was administered prior to the experiment and then one more time after it had been completed. the questions were meant to provide a general conclusion regarding the participants’ attitude to the learning environment in the le context they were involved in and their motivation to study more in the future (masgoret & gardner, 2003) (table 6). an important fact to mention is that question number 5 was do you like learning about modal verbs? in the questionnaire completed before the experiment whereas it was would you like to learn more about modal verbs? in the questionnaire completed after the experiment. since a detailed analysis of all responses would exceed the scope of this article, only the most relevant results shall be presented here (table 7). jasmina đorđević ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318310 questions answers 1. how important do you think modal verbs are? a) not at all b) a little bit c) very important 2. do you believe modal verbs have any practical value? a) no b) only to some extent c) yes 3. do you think that a specific teaching approach may affect your language performance? a) yes b) for some units, yes c) no d) i’m not sure 4. what learning environment do you prefer more? a) computer assisted language learning b) conventional classroom c) a little bit of both d) i’m not sure (before the research) 5. do you like learning about modal verbs? a) no b) just a little bit more c) yes (after the research) 5. would you like to learn more about modal verbs? a) no b) a little bit c) yes table 6. questionnaire completed before and after the research. s before the experiment 31.0% of the participants in the cc group and 32.0% in the call group believed that modal verbs were important whereas after the experiment 54.0% of the participants in the call group believed so as opposed to 35.0% in the cc group. this indicates a significant change in attitude in the call group. in addition, an important change in attitude could be noticed regarding the question about the practical value of modal verbs in the call group, i.e. the positive attitude increased from 20.0% to 41.0% as opposed to the slight increase in the cc group (from 22.0% to 23.0%). a noticeable increase regarding the learners’ positive attitude to instruction in the call group could be noticed regarding the question whether a teaching approach may affect language performance (from 45.0% to 86.0%). another relevant finding refers to the preferred learning environment. before the experiment, a total of 46.0% of the participants in the cc group stated that they preferred the conventional learning environment whereas after the experiment only 29.0% said the same. unlike that, the number of participants in the call group who opted for call before the experiment changed from 57.0% to 78.0% after the experiment. before the experiment, 12.0% of the participants in both groups stated they liked to learn about modal verbs. the responses to the question posed at the end of the experiment whether the participants would like to learn more about modal verbs in the future showed only a small increase in the cc group (18.0%) as opposed to the call group (49.0%). as has been mentioned earlier (section 3.1.1), a group discussion was conducted with the participants after the experiment so that additional improved understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english and increased motivation through computer assisted language learning ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318 311 before after cc call cc call modal verbs are important 31.0% 32.0% 35.0% 54.0% modal verbs have practical value 22.0% 20.0% 23.0% 41.0% teaching approach may affect language performance 48.0% 45.0% 49.0% 86.0% preferred learning environment call 12.0% 57.0% 12.0% 78.0% cc 46.0% 2.0% 29.0% 0% both 42.0% 41.0% 59.0% 22.0% like learning about modal verbs 12.0% 12.0% would like to learn more about modal verbs 18.0% 69.0% table 7. comparison between relevant responses before and after the research. b a insight was gained regarding their motivation. the participants’ explanations support the conclusion that choosing a preferred learning environment can enhance both motivation and understanding. for instance, all the 25 participants from the call group were very enthusiastic about the learning environment they had been exposed to. they said they did not expect that learning about mmvle would be easier in call. in particular, 18 participants stated they did not expect modal verbs to be so interesting and a total of 15 participants pointed out they understood the differences between some mmvle. in comparison to that, a total of 22 participants from the cc group said they did not like the learning environment they had been exposed to and 19 of them stated they regretted not opting for call. when asked why they had chosen the cc, all of them agreed they believed it to be a safer choice as they had already been used to it. a total of 16 participants stated they would accept the opportunity to try call in the future. 4. pedagogical implications for improving grammar understanding and motivation in esp studies that have presented implications related to the understanding of specific language learning content, motivation and call indicate a variety of different results as follows: a) increased curiosity but no considerable learning outcomes (martens, gulikers & bastiaens, 2004), b) a rather insignificant impact on the level of achievement and motivation (rezvani & ketabi, 2011), c) slightly better learning outcomes and more positive attitudes to the learning environment (tafazoli, nosratzadeh & hosseini, 2014) and d) significantly better learning outcomes and increased motivation (wang, 2015). the present research indicated a better understanding of the mmvle in a call environment in comparison to the cc (sokolova, golovacheva & chernaya, 2015; tafazoli, nosratzadeh and hosseini, 2014; curado fuentes, 2017) after students had been allowed to choose call as a preferred learning environment (brown, 2007; guilloteaux, 2013; dörnyei, henry & muir, 2016). therefore, call should be implemented more in esp while institutions of education providing esp language instruction should, within their possibilities to realise such change, consider involving their students in the decision-making process regarding the learning environment, the type and mode of instruction, the styles and strategies, etc. such integration of jasmina đorđević ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318312 students in the learning process would affect the outcomes of the teaching and learning process as it would enhance learners’ activity level, enthusiasm, engagement, etc. (slembrouck, 2000). the participants’ responses in the questionnaire and their comments in the discussion after the experiment confirm that being allowed to choose call as a preferred learning environment in a le course can motivate learners to work harder because they realise the benefits and the advantages of the learning process (brown, 2007; slembrouck, 2000; guilloteaux & dörnyei, 2008). given that the questionnaire and the subsequent discussion were limited only to three aspects of motivation, i.e. interest, perceived competence and usefulness (ryan & deci, 2000), more extensive studies will have to be conducted to identify different profiles of motivation as well as determine the relation between motivation and the specific value of call, opportunities in call as a learning environment, benefits from feedback and peer assessment, collaboration, etc. in addition, the relations of motivation, attitudes and orientations to achievement in esp language learning should be investigated (masgoret & gardner, 2003) and deeper insight is needed regarding instruments measuring, profiling and scaling motivation (ryan & deci, 2000). the present research also showed that the nature and the causes of the errors the participants made is a result of their failure to internalise new mmvle and allocate them to the le context. such result may be referred back to the negative interference of previously mastered knowledge (richards, 2015) or to the negative transfer from the participants’ native language to the foreign english language, a problem extensively researched and confirmed as crucial in the process of learning a new language (gass, 1988). these two issues should be given more consideration both in research and in practice. particular attention should be directed at enhancing the understanding of the meanings of modal verbs in an esp context and comparisons of the differences between grammar units in both the native and the foreign language should be included during presentation and practice helping the students understand the nuances between the meanings. in addition, selfassessment and peer assessment should be included to encourage students to analyse mistakes. improved understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english and increased motivation through computer assisted language learning ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318 313 5. concluding remark the paper contributes to the understanding of the impact of call in a le course. unfortunately, the limited size of the quasi-experiment and the fact that only 50 participants were included in the research make it impossible to draw generalizable conclusions from the data obtained. nevertheless, the results confirm the initial hypothesis that call positively affected le learners’ motivation and their understanding of mmvle. the study described how call as a preferred learning environment may impact motivation and the understanding of the mmvle as a significant grammar unit in a le course. however, the scope of the present research could not provide conclusions regarding the actual implementation of an esp language learning process that would include esp students as active participants in decision-making and allow them to choose a preferred learning environment. to conclude, more extensive research is needed to obtain further data to corroborate the results of this study, to examine how this choice could be put in practice as well as to explore the possibilities, means and infrastructure that institutions of education will need to face the challenge of empowering esp students to participate in the esp language learning process both as students and decision-makers. acknowledgements this paper benefited from the project cooperation in science and technology (cost) action is1401 strengthening europeans’ capabilities by establishing the european literacy network (eln) supported by the eu framework programme horizon 2020. article history: received 13 february 2019 received in revised form 15 june 2019 accepted 30 april 2020 references jasmina đorđević ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318314 basturkmen, h. 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(2007). tradition and change in legal english: verbal constructions in prescriptive texts. bern: peter lang. yang, a., s.y. zheng & g.c. ge (2015). “epistemic modality in english-medium medical research articles: a systemic functional perspective”. english for specific purposes 38: 1-10. notes 1 given that the primary objective of this research was to explore the differences in achievement in two groups, the application of t tests was considered most relevant as they are used to verify how significant the differences between groups are. independent samples test in spss generate a levene’s test for equality of variances as part of the output which is why it is included in the data presentation. 2 since frequencies only summarize information about one variable, the cross tabulation was used in this research to generate information about the bivariate relationships regarding the number of repeated errors within each examined group. improved understanding of meanings of modal verbs in legal english and increased motivation through computer assisted language learning ibérica 39 (2020): 295-318 317 iberica 13 ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper investigates the challenges lecturers face in english-medium instruction (emi) programs and explores their beliefs concerning possible collaboration with language specialists through team-teaching, an option which would offer linguistic support to teachers and students. we used data gathered from discussion groups involving lecturers at two spanish universities. results show that the main challenges emi lecturers have to deal with relate to the specificities of teaching in a foreign language. emi lecturers acknowledge that the benefits of collaborating with language lecturers could prove to be a valuable asset, its value outweighing any initial misgivings. keywords: emi, content teachers, language teachers, team teaching, teachers’ beliefs. resumen l a int e g ra c i ón d e l e ng ua y c o nte n id o e n l o s c ur s os d e c ont e ni do e n in g l é s : un a ná l i s is de l a s c r e e nc i a s y pr ác t ic a s d e l pr of e s o ra do este trabajo investiga los retos a los que se enfrentan los profesores que imparten clases de contenido en inglés y analiza las creencias de estos profesores sobre la colaboración con especialistas de lengua para proporcionar soporte lingüístico tanto al profesorado como al alumnado. para abordar estas cuestiones se analizan datos recogidos por medio de grupos de discusión con profesorado de dos universidades españolas. los resultados muestran que los retos a los que se enfrentan los profesores están ligados a las particularidades de la enseñanza en una lengua extranjera. asimismo, el profesorado de contenido reconoce los the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction courses: lecturers’ beliefs and practices aintzane doiza, david lasagabastera & víctor pavónb auniversity of the basque country upv/ehu (spain), buniversity of córdoba (spain) aintzane.doiz@ehu.eus, david.lasagabaster@ehu.eus, si1pavav@uco.es 151 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 151 ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster & víctor pavón beneficios de la colaboración con profesorado de lengua, al tiempo que supera sus reticencias iniciales. palabras clave: programas en inglés, profesores de contenido, profesores de lengua, enseñanza en equipo, creencias de los profesores. introduction english-medium instruction (emi henceforth) could be defined as “the use of the english language to teach academic subjects (other than english itself) in countries or jurisdictions where the first language (l1) of the majority of the population is not english” (macaro, 2018: 19). emi programs are spreading all over the world, a trend that is reaching even those countries which have traditionally been characterized by their monolingual language policies. this is, for example, the case of japan, where over a third of the country’s nearly 800 universities offer undergraduate emi courses that largely serve “the needs of domestic japanese students” (brown, 2017: 151). the impact of the emi tsunami is particularly noticeable in europe, where the number of higher education institutions involved in emi programs has been steadily increasing (doiz, lasagabaster & sierra, 2013; wächter & maiworm, 2014; valcke & wilkinson, 2017). it is striking, however, that most european higher education institutions do not have any official emi policy (an exception being found for example in nordic countries; see bolton & kuteeva, 2012), and language requirements are not unified even in universities located in the same country (lasagabaster, 2019; weimberg & symon, 2017). in a study carried out in spain, halbach and lázaro (2015) observed an increase in the number of emi courses offered, but the authors were also taken aback by the fact that only 1 out of 4 higher education institutions imposed a c1 level as a requisite for the lecturers involved in emi and that very few universities provided methodological courses. this situation has consequently left many emi practitioners with no option but to complain about the lack of institutional support (see valcke & wilkinson, 2017). the situation started to change in spain after the publication of the framework document of language policy for the internationalization of universities by the board of rectors of spanish universities (bazo et al., 2017), where a linguistic accreditation for lecturers, students and administration staff is recommended, and a language program for these three sectors is delineated, but there is still a long way ahead. 152 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 152 research studies reveal that the vast majority of emi lecturers are concerned about content but not language (dafouz, 2011; airey, 2012; costa, 2012; aguilar, 2017; lasagabaster, 2018) and do not consider language learning to be their responsibility (doiz, lasagabaster & sierra, 2013), while they also believe that language learning takes place in an incidental way in emi contexts (coyle, hood & marsh, 2010; pecorari et al., 2011; lo, 2015; weimberg & symon, 2017). and this widespread belief is held despite the fact that one of the main concerns of emi lecturers in spain, the context of our study, has to do with emi students’ limited english proficiency (dearden, 2014; doiz, lasagabaster & sierra, 2014). paradoxically, as weinberg and symon (2017: 136) point out, “whilst the teaching of courses in english seems to focus on content, the majority of emi research tends to be initiated by language specialists exploring how to improve english proficiency in emi frameworks, rather than by content experts”, a clear indication of the fact that emi simply implies a change in the language of instruction for most emi content lecturers. with this context in mind, the collaboration between language and content university lecturers comes to the fore as a possible solution to foster content lecturers’ reflection on the role that language actually plays in their classes. researchers concur that there is compelling need to foster collaboration between language and content specialists (lyster, 2007, 2017) and that teamteaching will help to face the challenges of integrating content and language in higher education. in this vein, authors such as lyster (2007) and llinares, morton, and whittaker (2012), among many others, claim that content and language objectives should hold a complementary status by adopting a counterbalanced approach in which students’ and lecturers’ attention should be drawn to both content and language forms. although team-teaching fosters lecturers’ motivation and helps them to focus and reflect on their pedagogical practices (hanusch, obiojofor & volcic, 2009; lester & evans, 2009; trent, 2010; baeten & simons, 2014), it is not a widespread pedagogical practice and the number of studies available on this topic remains negligible. the collaboration between language and content instructors has been a success at pre-university level (pavón et al., 2014), but it is very hard to find at tertiary level (carpenter, crawford & walden, 2007; valcke & wilkinson, 2017). in fact, in higher education institutions interdisciplinary lecturer communication has traditionally been scarce, as both language and content specialists are inevitably influenced by their disciplinary culture (kuteeva & airey, 2014; brown, 2017) and tend to live in two worlds apart. the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 153 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 153 research questions with this complex university setting in mind, in this research study we strove to delve into content lecturers’ beliefs about the implementation of a teamteaching experience. our objective was twofold; firstly, we intended to gather information about the main problems emi lecturers face in their everyday teaching practice and, secondly, to unveil their opinions about team-teaching. these objectives led us to the following specific research questions: research question 1: what are the main challenges that lecturers involved in emi programs have to confront? research question 2: what are emi lecturers’ attitudes towards the implementation of a team-teaching program aimed at fostering language and content lecturers’ collaboration? the study the context this study was undertaken in two spanish universities that have taken the plunge and decided to foster emi: the university of the basque country (ubc) and the university of córdoba (uco). the ubc is a medium-sized university located in the basque autonomous community (bac) and in which both basque and spanish have been official languages since its inception in 1980. in an attempt to boost its internationalization process, the ubc launched the so-called multilingualism program (mp) in 2005. the mp is aimed at continuing at university level the trilingual programs already in place at pre-university level (doiz, lasagabaster & sierra, 2011), so that local students’ proficiency in a foreign language and their work and career prospects are improved. it is also designed to facilitate students’ pursuit of postgraduate degrees abroad and to attract foreign students and teaching staff. in the mp students can choose to study compulsory subjects in basque, spanish or a foreign language (e.g. english, french). due to the leading role of english as a lingua franca and the characteristics of the basque educational context, english reigns supreme on the mp and in fact 97% of the courses are delivered in english, while only 3% are taught in french. the program has been growing very rapidly since its inception and it currently encompasses around 1  300 students and over 400 qualified teaching staff aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster & víctor pavón ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176154 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 154 who had the necessary official language qualifications to teach on the program (c1 proficiency level of the common european framework of reference for languages). the uco is one of the nine public universities to be found in andalusia. it is an officially monolingual university and it can be regarded as a small university: 18 000 students, 1 400 lecturers and 750 administration personnel. the uco fostered the implementation of emi programs in the 2014/15 academic year with a view to strengthening the internationalization process. the program launched at the uco advocates an internationalization process founded on developing a language policy in which languages are viewed as essential for training students for a globalized world, attracting international students, and enhancing the international profile of universities (bazo et al., 2017). at the uco 100% of the courses on the emi program are delivered in english. emi programs amount to 4% of the courses on offer and emi lecturers are requested to have earned a b2 plus teaching experience in emi or a c1 certificate. one of the distinctive features of this program is that due to the shortage of qualified lecturers to offer studies in english in some areas, the focus is also on building emi itineraries of 30 credits ects, that is to say, a number of classes amounting to 30 credits which are taught entirely in english within various disciplines. in this way students have a reasonable amount of emi courses to choose from, although they are expected to enroll in all of them in order to get an emi mention in their degree. another particularity is an interest in equipping lecturers with specific skills for emi, and the uco offers a training program to provide the teaching staff with essential knowledge and techniques. the participants the sample was made up of 13 emi lecturers who were teaching three different degrees: history, education and veterinary science. for the sake of anonymity, lecturers are identified by means of a number. as can be seen in table 1, their teaching experience was 18 years on average, whereas they had less emi experience (three and a half years) due to the recency of emi courses in both institutions. table 1 also provides information about their language abilities: whereas the uco participants were bilingual in spanish and english, all but one of the ubc teaching staff were multilingual and their foreign languages included french and italian, in addition to english (the languages are listed in order of self-reported proficiency). the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 155 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 155 it is worth mentioning that lecturers need to certify their language proficiency in order to be able to participate in emi, whereas students do not have to comply with any linguistic requirement (they are expected to have reached at least a b1 level of competence at pre-university level). the latter take part in emi courses on a voluntary basis. data collection and analysis three focus groups were organized in the two participating universities, two of them at the uco and the remaining one at the ubc. the focus groups were carried out in spanish because this was the participants’ l1 and therefore the language chosen for the discussion of the topics under scrutiny. the researcher chairing each group followed the same guidelines, which included a series of open questions revolving around the two research questions (the participants’ opinions about the main challenges in emi and their attitudes towards team-teaching). the discussions were recorded by the authors of the study. a research assistant based at the ubc provided the verbatim transcriptions of the recordings (40 956 words) which were then translated by the three authors of the study after transcription. for the data analysis, the three participating researchers followed descriptive and analytic coding procedures with notes for categorization and analytic understanding, working to reconcile any differences until they reached a shared interpretation. qualitative coding is inherently interpretive and involves continuous interaction and re-reading of the data by comparing and contrasting themes so that the researchers discover patterns in the data (baralt, 2012). in order to achieve this, during the coding process different keywords were manually identified by each of the researchers of the present aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster & víctor pavón ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176156 the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 133-154 lecturers with specific skills for emi, and the uco offers a training program to provide the teaching staff with essential knowledge and techniques. the participants the sample was made up of 13 emi lecturers who were teaching three different degrees: history, education and veterinary science. for the sake of anonymity, lecturers are identified by means of a number. as can be seen in table 1, their teaching experience was 18 years on average, whereas they had less emi experience (three and a half years) due to the recency of emi courses in both institutions. table 1 also provides information about their language abilities: whereas the uco participants were bilingual in spanish and english, all but one of the ubc teaching staff were multilingual and their foreign languages included french and italian, in addition to english (the languages are listed in order of self-reported proficiency). emi lecturer university degree languages teaching experience emi experience t1 ubc history spanish/english 21 5 t2 ubc history spanish/english/italian 30 2 t3 ubc history spanish/english/french 30 2 t4 ubc history spanish/basque/english 16 1 t5 ubc history spanish/basque/english/ french 26 6 t6 uco education spanish/english 24 6 t7 uco education spanish/english 8 4 t8 uco education spanish/english 9 6 t9 uco education spanish/english 8 4 t10 uco veterinary spanish/english 17 3 t11 uco veterinary spanish/english 14 2 t12 uco veterinary spanish/english 20 3 t13 uco veterinary spanish/english 15 2 table 1: main features of the participants. it is worth mentioning that lecturers need to certify their language proficiency in order to be able to participate in emi, whereas students do not have to comply with any linguistic requirement (they are expected to have reached at least a b1 level of competence at preuniversity level). the latter take part in emi courses on a voluntary basis. data collection and analysis three focus groups were organized in the two participating universities, two of them at the uco and the remaining one at the ubc. the focus groups were carried out in spanish because this was the participants’ l1 and therefore the language chosen for the discussion of the topics under scrutiny. the researcher chairing each group followed the same guidelines, which included a series of open questions revolving around the two research questions (the participants’ opinions about the main challenges in emi and their attitudes towards team-teaching). the discussions were recorded by the authors of the study. a research assistant based 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 156 study in the teachers’ interventions as reflected in the transcripts, then compared and, finally, generally the noun forms of the most repeated and representative ones were selected. later, these keywords were grouped under conceptual labels or broad themes (e.g. teaching in a language which is not your l1, weaknesses in the l2, evaluation of the form, collaboration with a language specialist in emi, implementation of a language teacher’s help, etc.), so that they could be successively categorized to address the two research questions. seven categories were agreed on: teaching in a foreign language, the impact of english on the development of the classes, the students’ language skills, focus on form, views on collaboration with language teachers, the profile of the language lecturer and the implementation of the collaboration. the coding procedure was designed to analyse the transcriptions precisely and to minimize the risk of overlooking important categories, which is why it was firstly carried out by each researcher individually and then shared by all three until a consensus was reached. the results table 2 contains the keywords relevant to the first research question, namely, the main challenges faced by the lecturers teaching in emi and the three categories under which they are subsumed: teaching in a foreign language, the impact of english on the development of the classes, and the students’ language skills. for ease of identification the keywords and their related words are provided between inverted single commas in the main text (e.g. ‘limitations’, ‘limited’, although just one of the words – usually the noun form or the most representative word form – is included in the table). the discussion groups revealed that teaching in a foreign language has three main consequences for our participants. firstly, lecturers noted a significant reduction in the ‘vocabulary’ they can rely on (quote 1), an issue of great relevance particularly in humanities where the form is as important as the the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 157 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 157 message itself (the original quotes, which were in spanish, have been translated into english): (1) i am aware that as i go through the door in my class in english, my vocabulary goes from 5 000 to 1 000 words. in the classes in humanities like ours, this is an important problem because suddenly you see that you are much more ‘limited’ than in spanish. (t.his.1) similar results have been found in the scandinavian context. thus, pecorari et al. (2011: 66) reported that in denmark the surveyed teachers agreed that “they sometimes could not find the words they needed” (see also bolton & kuteeva, 2012, for the swedish context). teaching in a foreign language also conditions the degree of ‘detail’ in the explanations provided by the lecturers. thus, there is an inverse correlation between the lecturer’s english language competence and the depth of the explanation or the degree of the ‘detail’ in the information provided: “you are never going to go into the same depth into a subject; you will not provide those in-depth nuances or ‘detail’” (t.hist.2). in addition, in veterinary science one of the participants (t.vet.4) found the ‘pronunciation’ of technical vocabulary particularly challenging and she sometimes also felt unsure of the corresponding english form of specialized spanish expressions, which made the preparation of her classes difficult. secondly, and related to the first consequence associated with teaching in a foreign language, most of the lecturers, regardless of their discipline, noted that their communication skills are reduced as they are unable to paraphrase the same idea in different ways in english (quote 2), something they could easily do in their l1. consequently, the array of resources that is available to them to make their message clear to their students is more ‘limited’. in addition, their capability to be ‘spontaneous’ or improvise is also affected, reducing their chances of establishing a good rapport with the students (quote 3): (2) in spanish i could say it in five different ways in order to make them understand, or to give them examples. when i am speaking in english, however, this ability is very ‘limited’. i just say it in one way. (t.edu.1) (3) i think that i lose ‘spontaneity’ and freshness and i feel a kind of a barrier that is not there when i teach in spanish because it is aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster & víctor pavón ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176158 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 158 more difficult to connect with the students when the language is not your own. (t.edu.2) similarly, in the nordic context, the use of more formal language similar to the textbook style, the occurrence of more repetitions in the l2 and the adoption of a slower pace were also observed in the lecture given by a danish experienced lecturer in english (the l2) in a study conducted by thøgersen and airey (2011) and cited in airey (2012). thirdly, some lecturers feel a sense of ‘insecurity’ when they are lecturing in english. this feeling results from the lecturers’ awareness of their formal and rhetorical ‘limitations’ and their desire to do a good job (t.edu.4). this weakness puts our highly experienced lecturers in an uncomfortable situation. the impact of english on the development of the classes (the second category) is felt in a number of ways. first and foremost, it conditions students’ ‘participation’ which is admittedly rather low even when the students’ l1 is used, a practice common to students in many spanish universities. the lecturers try to encourage students’ ‘participation’ and engagement by (i) downplaying the importance of accuracy and stating that they also make language ‘errors’, just like the students, (ii) emphasizing the importance of being able to convey the message over the form, and (iii) creating a relaxed atmosphere in class (quote 4): (4) i think that the key element is to relax the atmosphere. this is, perhaps, the first didactic tool we have. (t.vet.5) the differences in the ‘students’ english proficiency’ level also condition and hinder the development of the classes. lecturers observe significant differences among their students’ competences and skills in english, complicating their teaching practice. however, according to some lecturers, ‘student heterogeneity’ seems to be levelling out as a result of student participation in bilingual programs in secondary schools and extra-curricular activities directed at learning english. furthermore, the effects of student limited skills in english are counterbalanced by the process of student ‘self-selection’ (i.e. they signed up for the emi voluntarily) (quote 5) and the students’ bilingual habitus in the ubc (quote 6). the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 159 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 159 (5) i think they make quite a strict ‘self-selection’. furthermore, i think that there are more students that could come to the classes in english but do not dare. (t.hist.5) (6) and then they have a very important thing … a very good thing which i think comes from their ‘bilingual habit’, right? they would come into the class in english and they expected/assumed everything to be in english. so even when you were leaving the classroom, they would chase you down the hall in english. a monolingual speaker does not do this. a monolingual speaker changes to his mother tongue as soon as he can, at the slightest opportunity. (t.hist.1) the lecturers try to minimize the impact of english on their lessons by making sure that the students are following what they are explaining in the class. they seek students’ ‘feedback’ constantly in order to overcome possible breaches of understanding and ‘slow down’ the pace of their lectures as necessary (quote 7). (7) i am explaining a topic, a procedure or it could be anything and then i look at their faces, the faces tell a lot. then i explain the same thing again, and in addition, i ask for their constant ‘feedback’, because it is a constant ‘feedback’ of “did you get this?”, “is this clear?”, “do you understand this?” and i repeat the explanation and repeat it as many times as necessary. (t.vet.2) the third category within the challenges faced by the lecturers teaching in emi corresponds to the students’ language skills. not surprisingly, students fare better in the receptive skills of ‘reading’ and ‘listening’, which are more passive than the productive skills. they seem to have good ‘listening’ skills (t.hist.1), although understanding may be impaired when the speaker is a ‘native speaker’ (t.vet.5). by contrast, students find the productive skills of ‘speaking’ and ‘writing’ most challenging, which according to some of the lecturers may be due to the traditional methodology employed in efl (quote 8) where grammar received the main focus and little practice of oral skills takes place, personal traits (quote 9) as well as students’ ‘embarrassment’ to talk in english (quote 10): aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster & víctor pavón ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176160 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 160 (8) they have a non-existent capacity for expression, mainly for ‘spoken’ language, but not only that. that is to say, we have learnt the languages to receive, to ‘read’, and this is the case with spanish as well, that is to say, here we do not practice and on top of that there are their fears. so i know that it is very hard to do presentations, for example. i know that i am going to ask for volunteers and that there won’t be any. (t.hist.5) (9) the ‘spoken’ part is hard for some of them. it is also a question of personality, and i believe that personality traits also ‘limit’ them in their ‘speaking’. (t.hist.3) (10) and then, above all, the spanish are ‘embarrassed’ to talk among themselves in english. (t.vet.5) the students’ ‘writing’ skill is also impaired in english although this problem may not be restricted to the foreign language as lecturers frequently observe that students need to improve their academic ‘writing’ not only in english, but also in their own l1: “the ‘writing’… but they also have difficulties with the ‘writing’ in spanish”, (t.hist.2) (see bolton & kuteeva, 2012, for similar results). the second research question, namely, the lecturers’ stance regarding the possibility of a collaboration program between content and language lecturers, is approached with the identification and analysis of the keywords subsumed under four categories: (i) focus on form: the importance of paying attention to language aspects in their classes; (ii) views on the collaboration with language lecturers: their positive or negative stance toward the possibility of collaborating with language lecturers; (iii) the profile of the language lecturer: whether the team lecturer should be a language or content specialist; (iv) and the implementation of the collaboration: how this collaboration should be carried out (table 3). the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 161 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 161 the analysis of the participants’ responses reveals that the lecturers attach very little importance to the ‘form’ as their main interest lies in the ‘content’ (the first category of focus on form). hence, none of the lecturers focuses on the ‘formal’ aspects of students’ productions in english (quote 11): (11) i think that the key element is to explain clearly to the students that they need to talk, that it does not matter what they say [here what the teacher means is how correctly the say it], that they can say whatever they can … and that they should not be quiet. (t.vet.5) in fact, the lecturers go to some lengths to explain to their students that the ‘formal’ aspects of their speech, i.e. whether they make perfectly ‘grammatical’ sentences in english, are not important. for instance, in order to downplay the importance of ‘form’, some lecturers admit to making language ‘errors’, thereby sharing the idea with the students that they all face the same difficulties and that it is all right. in line with this view, lecturers inform their students that the ‘formal’ aspects of the written and oral ‘assessment’ tasks are not taken into account. they do not penalize language or ‘grammar’ ‘errors’ and they only pay heed to ‘errors’ when the student has made some type of basic ‘error’ that needs to be addressed to ensure a minimum standard in the class (t.hist.3). by contrast, all the participants in the discussion groups emphasized the importance for the students’ to be able to ‘communicate’ a message, to be able to make themselves ‘understood’ and not to ‘be afraid’ of making ‘errors’ (quote 12): (12) well, you tell them that, in the english class, we are trying to get them to ‘communicate’, to be able to ‘communicate’ in english and that they should not be ‘afraid’ of making ‘errors’, that we all make ‘errors’, but if they let the ‘errors’ get to them, then they are lost. i don’t fool them though, and i tell them that they have to ‘communicate’ but they have to try to make sentences which are as correct as possible, but i tell them not to be ‘afraid’, and they respond well. (t.hist.4) in general, the only time in which attention to ‘form’ is provided is when new technical vocabulary needs to be introduced: “i do not deal with ‘grammar’ in my case, what i do try is for the students to acquire specific aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster & víctor pavón ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176162 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 162 ‘vocabulary’, technical ‘vocabulary’ on different subject-matters, which is the main advantage of choosing this subject, i think” (t.vet.1). the most important reason for the lack of the lecturers’ attention to the ‘form’ is the fact that the participants remain adamant in the belief that teaching english is not one of their responsibilities. in fact, as many of our participants stated, they do not perceive themselves as ‘language lecturers’ (quote 13) (see airey, 2012, for a similar view): (13) i am not a ‘language lecturer’. at the beginning of the course i tell them that “the main objective is not to learn english, although you will. that is to say, i want to be able to ‘understand’ what you write.” (t.hist.5) the second reason for the participants’ avoidance of attention to ‘form’ is the lack of the necessary training to teach languages. it should be borne in mind that these lecturers have never taught english in their careers and do not necessarily have the training or the knowledge to deal with language issues. however, even if they were in a position to tackle language-related issues in class, some of the lecturers argue that they would not have enough ‘time’ to teach both ‘content’ and ‘form’. moreover, they also draw a line between emi (english medium of instruction) and clil (content and language integrated learning) (quote 14): (14) one cannot say that my methodology is clil. i am more inclined to do emi and the ‘time’ available has a lot to do with that because i would be completely overwhelmed otherwise. i think that we do not have enough ‘time’ to do anything. time is an important constraint in the choice of the methodology. (t.edu.4) this lecturer’s reference to clil does not come as a surprise, as these programs have become very popular in spain and they are often mentioned in mass media. since the integration of language and content is usually highlighted in clil, this lecturer wants to make it clear that such integration does not take place in his courses. lastly, another argument put forward by the lecturers not to focus on ‘form’ is their belief that prospective students may be discouraged from enrolling in their classes if they are made too conscious of their language ‘limitations’ through the focus on ‘form’. consequently, they only deal with vocabulary the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 163 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 163 issues when there are no correspondences between the english and spanish forms, but ‘grammar’ and other language-related issues are not addressed in their classes (quote 15): (15) i give importance to the ‘content’ and the specific ‘vocabulary’. in fact many times we have discussed terms that are not the same in english and spanish. and i do not pay a lot of attention to the ‘grammar’ because otherwise they would not feel encouraged to enroll in the english itinerary for the spanish students. (t.vet.4) the analysis of the second category views on collaboration with language lecturers reveals that in general the lecturers assess the possibility of working together with language lecturers in a very positive manner. they point out the potential benefits both for students and for themselves, and stress that this collaboration could be fruitful and make a relevant contribution to the quality of the lessons (quotes 16 and 17): (16) it can definitely be very positive and can help enhance the lessons. i think that the students would like this; they would like to feel that they have extra support. (t.hist.5) (17) yes, i think it’s a perfect proposal. that’s the way it should be. we have to admit that we are not using our mother tongue and we have certain limitations. having the possibility to be assisted by a language specialist seems essential to me in order to contribute to carrying out quality teaching. (t.hist.3) this positive attitude could be because of a greater need to verbalize knowledge in humanities than in scientific and technological fields (airey, 2015; kuteeva & airey, 2015). however, lecturers from the latter areas agree that collaboration with language specialists would certainly be profitable and add that this kind of support could be offered not only in the classroom but also outside, offering assistance to lecturers while, for example, preparing the lessons. lecturers would really appreciate having the opportunity to ask about linguistic problems and suggest that this help may be provided as an online resource (t.vet.1). but, there are also concerns, especially with respect to some possible emotional drawbacks for both the lecturer and the students who may aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster & víctor pavón ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176164 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 164 experience some type of nervousness or insecurity, if the language specialist is present during the lecture (quote 18): (18) it looks all good to me but i have to recognize that the presence of another lecturer in the classroom gives me a sense of… also considering the students, huh? and maybe a bit for myself, i don’t know. it may produce a bit of apprehension… i have this little fear; i don’t know how it would work in practical terms. (t.hist.2) as regards the third category drawn from the data, profile of the language, we can detect two different views with respect to the characteristics of the lecturer providing linguistic assistance in the classroom. on the one hand, lecturers suggest that rather than being assisted by a lecturer who is only a specialist in the language, it would be necessary that this lecturer had some knowledge of the content being covered in the lessons, and that it would even be more beneficial if the language team-lecturer were a specialist in the area as well (quote 19): (19) considering all the possibilities, beyond the sole participation of a specialist in the language, i would find very useful that this lecturer is as close as possible to the knowledge area i am teaching. i would be happy if a veterinary lecturer from an english speaking university could come to my classes. and if he/she were teaching a subject similar to what i teach, that would be extremely helpful (t.vet.2) this is interesting as lecturers also have in mind the possibility of collaborating with native english-speaking content lecturers who are specialists in similar areas. the idea would then be that these native lecturers provide linguistic assistance as a model, but not as an instructor. the students would benefit from being in contact with ‘authentic’ english specific to the content areas, but they would only receive indirect correction in the form of simple feedback or maybe repetition when they are interacting. on the other hand, there are lecturers who believe that as students do not know much of the content material either, what they need is someone to help them understand the content, in other words, a lecturer who can offer linguistic support and not only a specialist in the area (quote 20): the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 165 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 165 (20) i agree with him (t.vet.2), that would certainly be very useful, but there is also another question because if a lecturer from a different field comes to your classroom and he/she understands you, this means that the students understand you, too. thus, it’s not only that lecturers from your area will understand you better because they are more connected, no, they will help you with the most specific and technical vocabulary, but a lecturer who does not know much of the content, who sits in your classroom for some minutes and may understand you or not, they may tell you “hey, that was not comprehensible”, “you’ve got to express it differently”, “better this way”, or “emphasize that”. if you manage to make a person or a student who does not know much (about the topic) understand it, your goal is already achieved. i think that the interesting thing is that this person is a specialist in the language and not only an expert in the area. (t.vet.5) the opinions of the lecturers regarding the last category under scrutiny, the implementation of the collaboration, run in line with many of the positive beliefs already mentioned but in this case the lecturers go into depth, foreseeing the challenges and rewards of collaborating with language specialists. the possibility that language specialists could perform team-teaching during a certain amount of time in order to cover previously established or emergent linguistic problems is seen by the lecturers as a quite profitable initiative, mainly because the language specialist is particularly qualified to tackle these problems. another aspect highlighted by the lecturers is that the help provided by the language specialist should be planned with the objective of subserving the specific necessities in their different areas (quote 21): (21) it would be more interesting if it were connected to what we are actually doing and not perceived by students as something generic for the class, don’t you think? errors they make constantly, or maybe, i don’t know, for example one thing that comes to my mind, they have problems with presentations. and then issues related to history, it would be good, for example, to deal with old english. because in history we frequently use texts and sometimes they are texts from the 17th, 18th centuries. (t.hist.5) aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster & víctor pavón ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176166 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 166 notwithstanding the favorable opinions above, lecturers believe that the implementation of this help has to be administered with caution due to, for example, the consequences of a possible reduction of their own time in the lesson (quote 22): (22) …provided it does not mean shortening my time in the lesson (laughs). this is crucial to me, but in principle, yes, i would do it. it could be an important help, and another factor of evaluation for the lecturer, but well, after having done team-teaching with english lecturers i don’t feel an additional pressure. (t.edu.4) others add on the argument that it would mean a reduction of their own time, and that the time used by the language specialist would put more pressure on their daily performance (quote 23): (23) i would like to do that but it worries me. it worries me because the contents in english have to be simplified. students have to be taught the same content as in the lessons in spanish, if we remove more minutes, my doubt is that we could not do that every day because i would not have the time to teach my content. (t.vet.4) in order to try to solve this problem, the lecturers suggested introducing virtual language support for students as an alternative, to compensate or offset a lack of time resulting from the presence of the language specialists (quote 24): (24) that’s why it could also be provided through a virtual environment, online for students and for lecturers so that it does not take up time in the lesson. (t.vet.2) all in all, the lecturers are picturing with their comments the difficulties involved in teaching in another language and paying parallel conscious attention to the use and development of the language. they are fully aware that there are significant differences between teaching academic content by merely changing the language of instruction (emi) or teaching the content material and at the same time attending to language use (clil) (quote 25): (25) this is why i was saying that we should set out the collaboration in a different way. because now it is not only a question of teaching the content … it is content and language. (t.vet.3) the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 167 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 167 as for the linguistic areas that the lecturers consider to be suitable targets for this kind of support, we found conflicting opinions with respect to the relevance of the different linguistic skills. maybe because of the different general linguistic level of the students or maybe due to the time and interest devoted by the lecturer to regularly presenting activities related to particular skills, there are some noticeable opposite views, particularly regarding listening skills (see bolton & kuteeva, 2012, for same findings) (quotes 26 and 27): (26) i’d say that for my students listening is their best capacity, they are strong in it. i play videos and they easily understand 80%. they have more difficulties, i think, with writing. (p.his.1) (27) listening maybe is their main problem when the speaker is native, if it is us who speak, we speak slower and our pronunciation is not perfect, they will understand almost everything for sure, with a native lecturer they may have problems. (t.vet.2) finally, there is one aspect of the language in which all the lecturers concur and which is by far the most problematic: pronunciation. not only due to the difficulties linked to the pronunciation of native speakers, but also because the lecturers perceive their pronunciation problems as one of the most significant issues to be resolved in their lessons (quotes 28 and 29): (28) for us, speakers of spanish, pronunciation is the most difficult aspect, but i think that it is highly important. there are sounds that i cannot produce and there are words that i’ve never been able to pronounce correctly. it is easy when you listen but i cannot produce them. well, it is important to try to improve as much as possible. then it is important to cover everything. (t.his.4) (29) for us it is really difficult to find out how to pronounce correctly every word. and when you come across technical terms, you tend to pronounce them in a spanish fashion. then i do find it important. (t.vet.4) aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster & víctor pavón ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176168 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 168 conclusions both lecturers and educational authorities are becoming aware of the difficulties that emi programs involve and the implications of transmitting complex academic material to students whose command of english is limited (contero, zayas & arco, 2018). there is growing interest in establishing the factors that can make these programs successful and, more particularly, what measures should be adopted to cope with language issues (dafouz, hütner & smit, 2016; nikula et al., 2016; bazo et al., 2017). with this in mind we aimed to investigate the challenges that lecturers have to face when teaching academic content in a foreign language on emi programs. we also wanted to explore their beliefs and perceptions about the possibility of collaborating with language specialists through team-teaching as one of the possible options to linguistically support both teachers and students. analysis of the lecturer’s responses in relation to the first rq posited reveals that, in line with other studies in the same context (rubio & moore, 2018), the lecturers are preoccupied with the challenges resulting from using english to transmit content, both for the students and for the lecturers themselves, in three specific areas: teaching in a foreign language, the impact of english on the development of the classes, and the students’ language skills. with regard to the difficulties associated with teaching in a foreign language, the lecturers did not hesitate to point out their own insecurity as one of the most negative factors. their inability to deal with language problems (as also observed in the swedish context (airey, 2012); the italian context (costa, 2012); catalonia (spain) (aguilar, 2017); and andalusia (spain) (rubio & moore, 2018)), the greater amount of effort demanded by having to prepare the lessons in english, the tiredness produced during the lesson resulting from teaching in a foreign language and in certain cases a lack of experience in emi, seem to lessen their self-confidence and can also result in a noticeable emotional handicap for some of them. as a consequence, the lecturers stressed the need for training in the most relevant emi skills in order to perform successfully in their classes. with respect to the impact of english on the development of the classes, our participants clearly established a direct relationship between the students’ command of the language and the quality of the lessons: the lower this proficiency is, the harder it is for the lecturers to perform comfortably. this was considered the biggest reason for the reduction in the quantity and quality of what they taught in class. as regards the students’ linguistic skills, all the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 169 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 169 the participants concurred and underscored the wide difference in students’ language skills as the main reason for slowing down the pace of their lessons (dearden, 2014; doiz, lasagabaster & sierra, 2014). the lecturers also complained that, due to a general non-ideal command of the language, the smooth flow of lessons was interrupted by having to introduce frequent instruments to check students’ understanding, such as paraphrasing. together with the problems directly stemming from the student’s proficiency in the foreign language, the lecturers also highlighted that the students generally had problems with oral production because of lack of habit in using the language orally in front of other students. in fact, the fear of making mistakes in front of other students constituted their worst limitation and frequently ended up in embarrassment and inhibition. as an automatic and genuine response to this problem, lecturers indicated a need to reduce tension by lessening the importance of mistakes made by students. thus, one of the keys to promoting a relaxed atmosphere is to help students lose their fear of making mistakes, and they also stressed that one of the lecturer’s main roles should be to behave as a linguistic facilitator who tries to support students when they face linguistic problems rather than as an instructor (focused on linguistic accuracy). as for the second rq, we can conclude that they show a positive attitude towards the possibility of implementing a team-teaching program (see lasagabaster 2018 for a discussion about how to implement such programs), a general feeling that has been itemized in several different categories: focus on form, views on collaboration with language lecturers, the profile of the language lecturer, and the implementation of the collaboration. in terms of how much attention to form should be paid by the lecturers, the answer is unanimously simple; they declare that they are content lecturers, not language lecturers (dafouz, 2011; airey, 2012; costa, 2012; aguilar, 2017; lasagabaster, 2019). they believe that the most important goal in teaching in english is communication and that the students’ use of the language should not influence the evaluation provided they are able to understand and be understood. the assumption is that their target is to teach academic content, which means that they are more prone to participate in emi programs and not so much in any other program in which they have to pay heed to language (such as clil, in which language objectives are explicit and should be addressed). however, this feeling is not the product of a rigid positioning, but rather the result of acknowledging that they are not qualified to do so and that they do not normally have the time to worry aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster & víctor pavón ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176170 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 170 about it. concerning the lecturers’ opinions about collaboration with language lecturers, this is an area which may bring positive results and help enhance the development of the language of the students (gustafson et al., 2011). in this study, it has to be noted that they generally judge the possibility of collaboration as a promising initiative that could help students perform much better in the classroom, specifically in the development of academic literacies (arnó-macià & mancho-barés, 2015). this positive attitude has, however, its caveats because of the existence of several potential problems, such as a necessity to clarify the characteristics and dynamics of the collaboration (lasagabaster, 2018) because of its innovative nature for both students and lecturers (carpenter, crawford & walden, 2007), the possible reduction of time in the lessons, and the need for additional resources (mainly online). as far as the discussion about the profile of the language lecturer is concerned, two opposing views were expressed in our groups, with some arguing that the best support would be provided by an english-speaking lecturer who is also a specialist in the area, whereas others believe that the linguistic necessities of students demand that the team-teacher just needs to be a language specialist, mostly in the form of a esp specialist (räisänen & fortanet, 2008; arnó-macià & mancho-barés, 2015; basturkmen & shackelford, 2015). this difference of opinion possibly arises from the lecturers’ own personality, the field of study (history lecturers do not even mention this issue), and students’ command of the foreign language. in situations where the students’ english proficiency is high, the lecturers focus more on the specific academic language, whereas when students’ english command is a bit lower, the participants believe that a specialist in the language would foster students’ language use. with respect to the last of the categories, the implementation of the collaboration, as reported in other studies (contero, 2018), our participants agree that assistance from a language specialist is a promising proposal, but they also warn against potential negative effects, especially related to the anxiety and additional pressure that this might put on content lecturers and, once again, to time constraints. identifying the linguistic areas on which the collaboration should focus is a relevant aspect according to the focus groups’ responses. as stated earlier, attention to oral production is a must for the lecturers in emi, but later on their comments also indicated that some effort should be invested in increasing the students’ listening and writing abilities. nevertheless, there is a linguistic aspect that all the lecturers recognize as imperative in the the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 171 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 171 classroom, namely, pronunciation, and more specifically, the mispronunciation of keywords and ideas, which they perceive as a hindrance in emi lessons. that said, they also declare that the first objective should be to surpass the level of intelligibility, having pronunciation as an ally to make concepts and ideas intelligible and not as a source of frustration in an unrealistic attempt to achieve native-like accuracy. our data analysis has disclosed some relevant aspects of what teaching in another language means. on the one hand, it seems evident that there are structural measures that have to be adopted by the education authorities. how teaching staff are selected for emi programs is one of them; accreditation of a minimum level of c1 by content lecturers would be advisable (lasagabaster, 2019), but universities should also ask for a minimum linguistic entry level for the students, which would contribute to reducing the problems ascribed to heterogeneous classes (halbach & lázaro, 2015). in addition, it is essential to design a training program for emi lecturers in order to equip them with the necessary knowledge, skills and techniques to be really effective in the classroom. as the content lecturers pointed out, they need to know what the challenges in emi actually are and how to cope with them. also, there is a necessity for material support for both lecturers and students, while online resources are also demanded. finally, with regard to collaboration with language lecturers, the universities should support this initiative, as team-teaching is considered to be a very valuable resource by emi lecturers despite some potential side-effects. the discussion on team-teaching thus emerges as one of the main contributions of this paper, as emi lecturers do acknowledge that its benefits clearly outweigh their potential misgivings, while it may become a very valuable asset when it comes to underpinning the success of emi classes. although universities are currently under financial constraints, there are different options available to implement team-teaching, such as funding from research and/or teaching innovation projects in which both language and content teachers could collaborate, or adopting flexible measures in the teaching load of language teachers, whose work on team-teaching projects could be added to their teaching load (alongside their language classes). as a final remark, it has to be said that this study has obtained qualitative data whose results might have been complemented if more lecturers from the same universities or more lecturers from other universities would have participated. despite this, we believe that their responses have given us a clear picture regarding their beliefs and attitudes towards the challenges of aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster & víctor pavón ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176172 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 172 teaching in another language and the potentiality of team-teaching through collaboration between content and language specialists. acknowledgements this work is supported by the spanish ministry of economy and competitiveness [grant number mineco/feder ffi2016-79377-p] and the basque government [grant number it904-16]. we authors would like to thank the teachers involved for their invaluable collaboration and willingness to participate in this study. article history: received 5 october 2018 received in revised form 26 april 2019 accepted 13 may 2019 references the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 173 aguilar, m. 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(2014). english as a medium of instruction –a growing global phenomenon. oxford: british council. doiz, a., d. lasagabaster & j.m. sierra (2011). “internationalisation, multilingualism and englishmedium instruction: the teacher’s perspective”. world englishes 30: 345-359. doiz, a., d. lasagabaster & j.m. sierra (2013). “globalisation, internationalisation, multilingualism and linguistic strains in higher education”. studies in higher education 38: 1407-1421. doiz, a., d. lasagabaster & j.m. sierra (2014). “language friction and multilingual policies in higher education: the stakeholders’ view”. journal of multilingual and multicultural development 35: 345-360. gustafsson, m., a. eriksson, c. räisänen, a.c. stenberg, c. jacobs, j. wright & c. winberg (2011). “collaborating for content and language integrated learning: the situated character of faculty collaboration and student learning”. across the disciplines 8: 1-11. halbach, a. & a. lázaro (2015). la acreditación del nivel de lengua inglesa en las universidades españolas: actualización 2015. madrid: british council. hanusch, f., l. obiojofor & z. volcic (2009). “theoretical and practical issue in team-teaching a large undergraduate class”. international journal of teaching and learning in higher education 21: 66-74. kuteeva, m. & j. airey (2014). “disciplinary differences in the use of english in higher education: reflections on recent language policy developments”. higher education 67: 533-549. lasagabaster, d. (2018). “fostering team teaching: mapping out a research agenda for english-medium instruction at university level”. language teaching 51: 400-416. lasagabaster, d. (2019). “the impact of the spread of english-medium instruction on spanish universities”. language teaching 52(2): 241-247. lester, j.r. & k.r. evans (2009). “instructors’ experiences of collaborative teaching: building something bigger”. international journal of teaching and learning in higher education 20: 373-382. llinares, a., t. morton & r. whittaker (2012). the roles of language in clil. cambridge: cambridge university press. lo, y.y. (2015). “a glimpse into the effectiveness of l2-content crosscurricular collaboration in contentbased instruction programs”. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism 18: 443-462. lyster, r. (2007). learning and teaching languages through content: a counterbalanced approach. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. lyster, r. (2017). “preface” in j. valcke & r. wilkinson (eds), integrating content and language in higher education: perspectives and professional practice, 7-14. frankfurt am main: peter lang. macaro, e. (2018). english medium instruction. oxford: oxford university press. nikula, t., e. dafouz, p. moore & u. smit (eds.). (2016). conceptualising integration in clil and multilingual education. bristol, england: multilingual matters. pavón, v., j. ávila, a. gallego & r. espejo (2014). “strategic and organisational considerations in planning clil: a study on the coordination between content and language teachers”. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism 18: 409-425. pecorari, d., p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmstrom (2011). “english for academic purposes at swedish universities: teachers’ objectives and practices”. ibérica, journal of the european 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 174 aintzane doiz is associate professor at the university of the basque country, spain. she has published on english-medium instruction at university, the internationalization process in tertiary education, and content and language integrated learning. she is a member of a research project on team-teaching in which seven european universities are involved. she has co-edited english-medium instruction at universities: global challenges (multilingual matters, 2013). david lasagabaster is full professor at the university of the basque country, spain. he has published on english-medium instruction at university, the internationalization process in tertiary education, and clil. he currently coordinates a research project on team-teaching in which seven european universities are involved. among others, he has co-edited englishmedium instruction at universities: global challenges (multilingual matters, 2013). víctor pavón is associate professor at the university of córdoba, spain. his current interests focus on research and development for capacity building, and subsequent competence building of staff, to support the implementation of bilingual education programs at university level. he is participating in a research project on team-teaching in which seven european universities are involved. the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction ibérica 38 (2019): 151-176 175 association of languages for specific purposes 22: 55-78. räisänen, c. & i. fortanet-gómez (2008). “the state of esp teaching and learning in western european higher education after bologna” in i. fortanet-gómez & c. räisänen (eds.), esp in european higher education, 11-51. amsterdam: john benjamins. rubio, f. & p. moore (2018). “teacher attitudes to learning in university bilingual education”. porta linguarum (special issue 3, addressing bilingualism in higher education: policies and implementation issues): 89-102. trent, j. (2010). “teacher identity construction across the curriculum: promoting cross-curriculum collaboration in english-medium schools”. asia pacific journal of education 30: 167-183. valcke, j. & r. wilkinson (eds.). (2017). integrating content and language in higher education: perspectives and professional practice. frankfurt am main: peter lang. wächter, b. & f. maiworm (2014). english-taught programs in european higher education: the state of play in 2014. bonn: lemmens. weimberg, l. & m. symon (2017). “crossing borders: the challenges and benefits of a collaborative approach to course development involving content and language specialists in different countries” in j. valcke & r. wilkinson (eds.), 135-150. 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 175 05 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:50 página 176 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 issn 1139-7241 abstract dudley-evans and st john (1998) coined the term “practitioner” for esp teachers since, they claimed, many pivotal roles such as course designers, materials developers, researchers, evaluators, and classroom teachers should be taken on by an esp instructor. that is why teaching english for specific purposes (esp) requires a special approach to the training of the teachers who are supposed to teach english through content. the present study aimed at investigating the underlying effects of an esp in-service teacher training program on the beliefs and instructional practices of iranian esp teachers as well as students’ achievements. a population of 423 iranian esp teachers responded to a survey questionnaire on teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices. this was followed by selecting 120 teachers and assigning them into two experimental and two control groups. the experimental groups participated in a ten week esp in-service teacher training program. the outcomes of chi-square, mann-whitney u, and wilcoxon signed rank tests clearly revealed the influential and constructive role of the training program on the beliefs and classroom practices of esp teachers. the study also found significant difference between the achievements of students who enjoyed trained esp instructors in comparison to those who received untrained esp instructors. keywords: teachers’ beliefs, esp teacher training program, classroom practice esp in-service teacher training programs: do they change iranian teachers’ beliefs, classroom practices and students’ achievements? peyman rajabi1, gholam reza kiany2 and parviz maftoon1 1islamic azad university & 2tarbiat modares university (iran) paymanrajabi2002@yahoo.com, kiany_gh@modares.ac.ir, pmaftoon@srbiau.ac.ir 261 ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 p. rajabi, g.r. kiany & p. maftoon resumen los programas de formación para profesores de ife en activo: ¿cambian en irán las creencias de los profesores de ife, las prácticas docentes en el aula y los logros alcanzados por los estudiantes? dudley-evans y st john (1998) acuñaron el término “practicante” para referirse a los profesores de inglés con fines específicos (ife) en el entendimiento de que un instructor de ife debía asumir muchos papeles centrales como diseñadores de cursos, elaboradores de materiales, investigadores, evaluadores y docentes en el aula. esta es la razón por la que la enseñanza de ife requiere un enfoque especial para la formación de profesores que habrán de enseñar una lengua a través de unos contenidos. este trabajo tiene por objetivo investigar los efectos subyacentes a los programas de formación de profesorado de ife en activo por lo que respecta a las creencias y las prácticas en la instrucción de los profesores iraníes de ife así como los logros alcanzados por los estudiantes. 423 profesores de ife en irán respondieron a través de un cuestionario sobre sus creencias y prácticas docentes en el aula. seguidamente se seleccionaron 120 profesores que fueron divididos entre dos grupos experimentales y dos grupos de control. los profesores de los grupos experimentales participaron en un programa de formación de diez semanas para profesores en activo de ife. los resultados de las diversas pruebas y su interpretación estadística pusieron de manifiesto claramente la repercusión del programa de formación así como su influencia constructiva sobre las creencias de los profesores de ife y sus prácticas docentes. asimismo, en el estudio se encontraron diferencias significativas entre los logros alcanzados por los estudiantes que habían contado con profesores que habían recibido la formación y los que habían contado con profesores que no habían recibido dicha formación. palabras clave: ife, creencias de los profesores, programa de formación de profesores de ife, prácticas docentes en el aula. introduction undoubtedly, the recent developments in nations’ political, cultural, social, athletic, business, touristic, and economic ties as well as the recent increase in esp conference presentations, professional and academic gatherings, invited lectures, and on-line workshops will lead us to conclude that esp has gained a significant place not only among academic circles but it has gained the shape of a “new industry” in the 21st century. however, esp has developed at different speeds in different countries due to the different needs and specifications that arise in each language-learning setting. thus, it 262 may not be considered a monolithic universal phenomenon (hutchinson & waters, 1987). teaching english for specific purposes (tesp) has been considered a separate undertaking from english language teaching. dudley-evans and st john (1998) coined the term “practitioner” for esp teachers since, they believe, many pivotal roles such as course designers, materials developers, researchers, evaluators, and classroom teachers should be taken on by an esp instructor. therefore, esp teaching requires a special approach to the training of the teachers who are supposed to teach english through content. first of all, efl teachers should be provided with the necessary knowledge and tools to deal with students’ special field of study, because they are not specialists in the field, but in teaching english, their subject matter is english for the profession but not the profession in english. they are expected to help students, who know their subject matter better than them, develop the essential skills in understanding, using, and/or presenting authentic information in their profession (bojovic, 2006). this is a quite challenging task to perform with any knowledge of content through which they will teach english as it facilitates learners’ acquisition of formal schema of academic texts. in the iranian higher education system, students majoring in the different fields offered in universities throughout the country have to pass a two-credit basic english course followed by a three-credit general english course. they are then required to pass a two or three-credit esp course, depending on their majors. most of the students in esp classes feel the necessity mainly to pass the final exams. such students claim that they cannot gain mastery over the english language within a limited course of study. but the procedures followed in esp classes do not fulfil these students’ needs. that is to say, the classes are predominantly teacher-centered, with the exception of students being required to read a few lines from the booklet, one by one, offering the meaning of the words if they are asked. teachers offer students a model of the language forms along with technical terms and register which provide the focus of a particular lesson. they produce model sentences and ask learners to translate. they ask questions designed to elicit specific responses which practice the target form for a particular lesson, and finally they translate the selected text. however, there is dissatisfaction with the dominant paradigm and it is challenged by new values which emphasize the centrality of the learner, the social nature of language, and its availability for spontaneous, original personal use. in other words, on the one hand esp is esp in-service teacher training programs ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 263 informed by established practice and on the other hand that practice is challenged by theory and also by the experience of many practitioners. thus the challenge is to propose a methodological framework which is able to integrate theory into practice, formal and communicative activities, but there is no clear consensus among iranian esp instructors in terms of applying a rather thorough and uniform model of presenting esp materials. however, a change in the existing paradigm strongly depends on a remarkable change in a number of factors including esp teachers’ beliefs, curriculum, educational policies, syllabi and textbooks. in an attempt to clarify factors influencing esp instruction in iranian academic settings farhady (2005) refers to the important role of teacher variable. he believes that teachers should be equipped with the trends and developments of esp. in other words, there should be a sense of uniformity among the esp teachers’ attitudes, beliefs, methods, techniques, and classroom activities. scott (2001) argues that while tesol, tefl, etc. courses for teachers provide a good foundation for the teaching of general language, they are insufficient for the teaching of eap. this scholar believes that eap’s ‘‘distinctiveness derives from its aim, which is the promotion of student learning on courses within higher education institutions’’ (scott, 2001: 19). errey (2001) agrees that specialized teacher training is needed, involving principles and approaches appropriate for eap and esp. this is, in fact, now beginning to happen with an ma esp developed by candlin and bhatia at city university in hong kong and oxford brookes university offering an ma in teaching eap/esp in 2000. lack of having uniformity in terms of teaching esp materials, the absence of esp teacher training programs, and misconceptions about esp courses are instances of iranian esp teachers’ failure in successful implementation of esp courses. therefore, our ultimate aim is to conduct an esp in-service teacher training program within iranian esp contexts to investigate whether such a program can bring any remarkable change on the beliefs and classroom practices of iranian esp instructors or not. moreover, the present study attempts to come up with reasonable answers to the following questions: 1. is there any significant difference between the pedagogical beliefs of iranian elt and subject-matter esp instructors about esp? 2. is there any significant difference between the instructional practices of iranian elt and subject-matter esp teachers in esp classes? p. rajabi, g.r. kiany & p. maftoon ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282264 3. is there any significant difference between the pedagogical beliefs of iranian elt and subject-matter esp instructors after the esp in-service teacher training program? 4. is there any significant difference between the instructional practices of iranian elt and subject-matter esp instructors after the esp in-service teacher training program? 5. what impact(s) does the esp in-service teacher training program have on students’ achievements? subjects a population of 423 iranian male and female university teachers who teach esp courses at iranian sate and azad universities participated in this study. these esp teachers were either tefl or non-tefl (subject-matter) majors with university degrees of ma/ms or ph.d. this sample was intended to complete a survey questionnaire about esp teachers’ beliefs and instructional practices. the main subjects of the present study were selected from among the respondents to the questionnaire in the first group and included 120 tefl and non-tefl major esp teachers. then the subjects were divided into two experimental and two control groups each of which included 30 teachers. in addition to the esp teacher participants, 142 university sophomores who took esp as a compulsory course participated in this study. the sample included students from business administration (a sub-discipline from humanities). this sample has been selected from among a total of 242 students by administering a language proficiency test. instrumentation the instruments selected as measures in this study comprise: (1) a survey questionnaire developed by the researchers; (2) the sample version of pet (2009); and (3) a cambridge university business english (university of cambridge, 2006) test package. the questionnaire used for this study targets close-ended sections that require teachers to respond to statements on a five point likert scale. firstly, it attempted to identify the beliefs esp teachers have regarding esp and its role in language learning and teaching in iranian academic esp in-service teacher training programs ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 265 settings. secondly, the questionnaire aimed to obtain information about teachers’ reported classroom practices regarding the teaching of esp courses. in order to select the secondary group of subjects (students) in terms of language proficiency qualifications, the investigators had to administer a standard language proficiency test (pet) to a total of 242 business administration students. both experimental and control group students in the present study were intended to take a final exam. so, a cambridge university esp test package consisting of four modules of listening, reading, writing, and speaking was implemented as the final exam to the students. the listening and reading modules for business administration students consisted of five sections which expected the students to respond to multiple-choice, gap-filling, true/false, matching, and form filling questions. the writing module consisted of two sections. in the first section, the students were expected to write a memo about 20-30 words (that is, a piece of communication with a college within a company). for the second part, the students had to write a piece of business correspondence of 40-50 words and were also required to read a letter and respond to it. for the speaking module, the students were invited to talk about two distinct topics, one about their field of study and the other about an unfamiliar topic. design the present study combines qualitative and quantitative methods of research. it fits partly into the descriptive paradigm as it aims to observe and describe systematically, factually and accurately, the qualities of a preconceived phenomenon (i.e. teachers’ beliefs and instructional practices) in a so called naturally occurring context (i.e. esp classes) through a questionnaire based survey. the study is also partly quasi-experimental. brown (1988) characterizes a quasi-experimental design as one that involves the administration of a pre-test, treatment and post-test on naturally occurring groups. in this respect, the teacher training program that is going to be carried out in this study can be regarded as the treatment and exploration of esp teachers’ beliefs as well as their instructional practices before and after the treatment along with students’ performances on esp tests can be regarded as the pre and post-tests. therefore, a pre-test/posttest design will form the framework of the present study. p. rajabi, g.r. kiany & p. maftoon ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282266 procedure a questionnaire-based survey is used to easily obtain information from a large number of participants (423) in order to understand the beliefs of esp teachers in the context of study. the next step would be carrying out an in-service esp teacher training program which lasted for 10 weeks. the focus of the program was mainly on making the teachers familiar with “theoretical approaches” and “methods of esp instruction” in a learner-centered context, “practical aspects of esp instruction” based on current models, “methods of assessing the students’ needs”, and making the esp instructors familiar with “methods of evaluating” the students in esp classes. to do this, from the first sample population (423) we needed two groups of participants, one experimental and the other the control group. the experimental group included 60 elt and non-elt instructors. then they were divided into two groups of 30 in which exclusively elt or subjectmatter esp instructors were placed. the same procedure was applied to the control group participants. the underlying principle of esp teachers’ training program originated from the present literature and predominantly from a large-scale esp needs analysis project carried out by farhady (2007). the focus of the program was mainly on making the teachers familiar with theoretical approaches and methods of esp instruction in a learner-centered context, practical aspects of esp instruction based on current models, and methods of assessing the students’ needs. the final step comprises two parts. the first part includes conducting a survey study among the esp teachers who received the training program to see whether the esp teacher training program was efficient enough to bring about any changes in their beliefs and conceptualizations about esp courses and method(s) of instruction or not. this was carried out through readministering the first questionnaire. the second part consists of administering an esp achievement test to students in order to see whether their teachers’ in-service training course had any impact on their performances or not. the first experimental group of students benefitted from a trained elt instructor while a trained subject-matter instructor undertook the teaching esp materials to the second experimental group students. the students in control groups received the instructors which did not participated in the esp teacher training program but had previously responded to the questionnaire. meanwhile, the business administration esp in-service teacher training programs ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 267 department had recommended its esp teachers to teach the same textbook to the students since a uniform and similar final exam was supposed to be administered simultaneously for all students. therefore, both trained and untrained esp instructors reached a consensus on teaching the course book titled business vocabulary in use by mascull (2002). results the first part of the questionnaire dealt with investigating the frequency of classroom activities carried out in iranian esp classes. therefore, 16 highlighted classroom activities were chosen and given to a total of 423 iranian esp teachers. a 5-point-scale ranging from “always” to “never” was used to determine the frequency of these classroom activities in the esp classes. table 1 reveals the descriptive as well as inferential statistics for implementing instructional activities by iranian elt and subject-matter esp teachers. the teachers were asked to determine the frequency of the first classroom activity, explaining technical words in persian. the results indicated that 51% of the elt instructors and 72.6% of the non-elt teachers “frequently” explain technical words in persian. the chi-square results indicate the sig. value of (.000) which is smaller than .05; therefore, we can conclude that the proportion of english major esp teachers who explain technical words in persian is significantly different from those non-english majors. swales (1985) proposed that the importance of teaching vocabulary in esp is widely accepted. however, hutchinson and waters (1987) believed that the teaching of technical vocabulary is not the responsibility of the esp teacher. with regard to dealing with unfamiliar technical vocabulary in esp classes dudley-evans and st john (1998) believe that in many cases there is a oneto-one relationship between the terms in english and the learners’ first language, and so it will be enough to translate the term into the learners’ native language after a brief explanation. although there is a gap between both traditions, the frequencies show that there is a general tendency among iranian esp instructors to provide the learners with explanation of technical words in persian. the results approximately approve the fact that grammar is overlooked in most esp classes. this is a misconception about the role of grammar in esp teaching. dudley-evans and st john (1998) believe that while much of the p. rajabi, g.r. kiany & p. maftoon ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282268 skills-oriented work in esp does not concentrate on grammar in itself, it is incorrect to consider grammar outside the realm of esp. the third activity, translating the esp texts into persian, favored the common consensus of both groups. this is certainly in line with one of the themes extracted from our esp classroom observations carried out at the initial stages of the present study. the implementation of translation by instructors as the easiest way of conducting esp classes as well as the removal of students’ psychological barriers in such circumstances probably caused a strong tendency among esp teachers to predominantly focus on translation. esp in-service teacher training programs ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 269 frequency classroom activity field never seldom smtmes often always chisquare test results elt 0 1 9 93 54 1.explaining technical words in persian s.m 1 1 3 68 193 .000 elt 49 101 7 0 0 2. explaining grammar s.m 69 187 10 0 0 .314 elt 0 0 1 23 133 3. translating esp texts into persian s.m 0 0 2 27 234 .680 elt 0 2 20 102 33 4. doing reading comprehension ex. s.m 3 1 29 207 26 .133 elt 50 89 7 9 2 5. asking & answering questions in english s.m 217 46 3 0 0 .000 elt 132 21 4 0 0 6. classroom presentations in english s.m 209 57 0 0 0 .065 elt 108 49 10 0 0 7. note-taking from classroom lectures s.m 196 67 3 0 0 .113 elt 127 29 1 0 0 8. writing classroom reports in english s.m 195 68 3 0 0 .125 elt 38 86 32 1 0 9. providing chances for students’ classroom discussions in english s.m 171 92 3 0 0 .000 elt 41 53 40 23 0 10. listening to audio files s.m 177 84 5 0 0 .000 elt 7 44 83 20 3 11. developing study skills activities s.m 102 72 92 0 0 .000 elt 102 51 4 0 0 12. summarizing textbooks or pamphlets in english s.m 181 82 3 0 0 .381 elt 30 40 51 36 0 13. answering essay type quizzes in english s.m 74 178 13 1 0 .000 elt 120 22 15 0 0 14. writing letters or articles in english s.m 217 36 13 0 0 .090 elt 52 71 26 8 0 15. watching films or other video files s.m 161 100 5 0 0 .000 elt 43 90 18 4 2 16. conducting collaborative and cooperative activities in the classroom s.m 64 197 5 0 0 .062 table 1. iranian english major vs subject-matter esp teachers’ classroom activities. english major instructors as well as their non-elt counterparts predominantly “often” do reading comprehension exercises. it seems the rationale for emergence of esp in iran is to teach students “reading skills” to enable them to use english to study their subject areas. this can be easily seen from the organization and compilation of a number of esp sources, that is samt textbooks (which are textbooks published by the iranian center for compiling books in the humanities), payame noor publications, etc. so, reading comprehension has favored considerable superiority among language skills in iranian esp classes. questioning is a powerful means of controlling communication. it is, in fact, a good tool for the teacher to provide the learners with opportunities to think better and develop classroom interactions efficiently. the instructors were asked to determine the frequency of esp students’ responses to their teachers’ question(s) in english, the classroom activity 5. among nonenglish esp teachers, 81.6% claimed that they “never” practice such an activity in their classes while only 31.8% of the elt instructors overlooked the application of classroom activity 5. the chi-square results also indicate a significant difference between the two groups in implementing classroom activity 5. classroom activity 6 deals with esp students’ classroom presentations in english. as it is shown in table 1, the majority of english and non-english esp instructors clearly stated that they “never” ask their students to perform such a task in their classes. the inferential statistics approves the fact that there is no significant difference between these two groups of teachers in implementing such activity in esp classrooms. the poor general language proficiency of iranian esp students is the big hurdle in implementing such an activity in esp classes. however, we cannot ignore the reluctance of esp instructors towards classroom presentations in english. the teachers were asked to determine the frequency of students’ note taking from esp classroom lectures, classroom activity 7. note-taking is the straightforward writing down of whatever is said or written on a board (jordan, 1997). it seems that since few or no lecture may be presented in iranian esp classrooms, students are not accustomed to such activity. another reasonable interpretation is due to the fact that students may be inexperienced in listening to spoken english with its idiomatic expressions. however, insufficient linguistic competence of the subject-matter instructor as well as the insufficient subject specific knowledge by elt instructors p. rajabi, g.r. kiany & p. maftoon ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282270 might be other influential reasons for ignoring such an activity in iranian esp classes. writing classroom reports in english comprised the eighth activity. the results of descriptive statistics in table 1 show that 80.9% of the elt instructors as well as 74.4% of their non-elt counterparts “never” ask their students to write classroom reports in english whereas only 0.6% of the english majors and 1.1% of the subject-matter esp teachers believe that they “sometimes” ask their students to write classroom reports in english. the chi-square results reveal that there is not any significant difference between both groups. providing opportunities for students to hold classroom discussions in english comprise classroom activity 9. more than 64% of the non-english major esp instructors “never” favored the application of such task while the same frequency was reported by only 24% of the elt instructors. this gap may extensively be due to instructors’ fields of study and interests. it goes without saying that the ignorance of activities 5 and 9 by the majority of non-elt instructors is due to a couple of reasons. first and foremost, we do not have a thorough visualization of the objectives of esp programs in our academic settings. teachers may claim that these activities are exclusive to general english classes not to esp courses. the second major reason lies on poor language proficiency of iranian esp students; however, no one is completely sure whether the non-elt instructors have a good command of linguistic competence or not. the third reason might focus on the time budgeting of esp classes in iran. during a limited span of 90 minutes per week there may be no point in dealing with oral practice activities by esp instructors. however, the tendency of applying oral activities by english major instructors is highly felt which is mainly due their linguistic background and prior elt experience. the esp teachers were asked to determine the frequency of activity 10 which dealt with listening activities of the students in esp classrooms. only 26% of the elt teachers claimed that they “never” do listening comprehension tasks in their esp classes while this was strictly true for 66.5% of the subject-matter teachers. as robinson (1991) has proposed, listening in esp classes involves listening to lectures as well as classroom seminars. therefore, esp students do need exposure to short and lengthy examples of listening in preparation for the normal lectures of the real life. however, such exposure is perhaps best obtained live. it seems all language esp in-service teacher training programs ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 271 skills except reading comprehension are predominantly overlooked by the majority of esp instructors. however, we do not mean the whole language skills should be similarly emphasized in esp classes as far as the specificity of the purposes is concerned. table 1 also represents how esp instructors determined the frequency of study skills activities in their classes. in addition to language skills, this item deals with understanding of tables, graphs, charts, special dictionaries, webrelated skills, and catalogues. the majority of non-elt teachers (38.3%) “never” assigned study skills activities while approximately 53% of the english majors claimed that they “sometimes” utilize them in their classes. the chi-square test results show the significant difference between the two groups as well. the main reason rests on the present esp textbooks which scarcely have provided their audience with fruitful sources of information. in other words, esp experts, who have a key role in syllabus design and materials development, should employ this crucial aspect of learning in esp textbooks as well. the esp instructors’ responses to classroom activity 12 or summarizing texts or articles in english are shown in table 1. summary writing, as stated by jordan (1997), is an important aspect of academic writing, and is linked to academic reading by means of note-taking. it causes the learners to integrate the information from previous researchers in their fields of study in an accurate style. in the present study both groups claimed that they predominantly “never” use such an activity in their esp classrooms. that is why writing is the most neglected skill among language skills in iranian academic settings. the frequencies of classroom activity 13, answering essay type classroom quizzes, are shown in table 1. the rationale for including such item was to see whether the writing skill of the students is being frequently judged by their esp instructors or not. however, one may claim that there are other alternative ways to assess and evaluate the writing skill of students in esp classes. since it can be an example of a diagnostic test, it provides fruitful information for the teachers to see whether there is area of difficulty in students’ writing or not. this type of test acts as a spur or motivation for students by setting short-term goals. subject-matter esp teachers maintained that they “seldom” have their students answer essay type classroom quizzes while the majority of elt instructors “sometimes” made use of such activity in their classes. table 1 testifies that there is a p. rajabi, g.r. kiany & p. maftoon ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282272 significant difference between the english major and non-english major esp teachers. the esp instructors were supposed to determine the frequency of classroom activity 14 which dealt with students’ article or letter writing in their specific fields. over 76% of the elt teachers as well as 81% of the subject-matter esp instructors “never” utilized such an activity in their classrooms. this is mainly due to the fact that the whole objectives of esp programs have not been clearly specified for our teachers. the value of .09 evidentially approves that there is not any significant difference between the two groups in terms of implementing this classroom activity. the responses of the esp teachers in terms of specifying the frequency of activity 15, watching films or video programs in specific fields, are presented in table 1. the outcomes reveal that more than 60% of the subject-matter instructors “never” made use of technological aids in their esp classrooms while only 33% of the elt teachers did the same. the chi-square test results show that there is a significant difference between the two groups regarding the manipulation of video aids. the majority of the instructors in both groups reported that they “seldom” make use of students’ cooperative activities in conducting their esp classes, activity 16. this might be due to lack of sufficient time or insufficiencies in establishing student-centered atmosphere in esp classes. the inferential statistics show that there is no significant difference between elt and nonelt instructors in implementing such an activity in esp environments. the second part of the questionnaire dealt with identifying iranian teachers’ beliefs about esp and methods of instruction. it is made up of 21 statements and requires the respondents to rate each statement on a five point scale, ranging from “strongly agree” (sa) to “strongly disagree” (sd) – and including “agree” (a); “neither agree nor disagree” (n); and “disagree” (d). since it was too much difficult to include a large number of widespread beliefs in a very limited pool, the researcher decided to merely focus on some common and highlighted beliefs. therefore, based on the present literature (hutchison & waters, 1987; strevens, 1988; robinson, 1991; jordan, 1997; dudley-evans & st john, 1998; basturkmen, 2006) and the outcomes of the eap needs analysis project carried out by farhady (2007), we specified 21 types of pedagogical beliefs on esp domain. three underlying constructs namely teaching esp, students’ needs, and beliefs about students’ practice were explored for the aforementioned beliefs. esp in-service teacher training programs ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 273 as table 2 shows, the difference between english major and subject-matter esp teachers is not statistically significant in terms of the items 5 and 8. in other words, the application of students’ mother tongue in esp classes for better conveying the meaning of technical words and comprehending the texts is highly prioritized among both groups. the rest of the items demonstrate the significant difference between two traditions. since the first factor covers the items which correspond to esp teachers’ beliefs about teaching esp, the gap between english and non-english major instructors is really remarkable. elt teachers seemed to better digest both the mechanics and objectives of teaching while their non-english major counterparts focused on the superficial aspects of teaching esp. one of the underlying reasons lies on the fact that the nature of elt is strongly tied to the theories of language learning and teaching. therefore, it is quite natural to see that the nonenglish majors who received no specific training in terms of teaching english as a foreign language showed quite different ideas regarding the nature of teaching esp courses. table 3 represents the items which corresponded to the second factor, teachers’ beliefs about students’ practices in esp classes. p. rajabi, g.r. kiany & p. maftoon ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282274 frequency item field s a a n d s d chisquare test results elt 83 60 10 3 1 1. content teaching s.m 204 41 16 4 1 .000 elt 9 62 71 8 7 2. content familiar s.m 2 3 201 38 22 .000 elt 120 32 5 0 0 3. sufficient english for others s.m 157 83 34 1 1 .000 elt 1 3 10 51 92 4. content problems s.m 177 67 17 4 1 .000 elt 85 54 12 5 1 5. technical word matching s.m 160 80 24 1 1 .143 elt 0 0 0 0 157 6. non-english teacher better s.m 188 60 13 4 1 .000 elt 0 47 82 15 13 7. multi-discipline s.m 0 7 189 35 35 .000 elt 97 55 4 1 0 8. persian language s.m 166 74 24 1 1 .333 elt 0 71 27 58 1 9. language application s.m 2 26 69 167 2 .000 elt 89 55 11 2 0 10. conducting needs analysis s.m 6 52 203 5 0 .000 table 2. descriptive statistics for esp teachers’ beliefs about teaching esp. a e the results of table 3 clearly show the significant differences between the beliefs of english major and non-english major esp teachers in terms of the first four items. as it can be seen from the table, except one item, the respondents predominantly had “neutral” beliefs about the proposed ideas. this may be a reflection of conservatism among esp teachers who did not state their clear ideas. this conservatism seems to be derived from the fact that the objectives of implementing esp courses have not been clearly specified in iranian academic circles yet. lack of teachers’ awareness about the role of esp learners, their needs, and presenting language learning activities in esp classes has caused non-english major instructors to be on the safe side of responding to these items. however, this reluctance is felt among english major instructors as well. for further evidence, we can refer to the esp syllabi introduced by iranian ministry of science, research, and technology (the supreme council of curriculum planning) for different disciplines. these syllabi, which were mostly created in stereotype form, do not obviously specify the real goals of esp programs as well as the role of the teachers, the learners, and materials in esp classes. with regard to the last item which focused on “the necessity of developing study skills activities among students in esp classes”, the chi-square test did not show any statistically significant difference between english major and non-english major instructors. both groups reported “neutral” belief about this item which signifies that there is no clear specification of objectives in esp programs. now, let us deal with the items corresponded to the third factor. esp in-service teacher training programs ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 275 frequency item field s a a n d s d chisquare test results elt 6 39 25 68 19 1. understanding without translation s.m 0 3 16 201 46 .000 elt 23 58 74 2 0 2. future needs s.m 12 45 204 5 0 .000 elt 40 49 66 2 0 3. lg evaluation s.m 6 45 210 5 0 .000 elt 3 22 90 42 0 4. developing lg activities s.m 6 45 191 24 0 .001 elt 2 43 96 16 0 5. study skills s.m 6 52 185 23 0 .476 table 3. descriptive statistics for esp teachers’ beliefs about students’ needs. t f w table 4 represents the esp teachers’ beliefs about the third factor, students’ language needs in esp classes. there was not any statistically significant difference between elt and non-elt instructors in terms of the first and the last items (the sig. values are 0.52 and 0.77, respectively). the first item emphasizes the utilization of “translation” as the foundation of esp classroom activities. this is mainly seen through the frequency of considerable positive attitudes of both groups. it is actually in line with our initial observation results which showed that “translation” has occupied most of the iranian esp classes’ atmosphere. moreover, majority of both groups strongly agreed on the memorization of technical words as a necessary practice in esp classes. it seems that the objectives of esp instruction in our academic settings, learners’ insufficient linguistic proficiency, ease of instruction, socio-cultural factors, target language use domains, and political issues have caused esp instructors to predominantly emphasize on “translation” as the cornerstone of esp classroom activities. however, no congruence was seen between english major and non-english major esp instructors in terms of language skills such as listeningspeaking activities and grammar teaching. this is mainly due to the fact that english major instructors have sufficient pedagogical competence in terms of conducting language learning courses. schleppegrell and bowman (1986) emphasize that communication skills establish the esp classroom atmosphere. so, language is acquired by students when they have opportunities to use the language in interaction with each other. however, they further add that an esp program, for p. rajabi, g.r. kiany & p. maftoon ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282276 frequency item field s a a n d s d chisquare test results elt 85 61 4 3 4 1. translation s.m 169 80 12 4 1 .052 elt 1 1 37 49 69 2. independent speaking s.m 2 0 59 17 188 .000 elt 0 59 38 54 6 3. no listening-speaking s.m 1 172 92 1 0 .000 elt 10 20 89 38 0 4. grammar s.m 14 53 194 5 0 .000 elt 3 55 91 8 0 5. language skills s.m 6 45 192 23 0 .143 elt 86 60 8 2 1 10. memorizing words s.m 181 64 16 4 1 .000 table 4. descriptive statistics for esp teachers’ beliefs about students’ practices. t t s example, might stress the development of reading skill in students who are preparing for graduate work in engineering; or it might stress the development of conversational skills in students who are studying english in order to become tour guides. but this case was mainly ignored by nonenglish esp instructors who reported “neutral” or “opposite” views regarding the necessity of applying language skills in esp classes. this results from lack of awareness about the appropriate utilization of language skills by non-english major instructors in esp classes. before conducting the esp in-service teacher training course, four groups of esp teachers who previously responded to the questionnaire were selected and assigned into control and experimental groups. the following tables statistically represent the impacts of the training programs on the beliefs and classroom practices of the esp teachers in experimental groups. the present study also reveals any probable impact(s) of the training program on the classroom achievements of the esp students. the p value in table 5 clearly show that the difference between the beliefs and classroom practices of the english major esp teachers in experimental group before and after the training program was statistically significant. this factually approves the role of the training program on the beliefs and practices of elt teachers. the inferential statistics and mann-whitney u test results shown in table 6 strongly supports the fact that the beliefs and classroom practices of elt instructors in experimental group were statistically different from those of the control group after the training program. this can undoubtedly signify the impact of the training program on esp teachers’ beliefs as well as their classroom practices. esp in-service teacher training programs ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 277 t beliefs practices z -2.051 -4.790 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .040 .000 table 5. wilcoxon signed rank test for the differences between the beliefs and classroom practices of elt instructors in experimental group before and after training program. t i one of the aims of the present study was to find out whether there is any significant difference between the beliefs and classroom practices of the elt and subject-matter teachers in experimental groups after the training program. as shown in table 7, despite the fact that both groups received the same training program, there still exists considerable difference between the two groups. one of the consequences of the esp in-service teacher training program would definitely be its either direct or indirect impact on students’ achievements in esp courses. to investigate such impact, 142 previously homogenized business administration students who took their compulsory esp course were selected for the study. table 8 clearly reveals the students’ achievements in the four groups. p. rajabi, g.r. kiany & p. maftoon ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282278 t o t beliefs practices mann-whitney u 220.000 .000 wilcoxon w 685.000 465.000 z -3.414 6.676 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .001 .000 table 6. mann-whitney u test for elt instructors’ beliefs and classroom practices in control and experimental groups after training program. o beliefs practices mann-whitney u 232.000 229.500 wilcoxon w 697.000 694.500 z -3.240 -3.284 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .001 .001 table 7. mann-whitney u test for elt and non-elt instructors’ beliefs and classroom practices in experimental groups after training program. o 9 7.083* 9.817* 2.734 1.730 .478 7.63 4 -.11 9.69 2 6.99 t d i o 95% confidence interval (i) group (j) group mean dif. (i-j) std. error sig. lower bound upper bound 2.00 7.083* 1.718 .001 2.22 11.95 3.00 9.817* 1.730 .000 4.92 14.71 1.00 4.00 11.875* 1.730 .000 6.98 16.77 3.00 2.734 1.730 .478 -2.16 7.63 4.00 4.791 1.730 .058 -.11 9.69 2.00 4.00 2.057 1.742 .707 -2.87 6.99 table 8. scheffe test for sources of differences multiple comparisons. t d the results of scheffe test, table 8, clearly show the sources of differences marked by an asterisk (*) between four groups of students. goups 1 and 2 favored trained elt and non-elt instructors whereas groups 3 and 4 merely benefited from untrained elt and on-elt instructors respectively. the difference between the students’ achievements in group 1 and each individual group was statistically significant (p<.05) while group 2 students who benefited from a trained non-elt instructor reported no statistically difference with control group students (groups 3 and 4) in terms of classroom achievement. in spite of the available controversies in the esp field determining whether elt or non-elt instructors are best suited for teaching esp, the results simply indicate that esp students taught by trained elt instructors outperformed other groups. once more the effectiveness as well as the efficiency of english major teachers in teaching esp is proved. however, we should not neglect the positive role of the trained non-elt instructor who was responsible for teaching students in group 2 in comparison to his untrained counterpart teaching esp materials to group 4 students. discussion the focal point of the present study rests on the role of an esp in-service teacher training course on the beliefs and classroom practices of esp instructors. after conducting a ten week training course, the esp teachers in experimental groups were given the same questionnaire to see whether there had been any change in their beliefs and attitudes about esp course and its methods of instruction. the elt and non-elt instructors’ responses were compared and contrasted with their prior responses as well as the responses of the esp instructors in control groups. the results showed that the experimental esp instructors’ beliefs significantly differed from their preliminary beliefs after the training course. it is pleasant to state that dramatic change was observed in the beliefs and classroom practices of nonenglish major esp teachers after the training program in comparison to their pre-training program. moreover, considerable difference was reported in the beliefs of instructors in experimental groups with their control group counterparts. the esp teachers in experimental groups were independently compared with each other in terms of their post training beliefs as well. the outcomes approved the fact that the significant difference between the beliefs of the elt and subject-matter teachers still existed. esp in-service teacher training programs ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 279 it seems that insufficient knowledge about english language methodology as well as poor competence about esp instruction, course design, and needs analysis have seriously caused non-elt instructors to stay far from their elt counterparts with reference to implementing the objectives of esp instruction. since esp is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and methodology are based on the learner’s rationale for learning (hutchinson & waters, 1987), the role of the esp practitioner is essential to the success of esp programs. as a matter of fact, esp combines subject matter and english language teaching. such a combination is highly motivating because students are able to apply what they learn in their english classes to their main field of study, whether it be accounting, business management, economics, computer science or tourism. another step taken in the study was to determine the extent to which the esp in-service teacher training program had indirectly influenced the students’ classroom achievements. congruent with the outcomes of elt teachers’ beliefs after the training program, the group which enjoyed trained elt instructor outperformed other groups in the achievement test. this evidentially proves the fact that english major esp instructors can fulfil course goals much better than specialists in the field provided that they possess a certain level of background knowledge in their students’ academic subjects of esp teaching in order to meet this challenge. in other words, esp teachers are supposed to be knowledgeable in content areas as well and be able to elicit knowledge from students. however, language teachers are trained to teach linguistic knowledge rather than a content subject. hence, they may be insufficiently grounded to teach subject matters (richards & rodgers, 2001). another remarkable point regarding the outcomes of students’ achievement test proves the better operation of the group which faced a trained non-elt instructor versus the one instructed by an untrained non-english major esp teacher. this can also testify the effectiveness of the esp teacher training program on the instructional practices of subject-matter teachers. however, it seems difficult to easily fill the existing gap between the elt and content teachers. factors such as the potential superiority of elt teachers over nonelt instructors in terms of appropriate linguistic competence, language proficiency, linguistic performance, teaching styles, strategic competence, and language awareness are mostly influential in english majors’ success in esp classes. p. rajabi, g.r. kiany & p. maftoon ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282280 conclusions the most prevailing myth associated to esp in iranian academic settings is that “esp is merely reading” or “esp is mono-skill” as any teaching action that is related to its design and implementation is devoted exclusively to one ability. thus, on the one hand, esp is to be understood as synonymous with reading and, on the other hand, any reading course is to be understood as esp. other current myths aligned with esp reading courses due to the adopted methodology and the specific contents that were developed during the implementation of the esp courses in the country are: “translation reveals as the fundamental activity in almost all esp classes”, “grammar is not taught”, and “persian has to be used in the classroom as the medium”. in order to better understand these misconceptions it is necessary to have a glance at the most underlying principle adopted to teach reading. some of the procedures put into work in the classroom were based on the belief that cognitive and linguistic difficulties should be eased and balanced during the learning process by making up the most of students´ previous knowledge. so, the use of the students’ mother tongue and translation will bring psychological, pedagogical, and even economical security for iranian esp instructors. this is also a satisfactory condition for esp students. there is a vital need to redefine the roles and responsibilities of the elt and content instructors in the esp curriculum development of our academic settings. the most optimistic case for the actual presentation of the esp courses would be the cooperation of elt and content teachers. the two parties can join in a collaborative task in order to set the goals and plan the needs assessment projects. from cultural and sociological standpoints; however, we wonder whether these two parties can come to a mutual agreement about conducting esp courses. and the last word focuses on conducting esp teacher training programs in which description of competencies and qualifications of a professional esp instructor is properly established. this can also be a benchmark for accreditation of individuals who would like to start or continue the carrier of teaching esp courses in our academic settings. [paper received 9 february 2011] [revised paper accepted 24 july 2011] esp in-service teacher training programs ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282 281 references peyman rajabi is a ph.d student of tefl at islamic azad university of tehran (science and research branch). his fields of interest include esp, curriculum planning, second language research, and elt teacher development programs. dr. gholam reza kiany is an associate professor of tefl at tarbiat modaress university, iran. he has been teaching ma and phd courses at different iranian universities for the past twenty five years. he has published a number of textbooks and articles in language learning. his fields of interest include language testing and assessment, esp, second language learning, and educating teachers. dr. parviz maftoon is an associate professor at islamic azad university of tehran (science and research branch) and iran university of science and technology. he has been teaching ma and phd courses at different iranian universities for the past thirty years. he has published a number of articles and textbooks in tefl. his fields of interest include sla, curriculum development, second language writing, teacher training, and esp. p. rajabi, g.r. kiany & p. maftoon ibérica 24 (2012): 261-282282 basturkmen, h. (2006). ideas and options in english for specific purposes. london: lawrence erlbaum associates. bojovic, m. (2006). “teaching foreign language for specific purposes: teacher development”. the proceedings of the 31st annual association of teacher education in europe, 487-493. url: http://www.pef.uni-lj.si/atee/978-961-6637-060/487-493.pdf [01/02/11] brown, j.d. (1988). understanding research in second language learning. cambridge: cambridge university press. dudley-evans, t. & m.j. st john (1998). developments in english for specific purposes: a multi-disciplinary approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. errey, l. (2001). “eap teacher training: how specialized is it?” el gazette, october. farhady, h. (2005). “reflections on and directions for esp materials development in samt” in g.r. kiany & m. khayyamdar (eds.), proceedings of the first national esp/eap conference (vol. 3), 2-32 . tehran: samt. farhady, h. (2007). needs analysis project (unpublished document). samt organization. hutchison, t. & a. waters (1987). english for specific purposes: a learning-centered approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. jordan, r. (1997). english for academic purposes. cambridge: cambridge university press. mascull, b. (2002). business vocabulary in use. cambridge: cambridge university press. richards, j.c. & t.s. rodgers (2001). approaches and methods in language teaching, 2nd ed. new york: cambridge university press. robinson, p.c. (1991). esp today: a practitioner’s guide. london: prentice hall. schleppegrell, m. & b. bowman (1986). esp: teaching english for specific purposes. washington: peace corps. scott, m. (2001). “is an elt training good enough for eap?” el gazette, september. strevens, p. (1988) “esp after twenty years: a real-appraisal” in m. tickoo (ed.), esp: state of the art, 1-13. singapore: seameo regional language centre. swales, j.m. (1985). episodes in esp. new york: pergamon press. university of cambridge (2006). preliminary bec tests. cambridge: cambridge university press. 01 editorial.qxd editorial teaching and learning in english in parallel-language and elf settings: debates, concerns and realities in higher education this special issue of ibérica is dedicated to the use of english in higher education. as a result of the bologna process and increasing internationalisation at universities across europe, english is often used in parallel with a local language or as a lingua franca. this trend towards english-medium instruction and research has been strong in the north of europe and is becoming visible in other eu countries. internationalisation is now perceived as a desirable outcome by university policy-makers, and there is no doubt that it brings new opportunities in education and research. however, on the practical level, the use of english in academic settings outside the anglophone world is not problem-free; it naturally brings new challenges for students and teachers alike. without adequate language support, these challenges can grow into obstacles, so it seems that lsp professionals have a role to play in facilitating the internationalisation process. this volume contains contributions by lsp researchers and practitioners from two scandinavian countries, denmark and sweden. english has been used as a language of research, scholarly publication, and undergraduate reading in scandinavian universities since the 1950s, but its increasing use in these areas and in teaching, as well as its status as an academic language, have become subject of heated debates over the past few years. as in other european countries, higher education in scandinavia has experienced a number of substantial changes resulting from two major factors: the bologna process and an urge to increase competitiveness in international university rankings. thus, most universities have undergone major adjustments; an increasing use of english in undergraduate and master’s education is one such adjustment. ibérica 22 (2011): 5-12 issn 1139-7241 5 00 iberica 22.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 21/09/11 16:58 página 5 compared to sweden, only the netherlands offers more english-medium education today (wächter & maiworn 2008). there are several reasons for this high use of english: in some disciplines, academic publications and university textbooks are mostly or exclusively in english; english also promotes international exchange and is perceived as an asset in the job market. in sweden, this gave rise to an ongoing debate concerning the status of english as an academic language and the issues of domain loss, directly related to the development of subject-specific terminology in the national language (see, for instance, gunnarsson & öhman, 1997; and also the interview with gunnarsson in this volume). the concept of “parallel language use” is largely rooted in scandinavian reality and may not be familiar to the readers of ibérica, although similar practices may exist in other european countries. this concept is not brand new: we first find mention of the parallel use of english and swedish in higher education in the 1998 action programme prepared for the swedish government by the swedish language council, whose aim has been to strengthen the position of swedish: encouragement should be given to educational development work aimed at enhancing students’ ability to use swedish and english in parallel in their subjects. it is unfortunate if separate domains develop, with foundation courses predominantly in swedish and more advanced courses only in english. (swedish language council, 1998: 16 – my emphasis) in later official documents and reports published by the swedish language council and the swedish government, the notion of parallel language use (parallelspråkighet) was expanded. an influential report, mål i mun (“the gift of the gab”), was published in 2002 and made a number of recommendations as part of an action plan to support swedish. this 2002 report also mentioned “parallel language use”, implying a co-existence of swedish and english. in 2006, ministers for education and culture and other governmental representatives from the nordic countries – denmark, finland, norway and sweden – published deklaration om nordisk språkpolitik / declaration on a nordic language policy (nordic council of ministers, 2007), which contained an entire section on the parallel language use of english and one or several nordic languages in research and education. in sweden today, two years after the introduction of the language act, 2009 (swedish government, 2009) which established the official status of swedish as the country’s main language, “parallel language use” is increasingly regarded as a editorial ibérica 22 (2011): 5-126 00 iberica 22.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 21/09/11 16:58 página 6 guiding principle for the dual use of swedish and english in higher education. however, it seems that this concept was conceived by policymakers and concerns primarily the administrative aspect of the education system, rather than students, teachers, and their language and disciplinary competences (airey, 2009). the full implications of parallel language use remain unclear, and more research needs to be done on how this concept is implemented in practice. on the practical level, parallel language use is only possible when both students and teachers have adequate language competences in english and in the local language. this is certainly not the case when the vast majority of students or lecturers are international, i.e. not from the country where the education is taking place, and english is therefore used as an academic lingua franca. english as a lingua franca (elf) has become dominant at swedish universities and colleges offering degrees in the natural sciences, medicine and engineering, particularly at the postgraduate level. these programmes have been attracting many international students. for example, in 2009 nearly two thirds (65%) of all master’s programmes in sweden were taught in english, with about 50% of foreign students; nearly half of these programmes were in engineering or related subjects. at the phd level, 94% of theses in natural sciences published in sweden were in english, compared to 65% in social sciences and 37% in the humanities (salö, 2010). these proportions may look alarming to advocates of swedish, since, in absolute terms, the disciplines that publish more in english are also the ones that produce more research. for example, gunnarsson (2001) warns against the danger of diglossia, with english playing the role of an official “high” language of science and swedish that of a “low” language of popularisation. the issues discussed in the articles published in this volume address a range of topics related to the use of both written and spoken academic english in parallel-language and elf settings, including the challenges faced by content lecturers who are required to teach their subjects in english, the role played by content teachers in the students’ acquisition of academic english, the issues of standard/non-standard english use when english is used as an academic lingua franca, and the importance of academic literacy in an increasingly international university. in the opening article, christian jensen & jacob thøgersen, researchers at the centre for internationalisation and parallel language use, set the scene by describing various positions in the national debate about english in editorial ibérica 22 (2011): 5-12 7 00 iberica 22.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 21/09/11 16:58 página 7 denmark and then reporting the results of a survey of university lecturers’ attitudes towards english as the medium of instruction conducted at the university of copenhagen. their results indicate that the lecturers’ age and degree of english use play an important role: younger lecturers and lecturers with a higher teaching load in english show positive attitudes towards the increase in english-medium instruction. in the following article, john airey approaches a similar topic in a case study examining swedish university lecturers’ experiences of changing their teaching language to english. unlike the previous article which draws primarily on quantitative data survey, airey presents a qualitative analysis of the teachers’ reflections and experiences. he groups these under nine major themes and then offers nine practical recommendations. airey indicates that his study participants were relatively inexperienced in english-medium instruction and therefore aware of different limitations when teaching in english. diane pecorari, philip shaw, aileen irvine and hans malmström present the results of another large-scale survey involving approximately 20% of all university lecturers in sweden. in this article, the authors analyse university teachers’ objectives and practices related to the use of english-language textbooks in the subject courses taught in the local language. their study identifies predominant attitudes and syllabus infrastructures underlying this practice. thus, swedish university lecturers considered the use of englishlanguage textbooks as providing a useful opportunity for incidental language learning, but only a small minority of courses was reported to have any specified learning outcome related to the english language. additional comments by university lecturers who took part in this survey showed awareness of the benefits and risks of parallel-language practices, but no interest in making language-learning aims explicit. in disciplinary domains such as sciences and engineering, language is seen as a tool for communication, and knowledge is also transmitted through other means such as formulas, diagrams, and graphs. it is in these domains that academic english is most often used as a lingua franca in education and research. in her article, beyza björkman proposes a new elf paradigm for eap, which stresses the importance of communicative competence for both students and staff. in the context of increasing internationalisation, björkman argues, eap needs to be modified accordingly. if the aim of eap instruction and testing is to prepare speakers for academic settings where english is the lingua franca, the findings of elf research need to be taken into consideration and then integrated into eap curriculum design and editorial ibérica 22 (2011): 5-128 00 iberica 22.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 21/09/11 16:58 página 8 testing, rethinking norms and target use and validating the pluralism of english. drawing on his experience of running the division for language and communication at chalmers university of technology, magnus gustafsson offers a framework for teaching lsp in an integrated fashion. this framework draws on previous research on academic literacies and generic skills, as well as other theoretical underpinnings such as peer learning and activity theory. gustafsson suggests that a genuine literacies approach in higher education is by necessity disciplinary, and that lsp practitioners need to take into consideration the students’ understanding of the communities they are active in. he also offers three examples of courses to illustrate the application of the models described in a flexible and versatile manner which ultimately fosters academic literacy. in the following article, mona blåsjö discusses the importance of visuals and numerals in learners’ acquisition of disciplinary knowledge, regardless of whether the instruction is in english or in the local language. drawing on the theoretical framework of social semiotics and the neo-vygotskian perspective, her article shows how novice students of economics in sweden encounter a multimodal academic literacy and argues for a raised awareness among teachers in order to scaffold students into academic visual literacies. although in sweden oral english is used more frequently at the postgraduate level (salö, 2010), a vast proportion of course literature in undergraduate programmes is in english. thus, many swedish undergraduate students are expected to read their course literature in english while being taught in swedish. in their article, philip shaw and alan mcmillion explore the differences between academic reading proficiency of swedish biology students compared to their british counterparts using different types of reading tests. their study shows that the reading performance of many swedish students is within or above the british average on the study-reading test, but the overall average score of the swedish readers was lower compared to the british sample. this difference is partly explained by a relative lack of academic vocabulary knowledge among the swedish undergraduates who took part in the reported study. finally, in her research note, angela falk outlines the current sociolinguistic situation among swedish undergraduates willing to study english and describes the challenges they face when thinking and writing in english. editorial ibérica 22 [2011]: 5-12 9 00 iberica 22.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 21/09/11 16:58 página 9 over the past few years, ibérica has gained a reputation for publishing sound research concerning the lexicographical, terminological, and genreanalytical aspects of lsp. the research reported in the articles published in this volume takes somewhat different angles, drawing on different theoretical approaches to lsp and resorting to a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to collect, to analyse and to interpret the data. thus, the authors make use of survey techniques (jensen & thøgersen, pecorari et al.), statistical analysis for sla (shaw & mcmillion), and qualitative methods (airey, blåsjö). björkman and gustafsson provide state-of-the-art reviews and pedagogical proposals drawing on elf and academic literacies research respectively. the articles provide a snapshot of the current use of academic english in two scandinavian countries, and the insights offered by the authors open up new venues for lsp research in the post-bologna europe. although academic english is the main theme of this special issue, it must be acknowledged that ibérica is not exclusively esp-oriented. unlike most of the international journals in the field, it accepts articles in six european languages and supports research into different kinds of lsp. in fact, ibérica’s editorial policy can be seen as a good example of parallel language use for research dissemination purposes, as its guidelines state that “the title, (…) the abstract and the key words must be written in the original language of the article and in spanish (or in english, if the article is written in spanish or in another language)”. one of the recommendations of the swedish language council (salö, 2010) is that all doctoral theses written in english and submitted at swedish universities should be accompanied by a summary in swedish, which has not always been the case to this day. this recommendation results from current concerns expressed by scholars of swedish with issues of domain loss, eventual diglossia, and other detrimental effects of english-medium education in sweden. a great deal of swedish lsp research takes place in university departments of scandinavian languages. uppsala and stockholm universities provide illustrative examples, with many researchers working on various aspects of lsp in professional and academic contexts, including parallel language use and multilingualism. our special issue includes an interview with professor britt-louise gunnarsson, a key figure in swedish lsp, whose research in professional communication, lsp, academic discourse, and multilingualism has been fundamental in the development of local lsp studies and, to a certain degree, language policies implemented in sweden over the last few editorial ibérica 22 [2011]: 5-1210 00 iberica 22.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 21/09/11 16:58 página 10 years. mona blåsjö visited professor gunnarsson at uppsala to conduct the interview and shares her notes with ibérica readers in this volume. gunnarsson’s professional discourse (continuum, 2009) is among the books reviewed in this special issue. other books reviewed here focus on different issues related to the use of english in academic contexts, namely academic writing (carter, lillis & parkin; lillis & curry), teaching and learning issues (gagliardi & maley), and academic values in the disciplines (giannoni). i would like to thank ana bocanegra, the editor-in-chief, for giving me the opportunity to edit this special issue and for her continuous support throughout the editorial process. my special thanks also go to the invited reviewers for their constructive and timely feedback on the research articles. they are (in alphabetical order) the following: karen bennett (university of lisbon, portugal) mary jane curry (university of rochester, united kingdom) piedad fernandez-toledo (university of murcia, spain) gibson ferguson (university of sheffield, united kingdom) birgit henriksen (university of copenhagen, denmark) theresa lillis (open university, united kingdom) andrzej łyda (university of silesia, poland) björn melander (university of uppsala, sweden) gunnel melchers (university of stockholm, sweden) juan carlos palmer-silveira (university jaume i, spain) carmen peréz-llantada (university of zaragoza, spain) ramón pló-alastrué (university of zaragoza, spain) maría noelia ruiz-madrid (university jaume i, spain) philip shaw (university of stockholm, sweden) fully supported by the european association of languages for specific purposes (aelfe) based in spain, ibérica has a local name and increasingly international submissions and audience. the journal has been recently awarded a certificate and seal of excellence by the spanish ministry of science and innovation, and its quality is being acknowledged by inclusion in major international citation indexes such as arts and humanities citation index, social sciences citation index, journal citation reports (all of them at isi web of knowledge), scopus or the european reference index for the humanities (erih). but, above all, ibérica’s editorial policy is aimed to support european lsp research, and the publication of this special issue is editorial ibérica 22 [2011]: 5-12 11 00 iberica 22.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 21/09/11 16:58 página 11 a move northwards. hopefully, this volume will contribute to exchange of ideas and experiences between lsp practitioners and researchers across europe. maria kuteeva stockholm university (sweden) maria.kuteeva@english.su.se guest editor of ibérica no. 22 references editorial ibérica 22 [2011]: 5-1212 airey, j. (2009). science, language, and literacy: case studies of learning in swedish university physics. uppsala: uppsala university. gunnarsson, b.-l. & k. öhman (1997). det internationaliserade universitetet. en studie av bruket av engelska och andra främmande språk vid uppsala universitet. textoch fackspråksforskning 16. uppsala: institutionen för nordiska språk, uppsala universitet. gunnarsson, b.-l. (2001). “swedish, english, french or german – the language situation at swedish universities” in u. ammon (ed.) the dominance of english as a language of science. effects on other languages and language communities. pp. 229-316. berlin, new york: mouton de gruyter. nordic council of ministers (2007). deklaration om nordisk språkpolitik 2006. köpenhamn: nordiska ministerrådet. url: http://www.nordicom.gu.se/ common/publ_pdf/280_nordisk%20sprakpolitik.pdf [26/07/11] salö, l. (2010). engelska eller svenska? en kartläggning av språksituationen inom högre utbildning och forskning. stockholm: språkrådet. swedish government (2002). mål i mun förslag till handlingsprogram för svenska språket (sou 2002:2). url: http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/108/a/1443 [24/07/11] swedish government (2009). språklag. sfs 2009:600. url: http://www.lagboken.se/files/sfs/ 2009/090600.pdf [24/07/11] swedish language council (1998). draft action programme for the promotion of the swedish language. url: http://www.sprakradet.se/servlet/getdoc?meta_id=2285 [24/07/11] wächter, b. & f. maiworm (2008). english-taught programmes in european higher education. the picture in 2007. aca papers on cooperation in education. bonn: lemmens. 00 iberica 22.qxp:01 editorial.qxd 21/09/11 16:58 página 12 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 55-74 issn 1139-7241 abstract we start with a definition of the open access (oa) movement and the reason for its birth – that is, the 1980’s serials’ crisis. we then present and explain the two main oa roads (the gold oa and the green oa roads) as well as the target of the oa movement. key concepts related to the oa movement are also explained, such as “institutional repository”, “self-archiving”, “institutional mandate” and “directory of oa journals”. we also examine the rise and the benefits of the oa movement and give suggestions as to what universities, university students and researchers worldwide could do to promote the oa movement and make science truly accessible to all. keywords: open access, scientific research, democracy, institutional repository, mandate. resumen el movimiento de acceso abierto o la “e-democracia”: nacimiento, crecimiento, problemas y soluciones empezamos con una definición del movimiento “acceso abierto” (aa) y la razón por la cual nació. luego, presentamos y explicamos en qué consisten las dos principales vías del aa (la vía dorada y la vía verde) así como el objetivo de dicho movimiento. conceptos claves, tales como “repositorio institucional”, “auto-archivo”, “mandato institucional” y “directorio de revistas en aa”. también examinamos el crecimiento y los beneficios del movimiento aa, y damos sugerencias para que las universidades, los estudiantes universitarios y los investigadores ayuden a promover el movimiento aa y hacer que la ciencia sea verdaderamente universal. the open access movement or “edemocracy”1: its birth, rise, problems and solutions2 françoise salager-meyer universidad de los andes (venezuela) francoise.sm@gmail.com 55 ibérica 24 (2012): 55-74 françoise salager-meyer palabras clave: acceso abierto, investigación científica, democracia, repositorio institucional, mandato. 1. preamble the idea of creating a spanish association of languages for specific purposes (aelfe) (the name was later changed to “european” association, but the acronym remained the same) arose in the 1985 and 1986 congresses of the spanish association of applied linguistics, but it was actually created during the first language for specific purposes congress that took place in alcalá de henares in november 1991. during the second aelfe general assembly, the participants decided to launch a journal where the association members could publish their research results. this is how ibérica was born. at first, the researchers publishing in the journal were all based in spain, but, because the journal had progressively acquired an excellent reputation, the proportion of contributors outside spain became greater and greater to the point that the international visibility of the journal is now very wellestablished. but there is one important thing that is worthwhile mentioning here: ibérica has become “open access” (oa) and all its issues, from the very first one, are today freely available online. it is because ibérica undoubtedly represents an example to be followed that i decided to write about the oa movement, its birth, importance, rise, problems and solutions. 2. definition an old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good. the old tradition is the willingness of scientists and scholars to publish the fruits of their research in scholarly journals without payment for the sake of inquiry and knowledge. the new technology is the internet. the public good they make possible is the worldwide electronic distribution of the peer-reviewed journal literature and completely free and unrestricted access to it by all scientists, scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds. removing access barriers to this literature will accelerate research, enrich education, share the learning of the rich with the poor and the poor with the rich, make this literature as useful as it can be, and lay the foundation for uniting humanity in a common intellectual conversation and quest for knowledge. (budapest open access initiative (boai), open society institute, 2001: 1) 56 the above statement is a vision, a “subversive” (harnad, 1994) or “controversial” (kenneway, 2011) model proposed in 1994, written by oa activists to encourage scholarly authors to amend their publishing practice so as to enable the free distribution over the internet of the research output usually published in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. for the purpose of this paper, i will adopt drott’s (2006) definition according to which oa is a concept, a movement and an economic model that refers to work that is freely available to users via the internet without financial cost and without economic, legal or technical barriers other than those intrinsic to the internet. users can thus freely read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to the full text of oa works. it is expected that the integrity of authors’ work will be respected and that authors’ right will be correctly acknowledged and cited. the concept of oa has been around for several decades (it celebrated its tenth anniversary on february 14th 2012), but it has only really gained traction in the past decade, particularly as it has begun to gain the support of governments, institutions and research funders. today, oa is at the forefront of discussions about scholarly communications in the digital age. open access is taught at universities, debated in parliaments, embraced or opposed by publishers. this rise to prominence is all the more remarkable when considering how ambitious the budapest oa initiative (open society institute, 2001) was, as it sought to change an $8 billion industry (further details in the next sections). 3. reasons for the birth of the oa movement: the 1980’s serials’ crisis in the 1980’s, scholarly journals (especially in science, technology and medicine – or stm for short) were subject to rapid price escalations without any clear and consistent correlations between price, quality and impact. even the most well endowed research libraries could not afford to purchase all of the content required by their faculty and students because the volume of published knowledge is always growing exponentially and will always grow faster than any library budget. it is indeed estimated that professional literature doubles every 12 years (stix, 1994). let’s examine a few telling figures. according to a study by the association of research libraries (cited in keefer, 2007), serials pricing rose by 273% the open access movement or “edemocracy” ibérica 24 (2012): 55-74 57 between 1986 and 2004, as compared to the overall inflation rate of 73%, and in 2005, the average price of an stm journal was 178% more than that in the 10 previous years (for further details, see url: http://www.arl.org /stats/arlstat/graphs/2004/monser2004.pdf). the price of scholarly journals published by scientific societies and by universities also increased tremendously in the 1980’s, over 200%, although prices were initially lower (goodman, 2004; look, 2004).. thus, at the outset, we have a tension between the aim of two core groups of actors, authors and publishers, in scholarly publishing: one group interested in maximizing access and readership, and the other in maximizing profit. the situation is particularly critical for small colleges and universities and unacceptable for institutions in the developing world with severely limited or no budget. according to the world health organization (who), for example, of the 75 countries with a gross domestic product (gdp) less than usd 1,000, 56% of the medical institutions have not subscribed to any scientific journals in the past five years, and over 34% of medical institutions subscribed to an average of two journals per year. unsurprisingly, researchers in developing and transition countries rank access to the research literature as one of their most pressing problems (aronson, 2004). the widespread sharing of research results should thus be an essential component of governments’ investment in science. faster and wider sharing of knowledge fuels the advancement of science and, accordingly, the return of health, economic, and social benefits back to the public who, with its taxes, has supported the research. fortuitously, just as journal prices were becoming unbearable, the internet emerged to offer an alternative. 4. the two main oa roads there are two distinct ways of obtaining open accessibility to scientific research results: “gold oa” and “green oa”. it is very important to keep that distinction in mind when talking about oa. the adoption of either or both routes leads to a transformation in the means of disseminating research output across the globe. (1) gold oa has been defined as journal publishing operating with a business model not based on subscription, but rather on either publication françoise salager-meyer ibérica 24 (2012): 55-7458 charges where the author (or an organization on behalf of the author) funds the publishing costs or on subsidy. the gold oa category can be subdivided based on the degree or extent of journal content availability. the most basic form of gold oa is the “direct oa” (62% of all gold oa) where the whole journal is published open access without any limitations. papers are then freely accessible online for all immediately upon publication, but at a very high price. for example, direct gold oa journals charge between usd 1,500 to usd 3,000 for publishing a paper in molecular biology and high-energy physics, a discipline that has reached 100% oa years ago. the funding required to make a journal direct gold oa derive from article-processing charges, such as the maintenance of a functioning mechanism for peer review, composition, web hosting and archiving. it is important to mention, however, that direct gold oa journals that charge publication fees waive them in cases of economic hardship, and oa journals with institutional subsidies tend not to charge publication fees (for example, ibérica). other gold oa journals keep the most recent content accessible only to paying subscribers, but as time passes, the embargo – typically 6 to 12 months3 – is lifted and the content is made available to all. this variant is called “delayed oa” and accounts for 14% of all gold oa. sometimes, an author or the author’s institution can pay for an article to be made freely available in an otherwise subscription-based journal – that is, some of the articles in a journal are oa and some are not. this is referred to as “hybrid oa” or “author-sponsored road” which makes up 24% of all gold oa. the choice is the author’s. (2) the green road consists in self-archiving authors’ work in institutional repositories or personal websites. “self-archiving” involves depositing a free copy of a digital document – be it a manuscript, a pre-print version of a manuscript accepted to be published in a scientific journal, or the actual published version itself – on the world wide web in order to provide open access to it. it is estimated that 11.9% of all scholarly articles published in 2008 were available through some form of green oa (laakso et al., 2011). an “institutional repository” is an online locus for collecting, preserving, and disseminating – in digital form – the intellectual output of an institution, particularly a research institution. repositories, then, are archives of academic-scientific material available on the web containing articles published by researchers of a given institution or from a given field of the open access movement or “edemocracy” ibérica 24 (2012): 55-74 59 knowledge (chan, 2004).4 for a university, this would include materials, such as research journal articles, before (pre-prints) and/or after (post-prints) undergoing peer review, and digital versions of theses and dissertations.5 the permission for self-archiving should be granted by journal publishers. in short, what is called a green publisher is a publisher that endorses immediate self-archiving of their authors’ accepted final drafts (but not the publishers’ version of record), free for all on the web, immediately upon acceptance for publication. “that’s all it takes for a publisher to be green and to be on the side of the angels”, ironically remarked steven harnad (boai forum email, june 24 2011, available at url: http://www. soros.org/openaccess/forum). however, if a journal adopts the green road to oa, allowing some form of self-archiving by the authors, this does not mean that articles published in it are actually deposited or self-archived. as a matter of fact, just 10% to 20% of the articles in green journals are self-archived (harnad et al., 2008). a complete oa access (100%) could be an almost immediate reality by means of the green oa road/self archiving (harnad et al., 2008; harnad, 2011b; miguel et al., 2012). the greatest obstacle to oa is the belief that oa is equivalent to the gold road – that is, to publishing in oa journals. according to the alma swan’s (2006) survey, 95% of researchers agree with oa, but will only self archive if they are obliged to do so (81% willingly, 14% reluctantly) via an institutional mandate. hence, the solution for a 100% oa is institutional mandates (more on this point later). 5. target of the oa movement the target of the oa movement is the 5,000 scientific articles that are published daily (89% in english) or the c. 2.5 million peer reviewed scientific articles that are published yearly in our planet’s c. 25,000 peer reviewed research journals across all scientific and scholarly disciplines in all languages the world over (url: http://www.ulrichsweb.com/ulrichsweb/). to a lesser extent, the oa’s target is made up of software, videos, audios, but never royalty-producing literature – that is, books and textbooks that are still written with the (slender) hope of some royalty income, novels, monographs, etc. an exception is springer, a leading publisher in europe, especially in germany and the netherlands, that publishes about 2,000 scientific journals and more than 7,000 books each year. in august 2012, indeed, springer expanded its françoise salager-meyer ibérica 24 (2012): 55-7460 oa program by offering full oa for the books it publishes across all disciplines6. it should be reminded that springer acquired biomedcentral in 2008, making it one of the world’s largest oa publishers. regarding the 25,000-30,000 peer-reviewed research journals i mentioned above, the trouble is that only a quarter of them is gold oa, and that the majority of leading scientific journals – that is, the ones with the highest quality standard – are not oa journals. a study conducted by the pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso (2009), chile, found that, of the total number of journals registered under the journal citation reports, science and social sciences editions (thomson reuters), just 5% are gold oa. björk, roos, and lauri (2008) estimated that in 2006 the total number of articles published was approximately 1,350,000. of this number, 4.6% became immediately openly available (gold), and an additional 3.5% were so after an embargo period of typically one year (delayed gold). moreover, usable copies of 11.3% could be found in subject-specific institutional repositories or on the home pages of the authors (green access/selfarchiving). thus, the total oa was 19.4%. a breakdown by discipline showed that in the social sciences, arts and humanities, 17% of articles were oa versus 25.9% in earth and environmental sciences which are noteworthy for their use of self-archiving, and, as i said before, 100% in physics. 6. the rise of the oa movement 6.1. celebrations in october 2008, the “day of the oa movement” was celebrated with the participation of 120 universities in 27 countries. in october 2009, the “week of the oa movement” was celebrated with the participation of 200 universities in 49 countries. in october 2011, the 4th year of the event was celebrated, and it will be celebrated this year in october 2012. 6.2. the directory of open access journals (doaj) in all disciplines and all languages to increase visibility and promote the use of gold road journals – those that do not charge readers and their institutions for access – the directory of open access journals (doaj) was created (url: http://www.doaj.org). it is the most comprehensive and detailed index of oa journals available today the open access movement or “edemocracy” ibérica 24 (2012): 55-74 61 that takes in all the international journals that ascribe to the oa movement, “a number that is growing by leaps and bounds” (miguel et al., 2012), from 1,400 titles in early 2005 to 5,138 as of june 2010, 7,500 titles as of march 2012 and 8,098 in september 2012. yet, as i said before, these 8,098 oa journals represent 25% only of the total number of academic-scientific peerreviewed research journals currently put out worldwide (ulrich’s international periodicals directory 2010, cited in miguel et al., 2012). hence, 75% of all journal articles (and almost 100% of the top journals) can only be accessed by researchers whose institutions can afford to subscribe to the journals in which they are published. the problem is that no institution can afford to subscribe to all or most journals, and because of the high and rising costs of journal subscriptions, most institutions can only afford to subscribe to a small and shrinking number of them. in the field of linguistics, 199 journals are at present (september 17th, 2012) oa: the only high-quality lsp journal that is oa is ibérica. other pedigreed lsp-related journals, such as english for specific purposes, journal of english for academic purposes, teachers of english for speakers of other languages quarterly, applied linguistics, journal of second language writing, etc. are not oa. 6.3. the directory of open access repositories (doar) the worldwide situation as far as oa repositories are concerned is as follows: in 2007 there were 830 repositories worldwide; in 2009 that number jumped to 1,300 (about 250 new ones per year), and in september 2012, their number reached 2,406. table 1 shows more detail. françoise salager-meyer ibérica 24 (2012): 55-7462 continents no. of countries no. of oa repositories examples africa 17 58 south africa = 23 asia 26 484 japan = 104 china = 79 india = 85 europe 33 1,041 uk = 229 spain = 114 france = 67 north america 11 522 usa = 410 mexico = 24 oceania 4 82 australia = 61 new zealand = 18 south america 9 219 brazil = 105 argentina = 24 venezuela = 14 total 100 2,406 table 1. worldwide registry of open access repositories (data extracted from url: http://roar.eprints.org/cgi/search/advanced [03/09/12]) this means that in three years, we have witnessed a twofold increase in the number of oa repositories worldwide. forty four percent of them are located in europe, 21.7% in north america, and 82.6% are institutional. as for the language in which they are written, 72% are in english, and 11.4% in spanish, the second most frequent oa repository language. 6.4. worldwide situation of institutional repository mandates as of september 2012, according to the registry of oa repositories mandatory archiving policies (roarmap), out of a total of 429 oa repository mandates worldwide (see table 2 for their worldwide distribution), 190 (44%) are (multior sub-) institutional mandates, 93 (22%) are thesis mandates, and 53 (12%) are funder mandates. the remaining 22% correspond to either unspecified or proposed mandates. the first mandate was created in the year 2000 at the university of southampton, school of electronics and computer sciences. the most important ones are, of course, in stm disciplines where research is heavily funded. we can cite, for example, the nih (national institute of health, uk), the max plank institute (germany), the research council in the uk, the national institutes of health in the usa (pubmed central), the european research council, the canadian institutes of health research, the open access movement or “edemocracy” ibérica 24 (2012): 55-74 63 continents no. of countries no. of repository mandates examples africa 4 10 south africa = 5 asia 8 27 china = 9 china = 7 japan = 1 europe 22 235 uk = 53 spain = 14 france = 11 north america 2 103 usa = 58 canada = 25 oceania 2 34 australia = 31 new zealand = 3 south america 16 16 brazil = 4 colombia = 4 argentina = 2 venezuela = 2 international 4 cern (european organization for nuclear research) wellcome trust total 52 429 table 2. worldwide registry of open access repository mandates (data extracted from url: http://roarmap.eprints.org/ [03/09/12]) harvard university, mit (massachussets institute of technology), and the wellcome trust (uk). regarding the present situation in spain, the country has 14 repository mandates (11 of them are institutional), but an act of parliament called ley de la ciencia, la tecnología y la información (“science, technology and innovation act”) voted in may 12, 2011, urges researchers to deposit their research papers produced with public funding in institutional digital oa repositories. there is a national repository mandate nowadays in spain. there is also a bill in argentina on the creation of a digital institutional repository mandate for all publicly-funded research. however, the fight for oa has not yet been won. indeed, on december 16th 2011, a bill (called the “research work act”) that contained provisions to prohibit oa mandates for federally funded research and to effectively revert the nih’s public access policy (that requires taxpayer-funded research to be freely accessible on line) was introduced to the us congress. if enacted, the bill, backed by traditional publishers, would severely restrict the sharing and dissemination of scientific data. similar bills were introduced in 2008 and 2009, but have not been enacted since. what is more, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of research activities is conducted within universities, and that oa is a “win, win, win” situation for students, researchers and readers (see section 7 below), only 0.007% of the world’s universities have mandates (153 over a total of about 17,000 universities in the world have such mandates). this led steven harnad (2008) to say that “the world’s universities are oa’s sleeping giant”, precisely because they are not aware of that “win, win, win” situation. 7. benefits of oa why should we expect authors to make their work oa? there is the altruistic vision espoused in the definition of oa by the budapest open access initiative (see introduction of this paper) and many others, but also there are arguments that increased access to their research output may potentially increase the use of their work, its visibility, and therefore its impact and citations, especially for higher quality, hence more citable, articles (lawrence, 2001; brody, harnad & carr, 2006; gargouri et al., 2010; swan, 2010; hitchcock, 2011; kenneway, 2011). eysenbach (2006), for example, taking into account the number of authors, the country of origin and the discipline, françoise salager-meyer ibérica 24 (2012): 55-7464 found that oa articles were cited twice as much, and brody and harnad (2004) and harnad (2008) have shown that oa can increase citations from 25% to over 250%. a caveat is in order here: whilst gold oa has been shown to increase “usage”, the issue about “citation” increase is controversial. some studies, as those mentioned above, do point out to a decisive increase in the number of citations, while others (for instance, davies & walters, 2011; or miguel et al., 2012) are not as categorical. many full oa journals indeed are young journals that do not have the same profile or impact factor than those of their traditionally established competitors, but this does not reflect their future influence. miguel et al. (2012) point out, for example, that paper quality is a more important determinant than oa, whilst craig et al. (2007) argue that the large citation effects reported in prior studies are simply artefacts of improper analysis (mainly methodological flaws) and not the result of a causal relationship. be that as it may, oa also increases the potential to collaborations (kennan, 2011; kenneway, 2011) as well as the “social value of science”. by “social value of science”, i mean that research is published to be accessed, used, applied and built upon in further research. research is done by researchers, for uptake by researchers, for the benefit of the public that funds that research, including those whose work or personal interest depend on having access to the global pool of scientific knowledge. as dickson (2011: 3) asserts, “putting this social value of science into measurable terms is much more difficult than the relatively simple calculations of citation rates”. oa also helps to publicize institutions’ research strengths. for publishers, open access brings maximum visibility, increased readership and impact for the contents; it means that a greatly improved dissemination service is being provided for research (harnad, 2011a). it is interesting to mention here that the latest university ranking (available at url http://www. webometrics.info/) for the first time does not only take into consideration universities’ academic and research performance, prestige and international visibility, but also their commitment to oa policies. an interesting move forward. last but not least, oa also enhances the flow of knowledge between north and south and also between south and south, but the digital divide still keeps billions of people offline, including millions of serious scholars working in heavily under-funded research institutions. the open access movement or “edemocracy” ibérica 24 (2012): 55-74 65 8. what can university students do to promote oa? university students and junior researchers can help improve the oa situation even further. they can indeed require that their universities adopt the oa model, and they can make pressure upon their governments so that the national research centers that fund research require the products of that research to be oa (green road/self-archive). they can also convince their professors 1) to support the oa movement; 2) to publish in gold oa journals or in journals whose publishers back up the green road to oa; and 3) to self-archive their research output in their institutional repository or in their personal homepage. as kennan (2011) points out, the vision of a freely available scholarly corpus has led to the increasing proliferation of institutional repositories. however, oa content in these repositories is not increasing at the same rate. adoption of the vision and the technology is slow, not among the institutions developing them, but slow to gain traction among academics (thomas & mcdonald, 2007). the reasons researchers are so loathe to deposit their work in international repositories have prompted a plethora of studies, most of them based on surveys, some on interviews, some analyzing repository content (houghton, steele & henty, 2004; nicholas, jamali & rowlands, 2006; jantz & wilson, 2008). these studies have shown that in spite of the improvements mentioned in the previous sections of this essay, what we observe, worldwide is a generalized “inertia”. that inertia syndrome even has a name: stevan harnad (2006) calls it “zeno’s paralysis”7 or the 34headed monster, a list of 34 groundless psychological reasons or phobias why not to self-archive. let me give just a few of them, all spurious, but persistent and recurring. we can mention: • the lack of cooperation from the researchers themselves; • their indifference; • lack of knowledge about oa; • “center” scholar’s lack of awareness of and/or indifference to the immense difficulties scientists from developing countries have to face in order to find the appropriate bibliography for conducting their research (and this is just one of their difficulties, see section 10 below); françoise salager-meyer ibérica 24 (2012): 55-7466 • fear of plagiarism; • fear that plagiarism be discovered (!); • the excuse that they have no time to self-archive – according to carr and harnad (2005), it takes 6 to 10 minutes only to self-archive a paper; • fear that oa will violate copyrights; • fear that oa will destroy scholarly journals; and • fear of bypassing peer-review. the actors working against oa indeed proclaim that peer review and quality will suffer. kennan (2011) points out that there is no evidence yet for this in the disciplines that are enacting oa. indeed, green oa, through repositories, is specifically designed to work in conjunction with the existing traditional publishing network. if a university has an institutional repository, then this is a good way for researchers to showcase their research, and for the university to showcase the full breadth of its research. factors such as age, professional status, field of study, type of research, and nationalities can also influence the degree to which authors accept or reject oa (keefer, 2007). because of these various “reasons” and according to calculations by harnad (2006), by 2020 only about a quarter of scientific articles will be freely available. 9. how to overcome that inertia? there are several possibilities: 1) raise awareness about oa through education campaigns, writing essays, and training workshops, emphasizing the various advantages of oa, not only the greater number of citations, but also the greater impact, wider access and visibility and long-term preservation of research. 2) help authors to self-archive. in that sense, librarians have a major role to play. according to the ifla world report 2010 (bothma, 2010), the vast majority of library associations support oa. 3) install stimulation and compliance policies or cash rewards. but sale’s study (2006) has unfortunately shown that at most these extra inducements only increase the deposit rate to about 30%. thus, the formula the open access movement or “edemocracy” ibérica 24 (2012): 55-74 67 for change and the cure for zeno’s paralysis is 100% requirement (mandate, see section 6.4 above). this is possible if the major players are convinced of the benefits oa brings, and if scholars, the world over, stop publishing in journals that do not permit their peer-reviewed post-prints to be oa. as harnad (2011b) emphatically puts it, researchers’ institutions and funders need to mandate oa self-archiving as a natural extension of their existing publish or perish mandate, upgraded for the online era, as a growing number of institutions (including harvard, mit, nih, uk researcher councils and over 200 other institutions and funders worldwide) are already doing. indeed, without a mandate, the oa message is ambiguous. it does not appear as if the university has unconditional support for oa or its own institutional repository. an institutional mandate or policy promoting oa signals the university’s support for oa to the scholarly corpus. it flags the centrality of research and access to that research as part of that university mission. 10. epilogue and latest developments it is hard to argue that research, often funded out of the public purse, should not be a public good, and should not be equally accessible to rich and poor. i hope i have made clear here that oa access to research maximizes research access and thereby also research impact, thus making research more productive and effective and increasing its social value. in other words, oa opens the door to some hope and help correct some inequalities between center and periphery as far as access to information is concerned. as kennan (2011: 312) emphatically points out: “oa is a powerful vision that is congruent with the ideals of research and scholarship”. morris (2007), from the association of learned and professional society publishers, posits that change is inevitable and resistance to change is futile. repositories and oa are only the beginning of potential changes to scholarly publishing enabled by technologies. keefer (2007: 17) echoes this opinion by asserting that “the road to oa through the green road may be slow and with obstacles, but it is inevitable.” mandates, both institutional and funder, are growing apace. for the foreseeable future at least, oa, institutional repositories and mandates will become an increasingly prevalent part of the scholarly landscape, asserts kennan (2011). françoise salager-meyer ibérica 24 (2012): 55-7468 regarding the situation in developing countries, karen shaschock cogently reminds us (ease forum, may 30 2011, available at url: http://www.ease.org.uk/) that, in these parts of the world, researchers not only have to deal with software and hardware problems, but also with connectivity issues, and most of them have to juggle multiple commitments to survive since salaries are very low even for university teaching or research positions. paying 30-50 us dollars to buy a single article is beyond these researchers’ reach. therefore, the demands on these researchers’ time are very challenging, and the need to work as efficiently as possible (before the power cuts off again, or the net goes down again) is ever-present. citing elizabeth wager (chair of the committee on publication ethics) and referring to scientific paper abstract, shaschock (personal communication) forcefully adds that in many parts of the world, researchers only have access to research paper abstracts. even in the developed world, doctors working outside academic centers (which means the majority of them) will not have access to full text for many papers and therefore use abstracts without reading the full paper. oa is the solution to such a negative and counterproductive situation because by making work available in oa, researchers are helping to create a global knowledge commons so that all may benefit, not just the relatively wealthy. moreover, since a university mission is to create and disseminate knowledge, oa helps universities to fulfil their mission. support for public access policies is growing by the day. in may 2012, a petition in support of public access policies on the white house’s “we the people” website received, over the course of less than 2 weeks, more than 25,000 signatures, enough to prompt white house consideration. and on june 28 2012, 13 members of congress sent a letter to the office of science and technology policy at the white house in support of policies promoting greater public access to the results of federally funded research. according to the guardian (july 25 2012), the results of scientific research that tackles disease, food security issues and poverty in the developing world will become freely available as part of the uk government’s plans to open up access to publicly funded studies. this applies to all work funded by the department for international development (dfid). moreover, last july, uk science minister david willetts announced that all published scientific research funded by the uk research councils would be immediately available for anyone to read free of charge by 2014. the open access movement or “edemocracy” ibérica 24 (2012): 55-74 69 finally, in july 2012 as well, the higher education funding council for england (hefce) announced plans to require oa for research submitted to the next research excellence framework in 2014 (see url: www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2012/name.73613.en.html). as peter suber, director of the harvard oa project, asserts, these announcements signal a massive shift towards oa for publicly funded research in the uk, which is extremely good for researchers and taxpayers (suber, 2012). the day after these important announcements in the uk, the european commission announced a new oa policy for the european union and recommended oa policy for member states. it is then undeniable that freely accessible publishing has passed from an early experimental phase to a period of consolidation, with the number of oa papers showing steady growth. the model has been shown to work, writes peter webster (2012) in his article entitled “humanities left behind in the dash for open access”. however, webster rightly argues that few of the top journals in the humanities (and, i would add, in the arts and social sciences as well) are oa. there is indeed no public library of history to match the phenomenally successful public library of science. what is more, institutional repositories (the green road to oa) in the arts, humanities, and social sciences have shown very slow progress. there is one oa site for the social sciences, though, that enables authors to post working papers as well as those accepted for publication: it is the “social sciences research network” which also includes categories for the humanities. it is not entirely oa, though: publications that are copyrighted only show the paper abstracts. however, i know that people who cannot access the journals or books tend to email authors, requesting electronic copies of the papers they are interested in. all the disciplines stand to gain from a successful move to oa. however, as stated above, much of the discussion about oa has been driven so far by the needs of the hard and natural sciences. “let’s not allow the humanities, arts and social sciences to be collateral damage along the way”, concludes webster (2012: 2). i would like to conclude this essay by citing steven harnad (2011b: 5) who forcefully asserts: full speed ahead with mandating and providing green oa in order to maximize research usage and progress today. both the research and the françoise salager-meyer ibérica 24 (2012): 55-7470 economic benefits are all in favor of the research community as well as the tax-paying public that support their research. publishers are performing a service to research, not vice versa. it’s time for the publishing tail to stop trying to wag the research dog. as i argued all along this essay, knowledge societies can be built around the world much more strongly and effectively if knowledge is easily accessed and spread. oa is a key to this transformation.8 [paper received 25 february 2012] [revised paper accepted 30 may 2012] references the open access movement or “edemocracy” ibérica 24 (2012): 55-74 71 aronson, b. (2004). “improving online access to medical information for low-income countries” the new england journal of medicine 350: 966-968. url: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/350/ 10/966 [18/05/12] björk, b-c., a. roos & m. lauri (2008). “global annual volume of peer reviewed scholarly articles and the share available via different open access options”. paper presented at the 12th international conference on electronic publishing (elpub), toronto, june 25-27, 2008. url: http://elpub. scix.net/cgi-bin/works/show?178_elpub2008 [18/05/12] bothma, t.j.d. (ed.) (2010). ifla world report 2010. ifla/faife world report series, vol. viii. international federation of library associations and institutions. url: http://www.ifla-worldreport.org/files/uploaded/ifla_wr/ifla-wr-2010analysis-and-conclusions.pdf [18/05/12] brody, t. & s. harnad (2004). “comparing the impact of open access (oa) vs. non-oa articles in the same journals”. d-lib magazine 10. url: http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/10207 [18/05/12] brody, t., s. harnad & l. carr (2006). “earlier web usage statistics as predictors of later citation impact: research articles”. journal of the american society for information science and technology, 57: 1060-1072. carr, l. & s. harnad (2005). keystroke economy: a study of the time and effort involved in selfarchiving. url: http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ 14418 [18/05/12] chan, l. 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(2011). the effect of open access and downloads (‘hits’) on citation impact: a bibliography of studies. url: http://opcit.eprints. org/oacitation-biblio.html [18/05/12] houghton, j.w., c. steele & m. henty (2004). “research practices and scholarly communication in the digital environment”. learned publishing 17: 231-249. jacobs, n. (ed.) (2006). open access: key strategic, technical and economic aspects. oxford: chandos. jantz, r.c. & m.c. wilson (2008). “institutional repositories: faculty deposits, marketing and the reform of scholarly communication”. the journal of academic librarianship 34: 186-195. keefer, a. (2007). “green, gold, or neither: author attitude and behaviour regarding open access”. european science editing 3: 16-17. kennan, m.a. (2011). “learning to share: mandates and open access”. library management 32: 302-318 kenneway, m. (2011). “author attitudes towards open access publishing”. tbi communications on behalf of intech open access publisher. url: http://www.intechweb.org/ public_files/intech_oa_ apr11.pdf [03/06/11] laakso, m., p. welling, h. bukvoca, l. nyman, b.c. björk & t. hedlund (2011). “the development of open access journal publishing from 1993 to 2009” plos one 6: e20961. url: http://www. plosone.org/article/citationlist.action?articleuri= info%3adoi%2f10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0020961 [03/06/11] lawrence, s. (2001). “online or invisible?” nature 411: 521. url: http://www.neci.nec.com/lawrence/ papers/online-nature01/ [03/06/11] look, h. (2004). “open access: look both ways before crossing”. serials: the journal of the serials community 17: 217-223. miguel, s., z. chinchilla-rodríguez & f. de moyaanegón (2012). “open access and scopus: a new approach to scientific visibility from the standpoint of access”. journal of the american society for information science and technology 63: 481-489. morris, s. (2007). “will the parasite kill the host? are institutional repositories a fact-of life and does it matter?” serials: the journal of the serials community 20: 172-179. nicholas, d., h.r. jamali & i. rowlands (2006). “on the tips of their tongues: authors and their views on scholarly publishing”. learned publishing 19: 193-202. open society institute (2001). budapest open access initiative. url: http://www.soros.org/ openaccess/read [03/06/11] pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso (2009). directorio de revistas open access reconocidas por el isi web of science. url: http://www.ejbiotechnology.cl/proyecto/index.php [03/06/11] sale, a. (2006). “the acquisition of open access research papers·. first monday 11. url: http://eprints.utas.edu.au/388/ [03/06/11] stix, g. (1994). “the spread of write. trends on scientific communication”. scientific american 271: 106-111. suber, p. (2012). “ensuring open access for publicly funded research”. british medical journal 345: e5184 doi: 10.1136/bmj.e5184. url: http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e5184 [31/08/12] swan, a. (2006). “the culture of oa: researchers’ views and responses” in n. jacobs (ed.), 52-59. swan, a. (2010). “the open access citation advantage: studies and results to date”. technical report, school of electronics and computer science. university of southampton, united kingdom. françoise salager-meyer was educated at the university of lyons, france, and the university of texas at austin. she is the author of numerous publications on written medical discourse, mostly from a diachronic, crosslinguistic and cross-generic perspective. in 1994 and 2004, she was awarded the horowitz prize for her works on the pragmatics of written scholarly communication. she was the section editor of the “language and medicine section” of the second edition of the encyclopedia of language and linguistics (elsevier) and is currently coordinating the multilingual and multidisciplinary research group on scientific discourse analysis. notes 1 i have taken the expression “edemocracy” from a recent paper written by steven harnad (2011a), one of the pioneers of the open access (oa) movement in the early 1990’s and, since then, one of its most fervent advocates and closest observers. 2 this research was made possible through grant nº cdchta-m-976-09-a from the university of the andes scientific research center. 3 elsevier journals have a typical embargo period of 12 months in the health and life sciences, whereas mathematics and social sciences journals have an embargo period of 24 to 36 months. 4 good examples of subject repositories are arxiv that started with physics but has since expanded its scope to cover a variety of research topics, and pubmedcentral for biomedical and life sciences research. 5 e-prints (the former paper reprints) can be both “pre-prints” (pre-peer review) and “post-prints” (postpeer review). “post-prints” are all post publication works including the official published version, although what is self-archived is usually the final author’s version of the post-peer reviewed or copyedited paper (harnad, 2003) which is estimated to be “good enough for use by scholars and by teachers” (durenceau, 2011: 1). 6 for more information, visit springer’s website at url: www.springeropen.com/books. 7 steven harnad (2006) coined the expression zeno’s paralysis after the philosopher who thought that one could not walk across a room because before walking the whole distance, one must first walk half the distance, and before that, half the half-distance, etc. hence, one could not even get started at all. 8 for those interested in the oa situation in southern europe (italy, france, spain, portugal, greece and turkey), see the alhambra declaration (may 2010, available at url: http://www.accesoabierto.net/sites/ accesoabierto.net/files/oasoutheurope_10_alhambradeclaration.pdf) and the report recently published by the fecyt (spanish foundation for science and technology) in 2010 titled open access in southern european countries available at url: http://oaseminar.fecyt.es/resources/documentos/ oasouthern_vweb.pdf. for those interested in the situation in northern european countries (norway, finland, iceland, denmark and sweden), see hedlund & rabow (2007). the open access movement or “edemocracy” ibérica 24 (2012): 55-74 73 thomas, c. & r.h. mcdonald (2007). “measuring and comparing participation patterns in digital repositories”. d-lib magazine 13. url: http://dlib. org/dlib/september07/ mcdonald/09mcdonald.html [03/06/11] webster, p. (2012). “humanities left behind in the dash for open access”. research fortnight. url: http://www.researchresearch.com/index.php?option= com_news&template=rr_2col&view=article&articleid =1214091 [25/08/12] ——(2011). ulrich’s global serials directory. url: http://ulrichsweb.com/ulrichsweb/ [03/06/11] iberica 13 ibérica 23 (2012): 29-46 issn 1139-7241 abstract this paper describes a corpus-based analysis of the distribution of the highfrequency collocates of abstract nouns in 320 research articles across eight disciplines: chemistry, computer science, materials science, neuroscience, economics, language and linguistics, management, and psychology. disciplinary variation was also examined – very little previous research seems to have investigated this. the corpus was analysed using wordsmith tools. the 16 highest-frequency nouns across all eight disciplines were identified, followed by the highest-frequency collocates for each noun. five disciplines showed over 50% variance from the overall results. conclusions are that the differing patterns revealed are disciplinary norms and represent standard terminology within the disciplines arising from the topics discussed, research methods, and content of discussions. it is also concluded that the collocations are an important part of the meanings and functions of the nouns, and that this evidence of sharp discipline differences underlines the importance of discipline-specific collocation research. keywords: collocations, corpus analysis, interdisciplinary research writing, genre analysis. resumen colocaciones muy frecuentes de sustantivos en artículos de investigación en ocho disciplinas académicas en este trabajo se analiza la distribución de las colocaciones más frecuentes de sustantivos abstractos en un corpus de 320 artículos de investigación en ocho disciplinas diferentes: química, informática, ciencias de los materiales, neurociencia, economía, lengua y lingüística, administración de empresas y psicología. se examina también la variación según las diferentes disciplinas, un high-frequency collocations of nouns in research articles across eight disciplines matthew peacock city university of hong kong (china) enmatt@cityu.edu.hk 29 ibérica 23 (2012): 29-46 matthew peacock aspecto poco tratado en investigaciones anteriores. en el análisis del corpus se utilizó wordsmith tools. se identificaron los 16 sustantivos más frecuentes en cada una de las ocho disciplinas así como las colocaciones más frecuentes en cada caso. en cinco disciplinas se dio hasta un 50% de variación respecto a los resultados combinados de todas las disciplinas examinadas. se concluye que las diferencias identificadas guardan relación con las características de cada disciplina y que éstas también están relacionadas con la terminología estándar dentro de cada disciplina en relación con los temas tratados, los métodos de investigación empleados y el contenido de los artículos. se concluye además que las colocaciones constituyen una parte importante de los significados y de las funciones de los sustantivos, y que la existencia de marcadas diferencias disciplinarias subraya la necesidad de investigar las colocaciones en las distintas disciplinas académicas. palabras clave: colocaciones, análisis de corpus, artículos de investigación en diferentes disciplinas, análisis de género. introduction this paper describes a corpus-based analysis of the high-frequency collocations of common nouns in 320 research articles (ras) across eight disciplines. the following definition of collocation is adopted, “chunks of language-sequences of words-that are used repeatedly by speakers and writers” (biber, conrad & cortes, 2004: 377). collocation is the cooccurrence of two or more words significantly more often than is found in similar language genres. for the present research high-frequency is defined as a frequency of at least 40 per million words (pmw), following the definition of biber, conrad and cortes (2004: 376): “we take a conservative approach (…) [a] frequency cut-off of 40 times per million words to be included in the analysis”. williams (2002) asserts that discourse communities develop codes for communication through the use of patterns and that this code, rather than individual words, is one of their defining characteristics. collocations appear to be among these patterns. however, description and discussion of the distribution of the high-frequency nouns themselves is beyond the scope of this research, which focuses on their collocations. the ra was chosen for this research because of its significance for the spread of knowledge. ras have been called the key medium for legitimating findings and disciplines (hyland, 1996), and the preferred genre for 30 discourse communities to communicate (williams, 1998). their language defines these communities. one of the earliest mentions of the word collocation is firth (1957), who also wrote the well-known related phrase “you shall know a word by the company it keeps” (firth, 1968: 179). sinclair (1991) broke new ground with his suggestions that word combinations are not random and that they make an important contribution to the organization of language, while hoey (1991) contends that collocation plays an important role in lexical cohesion. in a later work (hoey, 2007a), he argues that exposure to collocations primes or prepares us to recall their correct meaning, and use them correctly, whenever we re-encounter them. he extends this idea (2007b) to the construction of grammars, and examines some evidence for the latter through an analysis of the collocates of “sixty”, “60”, “forty”, and “40” in a corpus of the guardian newspaper text. hoey (2007b) concludes that his analysis of these lexical units provides some evidence for such priming and for the unexpected decisions made by writers (also see hoey & o’donnell, 2008). collocation in academic writing has also attracted interest recently. collocations have also been called formulaic sequences, “chunks (…) multiword units (…) conventionalised forms, ready-made utterances” (wray, 2002: 9), naturally co-occurring strings of words (chan & liou, 2005), and word partnerships (mudraya, 2006). many writers stress their importance: they have been called an essential organizing principle of language in use (stubbs, 1995; schmitt & carter, 2004). stubbs (1995), mahlberg (2003) and gledhill (2000a) emphasize that meaning develops across word clusters and not through single words, and herbst (1996) that there is no doubt that language competence includes knowledge of collocations. they also let users express membership of a group, articulate ideas economically and reduce processing effort for readers (jones & haywood, 2004; gledhill, 2000b). gledhill points out (2000a) that collocations are fundamental units in texts, that they validate the existence of discourse communities, and that they are subconscious efforts to conform to discipline norms. finally, they may be more quickly recognized than individual words (cantos & sanchez, 2001) and reduce processing effort for readers (jones & haywood, 2004). schmitt and carter (2004) note that there is a lot of evidence that collocations are stored and processed as unitary wholes, and schmitt, grandage and adolphs (2004: 127) that writers use the same clusters repeatedly because they are “prepackaged in the memory”. high-frequency collocations of nouns ibérica 23 (2012): 29-46 31 very little previous research seems to have investigated the high-frequency collocations of common nouns. ward (2007) looks at common nouns and their collocations in chemical engineering textbooks, and compares the collocation frequency with that found in four other engineering disciplines. the three most common nouns were “gas”, “liquid”, and “heat”. ward asserts that while collocations are certainly discipline specific, this is not true of individual words. he observes that the important phrase is not “gas” but “gas +” and that collocations are a threshold to discipline membership. however, he does not give a list of common nouns apart from these three, report common nouns in the other disciplines, or report collocations (apart from a large number of “gas +” collocations). however, ward’s (2007) exploratory study is valuable as it pays attention to collocations within a corpus. gledhill (2000a) researches salient words which he defines as words that occur significantly more often in one text or part of a text than another, though the research is not confined to nouns. he reports collocations in his pharmaceutical corpus of 150 ras from 22 cancer and pharmacology journals, though not focusing on nouns. some example collocations were “patients who had tumours” and “both accelerate and delay”. rationale for research the high-frequency collocations of common nouns may be an important part of academic english including ras, and worth investigating further. there have been several calls for research into collocation, for example groom (2005) suggests that disciplines can be differentiated by their favoured terminology and that this notion is well worth examining on a larger scale. gledhill (2000a) says that looking at different disciplines is an intriguing possibility. ellis, simpson-vlach and maynard (2008) emphasize the importance of collocations, suggesting that they are common in academic discourse and that writers need to know them as a whole. durrant (2009: 158) points out that the possible existence of sharp discipline differences in collocations imply that useful lists cannot be obtained by looking at any one discipline – “it is clearly misguided to seek any generic listing of academic collocations”, adding that previous research has not attempted to describe disciplinary differences, and that it is important to undertake such research. similar assertions regarding the importance of researching discipline differences (though in noun distribution) are made by martinez, beck, and panza (2009) and ward (2009). matthew peacock ibérica 23 (2012): 29-4632 if collocations are important, they must be acquired by aspiring research writers. bhatia (2000) notes that a strong justification for genre research is that it informs the teaching of research writing, especially for writers who wish to join academic discourse communities, while durrant (2009) suggests that learners need to acquire high-frequency collocations. there also appears to be some agreement that non-native speakers (nns) find collocations difficult and/or misuse them. wray (2002) asserts that collocations are hard for nns, that nns tend to use the right words in the wrong context, and are too creative with collocations. she also claims that nns make overliberal assumptions about the use of collocations and that they are at a disadvantage with them, and predicts that nns could end up with larger lexicons than native speakers (ns) but not know how to use collocation. shei and pain (2000) claim that it is commonly agreed that ns and nns differ in their knowledge of collocations and that ns use them more, use a greater variety, and use them more accurately: arguments also put forward by ellis and  simpson-vlach (2009) and ellis, simpson-vlach and maynard (2008). schmitt and carter (2004), and bahns and eldaw (1993) agree that nns misuse them. other authors mention nns research writing in more general terms. paltridge (1993) contends that nns need help in joining the discourse community of international academic research, and yakhontova (1997) that nns research writers tend to be unaware of genre conventions, which differ in the second language. ahmad (1997) indicates that this is critical for nns, who may not get published when their work is written in an incorrect rhetorical style. these difficulties might result from first language differences, which are very hard to overcome (vassileva, 1997; golebiowski, 1999). wood (2001) adds that nns writers of ras have higher-level discourse problems and difficulties entering discourse communities and publishing. there seems to have been very little research into the high-frequency collocations of nouns in ras, or disciplinary variation in their use, and the area seems to be increasingly important due to the fast-growing numbers of research writers around the world, particularly nns. ward points out (2007) a problem affecting this area – language teachers lack knowledge of technical vocabulary and so cannot be expected to teach it. this present research can provide information that can be used to support the teaching of research writer competence across a number of disciplines. it is certainly possible that the correct selection of collocations is a vital part of the acquisition of competence in the skills of constructing scientific discourse; and if so, it will high-frequency collocations of nouns ibérica 23 (2012): 29-46 33 be useful to provide a description of these collocations. it is proposed that the area has not received the attention it warrants and that further research is needed, to assess disciplinary variation across a number of disciplines. the results should reveal much more about the nature of ras, and help teachers of research writing inform learners of appropriate collocations. methodology this research investigated the distribution and frequency of the highfrequency collocations of nouns in 320 research articles across eight disciplines. research aims the aims of this research were, within the corpus, to: (1) find and list the highest-frequency collocations of common nouns; (2) investigate the frequency of these collocations; and (3) investigate disciplinary variation. the ra corpus the corpus was 320 published ras, 40 from each discipline. the eight disciplines were selected because they represent a range of subjects and also have large numbers of research writers, mostly nns, around the world. this increases the usefulness of this research regarding recommendations for teaching. four leading refereed journals were selected from each discipline. visits were made to the relevant departments and two sources from each were asked to name principal journals from their field. ten ras from 2007/2008 were randomly chosen from each journal by giving each a number and drawing numbers from a box. only empirical datadriven ras with the introduction-method-results-discussion (imrd) format were chosen, as this is an important genre (hyland, 1998). the size of the disciplinary corpora, and the use of discipline sources to choose journals, suggest that the corpora are sufficiently representative. matthew peacock ibérica 23 (2012): 29-4634 investigating the corpus analysis was done in the following steps: (1) high-frequency nouns were identified using the wordlist function of wordsmith tools 4.0 (scott, 2004). many of these nouns (see table 1), for example “study”, “process”, and “variable”, sometimes function as verbs or adjectives. every occurrence of these functions was excluded from the count: to do this it was necessary to manually examine each occurrence using the concord function. at this stage the research was limited to the 16 highestfrequency nouns (excluding usage as verbs or adjectives), to make the research more manageable. (2) high-frequency collocations were identified, along with disciplinary variation, using the concord function of wordsmith tools plus the clusters, patterns, and collocates sub-functions. regarding step 1, firstly, “function” means “operates” or “acts”. secondly, wordsmith tools uses a measure of association called “mutual information” (mi) to define collocates, or more accurately to assess whether “cooccurrences” happen by chance or are statistically “significant”. mi measures the strength of each collocation, eliminating those that appear by chance, and is thus a necessary statistical test of strength of association. regarding step 2, the corpus was split into disciplinary corpora at times to check disciplinary variation. individual manual checking of the function of every occurrence is vital. many authors stress the importance of doing this, for example frequency can be obtained from statistical analysis but context is vital in understanding function (tognini-bonelli, 2004), and a “microscopic study” must be carried out before categorisation can be done (williams, 2002: 60). two evaluators were involved in step 1: this writer and a local university lecturer. to measure inter-rater agreement, the second coder independently evaluated the function of every occurrence. to measure intra-rater agreement, this writer reassessed the function of every occurrence after one month. inter-rater and intra-rater agreement were both 100%. results the 16 highest-frequency nouns in the whole corpus, in order of frequency, can be seen below in table 1. they are all abstract nouns. the highestfrequency collocates for each noun are also shown. high-frequency collocations of nouns ibérica 23 (2012): 29-46 35 table 1 does not show all the high-frequency collocates, only the four most common. examples follow: “analysis” collocated with “factor ~”, “regression ~”, “~ was/were performed”, and “~ revealed”. “evidence” collocated with “provide/d/ing ~”, “find/found ~”, “empirical ~”, and “there is/was no ~”. “process” collocated with “business ~”, “learning ~”, “information ~”, and “planning ~”. the right column shows the percentage of all occurrences of the noun which these particular collocations make up – for example, the four collocates of “study/ies” make up 19% of all occurrences of the noun: the average over all nouns was 16%. the percentage varied by noun – the five nouns that correlated most often with the most common collocates were “relationship/s” (38% of occurrences), “variable” (29%), “evidence” (27%), “effect” (24%), and “study/ies” (19%). however, “model” and “method” had no high-frequency collocates, and “sample” only two. a large number of disciplinary differences were found. these are shown in tables 2 and 3. matthew peacock ibérica 23 (2012): 29-4636 noun collocations percent of all occurrences study/ies present ~, previous ~, case ~, results (of) ~ 19 result/s ~ show/ed, ~ indicate/d, ~ suggest/ed, ~ obtained 14 effect/s significant ~, main ~, no ~, positive ~ 24 model/s 0 information ~ management, ~ system/s, ~ technology, ~ processing 12 data ~ (were) collected, ~ collection, ~ analysis, ~ were obtained 10 analysis/es factor ~, regression ~, ~ was/were performed, ~ revealed 11 process/es business ~, learning ~, information ~, planning ~ 9 research previous ~, future ~, further ~, ~ has shown 17 sample/s ~ period, ~ size 6 experiment/s results (of/in) ~ (1, 2, 3), present ~, participated in ~, previous ~ 8 relationship/s ~ between, customer ~, positive ~, causal ~ 38 factor/s ~ analysis/es, (1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, higher-) order ~, ~ structure, key ~ 14 variable/s dependent ~, dummy ~, independent ~, explanatory ~ 29 method/s 0 evidence provide/d/ing ~, find/found ~, empirical ~, there is/was no ~ 27 table 1. high-frequency collocations, in order of frequency – all disciplines. comparison of tables 2 and 3 with table 1 reveals considerable disciplinary variation. over all eight disciplines, no fewer than 157 collocations differ from those in table 1, or 53%. for example, computer science authors collocated “information” with “provides ~”, “~ extraction”, and “quality of ~”. neuroscience authors collocated “analysis/es” with “~ of data/data ~”, “statistical ~”, and “model ~”, and “process/es” with “cognitive ~”. economics authors collocated “factor/s” with “~ model”, “~ productivity”, and “controlling ~”, while psychology authors collocated “process” with “inference ~” and “cognitive ~”. management authors collocated “model” with “business ~”, “portfolio ~”, “measurement ~”, and “structural ~”. high-frequency collocations of nouns ibérica 23 (2012): 29-46 37 noun chemistry computer science materials sci. neuroscience study/ies present ~ previous ~, results (of) ~, present ~, case ~ previous ~, present ~ present ~, previous ~, current ~, recent ~ result/s ~ obtained ~ indicated, ~ show/n, experimental ~, ~ obtained ~ indicate, ~ show/n, similar ~, ~ suggest ~ suggest, ~ show/n/ed, ~ indicated, ~ (in/of) experiment (1,2,3) effect/s significant ~, positive ~, no ~ main ~, significant ~, no ~ model/s user ~, ~ order, research ~ ~ analysis/es, direct ~, memory ~ information ~ system/s, provides ~, ~ extraction, quality of ~ ~ processing data ~ collected, ~ collection, crystal ~ training ~, ~ collected, consistent ~ ~ (…) shown, experimental ~, ~ presented, ~ obtained regression ~, individual ~, ~ were obtained analysis/es elemental ~ data ~, factor ~ , ~ results, further ~ thermal ~, ~ was/ were performed, reaction ~ ~ of data/data ~, statistical ~, ~ revealed, model ~ process/es software ~, business ~ corrosion ~ cognitive ~ research previous ~, ~ model, qualitative ~, future ~ future ~, previous ~ sample/s data ~ ~ is/as shown, ~ tested, laboratory ~, observed (in all) ~ experiment/s ~ conducted ~ (…) performed participated in ~, condition/s (in/of) ~, previous ~, present ~ relationship/s ~ between ~ between, causal ~, ~ among ~ between ~ between factor/s ~ analysis, key ~, contextual ~ variable/s controlled ~, value/s (of the) ~, dependent ~, independent ~ independent ~ method/s solved by direct ~ (…)-based ~, evaluation ~, clustering based ~, common ~ sterilisation ~ evidence there is/was no ~, provide ~ % differing from table 1 38 52 59 39 table 2. high-frequency collocations: science disciplines. the bottom row in tables 2 and 3 shows the percentage of collocations in each column which differ from those in table 1. the percentage varies by discipline, with five disciplines showing over 50% variance: computer science, materials science, economics, language and linguistics, and psychology. matthew peacock ibérica 23 (2012): 29-4638 noun economics language management psychology study/ies previous ~, empirical ~, several ~ present ~, previous ~, case ~ case ~, empirical ~, results (of) ~, previous ~ present ~, previous ~, results (of) ~, current ~ result/s regression ~, ~ suggest, ~ reported, empirical ~ ~ of this study, ~ showed, ~ of the/this analysis, ~ reported ~ (of this) study, ~ indicate/d, ~ show, ~ suggest ~ (of this) experiment (1,2,3), ~ shows/ed, ~ indicated, pattern of ~ effect/s positive ~, significant ~ ~ of (non)correction, positive ~, ~ for/of feedback, significant ~ positive ~, interaction ~, significant ~, negative ~ main ~, significant ~, ~ of target, revealed (significant/main) ~ model/s regression ~, probit ~, structural ~, theoretical ~ cars ~ business ~, portfolio ~, measurement ~, structural ~ ~ fit, (1-,2-,3-,4-,5-) factor ~, parallel ~ information ~ available, obtain ~ ~ systems, ~ management, ~ technology, ~ acquisition location ~, ~ processing, ~ sources data ~ available, ~ source ~ analysis, ~ collection financial ~, ~ collection, ~ collected, ~ analysis ~ of/from experiment (1,2,3), ~ suggests, ~ revealed analysis/es unit ~, regression ~, empirical ~, comparative ~ genre ~, data ~, needs ~, discourse ~ data ~/~ of (the) data, empirical ~, factor ~, organizational ~ factor ~, regression ~, confirmatory ~, ~ reveal/ed process/es production ~ writing ~, learning ~, language ~ business ~, planning ~, information ~, management ~ inference ~, cognitive ~ research future ~, previous ~ ~ question/s, further ~, ~ project, second language ~ future ~, previous ~, further ~, prior ~ previous ~, future ~, present ~ sample/s ~ period, ~ firms, during the ~ period, ~ selection representative ~ firms in the ~/~ firms, ~ size, ~ selection (non-) clinical ~, present ~, ~ size, ~ consisted of experiment/s current ~, single ~, previous ~ controlled ~ results (of) ~, identical ~, present ~, data (of/from/in) ~ relationship/s ~ between, long-run ~, positive ~ ~ between, significant ~ ~ between, customer ~, ~ portfolio/s, business ~ ~ between, specific ~, current ~ factor/s ~ model, ~ productivity, controlling ~ learner ~, other ~ ~ analysis, success ~ ~ structure, (1st-, 2nd-, higher-) order ~, ~ analysis, ~ loadings variable/s dummy ~, dependent ~, independent ~, control ~ independent ~, dependent ~ dependent ~, independent ~, control ~, explanatory ~ dependent ~, independent ~ method/s research ~ evidence provides ~, empirical ~, strong ~, ~ suggests provide/d ~, anecdotal ~, further ~ empirical ~ provide/d/s ~, stronger ~, empirical ~, further ~ % differing from table 1 64 59 46 57 table 3. high-frequency collocations: non-science disciplines. discussion and conclusions the collocations in table 1 may look very familiar to readers, who might therefore assume that these are the collocates most frequently associated with these nouns. however, this is not the case, as examination of tables 2 and 3 shows: a large number of disciplinary differences may be seen. durrant (2009) warned that it is unwise to produce generic or nondiscipline-specific lists of collocations, and that useful lists cannot be constructed by looking at only one or two disciplines. table 1 is just such a standard list, and is presented in this paper to act as a contrast with tables 2 and 3, whose sharp discipline differences certainly imply that useful collocations are discipline specific. in order to try to understand the reasons for these discipline differences, a closer examination of the corpus was then made. examples of many of the discipline differences follow. definitions of certain terms will be given to aid understanding: chemistry: • “crystal data”: summaries of the fundamental crystal data and experimental parameters for structure determination are given in table 1. • “elemental analysis/es” (determining what elements are present in a sample): the white crystals, analysed by elemental analysis were not consistent with the zn(net2)2 minimal formula. • “solved by direct method/s” (a mathematical process for determining crystal structure): all structures were solved by direct methods using shelxs-97. computer science: • “experimental result/s”: this experimental result demonstrates that our index scheme has a significant improvement on storage requirement. • “user model/s” (description of a user: related to user behaviour): a pomdp is further improved with the addition of a user model which indicates how a user’s goal su changes over time. • “information extraction” (retrieving information): we therefore used information extraction techniques to automatically identify and extract phone numbers directly from the transcript. • “quality of information”: high experience respondents showed significant differences across conditions for both their ratings of the quality of high-frequency collocations of nouns ibérica 23 (2012): 29-46 39 information provided by the computer, and their openness to influence from the computer. • “training data” (instructions for users): in this approach, training data is first generated as a by-product of trainers’ interactions in a virtual environment, and models of empathy are induced from the resulting datasets. • “software process/es” (the organization and management of software development): there is a widely held belief that a better software process results in a better software product. • “clustering based method” (statistical analysis method used in computer science): we can see that the elp based method outperforms the clustering based method in terms of average accuracy under the same experiment setting. materials science: • “thermal analysis/es” (studying changes in materials as the temperature changes): dynamical mechanical thermal analysis (dmta) showed a more significant increase. • “reaction analysis/es”: the characterization and optimization of the polymer structure via reaction analysis are paramount. • “corrosion process/es”: the above observations permit a synthesis of the essential sequence of events that occur on the metal surface as the corrosion process develops. • “sterilisation method/s”: the use of this sterilisation method upon this type of polyurethane when in combination with this specific scaffold fabrication technique has not previously been reported. neuroscience: • “memory model/s” (description or theory of how memory works): moreover, memory models have been developed, which can describe the variance of the recency effect during immediate, delayed and continuous distracter free recall within a single-memory store. • “regression data”: however, in this instance, calculation of the measures using individual regression data was complicated. • “statistical analysis/es”: confirmatory statistical analysis showed a significant interaction between condition and number of scene objects. • “cognitive process/es”: it is hoped that future research will be undertaken to assess the cognitive processes by which eye movements influence component processes in memory. matthew peacock ibérica 23 (2012): 29-4640 economics: • “regression result/s” (common method of data analysis): from the findings of the regression results from the three key variables… • “probit model/s” (from probability theory and statistics): given the ordinal nature of the dependent variable we specify an ordered probit model. • “factor model/s” (mathematical model used for stock analysis): recently, a strand of the finance literature incorporates regime-switching behavior in factor models of the term structure. • “factor productivity” (ratio of output to the input of labour and capital): the large differences in total factor productivity (tfp) between countries of the world at the present time are suggestive of a substantial disequilibrium. language and linguistics: • “genre analysis/es”: the linguistic approach of genre analysis is defined and understood to be the study of linguistic behavior in both academic and professional settings. • “discourse analysis/es”: the second stage of the research will involve a discourse analysis of audio and video recordings of gcae meetings. management: • “interaction effect/s” (statistical term meaning the effect of variables on each other): however, the subtle difference in groups’ affectedness is not large enough; in this case the interaction effect between group and treatment is not significant. • “information acquisition” (the collection of primary information from organizational stakeholders): the 24 independent statements regarding one’s preferred manner of information acquisition were scored on a 7-point likert scale. psychology: • “result/s (of this) experiment”: the results of experiment 3 replicated those reported by ivanoff and klein. • “(1-,2-,3-,4-,5-) factor model/s”: a cfa was performed using the two independent factors (one from each of the fourand five-factor models). • “parallel model/s” (processing items simultaneously rather than serially): the fixed-capacity parallel models assume that multiple visual objects can be selected and spatially tracked in parallel. • “location information” (the location of a stimulus to which a response is high-frequency collocations of nouns ibérica 23 (2012): 29-46 41 made): the system responsible for shifting of attention during tracking also obtains location information of moving objects in parallel. • “(non-) clinical sample/s”: future work utilizing structured interviews, clinical samples, and multi-method assessment tools are advisable. these studies have used small, non-clinical samples, and have methodological limitations. • “factor structure” (statistical term related to factor analysis): again, principle factor analysis with promax (oblique) rotation was used to delineate the factor structure. • “factor loadings” (statistical term related to factor analysis): the remaining items were those with the highest factor loadings based on the prior factor analysis. careful reading and analysis of the above examples from the eight different disciplines, and of tables 2 and 3, lead to the proposal that many or most of the collocations presented are standard terminology within the discipline. among the many examples of this discipline-specific terminology are “crystal data” and “solved by direct method/s” (chemistry), “software process”, “clustering based method”, and “user model” (computer science), “thermal analysis”, “reaction analysis”, and “corrosion process” (materials science), “memory model” and “cognitive process” (neuroscience), “probit model” and “factor productivity” (economics), “genre analysis” and “discourse analysis” (language and linguistics), “information acquisition” (management), and “parallel model” and “(non-) clinical sample” (psychology). examination of the differing collocations expressed in the examples and in tables 2 and 3 shows that they appear to arise from the topics discussed: or more explicitly, it is apparent that the collocations express differing terminology, different topics, different research methods, and differing content of discussions across the eight disciplines. this being the case, these collocations are clearly a very important part of the meanings, and therefore of the functions, of these nouns. it is also evident that these meanings and functions often differ by discipline, and that these meanings and functions are expressed by the collocations. these collocations are more common than those seen in table 1, leading to the suggestion that this evidence of sharp discipline differences underlines the importance of discipline-specific collocation research. furthermore, the sharp discipline differences presented here indicate that the high-frequency matthew peacock ibérica 23 (2012): 29-4642 collocations of common nouns are part of the favoured terminology (groom, 2005) by which disciplines can be differentiated. also, analysis of the corpus leads to the suggestion that these high-frequency collocations are an important part of ras and certainly part of the defining code (williams, 2002) of ras. they therefore represent disciplinary norms, and it is suggested that the different patterns presented are accepted within different disciplines as recognized ways for writers to describe and discuss their research. and as hyland (2000: 78) notes, writers need to “project an insider ethos”. he also proposes (1999) that discipline differences reflect rhetorical constraints within a discipline. schmitt and carter (2004) state that if a sequence is frequent in a corpus, this indicates it is conventional within the discourse community. this study has revealed some of these conventional forms in various disciplinary corpora. examination of tables 2 and 3 reveals that the differences are between individual disciplines rather than more broadly between the four science disciplines as a whole and the four non-science disciplines. however, there are fewer high-frequency collocations in chemistry and materials science. this can be explained, for just ten of the nouns (but not other nouns, across the whole corpus), by their low frequency – the noun frequency appears to be too low to allow the occurrence of any high-frequency collocations. the chemistry nouns are “information” (220 pmw), “research” (60 pmw), “experiment” (210 pmw), “variable” (110 pmw), and “evidence” (220 pmw). in materials science they are “information” (120 pmw), “research” (90 pmw), “variable” (50 pmw), and “evidence” (160 pmw). finally, there is just one in management, “experiment” (80 pmw). as noted above, the description and discussion of the distribution of the other high-frequency nouns themselves is beyond the scope of this research. implications for teaching collocations are an important part of language knowledge, and need to be included in syllabus content (willis, 1990; lewis, 1993). lewis (1993: 125128) provides a valuable list of teaching suggestions, as do a number of chapters in his later book (lewis, 2000a – see hoey, 2000; lewis, 2000b & 2000c; and hill, 2000). the present research provides discipline-specific lists of high-frequency collocations of common nouns. these collocations have to be learned, stored and processed as complete units (schmitt, grandage & high-frequency collocations of nouns ibérica 23 (2012): 29-46 43 adolphs, 2004) by students in each discipline, and here, these lists may be of use. as noted above, writers need to learn collocations as a whole (ellis, simpson-vlach & maynard, 2008); durrant (2009) proposes that learners need to learn high-frequency collocations. two implications of the present findings for teaching research writing are that awareness of the discipline variations presented here is important for teaching, particularly to students of research writing, and that discipline-specific teaching of these collocations is certainly advisable. this might be especially important for nns, who may be unaware of genre conventions and need help in joining the discourse community of international research (paltridge, 1993), and fail when their work is written in an incorrect rhetorical style (ahmad, 1997). these collocations are important in academic english, and if nns make errors, they must be taught to nns. this research can inform the teaching of research writing, and this is part of the usefulness of the variation. as ward (2007) achieved for one discipline, this study has accomplished for eight. the present findings are in agreement with ward’s assertion that collocations are very discipline specific. analysis of the corpus found a number of disciplinary differences in the collocates of high-frequency nouns. it is suggested that this research has added to the understanding of disciplinary conventions, including discipline differences, and of collocation. the present findings should improve knowledge of ras and have relevance for the teaching of research writing to nns and to ns, and help teachers prepare discipline-specific materials to teach collocation. 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(1993). the lexical approach. hove: language teaching publications. lewis, m. (ed.) (2000a). teaching collocation: further developments in the lexical approach. hove: language teaching publications. lewis, m. (2000b). “language in the lexical approach” in m. lewis (ed.), 126-154. lewis, m. (2000c). “materials and resources for teaching collocation” in m. lewis (ed.), 186-204. mahlberg, m. (2003). “the textlinguistic dimension of corpus linguistics: the support function of english general nouns and its theoretical implications”. international journal of corpus linguistics 8: 97-108. martinez, i. a., s.c. beck & c.b. panza (2009). “academic vocabulary in agriculture research articles: a corpus-based study”. english for specific purposes 28: 183-198. mudraya, o. (2006). “engineering english: a lexical frequency instructional model”. english for specific purposes 25: 235-256. paltridge, b. (1993). “writing up research: a systemic functional perspective”. system 21: 175192. schmitt, n. 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(1991). corpus, concordance, collocation. oxford: oxford university press. stubbs, m. (1995). “collocations and cultural connotations of common words”. linguistics and education 7: 379-390. tognini-bonelli, e. (2004). “working with corpora: issues and insights” in c. coffin, a. hewings & k. o’halloran (eds.), applying english grammar: functional and corpus approaches, 11-24. london: arnold. vassileva, i. (1997). “hedging in english and bulgarian academic writing” in a. duszak (ed.), 203-221. ward, j. (2007). “collocation and technicality in eap engineering”. journal of english for academic purposes 6: 18-35. ward, j. (2009). “a basic engineering english word list for less proficient foundation engineering undergraduates”. english for specific purposes 28: 170-182. williams, g. c. (1998). “collocational networks: interlocking patterns of lexis in a corpus of plant biology research articles”. international journal of corpus linguistics 3: 151-171. williams, g. (2002). “in search of representativity in specialised corpora: categorisation through collocation”. international journal of corpus linguistics 7: 43-64. willis, d. (1990). the lexical syllabus. london: collins. wood, a. (2001). “international scientific english: the language of research scientists around the world” in j. flowerdew & m. peacock (eds.), research perspectives on english for academic purposes, 71-83. cambridge: cambridge university press. wray, a. (2002). formulaic language and the lexicon. cambridge: cambridge university press. yakhontova, t. (1997). “the signs of a new time: academic writing in esp curricula of ukrainian universities” in a. duszak (ed.), 103-112. iberica 13 introducing multimodality jewitt, c., j. bezemer & k. o’halloran. london: routledge, 2016. 219 pages. isbn 978-0-41563926-2 introducing multimodality is a recent publication by jewitt, c., bezemer, j., and o’halloran, k., published by routledge. these renowned authors draw upon their extensive knowledge of the discipline and their previous well-known publications, such as the routledge handbook of multimodal analysis (jewitt, 2009), multimodality, learning and communication: a social semiotic frame (bezemer & kress, 2015) and multimodal studies: exploring issues and domains (o’halloran & smith, 2011). these diverse scholars converge in this volume to discuss theories and methodologies relevant to multimodal research and their applicability to such a field. the outcome is a user-friendly and readable contribution that provides a relevant and welcome introduction and overviews theories on multimodality. it draws upon two decades of research on this evolving field and focuses on three main traditions that have utilised multimodality: systemic functional linguistics, social semiotics and conversation analysis. the history of each of these traditions is provided, together with a summary of key concepts and pivotal studies available. the volume consists of seven chapters, including an introductory section, a glossary and a self-study guide. chapter one deals with the history and critical concepts of multimodality and introduces different types of multimodal analyses. in chapter two, the authors discuss possible reasons for carrying out multimodal research, whereas in chapters three, four and five we see three different approaches to multimodality: systemic functional linguistics; social semiotics and conversational analysis. their respective areas of application are described and illustrated, as well as their limitations. in chapter six, five other approaches to multimodality are considered, which have stemmed from a combination of different research traditions and serve as an example of how research in multimodality can be conducted: geosemiotics; multimodal (inter)actional analysis; multimodal ethnography; a corpus-based approach to multimodality; and multimodal reception analysis. each approach is explained and the reasons to use these combined frameworks are argued for. chapter seven offers a hands-on approach on reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 253-254 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 253 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 253 how to design and construct a multimodal study, outlining eight key elements that researchers need to consider, i.e. choosing an approach; deciding on a research area/focus; formulating research questions; selecting an empirical focus; collecting, managing and transcribing research materials; and considering the ethical dimensions of multimodal research. the volume ends with a glossary and a self-study guide with seven comprehensive study units that address each chapter in the text. the volume by jewitt, bezemer, and o’halloran is a valuable contribution in the ever-changing field of multimodality, because it provides a user-friendly guide to past and recent developments within the field and equips undergraduates, graduate students and novice researchers alike with an authoritative review of the different strands in multimodal theory and research. each chapter is enriched by examples, visuals, and new directions in the field. what is particularly useful for (under)graduate students (and for lecturers willing to use the volume as a didactic resource in class) is the self-study guide at the end, which works as a study companion to each chapter in the book. each unit encompasses a chapter overview, with chapter topics and a summary; a set of study questions; exercises; tips and suggested resources. also quite helpful for novice researchers is chapter seven, which furnishes a rationale for designing a multimodal study. the book balances a first methodological part with a more practical, hands-on approach found in its second half. overall, this volume is highly recommended and very much appreciated because of the wise, knowledgeable and exciting input it provides for researchers and practitioners working in multimodality, semiotics, applied linguistics and related areas. received: 14 april 2019 accepted: 17 april 2019 reviewed by larissa d’angelo universitá degli studi di bergamo (italy) larissa.dangelo@unibg.it references: reseñas / book reviews ibérica 37 (2019): 253-254254 bezemer, j. & g. kress (2015). multimodality, learning and communication: a social semiotic frame. london: routledge. jewitt, c. (ed.) (2009). the routledge handbook of multimodal analysis. london: routledge. o’halloran, k. & b.a. smith (eds.) (2011). multimodal studies: exploring issues and domains. london: routledge. 10 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 254 ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 abstract in this study, we attempted to determine the frequency and types of metaphors in a corpus of titles from a single medical journal collected over one year. the frequency of metaphor tokens (4.6%) was highest among editorials and other opinion articles and consisted predominantly of primary metaphors, which require explanation using a visual, cultural or other physical vehicle. when the metaphor was used only in the title and not in the body of the text, as was common in letters to the editor or in editorials, the metaphor may constitute a para-textual device used for engaging the reader. other metaphors among research article titles were present not only in the title, but also used repeatedly in the body of the text. among these research articles, metaphors were frequently used to endow the focus words of the metaphor with a precise and meaningful significance which, when used repeatedly in the text, may constitute a mechanism by which sub-technical language or internal jargon may arise. being syntactically simple but endowed with a high communicative import, titles as a text type may help improve academic literacy, among beginners. key words: metaphors, medical literature, academic literacy, cognition, comprehension skills. resumen las met�foras en los t�tulos de las publicaciones m�dicas: un estudio observacional en el presente trabajo pretendemos determinar la frecuencia y los tipos de metáforas de un corpus de títulos recopilados de una revista médica concreta durante un año. es entre los editoriales y otros artículos de opinión donde se registra el mayor número de metáforas (4,6%), siendo éstas metáforas primarias metaphors among titles of medical publications: an observational study philippa mungra university of rome “la sapienza” (italy) philippa.mungra@uniroma1.it 99 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 99 ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 philippa mungra principalmente, que requieren explicaciones y para ello se valen de recursos visuales, culturales o físicos. cuando la metáfora únicamente se utiliza en el título, y no en el cuerpo principal del trabajo, como es lo habitual en las cartas al editor o en los editoriales, constituye un dispositivo para-textual gracias al cual se capta la atención del lector. en los artículos de investigación se registraron otra serie de metáforas que, además de utilizarse en el título, aparecían de forma repetitiva en el texto principal del artículo. estas metáforas se utilizan con frecuencia para dotar las palabras de un significado preciso y relevante que, cuando aparecen de forma repetitiva en el texto, constituyen un mecanismo que puede dar lugar a la aparición de una variedad subtécnica del lenguaje o a una especie de jerga interna. puesto que los títulos resultan sencillos desde un punto de vista sintáctico, y al mismo tiempo están dotados de un significado enormemente comunicativo, desde un punto de vista didáctico los títulos pueden utilizarse como tipos de texto que ayuden a mejorar la destreza de la comprensión escrita en un entorno académico y en el caso de estudiantes principiantes. palabras clave: metáforas, publicaciones médicas, conocimiento académico, cognición, destrezas de comprensión. 1. introduction it is well known that many factors contribute to academic literacy (johns, 1997) and knowledge about the genres specific to the type of literature are particularly important in shaping and improving literacy in tertiary education (mavor & traynor, 2001; rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005). literacy is also greatly shaped by knowledge about the norms of the community of practitioners (bazerman, 1988; berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; wenger, 1998), which confers on a piece of written text the “significance of discourse” (hyland 2002: 43). but reading skills, primarily concerned with the ability to disambiguate meaning, is the topic of considerable debate as to the role of first language in l2 reading and the nature of the relationship l1l2 in academic literacy (bernhardt & kamil, 1995). besides this, disambiguation of meaning is made difficult by the use of constantly emerging new metaphors, (cameron & deignan, 2006). these combined difficulties make the acquisition of l2 reading skills particularly difficult, especially for beginner students. here, we will focus our attention on the frequency and types of metaphors in written medical texts. a major contribution to our understanding on how metaphors are realised and perceived has come from the area of cognitive linguistics (lakoff & johnson, 1980; turner & fauconnier, 1995). these authors proposed a 100 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 100 constructivist approach in which their underlying premise holds that metaphors are a phenomenon of thought and that metaphor creation forms part of the ongoing process of communication. an elaboration of this idea of transfer, furnished by fauconnier & turner (2002) has been useful in explaining the analysis or unpacking of metaphors. they describe the essence of the metaphor creation process as a blending theory (bt) as follows: a conceptual blend operates in two mental spaces, called the inputs, in order to yield a third space, the blend. properties from the input spaces are projected into the properties of the blended space, which are conceived as having a new structure of its own. (fauconnier & turner, 2002: 150-151) in this paper, we will adhere to the lakoff & johnson’s (1980) definition of metaphors: the result of the transfer of properties of the metaphorically used word or phrase from one cognitive domain to another unrelated domain. metonymy, often confused with metaphor formation, relies instead on the juxtaposition of adjacent cognitive domains without the transfer of properties from one to the other but both may work together to capture meaning (geeraerts, 2002). much work has been done on identifying, classifying and describing metaphors in narrative fiction and in the poetic literary fields but in professional literature of specialist areas, relatively few studies have been done perhaps, in part due to the fact that the tools for analysis have not been well-defined and corpus studies have been rarely used. in economics and finance, metaphors have been studied (charteris-black & musolff, 2003; white, 2003), and frequencies of metaphors in a comparison between academic and popular scientific texts on the genetic code have been published by knudsen (2003). a cross-linguistic study of medical metaphors was done by salager-meyer in 1990 and more recently, problems in the identification of metaphors in doctor-patient interviews about cancer have been studied by gibbs & franks, (2002) and semino et al. (2004). divasson & león (2006) classified metaphors culled from a medical dictionary according to their conceptual origin and patterns of analogy. in a comparative translation of these metaphors, they propose that metaphors become lexicalised in each language in order to maintain their metaphoric value and thus become invested with a precise meaning. this taxonomic approach, though valid for translation studies, draws on data from medical dictionaries and not from current medical journals. with this in mind, we metaphors among titles ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 101 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 101 attempted to identify metaphor frequencies among the titles of all the issues of an authoritative medical journal, such as the new england journal of medicine (nejm), to observe the frequencies of metaphors occurring in a current medical journal. titles were chosen because we believe that they are syntactically simple and easy to read for beginners and although syntactically simple, titles furnish a high communication potential (white et al., 2007). this study is a necessary first stage of our investigation as to why our beginner students have reading difficulties. 2. method 2.1. description of the corpus of titles the corpus was assembled from the titles of articles in all the issues of the nejm published between september 2005 and august 2006. the nejm is considered one of the core medical journals in the database pubmed, run by the us national library of medicine at bethesda1, and is perhaps one of the most widely read medical journals in north america because of its general non-specialist medical orientation. for this reason, it was selected for this study. all the issues were retrieved electronically and examined statistically for word counts, and linguistically for the presence of metaphors in the titles, or metaphor title tokens as described in section 2.2 below. the term metaphor title token is used to mean the focus word (steen, 1999) or vehicle in the phrase. in order to classify the tokens found according to text type, we examined the journal website to see how it classifies publications and found that the journal recognises 7 categories of articles: 1. original articles or research articles (ras): these are defined by the nejm website url2 as “scientific reports of the results of original clinical research” and may include special articles, which the journal considers “scientific reports of original research in such areas as economic policy, ethics, law, and health care delivery” as part of the same genre set. 2. editorials: they usually provide commentary and analysis concerning an article in the issue of the journal in which they appear. philippa mungra ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122102 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 102 3. perspective articles: they cover a wide variety of topics of current interest in health care, medicine, and the intersection between medicine and society. 4. cases and clinical problem-solving papers: they present the traditional patient symptoms-diagnosis-resolution format of unusual or difficult cases. 5. clinical implications of basic research articles: they discuss single papers from preclinical journals. 6. correspondence or letters to the editor: they provide a forum for readers to comment about articles recently published in the journal. 7. book reviews: they evaluate new texts or re-editions. 2.2. analytical tools: identification of metaphors tokens and types the titles of all publications from the nejm were scanned for immediate comprehension and all candidates for being considered metaphors were then assessed using a modified version of the procedure outlined by steen (1999). in his procedure (see table 1), steen identified the focus word in a text and then formulated propositions arising out of the focus word and its adjacent words. step procedure using steen’s steps 1 to 5, we then formulated similarities and indirect forms of reference and analogies to arrive at a metaphorical mapping. at this point we then considered the title a metaphor token with a focus word and a frame. metaphors among titles ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 103 metaphors among titles step procedure 1 read the entire text/discourse to establish a general understanding of the meaning 2 determine the lexical units in the text/discourse 3a for each lexical unit in the text, establish its meaning in context, i.e. how it applies to an entity, relation or attribute in the situation evoked by the text (contextual meaning). take into account what comes before and after the lexical unit 3b for each lexical unit, determine if it has a more basic contemporary meaning in other contexts than the one in the given context. for our purposes, basic meanings tend to be: more concrete; what they evoke is easier to imagine, see, hear, feel, smell, and taste related to bodily action more precise (as opposed to vague) historically older basic meanings are not necessarily the most frequent meanings of the lexical unit 3c if the lexical unit has a more basic current/contemporary meaning in other contexts than the given context, decide whether the contextual meaning contrasts with the basic meaning but can be understood in comparison with it 4 if yes, mark the lexical unit or group as metaphorical table 1. steps used by steen (1999: 57) to identify metaphors. using steen’s steps 1 to 5, we then formulated similarities and indirect forms of reference and analogies to arrive at a metaphorical mapping. at this point we then considered the title a metaphor token with a focus word and a frame. step 1. focus identification: in this step, the things in the process “cannot be literally applied to the referents in the world evoked by the text’’ (steen, 1999: 61). example: “the grey literature is...” the verb expresses a situational process of being so it cannot have the referent quality of “greyness”, coming from the domain of colour. so there must be a metaphorical meaning to the example. the word “grey” is identified in steen’s scheme as being the focus word of the metaphor, where the term “focus” (black, 1962) refers to the word bearing metaphorical meaning, as opposed to the rest of the proposition called the “frame”. step 2. propositional analysis: it consists of the identification of the sequence of 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 103 step 1. focus identification: in this step, the things in the process “cannot be literally applied to the referents in the world evoked by the text’’ (steen, 1999: 61). example: “the grey literature is...” the verb expresses a situational process of being so it cannot have the referent quality of “greyness”, coming from the domain of colour. so there must be a metaphorical meaning to the example. the word “grey” is identified in steen’s scheme as being the focus word of the metaphor, where the term “focus” (black, 1962) refers to the word bearing metaphorical meaning, as opposed to the rest of the proposition called the “frame”. step 2. propositional analysis: it consists of the identification of the sequence of propositions. this step was necessary when the metaphor was not explicit or if the frame or the terms of comparison of the focus was not clear. in the example above, the entire sentence is a simple proposition. this step is necessary since, formally, a proposition requires an actor and a process. step 3. nonliteral comparison identification: in this step, a formal logic approach identifies the process (f) of association together with the actors y and y’. the words in the metaphor or focus are associated so that, according to steen (1999: 67): which may be read as “for the focus in the metaphor, there exists a process or a relationship f such that the actor or attribute y refers to or means y´”. applied to the example given, then: (p black (y), represents published material thus visible(y´), while white(x), represents unpublished material or invisible(x´). thus, this equation reads: the focus words in the metaphor {grey literature} refers to a relationship (f) of being or existing or representing two entities: black (y) and white (x) such that there is a similarity between the entity black(y) represents a new thing or attribute visible(y´) and the entity white (x) represents the attribute invisible (x´). in this study, we modified steen’s (1999) steps 2 and 3 by omitting them if the relationship between the source and target domains was obvious or explicit, as in the example. philippa mungra ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122104 ibérica 14 [2007]: …-… 5 more precise (as opposed to vague) historically older basic meanings are not necessarily the most frequent meanings of the lexical unit 3c if the lexical unit has a more basic current/contemporary meaning in other contexts than the given context, decide whether the contextual meaning contrasts with the basic meaning but can be understood in comparison with it 4 if yes, mark the lexical unit or group as metaphorical table 1. steps used by steen (1999: 57) to identify metaphors. using steen’s steps 1 to 5, we then formulated similarities and indirect forms of reference and analogies to arrive at a metaphorical mapping. at this point we then considered the title a metaphor token with a focus word and a frame. step 1. focus identification: in this step, the things in the process “cannot be literally applied to the referents in the world evoked by the text’’ (steen, 1999: 61). example: “the grey literature is...” the verb expresses a situational process of being so it cannot have the referent quality of “greyness”, coming from the domain of colour. so there must be a metaphorical meaning to the example. the word “grey” is identified in steen’s scheme as being the focus word of the metaphor, where the term “focus” (black, 1962) refers to the word bearing metaphorical meaning, as opposed to the rest of the proposition called the “frame”. step 2. propositional analysis: it consists of the identification of the sequence of propositions. this step was necessary when the metaphor was not explicit or if the frame or the terms of comparison of the focus was not clear. in the example above, the entire sentence is a simple proposition. this step is necessary since, formally, a proposition requires an actor and a process. step 3. nonliteral comparison identification: in this step, a formal logic approach identifies the process (f) of association together with the actors y and y!!. the words in the metaphor or focus are associated so that, according to steen (1999: 67): {words in metaphor}"" (##f) (p y, y!!) which may be read as “for the focus in the metaphor, there exists a process or a relationship f such that the actor or attribute y refers to or means y! ”. applied to philippa mungra the example given, then: {grey literature}"" (## be) (p black (y), represents published material thus visible(y!), while white(x), represents unpublished material or invisible(x!). thus, this equation reads: the focus words in the metaphor {grey literature} refers to a relationship (f) of being or existing or representing two entities: black (y) and white (x) such that there is a similarity between the entity black(y) represents a new thing or attribute visible(y!) and the entity white (x) represents the attribute invisible (x!). in this study, we modified steen’s (1999) steps 2 and 3 by omitting them if the relationship between the source and target domains was obvious or explicit, as in the example. step 4. nonliteral analogy identification: the step consists of the interpretation, whereby a literal expression is filled in to replace the metaphorical process and the thing or vehicle identification. thus, for the example “greyness” refers to “a mixture” of “two opposites of published visibility”. in this way, some elements or attributes of the source domain evoked by the metaphorical focus can be identified and corresponds to the elaboration procedure proposed in by fauconnier & turner (2002). step 5. nonliteral mapping identification: this step involves the identification of 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 104 step 4. nonliteral analogy identification: the step consists of the interpretation, whereby a literal expression is filled in to replace the metaphorical process and the thing or vehicle identification. thus, for the example “greyness” refers to “a mixture” of “two opposites of published visibility”. in this way, some elements or attributes of the source domain evoked by the metaphorical focus can be identified and corresponds to the elaboration procedure proposed in by fauconnier & turner (2002). step 5. nonliteral mapping identification: this step involves the identification of ‘‘the complete non-literal mapping (…) by filling out the conceptual structure of the two sides of the non-literal analogy, the source and target domain’’ (steen, 1999: 71). mapping was important among conceptual metaphors. once the metaphor token with its focus word(s) had been identified, a usage check was carried out to see how frequently the metaphor was used in the body of the text of the article. 3. results 3.1. frequencies the corpus consisted of all the titles published in 54 issues of the journal between september 2005 and august 2006. there were 1426 titles consisting of 10314 words. of these, there were 62 tokens or titles with metaphors, corresponding to 4.35% of all titles in the corpus. table 2 lists these token metaphor titles and the focus word of the metaphor is highlighted in bold. figure 1 shows the occurrence of metaphor tokens in the corpus according to text type. the text type used is that given in the journal itself. the majority of metaphors were seen among “editorials”(15/62) and the text-type called “perspective”(16/62) since these two types both express opinions in a scholarly fashion but are not above recurring to cultural idioms and they both serve to review new ideas or findings in the context of research or health care legislation in a single country, they may be considered as sub-types belonging to the same set of text types. a substantial number of clinical cases (12/62) also contained metaphors. a smaller group of metaphors was found among “book reviews” (6/62) and in the “correspondence” sections (6/62). the remaining metaphors were distributed among other miscellaneous text types. metaphors among titles ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 105 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 105 philippa mungra ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122106 metaphors among titles ibérica 14 [2007]: …-… 7 genetic profiling bleeding blue and gray the big chill panic disorder old enemy, new tricks dwarfism silent epidemic silent revolution hostile use of life sciences social anxiety disorder family business caput medusae forgotten cousin ring around the diagnosis jumping frogs endangered toads mitochondrial medicine medical missionaries where’s my medal treatment triangle lung recruitment pulmonary sequestration linebacker disciplining the stem cell "grandfather's " experience genes on the web charisma charisma commensal bacteria mind has mountains landscape of myeloma costimulation blockade ethical brain hiding elephants in mouseholes betting on a vaccine salt&pepper retinopathy twiddler syndrome stress testing right turn of a toopthpick long and the short of therapy mitral regurgitation transition zone radiation recall reaction a tale of janus inhibitor: dark side orphan drugs hapmap arterial line no stem cell is an islet trajectories of growth clean hands dissection of differences fatal flows one disease, two epidemics terrors of the table neurodegeneratory tangles genomic profiling research in the hot zone offshore haven hard lessons burden of illness translational science outside the box milwaukee shoulder table 2. list of metaphor tokens and their focus word (in bold). figure 1 shows the occurrence of metaphor tokens in the corpus according to text type. the text type used is that given in the journal itself.philippa mungra 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 c o rr e sp o n d e n ce c a se p e rs p e ct iv e b o o k re vi e w e d ito ri a l r e se a rc h a rt ic le s text type n o s o f m e ta p h o rs figure 1. frequencies of metaphors. the majority of metaphors were seen among “editorials”(15/62) and the texttype called “perspective”(16/62) since these two types both express opinions in a scholarly fashion but are not above recurring to cultural idioms and they both serve to review new ideas or findings in the context of research or health care legislation in a single country, they may be considered as sub-types belonging to the same set of text types. a substantial number of clinical cases (12/62) also contained metaphors. a smaller group of metaphors was found among “book reviews” (6/62) and in the “correspondence” sections (6/62). the remaining metaphors were distributed among other miscellaneous text types. 3.2. distribution of metaphors within the body of the text if the metaphor is used in the body of the text, it may be considered either a paratextual device by the editor of the journal to engage the reader’s attention alone 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 106 3.2. distribution of metaphors within the body of the text if the metaphor is used in the body of the text, it may be considered either a para-textual device by the editor of the journal to engage the reader’s attention alone or it may have assumed the role of a conceptual metaphor and can thus be used as a stand-alone expression in the body of the text. the raw data of the use of the metaphor tokens are shown in column a of table 3. column b shows the calculated frequency of token metaphors in the body of the text according to text type. again both editorials and perspective articles contain the largest number of focus words in the body of the text. surprisingly, research articles, though having the lowest frequencies of metaphors in the titles, have among the highest frequencies of focus words in the body of the text (see figure 2 for details). metaphors among titles ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 107 metaphors among titles 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 c o rr e sp o n d e n ce c a se p e rs p e ct iv e b o o k re vi e w e d ito ri a l r e se a rc h a rt ic le s n o s o f m e ta p h o rs a distribution of metaphor in titles b distribution of metaphor within body of the text c = b/a frequency of metaphor use in the body of the text figure 2. distribution and frequency of the use of the focus word (vehicle) in the body of the text. category a. total no. times metaphor used in body of the text b. average occurrence of metaphor in the text correspondence 15 2.50 case 11 0.92 perspective 35 2.19 book review 12 2.00 editorial 48 3.20 research articles 52 13.00 clinical implication of basic research 19 6.33 table 3. frequencies of metaphor focus word in the body of the text according to text type. 3.3. types of metaphors the list of publications of the corpus which have metaphors in their titles is given in appendix 1 and the list of metaphoric focus words is shown in bold in table 2. we grouped these linguistic metaphors according to their structural formation and divided our categories according to the input domains. below we describe a few examples for each category. the numbers in square brackets after each metaphor indicates the publication number in our corpus. 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 107 3.3. types of metaphors the list of publications of the corpus which have metaphors in their titles is given in appendix 1 and the list of metaphoric focus words is shown in bold in table 2. we grouped these linguistic metaphors according to their structural formation and divided our categories according to the input domains. below we describe a few examples for each category. the numbers in square brackets after each metaphor indicates the publication number in our corpus. (a) primary metaphors in this category of metaphors, we include all those which have a straightforward reference to the tenor and vehicle. they generally refer to bodily or descriptive domains. such metaphors correspond to the taxonomic categories of architectural, phytozoo-or anthropomorphic domains of divasson & león (2006). (a.1) metaphors which draw on visual images: similar to those see in the literature on radiographs, as shown in examples (1) to (4). (1) salt-and-pepper retinopathy [c12]. (2) neurological tangles [c60] or tangles of nerves. (3) commensal bacteria [c51] which feed together. this metaphor was used 6 times in the body of the text, indicative of its descriptive aptness, in which bacteria are viewed as persons having a meal together. (4) mitral regurgitation [c55], which refers to the sound of blood flowing around an improperly closed valve of the heart. this metaphor was used five times in the body of the text; a fact which indicated that its descriptive impact is so apt that it may be used repeatedly and readers will know exactly what it means. this is one example of a new metaphor which is a potential candidate for becoming part of medical jargon. (a.2) metaphors which use a descriptive physical domain as a tenor or as a vehicle, such as: (5) forgotten cousin [c5], which uses a family relationship which has become loose and hence ignored. philippa mungra ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122108 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 108 (6) twiddler syndrome [c33], implying the tendency to twist an object so as to adjust its position to make it more comfortable. (7) medical missionaries [c27], referring to the activity of proselytizing in this case, drawing on the domain of religion, transferred to medicine. (8) the mind has mountains [c10], implying that understanding the meanderings of the mind is a daunting process (just as climbing a mountain is a daunting undertaking). in this metaphor, the tenor implies an insurmountable barrier, overcome with some effort. (a.3) cultural, mythological or biblical metaphors. (9) no stem cell is an islet [c37], with a cultural reference to the line “no man is an island” from the poem by john donne3 that people are not isolated from one another, and death is a natural outgrowth of life. no stem cell is an islet (yet) implies that that the key to stem-cell therapy is the ability to generate large numbers of undifferentiated cells. these represent neighbours who help but in the case of stem cell-therapy in restoring insulin production. the author in the article specifically mentions the edmonton protocol, which has been used successfully for the transplantation of human pancreatic islets. (10) caput medusae [c46] or literally the “head of the medusa”, which in mythology appears as ringlets. this refers to the appearance of bulging veins on the abdomen of a patient with a cirrhotic liver and hypertension. (11) a tale of janus [c56]. janus was the double-headed mythological god of beginnings and endings whose name gave rise to the first month of the year, january. the doors of temple of janus in republican rome remained open during war-time and were ceremonially closed at the end of war to symbolise peace-time. this metaphor refers to the deleterious effects of therapy on the immune defence mechanism whose primary function is to wage war on infection and the reference to the double-headed janus implies a double-edged effect of therapy. (12) milwaukee shoulder [c42]. this description4 was introduced in 1981 metaphors among titles ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 109 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 109 to describe the condition in four elderly women from milwaukee, iowa, who had recurrent bilateral shoulder haemorrhage, severe radiographic destructive changes of the gleno-humeral joints, and massive tears of the rotator cuff of the shoulder. in medicine, a syndrome might be named after the pathology itself, or after the physician who first identified it or by the location of a cluster of cases, as in this example. (13) jumping frogs and endangered toad [c47], referring to the talking frog of the famous satire by mark twain5. (14) linebacker [c8]. this sporting term refers to a part of the defence in us and canadian football. (15) bleeding blue and gray [c22]. this metaphor is the title of a book concerning improvements in surgical techniques by both sides in the american civil war of 1861-1865 and their contributions to medicine. red is associated with blood and bleeding so this cultural metaphor contains an unusual reference for bleeding, but blue and gray were the colours of the opposing sides. the metaphor was not used in the body of the text and this fact indicates that it is a para-textual device used by the editor to capture readers’ attention. (b) complex metaphors. this category of metaphor may be considered cognitively more complex and may be formed by the blending of two input domains such that the new blended space acquires the properties of both inputs. (b.1) description of one conceptual space such that the second conceptual space assumes the characteristics of the original vehicle. (16) treatment triangle [c7]. this expression comes from the blending of two conceptual domains: a triangle and three treatment options. from the body of the text, the author implies that, just as an equilateral triangle has three equal sides, there are three treatment options which should be used with equal frequency but are actually not used with the same frequency. (17) hiding elephants in mouseholes [c32]. the contrast between the two conceptual domains of this metaphor implies doing an action which is near-impossible and which cannot be hidden. in the philippa mungra ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122110 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 110 specific reference, the author of this letter criticises an amendment to existing legislation in the us congress by claiming that it “does not alter the fundamental details of a regulatory scheme in vague terms or ancillary provisions –it does not, one might say, hide elephants in mouseholes.” scalia also rejected the notion that hiding “elephants in mouseholes” was an apt description of congressional intent. (18) molecular or genomic profiling [c1]. coming from surveillance techniques used mainly in criminal investigative work, profiling defines known characteristics, deviant or not, and matches those signature characteristics, with another unknown population so as to predict which individuals have suspect or deviant behaviour. this metaphor uses profiling techniques applied to a genetic domain to identify potential burkitt’s lymphoma. (19) silent epidemic [c3]. one conceptual space present in this metaphor refers to “silent” meaning “not being noticed” and the other conceptual space is “epidemic” implying the burgeoning of a pathological condition. these two conceptual spaces are blended to create the idea of an undercover epidemic, involving patients unable to read, thus “silent” which develops in an unseen manner. many researchers describe low literacy as a silent epidemic: despite its high prevalence, many physicians and other health care workers remain unaware that their patients may have reading problems. (20) genes on the web [c9]. this metaphor uses the conceptual domains of investigating the genetic patrimony of patients together with the conceptual domain of offering the commercialisation of such testing on the world wide web. this metaphor appears odd at first glance because genes exist in the dna of chromosomes of a cell. the expansion of this headline and a clear reading of the body of the text reveal the sense of this title. a similar mechanism of blending of two simple conceptual domains can be inferred from examples 21 to 25 below: (21) arterial line [c11], referring to the intra-arterial insertion of a catheter for drug delivery. the property of linearity of the artery metaphors among titles ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 111 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 111 (structure is a line metaphor) is conflated with the property of movement. this implies that a line is seen to move (fictive motion) between two points. (22) burden of illness[c41], referring to the monetary evaluation of the social and psychology costs of an illness for the individual or for the society. in this example, the contribution of an individual to society is evaluated in monetary terms and as a consequence, an ill person cannot contribute fully to society and thus illness implies a weight or burden. embodiment metaphors have been amply studied by gibbs & franks (2002) in spoken medical interviews. (23) mitochondrial medicine [c6]: that branch of medicine or a possible cure, closely allied to biological research, which aims at identifying the irregularities of physiological mechanisms underlying the onset of a pathology. inherent in these two word of the metaphor is the suggestion that a cure may be possible by studying the biological mechanisms underlying a disease and implies the conflation of the study of the mechanisms of a disease with its treatment. (24) adopting orphan drugs [c36]. these refer to drugs which have been developed but not subject to testing and therefore have not been approved thus have no putative “carer” or “parent” among the different pharmaceutical companies. this metaphor was used 13 times in the body of the editorial where it was found. in the field of legal linguistics, the expression orphan drugs as in orphan drug act may be a potential candidate for jargon. (25) grandfather’s experience [c50], where “grandfather” refers to an older physician, trained in other times and circumstances and having his own experience and set of values peculiar to his formation. this genre variation “perspective” editorial relates the experience of an old physician faced with the idea of obligatory updating his accreditation for certification. (b.2) conflicting properties from two domains or ideas to arrive at a third output space. in the transfer of similitude, the properties of both input domains are acquired by the new entity. philippa mungra ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122112 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 112 (26) disciplining the stem cell [c29]. the first input domain is the concept of discipline and the second input domain is that of the stem cell with its plasticity and potential to be bent in one way or another. the output domain consists of the idea that discipline, seen as the training condition for the stem cell, can serve as a measure to govern the stem cell to forge a new entity with properties of immune resistance to disease. (27) landcape of myeloma therapy [c31]. here, the landscape, deriving a geographical domain, is viewed as an entity under change, just as myeloma treatment has varied over time. thus the therapeutic options for this pathological condition are view as eroded, altered or modified depending on factors outside of medical control. the output domain refers to the word “landscape” as a variety of therapeutic options, just as a country landscape offers a variety of hills, rivers and lakes (28) betting on a vaccine [c53]. the two conceptual input domains consist of the world of betting and the world of competition in the race to win the title of “most useful” vaccine. the output domain is the challenge which the article poses to the reader to evaluate all the potential winners and pick the most promising one. (29) thinking outside the box [c21]. this spatial metaphor refers to the idea of thought and imagination outside the normal scheme. (b.3) quasi-jargon. this last category consists of metaphors, both primary and blended, used in the titles and extensively repeated in the body of the text of the article to which they refer. almost all of them come from either editorials (examples 30, 31, 34 and 35) or from research articles (examples 33 and 36). one of them (example 32) was found in a 200-word brief patient case which contained a reference using the same metaphor. the publication (example 33) referred to a prior letter to the editor. (30) genomic cartography: presenting the hapmap [c57], where hap is an abbreviation for haplotype. in the words of the author: “the article describes a map of haplotypes, colloquially called the hapmap. (a haplotype is a set of closely linked markers on a single chromosome that tend to be inherited as a group)”. metaphors among titles ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 113 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 113 (31) translational science [c62]. this was used 24 times in the body of the research paper. (32) pulmonary sequestration [c49] was used three times in this 200-word patient case. (33) lung recruitment [c28]. this letter to the editor used the metaphor token 15 times. the letter refers to a prior research publication which also uses this metaphor extensively. (34) the hot zone [c40]. this is used euphemistically for the area of scientific research referring to bioterrorism and is used five times in the body of the article. (35) offshore haven [c61] is used twice in the editorial. a haven or “safe place” is combined with the word “offshore” meaning work done in one country usually by lower-paid staff for use in another country where labour costs are lower and thus the economic return is higher. this expression has entered the english language via computer science and information technology. (36) stress testing [c54]. a metaphor used 34 times in this research article. 4. discussion in this corpus, frequency data show evidence of the vitality of metaphor use among the titles of medical publication. figure 1 shows that metaphors in titles were predominant among editorials and other opinion articles such as the corresponding member of the genre set “perspectives”. a close examination of table 3 reveals that most of the titles occurred among editorials which appear to propose opinions and refer to a research article (ra) in the same issue of the journal (see journal website: contribution for authors). thus, editorials comment on and help shape further research. perspective articles on the other hand comment on items of social importance for the community at large and aim at raising consciousness about social and community issues in medicine, so it is not surprising that both authors and editors recur to metaphor use. however, whereas editorials appear to use metaphor mainly in the title and rarely in the body of the text, ras tend to have metaphors both in the title and repeatedly used within the body of the text. the reason for this high frequency is open to speculation philippa mungra ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122114 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 114 but may be attributed to the necessity for precision in describing structures, symptoms or syndromes so both authors and readers have a clear and precise description of exactly what is being described (gibbs & franks, 2002). in editorials and other opinion articles, however, despite a high frequency of metaphor among titles, the relatively low frequency of metaphor observed in the body of the text may be attributed to the use of metaphor to engage the reader. the finding that the frequency of metaphors in the titles does not always correspond to frequencies of the focus words in the body of the text is quite surprising. data show that the frequencies of metaphors in the titles of ras is low but when we searched for the same focus words of the metaphors within the body of the text, the focus word was repeatedly used. such a parameter leads us to believe that the frequency of use may be an indicator of how vital the metaphor is or whether it is dying, or it could be a measure of the aptness of the metaphor which might make it a candidate for specialist jargon but it could be as well that systematic groupings or “clustering” of these metaphors play a major role in felicitous discourse structuring and development (cameron & deignan, 2006). given the necessity for precision in language in medical english, one can only speculate about the significance of the reason why metaphor blends do in fact come about in the medical literature and one hypothesis may be that such blends fit the necessity for precise descriptive language which then slowly evolve into common use and eventually become jargon. in one sense, the category of blends may be considered a half-way house (no pun intended!) in the step to the development of technical jargon. perhaps, it is for this reason that despite the fact that the total number of metaphors among ras is low, focus word use within the body of the text in ras far outstrips that of other publication types. such metaphors then in ras may be repeatedly used and they may also be good candidates for becoming “jargon” or technical terms. however, until they are included in a technical dictionary, they cannot be considered jargon, but high frequency usage within a text may be one mechanism (and a necessary step) by which a metaphoric focus word may eventually become technical jargon. the next largest category of raw frequencies of metaphors is that seen in clinical cases. this may be attributed to the high frequency of primary metaphors with a visual, cultural or other physical vehicle. with respect to the types of metaphors, the entire category of primary metaphors harks back to prior experience. they generally have as their vehicle both prior metaphors among titles ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 115 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 115 experience, embodiment or acculturate knowledge which require an explanation for proper comprehension. this kind of metaphor has been amply described by divasson & león (2006) who suggest the need for precision by scientists in describing or explaining both concepts or physical entities. blended metaphors are quite vivacious in that they make use of two or more conceptual domains which are blended to create an expression that is precise, descriptive and makes use of the properties of both blended inputs. this kind of metaphor has been amply treated by grady et al. (1999) and fauconnier & turner (2002). to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that we see it written medical specialist texts. with respect to facilitating reading skills among students and understanding metaphors in technical journals, it is clear that while primary physical metaphors may be intuitively understood by non-native beginner students (littlemore, 2004) more complex metaphors or cultural metaphors require an understanding of the input domains and their properties or connections with the output domains. the disadvantage of non-native speakers has already been highlighted by magnet & carnet (2006) in a questionnaire study among french scientists on published letters-to-the-editor. these linguists noted that difficulties in mastering irony, humour and cultural references in a foreign language may inhibit frequent contributions to the correspondence section of scientific journals and these are the same factors which we found to constitute the input domains of metaphors. it is fundamental, then, that scientists-doctors who wish to be active on the international research scene should master these reading comprehension skills. acknowledgements i would like to thank the editor prof. ana bocanegra and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions as well as prof. michael white for his kind help in procuring a publication. thanks also go to ms. aura collins for help with translation into spanish. 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(1990) “metaphors in medical english prose: a comparative study with french and spanish”. english for specific purposes 9: 145159. semino, e., j. heywood & m. short (2004). “methodological problems in the analysis of metaphors in a corpus of conversations about cancer”. journal of pragmatics 36: 12711294. steen, g.j. (1999). “from linguistic to conceptual metaphor in five steps” in r.w. gibbs jr. & g.j. steen (eds.), 57-78. turner, m. & g. fauconnier (1995). “conceptual integration and formal expression”. journal of metaphor and symbolic activity 10: 183-203. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice: learning meaning and identity. cambridge: cambridge university press. white, m. (2003). “metaphor and economics: the case of growth”. english for specific purposes 22: 131-151. white m., h. herrera-soler, b. villacañas & m. amengualpizarro (2007). “grammar as focal point of metaphor in business press headline” in m.c. pérez-llantada auría, r. plo alastrué y c.p. neumann (eds.), proceedings of the 5th international aelfe conference, 715720. zaragoza: prensas universitarias de zaragoza. __________. the new england journal of medicine. url: http://authors.nejm.org/misc/articles.asp [16/09/06] 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 117 philippa mungra teaches english at the 1st medical school of the university of rome “la sapienza”. her current research priorities revolve around the structure and evolution of specialist medico-scientific publications from a communicative and textual point of view and integration of language and content. she holds an m.sc. in cytogenetics from the university of western ontario (canada) where she has carried out her own scientific research on aneuploidy due to aging. she also holds the rsa certification in tesol from cambridge. notes 1 nlm (national library of medicine), created in 1956, forms part of the national institutes of health (nih). it established a retrieval system in 1965, in bethesda, md. usa. the website for consultable indexed citations, established first in 1986, has been available in internet since 1993 at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ 2 url: http://authors.nejm.org/misc/articles.asp 3 from meditations. donne wrote this at a time when a time when death was the constant companion of life. 4 jensen et al. “current concepts review rotator cuff tear arthropathy” the journal of bone and joint surgery 81: 1312-24 (1999). 5 mark twain 1865: the celebrated jumping frog of calaveras county, with a frog named dan’l webster (at http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings_jim.html) 6 url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/linebacker appendix 1: corpus of metaphors tokens c1 ismael g, de azambuja e, awada a. molecular profiling of a tumor of unknown origin. n engl j med 2006;355(10):1071-1072. c2 hoffman i. panic disorder. n engl j med. 2006;355(10):1067. c3 marcus en. the silent epidemic —the health effects of illiteracy. n engl j med 2006;355(4):339-341. c4 schneier fr. social anxiety disorder n engl j med 2006;355(10):1029-1036. c5 feldmann, h. marburg hemorrhagic fever —the forgotten cousin strikes. n engl j med.2006; 355;(9):866-967. c6 turnbull dm mitochondrial medicine.[ edited by salvatore dimauro, michio hirano, and eric a. schon. 348 pp., illustrated. abingdon, england, informa healthcare, 2006. $229.95. isbn 184214-288-7. ] n. engl j med. 2006;355(8): 855. c7 grayson ml. the treatment triangle for staphylococcal infections. n . engl. j med. 2006; 355(7): 725-726. c8 drenth jph, van der meer jwm the inflammasome — a linebacker of innate defense. n engl j med. 2006;355(7):730-732. philippa mungra ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122118 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 118 c9 wolfberg aj, genes on the web — direct-to-consumer marketing of genetic testing. n engl j med. 2006;355(6):543-545 c10 cassells ej. the mind has mountains: reflections on society and psychiatry[by paul r. mchugh. 249 pp. baltimore, johns hopkins university press, 2006. $25. isbn 0-8018-8249-4.] n engl j med 2006;355(6): 635-636. c11 bird sj. the ethical brain [by michael s. gazzaniga. 201 pp. new york, dana press,2005. $25. isbn 1-932594-01-9.] n engl j med. 2006;355(6):637-638. c12 khurana rn, sadda sr. salt-and-pepper retinopathy of rubella. n engl.j med 2006;355(5): 499. c13 mohanty ak, flannery mt, johnson bl, brady pg. a sharp right turn. n engl. j med 2006;355(5) 500-50. c14 davis, jt. thoughts from the transition zone. n engl j med. 2006;355(3):235-236. c15 sawyers cl. will kinase inhibitors have a dark side? n engl j med. 2006;355(3):313-315. c16 braner dav, lai s, .placement of an arterial line n engl j med 2006;355(3):324-325. c17 goldmann d. system failure versus personal accountability —the case for clean hands. n engl j med. 2006;355(2):121-123. c18 sepkowitz ka. one disease, two epidemics — aids at 25. n engl j med 2006;354(23): 24112412. c19 hummel m, bentink m, berge h et al. for the molecular mechanisms in malignant lymphomas network project of the deutsche krebshilfe. a biologic definition of burkitt’s lymphoma from transcriptional and genomic profiling. n engl j med 2006;354 (23):2419-2430. c20 guerrant rl. cholera — still teaching hard lessons. n engl j med 2006;354(23):2500-2502. c21 farzaneh-far r, schwarzberg t, mushlin sb. thinking outside the box. n engl j med 2006; 354(22):2376-2381. c22 dunn dl. bleeding blue and gray: civil war surgery and the evolution of american medicine[by ira m. rutkow. 394 pp., illustrated. new york, random house, 2005. $27.95. isbn 0-375-503153.] n engl j med 2006;354(22):2397-2398. c23 peters cj. lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus — an old enemy up to new tricks. n engl j med 2006;354(21):2208-2211 c24 morton cc, nance we. newborn hearing screening —a silent revolution. n engl j med 2006;354(20):21512164. c25 arky ra. the family business — to educate. n engl j med 2006;354 (20):1922-1926. c26 bonilla mf, kaul dr, saint s et al. ring around the diagnosis. n engl j med 2006;354(18):193742. c27 panosian c.,coates tj. the new medical “missionaries” — grooming the next generation of global health workers. n engl j med 2006;354(17):1771-1773 c28 gattinoni l, caironi p, cressoni m, lung recruitment in patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome n engl j med 2006;354(17):1775-86. c29 partridge t, disciplining the stem cell into myogenesis. n engl j med 2006;354;17 1844-1945 c30 pfeffer ma, jarcho ja.the charisma of subgroups and the subgroups of charisma. n engl j med 2006;354(16):1744-1745 c31 cavo, m., baccarani, m. the changing landscape of myeloma therapy. n engl j med 2006; 354(10): 1076-1078. metaphors among titles ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 119 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 119 c32 annas gj. congress, controlled substances, and physician-assisted suicide — elephants in mouseholes. n engl j med 2006;354(10): 1079-1084. c33 tonino wal, winter j.b. the twiddler syndrome. n engl j med 2006; 354(9):956 c34 whyte mp. the long and the short of bone therapy. . n engl j med 2006;354(8): 860-863. c35 kang, sk. radiation recall reaction. n engl j med 2006; 354(6) 622. c36 haffner, me. adopting orphan drugs — two dozen years of treating rare diseases. n engl j med 2006; 354(5):445-447 c37 stainier, d. no stem cell is an islet (yet). n engl j med 2006; 354(5): 521-523 c38 risch,n . dissecting racial and ethnic differences. n engl j med 2006; 354(4): 408-411 c39 beaton, gh. horrors of the table: the curious history of nutrition. by walter gratzer. 288 pp., illustrated. new york, oxford university press, 2005. $30. isbn 0-19-280661-0. n. engl j med 2006; 354(3): 312-313. c40 steinbrook,r. research in the hot zone. n. engl j med 2006; 354(2):109-112 c41 hill, dr. the burden of illness in international travelers. n. engl j med 2006; 354(2): 115-117 c42 genta, ms, gabay, c. milwaukee shoulder. n. engl j med 2006; 354(2): e2 www.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/354/2/e2.pdf [accessed 16 jan 2007] c43 quill, te, meier, de. the big chill — inserting the dea into end-of-life care. n. engl j med 2006; 354(1): 1-3 c44 kletter, gb dwarfism: medical and psychosocial aspects of profound short stature. [by betty m. adelson. 342 pp., illustrated. baltimore, johns hopkins university press, 2005. $70 (cloth); $30 (paper). isbn 0-8018-8121-8 (cloth); 0-8018-8122-6 (paper).. n. engl j med 2005; 353(23): 2521-2522 c45 lim, mk, hostile use of the life sciences. n. engl j med 2005. 353(21):2214 c46 yang, pm, chen,ds. caput medusae. n. engl j med 2005. 353(12):e19 c47 annas, gj jumping frogs, endangered toads, and california’s medical-marijuana law. n. engl j med 2005. 353(21): 2291-2296 c48 klass, p. so where’s my medal? n. engl j med 2005. 353(20): 2107-2109 c49 alexandra platon,a., poletti, pa pulmonary sequestration. n. engl j med 2005. 353(20):e-18 c50 brennan, ta recertification for internists — one “grandfather’s” experience. n. engl j med 2005. 353(19): 1989-1992 c51 fiocchi, c. one commensal bacterial molecule — all we need for health? n. engl j med 2005. 353(19) : 2078-208 c52 dharnidharka, vr. costimulation blockade with belatacept in renal transplantation. n. engl j med 2005. 353(19) : 2085 c53 okie, s. betting on a malaria vaccine. n. engl j med 2005. 353 (18): 1877-1881 c54 abidov a, rozanski a, hachamovitch r, hayes sw, aboul-enein f, cohen i, friedman jd, germano g, berman ds. prognostic significance of dyspnea in patients referred for cardiac stress testing. n. engl j med 2005. 353 (18):1890-1898 c55 pinero a, marcos-alberca p, fortes j. cabergoline-related severe restrictive mitral regurgitation. n. engl j med 2005. 353 (18):1976-1977 c56 podolsky dk selective adhesion-molecule therapy and inflammatory bowel disease — a tale of janus? n. engl j med 2005. 353 (18):1965-1968 c57 phimister, eg. genomic cartography — presenting the hapmap. n. engl j med 2005. 353 (17): 1766-1768 philippa mungra ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122120 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 120 c58 barker djp, osmond c, forsén tj, kajantie e, eriksson jg. trajectories of growth among children who have coronary events as adults. n. engl j med 2005. 353(17): 1802-1809 c59 chen lc, boufford ji fatal flows — doctors on the move. n. engl j med 2005. 353(17):18501852 c60 tanzi re tangles and neurodegenerative disease — a surprising twist. n. engl j med 2005. 353(17):1853-1855 c61 okie, s. an offshore haven for human embryonic stem-cell research? n. engl j med 2005. 353(16):1645-1649 c62 zerhouni, ea. translational and clinical science —time for a new vision. n. engl j med 2005. 353(15):1621-1623 metaphors among titles ibérica 14 [2007]: 99-122 121 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 121 06 mungra.qxp 17/10/07 20:28 página 122 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 résumé cette étude préparée par alrabadi s’appuie sur le mémoire de master rédigé par kasasbeh, ancien formateur à l’institut de langues (idl) de la police jordanienne. elle a pour objectif de proposer une démarche scientifique susceptible d’améliorer la formation du fos proposée dans cet institut. pour ce faire, nous avons élaboré un questionnaire destiné aux policiers effectuant leur mission de maintien de la paix dans des pays francophones. ce questionnaire nous permettra d’identifier leurs besoins langagiers en fonction des situations de communication confrontées sur le terrain et d’analyser les difficultés langagières rencontrées pendant les missions qui sont souvent dues à la formation langagière suivie en jordanie. mots-clés: fos, français de police onusienne, besoins des apprenants, compétence de communication, apprentissage coopératif. abstract i mp ro v in g f re n c h tr ai ni ng f or s ta f f re s p on s ib l e of pe a c e k e e p in g : th e c as e o f j or da ni an p ol i c e of f i c e r s this study is prepared by alrabadi and based on the master’s thesis written by kasasbeh, former trainer at the jordanian police languages institute. its objective is to propose a scientific approach which aims to improve fsp training in this institute. to achieve this goal, we developed a questionnaire for police officers who are currently undertaking their missions of peacekeeping in améliorer la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix: le cas des policiers jordaniens elie alrabadi and ghaleb kasasbeh yarmouk university (jordan) elierabadi@yu.edu.jo and ggghaleb@yahoo.com 67 ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh francophone countries. this questionnaire allows us to identify their linguistic needs related to communications happening during their duty and it also allows us to analyze the linguistic difficulties facing them during their missions which are usually related to the linguistic teaching in jordan. keywords: fsp, french for un police officers, learners’ needs, communication skills, cooperative learning. introduction la réussite d’une mission de maintien de la paix s’avère impossible sans la maîtrise d’une compétence langagière et interculturelle nécessaire lors des contacts avec les autres policiers provenant de nombreux pays et avec les habitants locaux. la sélection des policiers est conditionnée par la réussite à l’examen “saat”1 de l’onu dont l’objectif est de choisir les policiers les plus compétents au niveau langagier en évaluant les quatre compétences de communication. il se fait sur place par une équipe de l’onu. face aux demandes croissantes émanant de l’onu, l’idl de la police jordanienne propose, depuis 2004, une formation à des fins policières onusiennes dont la finalité est de former le plus grand nombre de policiers compétents en français. cependant, nous avons remarqué qu’aucune démarche scientifique n’a été suivie pour la mise en place d’une telle formation ce qui a engendré des difficultés relatives au choix du contenu, aux activités à proposer et aux compétences visées. egalement, le taux de réussite à l’examen saat reste médiocre. il ne dépasse pas 10% du nombre total des candidats. de plus, nous avons constaté que les policiers sélectionnés font face à beaucoup de difficultés au niveau langagier et interculturel dans l’exercice de leurs missions. il s’avère ainsi que cette formation n’aboutit pas aux résultats escomptés et qu’un décalage s’est fait sentir entre la formation et les situations de communication réelles. au vu de ce constat, une méthodologie scientifique plus appropriée à ce contexte devra être proposée pour mieux répondre aux besoins des apprenants et aux objectifs de l’institut. pour ce faire, nous nous posons les questions suivantes: pourquoi les apprenants choisissent-ils de suivre cette formation? quels sont ses objectifs? quelles sont les situations de communication auxquelles seront confrontés les policiers? les cours de français proposés actuellement à l’idl sont-ils en adéquation avec les objectifs de la formation et les besoins des 68 apprenants? quelle approche à des fins professionnelles s’adaptera-t-elle le mieux à notre problématique? comment peut-on développer la méthode utilisée actuellement à l’idl? quelles propositions didactiques peut-on suggérer pour la rénovation de la formation? pour répondre à ces questions, nous identifierons notre contexte de recherche et notre public. nous mettrons aussi l’accent sur quelques termes en corrélation avec l’enseignement du français à des fins professionnelles tels que le français sur objectifs spécifiques (fos), le français langue professionnelle (flp) et le français sur objectif universitaire (fou). nous exposerons ensuite notre démarche méthodologique et nous analyserons les besoins langagiers et les difficultés langagières des apprenants au moyen d’un questionnaire destiné aux policiers effectuant leurs missions dans des pays francophones. nous présenterons également la démarche de collecte et d’analyse des données ainsi que les notions d’apprentissage coopératif et collaboratif. nous terminerons par un exemple d’exploitation pédagogique d’un document authentique basée sur les principes de l’apprentissage coopératif. contexte de la formation le français occupe la deuxième place dans les institutions de la police jordanienne après l’anglais. depuis quelques années, notamment avec la demande pressante de l’onu et la coopération entre les unités de police française et jordanienne, le nombre de policiers désirant apprendre le français augmente régulièrement. cinq ans après sa création en 1987, l’idl a commencé à enseigner le français. la première participation des policiers jordaniens au sein d’une mission onusienne francophone remonte à avril 2003, en république démocratique du congo2 ce qui a fait que l’apprentissage du français est désormais très sollicité par les policiers jordaniens. quant à l’utilisation du français dans le contexte policier, quelques services de police exigent, parfois, la connaissance du français, comme par exemple la police touristique et les services de relations internationales. l’idl met en place, chaque année, les trois types de formation suivants: 1. une formation de français général qui s’enseigne à deux niveaux: débutant et intermédiaire. elle est proposée 4 fois par an pour le la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 69 premier niveau et 2 pour le deuxième. chaque formation dure 2 mois à raison de 12 heures par semaine ou 96 heures pour toute la formation. les policiers qui finissent le niveau débutant peuvent suivre automatiquement, sans être soumis à un test d’évaluation, le niveau intermédiaire ou passer directement aux deux autres types de formations proposées. 2. la formation de français spécialisé dans les sciences policières. grâce à la coopération entre les deux appareils de police jordanienne et française, l’idl met en place une formation orientée vers les différentes sciences policières, comme par exemple l’investigation criminelle et la lutte contre le terrorisme. cette formation est assurée par des formateurs français et permet aux policiers jordaniens de suivre des stages d’entraînement professionnel en france. 3. la formation à des fins policières onusiennes, objet de notre étude, est censée répondre aux besoins des policiers onusiens et attire davantage d’apprenants. les cours sont dispensés par des enseignants policiers jordaniens, ayant obtenu une licence en français et ayant participé à des missions de maintien de la paix. l’idl propose annuellement trois formations. chacune dure 6 semaines (18h hebdomadaires) et le nombre d’apprenants varie entre 15 et 25 pour chaque formation. certains cours portant sur les valeurs et les tâches de l’onu sont dispensés en arabe. cette formation s’adresse principalement aux apprenants ayant une bonne maîtrise du français. cependant, il arrive souvent de trouver des apprenants de niveau débutant et intermédiaire. public nous sommes devant des apprenants dont les besoins sont différents et la maîtrise du français est hétérogène. ces apprenants sont des adultes, engagés dans la vie professionnelle et apprennent le français dans un contexte hétéroglotte. c’est un public non captif suivant volontairement la formation et homogène au niveau culturel et social. ce public est porteur d’une demande précise, communicative et professionnelle. il vise “l’acquisition ou l’amélioration d’une compétence de communication directement liée au métier qu’ils exercent” (le ninan et miroudot, 2004: 106). dans ces conditions, l’enseignement du français s’inscrit: elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh ibérica 35 (2018): 67-9270 dans une logique professionnalisante et implique de s’efforcer de faire cohabiter les outils linguistiques nécessaires à la communication professionnelle et les activités propres au domaine de spécialité. (carras et al., 2007: 20) ce public est bien motivé et suit cette formation pour pouvoir gagner plus d’argent à travers la participation à des opérations de maintien de la paix. de fait, la connaissance du français représente donc un atout professionnel et la participation à ces missions se révèle comme une opportunité afin de compenser la modicité des salaires et leur garantit un meilleur avenir. cadre théorique plusieurs sont les appellations qui se sont succédé pour désigner l’enseignement du fle à des fins professionnelles. au milieu de cette “jungle d’appellations” (mourlhon-dallies, 2006: 25), il est strictement primordial de présenter les trois termes les plus proches et qui pourraient être confondus. ceci nous aidera à mieux cerner notre sujet d’étude et à placer notre problématique au sein de ce domaine qui évolue sans cesse. nous mettrons la lumière sur le terme du fos et les deux derniers-nés à savoir le flp et le fou. fos le fos est une branche ou un sous champs de la didactique du fle qui s’adresse à un public adulte et professionnel ayant objectifs précis qu’il doit atteindre dans un temps limité (mangiante et parpette, 2004: 21). il se distingue, selon mangiante et parpette (2004), carras et al. (2007) et qotb (2008), par la diversité de ses publics, leurs besoins spécifiques, leurs motivations, le temps limité consacré à l’apprentissage et sa rentabilité. ce public apprend du français pour s’en servir dans des contextes bien déterminés (lehman, 1993: 115). les apprenants ont donc des besoins langagiers spécifiques, d’où vient la nécessité de les analyser avant l’élaboration de cours pour mieux y répondre (qotb, 2008: 82). les publics du fos “se singularisent [...] par une perception aiguë de leurs besoins focalisés sur des savoir-faire langagiers et professionnels” (richer, 2008: 27). son objectif est de faire acquérir, dans un but utilitaire, le plus rapidement possible, des savoirs, savoir-faire et comportements qui rendent l’apprenant capable de faire face aux situations de communication professionnelle ou universitaire (carras et al., 2007: 7). en effet, les apprenants ne disposent la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 71 généralement que de peu de temps pour atteindre leurs objectifs. de plus, ils “visent une rentabilité de la formation, un retour significatif sur investissement en formation [...] et présentent une forte motivation professionnelle” (richer, 2008: 21). les formations du fos constituent un accélérateur professionnel, ouvrant, aux apprenants “d’autres débouchés plus privilégiés dans le monde professionnel” (qotb)3. la mise en place d’un programme du fos, nécessite de suivre, selon mangiante et parpette (2004: 7-8), une démarche de cinq étapes: analyse de la demande de formation, analyse des besoins langagiers des apprenants, collecte des données, analyse des données et élaboration des activités. flp le flp “se joue logiquement dans un continuum [...] dans le champ de l’enseignement du français à des fins professionnelles” (mourlhon-dallies, 2008: 76). cette appellation est entrée dans la didactique des langues en 2006 grâce aux travaux de mourlhon-dallies. le flp “vise la maîtrise de la langue en situation de travail, tout en faisant l’hypothèse que les pratiques de travail se voient améliorées par le perfectionnement linguistique, du moment que ce perfectionnement respecte les logiques professionnelles” (mourlhon-dallies, 2008: 90). il s’adresse: à des personnes devant exercer leur profession entièrement en français. ainsi, [...], le cadre d’exercice de la profession au complet est en français [...] même si une partie de l’activité de travail peut être réalisée ponctuellement en anglais ou dans d’autres langues (celles de clients, par exemple). (mourlhondallies, 2008: 72) “le flp se focalise sur la pratique, le statut et la place des métiers en contexte homoglotte” en france ou dans un pays francophone. (mangiante 2011: 8). ce domaine est né en france suite à un certain nombre de changements économiques et politiques. le déclencheur en a été la loi du 4 mai 2004 sur le droit individuel à la formation, surtout la formation linguistique, ainsi qu’à l’accroissement de la part langagière du travail. en effet, avec l’émergence de certains domaines de spécialités comme le français de la médecine et la diversification des demandes de formation de plus en plus pointues (comme l’aéronautique, l’art floral, etc.), le fos connaît un renouveau et doit s’adapter à ces nouveaux besoins du marché basés sur des demandes du monde professionnel (mourlhon-dallies, 2006a: 26). parallèlement à ce renouveau, on assiste à une demande croissante elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh ibérica 35 (2018): 67-9272 d’amélioration des compétences en français pour l’exercice des professions. aux plans politique et économique, on note également l’intensification des flux migratoires à tous les niveaux de qualification qui concernent des étudiants ou des professionnels qualifiés et des migrants souhaitant travailler en france ou dans un pays francophone. ces nouvelles demandes ont des caractéristiques qui les différencient du fos. en effet, le fos s’adresse essentiellement à des non-natifs à l’étranger, déjà insérés professionnellement, avec un haut niveau de qualification, et leur permet de maîtriser le français dans leur contexte professionnel d’origine et cible des compétences limitées (mourlhon-dallies, 2006b: 32). en flp, on a affaire à des apprenants de bas niveau de qualification, parfois analphabètes dont l’objectif premier est de trouver du travail ou de se maintenir sur son poste. l’originalité du flp apparaît donc par le fait qu’il ne se cantonne pas au secteur du fle et peut également s’appliquer à des enseignements en flm ou en fls. il peut concerner le jeune français qui finit sa formation initiale et n’a jamais accédé à un travail, que le migrant ayant un métier mais qui ne l’a jamais pratiqué en contexte français, que l’étranger formé dans son pays et qui y intègre une entreprise française (mourlhon-dallies, 2008: 7475). à ce titre, le français professionnel, qui témoigne d’une double exigence de formation (en français et dans le domaine professionnel) n’est pas totalement situé dans le champ du fle, mais le chevauche en partie. (mourlhon-dallies, 2006a: 26) fou face à la progression de la mobilité des étudiants et à l’augmentation des effectifs d’étudiants allophones dans les universités françaises et francophones, un nouveau terme est né au sein de la didactique du fle avec ses propres spécificités. le fou: apparaît bien comme une déclinaison du fos, dans son approche centrée sur la connaissance la plus poussée des besoins d’un public ciblé, dans son parti pris de considérer que la réussite du projet d’intégration universitaire nécessite une maitrise linguistique autour de situations de communication spécifiques à la vie universitaire dans son ensemble. (mangiante et parpette, 2014: 5) la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 73 il vise à préparer les étudiants étrangers à suivre des études supérieures dans des universités francophones. le fou intègre “la dimension institutionnelle des situations langagières visées, et la dimension cognitive des comportements attendus de la part d’étudiants” (mangiante et parpette, 2012: 147). il se distingue par des caractéristiques qui sont proches de celles du fos, comme par exemple la diversité des disciplines universitaires visées, les besoins spécifiques des apprenants, le temps limité consacré à l’apprentissage, la rentabilité de l’apprentissage et la motivation des publics qui suivent ces cours pour réussir leurs études universitaires (qotb, 2011: 163-165). pour la mise en place d’un programme du fou, mangiante et parpette (2014: 41-43), proposent de suivre la même démarche du fos tout en prenant en compte les spécificités des situations de la vie estudiantine, des modalités de travail et de la communication institutionnelle. cependant, contrairement au fos qui s’adresse à des professionnels étrangers, hors de france, dont les métiers et les situations de communication sont bien cernés, le fou est destiné à des apprenants “dont le projet de venir est sujet à variation” (mourlhon-dallies (2011: 136). le public du fou peut concerner des étrangers qui souhaitent suivre des études en pays francophone ou qui sont déjà en pays francophone et des publics d’étrangers à l’étranger dont les études sont dispensées en français. les contenus des formations du fou portent souvent sur quatre axes: la langue elle-même, la méthodologie universitaire, le contexte culturel et les composantes institutionnelles. mangiante et parpette (2014: 41). le fou inclut le français académique, considéré comme un ensemble de techniques à acquérir (ou déjà acquises en lm) telles que la prise de note, la rédaction de dissertations et rencontre les préoccupations du fls, renvoyant aux formalités administratives, aux inscriptions, à la recherche d’un logement et englobe le français de la culture universitaire qui touche aux relations avec les enseignants et aux relations entre étudiants (mourlhon-dallies, 2011: 137). après ce bref aperçu, il paraît évident que notre présente étude s’inscrit pleinement dans une perspective du fos avec toutes ces caractéristiques déjà évoquées. suivant la démarche du fos et après avoir analysé la demande et le public auquel s’adresse notre formation, nous procéderons à l’analyse des besoins langagiers des apprenants. pour ce faire, nous présentons notre méthodologie mise en œuvre dans cette recherche. elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh ibérica 35 (2018): 67-9274 méthodologie de la recherche pour recueillir les données du terrain, un questionnaire comportant trois questions dont l’objectif est d’évaluer la formation langagière suivie à l’idl à été élaboré et envoyé, par courriel électronique, à 25 policiers jordaniens, effectuant leurs missions avec l’onu. nous avons reçu des réponses de la part de 17 enquêtés ce qui représente un pourcentage de 68%. pour rendre les questions plus compréhensibles, nous les avons traduites en arabe et nous avons laissé la possibilité aux enquêtés de répondre soit en français, soit en arabe. le traitement des données a été fait manuellement après la traduction des réponses et l’analyse des résultats a été faite suivant une démarche thématique. résultats suite à l’analyse des données, nous sommes parvenus aux résultats suivants: analyse des besoins langagiers des apprenants notre formation du fos s’inscrit dans une logique de demande précise et organisée suite à la demande de l’onu. dans ces conditions, “les besoins sont identifiés avec une grande précision et répondent majoritairement aux besoins de communication de professionnels” (le ninan et miroudot, 2004: 109). cependant, les enseignants à l’idl ne suivent pas une démarche scientifique pour l’identification du public, de ses besoins et du contenu de la formation. ils s’appuient essentiellement sur leurs propres connaissances et expériences. en effet, l’enseignant de fos, qui cherche à articuler objectifs d’apprentissage et besoins des apprenants, en fonction de ses propres représentations du domaine de spécialité de son public est en effet confronté à d’immenses difficultés. (sagnier, 2004: 97) cette analyse des besoins langagiers des apprenants consiste à recenser les situations de communication dans lesquelles les apprenants auront à utiliser le français dans le cadre de leur activité, ainsi que les connaissances et savoir-faire langagiers et professionnels que ces apprenants devront acquérir durant la formation. (carras et al., 2007: 26) la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 75 la connaissance des situations de communication fait en sorte de connaître les compétences que les apprenants doivent acquérir pendant la formation. mangiante et parpette précisent que la première phase de l’analyse des besoins langagiers, tient en quelques questions: quelles situations de communication faut-il prévoir par rapport à l’objectif assigné à la formation? dans quels lieux, pour quelles actions? en interaction orale? avec quels interlocuteurs? en lecture? en écriture? quelles sont les informations sur le contexte institutionnel ou social à connaître [...]? quelles sont les différences culturelles prévisibles? (2004: 25). pour répondre à ces questions et connaître les tâches exercées par les policiers ainsi que leur contact avec le français, nous leur avons posé la question ouverte suivante: “quelles sont les principales tâches que vous effectuez?”. d’après les réponses, un policier onusien réalise les tâches principales suivantes: effectuer des patrouilles mixtes de sécurisation avec la police locale, visites aux autorités religieuses, préparer les fiches de présences et mettre à jour les dossiers administratifs des unpols4, entraîner et conseiller la police locale, rédiger des rapports sur le déroulement des missions, représenter l’unpol aux réunions, aux ateliers et devant les communautés locales, organiser les réunions auprès du quartier général et diriger la réunion en station, observer les droits de l’homme, régler la circulation routière, etc. d’après ces fonctions, nous remarquons que les besoins en communication orale et écrite sont d’égale importance. elles peuvent inclure la lecture, la compréhension et la rédaction des rapports ainsi que des compétences liées à la compréhension et à l’expression orales pendant les exposés, les conversations et les échanges dans un contexte formel ou informel. egalement, ces situations peuvent “déborder du cadre professionnel pour aborder des thèmes plus personnels où l’arrière-plan culturel sera important” (alrabadi, 2011: 100). de ce fait, la connaissance des données culturelles, traditionnelles, ethniques, historiques, géographiques, religieuses, sociales, etc., liées au pays où se déroule la mission s’avère obligatoire. pour que l’identification des besoins porte ses fruits, richterich (1985: 87), confirme qu’elle doit “se traduire en objectifs, en contenus, en actions, en programmes”. les objectifs de la formation du fos ainsi que les contenus choisis doivent alors viser le développement de toutes les capacités elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh ibérica 35 (2018): 67-9276 langagières permettant aux apprenants “de produire des textes réels et d’agir donc de manière ‘appropriée’, en termes de communication, dans les situations professionnelles auxquelles ils seront exposés” (lousada, 2004: 132). difficultés langagières rencontrées pendant la mission afin de cerner les difficultés langagières auxquelles se heurtent les policiers, nous leur avons posé deux questions fermées. 1. rencontrezvous des difficultés langagières (a) dans votre travail? oui non (b) en dehors du travail? oui – non 2. quelles sont vos principales difficultés en français? (a) lecture de documents: rapports, notes, plan, lettre, correspondance. (b) rédaction de documents: rapports, notes, plan, lettre, correspondance. (c) compréhension et expression orales: exposés, échanges professionnels, conversations. (d) difficultés d’ordre (inter)culturel. les réponses à la première question révèlent que plus de la moitié des enquêtés rencontrent des difficultés langagières liées au travail qu’ils exercent. la difficulté augmente, dans un contexte informel, lors des échanges avec les camarades venant d’autres pays et avec des communautés locales. en effet, un déficit dans la communication peut amener à des malentendus et par conséquent, à l’échec de la mission. cela se confirme par les réponses des enquêtés à la deuxième question où une grande majorité avoue avoir rencontré des difficultés d’ordre interculturel. de même, les réponses des enquêtés montrent bien qu’un nombre important d’entre eux est souvent confronté à des difficultés aux niveaux de la compétence de rédaction, de compréhension/expression orales. d’après notre propre expérience, plusieurs raisons pourraient éclaircir ces difficultés et qui sont liées au déroulement de la formation suivie en jordanie: la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 77 1. l’inadéquation des objectifs de la formation avec les besoins réels des apprenants. 2. l’absence d’un programme de formation pour les enseignants chargés de l’enseignement à l’idl. en dehors de leur formation initiale aux universités jordaniennes, les enseignants n’ont suivi aucune formation en didactique du fle ou du fos. 3. le manque d’occasions de pratique du français en dehors de la salle de classe. 4. l’utilisation excessive de la langue maternelle par les enseignants et les apprenants pendant la formation. 5. l’hétérogénéité du niveau de maîtrise du français chez les apprenants. manque de formations, les enseignants ne savent pas comment gérer cette hétérogénéité au sein de la classe. 6. la non-prise en compte de l’aspect interculturel: un policier déployé dans une mission onusienne du maintien de la paix se trouve pleinement en situation d’interculturalité. il doit donc jouer un rôle de médiateur et de conciliateur entre les différentes ethnies. pour ce faire, il doit avoir conscience des aspects interculturels qui entrent en jeu lors des contacts avec autrui. or, l’aspect interculturel est souvent ignoré pendant la formation du fos proposée à l’idl, ce qui implique la nécessité d’opérer rapidement des changements quant à cet aspect de la formation sachant que le fos “ne peut se travailler sous l’angle du langage sans envisager d’abord une dimension culturelle du domaine concerné” (challe, 2002: 122). 7. la non-familiarisation des apprenants avec les variétés phonologiques, prosodiques et linguistiques du français pratiqué dans les pays francophones autres que la france. 8. la non-utilisation des tice qui constituent des moyens précieux offrant de nombreux avantages en didactique du fos et rendant possible une pédagogie collective, interactive et différenciée. en effet, le recours aux tice permettra, à nos yeux, aux apprenants et aux enseignants de surmonter une grande partie de ces points faibles liés à la formation. elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh ibérica 35 (2018): 67-9278 pour répondre à ces besoins langagiers et remédier à ces difficultés, nous présenterons l’étape de la collecte et de l’analyse des données et nous finirons par un exemple d’élaboration didactique. exemple de collecte et de méthode d’analyse d’un document authentique sonore onusien la collecte et l’analyse des données authentiques appropriées constituent une étape essentielle dans la construction d’une formation du fos. elle réactive l’analyse des besoins et “permet de confirmer les hypothèses faites par l’enseignant, de les compléter, voire au contraire de les modifier considérablement” (mangiante et parpette, 2004: 8). les enseignants à l’idl ont tous eu l’avantage de participer aux missions francophones avec l’onu et connaissent par conséquent les situations de communication récurrentes des missions et les discours qui y circulent. le document, ci-dessous, dont nous présentons un extrait de la transcription, représente un dialogue ou une conversation entre un policier et un témoin: témoin: bonjour, je suis monsieur jean-paul denis. je suis la personne qui vous a alerté par téléphone et qui a demandé votre intervention. je viens témoigner sur la fusillade. policier: bonjour, je suis l’inspecteur robert duval et je suis chargé d’enquêter sur cette affaire. témoin: je suis le propriétaire du bar qui se trouve près de l’intersection de la rue martin luther king et de l’avenue john brown où la fusillade a eu lieu. je me trouvais sur le seuil de mon magasin quand le pick-up toyota blanc ne possédant aucune plaque d’immatriculation a ralenti en arrivant à la hauteur des 5 policiers. policier: que s’est-il passé ensuite? témoin: lorsque les deux policiers sont arrivés à hauteur du conducteur, les gars qui se trouvaient dans la benne ont immédiatement sortis des mitraillettes et ouvert le feu sur les policiers: plusieurs rafales ont été tirées calmement comme pour vraiment tuer les policiers. policier : qu’ont fait les autres policiers? témoin : ils se sont protégés et ont riposté sans atteindre les occupants. policier : savez-vous de quel type d’arme il s’agissait? la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 79 témoin: oui, je pense qu’il y avait deux ak 47 policier: avez-vous vu les personnes qui se trouvaient à bord? témoin: oui, je sais qu’ils étaient 6, tous originaires d’haïti. 2 dans l’habitacle et 4 dans la benne. ensuite je me suis couché au sol pour me protéger. je ne suis donc pas en mesure de les reconnaître. je crois qu’ils portaient des vestes de treillis, [...]. ce type de discours offre aux apprenants jordaniens l’occasion d’être en contact avec des situations de communication réelles et de se familiariser avec les discours spécialisés qui y circulent. l’analyse des données permet également, d’après carras et al. (2007: 29-30), aux enseignants d’identifier: 1. les composantes linguistiques récurrentes dans les discours, comme par exemple le lexique utilisé, les structures morphosyntaxiques et la composante paralinguistique (intonation, gestes, mimiques). dans notre document, nous remarquons que le lexique utilisé porte, en partie, sur l’investigation et la criminalité, liées étroitement au travail des policiers onusiens. il contient également du lexique utilisé dans la vie quotidienne, comme celui de la présentation, de la localisation et de la description. concernant les structures morphosyntaxiques récurrentes, nous notons l’utilisation des pronoms relatifs, du passé composé, de l’imparfait, de la forme pronominale et des adverbes. 2. les composantes extralinguistiques qui se composent de trois composantes: sociolinguistique: comment s’adresser à un étranger? comment maîtriser les termes d’adresse en français? stratégique: comment poser poliment une question? 3. les composantes socioculturelle et interculturelle des discours: elles sont souvent implicites et il est donc difficile de les anticiper sans un contact direct entre deux cultures. la relation entre l’inspecteur de police et le témoin, dans cet interrogatoire qui se déroule dans le respect réciproque, pourrait être différente d’une culture à une autre. elle pourrait par conséquent fait l’objet d’une elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh ibérica 35 (2018): 67-9280 discussion entre l’enseignant et les apprenants dans le cadre des valeurs de l’onu et des droits de l’homme. cette identification des composantes linguistiques et extralinguistiques permet aux enseignants de cibler certains contenus qui visent l’acquisition des savoirs et des savoir-faire essentiels pour les apprenants. exploitation didactique nous présentons, ci-dessous, un exemple d’exploitation d’un document authentique spécialisé. nous ne prétendons pas de proposer des tâches inédites, mais de montrer comment l’enseignant pourrait mettre en cohérence les activités pédagogiques avec trois facteurs soulignés par mangiante et parpette (2004: 79): (i) l’analyse des besoins; (ii) les informations livrées par l’étude des informations et des discours collectés; (iii)les formes de travail favorisant l’apprentissage. la réflexion sur la construction des activités en classe comporte deux éléments: “quoi enseigner, quels apprentissages viser, mais aussi et surtout comment envisager ces activités” (mangiante et parpette, 2004: 78). dans notre contexte où le niveau des apprenants est linguistiquement hétérogène, les options pédagogiques devraient s’appuyer sur les principes suivants: (i) développer les formes de travail participatives qui permettent d’une part une pratique maximale de la langue, d’autre part et un apport important des apprenants [...]. (ii) créer le plus possible une communication réelle [...]. (iii)combiner le travail collectif avec des moments de travail individuel, voire autonome (mangiante et parpette, 2004: 79). concernant le travail collectif, il nous semble que deux méthodes pourraient être envisageables: l’apprentissage coopératif et l’apprentissage collaboratif que nous présentons ci-dessous. la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 81 apprentissage collectif le travail collectif existe depuis des décennies sous de multiples formes allant de la coopération à la collaboration. ces deux termes, souvent utilisées indistinctement, font référence, comme le confirme baurdit (2007a: 7) aux pédagogies de groupe dans le domaine de l’éducation. ils “sont très voisins. ils ont des sens très proches et font en général référence à une activité collective impliquant deux ou plusieurs personnes” (baurdit, 2007b: 116). des auteurs comme henri et lundgren-cayrol (2001), walckiers et de praetere (2002), lehraus (2002), baurdit (2007a et 2007b), galland (2009), considèrent que ces deux types d’apprentissage se démarquent fondamentalement de la pédagogie traditionnelle magistrale dans la mesure où ils remettent en cause l’autorité exercée par l’enseignant sur les apprenants et favorisent son transfert vers le groupe. apprentissage coopératif cette méthode de travail tente de transformer les pratiques conventionnelles d’enseignement pour utiliser les différences entre les apprenants comme facteur d’apprentissage (galland, 2009: 7). elle permet aux apprenants “en situation d’échec, de réussir par le travail collectif ” (pléty, 1996: 15), à condition que les groupes soient interactifs et qu’ils montrent une réelle activité interne au niveau de “ce que les élèves peuvent s’apporter les uns aux autres, du fait de leur capacité en intelligence, action et organisation” (pléty, 1996: 153). pour baurdit (2007b: 5), l’idée de l’apprentissage coopératif est assez bien résumée par johnson et johnson (1990) qui l’assimilent: à un travail en petits groupes, dans un but commun, qui permet d’optimiser les apprentissages de chacun. (...) l’activité collective orientée dans une même direction, vers un objectif partagé par tous, peut profiter à chaque membre du groupe. lehraus, quant à elle, confirme que, le terme d’apprentissage coopératif: désigne un ensemble de méthodes dont l’enjeu est d’organiser une classe en sous-groupes, le plus souvent hétérogènes, au sein desquels les élèves travaillent en coopération sur des tâches scolaires. (2002: 518) en somme, l’apprentissage coopératif est une forme de travail en groupe comprenant des apprenants de niveaux hétérogènes qui s’entraident pour elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh ibérica 35 (2018): 67-9282 réaliser un projet commun. ce travail montre qu’il est possible “de mettre l’hétérogénéité des élèves au service de l’efficacité des apprentissages” (galland, 2009: 17). principes de l’apprentissage coopératif leharaus (2002: 519) note que l’apprentissage coopératif se repose sur cinq principes de base énoncés par johnson et al. (1994): 1. une interdépendance positive entre les membres des équipes souvent instaurée au moyen d’un but commun. selon abrami et al. (1996: 74), “il y a interdépendance positive quand le succès d’un élève augmente les chances de succès des autres”. 2. une responsabilisation individuelle et collective face à la tâche, assurée par “l’identification des contributions de chacun des membres du groupe” (galland, 2009: 16). 3. le développement systématique d’habiletés cognitives et sociales mises en œuvre dans le groupe (l’entraide, la solidarité, le partage, la conciliation). 4. la promotion d’interactions simultanées en groupes hétérogènes et restreints. ces groupes doivent être composés d’un nombre restreint d’apprenants et être “représentatif d’une certaine hétérogénéité (filles et garçons, niveaux scolaires différents [...] afin de “favoriser les interactions, de dynamiser les échanges” (baurdit, 2005: 6). 5. une réflexion critique sur les processus à l’œuvre dans les groupes. menée par l’enseignant, elle permet aux apprenants d’effectuer un bilan concernant le fonctionnement des groupes. ces principes, notamment celui d’interdépendance et d’hétérogénéité rendent les échanges entre les apprenants plus intenses et plus coordonnés, assurant une certaine efficacité collective et des gains personnels. grâce à leur participation active, “les membres des groupes peuvent améliorer leurs connaissances, acquérir de nouveaux savoirs. en agissant ensemble, ils sont amenés à progresser individuellement” (baurdit, 2007b: 5). apprentissage collaboratif pour henri et lundgren-cayrol, la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 83 l’apprentissage collaboratif est une démarche active par laquelle l’apprenant travaille à la construction de ses connaissances. le formateur y joue le rôle de facilitateur des apprentissages alors que le groupe y participe comme source d’information, comme agent de motivation, comme moyen d’entraide et de soutien mutuel et comme lieu privilégié d’interaction pour la construction collective des connaissances. (2001: 42) l’apprentissage collaboratif couple donc deux démarches: celle de l’apprenant et celle du groupe. l’apprenant est censé collaborer avec les membres du groupe pour réaliser un but commun tout en conciliant ses objectifs personnels et ses intérêts. il échange avec les autres apprenants pour réaliser une tâche collective ce qui lui permet de partager ses découvertes, de négocier le sens à donner à son travail et de valider ses connaissances acquises. dans sa démarche, l’apprenant doit être autonome et doit assumer la responsabilité de son apprentissage tout en sentant responsable de l’atteinte du but qu’il partage avec les autres apprenants. dans les deux types d’apprentissage (coopératif et collaboratif), on trouve l’idée d’un but commun à atteindre par les groupes. cependant, les points suivants, évoqués par henri et lundgren-cayrol (2001: 30-36), permettent de les distinguer: 1. maturité, contrôle et autonomie la démarche coopérative convient aux apprenants qui sont moins autonomes, qui n’ont pas acquis assez de maturité cognitive et ne possédant pas encore un répertoire élaboré de stratégies d’apprentissage. elle réserve à l’enseignant un contrôle éclairé sur l’apprentissage qui peut intervenir pour enseigner les habilités de coopération susceptibles d’aider les apprenants à accomplir la tâche. “il est en quelque sorte le dépositaire de ces savoirs et connaissances. ainsi, le fonctionnement groupal, l’activité collective, ne peuvent totalement lui échapper” (baurdit, 2007b: 121). la démarche collaborative, vise les mêmes objectifs tout en offrant aux apprenants plus de liberté. l’enseignant ne contrôle pas les groupes de façon active et son autorité est transférée complètement vers le groupe alors que ce transfert d’autorité reste partiel dans l’apprentissage coopératif. 2. le but partagé les deux types d’apprentissage: coopératif et collaboratif favorisent le travail collectif pour atteindre un but commun ou partagé. en effet, la coopération, elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh ibérica 35 (2018): 67-9284 comme l’indiquent abrami et al. (1995), repose sur la division des tâches et des responsabilités. c’est le groupe qui réalise la tâche de laquelle ressort une production collective. dans un apprentissage collaboratif, chaque membre cherchera individuellement à atteindre par lui-même le but. il en résultera plusieurs productions, une production collective et les productions individuelles des apprenants. 3. la tâche dans un apprentissage coopératif, la tâche est distribuée à tous les membres du groupe. le groupe est divisé en équipes restreintes à qui l’on confie des sous-tâches qui peuvent varier d’une équipe à l’autre. la tâche est complète lorsque tous les membres de l’équipe ont fait ce qu’ils avaient à faire et que toutes les équipes ont mis en commun leurs réalisations. cependant, dans un apprentissage collaboratif, l’apprenant réalise, pour lui et par lui-même, l’ensemble de la tâche en s’appuyant sur le groupe. cette réalisation est reprise ensuite par le groupe en utilisant les contributions de chacun. cette démarche collective permet au groupe d’atteindre le but tout en constituant un soutien à la démarche individuelle de chaque apprenant. 4. l’interdépendance dans la coopération, l’interdépendance positive est une condition obligatoire pour la réussite de l’apprentissage coopératif. l’apprentissage collaboratif valorise une interdépendance à caractère associatif. “ce qui importe surtout pour les membres, c’est de mettre en commun leurs idées, de faire part de leurs réalisations et de trouver auprès du groupe inspiration, soutien et appui” (henri et lundgren-cayrol, 2001: 35). les apprenants interagissent de façon autonome (baurdit, 2007b: 124). egalement, les rapports entre les membres des groupes doivent se considérer comme égalitaires dans l’apprentissage collaboratif. nous tenons à noter enfin que l’utilisation des tice, notamment l’enseignement en ligne, dans ces deux types d’apprentissage, offre aux apprenants “des avantages pédagogiques qu’il serait regrettable de leur refuser” (walckiers et de praetere, 2004: 55). en effet, exploiter l’enseignement en ligne dans l’enseignement présentiel offre aux apprenants: une grande flexibilité de temps et de lieu stimulant l’autonomie et la réflexion, la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 85 et une excellente interaction de chaque apprenant avec ses enseignants et ses pairs, source de motivation, d’entraide, d’esprit critique et de synthèse, etc. (walckiers et de praetere, 2004: 55). d’après cette distinction entre ces deux types d’apprentissage, il nous semble que l’apprentissage coopératif s’adapterait mieux à notre contexte d’apprentissage à cause de l’hétérogénéité du niveau de maîtrise du français de la part des apprenants. exemples d’activités pour notre document sonore, deux approches sont envisageables en fonction de la disponibilité des moyens techniques et du niveau linguistique des apprenants; soit on adopte une démarche de compréhension orale interactive, soit on transforme les discours oraux en discours écrits. dans cette étude, nous optons pour une démarche mixte qui consiste à diviser les apprenants en deux groupes en fonction de leur niveau en français. le premier regroupe les apprenants ayant un bon niveau en français. ils pourraient travailler sur les composantes linguistiques, extralinguistiques, sociolinguistique et interculturelle à partir de l’écoute. le deuxième est constitué d’apprenants dont le niveau en français est faible. ils pourraient travailler sur les mêmes composantes dans le discours, transformé en écrit. concernant le déroulement des activités, nous nous inspirons d’une des techniques américaines d’apprentissage coopératif “team accelerated instruction” (tai) présentée par baurdit (2005: 36-38). elle fonctionne en trois temps: 1. le premier se caractérise par des apprentissages individualisés où les membres des groupes travaillent seuls sur des exercices en rapport avec leur niveau en français. 2. ils se réunissent ensuite et corrigent collectivement ce qui a été fait par les uns et les autres. c’est le temps de l’entraide. 3. ils sont enfin confrontés individuellement à des activités correspondant à leurs niveaux. cette technique permet: elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh ibérica 35 (2018): 67-9286 aux élèves de travailler à leurs propres niveaux, s’ils manquent de prérequis ils peuvent construire de solides fondations avant de continuer. de même, s’ils progressent très rapidement, ils n’ont pas besoin d’attendre le reste de la classe. (bardit, 2005: 37) pour l’enseignant, elle permet de gérer pédagogiquement les différences de niveau entre les apprenants. les types d’activités à proposer se rassemblent à ceux du fle (compréhension/expression orale/écrite, exercices grammaticaux, lexicaux, jeux de rôle, simulation, etc.). cependant, les formations du fos articulent la dimension linguistique à la dimension professionnelle. activités basées sur la technique tai activité 1: compréhension globale lisez/écoutez le document deux fois et répondez aux questions suivantes: combien de personnes parlent? comment s’appellent-t-elles? quelle est leur fonction? de quoi parlent-elles? où se trouvent-elles? le travail sur la compréhension orale permet de développer la perception auditive et l’écoute attentive chez les apprenants et de les familiariser avec les spécificités phonologiques et prosodiques du français parlé dans les pays francophones. activité 2: composante morphosyntaxique relevez les verbes au passé composé et les transformez au passé simple! ex. a alerté (alerta) a demandé (demanda) a ralenti (ralentit). cette activité permet aux apprenants de maîtriser la forme écrite de la langue et de prendre conscience des différences de fonctionnement entre l’écrit et l’oral. en effet, le passé simple est souvent utilisé dans la rédaction des comptes rendus, tâche essentielle pendant les missions. de plus, comme pour le travail à partir de l’écoute, l’objectif final sera l’acquisition des termes spécialisés et la découverte de la construction du discours en français dans un domaine spécifique. ensuite, les apprenants doivent se réunir, après chaque activité, afin de vérifier et de corriger ensemble leurs réponses. dans cette phase, il faut que l’enseignant s’assure que les échanges se font en français. la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 87 cette alternance d’apprentissages individualisés et collectifs permet de responsabiliser les apprenants: à la fois de façon personnelle et sociale. leur responsabilité personnelle est engagée puisque seul compte le score obtenu aux épreuves finales passées individuellement, sans l’aide des pairs. leur responsabilité sociale se situe précisément lors de la seconde phase, quand aide des pairs il y a [...]. les élèves ont donc tout intérêt à prendre au sérieux leur propre progression scolaire et la qualité du soutien qu’ils fournissent à leurs camarades. (baurdit, 2005: 37) d’autres activités seront ensuite proposées en fonction du niveau de chaque apprenant. pour rendre l’apprentissage plus dynamique, d’autres techniques permettant de stimuler une réalité professionnelle, pourraient être proposées. en constituant des groupes d’apprenants linguistiquement hétérogènes, l’enseignant pourrait leur proposer, sous forme de jeux de rôle ou de simulation, d’imaginer un interrogatoire avec les suspects ou de rédiger un compte rendu sur l’affaire. dans ces techniques, chaque apprenant est censé avoir un rôle précis et doit s’entraider avec les autres pour la réalisation d’un objectif commun. ce type de tâche pourrait être proposée sur une plateforme de e-learning, sous la supervision de l’enseignant, que l’idl a les possibilités techniques de créer. conclusion nous avons tenté, dans cette recherche, de proposer des pistes pour améliorer la qualité de la formation du fos dispensée à l’idl. nous avons pu constater, d’après notre enquête, que cette formation reste insuffisante et qu’elle devrait être conçue différemment. nous proposons donc, au delà des recommandations faites lors de l’analyse du questionnaire, ce qui suit: les objectifs de la formation doivent être orientés davantage vers l’acquisition d’une compétence de communication qui aidera les apprenants à faire face aux situations de communication professionnelle. en effet, l’objectif actuel de la formation est la réussite à l’examen saat. nous comprenons que la réussite à l’examen saat est une condition pour participer aux missions de elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh ibérica 35 (2018): 67-9288 l’onu, cependant, si la formation se concentre sur l’acquisition d’une compétence de communication orale et écrite, la réussite à cet examen sera plus facile. cela aidera également les apprenants à se sentir plus à l’aise pendant la formation et les policiers qui réussissent à l’examen seront plus compétents sur le terrain. les trois types de formations proposées à l’institut doivent s’harmoniser et se compléter. avant l’inscription à la formation du fos, les policiers devraient suivre les deux autres formations en français général et en français orientée vers les sciences policières. de plus, ils devraient être soumis à la fin de chaque formation à une évaluation interne pour s’assurer qu’ils ont atteint le niveau qui leur permettra de passer à la formation suivante. en effet, la complexité des situations de communication et celle du discours lors des missions, nécessitent une connaissance approfondie en français. le lieu de la formation: ces formations doivent être, si possible, proposées en dehors du lieu du travail des policiers ou assurée, pour une partie, par des enseignants non policiers. cela permettrait d’éviter certaines contraintes liées à la relation avec la hiérarchie que le régime policier impose. un programme de formation continue destinée aux enseignants de l’idl s’avère nécessaire. elle les initiera à la mise en place d’une pédagogie coopérative et à l’utilisation de l’enseignement en ligne. cette initiation devrait se faire à travers des formations qui mettent les enseignants eux-mêmes dans des contextes coopératifs et qui favorisent l’utilisation de l’enseignement en ligne à côté de celui en présentiel. cette méthode de formation “bouscule leurs habitudes de travail, leurs façons de faire la classe souvent basées sur des interventions individualisées auprès des élèves” (baurdit, 2007c: 87). la culture pédagogique coopérative permet aux enseignants de mieux gérer l’hétérogénéité du niveau de maîtrise du français et fournit aux apprenants des outils indispensables pour mieux réussir leur apprentissage. article history: received 18 march 2016 received in revised form 12 september 2016 accepted 12 september 2016 la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 89 references elie alrabadi et ghaleb kasasbeh ibérica 35 (2018): 67-9290 abrami, p., b. chambers, c. poulsen, c. simone, s. d’apollonia et j. howden (1996). l’apprentissage coopératif: théories, méthodes, activités. montréal: chenelière. alrabadi, e. (2011). “l’élaboration d’un programme de français du tourisme dans le contexte universitaire jordanien”. thélème 26: 89-110. berchoud, m.-j. et rolland, d. (ed.) (2004). “français sur objectifs spécifiques: de la langue aux métiers”. fdm, paris: hachette. baurdit, a. (2005). l’apprentissage coopératif: origines et évolutions d’une méthode pédagogique. de boeck: bruxelles. baurdit, a. (2007a). l’apprentissage collaboratif: plus qu’une méthode collective? de boeck: bruxelles. baurdit, a. (2007b). “apprentissage coopératif/apprentissage collaboratif: d’un comparatisme conventionnel à un comparatisme critique”. les sciences de l’éducation 40: 115-136. baurdit, a. (2007c). “la formation des enseignants aux méthodes d’apprentissage coopératif: perspectives internationals”. savoirs 14: 73-92. carras, c., j. tolas, p. kohler et e. szilagyi (2007). le français sur objectifs spécifiques et la classe de langue. paris: cle international. henri, f. et k. lundgren-cayrol (2001). apprentissage collaboratif à distance. québec, puq. galland, b. (2009). “hétérogénéité des élèves et apprentissage: quelle place pour les pratiques d’enseignement?” ulr: https://halshs.archivesouvertes.fr/halshs-00561564/document [25/08/16]. johnson, d. w. et r. t. johnson (1990). “what is cooperative learning?” in m. brubacher k., r. payne et k. rickett (ed.), perspectives on small group learning, 68-80. oakville: rubicon publishing inc. johnson, d.w., r.t. johnson et e. holubec (1994). cooperative learning in the classroom. alexandria: ascd. kasasbeh, g. (2013). français sur objectifs spécifiques: la formation de futurs policiers jordaniens aux missions des nations unies, mémoire de master en sciences du langage, université du yarmouk, jordanie, sous la direction de dr. elie alrabadi. lehmann, d. (1993). objectifs spécifiques en langue étrangère. paris: hachette. lehraus, k. (2002). “la pédagogie coopérative : de la formation à la mise en pratique”. revue suisse des sciences de l’éducation 24: 517-538. le ninan, c. et b. miroudot (2004). “apprentissage du fos. diversité des situations d’enseignement” in m.-j. berchoud et d. rolland (ed.), 106-114. lousada, e. (2004). “approche de situations d’action langagière” in m.-j. berchoud et d. rolland (ed.), 125-133. mangiante, j.-m (2011). “l’intégration culturelle et linguistique des migrants: quels contenus et quels outils de formation et d’évaluation?” url: https://portail.umons.ac.be/fr/universite/facultes/f ti/services/documents/m%c3%a9tiers_fle_2013 _conf_int%c3%a9gration_migrants.pdf [20/08/16]. mangiante, j.-m et c. parpette (2004). le français sur objectif spécifique: de l’analyse des besoins à l’élaboration d’un cours. paris: hachette. mangiante, j.-m et c. parpette (2012). “le français sur objectif universitaire: de la maitrise linguistique aux compétences universitaires”. synergies algérie 15: 147-166. mangiante, j.-m et c. parpette (2014). le français sur objectif universitaire. grenoble. pug. mourlhon-dallies, f. (2006a). “penser le français langue professionnelle”. fdm, cle international 346: 25-28. mourlhon-dallies, f. (2006b). “du français sur objectifs spécifiques au français langue professionnelle”. ulr: http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/ressources /comptes-rendus-de-colloques-journees-d-etude/ rencontres-2006-apprendre-le-francais-dans-uncontexte-professionne [19/08/16]. mourlhon-dallies, f. (2008). enseigner une langue à des fins professionnelles. paris: didier. mourlhon-dallies, f. (2011). “le français sur objectifs universitaires, entre français académique, français de spécialité et français préprofessionnel”. synergies monde 8: 135-134. pléty, r. (1996). l’apprentissage coopérant. lyon: pul. qotb, h. ulr: http://www.le-fos.com/profil.htm [19/08/16]. qotb, h. (2008). “un site pour l’enseignement du français sur objectifs spécifiques: le fos.com”. synergies chine 3: 81-94. elie alrabadi professeur associé de français, spécialisé en fos. j’ai publié 10 articles dans des revues scientifiques internationales. ghaleb kasasbeh ancien formateur du fos à l’idl à la police jordanienne j’ai participé à plusieurs missions de maintien de la paix avec l’onu. notes 1 saat: selection assistance and assessment team. 2 nous avons participé à cette mission au congo: comme administrateur dans la section personnelle et logistique civpol monuc 2003-2004. 3 http://www.le-fos.com/profil.htm. 4 unpol est l’acronyme officiel pour désigner la police des nations unies, magazine de la police des nations unies, 2011: 40. la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix ibérica 35 (2018): 67-92 91 qotb, h. (2011). “vers un enseignement/ apprentissage du français sur objectifs universitaires à distance”. synergies monde 8: 163-176. rapport concernant les normes de formation au pré-déploiement pour la police des nations. url:http://reffop.francophonie.org/system/files/do cuments%20utiles/onu__normes_de_formation_a u_pre_deploiement.pdf [11/12/15]. richterich, r. (1985). besoins langagiers et objectifs d’apprentissage. paris: hachette. richer, j.-j. (2008). “le français sur objectifs spécifiques (f.o.s.): une didactique spécialisée?”. synergies chine 3: 15-30. sagnier, c. (2004). “les méthodes et l’usage des méthodes en fos: intérêts, usages, limites” in m.j. berchoud et d. rolland (ed.), 96-105. walckiers, m. et t. de praetere (2004). “l’apprentissage collaboratif en ligne, huit avantages qui en font un must”. distances et savoirs 1: 53-75. iberica 13 ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 issn 1139-7241 resumen el objetivo del presente artículo es realizar un estudio sistemático de los géneros utilizados en el sector turístico. tras una discusión del concepto de género, se propondrá una clasificación jerarquizada, que permita dar cuenta de la gran variedad de géneros, a menudo híbridos, en los que se despliega la comunicación turística. se tomarán en consideración tanto los géneros propios de la gestión (contratos de viaje, normativas, etc.) como los creados para la descripción y promoción de los lugares turísticos (guía, folleto, etc.). asimismo, se tendrá en cuenta la aparición de nuevos géneros difundidos a través de internet, en los que los usuarios se convierten en expertos de la comunicación turística (foros, blogs, etc.), creando nuevos paradigmas comunicativos que podrían trastocar los esquemas tradicionales. palabras clave: lenguaje del turismo, géneros discursivos, lenguas de especialidad, discurso especializado. abstract discursive genres in the language of tourism: a classification proposal this paper aims to offer a systematic study of the genres used in the tourist industry. after a discussion of the concept of genre, a hierarchical classification will be put forward in order to cover the complex variety of genres, often hybrid, used in tourist communication. i shall take into account not only genres regarding organization and management (contracts, regulations, etc.) but also genres elaborated for the description and promotion of tourist places (guide books, brochures, etc.), as well as new genres created in the internet, thanks to which users become experts in tourist communication (newsgroups, blogs, etc.), and which could subvert the traditional paradigms of tourist communication. key words: language of tourism, discourse genres, specialized languages, specialized discourse. los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo: una propuesta de clasificación maria vittoria calvi università degli studi di milano (italy) maria.calvi@unimi.it 9 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:19 página 9 ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 maria vittoria calvi introducción la implantación del turismo como actividad profesional ha favorecido el desarrollo de géneros textuales específicos, tales como la guía, el folleto o el programa de viaje; sin embargo, la heterogeneidad de este lenguaje y el frecuente empleo de unidades terminológicas procedentes de sectores como la historia del arte, la geografía y la gastronomía, entre otros, han dificultado su inclusión y estudio en el ámbito de las lenguas de especialidad1 (en adelante, le), sobre todo mientras los enfoques de esta parcela de la lengua se han centrado principalmente en la creación del léxico especializado, visto como rasgo diferenciador frente a la lengua común. sin embargo, es oportuno matizar esta afirmación. si bien se mira, la bibliografía existente sobre el lenguaje del turismo (en adelante, lt) ya no es tan escasa, y se va enriqueciendo con nuevas aportaciones; asimismo, es cada vez más frecuente que, en las recopilaciones de estudios sobre las le, se incluya también el lt. por ejemplo, el volumen sobre las lenguas profesionales y académicas (alcaraz varó, mateo martínez y yus ramos, 2007) contiene un capítulo dedicado al lenguaje del turismo, en el que las autoras (aragón cobo, eurrutia cavero y planelles ibáñez, 2007), al reseñar algunos de los títulos de la bibliografía del sector, señalan que su amplitud desborda las previsiones iniciales. lo que sí es cierto es que, hasta la fecha, los estudios de corte lingüístico sobre el lt han tenido menos impacto y repercusión en la comunidad científica que, por un lado, las investigaciones dedicadas a otras le (lenguaje jurídico, lenguaje académico, etc.) y, por otro, los enfoques del fenómeno turístico elaborados en ámbitos disciplinares tales como la geografía, la antropología, la sociología, la psicología social y los estudios culturales (urry 1990; leed, 1991; santana, 1997, etc.). muchos autores han destacado la primacía del lenguaje en la configuración del destino turístico. dann (1996), por ejemplo, describe la elaboración del discurso turístico como instrumento de control social, analizando las palabras clave empleadas en los diferentes medios comunicativos. cronin (2000) ve en la traducción y en el descubrimiento de la diversidad lingüística una de las claves del fenómeno turístico y del encuentro con otras culturas. estos trabajos ofrecen un consistente respaldo teórico para el análisis de los textos turísticos dirigidos al público, pero dejan en la sombra otros aspectos de la comunicación entre los especialistas. en los últimos años, la pujanza del turismo como sector profesional, así como la creciente demanda de formación en lenguas extranjeras para 10 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:19 página 10 operadores del turismo, han promovido nuevas aproximaciones a este lenguaje, gracias también a la diversificación de los enfoques de las le. esto explica la ya mencionada eclosión de estudios lingüísticos sobre el lt, pero el carácter fragmentario da razón de su todavía escasa visibilidad, no sólo por lo que se refiere a la lengua española, sino también a otras lenguas como el inglés. la mayoría de los estudios hacen hincapié en las guías turísticas, en los folletos y, últimamente, en las páginas web (kerbrat-orecchioni, 2004; antelmi, held y santulli, 2007; maci, 2007). también se ha prestado atención a la práctica de la traducción en el sector turístico (fuentes luque, 2005; nobs, 2006). asimismo, cabe recordar la publicación de diccionarios especializados, entre los que sobresale alcaraz varó et al. (2000), que, además, en una extensa introducción propone una concienzuda clasificación del léxico más utilizado en los textos turísticos, tanto en el área de la gestión como en la descripción de los lugares. entre los estudios más antiguos, cabe recordar febas borra (1978), que analiza detenidamente un corpus de folletos españoles de aquella época, ofreciendo un válido testimonio histórico, además de un riguroso análisis semiótico; pero este interesante artículo con extensión de libro pasó casi desapercibido. lo que escasea, en todo caso, son las visiones de conjunto, que puedan dar cuenta de las diferentes facetas lingüísticas de la comunicación turística y de la complejidad de las manifestaciones textuales que caracterizan un área profesional tan dinámica y multiforme. considero que los planteamientos basados en el concepto de género (genre) son los más adecuados para analizar las propiedades de los textos turísticos y su relación con el contexto sociocultural en el que son producidos, permitiendo así integrar la perspectiva lingüístico-formal con los enfoques pragmáticos, discursivos y sociocríticos. en efecto, la noción de género ofrece un marco de análisis para los elementos lingüísticos y metadiscursivos, englobando las aportaciones tradicionales del análisis léxico y textual. al mismo tiempo, permite situar el evento comunicativo dentro de una configuración de prácticas sociales, teniendo en cuenta las convenciones y las restricciones impuestas por el contexto, el estatus de los interlocutores, etc. en el presente artículo, me propongo dos objetivos fundamentales: en primer lugar, profundizar en el concepto de género, tal y como se ha venido definiendo en el estudio de las le, y aplicarlo al ámbito turístico; en segundo lugar, esbozar una clasificación de los géneros textuales producidos en este los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 11 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:19 página 11 campo que refleje la complejidad de las relaciones profesionales implicadas. la clasificación propuesta, elaborada en el marco del proyecto de investigación “linguaturismo”2, ha nacido de una necesidad operativa, la de crear un corpus textual y analizarlo mediante los instrumentos de la lingüística del corpus, combinando metodologías cuantitativas y cualitativas. lejos de ser un esquema rígido, esta ordenación se configura como un modelo flexible y abierto. definición del concepto de “género” la noción de género tiene una larga tradición crítica, que se remonta a la retórica de aristóteles y su clasificación tripartita de las prácticas discursivas institucionalizadas de la época, es decir, el género forense o jurídico, el género deliberativo o político, y el género demostrativo o epidíctico. en lo sucesivo, la retórica se desplazó al terreno literario y el concepto de género se desarrolló en el ámbito de la crítica literaria, para identificar las diferentes modalidades de representación de la realidad y sus convenciones: bien es sabido el peso que tuvieron, a lo largo de los siglos, las discusiones sobre el canon y las reglas de los géneros, que presuponen orden y previsibilidad, así como las desviaciones y la violaciones realizadas por los creadores, que rompen con los paradigmas establecidos. cuando, en la era de la llamada postmodernidad, se desdibujan las fronteras entre los distintos géneros, no se entenderían las transgresiones si no se tuviera en cuenta la conciencia de las convenciones y el horizonte de espera que crean en el destinatario. creo que, a la hora de reflexionar sobre el concepto de género, no se debería olvidar su origen y su relación tanto con las prácticas discursivas institucionales como con las modalidades de representación de la realidad. fue bajtin (1978) quien propuso una visión abarcadora de los géneros del discurso, desde los géneros primarios de la comunicación oral espontánea hasta los géneros secundarios de las distintas esferas de las actividades humanas (política, literatura, ciencias, etc.), que reelaboran los géneros primarios en un sinfín de combinaciones. aunque las formulaciones de bajtin sobre el género se mantienen en el campo de la teoría, se destaca la centralidad de este principio en una visión unitaria de las prácticas discursivas y su conciencia del papel del lenguaje en la creación de la realidad social. en los últimos 30 años, el concepto de género se ha defendido en diferentes campos de la lingüística. en el ámbito de la enseñanza del inglés con fines maria vittoria calvi ibérica 19 (2010): 9-3212 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:19 página 12 específicos, swales (1990) y bhatia (1993) definen el género como evento comunicativo creado dentro de una determinada comunidad discursiva (discourse community) para realizar cierto propósito comunicativo. en este marco, el análisis de un texto parte de la identificación de los distintos movimientos retóricos (moves) y su específico objetivo comunicativo (bhatia, 1993). otros autores como berkenkotter y huckin (1995) hacen hincapié en la tipificación del género como modelo institucionalizado para las actividades sociales y profesionales. asimismo, esta concepción se reveló muy fecunda en la traductología (hatim y mason, 1990), donde se relaciona con los aspectos interculturales de la actividad traductora. en el encuadre de la lingüística textual francesa, adam (2001) subraya que los géneros poseen un núcleo normativo relativamente estable, y se pueden concebir en términos de “architextualidad” (relación entre un texto y las categorías genéricas), distinguiendo este concepto de la “intertextualidad” (citas de otros textos) y la “interdiscursividad”, que se relaciona con la presencia de diferentes géneros en una formación sociodiscursiva. asimismo, este autor separa claramente el género de otro concepto con el que a menudo se confunde, el de “tipología textual”: mientras que el género define al texto en su totalidad y en relación con la situación sociocomunicativa, las categorías tipológicas (descripción, narración, argumentación, etc.) se sitúan en un nivel menos elevado de la complejidad textual, es decir, las distintas secuencias que conforman un texto. dentro de la lingüística hispánica, loureda lamas (2003: 37) define los géneros textuales como “modelos intuitivos aglutinadores paradigmáticos de los caracteres necesarios de todos los textos de una misma naturaleza”. su carácter intuitivo depende de la percepción de los hablantes frente a los rasgos comunes entre diferentes hechos lingüísticos, y se relaciona con otro concepto muy fecundo en las reflexiones sobre el género, el de “horizonte de espera” (jauss, 1982). para el hablante, el género representa un modelo al que atenerse en su elaboración discursiva, para el receptor la pertenencia de un texto a un determinado género crea una serie de expectativas sobre su contenido y sus finalidades comunicativas. en el marco de la enseñanza del español para fines específicos, cassany (2004) describe el género profesional como una unidad de comunicación que se ha desarrollado sociohistóricamente en el seno de una actividad laboral específica y propone un modelo de análisis que incluye tanto características léxico-gramaticales y discursivas como pragmáticas. los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 13 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:19 página 13 en los últimos años, las reflexiones sobre el género se han hecho más complejas, gracias también a las aportaciones del análisis crítico del discurso, que permite enmarcar los diferentes géneros dentro de un orden del discurso y sus prácticas sociales (fairclough, 1995). cabe destacar, en particular, la propuesta integradora de bhatia (2004), que conjuga la vertiente formal y comunicativa con la perspectiva sociocrítica, alcanzando una visión más dinámica del contexto, los participantes en la interacción y sus cambiantes identidades. en resumen, los diferentes autores que han tratado y desarrollado el concepto de género insistiendo más, según los casos, en los aspectos formales o en los sociodiscursivos, coinciden en una serie de rasgos identificativos, entre los que cabe destacar: a) el género es una clase, un modelo abstracto, una perspectiva que actúa como molde para el hablante y como horizonte de espera para los destinatarios o para los miembros de una comunidad discursiva específica; se caracteriza por una serie de rasgos convencionales, relacionados con los contextos sociales y comunicativos, e identificables en los diferentes niveles del análisis lingüístico. cabe distinguirlo de los conceptos de “registro” y “tipología textual”, aunque la confusión entre género y tipología, en particular, sigue siendo frecuente. b) las transformaciones socioculturales pueden determinar cambios significativos en las pautas textuales; asimismo, se vislumbra una tensión entre las restricciones impuestas por el marco genérico y la variación propia de una situación comunicativa determinada, entre las fuerzas centrípetas y centrífugas. entre los elementos perturbadores de mayor alcance en la actualidad, sobresalen la irrupción de internet y la multimodalidad, que han trastocado los esquemas tradicionales, creando nuevos géneros y modificando los existentes; la insistencia en los aspectos promocionales, entre otros rasgos, se ha infiltrado incluso en los discursos de mayor neutralidad emotiva (garzone, 2007). maria vittoria calvi ibérica 19 (2010): 9-3214 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:19 página 14 géneros fronterizos, familias de géneros, macrogéneros y subgéneros cuando, del plano de la teoría, pasamos a la práctica e intentamos hacer inventario de las innumerables variedades textuales existentes, nos encontramos con una complejidad abrumadora. así lo expresa vijay k. bhatia (2002), en términos metafóricos, desde las páginas de esta misma revista: the real world of discourse may seem chaotic, because it is complex, dynamic and fluid, in the sense it is constantly developing. to me it is somewhat similar to what we see at night as the chaotic and yet systematic patterns in the galaxy. like the stars in the galaxy, the genres exist in colonies (bhatia, 1995, 1997a), and then colonies have systematic relationship with each other as one may find in the whole galaxy of the universe (bhatia, 2002: 8). para este autor, las colonias comprenden series de géneros afines, con características comunes y utilizados en distintas comunidades discursivas; forman colonias, por ejemplo, los géneros académicos, los promocionales, los epistolares, los de la comunicación electrónica, etc. bhatia habla también de géneros híbridos (mixed or embedded genres), es decir, géneros que combinan diferentes propósitos comunicativos, a menudo complementarios pero incluso en conflicto entre ellos (por ejemplo, intereses privados en el contexto de propósitos comunicativos socialmente reconocidos). también se he hablado de “sistemas de géneros” (bazerman, 1994), es decir, conjuntos de géneros interrelacionados que actúan en ámbitos específicos (jurídico, administrativo, de los negocios, etc.); estos géneros forman secuencias en las que cada uno está determinado por los anteriores y determina a su vez los siguientes (por ejemplo, una carta de reclamación se sitúa en un sistema que puede comprender pedidos, contratos, etc.). este concepto se acerca al de orden del discurso, propuesto por fairclough (1995), que comprende la totalidad de los géneros, prácticas discursivas y estilos convencionales de una institución o actividad; la noción de práctica discursiva, por su parte, expresa las relaciones de encadenamiento entre las distintas fases de producción, distribución y consumo de textos. asimismo, este autor hace hincapié en la “interdiscursividad” o “intertextualidad constitutiva”; es decir, la constitución de un texto a partir de distintos discursos y géneros. frente a la intertextualidad manifiesta, que se refiere a la presencia evidente de textos engastados en otros, la interdiscursividad se los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 15 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 15 realiza en la perspectiva más amplia de los órdenes del discurso. este concepto es muy apto para describir las relaciones recíprocas entre géneros distintos, mientras que el de intertextualidad atañe a textos concretos. en resumidas cuentas, es muy difícil que los géneros se presenten en estado puro; más bien, se combinan e interactúan entre ellos formando sistemas, colonias, cadenas, etc., con diferentes relaciones de interdependencia. el hibridismo, lejos de ser una condición excepcional, suele ser la norma; aunque existen, sin duda alguna, géneros con un grado elevado de convencionalismo (en particular, los jurídicos), hay otros que, para utilizar una denominación de raigambre hispánica, se podrían definir fronterizos, al situarse en la frontera entre géneros distintos; la migración de los géneros tradicionales a la web es un factor desencadenante en este sentido. para clasificar los géneros de un determinado sector, necesitamos por tanto modelos multifuncionales y multidimensionales; por ejemplo, puede resultar productivo situar el género en un esquema jerarquizado que comprenda categorías superiores, como macrogénero y supragénero, e inferiores, como subgénero. cabe citar, a este respecto, el sistema propuesto por garcía izquierdo (2007 y 2009) y el grupo de investigación gentt para la creación de una enciclopedia de géneros jurídicos, científicos y económicos, con especial atención al ámbito de la traducción. en este marco, se establecen diferentes niveles jerárquicos (ezpeleta piorno y gamero pérez, 2004): • familia de géneros: que comprende un conjunto de textos con una finalidad comunicativa común dentro de un contexto socioprofesional específico; • supragénero: una categoría abstracta que representa los rasgos mínimos comunes a los géneros que reúne, desde el punto de vista del propósito comunicativo y del canal; • género: que se caracteriza por sus dimensiones comunicativas y pragmáticas, y ciertos rasgos de materialización lingüística; y • subgénero: determinado por el campo temático concreto en el que se aplica; es un nivel significativo para el análisis microlingüístico, pero no tiene la misma relevancia en todos los géneros. el mismo grupo de investigación, sin embargo, señala que estas pautas, utilizadas con la finalidad de crear una taxonomía, quedan bastante difuminadas y susceptibles de modificación, de acuerdo con el contexto maria vittoria calvi ibérica 19 (2010): 9-3216 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 16 socioprofesional al que son aplicados y su sistema de géneros. en garcía izquierdo (2009) se propone un árbol de géneros médicos basado en tres niveles: macrogénero (que agrupa diferentes géneros que tienen en común el mismo propósito comunicativo dominante), género (que, a su vez, se inscribe en un “sistema de géneros”) y subgénero. en garcía izquierdo y monzó nebot (2003) se plantea la utilidad de la categoría de macrogénero para clasificar textos en los que se combinan diferentes géneros, pero cuya entidad final no es la suma de ellos; un concepto muy útil, como se verá más adelante, para la clasificación de los géneros del turismo. en resumidas cuentas, la noción de género es una herramienta muy útil en el análisis lingüístico; pero los géneros son modelos abstractos, que no siempre se amoldan a la extrema variedad y complejidad de los productos reales, es decir, los textos; de ahí la necesidad de enfoques multidimensionales, que permitan abarcar el conjunto de géneros pertenecientes al mismo ámbito profesional, vislumbrando su disposición en sistemas, colonias, jerarquías, etc., y teniendo en cuenta los lazos de interdependencia. ninguna clasificación es definitiva, sino que depende de los objetivos del análisis: proponer una taxonomía completa de los géneros utilizados en un sector profesional no es lo mismo que observar con lupa las distintas articulaciones temáticas de un género determinado. nacimiento y desarrollo de los géneros turísticos los estudiosos suelen hacer coincidir el nacimiento del turismo propiamente dicho, en oposición a las anteriores formas de viaje, con dos acontecimientos específicos: el primer viaje de grupo, organizado por thomas cook en 1841, y la aparición de las primeras guías turísticas, publicadas por el editor inglés john murray y el alemán karl baedeker a partir de la década de 1830, que se proponían facilitar a las categorías sociales emergentes todas las informaciones útiles para sus viajes. en particular, las guías alemanas se convirtieron en referencia obligada para los nuevos turistas, y el nombre de baedeker en sinónimo de guía de viaje. llama la atención que el origen del turismo en sentido moderno esté asociado, por consenso unánime, al desarrollo de un nuevo género textual, la guía de viaje, que va definiendo su estilo en una relación de interdiscursividad con otras clases textuales cercanas, como los libros de viajes, centrados en la visión subjetiva del autor-viajero, los textos geográficos, destinados a la los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 17 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 17 descripción de un territorio, y, por último, los manuales para comerciantes y viajeros, que proporcionaban informaciones prácticas. las guías de viaje conjugan estos elementos en combinaciones muy distintas; responden a los intereses intelectuales del público más culto y atienden a las necesidades de asesoramiento del turista, guiándolo de la mano; se alejan de la vertiente más literaria del libro de viaje sustituyendo la mirada personal por una visión pretendidamente objetiva. en efecto, la elaboración de la guía presupone la experiencia del viaje, que sin embargo permanece oculta, permitiendo la infinita repetición del mismo itinerario; en definitiva, aun satisfaciendo la ingente demanda de información, las guías cumplen una función fundamentalmente prescriptiva (kerbrat-orecchioni, 2004; antelmi, held y santulli, 2007). tampoco han faltado fórmulas mixtas, en las que el itinerario de viaje es presentado por la pluma de un escritor importante, como en el caso de las guías de españa publicadas por las editoriales espasa-calpe y destino entre los años cuarenta y setenta del siglo pasado, que se proponían como sustitutos del viaje, exhibiendo el atractivo de la calidad literaria y el cuidado gráfico (arroyo ilera, 2008). en los últimos años, se registra una importante diversificación tanto en el estilo como en la presentación gráfica y en los soportes utilizados: guías visuales, audioguías, guías para el ipod, etc. con el paso del tiempo, junto a la guía se han desarrollado otros géneros destinados a la descripción de los lugares turísticos, como los folletos, editados por instituciones públicas o privadas, los reportajes y otros tipos de artículos publicados en revistas especializadas. asimismo, se ha ido edificando un orden del discurso, para utilizar la terminología de fairclough (1995), compuesto por diferentes prácticas sociales y discursivas, que ocurren en diferentes espacios sociales (agencias de viajes, hoteles, ferias del sector, etc.) y en las que intervienen distintos actores (operadores turísticos, guías y acompañantes de viajes, etc.). en algunos casos, se generan variedades textuales específicas, como las guías y los folletos; en otros, se importan géneros procedentes de otros ámbitos, y en particular de la economía y el comercio, adaptándolos a las necesidades propias del sector (contratos, facturas, informes, etc.). las prácticas sociales y las correspondientes producciones textuales se pueden agrupar en tres bloques principales: 1) reflexión teórica sobre el fenómeno del turismo y sus características, que se lleva a cabo en distintos campos, desde la economía y la geografía a la sociología, la psicología social y la maria vittoria calvi ibérica 19 (2010): 9-3218 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 18 antropología. es el nivel científico más alto, caracterizado por la interdisciplinariedad; las teorizaciones contribuyen a la acuñación de neologismos relativos a los aspectos tipológicos y motivacionales del turismo (por ejemplo, “turismo de masas”). 2) gestión, que comprende un amplio abanico de actividades relacionadas (agencias de viajes, hostelería y restauración, transportes, seguros, congresos y ferias). en esta esfera, se maneja una amplia gama de géneros textuales, tanto escritos (reservas, billetes, facturas, normativas, catálogos, etc.) como orales (interacciones entre expertos, interacciones entre operadores y público, etc.), y se engendra la mayor parte del léxico específico (“viaje combinado”, “hotel rural”, “vuelo chárter”, etc.). 3) descripción y promoción del destino turístico, que representa la vertiente más original del lenguaje del turismo. pertenecen a este sector, como se ha visto, las formas textuales más peculiares; el léxico empleado, por el contrario, procede de otras áreas y disciplinas tales como la geografía, la historia, la historia del arte, la gastronomía, etc. destacan, sin embargo, algunos usos especiales de esta terminología, como las recurrentes combinaciones entre adjetivos y sustantivos, con valor ponderativo (“imponente castillo”, “cálidas aguas”, “espléndidas vistas”, etc. para más ejemplos, véase calvi 2006). a diferencia de otras especialidades, por lo tanto, en la lengua del turismo no se da una progresiva divulgación de los contenidos teóricos en niveles de especialización cada vez menos densos, sino una combinación de múltiples actividades y disciplinas más o menos pertinentes. mientras que en el área de la gestión se emplean formas discursivas parecidas a las de otras actividades comerciales, la comunidad de los expertos del viaje elabora un lenguaje original cuando se dirige al público, para atraerlo, informarlo y dirigir su mirada, ejerciendo un significativo impacto social. por supuesto, la descripción del lugar turístico es también una actividad de marketing vinculada a la gestión, pero la peculiaridad del producto requiere unos modelos textuales propios, que entroncan con distintas tradiciones discursivas. otro elemento clave en el desarrollo de los géneros del turismo es la irrupción de la comunicación a través de la red, que ha determinado la “recontextualización” (linell, 1998) de muchos géneros, rompiendo con las los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 19 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 19 convenciones y creando nuevos horizontes de espera en los destinatarios. como ya se ha dicho, la difusión electrónica ha potenciado los aspectos promocionales y la implicación del interlocutor, incluso en los géneros más técnicos, antes reservados a los expertos (por ejemplo, los informes anuales de las empresas). asimismo, se han difundido modalidades más participativas de gestión de la información. la cantidad de textos turísticos consultables en internet es ingente, desde la simple versión electrónica de documentos en papel (folletos, catálogos de viajes, etc.), hasta la emergencia de nuevos géneros, que combinan pautas preexistentes en fórmulas inéditas. destacan, por ejemplo, las páginas web institucionales, que conjugan la fuerza promocional de los anuncios y de los folletos con una mayor riqueza informativa, propia de las guías, aprovechando también la flexibilidad y la interactividad del medio (imágenes, vídeos, buscadores, vínculos, etc.), configurándose así un nuevo género fronterizo. del mismo modo, algunos géneros propios de internet, como los foros de debate y los blogs, han tenido un gran desarrollo en campo turístico, permitiendo tanto la participación de los viajeros en la difusión de información, como la discusión entre los profesionales. clasificación de los géneros turísticos: el proyecto “linguaturismo” de lo expuesto anteriormente, se desprende que el lenguaje del turismo puede ser considerado como una le en razón de la existencia de géneros propios, funcionales para los objetivos comunicativos, pero también desde el punto de vista de la creación de léxico especializado, que sin embargo no se realiza de modo uniforme en las distintas áreas y actividades implicadas. de ahí que un enfoque multinivel, como el que proponen ciapuscio y kuguel (2002), basado en una estratificación vertical desde el nivel más especializado al divulgativo y publicitario, no sea del todo adecuado para los textos turísticos. entre los diferentes géneros, en efecto, no cambian sólo la densidad terminológica y el grado de formalidad, sino también las áreas temáticas y las propiedades discursivas. es aconsejable, más bien, una clasificación multidimensional, abierta y dinámica, en la que tengan cabida las posibles ramificaciones, intersecciones y modalidades combinatorias entre géneros distintos, y que se fundamente tanto en los aspectos formales como en los funcionales y sociodiscursivos. maria vittoria calvi ibérica 19 (2010): 9-3220 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 20 con esta convicción, emprendimos el ya citado proyecto de investigación sobre la lengua del turismo, denominado “linguaturismo”, que tiene como objetivo la creación de corpus textuales paralelos y comparables, en español y en italiano, representativos de esta especialidad. el punto de partida fue la clasificación propuesta en calvi (2006: 54-55), fundada en criterios formales, funcionales y discursivos. los géneros reseñados (guía, folleto, anuncio, catálogo, artículo y reportaje, documento de viaje y página web) se distinguen a partir del medio de difusión (libro, desplegable, hoja suelta, internet, etc.), la función (o funciones) dominante(s) (informar, dirigir, seducir, etc.), las tipologías textuales recurrentes (descriptiva, argumentativa, instructiva, etc.), así como su relación con la práctica social del turismo, y, en particular, el momento de la fruición –antes, durante y después del viaje (dann, 1996)–, que introduce una dimensión secuencial en el sistema de géneros. en las etapas anteriores al viaje, por ejemplo, prevalecen los géneros destinados a la toma de decisiones (anuncios, folletos, catálogos de viajes, etc.); durante el viaje, predominan los textos de tipo procedimental, como las guías, que marcan las etapas del viaje. esta clasificación, sin embargo, es incompleta y presenta algunos aspectos debatibles. ante todo, los apartados “documento de viaje” y “página web” son demasiado amplios y no reflejan la complejidad de los géneros incluidos. faltan, además, otros géneros importantes como las normativas de turismo y los géneros orales (interacciones entre operadores y público, exposiciones de los guías, etc.). por otra parte, cuando se intenta pasar de la teoría al quehacer práctico, es decir, la construcción de un corpus textual, se corre el riesgo de perderse en la laberíntica heterogeneidad de los documentos reales, en los que no sólo se ensamblan diferentes funciones y secuencias tipológicas, sino también distintos géneros y modelos textuales; en un catálogo de viajes, por ejemplo, encontramos fichas descriptivas, normativas, programas de viaje, etc., lo cual complica tanto la tarea clasificadora como el análisis formal. nos pareció oportuno, por lo tanto, elaborar una clasificación flexible y comprensiva, con una sólida base teórica, pero con una finalidad eminentemente operativa. el proyecto, todavía en fase de realización, comprende la creación de una base de datos electrónica en la que los distintos textos son etiquetados según la pertenencia genérica.3 en la fase siguiente, está prevista la anotación morfosintáctica de los textos, para que sean analizados mediante diversos enfoques metodológicos. por último, se pasará a la extracción de las unidades terminológicas y a la elaboración de un glosario con la terminología más especializada. los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 21 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 21 nuestra clasificación, sometida a discusión en el ámbito del grupo, sigue de cerca el modelo propuesto por garcía izquierdo y monzó nebot (2003).4 los principales criterios de verificabilidad están representados por la viabilidad de la inserción de documentos en la base de datos, así como por los encuentros y discusiones con profesionales del sector. a continuación, me propongo esbozar las líneas esenciales de la clasificación y discutir su sostenibilidad teórica, aun advirtiendo que el proyecto está todavía en fase de perfeccionamiento. familias de géneros el nivel superior está ocupado por las familias de géneros, que se definen por la comunidad profesional de origen, así como por sus objetivos principales. el mundo editorial, por ejemplo, se ve implicado en la redacción de las guías; las agencias de viajes, por su parte, elaboran sistemas de géneros tanto para el uso interno como para desarrollar la relación con el cliente, y para promocionar el producto turístico. veamos las principales familias de géneros con algunos ejemplos: • géneros editoriales (guías de viajes, revistas de viajes y turismo, etc.), que se elaboran principalmente en el mundo editorial y responden a la demanda de información del turista. • géneros institucionales (folletos, anuncios de destinos turísticos, páginas web institucionales, etc.), originados en los organismos oficiales (gobiernos nacionales, comunidades autónomas, ayuntamientos, etc.), con el propósito de afianzar o posicionar la imagen de un destino turístico. • géneros comerciales (anuncios comerciales, catálogos de viajes, folletos de hoteles, páginas web de agencias, etc.), que se desarrollan en los departamentos de marketing de las agencias y otras empresas de turismo, destinados a promover la venta directa del producto turístico, conquistando la mente del consumidor. • géneros organizativos (billetes, reservas, cartas, facturas, contratos, informes, etc.), propios de las agencias y otros sectores colindantes (hostelería, transportes, ferias, etc.), para sus relaciones internas y externas. • géneros legales (normativas, reglamentos, etc.), pertenecientes al maria vittoria calvi ibérica 19 (2010): 9-3222 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 22 campo del derecho y encaminados a reglamentar las distintas facetas de las actividades turísticas. • géneros científicos y académicos, utilizados en los sectores disciplinares que enfocan el fenómeno del turismo (artículos y libros de sociología, antropología del turismo, etc.). • géneros informales (foros y blogs de viajeros), que comprenden el amplio caudal de textos en los que el turista mismo se transforma en experto y emisor del discurso turístico, con el propósito de intercambiar opiniones y expresar valoraciones. estas categorías, por supuesto, no son excluyentes sino abiertas para cambios y adiciones; quedan al margen, por ejemplo, los géneros orales, que se pueden inscribir dentro de sectores como las agencias, la hostelería o los encuentros profesionales (interacciones entre pares, o entre los operadores y el público), pero pueden presentarse de forma autónoma, como ocurre con las actuaciones de los guías de turismo. el corpus elaborado no comprende estos documentos, debido a las dificultades que plantea su recopilación, pero sería muy interesante estudiarlos, máxime desde el punto de vista pragmático y de la mediación intercultural.5 macrogéneros como he anticipado, dentro de nuestra clasificación, la categoría de macrogénero define productos tangibles, identificables sobre todo por el emisor y el canal utilizado, así como por un propósito dominante, pero caracterizados por la hibridación de diferentes géneros, tipologías textuales, estilos, etc.; algunos de ellos son exclusivos de una familia de géneros, otros pertenecen a familias diferentes. algunos ejemplos de macrogéneros son: • guía de turismo (publicación editorial en forma de libro u otro soporte): puede contener, además de la guía descriptiva propiamente dicha, itinerarios de viaje, guías prácticas, etc., así como elementos gráficos (mapas, dibujos, fotografías, etc.). • folleto (publicación de distribución gratuita, en forma de cuadernillo o desplegable): también suele combinar partes descriptivas con otras secciones prácticas y elementos gráficos. a diferencia de la guía, el folleto se caracteriza por su estilo promocional, muy cercano al lenguaje publicitario. los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 23 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 23 • revista de viajes y turismo: en su interior, se encuentran artículos, reportajes, guías prácticas, anuncios, etc. • catálogo de viajes6: contiene programas de viaje, fichas de hoteles, normativas, etc. su formato tradicional es el de fascículo en papel, con profusión de elementos gráficos y fotografías; pero también puede encontrarse en formato electrónico, en la web de las agencias de viajes. • páginas web: pueden ser emitidas por instituciones nacionales, autonómicas, municipales, etc., por organizaciones comerciales o comunidades de viajeros. contienen guías descriptivas, guías prácticas, secciones reservadas a los profesionales (con foros, normativas, etc.), foros de viajeros, blogs, etc. su pertenencia al ámbito institucional o comercial puede influir en la riqueza informativa, en el estilo, etc., aunque el propósito dominante suele ser promocional. obsérvese que guías y folletos, generalmente considerados como géneros, en nuestra clasificación pertenecen a una categoría superior, debido a la dificultad de almacenar documentos muy heterogéneos y de encontrar rasgos formales comunes entre elementos tan dispares como un programa de viaje y una normativa de turismo, ambos presentes en un catálogo de viajes. entendemos los macrogéneros como combinaciones de géneros, cuyo resultado final tiene un valor autónomo; guías, folletos y páginas web, por ejemplo, contienen elementos similares pero se explayan con objetivos y estilos diferentes: en la guía, prevalecen las funciones informativa y prescriptiva, con la consiguiente búsqueda de objetividad y transparencia; en el folleto, sobresale el carácter promocional, que favorece el uso de formas ponderativas, muy usuales también en las páginas web, caracterizadas por una mayor implicación del interlocutor. los géneros, por supuesto, pueden presentarse también de forma autónoma; su inclusión en el marco de un macrogénero tiene un efecto vinculante para varias propiedades textuales (grado de informatividad, fuerza persuasiva, etc.). géneros es en este nivel donde se empiezan a discernir los rasgos lingüísticos distintivos; los géneros tienen una autonomía funcional y formal, pero pueden encuadrarse dentro de un macrogénero, como se ha visto. veamos maria vittoria calvi ibérica 19 (2010): 9-3224 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 24 algunos ejemplos, extraídos de una lista que queda necesariamente inconclusa: • guía descriptiva: es la guía propiamente dicha, que pretende informar orientando la mirada; la extensión, la riqueza informativa y el estilo varían en función del macrogénero en el que se injerta, del tipo de público al que se dirige, del formato en el que aparece (audioguía, guía para ipod, etc.), el tipo de distribución, etc. • itinerario: es una variante, más dinámica y participativa, de la guía descriptiva; se emplea en las guías de turismo, en los folletos, en las revistas o en las páginas web, para ordenar las etapas de un viaje o de una visita según la sucesión espacial y, a veces, en un marco cronológico (duración de la visita). también las informaciones in situ (en monumentos, zonas arqueológicas, etc.) suelen asumir la forma del itinerario. • guía práctica: comprende informaciones sobre hoteles, restaurantes, etc., agrupadas en fichas, listas y esquemas, con predominio de las formas nominales y profusión de elementos gráficos; se encuentra en las guías de turismo, en los folletos, en las revistas (donde puede recibir la denominación de, entre otras, “guía práctica”, “guía del viajero”, “guía básica”, etc. y comprende secciones tales como “dónde comer”, “dónde dormir”, “compras”, etc.). • programa de viaje: se acerca formalmente al itinerario, pero se diferencia en cuanto que constituye una oferta de servicios realizada por una agencia; se encuentra en los catálogos, en las páginas web de los turoperadores, en las comunicaciones de la agencia al viajero, etc. (ver descripción más adelante en la sección titulada “el catálogo de viajes como ejemplo ilustrativo”). • reportaje: es un género periodístico, que mantiene relaciones de interdiscursividad con los libros de viaje. comparte con la guía el estilo descriptivo, pero se distingue porque se refiere a un viaje singular y admite la mirada subjetiva. • anuncio: es un género propio de la publicidad, que asume rasgos específicos al ser recontextualizado en ámbito turístico, sobre todo en el caso de los anuncios de destinos promovidos por las instituciones, que configuran imágenes e identidades culturales. los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 25 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 25 • informe de turismo: es un género destinado a los especialistas; contiene informaciones de tipo económico o sociológico (ocupación hotelera, comportamientos y tendencias de los flujos turísticos, etc.). • billetes, reservas, contratos, cartas, hojas informativas, etc.: son documentos organizativos, funcionales a las actividades de las agencias y otras empresas de turismo. suelen presentarse de forma autónoma, pero enmarcados dentro de diferentes secuencias y sistemas de géneros. • normativas de turismo: pertenecen a la familia de los géneros legales; cubren distintas áreas de la gestión (hostelería, contratos, transportes, etc.). • foros de viajeros y blogs de viaje: son la variante turística de unos géneros propios de internet. los viajeros asumen el papel de expertos, intercambiando opiniones y valoraciones sobre los destinos y productos turísticos, o, en el caso del blog, compartiendo con los internautas el relato del viaje realizado. es evidente la función desenmascaradora de estas tribunas virtuales (dann, 2007), que ofrecen informaciones detalladas, exentas de propósitos comerciales, sin ocultar decepciones y elementos disfóricos; pero destaca también cierta tendencia a replicar el estilo eufórico de la promoción turística (calvi y bonomi, 2008). asimismo, el blog entronca con otros modelos, más o menos literarios, como el reportaje, el libro de viajes, etc. la lista es incompleta, pero brinda una visión panorámica de la multiforme producción textual de esta especialidad. también podríamos distinguir entre géneros originales, propios del turismo, y géneros importados de otros sectores profesionales. como ya se ha dicho, los géneros propios son los que llevan a cabo la descripción y promoción del lugar turístico; es aquí donde se ejerce el control social y se realiza la mediación intercultural. en la gestión y en la reflexión teórica, en cambio, prevalecen géneros importados, sin cambios funcionales ni estructurales relevantes; pero es en estos géneros donde se define la terminología especializada. subgéneros los subgéneros se suelen definir mediante una especificación temática; también se pueden detectar categorías inferiores, como los sub-subgéneros, maria vittoria calvi ibérica 19 (2010): 9-3226 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 26 etc. en nuestro corpus, aplicar esta categorización a todos los géneros hubiera resultado demasiado complejo; por esto preferimos crear unos apartados temáticos, tales como paisaje, arte e historia, gastronomía, artesanía, espectáculos y diversiones, deportes, etc., combinables con los diferentes géneros, para crear un mapa identificativo de cada ficha almacenada. cuando se quiera enfocar un género específico, se podrá diseñar una clasificación ad hoc; las guías, por ejemplo, comprenden guías de hoteles, guías de ciudades, guías de parques naturales, etc. el catálogo de viajes como ejemplo ilustrativo la caracterización y la descripción detallada de los géneros del turismo exceden los propósitos de este artículo, que se va acercando a las conclusiones. sin embargo, creo oportuno dedicar unas líneas a uno de los géneros, o, mejor dicho, macrogéneros, que considero más representativos del sector turístico: el catálogo de viajes, emitido por agencias mayoristas y turoperadores. igual que todo catálogo comercial, éste también contiene una descripción técnica del producto y la lista de los precios, pero, dada la naturaleza inefable e intangible del producto turístico, el catálogo de viajes adopta elementos peculiares para influir en la toma de decisiones del cliente potencial. el catálogo suele contener hojas informativas y guías prácticas (lugares, clima, etc.); fichas técnicas (de hoteles, etc.); programas de viaje (cuando la oferta concierne circuitos); normativas que regulan los contratos, eventuales reclamaciones, etc. (a veces, se indica un vínculo o referencia externos; aun así, la normativa de referencia forma parte integrante del catálogo). la presencia de estos textos legales arroja una luz especial sobre los demás elementos; en el programa, por ejemplo, palabras como “alojamiento”, “desayuno”, “traslado” asumen un valor de promesa dentro de los servicios ofertados, anticipando el contrato propiamente dicho. asimismo, las oraciones nominales, formularias (“presentación en el aeropuerto dos horas antes de la salida del avión. salida con destino a ..., llegada a ... y traslado al hotel. alojamiento”) se alternan con formas verbales de futuro de indicativo, expresadas a menudo en la primera persona del plural inclusivo (“visitaremos”, “realizaremos una excursión”, “nuestra ruta nos conducirá”, etc.), que cumplen una función comisiva, en el marco de un compromiso de venta. las hojas informativas, las cartas de presentación o documentos análogos que abren el catálogo, sujetas en menor grado a restricciones jurídicas, los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 27 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 27 realizan plenamente la función persuasiva, apoyándose en la seducción de los elementos icónicos y en un lenguaje ponderativo y envolvente; pero incluso las secciones más técnicas, dentro de las restricciones impuestas por la maquetación y el uso de elementos gráficos fácilmente reconocibles (tablas, esquemas, etc.) llevan engastados elementos sugerentes, formas valorativas y afectivas (adjetivos, superlativos, metáforas, etc.), destinados a ensalzar el atractivo del destino turístico. en resumidas cuentas, el catálogo ofrece un buen ejemplo de la tensión entre la neutralidad del lenguaje especializado y los elementos culturales, elogiativos, emocionales; una tensión que, como observa gotti (2008), penetra incluso dentro de lenguajes tradicionalmente considerados objetivos e impersonales, como el lenguaje jurídico, y es tan peculiar del mundo profesional del turismo. además, el catálogo de viajes ofrece un compendio del léxico de la especialidad, en sus dos vertientes: la terminología especializada de la gestión (“paquete vacacional”, “precio por persona”, “suplemento”, “operación de los vuelos”, etc.) y el léxico importado de la geografía, la historia del arte, etc., propio de la descripción (“bóveda de cañón”, “casco antiguo”, etc.), a menudo en combinación con adjetivos antepuestos, que crean sintagmas típicos y recurrentes en la promoción turística (“grandiosa y sugestiva cúpula”, “paradisíaca y exclusiva isla”, “impresionante catedral”, etc.). recordemos, por último, que en algunas páginas web de agencias el catálogo sufre una especie de desintegración estructural, puesto que el fascículo tradicional es sustituido por un hipertexto navegable, que permite una reconfiguración personalizada. conclusiones el concepto de género ofrece el marco ideal para enfocar la extensa producción de textos que caracteriza el mundo del turismo desde sus orígenes, sobre todo si se manejan concepciones integradoras, que conjugan los aspectos formales con la perspectiva pragmática y sociocrítica. sin embargo, la gran variabilidad y la tendencia a la hibridación complican todo intento de clasificación; los géneros turísticos componen una geometría compleja, disponiéndose no sólo en diferentes niveles, sino también en sistemas y familias, que guardan múltiples lazos de interdependencia. entre otros factores, se destaca el impacto de la comunicación a través de internet, maria vittoria calvi ibérica 19 (2010): 9-3228 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 28 que rompe las convenciones, crea nuevos horizontes de espera, favorece la hibridación genérica y el desarrollo de géneros fronterizos. asimismo, la intervención directa de los viajeros pone en duda el papel exclusivo del experto en la transmisión de informaciones. la clasificación propuesta en este trabajo, basada en un criterio operativo, presenta diferentes niveles jerárquicos que configuran relaciones de architextualidad y admiten varias posibilidades combinatorias. destaca, en particular, la acción constrictiva del macrogénero, cuyo propósito comunicativo dominante influye en los patrones de los géneros ensamblados. asimismo, dentro del orden del turismo caben otras perspectivas de clasificación. en el ámbito de la gestión, en particular, se configuran distintos sistema de géneros; pensemos, por ejemplo, en la secuencia constituida por los géneros de la publicidad, el catálogo de viajes, el contrato y los demás documentos de viaje, las cartas de reclamación, etc., en la que cada género presupone la existencia de los anteriores. creemos, sin embargo, que la clasificación elaborada puede ofrecer una visión de conjunto de los géneros textuales utilizados en la comunicación turística, tanto en los quehaceres de la gestión como en la creación y descripción del producto turístico. 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(2007). “virtual touring: the weblanguage of tourism”. linguistica e filologia 25: 41-65. nobs, m.l. (2006). la traducción de folletos turísticos. ¿qué calidad demandan los turistas? granada: comares. santana, a. (1997). antropología y turismo. ¿nuevas hordas, viejas culturas? barcelona: ariel. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis. cambridge: cambridge university press. urry, j. (1990). the tourist gaze. leisure and travel in contemporary societies. london: sage. 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 30 maria vittoria calvi, catedrática de lengua española de la universidad de milán, es autora de numerosos estudios de lingüística española, con especial referencia a las lenguas de especialidad y a la didáctica del español para italianos (didattica di lingue affini. spagnolo e italiano, 1995; lengua y comunicación en el español del turismo, 2006; las lenguas de especialidad en español, 2009). en el campo literario, sus trabajos se han centrado en la narrativa contemporánea y especialmente en la obra de carmen martín gaite. notas 1 en el presente artículo, utilizo preferentemente la etiqueta de “lengua de especialidad” para referirme a las variedades funcionales de la lengua que utilizan los especialistas (científicos y profesionales) para comunicar entre sí y para dirigirse al público, frente a otras denominaciones, tales como lenguas con fines específicos, lenguas especializadas, etc. en calvi (2009) he explicado las razones de esta elección, discutiendo algunas de las definiciones más corrientes de esta parcela de la lengua. 2 se trata del proyecto de investigación de interés nacional, financiado por el ministerio de educación italiano (prin 2007, prot. 2007asknml), sobre il linguaggio della comunicazione turistica spagnolo-italiano. aspetti lessicali, pragmatici e interculturali, en el que participan las universidades de milán (maria vittoria calvi), bolonia (pilar capanaga) y trento (elena liverani). 3 a la fecha de redacción del presente artículo (octubre de 2009), la base de datos comprende unos 4 millones de palabras. 4 en concreto, la propuesta de clasificación ha sido elaborada por quien escribe, en colaboración con javier santos lópez, investigador del grupo milanés. 5 el sistema, sin embargo, permitiría también la introducción de documentos audio y vídeo. 6 también se puede denominar “folleto”, pero prefiero reservar este término a los materiales de carácter descriptivo. los géneros discursivos en la lengua del turismo ibérica 19 (2010): 9-32 31 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 31 01 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 32 iberica 13 ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 issn 1139-7241 abstract in this article i present the theory of interactional competence and contrast it with alternative ways of describing a learner’s knowledge of language. the focus of interactional competence is the structure of recurring episodes of face-toface interaction, episodes that are of social and cultural significance to a community of speakers. such episodes i call discursive practices, and i argue that participants co-construct a discursive practice through an architecture of interactional resources that is specific to the practice. the resources include rhetorical script, the register of the practice, the turn-taking system, management of topics, the participation framework, and means for signalling boundaries and transitions. i exemplify the theory of interactional competence and the architecture of discursive practice by examining two instances of the same practice: office hours between teaching assistants and undergraduate students at an american university, one in mathematics, one in italian as a foreign language. by a close comparison of the interactional resources that participants bring to the two instances, i argue that knowledge and interactional skill are local and practice-specific, and that the joint construction of discursive practice involves participants making use of the resources that they have acquired in previous instances of the same practice. keywords: interactional competence, discursive practice, face-to-face interaction, mathematics, italian as a foreign language. resumen a p re n di e nd o a p a s ar d e l di c h o a l h e c h o : c om pe te n c i a in te r ac c ion al e n e l i ng l é s o ra l c on f i ne s a c ad é mi c os en este artículo presento la teoría de competencia interaccional y la comparo con formas alternativas de describir el conocimiento de la lengua por parte de los learning to talk the talk and walk the walk: interactional competence in academic spoken english richard f. young university of wisconsin-madison (united states) rfyoung@wisc.edu 15 ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 richard f. young aprendices. la competencia interaccional se centra en la estructura de situaciones o episodios recurrentes de interacción presencial que adquieren una importancia social y cultural para una comunidad de hablantes. a dichos episodios les denomino prácticas discursivas y convengo en que los participantes coconstruyen una práctica discursiva mediante una arquitectura de recursos interaccionales específicos para la práctica. los recursos comprenden el texto o guión retórico, el registro de la práctica, el sistema de turnos, la gestión de los temas, el marco de participación y el modo de señalizar los límites y las transiciones. ejemplifico la teoría de la competencia interaccional y la arquitectura de la práctica discursiva analizando dos ejemplos de la misma práctica: tutorías entre profesores ayudantes y los estudiantes de grado en una universidad americana, una en matemáticas y otra en italiano como lengua extranjera. comparando a fondo los recursos interaccionales que los participantes aportan a los dos ejemplos, argumento que el conocimiento y la destreza interaccional son locales y específicos de cada práctica, y que la construcción conjunta de la práctica discursiva conlleva que los participantes empleen los recursos que han adquirido en momentos anteriores de la misma práctica. palabras clave: competencia interaccional, práctica discursiva, interacción presencial, matemáticas, italiano como lengua extranjera. interactional competence the ability to speak a second language is a subset of a learner’s overall ability – or proficiency – in the language. thus the question of what speaking ability is is closely related to the question of what it means to know a second language. historically, two theories of second language knowledge have been influential: lado’s (1957) structuralist theory and canale and swain’s (1980 & 1981) theory of communicative competence. lado maintained that knowledge of a second language could be divided into five parts: the ability to comprehend the spoken language, the ability to speak the language, the ability to read it, the ability to write it, and an understanding of the culture of the target-language community. lado’s four skills (the fifth skill of knowing about the culture was often ignored) were the basis for much curriculum development and language assessment in the two decades following the publication of linguistics across cultures, and to some extent are still in use today. within each skill, knowledge was further broken down into knowledge of the traditional linguistic levels of phonology, morphology, lexis, and syntax. according to this view, second language knowledge 16 consisted in knowing the four skills and their components. how well a learner knew a language could be assessed by testing each of the four skills and their components separately in what came to be known as discrete-point testing. the theory of communicative competence was based on the greater understanding of the interrelationship between linguistic form and social context that had developed through the work of malinowski (1923), firth (1957) and austin (1962) but mainly through the broad and integrating perspective on language use put forward by hymes (1972 & 1974) as “communicative competence”. by now well known, canale and swain’s framework adds to the purely linguistic perspective of lado and characterizes a learner’s competence in a language in terms of linguistic, pragmatic, discourse, and strategic competence. without doubt, by broadening our concept of linguistic knowledge from a narrow focus on the four skills and on knowledge of linguistic structure, the canale and swain framework has given rise to much useful research and has provided a rich view of the knowledge and skills that an individual speaker needs to command in order to communicate accurately, appropriately, and effectively in a second language. the focus of the canale and swain framework is on an individual learner in a social context; that is, the framework helps us to understand what an individual needs to know and to do in order to communicate. such exclusive focus on a single individual’s contribution to communication should, i believe, be problematized in view of current research that has advanced the position that abilities, actions, and activities do not belong to the individual but are “jointly” constructed by “all” participants. this constructivist, practice-oriented view of interaction and competence has also been articulated by various applied linguists under different names. in an early paper, kramsch (1986) referred to it as “interactional competence”. a more recent term was introduced by jacoby and ochs (1995: 171), who refer to it as “co-construction”, which they define as “the joint creation of a form, interpretation, stance, action, activity, identity, institution, skill, ideology, emotion, or other culturally meaningful reality”. a second applied linguistic perspective that advances the interactive nature of communicative activity is hall’s (1993 & 1995) idea of “interactive practices”. in talking of interactive practices, hall indicates that participation in talk does not involve the individual in spontaneous creation of individual learning to talk the talk ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 17 utterances free from social constraints, but rather “talk is comprised of interactive practices, structured moments of face-to-face interaction – differently enacted and differently valued – whereby individuals come together to create, articulate, and manage their collective histories via the use of sociohistorically defined and valued resources” (hall 1995: 207-208). interactive practices, according to hall, are recurring episodes of talk that are of sociocultural significance to a community of speakers. interactive practices are co-constructed by participants, each of whom contributes linguistic and pragmatic resources to the practice. among others, participants bring the following resources to a given practice: a knowledge of rhetorical scripts, a knowledge of register – that is certain lexis and syntactic patterns specific to the practice, a knowledge of how to take turns-at-talk, a knowledge of topical organization, a knowledge of the appropriate participation framework, and a knowledge of the means for signalling boundaries between practices and transitions within the practice itself. a few examples will show the kinds of resources that participants bring to different practices. participants bring knowledge of “rhetorical scripts” (ranney, 1992), or sequences of speech acts that help to define a particular interactive practice. for example, he (1993) has shown that students distinguish between acceptable and non-acceptable peer reviews of their written work by whether certain obligatory acts are present in a certain sequence in the reviews. second, participants may construct a practice with a “specific register” – that is specific lexis and syntactic structures. for example, in discussing complimenting behaviour in american english, wolfson (1984) found that a very limited range of syntactic patterns and adjectives were used in compliments and that the choice of adjective depends to some degree on the gender of the person who is being complimented. third, different interactive practices involve different “strategies for taking turns”. research that i and others have done on the discourse of language proficiency interviews (lpis) has shown that turns are allocated in a very similar way in lpis from the way turn taking is managed in classrooms (young & milanovic, 1992; young, 1995b). that is, the interviewer (like the teacher) can claim a turn at any time and has the right to allocate a turn to the interviewee by means of questions and other turn-allocation devices. fourth, the “management of topics” differs in different interactive practices. topic management includes preferences for certain topics over others and richard f. young ibérica 25 (2013): 15-3818 decisions as to who has the right to introduce a given topic, how long a topic persists in discourse, and who has the right to change the topic. a simple example of differences in topic management in different interactive practices comes from a comparison of conversations between couples in intimate relationships (crow, 1983) and conversations in language proficiency interviews. crow found that the couples in his study shifted the conversational topic on average every 48 seconds. in contrast, in certain kinds of language proficiency interviews, young (1995a) found that topic shifts were far less frequent: in intermediate level interviews participants shifted turns on average every 67 seconds and in advanced level interviews, they shifted every 84 seconds. fifth, goffman (1981) and goodwin (1990) have drawn attention to the different ways in which participants in a practice take roles and ratify the roles of others. participation in interaction is not simply a matter of being either a speaker or hearer; rather it is the ways in which a speaker constructs him or herself as an animator, author, or principal of the words being spoken. participation patterns also refer to whether people co-present in the interaction are ratified by the speakers as hearers or overhearers and how speakers design their talk in view of the recipient for which it is intended. tarone and liu (1995) showed that some kinds of participation patterns that a child learner of english as a second language engages in encourage faster and more complete development of features of his interlanguage than other kinds of interaction. a similar finding was reported by shea (1994), who compared interactions between japanese students studying at an american university and four different interlocutors. shea reported that the japanese students appear more proficient in english in conversations where they had equal access to the floor and took perspectives that were congruent with those taken by their interlocutor. finally, the means for “signalling the boundaries” of an interactive practice differ from one practice to another. hartford and bardovi-harlig (1992) have shown that the ways closings are managed in academic advising sessions between a professor and a student differ quite markedly from the ways closings have been described in ordinary conversations (schegloff & sacks, 1973). in closing academic advising sessions, it is not legitimate to reinvoke topics that have already been dealt with during the session, whereas in closing ordinary conversations, re-invocations are used to indicate that none of the participants has any further new topics to introduce. learning to talk the talk ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 19 participants, then, bring to an interactive practice at least these six kinds of resources: a knowledge of rhetorical scripts, a knowledge of register specific to the practice, a knowledge of patterns of turn-taking, a knowledge of topical organization, a knowledge of an appropriate participation framework, and a knowledge of the means for signalling boundaries between practices and transitions within the practice itself. interactional competence, as i have described it, differs from communicative competence in several respects. in one respect, interactional competence is a further elaboration of second language knowledge; in other words, to discourse, pragmatic, and strategic competence, we must now add competence in (at least) the six interactional features that i described above. however, in another respect, interactional competence is fundamentally different from communicative competence. whereas communicative competence has been interpreted in the language testing literature as a trait or bundle of traits that can be assessed in a given individual, interactional competence – i wish to stress – is co-constructed by all participants in an interactive practice and is specific to that practice. participants’ knowledge and interactive skills are “local”: they apply to a given interactive practice and either do not apply or apply in a different configuration to different practices. because knowledge and interactional skill are local and practice-specific, the joint construction of an interactive practice involves participants making use of the resources that they have acquired in previous instances of the “same” practice. according to this view, then, individuals do not acquire a general, practice-independent communicative competence, rather they acquire a practice-specific interactional competence by participating with more experienced others in specific interactive practices. interactional competence in a specific practice, that is, involves participants making skilful use of resources, such as those six that i have detailed, in the joint construction of form, interpretation, stance, action, activity, identity, institution, skill, ideology, emotion, or other culturally meaningful reality. interactional competence is not an attribute of an individual participant, and thus we cannot say that an individual is interactionally competent, rather we talk of interactional competence as something that is jointly constructed by all participants (including an analyst if the interaction is subjected to analysis). equally, interactional competence is not a trait that is independent of the interactive practice in which it is (or is not) constituted. richard f. young ibérica 25 (2013): 15-3820 i want to make the case here that certain performances differ significantly not only from one practice to another but also across subject domains so that the same practice in one subject domain requires quite different resources from a similar practice in an another. in order to make this point, i will compare two office hour conversations that were recorded between teaching assistants (tas) and american undergraduates at the university of wisconsin-madison. the conversations were recorded as part of a larger research project into face-to-face interaction in teaching assistant (ta) office hours (young et al., 1996). in this project, volunteer tas from a range of different departments agreed to schedule their office hours in the instructional media development centre on campus. they and their students held regular office hours and held conversations about topics that arose naturally as part of the students’ courses. the only difference was that the conversations were filmed by remote control cameras. although participants knew they were being filmed, no one else was present in the room at the time of the filming. the first conversation was between a female taiwanese ta in the math department and a female student, a junior majoring in spanish who was planning to go on to do an mba; this conversation is transcribed in appendix a. the second conversation was between a male italian ta in the department of french and italian and a male student majoring in zoology and spanish and is transcribed in appendix b. a math conversation the math office hour conversation fits our expectations for an office hour because it involves a ta, a student, and a question that the student explicitly raises in lines 1-8. this particular question arose because of something that the student did not understand from the professor’s lecture, as she explains in lines 10-17. the role that both the student and the ta seem to expect of the ta in this office hour is that she will explain material that was covered in the professor’s lecture. let us try to look in this conversation at the features of interactional competence that both participants bring to this conversation. i will consider some of the features that i outlined earlier: rhetorical script, register, the turn-taking system, topic management, and boundaries and transitions. because the activity itself and the roles of the participants are jointly learning to talk the talk ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 21 constructed by both the ta and the student, i will examine each feature from the point of view of both participants. rhetorical script both participants seem to orient themselves to a problem-statement and problem-resolution script. the kind of script that both are following can be outlined as follows: problem statement student states the problem. (lines 1-8) ta checks the student’s comprehension. (line 9) student displays a lack of comprehension. (lines 10-17) problem resolution ta explains the solution to the problem. (lines 18-71) student indicates that she is following the explanation. (lines 22-72) student and ta close the topic. (lines 72-73) the first part of the script involves a statement of the problem by the student and a request for clarification by the ta. this is followed by the ta’s long explanation, which is offered both in talk and through the writing that the ta does. during the explanation, the student displays active listenership by orienting her gaze and her upper body toward the ta’s writing and by continuers such as “okay” and “mhm” at the appropriate times during the ta’s explanation. taken together these tokens indicate that she is following the explanation. the topic concludes with two lengthy pauses punctuated by “okay” from the student and “mhm” from the ta, indicating closure of that topic. register the ta and student orient themselves to different roles vis-à-vis the discipline of mathematics by means of their choice of differing lexis. the student chooses non-specialist vocabulary and talks about “graphs and pictures” (line 17) and uses highly context-specific vocabulary in her reference “to make something equal to one another” (line 64). on the other hand, the ta’s vocabulary includes discipline-specific lexis such as “three conditions” (line 30), “limit of f as x approach to a exists” (line 37) and “the function satisfy this three conditions” (line 41). at the same time as she richard f. young ibérica 25 (2013): 15-3822 is using the discipline-specific lexis, her writing includes symbols and formulae that are also specific to her discipline. in this way, both ta and student are co-constructing and reinforcing their reciprocal roles as expert and novice through this conversation. a further way in which lexical choice helps to co-construct role identities is through the ta’s and student’s use of the indexicals, “we” and “they”, whose meaning depends on the context in which they occur. the ta is the exclusive user of the indexical “we” in lines 18-21, “to illustrate this problem in picture we just think the picture should be the graph should be connected,” in lines 54-55, “we need the left-hand side limit is equal to the right-hand side limit,” and in line 57–59 “we will check this condition and when when that will satisfy this and that will give us an equation.” not only does the student never use “we” but she also accepts that the extension of the ta’s “we” does not include her – the student – by responding with “they” in line 66. again such mutually exclusive use of indexicals helps the ta and the student to mutually construct their respective roles as expert/insider and novice/outsider in the field of mathematics. turn taking in one respect, the participants in this conversation seem to manage turn taking in a similar way to the way turns are managed in a classroom; that is to say, the ta may take a turn whenever she wants, and she also has the right to allocate the next turn to the student. in the opening sequence of the conversation, for example, the student’s question in lines 1-8 would normally implicate an answer from the ta as part of a normal question-answer adjacency pair. however, we see in line 9 that the ta postpones the answer by replying with a clarification question, thus allocating the next turn to the student. further on, in lines 60-62, although the student’s comment, “okay and that’s what they equal over here”, overlaps with the ta’s turn, she does not succeed in taking the turn away from the ta, who continues on through the student’s talk with “that will give us an equation … involving k” (lines 59-61). a few lines later, the ta uses a similar strategy to manage turns by denying the student a turn with her interruption “because, ya the leftlefthand limit is uh is uhm three minus k times three plus k” (lines 67-70). during the ta’s long turn-at-talk through lines 18-71, she keeps the floor and the student does not make any attempt to claim a turn, merely ratifying the fact that the ta holds the floor by verbal tokens of active listenership learning to talk the talk ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 23 such as backchannels “mhm” and “okay.” at the same time as she holds this long turn-at-talk, the ta is also writing the formulae on her notepad and the gaze direction of the student indicates that she is following what the ta is writing. when the student again takes the floor at the end of the ta’s turn, she does so by indicating her own notepad. thus, in this interaction, it seems that turn transition relevant places (ford, fox & thompson, 1996) are signalled by both verbal and nonverbal means and that, where math is the topic of discussion, the orientation of the speakers to their notepads is significant in indicating boundaries of a turn-constructional unit. topic management in terms of the categories of topical structure put forward by young and milanovic (1992), this conversation appears to be highly goal-oriented. that is, once introduced, a topic persists over a long stretch of talk from both participants. this contrasts with the relatively short topics that are found in language proficiency interviews. the topic that begins the office hour conversation in line 1 and continues through line 80 in the transcript lasts a total of 3 minutes and 12 seconds. compare this with the couples in crow’s (1983) study, who shifted the conversational topic on average every 48 seconds. it is also much longer than the average duration of topics (55 seconds) in actfl oral proficiency interviews at the intermediate level and above (young & halleck, 1998). this long topic in this conversation is also structured in a way that may be specific to the discipline of mathematics. it proceeds as follows. student asks a question. (lines 1-8) ta negotiates the question with the student. (lines 9-17) ta sets up the answer in terms of pictures. (lines 18-23) ta restates the question in “rigorous mathematical terms”. (lines 27-34) ta states the first condition. (line 36) ta states the second condition. (lines 36-37) ta states the third condition. (lines 39-40) ta restates the problem in terms of the three conditions. (lines 41-44) ta shows how to test that the conditions hold. (lines 46-55) student displays acceptance of the ta’s answer. (lines 56-72) the topical organization imposed by the ta in this sequence is reminiscent of the way in which a mathematical theorem is stated and proved. the richard f. young ibérica 25 (2013): 15-3824 theorem to be proved is stated by the ta in lines 27-34 and the first part of the proof consists of stating the “givens” in lines 36-40. once the givens are stated, the proof involves testing whether the conditions stated in the givens hold in this particular case. once that is shown in lines 46-55, the student’s acceptance of the ta’s proof in lines 56-72 is a concluding move similar to the traditional quod erat demonstrandum of mathematical theorems. thus a reflex of learning in office hours is the socialization of the student to the topical organization imposed on the discourse by the ta – an organization that may well be specific to a given discipline. in an office hour, the student is learning how to talk the talk of the discipline by means of the topical management imposed on the conversation by the ta. boundaries and transitions the opening move in the math office hour involves the student opening the conversation with a statement of a problem related to an assignment in lines 1-8. on the other hand, in the italian office hour, the ta provides an opening by asking the student if he has a question, to which the student responds. this is seen in lines 1-12 in appendix b. thus both office hour conversations are initiated by a question from the student related to some assignment that the student has attempted. however, one office-hour conversation begins with a pre-opening by the ta while the other does not. in comparison, the opening phases of interviews between strangers generally involve the participants introducing themselves to each other. here is an example from data i collected in prague in 1990. opening of an interview between strangers (ir=interviewer, re=respondent) ir: can you tell me your name please. re: my name is libuse. ir: and how old are you? re: twenty-one year. ir: well libuse where were you born?? re: i was born in a town called litomysl in east of czechoslovakia.. ir: what is that like? i have never visited that town. tell me about that town. re: it is a very small town.xxxxxx. learning to talk the talk ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 25 ir: yeah. re: but i think nothing interesting in this town. the interview between participants who do not know each other involves introductions, whereas the tas and students in the office hour conversations know each other quite well and can dispense with the getting-to-know-you openings. to summarize the interactional features of the math office hour, then, both participants follow a problem-statement and problem-resolution script; both participants orient themselves to the complementary roles of expert and novice through specific lexical and syntactic choices; turns are managed cooperatively in such a way that the ta is free to take a turn whenever she wishes, while the student’s turns take the form of questions. turn-transition relevant places are indicated by changes of participants’ orientation toward the ta’s writing. in addition, the conversation is characterized by a single long topic indicating orientation by both participants to a complex and distal goal. what appears to be highly discipline-specific in this conversation is the organization of information imposed on the conversation by the ta, who first states the theorem to be proved, proceeds to state the assumptions – the givens – under which the proof is made and steps through the proof. the proof is concluded by a statement – quod erat demonstrandum – by the student to the effect that the theorem has been proved. finally, opening moves in both the math and italian office hour are statements or elicitations of the problems to be discussed and are radically different from the openings of interactions designed to evaluate the suitability of international students for possible roles as teaching assistants. i have claimed that interactional competence is local and practice-specific and i have attempted to show how some interactional features of office hours differ from interactions in language proficiency interviews, which are designed to predict the performance of international students in these practices, among others. the question i wish to address in the remainder of this paper is “how” local and “how” practice-specific must that competence be. by comparing the interactional features of the math office hour with those of an italian office hour, i wish to investigate the interactional similarities which lead us to identify an “office hour” as an interactional genre and, at the same time, to highlight those interactional differences which must be attributed to different ways in which knowledge is constructed in different disciplines. richard f. young ibérica 25 (2013): 15-3826 a conversation in italian as a foreign language the first topic of the italian office hour is transcribed in appendix b. in this conversation a native italian-speaking ta and an undergraduate student, both male, are discussing the student’s written exercise, which has been read and annotated by the ta in advance of the office hour. using the same framework for describing interactional resources that was used to analyze the math office hour, i first turn to the sequence of speech acts – or rhetorical script – that participants follow in the italian office hour. rhetorical script the sequence of speech acts in the italian office hour is a problemstatement and problem-resolution script similar to the one identified in the math office hour. the principle difference between the two is that, in the italian office hour, the ta invites the student to state the problem in lines 16. after a pause, the student takes the floor with a problem statement in lines 7-12. with the framing move, “okay okay” in line 13, the ta displays that he has understood the problem and is prepared to answer. the resolution of the problem happens in three stages in which this student is more active than the math student in suggesting possible resolutions. in lines 13-39, the ta explains the reason why darle un bacio (“to give her a kiss”) is preferable to the student’s version, bacciarla (“to kisss she” [sic.]). in lines 40-42, the student attempts to suggest another version, che avevo bisogno di … (“that i needed to …”) but he is pre-empted by the ta, who offers a second explanation for the student’s error in lines 43-53. in lines 54-56, the student confirms his understanding of the ta’s explanation, an understanding that is strongly confirmed by the ta’s string of eleven no’s in line 55. this is followed by a third explanation from the ta in lines 57-68 and the topic is closed by the student’s statement, “i understand now”, in line 62. in comparison with the math office hour, then, the italian office hour also follows a problem-statement/problem-resolution script with obligatory moves in which the problem is stated and in which the ta’s explanation is accepted. the style of problem resolution, however, appears to be quite different in the two office hours, with the math interaction being more one-sided than the italian. the question arises at this point of whether the differences in learning to talk the talk ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 27 rhetorical script are a reflection of different disciplinary discourses or whether they simply reflect individual differences between the participants in the two conversations. in the absence of further data to support either individual or discipline-related differences, it is possible to arrive at a speculative answer by a thought experiment. imagine a math office hour in which the student hazards a version of his own and then imagine an italian office hour in which the student simply follows the ta’s explanation, contributing only tokens of active listenership. my own view is that both conversations are plausible and that problem-resolution styles can be readily switched across the two disciplines. this leads me to conclude, albeit speculatively, that the differences in rhetorical scripts that we observe in these two conversations are not related to the academic disciplines of which they form a part. register turning now to the lexical and syntactic resources that participants bring to the italian office hour, we find that in this as in the math office hour these interactional resources are employed for a similar purpose: the construction of expertise. this is most obvious in the abundant technical terminology of linguistics employed by the ta and by its total absence in the student’s speech. the ta uses “preposition” (line 16), “pronoun” (line 22), “indirect object pronoun” (lines 24-25), “direct object pronoun” (line 28), “misspelling the verb” (lines 35-37), “indirect object pronoun” again (line 50), “idiom” (line 57), and “conjugate” (line 58). in stark contrast, none of this technical vocabulary is controlled by the student who refers instead to “the form dare” (line 9) and “guancia … ah that’s a new word” (lines 46-48). a further way in which the ta constructs himself as an expert is through his reference to correctness and to the student’s mistakes as in the following examples. “your mistakes” (line 4) “the right preposition” (line 16) “baciarla would be correct” (lines 25-27) “it would be correct” (lines 32-33) “you were misspelling the verb” (lines 35-37) these statements of what is correct and incorrect in italian go unchallenged by the student, whose silence thus helps to construct his own role as novice vis-à-vis the ta. richard f. young ibérica 25 (2013): 15-3828 a characteristic syntactic structure in the italian office hour is the use of irrealis mood by the ta. the student’s question in lines 11 and 12 is formulated with the modal “can”: “and why why can’t we use here instead of darle un bacio baciarle”. the ta begins his response in line 13 using the same modality, “okay you can use it”, but shifts immediately to irrealis mood, which he maintains throughout the explanation in lines 18-42: “you wouldn’t use the right preposition”; “it would be an indirect object pronoun”; and “if you say baciarla and and it would be an indirect object pronoun if you say baciarla (…) would be correct since you would be using what, a direct object pronoun”. the italian ta’s use of irrealis mood contrasts with the math ta, whose only modal is “should”. it appears to originate with the discussion of hypothetical sentences proposed by the student as part of the problem resolution script. for reasons that i will detail shortly, i believe that the ta’s use of this modality is specific to the discipline. turn taking when we look at the turn-taking system employed by participants in the italian office hour, there seems to be a marked similarity between this and the math office hour. that is, the ta may take a turn whenever he wishes and he also enjoys the right to allocate the next turn to the student. as evidence of this, overlapping speech from the student is never sufficient for the ta to yield the floor. the student either begins a turn or makes a turn that overlaps with the ta’s turn but in no case does the ta yield the floor. as we have seen in the opening sequence, the ta allocates the next turn to the student by means of soliciting a question in lines 1-6. the ta then fills his slot by asking the question. throughout the ta’s answer in lines 13-39, the student – just like the student in the math office hour – does not make any attempt to claim a turn, merely ratifying the fact that the ta holds the floor by means of backchannels and other tokens of active listenership. there are only two other occasions in this excerpt from the italian office hour when the student takes an unsolicited turn, and on both occasions the student’s utterance is understood as a question by the ta. in line 40, the student asks, “could you also say ave-” and the student’s statement in line 54 “you could never say le dare un bacio” is interpreted as a question and answered by the ta. learning to talk the talk ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 29 thus the ta and the student may allocate the next turn at talk to the other party in different ways in this excerpt. the student does so only by means of questions, which are signalled both by grammar and intonation. on the other hand, the ta allocates the next turn to the student by clearly indicating a turn-transition relevant place that is signalled by grammatical and intonational means. the ta’s turn in line 39 ends at a clause boundary and on a falling pitch. and a clause boundary and a salient falling pitch similarly indicate a turn transition-relevant place in line 53. thus it appears that the turn-taking systems in both the math and italian office hours are similar: the ta may take a turn at any time he wishes and may also allocate the next turn to the student. unsolicited student turns are understood by the ta as questions. this kind of turn-taking system also characterizes discourse in teacher-fronted classrooms. students are able to take unsolicited turns in office hours only at turn-transition-relevant places that are indicated by syntactic, prosodic, and nonverbal cues. topic management so far, by comparing four out of the six interactional resources that participants bring to these office hours – rhetorical scripts, lexical/syntactic expectations, patterns of turn taking, and means for signalling opening, closing, and transitional moves – i have argued that similar resources are used by participants in both math and italian office hours and that any differences were the result of individual differences in interactional styles of the participants and not the result of the different ways in which knowledge is constructed in the two disciplines. however, as we turn now to topic management, i wish to claim that the topical structure imposed on the discourse by the italian ta differs markedly from the topical structure of the math office hour. the discourse topic of the two conversations is clearly different. the math conversation is about how to establish whether a function is continuous while the italian conversation is about the complementation structures of the italian verb baciare (“to kiss”). that much is obvious. what is not obvious, however, is that there are two possible discourse topics in the italian conversation. the student, after all, has not simply done a grammar exercise, he has written about his first kiss, a life event to which we may believe he attaches considerable importance because of his desire to write about it and the considerable detail with which he recalls it. richard f. young ibérica 25 (2013): 15-3830 the italian ta does not respond in any way to the nature of the experience that the student has described but focuses the conversation on the formal grammatical means that the students has employed to communicate his experience. by his choice of discourse topic, the italian ta communicates that learning italian licenses two kinds of knowledge – knowledge of personal affective states, particularly those involving sexual relations, and knowledge of grammar. writing about one’s first kiss appears to be an appropriate assignment for an italian class but i can imagine that it would not be licensed in other foreign language classes – german or chinese, say. despite the appropriateness of the personal topic for the italian conversation, the ta clearly indicates by the focus that he chooses for the conversation that, of the two, knowledge of grammar is more highly valued within his discipline. the ta’s choice of topic helps to construct the discipline of italian in this conversation: knowledge of italian exists on two separate levels, one of which – grammatical knowledge – is more highly valued than communication of content. in addition, the structure of the ta’s grammatical explanations helps to construct grammatical knowledge as a process of reasoning. grammatical knowledge is not arbitrary but consists of a system of lexical alternatives, and the choice among these alternatives is based on a process of inference. grammatical reasoning is instantiated in this office hour by means of a series of if/then/because statements. in each of the following five excerpts from the italian office hour, the ta constructs a grammatical explanation with an if/then/because template, in which the student actively collaborates. if you use baciarle / then you wouldn’t be using the right preposition / because le is a pronoun meaning “to her” (lines 13-22) if you say baciarla / then it would be correct / because la is a direct object pronoun (lines 24-31) if you say avevo bisogno di baciarla / then it would be correct / because la is a direct object pronoun – mentioned in lines 24-28 (lines 32-39) if you say avevo bisogno di baciarle una guancia / then you could use an indirect object pronoun / because it is una guancia di lei (lines 43-53) if you say le dare un bacio / then it would be incorrect / because of the idiom avere bisogno di (lines 54-58) learning to talk the talk ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 31 this combination of an inferential template and the irrealis mood of the first and second propositions help to construct a discipline-specific knowledge of italian grammatical reasoning for the student. in the same way that the sequential organization of topics in the math office hour constructs a process of mathematical reasoning for the math student, in the italian office hour the if/then/because template constructed over at least three turns by the ta constructs linguistic reasoning for the student of italian. in both conversations the students are being exposed to far more than simply answers to their questions. they are being actively co-opted by their tas into a collaborative structuring of topics that socializes them to the organization of discourse within the disciplines of mathematics or italian. by learning to talk the talk and walk the walk, they are being socialized into the discourse communities of mathematicians and italian linguists. conclusions i will conclude by summarizing the framework of interactional competence that i have put forward and exemplified in these conversations. • interactional competence is not an individual achievement; rather it is co-constructed by all participants in an interaction – in this case by both the ta and the student. • interactional competence is local and practice-specific. competence in a given interactional practice such as an office hour can only be acquired by participating in office hours. and a ta acquires the interactional resources for success in an office-hour interaction by participating as a ta (not as a student) in office hours. • a rich way of characterizing an interaction such as an office hour is in terms of how participants deploy each of the six interactional resources that i have outlined: rhetorical scripts, characteristic register, the turn taking system, topical organization, participation framework, and means for signalling boundaries and transitions. there may be further features that are important but these are the six that have been most thoroughly researched so far. in the comparison between office hour conversations in math and italian, we have been able to identify common interactional features that allow us to richard f. young ibérica 25 (2013): 15-3832 talk of a genre of office hour conversation. this genre is characterized by the following elements. • a problem-statement/problem resolution script. • an opening sequence that moves quickly to a statement of the problem. • lexical and syntactic choices by both participants that mutually construct the ta as an expert and the student as a novice. • a turn taking system in which the ta may take a turn at any time and may allocate the next turn to the student and may fail to yield the floor to the student by means of overlapping speech. however, this comparison of office hours has also highlighted interactional differences in office hour interactions in different disciplines that are apparent in the topics that are chosen and in the way that topics are sequenced. discipline-specific modes of reasoning are instantiated in these office hours by the way that topics arise, persist, and change in conversation and by the semantic relations between adjacent topics. i have argued that a reflex of learning in these office hours is the socialization of the student to the topical organization imposed on the discourse by the ta. for the past two decades, sla research has focused on the acquisition of communicative competence. in doing so, we have greatly increased our understanding of second language use in context and, in particular, the acquisition of pragmatic competence in a second language. however, as i hope to have shown in this paper, much more understanding can be gained if we expand that focus to include co-construction and interactive practices in face-to-face communication – in short, interactional competence. [paper received 10 october 2012] [revised paper accepted 11 january 2013] references learning to talk the talk ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 33 austin, j.l. (1962). how to do things with words. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. canale, m. & m. swain (1980). “theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing”. applied linguistics 1: 1-47. canale, m. & m. swain (1981). “a theoretical framework for communicative competence” in a.s. palmer, p.j.m. groot & g.a. trosper (eds.), the construct validation of tests of communicative competence: including proceedings of a colloquium at tesol ’79, boston, february 2728, 1979, 31-36. washington, dc: teachers of english to speakers of other languages. richard f. young ibérica 25 (2013): 15-3834 crow, b.k. (1983). “topic shifts in couples’ conversations” in r.t. craig & k. tracy (eds.), conversational coherence: form, structure, and strategy, 136-156. beverly hills, ca: sage. firth, j.r. (1957). papers in linguistics: 19341951. london: oxford university press. ford, c.e., b.a. fox & s. thompson (1996). “practices in the construction of turns: the “tcu” revisited”. pragmatics 6: 427-454. goffman, e. (1981). forms of talk. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press. goodwin, m.h. (1990). he-said-she-said: talk as social organization among black children. bloomington, in: indiana university press. hall, j.k. (1993). “the role of oral practices in the accomplishment of our everyday lives: the sociocultural dimension of interaction with implications for the learning of another language”. applied linguistics 14: 145-166. hall, j.k. (1995). “(re)creating our worlds with words: a sociohistorical perspective of face-to-face interaction”. applied linguistics 16: 206-232. hartford, b.s. & k. bardovi-harlig (1992). “closing the conversation: evidence from the academic advising session”. discourse processes 15: 93116. he, a.w. (1993). “language use in peer review texts”. language in society 22: 403-420. hymes, d. (1972). “on communicative competence” in j.b. pride & j. holmes (eds.), sociolinguistics: selected readings, 269-293). harmondsworth, middlesex: penguin. hymes, d. (1974). foundations in sociolinguistics: an ethnographic approach. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press. jacoby, s. & e. ochs (1995). “co-construction: an introduction”. research on language and social interaction 28: 171-183. kramsch, c. (1986). “from language proficiency to interactional competence”. the modern language journal 70: 366-372. lado, r. (1957). linguistics across cultures. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. malinowski, b. (1923). “the problem of meaning in primitive languages” in c.k. ogden, i.a. richards, b. malinowski, f.g. crookshank & j.p. postgate (eds.), the meaning of meaning: a study of the influence of language upon thought and of the science of symbolism, 296-336. london: kegan paul trench trubner. ranney, s. (1992). “learning a new script: an exploration of sociolinguistic competence”. applied linguistics 13: 25-50. schegloff, e.a. & h. sacks (1973). “opening up closings” in r. turner (ed.), ethnomethodology: selected readings, 233-264. harmondsworth, middlesex: penguin. shea, d.p. (1994). “perspective and production: structuring conversational participation across cultural borders”. pragmatics 4: 357-389. tarone, e. & g.-q. liu (1995). “situational context, variation, and second language acquisition theory” in g. cook & b. seidlhofer (eds.), principle and practice in applied linguistics: studies in honour of h. g. widdowson, 107-124. oxford: oxford university press. wolfson, n. (1984). “pretty is as pretty does: a speech act view of sex roles”. applied linguistics 5: 236-244. young, r.f. (1995a). “conversational styles in language proficiency interviews”. language learning 45: 3-42. young, r.f. (1995b). “discontinuous interlanguage development and its implications for oral proficiency rating scales”. applied language learning 6: 13-26. young, r.f., d. brooks, c. ford, s. magnan & j. zuengler (1996). learning face to face: office hours with international teaching assistants. [video]. university of wisconsin: instructional media development center. young, r.f. & g.b. halleck (1998). ““let them eat cake!” or how to avoid losing your head in crosscultural conversations” in r.f. young & a.w. he (eds.), talking and testing: discourse approaches to the assessment of oral proficiency, 355-382. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. young, r.f. & m. milanovic (1992). “discourse variation in oral proficiency interviews”. studies in second language acquisition 14: 403-424. richard f. young is professor of english at the university of wisconsinmadison. his research focuses on the relationship between language and social context and has resulted in four books, variation in interlanguage morphology (peter lang, 1991), talking and testing (john benjamins, 1998), language and interaction (routledge, 2008) and discursive practice in language learning and teaching (wiley-blackwell, 2009) and over 50 research articles in academic journals. learning to talk the talk ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 35 appendix a: math office hour 1 s: well i know one question that i have with 2 math is a math problem is, this is on the 3 take-home quiz 4 ta: mhm 5 s: and um i wanted to ask you about this too i 6 really didn’t understand how you arrive at 7 finding how this function becomes continuous 8 at x equals three 9 ta: um do you know the definition, of continuity, 10 s: i know i think i know eum: ((gaze shifts from 11 pad to ta)) the picture of it cuz i remember him 12 drawing grathe professor 13 ta: mhm 14 s: drawing graphs on the board and to when a graph 15 is continuous and when it’s not continuous but i 16 don’t: know if i know it in like mathematical terms 17 just in graphs and pictures 18 ta: mhm um if uh uh to uh illustrate this problem 19 s: mhm 20 ta: in picture we just uh uhm think the picture 21 should be the graph should be connected 22 s: ya through the the whole 23 ta: yeah 24 s: all the way through 25 ta: to be continuous uh we mean the graph is 26 s: mhm 27 ta: connected okay and in terms of uh rigorous 28 mathematical definition it’s 29 s: mhm 30 ta: so there are three conditions okay so 31 uhm f to be continuous 32 s: mhm 33 ta: at x equal to a if f is state to continuous 34 at x equal 35 s: mhm 36 ta: first uhm f of a exist exists and second the 37 limit of f as x approach to a exists 38 s: okay. 39 ta: and third the value in first 40 uh condition and second condition agree okay 41 if uh the function satisfy this three conditions 42 s: mhm 43 ta: then it’s uh say uhm continuous at x equal 44 to a 45 s: mhm 46 ta: and so for this problem uh the first condition 47 holds 48 s: okay f of a exists i see 49 ta: mm because it’s defined 50 s: mhm 51 ta: okay and so actually we only need uh this 52 okay for this problem 53 s: mhm 54 ta: we need uh the left uh the left-hand side 55 limit is equal to the right-hand side limit. 56 s: okay i understand now. 57 ta: mhm, and we just uh we will check this 58 condition and when when that will satisfy this and richard f. young ibérica 25 (2013): 15-3836 59 that will give us an equation 60 s: okay and that’s what they 61 ta: involving k 62 s: equal over here 63 ta: yes. 64 s: to make something equal to one another? 65 ta: yes 66 s: okay so they 67 ta: because, ya the leftleft-hand limit is uh 68 is uhm three minus k 69 s: mhm 70 ta: times three plus k and the right-hand side limit 71 three k minus one. 72 s: okay 73 ta: mhm appendix b: italian as a foreign language office hour 1 ta: and do you have questions about what was the 2 s: i 3 ta: i won’t say the corrections that i made since i didn’t 4 make any corrections i simply indicated where your mistakes 5 s: mhm 6 ta: were 7 s: ((coughs)) let me see um i have a question 8 ta: mhm 9 s: when you used the the uh the form dare 10 ta: mhm 11 s: and why why can’t we use here instead of darle un 12 bacio baciarle 13 ta: okay okay uh baciarle baciarle 14 s: mhm 15 ta: okay you can use it but the problem is that you’re 16 here you wouldn’t you wouldn’t use the right preposition 17 s: mhm 18 ta: since baciarle 19 s: mhm 20 ta: le 21 s: le le 22 ta: is a pronoun meaning, to her 23 s: to her xxx 24 ta: if you say baciarla and and it would be an indirect 25 object pronoun if you say baciarla 26 s: mhm 27 ta: would be correct since you would be using what, a 28 direct object pronoun. 29 s: okay 30 ta: to kiss her. 31 s: yeah 32 ta: okay, so here avevo bisogno di baciarla and it 33 would be correct but the problem wthat i indicated 34 here i mean i indicated simply that it was a problem 35 because you were misspelling 36 s: right 37 ta: the verb. 38 s: okay 39 ta: i meaning using two c. 40 s: could you also say ave41 ta: but, yes learning to talk the talk ibérica 25 (2013): 15-38 37 42 s: che avevo bisogno di uh uhm okay 43 ta: okay che avevo bisogno di baciarle i dunno una guancia 44 s: una guancia 45 ta: yeah to give her a kiss on a on a cheek 46 s: una guancia guancia 47 ta: guancia 48 s: ah that’s a new word. 49 ta: yeah you know i mean ththe ththethen you 50 then you could use an indirect object pronoun baciare 51 che cosa what, una guancia 52 s: mhm 53 ta: ma di lei 54 s: you could never say le dare un bacio 55 ta: no no no no no no no no no no no 56 s: yeah i don’t think so. 57 ta: no no because i mean iit all depends on the idiom 58 avevo bisogno di so you are to conjugate avere 59 s: mhm 60 ta: but bisogno di you can’t i mean this is this 61 is just a part which is not 62 s: i understand now 63 ta: which cannot be uh conjugated i don’t know if you 64 understand what i mean so melissa sapeva che avevo 65 bisogno che avevo bisogno di darle un bacio. which 66 is, perfect. melissa sapeva che avevo bisogno di 67 baciarla but then you will write baciarla with just 68 one c richard f. young ibérica 25 (2013): 15-3838 iberica 13 ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the internet provides researchers with tools to disseminate their research findings to different audiences and meet the information needs of various publics. one of these tools is online science videos, which can be addressed to audiences with different degrees of expertise and shared on various platforms. the current study analyzes a set of online videos used by research groups to inform about their research and findings and engage the audience with this research. my purpose is to analyze how multimodal strategies are used in these videos to recontextualize knowledge for a wide audience. the analysis reveals four types of strategies, which may be performed through the orchestration of various semiotic modes: (i) strategies to construct the research group’s credibility and authority; (ii) strategies to construct persuasive arguments; (iii) strategies to tailor information to the assumed knowledge of potential viewers; (iv) strategies to bond with the viewers and engage them. keywords: digital genres, online videos, multimodality, science dissemination, recontextualization resumen t e n di e nd o pu e nt e s e n tre e xp e rt os y p úb l ic os : e l pa pe l d e l a mu l tim od al i d ad e n l a di s e mi na c ió n d e l a inv es t ig ac i ón e n v íd e os on l in e internet ofrece a los investigadores diversas herramientas para difundir los resultados de su investigación y satisfacer las necesidades de información de públicos diversos. una de estas herramientas es el vídeo científico en línea, dirigido a públicos más o menos expertos en la disciplina, y que puede compartirse a través de varias plataformas. el presente estudio analiza una serie bridging the gap between experts and publics: the role of multimodality in disseminating research in online videos maría-josé luzón universidad de zaragoza mjluzon@unizar.es 167 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 167 ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 maría-josé luzón de vídeos utilizados por diferentes grupos de investigación para informar sobre su trabajo y resultados. mi objetivo es analizar cómo se utilizan las estrategias multimodales en estos vídeos para recontextualizar el conocimiento cuando se dirige a un público más amplio. el análisis revela la existencia de cuatro tipos de estrategias, que pueden llevarse a cabo por medio de la coordinación de varios modos semióticos: (i) estrategias para construir la credibilidad y autoridad del grupo de investigación; (ii) estrategias para construir argumentos persuasivos; (iii) estrategias para adaptar la información al conocimiento de los espectadores potenciales, y (iv) estrategias para crear vínculos con los espectadores e implicarlos en la investigación. palabras clave: géneros digitales, vídeos en línea, multimodalidad, divulgación científica, recontextualización 1. introduction the online environment, with its multimodal affordances, offers researchers new possibilities for dissemination of their research and for public outreach. online videos have become a popular tool to communicate science to the public (kousha, thelwall & abdoli, 2012; erviti & stengler, 2016; león & bourk, 2018) and are used by academics, universities and other organizations to disseminate courses and other educational content (pasquali, 2007; kousha, thelwall & abdoli, 2012). given the potential of online videos for the communication of science, researchers are analyzing them from different perspectives, e.g. the uses of online videos for education (decesare, 2014), the different types and purposes of online science videos (thelwall, kousha, weller & puschmann, 2012; muñoz-morcillo, czurda & trotha, 2016), or the factors that affect their popularity (thelwall et al., 2012; welbourne & grant, 2016; erviti & león, 2016). however, except for studies on a specific type of online video genre, ted talks (e.g. scotto di carlo, 2014; santini, 2015), there has been little research on how online videos are exploited by academics to disseminate information about science to the public and to promote their work and findings. additionally, studies on ted talks have foregrounded the oral mode of communication and have concentrated almost exclusively on the analysis of linguistic features. however, the multiplicity of semiotic resources deployed in online science videos calls for the need to study how various modes interact to make meaning and achieve the communicative purpose of the genre. the main focus of this paper is the interplay of various modes in online science videos to recontextualize knowledge for the intended audience. 168 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 168 the possibilities for public dissemination afforded by online videos are particularly important in the current research context, where funding agencies are increasingly encouraging researchers’ involvement in outreach activities and interaction with the lay public. the current study analyzes online videos used by research groups to inform both peers and the interested public about their research, in order to update scientifically informed users and engage peers and the public with this research. these videos share features with science documentaries, in that they combine narration and audiovisual modes for both informative and persuasive purposes: they are intended not only to inform the audience but also to persuade them of the relevance of the research. the purpose of the study is to analyze how multimodal strategies are used to achieve specific rhetorical purposes and to meet the information needs of the audience. i attempt to answer the following questions: (i) how is the credibility and authority of the research group constructed? (ii) how do different modes interplay in the construction of arguments? (iii) how do different modes contribute to making the content understandable? (iv) what rhetorical strategies are used to engage the viewer and how are they realized? 2. online videos and audiences in academic communication there is a wide variety of online science videos (kousha et al., 2012; león & bourk, 2018), differing in terms of purpose and intended audience. in their study, thelwall et al. (2012) classified online science videos into six categories: scientific demonstration, public dissemination, education, talks to academics, information about scientists, and comedy. these purposes and the way the videos are produced are clearly related to the audience. some online videos are used as tools to communicate with peers, to show experimental details or illustrate methods (thelwall et al., 2012). the journal of visualized experiments (jove, http://www.jove.com/), for instance, is a peer reviewed scientific video journal which publishes research in a visual format. some journals provide short video summaries of their published papers, either embedded on the journal website as a complement to the paper or on their youtube channel, e.g. the journal clinical gastroenterology and hepatology, the new journal of physics or the journal of number theory. these videos help to provide information that is difficult to convey only with text, such as the morphological change of cells (pasquali, 2007). bridging the gap between experts and publics ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 169 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 169 online video is also used as a tool to communicate with and engage the lay public (jenkins, 2007; thelwall et al., 2012; scotto di carlo, 2014). its multimodal nature makes it a very effective and accessible format to communicate complex scientific ideas, explain scientific concepts and communicate science to the interested public (pasquali, 2007; thelwall et al., 2012). publications like nature or new scientist use videos as a complement to their publication to tell people about the research they publish in a visual way. in the words of sandrine ceurstemont (multimedia producer at new scientist), “in certain cases, video is the most attractive way to convey certain stories, because you can describe some things in words, but you just see the video and, right away, you get the point” (erviti & stengler, 2016: 7). the web helps researchers publishing in nature to reach a wide diversified audience, consisting both of other researchers and the interested public. the fact that online videos can be embedded in several websites and shared on social media contributes to this widening of their audience. some research groups are also harnessing the affordances of the online video to promote their work among different audiences. the audiovisual presentations embedded on their websites or available on online platforms (e.g. youtube, vimeo) are more engaging both for peers and for the lay public than the written description of their research available on their websites. through these videos, groups can interact directly not only with peers but also with a wider audience, and arouse public interest in their research activity and their discipline. 3. multimodality and recontextualization online science videos are multimodal texts which draw on several modes or semiotic resources (e.g. non-verbal sound, spoken and written language, image) to re-contextualize scientific discourse. therefore, the analysis of communication, representation and re-contextualization in these texts should be approached from a multimodal perspective. 3.1. multimodality mda (multimodal discourse analysis) is based on several assumptions (kress & van leeuwen, 2001; kress, 2003; bezemer & kress, 2008; jewitt, 2009): language is just one part of an ensemble of modes, all of which contribute to meaning; modes have differing modal resources (e.g. writing and speech share maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192170 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 170 lexical and grammatical resources, but they also have other resources, like punctuation in the case of writing, and pitch in the case of speech; images use resources like size and color, and, in the case of moving images, movement) and therefore they can be used to realize different meanings, i.e. they have different affordances; meaning is constructed through the selection, combination and interaction of modes, that is, modes work together to create what kress and van leeuwen (2001) call “communicational ensembles”. the affordances of the different modes for meaning-making enable “sign makers to do different work in relation to their interests and their rhetorical intentions for designs of meaning, which, in modal ensembles, best meet the rhetor’s interest and sense of the needs of the audience” (bezemer & kress, 2008: 171). analyzing academic genres from this perspective involves regarding genres as “discernible patterns of semiosis” (o’halloran, 2009: 99) and accepting that the social purpose of the genres is achieved not only through language but through the interaction of several semiotic modes. genres differ in their semiotic affordances for creating various types of meaning (kress & van leeuwen, 2001; bateman, delin & henschel, 2007; bateman, 2008). users select semiotic resources from these afforded by the genre and combine them in such a way that they work together to achieve the communicative purpose of the genre. according to bateman (2008), multimedia genres are constituted by collections of rhetorical strategies which collaborate to achieve the goal of the genre through the deployment and selection of the semiotic modes made available by the medium. 3.2. recontextualization this study explores communication and representation in interview-based science documentaries, i.e. documentaries where the researchers themselves tell the story of their research. in these texts the scientific discourse of formal academic genres is recontextualized in online science videos, harnessing the multimodal affordances of digital video. bezemer and kress (2008: 184) define recontextualization as follows: moving meaning material from one context with its social organization of participants and its modal ensembles to another, with its different social organization and modal ensembles. meaning material always has a semiotic realization, so recontextualization involves the re-presentation of the meaning materials in a manner apt for the new context in the light of the available modal resources. bridging the gap between experts and publics ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 171 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 171 this definition is particularly relevant in the context of this study because it is based on the assumption that meaning is made through the interaction of modes. recontextualization is achieved through various rhetorical processes, e.g. “simplification” or “condensation”; “explicitation”, “reformulation” and “elaboration”; and “refocusing” (calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004; bezemer & kress, 2008; bondi, cacchiani & mazzi, 2015). according to bezemer and kress (2008), recontextualization involves four rhetorical principles: “selection” (of meaning material that is relevant in the new context and contributes to the rhetor’s interest, and of modal resources which are available in the new context and are appropriate for the audience of this context); “arrangement” (of the meaning materials in a way that is best for the audience and for the rhetor’s purpose); “foregrounding” (of the elements that are particularly significant in the new context); and “social reposition” (or reconstruction of social relations between the rhetor and the audience of the new context). as a result of the current interest in the public understanding of science, there is a growing body of research on the strategies used in different genres to transform scientific discourse into discourse that meets the interests of the lay or interested public (e.g. hyland, 2010; luzón, 2013; scotto di carlo, 2014; hunston, 2015). hyland’s (2010) concept of “proximity” helps us to understand the different facets of recontextualization in popular texts. “proximity” refers to: a writer’s control of rhetorical features which display both authority as an expert and a personal position towards issues in an unfolding text. it involves responding to the context of the text (…) it is concerned with how writers represent not only themselves and their readers, but also their material, in ways which are most likely to meet their readers’ expectations (hyland, 2010: 117). hyland compares how proximity is constructed in texts intended for experts and for a lay public and in doing so he shows how the discourse of research articles is recontextualized in popular science. for instance, in popular science new concepts are defined and explained, in order to adapt information to the assumed knowledge of the potential readers, and questions and second person pronouns are used to involve the reader. hunston (2015) analyzed interviews with scientists on a radio programme and found that they used interpersonal strategies to promote their work in maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192172 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 172 front of the general public, e.g. evidentials and status markers, emphasis on the novelty of results or value of the research. recontextualization strategies have also been explored in digital genres (e.g. luzón, 2013; scotto di carlo, 2014). in science blogs, the bloggers’ desire to reach a wide and diversified audience leads to the use of strategies to connect with the interested public (e.g. informal discourse, personal narratives) and to the blending of discursive practices from different discourses (luzón, 2013). in ted talks speakers draw on various discourse strategies to establish a close relation with the audience and enhance their credibility (scotto di carlo, 2014). 4. corpus and method 4.1. corpus the corpus analyzed in this study is composed of 14 online videos where research groups report on their research. two sets of videos have been selected: (i) promotional videos produced by research groups themselves or their institutions, available on the research group’s website or on other platforms like youtube or vimeo (or on both), where the groups tell about their research lines (henceforth referred to as “presentation videos”); (ii) videos from nature online video streaming archive, also available on the nature youtube channel, which act as complements to published papers (henceforth referred to as “nature videos”). charlotte stoddart, the head of multimedia at nature, stated that the video format enabled both scientists and public to understand better the published research (erviti & stengler, 2016). the objective of both types of videos is the promotion of scientific culture and the dissemination of the group’s research activity. however, while nature videos recontextualize the specific research reported in the paper, presentation videos report more broadly on the group’s areas of research and interests. therefore, they may resort to different rhetorical strategies and resources to achieve their communicative purpose. seven videos were selected from each group (see appendix). in order to find the presentation videos, search words like “(our) research group”, “(our) research team” were used in google videos, youtube and vimeo. the following criteria were used to select these videos: (i) they should be in english; (ii) they should be interview-based science documentaries; (iii) they should be between 3 and 6 minutes long; (iv) they should have been produced in the last 3 years or (if they were older) they should still be present on the research bridging the gap between experts and publics ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 173 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 173 group’s website (to make sure that they were still relevant for the group). regarding the nature videos, all of them are written in english. i selected the seven most recent interview-based science documentaries (at the time of collection) with a length between 3 and 6 minutes. the corpus size is moderate for two reasons. first, it was difficult to find presentation videos that met all the selection criteria listed above: many research groups produce presentation videos in their own first language, rather than in english, to reach a local audience; in addition, in some cases groups do not use interview-based science documentaries to present their research, but a monologic format. the second reason to select only 14 videos was the need to work with a manageable corpus, since the analysis involved looking at a variety of semiotic resources. a corpus of this size provides enough analytic data for the type of study (i.e. mostly qualitative) reported in this paper, and is in line with the corpora used in other studies of multimodality in academic genres (querol-julián & fortanet gómez, 2012; valeiras-jurado, ruiz-madrid & jacobs, 2018). 4.2. method in this research a multimodal perspective is adopted to analyze the recontextualization of academic discourse in online science videos. from this perspective, the focus of analysis is on how the different semiotic resources which are co-present in the videos interplay to enact rhetorical strategies. paltridge (2012) notes that when carrying out mda there are often too many data for analysis and therefore it is necessary to select specific aspects to examine. due to the impossibility of analyzing all the semiotic resources that contribute to the recontextualization of science in online videos, i decided to focus on the following modes: speech, written language, static images, and moving images. paralanguage and kinesic features are not analyzed, despite their importance in genres where scientists present research orally (see querol-julián & fortanet gómez, 2012; ruiz-madrid & fortanet gómez, 2017). i will discuss briefly the role of gestures when they play a particularly important role, but the detailed study of gestures by participants in the video is too complex to be dealt with in this study. the data for this study were analyzed with atlas.ti, a qualitative data analysis tool which allows annotation and coding of text, audio and video documents. documents can be loaded on atlas.ti to make a corpus, and maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192174 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 174 selected data segments in these documents (video segments in the current study) can be assigned one or more codes. in this study, coding was done by starting with an initial list of anticipated codes which evolved over time, as some codes were eliminated and new codes emerging from the data were added. to design this initial code list, i took into account research on the discursive strategies used in scientific discourse to respond to the context of the text (fahnestock, 1986; calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004; giannoni, 2008; hyland, 2010; luzón, 2013). these studies provided the justification for the classification of recontextualizing strategies into four groups: (i) strategies to construct the research group’s credibility and authority (“source credibility”); (ii) strategies to construct persuasive arguments (“convincing arguments”); (iii) strategies to tailor information to the assumed knowledge of potential readers (“framing”); (iv) strategies to engage the viewers (“engagement”). previous research on rhetorical strategies also provided information on the semiotic resources to realize these strategies, which guided their identification in the corpus. for instance, “appeal to novelty” can be realized verbally through positive evaluation (e.g. “a new approach”). the initial code list based on previous research was complemented with codes generated on the basis of my observation of the data, using the “coding in vivo” option of atlas.ti. the rationale for this methodological decision was that previous research focuses mainly on verbal modes, and, since visual modes have such an important role in meaning-making in science videos, it is necessary to consider also visual semiotic resources and analyze how they are co-deployed with other semiotic resources to enact rhetorical strategies. the first phase in the analysis of the video corpus consisted in viewing each of the videos twice to get a general impression of the rhetorical work and of the strategies used in these videos to recontextualize scientific knowledge. the second phase consisted in coding the data. in the first round, video segments were assigned descriptive codes (semiotic resources related to each of the four broad categories of strategies: “source credibility”, “convincing arguments”, “framing” and “engagement”), e.g. “video footage representing researchers doing science. source credibility”. “verbal nontechnical explanation. framing”. these codes were then grouped into categories (strategies). for instance, “video footage representing researchers doing science” was grouped into the category “representing researchers as experts”. coding was an iterative process, which involved refining codes, eliminating redundant ones or merging those that were minimally different. bridging the gap between experts and publics ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 175 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 175 the possibility of assigning more than one code to each data segment helps to reveal how various semiotic resources are co-deployed to enact rhetorical strategies. tables 1-4 in section 5 list the different strategies and semiotic resources that were coded for. as pointed out above, this is a qualitative study, intended to show how various modes interplay to realize strategies through which research is contextualized in online videos. however, some quantitative information is provided (i.e. the number of videos in each set where the various semiotic resources are used) to help establish the relation between the use of these resources and the communicative purpose of the genre. 5. results in this section i discuss how various semiotic resources are co-deployed in science videos to establish the group’s authority and credibility, shape the material to construct persuasive arguments, tailor information to the audience’s needs, and engage and position the audience. 5.1. establishing the group’s authority and credibility table 1 presents the different strategies to establish the group’s authority (in italics) and the resources through which these strategies are realized. the table also provides quantitative information on the number of videos where these strategies and resources occur, to determine the extent to which they are typical of this type of video. quantitative data are provided on the two sets of videos separately to reveal any possible difference. in order to bestow credibility on the researchers reporting the information, three strategies are used: informing of the researcher’s/ group’s position and affiliation, representing researchers as experts, and informing about the group’s collaborators. viewers are informed of the group’s affiliation through several modes: by means of superimposed writing when the researchers first appear on screen; through speech, with the researchers introducing themselves (e.g. 1a) or with voice-over presenting the group (e.g. 1b); by means of images (e.g. faculty, logo). setting contributes to constructing the academic identity: all videos but one are filmed in an academic setting (laboratories, facilities of the research center, offices) and in the case of presentation videos a picture of the main entrance of the maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192176 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 176 faculty building or the research centre is always present. all these resources contribute to the meaning that the researchers’ authority is institutionally legitimate. 1a. my name is guido schäfer. i’m the group leader of the networks and optimization group here at cw (v11) 1b. the heterogeneous catalysis and sustainable chemistry group led by professor gaddy rothenberg forms part of the vanette hof institute for molecular sciences at the university of amsterdam (v12). the representation of researchers as experts is also achieved by the interplay of visual and verbal resources. in all the videos researchers themselves present their research (even if in some videos there is also a voice-over or external narrator): in nature videos researchers present a specific finding and in presentation videos they present their research line or main achievement. in all the videos, live-action footage represents members of the group “doing research” in their research setting and using the methods of their discipline, e.g. digging in archaeological sites, using laboratory equipment or computers. additionally, in 64.3% of the videos (100% of the bridging the gap between experts and publics ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 177 bridging the gap between experts and publics of this type of video. quantitative data are provided on the two sets of videos separately to reveal any possible difference. strategies and semiotic resources no. of videos (nature) no. of videos (presentation) informing of researcher’s/ group’s position and affiliation voice-over information about researcher’s/ group’s affiliation 1 2 researcher’s self-introduction 1 2 written identification of researcher’s/ group’s affiliation 7 7 image of faculty, university, research centre 0 7 university logo 0 2 visual representation of academic setting 6 7 representing researchers as experts researchers presenting their own research verbally 7 7 video footage representing researchers “doing science” 7 7 video footage representing researchers explaining aspects of their research 7 2 visual representation of equipment 7 7 exclusive “we” 7 7 positive verbal evaluation of the group and their facilities 0 2 informing about the group’s network reference to collaborators 0 6 table 1. semiotic resources to establish the group’s authority and credibility. in order to bestow credibility on the researchers reporting the information, three strategies are used: informing of the researcher’s/ group’s position and affiliation, representing researchers as experts, and informing about the group’s collaborators. viewers are informed of the group’s affiliation through several modes: by means of superimposed writing when the researchers first appear on screen; through speech, with the researchers introducing themselves (e.g. 1a) or with voice-over presenting the group (e.g. 1b); by means of images (e.g. faculty, logo). setting contributes to constructing the academic identity: all videos but one are filmed in an academic setting (laboratories, facilities of the research center, offices) and in the case of presentation videos a picture of the main entrance of the faculty building or the research centre is always present. all these resources contribute to the meaning that the researchers’ authority is institutionally legitimate. 1a. my name is guido schäfer. i’m the group leader of the networks and optimization group here at cw (v11) 1b. the heterogeneous catalysis and sustainable chemistry group led by professor gaddy rothenberg forms part of the vanette hof institute for molecular sciences at the university of amsterdam (v12). 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 177 nature videos) researchers are represented explaining aspects of their research: they describe the procedures and methods they use, or they explain concepts and theories. these visual and verbal resources are combined to show researchers’ expertise and knowledge of the discipline and their mastery of disciplinary procedures and practices. the use of “exclusive we” also helps to enhance authority and give visibility to the group. this linguistic device is, however, used differently in the two sets of videos. in nature videos “exclusive we” performs mostly the discourse function of “recounter of the research process”: a writer “who describes or recounts the various steps of the research process” (tang & john, 1999: s28) (see example 2). this recount shows that researchers are familiar with disciplinary procedures and methods and thus helps to construct their identity as experts. 2. we selected two pairs of animals (…) we measured the muscle power (…) so to measure these things, we used wildlife tracking collars (v2) in presentation videos “exclusive we” performs mainly the discourse function of “originator”, a role in which speakers “claim authority” and ownership of findings and show ”that they perceive themselves as people who have the right and the ability to originate new ideas” (tang & john, 1999: s29) (see examples 3a and 3b). 3a. in our group we develop mathematical tools to solve complex optimization problems coming from real world applications (v11) 3b. several or our discoveries have resulted in valuable inventions (…) most recently, we’ve discovered a new type of biodegradable plastic. it is completely biodegradable, made of 100% plantbased materials (v12) authority is also constructed by the positive evaluation of the group, their research outcomes or their equipment (as evidence of their capability to conduct research). for example, in v14 the researcher states “we have become a world recognized research team internationally”. similarly, in v12 the voiceover describes the group as “internationally known as a leader in catalyst discovery and optimization” and the members of the group use the following words to describe their lab: “newest commercially available equipment”, maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192178 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 178 “brand new lab”, “state of the art equipment”. the frequent pairing or “we”/“our” with positive evaluation foregrounds the relevance, novelty and importance of the groups’ research (see examples 3a and 3b above). finally, in presentation videos, making reference to collaborators and stressing the importance of the collaboration also helps to reinforce the credibility of the researchers. 5.2. shaping material to construct persuasive arguments table 2 presents the different strategies and semiotic resources used in these videos to make arguments and claims more acceptable for the viewers. although in both sets of videos several semiotic resources are combined to construct persuasive arguments, there are some differences in the resources used for this purpose. nature videos are similar to popularizations in that they present a “narrative of nature” (myers, 1990): the narrative is organized chronologically and focuses on the object of research, rather than on the research process. this chronological presentation helps to “enhance the visibility of information and make the message more convincing” (hyland, 2010: 121). in the videos the verbal chronological narration is integrated with images which help viewers visualize the stages of the narrative and attract their attention to the object of research. presentation videos do not present a narrative of nature, probably due to the fact that these videos are intended to present an overview of the group’s research activity rather than report on a specific finding. bridging the gap between experts and publics ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 179 bridging the gap between experts and publics finally, in presentation videos, making reference to collaborators and stressing the importance of the collaboration also helps to reinforce the credibility of the researchers. 5.2. shaping material to construct persuasive arguments table 2 presents the different strategies and semiotic resources used in these videos to make arguments and claims more acceptable for the viewers. strategies and semiotic resources no. of videos (nature) no. of videos (presentation) presenting a narrative of nature chronological verbal presentation 6 0 visuals to support the narrative 6 0 appeal to novelty or newsworthiness evaluative language to express a gap/ problem/ challenge 4 5 positive verbal evaluation of their research 4 5 appeal to application linguistic expression of ability 4 7 listing of uses or applications 3 3 visual representation of uses or applications 3 3 providing supporting evidence for claims visual providing evidence for what is being said 5 1 providing evidence with gesture/ action 1 0 table 2. semiotic resources to make claims and arguments convincing. although in both sets of videos several semiotic resources are combined to construct persuasive arguments, there are some differences in the resources used for this purpose. nature videos are similar to popularizations in that they present a “narrative of nature” (myers, 1990): the narrative is organized chronologically and focuses on the object of research, rather than on the research process. this chronological presentation helps to “enhance the visibility of information and make the message more convincing” (hyland, 2010: 121). in the videos the verbal chronological narration is integrated with images which help viewers visualize the stages of the narrative and attract their attention to the object of research. presentation videos do not present a narrative of nature, probably due to the fact that these videos are intended to present an overview of the group’s research activity rather than report on a specific finding. another difference between the two sets of videos is the use of visuals to construct arguments. there are more nature videos where visuals help to provide evidence for claims. this is consistent with the fact that these videos recontextualize nature papers where a claim to knowledge is made. as can be seen in example (4), different types of visuals can be used for support, e.g. video footage, computer simulation, still images, or various disciplinary visual aids. in v2 video footage illustrates what the researcher says: a cheetah is filmed chasing its prey and trying to catch it up (e.g. 4a); in v1 the researcher shows that a 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 179 another difference between the two sets of videos is the use of visuals to construct arguments. there are more nature videos where visuals help to provide evidence for claims. this is consistent with the fact that these videos recontextualize nature papers where a claim to knowledge is made. as can be seen in example (4), different types of visuals can be used for support, e.g. video footage, computer simulation, still images, or various disciplinary visual aids. in v2 video footage illustrates what the researcher says: a cheetah is filmed chasing its prey and trying to catch it up (e.g. 4a); in v1 the researcher shows that a helmet fits on her head by actually trying it on (e.g. 4b); in the same video the researcher explains how meg (magnetoencephalography) works and uses the scan image on the computer to actually show areas of the brain moving, and thus provide evidence for what he says (e.g. 4c). 4a. the prey is … always a stride ahead and the predator is always playing catch-up (+video footage) (v2) 4b. it fits perfectly on my head (+video footage) (v1) 4c. we can localize which area of the brain is responsible for the movement (+scan image) (v1) to make the research valuable for the audience, these videos draw on the “novelty” appeal, i.e. presenting the research as a new contribution to existing disciplinary knowledge (hyland, 2010) and the “applications” appeal, i.e. presenting the research as having further benefits or future applications (fahnestock, 1986). hyland (2010) notes that novelty is negotiated differently in research papers and popular texts. while in research papers claims for novelty are made against existing disciplinary knowledge, in popular texts the novel is changed into the newsworthy and scientific findings are evaluated in terms of uniqueness and immediate value for the audience. the evaluative statements in examples (5a) and (5b) are used to emphasize that the group is making a contribution to existing knowledge: 5a. what makes the group special is that it connects deep methods from mathematics to practical problems from logistics (v11) 5b. we are taking all that software and all that knowledge....and bringing it into new domains of biology and nanotechnology (v9) example (6) illustrates the newsworthiness appeal. the first sequences of the video intersperse the expressions of “wonder” by an expert outside the maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192180 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 180 research group and by a group member with written text on a black screen. both in the participants’ speech and in the written text, uniqueness and originality is stressed with the use of evaluative vocabulary. this is combined with emphasis of this evaluation achieved through intonation (high pitch words appear in capitals) and gestures. 6. expert’s speech: my first reaction on reading the paper was no this is wrong, something is wrong. written text: an archaeological dig in california... researcher’s speech: they are gonna think, this is crazy, this is outrageous written text: ...has unearthed something almost unbelievable... expert: i didn’t believe it. i still don’t believe it properly. written text: ..about the first human to reach north america researcher’s speech: it really is a paradigm shift in terms of when humans arrived in this continent. expert’s speech: and if it does turn out to be true, it changes absolutely everything videos in both sets establish the relevance of the research by presenting the research process as a result of the researchers’ effort to solve a problem or challenge (see examples 7a and 7b). the claim for novelty or newsworthiness is usually based on the positive evaluation of the solution to that problem (see examples 7c and 7d). although the presentation of the problem is mostly done verbally, through the use of evaluative vocabulary, visuals can help to provide evidence for the negative evaluation, as shown in example (7b). the utterance of “very large, they are very bulky and that one size fits all” is synchronous first with the researcher’s gestures and then with the image of an emg scanner through which the audience can actually see how bulky these devices are. 7a. one of the real challenges for sport teams is to decide when their athletes will be ready to return to sport. the work we do here at lgmu allows us to help inform those decision-making processes (v8) 7b. the problem with current emg scanners is that they are very large, they are very bulky and that one size fits all (v1) bridging the gap between experts and publics ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 181 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 181 7c. the existing commercial processes for making nylon are not very clean. they use corrosive chemicals and produce large amount of byproducts. we are now developing a new process that avoids these problems (v12) 7d. one of its work areas is the design of revolutionary biosensors with highly competitive properties …(v10) the “applications” appeal is realized through semiotic resources that stress and present the usefulness or benefits of the research (both verbally and visually): linguistic expressions of ability help to present the benefits that the research will bring to the audience (see example 8a); verbal presentation of uses or applications are synchronized with video footage representing these applications, which helps the viewers visualize and remember them (see example 8b) 8a. with this new technology scanning babies… is going to become possible (…) i think we will certainly be able to really start seeing the neural substrate that underlie these disorders in children (v1) 8b. these kind of three-dimensional visualizations may instead be used to train medical professionals for advanced procedures. they can also be used in aviation. (+ visuals showing applications) (v5) 5.3. strategies to tailor information to the needs of the interested public in the videos analyzed visual and verbal semiotic resources interplay to make the message more understandable for the lay audience. as in popular texts, in online science videos language is used to explain or clarify concepts or processes that may be unfamiliar for viewers. concepts, theories or processes are defined or explained in non-technical language or compared to other everyday concepts or processes that lay people can engage with (see example 9). these linguistic resources are most often co-deployed with visuals for a clearer explanation of how science works. visual resources interact with verbal resources in a variety of ways: definitions, comparisons and descriptions may be accompanied by images, as is the case of the definition in example 9; an object may be mentioned synchronously with its verbal representation, which makes further verbal explanation unnecessary (see example 10); deixis is accompanied by visual representation of the maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192182 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 182 object (see example 11); moving simulations show what the researcher is explaining or what the voice-over is saying. for instance, in v3 the researcher explains the different injuries in a skull and the video shows a simulated skull spinning to show the injuries that the speaker is talking about. 9. a volumetric image is essentially an image that is taking up threedimensional space (+ filmed image of a volumetric image) (v5) 10. if you produce a trabecular lattice, you could grow cells.(+ filmed image of a trabecular lattice) (v9) bridging the gap between experts and publics ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 183 maría josé luzón ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… strategies and semiotic resources no. of videos (nature) no. of videos (presentation) comparison 3 0 definition 3 3 representation/ description of an object verbal description of an object 4 0 visual representation of an object mentioned in the video (naming+ deixis) 7 4 non-technical explanation of disciplinary procedures and methods verbal non-technical explanation 5 1 representation of disciplinary procedures through video footage 3 2 non-technical explanation or demonstration of concepts, theories verbal non-technical explanation or demonstration of concepts, theories 6 5 symbolic images to facilitate understanding of researcher’s explanation 6 4 visual elaboration of what the researcher is saying 2 0 emphasis, noticing written language of key words 4 1 gestures 7 7 table 3. strategies to tailor information to the needs of the interested public. in the videos analyzed visual and verbal semiotic resources interplay to make the message more understandable for the lay audience. as in popular texts, in online science videos language is used to explain or clarify concepts or processes that may be unfamiliar for viewers. concepts, theories or processes are defined or explained in non-technical language or compared to other everyday concepts or processes that lay people can engage with (see example 9). these linguistic resources are most often co-deployed with visuals for a clearer explanation of how science works. visual resources interact with verbal resources in a variety of ways: definitions, comparisons and descriptions may be accompanied by images, as is the case of the definition in example 9; an object may be mentioned synchronously with its verbal representation, which makes further verbal explanation unnecessary (see example 10); deixis is accompanied by visual representation of the object (see example 11); moving simulations show what the researcher is explaining or what the voiceover is saying. for instance, in v3 the researcher explains the different injuries in a skull and the video shows a simulated skull spinning to show the injuries that the speaker is talking about. 9. a volumetric image is essentially an image that is taking up threedimensional space (+ filmed image of a volumetric image) (v5) 10. if you produce a trabecular lattice, you can.(+ filmed image of a trabecular lattice) (v9)! bridging the gap between experts and publics figure 1. researcher holding a trabecular lattice 11. this is a cheetah collar, this is a zebra collar and this is a lion collar (+ filmed image of the researcher pointing to the different collars) (v2) the explanations of disciplinary procedures and methods are also illustrated visually: information is presented synchronously in two modes (moving image and speech) to help understanding. for instance, in v7, the narrator’s and the researcher’s voices are interspersed to explain how the research group makes a new kind of maser using diamond, while one of the researchers demonstrates the whole process, in such a way that the viewers have a visual representation of the process and can actually see all the stages (e.g. “and then what we do, we actually shine a green laser, and when the laser hits the nv centers, the diamond glows a rich pink”). similarly, in v8 the principal investigator explains one of the techniques used by the group, i.e. three-dimensional motion analysis, while a participant in the video illustrates this technique (see figure 2). figure 2. illustration of three-dimensional motion analysis. another frequent strategy to help the viewers understand how science works and een betwapgthe ngidgbri csipubland ts expereen 1.e gurfi 11. sisith a coaheetch se reeefilm ecitatlarulabecrta ng diholhercearesr1. a rzeba sisiht,arllco arllco tdan ne thtinino prehcrae (arllconoila sisiht + srllaot cn )2(v) ilpicsidfosnoitanalpxeeth ylluasvi rpisntioamrin: enes antserdnupelhot)eechpsdan rsetnireaseciovs’rehrcaesre mading iusresamofnd kiwne ywaahcusni,ssecorpelowh eesy lluatcan acnd asseocpr a,erasleenrga e nihsylaluact lralimis.)nk”pih cirasowgl rgethybdesuseuiqnhcteeth sdohtemdnaserudecorpani mowtniylsuonorchnysedten ce,antsnirof.gnidan th, 7vin sreehtwohnialpxeotderseprs hetofoneelhiwond,m hrcaesre lausivaevahsrweeivehttahty hetnd a“g..e(sgeatshetllae vne htstiherasle htenhwdna gaitsnveilpainciprhet8 vn i,yl eerth. i.e, puor otmlonainsemdi detartsullioslaeras e agmignivom(esdom ethdnas’rtoarraneth asekampuroghrcae ehtsetratsnomedrseh ehtfonoitatneserper ewdo,ewthawn he tcen ers, dnomiadeth ofonensiaxpleortga aelhiw,siyslnaaon iot rgethybdesuseuiqnhcteeth rtusllio devihetn intpaicitrpa eerth. i.e, uor otmlonainsemdi setar eruig fees (enhc teisth aelhiw,siyslnaaon iot .) 2 2.e gurfi sillu hotygetartstneuqerehtoan eref th ontiotras ysianalon iotmonalensimdi ohdnatsrednusrweeivehtpleh sysi . dnaskrwoecneicsw o 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 183 11. this is a cheetah collar, this is a zebra collar and this is a lion collar (+ filmed image of the researcher pointing to the different collars) (v2) the explanations of disciplinary procedures and methods are also illustrated visually: information is presented synchronously in two modes (moving image and speech) to help understanding. for instance, in v7, the narrator’s and the researcher’s voices are interspersed to explain how the research group makes a new kind of maser using diamond, while one of the researchers demonstrates the whole process, in such a way that the viewers have a visual representation of the process and can actually see all the stages (e.g. “and then what we do, we actually shine a green laser. and when the laser hits the nv centers, the diamond glows a rich pink”). similarly, in v8 the principal investigator explains one of the techniques used by the group, i.e. three-dimensional motion analysis, while a participant in the video illustrates this technique (see figure 2). another frequent strategy to help the viewers understand how science works and clarify scientific content is having the researcher explain or demonstrate the concepts with the help of visual aids: explanations are combined with writing or drawing on a whiteboard or on paper, with images and simulations on computers, or with simulations superimposed on the video footage. in v7, for example, the researcher uses the whiteboard to explain how masers work and in v8 (see figure 3) a computer simulation helps to explain how three-dimensional motion analysis works. maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192184 bridging the gap between experts and publics figure 1. researcher holding a trabecular lattice 11. this is a cheetah collar, this is a zebra collar and this is a lion collar (+ filmed image of the researcher pointing to the different collars) (v2) the explanations of disciplinary procedures and methods are also illustrated visually: information is presented synchronously in two modes (moving image and speech) to help understanding. for instance, in v7, the narrator’s and the researcher’s voices are interspersed to explain how the research group makes a new kind of maser using diamond, while one of the researchers demonstrates the whole process, in such a way that the viewers have a visual representation of the process and can actually see all the stages (e.g. “and then what we do, we actually shine a green laser, and when the laser hits the nv centers, the diamond glows a rich pink”). similarly, in v8 the principal investigator explains one of the techniques used by the group, i.e. three-dimensional motion analysis, while a participant in the video illustrates this technique (see figure 2). figure 2. illustration of three-dimensional motion analysis. another frequent strategy to help the viewers understand how science works and een betwapgthe ngidgbri csipubland ts expereen 1.e gurfi 11. sisith a coaheetch se reeefilm ecitatlarulabecrta ng diholhercearesr1. a rzeba sisiht,arllco arllco tdan ne thtinino prehcrae (arllconoila sisiht + srllaot cn )2(v) ilpicsidfosnoitanalpxeeth ylluasvi rpisntioamrin: enes antserdnupelhot)eechpsdan rsetnireaseciovs’rehrcaesre mading iusresamofnd kiwne ywaahcusni,ssecorpelowh eesy lluatcan acnd asseocpr a,erasleenrga e nihsylaluact lralimis.)nk”pih cirasowgl rgethybdesuseuiqnhcteeth sdohtemdnaserudecorpani mowtniylsuonorchnysedten ce,antsnirof.gnidan th, 7vin sreehtwohnialpxeotderseprs hetofoneelhiwond,m hrcaesre lausivaevahsrweeivehttahty hetnd a“g..e(sgeatshetllae vne htstiherasle htenhwdna gaitsnveilpainciprhet8 vn i,yl eerth. i.e, puor otmlonainsemdi detartsullioslaeras e agmignivom(esdom ethdnas’rtoarraneth asekampuroghrcae ehtsetratsnomedrseh ehtfonoitatneserper ewdo,ewthawn he tcen ers, dnomiadeth ofonensiaxpleortga aelhiw,siyslnaaon iot rgethybdesuseuiqnhcteeth rtusllio devihetn intpaicitrpa eerth. i.e, uor otmlonainsemdi setar eruig fees (enhc teisth aelhiw,siyslnaaon iot .) 2 2.e gurfi sillu hotygetartstneuqerehtoan eref th ontiotras ysianalon iotmonalensimdi ohdnatsrednusrweeivehtpleh sysi . dnaskrwoecneicsw o 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 184 visuals can also be used to elaborate content that has been presented in speech, although this is not frequent, since visuals usually co-occur with explicit verbal explanations. for instance, in v3 the utterance in example (12) is synchronous with a drawing which provides more detailed and specific information of “peculiar position”. the researcher does not need to describe that “peculiar position” verbally because it is very clear from the image. 12. a young lady who was found sitting and she had her hands crossed in a very peculiar position (v3) finally, another strategy that helps comprehension by enhancing information is emphasis, defined by valeiras-jurado et al. (2018: 110) as “highlighting parts of the message so that they receive more attention”. in the videos in the corpus emphasis is mainly achieved through intonation, gestures and written text. written language helps to emphasize and draw attention to elements of spoken discourse (e.g. technical concepts). for instance, in v7 the participant is using the whiteboard to explain how masers work and when he says “this putting electrons into a higher stage is called a population inversion”, “population inversion” is written on the blackboard and underlined. in the same video, the researcher describes a maser assembly, with the help of video footage, and the different elements of the assembly are labeled with written text superimposed on the image of the assembly. 5.4. strategies to engage the audience hyland (2010: 295) defines engagement as “an alignment dimension of interaction where writers acknowledge and connect to others”. the semiotic bridging the gap between experts and publics ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 185 maría josé luzón ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… clarify scientific content is having the researcher explain or demonstrate the concepts with the help of visual aids: explanations are combined with writing or drawing on a whiteboard or on paper, with images and simulations on computers, or with simulations superimposed on the video footage. in v7, for example, the researcher uses the whiteboard to explain how masers work and in v8 (see figure 3) a computer simulation helps to explain how three-dimensional motion analysis works. figure 3. computer simulation of three-dimensional motion analysis. visuals can also be used to elaborate content that has been presented in speech, although this is not frequent, since visuals usually co-occur with explicit verbal explanations. for instance, in v3 the utterance in example (12) is synchronous with a drawing which provides more detailed and specific information of “peculiar position”. the researcher does not need to describe that “peculiar position” verbally because it is very clear from the image. 12. a young lady who was found sitting and she had her hands crossed in a very peculiar position (v3) finally, another strategy that helps comprehension by enhancing information is emphasis, defined by valeiras-jurado et al. (2018: 110) as “highlighting parts of the message so that they receive more attention”. in the videos in the corpus emphasis is mainly achieved through intonation, gestures and written text. written language helps to emphasize and draw attention to elements of spoken discourse (e.g. technical concepts). for instance, in v7 the participant is using the whiteboard to explain how masers work and when he says “this putting electrons into a higher stage is called a population inversion”, "population inversion" is written on the blackboard and underlined. in the same video, the researcher describes a maser assembly, with the help of video footage, and the different elements of the assembly are labeled with written text superimposed on the image of the assembly. ónzuléosjaírma sitentncoc itencisiarcl usivfopelhe hthtiwstcepnco on ord rboaethiwaon ng iwadr posmirupesonsitaulmish tiwor obetihwehtsesur ehrcaesre talumisretupmoca)3erugfi nailpexerchearesre htgniavh atanlpex:sdaialu bmocerasnio ulmisnd asgeamih tiw,rpepaon n i.geao deviheton d epos wrsesamwohnialpxeotrda wohnialpxeotsplehnoit eerth e hte atrtsnoemdron rogitinrwithwdeinb ,sreputomcon onsitaul het,eplmxae7,v nidnarkow ees(v8 eon iotmlonainsemdi .skrowsisyalan erputomc3.e gurfi eotdesueboslanacslausvi al t, neuqet onisisthhguoth nice,antsnirof.snoiatanlpex vorphciwhgnwiardahtwi eht”.noitisoparilecu“p sre eehrtofon iatulmiser analon iotmonalensimdi neebsahtahttnetnocetarobale ocllyausulsauisvecins urcoc e lpamexnice anerttue ht3vn sediv epsdnadeliatedermo edotdeentonseodr ehrcaes sysianal . ,hceepsnidetneserp lbarveticixpleh tiwur suonorchnyssi)21(e fonoitmarnicic r ailucep“tahtebrics itieusacbey llbarveon”itipos 12. ohwydalgnuoya yerva on itiraiulc tahtygetartsrehtona,yllanfi asreiybednd,siashpem ceryetht athosegassemeth edeviachylnaimsisiashpem meotsplehegaugnalnettiwr oncclachnicetg..e(esourcsdi ohinlapxetodraobitehweth .geamihetomraelcy rvesi dahehsdnagnittisdnusaw on )3(v pmocspleh ahneybnoisnehre as“s a)011:8102(.lateodarju ethni. ”ntiontteaeromeivec esrutesg,noiatnotnihguorhted otnoitnettawarddnaezisahpm het7 vn i,encatnsiorf.)spteonc hnehwdnakrowsresamwo nidessorcsdnahreh sinoitarmfonignicna fos trapgnithgilhgih“ suprocethinsoeidv aes .xtetn ettirwnd nekopsfostnemeleo ng iussintpaicitrpahe e sysa gnittupsih“t x xaicréib ): …xxx(x -… p orectel geatsrghehiao ntins bethnonitterwis"niosrevin r esamasebricsedr ehrcaesre sahetofsntemelenterdi se . lybmess ae oega imeth nveion itapopulad ellacsige ni. delinrednudnadraobkclab ivf oplehehthtiw,ylbmessa tnettirwhtiwdelebaleraylbmse y gp on itapopul",on”isrnve eth, oeidvemasethn ehtdna,egatofooedi nodseopmirepsutxet 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 185 devices that interplay in the videos analyzed to engage the audience are presented in table 4. as table 4 shows, resources to engage the audience are more varied and more frequently deployed in nature videos. a variety of semiotic resources help to establish affinity and solidarity, and to recognize the presence of the viewers and connect with them. pronouns play an important role in establishing affinity and intimacy. most nature videos use inclusive “we” or “our” to construct a bond with the audience (see example 13). as in ted talks (scotto di carlo, 2014), “inclusive we” helps to involve the audience by transmitting the message that researchers and audience are alike and share common interests. these inclusive uses help to represent the viewers as participants in scientific research. 13. nanotechnology is placing tools within our grasp that will revolutionize the way in which we carry out diagnosis and treat diseases, the way we manage the environment and the food industry (v10) viewer pronouns are also present in more than half of nature videos (e.g. 14a and 14b). they help researchers to attract the viewer’s attention; to involve the viewers in the construction of the argument, by anticipating their opinion and accepting or rejecting it to present their own claim (e.g. 14a); or to engage in a dialogic interaction with the viewers (e.g. 14b). in example maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192186 bridging the gap between experts and publics 5.4. strategies to engage the audience hyland (2010: 295) defines engagement as “an alignment dimension of interaction where writers acknowledge and connect to others”. the semiotic devices that interplay in the videos analyzed to engage the audience are presented in table 4. strategies and semiotic resources no. of videos (nature) no. of videos (presentation) creating intimacy and dialogic involvement inclusive we 5 1 reference to viewers 4 2 questions 3 1 personal narratives 6 0 informal language 4 0 representation of researchers in everyday situations, actions 2 1 attracting or focusing the audience’s attention, raising interest images representing content mentioned in speech 6 1 questions 3 1 statement of a problem or challenge to solve 4 5 expressing feelings or emotional reactions verbal expressions of feelings or emotional reactions 4 2 non-linguistic expressions of feelings or emotional reactions 5 0 table 4. semiotic resources to engage the audience. as table 4 shows, resources to engage the audience are more varied and more frequently deployed in nature videos. a variety of semiotic resources help to establish affinity and solidarity, and to recognize the presence of the viewers and connect with them. pronouns play an important role in establishing affinity and intimacy. most nature videos use inclusive “we” or “our” to construct a bond with the audience (see example 13). as in ted talks (scotto di carlo, 2014), “inclusive we” helps to involve the audience by transmitting the message that researchers and audience are alike and share common interests. these inclusive uses help to represent the viewers as participants in scientific research. 13. nanotechnology is placing tools within our grasp that will revolutionize the way in which we carry out diagnosis and treat diseases, the way we manage the environment and the food industry (v10) viewer pronouns are also present in more than half of nature videos (e.g. 14a and 14b). they help researchers to attract the viewer’s attention; to involve the viewers in the construction of the argument, by anticipating their opinion and accepting or rejecting it to present their own claim (e.g. 14a); or to engage in a dialogic interaction with the viewers (e.g. 14b). in example (14b) the question is directly addressed to the viewer and both linguistic elements (the pronoun you, and the question) contribute to initiating an imaginary dialogue. questions help to create an intimate relation by helping to present videos as conversations with 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 186 (14b) the question is directly addressed to the viewer and both linguistic elements (the pronoun you, and the question) contribute to initiating an imaginary dialogue. questions help to create an intimate relation by helping to present videos as conversations with the audience. 14a. so, you might think the prey’s strategy should be to run as quickly as possible away from the predator. that is absolutely not the case. because the predator is faster and is catching the prey up (longer explanation) (v2) 14b. for example, imagine you’re a transportation company and have to route your trucks through the network in order to satisfy several pick-up and delivery requests of your customers. how can you determine an optimal routing scheme, satisfying all these requests in the cheapest possible way? (v11) representation of researchers in everyday situations (e.g. drinking coffee, chatting with colleagues), informal language (e.g. “so, yeah”, “i mean”, “you know”, “my thing is stone tools”, “that starts to ring alarm bells”), and researchers’ personal narratives about their research (see example 15) also contribute to establishing a close social distance. 15. we had been trying for about a year to kind of observe this amazing phenomenon and we’d had no kind of positive results. and then we saw this quirky phenomenon and i knew what that was and i got very excited. so the next day everyone was there. (v7) in all but one of the nature videos there are in-motion and still images representing content mentioned in the video which do not have an explanatory or elucidating function: their purpose seems to be rather to connect to what is already known by the viewers, to attract their interest and thus keep them engaged. for instance, in v7, the utterance “based on an effect predicted by einstein, masers were invented in the 1950” is synchronous with a picture of einstein. other devices to attract the audience’s attention and arouse their interest, which also serve to organize content, are the presentation of research as a challenge or problem to solve (with the use of nouns like “challenge”, “puzzle”, “problem” and negative evaluative vocabulary) (see example 7 bridging the gap between experts and publics ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 187 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 187 above) and questions (e.g. 16). as was said above, some of these videos are constructed to show how the group’s research provides the answer to a challenge for researchers or practitioners or to a question posed at the beginning of the video. 16a. how did those rocks get there? (v11) 16b. the hobbits were a new and unique species of ancient human. but where did they come from? and how did they end up so small? (v4) another element intended to engage the viewer is the expression of feelings or emotional reaction, both verbally or through gestures (e.g. 17). researchers express their enthusiasm and excitement when carrying out research, in order to provoke the same feeling or emotions in the viewers. 17a. we’re excited about the publication of a research project we’ve been working on for a few years that, i guess, in a nutshell, we could call the oldest archaeological site here in north america (v6) 17b. i never expected to find the remains of a massacre (v3) regarding gestures, they are a ubiquitous resource, used at some moment in all the videos for the expression of emotions and feelings. however, the detailed analysis of gestures is beyond the scope of this study. i have just coded very explicit facial gestures, which are clearly visible and evident for the viewers. as can be seen, this is a frequent resource in nature videos, used by researchers when reporting their findings to share their excitement with the viewer. for instance in v6, the researcher reporting their “unbelievable” finding smiles with satisfaction at the end of the utterance in example (17a). similarly, in v7, when remembering the day when the team managed to produce a continuous room temperature maser one of the researchers says “we were all excited actually, so it was really a great day” while she laughs and smiles broadly. 6. conclusions the current communication landscape, where digital technologies bring new affordances for the communication of science, requires a multimodal maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192188 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 188 approach to the analysis of academic discourse, which accounts for all the elements that contribute to meaning creation in a specific context. in some academic genres, particularly those intended for the public dissemination of knowledge, visual modes play an important role in meaning making and in meeting the audience’s expectations and communicative needs. the online science video is one of these genres. this study has shown that in online science videos a multiplicity of semiotic resources from different modes are co-articulated to realize rhetorical strategies intended to recontextualize knowledge for a wide audience. the videos introduce the research groups and position their members as disciplinary experts by informing of their affiliation to a research institution and by using the affordances of the verbal and visual modes to actually show them “explaining science”, “doing science”, and using disciplinary equipment and procedures. speech and image are also interwoven to construct persuasive arguments, with images being used to support the narrative of nature or to provide evidence for claims. various resources are also combined to establish novelty and newsworthiness, and show the value, relevance and applications of the research carried out by the group. as for the strategies used to make scientific knowledge more comprehensible to the interested audience, definitions and non-technical explanations of concepts, procedures and methods are synchronized with visuals that facilitate understanding. finally, the strategies to engage the viewers and attain affective engagement are also realized by orchestrating resources of speech (e.g. lexical and grammatical choices which convey intimacy, informality or affinity), image and gestures. the current study has also shown that the various modal resources and elements are multifunctional and can contribute to making different meanings in combination with other resources. the motion image of the researchers explaining or demonstrating procedures, for instance, is combined with other resources to bestow authority on the researchers, make explanations easy to understand, and even engage the audience by showing them how researchers carry out research and obtain findings. the analysis of two different sets of videos has revealed some differences in the strategies realized in the two sets and the semiotic resources to perform such strategies, which suggests subtle differences in the intended audience and communicative purpose. the purpose of nature videos seems to be to inform the interested audience of a recent discovery reported in the journal and to show the relevance and newsworthiness of this discovery. bridging the gap between experts and publics ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192 189 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 189 presentation videos are embedded on the groups’ websites and the purpose seems to be to show both to peers and to the public the relevance of their research as a contribution to disciplinary knowledge. this explains, for instance, why only presentation videos include pictures of the faculty building to bestow credibility on the researchers, why only nature videos present a narrative of nature, why “exclusive we” is used differently in the two sets of videos, and why the strategies and semiotic resources to make content understandable and to connect with the audience play a more important role in nature videos. the study therefore contributes to showing that the sign makers combine the multiplicity of generic resources made available by the medium to meet their rhetorical interests. the results of this study provide insights into strategies for the recontextualization of scientific discourse which can be useful for research groups interested in reaching the general public and promoting interest in their research. acknowledgements this research was supported by the spanish ministry of economy and competitiveness (project code: ffi2015-68638-r mineco/feder, eu) and by the regional government of aragón (project code: h16_17r). article history: received 4 july 2018 received in revised form 8 november 2018 accepted 8 november 2018 references maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192190 bateman, j.a. 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luzón is senior lecturer at the university of zaragoza, spain. she has a phd in english philology and has published papers on academic and professional discourse and on language teaching and learning in the field of english for academic purposes. her current research interests include the analysis of online academic genres and the analysis of elf in academic online and written discourse. appendix: videos making up the corpus maría-josé luzón ibérica 37 (2019): 167-192192 bridging the gap between experts and publics analysis of online academic genres and the analysis of elf in academic online and written discourse. appendix: videos making up the corpus nature videos brainwaves in motion: a wearable brain scanner (https://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/brainwaves/index.html) (v1) anatomy of a hunt: speed strategy and survival (https://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/hunt/index.html) (v2) attack by the lake: a prehistoric massacre (https://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/ancient_massacre/index.html) (v3) hobbit histories: the origins of homo floresiensis (https://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/hobbithistories/index.html) (v4) pictures in the air: 3d printing with light (https://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/3d-printing/index.html) (v5) the first americans: clues to an ancient migration (https://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/firstamericans/index.html) (v6) the maser goes mainstream diamond microwave lasers (https://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/maser/index.html) (v7) presentation videos biomechanics research group (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzfvvc3dx-y) (v8) bionano research group at autodesk research (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bswkaa_f4rg) (v9) capsules of nanotechnology nanosensors (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pntolyyc_gs) (v10) cwi networks and optimization group (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmdb32udl1g) (v11) gadi rothenbergs research group at the university of amsterdam (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afggrfw0-ko) (v12) research team presentation video: faculty of medicine and dentistry upv (https://ehutb.ehu.eus/video/58c66df4f82b2b93748b456d) (v13) music technology group presentation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vafa2gk3nro) (v14) 07 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:22 página 192 iberica 13 ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 resumen la atenuación retórica es un fenómeno con múltiples facetas que puede abordarse desde distintos puntos de vista y que integra factores semánticos, pragmáticos y cognitivos. el presente trabajo pretende integrar todos estos factores, ofreciendo una aproximación al estudio en inglés y español sobre el uso y los objetivos comunicativos de los mecanismos de modulación del discurso en una memoria de arquitectura, tratando de discernir cuál es la función retórica predominante en cada una de las secciones de la memoria, cuáles son los medios empleados para realizar dicha función y en cuál de estas secciones queda más patente la intencionalidad del autor. el análisis de los textos que constituyen el corpus parece apuntar a que el fenómeno de la atenuación retórica en el género de la memoria de arquitectura atiende a tres objetivos comunicativos fundamentales: expresar el deseo del autor de mostrar deferencia y cortesía hacia su audiencia, manifestar su necesidad de protegerse frente a las posibles consecuencias negativas de haberse equivocado en sus apreciaciones y evidenciar su consideración sobre el grado de precisión que es necesario alcanzar con su comunicación. palabras clave: análisis del discurso, textos de especialidad, memoria de arquitectura, atenuación retórica, estructura de movimientos. abstract use and communicative functions of hedges in architecture project descriptions: an english-spanish study hedging is a multi-faceted phenomenon which can be approached from several points of view and which combines semantic, pragmatic and cognitive factors. this paper aims to integrate all these factors, offering an approach to the study of the use and the communicative goals of this type of discourse modulation uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes retóricos en la memoria de arquitectura: un estudio inglés-español paloma poveda cabanes universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) moras8@wanadoo.es 113 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 113 ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 paloma poveda cabanes devices in english and spanish architecture project descriptions. it will try to discern which is the rhetorical function assigned to each one of the sections of these texts, which are the means used for the fulfilment of this function and in which of these chapters the authors’ intention is made more evident. the analysis of the texts in the corpus seems to indicate that the phenomenon of hedging in the genre of architecture project description fulfils three main communicative purposes. first, these strategies can express the authors’ wish to show deference and politeness towards their audience; secondly, they seem to be an indication of the authors’ need to protect themselves against the possible negative consequences of being proved wrong; and lastly, they are evidence of the authors’ consideration of the required degree of precision in their texts. key words: discourse analysis, language for specific purposes, architecture project description, hedging, move structure. fundamentación teórica los términos ingleses hedge y hedging, en su sentido literal, remiten a la idea de “barrera”, “límite”, “defensa” o a los medios utilizados para protegerse o defenderse. el concepto de hedge en lingüística fue acuñado por lakoff, cuya conocida definición del término fue: “words whose job is to make things fuzzy or less fuzzy” (lakoff, 1972: 195). esta definición se convirtió en el punto de partida de numerosos estudios sobre este fenómeno que ha demostrado tener múltiples facetas, por lo que ha sido abordado de maneras muy diferentes por cada autor. el significado y el alcance del término hedging, al que los distintos autores en español se han referido con términos como “delimitación del discurso” (cuenca y hilferty, 1999), “atenuación retórica” (oliver del olmo, 2004) o “matización asertiva” (mendiluce cabrera y hernández bartolomé, 2005), entre otros, o con la expresión más general de “modulación del discurso”1, se han ampliado en gran medida desde entonces. asimismo, los enfoques y las conclusiones de cada uno de los estudios que se han ocupado del tema han sido muy diferentes dependiendo del tipo de texto que ha ilustrado cada uno de ellos (artículos biomédicos, textos legales, artículos de investigación científica, etc.). en este trabajo se tendrán en cuenta diversos aspectos extraídos de estudios previos para ser aplicados a un texto de especialidad, concretamente la memoria de arquitectura, y se intentará ofrecer una visión general sobre el uso de la atenuación retórica en inglés y en español en esta situación comunicativa en particular. 114 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 114 ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes los primeros trabajos de g. lakoff llamaron la atención sobre la importancia y las posibilidades que ofrecía el estudio de ciertas expresiones difusas e indeterminadas con la ayuda de la lógica formal. sus análisis se centraron en aquellos elementos lingüísticamente indeterminados que se utilizan para describir ciertos fenómenos naturales situados en la periferia de las categorías conceptuales en las que se basa nuestra percepción de la realidad, o, visto desde otra perspectiva, aquellas expresiones que sirven para modificar el grado de pertenencia a una categoría conceptual. a pesar de no ofrecer un análisis exhaustivo del fenómeno, y de centrarse exclusivamente en sus aspectos semánticos, las teorías de lakoff sirvieron para facilitar la comprensión de la base semántica sobre la que reposa el concepto, dejando la puerta abierta a posteriores análisis sobre el tema. este enfoque también sugería la importancia del contexto y el significado en el estudio de los fenómenos lingüísticos, por lo que gran parte de estos estudios posteriores evolucionaron hacia los aspectos pragmáticos. en otro orden de cosas, desde el punto de vista formal, y según señala crompton (1997), la nominalización que la definición de lakoff hacía de la palabra hedge sugería que nos encontrábamos ante un conjunto discreto de elementos lingüísticos. sin embargo, los estudios posteriores demostraron que el fenómeno de la atenuación retórica puede formalizarse a través de múltiples mecanismos que a veces incluso incluyen aspectos gramaticales y sintácticos. basándose en el trabajo de lakoff, y tras la realización de un estudio sobre las distintas funciones de las expresiones indeterminadas en el discurso médico hablado, prince et al. (1982) sugirieron la división de estos elementos lingüísticos en dos categorías principales: (1) approximators, que expresan indeterminación o vaguedad en el propio contenido proposicional, y que por tanto constituyen un fenómeno semántico; y (2) shields, que expresan indeterminación o carácter difuso en la relación existente entre el contenido proposicional y el emisor del mensaje, y que por tanto abordan el problema desde el punto de vista pragmático. según observa crompton (1997), aunque este análisis funcional estaba fuertemente determinado por la naturaleza del corpus objeto del estudio, estos autores ofrecieron una clasificación clara y económica que además se anticipó a las posteriores descripciones de los atenuantes retóricos como mecanismos que en ocasiones expresan modalidad epistémica, entendida ésta como un recurso que los autores emplean para manifestar sus opiniones y juicios sobre la validez de las ideas presentadas. el enfoque propuesto por prince et al. (1982) ha sido, sin embargo, criticado por estudios posteriores como el de skelton (1988), que ha 115 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 115 señalado que esta distinción entre los diferentes tipos de atenuantes sólo resulta sostenible en términos abstractos, y que resulta difícil de mantener en los análisis sobre el uso real del lenguaje. skelton (1988) propone el abandono del término hedge en favor de la distinción entre proposition y comment, y sitúa el uso de las estrategias comunicativas de la atenuación retórica en el marco de lo que él llama commentative language, caracterizado por la modulación de las proposiciones. este planteamiento ha sido también cuestionado por otros estudios, centrados exclusivamente en la consideración de los atenuantes retóricos como mecanismos que expresan el grado de compromiso del emisor sobre la veracidad de sus afirmaciones. desde ese punto de vista, y tal y como considera crompton (1997), la distinción de skelton (1988) abarca un ámbito demasiado amplio y puede conducir a la ambigüedad, ya que existen otros muchos tipos de “comentarios” que el autor puede hacer para expresar otras actitudes diferentes a las mencionadas anteriormente. a pesar de lo aparentemente inadecuado de su clasificación, skelton (1988) apuntó hacia una distinción que resultaría útil en estudios posteriores: la de la capacidad evaluativa del lenguaje frente a los conceptos de “proposicionalidad” o “factualidad”. basándose en estos conceptos, crompton (1997) distingue entre las proposiciones que tienen el estatus de facts (“hechos”), y que se caracterizan por manifestar un conocimiento compartido por la comunidad discursiva, y las proposiciones que tienen el estatus de claims (“afirmaciones”), que son las que se presentan con el objetivo de ser evaluadas por la audiencia a la que va dirigido el mensaje. estas últimas, por implicar un mayor grado de riesgo, deben ser emitidas con ciertas estrategias en mente, entre las que se incluyen las de cautela, modestia y cortesía. en esta línea, myers (1989: 16) argumenta que cualquier afirmación hecha en el ámbito académico es una “amenaza”, un face threatening act, para el resto de los investigadores del mismo campo porque vulnera su “libertad para actuar”. la atenuación retórica cumpliría el objetivo de mitigar o modular las afirmaciones de manera que la audiencia sienta que es capaz de juzgar por sí misma, que el autor queda pendiente de su aceptación. salager-meyer (1995) también considera que las principales funciones de la atenuación retórica son, por un lado, proteger al autor frente a las posibles reacciones que pueda provocar su proposición y, por otro, reflejar su modestia y su deferencia hacia la audiencia a la que va dirigido el mensaje. sin embargo, esta autora muestra su acuerdo con banks (1994) al precisar que esta asociación exclusiva de los atenuantes retóricos con las estrategias de evasividad y cortesía no debe oscurecer algunas otras funciones importantes que puede paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134116 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 116 desempeñar esta estrategia comunicativa. nos referimos al uso de ciertas expresiones indeterminadas que expresan vaguedad o imprecisión sin responder necesariamente a una situación de incertidumbre o confusión. concretamente la vaguedad puede tener dos funciones comunicativas. por un lado, puede proporcionar una representación exacta de la realidad, es decir, puede reflejar de una manera más precisa el estado del conocimiento o de los hechos que se presentan en áreas que se caracterizan por la continua reformulación y reinterpretación, como las que abarcan el conocimiento científico. hyland (1996 y 1998) señala la existencia de este tipo de moduladores del discurso que expresan vaguedad e imprecisión, caracterizándolos como content-oriented (determinados por el contenido), aunque también describe otras funciones de la matización asertiva, como la del deseo del autor de anticiparse a las consecuencias negativas de equivocarse en sus apreciaciones y la de expresar deferencia y cortesía hacia la audiencia. en definitiva, para hyland (1995), el fenómeno de la matización asertiva miraría en tres direcciones (hacia la proposición, hacia el autor y hacia el lector), y es en la primera de estas direcciones en la que se situaría el empleo de esta estrategia de imprecisión en las afirmaciones. por otro lado, la vaguedad puede simplemente resultar más adecuada para la situación comunicativa que se produce en un momento concreto. banks (1998) incluye entre las funciones de los atenuantes retóricos la de proporcionar datos incompletos o no concluyentes de manera deliberada, simplemente porque una mayor precisión no se considera necesaria o porque la situación comunicativa se encuentra en una fase pre-informativa, es decir, porque existe una mayor información disponible que vendrá a continuación o que está disponible para el lector si éste así lo desea. tras recopilar todas estas reflexiones sobre el tema, un enfoque más reciente como el de varttala (2001) parte inicialmente de consideraciones semánticas para afirmar que la utilización de este tipo de moduladores del discurso aumenta o disminuye la claridad en la manifestación de nuestras conceptualizaciones de la realidad. estos rasgos semánticos, a su vez, convierten el fenómeno en una estrategia útil en términos pragmáticos, ya que esta facultad puede llevar a los matizadores asertivos a desempeñar diversas funciones interpersonales (la más común de las cuales es la de la cortesía lingüística, aunque no la única), que dependen del tipo de situación comunicativa. mendiluce cabrera y hernández bartolomé (2005) también consideran que hoy en día el estudio de la modulación del discurso sólo tiene sentido dentro de una perspectiva pragmática, lejos del enfoque uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 117 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 117 semántico inicial, y se centran exclusivamente en el fenómeno de la adecuación retórica. estos autores afirman que la negociación académica se sostiene en un proceso retórico que oscila entre el respeto a los demás y la autoafirmación, y que es en el desarrollo de este proceso en el que los matizadores asertivos desempeñan un papel fundamental que está directamente relacionado con la función interpersonal del lenguaje. cuando se adopta este punto de partida (de carácter puramente funcional) se puede decir que prácticamente no hay límites para el número de expresiones lingüísticas que pueden ser consideradas como atenuantes retóricos, tal y como señalan markkannen y schröder (1997). ningún elemento lingüístico está destinado a desempeñar esta función de manera inherente, sino que adquiere esta cualidad a través del contexto comunicativo. estos autores van aún más lejos para afirmar que la atenuación retórica no es una característica propia de los textos, sino un producto de la comunicación entre el escritor y el lector, es decir, que las expresiones lingüísticas utilizadas para alcanzar este objetivo únicamente adquieren su significado a través de la respuesta que producen en los lectores. de la exposición anterior (que ha sido organizada cronológicamente de manera deliberada con objeto de ofrecer una visión sobre la evolución del concepto) puede concluirse que la atenuación retórica es un fenómeno con múltiples facetas que puede abordarse desde distintos puntos de vista y que integra factores semánticos, pragmáticos y cognitivos. por un lado, a menudo se realiza a través de una serie de elementos lingüísticos que formalizan determinadas estrategias discursivas. estas estrategias a su vez desempeñan diversas funciones de adecuación retórica, dependiendo del tipo de situación comunicativa. por último, desde el punto de vista cognitivo, la utilización de estas estrategias a menudo responde a la intención personal del emisor, pero su interpretación en última instancia depende de la intuición del destinatario (de su capacidad para percibir, en toda su extensión, el contexto en el que se produce la situación comunicativa). la utilización de la atenuación retórica remite pues a los conocimientos de todos los participantes en dicha situación, tanto desde el punto de vista lingüístico como pragmático. como señala roldán (2004), es importante considerar este fenómeno en su dimensión socio-cognitiva, y no sólo como un conjunto de estrategias lingüísticas y retóricas. el presente trabajo pretende integrar todos estos factores (semánticos, pragmáticos y cognitivos) mediante un análisis tanto de las funciones retóricas que cumplen las estrategias discursivas de atenuación en el género paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134118 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 118 de la memoria de arquitectura, como de la realización lingüística de estas estrategias. para ello, se han tenido en cuenta diversos aspectos cognitivos que aluden al contexto y a los esquemas conceptuales de la comunidad discursiva objeto del estudio. descripción del corpus: la memoria de arquitectura se ha partido de un corpus constituido por 14 memorias de arquitectura en español y 14 en inglés, con un total de 13.998 palabras (6.689 y 7.309, respectivamente), todas ellas escritas en su lengua original, es decir, que no se trata en ningún caso de traducciones (véanse los apéndices a y b para un listado más pormenorizado). los textos elegidos, en lo que se refiere al español, están extraídos de una revista española de arquitectura, el croquis, y del anuario españa 2005 editado por otra publicación de arquitectura española, av. en ambos casos, se tiene constancia de que los textos han sido proporcionados por los propios estudios de arquitectura autores del proyecto publicado. en raras ocasiones, estos textos son escritos expresamente para la ocasión, pero lo normal es que los arquitectos adapten, o utilicen directamente para este propósito, la memoria que acompaña a la documentación de un proyecto arquitectónico, bien con el fin de solicitar su visado en el colegio profesional, o bien con motivo de la presentación de dicho proyecto a un concurso. en este caso, pues, la escasa variedad de las fuentes (las publicaciones de las que provienen los textos) estaría justificada por la diversidad de “voces” (autores) encontrada en los textos que constituyen el corpus. el caso de los textos ingleses es similar. todos ellos proceden de la revista de arquitectura el croquis o de libros publicados por la misma editorial, e igualmente se trata de textos proporcionados directamente por los estudios de arquitectura correspondientes y escritos originalmente en inglés. de los cinco estudios elegidos, tres de ellos tienen su sede en el reino unido (zaha hadid, david chipperfield y john pawson) y uno en los estados unidos (steven holl). finalmente, se ha considerado interesante escoger a un estudio con sede en suiza (herzog y de meuron), por su enorme proyección internacional y porque parecía oportuno incluir una muestra del uso del inglés como segunda lengua. la principal función de la memoria de arquitectura es describir un proyecto (ya sea de edificio, espacio interior, intervención urbanística o paisajística) física y conceptualmente. aunque la descripción propiamente dicha ocupa el núcleo central del escrito, ésta se encuentra enmarcada en otro tipo de uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 119 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 119 información que le sirve como introducción y/o como conclusión. así, se ha observado que casi todos estos textos siguen una pauta aproximada e identificable en cuanto a la organización de su contenido, dividido en una serie de capítulos, o “etapas”, que siguen una secuencia similar en la mayoría de los casos y que a veces incluso se distribuyen en párrafos independientes. esta pauta, u organización retórica, que comparten la mayoría de las memorias de arquitectura, es el principal argumento para la consideración de este texto de especialidad como género lingüístico,2 existiendo estudios de otros autores que (a pesar de ofrecer un enfoque diferente) pueden avalar esta afirmación. caballero (2002, 2003 y 2006), en sus análisis sobre la metáfora en el discurso de los arquitectos desde una perspectiva basada en el género, utiliza un corpus de textos de características similares (aunque no idénticas) a los utilizados en el presente estudio, calificándolos y definiéndolos como pertenecientes al building review genre. en el caso de los textos que nos ocupan, prácticamente todos ellos comienzan con un párrafo introductorio que contiene una descripción del contexto y de la ubicación que se prevé para el proyecto, a veces haciendo hincapié en las posibles constricciones o dificultades que se les plantean a los arquitectos candidatos a la resolución de éste. esta introducción da paso a la explicación del programa requerido, es decir, al recuento de las necesidades que el proyecto ha de satisfacer o de los problemas que se espera que resuelva. la siguiente sección explica la propuesta del autor del proyecto, y la justificación de la solución elegida, y es aquí donde reside la parte más significativa del escrito, donde se encuentra la descripción propiamente dicha. ésta comienza con los aspectos conceptuales y de planteamiento de objetivos y continúa con los aspectos físicos, empezando por la descripción del exterior y terminando con los espacios interiores. en este punto, algunos textos incluyen información sobre los materiales utilizados, y otros terminan con una pequeña conclusión sobre la importancia del proyecto en su contexto. así pues, aunque algunos autores dan más relevancia a unos aspectos que a otros, e incluso prefieren omitir alguno de ellos, en el mejor de los casos, se podría hablar de siete etapas identificables: contexto, programa, solución, exterior, interior, materiales y conclusión. para el propósito del presente trabajo, sin embargo, procuraremos ampliar el alcance de las diferentes secciones del texto, atendiendo a los principales objetivos comunicativos. para ello consideraremos sólo cuatro de los capítulos más significativos (que aparecen invariablemente en todos los textos estudiados) haciendo que el resto de los aspectos cuya incidencia es paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134120 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 120 más ocasional quede contenido en ellos como subcapítulos, o steps3. nos centraremos, pues, en la descripción del “problema planteado” (que englobaría el contexto y el programa), a la que en adelante nos referiremos como sección 1; la descripción conceptual de la “solución propuesta y su justificación” (sección 2); la “descripción física del proyecto” (sección 3); y, en su caso, la “conclusión” (sección 4), que, aunque no aparece en todos los casos, se ha considerado oportuno incluir en esta clasificación por contener ejemplos significativos del tema objeto de nuestro estudio. objetivos del estudio y metodología el objetivo del presente trabajo es ofrecer una aproximación al estudio en inglés y español sobre el uso y los objetivos comunicativos de los mecanismos de modulación del discurso en las diferentes secciones de una memoria de arquitectura, atendiendo a la función retórica a la que sirve cada una de ellas. en esta primera aproximación sólo se pretende esbozar una visión general de las principales estrategias comunicativas que el autor de este tipo de textos utiliza para expresar cortesía, solidaridad o identificación con la audiencia a la que va dirigido su mensaje y para adecuar éste desde el punto de vista retórico, y todo ello desde su percepción de la realidad de la comunidad discursiva a la que pertenece. los resultados que se presentan tienen un carácter ilustrativo y orientativo, no estadístico. el primer paso ha sido la localización y selección de un grupo de textos que manifestaran determinados rasgos que podrían ser considerados como característicos de la memoria de arquitectura, es decir, aquéllos en los que se pudieran identificar de forma más o menos clara las diferentes secciones antes mencionadas. después se ha procedido a la identificación y la interpretación contextual de aquellos fenómenos lingüísticos de los que en ocasiones el autor puede servirse para manifestar su grado de deferencia hacia el grupo, el nivel de precisión que desea alcanzar o la fuerza asertiva de sus afirmaciones, a los que nos hemos referido en la introducción. aunque existen ciertas estrategias o recursos que son típicamente utilizados para estos propósitos y que resultan fácilmente identificables (voz pasiva, ciertos elementos léxicos, ciertas expresiones epistémicas), no es posible realizar este tipo de estudios mediante herramientas informáticas para el análisis de textos. el enfoque elegido debe ser de tipo pragmático, donde lo más importante para el análisis sea el contexto. es por ello por lo que el uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 121 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 121 siguiente paso, y en definitiva el método seguido para realizar el estudio, ha sido la lectura exhaustiva de cada uno de los textos, intentando localizar aquellos puntos (algunos de los cuales serán presentados como ejemplos) en los que se hace patente la intencionalidad del autor, sea cual sea la forma lingüística utilizada, ya que el fenómeno de los matizadores asertivos o moduladores del discurso se considera como una categoría abierta. tras la recopilación de casos de uso, se ha procedido a su clasificación atendiendo al propósito que persigue cada uno de ellos, y se ha estudiado su distribución y uso en cada una de las secciones del texto, tratando de discernir cuál es la función retórica asignada a cada una de ellas, cuáles son los medios empleados para realizar esta función y cuáles son las secciones de este tipo de textos en las que queda más patente la intencionalidad del autor. resultados y observaciones como se ha visto anteriormente, cada una de las secciones en las que se divide el texto de una memoria de arquitectura parece atender a un fin comunicativo concreto. así, la sección 1 (“problema planteado”) muestra un carácter informativo, objetivo, factual, ya que el autor del texto se limita a poner al corriente al lector sobre una situación que le es ajena en cuanto a que no es resultado de su intervención, sino que le viene dada por las circunstancias. esta sección es, de todas las estudiadas, la que manifiesta una incidencia prácticamente nula de aquel tipo de moduladores del discurso que buscan la adecuación retórica en términos de consideración hacia el lector y de auto-protección por parte del autor, ya que la única intencionalidad del éste es la de presentar los hechos de la manera más objetiva posible. una estrategia comunicativa utilizada de manera ocasional en esta sección es el uso deliberado de “expresiones vagas e indeterminadas” que indican que, en cierta manera, la situación comunicativa se sitúa en una fase preinformativa en la que simplemente no se considera necesario proporcionar una mayor información: (1) en los trabajos de investigación aparecieron numerosos restos de la época romana. [av-05] (2) las reducidas superficies de las viviendas en altura han llevado a proponer como espacio doméstico una casa dentro de la otra. [cr-03] paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134122 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 122 (3) the m.h. de young memorial museum houses numerous collections, representing a variety of cultures from all over the world. [cr-20] (4) with relatively few exceptions, the area has a consistent architectural character… [cr-17] la sección 2 (“solución propuesta y su justificación”) es una de las partes del texto en la que más se hace patente la intencionalidad del autor y en la que más evidentes son sus esfuerzos por proporcionar una adecuación retórica a su comunicación, ya que es aquí donde tiene que demostrar, convencer, persuadir a su audiencia de la idoneidad de su actuación. para ello, deberá basarse en sus modelos cognitivos, es decir, deberá expresarse con ciertas precauciones, ciertas limitaciones y ciertas estrategias en mente que responden a sus conocimientos sobre el contexto en el que se produce la situación comunicativa y sobre las convenciones y las expectativas de la comunidad discursiva a la que va dirigido su mensaje. en primer lugar, el autor parece anticiparse y protegerse frente a las posibles consecuencias negativas de haberse equivocado en su decisión, expresando sus planteamientos con estrategias de provisionalidad y tanteo o justificando la solución elegida como la única reacción posible frente a las condiciones existentes. nos encontramos pues con (a) expresiones que manifiestan la idea del “proyecto como propuesta”: (5) con el fin de garantizar la conexión que el desmonte había interrumpido durante años y de activar el potencial turístico de la cumbre y de las grutas, se propusieron dos construcciones complementarias. [av-05] (6) hemos evitado deliberadamente cualquier planteamiento de referencias estilísticas locales, pensando que una proposición abierta y lúdica se adecúa al servicio de la formación de unos futuros adultos integrantes de una sociedad que deseamos plural y universalista [cr-05] (7) in our proposal for the competition, we suggested placing two rectangular buildings on the area to the west of the university campus to house the library and the main lecture building. [cr-19] (8) for this reason, we decided instead of planning the building as an independent object within an open space, we would propose a building that will generate and structure this open space. [cr-21] uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 123 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 123 o (b) expresiones que manifiestan la idea del “proyecto como respuesta”: (9) nuestra respuesta al solar del kursaal es sencilla: no debe construirse un edificio que destruya la presencia del urumea. [cr-07] (10) en el interior se ubican, conforme exigía el programa, una sala principal, una sala de lecturas dramatizadas y varias salas de ensayos. [av-02] (11) the building form is a response to the unique aspects of the site. [cr-09] (12) the three-dimensional composition of the buildings is a consequence of the immediate topography and the desire to retain a number of large tree specimens. [cr-15] otra de las funciones comunicativas que procura alcanzar el autor es la de atenuar la fuerza de sus enunciados, expresándose con una cierta modestia y humildad que se considera de buen tono mantener según las convenciones establecidas en esta comunidad discursiva. una de las estrategias retóricas utilizadas es la de presentar el proyecto como una posible solución más, expresando así una deferencia y un respeto hacia el resto de las posibles propuestas presentadas, es decir, hacia el resto de la profesión. esto se consigue a través de (c) expresiones que manifiestan la idea del “proyecto como opción”: (13) se ha optado por materializar los límites confiriéndoles un carácter abierto y fluido, con el fin de contribuir a una experiencia que potencie la relación frente al ensimismamiento. [av-04] (14) el proyecto pretende resolver su difícil inserción en una trama irregular adoptando la configuración quebrada como tema compositivo… [cr-01] (15) the decision was taken to work with the existing courtyard configuration… [cr-16] (16) this approach has evolved an integrated design for a complex subject matter. [cr-12] en ocasiones, el autor también utiliza otras estrategias retóricas que funcionan en esta misma línea de cortesía hacia la audiencia, de establecimiento de una relación apropiada entre el autor y el lector y de evitación de expresiones categóricas. así, el autor presenta (d) expresiones paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134124 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 124 que manifiestan la idea del “proyecto como pretensión”, es decir, como una “aspiración” más que como un “objetivo alcanzado”. esta estrategia parece indicar que el autor está expresando una opinión personal que queda pendiente de la valoración del lector, dejando la puerta abierta a la posible aceptación de éste y proporcionando a la audiencia un papel activo en la situación comunicativa. estos son algunos ejemplos: (17) ...el proyecto pretende crear una visión contemporánea del tema del pabellón en un jardín mediante una composición abstracta con la materia vegetal recortada entre los bastidores, de forma que la nueva construcción aparezca como una nueva amalgama de elementos naturales y artificiales. [cr-02] (18) la intención es construir un complejo destinado al ocio y a la cultura (...) que aglutine a un amplio sector de público con una oferta variable y extensa. [cr-04] (19) the aim is to create both an independent contemporary landmark and an integral component of a larger vision for kew… [cr-18] (20) in an attempt to reinvigorate this area (…) the city identified the relocation and re-housing of the davenport museum of art (…) as the catalyst in a programme of urban regeneration. [cr-14] la sección 3 (“descripción física del proyecto”), se sitúa en un término medio entre las dos secciones anteriores en lo que se refiere al uso de atenuantes retóricos. por un lado, el autor no se ve tan acuciado por la necesidad de justificar sus afirmaciones, en este caso, sobre la apariencia física de los resultados de su trabajo (algo que resulta palpable y evidente), con lo que las estrategias de provisionalidad y tanteo y de autoprotección resultan innecesarias. pero, por otro, procura presentar la información con ciertas dosis de cortesía y discreción, con el objetivo de evitar que su exposición pueda resultar “agresiva” para el resto de la profesión. así, uno de los objetivos retóricos de esta sección es el de manifestar solidaridad hacia el resto de la comunidad discursiva, asumir que existen una serie de conocimientos, deseos y objetivos comunes, y que el proyecto presentado es una respuesta a éstos más que el producto de los intereses de un solo individuo. el proyecto se describe como algo que colabora en la consecución de unos objetivos generales, y nos encontramos con (a) expresiones de la idea del “proyecto como contribución”: uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 125 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 125 (21) la recuperación de este espacio para centro de ocio y cultura permitirá renovar las antiguas construcciones y alojar entre los vacíos de las infraestructuras en abandono la construcción semienterrada de 18 salas de cine en relación con el paisaje de la vega. [cr-04] (22) este desnivel entre viales nos hace considerar el soporte como un terreno en ladera, explotable para obtener con ligeros movimientos de tierra una trinchera que proporcione a la instalación un deseable aislamiento respecto al intenso tráfico de las inmediaciones. [cr-05] (23) its shape allows the creation of reading rooms in many different sizes and oriented in all different directions… [cr-19] (24) the folding structure offers a spatial interplay and confrontation with the subject matter which strives to evoke the participant to think. [cr-12] el recurso lingüístico más típico de esta sección es el uso de (b) estrategias que eliminan la presencia del autor en el proyecto (voz pasiva, pasiva refleja, prosopopeya) y que atienden a los objetivos retóricos de despersonificación de la propuesta y distanciamiento narrativo. en ocasiones se trata de estrategias de cortesía hacia el resto de la profesión o hacia todos los participantes en el proyecto, que se pretende presentar como el resultado de un trabajo en equipo y no de un único individuo: (25) para dar cabida a la vegetación se ha sobredimensionado la estructura del aparcamiento subterráneo y se han construido contenedores de tierra en los que es posible plantar especies de tamaño considerable y desarrollo horizontal. [av-03] (26) las oficinas adaptan su forma a la ladera, ajustándose como un muro de contención al terreno y fragmentándose en pequeñas salas. [cr-05] (27) first the area of the site to the south of the crown land is excavated, its highest point levelled to the lowest point of the site. [cr-11] (28) an expansive spiral staircase (…) cuts through the entire structure and links all the storeys. [cr-19] paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134126 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 126 sin embargo, en otras ocasiones, la utilización de ciertas estrategias como la despersonificación o prosopopeya parece cumplir el objetivo retórico de presentar la información de manera que parezca que el proyecto tiene vida propia, que los resultados finales no son sino la consecuencia de una evolución natural que no podría haber tenido lugar de otra manera. parecería que el proyecto se ha realizado solo, que el autor no ha tenido parte activa en su consecución. esta (c) estrategia de “personificación” del proyecto, a la larga, constituye una afirmación solapada de que la solución elegida es la idónea y la única posible. (29) es esta operación, en la planta del edificio, la que provoca que el trámer metálico salte del patio a la fachada, cambiando por tanto la posición de los dormitorios respecto del patio. [cr-03] (30) la asimetría hace que el espacio del foyer oriente inconscientemente los pasos de los espectadores hacia el nivel más alto. [cr-07] (31) with these ideas, the elevated flat triangular body emerged almost spontaneously. [cr-21] (32) the apartments take the form of three separate buildings, envisaged as three villas in a landscape. [cr-15] también típica de esta parte del texto (aunque también se da, con menor frecuencia, en otras secciones) es la utilización de otro tipo de expresiones que disminuyen o atenúan la fuerza semántica de los enunciados, en concreto, el uso de (d) expresiones indeterminadas o difusas a la hora de cuantificar o cualificar la información presentada. como ya se ha mencionado anteriormente, observada desde un punto de vista pragmático, esta estrategia parece ser un indicio de que la memoria de arquitectura se sitúa, en cierto modo, en una fase pre-informativa de la comunicación, en la que una mayor precisión en la aportación de datos concretos simplemente no se considera necesaria. estos son algunos ejemplos: (33) ...el cerramiento vertical se transforma en una cubierta baja y de escasa inclinación, mientras hacia el interior se bisela ligeramente a partir de la quinta planta y algo más pronunciadamente tras superar el último forjado. [av-07] (34) el conjunto de salas permite alojar exposiciones de diferentes tamaños y características. [av-01] uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 127 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 127 (35) …the interior is lit by large-scale sheets of glass that sit directly on the ground… [cr-16] (36) lower roof heights to the north of the site address heights of the existing buildings… [cr-15] el fin comunicativo de la sección 4 (“conclusión”), es el de recapitular, volver a situar el proyecto en su contexto, resumiendo aquellos aspectos que se han resuelto. de nuevo, quedan patentes los esfuerzos del autor por adecuar el texto desde el punto de vista retórico. el autor intenta presentar la consecución de los objetivos con un cierto grado de humildad y, de nuevo, parece quedar pendiente de la valoración del lector y de su aceptación, proporcionando a éste un papel activo en la situación comunicativa. volvemos, pues, a encontrarnos con (a) expresiones que manifiestan “pretensión”: (37) con esta doble concepción, vegetal y antropomórfica, la torre woermann pretende corporeizar los deseos de una sociedad que busca acomodo entre naturaleza y desarrollo. [av-06] (38) esta comprensión totalizadora de almería y su entorno natural ha supuesto tres años de procesos administrativos, ahora resueltos, en el intento de dar a la edificación pública el papel que le corresponde, como redescripción monumental de la ciudad en sintonía con la cultura medioambiental y urbana de nuestro tiempo. [cr-01] (39) using fine ashlars stone as a single material, the project aims to establish a carved-out quality. [cr-15] (40) we envision a new facility of inspiring interior spaces and natural light working like a formless instrument toward cultural production of past, present, and future art. [cr-08] por otro lado, el autor también vuelve a justificar la solución elegida como una reacción frente a las condiciones a las que se ha enfrentado, y se asegura de dejar claro que lo que se acaba de presentar es la (b) “respuesta” (quizás la adecuada) al problema planteado: (41) así pues esperamos conseguir con el vidrio la condición abstracta, distante, ajena por completo de la fábrica urbana que para las construcciones en la orilla del urumea pretendemos. [cr-07] paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134128 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 128 (42) the conception of a building with a coupling of interior and exterior space (…) responds to the need for social durability from the collective point of view. [cr-21] conclusión el análisis de los textos que constituyen el corpus parece señalar que el fenómeno de la atenuación retórica en la memoria de arquitectura atiende a tres funciones retóricas o tres objetivos comunicativos fundamentales, tanto en inglés como en español. en primer lugar, estas estrategias expresan el deseo del autor de mostrar deferencia y cortesía hacia su audiencia; en segundo lugar, manifiestan la necesidad del autor de protegerse frente a las posibles consecuencias negativas de haberse equivocado en sus apreciaciones; y por último, evidencian la consideración del autor sobre el grado de precisión que es necesario alcanzar con el texto. esta última función (manifestada lingüísticamente mediante el uso deliberado de expresiones vagas e indeterminadas a la hora de expresar cualificación o cuantificación) apuntaría principalmente hacia el contenido proposicional, es decir, estaríamos abordando el tema desde un punto de vista semántico. no obstante, no puede desligarse completamente de factores pragmáticos y cognitivos, siendo éste el ámbito exclusivo en que se sitúan los dos primeros objetivos comunicativos mencionados. estas tres estrategias retóricas se reparten de modo desigual entre las distintas secciones de una memoria de arquitectura en ambas lenguas, mostrándose o no, o predominando unas sobre otras según el objetivo comunicativo que cumple cada una de las partes en las que puede dividirse el texto. así, en la sección 1 (la descripción del problema planteado), que tiene un carácter más factual, más expositivo, el fenómeno de la atenuación retórica parece apuntar hacia la proposición más que hacia el autor o hacia el lector, con un predominio del uso de ciertas estrategias de modulación semántica de los enunciados que manifiestan la consideración del autor sobre el grado de precisión que su comunicación necesita. podría concluirse que la diferencia entre las funciones comunicativas de la sección 1 y de la sección 2 estaría determinada por el hecho de que en la primera el autor se centra en la exposición de hechos que le son ajenos, mientras que en la segunda lo que realiza son afirmaciones propias. no es de extrañar, pues, que sea esta sección 2 (la descripción conceptual de la uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 129 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 129 solución propuesta y su justificación) la que parezca mostrar una mayor incidencia de aquellas estrategias de modulación del discurso que apuntan hacia la autoprotección del autor o la cortesía y consideración hacia el lector, y que sea aquí donde el autor se vea inducido, en mayor medida, a hacer uso de sus conocimientos sobre el contexto y sobre los esquemas conceptuales de la comunidad discursiva a la que va dirigido su mensaje. la sección 3 es aquélla que contiene la descripción física del proyecto (es decir, la presentación de los resultados), y por lo tanto es la sección más informativa. esta sección se sitúa en un término medio entre las dos anteriores en lo que se refiere al uso de estrategias retóricas de autoprotección y cortesía, que son utilizadas en menor grado que en la sección 2. al mismo tiempo, presenta de nuevo una incidencia de ciertas expresiones que atenúan la fuerza semántica de los enunciados, como el uso de expresiones indeterminadas para cuantificar o cualificar la información presentada. esta estrategia parece ser un indicio de que la memoria de arquitectura se sitúa en una fase pre-informativa de la comunicación, en la que una mayor precisión no se considera necesaria. para finalizar, la sección 4 es una recapitulación sobre lo expuesto en las tres secciones anteriores, y por tanto vuelve a manifestar un intento de adecuación retórica en términos de autoprotección del autor o de cortesía y consideración hacia el lector. este objetivo se materializa en la evitación de expresiones categóricas, con el fin de indicar que lo expuesto es algo provisional que queda pendiente de la aceptación de la comunidad discursiva a la que va dirigido el mensaje y a la que, por tanto, se dota de un papel activo en la situación comunicativa objeto del presente estudio. (artículo revisado recibido en abril de 2007) bibliografía paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134130 banks, d. (1994). “hedges and how to trim them” en m. brekke, o. andersen, t. dahl y j. myking (eds.), applications and implications of current lsp research, vol. 2, 578-592. bergen: fagbokforlaget. banks, d. (1998). “vague quantification: an interpersonal aspect of scientific writing”. proceedings of the 10th eurointernational systemic functional workshop. liverpool, reino unido: university of liverpool. url: http://www.univ-brest.fr/erla/members/ banksdocs/liverpl.doc [25/02/06]. caballero, r. (2002). “the lexicogrammar of metaphor in the discourse of architects”. estudios ingleses de la universidad complutense 10: 43-66. caballero, r. (2003). “metaphor and genre: the presence and role of metaphor in the building review”. applied linguistics 24: 145-167. caballero, r. (2006). re-viewing space. figurative language in architects’ assessment of 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 130 paloma poveda cabanes es licenciada en filología inglesa por la universidad complutense de madrid y jefe de redacción de la revista de arquitectura el croquis. actualmente se encuentra realizando el programa de doctorado “lenguas para fines específicos: un enfoque multidisciplinar. análisis, metodología y nuevas tecnologías” del departamento de lingüística aplicada a la ciencia y la tecnología de la universidad politécnica de madrid. uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 131 built space. berlin/new york: mouton de gruyter. crompton, p. (1997). “hedging in academic writing: some theoretical problems”. english for specific purposes 16: 271-287. cuenca, m.j. y j. hilferty (1999). introducción a la lingüística cognitiva. barcelona: ariel lingüística. hyland, k. (1995). “the author in the text: hedging scientific writing”. hong kong papers in linguistics and language teaching 18: 33-41. hyland, k. (1996). “writing without conviction? hedging in science research articles”. applied linguistics 17: 432-454. hyland, k. (1998). hedging in science research articles. amsterdam: john benjamins. hyland, k. (2000). disciplinary discourses. social interactions in academic writing. harlow: pearson education limited. lakoff, g. (1972). “hedges: a study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts”. papers from the 8th regional meeting, chicago linguistics society papers vol. 8, 183-228. chicago: chicago university press. markkanen, r. y h. schröder (1997). “hedging: a challenge for pragmatics and discourse analysis” en r. markkanen y h. schröder (eds.), hedging and discourse: approaches to the analysis of a pragmatic phenomenon in academic texts, 318. berlin/new york: walter de gruyter. mendiluce cabrera, g. y a.i. hernández bartolomé (2005). “la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico: una propuesta de clasificación para los estudios contrastivos inglés-español”. ibérica 10: 63-90. morales, o.a., d. cassany y c. gonzález-peña (2007). “la atenuación en artículos de revisión odontológicos en español: estudio exploratorio”. ibérica 14: 33-57. myers, g. (1989). “the pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles”. applied linguistics 10: 135. oliver del olmo, s. (2004). “análisis contrastivo español/ingles de la atenuación retórica en el discurso médico. el artículo de investigación y el caso clínico”. tesis doctoral. barcelona: universitat pompeu fabra. url: http://www.tdx.cesca.es/tesis_ upf/available/tdx1020105-124115//tsoo1de1.pdf [30/04/2006]. prince, e., j. frader y c. bosk (1982). “on hedging in physician-physician discourse” en r.j. di pietro (ed.), linguistics and the professions, 83-97. hillsdale, nj: ablex. roldán riejos, a. (2004). “strategic features of esp from a socio-cognitive perspective”. ibérica 7: 33-51. salager-meyer, f. (1995). “i think that perhaps you should: a study of hedges in written scientific discourse”. the journal of tesol france 2: 127-143. skelton, j. (1988). “the care and maintenance of hedges”. elt journal 41: 37-43. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. (2002). “on models in applied discourse analysis” en c. candlin (ed.), research and practice in professional discourse, 61-77. hong kong: city university of hong kong press. varttala, t. (2001). “hedging in scientifically oriented discourse: exploring variation according to discipline and intended audience”. academic dissertation. tampere: university of tampere. url: http: //acta.uta.fi/pdf/95144-5195-3.pdf> [15/02/06]. 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 131 notas 1 en el presente trabajo se ha elegido el término “atenuación retórica”, utilizado por oliver del olmo (2004), por considerarse que es el que mejor describe este fenómeno lingüístico como estrategia de mitigación o suavización de la fuerza de los enunciados atendiendo a unos objetivos comunicativos concretos. 2 en este mismo sentido, swales (1990) ya apuntó hacia el concepto de moves (movimientos o secciones de un texto) como un elemento central en la noción de género. otros autores como hyland (2000), en su análisis del género del abstract, se han centrado también en este aspecto: el de la “estructura de movimientos”, entendida como la clasificación de los segmentos o las secciones comunicativas en las que se estructura un texto para la realización de un objetivo comunicativo global. asimismo, morales et al. (2007), en un estudio recién publicado y de características similares a éste, analizan la distribución de las estrategias de atenuación en las diferentes secciones retóricas de los artículos de revisión odontológicos. sin embargo, tal y como ha manifestado swales en estudios posteriores (swales, 2002), el análisis basado en la estructura de movimientos no debe ceñirse a un modelo rígido y mecánico. más bien se trata de un modelo flexible y sujeto a variaciones que dependen de la elección personal del autor. 3 término utilizado por swales (1990) para referirse a las diversas y sucesivas estrategias utilizadas para alcanzar los objetivos retóricos de cada uno de los moves que antes mencionábamos. apéndice a: textos en español que conforman el corpus cr-01 “delegación de hacienda de la junta de andalucía” (iñaki ábalos, juan herreros, ángel jaramillo s. y ángel jaramillo e.). in progress / en proceso 1999-2002. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2002. pp. 452-457. cr-02 “pabellón de gimnasia en el parque del retiro” (iñaki ábalos, juan herreros y ángel jaramillo). in progress / en proceso 1999-2002. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2002. pp. 458-461. cr-03 “viviendas en san jerónimo” (josé morales y juan gonzález mariscal). in progress / en proceso 1999-2002. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2002. pp. 506-515. cr-04 “centro de ocio y cultura” (juan domingo santos). in progress / en proceso 1999-2002. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2002. pp. 538-543. cr-05 “guardería infantil en trebujena” (ignacio rubiño, pura garcía márquez, luis rubiño). in progress / en proceso 1999-2002. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2002. pp. 572-575. cr-06 “escuela politécnica de alicante” (lola alonso vera). in progress / en proceso 1999-2002. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2002. pp. 592-595. cr-07 “kursaal. auditorio y centro de congresos de san sebastián” (rafael moneo). rafael moneo 1967-2004. antología de urgencia. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2004. pp. 350-381. av-01 “centro de arte contemporáneo, león” (m. mansilla y tuñón). españa 2005 / spain yearbook. av monografías. madrid: arquitectura viva, 2005. pp. 76-85. av-02 “teatro olimpia, madrid” (paredes y pedrosa). españa 2005 / spain yearbook. av monografías. madrid: arquitectura viva, 2005. pp. 86-91. av-03 “plaza de salvador dalí, madrid” (mangado y torres). españa 2005 / spain yearbook. av monografías. madrid: arquitectura viva, 2005. pp. 118-123. av-04 “guardería, manlleu (barcelona)” (rcr aranda, pigem y vilalta). españa 2005 / spain yearbook. av monografías. madrid: arquitectura viva, 2005. pp. 150-155. av-05 “torre de ascensores y oficinas, cartagena” (amann, canovas, maruri y lejárraga). españa 2005 / spain yearbook. av monografías. madrid: arquitectura viva, 2005. pp. 164-169. av-06 “plaza y torre woermann, las palmas” (ábalos y herreros). españa 2005 / spain yearbook. av monografías. madrid: arquitectura viva, 2005. pp. 172-177. paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134132 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 132 av-07 “viviendas sociales, madrid” (chipperfield y fernández isla). españa 2005 / spain yearbook. av monografías. madrid: arquitectura viva, 2005. pp. 186-191. apéndice b: textos en inglés que conforman el corpus cr-08 “university of iowa art and history building” (steven holl). steven holl 1986-2003. in search of a poetic of specifics / thought, matter and experience. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2003. pp. 426-431. cr-09 “musee des confluences in lyon” (steven holl). steven holl 1986-2003. in search of a poetic of specifics / thought, matter and experience. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2003. pp. 442-449. cr-10 “los angeles county museum of art” (steven holl). steven holl 1986-2003. in search of a poetic of specifics / thought, matter and experience. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2003. pp. 456-461. cr-11 “the peak club” (zaha hadid). zaha hadid 1983-2004. forms of indetermination / landscape as a plan. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2004. pp. 72-83. cr-12 “mind zone, millenium dome” (zaha hadid). zaha hadid 1983-2004. forms of indetermination / landscape as a plan. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2004. pp. 338-355. cr-13 “house in corrubedo” (david chipperfield). david chipperfield 1998-2004. dense minimalism. el croquis 120. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2004. pp. 36-49. cr-14 “figge art museum” (david chipperfield). david chipperfield 1998-2004. dense minimalism. el croquis 120. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2004. pp. 128-135. cr-15 “residential complex. athlone house” (david chipperfield). david chipperfield 1998-2004. dense minimalism. el croquis 120. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2004. pp. 240-243. cr-16 “tilty barn” (john pawson). john pawson 1995-2005. pause for thought. el croquis 127. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2005. pp. 26-33. cr-17 “lansdowne apartments” (john pawson). pawson 1995-2005. pause for thought. el croquis 127. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2005. pp. 114-119. cr-18 “the sackler crossing, royal botanic gardens, kew” (john pawson). john pawson 1995-2005. pause for thought. el croquis 127. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2005. pp. 172-177. cr-19 “ikmz cottbus” (herzog y de meuron). herzog y de meuron 2002-2006. the monumental and the intimate. el croquis 129/130. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2006. pp. 98-125. cr-20 “de young museum” (herzog y de meuron). herzog y de meuron 2002-2006. the monumental and the intimate. el croquis 129/130. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2006. pp. 146-181. cr-21 “forum 2004 building and plaza” (herzog y de meuron). herzog y de meuron 2002-2006. the monumental and the intimate. el croquis 129/130. madrid: el croquis editorial, 2006. pp. 236271. uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes ibérica 15 [2008]: 113-134 133 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 133 07 poveda.qxp 16/3/08 22:16 página 134 403 forbidden<br> iberica 13 ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen el aumento del número de alumnos que acceden a la educación superior arroja a su vez elevadas tasas de abandono en el primer año universitario, lo que ha multiplicado las iniciativas de acompañamiento durante el aprendizaje. sin embargo, es poco lo que se sabe sobre las experiencias y expectativas de los nuevos estudiantes. esta investigación da cuenta de las representaciones sociales de estudiantes de nuevo ingreso sobre escritura académica y su enseñanza a partir de 360 respuestas abiertas de 180 informantes en seis áreas de conocimiento (artes, humanidades, ingenierías, ciencias de la salud, pedagogías en ciencias y ciencias sociales) de una universidad metropolitana y estatal de chile. se realizó una codificación cualitativa mediante categorías emergentes y una cuantificación de las frecuencias, un control de fiabilidad entre los analistas y una clasificación por disciplinas. los resultados evidencian que para los estudiantes son los aspectos discursivos y procedimentales de géneros poco precisos, como, por ejemplo, el ensayo, aquellos que presentan mayores dificultades para la escritura, en particular la gestión de fuentes y puntos de vista, la adecuación a las expectativas de profesores y disciplinas, y el desarrollo de ideas. consideran que la escritura se aprende a partir de la práctica y ejercicio activos, acompañados de la enseñanza y los comentarios de profesores y tutores, así como de otras estrategias complementarias como la deconstrucción de textos, el modelamiento, el andamiaje y el trabajo por pares o grupos, aunque desconocen los espacios institucionales y curriculares que ofrecen enseñanza de escritura. estos hallazgos pueden ayudar a que las instituciones aprovechen las encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior: representaciones sociales de los estudiantes en seis áreas de conocimiento federico navarroa, fernanda uribe gajardob, pablo lovera falcónb y enrique sologuren insúab auniversidad de o’higgins (chile), buniversidad de chile navarro@uoh.cl, uribeg@uchile.cl, pablo.lovera@uchile.cl, enrique.sologuren@uchile.cl 75 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 75 ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 federico navarro et al. expectativas y experiencias de los nuevos estudiantes para facilitar su integración en las prácticas escritas de sus futuras comunidades disciplinares. palabras clave: enseñanza de la escritura, escribir a través del currículum, estudios de la escritura, géneros discursivos, educación superior. abstract w r i t i n g e n c o u n t e r s a t h i g h e r e d u c a t i o n e n t r y : s t u d e n t s ’ s o c i a l r e pr e s e nt at io ns in s i x ar e as of k n ow l e dg e the expansion of higher education shows rising drop-out rates during the first university year, which has fostered the adoption of learning support initiatives. however, little is known about the experiences and expectations of new students. the aim of this article is to account for the social representations of academic writing teaching expressed by first-year university students. to that end, it conducts a contrastive analysis of 360 open answers given by 180 informants from six knowledge areas (arts, humanities, engineering, health sciences, science pedagogy, and social sciences) in a metropolitan state university in chile. the corpus was qualitatively coded using emergent categories followed by a quantification of occurrences, an inter-rater reliability calculation and a classification of disciplines. results show that for students the discursive and procedural features of indistinctive genres, such as the essay, are the most challenging writing aspects, especially the management of sources and perspectives, the fulfilment of expectations from teachers and disciplinary communities, and the development of ideas throughout texts. students consider that writing is learnt through exercising and practice together with the guidance and feedback from teachers and tutors and other complementary strategies such as text deconstruction, modeling, scaffolding and peer work, although they are not able to identify the institutional and curricular environments that offer literacy teaching. these findings may help institutions make the most of young students’ experiences and expectations to facilitate their access to the writing practices of their future disciplinary communities. keywords: writing instruction, writing-across-the-curriculum, writing studies, genre, higher education. 1. introducción en las últimas tres décadas se ha producido un proceso de expansión en el sistema de educación superior (fernández lamarra y costa de paula, 2011), 76 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 76 entendido como “la irrupción de una masificación aguda, continua y sin precedentes de alcance internacional” (ezcurra, 2011: 23). el alumnado que se incorpora a este nuevo sistema de educación superior masificado no experimenta un proceso gradual de cambio y adaptación desde la educación secundaria, sino más bien un impacto comunicativo, cultural, cognitivo, académico y social. debe enfrentarse a géneros discursivos que nunca antes ha escrito, como el informe de laboratorio de física o la historia clínica; debe leer, asimilar contenidos y discutirlos con discursos diversos y prácticas de construcción de conocimiento disciplinar específicas de sus carreras, como la reflexión sobre el propio desempeño de la tarea y la observación de laboratorio en las pedagogías en ciencias; debe también participar y validarse con formas de evaluación y acreditación nuevas y burocratizadas, muchas veces en aulas masivamente pobladas; y por último debe incorporar y aprovechar prácticas clave para la vida y supervivencia universitarias, como la toma de apuntes, la búsqueda de fuentes reconocidas o las tutorías. en concreto, la escritura en la educación superior se presenta como el medio privilegiado por el cual el alumnado construirá e interiorizará conocimientos especializados, se comunicará según los patrones retóricos de sus ámbitos disciplinares, será evaluado y validará sus conocimientos frente a sus pares, docentes e instituciones, desarrollará su agentividad y su mirada crítica sobre sí mismo y sus entornos, y expresará creativamente nuevas soluciones a las demandas de su campo de inserción profesional (navarro, 2018). esta ubicuidad de la escritura como medio privilegiado de enculturación en las trayectorias de formación en la educación superior ha hecho que, en la última década, se multiplicaran en latinoamérica las iniciativas de alfabetización académica. las dificultades que implica el ingreso brusco en un entorno cultural nuevo explican que las tasas de abandono sean especialmente elevadas en el primer año universitario, un tramo considerado “crítico” (ezcurra, 2011: 24). en chile, el 30% de los estudiantes admitidos en la educación superior abandona durante el primer año (división de educación superior, 2015). este impacto cultural y el riesgo de abandono se agudizan sobre todo para los nuevos perfiles estudiantiles de la universidad masificada, provenientes de sectores socioeconómicos, étnicos o de género tradicionalmente excluidos. en términos generales, el abandono constituye la cara oculta, estructural e instalada, de la masificación, y “comporta una desigualdad social intensa y creciente” (ezcurra, 2011: 26). encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 77 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 77 numerosos estudios han demostrado la importancia de las representaciones sociales, creencias y concepciones de los estudiantes, así como de las expectativas y de las señales de validación que reciben del entorno educativo superior en cuanto a sus posibilidades de permanencia y graduación. por este motivo, el impacto cultural al ingreso dependerá en buena medida de la distancia o cercanía entre esas representaciones, basadas en experiencias previas que comparten los estudiantes ingresantes, tanto sobre sí mismos como sobre ese nuevo entorno al que se enfrentan, y de las prácticas y los marcos institucionales, culturales y pedagógicos que los reciben. tinto (2012), por ejemplo, plantea que el nuevo alumno alberga intereses y expectativas de lo que podría ser su experiencia en educación superior, tanto en el aspecto social como académico, los cuales se oponen a la realidad de las culturas institucionales, de forma tal que su permanencia dependerá directamente de este ajuste más que de su perfil sociodemográfico. en este sentido, donoso y schiefelbein (2007) sugieren explícitamente abrir nuevas líneas de investigación que indaguen mejor la relación entre las características previas del sujeto y su éxito en los primeros años de universidad. en consecuencia, saber más sobre las representaciones sociales de los estudiantes que ingresan puede contribuir al diseño de dispositivos de acompañamiento y apoyo al aprendizaje, con la formación continua de profesores y con los procesos de innovación institucional en educación superior. de esta forma: el aprendizaje y la evaluación deben reconocer que la formación profesional del estudiante es multidimensional, y por ello se debe considerar el nivel inicial con el cual el estudiante ingresa a la universidad, las brechas que muchas veces traen consigo, sus expectativas, sus necesidades y proyecciones. he aquí el desafío y reto al que deben responder las entidades formadoras (ampuero et al., 2014: 56). dada la centralidad de la escritura para la formación y enculturación de los estudiantes en la educación superior, es fundamental conocer qué tipo de representaciones sociales comparten sobre la escritura y sobre su aprendizaje y enseñanza. sin embargo, como señalan villalón y mateos (2009), hasta el momento se trata de un campo de investigación tan prometedor como poco explorado. en particular, aún no contamos con un panorama general de las representaciones sociales de los nuevos estudiantes que se incorporan a sistemas de educación superior masificados que, además, establezca contrastes entre disciplinas. federico navarro et al. ibérica 38 (2019): 75-9878 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 78 esta investigación intenta dar cuenta de las representaciones sociales sobre la escritura académica y su aprendizaje y enseñanza por parte de estudiantes de nuevo ingreso a una universidad estatal, centenaria, metropolitana y altamente selectiva de chile. para tal fin, un equipo interdisciplinario analizó cualitativamente 360 respuestas abiertas de una encuesta realizada en 2017 a 180 estudiantes ingresantes provenientes de seis áreas de conocimiento. los resultados cualitativos se cuantificaron y se rastrearon asociaciones entre representaciones sociales y el perfil disciplinar de los estudiantes. el objetivo es aportar evidencias que permitan fortalecer los dispositivos institucionales que acompañan los aprendizajes, reducen el impacto cultural del ingreso en la educación superior y facilitan el acceso a las prácticas escritas de las comunidades disciplinares. 2. representaciones sociales sobre la escritura las concepciones y experiencias previas que tienen los estudiantes con y acerca de la escritura influyen en su participación en las comunidades educativas y en las culturas disciplinares en las que participan. las representaciones sociales no solo se construyen individualmente, sino también, y ante todo, de manera colectiva, mediante dinámicas complejas basadas en experiencias y en representaciones previas. es decir, se establecen a partir de relaciones dialécticas entre sujetos y grupos sociales, así como entre experiencias mediadas por concepciones y concepciones construidas sobre experiencias (mateos, martín y villalón, 2006). por este motivo, es importante conocer las representaciones sociales que los escritores en formación tienen acerca de las clases tipificadas de textos que deben escribir, las dificultades y desafíos de la escritura y de su práctica como escritores, las tareas de escritura que se les exigen, y las formas y espacios de enseñanza y aprendizaje en los que participan, entre otros aspectos. como explican villalón y mateos (2009): desde enfoques sociocognitivos y socioculturales se ha subrayado la importancia del sentido que los escritores atribuyen a las actividades que realizan como factor determinante del proceso cognitivo que despliegan durante la escritura. de ahí la importancia de estudiar el papel de la representación de la tarea concreta a la que tiene que enfrentarse el escritor y del contexto en el que ésta se lleva a cabo (flower et al., 1990; nelson, 1990; prior y shipka, 2003). la forma en que un escritor se representa o interpreta la tarea podría estar condicionada, en parte, por creencias y concepciones más generales sobre la escritura (villalón y mateos, 2009: 220). encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 79 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 79 de acuerdo con moscovici (2011), las representaciones sociales permiten otorgar racionalidad a las creencias colectivas, ya que visibilizan ciertas ideas y prácticas en las que se puede apreciar su profundidad y densidad conceptuales, aun cuando tradicionalmente no se suelan reconocer como conocimientos formales. por un lado, al remitir a sistemas de conocimiento socialmente compartidos, las representaciones sociales ofrecen un constructo más sofisticado que las concepciones menos técnicas de “creencia”, “concepción” u “opinión”, si bien estas últimas también son frecuentes en la bibliografía sobre el tema. por otro lado, la distancia de las representaciones sociales respecto de lo que se entiende por conocimiento científico ha generado resistencias a la adopción del concepto, además de confusiones con las creencias y las opiniones de los individuos. su valor, sin embargo, es que permiten una concepción democratizada de los conocimientos sociales, ya que los sitúa en un mismo nivel que los conocimientos científicos en cuanto a su valor e importancia para la investigación, y en ese sentido valida los significados producidos por los individuos como sujetos colectivos y dinámicos (banchs, 1986). existen múltiples investigaciones que rastrean las relaciones entre las representaciones de la escritura y de su aprendizaje que poseen los estudiantes y la calidad de la tarea escrita. pajares y valiante (2006), por ejemplo, muestran que los estudiantes que afirman tener menos motivación o que dudan de sus capacidades letradas (autoeficacia de escritura) por lo general presentan dificultades para enfrentarse a los desafíos de la escritura. sandersreio, alexander, reio y newman (2012) demuestran que las representaciones acerca de la comprensión de las tareas de escritura y la autoeficacia se correlacionan positivamente con la calidad del texto escrito, sobre todo en lo que respecta a la orientación hacia la audiencia, rasgo distintivo de la escritura experta. por otra parte, white y bruning (2005) revelan que la noción estudiantil de la escritura como información que se reproduce y transmite al lector a partir de fuentes autorizadas (creencias transmisivas) refleja un compromiso cognitivo y afectivo limitado durante la escritura, a diferencia de quienes conciben la escritura como un proceso más dialógico y constructivo (creencias transaccionales). en una investigación más reciente, baaijen, galbraith y glopper (2014) concluyen que ambos tipos de creencias corresponden más bien a un proceso dual que conjuga dos tipos de compromiso. en suma, estas investigaciones se focalizan en el rol clave de aspectos motivacionales y afectivos en los complejos procesos cognitivos y conductuales involucrados en la escritura y su enseñanza. federico navarro et al. ibérica 38 (2019): 75-9880 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 80 otras investigaciones han resaltado la influencia de las representaciones sociales en los enfoques didácticos basados en el género (wang, 2017), en las teorías implícitas de los futuros profesores de lengua materna (wittek, askeland y aamotsbakken, 2015), o en el compromiso con la evaluación de las tareas de escritura (han, 2017). a su vez, existen propuestas que buscan clasificar distintas concepciones de la escritura (graue, 2006). en latinoamérica, marinkovich, velásquez y córdova (2012) estudian las representaciones sociales de docentes y estudiantes sobre la escritura académica y los géneros discursivos que circulan en las comunidades de las licenciaturas en historia, arte, bioquímica y matemáticas. según sus hallazgos, los docentes presentan concepciones heterogéneas sobre la escritura académica y su enseñanza, si bien coinciden en que consideran que no saben cómo enseñar a escribir en la universidad, y que los estudiantes afirman escribir a partir de modelos y por ensayo y error. stagnaro y chosco díaz (2013) y vázquez (2007) contrastan las concepciones de estudiantes y profesores sobre tareas de escritura frecuentes en la educación media y superior, tales como la escritura de textos en los que se establecen comparaciones. estos contrastes entre concepciones de distintos miembros de la comunidad educativa, en general implícitos y a los que se presta poca atención, construyen expectativas ocultas que influyen en la ejecución de la tarea y su posterior calificación. carlino (2005) identifica las representaciones sociales sobre la escritura, su aprendizaje y su enseñanza en 103 universidades norteamericanas y concluye que en estas se concibe la escritura como una práctica disciplinarmente situada y como una herramienta epistémica. otros trabajos relevantes abordan las representaciones de los profesores sobre los géneros de la formación estudiantil (natale, 2011), sobre la escritura en posgrado (pereira y di stefano, 2009), sobre la elaboración de tesis (tapia ladino y marinkovich, 2013) o sobre cuestiones de diversidad e inclusión (rivera lam, 2017), entre otras. el presente estudio se inscribe en esta rica tradición investigadora de las representaciones sociales sobre la escritura en la educación superior, y aporta la perspectiva de los estudiantes ingresantes que aún no han vivido las experiencias y prácticas culturales y retóricas de las carreras en las que se insertan. encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 81 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 81 3. corpus y metodología se elaboró un cuestionario con cuatro preguntas cerradas (con escala likert) y dos preguntas abiertas sobre lectura, escritura y su enseñanza y aprendizaje. este cuestionario se incluyó de manera innovadora en la encuesta obligatoria de caracterización de nuevos estudiantes aplicada en enero de 2017 a todos los estudiantes ingresantes en la universidad investigada (n =  6309). se obtuvo un índice general de respuesta del 81%. el cuestionario fue revisado primero por cuatro pares expertos en didáctica de la escritura académica y posteriormente por metodólogos y sociólogos del departamento de pregrado y de la facultad de ciencias sociales de la universidad objeto de estudio, a cargo de la elaboración de la mencionada encuesta. el mismo cuestionario se incluyó además en las encuestas destinadas a otros actores de la comunidad educativa (graduados, estudiantes de posgrado y profesores) y los resultados generales se han analizado en el marco del mismo proyecto de investigación (navarro y mora-aguirre, 2019). en el presente artículo se utilizan las respuestas a las preguntas abiertas 5 y 6, expuestas a continuación, como fuente para rastrear representaciones sociales. el foco sobre las dificultades y desafíos pretende generar evidencias que orienten las políticas institucionales y pedagógicas de acompañamiento en el aprendizaje, la enseñanza de la escritura a través del currículum, y la innovación curricular basada en competencias: 5. para ti, ¿cuáles son los textos más difíciles de escribir en la universidad? ¿por qué? 6. según tu perspectiva, ¿cómo se enseña y se aprende a escribir en la universidad? para la construcción del corpus, se seleccionaron las respuestas de estudiantes inscritos en seis carreras definidas en el proyecto de investigación como ejemplos paradigmáticos de las áreas disciplinares de interés: artes visuales para artes; filosofía para humanidades; ingeniería eléctrica para ingenierías; medicina para ciencias de la salud; pedagogía en física y matemática para pedagogías en ciencias1; y sociología para ciencias sociales. sobre este número, se seleccionaron al azar 30 estudiantes por carrera que hubieran respondido ambas preguntas abiertas. mediante el software qsr nvivo pro 11 de asistencia al análisis cualitativo, se construyó un proyecto con 360 respuestas o fuentes, clasificadas por áreas disciplinares en 6 corpus específicos de 30 estudiantes y 60 respuestas cada uno. con base en las federico navarro et al. ibérica 38 (2019): 75-9882 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 82 preguntas de investigación, se realizó un estudio exploratorio del corpus total y se identificaron categorías emergentes para la codificación. de esta manera, se construyó un árbol de análisis compuesto por 6 nodos y 13 subnodos, como se muestra en el gráfico 1. el nodo “géneros discursivos” identifica denominaciones de clases tipificadas de textos no definidas a priori. el nodo “dificultades y desafíos de géneros” identifica rasgos propios de esos géneros que presentan desafíos para su elaboración, mientras que el nodo “experiencias y percepciones” identifica apreciaciones sobre la escritura, su práctica y enseñanza, vinculadas a la perspectiva y la experiencia del sujeto que responde la encuesta. en este sentido, se diferencia del nodo previo porque no se atribuye a la escritura y al género, sino al vínculo del escritor con la escritura o género, si bien en algunos casos pueden superponerse ambos nodos en un mismo fragmento. como criterio para su identificación, se rastrean elementos lingüísticos encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 83 generos discursivos dificultades y desafíos de géneros dimensiones de escitura léxico-gramaticales y normativas espacios de enseñanza y aprendizaje cursos de escritura al comienzo de la carrera cursos de escritura durante la carrera materias de la carrera otros formas de enseñanza y aprendizaje leyendo escribiendo ypracticando con enseñanza otras discursivas temáticas procesuales otras experiencias y percepciones 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 83 vinculados al sujeto que responde, como las formas de la primera persona. dada la gran dispersión del tipo de respuestas obtenidas, estos primeros tres nodos no tienen subnodos definidos, si bien el análisis cualitativo posterior permite ahondar en subclasificaciones posibles. el nodo “dimensiones de la escritura” identifica el nivel o aspecto de la escritura mencionado: aspectos procesuales o procedimentales (proceso de escritura, competencias previas, acompañamiento docente, concentración, perseverancia, investigación, búsqueda de datos); aspectos discursivos (claridad, organización, estructura, punto de vista, exactitud, persuasión, expresividad, opinión); aspectos temáticos (contenidos, tipo de información, conocimientos previos, temas); aspectos léxico-gramaticales y normativos (normas de cita, vocabulario técnico); y otros. el nodo “espacios de enseñanza y aprendizaje” identifica el lugar curricular específico en el que se llevan a cabo los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje de la escritura, sin considerar otros lugares posibles fuera del entorno escolar formal como el hogar: cursos de escritura al comienzo de la carrera; cursos de escritura durante la carrera; asignaturas de las carreras (en cursos no específicos de escritura); y otros. finalmente, el nodo “formas de enseñanza y aprendizaje” identifica y agrupa las prácticas pedagógicas de enseñanza y aprendizaje de la escritura en educación superior, según las siguientes subcategorías: leyendo (sin escritura explícita); escribiendo y practicando (por inmersión, por ensayo y error, por repetición); con enseñanza (con ayuda intencionada del profesor, con retroalimentación, con tutorías, con modelamiento; esta categoría no incluye la enseñanza por pares); y otras. cabe aclarar que la opción “otro/as” habilita o bien la codificación de fenómenos de tan baja ocurrencia que no resulta económico el desarrollo de una categoría propia, o bien de fenómenos no anticipados en el análisis exploratorio, que luego deben ser abordados cualitativamente. cada uno de los seis subcorpus fue analizado por dos ayudantes de investigación que pertenecen a las áreas disciplinares seleccionadas o están familiarizados con ellas. los ayudantes recibieron entrenamiento y siguieron un protocolo común de análisis para garantizar la consistencia en todo el corpus. cada ayudante utilizó el árbol de nodos para analizar un corpus preliminar de 30 respuestas. con estos 12 análisis exploratorios, el árbol de nodos se ajustó y los asistentes recibieron comentarios del investigador responsable y de los investigadores coautores de este artículo, responsables por carreras, para mejorar la calibración intra e interdisciplinar. después federico navarro et al. ibérica 38 (2019): 75-9884 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 84 recodificaron las respuestas previas y continuaron hasta completar las 60 respuestas. de esta manera, se realizó una doble codificación del total del corpus, con revisión y supervisión. el corpus total de 360 respuestas fue fusionado y se calculó el índice kappa, que mide el porcentaje de coincidencia de codificación más allá del azar entre dos analistas respecto de cada nodo y subnodo en cada referencia del corpus. el resultado promedió 0.895 (artes: 0.89; humanidades: 0.91; ingenierías: 0.88; ciencias de la salud: 0.90; pedagogías en ciencias: 0.87; ciencias sociales: 0.92), un acuerdo muy elevado (más de 0.75 es un acuerdo considerado óptimo según fleiss, levin y cho paik, 2003). finalmente, con el corpus total ya analizado, y utilizando el software qsr nvivo pro 11, se realizaron cálculos de frecuencia para las ocurrencias de los diferentes nodos y subnodos, en general y por disciplina, se generaron listas de fragmentos codificados (por ejemplo, los fragmentos correspondientes al nodo “género discursivo”) y se avanzó en su análisis cualitativo general y por área disciplinar. a continuación, se ofrecen los principales hallazgos de este procedimiento de análisis. 4. resultados y discusión la tabla 1 expone de forma global y contrastiva la distribución de las categorías de análisis cualitativo propuestas, tanto en su número de ocurrencias como en su porcentaje relativo dentro de las subcategorías. los estudiantes que ingresan a la universidad consideran que los textos universitarios presentan dificultades discursivas (n =  90; 35%)2 y procesuales o procedimentales (n =  81; 31.5%), frente a otros aspectos menos relevantes como cuestiones temáticas (n =  38; 14.8%), y léxicas, gramaticales y normativas (n =  33; 12.8%). la estrategia clave para aprender a escribir es la ejercitación (n =  125; 34.2%), acompañada de enseñanza de profesores (n = 79; 21.6%) y lectura (n = 65; 17.8%), si bien muchos estudiantes proponen estrategias de otro tipo (n =  96; 26.3%) como el modelamiento y el trabajo con pares. los espacios institucionales donde deberían llevarse a cabo estos procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje son una incógnita para la mayoría de los estudiantes (solo aparecen 41 menciones), aunque la mitad de las respuestas se refieren a cursos de escritura a lo largo de las carreras (n =  11; 26.8%) o a las propias asignaturas disciplinares (n = 11; 26.8%). en las subsecciones que siguen, se describen cualitativa y cuantitativamente estos hallazgos y se interpretan contrastivamente por áreas disciplinares. encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 85 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 85 ciencias de la salud los géneros discursivos que los futuros estudiantes de ciencias de la salud consideran que les costará más escribir en la universidad son el ensayo (n = 18), el informe (n = 7) y la tesis (n = 4). asimismo, aparecen alusiones federico navarro et al. ibérica 38 (2019): 75-9886 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 86 a clases de textos científicos, aunque imprecisos en su tipificación: texto científico, ensayo de investigación, investigaciones. estos géneros se perciben como especialmente desafiantes en dimensiones discursivas (n = 21; %: 50), seguidas de aspectos procesuales (n = 8; 19%) y temáticos (n = ; 19%). entre las dimensiones discursivas, se mencionan sobre todo la estructura (“la estructura que presentan los vuelve textos complejos”; me2945) y el desarrollo argumental (“dar una serie de argumentos sólidos para respaldar una opinión”, me3275; “buscar argumentos”, me0745). estos resultados indican que los estudiantes reconocen que tanto los aspectos estructurales como funcionales de los textos presentan mayores desafíos que los contenidos y procesos involucrados en la composición textual. en cuanto a formas de enseñanza y aprendizaje, escribir y practicar es la actividad más mencionada (n = 27; 36%), seguida de la enseñanza (n = 15; 20%) y la lectura (n =  11; 14,7%). algunas de las respuestas enfatizan la importancia de la experimentación, la prueba y el error constante, con retroalimentación de otros: “por experiencia propia, en base a ensayo y error” (me0526); “con ensayo y error, además de ayuda de algunos profesores” (me5806); “aprender a escribir es ensayo y error, pero con ayuda” (me7116). algunos estudiantes también destacan la toma de apuntes como recurso válido para mejorar el desempeño de la escritura: “tomando apuntes” (me1866); “en clases al tomar apuntes (hay que hacerlo de buena forma para entender)” (me3466). asimismo, algunos estudiantes mencionan la ejemplificación como práctica instructiva: “con ejemplos y recomendaciones” (me0746); “a través de ejemplos, pero siendo original” (me8716); “se enseña a través del ejemplo propuesto por docentes y documentos (papers, ensayos, libros, etc.)” (me0246); “tener una idea o un ejemplo a seguir” (me2586); “entregando buenos ejemplos de escritura” (me4716). del mismo modo, también se destaca el valor de la corrección y análisis en las tareas de escritura: “destacar lo que está bien hecho y aquello que hay que corregir” (me3276); “correcciones de textos escritos por uno” (me0036); “analizando, corrigendo errores” (me5906). ingenierías los géneros discursivos que los futuros estudiantes de ingenierías consideran que les costará más escribir en la universidad son el ensayo (n =  17), el informe (n =  7) y la tesis (n =  2). las dificultades más mencionadas son las discursivas (n = 17; 47.2%) seguidas de las procesuales encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 87 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 87 (n =  10; 27.8%). la escritura argumentativa, cruzada por puntos de vista y opiniones, surge como uno de los aspectos más complejos de abordar por el estudiante en su futura vida universitaria “porque hay que hacer una investigación desde varios puntos de vista y tratar de convencer a alguien a que tome tu postura” (in4605). asimismo, esa opinión debe estar alineada con la visión y las expectativas del docente, lo que lemke (1997) denomina “la perspectiva de la cátedra”: “ya que el punto de vista en que se debe basar dicho texto tiene que tener una relación casi absoluta con lo que quiere el docente, dejando un margen para lo escrito” (in6105). el desafío procesual más mencionado es la búsqueda y el procesamiento de gran cantidad de información y fuentes: “la cantidad de información requerida” (in2035); “necesitas reunir toda la información obtenida” (in7635). en relación con las percepciones y experiencias en torno a la escritura, los estudiantes ingresantes plantean que el proceso de escritura es engorroso y poco interesante (“ya que no me gusta escribir”, in2035) y que carecen de competencias para afrontarlo, por ejemplo para planificar y textualizar (“ya que siempre tengo ideas pero me cuesta empezarlos”, in0915) o para asumir una postura crítica (“y no tengo el pensamiento crítico muy desarrollado”, in6175). respecto a las formas de enseñanza, se destacan la práctica y ejercitación (n = 15; 26.3%) y la enseñanza (n = 13; 22.8%), en la que el modelamiento del profesor es un elemento que los estudiantes reconocen como clave: “según el ejemplo de los profesores, uno debería ir adquiriendo experiencia en la forma de escribir correctamente para cada situación” (in9056). estas actividades de práctica y enseñanza podrían situarse, según las respuestas, en diferentes dispositivos curriculares con especificidad disciplinar y transversal (“debería ser de manera metódica y constante”, in8056), como ayudantías (“con algún tipo de ayudantía”, in6546) y clases destinadas al tema (“se dan algunas clases para aprender”, in4426). la lectura es también otra de las actividades comunicativas que se configura como una forma eficaz y motivadora de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la escritura académica. se considera que a través de la lectura, en particular de “grandes autores” (in7636), se pueden captar diferentes formas de estructuración de los textos (“leyendo muchos autores que traten distintos temas en sus obras y utilicen distintas formas de estructuras para sus textos”, in0096) y se puede alentar la creación de textos por parte de los estudiantes (“yo creo que una forma de aprender sería leyendo textos de interés y que motiven al estudiante a intentar escribir y crear sus propios textos”, in9426). federico navarro et al. ibérica 38 (2019): 75-9888 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 88 la mención a otras formas de enseñar y aprender a escribir abunda en las ingenierías (n =  19; 33.3%), y en varios casos se vincula al nivel de la expresión individual, a la inspiración y a la motivación: “no solo debiera de consistir en aprender de diversos géneros y autores, también debe ser capaz de sacar afuera la interioridad del autor y transmitirlo sin problemas” (in0976); “lo más importante es la inspiración y motivación, para que así haya un verdadero interés en escribir y expresar de manera clara las ideas”(in9426). artes de los 41 géneros discursivos identificados en el corpus, los más frecuentes son el ensayo (n =  14) y la tesis (n =  8). estos géneros presentan desafíos sobre todo en términos de proceso (n = 31; 52.7%), seguidos por aspectos discursivos (n =  17; 28,8%). de forma coherente con esta inclinación, los estudiantes señalan que la escritura se aprende escribiendo y practicando (n = 21; 35%), aunque también hay un importante conjunto de referencias a la enseñanza explícita (n =  14; 23,3%). sin embargo, aparecen numerosas menciones a otras formas de enseñanza y aprendizaje (n = 16; 26,7%), que incluyen (i) la comparación de documentos para evidenciar sus diferencias (“comparando estilos de escritura”, ar7286; “analizando textos de distinta índole y estilos literarios, señalando similitudes que justifiquen su validez como texto de estudio, y por otro lado, diferencias que si bien los separan, no los invalida”, ar4956); (ii) el aprendizaje mediado por las sugerencias de expertos (“pidiendo consejos a alguien experto en la materia”, ar0386); (iii) la motivación (“obviando el interés que se debe tener, estas prácticas deberían ser acompañadas de escritura del interés del individuo, ya que así se genera un mayor aprendizaje, sin forzar este mismo”, ar1256); (iv) el compromiso personal (“practica y compromiso”, ar2026); (v) el autoaprendizaje (“escribiendo, leyendo, adquiriendo información de textos de ortografía y lenguaje sobre el cómo escribir adecuadamente”, ar4686); y (vi) el aprendizaje entre pares (“compartiendo con las personas, ya que algunos tienen mejor nivel de escritura e incluso al hablar lo demuestran y ayuda a comparar y aprender”, ar6826; “comparando estilos de escritura”, ar7286; “formando también un sistema de apoyo mutuo y/o tutela”, ar10886). a pesar de esta representación de la escritura como proceso social, con participación activa del estudiante, de sus pares y de los profesores, los estudiantes no identifican con claridad los espacios en los que se produciría la enseñanza de la escritura. encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 89 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 89 las dificultades para escribir géneros discursivos (n = 25) y las experiencias y percepciones propias con la escritura (n =  14) son tan diversas como las opiniones que desarrollan los estudiantes acerca de cómo se aprende la escritura académica. varias de ellas (n =  6; 24%) hacen referencia a la intertextualidad: los estudiantes indican que son desafiantes los géneros “donde se tengan que buscar muchas fuentes o autores que acrediten lo escrito” (ar7135), “que exija citas para sostener una idea que podría ser totalmente válida” (ar9625), con apreciaciones como la siguiente: “me acompleja el unir los datos, el orden y las fuentes” (ar7485). otros señalan dificultades vinculadas al desarrollo de las ideas a lo largo de un texto. por último, y al igual que en las ingenierías, algunos estudiantes problematizan las restricciones que puede tener la expresión de una opinión propia, ya que debe disimularse (“se debe presentar una opinión propia sobre un tema, pero no de manera tan explicita y con argumentos precisos”, ar6825) o conciliarse con la posición del profesor y de los autores leídos (“aceptar un argumento como erróneo porque no está basado en algún autor conocido es reprimir”, ar9245). pedagogías en ciencias los géneros discursivos más complejos en educación superior, según los ingresantes a las pedagogías en ciencias, son el ensayo (n = 17) y, muy por detrás en cantidad de menciones, el informe (n =  6), la tesis (n =  4) y menciones a textos argumentativos (n = 4) y textos literarios (n = 2). estos patrones repiten los de carreras previas: clases de textos poco específicas disciplinarmente, incluso propias del espacio curricular de los cursos de lengua materna o lengua española en educación media. estos géneros son desafiantes por sus atributos discursivos (n =  14; 33.3%) y procesuales (n =  12; 28.6%), aunque también por cuestiones léxicas, gramaticales y normativas (n = 8; 19%), así como temáticas (n = 6; 14.3%). en lo que respecta a las formas de enseñanza y aprendizaje, no es llamativo que los estudiantes de pedagogías sean los que más mencionan la enseñanza (n =  15; 26.3%), aunque el aspecto más destacado es la práctica (n =  21; 36.8%). además, señalan la importancia de participar en espacios agradables de trabajo con pares: “un ambiente tranquilo y relajado, sin presiones de ser bueno de inmediato” (pe0296); “conversando con personas acerca de su opinión con respecto a un tema, debatiendo y desarrollando una mentalidad crítica” (pe0626); “hablando de tips para escribir mejor” (pe6626); “charlas” (pe10896). este aprendizaje debería estar en cursos de escritura a lo largo de federico navarro et al. ibérica 38 (2019): 75-9890 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 90 la carrera (n =  5; 71.4%), una opinión que no es tan frecuente en ninguna otra área. en lo referente a las dificultades, los estudiantes de las pedagogías en ciencias coinciden con los de artes en que una de las mayores dificultades es la intertextualidad (n = 7). sin embargo, también identifican dificultades asociadas a (i) la toma de posiciones críticas sobre temas nuevos (“porque si te piden un tema que no es de tu interés, ya que de este modo es más difícil poder opinar sobre este”, pe0195; “por cultura nos cuesta ser críticos y apartar de cierta manera lo que nos influencia”, pe1405) y (ii) las características propias de las clases de textos (“más que el contenido para mí, es complejo cuando no te presentan un formato claro con el cual se debe presentar algún tipo de informe o ensayo”, pe0555; “requieren de un formato específico para exponer”, pe5535). humanidades los estudiantes de humanidades aluden predominantemente al ensayo (n = 12) como género desafiante, seguido muy por detrás por la tesis (n = 3), el informe (n =  3) y los textos de investigación (n =  2). los textos académicos son considerados difíciles sobre todo por sus características discursivas (n =  17; 38.6%). los estudiantes mencionan dificultades asociadas a la tensión entre la escritura académica y (i) sus opiniones y subjetividades (“los textos más difíciles de escribir son los que requieren expresar opiniones personales, ya que es más fácil criticar a una persona con una opinión distinta a la tuya”, fi3805; “me parece tedioso escribir sin puntos de vista”, fi4145; “supongo por el grado de creación propia”, fi9785; “porque mezcla lo objetivo y lo subjetivo”, fi9345) y (ii) las opiniones del profesor o la institución (“debido a la diversidad critica de posiciones donde la tesis podría generar bastantes desencuentros”, fi0465; “porque mi postura respecto al tema puede no coincidir con la postura de la institución respectiva”, fi0605). además, mencionan dificultades como el uso y trabajo con fuentes diversas (n = 4), la extensión (n = 2) y las carencias formativas de la escuela (n = 2). en lo relativo a las formas de enseñanza y aprendizaje de la escritura, se destaca que los estudiantes de humanidades son los que menos se refieren a la enseñanza por parte de profesores y tutores (n =  10; 16.7%); por el contrario, la mayoría de las menciones consideran que se aprende ejercitando y practicando (n = 20; 33.3%). la mención de otras formas no anticipadas encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 91 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 91 de enseñanza (n = 21; 35%) es muy elevada, e incluye (i) el desarrollo de la habilidad crítica (“ejercitando el pensamiento crítico”, fi0486; “yo diría que la enseñanza y escritura, dentro de la universidad, debe comenzar por un nivel mínimo de crítica y comprensión –razonamiento– del propio estudiante al ingresar”, fi7656), (ii) el uso de material didáctico (“entregando material guía”, fi7256; “dando pautas para escribir”, fi10156) y (iii) el compromiso personal (“con paciencia y empeño”, fi7426). los espacios de enseñanza y aprendizaje de la escritura acumulan escasas menciones, pero la mayoría de ellas (n = 3; 60%) se refiere a las asignaturas disciplinares. ciencias sociales los géneros discursivos más mencionados por los estudiantes que ingresan a ciencias sociales son el ensayo (n = 11), el informe (n = 7) y la tesis (n = 6), sobre todo en aspectos procesuales (n = 35.3%): “uno debe armarse una opinión bien fundamentada” (so7195); “conlleva bastante análisis, debate y/o reflexiones” (so0535). se trata del grupo estudiantil que más enfatiza factores de dificultad de tipo léxico, gramatical y normativo (n = 11; 32.4%), frente a aspectos discursivos (n = 4; 11.8%): “sistemas de citas, normas de puntuación” (so1076); “hay que aprender un vocabulario específico para su realización” (so10635). en cuanto a las formas de enseñanza y aprendizaje, los estudiantes consideran que las más importantes son la práctica constante de la escritura (n = 21; 37.5%) y, más que en cualquier otra área, la lectura (n = 14; 25%), destacando además la necesidad de que ambas prácticas se complementen: “una combinación entre lectura y escritura” (so0536); “leyendo y escribiendo mucho, con análisis y corrección de estas formas de lectura y escritura” (so5966). también se menciona la oralidad (“también mediante el comenzar a hablar de una manera específica”, so4216; “cabe decir que se puede aprender y enseñar por medio oral, ya que este es el principal medio humano para comunicarnos con nuestro entorno”, so9916) y el aprendizaje colaborativo por pares (“en el tiempo personal de cada estudiante donde podrá compartir con los suyos y nutrirse de ello”, so4566; “creo que lo más importante son las relaciones que se establecen con el resto de las personas, ya que desde ahí parte la visión que uno tiene de lo que ve y de uno mismo”, so0626; “intercambiando puntos de vista con otrxs”, so11046), dos estrategias fuertemente relacionadas. los estudiantes afirman que la lectura y la escritura deberían enseñarse en educación superior: “potenciando otras instancias de escritura académica” (so1076); “en la universidad te deberían federico navarro et al. ibérica 38 (2019): 75-9892 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 92 enseñar más conceptos y estructuras para más tipos de escrituras” (so7476); “con planes de lectura adecuados” (so10226). sin embargo, como se aprecia en estos ejemplos, no se especifica en qué ámbitos curriculares debería producirse esta enseñanza. la mayoría de las menciones no pueden agruparse en las categorías emergentes propuestas (n = 5; 50%) o se refieren a cursos de escritura a lo largo de la carrera (n = 3; 30%). 5. conclusiones en esta investigación se han intentado plasmar, tanto globalmente como de una manera disciplinar y específica, las representaciones sociales de los estudiantes universitarios de nuevo ingreso de una universidad estatal, centenaria, metropolitana y altamente selectiva de chile sobre la escritura, su dificultad, y su enseñanza y aprendizaje. los resultados muestran que las dimensiones de la escritura consideradas más desafiantes por los estudiantes son los aspectos discursivos (salvo en ciencias sociales) y procesuales o procedimentales (salvo en ciencias de la salud y humanidades), frente a otras cuestiones léxicas, gramaticales y normativas, solo priorizadas en ciencias sociales, y temáticas. los estudiantes coinciden en que una de las principales dificultades para la escritura en la universidad es gestionar los puntos de vista, tanto de las distintas fuentes como de los lectores posibles y de sus propias perspectivas, y desarrollar sus ideas a lo largo de un texto. consideran difícil acomodar sus aportes críticos o personales a las expectativas de la disciplina, de los profesores y de la institución. mencionan además la importancia de los factores motivacionales. con respecto de su enseñanza y aprendizaje, los estudiantes consideran en su mayoría que la escritura se aprende a partir de la práctica y el ejercicio activos, acompañados de la enseñanza y las sugerencias de profesores y tutores (salvo en humanidades) y otras estrategias complementarias como la deconstrucción de textos, el modelamiento, el andamiaje y el trabajo con pares. de esta manera, los estudiantes expresan una visión sobre los aspectos relevantes de la escritura y sobre su enseñanza y aprendizaje que resulta consistente con una concepción informada de la didáctica de la escritura (bazerman et al., 2016), lo cual constituye una valiosa oportunidad para que las instituciones receptoras enseñen cuáles son los usos de la escritura académica y cómo se organiza textualmente. sin embargo, hay una presencia escasa y dispersa de referencias a los espacios institucionales y curriculares para aprender a escribir en la universidad, lo cual significaría que los encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 93 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 93 estudiantes atribuyen una baja responsabilidad y un lugar difuso a la institución, a los profesores y a los dispositivos pedagógicos que deben poner en marcha estas enseñanzas. respecto a los géneros más exigentes, los estudiantes consideran que son los ensayos. esta representación posiblemente se haya construido a partir de las experiencias de escritura en la educación secundaria y en el aula de lengua materna o lengua española en particular. sin embargo, en ciertas áreas, como las ingenierías y las ciencias de la salud, el ensayo es un género poco frecuente (marinkovich, sologuren y shawky, 2018), lo cual puede significar un choque entre las expectativas de los nuevos alumnos y los géneros disciplinares que efectivamente se les solicitarán. además, los resultados muestran pocas referencias a géneros disciplinarmente específicos. este hallazgo refuerza la importancia de que las carreras enseñen de forma explícita los nuevos géneros discursivos que exijan a sus estudiantes. si bien estas representaciones sociales están radicadas en una universidad en particular, pueden dar pistas encaminadas a que las instituciones de educación superior aprovechen ciertas predisposiciones favorables al aprendizaje en contexto de la escritura mediante instancias de ejercitación sostenidas a través del currículum, pero también para que asuman la necesidad de explicitar y enseñar sus expectativas sobre las manifestaciones de escritura disciplinarmente adecuadas. de esta forma, quizás se pueda atenuar institucionalmente el impacto cultural del ingreso en la educación superior y su influencia en las tasas de abandono, así como facilitar el acceso a las prácticas escritas de las comunidades disciplinares. en futuras investigaciones, debería averiguarse si estas representaciones son específicas de la universidad objeto de estudio o si, por el contrario, son consistentes con las distintas comunidades disciplinares más allá de la institución de la que se trate. también sería interesante vincular estas representaciones con los perfiles de los estudiantes, tanto en sus trayectorias formativas, sociales y familiares previas, como en sus desempeños futuros. por último, sería útil contrastar los resultados con las representaciones de otros miembros de la comunidad educativa. agradecimientos se agradece la financiación concedida por el fondo basal para centros de excelencia proyecto fb0003 de pia-conicyt, por el proyecto fondecyt nº federico navarro et al. ibérica 38 (2019): 75-9894 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 94 1191069 de conicyt y por el plan de mejoramiento institucional (pmi) uch1501 del ministerio de educación, chile. también se agradece la labor de los ayudantes-estudiantes que colaboraron en la codificación inicial del corpus. por último, se agradece la colaboración de la facultad de ciencias sociales de la universidad investigada en la construcción de la encuesta, de los cuatro expertos consultados en la revisión del instrumento de recolección y del área de gestión académica de la universidad investigada en la recogida de los datos. historia del artículo: recibido 12 enero 2018 versión revisada recibida 27 junio 2018 aceptado 27 junio 2018 referencias encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 95 ampuero, n., m. casas, r. del valle, f. faúndez, a. gutiérrez, e. jara, l. loncomilla, a. poblete, m. ponce, p. riquelme, r. saelzer y á. ugueño (2014). “evaluación de aprendizajes en el contexto de innovaciones curriculares en el pregrado en universidades chilenas” en 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(2012). completing college: rethinking institutional action. chicago: university chicago press. vázquez, a. (2007). “consignas de escritura: entre la palabra del docente y los significados de los estudiantes”. colección de cuadernillos de actualización para pensar la enseñanza universitaria 2(7): 4-16. villalón, r. y m. mateos (2009). “concepciones del alumnado en secundaria y universidad sobre la escritura académica”. infancia y aprendizaje 32(2): 219-232. wang, w. (2017). “learner characteristics in an eap thesis-writing class: looking into students’ responses to genre-based instruction and pedagogical tasks”. english for specific purposes 47: 52-60. white, m. y r. bruning (2005). “implicit writing beliefs and their relation to writing quality”. contemporary educational psychology 30: 166189. wittek, a. l., n. askeland y b. aamotsbakken (2015). “learning from and about writing: a case study of the learning trajectories of student teachers”. learning, culture and social interaction 6: 16-28. 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 96 latinoamericana de estudios de la escritura en educación superior y contextos profesionales (ales). cuenta con más de 100 publicaciones científicas en argentina, brasil, colombia, chile, españa, holanda, méxico, perú, portugal y suiza. fernanda uribe gajardo posee un magíster en estudios culturales de la universidad de chile y es coordinadora de acompañamiento tutorial del programa de lectura, escritura y oralidad académicas y programa tip de la universidad de chile. miembro fundador de la red de investigación en filosofía francesa de la universidad de chile. ha publicado en la revista lenguas modernas y expuesto en diversos congresos internacionales. pablo lovera falcón es magíster en filosofía de las ciencias y asesor educativo de la unidad de docencia de la universidad de chile. cuenta con publicaciones en el área del discurso académico y la filosofía del lenguaje, y ha participado en investigaciones tanto en escritura académica como en docencia para la educación superior. enrique sologuren insúa es magíster y doctor (c) en lingüística y coordinador del programa de alfabetización académica y profesional (ingeniería y ciencias) de la universidad de chile. ha participado en proyectos de investigación financiados en puc, pucv y universidad de chile. cuenta con publicaciones en revistas internacionales en escritura y oralidad académicas y en variedades del español en contextos científicos y profesionales. notas 1 en el sistema de educación superior chileno, la formación de docentes para la educación inicial, primaria y secundaria se lleva a cabo en la universidad. en particular, la carrera de pedagogía en educación media en matemáticas y física, en la institución investigada, otorga el título profesional de profesor/a de educación media en matemáticas y física y los grados académicos de licenciado/a en ciencias exactas y licenciado/a en educación. tiene una duración de 10 semestres. 2 los porcentajes no se refieren a la proporción de estudiantes o de respuestas, sino de ocurrencias o menciones codificadas dentro de cada categoría. encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior ibérica 38 (2019): 75-98 97 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 97 02 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:47 página 98 ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-98 abstract translation can provide a valuable contribution to the teaching of metaphor in the lsp classroom. although all languages make use of metaphor, neither conceptual metaphors nor their linguistic renderings will necessarily always be the same across languages (deignan et al., 1997). thus the extent to which metaphor presents a hurdle for second language learners of professional discourse depends on the extent to which there is overlap between the metaphorical systems of the l1 and the l2. hence it follows that a better understanding of the similarities and differences in metaphor use between language pairs can help l2 learners of different professional discourses overcome problems of transferring metaphors from one language and culture to another. in this paper i propose a translation approach to metaphor teaching in the lsp classroom, illustrating its use in a business english syllabus in which some learner-centred cognitive translation activities have been used. the results of using this approach in that application, although still in need of further empirical research, seem to suggest that translation can constitute a valuable pedagogical and communicative means to teach metaphorical concepts and expressions to l2 learners of professional discourses. key words: translation, metaphor, lsp, business english. resumen un enfoque traslativo en la enseñanza de la metáfora en la clase de lfe: ejercicios de un programa de inglés de los negocios la traducción puede resultar un arma útil en la enseñanza de la metáfora en el a translation approach to metaphor teaching in the lsp classroom: sample exercises from a business english syllabus marisol velasco sacristán universidad de valladolid (spain) marisol@tita.emp.uva.es 83 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 83 aula de lenguas para fines específicos. aunque todas las lenguas usan metáforas, ni los conceptos metafóricos ni sus realizaciones lingüísticas tienen necesariamente que coincidir en todas la lenguas (deignan et al., 1997). por tanto, el grado de dificultad que presenta la metáfora para los estudiantes de discursos profesionales en una l2 depende del grado de fluctuación entre los sistemas metafóricos de sus l1 y l2. de ahí que si se logra una mejor comprensión de las diferencias y similitudes en el uso metafórico en diferentes pares lingüísticos se pueda ayudar a los estudiantes de discursos profesionales en l2 a superar los problemas de transferencia de una lengua y cultura a otra. en este artículo proponemos un enfoque traslativo de enseñanza de metáforas en el aula de lenguas para fines específicos, ilustrando su uso en un programa de inglés para los negocios en el que se han empleado actividades traslativo-cognitivas centradas en el estudiante. los resultados de aplicación de este enfoque, aunque aún requieren mayor investigación empírica, parecen sugerir que la traducción puede constituir un valioso instrumento pedagógico y comunicativo para enseñar conceptos y expresiones metafóricas a los estudiantes de discursos profesionales en l2. palabras clave: traducción, metáfora, lfe, inglés para los negocios. introduction a brief glance at the history of teaching foreign languages and lsp shows that in different periods translating has been accepted or rejected depending on prevailing objectives and teaching preferences (gil garcía & kondo pérez, 2005). after an initial disregard for considering it uncommunicative and focusing purely on accuracy, nowadays there is fresh support for translation in communicative approaches to foreign language teaching (hurtado albir, 1988; duff, 1989; mallikamas, 1997; cuéllar lázaro, 2004). in fact, in the approaches to lsp teaching some scholars have suggested that lsp is ideal for translation purposes as it uses real-life professional discourse that is not artificial or unnatural (klein-braley & smith, 1985; klein-braley & franklin, 1988; duff, 1989; gil garcía & kondo pérez, 2005). regarding cognitive linguistics, with its emphasis on the interrelation between language, mind and culture, metaphor has always played a fundamental role in foreign language teaching and lsp. indeed, different studies have highlighted the explicative value and productive patterns underlying metaphor and their potential value for teaching (among others low, 1988; lindstromberg, 1991; boers, 1997a, 1997b, 1999 & 2000; marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-9884 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 84 ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-98 a translation approach cameron & low, 1999a & 1999b; charteris-black & ennis, 2001; white, 2003). in my view, the integration of cognitive linguistics and translation in a coordinated fashion in the lsp classroom is desirable. yet the combination of these two disciplines in lsp research is only gradually taking root (schäffner, 2004; samaniego fernández, 2007) and the specific use of translation in dealing with metaphors has just been suggested by a few scholars (deignan et al., 1997; mallikamas, 1997; stoddart, 2002). i claim that the teaching of metaphor in lsp can and should incorporate a translation perspective. although all languages make use of metaphor, neither conceptual metaphor nor their linguistic renderings will necessarily always be the same across languages (deignan et al., 1997). thus the extent to which metaphor presents a hurdle for second language learners of professional discourse depends on the extent to which there is overlap between the metaphorical structures of the l1 and the l2. hence it follows that a better understanding of the similarities and differences in metaphor use between language pairs can help l2 learners of different professional discourses overcome problems of transferring metaphors from one language and culture to another and avoid producing marked and non-native metaphor in l2. to achieve this, a delineation of a translation approach to metaphor teaching in the lsp classroom is proposed herein. a delineation of a translation approach to metaphor teaching in the lsp classroom this approach is a contrastive learning model for teaching conceptual metaphors and their realisations in l2 professional discourses through translation which is used as a pedagogical and communicative instrument. on the one hand, translation involves a conscious process of learning through which a learner can relate conceptual metaphors and their discursive realisations to their equivalents in their mother tongue. on the other hand, translation enhances interaction between teacher and students and among the students themselves. in this sense, translation is often used in pairs and groups and not necessarily in writing as students participate in oral discussions. regarding the context of application of this approach, i think that it can be best applied in action-oriented models that use a combination of task-based 85 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 85 language instruction and a content-based syllabus, as is often found in lsp teaching. in this approach students, who do most of the translation work, need to acquire a wide range of knowledge, aptitudes and skills in order to develop translation competence that consists of six subcompetences (pacte, 2000): • communicative competence in both languages: comprehension in the source language and expression in the target language • extralinguistic competence: knowledge of the theory of translation, bicultural knowledge, encyclopaedic and thematic knowledge • transfer competence: comprehension, deverbalisation and separation of the two languages, re-expression and selection of the most appropriate translation method • instrumental/professional competence: knowledge of documentation sources, new technologies, the labour market and professional conduct • psychophysiological competence: the ability to apply psychomotor, cognitive and attitudinal resources, and • strategic competence: conscious and subconscious, verbal and non-verbal individual procedures used to solve problems encountered during the translation process. teachers also need to work in this approach as they have to prepare materials and exercises carefully to meet the teaching objectives. should anything call for clarification the teacher must be able to explain it. this means that the teachers must know both the first and second language metaphorical systems very well. moreover, they need to have enough background in basic linguistic theory to give clear explanations of the formal similarities and differences between the metaphorical systems of the two languages. in addition, the materials that they use must be appropriate to the students’ level of proficiency and must be sequenced accordingly. in this vein, in lsps they can exploit authentic specialized source and target texts as well as data from contrastive analyses between metaphors used in the two language pairs under consideration along with different bilingual or multilingual corpora. marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-9886 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 86 a case study from a business english syllabus the business english module offered by the business school at the university of valladolid (spain) is taught for two years of 120 and 90 hours respectively. for this concrete application we have only focused on the first year course –namely “business english i”. for this course we are offering a mixed syllabus focused on both business and language skills to students with an intermediate level of english. basically we follow a combination of typical communicative methodology: a task-based approach and content-based instruction and now, as part of our adaptation to the “new european space” (bologna process), we are introducing collaborative learning techniques along with corpus-based methodologies. in line with the common european framework of reference for languages (european council, 2001) we believe that users and learners of a language for specific purposes are to be considered as “social agents” who have tasks to accomplish in a given set of circumstances, in a specific environment and within a particular field of action. for teaching metaphors in the above-mentioned business english course in the 2006-2007 academic year we used metaphor awareness-raising activities along with english-spanish conceptual and discursive metaphor awarenessraising activities. the former were described in velasco sacristán (2005) and comprised different exercises to activate the students’ awareness of metaphor, to increase the students’ knowledge of technical and semitechnical business vocabulary and to improve specialised business reading fluency. the latter are based on authentic business source and target texts and the languages involved are english and spanish. we have also used data from contrastive metaphor analyses in business english and spanish such as the english-spanish comparisons of metaphor in financial reporting studies by charteris-black and ennis (2001) and serón ordóñez (2005) as well as that by fuertes-olivera and pizarro-sánchez (2002) on metaphors for “inflation” in english economics texts and their translation into spanish along with multilingual corpora, the multilingual corpora for co-operation. sample exercises from a business english syllabus and results of their application exercise 1. [source: own elaboration with two advertisements from russell & lane, 1996: 70, 612] (in groups of 4) a translation approach ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-98 87 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 87 have a look at the “interplak” (figure 1) and “orkin” (figure 2) advertisements and find the conceptual metaphor in operation in them1 as well as the verbal and non-verbal realisations (i.e. images) of the metaphor. then locate examples of that conceptual metaphor used in spanish advertisements, bring them along to class next day, display them for the whole class and comment on the similarities and differences between their realisation(s) and those of the “interplak” (figure 1) and “orkin” (figure 2) advertisements. in addition, propose new conceptual metaphors that you think can be used in both english and spanish advertisements. be prepared to comment on those conceptual metaphors and their realisations in some chosen english and spanish advertisements. this exercise was carried out in unit 1 of our syllabus after using some activities to activate the students’ awareness of metaphor and others to enhance their knowledge of metaphoric marketing vocabulary (see velasco sacristán, 2005: 120-123). it involved comparison between conceptual metaphors and their realisations in english and spanish and its use was a success as measured by student learning, interest and comment. for most groups of students it was easy to understand the metaphor the product advertised is a weapon and to find at least one spanish advertisement that used it and two or three additional metaphors used in english and spanish advertising. moreover, working with partners in small groups also encouraged more conversation, more questions and more learning from each other. exercise 2. [source: own elaboration with an advertisement from russell & lane, 1996: 356] (in pairs) translate the following advertisement (figure 3) from english into spanish. be prepared to comment on your translation with other pairs of students in class. this exercise was done in unit 2 of our syllabus and involved translation of text from l2 to l1 containing an illustration and different conceptual metaphors, (alligator columbus is la pinta; alligator discovery is la niña; alligator america is la santa maría, etc.), based on the historic event of the discovery of america by christopher columbus which was used to highlight the fact that culture marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-9888 figure 1. “interplak” advertisement. (source: russell & lane, 1996: 70). figure 2. “orkin” advertisement. (source: russell & lane, 1996: 612). 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 88 influences metaphor in an important way. all the translation competences mentioned before played a vital part in this exercise. of special relevance was the work with the transfer and strategic competences. hence one of the main results of this task was that it strengthened the student’s translation competence: most pairs of students provided an acceptable translation of the advertisement in figure 3, although they commented on the impossibility of achieving “total” objective equivalence in translation and replaced this aim by a relativist ambition. again, as in exercise 1, pair work offered a cooperative climate and promoted learners’ responsibility. exercise 3. [source: own elaboration with data from charteris-black & ennis, 2001: 251-261] (individually) consider table 1 and have a look at the conceptual metaphor, spanish lexis to convey it and its english translation and organise the jumbled conceptual metaphors, spanish lexis and its english translation in a similar way. a translation approach ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-98 89 figure 3. “mol” advertisement. (source: russell & lane, 1996: 356). conceptual metaphor spanish lexis english translation downward market derrumbe landslide movements are disasters desplome inestabilidad agitación caos detonante devastador descalabro colapso oscilar fluctuaciones crash (borrowed) collapse instability agitation chaos detonator devastating calamity collapse oscillate fluctuations crash movements are disasters volatilidad pressure conditions are bad weather causar estragos presión wreak havoc climate very bad market epicentro shake conditions are an earthquake clima temporal storm tremor the behaviour of the market is the behaviour of gas sacudir remezón tormenta movedizo ola expansiva after shock volatility storm epicentre unsteady table 1. jumbled metaphors. 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 89 this activity was carried out by our students in unit 3 of our syllabus and involved contrastive analysis of discursive forms and their underlying conceptual basis pertaining to market processes in english and spanish. all of our students did it successfully and found the activity easy. they concluded that there was a high degree of similarity between spanish and english metaphors used to describe markets and the teacher explained that this was so because they were metaphors that reflected sharedness of basic experience thus giving rise to a high degree of universality. exercise 4. [source: own elaboration] (individually) search one economic journal in english (e.g. the financial times, the economist, fortune, etc.) and another one in spanish (e.g. expansión, cinco días, etc.) and find examples of the conceptual metaphors along with their english and spanish lexis identified in the previous exercise as well as additional lexis for them. this activity involved work with real use of the conceptual and linguistic realisations of the metaphors in exercise 3 and was also performed in unit 3 of our syllabus with the students that had done the previous exercise. they found this activity difficult and challenging as they admitted that it took them longer than they had initially thought to find valid examples of those conceptual metaphors. yet most valued very positively the use of real business texts so that they could see how different lexical choices can be used both metaphorically and nonmetaphorically in different texts and experienced a great sense of achievement when finding actual metaphorical uses of the provided lexis and additional one in l1 and l2. as an improvement to the activity, students suggested pair work to share the work load. exercise 5. [source: own elaboration with data from fuertes-olivera & pizarro sánchez, 2005: 51-72] (in pairs) identify the type of conceptual metaphor, inflation is a robbery; inflation is a disease; inflation is a horse; inflation is an enemy or inflation is an engine, and the type of metaphorical expression, conventional metaphorical expression, similarity-based metaphorical expression or similarity-creating metaphorical expression2 in operation in the following sentences: a) and what steps can we take to keep inflation in the barn rather than running wild? b) the economic impacts of these differ enormously, and could be compared to catching a cold, having the flu or being hit by a truck. c) fear of inflation may be a lightning rod that attracts popular and political ire away marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-9890 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 90 from deeper issues such as class conflicts or disagreements about the just distribution of income. d) stop-go-driving of the british and other economies during the 1960s and 1970s proved ineffective in controlling inflation and exacted a cruel price in terms of productivity and living standards. e) an epidemic of burglaries may not lower gnp, but it causes great distress. this exercise was used in unit 5 of our syllabus and although it did not involve translation yet, establishing the conceptualization and type of different metaphorical expressions on inflation is also relevant to translation. the different pairs of students taking part in the exercise identified correctly the type of conceptual metaphor in operation but a certain number of pairs had problems with the identification of the type of metaphorical expression as they did not differentiate properly conventional metaphorical expressions from similarity-based ones. those pairs of students were told that the metaphorical expressions of inflation is an engine and inflation is a robbery metaphors are not yet conventionalised although they may be on their way to being so and there was an interesting open-class debate on the potential conventionality of similarity-based expressions. again pair and open-class work promoted interactive learning. exercise 6. [source: own elaboration with data from fuertes-olivera & pizarro sánchez, 2005: 51-57] (in pairs) translate the sentences from the previous exercise containing metaphors for inflation into spanish and identify the type of metaphorical expression (conventional, similarity-based or similaritycreating) your translated expression contains. this follow-up activity was also carried out in unit 5 with the pairs of students that did exercise 5. as in exercise 2, students worked with all the subcompetences of translation. interestingly enough, most pairs of students used literal renderings rather than other translation strategies. they were told after completing the activity that literal translation is not always a default rendering procedure as an attempt to reproduce metaphorical terms in professional discourses. indeed, it is often used by translators, as they will discover in exercise 7, as a rather common method of spreading technological know-how, scientific knowledge and terminology. moreover, the teacher told students that many economic textbooks used in non-english speaking countries are translations of english and that this has a powerful influence in causing similar conceptual metaphors. students found the activity relatively a translation approach ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-98 91 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 91 easy to carry out although experienced some difficulty when identifying the type of metaphorical expression their renderings were, as they were not totally sure if their translated metaphorical expressions were still new or already similarity-based metaphors in spanish. they also appreciated their discussion with their partner to find a suitable strategy to get the best translation in each case and to identify the type of metaphorical expression they obtained. exercise 7. [source: own elaboration with data from fuertes-olivera & pizarro sánchez, 2005: 51-72] (in pairs and open-class) compare your translated metaphorical expressions from the previous exercise with the translators’ ones. there will be an oral debate on the similarities and differences between the linguistic realisations of metaphors for “inflation” in english and spanish: a) ¿y qué medidas podemos tomar para mantenerla (la inflación) controlada? b) sus diferencias macroeconómicas difieren considerablemente y podrían compararse a resfriarse, tener la gripe o ser atropellado por un camión. c) el temor a la inflación podría ser un pararrayos que desviara la ira popular y política de cuestiones más profundas como los conflictos de clase o las discrepancias sobre la distribución justa de la renta. d) la política de freno y aceleración (“stop and go”) de la economía británica y otras ha resultado ineficaz para controlar la inflación y se ha cobrado un alto precio en productividad y nivel de vida. e) una epidemia de robos puede no reducir el pnb, pero crea un gran desasosiego. this activity was carried out with the students that did exercises 5 and 6 who had to discuss if the translators renderings were as acceptable as their proposed renderings. they realized that translators had used literal renderings in all but one of their translations. in general, there was a high level of agreement as to the correct translation for each metaphorical expression by the translator and students justified the choice of the paraphrase in a) arguing that in that case literality would have impeded a clear comprehension in spanish: the direct creation of similarity between a horse and inflation might not have been easily understood. again, as in previous exercises, pair work and whole class discussion provided a cooperative climate and promoted learner’s responsibility. in addition, as in exercise 2, students realized that rarely is there any “absolute right” rendering of a metaphorical expression or whole text. moreover, they developed competence for assessing translation in terms of comprehension, conveyance of sense and style. marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-9892 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 92 exercise 8. [source: own elaboration with data from serón ordóñez, 2005: 13-22] (in pairs) considering the three different possibilities in the translation of metaphors: (i) to use an exact equivalent of the original metaphor (m→m); (ii) to look for another metaphorical phrase which would express a similar sense (m1→m2) and (iii) to replace an untranslatable metaphor of the original with its approximate literal paraphrase (m→p)3, identify which one is in operation in the following pairs of metaphorical expressions in english and their translation into spanish. a) wages are a red herring in the inflation debate = los salarios son una forma de desviar la atención en el debate acerca de la inflación. b) cash cows like microsoft and oracle lead the way = vacas lecheras como microsoft y oracle están a la cabeza. c) incrementalism doesn’t work in combating deflation = el incrementalismo no funciona a la hora de luchar contra la deflación. d) the risk/reward has been getting more favourable, but it is not a slam dunk by any means = el perfil riesgo/recompensa cada vez ha sido más favorable, pero no es ni mucho menos un cañonazo. e) uk strategy –changing track = estrategia en el reino unido: cambio de vías. this exercise was also carried out in unit 5, as a continuation to exercises 6 and 7. all students identified the strategies used by translators correctly and found the activity easy after having performed the previous exercises. they also commented again on the use of literal renderings by translators, a translation strategy often used at expert level. again the work in pairs made the activity interesting for students. exercise 9. [source: own elaboration with the “multilingual corpora for co-operation” (mlcc)4] (in pairs and open class) search the mlcc corpora (first set), more specifically the corpora on the financial times and expansión for evidence on some of the linguistic realisations in english and spanish5 of the following conceptual metaphors: business is war, business is water and business is an illness. insert different english lexis in the search word box of the corpus of the financial times, read the concordances vertically, following the search word column and the words to the left of it. look at the examples extracted and select those in the concordances which are not literal but metaphorical realisations of those three conceptual metaphors. then search the expansión corpus to look for the translated or closely similar linguistic realisations in spanish. next discuss with your classmate to what extent the types of linguistic metaphorical realisations of the three conceptual metaphors are different or similar to their spanish realisations. after that there will be an open class debate. a translation approach ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-98 93 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 93 we used this activity in unit 6 of our syllabus, as part of a new trend to use corpora of specialized texts for dealing with particular grammatical, lexical, lexico-grammatical, discursive or rhetorical features in our esp classes6. different pairs of students participated in this activity and commented that they considered the corpus work relevant to the activity as it provided them with a useful source of information of metaphorical expressions used in real business contexts. additionally, they commented that activities like these were very interesting and not at all boring as they enjoyed the incorporation of new technologies in the classroom. moreover, they thought that the “search-and-discovery” implied facilitated their learning of metaphors in english and spanish and found it very suitable for comparison between the spanish and english metaphorical systems in the business discourse. they also liked their autonomy as the teacher merely acted as an organiser of the activity. however, they encountered the following difficulties: a computer cannot work from a set of conceptual metaphors to identify their linguistic realisations and students had to anticipate potential lexis that could be used as metaphorical expressions of the conceptual metaphors under analysis in the corpus –pair work was of great help there. they felt sometimes overwhelmed by the quantity of material that the corpora and concordances brought to light7. yet they valued positively the use of the concordances of words and phrases and their contexts to show if the word or phrase was used metaphorically or literally. the open-class debate, as in other activities involving oral discussion, was of great interest to students as it offered a cooperative climate and an active way of learning. exercise 10. [source: own elaboration with a text from the economist, january 29th 2005] (in groups of 5) translate “the car company in front” text from the economist january 29th 2005 containing different metaphors8 into spanish using the “jigsaw technique”9. we used this activity in the last unit of our syllabus, unit 8, although in each of the previous units students had already translated different texts from english into spanish using the “jigsaw technique”10 so they were already familiar with it. its repeated use accomplished the following: it offered students practice in self-teaching rather than having material presented to them (thus, fostering depth of understanding) and also practice in peer teaching (hence promoting autonomy of learning). we found that students enjoyed the technique, especially the grouping work and the competing nature of it and felt very motivated. as to the use of this jigsaw technique for translating purposes, we realized that it was very suitable for developing marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-9894 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 94 students’ translation competence, involving its six subcompetences. on the whole, this technique turned out to be very useful to scaffold the student gradual development of translation competence. finally, the use of group working and open-class discussion of translating problems was also of great motivation for students. regarding the specific translation of metaphorical expressions in the text, mostly idioms of a metaphoric origin, there was a high level of agreement as to the correct translation for those idioms and metaphoric expressions with a similar mapping condition in english and spanish usually by means of a literal rendering but students had more difficulties with those idioms and metaphorical expressions with different mapping conditions and the translation method chosen: m1→m2 or m→p. some additional translation exercises, such as “retranslation” or “summary translation” can be used to teach metaphors, but we think the ones presented here already used in our business syllabus are sufficient to provide an illustration for this translation approach to metaphor teaching. conclusion ideas from cognitive linguistics and translation have been put together along with communicative language teaching methodology to produce a methodological proposal for the teaching of metaphors for lsp learners. this approach has been used in a business english syllabus in which some learner-centred english-spanish conceptual and discursive metaphor awareness-raising activities have been used along with general metaphor awareness-raising ones. examples from the former have been described and commented on to illustrate how they helped or hindered learners’ understanding and production of metaphors. the qualitative results of using this approach in the above-mentioned application of a translation approach to metaphor in business english, although still in need for further empirical research11, seem to suggest useful insights and benefits in the lsp classroom, showing that translation can constitute a valuable pedagogical and communicative means to teach metaphorical concepts and expressions with which l2 learners of professional discourses may have difficulties with. on the one hand, it offers benefits to teachers as it can be used effectively to teach metaphors in different professional discourses while it also focuses on the communicative function of the language enhancing the teacher’s interaction with the student a translation approach ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-98 95 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 95 and also among the students themselves. on the other hand, it offers pedagogical and psychological benefits to students as well. first, this approach helps students raise cross-linguistic awareness of conceptual metaphors and their linguistic realisations in l1 and l2 professional discourses. second, it also helps students develop their translation competence in different professional genres hence enhancing their advancement in a globalized world that demands professional translators. third, it provides students with varied, natural and authentic l1 and l2 metaphoric input. fourth, it enhances student autonomy of learning as the teacher is often a mediator. fifth, it often promotes interactive learning via pair work and group discussion. sixth, it fosters critical thinking via oral discussions and problem-solving situations and, seventh, it acts as a very effective stimulus to interest as students consider these activities as more fun and more encouraging as well as more challenging and more useful than others. in view of all these results, i can conclude that some enlargement of concern is overdue within esp on the use of translation in the teaching of metaphor in the classroom. yet future empirical research should be carried out with pair languages other than english and spanish, especially as regards languages with less etymological and cultural proximity, and more than two languages as, for example, in classes with students from many different culturally-unrelated countries. (revised paper received october 2008) references marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-9896 boers, f. (1997a). “no pain, no gain in a free-market rhetoric: a test for cognitive semantics?” metaphor & symbol 12: 231241. boers, f. (1997b). “health, fitness and mobility in a free market ideology” in j.v. van noppen & m. manfort (eds.), voices of pauses: co-operation and conflict in english language and literatures, 89-96. liège: liège language and literature. boers, f. (1999). “when a bodily source domain becomes prominent: the joy of counting metaphors in the socio-economic domain” in g. steen & r. gibbs (eds.), metaphor in cognitive linguistics, 47-56. amsterdam: john benjamins. boers, f. (2000). “enhancing metaphoric awareness in specialised reading”. english for specific purposes 19: 137-147. cameron, l. & g. low (1999a). “metaphor”. language teaching 32: 77-96. cameron, l. & g. low (eds.) (1999b). researching and applying metaphor. cambridge: cambridge university press. charteris-black, j. & t. ennis (2001). “a comparative study of metaphor in spanish and english financial reporting”. english for specific purposes 20: 249266. european council (2001). common european framework of reference for languages. url: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguis06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 96 tic/source/framework_en.pdf [03/07/08]. cuéllar lázaro, c. (2004). “un nuevo enfoque de la traducción en la enseñanza comunicativa de lenguas”. hermeneus: revista de la facultad de traducción e interpretación de soria 6: 41-57. deignan, a., d. gabrys & a. solska (1997). “teaching english metaphors using cross-linguistic awareness-raising activities”. elt journal 51: 43-51. dobryzynska, t. (1995). “translating metaphor: problems of meaning”. journal of pragmatics 24: 595-604. duff, a. (1989). translation. oxford: oxford university press. fuertes-olivera, p.a. & i. pizarro-sánchez (2005). “translation and ‘similarity-creating metaphors’ in specialised languages”. target 14: 43-73. gil garcía, m.t. & c.m. kondo pérez (2005). “propuestas para la enseñanza del italiano en el aula: aprender traduciendo”. cuadernos de filología italiana 12: 33-47. hurtado albir, a. (1988). “hacia un enfoque comunicativo de la traducción” in actas de las ii jornadas de didáctica del español como lengua extranjera, 53-81. madrid: ministerio de cultura. indurkhya, b. (1992). metaphor and cognition. dordrecht: kluwer academic publishers. klein-braley, c. & p. franklin (1988). “the foreigner in the refrigerator. remarks about teaching translation to university students of foreign languages” in k. malmkjaer (ed.), translation and language teaching. language teaching and translation, 5362. manchester: st. jerome. klein-braley, c. & v. smith (1985). “incalculable and full of risks: translation l1 to l2 as a testing procedure” in c. titford & a. hieke (eds.), translation in foreign language teaching and testing, 155-168. tübinger: gunter narr verlag. lindstromberg, s. (1991). “metaphor and esp: a ghost in the machine?”. english for specific purposes 10: 207-225. low, g. (1988). “on teaching metaphor”. applied linguistics 9: 125-147. mallikamas, p. (1997). “translation as a language teaching technique”. thaitesol bulletin 10, 1. pacte (2000). “acquiring translation competence: hypothesis and methodological problems of a research project” in a. beety, d. ensinger & m. presas (eds.), investigating translation, 99106. amsterdam: john benjamins. russell, j.t. & w.r. lane (1996). kleppner’s advertising procedure. new jersey: prentice-hall. samaniego fernández, e. (2007). “el impacto de la lingüística cognitiva en los estudios de traducción” in p.a. fuertes olivera (coord.), problemas lingüísticos en la traducción especializada, 119-154. valladolid: universidad de valladolid. schäffner, c. (2004). “metaphor and translation: some implications of a cognitive approach“. journal of pragmatics 36: 12531269. serón ordoñez, i. (2005). “la traducción de la metáfora en los textos financieros: estudio de caso” in m.g. torres (coord.), traducción y cultura: el referente cultural en la comunicación especializada, 205-250. málaga: libros encasa. stoddart, j. (2002). “teaching through translation”. the journal no 11. url: http://www.pt.britishcouncil.org/j ournal/j1106js.htm [03/07/08]. stryker, s. & b. leaver (1993). content-based instruction in foreign language education. washington, d.c: georgetown university press. velasco sacristán, m. (2005). “metaphor and esp: metaphor as a useful device for teaching l2 business english learners”. ibérica 10: 115-131. white, m. (2003). “metaphor and economics: the case of growth”. english for specific purposes 22: 131-151. a translation approach ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-98 97 marisol velasco sacristán holds a phd from the university of valladolid, where she teaches esp. her main research interest includes women’s studies, cognitive linguistics, pragmatics and specialized communication. her papers have appeared in international and national journals. she is also the author of the book metafora y género: las metáforas de género en la publicidad de british cosmopolitan (servicio de publicaciones e intercambio editorial, universidad de valladolid, 2005). 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 97 ibérica 17 [2009]: 83-98 marisol velasco sacristán notes 1 the product advertised is a weapon. 2 students are given a definition of these three types of metaphorical expressions taken from indurkhya (1992: 1-2). 3 possibilities in the translation of metaphors proposed by dobryzynska (1995). 4 these corpora consist of two sets: the first set contains articles from 10 european newspapers. the second set consists of a parallel corpus of translated data in the nine european official languages (19921994). 5 this task could be done with language pairs other than english and spanish due to the multilingual nature of the corpora used. some of the other european newspapers could be chosen for work on other languages. 6 in this sense, we have already used corpus data in some teaching activities of our syllabi with regard to idioms, discursive realisations of gender, etc. 7 instances of some search words or expressions ran to hundreds or more. 8 key: business is a path (e.g. “the car company in front”, etc.); business is war (e.g. “he wants the company to win 15% of the global car market, snatching leadership from general motors”, etc.); business is water (e.g. “somehow news of the banners in our factories leaked out”; etc.); business is a building (e.g. “when trade barriers were erected, the japanese built their plants inside them”, etc.); business companies are people (e.g. “of course, under the skin, they share many common parts”, etc.); business is religion (e.g. “the toyota creed reads much like any corporate mission statement”, etc.). 9 students are divided into groups of four and each student is responsible for translating one of the four parts in the article: “pleasing mrs jones”, “the strain of going global”, “seeds of success” and “the best gets better” sections. each student, after translating his or her part at home, meets first with students who have the identical assignment as a team of specialists who is called the “expert” group discussion to discuss their translation and to agree on a single translation. when the “expert” group finish their discussion the jigsaw groups reconvene in their initial heterogeneous configuration. each of the students makes copies of their agreed on translated section and makes comments on it for the other group members who will do the same with their part of the text. finally, each group makes a copy of the different translated sections for the teacher and there is an oral debate in class on the overall proposed translation. special attention is given to the translation of the different metaphors contained in the text. 10 the jigsaw technique is often used for reading arrangements in esp courses that follow contentbased language approach (stryker & leaver, 1993). we started using it for translation purposes in our esp classes four years ago. 11 we intend to carry out a future quantitative analysis with our students of “business english i” next academic year. 98 06 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:37 página 98 iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 7-22 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.7 the need to learn about discipline-specific writing during a conversation, this question came up: “what should we know to become an effective esp writing teacher?” i blurted out this answer: “everything!” i was perhaps thinking of mary norris, the copy editor for the new yorker and author of between you and me: confessions of a comma queen. she describes the job of a copy editor as “drawing upon the entire person: not just your knowledge of grammar and punctuation and usage and foreign languages and literature but your experience of travel, gardening, shipping, singing, plumbing, catholicism, midwesternism, mozzarella, the a train, new jersey. and in turn it feeds you more experience” (norris, 2015, p. 12). to me, that’s not too far off from the knowledge base of an lsp writing teacher. “oh. come on. that is an insanely lofty and completely unattainable goal”, came the good-humored protest. the protester does have a point. nobody can know everything. one of the pleasures of being an lsp practitioner and a writing teacher is that there is always something new to learn. what is this next “something new”, though? since then, i have been thinking about this question. as lsp practitioners who are also researchers, we can look at the literature. there, lsp teacher education researchers have sketched out multiple topic areas that can form our knowledge base (basturkmen, 2014). we can also look carefully at our classes. when kuteeva (2013) looked at one of her graduate-level writing classes, for example, she saw many things; one of them was the “very wide spectrum of epistemological traditions… ranging… from lab-based osteoarchaeology to logic-driven philosophy to source-based history or musicology to emerging interdisciplinary fields such as fashion studies or performing arts” her graduate students represented (p. 86). indeed, having a learning about research writing across the disciplines: pathways, problems, and possibilities an cheng oklahoma state university (usa) an.cheng@okstate.edu 7 ibérica 45 (2023): 7-22 an cheng multidisciplinary mix of students in the same writing class or in academic support centers is a phenomenon familiar to many lsp practitioners as described in cheng (2018) and as more recently noted by douglas (2020). the diverse disciplinary outlooks and the intersubjective responses to a shared task in such classes are valuable (e.g., swales, 2019), but the challenges facing lsp practitioners are also considerable. how to gain and increase one’s knowledge of the discipline-specific nature of writing becomes a felt need by many who face such challenges. such knowledge is part of what ferguson called lsp practitioners’ “specialized knowledge” (ferguson, 1997, p. 84). distinct from “specialist knowledge” (p. 84), which refers to knowledge of the content of the students’ disciplines or subjects, lsp practitioners’ specialized knowledge may include their knowledge of their students’ disciplinary cultures, knowledge of the epistemological basis of different disciplines, and knowledge of students’ valued genres and discoursal practices. in this forum article, i will engage with some of lsp research and practices in the past three decades and suggest three pathways to develop such knowledge. the pathways, though each with its problems, can help lsp practitioners increase their knowledge of discoursal practices owned and articulated by those across the disciplines. these three pathways are (1) to interact with faculty and advanced graduate students, (2) to read published findings on research genres, and (3) to study meta-genres. the pathways are, by no means, mutually exclusive. one is not necessarily superior to the others. they are far from the only available pathways. in fact, in my concluding thoughts, i will look at how lsp practitioners can bring together these pathways and how some have followed other pathways. regardless of the specific pathways, to increase, and to learn to continue to increase, one’s knowledge of the expectations for effective communication in specific discoursal contexts is important for all lsp practitioners in most pedagogical contexts. lsp practitioners intentional in their efforts to build such knowledge are more likely to be attentive and thoughtful practitioners in their pedagogical settings. pathway 1: to interact with faculty and advanced graduate students this pathway is familiar to many lsp researchers and practitioners. to interact with faculty and advanced graduate students includes interviewing 8 them. swales’ (1998) conversations with his faculty informants in biology, automobile crash safety research, dentistry, art history, and other disciplines revealed to him the “constellations of genres” (p. 14) in these disciplines. the faculty informants revealed to him the “perceived quality differences and rankings” of these genres (p. 18, original emphasis). rogers et al. (2016) focused on a highly valued genre among the constellations of research genres, the dissertation, and interviewed 24 faculty members across doctoral programs about their experience in writing their dissertations, the “shape and conventions” in the dissertation in their fields, and the most challenging areas of dissertation writing, among other questions (p. 55). these questions can be adapted by lsp practitioners to interview faculty members about other valued genres. other than genres, lsp practitioners can also ask faculty about disciplinespecific discoursal practices in general. for example, the faculty advisors belcher (1994) interviewed revealed to her the complex audiences that articles in applied mathematics should target and the critical stance students in literary studies should adopt in their writing. the 30 interviews with historians and computer scientists working in finland and sweden by hynninen and kuteeva (2017) offer insights into these disciplinary insiders’ perceptions of “good” writing in english in their fields; their reported practices as authors, reviewers, and proofreaders; and their views on the discrepancy between the ideals and realities of research writing in english. many advanced graduate students are “highly acculturated into the genres of their discourse communities” (lee & swales, 2006, p. 72) with “highly developed analytical skills in their fields” (swales & lindemann, 2002, p. 118). these students, who are often in lsp practitioners’ classes, can also offer valuable information about the discoursal practices in their fields. swales (2019), for example, views the doctoral students in his writing classes as his “lab” and one of his “data sources” (p. 81). he shows how a question such as “which is better – a simple experiment or a complicated one” has helped him understand a little better the disciplinary differences among his students (p. 81). surveys and questionnaires are another form of interacting with disciplinary insiders about disciplinary discoursal practices. they can be small-scaled ones for students to fill out or take back to their faculty to fill out. they can be research-oriented ones, such as pinkert’s (2020) survey of faculty and graduate students in 81 graduate programs at a us university. 324 responses learning about research writing across the disciplines: pathways, problems, and possibilities ibérica 45 (2023): 7-22 9 from 48 departments across nine colleges provided rich details about the writing activities, writing support, and writing courses offered in these departments, as well as these faculty’s insights on graduate students’ development of research writing skills. in fact, some have combined surveys with interviews to tap into faculty’s perspectives on writing in their disciplines. caplan (2020), for example, conducted an online survey to ask the mba faculty at his university to rate the importance of 23 learning tasks. he also conducted four think-aloud interviews with faculty. the survey and interviews allowed caplan to see how the faculty perceived the importance and difficulty of various skills and genres. the faculty members nominated case analysis as the valued genre and described its perceived rhetorical purpose, rhetorical move pattern, what each move includes, and what strategies writers are expected to use in order to write this genre successfully. in addition to interviews and surveys, interacting with faculty members can involve interdisciplinary materials developments and co-teaching. stoller reported collaborating with chemistry professors on genre and text selection, genre analysis, materials development, course design, course delivery, and assessment (stoller & robinson, 2013). their collaboration enabled them to zero in on the genres valued in chemistry, such as research articles (ras), proposals, and posters, and arrive at a nuanced analysis of ras in chemistry. the collaboration enabled them to articulate the reasons why the chemistry ra genre served the needs of the undergraduates in a writing course at their university. the results of their collaborative analysis of the genres valued in chemistry were later developed into a textbook used widely by chemistry students and faculty (robinson et al., 2008). similarly, cargill, an applied linguist, has collaborated with an ecologist to offer numerous writing courses and workshops in australia and in china. the ecologist guided novice writers to act and write like a disciplinary insider in their workshops, all through bringing in his rich experience of reading, writing, interacting with peers, and negotiating the publication process as a published scholar in ecology (cargill et al., 2018; li et al., 2019). interacting with faculty, advanced students, and other disciplinary insiders through interviews, surveys, and co-teaching may not be feasible for some lsp practitioners, especially if such interactions are to be “contextualized”, “prolonged”, and “repetitive”, as advised by johns (1997, p. 108). the lack of status, resources, and “bandwidth to engage in… cross-disciplinary work” an cheng ibérica 45 (2023): 7-2210 (tauber, 2016, p. 643) and “institutional politics and funding silos” may be the hurdles on the road to forming meaningful partnership with disciplinary insiders (p. 632). some introverted lsp practitioners may be more comfortable with texts than with people and, thus, may not have the kind of needed personality or drive to reach out to faculty to learn about discoursal practices in their disciplines. in addition, some faculty and advanced graduate students may not be a helpful source of information about writing in their disciplines. their notions about language and writing may be “from their school days” (mauranen, 2022, p. 12). such notions can, thus, be naive and outdated. many disciplinary experts may not have been intentionally introduced to the expectations and processes of writing in their fields as part of their graduate training (lafrance & corbett, 2020, p. 298). some supervisors have been found to be even ill-equipped to offer constructive feedback on the drafts of the part-genres in their students’ dissertations (basturkmen et al., 2014). others have been noticed as unaware of the criteria by which they evaluate students’ writing (caplan, 2020). these observations cast doubts on whether these “disciplinary insiders” can articulate their insights about disciplinespecific discoursal practices in a way that is helpful to lsp practitioners. that said, interacting with faculty and advanced graduate students to learn about discipline-specific writing remains a valuable pathway as seen in the abundant insights gained by the lsp practitioners who took such a pathway reviewed in this section and reported elsewhere. meanwhile, it could be further complemented by other pathways, two of which i describe below. pathway 2: to read published findings on research genres as pointed out in cheng (2018), the findings from genre analysis studies by lsp researchers, applied linguists, and writing scholars on research genres can help increase our knowledge of discipline-specific writing. swales’ (1990, 2004) pioneering analyses of the ra and other research genres have made genre analysis of research genres across the disciplines in the esp, or swalsian, tradition “a generative area for… scholarship” (graves et al., 2013, p. 422). in cheng (2019), i reviewed 36 genre analysis studies published in or before 2018 in english for specific purposes (espj) and the journal of english for academic purposes (jeap). the disciplines represented range from agricultural learning about research writing across the disciplines: pathways, problems, and possibilities ibérica 45 (2023): 7-22 11 sciences, applied linguistics, biological engineering, chemistry, computer science, law, literary studies, medicine, neurology, to sociology, among others. the studies have focused on the ra as a whole (e.g., kwan, 2017), partgenres such as the result section (brett, 1994), or some of the rhetorical moves within a part genre, such as the description of experimental procedures (lim, 2017). notably, since my systematic review published in 2019, genre analysis studies of ras and other research genres continue to appear in major lsp journals, a phenomenon easily noticeable to those who browse through journals such as espj, ibérica, or jeap. when reading these studies to increase our knowledge of discipline-specific writing, we may need to keep in mind some caveats. we may need to pay attention to how genre analysts justify the needs for their genre analysis studies. many of these studies, as i noticed (cheng, 2019), often provide insufficient details about any challenges students face when writing their ras or ra part-genres. consequently, the pedagogical implications offered in these studies tend not to be grounded in any pedagogical needs and may end up being oft-repeated pedagogical principles that many lsp practitioners may have already been familiar with. indeed, swales has expressed his “personal disappointment with studies of genre in the leading esp/eap journals that fade away before offering well-articulated pedagogical applications” (2019, p. 78). the observation that many genre analysis studies may not have been as responsive to needs and the corresponding pedagogical implications as hoped for can also be seen in the fact that many of these studies focus on ras in tesol/applied linguistics or language-related disciplines. among the 36 studies i reviewed (cheng, 2019), ten focus on such fields. these fields are where most lsp practitioners receive their professional education but are often not the fields represented in many classes lsp practitioners teach. this phenomenon prompts swales (2019) to ask why “so many people apparently believe that they are making a contribution to our knowledge by subjecting contemporary esl/applied linguistics texts (itself a wideranging and rather “fuzzy” disciplinary grouping) to various kinds of analysis” (p. 76). he pinpoints such studies, together with those not paying attention to pedagogical applications, as among the phenomena that could lead to the “bleaker future” of eap research (p. 76). the argument here is not that genre analysis study is valuable only when driven by students’ needs, when addressing a localized pedagogical problem, or when an cheng ibérica 45 (2023): 7-2212 offering pedagogical implications that are based on concrete needs. in a recent forum article in this journal, mauranen (2022) has argued that lsp researchers and practitioners should also conduct “studies of specialized communication” and “carry out research… in the category of ‘nice to know’ than ‘essential to know’” (pp. 10-11). if that is the case, lsp practitioners need to actively bridge the gap between “nice to know” and “need to know” when reading genre analysis studies. they may need to consider carefully how some of the particularities in research genres that have been teased out by genre analysts can or cannot inform their own instructional strategies and their own teaching of research writing to the students across the disciplines in their classroom, many of whom are working in disciplines unrelated to those studied by genre analysts. lsp practitioners reading genre analysis studies of applied linguistics/tesol ras will need to be especially vigilant of the sometimes implicit assumption that what has been found in their home discipline is relevant to students in other fields. they may need to avoid the “i will teach you what i know in my field instead of what you may need to know in your field” mentality in their lsp classroom. that said, the large number of swalsian genre analyses of ras and other research genres from a wide range of disciplines is a valuable source of information about the rhetorical organizations, the lexico-grammatical features, and the rhetorical contexts of research genres across the disciplines. they could also show how lsp practitioners can conduct their own genre analysis of the writing in their students’ fields or guide their students to conduct such analysis (see cheng, 2018). being able to do so is an important part of the specialized knowledge of an lsp practitioner (ferguson, 1997, p. 84). compared with direct interactions with faculty, this source of information is more readily accessible to many as long as they have subscriptions to the publication venues where these studies often appear. given some of the problems associated with direct interactions with faculty as noted in the preceding section, it can be a pathway that many lsp practitioners are more comfortable with. this pathway is, therefore, worth pursuing, especially together with other pathways. pathway 3: to study meta-genres compared with the other two pathways, this one is less traveled but is intriguing to me for some of the reasons described in this subsection. metalearning about research writing across the disciplines: pathways, problems, and possibilities ibérica 45 (2023): 7-22 13 genres are “genres about genres” (giltrow, 2002, p. 195) that “provide shared background knowledge and guidance in how to produce and negotiate [one’s target] genres” (bawarshi & reiff, 2010, p. 94). examples of meta-genres that provide background knowledge of, and guidance on, research genres include discipline-specific guidebooks on research writing, such as baglione (2020) on ras in political science. they include essays and articles written by disciplinary insiders to introduce novice writers to the writing practices in their fields, such as agarwal (2012) on how to write successfully for the journal information systems research, among numerous other examples. such meta-genres are normally produced by seasoned scholars, journal gatekeepers, or other disciplinary insiders for audiences within their fields. lsp practitioners are, in this sense, only the eavesdropping audience at best. as the unintended audience, however, we can listen attentively and, more importantly as i will show later, critically, to learn a lot about these disciplinary insiders’ understanding or expectations of strong research writing in their fields. the insights one can potentially gain through such an act of careful and critical listening can make meta-genres an additional pathway for lsp practitioners to increase their knowledge of disciplinespecific writing. in cheng (2018), i describe how some guidebooks on discipline-specific research methodologies and research writing have heightened my awareness of what the new genres in these fields are, how established genres have been discussed insightfully in the disciplinary context in question, and how knowledge is constructed in these disciplines. a book on graduate-level writing in music by two music faculty and a librarian, for example, introduces me to how the document resembling a graduate thesis has been given different names, written differently by students depending on the musical traditions they are trained in, and perceived as performing different communicative purposes by faculty in different programs (boyle et al., 2004). guidebooks or essays by disciplinary insiders are far from the only metagenres worthy of lsp practitioners’ attention. journals’ submission guidelines are another example. they are easily available to lsp practitioners, especially if they ask students to select ras from journals from their disciplines to analyze, a seemingly common pedagogical practice (e.g., kuteeva, 2013). through asking students to build reference collections of ras in their fields, i have been introduced to hundreds of journals in these fields (cheng, 2018). each journal’s submission guidelines, together with other journal-specific meta-genres, offer an opportunity to learn something an cheng ibérica 45 (2023): 7-2214 new about writing in that discipline. the information includes the different genres that these journals published, the expected organization of a typical ra, the different types of visuals, the editorial policies and peer review criteria that can be consequential to how ras are to be evaluated, and other useful details. these submission guidelines also provide links to other metagenres that are equally useful in enhancing one’s knowledge of disciplinespecific writing, such as papers, editorials, and even youtube videos by wellrespected scholars in these fields. i noticed that journals’ submission guidelines have captured the attention of some in the field. for example, mckinley and rose (2018), henshall (2018), and jin (2020, in this journal) have analyzed the submission guidelines of hundreds of journals from different fields to study the preferred varieties of english, definitions of grammatical correctness, and other language policy issues as conceptualized in these journals’ submission guidelines. reading these meta-genres should be more than just learning about anthropologically interesting details about writing in different fields to show off at the next lsp tea party. a more helpful approach is to engage with them to reflect on, and to restructure, one’s knowledge of discipline-specific writing as seen in the work of some lsp practitioners. for example, swales and luebs (2002) analyzed the research articles in two social psychology journals and showed to their students how the titles, abstracts, methods, and other parts confirmed or undermined the apa publication manual, the metagenre presumably with a “powerful, and even coercive effect on the shaping of research texts in psychology” (p. 145). similarly, stoller and robinson (2013) compared the findings of their genre analysis of ras from six journals with the american chemical society (acs) style guide, a meta-genre guiding these journals. the comparisons enabled them to augment their description of the sequence and functions of the components in the ras. they showed how the sequence and functions had been “widely endorsed” in the acs style guide and, thus, should be translated into pedagogical materials for their students (p. 52). in cheng (2018), i describe how a guidebook on research writing by three biology researchers discusses the sequence in which the different part-genres in an ra are supposed to be written (gladon et al, 2011). interestingly, i noticed that lsp practitioners have also suggested three different sequences in which the part-genres in an ra should be taught (swales & luebs, 2002; swales & feak, 2012; burgess & gargill, 2013). these sequences are different from that suggested by the biologists. the detailed reasons for these suggested sequences allowed me a learning about research writing across the disciplines: pathways, problems, and possibilities ibérica 45 (2023): 7-22 15 glimpse into how these authors perceived the ideal process of writing an ra. the book also emphasizes the importance of a “take-home” message (gladon et al., 2011). again, quite interestingly, lsp practitioners have also talked about the importance of helping students develop a take-home message (burgess & cargill, 2013; cargill & connor, 2012; rogers et al. 2016). their definitions of a take-home message and its role in only some specific part-genres, such as the discussions, however, differ from those by the biologists who not only explain what a take-home message is, but also how it has a role to play in every part-genre, rather than just in some partgenres. more significantly, they offer concrete examples of take-home messages in different part-genres. the differences do not imply that one perspective is necessarily superior to the others. the opportunity to closely examine the differences has, nevertheless, enabled me to review and revise my knowledge on these and other topics. lsp practitioners have also zoomed into what meta-genres can reveal about language use in research writing in different fields. millar et al. (2013) analyzed the guidelines provided by top five journals and examined any discrepancy between how the passive voice has been used in 297 primary ras in these journals and what the guidelines of these journals advocate about grammatical voice. they found that the guidelines might have reflected the longstanding linguistic practice and have influenced journal gatekeepers’ intervention on authors’ language use. consequently, they noticed that the guidelines have some impact on the use of the passive voice in the articles, especially in the methods and results part-genres. by contrast, jiang and hyland (2020) compared three grammatical features in 360 papers in five journals with the advice in a range of guidebooks and found increasing deviations from the advice. the advice examined in jiang and hyland (2020), which they criticized as prescriptive, are from generic, nondiscipline-specific guide books on writing. such non-discipline-specific meta-genres do not belong to the meta-genres discussed here (more on this point in the next paragraph). that said, the critical engagement with metagenres by jiang and hyland (2020), however, is what i would encourage lsp practitioners to do when using meta-genres for professional development. pathway 3 has its problems. not all meta-genres are created equal. i have found non-discipline-specific guidebooks and advice to be unhelpful in most cases as noted in my brief reference to this point in the preceding paragraph. even for discipline-specific meta-genres, some guidelines on writing in a specific discipline may be written by faculty who are strong researchers but an cheng ibérica 45 (2023): 7-2216 are not necessarily strong writers or someone who hasn’t thought about genres or the writing process at a theoretical level. they may be just relying on their personal experience as a writer when composing such guidebooks (see the point about faculty not receiving instruction on writing in my discussion of the problem in pathway 1). for this reason, before reading any discipline-specific guidebook, i would browse through the authors’ own publications and get a sense of their writing. some journals also provide a minimal amount of information on their websites, making their meta-genres only minimally helpful. that said, this pathway, similar to pathway 2, is readily accessible, contrary to pathway 1. they would complement one another. some concluding thoughts even though i have presented the three pathways separately and in the order above, they are not mutually exclusive. one is not necessarily superior to the others. balancing these pathways, while taking stock of the values and problems in each, offers great potential for lsp practitioners to enrich their knowledge of discipline-specific discoursal practices. for example, as noted earlier, caplan (2020) interviewed mba faculty about the case analysis genre. i noticed that the business case analysis genre has been analyzed by genre analysts who have described in detail its rhetorical organization, lexicogrammatical features, and rhetorical context (e.g., forman & rymer, 1999a, 1999b; nathan, 2013, 2016). interestingly, some of these genre analysis studies reference certain meta-genres produced by business faculty members (e.g., mauffette-leenders et al., 1997; sheen & gallo, 2015), among others out there, that could enhance one’s understanding of this genre. i can envision how the information from these three pathways –lsp practitioners’ interview data (pathway 1), the genre analysis studies by lsp practitioners (pathway 2), and the meta-genres by business faculty (pathway 3)– are mutually enriching. comparing and contrasting the different perspectives from these sources can result in a more nuanced understanding of discoursal practices and expectations embedded in this genre. in addition, the three pathways described above are far from the only valuable ones. other pathways have been pursued by lsp practitioners, such as instructors conducting pedagogically driven genre analysis studies. swales and post (2018) call this type of studies “research into practice learning about research writing across the disciplines: pathways, problems, and possibilities ibérica 45 (2023): 7-22 17 activities” (p. 91) and the “discourse analysis to materials production” approach (p. 94). distinct from some studies described in pathway 2, this type of genre analysis studies is motivated by certain factors within a concrete pedagogical context. for example, driven by the need to teach a group of perinatology post-doc fellows to write for publications, feak and swales (2010) selected 140 ras from seven journals in perinatology. their multiple “investigative forays” (p. 284) include a multi-level genre analysis of the collected ras (conducting genre analysis, or pathway 2), notes from the meeting the director of the research center who was an expert in the field of ultrasound (interacting with faculty, or pathway 1), and reviews of editor and reviewer correspondence from a medical journal (analyzing meta-genres, or pathway 3). feak and swales (2010) noticed these “forays” had increased their sensitivity to certain textual features in this field (p. 284). for example, they noticed that, distinct from what applied linguists have found, such quantifiable characteristics as “paternal birthweight, gestational age, and endometrial volume” can also serve as the subject of the verb predict (p. 297). such an observation prompted them to warn against overly relying on writing instructors’ intuitions about language use to guide instruction or to over-correct their students’ discipline-specific writing. if feak and swales’ (2010) pedagogically driven genre analysis focused on one discipline only, swales and post (2018) studied how imperatives have been used in five fields. they interviewed one scholar from each of the fields to gain their “professorial perspectives” on the use of imperatives in their fields (p. 93). based on their analysis of this feature in specific disciplinary texts and contexts, they presented some research findings that can draw students’ attention to the disciplinary variation in imperative usage, involve students in mini-explorations for a better understanding of the functions of imperatives in specific contexts, and expose the students to professors’ perspectives on this topic. though these activities aim to increase students’ knowledge of disciplinary variations in the usage of this feature, the process has, undoubtedly, increased the lsp practitioners’ knowledge on this topic. though most of the examples in this forum article are related to teaching graduate-level research writing to students across the disciplines, the key point about developing one’s knowledge of the discoursal practices in specialized context is pertinent to all lsp practitioners. as noted earlier, such knowledge is part of one’s “specialized knowledge” and is a crucial component of any lsp practitioners’ knowledge base (ferguson, 1997, p. an cheng ibérica 45 (2023): 7-2218 84). this forum article aims to encourage lsp practitioners to reflect on the pathways amenable to them. it also encourages lsp practitioners to research on their own or on other lsp practitioners’ pathways to develop such knowledge. further studies in this area will help push forward research on teacher education, which is still an area that needs increased attention in lsp research (e.g., basturkmen, 2014). references learning about research writing across the disciplines: pathways, problems, and possibilities ibérica 45 (2023): 7-22 19 agarwal, r. 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(2022). where is spoken interaction in lsp? ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 44, 7-16. https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.7 mckinley, j., & rose, h. (2018). conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in english for research publication purposes: an analysis of journal submission guidelines. journal of second language writing, 42, 1-11. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jslw.2018.07.003 millar, n., budgell, b., & fuller, k. (2013). ‘use the active voice whenever possible’: the impact of style guidelines in medical journals. applied linguistics, 34, 393-414. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/ams059 nathan, p. (2013). academic writing in the business school: the genre of the business case report. journal of english for academic purposes, 12, 57-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2012. 11.003 nathan, p. (2016). analyzing options in pedagogical business case reports: genre, learning about research writing across the disciplines: pathways, problems, and possibilities ibérica 45 (2023): 7-22 21 process and language. english for specific purposes, 44, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp. 2016.04.006 norris, m. (2015). between you & me: confessions of a comma queen. w. w. norton & company. pinkert, l. a. (2020). snapshots, surveys, and infrastructures: an institutional case study of graduate writing courses. in m. brooks-gillies, e. g. garcia, s. h. kim, k. manthey & t. g. smith (eds.), graduate writing across the disciplines: identifying, teaching, and supporting (pp. 23-47). the wac clearinghouse/university press of colorado. robinson, m., stoller, f., costanza-robinson, m., & jones, j. k. (2008). write like a chemist: a guide and resource. oxford university press. rogers, p. m., zawacki, t. m., & baker, s. e. (2016). uncovering challenges and pedagogical implications in dissertation writing and supervisory practices: a multimethod study of doctoral students and advisors. in s. simpson, n. a. caplan, m. cox & t. philips (eds.), supporting graduate student writers: research, curriculum, & program design (pp. 52-77). university of michigan press. sheen, r., & gallo, a. (2015). hbr guide to building your business case. harvard business press. stoller, f. l., & robinson, m. s. (2013). chemistry journal articles: an interdisciplinary approach to move analysis with pedagogical aims. english for specific purposes, 32, 45-57. https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.esp.2012.09.001 swales, j. m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge university press. swales, j. m. (1998). other floors, other voices: a textography of a small university building. lawrence erlbaum. swales, j. m. (2004). research genres: exploration and applications. cambridge university press. swales, j. m. 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(2016). expanding the writing franchise: composition consulting at the graduate level. college composition and communication, 67, 634-657. ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-44 abstract the use of the target language to manage a class and organise its work represents one of the few genuinely communicative uses of the target language in many formal foreign-language or bilingual-education teaching situations. it is thus important that both teachers and learners understand and know how to use the key expressions involved. these tend to be highly metaphoric (low, 2008) with one particularly productive conceptual metaphor involving the journey (or travel) source domain seemingly standing out. there seems to have been little investigation to date into whether or not learners whose first language is not english actually understand the expressions involved in such classroom management language. moreover, with the recent growing interest in the area of content-based learning, there is increasing pressure on language teachers, whose first language is not english, to use english as their classroom management language. our first aim was to look at whether the acceptability judgements for classroom management expressions offered by non-native speaking teachers of english resembled those of native speakers, and whether these judgements reflected corpus findings regarding the frequency of usage in spoken english. to do this, we analysed native and non-native speaker responses to a short questionnaire. our second aim was to look at how non-native speakers of english perceive the meanings of these expressions, comparing our findings to native speaker judgements and corpus results. keywords: metaphor, phrasal verbs, language learning, classroom management discourse. the relationship between conceptual metaphors and classroom management language: reactions by native and non-native speakers of english graham low and jeannette littlemore university of york & university of birmingham (united kingdom) gdl1@york.ac.uk & j.m.littlemore@bham.ac.uk 25 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 25 resumen la relación entre las metáforas conceptuales y el lenguaje de gestión del aula: reacciones por parte de hablantes nativos y no nativos de inglés en la docencia académica de una lengua extranjera o en contextos de enseñanza bilingüe, el uso de la lengua meta con el fin de gestionar la actividad en el aula y organizar el trabajo colectivo constituye uno de los pocos usos de la lengua meta que podrían considerarse como genuinamente comunicativos. es por ello que resulta fundamental que tanto profesores y alumnos comprendan y utilicen las expresiones clave que suelen aparecer al efecto. por lo general, el lenguaje que se utiliza para este fin tiende a ser muy metafórico (low, 2008), destacando aparentemente el uso de la metáfora conceptual que tiene por dominio fuente el concepto de trayecto (o viaje). hasta la fecha, la investigación encaminada a conocer si el alumnado cuya lengua materna no es el inglés entiende o no las expresiones correspondientes a este dominio fuente, no parece haber despertado gran interés. además, a esto se le une el hecho de que el aprendizaje del inglés basado en contenidos, cada vez más popular, ha contribuido a recalcar la necesidad de que los profesores no nativos en lengua inglesa utilicen el inglés como herramienta para gestionar el aula. en un principio, nuestro objetivo consistirá en examinar si los juicios relativos a la adecuación de las expresiones que los profesores de inglés no nativos utilizan para gestionar el aula son comparables con los juicios de adecuación de los profesores nativos y, además, si ambos juicios guardan alguna relación con la frecuencia en el uso del inglés hablado que figura en los estudios de corpus vigentes. para este fin analizamos las respuestas de hablantes nativos y no nativos de lengua inglesa obtenidas mediante una breve encuesta. nuestro segundo objetivo consistirá en examinar la percepción de los profesores no nativos en cuanto a los significados de las expresiones en cuestión y, para ello, cotejamos nuestros hallazgos con los juicios expresados por los hablantes nativos y los reflejados en los resultados del corpus. key words: metáfora, verbos frasales, aprendizaje de lenguas, discurso para la gestión del aula. introduction with recent increases in the number of international students studying at english-speaking universities, it is becoming ever more important to identify the linguistic difficulties that such students are likely to encounter, and to design language teaching approaches that will help them deal with these difficulties. one aspect of language that international students find g. low & j. littlemore ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-4426 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 26 ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-44 the relationship between conceptual metaphors particularly difficult is the understanding of spoken discourse (lynch, 1994). a number of factors have been identified that are likely to make listening to spoken discourse, in particular lectures, difficult for learners of english. these include things such as the conversational style of lectures, the fact that students need to combine visual and aural information, and the fact that they have to process long stretches of discourse (dudley-evans & johns, 1981; flowerdew, 1994; king, 1994; tauroza, 1998; littlemore, 2001). however, to the best of our knowledge, no one has ever looked at how far students understand the language their teachers use to manage their classes and organise the work in them. this is an important area, given that an ability to understand what the lecturer or teacher is going to do and what he or she wants the students to do is vital if a student is going to get maximum benefit from the learning experience. another reason for studying classroom management language is that the use of the target language to manage a class and organise its work represents one of the few genuinely communicative uses of the target language in many formal foreign-language or bilingual-education teaching situations. moreover, with the recent growing interest in the area of content-based learning (richards & rodgers, 2001), there is increasing pressure on language teachers whose first language is not english to use english as their classroom management language, and thus it is important for these teachers to have a good grasp of expressions such as these. from the student’s perspective, it is also of vital importance that they understand such expressions, so that they do not misinterpret what the teacher wants them to do. a large number of the phrases involved in classroom management language are highly metaphoric, which may present a challenge to both teachers and students. low (2008) cites: “go through homework”, “go over it”, “run through a text”, “run over it”, “look through it”, “look over it”, “look at a topic”, “skip over something”, “skip through it”, “pass over it”, “home in on it”, “touch on it”, “work through it”, “work on it”, “work at it, then rework it”. an inability to understand expressions such as these may have serious repercussions for international students. for instance, littlemore et al. (in progress) asked a group of upper-intermediate level international students who had recently attended a lecture on semiotics to explain the meaning of a series of extracts from the lecture. one of the extracts was: “i want to go through with you the ideas about the sign”. although 15 of the 18 students interpreted this more or less correctly as meaning “discuss” or “talk about”, three were unable to accurately explain what the lecturer meant, and one 27 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 27 came up with the particularly worrying interpretation: “explain together with the participation of the students”. this student appears to have made a more literal interpretation of “with you” than that intended by the lecturer, and he could have ended up in a very embarrassing situation if he had attempted to join in the discussion, which was not what the lecturer intended. it is clear, even from the short list of expressions mentioned by low (2008) above, that one particularly productive conceptual metaphor, involving the journey (or travel) source domain, can be applied to several different target domains, ranging from the learning process itself, to the different tasks that the students are set. it has been suggested that similarities in conceptual metaphors such as this, across languages, may facilitate the understanding of expressions such as those listed above (li, 2002). for instance, because the travel metaphor exists both in english and in chinese, a chinesespeaking learner or teacher of english should find it easier to understand and produce expressions involving this conceptual metaphor than expressions involving other conceptual metaphors that do not exist in chinese. however, languages vary considerably in terms of the ways in which conceptual metaphors are elaborated and in terms of the contexts in which they are used (deignan et al., 1997). for example, although the container metaphor is virtually universal, it can be used in english to refer to bank accounts (you put your money “in” the bank) whereas in french it cannot; you put your money sur la compte (= “on” the bank account) rather than in it. in the context of classroom management discourse, we can “run”, “skip” or “go” through a text, but it would be odd to talk about “sliding”, “dancing” or “creeping” through it. moreover, the phraseology preferred by the native speaking community is never 100% predictable from the conceptual metaphor, and the resulting expressions are often idiomatic (deignan, 2005). to illustrate, let us look at the conceptual metaphor competition is warfare (or fighting), which is widespread across a number of languages. in english, the metaphor allows us to say things like: the gloves are off in the software price war although the use of war in this example is fairly easy to predict from the conceptual metaphor, it is much more difficult to use this metaphor to predict (a) the fact that we can talk about “boxing gloves” in the context of a price war, but not, say, “mouth guards”, and (b) the particular, conventionalized phraseology in “the gloves are off ” (it would, for example, g. low & j. littlemore ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-4428 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 28 be strange to say “the companies are removing their gloves”). as well as knowledge of the conceptual metaphor, a learner of english would also need considerable exposure to the english language in order to pick these expressions up. although some might argue that in these days of globalisation and english as a lingua franca, “naturalness” and an ability to produce target-like phraseology is not particularly important (e.g. jenkins, 2003), the fact remains that elaboration and phraseology are responsible for the subtle nuances or even very different meanings in similar sounding expressions, and that language learners do need to perceive these nuances. for example, reading “through” a text is very different from reading “out”, “round”, or “about” a text. to the best of our knowledge, there has been no investigation into whether or not learners whose first language is not english actually understand expressions such as these, or whether they can detect the subtle nuances that give very different meanings to expressions such as “run through”, “skate over”, or “gloss over”. in this study, we therefore look at a small sample of classroom management expressions involving “through” and “over” collocated with verbs like “run”, “go”, “pass” and “skate” that appear to reflect the journey or travel metaphor. our first aim in the study was to look at whether the acceptability judgements for these expressions offered by non-native speaking (nns) teachers of english resembled those of native speakers, and whether these judgements reflected corpus findings regarding the frequency of usage in spoken english. in order to do this, we administered a short questionnaire to native and non-native speaking teachers of english who were studying on teaching-related ma programmes at the universities of york and birmingham. our second aim was to look more closely at how non-native speaking teachers of english perceive the meanings of these expressions. in order to do this, we asked the respondents to say whether or not the expressions could be complemented by the words “rapidly” or “in detail”. again, we compared our findings to native speaker judgements and corpus results. we expected that a number of factors would interact with each other to affect the tendency of nnss to understand expressions such as these, or to accept them as meaningful. firstly there is the issue of transfer. kellerman (1987) found that language learners tend to be suspicious of creative figurative uses of the target language in general. he also found that a student’s tendency to accept idiomatic expressions in the target language as meaningful is influenced by whether or not those expressions exist in their the relationship between conceptual metaphors ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-44 29 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 29 own language. in his study, beginning and advanced learners were likely to accept the possibility that an idiom existing in their own language might also exist in the target language, whereas intermediate learners tended to be much more suspicious of these expressions. secondly, it is important to consider differences between the ns and nns lexicon (e.g. verspoor, 2008). it has been shown that a particularly strong form-meaning association in the mental lexicon will make it less likely for that form to have another meaning (tomasello, 2003). infants learning their first language are sensitive to this. for example, if a child had learned that “run over” meant “being knocked down by a car” and repeatedly used it with this sense, he/she might be less likely to accept the verb as seemingly applying to a very different domain: as a meaningful way of talking about reviewing or explaining homework. thirdly, there is the issue of semantic transparency. if it is easy for a learner to use the senses of an expression’s constituent parts to get to its overall meaning, then they may be more likely to identify its meaning (littlemore & low, 2006). fourthly, all the verbs that we studied are figurative extensions of “manner of movement” verbs. talmy (2000) categorises languages into two types, in terms of the way in which they habitually construe movement. according to talmy, in “satellite-framed” languages (such as english), manner of movement is habitually expressed within the verb, and the direction of movement is expressed through a preposition, as in “to dash in”, “to slip out”, “to creep up”, and “to eat away”. we usually understand (or “parse”) sentences by focussing first and foremost on the verb, and then by working out how the rest of the sentence relates to the verb (rost, 2002). the verb is thus the key constituent of a sentence, and any information contained within the verb can be considered paramount. as manner of movement is expressed within the verb in english, it occupies a central role in the message. in “verb-framed” languages (such as spanish), only the actual direction of movement is expressed in the verb, and the manner of movement is expressed as a nonfinite verb as in entró en la casa corriendo (“he entered the house running”); and salí corriendo a la calle (“i exited running into the street”). the focus in verbframed languages is thus very much on the direction of movement, rather than the manner. the potential challenges that such variation presents to language learners are highlighted by slobin (2000). slobin’s research has led him to suggest that speaking a satellite-framed language predisposes a speaker to cognitively encode motion events in a different way from speakers of verbframed languages. as some of the nnss in our study were speakers of verbframed languages, they may have found it particularly difficult to work out the g. low & j. littlemore ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-4430 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 30 meaning of the expressions, particularly those with a strong physical element, such as “run” and “skate”. the interaction of these four factors was useful in helping us to interpret the results from our study. in order to deepen our interpretations, we checked the responses of participants against the spoken english section of the bank of english, which we used as a benchmark assessment of general native speaker usage. method instrumentation a short questionnaire was constructed involving background information questions, reactions to phrasal verbs and reactions to derived noun phrases (see appendix 1). the phrases all involved (or derived from) the motion verbs “go”, “run”, “pass” and “skate”, plus the particles “over” and “through”; those hypothesised as acceptable were taken from the oxford advanced learners dictionary and the cobuild advanced learners dictionary (both corpus-based). none of the phrases were marked as regional variants. to avoid cognitive overload, the number of judgments of similar items was kept below 25, in line with the findings in low (1995); thus there were 16 utterances with phrasal verbs and 4 with derived nominals. items were organised into five question sets, each with four items. the order of “go”, “run”, “pass” and “skate” was varied across the five question sets in order to avoid sequence effects. it is hard to write instructions that are unambiguous for ns and upper-intermediate nns at the same time when it comes to giving the focus and scope of judgements of acceptability. the intention in this case was that negative judgements could be made on semantic or syntactic grounds (or both), so it was decided to ask whether invented utterances were “normal english” with the rating scale values set as “ok” and “not ok”. the primary intention was not to ask whether a phrase was relatively common, though clearly semantic or grammatical unacceptability would imply that something was not common. it was also decided for the sake of simplicity to omit scales or boxes for uncertainty, even though this information would have been helpful. the questionnaire was pre-piloted on two nns graduate students at birmingham and then on one at york (the latter being close to ns level); changes were made after each piloting phase to the rubric, the layout and the background questions. the relationship between conceptual metaphors ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-44 31 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 31 delivery and data preparation the questionnaire was piloted and delivered as a web-based survey from the university of york, with the responses collected initially on an excel spreadsheet. the responses were checked for spelling (e.g. of l1s), and several of the test-related background questions were collapsed into a fourpoint english proficiency variable: 4 = native speaker (self-categorised); 3 = ielts 7+; 2= ielts 7; 1 = ielts 6.5. in the event, only one respondent fell into category 2, so categories 2 and 3 were conflated. the result was 37 ns, 17 ielts 7/7+ and 20 ielts 6.5. at this point, the data were saved as an spss file. sample the students on language-based masters courses at the universities of york (n=62) and birmingham (n=296) were emailed and invited to participate in the study. of these, 90 completed the proforma: 26 from york and 64 from birmingham. it was not possible to establish the language proficiency status of 16 of the participants, so the data used for analysis here derives primarily from a sample of 74 (37 ns and 37 nns). the ns sample was overwhelmingly from birmingham, with just one from york. they were a mixture of british and north american nationals. the nns sample of 37 consisted primarily of chinese speakers (see table 1): nationality no. of students a check of the comments at the end showed that while some students did experience confusion or perplexity at times, there was no evidence of hostility or a refusal to answer appropriately; no further scripts were therefore excluded from the sample. g. low & j. littlemore ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-4432 nationality no. of students chinese 22 indonesian/malay 3 korean 3 greek 2 japanese 2 persian/farsi 2 other 3 total 37 table 1. nns sample. 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 32 results the likelihood of using the target language for classroom management almost all respondents (93%) had used, or intended to use, english for classroom management, and intention to use english did not vary markedly with either english proficiency level or years of teaching. responses to the 5 question sets native versus non-native speaker differences each of the 20 items was examined separately using a 2x2 contingency table. fisher’s exact test was used, as seven cells had low expected frequency counts (mcdonald, 2008: 68). four items reached significance p<.05 (two-tailed): q1a acceptability of “pass through chapter 4” all ns felt “pass through” was not acceptable; 9 (24%) nns felt it was. q1d acceptability of “run through chapter 4” all ns felt “run through” was acceptable; 10 nns (27%) felt it was not. q5a acceptability of “i want a short run through (the play)” all ns felt “a run through” was acceptable; 13 nns (36%) did not. q5b acceptability of “i want a short run over (the play)” all but 2 ns felt “a run over” was not acceptable; 16 nns (43%) felt it was. this would appear at first sight to be a reasonably encouraging finding; the non-native speakers were not diverging wildly, at a general level, from the native speakers. all four cases of a significant difference between the two groups involved phrases where the ns were in almost total agreement. thus, for example, the ns all rejected “pass through chapter 4”, a finding which is in broad agreement with bank of english spoken data. in the bank of english, the expression “pass through” occurred thirty times, but none of the usages were of the type in the example above. they were mainly to do the relationship between conceptual metaphors ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-44 33 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 33 with physically “passing through” doorways and places, as exemplified in the expression: “around fifteen million people will pass through the bullring”. the nnss were significantly less tolerant than the ns of “run through” as both noun and verb, but significantly more tolerant of the noun phrase “a run over”. the reasons are unclear, but one factor may well have been unfamiliarity with, and thus uncertainty about, “run” as a noun; there was thus an almost equal chance of nns guessing this item to be “acceptable” or “unacceptable”. besides the significant differences between the two groups on these four items, there was a considerable amount of variation within the two groups, which is worth exploring in more detail. it is to this variation that we now turn. variation within the native speaker reactions • to skate through/over in the open section for comments, several canadian ns said they had never come across “skate over” as a figurative / class management term. typical concerns were: i find your selections very odd as, for the most part, in canada, we only use “go over” and a “run through” (...) generally, i would say we use 1/4 of your expressions...the expressions with “shall” are extremely awkward (…) we would more likely say “run through” i’m unfamiliar with the use of the verb “to skate” in these contexts. perhaps it’s british usage? being canadian, i’m not sure if “run over” and “skate over” are br. english expressions or not. they sound strange to me. i would say “run through” and have never heard “skate over” or “skate through”. it is possible that “skate over” is a purely uk term –though neither the cobuild advanced learners dictionary nor the oxford aldc gives any indication of regional use. interestingly, “skate through” did not occur in the bank of english. in fact there were only four instances of “skate” including one “skate over”, all of which were in the british english section of the corpus: (i) the way that they did. well i’ll skate over some complexities in sen’s (ii) pond. <m01> oh. <m02> we kids used to skate on there. <tc text=laughs> g. low & j. littlemore ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-4434 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 34 (iii) means and these days you tend to skate <tc text=pause> talking about it in (iv) you know i mean l+ i feel i perhaps skate around more than just coming out however, despite these concerns, all but one ns felt “skate over” meant “ignore” (q2c) and, in line with this, all but one (a different person) felt you could not say “skate over x in detail” (q4a). we ourselves were uncertain about whether “skate through” (q1c) could be used acceptably, to mean “deal very rapidly with” and this would appear to be mirrored by the ns reactions (13 ok; 24 not ok). “skate rapidly over x” (q3d) posed a similar problem, since, if you find it acceptable you must change the sense of “skate over” from “ignore” to “deal briefly with”. the ns respondents showed the same split as with q1c (13 ok; 24 not ok) –with 66% of them having the same reaction to both items. • to go over/through our expectation was that these two verbs would show few differences of opinion between the ns. thus everyone agreed that “go through chapter 4” was acceptable, as was “go over homework in detail”. however, somewhat surprisingly, 11 ns felt “go over” was not an unmarked verb and so could not be used to mark the opposite: “go rapidly over your homework”. curiously, two ns felt “go over your homework” did not by default suggest a detailed discussion, but rather meant “deal with briefly/ignore”. • to pass over/through all the ns rejected “pass through chapter 4” (q1a), all but one felt “pass over” meant “ignore” (q2b) and all but 2 felt you could not say “pass over in detail” (q4b). however, as many as 23 (31%) felt you could not say “pass rapidly over”. the reason why is unclear. as a similar situation occurred with “skate over” (q3d), it may be an artefact of the questionnaire, or perhaps a uk use of the adverb (at times with hyperbolic or slightly ironic design). • to run over /through all the ns accepted “run through”, but beyond this, the results were quite mixed. nine ns felt “run over your homework” (q2a) meant “ignore” it, 14 felt you could not say “run rapidly over your homework” (q3c) and 14 felt it was acceptable to say “run in detail over” (q4d). it is very hard to explain these results; it is not as if the same c. 10 people had a coherent but different the relationship between conceptual metaphors ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-44 35 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 35 mental model of “run” – only 4 of the people concerned agreed between q2a and q3c, only 3 between q2a and q4d, and there were no agreements between q2a and q4d. if the comments above are right, and “run over a text/task” is not used in canadian english, then the variation would represent guesswork and an acquiescence effect of trying to help a uk questioner. interestingly, cobuild does not list “run over” with the sense of “list”, “discuss” or “explain”, just that of crashing into (e.g.) a dog, and the us spoken subcorpus of the bank of english lists just one example of “run over” in the sense of examine: the — <x01> you wouldn’t want to just run over the rules just for something • the nouns “run” and “go” all the ns accepted “a run through” (q5a) and 35 (95%) rejected “a short run over” (q5b), but interestingly, 19 also accepted “a short go through” (q5c) and 12 “a short go over” (q5d). these usages sounded marked to both of us, and we found no instances of them in the bank of english. we therefore asked five ns informants resident in birmingham what they thought of them. responses were varied, but in general the informants found them somewhat acceptable, if slightly marked. “a short go through” was deemed slightly more acceptable than “a short go over”, in line with the responses of our participants, and younger informants tended to be more accepting of them than older ones. we can tentatively conclude therefore that the tendency of the participants in our study to accept these expressions as relatively unmarked was either due to the fact that they had been living abroad for a number of years (an idea that we develop further in the discussion below) or that there is a generational bias in our study (the participants in the study were, on average, 20 years younger than the authors). the usages may have recently entered the english language, and may not yet have been picked up by the bank of english. • ns conclusions we had expected the ns reactions to be highly predictable, in almost all cases. the variation we found was considerably more than we expected and in some cases was difficult to explain. how far responses were affected by the use of a questionnaire format, or the decision to use “i shall” rather than an ambiguous contracted “i’ll”, are unclear. g. low & j. littlemore ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-4436 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 36 variation within the non-native speaker reactions • verbs with “through” all but one nns accepted “go through”, but 10 rejected “run through”, even though they were highly likely to have heard it repeatedly used by their lecturers over the previous six months. we comment further on this below. 32 students rejected “skate through”, but only 27 rejected “pass through”. if we look at the 9 who accepted “pass through”, all accepted “go through”, 7 accepted “run through” and 7 rejected “skate through”. the sample is too small to establish a pattern, but we might suggest that “pass” was interpreted as roughly similar semantically to “go”, and “pass through” was thus seen by analogy as a plausible english phrase. • verbs with “over” the reactions to q2 (verb + “over”) and q4 (verb + “over” + “in detail”) were mostly in line with the anticipated correct answers. thus, of the 37 respondents to q2, 34 felt “pass over” meant ignore, 33 felt “skate over” meant ignore and 35 felt “go over” meant cover. views were more divided (or respondents were more uncertain) about “run over”, with 24 saying “cover” and 13 saying “briefly cover/ignore”. the ratings for q4 (verb + “over” + “in detail”) were mostly consistent with those for q2. thus 31 people felt “skate over in detail” was unacceptable, as did 32 people for “pass over”. similarly 36 rated “go over in detail” as acceptable. opinions were again divided about “run + over + in detail” (15 said “ok”). in q3, opinions were much more evenly divided on the acceptability of verb + “rapidly” + “over”, even where the verb (“run” or “skate”) inherently had the idea of speed. in one case there may have been a halo effect. the verb “go” occurred consecutively in q2d and q3a, so if you felt “go” + “over” meant “covered the topic”, you might be more inclined to think “go” + “rapidly” + “over” would not be acceptable. the mixed reactions to the three “run” + “over” items (q2a, q3c, q4d) are worth examining in a little more detail. three people (all ielts 7) rejected all three; indeed, they also rejected “run” + “through” (q1d), so for them the verb “run” simply did not have the figurative sense of mention or discuss. the other 34 accepted at least one of the “run over”s. indeed, 10 accepted both the modified phrases, so for them “run over” could (like “go”) take on different qualities depending on the modifier. the relationship between conceptual metaphors ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-44 37 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 37 one might have expected the 20 people who accepted “run rapidly over” to represent most of the 22 who rejected “run in detail over”, but this was not the case; only 11 people (i.e. about half) felt the two were mutually exclusive. there may be a semantic explanation for the nns’s greater variation/ uncertainty with respect to “run over”. we noted earlier tomasello’s (2003) finding that strong form-meaning associations can reduce an l1 learner’s willingness to accept a new meaning for a phrase. the results in this study may indicate that this can also be the case for l2 learners. the common physical sense of “run over a person/animal”, which we assume all the nns respondents knew, might have stopped some from accepting “run over items in a text”. more research would be required, however, to test whether our interpretation here is correct. • the nouns “run” and “go” two thirds (65%) of the nns respondents identified “a run through” as acceptable. opinion was divided fairly evenly with respect to “a run over”, “a go through” and “a go over”, with 17 (46%) accepting “a go through” and “a go over”. the high level of acceptance of these usages can be attributed in part to the high proportion of south east asian respondents in the sample, whose l1s do not distinguish finite and non-finite verb forms. we thus assume decisions were largely made on semantic grounds. however, it seems unlikely that there was a semantic transfer from previous acceptability decisions about the verbs “run” and “go”, as we would then have expected “a go through” to have been more, not less, acceptable than “a run through”. given the small size of the sample, the variation may, as we noted earlier, simply reflect widespread nns uncertainty about the use of “run” and “go” in noun phrases. nns conclusions on the whole, the nns may have been guessing at times, but at a general level the group was not phased by the similarity of verbs of movement and correctly established where the meaning of the phrasal verb flipped from “cover carefully” to “ignore”. reactions to “run” were mixed and for a small group of ielts 7 students, it had no sense of discuss at all. a third of the group were also unaware of the derived noun “run through”. reactions to “rapidly” were also mixed, and about half the nns group seemed to have difficulty establishing that all four verbs could be modified to imply (or highlight) a less thorough discussion. having said that, the group as a whole g. low & j. littlemore ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-4438 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 38 seemed to accept “pass” + “rapidly” + “over” more often (22 (60%)) than the native speakers, of whom 23 (62%), for some reason, rejected it. discussion in this study, we have made two main findings. the first is that, with the exception of the four cases listed above, there was in general little significant disagreement between the nss and the nns populations. this statistical similarity is, however, somewhat illusory partly because of the small sample, but more importantly due to the second finding. the second finding is that there was a substantial amount of variation within both groups. we expected a reasonable degree of variation between nonnative speakers, if only because several would be uncertain about the acceptability or meaning of particular phrases, especially if they had not been exposed to them in the recent past. however, the extent of variation in the native speakers was much more surprising, and is an indication of the fact that one must be very wary of talking in terms of “native speaker norms” when conducting this type of study. part of the variation seems due to differences between canadian and british english. the dictionaries consulted at the start of the study had not suggested differences with respect to “skate” or “run over”, but the question of regional variation in “inner circle” vocabulary for classroom management language is important, at the very least with respect to training practices, arguing perhaps for different strategies for training students studying in english-speaking countries and students intending to teach in non-english speaking countries. another part of the variation between the native speakers can probably be attributed to the fact that many of the ns had been abroad, in non-englishspeaking countries, for up to ten years. living abroad and regularly speaking a second or third language can have a significant impact on one’s use of the l1. it has been discovered that speaking a second or third language can make quite a large impression on the way in which we speak our first language (cook et al., 2003). research in this area, which is sometimes referred to as “reverse” or “backward” transfer tends to emphasise the notion of “multicompetence”, or knowledge of two or more languages in one mind (cook, 1992). jarvis (2003) presents a case where the acquisition of a second language led to an extended repertoire in the l1. in other words, while the the relationship between conceptual metaphors ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-44 39 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 39 speaker was still able to use l1 rules, he was also able to import l2 rules, structures and meanings into the first language. so the ability to speak another language may have made some of the participants in this study more likely to find meaning in the expressions studied than their monolingual counterparts. another factor that may explain this variation relates to the participants’ tolerance of ambiguity (ely, 1986). research has shown that people vary in terms of what they are likely to accept as meaningful and that some people are more tolerant than others. the tendency among the ns to treat the noun phrases with “go” as acceptable may have been due to l2 influence, combined with the fact that they had been living abroad, or, as we noted above, it may reflect a genuine change in the english language. as for the nnss, the reasons for the variation in their responses are likely to be slightly different. tolerance of ambiguity will be one factor, but another equally important factor is likely to be the different levels and types of exposure that they have had to the target language. also, as we mentioned above, the native language of the participants is also likely to have been a contributing factor (the nnss in this study had nine different native languages). basically, this finding emphasises the huge differences in terms of target language knowledge that can exist in the minds of learners who are, on the face of it, roughly similar in terms of proficiency. this leaves our conclusions about what started out as the main focus of the study; whether nns would be tempted to treat all verbs of movement as roughly equivalent members of a single doing a task is travelling metaphor. it has to be said that, for the most part, they managed to distinguish correctly (in terms of our original expectations of correctness) between metaphors for doing things (“run through/run over things”) and metaphors for avoiding or not doing them (“skate over things”) and that they were thus able to display some sensitivity to the more subtle shades of meaning. to sum up, this small study has been no more than an exploratory probe, but there are nevertheless several important research and pedagogical implications. the first is that more research is needed into regional variation in metaphoric (and possibly non-figurative) classroom management language, and the results need to be fed back into key commercial reference materials. the second implication is that, to the extent that the sample of 37 is at all representative of nns on uk masters courses, many nns coming to the uk need training in the precise meaning of the phrases they will hear g. low & j. littlemore ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-4440 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 40 their lecturers use. ideally, this training would take place long before the students come to britain, but equally, it is something that university presessional courses might take more account of. the third implication is that tefl teacher trainers in the uk need to take a position on the scope of what they teach, as they cannot assume classroom phrases common in the uk will be equally common abroad. lastly, it tends to be assumed that ns of english coming to study in the uk will have no problems understanding the classroom management language they hear – but the respondents’ comments make it abundantly clear that this is not the case, so a degree of training and discussion might help ns learners too. acknowledgements our thanks to margaret hearnden for reading and commenting on the draft of the paper. (revised paper received november 2008) references the relationship between conceptual metaphors ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-44 41 cook, v.j. (1992). “evidence for multicompetence”. language learning 42: 557-591. cook, v.j. (ed.) (2003). second language acquisition, 3: effects of the second language on the first. clevedon: multilingual matters. cook, v.j., e. iarossi, n. stellakis & y. tokumaru (2003). “effects of the l2 on the syntactic processing of the l1” in v.j. cook (ed.), 193-213. deignan, a. (2005). metaphor and corpus linguistics. amsterdam & philadelphia: john benjamins. deignan, a., d. gabrys & a. solska (1997). “teaching english metaphors using cross-linguistic awareness-raising activities”. english language teaching journal 51: 352-360. dudley-evans, a. & t. johns (1981). “a team-teaching approach to lecture comprehension” in the teaching of listening comprehension. elt documents special, 30-46. oxford: pergamon. ely, c. (1986). “an analysis of discomfort, risk-taking, sociability, and motivation in the l2 classroom”. language learning 36: 1-36. flowerdew, j. (1994). “research of relevance to second language lecture comprehension – an overview” in j. flowerdew (ed.), 7-29. flowerdew, j. (ed.) (1994). academic listening: research perspectives. cambridge: cambridge university press. jarvis, s. (2003). “probing the effects of the l2 on the l1: a case study” in v.j. cook (ed.), 81-102. jenkins, j. (2003). “current perspectives on teaching english as a world language and english as a lingua franca”. tesol quarterly 40: 157-181. kellerman, e. (1987). “an eye for an eye” in e. kellerman (ed.), aspects of transferability in second language acquisition. a selection of related papers, 154-177. published phd dissertation, nijmegen: university of nijmegen press. king, p. (1994). “visual and verbal messages in the engineering lecture: note-taking by postgraduate l2 students” in j. flowerdew (ed.), 219-238. li, f.t. (2002). the acquisition of metaphorical expressions, idioms, and proverbs by chinese learners of english: a conceptual metaphor and image 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 41 dr. graham low is senior lecturer in second language education in the department of educational studies at the university of york. his research interests include the uses of metaphor in various types of discourse and the teaching of figurative language to second language learners. dr. jeannette littlemore is a senior lecturer in tefl and applied linguistics in the centre for english language studies at the university of birmingham. her research interests include the teaching and learning of figurative language and applications of cognitive linguistics to second language learning and teaching. g. low & j. littlemore ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-4442 schema-based approach. phd thesis, chinese university of hong kong. littlemore, j., barnden, j., chen, p. & koester, a. (in progress). “is metaphor really a problem? a follow-up study of the extent to which metaphor constitutes a problem for international students attending a british university”. littlemore, j. (2001). “metaphor as a source of misunderstanding for overseas students in academic lectures.” teaching in higher education 6: 333-351. littlemore, j. & g.d. low (2006). figurative thinking and foreign language learning. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. low, g.d. (1995). answerability in attitude measurement questionnaires: an applied linguistic study of reactions to ‘statement plus rating’ pairs. phd dissertation, university of york, uk. low, g.d. (2008). “metaphor in education” in r. gibbs (ed.), the cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought, 212231. cambridge: cambridge university press. lynch, t. (1994). “training lecturers for international audiences” in j. flowerdew (ed.), 269-289. mcdonald, j.h. (2008). handbook of biological statistics. baltimore, ma: sparky house publishing. richards, j. t. & rodgers (2001). approaches and methods in language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. rost, m. (2002). teaching and researching listening. harlow: longman. slobin, d.i. (2000). “verbalized events. a dynamic approach to linguistic relativity and determinism” in s. niemeier & r. dirven (eds.), evidence for linguistic relativity, 108-138. amsterdam & philadelphia: john benjamins. talmy, l. (2000). toward a cognitive semantics. vol. ii typology and process in concept structuring. cambridge mass: mit press. tauroza, s. (1998). “ensuring quality in quantitative studies of l2 listening comprehension: a review of research on how l2 learners unpackage the text of lectures” in d. allison, l. wee, b. zhiming & s.a. abraham (eds.), text in education and society, 126-137. singapore: singapore university press. tomasello, m. (2003). constructing a language. a usagebased theory of language acquisition. cambridge, mass: harvard university press. verspoor, m.h. (2008). “what bilingual word associations can tell us” in f. boers & s. lindstromberg (eds.), cognitive linguistic approaches to teaching vocabulary and phraseology, 261-290. berlin: mouton de gruyter. 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 42 appendix 1: extract from on-line questionnaire the relationship between conceptual metaphors ibérica 17 [2009]: 25-44 43 b. your reactions to the language 1. which of these expressions with “through” are/aren't normal english? a. i’m going to run through chapter 4 with you. ok not ok b. i’m going to go through chapter 4 with you. ok not ok c. i’m going to pass through chapter 4 with you. ok not ok d. i’m going to slide through chapter 4 with you. ok not ok e. i’m going to skate through chapter 4 with you. ok not ok 2. which of these expressions with “over” are/aren't normal english? a. i'm going to run over the new instructions. ok not ok b. i’m going to go over the new instructions. ok not ok c. i’m going to pass over the new instructions. ok not ok d. i’m going to gloss over the new instructions. ok not ok e. i’ll going to skate over the new instructions. ok not ok 3. which of the following mean “explain/cover” and which mean “not cover in detail”? a. i want to run over your homework cover not cover b. i want to pass over your homework cover not cover c. i want to skate over your homework cover not cover d. i want to gloss over your homework cover not cover e. i want to go over your homework cover not cover 4. to which statements could you add in the word “rapidly”? a. i want to run over your homework can add can’t add b. i want to pass over your homework can add can’t add c. i want to skate over your homework can add can’t add d. i want to gloss over your homework can add can’t add e. i want to go over your homework can add can’t add 5. to which could you add “in detail”? a. i want to run over your homework can add can’t add b. i want to pass over your homework can add can’t add c. i want to skate over your homework can add can’t add d. i want to gloss over your homework can add can’t add e. i want to go over your homework can add can’t add 6. which statement can a drama teacher say about a play rehearsal? a. i want a short run through after school ok not ok b. i want a short run over after school ok not ok c. i want a short go through after school ok not ok d. i want a short go over after school ok not ok 7. if you want to comment on any of your answers, please write in the box below: 03 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 30/03/09 8:12 página 43 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 129-138 issn 1139-7241 abstract in this paper i share some more personal views on language learning and teaching in higher education in germany to see how languages for specific purposes (lsp) has fared there in my experience over the years, to comment on some over-exposed versus neglected issues in our field, and hoping that these more personal observations may trigger off some reactions and reflections by readers on their own backgrounds and situations. keywords: languages for specific purposes, higher education in germany, language learning and teaching. resumen 20 años de aelfe: lfe y enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas en la educación superior. algunas reflexiones personales desde alemania en este artículo comparto varios puntos de vista personales sobre la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de lenguas en el contexto de la educación superior en alemania con el fin de comprobar, desde mi experiencia, el rumbo que han tomado las lenguas para fines específicos (lfe) con el paso de los años y estudiar algunas cuestiones que han atraído un número mayor de estudios, y aquellas que han quedado un tanto relegadas; todo ello con la esperanza de que estos comentarios más personales puedan llevar a los lectores a reflexionar y contrastar ideas tomando como base sus antecedentes y su situación. palabras clave: lenguas para fines específicos, educación superior en alemania, enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas. 20 years of aelfe: lsp, and language learning and teaching in higher education some personal reflections from germany bernd voss technische universität dresden (germany) bernd.voss@mailbox.tu-dresden.de 129 ibérica 24 (2012): 129-138 bernd voss over the last 20 years aelfe has developed into a major agent in the field of lsp encouraging research, disseminating its results and influencing and supporting appropriate classroom practice. it has been my privilege to be associated with ibérica, the journal of aelfe, since its inception, and it has been interesting for me to see it reflect the growing specialisation and professionalisation of the field. now, after some years in retirement, i am aware that developments are taking place which i am no longer quite so closely involved (and familiar) with. so for a contribution to a celebratory issue of the journal i feel it would not be appropriate for me to attempt to provide a survey of “the” important past developments and future needs. however, it may still be interesting to share some more personal views on a more limited and particular field, that is language learning and teaching in higher education in germany, to see how lsp has fared there in my experience over the years, to comment on some over-exposed versus neglected issues in our field, and hoping that these more personal observations may trigger off some reactions and reflections by readers on their own backgrounds and situations. as already suggested, enormous progress has been made over the years in developing a more differentiated view of what the idea of languages for special purposes would or should imply. we have come to realise that a closer analysis of the nature of lsp would at least imply a closer look at the language of a particular academic discipline, at language for academic purposes generally, and at the language needed to perform in a profession based on an academic education. each of these have been the focus of enquiries and research, and apart from producing many valuable insights and data the results also tend to underline the truism that only on the basis of advanced, differentiated, challenging contents is it necessary and possible to develop an advanced, differentiated language command. so the analytic side of lsp looks like being well taken care of. however, while the scope of enquiry and research in lsp is boundless in theory – any language, any subject specialisation could be a potential field of attention and effort here –, in practice the vast majority of activities tends to focus on english as a language, and on economics/business as a content area, with technology, law and medicine as remote also-rans. this invites two comments. while the current focus on english is obvious given its current dominant position as an international language, it would be very shortsighted to forget that for future career purposes students may have other, or at least additional, language learning needs. even in firms where english is 130 the corporate language, but of course especially in small or medium-sized companies any professional career trying to take advantage of the opportunities of the markets of the european union (eu) would need the support of an appropriate professional command of any of its major languages, and looking further afield would seem to show that doing business, say, in russia or in china would profit from being able to explain, demonstrate, argue, but also to lead and monitor activities in russian or chinese. in fact, as an anglicist myself i may be allowed to suggest that the current over-emphasis on english, in germany, to have all secondary schools start with english, to push english into primary education, to have more and more kindergardens introduce english programmes, and at the other end to see that well over half of language teaching at universities is still devoted to english, results in a linguistic mono-culture which we would do well to see with a critical distance1. in the 40 years of my own language teaching career i have seen english shift from one of the major language amongst others, to “the” dominant language squeezing other languages out of educational interest in the process, and i could easily foresee the external circumstances instrumental in bringing this shift about to change quite naturally again moving english into a different role, if not back to its previous position, and giving prominence to another language or languages. perhaps even in less than another 40 years. in a similar vein, the ubiquitous focus on economics/business as the dominant content area in lsp, no doubt reflecting current market forces and demands, tends to blur the fact that there are many other fields where languages are used for their own, different “special purposes”, and where more efforts in research, in quest of knowledge but also as the basis for appropriate language teaching would be appreciated. in fact, all academic disciplines have their own ways of using language, and the same applies to the professions based on them. in this context, it is curious to observe that the humanities in general and the philologies in particular often seem to be like blind spots, as if for them the notion of lsp could not possibly apply. this would be a deplorable error. to illustrate from an example of professional language use here, many students of the philologies go into language teaching, and as a teacher trainer i have often observed that students even with a reasonable general command of the target language have great difficulties in coping with the linguistic challenges of conducting classroom business in a foreign language, to negotiate meaning with their learners, that is to modify their language to take their learners from where 20 years of aelfe ibérica 24 (2012): 129-138 131 they are, to correct and criticise, but also to encourage their learners, etc. these are teaching skills, no doubt, but depend to a large extent on a language command suitable for this “special purpose”. however, not much information is available, nor has much research been done, on the language of the foreign language classroom or the teacher’s language within it, and while there are nowadays many courses for business students – for example on business negotiations in a foreign language – courses for future teachers with a focus on their own professional language are rare to non-existent2 although most language teachers are non-native speakers of the language they are teaching. looking more generally at languages in higher education, the impression is that the potentially infinite variety of personal language learning interests by students is often matched by a remarkable degree of institutional uncertainty as to what should be offered. one may do well to remember here that needs analyses starting off from the communication contexts which students must be able to deal with and which therefore their language course programmes should prepare them for, make it possible to reduce the natural complexity of individual language use to three prototypical communication contexts for our students. as is well known, one of these is the “specialist-to-specialist” communication context: students need to be able to access the academic literature written in their field of study, to formulate research questions and results, to participate receptively and productively in the academic discourse of their specialisation (for instance when studying abroad), and also to be able to engage in specialised communication when working in their professions in the medium of another language with colleagues in or from another country (for instance, when an engineer talks to an engineer about a construction project in a different part of the world, on a work placement, or job posting). there is also, however, the “specialist-to-layman” communication context: in all professions based on an academic qualification is it necessary also to be able to communicate to the non-specialist what is planned, what could, would or should be done, etc. typical examples would be doctor-patient, lawyer-client, teacher-parent, engineer-town councillor, architect-customer communication; and also, vice versa, professionals need to be able to understand the interests, needs and wants of the lay public even if their descriptions are vague and do not use the specialised terminology of the field. and then there is, of course, the context of “everyday life”, including the observance of socially acceptable behaviour patterns. this bernd voss ibérica 24 (2012): 129-138132 communication context is particularly relevant for students, for example when on work placement or for a study period abroad, but of course also generally in private contacts with foreign colleagues here or when working abroad. an attempt to survey inhowfar these communication contexts are covered in language programmes would tend to show that only the first of these is usually seen as the proper field of lsp. here, it is true, much progress has been made for instance to realise that it is more than just a question of a list of specialised vocabulary items, and it is good to see that more or less extensive efforts are often being made to help students acquire the appropriate language skills. the second, “specialist-to-layman” context, however, has attracted much less interest and attention, and there is usually little systematic provision of appropriate language learning opportunities here. even in the frequent “business negotiation” courses the (imagined) partner more often than not is another person also with a business background, not a customer or other layman to whom, say, the implications of an intended business transaction would have to be made comprehensible. as for the third, “everyday life” context, there is obviously a lot of overlap with general language learning, but it should not be overlooked that the learning needs for our clientele are much more strongly focused on academic and professional work contexts and intercultural specifics characteristic of these social contexts, rather than, say, on general tourist information. there is more specificity here than is apparent at first sight, and it is a pity that this area is often considered as sufficiently covered in general language courses and therefore not given the focus it deserves. one can see that departments, units or centres responsible for the language teaching of a university do not (and perhaps cannot) provide language courses covering all of these contexts to the same degree of detail and intensity, nor would there probably be enough room for it all in the study course programmes of the students. however, it would be highly desirable if there was some clear notion of what can be done or what is intended, so as to show what the explicit profile of the language teaching programme was meant to be. this is by no means always the case, and it is not rare to find constellations where programme planning does not go much beyond the scope of an individual course, with a fairly random focus on any of these contexts. what is underdeveloped, in my observation, is a sufficient awareness of the need for language programmes in higher education to be clearly university20 years of aelfe ibérica 24 (2012): 129-138 133 specific – that is, different from those in general adult education, both in content and delivery. if that was not the case, there would be no reason for such programmes to be offered at an institution of higher education, and not elsewhere. this specificity should be reflected in a content orientation towards the fields of study on offer at a particular university and in the resulting communication contexts as shown above. in addition, however, this specificity should also be reflected in the arrangements, implementation and organisation of such programmes. after all, learners in a university language programme are a special subgroup of all potential language learners, they come with a more than average level of general education and intelligence as evidenced by their university entry qualification, they have already learnt other languages before entering university (usually english and at least one other), they derive their motivation mainly from their field of study (and not from language learning), and they need to be very economical with their time. university-specific language programmes could and should therefore be characterised by steep learning curves, by cognitive support and recourse to previous language learning experience to enhance retention and memory, and by attractive innovative and creative (even experimental …) learning/teaching approaches such as task-based learning, e-learning, blended learning, learning platforms, group projects, simulations, case studies, tandem arrangements, ict-supported learning projects with partners from abroad etc., in other words approaches which do not just carry on with what learners have been accustomed to at school, but which make use of the extra opportunities a university context can offer, to enhance effectiveness but also, perhaps even more importantly, motivation. of course, the reality is often quite different. in germany, at any rate, there is a marked gap between the research side in lsp, on the one hand, and language learning and teaching for students, on the other. the research side is carried out by university departments as evidenced in the activities and publications of academic societies such as those for applied linguistics (gal)3, for research in foreign languages (dgff)4 or periodicals such as the international journal of specialised communication5, with strong international links to, for instance, aila6, aelfe7, and to many other organisations specialising on particular skills, languages or subjects. the teaching side, on the other hand, is mainly carried out by university language centres or similar teaching units, with tenuous connections to and influence on research. research in lsp tends to be pre-occupied with micro-analysis looking at facets of the nature of lsp in all kinds of contexts and for all kinds of bernd voss ibérica 24 (2012): 129-138134 purposes, with academic and professional language use one point of interest among many others, but the macro-level of foreign language learning and teaching programmes for students of the diverse disciplines of a university as described above seems to be of little special interest or concern as a serious research question8. organisations such as the german association of language centres (aks)9 with its unicert® framework and model10, or cercles11, its european equivalent, are making great efforts in trying to redress the balance, to bridge this gap and to help the personnel actually doing the language teaching to develop their professional backgrounds and skills, to look beyond the confines of an individual course, and to influence the research agenda. but it is an uphill struggle. the problem is exacerbated by the current tendency in university language centres to (have to) shed permanent full-time staff in exchange for a growing number of part-time or freelance teachers on shortterm contracts who do not have the time to become too closely involved, and where the decision-makers from outside the language centres often believe that anyone who is a native speaker of a language and/or an expert in a particular field would and should be able to teach the language concerned. we all know that this is a popular misconception, and it is a point of growing frustration for language teaching units to see that as a consequence they now need to keep investing an increasing amount of their time and energy into basic and extensive in-house teacher training rather than directly into teaching students, with the frustration resulting from the realisation that the efforts are often wasted on short-term effects owing to the frequent staff turnover generated by an administrative fear that teachers may sue for permanent employment if their services are used repeatedly and/or for any length of time. in such a context the question of being aware of or involved in lsp development or research is very remote and far on the horizon. but we are moving here into a discussion of the external conditions of teaching and research, and although this does have an enormous influence on what can be done, it is a different story and not our central issue here. the focus of our contribution here has been more on the conceptual side of lsp in the special context of language learning and teaching in higher education, in germany. we started off from a description of the nature of lsp, and then went on to consider which communication contexts our students might find themselves in and for which they would need to be prepared for their studies, their academic careers and/or their later 20 years of aelfe ibérica 24 (2012): 129-138 135 professional lives, what kind of teaching they should therefore be offered, which languages, content areas and perspectives are currently overor underrepresented, and which problems in the field are perhaps particularly acute in my own country. no doubt what i have presented is a personal, perhaps one-sided view of the situation, and i would in fact be very happy if readers were able to say that things were rather different in their own cases, backgrounds and contexts. i do believe though that the general picture is not too far off the mark. the specific setting of language learning and teaching in higher education, in content as well as in delivery, has still to be discovered here as a genuine and important area worthy and in need of more research and development than at present, and more ways need to be found to connect these processes with the activities of those who do the actual language teaching of (and not about) lsp. so there is still a lot to be done. but not to worry. the contributions of aelfe through its journal ibérica over the past years have been greatly appreciated and would certainly have deserved more prominence here. 20 years may seem like a long time, but they are not much in the eye of eternity – or the snail-pace of educational progress –, so there is every reason to look forward to more, positive, interesting and useful developments in the future, in which i am confident aelfe and ibérica will play an increasingly important role, perhaps in the course of time closing some of the gaps pinpointed above, and certainly generally raising the visibility of our field. may aelfe therefore continue its good works over the next 20 years to come, to become an even more prominent agent in the field of lsp, encouraging research, disseminating its results, and influencing and supporting appropriate classroom practice, for the benefit of all concerned. [paper received 23 february 2012] [revised paper accepted 29 may 2012] prof (em) dr bernd voss retired (in 2005) from technische universität dresden as a professor of english and (english) language teaching. he studied english and romance philology and worked as a teacher, lecturer, head of language centre and professor in various schools, colleges of education and universities in germany (paderborn, bielefeld, bayreuth, neubrandenburg, dresden) and the uk (edinburgh, strathclyde/glasgow, dundee). main interests: teacher training, languages in higher education. bernd voss ibérica 24 (2012): 129-138136 notes 1 this is also true for the higher education sector, and it is well worth noticing that a publication such as the journal international higher education (ihe) is routinely published in english, chinese, russian, and spanish, and not just in english only (for more detail see url: www.bc.edu/cihe). 2 this applies also to published course book material. a notable exception: glyn hughes et al. (2007). practical classroom english. oxford: oxford university press. 3 “gal” stands for gesellschaft für angewandte linguistik (“german society of applied linguistics”). for further details see url: www.gal-ev.de 4 “dgff” stands for deutsche gesellschaft für fremdsprachenforschung (“german society of research in foreign languages”). for more information see url: www.dgff.de 5 see url: www.fachsprache.net 6 “aila” stands for association internationale de linguistique appliquée (“international association of applied linguistics”). for further details see url: www.aila.info 7 “aelfe”, needless to say here, stands for asociación europea de lenguas para fines específicos (“european association of languages for special purposes”). for more information see url: www.aelfe.org 8 there are occasional studies on individual courses, but little on the arrangements and effect of complete programmes. by contrast, there is quite a range of studies e.g. on clil in schools. 9 “aks” stands for arbeitskreis der sprachenzentren, sprachlehrinstitute und fremdspracheninstitute (“association of language centres in higher education”). for further details see url: www.aks-web.de 10 see url: www.unicert-online.org 11 “cercles” stands for confédération européenne des centres de langues de l’enseignement supérieur (“european confederation of language centres in higher education”). see url: www.cercles.org 20 years of aelfe ibérica 24 (2012): 129-138 137 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract while vast research efforts have been directed to the identification of moves and their constituent steps in research articles (ra), less attention has been paid to the social negotiation of knowledge, in particular in the conclusion section of ras. in this paper, i examine the conclusion sections of ras in english and spanish, including ra conclusions written in english by spanish-background speakers in the field of applied linguistics. this study brings together two complementary frameworks, genre-based knowledge and evaluative stance, drawing on swales’s (1990, 2004) move analysis framework and on the engagement system in martin and white’s (2005) appraisal framework. the results indicate that the english l1 group negotiates a consistent space for readers to approve or disapprove the writers’ propositions. however, the spanish l1 group aligns with readers, using a limited space through contracting resources, which may be because this group addresses a smaller audience in comparison to the english l1 group which addresses an international readership. on the other hand, the english l2 group tends to move towards english rhetorical international practice, but without fully abandoning their spl1. these results contribute to gaining a better understanding of how successful scholarly writing in english is achieved, and offers important insights for teaching multilingual researchers. keywords: functional rhetoric moves, evaluative stances, specific rhetorical effects in english and spanish, multilingual writers, wider audience in english. dialogic spaces of knowledge construction in research article conclusion sections written by english l1, english l2 and spanish l1 writers elena sheldon university of technology sydney (australia) elena.sheldon@uts.edu.au 13 ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 elena sheldon resumen e s p ac io s d ia l óg ic o s e n l a c on s tru c c i ón d e c ono c i mie n to s d e l a s e c c ió n de l a c on c l us i ón e n ar tí c ul o s de in v e s ti g ac ión e s c r it os e n in g l é s l 1 , ing l é s l 2 y e n e s pa ño l l 1 si bien se han dirigido vastos esfuerzos de investigación a la identificación de los movimientos retóricos y sus pasos en artículos académicos, menos atención se ha puesto en la negociación social de conocimiento, en particular en la sección de la conclusión. en este artículo, examino la sección de la conclusión de artículos de investigación en inglés y español, incluyendo las conclusiones de investigaciones escritas en inglés tomando en cuenta distintos enfoques, el conocimiento basado en la teoría del género y el proceso de evaluación, basándome en el marco de análisis de movimientos retóricos propuesto por swales (1990, 2004) y en el sistema de compromiso propuesto por martin y white (2005) dentro del marco de la evaluación. los resultados indican que el grupo de inglés como primera lengua (l1) negocia un espacio consistente para que los lectores aprueben o desaprueben las propuestas de los escritores. sin embargo, el grupo de español l1 se alinea con los lectores, utilizando un espacio limitado a través de recursos de contracción, lo cual puede atribuirse a que este grupo se dirige a una audiencia más pequeña en comparación con el grupo inglés l1 que se dirige a lectores internacionales. por otro lado, el grupo de escritores en inglés como segunda lengua (l2) tiende a adecuarse a la práctica de retórica internacional del inglés, pero sin abandonar totalmente su español como primera lengua (l1). estos resultados contribuyen a lograr una mejor comprensión de cómo lograr una escritura académica en inglés y brindan un importante conocimiento a los profesores investigadores multilingües. palabras clave: movimientos retóricos funcionales, posturas evaluativas, efectos retóricos específicos en inglés y español, escritores multilingües, audiencia más amplia en inglés. 1. introduction in recent decades, numerous studies have paid attention to the research article (ra), which is undoubtedly “the principal site of knowledge-making” (hyland, 2009: 67) in academia globally. some studies have explored the textual organization of the four main sections of research articles (ras) in english: introduction, methodology, results and discussion [imrd] (brett, 1994; holmes, 2001; samraj, 2002; yang & allison, 2003). there has also been substantial interest in the ways writers negotiate and construct interactive relations through the functions of evaluative features in ras in 14 english (hunston & thompson, 2000; hyland, 2001, 2005). this interactive negotiation “locates participants’ relationships at the heart of academic writing, assuming that every successful text must display the writer’s awareness of both its readers and its consequences” (hyland, 2001: 549550). an important perspective of evaluation is the appraisal framework, which has been developed within the sfl paradigm (halliday, 1994; matthiessen, 1995), and which makes transparent the relationship of language choices to semantic functions, and accommodates the analysis of stance and how it is achieved linguistically. it stands apart from numerous other studies that have addressed evaluative features in discourse by focusing on hedging, intensification, evidentiality, attitude markers and voice as self-representation (salager-meyer, 1994; tang & john, 1999; hyland, 2005, to name a few). drawing on the engagement system in appraisal theory, chang and schleppegrell (2011) explored authorial stance connected with functional moves; and more recently, cheng and unsworth (2016) focussed on academic conflict in the discussion section of ras in applied linguistics. both studies have pedagogical implications for novice researchers. however, as english has become the global language for research and scholarship over the past decades, multilingual scholars are disadvantaged in that they have to compete for academic recognition in a language other than their own. thus, the mastering of such aspects of ras in english is essential. consequently, cross-cultural and multilingual studies have explored the dimension of evaluation, producing valuable findings. studies have compared ras in english and spanish in various disciplines in terms of attitude markers (mur-dueñas, 2010), modality (ferrari & gallardo, 2006) and engagement markers (mur-dueñas, 2009). others have explored hedging and boosters (mendiluce cabrera & hernández bartolomé, 2005), first-person markers (martín-martín, 2005; sheldon, 2009; burgess & martín-martín, 2010); author voice (lorés-sanz, 2011), stance (resinger, 2010), epistemic commitment, amplified attitude, self-mention and periphrastic expressions (perales-escudero & swales, 2011), citation (fortanet, 1997) and metadiscourse features (mur-dueñas, 2011). although these studies have demonstrated that texts are filled with rhetorical choices that carry evaluative stance contributing to the social negotiation of knowledge, they have focused “predominantly on identifying language choices at the level of grammar” (hood, 2010: 17), with the exception of the study by pérez-llantada (2011). dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 15 while the findings from such studies in english-language ras as well as contrastive studies in english and spanish have been especially beneficial for newcomers in helping them to meet the expectations of international scientific academia, few studies have explored the conclusion section independently (ciapuscio & otañi, 2002; williams, 2005). this section has been more generally conflated with the discussion section of ras, although the conclusion section offers specific information that typically is not included in the discussion section. in fact, in the conclusion section writers present their contributions as valid and/or offer new insights as well as provide “important elements, such as implications and recommendations” (amnuai & wannaruk, 2013: 54). the interpretation and justification of the results have been shown to be problematic for multilingual scholars, as they have to establish themselves as competent and credible members in their discipline (hyland, 2001, 2005; swales, 2004; mauranen at al., 2010). in light of the above, the present study aims to fill the gap in the literature. no studies have focused on evaluative resources across the moves of the conclusion section of ras in the field of applied linguistics, contrasting english and spanish and three groups of writers, native speakers of english (eng l1), native speakers of spanish writing in their own language (sp l1), and native speakers of spanish writing in english (eng l2). the present study combines genre-based knowledge and evaluative stance, drawing on the move analysis framework (swales, 1990, 2004), and on the engagement system in the appraisal framework (martin & white, 2005). the engagement system, as theorized within the appraisal framework, is found to complement move analysis, as it addresses text evaluation from a semantic perspective. although appraisal theory is concerned with three main evaluative systems, i.e. engagement, attitude and graduation, i focus on one aspect for closer examination, namely the engagement system. this is because the engagement system deals with the resources of inter-subjective positioning in the discourse community and examines the way in which writers include readers in their discussion. the combination of move analysis and the engagement system allows me to investigate how the conclusion section is rhetorically organized and how patterns of lexicogrammatical choices within moves and steps craft different types of authorial personae and ideal readerships in english and spanish. it is hypothesized that the analysis of the conclusion sections may enfold discursive peculiarities, which may be explained in terms of the potentially different conventions or traditional views of national culture as compared to elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): 13-4016 those of the “big culture” (atkinson, 2004; sheldon, 2011, 2018) of english as the dominant global language in academia. therefore, this study aims to provide multilingual scholars with a more comprehensive representation of evaluative stance in both english and spanish. in particular, the analysis aims to illuminate the ways in which writers and readers interact in a dialogue in ras and reveal whether evaluative realizations make meaning in similar or different ways in each language. the results of this study, therefore, have pedagogical implications for non-native speakers of english in the context of international publications. i ask three questions of my data to gain an understanding of l1 and l2 scholarly writing considering the multiple aspects of evaluation in ras: (i) what are the similarities and differences between the english l1, english l2 and spanish l1 conclusion sections of ras in terms of the taxonomy of the genre structure of moves and steps? (ii) what are the similarities and differences in the use of the evaluative stance in the identified rhetorical moves in the three sets of conclusion sections? (iii)are the english l2 conclusion sections influenced by the writers’ native or l1 (i.e. spanish) written academic culture? 2. methodology 2.1. corpus selection the corpora were selected from the field of applied linguistics, with thirty conclusion sections of ras, written in english and spanish, divided into three groups. the first group comprises ten ras written by native speakers of english, of which six are from the journal of english for specific purposes and four from tesol quarterly. the second group comprises ten ras written in spanish by native speakers, five from revista española de lingüistica aplicada (resla) and five from ibérica. the third group of ten ras was written by native spanish speakers in english, from ibérica, and six from resla. scholars from the first group have their home institutions in anglophone countries, while the spanish l1 conclusion sections were written by scholars working in spanish institutions. i selected only ras written by scholars from universities in spain, and so the corpus is limited to castilian spanish. this provides a homogeneity that not only facilitates the analysis but also makes dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 17 it more reliable, for example, by not having to account for linguistic differences with ras written by scholars in latin america. the third group of conclusion sections, english l2 texts, comprises articles by spanish authors who were educated at spanish universities, increasing the likelihood that they were writing in english as l2. however, it is possible that native speakers of english have edited the articles in the english l2 group. the english l1 corpus comprises 7,650 words with an average of 765 words per ra conclusion, which is longer than those in the spanish l1 corpus. the spanish l1 corpus comprises 6,950 words with an average of 695 words per ra conclusion, making the english l2 conclusions shorter than the english l1 and spanish l1 ones. the english l1 group corpus comprises 6,650 words with an average of 665 words per ra conclusion. although the audience (national vs. international) will vary, the three data sets are comparable in their main contextual features (field of study, text form, genre, mode, participants, peer review system), as recommended by moreno (2008). 2.2. analysis framework as noted in the introduction above, the present study analyses evaluative stance by drawing on the engagement system (martin & white, 2005), integrated with the framework of rhetorical moves (swales, 1990, 2004). according to the framework of rhetorical moves, the conclusion section consists of three moves: move 1 consolidation of results; move 2 limitations of the study; and move 3 further research suggested and their corresponding steps. the current study adopts the concepts of moves and steps in the coding procedures. a move is defined as a segment of text that performs a particular communicative purpose and that contributes to the overall communicative purpose of the text while a step is a smaller functional text that forms part of a move (sheldon, 2018). move 1 justifies the research in question through five steps: step 1: restating methodology (purposes, research questions, hypotheses restated, and procedures); step 2: stating selected findings; step 3: making overt claims or generalizations (deduction, speculation, and possibility); step 4: recommending; and step 5: exemplifying. move 2 is realized through three steps: step 1: limitations of the findings; step 2: limitation of the methodology; and step 3: limitations of the claims made. move 3, however, does not have any steps (see table 1 below). elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): 13-4018 because the application of move analysis has been hampered by the lack of objective ways of identifying of boundaries between moves, the study uses inter-coder reliability to demonstrate that a move can be identified with a high degree of accuracy by trained coders. three coders practised coding of the data before applying the coding scheme to the data in english and spanish, allowing them to develop a consistent approach. one of the three coders and myself demarcated each group of the conclusion section individually. this approach was followed by an evaluation where a coder and i together verified the labelling of move/steps to enhance the reliability and empirical validity of the analysis. i follow soler-monreal et al.’s (2011) criteria, which recognize that ninety percent of occurrences in each move are deemed obligatory, but if the move occurrences reach less than ninety per cent, it is deemed optional. in the examples below some words are marked in bold to show the coding of moves: engl1 (7) in this study, i set out to examine where writers (move 1 step 1) playfully depart from convention in the occluded rpt report genre as it is realized in this corpus. spl1 (18) en este trabajo h e mo s a na l iz a do l a f unc ió n e v al u at iv a ( m ov e 1 s te p 1 ) de las reseñas de libros en su vertiente positiva. hemos interpretado los resultados obtenidos desde una óptica sociopragmática, pues hemos considerado que esta perspectiva era necesaria dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 19 elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): …-… move 1: consolidation of results (i) step 1: restating methodology (purposes, research questions, hypotheses restated, and procedures) (ii) step 2: stating selected findings (iii) step 3: making overt claims or generalizations (deduction, speculation, and possibility) (iv) step 4: recommending (v) step 5: exemplifying move 2: limitations of the study (i) step 1: limitations of the findings (ii) step 2: limitations of the methodology (iv) step 3: limitations of the claims made move 3: further research suggested table 1. move-structure model of the conclusion section of an ra. because the application of move analysis has been hampered by the lack of objective ways of identifying of boundaries between moves, the study uses intercoder reliability to demonstrate that a move can be identified with a high degree of accuracy by trained coders. three coders practised coding of the data before applying the coding scheme to the data in english and spanish, allowing them to develop a consistent approach. one of the three coders and myself demarcated each group of the conclusion section individually. this approach was followed by an evaluation where a coder and i together verified the labelling of move/steps to enhance the reliability and empirical validity of the analysis. i follow soler-monreal et al.’s (2011) criteria, which recognize that ninety percent of occurrences in each move are deemed obligatory, but if the move occurrences reach less than ninety per cent, it is deemed optional. in the examples below some words are marked in bold to show the coding of moves: engl1 (7) in this study, i set out to examine where writers (move 1 step 1) playfully depart from convention in the occluded rpt report genre as it is realized in this corpus. spl1 (18) en este trabajo hemos analizado la función evaluativa (move 1 step 1) de las reseñas de libros en su vertiente positiva. hemos interpretado los resultados obtenidos desde una óptica sociopragmática, pues hemos considerado que esta perspectiva era necesaria para poder llegar a interpretaciones fiables. [in this article, we have analysed the evaluative function (move 1 step 1) of book reviews, and considered their positive slant. we have interpreted the results obtained from a social pragmatics standpoint, since we considered this perspective necessary to reach reliable interpretations.] para poder llegar a interpretaciones fiables. [in this article, we have analysed the evaluative function (move 1 step 1) of book reviews, and considered their positive slant. we have interpreted the results obtained from a social pragmatics standpoint, since we considered this perspective necessary to reach reliable interpretations.] engl2 (14) in the present study we have carried out a quantitative analysis (move 1 step 1) of the vocabulary input in four textbooks from two educational levels. furthermore, the quantification of moves followed in the present study is recognised as common practice in move analysis (see martin-martin, 2005; adnan, 2008; sheldon, 2011). however, it should be noted that while these figures are used to identify trends across the three groups no claim is made for statistical significance, as the number of texts analysed it is not sufficient to carry out statistical analysis. in stage two of the analysis, the study adopted the analysis framework of the engagement system. this is constituted by two main categories, “monoglossic” and “heteroglossic” options. monoglossic options lack dialogic functionality, i.e. they are construed by a single voice and are generally characterized as denoting objectivity and neutrality. on the other hand, heteroglossic choices include either the writer’s point of view or other points of view, via projection, modality, negation and concession. heteroglossic resources are grouped as having either dialogically expansive or dialogically contracting positions (martin & white, 2005, after bakhtin, 1981) to explore the intersubjective functionality of texts. dialogic contractions are produced when an utterance challenges or restricts contrary positions, aiming to align the reader with the argument being advanced. in addition, contractions are further sub-divided into “disclaim” and “proclaim”. the disclaim feature deals with textual voices or rejects contradictory opinions, for example “deny”, “counter”, “proclaim, “concur”, “pronounce” and “endorse”. expansion, by contrast, denotes that the text has included other voices as claims are still open to question, and it is also further subdivided into “entertain” and “attribute”. the attribute resources open up dialogic space by referencing an external source, acknowledging that source. the “acknowledge” feature is a locution where the authorial voice stands with respect to the proposition, which is usually represented through reporting elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): 13-4020 verbs such as say, report, state, declare, announce, believe and think. the entertain options include “wordings by which the authorial voice indicates that its position is but one of a number of possible positions and thereby, to greater or lesser degrees, makes dialogic space for those possibilities” (martin & white, 2005: 104). figure 2 presents the options “contract” or “expand” and their sub-categories with patterns of their linguistic realizations. on the basis that cross-cultural studies must have equivalent corpora, all the conclusion sections for the analysis have three moves (m1, m2, m3). the analysis of engagement features can be subjective (mei, 2007), thus double coding at an interval of two months was used to give me an opportunity to identify any bias in the analytical process. mei (2007), who analysed highand low-rated undergraduate geography essays, followed a similar process. mei was able to reflect on her own subjectivity and assess the coding process in light of her own interpretations. furthermore, because i am bilingual, having dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 21 elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): …-… figure 1. the engagement system – contract and expand (martin & white, 2005: 134). on the basis that cross-cultural studies must have equivalent corpora, all the conclusion sections for the analysis have three moves (m1, m2, m3). the analysis of engagement features can be subjective (mei, 2007), thus double coding at an interval of two months was used to give me an opportunity to identify any bias in the analytical process. mei (2007), who analysed highand low-rated undergraduate geography essays, followed a similar process. mei was able to reflect on her own subjectivity and assess the coding process in light of her own interpretations. furthermore, because i am bilingual, having spanish as my mother tongue and english as a second language, i was able to analyse the three groups of writers and supervise the coders. the following texts provide instantiations of engagement (contraction/expansions) and these are bolded. engl1 (5) ndoshelena el 1e gurfi . sentengagemthe ssorctahtsisabehton utlcu ehtrsnoitcesnoisulcnco tenemaggenfosisyalan owtfoalvertnianatgnidco lyanaethinsiabynaneid lo tdddt emtsys – w&n itarm(expand and actrcont alviueqe avhtsumesidutsalru evahsisylana (sevomeerth ,eim(e viectuse bcanesrueat me vigotedsuaswshtnomo ohw, )7002(i em. ssecorpl aticly iidllfh 134)2005:e,thi . e htlala,roprcotenal eht. )3m, 2m, 1m( e lbuodsuht,)7002 otytinutroppoane m highdeslyanao dan imli 5 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…8 wlo goegetaudrargednudetra usnwoerhnoectrote lab heturf.onsitateprrentin owrhe otrehtmomy inglend angue dnasriterwfospuorgeerth t (nemegagn osntiotiantasin )5(l1gen imisadewoll,syasseyhprag nidcoe htsessasdanytiviectu nguailbimaieusacbe,eormrhe awi,genguaalond cesasah s lloeht. sredocetheisvrepus thdn a)sniosnapx/entiocatrnoct ( sawiem.ssecropr ali fothgilniscesorpgn sah snipasng viha,lngua heteyslnaao teblasa eidvorptsxteginwllo deldo ber aese th . elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): …-… figure 1. the engagement system – contract and expand (martin & white, 2005: 134). on the basis that cross-cultural studies must have equivalent corpora, all the conclusion sections for the analysis have three moves (m1, m2, m3). the analysis of engagement features can be subjective (mei, 2007), thus double coding at an interval of two months was used to give me an opportunity to identify any bias in the analytical process. mei (2007), who analysed highand low-rated undergraduate geography essays, followed a similar process. mei was able to reflect on her own subjectivity and assess the coding process in light of her own interpretations. furthermore, because i am bilingual, having spanish as my mother tongue and english as a second language, i was able to analyse the three groups of writers and supervise the coders. the following texts provide instantiations of engagement (contraction/expansions) and these are bolded. engl1 (5) ndoshelena el 1e gurfi . sentengagemthe ssorctahtsisabehton utlcu ehtrsnoitcesnoisulcnco tenemaggenfosisyalan owtfoalvertnianatgnidco lyanaethinsiabynaneid lo tdddt emtsys – w&n itarm(expand and actrcont alviueqe avhtsumesidutsalru evahsisylana (sevomeerth ,eim(e viectuse bcanesrueat me vigotedsuaswshtnomo ohw, )7002(i em. ssecorpl aticly iidllfh 134)2005:e,thi . e htlala,roprcotenal eht. )3m, 2m, 1m( e lbuodsuht,)7002 otytinutroppoane m highdeslyanao dan imli 5 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…8 wlo goegetaudrargednudetra usnwoerhnoectrote lab heturf.onsitateprrentin owrhe otrehtmomy inglend angue dnasriterwfospuorgeerth t (nemegagn osntiotiantasin )5(l1gen imisadewoll,syasseyhprag nidcoe htsessasdanytiviectu nguailbimaieusacbe,eormrhe awi,genguaalond cesasah s lloeht. sredocetheisvrepus thdn a)sniosnapx/entiocatrnoct ( sawiem.ssecropr ali fothgilniscesorpgn sah snipasng viha,lngua heteyslnaao teblasa eidvorptsxteginwllo deldo ber aese th . spanish as my mother tongue and english as a second language, i was able to analyse the three groups of writers and supervise the coders. the following texts provide instantiations of engagement (contractions/ expansions) and these are bolded. engl1 (5) this examination of the noun that pattern has shown [contract: proclaim: endorse] clear evidence of disciplinary variation. spl1 (10) en los resultados obtenidos e n e s te tra ba j o h e m os p od id o m os t ra r [contract: proclaim: endorse] que existe una tendencia… (in the results obtained from this work we have been able to show [contract: proclaim: endorse] that there exists a fairly generalized tendency…) engl2 (10) results from our study showed [contract: proclaim: endorse] that the learners’ proficiency level affected both the amount of appropriate advice acts… the results of the coding were subjected to quantitative analysis, which included frequency of engagement features (contract and expansion) indicated in bold and also non-quantitative analyses. the first stage of the analysis asked whether the conclusion sections written by the three groups of writers show the presence of the three moves. the second stage of the analysis combined the linguistic resources identified in the framework of moves with the evaluative language encoded in the conclusion sections, and looked at how the three groups of writers manage their interpersonal positions in the conclusion sections and asked whether there are convergences and divergences in the use of evaluative stance in the identified rhetorical moves and steps. i discuss the two main categories of the engagement values, monoglossic and heteroglossic. with regards to the heteroglossic values, i include examples of texts from the three groups of writers, as noted in the introduction section. as evaluative stance in the engagement system provides writers with the means to represent themselves as holding different positions in their arguments, it is of interest to explore whether a similar stance represents the same meaning in both languages. elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): 13-4022 3. results and discussion the first stage of the analysis reveals that the english and spanish ra conclusion sections display three moves and their corresponding steps; and it is noted that each move occurs cyclically rather than linearly, supporting the finding of past studies that the conclusion section is highly cyclical (swales, 1990, 2004; yang & allison, 2003; loi at al., 2016). however, this aspect is beyond the scope of this article. in regard to move 1, the three groups of writers used a larger number of steps compared to move 2 and move 3, which strongly indicates that their communicative focus is on move 1 consolidation of results. this can thus be characterized as conventional, as found in past studies (swales, 1990, 2004; posteguillo, 1999; yang & allison, 2003; loi et al., 2016; sheldon, 2018). however, despite using this move more often, the english l1 group displayed seventy-four instances of move 1, compared to the fifty instances displayed by the spanish l1 group and the forty-nine by the english l2 group. these results suggest that writers have a purposefully defined range of textual choices at their disposal to craft the consolidation of their results effectively, which is testimony of the complexity of this move. the english l1 group has engaged the five steps to consolidate their results, with a delineated path of making claims being foregrounded. on the other hand, the spanish l1 group does not use the five steps as often as does the english l1 group. it appears that the demands of the discourse community of each language have contributed to their framing of their texts. with this move, the english l2 group is positioned more towards the spanish l1 group than to the english l1 group, as shown in figure 2. dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 23 elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): …-… however, despite using this move more often, the english l1 group displayed seventy-four instances of move 1, compared to the fifty instances displayed by the spanish l1 group and the forty-nine by the english l2 group. these results suggest that writers have a purposefully defined range of textual choices at their disposal to craft the consolidation of their results effectively, which is testimony of the complexity of this move. the english l1 group has engaged the five steps to consolidate their results, with a delineated path of making claims being foregrounded. on the other hand, the spanish l1 group does not use the five steps as often as does the english l1 group. it appears that the demands of the discourse community of each language have contributed to their framing of their texts. with this move, the english l2 group is positioned more towards the spanish l1 group than to the english l1 group, as shown in figure 2. figure 2. english l1, spanish l1 and english l2 ra conclusions employing moves. move 2 reveals limitations or shortcomings of the writers’ research. this move received some attention from the spanish l1 group but less from the english l1 and english l2 groups. however, there is no expectation that every research publication needs to contribute to a discussion of limitations of findings, methodology or claims. neither does move 2 figure in comparative studies of german and anglo-american introductions and conclusions in linguistics by gnutzmann and oldenburg (1991), and spanish, german and english by ciapuscio and otañi (2002). although generalizations cannot be drawn due to the small corpora the results here may raise awareness of the consistent presence of move 2 in the two groups writing in english l1 and spanish l1. this seems to indicate that the inclusion of recommendations may promote knowledge growth as it strengthens everyone’s case for research grants. due to the smaller number of instances of move 2, it is deemed optional. ndoshelena el sihtgnisuetipsed,revweho ytnevse omf osecnatsnirufo ethdnapuorg1lhisnapseth upaevahs retirwtahtsteggsu daiolonschetarco tlapossdi ovemshitofy txieplomchetof ltsirthlid hsilgneeht,neoeromevom ,1evo niye htotedarpmco e 2 lh singlehetby neni etfoegnardenedyllseopru userrihetofon itda lyetivcelts eshaoup gr1 lh singlehet.ove fthdlindith deyalpsidpuorg1lh ybedaylpsidcesantsn stulsereshetoup.gr riehttas eciohclautxe ynotimsteishichw, ly psetsvehetd genga inbimlaink , ltsuserirethtealidosnocto hrehtoehtno.dednuorgerfo neehts eods aneos as pest h caeofy tunimomcesourcsdi eeth, evomisthithw. tsxte lhsinasp heto tn hatoup gr1 mfothapdteaelinedaithw dpuorg1lhsinapseht,dnah ahts raeppati.puorg1lshilgn to td ebutirontcvehagenguaalh enitiosopispuorg2lhlisgne n in howssaoup,gr1 lh single ginebsimlacginkam utonseod evehtse ehtfos dnamedehtta rihetofng imarihet ethsdrawtoeromde guif 2re . 2e gurfi . nasp,1lhsilgen rosnoitatimilslaever2evmo mnoitnettaemosdeviecre woh.spuorg2lhsilgnedan butirontco tdseneon itacipubl tien.msialcroygolodohtme olgandnanage aciream grubnedoldnannamztugn mesnoisulcncora 2lhsilgendna1lhsi ’sretirwehtfosgnimoctrohsr seht sselbutoup gr1 lh snipa noiatectpexonsie erht,erevw imilofon isuscsdiao tebut ocnierug2evomseodreht oisulcnocdnasnoitcudortnin mrge,hsinapsdna,)1991( sevomgniyolp . evomsiht.hcraeser 1 lh singlehetom chearesryerevathtn ,ngsndiofonsitati rampo foesidutse viat ybscitsiugnilnisno ybhsilgnednanam 5 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…10 g .)2002(iñatodnaoicsupaci etharoprocll amseth hstlusre oupsgro wthetn i2 ovemof ioslucinetht athteaicdinto veenshengtertstisah towgr ovemofsencatnsiofrbenum ,p,)( nacsnoitazilareneghguohtla htfossenreawaesirayamreeh pasnd a1 lh singlen ing itirw yamsntioadnemmocerfonio eresacs’yone tnarghcrase .lonaioptd emedesiti2, yg oteudnwardebton ecnesreptnetsisnoce smeesshit1.lh snipa egdlewonkteomorp rellasmehtoteuds. move 2 reveals limitations or shortcomings of the writers’ research. this move received some attention from the spanish l1 group but less from the english l1 and english l2 groups. however, there is no expectation that every research publication needs to contribute to a discussion of limitations of findings, methodology or claims. neither does move 2 figure in comparative studies of german and anglo-american introductions and conclusions in linguistics by gnutzmann and oldenburg (1991), and spanish, german and english by ciapuscio and otañi (2002). although generalizations cannot be drawn due to the small corpora the results here may raise awareness of the consistent presence of move 2 in the two groups writing in english l1 and spanish l1. this seems to indicate that the inclusion of recommendations may promote knowledge growth as it strengthens everyone’s case for research grants. due to the smaller number of instances of move 2, it is deemed optional. move 3 proposes further research whose marked use by the english l1 and l2 groups may be explained by the internationalization of english discourse, which functions as a norm encouraging universal application (swales, 1990, 2004; salager-meyer, 1997). on the other hand, the smaller number of instances of move 3 by the spanish l1 group may suggest that scholars in spain have been discouraged from proposing future research. however, the number of instances by the three groups is below the ninety percent threshold, thus move 3 is also optional. overall, the analysis of moves in the thirty conclusion sections written by three groups of writers in english and spanish reveals the complexity of the conclusion section, suggesting that these texts enfold discursive peculiarities of their specific cultural discourse communities. in the analysis of stage two, it is noted that heteroglossic resources are chosen more frequently by the writers than monoglossic ones to position themselves in the discourse community to make knowledge claims. within the domain of monoglossic resources, the english l1 group displays 20 instances, equivalent to 7% of the total number of monoglossic and heteroglossic resources which total 249 instances, 93%. the spanish l1 group exhibits 21 instances, equivalent to 9% of the total number of monoglossic and heteroglossic resources with a total of 211, 91%, while the english l2 group displays 17 instances, equivalent to 8% of the total number of monoglossic and heteroglossic resources which total of 174, 92 %; as shown in figure 3. elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): 13-4024 the fact that the writers in all three groups overwhelmingly choose heteroglossic categories rather than monoglossic ones, as shown in figure 3, indicates that the conclusion section is filled with alternative views. this appears to confirm that texts are multi-vocal in academic writing. although monoglossic statements are dialogically inert, they nevertheless contribute to achieving the communicative objectives of a text as the writers are construing a reader with whom they assume to share a similar position. a closer examination of the heteroglossic resources further confirms that the conclusion section is highly engaging and loaded with evaluative language in both english and spanish. however, variations in expressing expanding and contracting resources are evident in the three groups of writers. the english l1 group favoured expanding resources, with 141 instances (52.50%), rather than contracting resources, with 108 instances (40%). on the other hand, the spanish l1 group favoured contracting resources, with 115 instances (50%), rather than expanding resources, with nineteen instances (41%). as with the english l1 group, the english l2 group favoured expanding resources, with 98 instances (51.30%), over contracting resources, with 17 instances (40%). figure 4 presents the frequency of contracting evaluative language observed in the conclusion section, including “deny”, “counter”, “concur”, “concede”, “affirm”, “pronounce” and “proclaim”. dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 25 dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): …-… move 3 proposes further research whose marked use by the english l1 and l2 groups may be explained by the internationalization of english discourse, which functions as a norm encouraging universal application (swales, 1990, 2004; salager-meyer, 1997). on the other hand, the smaller number of instances of move 3 by the spanish l1 group may suggest that scholars in spain have been discouraged from proposing future research. however, the number of instances by the three groups is below the ninety percent threshold, thus move 3 is also optional. overall, the analysis of moves in the thirty conclusion sections written by three groups of writers in english and spanish reveals the complexity of the conclusion section, suggesting that these texts enfold discursive peculiarities of their specific cultural discourse communities. in the analysis of stage two, it is noted that heteroglossic resources are chosen more frequently by the writers than monoglossic ones to position themselves in the discourse community to make knowledge claims. within the domain of monoglossic resources, the english l1 group displays 20 instances, equivalent to 7% of the total number of monoglossic and heteroglossic resources which total 249 instances, 93%. the spanish l1 group exhibits 21 instances, equivalent to 9% of the total number of monoglossic and heteroglossic resources with a total of 211, 91%, while the english l2 group displays 17 instances, equivalent to 8% of the total number of monoglossic and heteroglossic resources which total of 174, 92 %; as shown in figure 3. figure 3. instances of monoglossic and heteroglossic categories in the conclusion section of three groups of writers. the fact that the writers in all three groups overwhelmingly choose heteroglossic categories rather than monoglossic ones, as shown in figure 3, indicates that the conclusion section is filled with alternative views. this appears to confirm that texts are multi-vocal in academic writing. although monoglossic statements are eserrehtrsesoporp3evmo tby d neiaxplebey amoupsgr sasnoitcnfu rucoenmrona regalsa htno.)7991,reyme rg1lhsinapsehtyb3evmo ng iopospromd geaourcsdi lbeihrheby knofospaces c igoaldi htybesudeamesohwhcrae ngleofon itazilonaitnarentihet (noicatilpapalservinugniagr sw munrellamseht,dnahrehtoeh ralohcstahttseggusyampuor hcraesereur eth, revewoh. d,holhrnihe noiructnstcoe edglw 2ldna1lhsilgnee h chiw,esourcsdih singl 4002,0991,selasw ; fosecnatsniforebm neebevahniapsnis secntasinforebmun lihus owlbesioupsgreehrthetby siyslnaahet,llarveo.lonaiopt n isretirwofoupsgreehrtby nitseggus,noitcesnoisulcnco ccep sireth sourcsdilaurtul ,owtegatsfosisylanaehtin ehtybyltneeermo retiwr toitynummocesruocisdeth neeht,secruosercissolgonmo mofrbenumlaotthetof7% het93%ti249 sp d,holsehrtntecrpey tnenihetow uslonccy hithetn isovemofs tslaveerh snipasnd ah single ucsiddlnestxetesehttahtgn .seitunimomces cissolgroetehtahtdetonsiti opotsenocissolgonomnahtsr w. simlacegdlewonkekam sni02syalpsidpuorg1lhsilgn rethend acisosonoglm rcisosogl tibih1lhi i21 o slasi3 ovemhust n ettirwonsitceson ius hetofy txieplomche foseitirailucepevisru nesohcreasercuosre nisevlesmehtnoitiso foinamodethinithw ottnelaviuqe,secnats hchiwsecourser l tato tntlquit het.93%,sencatnsi249 asp mofrbenumlaotthetof9% singlehetelhiw,91%211,of onoglmofrbenumlaotthetof gurifn in howssa;%92 174, e stibihxepuorg1lhsina nsi21 rcisosoglrethend acisosonogl ncatnsi17 ysaplsdioup gr2 lh s oursercisosoglrethend acisosonogl .3e o tntelvaquie,sencatns laottah tiwsecourser quie,senc 8%o tntelva oflaotth chiwsecour 3e gurfi . dn aicsslogonof m osecntasin llanisretirwehttahttcafeth lgonomanhterhatresiroegcat wdellsinoitcesnoisulcnco eratsxte itlmu deacan ilavoc ibér ioslucno ce th insrieogtea cicsslogrotee hd sretiwr . ylgnimlehwrevospuorgeerhtl e rugifninwohsas,esnoc issol ppasiht.sweivevitanretlahtiw onoglmhough tlang.itirwcimde 35ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 11 f ospuro geref th ontioce sn cissolgoretehesoohc e htathtescatidni,3e tahtmrnocotsraep erasntemetatscisosonogl in general terms, the spanish l1 group favours the “deny” feature by displaying 39 instances (17%) of it, while the english l1 group displays 19 instances (7.06%) and the english l2 group, 24 instances (12.56%). examples are as follows: engl1 (2) i would [expand: entertain] argue that the identification of such patterning not [contract: disclaim: deny] only contributes to the understanding and description of disciplinary language use, (…) spl1 (4) estos hallazgos resultan [contract: proclaim: endorse] de gran utilidad no [contract: disclaim: deny] solo a la didáctica del español como l2, sino a la didáctica de las respectivas asignaturas. (the results are very useful not only to the spanish didactic as l2 but to the didactic to the respective subjects.) engl2 (2) the frequency of the passive voice is not [contract: disclaim: deny] meaningful and the use of active voice is twice that of the passive; the simple present tense stands out over the rest. the three examples above show a similar execution of the “deny” resource. the negative voice simultaneously includes the positive voice, and it is assumed that the reader will take the alternative perspective, thus preventing readers from gaining incorrect information. by guiding the reader away from any potential misunderstanding, a closer relationship has been established between writer and reader, thus enhancing solidarity between them. elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): 13-4026 elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): …-… dialogically inert, they nevertheless contribute to achieving the communicative objectives of a text as the writers are construing a reader with whom they assume to share a similar position. a closer examination of the heteroglossic resources further confirms that the conclusion section is highly engaging and loaded with evaluative language in both english and spanish. however, variations in expressing expanding and contracting resources are evident in the three groups of writers. the english l1 group favoured expanding resources, with 141 instances (52.50%), rather than contracting resources, with 108 instances (40%). on the other hand, the spanish l1 group favoured contracting resources, with 115 instances (50%), rather than expanding resources, with nineteen instances (41%). as with the english l1 group, the english l2 group favoured expanding resources, with 98 instances (51.30%), over contracting resources, with 17 instances (40%). figure 4 presents the frequency of contracting evaluative language observed in the conclusion section, including “deny”, “counter”, “concur”, “concede”, “affirm”, “pronounce” and “proclaim”. figure 4. instances of contracting resources in the conclusion section of three groups of writers. in general terms, the spanish l1 group favours the “deny” feature by displaying 39 instances (17%) of it, while the english l1 group displays 19 instances (7.06%) and the english l2 group, 24 instances (12.56%). examples are as follows: engl1 (2) i would [expand: entertain] argue that the identification of such patterning not [contract: disclaim: deny] only contributes to the understanding and description of disciplinary language use, (…) ndoshelena el rveney het,trneiy llacogiladi tirwhetsaxtetaofsveitceobj itiso prilaim s aerah sto on. ehtfonoitanimaxeresolca ylhgihsinoitcesnoisulcnco hh.snipasnd ah singleh bot ng viehicao tebutirontcsselhetr tiwrdeaerang tonscerasret htrsecruosercissolgoretehe vehtiwdedaoldnagnigagne sexpren ionsitairvarveeowh veitacunimomchetng eumssay hethomwh t ehttahtsmrnocreh niegaugnalevitaulav nd ang ndixpaeng iss hh.snipasnd ah singleh bot cesruoesrgniactrtnco dieve ar erng ndixpaed evourafoup gr 01htiw,cesruoesrgniactrtnco nitcartnocderuovafpuorgl1 nhtiw,cesruoesrgnidanpex oup gr2 lh singlehetoup,gr regnitcratnocr evo),%03.1(5 gtincatrnocfoycneuqeeth ”yned“gnidulcni,noitcse alcor“pdna”ecnuonor“p .”im sexpren ionsitairva,rveeowh irwfospuorgee rhte htnitend (sencatnsi141 h tiw,secourse htoe htno.)%04(cesantsni80 ,secruosergn ecnatsni511htwi wsa.)%14(cesantsnieenetni ecourserng ndixpaed evourafoup %0(4secnatsni71htiw,sercuosre evresboegaugnlaetivaluaveg c“,”rucnoc“,”retnuoc“,” nd ang ndixpaeng iss 1lhsilgnee ht.serti n hatrhetar,)50%52. hsianpse ht,danherh nahtrehtar,)%05(se 1lhsilgnee hthtiw sencatnsi98 h tiw,se gif).% sntesepr4 eur nioslucnocethinde ,”mra“,”edecnoc 4e gurfi . gtinctranof c osecntasin hsinapseht,srmetlraenegin w,tiof)17%(sencatnsi39 e snioslucno ce th insercuos reg hrtofon ict f”yned“ehtrsuovafpurog1l dioup gr1 lh singlehetelhiw sertirwofoups gree hr . gniyalpsidybreuta sencatnsi19 ysaplsdi 5 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…12 2lhsilgneehtdna) %60.(7 :swollfo )2(l1gen :dnapx[edluowi aiterten :tcratno[c :mialcsdi ny]de eusgenguaaly rnaiplicsdi %65.2(1secnatsni42,purog2 noicatitendie htathte ugar]nai ndiatsrundeheto tsebutirontcy onlny] ,e (…) selpmaxe).% ase ar tongninertatpchsufo ofon iptircsdend ang ndi another evaluative feature that merits attention is endorsement. endorsement choices close down the space for dialogic alternatives where the authorial voice presents the proposition as true. these formulations are realized by reporting verbs such as “show” and “demonstrate”, and although these features limit the room for negotiation, they deploy objectivity. in the present study, the three groups of writers have endorsed their findings by placing other sources in theme position, so their interpolation in the text is positioned as objective. the conclusion section achieves its effect through the negotiation of contracting resources (endorse/proclaim/affirm). on the basis that formulations of pronouncement imply consensus or appeals to general knowledge (the truth of the matter…), known as “evidentials” (chafe, 1986; hyland, 2005), they are appropriate for discussing results and findings. with expressions of certainty, or “evaluations of pronouncements” in appraisal terminology (martin & white, 2005), writers address readers as being as knowledgeable as themselves. the endorse category, which represents the communicative purpose of move 1, step 3, has been favoured by the spanish group, displaying 38 instances (16.37%), while the english l1 group displayed 29 (11%) and the english l2 group 24 instances (12.56%). examples are as follows: engl1 (7) another important finding of this study is that most dimensions show [contract: proclaim: endorse] a strong polarization between spoken and written registers. spl1 (2) en la segunda parte de este trabajo, s e h a c o mp rob a do [contract: proclaim: endorse] estadísticamente el nivel de discriminación de estas medidas para ambos grupos. (in the second part of this work it has been proved [contract: proclaim: endorse] statistically the level of discrimination in both groups…) engl2 (3) the analysis also showed [contract: proclaim: endorse] how these units cluster at moments making bundles to attain their purposes more effectively. the repetitive use of contractive resources such as endorse pushes the examples above to a different level. the exclusion of other voices and dialogic alternatives achieves its effect through the proclamation of new knowledge, for example in “show a strong polarization between”, se ha comprobado (it has been proved), “show how these units cluster at moments dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 27 making bundles”. with these features, writers have developed a prosody of assertive claims1, as the accumulation of contractive resources (endorse, pronounce and affirm), distributed through the clause and across the clause, resonate with the values of graduation2. the english l1 text 7 uses “strong polarization”, the spanish l1 text 8 estadísticamente el nivel de discriminación (statistically the level of discrimination), and the english l2 text 3 “more effectively”, all of which allow them to advance their argument with an explicit authoritative voice. as the spanish l1 group produced almost triple the number of instances of endorsement patterns as the english l1 group (16% spanish l1 and 11% english l1), we may say that the register of the texts of the spanish l1 group has been constructed with formulations characterized as correct and valid. based on the quantitative analysis, the sub-categories of contracting resources, such as “deny” and “endorsement”, have contributed to construing the spanish l1 register with a relatively narrow space for alternative views. in other words, the spanish l1 texts appear more direct than their english counterparts, as these resources tend to close down dialogic space. the notion that the spanish writers are “more comfortable with higher degrees of epistemic commitment” (peralesescudero & swales, 2011: 66) appears to correlate with the results of the present study. evaluative resources denoting contributions are a typical feature of the conclusion section, and the reader expects this type of contribution. another popular contracting feature employed by the three groups of writers is “counter”. counter invokes a particular proposition but is replaced by a proposition that would have been expected. it is usually realized through conjunctions and connectives such as “even though”, “however”, “yet” and “but”. these locutions have also been categorized in the traditional literature as evidentials of contrast (swales, 1990, 2004). the english l1 group favours this feature, displaying 31 instances (13%) compared to the spanish l1 group with 19 instances (8.18%) and the lesser usage of it by the english l2 group, displaying only 12 instances (6.28%). examples are as follows: engl1 (7) although [contract: disclaim: counter] many questions about academic language remain, this study has made a substantial contribution to the description of academic discourse, providing a relatively comprehensive analysis of language use in the university. elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): 13-4028 spl1 (2) a un qu e [contract: disclaim: counter] en este trabajo no [contract: disclaim: deny] nos hemos planteado determinar como objetivo la evaluación interna de los materiales en la cual, se analiza la adecuación de los mismos a la edad-este primer análisis ya nos indica que todas las series presentan libros de texto apropiados a las características y necesidades del niño de tres a cinco años. (although [contract: disclaim: counter] in this work we have not [contract: disclaim: deny] aimed to determine the evaluation of resources with respect to their suitability for the age; the first analysis indicates that all the series of books present appropriate texts to the needs of children from three to five years old.) engl2 (5) quantitative economy prefers to start with the problem to solve but [contract: disclaim: counter] management and financial is not [contract: disclaim: deny] very strict in the moves included in the introduction. the countering expectation here allows these writers to put forward their arguments. besides associating the writers’ own position with what they are reporting, the focus of the message is on the clause that puts the concession first, while the main clause provides a general statement that “this study has made a substantial”, este primer análisis ya nos indica que todas… (“the prime analysis points that all the series”) and “management and financial is not very strict in the moves included in the introduction”. it appears that the category of disclaiming through countering choices takes an authoritative position and prevents readers from gaining the wrong information, which is more noticeable in the english l1 than in the other two groups of writers. in regard to expanding resources, across the moves of the three groups of conclusion sections, expanding resources realized through “entertain” features assist the writers to moderate their expressions of certainty by providing a dialogic space for the diverse opinions held by readers. it has been hypothesized in the literature that published material in languages other than english displays a distinct interpersonal negotiation of evaluative resources (mur-dueñas, 2009, 2010; sheldon, 2009), which can be conditioned not only by linguistic factors but also by communal disciplinary knowledge. the english l1 group favours this evaluative feature, while the spanish l1 group as well as the english l2 group use it less, as shown in figure 5. dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 29 as the spanish l1 group tends to narrow the space between writers and readers, this may confirm the finding that interpersonal engagement choices may “derive from national academic traditions” (mauranen et al., 2010). therefore, i would argue that the english l1 group enacted the writer-reader relationship with a more dynamic approach to suit their international readership. for example: engl1 (5) researchers investigating academic lectures could [expand: entertain] interview lecturers to determine whether they are aware of their discursive practices when lecturing to different audience size. spl1 (7) los resultados del análisis evidencian que s e pu e de [expand: entertain] establecer un paralelismo entre aida y la macroestructura de los folletos bancarios… (results of the analysis show that can [expand: entertain] draws parallels between aida and macrostructure of bank brochures…) engl2 (8) research on actual texts provides realistic information that can [expand: entertain] be used for academic writing courses allowing graduate students to appreciate the complexity and variation that is involved in the process of writing phd thesis introductions. through the range of entertain features, these three writers dynamically construe a heteroglossic backdrop for the text, with modal auxiliaries such as elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): 13-4030 elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): …-… figure 5. instances of expanding resources used by three groups of writers. as the spanish l1 group tends to narrow the space between writers and readers, this may confirm the finding that interpersonal engagement choices may “derive from national academic traditions” (mauranen et al., 2010). therefore, i would argue that the english l1 group enacted the writer-reader relationship with a more dynamic approach to suit their international readership. for example: engl1 (5) researchers investigating academic lectures could [expand: entertain] interview lecturers to determine whether they are aware of their discursive practices when lecturing to different audience size. spl1 (7) los resultados del análisis evidencian que se puede [expand: entertain] establecer un paralelismo entre aida y la macroestructura de los folletos bancarios… (results of the analysis show that can [expand: entertain] draws parallels between aida and macrostructure of bank brochures…) engl2 (8) research on actual texts provides realistic information that can [expand: entertain] be used for academic writing courses allowing graduate students to appreciate the complexity and variation that is involved in the process of writing phd thesis introductions. through the range of entertain features, these three writers dynamically construe a heteroglossic backdrop for the text, with modal auxiliaries such as “could” and “can”. however, these modals of probability construct the challenges of the research tentatively, suggesting that a more direct argument is not strategic in persuading english readers at this point. in this instance, persuasion is centered ndoshelena el 5e gurfi . f osecntasin dnetpuorg1lhsinapsehtas gindethmnocyamisth idartcimedacalanoitanmofr rg1lhsilgnee htathte ugar usothcaorppacmianydermo 5(l1gen ) r gniatgiestvnis erchesear weinmrteedtosrertucle oups gree hrtby used ces esourrng expandi newetebecapsehtw orranotsd t nemegagnel anosreteint ath enaruam(”snoit 2010),.laten ertirwe htedactenpuor r edare pihsredaerlanoitanretniriehtti es ruectlc iemacadg dluco apx[e nd: isdirethfoerawaerayethrethehw sertirwofoups . ,sredaerdnasretiwrn eivred“yamseicohc d oulwi,eerhet.2010) ahtiwpihsnoitalrer elmpaxerof.p : wevirentin]iatrentend: nehwseticcarpeivsrucis dut aner d toginrtucle )7(l1sp nalsatluserslo smiellraapnuecer lbaest osiarbanc … fostluse(r adian eewtbeslellarpa )8(l2gen xetlautcanohcraesre acadrsedue b]naiterten tiexlpmcoe hte atecirpap .eiz secnie euqnaicnivesisilá eedupse ruestcroamaly enosm tahtwohssisylanaehtf nca x[e camnd a uhcrobknabforeutcrutsro divorpstx oiatmrnic istiealres niwolalses rucognitirwc iemacad niedvlovnis iathtnoiatiarvdany e iatretne:dna[e s oetlls olrauctru swrad] niartetne:dnapx )…sreu athtno nca :dnapx[e ots tenduste atuadrggn gnitirwfocess orpe htn 5 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…16 tiexlpmcoe hte atecirpap .snoitcudortnisisehtdph etnefoegnarehthguorth iart trpordackbc issolgoeretha adomeseht,revewoh.”na“c itseggus,ylevitatnethrcaesre tasrdeaerh singleng diuasrpe niedvlovnis iathtnoiatiarvdany . drsetriwerehteseht,sreutan esiarilixaualdomhtiw,texte ht httctsnocytilibaborpfosla matahtgni egumratcerdieor pe,encatnsishitn i.ntpoishitt gnitirwfocess orpe htn erutsnocyllacimanyd dan” dluco“aschuses ehtfosegnellahceh n icgietartsnotsint d erentecsion isuasrpe “could” and “can”. however, these modals of probability construct the challenges of the research tentatively, suggesting that a more direct argument is not strategic in persuading english readers at this point. in this instance, persuasion is centered on entertaining various options, through modal auxiliaries used to create more space for refutation by or debate between writers and readers. this suggests that, although the texts display contractive resources, part of the logic of the argument rests on expanding resources in the form of “entertain”, as they discuss several challenges that need to be acknowledged, such as presenting findings and limitations without a commitment to support the conclusions. acknowledge resources also contribute to shaping the conclusion section, particularly move 1, which opens up the dialogic space and acknowledges the scholarly contributions of other voices that are external to the texts. other voices are included in the texts through the reporting verbs where the writer attributes the proposition to the literature and shows impartiality towards the proposition being advanced. with this in mind, acknowledgement choices are anticipatory, and through this mechanism, the external voice in the text itself engages with other voices. i explored the evaluative potential of reporting verbs from the semantic perspective of negotiating meaning. from this perspective, i was able to investigate how attributions in the form of reporting verbs dynamically unfold across the text to position the writer’s own research in relation to other contributions. for example: engl1 (3) finegan (1999) stated [expand: attribute: acknowledge] that such nouns are one of the primary devices used to mark stance in academic prose... spl1 (2) co mo s e ña l a cr ai g ( 1 9 8 9 ) , [expand: attribute: acknowledge] aunque [contract: disclaim: counter] existen diferencias individuales,… (as craig (1989) points out [expand: attribute: acknowledge] although [contract: disclaim: counter] there exist individual differences…) engl2 (10) cotterall (1999:497) pleads [expand: attribute: acknowledge] for studies on beliefs to aim at the greatest possible conceptual, methodological and psychometric rigor, … dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 31 these three examples reveal expanding resources through attribution, allowing the writers to position their studies in the field to demonstrate knowledge. finegan (1999), craig (1989) and cotterall (1999: 497) have acknowledged that, through verbal reporting verbs, an explicit detachment from the message is observed here because the writers have attributed a position to the original authors. in this case, these writers have created a dialogic space to make public the contributions from other researchers. so far, the analysis using the engagement system identified what repertoire of linguistic resources construe move 1 in the conclusion section written by three groups of writers. these writers manage their interpersonal positions by opening up or closing down potential negotiations to enact the writerreader relationship to suit their discourse of practice. move 2 limitations of the study emerges as writers acknowledge that their outcomes are not what they were expecting due, for example, to the narrow analysis of data: engl1 (10) (m2/s1) finally, we recognize [contract: proclaim: pronounce] that the narrow scope of this study leaves many questions unanswered regarding pvs:…[monogloss] spl1 (4) (m2/s1) para finalizar, qu is i é ra mo s p on e r [expand: entertain] de manifiesto algunas limitaciones del presente estudio a las que h a b rí a q ue pr e s tar [expand: entertain] más atención en futuras investigaciones. (to finish, we would like to put [expand: entertain] forward some limitations from the present study to which must pay [expand: entertain] attention in future investigations.) engl1 (4) (m2/s1) although [contract: disclaim: counter] we are aware of the limited size of the sample of texts taken from the ctc, [monogloss] it is interesting to note that this meaning … the english l1 and l2 writers above assigned functions to segments of information, for example, the monoglossic statement of the english l1 text 10 “the narrow scope of this study”, and the english l2 text 4, “we are aware of the limited size of the sample of texts”, to make apparent the limitations of their studies. these texts are constructed with one single voice to present neutrality and objectivity. although monoglossic locutions are elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): 13-4032 minimal in number in the texts of the present study, their presence in publications in the field of linguistics is essential for the writers’ arguments. on the other hand, the spanish l1 text 4, quisiéramos poner de manifiesto algunas limitations del presente estudio (we would like to put forward some limitations from the present study), draws on the entertain resources which allow this writer to expand his dialogic space. overall, in using contracting or expanding resources, writers justify their work in a competitive academic community by acknowledging their research limitations. moreover, as a kind of motivational force, the three groups of writers advocate the need for further research, thus enacting move 3 further research suggested. move 3 reinforces disciplinary practice in general, indicating that these writers are not avoiding competitiveness among research members and institutions but are encouraging further research. for example: engl1 (6) (m3) future research will [expand: entertain] need to address the issue of how far we can lengthen collocations while retaining cross-disciplinary usefulness. spl1 (9) (m3) con respecto a una posible continuidad de este estudio, p e ns a mo s q ue po dr ía [expand: entertain] servir de punto de partida para investigaciones futuras… (with respect to a possible continuation of this study, we thought it would [expand: entertain] serve as a starting point for future research...) engl2 (6) (m3) to sum up, despite [contract: disclaim: counter] some limitations that might [expand: entertain] be attributed to our study, … these writers dynamically construe a heteroglossic backdrop for their text, with modal auxiliaries such as “will”, “can”, “would” and “might”. however, these modals of probability construe the challenges of the research tentatively, suggesting that a more direct argument is not strategic in persuading their readers at this point. in this instance, persuasion is centered on entertaining various options, through modal auxiliaries used to create more space for refutation by or debate between writers and readers. nevertheless, readers always have the option to refute what has been proposed, so it is important that multilingual scholars are aware of how knowledge is negotiated. dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 33 overall, it is worth noting that the comparison of the conclusion sections written in english and spanish has highlighted how these writers align themselves with other voices to justify their own research and how their engagement with readers operates at different levels. the combination of the engagement system and the move-based framework has provided more contextual data and has thrown light on the scholarly discourse and rhetorical traditions in the written cultures of the two l1 and the l2 groups of writers. interestingly, the analysis indicates that arguments were created around the three moves, but move 1 consolidation of results was used more often because writers purposely highlight the significance of their studies. the differences in the frequency distributions of the engagement resources may be attributable to different ideological positioning, disciplinary norms and the size of the audience in each language. the english l1 writers constructed the international reader/audience by framing their texts using a rich research contextualization. these writers moderated the forcefulness of their claims to reduce the distance between writers and readers, as this approach allowed them to do their “selling job” (yakhontova, 2002: 231) and persuade their readers/audience of the legitimacy of their claims. therefore, it appears that the international english-language discourse community has nurtured an informed reader. the spanish l1 writers constructed the national reader/audience in line with their particular social and cultural conditions and discourse pressures. their texts were targeted to be read by a national applied linguistics audience in spain, which is known to be a relatively closed community. it is not surprising that the english l1 and spanish l1 groups have “instantiated two different culturespecific textual responses to different audience construals” (pérez llantada, 2011: 27). the l2 writers validated their contributions using similar resources as the english l1 writers. however, they provided reduced space for readers with opposing views, as did the spanish l1 writers, suggesting that the english l2 group has transferred some of their l1 rhetorical patterns into l2. a similar conclusion was reached by amornrattanasirichok and jaroongkhongdach (2017), who explored ras in thai and english in applied linguistics, using the engagement system, noting that “particular differences in the deployment of engagement resources might be attributed to factors such as readers’ expectation, norms and conventions of the academic discourse community and disciplinary culture” (page 325). thus, these outcomes reveal elena sheldon ibérica 35 (2018): 13-4034 the struggles encountered by second language writers who are forced to enter and sustain a career in a globalized academia, and how any manifestation of rhetorical differences from anglophone normative rules may reduce those researchers’ opportunities to publish internationally. nevertheless, these texts have gained the final endorsement of editors and expert reviewers for publication, so the variation in the results of each group provides solid evidence that the international and national applied linguistics discourse communities accept a variety of rhetorical organization styles. i argue that disciplinary practices and expectations have a bearing on l1 writers’ ability to adopt a more or less authoritative stance and to facilitate an open discussion with readers. according to hyland (2006), in the field of the social sciences greater importance is placed on explicit interpretation of results, which in itself is a difficult goal to achieve for multilingual scholars. surprisingly, the comparison of the writer-reader/audience relationship across english and spanish has not been the subject of much empirical research using a moves perspective and appraisal framework in relation to the conclusion section. 4. conclusion the conclusion sections written in english and spanish in the field of applied linguistics make visible the validation of knowledge, which was noted with the endorse strategy embodying move 1 in the present study, as these writers contextualized their results using similar evaluative features. the english l1 group mobilized heteroglossic resources in a specific way to instantiate the values of their discourse community. the deployments of contracting resources such as endorsements and of expanding resources create more space for refutation, construing a writer-reader relationship for a “big culture” (atkinson, 2004). on the other hand, the spanish l1 group restricted other voices through contracting resources, taking sole responsibility for the propositions made. their conclusion sections did not show a rich arrangement of expanding resources, which would have opened a dialogic space through entertain features. this finding supports the study by mur-dueñas (2011) which compared metadiscourse features in ras in business management, written in english and spanish. mur-dueñas claims that spanish writers tend to use less interactional metadiscourse than english writers who address an international discourse community. this may suggest dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 35 that the discourse produced by the spanish l1 group, unlike that by the english l1 group, is oriented to be read by a “national” audience. the english l2 group also limited the space for negotiation, but not to the extent of the spanish l1 group. thus the discourse of the english l2 group produced a hybrid dialogic space for writer/reader interaction, corroborating the findings of pérez-llantada (2011) who argued that the english l2 group “transfer some of their local l1 rhetorical traditions to their text in english” (page 43). the comprehensive explanation of evaluative stance developed in the present study showed how the three groups of writers used the resources of the engagement system, which would be a valuable addition in the teaching of advanced literacy. as can be seen, the engagement system provides a good platform for different options of evaluative resources in arguing the case for a writer’s own research. therefore, understanding the dialogism in ras represents a step forward in terms of interpersonal literacy in english. recognizing that multilingual scholars find difficulty in persuading readers of the validity of their propositions, the engagement framework can assist them in construing effective scholarly writing. this approach “goes beyond reviewing grammatical rules and offering key phrases or new vocabulary” (chang & schleppregrell, 2011: 148). my findings may assist multilingual writers to better understand the construction of an assertive stance in academic writing, and these 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(2002). “selling or telling? towards understanding cultural variation in research genres” in j. flowerdew (ed.), academic discourse, 216-232. london: longman. dialogic spaces of knowledge construction ibérica 35 (2018): 13-40 39 dr elena sheldon is a lecturer at the faculty of arts and social sciences, at the university of technology sydney (uts). her research interests focus on systemic functional grammar, academic writing, and contrastive rhetoric applied to research. she has published articles in international journals contrasting english l1, english l2 and spanish l1 and a book titled: knowledge construction in academia: a challenge for multilingual scholars. notes 1 prosody is viewed by lemke (1992: 47) as any evaluative feature in texts, a feature that “is not restricted to a particular meaning distributed through the clause, and across the clause and sentence boundaries but evaluations spread throughout the text”. evaluative stances are thus not unrelated words or clauses but choices that communicate with each other throughout the text in making meaning (chang & schleppegrell, 2011). 2 graduation provides a key dialogistic effect associated with scaling-up/scaling-down the preciseness of statements. these resources can assist the engagement system to explore its dialogic functionality more intensively by considering their potential effects in the construal of agreement and solidarity (martin & white, 2005). 3 drawing on the modality of possibilities, these texts employ “might”, “shall”, “may”, “can”, “should”, “could” and “seems”, followed by a verb, which indicates stronger or weaker investment in the propositions. iberica 13 ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 issn 1139-7241 abstract this paper offers a possible framework for working with language for specific purposes (lsp) in an integrated fashion, i.e. with disciplinary learning as the main lever to promote academic literacy. i suggest that a genuine literacies approach in higher education is already disciplinary by necessity and that even if we do not have an immediate disciplinary context to work in, we still need to work with the students’ understanding of the communities they are active in. the framework draws on previous research on “literacies” and “generic skills” as the basic components and incorporates ways of adapting other frameworks such as peer learning and activity theory at the institutional level. the framework is applied on three cases at the division for language and communication. the examples indicate how important flexibility in application is, and how the facilitation of learning under an umbrella concept like “academic literacies” is inherently dependent on learning philosophy. the examples also show how the consistent implementation of a framework philosophy requires versatile solutions of the constructive alignment puzzle in designing the environment, the activities, and the assessment of specific interventions. in combination with the three examples, the suggested framework offers a way of prioritising approaches for arriving at academic literacy. keywords: academic literacies, generic attributes, constructive alignment, peer learning, activity theory. resumen enfoques sobre la alfabetización académica destinados a facilitar el aprendizaje de una lengua con fines específicos el presente artículo ofrece un posible marco para trabajar con las lenguas con fines específicos (lfe) de una manera integrada; es decir, mediante un aprendizaje disciplinar como palanca principal que fomente la alfabetización académica. mi sugerencia defiende que un enfoque genuino de alfabetización en academic literacies approaches for facilitating language for specific purposes magnus gustafsson chalmers university of technology (sweden) magusta@chalmers.se 101 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 101 ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 magnus gustafsson un entorno de educación superior ya es disciplinar por necesidad y que aunque no dispongamos de un contexto inmediatamente disciplinar en el que trabajar, seguimos necesitando trabajar con el conocimiento de las comunidades en las que los estudiantes van a ser partes activas. el marco propuesto se basa en investigaciones anteriores sobre “tipos de alfabetización” y “destrezas genéricas” como componentes esenciales e incluye diversas formas que permiten adaptar otros marcos como por ejemplo aprendizaje entre iguales y teoría de actividades a nivel institucional. el marco se aplica a tres casos concretos dentro de la división de lenguas y comunicación de la universidad tecnológica de chalmers. los ejemplos señalan la importancia de la flexibilidad en la aplicación y cómo la facilitación del aprendizaje bajo un concepto amplio y general como pudiera ser “alfabetización académica” es intrínsecamente dependiente de la filosofía de aprendizaje. los ejemplos también demuestran que la coherente implantación de la filosofía de un marco de trabajo exige diversas soluciones del rompecabezas de alineación constructiva llegado el momento de diseñar el entorno, las actividades y la evaluación de las intervenciones específicas. junto con tres ejemplos, el marco que se sugiere ofrece un modo de priorizar los enfoques destinados a alcanzar la alfabetización académica. palabras clave: alfabetización académica, atributos genéricos, alineación constructiva, aprendizaje entre iguales, teoría de actividades. introduction with increasing globalisation and mobility in education and in professional settings, the successful student is believed to be one who is able to bring learning from one area, discipline, or culture into another for a faster process of community socialisation, knowledge building, and (professional) identity formation. a central component to such mobility is language and communication. thus, the conditions for higher education communication and language activities need to be reconsidered. this work of reconceptualising language and communication takes place in multiple areas or disciplines such as content and language integrated learning (clil)1, writing across the curriculum (wac), language for specific or academic purposes (lsp/lap). in the lsp field, several researchers have noted how the requirements on learning environments have evolved to the point that communicative competence is at best a starting point towards symbolic competence (kramsch, 2006); how the frequently applied genre approach is not yet sufficiently researched and adapted for second language students who need 102 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 102 also to develop a language awareness in addition to specific genres (cheng, 2006); and how socially oriented perspectives on lsp (belcher, 2004) accentuate our insufficient knowledge of (new) genres, the character of community-specific expertise, and our insufficient understanding of the meaning and impact of critical inquiry for lsp. however, while there are many good examples of lsp activities, what may still be missing is a sense of how to approach lsp at institutional levels. given these challenges and our specific context at chalmers university of technology, it seems that a first step is to collaborate more with discipline lecturers. yet, discipline-informed lsp courses or side-by-side teaching of lsp and disciplinary content might be insufficient unless we also have conceptual tools with which to collaborate and to define outcomes for a modern lsp-informed learner profile. more importantly, the vision of such lsp-informed curriculum development requires an institutional commitment to the type of lsp profile meeting the demands of our new learning environments. here, i will try to reiterate some of our arguments and approaches for lsp and discipline collaboration in our activities and interventions. situated at chalmers university of technology, which focuses on engineering education, we often encounter the argument that “communication” courses or interventions are needed because the professional profile requires such abilities. although this is true and promotes the activities of the division for language and communication (from now onwards, “the division”), this argument partly misses the point. while the addition of communication learning outcomes into the syllabi certainly helps promote or at the very least prepare professional communication, learning activities also need to meet the lsp challenges and, as a consequence, help promote deeper learning strategies than disciplinary content alone does. integrating communication learning outcomes promotes students’ ability to observe, adopt, and where necessary adjust the discursive identity of their discipline (jacobs, 2005; fortanet-gomez & räisänen, 2008). so, the purpose of this paper is to offer learning philosophy components of a framework for pursuing the potential that genuine lsp interventions have in scaffolding disciplinary discourse and the concomitant rhetorical awareness of such discourses. because my focus here is on a possible framework for the programme or institutional level, i will only briefly mention the l1 and l2 parametres as they relate to the examples i offer in the second half of the article. however, english is the lingua franca academic literacies approaches ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 103 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 103 for most of the research and education at master’s level and beyond. for many l1 swedish graduates, chalmers is in effect a parallel-language university where discursive efficiency is required for both swedish and english. some components in a framework for facilitating integrated language for specific purposes enhanced learning in this paper, i limit my narrative to the combination of three of many starting points and approaches for discussing lsp and clil. this focus is an attempt to do justice to how these approaches inform the language and communication work we try to promote at the division. as i draw on components as far apart as a uk paradigm of academic literacies and an australian one of graduate attributes as well as on educational frameworks such as peer learning and constructive alignment, i mix terms and perspectives completely but i do so in the hope that it offers a fruitful perspective. i also do so because i find that the learning situations we find ourselves in do not lend themselves to description or analysis in single models. our many students and student profiles, their various programmes and educational levels, and the various institutional cultures we find ourselves in result in very multi-dimensional facilitation situations for higher education. it is improbable that these would crystallise into valid one-model descriptions. academic literacy, graduate attributes, and reflective practices lea and street’s notion of “academic literacies” (lea & street, 1998 & 2004) is familiar to many higher education professionals. having studied student writing practices at university both from the tutor and the student, they articulated a conceptual framework for their observations and their threemodel framework has since become very influential in attempts to analyse what happens in specific educational environments and for designing educational programmes. the first model is what they refer to as the “skills model” (lea & street, 1998: 158). this is the more instrumental view of literacy components as magnus gustafsson ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122104 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 104 isolated skills, which are expected as prerequisites for a specific course or level of education. the next model is the one they call “academic socialisation” (lea & street, 1998: 159). in this model, components viewed as skills are inserted in a social or disciplinary context but there is no emphasis on communicating between disciplines. their third model is the most inclusive of the three and they refer to it as the “academic literacies model” (lea & street, 1998: 158). the literacies perspective requires a more inclusive understanding of the communicative situations that a student faces. in the literacies model, the communication practices are seen as epistemologically integral to a culture and the multi-cultural nature of university is emphasised. in this sense, lea and street argue, the academic literacies model is inclusive of such mechanisms as identity creation, power relations, and institutional culture(s). more importantly, the academic literacies model is the only one of the three that provides a perspective enabling switching practices between the different cultures encountered (lea & street, 1998). even if one of the assumptions of lea and street’s original project was to move away from an unreflective deficit-type, skills-oriented model of student writing, they do emphasise that the models are not mutually exclusive. rather, the opposite is true in a sense that one model includes components from a previous model but employs them contextually. while there is certainly overlap between the models, in theory as well as in practice, it is possible to distinguish between them by adding further levels or layers to the framework. one effective attempt at this expansion of the model is the one provided in the work by roz ivanic (2004). ivanic added a meta-analysis of writing research and pedagogy resulting in a framework consisting of six discourses about writing and suggested their respective connection to pedagogical practice. in her more detailed framework, ivanic articulates three discourses about writing that overlap with lea and street’s skills model. these are the “skills discourse”, the “creativity discourse”, and the “process discourse” of writing (ivanic, 2004: 227-232). both creativity and process discourses could feasibly be put to use in different approaches but in ivanic’s framework they remain connected with skills rather than with socialization due to the implicit product orientation in all three discourses and the demotion of the social context of writing. this distinction in her framework is useful since it distinguishes between orientation and approaches for discourses about writing. academic literacies approaches ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 105 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 105 ivanic’s two following discourses correspond to lea and street’s “socialisation” model. her fourth discourse is called a “genre discourse” of writing (ivanic, 2004: 232-234). from her description of this discourse, it appears that an understanding of genre largely informed systemic functional linguistics and explicit teaching of linguistic features in specific genres. the genre discourse and its social orientation is followed by ivanic’s fifth discourse which is the “social practices discourse” (ivanic, 2004: 234-237). the emphasis in “social practices” is the purpose-driven writing that is also given a social context with a real-life connection. the close connection between the “genre discourse” and the “social practices” might explain why the social and rhetorical orientation in us genre discourse is not much articulated in the ivanic framework. the us genre discourse as articulated, for instance, by miller (1984) is potentially represented by the “social practices” discourse of writing in this framework. the third model in lea and street’s articulation, the academic literacies one, corresponds, to ivanic’s fifth and sixth discourses. the sixth discourse is “sociopolitical” and as such it relates closely to lea and street’s academic literacy in that both ways of conceiving writing include exploring and negotiating power relations and issues of identity (ivanic, 2004). ivanic, like lea and street, suggests that the discourses are to a large extent cumulative and that the social and genre stances in the previous discourses are naturally activated also in a sociopolitical discourse. however, the crucial difference is that it is not possible to see genre, for instance, as a neutral tool to be used strategically in a communicative situation; rather, sociopolitical power relations in particular situations “dictate” genre usage. in this sense, the writer becomes a social agent in a social constructivist landscape of writing interaction. leaving the uk context and turning to the corresponding issues in australian higher education, simon c. barrie has studied how australian university policies emphasising the loosely defined notion of “generic graduate attributes” are understood and articulated by colleagues in the disciplines (barrie, 2006 & 2007). interviewing a controlled set of 15 informants (from five disciplinary domains (basic sciences, humanities, professional disciplines), barrie was able to synthesise his data into a “concept of generic graduate attributes” (barrie, 2006: 223). much like ivanic includes the pedagogical approaches in the discourses, barrie includes the teaching and learning approaches as articulated by his colleagues (barrie, 2007). magnus gustafsson ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122106 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 106 first of all, barrie’s concept overlaps with the lea and street and ivanic models in content and focus but his phenomenographic approach and analysis gave rise to slightly different categories so the overlap is less immediate at a terminological level. the sydney colleagues, thus, conceived of graduate generic attributes in one of four ways. at one end of a potential continuum, the attributes are seen as “precursory” (barrie, 2006: 225). with such an understanding, a colleague would think of writing as a skill or set of skills that should already be established among students by the time they reach university or at least a specific course at university. so, barrie’s “precursor” corresponds to the initial skills model or discourse in the lea and street or ivanic frameworks. with a precursor concept of the generic attributes, they become irrelevant since they ought to be established prior to disciplinary education at university. the second level concept for the generic graduate attributes is the one where such skills are seen as complements to university education and outcomes of education. in this “complement concept” of the attributes (barrie, 2006: 226), they are viewed as isolated compartmentalised skills but are indeed part of the learning outcomes of higher education. however, they are secondary to disciplinary knowledge and therefore the responsibility of other teachers or the students themselves. the third level concept that barrie’s colleagues articulated, “translation”, is more inclusive than the previous two concepts. here the attributes are seen as characteristics that allow students to make sense of and apply or translate disciplinary knowledge (barrie, 2006: 227). thus, the relationship between the generic attributes and the discipline is no longer one where the attributes are isolated add-ons but are instead seen as connected to disciplinary learning. the fourth level barrie describes is one where generic graduate attributes are seen as enabling (barrie, 2006: 229). it is tempting to see similarities between the translation concept and the enabling concept in terms of there merely being a difference in the degree of integration between the two. however, barrie is explicit in his emphasis that with the enabling concept of attributes, they are at the core of university learning: in this conception, generic attributes are seen as transcending disciplinary boundaries even though they are initially developed within disciplinary contexts. the foregrounded abilities in this fourth structure of awareness are not atomistic (level 2) or clustered (level 3) skills and abilities. rather what is academic literacies approaches ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 107 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 107 present is an interwoven and holistic world-view and aptitude for learning. (barrie, 2006: 230) when the attributes are seen from a holistic perspective, they become transformative in ways that exceed isolated application or translation to a specific discipline and its problem solving challenges. instead, these attributes are understood to help students reshape knowledge or construct new knowledge in areas removed from their original field of study. so, with this conception attributes “are understood as abilities that are the keys to inquiry and learning in many aspects of life, not just formal study” (barrie, 2006: 230). it is in this articulation that it is possible to see considerable concept overlap between barrie’s “enabling”, ivanic’s “sociopolitical”, and to some extent also lea and street’s “academic literacies”. some overlap can be expected in our respective ways of understanding generic skills or attributes, but it is probably more rewarding to look at how we address these attributes in teaching and learning activities. here, ivanic (2004) offers the more explicit framework as she correlates each level with predominant teaching approaches. similarly, barrie (2007) offers an overview of the teaching and learning approaches his colleagues articulated in his data. barrie’s overview is interesting as it overlaps in indirect ways with assumptions in the lea and street model and ivanic’s teaching approaches. for instance, all three sets appear to share an understanding that the skills model often connects the teaching of explicit isolated skills in atomistic fashion relying on the specific instruction and templates provided by teachers or instructors. there is also inclusive overlap between ivanic’s mapping of pedagogical approaches to the process, the genre, and the social practices discourses with the teaching and learning approaches barrie articulated for the translation conception of generic attributes. barrie’s overview makes explicit what remains implicit in lea and street as well as in ivanic: the translation concept of graduate attributes requires “teaching content” (barrie, 2007: 451). the overlap between ivanic’s and barrie’s mappings is representative, i believe, of how the more inclusive understanding of generic attributes requires sustained and informed engagement of colleagues from the disciplines in order to facilitate the generic learning outcomes at the more ambitious levels of understanding. this involvement of content lecturers in facilitating “literacies” is present in all three “frameworks” but is most explicit in barrie’s mapping magnus gustafsson ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122108 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 108 another dimension in which all three attempts at describing and categorizing generic attributes converge is the relative paucity of detail for the most demanding concept or level – “academic literacies”, “sociopolitical”, and “enabling”, respectively. there are, at least, three challenges here. first to actually observe, or generate, learning environments that can be said to represent this level of understanding. the second challenge lies in moving beyond the discipline or the university environment to verify the assumptions informing this more far-reaching conception of students successfully pursuing generic graduate attributes in their practice. the third and most demanding challenge lies in refining and sharing the methodologies that best involve and motivate students in the learning of generic attributes in the more inclusive ways they can be articulated. so, the paucity of detail and example of the demanding “enabling” level is partly explained by the fact that it is rarely reached. many institutions and educational programmes settle for an academic or professional identity. such academic and professional identities often stay at the socialization level. these challenges aside, it seems that from the limited perspective of communication for specific purposes, we need to look into what it takes to move beyond the initial and remedial skills level toward the socialization (lea & street) and translation level (barrie) and then beyond that to “enabling sociopolitical literacy”. we also have to acknowledge that we are not always in learning environments where this move is prioritised. there may even be a disciplinary preference in educational institutions if professional education might “settle for” socialization and translation, which would not be an option for a liberal arts educational institution. regardless of our institutional environment, additional components seem useful to facilitate the generic attributes learning we pursue. the first addition is to introduce the context specific mechanisms, theories, or concepts that best help students toward a reflective meta-perspective on the given set of attributes in a programme or institution. this involves different designs across institutions but in our experience introducing the notion of mediated action as used in activity systems analysis theory (engeström, 1987 & 2001; russell, 1997; russell & yañes, 2003) is indeed helpful for students. without working activity theory at an advanced level, we strive to maintain the essential vygotskian emphasis on mediation and find that the intuitive appeal of the “activity system” helps facilitate an understanding of some of the mechanisms involved as students move between systems and potentially beyond university. it is possible, too, that activity systems thinking helps academic literacies approaches ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 109 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 109 students negotiate some of the restrictions of being learners in an academic university setting rather than in a genuinely professional setting even if it is the academic setting that generates the immediate external motivation (petraglia, 1998). similarly, we find that some summative assessment strategies are counterproductive to the learning outcomes we wish to promote for graduate attributes and that, therefore, we need to find assessment and assignment designs that rely on formative peer learning and assessment (boud, cohen & sampson, 1999 & 2001; falchikov, 2005; gillespie & lerner, 2008). many assumptions inform peer assessment strategies but the more critical ones for our activities include actually getting an “audience” reaction either in terms of a reader or listener or for issues of teaming and knowledge building (see young, reiss & gustafsson, 2006). in successful circumstances, we also see this peer assessment design staged in multi-cultural or interdisciplinary student groups, which further enhances learning and meta-perspective(s) on graduate attributes. examples of translating the theoretical framework into our activities chalmers university of technology is a research university with a long history of engineering education. situated on the west coast of sweden in gothenburg, the university staffs approximately 1,500 teachers and researchers, as well as approximately 12,000 individual students (chalmers, 2010). so, it is not a large institution. across all the programmes and educations at the university (bsc eng, bsc, msc eng, msc, msarch), there are almost 1,000 international students, most of whom are enrolled in one of the 40 international master’s programmes. despite the recent increase in international student numbers and the increased use of english, there is currently no parallel language policy enforced at the university. rather, many students find themselves in a language environment that shares more characteristics with english as a lingua franca (elf) – see, for instance, björkman in this issue. the organisational structure of the university comprises disciplinary research departments and an educational organisation independent and separate from the departments. in this educational structure, programme managers place orders for courses with the relevant research departments magnus gustafsson ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122110 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 110 against conditions set up by the programme and specified in a contract with each department; the typical student is a student on a programme; and there is a clear professional and end-user orientation to the programme design. our work focuses almost exclusively on the programme level but we have also developed elective courses open to all students across the university. working in programmes, we deliver tailor-made and integrated courses and modules and try to ensure that the interventions provide progression in the communication outcomes we facilitate. effectively, we design a “writing in the disciplines programme” for each engineering programme we work with. our interventions in different educational programmes vary in character. sometimes they are little more than a sequence of two or three courses in a three-year programme employing a rather superficial approach to communication that focuses on technical reporting and written or oral proficiency in swedish and/or english. so, we sometimes work in contexts characterized by a skills model or at best a process discourse about generic graduate attributes (lea & street 1998; ivanic, 2004). however, we also work with programmes where there are opportunities and conditions to more closely integrate language and content progressively. in such conditions, communication outcomes are never isolated from the disciplines and communication becomes a dimension of disciplinary knowledge and belonging. consequently, it is easier to promote a view of generic graduate attributes informing the engagement with knowledge formation and disciplinary learning. such a view coincides in many ways with “academic socialisation” and with a “genre discourse” as well as with the concept of “translation” (lea & street, 1998; ivanic, 2004; barrie, 2006). however, even such ambitious engineering programme contexts can, paradoxically, present restrictions to our work. the learning paradigm many students find themselves in is such that the individual student needs to be able to access and contribute to a specific engineering discipline only. thus there is a risk that progamme designers focus exclusively on the specific discipline or profession, which means that the programme’s discourse about generic graduate attributes stops at the level of socialization, social practice, or translation (lea & street, 1998; ivanic, 2004; barrie, 2006). given this background of our programme environments, it is possible to look at three examples from our activities. the objective with the descriptions is to enable a tentative correlation with the frameworks of generic attributes rather than providing fully data-driven profiles of the academic literacies approaches ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 111 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 111 respective activities. one example comes from a highly integrated intervention; the second example is potentially surprising as it may appear to be too heavily product-oriented; the third example is paradoxical in that it is strictly speaking not integrated and technically an isolated course so progression is problematic, yet it appears to be very effective for student learning. one important quality in all three examples is the fact that they all require very different solutions to the challenge of designing interventions that are constructively aligned (biggs, 1999; biggs & tang, 2007). they have different learning outcomes and ways of reaching them but the communication outcomes are all informed by the type of conceptualisation for generic communication outcomes that is offered in lea and street, ivanic, and barrie. technical communication in a three-year chemical engineering programme the chemical engineering programme is a fair example of our work in highly integrated course environments. our activities in the programme have been described elsewhere at some length focusing on integration, peer work, and writing to learn (ericsson & gustafsson, 2008). here, my aim is to relate our design and activities for the programme to the suggested framework components for generic graduate attributes. referring to the three articulations of levels in generic attributes, it is possible to talk of progression not only in terms of the types of communication activities students engage in but also what type of understanding of generic skills that informs the design or activity. similarly, it is necessary to look also at the variation in communicative situations that students are exposed to as a critical component to move beyond a skills level approach. combining “progression” and “variety”, our courses in this programme span at least two of the lea and street levels and the corresponding levels for ivanic and barrie. our work with this programme starts in the first year with learning activities geared towards acquiring disciplinary and academic discourse in swedish. we meet the students in the spring term and collaborate with a course in “industrial chemistry”. in this course, and in our components in it, most of the students consequently work in their first language and our focus is their translation (barrie) of the communication strategies they acquired in upper magnus gustafsson ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122112 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 112 secondary school into a discipline-specific university context. this approach involves process writing for genres like the technical report, the oral presentation and the critical reading of a literature review but very little effort is spent on remedial work in the sense of assuming a specific set of pre-requisite attributes. similarly, working together with the content lecturer ensures that the communication dimension is discipline-informed and involves content as well as process. for the purposes of testing the framework on our own activities, however, i want to focus on the interventions for communication in english. our activities facilitated in english involve a larger span of the framework and as such might serve to indicate the impact of the l1 and l2 environments, respectively. for technical communication in english, we first meet students during the fall of their second year. this intervention is not integrated and is very much a skills-informed proficiency course where, for instance they practice grammar in an online environment and take a final exam for grammar proficiency. here we see that although the programme perspective is a precursor (barrie) one, we need to compensate that by sequencing our series of activities such that the progression suggests the subsequent levels in the framework. therefore, the students embark on a more writingoriented course in their spring term and they write a commentary about a vaguely chemistry-related article or topic. the scaffolding is largely processoriented and while the product has no content-oriented audience beyond the student group, the writing assignments constitute a series of steps towards exploring what academic written discourse for chemical engineering is like. their next step is to instruct each other about critical components for separation technology, which is one of the integrated disciplinary courses. in that regard, this seminar activity, the disciplinary course, and the communication course are fully integrated creating a meaningful learning environment informed by actual communication with a real audience and high stakes chemistry content. the specific genre is less obvious in this seminar as the students write a technical explanation to a group of peers, but in terms of ivanic’s discourses the scaffolding of technical communication is aligned with the “social practices” discourse (ivanic, 2004) and helps promote a sense of disciplinary action. the students also conduct a second seminar where they argue for and explain a design decision for a specific industrial separation process. like the first seminar, the process involved in this seminar promotes peer review and multiple versions of texts. a third step for the students’ disciplinary progression involves their field-specific academic literacies approaches ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 113 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 113 reading. some of the course literature in the separation technology course is quite demanding and we therefore assist the content lecturer by scaffolding that reading with a disciplinary (critical) reading seminar to help isolate the disciplinary specificity of the text and involve the students in answering each other’s questions on the textbook reading. in all, although the set of activities used and the communication outcomes that are articulated are relevant also to other disciplines, they are employed here in very discipline-specific content. in this programme, initial activities in english are essentially skills-informed language proficiency activities for the efl-context which the students are exposed to later. these give way to more genre-informed activities to promote socialisation, social practice, and translation levels (lea & street, 1998; ivanic, 2004; barrie, 2006). the emphasis on different communication forms, on gradually more demanding situations, and recurring peer assessment activities are all components that enhance the students’ notion of technical communication in their discipline while also offering higher-order learning activities. however, even if the multi-step intervention helps promote a sense of identity as a chemical engineer, the type of setup available in this programme currently does not necessarily generate designs and activities that are characterized by the sociopolitical discourse and enabling conceptions of generic attributes. a writing intervention for the university-wide bachelor thesis projects with the bologna agreement, all students at the bachelor level are required to conduct a 15-credit study and document it as a bachelor thesis in their third year. at chalmers, these projects are run as group projects during the third year spring term. supervisors at each department post projects available to students across many engineering programmes and our division is involved by scaffolding the communication dimensions of the projects. this results in a university-wide concern with the bachelor project interventions and a number of multidisciplinary projects that include students from more than one engineering programme.2 a dean’s decision requires the bachelor thesis be written in swedish but there are many supervisors who can only work in english and some projects really make little sense in swedish so there are many theses in english as well. magnus gustafsson ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122114 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 114 at a superficial glance, our involvement in the bachelor projects will look like a skills-oriented one. for some students, it might be. these are students for whom the writing of a technical report is “still” a template exercise and who have supervisors supporting that approach. however, for the majority of students this learning experience holds greater potential given that we face a long writing process often comprising multiple kinds of documents in addition to multiple versions; that the teams are often multidisciplinary with a real distribution of project-related expertise; and that the setup involves project teams in peer response work as well as a critique by a different project team for the final presentation. in many cases, there is also a valid sense of working on a real project with a real audience. most of the projects, irrespective of supervisor profile, seem to attract highly motivated student groups who gradually develop a sense of authority in their projects. the division provides a series of lectures on technical communication in swedish. in addition to the lectures, we also provide a series of three compulsory tutorials. the first tutorial focuses on facilitating the peer response between two groups. the two groups have exchanged early versions of their reports and the session focuses on discussing the two reports in terms of understanding and negotiating the comments generated. the second and third tutorials are designed for one group per session only and tend to focus on strategically using the expected genre, the technical report and the oral presentation, to do justice to the project and its main strengths. the distribution of the three tutorials emphasizes how the project develops over the spring term and how their initial articulation of various concepts or theories in it was suboptimal given their end-of-term level of understanding and degree of (multi-) disciplinarity. the genre focus of the tutorials is therefore coupled also with a focus on the group’s learning progression and how that is reflected in language and communication. we invite the content supervisors to the tutorials but only very few supervisors choose to accompany their groups. the tutorial discussion is more interesting with the supervisors contributing and there is some degree of increased disciplinary credibility when they are present. while this credibility promotes the project disciplinary depth and exemplifies the integration of content and language, it need not necessarily generate the type of meta-disciplinary insights required to take this intervention from the level of socialization, social practice, and translation levels to the levels of the enabling or sociopolitical. to be sure, it does in some cases and with some student categories – notably the “academic susans” in biggs’ old academic literacies approaches ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 115 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 115 categorisation (biggs, 1999; biggs & tang, 2007). it might also lead to this level of understanding in specific cases and with particularly active supervisors who approach generic graduate attributes with this type of understanding. in most cases, though, it is an intervention design that helps engineering students in the sometimes awkward task of moving between multiple disciplines as well as between engineers and end-users, which in itself is no small task and an important learning outcome. enabling sociopolitical discourse in an elective course? the two first examples have been courses or interventions that are compulsory to the students involved. they also exemplify interventions that are highly integrated in the curriculum of the respective student groups. at first glance, it would seem that compulsory integrated activities are required for literacy-oriented work with graduate attributes but at times we also face situations where we can only offer students elective courses that are not strictly speaking integrated into the curriculum. predictably, it is a challenge to promote an enabling sociopolitical discourse in learning environments where the institutional conditions are really indicative of a complement concept of generic attributes (barrie, 2006). the third example, therefore, is an elective course in technical communication offered over 14 weeks for 7.5 credits alongside one or two programme-specific courses at each student’s master programme. the isolated nature of electives means that the only integration taking place is that generated by the students themselves. they do this by using assignments from other courses, by relying on their disciplinary expertise for the technical communication content development in the course, and by applying their new perspectives on technical communication in their parallel courses. they also integrate generic attributes by negotiating their conceptions of genre in the multi-disciplinary learning environment with other course participants, who tend to come from other disciplines. the design of the course prioritises technical communication theory and tutoring theory over proficiency as such. so, like many of our courses, it is informed by genre theory. however, unlike most of our courses, it involves problematising genre by reading and discussing genre theory and testing it on students’ technical communication experience. while most of our courses are based on genre theory, they tend not to involve actually reading magnus gustafsson ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122116 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 116 about the development of, and possible positions and interpretations of genre. an additional way in which students gain a meta-perspective on communication is through the tutoring component of the course; it is our peer tutor course for working in the writing centre as a peer tutor. peer tutoring philosophies are decisive in enhancing student perception of graduate attributes as far as communication goes. to have the responsibility of having to begin to understand the communicative constraints of another student and the disciplinary conditions that student faces is one that does indeed have the potential to provide enabling sociopolitical discourse insights for many students. again, like for genre theory, the difference here seems to be the deliberate discussion of theory or philosophy. almost all our courses and interventions have peer learning components but only rarely is there an explicit discussion of the philosophy of peer learning. the third apparent difference with the elective in technical communication compared to the other two examples and the rest of our courses and interventions is the inclusion and explicit discussion of activity theory. while i do not claim that the course seminar and the discussion in it generates a very sophisticated level of activity systems awareness and application, we do see how the perspective enabled by activity theory is an effective component towards an enabling sociopolitical discourse. relatively speaking, a larger proportion of the students in the technical communication course appear to reach this level than do students in the bsc thesis intervention or in the three-year chemical engineering course. there are confounding parameters though. it is an elective course and as such might attract a larger proportion of high achiever students and students for whom the communication attributes and learning outcomes have rarely been extremely demanding to reach. it is also an intensive seminar with a limited number of students involved in multiple discussions about disciplinary technical communication involving several disciplines. given such settings it is conceivably more probable that the learning environment supports students in enabling sociopolitical discourse. concluding remarks – language for specific purposes and enabling sociopolitical literacies lea and street (1998: 158) are careful to emphasise that the three levels in their model are in no way linear or replace each other since “each model academic literacies approaches ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 117 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 117 encapsulates the other”. the same overlap in discourses and conceptions seems valid also for ivanic and barrie. the three examples from our activities also show this encapsulation of the approaches. however, it is more difficult to establish exactly what is required for an intervention approach to fall under the socialisation, social practices, and translation categories. genre can obviously be taught at the skills level and process orientation need not by definition help a student with the challenge of translation in a discipline or between disciplines. furthermore, it is also hard to verify that facilitating an intervention with a certain approach or conceptualisation actually means that students achieve the corresponding learning outcomes. in table 1, i attempt to visualise the overlap between the three frameworks for “generic graduate attributes” and offer a suggestion for where priorities might lie for many lsp interventions. it may need pointing out, though, that already in the three examples from our activities, the chemical engineering students, at least in terms of their technical communication in english, are offered a more linear journey from skills to social practices as it were. so, table 1 and the lsp priorities suggested in it reflect the fact that, given the professional education context we face, many of our courses and interventions are informed by basic writing process pedagogy and genre applications (swales, 1990; swales & feak 2004). with that “level” as our starting point, we include peer learning (boud, cohen & sampson, 2001; falchikov, 2005) and closer discipline integration in order to facilitate engagement (barrie), social practices (ivanic), and academic socialisation (lea & street). however, we also find ourselves in situations where we need to design interventions that would strictly speaking qualify as oriented towards remedial skills. this sequence in many ways does justice to our magnus gustafsson ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122118 lea & street ivanic barrie lsp model (approach) discourse approach concept approach priorities skills explicit skills precursor remedial creative self-expression complement associated 3 skills process focus on process teaching content genre genre informed teaching process 1 socialisation social practices functional and purposeful communication translation engagement 2 literacy sociopolitical critical literacy enabling participatory 4 table 1. generic attributes and approaches and their possible relation to lsp practice.3 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 118 agenda and the immediate professional context of engineering provides the incentive for students to add the skills level to their lsp-development.4 to what extent our interventions are indicative of, or facilitate enabling sociopolitical literacy and an empowered identity beyond that of their discipline is more difficult to assess. to be confident about that would require closer and deeper integration with disciplinary colleagues across the various departments involved in a specific learning environment. it would also require examples of students moving both between disciplinary environments and multiple-communities on the one hand and beyond the university on the other hand. for enabling sociopolitical literacy including its more far-reaching sense of empowerment and identity to even begin to develop in lsp-informed contexts (priority 4 in table 1), deep disciplinary collaboration is necessary in one way or another. there are at least three ways of realising such collaboration as it can take place between facilitators, between students, or within student projects. students need to negotiate multiple disciplines or cultures to further pursue the more demanding level. in short, discipline specificity is not enough in isolation to negotiate between cultures. a vision for this might be called “institutional lsp” which would promote “multi-disciplinary language and communication throughout the curriculums”. here, “curriculums” is crucial in the sense of the many specific curricula across an institution and “multi-disciplinary” is used not primarily in terms of multi-disciplinary fields but more in terms of education that promotes the negotiation between potentially disparate disciplines and cultures.5 i believe it is precisely this negotiation that is important for reaching enabling sociopolitical literacy by moving beyond the isolated disciplinary focus, which risks promoting simplistic monologism (lillis, 2003), and instead helping students towards a position of greater “negative capability”.6 needless to say, this kind of educational environment of high quality integrated lsp interventions requires considerable institutional commitment and collaboration among colleagues. it also implies that the institution’s commitment must mean, at a very basic organisational level, that language and communication faculty are not demoted to peripheral positions in educational systems forcing us to settle for skills and translation approaches. however, avoiding such peripheral positions also challenges us since we will have to expand our professional horizons and be more involved in the teaching of academic literacies approaches ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 119 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 119 discipline-specific content in order to spot the crucial learning activities that 1) require communication support to enhance learning; 2) lend themselves to effective or critical communication interventions; 3) are critical to professional identities in terms of communication literacy beyond the isolated discipline, the university, and a specific profession (see a similar argument by jacobs, 2005). so, we face a definitional issue as “communication-related learning outcomes” in this vision move beyond mere (discipline-specific) report or article writing or various types of business communication components. instead, “communication outcomes” crystallize as we analyze the courses we collaborate with from the perspective of constructive alignment (biggs, 1999; biggs & tang, 2007) and decide how we can best or most efficiently meet the learning outcomes of the course and its various constituent assignments in terms of a sociopolitically enabling literacy discourse. acknowledgements i thank the anonymous reviewers who did a good job providing valuable suggestions for improving the paper. the guest editor maria kuteeva has also significantly contributed to the revision process and improved the paper. [paper received november 2010] [revised paper accepted april 2011] references magnus gustafsson ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122120 barrie, s.c. (2006). “understanding what we mean by the generic attributes of graduates”. higher education 51: 215-241. barrie, s.c. (2007). “a conceptual framework for the teaching and learning of generic graduate attributes”. studies in higher education 32: 439-458. belcher, d. (2004). “trends in teaching english for specific purposes”. annual review of applied linguistics 24: 165-186. biggs, j. (1999). “what the student does: teaching for enhanced learning”. higher education research and development 18: 57-75. biggs, j. & c. tang (2007). teaching for quality learning at university: what the student does, 3rd ed. mcgrawhill, maidenhead & new york: open university press/mcgraw hill education. boud, d., r. cohen & j. sampson (1999) “peer learning and assessment”. assessment and evaluation in higher education 24: 413-426. boud, d., r. cohen & j. sampson (2001). peer learning in higher education: learning from & with each other. london: kogan page. chalmers (2010). annual report. url: http://www.chalmers.se/en/sections/about_chalme rs/annual_report6784 [6/7/10] cheng, a. (2006). “understanding learners and learning in esp genre-based writing instruction” english for specific purposes 25: 76-89. engeström, y. (1987). learning by expanding: an activity theoretical approach to developmental research. helsinki: orienta-konsultit oy. engeström, y. (2001). “expansive learning at work: toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization”. journal of education and work 14: 133-156. 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 120 magnus gustafsson is director of the division for language and communication at chalmers university of technology, gothenburg, sweden. focusing on discipline-specific communication, he works to develop curricularly integrated communication interventions to enhance students’ content learning while also facilitating good communication literacy with interventions ensuring progression and increasingly demanding learning outcomes. notes 1 please note that for this article i make no distinction between clil and integrated language and content (icl). 2 the total number of projects over the spring is approximately 220 and some 40% of them are multidisciplinary. academic literacies approaches ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122 121 ericsson, a-m. & m. gustafsson (2008). “tackling transfer and transferability: esp/eap design for learning beyond templates” in i. fortanet-gómez & c.a. räisänen (eds.), 117-143. falchikov, n. (2005). improving assessment through student involvement: practical solutions for aiding learning in higher and further education. london: routledgefalmer. fortanet-gómez, i. & c.a. räisänen (eds.). (2008). esp in european higher education: integrating language and content. amsterdam: john benjamins. gillespie, p. & n. lerner (2008). the longman guide to peer tutoring, 2nd ed. new york: pearson-longman. ivanic, r. (2004). “discourses of writing and learning to write”. language and education 18: 220245. jacobs, c. (2005). “on being and insider on the outside: new spaces for integrating academic literacies”. teaching in higher education 10: 475487. kramsch, c. (2006). “from communicative competence to symbolic competence”. modern language journal 90: 249-252. lea, m. & b. street (1998). “student writing in higher education: an academic literacies approach”. studies in higher education 11: 182-199. lea, m. & b. street (2004). “the ‘academic literacies’ model: theory and applications”. theory into practice 45: 368-377. lillis, t. (2003). “student writing as ‘academic literacies’: drawing on bakhtin to move from critique to design”. language and education 17: 192-207. miller, c. (1984). “genre as social action”. quarterly journal of speech 70: 151-167. petraglia, j. (1998). reality by design: the rhetoric and technology of authenticity in education. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum. russell, d. (1997). “rethinking genre in school and society: an activity theory analysis”. written communication 14: 504-554. russell, d. & a. yañes (2003). “‘big picture people rarely become historians’: genre systems and the contradictions of general education” in c. bazerman & d. russell (eds), writing selves/writing societies: research from activity perspectives, 331-362. fort collins, colorado: the wac clearinghouse. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. & c.b. feak (2004). academic writing for graduate students: a course for nonnative speakers of english. ann arbor: university of michigan press. young, a., d. reiss & m. gustafsson, m. (2006). “writing, literature, and technology: online writing and conversational learning”. journal of college writing 8: 5-18. 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 121 3 the table layout and content are based on and adapted from lea and street (1998: 158-160), ivanic (2004: 225) and barrie (2007: 452). the models do not correspond perfectly but the partial overlap is rewarding for intervention design. lsp = language for specific purposes. 4 obviously, some students experience this as a backward process and would have us start at a templateinformed skills level that we want to avoid. 5 my use here of the term “curriculums” is informed by conversations with david russell and his use of the word in a joint project in progress. 6 please allow for a generous use of keats’ term from his december 21, 1817 letter to his brothers. in our lsp-context the term translates into an insight of each separate discipline’s limitations, the ability to address that limitation as something that is not “certain” or laid down at a procedural level, and the ability to exist in that uncertainty without regressing into the relative safety of the isolated discipline. magnus gustafsson ibérica 22 (2011): 101-122122 05 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:02 página 122 iberica 13 ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 issn 1139-7241 resumen el objetivo de este trabajo es ofrecer una visión general sobre la estructura textual de las memorias de arquitectura de divulgación utilizando un modelo de análisis basado en los modelos existentes para otros géneros académicos y científicos. mediante un análisis basado en la utilización de recursos informáticos este artículo presenta algunos de los resultados obtenidos sobre la organización estructural en movimientos de una memoria de arquitectura y los recursos retóricos utilizados para la realización de la función contenida en cada uno de estos movimientos. se ha procedido al reconocimiento de las pautas de organización de los sesenta textos contenidos en el corpus, y se ha atendido a aspectos como el grado de obligatoriedad, la aparición cíclica o puntual y la organización jerárquica de estos recursos. estos resultados parecen indicar que, a pesar de estar basado en ciertas pautas o prescripciones en cuanto a su organización, el contenido de una memoria de arquitectura de divulgación no parece estar sujeto a demasiadas restricciones sobre los aspectos que debe tratar ni sobre el orden de presentación de éstos. no obstante, es posible establecer un prototipo basado en la categoría central del género de la memoria de arquitectura y precisar cuál es la abstracción almacenada en la memoria de los miembros de la comunidad discursiva de los arquitectos. palabras clave: análisis del discurso, género, organización del texto, memoria de arquitectura, recursos retóricos. abstract the rhetorical structure of the architecture design statement for dissemination: a genre analysis the aim of this study is to offer an overall view of the text organization in architecture design statements for dissemination purposes through an analysis la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura de divulgación: un análisis de género paloma poveda cabanes universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) ppoveda@orange.es 55 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 55 ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 paloma poveda cabanes based on existing models in other academic and scientific genres. this article presents some of the results, obtained through an analysis based on the use of computer tools, on the move organization of this type of texts and the rhetorical devices used for the realization of the function fulfilled by each of these moves. the organization patterns of the sixty texts contained in the corpus have been identified, paying attention to aspects such as obligatory nature, cyclical or isolated appearance and hierarchical organization of these devices. results suggest that, although the contents of an architecture design statement for dissemination appear to be based on certain patterns or prescriptions as far as their organization is concerned, they do not seem to be subject to many restrictions on the aspects they must deal with or on their presentation order. however, it is possible to outline a prototype based on the central category of the genre of architecture design statements which corresponds to the abstraction stored in the memory of the members of the discourse community of architects. keywords: discourse analysis, genre, text organization, architecture design statement, rhetorical devices. 1. introducción el objetivo general de este trabajo es un análisis del género de la memoria de arquitectura de divulgación que se fundamentará en uno de los rasgos más significativos de este tipo de textos: la organización del texto como principal estrategia comunicativa al servicio de los objetivos de la comunidad discursiva de los profesionales de la arquitectura. se trata, pues, de un enfoque que parte de una concepción del género basada en la estructura del texto. según afirma taboada (2004), un texto se considera como perteneciente a un género lingüístico determinado debido a sus características estructurales, es decir, atendiendo a su división en fases, capítulos o lo que swales (1981), en uno de los estudios pioneros sobre la estructura del texto, llamó “movimientos”. esta división viene dictada por la función que desempeña el texto en una situación comunicativa concreta. son muchos los trabajos recientes que, con análisis planteados desde un enfoque similar a éste, han contribuido al conocimiento de diversos géneros en otros campos científicos y académicos con estudios situados en el marco de la organización textual. se puede citar a connor y mauranen (1999), con su análisis lingüístico de las solicitudes de becas de investigación; hyland (2000), con su estudio sobre el género del abstract; henry y roseberry (2001), con su análisis de los movimientos de la carta de solicitud de trabajo; yang y 56 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 56 allison (2003), con su estudio sobre la organización de la información en los capítulos de resultados, discusión, conclusión y/o aplicaciones pedagógicas del artículo de investigación; o ding (2007), con su estudio sobre la estructura de las cartas de presentación para solicitar el acceso a escuelas superiores. existen, además, numerosos análisis sobre los diferentes capítulos que han de componer una tesis doctoral. entre otros, se pueden destacar los de bunton (2002 y 2005), sobre los capítulos de introducción y conclusión, y kwan (2006), sobre el capítulo de fundamentación teórica. los textos producidos en la comunidad profesional de los arquitectos parecen haber recibido poca atención por parte de la investigación lingüística hasta el momento. se conocen estudios sobre el uso de la metáfora en el género de la reseña arquitectónica (caballero, 2002, 2003 y 2006) y en las conversaciones profesionales de los arquitectos (úbeda, 2003a y 2003b), pero ninguno sobre la organización del texto ni, en concreto, sobre el género de la memoria de arquitectura. consideramos que el análisis de este género desde una perspectiva de la estructura textual puede tener importantes aplicaciones pedagógicas y contribuir a la formación de los futuros miembros de la comunidad discursiva de los arquitectos, ya que combina el reconocimiento de ciertas pautas o regularidades de un tipo de lenguaje en uso con la observación de una serie de factores culturales, institucionales y relativos a la disciplina que inciden en la producción de este tipo de textos. 2. el discurso arquitectónico entre los rasgos más característicos del discurso arquitectónico está el hecho de que, en general, va dirigido a una audiencia “entrenada para leer imágenes y palabras” (caballero, 2006: 11), por lo que suele consistir en una combinación de elementos gráficos y verbales que es típica de la disciplina. según caballero (2006), esta asociación entre lenguaje y dibujo que es característica del discurso arquitectónico en general ha sido explicada por diversos autores como un medio para facilitar la comunicación entre los arquitectos y las personas ajenas a la profesión (ackerman y oates, 1996), además de como una forma de compensar la falta de fuerza elocutiva y la debilidad pragmática de las representaciones gráficas (medway, 1996). por otro lado, una gran parte de los textos de arquitectura tienen en común un carácter prescriptivo. y esto es aplicable tanto a los textos aparecidos a lo largo de la historia (entre los que destaca el tratado arquitectónico) como a la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 57 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 57 algunos de los géneros actuales (monográficos, escritos teóricos, bases de concursos o manuales de diseño). pero existen también géneros arquitectónicos cuyos efectos son menos constrictivos, en parte debido al hecho de que son producidos después de la creación del producto sobre el que tratan. en esta categoría se podrían situar, por ejemplo, los textos históricos, el tipo de crítica o reseña arquitectónica que aparece en los medios, las guías de viaje, los catálogos de exposiciones o museos así como la memoria de arquitectura, el género sobre el que se centra este trabajo. sin embargo, y según markus y cameron (2002), aunque el principal objetivo comunicativo de estos géneros parece ser la descripción o la argumentación, un estudio más minucioso revela que ésta no es su única función. casi todos ellos tienen un propósito abierta o implícitamente evaluativo. según estos autores, tanto la censura como el elogio –a lo que yo añadiría la “defensa” de la información presentada, como en el caso de la memoria– transmiten un mensaje sobre lo que resulta deseable o inapropiado en las creaciones futuras, con lo que se podría asumir que todos los textos de arquitectura contienen un elemento prescriptivo. este elemento prescriptivo y la tensión existente entre las dimensiones informativa e interpretativa, que queda expresada en la combinación de elementos gráficos y verbales, son las características más sobresalientes del discurso arquitectónico, y los principales rasgos de la memoria de arquitectura, el género que es objeto de este trabajo y que intentaré describir a continuación. 3. la memoria de arquitectura la memoria de arquitectura es uno de los géneros más representativos del discurso arquitectónico, ya que se trata de un producto creado por miembros “de pleno derecho” de esta comunidad discursiva y dirigido, en la mayoría de las ocasiones, a otros miembros de la misma. este género respondería, por tanto, a una situación comunicativa cuyos participantes son miembros centrales de su categoría conceptual. su principal característica es su condición de documento escrito que acompaña y completa los documentos gráficos de una obra o proyecto de arquitectura mediante la aportación de una serie de informaciones –que dependen, en cada caso, de la situación comunicativa concreta y de la intención del autor– cuyo objetivo comunicativo último es ofrecer una “declaración de intenciones” de la propuesta. los contenidos en los que se centra suelen atender a cuatro paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 19 (2010): 55-7658 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 58 cuestiones fundamentales de la arquitectura: el lugar, el programa, la forma y las soluciones técnicas. se podría hablar del género de la memoria de arquitectura en términos globales, atendiendo a cuestiones como el fin comunicativo último, el contenido y la organización del texto. sin embargo, existen distintos tipos de memorias que responden a situaciones comunicativas concretas, que varían en su extensión y en la cantidad de información que ofrecen y que pueden ser consideradas como subgéneros o –tal y como apunta dudley-evans (2000) en aras de una mayor simplicidad en la clasificación de los géneros– como meros cambios de registro. así, podemos hablar de memorias para el visado de proyectos de edificación, memorias para la presentación de proyectos a concursos, memorias para las presentaciones a clientes, y memorias de divulgación publicadas en diferentes medios, como prensa, catálogos de exposiciones, revistas especializadas o internet. entre todos estos subgéneros, aquél que se refiere al documento oficial requerido como parte de la documentación necesaria para el visado, o la autorización, de un proyecto de edificación se caracteriza por ser el más comprehensivo en cuanto a la información que ofrece y –lo más importante– por proporcionar una respuesta a unas prescripciones muy concretas sobre su contenido y sobre la organización de éste. por todo ello, podría concluirse que el origen o la base de la organización textual de todos los tipos de memoria antes mencionados radicaría precisamente en este subgénero, situado en el centro de la categoría conceptual de la memoria de arquitectura. a esta conclusión se llega tras la observación de las recomendaciones o pautas para la redacción de una memoria técnica de arquitectura ofrecidas por dos organismos oficiales, uno español y otro británico, pertenecientes a este ámbito.1 estas recomendaciones, de carácter prescriptivo, son una respuesta a la normativa legal española y europea sobre el particular, que se supone similar en el resto de países. en ellas se establecen unos pasos concretos para la presentación de la información –es decir, para la organización textual del documento– que podrían identificarse como los elementos que conforman las principales características del género. 3.1. la memoria de arquitectura de divulgación una de las formas de auto-promoción utilizada por los profesionales de la arquitectura para divulgar su trabajo y –entre otros objetivos– conseguir nuevos encargos, es la publicación de monografías, dosieres monográficos o la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 59 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 59 presentaciones de obras sueltas en catálogos de exposiciones, revistas o libros. algunos análisis previos sobre textos extraídos de libros y revistas de arquitectura españolas, británicas y norteamericanas, parecen confirmar el hecho de que estas publicaciones especializadas, dirigidas fundamentalmente a una audiencia profesional, ofrecen dos tipos de textos para la descripción de los proyectos presentados, si tomamos en consideración el propósito inicial. por un lado, están las memorias proporcionadas por los propios estudios de arquitectura, escritas expresamente o, a menudo, adaptadas a partir del texto que en origen formó parte de los documentos exigidos para el visado de un proyecto de edificación o para la presentación de una propuesta de concurso. en segundo lugar, en ocasiones, los editores de las publicaciones de arquitectura utilizan textos escritos por sus redactores, o encargados a críticos colaboradores, para acompañar a la presentación gráfica de un proyecto u obra construida. estos textos comparten con los pertenecientes al primer grupo el carácter descriptivo y el tipo de audiencia a la que van dirigidos, pero pueden estar escritos desde un punto de vista neutral o –como ocurre en la mayoría de los casos– pueden tener un sesgo más evaluativo y crítico. es en este último punto donde radica la principal diferencia entre ambos tipos de texto. caballero (2002 y 2006), en sus análisis sobre la metáfora en el discurso de los arquitectos desde una perspectiva basada en el género, utiliza un corpus de textos pertenecientes precisamente a este segundo grupo, refiriéndose a ellos como correspondientes al género de la “reseña arquitectónica” (building review). este género coincide en una serie de características formales con el de la memoria de arquitectura, pero su objetivo comunicativo difiere del anterior, compartiendo, sin embargo, ciertos rasgos con otros géneros lingüísticos situados fuera del ámbito de la arquitectura, como son el género periodístico y el de la crítica de arte. según caballero (2006), la organización textual de las reseñas arquitectónicas está determinada por los objetivos descriptivos y evaluativos del género, mostrando una estructura en tres “movimientos” –introducción, descripción y evaluación–, a su vez estructurados en una serie de “pasos” y “sub-pasos” que representan las diversas formas escogidas por los autores para la realización de sus objetivos retóricos (swales, 1990). paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 19 (2010): 55-7660 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 60 3.2. la organización en movimientos de la memoria de arquitectura de divulgación la principal función de las memorias de arquitectura de divulgación es describir un proyecto de construcción (ya sea de edificio, espacio interior, intervención urbanística o paisajística) física, conceptualmente y desde el punto de vista de los objetivos del autor. aunque la descripción propiamente dicha ocupa el núcleo central del escrito, ésta se encuentra enmarcada en otro tipo de información que le sirve como introducción, como elaboración y/o como conclusión. así, se ha observado que casi todos estos textos siguen una pauta aproximada e identificable en cuanto a la organización de su contenido –dividido en una serie de capítulos, etapas o “movimientos” con una secuencia similar en la mayoría de los casos– que responde a los objetivos descriptivos y argumentales del género y que ya ha sido descrita en trabajos anteriores (poveda, 2007 y 2008). en dichos trabajos, se decidió denominar los movimientos observados como: problema, solución, descripción y conclusión. una gran parte de las memorias se ciñe a esta estructura retórica, aunque con un alto grado de flexibilidad. así, los distintos autores pueden utilizar todos estos movimientos u omitir alguno de ellos –si desean dar más relevancia a unos aspectos que a otros–, pueden jugar con su orden de aparición o incluso combinarlos entre sí. la organización textual descrita en este trabajo pretende proporcionar una visión general sobre la estructura prototípica de la memoria de arquitectura, que a su vez ha sido adoptada como herramienta de análisis para el estudio de este género discursivo. 4. descripción del corpus y la metodología de trabajo el presente trabajo se basa en un corpus formado por textos pertenecientes al primero de estos dos grupos, es decir, por aquellas memorias de obras de arquitectura que son producidas por sus propios autores con el objetivo de ser hechas públicas. todos los textos están extraídos de la revista española de arquitectura el croquis, una publicación de ámbito internacional fundada en 1992 y editada conjuntamente en español y en inglés que publica cada dos meses monografías sobre el trabajo de los arquitectos más destacados internacionalmente y un número anual que recoge los proyectos y obras de arquitectura de mayor interés que se realizan en españa. se trata de 60 memorias de arquitectura –con un total de 32.468 palabras y la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 61 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 61 una media de 541 palabras por texto– publicadas en la revista entre los años 1988 y 2007 y cada una de ellas escrita por un autor diferente. esta diversidad en la procedencia de los textos objeto del estudio es un aspecto que se consideró de suma importancia, ya que se trataba de estudiar las preferencias de la mayor cantidad posible de autores en cuanto a la organización textual de sus escritos. al realizar la selección de los textos se consideró, asimismo, la conveniencia de incluir autores procedentes de distintos países. en el caso de los textos de autores no españoles se ha trabajado con la versión inglesa ofrecida por el croquis, que es –salvo raras ocasiones– el mismo texto proporcionado en inglés por los estudios de arquitectura junto con el resto de la documentación gráfica para su publicación en la revista, es decir, que no ha sido traducido desde otra lengua para este propósito. se consideró, además, que la elaboración de un corpus bilingüe inglés-español y la recopilación de ejemplos de realización de estrategias retóricas en ambos idiomas podrían resultar de utilidad para futuras aplicaciones pedagógicas. tras la selección de los textos, el primer paso fue llevar a cabo un examen superficial de todo el corpus para obtener una idea general de la organización de las memorias y para identificar las pautas retóricas recurrentes. este examen se realizó utilizando un enfoque semántico-funcional, un tipo de enfoque que se apoya más en aspectos cognitivos que en criterios lingüísticos para la identificación de los límites textuales entre las diferentes intenciones u objetivos del autor. aunque existen ciertas “pistas” lingüísticas o ciertos aspectos de diferenciación formal (como el tiempo verbal, el léxico, el uso de mecanismos de atenuación retórica, la división en párrafos o la utilización de títulos intermedios) estos criterios no han resultado determinantes en la identificación de los segmentos pertenecientes a cada movimiento. por otro lado, los movimientos no siempre se presentan en orden lineal ni pueden, en todos los casos, ser identificados por su posición en el texto. el criterio determinante para la decisión final sobre los límites textuales de cada uno de los movimientos ha sido el estudio de las relaciones retóricas, partiendo de la idea de que existe una razón verosímil o aceptable para cada parte de un texto, y que es la comprobación de este hecho por parte del receptor lo que permite que este texto sea percibido como coherente.2 este primer examen de los textos sugirió, como punto de partida, centrar la clasificación de los movimientos en cuatro aspectos fundamentales: lugar/programa, reflexiones, forma/soluciones técnicas y conclusión del texto. el siguiente paso fue una nueva lectura de los textos atendiendo en este caso a la identificación y la anotación manual de las estrategias retóricas paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 19 (2010): 55-7662 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 62 utilizadas para la realización de cada uno de los movimientos. en el transcurso de este segundo nivel de análisis se fue elaborando una primera lista de estrategias que se fue depurando a medida que avanzaba éste, volviendo una y otra vez sobre los textos analizados para incorporar nuevos criterios y rectificar otros hasta obtener la lista definitiva. tras este paso, se guardaron todos los textos en formato .rtf y se importaron desde el programa informático de análisis cualitativo maxqda. tras la creación de un sistema de códigos ad hoc para este estudio, se procedió a la codificación informática de los textos para su posterior análisis automático. dicha codificación fue un proceso de retroalimentación en el que, a medida que avanzaba el trabajo, el funcionamiento del programa y el tipo de resultados obtenidos fueron determinando, por un lado, el propio procedimiento de codificado de los textos y, por otro, aquellos aspectos significativos en los que centrar el estudio. 5. resultados del análisis 5.1. los movimientos de la memoria de arquitectura de divulgación 5.1.1. presencia de los movimientos el análisis de los resultados obtenidos sobre la presencia de los movimientos en los textos estudiados (que se presentan en la tabla 1) parece indicar, en primer lugar, que los movimientos obligatorios y predominantes, y al mismo tiempo los de mayor extensión y presencia, son los que se han denominado como problema y descripción. los dos restantes (solución y conclusión) muestran una incidencia ocasional, aunque su uso podría ser considerado como frecuente. este hecho parece confirmar la hipótesis de que los principales objetivos comunicativos de estos textos son, por un lado, la atención al lugar y al programa (el problema) y, por otro, la provisión de información física sobre los aspectos más importantes de la forma y sobre las soluciones técnicas adoptadas (la descripción). los otros dos objetivos comunicativos podrían considerarse como secundarios. la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 63 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 63 5.1.2. índice de recurrencia un concepto clave utilizado en este trabajo es lo que se ha denominado como “índice de recurrencia”. este índice trata de analizar el grado de linealidad de los textos o, por el contrario, la naturaleza cíclica de la aparición de los movimientos. es el porcentaje resultante de comparar el número total de segmentos correspondientes a cada movimiento y el número de textos con este movimiento –y de restarle 100 a efectos de manejabilidad–, asumiendo que la existencia de un número superior de segmentos sugiere que la aparición de los movimientos no es única o puntual, sino recurrente. la cifra que se maneja indicaría el grado en que el número total de segmentos supera al número de textos con el movimiento correspondiente (véase la tabla 1). en algunas ocasiones, los textos se organizan presentando cada uno de los movimientos en un bloque compacto que forma parte de una secuencia lineal, pero en otros casos los movimientos se dividen en segmentos que se van intercalando y combinando con otros movimientos, formando agrupamientos o bloques mixtos que a su vez se van sucediendo a lo largo del texto. la aparición de cada uno de los movimientos es, en el primer caso, única o puntual, y en el segundo, cíclica o recurrente. en este trabajo se han representado estos agrupamientos mediante fórmulas del tipo (p+s)n+d o p+(s+d)n. en el primer caso, se trataría de una configuración en la que se sucederían una serie bloques mixtos formados por la combinación de los movimientos problema y solución, seguidos de un único bloque descripción. en el segundo, a un único bloque problema le seguirían un número “n” de bloques mixtos formados por la combinación de los movimientos solución y descripción. 5.1.3. tipos de configuraciones siendo la tendencia predominante la configuración en tres movimientos, los textos analizados muestran una gran variedad en cuanto a la elección de los paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 19 (2010): 55-7664 ibérica 19 (2010): …-…8 descripción. los dos restantes (solución y conclusión) muestran una incidencia ocasional, aunque su uso podría ser considerado como frecuente. este hecho parece confirmar la hipótesis de que los principales objetivos comunicativos de estos textos son, por un lado, la atención al lugar y al programa (el problema) y, por otro, la provisión de información física sobre los aspectos más importantes de la forma y sobre las soluciones técnicas adoptadas (la descripción). los otros dos objetivos comunicativospodrían considerarsecomosecundarios. tabla 1. presencia de los movimientos en los textos estudiados. 5.1.2. índice de recurrencia un concepto clave utilizado en este trabajo es lo que se ha denominado como “índice de recurrencia”. este índice tratadeanalizar el gradode linealidad de los textoso,por el contrario, la naturaleza cíclica de la aparición de los movimientos. es el porcentaje resultante de comparar el número total de segmentos correspondientes a cada movimientoy el númerode textos con este movimiento –y de restarle 100 aefectos de manejabilidad–, asumiendo que la existencia de un número superior de segmentos sugiere que la aparición de los movimientos no es única o puntual, sino recurrente. la cifra que se maneja indicaría el grado en que el número total de segmentos supera al númerode textosconelmovimientocorrespondiente(véase latabla1). en algunasocasiones, los textos seorganizanpresentando cadaunode los movimientos enun bloque compacto que formaparte de una secuencia lineal, pero enotros casos los movimientos sedividen en segmentos que sevan intercalandoy combinando con otros movimientos, formando agrupamientos o bloques mixtos que a su vez se van sucediendo a lo largo del texto. la aparición de cada uno de los movimientos es, en el primer caso, única o puntual, y en el segundo, cíclica o recurrente. en este trabajo se han representado estos agrupamientos mediante fórmulas del tipo (p+s)n+d o p+(s+d)n. en el primer caso, se trataría de una configuración en la que se sucederían una serie bloques mixtos formados por la combinación de losmovimientos problema número de palabras total segmentos número de textos con el movimiento porcentaje de textos con el movimiento índice de recurrencia problema 7.374 88 59 98% 49% solución 4.728 58 38 63% 53% descripción 18.695 68 58 97% 17% conclusión 1.146 32 32 53% 0% 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 64 movimientos utilizados para su organización, pero existen ciertas combinaciones con una incidencia significativa, tal y como se puede observar en la tabla 2. así, las pautas dominantes son, por un lado, la formada por la combinación de los cuatro movimientos p+s+d+c, y por otro, la misma pauta sin incluir la opción del uso de la conclusión (p+s+d). 5.1.4. secuencia de aparición de los movimientos los textos demuestran un alto grado de coincidencia en cuanto a la secuencia de aparición de los movimientos (independientemente de que se utilicen todos ellos o no). un análisis de los resultados obtenidos sobre la secuencialidad de los movimientos (véase la tabla 3) revela que la pauta predominante es la utilizada en esta presentación de resultados, y en el estudio en general, es decir: p+s+d+c. de los 60 textos estudiados, 57 siguen esta pauta secuencial, con las únicas excepciones de los casos p+d+s+d, p+d+p+s+d+c y s+p+s+d+p+s, contenidos en el apartado de miscelánea3. la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 65 la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): …-… 9 y solución, seguidos de un único bloque descripción. en el segundo, a un único bloque problema le seguirían un número “n” de bloques mixtos formados por la combinación de los movimientos solución y descripción. 5.1.3. tipos de configuraciones siendo la tendencia predominante la configuración en tres movimientos, los textos analizados muestran una gran variedad en cuanto a la elección de los movimientos utilizados para su organización, pero existen ciertas combinaciones con una incidencia significativa, tal y como se puede observar en la tabla 2. así, las pautas dominantes son, por un lado, la formada por la combinación de los cuatro movimientos p+s+d+c, y por otro, la misma pauta sin incluir la opción del uso de la conclusión (p+s+d). tabla 2. tipos de configuraciones. 5.1.4. secuencia de aparición de los movimientos los textos demuestran un alto grado de coincidencia en cuanto a la secuencia de aparición de los movimientos (independientemente de que se utilicen todos ellos o no). un análisis de los resultados obtenidos sobre la secuencialidad de los movimientos (véase la tabla 3) revela que la pauta predominante es la utilizada en esta presentación de resultados, y en el estudio en general, es decir: p+s+d+c. de los 60 textos estudiados, 57 siguen esta pauta secuencial, con las únicas excepciones de los casos p+d+s+d, p+d+p+s+d+c y s+p+s+d+p+s, contenidos en el apartado de miscelánea3. configuraciones combinaciones nº de casos total porcentaje 4 movimientos p+s+d+c 18 18 30% 3 movimientos p+s+d p+d+c s+d+c p+s+c 17 12 1 1 31 52% 2 movimientos p+d p+s 10 1 11 18% paloma poveda cabanes pautas secuenciales número de textos con la pauta porcentaje de textos con la pauta p+d+c 12 20% p+s+d+c 10 17% (p+s)n +d 7 12% p+d 7 12% p+s+d 3 5% (p+d)n 2 3% miscelánea 19 32% tabla 3. pautas secuenciales observadas. 5.2. los recursos retóricos de la memoria de arquitectura de divulgación la tabla 4 ofrece una propuesta de clasificación de los movimientos en los que se organiza una memoria de arquitectura de divulgación y de los recursos retóricos que contribuyen a la realización de la función comunicativa específica de cada uno de ellos. a continuación, se presentarán algunos de los resultados obtenidos sobre el uso y la incidencia de estos recursos, y se discutirán algunos aspectos que se han considerado de especial relevancia en cuanto a su utilización en los textos. 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 65 5.2. los recursos retóricos de la memoria de arquitectura de divulgación la tabla 4 ofrece una propuesta de clasificación de los movimientos en los que se organiza una memoria de arquitectura de divulgación y de los recursos retóricos que contribuyen a la realización de la función comunicativa específica de cada uno de ellos. a continuación, se presentarán algunos de los resultados obtenidos sobre el uso y la incidencia de estos recursos, y se discutirán algunos aspectos que se han considerado de especial relevancia en cuanto a su utilización en los textos. paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 19 (2010): 55-7666 la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura tabla 4. propuesta de clasificación de los movimientos y los recursos retóricos de la memoria de arquitectura de divulgación. 5.2.1. presencia de los recursos retóricos la tabla 5 muestra el número total de segmentos obtenidos de cada uno de los recursos retóricos y el número de textos que utilizan dicho recurso para la realización de su movimiento correspondiente –con el porcentaje sobre el total de los textos estudiados–, así como el índice de recurrencia indicativo del carácter cíclico de la aparición de estos recursos. movimiento función comunicativa recursos retóricos p-problema establecer el contexto previo a la intervención p1descripción física de la ubicación previa a la intervención p2explicación del devenir histórico del lugar p3explicación del contexto político, económico, social o cultural p4exposición del programa requerido p5recuento de los objetivos o necesidades que el proyecto ha de satisfacer p6atención a los problemas que se espera que el proyecto resuelva p7mención de la normativa a la que se enfrenta el proyecto p8marco teórico de una rama, actividad humana o ciencia relacionada con el proyecto ssolución presentar la propuesta y justificar la solución elegida s1descripción conceptual de la propuesta s2planteamiento de objetivos de la propuesta s3justificación de la propuesta s4descripción formal global s5descripción de procesos o procedimientos d-descripción proporcionar información física sobre la solución elegida d1descripción del exterior o de la volumetría d2descripción del interior o de los distintos elementos del proyecto d3descripción de la envolvente d4atención a algún aspecto o elemento significativo d5descripción del programa o el uso d6descripción de los materiales d7descripción conceptual de la solución elegida d8planteamiento de objetivos de la solución elegida d9justificación de la solución elegida d10resultados de la solución elegida d11descripción de procesos c-conclusión redondear o rematar el texto desde un punto de vista formal c1elaboración de una frase con efecto utilizando el último de los aspectos mencionados c2alusión a la importancia del proyecto en su contexto c3devenir del proyecto c4resumen de los objetivos generales del proyecto c5visión del proyecto desde una perspectiva alejada final 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 66 5.2.1. presencia de los recursos retóricos la tabla 5 muestra el número total de segmentos obtenidos de cada uno de los recursos retóricos y el número de textos que utilizan dicho recurso para la realización de su movimiento correspondiente –con el porcentaje sobre el total de los textos estudiados–, así como el índice de recurrencia indicativo del carácter cíclico de la aparición de estos recursos. el análisis de estos resultados parece demostrar que no predomina el uso de algunos de estos elementos sobre otros. por el contrario, su utilización parece depender de la elección personal del autor y de su voluntad de prestar atención a aquellos aspectos que considera más relevantes en su propuesta. esta observación ha llevado a la decisión de referirse a todos estos elementos como “estrategias”, un término propuesto por bhatia (2001) que tiene un carácter neutro en cuanto a que no muestra connotaciones de obligatoriedad, predominancia o secuencialidad. la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 67 paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 19 (2010): …-…12 recursos retóricos total segmentos número de textos con la estrategia porcentaje de textos con la estrategia índice de recurrencia p1 60 48 80% 25% p2 14 14 23% 0% p3 14 13 22% 8% p4 25 22 37% 14% p5 24 21 35% 14% p6 11 11 18% 0% p7 5 5 8% 0% p8 20 13 22% 54% s1 41 27 45% 52% s2 42 29 48% 45% s3 13 11 18% 18% s4 19 15 25% 27% s5 6 5 8% 20% d1 61 49 82% 24% d2 69 53 88% 30% d3 14 13 22% 7% d4 22 20 33% 12% d5 61 30 50% 103% d6 29 26 43% 12% d7 31 21 35% 48% d8 39 26 43% 50% d9 40 25 42% 60% d10 84 37 62% 127% d11 13 11 18% 18% c1 14 14 23% 0% c2 3 3 5% 0% c3 6 6 10% 0% c4 15 15 25% 0% c5 1 1 2% 0% tabla 5. presencia de los recursos retóricos de cada uno de los movimientos en los textos estudiados. el análisis de estos resultados parece demostrar que no predomina el uso de algunos de estos elementos sobre otros. por el contrario, su utilización parece depender de la elección personal del autor y de su voluntad de prestar atención a aquellos aspectos que considera más relevantes en su propuesta. esta observación ha llevado a la decisión de referirse a todos estos elementos como “estrategias”, un término propuesto por bhatia (2001) que tiene un carácter neutro en cuanto a que no muestra connotaciones de obligatoriedad, predominancia o secuencialidad. sin embargo, existen importantes excepciones a esta tendencia en el movimiento descripción, y en menor medida en el movimiento problema. en estos movimientos sí se ha observado un cierto grado de secuencialidad y de obligatoriedad en el uso de algunas de las estrategias, por lo que éstas podrían estar más próximas al concepto de “paso” (step) propuesto en los primeros estudios de swales (1990). en estos casos, y tratándose de excepciones, se ha seguido utilizando la denominación general de “estrategias”, distinguiendo o 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 67 sin embargo, existen importantes excepciones a esta tendencia en el movimiento descripción, y en menor medida en el movimiento problema. en estos movimientos sí se ha observado un cierto grado de secuencialidad y de obligatoriedad en el uso de algunas de las estrategias, por lo que éstas podrían estar más próximas al concepto de “paso” (step) propuesto en los primeros estudios de swales (1990). en estos casos, y tratándose de excepciones, se ha seguido utilizando la denominación general de “estrategias”, distinguiendo o señalando, en su caso, aquéllas que muestran un alto grado de secuencialidad o que se consideran como elementos claves del movimiento por su carácter obligatorio o cuasi-obligatorio, o por su ubicación especial. 5.2.2. la estrategia p1 uno de estos casos es el de la estrategia p1 contenida en el movimiento problema, de la que se ofrece un ejemplo a continuación: es en este paisaje donde se encuentra almere, una extensa ciudad jardín al norte de amsterdam. el solar del concurso es un rectángulo alargado situado entre las vías del tren y una avenida parque que vertebra la ciudad. ubicado en el límite de la ciudad, próximo al mar, desde él se divisa una reserva natural. (esp/nico) los resultados obtenidos sobre el número de textos que la utilizan (un 80%), indican que p1 es la estrategia dominante en el movimiento problema, y que su uso podría ser considerado como muy frecuente (véase la tabla 5). por otro lado, un estudio específico sobre la secuencialidad de las estrategias de este movimiento ha revelado que p1 es la estrategia utilizada para abrir el movimiento –y por tanto, en este caso, la memoria– en 32 de los 48 textos que la utilizan, es decir, en un 67% de los textos en los que aparece y en un 53% del total de los textos estudiados. todos estos hallazgos podrían llevar a la conclusión de que la estrategia p1 es el elemento clave –utilizando la terminología de lewin, fine y young (2001), el head act– del movimiento problema, y de que el resto de las estrategias que concurren con ella cumplen los objetivos complementarios de introducir, ampliar o complementar la información que contiene. 5.2.3. las estrategias d1, d2, d3 y d4 las excepciones más importantes a esta aparente ausencia de restricciones paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 19 (2010): 55-7668 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 68 sobre el uso de los recursos retóricos se producen en el movimiento descripción. este movimiento es el más utilizado, aquél al que los autores dedican una mayor extensión y el que muestra una mayor complejidad en el uso de las estrategias retóricas. estos serían ejemplos correspondientes a cada una de estas cuatro estrategias que serán discutidas a continuación: with a background dominated by a large mountain and the remnants of the local farmland, we have tried to keep the mass as low as possible, as if it was another wall in the rural landscape. (ing/foa) las salas de danza se disponen en torno al lado occidental del solar. un patio propio otorga luz natural en abundancia a las salas sin mermar sus condiciones de privacidad. una gran rampa conecta las distintas plantas integrándolas en un vestíbulo que cierra por uno de los lados la gran hendidura de la entrada principal desde la calle a los teatros. (esp/nava) la fachada del edificio sería de cristal y paneles metálicos. éstos se podrían comparar a las escamas de una serpiente, siempre una misma pieza que se adapta a cualquier curvatura del cuerpo. estas piezas nos harían perder la referencia a la escala del edificio. pensamos, en suma, en una fachada vibrante que jugaría con los reflejos de la luz y del cielo. (esp/nico) the metal cantilevered roof, hovering over the street like an aeroplane wing, remains as the only element from the iconography of a once historic point. (ing/zeng) 5.2.3.1. incidencia de las estrategias d1 y d2 existen, al igual que en el caso del movimiento anterior, una serie de estrategias que pueden considerarse como dominantes e incluso obligatorias, como sería el caso de las estrategias d1 y d2, cuya elevada incidencia puede llevar a considerar su estatus como el de elementos clave o head acts (lewin, fine y young, 2001) de este movimiento, al igual que ocurre con la estrategia p1 discutida en el apartado anterior (véase la tabla 5). 5.2.3.2. pautas secuenciales de las estrategias d1, d2 y d3 un estudio específico sobre los 49 textos en los que coocurren dos o más de las estrategias d1, d2 y d3 –correspondientes a la descripción del exterior, el interior y la envolvente, respectivamente– muestra que el modelo de secuencia d1-d2-d3 es el modelo dominante y casi obligatorio, ya que se da en 42 de los 49 textos incluidos en este estudio, lo que supone un 86% del total. por otro lado, el análisis de la secuencialidad del par de estrategias d1 la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 69 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 69 y d2 revela que la pauta secuencial d1-d2 se sigue en 42 de los 45 textos en los que coocurren las dos estrategias, lo que en este caso supondría un 93% del total. 5.2.3.3. anidamientos en las estrategias d1, d2, d3 y d4 por otro lado, el estudio de las estrategias incluidas en el movimiento descripción ha mostrado que el grupo formado por las estrategias d1, d2, d3 y d4, parece apoyarse en otras estrategias para su realización, que se encuentran anidadas o contenidas en su interior y que tienen un papel específico que está supeditado al suyo propio. ambos tipos de estrategias establecen una serie de relaciones retóricas entre sí, diferentes en cada caso, en las que la unidad de texto principal –la que contiene la información esencial– sería el “núcleo” y la unidad secundaria sería el “satélite” (mann y thompson, 1988). la tabla 6 muestra los resultados sobre los casos de anidamientos de las estrategias d5, d6, d7, d8, d9, d10 y d11 en el interior de d1, d2, d3 y d4. número de anidamientos estos resultados son una evidencia de la especial relación que mantienen, por ejemplo, las estrategias d5 y d10 con la estrategia d2. en el caso de d5 –la explicación del programa– se observa que del total de 61 segmentos en que aparece, en 59 casos éstos se encuentran contenidos en la estrategia d2 y sólo en un caso en la estrategia d1. el caso restante correspondería a una memoria en la que el autor concede una especial relevancia a la descripción del programa, y por tanto d5 aparece como estrategia independiente, y no contenida en otras estrategias. podría, por tanto, concluirse que en la memoria de arquitectura de divulgación las unidades de texto que se refieren a la explicación del programa acompañan prácticamente siempre a las que se paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 19 (2010): 55-7670 la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura número de anidamientos d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 1 59 0 0 d6 7 8 1 1 d7 12 10 3 1 d8 10 18 3 6 d9 14 12 3 6 d10 22 42 6 10 e st ra te gi as an id ad as d11 6 2 2 2 tabla 6. anidamientos de las estrategias d5, d6, d7, d8, d9, d10 y d11 en d1, d2, d3 y d4. estos resultados son una evidencia de la especial relación que mantienen, por ejemplo, las estrategias d5 y d10 con la estrategia d2. en el caso de d5 –la explicación del programa– se observa que del total de 61 segmentos en que aparece, en 59 casos éstos se encuentran contenidos en la estrategia d2 y sólo en un caso en la estrategia d1. el caso restante correspondería a una memoria en la que el autor concede una especial relevancia a la descripción del programa, y por tanto d5 aparece como estrategia independiente, y no contenida en otras estrategias. podría, por tanto, concluirse que en la memoria de arquitectura de divulgación las unidades de texto que se refieren a la explicación del programa acompañan prácticamente siempre a las que se ocupan de la descripción del interior, con las que establecen una relación de elaboración. este sería el ejemplo de uno de estos anidamientos (los fragmentos correspondientes a la estrategia d5 anidada en d2 han sido resaltados en cursiva): to allow for the maximum combination of functions, maximum flexibility and spatial interaction, we also decided that the programme, such as the auditorium with 3,200 seats, large exhibition areas, foyer spaces, small administration areas and the restaurant should be organised horizontally. (ing/h&dm) en cuanto a la estrategia d10, en la tabla 6 se observa que de los 80 casos en los que aparece anidada en otras estrategias, en 42 de ellos (un 52,5%) lo hace en la estrategia d2 y en 22 (27,5%) en la d1, lo que demuestra la especial relación que mantiene con estas estrategias –en especial con la descripción del interior–, en las que aparece contenida en un 80% de los casos, tal y como ilustra el ejemplo siguiente de estrategia d10 (en cursiva) anidada en d1: 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 70 ocupan de la descripción del interior, con las que establecen una relación de elaboración. este sería el ejemplo de uno de estos anidamientos (los fragmentos correspondientes a la estrategia d5 anidada en d2 han sido resaltados en cursiva): to allow for the maximum combination of functions, maximum flexibility and spatial interaction, we also decided that the programme, such as the auditorium with 3,200 seats, large exhibition areas, foyer spaces, small administration areas and the restaurant should be organised horizontally. (ing/h&dm) en cuanto a la estrategia d10, en la tabla 6 se observa que de los 80 casos en los que aparece anidada en otras estrategias, en 42 de ellos (un 52,5%) lo hace en la estrategia d2 y en 22 (27,5%) en la d1, lo que demuestra la especial relación que mantiene con estas estrategias –en especial con la descripción del interior–, en las que aparece contenida en un 80% de los casos, tal y como ilustra el ejemplo siguiente de estrategia d10 (en cursiva) anidada en d1: la envolvente exterior de este espacio es a la vez una fachada hacia el jardín y una fachada hacia las aulas. está compuesta por una multiplicidad de planos, un caleidoscopio geométrico de superficies que ensancha perceptivamente el tamaño del jardín. (esp/amid) todas las observaciones anteriores podrían llevar a considerar las cuatro estrategias que parecen apoyarse en otras estrategias para su realización (d1, d2, d3 y d4) como una especie de “sub-movimientos” contenidos en el movimiento principal descripción, o bien, en la escala del micro-análisis, podrían llevar a calificar este movimiento como un sub-género contenido en la memoria de arquitectura, con sus movimientos y estrategias correspondientes. en ambos casos, nos encontraríamos ante un análisis en tres niveles, y no en dos como ocurre en el caso de los tres movimientos restantes. 5.2.4. índice de recurrencia de las estrategias retóricas finalmente, y para acabar con las principales conclusiones obtenidas sobre la utilización de las estrategias retóricas en la memoria de arquitectura, nos referiremos al carácter recurrente o puntual de estos elementos. un estudio sobre su aparición en bloque o su división en segmentos que se van intercalando a lo largo del texto ha revelado que las estrategias con un índice la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 71 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 71 de recurrencia mayor del 50% son las siguientes: p8 (marco teórico relacionado con el proyecto), s1 (descripción conceptual del proyecto), d5 (descripción del programa), d8 (planteamiento de objetivos de la solución elegida), d9 (justificación de la solución elegida) y d10 (resultados de la solución elegida) (véase la tabla 5). la recurrencia o la aparición fragmentada de estas estrategias podrían responder a dos tipos de situación. por un lado, encontramos unidades que aparecen contenidas en textos cuya estructura de movimientos se organiza en ciclos, más que en una progresión lineal de bloques compactos, y que por tanto transmiten esta estructura a las estrategias que utilizan para su realización. este sería el caso de las estrategias p8 y s1, cuyo índice de recurrencia es un reflejo del que se observa en los movimientos problema y solución en los que aparecen. sin embargo, el caso más generalizado es el de aquellas estrategias complementarias o de apoyo que aparecen repetida y sistemáticamente vinculadas a otras estrategias incluidas en su mismo movimiento, y que tienen un papel específico con respecto a éstas. estaríamos hablando de las estrategias d5, d8, d9 y d10, que establecen una serie de relaciones retóricas con las estrategias dominantes del movimiento descripción. 5.3. frecuencia de utilización de los movimientos y estrategias retóricas de una memoria de arquitectura de divulgación para terminar con esta discusión sobre los resultados del estudio, la tabla 7 ofrece una visión de conjunto de las pautas de organización de una memoria de arquitectura, y una perspectiva sobre las preferencias retóricas de los autores para exponer públicamente las reflexiones y las decisiones que han determinado la solución concreta de su proyecto arquitectónico. esta clasificación de los movimientos y los recursos retóricos conforme a su frecuencia de utilización, que sigue un modelo propuesto por bunton (2002 y 2005), permitiría establecer cuál es el modelo estadísticamente más utilizado de memoria de arquitectura de divulgación. éste comenzaría haciendo una descripción física de la ubicación y una exposición del concepto subyacente y los objetivos generales de la propuesta, para después pasar a la descripción física de ésta. en dicha descripción se prestaría especial atención a algunos aspectos como el exterior, el interior, el programa y los materiales, apoyándose para la provisión de esta información en ciertas estrategias o recursos retóricos como la atención a los objetivos, la paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 19 (2010): 55-7672 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 72 justificación de la propuesta o la explicación de los resultados de llevar ésta a cabo. la memoria concluiría con un pequeño bloque de texto, o una frase, a modo de colofón de todo lo anterior, para cuya realización el autor elegiría uno de entre un abanico de diferentes recursos retóricos. 6. reflexiones finales en el caso del género objeto del presente trabajo, nos encontramos ante un tipo de texto que tiene un cierto carácter secundario o accesorio en la situación comunicativa en la que se produce, ya que funciona como complemento de otro tipo de información. el contenido de una memoria de arquitectura de divulgación, a pesar de estar basado en ciertas pautas o prescripciones en cuanto a su organización, no parece estar sujeto a demasiadas restricciones sobre los aspectos que debe tratar ni sobre el orden la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 73 la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): …-… 17 los objetivos, la justificación de la propuesta o la explicación de los resultados de llevar ésta a cabo. la memoria concluiría con un pequeño bloque de texto, o una frase, a modo de colofón de todo lo anterior, para cuya realización el autor elegiría uno de entre un abanico de diferentes recursos retóricos. uso frecuente >40% uso ocasional <40% pproblema: estableciendo el contexto p1ubicación p2devenir histórico del lugar p3contexto político, económico, social o cultural p4programa requerido p5objetivos o necesidades p6problemas a resolver p7normativa p8marco teórico ssolución: presentando la propuesta s1concepto s2objetivos s3justificación s4descripción formal global s5procesos o procedimientos ddescripción: proporcionando información física d1exterior o volumetría d2interior o elementos del proyecto d5programa o uso d6materiales d8objetivos d9justificación d10resultados d3envolvente d4aspecto o elemento significativo d7concepto d11procesos o procedimientos cconclusión: finalizando el texto c1mención al último aspecto c2importancia del proyecto c3devenir del proyecto c4objetivos generales del proyecto c5visión alejada del proyecto tabla 7. clasificación de los movimientos y estrategias retóricas de una memoria de arquitectura conforme a su frecuencia de utilización. 6. reflexiones finales en el caso del género objeto del presente trabajo, nos encontramos ante un tipo de texto que tiene un cierto carácter secundario o accesorio en la situación comunicativa en la que se produce, ya que funciona como complemento de otro tipo de información. el contenido de una memoria de arquitectura de divulgación, a pesar de estar basado en ciertas pautas o prescripciones en cuanto a su organización, no parece estar sujeto a 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:20 página 73 de presentación de éstos. el criterio determinante en la decisión final sobre el contenido y la organización del texto parece ser la elección personal del autor sobre la naturaleza de este elemento –que se incorporará como una “ilustración” de los elementos gráficos en la presentación de su propuesta–, y su voluntad de prestar atención a aquellos aspectos que considera más relevantes. no obstante, es posible establecer un prototipo basado en la categoría central del género de la memoria de arquitectura, es decir, precisar cuál es la abstracción almacenada en la memoria de los miembros de esta comunidad. los resultados de esta observación pueden tener importantes aplicaciones pedagógicas, no sólo en el sentido de proporcionar a los futuros miembros de la comunidad discursiva de los arquitectos un cierto grado de destreza en la escritura, en su propia lengua, de un género lingüístico cuyo dominio resulta conveniente en esta disciplina. el estudio de la realización lingüística de todos estos recursos retóricos puede ayudar también a dotar a los futuros arquitectos, estudiantes en universidades españolas, de una cierta competencia en la escritura de este género en inglés, sobre todo tratándose, como es el caso, de un estudio basado en un corpus bilingüe y disponible en formato electrónico. tanto el propio corpus como la recopilación de los casos de uso de cada uno de los movimientos y estrategias identificadas en los textos pueden facilitar el desarrollo de material didáctico basado en textos de especialidad que constituyen ejemplos de uso real. [artículo recibido en mayo de 2009] [artículo revisado aceptado en septiembre de 2009] bibliografía paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 19 (2010): 55-7674 ackerman, j. y s. oates (1996). “image, text and power in architectural design and workplace writing” en a.h. duin y craig j. hansen (eds.), nonacademic writing: social theory and technology, 81-121. mahwh, nj: lawrence erlbaum. bhatia, v.k. (2001). “analyzing genre: some conceptual issues” en m. hewings (ed.), academic writing in context: implications and applications, 79-92. birmingham: university of birmingham. bunton, d. (2002). “generic moves in ph.d. thesis introductions” en j. flowerdew (ed.), academic discourse, 57-75. london: pearson education. bunton, d. (2005). “the structure of phd conclusion chapters”. journal of english for academic purposes 4: 207-224. caballero, r. (2002). “the lexicogrammar of metaphor in the discourse of architects”. estudios ingleses de la universidad complutense 10: 4366. caballero, r. (2003). “methaphor and genre: the presence and role of metaphor in the building review”. applied linguistics 24: 145-167. caballero, r. (2006). re-viewing space. figurative language in architects’ assessment of built space. berlin/new york: mouton de gruyter. 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 74 paloma poveda cabanes es licenciada en filología inglesa por la universidad complutense de madrid y jefe de redacción de la revista de arquitectura el croquis. actualmente se encuentra realizando el programa de doctorado “lenguas para fines específicos: un enfoque multidisciplinar. análisis, metodología y nuevas tecnologías” del departamento de lingüística aplicada a la ciencia y la tecnología de la universidad politécnica de madrid, habiendo superado el examen de suficiencia investigadora y obtenido el dea en junio de 2008. la estructura retórica de la memoria de arquitectura ibérica 19 (2010): 55-76 75 connor, u. y a. mauranen (1999). “linguistic analysis of grant proposals: european union research grants”. english for specific purposes 18: 47-62. ding, h. (2007). “genre analysis of personal statements: analysis of moves in application essays to medical and dental schools”. english for specific purposes 26: 368-392. dudley-evans, t. (2000). “genre analysis: a key to a theory of esp?” ibérica 2: 3-11. henry, a. y r.l. roseberry (2001). “a narrowangled corpus analysis of moves and strategies of the genre: letter of application”. english for specific purposes 20: 153-167. hyland, k. (2000). disciplinary discourses: social interactions in academic writing. london: longman. kwan, b. (2006). “the schematic structure of literature reviews in doctoral theses of applied linguistics”. english for specific purposes 25: 3055. lewin, b.a., j. fine y l. young (2001). expository discourse: a genre-based approach to social science research texts. new york: continuum. mann, w.c. y s.a. thompson (1988). “rhetorical structure theory: toward a funcional theory of text organization”. text 8: 243-281. markus, t.a. y d. cameron (2002). the words between the spaces. buildings and language. london: routledge. medway, p. (1996). “writing, speaking, drawing: the distribution of meaning in architects’ communication” en m. shaples y t. van der gees (eds.), the new writing environment: writers at work in a world of technology, 25-42. london: springer verlag. poveda, p. (2007). “a contrastive analysis of hedging in english and spanish architecture project descriptions”. revista española de lingüística aplicada 20: 139-158. poveda, p. (2008). “uso y funciones comunicativas de los atenuantes retóricos en la memoria de arquitectura: un estudio inglés-español”. ibérica 15: 113-133. swales, j.m. (1981). aspects of article introductions. birmingham: lsu, university of aston. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. new york: cambridge university press. taboada, m. (2004). building coherence and cohesion: task-oriented dialogue in english and spanish. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. taboada, m. y w.c. mann (2006). “rhetorical structure theory: looking back and moving ahead”. discourse studies 8: 423-459. úbeda, p. (2003a). “estudios de un corpus de conversación profesional: el uso de la metáfora en los estudios de arquitectura de habla inglesa”. estudios de lingüística aplicada 36: 121-151. úbeda, p. (2003b). “metaphor at work: a study of metaphors used by european architects when talking about their projects”. ibérica 5: 35-48. yang, r. y d. allison (2003). “research articles in applied linguistics: moving from results to conclusions”. english for specific purposes 22: 365-385. 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 75 notas 1 el colegio de arquitectos de madrid ofrece en su web (http://www.coam.org) un documento elaborado como guía-ayuda que enumera ordenadamente todo lo que los expedientes de los proyectos de edificación, en sus distintas fases, deben contener según la legislación vigente, y que se refiere explícitamente a la organización textual de la “memoria descriptiva” que debe acompañar al resto de la documentación requerida. por otra parte, en el reino unido, un design statement es un informe requerido por las leyes urbanísticas que explica, ilustra y justifica el proceso que ha conducido hasta una propuesta de edificación. mediante circular del department for communities and local government (01/2006) y el planning and compulsory purchase act 2004, se establece la obligación de presentar un design and access statement junto con toda la documentación que acompaña a una planning application a partir del 10 de agosto de 2006. el cabe (commission for architecture and the built environment) publica una guía on-line sobre la redacción y la utilización de los design statements (http://www.cabe.org.uk). 2 la teoría de la estructura retórica es una teoría de la organización de los textos creada en los años 80 –descrita originariamente por mann y thompson (1988), y más tarde desarrollada por otros autores como taboada y mann (2006)– que proporciona una explicación de la coherencia textual independiente de las formas léxicas y gramaticales. aunque el principal objetivo de este trabajo no es el análisis del género de la memoria de arquitectura bajo los postulados de la teoría de la estructura retórica, el propio modelo de análisis, sus conceptos y terminología se han revelado como herramientas útiles para ofrecer una interpretación de las elecciones retóricas de los autores de este género lingüístico, por tratarse de un tipo de texto estructurado jerárquicamente y organizado funcionalmente (véase http://www.sfu.ca/rst). 3 en este apartado denominado “miscelánea” se incluyen todas aquellas pautas secuenciales con un solo caso de aparición en el corpus. paloma poveda cabanes ibérica 19 (2010): 55-7676 03 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 76 berica 13 ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146 abstract contrastive studies of statutory legislation are very scarce world-wide. research in legal language has mainly concentrated on adjectival law leading to linguistic insights regarding powerful versus powerless speech, fragmented versus narrative testimony, the effect on jurors of simultaneous and overlapping speech, the use of leading, suggestive or improper questions in the courtroom, etc. language of the substantive law has so far received considerably less attention from linguists, although there is a general tendency in academic endeavours towards interdisciplinary studies. linguistic analyses of substantive law have elucidated issues such as how to make existing or future statutes clearer, without loss of content (i.e. document design) or how law students can be taught to process legislation. the present article analyses the specific functional, linguistic and communicative characteristics of the legal genre from an applied linguist’s perspective in the context of european legal texts, as representing a unique set of features and conditions. it looks at the linguistic situation in europe and the language policy in the eu with special emphasis on the translation regime of eu institutions. the participants in the communication and the special role of the translator in the law making process in the eu are discussed. key words: statutory language, legal translation, european legislation, supranational law. resumen texto y contexto de las directivas de la uni�n europea: implicaciones para los traductores los estudios contrastivos sobre legislación parlamentaria a nivel transnacional son muy escasos. hasta ahora, el interés investigador se ha centrado en cuestiones de derecho adjetivo, como el estudio del discurso de poder, las deposiciones testimoniales fragmentadas y las narrativas, la influencia sobre el the text and context of eu directives: implications for translators1 diana yankova new bulgarian university (bulgaria) dyankova@nbu.bg 129 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 129 jurado del discurso simultáneo o solapado fonéticamente, el uso de preguntas incorrectas o sesgadas en los tribunales, y así sucesivamente. el lenguaje del derecho sustantivo, por el contrario, ha recibido mucha menos atención por parte de los lingüistas, aunque comience a aparecer una corriente académica favorable a los estudios interdisciplinares. los análisis lingüísticos del derecho sustantivo se han encaminado hacia la clarificación y simplificación del lenguaje parlamentario, sin que éste pierda contenido, o alternativamente a la didáctica de la interpretación legislativa a los juristas. este artículo pretende analizar las características funcionales, lingüísticas y comunicativas únicas y peculiares a los géneros legales desde el punto de vista de la lingüística aplicada al contexto de la legislación europea, al mismo tiempo que se centra en la situación europea en lo relativo a política lingüística, con un énfasis especial en el sistema traductológico de las instituciones europeas. asimismo, se debate sobre los participantes del proceso de elaboración de las leyes en la unión, y el papel del traductor en dicho proceso. palabras clave: lenguaje legislativo, traducción jurídica, legislación europea, derecho supranacional. introduction there have been few or no substantial studies of the important linguistic elements in eu law and their implications for the understanding and application of the law; language and communication issues have not been informed by scholarly discussion (tosi, 2005; mcauliffe, 2006). the idiosyncratic communicative situation within which eu legal texts are created has an immediate bearing on the texts produced. within this context, the concepts of text type, original text, translation, text producer, text recipient, etc., acquire new meaning and merit new interpretation. one motivation for analyzing eu directives is the role these instruments play in the process of approximation of legislation and the purpose they fulfill. directives occupy a special place among statutory texts since they are binding with regard to the results to be achieved, but not to the exact methods of achieving these results. it is left to the discretion of each member state to choose the best designed and most effective procedures and practices with respect to its specific context. member states are encouraged to transpose directives correctly and on time, and are also monitored and penalised for incorrect or late transposition, but the eu commission can only offer recommendations as to the forms and means that member states adopt in implementing a particular directive. diana yankova ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146130 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 130 the translation of eu-produced legal texts already presents multifarious problems for translators from member states, which are voiced in private, as well as at seminars of the translation service and in the on-going “fight the fog”2 campaign (wagner & martin, 1998; wagner, 2000a). member states and countries seeking accession to the european union have to harmonize their existing institutions, create new ones and find the language to communicate adequately within unified europe which implies the standardization of legal terminology –a laborious and demanding task. this article is part of a larger study of the contextual and textual characteristics of eu legislation focusing on the broader context of the production and consumption of legal texts, with special emphasis on translators who are an essential part of harmonization of legislation owing to the specific supranational and multilingual nature of law creation in the eu. the law making process in the eu apart from cases where one single national jurisdiction is expressed in one language, throughout the world there exist several other basic legal contexts; namely, different legal systems are expressed in one language (e.g., the english and scottish system); one and the same legal system is expressed in different languages (e.g., the swiss system and partly the canadian system); the third option is the bilingual or monolingual system of public international law. unlike other international organizations whose resolutions are directed to governments only, the eu is the only international body that passes directly binding laws to the citizens in its member states and this is precisely what frames eu’s language policy, embodying the aspiration that all citizens should have equal treatment regardless of their mother tongue. it is necessary for such texts to be available in the national languages of the countries concerned. the legislative initiative within the eu lies with the european commission which, in the case of regulations and directives, drafts proposals that are adopted by the two decision-making institutions, the parliament and the council, before the law becomes implemented in national law. this is known as co-decision and is the main legislative procedure, requiring that all legislative proposals with the necessary translations get approved several times in the three institutions: the commission, council and parliament. the text and context of eu directives ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146 131 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 131 the acquis communautaire refers to the collection of eu legislation and encompasses primary legislation (the treaties), secondary legislation (deriving from the treaties) and case law of the court of justice. there are five types of secondary eu instruments: regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations, and opinions, of which the first two are the most important and most recurrent. it is essential for the translator to be aware of the parts comprising each instrument, the functions they perform, and whether and to what extent the instrument is binding. for instance, regulations are totally binding, while directives are binding in regard to the results to be achieved, but not to the exact methods of attaining these results, which is left to the discretion of each member state; decisions are binding on those to whom they are addressed, while recommendations and opinions have no binding force. eu instruments, like any other statutory texts, are formulaic. the arrangement is the following: they begin with the title, the name of the enacting authority (the commission, the council, the parliament), followed by the citations which set out the legal basis, then by the recitals laying down policy considerations, and finally, the articles, which provide the substantive provisions. since most of the information is clustered together in the introductory section and is presented as a long list of cases and conditions to which the following articles apply, it presents difficulties when adapted into the very different structure of national statutes. this formal complication, added to the existing conceptual non-correspondence in certain legal institutions between national legislations and the acquis communautaire, renders the whole process of harmonization somewhat intricate and problematic. more often than not, directives are lexically abstract because of their specific position as legislation to be adopted by the diverse legal systems of the member states. consequently, the respective national drafters are reluctant to alter the wording when implementing the directives, lest a misunderstanding might arise of the original legislative intent. in so doing, the national drafter runs the risk of making the meaning of the text hard to comprehend by the public at large, since at times it diverges from the respective national language of the law, and does not abide by its generic conventions. the process of drafting eu legislation has been criticized by a number of academics and practitioners, most notably by braselman (1992), who questioned the possibility of all language versions being equally authentic on the grounds that there can be, in some cases, only partial equivalence, since different languages conceptualize the same situation differently, and this diana yankova ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146132 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 132 leads to interpretation problems when no original version exists. along the same lines, solan (2006) contends that the babel of europe facilitates communication. according to him, a supranational legal order should meet three goals: show respect for individual members, be faithful to the intent of the drafters, and be efficient. the absence of a single authoritative text and the usage of many language versions increase the likelihood for judges to pay closer attention to the intent of the legislature and to provide information which is not found in monolingual translation. mezzarese (2000: 162) offers a similar standpoint: a close inspection of some of the main sorts of problems met by legal translation (i.e. by the inter-lingual translation of legal language from one natural language to another) can enlighten, and lead to a better comprehension of some of the classical topics debated in dealing with legal interpretation (i.e., with the sort of intra-lingual translation of legal language in the scope of one and the same natural language). it remains to be seen if the unprecedented multitude of languages proves a hindrance or enhancement in the application of eu law. it is however striking, that so far there have been remarkably few law suits involving disputes over different language versions of official eu documents. institutional eu english institutional eu english is considered something different from “standard english” and this is determined by several factors. sometimes legislation in english is drafted by non-native speakers and communication within the european institutions mirrors the situation worldwide. as flesch (1998: 3) states “there are more non-native english speakers in the european institutions that communicate through english than british and irish officials combined”. being supranational, eu legislation applies regulations and directives not existent in national legal systems. the process of drafting also involves considerations regarding the exact wording of the documents, which have to be translated into all the 23 official languages. source texts presented to translators have been considered by some as being of a “substandard quality” (martin, 2000: 2). wagner expresses the view that “written communication in the commission is too much, too unclear and too out of touch” (wagner, 2000a: 6). horst (2000: 2) has even gone so far as to say that: the text and context of eu directives ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146 133 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 133 as long as the european public has the impression that the language used for the process of european unification is an administrative language, foreign to everyday language, a sense of belonging will not emerge and the idea of the european unity will be rejected. eurojargon has few archaisms, borrowings or unnecessary technical vocabulary, and lacks any of the typical convoluted characteristics of legalese. what hinders communication is the extreme textual uniformity. in tosi’s (2005: 385) view lexis and syntax are clear enough, and yet lexical vagueness and weak logical connections spread a sense of mechanistic virtuality that makes the voice of europe sound awkward, abstract and completely distant from any language spoken in everyday life. the result is that non-standard syntactic structures become acceptable forms of language use. concerning vocabulary, there are some peculiar lexical combinations, for example “member state” for a country that has joined the eu, or the metonymic use of proper nouns, such as maastricht and schengen. another important point to consider is the standardization of texts produced in the union. all the different versions have to be uniform not only regarding the content, but also regarding the organization of the text. the layout, articles, paragraphs, sentences have to match completely in order to facilitate reference to the document in any of the official languages. the full stop rule requires “an equal number of full stops in source text and translations” (trosborg, 1997a: 152). all language versions of drafted documents have to be identical, paragraph by paragraph and, where possible, sentence by sentence. this requirement is tied to the legislative process itself within this supranational environment. hence, regulations and directives can be easily modified. the equal value of all texts is a legal fiction3 that is at the core of eu multilingual context; all language versions are functionally equivalent and are binding on citizens in the respective member state. at present, there is an atmosphere of rethinking and reconceptualizing of eu practices both in terms of institutional organization and legal drafting, which would undoubtedly have an impact on translation. the chairman of the european union’s constitutional convention, valery giscard d’estaing is in favour of plowing through the hundreds of pages of treaties and agreements that constitute the foundation for the eu, bringing that paperwork to some “30 or 35 pages in all” –something that’s at once diana yankova ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146134 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 134 comprehensive and comprehensible, not to mention digestible, just like “the other great constitutions” of the world (dickey & meyer, 2002: 14). likewise, the translation service has for years appealed for a higher standard of drafting and clearer texts, including application of what is known as the kiss rule (“keep it short and simple”) and the “fight the fog” campaign. the translation regime of eu institutions each eu institution has its own translation service which is responsible for translation of all the texts issued by such an institution: the commission, the council, the parliament, the court of justice, the court of auditors, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the regions. by far, the largest translation service is the commission’s directorate-general for translation (dgt) comprising about 2,300 people translating all of the written communication. it is located both in brussels and luxembourg. other eu institutions such as the council, parliament, court of justice, court of auditors, etc., have their own translation departments. the ratio of translators to interpreters at the dgt is 3:1. it is the largest public language translation bureau in the world. there is one language department for each official eu language and translators work in single-language units specializing in different subjects. eu translations encompass a wide range of documents on a large variety of topics: council regulations and directives to be published in the official journal, minutes of council meetings, committee reports, opinions of the council legal service, press releases, letters and speeches, amounting to more than 3 million pages per year. in the case of international bodies (schäffner, 2002) a distinction is made between texts for internal use –i.e., texts that are used by politicians and negotiators among themselves, and those for external use –i.e., texts that are directed to the public at large (see koskinen (2004) for discussion of eu culture). the texts that are translated into all the official languages fall into the following groups: • documents that are essential in the final stages of the decisionmaking process; • all texts that are for adoption by the council; • documents that are of general interest for the citizens of the member states. the text and context of eu directives ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146 135 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 135 in all other instances, mainly at the intra-institutional level, functional and pragmatic considerations are operative and this means less effort without loss of transparency or efficiency. this includes the daily administrative work of the institutions and the initial stages of legislative drafting which are drafted by in-house officials in one or two working languages: mostly english and french. the same principle applies in the case of interpreting, and multilingualism is ensured where it is required: sittings of the european parliament and its committees, as well as council of ministers sessions are provided with interpretation in all the official languages, while at administrative meetings or discussions between specialists in sigs (special interest groups) do not require full interpretation and working languages are resorted to. interpreting usually faces more problems, since the number of actually used language combinations is higher. at a meeting, for instance, any delegate can make a speech which has to be rendered in all the languages. when documents are drafted in english, they are more likely to be understood by everybody and will not necessitate a translation. the outgoing documents drafted mainly in english or french within the commission are then translated by native speakers in the other official languages. translators translate out of several languages but as a rule into their mother tongue. incoming documents used to be translated exclusively by french and english translators but with the current number of official languages, it is very difficult for the french and english language departments to deal with all the translations as a whole. consequently, there is a tendency now to use return or two-way translation by translators whose native language is other than english or french but who have an excellent command of those languages. another recent development is the introduction of editing services for french and english to assure the linguistic quality and the translatability of those documents which are mostly drafted by non-native speakers.4 a country entering the eu has to translate the acquis communuataire comprising about 90,000 pages of primary legislation and all secondary legislation passed up to the day the country joins. this responsibility lies with the national government, while eu institutions finalize and publish the translated texts in the official journal of the european union. to further illustrate the matter, by the end of april 2006, dgt had recruited 473 fulltime translators.5 there are also additional translators recruited as seconded national experts for fixed periods and a projected support staff of 126. diana yankova ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146136 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 136 dgt also outsources work to freelance translators. approximately every eighth official working in the eu institutions is a translator (toscani, 2002). the total translation output of the dgt in 2005 was 1,324,231 pages in all (then) 20 official languages. in preparation for the biggest enlargement of the eu, which took place in 2004 when 10 countries joined with 9 new languages, the commission introduced a demand-management strategy to improve communication with the citizens whereby departments were required to produce documents not longer than 15 pages (compared to the pre-accession average of 37 pages). with a view to the smooth integration of the bulgarian and romanian languages in 2007, the dgt set up a task force for “enlargement 2007”, opening field offices in the commission delegations in bucharest and sofia in 2005. the first 16 bulgarian and 20 romanian translators were recruited in january 2006, with the final figure to be 60 translators per language. the written tests of the translators were held in july and were marked in september, the author being one of the markers. to date, about 70% of the documents forming the acquis has been finalized in bulgarian and romanian. another language that was granted full official status on january 1, 2007 is irish. however, due to a derogation6 such as the one requested by the maltese government, only the regulations adopted jointly by the european parliament and the council, together with the correspondence between eu institutions and the irish citizens will be translated. in december 2005, the commission signed an agreement with spain on the use of basque, catalan and galician, based on decisions adopted by the council in june 2005 authorizing the use in the eu institutions of regional languages with no official status in the respective member state. they now have an intermediary status, whereby speakers of those languages have the right to communicate with european institutions in these languages, but the translation costs are covered by the spanish government. the cost of translation in absolute values is shown in table 1. with the inclusion of bulgarian, irish and romanian, the cost of translation is projected to rise by approximately 30 million euros for all institutions. year population cost per year cost to each citizen the text and context of eu directives ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146 137 diana yankova such as the one requested by the maltese government, only the regulations adopted jointly by the european parliament and the council, together with the correspondence between eu institutions and the irish citizens will be translated. in december 2005, the commission signed an agreement with spain on the use of basque, catalan and galician, based on decisions adopted by the council in june 2005 authorizing the use in the eu institutions of regional languages with no official status in the respective member state. they now have an intermediary status, whereby speakers of those languages have the right to communicate with european institutions in these languages, but the translation costs are covered by the spanish government. the cost of the translation in absolute values is shown in table 1. with the inclusion of bulgarian, irish and romanian, the cost of translation is projected to rise by approximately 30 million euros for all institutions. year population cost per year cost to each citizen 2003 379 million eur 541 million (of which dgt 230 million) eur 1.45 (of which dgt 0.60) 2006 453 million eur 800 million (of which dgt 300 million) eur 1.76 (of which dgt 0.66) table 1. cost of translation in absolute values. eu translation tools the translation tools that dgt has at the disposal of the translators are of three main types: terminology tools, translation memory technology, and machine translation. an example of a terminology tool is eurodicautom –the central terminological bank at the european commission which is also the largest terminology database in the world. an abbreviation for europe dictionnaire 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 137 eu translation tools the translation tools that dgt has at the disposal of translators are of three main types: terminology tools, translation memory technology, and machine translation. an example of a terminology tool is eurodicautom –the central terminological bank at the european commission which is also the largest terminology database in the world. an abbreviation for europe dictionnaire automatisé, the bank is open to the general public as well, containing more than 6,500,000 terms and 300,000 abbreviations operating in all the eu’s official languages and latin. it is soon to be replaced by iate, an interinstitutional terminology database. trados translator’s workbench (twb) is an example of the second type of tool: translation memory technology. it is an integrated translation support tool with multilingual capability, a text recognition and replacement programme enabling translators to incorporate phrases, sentences, paragraphs translated before, checking for matching units and particularly useful for texts in accession negotiations. when an original text is fed, similar or identical fragments from previously translated texts appear as translation suggestions. an instance of the third type of tool (providing machine translation) is ec systran, short for “system translation”. it can translate up to 2,000 pages per hour, thus offering fast access to information in languages which requesters do not know, the main use of the tool being the standard translation of a document. in the latter case, the rough machine output must be edited and the amount of effort will depend on the text type: letter, minutes, manual, etc. in 2004, the total sum of pages translated by ec systran amounted to 696,347, with the commission being the main requester with 556,138 pages, a third of which (181,060 pages) was requested by the dgt. at present, the tool provides translation for 18 language pairs: from english into dutch, french, german, greek, italian, portuguese and spanish; from french into dutch, english, german, italian, portuguese and spanish; from german into english and french; from spanish into english and french; and, finally, from greek into french. there are also administration and documentation tools that help the process of translation. vista is the dgt’s electronic archiving system, containing all incoming (mainly original) and outgoing (mainly translated) documents in the commission since 1 january 1994, providing the rapid retrieval of any document. eur-lex contains the primary and secondary legislation and preparatory acts in all official eu languages, as well as national implementing measures and case law of the european court of justice. it is open to the diana yankova ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146138 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 138 general public and allows the possibility to consult the official journal of the european union. all these tools have been developed on the basis of the specific needs of the translator within the eu environment. in their daily work, translators need the appropriate terminology in the form of glossaries, databases, or dictionaries; they need reference documents such as electronic archives, and the possibility to resort to previously translated texts. the participants in the communication and the role of the translator the addresser of a piece of legislation is not an individual, but a team of specialists who write the text together in different stages before a final draft is approved in order to become law (for a detailed description of the process, see yankova & vassileva, 2002). the exceptional communicative situation in the creation and consumption of texts within the european union finds expression in the character of the participants in the process. in the context of supranational law, legislation is produced in a long process of draftmaking, revisions and modifications within all the language versions. there is constant consultation and cooperation between text originators, legal experts, translators and revisers. the individual and independent voice or imprint is completely lost within this multi-authored prose: “the co-decision procedure entails at least 31 steps by 11 different services in the three main institutions and four of these involve the european commission’s translation service” (wagner, 2000b: 4). any model of communication can also be viewed as a model for translation but the difference between a monolingual communicator and a translator is in the encoding of the message. the translator re-encodes a message into a different language, the message is approximately the same as the one received and is aimed at receivers who are not the same as the original sender. therefore, the translator is neither the sender nor the addressee proper or the intended recipient. one of the most influential theories of text comprehension is van dijk and kintsch’s (1983). it describes the comprehension process starting from recognizing words until constructing a representation of the meaning of the text. in 1988, the theory was extended with the construction-integration model (kintsch, 1988), followed by a completely updated theory in 1998 (kintsch, 1998). kintsch’s (1988) model of the comprehension process encompasses the following: step a – textthe text and context of eu directives ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146 139 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 139 based analysis; step b – knowledge-based analysis; step c – gap-bridging; and step d – coordination.7 when a recipient reads or hears a text, an understanding of that very text is created in his mind. the process of constructing a situation model is called the “comprehension process”. texts are interpreted word by word, and meanings of smaller units are combined into propositions. recipients build three different mental representations of the text: a verbatim representation of the text, a semantic representation which describes the meaning of the text, and a situational representation of the situation to which the text refers. the propositional (verbatim) representation consists initially of a list of propositions that are derived from the text. this list is transformed into a network of propositions, until the short term memory buffer is full. these bigger chunks are stored in the textual representation in episodic memory and language users activate an old or construct a new mental model of the events or situation the text is about. at each level, there is a microstructure, or propositions for the local content, and the macrostructure, or propositions representing the global structure of the text. the end product of the construction-integration process is an episodic text memory consisting of a text base and a situation model. of the two, the situation model is harder to specify because it depends on the individual recipient’s knowledge and experience. the translator’s approach will be to construct a model with a very high degree of approximation. the level of expertise of the translator is of utmost importance in the construction of such a model –as is the text itself– and the language difficulties that the translator is faced with. following newmark (1986), the translator’s communicative competence consists of four areas of knowledge and skills: • grammatical competence: the knowledge and skills to understand and express the literal meaning of utterances; • sociolinguistic competence: knowledge of and ability to produce and understand utterances appropriately in context, i.e. as constrained by topic, status of participants, purpose of interaction, etc.; • discourse competence: the ability to combine form and meaning to achieve unified texts (cohesion in form and coherence in meaning); • strategic competence: communication strategies which may improve communication or compensate breakdowns. diana yankova ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146140 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 140 in nida’s view (1975), the comprehension of a text depends on the level of expertise of the receiver. a properly encoded message has a specific length and a certain degree of difficulty which corresponds to the channel capacity of the intended recipient. a literal translation of the message will invariably produce a more difficult text of the same length, while the secondary recipients of the text have a narrower channel capacity. the solution he suggests is to supply the necessary redundancy in the translation, in terms of expressly stating elements which are covert in the original text, and to provide background information necessary for the proper unpacking of the text. according to alexieva (1999: 57), the ease with which we comprehend a text depends to a large extent on the following: the text’s semantic density or the degree of condensation of the predications forming its content structure, in terms of the ratio between the explicit predications (rendered by means of finite clauses) and the implicit predications (given in a condensed form by means of nominal, participial or infinitival phrases). the type of text and its functional content is a very important parameter in its proper comprehension. the functional content of a text can be described in terms of the following features (alexieva, 1994): dominant functions and types of meaning; density of information; type of cognitive models employed in the making of the text. the main function of statutory texts is to impose obligations and to grant rights. they are directive texts, which in jakobson’s (1960) model have a conative function, and in halliday’s (1994) theory an interpersonal function. regarding density of information, due to the double need of statutory texts to be both concise and at the same time abstract, in the sense of wide extension (gunnarsson, 1987) (or all inclusive in bhatia’s (1993) terms), we can discern text characteristics which are at the opposite end of the scale, and such that render text comprehension exceptionally difficult. one of the features is the extreme density of lexical repetition, striving at the utmost preciseness of expression (danet, 1980; bhatia, 1993). due to the repetitive nature and lack of anaphora of legal texts at large, statutory texts are difficult to unpack semantically at first reading. the other characteristic is flexibility, and can be seen in the drafting of a vague and abstract language which aspires to include all possible contingencies, in the implicitness and semantic density that is created by the desire to be overly compact. this feature finds the text and context of eu directives ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146 141 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 141 expression mainly in nominalizations and passives (maley, 1994; tiersma, 1999). in the process of interlingual transfer between the intentions of the addresser and the effect of the translation on the addressee, translators are not encouraged to be real mediators. the standardization of translation within the eu context calls for a linear substitution of lexical and syntactic strings and the direct transfer of punctuation from one language version to another. the strategies employed by eu translators in the treatment of parallel texts are text-focused, rather than recipient-focused. in view of the intricate character of the production of these special types of text, translators do not have individual responsibility, but collective responsibility, which is at the level of the institution itself. moreover, the text that, for example, german translators ultimately endeavor to translate, may not be the original (french) version, but it can be a translation (spanish) which functions as a link between the source and the target language. at times, separate sections of the same text are translated by different translators from the same source text; at others, different translators translate the same text from different source languages (tosi, 2005). eu statutory instruments are influenced by the specific eu context, and all these factors are embodied in the discoursal features of the texts produced within the supranational eu context: there are few archaisms, borrowings and technical vocabulary; texts are replete with non-standard syntactic structures and in general display extreme textual uniformity. in monolingual statutory interpretation, the challenge is to interpret a word or a phrase expressed in one language and embedded in a particular context. in the case of eu legislation, the interpretation of words or phrases is aggravated by the number of languages involved; having in mind that meaning is distributed differently in the diverse language systems. therefore, it is very difficult to preserve both the denotative and connotative meaning of words and phrases in all the 23 languages. conclusion how can translators deal with the novel aspects of the communicative situation within the eu context? in order to understand and properly process the text under kintsch’s (1988) model, legal translators should be skilled in the analytic and empirical methods of comparative law, in addition to having broad knowledge of both the source and target legal system. in diana yankova ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146142 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 142 most cases they cannot rely on bilingual or multilingual law dictionaries, but need to consult the original sources of law. within the eu context, there are no guides for strategic choices of the translators apart from guidelines for eu terminology, but the collective and intertextual nature of eu translations ensures no deviations from the general trend. translators, however, are not free to use just any strategy; they are faced with institutional constraints, which inevitably affect their work, on top of the fact that as a rule, statutory texts call for an exact and faithful translation in order to preserve the intent of the legislative institution. the cultural context within which a text is consumed is also of importance. currently, european languages show a tolerance for foreign elements owing to the large number of translations that are being done in relation to the ongoing social, political, economic and legal integration in europe. therefore, the prevalent general translation strategy is oriented towards acceptance and adoption of internationalisms and neologisms. in specific cases, a felicitous approach is for the translator to construe a term from the context and the dictionary entry, then make certain that it is in compliance with the legislative intent of the source legislation and that it corresponds to the source term in its denotative and connotative meaning, and finally to make sure that the term can be applied consistently in all parts of the target statutory instrument. it is important to keep in mind that translations which are part of the harmonization process become integrated in the national legislation of the individual country and therefore, the choices that are made will become obligatory in future translations of eu legislation. inevitably, these choices will leave an imprint on the evolution of the national language and will influence the discourse patterns in the receiving culture particularly in varieties of language that are being freshly introduced, such as the new, supranational european legal discourse. (revised paper received february 2008) references the text and context of eu directives ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146 143 alexieva, b. (1994). “types of texts and intertextuality on simultaneous interpreting” in m. snell-hornby, f. pöchhacker & k. kaindl (eds.), translation studies. an interdiscipline, 179187. amsterdam: john benjamins. alexieva, b. (1999). “understanding the source language text in simultaneous interpreting” in a. riccardi & m. viezzi (eds.), the interpreters’ newsletter, 4559. trieste: universita degli studi di trieste. 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 143 diana yankova ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146144 bhatia, v.k. (1993). analysing genre: language use in professional settings. longman: london. braselman, p. (1992). “der richter als linguist. linguistische uberlegungen zu sprachproblemen in urteilen des europaischen gerichtshofes”, sprache und literatur in wissenschaft und ubterricht 68: 7181. danet, b. (1980). “language in the legal process”. law and society review 14: 460-556. dickey, c. & m. meyer (2002). “is europe broken?”. newsweek, 12 august: 14. flesch, c. (1998). fighting the fog. url: http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/t ranslation/en/ftfog/flesch.htm [12/12/01] gunnarsson, b.l. (1987). “the abstractness and implicitness of swedish legal language” in a.m. cornu, j. vanparijs, m. delahaye & l. baten (eds), beads or bracelets? how do we approach lsp. selected papers from the 5th european symposium on lsp, 219-229. oxford: oxford university press. halliday, m. (1994). an introduction to functional grammar, 2nd edition. london: edward arnold. horst, k. (2000). did you say sprachbarrieren? url: http://ec.europa.eu/translation/r eading/articles/pdf/2000_tp_van _der_horst.pdf [08/03/07] jakobson, r. (1960). “linguistics and poetics” in t. sebeok (ed.), style in language, 350377. cambridge, ma: m.i.t. press. kintsch, w. 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(2000). “legal interpretation as translation: three readings of a current analogy” in g. zaccaria (ed.). journal of legal hermeneutics. translation in law, 161-188. münster: lit verlag. newmark, p. (1986). approaches to translation. oxford: pergamon press. nida, e. (1975). language structure and translation. stanford: stanford university press. schäffner, c. (2002). “strategies for translating political texts” in a. trosborg (ed.), 119-143. solan, l. (2006). “statutory interpretation in the eu: the augustinian approach”. paper presented at the language and law conference, düsseldorf, may 2006. tiersma, p.m. (1999). legal language. chicago: university of chicago press. toscani, g. (2002). “translation and law – multilingual context of the european union institutions”. international journal of legal information 30: 288-307. tosi, a. (2005). “eu translation problems and the danger of linguistic devaluation”. international journal of applied linguistics 15: 384-388. trosborg, a. (1997a). “translating hybrid political texts” in a. trosborg (ed.), 145-158. trosborg, a. (ed.) (1997b). text, typology and translation. amsterdam: john benjamins. van dijk, t. & w. kintsch (1983). strategies of discourse comprehension. new york: academic press. wagner, e. (2000a). “quality of written communication in a multilingual organization”. terminologie et traduction 1: 5-16. wagner, e. (2000b). translation of multinational instruments in the eu. url: http://ec.europa.eu/translation/r eading/articles/theory_and_prac tice_en.htm [12/12/01] wagner, e. & t. martin (1998). “fighting the fog at the european commission”. terminologie et traduction 2: 131-139. yankova, d. & i. vassileva (2002). “supranational legislative texts: a new challenge for translators in europe” in h. kelz (ed.), die sprachliche zukunft europas. mehrsprachigkeit und sprachenpolitik, 145-158. baden-baden: nomos-verlag. 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 144 diana yankova, phd., is associate professor at the applied linguistics department, new bulgarian university, sofia, bulgaria. she is the author of monographs and over 30 articles on legal language, culture and genrespecific characteristics of common law and continental legislation, convergence of legal studies and linguistics, eu legal terminology, teaching ealp. notes 1 a shorter version of this paper was presented at the international conference “law and society in the 21st century” held at humboldt university, berlin july 25-28, 2007. 2 movement started by translators within eu institutions providing guidelines on how to write clearly when drafting or translating. for further detail, see http://ec.europa.eu/translation/writing/clear_writing /fight_the_fog_en.pdf 3 in the common law tradition, legal fictions are suppositions of fact which are not necessarily true, but are taken to be true by the courts of law. 4 in 2001 the european commission services submitted a proposal to the commission president to use only english in some specific cases. a joint letter was drafted in french and german by the then foreign ministers of france and germany, declaring the proposal unthinkable and one that would promote unilingualism in the commission. 5 all the numbers in this section are quoted from “translation in the commission: where do we stand two years after enlargement?” eu memo/06/173, april 27, 2006. 6 a temporary waiver from a regulation or a directive, normally granted only by unanimous agreement of the council of ministers, and for a limited period: in the case of maltese for three years beginning on may 1, 2004; in the case of irish for five years as of january 1, 2007. 7 the most problematic for a translator would be step b: the poorer knowledge base. the text and context of eu directives ibérica 16 [2008]: 129-146 145 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 145 07 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:24 página 146 iberica 13 ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 abstract understanding the differences and subtleties between the legal communication of the english-speaking world, and the continental law countries –and, more specifically, spainhas become a necessary practice in the global context. for the most part, it involves unravelling the differences and concomitances between the array of legal genres produced by the professionals of the specialist communities within these two traditions (i.e., common law and continental law). this paper attempts an analysis in layers –generic or pragmatic, textual or cognitive, and formal or superficial– of two types of genre within the domain of public and private law, namely delegated legislation and tenancy agreements or leases, the study of which has been seldom attempted, despite the customary presence of these instruments in the legal routine. the result of such analysis will, hopefully, cast some light on the way these communities interact within themselves and with the rest of the world, providing new clues to tackle the application of those genres and making it possible to draw new conclusions about the way in which linguistic interaction takes place in the context of these specialist communities in english and spanish. keywords: legal genre, legal communication, legal text, generic analysis. resumen los g�neros jur�dicos en ingl�s y en espa�ol: algunos intentos de an�lisis la comprensión de las diferencias y sutilezas que subyacen a la comunicación jurídica en inglés como lengua franca en el contexto global, y su traducción al español se ha convertido en una práctica necesaria hoy en día. en su mayor parte, dicha práctica consiste en desvelar las diferencias y concomitancias que existen entre el abanico de géneros jurídicos que emanan de la práctica profesional de los especialistas inmersos en las comunidades profesionales de estas dos tradiciones, tan distintas una de otra, a saber, la de common law y la de legal genres in english and spanish: some attempts of analysis mª ángeles orts llopis universidad de murcia (spain) mageorts@um.es 109 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 109 ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 mª ángeles orts llopis derecho continental. el presente artículo emprende un análisis en capas –genérica o pragmática, textual o cognitiva, y formal o superficial– de dos tipos de géneros dentro del ámbito de la legislación pública y privada, respectivamente. es de esperar que los resultados de dicho análisis aporten nueva información a la forma en que nuestras comunidades interactúan entre sí y con el resto del mundo, al contribuir con nuevas pistas para afrontar la traducción, la docencia y la aplicación de dichos géneros y al extraer nuevas conclusiones sobre la forma en que tiene lugar la interacción lingüística en el contexto especializado de la comunicación jurídica global. palabras clave: género jurídico, comunicación jurídica, texto jurídico, análisis de género. introduction the development of different legal frameworks in the global context, as well as the implementation of legislative procedures and juridical processes across countries, is subject to variation according to the peculiar sociopolitical, cultural, economic and legal developments within those specific traditions. this is a factor that has to be acknowledged in the face of the dismantling of international boundaries, since transactions are increasingly taking place in the context of international markets and global agreements (bhatia et al., 2005). the economic, social and political preeminence of countries like usa or uk has made universal the usage of public and private legislation instruments like world agreements (unctad and uncitral conventions) as well as international contracts in the form of incoterms, for example. all these legal instruments are intended to be applied worldwide, sometimes to the apprehension and uneasiness of eu citizens and lawyers as a whole, but especially in the context of our continent. since international transactions are, for the most part, carried out in english, international litigation and legal practice worldwide are conducted in english as well (vogt, 2004). continental legal experts are accustomed to drafting and interpreting treaties and agreements from their own legal perspective; on the contrary, when in the translational context, these professionals are bound, by the current state of affairs of english as the lingua franca of lawyers, to construct them from the standpoint of a dramatically dissimilar legal system such as the common law. therefore, understanding differences and subtleties between the legal tradition of the english-speaking world and, in the european context, of continental law -which constitutes the basis of legal practices in many countries of the euhas become a necessary practice, which involves 110 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 110 unravelling the differences between their legal genres, as products of very different law traditions. accordingly, the aim of this paper is to prove that awareness of different cultural patterns is of the essence when analysing how differently legal genres are shaped in the public and private law of both traditions. legal english and legal spanish pertain to different systems of law, the common and the civil law, respectively, and have to be explained as the cultural products of different specialised communities. every legal system has developed its own kind of language from the onset, as the direct consequence of the particularities of its sources and hermeneutic procedures. all of the above leads me to regard a contextual, cultural description of legal behaviour as bearing a formidable significance for the teaching of languages for legal purposes and, for that matter, legal translation. three highly influential legal traditions are distinguished in the contemporary world: civil law, common law, and socialist law, as “a set of differently and deeply rooted, historically-conditioned attitudes about the nature of law, relating the legal system to the culture of which it is a partial expression” (merryman, 1985: 1). other legal traditions include moslem law, hindu law, jewish law, laws of the far east, and african tribal laws, as well as the scandinavian tradition. some legal systems are mixed, as it is the case of those in which the rule of law emanates from more than one legal tradition. this happens with the québec legal system, where the basic private law is derived partly from the civil law tradition and partly from the common law tradition; or with the egyptian system, in which the basic private law springs partly from the civil law tradition, and partly from moslem or other religious practices (tetley, 2000). civil law is the dominant legal tradition today in most of europe, all of central and south america, parts of asia and africa, and even some remote areas of the common-law world (e.g., louisiana, québec, and puerto rico). public international law and the law of the european community are in large part the product of professionals trained in the civil-law tradition. continental, or civil law, originated in roman law, as codified in the corpus juris civilis of justinian, later developed in continental europe and around the world. eventually, as tetley (2000) points out, civil law followed two different paths: the codified roman law (including the inheritors of the french civil code of 1804 or code napoleon: continental europe, québec and louisiana); and uncodified roman law, such as the one that survives in legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 111 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 111 scotland and south africa. in the civil-law tradition, the reasoning process is deductive, proceeding from stated general principles or rules of law contained in the legal codes to a specific solution. common law is the legal tradition which evolved in england from the 11th century onwards. its principles appear for the most part in reported judgments, precedents in relation to specific fact situations arising in disputes which courts have adjudicated previously, in accordance with the stare decisis (“stay upon what has been decided”) system. in common-law countries the process is the reverse to that in the continent, as far as exegetic norms are concerned: judges apply inductive reasoning, deriving general principles or rules of law from preceding cases or a series of specific rulings from which an applicable rule is extracted, and is consequently applied to specific cases. common law constitutes the legal basis of england, wales and ireland, but it also reigns in forty-nine u.s. states and nine canadian provinces, not forgetting those countries which first received that law as colonies of the british empire and which, in many cases, have preserved it as independent states of the british commonwealth (orts, 2007). the basic tenet of this article is that both the civil law and the common law traditions are “translatable” with respect to each other, provided that their legal traditions and the genres that constitute the communicative tools of their specialised communities are duly respected and kept in equilibrium, so that one does not overshadow and obliterate the other. only in that way can the “convergence” of the two traditions, now under way in europe, truly enrich and strengthen national and international legal culture. genre as a tool to understand and analyse legal texts genre theory explains the way in which the communicative events produced by a specialised linguistic community are structured (swales, 1990). basically, a genre is a highly structured communicative event, which may be written (business letters, statutes, abstracts) or oral (job interviews, witness examination, negotiations). getting to know a genre amounts to asserting that the more generic knowledge one has, the more initiated one may become in the mechanisms that run the communicative processes of a specialised community. based on swales’s (1981, 1985 & 1990) works on genre analysis, bhatia (1993: 13) defines “genre” as: mª ángeles orts llopis ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130112 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 112 (…) a recognisable communicative event characterised by a set of communicative purpose(s) identified and mutually understood by the members of the professional or academic community in which it regularly occurs. most often it is highly structured and conventionalised with constraints on allowable contributions in terms of their intent, positioning, form and functional value. these constraints, however, are often exploited by expert members of the discourse community to achieve private intentions within the framework of socially recognised purpose(s). following swales’s definition step by step, firstly a genre is a distinctive communicative event, characterised by a group of identifiable communicative purposes, tacitly understood by the members of an academic or professional community where it is usually deployed. hence, even if there are factors like the content, form or audience of the genre in question, that very genre is characterised by the communicative purpose it aims at fulfilling, and it is precisely the communicative purpose which builds up the genre from the point of view of its higher organisation or “macrostructure”. relevant changes in the communicative purpose of the event itself will generate different types of genre. inside the professional discourse of law, lease contracts and insurance policies are different kinds of genre, for, even if they are instances of private written legislation, their communicative purposes are entirely different (leasing a property or insuring a good, respectively). less noticeable changes will produce different subgenres. for example, lloyd’s insurance policies comprise five different groups of clauses, each one constituting a distinct type of subgenre, inasmuch as their communicative purposes vary to a certain degree, according to the type of cover they supply for goods transported by sea (orts, 2006). secondly, genre is, mostly, a highly structured and conventionalised communicative event. the member specialists of any professional or academic community possess, not just the knowledge about the communicative goals of their group, but also the know-how to structure the genres in which they partake daily in their work routine. subsequently, what forms the genre and conventionalises its internal structure is, also, the result of a period of vocational training and experience within the specialised community. thirdly, the different genres show restrictions in terms of their intention, positioning, form and functional value. hence, even if the drafter possesses a certain freedom to use the linguistic resources at hand, s/he has to keep well within the standard practices governing each peculiar genre. likewise, legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 113 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 113 certain lexico-grammatical resources and rhetorical-discursive mechanisms generally associated with the scope of the different registers are used exclusively within each generic typology. as bhatia (1993) points out, though it is not always possible to find an exact correlation between linguistic resources –both lexico-grammatical and discursive– and the functional values that they assume in the communicative process, it is much easier to do it through genres than through any other concept explaining linguistic variation. finally, these limitations are exploited by expert members of the discursive community so as to attain concrete objectives within the socially recognised framework of those purposes. hence the concept “genre literacy” or knowledge that the members of the discipline have about the relevant communicative conventions (spack, 1988) operating in the reading and writing practices carried out so as to construct their own identity and establish themselves in their professional cosmos. the model of generic scrutiny herein proposed divides the research-teaching process into three different levels, from top to bottom: “generic” (that i separate into cognitive and pragmatic), “discursive” or “textual” and “formal” or “superficial” (divided in turn into lexical and morphosyntactic elements). the generic level: texts in context as i have repeatedly pointed out above, genres are, mainly, the stratified discourse of a very specific specialised community. this, generically speaking, is shown both in their external and internal organizational structuring and in their communicative function and sociopragmatic conventions. for the functional purposes of my analytical description, i have divided pragmatic parameters into two groups, namely, “communicative” and “cognitive” elements. with this distinction i have attempted to give account, firstly, of the way in which formal and discursive incidences in the language of different text types are associated to cognitive phenomena that take place specifically in professional discourse. the cognitive elements of professional language are visible in its supra-organisation or “macrostructure”, which is a very definite part within the text and frames the textual segment, consisting of a cluster of linguistic data that make that very text uniform and define its internal structuring, accounting for the peculiarity of each specialised mª ángeles orts llopis ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130114 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 114 discourse. this cognitive structuring reflects the conventionalised social knowledge at the disposal of the discursive or professional community, besides the strategies or tactic choices used in general to render the discourse more effective for the sender’s purpose. the macrostructural rigidity, for instance, of legal genres is also pointed out by alcaraz (2000), such inflexibility proving to be of an enormous help for learners of languages for legal purposes, due to the clarity which characterises the layout of the genres, in contrast with their internal lexico-grammatical structuring. secondly, looking at language from its communicative perspective implies introducing a description of language in use, the specification of its pragmatic-discursive meaning, or combining the linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects of textual construction and interpretation together with the sociocultural factors that integrate it, namely: • the identification of the sender or writer of the text (the communicative community it springs from), its audience, relationships and purposes, which will be identified as the “tenor” of the genre; • the specification of the historical, sociocultural, and occupational positioning of the community where the genre originates, that will be associated here with the “legal tradition” from which the genre originates, and within which the specialised community operates; • the identification of the blend of texts and linguistic traditions that compose the background of the text or genre specifically and that will be identified as “hibridity and intertextuality” phenomena that may take place at several levels in the genre; • the identification of the matter/subject/extra-textual reality that the text attempts to represent, change or use, namely its “dominant contextual focus” (werlich, 1976; hatim & mason 1990 & 1997; hatim, 1997). hatim (2001: 77-78) subscribes reiss’s (1976) text typology, distinguishing three main text focuses: i. exposition, as found in descriptive and narrative texts, description dealing with “objects” or “situations”, and narrations organizing “actions” and “events” in a specific order; ii. instruction, as divided into two subtypes: instructions “with options”, as in advertisements or consumer recommendations, legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 115 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 115 and instructions “without options”, as in contracts and treaties, instruments prescriptively regulating civil behaviour; and iii. argumentation, where the focus is on what is known as “situation managing”, being the dominant function of the text “to manage or steer the situation in a manner favourable to the text producer’s goals”. hatim states that argumentative formats vary within, as well as across, languages and cultures, the preference for one or the other form being motivated by many factors such as politeness, power structures, and ideology. the discursive level: the textual elements this level scrutinises genre as an instance of text or written discourse, and not just as a mere chain of words randomly arranged; that is to say, it operates from the basic rules of linguistic organisation that make a text work, analysing the linguistic instruments that confer it its informative role. i will label as textual elements those intraand supra-sentence elements which contribute to its “textualization”, or property of a text that makes it different from a random sequence of unconnected sentences. as texts are processed, a necessary level of interpretation is the recognition of recurrent textual patterns. these patterns show in textual segments with recurrent and finite functional relationships -clauses, sentences or paragraphssubject to dynamic cognitive organisations (logical sequence, repetition, or syntactic parallelism, among others), proof of the communicative activity carried out by the community where the genre in question originates. de beaugrande and dressler (1981) point out that the stability of a text is kept by means of a sequential continuity of events, each one essential to have access to the next, and building up grammatical and lexical cohesion. in this way, the surface text has a short-term organisation of a lexical-syntactic type -as opposed to the pragmatic or conceptual organisation that reveals long-term communicative structuringwith structures of re-usage, modification or consolidation which contribute to the balance or economy of the text. on the one hand, the grammatical links that supply the text with cohesion can be classified into three general types: reference, ellipsis/substitution and conjunction (mccarthy, 1991). reference, in its turn, can be endophoric or exophoric. english legal genres at large have singular cohesion structuring, achieved by mere lexical repetition and an almost total absence of average mª ángeles orts llopis ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130116 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 116 anaphoric devices, which makes the legal text in general very difficult to follow. on the other hand, lexical cohesion is also an element describing certain semantic relationships between words so as to create “textuality”. lexical reiteration, for instance, is a veritable feature of textuality, since it exploits lexical relationships either restating an item in a later part of the discourse or reasserting its meaning. lexical relations are stable semantic connections between words, and constitute the basis of the descriptions given in dictionaries and thesauri. i refer to, for example, synonymy or hyponymy, as well as superordinates or general words, called “general nouns” (halliday and hasan, 1976) or “procedural words” (harris, 1997). the lexical “textuality” of the genre embodies its semantic coherence and accounts for many of the technicalities as found in every area of legal discourse. “staging” is a tool similarly used by the sender to organise his/her overall strategy of rhetorical presentation, and it is essential to orientate the audience. thematic sequences and marked thematic forms are going to convey an idea to the receiver on the parts of discourse considered as relevant by the sender. staging choices explain recurrent phenomena such as “passivization” and “nominalization” devices in legislation, where the information has to be presented so as to conceal the authorship of events, to detach the discourse as much as possible from the source of it, as it is invested with an aura of objectivity and impartiality, typical of the universal statements of the rule of law itself. the formal level: the superficial elements this level deals with the study of the surface elements (crystal & davy, 1969) or substance, or raw material of the text –as well as the peculiar combinations that that substance is submitted to so as to develop into higher units. it is a superficial level of analysis that contributes very useful data for the discovery of peculiarities of regular or irregular behaviour of graphetic and lexico-grammatical units and which constitutes the foundation for the subsequent discursive/pragmatic studies. it consists, for instance, of the analysis of layout devices, lexical recurrences and syntactic phenomena that take place in genres as different as court rulings, insurance contracts or separation agreements, all of them within the context of legal discourse, where formal traits are so different as to become worlds apart in terms of their comprehension and subsequent production. legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 117 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 117 graphetic, lexical and syntactic forms and their presence or absence are unreliable indicators when analysed separately; together and in their context they can supply very useful information about their discursive/pragmatic function. ostensibly, the linguistic forms of legal english genres are mostly selected to be explicit and precise, as well as –paradoxically– flexible and condensed, which often leads to a great deal of discursive opacity. along the same lines, one of the most distinguished forensic linguists in spain, enrique alcaraz, has described the lexicon and syntax of legal discourse in spanish as opaque, obscure and awkward; full of formulaic sentences and devoid of elegance (alcaraz, 2002). genre at work: analysing legal texts as wen (2004) points out, genre analysis helps to make translators become aware that different professional genres might require different steps of restructuring of the source text. i may add here that it also may help trainers and learners of english for legal purposes (elp) to be conscious of the fact that, even if the legal profession offers some generic concomitances, in tune with the purpose and context in which texts of the same genre are issued (an affidavit will always be a sworn declaration by an individual, both in spain and great britain, like a power of attorney will confer representation of an individual by another in both countries), there also exist differences, subtle or ubiquitous, marked by the legal tradition and exegetical norms of each culture. tables 1 and 2 illustrate how genres are organized in these two legal traditions, according to their structuring in the overall legal scenario. to illustrate my arguments, i have selected to analyse and deconstruct two different samples of genre in both the english (in this corpus, british and canadian, respectively) and the spanish system. because legislation and judicial opinions have already been analysed in previous literature (alcaraz, 2000, 2001 & 2002; borja albí, 2000; orts, 2007), and belong to that area of legal language more likely to be theorised upon, in this paper i will seek to analyse genres that fit in the dominion of common usage, but that have been the subject of very little analysis, namely a set of by-laws on the code of conduct of schools, as a sample of delegated legislation, as well as two instances of private law instruments, specifically samples of lease agreements in spanish and english. mª ángeles orts llopis ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130118 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 118 in order to carry out my analysis, my approach will be top-down, paying particular attention to the following generic aspects of the texts: 1) the rhetorical function of the genres in question, as illustrated by their focus: instructive, expositive and argumentative; 2) their indexes of hybridation, or intertextuality in order to appraise the apparition or not of other texts belonging to stored knowledge patterns of the specialised community; 3) their cognitive structuring or macrostructure; legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 119 legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 (2009): …-… 9 countries), there also exist differences, subtle or ubiquitous, marked by the legal tradition and exegetical norms of each culture. tables 1 and 2 illustrate how genres are organized in these two legal traditions, according to their structuring in the overall legal scenario. written legal discourse public law: a) unenacted law law reports (judgements) subpoenas, summons, injunctions b) enacted law enactments, statutes delegated legislation private law: legal instruments wills, deeds, underwritings private agreements: powers of attorney,divorce agreements contracts leases sales contracts international sales contracts: export documents: bills of lading, letter of credit, charter parties insurance policies: institute cargo clauses arbitration clauses doctrine and jurisprudence: textbooks, casebooks, articles, manuals table 1: legal genres in common law. discurso legal escrito derecho público: a) códigos b) leyes parlamentarias c) legislación delegada d) jurisprudencia: sentencias (autos, providencias) derecho administrativo: instancias, expedientes derecho privado: declaraciones unipersonales de la voluntad: testamentos escrituras de compraventa contratos de todo tipo, convenios reguladores poderes medios de pago internacionales, pólizas de seguro doctrina jurídica: manuales, libros de texto, ensayos, artículos table 2: legal genres in spanish (continental) law. to illustrate my arguments, i have selected to analyse and deconstruct two different samples of genre in both the english (in this corpus, british and canadian, respectively) and the spanish system. because legislation and judicial legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 (2009): …-… 9 countries), there also exist differences, subtle or ubiquitous, marked by the legal tradition and exegetical norms of each culture. tables 1 and 2 illustrate how genres are organized in these two legal traditions, according to their structuring in the overall legal scenario. written legal discourse public law: a) unenacted law law reports (judgements) subpoenas, summons, injunctions b) enacted law enactments, statutes delegated legislation private law: legal instruments wills, deeds, underwritings private agreements: powers of attorney,divorce agreements contracts leases sales contracts international sales contracts: export documents: bills of lading, letter of credit, charter parties insurance policies: institute cargo clauses arbitration clauses doctrine and jurisprudence: textbooks, casebooks, articles, manuals table 1: legal genres in common law. discurso legal escrito derecho público: a) códigos b) leyes parlamentarias c) legislación delegada d) jurisprudencia: sentencias (autos, providencias) derecho administrativo: instancias, expedientes derecho privado: declaraciones unipersonales de la voluntad: testamentos escrituras de compraventa contratos de todo tipo, convenios reguladores poderes medios de pago internacionales, pólizas de seguro doctrina jurídica: manuales, libros de texto, ensayos, artículos table 2: legal genres in spanish (continental) law. to illustrate my arguments, i have selected to analyse and deconstruct two different samples of genre in both the english (in this corpus, british and canadian, respectively) and the spanish system. because legislation and judicial 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 119 4) their textualization devices, regarding topicalization and staging strategies; and, 5) their formal surface, including morphosyntactic and lexical choices. in this way, the pragmatic and contextualised dimension of the text will be deemed necessary to study the contextual and communicative conventions of the genre (type of sender, audience and their reciprocal relationships, subject, background, etc.) as well as its cognitive macrostructure or primary and secondary conceptual organisation. once these items have been identified, the unravelling of the peculiarities of the genre as an informative text with a genuine purpose and rhetorical presentation is carried out. to conclude, the graphetic, lexico-grammatical and syntactic characteristics of the text are determined and analysed. this procedure will prevent us from losing sight of the text or texts under scrutiny as purposefully communicative, that character being achieved by means of rhetorical and formal –or linguistic– means. delegated legislation under analysis: school codes of conduct in spain and great britain2 drafting delegated legislation, administrative rules or by-laws has both a public and private ramification. still, its function is to confer a right, privilege or power, abridge a right, privilege or power; or oblige a person to act or not to act, even if a public administrative agency’s rulemaking authority is delegated and limited to its enabling legislation –therefore, having a restricted scope (fajans, falk & shapo, 2004). the texts under analysis are codes of conduct comprising standards of behaviour, principles, identification of disruptive behaviour, consequences of non-compliance and consequences specifically forbidden. they are different kinds of text, coming from different sources; it could even be argued that they are samples of different genres, since the spanish document is a legislative decree, therefore public, the british is a self-regulatory instrument within a school, thus private. however, both constitute samples of systems of rules of bodies within a larger legal framework, conferring them powers to selfregulate, hence constituting, equally, examples of delegated legislation (fajans, falk & shapo, 2004). likewise, both have a common purpose, namely to set the context for a safe and productive learning environment by mª ángeles orts llopis ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130120 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 120 outlining expected behaviour in safe and caring schools. as they are texts where prescriptive norms determining conditions for their fulfilment are established, their main essence is that of an instructive text. nevertheless, the way in which norms are established is very different in the two types of documents, the mode of expression changing in each case. in the spanish code of conduct, norms and penalties are presented in an expositive way, with structures of the type: “se considera grave”, or “las conductas (…) podrán ser corregidas con las siguientes normas educativas”. in any case, albeit in an indirect form, prescription is implicit all through the document, even at the end of the text, where expressions like “el alumno deberá” are included. on the other hand, the english text uses clearly expounded exhortative forms, like “pupils should be”, “pupils are expected to”, or “they must”. the imperative tone is present in the text as a whole, also portraying a secondary expositive focus in some of its sections, such as the introduction and the end, where penalties are enumerated. as far as intertextuality is concerned, codes seem to have a peculiar relation to substantive policy, as no reference is made to external legislation. this may be due to the fact that even if they must comply with law in the area, they may have greater freedom to determine rights, duties and proceedings within their normative scope. textualization is enhanced, on the other hand, in both texts, by similar isotopic means, the sequence of expressions being linked in the same semantic denominator of prescription and punishment. nevertheless, the spanish text shows staging devices in tune with the rhetorical patterns that foreground impersonality and detach the user from the issuer of the text. nominalisation devices are, thus, recurrent in this peculiar text, as nominalising a verb turns it into an object that can, literally, be viewed objectively, in this case the contingencies where punishment should be applied. let’s consider examples like: “(se consideran conductas gravemente perjudiciales para la convivencia en el centro) … la reiteración de conductas contrarias (…); la agresión grave física o moral (…); la suplantación de personalidad (…)”, etc. nominalising punishment separates it from the school subjects, decreasing emotional attachment and facilitating unbiased judgement. such constructions are less present in the english text, where conditional sentences, modal verbs and passives without agent, show that the instructions are given to explicit subjects –i.e., the students. let’s see, for example, the following: “if a pupil does not hand in their homework on time legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 121 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 121 and has no explanatory note from his/her parents” (conditional), “incidents and sanctions given will be reported to the form teacher” (passive), “pupils should line up sensibly at the appropriate time and should walk round to the canteen when asked to do so” (modal). tenor devices show that the spanish text is a formal discourse with legal flavour, as it is shown in the choice of lexicon, such as conducta tipificada, injuria, and vejaciones. notwithstanding this fact, and the presence of staging devices making the discourse impartial, it is a text written in an expositive way, which somewhat relaxes the general prescriptive tone. not so in the english one, where the legal flavour is somehow lost, in favour of directness and a moral bias, as in the use of emotional lexicon like “rudeness”, “cheekiness”, “bad language”, “behave responsibly”, etc. the macrostructure of the spanish text is quite clear, and there are two large sections labelled artículo 51. tipificación, and artículo 52. medidas educativas de corrección. in the former, a list of punishable conducts is enumerated, covering the range of misbehaviour liable to be disciplined. the latter, in two sections, lists two ranges of penalties, according to their degree of severity, and in harmony with the seriousness of certain conducts. the english text itemises three epigraphs, containing the norms that govern the school and their corresponding punishments, namely: those that specify forbidden behaviour and its range of punishments, such as “behaviour towards others” and “using school transport”; those that solely specify banned conducts, like: “items not allowed in school”, “behaviour in class”, “homework” and “moving around school, breaks and lunchtimes”; and those that solely specify likely punishments, as in “sanctions for breaking the code of conduct could include”. finally, some sentences in bold close the text, describing special treatment of particularly severe instances of misconduct. as far as formal traits are concerned, in the epigraph artículo 51. tipificación of the spanish code of conduct, the example of a text where short and concise sentences proliferate is found, and where complex structures are scarce, with the exception of some relative subordinates. in contrast, the second section, where punishments are described, shows sentences that tend mª ángeles orts llopis ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130122 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 122 to become longer, subordination getting more frequent, with time adverbials. both sections show coordination and juxtaposition. in the british code of conduct, sentence complexity is not a relevant syntactic feature, and enumeration and tabulation devices exist to simplify the reading of the text. nevertheless, there exists an overuse of juxtaposition and coordination, as well as some occasional subordination (as in the listing of items forbidden in school or in the classification of unacceptable behaviour). on the contrary, some parts of the discourse illustrate a certain syntax intricacy, with subordinates of infinitive, and manner and/or time adverbials (as in “having chosen a seat, they should remain there for the duration of the meal unless asked to move by an adult”). the table below shows some of the more recurrent features in the lexicon of both codes. in general, the spanish text shows more far-fetchedness and specialisation in lexicon, probably in tune with the higher normative character and formality of this text. the english text, contrastively, shows a higher awareness of a lay audience, alluding to the recipients’ values and age. spanish british english private instruments under analysis: tenancy agreements3 a lawyer’s most common form of private-law drafting is probably the drafting of contracts (fajans, falk & shapo, 2004). a lawyer drafts contracts for many purposes, such as for the sale of goods, employment agreements and leases of real estate. like statutes and other forms of enacted law, contracts regulate future conduct and should stand the test of time, even if they are private instruments, which is why the main focus of both texts in canadian english and spanish is that of an instructive or exhortative text. contracts are often the product of collaboration and negotiations undertaken to hammer out language that all parties will accept. coherent legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 123 legal genres in english and spanish parts of the discourse illustrate a certain syntax intricacy, with subordinates of infinitive, and manner and/or time adverbials (as in “having chosen a seat, they should remain there for the duration of the meal unless asked to move by an adult”). the table below shows some of the more recurrent features in the lexicon of both codes. in general, the spanish text shows more far-fetchedness and specialisation in lexicon, probably in tune with the higher normative character and formality of this text. the english text, contrastively, shows a higher awareness of a lay audience, alluding to the recipients’ values and age. spanish british english código de conducta code of conduct alumno pupil miembro de la comunidad educativa peers and any adult in the school / school community suspender el derecho de asistencia to be excluded from school daños causados en los locales materiales o documentos del centro misuse/abuse of school equipment, or the fabric of the building table 3. lexical differences and concomitances between both texts. private instruments under analysis: tenancy agreements3 a lawyer’s most common form of private-law drafting is probably the drafting of contracts (fajans, falk & shapo, 2004). a lawyer drafts contracts for many purposes, such as for the sale of goods, employment agreements and leases of real estate. like statutes and other forms of enacted law, contracts regulate future conduct and should stand the test of time, even if they are private instruments, which is why the main focus of both texts in canadian english and spanish is that of an instructive or exhortative text. contracts are often the product of collaboration and negotiations undertaken to hammer out language that all parties will accept. coherent organization of contract terms or clauses is needed, permitting the parties to locate easily the terms that they may need. this is also the reason for the existence of a secondary focus of an expositive fashion, describing the property and utilities under rental, services and facilities and other relevant information for the users. in this part of my analysis i have chosen two contracts, one spanish contrato de arrendamiento de vivienda, and one canadian “tenancy agreement”. the reason why i have chosen a contract used in a country other than england within the commonwealth realm, this time, is an attempt to show that the features salient in countries with a common law system are recurrent within this tradition of law. this choice enriches the analysis, especially considering that canada is so influenced by the english legal system that, for example, until 1963 high court regarded decisions of the english house of lords binding. 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 123 organization of contract terms or clauses is needed, permitting the parties to locate the terms that they may need easily. this is also the reason for the existence of a secondary focus of an expositive fashion, describing the property and utilities under rental, services and facilities and other relevant information for the users. in this part of my analysis i have chosen two contracts, one spanish contrato de arrendamiento de vivienda, and one canadian “tenancy agreement”. the reason why i have chosen a contract used in a country other than england within the commonwealth realm, this time, is an attempt to show that the features salient in countries with a common law system are recurrent within this tradition of law. this choice enriches the analysis, especially considering that canada is so influenced by the english legal system that, for example, until 1963 high court regarded decisions of the english house of lords binding. in general, legal instruments of this kind are found within the realm of the legal system governing contracts as a whole, and the laws governing this particular type of lease contract. the legal constraints that limit the private scope of rights and duties is clear in both texts, showing explicitly indexes of intertextuality having to do with this spirit of legal compliance. the spanish contrato de arrendamiento de vivienda displays hybridation indices in several of its clauses as shown in table 4: as far as the tenancy agreement is concerned, the first display of intertextuality appears in section 4, as “rent increases must be given in accordance with the provisions of section 85 of the landlord and tenant act”. later, section 6a, “statutory conditions” shows a precise reference to the different parts of the enactment (see table 5). mª ángeles orts llopis ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130124 mª ángeles orts llopis in general, legal instruments of this kind are found within the realm of the legal system governing contracts as a whole, and the laws governing this particular type of lease contract. the legal constraints that limit the private scope of rights and duties is clear in both texts, showing explicitly indexes of intertextuality having to do with this spirit of legal compliance. the spanish contrato de arrendamiento de vivienda displays hybridation indices in several of its clauses as shown in table 4: cláusula primera: “lo establecido en la ley 29/1994 de 24 de noviembre, de arrendamientos urbanos y se regirá por lo dispuesto, y por lo pactado en este documento.” cláusula cuarta: “el índice general de precios al consumo que fije el instituto nacional de estadística.” cláusula novena: “derechos especiales que le concede la ley 29/1994 de arrendamientos urbanos”. cláusula décima: “art. 16 de la ley 29/1994 de arrendamiento urbano, respecto al evento de fallecimiento de la arrendataria”. art. 14 de la vigente ley de arrendamientos urbanos respecto a la extinción del arrendamiento. table 4. intertextuality in the spanish text. as far as the tenancy agreement is concerned, the first display of intertextuality appears in section 4, as “rent increases must be given in accordance with the provisions of section 85 of the landlord and tenant act”. later, section 6a, “statutory conditions” shows a precise reference to the different parts of the enactment (see table 5). 1. conditions and premises – section 76(i)(a). 2. a. services – section (i) (c) 2b. good behaviour – section 76 (2) (b). 3. obligation of the tenant – section 76 (e) (f). 4. subletting premises – section 71. 5. abandonment and termination – section 72 6. entry of premises – b) – section 73 7. entry doors – section 75 9. termination of tenancy: “notice to terminate by a landlord to a tenant is not enforceable under section 96”/”section 90 and subsection (3) in relation to tenancy notice termination” table 5. intertextuality in the canadian text as far as cohesion and textuality devices are concerned, both texts reflect in equal degree the enforceable promises that are the expression of the parties’ 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 124 as far as cohesion and textuality devices are concerned, both texts reflect –in equal degree– the enforceable promises that are the expression of the parties’ intent. coherence requires that the contractual terms are set into categories defining those promises and intentions. expressions of prohibition and condition in the spanish text are substituted with nominalizations, deontic modals and latinized expressions, and subordinations with graphical disposition. both samples of genre show that, even if they are meant to be read and interpreted by the specialist, they are also meant to regulate relationships between private users, and their main function being to create pacts between individuals. the tenor and the degree of formality-informality between sender and receiver of the text in the contrato de arrendamiento de vivienda show little distance between the parties and a low degree of formality, as compared to the text in english. this may be seen in the usage of simple present and future structures, and absence of conditionals in the expression of duty and obligation, alluding to users as el arrendador, el arrendatario, las partes contratantes or, simply, las partes. in contrast, the sample form of tenancy agreement portrays a rigid feeling of formality. it shows a tight formal structure and exhaustiveness regarding the specificity of the contract details (“parties”, “premises”, “term”, “rent”, “security deposit”), as well as the aims of the parties that are entering into it. distance is achieved through passives and modal verbs, mainly “shall” (with an imperative import on the parties, namely “the tenant” and “the landlord”) and “will”, but also “may”. the macrostructure of the contrato de arrendamiento de vivienda is developed as follows: 1. a heading and introductory paragraph in the shape of a form to be completed by both parties regarding city and date. the introductory paragraph identifies the parties to the contract using legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 125 ibérica 18 (2009): …-…14 art. 14 de la vigente ley de arrendamientos urbanos respecto a la extinción del arrendamiento. table 4. intertextuality in the spanish text. as far as the tenancy agreement is concerned, the first display of intertextuality appears in section 4, as “rent increases must be given in accordance with the provisions of section 85 of the landlord and tenant act”. later, section 6a, “statutory conditions” shows a precise reference to the different parts of the enactment (see table 5). 1. conditions and premises – section 76(i)(a). 2. a. services – section (i) (c) 2b. good behaviour – section 76 (2) (b). 3. obligation of the tenant – section 76 (e) (f). 4. subletting premises – section 71. 5. abandonment and termination – section 72 6. entry of premises – b) – section 73 7. entry doors – section 75 9. termination of tenancy: “notice to terminate by a landlord to a tenant is not enforceable under section 96”/”section 90 and subsection (3) in relation to tenancy notice termination” table 5. intertextuality in the canadian text as far as cohesion and textuality devices are concerned, both texts reflect in equal degree the enforceable promises that are the expression of the parties’ intent. coherence requires that the contractual terms are set into categories defining those promises and intentions. expressions of prohibition and condition in the spanish text are substituted with nominalizations, deontic modals and latinized expressions, and subordinations with graphical disposition. both samples of genre show that, even if they are meant to be read and interpreted by the specialist, they are also meant to regulate relationships between private users, and their main function being to create pacts between individuals. 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 125 the formula reunidos (to be completed with the names of the arrendador and the arrendatario), intervienen and exponen (as introductory formulae to the subsequent recitals). 2. the recitals themselves are built upon in several moves. a. the first three recitals refer to the dwelling itself, its location and prospective usage, as well as the contract deadline and the law ruling its lease. b. recitals number four, six and eight make reference to the amount to be paid by the lessee and to the instalments to make such payment effective, other expenses and lessee’s duties and obligations, and terms to make and recover a deposit, respectively. c. recitals five and seven reveal two moves which illustrate the lessee’s duty to return the dwelling in perfect condition, and supply details about its maintenance, with the prohibition to make reforms of refurbishments, and establishing the extent of the lessee’s liability in case of damages to such a dwelling. d. recital nine and ten refer back to the ley de arrendamientos urbanos, the background enactment ruling lease contracts in spain, number ten also establishing the steps to take in case of the lessee’s decease. 3. the contract ends with the recorded signature of both parties. the canadian form of tenancy agreement is built upon nine recitals, or sections, some of them subdivided into subsections, sub-subsections and even lower divisions, and a final signature. the initial moves are similar to those in the spanish text referring to premises, term and duration of the contract; even section 6, establishing the “statutory conditions” of the law is similar to its counterpart in the spanish text. however, section 4, about rent specifications, explicitly stipulates a complete account of domestic facilities included in the payment of rent, such as appliances and the like, which is not specified with such detail within the body of the spanish contract itself, an inventory being attached to the main text listing the continente of the dwelling. there may be a cultural reason to include all the furniture and fittings in the body of the tenancy agreement, since the common usage of outside laundry services, the need for tv mª ángeles orts llopis ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130126 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 126 licences, and the presence of coin meters in the appliances (heaters, air conditioning, etc.) of some canadian homes renders it necessary to make its provision explicit, if that is the case; in a spanish context such an account within the legal document itself would be redundant and unnecessary. another striking difference of the tenancy agreement as regards the spanish contrato is the fact that section 6b includes the contingency of a mobile home, as these are governed under different terms as far as parking spaces, code of conduct and even rental conditions. such contingency would not normally appear in a spanish lease, with the exception of summer leisure areas, and differs from the canadian reality, where mobile homes are common. finally, the last recital of the spanish contract contemplates the event of the lessee’s demise, ignored in the canadian text, which merely refers to the occurrence of termination or expiration of the contract. last but not least are the formal traits present in both texts. on the one hand, the spanish contrato shows long sentences with no graphical division, and a high degree of subordination: 46 subordinate sentences, as compared to 7 simple sentences, and 13 coordinates in the rest of the text. the canadian text is much longer, and even denser, filled with subordinate sentences of the conditional type, in the form of legal qualifications, using bhatia’s (1993) terminology, but very clearly separated in a graphical division with enumeration and tabulation. all the possible contingencies of the lease are taken into account (with long juxtapositions and lexical doublets and triplets), but with the clear attempt to avoid hampering the reader’s comprehension through visual clarity; on the other hand, the long, embedded paragraphs of the spanish contract make the text more difficult to process, even if the degrees of subordination and sentence length are lower than the canadian text. still, the latter is more notorious in its usage of words of authority and formality, such as the adverbial combinations of “notwithstanding”, “thereafter”, “foregoing”, among others. as shown in table 6, there is a fair possibility of translation by equivalence of the main terms in the documents, basically those used to identify the main characters and data in both texts. legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 127 legal genres in english and spanish canadian text spanish text tenancy arrendamiento de vivienda landlord arrendador tenant arrendatario termination rescisión, disolución expiration vencimiento residential premises finca table 6. lexical differences and concomitances between both texts. conclusion at some point of this article i established the basic tenet that awareness of different cultural patterns is of the essence when analysing how differently legal genres are shaped in the public and private law of the legal traditions under 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 127 conclusion at some point of this article i established the basic tenet that awareness of different cultural patterns is of the essence when analysing how differently legal genres are shaped in the public and private law of the legal traditions under study: the civil law and the common law. my aim was, ultimately, to discuss how the different cultural approaches of these two countries have very much to do with the way in which their legal traditions articulate their genres and their interpretation. the interpretation and application of the legal genres between traditions –i feel– can be attained provided that those legal traditions and the genres that constitute the communicative tools of their specialised communities are duly respected and kept in equilibrium. such respect and equilibrium is unavoidably to be achieved through “initiated” knowledge of the way in which genres are articulated in the different legal communities, either within the (continental) or the anglosaxon (common) contexts in the area of law. the two different kinds of –public and private– legal instruments, namely delegated legislation in spain and britain in texts regulating school conduct, and tenancy agreements in the spanish and canadian versions have been seldom studied, but are text-types commonly used in the everyday context of social organization. all of them are normative texts, being either the consequence of internal regulations of professional bodies or corporations (as in the case of deontological codes within educative contexts or legislative decrees regulating school behaviour) or of private agreements to lease or rent a property. its prescriptive display is, nonetheless, utterly different in each culture, and is also in accordance to factors like the content, form or audience of the genre in question, since genre is characterised by the communicative purpose it aims at fulfilling, and it is precisely the communicative purpose which builds up the genre from the point of view of its higher organisation or “macrostructure”. such a structuring represents the distinctive regularities of its internal organisation, and reflects the accumulated social and conventionalised knowledge of a particular discursive and professional community. i believe that a systematic study of these examples, and more (wills, powers of attorney, divorce agreements, bye-laws) is bound to have consequential repercussions in the way in which the linguistic community will teach languages for legal purposes and legal translation in the coming years. (revised paper received february 2009) mª ángeles orts llopis ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130128 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 128 references legal genres in english and spanish ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 129 alcaraz, e. (2000). el inglés profesional y académico. madrid: alianza. alcaraz, e., m. campos & c. miguélez (2001). el inglés jurídico norteamericano. barcelona: ariel. alcaraz , e. & b. hughes (2002). el español jurídico. barcelona: ariel. apple, j.g & r.p. deyling (1995). a primer on the civil-law system. url: http://www.fjc.gov/public/pdf.nsf/lookup/civillaw.pdf /$file/civillaw.pdf [24/06/09] bhatia, v.k. (1993). analysing genre: language use in professional setting. london: longman. bhatia, v.k., j. engberg, m. gotti & d. heller (eds.) (2005). vagueness in normative texts. bern: peter lang. borja albí, a. 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(1990). genre analysis. cambridge: cambridge university press. tetley, w. (2000). mixed jurisdictions: common law vs civil law (codified and uncodified). url: http://www.unidroit.org/english/publications/review /articles/1999-3.htm [24/06/09] vogt, n.p. (2004). “anglo-internationalisation of law and language: english as the language of the law?” international legal practitioner 29: 13-17. wen, z. (2004). “genre analysis and translation of professional discourse”. us-china foreign language 13: 1-5. werlich, e. (1976). a text grammar of english. heidelberg: quelle and meyer. mª ángeles orts llopis has been dealing with languages for applied purposes for the whole of her career, especially in the fields of legal, economic and business language. as a result of such activities, she is a senior lecturer at the department of translation and interpretation, where she teaches all the specialised languages (economic, legal and 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 129 ibérica 18 [2009]: 109-130 mª ángeles orts llopis scientific and technical) and their translation from english to spanish, and vice versa. notes 1 it should be worth pointing out here that the tradition of legal training is different in common law and continental law. in civil law countries the study of law at a faculty of law follows graduation from high school, with no transitional instruction in humanities or other fields of learning, and scarce contact with subjects taught in other disciplines in a university. in contrast, in a common-law country, the study of law is almost always post-graduate. the law student is exposed to other subjects prior to enrolment in law school. this situation has perhaps led to a different awareness among common law judges and lawyers about the role of law in society, who boast a greater resilience and capacity to deal with new circumstances than exists among their colleagues in continental law (apple & deyling, 1995). 2 spanish version: decreto 115/2005 del consejo de gobierno de la región de murcia de 21 de octubre, por el que se establecen las normas de convivencia en los centros escolares, url: http://www.carm.es/neweb2/servlet/integra. servlets.controlpublico?idcontenido=19491&idtipo=60&rastro=c792$m4001,4531,4105 .english version: ingleton school code of conduct, url: http://www.ingleton-middle-school.org.uk/prospect.htm 3 spanish version: contrato de arrendamiento de vivienda, url: http://pre.universia.es/consejos/alquiler/ modelo-carta/index.htm. canadian version: sample form of tenancy agreement, url: http://www.community.gov.yk.ca/pdf/sampleformtenancyagreement.pdf 130 07 iberica 18.qxp 13/9/09 17:53 página 130 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 283-292 issn 1139-7241 anna mauranen by maria kuteeva stockholm university (sweden) maria.kuteeva@english.su.se from contrastive rhetoric to english as a lingua franca professor anna mauranen came to stockholm university in january 2012 to give a plenary talk on science blogging at the 5th swedish lsp symposium organized by the centre for academic english. she is currently professor of english at the university of helsinki. professor mauranen’s recent research and publications focus on english as a lingua franca, corpus linguistics, modelling spoken language, and academic discourses. she is running corpusbased research projects on spoken and written academic english as a lingua franca (the elfa project, the self project, and the wrelfa project) and a project on global english. her latest book exploring elf: academic english shaped by non-native speakers (2012) has just been published by cambridge university press. her other major publications include english as a lingua franca – studies and findings (with ranta, 2009); linear unit grammar (with sinclair 2006), translation universals – do they exist (with kujamäki, 2004), and cultural differences in academic rhetoric (1993). she is a member of the editorial boards of several lsp and applied linguistics journals and co-editor of jelf, the journal of english as a lingua franca. during her stay in stockholm, professor mauranen kindly agreed to give an interview to ibérica. on a wintery morning, we sat in the lobby of the elite plaza hotel in central stockholm, enjoying the view of the royal library in the snow. maria kuteeva (mk): to begin with, could you please give us a brief overview of your academic trajectory and your previous research? anna mauranen (am): well, i started with contrastive rhetoric. that was all a series of coincidences, because i was interested in academic writing and academic text, and i wanted to do research on the differences between different academic disciplines or disciplinary areas or domains. but nobody was really 283 entrevista con... / an interview with... 1 i a happy to give me funding for that, so what i did get funding for – with a colleague who is interested in contrastive rhetoric – was contrastive rhetoric, the difference between writing cultures. i thought it was a boring topic, but since i got the funding i started working on that. and that led me to translation studies. i got my first chair in translation studies precisely because i had done work in contrastive rhetoric, although i wasn’t attracted to it at all. mk: where was that chair? am: that was at the university of joensuu, now called the university of eastern finland. and i thought this was not really where i wanted to work, but it was a really nice professor who said she would really like to have me as her successor because she had got another chair. she used to be professor of english and then she got a chair in translation theory or something like that. so i spent a few years in translation studies and since i wasn’t a translator, i took corpus linguistics there and started building a translational corpus because i thought i wanted to do something for them. mk: was it a bilingual corpus? am: it was a monolingual corpus. my very first corpus project was with stieg johansson. it was a contrastive corpus study of finnish and english, and stieg’s idea was that we would have a nordic project where the same english would be translated into different nordic languages. and then, of course, the reverse side was that different nordic languages could not be the same texts, obviously. but we had this sort of parallel corpus going on, and that was the first project i was ever in. so i thought i had got like a corpus of translational finnish, of comparable original finnish, so that was the corpus i collected when i was at joensuu – there is a bridge, obviously, from contrastive rhetoric to translation studies, because translation is interested in contrasting two languages, and this was perhaps thought of as more trendy and a new approach, compared to just looking at individual structures, sentence-internal things in texts. this was very much up and coming, so therefore i think i got that chair, but the translational language was a new thing. nobody looked at that, and i don’t know where i got it from, possibly from mona baker, who had started planning a translational corpus. so i thought that could be something for me, so that’s all i did. that is like a hybrid language, it’s to do with language contact, because translation in a way is a language contact, and i had always been interested in second languages and second language acquisition and use, and i thought that was the closest i could get to that in translation maria kuteeva ibérica 24 (2012): 283-292284 studies. because if i was not a translation scholar, at least i understand something about what i am saying, so i could combine corpus linguistics and the hybrid language. but i had also earlier done some work on second languages. my first published research was in language testing, and i had very much criticized the idea of the highest level or the target being defined by pointing and not by defining. it was just pointing – this is native-like so that is like that – so you don’t define it any longer. you tended to define it at lower levels and then when it comes to the top, you stop defining, and i thought it was quite illogical. in a way, it also related to elf because you kind of thought – okay, if you speak a foreign language you need to know what a realistic top level of achievement is. because you don’t become a native speaker again. so i thought that translation studies fed into the same sort of thing of looking at hybridized language, and then language testing was related to trying to define what it was about high level of proficiency in a foreign language that must be somehow different from the native language. because it is different from a native language. that was perhaps what led me to elf, and why elf in particular, it was just a stroke of luck. i was working at tampere, and i was walking behind a couple of people who were walking in my way most annoyingly when i was coming from the station to the university because i commuted to tampere, since it is very close to helsinki. and these people were talking so intensely that they didn’t see i was behind them and was in a hurry. i was really annoyed but i couldn’t get past them because the traffic was very heavy, and then i started listening to what they were saying, and i thought – oh, yeah – i didn’t really understand what they were talking about but they were speaking english, and they must have been academic but neither of them was a native speaker of english, and i thought – yeah, right, they may be annoying because they are blocking my way but isn’t this interesting that probably most english in the world is spoken in contexts like this? and then i thought – yeah, right – and wasn’t in such a hurry any more. i started thinking, and that was it… mk: what a nice inspirational moment – that’s how great ideas usually come up! that’s a real talent to find interesting things at annoying moments. now let’s move on to the elfa project, the largest existing project on english as a lingua franca in academic settings. could you tell us about the different stages of this project, where it comes from, and where it is heading? an interview with … anna mauranen ibérica 24 (2012): 283-292 285 am: i was at tampere at the time and, as i already told you, and i got interested in lingua franca. i wasn’t aware of the term at the time, but this was it, i think, probably 2000 or something like that, very early 2000 or 1999. since i was already in corpus linguistics at tampere and i had always worked a lot with academic english, i thought that this would be a natural thing to do, because i was wondering what my next corpus would be. my translational corpus was finished, and so was the contrastive corpus, so i had to have another corpus and i thought it would be fun to do it on spoken language, because i thought this would be something new and i could get into this interesting thing of people speaking to each other all in a foreign language, and then the natural context was the academy because you had these programmes going on, and it was a limited, confined context. i had all sorts of other plans, wider plans, like where you would get people talking in english, like ngos and businesses, but then it turned out very quickly that businesses wouldn’t let you record them, they would not rely on you and things like that, so i thought why not continue with academia. there were quite a few programmes there. so i went on from there, but after the first recordings for some years, we didn’t get much funding really. sometimes there was none at all, and i had all sorts of research assistants to do transcribing, then i moved to helsinki, and the corpus wasn’t quite finished, but some of the phd students stayed behind at tampere, and we continued it at helsinki, so helsinki had more subjects, more fields as well, so they had sciences. the only natural science, if you can call it a natural science, at tampere was medical science, and then there was a neighbouring university of technology where we did some recordings. so we did some recordings at helsinki university of technology and the sciences at helsinki, to complete it. so that was how it started, and at first i thought that half a million words would do but then since we reached that target quite quickly, i thought why not one million words. when the corpus was finished, i thought of a more ethnographic approach, and i wanted to talk to the people and see how they felt about it, and so i set up another project and got funding for that. that was the self project, “studying in english as a lingua franca”, where we also had interviews, and my research students were following the students around, participant observation, talking, hanging around in study events, and niina hynninen who is speaking tomorrow, is one of them, and we had all sorts of data there to round up the corpus approach, which is quite detached from the speakers really. i thought that having these two kinds of approaches would help us maria kuteeva ibérica 24 (2012): 283-292286 understand the context a lot better, to see what is going on, how the people feel about it, what their perspective is, but also to retain the quantitative perspective, to see what gets repeated, what you get a lot of, and what is unusual. and so i don’t think i am going to expand the elfa corpus as it is because i think that one million words of spoken language is quite nice. so for the moment i think it’s enough whereas now i thought nobody at all has worked with or has a database of written english as a lingua franca, and that’s something that has come up recently in questions. at first people were really taken aback by the whole idea of elf, and every time i spoke about it at a conference, people were rather surprised and negative about it saying it is a horrible language, and why do you want to do any research on it because it’s bad language, and who wants to study bad language? everybody wants to study good language, so what on earth are you on about? the same arguments that i had already heard in translation studies – why look at translational language? it’s dreadful. of course, it isn’t dreadful, and i said – yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s one of those things. but recently people have accepted this, and the change stuck and i’ve had several times the question addressed to me: it’s all right in speech, but what about writing? it wouldn’t pass in writing, you can’t write things like that. maybe, you can say things like that and it’s all right, but you can’t write it. mk: and what is included in the wrelfa corpus? am: it’s difficult to find people’s writing that is serious writing and that is public writing, and it’s not checked by a native speaker. so i’ve come up with two things. one is the easily available – blogs, because you’ve got science blogging going on, and i thought this is interesting because it’s new, because it’s there, and because it’s not checked by a native speaker, but still it’s public writing, it’s not like their private emails or anything like that, and emails are not that academic either. i meant it’s different from academic writing. in some sense, it is publishing if you write in a blog, it’s public writing. and the other thing is public writing that is very high-stakes writing, and that is evaluation statements that people produce for thesis examinations and things like that. mk: evaluation reports by examiners? am: yes, we have written examiners’ reports in finland. they tend to write, maybe, three pages, sometimes longer sometimes shorter, but on average most people write about three to five pages. so these are high-stakes texts because they are evaluating somebody else’s work, and they also give an an interview with … anna mauranen ibérica 24 (2012): 283-292 287 assessment in terms of whether it is acceptable or not. but they are not checked because they are personal texts by somebody, and because it is for a finnish university and because they write in a foreign language. we don’t collect native speakers’ reports. that’s the other thing that goes into wrelfa, that is still academic. mk: what about student writing? do you have any exam papers? am: we had those in the self project earlier on. it’s not really a corpus at all. we just had those texts, and somebody has been analyzing them but they are not being included in the corpus. and i think they might become another corpus, a student writing corpus; that would be rather interesting too. we started with exam papers and term papers, we have got both. mk: so the wrelfa project is focusing primarily on professional academics? am: yes, because i thought it was closer to academic publishing, which i think is important and interesting and because i think it’s changing too. it’s less and less native speaker-driven than it used to be. and i think it’s an important development and i want to see how it goes. and that’s why i want to see what top level professional academic writing is rather than look at students to begin with. students can be faulty on many different grounds because they are novices in writing anyway. they are novices in their field, they are novices in writing academically, etc, etc, so it’s a different kettle of fish. i’d like to look at professionals proper, sort of well-qualified academics. mk: what about your forthcoming book on academic english by cambridge university press? is it primarily influenced by your insights from the elfa project, with more theoretical implications? am: yes, i’ve just got the proofs. so it’s more like both my own research in the elfa project over the years and a survey of theoretical implications of it. i am trying to integrate three perspectives, one is macro-social, what happens in wider language contexts; the other is the cognitive level – how you actually process online, so what is going on in this micro-level of speech; and the third is the interface between the two, which is interaction, because the elfa corpus is very much biased towards the dialogue, so two thirds of it is dialogic. because i thought it is in interaction that you actually have to accommodate to the other speaker, in interaction that your language becomes observable and accessible, and therefore the interactional aspect is very important in the book and in analyzing elfa. i am using two methods in the analysis, which are corpus linguistics and discourse analysis, and maria kuteeva ibérica 24 (2012): 283-292288 basically trying to lay the ground and see the big picture of what is going on in academic lingua franca, and how to reflect on english as a lingua franca on the whole, because it is a very demanding context for using english. it’s common, it’s important in the world, and it’s also demanding. it’s not like a casual tourist encounter. it’s a lot more demanding language, which is why i think that linguistically it’s also interesting, just like business negotiations are because there is a lot at stake, and it’s happening verbally. you can’t just communicate by waving your arms. mk: you have recently become interested in the new trends in academic publishing and blogging and in new channels of publication. you’ve already mentioned some of this in relation to the wrelfa project, and today you are giving a talk on science blogging. so what developments do you see in this area in relation to elf and lsp research? am: i see the relationship to elf in that you see the internet as a completely international and open forum, and a lot of international and academic communication takes place in english, because that reaches the largest audiences. and although the native speakers of english, especially the americans, write an awful lot on the internet, that’s not all there is. there are lots of non-native speakers and you can even tell that from their language, not from just their names, because they often remain anonymous. and it’s very interesting from the elf perspective because it’s free interaction between people with all sorts of language backgrounds, in english, quite independently of whether it’s somebody’s first language or whichever variety of english they might come from, or whether it’s a completely foreign language to them. so it’s interesting for elf, and it’s interesting for academic research or lsp because we get more and more research blogging or science blogging, especially in the hard sciences. they write quite a lot and discuss things quite a lot on the internet. and there are interesting developments in getting their results out, like pre-published results. the first publication often, and this is very contested by the way, comes out on a blog or a web thread. mk: in what fields? in physics, maybe, because in medical sciences it would be considered like throwing away all your research before you get into an official publication. am: well, apparently there is a debate, even in physics, and there are all sorts of tensions there, and it’s debated very much: should you? could you? is it proper science? but you see these things happening, you see people publishing their findings on the net before they have been published anywhere else. and i think it is very interesting because if you do more and an interview with … anna mauranen ibérica 24 (2012): 283-292 289 more of it, then it is something you need to understand if you want to understand the whole field of lsp and academic publishing. at the same time, academic publishers, big publishers, increasingly have all sorts of discussion and facebook sites and blogs, and discussion sites, and they also publish video-clips and add-ons to their papers to make them more attractive and interactive too. so these spontaneous commentaries that you are getting on blogs, they apparently include comments on traditional publications that people have read. mk: thank you. ibérica is published by aelfe, the european association of languages for specific purposes. could you comment on the specificity of elf in european academic contexts and point out any implications for lsp professionals working and researching in europe? am: yes, europe is an interesting region for lsp in that we have so many languages already in europe, where you have a long tradition of academic publishing. so people in europe are not necessarily very happy about english being a lingua franca. yet, europeans can’t just write for other europeans, so there are these tensions, these pressures to publish in english as well, because they want to reach the globe and not just europe. and for global research, you have some languages you can still publish in, but for most academics and actually very many fields, you only use english. especially in the humanities you can use spanish, portuguese, french, german, if you want to, but in the hard sciences you don’t do that very much or you do it much less. and this hard science approach seems to dominate linguistic realities in lsp. and if you are an lsp professional, you need to help scientists in their work rather than moralise them about the language of their publications. mk: what about the humanities scholars? there is more pressure on them to publish in english as well. so how do you think lsp professionals in europe should adapt to that? am: i think lsp professionals, even in the humanities, are people who do research on lsp and follow its developments and help others publish in the languages they want to publish in rather than tell them what language to publish in. i don’t think lsp professionals have any say in what language they ought to publish in, but they can speak about it, they can opinionate about it, or lobby if they want to. but if you want to be a real professional and help others, you do it in the language they want to publish in. mk: and how do you see elf in the humanities? elf is more of a science and engineering phenomenon, isn’t it? maria kuteeva ibérica 24 (2012): 283-292290 am: it is, yes, but i can see that it is coming into the humanities as well because people do want to publish. there are pressures to publish, but of course nobody has to publish in english. i mean, even if you have pressures, you don’t have to succumb to them. i think it has become very much a moral issue – people think it is a kind of moral act to publish in your mother tongue or in a smaller european language, whereas it is cynical and utilitarian to publish in english. and i don’t quite understand this discourse but, then again, i might not understand it because i come from english linguistics originally, and we always publish in english. well, not always, i have also published a lot of papers in finnish explaining things about language and language learning and translation and what have you, and part of my translation corpus is in finnish. so that’s not the only possibility that academics have, but elf is something that we have to live with in the humanities as well, because it seems that most people respond to these pressures by publishing internationally. english is the most wide-reaching international language. it’s not the only one, obviously, so multilingual publishing is probably going to stay in the humanities for longer than it did in many other fields. on the other hand, if i look around my own faculty, i can see that people are publishing quite happily more and more in english, because they want to make higher claims, because they want to make a mark in the world. people nowadays often feel that they have something important to say, and if they do it in english, it will make a louder noise in the world. mk: do you think that the humanities scholars have additional challenges in using english as an academic language? and how can this be addressed in lsp teaching, for example? am: they do have higher challenges because of the nature of the humanities, because it is so verbal, and they tend to appreciate “good language”, that’s closer to their heart than it is in sciences. the natural sciences don’t mind it so much although they worry about it as well, but people in the humanities very often don’t want to make mistakes, they don’t want to sound silly, and they don’t want to sound inelegant either. so, good language, elegant language and style are more to them than to people in sciences. i have taught a lot of scientists, and their common worry seems to be: how can they get more variation into their texts because it tends to be so boring? they are always saying that, whereas in the humanities they say: how could i write with fewer mistakes because i want to write elegant english? they worry more about their correctness because they see themselves as good writers in the first place, whereas scientists an interview with … anna mauranen ibérica 24 (2012): 283-292 291 rarely do. that repetitiveness problem – i’ve never had that from a humanities person. mk: now this brings us to the last question about the status of english as an academic lingua franca, which has become the subject of heated debates in europe, particularly in the north. one of the latest issues of ibérica has explored some aspects of this topic. how do you see the role of local academic languages in relation to elf, in teaching, learning, and daily use. we have spoken a lot about academic publishing now, but what about elf and local languages in higher education? am: i think that in higher education, more than in publishing, multilingualism and plurilingualism is going to be the rule. people use different languages, they use different language resources, and they use their local languages and other languages that they share more than english. there is no need to stick to one language only, and i think there is going to be a lot of hybridization, a lot more language contact, and a lot more codeswitching and simply using many languages at the same time and in the same contexts. i don’t think that in spoken language, in spoken interaction, it is going to be as monolithic as people would like to make out. because this is not what i hear around me. this is my impression but i also think realistically, in terms of how people use languages, and they are not as purist about using just one language in actual communication. they use whatever works, and they change the languages according to who they are talking to and as the situation changes, and things like that. so i think in academic spoken language and a lot more variation is going to stay alive. mk: right, excellent! thank you very much! [interview received 22 may 2012] [revised interview accepted 3 july 2012] maria kuteeva ibérica 24 (2012): 283-292292 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 75-86 issn 1139-7241 abstract starting with a description of the software and hardware used for corpus linguistics in the late 1980s to early 1990s, this contribution discusses difficulties faced by the software designer when attempting to allow users to study text. future human-machine interfaces may develop to be much more sophisticated, and certainly the aspects of text which can be studied will progress beyond plain text without images. another area which will develop further is the study of patternings involving not just single words but word-relations across large stretches of text. keywords: history of corpus linguistics, microconcord, concordance, software design, collocational span. resumen mirando hacia atrás o mirando hacia delante en la lingüística del corpus: ¿qué nos sugieren estos 20 años para las próximas décadas? esta aportación comienza con una descripción de los programas y los equipos informáticos que se emplearon en la lingüística del corpus a finales de los años 80 y comienzos de los 90 y seguidamente estudia las dificultades que han tenido que afrontar los diseñadores de programas informáticos para conseguir que los usuarios pudieran estudiar un texto. cabe la posibilidad de que en el futuro se desarrollen interfaces hombre-máquina mucho más sofisticadas, y con toda seguridad se avanzará en aquellos aspectos textuales que puedan ser objeto de estudio superando el texto plano sin imágenes. otro aspecto en el que se continuará avanzando será el estudio de los modelos o patrones que contienen no sólo palabras sueltas sino relaciones de palabras en tramos extensos de texto. looking back or looking forward in corpus linguistics: what can the last 20 years suggest about the next? mike scott aston university (united kingdom) mike@lexically.net 75 ibérica 24 (2012): 75-86 mike scott palabras clave: historia de la lingüística del corpus, microconcord, concordancia, diseño de programas informáticos, colocaciones. introduction the last twenty years have seen a revolution in the circulation of information and opinion just as important as the development of metal-smelting, of writing or of printing in previous epochs. an apparently simple change in technology (heating crushed rock, the creation of a character set, a machine to copy text quickly, a means of linking up millions of computers) brings about an enormous social change: it becomes possible to store knowledge so that generations can learn from their ancestors, to distribute it so that everyone in a community can know more, and now with the internet, to enable discussion and exchange of ideas with very little regard for where or with whom one happens to be. most of the psychological and social impacts of those technological changes could not have been imagined by the inventors and first users of those technologies. the first uses of writing were mostly for storing records concerning ownership and conquest but the effects soon began to include a spread of ideas and opinion and a sense of history; early printing centred on culturally-sanctioned official works but before very long led to challenges to the status quo, chiefly concerned with the right to freedom of speech. we are still in the very earliest years of the internet revolution and we do not yet know all the changes it is bringing about. one of them is a plague of zombies: public spaces full of people present in body but not in mind. about twenty years ago i had my first experience of internet body/mind separation1, sitting at my desk in my university office in liverpool but mentally dislocated to an australian university, reading documents stored on their servers. these online documents were highly factual, like the earliest sumerian records from 5000 years ago (and about equally gripping). terms like “online” and “server” were yet to be met and of course “social” did not yet collocate with “networking”. what follows is my own personal retrospective, leading i hope to anticipation of some possible future developments, but with the warning already implicit in what was written above: most of the interesting developments cannot easily be imagined in advance, even if they seem obvious in hindsight. that the motor car might lead to a network of surfaced 76 highways, with road signs and indeed with traffic accidents probably was predictable in the year 1896 or 1897, but los angeles’ enormous suburban sprawl, the development of out-of-town shopping malls and the blight on town centres was not. changes in the early 1990s most educated people had never heard of a “concordance”; the few that had associated it with study of religious text and an enormous amount of manual compilation. the word “concordancer” was even more restricted2. i had come across the form “concordancing” myself in the previous decade, thanks to tim johns: he and i were both officially concerned with english for specific purposes and that is really why we came into contact (scott, 2012). however, tim’s enthusiasm for what micro-computers (as they were then known3) could be made to do matched my interest and so in the late 1980s we collaborated on a concordancer, which was published by oxford university press as microconcord (scott & johns, 1993): the element “micro” and the mid-word capital letter very much matching the spirit of the times. figure 1 shows 1993 technology: the large floppy disk which held the program, the manual, and a card to pace above the function keys on the keyboard. there were two floppies for different capacities of disk-drive; some users had no hard disk so had to run the program direct from the floppy. looking back or looking forward in corpus linguistics ibérica 24 (2012): 75-86 77 figure 1. microconcord (scott & johns, 1993), 5.25” floppy disk and f-key card. f in 1994, apple computer ran a magazine ad with a photo of w at that time computer memory was very limited. microconcord required 200k of ram – a standard micro-computer would have at least 640 but usually a whole megabyte.4 disk space was at a premium too: not only did some micro-computers have no hard drive at all, but costs were quite high. in october 1992, ibm launched the thinkpad (mid-word capitals again) starting at us$4,350, with between 4 and 16 mb of ram, a 10.4 inch colour display (640 by 480 pixels) and a huge 120mb hard drive (stengel, 2012). that was a leading-edge computer, much more advanced than the university and lecturer machines for which microconcord was designed. in may 1992, word perfect 5.1 was issued; it cost us$495.5 in 1994, apple computer ran a magazine ad with a photo of what a bike messenger cum screenwriter would have on his (of course) apple powerbook (mid-word caps here too): “my first screenplay, a dictionary, a thesaurus, a spellchecker ... the number of a girl from my screenwriting class, a list of good bike repair shops, a detailed map of downtown, my résumé, my grocery list, microsoft word, the number of ray bazire who owes me money”, etc. (wichary, 2012). clearly the powerbook copywriters are suggesting that a computer does not only help users to do their work but also stores a variety of non-text resources and personal notes. 2012 advertising copy would be able to presume that many of these resources do not need to be stored on the user’s computer but can be found online. this little foray into a history which anyone aged 40 or more may remember, whether sharply or fuzzily, shows two things. first, the technology has changed very fast indeed, and second but more interestingly, user expectations and knowledge have changed importantly too. in the early 1990s i was responsible, amongst other things, for introducing new overseas post-graduate students arriving at liverpool university to the computer facilities they would have to use in their pre-sessional eap classes. students had to prepare a sizeable piece of academic writing concerned with their specialist subject, deliver a mini-presentation on the same topic, and design a poster for a poster session at the end of their 6-, 10or 13-week course, so we wanted them all to feel confident with the university’s computer systems. i do not think email was yet a requirement but the ability to type and print out one’s academic writing was, because the student’s own department would very soon require this too. at that time it was not uncommon for students from certain countries in the middle east and south asia not to know their way around the computer keyboard, so much hunting and pecking took place; students from the eec (it became eu in 1993) mike scott ibérica 24 (2012): 75-8678 typically had some basic familiarity with the keyboard but still needed a lot of help in getting started with logging into the university computers, using email and getting started with word-processing.6 there were two main problems beside hunting and pecking. first, our university systems were somewhat complex and tricky, designed by computer engineers and not yet tuned to the knowledge and skills of ordinary users. logging in (at the university of liverpool in those days) assumed an awareness of the differences between unix and windows, since the university’s core system was unix but the software we ran was within a windows environment running on top (not to mention another system to handle the network of different servers)! in the same way, starting a car engine in the 1900s required the user to get out a starting handle and crank it. the software of the 1990s was much less standardised than it is now, so users not only did not know what was possible, nor what each function is called, nor how to access it! likewise, even as late as the 1980s you might meet someone who would claim to know how to drive a vw but not a ford, because the basic functions were not yet standardised. second, many of my adult students were afraid to experiment, for fear of breaking something or looking foolish. the same problem i was very used to as an eap and efl teacher, risk-taking, but here for some amplified by the fear the humanities-trained student has of science and engineering. at that time, the idea of a concordance was a tricky one. any student (or worse because usually more conservative, any teacher) found it immediately daunting, because we are all trained to read linearly. to see a screenful of text where each line was unrelated to the line above and where words were incomplete at left and right edges of the kwic concordance was very distracting and impeded face validity. even now it is hard to learn to read a concordance vertically, sorting on the collocates at l1 or r1 position to gain an impression of word-patternings. the problem of unfamiliarity has diminished greatly because we are all in the habit of using search-engines, and essentially these give a view which is rather similar to a concordance, with a set of unrelated entries, usually with our search-word highlighted and centred in the display. looking back or looking forward in corpus linguistics ibérica 24 (2012): 75-86 79 design problems my own work in devising corpus linguistic software had to solve three kinds of problem: • of making each function work as it should; • allowing the user to know what the appropriate settings are and alter them; and • explaining the point of each function. compare that with the designers of microsoft word, where most functions such as inserting a footnote or a picture with text flowing around it, or a section in italics, are ones which the literate reader and writer already knew about in printed essays, books, magazines, etc. even if they did not know how to carry them out in ms word. and many of the technical terms “footnote”, “italics” and so on, were already in standard use (admittedly users did have to learn a new meaning for the verbs “crash” and “back up”). accordingly, ms word’s designers did not need to worry much about the third problem. i have found it in some ways the hardest of the three, in the sense that a lot of time needs to be spent on designing the help system and then on software demonstrations, training workshops and follow-up email support. empathy is required, an ability to guess what the other person imagines, knows and does not know; an ability all teachers need. the first of the problems above is technical, it is not always easy but it requires patience and problem-solving, in thinking of ways to get something done despite limitations of machines. on the whole that has probably taken up about one-third of my time developing corpus software. in the early years the shortage of memory and disk space meant that ways had to be found to compute in the most economical way possible; this made it hard to read the code later and remember the various space-saving tricks employed – in other words, debugging and improving was made harder. in later years, software has become bloated because there is no longer the same need to find really economical ways of solving a problem. moore’s law (moore, 1965) has meant dramatic improvements in the speed of the chips inside the computer, the size of the disk drives and memory, which in turn has made corpus procedures work faster. we may now require more text to be processed and corpora have also grown in size, but still a procedure which ten years ago would have slowed things down unacceptably can now be allowed, so more mike scott ibérica 24 (2012): 75-8680 error-checking to avoid crashes can be brought in. at the same time, programmers like to find elegant solutions, and i will sometimes unnecessarily spend hours refining a routine in a search for elegance and efficiency simply because i want my code to satisfy me aesthetically. the second problem concerns the human-machine interface and is much trickier. to make the way to operate a tool so intuitive that a user can succeed without looking for help is the aim,7 and part of the solution is to keep things simple so that the burden of choosing does not overload the user. in the case of a pencil or a pen there isn’t a problem anyway since the tool can only do one thing, but a multi-faceted tool like an automobile involves lots of choices about fuel, road traction, safety etc., so much so that we do not let people do it without quite a lot of training and basic skill testing. on the other hand, simplicity means strait-jacketing the user, and it seems silly to restrict what is possible merely because it is hard to show the user what the choices are. corpus linguistics in the future let us now turn to the future. will corpus linguistics grow as a discipline, or maybe even die out? what directions may corpus research follow? sound and video twenty years ago the pc already was capable of colour and sound, but corpus software typically only used three or four of 16 basic colours and no sounds except beeps indicating an error. even now, corpora with sound and video accompaniment are very initial and sparse. there are many databases of isolated utterance recordings made for general computational linguistic projects (for example at the linguistic data consortium or ldc8), but as these do not consist of normal running text or conversation, they do not contribute straightforwardly to corpus linguistics. the international corpus of english (ice) corpora do contain sound files (ice-gb has a total of 70 hours of recorded speech, for example).9 micase at the university of michigan has 200 hours, just under 2 million words of academic english.10 the british national corpus has 10m words of speech, but did not include the corresponding sound files.11 in the future, i believe ways could be found to transcribe corpora based on radio and tv programmes and movies. as always, copyright is the main looking back or looking forward in corpus linguistics ibérica 24 (2012): 75-86 81 stumbling block, but many tv programmes are pre-scripted or transcribed in the production process so nearly all the work is done and technology to align the sound/video file with the text transcript is already available. copyright is not necessarily a problem if the resulting video is sold, as the presence of dvd stands in supermarkets shows. individual corpora one of the strengths of wordsmith tools and similar software is the ability to process any corpus the user has access to, which can include official corpora like the bnc but, more interesting, corpora the user builds up himor herself by downloading or institutionally from colleagues or students. as electronic resources on the web are increasing, it is very likely that more and more informal or home-made corpora will be built and used. corpus linguistics and other disciplines it was already clear twenty years ago that corpus tools have a lot to offer language teachers (not that all teachers expressed interest, or in my opinion need to) but getting corpus resources used by students is still not a general practice in schools world-wide. with time, i foresee increasing expansion. however, the schools and colleges in most countries are still seriously restricted in computer (as opposed to mobile phone) availability and resources are simply not there for the purchase of software. it is likely that increasing use will be made of free software like antconc (anthony, 2012), which shares many facilities of wordsmith.12 it is not likely that interest in language-learning will diminish over the foreseeable future, though the mix of languages studied will carry on changing. at the same time corpus resources and corpus tools will become standard resources. not everyone will need to use them, for not every gardener uses a spade, but they will become standard tools used by a wider range of professionals: historians, biologists, medical and political science students, for example. that may mean that corpus linguistics itself ceases to be a discipline in its own right (there is no department of spade sciences that i’m aware of). certainly corpus tools will continue to develop. corpus linguistics is not just about data resources, such as corpora. it is about “adding value to data”. that is, we might drown in a flood of data if we were not able to filter it and seek out patterns in it. for example, after early emphasis on single words or phrases of interest to a researcher, studying their keyword-in-context mike scott ibérica 24 (2012): 75-8682 (kwic) contexts trying to establish or refute typicality, we have now moved further into much more focussed study of collocation. in other words, looking at how patternings within the context give a richer understanding of word patterning. collocation collocation must here be understood in its widest sense. the influential osti report study reporting on work carried out in the 1960s appeared to show that although “each node has an infinite region of influence, the influence decreasing the further away from the node you go …” (sinclair, jones & daley, 2004: 48), it is very difficult in practice to find significant collocates of a word if one’s horizons extend beyond four words to the left or right. sinclair, jones and daley (2004) do not put it metaphorically, but it seems they viewed collocation as one might view magnetism, an attractive force which tails off rapidly with distance. on the other hand, armchair experimentation tells us that if say “eat” and “bananas” are collocates, it would be very possible for a large number of words or even clauses or sentences to be found between the two tokens, as in a story beginning “let me tell you what to eat and what not to eat when travelling in …”. accordingly, perhaps we should think of the attraction between node and collocate as also sharing some qualities with gravity, which does not diminish with distance. further, some space must be left for a kind of negative collocation, where a node shows a tendency to avoid a given collocate (much as human beings avoid each other). hoey’s theories (hoey, 2005; but also in numerous other publications) stress that words keep or avoid company over much greater spans than just four or five words. similarly we have seen increasing interest in multi-word units, n-grams, bundles, clusters, and concgrams (cheng, greaves & warren, 2006). conclusion corpus linguistics may or may not survive as a discipline but i am very confident that the ideas and resources built on foundations going right back to the 1930s will continue to develop and shape resources and tools. this will in turn keep corpus linguists and members of many other disciplines, and for that matter readers of ibérica, busy for many years to come. [paper received 13 march 2012] [revised paper accepted 21 may 2012] looking back or looking forward in corpus linguistics ibérica 24 (2012): 75-86 83 references originally qualified as a language teacher, teaching english for the british council in brazil and mexico, mike scott eventually moved to liverpool university where he worked first in applied linguistics with emphasis on language teaching and english for specific purposes. a parallel interest in corpus linguistics and software design and development, however, eventually led to the publication of first microconcord and then wordsmith tools. nowadays he works and researches in corpus linguistics while maintaining the development of wordsmith tools and supporting its extensive community of users in many parts of the world. notes i see the novels of william gibson, for instance count zero published in 1986, for early awareness of this. 2 still is. a new copy of ms word 2010 underlines the word in red. 3 computers at the time were either mainframe, minior micro-computers. the term pc had not yet come into common use, nor had its association with the windows operating system. the size of the computer’s box has now given way to whether it is placed on one’s lap or one’s desk, and though huge air-conditioned computers still exist these are likely to be called super-computers. 4 a 2012 version of windows with the 2012 wordsmith tools would be uncomfortable with less than one thousand times as much ram. 5 see polsson’s chronology of personal computers at url: http://pctimeline.info/comp1992.htm 6 another very dated word: “word-processing” had come in with dedicated “word-processors” in the 1980s, that is specialised computers which could only be used for preparing documents, because computing still seemed redolent of white-coated technicians, air conditioning, expensive machinery. 7 i am very aware that in this aim i get a very mediocre score! mike scott ibérica 24 (2012): 75-8684 anthony, l. (2012). antconc. url: http://www. antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/antconc_index.html [01/03/12] cheng, w., c. greaves & m. warren (2006). “from n-gram to skipgram to concgram”. international journal of corpus linguistics 11: 411-433. gibson, w. (1986). count zero. new york: victor gollancz. hoey, m. (2005). lexical priming: a new theory of words and language. london: routledge. moore, g.e. (1965). “cramming more components onto integrated circuits”. electronics vol. 38 no. 8. url: ftp://download.intel.com/ museum/moores_ law/articles-press_releases/gordon_moore_ 1965_ article.pdf [01/03/12] scott, m. & t. johns (1993). microconcord. oxford: oxford university press. scott, m. (2012). url: http://www.lexically.net/ personal_pages/memories %20of%20tim%20 johns.html [01/03/12] sinclair, j., s. jones & r. daley. [1970] (2004). english collocation studies: the osti report. london & new york: continuum. stengel, s. (2012). url: http://oldcomputers.net/ [01/03/12] wichary, m. (2012). url: http://www.aresluna. org/attached/computerhistory/ads/international/ apple/pics/annual94-powerbook 5 [01/03/12] 8 url: http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/catalog/topten.jsp 9 for ice, see url: http://ice-corpora.net/ice/index.htm. for ice-gb see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ english-usage/projects/ice-gb/index.htm 10 url: http://micase.elicorpora.info/ 11 they are being edited and may be available by the time you read this – see url: http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/spokenbnc. but also see dave lee’s devoted to corpora site for more sound archives at url: http://tiny.cc/corpora 12 and has been produced by laurence anthony in japan with my blessing and encouragement since 2002. looking back or looking forward in corpus linguistics ibérica 24 (2012): 75-86 85 iberica 13 ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 abstract the significant purpose of the author in the introduction of a research article is to convince the reader about the importance of the work to be presented. to achieve this end, a convincing “niche” needs to be built by evaluating, rejecting or indicating gaps in previous related work. the purpose of “establishing a niche” is to emphasize the current research project presented by the author. the present paper investigates how computer scientists use this obligatory step of “create a research space” (cars) model (swales & feak, 1994 & 2004) to highlight their own research work. this paper not only compares the results with other similar studies but also presents an in-depth analysis of various types of gap statements used in computer science research article introductions. the issue of cyclicity of this step and the linguistic indicators used for the establishment of “niche” (the gap statements) are both discussed. key words: corpus-based study, cars, niche, computer science, gaps. resumen sub-secci�n dos: òcreando el nichoó el autor de un artículo de investigación persigue, como finalidad principal en la introducción de dicho artículo, convencer al lector sobre la importancia de su trabajo. para alcanzar su objetivo, habrá de “crear un nicho”, con lo que evaluará, rechazará o señalará las carencias encontradas en trabajos anteriores y relacionados con el que se presenta. la elaboración o construcción de un “nicho” tiene por objeto resaltar la investigación que en ese mismo momento está exponiendo el autor. en el presente artículo se investiga cómo los especialistas del campo de la informática realizan esta tarea obligatoria ajustándose al modelo de “crear un espacio de investigación” (modelo cars) propuesto por swales & feak (1994 & 2004) y así hacer notorio su trabajo de move two: establishing a niche wasima shehzad university college yanbu (kingdom of saudi arabia) wasima.shehzad@yahoo.com 25 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 25 ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 wasima shehzad investigación. en este artículo se comparan los resultados con otros estudios análogos y, además, se analizan de forma pormenorizada los distintos tipos de enunciados que denuncian carencias (gap statements) y que son característicos de las introducciones de los artículos de investigación en informática. asimismo se delibera sobre el asunto de la “ciclicidad” presente en este paso del modelo y los indicadores lingüísticos de carencias que con más frecuencia se utilizan para la construcción del “nicho”. palabras clave: estudios de corpus, modelo cars, nicho, informática, carencias. 1. introduction the writing of the introduction section of a research article has been studied by swales (1981, 1983, 1984 & 1990), cooper (1985), swales & najjar (1987), hughes (1989), fredrickson & swales (1994), lindeberg (1994), posteguillo (1995 & 1999), anthony (1999 & 2002), hyland (1999a, 1999b & 2000), kuo (1999), lewin et al. (2001), and shehzad (2006 & 2007), among others. out of these, the works of cooper (1985), posteguillo (1996 & 1999), posteguillo et al. (1998), anthony (1999 & 2002), and shehzad (2006 & 2007) have focused on the discipline of computer science (cs) research articles. however, cooper (1985) and anthony (1999) have used a relatively smaller corpus (12 research articles) and the focus of posteguillo (1995, 1996 & 1999); posteguillo et al. (1998) and anthony (2001 & 2002) has been on the overall schematic structure of research articles, titles and abstracts, whereas shehzad’s (2006) focus is on move one and shehzad (2007) concentrates on “indicating the structure” part of the introduction. furthermore, none of these scholars has investigated in detail move two: “establishing a niche” (indicating a gap in the previous research or extending previous knowledge in some way) of the “create a research space” (cars) model when writing the introduction of a research article/paper, which is often thought to be obligatory in major research articles (swales & feak, 1994 & 2004), in detail. in the cars model, move 2 is the key move as it is the hinge that connects move 1 to move 3 –i.e., “what has been done” to “what the present research is about”. it functions as a “mini-critique” and often consists of not more than a sentence. by indicating a knowledge gap, the writer builds up a “demand” for the current contribution. “essentially the gap represents an unresolved question that the current contribution seeks to solve” (lindeberg, 2004: 89). the present study aims to bring forward different 26 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 26 ways through which this move is realized in cs research articles for a comprehensive understanding of computer scientists’ rhetorical style rather. 2. literature review the research article is essentially a “product” in its finished form which is the outcome of a complex process (swales, 2004), introduction holding a fundamental position in this process. an introduction of a research article is a “crafted rhetorical artefact” and a “manifestation of rhetorical maneuver” (swales, 1990: 155). this maneuvering also involves building up a convincing “niche” (swales, 1990: 142) through “elaborated criticisms or denials of previous knowledge claims” (lindeberg, 1994: 138) –i.e. statements of gaps as indicated through move 2 of cars model (swales & feak, 1994 & 2004). lindeberg (2004: 40) uses the term “foil” (a thin layer of bright metal placed under a displayed gem or piece of jewelry to lend it brilliance) for gap statements which “emphatically foreground and enhance the current contribution by contrast”. foil is also “a very thin layer of polished metal placed under a gem, especially an inferior or imitation gem, to give it more color or sparkle” (the world book dictionary, 2001: 828) thus emphasizing its quality of setting off contrast through which a “demand” for the current contribution is built up. “niche” is also a marketing term indicating the process of finding small but potentially profitable market segments and designing custom-made products to cater for these specialized markets. however, the “niche” should be large enough to be profitable but ignored by the major industry players. swales (1990) uses this term in its ecological sense describing the relational position of a species or population in an ecosystem. the “niche” (swales, 1990: 142) thus established includes how a population responds to the abundance of its resources and enemies. relating, both, the ecological and marketing connotations to writing the introduction of a research paper, the “niche” provides a firm “background against which the magnitude or relevance of the current contribution stands out clearly” (lindeberg, 2004: 89). another objective of displaying writers’ knowledge and understanding of the state of the art of their discipline is also achieved through gap statements (bazerman, 1988). unfortunately, the available literature about cs is limited to the analysis of overall structure of the cs research article (posteguillo, 1995 & 1999) and the generic evaluation of the introduction of software move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 27 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 27 engineering article (anthony, 1999). hence, in the present paper i deal with the pertinent question of how computer scientists make use of gap statements to build up a convincing argument in the “tightly contested” genre of research article. 3. methodology in the previous works of this kind either researchers have limited their studies to a close analysis of a small number of texts such as tarone et al.’s (1981 & 1998) detailed description of two astrophysics articles, or a general analysis of a larger corpus (dudley-evans’s (1984) corpus of 156 articles, or even a comparative analysis of the hyland’s (2000) large corpus of 240 research articles from soft and hard sciences). these approaches have their limitations (see anthony, 2002). therefore a balanced approach was adopted for the study in focus. a corpus called, shehzad computer science corpus (scs corpus) (shehzad, 2005) of 56 introductions of cs research articles from five different journals published by the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) computer society was created (see table 1 for detail). the initial intention though was to have 60 texts but the december issues of four journals had not been published by the time the corpus was created. the data was analysed with the help of computerbased tools such as wordsmith (scott, 1997). the remainder of the paper first presents a general description of move 2 in cs research articles introductions followed by taxonomy of the different types of move 2 identified in the scs corpus. the next section deals with the linguistic indicators of gaps followed by a discussion about the cyclical nature of this move. 4. results and discussion the first step of the rhetorical analysis was to identify the realization of moves which showed 94.64% occurrence of move 2, thus swales & feak’s (2004) assertion of its being obligatory. this percentage is higher than anthony’s (1999) report (91.7%) which was much higher than posteguillo’s (1995) results (57%) thus implying a growing trend in its usage. the reason could be the fact that because of increased research being conducted in this discipline, computer scientists feel a competitive pressure more than ever and need to create a research space for their work. wasima shehzad ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-5028 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 28 more than the overall number of occurrences, the patterns of move 2 were found to be interesting as they were not only complex but also complicated. before going into the details, a journal-wise summary of move 2 is given in table 1. name of journal abbreviation for journal move 2 occurrence percentage in comparison to a hundred percent presence of move 2 in three journals 81.81% occurrence in pami looks slightly lower, but still it is high enough to generalize that move 2 is an important part of the research papers in this field and computer scientists use it quite frequently. in one extreme case, the introduction opened with move 2. example (1) some recent investigations [1], [2] revealed that some of the major problems today in developing software systems are not technical but managerial. (intr 25) 4.1 taxonomy of move 2 the writers show their knowledge of “the state of the art” of their field by stating a problem, a set of conflicting evidence or a question. on the basis of extensive elaborations of such gap statements made in the introductions of cs, a taxonomy of move 2 types has been prepared, defined and discussed as follows. (a) simple/short about 20% of the occurrences could be called “simple gap statements” because of their easy-to-follow and straightforward manner. as far as brevity is concerned, “establishing a niche” is supposed to be a brief transitory period like the one between touching the water and starting kicking while swimming. swales & feak (2004) thus recommend it to be fairly short. a few instances of brief move 2s were found in the scs corpus. move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 29 ibérica 15 [2008]: …-…4 4. results and discussion the first step of the rhetorical analysis was to identify the realization of moves which showed 94.64% occurrence of move 2, thus swales & feak’s (2004) assertion of its being obligatory. this percentage is higher than anthony’s (1999) report (91.7%) which was much higher than posteguillo’s (1995) results (57%) thus implying a growing trend in its usage. the reason could be the fact that because of increased research being conducted in this discipline, computer scientists feel a competitive pressure more than ever and need to create a research space for their work. more than the overall number of occurrences, the patterns of move 2 were found to be interesting as they were not only complex but also complicated. before going into the details, a journal-wise summary of move 2 is given in table 1. name of journal abbreviation for journal move 2 occurrence percentage transactions on computers toc 10 90.90% transactions on pattern and machine analysis pami 9 81.81% transactions on software engineering se 11 100% transactions on parallel and distributed systems pads 11 100% transactions on knowledge and data engineering kde 12 100% table 1. journal-wise occurrences of move 2 in the scs corpus. in comparison to a hundred percent presence of move 2 in three journals 81.81% occurrence in pami looks slightly lower, but still it is high enough to generalize that move 2 is an important part of the research papers in this field and computer scientists use it quite frequently. in one extreme case, the introduction opened with move 2. example (1) some recent investigations [1], [2] revealed that some of the major problems today in developing software systems are not technical but managerial. (intr 25) 4.1 taxonomy of move 2 the writers show their knowledge of “the state of the art” of their field by stating a problem, a set of conflicting evidence or a question. on the basis of extensive elaborations of such gap statements made in the introductions of cs, a taxonomy of move 2 types has been prepared, defined and discussed as follows. 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 29 example (2) previous attempts to compare items from different ontologies have been based on an integrated ontology that was derived manually or semi automatically. this work aims at … (intr 51) (b) lengthy/numbered contrary to swales & feak’s (2004) belief, that move 2s are quite short, often consisting of no more than a sentence, most of the move 2s in cs introductions are fairly lengthy. the few one sentence examples look more like exceptions. an example of the lengthy gap is given here. example (3) these data sets are far too large to fit in main memory and are typically stored in secondary storage devices. linear scans are the only cost-effective access method; random access is prohibitively expensive. some data sets, such as router packet statistics, meteorological data, and sensor network data, are transient and need not be realized on disk; the data must be processed as they are produced and discarded in favor of summaries whenever possible. as the size of such data sets far exceeds the amount of space (main memory) available to an algorithm, it is not possible for a data stream algorithm to “remember” too much of the data scanned in the past. this scarcity of space necessitates the design of a novel kind of algorithm that …. each scan of a large set on a slow device is expensive, and so the criteria …. in the case of “transient” streams, i.e., … only one scan is possible. furthermore, unlike wasima shehzad ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-5030 move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: …-… 5 type meaning occurrence percentage short/simple brief, easy to identify 15 26% lengthy/numbered extended to many sentences and paragraphs 14 25% embedded intertwined with move one, step b. i.e., “reviewing items of previous research” 13 23% multiple act based on “acts” each realizing a sub-purpose 6 10% reported already identified by the researchers/scholars of the target community 3 5% research questions/rationale purpose/research question/rationale statement of the present research serving as the gap statement 3 5% extension continuation/augmentation of the previous research 2 3% contrastive presentation of a comparable idea/algorithm/technique/method to the existing works 2 3% table 2. types of gap statements in cs ras introductions. (a) simple/short about 20% of the occurrences could be called “simple gap statements” because of their easy-to-follow and straightforward manner. as far as brevity is concerned, “establishing a niche” is supposed to be a brief transitory period like the one between touching the water and starting kicking while swimming. swales & feak (2004) thus recommend it to be fairly short. a few instances of brief move 2s were found in the scs corpus. example (2) previous attempts to compare items from different ontologies have been based on an integrated ontology that was derived manually or semi automatically. this work aims at … (intr 51) (b) lengthy/numbered contrary to swales & feak’s (2004) belief, that move 2s are quite short, often consisting of no more than a sentence, most of the move 2s in cs introductions are fairly lengthy. the few one sentence examples look more like exceptions. an example of the lengthy gap is given here. example (3) these data sets are far too large to fit in main memory and are typically stored in secondary storage devices. linear scans are the only cost-effective access method; random access is prohibitively expensive. some data sets, such as router packet statistics, meteorological data, and sensor network data, are transient and need not be realized on disk; the data must be processed as they are produced and discarded in favor of summaries whenever possible. as the size of such data sets far exceeds the amount of space (main memory) available to an algorithm, it is not possible 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 30 an online algorithm, a data stream algorithm may not be required to take an irrevocable action after the arrival of each point; it may be allowed to take action after a …... clustering, a useful and ubiquitous tool in data analysis, is, in broad strokes, the problem of finding a partition of a data set so that, under some definition of “similarity,” similar items are in the same part of the partition and different items are in different parts. …(intr 54) move 2 took about 45% of the space of this introduction. another interesting type of move 2 is that one in which the authors use the discourse markers to logically explain the reasons why there is a need for the research space they intend to occupy. example (4) several characteristics of computers that execute such applications make them unsuitable for storing sensitive information. first, the devices may be poor and …. second, can be easily stolen or …. third, when data size become large, storage management is expensive and prone to errors. (intr 45). even in one case, the gap statement does not remain just a brief statement as suggested by swales & feak (1994 & 2004). it rather becomes a report covering over two pages and then mingling with move 1, b. towards the end. unlike casual reporting it begins in an organized manner and has been divided into four points that are numbered. example (5) however, most of the existing database models are designed under the assumptions that the data/information stored is precise and queries are crisp. in fact many of these assumptions are not valid for many of the next generation information systems since they may involve complex information with uncertainty. in general, data/information in databases may be uncertain for the following reasons: a decision in …. integrating data from … information in some traditional … in natural languages, … (intr 58) (c) embedded twenty two percent of move 2s in cs research articles introductions were embedded in move 1, b. “reviewing items of previous research”. in most instances it is difficult to demark move 2 from move 1, b because of their move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 31 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 31 overlapping natures. consider the example (6) in which a gap has been supported by the relevant literature: example (6) dns-dispatcher-based systems can easily scale from locally to geographically distributed web-server systems … [23]. however, dispatching requests through the dns has three problems that prevent … these issues have been addressed through ….[8], or multiple tiers of … [15]. this last approach has three main drawbacks. to avoid a system bottleneck at the a-dns, the traffic … requires … moreover, if any client request… [21]. finally, the ttl period …. is considered too low. (intr 40) (d) multiple act “communicative purposes are realized in moves, which in turn, are composed of one or more act (each realizing a sub purpose)” (lewin et al. 2001: 44). up to four to five acts in the realization of gap statements in the scs corpus have been noted. this shows that the purpose of “establishing a niche” may also have sub purposes depending upon the kind of research one is involved with. example (7) in high resolution palmprint images … many features that are similar to singular points and minutiae points in a fingerprint can be obtained; however, these features cannot be observed in low-resolution images … nevertheless, we can extract principal lines and wrinkles from …. in fact, line features play an important role in palmprint identification [3], [4]. unfortunately, it is difficult to obtain a high recognition rate using only principal lines because of … (intr 21) example (8) despite the advantages of a now, the potential computation power of these parallel architectures has not been exploited in depth. one reason is the difficulty in developing …traditionally a programmer must …. however, this approach is time consuming and impractical for …, particularly since… (intr 38). (e) reported in some cases, gaps are not identified by the authors, they are rather reported as having been generally known or found by other researchers. so, instead of wasima shehzad ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-5032 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 32 pointing out the shortcomings, the writer “merely reports them secondhand, relying on previous authorities, presumably a less face-threatening act” (lindeberg, 2004: 92). this is done in their effort of not to “tread on the toes of other citizens of the academic universe” (lewin et al., 2001: 43). computer scientists also use this device sometimes. example (9) reference [10] shows that none of the existing architectures meets the universal access requirement. (intr 29) in such a statement, the author does not create a gap himself; he rather uses the weaknesses and shortcomings found by the previous research, to serve as a background to present his own work. example (10) previous research [21], [23] suggests that cross-site communication and coordination issues cause a substantial loss of development speed. (move 2) in this paper, we investigate relationships among delay, communication, coordination and … (intr 30) considering it a promotional strategy, lindeberg (2004: 134) further states that “[t]he promotional effect of referring to outside sources as having pointed out the gap is that the present writers’ claim of a gap is supported by other researchers working in the same problem area and this presumably makes the criticism less confrontational”. (f) research question(s /rationale in this type of move 2, a gap is established by posing research question(s) based on the weaknesses of the previous research. example (11) qualitative studies [21], [18] have shown how individuals are disrupted by cross-site coordination challenges. but question remains about the cumulative effects, for example, how distance affects the speed with which software engineering tasks are accomplished, and how distance is related to other important variables that influence speed, such as the size of a task, or the number of people involved. in addition to being important research questions, these are critical pragmatic issues as … (intr 30) move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 33 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 33 in the following example, we notice the rationale of the need of “interagent communication and synchronization in multiagent applications” which serves as a step forward to work on a new research area rather than bridging an already existing gap. example (12) in this paper, we address the issue of interagent communication and synchronization…. (move 3 a.) interagent communication and synchronization in multiagent applications is needed due to two reasons. first, the application may be inherently distributed in nature…. second, the performance of the application can be significantly improved by employing interagent communication and synchronization techniques…. (move 2) we propose …. (intr 39) (g) extension the gap created may not always be for a new research work, it could be the extension of the author’s previous work. example (13) … this paper extends the logic language presented in previous work of ours [5], [6], [7] with a second order logic syntax … (intr 57) (h) contrastive here move 2 is realized in the form of a contrast with other work(s). this is mostly done when an improved version of the already existing design or technique is presented. in one introduction, the second occurrence of move 2 was seen as a contrastive statement to the preceding announcement of move 3, step a. lexical indicators such as “unlike” are used to make this contrast. example (14) unlike existing algorithms, when making decisions about reducing or ordering a test suite, our algorithms consider the complexities of mc/dc. (intr 27) it may be noted here that whereas this taxonomy of gap statements offers a myriad of choices to computer scientists for the realization of move 2, it may make this genre tradition complex and lead to comprehension difficulties for the audience. wasima shehzad ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-5034 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 34 4.2 linguistic indicators of gaps the following linguistic indicators used for the establishment of a gap in the previous research (swales & feak 1994 & 2004, and personal discussions with prof. swales) were studied in the present corpus. for the purpose of discussion these have been classified into three categories. (a) contrastive statements: however; while; but; although; nevertheless; as opposed to; rather than; with a few exceptions. (b) quantifiers and quasi-negatives: limited; few; little. (c) negatives: none of; not been; no [work/research/data/study]. (a) contrastive statements sometimes to avoid negative or quasi-negative comments, the use of a contrastive statement such as “however” “while” “rather than” “as opposed to” “although” “considerable”, “with few exceptions”, “tended to”, etc., can be useful. these are used to soften the negative impact of gap statements. thereby, concordance search was conducted and studied to determine their role in the establishment of gap statements and has been listed in the descending order of gap statements occurred in the scs corpus. table 3 illustrates significantly high usage of “however” for the enactment of gaps as compared to the usage of “while” and “but” for such executions. the percentage of the occurrence of “nevertheless” is the same as that of “while”; however, having one gap statement in the corpus, it could easily be neglected. conjunctions hits gap statements percentages (a.1) however “however” with 36 occurrences seems to be the obvious indicator to establish a gap, but this word alone does not guarantee a clear indication of move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 35 wasima shehzad conjunctions hits gap statements percentages however 58 36 62% while 41 14 34% but 46 11 23.91% although 21 11 52.38% nevertheless 3 1 33.33% as opposed to 4 2 50% rather than 14 1 7.14% with a few exceptions 1 1 100% total 188 77 40.95% table 3. contrastive statements used for move 2. (a.1) however “however” with 36 hits seems to be the obvious indicator to establish a gap, but this word alone does not guarantee a clear indication of the gap. it is the phrase following “however” that contains and conveys the meaning, for example: example (15) however, software visualizations are often too simplistic and lack visual clues for the viewer to correctly interpret them. (intr 33) example (16) however, none of this work contains a complete and a systematic investigation of different probabilistic modeling techniques for query approximation. (intr 59) example (17) 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 35 the gap. it is the phrase following “however” that contains and conveys the meaning, for example: example (15) however, software visualizations are often too simplistic and lack visual clues for the viewer to correctly interpret them. (intr 33) example (16) however, none of this work contains a complete and a systematic investigation of different probabilistic modeling techniques for query approximation. (intr 59) example (17) however, dispatching requests through the dns has three problems that prevent load balancing among the web nodes: (intr 40) interestingly, four instances of “however” represented step a. “stating the nature of research” and two were used in the context of “principal findings”. example (18) we will show below, however, that a straightforward remedy is to base the similarity measure on a suitable path metric. (intr 23) (stating the nature of research) example (19) however, our algorithm took more time to find its better answers. (intr 54) (principal finding) in one exceptional case it was used to state the “limitation” of the work undertaken. example (20) … of packets dropped for networks with soft linklevel flow control that handle congestion by dropping packets, however, this issue is not explored in this work. (intr 44) wasima shehzad ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-5036 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 36 (a.2) while the next common linguistic item that played a part in the establishment of the knowledge gap was, “while”. out of the 41 entries, 14 were used to convey gaps. example (21) while most existing works on manet take flooding as a straightforward and direct solution, we show in [15] that a blind flooding may result in excessive redundancy, contention, and collision. (intr 5) apart from the gap statements, an interesting juxtaposition was seen in these entries. two each were used to write the “limitations” and “value” of the current work. example (22) while an in-depth discussion of all possible applications is not possible, we next briefly discuss work that relates to the applications we use to illustrate our optimization approach. (intr 23) example (23) these studies show that our testsuite reduction techniques can be effective in reducing test suites while providing acceptable performance. (intr 27) (value) (a.3) but “but” usually signals two types of contrast: (i) “denial-of-expectation” (what is expected after a reading of the first conjunct turns out not to be true from a reading of the second); and (ii) the “marker of semantic contrast” (celcemurcia & larsen-freeman, 1999). some examples from the eleven instances of “but” used for making gap statements are given below: example (24) qualitative studies (e.g., [21], [18]) have shown how individuals are disrupted by cross-site coordination challenges. but question remain about the cumulative effects, for example, how distance affects the speed … and how … (intr 30) limited use of “but” to augment the “value” of their own work was also noticed. move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 37 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 37 example (25) after a thorough and detailed study … we have discovered centralized and distributed schemes that not only achieve good results, but also guarantee stable performance. (intr 40) (a.4) although with eleven examples, “although” seems to be a popular choice after “however” and “while” for the expression of knowledge gap when the computer scientists want to hedge the weaknesses identified in the already used algorithms, methods developed or design mechanisms, etc. example (26) although a large part of the behavior of grouping algorithms is determined by the behavior of the grouping measure, in this paper, we will focus on the considerations for the grouping framework. (intr 16) the use of “although” has not been restricted to contrastive statements. an example each of move one step a. and step b. and move three step c. and step d. were also found. example (27) although mobile ad hoc networks have been mainly used in military applications, they are being increasingly used for civilian applications such as virtual class rooms, wireless local area networks, and law enforcement. (intr 37) (move 1 step a) example (28) the definition of … was first characterized … by henzinger et al. [38], although the works of munro and patterson [64] and of flajolet and martin [23] predate this definition. (intr 54) (move 1 step b) example (29) … we have found out that, although in some cases a distributed redirection algorithm may also achieve slightly worse performance than some centralized alternatives it has three major advantages that make its use preferable … (intr 40) (move 3 step c) wasima shehzad ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-5038 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 38 example (30) … our heuristic approach performs better in terms of all the above parameters, although the percentage improvement is relatively low. (intr 1) (move 3 step d) (a.5) nevertheless out of the three, one clear-cut case of the use of “nevertheless” in gap statements was: example (31) nevertheless, limited work has been reported on palmprint identification and verification, despite the importance of palmprint features. (intr 21) (a.6) as opposed to this contrastive statement included two examples of gap and one of “value”. example (32) e-textiles impose specific challenges as opposed to other applications in the general area of networked systems. (intr 8) (a.7) rather than surprisingly, the entries of “rather than” were over shadowed with move 3, having four examples of step a., one of step b. and two of step d. the only clear example of gap statement is given here. example (33) on the negative side, requiring explicit identification of states requires much more consistency from stakeholders when constructing scenarios and forces them to reason about their system in terms of state “rather than” sequences of actions. (intr 26) (a.8) with a few exceptions writers often hedge their full commitment by referring to deficiencies in the research model, theory or method which may compromise the accuracy of their results, thus allowing “the prudent researcher to present results having anticipated criticism of the premises or methods by which they were move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 39 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 39 achieved” (hyland, 1998: 143). so the writers use phrases like “with a few exceptions”, rather than “nothing is known about” or “we have no knowledge about”. as hyland (1988: 145) points out “again, this is a way of limiting the damage that might result from a bald proposition; the hedge functioning to contextualize the claims made by suggesting parameters within which they might be accepted as true”. an example from the corpus is given here. example (34) in fact, with a few exceptions, the creators of web pages create links to other pages, usually with an idea in mind that the linked pages are …. (intr 55) (b) quantifiers and quasi-negatives the “most common way to indicate a gap is to use a ‘quasi-negative’ subject”. (swales & feak, 2004: 258). quantifiers, such as the following, could be helpful in pointing out the shortcomings of the previous research and thus preparing ground to accommodate the current work. “few” and “little”, although not morphologically negative, are negative in meaning and in syntactic behavior. the concordance results were studied for gap statements and are depicted in table 4. quantifiers hits gap statements percentages “little” with a 66.66% occurrence seems to be at the top, but “limited” having lesser percentage comparatively (with 17 occurrences) appears to be a more popular choice for the exercise of gap statements. (b.1) limited one way of establishing gap is to show that other investigators’ work has been limited in certain ways or to certain areas and thus intended to be encompassed by the present research. the word “limited” registered 28 hits. despite having some open cases such as: “how do we search for a queried palmprint in a given database and obtain a response within a limited time?”, wasima shehzad ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-5040 ibérica 15 [2008]: …-… 13 e-textiles impose specific challenges as opposed to other applications in the general area of networked systems. (intr 8) (a.7) rather than surprisingly, the entries of “rather than” were over shadowed with move 3, having four examples of step a., one of step b. and two of step d. the only clear example of gap statement is given here. example (33) on the negative side, requiring explicit identification of states requires much more consistency from stakeholders when constructing scenarios and forces them to reason about their system in terms of state “rather than” sequences of actions. (intr 26) (a.8) with a few exceptions writers often hedge their full commitment by referring to deficiencies in the research model, theory or method which may compromise the accuracy of their results, thus allowing “the prudent researcher to present results having anticipated criticism of the premises or methods by which they were achieved” (hyland, 1998: 143). so the writers use phrases like “with a few exceptions”, rather than “nothing is known about” or “we have no knowledge about”. as hyland (1988: 145) points out “again, this is a way of limiting the damage that might result from a bald proposition; the hedge functioning to contextualize the claims made by suggesting parameters within which they might be accepted as true”. an example from the corpus is given here. example (34) in fact, with a few exceptions, the creators of web pages create links to other pages, usually with an idea in mind that the linked pages are …. (intr 55) (b) quantifiers and quasi-negatives the “most common way to indicate a gap is to use a ‘quasi-negative’ subject”. (swales & feak, 2004: 258). quantifiers, such as the following, could be helpful in pointing out the shortcomings of the previous research and thus preparing ground to accommodate the current work. “few” and “little”, although not morphologically negative, are negative in meaning and in syntactic behavior. the concordance results were studied for gap statements and are depicted in table 4. quantifiers hits gap statements percentages limited 28 17 60.71% few 16 4 25% little 9 6 66.66% total 44 27 61.36% table 4. gap statements and quantifiers/quasi-negatives. 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 40 17 clear examples were found that exhibited the limitations of the earlier researchers. these included limitations in the designs, methods adopted, efficiency and accuracy, and limited work/research etc. example (35) the disadvantages of the repeated application of the bom test… are test time inefficiency and “limited” fault coverage for …. this paper presents an improved… (intr 10) (b.2) few from the concordance list having 16 entries for “few”, only four could be categorized as gaps. example (36) there are only a “few” studies to incorporate methods for handling impreciseness in such an integrated environment. (intr 58) (b.3) little the next quantifier looked for was “little” as according to swales & feak (2004), the chances of using a full negative like “no studies” are that somebody can find an exception to such a strong statement. six instances out of the nine entries for “little” had interesting nouns (work, research, information, detection effect, empirical information/evidence) accompanied with them to report insufficient job done by the other discourse community dwellers. example (37) … there is so far very “little” empirical evidence that communication of defect information among inspectors yields significant gains …. (intr 29) (c) negatives the third category of the linguistic indicators studied in the corpus was negatives. “the chief use of negatives is directed at a proposition already in the discourse” and are used more to respond than to initiate, celce-murcia & larsen-freeman (1999: 196) explain. they further elaborate that one might assume that negative would receive prominent stress whereas it is reduced to mitigate the disagreement, presumably in the interest of maintaining social harmony. negatives are generally known to be used for pinpointing move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 41 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 41 something which is either faulty or has not been paid sufficient attention to. so, one would assume the use of negatives as a natural choice to pave way for one’s own work. contrary to this speculation, the tendency of the usage of negatives is lower here, when compared to the usage of conjunctions and quantifiers/quasi-negatives for gap statements (see table 5). negatives hits gap statements percentages (c.1) none of in the six entries of none of, one looked like an expression of the “value” of the present work. in the rest of the examples, efforts to establish gaps can easily be noticed. example (38) … “none of ” the above-mentioned approaches can guarantee to find the global minimum … (intr 23) referents of “none of ” used for gaps were: “the above-mentioned approaches”, “this work”, “the published papers”, “the approaches above”, “group communication services”, or “existing architectures”. (c.2) not been the three entries of “not been” were clear cut cases of gap statements: “has not been exploited in depth”, “has not been pursued in the literature until recently”, “has not been studied in the past”. this negative was accompanied with verbs such as “exploited”, “pursued”, “studied”, etc., used as present perfect tense in the passive voice. (c.3) no work/research/data/study contrary to the previous two negatives, the only instance of “no work” could be taken as a “value” statement. example (39) to the best of our knowledge, no work has been published on the … (intr 4) wasima shehzad ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-5042 move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: …-… 15 negatives are generally known to be used for pinpointing something which is either faulty or has not been paid sufficient attention to. so, one would assume the use of negatives as a natural choice to pave way for one’s own work. contrary to this speculation, the tendency of the usage of negatives is lower here, when compared to the usage of conjunctions and quantifiers/quasi-negatives for gap statements (see table 5). negatives hits gap statements percentages none of 6 5 83% not been 3 3 100% no work/research… 1 0% total 10 8 80% table 5. gap statements and negatives. (c.1) none of in the six entries of none of, one looked like an expression of the “value” of the present work. in the rest of the examples, efforts to establish gaps can easily be noticed. example (38) … “none of” the above-mentioned approaches can guarantee to find the global minimum … (intr 23) referents of “none of” used for gaps were “the above-mentioned approaches”, “this work”, “the published papers”, “the approaches above”, “group communication services”, or “existing architectures”. (c.2) not been the three entries of “not been” were clear cut cases of gap statements: “has not been exploited in depth”, “has not been pursued in the literature until recently”, “has not been studied in the past”. this negative was accompanied with verbs such as “exploited”, “pursued”, “studied”, etc., used as present perfect tense in the passive voice. (c.3) no work/research/data/study contrary to the previous two negatives, the only instance of “no work” could be taken as a “value” statement. example (39) to the best of our knowledge, no work has been published on the … (intr 4) 4.3 overall indicators of gaps the overall situation of the linguistic indicators found in move 2 (i.e., gap 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 42 4.3 overall indicators of gaps the overall situation of the linguistic indicators found in move 2 (i.e., gap statements used by computer scientists) is depicted in table 6. linguistic indicator hits occurrence as gap percentage the most dominant out of the total hits for negatives, 80% serve the purpose of establishing gaps in the introductions, which is followed by 61.36% presence of quantifiers. on the other hand, the number of occurrences corresponding to conjunctions in gap statements is the highest but lower than the percentages for negatives and quantifiers. this is because of the usage of conjunctions in other moves too as we saw earlier on. (a) negative verbs and adjectives swales & feak (2004) suggest twelve verbs and seven adjectives for students to tell if they are strongly negative, neutral or slightly negative. the concordance search showed that computer scientists do not seem to be interested in this list except for the rare use of “concentrated on” . example (40) hence, people have concentrated on designing on heuristic algorithms for designing … for … and analyzing their performance. (intr 37) according to swales & feak (2004), five verbs (i.e., “misinterpreted”, “failed to consider”, “disregarded”, “ignored” and “overlooked”) are strong negatives and thus should be avoided. out of these five, the use of one verb (such as “misinterpreted”) has been found only once in the cs research articles introductions. but interestingly, neither of the other verbs considered less negative were used by the computer scientists. similarly, three strongly negative adjectives (“misguided”, “unconvincing” and “unsatisfactory”) were not found in the corpus, neither the rest of the adjectives except one rare occurrence of “incomplete” as shown in example (41). move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 43 wasima shehzad ibérica 15 [2008]: …-…16 statements used by computer scientists) is depicted in table 6. linguistic indicator hits occurrence as gap percentage the most dominant conjunctions 148 62 41.89% however quantifier 44 27 61.36% limited contrastive statements 48 15 31.25% although negatives 10 8 80% none of table 6. linguistic indicators of move 2. out of the total hits for negatives, 80% serve the purpose of establishing gaps in the introductions, which is followed by 61.36% presence of quantifiers. on the other hand, the number of occurrences corresponding to conjunctions in gap statements is the highest but lower than the percentages for negatives and quantifiers. this is because of the usage of conjunctions in other moves too as we saw earlier on. (a) negative verbs and adjectives swales & feak (2004) suggest twelve verbs and seven adjectives for students to tell if they are strongly negative, neutral or slightly negative. the concordance search showed that computer scientists do not seem to be interested in this list except for the rare use of “concentrated on” . example (40) hence, people have concentrated on designing on heuristic algorithms for designing … for … and analyzing their performance. (intr 37) according to swales & feak (2004), five verbs (i.e., “misinterpreted”, “failed to consider”, “disregarded”, “ignored” and “overlooked”) are strong negatives and thus should be avoided. out of these five, the use of one verb (such as “misinterpreted”) has been found only once in the cs research articles introductions. but interestingly, neither of the other verbs considered less negative were used by the computer scientists. similarly, three strongly negative adjectives (“misguided”, “unconvincing” and “unsatisfactory”) were not found in the corpus, neither the rest of the adjectives except one rare occurrence of “incomplete” as shown in example (41). example (41) parnas [4] assessed that most legacy systems suffer from several typical problems, including … and outdated, incomplete, or missing documentation. (intr 33) hence, a word of caution in this regard for the teachers of cs rhetoric while using general guide books for academic writing widely available in the market. 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 43 example (41) parnas [4] assessed that most legacy systems suffer from several typical problems, including … and outdated, incomplete, or missing documentation. (intr 33) hence, a word of caution in this regard for the teachers of cs rhetoric while using general guide books for academic writing widely available in the market. (b) cyclicity a fairly typical feature of gap statements in longer introductions is that they tend to occur at several different places, “being reintroduced as another aspect of the current research question is elaborated” (lindeberg 2004: 91). swales (1990: 158) acknowledges that “niche-establishment does not necessarily occur only at the end of a literature review, but may follow reviews of individual items, so that cycles of move 1, step 3 and move 2 recur” (see also shehzad (2006) on cyclicity for “establishing a research territory move”). in posteguillo’s (1995: 67) study, 75% introductions showed a cyclical pattern for move 2 as he informed that “[i]t is normal to find this move repeated a series of instances throughout the same introduction, usually alternating with steps in move 1”. although the occurrence of move 2s in the present corpus ranged from one to seven, on an average it remained 1.84. this gives us the percentage of 51.78% which is much lower than posteguillo’s figure. the lower percentage could be attributed to the fact that many move 2s that were embedded in move 1, b. were excluded in this calculation. the comparative cyclicity pattern of move 2 (journal-wise gap statements) is presented here. although a straight line of one time occurrence of move 2s in many introductions is obvious from this graph, yet, the graph clearly reflects variations in the number of recurrences of move 2 in different journals and different introductions. seven recurrences in pami is the highest number but most move 2 recurrences fall between one and three giving an average of 1.84 per introduction. wasima shehzad ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-5044 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 44 example (42) move 2: an inadequate optimization criterion will not solve the application problem, no matter how easy it is to compute the optimum. conversely, sophisticated criteria that …are useless in practice as well. for this reason, optimization approaches are attractive … move 3.a: in this paper, we introduce a novel optimization technique.. move 2: numerous problems in computer vision, including partitioning and grouping, lead to combinatorial optimization problems of this type. move 3.a: in contrast to related work, no specific assumptions are made with respect to …. as a consequence, our approach covers… move 2: the absence of any specific assumptions about … as well as … listed above motivated this investigation. move 1, b: … approaches to efficiently compute good minimizers have a long history in literature… move 2: apart from …, none of the above-mentioned approaches can guarantee to find … and, in general, this goal is elusive due to the combinatorial complexity of these minimization problems. move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 45 ibérica 15 [2008]: …-… 17 for move 2 as he informed that “[i]t is normal to find this move repeated a series of instances throughout the same introduction, usually alternating with steps in move 1”. although the occurrence of move 2s in the present corpus ranged from one to seven, on an average it remained 1.84. this gives us the percentage of 51.78% which is much lower than posteguillo’s figure. the lower percentage could be attributed to the fact that many move 2s that were embedded in move 1, b. were excluded in this calculation. the comparative cyclicity pattern of move 2 (journal-wise gap statements) is presented here. graph.1. comparative recurrences (journal-wise) of move 2. although a straight line of one time occurrence of move 2s in many introductions is obvious from this graph, yet, the graph clearly reflects variations in the number of recurrences of move 2 in different journals and different 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 cs research articles introductions n u m b e r o f o cc u rr e n ce s toc pami se pads kde ibérica 15 [2008]: …-… 17 cyclicity for “establishing a research territory move”). in posteguillo’s (1995: 67) study, 75% introductions showed a cyclical pattern for move 2 as he informed that “[i]t is normal to find this move repeated a series of instances throughout the same introduction, usually alternating with steps in move 1”. although the occurrence of move 2s in the present corpus ranged from one to seven, on an average it remained 1.84. this gives us the percentage of 51.78% which is much lower than posteguillo’s figure. the lower percentage could be attributed to the fact that many move 2s that were embedded in move 1, b. were excluded in this calculation. the comparative cyclicity pattern of move 2 (journal-wise gap statements) is presented here. graph.1. comparative recurrences (journal-wise) of move 2. although a straight line of one time occurrence of move 2s in many introductions is obvious from this graph, yet, the graph clearly reflects variations in the number of recurrences of move 2 in different journals and different 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 cs research articles introductions n u m b e r o f o cc u rr e n ce s toc pami se pads kde 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 45 move 3.b: consequently, the important question concerning the … move 2: to the best of our knowledge, none of the approaches above (apart from simulated annealing) seems to be immune against … and, hence, does not meet these criteria. move 3.a: our approach belongs to … move 2: second, under certain conditions, bounds can be derived with respect to the quality of the suboptimal solution. at present, these bounds are not tight with respect to the much better performance measured in practice. move 2: …these authors were able to show that … cannot be worse than … to the unknown global optimum. besides … this fact has motivated our work. (intr 23) another determining factor in the cyclicity of move 2 is its physical placement in the introduction. the total number of words of each introduction was divided into four parts. table 7 shows these linguistic indicators divided into four quarters of the introduction, in terms of their physical placement which reflects that most of the move 2s occurred in the first three quarters of the introductions. indicator occurrence 1st quarter 2nd quarter 3rd quarter 4th quarter although the highest percentage is found in the third quarter of the introductions, a fairly large percentage of gap indicators is present in the first and second quarters also –hence, strengthening the proposition of the cyclicity of move 2 in cs research articles introductions. since this is a preliminary study, rather than resolving the issue of cyclicity, it raises questions for further research such as: why does this cyclicity occur? why are wasima shehzad ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-5046 move two: establishing a niche indicator occurrence 1st quarter 2nd quarter 3rd quarter 4th quarter however 36 9 9 17 1 limited 17 6 5 6 while 14 3 8 3 although 11 2 2 7 but 11 4 2 4 1 little 6 2 1 3 none of 5 2 3 few 4 2 2 not been 3 1 1 1 as opposed to 2 2 rather than 1 1 with a few exceptions 1 1 nevertheless 1 1 no work total 112 29 33 47 3 percentage 25.89% 29.46% 41.96% 2.69% table 7. physical placement of move 2 indicators. although the highest percentage is found in the third quarter of the introductions, a fairly large percentage of gap indicators is present in the first and second quarters also –hence, strengthening the proposition of the cyclicity of move 2 in cs research articles introductions. since this is a preliminary study, rather than resolving the issue of cyclicity, it raises questions for further research such as: why does this cyclicity occur? why are journals such as pami more prone towards this characteristic? does the length of the article and conceptual profile of the paper affect the pattern of move 2? 5. conclusion gap statements function as a contrasting background to strengthen the significance of the present contribution. they serve as a stage with a brief announcement of the new drama to be presented, thus raising the expectations mingled with the expected applause of the audience. an important decision to be made is how much prominence can be or should be afforded for this step as we 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:33 página 46 journals such as pami more prone towards this characteristic? does the length of the article and conceptual profile of the paper affect the pattern of move 2? 5. conclusion gap statements function as a contrasting background to strengthen the significance of the present contribution. they serve as a stage with a brief announcement of the new drama to be presented, thus raising the expectations mingled with the expected applause of the audience. an important decision to be made is how much prominence can be or should be afforded for this step as we saw that gap statements in cs research articles are not instances of brief announcements only, neither are these fixed in their physical or rhetorical nature. they can be found at different places in the texts. these can vary from simple to complex, from creating a rationale (that serves as a gap) to the extension of the previous work, and from contrastive statements to reported gap statements. conjunctions, quantifiers, negatives and contrasts are typically used as the signal of the onset of this move. with rapid developments in cs research, computer scientists have to find a strong “niche” to increase the chances of their audience’s acceptability and the target community’s recognition of their research work which is essential for scientific progress. the editors and reviewers’ increasing pressures for reliable, quality controlled scholarly scientific information with their high quality standards for assessing research for publication in academic journals may be the compelling factor for the authors to use innovative strategies to create a “gap”, a “niche” so that they can provide the cognitive bridge between the known and unknown, old and new, faulty and improved, obsolete and latest, ineffective and efficient, slow and rapid, delayed and subsequent etc., successfully. however, individual disciplinary practices when writing a research article may vary according to their communicative purposes as the choice of the rhetorical strategies and linguistic indicators used, and the notion of cyclicity in the cs research article introductions reflect. this selection is deliberate or content/audience specific needs to be researched further. acknowledgements i am grateful to professor john swales for his kind guidance, to santiago move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 47 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 47 posteguillo for sharing scholarly thoughts, and also to the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable insights. 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(1997). wordsmith manual. oxford: oxford university press. shehzad, w (2005). corpusbased genre analysis: computer science research article in03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 48 dr. wasima shehzad currently teaches linguistics at the university college yanbu, ksa and has taught technical communication/writing at national university of sciences and technology, pakistan. her research interests include corpus-based genre analysis, academic/technical writing and teacher education. her recent publications include teaching communication skills (2006), bookman publishers. move two: establishing a niche ibérica 15 [2008]: 25-50 49 troductions. phd dissertation, islamabad, national university of modern languages, pakistan. shehzad, w. (2006). “computer scientists’ approach to ‘establishing a research territory’”. selected papers from the fifteenth international symposium on english teaching, 127-141. taipei: crane publishing co and eta-roc. shehzad, w. (2007). “how to end an introduction in a computer science article” in e. fitzpatrick (ed.), corpus linguistics beyond the word: corpus research from phrase to discourse, 243-255. new york: rodopi. swales, j.m. (1981). aspects of article introductions. aston esp research report no. 1, language studies unit. birmingham: the university of aston in birmingham. swales, j.m. (1983). “developing materials for writing scholarly introductions” in r.r. jordan (ed.), case studies in elt, 180200. london: collins. swales, j.m. (1984). “research into the structure of introductions to journal articles and its application to the teaching of academic writing” in r. williams, j. swales & j. kirkman (eds.), common ground: shared interests in esp and communication studies, 77-86. oxford: pergamon. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. (2004). “then and now: a reconsideration of the first corpus of scientific english”. ibérica 8: 1-14. swales, j.m. & c. feak (1994). academic writing for graduate students: a course for nonnative speakers of english. ann arbor: the university of michigan press. swales, j.m. & c. feak (2004). academic writing for graduate students. essential tasks and skills, 2nd ed. ann arbor: the university of michigan press. swales, j.m. & h. najjar (1987). “the writing of research article introductions”. written communication 4: 175-192. tarone, e. s. dwyer, s. gillette & v. icke (1981). “the use of the passive in two astrophysics journal papers”. english for specific purposes 1: 123-140. tarone, e. s. dwyer, s. gillette & v. icke (1998). “on the use of the passive and active voice in astrophysics journal papers: with extensions to other languages and other fields”. english for specific purposes 17: 113-132. _____ (2001). the world book dictionary. chicago: the world book. 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 49 03 shehzad.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 50 maquetación 1 ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper describes the design and implementation of an advanced spanish for the sciences course at the college level in the united states. the course is centered on public dissemination and scholarly communication, as opposed to the predominant approach of focusing on scientific content areas. the main idea was to follow a languages across the curriculum (lac) model that shifts the responsibility of providing the scientific content of the course from the instructor to the students, allowing them to: 1) develop technical and scientific communication skills and materials, 2) explore the interrelated notions of science and culture in spanish-speaking societies, 3) draw connections between their knowledge of both spanish language and the sciences, 4) compare what “science” means to them to the ways this concept is perceived around the spanish-speaking world, and 5) participate in spanish-speaking scientific communities. keywords: languages across the curriculum, spanish for specific purposes, spanish for science and technology, spanish for the professions, curriculum design. resumen e s p añ ol p ar a l a s c i e nc i a s : u n e nf o qu e b as a d o e n l a c o mu nic ac i ón este artículo describe el diseño y la implementación de un curso avanzado de español para las ciencias a nivel universitario en los estados unidos. el curso se centra en la divulgación y la difusión científicas, en contraposición con el enfoque predominante de concentrarse en áreas de contenido científico. la idea principal fue seguir un modelo de lenguas a través del currículo (lac por sus siglas en inglés) que traslada la responsabilidad de proveer el contenido científico del curso del instructor a los estudiantes, permitiéndoles a estos últimos: 1) spanish for the sciences: a communication-based approach oscar a. pérez skidmore college (united states) operezhe@skidmore.edu 195 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 195 ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216 oscar a. pérez desarrollar habilidades y materiales de comunicación técnica y científica, 2) explorar las nociones interrelacionadas de ciencia y cultura en sociedades de habla hispana, 3) establecer conexiones entre su conocimiento de la lengua española y las ciencias, 4) comparar lo que el término “ciencia” significa para ellos con las formas en que este concepto es percibido en el mundo hispano y 5) participar en comunidades científicas hispanoparlantes. palabras clave: lenguas a través del currículo, español para fines específicos, español para ciencia y tecnología, español para las profesiones, diseño curricular. 1. introduction in its 2017 report on the state of language education in the united states, the american academy of arts & sciences recognized that “the nation’s competitiveness in scientific and technological innovation would be improved if researchers were able to communicate and translate their findings internationally and to account for the work of scientists who reported their findings in non-english journals” (commission, 2017: 2). this acknowledgement echoes past calls from several other organizations and agencies in the country, including a 2013 position statement of the american council on the teaching of foreign languages (actfl) on the role of languages as a core component of education, as they provide “access to information and collaboration in any field – including science, technology, engineering, mathematics” (actfl, 2013). when it comes to the spanish language, curricular offerings related to scientific and technological disciplines have been part of the growing number of spanish for specific purposes (ssp) and spanish for the professions (sp) courses in the united states. two decades ago, in the preface to the farseeing volume spanish and portuguese for business and the professions, alvord g. branan projected the proliferation of ssp and sp programs across the country, stating that “the [foreign language for business] movement will spread, as it has already begun to do, to all the professions: medical and health care, social work, law, science, and technology” (branan, 1998: 5). although mostly accurate in his predictions, branan’s uplifting perspective has failed to materialize when it comes to a significant increase of spanish language courses related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem), where the pace of growth so far does not measure up to that in other areas, particularly, when compared to the numerous options 196 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 196 now available of spanish for the health professions (e.g., hardin, 2015). in the chapter of the aforementioned volume dedicated to science and technology, maría cooks recognized that the “main problem in designing courses for science and technology involves the area of concentration” (cooks, 1998: 407), proposing the development of language courses around “cluster issues” such as the environment or biotechnology, and not traditional disciplines like physics or biology. although this approach addresses some of the challenges that have limited the expansion of spanish for stem (s-stem) offerings, it still presents some practical implementation limitations, especially at smaller institutions, since it requires recurrent partnerships between language and science instructors (or language instructors trained in scientific content) and a critical number of students interested in the particular cluster issue that are also willing to enroll in the course. the present article describes the development of an advanced spanish for the sciences course within the framework of languages across the curriculum (lac) and based on standards by the american council on the teaching of foreign languages. the course was implemented at skidmore college, a private liberal arts college in upstate new york, during the fall semester (september to december) of 2016. this course is particularly innovative because it is centered on scientific communication (public dissemination and scholarly communication), as opposed to placing an emphasis on scientific content areas, which has been the norm for this type of courses. on the one hand, the focus on communication of such a course responds to best practices and standards of language learning. on the other hand, this model provides a viable framework to facilitate the proliferation of spanish for science and technology offerings within language departments and programs at institutions of higher education, given that the course can be adapted to particular needs and availability of resources, as has been the case in other areas of the spanish for specific purposes (ssp) spectrum (e.g., sánchez-lópez, 2010). 2. spanish for stem in u.s. higher education although courses specifically designated as some variation of “spanish for science” or “spanish for engineering” have been present in the united states for a long time (e.g., willcox, 1913; williams, 1925, 1929), they are spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216 197 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 197 currently not easy to come by in course catalogs of institutions of higher education, with the notable exceptions of georgia tech (span 3693 science and technology, span 4061 science & technology i, span 4062 science & technology ii), scripps college (span 070 sc advanced spanish: spanish for science), texas a&m university (span 307 spanish for the sciences), university of alabama (sp 104 spanish for engineering), university of pittsburgh at johnstown (span 0106 spanish for science and engineering), university of virginia (span 2015 spanish for engineering), and the international engineering program at the university of rhode island, where students not only take technical spanish courses on campus, but can spend a year taking stem-related courses abroad. the limited offerings contrast with the significant growth of ssp courses in business and education, and to a lesser degree, law and social work (long & uscinski, 2012). the existence of such courses does, however, highlight the growing diversification of ssp offerings and the need they intend to fulfill within the higher-education spanish language curriculum, more so if we consider that the second largest group of ssp courses up until 2011 comprised those focusing on an area where spanish language and the sciences converge: spanish for medicine and the health professions (long & uscinski, 2012). as language educators explore different pedagogical models that could support s-stem offerings, some approaches seem markedly appropriate due to the possibilities they offer to integrate language learning in the context of scientific and technological disciplines, including project-based (e.g., garcía gonzález & veiga díaz, 2015) and service-based (e.g., sánchezlópez, 2013; ruggiero, 2015) learning. in particular, the languages across the curriculum (lac) approach has been suggested as an effective methodology to develop language courses focusing on stem. in fact, other scholars have reported successful implementations, including the development of german courses for engineering (kirchner, 2000). 3. languages across the curriculum (lac) models in the introduction to languages across the curriculum: interdisciplinary structures and internationalized education, an essential volume for those interested in the topic, maria-regina kecht and katharina von hammerstein (2000) described some of the defining characteristics of lac models, mainly that they are a curricular response to “students’ insufficient language competence and the oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216198 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 198 disjointed nature of their education,” in which “[s]tudents are engaged in active and relevant uses of their language skills as they apply them to subject areas of their choice” through a “content-driven, task-oriented, and learnercentered approach that prepares students for real-life use of a language” (kecht & von hammerstein, 2000: xxi). this broad framework has allowed the implementation of very different models at various institutions throughout the years, each one with very particular characteristics. currently, languages across the curriculum (lac) and cultures and languages across the curriculum (clac) work more like an umbrella framework that encompasses a diverse array of offerings, from “content courses taught entirely or partially in languages other than english” to “linked language and content courses” (clac consortium, what is clac?: n.d.). that is, there is no one single lac/clac model, but an array of several models that respond to the specific needs of students, colleges, and programs (clac consortium, clac models: n.d.). there are, however, a set of principles that guide these programs, particularly, the “meaningful use of language,” or in other words, “the use of language within an authentic cultural context” to “approach subjects and experiences outside the traditional language classroom” (clac consortium, principles of clac: n.d.). given the numerous possibilities, when talking about lac/clac, it becomes necessary to describe the characteristics of each specific program. at skidmore college, lac was first implemented in 2000 under a title vi grant, evolving from a trial period of non-credit offerings in the first years, to 1-credit (intermediate) and 2-credit (advanced) courses established by 2006. and unlike many other programs across the united states, lac courses at skidmore college are taught by faculty in the department of world languages and literatures as standalone sections not linked to any other particular content course, regularly being offered in six languages (chinese, french, german, italian, japanese, and spanish). the goal is to let students naturally connect lac courses to other courses or areas of the curriculum without enforcing specific links. for example, a student writing a thesis, and enrolled in an intermediate lac course, could read materials in spanish directly related to the topic of their thesis and write about such materials, while another student taking a biology class, and enrolled in the same intermediate lac section, could read and report about biology-related texts. when it comes to spanish language, there have been numerous reports of lac offerings related to other disciplines, such as history, social sciences, spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216 199 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 199 and international relations (klee & barnes-karol, 2006), with different degrees of success. regarding stem, barbara domcekova (2010) has described the implementation of one-hour-per-week spanish “enhancement sections” in environmental studies and chemistry, made possible by the collaboration between language and science faculty, that is, a lac model where a specific science course taught in english is linked to a spanish language section. addressing some of the challenges of implementing such offerings, domcekova identifies “three main issues we still need to address on our campus: faculty compensation, increased visibility/publicity, and scheduling” (2010: 142). in general terms, these issues are related to resource allocation, enrollment, and logistics. for example, in terms of logistics, “[s]cheduling [of enhancement sections] requires additional cooperation between the science and language faculty and coordination of multiple schedules” as they “cannot be scheduled for days/hours conflicting with other science and language courses” (2010: 142). furthermore, as described by the author, faculty have not been compensated for their participation in this initiative, but it is hoped “that growing enrollments in the program will spur the administration to consider additional faculty compensation,” since enrollments “have been small but steadily increasing” (2010: 142), and hence the need for more visibility/publicity. in the present article, it is suggested that one way to address such issues, especially at small institutions where they can be magnified, is to offer standalone spanish lac sections (or ssp courses inspired by lac principles) focused on different areas of communication within stem (science journalism, science documentary film, scholarly communication, policy-oriented presentations, etc.), that widen the target audience, offer more flexibility in terms of the scientific and technical content, and avoid some of the logistical concerns mentioned above. 4. scope of a spanish for the sciences course a course of spanish for the sciences at skidmore college was originally conceived to fulfill the needs of advanced spanish learners interested in improving their language skills within the context of stem, particularly the natural sciences, whether majoring in a science-related discipline or not. additionally, the course was meant to attract students that traditionally would not enroll in advanced language courses focused on literature and cultural studies offered by the department of world languages and oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216200 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 200 literatures. as with other lac courses at skidmore college, the course was a standalone offering where students were encouraged to explore their interests and current or past research work in any scientific discipline through the spanish language. the course was offered for the first time during the fall of 2016. there were 10 students enrolled, with the following distribution by declared major: one was a spanish major, one was a doublemajor in spanish and a scientific discipline, four were majoring in a sciencerelated discipline only, and four were majoring in a discipline other than spanish or the natural sciences. although this is a small sample, this distribution shines light on the type of students that such a course could attract. in this case, eight out of the ten students in the class would typically not enroll in an advanced spanish course. from the very beginning, the course was envisioned to be communicative in nature with a visual literacy component, as financial support was received from project vis, a three-year initiative sponsored by the andrew w. mellon foundation to increase visual literacy on campus. however, a more complex question soon emerged. if students were to be prepared for “real-life use of language,” what is, and will continue to be, the real-life use of spanish in the natural sciences in particular and in stem more generally? this is not an easy question to answer, especially at a time when it has been stated that “english is not only the dominant form of international scientific publication and oral communication at conferences and in multinational laboratories—it is almost always the only language of such communication” (gordin, 2015: 293). to this respect, a series of position essays included in the volume el español, lengua de comunicación científica (garcía delgado et al., 2013) can be enlightening. the future of the spanish language in scholarly communication—what in spanish is known as difusión—seems to be a contentious issue among scholars, with opinions divided between those who think that championing spanish as a language of communication among scientists is a lost battle (e.g., arango, 2013), and those who advocate for a vibrant language that encompasses all aspects of human knowledge, including scientific and technical scholarly communication (e.g., vivanco cervero, 2009; campos 2013). nevertheless, most scholars that contributed to the aforementioned volume seem to agree on the vital role that spanish plays, and will continue to play, in the public dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge, or divulgación (e.g., garcía cañete, 2013). spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216 201 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 201 more recently, pilar barreiro elorza and carmen sancho guinda have described a content and language integrated learning (clil) teaching initiative for engineering students at universidad politécnica de madrid that places emphasis on recognizing “communities of practice and their background and experience with the genres, modes, and the new discourses they engender” (2016: 39), that is, the authors recognize the importance of genre literacy in “real-life” language use in scientific and technological fields. this perspective should not seem unexpected, since there is an extensive body of literature on the notion of genre in language for specific purposes, particularly in english (e.g., paltridge, 2001; swales, 2004; tardy, 2009; nesi & gardner, 2012; hyon, 2018). having these considerations in mind, it was decided that the main emphasis of the course was going to be on scientific communication. in addition, a significant portion of the course would be organized around genres of both scholarly communication and public dissemination of science. 5. standards-based course design when designing the course, the world-readiness standards for learning languages (national standards, 2015a), and particularly the standards for learning spanish (national standards, 2015b), were embraced as a roadmap. and following principles of backward design (wiggins & mctighe, 2005), six learning goals were defined to inform the assessment strategies that will later be mapped into corresponding tasks, assignments, and projects, called learning scenarios in this article. table 1 provides an overview of the alignment between world-readiness standards goal areas and the course learning goals. finally, the resulting learning scenarios were organized into three thematic modules. oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216202 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 202 the following sections include a description of the main learning scenarios that were developed. for a summary of the targeted course learning goals and standards by learning scenario see table 2. additionally, a sample calendar of the course organized by modules can be found in appendix 1. 5.1. learning scenario 1: designing the syllabus targeted standards: interpretive communication, presentational communication, practices of culture, products of culture, making connections, language comparison, cultural comparisons. targeted learning goals: lg1, lg3, lg4, lg5. spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216 203 spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): …-… portion of the course would be organized around genres of both scholarly communication and public dissemination of science. 5. standards-based course design when designing the course, the world-readiness standards for learning languages (national standards, 2015a), and particularly the standards for learning spanish (national standards, 2015b), were embraced as a roadmap. and following principles of backward design (wiggins & mctighe, 2005), six learning goals were defined to inform the assessment strategies that will later be mapped into corresponding tasks, assignments, and projects, called learning scenarios in this article. table 1 provides an overview of the alignment between world-readiness standards goal areas and course learning goals. finally the resulting learning scenarios were organized into three thematic modules. goal area learning goal communication learning goal 1 (lg1): students can read, summarize, and analyze technical texts in their scientific area of interest. learning goal 2 (lg2): students can create and present basic science communication and public dissemination materials in spanish. cultures learning goal 3 (lg3): students can describe scientific practices in the spanish-speaking world by analyzing scientific communication materials connections learning goal 4 (lg4): students can draw connections between their knowledge of both spanish language and the natural sciences comparisons learning goal 5 (lg5): students can compare what “science” means to them to the ways this concept is perceived around the spanish-speaking world communities learning goal 6 (lg6): students can participate in spanish-speaking professional communities in the sciences. table 1. course learning goals by goal area. the following sections include a description of the main learning scenarios that were developed. for a summary of the targeted course learning goals and standards by learning scenario see table 2. additionally, a sample calendar of the course organized by modules can be found in appendix 1. oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): …-… learning scenario targeted learning goals targeted standards learning scenario 1: designing the syllabus lg1, lg3, lg4, lg5 interpretive communication, presentational communication, practices of culture, products of culture, making connections, language comparison, cultural comparisons. learning scenario 2: individual reflections on scientific communication materials lg1, lg2, lg3, lg4, lg5 interpretive communication, products of culture, making connections, acquiring information, language comparison, cultural comparisons. learning scenario 3: meet the scientists lg3, lg5, lg6 practices of culture, cultural comparisons, school and community, lifelong learning learning scenario 4: poster session lg1, lg2, lg3, lg4 interpersonal communication, interpretive communication, presentational communication, products of culture, making connections, acquiring information. table 2. targeted course learning goals and standards by learning scenario. 5.1. learning scenario 1: designing the syllabus targeted standards: interpretive communication, presentational communication, practices of culture, products of culture, making connections, language comparison, cultural comparisons. targeted learning goals: lg1, lg3, lg4, lg5. it was expected that the students would use their language skills to explore content of their interest in the sciences, particularly the natural sciences. consequently, the students were in charge of shaping the “scientific” part of the course. that is, they had to use their language skills to search and choose texts that everyone in the class would read or watch, in the case of films, and discuss. the students were encouraged to select texts closely related to their interests or field of specialization, if applicable. as it was initially outlined, the scientific content was expected to come from sources of public dissemination (divulgación) and scholarly communication (difusión) in spanish. during the first week of classes, the students were assigned specific genres of scientific communication. types of texts included science news articles, science documentaries, research articles, research posters, and examples of visual presentation of scientific data, among others. in order to find such texts, the students were provided with a list of newspapers, streaming websites, research databases, and institutional repositories in spanish (see appendix 3). the students had to deeply engage with the texts, so they were not only responsible for finding them and making them available to the class, but also presenting them and leading the discussion that day. for example, those who chose the science documentary film genre received a list of websites with documentary collections. two weeks before their presentation, the instructor received from the 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 203 it was expected that the students would use their language skills to explore content of their interest in the sciences, particularly the natural sciences. consequently, the students were in charge of shaping the “scientific” part of the course. that is, they had to use their language skills to search and choose texts that everyone in the class would read or watch, in the case of films, and discuss. the students were encouraged to select texts closely related to their interests or field of specialization, if applicable. as it was initially outlined, the scientific content was expected to come from sources of public dissemination (divulgación) and scholarly communication (difusión) in spanish. during the first week of classes, the students were assigned specific genres of scientific communication. types of texts included science news articles, science documentaries, research articles, research posters, and examples of visual presentation of scientific data, among others. in order to find such texts, the students were provided with a list of newspapers, streaming websites, research databases, and institutional repositories in spanish (see appendix 3). the students had to deeply engage with the texts, so they were not only responsible for finding them and making them available to the class, but also presenting them and leading the discussion that day. for example, those who chose the science documentary film genre received a list of websites with documentary collections. two weeks before their presentation, the instructor received from the students a link to the documentary film they had chosen in order to make it available to their classmates so everyone could watch it. the students selected an episode of the series el hombre y la tierra [men and earth], that ran from 1974 to 1981, by the renowned spanish science popularizer félix rodríguez de la fuente. the film is available on rtve.es, the website of the public radio and television company in spain (radio y televisión española). during the presentation of the film, centered on iberian nocturnal raptors, students not only noted linguistic and visual elements, but also the particular scientific methods shown in the documentary to track the birds. then, they raised the question “who was the audience of this documentary?” the discussion that followed included the description of some of the characteristics of the spanish society at the end of the 1970’s. 5.2. learning scenario 2: individual reflections on scientific communication materials targeted standards: interpretive communication, products of culture, making connections, acquiring information, language comparison, cultural comparisons. oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216204 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 204 targeted learning goals: lg1, lg2, lg3, lg4, lg5. starting on week three, and approximately every week or every other week, students had the opportunity to submit individual reflection papers related to the topic being discussed in class at the time. out of a total of eight optional reflection papers, students were required to complete three. the number of papers required was a result of considerations that had to do with student workload expectations associated with a 2-credit course, the time required for other course assignments, and to provide an opportunity for students to concentrate on their individual interests and goals, a characteristic of language across the curriculum courses at this particular institution. each assignment had specific instructions and objectives, always keeping in mind a particular type of scientific communication text. for example, during the fourth, fifth, and sixth week of classes the discussion centered on science journalism. students were directed to read reference texts on the characteristics of scientific news articles. appendix 1 provides a list of the bibliographic materials provided and the reference texts assigned. these texts emphasized how to write a news article based on the results reported in a scholarly one. as an individual reflection paper, students were asked to find and analyze an article of science journalism. a list of science sections in popular spanishspeaking newspapers was provided. then, they were required to reflect on things like the effectiveness of the title, the structure and organization of information, rhetorical strategies and figures of speech used (such as the use of similes, quotes, examples, etc.) in this particular genre, vocabulary (abundance or lack of technical terms), and target audience. additionally, they were directed to comment on the scientific content, in order to promote connections with the scientific knowledge they already possessed. in a following reflection paper, students had to write a news article based on a scholarly one. in class we went over sources for science news, with emphasis on articles in scientific journals. to complete this assignment, students had to perform a search in order to find a scholarly article written in spanish in an area of their interest. a list of scholarly search engines, databases, and institutional repositories was provided (see appendix 3). also, a class was dedicated to familiarize all students with two leading open-access databases with a vast number of scholarly articles written in spanish: redalyc and scielo. although the course was branded as “spanish for the natural sciences,” after performing initial searches, students soon realized that the spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216 205 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 205 notion of “science” in english, usually associated with the natural sciences, is much more fluid in the spanish language. this aspect became evident when they navigated collections of revistas científicas, noting that when most spanish-speaking scholars use the adjective científico/a, they are discussing a broader domain that can include, for example, the social sciences and even the humanities. once a scholarly article was chosen, students faced the challenge of reporting the most important and relevant results to a nonexpert audience. this exercise helped them reflect, by doing, on the rhetorical mechanisms and practices used by science journalists, and then make comparisons to those used by scientists to communicate with other peers within their community of professionals. the individual reflection papers were designed to promote a deeper student engagement with various scientific communication texts, giving students the possibility to choose the genres that interested them the most. additionally, these assignments helped students face their own preconceived notions about certain topics, providing direction on how to identify such preconceptions in order to foster a more nuanced and critical reading. 5.3. learning scenario 3: meet the scientists targeted standards: practices of culture, cultural comparisons, school and community, lifelong learning. targeted learning goals: lg3, lg5, lg6. an important goal of the class was to foster student participation in scientific communities using the spanish language. one way to accomplish such goal included transforming the classroom into a space where students could interact with science professionals who use or had used spanish in professional environments, so they could establish relationships that were likely to grow beyond the classroom. a natural group of professionals to consider was spanish-speaking scientists at our institution and other institutions in the area, anticipating that the physical proximity would make constant contact possible, if desired. the instructor coordinated the visits to class, on different days, of three local spanish-speaking scientists. these included two faculty members from skidmore college’s departments of physics and chemistry, and one faculty member from a nearby research university who specializes in molecular biology. before the day of the visit, the instructor provided the students with oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216206 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 206 biographic information along with a sample of the visiting scientist’s work (when available, the visitor’s website that contained a list of bibliographic information and descriptions of their interests and projects), and asked students to prepare at least two questions for the visitor. scientists visited the class on different days, and spent about 20 minutes talking in spanish about their careers and their work. the presentation was followed by a 20to 30minute session when students asked the questions they had prepared in advance. the type of questions showed interest in the scientist’s career and research projects as well as their experiences using the spanish language and their personal journeys. in the case of institutions where such visits are not possible, similar sessions can be scheduled by contacting scientists at other universities, for example, those located in spanish-speaking countries, and arrange “virtual visits” via video chat services such as skype, google hangouts, or facebook messenger’s video chat. 5.4. learning scenario 4: poster session targeted standards: interpersonal communication, interpretive communication, presentational communication, products of culture, making connections, acquiring information. targeted learning goals: lg1, lg2, lg3, lg4. in the second half of the semester, and once students became familiar with different genres of scientific communication, they had to collaborate with a partner to create a research poster. the poster was the result of at least two months of research, when they went through many of the steps followed by experienced scholars. as part of the process, students had to agree on a topic of interest, conduct a literary review (using the skills developed in the first half of the semester), propose a preliminary draft, and submit it to peerreview (performed by their classmates during a session devoted to this end). in addition, the instructor provided feedback at different stages of the process. students had complete freedom with respect to the kind of research they wanted to pursue, from reports of projects they were working on in other classes or in which they had participated, to a critical comparison of the findings of at least three different scholarly articles related to a specific topic. on the last day of classes, students had to present their posters in a jornada científica y tecnológica (science and technology open day) that anyone on campus was welcome to attend (getting extra encouragement by some light refreshments), and much like the way research posters are presented spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216 207 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 207 during a major conference. having to present the results of their work to an audience other than their instructor not only gave students the opportunity to practice their spanish language skills in a real-life setting, but also to face many of the challenges that come with doing research, including selfreflection on its relevance to the general public. 6. implementation the course was branded as “advanced lac: spanish for the natural sciences,” to emphasize its connection to the languages across the curriculum approach and to attract students from the natural sciences that would normally not consider taking an advanced spanish course. the title was also a subtle way to reference the differences between the term science (frequently used to indicate the natural sciences) and the broader term ciencia, differences that would be addressed in the class. as mentioned before, the course was organized around three thematic modules: a brief introductory module where students reviewed some basic communication tools (general topics included the metric system, “reading math,” and linguistic mechanisms to form technical terms), a longer module on scientific communication, and a final module on the state of science and technology in the spanish-speaking world. the sample calendar included in appendix 1 offers an overview of the materials covered in each module. appendix 2 provides a summary of student assessment components. at the end of the semester, students were asked to identify strengths and areas of improvement of the course in an anonymous online survey. the survey consisted of the following three open-ended questions: “1. please identify what you consider to be the strengths of the course,” “2. please identify areas where you think the course could be improved,” and “3. any additional comments?” in terms of strengths, some of the responses were related to the learning scenarios (“i thought the projects throughout the course – such as the presentation and poster – were good to apply the techniques and practices taught in the course”), the connections they were able to make (“i liked how applicable the course was to my other major and how many different topics it covered”), the comparisons and cultures goal areas (“the assignments were all very effective in forcing me to analyze in depth the efficiency of science reporting and the involvement of the spanish speaking world in science”), and the modes of communication (“the oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216208 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 208 prevalence of open group discussions provided me with confidence to speak about scientific topics in spanish”; “i also found the class discussions were good to discuss the readings in depth”). in terms of areas of improvement, the most common themes had to do with the selection of readings (“i found some of the readings to be very tedious and redundant”; “some of the readings were very long/technical/hard to get through”) as well as the relationship between the topics covered and the amount of time available (“there was also a lot of information to get through in a short period of time. either changing the course to 4 credits or meeting once for three hours at a time each week might help”; “i think it could be more effective as a three credit course rather than a two credit course”), challenges that can be addressed by adjusting the sample calendar provided in appendix 1. 7. final remarks the course described in this article provides a roadmap for the design and implementation of courses at the intersection of language learning and the sciences. to this respect, two innovative aspects have been proposed. first, an emphasis on scientific communication that allows instructors in language departments to focus on what they know best: the use of language and the improvement of communication skills. second, a languages across the curriculum approach that encourages students to make connections between the target language and their own individual scientific interests. furthermore, by putting the responsibility of the scientific content on students, such a course need not be linked to a particular scientific discipline and can welcome students with a wide variety of backgrounds. this approach allows instructors the possibility of not only adjusting the course to meet students’ needs, but also, for those who are not too familiar with specialized scientific content, to meaningfully facilitate learning in the classroom. these two aspects can foster the growth of spanish for stem course offerings at institutions of higher education, particularly those offered by language departments, as they address some of the common challenges that these type of courses have faced in the past. however, this particular framework might not offer the best solution for all cases. for example, it may not be the best fit for those interested in areas of stem communication that are less dependent on written materials, such as spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216 209 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 209 interpreting or workplace interpersonal communication, where other methodologies such as content-based, project-based, or service-based learning can prove more effective. nevertheless, it is the author’s hope that the present work will encourage others to rethink this crucial area of the language for specific purposes (lsp) curriculum, so it continues to grow. acknowledgements i want to express my sincere appreciation to project vis and the andrew w. mellon foundation for their financial support to develop this course. article history: received 23 september 2017 received in revised form 19 april 2018 accepted 19 april 2018 references oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216210 actfl (2013). languages as a core component of education for all students. url: http://www.actfl.org/news/positionstatements/languages-core-componenteducation-all-students [04/16/17]. arango, j. 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(2000). languages across the curriculum: interdisciplinary structures and internationalized education. columbus: ohio state university foreign language publications. kirchner, d. (2000). “disciplinary fusions: linking foreign languages and culture studies with engineering” in m.r. kecht & k. von hammerstein (eds.), 227-239. klee, c.a. & g. barnes-karol. (2006). “a contentbased approach to spanish language study: foreign languages across the curriculum” in r. salaberry & b.a. lafford (eds.), the art of teaching spanish: second language acquisition from research to praxis, 23-38. washington: georgetown university press. long, m.k. & i. uscinski. (2012). “evolution of languages for specific purposes programs in the us: 1990-2011”. modern language journal 96,s1: 173-189. the national standards collaborative board. (2015a). world-readiness standards for learning languages. 4th ed., alexandria: author. the national standards collaborative board. (2015b). “standards for learning spanish: a project of the american association of teachers of spanish and portuguese” in world-readiness standards for learning languages. nesi, h. & s. gardner. (2012). genres across the disciplines: student writing in higher education. cambridge: cambridge university press. paltridge, b. (2001). genre and the language learning classroom. ann arbor: university of michigan press. ruggiero, d. (2015). “bridging the community and institution gap: a sample course with civic engagement and language for specific purposes combined”. journal of languages for specific purposes 2: 35-48. sánchez-lópez, l. (2010). “el español para fines específicos: la proliferación de programas creados para satisfacer las necesidades del siglo xxi”. hispania 93,1: 85-89. sánchez-lópez, l. (2013). “service-learning course design for languages for specific purposes programs”. hispania 96.2: 383-396. swales, j. m. (2004). research genres: explorations and applications. cambridge: cambridge university press. tardy, c. m. (2009). building genre knowledge. west lafayette, indiana: parlor press. vivanco cervero, v. (2009). “vías de actuación para el fomento y la difusión del español científico y técnico” in m.j. arias-salgado rosby, m. cámara hurtado, b. granadino goenechea, j.a. lópez cerezo, d. martín mayorga, l. plaza gómez & v. vivanco cervero (eds.), el español, lengua para la ciencia y la tecnología: presente y perspectivas de futuro, 110-134. alcalá de henares: instituto cervantes, santillana. wiggins, g.p. & j. mctighe. (2005). understanding by design. 2nd ed., alexandria: association for supervision and curriculum development. willcox, c.d. (1913). a reader of scientific and technical spanish for colleges and technological schools with vocabulary and notes. new york: sturgis & walton company. williams, e. b. (1925). “the teaching of scientific french, german and spanish in the engineering schools of the united states”. modern language journal 9,4: 237-243. williams, e. b. (1929). “the teaching of scientific french, german and spanish in american colleges”. modern language journal 13,6: 471476. 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 211 appendix 1 oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216212 oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): …-… appendix 1 sample calendar for a spanish for the sciences course the following sample calendar has been slightly adjusted, for clarity and logistical improvements, from the one followed when the course was first taught. the original syllabus is available upon request. codes used: ls1-learning scenario 1. designing the syllabus. ls2-learning scenario 2. individual reflections on scientific communication materials (students are required to write a total of three reflection papers out of eight options). ls3-learning scenario 3. meet the scientists. ls4-learning scenario 4. poster session module 1 basic scientific communication tools date topic read/study before class assignments due week 1, day 1 introduction to the course, scope, and approach. week 1, day 2 the metric system and the language of math handout on how to read numerical expressions in spanish. week 2, day 1 the creation of technical terminology in spanish: neologisms of form gutiérrez rodilla, b. (2005). la creación terminológica: neología de forma. in el lenguaje de las ciencias (pp. 43-55). madrid, spain: gredos. week 2, day 2 the creation of technical terminology in spanish: neologisms of meaning gutiérrez rodilla, b. (2005). la creación terminológica: neología de sentido, neología sintáctica, neología de préstamo. in el lenguaje de las ciencias (pp. 5765). madrid, spain: gredos. week 3, day 1 the language of statistics handout on how to read statistical expressions in spanish. ls2-option 1 individual reflection paper: choose a science news article, identify 10 technical terms, and suggest the possible mechanisms for their creation. explain your reasons. spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): …-… module 2 scientific communication date topic read/study before class assignments due week 3, day 2 introduction to scientific communication read pp. 174-182. fernández bayo, i., & angulo, e. (2011). el lenguaje y los formatos en la comunicación de la ciencia. in c. moreno castro (ed.), periodismo y divulgación científica: tendencias en el ámbito iberoamericano (166-189). madrid, spain: biblioteca nueva. week 4, day 1 public dissemination of science: science news article read pp. 146-156. (5.4 el periodista científico como traductor de lenguajes; 5.5 cómo elaborar un texto periodístico a partir de uno científico) eli !as, c. (2008). fundamentos de periodismo científico y divulgación mediática. madrid, spain: alianza. 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 212 spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216 213 spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): …-… week 4, day 1 public dissemination of science: science news article read pp. 146-156. (5.4 el periodista científico como traductor de lenguajes; 5.5 cómo elaborar un texto periodístico a partir de uno científico) eli !as, c. (2008). fundamentos de periodismo científico y divulgación mediática. madrid, spain: alianza. week 4, day 2 public dissemination of science: science news article ls1 article proposed by students: science news. ls1 presentation by students: science news article. ls2-option 2 individual reflection paper: choose and analyze a science news article. week 5, day 1 public dissemination of science: sources handout on sources of scientific news: scholarly databases, academic search engines, and institutional repositories in spanish. week 5, day 2 public dissemination of science: science documentary read pp. 131-140. león, b. (2010). la ciencia en imágenes. construcción visual y documental científico. artefactos, 3(1), 131-149. ls2-option 3 individual reflection paper: write a science news article. oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): …-… module 2 scientific communication date topic read/study before class assignments due week 6, day 1 public dissemination of science: science documentary read pp. 140-149. león, b. (2010). la ciencia en imágenes. construcción visual y documental científico. week 6, day 2 public dissemination of science: science documentary ls1 film proposed by students: science documentary. ls1 presentation by students: science documentary. week 7, day 1 professional communication in science: technical writing read pp. 157-160 (recursos gramaticales y estilísticos) garcía-cervigón, a. (2007). el discurso científico y tecnológico y la lengua española. in r. sarmiento, f. vilvhes (eds.), neologismos y sociedad del conocimiento (pp. 153-167). barcelona, spain: ariel. ls2-option 4 individual reflection paper: choose and analyze a science documentary. week 7, day 2 technical writing ls1 technical text proposed by students: emphasis on use of language. ls1 presentation by students: technical writing. week 8, day 1 professional communication in science: the imrad format read pp. 4-14 (cap. 2 los orígenes de la redacción científica; cap. 3 ¿qué es un artículo científico?) day, r. a. (2005). cómo escribir y publicar trabajos científicos. washington, d.c: organización panamericana de la salud. week 8, day 2 the imrad format ls1 scholarly article proposed by students: emphasis on organization and structure. ls1 presentation by students: organization and structure of scientific texts (imrad format) 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 213 oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216214 spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): …-… module 2 scientific communication date topic read/study before class assignments due week 9, day 1 scientific texts: visual presentation of data feria, m. (2010). consejos para la confección de gráficos científicos. in e. serés, l. rosich, & f. bosch (eds.), presentaciones orales en biomedicina. aspectos a tener en cuenta para mejorar la comunicación (pp. 45-56). barcelona, spain: fundación dr. antonio esteve. ls2-option 5 individual reflection paper: choose a scholarly article and critically comment on at least three of the following aspects: title, organization, use of language, content, target audience. week 9, day 2 scientific texts: visual presentation of data ls1 scholarly article proposed by students: emphasis on visual presentation of data. ls1 presentation by students: visual presentation of data. week 10, day 1 scholarly communication: the content of a research poster read pp. 85-91. guardiola, e. (2010). el póster científico. in e. serés, l. rosich, & f. bosch (eds.), presentaciones orales en biomedicina. aspectos a tener en cuenta para mejorar la comunicación (pp. 85-102). barcelona, spain: fundación dr. antonio esteve. ls2-option 6 individual reflection paper: choose a scholarly article and analyze the visual presentation of data. week 10, day 2 scholarly communication: the format of a research poster read pp. 91-102. guardiola, e. (2010). el póster científico. week 11, day 1 scholarly communication: discussion of a research poster ls1 research poster proposed by students. ls1 presentation by students: research poster. ls2-option 7 individual reflection paper: choose and analyze a research poster. oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): …-… module 3 science and technology in the spanish-speaking world date topic read/study before class assignment due week 11, day 2 state of science and technology in the spanish-speaking world ricyt (2015). el estado de la ciencia en imágenes. in el estado de la ciencia: principales indicadores de ciencia y tecnología iberoamericanos/ interamericanos (pp. 13-28). buenos aires, argentina: author. ls4 first draft of research poster to be submitted to instructor. ls2-option 8 individual reflection paper: el estado de la ciencia en imágenes. week 12, day 1 scientific communities: guest scientist visit ls3 read information provided about guest. ls3 prepare at least two questions for guest. week 12, day 2 scientific communities: guest scientist visit ls3 read information provided about guest. ls3 prepare at least two questions for guest. week 13, day 1 peer review of research poster ls4 all students need to bring to class a printed copy of the second draft of their research poster for peer review. appendix 2 student assessment student assessment consisted on the following components. evaluation rubrics are available upon request. preparation/participation (20%) attendance (5%) individual reflection papers, ls2 (30%) selection of text and presentation, ls1 (20%) research poster, ls4 (25%). 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 214 spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216 215 oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): …-… week 12, day 2 scientific communities: guest scientist visit ls3 read information provided about guest. ls3 prepare at least two questions for guest. week 13, day 1 peer review of research poster ls4 all students need to bring to class a printed copy of the second draft of their research poster for peer review. week 13, day 2 scientific communities: guest scientist visit. ls3 read information provided about guest. ls3 prepare at least two questions for guest. week 14, day 1 future of the spanish language in the sciences choose one essay, out of the fifteen available, and prepare to defend the position of the author during an in-class debate: garcía delgado, j. l., alonso, j. a., & jiménez, j. c. (eds.). (2013). quince acotaciones. in el español, lengua de comunicación científica (pp. 421-482). barcelona, spain: ariel. week 14, day 2 jornada científica y tecnológica: science and technology open day ls4 presentation by all students: research poster. appendix 2 student assessment student assessment consisted on the following components. evaluation rubrics are available upon request. preparation/participation (20%) attendance (5%) individual reflection papers, ls2 (30%) selection of text and presentation, ls1 (20%) research poster, ls4 (25%). oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): …-… appendix 2 student assessment student assessment consisted on the following components. evaluation rubrics are available upon request. preparation/participation (20%) attendance (5%) individual reflection papers, ls2 (30%) selection of text and presentation, ls1 (20%) research poster, ls4 (25%). spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): …-… appendix 3 resources databases and search engines of scientific journals from latin america and spain dialnet, http://dialnet.unirioja.es latindex, http://www.latindex.unam.mx redalyc, red de revistas científicas de américa latina, el caribe, españa y portugal http://www.redalyc.org scielo, scientific electronic library online, http://www.scielo.org institutional repositories la referencia, http://www.lareferencia.info/joomla/ repositorios institucionales españoles de acceso abierto, http://www.accesoabierto.net/repositorios/ public dissemination of science in spanish agencia iberoamericana para la difusión de la ciencia y la tecnología, http://www.dicyt.com/espanol ¿cómo ves?, revista de divulgación de la ciencia de la unam, http://www.comoves.unam.mx diario el país, sección ciencia, http://elpais.com/tag/ciencia diario público, sección ciencias, http://www.publico.es/ciencias divulgauned, http://divulgauned.es el huffington post, sección ciencia y tecnología, http://www.huffingtonpost.es/news/ciencia-y-tecnologia investigación y desarrollo, suplemento del diario mexicano la jornada, http://www.invdes.com.mx latinamericansciencedotorg, http://latinamericanscience.org/spanish naukas, revista electrónica de divulgación, http://naukas.com red de popularización de la ciencia y la tecnología para américa latina y el caribe, http://www.redpop.org red latinoamericana de blogs de ciencia, http://redlbc.wordpress.com scidev.net, http://www.scidev.net/america-latina scientific american en español, http://www.scientificamerican.com/espanol science documentaries collections national geographic en español, http://www.ngenespanol.com rtve.es, http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/documentales/cienciaytecnologia/ ted en español, https://www.youtube.com/channel/ucshvtodmzldlj8ltv1j_0uw other useful information collections lanic, latin american network information center, http://lanic.utexas.edu appendix 2 appendix 3 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 215 oscar a. pérez ibérica 36 (2018): 195-216216 spanish for the sciences ibérica 36 (2018): …-… appendix 3 resources databases and search engines of scientific journals from latin america and spain dialnet, http://dialnet.unirioja.es latindex, http://www.latindex.unam.mx redalyc, red de revistas científicas de américa latina, el caribe, españa y portugal http://www.redalyc.org scielo, scientific electronic library online, http://www.scielo.org institutional repositories la referencia, http://www.lareferencia.info/joomla/ repositorios institucionales españoles de acceso abierto, http://www.accesoabierto.net/repositorios/ public dissemination of science in spanish agencia iberoamericana para la difusión de la ciencia y la tecnología, http://www.dicyt.com/espanol ¿cómo ves?, revista de divulgación de la ciencia de la unam, http://www.comoves.unam.mx diario el país, sección ciencia, http://elpais.com/tag/ciencia diario público, sección ciencias, http://www.publico.es/ciencias divulgauned, http://divulgauned.es el huffington post, sección ciencia y tecnología, http://www.huffingtonpost.es/news/ciencia-y-tecnologia investigación y desarrollo, suplemento del diario mexicano la jornada, http://www.invdes.com.mx latinamericansciencedotorg, http://latinamericanscience.org/spanish naukas, revista electrónica de divulgación, http://naukas.com red de popularización de la ciencia y la tecnología para américa latina y el caribe, http://www.redpop.org red latinoamericana de blogs de ciencia, http://redlbc.wordpress.com scidev.net, http://www.scidev.net/america-latina scientific american en español, http://www.scientificamerican.com/espanol science documentaries collections national geographic en español, http://www.ngenespanol.com rtve.es, http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/documentales/cienciaytecnologia/ ted en español, https://www.youtube.com/channel/ucshvtodmzldlj8ltv1j_0uw other useful information collections lanic, latin american network information center, http://lanic.utexas.edu 08 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:48 página 216 iberica 13 ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen este artículo presenta el diseño curricular de una asignatura de inglés para fines específicos que se imparte en el grado en turismo de una institución universitaria a distancia como es la universidad nacional de educación a distancia (uned). el escenario didáctico es complejo, además, por la gran heterogeneidad del alumnado, al tratarse de una asignatura de primer curso en un grado que no es propiamente de lenguas y, también, por la masificación y el desequilibrio de la ratio entre estudiantes y profesores. este artículo describe los principales aspectos metodológicos y tecnológicos del innovador diseño de esta asignatura en línea, que han valido recientemente al equipo docente, componentes del grupo de investigación atlas (applying technology to languages), el premio a las mejores prácticas docentes de la uned. palabras clave: enseñanza de lenguas a distancia, cursos virtuales, coma de lenguas, evaluación oral asíncrona en línea. abstract m e th o do l og i c a l an d te c h n ol o g i c al i nn ov a ti on i n d is ta nc e t e ac h i ng o f e ng l i s h f or t ou ri s m this article presents the curricular design of a subject on english for specific purposes from the degree in tourism at a distance learning tertiary institution such as the spanish national distance learning university, uned. in addition to the challenges present in such a teaching modality, the didactic scenario is also complex due to the great heterogeneity of the student groups, since it is a first year subject in a non-language degree, and also due to the high student numbers innovación metodológica y tecnológica en la enseñanza del inglés para turismo a distancia elena bárcena madera, elena martín-monje, maría jordano de la torre universidad nacional de educación a distancia (españa) mbarcena@flog.uned.es; emartin@flog.uned.es; mjordano@flog.uned.es 39 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 39 ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje, m. jordano de la torre and unbalanced ratio between students and teachers. this article describes the main methodological and technological aspects of the innovative design of this online subject, which has enabled the teaching team, members of the atlas (applying technology to languages) research group, to win the uned award for best teaching practices. keywords: online language teaching, virtual courses, language moocs, asynchronous online oral evaluation. 1. introducción desde la incorporación de los estudios de turismo al sistema universitario español en 1993, tanto en el sector público como en el privado, mucho se ha escrito y debatido sobre la inclusión o no de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en sus planes de estudios. la transformación de la antigua diplomatura en los nuevos grados diseñados bajo el espíritu de bolonia supuso, entre otras cosas, un curso más de estudio. muchas materias se vieron afectadas por el aumento en el número de créditos y casi todas las asignaturas sufrieron modificaciones en los correspondientes planes de estudios, tal y como se indicaba en real decreto sobre la ordenación de las enseñanzas universitarias oficiales (boe, 2007). aunque no estuvo desprovisto de cierta polémica por parte de profesores y estudiantes, que veían en estos nuevos procedimientos de diseño curricular cierta tendencia mercantilista en detrimento de la excelencia académica y de la autonomía tanto de profesores como de estudiantes, nunca antes se había hecho tal ejercicio abierto de reflexión analítica colectiva para el diseño de planes de estudios. en cuanto a las lenguas extranjeras, y en concreto el inglés, una de las competencias más valoradas en los estudios universitarios de turismo, según se muestra en su libro blanco (majó, 2004), era “saber trabajar en inglés como lengua extranjera”. esto no fue una novedad introducida con los grados, ya que la práctica totalidad de diplomaturas de turismo en españa también venía dedicando créditos al estudio de la lengua inglesa en todos sus cursos. sin embargo, esta vez el descriptor fue valorado y sopesado en profundidad, realizándose por parte de los responsables académicos una serie de análisis de necesidades anclados en la realidad laboral de los futuros egresados. se consideraron los niveles lingüísticos (la precisión léxico-terminológica, la corrección gramatical, etc.), las distintas modalidades, canales comunicativos y registros, la interculturalidad propia de los contextos internacionales de 40 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 40 uso, etc. fue así como el inglés instrumental tradicional de los estudios universitarios en general dejó paso en los grados de turismo a un inglés más centrado en los múltiples y complejos intereses específicos profesionales de los individuos que habían de conformar a corto plazo la industria del turismo internacional en españa. desde entonces, numerosos grados de turismo han sido implantados en todo el territorio nacional y comienzan a dar sus primeros frutos en forma de promociones de egresados. estas primeras experiencias conducen al planteamiento de mejoras, cambios, ampliaciones y reducciones de algunos aspectos de cada plan de estudios para reducir el abandono estudiantil, mejorar su rendimiento académico y, por qué no decirlo, aumentar la demanda de cada titulación en un panorama cada vez más competitivo a nivel institucional (salinas, 2004; fernández carballo-calero, 2006; arteaga, 2011). así, por ejemplo, la universidad juan carlos i, una de las pioneras en estudios turísticos, ofrece un grado bilingüe1 en esta disciplina, al igual que la universidad de oviedo, mediante una modalidad de estudio basada en una estancia erasmus en una institución extranjera que imparta docencia en inglés2. en el caso de las universidades con metodología a distancia, se están realizando tanto reajustes menores como cambios estructurales mayores. la udima (universidad a distancia de madrid), por ejemplo, ha extinguido su grado en turismo para crear el grado en empresas y actividades turísticas3 con 18 créditos ects (european credit transfer system) dedicados al aprendizaje del inglés. la uoc (universitat oberta de catalunya)4 ofrece la certificación del programa tedqual, otorgado por la fundación unwto (organización mundial de turismo de las naciones unidas, en sus siglas inglesas), que vela por la buena calidad de los estudios de turismo a nivel mundial. el grado en turismo de la uned (universidad nacional de educación a distancia) ha mantenido la presencia de asignaturas obligatorias de inglés con respecto a su anterior diplomatura, pero ha aumentado el número de optativas de esta lengua y, sobre todo, se ha enfrentado decididamente a vencer los grandes retos de las asignaturas de lenguas extranjeras en los estudios a distancia: la interacción y la oralidad, apostando por la integración de la metodología didáctica y la innovación tecnológica (jordano de la torre, 2011a, 2011b). innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 41 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 41 2. la enseñanza en línea de lenguas para fines específicos la enseñanza en línea de lenguas para fines específicos (lfe, lsp en sus siglas inglesas) ha seguido una evolución análoga a la de la enseñanza de lenguas asistida por ordenador (elao, call en sus siglas inglesas), fuertemente influida por los avances en lingüística aplicada y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras (arnó-macià, 2012, 2014). esto ha motivado una progresiva integración de la tecnología en el aprendizaje de lfe con el objetivo de lograr una plena “normalización” (bax, 2003; martín-monje, 2012), según la cual la tecnología esté tan asimilada en la práctica docente que sea invisible o imperceptible para los estudiantes. en este escenario académico, ellos han pasado a tener un papel mucho más prominente y se han establecido dinámicas colaborativas que hacen uso de las herramientas propias de la web 2.0 con mayor potencial para el aprendizaje de lenguas (jordano de la torre, 2009; thomas, 2009; lee y markey, 2014): foros, wikis, repositorios sociales multimedia, etc. en paralelo, ha surgido la necesidad de una alfabetización digital completa y real por parte de los estudiantes, que han de adquirir competencias digitales además de lingüísticas, de modo que puedan hacer un uso efectivo del tesoro de recursos formativos proporcionado por internet (dudeney, hockly y pegrum, 2013). ya en la pasada década se identificaron las áreas claves para la integración de la elao en el aprendizaje de lfe (arnó-macià, soler y rueda, 2006): a) en el análisis del lenguaje especializado y sus géneros; b) en la comunicación en línea; c) en aplicaciones propias de la elao; d) en enseñanza a distancia y mixta y e) en la autonomía del aprendiz. las nuevas generaciones de estudiantes a distancia se caracterizan por su falta de tiempo, pues es frecuente que tengan que simultanear formación y ocupación profesional y familiar (catterick, 2005; oblinger, 2006). se hace entonces imperativo el incorporar las últimas innovaciones metodológicas y tecnológicas en función de las necesidades específicas del alumnado y podemos encontrar en la literatura existente numerosos ejemplos de la integración exitosa de la tecnología en cursos de lfe: comunicación mediada por ordenador (appel y gilabert, 2006), metodologías mixtas que integran clase presencial y en línea (blake et al., 2008; read et al., 2011; martín-monje y talaván, 2014), potenciación de la autonomía del aprendiz (gimeno, 2014), alfabetización digital (stapleton y helms-park, 2006), aplicaciones de la web 2.0 (kuteeva, 2011), aprendizaje móvil (stockwell, 2013) o adquisición de vocabulario e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje, m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): 39-6242 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 42 específico a través de cursos online masivos y en abierto (coma, mooc en sus siglas inglesas) (martín-monje y ventura, en prensa). en este artículo se presenta la asignatura de inglés que abre esta materia en el actual grado en turismo de la uned, inglés para fines profesionales (ifp), con especial atención a la resolución metodológica-tecnológica de los retos a los que se enfrentaba el profesorado debido no solo a la modalidad educativa a distancia, sino también a la masificación y el desequilibrio en la ratio docente-estudiante: 4:1500 aproximadamente. la resolución de dichos retos ha convertido sus graves problemas estructurales y logísticos iniciales en valiosas oportunidades de aprendizaje, que han hecho que esta asignatura haya sido galardonada con el premio a las mejores prácticas docentes de la uned en diciembre de 2013. 3. la enseñanza en línea de inglés de turismo: el caso de inglés para fines profesionales el grado en turismo de la uned tiene como objetivo formar profesionales especializados en este sector industrial, teniendo en cuenta las necesidades y posibilidades de gestión empresarial y aprovechamiento turístico de los recursos naturales y el patrimonio histórico-cultural de este país, la adquisición de conocimiento y el desarrollo de competencias y destrezas de forma integrada, a partir de todas las áreas que intervienen en él. en cuanto a la carga lectiva en lengua inglesa, hay tres asignaturas obligatorias de 6 créditos ects cada una: inglés para fines profesionales en primer curso e inglés para turismo i y ii en segundo curso. además, se oferta la asignatura optativa prácticas de comunicación en inglés (6 créditos ects) y se ofrece la posibilidad de elaborar el trabajo fin de grado en dos líneas específicas de lengua inglesa: lengua inglesa para turismo y comunicación en inglés para turismo: destrezas orales. ifp se imparte en el segundo cuatrimestre del primer curso del grado en turismo. esta asignatura está dirigida a aquellos estudiantes con un dominio de inglés mínimo equivalente al subnivel a2 del marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas (mcer; consejo de europa, 2002), con la finalidad de que puedan desarrollar su competencia comunicativa en esta lengua de forma equiparable en actividades de recepción, producción e interacción comunicativas, tanto orales como escritas. además, se cubren las principales nociones y funciones relativas a situaciones comunicativas de la innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 43 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 43 realidad profesional de la mayoría de los adultos en el mundo moderno de hoy. cabe destacar que el enfoque de la asignatura es multicultural, como reflejo del uso del inglés en el mundo para la comunicación con nativos y no nativos de esta lengua. ifp se diseñó siguiendo las directrices marcadas por el mcer respecto a la enseñanza y evaluación de la lengua extranjera. en cuanto a su estructura, ifp está organizada en seis unidades, que cubren las principales esferas del mundo laboral de los empleados en la industria del turismo en las que los futuros profesionales tendrán que desenvolverse con soltura y naturalidad en inglés: 1) travelling around and the professional environment. esta unidad trata sobre el mundo del trabajo en general, la terminología fundamental en inglés relativa a los principales entornos profesionales y los posibles malentendidos culturales que conviene evitar en la comunicación internacional. 2) working processes of companies and individuals. cubre los medios de transporte, los viajes, las descripciones y las conversaciones telefónicas en el mundo de los negocios en inglés. 3) domestic routines and worldwide relations. se centra en la comunicación internacional y en los aspectos socioculturales del inglés más relevantes en las relaciones interpersonales. 4) different types of human negotiation: reaching decisions. se estudia lo relativo a las reservas y estancias en hoteleras en inglés, así como la organización de ideas y argumentos para realizar una presentación de productos y/o servicios. 5) running your professional and personal lives efficiently. trata del turismo sostenible y se estudia la forma de verter opiniones y recomendaciones en inglés pertinentes a un tema dado dentro del contexto profesional y social. 6) other forms of human interaction away from daily routine. trata la coordinación laboral, incluyendo las rutinas y los horarios para la ejecución de actividades propias del mundo de los negocios en inglés, así como la planificación del tiempo libre. los libros de texto de la asignatura son dos: professional english, de e. bárcena y r. varela (2012), diseñado de acuerdo con el mcer (consejo de europa, e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje, m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): 39-6244 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 44 2002) e english oral practice for professional purposes, de mª l. arroyo y n. talaván (2011), que incide en la práctica de las competencias orales, puesto que es en éstas en las que los estudiantes hispanohablantes manifiestan mayores dificultades. ambos textos han obtenido la más alta calificación en los respectivos informes preceptivos del iued (instituto universitario de educación a distancia). 3.1. diseño del curso virtual para un aprendizaje multimodal, autónomo y colaborativo la totalidad de enseñanzas regladas de la uned se realizan en sus cursos virtuales, que están localizados en alf (https://www.innova.uned.es/ servicios/alf/), la plataforma de e-learning y colaboración creada por la sección de innovación de la uned (innova) y que funciona como otras aulas virtuales al uso (moodle, blackboard, etc.). las funcionalidades que contempla alf para que tanto el equipo docente como el alumnado compaginen el trabajo individual y el cooperativo con las herramientas que lo conforman incluyen la gestión de grupos de trabajo bajo demanda, el espacio de almacenamiento compartido, la organización de los contenidos, la planificación de actividades, la evaluación y autoevaluación, el servicio de notificaciones automáticas, el diseño de encuestas, la publicación planificada de noticias y la configuración del portal personal y público por parte del usuario. la sección dedicada a la oralidad incluye, además, una guía de uso de la herramienta de alf avip-pro (véase la sección 5), desarrollo creado por la propia uned para permitir la comunicación por voz, criterios de evaluación para la producción oral, un foro de debate y consulta y un formulario de incidencias para ser utilizado el día de la prueba oral. el curso virtual de ifp está dividido en nueve secciones, seis de ellas dedicadas a cada unidad del curso, una primera introductoria (que contiene un texto de bienvenida y un video de presentación de la asignatura con el correspondiente powerpoint de apoyo) y una final con material complementario, además de un apartado dedicado a la oralidad. esta sección se va desplazando hacia abajo paulatinamente a medida que avanza el curso, de forma que la información más urgente/reciente queda más arriba en la pantalla. las seis unidades tienen todas la misma estructura: (i) título e imagen relacionada y enlaces al foro y al chat de la unidad. innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 45 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 45 (ii) sección de conceptos básicos y práctica de destrezas, con dos subsecciones: vídeos: un vídeo de presentación de los objetivos, contenidos y dificultades de cada unidad (y la presentación en powerpoint de apoyo en archivo aparte, siempre a disposición de los estudiantes para su posterior consulta) y otro vídeo de profundización sobre un tema concreto clave de la unidad, ambos realizados por el equipo docente en el cemav (centro de medios audiovisuales). enlaces: divididos por competencias/destrezas lingüísticocomunicativas, se ofrecen enlaces comentados de teoría y práctica sobre aspectos gramaticales, léxicos, orales, etc. relacionados con los contenidos de cada unidad y también enlaces generales para practicar el inglés de turismo. (iii) materiales y actividades de práctica adicional, con el objetivo de atender al perfil heterogéneo del grupo. se trata de materiales digitales tanto de refuerzo como de ampliación de los contenidos curriculares del curso. (iv) sección de tareas: tests de auto-evaluación (20 preguntas de respuesta múltiple) con un documento que se coloca en el curso virtual varios días después con las respuestas comentadas (que se hacen visibles al finalizar la unidad y en el que se explican las respuestas correctas y las opciones incorrectas) y los enunciados correspondientes a una tarea escrita (para las unidades 3 y 6) y una tarea oral (para las unidades 2 y 4). por último, la sección final contiene el calendario de exámenes orales (a través de alf) y escritos (en los centros asociados), un enlace con información sobre el emplazamiento y forma de contacto con los centros asociados de la uned, modelos de exámenes anteriores (con y sin comentarios para facilitar la práctica autónoma), información sobre el plagio, reglamento para el uso de foros e información sobre netiquette. como muestra del trabajo llevado a cabo en el curso virtual de la asignatura ifp tanto por el equipo docente como por los tutores y los estudiantes, véase la tabla 1 relativa al segundo cuatrimestre del curso académico 2013-14, que muestra su alto nivel de actividad: e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje, m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): 39-6246 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 46 como se puede apreciar, las herramientas más visitadas son los foros, con cerca de 200.000 accesos, y las secciones de evaluación, para entrega y calificación de tareas. como se ha mencionado anteriormente, una de las principales preocupaciones del equipo docente de ifp desde su puesta en marcha estuvo relacionada con la formación y la evaluación de las competencias orales propias de cualquier hablante que entre a formar parte de la industria turística, donde, como es bien sabido, en términos medios se requiere más producción oral que escrita. es por eso que la oralidad del inglés se trabaja en todas las asignaturas del grado y su evaluación tiene un peso del 20% de la calificación final de la asignatura que nos atañe. su evaluación – formativa – se realiza por parte de los tutores de los centros asociados de la institución distribuidos por todo el país, a través de la siguiente rúbrica o matriz de evaluación elaborada por el equipo docente de la sede central que muestra la tabla 2: innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 47 innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): …-… contenidos de cada unidad y también enlaces generales para practicar el inglés de turismo. (iii) materiales y actividades de práctica adicional, con el objetivo de atender al perfil heterogéneo del grupo. se trata de materiales digitales tanto de refuerzo como de ampliación de los contenidos curriculares del curso. (iv) sección de tareas: tests de auto-evaluación (20 preguntas de respuesta múltiple) con un documento que se coloca en el curso virtual varios días después con las respuestas comentadas (que se hacen visibles al finalizar la unidad y en el que se explican las respuestas correctas y las opciones incorrectas) y los enunciados correspondientes a una tarea escrita (para las unidades 3 y 6) y una tarea oral (para las unidades 2 y 4). por último, la sección final contiene el calendario de exámenes orales (a través de alf) y escritos (en los centros asociados), un enlace con información sobre el emplazamiento y forma de contacto con los centros asociados de la uned, modelos de exámenes anteriores (con y sin comentarios para facilitar la práctica autónoma), información sobre el plagio, reglamento para el uso de foros e información sobre netiquette. como muestra del trabajo llevado a cabo en el curso virtual de la asignatura ifp tanto por el equipo docente como por los tutores y los estudiantes, véase la tabla 1 relativa al segundo cuatrimestre del curso académico 2013-14, que muestra su alto nivel de actividad: paquete accesos minutos foros 239.538 49.619 almacenamiento archivos 192.844 35.295 evaluación 1 65.318 29.158 evaluación 2 48.603 38.616 tutorización 19.163 5.222 chat 14.615 1.211 visionado archivos 13.411 69.549 páginas 8.791 10.709 noticias 7.710 2.594 calendario 1.821 242 preguntas frecuentes 1.398 1.127 página inicio 42 5 xowiki 2 0 tabla 1. seguimiento de actividad en el curso virtual de ifp. como se puede apreciar, las herramientas más visitadas son los foros, con cerca de 200.000 accesos, y las secciones de evaluación, para entrega y calificación de tareas. como se ha mencionado anteriormente, una de las principales preocupaciones del equipo docente de ifp desde su puesta en marcha estuvo e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje & m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): …-… relacionada con la formación y la evaluación de las competencias orales propias de cualquier hablante que entre a formar parte de la industria turística, donde, como es bien sabido, en términos medios se requiere más producción oral que escrita. es por eso que la oralidad del inglés se trabaja en todas las asignaturas del grado y su evaluación tiene un peso del 20% de la calificación final de la asignatura que nos atañe. su evaluación — formativa — se realiza por parte de los tutores de los centros asociados de la institución distribuidos por todo el país, a través de la siguiente rúbrica o matriz de evaluación elaborada por el equipo docente de la sede central que muestra la tabla 2: level of performance criteria for oral practice d (0-0.5) c (0.5-1) b (1-1.5) a (1.5-2) 1) adequate pronunciation, stress and intonation 2) adequate use of the vocabulary and expressions studied in the course 3) discourse cohesion (use of connectors and other cohesive devices) and comprehension of the oral questions 5) adequate use of the useful vocabulary and expressions studied in the course. tabla 2. rúbrica para evaluación oral. la evaluación oral se realiza totalmente en línea mediante la herramienta avippro, previa identificación del sujeto por medio del carnet de estudiante de la uned y a lo largo de un día fijado, quedando el examen grabado por la herramienta para su posterior corrección. el estudiante tiene hasta tres intentos para hacer su grabación (pudiendo borrar, por lo tanto, las dos primeras versiones). antes de acceder a la prueba final, el estudiante tiene a su disposición dos pruebas similares que pueden ser realizadas en repetidas ocasiones para comprobar que todo funciona correctamente a nivel tecnológico. la imagen inferior muestra uno de estos ejemplos. 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 47 la evaluación oral se realiza totalmente en línea mediante la herramienta avip-pro, previa identificación del sujeto por medio del carnet de estudiante de la uned y a lo largo de un día fijado, quedando el examen grabado por la herramienta para su posterior corrección. el estudiante tiene hasta tres intentos para hacer su grabación (pudiendo borrar, por lo tanto, las dos primeras versiones). antes de acceder a la prueba final, el estudiante tiene a su disposición dos pruebas similares que pueden ser realizadas en repetidas ocasiones para comprobar que todo funciona correctamente a nivel tecnológico. la imagen inferior muestra uno de estos ejemplos. el día del examen, el estudiante deberá identificarse ante su cámara con su documento de identidad antes de comenzar a grabar la respuesta a las preguntas que se le plantean de forma oral. este dispondrá de cinco minutos para realizar esta prueba. una vez terminada la grabación, esta quedará a disposición del tutor correspondiente para poder ser corregido, con un valor del 20% de la puntuación total de la asignatura. e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje, m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): 39-6248 innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): …-… figura 1. interfaz de la prueba oral en línea. el día del examen, el estudiante deberá identificarse ante su cámara con su dni antes de comenzar a grabar la respuesta a las preguntas que se le plantean de forma oral. este dispondrá de 5 minutos para realizar esta prueba. una vez terminada la grabación, esta quedará a disposición del tutor correspondiente para poder ser corregido, con un valor del 20% de la puntuación total de la asignatura. 3.2. el coma/mooc inglés profesional/professional english como instrumento de nivelación los coma, cursos online masivos y abiertos, han supuesto en los últimos años una transformación del concepto de enseñanza en línea, favoreciendo la autorregulación por parte del aprendiz y dotando de mayor relevancia a la colaboración y evaluación entre pares. estas características hacen que sea un modelo pedagógico altamente adecuado para el estudiante de lfe y, de hecho, en la actualidad puede considerarse como una de las líneas de evolución natural de la elao, puesto que es ideal para ofrecer formación a aquellos profesionales, o profesionales en ciernes, que necesitan adquirir competencias lingüísticas específicas. en palabras de godwin-jones (2014: 14): “a third area within language learning in which we are seeing significant activity is in languages for 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 48 3.2. el coma/mooc i ng l é s pr o f es io na l / p r o f e ss io na l e n g l i sh como instrumento de nivelación los coma, cursos online masivos y abiertos, han supuesto en los últimos años una transformación del concepto de enseñanza en línea, favoreciendo la autorregulación por parte del aprendiz y dotando de mayor relevancia a la colaboración y evaluación entre pares. estas características hacen que sea un modelo pedagógico altamente adecuado para el estudiante de lfe y, de hecho, en la actualidad puede considerarse como una de las líneas de evolución natural de la elao, puesto que es ideal para ofrecer formación a aquellos profesionales, o profesionales en ciernes, que necesitan adquirir competencias lingüísticas específicas. en palabras de godwin-jones (2014: 14): “a third area within language learning in which we are seeing significant activity is in languages for special purposes. moocs offer a convenient vehicle for reaching professionals or trainees who need specialized language skills”. como extensión y complemento a la asignatura ifp, el equipo docente ha creado un coma, tanto en la plataforma de la uned, aprendo/uned abierta, como en la plataforma de telefónica-universia, miriadax. el curso en sí tiene una duración de 12 semanas, con una dedicación estimada de dos semanas por módulo, aunque los participantes tienen acceso a todos los contenidos desde el principio, con el fin de facilitarles un aprendizaje flexible y personalizado. las respectivas direcciones del curso inglés profesional/professional english en las dos plataformas son: https:// unedcoma.es/course/ingles-profesional-professional-english/ y https:// www.miriadax.net/es/web/ingles_profesional/ la organización del coma tiene puntos en común en cuanto al contenido y la estructura con la asignatura del grado en turismo. así pues, es similar en cuanto a extensión y a estructuración en seis unidades. sin embargo, las unidades del coma tienen un mismo hilo conductor, que es la vida de un profesional británico en una empresa multinacional norteamericana. cada unidad contiene al menos un vídeo más otro adicional o un audio, con las respectivas transcripciones de apoyo, explicaciones teóricas sobre los temas lingüísticos más relevantes, numerosas actividades relacionadas cerradas (con claves de autoevaluación) y tests adicionales. destaca el mecanismo de andamiaje didáctico de este curso, dirigiendo al estudiante que haya cometido determinados errores en los tests hacia los materiales (explicaciones y actividades) específicos de refuerzo que conviene innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 49 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 49 que trabaje, según el caso. el diseño del curso incluye otros mecanismos de aprendizaje guiado que van orientando al estudiante que lo necesita. la interacción, tanto escrita como oral, ha sido clave en el diseño del coma. así pues, se desarrollan una serie de actividades que fomentan el aprendizaje colaborativo en el foro, así como con las actividades de revisión entre pares (p2p), en las que los estudiantes han de grabar su actividad oral en formato de vídeo y subirla a la plataforma para que sea valorada por tres de sus compañeros, elegidos al azar por el programa, siguiendo una matriz de evaluación. entre estudiantes en general y otros específicamente de ifp, casi 50.000 individuos se registraron en el coma inglés profesional/professional english (26.848 en uned-coma y 23.424 en miríadax). los datos obtenidos en miríadax se han compartido con los equipos docentes y ya han sido objeto de análisis (martín-monje, bárcena y ventura, 2013) y no se esperan diferencias sustanciales en la otra plataforma. así pues, este curso, que fue el primer coma de lfe en españa, fue el tercero más popular entre los veinte ofertados por uned abierta en su primera edición en 2012. aunque los coma están diseñados para atraer a participantes fuera del contexto educativo, la gran mayoría eran graduados (55%) o estudiantes universitarios (23%), de los cuales al menos el 10% eran estudiantes de turismo, según declararon los estudiantes y comprobó posteriormente el equipo docente. es común en este tipo de iniciativas en abierto tener un alto índice de abandono, fundamentalmente porque el aparato estadístico del programa coma de la uned contabilizó en la primera edición de los cursos a cada estudiante desde su registro y no, por ejemplo, desde su visualización del primer video didáctico. solamente el 9% de los estudiantes completó el coma inglés profesional/professional english en su primera edición. sin embargo, hay que resaltar que más de la mitad de los participantes se registra en cada edición en de dos a cinco coma y algunos hasta en diez, por la súbita curiosidad generada por la oferta de coma en españa. el tema del abandono en esta modalidad formativa está siendo objeto de profunda reflexión y debate por parte de los desarrolladores de estos cursos (garcía aretio, 2014). en cualquier caso, existe un amplio consenso acerca del hecho de que estamos ante una nueva iniciativa que contribuye a ampliar, diversificar y enriquecer asignaturas regladas como ifp y, por lo tanto, seguirá siendo ofertada como recurso adicional. e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje, m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): 39-6250 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 50 4. valoración de los estudiantes y de los tutores la evaluación de la asignatura ifp es muy completa, prestándose atención individualizada a las distintas competencias que componen el dominio de una lengua. ifp se evalúa a partir de los siguientes componentes: a) la calificación del examen final (de selección múltiple, sobre todo por el elevado número de estudiantes, cercano a los 1.500); b) seis pec (pruebas de evaluación continua) consistentes en un test de autoevaluación por cada una de las seis unidades (de corrección automática en el curso virtual, cuyo solucionario se pone posteriormente a disposición de los estudiantes con explicaciones de cada pregunta, tanto de las respuestas correctas como de cada opción incorrecta); c) dos redacciones sobre temas cruciales de la asignatura como son la elaboración del cv propio y la puesta en marcha de un plan de negocio/elaboración de un informe laboral, a entregar respectivamente hacia la mitad y el final del curso (y para cuya evaluación – formativa – el equipo docente de la asignatura cuenta con la colaboración de los tutores) y d) un test oral a través de la herramienta alf (para cuya práctica, entre otras cosas, ponemos a disposición de los estudiantes dos tests de prueba no puntuables – oral mock tests 1 y 2 –, contando de nuevo con la colaboración de los tutores para su evaluación formativa). además, se valora positivamente participar en las actividades extraordinarias de la asignatura, a saber, las dos redes o proyectos de innovación docente y el coma inglés profesional/professional english. naturalmente, como reza la normativa de la uned, este esquema de evaluación es opcional. debe contemplarse necesariamente en cada asignatura la evaluación “a mínimos” (examen final solo o realización de trabajos) y, además, diseñar variantes evaluativas para ciertos colectivos, como son los estudiantes del plan de centros penitenciarios o aquéllos con discapacidades varias. 4.1. índice de participación en las actividades formativas a lo largo de la asignatura el índice de realización de las pec es el esperado en este tipo de asignaturas masivas de primer curso de grado en la uned, donde el porcentaje de participación y de finalización del curso se sitúa invariablemente por debajo del 50%. sin embargo, cabe destacar positivamente que la mayoría de los estudiantes que entregan la primera pec, continúan realizando en tiempo y forma el resto de las actividades de que consta el marco de evaluación de la asignatura. en las pruebas opcionales orales hay una participación bastante innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 51 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 51 alta a pesar de que su realización no incide en la nota final, siendo ésta de aproximadamente el 30%. en los 1.477 estudiantes matriculados en ifp en el curso 2013-14, se ha percibido una participación activa constante por parte de los estudiantes a lo largo del cuatrimestre (no solo en cuanto a la evaluación sino a la presencia en los foros, etc.) que supera el 30% a la hora de entregar tareas que tienen algún tipo de repercusión en la nota final. es de destacar muy positivamente que en las pec el índice de participación aumenta considerablemente a medida que avanza el curso, llegando a su índice máximo de participación en la prueba oral realizada en la última semana del cuatrimestre (alrededor del 38%). todo esto muestra el ambiente general de los foros, del curso virtual e incluso de las tutorías de los centros asociados, que fomentan paulatinamente el interés de los estudiantes hacia la materia. también se valora muy positivamente en este apartado el interés mostrado hacia las dos actividades extraordinarias ofrecidas a los estudiantes, dentro de los proyectos redes de innovación docente de la uned. la primera de ellas (diseño, implantación y evaluación de mini videos didácticos para la mejora de los cursos virtuales de asignaturas de lenguas extranjeras en enseñanzas regladas de la uned), a pesar de ser ofertada a principios de curso (cuando algunos estudiantes ni siquiera han entrado en los cursos virtuales), ha tenido una gran acogida: alrededor de 300 estudiantes solicitaron participar el curso pasado y, de ellos, el 45% la finalizaron satisfactoriamente. a mediados del cuatrimestre, se ha ofrecido un segundo proyecto más avanzado y complejo (records, revoicing to enhance oral production skills), avisando a los estudiantes de que requiere bastante tiempo y dedicación participar en él. en el curso pasado 74 estudiantes expresaron su interés por participar y más del 25% completó las actividades hasta el final, dadas las numerosas horas extras necesarias para hacer el conjunto de las actividades programadas y la dificultad de tener que grabar sus voces para practicar la expresión oral. 4.2. resultados obtenidos en las convocatorias ordinaria y extraordinaria en el examen final de la convocatoria ordinaria del curso pasado se presentaron 668 estudiantes de un total de 1.477, lo que representa un 45,23 %. el hecho de tratarse de un porcentaje que se sitúa ligeramente por debajo de la mitad de la totalidad se justifica por el hecho de ser una asignatura de primer curso, dada la disparidad de conocimiento de partida de inglés de los e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje, m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): 39-6252 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 52 estudiantes (con un considerable porcentaje de principiantes y falsos principiantes). en el caso de la convocatoria extraordinaria del curso pasado, el número de presentados fue del 10% del total de matriculados, de los cuales aprobaron el 25% de la totalidad de los matriculados, lo cual, sumado a los presentados en la convocatoria ordinaria, haría un total aproximado de 80% de aprobados en el curso académico, más de las tres cuartas partes de los matriculados. 4.3. índices de satisfacción de los participantes la valoración global de la asignatura con una significación media y precisión de entre 8% y 11% fue del 87,89%, situándose de este modo por encima de la media de la titulación (grado en turismo: 76.34%). tal y como se muestra en la tabla 3, los ítems mejor valorados fueron los siguientes: (i) 7 (el equipo docente responde de forma adecuada a las consultas planteadas por los estudiantes), con un 39% en el tramo más alto y 26,60% en el inmediatamente inferior. (ii) 10 (el tipo de pruebas de evaluación continua [pec] me ha ayudado a preparar la evaluación final) con 28,87 % y 25,77%. (iii) 13 (globalmente estoy satisfecho/a con la actuación del equipo docente). innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 53 innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): …-… tratarse de un porcentaje que se sitúa ligeramente por debajo de la mitad de la totalidad se justifica por el hecho de ser una asignatura de primer curso, dada la disparidad de conocimiento de partida de inglés de los estudiantes (con un considerable porcentaje de principiantes y falsos principiantes). en el caso de la convocatoria extraordinaria del curso pasado, el número de presentados fue del 10% del total de matriculados, de los cuales aprobaron el 25% de la totalidad de los matriculados, lo cual, sumado a los presentados en la convocatoria ordinaria, haría un total aproximado de 80% de aprobados en el curso académico, más de las tres cuartas partes de los matriculados. 4.3. índices de satisfacción de los participantes la valoración global de la asignatura con una significación media y precisión de entre 8% y 11% fue del 87,89%, situándose de este modo por encima de la media de la titulación (grado en turismo: 76.34%). tal y como se muestra en la tabla 3, los ítems mejor valorados fueron los siguientes: (i) 7 (el equipo docente responde de forma adecuada a las consultas planteadas por los estudiantes), con un 39% en el tramo más alto y 26,60% en el inmediatamente inferior. (ii) 10 (el tipo de pruebas de evaluación continua [pec] me ha ayudado a preparar la evaluación final) con 28,87 % y 25,77%. (iii) 13 (globalmente estoy satisfecho/a con la actuación del equipo docente). item literal cuestionarios 1 2 3 4 5 6 01-01 considero que disponía de los conocimientos previos necesarios para cursar la asignatura 100 3 4 7 40 17 29 01-02 la guía de estudio de la asignatura es clara y describe de forma detallada el contenido y funcionamiento de la asignatura 100 1 12 35 31 21 02-03 el material impreso básico para la preparación de la asignatura me ha resultado claro y adecuado para su estudio a distancia 96 2,08 5,21 12,50 34,38 28,13 17,71 02-04 los materiales complementarios facilitados (pdfs, enlaces, grabaciones) 98 5,10 7,14 37,76 28,57 21,43 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 53 en estas mismas encuestas, abundan breves comentarios de los estudiantes del tipo siguiente: e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje, m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): 39-6254 e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje & m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): …-… a través del curso virtual me han resultado útiles para la preparación de la asignatura 02-05 las actividades de auto-evaluación me han resultado de utilidad para preparar la asignatura 97 1,03 1,03 3,09 35,05 30,93 28,87 03-06 el curso virtual está estructurado y organizado de forma clara 98 1,02 5,10 45,92 27,55 20,41 03-07 el equipo docente responde de forma adecuada a las consultas planteadas por los estudiantes 94 1,06 2,13 5,32 25,53 26,60 39,36 03-08 la participación en el curso virtual me ha sido de utilidad para preparar la asignatura 96 2,08 13,54 38,54 21,88 23,96 04-09 la información y ejemplos proporcionados por el equipo docente sobre la evaluación final me ha ayudado a preparar la evaluación final 97 1,03 8,25 39,18 29,90 21,65 04-10 el tipo de pruebas de evaluación continua (pec) me ha ayudado a preparar la evaluación final 97 3,09 2,06 8,25 31,96 25,77 28,87 04-11 el tipo de prueba presencial (examen final) permite mostrar mi nivel de conocimientos 96 4,17 18,75 37,50 26,04 13,54 05-12 globalmente estoy satisfecho/a con los materiales de la asignatura 98 3,06 3,06 9,18 37,76 32,65 14,29 05-13 globalmente estoy satisfecho/a con la actuación del equipo docente 98 1,02 7,14 27,55 37,76 26,53 05-14 globalmente estoy satisfecho/a con el sistema de evaluación 95 3,16 7,37 10,53 34,74 23,16 21,05 05-15 globalmente estoy satisfecho/a con la 96 3,13 2,08 8,33 36,46 26,04 23,96 innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): …-… formación recibida en la asignatura tabla 3. encuesta de satisfacción completada por los estudiantes. en estas mismas encuestas, abundan breves comentarios de los estudiantes del tipo siguiente: en general me ha encantado la asignatura y he aprendido mucho. la docencia de esta asignatura ha sido ejemplar, no puedo expresar otra cosa que mi agradecimiento e invitar a que continúen en esa línea. en cuanto a los tutores de los centros asociados encuestados, más de la mitad (60) manifestaron en el último curso que el curso virtual se puede considerar entre “aceptable” y “muy aceptable”. además, el 42% de éstos consideraron la atención prestada en el foro virtual como “muy aceptable” y el 75% calificaron al equipo docente como “muy aceptable”. en suma, los diez elementos más valorados de la asignatura son los siguientes: 1. la atención en los foros, tanto a los estudiantes como a los tutores. 2. los vídeos didácticos colgados en el curso virtual. 3. el sistema de evaluación que fomenta el trabajo continuo. 4. el trabajo de la tar (tutora de apoyo en red5) de la asignatura. 5. la cantidad de vocabulario específico que el estudiante ha de trabajar durante el desarrollo de la asignatura. 6. el libro de texto (con comentarios como: “el libro es fantástico, muy adecuado a lo que se pide”). 7. el esquema de evaluación distribuido (con comentarios como: “la evaluación es bastante completa porque se evalúan todas las competencias lingüísticas: gramática, comprensión oral y escrita, expresión oral, etc.”). 8. la organización del equipo docente a la hora de ejecutar las distintas tareas docentes (aunque en todo momento actúan de forma colegiada, cada miembro del equipo tiene asignada una serie de tareas y dicha división es conocida por los tutores, de forma que la gestión de consultas, etc. ha sido calificada como “muy ágil”). 9. la prontitud y actitud en la atención a las incidencias académicas (solicitudes de revisión de pruebas y exámenes) y técnicas (fallos ocasionales durante el desarrollo de las pruebas orales). 10. la potenciación del uso del inglés como lengua vehicular en los foros. 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 54 en general me ha encantado la asignatura y he aprendido mucho. la docencia de esta asignatura ha sido ejemplar, no puedo expresar otra cosa que mi agradecimiento e invitar a que continúen en esa línea. en cuanto a los tutores de los centros asociados encuestados, más de la mitad (60) manifestaron en el último curso que el curso virtual se puede considerar entre “aceptable” y “muy aceptable”. además, el 42% de éstos consideraron la atención prestada en el foro virtual como “muy aceptable” y el 75% calificaron al equipo docente como “muy aceptable”. en suma, los diez elementos más valorados de la asignatura son los siguientes: 1. la atención en los foros, tanto a los estudiantes como a los tutores. 2. los vídeos didácticos colgados en el curso virtual. 3. el sistema de evaluación que fomenta el trabajo continuo. 4. el trabajo de la tar (tutora de apoyo en red5) de la asignatura. 5. la cantidad de vocabulario específico que el estudiante ha de trabajar durante el desarrollo de la asignatura. 6. el libro de texto (con comentarios como: “el libro es fantástico, muy adecuado a lo que se pide”). 7. el esquema de evaluación distribuido (con comentarios como: “la evaluación es bastante completa porque se evalúan todas las competencias lingüísticas: gramática, comprensión oral y escrita, expresión oral, etc.”). 8. la organización del equipo docente a la hora de ejecutar las distintas tareas docentes (aunque en todo momento actúan de forma colegiada, cada miembro del equipo tiene asignada una serie de tareas y dicha división es conocida por los tutores, de forma que la gestión de consultas, etc. ha sido calificada como “muy ágil”). 9. la prontitud y actitud en la atención a las incidencias académicas (solicitudes de revisión de pruebas y exámenes) y técnicas (fallos ocasionales durante el desarrollo de las pruebas orales). 10. la potenciación del uso del inglés como lengua vehicular en los foros. innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 55 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 55 5. discusión la actual edición de la asignatura ifp del grado en turismo de la uned supone la culminación de la experiencia acumulada por el equipo docente, tanto en las dos ediciones anteriores como en la asignatura lengua inglesa i de la diplomatura de turismo (también de primer curso), que se comenzó a impartir hace más de diez años. los datos que proporciona el aparato estadístico de la uned revelan una tasa de aprobados muy cercana al 80%, (considerablemente superior a la del resto de asignaturas de primer curso) y un grado de aceptación muy elevado entre los estudiantes (87.89%), considerablemente superior al de la media de la titulación, y entre los tutores (60%). la relación de objetivos epistemológicos presentada en la sección 3 se corresponde con una diversificación de actividades formativas temporizadas y con un esquema opcional de evaluación igualmente rico, como se explica en el primer párrafo de la sección 3.1. además, la excelencia de los materiales didácticos impresos de la asignatura ha quedado refrendada por sendos informes del iued y los materiales virtuales de apoyo son numerosos, multimodales y han sido rigurosamente seleccionados. buscan principalmente complementar el estudio de la materia por parte de grupos de estudiantes de una lengua extranjera, siempre muy heterogéneos. los miembros del equipo docente de esta asignatura pertenecen al grupo de investigación reconocido por la uned: atlas (applying technology to languages), que lleva trabajando más de quince años en la aplicación de las tic para la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. fruto de este trabajo es el afán de innovación metodológica y tecnológica que va quedando patente en cada edición de esta asignatura. dicho afán se refleja en el hecho de haber incluido la evaluación oral en una asignatura a distancia masiva y en ese sentido cabe destacar el trabajo continuo de colaboración que ha llevado este equipo con el grupo de informáticos del centro asociado de la uned en ponferrada, intecca, para el diseño y desarrollo de la herramienta avip-pro. también se ha probado, evaluado (a través de una rúbrica publicada) y seleccionado un elevado número de herramientas web para la práctica y mejora telemática de distintas competencias lingüísticas. además, el profesorado de la asignatura organiza anualmente dos redes de innovación docente con sendos nutridos grupos de estudiantes, en los que trabajan conjuntamente aspectos de complejidad manifiesta en el aprendizaje y uso del inglés: la mediación (traducción) y la comprensión oral, utilizando e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje, m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): 39-6256 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 56 para ello herramientas de subtitulación, etc. de libre disposición en internet, lo que brinda la oportunidad a los estudiantes de desarrollar habilidades colaterales, tales como el aprendizaje colaborativo y la competencia digital. también es destacable haber puesto libremente a disposición de los estudiantes el primer coma de españa de lenguas, en concreto para esta asignatura, con el nombre inglés profesional/professional english. éste ha tenido una gran acogida teniendo en cuenta que el coma se puso en marcha a la vez que la asignatura y que suponía, como reza en la guía, un trabajo adicional semanal de 2 a 4 horas para sus estudiantes. en suma, en esta asignatura confluyen la experiencia y el compromiso docente-investigador de este equipo de profesores con la excelencia y la innovación metodológica y tecnológica. al tratar el tema del éxito de esta asignatura, es necesario mencionar a sus dos tar, que han llevado conjuntamente el foro virtual, respondiendo diariamente a las consultas técnicas que plantean estudiantes y tutores, resolviendo o ayudando a resolver las incidencias que surjan, como muestra la tabla 1. así pues, según arrojan las tablas de datos estadísticos disponibles en el curso virtual del año 2013-14, entre los dos enviaron 770 mensajes al curso virtual en un cuatrimestre, estando divididos éstos entre el foro de consultas generales (351+41), el foro de coordinación tutorial (60) y los respectivos foros de las seis unidades (el resto). además, ambos tar están involucrados en la realización de los dos proyectos de innovación docente, cada uno de los cuales tiene su propia comunidad y foro. por último, a estos mensajes hay que añadir los del equipo docente, que responde directamente, por ejemplo, a las consultas relativas a los tests y exámenes. 6. conclusión este artículo ha presentado la configuración singular de una asignatura de primer curso en línea de inglés para turismo en una institución universitaria de educación a distancia, con un grupo de alrededor de 1.500 estudiantes y un equipo docente formado por cuatro profesores. este complejo escenario, sin embargo, no ha sido motivo para renunciar a ninguno de los aspectos que cabría esperar en una asignatura equivalente impartida en condiciones más asequibles: objetivos epistemológicos, nivel de exigencia, desarrollo de las cuatro destrezas, actividades de aprendizaje individuales y colaborativas, atención a la heterogeneidad del grupo (no solo en cuanto al nivel de innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 57 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 57 conocimiento de inglés de partida, sino a su accesibilidad a la tecnología sobre la que se sustenta el diseño metodológico de la asignatura) y evaluación escrita y oral, por nombrar algunos. de hecho, esta asignatura ha obtenido el premio que otorga anualmente la uned, una universidad con treinta y tres titulaciones oficiales, además de otros más de cincuenta programas propios, a las mejores prácticas docentes. el diseño actual de esta asignatura de inglés de turismo ha sido elaborado y depurado a lo largo de los años por su equipo docente, miembros integrantes del grupo de investigación atlas, que trabaja en el campo de la enseñanza para fines específicos asistida por ordenador, teniendo en cuenta tanto la experiencia de las ediciones anteriores y las consideraciones de los estudiantes vertidas en foros y cuestionarios, como las posibilidades de innovación continua metodológica y tecnológica que se van brindando progresivamente desde la institución y también fruto del continuo trabajo de investigación del equipo. entre los aspectos más destacables de la asignatura se encuentra su enfoque multicultural, como reflejo del uso real del inglés a nivel internacional para la comunicación con nativos y no nativos, y su carácter multimodal. así pues, todas las unidades tienen una microestructura similar que combina materiales textuales y audiovisuales. para fomentar el aprendizaje autónomo, se incluyen tests de auto-evaluación con respuestas y distractores comentados (que se hacen visibles al finalizar el estudio de cada unidad). para cubrir la oralidad, se ha creado una herramienta de webconferencia, en colaboración con un grupo de desarrolladores de la misma institución, que permite la evaluación formativa y sumativa asíncrona de la producción oral. en aras de la atención a la diversidad, se ofrecen materiales de refuerzo, andamiaje y profundización para las distintas destrezas. también con fines niveladores, cabe destacar la creación por parte del equipo docente de un curso en línea masivo y en abierto, que es, además, el primer coma de lenguas extranjeras en españa y uno de los de mayor demanda (martínmonje y bárcena, 2014; ventura y otros, 2014). cabe, por último, destacar las actividades adicionales y voluntarias colaborativas ofertadas, en el marco del programa de redes de innovación docente de la universidad (bárcena, read y jordano de la torre, 2013; bárcena, read y arús, 2014). en suma, este artículo ha pretendido dar cuenta precisa del innovador diseño metodológico de una asignatura en línea de inglés para fines profesionales en el ámbito del turismo, con especial atención a sus actividades colaborativas de nivelación y refuerzo. se han analizado los datos cuantitativos recopilados en pasadas ediciones que reflejan su eficacia e invitan a la reflexión acerca del modelo e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje, m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): 39-6258 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 58 de asignatura 2.0 de inglés para turismo sobre el que se debe continuar investigando para entornos universitarios formales a distancia y, quizás, presenciales. acknowledgements parte de la innovación metodológica y tecnológica presentada en este artículo se ha realizado gracias a fondos concedidos por el ministerio de educación e innovación (ffi-2011/29829). las autoras también agradecen a la dra. noa talaván su colaboración como profesora y tutora de apoyo en red de la asignatura que se presenta en este artículo y su contribución a éste. article history: received 6 april 2015 received in revised form 20 august 2015 accepted 16 december 2015 bibliografía innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 59 appel, c. y r. gilabert (2006). “finding common ground in lsp: a computer-mediated communication project” en e. arnó-macià, a. soler, y c. rueda, (eds.), information technology in languages for specific purposes: issues and prospects, 75-90. nueva york: springer. arnó-macià, e., a. soler y c. rueda (2006). “information technology in lsp: prospects on a brave new world” en e. arnó-macià, a. soler, y c. rueda (eds.), information technology in languages for specific purposes: issues and prospects, 247-261. nueva york: springer. arnó-macià, e. (2012). “the role of technology in teaching lsp courses”. the modern language journal 96: 89-104. arnó-macià, e. (2014). “information technology and languages for specific purposes in the ehea: options and challenges for the knowledge society” en e. bárcena, t. read y j. arús (eds.), languages for specific purposes in the digital era, 3-25. berna: springer. arteaga, c. (2011). “uso de las tic para el aprendizaje del inglés en la universidad autónoma de aguascalientes”. apertura. revista de innovación educativa 3,2. url: http://www.udgvirtual.udg.mx/apertura/index.php/a pertura3/article/view/206/221 [15/09/15] bárcena, e., t. read y j. arús. (2014). languages for specific purposes in the digital era. berna: springer. bárcena, e., t. read y m. jordano de la torre. (2013). “enhancing social interaction in massive professional english courses”. the online journal of distance education and e-learning 1,1: 214219. bax, s. (2003). “call – past, present and future”. system 31: 13-28. blake, r., n.l. wilson, m. cetto y c. pardoballester (2008). “measuring oral proficiency in distance, face-to-face, and blended classrooms”. language learning and technology 12,3: 114127. catterick, d. (2005). “language learning in distance education”. english for specific purposes 24,2: 234-235. consejo de europa. (2002). marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas: aprendizaje, enseñanza, evaluación. madrid: instituto cervantes, ministerio de educación, cultura y deporte, anaya. dudeney, g., n. hockly y m. pegrum (2013). digital literacies. harlow: pearson. fernández carballo-calero, m.v. (2006). “las tic en la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera (ile): una herramienta online y una off04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 59 e. bárcena madera, e. martín monje, m. jordano de la torre ibérica 31 (2016): 39-6260 line”. revista latinoamericana de tecnología educativa 5,2: 409-416. url: http://www.unex.es/ didactica/relatec/sumario_5_2.htm [20/09/15] godwin-jones, r. (2014). “global reach and local practice: the promise of moocs”. language learning & technology 18,3: 5-15. url: http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2014/emerging.pd f [25/09/15] kuteeva, m. (2011). “wikis and academic writing: changing the writer-reader relationship”. english for specific purposes 30,1: 44-57. gimeno, a. (2014). “fostering learner autonomy in technology-enhanced esp courses” en e. bárcena, t. read y j. arús (eds.), languages for specific purposes in the digital era, 27-44. berna: springer. jordano de la torre, m. (2009). “la enseñanza de la elao en el contexto de la educación a distancia en las puertas del eees: del texto impreso a la web 2.0” en r. roig (coord.) investigar desde un contexto educativo innovador, 235-250. alicante: editorial marfil. jordano de la torre, m. (2011a). “la enseñanzaaprendizaje de la competencia oral en lengua extranjera en el contexto de la educación abierta ya distancia: de la casete a la interacción virtual”. ried. revista iberoamericana de educación a distancia 14,1: 15-39. jordano de la torre, m. (2011b). “improving spoken competence by means of multimodal environments in a distance context”. revista de lingüística y lenguas aplicadas 6: 229-241. lee, l. y a. markey (2014). “a study of learners’ perceptions of online intercultural exchange through web 2.0 technologies”. recall 26,3: 281-297. majó, j. (2004). libro blanco del grado de turismo. madrid: aneca. martín-monje, e. (2012). “presente y futuro de la enseñanza de lenguas asistida por ordenador: ¿el final de una era?” revista de lingüística y lenguas aplicadas 7: 203-212. martín-monje, e. y e. bárcena (2014). language moocs: providing learning, transcending boundaries. varsovia/berlín: de gruyter open. martín-monje, e. y n. talaván (2014). “the iagent project: blended learning proposal for professional english integrating moodle with classroom work for the practice of oral skills” en e. bárcena, t. read y j. arús (eds.), languages for specific purposes in the digital era, 45-67. berna: springer. martín-monje, e., e. bárcena y p. ventura (2013). “the effects of peer-to-peer sociolinguistics interaction and linguistic feedback in a professional english mooc” en proceedings of ecll: european conference on language learning, 350-364. nagoya, japón: iafor. martín-monje, e. y p. ventura (en prensa). “enhancing specialised vocabulary through social learning in language moocs” en e. martín-monje, i. elorza y b. garcía-riaza (eds.), technological advances in specialized linguistic domains: learning on the move. londres: routledge. oblinger, d.g. (2006). “space as a change agent” en d.g. oblinger (ed.), learning spaces. educause e-book, 1-3. url: https://net. educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub7102a.pdf [18/09/15] read, t., e. bárcena, n. talaván y m. jordano de la torre (2011). “on-line vs. face-to-face development of interactive english oral competence: an empirical contrastive study” en s. de wannemacker, g. clarebout y p. de causmaecker (eds.), interdisciplinary approaches to adaptive learning. a look at the neighbours, 40-55. berlín: springer. salinas, j. (2004). “innovación docente y uso de las tic en la enseñanza universitaria”. revista universidad y sociedad del conocimiento 1,1: 116. url: http://www.uoc.edu/rusc/dt/esp/salinas 1104.pdf [18/09/15] stapleton, p. y helms-park, r. (2006). “evaluating web sources in an eap course: introducing a multi-trait instrument for feedback and assessment”. english for specific purposes 25,4: 438-455. real decreto 1393/2007, de 29 de octubre, por el que se establece la ordenación de las enseñanzas universitarias oficiales. (boe 260, 30 octubre 2007). thomas, m. (2009). handbook of research on web 2.0 and second language learning. hershey, pa: information science reference. ventura, p., e. bárcena y e. martín-monje (2014). “analysis of the impact of social feedback on written production and student engagement in language moocs”. procedia. social and behavioral sciences 141: 512-517. 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 60 elena bárcena es profesora titular en el departamento de filologías extranjeras y sus lingüísticas de la uned y su representante en el grado de turismo. es directora del programa modular de posgrado en inglés para fines específicos y del grupo de investigación atlas, que trabaja en la innovación tecnológica y metodológica en el campo de los dominios lingüísticos especializados. elena martín monje es profesora en el departamento de filologías extranjeras y sus lingüísticas de la uned, donde imparte cursos relacionados con el inglés para fines específicos y la aplicación de la tecnología en la enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas. miembro del grupo atlas, su interés investigador actual se centra en el aprendizaje móvil y los cursos masivos abiertos en línea (mooc en sus siglas inglesas). maría jordano de la torre es profesora del departamento de filologías extranjeras y sus lingüísticas, impartiendo asignaturas relacionadas con las lenguas específicas (inglés para turismo, científico-técnico, para negocios y otros). ha trabajado anteriormente en la universidad de castilla la mancha y colaborado con las universidades de alicante y sevilla. sus líneas de investigación son, entre otras, esp, cmc y aprendizaje móvil de lenguas. notes 1 https://www.urjc.es/estudios/grado/729-tourism 2 http://www.uniovi.es/estudios/grados/idiomas 3 http://www.udima.es/es/grado-empresas-actividades-turisticas.html#plan-estudios 4 http://estudios.uoc.edu/es/grados/turismo/plan-estudios 5 el tar o tutor de ayuda en red es un colaborador externo que actúa como moderador en los foros del curso virtual y ayuda a los estudiantes a familiarizarse con el entorno online. innovación metodológica y tecnológica ibérica 31 (2016): 39-62 61 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 61 04 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:28 página 62 iberica 13 ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 abstract the rationalists and the empiricists in the 17th century once argued that metaphor is an inferior device to convey objective truth and should be replaced by literal statements. on the one hand, this article shares lakoff and johnson’s (1980 & 1999) view that metaphor is useful to pursue experiential truth and explains why “metaphors are necessary and not just nice” (ortony, 1975: 45). on the other hand, it reports a cognitive psychological experiment, which shows that metaphor comprehension can be greatly influenced by people’s pre-existing conceptual knowledge and the context, in which the metaphor appears. the authors advocate a conscious use of metaphors in academic communication with full awareness of the factors that may influence metaphor comprehension. keywords: metaphor comprehension, scientific communication, teacher metaphors, self-assessment manikin, two-mode network analysis resumen el uso de met�foras en la comunicaci�n acad�mica: trampas o tesoros los racionalistas y los empiristas del siglo xvii argumentaron que la metáfora es un medio débil para expresar verdades objectivas y que debería ser sustituida por expresiones literales. por un lado, el artículo está de acuerdo con lakoff y johnson (1980 y 1999) en que la metáfora es útil para alcanzar y expresar verdades y explica porque “metaphors are necessary and not just nice” en la communicacion académica (ortony, 1975:45). por otro lado, el artículo presenta los resultados de un experimento psicologico cognitivo que demuestra que la comprensión de la metáfora está condicionada por los conocimientos conceptuales de la gente y por el contexto en el cuál la metáfora aparece. los autores abogan por un uso consciente de la metáfora en la comunicacion académica teniendo en cuenta los factores que puedan influir en el entendimiento de la metáfora. the use of metaphors in academic communication: traps or treasures dehui zhou & edgar heineken university duisburg-essen (germany) zytsmum@hotmail.com & edgar.heineken@uni-due.de 23 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 23 ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 dehui zhou & edgar heineken palabras clave: comprensión de metáforas, comunicación científica, metáforas del docente, self-assessment manikin, análisis de redes bimodales. introduction in this article, academic communication refers to the knowledge-based scientific communication (leydesdorff, 1997) in the form of scientific publications and other scholarly activities including presentations in academic conferences and lectures at universities. distinguished from other forms of communications, academic communication mainly aims at facilitating the creation and the spreading of knowledge and is expected to be factual, objective and direct. when the first scientific journal was published in the seventeenth century (ornstein, 1928), rationalists and empiricists at that time were enthusiastic in discussing what kind of language should be used for academic writings. motivated by the goal of pursuing the plain truth and aesthetic simplicity, they regarded metaphor as an additional or superfluous rhetoric device and claimed that metaphor had nothing to do with the course of capturing things-in-themselves and should be excluded from scientific communication. hobbes (1588-1679) argued, “[m]etaphors, and senseless, ambiguous words, are like ignes fatui; and reasoning upon them, is wandering amongst innumerable absurdities” (hobbes, [1651] 1996: 36). ortony (1979) summarized the condemnatory view of metaphor in scientific communication. they are fuzzy and vague, inessential frills, appropriate for the purpose of the politician and of the poet, but not for those of the scientists, who are attempting to furnish an objective description of physical reality. (ortony, 1979: 2) two claims are attributed to this condemnation view of metaphors. one claim is that metaphor is unable to reveal objective truth. the other claim is that metaphor can be paraphrased in a neutral literal way without losing its meaning. this article presents lakoff and johnson’s (1980 & 1999) experiential view to deal with the first claim and rejects the second one through emphasizing the irreplaceable functions of metaphor in academic communication. however, not only the question of whether metaphor can 24 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 24 encode truth and knowledge shall be involved in the discussion of metaphor usage in academic communications but also the question of whether metaphor can be well decoded, or in other words, well comprehended. the focus of this study is to deal with the latter from a cognitive psychological perspective. metaphor and experiential truth lakoff and johnson (1999) took an embodiment approach to tackle the issue of metaphor and truth. they questioned the existence of an absolute objective and advocated an experientialist account of truth. according to them, people’s experiential interaction with the world can provide a stable basis for their knowledge. meaning is based on understanding, which is largely structured by people’s embodiment and their imaginative process. metaphor is regarded as a chief vehicle for people to achieve such an understanding, as it enables them to map their experiences in one domain onto another domain. for instance, people may use their concrete experience with “plants” to talk about abstract “ideas” by saying mathematics has many branches (lakoff & johnson, 1980) or even use “water current” to create one of the basic electronic terms, “(electric) current”. a statement, whether in the form of a literal or metaphorical utterance can express experiential truth so far it is coherent with people’s basic-level perception and accepted by the scientific communities (stambuk, 1998). the irreplaceable position of metaphor metaphor is not decorative, but omnipresent in language (richards, 1936). it can not be simply replaced by literal statements. ortony (1975) employed three hypotheses to support his assertion that “metaphors are necessary and not just nice” (1975: 45). these are: the “inexpressibility hypothesis” suggests that metaphors can express ideas, which are otherwise not easy or even impossible to express in literal language. the “compactness hypothesis” emphasizes the direct and concise form of a metaphor to capture the essence of a particular experience. the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 25 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 25 the “vividness hypothesis” suggests that intangible complex and relational aspects of ideas are more communicable through metaphors. in scientific communication, metaphors can communicate abstract scientific ideas, conceptualize scientific problems and influence the ways in which the problems are approached (huber, 2005). the “model of atom” proposed by niels bohr (1885-1962) uses the “structure of the solar system” to explain “the structure of the atom”. in the field of communication, the transmission metaphor underlies shanon and weaver’s (1949) mathematical model. draaisma (1999) collected abundant metaphors that have permeated the history of psychological memory studies, for instance, “memory” as phosphor, micro cosmos, conscious photography, photography, computer, network, hologram, and so on. stambuk (1998) pointed out that metaphor can use existing language structure to create new conceptual categories in communicating new knowledge. in order to communicate new knowledge in any field of human experience, including areas of science and technology, we need language structure which can express new conceptual categories (…) one of the ways of creating new language structures by means of existing ones is a metaphorical use of the language. (stambuk, 1998: 373) why is metaphor so important to communicate new knowledge? again, the embodiment hypothesis provides a good explanation. due to people’s common embodiment, experiences and imaginative capacities, many concepts and basic forms of reasoning can be shared, which is vital for academic communication. lakoff (1993) argued that metaphor can greatly facilitate people’s abstract thinking because it allows them to project structure from well-structured sensorimotor domains to less structured domains. in his original words, “[m]etaphor is the main mechanism through which we comprehend abstract concepts and perform abstract reasoning” (lakoff, 1993: 244). through this mechanism, people are enabled to access a new idea or new experience more easily through retrieving their former relevant experience. in this sense, metaphors can hardly be replaced by literal statements in academic communications. dehui zhou & edgar heineken ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-4226 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 26 the problem of metaphor comprehension motivated by the flourishing of metaphors in various academic disciplines, numerous studies have been conducted to demonstrate the vital position of metaphor in economics and management (morgan, 1986; inns, 2002), in psychology (roediger, 1980; sternberg, 1995), in media communication (forceville, 1996), in political science (mio, 1997), in computer science (carroll, mack & kellogg, 1991) and so on. by contrast, ambiguity or misunderstanding in academic communication resulting from the misinterpretation of metaphor has been vastly neglected. one of the few studies concerning this issue is littlemore’s (2001) examination of metaphor usage in lectures at a british university. this study showed that the students often misunderstood the main points of lectures and they misinterpreted the lectures’ stance toward the topic of the lectures because they were unable to comprehend the prevalent metaphors frequently used by the lecturers. there are a number of cognitive linguistic and cognitive psychological studies concerning metaphor comprehension. according to the standard pragmatic model of metaphor processing (grice, 1975), metaphor comprehension involves several stages, including first the recognition of incompatible truth after attempting literal interpretation, and then the reconstruction of possible meaning and proper interpretation of the utterance (miller, 1979). however, a large number of empirical work refutes the assumption that literal processing is necessary and obligatory prior to metaphorical processing (keysar, 1989). gibbs’s (1994) direct access model (1994) suggests that metaphors are interpreted directly and the cognitive understanding processes of metaphorical and literal language are essentially the same. moreover, other empirical studies also suggest that metaphors do not have to take longer to comprehend than literal statements when sufficient context is provided (glucksberg, 1998). coulson and van petten’s (2002) continuity claim suggests that both literal and metaphorical language processing “occur in the same course and involve the same processing mechanism” (coulson & van petten, 2002: 959). however, they strongly rejected the view that metaphorical sentences are no more difficult to comprehend than literal language. in their opinion, metaphorical language requires more cognitive effort for processing, the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 27 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 27 although both literal and metaphorical language may take the same amount of time to comprehend. moreover, giora (1997) argued that the comprehension of metaphors, in comparison to the literal statements may involve different processes (direct/ parallel/ sequential) that depend on different types of metaphors. several factors have been identified that can affect metaphor comprehension. first, a number of empirical studies suggest that “context” greatly facilitates metaphor comprehension (gibbs, 1994; glucksberg, 1998). second, jones and estes (2006) agreed with bowdle and gentner (2005) that the “conventionality” of a metaphor affects how people comprehend it. jones and estes (2006: 23) defined conventionality as “the extent to which the concept is associated with a figurative meaning”, whereas bowdle and gentner (2005) suggested that conventionality is closely related to whether a domain-general category is available through the base term (vehicle). third, chiappe, kennedy and chiappe (2003) argued that aptness is an important factor that affects metaphor comprehension. they defined aptness as “the extent to which the statement captures important features of the topic” (chiappe, kennedy & chiappe, 2003: 97). in this cognitive psychological study of metaphor comprehension, the authors combine the factors affecting metaphor comprehension and draw the following hypothesis: the comprehension of metaphor can be greatly influenced by the pre-existing conceptual knowledge as indicated by the conventionality and the aptness of the metaphor in question and the context in which that metaphor appears. an online experiment on comprehending teacher metaphors in order to test the hypothesis raised above, a cross-cultural online experiment was conducted through exploring pre-service teachers’ comprehension of three teacher metaphors (bullough, 1994). two cultural groups, chinese and german participants were involved because it is a convenient way to obtain two experimental groups, whose estimation of the conventionality and aptness of a metaphor may differ from one another to a considerable degree. the experiment was conducted in participants’ native language. the original text was written in german and translated into dehui zhou & edgar heineken ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-4228 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 28 chinese. the whole experiment was designed in internet format and implemented at the virtual experiment laboratory, lab.or, developed by heineken, schulte and ollesch (2003). to explore how subjects understood three teacher metaphors, both the affective impression and the conceptual representation of the metaphors were explored. subjects ninety chinese students at wuhan jianghan university and nanjing university and ninety german students at the university of duisburg-essen and the university of dortmund completed this experiment. all of them were sophomores engaged in their pre-service teacher education. they were informed about this online research and the corresponding url addresses1 either by their lecturers or by the experimenter during the lectures at their corresponding universities. after the lectures, they participated in the experiment through the internet on a voluntary basis without the presence of the experimenter. material the metaphors used for the experiment were selected on the basis of a pilot study, in which 30 chinese and 30 german students at the university of duisburg-essen were asked to list out three teacher metaphors and rate how conventional (familiar) and apt (appropriate) those metaphors appeared to them on a scale of 1 (very novel) to 5 (very familiar). as a result, the following three metaphors were selected: 1) the teacher is a candle, which was estimated by the chinese as a very conventional and very apt metaphor but by the germans as novel and inapt; 2) the teacher is a shepherd, which was estimated by the germans as conventional and apt but by the chinese as less conventional and less apt; and 3) the teacher is a captain, which was estimated by both the chinese and the germans as a less conventional but apt teacher metaphor. in order to evaluate the affective impression of the metaphors, this experiment adopted the so-called self-assessment manikin (sam) devised by lang (1985). the sam (see figure 1) is a five-point likert pictorial scale, the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 29 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 29 allowing for direct ratings of “dominance dimension” (from a very small figure representing a feeling of being controlled to a very big figure representing in-control), “pleasure dimension” (from a frowning unhappy figure to a smiling happy figurer) and “arousal dimension” (from a sleepy quiet figure to a very excited figure). the graphic sam is adopted in this study for two reasons. first, the sam is as reliable as the classic method, the semantic differential (sd) (osgood, suci & tannenbaum, 1957), for measuring affective meanings. lang (1985) found that there were positive correlations between the scores obtained using the sam and those from the sd for dominance (.66), pleasure (.94) and arousal (.94) in his study. morris and bradley (1994) used the sam to re-evaluate 135 emotion adjectives that were factor analyzed by russell and mehrabian (1977) and obtained similar results. second, compared with the sd, the sam is argued to be a culture-free and language free measure that costs less time to complete and causes less respondent wear-out (bradley & lang, 1994). in order to explore the conceptual representation of the metaphors, thirtythree features2 were rated in the experiment according to their suitability to the teacher metaphor. those features were generated by the chinese and the german participants of a pilot study as the most important features of the source concepts (candle, captain and shepherd) or the target concept (teacher). procedure after the participants entered their personal information, the experiment started. first, they were asked to imagine a teacher according to a specific dehui zhou & edgar heineken ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-4230 ibérica 18 (2009): …-…6 on a scale of 1 (very novel) to 5 (very familiar). as a result, the following three metaphors were selected: 1) the teacher is a candle, which was estimated by the chinese as a very conventional and very apt metaphor but by the germans as novel and inapt; 2) the teacher is a shepherd, which was estimated by the germans as conventional and apt but by the chinese as less conventional and less apt; and 3) the teacher is a captain, which was estimated by both the chinese and the germans as a less conventional but apt teacher metaphor. in order to evaluate the affective impression of the metaphors, this experiment adopted the so-called self-assessment manikin (sam) devised by lang (1985). the sam (see figure 1) is a five-point likert pictorial scale, allowing for direct ratings of “dominance dimension” (from a very small figure representing a feeling of being controlled to a very big figure representing in-control), “pleasure dimension” (from a frowning unhappy figure to a smiling happy figurer) and “arousal dimension” (from a sleepy quiet figure to a very excited figure). figure 1: the selfassessment manikin (see morris, 1995: 64). 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 30 teacher metaphor (the teacher is a candle, the teacher is a shepherd or the teacher is a captain). the participants with the same metaphor were randomly led to one of the three conditions set by the computer, namely, no role play, positive role play, negative role play. in the role play, participants were asked to play the role of a new class teacher at a virtual middle school for a complete school year. they were required to behave in keeping with the teacher image that they were presented. for every quarter of a school year, they received a timely class report. each report appeared on the screen for only 60 seconds. the text of each class report included twelve items in three aspects: class situation, pupils’ behaviour, and parents’ opinions. in each aspect, four items were presented. three items reflected three metaphorical teacher images and the other one was formulated in a neutral way, free from the influence of any metaphorical teacher image. for instance, the parents’ opinions in one of the class reports included the following items: 1) the teacher protects the pupils carefully (shepherd image); 2) the pupils’ parents are satisfied with the teacher (neutral expression); 3) the teacher’s authoritarian attitude was found to be appealing (captain image); 4) the selfless engagement of the teacher is meritorious (candle image). in order to control the primacy-recency effect, the neutral items and the items reflecting the metaphorical teacher image appeared in an order randomized by the computer system. the class teacher was given four minutes to write an email message3 to his/her class in keeping with the class report. after four minutes, the email page disappeared and the participants were automatically led to the next task. by positive role-play condition, the participants constantly received positive feedback, whereas the others received negative feedback under the negative role play condition. a participant would encounter a positive or a negative role play (randomized by the lab. or system), independent from the participant’s email writings. after the role play, the pictorial dominance dimension of the sam first appeared on the screen. participants were asked to select one of the five pictorial manikins that best suited their impression of the provided teacher image. after their click, they would be led to the estimation of the pleasure and the arousal dimension. then participants were asked to rate how suitable the thirty-three features could be used to describe the provided teacher image in separate pages. the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 31 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 31 design this empirical study has a three-factorial design with “cultural group”, “metaphor” and “context” as the three factors. the factor “cultural group” has two levels (1: chinese; 2: germans), the factor “metaphor” three levels (1: candle; 2: captain; 3: shepherd) and the factor “context” three levels (1: no role play; 2: positive role play; 3: negative role play). results and discussion the sam ratings were submitted to a three-factorial multivariate analysis of variance. the feature ratings were submitted to the network analysis. 1) analysis of the sam ratings according to the three-factorial multivariate analysis of variance, not only the factor “metaphor” (f(6,290)=3,34, p<.01) but also the factor “context” (f(6,290)=16,18, p<.001) had a significant effect on the sam ratings of their impression of teacher. although the factor “cultural group” did not seem to exert a main factor effect (f(3,144)=,424, p> 0.5), a significant interaction between the factor “cultural group” and the factor “metaphor” (f(6,290)=6,31, p<.001) was available. figure 2 shows how the chinese and the germans rated the sam according to their affective impression of the concept teacher in three different teacher metaphors. when the metaphor the teacher is a candle was provided, the chinese impression on the concept teacher turned out to be more powerful, more pleasant and more active than that of the germans. the error bars of the chinese ratings on the three sam dimensions were shorter than those of the german ratings. this shows that the chinese had a stronger congruence in their ratings than the germans. by contrast, the germans rated the dominance dimension, the pleasure dimension and the arousal dimension according to their impression on the concept teacher higher than the chinese when the metaphor the teacher is a shepherd was provided. under the condition of the metaphor the teacher is a shepherd, the error bars of the german ratings on the three sam dimensions were shorter than those of the chinese ratings. this suggests that the germans had a stronger congruence in their ratings of the concept teacher in the metaphor the teacher is a shepherd than the chinese. the figure also dehui zhou & edgar heineken ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-4232 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 32 shows that the chinese and the german impression profiles of the concept teacher in the metaphor the teacher is a captain did not differ so much from each other as under the condition of the other two teacher metaphors. however, the german subjects seemed to have a more pleasant impression on the concept teacher in the metaphor the teacher is a captain than the chinese subjects. taking the factor “role play” as the focus, figure 3 shows how the chinese and the german subjects rated the sam according to their affective impression of the concept teacher in various teacher metaphors under the different role play conditions. under the positive role-play condition, both the chinese and the germans rated all the three dimensions of the sam according to their affective impression on the concept teacher higher than under the condition of no role play or the negative role play. under the conditions of the role play with the negative development, the chinese and the german impression profiles of the concept teacher were less powerful, less pleasant and less active than under the condition of the positive role play. this shows that the factor “role play” plays an important role in affecting the chinese and the germans’ affective impression on the concept teacher in various teacher metaphors. the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 33 the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 (2009): …-… 9 chinese ratings. this suggests that the germans had a stronger congruence in their ratings of the concept teacher in the metaphor the teacher is a shepherd than the chinese. the figure also shows that the chinese and the german impression profiles of the concept teacher in the metaphor the teacher is a captain did not differ so much from each other as under the condition of the other two teacher metaphors. however, the german subjects seemed to have a more pleasant impression on the concept teacher in the metaphor the teacher is a captain than the chinese subjects. figure 2: the chinese and the german sam ratings of the concept teacher under the conditions of different teacher metaphors. (the three sam dimensions: dominance, pleasure, and arousal). taking the factor “role play” as the focus, figure 3 shows how the chinese and the german subjects rated the sam according to their affective impression of the concept teacher in various teacher metaphors under the different role play conditions. under the positive role-play condition, both the chinese and the germans rated all the three dimensions of the sam according to their affective impression on the concept teacher higher than under the condition of no role play or the negative role play. under the conditions of the role play with the negative development, the chinese and the german impression profiles of the concept teacher were less powerful, less pleasant and less active than under the condition of the positive role play. this shows that the factor “role play” plays an important role in affecting the chinese and the germans’ affective impression on the concept teacher in various teacher metaphors. the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 (2009): …-… 9 chinese ratings. this suggests that the germans had a stronger congruence in their ratings of the concept teacher in the metaphor the teacher is a shepherd than the chinese. the figure also shows that the chinese and the german impression profiles of the concept teacher in the metaphor the teacher is a captain did not differ so much from each other as under the condition of the other two teacher metaphors. however, the german subjects seemed to have a more pleasant impression on the concept teacher in the metaphor the teacher is a captain than the chinese subjects. figure 2: the chinese and the german sam ratings of the concept teacher under the conditions of different teacher metaphors. (the three sam dimensions: dominance, pleasure, and arousal). taking the factor “role play” as the focus, figure 3 shows how the chinese and the german subjects rated the sam according to their affective impression of the concept teacher in various teacher metaphors under the different role play conditions. under the positive role-play condition, both the chinese and the germans rated all the three dimensions of the sam according to their affective impression on the concept teacher higher than under the condition of no role play or the negative role play. under the conditions of the role play with the negative development, the chinese and the german impression profiles of the concept teacher were less powerful, less pleasant and less active than under the condition of the positive role play. this shows that the factor “role play” plays an important role in affecting the chinese and the germans’ affective impression on the concept teacher in various teacher metaphors. 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 33 2) analysis of the feature ratings in this study, the two-mode network analysis was used to compare how the chinese subjects and the german subjects rated the suitability of the thirtythree features in describing three metaphors. the two-mode network analysis involves actor-by-event or case-by-affiliation data sets (doreian, batagelj & ferligoj, 2004). in this study, “events” referred to the ratings of the 33 features; “actors” referred to the subjects under the correspondent experimental condition. to express it in a more mathematical way, the bipartite networks n= (v1,v2, e) actually had their vertex v set partitioned into two subsets v1 (actors, chinese subjects or german subjects ) and v2 (events, the ratings of the 33 features). for the quantities description of the networks, two network measures, namely the “network degree centralisation index” and the “density” of the networks were calculated through the ucinet 6 software package (borgatti, everett & freeman, 2002). for each experiment condition, there were ten german subjects and ten chinese subjects. since the networks constructed under all conditions shared the identical numbers of the vertices (v1:10 subjects and v2:33 features), the “network degree centralisation index” and the “density” can be employed for the comparison between the correspondent bipartite networks constructed according to the chinese and the germans’ feature ratings under various experimental conditions. the network degree centralisation is related to a compactness property of a network. the “network degree centralisation index” is a number between 0 and 1. the index is 0 when all vertices have equal centrality value, and 1 dehui zhou & edgar heineken ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-4234 d. zhou & e. heineken ibérica 18 (2009): …-…10 figure 3: the chinese and the german sam ratings of concept teacher under the different role-play conditions. (the three sam dimensions: dominance, pleasure, and arousal). 2) analysis of the feature ratings in this study, the two-mode network analysis was used to compare how the chinese subjects and the german subjects rated the suitability of the thirty-three features in describing three metaphors. the two-mode network analysis involves actor-by-event or case-by-affiliation data sets (doreian, batagelj & ferligoj, 2004). in this study, “events” referred to the ratings of the 33 features; “actors” referred to the subjects under the correspondent experimental condition. to express it in a more mathematical way, the bipartite networks n= (v1,v2, e) actually had their vertex v set partitioned into two subsets v1 (actors, chinese subjects or german subjects ) and v2 (events, the ratings of the 33 features). for the quantities description of the networks, two network measures, namely the “network degree centralisation index” and the “density” of the networks were calculated through the ucinet 6 software package (borgatti, everett & freeman, 2002). for each experiment condition, there were ten german subjects and ten chinese subjects. since the networks constructed under all conditions shared the identical numbers of the vertices (v1:10 subjects and v2:33 features), the “network degree centralisation index” and the “density” can be employed for the comparison between the correspondent bipartite networks constructed according to the chinese and the germans’ feature ratings under various experimental conditions. the network degree centralisation is related to a compactness property of a network. the “network degree centralisation index” is a number between 0 and 1. the index is 0 when all vertices have equal centrality value, and 1 when one vertex completely dominates all others. in this study, the “network degree centralisation, cd” (freeman, 1977) was calculated according to the following measure: d. zhou & e. heineken ibérica 18 (2009): …-…10 figure 3: the chinese and the german sam ratings of concept teacher under the different role-play conditions. (the three sam dimensions: dominance, pleasure, and arousal). 2) analysis of the feature ratings in this study, the two-mode network analysis was used to compare how the chinese subjects and the german subjects rated the suitability of the thirty-three features in describing three metaphors. the two-mode network analysis involves actor-by-event or case-by-affiliation data sets (doreian, batagelj & ferligoj, 2004). in this study, “events” referred to the ratings of the 33 features; “actors” referred to the subjects under the correspondent experimental condition. to express it in a more mathematical way, the bipartite networks n= (v1,v2, e) actually had their vertex v set partitioned into two subsets v1 (actors, chinese subjects or german subjects ) and v2 (events, the ratings of the 33 features). for the quantities description of the networks, two network measures, namely the “network degree centralisation index” and the “density” of the networks were calculated through the ucinet 6 software package (borgatti, everett & freeman, 2002). for each experiment condition, there were ten german subjects and ten chinese subjects. since the networks constructed under all conditions shared the identical numbers of the vertices (v1:10 subjects and v2:33 features), the “network degree centralisation index” and the “density” can be employed for the comparison between the correspondent bipartite networks constructed according to the chinese and the germans’ feature ratings under various experimental conditions. the network degree centralisation is related to a compactness property of a network. the “network degree centralisation index” is a number between 0 and 1. the index is 0 when all vertices have equal centrality value, and 1 when one vertex completely dominates all others. in this study, the “network degree centralisation, cd” (freeman, 1977) was calculated according to the following measure: 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 34 when one vertex completely dominates all others. in this study, the “network degree centralisation, cd” (freeman, 1977) was calculated according to the following measure: where c*d is the highest value of selected vertex degree centrality measure cd (x). like the cd, the density of network also takes on a value between 0 and 1. it is a measure of connectedness of the network. when the density of a network is closer to 1, the network is considered dense. otherwise, it is sparse. in this case, a denser network indicates that more subjects rate the suitability of the 33 features higher than those which are involved in a less dense network. in the bipartite networks constructed according to the feature ratings, edges with value less than 3 were removed from the network. the results are presented in table 1. the chinese network based on their feature ratings of the metaphor the teacher is a candle without role play is both more compact (cd: 0.4223>0.3992) and more dense (0.7553>0.4889) than that of the german network (see also figure 3). it indicates that the chinese agreed with each other more than the germans did in their ratings and the chinese rated those features much higher than the germans. after the positive role play, the cd raised to 0.4125 and the density to 0.6375 according to the germans’ feature ratings, which resulted in a decrease of the difference between the chinese and the germans. in contrast, the negative role play produced less high ratings and less congruence among the subjects in their ratings. by contrast, the german network of the metaphor the teacher is a shepherd under the condition of no role play is more compact (cd: 0.4532>0.3965) and more dense (0.7054>0.6262) than that of the chinese the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 35 the use of metaphors in academic communication 2 ))(( * ! ! = " # n xcc c ex dd d where c*d is the highest value of selected vertex degree centrality measure cd (x). like the cd, the density of network also takes on a value between 0 and 1. it is a measure of connectedness of the network. )1( 2 , ! = " # nn a density vji ij when the density of a network is closer to 1, the network is considered dense. otherwise, it is sparse. in this case, a denser network indicates that more subjects rate the suitability of the 33 features higher than those which are involved in a less dense network. in the bipartite networks constructed according to the feature ratings, edges with value less than 3 were removed from the network. the results are presented in table 1. the chinese network based on their feature ratings of the metaphor the teacher is a candle without role play is both more compact (cd: 0.4223>0.3992) and more dense (0.7553>0.4889) than that of the german network (see also figure 3). it indicates that the chinese agreed with each other more than the germans did in their ratings and the chinese rated those features much higher than the germans. after the positive role play, the cd raised to 0.4125 and the density to 0.6375 according to the germans’ feature ratings, which resulted in a decrease of the difference between the chinese and the germans. in contrast, the negative role play produced less high ratings and less congruence among the subjects in their ratings. by contrast, the german network of the metaphor the teacher is a shepherd under the condition of no role play is more compact (cd: 0.4532>0.3965) and more dense (0.7054>0.6262) than that of the chinese network. after the role play with the positive development was provided, the cd of the chinese network increased to 0.4084, and the density increased to 0.6694 in comparison of the no role-play condition. this shows that the positive roleplay context produced higher ratings and more congruence among the subjects in their ratings. compared with the two metaphors mentioned above, the teacher is a captain did not exert as much obvious cultural differences. under each roleplay condition, both the cd and the density of the networks constructed according to the chinese ratings were slightly higher than their german counterparts. the use of metaphors in academic communication 2 ))(( * ! ! = " # n xcc c ex dd d where c*d is the highest value of selected vertex degree centrality measure cd (x). like the cd, the density of network also takes on a value between 0 and 1. it is a measure of connectedness of the network. )1( 2 , ! = " # nn a density vji ij when the density of a network is closer to 1, the network is considered dense. otherwise, it is sparse. in this case, a denser network indicates that more subjects rate the suitability of the 33 features higher than those which are involved in a less dense network. in the bipartite networks constructed according to the feature ratings, edges with value less than 3 were removed from the network. the results are presented in table 1. the chinese network based on their feature ratings of the metaphor the teacher is a candle without role play is both more compact (cd: 0.4223>0.3992) and more dense (0.7553>0.4889) than that of the german network (see also figure 3). it indicates that the chinese agreed with each other more than the germans did in their ratings and the chinese rated those features much higher than the germans. after the positive role play, the cd raised to 0.4125 and the density to 0.6375 according to the germans’ feature ratings, which resulted in a decrease of the difference between the chinese and the germans. in contrast, the negative role play produced less high ratings and less congruence among the subjects in their ratings. by contrast, the german network of the metaphor the teacher is a shepherd under the condition of no role play is more compact (cd: 0.4532>0.3965) and more dense (0.7054>0.6262) than that of the chinese network. after the role play with the positive development was provided, the cd of the chinese network increased to 0.4084, and the density increased to 0.6694 in comparison of the no role-play condition. this shows that the positive roleplay context produced higher ratings and more congruence among the subjects in their ratings. compared with the two metaphors mentioned above, the teacher is a captain did not exert as much obvious cultural differences. under each roleplay condition, both the cd and the density of the networks constructed according to the chinese ratings were slightly higher than their german counterparts. 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 35 network. after the role play with the positive development was provided, the cd of the chinese network increased to 0.4084, and the density increased to 0.6694 in comparison of the no role-play condition. this shows that the positive role-play context produced higher ratings and more congruence among the subjects in their ratings. compared with the two metaphors mentioned above, the teacher is a captain did not exert as much obvious cultural differences. under each role-play condition, both the cd and the density of the networks constructed according to the chinese ratings were slightly higher than their german counterparts. teacher metaphors role plays cultural groups network degree centralisation (cd) density based on the feature ratings of different metaphors under various conditions, altogether eighteen bipartite graphs were drawn using the software “pajek” (batagelj & mrvar, 2007). here only the bipartite graph of the network obtained under the condition of the teacher is a candle without role play is presented as an example. in figure 4, the actors (the chinese and the germans) and the events (ratings of the 33 features) were treated as different vertices, and lines or edges were dehui zhou & edgar heineken ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-4236 d. zhou & e. heineken teacher metaphors role plays cultural groups network degree centralisation (cd) density chinese 0.4423 0.7553 no role play germans 0.3992 0.4889 chinese 0.4227 0.7664 role play-positive germans 0.4125 0.6357 chinese 0.4560 0.6750 the teacher is a candle role play-negative germans 0.3950 0.6179 chinese 0.4383 0.7171 no role play germans 0.4227 0.7011 chinese 0.4272 0.7674 role play-positive germans 0.4109 0.6872 chinese 0.4832 0.7054 the teacher is a captain role play-negative germans 0.4525 0.6833 chinese 0.3965 0.6262 no role play germans 0.4532 0.7054 chinese 0.4084 0.6694 role play-positive germans 0.4501 0.7010 chinese 0.4262 0.6506 the teacher is a shepherd role play-negative germans 0.4053 0.7243 table 1: the cd and the density of the bipartite networks constructed according to the 33 feature ratings. based on the feature ratings of different metaphors under various conditions, altogether eighteen bipartite graphs were drawn using the software “pajek” (batagelj & mrvar, 2007). here only the bipartite graph of the network obtained under the condition of the teacher is a candle without role play is presented as an example. in figure 4, the actors (the chinese and the germans) and the events (ratings of the 33 features) were treated as different vertices, and lines or edges were used to show the connections of actors (subjects) to the events (features). actors tended to locate closer if they rated the features more similarly. obviously, the white vertices are located in a more condensed manner than the black vertices, which shows that a stronger congruence among the chinese in their feature ratings. on the contrary, the germans differed greatly from each other in their ratings. this indicates the lack of a consistent view of this metaphor among the germans. 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 36 used to show the connections of actors (subjects) to the events (features). actors tended to locate closer if they rated the features more similarly. obviously, the white vertices are located in a more condensed manner than the black vertices, which shows that a stronger congruence among the chinese in their feature ratings. on the contrary, the germans differed greatly from each other in their ratings. this indicates the lack of a consistent view of this metaphor among the germans. in all, both the sam evaluation and the network analysis of the feature ratings show that there was a stronger consensus among the chinese in not only their affective impression but also the conceptual representation of the metaphor the teacher is a candle. conversely, the germans affectively and conceptually agreed with each other more than the chinese in understanding the metaphor the teacher is a shepherd. as to the metaphor the teacher is a captain, there were no obvious cultural differences. this indicates that a metaphor can be interpreted by different people differently due to the differences of their relevant preexisting conceptual knowledge. the teacher is a candle was estimated by the chinese as a conventional and apt metaphor, because the source concept candle involves a pre-existing metaphorical meaning of “self-sacrifice” and “unselfishness” in the common chinese understanding. the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 37 the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 (2009): …-… 13 figure 3: bipartite graph based on the feature ratings on the teacher is a candle under the condition of no role play (c: chinese, d: germans). in all, both the sam evaluation and the network analysis of the feature ratings show that there was a stronger consensus among the chinese in not only their affective impression but also the conceptual representation of the metaphor the teacher is a candle. conversely, the germans affectively and conceptually agreed with each other more than the chinese in understanding the metaphor the teacher is a shepherd. as to the metaphor the teacher is a captain, there were no obvious cultural differences. this indicates that a metaphor can be interpreted by different people differently due to the differences of their relevant pre-existing conceptual knowledge. the teacher is a candle was estimated by the chinese as a conventional and apt metaphor, because the source concept candle involves a pre-existing metaphorical meaning of “self-sacrifice” and “unselfishness” in the common chinese understanding. this metaphorical meaning of candle originates from the well-known poem untitled written by li, shangyin (813-858). lacking this background, the germans found it hard to access this metaphorical meaning unless it could be imported from a context. by contrast, the germans regarded the teacher is a shepherd as a conventional and apt metaphor. for them, shepherd means “love” and “care” because they all know “jesus is our shepherd” from the holy bible. since most of the chinese are free from the influence of christianity, it is hard for them to attain this metaphorical meaning of shepherd. there were no big differences between the chinese and the german affective impression and conceptual representation of the metaphor the the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 (2009): …-… 13 figure 4: bipartite graph based on the feature ratings on the teacher is a candle under the condition of no role play (c: chinese, d: germans). in all, both the sam evaluation and the network analysis of the feature ratings show that there was a stronger consensus among the chinese in not only their affective impression but also the conceptual representation of the metaphor the teacher is a candle. conversely, the germans affectively and conceptually agreed with each other more than the chinese in understanding the metaphor the teacher is a shepherd. as to the metaphor the teacher is a captain, there were no obvious cultural differences. this indicates that a metaphor can be interpreted by different people differently due to the differences of their relevant pre-existing conceptual knowledge. the teacher is a candle was estimated by the chinese as a conventional and apt metaphor, because the source concept candle involves a pre-existing metaphorical meaning of “self-sacrifice” and “unselfishness” in the common chinese understanding. this metaphorical meaning of candle originates from the well-known poem untitled written by li, shangyin (813-858). lacking this background, the germans found it hard to access this metaphorical meaning unless it could be imported from a context. by contrast, the germans regarded the teacher is a shepherd as a conventional and apt metaphor. for them, shepherd means “love” and “care” because they all know “jesus is our shepherd” from the holy bible. since most of the chinese are free from the influence of christianity, it is hard for them to attain this metaphorical meaning of shepherd. there were no big differences between the chinese and the german affective impression and conceptual representation of the metaphor the 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 37 this metaphorical meaning of candle originates from the well-known poem untitled written by li, shangyin (813-858). lacking this background, the germans found it hard to access this metaphorical meaning unless it could be imported from a context. by contrast, the germans regarded the teacher is a shepherd as a conventional and apt metaphor. for them, shepherd means “love” and “care” because they all know “jesus is our shepherd” from the holy bible. since most of the chinese are free from the influence of christianity, it is hard for them to attain this metaphorical meaning of shepherd. there were no big differences between the chinese and the german affective impression and conceptual representation of the metaphor the teacher is a captain, because their preexisting conceptual knowledge of captain is more or less similar. another important finding is that context plays an important role in metaphor comprehension. the role play with the positive development encourages the congruence of the subjects’ understanding of the metaphor. the role play with the negative development causes more absurdities in understanding the metaphor. in all, this empirical study shows that the comprehension of a metaphor is related to the pre-existing conceptual knowledge of metaphor addressees, and the context, in which the metaphor appears. discussion according to results of the empirical study, the meaning of a metaphor is not necessarily obvious and constant and the metaphor comprehension is not a static process, but a dynamic one. the dynamics of metaphor comprehension can be demonstrated in the following two aspects: 1) the understanding of a metaphor may vary from person to person, according to their relevant pre-existing conceptual knowledge; 2) even the same person may understand one metaphor differently in different contexts. in an appropriate context, novel metaphors can be learned. the dynamics of metaphor comprehension largely results from the complex dynamic systems of language, thinking, affect, physicality and culture, of which metaphor is a part: dehui zhou & edgar heineken ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-4238 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 38 metaphor (…) has multiple interconnected dimensions: linguistic, cognitive, affective, physical and cultural (…) all dimensions of metaphor are dynamic, i.e. they unfold continuously in real time. metaphor, in all its manifestations, can then be seen as a part of the continuously changing and interconnected systems of language, thinking, affect, physicality and culture. (cameron, 2006: para. 1) with the interconnected complex dynamic systems of language, thinking, affect, physicality and culture as its frameworks, metaphor is like a brilliant cut diamond, which has many attractive facets that manifest the best play of light: some metaphors are only used within a special community to sustain intimacy for affective purpose; some other metaphors reflect the strong influence of the bodily experiences on our language and thinking; while yet other metaphors are culturally specific; so on and so forth. as a matter of fact, the inter-weaving of all those phenomena is reflected in the complexity of metaphor comprehension. in order to ensure the goal of creating and spreading knowledge, metaphor shall be used cautiously in academic communication to avoid unwanted misunderstanding and ambiguity. conventional and apt metaphors are relatively safe to be used because a congruent understanding of the metaphorical meaning is easy to attain among most people. nevertheless, most metaphors used in especially academic communication are novel metaphors or are at least used in an innovative way to communicate new knowledge or to provide a new perspective of seeing things (stambuk, 1998). this makes it more important for metaphor users to provide their readers or audience sufficient background information in context to ensure the accessibility to that metaphorical meaning. in conclusion, the academic usage of metaphor is no longer a to-be-or-notto be question, as once puzzled rationalists and empiricists in the seventeenth century. when metaphors are used to conceptualize theoretical constructs or communicate new knowledge in academic communication, they should be carefully selected and presented in appropriate contexts so as to ensure that the addressees can easily derive the intended metaphorical meaning. acknowledgements we are greatly indebted to michael white and the other anonymous reviewer for their precious comments on the earlier version of this paper. we would the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 39 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 39 also like to thank holly berg and kevin berg for improving the english language in this paper. 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(1989). “on the functional equivalence of literal and metaphorical interpretations”. journal of memory and language 28: 375-385. 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 40 dehui zhou has just finished her phd supervised by prof. dr. heineken at the department of informatics and cognitive science at the university duisburg-essen, germany. her doctoral research focuses on metaphor cognition and representation. edgar heineken is a full professor of general and experimental psychology at the department of informatics and cognitive science, university duisburg-essen, germany. he is also a member of the board of the international research center for magnetic resonance in medicine and cognitive sciences (erwin l. hahn institute for magnetic resonance imaging) at the university duisburg-essen. the use of metaphors in academic communication ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 41 lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago: university of chicago press. lakoff, g. 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(1993). “analogical reasoning and knowledge generation in organization theory”. organization studies 14: 323-346. 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 41 ibérica 18 [2009]: 23-42 dehui zhou & edgar heineken notes 1 the url address provided to the chinese subjects was http://heineken.uniduisburg.de/labor/versuche/dehui1. the url address provided to the german subjects was http://heineken.uni-duisburg.de/labor/versuche/huber1. 2 the english translations of the thirty-three features are: thoughtfulness, responsibility, intelligence, leadership, watchfulness, lightheartedness, delight, patience, plainness, enthusiasm, model, diligence, love, orientation, authority, influence, romance, helpfulness, unselfishness, experience, calmness, courage, quietness, justice, strictness, self-sacrifice, optimism, friendliness, tolerance, trust, warmth, brightness, and care. 3 the analysis of the subjects’ emails is not provided here, because the purpose of reporting the experiment in this article is to explore metaphor comprehension from the cognitive psychological perspective. in this sense, the examination of the affective impression and the conceptual representation of the three teacher metaphors are of the most interest here. 42 03 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:56 página 42 ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 abstract this article presents the results from ongoing research in the area of academic blog writing and language learning which began over four years ago. initially, the research examined the area of micropublishing, virtual writing and blogs for academic purposes (murray & hourigan, 2006), then moved on to identify specific pedagogical roles for blogs in language teaching and learning (murray & hourigan, 2008 forthcoming). the third phase of this research now examines the areas of creative expression, reflection and language acquisition in mandatory blog writings by students at a third level institution. previously in this research, students were asked, but not required, to keep a personal blog for up to five months; writing only about their language learning strategies and experiences with the declared aim of improving student language learning strategies through self-reflection and self-expression. students are, this time, required to write and ‘complete’ their academic blog as it represents one compulsory element –with due weighting, given its importance– of a language module assessment. this compulsory blog writing task has raised a number of pedagogical questions which will be explored, such as: effective integration, assessing and rewarding student creative expression within the blog medium, self-reflection as a language learner and ultimately the role and value of academic blog writing in language acquisition. key words: blogs, academic writing, micropublishing, assessment framework, integration. resumen integraci�n de la escritura de òblogsó con fines de aprendizaje del lenguaje acad�mico: en busca de un marco evaluativo blog writing integration for academic language learning purposes: towards an assessment framework liam murray, tríona hourigan & catherine jeanneau university of limerick (ireland) liam.murray@ul.ie, triona.hourigan@ul.ie, catherine.jeanneau@ul.ie 9 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 9 ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau en el presente artículo se exponen los resultados de una investigación llevada a cabo en el ámbito del aprendizaje de lenguas y la escritura académica de diarios virtuales o blogs que comenzó hace cuatro años y aún sigue en curso. en un principio se examinaron el tema de la microedición, la escritura virtual y los blogs con fines académicos (murray y hourigan, 2006). más tarde se concretaron las distintas funciones pedagógicas que de forma específica desempeñan los diarios virtuales en el proceso de enseñanza/aprendizaje de lenguas (murray y hourigan, 2008 en prensa). en la tercera fase, que es la que se presenta en este trabajo, se estudian las cuestiones relativas a la expresión creativa, la reflexión y la adquisición de lenguas en la realización de redacciones de diarios virtuales con carácter obligatorio por parte de alumnos de educación superior. en una etapa anterior, a los alumnos se les había pedido, pero no exigido, que durante cinco meses elaboraran y mantuvieran un blog en el que escribirían única y exclusivamente acerca de sus estrategias y experiencias de aprendizaje del inglés. la finalidad expresa de esta tarea consistía en conseguir que los alumnos mejorararan sus estrategias de aprendizaje mediante la auto-reflexión y autoexpresión. no obstante, esta vez los alumnos estaban obligados a escribir y completar sus diarios virtuales académicos, constituyendo esta tarea un elemento obligatorio que se somete a evaluación y, por su importancia, también se pondera como parte del módulo o asignatura de lenguas. toda esta experiencia de escritura obligatoria de diarios virtuales ha planteado diversas cuestiones de carácter pedagógico que se estudian a lo largo de este trabajo, como por ejemplo: integración efectiva, evaluación y reconocimiento positivo de la expresión creativa del alumno dentro del ámbito de los blogs, reflexión individual como estudiante de lenguas y, finalmente, la función y el valor que puede desempeñar la escritura de diarios virtuales académicos en el desarrollo de una nueva lengua. palabras clave: blogs, escritura académica, microedición, marco evaluativo, integración. introduction the recent emergence and growing popularity of blogs over the last number of years has presented practitioners of call with the opportunity to exploit this non-dedicated tool for specific language learning purposes. such resources represent the current proliferation of generic tools onto the market which, if exploited appropriately, may provide learners with additional aids which can be integrated into their studies. further, while products such as mp3 players, mobile phones, blogs, google services, and social networking sites may be used by consumers in their daily recreational activities, their application to a distinct academic language learning context 10 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 10 presents a significant area for consideration. the main challenge for teachers lies in identifying the l2 potential of these tools in order to create a meaningful context for their appropriation within the language learning classroom. for a language learner examining such a generic tool, the difficulty in creating the necessary order and structure required for classroom exploitation is one of the main challenges associated with this approach. in particular, the question of defining the characteristics of academic blogs becomes increasingly difficult when we take into account the chaotic world of the blogosphere. indeed, due to the ever-expanding structure of this distinct online space, the presence of blogs is becoming increasing noticeable across a wide range of contexts, from journalistic commentaries to reflective writings of a personal nature which are visible on social networking sites such as bebo.com and myspace.com. in fact, the amorphous structure of the blogosphere (murray & hourigan, 2008 forthcoming) is indicative of its continuously evolving format, which, dependent on the actual intended audience, may be exploited for either personal and/or commercial purposes. while this sense of disorder may be viewed as problematic by some, the inherent flexibility afforded by this environment presents the practitioner with rich sources of blog formats, which can be tailored accordingly to their specific pedagogical needs. the most important factor for consideration here involves the establishment of an effective teaching approach which outlines the practitioner’s specific aims and objectives. this should also present an appropriate assessment framework in relation to the task which is being set. thus, the paper shall discuss specifically the question of outlining a viable pedagogical framework which proposes a set of guidelines for the assessment of l2 academic blogs. firstly, we shall consider the current literature in this area, taking note of questions such as task creation, purpose and authenticity (chapelle, 2001) and then the issue of effective information and communication techonology (ict) integration. secondly, our specific methodological approach shall be discussed with particular emphasis placed on the distinct context established by the design of the “language and technology” module at the institution where this study took place. this relates primarily to the establishment of a 20% essay assignment which involved learners firstly writing their own blog entries over the course of the semester and secondly using these entries as part of their (self-) analysis for the academic essay. blog writing integration ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 11 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 11 examples of previous research on writing and assessment the issue of writing assessment has long been a key concern for researchers in terms of the development of both transferable communicative skills and the improvement of students’ l1/l2 written standard (leki & carson, 1994; hamp-lyons, 2002; hawkey & barker, 2004). for instance, hamp-lyons (2002: 5) notes that “the written word remains a principal medium of communication” which can create “understanding” between people. thus, implementing a strategic framework with regard to promoting the quality of writing emerges as a significant factor to consider in this context. understandably, the question of accurately measuring the learner’s written communication capacity has evolved over the last 50 years or so, with increasing emphasis placed on ensuring a fair, accountable and viable examination procedure. according to yancey (1999) three main developments in the history of writing assessment can be identified. the first stage 1950-1970, witnessed the implementation of objective tests as the predominant format used to evaluate learners’ composition skills. eventually, these tests were replaced during the second assessment phase (1970-1986) which was characterised by the holistically scored essay. finally, the current wave of assessment (1986 to present) is by and large associated with portfolio-based work (little, 2002; hirvela & sweetland, 2005). indeed, this present trend is regarded as helpful for making learners more accountable for their own work (herter, 1991) and as such, reveals a more detailed account of learner development and progression. hence, writing assessment can be viewed in terms of measuring reliability and validity, with both concepts now dominating the current approach (huot, 1996). in fact, this question will be discussed more specifically later in this section when we examine the impact of the process and post-process approaches to academic writing. as aforementioned, many studies relating to written language assessment are mainly concerned with the area of composition, with particular emphasis placed on the development of essay writing skills within a third level environment. examples of such studies include: the evaluation of assessment essays (barritt et al., 1986), comparing both direct and indirect assessment (breland & gaynor, 1979; meredith & williams, 1984; heck & crislip, 2001), implementing standardised rating scales for evaluating work (brown et al., 2004; hawkey & barker, 2004), refining one’s skills (mccarthy l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-3212 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 12 et al., 1985) and providing training for learners in specific discourses (cheng, 2006). the question of writing within a language learning context may typically involve numerous approaches. examples may include the establishment of pedagogical practices such as explicit grammar instruction or indeed the introduction of specific task types –for instance exploring the differences between descriptive and narrative writing (reichelt, 2001). additionally, evaluation procedures may adopt various structured formats in terms of content, for example, functional composition (kelley, 2001) or context such as timed assessments (lee, 2002). while a number of callbased studies have explored similar issues using alternative l2 aids such as corpora, multi-user domains object oriented (moos) tools, and computer mediated communication (cmc) tools (liu & sadler, 2003; hempel, 2006; o’sullivan & chambers, 2006), there has been little previous research which provides a valid framework for blog assessment. however, one paper by murray & hourigan (2006) has provided guidelines for implementing blog writing assessment tasks within a generic framework for micropublishing tools. furthermore, studies undertaken within the more conventional classroom setting provide us with a helpful set of criteria which can be further adapted to the l2 academic blog writing environment. one of the main features common to these studies is the emphasis on the role of the teacher in terms of establishing an appropriate context for successful task creation. underlining the four main areas of research into l2 writing, archibald & jeffery (2000) discuss themes such as: the process, product, context and teaching of writing as key factors to consider when addressing this issue. they recognise the complex activity of this multifaceted task which requires proficiency in several areas of skill and knowledge. thus, in this context, the teacher should be familiar with the broad range of written expression skills, the objectives of the specific writing task and the needs and characteristics of those being assessed. furthermore, huot (1996) had already discussed several years earlier five main areas for consideration in relation to writing assessment. he believes that the process should be: site based, locally controlled, context sensitive, rhetorically based and accessible to learners. additionally, tailoring one’s pedagogical design to learner needs is outlined as another crucial feature of successful task creation. for instance, hawkey & barker (2004) examine the production of a scale of descriptors which match different levels of writing proficiency. elsewhere, connor-linton (1995) reaffirms this idea by focussing on the important relationship between the blog writing integration ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 13 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 13 actual rating process and the individual teacher’s objectives in the task. in fact, a call was made four years earlier to provide forms of composition evaluation which were consistent with the teacher’s pedagogical goals and indeed their personal beliefs about the development of academic writing skills (hamp-lyons, 1991). additionally, the actual role to be assumed by the teacher during this process is investigated, with particular interest placed on the provision of feedback via teacher comments (hedgcock & lefkowitz, 1996; conrad & goldstein, 1999). moreover, the writing task is implemented as an intervention exercise in order to explore its impact on the learning experience (new, 1999; bangert-drowns et al., 2004; hyland & hyland, 2006). interestingly, part of the process may also involve handing over control to students with regard to the writing assessment. for example, duke & sanchez (1994) discuss their particular approach which encourages students to derive their own set of assessment criteria which could be employed either individually or in peer response groups. this again is dependent on the context of the assessment and the teacher’s main objectives. other studies such as becker (2003) place a great deal of importance on the idea of fostering self-expression in composition and once again outline the significance of bridging the classroom instruction approach with the aim of improving fl competency. interestingly, the question of self-expression has been discussed in detail by cumming (2002). he observes how ethical issues come into play with regard to the distinct type of text being produced. cumming notes the difficulty in assessing writing for specific purposes when used to express ideas such as personal development, intercultural negotiation, knowledge and emancipation. he outlines the importance in distinguishing between functional writing tasks and those which foster independent expression or thought. in fact, whilst this tension identified in terms of the production of personalised content shall be addressed in more detail in the methodology section of this paper, we must clarify our accepted definition of “personalisation” now. in our research context, we remain aware of the current inchoate definition of educational personalisation (hartley, 2007) and so within this “management of the study process”, we are referring to the “facilities for the personalisation of content, time, place and pace” (schoenmakers et al., 2000: 10), where students learn about personalisation (hartnell-young et al., 2006) and many of its inherent benefits and applications for meeting their own needs (condie & munro, 2007). l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-3214 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 14 the lengthy debate between both product and process approaches exists as another contributory factor in the teacher’s design of an appropriate assessment approach. as noted in our earlier observation on the history of academic writing assessment, the gradual shift in emphasis from the final written product to the actual approach adopted by the learner acknowledges the inherent complexity of the writing task (matsuda, 2003). while the initial product approach has not completely been disregarded of late (ferris & hodgcock, 1998), some teachers prefer to adopt the process method as it allows learner-writers to become more self-aware when revising and producing text as part of the composition process (raimes, 1983; phinney, 1989; pennington & brock, 1992). in fact, the activities associated with this approach such as: (re)drafting, generating ideas, structuring, focusing, micro and macro editing and the re-drafting of work indicate a highly flexible method which may produce more effective writing (carpenter & slater, 2000). as noted in an earlier paper on blogs (murray & hourigan, 2006), both expressivism and socio-cognitivist approaches present equally viable procedures in the teacher’s overall task design. by expressivism, we refer to the promotion of fluency in the learner’s written output as a means to encourage the development of a more creative approach to writing. consequently, this allows the student to address issues such as selfexploration and discovery in the written academic assignment (berlin, 1988). in contrast, the socio-cognitivist school of thought approaches the task from a problem-solving angle with great weight placed on practising both higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. as such, this type of specifically-purposed assignment may be more suited to collaborative activities and is once again subject to the teacher’s prior task objectives (bloch & crosby, 2006; jeanneau & batardière, 2006; bloch, 2007). there also exists the post-process approach to writing (kent, 1999; atkinson, 2003), wherein it is possible to view this particular procedure as an extension of the process paradigm, rather than as a rejection of it, and “post-process might be more productively defined as the rejection of the dominance of process at the expense of other aspects of writing and writing instruction” (matsuda, 2003: 67). generally, it relates to receiving effective and critical feedback from the teacher, most frequently via written commentaries (goldstein, 2004). for a more comprehensive discussion of these processes please refer to murray & hourigan (2006 & 2008 forthcoming), but table 1 should suffice for our purposes here. blog writing integration ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 15 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 15 integration and blog assessment thus, to briefly summarise, the establishment of a viable blog integration framework is dependent on a number of different issues. firstly, in terms of assessing academic writing, the teacher should be aware of the following: • issues of validity and accountability in evaluating the written content. • their personal objectives and aims in terms of written skill development. • the specific aspect of writing to be targeted (for example, discourse specific, self-expression, grammatical testing). • the context of the task (for example single-authored (expressivist) or collaborative approaches (socio-cognitivist)). keeping these in mind, it is also imperative to consider a number of issues relevant to the integration of this generic writing tool which is being adapted for specific call purposes. these may include: • learning environment (classroom-based or self-study). • learner profiles (covering their previous exposure and experience to more general ict use in their studies and in their online social networking, and of course their current language attainment levels). • creation of a relevant, meaningful and authentic context, including the justification for using the tool in question. these issues shall be discussed in more detail in the next section which deals with our methodological approach. more importantly, we shall outline the particular context of the “language and technology” module and how we established our pedagogical framework based on the above criteria in order to assess and reward where appropriate the student writings. l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-3216 ibérica 14 [2007]: …-…6 post-process approach writing (kent, 2003), wherein it is possible to view this particular procedure as an extension of the process paradigm, rather than as a rejection of it, and “post-process might be more productively defined as the rejection of the dominance of process at the expense of other aspects of writing and writing instruction” (matsuda, 2003: 67). generally, it relates to receiving effective and critical feedback from the teacher, most frequently via written commentaries (goldstein, 2004). for a more comprehensive discussion of these processes please refer to murray & hourigan (2006 & 2008 forthcoming), but table 1 should suffice for our purposes here. process and post-process approach socio-cognitivist expressivist • collective dissemination of knowledge • peer discussion • collaborative processing and application of data • single publication comprising plurality of authors • the “author’s voice” • creative • reflective • vanity-publishing factor • collaboration between student and teacher table 1. summary of approaches. 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 16 methodology background information and learner profiles the participants involved in this study were second year students who had registered on the “language and technology” course at the third level institution where this research took place (i.e., the university of limerick). this module introduces students to a wide variety of resources over a 12 week period. students learn to use and evaluate tools such as: generic and dedicated language learning websites, automated summarising software, corpora and concordancing software, blogs and machine translation techniques. furthermore, this module is the only one of its kind offered to language learners at the university and as the course outline declares, attempts to: “introduce students to the major pedagogical, professional and research applications of technology in modern languages and to enable students to integrate these into their studies”.1 the class generally comprises learners from a variety of modern foreign languages courses including: language and cultural studies (7 students), applied languages (13 students), applied languages and computing (3 students), and erasmus students (9 non-native english speakers). as part of this variety, the group is made up of students at different stages of their language learning, ranging from post-beginner to advanced levels. given the large diversity in the language competencies of the students, the blogs were to be written in english. this did not disadvantage the erasmus students at all, who on the contrary found it quite a normal exercise to be writing in their target language, english. no comments or complaints about the choice of the target language were made by erasmus students, either in the blogs or in their essays. the cohort of students from the year 2006-07, during this, our third study on student blog writing, numbered 32 and is profiled along with estimates of their language output, in table 2. blog writing integration ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 17 l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau course outline declares, attempts to: “introduce students to the major pedagogical, professional and research applications of technology in modern languages and to enable students to integrate these into their studies”. 1 the class generally comprises learners from a variety of modern foreign languages courses including: language and cultural studies (7 students), applied languages (13 students), applied languages and computing (3 students), and erasmus students (9 non-native english speakers). as part of this variety, the group is made up of students at different stages of their language learning, ranging from post-beginner to advanced levels. given the large diversity in the language competencies of the students, the blogs were to be written in english. this did not disadvantage the erasmus at all, who on the contrary found it quite a normal exercise to be writing in their target language, english. no comments or complaints about the choice of the target language were made by erasmus students, either in the blogs or in their essays. the cohort of students from the year 2006-07, during this, our third study on student blog writing, numbered 32 and is profiled along with estimates of their language output, in table 2. group profile yr 2006-07 and language output group size: n = 32 total number of students who submitted essays: s = 32 distribution across language levels: post-beginner = 3 lower intermediate = 5 intermediate = 14 higher = 3 advanced = 7 total sample = 32 average number of postings per week: 3 number of weeks: 12 average number of words per posting: 177 average total for postings: 6372 words final essay: 1000 words table 2. group profile yr 2006-07 and language output. the wide range of language proficiency levels makes the issue of training learners to personalise their approach an important concern for the teacher when planning the assessment for this module. the main languages which are studied are: english, irish, french, spanish, and german with a lower percentage studying japanese. as such, the course provides these students with a valuable opportunity to adapt and personalise numerous types of callware to their individual needs as learners. up to this point in their studies, students would 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 17 the wide range of language proficiency levels makes the issue of training learners to personalise their approach an important concern for the teacher when planning the assessment for this module. the main languages which are studied are: english, irish, french, spanish, and german with a lower percentage studying japanese. as such, the course provides these students with a valuable opportunity to adapt and personalise numerous types of callware to their individual needs as learners. up to this point in their studies, students would have received instruction in the traditional face-toface classroom format. however, as the university is currently piloting an elearning management system, it would be hoped that in the future learners would receive more exposure to such alternative tools during their time at university. at present, students who take this course are generally inexperienced in the use of callware and would not have a great deal of prior experience with using either dedicated or generic tools in their language studies. however, this may change in time if the use of the university-wide virtual learning environment (vle) becomes more widespread among staff. academic assessment previously, assessment in this course comprised the completion of two 50% projects based on their evaluation and integration of any two tools which must be completed by the end of the semester. however, as part of our action research approach (mcniff & whitehead, 2003), the assessment method was amended from the previous year. this was due to the fact that the existing structure allowed the students to choose and evaluate two tools from the list of software integrated into the course curriculum. as such, there was no mandatory element of the assessment, which could allow the teacher to track and monitor both the learners’ integration and evaluation of any given tool. given the compulsory nature of the blog entries and essay tasks, it would guarantee this monitoring on an iterative and on a summative basis. consequently, it was decided to award 40% for the two main essays with an extra 20% for the establishment and assessment of a language learning (ll) reflective blog. the smaller percentage of marks was offered for the academic blog essay in order to decrease the sense of pressure and urgency which students often experienced in the more weighted assignments. this sometimes resulted in students cramming their lab practice sessions and producing generalized content which was not personalised enough or directly relevant to their experiences. thus, the l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-3218 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 18 marks were awarded on students successfully establishing the blog and subsequently framing these examples of self-expression within a wellstructured essay. in addition, we wanted to guide learners in making the gradual transition from the generic blogosphere to the ll specific blog space. thus, it was important to achieve balance between the practical aspect of making blog entries and the pedagogical aim of producing reflective ll content. therefore, the blog exercise had to be completed over the 12 week period with frequent entries (at least 3 entries per week) to be made by the learner. the address had to be emailed to the teacher at the start of term in order for their work to be tracked over the semester. the content of these entries would then form the basis for the student’s 1000 word essay whereby they would reflect upon the following: 1. how they integrated the blog; and 2. whether or not they would continue to use it as part of their long term ll strategies. due to the fact that this assessment focused on the issues of self-expression and reflection, students were not marked down on the personalised content of the blog or the essay. on the other hand, marks were awarded for: • 10%: structure and presentation of the essay. students were given guidelines on writing the academic essay during class time as well as a style sheet which was made available on the course website. • 10%: elaboration and development of points, using examples and quotations from the learners’ personalised blog entries. as highlighted earlier, learners had to produce content that was both personalised and reflective in nature. these reflections had to focus on their experiences as language learners only as a means to make learners more aware of their individual ll strategies over the course of the semester. furthermore, the added value of using the blog meant that students were producing content that was instantly accessible on the web, which could potentially attract comments from other users, whether they were classmates or anonymous bloggers. please consult table 3 for a summary of our assessment procedure in this module. blog assignments: action research blog writing integration ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 19 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 19 data analysis as aforementioned, students from the class were encouraged to establish firstly a personalised context for their ll specific blog, which in turn would provide useful data for their end of semester assignment. in fact, the academic essay would play an important role in allowing the students to reflect upon and assess the process at the end of this three month period. consequently, students were awarded marks based upon how they developed l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-3220 blog writing integration ibérica 14 [2007]: …-… 11 blog assignments: action research yr 1: initial model participation potential issues with assessment areas to be addressed module assignment: essay open to choice of 2 topics (including machine translation, website evaluation, corpora, summarising software, blogs) reduced numbers of participants due to wide range of choices available • students had to submit essays during weeks 10 and 13 of the semester. there was no formal log of how students were using and practising the software over semester. essays were evaluative in nature and the amount of time for practise and exposure was dependent on the topic’s order in the teaching block • in addition, the teachers were concerned that learners were “cramming” their practice time in the multimedia lab and may have been prone to producing standardised analysis in their essays due to the heavy weighting of the 50% essay. more emphasis on personalisation was needed. • establish task (weighted at 20%) which would encourage active reflective content on the ll process as well as the provision of dated entries in order to indicate the frequency of the learner’s use of the medium. example of enforced disruption. • timescale of the task would last for the full duration of the module and would require learners to personalise their web space and content • it could also potentially provide a reflective space for their experiences with using the other pieces of software on the course • aim: to “enforce” in a gentle manner a more structured and disciplined approach towards the integration of a specific piece of callware yr 2: current model participation potential issues with assessment areas to be addressed module weighting: students now had to complete three essays. two, weighted at 40%, were chosen from a choice of themes covered during the term (machine translation, website evaluation, social networking platforms, corpora). students also had to complete a mandatory blog and essay weighted at 20%. 100% participation as this was a mandatory exercise • essay due week 13 of the semester • students had to make regular blog entries during the term. their blog addresses had to be firstly emailed to the teacher. this was to promote active reflection on their ll. • final product would include 1000 word essay in conjunction with regular blog entries by the student at least 3 times per week. • personalisation of content (self-expression and selfquotation for the essay) • reflection on ll strategies • reflection on language awareness • quality of self-analysis and realisation • good organisation and structure; clear development of points table 3. summary of academic blog assessment objectives. 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 20 this sense of personalisation and the manner in which they framed their discussion within a coherent and well structured essay. hence, in this section we shall deal primarily with these two important issues, beginning firstly with an examination of how students individualised their content in the blog medium. secondly, a number of examples relating to structure and cohesion shall be considered, looking at issues such as organisational devices, development (or indeed, lack of development) of key issues and the use of self-quotation as a means of clarifying certain points. end of term essay: personalised reflection generally, we can divide the majority of themes into three main areas: context of use, maintenance of relevant ll content, and self-discovery. one of the chief aims of the essay was to encourage students to contextualise their use of the blog writing space over the course of the semester. thus, while the focus and content of the blog were predetermined by the course programme, students were still free to choose their topics of interest once these related predominantly to their ll practices. as stated earlier, we wanted learners to personalise their content in order to place more emphasis on their roles as learners in the ll process. interestingly, some students noted how this gently enforced approach made their attempts to standardise output relatively difficult. for instance, one student remarked that after a while they became less aware of the fact that they were “writing” for the sake of getting a good grade with the result that their content became more “honest” in nature. this may simply be because the learner did not feel pressurised to write what “someone would like to hear” in relation to their language learning. ideally, it was hoped that this sense of freedom would gradually encourage learners to become more creative in their choice of theme development. during the course of the semester, learners would be able to switch to issues which emerged as being of greater importance to them at different points of the experience. consequently, this would allow the individual the opportunity to place themselves at the centre of the reflective process as examples (1) and (2) from students outline: example (1) in comparison to the grammar book exercises or activities like learning lists of words by heart, the blog leaves a lot of space for a student’s panache, imagination and educational freedom. blog writing integration ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 21 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 21 example (2) i love the diversity of it. i love the fact that i can write a spanish essay and then totally change my mode of thinking and write a japanese essay using a whole different word structure, word ordernot to mention alphabet!! [sic] by introducing this approach into the academic essay format, we could identify a broad range of themes emerging from the learners’ examination and analysis. furthermore, it was hoped that this additional post-process reflection would help learners firstly to monitor their sense of focus and commitment throughout this period and secondly to offer recommendations with regard to their future development of ll strategies in their studies. in fact, many honest examples of the students’ appropriation of the tool were subsequently noted, ranging from general satisfaction with the medium to confessions of laziness due to a lack of motivation. one student remarked that they were too “lazy” to do any work related to language learning because they were generally “unmotivated” over the course of the semester. the question of motivation also emerged with regard to maintaining ll specific content in the blog. some learners found it difficult to write solely about their language learning experiences and at times suffered from writer’s block. in one particular case, the learner tried to address this issue by moving from a discussion on mechanical aspects of language acquisition to a more generalised account of their own experience of ll in ireland. therefore, the possibility of producing such “improvised” thematic content was an important aspect of the writing task, as a means to encourage learners to open up and explore their own language learning world. in other cases, learners noted how the switch from recreational usage to a more dedicated ll context was yet another challenge to address. for instance: example (3) this is something about the blog which would not help in language learning because as there are no rules or boundaries it is easy to go off in a tangent, in a sense you just write what you are thinking. example (4) an effective blog demands knowledge and a lot of personal perseverance. otherwise, it remains just an entertainment. [sic] example (5) i think i will keep blogging, not for language technology, but rather i will l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-3222 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 22 start a personal blog. of course, i will write the blog in english, so this way i also gain something from it language-wise. [erasmus student] in these examples from students’ academic essays, we see that learners are concerned with the “effectiveness” of the appointed task which requires a certain amount of input from the student in order to work appropriately. in fact, as students begin to frame this experience within a dedicated learning environment, their expectations change and we can identify attempts to establish goals which relate directly to their ll experiences. in some cases, as seen in the last quotation, ll goals could indeed be maintained in the development of future blog content by writing in the foreign language, regardless of the theme. this outlines the potential for students to maintain some of the strategies developed during the course as part of their long term integration of the tool. in addition to issues related to context of use and the creation of appropriate content, learners frequently made reference to experiencing a sense of self-discovery and personal growth during this reflective period. indeed, before undertaking this task, many students admitted that they had not previously considered their individual practices as language learners and only became aware of these characteristics during this period. these experiences were relatively positive, with individuals reporting on how the blog gave them confidence in relation to their status as learners, which in turn renewed their sense of commitment to the process. for some learners, the academic writing task allowed them to develop particular methods and approaches which suited their own writing styles. these included using the blog space for specific purposes such as: • a “memory aid”: “the blog reminds me of what i have already acquired”. • analysing existing methods: “writing down this progress online has helped me analyse my methods”. • planning future goals: “this made me realise that when i go to paris and seville during the coming year that i am going to have to make the most of my time abroad”. • taking action to improve weak areas: “downloading language material to my ipod; private tuition; pronunciation practice with my sister …”. blog writing integration ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 23 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 23 in addition to making positive discoveries about their roles as language learners, students in the class also outlined examples of negative affective factors which influenced their attitudes towards their studies. in some cases, these were relatively positive, with individuals reporting that the blog gave them confidence in relation to their status as learners, which in turn renewed their sense of commitment to the process. in fact, the relative sense of satisfaction expressed in their blogs served to validate their established methods and consequently, emerged as a helpful motivational aid. however, in other cases the self-examination component of the task revealed seemingly negative aspects of the language acquisition process, which previously may not have been obvious to learners. in these cases, affective issues such as shyness, lack of confidence, intimidation and fear all emerged as additional factors which influenced how students approached their language learning in general. these problems related not only to working with a new medium but were also applied to their general experiences at the university. examples of topics included reservations about the nature of blogs, intimidation by the online environment and fear of the self-access centre: example (6) when i first started writing a blog i found it hard to grasp the concept of sharing my thoughts, especially on language learning, with other people, god forbid they might disagree with what i wrote or my style of writing. example (7) i started off with a negative attitude to the blog and i don’t think i benefited as much from the experience because of this. example (8) my blog is my bank of irrational fears regarding language learning. it has also revealed to me that i fear the lra (language resource area). these examples pinpoint the potential benefits synonymous with the blog medium, if used effectively. while these citations above reflect negative experiences underlined in the blogs, the possibility for learners to gain perspective on their personae as language learners is undoubtedly helpful in this context. in effect, learners have the chance to compare their experiences at the time of composition with their present understanding of the language learning process. as such, both the blog and the essay content provide the l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-3224 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 24 opportunity for the learner to track their personal development and to take suitable action if required. in the next section of the article, we shall look predominantly at examples of structures and cohesion from both the student blog entries and from their resultant end of term academic essays, in order to assess their value to both teacher and student in identifying ll strategies and language awareness. structures and organisation in attempting to map the structures, cohesion and organisation of the blog entries and essays we will examine the student academic writings using the following, although by no means exhaustive list of criteria: evidence of supplementary reading; style transference; self-quotation for clarification; discourse; examples of introductions and conclusions from the same essays; examples of bibliographies. due to space constraints and to facilitate easier reading, our examples will be presented in the appendix. evidence of supplementary reading looking at the content provided by students in the group, it is possible to identify evidence of supplementary reading in a number of blogs. typically, the learner frames this reading task within a distinct language learning objective, thus adhering to the primary aim of this particular essay. examples include citing interesting quotations by well-known authors as well as detailing literature which the student is currently reading in their foreign language. this particular practice reflects the manner in which students attempt to contextualise their learning in order to clarify the blog’s specific role in their l2 studies. style transference within this category, we have identified many examples of different writing styles discussing similar content. the blog writing style is nearly always informal, familiar and coherent –the students rarely, if ever, deviated from the set tasks. this informal style was expected but never imposed upon the student by the lecturers. we then see in the academic essay evidence of some informal writing styles encroaching upon the formal submitted essay. further research will be needed to explore the influence of the medium upon the mixing of such writing styles. blog writing integration ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 25 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 25 self-quotation for clarification another significant feature which arises in this essay task is the use of selfquotation for clarification purposes. this particular strategy again reinforces the reflective nature of the task and highlights the attempts by the learner to develop a more profound and thoughtful analysis of their sla activities. for instance, we can see how learners used their blog entries in order to track their individual development as language learning bloggers during the course of the semester. by using this “self-quotation” approach, many learners were able to assume a more objective role at the end of the process, in terms of evaluating their individual strategies. this in turn led to a more critical understanding of the language learning task, as outlined in our example which considers the challenges of acquiring a language outside of the target language community. discourse these examples show how in the foucaultian sense of discourse the students have gained some comprehension of themselves as language learners, in particular their language learning strategies and then acted upon these reflections by “modifying one’s actions” (gee, 1990: 37). this is where we have found the strongest evidence of some lasting and positive impact upon the learner caused by the blog and essay writing exercises. organisation of content: introduction, conclusion, bibliography finally, the use of organisational devices such as an introduction and a conclusion emerged as an important aspect for consideration in this task. the fact that this was an academic exercise may well have had an effect on the way learners presented and discussed their work in both the essay and the blog. while these features would be a required element for submitting a standard essay at the university of limerick, it is also interesting to note the inclusion of such devices in a number of blogs. these may have been chosen by learners in order to make the distinction between “recreational” and “academic” blogging, as a means to reinforce their attempts to produce more reflective written production. indeed, many students printed extracts from their blogs which were submitted as appendices in their essays, once again displaying their attempts to adhere to the specific task allocated to this generic medium. readers may also recognise or wish to note the growing use of web-based sources, especially wikipedia, in academic essays. l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-3226 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 26 conclusion in our context of research and assessment, the blog represents the academic writing process method in which the student composes in an admittedly enforced medium of self-expression and analysis. the blog writing also represents aspects of a post-process method with opportunities to rationalise and reflect upon the “expressions of the self ”. the formal academic essay also corresponds to the post-process approach, offering to the teacher an academically-valid assessment framework for providing effective feedback; and to the student an academically-endorsed acknowledgement of the quality of their self-analysis and possible discovery of their most effective ll strategies. from our data we have found that most students understood the potential of blogs as a reflexive tool on ll and the benefits thereof. yet, some remained who did not. this may require an improved integration technique on our part. the main task for researchers interested in this ll approach will be to improve upon the pedagogical and writing processes involved in turning future “masterpiece[s] of scattered thought and random concepts” (comment from blog, please see appendix) into better quality academic essays. 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(1991). “research and practice: writing portfolios: alternatives to testing”. the english journal 80: 90-91. hirvela, a. & y.l. sweetland (2005). “two case studies of l2 writers’ experiences across learning-directed portfolio contexts”. assessing writing 10: 192-213. huot, b. (1996). “toward a new theory of writing assessment”. college composition and communication 47: 549-567. hyland, k. & f. hyland (2006). “feedback on second language students’ writing”. language teaching 39: 83-101. jeanneau, c. & m-t. batardière (2006). quel est le boeuf? beefing up language classes with collaborative blogs. unpublished conference paper. eurocall conference, 4-7 september, university of granada, spain. kelley, a.k. (2001). “some suggestions for teaching intermediate composition”. the french review 75: 128-140. kent, t. (1999). post-process theory: beyond the writing process paradigm. carbondale: southern illinois university press. lee, y.-j. (2002). “a comparison of composing processes and written products in timed-essay tests across paper-and-pencil and computer modes”. assessing writing 8: 135-157. leki, i. & j.g. carson (1994). “students’ perceptions of eap writing instruction and writing needs across the disciplines”. tesol quarterly 28: 81-101. little, d. (2002). “the european language portfolio: structure, origins, implementation and challenges”. language teaching 35: 182-189. liu, j. & r.w. sadler (2003). “the effect and affect of peer review in electronic versus traditional modes on l2 writing”. journal of english for academic purposes 2: 193-227. matsuda, p.k. (2003). “process and post-process: a discursive history”. journal of second language writing 12: 65-83. 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 28 dr. liam murray teaches courses on computer-assisted language learning, french civilization and cyberculture, e-learning and web site design and evaluation at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. areas of research interest include call, automatic summarization and the application of blog writing to second language acquisition. he has been coeditor, and is at present software reviews editor, of the international journal recall. dr. tríona hourigan teaches courses in language technology and second language acquisition. areas of research interest include intercultural communication, multimedia call, integration of generic callware, elearning and automated summarisation. catherine jeanneau is research and development manager of the university of limerick language support unit. she is also involved in several projects on the integration of new technologies in the language classroom. her research interests include second language acquisition, learner autonomy, technology and language learning, especially virtual learning environments. blog writing integration ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 29 mccarthy, p., s. meier & r. rinderer (1985). “self-efficacy and writing: a different view of self-evaluation”. college composition and communication 36: 465-471. mcniff, j. & j. whitehead (2003). action research: principles and practice. falmer press. meredith, v.h. & p.l. williams (1984). “issues in direct writing assessment: problem identification and control”. educational measurement: issues and practice 3: 11-15 & 35. murray, l. & t. hourigan (2006). “using micropublising to facilitate writing in the foreign language” in l. ducate and n. arnold (ed.), calling on call: from theory to research to new directions in foreign language teaching, 149-179. texas: calico monograph series. murray, l. & t. hourigan (2008 forthcoming). “blogs for specific purposes: expressivist or sociocognitivist approach?” recall 20. new, e. (1999). “computer-aided writing in french as a foreign language: a qualitative and quantitative look at the process of revision”. the modern language journal 83: 80-97. o’sullivan, i. & a. chambers (2006). “learners’ writing skills in french: corpus consultation and learner evaluation”. journal of second language writing 15: 49-68. pennington, m.c. & m.n. brock (1992). “process and product approaches to computer-assisted composition” in m.c. pennington & v. stephens (ed.), computers in applied linguistics, 79-109. clevedon: multilingual matters. phinney, m. (1989). “computers, composition, and second language teaching” in m.c. pennington (ed.), teaching languages with computers: the state of the art, 81-96. la jolla: athelstan. raimes, a. (1983). techniques in teaching writing. oxford: oxford university press. reichelt, m. (2001). “a critical review of foreign language writing research on pedagogical approaches”. the modern language journal 85: 578-598. schoenmakers, s., l. a. plugge & p.a. kirschner (2000). criteria for the evaluation of electronic learning environments. report of mmi/learning lab, maastricht. url: http://members.home.nl/l.a.plug ge1/plugge/publications/papers/unesco%20criteria%20f or%20the%20evaluation%20of %20electronic%20learning.pdf [27/07/2007] thorne, k. (2003). blended learning: how to integrate online and traditional learning. london: kogan page. yancey, k.b. (1999). “looking back as we look forward: historicizing writing assessment”. college composition and communication 50: 483-503. 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 29 notes 1 for a detailed description of the course, including the blended task methodology (thorne (2003) and abermann (2004) are quite useful on blended task creation techniques), see http://www.ul.ie/~appliedlanguages/li4113_course_outline.htm). appendix. criteria and examples from blogs and academic essays. l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-3230 l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau appendix. criteria and examples from blogs and academic essays. essay: as jane wagner said, (shown above) language is the medium through which we complain about life. in my personal experience, blogs are the medium through which i complain about language. evidence of supplementary reading blog: lately i have been reading harry potter and the philosopher's stone in the spanish language which translates as harry potter y la piedra filosifial, or something along those lines. essay: in my first year, my x teacher wanted us to keep a learner diary, but it didn’t work out. in essentials i thought it was an excellent idea. it was my understanding that it was supposed to be doubly beneficial. firstly, it was for us to discover ourselves what works for us and what doesn’t. we were to examine ourselves for our own sake, but we were to turn them in, so that she could review and find out what aspects of her class worked and what didn’t. secondly it was so she could learn what she could do to cater to the learning style and needs of her students. it’s the same idea in principle. the learner diary, like my blog is similar in that it not only serves as a learner journal, to note new grammar points and vocabulary words that one has learned recently or found particularly interesting or tricky. it covers both theory and practise of language learning. to sum up, i cannot say that during the duration of my erasmus exchange in ireland neverendingstory blog was playing a crucial role in the acquisition of the foreign languages i learn. but undoubtedly it was a significant experience, especially as far as written english is concerned. the blog forced me to spend some time creating the posts in english, checking phrases and reediting my own mistakes. it was also a place to publish for myself already acquired words and recollect them later. i treat neverendingstory as a funny, engaging language learning experience and a fruitful exercise which has developed my knowledge of both english and german. style transference blog: i remember in first year, x asked us to keep a learner diary, but it didn't pan out. i still thought it was an excellent idea. i'm not sure if it was for our benefit or for hers... whether we were to keep this diary to use for our own good, to help us with our own studies, or if it was for her sake, trying to learn how her students learn and what she could do to cater to those needs. pity it didn't work out. either way it would have been a worthwhile project... the very last official post. it is a touching moment... i'll try not to cry;) what should i actually write on this special occassion?? hm... i like my blog:) in a minute i'll send an essay which sums up this piece of work. well, some new words seem to be the most appropriate..to entice, to savour, to hit the ceiling, welfare remorses. it's not the end anyway. it's a neverendingstory. :). essay: upon starting the blog i felt it was important to outline why i was doing so and this can be clearly seen in the first post of 29th september. being a language learner i felt it important to highlight the usefulness of languages and their highly important function as a communicative medium. throughout the blog, you see my musing on all things language-related. the topics ranged from bilingualism to the usefulness of machine translation (mt). i mentioned in my 29th entry, “the erasmus students are always much better at writing in their blogs, but that's because they have so much more to write about... because they are here, learning english every day in many ways. while i'm sitting here, trying to think about things to write about when it comes to my language learning experience and classes etc, they are learning new things everyday.” i may sit in a classroom for 4 hours a day and not learn anything new, erasmus students are practicing and learning new things all the self-quotation for clarification 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 30 blog writing integration ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-32 31 ibérica 14 [2007]: …-…22 the very last official post. it is a touching moment... i'll try not to cry;) what should i actually write on this special occassion?? hm... i like my blog:) in a minute i'll send an essay which sums up this piece of work. well, some new words seem to be the most appropriate..to entice, to savour, to hit the ceiling, welfare remorses. it's not the end anyway. it's a neverendingstory. :). essay: upon starting the blog i felt it was important to outline why i was doing so and this can be clearly seen in the first post of 29th september. being a language learner i felt it important to highlight the usefulness of languages and their highly important function as a communicative medium. throughout the blog, you see my musing on all things language-related. the topics ranged from bilingualism to the usefulness of machine translation (mt). i mentioned in my 29th entry, “the erasmus students are always much better at writing in their blogs, but that's because they have so much more to write about... because they are here, learning english every day in many ways. while i'm sitting here, trying to think about things to write about when it comes to my language learning experience and classes etc, they are learning new things everyday.” i may sit in a classroom for 4 hours a day and not learn anything new, erasmus students are practicing and learning new things all the time, whether they want to or not. self-quotation for clarification blog: is the essay a big blog? what i mean now is where do i make the differences? blog writing integration essay: convoluted, joycean and irresistible example: i have always been aware what type of language learner i am, but for some reason, unknown to logical acumen, i never bothered to make note of it, either mentally or physically. resultingly, over a number of years, like a truly inveterate fool, i have continued to use methods of language acquisition which have had hardly any positive effect on my linguistic ken at all. clearer example: when i first started writing a blog i found it hard to grasp the concept of sharing my thoughts, especially on language learning, with other people, god forbid they might disagree with what i wrote or my style of writing. but the blogging community is a very open community from what i have seen and eventually i became less inhibited, rapidly jotting down thoughts as they came into my head. i pondered over whether i was an audio or visual learner, made fun of some of the more peculiar elements of my languages and, most importantly, admired the works of others. discourse: in foucaultian terms of “understanding”’ and then “modifying one’s actions” (gee, 1990: 37) blog: when i am in japan, i think it would be good for me to write in my blog at the end of the day, either in japanese or english,... just to point out all the new things i've learned that day. then i can always go back through my blog and use it as my own personal grammar book for review. the first shock: living surrounded by a foreign language 24 hours a day during several days can be a little bit shocking. we've been talking about in the lab today ans it's completely true. the first week i was here i had a strange feeling. it takes some days to completely change your mind and try to think in another language. i realised that while days were going on i could understand people easily. once you've achieved to think in english it's much easier. i'm sure that when i come back to catalonia it will happen the same but the opposite way. i'll be so used to speak english and listen to it that it'll be hard to speak catalan again. i think that's the best way to learn. you can know all the grammar, you can pronunicate words perfectly, but if you don't go somewhere and do some practise with native speakers you'll lose some important things. even you don't notice it, but you are constantly learning new things and improving essay: blog is a perfect example of a ugc (user generated content) similarly to a source of this term which was published on wikipedia.org. “it is a usergenerated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order“ (wikipedia). its content can vary extensively according to user’s preferences. the aim of this essay is to discuss its effectiveness in terms of foreign language learning and acquisition. introduction blog: i give you a masterpiece of scattered thought and random concepts. i'd suggest carrying on reading my blog. it's a great read for the most part, and i'm not just saying that because i'm narcissistic... essay: in conclusion, do i feel that this blog writing has helped my learning? i think it is clear that it most certainly has helped me outline my thoughts and processes as to language-learning methods and the use of language technology and ways in which i can become a quicker learner. conclusion blog: this is my first entry that lay outside the deadline on the course description, and is prompted from my own desire to continue with this academic exercise... a symbol that i have moved on passed a level of habitual ‘humdrummery of school assignments’ attitude into the threshold of over-achievement. but self congratulation aside... essay: 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/blogbibliography/ 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 31 l. murray, t. hourigan & c. jeanneau ibérica 14 [2007]: 9-3232 ibérica 14 [2007]: …-… 23 generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order“ (wikipedia). its content can vary extensively according to user’s preferences. the aim of this essay is to discuss its effectiveness in terms of foreign language learning and acquisition. blog: i give you a masterpiece of scattered thought and random concepts. i'd suggest carrying on reading my blog. it's a great read for the most part, and i'm not just saying that because i'm narcissistic... essay: in conclusion, do i feel that this blog writing has helped my learning? i think it is clear that it most certainly has helped me outline my thoughts and processes as to language-learning methods and the use of language technology and ways in which i can become a quicker learner. conclusion blog: this is my first entry that lay outside the deadline on the course description, and is prompted from my own desire to continue with this academic exercise... a symbol that i have moved on passed a level of habitual ‘humdrummery of school assignments’ attitude into the threshold of over-achievement. but self congratulation aside... essay: 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/blog 2. http://www.writing.northwestern.edu/self_assessment.html 3. http://www.athabascau.ca/mais/syllabi/mais616.html 4. class notes lecture one /two… bibliography/ appendices? blog: no examples. 02 murray.qxp 17/10/07 20:26 página 32 30 rese.as.qxd �������������� ��������������� �� ������� ��!�� ��� !��� �� ���"������������#����$#�������� � ��$ � ��%������������ ����� ����� ������ ������ � � � �� � ��5� �����&��i�� �������� �����%���'�&�� /�������������� �������������� �� ������� ����� �������� ������&�����������������0��������� � ��0 � ����������������� ���� � � '�������%� �� ��k��� ������� � � � ���� �� ��3������@�! � j�� � j�� �������k� ��� � �g��%�� �� �����5 �5 ��� ! ��� �����, ���o , ������ ���� ����� ���� ��$��� ���������� ��� � ����� ������� �� ������ � , � �@� ! 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�� #! �� �p ������ ����� �( ������� %������ �g��%�� �� �����) �� ������ ��"�a("�=�-bbc���)>�d" ibérica 11 [2006]: ������� �9� <* �� �� /0�� ���� ��� )�� $��� (� 8�� 3��0�f ���+��* �3���+ �� ��7 �0��! ��*�� � � ; � ��3!� ��+�+��0�� + �� 3��0�f ��5 .�3+����!��� ��7 �0��!�,+� �� 3�,�3��*��+� ��9�����������>�� ���� � #���c �#���c �� ��� $����(�� 8) � � � �0����� +,� 7 �0��!� � �� ��� ��! � � ��3!���� ��������3���� � .� ��� ��0 �+3��0� �3� 3 ��9� *� ����� � �� �������� !��� ������ �� ���� #���c �#���c �� ��� 1� ��� �*�� ��� $����(� 8-! � �! �+��3�0� �� �� � �� +, �3�� ���� 3����3���� � � � � ��3!� ����30 ������3���9���(������ ��>���% � ��0�� ��# � ���<���)��)03���f�)��f��1��� j����� +� $����(�� 8-! � �3�������� �! ���� �� � �� �! � �0+� � � � �3*0�*��0 ��,, � 3 ��� ��! ��! �+��3�+,�3����3����� ��� ��!�� <� 3!� � �� 7 �0��!� � ��3�0 ���3+*�� � $�%����%% (�9� *� ����� � � ���������!��� ������ �������>� �$��$%&���'� iberica 13 ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 resumen la terminología es un campo interdisciplinario que para la explicación de determinados fenómenos requiere distinguir entre distintos planos o dimensiones: un plano referencial, que comprende el ámbito de los objetos y de la formación de clases de objetos; un plano cognitivo, que incluye la formación de conceptos y su ubicación en la mente; y un plano lingüístico, o más ampliamente semiótico, que comprende la realización de cada concepto en una o más unidades terminológicas del lenguaje natural, que pueden ampliarse a otras unidades de creación artificial. entre estos tres planos se dan correlaciones que justifican la interdisciplinariedad de la unidad terminológica en particular y justifican los mecanismos que se han puesto en práctica para identificar los términos en la práctica terminográfica. el principio de poliedricidad aplicado a la concepción no sólo a los términos sino también a las unidades conceptuales permite explicar fenómenos como la variación conceptual y denominativa. en este artículo se presenta en primer lugar la concepción diversa del término o unidad terminológica y su posición central o periférica en la terminología como campo de conocimiento; se aborda la polémica relación entre la realidad y su representación mental en forma de conceptos de especialidad y se justifica la complejidad de la relación entre concepto y término a partir del principio de poliedricidad. palabras clave: terminología, conceptos de especialidad, variación conceptual, variación denominativa, representación de conocimiento especializado. el principio de poliedricidad: la articulación de lo discursivo, lo cognitivo y lo lingüístico en terminología (i)1 m. teresa cabré institut universitari de lingüística aplicada universitat pompeu fabra (barcelona, spain) teresa.cabre@upf.edu 9 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 9 ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 m. teresa cabré abstract the polyhedricity principle: articulation between discourse, cognition and language in terminology (i) terminology is an interdisciplinary field requiring different levels of analysis to explain certain phenomena: a referential level that includes objects and object classes formation, a cognitive level entailing concepts formation in mind, and a linguistic level, or rather a semiotic level, which includes the projection of every concept in one or more linguistic terms or artificially created units. the correlations established between these three levels justify the interdisciplinarity of the terminological unit and the mechanisms used to identify terms in terminography. the polyhedricity principle applied not only to terms but also to concepts permits to give account of phenomena such as conceptual and denominative variation. in this paper we present firstly the diversified conception of term and its placement, whether central or peripheral, in terminology as a knowledge field; secondly, we deal with the intricate relation between objects of the real world and their representation in mind as specialized concepts and we justify the complexity of the relation between concept and term through the polyhedricity principle. key words: terminology, specialized concepts, conceptual variation, denominative variation, specialized knowledge representation. introducción el carácter interdisciplinario de la terminología como campo del saber raramente ha sido puesto en discusión. con independencia de la concepción teórica en la que unos y otros nos movemos, hay un consenso explícito o implícito de que la terminología es un campo de conocimiento cuyos fundamentos tienen su origen en otros campos del saber. en contraste con esta situación de uniformidad relativa a la interdisciplinariedad de la terminología como campo de conocimiento, la consideración de qué se entiende por término ha tenido y sigue teniendo concepciones diferentes. la noción de unidad terminológica se percibe distintamente muchas veces en función de la perspectiva desde la que se intenta describir y explicar. también ha sido objeto de polémica el tema de la ubicación de la terminología en el conglomerado de las ciencias. la terminología fue concebida en la práctica como una herramienta auxiliar de la comunicación 10 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 10 científico-técnica, cuya finalidad era asegurar la univocidad de los intercambios comunicativos entre profesionales. esta consideración de la terminología fue superada por la decisión de eügen wüster de darle el rango de disciplina de pleno derecho, aunque este estatus estuviera completamente condicionado a la perspectiva práctica en la que se situó. wüster, como hemos expuesto en otras ocasiones (cabré, 2005), tenía una gran formación como ingeniero y unas necesidades que procedían del campo de la comunicación técnica, en un contexto internacional de transferencia plurilingüe. para ello propuso que la meta del trabajo terminológico fuera la elaboración de recursos terminológicos normalizados, es decir, fijados previamente y voluntariamente por una comunidad experta. este punto de partida generó una concepción de la materia que se concretó en varios puntos, de los que, sin pretender ser exhaustivos, destacaremos los siguientes: en primer lugar, se estableció el objeto inicial de la disciplina: el concepto, o mejor dicho, las estructuras de conceptos. la formación de wüster le llevó necesariamente a una concepción onomasiológica de la terminología: como se daba por supuesto el conocimiento de la materia de especialidad, este conocimiento era el punto de partida para dar cuenta de los términos, que servían para denominar cada uno de los conceptos en los que se plasmaba este conocimiento. en segundo lugar, el pragmatismo que persigue la normalización terminológica, que debía y debe asegurar al máximo la univocidad en la transferencia de los conocimientos técnicos, llevó a wüster a no considerar la complejidad de la relación entre la realidad y su representación. para él la realidad técnica no tenía doblez alguna. era única para todos los expertos del mismo campo técnico. en consecuencia, la relación entre objeto y concepto era directa. un concepto se concebía como “la” representación de un objeto o, mejor dicho, de una clase de objetos de la realidad. en tercer lugar, la unidimensionalidad de la relación entre objeto y concepto, juntamente con la normalización de los términos como objetivo a cubrir, determinó necesariamente la unidimensionalidad entre concepto y término, de ahí el principio de biunivocidad expuesto por la teoría general de la terminología como el ideal a alcanzar. en cuarto lugar, la relación directa y biunívoca entre término y concepto explica que el término –una vez fijado a través de la actividad normalizadora– se concibiera como una unidad de designación, y no como el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 11 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 11 una unidad de significación. un término sirve para referirse a un concepto, que a su vez es la representación consensuada o normalizada de una clase de objetos de la realidad, realidad concebida de modo uniforme por la comunidad experta. y finalmente, una concepción restrictiva de las situaciones de comunicación especializada, limitadas a la comunicación entre profesionales, llevó a wüster a reducir los escenarios de transferencia de conocimiento, simplificando artificialmente la complejidad de la comunicación especializada. el discurso científico-técnico se vio así como un discurso plano e idéntico en cuanto a los contenidos que se transmitían y a las formas de transmisión de estos contenidos. en este artículo nos proponemos dos objetivos generales: el primer objetivo es argumentar que la terminología, como campo interdisciplinario, requiere para la explicación de determinados fenómenos distinguir entre distintos planos o dimensiones. esta distinción permite, por un lado, dar una respuesta plausible a su interdisciplinariedad, y, por otro, legitimar las distintas perspectivas que han dado lugar a concepciones teóricas aparentemente enfrentadas. el segundo objetivo se propone mostrar las correlaciones entre estos distintos planos, correlaciones que justifican la interdisciplinariedad de la unidad terminológica en particular y permiten explicar los mecanismos que se han puesto en práctica para identificar los términos en la práctica terminográfica. con la vista puesta en estos dos objetivos, abordaremos tres cuestiones sobre la terminología como campo y como objeto, todas ellas relacionadas con la necesidad de distinguir planos de análisis y de establecer correlaciones entre los distintos planos para poder explicar determinados fenómenos: • en primer lugar, presentaremos la concepción diversa de la unidad terminológica y su posición central o periférica en la terminología como campo de conocimiento. • en segundo lugar trataremos sobre la polémica relación entre la realidad y su representación mental en forma de conceptos de especialidad. • y, en tercer lugar, discutiremos la complejidad de la relación entre concepto y término en una visión interdisciplinaria de la materia. m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3612 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 12 1. la unidad terminológica a lo largo del siglo xx la concepción de término o unidad terminológica2 ha sido diversa. las distintas posiciones sobre el tema pueden sintetizarse básicamente en dos: • la consideración del término únicamente como forma. • la consideración del término como signo, es decir como unidad de forma y contenido. situándonos en la segunda concepción, consideramos que el término es una unidad de forma y contenido indisociables entre sí que representan, en el plano de la verbalización o expresión, un concepto. aunque pudiera parecer de entrada que la consideración del término como signo dotado de contenido y forma es una asunción exclusiva de la lingüística y, en cambio, su consideración de mera forma corresponde a una visión desde las especialidades, ambas posiciones han sido asumidas indistintamente por especialistas en terminología de diferente procedencia disciplinar. así, rondeau (1984), lingüista y sociolingüista de la universidad de montreal, define el término como la forma significante de un signo de especialidad.3 para wüster (1979) y la mayoría de sus seguidores el término es la forma gráfica o escrita de un signo lingüístico esta noción de término como forma es la que recoge hasta el año 2000 la norma iso relativa al vocabulario del trabajo terminológico (iso 1087-1 2000, iso 1087-2 2000). lo que es cierto es que la defensa de una u otra posición tiene consecuencias de gran relieve, tanto en el plano teórico como en el aplicado. desde el punto de vista teórico, es evidente que si un término se concibe como una simple representación formal se están asumiendo otros dos principios: • que se da una asociación directa entre un concepto y su representación; • que la forma de un término y el concepto que representa se dan separadamente, de modo que el concepto es independiente de su denominación. la primera asunción sobre la asociación directa entre un concepto y su representación implica, por un lado, una lanza a favor de la univocidad entre concepto y término defendida por wüster,4 y, por otro, la defensa del concepto como una unidad bien definida por sus características necesarias y el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 13 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 13 suficientes, y siempre asociado a un ámbito temático de representación. en consecuencia, la “reaparición” de este mismo concepto –mismo porque se describe a través del mismo conjunto de características– en un ámbito distinto tendrá el estatus de nuevo término aunque la definición sea idéntica. la razón en la que se sustenta este principio es que el valor de un término se define por su relación con los demás términos que con él forman la estructura conceptual de un mismo ámbito temático. si a pesar de mantenerse la forma y el contenido aparece el término en un ámbito diferente, éste se considera una nueva unidad terminológica. los datos siguientes, extraídos de tebé (2005), nos muestran cuán difícil es sostener la plausibilidad de este principio: el término rehabilitation puede definirse como “acción de retornar un objeto o una persona a un estado funcional que había perdido”. el banco de datos terminológicos termium, que contiene 26 registros de este término, lo asocia a 21 áreas temáticas distintas, además de atribuirle un uso general: urbanismo fuerzas armadas ciudadania e inmigración préstamos bancarios métodos de construcción admistración militar criminología parques y jardines ecosistema desarrollo de páginas web emergencias servicios sociales medioambiente general agricultura economía madioambiental ferrocarriles ocupación y trabajo vivienda préstamos renovación urbanística vocabulario general la totalidad de las definiciones de rehabilitation que recoge termium comparte los rasgos básicos esenciales del concepto rehabilitation; lo único que cambia son las proyecciones semánticas del mismo y la clase semántica de los argumentos sobre los que este término predica, argumentos que se precisan según el ámbito temático en el que se usa, además de otros aspectos no esenciales de este concepto, como son: • la causa que produce la pérdida de habilitación; • la manera cómo se produce la rehabilitación; y • el tipo de estado que se debe recuperar mediante la rehabilitación. m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3614 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 14 en consecuencia, con la presentación de este ejemplo, que de hecho la lingüística clásica trataría como un fenómeno de polisemia, podríamos decir que tanto un experto en arquitectura, como un médico o un ecologista, coincidirían en el concepto de rehabilitation que tienen en la mente; en lo que diferirían es en el hecho de que este concepto se realiza lingüísticamente en condiciones pragmáticas y discursivas distintas, y es en función de cada una de ellas que se precisan las características no esenciales. otro ejemplo, en este caso de sinonimia, puede aportar nuevos argumentos en contra de la relación directa entre concepto y término. para un experto, el referente que se supone que representan tanto la unidad “dinero negro”, como la unidad “dinero blanqueado” es el mismo. se trata de dos denominaciones distintas que comparten un núcleo común (“dinero”) y se diferencian por la expansión del núcleo (“negro”, “blanqueado”), que se refieren a un mismo objeto. si asumimos que se da una correspondencia directa entre objeto y concepto, ambas unidades representarían un mismo concepto, pero sin embargo ¿cómo explicarlo? porque, aunque es cierto que un especialista en fraude monetario sabe muy bien que el hecho que hay detrás de ambas denominaciones es el mismo, no existe lingüista alguno que considere que estas dos denominaciones son sinónimas entre sí, porque expresan contenidos distintos.5 ¿podría explicarse este fenómeno utilizando como base la asociación directa objeto-concepto-término de la teoría terminológica tradicional? si la respuesta fuera afirmativa, los términos serían meras denominaciones con función designativa. nuestra opinión es que sólo con una concepción de la unidad término como signo compuesto de forma y contenido, casos como éste pueden explicarse más adecuadamente. la razón parece clara: se admite que los términos, como todo signo, además de denominar significan en sí mismos, con lo que la terminología asumiría uno de los fundamentos esenciales de la lingüística cognitiva: la motivación de los signos del lenguaje. regresemos de nuevo al alcance del término en la bibliografía terminológica y centrémonos ahora en la concepción de la unidad “término” como signo. dentro de esta aproximación podemos distinguir dos posiciones: • la de quienes consideran que un término es una denominación general para todo tipo de unidad de un sistema expresivo, con lo que los símbolos y los nombres científicos se considerarían términos; • la de quienes reservan esta denominación únicamente para las unidades que pertenecen a las lenguas naturales. el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 15 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 15 para los primeros no habría diferencia en el uso de uno u otro tipo de sistema de expresión para representar los conceptos, a pesar de que las diferencias entre los signos lingüísticos y los no lingüísticos son abismales y de que para todo concepto siempre existe un signo lingüístico y, en cambio, para todo signo lingüístico no existe necesariamente un signo no lingüístico asociado. los que defienden que la denominación “término” debe utilizarse únicamente para referirse a las unidades que cumplen la condición de ser signos lingüísticos asumen que los términos participan de las mismas características y se someten a las mismas condiciones que las unidades del léxico de las lenguas. su función sería pues al mismo tiempo designativa, denominativa y significativa: • designativa por el hecho de “apuntar a” un referente; • denominativa por el hecho de darle nombre a un concepto; y • significativa porque en sí mismos aportan información sobre el contenido que transmiten. observemos cuán diferente es esta posición de la que considera que la función de un término es sólo la de designar el referente y denominar el concepto. otro de los aspectos que separa ambas concepciones sobre la unidad “término” se refiere al tipo de significado que dicho signo vehicula. para quienes asumen la condición meramente designativa y denominativa de los términos, el único significado que se pone en juego mediante estas unidades es el significado denotativo. los términos poseen un contenido que coincide y se limita a lo que expresa el concepto. el alcance de la denominación es el concepto. en contraste, para quienes aceptan la condición de signo de los términos, el significado que estos poseen comprende tanto la denotación como la connotación, ya que participan de las mismas características que poseen todas las unidades del léxico de las lenguas. una tercera característica que permite diferenciar concepciones distintas sobre la unidad “término” concebida como signo se basa en sus coincidencias o divergencias respecto a las unidades denominadas “palabras”. cuatro han sido las posiciones que se han mantenido sobre este tema: • la de quienes suscriben que palabras y términos son unidades de naturaleza diferente que forman parte de conjuntos distintos; m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3616 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 16 • la de quienes consideran que términos y palabras forman parte del mismo componente del léxico de las lenguas, aunque organizados como entradas distintas; • la de quienes sostienen que el léxico, además de términos y palabras por separado, contiene un subconjunto de unidades especializadas de naturaleza light que están a caballo entre los términos y las palabras; • la de quienes asumen que un término no es una unidad en sí misma, sino sólo un valor asociado a todas las unidades del léxico, de forma que ninguna de ellas es por sí misma un término, sino que todas ellas pueden ser términos o no serlo en función de su uso particular en un contexto comunicativo determinado. los partidarios de la opción que defiende que palabras y términos son unidades de naturaleza diferente que forman parte de conjuntos distintos presuponen que existen dos conjuntos léxicos diferenciados en la mente de un hablante, uno determinado por su condición de experto, y otro justificado en su condición de mero hablante. se trataría entonces de postular que todo hablante tiene interiorizados por lo menos dos componentes léxicos, y que actualiza uno u otro en función de la situación comunicativa en la que se encuentra. si está hablando como experto en una situación profesional, activa el componente léxico propio de la especialidad. si se comunica al margen del contexto profesional, simplemente no activa este componente. huelga decir que esta opción resultaría poco plausible a la vista de las investigaciones que se han llevado a cabo en neurolingüística, y que dejaría sin explicar por qué una misma unidad puede ser usada como término especializado y como palabra sin especialidad alguna, a no ser que recurriéramos a la reduplicación de estas unidades en la mente, lo que nos llevaría a un modelo altamente redundante. los mismos argumentos servirían para descartar por inadecuada una teoría que postulara que cada unidad del léxico tendría tantas entradas como sentidos especializados asociados a ámbitos temáticos tuviere. no únicamente porque sería también una propuesta enormemente redundante, sino porque además no daría cuenta de la relación existente entre unidades que, teniendo una misma forma, pueden asociarse a ámbitos temáticos distintos con un significado básicamente idéntico, pero con algunos elementos de diferenciación, como hemos mostrado a través del ejemplo rehabilitation. el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 17 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 17 en la tercera opción se sitúan algunos autores que proponen la idea de considerar que en la mente del hablante existen tres tipos de unidades: las unidades terminológicas de contenido especializado, las unidades de sentido general, y un conjunto de unidades a medio camino entre unas y otras, que corresponderían a lo que en didáctica de las lenguas de especialidad se ha denominado “léxico subtécnico” (vangehuchten, 2005). esta propuesta, aunque reconoce que existen unidades de las que no se sabe si considerarlas términos o palabras del léxico general, puede contraargumentarse de la misma manera que en los dos casos anteriores. nuestra propuesta intenta dar un paso más y es cualitativamente distinta. para nosotros, términos y palabras (aquí sinónimo para referirnos a los no términos) no son en sí unidades diferentes: un término no es una unidad en sí misma sino sólo un valor asociado a todas las unidades del léxico, de forma que cada una de ellas no es por sí misma, como hemos dicho, ni término ni palabra, sino que activa o no su valor de término en función de su uso particular en un contexto comunicativo determinado. esta propuesta, denominada “principio del valor terminológico”, constituye uno de los pilares sobre los que se sustenta nuestro aparato teórico. 2. realidad, representación y conceptualización del conocimiento especializado trataremos ahora de analizar el proceso que presuntamente realiza un hablante desde la percepción de la realidad hasta su verbalización. de ningún modo pretendemos entrar en el tema desde postulados neuropsicológicos, sino solamente establecer un marco en el que enfocar los dos puntos esenciales de este texto: la necesidad de distinguir planos distintos de análisis para dar cuenta con precisión de las unidades terminológicas y su ubicación en el proceso de representación y transmisión del conocimiento especializado, y la de explicar algunas de las relaciones que se establecen entre estos planos. no entramos tampoco en el tema de las identidades y diferencias entre los procesos de adquisición de conocimiento general en contraste o no con el especializado, sino que nos limitamos al proceso de adquisición de conocimiento especializado. para ello, partimos del supuesto que los mecanismos de percepción de la realidad y de construcción de clases de objetos en las especialidades no son distintos de los que sirven para explicar m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3618 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 18 el proceso de adquisición del conocimiento en general. la secuencia de actividades que podrían describir este proceso dependen, en nuestra opinión, de los escenarios de adquisición de conocimiento. tomaremos como punto de partida sólo dos de estos escenarios: • un primer escenario de producción de conocimiento nuevo (esc1); • un segundo escenario de adquisición de conocimiento producido anteriormente, a través de la recepción de información vía discurso (esc2). como se ha descrito ampliamente en las ciencias cognitivas, la segmentación del contínuum de la realidad depende de mecanismos psicocognitivos muy complejos que no son ajenos a los valores culturales interiorizados por los hablantes de toda comunidad. aunque no tratamos de entrar a fondo en este punto, vamos a presentar muy someramente algunas fases del proceso a fin de entender posteriormente cómo la categorización de la realidad conduce a la formación de un concepto de estructura compleja, lo que permite explicar el comportamiento y la variación en terminología. se sabe que los seres humanos “perciben” la realidad a través de filtros interiorizados. estos filtros, de carácter psicológico, antropológico y sociológico, actúan de mediadores entre una supuesta “realidad por encima de los individuos” y la realidad percibida por los seres humanos que pertenecen a comunidades y grupos determinados y se ubican en contextos históricos y sociales. la realidad pura, pues, está fuera de nuestra comprensión como seres sociales. si asumimos este punto de partida, podemos avanzar en el proceso situándonos en una realidad percibida socioculturalmente y discriminada psicológicamente en forma de “clases objetos”, es decir, conjuntos de objetos individuales que se han agrupado en una clase por el hecho de compartir determinadas características que actúan como catalizadoras en función de su centralidad en cada grupo humano. no vamos a discutir aquí si esta centralidad en los criterios de discriminación y agrupación está o no mediatizada por las lenguas. nos quedaremos únicamente en la asunción de que está mediatizada por la cultura interiorizada que posee un individuo hablante, que forma parte de colectivos sociales. basta observar individuos que pertenecen a grupos culturales muy alejados para constatar que su “percepción”, en términos de agrupación de el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 19 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 19 fragmentos de realidad en una unidad o clase de objeto, no coincide. el principio básico en el que se apoya esta idea es que a contextos distintos les corresponden necesidades distintas y que las necesidades empujan a los seres humanos a “ver” fenómenos que otros individuos en condiciones distintas ni siquiera perciben. de este principio se han dado muchos ejemplos, uno de los más conocidos es el de la percepción de más de cuarenta matices de blanco por parte de una comunidad esquimal. y es este mismo principio el que nos sirve para explicar la percepción desde las especialidades. volviendo a los dos tipos de contexto seleccionados más arriba y centrándonos en la adquisición de conocimiento especializado, podemos decir que en el primer escenario de producción de conocimiento nuevo (esc1), lo que el individuo percibe, discrimina y clasifica está condicionado por sus conocimientos previos y por sus necesidades, en el marco del rol que se atribuye el individuo en cada proceso. precisando un poco más, en los escenarios en los que un individuo, cuyo rol es el de un especialista en la materia, se acerca a la realidad lo hace desde una competencia previa (conocimientos adquiridos anteriormente desde este rol) y movido por la necesidad de descubrir nuevos fenómenos o de percibir nuevas características o relaciones de fenómenos ya anteriormente percibidos, que le permiten avanzar en su conocimiento. en un contexto de “descubrimiento”6 los individuos “perciben” por primera vez un fenómeno nuevo o una propiedad nueva de un fenómeno ya observado, o establecen una nueva relación entre dos fenómenos; es decir, perciben una nueva parcela del contínuum de la realidad sobre la base de la observación de los datos empíricos. esta observación les conduce a una constatación de que se trata de algo nuevo; y así, en el largo proceso de observación y análisis, van caracterizando y estabilizando dicho conocimiento a través de operaciones cognitivas consistentes en la abstracción y jerarquización de las características esenciales y periféricas y usando a menudo el discurso como herramienta de progresión. una vez estabilizada la discriminación de la nueva unidad de conocimiento, se categoriza en la mente como un nuevo concepto asociado a este fragmento de realidad percibido. observemos que hasta ahora hemos establecido dos variables esenciales. la primera variable es el esquema o marco situacional del que el individuo parte, que incluye sus condiciones inherentes (sexo, edad, época, grupo social, grupo profesional, especialidad, escuela de pensamiento, nivel de competencia en el tema, función social, etc.), lo que determina su rol en este m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3620 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 20 proceso de adquisición de conocimiento en forma de activación de filtros de adquisición. la segunda variable la constituyen los mecanismos psicocognitivos que explican cómo un individuo dentro de un marco situacional es capaz de crear unidades de conocimiento en forma de conceptos a partir de una realidad que es un contínuum. el proceso que se produce en el segundo escenario, que hemos caracterizado como de adquisición de conocimiento producido anteriormente a través de la recepción de información vía discurso (esc2), es bastante distinto del anterior. en este caso no se trata de la adquisición de conocimiento nuevo a partir de la observación de la realidad, sino de la adquisición de conocimiento ya estabilizado, expresado discursivamente. lo que el individuo activa en este contexto son los mecanismos que le permiten “detectar” las unidades de conocimiento expresadas en el texto oral o escrito ya formulado. en este proceso de detección hay que tener en cuenta las condiciones previas inherentes de quien lo lleva a cabo, sus intenciones y las finalidades para las que lo lleva a cabo. todo este conjunto de condiciones las hemos definido en el escenario anterior como el marco en que el individuo se sitúa, que, como también hemos visto en el primer escenario, mediatiza sus posibilidades y actividades. lo que diferencia claramente este segundo escenario del anterior es que el individuo no “construye” un nuevo conocimiento a través de la cognición y el discurso, sino que construye unidades de conocimiento a partir de la detección del conocimiento contenido en un texto. se basa pues en el análisis del texto, y no en el análisis de la realidad, para adquirir conocimiento. trata de “construir” las unidades de conocimiento que presumiblemente “están” en el texto. se trata pues de un proceso claramente semasiológico, de un mecanismo de construcción de conocimiento a partir de un proceso de descodificación mediatizado. este nuevo conocimiento se ubica en la mente humana en forma de unidades conceptuales más o menos complejas. el proceso y la forma de ubicación son temas que escapan a nuestra propuesta, pero de los que podemos decir que están condicionados por las hipótesis psicocognitivas o neurocognitivas de las que se parte. desde el punto de vista neurocognitivo se han lanzado dos hipótesis: la primera afirma que cada tipo de conocimiento está localizado en un lugar de la mente, la segunda propone que el conocimiento no se agrupa por tipos sino que se encuentra distribuido en la mente. al lado del interrogante sobre la ubicación mental del conocimiento, existe un segundo problema: ¿cómo se estructura este conocimiento?: ¿se trata de una estructuración jerárquica o de un modelo organizado en red? tampoco el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 21 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 21 es nuestro objetivo dar una respuesta a estos interrogantes, aunque por lo que diremos a continuación se observe que nos decantamos más por la organización de los conceptos en una estructura de red,7 sino únicamente dar cuenta de que la información extraída de la realidad en las condiciones que hemos descrito, y ubicada como clase o categoría en la mente, establece relaciones con el resto de categorías también interiorizadas, y que estas relaciones no son bidimensionales sino multidimensionales, de forma que un concepto interiorizado establece relaciones de mayor o menor intensidad o de mayor o menor cercanía con la totalidad de los conceptos de la mente. uno de los puntos que han inquietado y sigue inquietando a quienes se ocupan del conocimiento es cómo se describen los conceptos. es evidente que desde nuestra posición científica no podemos abordar los conceptos directamente y extraer conclusiones que sean empíricamente adecuadas, pero lo que sí queremos plantear es cómo a través de la observación de las unidades terminológicas que representan conceptos en el discurso especializado se pueden hacer inferencias sobre las características que presumiblemente poseen y las condiciones que cumplen. pongamos pues a la vista algunos de los datos que pueden guiar nuestro análisis del concepto: • sabemos que en el discurso un término lo es porque tiene un sentido preciso en un ámbito de conocimiento determinado y es usado significativamente en el discurso especializado de este ámbito. • sabemos también que este término se corresponde a un concepto en la mente del especialista en el tema, porque cuando usa un término lo asocia a una unidad conceptual precisa dentro de su ámbito de especialidad. • sabemos además que alguien es especialista cuando conoce una especialidad, y que conocer una especialidad presupone tener una estructura conceptual general de cada saber en la mente, reconocida, aunque con posibles variantes o alternativas, por la comunidad experta, de forma que el individuo considerado especialista es capaz, por un lado, de expresar conocimiento sobre la materia de acuerdo con esta estructura variada aunque estabilizada, y, por otro lado, reconocer discursos especializados no sólo por su expresión y formato, sino sobre todo por su contenido. asimismo es capaz de detectar transgresiones conceptuales que un no experto nunca percibiría. m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3622 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 22 • también sabemos que existe variación terminológica para representar un mismo concepto, lo que se conoce genéricamente como sinonimia. esta variación no solo la reconocen los especialistas sino que son ellos mismos quienes la producen. • sabemos que una misma unidad de conocimiento puede aparecer en las producciones de los especialistas no sólo denominada de manera diferente (sinonimia) sino también “explicada” o expuesta discursivamente de manera diferente, ya sea en bloque, ya sea introduciendo progresivamente aspectos distintos de la unidad conceptual. • finalmente sabemos que una unidad formal puede usarse asociada a más de un sentido, dentro de un mismo ámbito temático o en distintos ámbitos temáticos, lo que se conoce genéricamente como polisemia u homonimia en función de la posibilidad o imposibilidad de explicar la variación semántica desde una sola unidad.8 sintetizando los datos anteriores podemos decir: • que un concepto es una unidad que forma parte de una estructura más compleja, y que esta estructura corresponde a la representación de cómo un individuo o grupo concibe un área de conocimiento; • que un concepto representa una parcela “discriminada” a partir de una observación experiencial, mediatizada por filtros, y “construida” por comparación a partir de la observación, la discriminación y el análisis de la realidad y tomando como punto de referencia categorías idealizadas en la mente; • que esta construcción corresponde a un proceso de categorización o conceptualización (formación de un concepto) que conduce a la ubicación de esta categoría en la mente, en el caso que nos ocupa, de un especialista; • que un concepto, por lo tanto, es el resultado de la categorización en la mente de lo que se ha “construido” como una clase de objeto y no como un objeto particular; • que un concepto mental interiorizado puede formar parte de más de una estructura conceptual si tenemos en cuenta que, en forma de término, aparece en discursos de distinto tema con las mismas características básicas, lo que nos llevaría a poner sobre la mesa el carácter “virtual” y no “real” de las estructuras conceptuales; el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 23 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 23 • que un concepto, además de poder aparecer en distintos ámbitos temáticos con el mismo contenido básico (reutilización de un concepto), algunas veces lo hace con algunas características periféricas o complementarias diferentes, que determinan casi siempre combinaciones léxicas distintas en el discurso, pero que pueden explicarse a partir de un esquema de características común; • que un concepto puede ser representado en el discurso por más de una unidad de expresión, lo que se conoce con el término de sinonimia; • que un mismo concepto, categorizado a partir de un objeto, puede describirse como una estructura compleja por el hecho de que cuando se verbaliza en unidades distintas cada una de estas unidades puede remitirnos a aspectos diferentes de este concepto. nos quedaremos pues, por el momento, en que las relaciones entre realidad, objeto, concepto y término que podemos observar indirectamente a partir de datos del discurso serían las que figuran en el cuadro 1. plano de los objetos individuales plano de las clases de objetos plano conceptual plano terminológico veamos un ejemplo de cada caso (cuadro 2), limitándonos en este apartado a las relaciones entre el plano de los objetos y el plano conceptual, y dejando para el apartado siguiente su complementación con el plano de los términos: plano de los objetos individuales plano de las clases de objetos plano conceptual m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3624 m. teresa cabré plano de los objetos individuales plano de las clases de objetos plano conceptual plano terminológico conjunto de objetos individuales un objeto discriminado un concepto un término conjunto de objetos individuales varios objetos discriminados varios conceptos varios términos distintos o formalmente iguales (homonimia) conjunto de objetos individuales un objeto discriminado un concepto varios términos (sinónimos) sin consecuencias cognitivas conjunto de objetos individuales un objeto discriminado un concepto varios términos (sinónimos) con consecuencias cognitivas cuadro 1. relaciones entre realidad, objeto, concepto y término. veamos un ejemplo de cada caso (cuadro 2), limitándonos en este apartado a las relaciones entre el plano de los objetos y el plano conceptual, y dejando para el apartado siguiente su complementación con el plano de los términos: plano de los objetos individuales plano de las clases de objetos plano conceptual conjunto de objetos individuales asociación a una sola categoría un concepto “seno del complemento de un ángulo o de un arco” conjunto de objetos individuales asociación a distintas categorías varios conceptos “signo ortográfico que indica una pausa breve” “estado patológico que se caracteriza por la pérdida de la conciencia, la sensibilidad y la capacidad motora voluntaria” conjunto de objetos individuales un objeto discriminado un concepto que se proyectará en el próximo cuadro en términos sinónimos que comparten un mismo sentido “afección cutánea caracterizada por vesículas rojizas y exudativas, que dan lugar 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 24 este cuadro 2 desea representar las posibles interrelaciones entre tres planos: el de los objetos individuales que hipotéticamente se encuentran en la realidad “real” (valga la redundancia), el de las clases de objetos que se integran en una realidad abstracta, y el de los conceptos. el paso del primero al segundo plano se explica por mecanismos de discriminación, análisis y comparación, de forma que se pasa de los objetos individuales a las clases de objetos. el paso del segundo al tercer plano se basa en un proceso de categorización, y permite explicar el paso de la clase de objetos a conceptos, que se organizan internamente como esquemas de rasgos en estructuras de naturaleza prototípica, y que pueden proyectarse multidimensionalmente, como veremos más adelante. en todos los casos, intentamos representar la construcción de una clase de objeto y su proyección en una categoría conceptual, y, aunque en el segundo se parte de más de un objeto proyectado en más de un concepto, no se trata de ninguna excepción, sino únicamente de la repetición del mismo proceso. 3. las relaciones concepto y término analizaremos en este apartado las complejas relaciones entre conceptos y términos. para dar cuenta de ellas empezaremos hablando de los conceptos, el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 25 ibérica 16 (2008): …-…14 conjunto de objetos individuales un objeto discriminado un concepto (sinónimos) con consecuencias cognitivas cuadro 1. relaciones entre realidad, objeto, concepto y término. veamos un ejemplo de cada caso (cuadro 2), limitándonos en este apartado a las relaciones entre el plano de los objetos y el plano conceptual, y dejando para el apartado siguiente su complementación con el plano de los términos: plano de los objetos individuales plano de las clases de objetos plano conceptual conjunto de objetos individuales asociación a una sola categoría un concepto “seno del complemento de un ángulo o de un arco” conjunto de objetos individuales asociación a distintas categorías varios conceptos “signo ortográfico que indica una pausa breve” “estado patológico que se caracteriza por la pérdida de la conciencia, la sensibilidad y la capacidad motora voluntaria” conjunto de objetos individuales un objeto discriminado un concepto que se proyectará en el próximo cuadro en términos sinónimos que comparten un mismo sentido “afección cutánea caracterizada por vesículas rojizas y exudativas, que dan lugar a costras y escamas” conjunto de objetos individuales un objeto discriminado un concepto, que en el próximo cuadro se desglosará en varios sentidos “difusión mundial de modos, valores o tendencias que fomenta la uniformidad de gustos y costumbres” cuadro 2. relaciones entre el plano de los objetos y el plano conceptual. 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 25 de sus características y de su representación, y a continuación retomaremos la concepción de unidad terminológica como signo, en la línea de lo que se ha expuesto en la sección 1 de este artículo. tanto las publicaciones de wüster como las normas iso explican los conceptos como conjuntos de características (denominadas también propiedades) de índole diversa: unit of thought constituted through abstraction on the basis of properties of a set or one or more objects. (iso-1087-1 1997) esta concepción se ha modificado en la norma del 2000 como: unit of knowledge created by a unique combination of characteristics. (iso1087-1 2000). muchas han sido las aportaciones que desde las ciencias cognitivas se han hecho sobre la conceptualización o formación de conceptos. entre ellas merece destacarse la teoría del prototipo formulada por e. rosch en 1978 y difundida en lingüística gracias a la obra de g. lakoff de 1987. de acuerdo con esta propuesta, la formación de categorías no se lleva a cabo, como se había sostenido, sobre la base de la comparación de las características de distintos objetos existentes en la realidad con el objeto de extraer qué características son comunes a todos ellos o a parte de ellos, sino que se realiza sobre la base de cómo el individuo percibe la realidad y comparando el conjunto de características de los objetos en referencia a un modelo ideal cognitivo a través de cuatro mecanismos comunes a la especie humana: la estructura en proposiciones, la estructura en imágenes, la proyección metafórica y la proyección metonímica. es sobre esta base que temmerman (2000) se sirve del término understanding unit para referirse al resultado del proceso de categorización. las categorías, en esta aproximación, no se conciben como clases cerradas ni de límites totalmente establecidos, sino como estructuras organizadas internamente e intercategorialmente. la estructuración interna de las categorías responde al modelo del prototipo, con un núcleo y una periferia, que permite reconocer los mejores ejemplares de cada tipo según se correspondan al modelo. las distintas categorías se estructuran en tres niveles distintos de categorización: el nivel básico, que es el nivel natural de categorización, el nivel superordinado que permite agrupar categorías del nivel básico en categorías más complejas, y el nivel subordinado que permite agrupar las categorías a partir de la comparación de sus atributos. m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3626 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 26 en consecuencia con estas ideas, un concepto no puede definirse como una estructura cerrada de rasgos definitorios, sino como una categoría que se enmarca en un esquema de rasgos que la definen. es en referencia a este esquema que se compara cognitivamente cada ejemplar de la realidad con el ideal, para poder determinar si se trata o no de un ejemplar de esta categoría o bien no puede ser incluido en ella. pero no queremos tratar en este artículo de cómo los distintos casos se van asociando a categorías, sino que nuestro propósito es, por un lado, analizar las relaciones que se pueden establecer entre unidades de categoría conceptual y unidades terminológicas y así poder explicarnos cómo un concepto puede representarse en el plano lingüístico a través de más de un término. y en segundo lugar, vamos a intentar iniciar la reflexión sobre las diferencias entre lo que se denomina variación propiamente conceptual y la variación denominativa con consecuencias conceptuales. retomamos a continuación el cuadro 2 del apartado anterior y lo complementamos con un nuevo plano, el plano terminológico: el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 27 el principio de poliedricidad plano de los objetos individuales plano de las clases de objetos plano conceptual plano terminológico conjunto de objetos individuales asociación a una sola categoría un concepto “seno del complemento de un ángulo o de un arco” un término coseno conjunto de objetos individuales asociación a distintas categorías varios conceptos “signo ortográfico que indica una pausa breve” “estado patológico que se caracteriza por la pérdida de la conciencia, la sensibilidad y la capacidad motora voluntaria” varios términos distintos o formalmente iguales (homonimia): coma (signo ortográfico) coma (estado patológico) conjunto de objetos individuales un objeto discriminado un concepto “afección cutánea caracterizada por vesículas rojizas y exudativas, que dan lugar a costras y escamas” varios términos (sinónimos) sin consecuencias cognitivas eccema eczema erupción conjunto de objetos individuales un objeto discriminado un concepto “difusión mundial de modos, valores o tendencias que fomenta la uniformidad de gustos y costumbres” varios términos (sinónimos) con consecuencias cognitivas mundialización globalización cuadro 3. relaciones entre el plano de los objetos, el plano conceptual y el plano terminológico. el primer tipo de caso es muy poco frecuente: el término “coseno” es un término puramente matemático cuyo significado representa un concepto en su globalidad y corresponde a un objeto “construido” desde la realidad en un esquema determinado (el de la matemática). el segundo caso no merece más atención que decir que representa la totalidad de los casos de homonimia, es decir, de realidades verdaderamente distintas y no 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 27 el primer tipo de caso es muy poco frecuente: el término “coseno” es un término puramente matemático cuyo significado representa un concepto en su globalidad y corresponde a un objeto “construido” desde la realidad en un esquema determinado (el de la matemática). el segundo caso no merece más atención que decir que representa la totalidad de los casos de homonimia, es decir, de realidades verdaderamente distintas y no relacionadas entre sí, que han generado conceptos claramente distintos cada uno de los cuales sí que se representa mediante un término, presentando estos distintos términos una coincidencia formal entre sí. la única relación que guardan estos casos es en el plano del término y aun únicamente por el hecho de que haya una coincidencia formal, y sólo formal, entre las denominaciones. los casos que merecen más atención son los dos últimos.9 ambos intentan ejemplificar cómo un objeto puede representarse verbalmente a través de distintos términos.10 en esta relación pueden darse dos casos: a) que este objeto corresponda a un solo concepto, expresado por diferentes signos semánticamente coincidentes, aunque formalmente diferentes (caso nº 3), y b) que este objeto corresponda a un solo concepto, expresado por diferentes signos semánticamente y formalmente diferentes (caso nº 4). en el caso número 3 pueden incluirse ejemplos de índole distinta: por una parte variantes puramente gráficas (“eczema-eccema”), por otra, variantes morfológicas (“alboroto-alborotamiento”; “condiciones climáticascondiciones climatológicas”) y en tercer lugar variantes léxicas (“bencinaesencia-gasolina”). la característica común que comparten es el hecho de que usar una u otra variante no cambia la manera cómo se representa el concepto, o dicho de otro modo, la manera cómo el concepto se proyecta en la denominación. en todos los casos tan opaca o transparente es una variante como otra, y, desde el punto de vista cognitivo, el uso de una u otra variante no introduce cambios en la proyección del concepto en el discurso ni presupone tampoco una intención diferente (a no ser que sea estilística o extralingüística) por parte del locutor. muy distinto es en cambio el caso número 4, que podría complementarse con otros ejemplos como “agricultura ecológica-agricultura biológica”; “mundialización-globalización”; “residuos biosanitarios-residuos hospitalarios”; o, “contaminación del aire-contaminación atmosférica”. en todos m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3628 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 28 estos ejemplos podemos ver que el uso de una variante u otra para designar un mismo objeto podría estar condicionado por una intención cognitiva por parte del locutor y, evidentemente, tiene consecuencias cognitivas en el receptor. analicemos más detenidamente uno de los casos: “residuos biosanitarios-residuos hospitalarios”, tomado de freixa (2002). es evidente que el objeto designado por los dos términos en relación de variación es el mismo: “los deshechos que se producen por actividades clínicas relacionadas con la vida y la salud”. estos residuos se producen fundamentalmente en los hospitales, donde se ejercen actividades “clínicas relacionadas con la vida y la salud”. pero existen dos denominaciones y cada una de ellas nos remite por sí misma a un sentido diferente: en el primer caso la denominación se centra en las características de las actividades que provocan este tipo de residuos (actividades biosanitarias); en el segundo, en el ámbito en el que se producen estos residuos (hospitales). no hay duda de que se trata de dos signos formados sintagmáticamente a partir de un núcleo común (residuos) y cuyo significado coincide parcialmente. lo que se trata de saber, sin embargo, es si esta sinonimia parcial puede explicarse a partir de un único concepto o si cada sentido de un término remite a un concepto distinto aunque haya tantos puntos en común entre ambos sentidos. retomando ahora la concepción de la unidad terminológica como un signo compuesto de forma (denominación) y contenido (significado), lo que cabe preguntarnos es cómo es la relación entre los conceptos y los términos a la vista de que una misma categoría conceptual puede proyectarse en distintos términos, cada uno de los cuales puede transmitir un sentido distinto. estos términos son grosso modo sinónimos, pero no en su totalidad, ya que a través de la denominación nos hacen percibir una parte o una faceta distinta del mismo concepto que representan. en el trasfondo de esta digresión, si asumimos la concepción de la unidad terminológica como signo compuesto de forma y contenido, se esconde una cuestión clave para explicarnos la naturaleza de la unidad terminológica y su papel en todo el proceso de construcción y verbalización del conocimiento: mientras que la denominación se entiende claramente como la unidad formal que verbaliza el concepto, no es tan clara la relación que se da entre el significado y el concepto. ¿se trata de una misma noción o de nociones diferentes? ¿son lo mismo el significado y el concepto? un hecho que a lo largo de los últimos decenios ha sido subrayado por muchísimos autores ha sido la falta de evidencia empírica de la biunivocidad el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 29 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 29 terminológica propuesta por e. wüster. cierto es que wüster no hizo una aproximación descriptiva a la terminología, o si la hizo, como hemos mencionado en otras publicaciones (cabré, 2005) tomó como corpus de datos el conjunto de términos normalizados contenidos en su obra terminográfica. la consecuencia de ello es que wüster trabajó sobre una terminología ideal, en lugar de trabajar sobre la terminología real, con la idea de que para afianzar al máximo la comunicación técnica había que tender a usar o tomar como referencia una única denominación para representar un solo concepto bien delimitado dentro de un ámbito temático. esta situación ideal basada en la descripción de datos previamente normalizados le llevó a formular el principio de la biunivocidad del término, tan ampliamente criticado desde la terminología descriptiva, aunque justificado en el contexto empírico en el que wüster desarrolló su teoría. el principio de la biunivocidad, además de no ajustarse a la realidad de los datos representativos del uso terminológico, se apoya en la relación directa entre el concepto y su denominación. si se acepta esta relación directa y se asume que el concepto y el término son productos uniformizados mediante un proceso de normalización, no cabe preguntarse qué relación existe entre “residuos” y “deshechos” porque en realidad se tratará de dos denominaciones alternativas de un mismo concepto. la pregunta es si se trata de un mismo concepto, o bien si se trata de dos unidades terminológicas distintas, y si cada una de ellas representa una asociación concepto-denominación distinta. lo cierto en cualquier caso es que estamos ante un fenómeno de variación, lo que no vemos tan claro es si se trata de un caso de variación terminológica global o de variación denominativa, es decir puramente formal. a la vista de los ejemplos que hemos comentado y partiendo de la concepción del término como signo, creemos que es posible hipotetizar sobre tres puntos: • la estructura compleja del concepto; • la variación en la proyección del concepto en el término; y • el carácter motivado de la denominación del término. la concepción del concepto como una estructura compleja ya ha sido desarrollada dentro de la teoría del prototipo. esta teoría sin embargo deja fuera de la explicación la multidimensionalidad del concepto, en el sentido de que las características que lo describen pueden agruparse en conjuntos, cada uno de los cuales puede representar una faceta del mismo y a menudo cada m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3630 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 30 faceta puede estar determinada por un criterio o dimensión. autores como pustejovsky (1995) han desarrollado una teoría del significado léxico como una estructura de estructuras, que fácilmente puede acoplarse a nuestra propuesta (kuguel, 2007), propuesta que puede sintetizarse en los siguientes puntos: • el concepto es una estructura compleja, plural en cuanto a características y facetada en cuanto a sus dimensiones; • el concepto puede proyectarse globalmente en un término, pero también puede proyectarse en distintos términos y resultar todos ellos sinónimos; • el concepto puede proyectarse en uno o más términos no motivados, pero puede proyectarse también en distintos términos motivados, que presentan entre sí variación formal y pueden tener sentidos distintos, ya que la proyección de cada faceta de un concepto en un término comporta un cambio de sentido; • la ocurrencia de un término en un enunciado puede entenderse como una “instanciación” del concepto; • la variación denominativa se repara en el discurso; la variación denominativa con consecuencias cognitivas puede expresarse a través de la forma denominativa en sí o por pistas discursivas que actúan de indicios de variación conceptual; y • estos indicios pueden ser de muchos tipos y pueden expresarse mediante distintas formas gramaticales.11 4. volviendo a los objetivos y a modo de conclusión hemos dicho al inicio de este texto que nuestro objetivo era doble: por un lado, nos proponíamos argumentar sobre la necesidad de postular distintos planos dentro de la terminología para poder explicar adecuadamente tanto la compleja articulación del proceso realidadconcepto-término, como determinados fenómenos que conciernen a más de un plano. por otro lado, queríamos mostrar algunas de las correlaciones existentes entre los distintos planos, correlaciones que en este artículo hemos centrado en la compleja relación entre un concepto y su múltiple terminologización12, el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 31 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 31 y dentro de este caso nos hemos interesado más específicamente por la variación denominativa con consecuencias cognitivas. hemos analizado las distintas fases del proceso de terminologización, desde la aprehensión de la realidad en forma de clases de objetos a través de filtros que condicionan esta aprehensión, pasando por la categorización de cada clase de objetos en forma de concepto y su ubicación en la mente integrando virtualmente una o más estructuras de conceptos, hasta llegar a la verbalización del concepto a través del término. para ello hemos distinguido tres planos de análisis de la terminología: • el plano referencial, que comprende el ámbito de los objetos y de la formación de clases de objetos; • el plano cognitivo, que incluye la formación de conceptos y su ubicación en la mente; y • el plano lingüístico, o más ampliamente semiótico si integramos los signos de naturaleza artificial en la denominación “término”, que comprende la realización de cada concepto en una o más unidades terminológicas del lenguaje natural, que pueden ampliarse a otras unidades de creación artificial. hemos visto que la relación entre los tres planos no es simple, sino compleja y diversa, de forma que a una clase de objetos categorizada en un concepto pueden corresponderle una o más unidades terminológicas, concebidas como signos, es decir, unidades de forma y contenido. hemos visto también que dentro de un mismo campo de especialidad pueden existir distintas unidades terminológicas correspondientes a conceptos totalmente diferentes o bien correspondientes total o parcialmente a un mismo concepto. en los casos de correspondencia total, hablamos de sinonimia a secas: la variación denominativa se produce en la forma, pero no causa distorsión en el significado. en los casos de correspondencia parcial hablamos de sinonimia parcial, por cuanto el signo se asocia a un mismo concepto, pero no existe variación únicamente en la denominación sino también en el contenido que expresa. es en este segundo caso en que la denominación está motivada y remite a un concepto sin actualizarlo completamente ni globalmente, sino sólo de manera parcial, frecuentemente tomando como criterio la actualización de una de las facetas del concepto. m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3632 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 32 para poder dar cuenta de esta compleja relación entre un concepto y sus diferentes realizaciones terminológicas hemos postulado que es necesario partir de distintos planos de análisis, contrariamente nunca podríamos explicar como sinónimos casos de sinonimia parcial cuya denominación está motivada, es decir, es ella misma un indicio del sentido que se actualiza en cada término. con este análisis pensamos que podemos formular más ampliamente el principio de la poliedricidad que hasta hoy habíamos aplicado sólo a las unidades terminológicas según el cual los términos son unidades interdisciplinarias integradas por vertientes o facetas distintas, cada una de ellas correspondiente a un plano de análisis. con este artículo hemos intentado mostrar que el principio de poliedricidad puede aplicarse también al concepto, por cuanto es desde su carácter multifacético o poliédrico que podemos explicar los casos de variación denominativa con consecuencias cognitivas. estos casos no son más que proyecciones en el plano lingüístico de la poliedricidad conceptual. la distinción de planos de análisis, aparte de resultar metodológicamente potente, es coherente con el postulado del carácter interdisciplinario de la terminología y de la posibilidad de abordarla desde diferentes ópticas, como ha sido representado a través del modelo de las puertas (cabré, 2000 y 2003). (artículo revisado recibido en abril de 2008) bibliografía el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 33 adelstein, a. (2007). unidad léxica y significado especializado: modelo de representación a partir del nombre relacional “madre”. barcelona: iula. cabré, m.t. (2000). “terminologie et linguistique: la théorie des portes”. terminologies nouvelles. terminologie et diversité culturelle 21: 10-15. cabré, m.t. (2003). “theories of terminology. their description, prescription and explanation”. terminology 9: 163-200. cabré, m. t. (2005). “la terminología, una disciplina en evolución: pasado, presente y algunos elementos de futuro”. debate terminológico 1-03. url: http:/www.riterm.net/revista/n_1/ cabre.pdf [21/04/08] freixa, j. (2002). la variació terminològica: anàlisi de la variació denominativa en textos de diferent grau d’especialització de l’àrea de medi ambient. tesis doctoral inédita. barcelona: institut universitari de lingüística aplicada. iso 1087-1: (1997). part 1: theory and applications. iso 1087-1: (2000). part 1: theory and applications. iso 1087-2 (1997). part 2: computer applications. iso 1087-2 (2000). part 2: computer applications. kuguel, i. (2007). la semántica del léxico especializado: los términos en textos de ecología. tesis doctoral inédita. buenos aires: facultad de filosofía y letras, universidad de buenos aires. lakoff, g. (1987). women, fire, and dangerous things: what categories reveal about the mind. chicago: university of chicago press. 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 33 m. teresa cabré castellví es doctora en filología románica por la universidad de barcelona. catedrática de filología catalana de la universidad pompeu fabra y profesora de lingüística y terminología en la facultad de traducción e interpretación de la misma universidad. miembro electo de la sección filológica del institut d’estudis catalans. premio wüster 2007. fue la creadora del institut universitari de lingüística aplicada (iula) de la universidad pompeu fabra y su directora desde 1994 a 2003. en el marco del iula es la investigadora principal del grupo léxico, terminología y discurso especializado (iulaterm). notas 1 este artículo, que es el primero de un proyecto más amplio denominado globalmente poliedricidad e integración: la articulación de lo discursivo, lo cognitivo y lo lingüístico en terminología, se centra en el proceso objetoconcepto-término y aborda más específicamente la complejidad de la relación concepto término. forma parte del proyecto texterm3: fundamentos, estrategias y herramientas para el procesamiento, extracción y representación de información especializada (hum2006-09458/filo 2006-2009). agradezco a la dra. rosa estopà los comentarios que nos ha aportado tras una lectura de la versión previa de este texto. 2 para algunos autores, hay diferencia entre término y unidad terminológica, para nosotros son dos variantes completamente sinónimas. 3 hay que decir, sin embargo, que a lo largo de su manual rondeau vacila entre ambas denominaciones y a veces utiliza “término” con valor de signo especializado. 4 adelstein (2007) explicita que wüster, a pesar de establecer la biunivocidad como fundamento, es totalmente consciente de que esta propiedad solo se da en las unidades ideales, pero no en las reales. 5 g. leech (1990) introduce una distinción entre sinonimia fáctica y sinonimia lingüística, que resulta muy útil para dar cuenta de este fenómeno. dos unidades son sinónimos fácticos cuando se refieren al mismo objeto de la realidad (“presidente del gobierno” y “jefe del ejecutivo”, ambas expresiones referidas a j. l. rodríguez zapatero), pero no son expresiones sinónimas desde el punto de vista lingüístico porque “dicen cosas distintas” del mismo objeto. retomaremos este tema más adelante y trataremos de darle una explicación más robusta. m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3634 leech, g.n. (1990). semantics: the study of meaning, 2ª edición. london: penguin. pustejovsky, j. (1995). the generative lexicon. cambridge, mass.: mit press. rondeau, g. (1984). introduction à la terminologie. boucherville, québec: gaëtan morin. rosch, e. (1978). “principles of categorization” en e. rosch y b.b. lloyd (ed.), cognition and categorization, 27-48. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. tebé, c. (2005). la representació conceptual en terminologia: l’atribució temàtica en els bancs de dades terminològiques. tesis doctoral inédita. barcelona: institut universitari de lingüística aplicada. temmerman, r. (2000). towards new ways of terminology description: the sociocognitiveapproach. amsterdam: john benjamins. vangehuchten, l. (2005). el léxico del discurso económico empresarial: identificación, selección y enseñanza en español como lengua extranjera con fines específicos. madrid: iberoamericana. wüster, e. (1979). einführung in die allgemeneine terminologielehre und terminolische lexicographie. viena: springer. (versión española: cabré, m.t. (dir.) (1998). introducción a la teoría de la terminología y a la lexicografía terminológica. barcelona: institut universitari de lingüística aplicada, universitat pompeu fabra). 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 34 6 hablamos de “descubrimiento” sólo en sentido metafórico. 7 solo un modelo en red permite, a nuestro juicio, explicar la movilidad de los términos entre ámbitos temáticos. aceptar esta dinámica es coherente con el principio que hemos expuesto en otros artículos según el cual los términos no “pertenecen” a un ámbito sino que se usan en uno o más ámbitos. esta afirmación no excluye que podamos decir que un término ha aparecido por primera vez en un ámbito. 8 en la lingüística más ortodoxa, la homonimia se reserva para las unidades que proceden de formas etimológicas distintas. no serían homónimas por tanto las unidades cuyo sentido se hubiera generado por restricción, ampliación o cambio de un significado de base. 9 en freixa (2002) se analiza la variación denominativa y se presenta una tipología de casos muy amplia, según la cual existen variantes denominativas de cuatro tipos: a) basadas en cambios gráficos, b) basadas en cambios morfosintácticos, c) basadas en reducciones, d) basadas en cambios léxicos, y e) basadas en varios cambios complejos. reproduzcamos a continuación dicho gráfico (freixa, 2002: 283-284): el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-36 35 el principio de poliedricidad ibérica 16 (2008): …-… 25 tipus subtipus a) terme i símbol b) terme i fórmula química 1. terme i forma artificial c) terme i altra forma artificial d) terme i sigla2. terme i abreviació e) terme i abreviatura i. canvis gràfics 3. canvi ortogràfic a) absència / presència d’article b) canvi de nombre c) canvi de preposició 1. manteniment de l’estructura d) canvi de gènere e) [n+a] / [n+sp] f) monolèxic / polilèxic ii. canvis morfosintàctics 2. canvi de l’estructura g) altres canvis d’estructura a) tipus [n+x] = [n] ! [n+a]= [n] ! [n+sp] = [n] ! [n1+n2]= [n1] b) tipus [n+x+y] = [n+x] ! [n+sp+a] = [n+sp] ! [n+a+sp] = [n+a] ! [n+a1+a2] = [n+a1] ! [n+sp1+sp2] = [n+sp1] 1. reduccions de l’extensió c) altres reduccions de l’extensió d) [n+a]= [a]n e) [n1+n2] = [n2] 2. reduccions de la base f) [n1+sp (de+n2)] = [n2] iii. reduccions 3. altres reduccions 1. unitats monolèxiques a) canvi de base ! [n+sp (prep + art + n)] ! [n+a] ! altres canvis de base iv. canvis lèxics 2. unitats polilèxiques b) canvi d’extensió ! [n+sp (pre + art + n)] ! [n+a] ! altres canvis d’extensió a) monolèxic / polilèxic 1. amb parentiu formal b) polilèxic / polilèxic c) monolèxic / polilèxic v. diversos canvis complexos 2. sense parentiu formal d) polilèxic / polilèxic 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 35 los tipos establecidos por freixa están basados en la observación de las denominaciones, pero de todas ellas, para poder formular una hipótesis sobre la relación término concepto, los únicos casos que nos interesan son sólo aquellos que presentan variación denominativa y esta variación afecta a la relación de la denominación con el concepto, o dicho de otro modo, nos interesa saber qué tipos de variación denominativa pueden tener consecuencias cognitivas y cuáles son estas consecuencias. 10 queremos recordar que en este trabajo consideramos término o unidad terminológica aquella unidad sígnica dotada de forma (que corresponde a la denominación) y contenido (que corresponde al significado). 11 un caso sería el uso de adverbios o frases adverbiales para explicitar las distintas dimensiones de un mismo concepto: “la enfermedad x, desde el punto de visto anatomopatológico, se describe como ...; desde el punto de vista sintomático, se describe como ...”. 12 usamos politerminologización, formado a partir del término polidenominación de freixa (2002), para indicar cuando un concepto se realiza a través de más de un término y estos términos presentan entre sí una sinonimia parcial por cuanto actualizan distintos sentidos, todos ellos a partir de proyecciones de distintas facetas de un mismo concepto. m. teresa cabré ibérica 16 [2008]: 9-3636 02 iberica 16.qxp 4/10/08 18:14 página 36 01 editorial.qxd editorial the printed cover of this journal has shown a visual change since my last editorial note. in june 2011 ibérica was awarded a prize of scientific excellence by the fecyt (spanish acronym for spanish foundation for science and technology) at the ministry of science and innovation, and as a proof of such excellence the corresponding seal is already appearing on the journal. ibérica no. 22 was a special issue on “academic english in parallel-language and english as a lingua franca settings” co-edited with maria kuteeva from stockholm university (sweden). the research papers, the interview and the reviews published highlight the strong presence of englishmedium instruction and research in northern europe and aimed not only at illustrating the current situation in northern countries, but also at shedding light on the challenges to be faced by educational systems in the european educational area. i am most grateful to maria kuteeva for her initiative in bringing this topic to our attention and all the effective coediting work. ibérica no. 23 contains seven research articles, two research notes and seven reviews. this time, one paper about german for the tourist industry, written in german, another paper about spanish legal discourse, written in spanish, together with the more often english written papers about english discourse and courses highlight the multilingual nature of this journal. thomas a. upton, professor of applied linguistics/tesol at iupui, opens ibérica no. 23 by uncovering the clues that have boosted the increased interest of lsp as a field of worldwide research for 50 years now. based on his experience as co-editor (with ulla connor) of the forthcoming encyclopedia of applied linguistics (wiley blackwell, november 2012), upton’s contribution endorses this volume with a retrospective flavour. at the same time, he discusses specificity and power as current issues in lsp and looks to future focuses of lsp research and teaching such as context-based methods of research, the diversity and specialization of lsp instruction, or the use of english as a lingua franca. the second contribution to this volume deals with english noun collocations. by applying corpus-based techniques, matthew peacock analyzes the distribution of the high-frequency collocates of abstract nouns ibérica 23 (2012): 5-8 issn 1139-7241 5 in 320 research articles across eight disciplines. the corpus examples provided together with his findings show that a large number of the collocations presented are “standard terminology within the discipline” (page 42) so that they express “differing terminology, different topics, different research methods, and differing content of discussions across the eight disciplines” (page 42). differences, however, arise across individual differences rather than between science and non-science disciplines. hedging and the rhetorical preferences of non-native english readers is the focus of the chapter by rosa alonso alonso, maría alonso alonso and laura torrado mariñas. by involving 30 spanish researchers in two different experiments, these scholars conclude that rather than perceiving hedges as downtoners in academic writing, spanish researchers regard hedges as evasive devices and indicators of a negative lack of academic commitment on the authors’ part. the fourth chapter in this volume deals with the legal discourse of recommendations in spanish. anna lópez samaniego and raquel taranilla compare the linguistic devices of recommendations in two legal genres: the recommendations of the european union and the lawyer-client report of advice. besides illustrating and providing a classification of such linguistic devices, their findings reveal that not only the type of genre but also the roles of producers and recipients influence the way to recommend in spanish. the following contribution, by maría ángeles orts-llopis and ángela almela sánchez-lafuente, digs into the discourse of the spanish economic crisis. through the analysis of an 800,000-word corpus from four recognized influencing periodicals in spain, they typify neologisms into xenisms, calques, and pure and false loans, and provide illustrative examples that capture, to a certain extent, the arbitrary nature of those loanwords that spanish has borrowed from english. in the next paper, joan pierce mcmahon and pilar durán escribano bring to the fore the european space for higher education with a study on written production competence descriptors for academic and professional purposes. more particularly, they continue previous research on language competence descriptors by assessing their clarity, relevance and significance with a view to calibration and inclusion in the academic and professional european language (acpel) portfolio. to complete this research section, isabel garcía-izquierdo and tomás conde carry out a survey among legal, medical and technical specialised editorial ibérica 23 (2012): 5-86 translators to learn about their socio-professional profile as well as their opinions on, and use of, corpora and other documentary sources. the next section in ibérica no. 23 contains two research notes of a fairly different nature. we are happy to publish, for the first time ever, a paper in german; more particularly, a reflection by gloria bosch roig on task-based language and form learning as methodological options for the german for tourism course. a second research note, by eugenio cianflone, focuses on the type of academic written genres veterinary pathologists suggest in their courses with an audience of eap students. concerning the seven reviews, three of them are discussions on books on academic writing: oana maría carciu discovers the clues to write scientific and technical texts in english; mª ángeles alcaraz ariza shows concern with the role of interpersonality and how it is constructed in written academic communication across languages and cultures; and aditi bhatia describes a multi-level approach to the discourse construction of european identities in the transforming european union. the fourth book reviewed is of a more general nature: elena martín monje presents a compilation which examines the impact of globalisation on international communication within specialised communities of practice. the multi-faceted view of contentbased language learning as a construct of pedagogical implementation is the focus of the fifth review by ana maría saorín iborra. the presentation and description of two textbooks bring a close to this section in the journal: maría luisa blanco gómez introduces a textbook on english for art and humanities, and maida watson provides detail on how to develop writing skills in spanish. i am pleased to announce that ken hyland, director of the centre for applied english studies and chair of applied linguistics at the chinese university of hong kong, has kindly accepted to join ibérica’s international advisory board starting from the past issue no. 22. professor hyland is also honorary professor at the university of warwick and fellow of hong kong academy of the humanities. ibérica no. 21 opened with his invited contribution entitled “projecting an academic identity in some reflective genres” and in my editorial note i highlighted the fact that ken hyland certainly was one of the top-cited scholars in this journal; as i then pointed out, “just a look at the references section of the articles in this volume will show his name and works to appear recurrently” (page 5). this has been particularly true for the past and current issues of ibérica. ken hyland is a editorial ibérica 23 (2012): 5-8 7 very prolific writer and although he is mostly and widely cited for his works on academic discourse, genres and second language writing, hedging or identity, he has also published extensively on corpora analysis, pedagogy, or language awareness and attitudes. on top of this, he is a member of a large number of series and journal editorial boards (among them, the “linguistic insights” series at peter lang, or the journal english for specific purposes), he has been founding co-editor of the journal of english for academic purposes, and is at present editor of the journal applied linguistics. finally, i would like to thank the members of the editorial board who have contributed to this volume with their suggestions and thorough reports. likewise, special thanks go to those invited external reviewers who have very efficiently assessed submitted manuscripts during this past year: ángel felices (universidad de granada, spain), didier carnet (université de bourgogne, france), elisabet arnó (universitat politécnica de catalunya, spain), elizabeth rowley-jolivet (université d’orléans, france), françoise salager-meyer (universidad de los andes, venezuela), isabel balteiro (universidad de alicante, spain), lluïsa gea (universitat jaume i, spain), mª ángeles alcaraz (universidad de alicante, spain), mª enriqueta cortés (universidad de almería, spain), matthew peacock (city university of hong kong, china), monique memet (école normale supérieure de cachan, france), nuria edo (universitat de valència, spain), rafael alejo (universidad de extremadura, spain). ana bocanegra valle universidad de cádiz (spain) editor of ibérica editorial ibérica 23 (2012): 5-88 iberica 13 ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this study critically scrutinizes the discursive practice of state killing in capital trials. the quantitative and qualitative analysis compares the experientiallyconstitutive roles of lexico-grammatical choices in attributing agency to the actions of the defendant and victims in lawyers’ opening and closing speech in the penalty phase of a high-profile capital trial. integrating van leeuwen’s social actor representation framework (2008) into halliday’s transitivity analysis (1994), the study identifies the prosecution’s and defense’s polarized referential practice for the defendant and victims as well as descriptions of their actions. it is argued that, rather than existing as facts outside the trial discourse, aggravating and mitigating factors are morally and normatively constructed in real-time discursive interaction through these extreme, and at times disturbing, reference and transitivity choices, potentially leading to a death recommendation. keywords: capital trial, closing, opening, penalty phase, reference term, transitivity. resumen acciones, actores y agentividad en la fase de pena de los juicios capitales: comparación de dos géneros este estudio examina de manera crítica la práctica discursiva asociada a la sentencia de muerte durante el juicio. mediante un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo se comparan los papeles que desempeñan las elecciones léxicogramaticales en la atribución de agentividad a las acciones del acusado y de las víctimas en el discurso inicial y final de los abogados en la fase de pena de un juicio capital muy mediático. con la integración del marco de representación de actores sociales de van leeuwen (2008) dentro del análisis de la transitividad de actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim hanyang university (south korea) krisda@hanyang.ac.kr, goyun@hanyang.ac.kr 319 ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim halliday (1994), este trabajo identifica las polarizadas prácticas de la acusación y de la defensa en la referencia al acusado y a las víctimas, así como a las descripciones de sus acciones. se señala que, más que existir como hechos más allá del discurso que tiene lugar en el juicio, los diferentes factores agravantes y atenuantes se construyen moral y normativamente en la propia interacción discursiva en tiempo real mediante estas marcadas elecciones referenciales y de transitividad, en ocasiones perturbadoras, que potencialmente pueden conducir a recomendar la pena de muerte. palabras clave: juicio capital, discurso inicial, discurso final, fase de pena, término referencial, transitividad. 1. introduction perhaps nowhere else are language practices more consequential than in the penalty phase of capital trials. unlike the guilt phase, where jurors assess whether the facts and information presented by opposing lawyers are proved beyond reasonable doubt, the penalty phase entrusts jurors with weighing aggravating circumstances against mitigating1 ones before a recommendation of death or life imprisonment is rendered. in this phase, words can lead to the ultimate taking of someone’s life. previous studies, although few in number, provide some evidence that language serves as a resource for mediating jurors’ perceptions of the individual on trial and their decisions in the penalty phase. for instance, conley (2016) observes how the prosecutor makes little reference to the defendant in his closing address, but takes the effort to present the crime and its gruesome details (135-136). references to the defendant, if any, are a generalized type, with some modifier (e.g. “the person that killed like this”). in contrast, proper names appear to be used to refer to the victims, thereby “bringing them, as individuals, into the jurors’ focus” (138). attending to the narrative structure of closing statements, socio-legal scholars costanzo and peterson (1994) find that defenders tell complex and textured stories, presenting a tragically flawed character, emotionally and socially deformed by years of neglect and abuse, which cause the defendant to commit the crime. in contrast, the prosecutor’s story features a simple plot and character, emphasizing an evil character, motivated by greed and sadism. the crime is thus unmistakably the defendant’s own choice rather than the product of external forces beyond his control. despite such differences between the two sides, kaplan (2012) argues in contrast that both sides’ narrative strategies 320 are essentially similar because defendants in the defense’s narrative also “choose” to commit the murder. the only distinction is that in the defense’s narrative, childhood abuse or a different cause is used as an explanation for the exercise of free will. what all these studies share is that at the heart of the guilt phase are the different perspectives in which the defendant and her actions are viewed as relating to other social actors in the represented world, and are positioned in terms of more versus less agency, dynamism, and affectedness. simply put, agency is central to determining the defendant’s blameworthiness and, ultimately, the “appropriate” form of punishment. the present research goes beyond global, overarching narrative structures to explore the issue of agency in lawyers’ accounts and how it is constructed and negotiated through local lexico-grammatical choices. this study quantitatively and qualitatively compares the ways in which opposing lawyers attribute (or deflect) agency to the actions of social actors, focusing on the following experience-shaping resources: reference terms and process choices. this study attends to the opening and closing speech—the first and final opportunity, respectively—for lawyers to persuade the jury that the defendant should be spared or killed. in these genres, lawyers become sole storytellers, who have complete control of their linguistic resources. most scholars agree, and research demonstrates, that these monologic speech genres influence jury decision-making (matlon, 1993; rieke & stutman, 1990). as the opening statement aids in framing a dispute and creating strong mental images that will endure throughout the trial (powell, 2001) and can influence the jurors to draw tentative conclusions early on (lind & ke, 1985; pennington & hastie, 1991; spieker & worthington, 2003), the closing argument constitutes “the dramatic highpoint of the capital trial” (burt, 2008: 903), and “[r] egardless of the evidence, whichever attorney can send a trier off to deliberate with the most ringing and eloquent soliloquy will emerge victorious” (bergman, 1989: 222). as such, these discursive events go beyond giving a preview or summarizing the facts and evidence to persuade how the recommended sentence will serve the interests of society and to fit the choice of death or life in prison with widely held moral norms. three questions guide this research: 1) what are the forms, functions and frequencies of reference terms employed by the prosecution and defense in the opening and closing speech? 2) what are the forms, functions, and frequencies of process choices in these genres? 3) to what extent do the two sides differ in the use of the two resources? as will be shown shortly, despite actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 321 individual differences, the prosecution and defense exhibit consistent polarized patterns of representational choices in the two genres. it is argued that, rather than existing as facts outside the trial discourse, aggravating and mitigating factors are morally and normatively constructed in real-time discursive interaction through these extreme, and at times disturbing, reference terms and process choices. this study thus contributes to not only revealing how referential and process choices are instrumental in making moral appeals to the jury in this phase of capital trials but also to placing under critical light the practice of state killing. this article begins by discussing the concept of agency and how it can be attributed or withdrawn lexico-grammatically, goes on to explain the data and methodology before presenting the quantitative and qualitative findings. it concludes with reflections on how representational resources function to negotiate the appropriate sentencing of the individuals on trial. 2. actors, actions, and agency following duranti (2004: 453), this study understands agency as the property of those social actors that have some degree of control of their behavior, whose actions in the world affect other social actors’ (and sometimes their own), and whose actions are the object of evaluation in terms of their responsibility for a given outcome. along the same lines, taylor (1985) notes that “we think of the agent not only as partly responsible for what he does, for the degree to which he acts in line with his evaluations, but also responsible in some sense for these evaluations” (25). agency is encoded in such features as reference terms and verb choices (o’connor, 2000: 39). the former includes labeling options for referring to (or excluding) social actors, which have been shown to manage interpersonal distance, involvement, and solidarity for the referent and topic being discussed (murphy, 1988), ascribe identities (chaemsaithong, 2018) and signal evaluation and reality claims (tracy, 2011; rosulek, 2015). verb choices deal with the way in which a specific kind of action or event is construed (as doing, saying, thinking, being, or simply existing), known as transitivity system. both of these resources illustrate the experiential (or ideational) metafunction of language (halliday, 1994). according to van leeuwen (2008), in referring to another individual, the speaker first faces two value-laden choices: whether to exclude or include krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344322 another social actor in the discourse. when excluded, that social actor’s existence is obscured and her agency eliminated. if included, she can be represented either in terms of her unique identity through nomination, or in terms of identities and functions she shares with others through categorization. nominations range from very formal (last name only), semiformal (first and last), to the least formal (first name or nickname). to bestow authority and power to the referent, nominations can be titulated, as in doctor x, while a nickname creates intimacy for her. rosulek (2008: 538) reports that the prosecution in a sexual abuse case refers to the victim with a nickname to make her more childlike and personal to the jury, while the defense uses her last name. categorization can be divided further into functionalization and identification. the former includes labels that describe what the referent does, that is, her role in a context (e.g. victim, or defendant). identification represents the referent in terms of something she more or less permanently or inexorably is through labels that differentiate people into classes, which further include physical descriptions (size or weight), social relations descriptors (kinship terms), or other classification labels (e.g. age, character, race, religion, or sexual orientation). all categorizations are inference-rich and carry social connotations. bennett (1978), for example, notes that when cross-examining a witness, the lawyer employs the kinship term “your son” to refer to the defendant so as to support the argument that, as a mother, the witness is likely to protect the defendant. finally, a referent can be impersonalized, which de-emphasizes her human characteristics and instead foregrounds a specific non-human identity aspect. this strategy may create in-group solidarity, as in the defendant wants to punish america, where the name of the country metonymically represents all american people and positions the defendant as an outsider of that group. alternatively, impersonalization can also estrange the referent. luchjenbroers and aldridge (2007) show that prosecutors emphasize the defendant’s violence through animal metaphors, such as “predator”. all in all, different reference options enable the presenter to highlight or eclipse specific aspects of the referent, including power, authority, ability, strength and character. co-occurring with the referent in a clause is a description of her involvement in an event through the verb phrase. according to halliday (1994: 106), an event can be represented in a manageable set of process types: doing actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 323 (material process), sensing (mental process), being, having or locating (relational process), saying (verbal process) and existing (existential process).2 these processes are shown in table 1, with examples from my data. like referential choices, process choices are ideologically significant. selecting one process over another results in a completely different experience and reality being construed. for instance, the material clause the defendant killed the child can be expressed as a behavioral process the child died or as an existential process there was killing. these alternatives obscure the actor and sidestep her responsibility, so that it appears that the incident simply happens. a mental process such as the defendant wanted to kill, which reveals what otherwise is an internal feeling, portrays the actor as having the desire to commit the illegal act. in addition, an actor’s involvement in a process may be allocated varying degrees of agency. as table 2 illustrates, the first possibility is when the actor appears in the grammatical subject slot of an effective process or in the byagent phrase of a passive process. in this case, the agent directs her action towards a goal and is, thus, attributed full agency, power and responsibility (dreyfus, 2017). at the other extreme, the referent’s agency may be deflected when she is cast as the traditional in/direct object of an effective active process or the subject of a passive verb. that she plays a recipient or beneficiary role can signal vulnerability (van leeuwen, 2008). also lacking in agency and responsibility are events that are construed as if they just happen by themselves, as in the middle voice or nominalization, because the focus is taken away from who carries out the process (dreyfus, 2017). in between these two possibilities are cases where agency is mitigated, notably in an agentless passive clause or an active clause without a goal (i.e. ineffective processes). in such cases, agency is implied or can be inferred, but the processes do not bring out an effect on others. krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344324 process type example material the defendant killed leo. they marched resolutely to the crowd. the family was broken apart by dzhokhar. mental dzhokhar adored his brother. relational qualificational around his friends, jahar is somebody who seemed independent and cool. possessive the defendant had plenty of time to reflect. the defendant’s lack of remorse locative the defendant was in front of the crowd. verbal it’s lingzi lu screaming in pain. existential there are others who found their lives irrevocably changed after the crime. table 1. process types and examples. i analyzing clausal patterns in eight chinese cases, guang (2010) finds that material processes occur most frequently, followed by verbal, relational and mental processes. behavioral and existential processes are infrequent. a useful finding is that the defendant appears as the agent in material processes more frequently in the prosecutor’s discourse than in the defense’s. this is argued to serve to portray the defendant as active and aggressive. however, the ways in which the victims are represented are not discussed in guang (2010). focusing on closing statements of the guilt phase, rosulek (2015) finds that the prosecution foregrounds the defendant and their agentive roles in the crime more than the defense does and that the defense includes less personal information about the victims. all in all, previous research provides evidence that referential practice and process choices construct different versions of reality in the guilt phase. it remains to be seen how such resources function in the penalty phase of capital trials. 3. data and methodology drawing from the official transcript of the penalty phase of united states v tsarnaev (no. 13-10200-gao), the data consists of the opening and closing speech of the prosecution and defense team (26,017 words in total). each team assigns a different lawyer to deliver the speech, hence four presenters in total. this sentencing trial took place in 2015, after the jury had convicted dzhokhar tsarnaev and found him responsible for having killed three people and wounded about 300 people in the 2013 annual boston marathon bombing, murdering a university police officer sean collier three days later in an attempt to take his gun, and carjacking a driver in cambridge while trying to escape from boston. actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 325 agency deflected agency mitigated agency attributed tamarlan influenced dzhokhar. there was killing. the innocent people were killed and hurt [by ?]. dzhokhar acted under the influence of his brother. (def) the defendant killed multiple people. (pro) her daughter was blown apart by this defendant. (pro) table 2. degress of agency. 3 t in this guilt phase, the prosecution argued that death is the only appropriate punishment due to such aggravating factors as the death of an 8-year-old child, the choice of the boston marathon as a target because of the opportunity for maximum bloodshed. the defense, in contrast, argued that the 19-year-old defendant participated in the crime only after falling under the influence of his older, radicalized 26-year-old brother, tamerlan tsarnaev. this psychological influence is claimed to be a major mitigating factor, so that family members, friends and witnesses were summoned to testify that the defendant had a turbulent childhood but had done well in school and was liked by many people. from a linguistic perspective this case constitutes a unique opportunity to witness how representational resources are utilized in the negotiation of agency, free will, and creation of “us/them” for at least two reasons. first, this case features not only the most destructive act of terrorism in the us since the 1995 oklahoma city bombing but also the likelihood of mental influence, which is a very controversial issue in the scientific community. one common argument propelled by supporters is that a powerful individual can exercise control over another “weaker” individual (fournier, 1992: 612). however, this claim is difficult to prove as it involves the evaluation of the intangible notion of free will and in the courtroom is discursively managed through expert testimony, which is not only inconclusive but also conflicting (warburton, 2003). second, the case also brings to the fore the issues of human nature, justice and revenge. many witnesses are likely to seek revenge in such a situation, while the purpose of a civil society is to rise above the instinctive desire for revenge and determine what is just and humane, in which case power struggle between the two sides can be expected. methodologically, as we are interested in how individuals are made into certain kinds of people and their roles in carrying out actions and events, we first divided social actors in the lawyers’ stories into three main groups, consisting of the defendant dzhokhar tsarnaev, the defendant’s brother tamerlan tsarnaev, and the victims. then, we identified and performed a frequency count of the reference terms made for each group, using van leeuwen’s model discussed above. in this step, all the reference terms were included and counted separately. pronouns, which are low in semantic content, were excluded. with regard to the analysis of the process types, we first identified the processes with which the three groups above were associated. the processes krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344326 can occur in a finite or non-finite, and in a main clause or subordinate clause. for the purposes of this paper, a social actor is considered to hold an agent role when she is the doer of the process and, so, is given some degree of agency (i.e. in the grammatical subject position of an active verb, or in the by-agent phrase of a passive). in contrast, a social actor holds a recipient role when she is acted upon or is the beneficiary of the process, and therefore is lacking in agency (i.e. the traditional direct and indirect object of a nonpassive verb or the subject of a passive voice verb).3 possessives (as in dzhokhar’s computer) were treated as agents, as they can be paraphrased as dzhokhar had a computer. we excluded those social actors that are peripheral to the actual process (as in the defendant placed the bomb near the crowd), as these instances are rare and are part of a prepositional phrase rather than processes. all the processes were then coded based on halliday’s framework above. in cases where a process is realized periphrastically (as in he wanted to kill innocent people), we recognized it as consisting of two processes (in this case, a mental and a material process). however, in the case of periphrastic auxiliaries, which function more grammatically as aspectual markers, only the main verb is considered (as in he’s going to shoot the officer or he kept sending stuff to his brother) to illustrate our analytical process, consider the following excerpt: dzhokhar tsarnaev [agent] executed [mat] a police officer [recipient] targeted [mat] simply because he [agent] was [rel: qual] an officer, and dzhokhar tsarnaev [agent] wanted [men] his gun [agent; rel: poss], an officer [agent] who sat [mat] in his cruiser [agent; rel: poss] and died [mat] after he [recip] was shot [mat]. in the above example, references to the major social actors are underlined, showing nominations (dzhokhar tsarnaev) and identification terms (a police officer and an officer). the processes are italicized and coded in brackets, together with the roles of the social actors (either agent or recipient). to allow a comparison of the results for different text lengths, all the frequency counts were normalized to a common basis of 10,000 words. to ensure the consistency of the analysis, each researcher first analyzed the transcripts separately and resolved coding discrepancies. finally, our discourse-oriented qualitative analysis was performed to identify salient patterns displayed by each side and also to consider how a specific reference form and process may be pragmatically motivated in relation to the speaker’s actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 327 goals. authorial evaluation, which indicates either a positive or negative stance of the presenter, was also taken into account in this step. 4. findings 4.1. referential practice finding 1: as the overall frequency counts in table 3 indicate, in both the opening and closing, the prosecution focuses much more on the victims than on the defendant and his brother. in particular, nomination, identification, and impersonalization constitute this side’s major strategies to reference the victims. on the other hand, the defendant is mostly represented either by nomination (as we saw in the opening statement), or by functionalization (as we saw in the closing statement). in comparison to the defendant, the defendant’s brother is not referenced as frequently in either genre. this suggests that the prosecution’s discourse is about assigning agency and responsibility to the defendant, thereby limiting the roles of his brother to a partner in crime, as opposed to a leader and an influencer. the defense, in contrast, consistently makes the case more about the defendant and his brother, mostly through nomination and identification. note that references to tamerlan occur about two or three times more than they do in the prosecution’s speech. in addition, the defense rarely, if at all, mentions the victims in both genres. in effect, the issues of victims and damages are silenced, and attention is drawn to the defendant in relation to his brother. each reference strategy will be broken down and discussed in more detail below. krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344328 opening prosecution defense defendant brother victim defendant brother victim nom 123.93 16.52 110.16 83.48 85.22 func 19.28 5.51 35.80 1.74 1.74 3.48 iden 2.75 16.52 148.71 43.48 12.18 3.48 imper 2.75 8.26 49.57 5.22 1.74 total 148.71 46.81 344.24 133.92 100.88 6.96 closing nom 10.12 191.91 107.93 81.70 5.05 func 111.57 2.98 29.75 6.05 1.01 4.03 iden 7.44 25.29 144.30 36.32 28.24 3.03 imper 63.97 3.03 1.01 total 119.01 38.69 429.93 153.33 111.96 12.11 table 3. lawyers’ references to social actors in two genres. ( finding 2: in both genres, the two sides display starkly distinct patterns of nominations for the defendant and his brother, as illustrated in table 4. to begin with the opening, the prosecution exclusively uses the semi-formal label dzhokhar tsarnaev. nominated references to defendant’s brother occur much less frequently and are almost always in the semi-formal format. the reason is likely that using the last name alone would not distinguish the two individuals, and first names would create solidarity for the defendant, which in turn would work against the prosecutor’s intention. the semi-formal label, therefore, solves this dilemma for the prosecution. with this semi-formal label identifying the defendant as the actor of violent actions, the lawyer can pragmatically place the defendant at a distance from the jurors: (1) why is the death penalty the appropriate and just sentence? because dzhokhar tsarnaev planned and he plotted to kill. because when dzhokhar tsarnaev sauntered down boylston street and took a pressure cooker bomb into the crowds, he created a grave risk of death. (pro opening) the defense, in contrast, almost exclusively uses an informal label for both the defendant and his brother in the opening. doing so creates solidarity for them, so that although they committed a crime, they are just “like us”. what is most interesting is that the defendant is represented by his nickname jahar, known among his friends. indicating intimacy between interlocutors, the nickname shapes the social relations between the lawyer and the defendant by adding a sense of engagement with the defendant (brown & gilman, 1960; brown & ford, 1961). actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 329 opening prosecution defense defendant brother defendant brother informal tamerlan 2.75 jahar 80 tamerlan 81.74 semiformal dzhokhar tsarnaev 123.93 tamerlan tsarnaev 13.77 jahar tsarnaev 3.48 tamerlan tsarnaev 3.48 formal titulated total 123.93 16.52 83.48 85.22 closing informal tamerlan 1.49 dzhokhar 100.87 tamerlan 80.69 semiformal tamerlan tsarnaev 8.63 dzhokhar tsarnaev 7.06 tamerlan tsarnaev 1.01 formal titulated total 10.12 107.93 81.70 table 4. nominations for the defendant and his brother in two genres. i f ( o in the closing, the defense’s referential practice is consistent with what is witnessed in the opening—placing almost equal emphasis on the defendant and his brother in an attempt to explain how their relationship contributed to the crime and creating familiarity with these actors through first names. note, however, that in the prosecution’s closing, nominations do not occur (but, as will be discussed below, the functional term defendant is employed instead). finding 3: the defense’s opening and closing speech shows much more variation in the use of other reference terms for the defendant and his brother than does the prosecution’s. as exhibited in table 5, classifications predominate, introducing into the courtroom various identity aspects of the defendant and, to a lesser extent, of his brother. for example, the terms aider, abetter, participant mitigate the defendant’s agency and his roles in the attack, while influence and bomber attribute full agency to the defendant’s brother. labels describing their age, size, and character also construct polarized identities for the two brothers: (2) jahar really was what he appeared to be: a lost teenager with very little motivation to do anything much on his own, who had been raised all his life to take direction from the most powerful adult, by 2013, the only powerful adult in his world. (def opening) of note in the prosecution’s discourse is the functional term defendant (particularly in the closing), which roughly occurs at the exclusion of other referential terms. this specific term situates dzhokhar solely according to his legal status, eclipsing other personal aspects. the emphasis on this legal identity appears to be pragmatically motivated. as evidenced in (3), the term is repeated in two successive clauses even when a pronoun would suffice: (3) the defendant took all of that away from loving, loving, caring, positive people. this defendant blinded the mother, maimed their six-year-old daughter, ripping off her leg... (pro closing) in the prosecution’s opening and closing, tamerlan is simply referred to as the defendant’s brother and is described as a partner, conspirator, easy target [of assigning blame], and substitute for the defendant. these terms clearly lessen his full responsibility for the crime. krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344330 finding 4: in both genres, the prosecution’s references to the victims show a greater variety than the defense’s. as regards nominations, labels of all formality levels are employed. as table 6 illustrates, informal and semi-formal nominations occur most frequently in the prosecution’s discourse. the use of first-names brings the jurors pragmatically closer to the victims, while listing out first and last names shows that the victims are of diverse backgrounds: (4) because of his actions and role in this conspiracy, he [defendant] maimed jeff bauman, erika brannock, celeste corcoran, mery daniel, rebekah gregory, patrick downes, jessica kensky, martin... (closing pro) in contrast, the defense does not use nominations at all in the opening. although they do acknowledge the death of a police officer through titulated actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 331 opening prosecution defense defendant brother defendant brother func defendant 19.28 partner, conspirator 5.51 the person who is being sentenced for 1.74 the man who conceived, planned, led 1.74 iden class phy rel 17-year-old high school senior, a lost teenager, quiet kid, good kid, coolest kid 27.83 a young chenchen overseas, that sort of person, powerful adult 3.48 little brother 5.22 brother 2.75 brother 16.52 (younger) brother, 10.43 older brother last adult family member, oldest son 8.70 imp his hands 2.75 easy target, substitute 8.26 his face, his closed left eye 5.22 easy target 1.74 closing func the/that defendant, terrorist, partner 111.57 partner in crime 2.98 participant, aider, abetter 6.05 bomber 1.01 iden class child, adult 5.95 that kid, child, teenager, 8-year-old dzhokhar, quiet kid, good friend, young man 32.28 skilled boxer, 15 or 16 year old tamerlan 7.06 phy little boy, small boy 2.02 bigger brother 1.01 rel brother 1.49 brother 25.29 younger brother 2.02 (older) brother, 20.17 imp puppy 3.03 major influence 1.01 table 5. use of other reference terms for the defendant and his brother in two genres. nominations in the closing, the defendant’s agency is deflected and instead assigned to tamerlan: (5) dzhokhar didn’t pull the trigger. he may be responsible for the death of officer collier, but in a sense of weighing that for punishment, consider who killed officer collier, who pulled the trigger. (closing def). finding 5: as with nominations, a variety of categorization terms for the victims are found in the prosecution’s opening and closing. in particular, as presented in table 7, classifications and relationship descriptors predominate, serving to make salient the fact that the victims are vulnerable and innocent human beings and that the defendant caused their families to break apart, which sensationalize the issues of damage and victimization. in addition, impersonalization, which is not found in the defense’s discourse, constitutes another prime means for the prosecution to assign responsibility. the victims’ body parts are singled out to emphasize the damages sustained and highlight the destructive effects the defendant caused, as in (6). example (7) illustrates how metaphors and other identification labels are used for the same victim in a short stretch of discourse. (6) you saw the autopsy photos of martin richard, krystle campbell, and lingzi lu. the bombs burned their skin, shattered their bones and ripped their flesh. it disfigured their bodies, twisted their limbs and punched gaping holes in their legs and torsos. (7) lingzi was their only child, their future. that future ended on april 15th, 2013. she was her father’s jolly elf. she was the beautiful nerd. (pro closing) krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344332 ( ( opening prosecution defense informal 46.82 semiformal 41.31 formal 2.75 titulated 11.02 total 101.90 closing informal 74.38 semiformal 108.60 formal 2.98 1.01 titulated 5.95 4.04 total 191.91 5.05 table 6. nominations for the victims in two genres. f these terms are scant in the defense’s speech, and when present in the defense’s speech, these victimized actors are not related to the defendant in any way: (8) now, you’ve all probably realized by now that no punishment could ever be equal to the terrible effects of these crimes on the innocent people who were killed and hurt. (def opening): 4.2. event description finding 6: in both genres, the prosecution significantly represents the defendant as the agent of effective material processes, as table 8 indicates. this means that the defendant’s actions are always directed to a goal, usually a victim. the verb kill constitutes about 35 per cent of these processes, and another 30 per cent include such processes as murder, mutilate, injure, terrorize, and maim: actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 333 1 ( opening prosecution defense func survivors, victims 35.80 survivors, victims 3.48 iden class innocent children, jolly girl, eight-year-old boy, spectators, young beautiful people 82.62 innocent people, those people so young and full of promise 3.48 phy small boy 2.75 rel son, daughter, grandchildren, best friend, brother, sister, family, colleague 63.34 imper those beautiful faces, limbs, the talented fingers, symbols of loss 49.57 closing func victims, perceived enemies, the wounded, amputees, the dead 29.75 victims, the injured 4.03 iden class innocents, 12-year-old body, children, beautiful nerd, lovely, caring people, dad’s princess 65.46 people whose lives were ripped apart 1.01 phy little leo 10.41 rel father, mommy, daddy, family members, only child, loving son 68.43 family members, their families 2.02 imp mangled and ruined limbs, the light of his life, moral compass, whole body, severed femora, skin, internal organ, jolly elf, future 63.97 table 7. other reference terms for the victim in two genres. (9) dzhokhar tsarnaev was willing to cross every line for personal glory. kill innocents with a bomb: done. kill a police officer: done. kill a child: done. (pro opening) ineffective material processes, through which the prosecution mitigates the defendant’s agency by relating what he did after the attack, further construct dzhokhar as cold-hearted and remorseless: (10) while his victims lay dead and dying and bleeding...there’s the defendant, strolled into whole foods like it was an ordinary day and shopped for milk. that same evening, at 8 p.m., he got on the internet and tweeted to his friends, “ain’t no love in the heart of the city. (pro closing) in contrast, the defense represents the defendant in effective material processes at much lower frequencies, and in such cases, the defendant is portrayed as a benevolent actor: (11) he made her [a friend] laugh and feel good. he was respectful to the other girls. he treated them with respect. (def closing) the defense’s ineffective processes downplay the defendant’s role in planning and committing the crime, making him a vulnerable subject of his brother: (12) the idea the younger brother follows and supports the older brother is part of who they both were...when tamerlan decided that it was time, his little brother went with him. (def opening) (13) he followed tamerlan around like a puppy. (def closing) of note in the defense’s speech is deflected agency (14) or, at the other extreme end, his recipient role (15), signaling his lack of power: (14) he didn’t beat anyone up. he didn’t take advantage of people. (def opening) (15) tamerlan set himself and his brother on this terrible course...he would pull the younger brother with him. (def opening). krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344334 finding 7: as table 9 indicates, the two sides attribute starkly different degrees of agency to the defendant’s brother in performing material processes. in the prosecution’s discourse, tamerlan’s role is almost inconsequential. interestingly, tamerlan’s material processes, whether effective or ineffective, almost always appear in a co-ordinated structure, with the defendant as the other agent: (16) also consider how the defendant and his brother killed officer sean collier...you saw how they deliberately walked together across the campus, and they went straight to the door of his car....the fact that the defendant and his brother targeted him... (pro closing) in contrast, the defense consistently assigns tamerlan much more agency in executing effective material processes, especially those having to do with planning, leading, and committing the attack (17) and negatively impacting other people (18): (17) who had the gun? who was shooting at the police? who shot collier with the gun? tamerlan. (def closing) (18) tamerlan was a very tough guy...who was suspended from high school for assaulting another student and who was arrested for assaulting his own girlfriend. tamerlan turned a lot of people off. (def opening) his negative persona is further enhanced by ineffective material processes: actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 335 opening prosecution defense as agent as recipient as agent as recipient agency attributed 165.24 48.70 agency mitigated 79.87 40.0 agency deflected 8.70 36.52 total 245.11 97.40 36.52 closing agency attributed 226.82 42.36 agency mitigated 69.34. 38.33 agency deflected 8.11 3.03 34.29 total 296.16 8.11 83.72 34.29 table 8. material processes executed by the defendant in two genres. f ( ( ( ( (19) tamerlan, who had changed dramatically, becoming very radical, left for russia on a trip we now know was to wage jihad, to take up the fight in the mountains. (def closing) finding 8: as table 10 shows, other notable processes in the prosecution’s speech are relational and mental processes. about 80 per cent of the prosecution’s qualificational processes clearly indicate a negative stance towards the defendant, as in (20). also, the defendant is described as possessing crime-related materials and violent character as well as having premeditated the crime through the mental process knew (21): (20) this is dzhokhar tsarnaev unconcerned, unrepentant, and unchanged. without remorse, he remains untouched by the grief and the loss he caused. and without assistance, he remains the unrepentant killer that he is. (pro opening) (21) he knew that the marathon attracted families and that people go there with their friends, so he knew that his bomb was likely to kill and mutilate parents in front of their children. he also knew that the last stretch down boyston street...drew huge crows. he knew that by placing his bomb there, he had a good chance of killing and injuring hundreds of people which is exactly what happened. (pro closing) in contrast, the defense constructs a different persona for the same individual (22): krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344336 opening prosecution defense as agent as recipient as agent as recipient agency attributed 73.04 agency mitigated 11.01 43.47 agency deflected 2.75 3.48 17.39 total 11.01 2.75 119.99 17.39 closing agency attributed 21.67 38.34 agency mitigated 11.36 26.23 agency deflected 8.67 5.04 total 33.03 8.67 64.57 5.04 table 9. material processes executed by the defendant’s brother in two genres. f ( ( (22) dzhokhar respected and loved his older brother...he was the shy, quiet, respectful, hard-working kid that teachers and friends came in here and told you about. (def closing). finding 9: in both genres, the prosecution predominantly represents the victims as agents of ineffective material processes or recipients of the defendant’s effective material processes, as table 11 shows. by mitigating or deflecting their agency, the defendant’s actions appear ruthless and unjust: (23) when she finally had enough breath to breathe, she screamed in agony. she was left to try to recover in the same hospital room as her daughter, another family blown apart by this defendant and his brother. (pro closing). actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 337 opening prosecution defense defendant brother defendant brother relational qual 44.06 16.52 40 43.48 pos 68.85 2.75 62.61 36.52 loc 11.02 1.74 1.74 mental 16.52 26.08 15.65 total 140.45 19.27 130.43 97.39 closing relational qual 20.23 1.44 59.51 19.16 poss 47.67 2.90 78.68 31.27 loc 4.33 2.90 7.06 7.06 mental 86.68 10.11 47.40 24.21 total 158.91 17.35 192.65 81.70 table 10. relational and mental processes involving the defendant and brother in two genres. f opening prosecution defense as agent as recipient as agent as recipient agency attributed agency mitigated 79.86 1.74 agency deflected 71.61 total 79.86 71.61 1.74 closing agency attributed agency mitigated 84.79 2.02 agency deflected 123.47 13.11 total 84.79 123.47 2.02 13.11 table 11. material processes executed by the victims in two genres. in those rare cases where the defense acknowledges victimization, agency is grammatically obscured through agentless passives and nominalization of processes: (24) the story of the boston marathon bombing is about resilience and the strength of the spirit of those so deeply affected by these senseless and catastrophic acts. finding 10: also substantial in the prosecution’s speech are the victims’ relational (25) and mental processes (26), by which the victims’ personal character, subjective pain, and suffering are described in detail. as table 12 indicates, this strategy is even more pronounced in the closing speech. (25) before he murdered them in some of the cruelest ways imaginable, they were sons, they were daughters, they were grandchildren, they were brothers and they were sisters. (pro opening) (26) she [victim] remembered every detail of the blast. she suffered excruciating pain…she just wanted to die because the pain was too much. (pro closing) in the defense’s discourse, the victims’ relational and processes are sparse, and when present, it is primarily for the purpose of defending an argumentative position. example (27) illustrates how the defense advances a question in anticipation of the jurors’ doubt, where the victims’ sufferings are acknowledged just to pre-empt other alternatives. (27) the question could be….why shouldn’t he [defendant] suffer as his victims did?...there’s nothing wrong with those questions…but there is something wrong with thinking that the answer will be found in imposing the sentence of death… (def closing). krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344338 5. conclusion this study has examined representational choices that negotiate different degrees of agency and responsibility for the main social actors in the opening and closing of the penalty phase of a capital trial. while individual differences between lawyers exist, this study has been able to identify the prosecution’s and the defense’s polarized linguistic patterns in both genes. as regards referential practice, the prosecution individualizes and personalizes the victims mainly through informal or semi-formal nominations, categorizations, and impersonalizations in both genres. such emphasis on the victims positions them as having no control over what happened to them and aggrandizes the magnitude of the impacts they sustained. when it comes to the defendant, the prosecution references him either by a semi-formal label or by his legal status, thereby not only drawing attention to the agent of the criminal acts but also distancing him from the jurors. the defendant’s brother is mostly excluded. in contrast, the defense, consistently in both genres, avoids mentioning the victims and equally represents both the defendant and his brother, mainly through informal nomination and categorization. this emphasizes their human attributes. however, it is observed that references to the defendant’s brother convey negative evaluation, thereby increasing his share and blameworthiness. with respect to event description, the two sides also fare differently. the main strategies are summarized in table 13. actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 339 ( ( opening prosecution defense rel qual 46.82 1.74 poss 41.31 3.48 loc 5.51 ment 35.81 total 129.45 5.22 closing rel qual 50.58 poss 81.82 3.03 loc 7.44 ment 41.66 1.01 total 181.50 4.04 table 12. relational and mental processes involving the victims in two genres. in a more critical vein, this study reveals how referential practice and process description comes to be instrumental in struggles of power. however, the contest in the penalty phase does not seem to be as much about constructing an alternative version of reality as about attributing different degrees of agency and constructing polarized identities for them, thereby invoking moral, normative values for the same individuals. this indeed stands in stark contrast with the fact-finding, evidence-based setting, where the guilt phase takes place. this particular case has resulted in a death sentence.4 whether or not such recommendation testifies to the perlocutionary effects of the prosecution’s representational strategies is difficult to say precisely at this point. nor does this study attempt to make a claim about the effectiveness of such strategies used by either side. further research that compares the use of these strategies in other cases may shed more light on this issue. this study does, however, make explicit how the heinousness of the crime and dangerousness of the defendant are discursively constructed in the minute details of representational choices. the justification of state killing, which is thought to be objective, impartial and neutral under the rule of law, is in fact imbued with value-laden representational practice and strategic assignment of agency and responsibility (or concealing these issues). at the risk of venturing into subjective territories, we are concerned that one negative consequence of this dueling representational practice may result in a process that lacks fairness and integrity such that the individual to be executed is distinguished not by her past records, her culpability, or the circumstances of krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344340 a prosecution defense defendant is attributed full agency and responsibility mainly by positioning him as a) agent of effective material processes with victims as recipients, b) agent who shows awareness of actions, and c) agent with negative qualifications crime-related materials is represented as having no or weak agency and responsibility by positioning him as a) agent of ineffective material processes, b) as recipient of processes executed by others, and c) agent of positive qualificational processes brother is infrequently represented as involved in processes, hence deflecting agency and responsibility is attributed agency as a co-participant of effective material processes is attributed high agency and responsibility and represented as a) agent of effective material processes which negatively affect others, and b) agent of negative qualifications and possessor of terrorist materials victims are attributed little agency by being represented as a) recipients of effective material processes carried out by the defendant, b) sensors of mental processes to emphasize pain and suffering, and c) carriers and possessors of innocent and vulnerable traits are mostly not represented table 13. summary of characteristic process patterns in each side’s discourse. i the crime, but by the quality of representation and presenter’s labelling skills. with a view towards a more humanistic judicial system, the findings are hoped to inform legal professionals and the public at large, some of whom may be summoned for duty jury, to be more aware of the power of linguistic choices in shaping their sentencing decisions. acknowledgements this research is supported by funding from hanyang university (hy-2020). article history: received 4 february 2019 received in revised form 10 june 2019 accepted 21 april 2020 references actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 341 bennett, w. (1978). “storytelling in criminal trials: a model of social judgment”. quarterly journal of speech 64: 1-22. bergman, p. (1989). trial advocacy in a nutshell. st. paul, mn: west publishing. brown, r. & m. ford (1961). “address in american english”. journal of abnormal and social psychology 62: 375-385. brown, r. & a. gilman (1960). “the pronouns of power and solidarity” in t. sebeok (ed.), style in language, 253-276. cambridge: cambridge university press. burt, m. (2008). “the importance of storytelling at all stages of a capital case”. umkc law review 77: 877-910. chaemsaithong, k. (2018). “referential practice and contested identities in legal narratives”. lingua 212: 44-59. conley, r. (2016). confronting the death penalty: how language influences jurors in capital cases. oxford: oxford university press. costanzo, m. & j. peterson (1994). “attorney persuasion in the capital penalty phase: a content analysis of closing arguments”. journal of social issues 50: 125-147. dreyfus, s. (2017). “‘mum, the pot broke’: taking responsibility (or not) in language”. discourse & society 28: 374-391. duranti, a. (2004). “agency in language” in a. duranti (ed.), a companion to linguistic anthropology, 451-473. malden: blackwell fournier, v (1992). “the admissibility of expert testimony in brainwashing-related cases: should witnesses be fryed?” santa clara law review 32: 607-647. guang, s. (2010). “an analysis of the transitivity system in courtroom discourse”. chinese semiotic studies 4: 245-257. halliday, m.a.k. (1994). an introduction to functional grammar. london: arnold. kaplan, p. (2012). murder stories: ideological narratives in capital punishment. lanham: lexington books. lind, a. & g. ke (1985). “opening and closing statements” in s.m. kassin & l.s. wrightsman (eds.), the psychology of evidence and trial procedure, 229-252. london: sage. luchjenbroers, j. & m. aldridge (2007). “conceptual manipulation with metaphors and frames: dealing with rape victims in legal discourse”. text & talk 27: 339-359. matlon, r. (1993). opening statements/closing arguments. san anselma, ca: stuart allen. mayr, a. & d. machin (2012). the language of crime and deviance: an introduction to krisda chaemsaithong is professor of english linguistics at hanyang university, where he teaches and supervises research on courtroom discourse from a socio-functional linguistic perspective. his research topics include person reference, speech reporting, politeness, and narrative structure. yoonjeong kim is a doctoral candidate at the same institute. her research interests include stylistic positioning of characters in narratives and visual rhetoric. notes 1 aggravating factors are those circumstances that increase the severity or culpability of a criminal act, thereby warranting a death sentence. mitigating factors are those circumstances that provide reasons as to why a life sentence, as opposed to death, should be granted. 2 halliday (1994) also proposes behavioral processes, those processes that are partly material and partly mental in nature, such as watch, dream, breathe, die, etc. in this paper, behavioral processes will be categorized under material processes, where the agent has lesser agency than those (effective) material processes with a goal. 3 following mayr and machin (2012) and rosulek (2015), we implement a broad classification of agent and recipient, as opposed to more fine-grained labels halliday (1994) proposes (such as actor for the agent of material processes, senser for the agent of mental processes, etc). krisda chaemsaithong & yoonjeong kim ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344342 critical linguistic analysis in media and popular culture. london: continuum. murphy, g. (1988). “personal reference in english”. language in society 17: 317-349. o’connor, p. (2000). speaking of crime: narratives of prisoners. lincoln: university of nebraska press. pennington, n. & r. hastie (1991). “a cognitive theory of jury decision making: the story model”. cordoza law review 13: 519-557. powell, g. (2001). “opening statements: the art of storytelling”. stetson law review: 89-104. rieke, r. & r. stutman (1990). communication in legal advocacy. columbia, sc: university of south carolina press. rosulek, l. (2008). “manipulative silence and social representation in the closing arguments of a child sexual abuse case”. text & talk 28: 529-550. rosulek, l. (2015). dueling discourses: the construction of reality in closing arguments. oxford: oxford university press. spieker, s. & d. worthington (2003). “the influence of opening statement/closing argument organizational strategy on juror verdict and damage awards”. law and human behavior 27: 437-456. taylor, c. (1985). human agency and language (a. kozulin, trans). cambridge, ma: mit press. tracy, k. (2011). “what’s in a name? stance markers in oral argument about marriage law”. discourse & communication 5: 65-88. van leeuwen, t. (2008). discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. oxford: oxford university press. warburton, i. (2003). “the commandeering of free will: brainwashing as a legitimate defense”. capital defense journal 16: 73-97. 4 interestingly, to the best of our knowledge, the cases studied so far in an on-going project (over 10 cases) show similar lexico-grammatical choices and they all resulted in the defendant’s execution. however, there is one exception, where the defendant received multiple life sentences without parole (instead of execution), but the defendant in this case was tried as a juvenile (under 18 at the time of criminal violations), and the law in that jurisdiction prohibits execution. thus, although the prosecution employs similar strategies in this case, it is the age factor that determined the final sentence choice. actions, actors, and agency in the penalty phase of capital trials: a comparison of two genres ibérica 39 (2020): 319-344 343 iberica 13 ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper suggests that interpersonality as a framework for analysis is always necessarily conditioned by contextual variables. genre and discipline, together with language and culture, challenge the initial model of metadiscourse (vande kopple, 1985; crismore et al., 1993) as well as other approaches to interpersonal metadiscourse (hyland & tse, 2004; hyland, 2005) that take english and academic discourse as their main referents. a model of interpersonality should be understood as containing variables, in order to cater for more insightful and accurate analyses. it is argued that stance and engagement voices (author and reader) (white 2003; hyland, 2008), as construed in non-academic genres like traveler forums and promotional tourism websites, bring new data to the interpersonality framework, something that can fine-tune this model. to this end, the findings from several corpus-based studies of these two webgenres have been considered (suau-jiménez, 2011, 2012a, 2012b, 2014a), along with work on interpersonality and discourse that includes cultural, generic and disciplinary aspects (dahl, 2004; sala, 2006; yakhontova, 2006; giannoni, 2007; gotti, 2010). both sub-corpora used, of traveler forums and promotional tourism websites in english and spanish, are drawn from the cometval corpus (corpus multilingüe de turismo, universitat de valència). keywords: interpersonality model, stance and engagement, tourism webgenres, contextual variables. what can the discursive construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites bring to a cultural, cross-generic and disciplinary view of interpersonality? francisca suau-jiménez iulma (instituto interuniversitario de lenguas modernas aplicadas), universitat de valència (españa) francisca.suau@uv.es 199 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 199 ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220 francisca suau-jiménez resumen ¿ q u é pu e de ap or ta r l a c o ns tr uc c ió n d is c urs i v a de l as v o c e s “ a ut or id ad ” ( s ta nc e ) e “ i mp l ic a c i ón ” ( e ng a g e me n t) e n l os f o ro s de v i aj e r os y e n l a s p á g in as d e p ro moc ió n tu rí s ti c a a un a v is i ón c ul t ura l , t ra ns g e né r ic a y d i s c ip l in ar d e l a in te r pe r s on al i da d? este artículo sugiere que la interpersonalidad como marco de análisis está siempre necesariamente condicionado por variables contextuales. el género y la disciplina, junto con la lengua y la cultura ponen en tela de juicio tanto el modelo inicial de metadiscurso (vande kopple, 1985; crismore et al., 1993) como otros posteriores (hyland & tse, 2004; hyland, 2005) que toman el inglés y el discurso académico como referentes. se argumenta que un modelo de interpersonalidad debería considerar estas variables, con objeto de ofrecer mayor agudeza y profundidad de análisis. parte de cómo se construyen las voces del autor y del lector (autoridad e implicación) (white 2003; hyland, 2008) en géneros noacadémicos como son los foros de viajeros y las webs de promoción turística y los datos que aportan al marco de la interpersonalidad. se tienen en cuenta los resultados de trabajos anteriores basados en corpus (suau-jiménez, 2011, 2012a, 2012b, 2014a) e igualmente de estudios sobre interpersonalidad y discurso que incluyen aspectos disciplinares, genéricos y culturales (dahl, 2004; sala, 2006; yakhontova, 2006; giannoni, 2007; gotti, 2010). ambos sub-corpus de foros de viajeros y webs de promoción turística en inglés y español pertenecen al corpus cometval (corpus multilingüe de turismo, universitat de valència). palabras clave: modelo de interpersonalidad, autoridad e implicación, géneros digitales turísticos, variables contextuales. 1. introduction the framework for interpersonal metadiscourse, also called interpersonality (vande kopple, 1985; crismore et al. 1993; hyland, 2005), has been described, both theoretically and methodologically, with reference to the english language and to academic discourse. however, many other studies on contextual variables such as genre, discipline and language/culture can also contribute to the framework. based on an analysis of two prototypical tourism web genres, it is claimed here that stance and engagement voices can provide valuable data on how interpersonality is construed in terms of promotion/persuasion and evaluation/advice in non-academic genres; thus, that this framework can be enriched with more fine-tuned analyses of these variables. a strong, reliable framework of analysis must be founded on 200 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 200 similarities more than on differences, even if this is at the expense of flexibility. such has been the aim with the interpersonal metadiscourse/interpersonality model for english for academic purposes (eap) since its beginnings. academic disciplines and discourse communities needed a reliable model for the analysis of their discourse, one which might also help to build a common, interpersonal way of communicating and gaining recognition (hyland, 2015: 3): essentially, communities provide the context within which we learn to communicate and to interpret each other’s talk, gradually acquiring the specialized discourse competencies to participate as members. they are the places we craft our identities, cement relationships and achieve recognition, where we find the tools and resources to live out our professional lives. yet, it is also true that any discursive framework should be open to change and evolution. this is especially the case when the findings of empirical analyses challenge previously established models and argue for flexibility, with variations not previously considered being brought into the analysis, often with unexpected results. a number of studies on such variability in relation to academic discourse have challenged the initial english-based framework in this sense (valero-garcés, 1996; abdollahzadeh, 2003; dahl, 2004; sala, 2006; yakhontova, 2006; giannoni, 2007; crismore & abdollahzadeh, 2010; gotti, 2010). such work, often including empirical evidence, supports the claim that contextual variables constitute an important factor in interpersonal metadiscourse analyses. our hypothesis, based on those works that address variability, is that non-academic genres generated by professional communities and non-academic disciplines also shed new, potentially enriching light on the interpersonal framework model. to this end, a brief review will first be presented of new digital modes or genres (traveler forums and promotional websites), where interpersonal communication is central to the field of travel and tourism. an overview of the conceptualization of metadiscourse and its evolution into our view of interpersonality will also be given, including stance and engagement (author’s and reader’s voices), their strategies, and their markers in promotion websites and traveler forums. the results of the analyses of interpersonality in these two web genres are then set out, in order to illustrate that they both have specific rhetorical characteristics and specific interpersonal markers associated with generic, disciplinary and cultural-linguistic elements. this specificity implies that a framework for interpersonal metadiscourse/interpersonality should be conceptualized in what can the discursive construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220 201 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 201 the light of contextual conditions in order to provide more insightful applications. 2. tourism 2.0 and its impact on digital interpersonal communication: new modes and genres tourism 2.0 allows people to make their travel plans wholly on their own using the internet, an innovation that has revolutionized the industry. as a result, new computer-mediated communication (cmc) texts have emerged, transforming the way in which marketers and customers relate. according to couture et al. (2015: 66), “the tourism industry accounts directly for 5% of global gross domestic product (gdp), 30% of global exports of services, and 1 out of 12 jobs worldwide (wto 2015)”; a significant proportion of these commercial operations are now carried out directly via the internet. given that the internet has also become the most effective place for people to share their consumer experiences, it seems that opinions, commentaries or reviews posted online through the so-called ewom or electronic word of mouth system have proved extremely valuable for marketers and hoteliers, as well as for individual users. these opinions can help businesses to ensure the competitiveness of their products and to focus their marketing strategies on potential new customers. consumers have also access to the experiences of previous travelers and can thus make more informed choices when buying a product or service (pekar & ou, 2008) as well as influence tourism organizations to constantly re-appraise their marketing strategies (phillips et al., 2015), although the effect on predicting sales performance remains unclear (blal & sturman, 2015). tourism institutions and businesses can thus sell destinations and hotels as products with specific identity traits, with customers as social actors, and this has also become part of the overall marketing strategies in the sector (dolón, 2014; kim et al., 2015). studies of this new type of digital communication have analyzed tourism web genres and found the abundant use of recurrent discursive strategies that stand for interpersonal relations. these interpersonal relations and linguistic materializations are represented by the writer’s voice, as with selfreferences (first person pronouns) or attitudinal markers (adverbs), meant to show authority, or with boosters (positive evaluative adjectives), which are applied to enhance products or services. likewise, they are represented by the reader’s voice, as with second person pronouns and directives francisca suau-jiménez ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220202 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 202 (imperatives) (mapelli, 2008; pierini, 2009; edo-marzá, 2012; suau-jiménez, 2012a, 2012b, 2014), which seek to involve readers in the aim of the promotional or evaluative discourse. research here has tended to take a broad perspective on interpersonality and interpersonal metadiscourse. this theoretical framework also includes the viewpoint of the author and how her/his authority and credibility is achieved (stance), and the viewpoint of the reader and how s/he is involved in the discourse and in the interpersonal game (engagement) (white, 2003; hyland, 2008). in this way, a more accurate account of lexico-grammatical features or markers can be identified, since the division into author’s stance and reader’s engagement creates a new level of analysis, one that helps to delineate those rhetorical functions which characterize and explain how interpersonal communication works in a given genre. 3. interpersonal metadiscourse or interpersonality: general framework and variations the theoretical and methodological framework called ‘interpersonality’, understood as the discursive markers and strategies that an author uses to express authority and to engage readers throughout a text in order to achieve its generic aim, can be taken as a synonym for interactional or interpersonal metadiscourse. it is the result of a long and complex evolution. the concept was initially termed metadiscourse, defined by vande kopple (1985) and crismore, markkanen and steffensen (1993) as spoken or written linguistic material that adds no new propositional content but helps the reader to organize, interpret and evaluate the information given. this early model introduced by vande kopple had two main categories: textual and interpersonal metadiscourse. the textual category establishes the relationship between author and text and how the former is positioned over the latter. interpersonal metadiscourse, by contrast, identifies the authorreader relationship and how the author can lead the reader towards her/his pre-conceived aims, using specific discursive strategies. this first model has been applied mostly to academic discourse genres, particularly in english, although other languages, such as finnish, spanish, russian, persian and brazilian portuguese, have also been the object of analyses (mauranen, 1993; valero-garcés, 1996; abdollahzadeh, 2003; ferrari, 2004; beke, 2005; dahl, 2004; yakhontova, 2006; zarei & mansoori, 2011; junqueira & cortes, 2014; kuhi & mojood, 2014). however, it seems that none of these studies what can the discursive construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220 203 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 203 explicitly claims that these results could modify the metadiscourse framework, in the sense of having to be contextually adjusted when applied to a given corpus, taking into account variations dealing with culture and language, genre, gender, discipline and/or others having to do with internal differentiations within these variables. crismore et al. (1983: 2) described metadiscourse as the phenomenon of writers directing readers towards an understanding of what is said and meant in the primary discourse and how to ‘hook’ the reader. one interesting notion here, although somewhat vague, was that they included propositional content as being used generally to refer to information about external reality: all that which has to do with thoughts, actors or states of affairs in the world outside the text, this based on halliday’s (1985) ideational macro-function. crismore et al.’s work was an interesting contribution to the model since it accepted markers other than the strictly metadiscursive ones (only about the discourse) claimed by vande kopple. it also contributed to a broadening of the concept of metadiscourse, while also implying greater complexity and difficulty in establishing a taxonomy of markers, which is methodologically unavoidable in rigorous analyses. a metadiscursive taxonomy that included patterns of textual and interpersonal markers was finally proposed by hyland and tse (2004) for academic discourse in english, as a result of previous empirical studies (hyland, 1998). it thus created a reliable model, one that has been the basis for many further analyses, applied to academic and non-academic corpora. hyland (1998, 2005, 2008) and hyland and tse (2004) aimed to systematize this framework, and their work represents a turning point in the conceptualization of metadiscourse. they revisit the notion of textual and interpersonal markers in depth throughout their various studies, defining it as a system of meaning realized by an open-ended set of language items which can only be recognized as fulfilling their function at the moment of their realization, in their corresponding context. it is “the cover term for the self-reflective expressions used to negotiate interactional meanings in a text, assist the writer (or speaker) to express a viewpoint and engage the readers as members of a particular community” (hyland, 2005: 37). hyland and tse (2004) assume a difference between textual and interpersonal metadiscourse and claim that metadiscourse had often been wrongly characterized as “discourse about discourse”, suggesting that interpersonal or interactional metadiscourse is more interesting than textual francisca suau-jiménez ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220204 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 204 metadiscourse in that it portrays the writer-reader relationship in cognitive terms, which is the core of interpersonality. one of their arguments here is that propositional content does not rule out the idea of metadiscourse but rather includes it, although pushing it too far into a rigid subcategory would be unwise (2004: 161). they view writing as a form of social engagement, where writers project themselves into their discourse to signal their attitude towards both the content and the audience of the text. they regard it as an open and functional category that can always accept new items (markers, categories) to fit the writer’s needs of facilitating communication and building a relationship with an audience, which they see as a key aspect. one of their most interesting suggestions, in line with crismore et al. (1983) but set out more explicitly, is that propositional content can also be part of metadiscourse, although it can be difficult to distinguish what is content from what is not. in our view, the cognitive aspects that define interpersonal metadiscourse and explain the ‘game’ of the interactants pave the way for a connection with rhetorical functions such as persuasion, evaluation, solidarity, etc. and provide interpersonality with a solid theoretical basis when it comes to characterizing genres from an interpersonal perspective. although based on academic genres in english, this approach to interpersonal metadiscourse has been used as a means of analyzing tourism web genres. as a result, a new, cross-generic and disciplinary taxonomy has been identified for this area of research, in which it is proposed that interpersonality can be flexible and context-conditioned. such an approach also has other interesting applications, as with translation, since it is essential, especially when translating persuasive texts, to know the differences between the interpersonal pattern of the source and the target language; otherwise, bad translations can be made leading to difficulties to identify the interpersonal strategies deployed, and thus the persuasive aim of the text being compromised (suau-jiménez, 2014b). it can therefore be claimed that interpersonality patterns should be described in terms of different variables, such as language, genre and, in this case, discipline, in order to provide a grid reference for where markers and categories have socio-cultural and contextual coherence (suau-jiménez, 2012, 2014). other variables that should also be considered to have an impact have been suggested, although they do not fall within the scope of the present study. these include gender and the different ways male and female express interpersonally, and differences between beginning and more proficient learners of a second or foreign language, as reported by crismore what can the discursive construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220 205 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 205 and abdollahzadeh (2010). to sum up, in order to be flexible and usable in a variety of settings, interpersonality should be understood in the light of contextual conditions or variables. the term ‘interpersonality’ was coined as a synonym for interpersonal or interactional metadiscourse, in part due to the influence of the spanish research group interlae at the university of zaragoza, which has a long tradition in the study of academic genres and disciplines. the edited volume constructing interpersonality: multiple perspectives on written academic genres (lorés-sanz, mur-dueñas & lafuente, 2010) contained a variety of approaches to interpersonal metadiscourse in a number of genres (abstracts, book reviews, referee reports, electronic popularizations, academic weblogs, student essays and conference handouts) and disciplines (business organization, economics, law, linguistics, literature, medicine, psychology and physics), and soon became a reference text within the field. breeze, gotti and sancho (2014) have also drawn on interpersonality as an umbrella term and as a synonym for interpersonal metadiscourse, with a collective work that offers a broad selection of studies of public and private legal genres. 3.1. the notion of voice the notion of voice, central to our present approach, is also taken from hyland (2008), who in turn draws on bakhtin (1986) and white (2003) and introduces a new level of specificity with a division into disciplinary voices (author’s and reader’s voice). this allows interpersonal markers and categories to be classified as belonging to voices of stance or engagement, thus creating an intermediate socio-linguistic layer of analysis between, on the one hand, markers of lexico-grammatical realizations in the two voices, and on the other, rhetorical functions that aim to characterize the genre. 3.2. interpersonality as a result of language, genre, and discipline variables in this article we assume that interpersonality is the result of at least three variables, language, genre, and discipline, and that these must be taken into account in any analysis. their simultaneous presence in a text renders a specific interpersonal pattern, constructed with the aid of genre-related rhetorical functions, voices of stance and engagement in various combinations, and a battery of ad hoc markers and categories, influenced by the culture/language and the discipline. francisca suau-jiménez ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220206 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 206 in this sense, several studies have shown the influence of cultural context, discipline and genre in metadiscursive output. yakhontova (2006), for example, describes a contrastive genre analysis of english and slavic (ukrainian and russian) conference abstracts in the field of applied mathematics, focusing on the use of the self-mention pronoun “i/we”. she claims important interdisciplinary variations compared with a similar, prior study from the field of applied linguistics. dahl (2004: 1807) considers culture and discipline markers from textual metadiscourse in english, french and norwegian research articles, encompassing three disciplines: economics, linguistics and medicine. findings suggest that language is the most important variable for economics and linguistics, where english and norwegian show very similar patterns, using much more metatext than french. she concludes that english and norwegian both have a strong stance (author’s voice), while french is more reader-oriented (engagement). regarding discipline, it is suggested that for economics and linguistics, the national culture is more important than in the case of medicine. this study is a good example of the influence that language and discipline have on the discursive construction of genres. giannoni (2007) reports studies on the disciplines of medicine, linguistics, economics and law, and proves that there is more hyperbolic, ironic or emotive language in linguistics and economics than in medicine. sala (2006), meanwhile, assumes disciplinary traits, yet goes further, looking for additional traits within the same disciplines. gotti (2010: 51) suggests that beyond the screen of apparent homogeneity, “disciplinary communities show idiosyncratic specificities which reflect the varying experiences, interests and professional roles of the individual members of a community”. crismore and abdollahzadeh (2010) draw on a series of studies into the so-called soft sciences within the iranian academic context, with cross-linguistic comparisons between english and persian, and with native and non-native speakers of english. their close observations highlight variations due to the influence of culture and language; angloamerican writers showed a more author-responsive use of metadiscursive strategies in contrast to iranian writers, who were more prone to be readeroriented; significant variations due to gender influence were also reported. finally, li and wharton (2012: 345) report different patterns of metadiscourse use in their corpus of mandarin students working with english in china or in the uk, these associated with both disciplinary and cultural (language) factors. their findings indicate that local cultural factors have a stronger effect than disciplinary ones, although discipline was also linked to significant differences. what can the discursive construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220 207 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 207 4. stance and engagement in tourism web genres: p r om ot i on w e b s it e s and tr a v e l e r f o ru ms stance and engagement, or writers’ and readers’ interpersonal voices, have been studied in a number of tourism web genres (suau-jiménez, 2012a, 2012b, 2014a). i address here how these voices are construed in the touristic promotion website (figures 1 and 2): and in the traveler forum (figure 3): francisca suau-jiménez ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220208 francisca suau-jiménez ibérica 31 (2016): …-… suggests that beyond the screen of apparent homogeneity, “disciplinary communities show idiosyncratic specificities which reflect the varying experiences, interests and professional roles of the individual members of a community”. crismore and abdollahzadeh (2010) draw on a series of studies into the so-called soft sciences within the iranian academic context, with crosslinguistic comparisons between english and persian, and with native and nonnative speakers of english. their close observations highlight variations due to the influence of culture and language; anglo-american writers showed a more author-responsive use of metadiscursive strategies in contrast to iranian writers, who were more prone to be reader-oriented; significant variations due to gender influence were also reported. finally, li and wharton (2012: 345) report different patterns of metadiscourse use in their corpus of mandarin students working with english in china or in the uk, these associated with both disciplinary and cultural (language) factors. their findings indicate that local cultural factors have a stronger effect than disciplinary ones, although discipline was also linked to significant differences. 4. stance and engagement in tourism web genres: promotion websites and traveler forums stance and engagement, or writers’ and readers’ interpersonal voices, have been studied in a number of tourism web genres (suau-jiménez, 2012a, 2012b, 2014a). i address here how these voices are construed in the touristic promotion website (figures 1 and 2): figure 1. touristic promotion website for britain.1 the construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites ibérica 31 (2016): …-… figure 2. touristic promotion hotel website. and in the traveler forum (figure 3): figure 3. traveler forum from tripadvisor. these two web genres entail recurrent and prototypical communicative purposes: persuasion, in the case of promotion websites, and evaluation and advice, in the case of traveler forums. both web genres constitute invaluable sources of information for tourism marketers and travelers: both discursive communities use them to communicate through an intricate, implicit dialogue that sometimes takes unconventional dialogic forms, as is the case with promotional websites, 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 208 these two web genres entail recurrent and prototypical communicative purposes: persuasion, in the case of promotion websites, and evaluation and advice, in the case of traveler forums. both web genres constitute invaluable sources of information for tourism marketers and travelers: both discursive communities use them to communicate through an intricate, implicit dialogue that sometimes takes unconventional dialogic forms, as is the case with promotional websites, where the text stands for the entity’s voice, although customers are also engaged in the discourse. 4.1. touristic promotion websites touristic promotion websites are a common kind of cmc genre, although not accurately part of the web 2.0, since their structure does not allow for open dialogue between writer and reader. rather, the genre can be regarded as an example of the web 1.0, with a kind of hidden writer-reader interpersonal dialogue in which readers are engaged, since their evaluations and feedback are generated and transmitted via their own reactions to tourist products or services. we could say that it is a remodelled web genre, in that it reproduces all the characteristics of the old printed tourist guides, but now customers’ feedback is essential for the constant updating of the website. persuasion is the central aim here, and the rhetorical functions that help to achieve this are descriptions, exemplifications, explanations and recommendations (suau-jiménez, 2012b). its register is generally standard, with an elaborate language that can contain technical terms together with figurative or metaphorical elements for embellishment and to reach the what can the discursive construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220 209 the construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites ibérica 31 (2016): …-… figure 2. touristic promotion hotel website. and in the traveler forum (figure 3): figure 3. traveler forum from tripadvisor. these two web genres entail recurrent and prototypical communicative purposes: persuasion, in the case of promotion websites, and evaluation and advice, in the case of traveler forums. both web genres constitute invaluable sources of information for tourism marketers and travelers: both discursive communities use them to communicate through an intricate, implicit dialogue that sometimes takes unconventional dialogic forms, as is the case with promotional websites, 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 209 customer through a highly aesthetic style. it is like the matching of two opposed forces, with these trying to reach the best possible agreement. customers’ voice and demands, or “user-generated-content” (cheng & ab hamid, 2011), usually appear in the subgenre review, a digital mode that most promotion websites now offer, and which tourism marketers and hoteliers consider as part of the process of continually updating their websites and keeping them competitive (chen & popovich, 2003). 4.1.1. stance as a category hedges occur frequently here (suau-jiménez, 2012a), as also noted in previous studies on english interpersonal metadiscourse, albeit in academic disciplines (dafouz, 2008; mur-dueñas, 2010). modal verbs seem to be the most frequent markers, with examples such as these from the cometval corpus: (1) here we c an f in d contents and designs based on the species in… (2) you c an a l s o f i nd here the novel chroma key photographic... (3) …one c a n pa rk inside l’umbracle’s covered car park and have... (4) valencia c a n be a city of clichés: the light, the moon… another important category is self-mention. formed by personal pronouns and possessives, it is about as frequent as hedges. self-mention illustrates how persuasion is also constructed by means of a strong authorial presence and through the force of self-experience. we might also note that this authorial presence embodies an overlapping engagement since it is used with the plural “we”, something that could be interpreted as a particular interpersonal strategy meant to involve customers, and thus having a double purpose: showing self-experience and involving readers. self-mentions with the first person singular do not figure at all in this web genre. examples from the cometval corpus: (5) …over the entire complex, we c a n s ta g e a variety of open-air events... (6) in this building, covered by an igloo-like roof, w e c a n ob s e rv e two marine mammals. (7) w e w il l b e t ra ns p or te d to a unique environment that... (8) …some 30 meters long l e t us access to the observation of animal life... francisca suau-jiménez ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220210 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 210 (9) …the city of the arts and sciences in v it e s u s t o discover a genuine marine park… boosters merit special mention in terms of stance. they occur frequently and in a rich variety. formed mainly with positive evaluative adjectives that transmit pre-conceived and well-designed values (history, variety, diversity, modernity, etc.), they are meant to enhance the product and persuade the customer (suau-jiménez, 2012a). examples from the cometval corpus: (10) a self-service restaurant with a g r e at v ar ie ty of dishes designed for the whole family. (11) …screen, s pe c t ac u l ar lighting equipment simulates the light cycles... (12) …your b e s t snapshots with the mo s t s pe c t ac u l a r images of your visit. (13) …with the philosophy of the mo s t mo d e rn a nd imp o rta nt aquariums in the world are being developed. the following category, attitude markers, is found at a moderate frequency and are all formed by adverbs in phrasal constructions like adverb + adjective/noun or verb + adverb. some examples from the cometval corpus are: (14) the park includes two c l e ar l y di f f e re n tia te d scenarios: installations for fish.... (15) …audiovisual project can be appreciated e v e n m ore c l e a rl y in artico... (16) …the service received is considered satisfactory, e s p e c ia l l y in bars and restaurants... 4.1.2. engagement engagement, the means by which a reader is addressed and involved in the discourse, is most commonly created in english interpersonality of tourism promotion websites through the use of commitment markers. both their frequency and variety are as significant as hedges are in expressing the stance voice. they take the form of the personal pronoun “you” in the function of subject or object, as well as the possessives “your” and “yours”. examples from the cometval corpus: what can the discursive construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220 211 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 211 (17) y ou will find hotels for all tastes and at the best… (18) cinema jove internacional film festival brings yo u another year of quality films... (19) if y ou are looking for something special, pay a visit to... directives are another important category for the engagement voice. they represent one of the most direct ways of addressing the reader/customer, and are used for actions where there is a supposed benefit to customers, thus reminding them of simple but basic rules or actions. examples from the cometval corpus: (20) request y ou r free tourist pack. a pack with everything... (21) hotels and hostels book yo ur stay in valencia. as noted above, self-mentions are particularly strategic in this web genre since they also stand as a form of engagement, in that they are formed with plural personal pronouns and possessives. it should be added that the equivalent web genre analysis in spanish, also from the cometval corpus and mentioned here for comparative purposes only, shows different figures and a different interpersonal pattern. as suau-jiménez (2012a, 2012b) reports, the promotional tourism website in spanish is characterized by a very high number of boosters, a moderate use of attitude markers and self-mentions, and a low number of hedges and directives, together with practically no commitment markers (second person personal pronouns). these findings support our claim that interpersonality is conditioned by language due to socio-cultural elements, even if genre and discipline are the same in both linguistic communities. 4.2. traveler forums traveler forums are a type of new cmc mode or web genre, emerging from the internet and the so-called web 2.0, where users ask other users/travelers for advice on specific questions related to their doubts and concerns about travelling, destinations or other similar issues. as suau-jiménez (2014: 185) suggests, it is a web genre where “individuals negotiate understanding, pursue and attain self-interest within a socially and rhetorically driven medium as is dialogue, or polylogue”. its fluid conversational style, full of colloquial terms and expressions, relies heavily on interpersonal markers and francisca suau-jiménez ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220212 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 212 strategies where readers become writers and vice versa, thus giving way to the concept ‘wreader’ (koskensalo, 2012). stance voice and the authority that governs this side of the dialogue/polylogue is expressed mainly through self-mentions and hedges. in this way, a strong authorial discourse voice is created, based on selfexperience and offering opinions and evaluations of a peer-solidarity nature. hedges play an important role in not committing completely to the message or statement, thus keeping a fluid tone of friendship, typical between comrades, one in which advice is suggested rather than directions imposed. engagement voice shows a reader’s orientation or attitude based on personal pronouns/commitment markers, as well as on directives. the reader is thus constantly involved in the writer’s evaluations and judgements, something that gives a strong impression of solidarity and peer-to-peer communication. example no.1: traveler forum conversational thread from tripadvisor, 2012, with several conversational turns (suau-jiménez, 2014), from the cometval corpus: stance […i am c o mi ng to london from australia in july with my 8 year old daughter. i h av e b e e n a couple of times already but it is her first time. / i w an t to show her all the usual sites but i g u e s s architecture and history c an b e a little boring for kids.] engagement: [a ny s u g g e s ti on s o n th in g s to do t o int e re s t c h i l dr e n? / i s th e r e a ny h i dd e n tr e as u re s yo u l oc al s c a n l e t me in o n? ] stance: […i am s ur e y ou wi l l f i nd p l e nt y… / lastly, d o l e t u s k no w wh e r e y ou a re staying and i am s ur e we c an th e n ad v is e yo u of some child friendly things within a short walk of yo ur accommodation… large animatronic animals, a ‘storm’ rumbling around, and a huge aquarium of fish w ou l d k e e p her entertained whilst y o u eat. i m e an , w h il s t yo u both eat, (just in case it sounded like i wa nt e d y o ur child to starve!). i am actually staying in letchworth in hertfordshire w e wi l l be c a tc h i ng the train into london.] engagement: […y ou will find an e x c e l l e nt sticky produced by theartgirl… / to keep yo ur daughter amused there… / y ou c o ul d a l s o us e the search engine… / if y ou h a v e to d o the architecture and history stuff, y ou c a n then redeem yo ur s e l f what can the discursive construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220 213 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 213 by taking… / and y ou a v oi d the lines.2 / y our daughter to the rainforest cafe for dinner. / that way y ou h av e…]. example no.2: traveler forum conversational thread from tripadvisor, 2012, with several conversational turns (suau-jiménez, 2014) from cometval corpus: stance: […hi all, h a v e l i v e d in london for a few years but this weekend am h av ing to entertain my nieces for the first time in london... they are 3 and 6 and i’ m a f te r some advice as to suitable places to take them to i w as c o ns i de r ing the museum of childhood in bethnal green, but h av e h e a rd that this is more suitable for adults rather than kids…] engagement: [a ny t h ou g h t?] stance: [i w oul d s ug g e s t the london eye, the natural history museum and the science museum. i t w il l t ot al l y f r e ak th e m o ut ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! i ag re e the museum of childhood will be too ‘adult’ for them and as for the london dungeon it scared the pants off me let alone a 6 year old! the natural history museum i s a g o od id e a but i w ou l d r e s tri c t it to seeing just one or two exhibitions eg just the dinosaurs and mammals. i to ok my 12 year old brother last year and after seeing the dinosaurs he got bored rather quickly. the science museum has a section for under 8’s to play in.] engagement: [ch e c k ou t www.bigbus.co.uk. i g ue s s they wo ul d l o v e madame tussauds but be w a re of the queues. b uy yo ur tic k e ts in advance from any tube station. the weather folk says it is going to be cold again this weekend so w ra p up warm.../also t ak e th e m t o a matine of the lion king or chitty chitty bang bang.word of warning, d o n ot t ak e th e m to the london dungeons.] the data described here challenge other findings on interpersonality in promotional tourism websites in spanish (mapelli, 2008; pierini, 2009) and english (suau-jiménez & dolón-herrero, 2007), and also on hotel webpages in english and spanish (suau-jiménez, 2011, 2012; edo-marzá, 2012), where personal pronouns and, especially, boosters tend to be the most frequent markers. second person pronouns are the preferred markers for engaging francisca suau-jiménez ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220214 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 214 readers (customers) in english promotional discourse, whereas boosters, in both english and spanish, are the way in which products and services are enhanced through positive qualifying adjectives. the analysis of traveler forums also exhibits a different interpersonal pattern here. as suau-jiménez and gonzález-garcía (2013) report, this web genre is characterized by a certain balance of stance and engagement in english, whereas its spanish equivalent shows a much stronger stance or author’s voice, denoting a more explicit authority in the realization of evaluation and advice. examples in spanish: stance (cometval corpus): 67% of total markers hedges: (22) “además de praga, te re c o me nd a ría parís, brujas y amsterdam” boosters: (23) “en un día soleado, la vista panorámica es r e al me nt e e s p e c ta c ul ar” attitudinals: (24) “e s to y de a c ue r do con todo lo expuesto por maría” self-mention: (25) “y o en 12 días no me movería tanto”. engagement (cometval corpus): 33% of total markers reader’s pronouns: (26) “también tenía el mismo temor que tú ” directives: (27) “h a z fotos antes y después” in english, this is shaped with a more subtle message, where the reader’s involvement is more important than the author’s authority. traveler forums in english are construed with a higher number of hedges, and the spanish what can the discursive construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220 215 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 215 ones with more self-mentions and boosters. these characteristics are in line with previous cross-linguistic studies, especially in terms of the input for specific interpersonal markers in tourism web genres (suau-jiménez & dolón-herrero, 2007; suau-jiménez, 2012a). this constitutes additional evidence in support of the idea that culture/language is a conditioning factor in interpersonality, since english and spanish seem to favour certain interpersonal categories, independently of the genre. 5. conclusion as noted above, the construction of stance and engagement in these two web-genres is, following suau-jiménez’s (2012a, 2012b, 2014a) recent research on tourism cmc, the result of three contextual variables that constrain and shape their interpersonal pattern: language, genre and discipline. this recalls the work of other authors who support the idea that interpersonal metadiscourse is an activity of social engagement (fairclough, 1992) and that it is linked to the norms and expectations of particular cultural and professional communities (mcdaniel-mann, 2014), thus being the result of specific settings and contexts. the way promotional tourism websites are construed in terms of stance and engagement in english shows that, on the one hand, the author’s stance, representing the tourism business or institution, deploys an authority that is strongly “filtered” through hedges, so as not to impose any of its propositions but to smoothly suggest them. this purposeful distance with the reader is balanced with a clear focus on the product through a heavy use of boosters that enhance the touristic offering or the hotel’s qualities through positive evaluative adjectives that transmit adequate pre-conceived values in order to make a competitive difference. readers – customers – are very tightly engaged by means of personal markers (second person pronouns) that involve them in the discourse, establishing a direct dialogue in response to their demands and commentaries, received through reviews on the same website. another engaging strategy is the use of self-mentions using the inclusive pronouns “we”, “us”, “our” and “ours”, these referring to author and readers and therefore acting as stance and engagement simultaneously. directives, another type of engagement marker, create the shortest distance with readers, actually instructing them to carry out a specific action, based on a supposed level of trust and confidence francisca suau-jiménez ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220216 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 216 established through other interpersonal markers and strategies, such as personal pronouns of the self-mentioning author. as for the spanish equivalent web genre in the cometval corpus, it can be said that the main difference stems from the greater use of boosters (positive evaluative adjectives), the other categories remaining at a moderate level of use (attitude markers, directives, self-mentions) or non-use (hedges). we can conclude that the genre and discipline variable constraints, and the way to achieve persuasion, are visible in the specific use of boosters, the most salient category in english and spanish. such a conclusion is supported by similar findings on promotional web genres in tourism (suau-jiménez & dolón-herrero, 2007; mapelli, 2008; pierini, 2009; edo marzá, 2012) and by vázquez and giner (2009), who report similar results with persuasion in academic genres. the language constraint to the interpersonal pattern in promotional tourism websites is recognized through the use of hedges, reported to be more abundant in english than in spanish (suau-jiménez, 2011, 2012a). this coincides with previous work on academic genres in a variety of disciplines, where the communicative aim is also to convince or persuade readers (hyland, 1998; dafouz-milne, 2008; mur-dueñas, 2010). as for traveler forums, the analyses of the cometval corpus show significant differences between english and spanish, as described above. if we compare these with promotional tourism websites, we can see that evaluation and advice, based on peer-solidarity, coincide in terms of culture/language constraints. hedges and personal pronouns are also abundant here in english, whereas spanish users prefer attitude markers, self-mentions and boosters. this clearly reflects the language variable. regarding stance and engagement, traveler forums in spanish deploy a stronger author’s voice and authority – stance – whereas in english a clear engagement focus is adopted to involve the reader and thus attain the basic aim of providing evaluation and advice. finally, in terms of disciplinary constraints, both web genres coincide in the use of boosters, a specific marker associated with persuasion, and one present in all analyses of texts dealing with tourism (suau-jiménez & dolón-herrero, 2007; mapelli, 2008; pierini, 2009; suau-jiménez, 2012a, 2014a). this suggests disciplinary identity features. to sum up, the interpersonal pattern seen through the analysis of stance and engagement voices in these tourism webgenres seems to be strongly influenced by linguistic, genre and disciplinary traits. although more research is needed, other studies also support the claim that interpersonality what can the discursive construction of stance and engagement voices in traveler forums and tourism promotional websites ibérica 31 (2016): 199-220 217 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 217 is the result of these variables in other disciplines, languages and genres (dahl, 2004; sala, 2006; yakhontova, 2006; giannoni, 2007; crismore & abdollahzadeh, 2010; gotti, 2010; li & wharton, 2012). we therefore suggest that it should be considered a key aspect for any theoretical and methodological development of the field, and that more accurate analyses of these contextual variables be undertaken when designing and applying interpersonal models. 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(1985). “some exploratory discourse on metadiscourse”. college composition and communication 36: 82-93. vázquez, i. & d. giner. (2009). “writing with conviction: the use of boosters in modelling persuasión in academic discourses”. revista alicantina de estudios ingleses 22: 219-23. white, p. (2003). “beyond modality and hedging: a dialogic view of the language of intersubjective stance”. text 23, 2: 2594-2598. world tourism organization (2015). tourism – an economic and social phenomenon. url: http://www2.unwto.org/content/why-tourism [20/06/2015] yakhontova, t. (2006). “cultural and disciplinary variation in academic discourse: the issue of influencing factors”. journal of english for academic purposes 5: 153-167. zarei, g.r. & s. mansoori (2011). “metadiscursive distinction between persian and english: an analysis of computer engineering research articles”. journal of language teaching and research 2, 5: 1037-1042 11 iberica 31_iberica 13 18/4/16 19:32 página 220 iberica 13 ibérica 23 (2012): 47-64 issn 1139-7241 abstract this paper aims at analysing the role of pragmatic transfer in the use of the rhetorical strategy of hedging in academic writing in english as a second language (henceforth, l2). two groups of spanish researchers (n=30) took part in the study, performing two different experiments. the first one consisted of reading two versions of the same passage, one hedged and the other unhedged, and they were asked to decide which text they considered more academic and why. the second experiment consisted of identifying hedges in a passage. the results indicate that spanish researchers apply pragmatic transfer, either frequently failing to identify hedges in the l2 or considering them as negative evasive concepts. keywords: english for academic purposes, hedging, nonnative english readers, pragmatic transfer. resumen los matizadores: un estudio experimental sobre la transferencia pragmática en las preferencias retóricas de lectores no nativos de inglés este artículo analiza el papel de la transferencia pragmática en el uso de los matizadores discursivos como estrategia retórica en el lenguaje académico del inglés como segunda lengua (en adelante, l2). dos grupos de investigadores españoles (n=30) han tomado parte en este estudio, habiendo realizado dos experimentos diferentes. el primero consistía en leer dos versiones del mismo fragmento, una en la que se habían incluido matizadores y otra en la que no, para que decidiesen qué texto consideraban más académico y por qué. el segundo experimento consistía en identificar los matizadores de un fragmento. los hedging: an exploratory study of pragmatic transfer in nonnative english readers’ rhetorical preferences rosa alonso alonso, maría alonso alonso and laura torrado mariñas universidade de vigo (spain) ralonso@uvigo.es, malonsoalonso@uvigo.es, ltorrado@uvigo.es 47 ibérica 23 (2012): 47-64 r. alonso alonso, m. alonso alonso & l. torrado mariñas resultados obtenidos indican que los investigadores españoles llevan a cabo una transferencia pragmática al usar dichos elementos, bien al no ser capaces de identificar los matizadores en la l2 o bien al considerarlos como conceptos negativos de evasión en el discurso académico. palabras clave: inglés para fines académicos, matizadores discursivos, lectores no nativos de inglés, transferencia pragmática. 1. introduction scholars around the world are increasingly forced to publish their research papers in english in order to become part of an international community which is, in fact, governed by a number of pragmatic and content-dependent conventions that can sometimes be difficult to identify and respect. academic productions usually contain a series of elements that need to be respected for the text to be recognised as “scholarly” or “academic”. it cannot be forgotten that hedging is not the only rhetorical device that identifies a text as academic or non-academic, other elements such as lexis also provide academic nature to a text, but one cannot overlook the importance of hedging when determining whether a given text is academic or not. this rhetorical device is widely used in english academic writing (hyland, 1998; hyland & bondi, 2006). the present paper looks into the rhetorical preferences of two groups of nonnative english researchers in order to determine whether pragmatic transfer affects the perception of hedging in their academic reading. the study is divided into the following sections. section 2 deals with the connection between pragmatic transfer and hedging, section 3 focuses on hedging in academic english. the following section contains the statement of purpose. the study is detailed in section 5, it includes two experiments, one in which the subjects had to choose between a hedged and an unhedged passage stating the reasons for their choice and a second one in which they were asked to identify hedges in a passage. both experiments aimed at analysing whether pragmatic transfer affects nonnative writers’ academic reading. finally, the conclusions are included in section 6. 2. pragmatic transfer and hedging various aspects of pragmatic transfer have been particularly studied since the late 1980s. odlin (1989) referred to it as “discourse transfer”, 48 highlighting the rhetoric implication of the term; whereas wolfson (in bou, 1998) and kasper (1992) put the emphasis on the sociolinguistic and sociocultural significance of this concept. there is a series of factors that can favour pragmatic transfer in certain contexts. for example, the influence of the source language on the target language will depend on the level of proficiency and cultural knowledge that the speaker of the latter has. moreover, it should also be taken into account that the relationship that the interlocutors (writer and readers in this case) establish, will also determine the kind of register and the strategies for assisting the communication. consequently, as bou (1998) indicates, pragmatic transfer implies an interdisciplinary and empirical approach depending on both, the “pragmalinguistic” and “sociopragmatic” aspects of the variation. this distinction is based on the inseparable relationship that kasper (1992) points out between language and culture. on the one hand, “pragmalinguistic transfer” makes reference to the transfer of particular politeness values from a first language (henceforth l1) into an l2. in this case, the linguistic proficiency that the user has of the target language will determine the communicative strategies that might be influenced by pragmatic transfer from the native language. on the other hand, “sociopragmatic transfer” will depend on the context and the relationship that exists between the participants. hence, the lack of cultural information related to the target language might work as a constraint due to the fact that the “performance of linguistic actions in l2 [is] influenced by [the] assessment of subjectively equivalent l1 contexts” (kasper, 1992: 209). since hedges are specifically considered as an interpersonal rhetorical strategy, transfer can occur both at a pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic level according to the knowledge that the participant has of the target language. for instance, politeness is probably a universal notion but the communicative strategies that might favour the transfer of hedges will vary depending on the motivating factors. indeed, cross-cultural studies on the phenomenon of hedging have opened new avenues of research. for example, german scholars use hedges when they write in english more often than native users due to the fact that hedging is a common communicative strategy in german (clyne, 1991). similarly, bulgarian writers, as vassileva (1997) acknowledges, transfer the distribution of hedges among the paragraphs according to the convention in their native language. according to hu, brown and brown (1982), chinese l2 writers tend to be authoritative and use stronger modals than native speakers of english. hedging: an exploratory study ibérica 23 (2012): 47-64 49 indeed, the use of hedging is conditioned by the subjectivity of the individuals, on the particular contexts where the communication is established and on the relative knowledge that the person has of the target language. comparative analysis has shown that pragmatic transfer regarding the use of hedges certainly takes place (clyne, 1991; vassileva, 1997; martín, 2008). this is probably due to the fact that writers use similar rhetorical strategies that favour language transfer. actually, as odlin (1989) suggests, there are differences from most languages in relation to politeness and discourse which might affect transfer. this will occur “[i]f native language patterns influence learners [of a target language] in inappropriate ways” (odlin, 1989: 48) and, therefore, the language that a person uses may seem impolite or incoherent. as a matter of fact, crosslinguistic differences in these cases might affect not only production but also perception. the use of hedges in spanish is usually connected with politeness structures also known as cortesía asertiva. the aim of these devices is to attenuate an assertion mainly by the employment of verbs or subordinate phrases that imply a certain lack of commitment that the individual has with the manifested proposition. moreover, there are a number of sociological factors also in the spanish context that determine the use of politeness structures. for instance, mulder (1991) highlights the principles of authority, social distance and culture as the main ground for hedging in spanish. accordingly, it appears that the communicative strategies regarding the use of hedges in english and spanish are similar. even so, and as haverkate (2002) indicates, the pragmatic connotations in the use of hedges in the two languages differ in their implications. the pragmatic content of hedges in spanish – also referred to as doxastic predicates – is usually aimed to set aside a statement that is subject to question. therefore, leaving politeness structures aside, it seems that hedges in english and in spanish have different functions. martín (2003a) has noticed that english scholars use the strategy of indeterminacy in their works to a much greater extent than their spanish counterparts. it seems that on the one hand, english scholars are more careful about stating their claims using hedging devices in order to avoid the audience’s rejection, to mitigate their critical speech acts or to maintain a social distance between readers and writers. on the other hand, spanish scholars tend to include a higher degree of authorial presence by using strategies, such as, for instance, direct claims. hence, hedges are r. alonso alonso, m. alonso alonso & l. torrado mariñas ibérica 23 (2012): 47-6450 considered to be used in english as part of a formal convention whereas in spanish, they possibly imply that the claims made are tentative or indeterminate. this might be the reason why spanish native speakers appear to be reluctant to use hedges as part of their discourse when they use english as the target language. 3. hedging in academic english ever since lakoff first introduced the term “hedge” in 1972 to refer to expressions that modify the category membership of a predicate or noun phrase in their ability to “make things fuzzier or less fuzzy” (lakoff, 1972: 195), the term has undergone a number of changes, widening its initial definition. hence, the communicative value of hedges has been increasingly explored insofar as their position as modifiers of the speaker’s commitment to the truth-value of a whole proposition and their actual use as politeness strategies. nonetheless, the wide number of converging theories can sometimes make the study of such devices quite vague due to the ample number of linguistic aspects and theories involved in their categorisation. in fact, markkanen and schröder wrote (1997: 15): the concept [of hedges] has lost some of its clarity and sometimes seems to have reached a state of definitional chaos, as it overlaps with several other concepts. this problem concerns many other linguistic concepts and their definitions, beginning with the concept of ‘language’ itself. broadly speaking, hedging studies have come to the conclusion that such rhetorical devices can be used for blurring the speaker’s commitment to the truth of the preposition conveyed (prince, frader & bosk, 1982). they can also be used to express indetermination (hübler, 1983). more importantly, and as far as academic writing is concerned, they can be used either as a strategy of negative politeness with the function of avoiding disagreement (brown & levinson, 1987) or as a way of avoiding being proved wrong later on, thus leaving researchers the door open to assert that their previous claims were only tentative, as markkanen and schröder (1997: 6) acknowledge when they claim that “hedges offer a possibility for textual manipulation in the sense that the reader is left in the dark as to who is responsible for the truth value of what is being expressed”. some linguists, dissatisfied with the lack of consensus on what the term “hedge” denotes, have attempted to clarify the phenomenon of hedging by hedging: an exploratory study ibérica 23 (2012): 47-64 51 proposing a test or a “functional definition” that would allow the proper identification of hedged propositions (crompton, 1997 & 1998), thus overlooking the importance of the mental or psychological essence of the linguistic concept. however, such approaches prove to be essentially reductionist, seeing hedges as expressions that have the exclusive function of avoiding commitment. in recent years researchers have started to be aware of the multiplicity of functions of these devices and, more importantly, of their actual dependency on context to work or not, as such. as clemen (1997: 237) puts forth: hedges are determined by context, the colloquial situation and the speaker’s/writer’s intention, plus the background knowledge of the interlocutors. hedging cannot be deduced only from the combination of the individual clausal elements plus the relevant illocution. hedges function in a particular context. (italics added) in line with the statement mentioned above, the classification provided in this article will be strongly dependent on the socio-pragmatic context in which hedges occur, because, as martín (2003b: 66) acknowledges, “it appears that it is virtually impossible to attribute a function to a hedge without considering both the linguistic and situational context”. according to martín (2003b), the linguistic devices that can work as hedges at a lexico-grammatical and syntactic level can be categorised as performing the following basic strategies: 1. strategy of indetermination, thus endowing the proposition with a certain shade of lesser qualitative and quantitative explicitness, vagueness and uncertainty. this strategy includes performers of epistemic modality, such as modal verbs expressing possibility (“may”/ “might”/ “can”), verbs of cognition, like “seem to”, “or appear to”; epistemic verbs drawing on the probability of the proposition or hypothesis expressed being true, like “to assume” or “to suggest”; modal adverbs (“probably”, “possibly”), modal nouns (“suggestion”, “possibility”) and, finally, modal adjectives (“probable”, “possible”). it also includes approximators of frequency, quantity, degree and time, indicating an unwillingness to clarify the writer’s actual commitment to the proposition, such as “generally”, “approximately”, “frequently”. 2. strategy of camouflage hedging (as proposed by namsaraev, r. alonso alonso, m. alonso alonso & l. torrado mariñas ibérica 23 (2012): 47-6452 1997), which comprises metalinguistic operators, which provoke the displacement of the focus of the reader’s attention and negative reaction from the proposition. among these we can highlight: “really”, “actually”, “in fact”, “generally speaking”, etc. 3. strategy of subjectivisation, consisting of the use of first personal pronouns followed by verbs of cognition as a means of highlighting the subjective nature of the given propositions, thus inviting the reader to agree or disagree with them from a neutral position. it also includes expressions constituted by first person pronouns (as proposed by salager-meyer, 1994), because they express the author’s personal doubt and direct involvement, like “to our knowledge”, “in our view”, “in my experience”. a third group consisted of quality-emphasising adjectival and adverbial expressions (labelled by salager-meyer as “emotionally-charged intensifiers”), used to convince the reader of the importance of the expressed propositions by exposing the writer’s emotional state. these include “extremely interesting”, “particularly important”, etc. martín is careful to point out here that myers (1989) considers such intensifiers as markers of positive politeness because “they can be seen as showing solidarity with the discourse community by exhibiting responses that assume shared knowledge and desires” (martín, 2003b: 69). 4. strategy of depersonalisation, where writers attempt to blur their presence by using a variety of impersonal passive constructions without obvious agents, hence relieving themselves of the inherent responsibility contained in the propositions expressed. such depersonalisation can be achieved by means of agentless passive and impersonal constructions, for instance: “in this research data were analysed to find out” instead of “in this research, i analysed a number of data to find out”. it also includes impersonal active constructions, in which a non-human entity is used as subject so as to detach the writers from their findings, such as: “for instance”, “the results suggest”, etc. in spite of the clear classification provided by martín (2003b), we cannot forget that hedging devices have a polysemous and polypragmatic nature, as hyland (1998: 158) proposed: hedging: an exploratory study ibérica 23 (2012): 47-64 53 while the functions of hedges are important, they are not always apparent to insiders at a conscious level of awareness. the view taken here therefore predicts that there will invariably be some indeterminacy between hedging functions, so cases assigned with one category will include meanings associated with another. therefore one must be cautious in the identification of hedges since hedging functions can be indeterminate. 4. statement of purpose the results found out in previous studies regarding hedges in english as a second language (odlin, 1989; clyne, 1991; clemen, 1997; vassileva, 1997; hyland, 1998; and martín, 2008) have led us to propose the following research hypotheses: 1. native speakers of spanish will be influenced by their native language in the identification of hedges in an english-language text. 2. native speakers of spanish will reject the use of hedges as negative evasive concepts due to pragmatic transfer. 5. the study 5.1. subjects two groups of participants took part in this study. the purpose of including two groups of the same level in the study was twofold: first to determine that the results obtained in the first group could be replicated since no significant differences were expected between both of them and secondly to have a wider range of disciplines represented in the study. they were all members of the scientific community and worked as teachers/researchers at the universidade de vigo. these groups were selected according to their level, they all showed an upper-intermediate level of english. the first group consisted of 14 teachers from the following disciplines: marine sciences (n=3), chemistry (n=1), law (n=1), biology (n=3), economics (n=3), translation (n=1), engineering (n=1), computer science (n=1). their native language is spanish and they have been learning english for more than fifteen years (90%) and for five years (10%) and 5% of them have attended r. alonso alonso, m. alonso alonso & l. torrado mariñas ibérica 23 (2012): 47-6454 other academic writing courses. the second group consisted of 16 subjects belonging to the following research fields: law (n=2), science (n=9), business administration (n=3), computer science (n=1), biology (n=1). their native language is spanish (80%) and galician (10%). they have been learning english for more than fifteen years, since they began secondary education and they have not attended any other academic writing courses. none of the subjects in both groups had been introduced to the concept of hedging before participating in the experiment. 5.2. materials two research materials were used: 1. experiment 1: the subjects were asked to read two versions of the same text, one hedged and the other unhedged. they were also asked to state the reasons for the choice of one version or the other (see appendix) by asking them which version they found more academic and why. the purpose of this experiment was to find out whether they identified hedges as an important part of academic writing style in english or whether they rejected them as uncertain and indirect due to pragmatic transfer. in the first research instrument, the hedged passage contained the following rhetorical devices: a metalinguistic operator, verbs of cognition and modal verbs, according to martín’s (2003b) classification. 2. experiment 2: in the second experiment, they were asked to underline the words in a text which made it show an academic writing style – that is, to identify hedges. the aim of this exercise was to analyse whether they identified hedges as an important part of writing style or whether they did not perceive them. for both instruments (see appendix), the texts were selected passages adapted from a paper by fitzpatrick and meara (2004). this second research instrument contained verbs of cognition, impersonal active constructions and modal verbs. martín’s (2003b) classification was applied, as explained in section 3. 5.3. procedure and data analysis the tests were given to the participants during a 12 hour-course on academic writing which took place for four days at the universidade de vigo. they hedging: an exploratory study ibérica 23 (2012): 47-64 55 were told that these were classroom exercises that would be corrected at the end of the course. it took them fifteen minutes to do the first experiment and twenty minutes to do the second. both experiments were conducted on the third class day. one of the researchers collected the data. copies of both experiments were given back to the students on the last day and both texts were corrected in order to improve the quality of their academic reading. as regards the statistical analysis, a percentage analysis was carried out and fisher’s exact test was used for the statistical analysis of the data. the results obtained are included and discussed in the following section. 5.4. results and discussion the first group seemed to deal worse with the identification of the hedged passage. only 42.8% of them chose the hedged text as the most academic while a higher percentage (62.5%) did so in the second group. it may be the case that the subjects in the second group exhibit a better proficiency level in the second language. however, the difference between both groups is not statistically significant, as can be seen in table 1. the main issue regarding pragmatic transfer lies in the fact that none of the groups obtained total success in the recognition of the hedged text as the closest to academic style. from the results obtained in the second experiment, it can be seen that the second group identifies more hedges, which is also supported by the fact that this group outperformed the first in the identification of the hedged passage. as regards the type of hedges identified, in both groups the verb of cognition “seem to” to and the modal verb “might” constitute the most clearly identified, followed by the impersonal active constructions. however, the differences between both groups are not significant. what matters is that both groups have difficulties in identifying the hedges in the passage. this can be seen in table 2, which includes the percentages with raw figures in parentheses and p-values of each of the examples analysed. hedge group 1 group 2 r. alonso alonso, m. alonso alonso & l. torrado mariñas ibérica 23 (2012): 47-6456 text 1 text 2 first group 42.8% 57.2% second group 62.5% 37.5% table 1. results of the first experiment. f the final results obtained from the analysis of both groups confirm that the hedges have not been detected totally, as table 3 shows. in statistical terms the lack of identification of the rhetorical devices in the hedged passage is significant. most cases obtain a p-value 0.000 while only the two instances of the verb of cognition “seem to” and the modal verb “might” obtain a p-value 0.006 and 0.002. the statistical results obtained from the application of fisher’s exact test show that the percentage of success in the identification of hedges constitutes less than 70% – that is, all percentages obtained are significantly smaller than this. the subjects fail to identify all the hedges hedging: an exploratory study ibérica 23 (2012): 47-64 57 table 2. results of the second experiment. hedge group 1 group 2 comparison of groups 1 & 2 verb of cognition (“seemed to be”) 21% (3) p-value: 0.000 68% (11) p-value: 0.550 p-value: 0.014 impersonal active (“the results indicate”) 35% (5) p-value: 0.008 31% (5) p-value: 0.002 p-value: 1.000 impersonal active (“we suggest”) 21% (3) p-value: 0.000 50% (8) p-value: 0.074 p-value: 0.142 modal verb (“might”) 35% (5) p-value: 0.008 37% (6) p-value: 0.007 p-value: 1.000 verb of cognition (“seems to”) 21% (3) p-value: 0.000 62% (10) p-value: 0.340 p-value: 0.033 impersonal active (“assumes”) 21% (3) p-value: 0.000 43% (7) p-value: 0.026 p-value: 0.260 impersonal active (“indicates”) 14% (2) p-value: 0.000 31% (5) p-value: 0.002 p-value: 0.399 modal verb (“might”) 35% (5) p-value: 0.008 50% (8) p-value: 0.074 p-value: 0.484 verb of cognition (“appears”) 35% (5) p-value: 0.008 37% (6) p-value: 0.007 p-value: 1.000 hedge total g ( pp ) 3 table 3. final results for both groups. verb of cognition (“seemed to be”) 44.5% (14) p-value: 0.006 impersonal active (“the results indicate”) 23% (10) p-value: 0.000 impersonal active (“we suggest”) 35.5% (11) p-value: 0.000 modal verb (“might”) 36% (11) p-value: 0.000 verb of cognition (“seems to”) 41.5% (13) p-value: 0.002 impersonal active (“assumes”) 32% (10) p-value: 0.000 impersonal active (“indicates”) 22.5% (7) p-value: 0.000 modal verb (“might”) 42.5% (13) p-value: 0.002 verb of cognition (“appears”) 36% (11) p-value: 0.000 occurring in the passage. pragmatic transfer may be at work and the subjects in both groups cannot identify the hedges in the passage as key characteristics of academic writing style, which confirms our first hypothesis. a similar result was found by vassileva (1997), as mentioned in section 2. this author found out that l1 bulgarian made subjects transfer the distribution of hedges among the paragraphs not according to the conventions of the l2 but based on their use in the l1. the pragmatic content of hedges in spanish is not tentative or indeterminate; it tends to set aside a statement that is subject to question. therefore the use of hedges that imply indetermination or depersonalization is associated with lack of clarity, insecurity and lack of validity of the proposal being expressed – as the opinions of the subjects who chose the unhedged text confirm (see table 4) –, while in english politeness and respect for the scientific community are embedded in the meaning of the hedge. both scientific communities differ in the functions they assign to the hedge making transfer operate across the two discourse communities. while as brown and levinson (1987) mention (see section 3) that hedges can be used to avoid disagreement, our subjects’ l1 influence makes them perceive hedges as elements implying lack of clarity or insecurity. this can be clearly observed in the reasons the subjects of both groups provide for their choice of the unhedged passage (see table 4). besides, hedges in english somehow imply the judgement of readers, the assessment they make of the proposal conveyed and hedged by the writer. the evasive concept they imply is not shared by spanish academic readers since it is perceived as a negative lack of commitment, as table 4 indicates when they consider the unhedged passage more conclusive, more clear, more categorical and less uncertain, confirming our second hypothesis. when pragmatic transfer takes place, these rhetorical devices may not be perceived as markers of academic writing style by readers or they may be understood as r. alonso alonso, m. alonso alonso & l. torrado mariñas ibérica 23 (2012): 47-6458 first group second group it is more clear and direct (14.5%) it is less uncertain (14.5%) it does not have unnecessary redundancies (14.5%) it is simpler (14.5%) it is more conclusive (14.5%) it shows more security in the statements (14.5%) i don´t know (13%) it is more assertive (33.3%) it is more categorical (33.3%) it is clear and direct (33.3%) table 4. reasons for the choice of the unhedged passage as more academic. markers of insecurity in the discourse, as is shown in the assertions made by our subjects. l2 readers who are unaware of the presence and/or function of hedges do not perceive the connotations and formal conventions conveyed by these rhetorical devices; therefore, they do not share the principles of writing of the l2 scientific community. as markkanen and schröder (1997) mention, a hedge only exists if it is perceived by author and reader. apparently, the subjects who selected the unhedged passage in this study perceive hedges but they consider that the lack of them makes the passage sound more direct or clear. this can be attributed to the perception of hedges as markers of insecurity. in other words, l2 readers who understand hedges do not seem to perceive them as markers of commitment to the truth of a proposition but as elements which avoid the categorical assertions typical of assertive statements in their native language. the strategy of indetermination and that of depersonalisation, mentioned by martín (2003b), were identified in less than 50% of the cases – that is, hedges were identified only partially. the subjects did have trouble in identifying these devices and in only in 44.5% and 41.5 % of the cases did they identify the two occurrences of the verb of cognition as a hedge. these were the highest percentages of identification of a hedge. in 36% and 42.5% of the cases the modal verb was also perceived as a hedge. the verb of cognition “appear” was seen as a difficult example since only 36% of the subjects identified it. as wishnoff (2000) states, direct writing typically distinguishes nonnative writers from their native counterparts, in other words pragmatic transfer inhibits the use of rhetorical devices that are not common to the native language. however, we cannot overlook the possibility that the deficiency in the identification of hedges may be related to the academic orientations of the readers or to the individual preferences related to their disciplinary or institutional backgrounds. further studies should be carried out to determine the influence of other variables on the identification of hedges. 6. conclusion pragmatic transfer seems to operate in the identification of hedges. spanish academic readers consider these rhetorical devices as elements leading to confusion and evasive statements which should not be used in academic writing, instead of perceiving them as downtoners in academic discourse. as hedging: an exploratory study ibérica 23 (2012): 47-64 59 wishnoff (2000) mentions, nonnative writers are easily distinguishable by their direct writing when compared with their native counterparts. the subjects are influenced by the rhetorical structure of their l1 where hedges are considered tentative and unclear, lacking the clarity that academic proposals require. the use of rhetorical devices is identified with difficulty and the subjects fail to distinguish hedges. it is quite obvious that pragmatic transfer makes the choice of rhetorical devices differ in both discourse communities (vassileva, 1997). however, other possible factors contributing to the identification of hedges should be analysed such as the disciplinary or institutional background of the subjects or the academic orientations of the readers since more than the pragmatic transfer variable may be involved. our study seems to indicate that hedges in academic english are perceived as indicators of a negative lack of commitment by native speakers of spanish and pragmatic transfer appears to inhibit the use of hedges that are not common to the native language. however, we cannot forget that this is an exploratory study with a limited number of subjects, further studies with larger groups should be carried out to determine whether the results obtained in this study are replicated and can be extended to other l2 learners. it would be interesting to carry out a study comparing groups with different proficiency levels in order to test whether pragmatic transfer is inhibited in the perception of rhetorical devices as more advanced learners approach the l2 norm. a comparative study on the disciplinary and/or background of different groups of subjects should also be undertaken to check the influence of other variables in the identification of hedges. moreover, the increasing demand for courses in english for research publication purposes seems to show an increasing interest to apply a crosscultural perspective into academic writing. accordingly, spanish scholars may need to be encouraged to modify their critical and stylistic habits in order to communicate accurately and engage with an international audience. acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge juan carlos pardo-fernández (department of statistics, universidade de vigo) for the statistical analysis of the data and professor terence odlin (ohio state university) for his comments on a previous draft of this paper. we would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this article. all errors r. alonso alonso, m. alonso alonso & l. torrado mariñas ibérica 23 (2012): 47-6460 remain our responsibility. this piece of research has been supported by xunta de galicia, research project incite08pxib204033pr. [paper received 21 september 2010] [revised paper accepted 17 february 2011] references hedging: an exploratory study ibérica 23 (2012): 47-64 61 bou franch, p. (1998). “on pragmatic transfer”. studies in english language and linguistics 0: 520. brown, p. & s. levinson (1987). politeness: some universals in language usage. cambridge: cambridge university press. clemen, g. (1997). “the concept of hedging: origins, approaches, definitions” in r. markkanen & h.schröder (eds.), 235-249. clyne, m. (1991). “the sociocultural dimension: the dilemma of the german-speaking scholar” in h. schröder (ed.), subject-oriented texts, 49-68. berlin: mouton de gruyter. crompton, p. (1997). “hedging in academic writing: some theoretical aspects”. english for specific purposes 16: 271-289. crompton, p. (1998). “identifying hedges: definitions or divination”. english for specific purposes 17: 303-313. fitzpatrick, t. & p. meara (2004). “exploring the validity of a test of productive vocabulary”. vigo international journal of applied linguistics 1: 5574. haverkate, h. (2002). the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of spanish mood. amsterdam: john benjamins. hu, z., d.f. brown & l.b. brown (1982). “some linguistic differences in the written english of chinese and australian students”. language learning and communication 1: 39-49. hübler, a. (1983). understatements and hedges in english. amsterdam: john benjamins. hyland, k. (1998). hedging in scientific research articles. amsterdam: john benjamins. hyland, k. & m. bondi (2006). academic discourse across disciplines. bern: peter lang. kasper, g. (1992). “pragmatic transfer”. second language research 8: 203-231. lakoff, g. (1972). “hedges: a study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy forms”. journal of philosophical logic 2: 458-508. markkanen, r. & h. schröder (1997). hedging and discourse. approaches to the analysis of a pragmatic phenomenon in academic texts. berlin: mouton de gruyter. martín martín, p. (2003a). “a genre analysis study of english and spanish research article abstracts in the experimental social sciences”. ph.d. thesis. url: ftp://tesis.bbtk.ull.es/ccssyhum/cs143.pdf [10/10/09]. martín martín, p. (2003b). “the pragmatic rhetorical strategy of hedging in academic writing”. vigo international journal of applied linguistics 0: 57-72. martín martín, p. (2008). “the mitigation of scientific claims in research papers: a comparative study”. international journal of english studies 8: 133-152. mulder, g. (1991). “aproximarse y evitar: estrategias de cortesía en castellano”. foro hispánico 2. exploraciones semánticas y pragmáticas del español 2: 69-80. myers, g. (1989). “the pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles”. linguistics 10: 1–35. namsaraev. v. (1997). “hedging in russian academic writing in sociological texts” in r. markkanen & h. schröder (eds.), 64-79. odlin, t. (1989). language transfer. cambridge: cambridge university press. prince, e.f., j. frader & c. bosk (1982). “on hedging in physician-physician discourse” in r. di pietro (ed.), proceedings of the second annual delaware symposium on language studies, 8397. norwood: ablex publishing corporation. salager-meyer, f. (1994). “hedges and textual communicative function in medical english written discourse”. english for specific purposes 13: 149170. vassileva, i. (1997). “hedging in english and bulgarian academic writing” in a. duszak (ed.), culture and styles in academic discourse, 141157. berlin: mouton de gruyter. rosa alonso alonso is a senior lecturer at the department of english at the universidade de vigo. she has published a number of articles on second language acquisition. she has collaborated in many research projects and has attended national and international conferences. she is currently a member of the spertus research team and the editor of the vigo international journal of applied linguistics (vial). maria alonso alonso holds a ba in engish literature and another ba in hispanic philology, both earned at the universidade de vigo. she is currently towards her phd, after having completed an ma in english studies and an ma in applied linguistics. she has published articles on language and literature in national and international journals while combining her research with teaching activities within one of the i2c predoctoral contracts awarded by the xunta de galicia. after having earned her ba in english studies and her ma in advanced english studies at the universidade de vigo, laura torrado mariñas enjoys a predoctoral contract and is currently working in her phd. thesis. apart from having attended a number of conferences, both national and international, and having published a variety of articles in academic journals, she has taught graduate and postgraduate courses on english as a foreign language and english literature. r. alonso alonso, m. alonso alonso & l. torrado mariñas ibérica 23 (2012): 47-6462 wishnoff, j.r. (2000). “hedging your bets: l2 learners’ acquisition of pragmatic devices in academic writing and computer-mediated discourse”. second language acquisition studies 19: 119-148. appendix hedging: an exploratory study ibérica 23 (2012): 47-64 63 m experiment 1: 1. which text do you consider more academic: text 1 or text 2? ………………………………………………… 2. why? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… text 1 a closer look at the statistics, though, shows us that the difference between the scores of the two groups is not an absolute one. as illustrated in figure 6, which shows the number of native speaker and non-native speaker cases falling within each band of scores, there seems to be a good deal of overlap between the scores of the groups. these results raise two important issues about the way lex30 measures the productive lexicon. firstly, there appears to be a broad but distinct difference between the scores achieved by native and non-native speakers. secondly, there is a considerable degree of overlap between the scores of the two groups. we should perhaps not be surprised about the variation in native speaker scores; while in theory bachman believes native speakers should provide us with an effective control group, the complexities of their language use can make this a problematic choice in reality. text 2 a closer look at the statistics, though, shows us that the difference between the scores of the two groups is not an absolute one. as illustrated in figure 6, which shows the number of native speaker and non-native speaker cases falling within each band of scores, there is a good deal of overlap between the scores of the groups. these results raise two important issues about the way lex30 measures the productive lexicon. firstly, there is a broad but distinct difference between the scores achieved by native and non-native speakers. secondly, there is a considerable degree of overlap between the scores of the two groups. we should perhaps not be surprised about the variation in native speaker scores; while in theory bachman believes native speakers provide us with an effective control group, the complexities of their language use make this a problematic choice in reality. experiment 2: underline the words that you consider make this text show an academic writing style: we began our exploration of the lex30 test by identifying a need for an effective test of productive vocabulary. the design of the lex30 test seemed to be an attractively simple way of meeting this need. the results also indicate that the elicited vocabulary is being measured with some accuracy too. we still need to explain, though, the lack of a strong correlation between lex30 and the other two tests, and we suggest that this is due to the fact that the tests are measuring different aspects of vocabulary knowledge. however, we believe that using a more up-to-date set of frequency bands might improve the accuracy of the lex30 measure. the test seems to demand knowledge of form, meaning and collocation of target words, as well as understanding of the contextual cue sentence. producing a word in response to the lex30 task implies a minimal level of productive knowledge .there is a need among teachers, learners and researchers for an effective battery of test tools. an expectation of high correlations between the tests assumes that all three tests measure productive vocabulary knowledge exclusively and completely. the table indicates that despite superficial similarities we might expect correlations between the three tests. the test lex30 appears to be tapping into different aspects of productive vocabulary knowledge than other tests. iberica 13 ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 abstract more than ninety percent of global trade is carried by sea. as a result it “has fostered an interdependency and inter-connectivity between peoples who would previously have considered themselves completely unconnected” (mitropoulos, 2005). for the maritime industry which facilitates this activity, it is essential that a common working language, namely english, is competently used to safeguard the ship, its crew and the environment in which it sails. this presupposes that the graduates of maritime academies are well prepared and that their mentors are qualified to perform the task required by international regulations. this paper attempts to summarise a 2-year research project, funded by the international association of maritime universities and completed by the authors in 2006, entitled “profiling the maritime english instructor” (profs). it categorizes and describes the various types of maritime english instructors presently employed at higher maritime education and training institutions worldwide, defines the requirements regarding their professional qualifications in the areas of applied linguistics, methodology and the minimum maritime background knowledge demanded by the relevant international legislation, and thus provides a guideline for management and prospective instructors. key words: maritime english (instructors), communicative competence, profiling, twinning, typology. resumen la formaci�n en ingl�s mar�timo: garantizando la aptitud de los docentes el transporte marítimo protagoniza más del 90% del comercio mundial y, en consecuencia, ha servido de nexo de unión entre pueblos que, de otro modo, se encontrarían completamente desconectados (mitropoulos, 2005). para el sector maritime english instruction – ensuring instructors’ competence clive cole*, boris pritchard** & peter trenkner*** world maritime university (sweden)*, university of rijeka (croatia)** & wismar university (germany)*** clive.cole@wmu.se, bopri@pfri.hr & trenkner@sf.hs-wismar.de 123 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 123 marítimo, gracias al cual se puede desarrollar esta actividad, resulta fundamental utilizar de forma competente una lengua de trabajo común, como es la lengua inglesa, para salvaguardar el buque, su tripulación y el medio marino. esta realidad parte del supuesto de que los estudiantes graduados en los distintos centros en los que se imparten carreras relacionadas con la marina civil finalicen sus estudios con una preparación adecuada y, además, que la cualificación del personal docente satisfaga los requisitos impuestos por la normativa internacional. el presente artículo tiene por objeto mostrar los resultados obtenidos tras la realización de un proyecto de investigación bianual concluido en 2006, titulado “profiling the maritime english instructor” (profs) y financiado por la asociación internacional de universidades marítimas (iamu). en primer lugar se presenta una clasificación descriptiva de los distintos tipos de docentes de inglés marítimo que en la actualidad están ejerciendo su labor en distintos organismos de educación superior por todo el mundo. a continuación se definen las prescripciones relativas a la cualificación profesional dentro de la lingüística aplicada, la metodología docente y el conocimiento mínimo sobre los fundamentos marítimos que se exigen en virtud de la legislación internacional pertinente. por último se ofrecen unas directrices relativas a la gestión de la docencia y destinadas a futuros docentes de inglés marítimo. palabras clave: inglés marítimo (docentes), competencia comunicativa, perfiles, trabajo en equipo, tipología. 1. introduction this paper summarises the findings of recent research into maritime english (me) instruction carried out under the project “profiling the maritime english instructor” (profs) funded by the international association of maritime universities (iamu). profs sets out to investigate the state of art of me (i.e., its subject-matter and instruction) and the typology of me instructors throughout the world. its main aims were two-fold: 1. to create generally accepted guidelines/ recommendations for maritime education and training institution management on how to qualify teachers of general english and other persons of substandard maritime-technical qualifications currently teaching english to navigational/ marine engineering university students to become lecturers in maritime english, meeting at least the requirements of the relevant legislation. 2. to provide prospective candidates to the maritime english teaching profession with an idea of what will be expected from them (both c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148124 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 124 ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 maritime english instruction in terms of the necessary maritime background knowledge and the appropriate methodological qualification) when teaching navigational/ marine engineering students. since, within the general framework of the communicative approach to language teaching (clt) and english for special purposes (esp), many practitioners believe content-based instruction (cbi) to be particularly well suited for me, the project also investigated the necessary maritime background knowledge required of the contemporary me teacher as well as the further qualification measures available and desirable for them to fulfil the basic requirements of the international maritime organization’s international convention on standards of training, certification and watchkeeping (stcw95) and beyond.1 these requirements include the role played by me in ensuring safer ships, protecting the marine environment and enhancing the efficiency of global business operations where ships and the sea are crucial elements. one particular objective of profs was to study and propose how the world’s leading maritime organisations and affiliations could best accommodate the me competence demands of stcw95 on the one hand and, on the other, the more demanding requirements of the second stage (“extension” stcw95 and above) and the third stage (“enrichment” i.e., bsc or diploma in science courses of study in maritime transport), of the widely accepted 4e typology of maritime education and training (met) systems; namely, “essentials, enrichment, extension, and elevation,” as described in the metnet project, (zade et al., 2000) and developed in the glomet project (zade, 2005). further, the authors have observed that met institutions, still often reluctant to recognise me on an equal footing to navigation or marine engineering, or to dedicate more instruction hours in already tight programmes, are nonetheless keen to find more effective instruction strategies. often, however, this is attempted by paying little or no attention to the amorphous global body of me instructors at their disposal. thus, considering quality assurance as the foremost objective, the project aimed at heightening the awareness of these authorities and organisations to the importance and role of me in meeting the above requirements. in doing so the authors adopted trenkner’s widely used definition: maritime english is the entirety of all those means of the english language which, being used as a device for communication within the international maritime community, contribute to the safety of navigation and the facilitation of the seaborne trade (trenkner, 2000: 7). 125 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 125 this was the general framework for establishing the methodology of research that included both deductive and inductive reasoning processes. the deductive element consisted primarily of academic desktop research based on the researchers’ own experience in combination with previous research, whereas the inductive element involved the evaluation of the response to a specially designed questionnaire2, the evaluation of round-table discussions, personal interviews, and brainstorming sessions with international met students and graduates as well as with representatives of the maritime industry. the international maritime english conference (imec) and its workshops, iamu gatherings, as well as imo’s maritime english instructors training courses were optimal places both for collecting relevant information and testing the results of the research. the key questions to be answered by the input from the respondents were: • what types of me instructors are currently employed at met institutions and what is the usefulness and limitations of each type? • what are the linguistic and methodological requirements of a “qualified” me instructor and how can these requirements be met? • what is the minimum maritime background knowledge required and how can this be best acquired? • what further qualification measures for me instructors in the maritime field and in language teaching/acquisition methodology can be identified? • which professional organisations or affiliations would best assist met institutions and me instructors to meet the requirements of stcw95 and beyond? as a result, these five questions paralleled the themes of each of the iamu approved work packages (wp): wpintro: introduction to the project, including a description of the methodology employed. wp1: categorising the profiles of the various types of currently employed me instructors, clarifying the usefulness and limitations of each. wp2: identifying the linguistic (wp2a) and methodical (wp2b) c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148126 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 126 requirements of a qualified me instructor and the ways of meeting them. wp3: identifying the horizontal/vertical maritime background knowledge (scope/depth) to be expected of a me instructor. wp4: identifying adequate, appropriate and practicable further qualification measures for me instructors in the maritime field, in language teaching/acquisition methodology and course development. wp5: proposing an appropriate affiliation of the me teaching staff within the structures of met institutions in order to guarantee their involvement in the overall met conception of the latter. wp6: executive summary. the following is a summary of the most important findings and issues arising. 2. identifying types of maritime english instructor the authors attempted to answer two fundamental questions concerning the categorisation of me instructors: 1. what types of me instructors are currently employed at met institutions?, and 2. what is the usefulness and limitations of each type? in considering these two questions, the term “typology” was understood as a system or method of classifying things or people as a particular type. naturally, setting up and selecting categories to organize and analyze data can be fraught with difficulties and is often highly contentious. in this case, however, the typology presented below has been well received on those occasions when it has been proposed by the authors for discussion. thus, it may be concluded that in met institutions worldwide the following types of maritime english instructors are found. maritime english instruction ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 127 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 127 2.1. career specialists these persons are recognised as they • are graduates/qualified teachers, • have become “marinated” – have seafaring credibility, • have a reasonable institutional standing, • may (or may not) be “qualified” to teach me. such specialists are generally employed to teach me to future seafarers and have thus been immersed into the world of specialised language teaching, in this case me as a subset of esp. they are normally willing to “marinate” themselves; a time consuming task estimated to take a general english language teacher at least two years to acquire the essential elements (cole et al., 2005). career specialists enjoy a comparatively good standing in the workplace since consultation, and even co-operation with technical subject colleagues, is usually the rule rather than the exception. however, they are often looked upon as teachers of second-hand knowledge by both the lecturers in maritime-technical subjects and by the management, with the result that rank and the subsequent rewards can vary negatively. pressing general english teachers to take on me teaching responsibilities has to be done with care, as not all language instructors are motivated to become fully engaged in this field. how then to motivate them? this may be optimised if teachers are sent aboard active merchant vessels or training vessels for at least half a year or for shorter periods if repeated at certain intervals.3 it is not at all necessary for me instructors to hold a certificate of competence4 as deck or engineer officers although the global maritime distress and safety system general operator certificate could be a reasonable merit. a number of maritime academies/universities run training vessels where excellent facilities to acquire the necessary maritime background knowledge exist. furthermore, shipping companies with a direct connection to met institutions and/or an interest in quality training are willing to accept maritime laypersons on board their vessels for the cost of their nutrition, or under an agreement that the crew, in return, receive “free” on-the-job english language training. this experience, usually perceived by c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148128 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 128 the participants as highly motivating, not only allows the future specialist to soak up all kinds of maritime information from the marine environment at the corresponding maritime-technical faculties of their institutions, but also usually results in sufficient knowledge and hands-on experience being gained for sound and effective me teaching to be practised. indeed, confronted by a class of future seafarers an effective way of gaining respect is to demonstrate an awareness of life onboard, i.e., “seafaring credibility”. there are noteworthy procedures where general english teachers who wish to become qualified me instructors are able to do so but these are the exception rather than the rule. in fact, the authors have observed reluctance on the part of most met institutions to promote activities to “marinate” them.5 on raising this issue with institutional managers the authors found that cost, time and the frequent turnover of personnel in this niche area are given as reasons. career specialist me instructors may be found in ones and twos at met institutions but never in the sort of numbers that would be desirable, or in fact required under stcw95. where they do exist it is possible to find them employed as regular members of the faculty, even at the professorial level. they are well respected and are on professional and contractual terms regarded equal to their colleagues in the maritime/ technical fields. however, today’s significant shortfall of career specialists remains. if the majority of institutions were to promote and encourage me qualifications the problem would be solved and this paper made redundant. however, reality looks quite different and begs the question why this is the case. 2.2. english language and literature graduates these persons are recognised as they • are lovers of english, • are not necessarily interested in applied linguistics, • prefer to teach general english, • are often asked to teach me but fail to meet the stcw standards. this category of “maritime” english instructors consists mostly of qualified teachers holding a university degree in english language and literature. they are enthusiastic lovers of the beauty of the english language and its literature but less enthusiastic towards applied linguistics, especially esp and maritime english instruction ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 129 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 129 the variety called maritime english, as they are not trained nor motivated for the task. they are satisfied with teaching general english and often play third fiddle at their individual schools. however, as english language instruction is an stcw95 subject and not dispensable in an accredited curriculum, the managements of many met institutions often turn a blind eye to what they actually teach in their classes in the knowledge that better qualified staff are not at their disposal. on occasion individuals who enter me through the language and literature door realise the potential of the subject and gain respect and promotion through developing and upgrading their teaching and research skills. 2.3. former seafarers these persons are recognised as they • are technical experts but – not necessarily skilled at english, – not necessarily skilled at teaching, – often over-challenge their students, • could deliver technical subjects in english. former seafarers are perceived by many managers as an attractive solution, but in reality such persons are not widely available or willing to work at substantially reduced rates of pay, where they are unlikely to receive remuneration in line with the competitive, tax free salaries they were used to as international seafaring officers. further, as a result of their research the authors seriously question the suitability of ex shipmasters, deck, engineer or radio officers, who are thought to have, or claim to have, a good command of the english language, replacing trained (maritime) english instructors. naturally those who have successfully completed an english language degree course and graduated with a teaching qualification in esp could be perfect employees. however, such persons are rarely encountered; a situation that is likely to remain until the shipping industry and its regulators and educators undertake a suitable initiative. the authors have observed many different “maritime english” classes in progress given by ex-seafarers and based on these experiences conclude that: c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148130 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 130 1. in most cases the teacher’s command of english, i.e., pronunciation, grammar, fluency, intelligibility, etc., ranked from just tolerable to very poor. 2. in most cases the students were over-challenged, i.e., they either hardly understood the language used or the language applied was so sophisticated that they failed to grasp the subject matter. 3. in most cases if me teaching or language teaching in general was taking place it was in a haphazard manner, basic pedagogical skills being noticeable in their absence. 4. in most cases there was no adherence to a curriculum where students could follow their progress, there being no revision, briefing or preparation at the beginning of the class and no followup or debriefing. 2.4. native english speaking persons these persons (“backpackers/nomads”, housewives, spouses, retirees, etc.) are recognised as they • are often employed to motivate students to listen/speak in english but – not necessarily skilled at english, – not necessarily skilled at teaching, – rarely knowledgeable in maritime matters, • are usually employed on short-term contracts. “native” english-speaking persons6 are usually temporarily hired7 to help solve the problem of motivating students to listen and speak in english. the authors find this an honourable and worthwhile aim but found that in a significant number of cases individuals are expected to satisfy greater demands, even those of stcw95. when this occurs managers are in serious breach of the legislation, since such persons seldom have the necessary teaching skills or maritime knowledge, let alone the required qualifications. further, the widespread notion that a good english speaker must also be a good english teacher is simply misleading and can even be detrimental to the students. advocates of this standpoint completely neglect that even native english speakers need to qualify to become professional english language maritime english instruction ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 131 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 131 teachers. qualifications and the means to attain them, paramount to stcw95, underpin the drive for improved, sustainable quality within the shipping industry. generally these persons are left to their own devices to work outside the main curriculum and have little or no contact with the nautical and engineering faculties. nonetheless, most of the native english speaking persons at met institutions interviewed by the authors have been willing to give their classes a maritime flavour but lack the know-how and assistance. this could be successfully achieved by establishing a “buddy” system where experienced me instructors are appointed to introduce the native english speaking “teachers” to this special language and to integrate their class activities within the core programme. more generally speaking, the role of such “teachers”, and the benefits to be gained, have clearly to be defined within the context of the general and me curricula in order to draw optimum profit from their work. 2.5. a special group a current trend, which is on the increase at met institutions in non-native english speaking countries worldwide, is the delivery of technical subjects in english.8 this may be considered as an emerging fifth category, consisting namely of those instructors who are encouraged or ordered to use english (as a foreign language) when teaching their technical subjects. the authors hesitate to call these true me instructors since they are seldom trained nor qualified to teach the subject, but they are increasingly seen by management as a/the source of supplying students with the perceived me dosage required. it is, therefore, imperative to point out that met institutions are obliged in stcw95, to meet the requirement in section a-1/6(3) the relevant part of which reads: “all instructors (…) are appropriately qualified for the particular types and levels of training (…) of seafarers either on board or ashore”. the authors recognise that this approach could play a supporting role but have yet to see an institution providing a considered list of the intended language learning outcomes, suggesting that standards have yet to be established. they are also concerned that institutional managers will be tempted, in financially stretched situations, to do away with the me instructor altogether, hoping that the english competence of the remaining technical teaching staff will be sufficient compensation. c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148132 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 132 the advice for institutional managers to consider is that: 1. this specific form of teaching is regarded as one element in contributing to trade-related me teaching which is not suited to fully or even partly replace the teaching of “proper” me linguistics/ communication. 2. the instructor has a command of english which is suitable for the task. 3. the instructor has received basic training in communication strategies. 4. the students are neither over-stretched by the language used nor by the subject content. 5. each technical class is prepared in such a way that a co-operating me instructor is able to support it before and/or after (so-called “twinning”). since a significant body of trained and qualified me instructors is not likely to exist overnight or in the foreseeable future, “twinning” is the best practical way to put me instructors and those who teach technical subjects, in one and the same boat. this, the authors wish to ascertain, will be to the benefit of all graduates and to the industry while raising the reputation of me instructors and the essential as well as responsible task they are being asked to perform. further, it will also promote the me proficiency of the technical subject teachers in the longer term (cole et al., 2002). 2.6. categorising maritime english instructors – final considerations it is important to emphasise that each of the identified categories can play a role in upgrading the level of english at every met institution; indeed globally there are committed instructors striving to do their best often with large classes, limited resources and little guidance. the problem that tends to occur, however, is the mismatching of the type of instructor with the stated aims, objectives and learning outcomes of the course(s). naturally, matching one with the other is the responsibility of the management and it is imperative here that managers are fully aware that native speakers, former seafarers and english language experts and even on occasion career specialists, will not necessarily fulfil their expectations and satisfy the maritime english instruction ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 133 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 133 demands of the profession, the requirements of the law, and, indeed, the individual students and hard-pressed end-users. while clustering maritime instructors into types may not reflect the situation of each and every individual, these categories do accurately reflect the current global situation in broad terms. such a typology also facilitates the reasoning behind the authors’ deliberations that follow. 3. linguistic and pedagogical aspects of maritime english instruction having identified the types of me instructors currently employed at met institutions and discussed the usefulness and limitations of each, the authors assessed what requirements on linguistic and pedagogical knowledge and skills were necessary in order to qualify teachers of general english to become instructors in maritime english, meeting at least the requirements of stcw95 and other relevant legal instruments. to be able to do this it is fundamental to ascertain what linguistic and methodological knowledge and skills are required for the contemporary me instructor to successfully perform his/her job. profs analyses these in work package 2 and evaluates their impact on the profile of future instructors in order to meet the challenges of change in the function of me in shipping (predominantly marked by safety of navigation), as well as the role to be played by me in the education and training of communicatively competent seafarers at all levels of employment as required by law. the authors thus propose that the linguistic and methodological knowledge and competence in (maritime) english required of me instructors essentially depends upon the following items: 1. the levels of knowledge and competence in the english language as laid down in stcw95 for the operational, management and support levels, and other imo conventions or documents. 2. the levels of knowledge and competence required for teachers in post-secondary and tertiary education (maritime academies, colleges, universities) in their individual countries and those requirements set out by such international associations as iamu, imla-imec, etc. c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148134 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 134 3. the requirements of other relevant international organisations. 4. the requirements of a potential employer or end-user (met institutions, ship-owners, crewing agencies, in-house requirements of employers, especially concerning me for occupational purposes). 5. awareness of the nature and linguistic features of me. 6. awareness of modern developments in english for general purposes (egp) and esp and the ability to evaluate and apply those methodologies most suitable for me instruction. 7. awareness of and ability to evaluate and apply the results of me research. such requirements naturally need to be adjusted to the particular language learning level determined through a needs analysis and described in the aims, objectives and expected learning outcomes prepared before the me instructor engages in a me course of instruction. of equal relevance is the me instructor’s awareness of the requirements of me knowledge, skills and competence as set out in stcw95 for the operational, management and support levels. 3.1. some linguistically-related issues in maritime english instruction me shares most of the features of other types of esp (especially technical and legal english) such as monoreferentiality and precision of the lexis on the one hand and lexical ambiguity on the other (dudley-evans & st. john, 1998; gotti, 2005). for example, “beam” is a specific term in ship design (a girder carrying the deck), denoting a ship’s width or breadth (“beam of 23.5 m”), and is used in referring to orientation around the ship (“on the port beam”), etc. based on the study of the literature on me (strevens & johnson, 1983; weeks et al., 1988; trenkner, 1997; pritchard & kalogjera, 2000), previous projects on me (marcom, seaspeak), and numerous papers on the nature of me delivered at international maritime english conferences (imecs), profs gives a full account of the linguistic nature and features of me. knowledge of these, summarised below, is an essential requirement for me instruction to be successful. linguistically speaking, maritime english represents a specific type of esp differing only from other types of esp in (a) the frequency of occurrence maritime english instruction ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 135 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 135 of certain linguistic forms and their uses and (b) the specific choice of some (i.e., lexical, grammatical or pragmatic) features of egp. it is a variety of the english language, not a separate language, chosen and adopted by the general maritime community and frequently expressly recommended for use by seafarers, to achieve effective communication in everyday life on board, and in ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication (pritchard & kalogjera, 2000). in contrast to other types of esp (i.e., english for scientific purposes or legal english) and as far as language function and use is concerned, me involves a combination of distinctive registers according to field or subject-matter, hence its register complexity (nautical, technical, communications, legal and commercial) and medium (especially the language of international maritime communications). for the purpose of profs the term maritime english is primarily a conventional label for a subset of the realisations of the english language: • appropriate to a specific maritime setting or background (i.e., in the act of navigation, resolving a close-quarters situation, enquiring about berthing accommodation, a cargo handling operation, an act of reading an operational or maintenance manual for the auxiliary engine). • used in a determined context of situation (i.e., on board at sea or in port, on shore in the docks or at a vessel traffic services (vts) centre, and within maritime administration). • involving the participants from a specific shipboard or port speech community often marked by specific jargon (i.e., boatswain’s talk and docker’s jargon). • occurring in maritime-related speech events influenced by a number of factors affecting (successful) communication, (i.e., in sending and receiving vhf messages, in spoken interaction in the wheelhouse). • operating and shaped under specific sociolinguistic circumstances (i.e., specific speaker-hearer relationships, often developing under various degrees of stress and panic). the future me instructor is required to acquire knowledge of the linguistic features of the english language appropriate to maritime discourse/text and communication as exemplified below. these mainly include typical or frequently used technical lexis and certain grammatical structures (i.e., for c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148136 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 136 expressing speech acts in vhf communications or passive voice). a brief account of the features given below is the result of a restricted corpus study of sample texts encompassing the reports of the maritime accident reporting scheme:9 • a very limited number of maritime-only lexical items, i.e., monoreferential words (gotti, 2005) that can stand alone outside context while always (and only) referring to maritime subject-matter (gustafsson, 2000; pritchard, 2006). such words are mainly restricted to ship construction, ship handling, seamanship and navigation (i.e., heave to, haul in, bulwark, garboard strake, halyard, wharf, dead reckoning, and such archaisms as abeam, aloft, ashore, athwartships, bosun, hard-a-starboard) within the technical vocabulary in the linguistic competence of a modern seafarer. their incidence is naturally much higher in the nautical register than in other registers of me. • register and situation-dependent specialisation of lexical meaning of general english vocabulary (i.e., semantic broadening or narrowing, specific lexical range of the words of general vocabulary, ellipsis, metonymy and technical metaphor); for instance, cable (=anchor chain; thick rope; distance measure); elliptic adjectival nouns: low/high water/pressure area, head, eye. • high incidence of complex compounds, especially those of the type noun+noun (often including 2-4 pre-modifying nouns), particularly in the technical register. • as in any type of esp, collocations (especially those of the verb+object noun type) are one of the most productive ways of enriching vocabulary and terminology in modern me (slacken/let go/heave on/haul in a line). mastery of these is of utmost importance to a me instructor. • a high degree of recurrence and fairly predictable frequency and distribution of the vocabulary, formulaic expressions, and some grammatical structures. in addition, to a certain extent me linguistically influences the conceptual framework of non-english-speaking maritime communities, which is evidenced everyday in the process of constant code-switching and linguistic borrowing involving english as the donor language on all levels. therefore, english has today become an important learning and teaching tool for maritime english instruction ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 137 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 137 acquiring knowledge in maritime science and technology. the results of profs corroborate this important feature of modern me, which also has significant repercussions on its instruction. such a role of me calls for the introduction of “twinning” in the language learning process, i.e., team teaching involving the english language teacher and the subject-teacher (cole et al., 2002). lastly, while it should be noted that human language is not the only system of communication used at sea (it is frequently combined with other nonverbal and semiotic systems, like sign language and paralinguistic elements such as warning and indication signs on deck or in the engine room, buoy marks, sound signals) it is, in its spoken and written form, nevertheless the most efficient and reliable means of inter-ship, ship-to-shore, or on-board communication. as for english, it also represents the principal means of understanding among the participants who constitute a specific multilingual, multi-national and multi-cultural seaand ship-bound speech community. in fact, communication in english most typically takes place among those who are predominantly non-native speakers of english, i.e., speakers of english as a foreign language, in ports, straits, fairways, waterways, and along international shipping routes, making it the modern lingua franca of the sea. however, this alone does not ensure failsafe and successful communication. therefore, after the pioneering role of the seaspeak project (strevens & weeks, 1985), in 2001 the international maritime organization adopted a set of phrases recommended, and partly made mandatory, for use in international maritime exchanges to ensure minimum norms of efficient communication for the purpose of safety of navigation and protection of the marine environment (trenkner, 1997 & 2000). it is therefore essential that the me instructor masters the discourse and other linguistic features of marine radio communications and also becomes aware of the existing dichotomy jeopardising safety of navigation: standard versus real spoken communications at sea. 3.2. pedagogical requirements on a qualified maritime english instructor the pedagogical requirements on the me instructor are similar to those engaged in teaching other types of esp, or even egp (cole & trenkner, 2004). based on previous research, especially that of marcom (the eu project on the impact of multicultural and multilingual crews on maritime communication), the analysis of the profs questionnaires and the feedback c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148138 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 138 from peer-instructors at round-table discussions, the authors identified some of the most important issues concerning the methodology of me instruction. these include: • the communicative approach to learning and teaching me; • the role of content-based learning; • competence-based learning as the basic imo requirement; • the typology of me and esp; • the me instructor as user, adaptor and developer of me teaching resources (textbooks/course books and related materials); • modern me teaching resources and computer-assisted language learning tools (reviewed in depth by pritchard, 2004); • the me instructor as curriculum developer and course designer – conducting needs analyses; • issues of assessment and evaluation (stcw95 requirements on assessment, eu cef standards, programme credits, etc). as a general rule, the methodological requirements placed on the me teacher are, on the whole, more or less in conformity with the approaches, principles and methods of teaching egp and other types of esp. the methodology of me therefore draws on the principles and approaches valid for egp and esp, especially for students for whom english is a foreign language. the specific features of me instruction mainly result from conducting a needs analysis for a course and the cognitive processes required in the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the maritime science/sector. the methodological requirements must be in conformity with the level of learning and purpose of the met programme (overall curriculum) of which me is a constituent part. thus, the methodological requirements of the me instructor will largely depend on whether an met programme is a part of: (a) a degree course of studies upon the completion of which an academic degree (i.e., bsc) or an associate or higher national diploma is conferred, or (b) an occupational/vocational course (mainly short-term) enabling the trainee to perform specific and restricted functions within the maritime industry. maritime english instruction ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 139 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 139 clearly the default requirements of me instruction refer to acquiring a degree in maritime transport (navigation, marine engineering, management and logistics of maritime transport, etc.). the academic degree (bsc), i.e., university education and further education courses, is assumed to comply with the requirements of stcw95, the international safety management code, and other related imo documents on english knowledge and competence for the management and operational levels, as shown in (a). on the other hand, category (b) refers to the support level of stcw95 (i.e., ratings forming part of a navigational/engineering watch) and special stcw courses (fire fighting, survival courses, etc). all of these comply with the aforementioned “4e typology” of met. further, the research tabulated in profs reveals that most of the linguistic and methodological requirements placed on the me instructor’s shoulders are the same as for teachers of other types of esp and comparable also to those in english for general purposes. the results give rise to the conclusion and recommendation that the ideal me instructor should hold the default qualification (bsc/msc) in english language and teaching reinforced with an obligatory period of successful “marinisation” (cole et al., 2002; trenkner & cole, 2004), which should include: • acquiring knowledge of and competence in the main linguistic features of me as well as the methodology of teaching me for general and specific purposes (taking note of the specific cognitive processes in the maritime field), and • gaining knowledge of the subject matter (maritime studies) acquired through “twinning” (i.e., in cooperation with the technical subject teachers and during occasional on-board training). the communicative approach to learning and teaching (clt), which the me instructor should not only be well aware of, but also be competent in practising, is the prevailing approach.10 nonetheless, depending on the level of the course about to be run, the me instructor is also expected to master the methodology (principles, strategies, activities and tasks) of content-based instruction and match this to the objectives and expected outcomes within competence-based training. profs provides substantial information on the methods, materials and other references useful to the me instructor for acquiring linguistic and c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148140 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 140 methodological knowledge and competence in teaching me. acquiring such knowledge and competence is a lengthy process which the future me instructor can achieve only by closely cooperating with other met institutions, international governmental and non-governmental organisations working within the maritime field (imo, international shipping federation, etc), and international associations of met institutions such as iamu. also, through participation in international conferences, seminars, workshops and other activities of the (world’s) global me teaching family, self-education and training, and peer instructors/teachers. if heeded, the result will be a corpus of expert career specialist me instructors capable of producing internationally acceptable and recognised me syllabi/curricula where specifically designed courses, materials and methods of assessment, integrating modern methodologies and technologies, would play the central role. 4. the background knowledge of the maritime english instructor among the key questions to be considered when a decision has to be taken regarding the maritime background knowledge of prospective me instructors are: • what must the management of an met institution expect of applicants for me teaching positions regarding their maritime background knowledge so that they are able to at least meet the requirements of stcw95 and imo’s international convention for the safety of life at sea (solas74) as revised? • what can fairly be expected of me instructors by the management of an met institution regarding their maritime background knowledge? • what have applicants for me teaching positions to reckon with in this respect? a highly motivating aspect essentially influencing the attitude of navigational or marine engineering students towards the subject of me, and which has to be carefully taken into consideration, is the maritime subject matter itself. other conditions and circumstances, which may exert a motivating or demaritime english instruction ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 141 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 141 motivating impact on the teaching/learning attitude of instructors and students alike, are, for example, the qualification requirements set by imo legislation, motivation by institutional affiliation at universities/colleges, scheduling within the curricula of met institutions, or motivation through maritime-technical contents. how these four complexes impact upon the formation of a generally accepted position of me within met institutions is considered at length in profs. furthermore, profs provides candidates for a me teaching position at a maritime university or college with a solid idea of what might be expected of them regarding the subject matter contents to be taught with respect to basic me terminology, and basic maritime communication knowledge. regarding the scope of the terminology, a qualified me instructor is supposedly familiar with the five comprehensive terminological areas that profs identifies and breaks down into 13 terminological fields, 51 terminological subjects and numerous terminological units. complementary to the basic me terminology the scope of essential maritime communication expected to be mastered by a me instructor has been defined and listed. this comprises four main communication areas broken down into 11 communication fields, 31 communication subjects and diverse communication events. since these items are entirely based on activities involving language, they demonstrate the application of me as a device of communication. the findings and recommendations made in this section of profs may also serve as a guideline for institutional managers of what can fairly be expected of me instructors regarding minimum maritime background knowledge. when followed, these would satisfy the relevant legal instruments, in particular stcw95 and solas74 as revised, at least as far as the specialized vocabulary used and the communicative activities applied in shipping and navigation are concerned. if candidates for the corresponding teaching profession are not sufficiently qualified in this respect, but their methodological and language competence is beyond doubt, then they should be offered further qualification opportunities and be rewarded if successful. in this respect, as indicated earlier, the management of met institutions have a duty to uphold the requirements of stcw95, section a-1/6(3) where the relevant part does not distinguish maritime-technical instructors from other instructors. c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148142 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 142 5. further qualification measures for maritime english instructors when met managers justifiably demand that their me instructors undertake a maritime qualification (they are, after all, answerable to their appropriate governmental authorities for implementing ratified treaties), then fair ways and opportunities have to be created and organised to enable and motivate the instructors to meet the relevant requirements. having said this it must be noted, however, that profs revealed that just 49% of met institutions demand a maritime qualification from their me instructors, whilst the remainder “do not seem to care”. profs undertook to assess the role different international organizations play, or should play, within the field of further qualifications outlined above. the organizations evaluated for this purpose were the international maritime organization, the association of maritime education and training institutions in asia pacific, the international maritime english conference of the international maritime lecturers’ association, and the german association for maritime english. each of these organizations offers seminars, workshops and professional development courses covering areas of further qualification in the maritime sector for me instructors (specific details are presented and discussed in profs). moreover, personal or individual as well as institutionalized further qualification measures conducted at higher met establishments have been identified and investigated, and their benefits described. in particular, the following activities are expanded upon: (i) personal or individual initiatives; and (ii) institutionalized qualifications. considering the latter the following institutionalized qualification measures are identified and discussed: • “simulator-twinning” programmes focusing predominantly on me “twinning” using simulators. • on-board qualifications, where me instructors become part of the teaching staff on board training vessels, often teaching hands-on english. • the combined programme, where newcomers to a me teaching career are subject to a tutorial system which combines classroom tuition, observing classes in progress conducted by experienced me instructors, a testing scheme and programmed sailing on board training vessels or vessels of the active merchant fleet; the successful maritime english instruction ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 143 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 143 candidate receives certification, is promoted to the rank of me lecturer and receives a commensurate rise in salary. • the “special group” programme, where former ships officers who have a good command of general and me but are lacking sufficient knowledge of applied linguistics, methodology and teaching skills, join specific programmes tailored to their needs, accumulate credits, and on successful completion are awarded a certificate of pedagogy. generally speaking the authors favour a four-stage process involving familiarisation, examination, qualification and professional promotion, where familiarisation involves filling in the knowledge and competence gaps required to become a qualified me instructor and where examination involves successfully completing a process of assessment leading to a formal qualification resulting in an incentive in the form of promotion. however, all of the above qualification measures no doubt have their specific place within the system. in attempting to evaluate the best, much depends on the concrete situation and the prevailing conditions at the individual met institution and/or the needs of the individual me instructor. thus, each should strive for the most promising qualification method while bearing in mind that whatever the outcome they are still subject to certain legal obligations. 6. conclusions the authors have, on many occasions, been approached by managers and teachers alike to provide guidelines for met management and prospective me instructors which categorize and describe the various types employed at institutions worldwide and define the requirements regarding professional qualifications in the areas of applied linguistics, methodology and the minimum maritime background knowledge demanded by the relevant imo legislation. profs attempts to do this. it is, however, a means to an end and not an end in itself, and as such the relevant administrations, associations, institutions and related bodies still need to take appropriate measures in an effort to ensure me instruction competence is achieved to the full. thus, as a result of their research the authors modestly suggest that administrations, associations, institutions and other bodies involved in maritime education and training in general, and me instruction in particular: c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148144 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 144 1. check that each met instructor type/profile matches the learning objectives and outcomes required. 2. support the use of english as a tuition language for teaching technical subjects but do not regard this as a replacement for qualified me instruction. 3. instigate a quality audit for evaluating the standards of me instruction that would, among other things, advise how the recommendations set out in profs may be realised. 4. assign me experts to conduct quality audits and/or quality assurance reviews at institutions requesting assistance. 5. support and conduct a series of specially designed “marinaid” programmes to assist me instructors in acquiring, updating and upgrading the appropriate linguistic competence, methodology and minimum background knowledge, as required by stcw95 and other international legal instruments. 6. promote the general requirement that me instructors engaged in met institutions offering bachelor degree courses hold at least a degree or equivalent qualification. 7. promote specifically the communicative method in teaching me together with content-based learning and competence-based training in an effort to satisfy stcw95 and beyond. 8. note that issues concerning assessment have not been considered in depth but should be the topic of further research (in this respect standards should be established and assessment tools could be developed). by taking such actions the authors are convinced that maritime english instruction will be in a position not only to satisfy the desires of tomorrow’s end-users but also to fully contribute to the urgent need to make ships safer and oceans cleaner. (revised paper received march 2007) maritime english instruction ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 145 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 145 references clive cole thirty-six years as teacher, course director/designer, public examiner, researcher and consultant, all within english language training. employed at world maritime university since 1984, currently as assistant professor; has authored over 25 papers on maritime english; vice-chairman of imla’s, international maritime english conference; registered consultant to imo; involved in various international r/d projects. dr. boris pritchard thirty years as lecturer. since 2001 full professor, maritime english, lexicology, translation studies. published two c. cole, b. pritchard & p. trenkner ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148146 cole, c.w. & p. trenkner (2004). “whither maritime english? in retrospect and prospect” in proceedings international maritime english conference imec 16, 22-36. manila: maritime academy of asia and the pacific. cole, c.w., b. pritchard & p. trenkner (2002). “contentbased instruction –a challenge for the learning and teaching of maritime english” in proceedings of wome 3a, 1-17. qingdao: metnet & qingdao maritime university, china. cole, c.w., b. pritchard & p. trenkner (2005). “the professional profile of maritime english instructor (profs): an interim report” in maritime security and met. proceedings of the international association of maritime universities (iamu) sixth annual general assembly and conference, 65-71. southampton: wit press. dudley-evans, t. & m.j. st. john (1998). developments in english for specific purposes. cambridge: cambridge university press. gotti, m. (2005). investigating specialised discourse. bern: peter lang. gustafsson, m. (2000). “the role of terminology in rules and regulations” in d. newman & m.v. campenhoudt (eds.), maritime terminology: issues in communication and translation, 145157. bruxelles: les editions du hazard. mitropoulos, e. (2005). international shipping – carrier of world trade. a message from the secretary-general of the international maritime organization. url: http://www.imo.org [05/03/2007] pritchard, b. (2004). a survey of maritime english teaching materials. tokyo: iamu. pritchard, b. (2006). “some lexical aspects of translating specialised texts” in m. gotti & s. sarcevic (eds.), insights into specialised translation, 261287. bern: peter lang. pritchard, b. & d. kalogjera (2000). “on some features of conversations in maritime vhf communications” in m. coulthard, j. cotterill & f. rock (eds.), dialogue analysis vii: working with dialogue, 185196. tübingen: niemeyer. strevens, p. & e. johnson (1983). “seaspeak: a project in applied linguistics, language engineering and eventually esp for sailors”. the esp journal 2: 123-129. strevens, p. & f. weeks (1985). “the creation of a regularized subset of english for mandatory use in maritime communications: seaspeak”. language planning 11: 1-8. trenkner, p. (1997). “the imo standard marine communication phrases as adopted by imo-msc 68” in proceedings of the 9th worskhop on maritime english (wome 9), 1-9. malmö, sweden: world maritime university. trenkner, p. (2000). “maritime english. an attempt at an imperfect definition” in proceedings of the second imla workshop on maritime english in asia, 1–8. dalian: dalian maritime university, china. trenkner, p. & c.w. cole (2004). “profiling the maritime english instructor”. iamu journal 3: 8593. weeks, f., a. glover, e. johnson & p. strevens (1988). seaspeak training manual. london: pergamon. zade, g., f. pardo & r. prasad (2000). “thematic network on maritime education, training and mobility of seafarers”. paper presented at the 11th imla conference on maritime education and training, malmö, sweden. zade, g. (2005). glomet: a survey of type and concept of met and philosophy of met, and self-evaluation and external evaluation at iamu member institutions. final report commissioned by the international association of maritime universities. 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 146 coursebooks and numerous papers on maritime english. chairman of croatian association of applied linguistics (1996-2000). since 2004 chairman of imla-imec papers committee; registered consultant to imo; involved in various international r/d projects. dr. peter trenkner forty-two years as lecturer. since 1994 full professor of maritime communications. sailed as training officer. frequent conference presenter; numerous publications. principal author of imo’s smcp. 2007 honorary member of german association for maritime english; chairman of imla-imec; since 2006 honorary member of imla; registered consultant to imo; involved in various international r/d projects. notes 1 the international maritime organization is a specialised agency of the un responsible for measures to improve the safety and security of international shipping and prevent marine pollution from ships. 2 the questionnaire was distributed extensively throughout the world, primarily at meetings and conferences, through email and websites, as well as at maritime institutions and via personal contacts. using such methods of distribution meant that it was impossible to calculate the distribution/return ratio. by the deadline (31.03.2005) 129 responses had been received; the initial target of 100 replies, having been surpassed suggests that the outcome in general terms could be regarded statistically representative. it should be noted, however, that the majority of respondents represented me instructors, 80%, with mariners teaching or expecting to teach me, and managers responsible for, but not teaching me, sharing 20% equally. the raw data can be accessed on http://www.imla-imec.com 3 the research indicates that only 1 in 4 me teachers have had this opportunity. 4 in this paper the term competence is not linguistically but professionally based. it does not refer to “the student’s ability to apply [through language] different kinds of basic skills in situations that are commonly encountered in everyday life” (as defined in the longman dictionary of language teaching, page 94) but to the standards of competence for seafarers as required by imo’s stcw95. 5 in responding to the statement “at your institution me study is recognised by the students as being important for future employment” the respondents’ average score (5.1) was close to a “strong yes”, whereas the average response to “at your institution incentives are in place for teachers of english to improve their qualifications and become qualified me teachers” the average score (3.1) leant towards a “no”, revealing a significant discrepancy between the perceived importance of the subject and the qualifications of those employed to teach it. 6 in practice the authors found that a significant number of these instructors, while competent users of english, are not in fact native speakers. 7 this is often a mutually satisfactory arrangement for both parties since major contractual commitments are not required. 8 the authors note the emergence of a new acronym emi (english as the medium of instruction) suggesting that worldwide, more and more further education courses are being delivered in english, regardless of the local language, and that the problems and solutions arising are probably not unique to me. 9 available at http://www.nautinst.org. for further corpus studies of various aspects of me see also gustafsson (2000) and http://www.imla-imec.com 10 for further detail see imo model course 3.17, maritime english, published by the international maritime organisation. maritime english instruction ibérica 14 [2007]: 123-148 147 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 147 07 clive.qxp 17/10/07 20:29 página 148 iberica 13 ibérica 41 (2021): 181-185 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 discourse studies in public communication eliecer crespo-fernández (ed). amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins publishing company, 2021, 323 pages. isbn: 978-9-0272-0853-8. discourse studies in public communication, edited by eliecer crespofernández, is an excellent methodological resource for the students and researchers working not only specifically in the area of discourse analysis, linguistics or corpus analysis but also in the area of communication, political science, gender studies, and history. all the articles in the book are outstanding examples of corpus-assisted research combining qualitative and quantitative analysisas andreas musolff in the preface underlines, they “demonstrate the fascinating complexity of critical discourse analysis at its best” (page viii.). part i is devoted to political discourse. in chapter 1, ruth breeze examines the discursive representation of the people and the nation in the official discourses of the six main political parties in great britain (i.e. conservative, labour, liberal democrats, ukip, scottish national party, and plaid cymru) in their 2017 election manifestos. from an exploratory, comparative perspective informed by corpus assisted discourse studies, drawing on mixed methodology, she focuses on the role of particular naming practices in building the ideological position of each party. her study clearly demonstrates that corpus assisted discourse studies focusing on a finite list of culturally significant keywords productively map out the discourses associated with particular parties at a specific period in time and, in this sense, provide a short cut to understanding the essence of a party’s ideology. in chapter 2, escoriza morera investigates how lexical analysis can be used to uncover the different ideological positions in journalistic and political language as regards the same event. within the framework of critical discourse analysis, he compares the treatment of one news item, the unilateral declaration of independence proclaimed by the catalan 181 book reviews government in october 2017 and the reaction of the spanish government, by seven different newspapers published on 28 october 2017, the day after the declaration. after comparing the content on the newspapers’ frontpages, he focuses on two newspapers to examine the different ways that the same information is treated and the linguistic mechanisms used to downplay or enhance the same facts for different ideological purposes. chapter 3 by muelas-gil presents an example of critical multimodal metaphor analysis by drawing upon the groundings of kress and van leeuwen’s multimodal critical discourse analysis (kress and van leeuwen 1996; machin 2007) and critical metaphor analysis (charteris-black 2004) for a contrastive study on national and international political cartoons depicting catalonia’s independence process (her corpus consists of 37 cartoons published in september-november 2017). chapter 4 by fernández smith analyses quantitatively and qualitatively a sample of key words frequently used in spanish political discourse (namely, empowering, sustainability and gender violence) as a show case of conceptual networks and some general patterns of persuasive communication within the theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis. he shows that how these conceptual networks are materialized through the cooccurrences and lexical combination of particular keywords with other words. his research findings indicate that media and press reproduce the discourses and the words of politicians, not only in terms of the transmission of news but also as being a part of an establishment that promotes and defends a particular way of thinking which is believed to be the actual state of affairs. in chapter 5, lópez-campillo explores how political power and persuasion was exerted in eighteenth-century england through a critical analysis of persuasive verbal devices used by daniel defoe in his essays as a political journalist to produce effective political propaganda. her study centres on the issue of immigration and analyses boosting and hedging as two of the most common rhetorical strategies that defoe resorted to in an attempt to shape belief and defend his views. in chapter 6, heynderickx and dieltjens present the results of a bottom-up discourse analysis of 100 obituaries of politicians from the six most important political parties in the dutch-speaking part of belgium and brussels. their content analysis focusses on two aspects: the qualities mentioned and the presence of political orientation in the description of reseñas / book reviews ibérica 41 (2021): 181-185182 the deceased. their study explores the use of metaphors in the obituaries and whether they are politically inspired. their findings demonstrate that the personal and political qualities and the political career of the deceased are used to rekindle the cohesion and enthusiasm of the party members, thus often turning the obituaries of political figures into political propaganda. part ii brings together four chapters on gender and sexuality discourses. in chapter 7, hellín garcía investigates the role of metaphorical female and male animalization in reggaeton musical discourse. by combining a cognitive view of metaphor based on the contemporary theory of metaphor (lakoff 1993) with a pragmatic perspective based on critical metaphor analysis (charteris & black, 2004) she successfully analyses how animal metaphors shape men’s perception and attitude towards women. her corpus-based metaphor analysis shows that animalization acts as a discursive device to frame hostile sexism in the shape of taming, domesticating, whipping, hitting, and punishing. reggaeton as a cultural product normalizes and integrates these chauvinist, aggressive and neo-sexist precepts. in chapter 8, garcía-gómez presents in-depth gender-specific discourse analysis of cyberbullying (online aggressive verbal behaviour) among british teenagers on twitter which was performed on a sample of 415 twitter threads created by female and male adolescents between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. on the basis of goffman’s analytical framework (1959), he explores how the strategies of self-presentation and of impression management differ between male and female teenagers in the episodes of cyberviolence, and discloses gender-specific differences in choosing and developing different types of self-presentation strategy. chapter 9 by martínez lirola studies the visual discursive representation of women in advertisements in order to unveil stereotypes associated with female bodies and to discover if the traditional stereotypes associated with women are still valid in the twenty-first century. with a corpus comprising all the advertisements from january 2016 to december 2018 published by dolce&gabbana in its web-based newspaper, she conducts a quantitative and qualitative visual analysis that relies heavily on the principles of kress and van leeuwen’s model of visual grammar (2006) and van leeuwen’s (2008) characterization of social actors. the findings indicate that women are represented as stereotyped, following traditional canons of beauty and foregrounding their bodies as objects of desire. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 41 (2021): 181-185 183 chapter 10, by sánchez rui, is a unique study on the way that teenagers conceptualize sex in the context of telecinematic discourse. through telecinematic discourse analysis of british netflix original dramedy sex education, she classifies the linguistic units about sex-related topics in order to understand how forbidden contents, forbidden reality and forbidden meaning create particular contextual and emotional effects to attenuate or reinforce taboos. this analysis is complemented by metaphor analysis which demonstrates that metaphorical language plays a key role in how teenagers cope with the taboo topic of sex. part iii of the book is devoted to business and academic discourse studies. cestero mancera and díez prados in chapter 11 present a comparative study of non-verbal paralinguistic signs used in persuasive business communication in two parallel spanish/british english corpora of tv entrepreneurial pitches, which are composed of 20 presentations made on one tv programme (spanish version: tu oportunidad; british version: dragon’s den). they aim to identify which and how frequently paralinguistic devices (i.e. volume, sound lengthening emotional reactions quasilexical elements and pauses) are used, and whether gender or l1 is more important when determining the type and frequency of the nonverbal signs used. chapter 12 by carmen varo varo provides guidance on how to integrate neuropsychological linguistic models in order to produce a more complete definition of business discourse as a communicative modality. to illustrate how knowledge of the neurological underpinnings of semantic and morphosyntactic processes can benefit discourse analysis, she quantitatively and qualitatively analyses a corpus compiled of the annual reports, ceo (chief executive officer) letters, mission statements, social responsibility reports, annual reviews and presentations, and business press releases by three spanish companies santander, inditex, and mercadona. she also explores the use of metaphor with special attention to press releases as essential vehicles for the dissemination of the corporate image. her chapter presents several illustrative examples from the corpus to show the uniqueness of the principle of contrast in business discourse. griffith in chapter 13 studies bilingual academic discourse in the university classroom. the data collected through direct classroom observation is comprised of 34 hours of spoken discourse with eight different spanish professors teaching computer science through english. the study first focuses on the errors in spoken performance in the context of the bilingual reseñas / book reviews ibérica 41 (2021): 181-185184 classroom; second, assesses the impact of these errors on intelligibility through qualitative post coding analysis; and third, explores how compensatory discourse strategies such as clarification strategies, summarisation and negotiation of meaning impact intelligibility comparing to the errors detracted. overall, i highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in discourse analysis. highly thought-provoking and solid studies brought together at this volume make it a strong candidate to be a handbook for any reader at any level of expertise in the area, whether an undergraduate student, an instructor, an early-year researcher or an expert in the field. received 02 may 2021 received in revised form 03 may 2021 accepted 05 may 2021 reviewed by melike akkaraca kose instituto cultura y sociedad, universidad de navarra (spain) makkaracako@unav.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 41 (2021): 181-185 185 charteris-black, j. (2004). corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. palgrave macmillan. goffman, e. (1959). the presentation of self in everyday life. new york: doubleday. kress, g., & van leeuwen, t. (2006). reading images: the grammar of visual design (2nd ed). routledge. lakoff, g. (1993). the contemporary theory of metaphor. in a. ortony (ed.), metaphor and thought (pp. 202-251). cambridge university press. machin, d. (2007). introduction to multimodal analysis. hodder education. van leeuwen, t. (2008). discourse and practice. new tools for critical discourse analysis. oxford university press. iberica 13 ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this study examines the employment of uncertainty marking in discussion sections written by three groups of writers: master’s dissertations written in english by iranian and english graduate students of applied linguistics, and research article discussions by professional writers of applied linguistics. the focus was on the use of hedging devices and degree of conviction promoted in their claims. the results showed that for all writer groups epistemic modals had the highest frequency of use in the discussion sections followed by epistemic adverbials/adjectivals/nouns (eaan), and verbal hedges respectively. graduate writers (english and iranian) mostly used modal verbs to express conviction; hence, they produced a larger proportion of modals compared to professional writers. professional writers, however, produced more accuracy and reader-based hedges such as eann, evidential, and judgmental verbs. further, they used a more unique and diverse range of hedging devices. except for modals, iranian graduates’ discussions were less hedged compared to those by english graduates and professional writers. certain epistemic modals (i.e. can, could) were frequently used by this group. particular conversational hedges were used mostly by english graduates. pedagogical applications and implications for junior researchers about developing appropriate stance and engagement strategies in writing discussion sections will be proposed and discussed. keywords: hedging, dissertation, discussion, academic writing, native, nonnative. resumen l a m iti g a c ió n e n l as s e c c io ne s de di s c us i ón d e i nv e s ti g a do re s no v e l e s y e x pe r im e nta do s : un e s t ud io tr an s c ul tur al a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections by junior and senior academic writers esmaeel abdollahzadeh university of exeter (united kingdom) & iran university of science and technology (iran) eabdol@gmail.com 177 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 177 ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 esmaeel abdollahzadeh este artículo analiza el empleo de marcadores de duda en las secciones de discusión de trabajos escritos por tres grupos de autores: tesis de máster de estudiantes iranís e ingleses de lingüística aplicada y artículos de investigación de investigadores profesionales de esta misma área. en concreto, se ha puesto el foco en los mecanismos mitigadores y el grado de convicción con que se presentan sus afirmaciones. los resultados muestran que en todos los grupos de autores analizados los modales epistémicos registran la mayor frecuencia de uso en las secciones de discusión, seguidos de los adverbios, adjetivos y sustantivos epistémicos, por un lado, y los mitigadores verbales, por otro. los estudiantes de máster (ingleses e iranís) emplean los verbos modales fundamentalmente para expresar convicción; así pues, se ha identificado una mayor proporción de modales en sus trabajos en comparación con los de los investigadores profesionales. en los artículos de estos últimos, en cambio, se ha detectado mayor precisión en el uso de mitigadores “en clave de lector” (reader-based) como adverbios, adjetivos y sustantivos epistémicos, y verbos evidenciales y de juicio, así como un uso más variado y rico de mecanismos mitigadores. a excepción de los modales, las secciones de discusión redactadas por estudiantes iranís contienen menos mitigadores que las de los estudiantes ingleses y las de los investigadores profesionales. asimismo, ciertos modales epistémicos (can, could) aparecen con gran frecuencia en los textos de los estudiantes iranís. por otra parte, determinados mitigadores conversacionales se encuentran principalmente en los trabajos de los estudiantes ingleses. por último, se proponen y discuten aplicaciones pedagógicas relacionadas con el desarrollo de estrategias adecuadas de autoridad e implicación en la redacción de secciones de discusión y sus implicaciones para investigadores noveles. palabras clave: mitigación, tesis, discusión, escritura académica, nativo, no nativo. 1. introduction academic writers need to distinguish between propositions already shared by the discourse community, which effectively have the status of facts, and those to be evaluated by the community, which have the status of claims (hyland, 2004). one characteristic device for signaling such a distinction is hedging. hedging is a “rhetorical strategy, by which a speaker, using a linguistic device, can signal a lack of commitment to either the full semantic membership of an expression or the full commitment to the force of the speech act being conveyed” (lakoff, 1972: 22). it is also a rhetorical device for demonstrating politeness and consideration for others by giving readers a chance to disagree (holmes, 1982). the knowledge claims that a thesis 178 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 178 writer makes in the form of arguments need to be convincing if they are to draw the attention and support of the examiners. “implicitly and/or explicitly the writer always works within a dialogical framework” which involves negotiating claims and conforming to the disciplinary thinking of the potential or hypothetical readers (bahktin, 1973: 6; hyland, 1999). the mechanisms whereby this negotiation operates involves the “internalization on the part of the writer of epistemological assumptions of the discipline, a rhetorical understanding of the genre one is writing in, and an idea of how the audience being addressed may react to what is being put forth” (silver, 2003: 359). academic writers resort to interactional resources which help them regulate the plausible stance they project in their interaction with the audience (hyland, 2005a). mastering hedging is “a critical aspect of pragmatic competence” helping writers and speakers achieve their communicative goal (fraser, 2010: 33). proper use of hedging is argued to promote the credibility of scientific reports (jensen, 2008). in anglo-american written texts, hedges are used extensively to show “honesty, modesty, proper caution, and diplomacy” (swales, 1990:174). the significance of epistemic comments related to the truth or definiteness of a thesis was demonstrated by adams smith (1984) who found one comment every 3.7 lines in medical discourse which rose to one every 2.2 lines in the discussion sections. as myers (1989: 13) argues, “…a sentence that looks like a claim but has no hedging is probably not a statement of new knowledge”. meanwhile, failing to understand the intention behind hedging may lead to miscommunication. hedges play a significant rhetorical role in the macrostructure of research articles particularly in the results and discussion sections where “authors make their claims and explore implications not directly tied to their findings” (hyland, 1996: 274). hyland found that over 80% of hedges in molecular biology research articles appeared in the discussion section. despite being a salient feature of academic discourse, hedges have not been adequately investigated in academic discourse of junior writers who are presumably on the edge of their discourse community. hence, there have been recent calls for “more descriptions of the wide range of specific disciplinary genres students need to write and read” as well as for “studies which focus on nnes [non-native english speaker] students and how their academic writing in english is similar and distinct from each other and from ness [native english speakers]” (hyland, 2015: 303). very little is known particularly about their frequency, distribution, and use in theses and dissertations. further, there has a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 179 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 179 been a relative neglect of dissertation writing practices of master’s students who constitute a significant majority of students particularly given the important role of the master’s degree in university education (johns & swales, 2002). this study attempts to ascertain how junior members mitigate claims in their discussions in line with the expectations of knowledge sharing and construction by professionals in the discipline. the “issue of the degree of overlap between novice native writers and non-native writers has farreaching methodological and pedagogical implications and is clearly in need of empirical studies” (gilquin, granger & paquot, 2007: 323). findings from such an analysis can help us realize how linguistically proficient non-native graduate writers compare to their native english counterparts and professional writers in manipulating the resources of the target language to their advantage and promote themselves as plausible members of the discipline. in so doing, they need to conform not only to the norms of the target language but to those of the disciplinary contexts in order for their manuscripts be approved by examiners. lack of conformity to these rules, conventions, and expectations might make their arguments sound inappropriate to gatekeepers and other community members (markkanen & schröder 1997; vold, 2006). further, the results contribute to the literature about the rhetoric of social sciences and how novice and professional writers establish claims to knowledge and convince readers about the validity of their claims (bazerman, 1988). such awareness can “assist both native and non-native students to participate successfully in the research world” (hyland, 1996: 253). therefore, the following research questions were investigated: 1. how frequently do iranian and english graduate students and professional writers of applied linguistics hedge their propositions in the discussion section of the dissertations and research articles? 2. how do they compare in their use of hedges in the discussion sections? cross-cultural studies of hedging contrastive studies of hedging across different contexts suggest a culturespecific trend in hedging conventions (e.g., davoodifar, 2008; hu & cao, 2011; vold, 2006; yang, 2013). cultures differ in what is considered suitable behavior in different communicative situations (crismore et. al, 1993). nonesmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202180 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 180 native learners of english are reported to have a difficult time when reading or writing academic texts in english distinguishing claims that are accepted within a scholarly community from those that are disputed (salager-meyer, 1994). on the other hand, the conventions of scientific writing and the style of argumentation have been shown to vary from one language and culture to another; thus, cross-cultural miscommunication may happen due to lack of awareness as to which conventions and styles are appropriate in which context (kong, 2005; markkanen & schroder, 1988; vassileva, 2001). for instance, spanish learners took hedges as “negative, evasive concepts” signaling “lack of clarity, insecurity and lack of validity of the proposal being expressed” (alonso alonso, alonso alonso & torrado mariñas, 2012: 58). the different schemata of l1 and l2 writers can influence their writing in english (loi, 2010; moreno & suárez, 2008). further, the social and cultural background and proficiency in a second language tend to impact the argumentation patterns and choices a writer makes to express his position (flores-ferrán & lovejoy, 2015). as such, a cross-cultural study of the written discourse of native and non-native professional and nonprofessional writers in different academic genres and disciplines is warranted. hedging in disciplinary and national cultures vold’s (2006) examination of epistemic modality markers in research articles in the fields of medicine and linguistics in english, french, and norwegian showed english and norwegian articles used significantly more hedges than the ones written in french. similarly, french scientists were found to be “…much more prescriptive, authoritative and categorical than their english-speaking colleagues” (salager-meyer et al. 2003: 232). vold suggests that cultural differences play a more significant role than disciplinary differences in using epistemic modality, and the higher employment of hedges in english and norwegian articles may relate to the more modest and cautious writing styles of these writer groups compared to their french-speaking counterparts. vassileva’s (2001) study of english, bulgarian, and bulgarian english (i.e. english writings of bulgarian native speakers) showed significant differences in using hedges across different rhetorical sections of research articles in the two languages which might, according to her, engender cross-cultural misunderstanding in communication. the differences were attributed to bulgarian academic a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 181 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 181 writers’ cultural traditions in writing, and to certain of their culture-specific cognitive schemata. further, dutch biologists were found to under-hedge the discussion sections of their research papers in english as most reviewers of the same reviewed draft recommended more hedges to be added (burrough-boenisch, 2005). dutch writers’ cultural background and english competence were found to have impacted the deployment of hedges. if these potential cultural differences pertain, it is likely to be reflected in the linguistic choices writers with diverse cultural backgrounds make, and thus may lead to different writing styles which might sound inappropriate to writers with different cultural and educational backgrounds. fewer hedging devices were found in journal abstracts in chinese-medium applied linguistics journals compared to their english-medium journals from the same field (hu & cao, 2011). chinese scholars were found to be authoritative and more assertive in expressing truth values, while angloamerican scholars were more reader-oriented and cognizant of potential reader disagreements (hu & cao, 2011; kong, 2005). similarly, a comparison of research articles in english and persian showed that persian scientific writers in medicine, chemistry, civil engineering, and psychology tend to use over 50% less hedging markers (both in frequency and variation) compared to their english colleagues (davoodifar, 2008). persian academic writers preferred more categorical assertions in their knowledge-making claims promoting a stable and unchangeable reality. further, a higher frequency of uncertainty markers by japanese reviewers compared to their english counterparts was reported in a comparative study of english and japanese book reviews published in linguistics journals (itakura, 2013). japanese reviewers’ norms of politeness and their tendency to make less facethreatening (i.e. more hedged) evaluations made their reviews different from those by english book reviewers who showed more positive-politeness strategies and willingness to take responsibility as evaluators. studies on the use of hedging across sciences and disciplines show variability and complexity in different sections of a text implying that the production of a text is rhetorically motivated, and that the use of hedges is not always motivated by a sense of deference but by the norms of the disciplinary community (e.g., hyland, 1999; hyland, 2005b; rizomilioti, 2006; vold, 2006). one implication is that hedging in different disciplinary cultures may play different roles. for instance, considerable differences have been reported in the use of mitigating devices between natural sciences (hard sciences) on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences (soft esmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202182 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 182 sciences) on the other (abdi, 2002; hyland, 1999; hyland, 2005a). intradisciplinary differences have also been reported in the use of hedging. for instance, thompson’s (2001) corpus analysis of phd theses from two related fields of agricultural and food economics and agricultural botany showed that the two sets of theses perform essentially different functions in the way writers’ position with reference to their texts, findings, and audience is portrayed. the former thesis writers used significantly more modal verbs than the latter. materials and method one hundred and fifty nine (159) discussion sections, all written in english, comprising 325196 tokens were analyzed. the corpus included discussions by 48 iranian and 35 english dissertation writers, and 76 research article discussions by applied linguistics professionals. the research article discussions were selected from three top journals in applied linguistics and language education according to the scimago journal rank indicator, i.e. applied linguistics, tesol quarterly, language learning. it was hoped that these discussions would provide ‘prototypical exemplars’ of the genre fulfilling the typical expectations of the parent discourse community (swales, 1990). single-authored research articles published by english writers between 2004 and 2014 were targeted. to identify native english authors, we considered a number of sources including authors’ online cvs, facebook, biographies, their first and last name origins altogether. in all, 76 article discussions belonging to british, american, canadian, australian and new zealand authors were identified. the master’s theses were written in english by english (i.e. british, american) and iranian graduate students in language education (applied linguistics, tesol, tefl). they were all contacted and agreed to inclusion of their dissertations in the study. the dissertations were all submitted during 2004-2009. english graduates’ dissertations were collected from the electronic resources held by the university of birmingham; those written by iranian graduates were collected from the electronic resources held by the university of tehran; iran university of science and technology; shahid chamran university of ahvaz; and azad university science and research branch. dissertations conforming to the traditional imrd structure (introduction, method, result, discussion) were selected for consistency purposes. the full a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 183 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 183 running text of discussion chapters excluding footnotes, quotations, linguistic examples, tables and figures were converted into machine-readable docs (see table 1). given the unequal length of the three corpora, the relative frequency rather than absolute frequencies of markers was calculated for analysis and comparison. there is not a single adequate or precise definition of the term ‘hedge’, and there have been debates about what counts as hedge and its various forms (adel & mauranen, 2010; kranich, 2011). we adopted a commonly used definition by hyland (1998: 5) which defines hedges as “the means by which writers present a proposition as an opinion rather than fact”. this definition is rooted in the theory of fuzzy sets (zadeh, 1972; coates, 1983) assuming “graded membership, rather than a traditional analysis based on discrete semantic categories”, which should thus offer a better explanatory model (hyland, 1996: 256). although an exhaustive taxonomy of potential hedging devices does not exist, typical hedge markers were identified through examining the expanding literature as a starting point for analysis (abdollahzadeh, 2011; hyland; 2005; varttala, 1999; vass, 2017; vold, 2006). additional hedging devices were added for analysis upon subsequent sweeps through the texts. accordingly, three major categories of hedges were identified, i.e. verbal hedges; epistemic modals; as well as epistemic probability adverbials/adjectivals/nouns (eann). other non-lexical hedging elements such as tense, questions, voice, and so on were not considered for analysis. lexical hedging elements have been found to outnumber all other nonlexical hedging markers in native speaker discourse (varttala, 1999; hyland, 1999). hyland (1999) following palmer (1986) identified four sources scientific writers use to base their convictions about the nonfactual status of a proposition on: speculation (opinion), deduction (conclusion), quotation (reports or hearsay) and senses. following hyland, verbal hedges were classified into ‘evidential’, and ‘judgmental’ verbs (hyland, 1998). evidential verbs (e.g., seem, appear, sound) offer evidentiary justification “either based on the reports of others, the writers’ senses, or the purpose of the discovery esmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202184 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 184 itself ” (hyland, 1996: 266). judgmental verbs (e.g., propose, suggest, claim) or ‘mental verbs’ (biber et al. 2002) include speculative verbs indicating “some conjecture about the truth of a proposition”, or deductive verbs indicating judgements derived from “inferential reasoning or calculation rather than speculation and are presented as deductions or conclusions” (hyland, 1996: 265). the discussion chapters were searched using antconc (a corpus analysis tool) for the explicit realization of the subcategories of hedges. the output concordance lines were manually checked to exclude non-hedge examples and ensure that “forms act in the service of rhetorical objectives” (hyland, 2017: 19). given the polypragmatic function of some hedging devices, decisions on the function a writer had assigned to a particular marker in a certain context were made on the basis of the interpretation that was the most likely one in that particular context (halliday, 1994; salager-meyer, 1994; vold, 2006). for instance, amongst modals, may is strongly polysemic: (1) the supervisor had told the teachers that within the efl classroom they may allow learners to more systematically study collocations (eg; non-hedge). (2) this finding may also relate to the tension that exists between the lower-level students and high achievers in their interactions (ig; hedge). initially, the corpus was analyzed by the researcher and explicit instances of hedging were extracted. then, a researcher colleague who had published on hedging in writing looked at 15% of the analyzed corpus for each writer group. the second rater’s analysis was matched against the first rater and points of disagreement were discussed and sorted out through consensual agreement. inter-rater reliability was found to be .92 based on the percentage agreement between raters. results and discussion a detailed analyses and comparisons of hedging devices across groups is presented in table 2: a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 185 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 185 epistemic modals were amongst the most frequently used hedges in discussion sections by all writer groups, followed by epistemic adverbials/adjectivals/nouns (eaan), and verbal hedges respectively (see graph 1): all writer groups used higher proportions of epistemic modals followed by eaan, judgmental, and evidential hedges respectively. more detailed analyses and comparisons are given below. epistemic modals six modal auxiliaries appear amongst the first one hundred most frequent words in the eg corpus: may (position 32), would (36), can (37), could (49), will (64) and should (69); three for the iranian corpus: can (25), may (44), and might (84); five for the ep corpus: may (33), can (47), would (53), might (60), and could (96). this frequent use of modals in academic prose (1314 times per 1000 esmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202186 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 186 words across discussions by all groups) is supported in the longman grammar of spoken and written english (biber et al., 2002), in thompson’s (2001) corpus of phd theses (12 times per 1000) from agricultural botany and agricultural and food economics, as well as in varttala’s (1999) study of medical articles’ discussion sections. modals constituted a large percentage (63%) of the total hedges employed by the ig group (compared to 51% by eg and 41% by ep groups). these are ‘content-motivated’ hedges which self-protect writers from making poor judgements about the propositional accord with reality (hyland, 1999). proportional comparisons (graph 2) show that can was the only device used most frequently by ig (more than twice and about 1.5 times more than those by the ep and eg groups respectively). could was also used 2.5 times more by this group compared to their eg counterparts. the density of use of ‘can’ by ig, based on concordance plots, was mostly towards the end of the discussion in which they mostly made predictions and recommendations for further research. the same observation was true about the highly frequent use of ‘could’. (3) the discrepancies between the two groups of the study can be due to the nature of the treatment they received something that could be further probed in future studies (ir.) concordance plots for the distribution of the same marker for the eg and ep groups; however, demonstrate that except for a few cases, ‘can’ is distributed more evenly across discussions. a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 187 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 187 ‘could’ should be used instead of ‘can’ to express tentative possibility. similarly, based on comments by english native speaker reviewers, dutch scientists used the phrase ‘can explain’ excessively instead of ‘could explain’ in the discussion section of their manuscripts (burrough-boenisch, 2005). it should be noted that the employment of tentative ‘could’ could be disciplinespecific. vold (2006) found very low use of this marker by linguists compared to its relatively frequent use by medical researchers. it was not possible to investigate this observation here. future research could corroborate this. the eg used epistemic ‘would’ (about twice), and ‘will’ (over twice) more than their iranian counterparts, even so compared to the ep (1.5 and 2 times more respectively). will functions as the predictive marker of the hypothetical would to weaken categorical assertions: (4) teachers will commit themselves to an innovation if they regard it as being relevant to learners’ needs (eg). would was the preferred choice (twice more frequent than will) for this group expressing prior hypothetical premises or conditions that must be met to fulfil the hypothesis (coates, 1983). most cases were active with be as the most frequent co-occurring verb: (5) a statement of the opposite delivered in a ‘blunt’ manner would be devoid of mitigation. thus, we treat the former as a subset of the latter (eg). nonetheless, can, would, may, should and might were respectively the most frequently used modals by ig and eg groups. both groups, based on salagermeyer’s (1992:93) scale of assertiveness-uncertainty, demonstrate a tendency to move from certainty marking or assertiveness (would, should) to uncertainty marking of their propositions (may-should-might-could). a similar trend for the frequency of use of the same modals was reported in previous research on scientific writing (coates, 1983; hyland, 1999). the ep, however, used may to a much greater extent (around twice more) than other markers such as can, would, might which were all used with relatively similar proportions by this group. may was the only marker used about and over 1.5 times more by this group compared its use by the ig and eg groups. might was also used over twice more by this group compared to the eg esmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202188 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 188 group. both modals “indicate a 50–50 assessment of possibilities” (hyland, 1996: 262). might is more tentative than may as its possibility of realization; however, it is more remote. compared to might, may is the preferred choice (used twice more) by professional writers perhaps due to its ‘perceived formality’ in scientific corpora (hyland, 1996): (6) hence, one may argue that no culture-boundedness applies to eu originals drafted in lingua-franca or nns english (ep). (7) a partial explanation for these results might lie in the discourse structure of the two types (ep). however, should was used much less by the ep (about twice less) compared to its use by ig and eg groups. (8) there should have been lower levels of activation from background knowledge, especially for the less familiar stories, from having constructed impoverished textbases during reading (ep). similar to would, it is a marker of hypotheticality; however it has a more tentative meaning thus denoting less confidence in the probability of an assumption being true based on available facts. epistemic adverbials/adjectivals/nouns (eaan) as the second most frequently used markers by all groups, they constituted 32% of total hedges by the ep compared to 29% and 22% by the eg and ig groups respectively. all groups used perhaps, likely, possibly, generally, certain extent/level/degree, and some much more frequently than other markers. similarly, some of these markers (i.e. possibly, perhaps) were amongst the most frequently used in research articles by english, norwegian, and french medical and linguistics researchers (vold, 2006). further, they constituted 53% of hedging expressions in hyland’s (1999) corpus of scientific research articles as well. a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 189 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 189 most of these ‘accuracy-based’ hedges are probability adjuncts of contingency which avoid excessive certainty and thus increase the degree of precision of the propositional content (halliday, 1994; hyland, 1999) as below: esmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202190 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 190 (9) perhaps, the emphasis laid on both text connectives and code glosses in the experimental group helped in understanding the troubling passages or expressions (ig). (10) one possibility is that the context of this study was simply perceived by respondents as far less ‘face-threatening’ than in previous research (ep). (11) these results add some empirical weight to the observation that different genres and registers choose to highlight different collocations (eg). “attitudinal disjuncts” such as ‘some’ are used to hedge numerical data and denote “degree of precision” and accuracy of the presented information and are very typical of the results and discussion sections (quirk et al., 1985: 165). all three groups used some and possibly relatively more than other markers with some as the most frequent adverbial. except for a few markers such as some and certain extent/level/degree/amount, the ig used eaan markers much less frequently than their eg counterparts. the most frequent probability markers used by the ep compared to the ig and eg writers respectively included rather (9 and 7 times more), likely (3 and 1.5 times more), possibly (about 3 and 1.5 times more), relatively (5 and 2 times more), in general/generally (2.5 times more), consistent (with)/in line with (over 6 times more). adverbials consistent/in line with mostly served a quotative function demonstrating the consistency of the findings with the current theories, norms, or hypotheses in the field: (12) the free-response survey results were also consistent with research showing that language tests can affect students’ psychological well-being by mirroring back to students a picture of how society views them and how they should view themselves (ep). some markers, though used much less frequently by native speakers compared to others in this category, were never used by ig (e.g., potentially, unclear, normally). further, some other markers (more or less, maybe, seemingly, hardly) by both ig and eg groups were never used by professional writers. a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 191 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 191 judgmental verbs the most frequently used tentative judgmental verbs by all groups were suggest, indicate, demonstrate, show, imply, and tend to respectively. their presence denotes a tendency rather than a full assertion by discussion writers. overall, the ep used these markers (5.25 times per 1000 words) more than both ig and eg groups respectively (3.5 and 2.5 times per 1000), particularly verbs suggest (over two and 3.5 times more) and demonstrate (about 2 and 4 times more). the two speculative verbs show some conjecture and a cautious position about the truth value of a proposition, thus distinguish speculation from categorical assertion: (13) these differences suggest that after interlanguage has recognized the importance of a linguistic feature, the impact it has on mood use is not necessarily static (ep). (14) both studies nonetheless demonstrate how metalinguistic selfmonitoring during output, not unlike that of example 8, preceded the breakdown and reanalysis of chunks (ep). the eg used a higher proportion of the following speculative and deductive hedges compared to their ig counterparts: suggest (over 1.5 times more), argue (about twice), imply (over 3 times), demonstrate (over twice), believe (over 4times), assume (about twice), and prove (about 4 times). they also used certain speculative verbs most frequently compared to ep, i.e. believe (11 times) and imply (3.5 times). (15) after this study i believe that referring to tslt as ‘tblt-lite’ is apt and necessary (eg). esmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202192 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 192 (16) this implies that for learning unknown, infrequent, or otherwise difficult vocabulary items, a familiar context will be of aid (eg). the ig, however, used claim much more often than the eg (over 4.5 times more) and ep groups (2.5 times more). this was expectable as most of the theses by iranian graduates were quantitatively-oriented in which they signaled whether their initial claims or hypotheses were confirmed or disconfirmed. most instances were preceded by the construction ‘we can/may…’. (17) we can claim that the use of metadiscourse markers has equally affected the process of reading comprehension of the subjects of both levels (ig). however, show was used about 3 times more by the ig and eg groups. interestingly, judgmental performatives with personal pronouns for the ep all appeared (.12 per 1000) with first person i followed by speculative verbs suggest, argue, and contend. these ‘reader-motivated’ hedges help journal writers add their personal attribution to their claims thus giving their speculations more credibility. the eg used both first person singular and plural forms with more of the former (.19 per 1000 mostly with speculative verbs believe, suggest, and think) than the latter (example 15 above). conversely, all instances of performative judgmentals with personal pronouns for the ig group (.30 per 1000) appeared with we followed mostly by modals can/may and the verb claim as seen in 17. certain judgmentals such as discern, estimate, deduce, surmise were rarely or never used by all groups. overall, judgmental verbs outnumbered evidential verbs across all corpora (almost double the evidentials used by the ig and eg groups). evidential verbs overall, professional writers used evidentials more frequently than both ig and eg groups respectively (i.e. about 3 and 2 times more often), particularly certain sensorial verbs such as appear (5 and 2 times more), seem (5 and around 1.5 times more), and observe (3 and 2 times more): a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 193 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 193 (18) the present data, therefore, seem to question the role of a particular type of pushed output (uptake) for sla in this highly specific context (ep). (19) moreover, these participants appear to be able to encode semantic criteria that are clearly irrelevant to any comparable grammatical function in the l1 (ep). (20) this choice seems to be in contrast with the overall distancing trend we observed in the italian texts (ep). some quotative hedges by the ep such as note, and report were rarely or never used by both graduate writer groups: (21) similarly, lyster and ranta (1997) noted that although elicitations were the most effective in producing uptake, recasts were the most frequent response move in the data (ep). (22) despite the high motivation reported by the english learners participating in our study, the level of motivation found through their behavioral reactions to class activities is low and disappointing (ep). overall, the eg used evidentials twice more often than the ig particularly sensorial verbs seem, appear, and feel. the latter group; however, used narrators attempt (3 times more) and see (over twice and 4 times) more frequently than the eg and ep groups respectively. the former was consistently used to refer to the purpose of the study, so was the latter in most cases: esmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202194 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 194 (23) the present study was an attempt to investigate the role of inner speech as mental rehearsal among efl learners at different levels of language proficiency (ig). (24) we intended to see whether the teachers’ academic degree and self-efficacy have any significant relationship with the students’ achievement (ig). sensorial hedges (seem, appear, observe, respectively) were the evidential verbs used most frequently by all groups. similarly, seem and appear were found as the most frequent in scientific research articles in cell and molecular biology (hyland,1999), in brown and lob’s academic corpora, as well as in research articles by norwegian, french and english linguists and medical scientists (vold, 2006). in vold’s study, ‘seem’ was used much less by english medical researchers reflecting a discipline-specific trend for using certain verbal hedges. in some cases, all three groups used suggest and argue quotatively rather than in their unmarked judgmental forms to justify their propositions by referring to the works of others: (25) this resonates with swain (2001: 279), who suggests that “noticing a gap in their [learners’] linguistic knowledge may stimulate learning processes”; and with samuda (2001), who writes of opportunities (ep). (26) as argued by martin (2000), “the stage a culture has reached in its evolution provides the social context for the linguistic development…” (ig). conversational and informal hedges such as guess, feel, sound, look were rarely or never used by the ig and ep groups, while the eg used them on more occasions especially feel was used 12 times more (occurring .13 per 1000 words) appearing mostly with a first person pronoun. (27) i feel that extending a study of attitudes to all parties in a translation process is bound to be fruitful (eg). other conversational hedges such as reckon, and think were unsurprisingly missing from the three corpora. a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 195 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 195 conclusion overall, except for epistemic modals, both native and non-native master’s level graduates employed much fewer hedging devices compared to their professional counterparts. epistemic uses of modals appear far more in speech and informal writing (coates, 1983) and in lectures (flowerdew, 1993, cited in hyland, 1996) than in scientific writing (hyland, 1996). the differences are pronounced in the diversity and frequency of use of contentmotivated hedges (e.g., eaan hedges), evidential, and judgmental markers. this reflects more cautiousness and awareness of professional writers about the expectations and constraints of knowledge production given the epistemic nature of knowledge in academic genres, as well as creating an open dialogue with the discourse community readers through which alternative perspectives could be recognized. it also reflects professional writers’ further awareness of reader rights to refute their claims on adequacy and acceptability grounds. hence, they tend to produce a more unique and diverse range of hedges compared to both graduate groups. they draw on various sources of knowledge (their senses, inferences, or references) and their expert insights to draw out plausible conclusions. this shows that the choice of hedging devices is ‘essentially strategic’ as writers use them to tune up the strength and veracity of their claims and modify the degree of certitude in their statements (hyland, 1996). it should be noted that we did not examine other strategic means of modulating knowledge such as questions (used to highlight knowledge limitations) or conditionals (used to contrast the potential with the unreal). except for epistemic modals (used more by the ig), hedges were used more frequently in discussions by english graduates demonstrating the latter group’s greater variety and extent of use of conviction and uncertainty marking in discussions. the lower use of certain epistemic modals by the former group might also be attributable to the different stages of acquisition of mitigating devices such as ‘would’ which tend to occur much later compared to other hedges (salsbury & bardovi-harlig, 2000). further research with non-native writers at different stages of proficiency development would be needed to prove this. it is of course likely that some of the modals have been added to the final draft at the request of the supervisor who might have recommended some qualification of the claims in the discussions, an observation confirmed in thompson’s (2001) interviews with phd supervisors, and in burroughboenisch’s (2005) report of reviewers asking more hedges to be added to discussions by dutch scientists. esmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202196 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 196 both graduate groups over/underused certain hedging devices compared to professional writers. despite the over/underuse of certain hedging markers by graduate groups, all the three groups follow a predictable downward pattern of use of different hedge categories, i.e epistemic modals, eaan, judgmental, and evidential hedges respectively. certain judgmental (e.g., suppose, estimate, surmise), evidential (e.g., guess, sound, look), and probability hedges (e.g., arguably, potentially, unclear, virtually) in the englishauthored corpus were absent in the iranian-authored texts. although they may literally possess knowledge of such lexical devices, iranian junior researchers may not be conscious of the potential rhetorical and dialogic value of these devices in promoting an interactive tenor in academic discussions. inadequate awareness of the extent, diversity, and rhetorical function and distribution of hedges may lead to producing direct, less appropriate, and less formal discourse to the expert members of an academic community (vold, 2006). textual products by non-native writers need to conform to the norms of the target language, observing its community conventions and expectations, its ways of persuasion and negotiating interpretations, and the practices of knowledge making in that discipline. disciplinary discourses are not simply about reporting findings in the discussion section. rather, they involve creating or constructing knowledge by securing community agreement for the claims made through judicious use of tentative language. the non-native graduate writers and to lesser extent their english counterparts tended to be less speculative and demonstrated less desire to take a stance in selling their arguments; hence the absence and/or lower number of speculative, judgmental, and probability devices. thus, their findings might sound less explained or subjected to interpretation in the discussion section. it is worth noting that this argument applies in the context of use of hedges investigated in this study. their rhetorical behavior might vary with reference to other non-lexical hedging devices such as tense, questions, and voice which were not investigated here. although english has been the practicing language for iranian graduates at university, the linguistic and rhetorical differences between english and the graduates’ native language, and the transfer of these behaviors to their advanced writing is potentially influential. rhetorical discrepancies including formality, precision, and objectivity have been reported by many non-native graduates from diverse first-language backgrounds doing their dissertations in english in american universities (dong, 1999). a similar observation was confirmed in the iranian scientists’ less-hedged research articles in persian a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 197 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 197 language compared to those by their english counterparts. the former were more interested in “passive changing of attitudes and assertive factual statements” while the latter were more willing to negotiate with peers and develop a more collegial and modest persona (davoodifard, 2008:40). the use of hedges is a function of the degree of ascription to the linguistic community as well as the academic community of the research field. it is; however, difficult to extricate the language culture from the academic culture in analyzing authentic academic data (yang, 2013). we noticed that english graduates transfer certain conversational evidential markers such as feel, and guess, or conversational adverbials such as quite, maybe into their formal discussions. although a comprehensive examination of conversational features of uncertainty was beyond the scope of this study, future research needs to tease apart the extent to which these features of academic spoken english are transferred into written practices by professional writers in a particular community. recent corpus studies on academic spoken interaction demonstrate significant use of certain conversational hedging devices (e.g., just, sort of, kind of, and so on, and so forth) by native and non-native speakers in formal and informal academic speech events (lindemann & mauranen, 2001). implications the findings enhance our knowledge of the rhetorical behavior of native and non-native graduate student writers and the extent to which they can construct themselves as plausible members of their community. mastering hedges can prove elusive for non-native speakers especially in academic texts (wishnoff, 2000). efl university students need to do extensive reading and writing of academic texts in english. the results show that the academic discussions are heavily hedged. thus, inadequate knowledge of modality and tentative language can pose significant problems for rhetorically less sophisticated junior researchers and second language writers. pedagogically, it is not enough to know the forms of hedging but to know why the form is used as well. accordingly, developing a functional description of the rhetorical uses epistemic markers are put to, and the extent to which detachment or lack thereof in a particular rhetorical section is allowed, could help junior writers ensure demonstrating an appropriate level of objectivity, or what skelton (1988) rightly calls being ‘confidently uncertain’. equipping esmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202198 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 198 learners with this knowledge helps them not only to tease out the difference between facts and claims in writing, but also to increase the credibility and decrease the likelihood of opposition to their claims by examiners or other discourse community readers. explicit instruction of hedging forms and functions in eap courses in terms of sensitization to various disciplinary proclivities to tentative discourse, translation, and rewriting practices has been reported to improve reading and writing performance (jalilifar, 2007, cited in jalilifar & shooshtari, 2010; wishnoff, 2000). incorporating hedging into the academic discussions of novice writers can be an essential tool in helping them formulate critical statements about their research findings and engage with their community (bruce, 2016). foreign language readers and writers need to be sensitized to the distinction between factual versus provisional or hypothetical statements as an important feature of academic socialization (hyland, 1994; skelton, 1988). mastery of tentative language is an important indicator of proficiency in the target language and efficiency in learners’ own discourse community’s specialist register. further, dissertation supervisors and dissertation guides and handbooks need to alert novice researchers to the fact that scientists constantly report their findings tentatively and subject their research results to new hypotheses and discoveries (hogan & maglienti, 2001; jensen, 2008). hedges are therefore necessary rhetorical tools in academic discourse for appropriately adjusting the level of certainty and confidence that the writer expresses towards their findings. thus, graduate students’ awareness needs to be raised about qualifying knowledge claims, withholding full commitment to assertions, and assuming a legitimate tone of circumspection. acknowledgements this project was funded by the ahrc grant no. vf2009/53311. article history: received 26 december 2017 received in revised form 7 october 2018 accepted 7 october 2018 a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202 199 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 199 references esmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202200 abdi, r. 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(2000). “hedging your bets: l2 learners’ acquisition of pragmatic devices in academic writing and computer-mediated 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 201 esmaeel abdollahzadeh is a senior lecturer in language education. he has presented in various international conferences, and published in several journals on issues in first and second language academic reading and writing, eap, as well as language learning strategies. esmaeel abdollahzadeh ibérica 38 (2019): 177-202202 discourse”. second language studies 19(1): 119148. yang, y. (2013). “exploring linguistic and cultural variations in the use of hedges in english and chinese scientific discourse”. journal of pragmatics 50(1): 23-36. zadeh, l. a. (1972). “a fuzzy-set-theoretic interpretation of linguistic hedges”. journal of cybernetics, 2(3): 4-34. 06 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:51 página 202 iberica 13 ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214 issn 1139-7241 abstract the present article reports on the findings of a study that explored the effect of explicit strategy based instruction on achievement test scores in mixed language ability groups within an esp course in a higher education setting. the research results indicate that language learner strategy instruction, which focused on cognitive, metacognitive and memory strategies, did not have any effect on achievement test scores among students with a higher level of general language competence. the results also indicate that membership in the experimental group was not a positive predictor of scores on vocabulary tasks of the achievement test among students with lower levels of pre-existing language ability. the results, discussed with respect to the context in which strategy based instruction was conducted, bring into question the justification for explicit strategy based instruction in mixed language ability groups, emphasize the importance of metacognitive awareness, and suggest that when insufficient time is available for integrated strategy instruction, a separate and independent module on learner strategies, focusing on different strategies for students at different levels of language competence, or implicit language learner strategy instruction seem to be more appropriate. keywords: higher education, language competence, achievement test score, language learner strategy instruction, mixed language ability group. resumen e f e c tos d e l a i ns tr uc c i ón ba s ad a e n e s tra te g ia s s o br e l as p un tua c i one s e n p ru e ba s de l og r os al c an z ad os e n un g r up o d e e s tu di an te s de i f e c on c ap ac id ad e s l i ng üí s tic as h e te ro g é n e as el presente artículo informa sobre las conclusiones de un estudio que exploró el efecto de la enseñanza explícita de estrategias sobre los resultados de pruebas de effect of strategy based instruction on achievement test scores in a mixed language ability group of esp learners violeta jurkovič university of ljubljana (slovenia) violeta.jurkovic@guest.arnes.si 195 ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214 violeta jurkovič logros alcanzados en grupos de estudiantes con capacidades lingüísticas heterogéneas dentro de un curso de ife en el ámbito de la enseñanza superior. los resultados de la investigación demostraron que la enseñanza de lenguas basada en la instrucción de estrategias, centrada en estrategias cognitivas, metacognitivas y de memoria, no ha repercutido sobre los resultados de la prueba de rendimiento entre los estudiantes con un nivel más alto de competencia lingüística general. los resultados demostraron, además, que participar en un grupo experimental no conlleva un índice positivo de resultados en tareas de vocabulario en la prueba de rendimiento entre los estudiantes con un nivel más bajo de competencia lingüística. los resultados obtenidos, analizados en cuanto al contexto en el cual se llevó a cabo la instrucción basada en estrategias, cuestionan la idoneidad de la enseñanza explícita de estrategias en grupos de capacidades lingüísticas heterogéneas, enfatizan la importancia de los conocimientos metacognitivos, y sugieren que, en caso de que el tiempo disponible para la instrucción integrada de estrategias no sea suficiente, parece más apropiado implantar un módulo separado e independiente de estrategias de aprendizaje que se centre en estrategias diferentes para estudiantes en los distintos niveles de competencia de la lengua. palabras clave: enseñanza superior, competencia lingüística, resultado de prueba de logros alcanzados, enseñanza de estrategias de aprendizaje de lenguas, grupos de capacidades lingüísticas heterogéneas. 1. introduction an important goal of tertiary education has become learning-how-to-learn instead of simple transmission of factual information (wong & nunan, 2011) and to teach students how to learn and think independently (vermunt, 1996). moreover, poor use of learner strategies has been identified as one of the most important problems students have to cope with after entering higher education (marentič požarnik & mihevc, 1997). hence, in circumstances when needs analysis has revealed that in their probable future careers a high level of language competence will be required (jurkovič, 2002), we need to look for classroom interventions that might allow less successful students to catch up with their peers and students at higher levels of language competence to become (more) successful lifelong learners (jurkovič, 2007). a possible classroom intervention aiming at enhancing these processes is the explicit introduction of learner strategies into the process of language teaching. essentially for this study, due to scheduling and financial constraints, division of students into groups based on pre-existing language ability was not 196 feasible. therefore, this article addresses the question whether explicit strategy based instruction across all strategy groups contributes to better language achievement test scores in an esp higher education setting in mixed language ability groups. 1.1. theoretical framework in more than three decades of research into language learner strategies a mass of competing definitions of what they are has been developed. macaro (2006), for instance, suggests that learner strategies should be described in terms of these essential features: their origins in working memory, conscious mental activity that learners employ to pursue a goal in a given learning situation, and transferability. nevertheless, a consensus regarding all elements that are necessary for learning behaviours to be considered strategies has not still been reached. this concerns in particular the employed level of consciousness, explicitness regarding action, degree of goal orientation, strategy size, and potential for leading to learning (cohen, 2007). along with a number of definitions, several taxonomies of language learner strategies have been produced (rubin, 1981; oxford, 1990 & 2011; chamot & o’malley, 1994; macaro, 2006; fazeli, 2011; among others). among the most influential ones certainly is that proposed by oxford (1990), which is supported by a strategy use questionnaire and results in numerous research studies. according to the classification developed by oxford in 1990 (for a different and upgraded taxonomy proposed by the same author see oxford, 2011), there are six groups of language learner strategies. “memory strategies” help students store and retrieve new information, “cognitive strategies” enable learners to understand and produce language, “compensation strategies” allow learners to use the language despite knowledge gaps, “metacognitive strategies” allow learners to coordinate and regulate their own learning process, “affective strategies” help them to regulate their affect, and “social strategies” help students to learn through interaction with peers or other speakers of the foreign language. similarly, a variety of language learner strategy instruction models has been developed (chamot & o’malley, 1994; cohen, 1998; grenfell & harris, 1999; oxford, 2011). according to hassan et al. (2004: 5), language learner strategy instruction focuses on the strategies “regularly to be adopted and effect of strategy based instruction ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214 197 deployed by learners in order to develop language proficiency, improve language task achievement or both.” despite differences that distinguish one instruction model from another, they share a number of features (harris, 2003; chamot, 2004). these are the importance of students’ current learner strategies, choice of appropriate tasks for practicing strategies, importance of developing metacognitive awareness of the learning process, and strategy instruction that is explicit and integrated into regular course activities. chamot (2008), however, emphasizes that implicit instruction can also be powerful. the training model used in the present research study was the cognitive academic language learning approach (calla), developed by chamot and o’malley (1994) while the strategies that were explicitly introduced into the teaching process were selected from oxford’s (1990) taxonomy. the main reason for this choice is the availability, psychometric data and widespread use of the questionnaire strategy inventory for language learning (or sill, for short) (oxford, 1990). the calla model was selected for several reasons. the first one is that it includes three components: study-discipline content, academic language skills, and explicit scaffolded instruction in language learner strategies, among which the first two are inherent to any esp course in a higher education setting. moreover, the model is grounded in theory and practice, so that it explains how something is learned and provides guidelines for instruction. explicit strategy based instruction following the calla model consists of recursive phases (chamot & o’malley, 1994; chamot et al., 1999). during the preparation phase prior knowledge of students in relation to a specific language learner strategy is identified and/or discussed. the second phase is presentation when a new language learner strategy is presented and its use demonstrated and modelled. next, during the third phase (practice) the strategy is practised using the usual classroom material. the fourth phase consists of evaluation when students assess how well the strategy is helping them. the final or fifth phase is expansion or students’ attempt to transfer the examined language learner strategy or cluster of strategies to new tasks. it has been suggested that language learner strategy instruction may help learners in manifold ways. they learn about their own process of learning, see the effect of strategy use on learning efficiency, raise metacognitive awareness of their learning process, and become more autonomous learners violeta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214198 (chamot & o’malley, 1994). however, research shows that not all strategy training studies in language classrooms have been successful or conclusive (plonsky, 2011; wong & nunan, 2011). in a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of strategy based instruction, plonsky (2011) concluded that the magnitude of strategy based instruction can be described as having a small to medium effect and is “modest when compared to other bodies of l2 research that have undergone meta-analysis” (plonsky, 2011: 1013). nevertheless, it seems that all interventions that focused on metacognitive strategies yielded positive results (sengupta, 2000; kusiak, 2001; rasekh and ranjbary, 2003; graham & macaro, 2008). importantly for this study, plonsky (2011) also reports that higher proficiency students are more likely to benefit from strategy based instruction than lower-proficiency students. an interesting five-year study was conducted by taylor et al. (2011): tutoring in language learner strategies and study skills, in addition to regular language classes, was provided to struggling students and the results indicated that most of these students, despite significant assistance, dropped out of the english language program and thus failed the course. most studies have focused on the effect of training in the use of one strategy or one group of strategies on a single language skill or element, mostly vocabulary (lawson & hogben, 1998; atay & ozbulgan, 2007). importantly for this article, no study reports results of strategy based instruction in mixed language ability groups in a higher education esp setting. in studies where the language competence level of participants is stated, it is described loosely (that is, intermediate, lower intermediate, poor), which does not provide accurate data but does indicate that the groups were homogeneous in terms of pre-existing language ability. 2. method 2.1. participants the participants in the study were seventy-seven full-time first year students, aged between 18 and 24 (mean: 19.94), attending classes of english as a foreign language for students of traffic technology and transport logistics at the faculty of maritime studies and transport (university of ljubljana, slovenia) from october 2007 through may 2008. twenty-nine participants were female and forty-eight participants were male. effect of strategy based instruction ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214 199 the participants attended the english course in three groups (22 students in the first group, 34 in the second, and 21 in the third). no other courses at our faculty use english as the medium of instruction, which means that students were not exposed to any additional english input in the formal instructional setting. the first two groups were randomly selected to make part of the experimental group (group a with a total of 56 students). the contrast group (group b) thus consisted of 21 students. a background questionnaire was used to determine similarities and differences between the experimental and contrast groups in relation to age of participants, type of secondary school they had completed, secondary school cumulative grade point average, and secondary school english language grade. t-tests indicated no significant differences on any of these characteristics between the two groups. 2.2. setting the faculty of maritime studies and transport is a member of the university of ljubljana, slovenia. only one foreign language (english) is taught at the faculty. when this study was conducted, the language course covered ninety hours (thirty three-hour weekly sessions) in the first year of studies and ninety hours in the second year. the learning objectives of the language course in the first year, which the present study is related to, included the development of the reading skill (understanding technical and semi-technical texts), the acquisition of technical and semi-technical vocabulary in relation to traffic technology and transport logistics, the revision of essential grammatical structures, and the improvement of writing, speaking, and listening skills related to transport logistics and traffic technology. the language competence level that all students were expected to reach by the end of the first year of studies was set at b1+/b2 of the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) (council of europe, 2001). 2.3. instruments and data collection procedures data for the present study were collected by means of two instruments: the oxford placement test (opt) and an achievement test. (1) the opt (allan, 2004) was used to establish differences among students in terms of language ability at the beginning and end of violeta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214200 the language course. a significant advantage of the opt is that it has been calibrated against a series of international language examinations and levels, including those of the cefr, and its time-efficiency when detailed data in relation to language competence in each language skill and element is not essential. the test is divided into two main sections. the first one mostly aims at the testing of reading, listening, and vocabulary size while the second section is a test of grammar, vocabulary, and reading skills. (2) an achievement test, prepared by the teacher, was used at the end of the language course to assess the level to which students met the instructional objectives. in accordance with these objectives (see section 2.2.), the difficulty level of test tasks ranged between b1 and b2. the achievement test contained four tasks, each consisting of twenty items and contributing one quarter to the final score. for each correct item one point was given, thus totalling a maximum of 80 points. the first task aimed at the testing of reading comprehension, and technical and semitechnical vocabulary discussed during the language course and extracted from the course book. it consisted of a gap-fill task. the difficulty level of this task was assessed to be at level b2. the second task aimed at the testing of reading comprehension. based on a text of approximately one page and a half in length, students had to decide whether the given statements were true, false or not given. the difficulty level of the second task was assessed to be at level between b1 and b2 (henceforth, b1/b2). similarly to the first task, the third task aimed at the testing of technical and semitechnical lexical knowledge and reading comprehension in the form of a word formation gap fill task. the level of difficulty of this task was assessed to be at level b1/b2. the lexical items needed to fill in the gaps in the sentences were extracted from the course book. finally, task four of the achievement test consisted of a multiple choice grammar task, which aimed at the testing of grammatical structures such as active and passive tense forms, comparison of adjectives, demonstrative pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions. all grammatical structures tested by task four had been revised during the language course. the difficulty level of this task was assessed to be at level b1. writing was assessed throughout the language course through the use of obligatory effect of strategy based instruction ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214 201 writing homework assignments while speaking was assessed at the oral part of the final exam, which is why these two skills were not included in the achievement test score. 2.4. data analysis the statistical package for the social sciences (spss 13.0) was employed to process the data obtained in the study. “regression analysis allows scientists to quantify how the average of one variable systematically varies according to the levels of another variable” (gordon, 2010: 6) while independent sample t-test or one-way anova do not provide information on effect size nor allow the inclusion of a moderator variable. as a result, regression analysis was the major analysis used for the examination of the relationship between membership in the experimental group and achievement test scores. a sample required for testing regression coefficients should include at least twenty times as many cases as independent variables, or to have n ≥ 50 + 8*m (m refers to the number of independent variables) for testing r-square (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). despite being modest in size, the sample of seventy-seven participants meets both requirements. 3. materials and instruction the course book routes to traffic english (jurkovič & harsch, 2004) that was used in class had been written on the basis of results of a needs analysis conducted among graduates of our faculty (jurkovič, 2002). it focuses on topics related to the four main modes of transport (road, rail, sea, and air transport). in accordance with instructional objectives, the language level of most tasks in the course book is set at level b1+/b2. both groups received the usual language training. in addition to language training the experimental group received explicit “completely informed strategy instruction” (oxford, 2011: 181) whereas in the contrast group language learner strategies were implicitly embedded in instructions to language tasks but not explicitly discussed – “blind [covert] strategy instruction”, as defined by oxford (2011: 181). explicit strategy based instruction continued throughout the instruction period of thirty weeks. language activities in the experimental group were interrupted twice to thrice per session for approximately five to ten minutes to discuss the relevant strategies or clusters that were incorporated into regular teaching violeta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214202 materials. the total time dedicated to explicit strategy based instruction can thus be estimated at approximately fifteen to twenty minutes per session. instruction was scaffolded, which means that at an initial stage the strategies were thoroughly presented, discussed, practised and evaluated while at a later stage students were reminded of their use through instructions. therefore, the essential distinctive difference between the experimental and contrast groups was that the experimental group was systematically and explicitly introduced to language learner strategies. the main principle that determined the selection of learner strategies that were integrated into regular course activities was that they should be matched to course objectives and tasks. given that interacting cognitive and metacognitive processes constitute the language learning or language use processes (macaro, 2006), the majority of the language learner strategies incorporated into the training model were cognitive strategies. in order to raise metacognitive awareness of and enable reflection upon the learning process and efficiency of learner strategies, emphasis was also put on metacognitive strategies. the third group of strategies that instruction focused on, with the primary aim to enhance the acquisition of technical and semi-technical vocabulary, was memory strategies. the current study recognises the key importance of the affective domain in the language learning process and learner strategy use (krashen, 1985; chamot et al., 1999; ushioda, 2008; among others). motivation and other aspects of affect were stimulated through the creation of a positive class atmosphere, setting of clear learning objectives, positive feedback, and individualized approach to students. these, however, were not explicitly discussed following the steps of the instructional model. 4. results descriptive statistics for opt scores at the beginning (october, 2007) and end of the language course (may, 2008) are presented in table 1: number of participants, mean, standard deviation, coefficients of skewness and kurtosis. effect of strategy based instruction ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214 203 violeta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): …-… the acquisition of technical and semi-technical vocabulary, was memory strategies. the current study recognises the key importance of the affective domain in the language learning process and learner strategy use (krashen, 1985; chamot et al., 1999; ushioda, 2008; among others). motivation and other aspects of affect were stimulated through the creation of a positive class atmosphere, setting of clear learning objectives, positive feedback, and individualized approach to students. these, however, were not explicitly discussed following the steps of the instructional model. 4. results descriptive statistics for opt scores at the beginning (october, 2007) and end of the language course (may, 2008) are presented in table 1: number of participants, mean, standard deviation, coefficients of skewness and kurtosis. n m sd skewness kurtosis october 2007 77 125.90 13.953 0.174 -0.145 may 2008 77 131.49 13.550 -0.144 0.046 table 1. descriptive statistics for opt scores at the beginning and end of the language course. data in table 1 show that at the end of the language course students improved their mean opt scores by almost six points. standard deviation values for test scores at the beginning and end of the language course were almost the same. the coefficients of skewness and kurtosis indicate normal distribution of variables derived from opt scores. pearson’s coefficient of correlation was used to calculate test-retest reliability. its value (at 0.702) indicates a high level of test-retest reliability. internal consistency reliability of the opt was confirmed using cronbach’s alpha test (0.825). criterion-related validity of opt scores was determined through the calculation of spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. the values of spearman’s coefficient, significant at the level p=0.000, have shown a positive and marginally strong correlation between cefr levels derived from both instruments at the beginning (0.505) and end of the language course (0.546). finally, the predictive validity of the opt has been confirmed by regression analysis. the results have shown that opt scores at the beginning of the language course can explain 29% of the variance in achievement test scores (r2=0.294, p=0.000, b=0.542) while opt scores at the end of the language course can explain almost 24% of the variance in achievement test scores (r2=0.238, p=0.000, b=0.487). descriptive statistics for achievement test scores are presented in table 2: mean, standard deviation, coefficients of skewness and kurtosis as a whole and for separate achievement test tasks. data in table 1 show that at the end of the language course students improved their mean opt scores by almost six points. standard deviation values for test scores at the beginning and end of the language course were almost the same. the coefficients of skewness and kurtosis indicate normal distribution of variables derived from opt scores. pearson’s coefficient of correlation was used to calculate test-retest reliability. its value (at 0.702) indicates a high level of test-retest reliability. internal consistency reliability of the opt was confirmed using cronbach’s alpha test (0.825). criterion-related validity of opt scores was determined through the calculation of spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. the values of spearman’s coefficient, significant at the level p=0.000, have shown a positive and marginally strong correlation between cefr levels derived from both instruments at the beginning (0.505) and end of the language course (0.546). finally, the predictive validity of the opt has been confirmed by regression analysis. the results have shown that opt scores at the beginning of the language course can explain 29% of the variance in achievement test scores (r2=0.294, p=0.000, b=0.542) while opt scores at the end of the language course can explain almost 24% of the variance in achievement test scores (r2=0.238, p=0.000, b=0.487). descriptive statistics for achievement test scores are presented in table 2: mean, standard deviation, coefficients of skewness and kurtosis as a whole and for separate achievement test tasks. data presented in table 2 show that the mean achievement test score was at almost 63%. the scores at all tasks, with the exception of task three, where the mean score was significantly lower, are above (tasks one and two) or almost equal to the mean test score (task four). standard deviation values show highest dispersion of values for tasks one and three, both aiming at the testing of technical and semi-technical vocabulary and reading comprehension. the coefficients of skewness and kurtosis indicate relatively normal distribution of variables derived from achievement test scores. in no violeta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214204 effect of strategy based instruction ibérica 25 (2013): …-… n m sd skewness kurtosis task 1 – vocabulary 77 66.7 20.276 -0.619 -0.401 task 2 – reading 77 68.7 9.104 -0.438 0.430 task 3 – word formation 77 51.5 21.402 -0.421 -0.460 task 4 – grammar 77 62.5 13.938 0.299 -0.444 achievement test 77 62.6 12.466 -0.332 0.124 table 2. descriptive statistics for achievement test scores. data presented in table 2 show that the mean achievement test score was at almost 63%. the scores at all tasks, with the exception of task three, where the mean score was significantly lower, are above (tasks one and two) or almost equal to the mean test score (task four). standard deviation values show highest dispersion of values for tasks one and three, both aiming at the testing of technical and semi-technical vocabulary and reading comprehension. the coefficients of skewness and kurtosis indicate relatively normal distribution of variables derived from achievement test scores. in no case the values of the coefficients of skewness and kurtosis are higher than ±1.0 and therefore no variable was excluded from the analysis. the achievement test had been piloted on forty-four students who had attended the same language course in the academic year 2004-2005. in order to calculate test-retest reliability, independent samples t-test was used to identify differences between test scores at the achievement test taken in may, 2008, and the same test taken by a different cohort of students in june, 2005. no statistically significant differences were found between these scores (p=0.682; t=0.411). internal consistency reliability of the achievement test was confirmed using cronbach’s alpha test (0.751). internal validity was calculated using principal components analysis. it (no rotation) showed high loadings of all four items on a single factor (0.864 for task one, 0.802 for task two, 0.772 for task three, and 0.607 for task four). content validity of the achievement test was confirmed by the degree to which test tasks matched the instructional objectives (see section 2.2). in addition, the language competence level that students were expected to reach by the end of the first year of their studies was set at b1+/b2, which matched the average difficulty level of the achievement test. it was shown that a significant portion of the variance in achievement test scores can be predicted through opt scores (29% by opt scores at the beginning or 24% at the end of the language course). this indicates that membership in the experimental group (or, in other words, explicit strategy based instruction as the key feature distinguishing the experimental from the contrast group) could not be considered as the only predictor of achievement test scores. regression analysis was first performed to determine the effect of membership in the experimental group, included in the regression model as a dichotomized variable, on achievement test scores. given that opt scores are a valid predictor of achievement scores, opt scores at the beginning of the language course were case the values of the coefficients of skewness and kurtosis are higher than ±1.0 and therefore no variable was excluded from the analysis. the achievement test had been piloted on forty-four students who had attended the same language course in the academic year 2004-2005. in order to calculate test-retest reliability, independent samples t-test was used to identify differences between test scores at the achievement test taken in may, 2008, and the same test taken by a different cohort of students in june, 2005. no statistically significant differences were found between these scores (p=0.682; t=0.411). internal consistency reliability of the achievement test was confirmed using cronbach’s alpha test (0.751). internal validity was calculated using principal components analysis. it (no rotation) showed high loadings of all four items on a single factor (0.864 for task one, 0.802 for task two, 0.772 for task three, and 0.607 for task four). content validity of the achievement test was confirmed by the degree to which test tasks matched the instructional objectives (see section 2.2). in addition, the language competence level that students were expected to reach by the end of the first year of their studies was set at b1+/b2, which matched the average difficulty level of the achievement test. it was shown that a significant portion of the variance in achievement test scores can be predicted through opt scores (29% by opt scores at the beginning or 24% at the end of the language course). this indicates that membership in the experimental group (or, in other words, explicit strategy based instruction as the key feature distinguishing the experimental from the contrast group) could not be considered as the only predictor of achievement test scores. regression analysis was first performed to determine the effect of membership in the experimental group, included in the regression model as a dichotomized variable, on achievement test scores. given that opt scores are a valid predictor of achievement scores, opt scores at the beginning of the language course were included in the regression model as an independent moderator variable. the dependent variables included in five separate regression models (enter method) were: • “task 1 – vocabulary”, reflecting the score on task one; • “task 2 – reading”, reflecting the score on task two; • “task 3 – word formation”, reflecting the score on task three; effect of strategy based instruction ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214 205 • “task 4 – grammar”, reflecting the score on task four; and • “achievement test”, reflecting the overall achievement test score. regression analysis results are presented in table 3. data presented in table 3 indicate that membership in the experimental group was a statistically significant negative predictor of achievement test scores on the test as a whole and on tasks one and three, both aiming at the testing of technical and semi-technical vocabulary and reading comprehension. in addition, it was shown that opt scores are a statistically significant positive predictor of achievement test scores, indicating that students with higher opt scores outperformed students with lower opt scores on the achievement test. to find out if students from the contrast group achieved better opt scores at the beginning and end of the language course, which might have determined the results presented in table 3, independent samples t-test was performed. at the level below 0.05 set for the study, the test did not reveal any statistically significant differences between the experimental and contrast groups in terms of opt scores at the beginning (p=0.761, t=-0.306) and end of the language course (p=994, t=0.008), which was also confirmed by the general linear model repeated measures (p=0.711, f=0.139). descriptive statistics are presented in table 4. violeta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214206 violeta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): …-… included in the regression model as an independent moderator variable. the dependent variables included in five separate regression models (enter method) were: • “task 1 – vocabulary”, reflecting the score on task one; • “task 2 – reading”, reflecting the score on task two; • “task 3 – word formation”, reflecting the score on task three; • “task 4 – grammar”, reflecting the score on task four; and • “achievement test”, reflecting the overall achievement test score. regression analysis results are presented in table 3. task type unstand. coeff. std. coeff. t sig. & test b std. error beta (constant) -8.886 21.045 -0.422 0.674 group a -11.770 4.656 -0.252 -2.399 0.019 task 1 – vocabulary opt score 0.657 0.163 0.423 4.025 0.000 (constant) 45.912 10.900 4.550 0.000 group a -4.389 2.232 -0.221 -1.966 0.053 task 2 – reading opt score 0.204 0.078 0.292 2.603 0.011 (constant) -25.565 21.432 -1.193 0.237 group a -15.992 4.742 -0.342 -3.372 0.001 task 3 – word formation opt score 0.696 0.166 0.424 4.183 0.000 (constant) -8.627 13.943 -0.619 0.538 group a -2.345 3.085 -0.077 -0.760 0.450 task 4 – grammar opt score 0.573 0.108 0.537 5.298 0.000 (constant) 1.842 11.621 0.158 0.875 group a -8.239 2.571 -0.303 -3.204 0.002 achievement test scores opt score 0.524 0.090 0.549 5.811 0.000 table 3. effect of membership in the experimental group (a) and opt scores at the beginning of the language course (october 2007) on the different tasks and achievement test scores (n=77, r2=0.238, sig.=0.000). data presented in table 3 indicate that membership in the experimental group was a statistically significant negative predictor of achievement test scores on the test as a whole and on tasks one and three, both aiming at the testing of technical and semi-technical vocabulary and reading comprehension. in addition, it was shown that opt scores are a statistically significant positive predictor of achievement test scores, indicating that students with higher opt scores outperformed students with lower opt scores on the achievement test. to find out if students from the contrast group achieved better opt scores at the beginning and end of the language course, which might have determined the results presented in table 3, independent samples t-test was performed. at the level below 0.05 set for the study, the test did not reveal any statistically significant differences between the experimental and contrast groups in terms of opt scores at the beginning (p=0.761, t=-0.306) and end of the language course (p=994, t=0.008), which was also confirmed by the general linear model a comparison between the experimental (a) and contrast (b) groups revealed that mean opt scores in both groups at the beginning and end of the language course were very similar. standard deviation values, however, indicate a greater dispersion of values in group a than in group b, indicating a higher level of mixed language ability in this group. this assumption was confirmed by the wider range of values in the experimental group than in the contrast group. these results indicate that differences among students in terms of preexisting language ability were higher in the experimental than in the contrast group. in order to minimize the effect of pre-existing language ability, achievement test scores of students with higher opt scores from group a had to be compared against achievement test scores of students with higher opt scores from group b, and vice versa. hierarchical clustering was first used to determine the number of groups that students should be divided into, depending on opt scores at the beginning of the language course. the dendrogram using ward’s method showed that students should be divided into two groups, which were labelled as “high-level group” and “low-level group”. k-means clustering was then used. final cluster centres and the percentages of students in each cluster are presented in table 5. regression analysis with the same dependent variables was performed again. the effect of opt scores was minimised by the division of students into effect of strategy based instruction ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214 207 effect of strategy based instruction ibérica 25 (2013): …-… repeated measures (p=0.711, f=0.139). descriptive statistics are presented in table 4. n m sd range min max october 2007 group a 56 125.63 14.751 63 94 157 group b 21 126.62 11.859 43 110 153 may 2008 group a 56 131.50 14.722 65 97 162 group b 21 131.48 10.083 41 110 151 table 4. descriptive statistics: opt scores in the experimental (a) and contrast (b) groups. a comparison between the experimental (a) and contrast (b) groups revealed that mean opt scores in both groups at the beginning and end of the language course were very similar. standard deviation values, however, indicate a greater dispersion of values in group a than in group b, indicating a higher level of mixed language ability in this group. this assumption was confirmed by the wider range of values in the experimental group than in the contrast group. these results indicate that differences among students in terms of pre-existing language ability were higher in the experimental than in the contrast group. in order to minimize the effect of pre-existing language ability, achievement test scores of students with higher opt scores from group a had to be compared against achievement test scores of students with higher opt scores from group b, and vice versa. hierarchical clustering was first used to determine the number of groups that students should be divided into, depending on opt scores at the beginning of the language course. the dendrogram using ward’s method showed that students should be divided into two groups, which were labelled as “high-level group” and “low-level group”. k-means clustering was then used. final cluster centres and the percentages of students in each cluster are presented in table 5. cluster 1 (high-level group) cluster 2 (low-level group) final cluster centres 139 pts 116 pts all students 43% 57% group a 41% 59% group b 50% 50% table 5. results of k-means clustering. regression analysis with the same dependent variables was performed again. the effect of opt scores was minimised by the division of students into groups and therefore membership in the experimental group was the only independent variable included in the model. because of limited sample size, the testing of rsquare values is not reliable (see section 2.4.) and no moderator variable was included in the analysis, which means that these data only have an indicative effect of strategy based instruction ibérica 25 (2013): …-… repeated measures (p=0.711, f=0.139). descriptive statistics are presented in table 4. n m sd range min max october 2007 group a 56 125.63 14.751 63 94 157 group b 21 126.62 11.859 43 110 153 may 2008 group a 56 131.50 14.722 65 97 162 group b 21 131.48 10.083 41 110 151 table 4. descriptive statistics: opt scores in the experimental (a) and contrast (b) groups. a comparison between the experimental (a) and contrast (b) groups revealed that mean opt scores in both groups at the beginning and end of the language course were very similar. standard deviation values, however, indicate a greater dispersion of values in group a than in group b, indicating a higher level of mixed language ability in this group. this assumption was confirmed by the wider range of values in the experimental group than in the contrast group. these results indicate that differences among students in terms of pre-existing language ability were higher in the experimental than in the contrast group. in order to minimize the effect of pre-existing language ability, achievement test scores of students with higher opt scores from group a had to be compared against achievement test scores of students with higher opt scores from group b, and vice versa. hierarchical clustering was first used to determine the number of groups that students should be divided into, depending on opt scores at the beginning of the language course. the dendrogram using ward’s method showed that students should be divided into two groups, which were labelled as “high-level group” and “low-level group”. k-means clustering was then used. final cluster centres and the percentages of students in each cluster are presented in table 5. cluster 1 (high-level group) cluster 2 (low-level group) final cluster centres 139 pts 116 pts all students 43% 57% group a 41% 59% group b 50% 50% table 5. results of k-means clustering. regression analysis with the same dependent variables was performed again. the effect of opt scores was minimised by the division of students into groups and therefore membership in the experimental group was the only independent variable included in the model. because of limited sample size, the testing of rsquare values is not reliable (see section 2.4.) and no moderator variable was included in the analysis, which means that these data only have an indicative groups and therefore membership in the experimental group was the only independent variable included in the model. because of limited sample size, the testing of r-square values is not reliable (see section 2.4.) and no moderator variable was included in the analysis, which means that these data only have an indicative value. regression analysis results are first presented for the high-level group (table 6). these results indicate that membership in the experimental group did not have any statistically significant effect on achievement test scores among high-level students. table 7 presents regression analysis results for the lowlevel group. the results of regression analysis presented in table 7, on the other hand, show that low-level students from the contrast group outperformed lowvioleta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214208 violeta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): …-… value. regression analysis results are first presented for the high-level group (table 6). task type unstand. coeff. std. coeff. t sig. & test b std. error beta (constant) 78.100 5.381 14.515 0.000 task 1 – vocabulary group a -2.782 6.489 -0.078 -0.429 0.671 (constant) 71.300 2.262 31.520 0.000 task 2 – reading group a -1.255 2.728 -0.084 -0.460 0.649 (constant) 66.700 5.285 12.619 0.000 task 3 – word formation group a -10.382 6.375 -0.285 -1.629 0.114 (constant) 70.300 3.542 19.846 0.000 task 4 – grammar group a -0.027 4.272 -0.001 -0.006 0.995 (constant) 71.600 3.105 23.059 0.000 achievement test scores group a -3.600 3.745 -0.173 -0.961 0.344 table 6. effect of membership in the experimental group (a) on tasks 1-4 and achievement test scores in the high-level group (n=77, r2=-0.002, sig.=0.344). these results indicate that membership in the experimental group did not have any statistically significant effect on achievement test scores among high-level students. table 7 presents regression analysis results for the low-level group. task type unstand. coeff. std. coeff. t sig. & test b std. error beta (constant) 70.909 5.613 12.634 0.000 task 1 – vocabulary group a -16.254 6.592 -0.371 -2.466 0.018 (constant) 72.091 3.022 23.859 0.000 task 2 – reading group a -6.608 3.549 -0.289 -1.862 0.070 (constant) 58.727 6.343 9.259 0.000 task 3 – word formation group a -18.865 7.449 -0.380 -2.532 0.016 (constant) 58.182 3.952 14.722 0.000 task 4 – grammar group a -2.527 4.641 -0.088 -0.544 0.589 (constant) 65.091 3.345 19.457 0.000 achievement test scores group a -10.677 3.929 -0.403 -2.718 0.010 table 7. effect of membership in the experimental group (a) on tasks 1-4 and achievement test scores in the low-level group (n=77, r2=-0.141, sig.=0.010). the results of regression analysis presented in table 7, on the other hand, show that low-level students from the contrast group outperformed low-level students from the experimental group on all tasks of the achievement test and the achievement test as a whole; however, the differences on tasks two and four are not statistically significant. r-square values show that 14% of the variance in achievement test scores, almost 14% of the variance in scores on task one, and slightly over 12% of the variance in scores on task three among these students can be explained by membership in the experimental group. these results suggest that membership in the experimental group, where language learner strategies had been explicitly introduced into the teaching process, did not have a violeta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): …-… value. regression analysis results are first presented for the high-level group (table 6). task type unstand. coeff. std. coeff. t sig. & test b std. error beta (constant) 78.100 5.381 14.515 0.000 task 1 – vocabulary group a -2.782 6.489 -0.078 -0.429 0.671 (constant) 71.300 2.262 31.520 0.000 task 2 – reading group a -1.255 2.728 -0.084 -0.460 0.649 (constant) 66.700 5.285 12.619 0.000 task 3 – word formation group a -10.382 6.375 -0.285 -1.629 0.114 (constant) 70.300 3.542 19.846 0.000 task 4 – grammar group a -0.027 4.272 -0.001 -0.006 0.995 (constant) 71.600 3.105 23.059 0.000 achievement test scores group a -3.600 3.745 -0.173 -0.961 0.344 table 6. effect of membership in the experimental group (a) on tasks 1-4 and achievement test scores in the high-level group (n=77, r2=-0.002, sig.=0.344). these results indicate that membership in the experimental group did not have any statistically significant effect on achievement test scores among high-level students. table 7 presents regression analysis results for the low-level group. task type unstand. coeff. std. coeff. t sig. & test b std. error beta (constant) 70.909 5.613 12.634 0.000 task 1 – vocabulary group a -16.254 6.592 -0.371 -2.466 0.018 (constant) 72.091 3.022 23.859 0.000 task 2 – reading group a -6.608 3.549 -0.289 -1.862 0.070 (constant) 58.727 6.343 9.259 0.000 task 3 – word formation group a -18.865 7.449 -0.380 -2.532 0.016 (constant) 58.182 3.952 14.722 0.000 task 4 – grammar group a -2.527 4.641 -0.088 -0.544 0.589 (constant) 65.091 3.345 19.457 0.000 achievement test scores group a -10.677 3.929 -0.403 -2.718 0.010 table 7. effect of membership in the experimental group (a) on tasks 1-4 and achievement test scores in the low-level group (n=77, r2=-0.141, sig.=0.010). the results of regression analysis presented in table 7, on the other hand, show that low-level students from the contrast group outperformed low-level students from the experimental group on all tasks of the achievement test and the achievement test as a whole; however, the differences on tasks two and four are not statistically significant. r-square values show that 14% of the variance in achievement test scores, almost 14% of the variance in scores on task one, and slightly over 12% of the variance in scores on task three among these students can be explained by membership in the experimental group. these results suggest that membership in the experimental group, where language learner strategies had been explicitly introduced into the teaching process, did not have a level students from the experimental group on all tasks of the achievement test and the achievement test as a whole; however, the differences on tasks two and four are not statistically significant. r-square values show that 14% of the variance in achievement test scores, almost 14% of the variance in scores on task one, and slightly over 12% of the variance in scores on task three among these students can be explained by membership in the experimental group. these results suggest that membership in the experimental group, where language learner strategies had been explicitly introduced into the teaching process, did not have a positive effect on achievement test scores, in particular on scores at the two tasks aiming at the testing of technical and semi-technical vocabulary and reading comprehension. 5. discussion firstly, the opt score as an indicator of pre-existing language ability is a valid and positive predictor of achievement test scores. on the other hand, membership in the experimental group was a negative predictor of achievement test scores on the test as a whole and tasks one and three, both aiming at the testing of technical and semi-technical vocabulary. the dispersion of opt scores in the experimental group at the beginning and end of the language course was high (higher than in the contrast group), which indicates mixed language ability in this group in particular. the minimum opt score in this group (94 points at the beginning and 97 points at the end) corresponds to cefr level a1. the maximum opt score in this group, on the other hand (157 points at the beginning and 162 points at the end) corresponds to cefr level c1. similarly, in the contrast group cefr levels based on opt scores ranged from a2 to c1. secondly, the results have shown that explicit strategy based instruction did not have a statistically significant effect on achievement test scores among students at a higher level of pre-existing language competence. in fact, no statistically significant difference as to achievement test scores was recorded between high-level students from the experimental and contrast groups. given the limited sample size, however, these results only have an indicative value. next, low-level students from the contrast group outperformed low-level students from the experimental group on two achievement test tasks that aimed at the testing of vocabulary. therefore, in this situation explicit effect of strategy based instruction ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214 209 strategy based instruction did not have a positive effect on vocabulary learning as other studies have shown. given that lawson and hogben (1998) explored the effect of a single strategy (using keywords), rasekh and ranjbary (2003) studied the effect of metacognitive strategy training, and atay and ozbulgan (2007) explored the effect of memory strategies on learning vocabulary while the language competence level is only defined in the second study (as pre-intermediate), no straightforward comparisons between these results and the results of the present study can be made. in addition, as mentioned above, the results that indicate that membership in the experimental group did not have a positive effect on the learning of technical and semi-technical vocabulary only have an indicative value because of limited sample size. therefore, it cannot be asserted that membership in the experimental group had a negative effect on the acquisition of vocabulary but rather that acquisition of vocabulary was not positively affected by it. another interesting finding in relation to the two tasks that aimed at the testing of technical and semi-technical vocabulary is related to the difficulty level of these tasks (see section 2.3). task one (at b2) and task three (at b1/b2) seem to have been the most difficult and selective tasks of the achievement test for low-level students from the experimental group in particular. and finally, regression analysis has shown that 16% of the variance in achievement test scores, almost 14% of the variance in scores on task one, and slightly over 14% of the variance in scores on task three among students from the low-level group can be explained by membership in the experimental group. no moderator variable was included in these models but these results do indicate that, in addition to pre-existing language ability and membership in the experimental group, achievement test scores among these students were significantly influenced by other factors that contributed to a large proportion of unexplained variance and that were not addressed in this study (affective factors, for instance). several possible reasons for the results presented above can be identified. the first one is that students that entered higher education with lower levels of pre-existing language ability might need more time to “unlearn” (lau & chan, 2007: 851) their habitual (inefficient) learning patterns. in other words, as with other forms of learning procedural knowledge the shift to using new language learner strategies might initially produce poorer results and violeta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214210 contribute to more efficient learning only later, when new strategies have been fully adopted. another possible reason is the amount of time dedicated to explicit strategy based instruction. because of course time constraints this time was limited to a total of approximately five hours. as oxford et al. (1990) pointed out, a short period of training might contribute to lack of training success. in addition, the time that was dedicated to strategy instruction was deducted from the real content of teaching or esp skills and elements (for example, the teaching of vocabulary). research studies have shown that in order to be effective, language learner strategy instruction has to be integrated into regular course activities and become explicit (chamot, 2004) and that it works best when learners are given enough time to develop their use of strategies (chamot & o’malley, 1994). however, in circumstances where time constraints might exert a negative influence on the efficiency of such training, it would be justified to consider the organization of a separate module on (language) learner strategies (oxford, 2011); or, as chamot (2008) has pointed out, an alternative is implicit instruction in language learner strategies that can have equally powerful effects. in my opinion, the primary reason why explicit strategy based instruction did not yield a positive effect on achievement test scores is the heterogeneous nature of the experimental group in terms of pre-existing language ability. griffiths (2003), for example, found out that learners at higher levels of language competence use different and more sophisticated strategies than learners at lower levels of language competence, which means that their training needs might be different (see also plonsky, 2011). in addition, lowerproficiency students are less independent and autonomous while being more authority-oriented in their learning than higher proficiency students (wong & nunan, 2011). the results of the present study can also be related to the findings of taylor et al. (2011) that students struggling with english did not seem to have benefited from “strategic” tutoring. moreover, in relation to the teaching of vocabulary learner strategies, nyikos and fan (2007) claim that the order of teaching of vocabulary learner strategies should be matched to students’ skills and abilities. a question is, therefore, which students’ skills and abilities the teaching of (vocabulary) learner strategies should be matched to in a mixed language ability group. moreover, the level of difficulty of most language tasks that learner strategies were related to might have been too high for low-level students. as effect of strategy based instruction ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214 211 mentioned in section 3, the difficulty level of most tasks in the course book is at b1+/b2 or in other words, probably too difficult for a1 or a2 students. chamot et al. (1999) suggest that strategy instruction should be based on language tasks at an appropriate level of difficulty. another key question thus concerns the appropriate difficulty level of language tasks in mixed language ability groups where “strategic” needs of individual learners vary considerably. a task that is far too difficult for an a1 student may be relatively easy, for instance, for a b2 student. conversely, a task that is suitable for an a2 student, will not be challenging enough for a c1 student. it must be emphasised again, however, that due to scheduling and financial constraints division into groups based on pre-existing language ability was not feasible. the investigation was conducted among first-year students taught by the same teacher, which produced the rather modest sample of seventy-seven participants. therefore, the ability to generalize the data is limited. nevertheless, the research data do indicate that explicit strategy based instruction did not have a positive effect on achievement test scores, and bring into question the rationale for the explicit introduction of language learner strategies in mixed language ability groups. another significant limitation of the study is that no other independent variables that might have affected the results were taken into consideration (biographical data, learning style, and affective factors). last but not least, this study examined the effects of strategy based instruction on scores at the achievement test taken immediately after the completion of the language course. this means that it fails to provide any data on possible long-term effects of strategy based instruction as it only examines immediate effects. future research in language learner strategy instruction in groups that are heterogeneous in terms of learners’ pre-existing language ability might therefore be oriented toward the efficiency of implicit training in language strategy use. in this case three groups would be necessary: one exposed to explicit strategy based instruction, the second to implicit strategy based instruction, and the third with no strategy instruction. secondly, in order to explore the hypothesis that students at lower levels of pre-existing language ability need more time to unlearn their previously habitual learning patterns to make their learning more efficient through the adoption of new strategies, language learner strategy use and language progress should be measured again some time after training in language learner strategy use had been completed. finally, engineering and science students seem to be less violeta jurkovič ibérica 25 (2013): 195-214212 effective language learners than arts, law or medical students (wong & nunan, 2011). as a result, it would be interesting to explore whether strategy based instruction would have a positive effect in mixed language ability groups at the tertiary level of education in the field of the arts or humanities. 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(2010). regression analysis for the social sciences. new york: routledge. graham, s. & e. macaro (2008). “strategy instruction in listening for lower-intermediate learners of french”. language learning 58: 747783. grenfell, m. & v. harris (1999). modern languages and learner strategies: in theory and practice. london/new york: routledge. griffiths, c. (2003). “patterns of language learner strategy use”. system 31: 367-383. hassan, x., e. macaro, d. mason, g. nye, p. smith & r. vanderplank (2004). “strategy training in language learning – a systematic review of available research draft 3” in research evidence in education library. london: eppi-centre, social science research unit, institute of education, university of london. url: http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/ eppiwebcontent/reel/review_groups/mfl/mfl_ rv1/mfl_rv1.pdf [11/09/11] harris, v. (2003). “adapting classroom-based strategy instruction to a distance learning context”. teaching english as a second or foreign language 7: 1-19. jurkovič, v. (2002). analiza potreb pri pouku angleščine za študijski program tehnologija prometa na fakulteti za pomorstvo in promet. unpublished master’s thesis. ljubljana: faculty of arts. jurkovič, v. (2007). “the effect of language learning strategy instruction on esp learning: a project presentation” in j. engberg (ed.), new directions in lsp teaching, 283-299. bern: peter lang. jurkovič, v. & r. harsch (2004). routes to traffic english. portorož: faculty of maritime studies and transport. krashen, s. 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(2008). “motivation and good language learners” in c. griffiths (ed.), lessons from good language learners, 19-34. cambridge: cambridge university press. vermunt, j. (1996). “metacognitive, cognitive and affective aspects of learning styles and strategies: a phenomenographic analysis”. higher education 31: 25-50. wong, l.c. & d. nunan (2011). “the learning styles and strategies of effective language learners”. system 39: 144-163. maquetación 1 ibérica 36 (2018): 217-220 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 certainty and doubt in academic discourse: epistemic modality markers in english and polish linguistics articles. krystyna warchał. katowice: wydawnictwo uniwersytetu śląkiego, 2015. 311 pages. isbn:978-83-8012-455-4 certainty and doubt in academic discourse sets out to provide a close and careful examination of the use of modality in peer-reviewed journal articles in the field of applied linguistics. the subtitle epistemic modality markers in english and polish linguistics articles hints at the cross-linguistic and cross-cultural analysis of the semantic category of epistemicity in this research genre in english and polish. the volume successfully accomplishes the goals established in the introduction. it sheds some light on the differences and similarities between english and polish articles regarding: the frequency of use and categories of epistemic markers, the epistemic modal values, and the distribution of markers in article sections. the book is organized into five chapters, which perfectly sets the presentation of empirical research. the organization of the chapters gives cohesion to this well written volume, very approachable also in style. the first two chapters provide a thorough review of up-to-date literature on “academic discourse and its rhetoric” and on “linguistic modality”. chapter one sets the tone by offering a general overview of academic discourse and its complexity. the author provides a useful reflection on the cultural factor in academic discourse and a detailed review of previous studies in english and polish academic discourse. chapter two features an excellent and careful summary of the state of art in linguistic modality. it offers an introduction to this concept from different approaches, and revises types of modality and values. the chapter also focuses on epistemic modality markers in english and polish, and gives a brief review of previous research of modality in academic discourse. the reader will welcome the concluding remarks 217 reseñas/book reviews 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 217 sections that close these chapters, which present a comprehensive summary of them. chapter three introduces the empirical research, the aims, the corpus and how the analysis, drawn on studies of metadiscourse and evaluation, was done. the balanced corpus of four hundred articles written in english and polish is defined and the corpus size fully justified. it can be inferred that the english sub-corpus is comprised by english as a lingua franca (elf) articles, as it is claimed that authors have a native-like command of english. this distinctive feature of the sub-corpus could, in my opinion, be clearly stated to avoid any misinterpretation of the variety of academic english under examination, since relatively recent studies have shown differences between elf and native english academic discourse (see e.g. mauranen, 2012). personally, i would have liked to know more details about the selection of the papers of the two sub-corpora. for example, it would be interesting to know the expertise of the writers and their position in academia. one could expect that the frequency of use of the epistemic markers and the epistemic modal values that senior and junior scholars use could be different. substantial academic production, an extensive experience in writing research articles, and the level of recognition of the researcher by the academic community could influence the expression of (un)certainty in the articles. an ethnographic perspective, thus, could possibly guarantee a suitable tertium comparationis for the contrastive analysis. the results are thoroughly presented and discussed in chapter four, which is organized in three sections according to the epistemic modal value (high, middle, or low). each section presents the outcomes of the analysis of the english and polish articles, as well as a final in-depth discussion of the contrastive study regarding the frequency of use of epistemic markers, their semantic categories and modal values, the distribution of the markers in the article sections (in general and by categories and modal values), among others. i find particularly useful the list of the main points of difference, between the two sub-corpora that warchał includes at the end of each discussion. the results and discussion are illustrated with plenty of helpful contextualized examples. however, the visual representations in pie and bar charts and tables may seem confusing, as in some occasions the units are not indicated on the visuals. the reader will find results expressed in actual number of records or percentages, figures normalized to 1 million words or calculated per ten thousand words. the use of only the number of records, that is, absolute numbers, can be misleading. this is the case of the analysis reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 217-220218 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 218 of the distribution of the different expressions of modal values in article sections, where results show a predominant concentration of markers in the main body. the final chapter gives a general insightful overview of the study, providing clear answers to the research questions. the tendency observed is that the epistemic evaluation is not marked with the same frequency in both languages, as it is conspicuously higher in the english articles. implicit realizations prevail over explicit ones in both languages, and subjectivity is higher in english. the frequency of the three modal values (high, middle, and low) also differs in the two sub-corpora. in english, low-value evaluation is more frequent; whereas in polish, middle-value epistemic modality is more frequent. warchał gives ample justification to the predominant use of epistemic modality and low-value markers by english authors. this justification is based on a higher authorial presence, as well as a higher dialogic involvement with the reader, and on a model of face-maintenance that may contribute to writer’s strategic choices which, as the author perfectly argues, is linked to culture. regarding categories, modal verbs and modal modifiers prevail in both sub-corpora, modal verbs being higher in english and modal modifiers in polish; however, the analysis of the particular modal values reveals significant differences in terms of the semantic categories employed. the distribution of epistemic markers across sections per 10,000 words shows these are more frequently used in the conclusion section of the articles in both languages, a result that contradicts findings in chapter four presented in absolute numbers and that is acknowledged by the author. these points aside, certainty and doubt in academic discourse represents an insightful, thoroughly excellent work. while the book aims at a specific audience interested in cultural-based and discipline-based academic written discourse, and epistemic modality from a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective, it would come into its own as a useful resource on academic writing courses for doctoral students in english as a lingua franca and in polish, as it offers a comprehensive introductory overview of academic discourse and linguistic modality, as well as plenty of contextualized actual examples of the use and functions of markers of (un)certainty in linguistics articles. received 21 february 2018 accepted 22 february 2018 reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 217-220 219 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 219 reviewed by mercedes querol julián universidad internacional de la rioja, unir (spain) mercedes.querol@unir.net references mauranen, a. (2012). exploring elf: academic english shaped by non-native speakers. cambridge: cambridge university press. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 36 (2018): 217-220220 09 iberica 36_iberica 13 5/11/18 8:24 página 220 iberica 13 ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150 résumé cet article porte sur les rapports de contigüité exigés lors de la résolution des anaphores associatives. il s’agit en général de relations métonymiques, car les différents rapports, à caractère notamment socioculturel, entre référent et marque anaphorique convergent dans un même cadre conceptuel, se faisant écho d’éléments ou caractéristiques du même domaine cognitif. l’anaphore associative reprenant ainsi un attribut concret du référent, nous envisageons donc une classification de ces marques anaphoriques d’après des rapports métonymiques, tels que partie à tout, objet à matière et caractéristique ou propriété à objet. mots clés: anaphore, cognitivisme, domaine, métonymie. abstract associative anaphora: contiguous metonymy this paper is about contiguous reports required in associative anaphora resolution. it is in general about metonymic associations, because the different reports, mainly sociocultural reports, between referent and anaphoric marks converge in a same conceptual setting, sharing elements or characteristics of the same cognitive domain. as the associative anaphora takes up a particular attribute of the referent, we try to classify these anaphoric marks according to metonymic relations as part-whole, object-material and characteristic or property-object. key words: anaphora, cognitivism, domain, metonymy. l’anaphore associative: contigüité métonymique gemma peña martínez et mª amparo olivares pardo universidad politécnica de valencia et universitat de valència (spain) gpenya@idm.upv.es et amparo.olivares@uv.es 135 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 135 introduction: concepts préliminaires lors de la résolution des processus anaphoriques et, en l’occurrence, l’anaphore associative, la linguistique cognitive acquiert une importance tout à fait particulière, puisque ces processus participent activement de la construction du sens et ressortent de processus mentaux qu’énonciateur et co-énonciateur mettent en jeu afin de ménager l’information. le lexique d’une langue se trouve structuré à partir de rapports de similarité. il se constitue des systèmes organisés conceptuellement d’après la classification en catégories que nous établissons à propos du monde tel que nous l’expérimentons. les rapports lexicaux ainsi établis s’avèrent parfois imprécis, étant donné leur caractère subjectif. dès qu’un terme apparaît dans un discours quelconque, il déclenche une série d’associations entre les unités linguistiques et la réalité à laquelle elles réfèrent à partir de nos propres idées et opinions à propos du monde (se reporter à lakoff (1987) pour les problèmes de catégorisation): toda cosa puede asociarse con otra que se encuentre constantemente o a menudo en el mismo contexto –como el arado y el buey del ejemplo de ch. bally–, pero esto no tiene en sí nada de lingüístico. […] estas ideas y opiniones, que pueden ser tradicionales, afectan, precisamente, a las “cosas”, no al lenguaje como tal: son una forma de la cultura no lingüística reflejada por el lenguaje. (coseriu, 1981: 101) en este mismo plano intervienen los contextos “reales” también en lo que concierne a la probabilidad de las palabras en los contextos verbales: puesto que los contextos verbales designan contextos “reales”, habrá cierta probabilidad de encontrar asociados en un mismo contexto verbal los nombres de los objetos co-presentes en contextos “de cosas”. (coseriu, 1981: 106) tout au long des années 1980, il a été établi que la représentation des unités lexicales constitue la base de la détermination et de l’explication des représentations syntaxiques. le lexique reflète donc le fonctionnement de notre esprit, de notre perception et codification de la réalité, car il fixe un réseau de concepts reliés entre eux par de divers rapports sémantiques. il est bien connu que le lexique s’organise en domaines lexicaux, où chaque unité détermine sa puissance combinatoire. un domaine lexical suppose la structuration d’un ensemble de lexèmes qui partagent une aire de sens gemma peña martínez et mª amparo olivares pardo ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150136 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 136 ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150 l’anaphore associative commune (rapports paradigmatiques) et qui montrent à leur tour un comportement syntaxique similaire (rapports syntagmatiques et paradigmatiques). face au champ sémantique, qui décrivait le signifié d’un concept à travers la somme des traits qui constituaient son intension, le domaine lexical représente la codification d’informations syntagmatiques et paradigmatiques. le signifié constitue notre interprétation, notre représentation du monde, l’image que nous en conformons, et résume les processus cognitifs traitant l’information que nous percevons d’après le réel. les rapports lexicaux entre le signifié des diverses unités de notre lexique et leurs combinaisons entre elles créent à leur tour une série de rapports conceptuels entre les différents concepts que nous façonnons: the classification of a hierarchy of semantic and syntactic prototypes in accordance with the structure of each lexical domain implies a typology of what we have called predicate conceptual schemata, which are in themselves microstructural representations of lexical-domains grammars. (faber & mairal usón, 1998: 2) ces schémas mentaux reprennent non seulement notre expérience physique, mais aussi les processus cognitifs que nous enclenchons pour stocker, traiter et réutiliser cette information. certes, comme nous l’avons signalé supra, l’organisation que chaque langue établit de son lexique suit divers paramètres qui structurent la combinaison des lexèmes (axe syntagmatique ou de sélection), sa signification (axe paradigmatique), créant une hiérarchie de domaines et sous-domaines lexicaux, et son traitement (perspective mentale, axe cognitif). le discours de vulgarisation scientifique constitue un cadre privilégié où ce type de rapports de dépendance textuelle s’avère plus performant, car ces textes permettent de reconstituer la réalité à travers des objets linguistiques concrets, rassemblant sur une expression nominale un signifié multiple qui permet à son tour de (re-)classifier le monde reconnaissable. l’anaphore associative ou in absentia (kleiber et al., 1991) présente des syntagmes nominaux définis sans antécédent précis et dont l’interprétation s’établit à partir de relations inférentielles répondant à un savoir partagé: selon cette conception, l’anaphore associative est une configuration discursive qui présente une expression référentielle possédant deux propriétés: 137 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 137 (i) elle est anaphorique: autrement dit son référent est identifié grâce à des informations présentes dans le texte antérieur; (ii) elle n’est pas coréférentielle: autrement dit, son référent n’a pas été mentionné dans le texte antérieur. (kleiber et al., 1991: 8) ce type de marques anaphoriques relève des rapports qu’un élément du discours établit avec la représentation sémantico-cognitive qu’il déclenche: … tout procès d’énonciation engendre un environnement cognitif, donc une représentation, d’une part de ce qu’il vise à signifier explicitement, d’autre part de lui-même en tant qu’activité impliquant des agents sociaux, des intentions, des états psychologiques, un lieu, un moment, un “texte”, etc. (apothéloz, 1995: 156). il existe traditionnellement trois rapports possibles que l’on peut établir entre les idées: le rapport de similarité (métaphore), celui de contiguïté (métonymie) et celui de connexion-inclusion (synecdoque). dans la synecdoque (d’après les études de lakoff & johnson (1980), la métonymie inclurait la synecdoque), l’on trouve plusieurs types de relations: le genre pour l’espèce ou l’espèce pour le genre; le singulier pour le pluriel (ou l’inverse); la matière pour l’objet; le physique pour le moral; l’abstrait pour le concret et, tout particulièrement, celle qui nous intéresse le plus, la partie pour le tout ou le tout pour la partie, au sein d’un ensemble organisé et structuré: “utiliser une dénomination, c’est donc désigner une réalité soit par le biais d’une de ses propriétés définitoires (intension), soit en la rattachant à une catégorie (extension)” (delhay, 1997: 300). notre connaissance du monde nous permet de concevoir toute entité comme une unité divisible en parties discrètes. notre esprit est ainsi capable de mettre en rapport divers éléments lexicaux à partir de la relation “partie à tout”, relation en quelque sorte intuitive. cette relation est appelée méronymie et il s’agit d’un rapport d’inclusion, au sein d’une hiérarchie fondée sur la notion de possession inaliénable, l’“avoir” (lyons, 1977). on parle ainsi de méronyme, terme qui indique la partie, face à son holonyme, qui représente le tout. cruse (1986) fait la différence entre méronymie, le rapport sémantique entre une unité lexicale qui dénote une partie vis-à-vis le tout correspondant, et coméronymie, le rapport entre unités lexicales qui dénotent des parties similaires à valeur identique faisant partie du tout: “x is a meronym of y if and only if sentences of the form “a y has xs/an x” and “an x is a part gemma peña martínez et mª amparo olivares pardo ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150138 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 138 of a y” are normal when the noun phrases an x, a y are interpreted generically” (cruse, 1986: 160). chaffin et al. (1987) établissent à leur tour une classification de la méronymie: la composante pour l’objet intégré; le membre pour la collection ou le collectif; la portion pour la masse; la matière pour l’objet; l’action pour l’activité et le lieu pour l’aire. ils exposent ainsi divers traits qui reconnaissent ces types méronymiques: fonctionnel (les parties se trouvent ou non inscrites dans un cadre spatio-temporel par rapport au reste des composantes ayant une fonction concrète face au tout), homeomerous (les parties sont similaires, ou bien elles se trouvent différenciées par rapport aux autres et au tout) et séparable (les parties peuvent ou non être physiquement liées au tout). lors d’une étude postérieure, cruse (2000) expose quelques critères qui permettront de discriminer la relation de méronymie, étant donné la difficulté pour décider de l’inclusion ou l’exclusion d’un membre particulier dans cette catégorie. parmi ces critères, qui manifestent le degré de prototypicité du rapport partie à tout, il distingue ceux-ci: • la “nécessité” différencie les relations de type facultatif ou optionnel des relations de nécessité canonique entre les parties et le tout (bilatérales ou unilatérales); • l’“intégrité” établit des différences entre ces parties formant un tout adhéré face à celles dont le degré de centralité est inférieur; • la “discrétion” sépare ces parties nettement divisées par rapport au reste des composantes du tout; • la “motivation”’ ou le degré de fonctionnalité des parties par rapport au tout; • la “congruence”, fondée sur le caractère général des parties, leur simultanéité temporelle (l’on parle alors d’“ingrédients”) ou le type (parties segmentales disposées séquentiellement, et parties systématiques entremêlées spatialement). la métaphore constitue un mécanisme cognitif très important dans ce contexte, puisqu’elle opère à partir de notions concrètes et familières afin de traiter l’information plus abstraite, intégrant une série de projections ou mappings (lakoff & johnson, 1980; turner & fauconnier, 2000) entre deux domaines d’expérience d’après notre connaissance du monde. la notion idealized cognitive models ou icm (lakoff, 1987) concerne diverses aires de notre expérience; elle représente les connaissances encyclopédiques l’anaphore associative ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150 139 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 139 du locuteur compétent dans une langue, à propos d’un domaine concret du savoir, auquel s’associent une série de valeurs et modèles culturels: elle suppose ainsi la conceptualisation d’entités et événements du monde réel, comprenant aussi bien les unités linguistiques que les signifiés qui leur sont associés (kövecses & radden, 1998). ce réseau de connaissances encyclopédiques constitue lui-même un phénomène de type référentiel, car il présume la capacité du locuteur à concevoir n’importe quelle entité comme un signal essentiellement cognitif qui la met aussi en rapport avec d’autres entités (langacker, 1987). la métonymie, qui correspondrait à une extension de ces ensembles structurés, est un processus cognitif où il se produit une connexion ou correspondance entre deux entités (conceptual mapping processes). il s’établit des rapports au sein d’un même domaine, introduisant ainsi une contiguïté (il s’agit d’une relation foncièrement référentielle). la métonymie suppose ainsi “a shift of reference across two domains included in a larger domain matrix, which involves at the same time the highlighting of a domain that would otherwise be secondary” (ruiz de mendoza & otal, 2002: 35). la métonymie se fonde sur la combinaison de caractéristiques qui conforment un réseau de contiguïté dans un même domaine. par conséquent, elle peut avoir un caractère linéaire, où aucun changement de signifié ne peut se produire et qui se fonde sur les valeurs linguistiques traditionnelles de cette unité; ou, par contre, elle peut opérer une conjonction ou un changement de signifié, basé sur des valeurs socioculturelles. ainsi, la métonymie participe souvent de la résolution des marques anaphoriques, car là où il n’existe pas d’antécédent explicite, nous sélectionnons, pour l’interprétation de ces segments anaphoriques, ce domaine qui s’avère être le plus compatible du point de vue sémantique avec le prédicat où elles s’inscrivent, établissant divers rapports associatifs de contiguïté, parfois même, de type causal ou spatio-temporel. méthodologie notre approche se fonde donc sur une perspective cognitive et textuelle, puisque nous considérons l’anaphore comme un procédé qui permet d’orienter l’interprétation d’un cadre linguistique particulier, le texte. nous avons procédé à une analyse du fonctionnement de certains segments anaphoriques au sein de divers textes français de vulgarisation scientifique. gemma peña martínez et mª amparo olivares pardo ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150140 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 140 étant donné qu’il s’agit d’un mécanisme foncièrement textuel, la manière la plus efficace d’étudier ce processus d’enchaînement et dépendance textuelle, son fonctionnement, sera d’analyser ces marques anaphoriques lors de productions réelles, sur des textes concrets où la constante réélaboration du sens, la reformulation de concepts et la (re-)classification de l’information référentielle s’avèrent très importants. nous apportons certaines des occurrences trouvées dans un corpus de plus de 250 000 mots recensant des articles qui portent principalement sur la biologie, la médecine et la génétique tels qu’ils sont parus sur le site web de la célèbre revue française la recherche (lr) (depuis 1996 jusqu’en 2004). nous n’avons pas pris en considération ces articles où l’on explicite qu’il s’agit d’une traduction ou d’une adaptation d’articles écrits originairement en anglais et parus principalement dans la revue anglaise science. d’après la classification de kleiber (2000: 38-39), nous pouvons établir cinq sous-classes différentes dans l’anaphore associative: • l’“anaphore associative” métonymique, où la marque anaphorique reprend un élément en relation de contiguïté avec son antécédent: il s’abrita sous un vieux tilleul. le tronc était tout craquelé (fradin, 1984); • l’“anaphore associative” locative, où la marque anaphorique reprend un élément qui fait partie de la représentation spatiale déclenchée par son antécédent: paul entra dans la cuisine. le frigo était ouvert; • l’“anaphore associative fonctionnelle”, où la marque anaphorique reprend un élément qui possède une fonction concrète au sein d’une hiérarchie institutionnelle présupposée par son antécédent: paul a adhéré à un nouveau club de foot. le président l’a fait signer pour 3 ans; • l’“anaphore associative actancielle”, où la marque anaphorique reprend l’un des actants dans l’action représentée par son antécédent: paul a été assassiné hier. le meurtrier est activement recherché par la police; • l’“anaphore associative collective”, où la marque anaphorique reprend un élément qui fait partie d’un ensemble ou collectif introduit par son antécédent: nous entrâmes dans une forêt profonde. les arbres étaient noirs. l’anaphore associative ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150 141 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 141 l’anaphore associative fait donc appel à un certain savoir partagé, à des connaissances concernant les propriétés stéréotypées associées à divers phénomènes: le contexte discursif qui permet ainsi de recréer un concept. ce type de marques a un rôle important au sein du discours, puisqu’elles permettent la continuité et progression thématiques en focalisant notre attention sur des aspects bien concrets. étude des cas premièrement, nous retrouvons des anaphores associatives à caractère plutôt métonymique où les rapports sémantiques s’établissent: (a) soit entre le “tout” et la “partie ”, comme dans (1), entre “tissu/organe”: (1) dans ce contexte, la grossesse est longtemps apparue comme une énigme immunologique. on peut en effet considérer le fœtus comme une greffe semi-incompatible puisque ses cellules portent pour moitié les antigènes de la mère et pour moitié ceux du père, ces derniers pouvant être reconnus comme étrangers par le système immunitaire maternel. de plus, l’histoire de la transplantation nous a appris que si l’on greffe le tissu d’un enfant à sa mère, il est immédiatement rejeté, quel que soit l’organe greffé. (lr 307) (b) soit entre la “partie” et le “tout”. ainsi, en (2), “organisme” est repris par la “cellule”: (2) autre cas possible: l’organisme est envahi par des virus. c’est la cellule infectée qui présente directement aux lymphocytes des fragments du virus, lovés dans les protéines du soi. (lr 301) en (3), “marteau” est repris par “manche”: (3) saisir l’anse d’une tasse à café entre la pulpe du pouce et celle de l’index, maintenir un stylo en équilibre entre le pouce, l’index et le majeur ou manipuler un marteau entre la paume, le pouce et les autres doigts repliés autour du manche sont des mouvements de préhension: autant d’ajustements précis entre les différents éléments de la main. (lr 309) en (4), “voitures” est repris par “moteur” (et encore, la métonymie du singulier par le pluriel): gemma peña martínez et mª amparo olivares pardo ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150142 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 142 (4) “pourquoi les voitures sont-elles hors d’usage après quelques années?”. un physicien aura tendance à répondre avec une théorie du premier type, par exemple en faisant référence à la croissance de l’entropie du système. un garagiste répondra plus probablement en invoquant des raisons d’ordre mécanique. il expliquera que certaines pièces sont fragiles et, lorsqu’elles sont défaillantes, entraînent l’arrêt du moteur. (lr 322) (c) soit entre l’“objet” et la “matière”. en (5), “tableau” est repris par “toile”: (5) comme si, sur le marché de l’art, quelqu’un revendiquait la propriété du copyright d’un tableau inconnu sur la base d’un tout petit morceau de la toile... (lr 332) en (6), “écrits” est reformulé sous le terme “papier”: (6) contrairement à leurs auteurs, les écrits en eux-mêmes sont dépourvus de bienveillance ou de malveillance particulière à notre égard, de désir ou de moyen de nous aider à mieux les utiliser, et d’arrière-pensée. que je consulte l’annuaire ou le dictionnaire, que je lise un livre de philosophie ou le journal, je n’ai pas besoin de lui inspirer sympathie ou crainte pour qu’il veuille bien me servir, et je ne peux rien lui demander de plus que ce qu’il est prêt à me donner d’emblée. avec le développement des ordinateurs et leur mise en réseau, arrive une nouvelle forme de mémoire externe, aussi dépourvue de passions que le papier, mais intensément active et destinée à le devenir toujours plus. (lr 344) (d) soit entre la “caractéristique” ou “propriété” (nom abstrait) et l’“objet”. en (7), “tumeurs” réapparaît sous l’expression “prolifération maligne”: (7) au-delà des connaissances fondamentales sur les fonctions de tolérance de hla-g, ces travaux permettront de mieux contrôler les interactions hla-g/cellules nk dans l’induction d’un état de tolérance immunitaire dans le domaine de la transplantation et de l’immunologie des tumeurs. notre but serait alors de trouver les moyens de moduler l’expression de hla-g afin de créer ou non un état de tolérance. en effet, dans le cadre des xénogreffes, on peut envisager d’induire l’expression de hla-g sur l’organe à greffer, pour limiter le phénomène de rejet. par ailleurs, certaines l’anaphore associative ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150 143 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 143 cellules tumorales expriment hla-g, ce qui permet probablement à ces tumeurs d’échapper à la surveillance du système immunitaire. en diminuant l’expression de hla-g, avec des hormones ou des anticorps, on pourrait favoriser la réponse antitumorale et limiter la prolifération maligne. le contrôle de telles interactions permettra d’élaborer de nouvelles approches thérapeutiques en transplantation et en cancérologie. (lr 307) en (81), “américains” reprend les habitants des “états-unis”, tandis qu’en (82), “irradiation” reprendrait plutôt l’une des caractéristiques clé des “bombes atomiques”: (8) immédiatement après l’écrasement du japon sous les bombes atomiques, les états-unis organisèrent une politique de coopération intensive avec le pays vaincu, pour faire face au développement du communisme. au chapitre de la collaboration scientifique, la génétique fut à l’honneur. il s’agissait entre autres, pour les américains1, de se donner meilleure conscience en manifestant un intérêt pour l’avenir des habitants d’hiroshima et de nagasaki. c’est ainsi que le department of energy (doe), l’agence fédérale (équivalent d’un ministère français) responsable des programmes nucléaires aux états-unis, se vit très tôt impliqué dans des recherches en apparence fort éloignées de ses compétences naturelles. les études engagées concernaient surtout les mécanismes de la mutagenèse et l’identification des séquelles génétiques de l’irradiation2. en 1947, fut ainsi créée l’atomic bomb casualty commission (abcc), financée par l’atomic energy commission (bientôt transformée en doe) et dont les recherches comprenaient un important volet en génétique. (lr 332) en (9), “rougeole” est repris par “infection”: (9) en 1781, une épidémie de rougeole survint dans les îles féroé. aucun autre cas ne fut observé pendant les soixante-cinq années qui suivirent. puis un second épisode survint, qui affecta 75% à 79% de la population. ludwig panum, médecin danois, fit alors une observation très importante: “parmi les personnes âgées qui habitaient les îles féroé et qui avaient eu la rougeole en 1781, aucune n’avait contracté la maladie une seconde fois.” le docteur panum constata aussi que “les gens âgés, non infectés en 1781, devenaient malades quand ils étaient exposés à l’infection”. (lr 349) gemma peña martínez et mª amparo olivares pardo ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150144 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 144 en (10), “immunité” est reformulé à travers “protection immunitaire”: (10) ce travail pionnier mit en évidence deux points: premièrement, l’immunité contre la rougeole était de longue durée et, deuxièmement, une exposition répétée au virus n’était pas nécessaire au maintien de la protection immunitaire à long terme. (lr 349) en (11), “encéphalites humaines” est repris par “contamination humaine”: (11) a l’heure actuelle, ce sont plutôt vers les chauves-souris –frugivores et insectivores– que les regards se tournent avec insistance. ces petits mammifères sont incriminés dans le portage asymptomatique de nombreux virus comme les virus rabiques european bat lyssavirus ou le virus de la rage chez les vampires en amérique. ils représentent le réservoir des virus hendra en australie et nipah en malaisie – nipah fut à l’origine d’épizooties porcines suivies d’encéphalites humaines en malaisie en 1999, avec un total de 280 patients infectés dont 120 décédèrent; plusieurs millions de porcs, source de la contamination humaine, furent abattus. (lr 351) nous avons aussi repéré des cas d’“anaphore associative actancielle”, où l’on reprend l’un des actants ou participants au processus décrit. en (12), “épreuves” est reformulé à travers “patients”: (12) les épreuves estimant le fonctionnement de la mémoire épisodique sont nombreuses. certaines permettent de comparer les performances dans diverses conditions de récupération de l’information: rappel libre, difficile et généré par le sujet en l’absence d’information précise (“quels étaient les mots de la liste de tout à l’heure?”), rappel indicé, donc facilité (“dans la liste, quel était le nom du moyen de transport?”) et reconnaissance, condition la plus facile (“ce mot était-il ou non dans la liste?”). elles prennent donc en compte les caractéristiques cognitives spécifiques des patients, au premier rang desquelles se trouve une diminution importante des ressources attentionnelles. (lr 303) en (13), “des expériences récentes mesurant le niveau d’asymétrie du squelette de poulets élevés dans trois densités différentes”, c’est-à-dire, divers “processus et techniques dans l’élevage de poulailles” sont repris par la marque anaphorique “éleveurs”: l’anaphore associative ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150 145 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 145 (13) par exemple en agriculture, en aquaculture ou en sylviculture, où un objectif essentiel est d’améliorer la productivité et les performances. l’asymétrie fluctuante peut servir d’instrument pour évaluer la qualité mais aussi le bien-être des animaux. elle devrait permettre d’apaiser les controverses entre les agriculteurs et les consommateurs. combien faut-il élever de poulets au mètre carré pour que ces animaux soient “heureux”, l’exploitation rentable et le consommateur satisfait? on connaît peut-être la réponse, grâce à des expériences récentes mesurant le niveau d’asymétrie du squelette de poulets élevés dans trois densités différentes: vingt, vingt-quatre et vingt-huit par mètre carré (vingt-huit étant la plus couramment utilisée chez les éleveurs). (lr 304) en (14), “mères gestantes” est repris par “petits”: (14) un modèle de stress prénatal a aussi été mis au point chez des singes rhésus par l’équipe de a.s. clarke, du laboratoire harlow de primatologie (wisconsin). les mères gestantes sont soumises à des bruits intenses répétés. devenus adolescents, les petits manifestent divers troubles du comportement: gestes stéréotypés, anxiété, inhibition. (lr 311) en (15), “forces en présence”, cette “aide humanitaire”, est repris par leurs “acteurs”: (15) une fois l’épidémie déclarée, le premier impératif est l’organisation des forces en présence. le déblocage des crédits pour la gestion de l’épidémie, par exemple, dépend des autorités nationales. l’équipe internationale, elle, est là en tant que force d’appui pour la gestion et le contrôle de la flambée (au gabon, 21 personnes de l’oms, médecins sans frontières-belgique, l’institut pasteur, le cdc d’atlanta, epicentre, epiet et santé publique du canada se relaient depuis le 11 décembre). le plan d’action gabonais a été établi sur la base de celui développé lors de l’épidémie de booué en 1996. il associe le ministère de la santé et celui de la défense (via le service de santé des armées), et quatre comités: le comité interministériel, le comité de coordination générale, le comité provincial et le comité local de coordination technique et scientifique de lutte contre l’épidémie. la composition de ce dernier laisse aisément entrevoir les types de gemma peña martínez et mª amparo olivares pardo ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150146 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 146 problèmes auxquels sont confrontés les acteurs sur le terrain. (lr 351) en (16), “greffe” est reformulé sous le “patient” soumis à une telle opération chirurgicale: (16) en 1984, on réussissait à prélever les cellules souches nécessaires à la greffe non pas dans la moelle, mais dans le sang, par cytaphérèse. hélas, contrairement à ce que l’on espérait, ces greffons étaient eux aussi contaminés en cellules tumorales, comme les greffons médullaires. les cellules souches du sang périphérique sont toutefois devenues en quelques années la principale source des greffons d’autogreffe (environ 85%). car, outre qu’il n’est pas nécessaire d’anesthésier le patient pour récupérer ces cellules facilement accessibles, leur utilisation présente un avantage clinique immédiat: une prise de greffe plus rapide, avec aplasie plus courte, moins d’infection, un temps d’hospitalisation réduit et un coût moindre. (lr 352) de même, nous avons trouvé certains cas d’“anaphore associative collective”. en (17), “organismes pluricellulaires” réapparaît sous les “cellules” qui les conforment: (17) la communication prend toute son importance chez les organismes pluricellulaires. les cellules baignent alors dans un milieu intérieur et échangent des informations non seulement dans le but de subvenir à leurs propres besoins, mais aussi pour assurer la coordination du fonctionnement des différents organes. (lr 288) ou encore, en (18), les “plantes” sont reformulées par leurs propres “cellules”: (18) cependant, ce modèle est très incomplet. il ne résiste pas, en particulier, à l’examen du cas des plantes. les cellules végétales ne contiennent pas de centrosome. pourtant, on y voit aussi l’assemblage d’un fuseau mitotique pendant la division. (lr 292) à nouveau, en (19), “muscle” est reformulé à travers “cellules musculaires”: (19) chez l’homme, la dihydrométhysticine et la dihydrokawaïne sont des relaxants musculaires d’efficacité supérieure aux substances l’anaphore associative ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150 147 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 147 habituellement prescrites en cas de lumbago, lombalgies et de contracture musculaire (propanediol, benzodiazépines, etc.). ces deux lactones ont une action similaire à celle de la papavérine sur le muscle et inhibent les convulsions provoquées par la strychnine. elles sont, à ce niveau, plus efficaces que la méphénésine, molécule classique utilisée contre les contractures douloureuses. le kava agirait moins par inhibition de la transmission neuromusculaire de l’influx nerveux que par un effet direct sur la capacité de contraction du muscle. il semble en effet modifier les mécanismes d’échanges d’ions qui accompagnent la contraction des cellules musculaires. (lr 295) en (20), une “équipe” en recherche scientifique est reformulée à travers “généticiens”, les chercheurs qui la conforment, spécialistes d’un domaine scientifique concret: (20) l’équipe du défunt allan wilson, à berkeley, a comparé deux à deux, sur des échantillons humains, des séquences de l’adn contenu dans les mitochondries, organelles installées hors du noyau cellulaire et qui sont responsables de la production énergétique de la cellule. cet “adnmt” (pour adn mitochondrial) était connu depuis peu pour muter cinq à dix fois plus vite que l’adn du noyau (adn nucléaire), au rythme de 1% de substitutions par million d’années. en appliquant ce taux de mutation à des séquences comparables des échantillons d’adnmt humain qu’ils avaient collectés, les généticiens de berkeley ont reconstruit un arbre généalogique de plus d’une centaine de ces gènes mitochondriaux humains, qui, contrairement aux gènes du noyau, ne sont transmis que par les femmes. (lr 302) en (21), un “virus” réapparaît dans les “protéines” qu’il possède: (21) quel rôle joue la molécule hla-g dans les relations entre le fœtus et les défenses immunitaires maternelles? ces dernières mettent en jeu deux types cellulaires. les lymphocytes t cytotoxiques maternels constituent une première ligne de défense. ces cellules du système immunitaire subissent, au cours de leur développement, une éducation dans le thymus dont le but est d’apprendre à discriminer le soi du non-soi. pour comprendre comment elles agissent, prenons l’exemple d’une cellule infectée gemma peña martínez et mª amparo olivares pardo ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150148 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 148 par un virus. la cellule infectée dégrade les protéines virales sous forme de peptides (de courtes séquences d’acides aminés), qu’elle expose ensuite à sa surface, nichés au sein des molécules hla de classe i. (lr 307) conclusion d’après cette étude, nous soutenons que ces occurrences constituent en réalité des associations foncièrement métonymiques, car les rapports entre le référent et la marque anaphorique s’inscrivent au sein d’un même cadre conceptuel, en reprenant des éléments ou caractéristiques d’un même “domaine cognitif ” en relation de contiguïté. autrement dit, il s’agit d’un processus à caractère notamment cognitif, établissant des connexions ou correspondances entre deux entités contiguës qui font partie d’un même schéma mental (internal mapping). ces rapports, à caractère socioculturel, visent à faire ressortir un attribut concret du référent, une caractéristique particulière à lui qui se développe dans la marque anaphorique: l’anaphore présente donc un caractère saillant. ainsi, trouvons-nous des termes qui reformulent certaines caractéristiques d’un même “domaine cognitif ” en relation de contiguïté, entre le “tout” et la “partie” (“tissu/organe”), entre la “partie” et le “tout” (“organisme/cellule”; “marteau/manche” ou “voiture/moteur”), entre l’“objet” et la “matière” (“tableau/toile” ou “écrits/papier”) et entre la “caractéristique” ou “propriété” (nom abstrait) et l’“objet” (“tumeurs/prolifération maligne” ou “bombes atomiques/irradiation”). d’autres marques reprennent l’un des actants du processus décrit (“épreuves/patients”; “mères gestantes/petits” ou “greffe/patient”) ou un élément d’un collectif introduit par l’antécédent (“organismes pluricellulaires/cellules”; “plantes/cellules”; “muscle/cellules musculaires” ou “équipe/généticiens”). tout processus communicatif est le résultat d’une série de représentations à caractère cognitif comprenant aussi bien un contenu propositionnel ou notionnel qu’une série d’“ingrédients” qui participent activement de ce contenu (c’est-à-dire arguments, agents, objets, etc.). étant donné la capacité de toute langue à exprimer la même idée à travers des expressions analytiques ou synthétiques, nous pouvons reprendre lors de notre énonciation n’importe laquelle de ces composantes idéationnelles ou “ingrédients”, vu leur présence implicite dans notre discours. l’anaphore associative ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150 149 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 149 ibérica 15 [2008]: 135-150 gemma peña martínez et mª amparo olivares pardo par conséquent, deux unités linguistiques différentes, anaphorisant et anaphorisé, appartenant au même domaine cognitif désignent une même entité discursive, tout en sélectionnant ou privilégiant un trait ou aspect saillant ou “ingrédient”. (article reçu en octobre 2007) références dr. gemma peña martínez est professeur de français sur objectifs spécifiques (français des affaires) à l’université polytechnique de valencia. en 2005, elle a soutenu sa thèse l’anaphore et son fonctionnement discursif: une approche contrastive, sous la direction de mª amparo olivares pardo. dr. mª amparo olivares pardo est professeur titulaire à la faculté de philologie à l’université de valencia. ses recherches portent principalement sur l’analyse du discours et la linguistique contrastive et elle a publié de nombreuses études dans diverses revues nationales et internationales. apothéloz, d. (1995). “nominalisations, référents clandestins et anaphores atypiques”. tranel (travaux neuchâtelois de linguistique) 23: 143-173. chaffin, r., d.j. herrmann & m.e. winston (1987). “a taxonomy of part-whole relations”. cognitive science 11: 417-444. coseriu, e. (1981). principios de semántica estructural. madrid: gredos. cruse, d.a. (1986). lexical semantics. cambridge: cambridge university press. cruse, d.a. (2000). meaning in language. an introduction to semantics and pragmatics. new york: oxford university press. delhay, c. (1997). “la synecdoque: entre méronymie et hyperonymie?”. verbum 3: 293308. faber, p. & r. mairal usón (1998). “methodological guidelines for the construction of a contrastive functional lexiconbased grammar of the semantic field of cognitive verbs” in h. olbertz, k. hengeveld & j. sánchez garcía (eds.), the structure of the lexicon in functional grammar, 3-24. amsterdam: john benjamins. fradin, b. (1984). “anaphorisation et stéréotypes nominaux”. lingua 64: 325-369. kleiber, g. (2000). “anaphores associatives: parties inaliénables et propriétés” in relaciones culturales entre españa y francia y otros países de lengua francesa, actas vii coloquio apffue, vol. i, 37-52. cádiz: servicio de publicaciones de la universidad de cádiz. kleiber, g., c. schnedecker & l. ujma (1991). “anaphore associative: d’une conception l’autre” in c. schnedecker, m. charolles, g. kleiber & j. david (eds.), l’anaphore associative. aspects linguistiques, psycholinguistiques et automatiques, 564. paris: klincksieck. kövecses, z. & g. radden (1998). “metonymy: developing a cognitive linguistic view”. cognitive linguistics 9: 37-77. la recherche. url: http://www.larecherche.fr [01/10/2007]. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago: chicago university press. lakoff, g. (1987). women, fire and dangerous things. what categories reveal about the mind. chicago: the university of chicago press. langacker, r.w. (1987). foundations of cognitive grammar, vol. 1: theoretical prerequisites. stanford: stanford university press. lyons, j. (1977). semantics. cambridge: cambridge university press. ruiz de mendoza, f.j. & j.l. otal (2002). metonymy, grammar and communication. granada: comares, col. estudios de lengua inglesa. turner, m. & g. fauconnier (2000). “metaphor, metonymy, and binding” in a. barcelona (ed.), metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads. a cognitive perspective, 133-145. berlin: mouton de gruyter. 150 08 peña.qxp 14/3/08 17:39 página 150 corpora in esp/eap writing instruction maggie charles & ana frankenberg-garcia (eds.). london/new york: routledge, 2021. 194 pages. isbn 9780367432348. data-driven learning is widely practised by instructors in esp/eap writing instruction. for example, they may ask students to set up a do-it-yourself corpus, analyse the linguistic conventions and moves, and use the results as a guide to writing. this data-driven constructivist approach allows students to interact with the corpus and abstract the rules by themselves, and is thus more effective than a transmissionist approach. data-driven learning has been a growing area of research in esp/eap writing instruction. for instance, learner corpora can be used to diagnose students’ problems in their writing to develop a needs-based syllabus (e.g., laufer & waldman, 2011) or to monitor students’ longitudinal development of competence to modify instructional design (e.g., crosthwaite & jiang, 2017). expert corpora can be used to abstract the linguistic and stylistic features of successful writings to formulate learning outcomes or set up measures for writing assessment (e.g., nesi & gardner, 2018). by combining learner and expert corpora, instructors can compare differences between student and expert writers and take pedagogical actions accordingly (e.g., cotos, 2014). those lines of research are continued by a recent monograph edited by maggie charles and ana frankenberg-garcia, corpora in esp/eap writing instruction. it is the first book devoted to the use of corpora as language resources in esp/eap writing. it showcases how different types of corpora can be used successfully to teach esp/eap writing in different contexts. the book begins with an introduction, briefing readers on the parameters that can be used to define corpora in terms of the corpus nature and purposes of use. the bulk is divided into three sections, preparation, exploitation, and analysis, which correspond to the three stages of corpus use in writing instruction. it ends with an afterword in which lynne flowerdew critically reviews the foci of the contributions in the light of the current literature. the first section is concerned with corpora use in course development. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 270-276 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 270 reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 270-276 271 chapter one is contributed by benet vincent, hilary nesi, and daniel quinn, who share how the british academic written english (bawe) corpus is used to meet students’ writing needs. this specialized corpus is easy-to-use and time-saving for instructors. it meets students’ writing needs because it can help them improve the idiomaticity of their writings, increase their awareness of output expressions, and engage with corpus output and functionality. as illustrations, three cases are presented to demonstrate how the corpus can provide more output than just concordances so that students can get more helpful feedback. a minor drawback of bawe is that it may contain errors because the corpus consists of unedited assignments from students with different mother tongues at british universities. its major contribution is that it can solve the problems encountered in previous corpus consultations: it is time-consuming for instructors to provide highquality feedback and challenging for students to identify target expressions in a corpus when they have no idea of what to search. chapter two, authored by geraint paul rees, discusses the preparation of academic vocabulary in eap writing instruction by proposing a phraseological approach to vocabulary list creation and demonstrating why it is more reliable than a generalist frequency-based approach. the statistics from corpus-based experimental operations and three case studies show that collocational patterns and meanings of most academic words vary from discipline to discipline, indicating that they should be considered in the creation of lexical resources. the chapter’s contribution lies in its proposal of a new approach to replace the traditional generalist approach. in the latter, highly frequent lexical bundles are extracted without considering their collocational behaviours and meanings, and this method fails to meet students’ needs in eap writing. the second section focuses on integrating corpora consultation into esp/eap writing. in chapter three, hsien-chin liou and szu-yu liu report on a longitudinal study to explore how l2 college students’ english writing motivation is related to their conceptions of corrective feedback with corpus consultation, which is an important but ignored area of research. the data from questionnaires and interviews suggest that corpus-based feedback enhances students’ motivation for academic writing and improves students’ writing performance. also, there exist positive associations among students’ motivation, engagement with corpus use, conceptions of feedback outcome, and successful corrections. as an initial attempt to explore the role of motivation in corpus-based writing instruction, it provides empirical evidence for the effect of incorporating corpus-aided feedback in writing courses and points to new directions for future research. chapter four, written by katherine ackerley, investigates first-year college students’ preference for learning approaches and strategy use in learning genre-specific phrases in corpus-based writing instruction. questionnaire responses indicate that, for first-year students without prior experiences of corpus use, paper-based tasks are more efficient. it suggests that first-year students need more scaffolding before they can handle computer-based tasks with confidence. as for strategy use, the results indicate that high achieving students use more active strategies compared with their low achieving counterparts. the author suggests that low achieving students should be given more training to develop strategies for corpus-based learning. students’ involvement in corpus-based writing instruction is rarely explored, and this chapter makes a significant contribution because it demonstrates to instructors how to examine students’ learning processes through classroombased research and use the results to inform instructional design. reka jablonkai and neva čebron report in chapter five how undergraduate students react to a do-it-yourself corpus in an esp course. this study fills in a gap in the literature concerning the systematic design of corpus-based esp courses to develop students’ linguistic competences to meet disciplinary needs. drawing on relevant research on corpus-based language teaching and computer-assisted language learning, it presents the essential components of designing a corpus-based esp course for undergraduates (principles, outcomes, and approaches). it elaborates on the authors’ efforts to empirically validate the effectiveness of such a design. analysis of students’ written reports and questionnaire responses indicate that corpus use is beneficial in terms of esp writing, vocabulary expansion, and acquisition of discipline-specific terminologies. the results also suggest that the compilation and consultation of do-it-yourself corpora improve students’ understanding and interpretation of corpus use and output. corpus-assisted analysis of writing is the focus of the third section. in chapter six, ji-young shin attempts to explore to what extent genre types, revision stages, writer characteristics (language proficiency and l1 background), and essay quality (lexical diversity and complexity) are related to the use of stance markers in first-year l2 academic writing. this topic is significant because, although stance use is challenging for novice eap writers, it is rarely explored in the pedagogical context of eap writing. the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 270-276272 reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 270-276 273 results indicate that genre and essay quality (lexical complexity) are significantly related to stance use and that first-year college students have limited ability to diversify stance markers in eap writing. this study has important implications for eap writing instruction: since students’ limited knowledge on stance use restricts their ability to effectively and appropriately convey emotions, attitudes and evaluations in academic writing, instructors should explicitly design corpus-based activities to raise their awareness of stance markers and facilitate effective use of stance markers. in chapter seven, paula tavares pinto, geraint paul rees, and ana frankenberg-garcia focus on the use of academic english collocations among brazilian researchers who write in english for publication. since nonnative speakers’ familiarity with collocational conventions of english academic discourses is limited, the readability and overall quality of their academic writings are affected. responding to the paucity of research in this regard, the authors investigate whether scholarly articles published in english journals in brazil are different from those published in international english journals in terms of collocations. the results suggest that common academic english collocations in articles written by brazilian researchers are limited in number and less diversified compared with those produced by their international counterparts. they imply that brazilian researchers should expand their repertoire of academic english collocations to increase the readability of their scholarly outputs. the monograph has two minor limitations. one is concerned with how quantitative analysis is reported. reporting quantitative results is common in corpus-based studies. in this monograph, descriptive statistics are used more often than inferential statistics. in one chapter where inferential statistics are used, the p values are reported while the effect sizes are missing. p values indicate if the correlation or difference is statistically significant between the variables under investigation and suggest if researchers have adequate evidence to reject the null hypothesis that there is no difference or correlation between the variables compared. what p values cannot tell is the strength of correlations or magnitude of differences. since p values are sensitive to sample size, a large sample size may lead to a p value smaller than .05, even if there is only minor or trivial differences or correlations and the result is not practically meaningful or important (barry et al., 2016). therefore, it is necessary for corpus-based educational research to report the effect sizes. they not only indicate to what extent the variables under investigation are different from or correlated with one another, but also allow colleagues to compare the results of similar studies conducted in different contexts across the published literature, as in the meta-analysis of the effectiveness of corpus use in language learning by boulton and cobb (2017). another one is related to the scope. esp/eap writing courses aim at scaffolding students to acquire abilities to produce particular target genres. this includes not only micro-level abilities (appropriate use of words, collocations, stances, pronouns, tenses, hedges, and boosters) but also macro-level abilities (discourse-level rhetorical conventions, e.g., rhetorical moves). it seems that most chapters are concerned with the micro-level of writing. the macro-level in esp/eap writing is ignored. since rhetorical conventions are cultureand language-specific, for students speaking english as a second or foreign language, macro-level abilities are equally if not more important because of the interference of their l1s which have different rhetorical conventions at the discourse level. therefore, how to develop students’ macro-level competence through corpus-based writing instruction deserves attention, as is the case in two recent studies (casal & kessler, 2020; maher & milligan, 2019). despite these minor limitations, this volume is a valuable reference for esp/eap writing instructors and researchers. it covers both instructors’ use of corpus in developing materials for esp/eap writing instruction and students’ responses, attitudes and strategies in consulting corpora in their writing process. by using different types of corpora, namely, learner or expert, specialized or general, or do-it-yourself or ready-made, the seven chapters approach esp/eap writing instruction in different contexts from different perspectives. they inform teachers of up-to-date principles, practices, and problems in esp/eap writing instruction, contribute to new insights on corpus consultation in esp/eap writing classrooms, and point to new directions for this dynamic and growing area of research. it should be essential reading for everyone concerned with esp/eap writing instruction. received 20 february 2022 accepted 04 may 2022 reviewed by xiangdong li xi’an international studies university, xi’an (china) xiangdong813@gmail.com reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 270-276274 reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 270-276 275 references barry, a. e., szucs, l. e., reyes, j. v., ji, q., wilson, k. l., & thompson, b. (2016). failure to report effect sizes: the handling of quantitative results in published health education and behavior research. health education & behavior, 43(5), 518-527. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198116669 521> boulton, a., & cobb, t. (2017). corpus use in language learning: a meta-analysis. language learning, 67(2), 348-393.<https://doi.org/ 10.1111/lang.12224> casal, j. e., & kessler, m. (2020). form and rhetorical function of phrase-frames in promotional writing: a corpusand genre-based analysis. system, 95, 102370. <https://doi.org/10.1016 /j.system.2020.102370> cotos, e. (2014). enhancing writing pedagogy with learner corpus data. recall, 26(2), 202-224. <https://doi.org/10.1017/s0958344014000019> crosthwaite, p., & jiang, k. (2017). does eap affect written l2 academic stance? system, 69, 92-107. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2017. 06.010> laufer, b., & waldman, t. (2011). verb-noun collocations in second language writing. language learning, 61(2), 647-672. <https://doi.org/ 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00621.x> maher, p., & milligan, s. (2019). teaching master thesis writing to engineers: insights from corpus and genre analysis of introductions. english for specific purposes, 55, 40-55. <https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.esp.2019.05.001> nesi, h., & gardner, s. (2018). the bawe corpus and genre families classification of assessed student writing. assessing writing, 38, 51-55. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2018.06.005> iberica 13 ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140 issn 1139-7241 abstract this article describes work carried out within the sphere of analysis of university academic discourse that possibly contains an intercultural comparative element. a hypothesis was put forward that when spanish doctoral students crafted their theses, they would pass over the discussion chapter and progress directly on to the conclusions. the propensity for spanish doctoral students to miss out discussion of the results in their doctoral theses was noticed by the first author, while supervising her own doctoral students’ empirical ph.d. theses in the field of english studies in spain. it was thought that this oversight may indicate intercultural variation in the preferences of format for different writing cultures. the initial corpus consisted of sixteen theses from the field of english studies. at a second stage, an additional corpus of thirty-nine theses in the field of spanish studies was included. both corpora had been defended in these two areas in spanish universities over the last 10 years and were full-text theses from a spanish national data base: dialnet. the results confirmed the hypothesis in both corpora with students in spanish universities. nevertheless, curiously, a number of further intervening variables were also found to be essential. for the theses from the area of spanish studies less divergence was encountered but, on the other hand, evidence was found that may even point to a lingering influence of national or educational rhetoric. keywords: genre analysis, discussion chapter, thesis writing, intervening variables, advanced academic literacy. resumen estilo acad�mico y formato de tesis doctorales: el caso de la desaparici�n del cap�tulo de discusi�n (secci�n de debate acad�mico) este estudio se realizó en el marco de los análisis comparativos interculturales del academic style and format of doctoral theses: the case of the disappearing discussion chapter elaine hewitt and ángel felices lago universidad de granada (spain) ehewitt@ugr.es & afelices@ugr.es 119 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 119 ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140 e. hewitt & á. felices lago discurso académico universitario. el planteamiento inicial partía de una hipótesis sobre la frecuente omisión del capítulo denominado discusión por alumnos españoles al escribir sus tesis doctorales en el área de conocimiento de filología inglesa. la tendencia de los doctorandos españoles a suprimir este capítulo en sus tesis doctorales fue inicialmente observada por el primer autor de este estudio, mientras supervisaba las tesis de carácter empírico de sus alumnos dentro de este ámbito. puede afirmarse que esta omisión se deba probablemente a una variación de origen cultural en la estructura de las preferencias de las diferentes tradiciones nacionales a la hora de escribir en esta modalidad de discurso académico. para corroborar o rechazar esta hipótesis se realizó un estudio exploratorio inicial a nivel nacional. el corpus constaba de 16 textos completos de tesis del área de filología inglesa incluidos en bases de datos del país, fundamentalmente dialnet. en una segunda fase, se incluyó un corpus de 39 tesis completas del área de filología española. los resultados en ambos corpus confirmaron la hipótesis con los estudiantes de universidades españolas. sin embargo, encontramos un número adicional de variables. por ejemplo, en el caso de las tesis del área de filología española se hallaron menos variaciones y, sin embargo, se ha podido detectar una notable influencia de ciertos rasgos intrínsecos y tradicionales en la escritura académica española que proyectan sobre las tesis actuales una retórica nacional. palabras clave: análisis de género, capítulo de discusión, redacción de tesis doctorales, variables intermedias, escritura académica avanzada. introduction the interest in pursuing the research found in this study was ignited by the first author’s observation of the discussion chapter while overseeing her doctoral students’ empirical ph.d. theses in the field of english studies. this study offers a complementary analysis of research carried out by the first author in a preliminary version of this study presented in brussels, belgium (hewitt, 2008) at the conference for university discourses: forms, practices and mutations. it was observed that the discussion chapter in these theses seemed to be the most problematic for her spanish students who were writing in english. in this instance more specifically, the discussion chapter could not be regarded to be incorrectly merging the results section with the conclusions, because in effect the discussion section was repeatedly omitted altogether. national or educational rhetoric can be hypothesised to account for these format preferences. the topic of discussion chapters of theses within the area of 120 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 120 postgraduate literacy development will be examined here. dudley-evans (1997) recommended more research into the key genre of the thesis. he observed that little had been reported on how to write this genre, or how a thesis differs from a research article. various areas have been the focus of recent studies in academic discourse – those of the research discipline, national culture and the degree of expertise of the writer. flottum, dahl and torrodd (2006) identify various influences on the academic author which include cultural identity, national identity, disciplinary identity and: a fourth setting influencing the academic author is created by the discourse format and writing traditions used to present knowledge claims in concert with the discourse community representing the audience for the text. mastering the relevant discourse forms may be said to be part of the socialisation process into the academic world in general and the discipline in question in particular (…) (flottum, dahl & torrodd, 2006: 22). these authors conclude that area or discipline results in a larger amount of differences than the factor of different culture. for example, the disciplines of linguistics and medicine represent opposite end points on a continuum. they found that the medical article is more rigorous in its use of the imrd (“introduction – methodology – research – discussion”) format. in the field of cultural or contrastive rhetoric it was shown that differences in writing were due to culture or intercultural rhetoric. the diversity of the kinds of texts analysed in the volume by connor, nagelhout and william (2008), highlights that not only culture, but circumstances underlying the creation of specific text types (also called the “situated genre”) are important factors in any comparison of written discourse. martín martín (2003) set out to establish the differences between research article abstracts written in english and those in spanish. he found that the spanish abstracts respected the imrd structure followed by the englishspeaking international academic community. although, this piece of research made no mention of the inclusion of the discussion section, martín martín concluded that the variation found between the two cultures’ research articles could be due to the differing beliefs that the spanish and international academic communities hold. studies in the area of disciplinary discourse variation include those by ken hyland (2000 & 2004, among others). hyland covered differences across academic style and format of doctoral theses ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140 121 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 121 disciplines which mostly deal with research articles but also contain evidence and ideas about rhetorical and disciplinary variation. hyland felt that matters stemming from local contexts had been neglected and so focuses on associations between the cultures behind academic communities and their textual practices. in 2004 swales observed that “a reasonable working assumption would be that the doctoral thesis or dissertation is lightly or only obscurely influenced by different national traditions” (swales, 2004: 130). here swales contrasts this “light” influence with what he sees as the much heavier impact of a discipline specific conventions and expectations. our observations seem to differ from this and point to theses which are quite heavily influenced by national tradition – that is to say the spanish manner of omitting discussion of the results within research studies. it is our purpose to outline first the small amount of analyses about discussion chapters found in the literature and then go on to describe our own original and empirical analysis of ph.d. theses in order to be able to draw some conclusions about the observed phenomena in the field for spain and europe. review of the literature the genre approach is useful for reviewing previous literature related to the current area. it draws upon up-to-date work into the rhetoric of the academic text as well as the linguistic examination of academic writing. also useful is the research done into academic writing and we shall be reviewing both. there has, however, been very little research done into the structure of doctoral theses specifically (dudley-evans, 1997). relevant academic-writing history includes the well-known “moves” in swales’ cars model (swales, 1990 – later adapted in his work of 2004). swales’ original model concerned article introductions and so will not be examined in detail here. the moves reported below and huckin’s (1987) work pointing to the importance of identifying and occupying an interesting niche show that discussion sections in articles are different in shape from those in the introduction. discussion sections travel within a cycle and from an “insideout” direction. they start with describing the results, next they situate them in the established literature and then they state their general importance. nevertheless, further research is needed, for example in the variation in the e. hewitt & á. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140122 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 122 language used or the difference between academic disciplines. specifically for the discussion section, hopkins and dudley-evans (1988) suggested these moves in figure 1 as characteristic. an adaptation of the above work on the moves suggested for the discussion section has been made by berkenkotter and huckin (1995). they argue that the moves can be ordered into a set of higher level units. these moves are basically similar to those in the introduction, but are in opposing order, and are as shown in figure 2. the work carried on subsequent to swales (1981) reflects that discussions have a cyclical form, and both peng (1987) and hopkins and dudley-evans (1988) had described systems containing ten or eleven moves. one of these moves consisted in repeating background information when an author wanted to bolster their discussion section and the author did this by going over the principal points. additionally, the intricacy of the cycle will depend upon the extent to which the author’s results are consistent with former research or the expected results. another, almost compulsory, move in the discussion section is what seems to be the outset position, the statement of results. this only seems to be superseded by move 1 (“recapitulating the main points”). some discussion sections have various parts, each of which begins with move 2 (“statement of results”). also common are discussion sections that begin with the strongest results and then proceed to weaker ones (huckin, 1987). academic style and format of doctoral theses ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140 123 ibérica 19 (2010): …-…4 relevant academic-writing history includes the well-known “moves” in swales’ cars model (swales, 1990 – later adapted in his work of 2004). swales’ original model concerned article introductions and so will not be examined in detail here. the moves reported below and huckin’s (1987) work pointing to the importance of identifying and occupying an interesting niche show that discussion sections in articles are different in shape from those in the introduction. discussion sections travel within a cycle and from an “inside-out” direction. they start with describing the results, next they situate them in the established literature and then they state their general importance. nevertheless, further research is needed, for example in the variation in the language used or the difference between academic disciplines. specifically for the discussion section, hopkins and dudley-evans (1988) suggested these moves in figure 1 as characteristic. 1. background information 2. statement of results 3. (un)expected result 4. reference to previous research (comparison) 5. explanation of unsatisfactory result 6. exemplification 7. deduction and hypothesis (since modified to claim 1) 8. reference to previous research (in support of a claim) 9. recommendation 10. justification figure 1. discussion section following hopkins and dudley-evans (1988: 118). an adaptation of the above work on the moves suggested for the discussion section has been made by berkenkotter and huckin (1995). they argue that the moves can be ordered into a set of higher level units. these moves are basically similar to those in the introduction, but are in opposing order, and are as shown in figure 2. move 1 occupying the niche move 2 (re)establishing the field move 3 establishing additional territory figure 2. discussion section following berkenkotter and huckin (1995: 41). the work carried on subsequent to swales (1981) reflects that discussions have a cyclical form, and both peng (1987) and hopkins and dudley-evans (1988) had described systems containing ten or eleven moves. one of these moves consisted in repeating background information when an author wanted to bolster their discussion section and the author did this by going over the principal points. ibérica 19 (2010): …-…4 research done into academic writing and we shall be reviewing both. there has, however, been very little research done into the structure of doctoral theses specifically (dudley-evans, 1997). relevant academic-writing history includes the well-known “moves” in swales’ cars model (swales, 1990 – later adapted in his work of 2004). swales’ original model concerned article introductions and so will not be examined in detail here. the moves reported below and huckin’s (1987) work pointing to the importance of identifying and occupying an interesting niche show that discussion sections in articles are different in shape from those in the introduction. discussion sections travel within a cycle and from an “inside-out” direction. they start with describing the results, next they situate them in the established literature and then they state their general importance. nevertheless, further research is needed, for example in the variation in the language used or the difference between academic disciplines. specifically for the discussion section, hopkins and dudley-evans (1988) suggested these moves in figure 1 as characteristic. 1. background information 2. statement of results 3. (un)expected result 4. reference to previous research (comparison) 5. explanation of unsatisfactory result 6. exemplification 7. deduction and hypothesis (since modified to claim 1) 8. reference to previous research (in support of a claim) 9. recommendation 10. justification figure 1. discussion section following hopkins and dudley-evans (1988: 118). an adaptation of the above work on the moves suggested for the discussion section has been made by berkenkotter and huckin (1995). they argue that the moves can be ordered into a set of higher level units. these moves are basically similar to those in the introduction, but are in opposing order, and are as shown in figure 2. move 1 occupying the niche move 2 (re)establishing the field move 3 establishing additional territory figure 2. discussion section following berkenkotter and huckin (1995: 41). the work carried on subsequent to swales (1981) reflects that discussions have a cyclical form, and both peng (1987) and hopkins and dudley-evans (1988) had described systems containing ten or eleven moves. one of these moves consisted in repeating background information when an author wanted to bolster their discussion section and the author did this by going over the principal points. 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 123 move 3 according to swales (1990) concerns the description of an unexpected outcome, the finding of the outcome itself or if this outcome had been expected or not. this does not seem to be a very common move however, and in peng’s (1987) analysis only four out of 52 cycles included move 3. move 4, the most widespread move in discussion sections, concerns a reference to previous research. this either provides a comparison with, or support for, the present research in hand. move 5 concerns an explanation – especially when coming across surprising results or those that contradict results already reported in the review of the literature section. sometimes move 5 can come before move 3, or even replace it. according to hopkins and dudley-evans (1988) move 6 concerns the setting out of examples in order to buoy up the justification. move 7 makes a statement about how far the given results can be generalized. move 8 contains the traditional call for future research, which however, seems to be disappearing as it apparently provides pointers to other competing researchers and an easy option for the former. as additionally, it is also the conclusions section that provides the basis for a study of the omission of the discussion section. we will give a brief overview of previous work on the conclusions section given its relevance here. bunton (2005) carried out research into the structure of the thesis conclusions chapter. he found out that the conclusions chapter reaffirmed purpose, consolidated research space with a variety of moves and steps, proposed future research and dealt with practical relevance. he also found that some conclusions sections concentrated more on the field than on the thesis itself and also uncovered alternatives in focus and structure of the conclusions chapter across disciplines. swales (2004: 117) observed that: “conclusions as opposed to discussions, are typically an optional feature in ras, but are expected in dissertations”. we have noticed that it is the discussion that seems to be the optional feature in dissertations, which therefore miss out all of their moves and thus the presentation of all their corresponding information. our experiences point to the presence of the lesser field orientated information because a conclusion chapter was present. swales (2004: 107-108) comments on the relation of the results chapter with the discussion: “one particular problem is that having only a single chapter devoted to results produces an unwieldy and out-of-balance monster chapter in the middle of the text”. in his figure 4.3 (swales, 2004: 108) it is posited that one alternative to the huge results section may be that of various results e. hewitt & á. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140124 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 124 and various discussion sections. thompson (1999 – see figure 3) and his study on the complex research article suggests three results and discussions sections: bunton’s (1998) work is mainly concerned with the concluding section of ph.d. theses, but he also puts forward three discussion sections (see figure 4). therefore, the discussion section seems to be gaining importance in academia but at the same time is not present in ph.d. theses in certain countries. agreeing with these opinions we will now move onto more current research as to what the discussion section does contain so as to build upon this work. belanger (1982) examined ten discussion sections from the area of neuroscience and he showed that the format of discussion sections was related to the research questions stated at the beginning of the said articles. swales (1990: 172) considered that belanger’s finding is in any case not common, as a “chunked” composite form of the discussion seems to be a rare phenomenon. shaw (2000) compared discussion sections in articles and research dissertations and found that in ph.d. theses, this chapter used more explicit arguments. still with research articles, but this time moving closer to the field of our study, zahra, zohreh and mansoor (2008) looked at the discussion sections academic style and format of doctoral theses ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140 125 e. hewitt & a. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): …-…6 discussion sections. thompson (1999 –see figure 3) and his study on the complex research article suggests three results and discussions sections: introduction (definitions, justifications, aims) literature review (sometimes included in the introduction) (general methods) (optional) results and discussion results and discussion results and discussion conclusions figure 3. complex article compilation following thompson (1999: 48). bunton’s (1998) work is mainly concerned with the concluding section of ph.d. theses, but he also puts forward three discussion sections (see figure 4). therefore, the discussion section seems to be gaining importance in academia but at the same time is not present in ph.d. theses in certain countries. introduction (literature review) (theoretical framework) method topic: analysisdiscussion topic: analysisdiscussion topic: analysisdiscussion conclusions figure 4. structure of topic based dissertations following bunton (1998: 114). agreeing with these opinions we will now move onto more current research as to what the discussion section does contain so as to build upon this work. belanger (1982) examined ten discussion sections from the area of neuroscience and he showed that the format of discussion sections was related to the research questions stated at the beginning of the said articles. swales (1990: 172) considered that belanger’s finding is in any case not common, as a “chunked” composite form of the discussion seems to be a rare phenomenon. shaw (2000) compared discussion sections in articles and research dissertations and found that in ph.d. theses, this chapter used more explicit arguments. still with research articles, but this time moving closer to the field of our study, zahra, zohreh and mansoor (2008) looked at the discussion sections of research articles in applied linguistics. regarding the degree of move schemata they compared english articles published in linguistics journals with two other distinct corpora of linguistics papers which were: persian articles published in persian journals, and english articles written by persian-speaking writers which had been rejected for publication. this study reveals substantial variations between english and persian styles. generally, these authors’ conclusions about discourse organization in english could enlighten none. hewitt & a. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): …-…6 discussion sections. thompson (1999 –see figure 3) and his study on the complex research article suggests three results and discussions sections: introduction (definitions, justifications, aims) literature review (sometimes included in the introduction) (general methods) (optional) results and discussion results and discussion results and discussion conclusions figure 3. complex article compilation following thompson (1999: 48). bunton’s (1998) work is mainly concerned with the concluding section of ph.d. theses, but he also puts forward three discussion sections (see figure 4). therefore, the discussion section seems to be gaining importance in academia but at the same time is not present in ph.d. theses in certain countries. introduction (literature review) (theoretical framework) method topic: analysisdiscussion topic: analysisdiscussion topic: analysisdiscussion conclusions figure 4. structure of topic based dissertations following bunton (1998: 114). agreeing with these opinions we will now move onto more current research as to what the discussion section does contain so as to build upon this work. belanger (1982) examined ten discussion sections from the area of neuroscience and he showed that the format of discussion sections was related to the research questions stated at the beginning of the said articles. swales (1990: 172) considered that belanger’s finding is in any case not common, as a “chunked” composite form of the discussion seems to be a rare phenomenon. shaw (2000) compared discussion sections in articles and research dissertations and found that in ph.d. theses, this chapter used more explicit arguments. still with research articles, but this time moving closer to the field of our study, zahra, zohreh and mansoor (2008) looked at the discussion sections of research articles in applied linguistics. regarding the degree of move schemata they compared english articles published in linguistics journals with two other distinct corpora of linguistics papers which were: persian articles published in persian journals, and english articles written by persian-speaking writers which had been rejected for publication. this study reveals substantial variations between english and persian styles. generally, these authors’ conclusions about discourse organization in english could enlighten non06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 125 of research articles in applied linguistics. regarding the degree of move schemata they compared english articles published in linguistics journals with two other distinct corpora of linguistics papers which were: persian articles published in persian journals, and english articles written by persianspeaking writers which had been rejected for publication. this study reveals substantial variations between english and persian styles. generally, these authors’ conclusions about discourse organization in english could enlighten non-native speakers of english languages, including persian speakers, on the community conventions of english language discourse and the way to fit in with those conventions when writing. also with articles, but this time with spanish participants, as in our study, williams (2005) studied discourse styles in the discussion sections of english and spanish. the analysis comprised 64 spanish medical research articles and 64 papers published in english language journals. the methodology incorporated rhetorical moves: making claims of knowledge, comparing current and previous findings, providing background information, expressing results, making statements and the amount of initial background information. the results showed that two different discourse styles (“progressive” and “retrogressive”) did exist within the discussion section of these corpora. english native authors used the retrogressive and the spanish writers used the progressive style. also the findings showed that the discourse style is sometimes adjusted to the language of the discussion section. similarly, we should not forget to touch upon relevant observations about the results section. thompson (1993) found that the results sections in biochemistry papers have a large amount of commentary. swales (1990: 170) stated that “there is from the discourse analyst’s viewpoint, much variation in the extent to which results sections simply describe results and the extent to which discussion sections re-describe results”. however, we do not recommend description even if there is a variation, because we consulted the apa manual (american psychological association, 2001) and it does not advocate including descriptions in the results section. for our field of empirical research this is the approved style manual and it states that in the results section: “discussion of the implications of the results is not appropriate here” (american psychological association, 2001: 20). a results section presents, and may describe, the results but the discussion does not re-describe them: it discusses them. according to the apa style manual only the results themselves should be presented in the results section with very e. hewitt & á. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140126 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 126 little other text. additionally, the discussion section, as we have seen from the moves literature, gives useful comparison with previous research, highlights unexpected findings, explains the implications of them, describes how far the original findings can be generalised to other situations, advances the field in this way and shows the path to how the present research can lead onto future fruitful investigation. swales (1990: 175-176) also stated that: “the surprise is that, on preliminary evidence at least, the major differences do not lie so much in the introductions and discussions (where i believe most people would expect it) but rather in the method and results sections”. again, we would have to disagree because of the omission of the discussion sections in our spanish doctoral students’ theses. the results section was followed by the conclusions section, thus omitting the valuable discussion stage. swales (2004) discusses the contentious topic of the part played by the english language in the globalisation of academic scenes and connects the rise of the english language to researchers’ efforts to publish and gain status in academia. however, swales also accepts “glocalisation” (swales, 2004: 11) which is the subject of certain ways of using english found in specific areas of the world. although swales was referring to the special usage of the english language, the present paper could argue that the omission of discussion chapter is also a localised idiosyncrasy at the moment and may later change due to this said globalisation. myers (1990) is of the opinion that an analysis of moves may be helpful pedagogically but only pays attention to what is there in the text and may not take into account the need for the writer’s rhetorical strategy. in the case of the doctoral students observed, this comment is very pertinent as not everything was in the text because the students were moving straight on to the conclusions chapter. since no previous study seems to have focused on the discussion chapter not existing in doctoral theses, a preliminary examination of spanish research writers was therefore carried out as the ground-work even before the study in the present paper. this was done to see if there was any basis in our observation. the articles by 48 spanish linguists included in the work edited by luque durán (2006) were scrutinised and it was found that all of them lacked a discussion section and the closing stages included only a conclusions section. this confirmed the initial hypothesis and so pointed to a possible rhetorical variation in different cultures’ academic writing structures. this naturally leads to the formulation of our research questions, this time about ph.d. theses. to that end, we will academic style and format of doctoral theses ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140 127 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 127 now move forward onto the research which comprises the second half of this paper. the empirical study research questions the first research question was if spanish ph.d. writers omit the discussion chapter. the second research question was if this omission happens only in the field of english studies or if it applies to spanish studies too. that is to say, to spanish ph.d. writers when writing in english as their second language (nns) or to spanish ph.d. writers when writing in their mother tongue (ns). method a national exploratory study was carried out to confirm or disprove the hypothesis. this was done using the only spanish national data base (dialnet) as far as we know, containing full text theses and using the key words “english studies” (filología inglesa). additionally, another exploration was subsequently carried out using the words “spanish studies” (filología española). dialnet, a database hosted by the university of la rioja, was accessed on various occasions, the latest being on june 26, 2009. the two data sets the corpus initially comprised theses from the field of english studies, the same field in which the present authors had first noticed omission of the discussion chapter. moreover, in order to compare results, the corpus was expanded to embrace theses from the field of spanish studies. the theses comprising the two data sets were contained in dialnet. those from the field of english studies totalled sixteen in number with a further thirty-nine from the field of spanish studies. this gave a grand total of fifty-five. these were written in both spanish and english and read in the field of english and spanish studies in spanish universities over the last ten years. data collection the methodology for this exploratory study entailed the drawing up and use of a scale or checklist of independent variables (variables checklist). at first, e. hewitt & á. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140128 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 128 only one dependent variable had been considered for the analysis of the theses in the field of english studies – namely the omission or inclusion of the discussion chapter. however, as the data of theses were scrutinized, it seemed obvious that there were quite a few intervening independent variables present. thus, the checklist was lengthened to include them. subsequently, on scrutinizing the theses from the field of spanish studies, the list of variables was added to yet again. the full final list is as follows: 1) number of theses not containing a discussion chapter. 2) number of theses containing a discussion chapter. 3) doctoral student author of spanish nationality. 4) doctoral student author of a different nationality. 5) language: written in english l2. 6) language: written in spanish l1. 7) supervisor: english nationality. 8) supervisor: spanish nationality. 9) *supervisor: german nationality. 10) *joint supervisors: spanish nationality and venezuelan nationality. 11) number of theses without an acknowledgements section. 12) authors in contact with english-speaking countries. 13) authors in contact with english researchers. 14) english linguistics. 15) english literature. 16) spanish studies. 17) other topics (empirical linguistic study, catalan language, spanish narrative, argentinean spanish, french in spain, spanish vegetation, sign language, medicine in spain, spanish literature, latin, poetry, chinese, language processing and on-line newspapers in spanish). 18) other departments. 19) with contents page at the end. 20) without a contents page. 21) total number of theses. * used only in the corpus of english studies theses. descriptive statistics analysis descriptive statistics were used for the analysis – namely frequency counts – and these are also given as relative values expressed by percentages. for the variable of contact with english-speaking countries or researchers (variable 12), the data was found in the acknowledgements section of the theses studied. academic style and format of doctoral theses ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140 129 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 129 results after scrutinizing the sixteen l2 and thirty-nine l1 full-text doctoral theses using the above mentioned checklist, the information obtained from them was organised (see tables 1, 2, 3a and 3b) and analysed. obviously, taking into account that the target country studied is spain, the most frequent pattern of doctoral thesis was that of being written in e. hewitt & á. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140130 academic style and format of doctoral theses ibérica 19 (2010): …-… 11 variable frequency count for spanish studies percentage for spanish studies of total 39 frequency count for english studies percentage for english studies of total 16 number of theses not containing a discussion chapter 35 90% 13 81% number of theses containing a discussion chapter 4 10% 3 19% doctoral student author of spanish nationality 34 87% 16 100% doctoral student author of a different nationality 5 13% 0 0% language: english (l2) 0 0% 6 37% language: spanish (l1) 39 100% 10 63% supervisor: english nationality 0 0% 4 22% supervisor: spanish nationality 39 100% 11 61% supervisor: german nationality 0 0% 2 11% joint spanish and venezuelan supervisors 0 0% 1 6% without acknowledgements section 12 31% 0 0% contact with english-speaking countries 2 5% 6 38% contact with english-speaking researchers 2 5% 9 56% english linguistics ----10 62.5% english literature ----6 37.5% spanish studies 24 62% ----other topics 15 38% ----other departments 23 59% 0 0% contents page at end of thesis 4 10% 0 0% without a contents page 35 90% 0 0% total number of theses 39 100% 16 100% table 1. main findings for doctoral theses analysed. obviously, taking into account that the target country studied is spain, the most frequent pattern of doctoral thesis was that of being written in spanish, by a spanish doctoral student and supervised by a spanish academic. table 1 also confirms the hypothesis formulated at the beginning of this work in that almost 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 130 spanish, by a spanish doctoral student and supervised by a spanish academic. table 1 also confirms the hypothesis formulated at the beginning of this work in that almost all the doctoral theses from the fields of both english studies and spanish studies studied here lacked a discussion section. in fact, thirteen out of the sixteen theses omitted it in english studies, and thirty-five out of the thirty-nine theses from spanish studies (81% and 90% respectively). the possible reasons will later be given in the discussion section of the present work. for english studies the results of this thesis by thesis analysis can be found in table 2, and for spanish studies in tables 3a and 3b in the appendix. other interesting points come to light in the analysis. as portrayed in table 2 the general pattern varies. we can see that variables related to the supervisor’s nationality, and the language in which the thesis is written, are relevant. table 2 shows that there seems to be a correlation of frequencies between foreign supervisors and the presence of a discussion chapter (56% of the english studies theses). if we look at the “existence of a discussion chapter” variable we will note the correlation with the foreign supervisor. curiously enough, theses supervised by german university lecturers did not contain a discussion chapter. moreover, the presence of a discussion chapter correlated in every case with a thesis from the field of linguistics, but never with a literature thesis. if the thesis was written in english, this appears to correlate with stays and contact with the english speaking world. nevertheless, these stays and contacts do not seem to be enough to guarantee the inclusion of a discussion chapter. again we can point to the correlation between the discussion chapter and foreign supervisors. tables 3a and 3b show the findings analysed thesis by thesis from the field of spanish studies. these totalled 39 theses in all and again the great majority had no discussion chapter (90%). thus, again we can confirm our hypothesis. interestingly a few (5 theses, or 13%) had included chapters coming after the results chapter and had named them varyingly as “general valuation”, “synthesis”, etc. overall, this second corpus also followed the general pattern, that is to say, spanish author, spanish supervisor and written in spanish. points worthy of note include the fact that whereas english studies had no thesis authors from other countries, spanish studies did. no thesis from spanish studies was written in english for obvious reasons. all were written in spanish. two theses acknowledged contact with englishspeaking countries and researchers. the analysis of the data revealed a much wider range of topics for the theses from this corpus than for english academic style and format of doctoral theses ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140 131 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 131 studies. twenty-three theses were not enrolled in spanish departments. the most curious data here is that twelve out of the 39 theses (31%) lacked the acknowledgements section, and that we had to look at the back of four theses in order to find out what they contained, that is to say, the contents page (see tables 3a and 3 b in the appendix). discussion the results above confirmed the hypothesis in that the great majority of the doctoral thesis scrutinized in spain lacked a discussion chapter in both spanish l1 and l2 theses. in fact, overall forty-eight out of fifty-five theses scrutinized had no discussion chapter. interestingly, a number of additional intervening variables were also found to be important. in the english studies corpus the thesis analysis disclosed the correlation between foreign supervisors and the existence of a discussion chapter. foreign supervisors do not seem to follow the spanish tradition of ending with the conclusions chapter directly after the results. the omission of the discussion chapter, as well as being due to this outside influence shown by the association found here, could also be down to the fact that the writers may not have genre knowledge. they may not know western (or american) conventions of the academic and scientific community (regarding the format of a research article). unfortunately, we do not know if these doctoral students were trained or received any explicit training in their doctoral programme, as lack of genre knowledge may be a factor accounting for the differences we have found. curiously enough, the supervisors of german nationality did not seem to correlate with the existence of a discussion chapter. this could be an interesting point to look into further and could merit a future step for the present research. it could take the shape of a replica of the present study but with a german data base. there was no such correlation in the sample from spanish studies as all the supervisors were spanish. instead, other interesting observations were found. some theses from this sample encompassed chapters after the results that could be considered discussion chapters. the authors had titled such chapters reflexiones finales (“final reflections”) and so on. our research shows more complex findings than those outlined by connor, nagelhout and william (2008) –i.e., differences in writing are due to culture. e. hewitt & á. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140132 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 132 our findings are not merely due to different cultures but more complex and detailed reasons. in fact all of our corpora were taken from the same culture. our work is not contrastive but descriptive and within the one culture. theses from the field of english studies theses written in english seem to be related to authors’ stays in, and contact with, the english speaking world. notwithstanding, this does not seem to guarantee the insertion of a discussion chapter, while having a foreign supervisor does. it is probable that the decision to write the thesis in english was not also related to the inclusion of a discussion chapter. however, knowledge of how to do research, write it up and years of reading research on the part of a supervisor who has not been influenced by the spanish rhetoric is probably powerful. interestingly, the presence of a discussion chapter correlated in every case with a thesis in the field of linguistics, but never in literature. we may speculate that one of the reasons could be due to the tradition in the field of using european and american style manuals in linguistics. for example, the aforementioned apa manual (american psychological association, 2001), widely used in applied linguistics, includes instructions on how to write discussion chapters, whereas this section is not traditional in style manuals used in literature. for instance, the mhra style guide (modern humanities research association, 2008) mentions citation rules mostly and simply refers to the parts of a work where the discussion chapter would be found as “text” in general but not to any individual parts of a piece of work. the findings here possibly point to continuing change and integration of writing styles in theses in spain, a country within the european higher education area (ehea). the contribution of this research to the question of the development of academic discourses in the new international framework, is that of tracking the evolution of the possible proliferation and regular inclusion of the discussion chapter in english studies theses, as spain becomes more and more integrated into the ehea. as we have seen here, an additional influence could be that of the university supervisors in question and we may speculate on the influence of the future migration of university supervisors throughout europe and spain, one of the aspects promoted by the bologna agreement. it is surmised that other fields in spain, such as spanish studies, will be slower to do the same in their fieldacademic style and format of doctoral theses ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140 133 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 133 related theses and will keep to the traditional spanish format of results to conclusions jump even within the ehea convergence. this is due obviously to the wealth of home-grown supervisors for the field of spanish studies. in the next section we consider this supposition. theses from the field of spanish studies in spanish studies theses less variation was found in the format according to the checklist of variables. on the other hand, some new interesting characteristics were identified. only four of the thirty-nine theses contained a discussion chapter, which means that twenty-nine of these theses did not include a discussion. however, there were five other theses with a section resembling the discussion chapter and these were varyingly called: “recapitulation” (two theses), “synthesis”, “data comparison” or “final reflections”. this could indicate that some spanish doctoral students are feeling the need to deliberate the meaning of their results, but may not be confident or did not know genre conventions. in the corpus from spanish studies there was no such clear relationship between the presence of a discussion and a thesis from a certain field. however, two of the discussion chapter theses from spanish studies were enrolled in a psychology department and one within a department of medicine. again this could indicate the use of style manuals as well as influence of the scientific tradition where discussion chapters are more common. thirty-four of the authors were spanish writing in their mother tongue, and therefore five were foreign speakers writing in spanish. we have highlighted the fact that in the other corpus from english studies, 100% were spanish and there were no thesis authors from other countries. all the supervisors in this corpus were spanish and all theses were written in spanish. in this corpus, two thesis authors mentioned having had contact with englishspeaking countries and english researchers. however, some theses did not have an acknowledgements section. this meant that in reality it was not possible to obtain complete information about absence or presence of contact with english-speaking countries in twelve cases. as to the topics covered, these were varied in nature. twenty-four theses were on topics related to spanish studies and the other fifteen were on other facets from different departments but related to spanish culture. only twenty-three e. hewitt & á. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140134 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 134 theses were enrolled in spanish studies departments, and although related to this area, the others came from a variety of departments such as computer studies, pharmacy, geography, communication and psychology. this may indicate that this database dialnet and resulting corpus of spanish studies obviously encompass areas that only touch on spain because they are more related to spanish culture and are not just limited to language and literature. on the other hand it may just indicate preferences of the doctoral students from spanish studies. curiously, four theses had their contents page placed at the end of the work. this probably indicates a still active strong national influence on writing in spain. all theses containing a contents page at the end were from spanish studies departments. there was no indication of style manuals used, if any. some of the thesis formats were very idiosyncratic; some had a contents page at the beginning of each chapter. the analysis of more disciplines still will be the focus of a future study by the present authors. further research will also include the compilation of a corpus of empirical ph.d. theses written in a range of disciplines and countries. there is also a need for more full text theses to be available to researchers so as to be able to carry on the investigation started here. additionally, missing out the discussion section nearly always means missing out the corresponding data description and moves. therefore, this probably shows that our students are omitting a vast amount of useful data, above all, what their research means and the significance of it. as we have seen, and according to huckin (1987), discussion sections begin with a description of the findings before positioning these findings within the established literature. next they assess the general importance of the findings. thus, it is almost never enough just to have a results section with its figures presented without any subsequent in-depth explanation of them. if a discussion section were included it would signify that the importance of the said research could be clearly ascertained at first glance. this would mean an increase in status for our spanish students’ research, as it would be paid more attention throughout europe. conclusions to conclude, first it was observed informally that in the field of english studies in spain much academic writing in native spanish also omits the discussion section. therefore, we made a follow-up systematic analysis of academic style and format of doctoral theses ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140 135 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 135 full text theses in a spanish data base and used two corpora from english and spanish studies respectively. due to the theses here described, we surmise that it seems that spanish thesis writers writing in their mother tongue or foreign language omit the discussion, write the results section and the conclusion. this could point to intercultural variation in the structural preferences of different writing cultures. it would be interesting to look into this field and also at different stages as spain is integrated into the ehea. the inclusion of the discussion section could be useful for other students already identified by other researchers as well as for our students if they are planning to have their work considered or published internationally. additionally, it could be useful to look into the same variables in thesis writing in languages other than spanish and english. the aim of this would be to see if the discussion section is also absent there and particularly when writing internationally and also when writing about research that is empirically-based. in summary, we must bear in mind that the conception of the ehea is still fairly recent, maybe five years old in spain, whereas our corpora date back ten years. positively, this gives us a good amount of time to set up future studies in this area and even expand the variables to be looked at. perhaps style manuals and discussion chapters will become more common when writing spanish theses, above all with the convergence already taking place in europe. the fact that even the theses from the spanish studies departments written by authors of non-spanish nationality lacked a discussion chapter and followed a very traditional spanish style of writing may indicate how cautious spanish supervisors were and their efforts to help ensure success in the doctoral theses of these foreign doctoral students in spain. on the other hand however, a need for a discussion chapter or similar may be discerned in spain due to the existence of our five theses where chapters or sections resembling the discussion were encountered. it is hoped the information in the present paper will be useful for those students wishing to publish their work in europe or internationally as well as converge with the written output style of other countries. the fact that this analysis covers thesis writing, which is the baseline point before the publishing of their research articles, means that students may now be made more aware when wishing to include discussion chapters for publishing. this inclusion will do justice to their findings by explaining them more e. hewitt & á. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140136 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 136 deeply. maybe, it highlights the need for a larger quantity of explicit teaching of the thesis genre and academic conventions in general to doctoral students. 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(1987). “surprise value in scientific discourse”. paper presented at the college composition and communication conference, atlanta, ga. march 1987. eric document number ed 284291. hyland, k. (2000). disciplinary discourses: social interactions in academic writing. london: longman. hyland, k. (2004). genre and second language writing. michigan: university of michigan press. luque durán, j. de d. (ed.) (2006). actas del v congreso andaluz de lingüística general. vol. 3. granada: granada lingvistica. martín martín, p. (2003). “a genre analysis of english and spanish research paper abstracts in experimental social sciences”. english for specific purposes 22: 25-43. modern humanities research association (2008). mhra style guide, 2nd edition. london: author. myers, g. (1990). writing biology: texts in the social construction of scientific knowledge. madison, wi: the university of wisconsin press. peng, j. (1987). “organisational features in chemical engineering research articles”. elr journal 1: 79-116. shaw, p. (2000). “towards classifying arguments in research genres” in a. trasborg (ed.), analysing professional genres, 41-56. amsterdam: john benjamins. swales, j. (1981). aspects of article introductions. aston: the university of aston language studies unit. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j. (2004). research genres: explorations and applications. cambridge: cambridge university press. thompson, d. k. (1993). “arguing for experimental ‘facts’ in science: a study of research article results sections in biochemistry”. written communication 8: 106-128. 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 137 dr. elaine hewitt is a senior lecturer at the department of english and german (university of granada, spain). she has 25 years experience of teaching language and linguistics. she received her ph.d. in 1997, and is the director of various research projects. she has been the coordinator of her department’s masters and doctoral programs for 4 years, establishing its master’s degree and obtaining for it a quality certificate or mention from the spanish ministry of education. she has published international articles in journals such as educational psychology and perspectives: studies in translatology, amongst others. dr. ángel felices lago is a senior lecturer at the department of english and german studies (university of granada, spain) since 1987. he teaches english and spanish for business and tourism. his main areas of research interest range from lexicology, discourse analysis and axiological linguistics to didactics applied to lsp. he has co-authored and co-edited various scholarly and pedagogical books (textbooks) and has also published over 70 scholarly articles and reviews in specialised national and international journals and volumes. e. hewitt & á. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140138 thompson, p. (1999). “exploring the contexts of writing: interviews with ph.d. supervisors” in p. thompson (ed.), issues in eap writing research and instruction, 37-54. reading: cals. williams, i. a. (2005). contrasting discourse styles in spanish and english research article discussions: evidence for progressive and retrogressive patterns. url: http://www.metmeetings.org/pagines/abstracts/will iamssat%201600.htm [27/7/09] zahra, a., k zohreh & t. mansoor (2008). “genre analysis: an investigation of the discussion sections of applied linguistics research articles”. asian esp journal 4: 39-63. 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 138 appendix academic style and format of doctoral theses ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140 139 e. hewitt & a. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): …-… 1 appendix table 2: findings analysed individually in each thesis: from the field of english studies (16 theses) thesis no. variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 no discussion chapter x x x x x x x x x x x x x contains discussion x x x author spanish x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x in english x x x x x x x in spanish x x x x x x x x x supervisor: spanish x x x x x x x x x x x supervisor: english x x x x supervisor: german x x joint spanish and venezuelan supervisors x contact with english speaking countries x x x x x x contact with other english speaking researchers x x x x x x x x x english linguistics x x x x x x x x x x english literature x x x x x x e. hewitt & a. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): …-… 1 appendix table 2: findings analysed individually in each thesis: from the field of english studies (16 theses) thesis no. variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 no discussion chapter x x x x x x x x x x x x x contains discussion x x x author spanish x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x in english x x x x x x x in spanish x x x x x x x x x supervisor spanish x x x x x x x x x x x supervisor english x x x x supervisor: german x x joint spanish and venezuelan supervisors x contact with english speaking countries x x x x x x contact with other english speaking researchers x x x x x x x x x english linguistics x x x x x x x x x x english literature x x x x x x e. hewitt & a. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): …-…20 table 3a. findings analysed individually in each of the 39 theses for the field of spanish studies. thesis no. variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 1 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 2 x x x x x 3+4 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 5 6 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 7 8 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 9+10 11 x x x x x x x x 12 x 13 ¿? x 14+15 16 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 17 x x x x 18 x x x x x x x x 19 x x 20 x e. hewitt & a. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): …-…20 table 3a. findings analysed individually in each of the 39 theses for the field of spanish studies. thesis no. variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 1 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 2 x x x x x 3+4 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 5 6 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 7 8 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 9+10 11 x x x x x x x x 12 x 13 ¿? x 14+15 16 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 17 x x x x 18 x x x x x x x x 19 x x 20 x 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 139 e. hewitt & á. felices lago ibérica 19 (2010): 119-140140 a c a d e m ic s t y l e a n d f o r m a t o f d o c t o r a l t h e s e s ib é ri c a 1 9 ( 2 0 1 0 ): … -… 2 1 t a b le 3 b . f in d in g s a n a ly s e d i n d iv id u a lly i n e a c h o f th e 3 9 t h e s e s f o r th e f ie ld o f s p a n is h s tu d ie s . t h e s is n o . v a ri a b le 2 1 2 2 2 3 2 4 2 5 (1 1 ) 2 6 2 7 2 8 2 9 3 0 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 4 3 5 3 6 3 7 3 8 3 9 1 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 2 x x x * “f in a l r e fl e c ti o n s ” 3 + 4 x x x x x x x x x x (1 3 ) x c a m e ro o n a rg e n ti n e a n x c h in e s e x x 5 6 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 7 8 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 9 + 1 0 1 1 x x x x 1 2 x 1 3 x 1 4 + 1 5 1 6 x x x x x x x x x 1 7 (1 4 ) (1 5 ) (1 6 ) (1 7 ) (1 8 ) (1 9 ) l a n g u a g e p ro c e s s in g o n -l in e n e w s p a p e rs i n s p a n is h c h in e s e p o e tr y 1 8 (2 0 ) (2 1 ) x (2 2 ) (2 3 ) (2 4 ) (2 5 ) x (2 6 ) x x 1 9 x x 2 0 06 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 140 ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-60 abstract the article analyses the role of metaphor and simile in representations of evolution and genetics in british and german popular science and media publications. it focuses on the metaphors of progress, agency and potency which are used to interpret concepts such as “evolution”, “gene” and “stem cell”. such metaphors are often presented as being imbued with scientific authority. we shall review these claims with special regard to the popular views of evolution as a “progressive” movement and to topical debates about embryonic stem (es) cell research in britain and germany. on the basis of data from a pilot corpus, we propose that in british public discourse, es cells tend to be depicted mainly as “objects”, “instruments” or “tools” of medical research. german public discourse shares these metaphors but seems to be characterised specifically by prominent discussions about es cells’ “totipotency”, or on “scientists playing god” and “interference in mother nature’s design”. in conclusion, we shall discuss how the different metaphor preferences may account for contrasts in british and german public attitudes and legislature regarding esc research. keywords: embryonic stem cell, evolution, genetics, metaphor, popular science. resumen evolución “progresiva” y células madre “totipotentes”: metáforas presentes en los debates británicos y alemanes sobre las “ciencias de la vida” el presente trabajo analiza el papel de la metáfora y del símil en las publicaciones científicas divulgativas y en la prensa británicas y alemanas en cuanto a la representación de la evolución y la genética. se centra en las metáforas de “progressive” evolution and “totipotent” stem cells: metaphors in british and german debates about the “life sciences” andreas musolff university of durham (united kingdom) andreas.musolff@durham.ac.uk 45 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 45 ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-60 andreas musolff progreso, agencia y potencia, empleadas para interpretar conceptos tales como “evolución”, “gen” y “célula madre”. lo habitual es que dichas metáforas sean plenamente asumidas y respaldadas por las autoridades científicas. examinaremos este argumento prestando especial atención, por un lado, a la opinión más divulgada de que la evolución es un movimiento “progresivo” y, por otro, a los debates temáticos relativos a la investigación con células madre embrionarias (cme) en gran bretaña y alemania. tomando como base los datos obtenidos con un corpus piloto, nos encontramos en disposición de adelantar que en el discurso divulgativo británico las cme tienden a describirse, ante todo, como “objetos”, “instrumentos” o “herramientas” de la investigación médica. esta visión también es compartida por el discurso divulgativo alemán, si bien en este último caso parece caracterizarse por notables discusiones sobre la “totipotencia” de las cme o sobre “los científicos juegan a ser dioses” y “la interferencia con la madre naturaleza”. en definitiva, estudiaremos de forma contrastiva las preferencias en las metáforas utilizadas en torno a la investigación con cme a fin de explicar las diferencias registradas entre la actitud mostrada por las sociedades británica y alemana y las legislaciones que les competen. palabras clave: células madre embrionarias, evolución, genética, metáfora, ciencia divulgativa. 1. introduction metaphor is, so to speak, the life-blood of popular science. the dissemination of new information to a non-expert public would be impossible without it. not only the contents but also the methodologies and the basic assumptions of scientific research are so complex and abstract that any “direct” access is effectively excluded. even core domains of human experience, such as bodily states, emotions, or health and illness, have been found to be organized in terms of metaphors that we “live by”, as lakoff and johnson (1980) put it, and that we fall ill and die by, as susan sontag pointed out in her famous essay illness as metaphor (1978). on rereading her own essay later, sontag (1991: 91) conceded that “of course, one cannot think without metaphors” but that did not mean “there aren’t some metaphors we might well abstain from or try to retire”, such as war imagery for the treatment of cancer (which she herself experienced as a patient), or the use of disease metaphors to stigmatize political enemies. in the case of metaphors in popular science there is a further aspect to be taken into account, i.e., their “place of origin” in the register of a special 46 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 46 ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-60 “progressive” evolution and “totipotent” stem cells scientific discipline. metaphors of popular science often carry the baggage of a particular theoretical and methodological bias that may be well known to and critically reflected on by experts but is as unknown to the general public as the contents of a scientific discovery. by providing the crucial link between scientists’ presentations of their work and the public’s consciousness and awareness of it, metaphors fulfil a centrally important role of mediation between expert and lay cultures but also carry the potential of seriously misleading the public. on account of this ambiguity it seems promising to analyze the heuristic value of metaphors in popular science so as to better understand their socio-cognitive appeal. the following discussion concentrates on the use of metaphors in the public debate on scientific notions of evolution and genetics. first, we shall study the metaphor of evolutionary development as progress, which seems to have survived many attempts by scientists to prevent its misinterpretation. on the basis of this historical “test-case” we shall then examine the use of metaphor in media reports on human embryonic stem (es) cell research in britain and germany. the imagery employed in the two national discourses appears to be similar as regards the conceptual range of imagery employed; nevertheless we find differences in the emphasis on particular metaphor uses that can be related to attitudinal differences which affect legislation and policy-making. the investigation of such differences may shed a light on how scientific metaphors are “recycled” in the public debate to fit specific social concerns and interests. 2. metaphors of evolution: never-ending progress? in a 2005 british tv advert for guinness beer, three lads are shown enjoying their pints and then experiencing instant evolutionary regress until they end up as amphibians in the primordial swamp (york, 2005). the advert tells, in reverse, evolution’s story, as we all know it, i.e. a story of a “linear progression” through time. a range of life forms is projected onto a timescale that links the distant past with the present, with humans as the supposedly most advanced manifestation of life on earth. stephen jay gould explained the enduring attractiveness of this image of evolution in terms of a “chain of being or ladder of linear progress” by highlighting its function of “reinforcing a comfortable view of human inevitability and superiority” (gould, 2000: 28-29). 47 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 47 the metaphor of evolution as progress is easy to comprehend and it flatters human self-perception as the pinnacle of an evolutionary “chain of being”. the “chain of being” complex can be traced in the western philosophical tradition back to neo-platonist thought in the first two centuries a.d. (lovejoy, 1936) and has been shown to be operational in public discourse and folk-ontologies to this day (lakoff & turner, 1989; kövecses, 2002). in the history of science, the “chain of being” was temporalized over the course of the 18th century and applied to all living creatures. in 1754, linnaeus, for instance, asserted that “all living things, plants, animals and even mankind (…) form one chain of universal being from the beginning to the end of the world” (jones, 2000: 253). this temporalized concept of the “great chain” still held true for charles darwin. in the descent of man, first published in 1871, he judged the view that the “world appear[ed] as if it had long been preparing for the advent of man” to be “strictly true” in the sense that if “any single link in this chain had never existed, man would not have been exactly what he now is” (darwin, 2004: 192-193). as a scientist, darwin was careful to stress the “apparent” conclusiveness of the “chain” metaphor in presenting evolution “as if ” it were a continuous line of progenitors leading “up to” mankind. he was, of course, conscious of the fact that evolution was much more complex. in the context of his famous simile of “the great tree of life” in on the origin of species, he accounted for differences in evolutionary phenomena: on the one hand, growing twigs on the tree show the manner in which “species and groups of species have at all times overmastered other species in the great battle for life” (darwin, 1901: 162); on the other hand, he acknowledged also the survival of the “thin straggling branch springing from a fork low down in a tree”, which was saved from fatal competition by having inhabited a protected station” (darwin, 1901: 163). it seems that darwin already saw the need to make it clear there is more to evolution than the progress of only the fittest “battle-hardened” competitors. darwin also mentioned “decayed” limbs and branches that “may represent those whole orders, families, and genera which have now no living representatives, and which are known to us only in a fossil state” (darwin, 1901: 163). among the earliest of these branches are the more than 500 million years old fossils of the so-called “burgess shale”, which were discovered in 1909 and whose scientific interpretation forms the main topic of gould’s book wonderful life. the gist of his account is that “most burgess organisms do not belong to familiar groups” and that therefore “the history andreas musolff ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-6048 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 48 of life is a story of massive removal followed by differentiation within a few surviving stocks, not the conventional tale of steadily increasing excellence” (gould, 2000: 24-25). gould draws the conclusion that the course of evolution is contingent in the sense that if only a slightly different catastrophe had wiped out a slightly different group of organisms those hundreds of millions of years ago, evolution would still have proceeded but not in the same way “as we know it”. if some, or most of the major branches of life’s evolutionary “tree” broke off the main trunk early on, due to a chance catastrophe, it follows that the presently existing “branches”, including the human species, owe their survival not to any superiority over other species but to the contingent fact that their “ancestor branches” were accidentally spared. their evolutionary “fate” was determined by ancient catastrophes rather than by any inherent quality. in order to highlight the contingency of survival, gould reformulates darwin’s tree metaphor as that of a “copiously branching bush, continually pruned by the grim reaper of extinction” (gould, 2000: 35). richard dawkins, in the ancestor’s tale (2005), counters the seeming naturalness of the “forward-looking” metaphor of “linear progress” by explaining evolution in terms of a “pilgrimage back” in time. at chosen intervals on their imaginary journey, his reader pilgrims meet their respective last common ancestor (“concestor”) that they share with the respectively most closely related creatures. the purpose of dawkins’ (2005) telling his evolutionary tale backwards is that of disabusing the general reading public of teleological explanations in biology. but even he cannot avoid telling his story with a “forward” bias in some cases, e.g. when he speaks of “dinosaur shoes” that “were waiting to be filled” by species that could then “expand” into the “ecological spaces left by the dinosaurs” (dawkins, 2005: 176, 234). these formulations rest, as the author himself points out, on “the conceit of hindsight” (dawkins, 2005: 1-11, 375) –of course, any “expansion”, or “filling of shoes” by other species could only have been unintended. for all their efforts to counter the “forward” bias in conceptualising evolution, gould and dawkins thus still follow the habit of speaking about it “as if ” it were “forward”-looking. in this, they follow darwin himself as a frequent user of “as if ” formulations and of the “tree-model” of evolution. darwin’s theory itself provides us with one of the most (in-) famous cases of popular misunderstanding of scientific metaphors. the interpretations of his theory by herbert spencer and francis galton inspired social darwinism and the eugenics movement (weindling, 1989; “progressive” evolution and “totipotent” stem cells ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-60 49 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 49 kevles, 1995; rose, 1998; weikart, 2004). darwin must have been aware of the danger of misinterpretations: why else would he have gone out of his way to justify his key concepts, such as the “struggle for existence” as being used “in a large and metaphorical sense including dependence of one being on another” (darwin, 1901: 78). in order to drive home the point that the readers should not think of the “struggle for existence” as a one-to-onecombat, he chose the example of a mistletoe, which “is dependent on the apple and a few other trees, but can only in a far-fetched sense be said to struggle with these trees, for, if too many of these parasites grow on the same tree, it languishes and dies” (darwin, 1901: 78). despite such provisos, this very notion of the “struggle” between a “parasite” and its “host” was mis-construed as a metaphor to justify racial genocide in nazi germany (proctor, 1988; kevles, 1995; evans, 1997; musolff, 2007). this racist exploitation of the “struggle for existence” metaphor was not contained in darwin’s theory but could be linked to it by misunderstanding evolution as “progress through struggle”. if evolution is thought of as progress, and progress itself is conceived only as the outcome of a deadly struggle between competitors, then evolution appears to entail the elimination of “inferior” competitors by supposedly “superior” ones. the misinterpretation of the concept of evolution through the combination of progress and combat metaphors serves as a reminder of the potentially disastrous political and social ramifications of misapplied popular scientific imagery. 3. metaphors in genetics: stem cells and their “potential” one of the most contested topic areas in current public debates is the application of genetic research results to fertility treatment and therapies, known metaphorically as “genetic engineering”. favourite metaphors used in public discussions on this topic are based on the source domains of movement and travel (e.g. “journey”, “race”, “obstacles” and “milestones” of genetic research, “the genetic map”), reading (“genetic alphabet”, “book”, “library”), construction (“genes as building blocks”), technological manipulation and its unforeseen results (“genetic engineering”, “machine”, “frankenstein’s monster”) and of genes as “self-propelled” and even “selfish, dynamic entities” (hellsten, 2000 & 2002; nerlich, 2005). dawkins has made at least as great an effort to justify andreas musolff ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-6050 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 50 and explain his metaphors as darwin (dawkins, 1989: 45, 278), but in the ancestor’s tale even he shows signs of exasperation: there is a temptation (…) to turn “gene survival in the past” into something like “intention to reproduce in the future”. (…) scientists who use such language (…) know very well that it is only a figure of speech. genes are just dna molecules. you’d have to be barking mad to think that “selfish” genes really have deliberate intentions to survive! (dawkins, 2005: 46-47). there is no reason to question the sincerity of dawkins’ reassurances concerning his use of the “selfish gene” metaphor “as” a metaphor –but will they fare better than darwin’s imagery? of course, only history can tell, but when we look at some of the current debates about “stem cells” one may wonder if these biological entities are not only being reified but even deified. some commentators ascribe magic, alchemistic qualities to stem cells, especially those taken from embryos, as having the “potential” to develop into any imaginable tissue: (1) following pioneering work on mice (…), teams [of researchers] have used embryos donated by patients undergoing ivf. (…) these cells are known as stem cells and they have the potential to turn into cells of any type of tissue: skin, heart, kidney or brain, for example. (the observer, 13 nov. 2005) the stem metaphor source in “stem cell” links to the folk-knowledge about the domain of plants, i.e. that the stem of a tree is more essential to its existence and survival than the branches and twigs, and that plants can be re-grown from stems. plant stems and stem cells are thus thought to have the “potential” to grow or re-grow into the full, complete version of the organism. the term potential here may seem innocuous enough, as its origin from latin potens (“powerful”, “capable” –skeat 1993: 367) has paled sufficiently to make it a neutral-sounding reference. however, in the context of announcements of successful stem cell cloning experiments, the notion of stem cells as entities with unlimited developmental potential has become charged with extra meanings. robin lovell-badge from the national institute for medical research, in an article in the guardian, thematised this polysemy: (2) potential is a word used by people on all sides in debates about stem cells. they will refer to the developmental potential of a stem cell, its ability to give rise to one or more specialized cell types. or to altered potential and “progressive” evolution and “totipotent” stem cells ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-60 51 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 51 reprogramming, when a stem cell seems to break the rules and develops into a different kind of tissue. some will talk about the potential of stem cells to aid research or (…) of potential to cure disease. (…) but potential is always conditional. it depends on research to prove something can work and that it is safe. this may take a long time, so caution needs to temper our optimism. but if we are not allowed to do research on embryonic stem (es) cells then we will not be able to use them for cures. any potential will be wasted. (the guardian, 21 may 2005) lovell-badge invokes the authority of science and the prospect of future therapies to highlight the definition of es cells’ “potential” in the context of an argument pro further es research. in the same number of the guardian, the president of the institute on biotechnology and the human future at the illinois institute of technology in chicago, nigel cameron, warned in a counter-commentary of the “downside” of es cell research by way of using technological imagery, implicitly accusing the british government of a technocratic attitude: “blair has taken thatcher’s policy to new heights by pressing cloning as a means of mass-manufacturing embryos to generate the stem cells” [italics added] (the guardian, 21 may 2005). he also praised germany, on account of its cautious legislation on stem cell research “as the global centre of conscience on biotechnology” (the guardian, 21 may 2005). germany has had a comparatively restrictive legislation on genetic research until now: only es cell lines imported before 2002 may be subjected to experimental research whereas there is no such general restriction in britain. even though germany has over the past five years followed the lead of great britain in setting up enquiry commissions and regulatory/supervisory bodies for bioethics that are represented and led predominantly by scientists, these differences have not diminished but rather increased (oduncu, 2003; dohmen, 2004; eser & koch, 2004; quante, 2005; bahnsen & willmann, 2005). recently, the discrepancies between the two national approaches have become even more apparent. in 2008, the german parliament managed with great effort to extend the time limit for the import of stem cells (their production in germany is still forbidden). at the same time, british researchers have benefitted not only from generous legal provision for the creation of es cells (as long as this serves the purpose of developing new therapies) but in may 2008, the british parliament permitted even the creation of “admixed”, hybrid embryos (spiewak, 2008; warnock, 2008). in view of these tendencies, the enduring, and growing, differences in the public attitudes towards es cell research in britain and germany would andreas musolff ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-6052 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 52 appear to be motivated by deep-seated contrasting assumptions about the nature, prospects and values of human life in its early stages (hervey & black, 2005; franz, 2006). in the following section, i shall investigate whether and how these differences find expression in the imagery employed in the public debates on this topic in both countries. the findings are based on a pilot corpus of 110 topic-relevant british and german articles (52,000 words so far) from newspaper coverage in 2000-2008, including, for instance, the times, the guardian, daily telegraph, the independent, and the economist on the british side, die zeit, die welt, frankfurter allgemeine zeitung, berliner zeitung and der spiegel, on the german side. 4. “liberation biology” vs. restrictions on es cell potency in britain, both advocates and opponents of research on embryonic stem cells, employ the established imagery of “reading” and “technological manipulation”, which depicts the referents as “objects” or “tools” of research (hellsten, 2000 & 2002; henderson, 2005). in positive reports, particular emphasis is laid on the “national” achievement of british scientists being at “the forefront” of global research efforts: (3) scientists have created human stem cell cultures without using any animal cells for the first time. (…) growing cells outside the body needs a carefully controlled environment. (the guardian, 2 jan. 2006) (4) dr woo suk hwang, once regarded as the world’s leading stem cell pioneer, was branded a national disgrace yesterday (…) after an investigation found that the research on which his reputation rested was fabricated. (…) “this has set us back several years. it was as if dr hwang had sent us a picture of him on top of everest, but it happened not to be everest. he lied to us about that and everest is still there to climb. it’s a challenge and it’s a biggy,” said chris shaw, (…) who (…) heads one of only two groups in britain to hold a human cloning licence. (the guardian, 11 jan. 2006) (5) donor breakthrough for cloning research [headline]. [new] rules will permit teams at the university of newcastle-upon-tyne and the university of edinburgh (…) to recruit egg donors from a much wider pool of women. (the times, 14 jan. 2006) “progressive” evolution and “totipotent” stem cells ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-60 53 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 53 (6) a decade after the creation of dolly the sheep, we are living in a glorious age of liberation biology. new technologies are unveiled by doctors almost every week that make it possible to reduce the sum of human suffering in ways that would have seemed like star trek science fiction when she first came mewing into our world. (…) we should be honest enough to call this attempt to improve the genetic lot of humanity by its name –liberal eugenics. it has nothing to do with the evil of nazi eugenics (…) (the independent, 6 july 2006) the imagery of “breakthroughs” and “climbing mountains”, of “liberation”, of “leadership” in and “control of a new technology” as well as the promise of positive “potential” pervades statements by british scientists, government representatives and media reports. they are, however, not without opposition. warnings of “monsters”, “franken”-creations and scientists “playing god” and comparisons with nazi science also figure in the public debate (wellcome trust, 1998; hellsten, 2000; kitzinger et al., 2003). reservations by religious groups, in particular the catholic church are faithfully, if sceptically, reported. nonetheless, these misgivings and protests have not managed to dent significantly an optimistic and overall researchfriendly stance on the part of successive governments and the general public. in german public debates, we find the same range of metaphoric concepts and similes, with the nazi eugenics comparison given high prominence, especially at the level of politico-ethical discussions (sloterdijk, 1999; habermas, 2001; de berg, 2002; hauskeller, 2004). this does not mean, however, that german public debate is dominated by the nazi references (döring & nerlich, 2004; nerlich, 2005), and the german sample of our pilot corpus does not appear to contain more instances of it than the british sample. however, the german debates do seem to have one characteristic aspect in that they give particular prominence to thematisations of the degree of potential cell growth. this topic is not unknown in british debates (compare the notion of “developmental potential” in lovell-badge’s list of meanings of “potential” in british stem cell debates in example 2). the german lexical realizations of this concept include the noun potenzial, the adjective “potent” as well as the colloquial alleskönner (someone or something able to deal successfully with any task). the general concept of “potential/capability” of es cells is further differentiated in german debates into “totipotency” (potential to develop into any kind of cell of the respective organism, which only applies to stem cells at a very early embryonic stage), “pluripotency” andreas musolff ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-6054 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 54 (potential to develop into a range of cells) and “multipotency” (of cells at an adult stage, whose developmental range is limited to a particular type of tissue). these grading specifications may seem not particularly contentious and therefore unlikely to feature in public debates, belonging as they do to a technical scientific register. however, their significance lies precisely in the apparent accuracy of definitions that are used to decide the question of when a group of stem cells should be regarded as being capable of becoming an organism (i.e. in the case of humans, a full human being). in its white papers to the german parliament, the national ethics advisory council distinguished between “absolute totipotency”, as the capability of an embryo to develop into a human being (which, if predicated of all es cells, would exclude these from any research) from maximum “pluripotency”, i.e. a developmental range that could be ascribed to cloned es cells (nationaler ethikrat, 2001). in 2004, one member of the council, the scientist jens reich (formerly a leading representative of the east german civil rights movement) criticised the very concept of “totipotent” cells as a scientific category: (7) reich: i think the identification of a cloned construct and an embryo is wrong. (…) because this identification is only possible if you ascribe “totipotency” to a cloned cell, that is the potential to develop into a full human being. but the concept of totipotency cannot be operationalized for empirical research. and therefore i think this concept is useless as an underpinning for an ethical decision. [my translation] (die zeit, 26 aug. 2004) reich’s difficulty with the concept of “totipotency” is indicative of the tensions between the “functional” characterization of an entity for the purposes of biomedical research, for its legal definition and for its public conceptualization. there may well be doubts among scientists about whether cloned human es cells may be at all “totipotent” –legally, they are prevented in germany from putting this issue to the test. in the public debate, however, the fascinating idea of the “all-capable, totipotent” es cells features prominently whenever changes in the law regulating the import and use of new stem cell lines is discussed in public (compare, for example, lehmann, 2008, or winnacker, 2008). “totipotency” turns out to be a deceptively technical/scientific-sounding version of qualifications of stem cells that are otherwise metaphorically “progressive” evolution and “totipotent” stem cells ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-60 55 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 55 expressed by way of more traditional ascriptions of magic creative powers that feature prominently in the german debates (wunderwerke der natur, wunder des lebens, heilsbringer; see mönninger, 2001; hammerstein & neubacher, 2004; bredow et al., 2005). one commentator even attributed not just “toti”-, but god-like “omni-potency” to them (omnipotente zellen –rögener, 2005). whilst such ascription of miraculous creative potency to es cells –as well as to the scientists– is by no means alien to british discourse (see frith, 2005; mckie & asthana, 2005. further data in hellsten, 2002), its specific link with, and seeming derivation from, scientific terminology (as in “multi-”, “pluri-”, “toti-”, “omni-potency”) appears to be typical of the german debate. 5. conclusions due to the limitations of the small corpus that has been assembled so far, it is not possible to draw statistically significant conclusions about differences between british and german uses of specific metaphors in es cell debates. whilst the overall range of source domains seems to be similar in both national discourses, the german discussion appears to give special prominence to distinctions of the degrees of cell growth “potential” that are derived from scientific terminology. the data show that these terminological distinctions change their rhetorical function when they are used in the public debate. a concept such as “absolute totipotency” may be discussed by scientists as a theoretical and technical problem, but in the public debate, due to its ramifications for the contentious issue of defining the “origin of human life”, it is linked to familiar metaphors of popular science where scientists are routinely depicted as “playing god” and stem cells are attributed quasi-miraculous, creative potency. the special focus on the researchers’ or es cells’ “creative potential” seems to favour certain types of discourse over others. on the one hand, one can think and talk of genetics and biology in terms of “scientifically controlled processes”. this is the realm of technological, instrumentalist metaphors that are typical of success-oriented popular science accounts. in such texts, researchers are the “agents”; the respective biological entities are the “objects” or “tools” of scientific inquiry and manipulation. this discourse is metaphysically agnostic or ostentatiously non-religious. the opposite position is usually framed by religious discourse, which insists on the andreas musolff ibérica 17 [2009]: 45-6056 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 56 omnipotent creator-god. the scientists’ instrumentalist approach and supposed usurpation of god’s role (“playing god”) is seen as a blasphemous, unacceptable violation of the order of the universe. today, this discourse seems no longer to command a majority appeal in britain or even in germany. instead, we have also found a third, alternative position in public discourse, i.e. the ascription of potency and even agency to cells and other biological entities/processes themselves. significantly, none of these three discourses ascribes an active/agentive role to the female donors of eggs and patients of genetic “harvesting” procedures and experiments or to the alleged beneficiaries of the scientific “breakthroughs”, i.e., the actual patients or subjects of the hoped-for therapies. these groups have at best “object” status in most public debates on stem cell research. leaving aside religious discourse, the currently dominant conceptualisations of researchers or es cells as the main or only “omnipotent/totipotent agents” carry an analogically, i.e. not descriptively, underwritten presupposition of either a god-like “designer/engineer” role of human scientists or of a miraculous “dynamism” that is somehow inherent in life, evolution and/or stem cells. someone or something has to “do” all the “evolving”, “growing”, and “realisation of potential”. such implicit metaphoric assumptions are liable to be ideologically exploited for the purposes of a bioor eco-mysticism that imputes metaphysical principles to nature in order to obscure political interests. such tendencies rely no longer on arcane magic formula; instead, they lay claim to scientific authority by borrowing from the specialised, technical register of particular scientific debates. but whereas scientists may argue over the theoretical and practical implications of the distinction between mere “pluri-” and full “totipotency” (example 7), the popular uses of recycled special terminology suggest clearcut contrasts that justify specific courses of action in legislation and research. as we can see from the history of misinterpretations of the tree of life, progress and struggle metaphors for evolution, transferring metaphors from scientific to public discourse without reflecting their potential ideological bias is not without risk. a combination of conceptual and discursive metaphor analysis seems to be well suited to unearth the implications of such transfer and subject them to critical discussion. 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(2005). “‘a river runs through it’: how the discourse metaphor crossing the rubicon structured the debate about human embryonic stem cells in germany and (not) the uk”. metaphorik.de 8: 71-104. oduncu, f.s. (2003). “stem cell research in germany: ethics of healing vs. human dignity”. medicine, health care and philosophy 6: 5-16. proctor, r.n. (1988). racial hygiene: medicine under the nazis. cambridge, ma.: harvard university press. quante, m. (2005). “quality of life assessment and human dignity: against the incompatibility assumption“. poiesis and praxis: international journal of technology assessment and ethics of science 3: 168-180. reich, j. (2004). “vernunft gebiert monster. interview mit jens reich”. die zeit 26 aug. rögener, w. (2005). “kleine klumpen mit großem potenzial”. süddeutsche zeitung 21 may. rose, m.r. (1998). darwin’s spectre. evolutionary biology in the modern world. princeton, nj.: princeton university press. skeat, w.w. (1993). the concise dictionary of english etymology. ware: wordsworth editions. sloterdijk, p. (1999). regeln für den menschenpark. ein antwortschreiben zu heideggers brief über den humanismus. frankfurt am main: suhrkamp. sontag, s. (1978). illness as metaphor. new york: vintage books. sontag, s. (1991). illness as metaphor. aids and its metaphors. london: penguin. spiewak, m. (2008). “der große unterschied”. die zeit 29 may. warnock, baroness m. (2008). “a victory for all humanity”. times higher education 29 may. weikart, r. (2004). from darwin to hitler. evolutionary ethics, eugenics, and racism in germany. basingstoke: palgravemacmillan. weindling, p. (1989). health, race and german politics between national unification and nazism 1870-1945. cambridge: cambridge university press. wellcome trust (ed.) (1998). public perspectives on human cloning. a social research study. london: the wellcome trust. winnacker, e.-l. (2008). “es geht auch mit vernunft”. die zeit 7 feb. york, p. (2005). “primordial ooze that yields a pint of goodness”. the independent on sunday 6 nov. andreas musolff is professor of german at durham university, uk. his publications include metaphor and political discourse: analogical reasoning in debates about europe (palgrave macmillan, 2004) and mirror images of europe. metaphors in the public debate about europe in britain and germany (iudicium, 2001). he has also co-edited volumes and numerous articles on international discourse about european union politics. 04 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 7:49 página 59 iberica 13 ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 issn 1139-7241 abstract in this paper we deal with some novel blends in english and discuss, from a cognitivist point of view, the ways they are formed and processed, particularly focusing on the interpretation of their meaning and the degree of recognisability of the source words in these blends by the esp students of the faculty of economics, university of belgrade, as well as the difficulties they face in understanding them. we point out various reasons why these blends tend to be misinterpreted by non-native speakers of english and discuss the extent to which esp teachers may rely on the tenets of conceptual blending theory in the process of economic vocabulary acquisition and learning in an esp economics course at the tertiary level. keywords: blends, conceptual blending theory, understanding blends, esp, non-native speakers. resumen s ob re “ s il ic o na ir e s ” y “ mi l l io ne r ds ” – có mo e n ti e nd e n l os a l umn os d e i f e l os nu e v os c ru c e s e n in g l é s en este trabajo nos centramos en diversos cruces nuevos (novel blends) que se registran en inglés y estudiamos, desde un punto de vista cognitivo, sus modos de formación y procesamiento. concretamente nos centramos en un grupo de alumnos de ife en la facultad de económicas de la universidad de belgrado y cómo interpretan los significados, el grado de reconocimiento de las palabras fuente que dan lugar a estos cruces y las dificultades que pueden encontrar estos alumnos en su comprensión. señalamos diversas razones por las que los hablantes no nativos de inglés pueden llegar a hacer interpretaciones erróneas de of “siliconaires” and “millionerds” – how esp learners understand novel blends in english nadežda silaški and tatjana đurović university of belgrade (serbia) silaskin@sbb.rs & tdjurovic@sbb.rs 85 ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 n. silaški & t. -durović estos cruces y estudiamos hasta qué punto los profesores de ife pueden adherirse a los postulados de la conceptual blending theory en el proceso de adquisición y aprendizaje del vocabulario económico presente en los cursos de inglés para ciencias económicas que se imparten en la educación superior. palabras clave: cruces, teoría de la integración conceptual, comprensión de los cruces, inglés para ciencias económicas, hablantes no nativos. 1. introduction although a few blends in english were recorded as early as in the 15th century (lehrer, 2007), blending1 has only recently become one of the most popular word formation processes and an important source of neologisms. at the same time, “[i]n spite of a recent surge of interest in it, blending remains among the most poorly understood and elusive word formation processes” (brdar-szabó & brdar, 2008: 171). there are many things about blending that “remain to be investigated and so many issues on which there is no real consensus among researchers, from a satisfying definition to an extensional account of the phenomenon including an inventory of various subtypes” (brdar-szabó & brdar, 2008: 172). nevertheless, blending has hitherto received insufficient scholarly attention and has been regarded as a marginal word formation process. it is only recently, however, with the increasing attention given to cognitive linguistics, and conceptual blending theory in particular, that blends have begun to attract the interest of researchers mostly due to “their creative nature and unusualness” (kemmer, 2003: 76), as well as their extreme suitability for analysis from a cognitive standpoint. in addition to already lexicalised and conventionalised blends such as “smog”, “workaholic” or “brunch”, where “some speakers are no longer aware of their underlying complex sources” (lehrer, 2007: 115), we are witnessing (almost on a daily basis) the emergence of new blends in english, many of which are one-off, nonce word forms, where speakers and hearers need to expend a great deal of effort in recognising the source words. these blends “are coined by speakers online to fit a specific communicative purpose, and may or may not become part of the shared lexicon of the linguistic community” (benczes, 2009: 49). in this paper we deal with some novel blends in english and discuss, from a cognitivist point of view, the ways they are formed and processed, 86 particularly focusing on the disambiguation of their meaning and the degree of recognisability of the source words in these blends by the esp students of the faculty of economics, belgrade university, as well as the problems they encounter in the process of understanding these blends. on the basis of the results obtained from a purposely designed questionnaire, we point out various reasons why these blends tend to be misinterpreted by nonnative speakers of english and discuss the extent to which esp teachers may rely on the tenets of conceptual blending theory in the process of economic vocabulary acquisition and learning in a tertiary-level esp economics course. 2. the definition of blending, conceptual blending and lexical blends blending as a word formation process “tends to shade off into compounding, neo-classical compounding, affixation, clipping and acronyming” (bauer, 1983: 26), which is why it cannot be defined in an easy and clear-cut way. kelly (1998: 579) defines blends as words “formed by snipping components from existing words and stitching the components together either through simple concatenation or through concatenation coupled with overlap of shared phonological segments”. blending, on the other hand, may be defined as “the intentional coinage of a new word by fusing parts of at least two source words” (gries, 2004: 416). the part of word which forms a blend is called a “splinter”, which cannot occur alone as a word, although it is basically a clipping. for example, in “infotainment” (information + entertainment), info is a clipping and can be used as an independent word. however, “-tainment” is a splinter and cannot stand alone but must be attached to something else (lehrer, 2007). kemmer (2003: 92) claims that the analysis of lexical blends under the theoretical wing of conceptual blending theory “fits very well into the general theory of blending developed by turner and fauconnier (1995)”, since this theory views them as “just one type of blending, in which form happens to be blended as well as concepts.” conceptual blending theory, as originally devised by fauconnier and turner (2002), builds on the notion of “mental spaces” (fauconnier, 1994). unlike conceptual metaphor theory (lakoff & johnson, 1980), in which a claim is made that the source domain structures the target domain (which means that the process of of siliconaires and millionerds ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 87 metaphorisation involves two conceptual domains), according to conceptual blending theory a third space is created, which is a separate, blended mental space.2 mental spaces are “small conceptual packets constructed as we think and talk, for purposes of local understanding and action” (fauconnier & turner, 2002: 40). blending is the combination of two inputs in mental spaces that yield a third mental space called a blend, which “is not merely a composition of the first two but instead has emergent structure of its own” (fauconnier & turner, 1999: 76). conceptual blending involves three basic processes – “composition”, “completion”, and “elaboration”, of which composition, “the most straightforward process, refers to the projection of content from each of the inputs into the blended space” (grady, oakley & coulson, 1999) and is central to the problem dealt with in this paper. according to ungerer and schmid (2006: 268), “the most obvious candidate for an analysis in terms of conceptual blending is its namesake in the area of word-formation, the morphological blend, as represented by items such as smog, brunch, motel, infotainment”. however, all these blends have already become deeply entrenched and lexicalised, insomuch that “many language users will not even realise the blending background any longer” (ungerer & schmid, 2006: 268) and are able to understand these blends without “unpacking” them – that is without being aware of their input spaces. in this paper, however, we deal with novel blends, whose processing and understanding requires mental effort expended in their unpacking and recognising the source parts. the claim that blends usually arise due to the principle of language economy and efficiency is somewhat contradictory with the claim some authors make, namely that “most new blends and other trendy neologisms (...) don’t increase efficiency” (lehrer, 2003: 369) but, on the contrary, “create more effort to interpret – at least at first, until readers and hearers have figured out what the source words are and what they mean” (lehrer, 2003: 369). this is the case with novel, creative blends which, according to ungerer and schmid (2006: 268), are “the real testing ground for a conceptual blending analysis”, since many of them are “intentionally conceived as a temporary and openended phenomenon” (ungerer & schmid, 2006: 268) and are thus very poor candidates for conceptual entrenchment. in the next section we deal with the results obtained from a questionnaire designed to test the ability of nonnative speakers of english (students of economics) to understand and correctly interpret selected novel blends. n. silaški & t. -durović ibérica 25 (2013): 85-10688 3. materials and participants a total of 95 students, aged 21-23, took part in the survey. all students were attending their third year of studies at the faculty of economics at the time the survey was carried out, after having learnt general english for 12 years in their primary and secondary schools and having attended a highly specialised two-semester esp economics course at the faculty. the students were informed that the questionnaire involved the identification and interpretation of novel blends in english. they were also given an explanation of what blends are (the definition of blends was illustrated by the use of the example of “infotainment”, which turned out to be familiar to a vast majority of students). they were presented with a questionnaire with a list of 33 blends (mostly collected from investopedia.com site in 2011, filed under the heading buzz words) divided into five segments. each of the first four segments dealt with the blends triggered by the same word, while the last segment contained miscellaneous blends not resting on any specific trigger word.3 the students were asked: (1) to identify the source words of the blends, and (2) to interpret and explain the meaning of each blend in serbian, since we did not want their knowledge of english, which is somewhere between b1 and b2 levels, to hinder the correct explanation of the way they understand blends from the questionnaire. although previous research (see lehrer, 2003; for serbian see halupkarešetar & lalić-krstin, 2009 & 2012) indicates that blends are processed somewhat more easily in context than without context, the blends in the questionnaire were presented to the students in a decontextualised manner. this is because, as lehrer (2003: 372) puts it, “[t]he creators [of blends], often journalists and advertisers, use these terms without definitions, expecting readers and hearers to ‘get’ them”. at the same time, however, “the problem of identification and interpretation [of blends] is highly determined” (lehrer, 2003: 370) if blends are presented in context. since our main goal was to check the potential of on-line processing of novel blends (as propounded by conceptual blending theorists) with esp learners in order to determine the level of their understanding of novel blends and to see if non-native speakers of english approach the processing of blend meaning in the same way as native speakers do, we did not want the context to influence and facilitate their interpretation so the blends were presented in the questionnaire in an isolated way. in pursuit of investigating how students comprehend and interpret blends in a decontextualised setting, we deem that possible incorrect inferences and of siliconaires and millionerds ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 89 faulty interpretations “may provide us with as much insight as correct choices.” (charteris-black, 1998: 15). in the following sections we discuss the main results of the survey, concentrating individually on the three groups of blends contained in the questionnaire. what follows is not a statistical but a detailed qualitative analysis of the questionnaire results, since we believe that such an analysis may allow for a richer and more profound explanation of the results which may partially or entirely be lacking if the results were analysed quantitatively, as that would not be sufficient to account for the “reasons” for possible misinterpretations of meaning. 3.1. the case of “economics” and “–nomics” blends lehrer (2007: 120) claims that “once a blend is created, the splinter may be reused”. however, when the splinter becomes a common part of numerous blends, it may tend to lose its original connection with the source word and “can be considered as a morpheme in its own right” (lehrer, 2007: 121), going through the process of being a completely novel splinter at first to finally becoming a completely conventional morpheme. this is most probably the case with “–nomics”, which is increasingly becoming a clear candidate for morpheme status. however, “–nomics” does not originate from a once novel blend and has never been a morpheme in its own right. nevertheless, the “–nomics” splinter, produced by structural resegmentation of the word “economics” and thus being “endowed with some semantic autonomy” (frath, 2005: 104), has been used to coin tens and tens of neologisms. the splinter retains the meaning of the word it replaces, although it does not exist in unbound form – for instance there is no such thing as a ratti (a splinter in glitteratti, coined according to literatti) (frath, 2005). similarly, the word nomics does not exist but is obtained in the reanalysis of “economics”, albeit not semantically grounded, thus producing an affix, “–nomics”, which has now acquired a bound morpheme status (lehrer, 2007), functioning in the blends as a final splinter. as far as the degree of students’ understanding of “–nomics” blends4 is concerned, there are some general conclusions to be drawn. firstly, the meaning of those “–nomics” blends whose source word is a personal name was most easily interpreted. this is a distinctive group of neologisms which can be defined collectively as terms used to refer to the overall economic policies of certain presidents or governments, such as “obamanomics”, n. silaški & t. -durović ibérica 25 (2013): 85-10690 “nixonomics”, “clintonomics”, “reaganomics” tested in our questionnaire, and they are all metonymically based. despite a high degree of students’ comprehension of these blends, there are certain misinterpretations which may be attributed to a number of different reasons. firstly, several students processed the meaning of blends exclusively at orthographic/phonological level (the so-called bottom-up processing, which is based on someone’s linguistic knowledge), wrong guesses arising from misspelled splinters, such as “economic development aimed at clients” in “clintonomics”, or “regional economics” in “reaganomics”. secondly, although “nixonomics” has produced a significant number of correct interpretations, several students misinterpreted it either as “nix” + “economics” and explained it as “without economics”, which, irrespective of its semantic content, is reminiscent of one underlying characteristic of blending – fuzzy morpheme boundaries, when source words are sometimes linked in a very surprising manner. the meaning of “enronomics” was also readily recognised by a vast majority of students. even the explanation that the blend refers to a “fake (falsified) economic prosperity” may fare at least as a partial understanding. similarly to some previous blends, several misinterpretations of “enronomics” arise from wrongly linking the first source word to the noun “environment” (thus, “economics of the environment” or “environmental economics”) in one case, or to the adjective “enormous”, thus “enronomics” = “enormous development” in the second. this implies that although students make wrong recognition of source words at the intralingual level of graphology, they still strive and manage to make possible conceptual connections between these wrongly identified source words, which is suggestive of a high potential of language creativity of blending. “kremlinomics”, on the other hand, is one of the rare examples of the “–nomics” blends (together with “boomernomics” and “perkonomics” that we will mention later) whose meaning has proven to be very difficult to decode, producing not one correct interpretation whatsoever. although the students had a vague notion about the given blend due to a successful identification of the source words, they were unaware of the extra information content of the word “kremlin”, which attests to the fact that the blended word is not a simple compounding of (mostly) two words’ meaning, but is enriched with a broader conceptual content. only one of siliconaires and millionerds ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 91 explanation, “economics of self-centeredness”, remotely recalls the true meaning of “kremlinomics”. in this particular case, therefore, the blending process is in effect entirely lacking. some other “–nomics” blends, however, turned out to be misinterpreted by almost all students, “boomernomics” being a case in point. out of 95 students who filled out the questionnaire, only three of them interpreted the blend and its underlying source words correctly. as many as 23 students stated that the second source word, in addition to “economics”, was “boomerang”, which of course distorted the meaning of the blend. hence “economic boomerang”, “measures of economic policy which backfire”, “economy which causes a negative feedback”, etc. a number of students, on the other hand, stated that the meaning of “boomernomics” was “economic boom”, their interpretation of the blend resting on the understanding that “boomer” in “boomernomics” was somehow linked with economic boom periods (therefore, “economies that are progressing fast”, “a sudden change”, “economy linked up with a huge expansion”, “economic prosperity”, etc.). the students were obviously not familiar with the concept of “baby-boomers”. although both problems that the students encountered in their interpretations may be readily attributed to the absence of sufficient knowledge about a (baby) boomer, there are rather plausible explanations for the failure to decode the meaning of “boomernomics” in both cases. the former – that is “boomernomics” as a wrongly identified blend from “boomerang” and “economics”, may be attributed to a consistent application of one of the combining patterns, that of two splinters when the fore part of the first source word is concatenated with the hind part of the second source word, with no overlapping (similarly to “brunch”). due to the students’ failure to notice that the first source is a whole word, not a clipped part, the difficulties arise as to “the identification of underlying associations between elements” (charteris-black, 1998: 24), which in turn leads to the above mentioned comprehension difficulties. in the latter case, on the other hand, students fail to utilise a grammar schema based on the rule noun + the agent suffix (here, “–er”), identifying only part of the source word and trying to establish relations between apparently semantically compatible words (“boom” and “economics”), which may lend some feeble grounds for justifying the selected choice of meaning. the correct decoding of “boomernomics” is obviously governed by coherence and the application of the so-called top-down model of interpretation in global context, which n. silaški & t. -durović ibérica 25 (2013): 85-10692 encompasses one’s world knowledge. the lack of culture-specific knowledge of the word “boomer” has rendered the proposed meanings of the blend “boomernomics” incorrect. another example of poor understanding of “–nomics” blends is “burgernomics”. namely, a number of students stated that “burgernomics” meant either “policy of fast-food restaurants” or “fast-food business”, unaware of the existence of the big mac index, which may be attributed to a gap in their subject-matter knowledge. however, some interpretations are evidence of interesting strategies of meaning processing, based primarily on the first source word. hence explanations that “burgernomics” is “poor quality economy”, “cheap economy”, “unhealthy, bad development”, or “something that is composed of several parts” hinge on common-sense beliefs about the quality of fast food, or as the last example shows, on visualisation converted into a verbal form, which consequently guide interpretations of the given blend and its disambiguation. the suggested answers are a key to the students’ conceptual packing of two input spaces, even though one of them has not been fully developed due to some extralinguistic reasons. “flexinomics” and “perkonomics” seem to be the most confusing blends to our economics students. most of them recognised the source words (“flexible” + “economics”) and (“perk” + “economics”) respectively, but were not able to get their meanings. most of them stated that “flexinomics” was a kind of “flexible economics” (or, “a high level of economic liberalisation”, liberalisation obviously understood as flexibility), but were not able to elaborate on this interpretation. “perkonomics” was most frequently interpreted as “economics based on employees’ perks”, whatever that might mean. the problem that students encounter here lies in semantic extension, which requires searching for deeper semantic associations between the source words that go beyond their apparently transparent meaning. this is in line with lehrer’s (2007: 117) argument that “[a]fter the source words have been identified, a plausible meaning must still be found” (lehrer, 2007: 117). the contextual usage of these two blends would undoubtedly enhance both comprehension and better retention, bearing in mind that particularly in the example of “perkonomics” students are aware of the great semantic plausibility between the two source words. of siliconaires and millionerds ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 93 3.2. the case of “millionaire” and “–naire” blends the second group contained those blends coined according to the trigger word “millionaire”: “optionaire”, “dellionaire”, “siliconaire”, “spillionaire”, and “millionerd”. the students were rather successful in finding the source words, except for “spillionaire”, where they misinterpreted the word “spill”, originally meant to refer to the british petroleum oil spill. namely, most students stated that a “spillionaire” was “someone who is so rich that they spill money around them”, whereas the intended meaning of this novel blend is “someone who makes millions due to the british petroleum oil spill in the gulf ”. a completely opposite explanation that it is “someone who has lost – that is, spilled – a million” also adds to a problem of exclusion of some meanings of source words, in this case “spill”, which tends to be indispensable so as to comprehend the meaning of this blend altogether. in other words, different interpretations may be here ascribed to “a partial and selective transfer of meanings” (charteris-black, 1998: 26; original bold), additionally coupled with the absence of any contextual cues. “siliconaire” turned out to be the most interesting case of “millionaire” blends. thus, a vast majority of students made their own on-line meaning construction, interpreting the meaning of “siliconaire” as “a plastic surgeon who makes millions on silicone breast implants” or, conversely, “the plastic surgeons’ big salaries” themselves. obviously unaware of the different spelling of “silicon” (a chemical element) and confusing it with “silicone” (rubber-like material used for breast implants), students formed and selected their own conceptual packets. in addition, several explanations draw on what charteris-black (1998: 28) labels as “syntactic opacity”, when students are not able to restore the missing syntactic elements so as to paraphrase the blend as intended. this is evidenced in interpretations that “siliconaires” are “silicones for millionaires”, “people who have so much money that they can waste it on silicones”, or even that these are “millionaires with silicone implants” and consequently not real but “fake millionaires”! according to charteris-black (1998: 11), foreign students “may lack culture-specific knowledge to provide the semantic basis for an interpretation which can enable them to supply deleted syntax”. another wrong but perhaps culturally-dependent interpretation, was that a “siliconaire” was “a woman, who, thanks to her breasts augmented with silicone implants, married a millionaire” and a variation of it that it was “someone who makes millions working in show business as singers, actors/actresses”, or even more “informed” interpretations that it was “someone who has made a fortune n. silaški & t. -durović ibérica 25 (2013): 85-10694 thanks to some artificiality”, “an artificial millionaire, who assumes an air of being a millionaire, not being actually one”, “new money”, or “a millionaire who has suddenly become one”! the source words of both “optionaire” and “dellionaire” were rather easily recognised, but the meaning processing was still hard to perform. thus, several students stated that an “optionaire” was “a millionaire who can afford to keep his options open, who has many options in life”, or “the one who uses their options” and “has the option of becoming a millionaire”. few interpretations were wrong due to semantic reasons since “optionaire” was said to be “an optional millionaire”, “optional” interpreted as “potential”5, whereas in some cases students incorrectly identified the first source word as “optimisation”, hence “optionaire” turned out to be “a millionaire by way of optimisation”, or it meant “to optimise with the aim of becoming a millionaire”. wrong source word recognition was also evident in an explanation in which it was stated that an “optionaire” was “a millionaire who has made a fortune from optical business”. “dellionaire” also proved to be semantically opaque, giving rise to only a few correct meaning construals. misinterpretations may be generally attributed to a poor source word identification as evidenced in one student’s explanation as “a not so rich millionaire, something like del boy from only fools and horses”6, and several related ones as “funny (millionaire)”, “not so well-off a millionaire”, or “someone who has become rich in retailing”. wrong disambiguation as “a millionaire in delirium” also shows the same type of comprehension problem (together with the explanation “decision making”?!) where the blend was split in a totally unexpected way. misspelling again proved to be a rich source of erroneous answers, a full word “dell” mistakenly decoded as “deal”, but being in fact (phonologically) related to serbian verb deliti “to divide” or “to share” on the one hand, which is why “dellionaire” was understood as a process of “dividing/sharing wealth”, “dividing millions”, or to deliti “to deal playing cards among players” on the other, expanding the meaning of the blend “dellionaire” to “a millionaire who has something to do with betting”. finally, “millionerd” (“millionaire” + “nerd”) originally meaning “a wealthy person who made their money in computer software or some other hightech industry”, was correctly interpreted by most students, which probably arises from their familiarity with the source word “nerd” as well as its frequency. still, some interpretations bear witness to the fact that the word of siliconaires and millionerds ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 95 “nerd” has frequently been associated with attributes deemed as pejorative, such as being too preoccupied with studying and void of social ability. this conceptual content found its way in explanations such as “a nerd who has made millions”, “a nerd who has become rich”, “someone obsessed with making money”, “a stingy person”, “a nerd – bourgeois”, or a very offensive “a retarded millionaire”. however, several examples show that faulty interpretations of the students echo certain grammar rules, producing in turn interesting answers. thus, in explanations “ex-millionaire”, “having become a millionaire”, “a person worth a million or more dinars or some other currency”, or “valued at million of something” the blend meaning seems to be deducted from a morphological process of participle-adjective conversion, when any past participle may be used as an adjective. this indicates that blend comprehension as a kind of lexical inferencing of meaning is a very complex process with foreign learners and rests on all available linguistic cues and knowledge as well as the learners’ mental lexicon which enables them to make many possible semantic associations, irrespective of their conceptual correctness or intention. a significantly higher number of students who successfully decoded the meaning of “millionerd” confirms lehrer’s (2003: 372) hypothesis that “[b]lends in which the targets are frequent would be processed more quickly than those which are less frequent.” in addition, we may assume that a high degree of the students’ exposure to this blend (via the use of the internet) has also to be accounted for. 3.3. miscellaneous blends the third group of blends from the questionnaire contained miscellaneous blends (“funemployment”, “diworsification”, “returnment”, “homepreneur” and “blamestorming”) although not selected randomly. the main criterion for the blend selection was their morphological composition which we tried to make as versatile as possible. thus, the first blend was “funemployment” whose composition may be difficult to establish: it may be understood either as “fun” + “unemployment” (zero splinter plus partial overlap) or, alternatively, “fun” + “employment”, in which case the understanding of the blend would not be right. as many as 66 of the total number of 95 students stated in the questionnaire that the source words of this blend were actually “fun” + “employment”. consequently, they wrongly interpreted the meaning of this blend as “a job which is fun to do”, “funny employment”, “a job for fun”. alternatively, due to syntactic problems, students also n. silaški & t. -durović ibérica 25 (2013): 85-10696 explained that the given blend meant “employment in the amusement/entertainment industry” or “employment in show business”. similar to some previous blends, a wrong identification of source words may be attributed to phonological/orthographic similarity which may still produce semantically viable interpretations. thus in one case a student managed to identify “unemployment” as the second source word, but considered “fu–” a splinter of the word “full”, hence “funemployment” resulted in “full unemployment”. in two additional cases, erroneous interpretations were accounted for by a poor identification of both source words, giving rise to “fundamental employment” in one case (“fun[damental]” + “employment”), or “functional employment” (“fun[ctional]” + “employment”) in another. this once again points out all the intricacies of blending in spite of the students’ awareness of the general principles of melding two words together and is in line with kemmer’s (2003: 77) argument that “[r]ecognizability is a matter of degree (…) and does not lend itself to formulation in a rule”. it generally shows that blends with partial or complete overlap are very difficult to process, in the sense that they may allow for different source identification depending on how many neighbouring words can be derived (as the “funemployment” example shows – that is, “fun” can be “fun(ny)”, “fundamental”, “functional”). as lehrer (2003: 372) states “[b]lends without neighbors or with less frequent neighbors will be processed faster than those with more frequent neighbors”. let us add here that sometimes even the aspect of semantic plausibility may be seriously questionable – one may agree that “unemployed individuals who decide to enjoy the free time that unemployment provides” is equally semantically permissible as “full employment” or “functional employment”, as proposed by some students. it implies that blending asks for digging deeper for conceptual combinations between source words, which may sometimes be considerably helped by contextual cues. the second blend in the miscellaneous section of the questionnaire was “diworsification” (“diversification” + “worse”, in which there is an embedded splinter). from the point of view of serbian students, phonologically as well as graphically speaking, this blend seemed to resemble the word “divorce”, giving rise to a host of amusing but completely wrong explanations, such as “legal divorce” (where “–fication splinter was identified as “nostrification” [sic!]), “a document on divorce”, “suffer because you have recently divorced”, or even “a divorce bringing pleasure”. a wrong recognition of source words gives reasons for interpreting “diworsification” of siliconaires and millionerds ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 97 as “to split vacation, not to use it immediately” (“divorce” + “vacation”) or “a classification after dividing up of a company” (“divorce” + “classification”). even though we recorded three correct explanations of the given blend, a good deal of either incorrect answers or no answers at all account for the finding that, regarding the ease of identification, embedded splinter counts as the most difficult (see lehrer, 2003). the next blend “returnment”, whose effectiveness lies in phonological similarity between the two source words, “return” and “retirement”, was correctly decomposed by only a few students. a large number of suggested wrong interpretations revealed that the students focused their attention only on the word “return” in order to match serbian translation of this verb with the words it usually collocates, practically disregarding the second splinter, and thus failing to hint at the right meaning of the blend. hence misinterpretations range from “return (reimburse) of money or salary”, “to get (return) a job back”, “to return (pay) a debt by paying out”, “hiring/firing”, additionally explained as “return employment”, “return of invested assets”, “return on investment”, to a surprising and different one “relocating the employees to other work places”. these processing flaws indicate that in certain cases students of foreign language resort to their native language for semantic clues, with a smaller or higher degree of interference. out of all the blends in the miscellaneous section, “homepreneur” has shown to be correctly identified and comprehended by the majority of students, which may be attributed to their high familiarity with the technical word “entrepreneur” and even more, with a high frequency word “home”. even though they certainly recognised the source word “home”, some students experienced problems in trying to establish target semantic and conceptual links between the two inputs. accordingly, proposed glosses, such as “someone who performs house jobs”, “family business”, “a selfmade entrepreneur”, “a sole employer”, “a small entrepreneur”, “a domestic entrepreneur”, “someone who runs a household”, “a housekeeper”, “the self-employed”, or even “a person/job of decorating the interior of a home” show on the one hand, that some students process blends as if they were noun compounds, and on the other, that the students attempt to decode the meaning by forming a vast array of semantic associations in their semantic networks triggered in this case by the word “home”, although they are rendered incorrect as explanations of “homepreneur”. misspelling was again the reason for one conceptually illogical explanation, in which “home” was n. silaški & t. -durović ibérica 25 (2013): 85-10698 taken to be “homo” and the whole combination understood as “the same gender employee”. some of the above examples also show syntactic deficiencies, when students do not discriminate between someone who works “from” home and someone who works “at” home. thus, one student showed this difference by explaining that “homepreneur” is “a prisoner”, combining conceptual and phonological aspects in a very surprising way indeed. finally, the blend “blamestorming”, which rests on a phonological familiarity with the word “brainstorming” that projects a greater part of its meaning onto “blamestorming”, proved extremely demanding with regard to its successful comprehension, due to the wrong identification of input elements and demonstrating a complete disregard for the otherwise familiar word “brainstorming”. since the majority of students simply separated the blend into “blame” and “storm(ing)”, they missed the underlying semantic and conceptual links between the two source words and produced interpretations which rely either on the first or on the second element. hence “a rush of blame”, “gathering collective blame”, “guilt”, “an attack of blame”, “a set of blame one after another”, or simply and only “storm”. 4. discussion novel lexical blends, mostly realised as a concoction of usually well-known source words, operate at a deeper conceptual level rather than at a superficial linguistic level unlike noun compounds to which they are very similar, so “the tight lexical integration of two distinct word-forms into a unified lexical whole suggests an equally tight integration of ideas at the conceptual level” (veale & butnariu, 2010: 403). according to the questionnaire results, a good deal of the esp students of the faculty of economics, belgrade university, are faced with the very problem of successfully projecting the meaning of input words and its subsequent integration into a blend. some explanations provided by the students regarding blends such as “blamestorming” and “kremlinomics” exemplify the problem of successful conceptual coalescing of the two source words even when the students have successfully identified them. their usage in a sentential context would perhaps facilitate the proper interpretation. however, we tested the students’ ability to recognise and interpret blends in a decontextualised setting, in real time, without being backed by some background knowledge cues. the way some students of siliconaires and millionerds ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 99 decompose blends and construct their meaning, although in an incorrect or unexpected way, has provided us with several insights concerning on-line blend processing and its potential as a tool of vocabulary learning of esp economics students. generally speaking, the working out of blend meaning resorts to accessing words from the available students’ mental lexicon trading on the information which stands at their disposal, and that is closely connected with the overall foreign language proficiency of the students. in other words, we may conclude that the higher the level of english knowledge, the higher the degree of successful blend interpretation. blend comprehension, where students perform lexical inferencing tasks, should account for “making informed guesses as to the meaning of a word in light of all available linguistic cues in combination with the learner’s general knowledge of the world, her awareness of context and her relevant linguistic knowledge” (haastrup, 1987: 197). on the one hand, this means that the students, although making wrong guesses, deploy the so-called top-down processing when a blend is viewed as a “semantic package” which contains all the information that a student can relate to identifying source words. this is evident in explanations that “clintonomics” is “economics of being wasteful”, “enronomics” is “a fake economic prosperity”, “obamanomics” is “economics of saving”, etc. this may also suggest that in some cases the students view blends as gestalts – that is, the processes of identification and interpretation of source words are probably simultaneous or the process of interpretation is at least performed with no considerable mental effort in comparison to the one of identification. on the other hand, instantiations of bottom-up processing are evident in those (incorrect) explanations where students experience problems concerning syntactic relations between source words. thus, for example, the question which arises is the following: is a “siliconaire” “someone who is a millionaire because of the business of implanting silicones”, or “a millionaire with implanted silicones”? the second major finding relates to the problem of meaning disambiguation when, despite the correct identification of source words, the students still produce wrong guesses, due to word polysemy. the blend “siliconaire” is a case in point, where the students focus on a meaning of “silicon/e” different from the one intended. in spite of an attempt to locate the right meaning of a word in its semantic network some students simply miss the semantic coherence between the source words, which consequently causes their wrong inference on a conceptual level as well. as some experiments show (lehrer, n. silaški & t. -durović ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106100 1996 & 2007), these are the factors that should be accounted for with native speakers as well. alternatively, other (especially metaphorical) meanings of words may not be simply overlooked but not be part of the students’ vocabulary at all, in which case the intended meaning would be entirely lacking. the third finding is linked up with one of the most important problems in blend comprehension, the problem emerging at a phonological level, since phonological properties are extremely relevant in blending and the wrong identification of blend source words results in semantic and conceptual incomprehension. incorrect processing of “returnment” or “diworsification” by some students underlines the aspect of phonological similarities of input words and their effect on blends. furthermore, as kemmer (2003: 77) says “[t]he amount of similar structure can vary a great deal, so it is impossible to state a general formal rule that will license some blends and exclude others”, which proves to be an obstacle to a successful blend processing with both native speakers and foreign learners. if the previously mentioned findings account for parallels that can be drawn between native speakers of english and non-native esp learners regarding the construction of the blend meaning, then problems associated with the processing of, for instance, “burgernomics”, “boomernomics”, “optionaire”, “dellionaire”, or “spillionaire” pinpoint the significance of general background knowledge of the student, including his/her subjectspecific knowledge. although this kind of information is beyond the realm of linguistic knowledge, it is frequently the crucial carrier of the blend meaning. if the students had been aware of the extralinguistic meaning of the input word “boomer” in “boomernomics”, for example, they would have more successfully integrated it in the given blend. context, frequency of usage, and exposure to blends can probably compensate for the missing cultural and subject-specific links, indispensable to a higher level of the students’ successful inferencing of the blend meaning. 5. pedagogical implications our findings reveal significant pedagogical implications for the teaching of novel blends in an esp classroom at tertiary level. namely, they clearly indicate that english teachers cannot expect that their students, non-native speakers of english, will be able to process the meaning of novel blends online in the same way native speakers of english will, that is novel blends of siliconaires and millionerds ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 101 “have to be taught”, just like other units of vocabulary. among the above mentioned reasons for the misinterpretation and misunderstanding of novel blends, the most important in our opinion is that many cultural gaps, necessary to be filled before the process of meaning construction even starts, prevent the students from getting the right meaning of blends, while at the same time, their own cultural milieu often impedes the correct interpretation of blends. the correct “unpacking” of novel blends by nonnative speakers of english requires the right cultural background, and if the knowledge of that background is missing, that is if extralinguistic opacity occurs, novel blends remain either incomprehensible or misdecoded. therefore, the apparent lack of conceptual fluency, characteristic of learners of english as a foreign language, is due to the fact that they think in terms of their native conceptual system (yu, 2009: 299). moreover, “the various pieces of information that are associated with any given concept are largely socially constructed” (littlemore, 2004: 269) and “a given item is likely to activate a different set of associations” (littlemore, 2004: 275), since the blending process and particularly the formation of conceptual packets, in conceptual blending theory terms, is a highly individualised act which cannot guarantee the grasping of intended meaning of blends. 6. conclusion in this paper an attempt has been made to account for the results of a questionnaire which tested the students’ understanding of novel blends in english in terms of conceptual blending theory. as far as teaching novel blends is concerned, we may conclude by saying that conceptual blending, as it is claimed to be naturally occurring in native english speakers, cannot be a reliable ground for the teaching and the adoption of novel blends’ meaning and their supposed on-line meaning construction when it comes to esp learners. many preconditions mentioned above need to be met before nonnative and native speakers’ conceptual packets match and before they select the same conceptual content which will be cognitively blended into the same verbal manifestation. as far as suggestions for further study are concerned, it would be interesting to conduct some research among esp learners to analyse the extent to which factors such as the context in which blends appear, knowledge of english, general education, or any other relevant variable help in the “unpacking” and understanding of blends. it would also be interesting for future research to compare the understanding of the same n. silaški & t. -durović ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106102 novel blends by the native speakers of some other european languages to establish the similarities or differences between the ways they combine and blend the available conceptual packets and the ways this is done by serbian speakers. acknowledgements the paper is the result of research conducted within project no. 178002 languages and cultures across space and time funded by the ministry of education, science and technological development of the republic of serbia. [paper received 23 april 2012] [revised paper accepted 13 october 2012] references of siliconaires and millionerds ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 103 bauer, l. (1983). english word-formation. cambridge university press: cambridge. benczes, r. (2009). “what motivates the production and use of metaphorical and metonymical compounds?” in m. brdar, m. omazić & v. pavičić takač (eds.), cognitive approaches to english: fundamental, methodological, interdisciplinary and applied aspects, 49-69. newcastle upon tyne: cambridge scholars. brdar-szabó, r. & m. brdar (2008). “on the marginality of lexical blending”. jezikoslovlje 9: 171-194. bugarski, r. (2001). “dve reči u jednoj: leksičke skrivalice”. jezik danas 13: 1-5. charteris-black, j. (1998). “compound nouns and the acquisition of english neologisms”. url: http://www.eric.ed.gov/pdfs/ed427525.pdf [10/05/2011] fauconnier, g. (1994). mental spaces: aspects of meaning construction in natural language. cambridge: cambridge university press. fauconnier, g. & m. turner (1999). “metonymy and conceptual integration” in k-u. panther & g. radden (eds.), metonymy in language and thought, 77-90. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. fauconnier, g. & m. turner (2002). the way we think: conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. new york: basic books. fischer, r. (1996). lexical change in present-day english: a corpus-based study of the motivation, institutionalization, and productivity of creative neologisms. tübingen: gunter narr verlag. frath, p. (2005). “why is there no ham in hamburger? a study of lexical blends and reanalysed morphemisation”. ranam (recherches anglaises et nord-américaines) 38: 99-112. grady, j.e., t. oakley & s. coulson (1999). “blending and metaphor”. url: http://markturner.org/blendaphor.html [30/04/2009] gries, s.t. (2004). “isn’t that fantabulous? how similarity motivates intentional morphological blends in english” in m. achard & s. kemmer (eds.), language, culture, and mind, 415-428. stanford: csli publications. haastrup, k. (1987). “using thinking aloud and retrospection to uncover learners’ lexical inferencing procedures” in c. faerch & g. kasper (eds.), introspection in second language research, 197-212. clevedon: multilingual matters. halupka-rešetar, s. & g. lalić-krstin (2009). “new blends in serbian: typological and headedness-related issues”. godišnjak filozofskog fakulteta u novom sadu xxxiv: 115124. halupka-rešetar, s. & g. lalić-krstin (2012). “razumevanje slivenica u srpskom jeziku”. nasleđe 22: 101-110 nadežda silaški works as an associate professor of english for economists at the faculty of economics, university of belgrade. she got her phd degree in linguistics in 2005. her fields of interest include discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics and esp. she is the author of a monograph on anglicisms in serbian economic register and co-author of a monograph on metaphors in serbian public discourse as well as author and co-author of several esp economics textbooks. tatjana đurović works as an associate professor of english for economists at the faculty of economics, university of belgrade. she received her phd in linguistics in 2006. her main research interests include cognitive linguistics, esp and discourse analysis. she is the co-author of a monograph on metaphors in serbian public discourse and author and coauthor of several esp economics textbooks. notes 1 blending has now been widely accepted as a term. however, blends have been named differently in linguistic research (for example “portmanteau words”, “contamination”, “telescope words”, “amalgams”, “brunch-words”, “compromot”, among others). see fischer (1996) for a detailed discussion. in serbian, bugarski (2001) proposes the term slivenica (“blend”), which is also accepted by klajn (2002) and halupka-rešetar and lalić-krstin (2009 & 2012). n. silaški & t. -durović ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106104 kelly, m.h. (1998). “to “brunch” or to “brench”: some aspects of blend structure”. linguistics 36: 579-90. kemmer, s. (2003). “schemas and lexical blends” in h. cuyckens, t. berg, r. dirven & k.-u. panther (eds.), motivation in language: studies in honor of günter radden, 69-97. amsterdam: john benjamins. klajn, i. (2002). tvorba reči u savremenom srpskom jeziku i. novi sad: institut za srpski jezik i matica srpska. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago: chicago university press. lehrer, a. (1996). “identifying and interpreting blends: an experimental approach”. cognitive linguistics 7: 359-390. lehrer, a. (2003). “understanding trendy neologisms”. rivista di linguistica 15: 369-382. lehrer, a. (2007). “blendalicious” in j. munet (ed.), lexical creativity, texts and contexts, 115-133. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. littlemore, j. (2004). “what kind of training is required to help language students use metaphorbased strategies to work out the meaning of new vocabulary”. d.e.l.t.a. 20: 265-279. turner, m. & g. fauconnier (1995). “conceptual integration and formal expression”. metaphor and symbolic activity 10: 183-203. ungerer, f. & h.-j. schmid (1996/2006). an introduction to cognitive linguistics. london/new york: longman. veale, t. & c. butnariu (2010). “harvesting and understanding on-line neologisms” in a. onysko & s. michel (eds.), cognitive perspectives on word formation, 399-421. berlin/new york: walter de gruyter. yu, n. (2009). from body to meaning in culture. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. 2 for a detailed account of the relationship between conceptual metaphor theory and conceptual integration theory see grady, oakley and coulson (1999). 3 the blends were activated by the words “economics”, “millionaire”, “downsizing” and “vacation”, but only the results pertaining to the first two trigger words, “economics” and “millionaire”, will be discussed in this paper. this is due to a space constraint, but much more importantly to the fact that the students’ strategies of blend recognition and understanding tended to repeat so that the first two groups of blends, triggered by “economics” and “millionaire”, will suffice in illustrating and explaining those strategies. 4 “boomernomics”, “burgernomics”, “clintonomics”, “enronomics”, “flexinomics”, “kremlinomics”, “nixonomics”, “obamanomics”, “perkonomics”, and “reaganomics”. 5 there is a clear mother tongue transfer involved here, since the serbian word opcioni “optional” means, among other things, “alternative” or “possible”, being similar both orthographically and semantically to potencijalni “potential”. 6 a character from the famous british sitcom. of siliconaires and millionerds ibérica 25 (2013): 85-106 105 ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160 abstract this paper reports on a genre-based contrastive analysis of the textual organization of biomedical texts. in order to provide the maximum educational value to our research, our corpus is made up of 100 biomedical texts divided as follows: 25 letters to the editor, 25 cartas al director, 25 editorials and 25 editoriales. following paltridge's approach, based on simple keys to symbolize the main parts of discourse in the environmental area, we developed a similar analysis to work with the rhetorical structure of the texts of another area, i.e. medicine. after studying the informational structure of the texts and analyzing the results, we found striking differences when comparing the discourse organization in texts of various sub-genres. this shows that each genre has unique linguistic patterns which are not shared with the rest. key words: genre, contrastive text analysis, scientific genres, letters, editorials resumen análisis contrastivo basado en el género de editoriales y cartas al director biomédicas este artículo presenta un análisis contrastivo desde la perspectiva del análisis de géneros sobre la organización textual de textos biomédicos. con objeto de intentar que nuestra investigación tenga el mayor valor didáctico posible, nuestro corpus está formado por 100 textos biomédicos: 25 letters to the editor, 25 cartas al director, 25 editorials y 25 editoriales. nuestra investigación ha seguido la propuesta de paltridge, basada en el empleo de unas sencillas claves para representar las partes principales del discurso del área medioambiental. por nuestra parte, hemos desarrollado un análisis similar y lo hemos aplicado a un corpus de textos del área de medicina. tras estudiar la estructura retórica de todos los textos y analizar los resultados, observamos contrastes significativos tras comparar la organización discursiva en textos de diferentes subgéneros. ello demuestra que cada género y subgénero presenta sus propias características lingüísticas, las cuales no coinciden con las del resto de géneros. palabras clave: género, análisis textual contrastivo, géneros científicos, cartas, editoriales a genre-based study of biomedical editorials and letters to the editor: a contrastive analysis esther vázquez y del árbol universidad autónoma de madrid (españa) esther.vazquez@uam.es 145 esther vázquez y del árbol ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160146 researching editorials and letters to the editor before introducing the characteristics of these two sub-genres, we would like to define what a genre is and outline our vision of the concept. this notion has been discussed in different areas such as folklore studies, linguistic anthropology, the ethnography of communication, conversational analysis, applied linguistics, the sociology of language, literary theory and rhetoric. we take swales�s genre definition as main reference: a genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes. these purposes are recognized by the expert members of the parent discourse community, and thereby constitute the rationale for the genre. (swales, 1990: 58) other linguists offer different perspectives on the concept. martin (1993) focuses on the �regularities of staged, goal oriented social processes�, and miller (1984) studies the �typification of social and rhetorical action�. in any case, genre is also a social action; it reflects the reality of a society, as explained by berkenkotter and hucking (1995: 7): because it is impossible for us to dwell in the social world without repertoires of typified social responses in recurrent situations � from greetings to thank yous to acceptance speeches and full-blown, written expositions of scientific or scholarly investigations � we use genres to package our speech and make of it a recognizable response to the exigencies of the situation. bazerman (1988: 6 & 62) also indicates the social aspect of genres, and indicates how each text may strengthen the genre it belongs to: a genre consists of something beyond simple similarity of formal characteristics among a number of texts. a genre is socially recognized, repeated strategy for achieving similar goals in situations socially recognized as being similar. a genre provides a writer with a way of formulating responses in certain circumstances and a reader a way of recognizing the kind of message being transmitted. [...]. thus the formal features that are shared by the corpus of texts in a genre and by which we usually recognize a text�s inclusion in a genre, are the linguistic/symbolic solution to a problem in social interaction. accordingly, we consider the complex meaning of genre as a formal discourse category, either oral or written, which shares some characteristics, such as the area it belongs to, readership of the text, author, macrostructure, content and communicative purpose. two biomedical sub-genre samples are letters to the editor and editorials. the function of these sub-genres of opinion is either informative or expressive, or both; and, as we will demonstrate by means of our analysis, the rhetorical structure of each one is different from the other. editorials and letters to the editor are understudied sub-genres, since most of the researchers have limited their analyses to scientific article writing, it is, therefore, the type of writing that rhetoricians and sociologists have tended to analyse (e.g., swales, 1984; bernhardt, 1985; swales & najjar, 1987; bazerman, 1988; rymer, 1988; harmon, 1989; gross, 1985, 1990; gragson & selzer, 1990; nwogu, 1997; williams, 1999). although research articles (swales, 1990: 125) have different sections, their structure is not so different if compared through several disciplines (piquéangordans, 2002). nevertheless, as we will see throughout the present study, some differences may be detected when studying bilingual corpora (mendiluce cabrera, 2005; mendiluce cabrera & hernández, 2005). on the other hand, some researchers have tried different genres� structures, this was the case of posteguillo (1999), who undertook a study on computer science articles� structure; or alberola (2004), who focused on bank leaflets� rhetorical structure and the persuasive power of advertising, achieved by means of a specific pattern called aida (attention, interest, desire, action). a different study was carried out by pérez-llantada (2003), who analysed the rhetorical structure, focusing on thematic articles from computer in science and engineering area, reaching the conclusion that some moves may facilitate information processing, this way favouring relevance in communication. editorials traditionally, the term editorial made reference to a �message from the editor.� today editorials are short essays that usually express the views of the editor or the policies of the journal. they may be written by the editor, a member of the editorial staff, or notas de investigación / research notes ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160 147 an invited author. these sub-genres, particularly appropriate for complementing original articles, may comment on an article in the same issue of the journal, or they may deal with a separate topic of concern to the journal�s readers. opinion articles that represent only the authors� view may be published in sections called commentary, viewpoint, sounding board, or controversies. the editor may publish several editorials in a volume of the journal; this distinguishes the way in which different editors make their mark on a scientific journal. letters to the editor these letters are short articles used for two purposes: 1) they show agreement or disagreement with respect to previously published articles, and 2) they explain brief scientific information that does need the length and detail of the original article. at the beginning, the idea of creating journals came from the need to print the usual correspondence between doctors. this way the scientific community could exchange their knowledge and experiences. nowadays, these formal articles that are submitted for publication require statements of authorship, disclosure of conflicts of interest, and copyright transfer, and they may be subject to peer review and revision. the international committee of medical journal editors (1997) has recognized that letters to the editor are an essential aspect of postpublication review. in fact, this committee has recommended that all biomedical journals contain a section carrying comments, questions, or criticisms about articles they have published and where the original authors can respond. the framework as already pointed out above, this study is based on paltridge�s (1997) genre-analysis model, which is also based, at the same time, on swales� genre-analysis model. swales (1981) originally proposed a four-part schema which is later further refined as the �create a research space� (cars) model for analyzing research article introduction (figure 1). in his analysis, swales adopts strategies similar to those embodied in schema-theoretic models positing a four move (text segment which has its linguistic features and its communicative purpose or role within the text) schema for article introductions: esther vázquez y del árbol ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160148 move 1: establishing the field (a) showing centrality i. by interest ii. by importance iii. by topic-prominence iv. by standard procedure (b) stating current knowledge (c) describing characteristics move 2: summarizing previous research (a) strong author orientations (b) weak author orientations (c) subject orientations move 3: preparing for the present research (a) indicating a gap (b) question-raising (c) extending a finding move 4: indicating present research (a) giving the purpose (b) describing present research i. by this/the present signals ii. by move 3 take-up iii. by switching to first person pronoun figure 1. four �move� schema for article introduction (nwogu, 1991: 113) according to swales (1990), each move usually consists of several steps, these may be defined as specific communicative strategies which, combined among them, will constitute the information that comprises a move. each step is created with the purpose of leading the writer toward the development of specific moves (figure 2): move 1 establishing a territory step 1 claiming centrality, and / or step 2 making topic generalisation, and / or step 3 reviewing items of previous research move 2 establishing a niche step 1a counter claiming or step 1b indicating a gap or step 1c question raising or step 1d continuing a tradition move 3 occupying the niche step 1a outlining purposes or step 1b announcing present research step 2 announcing principal findings step 3 indicating ra structure figure 2. a cars model for article introductions (swales, 1990: 141) as regards to paltridge (1997: 111), he analyses twelve texts on environment studies using several keys or terms abbreviations symbolizing rhetorical elements within the text, these may also indicate the place of occurrence or frequency of appearance notas de investigación / research notes ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160 149 within the text structure; that is, each key represents a different part of the discourse, as shown in figure 3: bi background information js justification for study ig indicating a gap ps purpose of study rs rationale for study qr question raising pr previous research cs context of study m materials r results c conclusions figure 3. paltridge�s proposal influenced by hasan (1984) in his analysis of the potential of the genre structure, paltridge (1997: 66), while attempting to locate rhetorical elements in texts, asked himself questions such as the following: �what elements must occur; what elements can occur; where elements must occur; where elements can occur; and how often elements can occur.� after having reviewed all the genre analysis proposals available, we chose paltridge�s for application to our texts. this is mainly due to three reasons: 1) its simplicity; 2) it facilitates the count of the results; 3) more specific conclusions can be easily obtained; and 4) as compared to move-step theory by swales, keys are perhaps more economical and precise as rhetorical structure identifiers. the corpus the corpus used in this research note is drawn from a previous research which consisted of 100 biomedical texts taken from national and international biomedical journals. despite the wide range of topics and authors of different nationalities, we focused on two languages, english and spanish, and we made a random selection of 50 texts written in english (25 editorials and 25 letters to the editor), and 50 in spanish (25 editoriales and 25 cartas al director). the texts here have been extracted from a larger phd dissertation and on its four sets of bilingual corpora (vázquez y del árbol, 2002). esther vázquez y del árbol ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160150 the method of analysis since our aim was to introduce the schemata representative of the structure of four sub-genres, we worked with two different analysis units: (a) triads and (b) keys. the first ones are maximal structural units that consist of three elements, according to position and function (introduction, development, final conclusion).1 as regards to keys, the minimal analysis units, they have been considered as the main tools within our research. in order to obtain the maximum detail in our results, several steps were carried out in the analysis process: (a) classification of the texts into four groups, according to their sub-genre: cartas al director, letters to the editor, editoriales and editorials; (b) scanning of each text; (c) solid reading, highlighting the most relevant aspects of the texts; (d) text division into triads (maximum structural units) that consist of three elements, according to position and function; introduction, development and final conclusion (we will refer to each of them by means of a single letter [introduction-a, development-b, final conclusion-c]); (e) analysis of informational structure, where each sentence was assigned at least one key. after having studied the texts we decided to include and, therefore, symbolize the salutation and closure, since they are formal keys of the textual body of these sub-genres. we represented the structural content by using at least one key for each sentence. after reading and developing an analysis of the corpus, twenty keys were identified in our corpus representation, as shown in figure 4: notas de investigación / research notes ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160 151 a advice ap agree with previous studies bi background information co conclusions cl closure cs context of study dp disagree with previous studies h hypothesis ic information of the current moment if information of the future ig indicating a gap ma materials me methods nfw need of further work in the future pr previous research prs presentation of study ps purpose of study qr question raising r results rap results that agree with previous studies rdp results that disagree with previous studies r/js rationale/justification for study sa salutation (hid) hidden figure 4. keys list (our proposal) in order to illustrate the information conveyed and simplified by the aforementioned keys, we present a set of examples containing sentences extracted from the texts comprising our corpus. text 1: �finally, we must be cautious in generalising the results to primary care in the uk in view of the highly selective nature of the gps who participated in the study.� (a-advice) text 2: �as carney and co-workers show, primary care physicians explore both psychosocial and somatic concerns.� (ap-agree with previous studies) text 3: �chlamydia is a genus of obligate intracellular gram-negative bacteria comprising 3 species, c. trachomatis (ctr), c. psittaci (cps) and c. pneumoniae (twar) (cpn).� (bi-background information) text 4: �happy holidays,� (cl-closure) text 5: �y nada más que felicitar al dr. n. catarineu nieto por su excelente aportación histórico-literaria en la que, además de erudición, ha sabido destilar unas gotas de nostalgia por la muerte anunciada de la estomatología en españa.� (co-conclusions) text 6: �se han estudiado las complicaciones tiroideas en 25 pacientes tratados por eh en el servicio de hematología del hospital universitario de caracas y en el centro de quimioterapia oncológica entre los años 1985 y 1996.� (cs-context of study) text 7: �let us work to prove hobbes wrong when he states, �maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding�.� (dp-disagree with previous studies) text 8: �creemos que esto podría justificarse porque el lado izquierdo del conductor se encuentra limitado por la puerta y ventana del vehículo, mientras que el derecho tiene un mayor espacio para movilizarse, disminuyendo así el tiempo de contacto con los álcalis liberados en la deflagración.� (h-hipothesis) text 9: �esta labor corre a cargo de mi persona siguiendo modelos aprendidos en los estados unidos en uno de los mejores departamentos de cirugía de colon y recto del mundo en la cleveland clinic y del dr. sánchez-gil cirujano de amplia experiencia en este campo que participa ampliamante de esta filosofía asistencial.� (ic-information of the current moment) text 10: �availability of genomic data will permit analysis of similarities in gene sequences between humans and other organisms for which the function of the gene in question is known, resulting in rapid elucidation of human gene function.� (if-information of the future) esther vázquez y del árbol ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160152 text 11: �la etiopatogenia de esta enfermedad sigue siendo una incógnita aunque en los últimos años parece implicarse a la interleucina 6 un importante papel.� (ig-indicating a gap) text 12: �caso observado: mujer de 24 años, sin antecedentes patológicos de interés, sin enfermedades ni traumatismos previos, que ingresa por presentar dolor y tumefacción en miembro inferior derecho, con impotencia funcional.� (ma-materials) text 13: �focus reduction neutralization test (frnt) was performed against the four hantaviruses reported to cause hfrs (puu, dob, htn and seol virus [seo]) on two serum examples, one drawn 10 days after the onset of the illness and a second one drawn 4 years later, as previously described.� (me-methods) text 14: �future studies are therefore needed to define patient populations at low risk for invasive infections.� (nfw-need of further work in the future) text 15: �así, mayers et al describieron el aumento del porcentaje de cepas resistentes a la zdv en pacientes en el momento de la seroconversión.� (pr-previous research) text 16: �in this article, timothy hoff at suny-albany examines characteristics, job involvement, and career stage differences among 294 physician executives working in managed care settings.� (prs-presentation of the study) text 17: �we would like to share our experience with the use of hepatitis cpositive liver grafts in patients with end-stage hepatitis c liver disease.� (ps-purpose of study) text 18: �si los rasgos anormales que provocan el inicio de una crisis epiléptica están crónicamente presentes, ¿por qué no está el cerebro epiléptico en constante status?� (qr-question raising) text 19: �our first report indicated that ctr was a common trigger of rea, as 25/186 patients had genital ct infection identified by culture..� (rresults) text 20: �comparando estos resultados con los obtenidos mediante clo-test ® y cultivo, existió concordancia en 32 de 34 pacientes (94.4%) (tabla i).� (rap-results that agree with previous studies) text 21: �sin embargo, en suecia, leoncini et al encuentran una tasa baja de presencia de mutaciones r211k y l214f, lo que indica la necesidad de estudios más amplios y en distintas zonas geográficas, abogando por la realización de estudios de investigación de la prevalencia de mutaciones de resistencia en distintas poblaciones.� (rap-results that disagree with previous studies) notas de investigación / research notes ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160 153 text 22: �dado que algunas apreciaciones me parecen contradictorias, aprovechando mis pequeñas experiencias sobre el tema, y el conocimiento de algún que otro centro informatizado (y las razones por las que se informatizó), quiero plantear tanto una reflexión, como realizar algunas aseveraciones y una pequeña conclusión final.� (r/js-rationale/justification for study) text 23: �dear sir,� (sa-salutation) text 24: �dear sir, bonfanti et al. present an interesting investigation in their letter and make comparisons with our recent study.� (hid-hidden2) as we can see, there are some aspects in our list of keys which differ from paltridge�s (1997), mainly due to the fact that we have researched within a different area (medicine): 1. we found in our texts all the keys set forth by paltridge � bi (background information), co (conclusions, called c by paltridge), cs (context of study), ig (indicating a gap), ma (materials), pr (previous research), ps (purpose of study), qr (question raising), r/js (rationale/justification for study), and r (results). nevertheless, we have developed some changes regarding the nomenclature: c (conclusions) has been substituted by co, m (materials) has been replaced by ma; rs (rationale for study) and js (justification for study) have been reduced to just one key: r/js (rationale/justification for study). 2. the abovementioned key r/js (rationale/justification for study) is the equivalent of two other keys shown in paltridge�s proposal: rationale for study (rs) and justification for study (js). we took this decision since we thought that the idea symbolized by both keys is a single one: the reason of the topic of the text. 3. we have enlarged paltridge�s list with some new keys we have found in our corpus; such as advice (a), agree with previous studies (ap), closure (cl), disagree with previous studies (dp), hypothesis (h), information of the current moment (ic), information of the future (if), methods (me), need of further work in the future (nfw), presentation of the study (prs), results that agree with previous studies (rap), results that disagree with previous studies (rdp), salutation (sa). 4. finally, hid (hidden), the keys modifier, has been included in order to symbolize that the idea expressed in the text by the key it accompanies is more implicit than the rest of information. esther vázquez y del árbol ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160154 in order to be more precise, we used simple schemata, representative of the textual structure of the corpus analyzed, where the keys are organized according to their order of appearance in our texts. in order to achieve this purpose we decided to consider demands of space: first, not to include the frequent combinations of keys (i.e. h+if+ig à hypothesis + information of the future + indicating a gap) found in a sole sentence, because it would enlarge and excessively complicate each schema; and second, to use a list of symbols in order to explain, through them, the frequency of occurrence of a key, its repetition or its location. before presenting our four schemata (one for each sub-genre), we will elaborate on some symbols used to describe the maximum amount of information featuring the corpus analyzed: 1) ++ means that a key may appear more than once in the section indicated. therefore, if we see bi++ in section a (introduction), it will mean that this key appears several times in the introduction section. 2) * indicates the possibility that some keys have to appear in more sections than the one indicated. when r/js* is located in section b (development), it means that r/js is often found in the development section, although it has also been used in the other two (a and c). 3) *++ if we use a combination of the symbols mentioned previously it means two things. first, the key modified by *++ may appear in the section indicated and also in the other two sections; and second, it tends to appear more than once. so, a key prs*++ in section c (final conclusion) may also appear �more than once� in sections a or b. 4) / means the possibility that some keys have to appear in the same place and section, although the key that appears before the slash is the most common one. 5) ( ) brackets surround optional keys. results according to our analysis, there are ten keys which were found to be relevant for the rhetorical structure and, therefore, were found to occur in most of the texts (bibackground information, co-conclusions, ig-indicating a gap, ma-materials, me-methods, pr-previous research, prs-presentation of the study, r-results, pspurpose of study, r/js-rationale/justification for study). these were classified as �basic elements.� obviously, there are also keys which are less frequent and, notas de investigación / research notes ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160 155 consequently, less relevant for the text structure, and as a result were classified as �no basic elements� (a-advice, ap-agree with previous studies, cl-closure, cs-context of study, dp-disagree with previous studies, h-hypothesis, ic-information of the current moment, if-information of the future, nfw-need of further work in the future, qr-question raising, rap-results that agree with previous studies, rdpresults that disagree with previous studies, sa-salutation). these, therefore, will not appear in our list, since they are not fundamental for the texts analyzed. once the rhetorical structure of our corpus has been analysed, the results were simplified by using four schemata (one per each sub-genre); in order to detail more information, percentages of occurrence were also included, as shown in tables 1 and 2. esther vázquez y del árbol ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160156 table 1. rhetorical structure of cartas and letters table 2. rhetorical structure of editoriales and editorials discussion the results obtained after the analysis of the 100 texts show the following characteristics: the pattern of the informational structure identified in the corpus is only one, since all the texts of our corpus can be divided into three triads (introduction, development and final conclusion). the textual structure shows that the biomedical texts analyzed share the same field, but not the same communicative purpose. for example, correspondence sub-genres (cartas al director and letters to the editor) have more specific topics. on the other hand, the topics of editoriales and editorials are more general and less specific; since they deal with different types of problems. the information structures of the four sub-genres are open, heterogeneous and flexible, especially in editoriales and editorials. in fact, after comparing cartas with letters we found fewer differences than in the contrast between editoriales and editorials. the texts of different language and same sub-genre (cartas compared with letters and editoriales with editorials) show fewer differences between them in their rhetorical organization as compared to those texts which do not belong to the same sub-genre. nevertheless, after comparing texts of the same language and different sub-genre (cartas with editoriales and letters with editorials) more relevant differences have appeared. editorials and editoriales have a less specific content, due to the fact that they do not deal with information on the materials (ma) and methods (me) of the research developed. as pointed out above, many differences in the textual organization of editorials and editoriales have been found, moreover, their structure is less rigid than those of cartas and letters, and that probably means each genre may have unique linguistic patterns which are not shared with the rest. in any case, we did find several similarities within the four sub-genres� structures (as shown in tables 1 and 2), that is, all the sub-genres analysed had some keys in common, notas de investigación / research notes ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160 157 that was the case of bi (background information) or r/js (rationale/justification for study); both keys have been located within all the introductions. development sections were also quite similar in their initial and ending keys, since bi (background information) and r (results) were spotted at the beginning (bi-background information) and at the end (in the case of r-results) of the aforementioned section. this did not only happen at sections a or b, since in all genres the final conclusion sections presented analogous schemata, because the key co (conclusions) could be detected throughout all the ending sections of the four sub-genres. conclusion this study shows that a schema based on keys can be applied to symbolize the biomedical sub-genre structure. however, it is not the only possible pattern of informational structure within these texts, since we can also find variations in their textual organization. the aim of this research was to demonstrate the effectiveness of an analysis at the level of genre register. after comparing the results, the analysis reveals the following: (1) there are more striking differences when comparing the textual organization of different sub-genre texts (all written in the same language, either spanish or english), (2) than in the contrast of texts from the same sub-genre (texts written in english compared to the ones in spanish). to conclude, we think that by developing this type of analysis we can provide not only the learner but also the esp teacher with the informational structure necessary for recognizing, writing, translating or even teaching any type of genre or sub-genre. as has been shown, each genre has its own rhetorical structure, therefore, we agree with henry and roseberry (2001: 167) who have concluded that �esp practitioners need to be aware of not just this range of features, but where they are used and for what purpose.� (revised version received april, 2005) esther vázquez y del árbol ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160158 esther vázquez y del árbol is a sworn translator of english. she received her phd in translation and interpretation and is lecturer in translation and interpretation at the universidad autónoma de madrid, spain. she is an active member of the hum383 (interlingüística) research group and of the aieti (asociación ibérica de estudios de traducción e interpretación). 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(1997). genres, frames and writing in research settings. amsterdam: john benjamins. pérez-llantada, c. (2003). �social pragmatics in technical writing: a corpusbased analysis of thematic articles.� ibérica 5: 19-34. piqué-angordans, j. (2002). �la sección de la introducción.� en i. fortanet (coord.), cómo escribir un artículo de investigación en inglés, 56-83. madrid: alianza. posteguillo, s. (1999). �the schematic structure of computer science research articles.� english for specific purposes 18,2: 139-160. rymer, j. (1988). �scientific composing processes: how eminent scientists write journal articles� in d. a. jolliffe (ed.), writing in academic disciplines: advances in writing research, vol. 2. 211-250. norwood: ablex. swales, j. m. (1981). aspects of article introductions. birmingham: the university of aston (language studies unit). swales, j. m. (1984). �research into the structure of introductions to journal articles and its application to the teaching of academic writing� in r. williams, j. m. swales & j. kirkman (eds.), common ground: shared interests in esp and communication studies, 77-86. new york: pergamon. swales, j. m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j. m. & h, najjar (1987). �the writing of research article introductions.� written communication 4, 2: 175-191. vázquez y del árbol, e. (2002). propuesta de un análisis comparado de cien textos biomédicos (español e inglés) desde la perspectiva del género. granada: universidad. williams, i. a. (1999). �results section of medical research articles: analysis of rhetorical categories for pedagogical purposes.� english for specific purposes 18,4: 347-365. references esther vázquez y del árbol ibérica 10 [2005]: 145-160160 text 5: gonzález, j. (2000). �cartas al director.� archivos de odontoestomatología 16,2: 138-139. text 6: serrano, j. c. et al. (1999). �complicaciones tiroideas en pacientes con enfermedad de hodgkin tratados con radioterapia y quimioterapia.� sangre 44,6: 496-497. text 8: menor, a. (1999). �lesiones por airbag: 2 casos de quemaduras en extremidades superiores.� emergencias 11,5: 386. text 11: marcos, f. et al. (1998). �un nuevo caso de enfermedad de castleman localizada.� anales de medicina interna 15,12: 63-64. text 12: rodríguez, a., et al. (2000). �factor leyden y trombosis venosa iliocava, tras la toma de anticonceptivos orales.� investigación clínica 3: 44. text 18: caballero, m. a. et al. (2000). �¿cuál es el papel de la teoría del caos?� atención primaria 26, 8: 135. text 20: gutiérrez, a. et al. (1999). �uso del test de antígeno de helicobacter pylori (hp) en heces para la detección de infección por hp.� gastroenterología y hepatología 22,10: 55. text 22: alonso, f. a. (1998). �reflexiones al hilo de la informatización para profesionales y gerentes de atención primaria.� dimensión humana 2,1: 3. cartas al director text 1: leung, w.-c. (1999). �methodological flaws exist in the study of patient-centredness of consultations.� british journal of general practice 49,449: 1008. texts 3 & 19: melby, k. et al. (1999). �chlamydia pneumoniae as a trigger of reactive arthritis.� scandinavian journal of infectious diseases 31,3: 327-328. text 13: papa, a. et al. (2000). �first case of puumala virus infection in greece.� infection 28,5: 334-335. text 17: torres, m. et al. (1999). �use of hepatitis c-infected donors for hepatitis cpositive olt recipients.� gastroenterology 117,5: 1253. texts 23 & 24: lindberg, b. et al. (1999). �islet autoantibodies in cord blood could be a risk factor for future diabetes.� diabetología 42,12: 1443. letters to the editor text 9: fernández-dovale, m. (2000). �cáncer de cólon y recto�. revista andaluza de patología digestiva 23,2: 33-34. texts 15 & 21: najera, r. (1999). �implicaciones clínicas de las resistencias a los antirretrovíricos�. publicación oficial de la sociedad española interdisciplinaria del s.i.d.a. 10,5: 167-169. editoriales text 2: dietrich, a. & l. eisenberg (1999). �better management of depression in primary care.� the journal of family practice 48,12: 945-946. texts 4 & 16: johnson, j. a. (1998). �editorial.� journal of healthcare management 43,6: 467. text 7: ruby, s. g. (2000). �clinician interpretation of pathology reports. confusion or comprehension?� archives of pathology and laboratory medicine 124,7: 943-944. text 10: deangelis, c. d. et al. (2000). �genomic medicine and the individual patient-byte to bedside. a call for papers.� jama 284,20: 2642. text 14: ruef, c. (2000). �is antibiotic profilaxis without risk?� infection 28,5: 259-260. editorials 1 this last one (final conclusion) was named so in order to avoid confusions with the term conclusions, one of the keys within our proposal. 2 hidden (hid) is a key modifier, always indicating that the idea expressed by the key it goes with is more implicit than others in the text. therefore, it is always found modifying any other key. obviously, the sentence will also illustrate the use of another key called rationale/justification for study, modified by hidden. notes appendix: references to the texts analysed ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156 abstract the language of economics has been one of the author’s interests for some years. to narrow the scope of the research, the language of investment banking will be discussed in depth. investment banking is a developing domain within the sphere of banking and finance. newly-created products and services may be complicated for inexperienced investors, thus their names should sound familiar and explain the purpose of a given entity by referring to some well-known concepts. in this case, metaphors play a crucial role. the aim of this paper is to discuss some metaphorical names in investment banking communication. the area of mergers and acquisitions is studied in great detail because of its metaphorical character. the compiled corpus will be investigated by taking into consideration the following languages: english, german, spanish and polish. the aim of this linguistic distinction is to show differences as well as similarities in the investment banking lexicon in the above-mentioned languages. after briefly summarising the results of the research conducted, the article will end with an attempt to predict the future situation of metaphors and their role in investment banking communication. key words: metaphors, translation, investment banking. resumen el papel de las metáforas en el lenguaje de la banca de inversión el lenguaje de la economía ha sido uno de los intereses de la autora durante algunos años. para delimitar el ámbito de la investigación, el lenguaje de las actividades bancarias de inversión se discutirá en profundidad. las actividades bancarias de inversión constituyen un área nueva y en pleno desarrollo dentro del ámbito de la banca y las finanzas. los nuevos productos y servicios pueden resultar complicados para los inversores inexpertos, por tanto sus nombres the role of metaphors in the language of investment banking magdalena bielenia-grajewska university of gdańsk (poland) angmb@univ.gda.pl 139 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 139 ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156 magdalena bielenia-grajewska deberían ser familiares para el usuario y explicar su finalidad haciendo referencia a algunos conceptos bien conocidos. en este caso, las metáforas desempeñan un papel crucial. el objetivo de este trabajo es analizar algunos términos metafóricos utilizados en la comunicación relacionada con las actividades bancarias de inversión. el área de fusiones y adquisiciones se estudia en detalle debido al gran uso de la metáfora en este campo. el corpus recopilado se analizará tomando en consideración las lenguas inglesa, alemana, española y polaca. el objetivo de esta distinción lingüística es mostrar las diferencias así como las similitudes del léxico de las actividades bancarias de inversión en las lenguas mencionadas. tras resumir brevemente los resultados de la investigación realizada, el presente artículo intentará por último predecir la situación futura de metáforas y de su papel en la comunicación relacionada con las actividades bancarias de inversión. palabras clave: metáforas, traducción, banca de inversión. 1. introduction investment banking is connected with capital market activities, such as underwriting, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, fairness opinions, fund management and venture capital (neave, 1998). taking into account different definitions of “investment banking”, the following categories can be investigated: investment funds, technical analysis, venture capital, money market, securities market, derivatives as well as mergers and acquisitions. this categorization is also reflected in the empirical section as the metaphorical terms studied come from the above-mentioned domains. we must remember that investment banking is not a new phenomenon. its origins can be traced back to ancient times. investment banking performed on an international scale was known in the late middle ages when “a burgeoning european wool trade and other transnational enterprises provided the economic underpinning for financial intermediation” (fisher, 1988: 35). nowadays many people participate in investment. the main reasons for the myriad new financial instruments and increased activity of financial investors are as follows: the development of technology, lower costs of participating in the market (goodson, 1988), as well as a greater awareness of how financial surpluses can be invested. new financial instruments require new names. what is more, they have to be created very quickly. that is why the lexicon of investment banking is an interesting field of inquiry. anyone who reads the financial press can observe that metaphors play a crucial role in different texts on investment banking. in the ensuing 140 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 140 sections of this article, an attempt will be made to show that metaphors are an indispensable tool in disseminating investment knowledge. 2. metaphors: theoretical framework many authors claim that metaphors are crucial in our perception of reality (lakoff & turner, 1989; fiumara, 1995) as they help us to understand novel concepts by using familiar domains (brown, 1994; albritton, 1995 (in deignan, 2005: 16); reeves, 2005; mladenov, 2006). what is more, we create metaphors in order to verbalise new ideas and emotions (kurth, 1999; cameron, 1999) and they are especially used when an unknown situation needs explanation and other linguistic devices prove useless or at least insufficient (lakoff & turner, 1989; mccormac, 1998; tilley, 1999; ritchie, 2006). furthermore, they appear in novel domains which lack a certain vocabulary (bergman, 1982). we should remember that new lexical items appear very rarely in languages (deignan, 2005) and that is why some existing lexemes are used to denote new concepts (elgin, 1995; knowles & moon, 2006). being “messengers of meaning” (maasen & weingart, 1995: 9), metaphors can describe complex entities in few words (tilley, 1999). to narrow the scope of our research on metaphors, only metaphorical terms will be taken into consideration. soskice (1985: 4) quotes aristotle and his definition of a metaphorical term: “a metaphorical term involves the transferred use of a term that properly belongs to something else; the transference can be from genus to species, from species to genus, or analogical”. in our research on metaphorical terms we will concentrate on their heuristic aspect. as hallyn (1985) states, the heuristic function takes place on two levels. the first one –“catachresis”– is “the activity of filling lexical gaps” (soskice, 1985: 61). the second aspect is connected with theory change and theory constitution. the metaphor is a tool used to create new hypotheses “by developing the potential analogies between one object and another” (hallyn, 1985: 111). as has been presented above, there are many authors and theories dealing with metaphor. the best method for our research is the eco-linguistic theory of metaphor by döring (döring & nerlich, 2008). it consists of approaches taken from the cognitive theory of metaphor, the interaction theory of metaphor, blumenberg’s (1960) historical study of metaphor (metaphorologie), and the textual theory of metaphor. the intersection of all these the role of metaphors in the language ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156 141 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 141 approaches allows us to study metaphors from different perspectives. as döring and nerlich (2005:65) claim, especially the theories of weinrich and blumenberg and the concept of “image fields” are useful for the discussion on metaphors as “image fields are the product of experiential and synergetic processes between an organism and an environment, the outcome of an active and ongoing engagement within environments”. what is more, as döring and nerlich (2005: 56) state, the ecolinguistic point of view makes it possible for us to perceive languages not as fixed structures, but as “open systems and repositories of accumulated social and cultural experience”. in our case, “metaphors are not static entities, but dynamic phenomena that adapt to the discursive and practical needs of those who use them in socionatural contexts” (döring & nerlich, 2005: 56). 3. metaphors in economics after this brief presentation of metaphors and their important characteristics, let us try to narrow the scope of the research and concentrate on the language of economics in relation to metaphors. the role of metaphors in economics is of interest to many scholars (klamer et al., 1988; backhouse et al., 1993; mccloskey, 1998; skorczynska-sznajder, 2001; jäkel, 2003; white, 2003; koller, 2004; kermas, 2006; among others). we deal with metaphors in economics every day as they are a vital part of media language. mccloskey (1995) claims that it is especially economic journalism which relies on metaphors. as koller (2004: 3) states, “enforced use of metaphoric language makes for the highly expressive, vivid and inventive style usually found in the printed media”. this is connected with one of the functions of metaphor which is “the ideational construction” of reality. as she adds, “by favouring particular metaphors in discourse, journalists can reinforce, or even create, particular mental models in their readers’ cognition”. there are different reasons for the growing popularity of metaphors in business and economics. first of all, the number of metaphors in economics and business is also connected with their relation to general language. sierra ayala (2001) asserts that the language of economics, being a part of our everyday discourse, is full of metaphors. many scholars admit that metaphors are important in discussing scientific issues (baars, 1997 –in mladenov, 2006: 13; maasen & weingart, 2000; reeves, 2005). thus, metaphors help us to understand complicated economic concepts. we magdalena bielenia-grajewska ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156142 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 142 should also bear in mind that metaphorical names are remembered more easily and quickly (espunya & zabalbeascoa, 2003; steen, 2004). to narrow the scope of the research, we will concentrate on metaphors in investment banking. 4. metaphorical terms of investment banking used in english, german, polish and spanish – materials and methods 4.1. introduction in my study on metaphorical names in investment banking, we concentrate on the following components: investment funds (plus technical analysis), mergers and acquisitions, money market instruments, derivatives and futures. the topic of this corpus analysis was chosen for two reasons. the first one is the author herself, who, being a linguist and an economist, is interested in the terminological aspect of investment banking. the second one is the fact that this lexicon seems to be very complicated. as slater (1999: 14) states, “the more i came to know investment bankers, the more i realised their delight in cultivating their own special language”. the aim of this section will be to show that the metaphors of investment banking are not as difficult as we suppose. 4.2. corpus: aims, materials and methods the aim of our research is to show whether the metaphorical names which appear in english are also to be found in other languages. the aim of this investigation is to see not only if these names are present, but also what sort of technique was used to provide the reader with such a term. as far as the research material is concerned, i take into consideration daily newspapers, magazines, professional books, dictionaries and some websites of financial institutions in english, german, polish and spanish. the author has chosen a wide range of materials, which allows for a detailed study of these terminological aspects. a detailed list of these resources is provided in appendix 1. however, most names are taken from the press since they do not appear in any other sources as often as they can be found in popular economic magazines or newspapers. the time horizon covers a period of fifteen years (1992-2007). the languages taken into consideration are: the role of metaphors in the language ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156 143 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 143 english, polish, german and spanish. for the purpose of this article, a small research corpus has been prepared, consisting of 170 english terms representing all the areas of investment banking. the next stage of this research was to find out if these names appear in german, polish and spanish. the other aim of this study was to observe if english metaphorical terms are also present in other languages and how they were created. 4.3. results 4.3.1. metaphoricity of investment banking lexicon on completion of a study conducted on the corpus (appendix 2), i can claim that not all fields are equally metaphorical. the abundance of metaphorical names is to be found in technical analysis as well as in mergers and acquisitions (m&a). these two areas are the newest ones within investment banking. let us look more closely at m&a vocabulary and discuss further why it is the area of m&a which has so many metaphorical names. as ritchie (2006) claims, metaphors appear in a communicative interchange, social situation and cultural setting. thus, metaphors serve their purpose in discussing novel concepts as well as talking about such difficult matters (taking over other companies). it is better to use a subtle metaphor, often coming from a friendly animal world (“bear hug”, “killer bee”, “lobster trap”, “shark repellent”). the second reason is that famous investment bankers want to be known in the business world and using remarkable takeover language makes this possible (slater, 1999). as this author states, “some of the new language recalls the days of chivalry” (slater, 1999: 14). he gives an example of a friendly buyer who was “the modern-day parallel of the swordcarrying fellow arriving at the castle, dramatically mounted on a horse –hence he was known as a white knight”. the same aspect is stressed by apostolou and apostolou (2004: 89), who claim that “many of these terms describe the efforts of companies to fend off a corporate raider”. boatright (1999) gives the following examples of these tactics: “poison pills”, “white knights”, “lockups”, “crown-jewel options”, “the pac-man defence”, “golden parachutes” and “greenmail”. a more detailed analysis of some m&a terminology will be provided in the following sections. 4.3.2. similarities in the studied lexicons bratož (2004) states that there are certain metaphors which are present in many languages. one of them is “money laundering” which exists in polish magdalena bielenia-grajewska ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156144 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 144 (pranie brudnych pieniędzy), in german (geldwasche) and in spanish (lavado de dinero). the same can be noted in our corpus. let us discuss some examples from the domain of mergers and acquisitions. “black knight” has the following equivalents: czarny rycerz in polish, schwarzer ritter or black knight in german and caballero negro or tiburón in spanish. “bear hug” is represented by uścisk niedźwiedzia (polish), bear-hug and bärenumarmung (german), abrazo del oso (spanish). there are some grounds for these similarities in the investment banking lexicon. the first reason is presented by verstraeten (2005), who claims that the terms describing mergers and acquisitions are international as they are rooted in the anglo-saxon heritage. the second point is connected with economy: “economically necessary languages are attractive to language users while languages without economic value lose their attraction and may disappear” (ager, 1997: 34). as trim (2007: 36) claims, “the huge increase in the vocabularies in the field of technology and business since the last war, particularly of english origin, has led to considerable unification in lexical meaning”. that is why we deal with many “economic anglicisms” (alejo & mcginity, 1997: 219), which are to be found only in economic contexts. the next reason for many anglicisms in economic writing is the language of the press. as has been noted by some authors, the language of the press is abundant in neologisms and anglicisms (sorensen, 1986 (in gottlieb 2001: 198); pountain, 2001). a fourth reason why the same terms and expressions exist in many languages is the possibility of effective communication. as canada (2001: 57-58) states, “lingua franca facilitates sales coordination, customer service efficiency and employee transfers”. the next similarity which is to be observed within the studied lexicons is the absence of some terms. some words are not found in any of the studied languages in our corpus (“tarantula trading”, “three-dimensional chess”). there are certain names for financial products or services which do not have a very long history and they are new even in the american economy. for example, “tarantula trading” began to be used in english in 2004 (davidson, 2005), which means that the process of incorporating new words is not as quick as many people suspect. 4.3.3. differences in the studied lexicons let us discuss briefly some differences in terminology as far as polish, spanish, german and english are concerned. the first language is german. as knowles and moon (2006: 82) state, “english and german developed the role of metaphors in the language ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156 145 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 145 from the same language-stock, and english absorbed a lot of french vocabulary items, particularly in the middle ages, following the norman conquest”. that is why english terms are very easily incorporated into german (stoll, 2007), and this is especially visible in the field of economics. as kellner and soeffner (2002: 143) state: (…) there is the area of management and business consulting in which, as we have shown, english is not only a widespread technical lingua franca but an arena where the semantic deep structures and mind-sets of the global players are permeated by conceptions that belong to the german and english business language in a similar if not identical fashion. the mass media are responsible for the popularity of english terms in german. as russ (1994: 227) discusses, “english loans were able to spread quickly in german because of the influence of the mass media, particularly through magazines like “der spiegel”, which has been shown to have a special role”. thus, in the field of investment banking, it is german which has the most english names. for instance, there are “no-load-funds” in german, whereas in spanish we deal with fondo sin comisión, in polish we have fundusze bez opłat wstępnych (tzw. non load). the next example is “grey knight” –szary rycerz in polish, caballero gris in spanish and grey knight in german. there are some areas within investment banking, such as technical analysis, in which almost all terms are english (“three black crows”, “dark cloud cover”, “engulfing patterns”, “evening star”, “hammer” and “hanging star”). even if the phrase exists in german in everyday meaning (chinese wall–chinesische mauer), the specialized economic metaphorical name in german has the english version. in comparison, spaniards use the term muralla china and the poles prefer chiński mur. before discussing the next language taken into consideration in this study, let us make the general statement that “different communities may have different metaphors” (boers & demecheleer, 1997: 117). thus, having different social, cultural, linguistic and political backgrounds makes people perceive reality in a specific way. to discuss this feature, o’driscoll (1994) draws our attention to the fact that our language determines the way we speak and conceptualise reality. what is more, the banking system “sets boundaries on the transactions structure of an economy” (o’driscoll, 1994: 130). thus, in the case of metaphors in investment banking, there are two factors determining the metaphors used in investment banking lexicon: linguistic and economic ones. we can observe globalising tendencies in magdalena bielenia-grajewska ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156146 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 146 technical, political or business vocabulary but national languages tend to keep their own semantic structures, especially figurative expressions. some metaphorical names may vary depending on the country (trim, 2007) and that is why, for example, polish economic vocabulary is different as this language belongs to the slavonic family of languages. what is more, cabré castellví (1997: 52) states that the development of languages is not the same owing to “the socio-historical evolution of the speaking community and by the political and economic relation kept by this community with the others in the world”. as a result, the polish lexicon is different as “each society is a prisoner of its past, especially of its evolutionary path” (o’driscoll, 1994: 130). the most outstanding difference is connected with the type of equivalents in polish investment banking vocabulary. as financial products and services were not known to a polish customer before 1990, they have to be more descriptive than the ones in german or spanish. the example can be a “load fund”. it has the following equivalents in polish: “fundusz lokacyjny o nieograniczonej emisji, w którym udziały są sprzedawane przez maklerów będących na prowizji” (bannock & manser, 2001: 186) which highlights its unlimited issue and brokers gaining profits from commission. a similar descriptive version is offered by collin and bartnicki (2000: 209): “fundusz sprzedawany za pomocą pośrednika” (“a fund sold by a broker”). to compare, fond mit belastungsabrechnung and “load” fonds are the ones used in german. thus, the history of poland determines its economic performance and, consequently, the usage of metaphors as well. holden (1996: 47) mentions the “immense task of shedding the language of marxist-leninist economics and the associated vocabulary of production and the glorification of production and, on the other, the continued absorption of management language from the west”. thus, many of these words and concepts were not known before 1989. the next reason is connected with technological advancement. as mccloskey (1995: 227) claims, “the more specialised the economy, the more divided the airplane into special makers or the distribution of meat into special merchants; the more talk is necessary to establish trust among the cooperators”. thus, the metaphors describing the economic events in poland are supposed to be less developed than the metaphors which are used to name the same concepts in the usa or the developed countries from the eu as some financial instruments are absent or new. let us discuss the last hypothesis in great detail. the first example is “bankmail”, which is absent in polish, whereas it can be found in such languages as spanish (bankmail or the role of metaphors in the language ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156 147 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 147 banconchabamiento) and german (bankmail). the next interesting case is the “lady macbeth strategy”. this term is used neither in the financial press nor in the economics books available in polish. in some dictionaries, we can notice strategia przejmowania firmy (“a strategy of taking over a company”). in other languages, the metaphorical name is retained: lady-macbeth-strategie and estrategia de lady macbeth en la absorción/compra-takeover-de una empresa por otra. the next example is “12b-1 fees”. these fees have the following polish equivalent: opłaty związane z marketingiem funduszu (“fees connected with fund marketing”). their original name comes from the place of such fees on a balance sheet. however, using this procedure for a polish equivalent is not the best solution as not many people are aware of a balance sheet, not to mention the place of particular elements in this structure. thus, the given name is the best one we can come across. on the other hand, in spanish, the term las comisiones 12b-1 is popular, whereas vertriebsgebühr (12b1) is used in german. it should be noted that in german as well as in spanish the place of these fees is marked on a balance sheet. the balance sheet used in poland is slightly different and this fee is indicated by using a different method. let us discuss spanish very briefly. as stewart (1999: 10) says: spanish has been and is being developed to cope with virtually all fields of knowledge and the rapid assimilation of foreign forms into the language allows speakers to use spanish in domains such as information technology, where speakers of other languages (e.g. german, see clyne 1995: 9) are more constrained to use english. as alejo gonzález (1998: 229-230) claims, the discourse community of spanish economists “shows instances of bilingualism” as they use both english and spanish. although english is very popular in spain, it should be noted that the speakers of spanish use the fewest english terms as far as the investment banking lexicon is concerned. what is more, in spanish we can often find many equivalents for the same term. this feature is especially visible when we take into consideration technical analysis. as far as the charts are concerned, the one called “evening star” has the following equivalents in spanish: un evening star, estrella vespertina, constelación de la tarde, or estrella de la noche. to compare, one term is popular in german: evening star. the next example is the defensive strategy called “crown jewels” which has the following equivalents in spanish: las joyas de la corona, encierro por venta de activos, or asset lock-up. another case is “greenmail”: órdago, envite, bluff, or chantaje. the same happens with “hedging”: estrategias de la cobertura, cobertura magdalena bielenia-grajewska ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156148 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 148 de riesgos, cobertura de operaciones a plazo, cobertura de futuros, garantía de cambio, or compensación de riesgos. 4.3.4. perspectives of investment banking lexicon we can also predict that metaphors will play a crucial role in the vocabulary of investment banking even when this domain becomes better known among investors. there will always be new products invented for customers and thus new names will have to be created. as has been shown, metaphorical names are very popular among bankers and investors. customers are used to this sort of terminology, thus terminological specialists will probably still favour metaphors. what is more, i have stated that metaphorical names are especially used for complicated entities. taking the rate of technological and economic progress into consideration, new financial products may be even more complex and technologically-advanced than the ones available nowadays. as bicchieri (1988: 104) claims, “metaphors play an essential role even in mature fields, in the development of new theories as well as in the extension of old ones”. all important turnouts in economic history were accompanied by a new lexicon. this situation can be observed in polish as both 1989 (when the economic system changed) and 2004 (when poland became a member of the eu) led to the incorporation of new terminology. 5. conclusion the aim of this paper was to show the metaphoricity of the investment banking lexicon. after presenting some basic functions of metaphor in economic discourse, attention was focused on the metaphorical nature of the investment banking lexicon. the short study showed that investment banking lexicons are not the same. the way in which they differ depends on linguistic, social, historical, political and economic factors. we should also bear in mind that there are some similarities within the discourses studied. in the era of globalisation, terminology undergoes unification. what is more, languages share a common heritage or they belong to the same linguistic families. what is also crucial is the role of intercultural communication in investment banking. using the same or similar metaphorical expressions makes professional discourses easier, even if some speakers from different cultures are involved. we should also remember that the number of the role of metaphors in the language ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156 149 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 149 metaphors is not the same in all areas of investment banking. it is the field of m&a which stands out in the use of metaphorical expressions to describe the ways in which companies react. mergers and, especially, acquisitions involve strong emotions and metaphors are the best tools to describe them. investment banking is a developing domain. thus, in the future, new fields may appear together with new metaphorical expressions. 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(2006). “metaphor and ideology in business and economic discourse in british and american english” in j. flowerdew & m. gotti (eds.), studies in specialized discourse, 109-129. bern: peter lang. klamer a, d.n. mccloskey & r.m. solow (1988). the consequences of economic rhetoric. new york: cambridge university press. knowles, m. & r. moon (2006). introducing metaphor. abingdon: routledge. koller, v. (2004). metaphor and gender in business media discourse. a critical cognitive study. new york: palgrave. kurth, e. (1999). “‘altered images’. cognitive and pragmatic aspects of metaphor translation” in j. vandaele (ed.), translation and the re(location) of meaning, 97-116. leuven: university of leuven. lakoff, g. & m. turner (1989). more than cool reason. a field guide to poetic metaphor. chicago: the university of chicago press. maasen, s. & p. weingart (1995). “metaphors messengers of meaning. a contribution to an evolutionary sociology of science”. science communication 17: 9-31. maasen, s. & p. weingart (2000). metaphors and the dynamics of knowledge. london: routledge. mccloskey, d.(1995). “metaphors economists live by”. social research 62: 215-237. mccloskey, d. (1998). the rhetoric of economics. wisconsin: university of wisconsin press. mccormac, e. (1998). a cognitive theory of metaphor. cambridge: the mit press. mladenov, i. (2006). conceptualizing metaphors. on charles peirce’s marginalia. abingdon: routledge. neave, e.h. (1998). financial systems: principles and organization. london: routledge. o’driscoll, g.p. (1994). “an evolutionary approach to banking and money” in j. birner & r. van zijp (eds.), hayek, co-ordination and evolution: his legacy in philosophy, politics, economics and the history of ideas, 126137. london: routledge. pountain, ch.j. (2001). a history of the spanish language through texts. london: routledge. reeves, c. (2005). the language of science. abingdon: routledge. ritchie, l.d. (2006). context and connection in metaphor. basingstoke: palgrave. russ, ch.v.j. (1994). the german language today: a linguistic introduction. oxford: blackwell publishing. sierra ayala, l. (2001). “la negociación comercial: del coloquialismo a la metafora” in j.c. palmer, s. posteguillo & i. fortanet (eds.), discourse analysis and terminology in languages for specific purposes, 207-216. the role of metaphors in the language ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156 151 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 151 castellón: universitat jaume i. skorczynska-sznajder, h. (2001). “metaphor in scientific business journals and business periodicals: an example of the scientific discourse popularization”. ibérica 3: 43-60. slater, r. (1999). the titans of takeover. washington: beard books. soskice, j.m. (1985). metaphor and religious language. oxford: oxford university press. steen, g.j. (2004). “can discourse properties of metaphor affect metaphor recognition?” journal of pragmatics 36: 12951313. stewart, m. (1999). the spanish language today. london: routledge. stoll, m. (2007). english influence on german. münchen: grin verlag. tilley, ch. (1999). metaphor and material culture. oxford: blackwell. trim, r. (2007). metaphor networks. new york: palgrave macmillan. verstraeten, l. (2005). “belgium” in p. martinius (ed.), m&a: protecting the purchaser, 95122. the hague: kluwer law international. white, m. (2003). “metaphor and economics: the case of growth”. english for specific purposes 22: 131-151. magdalena bielenia-grajewska ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156152 magdalena bielenia-grajewska, phd, teaches and researches at the university of gdańsk (department of translation studies and intercultural communication). she is a linguist (ma in english studies) and an economist (ma in economics). her phd thesis was connected with translation and investment banking. she is a member of the editorial board of ijantii (international journal of actor-network theory and technological innovation). her scientific interests include lsp, translation, intercultural communication and sociolinguistics. appendix 1: research materials acciones & valores s.a. url: http://www.accivalores.com/2nivel/glosario/castellano/f.htm [19/02/2006] advanced currency markets (lenguaje forex).url: http://www.ac-markets.com/es/ressources.fx_language.asp [19/02/2006] advanced financial network. url: http://www.advfn.com/money-words.html [19/02/2006] alcaraz varó e. & b. hughes (2002). diccionario de términos económicos, financieros y comerciales. barcelona: ariel. banco madrid. url: https://www.bancomadrid.com/bm/default.htm [01/02/2006] banken verband. url: http://www.bankenverband.de/index.asp?channel=121111&art=200 [07/11/2006] bannock g. & w. manser (2001). finanse. warszawa: wydawnictwo naukowe pwn. börsenlexikon. url: http://www.flife.de/lexikon.php?find=a [20/01/2005] börsenlexikon. url: http://www.versicherungsnavigator.at/html1/lexika/boerslex.htm [20/01/2005] bolsa one. url: http://www.bolsaone.com/www/manual/forex.asp?lang=es&doc=3 [06/10/2005] bolsomania. url: http://www.bolsamania.com/formacion/libronoesis_temario.php?sesion_bolsamaniaes= bd08c1dda4ee86bd61789d82e6b3530a [5/12/2005]börsen lexikon.url: http://boersenlexikon.faz.net/libor.htm [05/10/2005] boursoperator. url: http://www.boursoperator.com/boursop/es/analyse.htm [5/10/2005] 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 152 the role of metaphors in the language ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156 153 branchen portal. url: http://branchenportal-deutschland.aus-stade.de/ei7.htm [20/01/2005] business week. url: http://www.businessweek.com/archives [ 5/12/2007] buttler, b., d. buttler & a. isaacs (1997). a dictionary of finance and banking. oxford: oxford university press. caixa catalunya. url: http://www.caixacatalunya.es/ [10/01/2008] caja murcia. url: http://www.cajamurcia.es/ [10/01/2008] campus (wirtschaftslexikon). url: http://www.campus.de [10/01/2008] chartfilterstock analysis software. url: http://www.chartfilter.com/glossary.htm [10/01/2008] cinco días. url: http://www.cincodias.com [05/02/2006] collin p. & k. bartnicki (2000). słownik bankowości i finansów. warszawa: wydawnictwo wilga. das finanzen-lexikon. url: http://www.finanzen-lexikon.de [10/01/2008] datadiar.com.url: http://www.datadiar.com/actual/legislacion/mercantil/rd1393_90.htm [10/01/2006] davidson, a. (2005). how to understand the financial pages. a guide to money & jargon. london: kogan page limited. deutsche bank (lexikon). url: http://www.deutsche-bank.de/lexikon/1276.html [10/01/2008] die börsen journalisten. url: http://www.boersenjournalisten.de/candles/candles.htm [10/02/2006] el accionista. url: http://elaccionista.com/tecnico/candlestick.htm [05/03/2006] el país. url: http://www.elpais.es [10/01/2007] emprendedores. url: http://www.emprendedores.wanadoo.es [10/01/2008] financial times deutschland. url: http://ftd.de/bm/ga/18067.html [10/01/2008] finanzas. url: www.finanzas.com [10/08/2007] fitch, t. (2000). dictionary of banking terms. new york: barron’s educational series. france, s.c., p. mann & b. kolossa (1998). angielsko-polski słownik tematyczny. ekonomia. warszawa: wydawnictwo naukowe pwn. frankfurter allgemeine zeitung. url: http://www.faz.de [05/01/2006] fx markets (marktterminologie – daten). url: http://www.fxmarkets.de/basics/term3.htm [10/01/2008] gazeta wyborcza (paper issues running between 1992-2007) glossarist. url: http://www.glossarist.com/glossaries/ [10/01/2007] glossary of financial and investment funds. url: http://www.gobcafunds.com/glossary/ [10/01/2007] handelsblatt. url: http://www.handelsblatt.com/news/default.aspx?_p=300393&_t=ft&_b=960233 : [10/01/2007] hvb consulting. url: http://www.hvbconsult.de/pdf/ma__intern_6.pdf [10/01/2006] härtling, p. & h. schex (2002). sicherheit und wohlstand mit investmentfonds. münchen: redlinie wirtschaft. hoszowska, b. (2001). angielsko-polski słownik potocznego języka biznesu. warszawa: harald g. infomercados. url: http://www.infomercados.com/webn/formacion/candlestick.asp?id=46 [1/02/2006] investment company institute. url: http://www.ici.org [01/01/2006] investopedia. url: http://www.investopedia.com [10/01/2006] investor words. url: http://www.investorwords.com [10/01/2006] jaślan, j. & h. jaślan (1991). słownik terminologii prawniczej i ekonomicznej. angielsko-polski. warszawa: wiedza powszechna. kienzler, i. (2004). angielsko-polski słownik terminologii gospodarczej. warszawa: c.h. beck. koch, r. (1997). słownik zarządzania i finansów. narzędzia, terminy, techniki od a do z. kraków: wydawnictwo profesjonalnej szkoły biznesu. kozierkiewicz, r. (2003). słownik terminologii finansowej. warszawa: oficyna wydawnicza branta. 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 153 magdalena bielenia-grajewska ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156154 kozierkiewicz, r. (2005). dictionary of business terms. warszawa: c.h.beck. kraus und partner. url: http://www.kraus-und-partner.de/1375/saturday-night-special : [10/01/2006] law, j. (2006). dictionary of business and management. oxford: oxford university press. lexicon. url: http://investments.citibank.de/germany/lexikon/lexikon.html?navi=10,6,0&c=o&id=372: [10/01/2007] lexikon von a-z. url: http://www.boersenverlag.de/wissen/lexikon.php3?start=g&id=800: [10/01/2007] longman’s dictionary of contemporary english. (1995). essex: longman group ltd. majewska-bartkowiak, e. & e. santana (2004). diccionario comercial-financiero. warszawa: poltext. manager magazin. url: http://www.manager-magazin.de [10/11/2005] money extra. url: http://www.moneyextra.com/dictionary [10/01/2006] morningstar. url: http://www.morningstar.es/news/analysis.asp?articleid=25315&categoryid=102&validfrom=2003-07-07 [10/01/2006] mutscheller, a. & r. livesey (2002). fachwőrterbuch-banken, finanzen und versicherungen. stuttgart: ernst klett sprachen. nasdaq-glossary of terms. url: http://www.nasd.com/web/idcplg?idcservice=ss_get_page&nodeid=1088&sssourcenodeid=766 [10/01/2006] nuernberger. http://www.nuernberger.at/dat/fonds_glossar.pdf [10/03/2006] patterson, r. (2002). kompendium terminów bankowych po polsku i po angielsku. warszawa: fundacja rozwoju rachunkowości w polsce. rzeczpospolita (paper issues running between 1992-2007) sala financiera. url: http://www.salafinanciera.com/termino.php?cod_termino=16 [12/12/2005] sánchez, c. (1990). wirtschaftswörterbuch. teil 1. deutsh-spanisch. wiesbaden: gabler. shim j.k. & j.g. siegel (2001). dictionary of international investment terms. new york: barron’s educational series, inc. smullen, j. & n. handy (2005). a dictionary of finance and banking. oxford: oxford university press. šmid, w. (2000). słownik terminów angielsko-polski. warszawa: placet. spanish translator. url: http://www.spanish-translator-services.com/espanol/diccionarios/finanzas-inglesespanol/s/saturday_night_special.htm [10/10/2005] steuernetx (steuer-lexikon). url: http://www.steuernetz.de/lexikon04/lexikon2004w3.html [10/10/2005] süddeutsche zeitung (fachwörterbuch wirtschaft, handel und finanzen). url: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/app/wirtschaft/fachwoerterbuch/ [10/03/2006] templeton growth fund, inc. url: http://www.franklintempleton.at/pdf/funds/fdata/147_at_de.pdf [12/12/2007] woytowicz-neymann, m., r. kozierkiewicz & m. puławski (1991). english-polish business dictionary. słownik handlowy angielsko-polski. warszawa: państwowe wydawnictwo ekonomiczne. zespół reuters limited. (1992). słownik reutera. międzynarodowe terminy ekonomiczne i finansowe. warszawa: reuters. appendix 2: corpus of investment banking lexicon 12b-1, air-pocket stocks, alligator spread, american option, asset stripper/asset stripping, balanced fund, banker’s acceptance, bankmail, bay street, bear hug, black knight, blitzkrieg tender offer, blue chip stocks, blue-chip fund, blue-sky securities, boiler room/ boiler shop, bond with warrant, boston, brady bond, bull spread, bulldog bond, butterfly spread, buy and hold, market timing, calendar spread, call deposit, call option, 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 154 the role of metaphors in the language ibérica 17 [2009]: 139-156 155 carousel certificates of deposit, chicago board of trade (cbot), chicago mercantile exchange (cme), chinese wall, closed-end fund, collar, collaterized mortgage obligations, commercial paper, commodity futures trading commission, concert party, condor spread contrarian, convertible bond, convertible stocks, cornering the market, corporate bonds coupon, cpi-indexed treasuty notes, crown jewels, dawn raid, cumulative stocks, cyclical stocks, dark cloud cover, default risk, defensive stocks, deposit, deposit arbitrage, derivative, diversified fund, engulfing pattern, equity link bond, euromarket, european option, evening star, exchange fees, exercise/ strike price, face value, fannie mae, federal funds, floating rate note, focused fund, forward, freddie mac, front-end load, futures, futures option, garp, general obligation bond, ginnie mae, government bond, greenmail, grey knight, growth, hammer, hangman, hedge, hedge fund, income fund, inter-bank deposit, investment fund, killer bee, ladder option, lady macbeth strategy, large-cap fund, lettered stocks, libid, libor, limean, load fund, lobster trap, lombard street, london international financial futures exchange, management fees, margin requirement, maturity, midamerica commodity exchange, kansas city board of trade, mid-cap funds, money market fund, mortgage-backed securities, municipal bonds, negotiability, new york futures exchange, no-load fund, non-cumulative stocks, open-end fund, option, overnight, pac-man defense, par value, participating shares, penny stocks, people pill, poison pill, preferred stocks, principal, put option, rainbow option, redemption fees, repurchase agreement, return, revenue bond, sales charge, sallie mae, samurai bond, sandbag, saturday night special, saving bond, scorched-earth policy, sector fund, sector stocks, shark repellent, sleeper stocks, sleeping beauty, small-cap fund, sour stocks, spot next, stock funds, stock option, stocks/shares, straight bonds, suicide pill, sweetheart deal, tarantula trading, teddy bear hug, three black crows, three-dimensional chess, time to maturity, tomnext, tracking stocks, treasury bill, treasury bond, treasury note, turbo charging, war chest, white knight, white squire, wibid, wibor, yellow knight zero coupon bond. 09 iberica 17.qxp:iberica 13 27/03/09 14:42 página 155 iberica 13 ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140 issn 1139-7241 abstract a less-frequently discussed parallel-linguistic issue is the parallel language of visuals and numerals: the diagrams, tables, models, mathematical signs and different symbols that students have to deal with in their reading and writing. texts are multimodal, that is they are constructed with visual objects and different sign systems as well as writing. for new students, it can be difficult to grasp how visuals and numerals can have different meanings in different contexts, such as academic disciplines. for teachers, the disciplinary use of the visuals and numerals is often so ingrained that they may have difficulty seeing the problems that students face. drawing on the theoretical framework of social semiotics and the neo-vygotskian perspective, this article shows how new students of economics in sweden encounter a multimodal academic literacy. the article also discusses some of the difficulties relating to this situation and argues for a raised awareness among teachers in order to scaffold students into academic, visual literacies. keywords: multimodality, visuals, numerals, disciplinary writing, scaffolding. resumen del porcentaje a la predicción: estudiantes universitarios que se enfrentan a una lengua paralela de cifras y elementos visuales un asunto poco tratado y que guarda relación con el uso de una lengua paralela es el lenguaje paralelo de las cifras y los elementos visuales: los diagramas, las tablas, los modelos, los símbolos matemáticos y los distintos símbolos que deben utilizar los alumnos en sus tareas de lectura y escritura. los textos son multimodales, es decir, se construyen mediante el uso combinado de texto escrito, elementos visuales y distintos sistemas de signos. para los nuevos from percentage to prediction: university students meeting a parallel language of visuals and numerals mona blåsjö stockholm university (sweden) mona.blasjo@nordiska.su.se 123 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 123 ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140 mona blåsjö estudiantes puede resultar complicado llegar a entender cómo es que los elementos visuales y las cifras pueden tener significados dispares en contextos tan diferentes como las distintas especialidades académicas. para los profesores, el uso disciplinar de las cifras y los elementos visuales es una práctica tan arraigada que puede resultarles difícil entrever los problemas a los que se enfrentan los alumnos. tomando como base el marco teórico de la semiótica social y la perspectiva neo-vygotskiana, este artículo muestra cómo los estudiantes que inician la titulación de económicas en suecia se enfrentan con un modo de lectura y escritura académica multimodal. en el artículo también se estudian algunas de las dificultades que guardan relación con esta situación y se apuesta por conseguir una mayor sensibilización por parte de los profesores de manera que puedan ir introduciendo a los alumnos gradualmente en una comprensión y escritura de textos académico-visual. palabras clave: multimodalidad, elementos visuales, cifras, escritura disciplinar, construcción del conocimiento por niveles. introduction the lsp and genre approaches have made clear the importance of researching and teaching language as applied in different settings, discourse communities and genres rather than solely as a linguistic system. recently, focus has also been directed toward the fact that language use and literacy involve not only verbal or written language, but also different resources such as images, sounds and colours (kress & van leeuwen, 2006; lankshear & knobel, 2006; organisation for economic co-operation and development, 2005). in academic settings, although the written mode is predominant, meaning has long been constructed by visual tools such as tables and diagrams. students have gradually learnt how to make sense of these visuals and how to use them in their own writing. nevertheless, it is perhaps fair to say that schools and higher education often lack a deeper awareness or pedagogical methodology to this end. when it comes to making sense of and applying visual representations, students are mostly left to their own devices and implicit learning. this article aims to describe some of the complexity of languages or literacies that students encounter when they begin university and to discuss some of the difficulties related to this situation. the main research questions are as follows: what problems do new students encounter, how do teachers support the learning process, and how do students develop over a one-anda-half-year course? 124 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 124 after an overview of the literature on multimodality and learning, i present a case study from an economics degree course in which students (taught in swedish, using both english and swedish literature) encounter graphs, models, and mathematical signs. the conclusions suggest that students might require more informed support or scaffolding in this process. previous research different modes and visual representations have been studied from aspects such as cognitive development (erkens et al., 2010; kolloffel, 2010), linguistic development (johns, 1998), and disciplinary identity and development (rowley-jolivet, 2002 & 2004; dressen-hammouda, 2008; airey & linder, 2009). the cognitive aspects are often studied through experimental designs, comparing development with and without combined modes – for instance, do students learn more from written and visual material than from written material alone (e.g. bauer & johnson-laird, 1993; schneider, rode & stern, 2010)? even if such studies can reveal certain general tendencies, they usually do not acknowledge the importance of situatedness and disciplinarity for learning. studies that include a disciplinary and/or linguistic aspect are, for example, johns (1998), rowley-jolivet (2002 & 2004), and dressen-hammouda (2008). generally, these scholars emphasize firstly the affordances of visuals for communication between native speakers and non-native speakers (nns) and, secondly, the importance of awareness or a critical stance towards the representation of data in visuals. concerning the affordances or possibilities of visuals, the basis is the potential to create meaning from different modes. it may be easier to understand a mathematical problem if it is visualized than if it is merely explained in words. likewise, the use of visuals may contribute to the development of second language in nns: visuals may serve as a transition between the first and second language, if used in a conscious manner by teachers (johns, 1998). concerning the awareness of the representations of data, scholars point out the importance of a critical discussion of how data are chosen and presented. there is no such thing as “naked data”; rather all data are socially constructed in some way (johns, 1998). students need to become aware of this, both for their reading and their own knowledge contributions. in addition, research has highlighted the importance of understanding and applying the visuals in a certain manner for disciplinarity (rowley-jolivet, from percentage to prediction ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140 125 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 125 2004). every discipline has its own ways of constructing reality, and visuals may be one of these. for instance, airey and linder (2009) show how visual representations are used in physics to show electric and other phenomena. theoretical framework sociosemiotic theory of multimodality since the 1990s, the concept of multimodality has been increasingly applied in linguistics, discourse studies and pedagogy (kress & van leeuwen, 2006; jewitt, 2009; kress, 2010). the background is the rapid development of digital media, making it possible for large groups both to express themselves, and to encounter texts designed using a mix of techniques and technologies, such as the written word, video and sound. however, multimodality has always been present, as many traditional texts include pictures, and all texts have a visual and an auditory aspect (i.e. the text can be read aloud). drawing on the systemic-functional linguistics work of m. a. k. halliday (halliday, 1978; halliday & martin, 1993), scholars within the framework of social semiotic theory, have pointed out how different modes or semiotic resources have different meaning potential. for instance, compared to verbal representations, visual representations have a greater potential to realize meaning on spatial conditions. another relevant aspect covered by sociosemiotics and systemic-functional linguistics is to what extent information is “packed” (martin, 1993; ventola, 1996). verbal language and visual modes allow content or a clause to be packed into more concentrated items. in verbal language, we often pack processes in the form of nominals: “to create” becomes “creation”. in visual modes, a process can be represented by an arrow, for instance (kress, 2010). the concentration of this type of representation allows information to be handled rapidly, which is often the case in lsp and academic texts. however, different meanings can also be construed from the “same” sign. an arrow, the example mentioned above, can also mean location. kress (2010) gives the example of a sketch of a garden: in a gardening book, it is likely to be interpreted by the reader as representing reality, but in a children’s book it is not. hence, the meaning of the drawing depends on the context. moreover, the representation of meaning in different modes can be described as transduction (kress, 2010): we might first describe something mona blåsjö ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140126 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 126 verbally and then transduce it into a drawing. in academic writing, transduction is quite frequent, as writers have to shift between the written and visual modes, for instance when explaining the meaning of a specific table in writing. neo-vygotskian theories of learning according to neo-vygotskian theories, all learning is situated within social practices and is dependent on sociohistorically developed tools (wertsch, 1998; wells, 2000; säljö, 2003 & 2004; barton, 2006). there is no entirely non-contextual knowledge or skill that is easily transferable between situations. for instance, säljö (1991) showed how 12 to 13-year-old students had difficulties using a postage table in school, due to problems connecting the in-school applications of tables with the everyday experience of weight and costs. that is, the school domain and the everyday domain entail different types of knowledge. even a student who can read and calculate a table in mathematics does not necessarily understand how to use a table in a non-mathematics situation, and vice versa. learning in social practices also means learning by doing things together. novices learn by first imitating more experienced members (reproducing), then mastering and eventually appropriating actions (vygotsky, 1978; wertsch, 1998). appropriation means making something one’s own, integrating it in our personality. at the beginning of a career, we often imitate the words and actions of the profession, then we master them; but not until they are appropriated do they appear natural, part of our identity. appropriated knowledge and actions are often unconscious and difficult to verbalize. this phenomenon may be related to the issue of “packing” mentioned above: eventually knowledge becomes so ingrained and “packed” that it becomes invisible to us. the idea that humans learn by doing things together, often with someone with greater knowledge, is also the notion behind the concept of scaffolding.1 a more experienced participant makes a temporary scaffold, a support, for the learner; when the learning process is complete, the learner can do without the scaffold. the type of learning relevant here is not the transfer of information or “facts”, but how to perform a relatively complex task, such as writing a text or making a calculation (in vygotsky’s (1978: 40) words, “higher psychological processes”). the scaffolding metaphor implies that acting together is the crucial point for learning and that together with another the learner can perform more difficult assignments than alone. from percentage to prediction ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140 127 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 127 scaffolding is also a concept used in the systemic-functional linguistics approach, or rather its pedagogical branch, known also as the sydney school or genre pedagogy. a relevant contribution in that tradition is mackenhorarik (macken-horarik, 1996; macken-horarik et al. 2006). this scholar describes teachers’ scaffolding of younger students from an everyday knowledge domain, via a specialized domain with discipline knowledge into a reflexive knowledge domain. each of these domains entails a certain type of language use and a certain worldview. according to macken-horarik and her colleagues, it is the role of the school to scaffold students to participate in knowledge domains other than the everyday. design of the case study the study was conducted at stockholm university over three semesters of an economics degree course. the teaching was conducted in swedish, and the literature consisted of both swedish and english items. for data collection, ethnographically inspired methods were used. i followed the same route as the students, from semester one to semester three. in total, i conducted 17 observations of lectures and seminars and 21 interviews with students and teachers. the observations were documented by notes and the interviews mainly by recordings. an extensive corpus of student and professional writing was gathered and analysed. for closer analyses, seven student texts from each semester were selected. of these, about 50% were written by women and 50% by men, and about 50% were medium graded and 50% highly graded. in the presentation of the analyses below, i use fictional names of these and other students. i also studied literature on the discipline of economics (henderson, dudley-evans & backhouse, 1993; mccloskey, 1998; smart, 2006). the data were analysed using qualitative methods, thematizing both deductive categories determined by the research questions and literature (such as development and scaffolding) and categories induced from the data (spradley, 1980; ryan & bernhard, 2003). at swedish universities, most students take a full-time degree course in one subject at a time. an economics student thus typically studies economics and nothing else for a full semester. she or he then chooses to continue with the course or not. there are two semesters a year, normally comprising one degree course each. in many subjects, students write a thesis at the end of mona blåsjö ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140128 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 128 their second semester (“b thesis”) and third semester (bachelor thesis). the theses consist of empirical studies or literature reviews, and are similar to professional research papers or theses in their structure. they are typically presented, discussed and defended in a seminar with a peer as an opponent. results practices and problems the study shows three major problems encountered by students: difficulties realizing what the visuals represent in economics, difficulties connecting the levels of societal processes and mathematical symbols, and difficulties integrating the visuals with their verbal, written presentations. these problems will be illustrated by a number of examples below. of the visual tools of economics, graphs were introduced from the very beginning, even in the introductory lecture. typically, the lecturer drew or showed a graph and the students copied it into their notes. they quickly learnt to bring rulers, tipp-ex and coloured pens. the colours represent different aspects in the graphs. the graphs usually represent a hypothetical economic development, for instance, future unemployment or rates. my observations indicate that in the first semester many students had difficulties grasping the significance of the graphs, what they represent, and how to handle them. during lectures, students did not ask many questions; however, additional seminars in smaller groups aimed to give students the opportunity to discuss and ask questions. students tended to ask two types of questions: (i) on formal details and (ii) on general economic conditions, both everyday and on economic policy. when explaining a specific graph, teachers were asked questions both on the meaning of specific graphical objects and on the reasons for economic processes. the first type of question, on formal details, included “does it matter if you use a lower case or an upper case y?”, “what’s that cute little symbol of yours?” and “should it really be r there?”. examples of the latter type of question, on economic conditions and national policy matters, included “but why is there bound to be inflation?”, “do you think that prices will rise now?” and “why does the rate fall?” the tendency to ask these types of questions suggests that new students deal with the graphs on other levels than their teachers. while the teachers aimed to make the students apply the graphs as mathematical tools for theoretical processes, the students initially became entangled in details from percentage to prediction ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140 129 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 129 and/or attempted to see the concrete societal conditions that the graphs are supposed to capture. in one of the observed seminars, the teacher explained how to derive a certain graph on rates. however, several students kept asking questions, mainly about related actual policy issues such as the actions of the national bank and difficulties in raising prices. the lecturer replied, “now there is no issue of policy here, we are only trying to obtain the graph”. as the policy questions kept coming, eventually one student turned to the others and stated, “this is only hypothetical, you know, it doesn’t happen!”. many students laughed, but the lecturer replied, “exactly”. this situation is an example of how students have difficulties grasping the hypothetical property of the visual tools of economics. for students, the graphs constitute something that “is”, something stable; for economists they represent a tool for hypothesizing about and calculating future events. other problems concern the mathematical traits of economics. a general notion among the students was that skills in mathematics were not supposed to be necessary to finish the first semester. of course, mathematical skills from upper secondary school were required, but more advanced skills or knowledge were not. nevertheless, the frequency that this notion was mentioned can be regarded as a sign of concern among the students. they often related to mathematics in the interviews; for example magnus, after reading an earlier b thesis, stated: “it was really heavy, loads of mathematical calculations, i was thinking, like, uh-oh, is this the expected level?!”. several of the details about which students asked questions included mathematical symbols and variables such as x, y and r. all of these can be replaced by different values, and some also represent a certain meaning, such as r=rate. that is, students have to differentiate and learn which symbols have a meaning as such and which do not (compare o’halloran, 2005). even students with greater mathematical skills and experience using the visual tools could have difficulties adjusting them to the specific disciplinary setting. sverker and fredrik were students with several semesters’ experience from a technical university. after their joint b thesis in economics had been approved, they said: sverker: we got this comment on formulae, too, that in economics you are supposed to write in words after the formula what everything means. we’re not used to that. mona blåsjö ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140130 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 130 from their technical university, sverker and fredrik were used to handling formulae and mathematical figures as self-supporting entities. in this new context, they were supposed to present this kind of information in both mathematical and verbal form, that is to transduce it between two different modes. in addition, the lecturer remarked on the lack of a source for a table in their theses. however, they claimed to have merged two existing tables, and for that reason did not regard it as “stolen”: fredrik: and it’s so general. you can find it in five other books. sverker: it’s like, “who drew it first?”! quotation and paraphrasing often have different forms in different settings. in economics, the students must learn a new way of dealing with sources. thus, although students may be skilled in visual tools such as tables and graphs, they have to learn a specific way of applying them in a new setting, in this case, a new discipline. in the first semester, most numbers in students’ assignments represented years and percentages. as could be expected, their texts did not look particularly “economic”, rather they handled numbers in an everyday domain manner (macken-horarik, 1996). years and percentages are notions of everyday knowledge, not specialized economics knowledge. further, in these assignments and their b theses, students sometimes inserted a graph without any introduction. an example of this is where juha and niklas answered a question in the assignment as follows (they began by citing the question from the assignment): describe the concept of equilibrium unemployment. is the explanation for the fact that unemployment did not decrease between 1993 and 1997 that equilibrium unemployment had increased? equilibrium unemployment occurs when workforce demand equals workforce supply. at that point there is a certain level of unemployment, consisting of people who are between jobs, in competence-enhancing training or are simply not willing to work at the given wage level. (juha & niklas, b thesis) from percentage to prediction ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140 131 d s workforce 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 131 inserting a graph without any introduction or caption could be viewed as a non-disciplinary or non-academic practice, something that contravenes the rules. however, one could also regard it as imitating the lectures, where graphs are sometimes presented without any contextual information at all. for some reason, there were several instances of non-integrated visual tools in the data, especially from the first and second semesters. even when more integrated, a majority of the graphs and tables in b theses were cited rather than created by students. there was no self-created table and only one selfcreated graph in the b thesis data. apart from graphs, a fundamental mathematical tool in economics is the model (smart, 2006). often models consist of a mathematical formula, and are used to insert certain variables to calculate different phenomena such as a rate or unemployment. all b theses in the study contained models, but only one was self-produced. alex, daniel and göran created a model to calculate the benefit of paying the tv licence: first, we state the following assumption, namely that our tv owner is benefit maximizing, with the benefit function u=p. another assumption is egoism, which means that the tv owner thinks only of his/her own benefit and has no moral qualms about not paying the fee. u (entertainment value) = the value of the television supply a= licence fee p = probability of getting caught, a number between 0 and 1 this allows us to calculate the benefit of paying or not paying the licence fee. we can join the following benefit functions: e π (pay) = u–a e π (not pay) = u–pa (alex, daniel and göran, b thesis) although this was a self-created model, which is a core element of economics, the thesis was not graded highly. even as non-economists, we can see that the presentation of the tool is somewhat imprecise or nonacademic, such as the formulation “getting caught”. these students realized that models are important, and tried to imitate their use; however, they did not quite succeed. in their bachelor theses in the third semester, most students used self-created graphs, and several used self-produced tables. most students included one or more mathematical models, though mostly from the literature. some elaborated the models, but there were no selfproduced models. mona blåsjö ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140132 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 132 the main problem that students faced when they encountered the visuals in economics was realizing the meaning of graphs and other mathematical symbols. they also focused on the general level of the economy of the country and details such as single variables, while the lecturers focused on hypothetical predictions. in addition, it took time for students to learn to integrate the visuals in a manner accepted in their discipline. methods used by teachers teachers performed some scaffolding for the students. the main scaffolding act was that teachers drew and showed graphs that students copied or drew. even when graphs were shown rather than drawn, teachers tried to get inside the graph, explaining how points move in relation to one another, how lines move, fall and so forth. a frequent wording was “we move  …” in combination with pointing at a line in a graph. hence, an aspect of dynamism or movement, as well as position, was implicitly emphasized in the teaching, and thereby a character of doing it together. below are some excerpts from one lecturer’s class: if we are situated at point d, the demand will be greater than the supply. to fix that, y must increase. you move to the right. why? well, for the reason i just mentioned. it’s more profitable. and so we move along the aa graph down to point 1. (lecture, second semester) as elements in lectures such as these consist of joint activity – “we move” – the character of scaffolding was strong. that is, the students performed the act of drawing and following graphs together with the teacher. moreover, this tendency in the lectures can be seen as a kind of transduction in the sense that the teacher brings the visual mode into the verbal mode. in doing so, the teachers mainly “remained” within the visuals; they did not often relate them to societal phenomena or everyday knowledge, and the visuals were presented with quite limited context. however, occasionally teachers did relate to students’ previous knowledge and experience of everyday and societal economic issues. some examples are given below: you can easily see that when negotiating wages, it wouldn’t be nice to have to say that the result was minus 0.5 percent. that’s what we can see in swedish policy today. the model that explains this is the endogenous growth model. from percentage to prediction ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140 133 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 133 the most ambitious attempt to build a bridge to students’ understanding was when a lecturer teaching probability theory arranged a lottery in his group. the lottery was intended to illustrate theories of consumer preferences and was accompanied by numerical calculations. the same teacher illustrated his examples with balls, eggs and dice. however, these specific ways of concretizing probability theory are relatively standard in any introductory textbook on probability. also, this attempt and others were more an exception than the rule. the general finding of my analysis is that teachers performed some scaffolding, but not enough to bridge the gap that new students faced concerning the use of visuals in economics. moreover, the teachers related to everyday knowledge and concepts even less, which could also be regarded as a lack of integration of visuals, i.e. putting them into context. students’ development although the scaffolding could be stronger, students did develop over the three semesters. after some time in the first semester, students learnt to “go straight to the diagrams” – as susanne said, “if you get them, you get the rest”. jonas stated that “the function of the language is just to clarify an equation” (compare johns, 1998). these two statements indicate that students learnt or realized the importance of the mathematical objects and regarded them as the focus of the discipline. when inger and hans wrote their b theses, they were relating to what they perceived to be a disciplinary norm: “it’s good to have a lot of numbers and diagrams”. hans stated this as a well-known fact in an interview. another indicator of this development is that students took notes more eagerly when the teacher showed figures, graphs and similar objects than when s/he merely spoke or showed verbal, written information. that is, students quickly learnt that numerals and visuals are important in economics. the general tendency of development is shown in figure 1. the students developed from an everyday understanding of economics as existing phenomena such as unemployment and actual numbers to a more disciplinary understanding of economics as predicting and constructing hypotheses about future processes. they also learnt how to produce mathematical models, how to integrate visuals in their texts, and how to develop and produce visuals and mathematical models. however, there are no real proofs of students reaching the critical knowledge domain (mackenmona blåsjö ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140134 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 134 horarik, 1996; macken-horarik et al., 2006) or appropriation (wertsch, 1998). discussion and conclusions students quickly realized that numerals and graphs are important in economics. they focused on these in the classroom and talked a lot about mathematics in the interviews. however, attaining the disciplinary practice of graphs and numerals took longer, often several semesters. the greatest problem for the students, as shown in my analysis, was to realize the hypothetical meaning of visuals and mathematical signs used in economics. initially, they regarded the mathematical and visual tools as more substantial entities, related to an everyday knowledge domain, and only gradually reached the disciplinary domain (macken-horarik, 1996). the case study suggests that teachers and new students use visuals and numerals at different levels or for different meaning potentials. for teachers, visuals and numerals function as an instrument, to get a job done. the tools are “packed” and ready for use. for new students, the visual tools need to be explored in their own right before they can be applied in a disciplineapproved manner. students need to learn about details within the visuals, such as what different variables mean, before they can “pack” and use them (see above, ventola, 1996, and blåsjö, 2009). more precisely, they have to encounter and learn the meaning of the specific variables and mathematical signs included in a graph or a model before they can handle it as a complete object. although this may not be a completely novel result, taking it into full consideration can lead to a more informed teaching. the case study also shows that teachers supported or scaffolded (wood, bruner & ross, 1976; macken-horarik et al., 2006) their students by applying from percentage to prediction ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140 135 semester 1 semester 2 semester 3 mathematical signs used solely for percentages and years mathematical signs used in formulae and models mathematical signs used in formulae and models reproduced and weakly integrated graphs reproduced graphs, tables and models self-produced tables. reproduced and self-developed models mathematical signs representing actual numbers and results mathematical signs representing hypothetical processes everyday domain specialized domain figure 1. students’ development. d 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 135 the graphs together with the students in the classroom and to some extent relating them to the everyday domain. however, there were also lapses where students had to help each other understand the hypothetical character of economics and its visuals. this seems to be due to the “hidden propositions” (dressen-hammouda, 2008: 240) and implicit norms that all disciplines and discourse communities encompass. however, in my view, teachers could use scaffolding to a greater extent. they could thereby verbalize the as yet implicit notions of the visuals, such as the hypothetical character of the graphs, which is clearly not obvious to all new students. even if students are familiar with a certain visual tool, they need to practice using it within the new context before it can be applied in an appropriate way. they need to learn to handle the visuals in a disciplinary manner, such as integrating them in their texts in the way the discipline requires (dressenhammouda, 2008). this conclusion agrees with a neo-vygotskian view of learning as related to different social practices (säljö, 2003). knowledge and competencies are not context free: they have to be rooted in a new context when the individual shifts settings. as we have seen in the analysis, visuals like graphs are used and integrated in the text in different ways in different disciplines. one explanation for the problems could be that the teachers have appropriated the use of the visuals to such an extent that they have difficulties verbalizing their knowledge about them. they take many aspects for granted, such as the hypothetical meaning of the visuals, and do not explain this explicitly to their students. generally, it may be necessary for teachers to discuss and make explicit the “hidden norms” (dressenhammouda, 2008: 240) of their discipline in order to make them visible to their students (compare airey & linder, 2009). the students’ problem of integrating the visuals in their own texts can also be discussed in the light of the concept of transduction (kress, 2010). initially, students had to focus on understanding the visuals as such, and had difficulties transducing them into written mode. they gradually learnt how to draw a graph; however, it took longer to learn to transduce it into a written presentation. this is revealed by the non-integrated visuals. as kress (2010) states, the process of transduction is quite thoroughgoing, making it demanding for the learner. although teaching certainly includes verbalizing of different objects and entities, teachers could scaffold students further in this complex process by making conscious transductions between modes. mona blåsjö ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140136 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 136 these students encountered a parallel language situation in the sense that the teaching was in swedish and the literature partly in english. visuals and numerals constituted a parallel language in two additional senses: firstly, they made meaning parallel to verbal language, and secondly students had one way of perceiving and using visuals from their experience and must adopt a new parallel way. one could say that the visuals have a different meaning potential in a university discipline than in school or an everyday domain. even in disciplines that are less mathematical than economics, students encounter diagrams, tables and other modes of representing information. although there has been “a visual turn” (schultz, 2006: 368) in discourse and literacy studies, there is still a great need for research and pedagogical development on the parallel language situation of readers, writers and students in today’s multimodal world. acknowledgements i would like to thank anders björkvall, stockholm university, and two anonymous reviewers, for discussions during this study. 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(1978). mind in society. the development of higher psychological processes. cambridge/london: harvard university press. 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 138 mona blåsjö is a senior lecturer in scandinavian languages at stockholm university, sweden. her research has focused on academic writing, text analysis and professional discourse. current projects include one on writing in virtual learning environments and one on the professional communication of company lawyers. notes 1 originally introduced by wood, bruner & ross (1976) and only later connected with neovygotskianism. from percentage to prediction ibérica 22 (2011): 123-140 139 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 139 06 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:03 página 140 iberica 13 ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 issn 1139-7241 abstract in a parallel-language environment the use of textbooks in english in courses otherwise in the local language is naturalized and not widely discussed or questioned. the aim of this study was to elicit the attitudes and syllabus infrastructure that underlie the practice. a large-scale survey was carried out and answers were obtained from over 20% of teachers at swedish universities. results confirmed that a majority regarded english as important during and/or after university studies and showed that they considered the use of englishlanguage textbooks as providing a useful opportunity for incidental language learning. in strong contrast to the situation in a content and language integrated learning environment, only a small minority of courses were reported to have any specified learning outcome related to english. open answers showed awareness of the benefits and risks of parallel-language practices, but no interest in making aims explicit. in our view, there is no contradiction between incidental learning and explicit aims, and course aims which remain implicit make rational planning and constructive alignment more difficult. they also inhibit discussion of appropriate methodology. keywords: incidental language acquisition, parallel-language environment, higher education, english for academic purposes. resumen inglés con fines académicos en las universidades suecas: objetivos y prácticas de los profesores en un entorno de lengua paralela la utilización de libros de texto en inglés en english for academic purposes at swedish universities: teachers’ objectives and practices diane pecorari1, philip shaw2, aileen irvine3 and hans malmström4 1mälardalen university (sweden), 2stockholm university (sweden), 3edinburgh university (united kingdom) and 4chalmers university of technology (sweden) 1diane.pecorari@mdh.se, 2philip.shaw@english.su.se, 3aileen.irvine@ed.ac.uk, 4mahans@chalmers.se 55 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 55 ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 d. pecorari, p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmström cursos en los que predomina la lengua local constituye algo natural, que en general no se cuestiona o discute. el objetivo del presente artículo es conocer las actitudes y la infraestructura relativa a los temarios de los cursos que subyace a la práctica docente. se realizó una encuesta a gran escala y se obtuvieron respuestas de un 20% de profesores adscritos a universidades suecas. los resultados confirmaron que una mayoría entendía que la lengua inglesa era importante durante y/o después de los estudios universitarios y demostraron que el uso de libros de texto en lengua inglesa ofrecía una gran oportunidad para fomentar el aprendizaje accidental de dicha lengua. como contrapunto a lo que ocurre en una situación de aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lengua, sólo una pequeña minoría de cursos manifestó haber definido algún resultado esperado referido al aprendizaje del inglés. las respuestas de tipo abierto demostraron la existencia de una conciencia respecto de los beneficios y riesgos que conlleva la actividad en una lengua paralela, así como falta de interés en manifestar los objetivos de forma explícita. a nuestro juicio, no existe contradicción alguna entre plantear objetivos explícitos y un aprendizaje accidental, y los objetivos de un curso que se mantienen implícitos complican las tareas de planificación de contenidos y la construcción del conocimiento, además de impedir las deliberaciones sobre la metodología que resulta más adecuada. palabras clave: adquisición accidental de lenguas, entorno de una lengua paralela, educación superior, inglés con fines académicos. introduction this special issue of ibérica is devoted to a specific area of language learning – english for academic purposes (eap) – in a specific context, the parallellanguage environment. this environment lends itself particularly well to incidental learning, the “unintentional or unplanned learning that results from other activities” (kerka, 2000: 3). the effectiveness of incidental language acquisition in vocabulary development has been demonstrated by numerous studies (elley, 1989; pigada & schmitt, 2006; webb, 2008), while a smaller body of work has investigated incidental learning of other language features, such as grammatical forms (lee, 2002; rossomondo, 2007). the term “parallel-language environment” has been used to describe higher educational settings in which a local language is used in tandem with english. although the form in which the two languages coexist may vary, the situation in many universities today must be distinguished from two other settings. one is the content and language integrated learning (clil) courses offered in many universities expressly to promote language-learning aims. the other 56 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 56 is the elite university of previous generations in which students were expected to be able to read in several languages. its successor, the parallellanguage university, provides a potentially fertile ground for incidental language acquisition, in that exposure to the second language (l2) arises during authentic communicative events which are likely to promote a relatively high degree of motivation and attention in learners. the swedish university, the context in which the present study is set, is very much a parallel-language environment, with swedish and english both strongly present. the two codes coexist in two distinct relationships. in one, a growing number of courses and degree programs are taught entirely through the medium of english. the decision to offer courses in english is motivated by the desire to attract international students, as well as a belief that local students benefit from studying in english. in its other form, a high proportion of courses which have swedish as the official language of instruction nonetheless incorporate elements of english (berg, hult & king, 2001). teachers may assign textbooks in english, either for want of choice (because swedish equivalents are lacking, or perceived to be inferior) or in order to expose students to english (pecorari et al., 2011); lectures may be in english when the teacher is a visiting or newly appointed lecturer from abroad; and some forms of assessment, notably the undergraduate or postgraduate thesis, are sometimes written in english, both for the sake of the experience for the candidate, and (in the case of theses) to make the work available to a wider readership. the factors leading to the presence of english in swedish universities are thus in part practical (for instance, permitting international students to study in the country) and in part aspirational (as when english-language degree courses are marketed as a way of learning course content and language skills at the same time). however, regardless of the proximate cause(s) which lead to it, there is a widespread belief that incorporating elements of english into the curriculum has the serendipitous effect of promoting incidental language learning. at the same time, this belief rests on a number of tacit and largely untested ideas. one of these is that, since english is a prerequisite for all university studies in swedish, students’ and teachers’ skills are sufficient to the task of teaching and studying in english. however, in a study of university physics courses, airey (2009) identified some limitations on subject learning through the medium of english, and in a similar context in danish, large proportions of english for academic purposes at swedish universities ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 57 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 57 teachers identified problems with the effectiveness of english-language instruction. for example, nearly three quarters agreed with the statement that “far from all university teachers are able to teach in english” and almost as many agreed with the statement that “students learn most when they’re taught in their first language” (jensen et al., 2009). another seldom discussed idea is the objectives of exposure to english, in terms of what specific outcomes it is hoped that such exposure will yield. this means that a pedagogical choice is being made without consideration of its opportunity costs. the decision to hold a lecture in english for the sake of incidental english learning benefits means sacrificing exposure to swedish disciplinary discourse in that hour. the conscious awareness of, and planning for, learning outcomes is a hallmark of quality in higher education curriculum design, and one which has been emphasized in swedish universities in connection with the bologna process. teaching and learning activities and forms of assessment are ideally developed in close relation to learning objectives (in sweden the relationship is formalized in a document called the “course plan”). this idea has been termed “constructive alignment” by biggs (1996: 361), who notes that this precept is so fundamental that something like an alignment model is assumed in any discussions about good teaching (…) good teachers are expected to be clear about what they want students to learn and what students should have to do in order to demonstrate that they have learned at the appropriate level. there is, therefore, an apparent antithetical tension between constructive alignment, which states that learning outcomes should be carefully planned for, and incidental, or unplanned, learning. however, the research literature on incidental learning (hulstijn & laufer, 2001, among others) makes it clear that this tension is more apparent than real. while incidental learning does not plan the specific forms to be learned through activities such as extensive reading, it is not entirely serendipitous. target-language exposure in a formal educational setting is the result of deliberate choices about the sources of exposure and sorts of interaction with it. the purpose of this study is therefore to investigate teachers’ perspectives of the parallel-language environment. specifically, this investigation set out to do the following: d. pecorari, p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmström ibérica 22 (2011): 55-7858 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 58 1. document the extent to which the incidental acquisition of english is seen by teachers as an objective of the parallel-language environment; 2. document the specific language learning outcomes which teachers perceive as potentially beneficial for their students, regardless of whether they are articulated in course documentation; and 3. more generally to elicit teachers’ evaluations and perspectives in relation to english in the parallel-language environment. methods investigating these questions entailed gathering input from teachers within this parallel-language context. in the spring of 2010 an invitation to participate in a survey was e-mailed to tertiary teachers in sweden. the invitation included links to an online questionnaire available in both swedish and english1. the use of two languages was to ensure that the questionnaire would be accessible to teachers who do not speak swedish, or do not feel comfortable doing so. approximately 10% of respondents chose to respond in english. the instrument consisted of nine substantive questions probing the three areas identified above, as well as background questions asking about respondents’ subject areas and the institutions at which they taught. the responses to the open questions reported below have been translated into english if they were originally written in swedish. in those written in english, minor non-standard lexico-grammatical features which did not affect meaning have been standardized. an effort was made to contact all university teachers in sweden, using several strategies, depending on the arrangements at each university for obtaining staff e-mail addresses. when lists of addresses appeared on university web pages, e-mails were sent to teachers individually. in the absence of such lists, the invitation was sent to heads of faculties or departments, or some other central administrator, with a request that it be forwarded to teaching staff. at the authors’ institutions, existing group lists were used to contact teachers. as a result of the mixture of approaches used to solicit responses, it is not known precisely how many teachers were contacted, but according to an estimate by the university teacher’s union, there are approximately 16,500 english for academic purposes at swedish universities ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 59 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 59 individuals employed at swedish universities in a teaching capacity (lööv, 2010). answers were received from 3,526 individuals, approximately 21% percent of university teachers in sweden. the survey did not ask teachers to specify the level at which they taught, but since there are more undergraduate than students, it seems likely that many of the responses will have been given exclusively or primarily with reference to undergraduate education. results this section describes the findings of the survey as they relate to our three primary aims: 1) investigating the extent to which english is an explicit (as opposed to tacit) learning objective; 2) documenting the language learning outcomes which are believed to be needed; and 3) describing the aspects of english use in higher education which were most salient in teachers’ open responses. finally, this section concludes with a discussion of the responses from specific discipline areas. one subject area – languages – was something of a special case, in that for those who teach english, exposure to english is an important objective, but not an incidental or implicit one; at the same time, teachers of other language subjects are presumably much less likely than those in any other subject area to prioritize english. both of these interpretations are supported by responses to the open question: (1) since i work with future english teachers, it’s self-evident that skills in the language are central. (2) my subject area is swedish language ([i] can justify why english isn’t a course objective). (3) english is entirely irrelevant, not to say harmful, for my subject. i teach italian and it is that language which should be central and should be practiced. for this reason, in the next two subsections, which deal with learning objectives in english, responses from teachers within language subjects have been excluded. d. pecorari, p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmström ibérica 22 (2011): 55-7860 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 60 incidental english respondents were first asked about the positive effect of courses which expose students to english, with answers on a five-point likert scale ranging from “very beneficial” to “not at all beneficial”. there was strong support for the usefulness of english, with 56% answering “very beneficial” and 78% giving one of the two most positive answers. (the motivations of the minority who answered that english was not important are taken up below.) the next question asked what proportion of each respondent’s courses were planned in such a way as to bring about exposure to english, with answers ranging on a five-point likert scale from “all or most” to “none”. fifty percent answered “all or most” and 69% gave one of the first two answers. there is, therefore, a group of teachers who believe that exposure to english is beneficial, but do not usually plan for it. this suggests an apparent disparity between what teachers think their courses could accomplish, and what they actually try to accomplish. the third question asked what proportion of each teacher’s courses had exposure to english as a formal learning objective, as stated in the official “course plan” which all swedish universities are required to ratify and publish about each of their courses. here only 13% answered “all or most”, with 20% selecting one of the first two answers, and 58% answering “none”. the impression of a disparity is thus even greater: 56% of respondents believe that incidental exposure to english is highly beneficial to their students, but somewhat fewer, 50%, take steps to provide it in all or most of their teaching, and only 13% have formalized it as an official learning objective in all or most of their classes. thus, as figure 1 shows, english is not only an implicit objective for most courses outside of the language subjects, it is a tacit one.2 teachers who address their students’ perceived needs for exposure to english do so largely informally, outside of the framework of explicitly stated course learning objectives. this situation implies no criticism of the individual teachers who answered this questionnaire, as there are many factors which prevent a perfect symmetry between aspirations and classroom practices. teachers do not exercise complete autonomy over course design, but are constrained by administrative decisions. a teacher who would like to assign an englishlanguage textbook to provide incidental exposure to english may not be allowed to do so, while a teacher who is skeptical about english may be obliged to. teachers may also feel that constraints such as a limited number english for academic purposes at swedish universities ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 61 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 61 of classroom hours require them to sacrifice potentially beneficial objectives, like exposure to english, in favor of still more important ones. however, if asymmetries between objectives and practice are never entirely avoidable, these responses nonetheless point to a lack of constructive alignment in many courses, and as earlier noted, alignment is believed to be a feature which promotes quality in the delivery of education. language-learning objectives the second group of questions asked teachers what sorts of knowledge and skills in english would be useful to their students in the workplace. five areas were addressed: 1) subject-specific terminology; 2) general english vocabulary; 3) reading professional texts; 4) writing professional texts; 5) speaking and listening skills in contexts such as meetings and conferences. the importance of the five areas could be ranked on a four-point likert scale ranging from “very important” to “not at all important”, with “i don’t know” also available. the responses to the two vocabulary questions showed strong support for word knowledge. both general vocabulary and subject-specific terminology were identified as important by 83% of respondents. when only the “very important” answers were considered, though, a clear prioritizing of terminology could be seen, with 54% calling it “very important”, as opposed to 39% for general vocabulary. a belief in the importance of terminology was apparent in the answers to the open question as well, where it was d. pecorari, p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmström ibérica 22 (2011): 55-7862 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 contact w ith english in my courses is v ery beneficial for students. all or most of my courses are designed to ex pose students to english. all or most of my courses hav e ex posure to english as a formal learning objectiv e. figure 1. perceived value of and inclusion of incidental english. 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 62 frequently mentioned, sometimes in such a way as to equate knowing terminology with knowing the subject, or knowing english: (4) i teach courses in clinical medicine. these courses are taught in swedish but fundamentally have medical terminology as an important component. this terminology is international, and is the same in english and swedish. (5) it’s important that students become bilingual in my subject. they need to know both swedish and english terminology. although this study was not designed to investigate why teachers valued certain sorts of language learning, the priority accorded terminology may relate to the special status of technical terms. the process of adult secondlanguage acquisition ordinarily involves mapping new forms (words) on concepts for which the learner already possesses a label in the first language (l1). however, students learning subject-specific terminology are learning new concepts, and at the same time new labels for them. in the parallellanguage environment, this may happen in the l1 and the l2 simultaneously. the respondents’ emphasis on the importance of terminology may reflect their awareness that development of a terminological lexicon must to some extent reflect the development of subject knowledge. the next pair of questions asked about the ability to read and write professional texts. receptive skills were placed significantly ahead of productive ones, with 63% saying that reading was very important, compared to 33% for writing. the same pattern appeared when the two most positive responses were considered; reading was said to be important by 89%, but writing only by 65%. here too the open answers provide some explanation. reading was frequently mentioned in conjunction with access to research findings in the field: (6) english has a certain role since the greater part of the scientific literature is in english (…) students ought to be able to access research in the future to keep themselves updated in their work as specialist nurses. this comment reflects a wider tendency to mention academic and research writing rather than other sorts of writing. the dominant role of english in research means that writing skills are important for students who will stay in academia, but presumably a greater number of today’s students will need to read the literature base than will actually contribute to it. this may explain why this respondent assigned writing skills secondary importance: english for academic purposes at swedish universities ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 63 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 63 (7) to be able to be involved in all the research which is done in the area, english has to be functional, first and foremost to read and understand, in second place to be able to write articles and publish outside of sweden’s borders. a final question asked about oral/aural skills, which were ranked between reading and writing, with 43% saying they were very important and 76% giving one of the two top answers. it is worth reiterating that the five questions asking about specific aspects of language learning were independent of each other; that is, respondents were not asked to rank-order them, but were free to assign them equal importance. the fact that they were ranked differently suggests that respondents have an impression of how english will be used in students’ later workplaces. these impressions are discussed in the final section. the role of english one open question asked generally for comments on the role of english, and sought to identify issues which the respondents themselves perceived as salient. nearly half (49%) answered it, suggesting that many saw the topic of the questionnaire as important. four broad themes arose frequently in these answers. the first is that english is both important and inevitable. the necessary presence of english in these teachers’ courses was attributed to the fact that many textbooks and other teaching materials are available in english, and to the fact that international students have a strong presence at swedish universities, with a number of degree programs designed and run in english specifically to attract them. as one teacher wrote, “i teach primarily at the master’s level, where english is the only possible choice”. some teachers also felt that the nature of communication in their subject made english a necessity, for example because “terminology [in my field] is almost exclusively in english”. for others, the sheer pervasiveness of english made it impossible to avoid: “since my subject is computer science, this question is largely a non-question. everything we read is in english, and everything we write”. a second theme was that knowledge of english was beneficial in a number of different ways. english was said to be important for students who pursued further studies, since to “have a successful academic career, students have to follow the literature. highest impact journals are all in english”. even more frequently named was the non-academic workplace; exposure to d. pecorari, p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmström ibérica 22 (2011): 55-7864 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 64 english was said to make students attractive to employers, and to provide them with necessary professional skills. english “is a precondition for students’ future careers and something employers expect”. knowledge of english grants access to updated professional information, since “most of what is written is in english, both in research and in industry”. it also permits international contacts: “a good command of english is essential today for any level of employment or research that exposes an individual to the global community”. another benefit associated with english was its value as what is called a lingua franca (mauranen & ranta, 2009), opening up opportunities for international cooperation and contact: (8) english simply is the language of research in my area. this makes for easy communication, wide distribution of results, and an international orientation of the field (including international mobility of researchers). it is entirely beneficial. not all teachers assigned english the same importance; some felt it to be less important in certain fields or vocational roles: (9) the role of english is greatly exaggerated. as far as the humanities go, it is significantly more important to be able to express yourself in your first language and to be able to argue persuasively. (10) especially important for [students] who will continue to do research (…) those who go directly to the workplace – a large proportion of our students – may not have exactly the same need of english. however, these teachers were part of a minority, and were greatly outnumbered by those identifying strong benefits associated with english. the third theme was that english is problematic. although a very few teachers stated the opposite (“students have no problems with learning in english”), many more identified specific problems, such as inhibiting important learning of disciplinary swedish: (11) it’s something of a disadvantage for swedish students to have lectures in english. with all the textbooks in english, there can easily be gaps in their knowledge of swedish terminology. english for academic purposes at swedish universities ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 65 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 65 others were concerned with the fate of the swedish language itself, and the threat of domain loss. one respondent echoed a number of other comments in writing: (12) most textbooks of good quality are in english. in spite of this it is naturally swedish which is the most important language, since we’re situated in sweden and must not risk losing language domains within our scientific area because of an excessively strong movement towards english. english was also said to lower the quality of classroom discourse and/or learning, because teachers’ or – more often – students’ language skills are inadequate, or simply because it is less efficient to communicate in a second language than in one’s first: many students have difficulty reading english texts. (13) i believe that many of the country’s teachers have deficient knowledge of english, because of which i believe that students who don’t have english as a first language miss a great deal in classes. (14) english is very important. but it’s also important to be able to express yourself in swedish in education because you can be much more nuanced in your first language. these comments support findings from similar settings. in a dutch study, students reported finding their lecturers’ english inadequate to an extent that gave “cause for concern” (klaassen, 2001: 169). in sweden, students reported irritation after listening to quite typical english lingua franca (that is to say, non-native) speech (björkman, 2010). in a danish study, university teachers were asked to assess their own english skills, and only a very small proportion (from 0 to 2.1%, depending on the language skill in question) categorized their skills as “insufficient”. however, larger proportions of the surveyed teachers identified problems with their own use of english in the classroom. for example, 25% agreed wholly or partly that they sometimes could not find the words they needed, and the same proportion said that it was more difficult to get students involved, when teaching in english (jensen, stenius stæhr & thøgersen, 2009). english in the classroom was also characterized as unpopular with students, a view which is supported to some extent by the findings of an earlier study. pecorari et al. (2011) investigated students’ perceptions of english-language d. pecorari, p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmström ibérica 22 (2011): 55-7866 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 66 textbooks in swedish universities, and found that while the majority, like their teachers, identified pros and cons of the presence of english at university, they were deeply unpopular with a smaller group, some of whom simply refused to interact with textbooks if they were in english. these last two themes – that english is beneficial and that it is problematic – may appear to be contradictory. however, for many respondents the two views are compatible, because english is very much a double-edged sword, or a necessary evil. as one teacher wrote, (15) if we are to internationalize on our courses (…), they must be given in english. the advantage is that students can practice english and make contact with students from other countries. a disadvantage to english is that communication can be worse depending on the teachers’ and students’ language skills. but what’s the alternative? given that this open-ended question was posed in general terms, it is noteworthy that most of those who answered it chose to comment on these perceived advantages and disadvantages. relatively fewer commented on the fourth theme, how english enters their classroom. among the small number who addressed how, even fewer called for explicit instruction in english: (16) [english] is very important for them to be able to function well as engineers in a global world. on the other hand, i think that they get practice but aren’t tested enough/have too low demands placed upon them, in relation to the importance of [language] knowledge. a larger number of respondents appeared, like this one, to place their faith in the effectiveness of incidental language acquisition: “it’s nothing you need to think about as a lecturer. so much material is in english that students learn enough”. indeed, many appeared to believe that incidental learning objectives are naturally unstated ones: (17) for me, english is self-evident. you can’t get along without it (…). therefore i’ve never felt a need to make communication in english an objective for a course. (18) i think that learning subject terminology and so on in a course, both in swedish and in english, is so natural that it doesn’t need to be written up as a learning objective in “content courses”. english for academic purposes at swedish universities ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 67 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 67 these teachers apparently felt english was such an obvious objective, it was illogical to formalize it. it is possible that english has gradually come to permeate university teaching and research practice in sweden so much that it is completely natural and difficult to see distinctly. disciplinary differences respondents were asked to identify their subject area from a closed list of options. table 1 shows the distribution of respondents across subject areas. the largest group – 29% – came from the social sciences, while the smallest, at 2%, came from law. because academic subjects vary in the extent to which they are internationalized, future workplace conditions of graduates, and so forth, discipline was thought to be a possible factor in respondents’ orientations toward english. in fact, significant3 disciplinary differences were found for all of the closed-answer questions. in the figures below, the language subjects have been eliminated for the reasons noted above, as has the category “other”. figure 2 shows the percentage of respondents from the subject areas indicated that chose the responses indicated to questions 1, 2 and 3. as noted above, respondents as a whole showed strong support for the benefits of english, and as figure 2 shows, this was true when results were considered by discipline, with relatively small variation across fields. the proportion saying that english was very beneficial ranged from 53% for engineering to 63% for health care. a second pattern reported above was that somewhat fewer actually incorporated exposure to english in their courses, and fewer still had it as a formal objective, and here greater disciplinary variation was seen. in law the overall trend was strongly present; d. pecorari, p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmström ibérica 22 (2011): 55-7868 number percentage of the total group of respondents engineering 533 15 humanities (not language) 292 8 languages 240 7 health sciences 350 10 law 68 2 natural sciences 716 20 social sciences 1010 29 other 317 9 total 3526 100 table 1. respondents by academic discipline. 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 68 57% thought english was very beneficial, but only 22% included it in their courses, and 12% said it was a formal learning objective. health care and the humanities also adhered to this basic pattern. however, in the social sciences the gap between those seeing english as beneficial and those including it in courses was small, and in engineering and the natural sciences slightly more teachers included english in their courses than said it was beneficial. this variation may be due at least in part to the factors respondents said make english inevitable, apart from its desirability, including the presence of english textbooks and international students. both of these elements are likely to be more strongly present in some subjects than others. the natural sciences and technical areas deal in natural and mathematical laws which hold true regardless of national boundaries. they are also areas in which knowledge develops rapidly, making the rapid transfer of knowledge of paramount importance. practitioners of both law and health care, on the other hand, are required to be licensed in the countries in which they practice, and must draw on strong oral communication skills in the workplace. these factors would seem to make english textbooks more practical in some cases and less so in others, and similarly the presence of international students more or less valuable. some disciplinary differences were also found with respect to the kinds of knowledge and skills perceived to be useful. in figure 3, the bottom of each column shows the proportion of respondents in each discipline saying that english for academic purposes at swedish universities ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 69 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 h e a lth c a re s c ie n c e l a w s o ci a l s c ie n c e h u m a n iti e s e n g in e e ri n g contact w ith english in my courses is v ery beneficial for students. all or most of my courses are designed to ex pose students to english. all or most of my courses hav e ex posure to english as a formal learning objectiv e. figure 2. english presence by discipline. 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 69 knowledge of subject-specific terminology in english was very important for their students. the top portion of each column shows the proportion giving that response with regard to general vocabulary. as figure 3 shows, the general tendency to place greater importance on subject-specific terminology than on general english vocabulary was found in all fields, although to a differing extent; in law terminology was said to be important by 36% of respondents versus 34% for general vocabulary, while in the sciences the figures were 71% versus 45%. in addition, while there was strong support for both kinds of word learning (in no field did fewer than 60% say it was “very important” or “important”), the respondents in the sciences and engineering showed greater support for word learning, followed closely by the humanities and then social sciences. this too may be shaped by the extent to which teachers imagine their future students will use english productively in their professional lives. finally, the relative emphasis placed on reading over speaking/listening, followed by writing skills, held true within each discipline, although the strength of these differential preferences varied. figure 4 shows, for each discipline area, the proportion saying that each of the three skills that were asked about were very important for their students. as figure 4 shows, the field of health care was second only to the natural sciences in saying that reading skills were very important; however, the gap between the importance placed on reading and that accorded the other skills was greater in health care than in the sciences or any other field. once again, it seems likely that d. pecorari, p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmström ibérica 22 (2011): 55-7870 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 s c ie n c e e n g in e e ri n g s o ci a l sc ie n ce h e a lth c a re h u m a n iti e s l a w know ledge of general english v ocabulary is v ery important. know ledge of english terminology is v ery important. figure 3. importance of terminology and general vocabulary by discipline.4 f 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 70 the future anticipated workplace needs of graduates may explain these responses. one participant commented: “as a nurse you don’t need to know english in your daily work, except if you have a patient who only speaks english. in training, though, you need to be able to assimilate knowledge from reports”. in nursing, then, english can be a one-way channel of communication, a means of learning from, but not necessarily contributing to, professional discourse. however, “english is the language of science and engineering”, and “a lingua franca within engineering and is absolutely necessary. many large employers have english as a company language”. in fields in which english is a tool for the range of activities which occur in daily professional life, a broader range of communication skills are important. discussion it is clear that a substantial majority of teachers see incidental acquisition of english as an objective of the parallel-language environment. the size of the majority varies across disciplines, but exists in all. furthermore, many teachers see knowledge of english, and specifically disciplinary english, as a necessary transferable skill for professional employment, and also as a prime study skill. from the qualitative analysis it can be said that our informants expressed confidence in the importance and inevitability of english in their context, in english for academic purposes at swedish universities ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 71 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 s c ie n c e h e a lth c a re e n g in e e ri n g s o ci a l sc ie n ce h u m a n iti e s l a w an ability to read professional tex ts in english is v ery important. an ability to take part in meetings, etc., in english is v ery important. an ability to w rite professional tex ts in english is v ery important. figure 4. perceived importance of english skills by discipline. 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 71 the globalized academy, and more generally in its value as a lingua franca worldwide. in the answers to quantitative questions the consistency of their ranking of macroskills is in stark contrast to the extreme variation in the demands of real workplaces. in all disciplines teachers imagine reading as the most important or widely needed skill and writing as the least so, with oral/aural skills of intermediate importance. this would seem to a certain extent to be harmonious with the ways in which english reaches the swedish university classroom. although evidence is largely lacking (see, though, gunnarsson & öhman, 1997; melander, 2004), it appears to be the case that reading in english-language textbooks is assigned more often than writing tasks in english. the prevalence of english-language textbooks also seems well matched with the belief that subject-specific terminology will be more beneficial to students than general english vocabulary. this does not, however, relate particularly well to the results of surveys of workplace language needs, which mainly show how difficult these are to predict in general terms. chew (2005) showed that working for an international company at a public-contact level requires mainly writing and reading in english; oral interaction was entirely in the local language. by contrast hellekjær (2007) found the most commonly perceived language problem among norwegian employees in export companies was precisely lack of conversational skills. a study of swedish engineers found that more than half write in english on a daily basis but also that the use of english in the workplace varies considerably according to role/position (apelman, 2010; see also kreth, 2000; schneider & andre, 2005, on engineers’ writing in the workplace). a study of two international corporations based in the nordic region found that the need to use english varied among employees, but was not a function of their rank within their organisation (louhialasalminen, charles & kankaanranta, 2005). there is thus reason to believe that the importance of each skill varies according to a number of factors, and that the respondents’ unanimity on the priorities among macro-skills may be an oversimplification, possibly based on extrapolation from their own experience. they may have reasoned along these lines: if they were in the profession, they would need to read to keep up, and to talk to foreigners about their work, but they would be doing no research and so writing would be less important. it is also uncertain whether they interpreted the terms “reading”, “writing”, etc., as we intended, or indeed consistently. “writing” may have been interpreted to mean “the same sort of writing tasks i do in english” – that is composing research d. pecorari, p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmström ibérica 22 (2011): 55-7872 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 72 articles, but excluding (for example) internal e-mails. if this was their reasoning, it would explain the relative priorities among the skills, but would indicate that their conceptions about workplace language demands are not entirely accurate. if this is true, then teachers who think their courses should prepare for workplace language use could benefit from an awareness of research in the area. one perception that our informants clearly share with language-learning professionals is the belief in incidental language learning. however the preconditions for incidental learning have to be created deliberately (laufer & hulstijn, 2001), and the present study gives little reason to think that teachers in non-language subjects invest scrupulous care in planning exposure to english. in considering this issue, too, we think that input from linguists could help subject teachers raise these questions to an explicit level in an effective way. another area in which teacher beliefs seem to be aligned with the results of research is their skepticism about the extent to which members of the parallel-language university are well equipped to face the demands of working through the medium of english. research (see, for example, shaw & mcmillion, this issue; pecorari et al., 2011) supports the impression that some students are ill equipped to handle the demands of reading textbooks in english. in some cases this appears to result in a situation in which students simply skip reading the textbook and pursue course content through other channels (ward, 2001; pecorari et al., 2011). in other cases, students struggle with the reading, but since vocabulary learning is most successful when the ratio of known to unknown words is approximately 91 (nation, 2006), it seems likely that the terminology gains which teachers hope will arise from this situation may not always be realized. some respondents also expressed concerns about their own (or their colleagues’) abilities to teach in english, and the existing evidence (klaassen, 2001; jensen et al., 2009; björkman, 2010) suggests that these concerns are well founded. another aspect of the parallel-language environment that caused concern was how great the role of english should be in swedish universities. swedish academics, like swedes generally, are concerned about domain loss and the risks of an enhanced status for english (josephson, 2004; fredrickson & swales, 1994). this is very much an open question, both in the sense that it is ultimately a matter of personal evaluation whether the advantages of english for academic purposes at swedish universities ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 73 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 73 securing a lingua franca do or do not outweigh the potential costs to swedish, and in the sense that greatly differing views exist about what the costs to swedish are likely to be. in acknowledging this issue, though, the teachers demonstrated awareness of an important issue. the issues implicated in teachers’ concerns are large ones: are students adequately prepared for study at university? if not, should the solution be greater selectivity about admissions, to increase the preparation of secondary school students, or to lower standards? if exposure to english is an objective, does swedish need explicit attention to ensure that it is not eclipsed? such questions are fundamental to the university community and we would like to suggest that in sweden, as in all countries which have parallel-language environments at university level, they should be the subject of open and broad discussion and debate, rather than received views and tacit acceptance. the final significant finding seems to offer the key to all the issues raised above. an overwhelming majority of teachers hope their students will acquire some english during their courses, and only a slightly smaller number take steps to ensure such an outcome, but very few courses have it documented as a formal learning objective. this suggests that english learning objectives will not receive the benefits of constructive alignment (biggs, 1996). educational administrators might well be concerned with the fact that an element which teachers widely believe to be important in their teaching leads a submerged existence, out of the halo of light shed by formal documentation. we would argue that many of the practices documented here are less than optimal because they are not informed by insights from the pedagogy of language, and that they are not so informed because the language-learning aims of the courses are not explicit. one implication of this is that a closer degree of collaboration between eap teachers and teachers in other subjects would allow the language-learning expertise of the former to inform the content-learning expertise of the latter. these findings have implications for classroom teachers, for university administrators, and for the university community as a whole. when teachers in a parallel-language environment incorporate english into the curriculum for the purposes of acquiring incidental learning benefits for their students, they can achieve better results if they actually work with the source of input. for example, in the case of textbooks, teachers might adopt strategies like these: d. pecorari, p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmström ibérica 22 (2011): 55-7874 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 74 1. acknowledge students’ belief that english-language textbooks require more effort from them, and explain the reasons that the book has been assigned, and the reasons students should read it. 2. instruct students in strategies for reading difficult texts, or refer them to learning centers. 3. incorporate mentions of target english terms in lectures, even when those lectures are in another language. although this strategy would be relatively simple to implement, it appears to be infrequent (malmström et al., in preparation). at the administrative level, those who are charged with supervising and/or helping teachers in writing course descriptions should consider requiring courses that make use of languages other than the local official one to state what language-learning goals, if any, they have. in the university community as a whole, issues of language acquisition should have a somewhat higher profile, so that available information on the language demands of workplaces can be made use of, and the skills acquired in the classroom aligned, where appropriate, with those needed afterwards. acknowledgements this research was financed by grant number 2008-5584 from the swedish research council (vetenskapsrådet). 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(2006). “how large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening?” the canadian modern language review/la revue canadienne des langues vivantes 63: 59-82. pecorari, d., p. shaw, a. irvine & h. malmström (2011). “english textbooks in parallel-language tertiary education”. tesol quarterly 45: 313-333. pigada, m. & n. schmitt (2006). “vocabulary acquisition from extensive reading: a case study”. reading in a foreign language 18: 1-28. rossomondo, a.e. (2007). “the role of lexical temporal indicators and text interaction format in the incidental acquisition of the spanish future tense”. studies in second language acquisition 29: 3966. schneider, b. & j. andre (2005). “university preparation for workplace writing: perceptions of students in three disciplines”. journal of business communication 42: 195-218. shaw, p. & a. mcmillion (2011). “components of success in academic reading tasks for swedish students”. ibérica 22: 141-162. ward, j. (2001). “est: evading scientific text”. english for specific purposes 20: 141-152. webb, s. (2008). “the effects of context on incidental vocabulary acquisition”. reading in a foreign language 20: 232-245. 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 76 diane pecorari is an associate professor of english at mälardalen university in västerås, sweden. her research interests include secondlanguage writing, vocabulary acquisition and discourse analysis. she is the author of academic writing and plagiarism: a linguistic analysis, and serves on the editorial boards of english for specific purposes and tesol quarterly. philip shaw has taught english and linguistics at universities in thailand, germany, england, and denmark, and is currently a professor in the department of english at stockholm university. he is co-author of world englishes: an introduction (hodder 2011, 2nd edition). he is interested in uses of english world-wide, mainly in business and academic settings, from both a genre-analytic and reception-process standpoint.   aileen irvine received her m.a. in french language and literature from the university of aberdeen, scotland, before going on to complete an m.sc. and a ph.d. in applied linguistics at the university of edinburgh, where she is now director for the msc in language teaching. her particular interests are second-language reading processes and all aspects of classroom-based second language acquisition. hans malmström teaches courses in engineering communication, academic writing and esp at chalmers university of technology (centre for language and communication). he has a phd from lund university, where he is also a post-doctoral fellow in the centre for languages and literature. his main research interests are second language acquisition and discourse analysis. notes 1 the text of the questionnaires is available at url: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey =ddjzytdss3nxzldfvmplvdllvgddcnc6ma (english version) and url: https://spreadsheets. google.com/viewform?formkey=dhfpr0jpck1osw5btmxjvkluuxrhlwc6ma (swedish version). 2 the basic pattern described in this section holds true for all teachers, regardless of the language in which they answered the questionnaire. however, those who answered in english were more strongly enthusiastic about the benefits of english, more likely to include it in their courses, and more likely to have it as an explicit learning objective, than the group as a whole. it seems likely that this difference is due to the fact that the teachers who chose to respond english are more likely to have a first language other than swedish, to do their teaching in english, and perhaps to teach on degree courses offered in english. as this group made up less than 10% of the total group, and followed the general trend, their answers have not skewed the results for the entire group. 3 differences were considered significant when a chi square test resulted in a p value less than or equal to .05. 4 percentages refer to those answering “very important” to the two vocabulary questions. because the answers to two questions are combined in each column, the maximum possible score was 200%. english for academic purposes at swedish universities ibérica 22 (2011): 55-78 77 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 77 03 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:00 página 78 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract previous work on oral genres (kress & van leeuwen, 2001; kress, 2010; bateman, 2011) as well as on persuasion (o’keefe, 2002; perloff, 2003; poggi & pelachaud, 2008) has indicated that effective persuasive oral communication depends heavily on the use of a wide range of different semiotic modes including words, gestures and intonation. however, little attention has been paid so far to how speakers convey their communicative intentions orchestrating different modes into a coherent multimodal ensemble (kress, 2010). in this paper we propose a methodological framework for multimodal discourse analysis (mda) of persuasion in oral academic and professional genres. drawing on previous studies on persuasion (fuertes-olivera et al., 2001; o’keefe, 2002; perloff, 2003; virtanen & halmari, 2005; dafouz-milne, 2008), our framework combines earlier proposals for mda (querol-julián, 2011; querol-julián & fortanet-gómez, 2014) with an ethnographic perspective (rubin & rubin, 1995). our study focuses specifically on the analysis of persuasive strategies used in dissemination talks. the proposed mda caters for the following modes: words, intonation, head movements and gestures. preliminary findings hint at a relation between persuasion and so-called modal density (norris, 2004). finally, we propose a tentative taxonomy of persuasive strategies and how they are realised multimodally. keywords: academic and professional discourse, multimodality, mda, ethnography, persuasion. revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres: towards a methodological framework for multimodal discourse analysis of research dissemination talks julia valeiras-jurado, noelia ruiz-madrid and geert jacobs ghent university (belgium) and universitat jaume i (spain) julia.valeirasjurado@ugent.be & madrid@ang.uji.es & geert.jacobs@ugent.be 93 ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs resumen p e rs u as i ón e n g é ne r os a c a dé m ic o s y pr of e s i on al e s . p ro p ue s ta d e un ma rc o m e to do l óg ic o p ar a e l an ál is i s mu l ti mo da l de c h a rl a s d iv u l g a ti v as tal y como demuestran investigaciones previas sobre géneros orales (kress y van leeuwen, 2001; kress, 2010; bateman, 2011) y persuasión (o’keefe, 2002; perloff, 2003; poggi y pelachaud, 2008), el lenguaje oral persuasivo requiere del uso de varios recursos semióticos para ser efectivo, entre los que se encuentran las palabras, los gestos y la entonación. sin embargo hasta ahora no se ha dedicado demasiada atención al estudio de cómo los hablantes orquestan esta variedad de recursos semióticos inherentes en el lenguaje oral para formar un mensaje coherente (kress, 2010). en este artículo proponemos un marco metodológico específico para el análisis multimodal de la persuasión en géneros orales académicos y profesionales. dicho marco metodológico se basa en estudios previos sobre persuasión, (fuertes-olivera et al., 2001; o’keefe, 2002; perloff, 2003; virtanen y halmari, 2005; dafouz-milne, 2008), propuestas metodológicas para el estudio multimodal de género (querol-julián, 2011; querol-julián y fortanet-gómez, 2014) y métodos etnográficos (rubin y rubin, 1995). el estudio que aquí presentamos se centra en el análisis de las estrategias persuasivas utilizadas en charlas divulgativas. el análisis multimodal implica los siguientes recursos semióticos: palabras, entonación, movimientos de cabeza y gestos. los resultados preliminares apuntan a una relación entre persuasión y densidad modal o combinación de recursos semióticos (norris, 2004). por último, proponemos una taxonomía provisional de estrategias persuasivas llevadas a cabo de forma multimodal. palabras clave: discurso académico y profesional, multimodalidad, mda, etnografía, persuasión. 1. introduction persuasion is a defining trait of many oral genres that share a broad communicative purpose of convincing the audience of the value of a product, service or idea. this is the case of oral presentations used in both academic and business contexts (carter-thomas & rowley-jolivet, 2003; rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005; bamford, 2007, 2008). on the other hand, the literature suggests that in these oral genres (and in fact in most communicative situations) speakers use a variety of semiotic modes to express meaning (kress & van leeuwen, 2001; kress, 2010, 2012, 2014; bateman, 2011; jewitt, 2013; o’halloran & smith, 2011). research on multimodality pays particular attention to how each mode interacts with 94 others and how they are orchestrated in a specific context to produce meaning. when more than one mode is used to produce a specific meaning it is said these modes “ensemble”, and this meaning is inferred based on the interrelation between them. the communicator orchestrates multimodal ensembles, based on designs, where each mode has a function (kress, 2010) and “each mode is partial in relation to the whole meaning” (jewitt & kress, 2003: 3). in other words, in many communicative situations words constitute just one among many modes which are of equal importance in the process of meaning making. returning to the centrality of persuasion, it can be hypothesized that all the modes that speakers use in academic and business presentations can have an effect on the broad communicative purpose of these genres, i.e. persuasion. indeed, previous research on persuasion has highlighted how different semiotic modes can contribute to it (sparks et al., 1998; o’keefe, 2002; perloff, 2003; poggi & pelachaud, 2008). this suggests that the orchestration of different modes can be especially decisive in achieving effective persuasive oral communication. for this reason multimodal discourse analysis (mda) (querol-julián, 2011; querol-julián & fortanet-gómez, 2014) is particularly suitable to the study of persuasion in these genres, due to its potential to explain the overall communicative effect of the multimodal ensemble rather than the individual contribution of each mode. likewise, ethnographic methods such as observation and interviews can prove to be very valuable tools to interpret and complement the data obtained from the mda analysis. according to authors such as fuertes-olivera et al. (2001), o’keefe (2002), perloff (2003), virtanen & halmari (2005) and dafouz-milne (2008), persuasive messages tend to be more effective when: (i) speakers have credibility and the audience can identify with them: addressees are more prone to be persuaded by speakers they trust. (ii) the message is easy to understand: when the effort to understand the message is too big, addressees will tend to stop trying and eventually they will stop paying attention. (iii) the content is relevant for the audience: addressees are less likely to be persuaded by messages that do not appeal to them or they feel as not applicable to them. revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 95 (iv) the message is made memorable: addressees are more likely to be convinced by a message that they can easily remember without making a conscious effort. (v) the message is innovative and surprising: persuasion becomes more effective the more unexpected it is. forewarning is a persuasion killer, because it activates the addressee’s mind and stirs potential counterarguments in advance. (vi) the message is perceived as not imposed, but inferred: addressees should feel they have reached their own conclusions, even if they have been guided towards them. as pointed out by valeiras-jurado (2015) and valeiras-jurado & ruiz-madrid (2015), in persuasive oral genres some strategies or communicative techniques such as emphasis, evaluation (martin & white, 2005; querol-julián, 2011), projection of context of interaction (brazil, 1997), anticipation and control of responses, etc. are likely to be used for persuasive purposes, because they help provide the message with the aforementioned characteristics. in addition, they are prone to be performed through a variety of semiotic modes, which makes them particularly interesting for an mda approach to persuasion. some examples are the use of intonation to present parts of the message as already agreed upon as opposed to open to discussion (brazil, 1997) and gestures used to discourage potential counterclaims (kendon, 2004). the objective of this paper is twofold. firstly, we present a methodological framework that can facilitate a mda approach to persuasion in oral genres. then we test the methodology by applying it to the genre of dissemination talks. this testing of the methodological framework has yielded a tentative taxonomy of persuasive strategies that are realised as multimodal ensembles. the mda approach to the analysis of persuasion proposed here tries to elucidate how speakers convey their communicative intentions orchestrating different modes into a coherent multimodal ensemble. as already mentioned, we consider this process to be something more than the mere accumulation of each separate mode. for this reason, we do not prioritize any of the modes, considering the potential contribution of each of them as equally important and frequently mutually interdependent. this paper is structured in six sections. first, the framework for our analysis of persuasion is presented. second, we discuss the added value of using combined methodologies (i.e. video-based multimodal analysis and j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-11896 ethnography). then, the specialised software used for the purpose of the study and the data gathering process is described. after that we present the persuasive strategies identified in our analysis and the final section offers our discussion of results and conclusions. 2. a framework for a multimodal analysis of persuasion the analysis of persuasion proposed in this paper is framed as a data-driven and cyclical process that draws from three sources. (a) input from previous literature, including: previous studies on persuasion (fuertes-olivera et al., 2001; o’keefe, 2002; perloff, 2003; virtanen & halmari, 2005; dafouz-milne, 2008) methodological proposals for a mda approach to genre analysis (querol-julián, 2011; querol-julián & fortanetgómez, 2014) work on kinesics (mcneill, 1992; mcclave, 2000; kendon, 2002; kendon, 2004) work on intonation (brazil, 1997; chen, 2002; pickering et al., 2012) previous research on professional and academic discourse (lakoff, 1982; carter, 1997; hyland, 1998, 2009) (b) multimodal data (results from the multimodal analysis), and (c) ethnographic data (results from interviews and observation sheets) in other words, we triangulate what we observe in the videos (i.e. the results of multimodal analysis) with what we learn from previous literature, and with the speakers’ own observations and reported intentions. in this way, in an iterative process of literature reviewing, multimodal analysis and ethnographic analysis, we obtain data that enables us to propose a list of persuasive strategies realised multimodally (see section 6). the data retrieved from the interviews with the speakers help us to support our tentative conclusions or reject them, refining out list of persuasive strategies, which becomes the basis for our analysis of persuasion. figure 1 represents the framework for the analysis. revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 97 figure 1. multimodal analysis framework. a specific example may help clarify this cyclic process. input from literature informs us that anticipating responses of interlocutors can contribute to persuasion (o’keefe, 2002; perloff, 2003). the multimodal analysis further reveals that speakers seem to anticipate their audience’s reactions combining words, intonation, gestures and/or head movements. with this information we hypothesize that “anticipation of responses” can be a multimodal persuasive strategy. the interview with the speakers helps us confirm that their intention was to prevent a potential counterclaim to their messages. further discussion with speakers leads to the joint conclusion that the aimed effect is to be subtle in order to prevent pushback and maximize chances for the message to be accepted by the audience. we believe that one of the main advantages of the analytical framework we suggest is that it enables us to study how a particular aspect of the message (in this case persuasion) is jointly expressed through all the semiotic modes included in the analysis, instead of starting from a particular modal realisation and then looking for instances of co-expression in other modes. in this way, we avoid prioritising any mode, as mentioned in the previous section. our mda analysis focuses on four modes in particular that are almost always present in any instance of oral discourse: words, intonation, gestures and head movements. however, at some points in the analysis it has been necessary to refer to other modes not initially included (e.g. gaze) in order to interpret the four modes that were the focus of our analysis. j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-11898 therefore, occasional references to gaze or facial expression (sometimes provided by the speakers during the interviews) can be found in the discussion of the results to support the interpretation of the modes being analysed. 3. the use of combined methods in the multimodal analysis of persuasion as pointed out by jewitt (2012) video-based analysis provides a highly detailed material record of the communicative process, but it is limited in certain aspects, since the final result is always affected by decisions such as what and how to record, and the potential interference of the camera in naturally occurring data. video-based research can also lead to a focus on minute detail that makes it difficult to contextualise results within the global picture (jewitt, 2012). therefore, video data needs to be cautiously interpreted (schindler, 2009) and the results obtained complemented with data from other methodological approaches (e.g. ethnographic analyses). ethnography as a methodological approach presents a remarkable advantage for the study of persuasion: it makes it possible to gather first-hand information about the communicative situation and about the communicative intentions of the speakers, which is crucial to interpret the data in a more objective way and cross-check initial hypotheses. it also presents some limitations, such as access and reliability of data, obtrusiveness of observations and the high dependence on the quality of the interview design (rubin & rubin, 1995). yet, we consider that the use of both methods (i.e., video-based multimodal analysis and ethnography) in combination can help to overcome the limitations of each methodological approach used separately (jewitt, 2012) and eventually help us to understand how the speaker is shaping the genre in real time, using a variety of semiotic modes. 4. the use of specialised software in the multimodal analysis of persuasion an mda approach requires the use of different specialised software packages to look into the data. for the present study, we have employed revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 99 praat1 and elan2. the former helped us in the analysis of intonation as a mode. it is a tool for phonetic analysis that allows obtaining accurate measuring of pitch and intensity. the later, elan, allows us to analyse gestures, head movements and speech by means of transcribing and annotating audio and video files. transcriptions and annotations are organised on layers (or tiers in the program nomenclature). since these tiers are time-aligned, it is possible to determine what is happening in each mode at a specific moment in time in the presentation. in order to encode our information we have followed kipp’s (2014) recommendations. he insists that our encoding schemes must be consistent (i.e. data is set with same structure, for example tier names), valid (i.e. annotations should correspond to acceptable “variables”), efficient (i.e. annotations should be easy to use and understand); and reliable (i.e. annotations must clearly refer to one specific aspect). for the present study we have used the tier structure shown in figure 2 below: as shown in figure 2, tiers can encode different transcriptions and annotations from the modes involved in an mda approach. for the present study we have used the following tiers. (a) “transcription” tier, including the orthographic transcription. j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118100 revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): …-… figure 2. elan tiers encoding multimodal transcriptions and annotations. as shown in figure 2, tiers can encode different transcriptions and annotations from the modes involved in an mda approach. for the present study we have used the following tiers. (a) “transcription” tier, including orthographic transcription. (b) “words” tier, with annotations about grammatical, lexical and stylistic devices such as evaluative language, three-part lists, symmetrical syntactic structures, inclusive pronouns, examples, comparisons, narratives, among others (lakoff, 1982; carter, 1997; hyland, 1998, 2009) that can have an effect on persuasion, because they help provide the message with characteristics that according to literature make the text persuasive (see introduction). (c) prosodic transcription tiers (“prominence”, “unit”, and three dependent tiers: “tone”, “key” and “termination”), including a discourse intonation (di) transcription (brazil, 1997). this approach to intonation was adopted for its potential to account for speakers’ moment-to moment decisions about their communicative intentions. the tier labelled “prominence” is a tier imported from praat of the type “point tier” according to the programme’s nomenclature, which means that a vertical line marks the time where the prominence occurs. in the tier named “unit” the following standard di conventions are used: upper case letters for prominent syllables and lower-case letters for nonngitsirevi opersuasi ac iacademralon in nd enrgnaloessifprond es e gurfi 2. sreitan el csreit,2erugifniwnohsas nidevlovnisedomehtmfro hetd eus sr tieginwlo . )(a “ ,reit”noitpircsnatr nadnasnoitpircsnartladomitlumgnidocne tpircsnarttneridedocnenac repehtr of.hcaroppaadmna rcsnartcihpargohtrognidulcni snoitaton . snoitatonnadnasnoit evahewydutstnesre .noitpi )(b “ sdrwo ” aithw, rtie vaesah ucssecvide s,erutcstcitcatnsy otong ma,sveitarrna vehan acthat2009) hcithwegassemeth sausret pxte ees (eiv i )(c oitpircsnartcidosopr yek“, ”ento“: srtie snrati) (dnoitanotin l, aticammargt uobasntiotaonna eehrt,genguaalveitualva rpa evsiulcnis, mxae,onounspr ,retrac1982;,al(srheot usacbeon,isuasrpeon tcen a togindroccat athsticisrtecarah i on)itoducrnt . ,”tinu“,”ecnenimopr“(sreitno lucin, )”ntioainmrte“dna”y pasiht).7991,lizra(bnoitprics ticlistysdnal aicxlel, lacirtemyms,stsiltr ,onssirpaomc,seplm 1998,nd,aylh1997; deoviprp lhey heteus ethekamertuarliteto tnednepedeerhtdna, esruocisdagindlu noitanotniothcaropp irdetpodaswa ts snoisicedtnmemo cneinmorp“dlleebla “ reitntpoi ” nidracco tirevat ath me nilcal it”nu“demanrtie srettelesacruppe ibér srt nuoccatol tianteopts evitacinmmuocriehttuoba pmodteropimrtieais”ec clenmonse’mamrgorpe htotgn morpe hte erhwe mite htskarm ociddradntasginwlloeth reowlnd aseblalylsntneiompror 35ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 7 tnemom’srekaeps -to reiteht.snoitnetni eptyethfotaarp seanmchihwe,ruatcl e htni.srccuoce ennim : desuerasntionevno rnonrsertetle cas (b) “words” tier, with annotations about grammatical, lexical and stylistic devices such as evaluative language, three-part lists, symmetrical syntactic structures, inclusive pronouns, examples, comparisons, narratives, among others (lakoff, 1982; carter, 1997; hyland, 1998, 2009) that can have an effect on persuasion, because they help provide the message with characteristics that according to literature make the text persuasive (see introduction). (c) prosodic transcription tiers (“prominence”, “unit”, and three dependent tiers: “tone”, “key” and “termination”), including a discourse intonation (di) transcription (brazil, 1997). this approach to intonation was adopted for its potential to account for speakers’ moment-to moment decisions about their communicative intentions. the tier labelled “prominence” is a tier imported from praat of the type “point tier” according to the programme’s nomenclature, which means that a vertical line marks the time where the prominence occurs. in the tier named “unit” the following standard di conventions are used: upper case letters for prominent syllables and lower-case letters for non-prominent syllables. tone, key and termination are indicated in three dependent tiers according to the transcription conventions shown in table 1: in the present study combined tones (fall-rise and rise-fall) have not been distinguished. the reason for this research decision is that they mainly convey information about power relationships and in particular dominance, which in the case of the presentations analysed tend to remain rather stable throughout. it was considered that the potential added value of this distinction did not justify the analysis cost at this stage (d) “gestures” tier, indicating gesture family (kendon, 2004). this tier hosts two other dependent tiers (i.e. their division into slots and their input is linked with and determined by the tier they depend on, in this case “gestures”), with data concerning the type and revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 101 j. valeiras jurado, n. ruiz madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): …-… prominent syllables. tone, key and termination are indicated in three dependent tiers according to the transcription conventions shown in table 1: tone key termination f: fall hk: high key ht: high termination l: level mk: mid key mt: mid termination r: rise lk: low key lt: low termination table 1. transcription conventions for tone, key and termination. in the present study combined tones (fall-rise and rise-fall) have not been distinguished. the reason for this research decision is that they mainly convey information about power relationships and in particular dominance, which in the case of the presentations analysed tend to remain rather stable throughout. it was considered that the potential added value of this distinction did not justify the analysis cost at this stage (d) “gestures” tier, indicating gesture family (kendon, 2004). this tier hosts two other dependent tiers (i.e. their division into slots and their input is linked with and determined by the tier they depend on, in this case “gestures”), with data concerning the type and function of the gesture. the classification system draws from mcneill (1992), bavelas et al. (1995), kendon (2004) and querol-julián (2011), and it is shown in table 2: table 2. transcription and annotation conventions for gestures. function of the gesture. the classification system draws from mcneill (1992), bavelas et al. (1995), kendon (2004) and queroljulián (2011), and it is shown in table 2: we find the gesture families proposed by kendon (2004) useful for the interpretation of the meaning intended by particular gestures found in our sample (e.g. ohp meaning stopping or negating something). these interpretations were nonetheless contrasted and complemented with the speakers’ opinions. in addition, in order to account for all the gestures included in the analysis, the addition of an extra category, i.e. the close fist (cf) was needed. (e) “head” tier, indicating the kinesic characteristics (shake, nod, lateral movement), and two dependent tiers with information about amplitude and repetitions (mcclave, 2000; kendon, 2002). the tiers “words” and “gestures-function” contain annotations, since they provide additional information about the mode and its potential contribution to persuasion, while the rest of the tiers describe the modes and can be regarded transcriptions. it will be noted that the transcription and annotation of gestures and intonation is highly systematic and follows pre-defined conventions that have been incorporated in the software through the use of controlled vocabularies, which limit the input possibilities in specific tiers through a predefined list of options from which the analyst selects. the annotation of j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118102 j. valeiras jurado, n. ruiz madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): …-… prominent syllables. tone, key and termination are indicated in three dependent tiers according to the transcription conventions shown in table 1: table 1. transcription conventions for tone, key and termination. in the present study combined tones (fall-rise and rise-fall) have not been distinguished. the reason for this research decision is that they mainly convey information about power relationships and in particular dominance, which in the case of the presentations analysed tend to remain rather stable throughout. it was considered that the potential added value of this distinction did not justify the analysis cost at this stage (d) “gestures” tier, indicating gesture family (kendon, 2004). this tier hosts two other dependent tiers (i.e. their division into slots and their input is linked with and determined by the tier they depend on, in this case “gestures”), with data concerning the type and function of the gesture. the classification system draws from mcneill (1992), bavelas et al. (1995), kendon (2004) and querol-julián (2011), and it is shown in table 2: gesture family: gesture type: gesture function: r: ring (kendon, 2004) i: iconic (represent concrete objects and events) (mcneill, 1992) r: referential (represent some aspect of the content) (kendon, 2004) g: grappollo (finger bunch) (kendon, 2004) m: metaphoric (represent abstract ideas) (mcneill, 1992) i: interpersonal (regulate interaction) (bavelas et al., 1995) ohp: open hand prone (palms down) (kendon, 2004) b: beat (repetitive gestures that usually mark the discourse flow) (kendon, 2004; bavelas et al., 1995) p: pragmatic (show attitude or perlocutionary meaning) (kendon, 2004) ohs: open hand supine (palms up) (kendon, 2004) d: deictic (point to something) (kendon, 2004) c: cohesive (link parts of discourse ) (mcneill, 1992; querol, 2011) cf: close fist table 2. transcription and annotation conventions for gestures. words, on the other hand, is corpus-driven rather than pre-defined. the rationale behind this methodological decision is a need to keep the focus on the multimodal ensemble. the authors took into account the input from previous literature regarding persuasive strategies realised through words (i.e. lexical, grammatical and stylistic devices), and some of these strategies were indeed identified in the sample (e.g. use of direct speech or evaluative lexicon). however, we avoided having a pre-defined list as the starting point of our analysis, because this would very likely lead to prioritizing words as the main mode and would limit the analysis of the other modes to finding instances of co-expression. on the other hand, the interviews prove that speakers are generally very capable of accounting for their use of words, but find it harder to explain their use of intonation and body movements because they are less conscious of them. thus, the use of a systematic classification system was necessary to facilitate the identification of particular uses of intonation, gesture and head movements and discuss them during the interviews, but it was not necessary in the case of words. 5. data gathering: observation sheets recordings and interviews the methodology described in this paper has been applied to study persuasion in five dissemination talks, with a specific focus on the following modes: words (lakoff, 1982; carter, 1997; hyland, 1998, 2009), intonation (brazil, 1997), head movements (mcclave, 2000; kendon, 2002) and gestures (kendon, 2004). the aim is to demonstrate the validity and reliability of such an approach to study the nature of persuasion in oral presentations in the academic and professional fields. the rest of this section will be devoted to describe the data gathering process. the event where the presentations were recorded was an independent university ted contest in which scientists in different fields disseminate their activity to a lay audience. we obtained the specific permission of the speakers for using both their video recordings and interviews for the purpose of the present study. table 3 below summarizes the information of each presentation and speaker in the corpus: revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 103 in each of the five presentations, two excerpts were further selected for finegrained multimodal analysis. these excerpts correspond to moments in the presentation which are particularly rich in terms of persuasive efforts from the speakers. subsequent analysis also proved that they are also particularly rich in modal density (norris, 2004) in relation to the rest of the presentation, therefore they are likely to illustrate persuasion realised through different modes simultaneously. this approach was adopted to avoid prioritizing any semiotic mode in particular, and has proved useful to keep the focus on the multimodal ensemble as a whole and the way different modes interact to encode a persuasive message. the identification and selection of these excerpts was what goldman et al. (2007) would call an j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118104 revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): …-… 1. with adaptive systems, we can make the best of our differences gender english proficiency expertise delivery support/ devices duration female high high explain lapel mic 00:11:07 2. snow white’s smart textiles twist gender english proficiency expertise delivery support/ devices duration female high high explain ppt lapel mic pointer 00:08:59 3. why does mathematics count? gender english proficiency expertise delivery support/ devices duration male high high explain prezzi lapel mic pointer 00:07:56 4. open transport data gender english proficiency expertise delivery support/ devices duration male high high explain ppt lapel mic pointer 00:10:17 5. microwave chemistry: time is money gender english proficiency expertise delivery support/ devices duration male high high explain ppt lapel mic pointer 00:07:15 table 3. the corpus of dissemination talks. in each of the five presentations, two excerpts were further selected for finegrained multimodal analysis. these excerpts correspond to moments in the presentation which are particularly rich in terms of persuasive efforts from the speakers. subsequent analysis also proved that they are also particularly rich in modal density (norris, 2004) in relation to the rest of the presentation, therefore they are likely to illustrate persuasion realised through different modes simultaneously. this approach was adopted to avoid prioritizing any semiotic mode in particular, and has proved useful to keep the focus on the multimodal ensemble as a whole and the way different modes interact to encode a persuasive inductive approach to video data. the selection was also aided by ethnographic interviews, as it will be detailed at the end of this section. table 4 provides an overview of the excerpts selected for multimodal analysis, which add up to 4.9 minutes: the events were recorded using only one camera focused on the speaker. the camera was mainly static and only moved if the speaker moved. no close ups of the head, body or the room (e.g. screen behind speaker) were used. these decisions were made on the basis of the research questions that drive the analysis: our interest is mainly in the persuasive activity of the speakers, rather than on the uptake by the audience. during the recording, we used observation sheets to gather contextual information about the event, the presentation and the speaker. these sheets included a pre-defined open list of items including the event, the genre (type of presentation), the speaker (bio-data), the room (its physical configuration), the audience (size and type), resources (e.g. microphone, revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 105 j. valeiras jurado, n. ruiz madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): …-… message. the identification and selection of these excerpts was what goldman et al. (2007) would call an inductive approach to video data. the selection was also aided by ethnographic interviews, as it will be detailed at the end of this section. table 4 provides an overview of the excerpts selected for multimodal analysis, which add up to 4.9 minutes: 1. with adaptive systems, we can make the best of our differences begin end duration 1.1 00:03:13 00:04:04 00:00:51 1.2 00:04:04 00:04:52 00:00:47 2. snow white’s smart textiles twist begin end duration 2.1 00:00:00 00:00:24 00:00:24 2.2 00:04:40 00:04:50 00:00:10 3. why does mathematics count? begin end duration 3.1 00:01:45 00:1:52 00:00:07 3.2 00:05:03 00:05:08 00:00:05 4. open transport data begin end duration 4.1 00:00:33 00:01:03 00:00:30 4.2 00:03:13 00:03:53 00:00:40 5. microwave chemistry: time is money begin end duration 5.1 00:00:00 00:00:24 00:00:24 5.2 00:00:24 00:01:17 00:00:53 table 4. excerpts selected for mda. the events were recorded using only one camera focused on the speaker. the camera was mainly static and only moved if the speaker moved. no close ups of the head, body or the room (e.g. screen behind speaker) were used. these decisions were made on the basis of the research questions that drive the analysis: our interest is mainly in the persuasive activity of the speakers, rather than on the uptake by the audience. during the recording, we used observation sheets to gather contextual information about the event, the presentation and the speaker. these sheets pointer, etc.), and speakers’ performance (posture and style of presentation such as “reading from a script” or “improvising”). shortly after each presentation (at the end of the event, and on the same day) face to face semi-structured interviews were carried out with the speakers in order to obtain crucial information about their previous knowledge and assumptions about the event and their preparation for the presentation, which in turn helps us interpret their use of persuasion. these interviews probed into aspects such as: (i) the speakers’ motivation to participate in the event, (ii) what they knew about the event beforehand (e.g. size and type of audience, topics expected, types of presentations expected, etc.) (iii) the way they prepared for the presentation, (iv) their main goal in their presentation, (v) their satisfaction with their performance, (vi) their opinion of other presentations as members of the audience. we considered that the reason why speakers had decided to participate in the event (i.e. their motivations) would ultimately determine their main goal in their presentations and shape their main message, something crucial to fully understand the communicative intentions lying behind their use of modes. items ii) and iii) were also important to fully understand how speakers were using the modes, and in particular to determine how much of this was unconscious or spontaneous and how much the result of practice or explicit training. item v) was a prompt for self-assessment, and was intended to put our own interpretations in perspective and help us focus on particularly persuasive moments. finally, the last item tries to include the audience uptake in the analysis, although admittedly in a very limited way. the ethnographic information provided by the observation sheets and the interviews proved crucial, first in the selection of the data to be analysed (i.e. information about what speakers considered their main goal helped select the excerpts for fine-grained multimodal analysis), and later on in its interpretation, since the data provided by the interviews (particularly what speakers knew about the event in advance and how they prepared accordingly) helped interpret the speakers’ intended communicative effect and their use of persuasion. j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118106 ethnographic interviews were also used at a later stage to discuss results with speakers and cross-check interpretations. these interviews were open and did not include a predefined battery of questions, but roughly followed the same structure: (a) explanation of the content and purpose of the interview, (b) visualisation of the excerpts analysed with the speakers (raw video without transcripts or annotations), (c) discussion of aspects the analysis had revealed as relevant for the persuasive effect (e.g. a particular use of intonation), including speakers opinion about intent and potential effect on audience, (d) exchange of interpretations regarding the intent and potential effect of these aspects (the speakers’ interpretation was prompted before we offered them ours). for the sake of consistency, the same researcher carried out all the interviews. all interviews were audio recorded and written notes were taken by the researcher. 6. an mda approach to persuasive strategies our mda approach to persuasive strategies hinges on integrating previous literature, multimodal analysis and ethnographic data. triangulating input from literature with our results from multimodal and ethnographic analysis we have identified a series of persuasive strategies that are realised through different modes (words, intonation gestures and head movements) in a corpus of 5 dissemination talks, as figure 3 below illustrates. the rest of this section is devoted to describing and illustrating these strategies. although the triangulation of results was carried out for the four modes included in the analysis, for the sake of clarity and brevity the speaker’s comments are only included in the discussion of the examples when they are divergent from ours or add any additional aspects. they are omitted when they simply confirm our interpretations. revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 107 figure 3. persuasive strategies. the first strategy, that is, “anticipation and control of responses” takes place when speakers predict reactions and adapt their behaviour accordingly in order to obtain a desirable response. previous literature has shown how this can be achieved through words, intonation, gestures and head movements. carter (1997), for example, points out how the use of implicit comparisons, question tags and rhetorical questions all trigger a presupposed response from the audience. brazil (1997) argues that a final high pitch (high termination) can be a cue to show that the speaker expects the listener to be surprised. gestures and head movements can also be used to prevent potential counterclaims, especially when they co-occur with extreme evaluations that speakers anticipate as debatable (mac clave, 2000; kendon, 2002; kendon, 2004). the following example (example 1) shows how the speaker is anticipating answers using words, intonation, gestures and head movements. the excerpt corresponds to the opening lines of the presentation. example 1: anticipation of responses in excerpt 2.1 j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118108 the words marked in bold in this transcript show how the speaker explicitly claims to be anticipating answers. interestingly, this is also noticeable in the gestures she uses, in particular the sweeping gesture with both hands palm down (open hand prone, ohp) accompanying “very silent”. during the interview the speaker explained that she had chosen a question as a hook to open her presentation because other types of hook (e.g. an image) can distract the attention from the speaker, which is not desirable, as she was informed in specialized courses on presenting skills. she also confirmed that revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 109 example 1 page 109 di (discourse intonation) transcriptioni 1.! are you smart 2.! i knew that this would come 3.! but let me rephrase 4.! is your phone smart 5.! you would say of course it is a smart phone phone 6.! so why do you ask 7.! well then i say 8.! is the clothes you wear smart 9.! the jeans 10.! the jacket 11.! the clothes that you have 12.! and it would be very silent gestures and head movements and it would be very silent head nods sweeping gesture plmxae ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! e 109ge1 pa ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! art)noitanotniesruocsid(di 1. rtam suo yrea 2. iat thew thn ki 3. hp ree mte lbut 4. your si enoph ams 5. ay of sdlou wyou ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! a noitpircsna i rt ome cdlou wsi esrah rta ay of ecours t mar a sst ii enoph ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! e eonhp ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ay of you 6. o s ywh sdo you a 7. yan i she tllew 8. sehto clhe tsi 9. het snaje 10. het tekcja 11. het esthclo you hathat ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ks r ae you w rtams ve you ha ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! p ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 12. ve bdlout w idan emevomdaehdnaserutsge ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! e v ry silent n stn ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! eve bdluowtidan ry lsi ten ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! her communicative intention in this case was to anticipate responses from the audience, and rather than being interested in the information she wanted to get them “activated”. regarding the gesture, the speaker accounted for it as a metaphoric representation of silence. on the other hand, we interpret it as a metaphoric, pragmatic gesture having a dual meaning: a) it prevents potential counterclaims to this hypothetical situation that she is describing and b) it represents the scope implied (the whole audience). the speaker found both interpretations plausible and not contradictory with her initial explanation. interestingly, the gesture is split in two parts to follow the rhythm created by the two prominences in “very silent”, which is also reinforced by subtle head nods synchronous with the prominences. apart from this reinforcing effect, the speaker interpreted these nods as confirming that she was indeed anticipating the right answers. it is particularly interesting to note that, although words begin to play a role in anticipating answers earlier in the excerpt, towards the end the four modes are carefully orchestrated so that they work simultaneously to achieve the speakers aim: anticipate a response from the audience. strategy 2, “emphasis”, refers to highlighting parts of the message so that they receive more attention. intonation can contribute through the use of prominent syllables (brazil, 1997). it can also be used in combination with rhetorical devices that make the text more memorable, such as lexical creativity, three-part lists, parallel structures, and words related to the semantic field of novelty (lakoff, 1982; carter, 1997; bamford, 2007, 2008). emphasis can further be aided by beats (mcneill, 1992; kendon, 2004). the following example (example 2) shows how the speaker uses words, intonation and gestures to emphasize a part of his message. example 2: emphasis in excerpt 5.2 j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118110 example 2 page 110 di transcription 1.! so think about your kitchen 2.! if you want to heat stuff 3.! really fast 4.! you are not going to use an ordinary oven 5.! you are going to use the microwave gestures example 3 page 111 it is remarkable how a closed fist beat synchronous with “really” intensifies the adverb sequence in “really fast”. in the interview the speaker also interpreted this gesture as a way of showing emotional involvement. the prominence in the words “really fast” also contributes to the emphasis. “evaluation”, strategy 3, occurs when speakers assess something and are thus implicitly inviting the listener to accept this opinion (bamford, 2007; querol-julián, 2011). hood and forey (2005) point out how speakers can include multimodal expressions of attitude in their introductions that subtly evaluate their presentations in positive terms and seek alignment with their audience. along this line, pomerantz (1986) notes how extreme case evaluations are frequently used to legitimize claims when speakers expect possible counterclaims. interestingly, these claims are commonly accompanied by head shakes or gestures, which seem to deny in advance a potential counter-argument (kendon, 2002). this was the case in example 1 shown above. another example of multimodal evaluation is provided in the following excerpt (example 3). example 3: evaluation in excerpt 3.2 revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 111 example 2 page 110 1.! so think about your kitchen 2.! if you want to heat stuff 3.! really fast 4.! you are not going to use an ordinary oven 5.! you are going to use the microwave gestures really fast example 3 page 111 in this excerpt we find two head nods synchronous with “geeky” and “find”. the speaker had not initially noticed them until we pointed them out to him when watching the video during the interview, which shows that they were done unconsciously. the speaker interprets them as “emphasizing my agreement, i think” (meaning agreement with the evaluation he had just j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118112 example 2 page 110 example 3 page 111 di transcription 1.! cool 2.! i think 3.! well 4.! if you’re geeky enough 5.! you should find it cool 6.! eeehh gestures and head movements if you’re geeky enough you should find it cool example 4 page 113 head nods head nods emevomdaehdnaserutsge n stn er’uo yifif y ege hguoneky you looctidniffidluosh plmxae 113ge 4 pae noitpircsnartdi 1. ’m i tsju g to gnyitr 2. an wll i aat’sth om a to b fret youg to g ot to dan serutsge expressed). we believe they also prompt the audience to share this positive evaluation and concur with “cool”. it is also interesting to note that the second nod precedes speech, being synchronous with “find” and not with the evaluation itself (“cool”). this is probably a result of the greater encoding effort implied by using words as opposed using gestures or head movements, which are easier and faster to produce (mcneill, 1992). regarding intonation, unit 4 has a high key (+ 124 hz) that adds the meaning of reversal of expectations. this is consistent with the innovative use of slang (“geeky”, “cool”) in this situation. the speaker commented in the interview that he was consciously using unexpected vocabulary and agreed with us that his intention with this was to set a humorous tone. interestingly, unit 5 begins with a low key (-37 hz) that has an equating effect (being geeky= find cool) and ends with a mid termination that prompts concurrence. in sum, this example shows the orchestration of words, intonation and head nods working together to convey a positive evaluation and prompt concurrence with it. “rapport” (strategy 4), in the context of presentations, refers to a relationship of sympathy and mutual understanding with the audience. intonation, for example, can achieve these effects in a more subtle way than words. it can be used in combination with inclusive pronouns that help create rapport with the audience and enhance the sense of shared knowledge (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005; bamford, 2007, 2008). gestures in conference presentations can also help create this sense of inclusivity, bringing the audience into the discussion and establishing common ground (hood & forey, 2005; holler 2010). the following example (example 4) shows the use of words and gesture to build rapport. example 4: rapport in excerpt 4.1 revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 113 example 4 page 113 di transcription 1.! i’m just trying to get you from a to b 2.! that’s all i want to do gestures ! ! emevomdaehdnaserutsge ! ! st ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! er’uo ege hguoneky ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! you looctidndluosh ! ! ! ! ! ! plmxae ! ! 113ge 4 pae noitpircsnartdi 1. ’m i tsju g to gnyitr 2. an wll i aat’sth ! ! om a to b fret youg to g ot to dan ! ! ! ! ! ! serutsge ! ! ! ! in this example the speaker is using words that are overtly humble, making himself likable and therefore paving the ground for rapport. the open hand supine (ohs) metaphoric gesture synchronous with “that’s all i want to do” suggests openness, fulfilling a pragmatic function. according to the speaker he wanted to transmit “there’s nothing more to it”. the meaning of the words and the gesture reinforce each other to convey “honest humbleness”, and the whole ensemble is consequently prone to create rapport. 7. discussion and conclusions as already stated in the introduction section, the objective of this paper is twofold, that is, describing a methodological framework that can facilitate a mda approach to persuasion in oral genres and applying it to the genre of dissemination talks in order to explore how persuasion is multimodally ensembled in this specific genre. concerning the first objective, we have presented a framework for an mda approach to persuasion in academic and professional genres that combines video-based multimodal analysis with ethnography. we have then tested this framework on a corpus of 5 dissemination talks, which has provided us with the response to our second objective, that is, a tentative taxonomy of 4 persuasive strategies that are realised as multimodal ensembles and that could be considered as a generic trait of dissemination talks. the examples discussed in section 6 show how speakers orchestrate different semiotic modes into multimodal ensembles to make their presentations j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118114 example 4 page 113 gestures emevomdaehdnaserutsge st er’uo ege hguoneky you looctidndluosh plmxae 113ge 4 pae noitpircsnartdi 1. ’m i tsju g to gnyitr 2. an wll i aat’sth om a to b fret youg to g ot to dan serutsge that’s all i want to do i tone units are sequentially listed and numbered. prominent syllables are capitalized. syllables below or above the line represent a lower or higher pitch (key and termination). words marked in bold play a role in the persuasive strategy. persuasive. research on persuasion (fuertes-olivera et al., 2001; o’keefe, 2002; perloff, 2003; dafouz-milne, 2007) points out that addressees are more likely to be persuaded by messages that feature certain characteristics (i.e. are credible, easily understood, relevant, memorable, surprising, and they are perceived as inferred rather than imposed). therefore, speakers employ different combinations of semiotic modes to provide their messages with these characteristics. as the examples analysed in this paper suggest, it is actually the multimodal ensemble taken as a whole that becomes persuasive, to the point that it is difficult to delimit the contribution of each mode and it is not always possible to establish a one to one relationships between modes and persuasive strategies. this finding, in turn, seems to indicate a relation between a skilful integrated use of modes and effective oral persuasive communication, which is in line with results obtained in previous studies of oral presentations (rendle-short, 2006; busá, 2010; morell, 2015). a video-based multimodal study of oral discourse such as the one proposed here presents remarkable challenges (partiality of video, time-consuming analysis or tendency to micro-analysis). however, ethnographic methods such as observation and interviews can greatly contribute to overcoming these challenges, providing information that can help select data, analyse them and understand them in the context of the wider and highly complex communicative phenomenon of a presentation. the use of combined methods also provides a unique opportunity to triangulate results and crosscheck interpretations, which is particularly valuable in a study involving communicative intent. it is necessary to point out that the results from this study should be considered tentative, since there are clear limitations, such as the limited number of presentations analysed, or the limited scope of the multimodal analysis. the study presented here is still work in progress. further analysis is expected to enlarge and refine the taxonomy of multimodal persuasive strategies, especially as the analysis is extended to include other types of presentations and other modes. nonetheless, the analysis framework presented in this paper has the added value of being flexible, easily adaptable and data-driven. these characteristics make it particularly appropriate to keep the focus on the multimodal ensemble and avoid prioritizing modes. the taxonomy can serve as a basis for future mda research on persuasion, and can be further developed to include more modes and persuasive strategies realised revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 115 j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118116 bamford, j. (2007). “accentuating the positive. evaluation and persuasive discourse in business presentations” in j. bamford & r. salvi (eds.), business discourse: language at work, 135-155. rome: aracne editrice. bamford, j. (2008). “telling a convincing story: a corpus assisted analysis of business presentations” in a. martelli & v. pulcini (eds.), investigating english with corpora. studies in honour of maria teresa prat, 277-291. monza: polimetrica international scientific publisher. bateman, j. (2011). multimodality and genre: a foundation for the systematic analysis of multimodal documents. london: palgrave macmillan. bavelas, j., chovil, n., coates, l. & l. roe (1995). “gestures specialized for dialogue”. personality and social psychology bulletin, 21,4: 394-405. brazil, d. (1997). the communicative value of intonation in english. cambridge: cambridge university press. busà, m.g. (2010). “sounding natural: improving oral presentation skills”. language value, 2,1: 51-67. carter, r. (1997). working with texts: a core book for language analysis. london: routledge. carter-thomas, s. & e. rowley-jolivet (2003). “analysing the scientific conference presentation (cp). a methodological overview of a multimodal genre”. asp 39/40: 59-72 chun, d. 2002. discourse intonation in l2: from theory and research to practice. amsterdam: john benjamins. dafouz-milne, e. (2008). “the pragmatic role of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers in the construction and attainment of persuasion: a cross-linguistic study of newspaper discourse”. journal of pragmatics 40: 95-113. fuertes-olivera, p.a., m. velasco-sacristán, a. arribas-baño & e. samaniego-fernández (2001). “persuasion and advertising in english: metadiscourse in slogans and headlines”. journal of pragmatics 33: 1291-1307. goldman, r., erickson, f., lemke, j. & s. derry (2007) “selection in video” in s. derry (ed.), guidelines for video research in education: recommendations from an expert panel, data research and development center (norc at the university of chicago), 19 27. url: http://drdc.uchicago.edu/what/video-research.html holler, j. (2010). “speakers’ use of interactive gestures as markers of common ground” in s. kopp & i. wachsmuth (eds.), gesture in embodied communication and human-computer interaction, 11-22. berlin: springer berlin heidelberg. hood, s. & g. forey (2005). “presenting a conference presentation. getting interpersonal with your audience”. journal of english for academic purposes 4: 291-306. hyland, k. (1998). “persuasion and context: the pragmatics of academic metadiscourse”. journal of pragmatics 30: 437-455. hyland, k. (2009). academic discourse. london: continuum. jewitt, c. (2012). “an introduction to using video for research”. national centre for research methods (ncrm) unpublished working paper. url: http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/2259/4/ ncrm_ workingpaper_0312.pdf [03/02/2015] jewitt, c. (2013). the routledge handbook of multimodal analysis. london: routledge. kendon, a. (2002). “some uses of the head shake”. gesture, 2, 147-183. kendon, a. (2004). gesture: visible action as utterance. cambridge: cambridge university press. kipp, m. (2014) “anvil: the video annotation research tool” in durand, u. gut & g. kristoffersen (eds.), handbook of corpus phonology, 420-436. oxford: oxford university press. multimodally to answer future research questions in fields such as discourse analysis, genre analysis and language training. article history: received 01 april 2016 received in revised form 23 september 2016 accepted 25 september 2016 references revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118 117 kress, g. & t. van leeuwen (2001). multimodal discourse: the modes and media of contemporary communication. london: arnold. kress, g. (2010). multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. london: taylor and francis. kress, g. (2012) multimodality. a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. london: routledge. kress, g. (2014). “the rhetorical work of shaping the semiotic world” in a. archer & d. newfield (eds.), multimodal approaches to research and pedagogy: recognition, resources, and access, 131-152. new york: routledge. lakoff, r. (1982). “persuasive discourse and ordinary conversation, with examples from advertising” in d. tannen (ed.), analysing discourse: text and talk, 25-42. washington d.c.: georgetown university press. martin, j. & p. white (2005). the language of evaluation: appraisal in english. london: palgrave macmillan. mcclave, e. (2000). “linguistic functions of head movements in the context of speech”. journal of pragmatics 101: 72-87. mcneill, d. (1992). hand and mind: what gestures reveal about thought. chicago & london: the university of chicago press. morell, t. (2015). “international conference paper presentations: a multimodal analysis to determine effectiveness”. english for specific purposes 37: 137-150. norris, s. (2004). analysing multimodal interaction: a methodological framework. london & new york: continuum. o’keefe, d. (2002). persuasion: theory and research. london: sage publications. o’halloran, k. & b. smith (eds.) (2011). multimodal studies. exploring issues and domains. london: routledge. perloff, r. (2003). the dynamics of persuasion. new jersey, london: lawrence erlbaum associates. poggi, i. & c. pelachaud (2008). “persuasion and the expressivity of gestures in humans and machines” in i. wachsmuth, m. lenzen & g. knoblich (eds.), embodied communication in humans and machines, 391-424. oxford: oxford university press. pickering, l., hu, g.g. & a. baker (2012). “the pragmatic function of intonation: cueing agreement and disagreement in spoken english discourse and implications for elt” in j. romero-trillo (ed.), pragmatics and prosody in english language teaching, 199-218. springer: netherlands. pomerantz, a. (1986). “extreme case formulations: a way of legitimizing claims”. human studies 9: 219-229. querol-julián, m. (2011). evaluation in discussion sessions of conference paper presentations: a multimodal approach. saarbrücken: lap lambert academic publishing gmbh & co. k.g. querol-julián, m. & i. fortanet-gómez (2014). “evaluation in discussion sessions of conference presentations: theoretical foundations for a multimodal analysis”. kalbotyra 66: 77-97. rendle-short, j. (2006). the academic presentation: situated talk in action. hampshire: ashgate publishing. rowley-jolivet, e. & s. carter-thomas (2005). “the rhetoric of conference presentation introductions: context, argument and interaction”. international journal of applied linguistics 15,1: 45-70. rubin, h.j. & i.s. rubin (1995). qualitative interviewing. the art of hearing data. london: sage publications. schindler, l. (2009). “the production of ‘vis-ability’: an ethnographic video analysis of a martial arts class” in u. kissmann (ed.), video interaction analysis, 135-154. frankfurt: peter lang. sparks, j., c. areni & k. cox (1998). “an investigation of the effects of language style and communication modality on persuasion”. communication monographs 65,2: 108-125. valeiras-jurado, j. & n. ruiz-madrid (2015). “a multimodal approach to product presentations”. procedia. social and behavioral sciences 173: 252-258. valeiras-jurado, j. (2015). “a multimodal approach to persuasion in conference presentations” in b. crawford-camiciottoli & i. fortanez-gómez (eds.), multimodal analysis in academic settings. from research to teaching, 108-130. london: routledge. virtanen, t. & h. halmari (2005). “persuasion across genres: emerging perspectives” in h. halmari & t. virtanen (eds.), persuasion across genres, 2-24. amsterdam, philadelphia: john benjamins. julia valeiras-jurado is a teaching assistant for business and scientific english at ghent university. her research interests are oral discourse and genres, intonation and gestures as semiotic modes, and persuasive language. she has recently contributed to the routledge volume multimodal analysis in academic settings. from research to teaching with the chapter “a multimodal approach to persuasion in conference presentations”. mª noelia ruiz-madrid is senior lecturer in the department of english studies at universitat jaume i (castellón, spain), where she teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the areas of eap, esp and efl methodology. her research focuses on discourse analysis, genre and icts and efl. her more recent publications have appeared in ibérica and routledge. geert jacobs is a full professor of language for specific purposes at ghent university. he is the co-founder and head of the international newstalk&text research group. he teaches business communication and english for specific purposes in various bachelor’s and post-graduate programmes. he has published in international journals in the fields of business communication, journalism and linguistic pragmatics. notes 1 http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/. 2 http://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/elan/ 3 tone units are sequentially listed and numbered. prominent syllables are capitalized. syllables below or above the line represent a lower or higher pitch (key and termination). words marked in bold play a role in the persuasive strategy. j. valeiras-jurado, n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs ibérica 35 (2018): 93-118118 iberica 13 specialised english: new directions in esp and eap research and practice. ken hyland, lilian wong (eds). london and new york: routledge, 2019. 260 pages. isbn: 978-1-138-58877-6. language use is attached to its social contexts. the central mission of english for specific purposes (esp) and its sub-field english for academic purposes (eap) is to describe the constraints of social contexts on language use and help learners gain control over the expected communicative practices. specialised english: new directions in esp and eap research and practice, edited by hyland and wong, is an enlightening display of up-to-date developments in the field of specialized english. the volume emphasizes corpus studies, genre analysis, discourse communities, multilingual environments, and power relations, reflecting the social turn and the critical turn in esp/eap. it is essential reading for postgraduate students, teachers and researchers in language education and applied linguistics. after a brief introduction by the editors, the book is divided into three parts: key concepts (chapters 1 to 5), multiple texts (chapters 6 to 11), and pedagogical practices (chapters 12-17). in chapter 1, mauranen describes the linguistic features of english as a lingua franca (elf), drawing examples from spoken and written academic corpora. she convincingly explains how language contact, interactive strategies and cognitive processes result in some non-standard expressions in elf. the elf phenomenon is studied within multilingual settings where english is used more by non-native speakers than native speakers for international communication. this translingual practice calls into question whether the repeated non-canonical patterns in elf should be viewed as errors and whether a native-speaker model is relevant to the function of english as a common language. english as a lingua franca has also transformed workplace communication. in chapter 2, lockwood explores the complexity of ‘workplace english’. she creates a multilayered analytical framework for workplace english syllabus design. this model considers the impact of the immediate situation reseñas / book reviews ibérica 41 (2021): 186-190 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 186 and the sociopolitical context on language use to ensure that workplace english courses reflect the changing practices at work. to bridge the gap between school teaching and workplace realities, in chapter 3, bhatia introduces critical genre analysis with a focus on interdiscursive performance in professional legal communication. specifically, he illustrates how a specialized genre is influenced by other related genres, disciplinary conventions, and interactions between producers and recipients. the notion of interdiscursivity facilitates a comprehensive understanding of professional practices. chapters 4 and 5 discuss the issues of power and practitioner identity. in chapter 4, j. flowerdew examines different power relations embedded in neoliberal universities, profit-driven eap units, and english as a global language. in addition to these structural forces, in chapter 5, ding argues that the eap profession and eap literature are also implicated in diminishing practitioners’ sense of self-worth. although individuals can raise their status through scholarly publication, it is insufficient to change the marginal position of eap in the university hierarchy. both j. flowerdew and ding call on the eap community to seriously consider this precarious situation. only when eap practitioners think and act collectively, can they challenge the unfair status quo and change eap from a service unit to an academic department, where they have better opportunities for professional development. part ii moves to texts. in chapter 6, l. flowerdew explores the relationship between english as lingua franca and learner english. she reviews corpusbased studies of disciplinary writing in these two fields, noticing their traditional concern with native-speaker norms. as native speakers are not necessarily expert users, whereas non-native speakers could be successful writers of the language, l. flowerdew argues for expertise rather than nativeness as the yardstick of successful disciplinary writing. a focus on expertise has the potential to offer a practical approach to supporting the academic writing development of students. in chapter 7, hyland traces interaction changes in research articles over the past 50 years, employing his model of stance and engagement. the results imply a preference for weaker authorial standpoints and less engagement with readers. further research is needed to explore how this change relates to authors’ writing goals, disciplinary epistemology and social contexts. in chapter 8, bruce uses a social genre/cognitive genre model to examine how critical thinking is communicated in university essays and fund manager reseñas / book reviews ibérica 41 (2021): 186-190 187 commentaries. he finds that textual devices at different levels are utilized to express evaluative judgments. his multivariable model provides a holistic approach to critical thinking. chapter 9 considers spoken texts. coxhead and dang analyze the vocabulary used in university tutorials and laboratories. their analysis highlights the importance of high-frequency words in comprehending and demonstrating content knowledge. their finding is illuminating to eap learners and material developers. chapter 10 looks at another interactive context—workplace meetings. drawing on corpus data recorded in different new zealand workplaces, holmes explores how ‘culture order’(i.e., societal norms) influences interactional patterns and professional identity construction in workplace discourse. based on the discourse analysis, the teaching program aims not to reinforce conformity to established norms, but to develop migrants’ social awareness and analytical skills. this soft critical approach acknowledges the lives of culturally diverse learners and affords them access to a world of options. chapter 11, by parkinson, discusses written and visual meanings in builders’ diaries, a multimodal genre. since images are non-linear and multifunctional, genre analysis is found to be inappropriate. as such, a social semiotic analysis comes into play as a more sophisticated approach to multimodal texts. part iii concerns classroom practices. in chapter 12, johns addresses the challenges encountered by three secondary latino students when composing the personal statement in an application for admission to an american university. their clinging to their native cultures creates a tension between their writing practice (i.e., promoting their neighborhood and families) and the writing requirement (i.e., promoting their achievements). accordingly, the workshops, she describes, help students explore the writing task and successful texts rather than impose genre conventions on them. genre analysis is used as a self-directed learning tool to develop their autonomy as writers. chapters 13 and 14 deal with data-driven learning (ddl) in esp settings. in chapter 13, anthony notes that ddl is an effective learning methodology but with limited uptake because of operational difficulties. he offers useful solutions and emphasizes that innovative software tools can improve the effectiveness of ddl instruction. echoing anthony’s viewpoint, in chapter 14, wong introduces a powerful online corpus query platform for disciplinary writing at a hong kong university. the platform offers various reseñas / book reviews ibérica 41 (2021): 186-190188 search functions and data visualization options, which facilitate data retrieval and interpretation. the accompanying ddl activities not only help learners explore different functions of the platform but also direct their attention to the key features of academic writing. this platform reconciles bottom-up and top-down approaches to corpus use, allowing students to see formmeaning connections in context. chapters 15 and 16 focus on feedback. in chapter 15, northcott studies the written feedback given by subject and eap specialists in a disciplinary writing course for postgraduate students majoring in social sciences and medicine. her analysis suggests that while subject specialists provide effective feedback on content, eap specialists give useful feedback on language. since content and language are inseparable, collaboration is desirable. chapter 16, by wingate and ogiermann, examines the oral feedback provided by peer tutors in academic writing tutorials. the discourse analysis indicates that the distribution of directives in the tutor-student consultation decides the teaching style (i.e., dialogic or monologic). the finding is applicable to tutor training. in chapter 17, li and cargill report an eap teacher’s unsuccessful attempt to foster teacher-supervisor collaboration in a research article writing course in china, where specialized english teaching is in its infancy. they believe that english teachers’ growth as esp specialists will invite more crossdisciplinary collaboration. such specialization and cooperation involve individual efforts and administrative support. this book pays particular attention to an under-researched population, eap practitioners. although they are in a moral dilemma (johnston, 2003): involuntary engagement in the hegemony of english vs. the desire to help students succeed in english, they can be change agents, a theme in chapters 4 and 5. their meddler-in-the-middle position enables them to create twoway communication between students and authority, which promotes social justice. increasing recognition of translingual practice encourages an open attitude towards variant uses of english, an implying message of chapter 1. a move away from nativeness as the goal for language teaching, as indicated by chapter 6, reduces a language bias against non-native speakers. to avoid discrimination eap practitioners have taken account of students’ positions and voices. as with chapters 10 and 12, the focus is on creating space for students’ own understanding and development. although changes come slowly, they bring about better conditions in academia and workplaces. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 41 (2021): 186-190 189 overall, this volume captures current developments in esp/eap and points to directions for future research. we highly recommend this book. received 13 april 2020 received in revised form 20 april 2021 accepted 3 may 2021 reviewed by qiong li school of foreign languages, huazhong university of science and technology (china) liqiong@hust.edu.cn jianying du (corresponding author) school of foreign languages, huazhong university of science and technology, china. dujianying@hust.edu.cn. references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 41 (2021): 186-190190 johnston, b. (2003). values in english language teaching. lawrence erlbaum associates. 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 digital business discourse. erika darics (ed). basingstoke: palgrave macmillan, 2015. 274 pages. isbn: 978-1-137-40556-2. congratulations to erika darics for editing such an exciting volume on digital business discourse (dbd)! the volume showcases a truly interdisciplinary scholar at the crossroads of applied linguistics, business communication and computer-mediated discourse analysis. she has been able to identify fellow scholars that make a difference in this multidisciplinary field and been able to combine their contributions to create a rewarding reading experience overall. well done! writing a review on a book like this is a daunting task: there’s so much i’d like to say and so little room to say it. so, first things first: anybody interested in digitalization, business, or discourse should read the book! wearing the three hats myself – d for an interest in email genres, b for working in a business school and another d for a desire to learn more about discourse and language – certainly makes me biased. however, since the three are so tightly intertwined in today’s business life, there really isn’t one without the other, or the third. although each of the twelve chapters would deserve a review of its own, i rather explain more about a few of them than less about each. the volume opens with an “introduction”, and is then divided into three parts: (1) “new technologies: new modes of communication”, (2) “new modes of communication: new conventions” and (3) “theoretical and methodological approaches to dbd”. in her introduction, darics delivers on her promise: “fresh perspectives”! how she unfolds the process of finalizing the title of the book alone allures the reader forward to find out how language works in digitally mediated professional communication. with the help of her competent crew of authors representing various research streams (e.g. corporate communication, rhetoric, organizational behavior, 261 reseñas/book reviews media, innovation, business discourse, pragmatics) in a diverse set of disciplines (e.g. linguistics, applied linguistics, communication) she sets forth to give the readers an overview of the most recent research that addresses “emerging communication practices in digitally mediated professional genres” (page 3). the first part of the book, “new technologies: new modes of communication”, focuses on both emerging and “old” but not yet conventionalized online genres such as consumer review websites (camilla vásquez), ceo tweets (katerina girginova), instant messaging (kris m. markman) and business email (nives lenassi). what i found particularly engaging was girginova’s discussion on the role of ceos’ personal tweeting practices in the communicative constitution of organizations (cco). the analysis of the 2,086 tweets demonstrated, for instance, evidence for mcphee & zuag’s (2009) four constituting flows of membership negotiation, self-structuring, institutional positioning, and activity coordination. interestingly, however, the majority of the tweets (63%) could not be categorized into any of the flows. girginova argues that the dominance of this “non-flow” category of content sharing is potentially indicative of “different organizational realities where constitution occurs through social interactions that are less structured around and physically bound to an organization” (page 49). she posits that amending the four-flow framework – and adding content sharing – would better reflect the communicative landscape of modern organizations. “new modes of communication: new conventions” addresses how the new technologies affect communication conventions. chapter 5 by karianne skovholt is on doing leadership in a virtual team, bernie chun nam mak and carmen lee focus on swearing in computer-mediated workplace discourse, kristy beers fägersten on conflicting employee and corporate interests on intranet and valerie creelman on negotiating customer dissatisfaction in blogosphere. as an email researcher myself, i particularly enjoyed skovholt’s discussion of leadership as a discursive construct. through a detailed analysis of the discourse of some 700 emails collected from a norwegian virtual team, she is able to demonstrate how the leader of the team uses language to contribute to the building of trust, promotion of in-group solidarity and the positioning of the leader vis-à-vis subordinates. similarly, to the other authors, skovholt provides plenty of examples from her authentic data, which illustrates the points in an exemplary manner. also, creelman’s account of a crisis communication case and the rhetorical reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278262 analysis of both the original image restoration post as well as customer responses is able to capture the dynamic and dialogic nature of communication. and as she claims on page 183: “in ways that bakhtin, in developing his social theory of language, perhaps had not fully imagined.” “theoretical and methodological approaches to digital business discourse” as the final part of the volume leads us to the future research agendas. some of these chapters can be described as outright far-reaching in introducing new smart methodologies (the deanex method by erika darics; adaptation of communicology by craig t. maier and david deluliis) and new concepts (e.g. digital emotional literacy by steven a. edelson, philip kim, ron scott, and julie m. szendrey), while others apply more established methodologies (rhetorical moves of emails by maría luisa carrió-pastor). taking a closer look at chapter 10, maier and deluliis provocatively propose a new definition for dbd. they argue that dbd should be viewed “as the embodied experience of using technology to communicate within organizations” (page 209, original italics), i.e. as a “human practice” instead of simply as a technological process of using language. in their view, dbd researchers should find ways to investigate our feelings and thoughts when we are using communication technologies, e.g. smart phones. in dbd research, the questions of what we do and why we do it with our devices is not only relevant but also inspiring. they present a fascinating account of incorporating lanigan’s (1992) communicology approach to investigate digital business discourse and develop methodologies on how the practice of this research could look like. exciting avenue for research with a number of prospective practical implications! although the study focusing on the identification of rhetorical moves in emails written by indian non-native-speaker english professionals showed differences in comparison to bhatia’s (1993) move structure in traditional letters written by native english speakers, it would have been interesting to hear more about the implications for non-native business professionals. as we know, digitalization and globalization go hand in hand changing the business environment in profound ways, and the language/resource used in digital business interactions and discourse is (increasingly) english (or rather english as business lingua franca, belf; kankaanranta & louhialasalminen, 2013). in view of this, maybe my only critical comment about the volume relates to this aspect of dbd. it would have been rewarding to have some more input from the perspective of the use of belf by speakers of different linguistic backgrounds in various digitalized business environments. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278 263 to sum up, digital business discourse edited by erika darics makes a strong case for discourse-focused research in the digitalized business environment. it creates a kaleidoscopic view of the phenomenon of practitioners working – and communicating – in today’s digitalized workplace. and most importantly: it offers inspiring new research directions for scholars as well as insights and ideas for teachers in business, professional, corporate and organizational communication. in its non-digitalized format, it would be best enjoyed in peace and quiet with your mobile turned off. enjoy! received 20 june 2016 accepted 21 june 2016 reviewed by anne kankaanranta aalto university school of business, helsinki (finland) anne.kankaanranta@aalto.fi references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278264 bhatia, v.k. (1993). analysing genre: language use in professional settings. london: longman. kankaanranta, a. & l. louhiala-salminen (2013). “what language does global business speak?” – the concept and development of belf. ibérica, the journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, a special issue on intercultural business communication 26: 1734. lanigan, r. (1992). the human science of communicology: a phenomenology of discourse in foucault and merleau-ponty. pittsburgh, pa: duquesne university press. mcphee, r. & p. zuag (2009). “the communicative constitution of organizations: a framework for explanation” in l. putnam & a. nicotera (eds.), building theories of organization: the constitutive role of communication, 21-48. new york: routledge. ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-21 abstract in the course of the past 30 years it has been acknowledged that research on pedagogical lexicography has to address three main issues: (i) development of new formats to cover both communicative and non-communicative situations; (ii) the layout of the information on the dictionary page, to facilitate the handling of information; (iii) what information is necessary for each type of learner at specific levels of proficiency. although a big amount of specialised dictionaries have been produced during the last three decades, only some of them show the pedagogical value or dimension of general dictionaries. to overcome this gap the theory of lexicographic functions indicates a way forward to the design and production of the lexicographic quality products that the modern globalized world requires. this article illustrates some of the workings of this functional theory by commenting on some of the pedagogical value of edgt, a two-way, bidirectional and multifunctional dictionary. key words: lsp lexicography; pedagogical dimension; functional theory; knowledge-related consultations resumen la dimensión pedagógica de un diccionario especializado bien concebido a lo largo de los 30 últimos años la investigación relacionada con la lexicografía pedagógica se ha situado en la vanguardia de todo lo relacionado con los diccionarios. se ha puesto de manifiesto, además, que es necesario continuar el estudio de, al menos, tres cuestiones: (i) el desarrollo de formatos nuevos con los que cubrir las situaciones comunicativas y no comunicativas; (ii) la distribución de la información en el diccionario; (iii) conocer la cantidad de información que un diccionario debe tener de acuerdo al nivel de conocimiento de sus usuarios. los diccionarios generales muestran un gran desarrollo, especialmente los diccionarios pedagógicos. la mayoría de los diccionarios especializados, sin embargo, parece que no han tenido en cuenta estos nuevos enfoques. en este artículo se afirma que la teoría de las funciones lexicográficas ofrece un soporte teórico adecuado para introducir una dimensión pedagógica en el diccionario especializado. ilustra esta afirmación con un trabajo the pedagogical dimension of the well-conceived specialised dictionary sven tarp aarhus school of business st@asb.dk 7 metalexicográfico: el análisis de alguno de los aspectos de un diccionario bidireccional, especializado inglés-español, español-inglés, el edgt. palabras clave: lexicografía especializada; diccionario pedagógico; teoría funcional; información enciclopédica 1. introduction although a lot of water has flowed under the bridges since the german lexicographer harald weinrich in 1976 straightforwardly declared that specialised dictionaries were "lexicographic suckers", the situation in this respect has not changed a lot. a big amount of specialised dictionaries have been produced during the last three decades but except for a few exceptions, especially those based on the modern theory of lexicographic functions (see e.g. bergenholtz & tarp, 2002, 2003, 2004), most dictionaries of this sort still suffer from a very low quality compared with their lgp relatives. for that reason it is difficult to speak about the pedagogical value or dimension of specialised dictionaries in general. however, analysing the few exceptions from the point of view of the functional theory of lexicography it is possible to extract elements that could merge in a future and not yet existing theory on the pedagogical dimension of specialised dictionaries. 2. the pedagogical dimension of specialised dictionaries according to the functional theory, all theoretical and practical lexicographic work should be based on the dictionary functions which represent the assistance provided by a dictionary �by means of its lexicographic data� to a specific type of user in solving the specific type of problems related to a specific type of user situation. this vision of lexicography differs from the point of departure taken by the majority of user surveys which, even if they observe the users in a specific situation, only focus on the look-up strategies which may already be "contaminated" because of the wellknown fact that the users only look up what they expect to find in a dictionary, i.e. what they know from experience that dictionaries may contain. by contrast, what is studied in accordance with the methodology of the functional theory are those problems popping up in a specific situation to which a solution can be given by means of lexicographic data. the theory therefore concentrates on the extralexicographic user situations of which two main types can be distinguished: the communication-related and the knowledge-related. the first one is related to sven tarp ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-218 communicative situations such as l1 and l2 text production, l1 and l2 text reception and l1-l2 and l2-l1 translation. the second one is related to noncommunicative situations where the users for one or the other reason want or need knowledge of a certain type, e.g. linguistic, general-encyclopedic or specialised knowledge. in the first case, the users �as a starting point� are only interested in solving problems that may arise during the communication process in order to make it go as smoothly as possible, whereas they, in the second case, only are interested in adding to their existing knowledge. it is in this last case that the specialised dictionary may display a pedagogical function providing lsp or specialised information to the user. however, although on the one hand the two main types of user situations are quite different from each other, on the other hand, a complex dialectical relation exists between them. in the case of the knowledge-related user situation where the user wants to retrieve information from the dictionary that can be rooted as knowledge, a new type of passive communication (time-delayed text reception) is established between the user and the original dictionary author, which may imply communicative problems that have to be solved by means of the same or another dictionary. and if, in the case of the communication-related user situation, the information extracted from the lexicographic data contained in the dictionary takes root in the user's brain or memory, then it is transformed into knowledge that can be used in future communication, and the same thing happens if the consultation related to a communicative problem arises the user's interest in the topic represented by the lexicographic data and turns into a knowledge-related consultation and exploration of the data, thus transforming the original purpose of the consultation and replacing it with another one. it is evident that the dialectical relation between these two fundamental results of a dictionary consultation should not be confused with the relation between encyclopedic and linguistic knowledge as it is the case in wiegand (1988, 1994) for which he has been critized by rossenbeck (1994) and bergenholtz (1998). knowledge about the world cannot be stored without language, and linguistic skills are not sufficient in order to engage into a meaningful communication as this also presupposes general or specialised encyclopedic knowledge and both may be achieved fully or partially through the communication-related consultation whereas each of the two main types of knowledge-related consultations, in principle, only partially furnishes elements to be used in a meaningful communication. but even between these two types of knowledge-related consultations no chinese wall is to be the pedagogical dimension of a specialised dictionary ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-21 9 found. encyclopedic knowledge cannot be imparted without language and this process includes the transmission and possible assimilation of terminology and part of the corresponding grammar. and if the imparting of linguistic knowledge, apart from formal grammatical knowledge about morphology, syntax and word formation (e.g. the use of affixes), also includes terminology, then a transmission of elements of encyclopedic knowledge will inevitably take place between the author and the user with the dictionary as the medium. 3. an example of a well-conceived pedagogical specialised dictionary: the encyclopedic dictionary of gene technology english-spanish / diccionario enciclopédico de ingeniería genética español-inglés (edgt, 1998) the pedagogical value of a dictionary is thus determined by its appropiateness to provide either linguistic or encyclopedic knowledge, or both, to the users during the process of linguistic or encyclopedic learning. consequently, if the pedagogical value of a specialised dictionary is determined by its appropiateness to provide lsp and/or specialised encyclopedic knowledge, then every dictionary which contains data representing true knowledge may, up to a certain point, display a pedagogical dimension, although only the dictionaries designed for this specific purpose would be of any real benefit to the users interested in assimilating specialised linguistic and encyclopedic knowledge. in order to explore the pedagogical possibilities of a wellconceived specialised dictionary in this respect, a concrete pair of dictionaries where the authors have had the rare editorial freedom to implement all their ideas, will be discussed in the following. these two volumes, which actually constitute the two language directions of one and the same dictionary, are the encyclopedic dictionary of gene technology english-spanish and the diccionario enciclopédico de ingeniería genétic español-inglés, in the following abbreviated edgt. this dictionary is a two-way, bidirectional and multifunctional dictionary. it embraces, as already said, both language directions, it is designed to users with both english and spanish as their mother tongue, and it is conceived to provide assistance to various types of users in various user situations as can be read in the preface: it has been our aim to design a dictionary which can serve as a tool for those who will be or are in contact with gene technology in some way and who wish to acquire sven tarp ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-2110 a certain or an additional knowledge for the field and its language through the dictionary. more specifically, this group could be public sector or private sector employees who require an aid in their work in connection with changed methods of medical treatment, patent applications, food inspection, environmental issues etc. thus, the users of this dictionary consist of a wide range of persons whose background may be in medicine, technology, pharmacy, biology and/or journalism. in addition, translators translating texts in which terms from the field of gene technology occur may benefit from using the dictionary as well. [�] our dictionary provides both purely factual information and specialised linguistic information on gene technology. thus the reference work is intended to be an aid to understanding purely encyclopedic relationships and an aid in the communication of topics of gene technology. (edgt, 1998: 5) in a special component part called "information about the structure and background of the dictionary", the eight main user situations to which the dictionary is designed are specified: 1. reception of spanish texts 2. production of spanish texts 3. reception of english texts (modificado) 4. production of english texts (modificado) 5. translation from spanish into english 6. translation from english into spanish 7. information on subjects within molecular biology 8. indirect text-related information about spanish and/or english molecular language use (edgt, 1998: 7) as the intended user group is made up by both native speakers of english and spanish that might be experts, semi-experts and so-called "interested laymen" within the sphere of gene technology, the number of possible functions of the dictionary raises considerably although not all types of users may need the dictionary in each and every of the eight situations mentioned above. the interesting user situations from the point of view of this article are the knowledge-related situations, i.e. number 7 where the users may consult the dictionary in order to get specialised encyclopedic knowledge (on gene technology) and number 8 where they may consult it in order to get the corresponding lsp knowledge that is not related to a specific communications situation. the pedagogical dimension of a specialised dictionary ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-21 11 however, one thing is the intended functions of the dictionary; another thing is the authors' success in terms of compiling a lexicographic product that lives up to its declared purpose. two things have to be taken into account in this regard, first the types, amount, quality and relevance of the data fixed in the dictionary items and, secondly, the principles according to which these data are structured, connected and presented in order to facilitate their accessibility. the data contained in a dictionary can be of two different types, i.e. the function-related data that provide solutions to the problems that originally gave raise to consultation, and the use-related data that provide information on the dictionary and assistance in using it. both types of data are important in order to generate a quality product and can be split up and structured in separate component parts. edgt consists of eleven such components parts: 1. preface (in english) 2. preface (in spanish) 3. information about the structure and background of the dictionary (in english) 4. information about the structure and background of the dictionary (in spanish) 5. literature consulted in the preparation of the dictionary (repeated in both volumes) 6. guide to the use of the dictionary (in english) 7. guide to the use of the dictionary (in spanish) 8. introduction to molecular biology (in english) 9. introduction to molecular biology (in spanish) 10. english-spanish word list a to z 11. spanish-english word list a to z the first seven are use-related component parts whose purpose it to explain the origin and functions of the dictionary and provide guidance to the users, whereas the last four are function-related component parts. in the following only the last ones will be discussed. the only component part that is compulsory and included in the very definition of a dictionary is the word list. any other component part is facultative, although most dictionaries, apart from the central word list, also contain other component parts, especially use-related component parts such as user guides and prefaces. however, depending on the intended user group and user situations, a number of dictionaries also place part of the function-related data in special component parts that may be integrated (by a system of references) or non-integrated into the central word list. sven tarp ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-2112 this distribution and structuring of the lexicographic data within a specific component part and between various component parts are determined by the data distribution structure. as mentioned above, edgt contains a separate systematic section called "introduction to molecular biology" and provided in both an english and a spanish version which are integrated into the two central english-spanish and spanishenglish word lists by means of a complex system of cross-references. such integrated function-related component parts are especially appropriate for dictionaries with knowledge-related functions and can be used even by persons with little knowledge of gene technology. according to the authors, only "a basic knowledge of science and an interest in the field's scientific processes and results are [�] presupposed in order to benefit from the dictionary" (edgt, 1998: 7). through this systematic introduction to molecular biology (or gene technology), it is possible to study and assimilate (learn) the basic principles and terminology of this specific subject field. the section consists of a total of 43 pages and includes a table of contents referring to 30 paragraphs organised in four chapters: from chemistry to biology § 1. molecular biology 20 § 2. the chemistry of cells and the origin of life 20 � the origin of life 22 § 3. prokaryote 23 § 4. eukaryotes 23 § 5. mitochondria and chloroplasts 24 § 6. membranes and cytoskeleton 25 § 7. chromosomes 26 § 8. some properties of bacteria 27 § 9. some properties of eukaryotes 28 � cell divisions and life cycles in eukaryotes 30 � yeast, a unicellular eukaryote 31 � the immune system 31 � respiration and photosynthesis 31 the pedagogical dimension of a specialised dictionary ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-21 13 the small biomolecules § 10. water and organic compounds 32 § 11. carbohydrates 33 § 12. amino acids 34 § 13. nucleotides 35 § 14. lipids 35 the large biomolecules § 15. macromolecules 36 § 16. proteins 37 § 17. polysaccharides 38 § 18. nucleic acids 39 � viruses 41 � the central dogma of molecular biology 42 recombinant dna and cloning § 19. dna technology 43 § 20. restriction enzymes 43 § 21. vectors 44 § 22. dna libraries 47 § 23. probes and screening of libraries 47 § 24. chromosome walking 49 § 25. characterization of genes and their products 49 § 26. expression vectors 51 § 27. reverse genetics and protein engineering 51 § 28. in vitro cloning of dna 52 § 29. genome mapping and dna fingerprinting 53 § 30. gene technology and society 55 � preamble 55 � code of conduct 57 � the code 58 (edgt, 1998: 19) text example 1: list of content of the "introduction to molecular biology" in edgt sven tarp ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-2114 this table of content provides in itself a general and systematic overview of the whole subject field of molecular biology. consequently, the text in the introduction is organised in a systematic way according to the system of the subject field. it is illustrated with a total of 23 figures and the most important terms are written in bold and serve, in addition, as indirect cross-references to the central word lists where a more detailed explication can be found: § 1 molecular biology molecular biology is the study of molecular aspects of biological phenomena. in molecular biology the structure and function of cells, their components and their interactions are investigated by physical, physicochemical and biochemical techniques, and the results are interpreted in terms of biomolecules, especially macromolecules, and their interactions. molecular biology encompasses and integrates many molecular aspects of genetics, physiology, microbiology, biochemistry and cell biology. § 2 the chemistry of cells and the origin of life the cell is the smallest structural and functional unit of living organisms. the smallest organisms consist of single cells, whereas larger organisms are multicellular. the higher multicellular organisms contain many different types of cells with specialized functions. the various cell types cooperate in a tightly coordinated way, although each cell retains a certain independence. the plasma membrane defines the periphery of the cell. it is composed of a large number of lipid and protein molecules and is very flexible, allowing changes in the shape and size of the cell. all cells, with a few exceptions, contain a genome, i.e. a complete set of genes, consisting of dna. a few highly differentiated and specialized cell types lose part or all of the genome. as an example red blood cells have no dna and no cell nucleus. there are two main types of cell, the prokaryotic cell and the eukaryotic cell. bacteria and cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, are prokaryotes, and animals and plants consist of eukaryotic cells. in eukaryotic cells the genome is located in a cell nucleus and is therefore separated from the cytoplasm by the nuclear envelope. in prokaryotes the dna is not surrounded by a nuclear envelope membrane, but is located in a more or less distinct region of the cytoplasm called the nucleoid. the diameters of bacteria are typically 1-2 µm (1 µm = 10-6 m), and most eukaryotic cells have diameters of 10-100 µm. the pedagogical dimension of a specialised dictionary ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-21 15 the internal volume bounded by the plasma membrane, the cytoplasm, is composed of a complex and gel-like aqueous solution, the cytosol, and a variety of suspended particles. dissolved in the cytosol are many enzymes and other proteins and the rna molecules that encode them, the monomeric subunits, amino acids and nucleotides, from which these macromolecules are assembled, many small organic molecules that are intermediates in biosynthetic or degradative pathways, and a variety of inorganic ions. ribosomes are complexes of more than 50 proteins and rna molecules with a diameter of about 0.02 µm. they are the sites where protein synthesis, translation, occurs. plant cells are surrounded by a cell wall and contain a range of distinct membrane-bounded structural and functional units or organelles, e.g. mitochondria, vacuoles, chloroplasts, and endoplasmic reticulum. animal cells lack cell walls and chloroplasts but apart from that the basic structures and functions of animal and plant cells are generally identical. prokaryotes do not contain membrane-bounded organelles. (edgt, 1998: 20) text example 2: extract from the "introduction to molecular biology" in edgt there are three ways to make use of the introductory section. the users can read all of it from the beginning to the end and thereby get a systematic introduction to molecular biology in general, and the users can also choose only to read a chapter or just one or a few paragraphs which are most relevant for them. if they opt for this last procedure, they can access the relevant paragraphs both through the above table of content and by means of cross-references from the central word lists. and if the users, during the reading of the systematic section, need additional information, then they can access the relevant articles in the central word lists through the indirect cross-references provided by the subject-field terms written in bold. the articles (entries) have the following internal structure: translation traducción f the biosynthesis of protein is termed translation. the basic principle of the process is that the amino acid sequence of the protein is determined by the genetic code i.e. the nucleotide sequence of the gene, which temporarily manifested as mrna, will be expressed in the protein's primary structure, the amino acid sequence. translation can be divided into two simultaneous processes. 1. the transmission of the genetic code from mrna to the amino acid sequence of the protein. the basic principle is that the triplets of the mrna determine sven tarp ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-2116 the aminoacyl-trna that can be accepted because of the specific binding of the triplet to the trna anticodon. 2. the biochemical reactions which establish the chemical bonds between the amino acids, the peptide bonds. the ribosome is an important structure in translation. its two subunits form a chemical complex together with the mrna at the initiation site, the ribosome binding site. the aminoacyl-trna molecules bind to two sites in the ribosome mrna complex, first to the aminoacyl-trna, the a-site, and after that to the peptidyl-trna site, the p-site. this results in the formation of the peptide bond. the unloaded trna, i.e. trna which has delivered its amino acid, leaves the ribosome complex and simultanously this complex moves one step, jumping a triplet length on the mrna. now a new aminoacyl site is opened for the anticodon of the next aminoacyl-trna and the second amino acid is coupled to the first one. chain elongation continues. the movement of the ribosomes makes space for a new initiation complex behind the first one. in other words several ribosomes can move along the mrna, producing several protein molecules at the same time. reaching the termination signal i.e. the stop code the ribosome releases the mrna and dissociates into its two separate subunits, which can assemble on another mrna molecule to begin a new round of protein synthesis. the production of the primary protein has been completed and posttranslational modifications of the primary molecule often take place. � the genes encoded in the double helix control cellular activity through two processes: transcription, in which dna molecules give rise to rna molecules, followed by translation, in which rna directs the synthesis of proteins. p arrest protein ~ detener la ~ de las proteínas; carry out ~ llevar a cabo la ~; halt ~ by binding to mrna detener la ~ mediante enlace con el arnm; promote ~ promover la ~ â cell-free translation; transcription; genetic code; ribo some; ribosome binding site; § 16 text example 3: synopsis article from edgt this article is a so-called synopsis article that gives an overview of the specialised knowledge related to a number of articles and the corresponding terms. in this article, the user can get more profound and special information about the two meanings of the polysemantic term translation and, furthermore, cross-references (after the symbol â) to other relevant articles as well as to a paragraph (§ 16) in the the pedagogical dimension of a specialised dictionary ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-21 17 systematic section that furnishes more general information about the term and its place in the systematic classification of the subject field. in addition, the article provide information about part of speech, collocations (after the triangle p) and even an authentic text example from the corpus (after the bullet �). the word list contains a number of such synopsis articles, but it also contains two other types of articles, individual articles which only includes encyclopedic data directly addressed to the lemma, and reference articles which only gives a reference to another article where the relevant encyclopedic data are to be found: translation product producto m de la traducción the primary translation products are almost always precursors to functional proteins. they are altered by posttranslational modifications. â translation translation termination terminación f de la traducción â translation; stop codon text example 4: individual article and reference article from edgt 4. benefits of edgt for different types of users as can be seen, there is a certain overlapping between the data placed in the different articles in the word list and between these data and those of the systematic section. in fact, the users can find data at six different interconnected levels: 1. reference articles which only provided references to other articles 2. individual articles with data addressed to the lemma (term) 3. synopsis articles which gives an overview of data related to various terms 4. paragraphs in the introduction to molecular biology 5. chapters in the introduction to molecular biology 6. the introduction to molecular biology as a whole this type of data distribution structure which is made visible to the users by means of a complex system of cross-references is particularly suitable when the specialised dictionary has to display a pedagogical function providing special information that can be transformed into knowledge about the subject field and its terminology during the sven tarp ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-2118 learning process. it offers a great versatility and accessibility that permit different types of user with problems related to different types of user situations to start their dictionary consultation at different levels that correspond to their specific needs. and the possibilities put at the disposition of the users are even bigger because of the fact that all the six levels mentioned can be accessed both from spanish and english thus providing a unique possibility to study and compare also the spanish and english molecular biological lsp. in the following, the benefit which four different types of users can draw from the dictionary in different user situations in terms of lsp and subject-field information will be discussed. the first type is a journalist which is among the intended users mentioned in the dictionary preface. if the journalist for example wants to write an article on any topic related to a company using gene technology in the production, then the consultation of the systematic introduction, or part of it, may be of great benefit in order to get a general idea of the technology applied and of the correct terminology, i.e. to retrieve both encyclopedic and linguistic background information that may be necessary in order to prepare and write a well-documented and serious article on the company. besides, the journalist may also use the dictionary in a communication-related situation, e.g. when he or she is reading another text about gene technology and comes up with a number of hitherto unknown terms which can be explained and understood through a look-up in one of the two word lists. however, this kind of dictionary consultation is not primarily made in order to generate knowledge, but to solve concrete problems popping up during the text-reception situation. although the information retrieved from the dictionary may be rooted in the journalist's memory and thus transformed into lasting knowledge, this is not among the predicted pedagogical functions of the dictionary which are mainly related to the knowledge-seeking consultation. another type of user who is also mentioned in the preface is a pharmacist, e.g. doing research within his or her own subject-field. the pharmacist can be described as a semiexpert within the field of gene technology because there is a number of overlapping disciplines between pharmaceutics and molecular biology. however, the pharmacist is not a complete expert of gene technology and might therefore benefit from the dictionary in terms of adding to his or her existing knowledge. this consultation could start in the systematic introduction or even in the word lists depending on the concrete interest and needs of the pharmacist. a third type of user may be a translator preparing for a translation job related to gene technology and not being a specialist of the field. as a qualified translation of specialised the pedagogical dimension of a specialised dictionary ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-21 19 texts dealing with complex topics as gene technology cannot be made without at least a certain understanding of what the text is all about, the consultation of the systematic introduction, or the relevant parts of it, may be of great assistance in the preparation for the translation. and the translator may also be able to assimilate the fundamental terminology in both english and spanish by reading the introduction in both languages. a fourth type of user could be the very expert in gene technology who is preparing a paper or conference in a language which is not the one that he or she normally uses to communicate in terms of the subject field. this kind of user may be a native english speaker preparing a paper or conference in spanish, a native spanish speaker preparing a text in english and even a native spanish speaker preparing a text in spanish as he or she might not know the corresponding lsp because of the fact that gene technology in many or most cases is studied and communicated in english which is the lingua franca in terms of this subject field. thus, the reading of the introduction in the "other" language and making use of the relevant cross-reference may furnish the necessary vocabulary in order to write the paper or prepare the conference. 5. conclusion for all these four types of users �as well as for others of the intended users� the dictionary displays an important pedagogical function that allows it to meet their specific type needs in a specific type of knowledge-related user situation. this result of the authors' work has only been achieved by applying the theory of dictionary functions to the practical specialised lexicography. however, although there are few such dictionaries, edgt is not the only dictionary designed according to these theoretical principles. among other important dictionaries are: � gubba (1995) which contains a parallel introduction to the german and danish legal systems written by jan engberg and especially dedicated to translators that have to be acquainted with these systems in order to avoid pitfalls and produce a correct translation in terms of its legal content. � henriksen (2005) which provides a systematic introduction focussing on the differences between the danish and spanish legal systems and with the same purpose as the above mentioned dictionary. � andersen et al. (2005) which includes a separate contrastive grammar of english and danish for business, written by birger andersen, that permits sven tarp ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-2120 the users to study and assimilate the peculiarities and differences between the english and danish lsp independently of any specific communication-related user situation. if specialised dictionaries should leave behind the period of "lexicographic suckers" and not only be fully adopted to the communication-related user problems, but also display a pedagogical function in terms of knowledge-related user situations, then there is little doubt that the principles and practice discussed in this article indicate a way forward to the design and production of the lexicographic quality products that the modern globalized world requires. (paper received june 2005) sven tarp is an authorised translator and interpreter with a phd in specialised lexicography. he is an associate professor of spanish at the aarhus school of business, denmark, and the editor, author and co-author of a large number of dictionaries and theoretical articles and books on lexicography. the pedagogical dimension of a specialised dictionary ibérica 10 [2005]: 7-21 21 andersen, b., k. balsgart & s. tarp (2005). engelsk-dansk erhvervsordbog. copenhagen: gyldendal. (in print) bergenholtz, h. (1998). �das schlaue buch. vermittlung von informationen für textbezogene und textunabhängige fragestellungen� in a. zettersten, j. e. mogensen & v. h. pedersen (eds.), symposium on lexicography viii. proceedings of the eighth international symposium on lexicography may 2-5, 1996 at the university of copenhagen, 93-110. tübingen: niemeyer. bergenholtz, h. & s. tarp (2002). �die moderne lexikographische funktionslehre. diskussionsbeitrag zu neuen und alten paradigmen, die wörterbücher als gebrauchsgegenstände verstehen.� lexicographica 18: 253-263. bergenholtz, h. & s. tarp (2003). �two opposing theories: on h.e. wiegand�s recent discovery of lexicographic functions.� hermes, journal of linguistics 31: 171-196. bergenholtz, h. & s. tarp (2004). �the concept of «dictionary usage».� nordic journal of english studies 3,1: 23-36. edgt (1998): kaufmann, u. & h. bergenholtz, in coop. with b. stumman, s. tarp, l. de la rosa marabet, n. la serna torres and g. la serna miranda. encyclopedic dictionary of gene technology. english-spanish / diccionario enciclopédico de ingeniería genética español-inglés. toronto: lugus. 2 vols. gubba, w. (1995). juridisk ordbog tyskdansk. copenhagen: gads forlag. henriksen, t. (2005). juridisk ordbog dansk-spansk. copenhagen: gyldeldal. (in print) rossenbeck, k. (1994). �enzyklopädische information im zweisprachigen fachwörterbuch� in h. bergenholtz & b. schaeder (eds.), fachlexikographie. fachwissen und seine repräsentation in wörterbüchern, 133-159. tübingen: günter narr verlag. weinrich, h. (1976). die wahrheit der wörterbücher. in probleme der lexikologie und lexikographie. jahrbuch 1975 des instituts für deutsche sprache, 347-371. düsseldorf: institut für deutsche sprache (sprache der gegenwart 39). wiegand, h. e. (1988). �was eigentlich ist fachlexikographie? mit hinweisen zum verhältnis von sprachlichem und enzyklopädischem wissen� in h. h. munske et al. (eds.), deutscher wortschatz. lexikologische studien. ludwig erich schmitt zum 80. geburtstag von seinen marburger schülern, 729-790. berlín, nueva york: walter de gruyter. wiegand, h. e. (1994). �zur unterscheidung von semantischen und enzyklopädischen daten in fachwörterbuchern� in h. bergenholtz & b. schaeder (eds.), fachlexikographie. fachwissen und seine repräsentation in wörterbüchern, 103.132. tübingen: günter narr verlag. references ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 resumen los matizadores asertivos han concitado gran atención por parte de los investigadores de lengua inglesa desde que lakoff acuñara el término 'hedge' en 1972. lejos de aquel enfoque semántico, hoy día 'hedges' y 'boosters' sólo tienen sentido desde una perspectiva pragmática; es decir, no pueden estudiarse como un listado de formas léxicas limitadas, sino que es imprescindible contextualizarlas. por otra parte, durante estos años también se ha pasado del predominio de su estudio en el discurso oral al discurso científico escrito. pese a esta eclosión en inglés, la bibliografía española sobre el tema es muy reducida. de hecho, la mayoría de los trabajos sobre atenuantes redactados por autores de lengua española se limitan al análisis de textos ingleses. además, en las contadas ocasiones en que utilizan textos españoles, redactan sus resultados en inglés. así pues, atenuantes e intensificadores conforman una gran laguna terminológica y conceptual en nuestra lengua. con el fin de llamar la atención sobre este territorio virgen presentamos en este trabajo una propuesta de categorización de estas unidades. concretamente, nuestro objetivo es ofrecer una primera aproximación al estudio contrastivo inglés-español de los matizadores asertivos en el artículo biomédico, género que ilustrará la clasificación propuesta para ambas lenguas. palabras clave: artículo biomédico, matización asertiva, atenuantes, intensificadores abstract hedges and boosters in biomedical research papers: a classification proposal for english/spanish contrastive studies utterance modifiers have aroused the interest of english linguists since lakoff coined the term 'hedge' in 1972. far from that first semantic approach, nowadays hedges and boosters are mostly studied from a pragmatic point of view. this means that these linguistic units should not be considered as a limited set of lexical forms, but rather as a contextual phenomenon. in addition, oral discourse has also given way to written scientific discourse along this time. despite this boom la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico: una propuesta de clasificación para los estudios contrastivos inglés-español gustavo mendiluce cabrera y ana isabel hernández bartolomé universidad de valladolid gustavom@itbyte.uva.es 63 in english research, spanish literature on this topic is extremely limited. in fact, most works on hedging written by spanish authors merely analysed english texts. furthermore, if they ever deal with spanish texts, their results are usually rendered in english. thus, hedges and boosters represent a terminological and conceptual gap in spanish. to fill this gap, this paper proposes an attempt to classify these units. particularly, our aim is to hint tentative guidelines for an englishspanish contrastive study of utterance modifiers in the biomedical research article. this genre will illustrate our proposal for both languages. keywords: biomedical research article, utterance modifiers, hedges, boosters introducción: los matizadores asertivos proponemos aquí el término �matizadores asertivos� para referirnos al conjunto de unidades lingüísticas que en inglés suelen recibir la denominación de �hedges� y �boosters� (hyland, 1998b). si bien más adelante ahondaremos en las cuestiones terminológicas y perfilaremos los aspectos conceptuales, hasta entonces tomaremos como punto de partida la siguiente definición: llamamos matizadores asertivos a las unidades lingüísticas que modulan �de ahí �matizadores�� la fuerza semántica de los enunciados �de ahí �asertivos�� del discurso, ya atenuándolas, ya intensificándolas. así, �tal vez� y �sin duda� son dos ejemplos de matizadores discursivos: mientras el primero atenúa lo dicho introduciendo vacilación, el segundo transmite seguridad. de aquí se desprende la existencia de dos grandes grupos en que podemos dividir estos matizadores: atenuantes e intensificadores. a continuación pasamos a explicar la necesidad de este tipo de investigaciones lingüísticas en un contexto científico y, por ende, presumiblemente objetivo y neutral como es el género del artículo biomédico original. necesidad de investigación la ciencia no puede escapar de un cierto grado de subjetividad e imprecisión, como han demostrado numerosos estudios de la sociología y de la retórica de la ciencia (knorr cetina, 1981; gross, 1993). la ciencia tiene por objeto la verdad, pero sólo puede conseguir verdades de limitada validez temporal: lo que hoy es verdad mañana puede no serlo como consecuencia del progreso. de ahí la provisionalidad de los datos científicos que exige una cautela en su exposición ante la comunidad científica. no en vano numerosos autores han puesto de manifiesto la vinculación de la incertidumbre con la ciencia (gilbert & mulkay, 1984; hyland, 1998a: 263; salagergustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9064 meyer, 2000: 179). pero por otra parte, el científico ha de reivindicar la validez de su investigación. surge, por tanto, un choque entre la defensa de la propia investigación y el respeto a la investigación ajena. este conflicto de intereses contradictorios obliga al autor a realizar un proceso de negociación que tiene su reflejo lingüístico en la presencia de atenuantes e intensificadores en el discurso científico, especialmente en el artículo de investigación original. de este modo se atenúan las críticas a otros investigadores y se enfatizan los méritos de la propia investigación, o viceversa �según convenga�, pero siempre en una especie de «tira y afloja» que algunos han calificado de zigzag retórico (mendiluce cabrera & hernández bartolomé, 2005). en el caso del artículo biomédico �como cualquier otro artículo de investigación original� este zigzag se hace especialmente conspicuo en dos secciones: la introducción y la discusión, más persuasivas y personales que el resto. dejando a un lado la temática y pasando a una perspectiva más global, a pesar de su aparente oposición, atenuantes e intensificadores conforman un área de investigación de interés lingüístico desde varios puntos de vista. así, por ejemplo, algunos autores (grabe & kaplan, 1997: 155) han señalado la convergencia semántica de ambas categorías. otros, como hyland (1998a: 352), defienden el mismo argumento pero en términos pragmáticos, y subrayan su importancia en la negociación y persuasión cognitiva propias de la redacción académica. vassileva (2001: 86) también se ha sumado al estudio conjunto de ambas unidades. en su reciente estudio multidisciplinar de la realización lingüística de �promotion� y �politeness� en artículos de investigación, lindeberg (2004: 65) examina �to what extent and in what way promotional steps are mitigated�, para lo que tiene en cuenta, entre otras variables, �boosts� y �hedges�1. si descendemos a un nivel individual, en inglés los �hedges� han venido suscitando una enorme atención desde hace más de tres décadas, de modo que la literatura sobre el tema es abundante. bastante más escasas son las referencias sobre �boosters�, siendo hyland (1998b: 350, 353) uno de los autores más conocidos por la investigación de estas unidades en el discurso académico. en cuanto a la producción investigadora española, la bibliografía es mucho más escasa y a veces los autores sólo analizan el discurso inglés (fortanet et al., 2001; saz rubio, 2001). en otras ocasiones, las referencias a los atenuantes se encuentran englobadas dentro de un concepto bastante más amplio, como es el de la discrepancia o confrontación académica, que salager-meyer (2001), a veces en colaboración con otros autores (2003), ha estudiado y contrastado ampliamente en el discurso médico inglés, francés y español. la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 65 tan sólo muy recientemente parece haberse despertado un interés por el estudio de los atenuantes españoles per se; a este respecto, destacamos la importante aportación de sonia oliver del olmo, quien, en su tesis (2004a) y en otros trabajos de investigación (2004b), ha analizado los atenuantes en artículos biomédicos y casos clínicos. con todo, conocemos muy pocas publicaciones en lengua española que se ocupen de atenuantes e intensificadores en inglés y español en el discurso especializado. una de ellas es un estudio exploratorio que se centra en el comportamiento de estas unidades en la discusión de artículos biomédicos (mendiluce cabrera & hernández bartolomé, 2005); otra es un estudio exploratorio que analiza la interacción de estos parámetros con ciertos marcadores discursivos en la división secuencial de la introducción de los artículos biomédicos (mendiluce cabrera & hernández bartolomé, 2004). por último, es interesante también un trabajo que aúna el análisis de introducciones y discusiones en inglés y español de nativos y no-nativos (mendiluce cabrera, 2005). es indudable, pues, la necesidad de investigación sobre estas unidades por la escasez y limitaciones de los estudios mencionados. concretamente, la carencia es más palpable en el nivel escrito, ya que hasta hace una década la mayoría de los trabajos se limitaban al nivel oral, donde este tipo de modulaciones son más frecuentes. además, curiosamente, algunos manuales de estilo recomiendan eliminar de la redacción modificadores de esta clase por considerarlos �the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words� (strunk & white, 1959: 73). manuales de estilo científico más recientes insisten en los aspectos ortográficos (palabras fáciles de confundir), morfológicos (artículo, pronombres personales), sintácticos (concordancia entre sujeto y verbo, tiempos verbales) y léxico-semánticos (circunloquios, lenguaje sexista), pero no comentan nada sobre el uso de �hedges� y �boosters�. así ocurre con manuales como cbe (1994), yang (1997), ama (1998) y huth (1999). un manual más actual, como es el de barrass (2002: 31), recomienda precaución con el empleo de palabras como �obviously� o �surely�, �because they may introduce an assumption�. también alerta del mismo peligro en el uso de expresiones tales como �it is likely that�, �so far as we know� o �tentative conclusions�, que algunos emplean cuando carecen de pruebas científicas (2002: 32). wilkinson (1991: 451) va más allá y afirma que palabras como �high�, �almost�, �approximately�, �possible�, �very�, �certain� o �relative� son �too weak and too imprecise for use in scientific writing�. gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9066 nos resulta un tanto ambigua la postura de barrass en cuanto al énfasis. por un lado, deja bien clara la importancia de jerarquizar la información y captar el interés del lector, sobre todo al principio y al final de cada apartado y párrafo. sin embargo, por otro lado, insta a omitir, por considerarlas �superfluous�, expresiones introductorias como �first let us consider�, �secondly it must be noted that� o �in conclusion it must be emphasised that� (barrass, 2002: 82). quizá lo que propone barrass sea lo mismo que recomienda wilkinson (1991: 464, 466, 482) cuando aboga por suprimir expresiones enfáticas por considerarlas ejemplos de verborrea, pues la mera inclusión de una afirmación supone que ésta es importante, ya que de lo contrario el autor no la mencionaría. otro destacado manual de estilo científico, aunque más bien circunscrito al ámbito biomédico, es el de goodman y edwards (1999: 20-21), quienes pasan de puntillas sobre el fenómeno de la atenuación, pero critican su uso tildándolo de �obfuscation� y, por ende, de una �malaise of medical writing�. en cuanto al de zeiger (2000), a pesar de su gran utilidad pedagógica en la explicación e ilustración de los objetivos y estrategias del artículo biomédico como ensamblaje orgánico de las distintas secciones que lo componen, no encontramos una presentación de los matizadores discursivos. en líneas generales, los manuales de estilo científico-técnico en lengua española no se ocupan de la matización asertiva. por el contrario, parecen preferir centrarse en los objetivos y contenido de las diferentes secciones del artículo de investigación, los errores lingüísticos más frecuentes (puntuación, acentuación, anglicismos, imprecisiones léxicas, solecismos, etc.), símbolos y abreviaturas. es decir, los aspectos de corrección gramatical y técnica prevalecen con diferencia sobre las cuestiones de adecuación retórica. sobre éstas, los consejos que se ofrecen suelen ser respetar las metas del lenguaje científico-técnico: claridad, concisión, precisión, neutralidad, etc. al menos, así ocurre en los manuales de medicina clínica (1993), de hernández vaquero (1992) y de puerta lópez-cózar y mauri más (1996). en bobenrieth astete (1994: 63) sí se habla de la naturaleza más subjetiva y libre de la discusión, y se insiste en la importancia de lograr un equilibrio entre los resultados objetivos de la investigación y las valoraciones y reflexiones que éstos merecen a los investigadores. sin embargo, estos autores no ofrecen una amplia y clara muestra de recursos lingüísticos con los que conseguir dicho fin. en su manual de estilo, duque garcía (2000: 214-221) sí que trata lo que nosotros hemos denominado matización asertiva, pero desde la óptica de la modalidad, la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 67 limitada, además, al tipo epistémico, entendido éste como un recurso que los autores científicos emplean para verbalizar sus opiniones y juicios sobre la validez de las ideas presentadas. dentro de la modalidad epistémica, la autora distingue, a su vez, entre: a) modalidad para expresar certeza y convicción, �bien porque el conocimiento del escritor no permite hacer una afirmación total, bien porque éste no desee exteriorizar un compromiso en un momento dado�, e incluso por �motivos de cortesía� (2000: 215); y b) modalidad para expresar probabilidad o deducción razonable y posibilidad, «para expresar cierta cautela o duda sobre la información» y �como evasivas o expresiones no comprometedoras� (2000: 218). juzgamos útil el recopilatorio léxico que ofrece la autora de cada categoría morfológica, pero echamos de menos un enfoque más discursivo y pragmático en el comentario de la modalidad. el manual coordinado por fortanet gómez (2002: 22-23, 76, 172-173) es otra de las excepciones bibliográficas en español, al ocuparse de la atenuación retórica en diversas páginas. bien es cierto que no se ahonda en este fenómeno, pero los autores lo definen e ilustran como un frecuente recurso estilístico en artículos de investigación de diversas disciplinas y explican su triple motivación matizadora, protectora y respetuosa, que se corresponde con una actitud de honestidad científica ante ciertas lagunas informativas, y de precaución y modestia por las posibles reacciones del resto de miembros de la comunidad científica. no obstante las importantes referencias y ejemplos ofrecidos, el manual relaciona este aspecto únicamente con la redacción en lengua inglesa. tal omisión, aunque totalmente justificada por el objetivo del libro, explícito en el título, nos deja sin saber qué ocurre en español. por consiguiente, buena parte de los manuales, tanto en inglés como en español, no ofrecen una ayuda inestimable para los autores que han de hacer uso de esas estrategias retóricas, especialmente difíciles de dominar. quienes más afectados se ven por esta falta de asistencia son, sin duda, los investigadores no-nativos, porque es muy probable que experimenten una transferencia negativa: es decir, que al escribir en inglés empleen recursos lingüísticos de su lengua materna que no se correspondan con las convenciones de la comunidad científica de lengua inglesa. y esta transferencia negativa puede llevarles a cometer errores no gramaticales, sino pragmáticos y, por ende, mucho más difíciles de localizar y subsanar, pero igualmente graves en el plano de la comunicación. algunos han apuntado tres focos de dificultad en el aprendizaje de los matizadores asertivos: la difícil distinción de estas categorías, su gran variedad de manifestaciones lingüísticas y su polivalencia semántica (holmes, gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9068 1982: 10-11). no es de extrañar, pues, que, en ocasiones, artículos presentados a revistas internacionales sean rechazados por un empleo inadecuado de los matizadores asertivos. por lo tanto, hay una clara necesidad de estudios contrastivos sobre el comportamiento de los atenuantes en distintas lenguas que ha sido expuesta por varios autores (clemen, 1997: 243-244; markkanen & schröder, 1997: 14; hyland, 1998a: 262). en el caso concreto del español esta necesidad es aún mayor, ya que la producción investigadora apenas ha comenzado. los atenuantes tradicionalmente, el inicio de la investigación de atenuantes se sitúa en 1972, cuando lakoff acuñó el término �hedge�. desde aquella fecha hasta hoy día se han multiplicado los estudios, con una gran diversidad de enfoques y autores que aún no ha desembocado en un consenso conceptual. existen casi tantas aproximaciones a este fenómeno lingüístico como investigadores lo han abordado, de modo que en todos estos años no se ha llegado a unos criterios unificados. sin embargo, sí podemos señalar, como hace varttala (2001: 11), una tendencia importante: progresivamente, los atenuantes han dejado de entenderse desde una perspectiva semántica para observarlos en toda su dimensión pragmática. en cuanto a la terminología, debemos señalar cierta oscilación. en inglés, �hedge� y �hedging� son las dos denominaciones más comunes con diferencia. no obstante, también se emplean otros términos, normalmente con pequeños matices conceptuales como ocurre con �backgrounding terms�, �compromisers�, �downgraders�, �downtoners�, �mitigating expressions�, �pragmatic devices�, �softeners�, �stance markers�, �understatement� y �weakeners� (hyland, 1998a: 9; varttala, 2001: 4). algunos han llegado incluso a expresar la inadecuación semántica del término hedge por sus connotaciones negativas e incompletas (skelton, 1997: 42-45). sin embargo, en español el problema terminológico es mucho más grave, dada la falta de literatura ya señalada. apenas se han sugerido algunas denominaciones, puesto que normalmente se ha optado por el préstamo (piqué angordans, 2002: 22). entre las propuestas encontramos �matizadores�, �atenuantes retóricos�, �escudos lingüísticos�, �partículas mitigadoras� y �expresiones atenuativas�. nosotros preferimos quedarnos con �atenuantes� (asertivos), sugerida por haverkate (1994: 209) como traducción de hedge por parecernos más precisa y menos ambigua que las demás. la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 69 curiosamente, aunque los atenuantes se han estudiado en diversos contextos académicos, como son el económico, el jurídico, el científico, etc. (fortanet et al., 2001: 243), el lenguaje médico es el que parece haber concitado mayor atención, pues desde la década de 1980 (prince et al., 1982) y de 1990 (salager-meyer, 1994) hasta hoy día (mendiluce cabrera & hernández bartolomé, 2004 y 2005; oliver del olmo, 2004a y b; mendiluce cabrera, 2005) han sido frecuentes los análisis aplicados al discurso médico, bien escrito, bien oral. y si afinamos aún más, podríamos afirmar que dentro de la medicina ha sido el artículo biomédico original uno de los géneros más estudiados, si no el que más. quizá pueda explicarse este hecho por la privilegiada situación de que siempre ha gozado el lenguaje científico dentro de los lenguajes especializados; a su vez, dentro del lenguaje científico, puede que el médico �por sus amplias repercusiones sociales� haya sido el que mayor interés ha tenido para los investigadores. la importancia del artículo biomédico original queda manifiesta al ser el vehículo de la investigación biomédica internacional por excelencia. ya hemos apuntado antes que hay numerosos autores que han hecho hincapié en la dificultad que entraña acotar conceptualmente estas unidades y la consiguiente falta de consenso (crompton, 1997: 280-281; lewin, 1998: 89, 93). no es nuestra intención revisar aquí los diversos enfoques de los principales estudios sobre atenuantes, labor que han hecho magníficamente autores como clemen (1997), crompton (1997) y varttala (2001). lo que sí haremos es formular una propuesta definitoria y clasificatoria para un análisis de estas unidades en el artículo biomédico inglés y español. para nosotros, �atenuante asertivo� es �toda unidad lingüística, simple o compleja, al servicio de la atenuación asertiva que añada incertidumbre, duda, imprecisión o vaguedad al discurso� (mendiluce cabrera & hernández bartolomé, 2005). ahora bien, una definición como ésta necesita concretarse en una serie de categorías determinadas, pues de lo contrario corremos el riesgo de teorizar y ofrecer propuestas como la de prince et al. (1982), que skelton (1988: 38) ve como �sustainable only in the abstract�. si lo que de veras pretendemos es poder aplicar el concepto de matizadores a un análisis pragmático, vemos necesario establecer una tipología de atenuantes. por supuesto, esta tarea también conlleva sus dificultades. como muy bien han señalado quirk et al. (1985: 589-590), los matizadores no son una clase cerrada de unidades lingüísticas, sino que cualquier clasificación siempre será orientativa. en primer lugar, porque reducimos la naturaleza gradual de estas unidades a categorías estancas; en segundo lugar, porque una misma unidad puede desempeñar al mismo tiempo varias funciones (varttala, 1999: 181); y finalmente, porque su empleo varía con el usuario. a pesar de la importancia de estos gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9070 tres factores �el escalar, el polivalente y el subjetivo� que ponen en tela de juicio cualquier intento de clasificación, hemos de tener en cuenta que en nuestro análisis esta variabilidad queda minimizada. primeramente, porque nuestra propuesta está diseñada partiendo de una comunidad discursiva específica: los cardiólogos. además, nos centramos en un único género discursivo: el artículo biomédico original. por último, el problema de la multifuncionalidad lingüística tratamos de compensarlo mediante un estudio pragmático contextual de cada unidad. así pues, teniendo en cuenta estas restricciones, expondremos acto seguido nuestra propuesta de clasificación. para ilustrar en qué consiste cada una de nuestras categorías, las definiremos brevemente y daremos algunos ejemplos en español y en inglés extraídos de artículos de revistas de cardiología2. clasificación de atenuantes 1. expresiones aproximativas. en esta categoría se incluyen aquellas expresiones que transmiten la idea de aproximación sin exactitud; suelen estar relacionadas, por tanto, con datos numéricos: [rec-06] la frecuencia de aplicación de esta técnica [es] de alrededor del 7%. [jacc-04] these patients were more than twice as likely to die as those patients with a normal wbc count (defined as 6 to 12) and almost three times as likely as those with a low wbc count (defined as <6). nótese cómo en ambos ejemplos las expresiones aproximativas no transmiten la precisión numérica tradicionalmente atribuida a la ciencia, pero sí contribuyen a destacar la cantidad que les sigue. lo mismo sucede en los siguientes ejemplos, donde dichas expresiones impiden conocer la cifra exacta, pero, al redondearla, facilitan la asimilación del dato numérico: [rec-03] en el año 1981, en la población española había poco más de 2,6 millones de personas con edad igual o superior a 70 años, lo que suponía sólo un 7% de la población. [jacc-02] in the us alone, there are approximately 850,000 hospital admissions for unstable angina annually. 2. expresiones epistémicas. a esta categoría pertenecen las expresiones vinculadas a la idea de probabilidad o posibilidad: la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 71 [jacc-06] patients receiving invasive therapy had lower risk features on presentation, perhaps as a result of physician bias, and received better medical therapy, perhaps as a result of specialist care. en este apartado se incluyen también los verbos auxiliares modales (can, may, could, might...), tradicionalmente asociados a la mitigación asertiva: [jacc-02] the retrospective application of the ahcpr guidelines to data present in the medical record may or may not be as accurate as prospective use of these guidelines. de hecho, una de las lagunas de investigación de este campo ha sido identificar la atenuación únicamente con la modalidad epistémica (hyland, 1998a: 185; duque garcía, 2000: 214). esto se debe a la extraordinaria importancia que en la lengua inglesa tiene este tipo de verbos para expresar los distintos grados de la escala de probabilidad. sin embargo, en español, aunque existentes y ciertamente utilizados, no son tan comunes, por lo que suele recurrirse con más frecuencia a un amplio abanico de recursos lingüísticos para expresar esta misma categoría, como los adjetivos: [rec-01] uno de los mayores problemas que aparecen al estudiar en la práctica clínica diaria el posible efecto de la isquemia previa al infarto sobre el tamaño de la necrosis es la propia definición de isquemia preinfarto. los adverbios: [rec-03] [�] aunque este proceder exige cierta infraestructura, quizá no disponible en todos los hospitales de nuestro medio. a veces combinados con el subjuntivo, modo verbal casi inexistente en lengua inglesa, pero muy importante en español por el matiz de imprecisión que transmite: [rec-05] [...] aunque se podría especular que con una muestra de mayor tamaño estas diferencias posiblemente pudieran hacerse significativas. 3. expresiones hipotéticas. son expresiones y construcciones relacionadas con casos especulativos, como las oraciones con valor condicional. la siguiente gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9072 oración muestra cómo la ciencia se construye a partir de hipótesis cuya validez depende de los hechos o descubrimientos: [rec-07] la elevación del st en avr se ha atribuido a la isquemia transmural de la zona basal del septo, hipótesis apoyada por el hallazgo de que los pacientes con lesión proximal a d1 muestran elevación del st en avr. las expresiones de este tipo son tan frecuentes en inglés que encontramos también casos de conversión gramatical en que el sustantivo �hypothesis� ha dado lugar al verbo �hypothesize�, de uso corriente con modales condicionales como �would�: [jacc-07] we hypothesized that the same would be true of unstable angina (ua)/nonst-segment elevation mi (nstemi), and we also hypothesized that this would be independent of elevation of other inflammatory or myonecrosis markers. en cambio, en español suele recurrirse a otros verbos para expresar la formulación de hipótesis; es el caso de la siguiente oración: [rec-05] se ha especulado que la infección crónica podría estimular la existencia de inflamación local y general, con lo que podría contribuir a la progresión de la arteriosclerosis y a la vulnerabilidad de la placa. como puede observarse, la hipótesis léxica verbal (�especulado�) se combina con el tiempo condicional (�podría�), que se muestra idóneo para este tipo de atenuación, al igual que ocurría con �would� en inglés. en el siguiente ejemplo vemos con qué cautela exponen los autores las ventajas de su investigación, que explican con un tono hipotético marcado por el �if� inicial y mediante el persistente uso de modales epistémicos como �could� y �may�. así pues, la oración ilustra perfectamente cómo se combinan dos tipos de atenuantes para realizar una misma función. [jacc-02] if it could be shown that risk stratification based on clinical (ahcpr) criteria correlates with angiographic coronary disease in addition to prognosis, this could provide a useful method for determining which patients with unstable angina may be suitable for early coronary intervention. la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 73 4. limitaciones de investigación. siguiendo a hyland (1998a: 141-148), la expresión de limitaciones de investigación también forman parte de los atenuantes, pues restringen la fuerza de las afirmaciones por la subjetividad, el desconocimiento o la necesidad de estudios posteriores: [rec-03] en caso de imposibilidad física, otras formas de pruebas de estrés no invasivas pueden suplir a la anterior en aquellos pacientes que no puedan realizarla, aunque este proceder exige cierta infraestructura, quizá no disponible en todos los hospitales de nuestro medio. en este caso, se observa cómo se minimiza la limitación informativa del estudio mediante el empleo de una expresión epistémica como es el adverbio de duda �quizá�. mientras el ejemplo en español muestra una falta de datos expresada por medio de una negación, otro modo de formular las limitaciones es de manera afirmativa, como vemos en inglés: [jacc-05] the beneficial effects of more aggressive medical therapy in these patients should be further evaluated. ambos ejemplos demuestran que la expresión lingüística de las limitaciones de un estudio varía enormemente en su manifestación léxica; es decir, la intención comunicativa es una, pero su realización formal es muy diversa, por lo que el contexto es particularmente decisivo para la identificación de esta clase de atenuantes. veamos algunos ejemplos más: [rec-02] [�] lo cual introduce un sesgo crucial a la hora de interpretar sus resultados. en esta ocasión se trata de una limitación metodológica (�sesgo�) que influye en la valoración de los resultados, que son �interpretados�, lo que introduce el elemento de valoración personal. [jacc-06] several important measures of patient outcome were either not collected or not available for inclusion in this study. la oración anterior ilustra la existencia de lagunas informativas en la investigación, es decir, ausencias de datos que, o bien no eran accesibles, o bien gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9074 simplemente no se recogieron. por último, nos encontramos con una limitación de tipo subjetivo, ya que no existe un consenso conceptual entre los distintos autores que definen una enfermedad, lo que dificulta su pronóstico: [jacc-02] determining the prognosis of patients with unstable angina is hampered by a wide variation in the definition of unstable angina, duration of follow up and treatment differences. 5. expresiones indeterminadas. incluimos aquí las palabras y sintagmas que añaden indeterminación y reducen o anulan cualquier compromiso firme con lo que se enuncia: [rec-05] por otro lado, hay datos publicados que sugieren que ciertas infecciones bacterianas o virales podrían iniciar el proceso inflamatorio. resulta interesante advertir que en estos casos la falta de precisión emana precisamente del prurito científico de precisión. dicho de otro modo, la exhaustividad de los autores científicos les lleva a no asegurar aquellos hechos de cuya veracidad no existen pruebas suficientes (salager-meyer, 1994: 151). de ahí que a una laguna cognitiva le corresponda en el plano verbal una falta de fuerza semántica, que en muchas ocasiones representa el verbo �sugerir�, del que se abusa tanto en español como en inglés (navarro 2000: 489). [jacc-02] as such, early identification of patients with unstable angina and significant cad may be important, since these patients appear to be most likely to benefit from an early invasive strategy leading to coronary revascularization. la oración anterior es una nueva muestra de la gran capacidad de combinación e integración discursiva de las expresiones epistémicas (�may� y �likely�) para potenciar la fuerza de otros tipos de atenuantes; en este caso, las expresiones indeterminadas. estas expresiones �entre las que también se incluyen otras similares como �aparentemente�, �parece�, �seem� o �tentative�� no comprometen al emisor y le permiten distanciarse del enunciado, cuya veracidad queda indeterminada, sin corroborarse ni negarse: la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 75 [rec-03] sin embargo, [�] no parece haber discriminación con el uso de antitrombóticos, frecuente, por otra parte, en otros estudios. [jacc-01] a number of previous studies have evaluated the prognostic capacity in ctni in patients with suspected ischemic syndromes but no elevation of ck-mb. 6. despersonificación de la investigación: a esta categoría pertenecen las construcciones o palabras que eliminan la presencia del científico en la investigación, cuyos procesos parecen realizarse por sí solos: [rec-06] pocos estudios han descrito el curso clínico y las características de los pacientes con iam sometidos a vm, así como la existencia de factores que pueden explicar la necesidad de su empleo. [jacc-03] our study demonstrates that, of patients presenting to an ed with chest pain, those with ami have higher numbers of circulating mpa than those without ami. los anteriores ejemplos muestran cómo los investigadores biomédicos recurren a menudo a la figura retórica de la prosopopeya para dotar de propiedades tan humanas como el raciocinio a objetos inanimados como los factores o los estudios. de esta forma, las conclusiones parecen desprenderse por sí solas de un modo evidente y puramente objetivo, sin que se necesite la mediación subjetiva del investigador. otro recurso relativamente frecuente en inglés es el empleo de la voz pasiva para acentuar esa despersonificación y distanciamientos narrativos que, al parecer de algunos, dota de mayor rigor científico al discurso: [jacc-06] an excess of deaths was noted in patients presenting with >12 h of chest pain since symptom onset, and statistically uncertain overall mortality benefit was seen for those presenting at 13 to 18 h. a diferencia del inglés, la lengua española no se sirve tan habitualmente de esta construcción, sino de la pasiva refleja, que igualmente sirve para relatar de forma impersonal acciones realizadas por los propios investigadores que firman el artículo: gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9076 [rec-04] aunque el registro de pacientes se llevó a cabo sin límite de edad, se han presentado en este trabajo únicamente los resultados correspondientes a los menores de 75 años. 7. negación de intensificadores. sin caer en el error de dividir todas las unidades lingüísticas en atenuantes e intensificadores, la negación de ciertos intensificadores será considerada un caso de atenuación. en unos casos la negación se realiza a nivel oracional, tanto en inglés como en español: [rec-04] no hay evidencia concluyente de beneficio a partir de las 12 h. [jacc-07] this hypothesis was not supported by our data [�]. en otras ocasiones, en cambio, los autores prefieren la negación morfológica por medio de prefijos: [jacc-05] however, it is uncertain whether it remains predictive once angiographic findings are considered. o la negación de una palabra concreta, en este caso, un adverbio: [rec-03] a la disminución de las cifras totales de colesterol puede colaborar la existencia de otros procesos patológicos, no totalmente caracterizados. los intensificadores a pesar de ser dos caras de la misma moneda �la matización asertiva�, atenuantes e intensificadores han recibido muy distintos grados de atención, en perjuicio de éstos últimos. entre los autores que se han ocupado de ambas categorías conjuntamente destacamos a holmes (1982, 1984, 1990), hyland (1998b, 2000) y, más recientemente, vassileva (2001). la primera pasó de hablar de �doubt� y �certainty� a referirse a �attenuation� y �boosting�, más en línea con los otros dos autores, que prefieren �hedges� y �boosters�. aunque los tres coinciden en la consideración conjunta de atenuantes e intensificadores, difieren en su aproximación lingüística: mientras holmes aborda su estudio desde la teoría de los actos de habla �para ella son estrategias que aumentan o disminuyen la fuerza ilocutiva�, para hyland y vassileva estas unidades forman parte de un proceso retórico de negociación cognitiva. la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 77 al igual que hicimos con los atenuantes, a continuación formularemos nuestros criterios definitorios y tipológicos de los intensificadores asertivos. denominamos �intensificador asertivo� a «toda unidad lingüística, simple o compleja, que refleje intensificación asertiva en el texto», es decir, un aumento intencionado de �la fuerza semántica del enunciado para facilitar que la audiencia estime relevante la información presentada. la intensificación asertiva permite que las contribuciones de los autores parezcan interesantes, relevantes o incluso cruciales� (mendiluce cabrera & hernández bartolomé, 2005). al contrario de lo que ocurría con los atenuantes, donde abundaban las clasificaciones, no conocemos una taxonomía o una serie de criterios que sean más específicos que una mera definición general. por lo tanto, seguidamente expondremos las categorías que hemos establecido, ejemplificadas con algunas oraciones en ambas lenguas. clasificación de intensificadores 1. expresiones de certeza. son expresiones que indican certeza, convicción o seguridad: [rec-03] a la disminución de la frecuencia de tabaquismo como factor de riesgo en los pacientes de edad avanzada colabora con toda seguridad la reducción de la frecuencia del hábito tabáquico entre los individuos de mayor edad, pero probablemente también que muchos fumadores han sucumbido antes a la enfermedad. [jacc-04] others also confirmed these findings. mediante este tipo de expresiones, entre las que también se incluyen �evidente� o �certainly�, los autores se comprometen al máximo con la veracidad de las afirmaciones que hacen. veamos algún otro ejemplo: [rec-01] el porcentaje de mujeres fumadoras y ex fumadoras es en nuestra muestra del 10,3% y del 2,6%, claramente inferior a los porcentajes de los varones: el 47,9% y el 34,3%. [jacc-02] in 1994, the agency for health care policy and research (ahcpr) published a definitive guideline for the diagnosis and management of unstable angina. gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9078 como se observa en las anteriores oraciones, los autores reservan esta clase de intensificadores para los casos donde la afirmación viene avalada por una patente evidencia informativa �como la enorme diferencia porcentual, evidente incluso para el lego en estadística�, o por el carácter oficial, riguroso e institucional que se presume a las pautas publicadas por la ahcpr. así pues, en principio parece poco probable que esta clase de intensificadores sea una de las más frecuentes en artículos biomédicos. 2. expresiones de empirismo. incluimos aquí expresiones �predominantemente formas verbales� que indican objetividad científica y, en consecuencia, un matiz de convencimiento. para darnos cuenta de la importancia del contexto, observemos la diferencia entre el primer par de oraciones, donde la forma verbal subrayada sí es un intensificador, [rec-02] la mayor parte de los estudios que han demostrado la utilidad pronóstica de la pe se han realizado en poblaciones de pacientes con cardiopatía isquémica. [jacc-03] moreover, adherence of platelets to monocytes has been shown to regulate various monocyte actions. y el segundo par de oraciones, donde los verbos �demostrar� y �to show� son sinónimos de �registrar� y �to display�, y por ello, no funcionan como intensificadores: [rec-02] la evaluación prospectiva de los pacientes de nuestro estudio con pe de bajo riesgo demostró una baja mortalidad (2%) al año de seguimiento. [jacc-03] once fixed, the samples are stable for up to 48 h (data not shown). 3. expresiones de necesidad u obligación. suelen ser adverbios, adjetivos o verbos �como �independientemente�, �obligatory� o �tener que�� que eliminan cualquier posibilidad de duda por expresar que sólo existe una opción viable. [rec-03] no ha sido objetivo de nuestro estudio valorar si la limitación en el uso de procedimientos diagnósticos y terapéuticos en el anciano ha sido sólo por «prudencia» (mayor comorbilidad, peores resultados, más complicaciones y más mortalidad) o también ha intervenido alguna forma de discriminación por razón de la edad (desviación de los recursos, necesariamente limitados, hacia la población más joven). la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 79 [jacc-05] to exclude this possibility, the predictive value of crp must be adjusted. el valor intensificador de esta clase de expresiones radica en que no dejan ningún atisbo de duda sobre la acción o cualidad a la que modifican. son, pues, similares a las del tipo 1, en tanto que representan el máximo grado de compromiso asertivo por parte de los autores. es interesante señalar que el inglés tiende a expresar esta categoría mediante verbos modales; si antes era �must�, ahora ofrecemos un ejemplo con �should�. [jacc-06] patients presenting with acute st elevation myocardial infarction (ami) and st-segment elevation on their initial electrocardiogram (ecg) should be considered for reperfusion therapy. aunque posibles en español, tales formas verbales se emplean menos que los adverbios y los adjetivos a la hora de formular la idea de necesidad: [rec-07] el amplio y beneficioso empleo de la terapéutica de repercusión en el infarto agudo de miocardio (iam) hace imprescindible la localización de la lesión responsable antes del tratamiento. 4. expresiones de importancia. aquí también seguimos a hyland (1998b: 370), argumentando que las palabras o expresiones que subrayen la importancia de un hecho constituyen una jerarquización informativa y, por lo tanto, intensifican los puntos clave para el lector. [rec-01] nuestro estudio es el primero en encontrar una interacción significativa entre el consumo de sulfonilureas y la presencia de ap. [jacc-07] to our knowledge, this is the first study to look at both crp and wbc counts in such patients. en los ejemplos anteriores queda clara la dependencia del contexto para identificar �primero� y �first� como intensificador. en este contexto, dichas palabras ponen de relieve la importancia de un descubrimiento científico inédito; recordemos que el artículo biomédico es ante todo un género de investigación original. es evidente que estas mismas palabras en otro contexto no cumplirían gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9080 necesariamente la misma función discursiva. sin embargo, existe otro tipo de expresiones de importancia cuya carga semántica es tal que apenas dependen del contexto. así sucede, por ejemplo, con la siguiente oración: [jacc-02] the evaluation and management of patients with unstable angina is an important clinical issue; in the u.s. alone, there are approximately 850,000 hospital admissions for unstable angina annually. el adjetivo �important� pone de manifiesto por sí solo la relevancia clínica del tratamiento y evaluación de pacientes con angina inestable. lo mismo ocurre en el siguiente ejemplo, en el que el verbo subrayado indica al lector que esa información es de interés: [rec-06] sin embargo, es de destacar la falta de referencia en distintos registros hospitalarios de iam y de la independencia de vm en pacientes con iam. resulta curioso observar que ese tipo de expresiones, que, como hemos visto, muchos manuales normativos recomiendan evitar o emplear con mucha cautela, son bastante frecuentes en el género del artículo biomédico. existe, pues, una considerable distancia entre la teoría y el uso real. 5. expresiones de grado máximo. son lo que quirk et al. (1985) denominan maximizers. ejemplos de este tipo de expresiones son palabras como �completamente�, �fully� o �absolutely�, si bien los superlativos suelen ser los casos más evidentes: [rec-02] en los pacientes con más de un evento sólo se consideró el más grave. [jacc-07] an elevated wbc count may help identify patients who would benefit the most from these interventions. puede llamar la atención al lector que también hemos considerado expresiones de grado máximo algunas que son negativas, como la siguiente: [rec-02] sin embargo, ninguno de los pacientes del estudio había sido sometido a revascularización percutánea o quirúrgica durante los 6 meses precedentes. la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 81 pese a que parezca una opinión controvertida, nosotros pensamos que el empleo de �ninguno� en la frase anterior enfatiza una idea que podría formularse con una simple negación del verbo: �sin embargo, los pacientes del estudio no habían sido sometidos [...]�. en cualquier caso, las afirmaciones de grado máximo son mucho más frecuentes que las negaciones y, como hemos dicho, no siempre se ven representadas por un superlativo; a continuación presentamos un caso con determinantes y un adverbio (cuya carga intensificadora se ve matizada por la atenuante �almost�): [jacc-07] a wbc count is available in every hospital and, as part of the complete blood count, is it almost universally assayed in all patients presenting with acs. 6. expresiones de grado alto. son lo que quirk et al. (1985) denominan boosters. [rec-02] el presente estudio fue diseñado [...] según unos criterios aceptados ampliamente en nuestro medio. [jacc-03] new st-segment elevation on the surface electrocardiogram is highly suggestive of ami, but the prevalence of ami may be as low as 20% among patients with new or dynamic st-segment depression or t-wave inversion. conviene realizar aquí una precisión, relativa a la decisiva importancia que tienen el contexto y los conocimientos especializados a la hora de identificar este tipo de expresiones. de este modo, �high� en algunos contextos puede no ser un intensificador: imaginemos que los autores han encontrado �high values of hdl�; en este caso, se estarían refiriendo a una serie de valores muy concretos que cualquier especialista conoce, de ahí que no nos encontraríamos ante un caso de intensificación. veamos dos ejemplos claros que ilustran de forma más evidente el empleo de expresiones de grado alto: [rec-05] en la mayoría de los estudios citados anteriormente se ha utilizado una técnica muy sensible de inmunoanálisis para la detección de pcr. [jacc-06] the time to administration of fibrinolytic therapy is a major factor in reducing mortality, with a degree of benefit decreasing sharply when >12 h of chest pain is present. gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9082 nuevamente, se trata de palabras que, sin representar el máximo de una escala, indican un lugar situado entre éste y el punto medio. nuevamente, se trata de palabras que los manuales de estilo cuestionan por su carácter indefinido pero que la práctica muestra con mucha frecuencia. 7. enfatizadores. a esta categoría pertenecen las expresiones que resaltan el enunciado, bien sea por exclusión o por inclusión, como en los ejemplos: [rec-03] no obstante, incluso a estas edades avanzadas persiste una tasa de fumadores activos del 11% (figura 1). [jacc-02] indeed, most patients who were low risk had normal coronary angiograms or mild cad, whereas only 14.5% of high risk patients had insignificant cad. [rec-05] la igg frente a c. pneumoniae sólo resultó positiva en el 73% de los pacientes con enfermedad coronaria (sca y sce) [�]. una prueba del valor intensificador de estas expresiones es que su omisión no altera el significado básico de la proposición o sintagma al que pertenecen, pero sí elimina una información pragmática crucial, como es la actitud de los autores hacia el contenido semántico del enunciado. por último, cabe señalar un tipo de expresiones enfatizadoras inclusivas correlativas, como son �both... and� y �not only... but (even)�, que resaltan los términos que coordinan: [jacc-05] thus, crp may be useful both in determining risk category and in guiding therapy, not only in those without angiographic evaluation but even in the presence of quantitative assessments of anatomic cad. negociación académica expuesta la clasificación de atenuantes e intensificadores, presentamos a continuación la figura 1 que recoge el conjunto de nuestra propuesta tipológica: la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 83 asimismo, vamos a mostrar cómo ambas categorías no son independientes, sino que es precisamente su harmoniosa combinación la que ayuda a redactar un discurso equilibrado. no olvidemos que atenuantes e intensificadores son igualmente necesarios en el proceso de negociación académica que tiene lugar entre autores y lectores en cualquier artículo biomédico. no obstante, su abanico de posibilidades es muy amplio como consecuencia de la riqueza de matices que pueden presentar, como hemos expuesto a lo largo del artículo. en algunos casos, el atenuante mitigará la rotundidad de los enunciados, como ocurre en la siguiente oración: [rec-05] en resumen, a pesar de las limitaciones se puede concluir razonablemente que los datos expuestos con anterioridad sugieren que: [...] resulta interesante observar cómo en apenas dos líneas se dan cita numerosos matizadores asertivos. por un lado, tenemos los atenuantes representados en la exposición de limitaciones (�limitaciones�), expresiones indeterminadas (�sugieren�) y en la despersonificación de la investigación (�datos [...] sugieren�), porque los que sugieren no son los autores, sino los propios datos. por otro lado, tenemos la presencia de un intensificador de empirismo (�concluir�), reforzado además por un adverbio (�razonablemente�) que subraya la objetividad científica del verbo. la oración ilustra cómo los autores combinan hábilmente atenuantes e intensificadores para exponer su conclusión con prudencia. otro buen ejemplo de la importancia que tiene su adecuada combinación en el artículo biomédico podría ser el expuesto a continuación: [jacc-02] as such, early identification of patients with unstable angina and significant cad may be important, since these patients appear to be most likely to benefit from an early invasive strategy leading to coronary revascularization. gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9084 figura 1. propuesta de clasificación de atenuantes e intensificadores. los autores exponen una idea que consideran �important�, pero para evitar ir demasiado lejos en sus afirmaciones, a falta quizá de otros estudios que ratifiquen su conclusión, eliminan la rotundidad y seguridad, que sustituyen por un tono de indeterminación (�appear�) y posibilidad (�may� y �likely�), ésta última potenciada por medio del superlativo �most�. se trata, pues, de mantener un difícil equilibrio entre la defensa de la investigación propia y el respeto a la ajena, siendo consciente, al mismo tiempo, de los puntos fuertes débiles de ambas. en algunos casos, interesa centrarse en las limitaciones de otros estudios, para lo cual no se escatiman medios: [rec-01] algunos, incluso los más recientes, son retrospectivos, otros fueron diseñados con un fin distinto al de evaluar el efecto de la ap, el método de determinación del tamaño del infarto ha sido muy variado, algunos carecen de enfermos suficientes como para establecer conclusiones definitivas, y aún más importante, difieren entre sí en la definición de ap. se utilizan enfatizadores (�incluso�, �aún�), expresiones de importancia (�importante�) y de grado máximo (�los más�) para resaltar las deficiencias de la investigación anterior. por contra, se niegan intensificadores como �definitivas� y �determinación�, se habla de diferencias teleológicas (fin �distinto�), metodológicas (método �variado�) y conceptuales (las definiciones de ap �difieren�), al tiempo que se habla de carencias (�carecen�). en cambio, en otros casos el intensificador refuerza la cautela científica propia, como ocurre en el siguiente ejemplo: [jacc-01] one must maintain some caution in extrapolating our data on patients with evidence of ischemic heart disease to more heterogeneous populations with chest symptoms. de nuevo, los investigadores biomédicos combinan expresiones indeterminadas (�some�) y limitaciones (�caution�) con intensificadores; en este caso, con expresiones de obligación (�must�) y empirismo (�evidence�). de nuevo, la omnipresente prudencia científica. dicha prudencia es un respeto necesario hacia los demás miembros de la comunidad discursiva, a quienes no se puede imponer unas conclusiones definitivas, la matización asertiva en el artículo biomédico ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-90 85 ya que siempre se debe dejar abierta la posibilidad del debate, rasgo comunicativo esencial de la comunidad discursiva. complementariamente, los autores también han de reclamar la importancia de sus hallazgos. este difícil pero imprescindible equilibrio entre el respeto a los demás y la autoafirmación es el proceso retórico en que se sostiene la negociación académica. y es en su realización donde atenuantes e intensificadores desempeñan un papel fundamental, directamente relacionado con la función interpersonal del lenguaje, contemplando el discurso científico en su faceta más social: hedges and boosters therefore draw attention to the fact that statements don�t just communicate ideas, but also the writer�s attitude to them and to readers (halliday 1978). [...] they also represent a major contribution to the social negotiation of knowledge and writers� efforts to persuade readers of the correctness of the claims, helping them to gain community acceptance for their work as a contribution to disciplinary scholarship and knowledge. (hyland, 1998a: 352) reflexiones finales la investigación de los matizadores asertivos en la redacción académica científica sólo tiene sentido si entendemos la ciencia desde una perspectiva socioconstructivista, es decir, admitiendo que el progreso de la ciencia se basa en su dimensión comunicativa. dicho de otro modo, los científicos construyen explicaciones racionales que argumentan persuasivamente ante los miembros de la comunidad científica. el concepto de comunidad discursiva de swales es clave para esta concepción de la comunicación científica. partiendo de la postura anterior, el análisis de los matizadores asertivos puede revelar datos de gran interés en diversas esferas cognitivas, en las que nos podemos plantear, entre otros, los siguientes interrogantes: § la retórica de la ciencia: ¿cómo se verbaliza la ciencia?; § la argumentación: ¿qué mecanismos de persuasión utilizan los autores científicos?; § la retórica contrastiva: ¿sucede lo mismo en todas las lenguas?; gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 63-9086 § la cortesía verbal: ¿cómo se negocia con los miembros de la comunidad discursiva? ¿cómo se muestra acuerdo y desacuerdo? ¿cómo se expresa el respeto hacia los demás investigadores?; y § la enseñanza de lenguajes especializados: dentro de esta última área de investigación, pensemos lo importante que sería contar con esos datos a la hora de enseñar los géneros discursivos, como el artículo biomédico. la descripción podría completarse con el estudio combinado de atenuantes e intensificadores, que tiene razón de ser desde el punto de vista lingüístico y contribuye a una caracterización más completa del discurso escrito. este tipo de estudios debe realizarse con un enfoque pragmático, donde el contexto sea primordial para el análisis. en una fase ulterior, la lingüística de corpus podría aportar las herramientas necesarias para estudiar la fraseología de las unidades más frecuentes mediante la extracción de colocaciones. en esa misma línea didáctica las concordancias también podrían ser útiles para familiarizar a los alumnos con la variedad y el comportamiento de los matizadores asertivos mediante el comentario de ejemplos extraídos de textos reales. sin embargo, para llegar a esas aplicaciones es requisito imprescindible previo la adquisición de una metodología de trabajo descriptivo. en este artículo hemos puesto de manifiesto la gran importancia de los matizadores asertivos en el artículo biomédico original, pero al mismo tiempo ha destacado la enorme escasez de investigación en lengua española. el estudio contrastivo inglés-español de atenuantes e intensificadores se revela como un territorio casi virgen a la espera de exploradores intrépidos que descubran los intrincados vericuetos de la matización asertiva en la prosa científica de ambas lenguas. esperemos que nuestra propuesta conceptual y taxonómica sirva, si no para arrojar algo más de luz, sí al menos para estimular la investigación contrastiva en inglés y español, al tiempo que ofrecer un posible modelo de estudio. agradecimientos deseamos expresar nuestra gratitud a los revisores del artículo por sus enriquecedores comentarios y sugerencias que han mejorado nuestra contribución. 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(1991). the scientist�s handbook for writing papers and dissertations. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. yang, j. t. (1997). an outline of scientific writing for researchers with english as a foreign language. singapore / london: world scientific. zeiger, m. (2000). essentials of writing biomedical research papers. new york: mcgraw-hill. apéndice. fuentes de los ejemplos: textos en español: rec (revista española de cardiología) textos en inglés: jacc (journal of the american college of cardiology) gustavo mendiluce & ana isabel hernández ibérica 10 [2005]: 79-10290 rec-01: iglesias gárriz, i. et al. (2000). �efecto de la angina inestable preinfarto en el tamaño de la necrosis miocárdica�. rec 53,1: 43-48. rec-02: castillo moreno, j. a. et al. (2000). �prueba de esfuerzo de bajo riesgo en pacientes con angina inestable: ¿implica un pronóstico favorable?�. rec 53,6: 783-790. rec-03: bermejo garcía, j. et al. (2000). �angina inestable en el anciano: perfil clínico, manejo y mortalidad a los tres meses. datos del registro pepa�. rec 53,12: 1564-1572. rec-04: peraire, m. et al. (2001). �impacto de la trombólisis sobre la supervivencia a corto y largo plazo de una cohorte de pacientes con infarto agudo de miocardio atendidos de forma consecutiva en todos los hospitales de una región sanitaria. estudio gesir-5�. rec 54,2: 150-158. rec-05: bermejo garcía, j. et al. (2001). �inflamación e infección en la enfermedad coronaria estable y en el síndrome coronario agudo�. rec 54,4: 453-459. rec-06: lópez messa, j. b. et al. (2001). �características de los pacientes con infarto agudo de miocardio sometidos a ventilación mecánica. datos del registro ariam�. rec 54,7: 851-859. rec-07: prieto solís, j. a. et al. (2002). �predicción electrocardiográfica de la localización de la lesión en la arteria descendente anterior en el infarto agudo de miocardio�. rec 55, 10: 1028-1035. jacc-01: morrow, d. a. et al. (2000). �cardiac troponin i for stratification of early outcomes and the efficacy of enoxaparin in unstable angina: a timi-11b substudy�. jacc 36,6: 1812-1817. jacc-02: mathew, v. et al. (2001). �clinical risk stratification correlates with the angiographic extent of coronary artery disease in unstable angina�. jacc 37,8: 20532058. jacc-03: furman, m. i. et al. (2001). �circulating monocyteplatelet aggregates are an early marker of acute myocardial infarction�. jacc 38,4: 1002-1006. jacc-04: barron, h. v. et al (2001). �the association between white blood cell count and acute myocardial infarction mortality in patients =65 years of age: findings from the cooperative cardiovascular project�. jacc 38,6: 1654-1661. jacc-05: zebrack, j. s. et al. (2002). �c-reactive protein and angiographic coronary artery disease: independent and additive predictors of risk in subjects with angina�. jacc 39,4: 632-637. jacc-06: elad, y. et al. (2002). �primary angioplasty and selection bias inpatients presenting late (>12 h) after onset of chest pain and st elevation myocardial infarction�. jacc 39, 5: 826-833. jacc-07: sabatine, m. s. et al. (2002). �relationship between baseline white blood cell count and degree of coronary artery disease and mortality in patients with acute coronary syndromes: a tacticstimi 18 substudy�. jacc 40, 10: 1761-1768. 1 agradecemos enormemente la generosidad de la dra. ann-charlotte lindeberg, que nos ha facilitado un ejemplar de su libro, recientemente publicado. 2 todos los ejemplos han sido extraídos de artículos biomédicos originales publicados en prestigiosas revistas de cardiología en español (revista española de cardiología) y en inglés (journal of the american college of cardiology) y cuyas referencias listamos en la bibliografía. un análisis contrastivo inglés-español sobre atenuantes e intensificadores más exhaustivo y basado en un corpus de artículos biomédicos mucho mayor aparece recogido en la tesis doctoral de gustavo mendiluce cabrera (2005), dirigida por la dra. purificación fernández nistal. notas iberica 13 ibérica 19 (2010): 77-96 issn 1139-7241 abstract in the present paper an intercultural quantitative and qualitative analysis of the use of modal verbs as epistemic stance markers in serac (spanish-english research article corpus), a corpus of research articles (ras) in different disciplines, is carried out. the corpus selected for this research consists of 48 business management research articles. special emphasis is laid on the introduction and discussion sections of ras, where stance devices are most frequently located to pursue convergence with the readership. this kind of intercultural analysis has been achieved through both a bottom-up research approach and a top-down research approach. the results obtained in this study point in the direction that there are obvious differences between the use of modal verbs by native writers and the use of modal verbs by non-native spanish writers. the most remarkable aspect is that spanish writers show a deviant handling of hedges and boosters. therefore, they have difficulties in establishing a proper tenor when they write in english. keywords: research articles, modal verbs, hedges, boosters, epistemic stance. resumen an�lisis contrastivo ingl�s-espa�ol del uso de verbos modales en la expresi�n de posici�n epist�mica en los art�culos de investigaci�n del �rea de direcci�n de empresas en este artículo se lleva a cabo un análisis intercultural, cualitativo y cuantitativo del uso de los verbos modales como marcadores de posición epistémica en a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs in the expression of epistemic stance in business management research articles in english and spanish1 ignacio vázquez orta universidad de zaragoza (spain) ivazquez@unizar.es 77 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 77 ibérica 19 (2010): 77-96 ignacio vázquez orta serac (spanish-english research article corpus), un corpus de artículos de investigación de diversas disciplinas académicas. el corpus seleccionado para este trabajo consta de 48 artículos de dirección de empresas. los mecanismos de posición epistémica son más frecuentes en las introducciones y discusiones de los artículos de investigación, con el objetivo de intentar una convergencia con los lectores, por ello, estas secciones se analizan con más detenimiento. el tipo de análisis intercultural mencionado se ha llevado a cabo mediante un enfoque ascendente (bottom-up) y un enfoque descendente (top-down). los resultados obtenidos en este estudio señalan que hay diferencias importantes entre el uso de los verbos modales por los/as hablantes nativos/as y el uso de los verbos modales por los/as escritores/as españoles/as. el aspecto más notable es que los/as escritores/as españoles/as muestran un uso diferente de los atenuadores e intensificadores. por tanto, queda patente que tienen dificultades para establecer un tenor adecuado cuando escriben en inglés. palabras clave: artículos de investigación, verbos modales, atenuadores, intensificadores, posición epistémica. 1. general introduction and outline of the study this paper carries out an intercultural quantitative and qualitative analysis of the use of modal verbs as epistemic stance markers in serac (spanishenglish research article corpus), a corpus of research articles in different disciplines. section 2 examines the theoretical background to modality and stance, the objectives of the study and its research questions. section 3 studies the corpus selected for this research consisting of 48 business management research articles and how the kind of intercultural analysis mentioned above can be achieved through either a bottom-up research approach or a top-down research approach. in a bottom-up approach, the corpus analysis comes first, and the discourse unit types emerge from the corpus patterns. in a top-down approach, the analytical framework is developed at the outset: the discourse unit types are determined before beginning the corpus analysis, and the entire analysis is then carried out in those terms. both methodologies are used in this article. section 4 and 5 offer an account and discussion of the results obtained. finally, some concluding remarks are made in section 6. 78 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 78 2. theoretical background for the study of modality and stance 2.1. modal verbs as the grammatical expression of stance stance-taking is one of the most relevant and fundamental human activities accomplished through language. humans evaluate the world around them, express emotions, beliefs, and desires, and align or disalign with other human beings in social interaction. the concept of “stance” is known under different labels that overlap to various degrees. stance can be defined as expressing “personal feelings, attitudes, value judgements, or assessments” (biber et al., 1999: 966) added to the propositional content. other terms for language used by speakers/writers to express opinion are “modality” (halliday, 1994), “evaluation” (hunston & thompson (eds.), 2000), and “appraisal” (white, 2001). at a textual level, stance meanings can be linguistically realized through different grammatical and lexical devices. by lexical stance marking we mean affective or evaluative word choice that involves only a single proposition. in lexical stance marking value-laden words are used, which differ from grammatical stance devices in that they do not provide an attitudinal or evaluative frame for some other proposition. the existence of a stance is inferred from the use of an evaluative lexical item, usually an adjective, main verb or noun. grammatical stance devices include two distinct linguistic components, one presenting the stance, and the other presenting the proposition that is framed by that stance. the use of modal verbs is the least clear grammatical marking of stance, because the modal verb (as stance marker) is incorporated into the main clause (expressing the framed proposition) as part of the verb phrase, although it is understood semantically as providing a stance frame for the entire clause (see example 1): (1) your team might have been defeated. modal verbs are used to express a writer’s stance, expressing either the degree of certainty of the proposition (epistemic modality), or meanings such as permission, obligation or necessity (deontic modality). without a modal verb, most verb phrases include only a marking of time orientation and not an overt expression of stance2. a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs ibérica 19 (2010): 77-96 79 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 79 in most cases the stance marker precedes the structure presenting the proposition. modal verbs also occur before the main lexical verb and thus typically before the presentation of new information in the clause. this ordering of constituents reflects the primary function of stance markers as a frame3 for the interpretation of the propositional information. in most cases, writers first identify their personal perspective, thereby encouraging readers to process the following information from the same perspective. 2.2. modals and modality modality is to be understood as a semantic category. modal auxiliaries express a wide range of meanings, having to do with concepts such as ability, permission, necessity, and obligation. in the longman grammar of spoken and written english (biber et al., 1999: 485-486) modal verbs are grouped into three major categories according to their meaning: “intrinsic” modality “extrinsic” modality 1. permission/ability/ possibility: “can”, “could”, “may”, “might” 2. obligation/ necessity: “must”, “should”, 3. volition/ prediction: “will”, “would”, “shall” by means of modal expressions the writer can evaluate a particular situation in terms of possibility, probability, permission, volition, obligation and necessity. to put it differently, all the above mentioned notions cover the subjective attitude or statement of the writer, who presents his/her personal opinion and relation with reality. modal verbs can basically express two different kinds of modal meanings, which are referred to as “epistemic” and “deontic” modality. the first expresses the degree of probability, including the logical possibility, necessity, hypothetical meaning, beliefs and predictability. the latter, deontic modality, presents a degree of desirability through permission, obligation, and volition. this terminology agrees, in fact, with the more recent categorization in the longman grammar of spoken and written english referred to above. the former type of modality concerns actions and events directly controlled by humans or other agents. on the other hand, there is another type of meaning labelled “extrinsic”, which expresses a certain degree of likelihood in terms of possibility, necessity, or prediction. it can be said that the logical status of events is observed by extrinsic modality. downing and locke (1999: 382-383) call these meanings “basic modalities”, and they all cover the subjective attitude or statement of the writer, who presents his/her personal opinion and relation with reality. areas of meaning, such as “permission”, “obligation” and ignacio vázquez orta ibérica 19 (2010): 77-9680 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 80 “volition” which involve some kind of intrinsic control over human events, are classified as intrinsic4 (or deontic) modality, whereas there is the another type of modality labelled extrinsic5 (or epistemic), which “refers to the logical status of events or states, usually relating to assessments of likelihood: possibility, necessity or prediction” (biber et al., 1999: 485). this logical modality involves a human judgement of what is or is not likely to happen6. the first attempt to study the writer’s attitude to the text in academic discourse is found in biber and finnegan’s (1989) stance framework. they define “stance” as the grammatical and lexical expression of attitude, feelings, judgments or commitment concerning the propositional content of the message. there are two components of stance in this definition: “evidentiality” and “affect”. hyland (1999) proposed a model of “stance”, which is more comprehensive than the model put forward by biber and finegan (1989). he included three components instead of two: “evidentiality”, “affect” and “relation”. “evidentiality” has to do with the writer’s commitment to the truth of the propositions s/he presents. epistemic comment (often achieved through the use of epistemic modal verbs) is a means by which writers can signal their allegiance and express a point of view on a proposition. “affect” refers to the overt expression by the writer of a range of personal attitudes. the last term, “relation”, is defined as “the extent to which writers choose to engage with their readers, their degree of intimacy or remoteness, and the ways they represent themselves in the discourse” (hyland, 1999: 101). with these words hyland includes an element of engagement in his model. some years later hyland (2005a) presented a more comprehensive model of “stance and engagement” to account for all the interpersonal resources that are used in academic discourse. stance marking makes more sense when we take into consideration the addressees of academic writing. academic writers intrude and make comments on the information they convey through their texts; they convey judgements, align themselves with readers and express solidarity by anticipating objections and responding to an imagined dialogue with others, thus constructing the text with their readers. 2.3. objectives and research questions this paper describes an analysis of intercultural traits by applying both quantitative and qualitative methods of the use of modal verbs as epistemic a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs ibérica 19 (2010): 77-96 81 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 81 stance markers in serac. the subcorpus selected for this research consists of 48 business management research articles. one major difference between the two approaches is the role of the functional versus linguistic analysis. in the top-down approach, the functional framework is primary. thus, the first step in the analysis is to determine the possible discourse unit types (e.g. move types) and provide an operational definition for each one. this functional framework is then used to segment texts into discourse units. linguistic analysis is secondary in a top-down approach, serving as an interpretive role to investigate the extent to which discourse units also have systematic linguistic characteristics. in contrast, the linguistic description is primary in the bottom-up approach. that is the reason why, in this piece of research, i adopted the bottom-up perspective first of all, starting with the linguistic description of the english modal verbs as semantic markers of modality to move on to the top-down perspective and interpret the results from this standpoint. the research questions i planned to answer were: 1. what differences are there between the use of modal verbs by native writers and the use of modal verbs by non-native writers? 2. to what extent do the different groups of writers express epistemic stance differently? 3. is the use of the modals by spanish academics, writing their articles in english, conditioned by the writing conventions of their national culture –that is, spanish research writing conventions? 3. corpus and methodology out of the 48 articles, 24 articles were written by native english-speaking researchers (coded engbm) and the other 24, by native spanish-speaking academics (coded spengbm). the first subcorpus includes 24 ras from high impact american journals written by english native speakers, and the second one includes 24 ras from high impact journals written by spanish native speakers. the analysis has been carried out combining concordance software and manual analysis. the total corpus amounts to 390,468 words; engbm including 197,922 and spengbm 192,546 words. for comparability criteria, both groups of writers had a university affiliation, ignacio vázquez orta ibérica 19 (2010): 77-9682 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 82 which guaranteed that they were acquainted with academic writing practices, and more specifically, research article writing. for the quantitative analysis, the concordance software wordsmith tools 4.0 was used (scott, 1999). this was combined with a manual qualitative analysis of the examples. special emphasis has been laid on the introduction and discussion sections, where stance devices are most frequently located to pursue convergence with the readership. even though epistemic and affective meanings intermesh, in this study they will be treated separately for practical purposes, given that every epistemic judgement carries attitudinal values, but not viceversa7. i will concentrate on modal verbs as markers of epistemic stance, as attitudinal stance is very rarely expressed by modal verbs8. in this piece of research, first the bottom-up perspective is applied to examine modal use frequency in terms of semantic modality markers. the specific research questions were: do modals in ras convey epistemic (extrinsic) or deontic (intrinsic) modality? if so, is this consistent across the two subcorpora? 4. results 4.1. results for the bottom-up perspective: modals as expression of epistemic stance the frequency of occurrence of modal verbs in engbm is of 7.0 per thousand words, while it is of 5.3 verbs per thousand words in spengbm. the overall distribution of modals in the two subcorpora is given in percentages in figures 1 and 2. according to the pie chart in figure 1, the modals “may”, “can” and “will” are very common in engbm. at the other extreme, the modals “shall”, “should” are very rare. if we focus on the pairs of central modals, the tentative/past time member is less frequent than its partner in all cases except “shall”/“should”. modal verbs are the most typical realisation of hedges and boosters in english. the modal verbs expressing epistemic meaning are: “may”, “can”, “could”, “would”, “might”. “may” is the most frequent modal verb expressing epistemic meaning in this subcorpus. it is very common, and it is followed by “could”, “can”, “would” and “might”. “can” is followed by “will”, “may”, “would”, “could” and “might”, according to the frequency rates shown in figure 2 related to spengbm. a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs ibérica 19 (2010): 77-96 83 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 83 “can” is the modal verb, most frequently used by non-native spanish writers writing their articles in english. next comes “will”, followed by “may”, and then “would” and “shall”. the tentative member (“should”) is the least frequently used of all modals in this subcorpus. if we want to interpret the overall distribution of the modals properly in both subcorpora, we have to distinguish between their use with intrinsic and extrinsic meanings. modals marking permission/possibility/ability in engbm are discussed below (see also figure 3). ignacio vázquez orta ibérica 19 (2010): 77-9684 a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs according to the pie chart in figure 1, the modals “may”, “can” and “will” are very common in engbm. at the other extreme, the modals “shall”, “should” are very rare. if we focus on the pairs of central modals, the tentative/past time member is less frequent than its partner in all cases except “shall”/“should”. modal verbs are the most typical realisation of hedges and boosters in english. the modal verbs expressing epistemic meaning are: “may”, “can”, “could”, “would”, “might”. “may” is the most frequent modal verb expressing epistemic meaning in this subcorpus. it is very common, and it is followed by “could”, “can”, “would” and “might”. must4.95% might6.00% may 16.60% should 2.80% shall10.80% w ould 15.43% w ill18.03% could 11.57% can 23.86% figure 2. percentage of modal verbs in spengbm. “can” is followed by “will”, “may”, “would”, “could” and “might”, according to the frequency rates shown in figure 2 related to spengbm. “can” is the modal verb, most frequently used by non-native spanish writers writing their articles in english. next comes “will”, followed by “may”, and then “would” and “shall”. the tentative member (“should”) is the least frequently used of all modals in this subcorpus. if we want to interpret the overall distribution of the modals properly in both subcorpora, we have to distinguish between their use with intrinsic and extrinsic meanings. modals marking permission/possibility/ability in engbm are discussed below (see also figure 3). a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs ibérica 19 (2010): …-… 7 according to the pie chart in figure 1, the modals “may”, “can” and “will” are very common in engbm. at the other extreme, the modals “shall”, “should” are very rare. if we focus on the pairs of central modals, the tentative/past time member is less frequent than its partner in all cases except “shall”/“should”. modal verbs are the most typical realisation of hedges and boosters in english. the modal verbs expressing epistemic meaning are: “may”, “can”, “could”, “would”, “might”. “may” is the most frequent modal verb expressing epistemic meaning in this subcorpus. it is very common, and it is followed by “could”, “can”, “would” and “might”. must4.95% might6.00% may 16.60% should 2.80% shall10.80% w ould 15.43% w ill18.03% could 11.57% can 23.86% figure 2. percentage of modal verbs in spengbm. “can” is followed by “will”, “may”, “would”, “could” and “might”, according to the frequency rates shown in figure 2 related to spengbm. “can” is the modal verb, most frequently used by non-native spanish writers writing their articles in english. next comes “will”, followed by “may”, and then “would” and “shall”. the tentative member (“should”) is the least frequently used of all modals in this subcorpus. if we want to interpret the overall distribution of the modals properly in both subcorpora, we have to distinguish between their use with intrinsic and extrinsic meanings. modals marking permission/possibility/ability in engbm are discussed below (see also figure 3). ibérica 19 (2010): …-…6 4.1. results for the bottom up perspective: modals as expression of epistemic stance the frequency of occurrence of modal verbs in engbm is of 7.0 per thousand words, while it is of 5.3 verbs per thousand words in spengbm. the overall distribution of modals in the two subcorpora is given in percentages in figures 1 and 2: shall3.85% should 6.32% w ould 10.40% w ill18.91% could 11.45% can 19.23% must4.13%might4.31% may 21.40% figure 1. percentage of modal verbs in engbm. ibérica 19 (2010): …-…6 4. results 4.1. results for the bottom-up perspective: modals as expression of epistemic stance the frequency of occurrence of modal verbs in engbm is of 7.0 per thousand words, while it is of 5.3 verbs per thousand words in spengbm. the overall distribution of modals in the two subcorpora is given in percentages in figures 1 and 2: shall3.85% should 6.32% w ould 10.40% w ill18.91% could 11.45% can 19.23% must4.13%might4.31% may 21.40% figure 1. percentage of modal verbs in engbm. 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 84 the permission/ability/possibility modals (“can”, “could”, “may”, “might”) work as epistemic stance markers and are used to present writer comments on the status of information in a proposition. the meaning and use of these four modals are multifunctional to differing extents. “might” is located at one extreme, it is used only to mark logical possibility; at the other extreme, “can” commonly marks permission, ability and logical possibility. “may” and “could” can express intermediate degrees of possibility. three of the permission/possibility modals (“could”, “may” and “might”) are used almost exclusively to mark logical possibility in the ras. “may” is very common in this function. permission is rarely expressed in academic writing. “could” and “might” are much more common when expressing logical possibility than permission or ability. let us see some examples from the corpus with these modals: (2) legumes may have smaller conversion efficiencies than cereals. (engbm 6) (3) we also explore the mediating role that spb productivity, flexibility and cost-effectiveness success might play between design characteristics, supervisor/employee support and facility characteristics. (engbm 12) (4) these costs could counterbalance sbp benefits. (engbm 12) “can” is especially ambiguous in the engbm subcorpus, since it can often be interpreted as marking either logical possibility or ability: (5) ironically, when many employees are topped out, the sbp plan can be viewed as successful in many ways because it yields a highly skilled, highly paid workforce. (engbm 12) a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs ibérica 19 (2010): 77-96 85 ignacio vázquez orta ibérica 19 (2010): …-…8 4 48 0 36 28 11 0 7 6 0 11 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 may can could might figure 3. “can”, “could”, “may”, “might” in engbm. the permission/ability/possibility modals (“can”, “could”, “may”, “might”) work as epistemic stance markers and are used to present writer comments on the status of information in a proposition. the meaning and use of these four modals are multifunctional to differing extents. “might” is located at one extreme, it is used only to mark logical possibility; at the other extreme, “can” commonly marks permission, ability and logical possibility. “may” and “could” can express intermediate degrees of possibility. three of the permission/possibility modals (“could”, “may” and “might”) are used almost exclusively to mark logical possibility in the ras. “may” is very common in this function. permission is rarely expressed in academic writing. “could” and “might” are much more common when expressing logical possibility than permission or ability. let us see some examples from the corpus with these modals: (2) legumes may have smaller conversion efficiencies than cereals. (engbm 6) (3) we also explore the mediating role that spb productivity, flexibility and cost-effectiveness success might play between design characteristics, supervisor/employee support and facility characteristics. (engbm 12) (4) these costs could counterbalance sbp benefits. (engbm 12) “can” is especially ambiguous in the engbm subcorpus, since it can often be interpreted as marking either logical possibility or ability: (5) ironically, when many employees are topped out, the sbp plan can be viewed as successful in many ways because it yields a highly skilled, highly paid workforce. (engbm 12) similarly, although “can” and “may” are occasionally used to mark permission in the corpus, most of these instances can also be interpreted as marking logical possibility (see example 6) or ability (see example 7): (6) close supervision of spb employees can lead to alienation. (engbm 14) ignacio vázquez orta ibérica 19 (2010): …-…8 4 48 0 36 28 11 0 7 6 0 11 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 may can could might figure 3. “can”, “could”, “may”, “might” in engbm. the permission/ability/possibility modals (“can”, “could”, “may”, “might”) work as epistemic stance markers and are used to present writer comments on the status of information in a proposition. the meaning and use of these four modals are multifunctional to differing extents. “might” is located at one extreme, it is used only to mark logical possibility; at the other extreme, “can” commonly marks permission, ability and logical possibility. “may” and “could” can express intermediate degrees of possibility. three of the permission/possibility modals (“could”, “may” and “might”) are used almost exclusively to mark logical possibility in the ras. “may” is very common in this function. permission is rarely expressed in academic writing. “could” and “might” are much more common when expressing logical possibility than permission or ability. let us see some examples from the corpus with these modals: (2) legumes may have smaller conversion efficiencies than cereals. (engbm 6) (3) we also explore the mediating role that spb productivity, flexibility and cost-effectiveness success might play between design characteristics, supervisor/employee support and facility characteristics. (engbm 12) (4) these costs could counterbalance sbp benefits. (engbm 12) “can” is especially ambiguous in the engbm subcorpus, since it can often be interpreted as marking either logical possibility or ability: (5) ironically, when many employees are topped out, the sbp plan can be viewed as successful in many ways because it yields a highly skilled, highly paid workforce. (engbm 12) similarly, although “can” and “may” are occasionally used to mark permission in the corpus, most of these instances can also be interpreted as marking logical possibility (see example 6) or ability (see example 7): (6) close supervision of spb employees can lead to alienation. (engbm 14) 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 85 similarly, although “can” and “may” are occasionally used to mark permission in the corpus, most of these instances can also be interpreted as marking logical possibility (see example 6) or ability (see example 7): (6) close supervision of spb employees can lead to alienation. (engbm 14) [the implicit message being that employees cannot be trusted despite their skills]. (7) multiskilled employees in spb can generally use their talents fully without supervision (…). (engbm 14) “could” and “might” are also used to make an implicit attribution of stance to the writer, which can be easily inferred from the text: (8) these costs could counterbalance spb benefits. (engbm 12) (9) thus, it is more likely that such exchanges might have produced a resentful demoralization effect. (engbm 13) in figure 4 we can observe the results for the use of “can”, “could”, “may” and “might” in spengbm. the modal repertoire of non-native writers (spanish writers) clearly shows a similar use of “may” in both subcorpora, which runs counter to its expected higher frequency of use in ras written by native english speakers (biber et al., 1999) –this seems to suggest that spanish writers’ use of modal verbs adapted to the use of their english counterparts properly. ignacio vázquez orta ibérica 19 (2010): 77-9686 a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs [the implicit message being that employees cannot be trusted despite their skills]. (7) multiskilled employees in spb can generally use their talents fully without supervision (…). (engbm 14) “could” and “might” are also used to make an implicit attribution of stance to the writer, which can be easily inferred from the text: (8) these costs could counterbalance spb benefits. (engbm 12) (9) thus, it is more likely that such exchanges might have produced a resentful demoralization effect. (engbm 13) in figure 4 we can observe the results for the use of “can”, “could”, “may” and “might” in spengbm. 4 48 0 36 25 11 0 7 6 0 3 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 may can could might figure 4. “can”, “could”, “may” and “might” in spengbm. the modal repertoire of non-native writers (spanish writers) clearly shows a similar use of “may” in both subcorpora, which runs counter to its expected higher frequency of use in ras written by native english speakers (biber et al., 1999) –this seems to suggest that spanish writers’ use of modal verbs adapted to the use of their english counterparts properly. the higher frequency of use of “can” expressing epistemic modality is also worth considering in the spengbm corpus. few occurrences of “might” have been detected, which not only seems to suggest that the spanish writers’ modalisation of possibility nuances is rather poor, but also entails pragmatic implications. “might” denotes a multiplicity of possibilities (versus the unilateral and less remote possibility expressed by “could”) that facilitate the construction of a “reader-in-the-text” strategy. finally, there appears to be a mismatch in the expression of epistemic meanings between some modal verbs: “can” absorbs a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs [the implicit message being that employees cannot be trusted despite their skills]. (7) multiskilled employees in spb can generally use their talents fully without supervision (…). (engbm 14) “could” and “might” are also used to make an implicit attribution of stance to the writer, which can be easily inferred from the text: (8) these costs could counterbalance spb benefits. (engbm 12) (9) thus, it is more likely that such exchanges might have produced a resentful demoralization effect. (engbm 13) in figure 4 we can observe the results for the use of “can”, “could”, “may” and “might” in spengbm. 4 48 0 36 25 11 0 7 6 0 3 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 may can could might figure 4. “can”, “could”, “may” and “might” in spengbm. the modal repertoire of non-native writers (spanish writers) clearly shows a similar use of “may” in both subcorpora, which runs counter to its expected higher frequency of use in ras written by native english speakers (biber et al., 1999) –this seems to suggest that spanish writers’ use of modal verbs adapted to the use of their english counterparts properly. the higher frequency of use of “can” expressing epistemic modality is also worth considering in the spengbm corpus. few occurrences of “might” have been detected, which not only seems to suggest that the spanish writers’ modalisation of possibility nuances is rather poor, but also entails pragmatic implications. “might” denotes a multiplicity of possibilities (versus the unilateral and less remote possibility expressed by “could”) that facilitate the construction of a “reader-in-the-text” strategy. finally, there appears to be a mismatch in the expression of epistemic meanings between some modal verbs: “can” absorbs some of the the possibility uses of “may” and “could”. 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 86 the higher frequency of use of “can” expressing epistemic modality is also worth considering in the spengbm corpus. few occurrences of “might” have been detected, which not only seems to suggest that the spanish writers’ modalisation of possibility nuances is rather poor, but also entails pragmatic implications. “might” denotes a multiplicity of possibilities (versus the unilateral and less remote possibility expressed by “could”) that facilitate the construction of a “reader-in-the-text” strategy. finally, there appears to be a mismatch in the expression of epistemic meanings between some modal verbs: “can” absorbs some of the the possibility uses of “may” and “could”. 4.2. results for the second perspective: metadiscourse as a pragmaticrhetorical perspective in the second stage of this study i adopted a top-down perspective. i moved from a purely textual level to a pragmatic/rhetorical one, in which the choice of modal verbs is closely related to the context in which they operate and the writer’s communicative intention. for that purpose i adopted hyland’s taxonomy of interactional metadiscourse (hyland & tsé, 2004; hyland, 2005b). there are five categories of interactional metadiscourse: hedges, boosters, attitude markers, engagement markers and self-mentions. of these i decided to study hedges and boosters, as academic writers mainly use modal verbs to carry out these two complementary rhetorical strategies. hedges and boosters generally emerge as the most frequently employed interactional metadiscourse markers. these are a principal means by which writers can use english in a flexible way to adopt a stance to both their propositions and their audience. hedges and boosters are like two sides of a same coin. they are communicative strategies for increasing or reducing the force of statements. their importance in academic discourse lies in their contribution to a relevant rhetorical and interactive tenor, conveying both epistemic and affective meaning (hyland, 2004 & 2005a; hyland & tsé, 2004). table 1 shows the frequency and distribution of hedges in the two subcorpora. the overall findings show that international business management scholars publishing their articles in english in the american context hedge their discourse more heavily than their spanish counterparts publishing internationally in english. these results are rather similar to those obtained a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs ibérica 19 (2010): 77-96 87 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 87 in previous studies (vassileva (1997 & 2001) for bulgarian; ventola (1997) for finnish; martin martin (2002 & 2005) as well as mur (2007) for spanish). they indicate that different cultures show different degrees of hedging. the percentages indicate that the discussion presents the highest incidence of hedges in the engbm corpus. this is not so high in the spengbm, where the figures for the discussion and introduction sections are very similar. this highest frequency of use of hedges in the discussion section of engbm is due to the fact that american business management scholars seem to be more cautious when expressing the implications and deductions from the results obtained, as well as when stating the limitations of their study. now it is time to discuss how hedging modal verbs are preferred in certain sections in the two subcorpora. modal verbs are the most prototypical realization of hedges in english, which are rhetorical strategies used by writers to tone down the force of the proposition, however “no linguistic items are inherently hedgy but can acquire this quality depending on the communicative context or the co-text” (markkanen & schröder, 1997: 4). the modal verbs expressing hedges are: “may”, “would”, “can”, “might”, and “could”. “may” is the most frequent modal verb in both subcorpora. it is extremely common in academic prose. it is followed by “would”, “can”, “might” and “could” in engbm. in spengbm, “may” is followed by “can”, “could” and “might”. table 2 shows the frequency and distribution of hedging modal verbs in engbm and spengbm. . the frequency of occurrence of modal verbs in engbm is of 5.58 per thousand words, while it is of 4.22 modal verbs per thousand words in spengbm. more modal verbs are included in the business management ras in the engbm subcorpus to soften the force of the arguments than in the business management ras in the spengbm subcorpus. north ignacio vázquez orta ibérica 19 (2010): 77-9688 ibérica 19 (2010): …-…10 markers. these are a principal means by which writers can use english in a flexible way to adopt a stance to both their propositions and their audience. hedges and boosters are like two sides of a same coin. they are communicative strategies for increasing or reducing the force of statements. their importance in academic discourse lies in their contribution to a relevant rhetorical and interactive tenor, conveying both epistemic and affective meaning (hyland, 2004 & 2005a; hyland & tsé, 2004). table 1 shows the frequency and distribution of hedges in the two subcorpora. engbm spengbm total percentage total percentage hedges 3,174 (16.04 per 1,000 words) 100% 1,868 (9.70 per 1,000 words) 100% introduction 1,308 41,21% 596 31.91% methods 202 6.36% 250 13.38% results 386 12.16% 356 19.06% discussion 1,278 40.26% 666 35.65% table 1. frequency and distribution of hedges. the overall findings show that international business management scholars publishing their articles in english in the american context hedge their discourse more heavily than their spanish counterparts publishing internationally in english. these results are rather similar to those obtained in previous studies (vassileva (1997 & 2001) for bulgarian; ventola (1997) for finnish; martin martin (2002 & 2005) as well as mur (2007) for spanish). they indicate that different cultures show different degrees of hedging. the percentages indicate that the discussion presents the highest incidence of hedges in the engbm corpus. this is not so high in the spengbm, where the figures for the discussion and introduction sections are very similar. this highest frequency of use of hedges in the discussion section of engbm is due to the fact that american business management scholars seem to be more cautious when 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 88 american-based business management scholars appear to be more tentative in their statements and to protect themselves more against possible criticisms by means of modal verbs. they are perhaps more aware of the need for their claims to be ratified and confirmed by their readers. the percentages indicate that the discussion presents the highest incidence of hedging modal verbs in the engbm corpus. in the spengbm the highest incidence is in the introduction section. the frequency of use of modal verbs in the discussion section of engbm is due to the fact that american business management scholars seem to be more cautious when expressing the implications and deductions from the results obtained, as well as when stating the limitations of their study. table 3 summarizes the final results for hedging modal verbs in engbm and spengbm. engbm spengbm as for boosters, results indicate that spanish business management scholars make use of a wider range of boosters and include some more boosters per 1,000 words than their international north american peers. this is shown in table 4. modal verbs are also the most common realizations of boosting (together with hedging, as indicated before) in the engbm corpus. modal verbs are the second means of boosting in spengbm after lexical verbs. boosting modal verbs are those modal verbs which help express meaning with a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs ibérica 19 (2010): 77-96 89 ibérica 19 (2010): …-… 11 text” (markkanen & schröder, 1997: 4). the modal verbs expressing hedges are: “may”, “would”, “can”, “might”, and “could”. “may” is the most frequent modal verb in both subcorpora. it is extremely common in academic prose. it is followed by “would”, “can”, “might” and “could” in engbm. in spengbm, “may” is followed by “can”, “could” and “might”. table 2 shows the frequency and distribution of hedging modal verbs in engbm and spengbm. engbm spengbm total percentage total percentage hedging modal verbs 1,104 (5.58 per 1,000 words) 100% 836 (4.22 per 1,000 words) 100% introduction 474 42.93% 392 46.89% methods 58 5.25% 48 5.74% results 44 3.98% 40 4.79% discussion 528 47.83% 356 42.58% table 2. frequency and distribution of hedging modal verbs in engbm and spengbm. the frequency of occurrence of modal verbs in engbm is of 5.58 per thousand words, while it is of 4.22 modal verbs per thousand words in spengbm. more modal verbs are included in the business management ras in the engbm subcorpus to soften the force of the arguments than in the business management ras in the spengbm subcorpus. north american-based business management scholars appear to be more tentative in their statements and to protect themselves more against possible criticisms by means of modal verbs. they are perhaps more aware of the need for their claims to be ratified and confirmed by their readers. the percentages indicate that the discussion presents the highest incidence of hedging modal verbs in the engbm corpus. in the spengbm the highest incidence is in the introduction section. the frequency of use of modal verbs in the discussion section of engbm is due to the fact that american business management scholars seem to be more cautious when expressing the implications and deductions from the results obtained, as well as when stating the limitations of their study. table 3 summarizes the final results for hedging modal verbs in engbm and spengbm. ignacio vázquez orta engbm spengbm total percentage total percentage may 536 48.72% 412 49.28% would 178 16.12% 144 17.22% can 198 18.07% 210 25.11% might 118 10.60% 22 2.64% could 74 6.49% 48 5.75% total 1,104 100% 836 100% table 3. types of hedging modal verbs. as for boosters, results indicate that spanish business management scholars make use of a wider range of boosters and include some more boosters per 1,000 words than their international north american peers. this is shown in table 4. engbm spengbm total percentage total percentage boosters 1,200 (6.06 p. 1,000 words) 100% 1,368 (7.10 p. 1,000 words) 100% introduction 459 38.25% 496 36.26% methods 141 11.75% 250 18.28% results 152 12.67% 254 18.57% discussion 448 37.33% 368 26.90% table 4. frequency and distribution of boosters in the two subcorpora. modal verbs are also the most common realizations of boosting (together with hedging, as indicated before) in the engbm corpus. modal verbs are the second means of boosting in spengbm after lexical verbs. boosting modal verbs are those modal verbs which help express meaning with conviction or reasonable degree of confidence. in line with this, “will” and “should” were studied. “will” is the most common boosting modal verb in the two corpora. those tokens of “will” expressing future time were not included in the counts, as they 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 89 conviction or reasonable degree of confidence. in line with this, “will” and “should” were studied. “will” is the most common boosting modal verb in the two corpora. those tokens of “will” expressing future time were not included in the counts, as they are devoid of modal, epistemic meaning. the use of modal “will” in the statement of hypotheses is very common in ras in english. the modal verb is also frequently included in the subsequent confirmation or refutation of those hypotheses. “should” expressing “extreme likelihood, or a reasonable assumption or conclusion” (palmer, 1986: 49) is the other boosting modal verb in business management ras in english. examples of “should” expressing deontic meaning of obligation (quirk et al., 1985) are found in both corpora but they do not contribute to indicating the writers’ certainty or conviction. results are rather similar to those obtained in previous studies (vassileva (1997 & 2001) for bulgarian). they indicate that there are different degrees of boosting in different cultures. modal verbs expressing the writers’ certainty are more common in the business management ras in the spengbm than in the ras in the engbm, although the differences are not really remarkable (see table 5). ignacio vázquez orta ibérica 19 (2010): 77-9690 ibérica 19 (2010): …-…12 engbm spengbm total percentage total percentage may 536 48.72% 412 49.28% would 178 16.12% 144 17.22% can 198 18.07% 210 25.11% might 118 10.60% 22 2.64% could 74 6.49% 48 5.75% total 1,104 100% 836 100% table 3. types of hedging modal verbs. as for boosters, results indicate that spanish business management scholars make use of a wider range of boosters and include some more boosters per 1,000 words than their international north american peers. this is shown in table 4. engbm spengbm total percentage total percentage boosters 1,200 (6.06 per1,000 words) 100% 1,368 (7.10 per 1,000 words) 100% introduction 459 38.25% 496 36.26% methods 141 11.75% 250 18.28% results 152 12.67% 254 18.57% discussion 448 37.33% 368 26.90% table 4. frequency and distribution of boosters in the two subcorpora. modal verbs are also the most common realizations of boosting (together with hedging, as indicated before) in the engbm corpus. modal verbs are the second means of boosting in spengbm after lexical verbs. boosting modal verbs are those modal verbs which help express meaning with conviction or reasonable degree of confidence. in line with this, “will” and “should” were studied. “will” is the most common boosting modal verb in the two corpora. those tokens of “will” expressing future time were not included in the counts, as they are devoid of modal, epistemic meaning. the use of modal “will” in the statement of hypotheses is very common in ras in english. the modal verb is also frequently included in the subsequent confirmation or refutation of those hypotheses. “should” expressing “extreme likelihood, or a reasonable assumption or conclusion” (palmer, 1986: 49) is the other boosting modal verb in business management ras in english. examples of “should” expressing deontic meaning of obligation (quirk et al., 1985) are found in both corpora but they do not contribute to indicating the writers’ certainty or conviction. results are rather similar to those obtained in previous studies (vassileva (1997 & 2001) for bulgarian). they indicate that there are different degrees of boosting in different cultures. modal verbs expressing the writers’ certainty are more common in the business management ras in the spengbm than in the ras in the engbm, although the differences are not really remarkable (see table 5).a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs business management ras in the spengbm than in the ras in the engbm, although the differences are not really remarkable (see table 5). engbm spengbm total percentage total percentage boosting modals verbs 316 (1.60 per 1,000 words) 100% 338 (1.75 per 1,000 words) 100% introduction 204 64.56% 218 64.50% methods 36 11.39% 38 11.24% results 14 4.43% 20 5.92% discussion 62 19.62% 62 18.34% table 5. frequency of distribution of boosting modal verbs in engbm and spengbm. boosting modal verbs are most frequently included in the introduction sections in both subcorpora. this higher incidence of use of modal verbs expressing conviction in the introduction section may have to do with the more frequent inclusion of hypotheses in this section, the expression of which very frequently entails the use of “will”. in both subcorpora, the discussion section comes second in terms of proportional high incidence of use of boosting modal verbs, followed by the sections of results and methods. table 6 summarizes the final results for boosting modal verbs in both engbm and spengbm. engbm spengbm 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 90 boosting modal verbs are most frequently included in the introduction sections in both subcorpora. this higher incidence of use of modal verbs expressing conviction in the introduction section may have to do with the more frequent inclusion of hypotheses in this section, the expression of which very frequently entails the use of “will”. in both subcorpora, the discussion section comes second in terms of proportional high incidence of use of boosting modal verbs, followed by the sections of results and methods. table 6 summarizes the final results for boosting modal verbs in both engbm and spengbm. engbm spengbm 5. discussion of the results spanish writers show a deviant handling of hedging and boosting resources, and hence, the establishment of a proper tenor. this is related to the mismatch we observed in the expression of epistemic meaning between some modal verbs: “can” is used instead of “may” to express possibility. part of this epistemic mismatch may be caused by the twofold tendency of the spanish writers towards an overuse of “can”, on the one hand, and lack of modalisation, on the other. to begin with, “can” embodies three basic meanings in the two subcorpora under consideration: certainty, possibility, and politeness/solidarity, all three accounting for the overwhelming percentage of this verb within their modal repertory (virtually half of the tokens) and for the little variety of this latter in comparison with that of native english writers. while the certainty use constitutes an empty modal meaning equivalent to an absence of modalisation (see examples 10 and 11 below), the possibility use, as has been previously commented, fills the slots that should be occupied by “may” (example 12), and the politeness/solidarity meaning seems to derive from a transfer of pragmatic norms from a first to a second language. a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs ibérica 19 (2010): 77-96 91 ibérica 19 (2010): …-… 13 business management ras in the spengbm than in the ras in the engbm, although the differences are not really remarkable (see table 5). engbm spengbm total percentage total percentage boosting modals verbs 316 (1.60 per 1,000 words) 100% 338 (1.75 per 1,000 words) 100% introduction 204 64.56% 218 64.50% methods 36 11.39% 38 11.24% results 14 4.43% 20 5.92% discussion 62 19.62% 62 18.34% table 5. frequency of distribution of boosting modal verbs in engbm and spengbm. boosting modal verbs are most frequently included in the introduction sections in both subcorpora. this higher incidence of use of modal verbs expressing conviction in the introduction section may have to do with the more frequent inclusion of hypotheses in this section, the expression of which very frequently entails the use of “will”. in both subcorpora, the discussion section comes second in terms of proportional high incidence of use of boosting modal verbs, followed by the sections of results and methods. table 6 summarizes the final results for boosting modal verbs in both engbm and spengbm. engbm spengbm total percentage total percentage will 240 76.52% 250 76.57% should 76 23.48% 78 23.43% total 316 100% 328 100% table 6. types of boosting modal verbs. 5. discussion of the results spanish writers show a deviant handling of hedging and boosting resources, and hence, the establishment of a proper tenor. this is related to the mismatch we observed in the expression of epistemic meaning between some modal verbs: “can” is used instead of “may” to express possibility. part of this epistemic mismatch may be caused by the twofold tendency of the spanish writers towards an overuse of “can”, on the one hand, and lack of modalisation, on the other. to begin with, “can” embodies three basic meanings in the two subcorpora under consideration: certainty, possibility, and politeness/solidarity, all three accounting for the overwhelming percentage of this verb within their modal 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 91 such transference of sociolinguistic conventions from spanish into english conforms to the politeness scheme (-distance, -power) (neff et al., 2004) and results in “i/we” embeddings (i/we + can+ verb of perception or mental verbal activity) seldom used by native english writers. their purpose is to build a common ground between reader and writer as a positive politeness strategy. in line with this finding, hernández-flores (1999) demonstrated that modal verbs performed a similar convergent role in unrequested advice as ways of seeking feedback or inclusion in spanish conversation. opposed to this trend, the politeness pattern (+ distance, power) is found to dominate most of the native english writers’ articles scrutinized. the following examples may help illustrate the foregoing point altogether: (10) x can be obtained by solving this equation [“can be” could be here substituted by “is”, since the equation is actually solved in the paper]. (11) this can be due to … [native english writers would use “may” instead of “can”] (12) as we can see… [“can” can be omitted here. in fact, native english writers resort to impersonal constructions of the type it can/will be seen that … or as seen/shown in figure x…]. apart from these pragmatic reasons, the overuse of “can” by spanish writers appears closely bound to other typological and instructional factors: a) the corresponding spanish verb “poder” is inherently ambiguous and polysemous (silva-corvalán, 1995) for it agglutinates deontic and epistemic meanings (e.g. ability, permission and possibility), as well as the dynamic uses distinguished by palmer (1990: 35-38). therefore, it is not surprising that spanish writers ignore more detailed alternatives like “may” or “might” and set up a symmetrical correspondence of uses with the past form “could”. b) furthermore, spanish writers experience a phenomenon of accommodation of their scanty modal repertoire to their actual expressive needs: “can” is the first modal verb learned in spanish efl classrooms, and high-school syllabi in general introduce the rest of modal resources sparsely and superficially, embedded in ignacio vázquez orta ibérica 19 (2010): 77-9692 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 92 topical units and without much insistence upon the various shades of meaning conveyed by each of them. another interesting finding of this research is the sketchy modalisation observed in the spanish articles, which confirms holmes’s (1988) view that the use of hedges varies cross-culturally. it is also in accordance with hoye’s (1997) conclusion that native spanish speakers tend to underuse stance markers in l1 and when speaking english encounter special difficulties with those subject to idiomatic collocations (“may”/“might” + “well”). it should be added that, most probably owing to above mentioned instructional factors, spanish writers show a deficient handling of hedging and boosting resources. lack of modalisation seems to be a natural tendency for spanish writers and is per se a type of boosting device. this fact would partly explain the prevalence of this rhetorical function throughout spanish ras with the logical consequence of making refutable, risky or even threatening claims. this suggests considerable lack of expertise on the part of spanish writers and an ignorance of rhetorical genre standards. spanish writers predominantly express certainty through the use of “can” and “will” and exhibit a significantly low proportion of probability and possibility meanings through “would”, “should” and “may” (see figure 2). native english academic writers, in contrast, show a higher frequency of use of “would”, “should” and “might” in their academic papers. native english writers would use “should” instead to tone down the brusqueness of the imposition. notice, however, that in the first two cases (in the use of “can” and “will”), spanish writers combine deontic modality with the passive voice, which serves as mitigator. 6. concluding remarks the results obtained in this study point in the direction that there are obvious differences between the use of modal verbs by native english writers and the use of modal verbs by non-native spanish writers. the most remarkable aspect is that spanish writers show a deviant handling of hedges and boosters. therefore, they have difficulties in establishing a proper tenor when they write in english. this is related to the mismatch observed in the expression of epistemic meaning between some modal verbs: “can” is used instead of “may” to express possibility. spanish writers express epistemic a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs ibérica 19 (2010): 77-96 93 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:21 página 93 stance differently. this deviant use of the modals by spanish academics writing their articles in english is conditioned by the writing conventions of their national culture. [paper received april 2009] [revised paper accepted july 2009] references ignacio vázquez orta ibérica 19 (2010): 77-9694 biber, d. & e. finnegan (1989). “styles of stance in english: lexical and grammatical marking of evidentiality and affect”. text 9: 93-124. biber, d., s. johansson, g. leech, s. conrad & e. finegan (1999). longman grammar of spoken and written english. harlow: pearson education. davies, e. (2001). “propositional attitudes”. functions of language 8: 217-251. downing, a. & p. locke (1999). a university course in english grammar. london: routledge. fillmore, c.j. (1982). “frame semantics” in linguistic society of korea (ed.), linguistics in the morning calm, 111-137. seoul: hanshin. halliday, m.a.k. (1994). an introduction to functional grammar, 2nd ed. london: arnold. hernández-flores, n. (1999). “politeness ideology in spanish colloquial conversation: the case of advice”. pragmatics 9: 37-49. holmes, j. (1988). “of course: a pragmatic particle in new zealand women’s and men’s speech”. australian journal of linguistics 8: 49-74. hoye, l.f. (1997). adverbs and modality in english. london & new york: longman. hunston, s. & g. thompson (eds.) (2000). evaluation in text: authorial stance and the construction of discourse. oxford: oxford university press. hyland, k. (1999). “disciplinary discourse writer stance in research articles” in c. candlin & k. hyland (eds.), writing: texts, processes and practices, 99-121. london: longman. hyland, k. (2004). genre and second language writing. ann arbor: michigan press. hyland, k. (2005a). “stance and engagement: a model of interaction in academic discourse”. discourse studies 7: 173-192. hyland, k. (2005b). metadiscourse. london: continuum. hyland, k. & p. tsé (2004). “evaluative that constructions: signalling stance in research abstracts”. functions of language 12: 39-63. markkanen, r. & h. schröder (eds.) (1997). hedging and discourse approaches to the analysis of a pragmatic phenomenon in academic texts. berlin & new york: walter de gruyter. martin martin, p. (2002). “a genre-based investigation of abstract writing in english and spanish”. revista canaria de estudios ingleses 44: 47-64. martin martin, p. (2005). the rhetoric of the abstract in english and spanish scientific discourse: a cross-cultural genre-analytic approach. bern: peter lang. mur, m.p. (2007). a contribution to the intercultural analysis of metadiscourse in business management research articles in english and spanish: a corpus-driven approach. unpublished ph.d. thesis, university of zaragoza, spain. neff, j., e. dafouz, m. díez, h. herrera, f. martínez, j.p. rica & c. sancho (2004). “subjective and objective expression of evidentiality in native and non-native argumentative texts” in r. facchinetti & r. palmer (eds.), english modality in perspective. genre analysis and contrastive studies, 141-161. frankfurt am main: peter lang. palmer, f.r. (1986). mood and modality. cambridge: cambridge university press. palmer, f.r. (1990 [1979]). modality and the english modals, 2nd ed. london: longman. quirk, r., s. greenbaum, g. leech & j. svartvik (1985). a comprehensive grammar of the english language. london: longman. scott, m. (1999). wordsmith tools (version 4.0). oxford: oxford university press. silva-corvalán, c. (ed.) (1995). spanish in four continents. studies in language contact and bilingualism. washington, dc: georgetown 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 94 dr. ignacio vázquez is coordinating a research group (interlae) working on writer stance in academic and professional discourse from a sociopragmatic perspective. at present, the group is developing a new project on generic integrity in academic and professional communication to be completed by 2011. notes 1 this research has been carried out within the framework of the project entitled interlae (interpersonalidad en el lenguaje académico escrito/interpersonality in written academic language), financially supported by local and national authorities (diputación general de aragón (interlae group) and ministerio de educación y ciencia (hum2005-03646). 2 the absence of a modal verb (or other stance marker), however, can also be considered as choice of stance, with the writer attributing unquestioned validity to the proposition. this is davies’ (2001) position. according to this scholar, all finite verbal groups are said to express a “modal” position or stance, which is related to the “exchange” function of the utterance. 3 a term borrowed from charles fillmore’s (1982) “frame semantics”. a frame can help create a subjective construal, which is the type of construal in which the speaker as “cognizer” is involved in the very scene s/he is construing. this is contrasted with the objective construal, i.e. the type of construal in which the speaker as “cognizer” is detached from the scene s/he is construing. 4 intrinsic modality is discourse-oriented. it refers to the speech act. 5 extrinsic modality is synonymous with extra-propositional modality, expressing the speaker’s attitude towards the content of a proposition. it covers the area of epistemic modality. for biber et al. (1999: 485) it “refers to the logical status of events or states, usually relating to assessments of likelihood: possibility, necessity, or prediction” and is synonymous with epistemic modality (which for him, however, also includes dynamic modality). 6 there is a basic distinction in english between modals with a specific interpersonal function, like the epistemic modals, and modals that do not have an interpersonal meaning, like the modals of ability and volition. 7 this does not necessarily mean an adherence to the hallidayan separation of modal and ideational meanings. 8 biber et al. (1999) say that very seldom can modal verbs with intrinsic meaning be regarded as attitudinal. a contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs ibérica 19 (2010): 77-96 95 university press. vassileva, i. (1997). “hedging in english and bulgarian academic writing” in a. duszak (ed.), culture and styles of academic discourse, 203222. berlin & new york: mouton de gruyter. vassileva, i. (2001). “commitment and detachment in english and bulgarian academic writing”. english for specific purposes 20: 83-102. ventola, e. (1997). “semiotic spanning at conferences: cohesion and coherence in and across conference papers and their discussions” in w. bublitz, u. lenk & e. ventola (eds.), coherence in spoken and written discourse. how to create it and how to describe it, 101-123. amsterdam: john benjamins. white, p.r. (2001). “appraisal: an overview”. url: http://www.grammatics.com/appraisal/ appraisalguide/framed/appraisal-overview.htm [10/05/2009]. 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 95 04 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:22 página 96 iberica 13 ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen a partir del análisis de un corpus con variación geopolítica y económica pretendemos contribuir a la elaboración de un nuevo plan de currículo para el español como lengua extranjera para fines económicos y comerciales que considere dimensiones transculturales. el corpus se compone de cartas de presentación de los informes de responsabilidad social corporativa (rsc) escritas por los directores generales de empresas de chile, españa y méxico: tres países hispanohablantes con sendas variedades lingüísticas y que pertenecen además a diferentes zonas de implementación de la rsc. las teorías de los principios motivadores de rsc nos proporcionan el marco de análisis (frynas y yamahaki, 2016). la teoría institucional/de legitimación (institutional/legitimacy theory) considera que el discurso de rsc es una herramienta de reputación o legitimación que responde a la presión de los grupos de interés como principio motivador externo. la teoría de la agencia (agency theory) considera que los principios motivadores de la rsc son internos y corresponden a objetivos de índole económica o filantrópica de los agentes, es decir, de los directivos o gestores de la empresa. en nuestro corpus el principal principio motivador de la rsc corresponde a los grupos de interés, mientras que los resultados y los valores presentan un peso similar. entre los grupos de interés, el más destacado en todo el corpus es la comunidad. en chile son los consumidores los que ocupan el segundo lugar, en españa son las entidades de monitoreo y en méxico los empleados y trabajadores. al considerar el principio de las tres p (people, planet, profit) de elkington (1997), se corrobora el evidente peso de la gente en las tres partes del corpus, el equilibrio que todo el corpus concede al beneficio, y el hecho de que el medio ambiente recibe más atención en méxico. las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc en chile, españa y méxico: en busca de un equilibrio entre people, planet y profit almudena basanta y lieve vangehuchten universidad de amberes (bélgica) almudena.basanta@uantwerpen.be, lieve.vangehuchten@uantwerpen.be 99 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 99 ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten palabras clave: responsabilidad social corporativa (rsc), informes de sostenibilidad, español con fines específicos, empresas de chile, españa y méxico, prácticas de rsc, grupos de interés. abstract p re s e n ta ti on l e t te rs i n cs r re p or ts in ch i l e , spa i n an d m e x ic o : in s e ar c h o f a b al a nc e b e tw ee n pe o pl e , p l an e t an d pr of i t with this corpus-based study we wish to contribute to the elaboration of a new curriculum plan for spanish as a foreign language for economic and business purposes that takes into account transcultural, geopolitical and economic variation. the corpus consists of letters presenting the corporate social responsibility (csr) reports of the ceos of companies in chile, spain and mexico: three spanish-speaking countries with different linguistic varieties that belong to different areas of csr implementation. the analytical framework for the analyses is based on the theories of csr motivating principles (frynas y yamahaki, 2016). the institutional/legitimacy theory considers csr discourse as a reputational or legitimacy tool that responds to stakeholder pressure as an external motivating principle. the agency theory considers that the motivating principles of csr are internal and correspond to the economic or philanthropic objectives of the agents, i.e. the directors or managers of the company. in our corpus, the main motivating principle of csr seems to come from the stakeholders, whereas the economic and ethical arguments show a similar weight. among the stakeholders, the community is the most prominent in the entire corpus, but in chile the consumers come second, while in spain this position goes to the monitoring entities and in mexico to the employees and workers. finally, when corroborating these results through the principle of the three p’s (people, planet, profit) of elkington (1997), the weight of the people is evident in the three parts of the corpus, as well as, to a lesser extent, the profit. the environment receives more attention in the mexican corpus. keywords: corporate social responsibility (csr), sustainability reports, spanish for specific purposes, companies from chile, spain and mexico, csr practices; stakeholders. 1. introducción pese a considerar al inglés como lingua franca, los profesionales internacionales siguen necesitando aprender idiomas extranjeros. van herck, vermandere y vangehuchten (2019) demuestran que, aunque las empresas 100 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 100 multinacionales sostengan que el inglés es su lengua corporativa oficial y de trabajo, la realidad lingüística en el ámbito laboral consiste en una combinación del inglés con otras lenguas. la elección del idioma en la empresa depende de varios factores como, entre otros, el contexto, el género de la comunicación, las habilidades lingüísticas de los socios de comunicación y la función de los puestos de trabajo. barner-rasmussen y aarnio (2011) sugieren que las compañías deberían considerar políticas lingüísticas flexibles e incluir todos los idiomas relevantes, porque las políticas estrictas “solo en inglés” penalizan a los empleados de las empresas subsidiarias. una sola lengua común o inclusiva, que suponga en la práctica una falta de tolerancia ante las otras lenguas habladas por los empleados, crea tensiones sociales en el trabajo. además, uno de los papeles cruciales de la lengua es precisamente la influencia que ejerce en el sentimiento de pertenencia de los miembros de un grupo. la investigación reciente (woo y giles, 2017: 41) ha demostrado que al existir una política lingüística de una sola lengua común se originan problemas tales como el desafío de establecer una cohesión organizativa, el favoritismo hacia los que son capaces de mantener un mayor intercambio con los superiores, y discriminación, desigualdad o exclusión social. es necesario mantener el equilibrio entre el uso de una lengua común y la tolerancia activa de la diversidad lingüística, como demuestran lauring y klitmøller (2017). tanto la creatividad como la eficiencia se benefician de esta política, ya que la diversidad estimula la creatividad, mientras que la facilidad de contar con una lengua común incrementa la eficiencia. parece obvio que, incluso cuando se domine la lingua franca, se requiere una apertura hacia los demás idiomas presentes en el trabajo. respecto a la situación del inglés como lingua franca en contextos empresariales, el índice epi para empresas (ef english proficiency index for companies, 2016) muestra la desigualdad de su dominio en las áreas de habla hispana. presentamos aquí los resultados de la tercera edición del índice, basado en los datos de más de 510.000 empleados de 2.078 empresas y gobiernos. los participantes, que realizaron una prueba de nivel de inglés organizada por ef corporate solutions entre 2013 y 2015, no estaban cursando ningún programa de aprendizaje de inglés en ese momento ni recibieron una compensación financiera por participar en la prueba. el 40  % estaba trabajando en europa, el 29 % en asia, el 23 % en américa latina y el 8 % en oriente próximo. de los 40 países que colaboraron en el test, el primer país hispanohablante con calificación de ‘dominio muy elevado’ del inglés las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 101 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 101 fue argentina; españa apareció en la categoría del ‘dominio elevado’; méxico, chile y perú en el ‘dominio bajo’; y los demás países hispanoamericanos incluidos en el estudio, es decir colombia, venezuela y costa rica, manifestaron un ‘dominio muy bajo’. el español es una lengua de carácter pluricéntrico que abarca una enorme área geográfica y numerosas variedades lingüísticas. esta variación caracteriza al lenguaje general y a los lenguajes especializados, como el español económico, cuya terminología se debe en gran medida a préstamos de procesos semánticos del lenguaje general, como suele ser el caso de las ciencias sociales (vangehuchten, 2005). sin embargo, el estudio de la variación lingüística en las lenguas especializadas se ha descuidado durante mucho tiempo, y solo desde el cambio de siglo, con el auge de la terminología sociocognitiva (temmerman, 2000) y la terminología comunicativa (adelstein y cabré, 2002; cabré, 2005), se ha aceptado como característica intrínseca del lenguaje especializado. es precisamente esta visión de la variación la que reviste importancia para los estudiantes de español económico, más que la elección de una de sus variedades en particular, dada la ya mencionada extensión diatópica del español. como afirma del valle (2014: 370), se trata de “empujar en la dirección de la instrucción basada en el contenido y, en particular, de los programas de estudios que incluyen un número significativo de unidades dedicadas a la dialectología social, el análisis del discurso y la comprensión crítica de la dimensión cultural, social y política del lenguaje”. la didáctica del español como lengua extranjera para los negocios y la economía habría de abarcar más que la mera enseñanza de la lengua y de su terminología especializada. hasta ahora, como han demostrado varios autores como josa y schnitzer (2009) o vangehuchten y moreno bruna (2015), los materiales didácticos han ignorado las necesidades actuales y proponen programas de estudio que responden a un uso del español en un contexto monolingüe-unicultural y con fines meramente técnico-específicos. el contexto internacional de la globalización y los medios técnicos de los que disponen los aprendices de lenguas extranjeras para fines profesionales requieren una mayor atención a las competencias traductoras y transculturales para hacer de ellos comunicadores eficientes. con este artículo nos proponemos avanzar hacia estos objetivos y sometemos a un análisis temático de contenido un corpus de cartas de empresarios que presentan los informes de sostenibilidad o responsabilidad almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126102 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 102 social corporativa (rsc) en tres variedades del español (de chile, españa y méxico). pretendemos examinar si un plan curricular que incluye la variación geopolítica y económica puede aportar una plusvalía al campo de español como lengua extranjera para fines económicos y de negocios.1 en la siguiente sección de este estudio examinaremos desde las teorías de la motivación el concepto de rsc en general y enfocado al mundo hispánico en particular. en la sección de metodología justificaremos la selección y la composición del corpus, además de presentar la matriz de operacionalización que hemos adoptado para analizar los datos. en la sección de discusión comentaremos los resultados del análisis a partir de las teorías citadas en el marco teórico. y terminaremos con el apartado de conclusión, donde expondremos también algunas consecuencias para la didáctica del español como lengua extranjera para los negocios y la economía. 2. el concepto de rsc 2.1. rsc y sus principios motivadores la responsabilidad social corporativa (rsc), como apunta caroll (1991), es un concepto amplio que no cuenta con una definición precisa aceptada por todos. una de las definiciones más reconocidas es la de caroll (1991), que considera la rsc como una pirámide compuesta por cuatro estratos de responsabilidad: económica, legal, ética y filantrópica. unos años más tarde, elkington (1997) introdujo la noción de equilibrio entre la gente, el medio ambiente y el beneficio, las llamadas 3p según las iniciales de los términos en inglés: people, planet, profit. yedder y zaddem (2009) añaden que se trata de la reconciliación entre la ética y la búsqueda del beneficio dentro de una empresa. el concepto de rsc surgió a partir de discusiones sobre la ética en los negocios como la razón principal para la empresa sostenible (yeddert y zaddem, 2009). la conocida teoría de freeman (citada en mcwilliams y siegel, 2011) sobre las partes interesadas, por ejemplo, afirma que las empresas tienen la obligación moral de contar con todas las partes interesadas influidas por la empresa. otros autores, como friedman (1970), sostienen sin embargo que una empresa solo debería preocuparse de crear valor para sus accionistas (teoría del accionista). últimamente, además de profundizar en la dimensión moral, el debate también ha adquirido una dimensión estratégica. según porter y kramer las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 103 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 103 (2006), la rsc no supone necesariamente una limitación, sino que colabora en la creación del valor estratégico de una empresa y mejora su posicionamiento en el mercado. algunos estudios indican que los esfuerzos de rsc de una empresa pueden mejorar en gran medida la actitud de sus clientes (sen y bhattacharya, 2001), pero no hay consenso sobre el impacto directo de la rsc en el beneficio empresarial. de hecho, mientras estos autores apuntan a una relación positiva, otros no lo consideran así (mcwilliams y siegel, 2000; orlitzky, schmidt y rynes, 2003). sin embargo, la rsc presenta una serie de ventajas sistemáticas para las empresas, como la legitimación frente a gobiernos y organizaciones, una relación más sólida con las partes interesadas y una mejor reputación (gatti y seele, 2015). hopkins (2012) añade beneficios en el ámbito de los recursos humanos, concretamente una mayor atracción y duración de los empleados. al aumentar la conciencia de los beneficios de la rsc, se manifiesta una creciente necesidad de la misma. las empresas acuden cada vez más a la rsc como respuesta a la presión externa y a los numerosos problemas sociales o medioambientales, y comunican sus compromisos en informes anuales, sitios web, redes sociales o a través de la prensa. el uso de la sostenibilidad para salvar la imagen de la empresa es una crítica recurrente (de vries, terwel, ellemers y daamen, 2015) y, si además esta comunicación es una especie de lavado de imagen verde no veraz que engaña al consumidor, se considera ecoblanqueo o greenwashing. esto nos conduce a reflexionar sobre los diferentes principios motivadores de la rsc. frynas y yamahaki (2016) distinguen entre principios motivadores externos e internos. los primeros se centran en las relaciones entre las empresas y su entorno. esto incluye la “teoría de las partes interesadas” (stakeholder theory), que considera que las relaciones de las organizaciones con actores externos específicos impulsan la rsc; la “teoría institucional” (institutional theory), que mantiene que la rsc viene determinada por el entorno institucional; la “teoría de la legitimación” (legitimation theory), según la cual las empresas practican la rsc para legitimar sus actividades al alcanzar un equilibrio entre sus objetivos corporativos y las necesidades de la sociedad; y la “teoría de la dependencia de los recursos” (resource dependence theory), para la cual el objetivo de la rsc es satisfacer las expectativas de las entidades que proporcionan a la empresa sus recursos. los principios internos para comprometerse con la rsc son de índole muy variada: del aspecto ético y los valores internos de la empresa a las perspectivas económicas y de gestión de las operaciones comerciales. los almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126104 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 104 incentivos internos incluyen la “teoría de los recursos” (resource-based view) y la “teoría de la agencia” (agency theory). la primera presenta la rsc como una inversión que permite a las empresas diferenciarse de la competencia y mejorar su rendimiento creando ventajas competitivas. para la segunda, son los directivos (agentes) quienes plantean la rsc como un medio de interés propio, por ejemplo, para aumentar sus beneficios o para cumplir con sus aspiraciones filantrópicas. maignan y ralston (2002) ofrecen otra perspectiva para analizar los principios motivadores de la rsc basada en las cuatro dimensiones de la pirámide de carroll (1991), que identifica tres impulsores principales de la rsc: el rendimiento, al considerar la rsc parte del objetivo económico de una empresa para mejorar sus resultados financieros y su posición competitiva; el valor, si la rsc es parte integrante de la cultura de la empresa que pretende impactar positivamente en su entorno, sin responder a una presión externa; y las partes interesadas, cuando la rsc responde a la demanda externa y al control de los grupos de interés que obligan a la empresa a adoptar cierto comportamiento social. 2.2. rsc en el mundo hispánico la rsc se aplica de manera diferente en cada país según sus elementos geopolíticos y culturales, como por ejemplo las leyes empresariales. a su vez, esta manera de llevar a cabo la rsc influye en cómo se concibe según los países. a continuación comentaremos a grandes rasgos las diferentes políticas en las regiones de nuestro estudio: hispanoamérica (chile y méxico) y europa (españa). en américa latina la rsc de las empresas se consideraba originalmente una actividad privada, inspirada por la caridad y la filantropía (mellado, 2009; alonso-almeida et al., 2015). actualmente, aunque la rsc se sigue presentando como una iniciativa empresarial voluntaria, las empresas latinoamericanas se ven expuestas a la presión de diferentes actores, ya sean los grupos de interés, los accionistas, las ong, las autoridades públicas o los organismos de supervisión independientes (haslam, 2004). no obstante, la influencia de las autoridades públicas de américa latina en la elaboración de informes de rsc no concierne a toda la región. como muestra el siguiente mapa, las políticas de rsc de colombia y argentina están dirigidas por el gobierno, como las de europa, mientras que en países como brasil y méxico provienen tanto de los gobiernos como de los grupos de interés social, como las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 105 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 105 ocurre en estados unidos y canadá. en chile aún no se ha promulgado una ley que obligue a redactar informes de sostenibilidad, pero sí existen directivas emergentes sobre su elaboración. se puede constatar, por tanto, que los tres países de este estudio se localizan en diferentes zonas de implementación de la sostenibilidad. según haslam (2004), un impulsor significativo para el compromiso con la rsc procede de fuera de la región latinoamericana. así lo confirma la investigación llevada a cabo por perez-batres et al. (2010) sobre las influencias transnacionales en el compromiso de rsc de empresas latinoamericanas. los resultados muestran que estas empresas responden a presiones institucionales, normativas y miméticas. este último tipo de presión alude al fenómeno por el cual las empresas comienzan a modelarse a sí mismas a partir de otras que consideran exitosas y legítimas, para así garantizar su propia legitimación. por ejemplo, las empresas latinoamericanas con vínculos comerciales estrechos con empresas europeas son dos veces más proclives a comunicar sus prácticas de rsc que las que no los tienen. la creciente importancia del papel de los poderes públicos en la rsc y la sostenibilidad en américa latina se reflejó en el primer seminario ue-celac3 celebrado en octubre de 2013, que dio lugar a una asociación estratégica birregional entre europa y los países latinoamericanos. además de valores comunes, como la democracia, el estado de derecho y los derechos humanos, almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126106 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 106 ambas regiones comparten un compromiso común con el desarrollo sostenible. la idea central de este seminario fue fortalecer y completar la política de rsc en américa latina para evolucionar hacia su homólogo europeo4 donde las normas de rsc son similares para todos sus miembros. en 2014 se adoptó una directiva europea (2014/95/ue) que establece que a partir de 2018 las grandes empresas con quinientos empleados o más informarán sobre datos no financieros, incluidos los derechos humanos, el medio ambiente y los aspectos sociales. aún antes de haberse promulgado esta ley, españa manifestaba, según el kpmg international survey of corporate responsibility reporting (2017), una elevada tasa de información que alcanzaba el 87 %. finalmente, un factor que haslam (2007) destaca entre otros es la importancia de la política de rsc para la doctrina católica en el mundo hispánico. en efecto, la bibliografía especializada5 muestra que una orientación ética religiosa ha mantenido su valor en el mundo globalizado del siglo xxi. como afirma argandoña (2012, 2015), la actividad de un gestor cristiano pudiera parecer semejante a la de un directivo no cristiano, pero su doctrina y ética dejan su huella en la forma de hacer negocios; por ejemplo, en la importancia que se concede a la confianza y a la cohesión social entre las partes interesadas. 2.3. los organismos de control carrots & sticks, publicado por kpmg y unep, es un informe de evaluación bienal sobre la evolución mundial de la política y presentación de informes de sostenibilidad. el correspondiente a 2016 (kpmg y unep, 2016) evidencia que en los últimos tres años ha aumentado el número de instrumentos de presentación de informes basados en directrices tales como los estándares gri,6 ungc7 y la iso26000.8 aunque en un principio los informes de sostenibilidad fueron monitoreados principalmente en europa, parece que el número de instrumentos de información y control se ha incrementado también en hispanoamérica. asimismo, se desprende claramente del informe que estos instrumentos de información se dirigen principalmente a las grandes empresas que cotizan en bolsa. si bien la regulación gubernamental es el mayor contribuyente de los instrumentos de información, se observa que las organizaciones internacionales influyentes, como las bolsas de valores y los reguladores de mercado, adquieren progresivamente importancia en este aspecto. este aumento de los instrumentos de presentación de informes y de los órganos de control las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 107 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 107 manifiesta, por una parte, un gran esfuerzo para alcanzar una mayor transparencia y rendición de cuentas al elaborar informes de sostenibilidad, pero, por otro lado, constituye un reto para las empresas informantes, puesto que una correcta coordinación resulta crucial ante esta amplia variedad de herramientas de información y organismos de control. 3. metodología 3.1. corpus: selección y composición como objeto de investigación hemos elegido la forma de comunicación que consideramos más adecuada para nuestro estudio: las memorias de sostenibilidad.9 estas no están exentas de críticas, porque según perez-batres et al. (2010) la neutralidad y la fiabilidad de los informes de sostenibilidad no quedan garantizadas, precisamente dada la presión de organizaciones institucionales. además, existe una cierta uniformidad en el uso del lenguaje, ya que muchas empresas siguen el formato de las organizaciones de control. sin embargo, según gatti y seele (2015), estos informes son la forma de comunicación que mejor representa la política de rsc de una organización en comparación con los sitios web y los comunicados de prensa, entre otros medios. para delimitar con mayor precisión el corpus, las memorias de sostenibilidad seleccionadas se redujeron a su esencia, es decir, al prólogo del director general, que según la bibliografía (en concreto fuller, 2018: 9), son el indicador más destacado del pensamiento de la dirección (“the most salient indicator of management thought”). estas cartas representan las líneas éticas más importantes de los directores ejecutivos y contienen la visión del ceo sobre la rsc. para construir el corpus hemos recogido las cartas de los informes de sostenibilidad conforme a tres criterios: 1) las empresas tenían que ser nacionales, o sea, con sede en el país mismo aunque contasen con filiales en el extranjero; 2) disponer de un corpus que se prestara a nuestro enfoque de análisis, es decir, con un apartado dentro de sus informes que reflejara adecuadamente su visión y enfoque de la rsc; y 3) representar lo mejor posible a su país a nivel de sostenibilidad. con este fin, entre las clasificaciones y listas oficiales de sostenibilidad, elegimos la lista “responsabilidad y gobierno corporativo” de merco (2018), una autoridad en gobierno corporativo en españa e hispanoamérica. en cuanto a la limitación del corpus en el tiempo, hemos seleccionado los informes del almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126108 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 108 2015, excepto los de aquellas empresas que en ese momento no dispusieran de un informe de sostenibilidad. este es el caso de ccu, aeroméxico y soriana, para las cuales utilizamos informes de los años 2016 y 2017 (cf. notas finales 10, 11 y 12). los países de nuestro estudio utilizan variedades distintas de la lengua española (moreno fernández, 2010) y además corresponden a tres zonas con diferentes grados de implementación de la rsc (cf. mapa 1). en chile la formalización de emitir informes de sostenibilidad aún está en sus inicios. españa pertenece a la unión europea, donde se promulgó una directiva (2014/85/eu) sobre información de rsc. y méxico forma parte de la zona norteamericana en cuanto a la implementación de recomendaciones y de normas sobre los informes de sostenibilidad. la siguiente tabla recoge el nombre de las diferentes empresas seleccionadas por país, su posición en la clasificación de empresas sostenibles de merco, y el sector de actividad al que pertenecen: en la segunda tabla se muestra el tamaño del corpus en número de palabras por carta y en total por país: las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 109 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 109 3.2. análisis: enfoque y operacionalización para el análisis temático de contenido de las cartas nos basamos en el marco teórico expuesto en la sección anterior, concretamente en las teorías de los principios motivadores. este enfoque deductivo dado por el marco teórico se completa con uno inductivo, ya que los diferentes parámetros impuestos se verán sustentados por el análisis de los datos mismos. a este análisis cualitativo se añade un aspecto cuantitativo para reforzar los resultados con porcentajes y permitir la comparación de las diferencias y similitudes entre los tres países. este enfoque mixto nos permitirá describir y comparar las diferentes políticas de rsc, así como sus motivaciones y convicciones respectivas para cada parte del corpus. en concreto, el análisis temático de contenido toma como punto de partida las referencias en el corpus a los aspectos que constituyen las prácticas de rsc en una empresa, a sus principios motivadores y a los diferentes grupos de interés. según la bibliografía, estas referencias revelan si la motivación de una empresa es extrínseca y corresponde a las teorías de institucionalización/legitimación al ser impuesta desde fuera por terceros; o bien si es intrínseca, como los motivos éticos y/o de ánimo de lucro, y se inscribe en la teoría de la agencia. así pues, en el apartado del análisis, describiremos y compararemos los distintos elementos que determinan la política de rsc de las empresas de nuestro corpus, para interpretarlos en el marco de las teorías citadas en el apartado de discusión. según frynas y yamahaki (2016), la interpretación de los datos a la luz de estas teorías es indispensable para el estudio de las múltiples razones (sociales, económicas, políticas, culturales, etc.) que determinan las políticas de rsc. la siguiente matriz de operacionalización explicita cuáles son los parámetros utilizados en el análisis temático de contenido (enfoque deductivo e inductivo) y con qué referencias del marco teórico se corresponden: almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126110 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 110 4. análisis del corpus 4.1. aspectos de rsc en las cartas exponemos a continuación el análisis de los diferentes contenidos de rsc en las cartas, según el enfoque expuesto en la sección anterior, así como el peso que representan por países. el siguiente gráfico recoge las frecuencias en porcentajes *100, calculado sobre el total del número de palabras. el análisis revela que las cartas mexicanas comunican de manera más sintética que las chilenas y las españolas, puesto que, aunque son más breves, las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 111 las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 87-111 enfoque mixto nos permitirá describir y comparar las diferentes políticas de rsc, así como sus motivaciones y convicciones respectivas para cada parte del corpus. en concreto, el análisis temático de contenido toma como punto de partida las referencias en el corpus a los aspectos que constituyen las prácticas de rsc en una empresa, a sus principios motivadores y a los diferentes grupos de interés. según la bibliografía, estas referencias revelan si la motivación de una empresa es extrínseca y corresponde a las teorías de institucionalización/legitimación al ser impuesta desde fuera por terceros; o bien si es intrínseca, como los motivos éticos y/o de ánimo de lucro, y se inscribe en la teoría de la agencia. así pues, en el apartado del análisis, describiremos y compararemos los distintos elementos que determinan la política de rsc de las empresas de nuestro corpus, para interpretarlos en el marco de las teorías citadas en el apartado de discusión. según frynas y yamahaki (2016), la interpretación de los datos a la luz de estas teorías es indispensable para el estudio de las múltiples razones (sociales, económicas, políticas, culturales, etc.) que determinan las políticas de rsc. la siguiente matriz de operacionalización explicita cuáles son los parámetros utilizados en el análisis temático de contenido (enfoque deductivo e inductivo) y con qué referencias del marco teórico se corresponden: parámetros referencias todas las referencias a los siguientes actores o prácticas de políticas de rsc: buen gobierno, empleados, fiscalidad, i+d+i, impacto social, informes, índices y premios, liderazgo, medio ambiente, planes e iniciativas, voluntariado. aspectos de rsc destacados en las teorías institucional, de legitimación, de la agencia, de la dependencia de los recursos, o basada en los recursos (frynas y yamahaki, 2016). principios motivadores de rsc: 1. rsc impulsada por las partes interesadas: la rsc se presenta como una respuesta a las presiones y al escrutinio de uno o más grupos de interés. 2. rsc basada en valores: la rsc se presenta como parte de la cultura de la empresa o como una expresión de sus valores fundamentales. 3. rsc basada en el rendimiento: la rsc se presenta como parte del cometido económico de la empresa, como un instrumento para mejorar su rendimiento financiero y su posición competitiva. maignan y ralston (2002) basada en la pirámide de carroll (1991). accionistas, comunidad, consumidores, empleados, medio ambiente, entidades de rsc, suministradores. teoría de los grupos de interés (frynas y yamahaki, 2016). tabla 3: matriz de operacionalización. 4. análisis del corpus 4.1. aspectos de rsc en las cartas exponemos a continuación el análisis de los diferentes contenidos de rsc en las cartas, según el enfoque expuesto en la sección anterior, así como el peso que almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 87-111 representan por países. el siguiente gráfico recoge las frecuencias en porcentajes *100, calculado sobre el total del número de palabras. gráfico 1: temas de rsc en porcentajes *100. el análisis revela que las cartas mexicanas comunican de manera más sintética que las chilenas y las españolas, puesto que, aunque son más breves, presentan unos porcentajes más elevados de temas referentes a la sostenibilidad. las referencias a los temas de rsc en las cartas chilenas y españolas solo representan el 1 % de la totalidad de palabras, mientras que en las cartas mexicanas ascienden al 1,8 %. las cartas mexicanas se concentran en comentar su política de rsc, mientras que las españolas y chilenas abordan también temas como el cometido y la visión en general de la empresa, el contexto político, la coyuntura económica, los datos financieros, las estrategias de expansión, etc. las empresas chilenas dedican su atención sobre todo a aspectos sociales, al bienestar de los empleados y trabajadores, al medio ambiente y a la presencia en informes e índices de sostenibilidad. esto confirma los resultados de un estudio cualitativo sobre las actitudes de las empresas chilenas hacia las prácticas de rsc realizado en 2005, en el que se identificaron los temas más relevantes de la rsc, en su mayoría enfocados hacia la dimensión social (pesce, 2005). menos relevante para el contexto chileno parece ser el cumplimiento de las obligaciones legales y la transparencia al respecto. podemos sostener, por tanto, que la rsc afianza su importancia en chile y se encuentra evolucionando rápidamente desde un enfoque filantrópico hacia una política cada vez más integrada en las prácticas empresariales, ya que se considera que puede generar una ventaja competitiva y constituir un factor clave para el éxito empresarial. como ya se ha mencionado en las secciones anteriores, la rsc cuenta con una historia más larga en europa que en hispanoamérica, y las cartas de las empresas españolas evidencian que llega a estar institucionalizada. su tema más recurrente ehuchtenvangeve il& basanta udena mal gisle.sesíapr opnatnesrepre daulclac*100, laottleeobrso ehuchten ucfresalegocreocfirágetneiug .sabralpadeo renúmlde setnercopnesaicne ocifágr racsaleuqaleversisilánael ñolpasesaly snaelhicsalque necporunos avleesáms edsametsolasaicnrefere crs 1el eddadilatotaled% 8,1alendencias atracsal%. de crs pseslaeuqsatrniem, edsmaet:1 rsc en 100*es ajcentpor . mednacinumocsanacixemsatr mon sunquea,queo tspue,sañol laastenerersamteedsoda c añpesyasenlichastcaraslen lneeuqsartneim,sarbalap cixemsa enanrtcenncoe sasan mtanadrobasanilehcyslaoñap acitétnissámarenam n antesepr,sveebrsám sal. dailidibntesosla antenesreprolosasloañ sanacixemsatracsa ca itílopusartenmco l eomocsamteniébm erengennóisiva lyodietmco erciannsoatdsolca,imóneco cidedsanelihcsaserpmesla y dosaeplmeoslderatsneebi ibntesosedseicdínesemrin acu sedtitucaslaerbosotivlita euqlene,5002neodazilare hsocadena íroaymusen tnocleraapetnavelre ichotex l aiacnerapsnatrlaysleagle ihcii potextncoela,esrpema le daler exe dasiegatrtesasl,soer ón,inspa aodoterbosnóicnetausnac ntebimao diemla,sedoraart usersloamnoctose. dailidib iacahsanilehcsaserpmeslaeds sámsametsolnroacfiitnedies p(alciosnóisenmida la acih tenimilpmcuelersece arpoenli p, rentesossomedop. tocepser dcilli a rutnuycoa l,coitílop .cteón, la,selaicossotcepsa n eaincesepralay ent iodtusenuedsodltau edsaticcárpslaia crs aledsetnavelre crs , soenm.)5002ce,esp esnoacigilboasle dot laeuq, tontarop crs dddiápd 98 8 3aicréib 910(2 ): 87-111 ihcena cianopmiusza an chao cópirntaleun ya,selairaseprmesacitcápr actfnuriutitsncoya vitietpmco odanoicnemahesayomco h aporueneagrlasámiartois eglle uqanciendievasloañpes dannociuloeva rtencuene sye li polunaaic mzevadacaític depuequeardeionscesque esrpemotiéxela arpe avclroact al,seroiretnasenoiccessalne cslay, aicrémaonapishneeuq usa.zadialnociutitsniartesa a eg e desde tenamdiáprod slaneadargteinsám antveunararnege .aliar a crs a nuncoa tencu saserpmeslaedstarac e tenrrecurásma emtu 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 111 presentan unos porcentajes más elevados de temas referentes a la sostenibilidad. las referencias a los temas de rsc en las cartas chilenas y españolas solo representan el 1 % de la totalidad de palabras, mientras que en las cartas mexicanas ascienden al 1,8  %. las cartas mexicanas se concentran en comentar su política de rsc, mientras que las españolas y chilenas abordan también temas como el cometido y la visión en general de la empresa, el contexto político, la coyuntura económica, los datos financieros, las estrategias de expansión, etc. las empresas chilenas dedican su atención sobre todo a aspectos sociales, al bienestar de los empleados y trabajadores, al medio ambiente y a la presencia en informes e índices de sostenibilidad. esto confirma los resultados de un estudio cualitativo sobre las actitudes de las empresas chilenas hacia las prácticas de rsc realizado en 2005, en el que se identificaron los temas más relevantes de la rsc, en su mayoría enfocados hacia la dimensión social (pesce, 2005). menos relevante para el contexto chileno parece ser el cumplimiento de las obligaciones legales y la transparencia al respecto. podemos sostener, por tanto, que la rsc afianza su importancia en chile y se encuentra evolucionando rápidamente desde un enfoque filantrópico hacia una política cada vez más integrada en las prácticas empresariales, ya que se considera que puede generar una ventaja competitiva y constituir un factor clave para el éxito empresarial. como ya se ha mencionado en las secciones anteriores, la rsc cuenta con una historia más larga en europa que en hispanoamérica, y las cartas de las empresas españolas evidencian que llega a estar institucionalizada. su tema más recurrente es el del buen gobierno, esto es, los procedimientos que adoptan las empresas para que las prácticas de rsc se integren en la cultura organizacional de la empresa, como se observa en este ejemplo: este compromiso con el buen gobierno corporativo y la transparencia, recogido en la misión, visión y valores de la compañía, constituye una de nuestras señas de identidad y ha convertido a iberdrola en una referencia internacional de buenas prácticas, lo que le ha valido ser merecedora de importantes reconocimientos internacionales. e_iberdrola dado que las empresas españolas apuestan prioritariamente por la formalización y el cumplimiento de las directivas acerca de las rsc, siguiendo la recomendación de la legislación europea que data de 2015, la presencia en informes e instancias de monitoreo ocupa el segundo lugar en estas cartas. el ejemplo más notable es el de la carta de presentación de nh almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126112 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 112 hoteles, una memoria de responsabilidad corporativa en lugar de un informe integrado, donde ambos copresidentes se dirigen a los lectores como “queridos accionistas”, aunque obviamente los accionistas solo representan una parte de los grupos de interés. otras empresas, como mahou y pascual, priorizan los temas sociales, pero siempre desde una preocupación de buen gobierno, una política de gestión inspirada por la ética con el objetivo de crear valor compartido para todos los grupos de interés. no obstante, para el total de las empresas españolas las menciones al impacto social de sus acciones alcanzan el mismo porcentaje, un 16  %, que confirma parcialmente los resultados del análisis del corpus de empresas españolas de navas martínez (2012), en el cual destacan principalmente la dimensión social y la ecológica. estos aspectos son justamente los que mayor atención reciben en la parte mexicana de nuestro corpus. parece que las empresas mexicanas no han evolucionado mucho en su concepción de rsc en la última década, como ya en 2005 habían constatado lozano et al. sin embargo, al igual que en chile, la rsc mexicana se asoció originalmente con actividades filantrópicas y programas empresariales diseñados para beneficiar a los trabajadores. aquí se presenta un ejemplo de la parte mexicana del corpus que no usa de manera explícita el término ‘buen gobierno’, a diferencia de las cartas españolas: para lograrlo, iniciamos un proceso evolutivo de ir adaptando el concepto de sostenibilidad a todas las áreas de la organización, buscando que, en el largo plazo, la misma se integre en todos los procesos del negocio y se convierta en una variable crítica en nuestra cultura. m_femsa tanto interna como externamente, la rsc en méxico ha evolucionado de una actividad puramente filantrópica a una práctica empresarial basada en una mayor conciencia social y medioambiental, concretada en una política de buen gobierno con una atención particular hacia empleados y trabajadores. 4.2. motivación por grupos de interés (s ta k eh o l de r dr i v en ), por valores (v a l u ed r iv e n) y por resultados (p e r f o r m an ce dr i v en ) clasificamos como impulsados por los grupos de interés los motivos relacionados con el cumplimiento, la presión, las expectativas (de los propios grupos de interés o de otros, como en el caso del medio ambiente), los estándares y, simplemente, la gestión de las relaciones. así lo refleja este ejemplo del corpus español: las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 113 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 113 el cliente sigue siendo el centro sobre el que pivota nuestra gestión y, a través del “proyecto customer experience”, trabajamos para conseguir que la excelencia en la atención al cliente forme parte de nuestra cultura y se traslade a todas las actividades de la compañía. un buen ejemplo es el nuevo modelo de atención al cliente, diseñado de una manera más ágil, sencilla, cercana y resolutiva, que responde a las necesidades que los clientes trasladan a la compañía. e_fenosa cuando se habla en detalle de un grupo de interés sin indicación de otro estímulo, interpretamos que la relación entre la empresa y dicho grupo de interés es el principio motivador y tiene que ver con una motivación institucional. en la categoría de los valores, agrupamos los fragmentos indicadores de que la política de rsc se basa en la voluntad intrínseca de la organización de llevar a cabo una gestión ética, basada en principios de transparencia, responsabilidad, compromiso con el crecimiento sostenible y no (solo) en la presión de terceros o por razones utilitarias. es posible relacionar este principio con la teoría de la reputación, ya que contribuye a una imagen empresarial ética y respetuosa de las normas y los valores. un ejemplo de este principio motivador de la parte mexicana del corpus: somos conscientes de que a través de este tipo de actividades logramos construir un legado que marque la pauta, siempre basados en los valores que nos rigen y los cuales hemos adoptado como parte de nuestra filosofía corporativa al notar las necesidades de un entorno cambiante como el que ofrece méxico, país donde tenemos presencia desde hace más de 80 años. m_ey cinépolis respecto a los resultados, catalogamos en esta categoría cualquier forma de motivación que sea utilitaria y que considere la rsc como una herramienta o instrumento en beneficio de una empresa. dicho beneficio puede ser una ventaja económica directa, estratégica u orientada al proceso. este enfoque está relacionado con la teoría de la agencia. presentamos un ejemplo del corpus chileno: celebramos importantes logros en la consecución de nuestros objetivos comerciales, de relación con la comunidad y medioambientales, gracias a la implementación de actividades que nos permitieron mejorar los resultados, fortalecer nuestras posiciones de mercado y hacer más eficiente nuestra operación. c_ccu almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126114 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 114 tras analizar los datos según estos criterios, encontramos resultados bastante parecidos en los subcorpora chileno, español y mexicano, como se desprende del gráfico 2. en todas las cartas del corpus, aunque en méxico de forma más llamativa, los grupos de interés o partes interesadas constituyen el principio motivador más importante, mientras que los otros dos principios motivadores parecen contar con la misma relevancia en las tres partes del corpus y presentan repartos muy similares. como se menciona en la sección 2.2 sobre la rsc en el mundo hispánico, la sostenibilidad latinoamericana se ha considerado tradicionalmente entre los valores sociales estrechamente ligados a la filantropía y a la doctrina social católica (haslam, 2007). sin embargo, los importantes acontecimientos económicos, sociales y políticos que tuvieron lugar en esta región en los años noventa hicieron que las empresas se sintieran presionadas para ampliar los motivos de sus actividades de rsc. la combinación de la globalización de la economía, la liberalización de los mercados y una sociedad cada vez más exigente crearon una nueva realidad en la que la rsc evolucionó, desde un pensamiento puramente filantrópico, hasta convertirse en una parte integral de la gestión operativa, en la que la interacción entre los gobiernos, el sector privado y la sociedad recibió un papel central (pesce, 2005). con la aparición de las ong y otras organizaciones de la sociedad civil, las empresas tuvieron que considerar las nuevas cuestiones sociales emergentes, como la desigualdad las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 115 las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 87-111 gráfico 2. en todas las cartas del corpus, aunque en méxico de forma más llamativa, los grupos de interés o partes interesadas constituyen el principio motivador más importante, mientras que los otros dos principios motivadores parecen contar con la misma relevancia en las tres partes del corpus y presentan repartos muy similares. gráfico 2: principios motivadores por país en porcentajes *100. como se menciona en la sección 2.2 sobre la rsc en el mundo hispánico, la sostenibilidad latinoamericana se ha considerado tradicionalmente entre los valores sociales estrechamente ligados a la filantropía y a la doctrina social católica (haslam, 2007). sin embargo, los importantes acontecimientos económicos, sociales y políticos que tuvieron lugar en esta región en los años noventa hicieron que las empresas se sintieran presionadas para ampliar los motivos de sus actividades de rsc. la combinación de la globalización de la economía, la liberalización de los mercados y una sociedad cada vez más exigente crearon una nueva realidad en la que la rsc evolucionó, desde un pensamiento puramente filantrópico, hasta convertirse en una parte integral de la gestión operativa, en la que la interacción entre los gobiernos, el sector privado y la sociedad recibió un papel central (pesce, 2005). con la aparición de las ong y otras organizaciones de la sociedad civil, las empresas tuvieron que considerar las nuevas cuestiones sociales emergentes, como la desigualdad y la reducción de la pobreza, la corrupción y la contaminación ambiental (schmidheiny, 2006). aunque una investigación reciente de amezaga et al. (2013) afirma que en las empresas mexicanas el rendimiento es el principal estímulo para la !" #$ %#%& #' %! !( '( %" ) !) *) () ") &)) &!) +,-./012345.63-72,7890,5:;1/35,<589=8683-7>308?1235,-7,97@7ab&))c7-3d5,7,/79e>,5370301/72,7 61/1d51fg8/, h-61i1 j:k8=3 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 115 y la reducción de la pobreza, la corrupción y la contaminación ambiental (schmidheiny, 2006). aunque una investigación reciente de amezaga et al. (2013) afirma que en las empresas mexicanas el rendimiento es el principal estímulo para la comunicación de la rsc, nuestros datos no corroboran estos resultados, ya que la motivación más destacada es la impulsada por los grupos de interés. además, nuestro corpus constata referencias explícitas a actos de caridad dirigidos hacia grupos determinados de la comunidad, como, por ejemplo, al centro mexicano para la filantropía, que califica como empresas sostenibles a vitro y arca continental, así como a iniciativas de ayuda a las comunidades locales con programas de asistencia en el caso de banamex, cemex, femsa, grupo modelo, soriana y grupo alfa. respecto a chile, nuestros resultados confirman los obtenidos por el estudio de beckman et al. (2009), que demuestran el papel crucial desempeñado por las empresas multinacionales y las ong internacionales en la comunicación de la rsc chilena. ante la presión de las multinacionales competidoras llevan a cabo una política de rsc, lo cual confirma la teoría de la presión mimética, que concluye que las empresas chilenas se dedican principalmente a la rsc a través de un enfoque impulsado por las partes interesadas. aunque en menor medida que en los textos mexicanos, las referencias a la rsc desde una óptica caritativa también se reflejan en cuatro de las cartas chilenas: las de colun, entel, sodimac y banco de chile. no contamos con ningún estudio que aborde exclusivamente las empresas españolas, pero una investigación de maignan y malston (2002) en la que se comparan las prácticas de rsc y sus principios motivadores en europa y estados unidos, muestra que el enfoque basado en los valores prevalece en los ee.uu., mientras que en las empresas europeas se prefiere el basado en el rendimiento, a menudo en combinación con el planteamiento basado en las partes interesadas. nuestros resultados corroboran parcialmente estas conclusiones, dado que el impulso del rendimiento no resulta tan relevante en las cartas españolas aunque señalan, de acuerdo con maignan y malston (2002), que los grupos de interés constituyen su principio motivador principal. se recogen pocas menciones a actos de caridad, limitadas además a dos empresas con notable actividad en hispanoamérica: mapfre y repsol. 4.3. los grupos de interés los grupos de interés ocupan un lugar bastante más relevante en la parte mexicana del corpus que en la chilena y la española. las referencias a las almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126116 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 116 diferentes partes interesadas ascienden al 2,4  % del total del número de palabras en las cartas mexicanas, más o menos un 1 % más que en las cartas chilenas y en las cartas españolas, con un 1,5 % y un 1,3 % respectivamente. en el siguiente gráfico se exponen los resultados del análisis de los diferentes grupos de interés distinguidos en cada parte del corpus, calculados en porcentajes sobre el total de referencias por país. el grupo más importante para la totalidad del corpus es la comunidad, esto es, la sociedad y los diferentes grupos que la componen. a partir de ahí las diferentes partes del corpus divergen. en las cartas chilenas los consumidores ocupan el segundo lugar, equiparándose a los empleados y trabajadores, como se observa en este párrafo: asimismo, actualizamos nuestra política de sostenibilidad, nuestro marco de acción que define nuestras líneas de trabajo en los ejes ciudadanía, medio ambiente, trabajadores y colaboradores. c_metro en las cartas mexicanas los empleados y trabajadores constituyen también el segundo grupo de interés más importante, seguido del medio ambiente. un ejemplo: además, a través de cerveceros de méxico celebramos por segunda vez como industria el día del consumo responsable, en donde más de 30 mil colaboradores visitamos 300 mil puntos de venta en todo el país para difundir la campaña “no te hagas güey”. m_grupo modelo las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 117 las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 87-111 gráfico 3: grupos de interés por país en porcentajes. el grupo más importante para la totalidad del corpus es la comunidad; esto es, la sociedad y los diferentes grupos que la componen. a partir de ahí las diferentes partes del corpus divergen. en las cartas chilenas los consumidores ocupan el segundo lugar, equiparándose a los empleados y trabajadores, como se observa en este párrafo: asimismo, actualizamos nuestra política de sostenibilidad, nuestro marco de acción que define nuestras líneas de trabajo en los ejes ciudadanía, medio ambiente, trabajadores y colaboradores. c_metro en las cartas mexicanas los empleados y trabajadores constituyen también el segundo grupo de interés más importante, seguido del medio ambiente. un ejemplo: además, a través de cerveceros de méxico celebramos por segunda vez como industria el día del consumo responsable, en donde más de 30 mil colaboradores visitamos 300 mil puntos de venta en todo el país para difundir la campaña “no te hagas güey”. m_grupo modelo en las cartas españolas las entidades de monitoreo de la rsc aparecen en segundo lugar, conforme al elevado grado de institucionalización de la rsc en las empresas españolas: el informe se ha realizado siguiendo las directrices del global reporting initiative (gri) en su última versión g4. el ejercicio de identificación de asuntos relevantes (análisis de materialidad) de 2015, nos ha permitido establecer aquellos que son importantes para la empresa y los grupos de interés que han participado este año, clientes, empleados, proveedores y distribuidores, tanto en españa, como en brasil, colombia, méxico y puerto rico. e_mapfre enóictaneserpedstaracsla csredsemrfonislone gr:3ocifágr sejatnecropnesíapropséretniedsopugr . ámopurgel arapetnatropmis purgs etnerids olydadeicso en.gervedipusorcldesetrpa odnárapiuqe,ragulodnugse se :rárpe tesen smoazilautca,mosmiias estune nde uqnóacci serodabart,etneiamb solsanacixemsatracsalen cals es uprocleddadilatotala ritrapa.nenopmocaleuqs op onscoslsnaelhicsatracsaln e rodabartys odaelpmes olase dilibinetsosedacitílopartseuns ejs olenoajabrte deas nílas rest rodarobalocy oretm_ces. ocserodabartysodaelpme als,eoste;dadinumo s etnerids alíhaedr len upaocsedoriumons avrseboseomocs,er edocrmaortseun,dad oiedma,íanadduices ej lenéibmatneyutitsn ms éretniedopurgodnugse :olpemej ecedsévarta,smáead snocl edíadl eiatrsudin ospuntlim300 osmatisvi mupo r_gm.y”üegsgaha salsaloñapsesatracsalen lelaemrnoc,ragulodnugse :asloañpesasesrpem dazilae ra he semrn iel jyp mledodiugse,etnatropmis ám smoarbelecocixémedsorecevre dsámednodne, lebasnopseromus diarpasípaleodo tn eantvedeos m olode edoerotinomedsedaditne azilanoicutistniedodargodavel ol gle dsecirtceri dsa lodneiugi sod y nu.etneibmaoidem mooczevadnugesrop serodaroblaocil m03ed eto n“ñapamacalrundi al crs enecenarap alednóica crs aslen gnitrope rlabo evitaitiin dazilae ra he semrn iel ( igr óirsevamitlúusne) dadilarietamedsisilán(a rpmelaarapstentaropim orps,oeadlpemes,tenicl cixém,aibmolco,lisabr ol gle dsecirtceri dsa lodneiugi sod óicacfiitnediedoicircele.4gnó batseoditirmepahson,5102ed) d aheuqsérteinedsopurgsloyaser otantes,rodiubirstidyes roeedvo epam_e.ocriotreupyo i 38 ca ibér 910(2 ): 87-111 103 gnitrope rlabo evitaitiin setnavelresotnusaednó noseuqsolleuqar ecelb oñateseodaipticrapna , enomcoa,añspeeno 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 117 en las cartas españolas las entidades de monitoreo de la rsc aparecen en segundo lugar, conforme al elevado grado de institucionalización de la rsc en las empresas españolas: el informe se ha realizado siguiendo las directrices del global reporting initiative (gri) en su última versión g4. el ejercicio de identificación de asuntos relevantes (análisis de materialidad) de 2015, nos ha permitido establecer aquellos que son importantes para la empresa y los grupos de interés que han participado este año, clientes, empleados, proveedores y distribuidores, tanto en españa, como en brasil, colombia, méxico y puerto rico. e_mapfre en las cartas españolas los empleados y trabajadores ocupan el quinto lugar, una diferencia notable con respecto a las chilenas y mexicanas. la denominación de este grupo presenta, asimismo, diferencias que van desde los “colaboradores” de las cartas chilenas y, aún más, las mexicanas, hasta los “empleados” o “trabajadores” mencionados en las españolas. es interesante interpretar estos resultados agrupándolos según el citado principio de las tres p: people, planet, profit (elkington, 1997). si unimos las referencias a accionistas, inversores, socios y resultados bajo la noción de beneficio, (profit), las referencias a la comunidad, los empleados, trabajadores, consumidores o clientes como people, y al medio ambiente como planet, obtenemos el siguiente reparto: almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126118 almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 87-111 en las cartas españolas los empleados y trabajadores ocupan el quinto lugar, una diferencia notable con respecto a las chilenas y mexicanas. la denominación de este grupo presenta, asimismo, diferencias que van desde los “colaboradores” de las cartas chilenas y, aún más, las mexicanas, hasta los “empleados” o “trabajadores” mencionados en las españolas. es interesante interpretar estos resultados agrupándolos según el citado principio de las tres p: people, planet, profit (elkington, 1997). si unimos las referencias a accionistas, inversores, socios y resultados bajo la noción de beneficio, (profit), las referencias a la comunidad, los empleados, trabajadores, consumidores o clientes como people, y al medio ambiente como planet, obtenemos el siguiente reparto: gráfico 4: people planet profit por país en porcentajes *10. people ocupa el primer lugar en todo el corpus, aunque con una gran diferencia en las cartas mexicanas, que llegan a doblar a las españolas. profit presenta un valor equivalente en las tres partes del corpus. y vuelve a ser la parte mexicana la que más importancia otorga a planet. 5. discusión y conclusión tanto el análisis de los temas de rsc como los de los principios motivadores y de los diferentes grupos de interés corroboran la hipótesis inicial de que el término de rsc presenta distintos contenidos según el país. de manera muy resumida podemos concluir que en el corpus español priman las referencias a las prácticas de buen gobierno, así como a los grupos de interés externos (institucionales y de !! " !# $ ! %& % & ' $ & # " !' !$ !& !# !" ()*+, -./010 234*56 !"#$%"&!%'(")&!*#+,)&,7898.6:;,8,+87<=,;68>6>0+8?,8/0+0:;0.8@!'8 !"#$%" !%'(") !*#+,) 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 118 people ocupa el primer lugar en todo el corpus, aunque con una gran diferencia en las cartas mexicanas, que llegan a doblar a las españolas. profit presenta un valor equivalente en las tres partes del corpus. y vuelve a ser la parte mexicana la que más importancia otorga a planet. 5. discusión y conclusión tanto el análisis de los temas de rsc como los de los principios motivadores y de los diferentes grupos de interés corroboran la hipótesis inicial de que el término de rsc presenta distintos contenidos según el país. de manera muy resumida podemos concluir que en el corpus español priman las referencias a las prácticas de buen gobierno, así como a los grupos de interés externos (institucionales y de monitoreo), con una rsc inspirada por una motivación institucional y de legitimación. el corpus mexicano, por el contrario, antepone los motivos de los grupos de interés internos y externos, así como los motivos de los directivos mismos, es decir, sus convicciones éticas a la vez que sus aspiraciones lucrativas, con lo que se inscribe en la teoría de los grupos de interés y de la agencia. el corpus chileno muestra una combinación en cuanto a los resultados y confirma así de manera equilibrada tanto la teoría institucional como la de legitimación y la de la agencia. además, estos resultados parecen corroborar las conclusiones de los escasos estudios anteriores llevados a cabo desde una perspectiva transcultural. en primer lugar, desde la bibliografía se puede justificar la homogeneidad de los temas de rsc tratados en las diferentes partes del corpus. demirbag et al. (2017) sostienen que en países con el sistema legislativo de derecho civil es una característica de la rsc tratar equilibradamente varios temas en sus informes de sostenibilidad para comunicar con todos los grupos de interés de la empresa, según dictan las instituciones del país. esta hipótesis se verifica en nuestros análisis de tres países que comparten un sistema legislativo de derecho civil. la segunda constatación es que los principios que motivan las políticas de rsc son diferentes según los países representados en nuestro corpus, como apuntan las investigaciones precedentes. por ejemplo, maignan y ralston (2002) demostraron que la elaboración de informes de sostenibilidad en europa se asocia a menudo con la presión externa de los grupos de interés para cumplir las normas legales y sociales, como muestra nuestro corpus español. sin embargo, según la investigación de amezaga et al. (2013), en las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 119 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 119 méxico la rsc se explicaría principalmente desde un enfoque basado en el rendimiento, mientras que nuestra investigación sobre los documentos mexicanos revela en primer lugar el enfoque basado en los grupos de interés. esto podría deberse al impacto de los estados unidos en méxico, ya que los hallazgos de maignan y ralston (2002) muestran que las empresas estadounidenses se asumen como socialmente responsables y que la rsc se considera un valor fundamental de su cultura corporativa. en la bibliografía especializada encontramos otra posible explicación a esta divergencia basada en el governance environment index (gei) o índice del entorno de gobernanza (li y filer, 2007; wu, li y samsell, 2012; wu, li y selover, 2012). estos autores desarrollaron el gei para explicar por qué en algunos países la inversión extranjera directa es mayor que en otros. concluyeron que se debe a cinco dimensiones que juntas determinan el entorno de gobernanza para las empresas en un país: derechos políticos, sistema legislativo, confianza en las instituciones, libertad de prensa y estándares de contabilidad. en efecto, en países con un gei menos elevado, la inversión extranjera directa es más importante dado que esta permite a los inversores extranjeros participar en la gestión de la empresa y vigilar directamente la rentabilidad de su inversión. en países con un gei más alto esto resulta menos pertinente, ya que un entorno más estable ofrece a los inversores garantías suficientes sobre la gestión transparente y responsable de sus fondos. a partir del gei los autores elaboraron una clasificación con tres grupos de países en función de la base de su confianza y denominados respectivamente rule-based (países cuya confianza se basa en las reglas), relation-based (confianza basada en las relaciones) y family-based (confianza basada en la familia). aunque se originara para examinar los motivos de la tasa de inversión extranjera directa en un país, esta teoría permite interpretar mejor algunos de los resultados de nuestra investigación. según el estudio de wu, li y selover (2012), españa y chile, al igual que los ee.uu., disponen de un sistema de confianza basado en el marco regulatorio de las leyes, según su gei elevado. méxico, sin embargo, se basa en las relaciones interpersonales, lo que implica que, debido a un bajo gei, la confianza en las personas prima sobre la confianza en las instituciones públicas. de esta manera, el peso del impacto social de la caridad filantrópica personal en el corpus mexicano puede deberse a un gei menor que los de chile y españa. refuerza nuestra hipótesis el que miras rodríguez y escobar pérez (2016) observaran que en españa, país con una confianza basada en las leyes, las empresas despliegan una política de rsc mejor elaborada que en las empresas de brasil, donde prima la confianza en las relaciones interpersonales. esta idea sugiere nuevas pistas de investigación, ya que, almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126120 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 120 según wu, li y selover (2012), el gei de países como argentina, colombia y perú es aún menor que el de méxico y califica estos países como basados en las relaciones familiares, con la confianza limitada al núcleo familiar. sin embargo, estos resultados deben interpretarse con cautela y considerar algunas limitaciones de la investigación, como son el tamaño reducido del corpus y de los diferentes sectores. a este respecto, lock y seele (2015) sugieren que al examinar los informes de sostenibilidad es esencial identificar el sector en el que opera una empresa. nuestras investigaciones futuras deberían considerar el posible vínculo entre los sectores empresariales y la política de rsc. es evidente que los riesgos sociales y medioambientales a los que una empresa está expuesta, según el sector al que pertenece, inciden en la comunicación sobre rsc. otra limitación del presente estudio es que se ciñe a un único canal de comunicación, las cartas de los directores generales, sin examinar las prácticas reales de rsc. así, la investigación de seguimiento podría centrarse en la comparación del desempeño de la rsc y su descripción en el informe de sostenibilidad. teniendo en cuenta estas observaciones, podemos concluir que nuestro estudio muestra que las empresas de los países encuestados no se centran en los mismos temas de rsc, ni dicen estar impulsadas por los mismos motivos. esto, obviamente, subraya la necesidad de más investigación para poder trazar un mapa de la rsc en el mundo empresarial de habla hispana y en sus diversos sectores económicos. finalmente, queremos abogar por la inclusión del estudio de la variación geopolítica y económica en las clases de español para fines económicos y comerciales, ya que hemos demostrado que un término tan global y valioso para la economía mundial como la rsc dispone de interpretaciones y prácticas muy diferentes según el contexto local. en cuanto a la explotación didáctica de los resultados de nuestra investigación, opinamos que se apuntan unas ideas concretas en los recientes trabajos metodológicos acerca del currículo de español para los negocios, como el plan curricular para español de negocios de la fundación comillas (martín peris y sabater, 2011) y el capítulo de español de negocios de cervera rodríguez (2012) en la obra de consulta teoría y práctica de la enseñanza-aprendizaje del español para fines específicos (2012). en estos estudios los autores ofrecen pautas claras sobre cómo estructurar los contenidos en diferentes componentes (gramatical, pragmático-discursivo, nocional, cultural y de aprendizaje) para que se integren los contenidos lingüísticos, los técnico-específicos y las las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 121 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 121 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(2005). corporate social responsibility in chile. url: http://publications.apec. org//media/apec/publications/2005/12/corporate-social -responsiblity-in-the-apec-region-current-statusand-implications-december-2005/toc/chile.pdf [02/10/18]. perez-batres, l.a., v.v. miller y j.p. pisan (2010). “csr, sustainability and the meaning of global reporting for latin american corporations”. journal 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 123 almudena basanta es profesora asistente en el departamento de lingüística de la facultad de filosofía y letras de la universidad de amberes. es miembro del grupo de investigación coresco y del language acquisition research laboratory de la universidad de ottawa (canadá). ha trabajado también en diversas instituciones europeas, el instituto cervantes de bruselas, la universidad católica de lovaina y la universidad nacional autónoma de méxico en canadá (unam-canada). su investigación y sus publicaciones se centran en el español como lengua extranjera y para fines específicos (ele/fe), en la adquisición de lenguas y en las lenguas en contacto. lieve vangehuchten es profesora titular de español para fines específicos en la facultad de filosofía y letras de la universidad de amberes y miembro del grupo de investigación coresco. su monografía el léxico del discurso económico empresarial: identificación, selección y enseñanza en español como lengua extranjera con fines específicos (vervuert/ iberoamericana: frankfurt/ madrid, 2005, 776 p., serie lingüística iberoamericana, 26) fue muy bien recibida en los círculos académicos. almudena basanta & lieve vangehuchten ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126124 of business ethics 91(2): 193-209. porter, m.e. y m.r. kramer (2006). “the link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility”. harvard business review 84(12): 78-92. schmidheiny, s. (2006). “a view of corporate citizenship in latin america”. journal of corporate citizenship 21: 21-24. sen, s. y c.b. bhattacharya (2001). “does doing good always lead to doing better? consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility”. journal of marketing research 38(2): 225-243. temmerman, r. (2000). towards new ways of terminology description: the sociocognitiveapproach. ámsterdam/filadelfia: john benjamins. van herck, r., d. vermandere y l. vangehuchten (2019). “language policy evaluation in business settings”. european journal of language policing 11(1): 25-46. vangehuchten, l. (2005). el léxico del discurso económico empresarial: identificación, selección y enseñanza en español como lengua extranjera con fines específicos. madrid: iberoamericana. vangehuchten, l. y a. moreno bruna (2015). “la enseñanza del español para fines económicos y comerciales hoy día: hacia un nuevo diseño del curso elefec” en a. van hooft, a. escofet, k. jauregui, b. de jonge, p. lorente y l. vangehuchten (eds.), el español lengua de la comunicación profesional, 75-87. madrid: secretaría general técnica. woo, d. y h. giles (2017). “language attitudes and intergroup dynamics in multilingual organizations”. international journal of cross cultural management 17(1): 39-52. wu, j., s. li y d.d. selover (2012). “foreign direct investment vs. foreign portfolio investment”. management international review 52: 643-670. wu, j., s. li y d. samsell (2012). “why some countries trade more, some trade less, some trade almost nothing: the effect of the governance environment on trade flows”. international business review 21: 225-238. yedder, m.b. y f. zaddem (2009). “la responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise (rse), voie de conciliation ou terrain d’affrontements?”. revue multidisciplinaire sur l’emploi, le syndicalisme et le travail 4(1): 84-103. 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 124 notas 1 trabajo integrado en un proyecto internacional del grupo de investigación coresco (www.uantwerpen.be/coresco). 2 kpmg, gri & unep, 2013, pp. 13-14. 3 comunidad de estados latinoamericanos y caribeños http://www.sela.org/celac/ 4 fundación ue-alc, https://eulacfoundation.org/es 5 para un estado de la cuestión ver cornuel, habisch y kletz (2010). 6 gri sustainability reporting standards, https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/ 7 united nations global compact standards, https://www.unglobalcompact.org/ 8 guía iso sobre responsabilidad social: https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/archive/pdf/en/discovering_iso_26000-es.pdf 9 en caso de ausencia de una memoria de sostenibilidad, se han consultado los informes anuales integrados, dado que estos se componen de una sección de informe anual tradicional y otra dedicada a la rsc. 10 carta del informe del 2016, porque ccu no publicó un informe de sostenibilidad 2015. 11 carta del informe de sostenibilidad de aeroméxico para dos años: 2015 y 2016. 12 carta del informe del 2017, el primero publicado por soriana. las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc ibérica 38 (2019): 99-126 125 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 125 03 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:48 página 126 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 17-28 issn 1139-7241 abstract genre analysis of academic and professional texts has traditionally been the focus of much of esp (english for specific purposes) inspired language descriptions. the emphasis in this form of analysis was, and still continues to be, on the use of text-internal linguistic resources, in particular, on the use of formal and functional properties of language, especially analysis of rhetorical “moves” with relatively limited focus on context or text-external resources, which play an important role in the socio-pragmatics of academic and professional genres. this paper is an attempt to critically reflect on a general overview of this approach to the analysis of professional genres, while at the same, extending the scope of the construction, interpretation and use of professional genres by focusing on the academic and professional “practices” that most academics and professional experts are engaged in as part of their daily routine within what bhatia (2010) calls “socio-pragmatic space” in which such professional genres invariably function. keywords: (critical) genre analysis, interdiscursivity, professional discourse, socio-pragmatic space, text-internal and text-external resources. resumen reflexiones críticas sobre el análisis de género tradicionalmente, los estudios relativos al análisis de textos académicos y profesionales como género han centrado e inspirado las descripciones lingüísticas del área de inglés para fines específicos (ife). esta forma de análisis ha hecho hincapié, y lo sigue haciendo, en el uso de recursos lingüísticos textuales internos, y concretamente en el uso de las propiedades formales y funcionales del lenguaje, como el análisis de los “movimientos” retóricos, relativamente limitados al contexto o a los recursos textuales externos, que juegan un papel importante en las características socio-pragmáticas de los géneros académicos y profesionales. el presente trabajo pretende reflexionar de critical reflections on genre analysis vijay k. bhatia city university of hong kong (china) vjkbhatia1@gmail.com 17 ibérica 24 (2012): 17-28 vijay k. bhatia forma crítica sobre la visión general de este enfoque para el análisis de los géneros profesionales, y al mismo tiempo ampliar el alcance de la construcción, la interpretación y el uso de dichos géneros centrándose en la “práctica” académica y profesional a la que los académicos y profesionales dedican parte de su quehacer diario, dentro de lo que bhatia (2010) denomina “espacio sociopragmático” y donde los géneros profesionales funcionan invariablemente. palabras clave: análisis (crítico) de géneros, interdiscursividad, discurso profesional, espacio socio-pragmático, inglés para fines específicos, recursos textuales internos y externos. prologue i would like to reflect on my engagement with genre in three main episodes focusing on “genre analysis”, “critical genre analysis” and “interdiscursivity”, although there is also a preliminary episode that begins with my interest in and engagement with legal discourse. so my reflective narrative begins with legal discourse, which was my first interest. in fact, it was my involvement in legal discourse that brought me to genre analysis. most of my work in law has focused on written discourse, in particular on legislation. what i have seen in the last four decades of my involvement in the analysis of legal genres is that although it is easy to criticize how parliamentary counsels draft legislation, it is very difficult to understand why it is written the way it is. there are issues of transparency, power, control, jurisdiction, and accessibility involved. much of the literature on plain language law is biased toward an excessive concern for accessibility, often at the cost of other factors. one needs to consider other issues such as who is given the power to interpret the genre and who ultimately will be assigned control over its interpretation, and in what sort of jurisdiction and socio-political context. once we consider all these issues, we realize that it is best to consider such genres on their own terms rather than imposing any single criterion to judge its construction, use and interpretation. so right from the beginning of my engagement with legal genres the question that has always been on mind, and to some extent it still does, is: “why do these and, for that matter, other professionals write the way they do?” the quest for the answer to this most important question led me to genre theory, as i know it even today. so let me reflect on my involvement and understanding of genre theory, with special emphasis on professional genres. 18 episode one: genre analysis ever since the early conceptualisation of genre theory in the united kingdom in 1980s i have been partly instrumental in developing it from a purely linguistic analysis of academic and professional genres to the analysis of professional practices and disciplinary cultures, thus integrating textual, strategic or socio-pragmatic, and other critical aspects of genre construction, interpretation, use, and exploitation in various professional contexts. what i would like to do in this narrative is to offer purely personal reflections on some of the critical developments in this theory in the last three decades. my own view of genre, as discussed in my 1993 book on analysing genre: language use in professional settings primarily as an instance of linguistic and rhetorical analysis, has developed into a more comprehensive multiperspective and multidimensional view of genre analysis in my 2004 book on worlds of written discourse: a genre-based view. in its early form, genre theory was primarily concerned with the application of genre analysis to develop pedagogical solutions for esp classrooms. for more than thirty years now it is still considered perhaps the most popular and useful tool to analyse academic and professional genres for esp applications. much of the credit for its exceptional achievement goes to the seminal works of swales (1990 & 2004) and bhatia (1993) on the development of genre theory to analyse academic and professional genres, with an eye on applications to esp, especially those used in research, legal, and business contexts. in my later work (bhatia, 2004), which was an attempt to develop it further in order to understand the much more complex and dynamic real world of written discourse, my intention was to move away from pedagogic applications to esp, firstly to focus on the world of professions, and secondly, to be able to see as much of the elephant as possible, as the saying goes, rather than only a part of it like the six blind men. i believe that all frameworks of discourse and genre analysis offer useful insights about specific aspects of language use in typical contexts, but most of them, on their own, can offer only a partial view of complete genres, which are essentially multidimensional. therefore, it is only by combining various perspectives and frameworks that one can have a more complete view of the elephant. hence, there was a need to combine methodologies and devise multidimensional and multi-perspective frameworks. my attempt to propose a three-space model was an attempt in this direction (bhatia, 2004). critical reflections on genre analysis ibérica 24 (2012): 17-28 19 in the context of this development, it is important to point out that in the early years of genre analysis, especially in the 1990s, there was relatively little direct discourse analytical work in the available literature published in other disciplinary fields; the situation however in the last few years changed considerably as many professions have made interesting claims about the study of organisations, professions and institutions based on evidence coming from different kinds of analyses of discourse, in particular critical discourse analysis (cda). there has been a substantial increase in research efforts to consider the contributions of discourse analytical studies in disciplinary fields such as law, medicine and healthcare, accounting and management, science and technology, where there is now a better understanding of the role of language not only in the construction and dissemination of disciplinary knowledge, but also in the conduct of professional practices (see for instance, mumby & stohl, 1996; grant, keenoy & oswick, 2001; chiapello & fairclough, 2002; grant & hardy, 2004; grant, hardy et al., 2004a & 2004b). there is a significant recognition of the fact that many of these practices can be better understood and studied on the basis of communicative behaviour to achieve specific disciplinary and professional objectives rather than just on the basis of disciplinary theories. i initiated a project that investigated corporate disclosure practices through their typical communicative strategies of putting together a diverse range of discourses (accounting, financial, public relations, and legal) to promote their corporate image and interests, especially in times when they faced adverse corporate results, so as to control any drastic share price movement in the stock market. to my amazement, i discovered that it was not simply a matter of designing and constructing routine corporate documents, such as the annual corporate reports, but was part of a strategically implemented corporate strategy to exploit interdiscursive space to achieve often complex and intricate corporate objectives through what i have referred to as “interdiscursivity” (bhatia, 2010) to which i shall return in episode three. this idea of studying professional practice through interdiscursive exploitation of linguistic and other semiotic resources within sociopragmatic space was also the object of undertaking yet another project, in which i had collaboration from research teams from more than twenty countries consisting of lawyers and arbitrators, both from the academy as well as from the respective professions, and also discourse and genre analysts, which investigated the so-called “colonization” of arbitration vijay k. bhatia ibérica 24 (2012): 17-2820 practices by litigation processes and procedures (see bhatia et al. 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 & forthcoming). to give a brief background to this study let me point out that arbitration was originally proposed as an “alternative” to litigation in order to provide a flexible, economic, speedy, informal, and private process of resolving commercial disputes. although arbitration awards, which are equivalent to court judgments in effect, are final and enforceable, parties at dispute often look for opportunities to go to the court when the outcome is not to their liking. to make it possible, they often choose legal experts as arbitrators and counsels, as they are likely to be more accomplished in looking for opportunities to challenge a particular award. this large-scale involvement of legal practitioners in arbitration practice leads to an increasing mixture of rule-related discourses as arbitration becomes, as it were, “colonized” by litigation practices, threatening to undermine the integrity of arbitration practice, and in the process thus compromising the spirit of arbitration as a non-legal practice. the evidence for all these studies referred to above came from the typical use of communicative behaviour, both spoken as well as written, of the participants and practitioners from different countries, disciplinary and professional practices and cultures, rather than just the disciplinary theories. so in the coming few years, we are more likely to find a number of discourse-based studies being published in journals of these disciplines, such as management, medicine, arbitration, etc. the picture that emerges from our current understanding of the field indicates that in addition to esp or more appropriately lsp, discourse and genre analysis can contribute significantly to our understanding of organisational and institutional practices, in addition to its current applications to discursive and professional practices, in both academic as well as professional contexts. in fact, i would like to go further to suggest implications of current developments in genre theory for areas such as organisational communication, translation and interpretation, and document and information design. the emerging picture can be represented as in figure 1. critical reflections on genre analysis ibérica 24 (2012): 17-28 21 emphasis in esp-motivated genre analysis (ga) thus is on the production of meaning through the use of linguistic, rhetorical, and sometimes other semiotic resources, with some attention paid to the professional context it is situated in, and the communicative purposes it tends to serve; however, very little attention is generally paid to the way this production and communication of meaning is actually constrained and eventually realised, and in what ways this meaning is intended to be part of professional practices, in addition to what goes into its production, reception and consumption of knowledge so constructed. this emphasis on academic and professional practice in addition to discursive actions encourages an additional perspective to genre analysis, with a focus on what i would like to call “discursive performance”, which extends the scope of analysis from genres as discursive products to professional practice that all discursive acts tend to accomplish. i have made an attempt to refer to this form of analysis as “critical genre analysis” (see for details, bhatia, 2008a, 2008b & 2010). let me give more substance to what i mean by this. episode two: critical genre analysis as briefly introduced here, critical genre analysis (cga) is an attempt to extend genre theory beyond the analyses of semiotic resources used in professional genres to understand and clarify professional practices or actions in typical academic and professional contexts. i would like to clarify vijay k. bhatia ibérica 24 (2012): 17-2822 figure 1. genre analysis and lsp. discourse and genre analysis organizational and institutional practices languages for specific purposes discursive and professional practices english for professional communication english for academic communication organizational communication translation and interpretation document and information design that in spite of apparent similarities, cga is meant to be different from critical discourse analysis (cda). cda draws on the critical theory as cultural critique, and focuses on social relations of domination, typically grounded in class relations, including race and gender, specifically focusing on their oppressive sides. cda thus tends to analyze social structures in such a way that they are viewed as invulnerable. it encourages recognition of domination without offering resources for action against such practices. cda thus examines social structures and relations and analyzes them in such a way that the analyses encourage the power and domination to disseminate oppressive actions in somewhat unequal social settings. cga, on the other hand, is a way of “demystifying” professional practice through the medium of genres. an interesting aspect of this analysis is that it focuses as much on generic artefacts, as on professional practices, as much on what is explicitly or implicitly said in genres, as on what is not said, as much on socially recognized communicative purposes, as on “private intentions” (bhatia, 1995) that professional writers tend to express in order to understand professional practices or actions of the members of corporations, institutions and professional organizations. in cga therefore no professional, institutional, or organizational practices are assumed but negotiated. they seem to be in a constant struggle between competing interests. cga with its focus on practice considers individual members of professional organizations, though bound by their common goals and objectives, still having enough flexibility to incorporate “private intentions” within the concepts of professionally shared values, genre conventions, and professional cultures. a notion of practice thus describes the relation between shared values and flexibility as dynamically complex, in that institutional and organizational ideologies, and constraints are often conventionalized and standardized, but not always static or inflexible. in professional communication, a theory of practice is a function of organizational and institutional structures as evident in the everyday activities of professionals, and conditions of production and reception are crucial. besides, in professional communication in the age of computer-mediated communication, cga also considers the overwhelming power and influence of technology in professional life. thus professional practices give shape to actions in specific professional contexts, they get established so long as the members of the professional community continue to follow the conventions, which are shared by the members of a specific professional discourse community. cga makes a commitment, not only to critical reflections on genre analysis ibérica 24 (2012): 17-28 23 describe, but also to explain, clarify, and “demystify” professional practice. in this sense, cga is not an initiative to change professional practices of individual disciplinary, institutional, and corporate communities, but to understand how professional writers use the language to achieve the objectives of their professions. episode three: interdiscursivity one of the most important concepts that seem to be crucial to the study of professional genres and practices is what has been referred to as “interdiscursivity” (bhatia, 2010). i have noticed that within the concept of genre and professional practice, one can see expert professional writers constantly operating within and across generic boundaries creating new but essentially related and/or hybrid (both mixed and embedded) forms to give expression to their “private intentions” within the socially accepted communicative practices and shared generic norms (bhatia, 1995; fairclough, 1995). interdiscursivity is invariably across discursive events that may be genres, professional activities, or even more generally professional cultures. it is often based on shared generic or contextual characteristics across two or more discursive constructs and some understanding of these shared features is a necessary condition to an adequate understanding of the new construct. interdiscursivity thus can be viewed as a function of “appropriation of generic resources” across three kinds of contextual and other text-external resources: genres, professional practices, and professional cultures. from the point of view of genre theory, especially in the context of professional communication, it is necessary to distinguish appropriations across text-internal and text-external resources, the former often viewed as intertextuality, and the latter as interdiscursivity. intertextuality operates within what we refer to as “textual space” and has been widely studied (kristeva, 1980; foucault, 1981; bakhtin, 1986; fairclough, 1995); however, a vast majority of appropriations often take place across text-external semiotic resources at other levels of professional, institutional and disciplinary discourses, such as genres, professional, institutional, and disciplinary practices, and professional, institutional and disciplinary cultures to meet socially shared professional, institutional, and disciplinary expectations and objectives, and sometimes to achieve “private intentions”. vijay k. bhatia ibérica 24 (2012): 17-2824 these latter forms of appropriations that operate in what could be viewed as “socio-pragmatic space” are essentially interdiscursive in nature. it may be pointed out that often all these appropriations, whether text-internal or textexternal, discursively operate simultaneously at all levels of discourse to realise the intended meaning, and have been widely used in the recontextualization, reframing, resemiotisation or reformulations of existing discourses and genres into novel or hybrid forms. in addition to this, appropriation of generic resources is also very common in various forms of hybrids, such as mixing, embedding and bending of genres (see for details bhatia, 2004, 2008a, 2008b & 2010). the general picture representing interdiscursivity in genre theory can be summarised as in figure 2. i have already mentioned instances of interdiscursivity from at least two professional contexts to illustrate that it operates at all levels, generic, professional practice, and professional culture, but also to claim that it not only allows a more rigorous and comprehensive analysis of genres in and as professional practice, but at the same time, also encourages evidenced-based studies of professional and institutional practices and cultures through the genres they often use. epilogue in this personal reflective narration of my engagement with genre analysis over more than three decades, i have made an attempt to account for the critical reflections on genre analysis ibérica 24 (2012): 17-28 25 figure 2. interdiscursivity in genre theory. i interdiscursivity in genre theory appropriation of generic resources recontextualization reframing resemiotisation reformulation hybridity genre-mixing genre-embedding genre bending developments in genre theory right from its early conceptualisation in swales (1981 & 1990) and bhatia (1993) through to its later developments as in bhatia (2004, 2008a, 2008b & 2010). the account is significant in several respects. firstly, it traces the development of genre theory from a predominantly lexico-grammatical and rhetorical analysis of genres towards a more interdiscursive and critical genre analysis and understanding of professional practice. it tends to offer a useful procedure for the study of professional practices, which otherwise are often discussed and explained through organizational, management, and other institutional theories (marshak et al., 2000; keenoy & oswick, 2001; philips & hardy, 2002; boje, oswick & ford, 2004; hardy et al., 2004). it thus presents a complementary methodological alternative in the form of genre-based investigations of professional, organizational and institutional practices. secondly, it indicates a development of genre theory from a purely esp or lsp pedagogic application to a more critical engagement leading to demystification of the realities of the professional world. thirdly, it argues for a multidimensional and multi-perspective methodological framework to understand and analyse professional and academic genres, professional practices, and disciplinary and professional cultures as comprehensively as possible. at a more theoretical level, it thus creates a valuable research space for the development of a more comprehensive and delicate system of interdiscursivity in genre theory (bhatia, 2010), which has not been sufficiently explored in the current literature on genre. more generally, it underpins the importance of a multidimensional and multi-perspective view of genre analysis, which, i believe, has tremendous potential for the future of genre studies. however, i must emphasize that this reflective account represents a subjective and very much personal and continual engagement with genre theory. i must close this critical account with the reminder that the story is not complete yet, and i am sure there will be much more to reflect on in the years to come. [paper received 15 july 2012] [revised paper accepted 31 july 2012] references vijay k. bhatia ibérica 24 (2012): 17-2826 bakhtin, m.m. (1986). speech genres and other late essays. austin: university of texas press. bhatia, v.k. (1993). analysing genre: language use in professional settings. london: longman. bhatia, v.k. (1995). “genre-mixing and in professional communication: the case of ‘private vijay k. bhatia, retired from city university of hong kong, has research interests in genre analysis of academic and professional discourses in legal, business, newspaper, advertising contexts. he has widely published in all these areas as research articles, books chapters, edited volumes, and critical reflections on genre analysis ibérica 24 (2012): 17-28 27 intentions’ v. ‘socially recognised purposes’” in p. bruthiaux, t. boswood & b. bertha (eds.), explorations in english for professional communication, 1-19. hong kong: city university of hong kong. bhatia, v.k. (2004). worlds of written discourse: a genre-based view. london: continuum. bhatia, v.k. (2008a). “genre analysis, esp and professional practice”. english for specific purposes 27: 161-174. bhatia, v.k. (2008b). “towards critical genre analysis” in v.k. bhatia, j. flowerdew, & r. jones (eds.), advances in discourse studies, 166-177. london: routledge. bhatia, v.k. (2010). “interdiscursivity in professional communication”. discourse and communication 21: 32-50. bhatia, v.k., c.n. candlin & m. gotti (eds.) (2003). arbitration in europe: legal discourse in a multilingual and multicultural context. bern: peter lang. bhatia, v.k., c.n. candlin & j. engberg (eds.) (2008). legal discourse across cultures and systems. hong kong: hku press. bhatia, v.k., c.n. candlin & p. evengilisti (eds.) (2009). legal discourse in multicultural contexts. bern: peter lang. bhatia v.k., c.n. candlin & m. gotti (eds.) (2010). the discourses of dispute resolution. bern: peter lang. bhatia, v.k., c.n. candlin & m. gotti (eds.) (2012). arbitration practice and discourse: issues, challenges and prospects. london: ashgate publishing. bhatia, v.k. & g. garzone (forthcoming). discourse analysis of arbitration awards. newcastle upon tyne: cambridge scholars. boje, d., c. oswick, j. ford (eds.) (2004). “language and organization: the doing of discourse”. academy of management review 29: 571-577. chiapello, e. & n. fairclough (2002). “understanding the new management ideology: a transdisciplinary contribution from critical discourse analysis and new sociology of capitalism”. discourse & society 13: 185-208. foucault, m. (1981). the archaeology of knowledge. new york: pantheon books. grant, d. & c. hardy (2004). “introduction: struggles with organizational discourse”. organization studies 25: 5-13. grant, d., c. hardy, c. oswick & l.l. putman (eds.) (2004a). the sage handbook of organizational discourse. london: sage. grant, d., c. hardy, c. oswick & l.l. putnam (2004b). “introduction: organizational discourse, exploring the field” in grant et al. (eds.), 1-36. grant, d., t. keenoy & c. oswick (2001). “organizational discourse: key contributions and challenges”. international studies of management and organization 31: 5-24. hardy, c., d. grant, t. keenoy, c. oswick & n. philips (eds.) (2004). “organizational discourse”. special issue of organization studies 25(1). kristeva j. (1980). “word, dialogue and novel” in j. kristeva (ed.), desire in language, 64-91. oxford: blackwell. marshak, r.j., t. keenoy, c. oswick & d. grant (2000). “from outer words to inner worlds”. the journal of applied behavioral science 36: 245258. mumby, d.k. & c. stohl (1991). “power and discourse in organizational studies: absence and the dialectic of control”. discourse and society 2: 313-332. philips, n. & c. hardy (2002). discourse analysis: investigating processes of social construction. thousand oaks: sage publications. swales, j.m. (1981). aspects of article introductions. aston esp research report, lsu. birmingham: the university of aston in birmingham. swales, j.m., (1990). genre analysis, english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. individually written books. two of his books analysing genre: language use in professional settings (longman, 1993) and worlds of written discourse: a genrebased view (continuum, 2004) are widely used by researchers in genre theory and practice. some of his recent research projects include analyzing genrebending in corporate disclosure documents, and international arbitration practice: a discourse analytical study in which he leads research teams from more than 20 countries. vijay k. bhatia ibérica 24 (2012): 17-2828 iberica 13 ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-70 abstract in linguistics a corpus typically involves a finite body of texts which are considered to be representative of a particular variety of language at a specific time (mcenery & wilson, 2001). those are the assumptions we have had in mind in this metaphor corpus based on business press headlines. our body of texts is a finite number of headlines drawn from the specific field of the business sections of three newspapers: financial times, el país and el mundo, published over a period running from january to july 2003. compiling a small corpus of non-literal instantiations as different authors have done (cortés de los ríos, 2001; kövecses, 2002; charteris-black, 2003; koller, 2004; deignan, 2005; and others) will enable us first to identify whether the contextual meaning of a word or a multiword unit of headline contrasts with its basic meaning and whether the contextual meaning can be understood by comparison with that basic meaning, and then to categorize, both in the spanish and in the british press, the different linguistic realizations of a headline in terms of their syntactic structure, metaphor foci and source domains. keywords: corpus, business, headlines, metaphors, hand-searched survey. resumen corpus metaf�rico de titulares en la prensa econ�mica en lingüística un corpus está formado por un número determinado de textos que se consideran representativos de un determinado aspecto lingüístico en un periodo de tiempo determinado (mcenery y wilson, 2001). al plantearnos la construcción de un corpus metafórico limitado a los titulares de la prensa económica se tiene presente dichos supuestos. los textos de nuestro corpus están extraídos de las secciones de negocios de tres periódicos financial times, el país y el mundo, publicados entre enero y julio de 2003. la recopilación de los a metaphor corpus in business press headlines1 honesto herrera soler universidad complutense de madrid (spain) hherrera@ccee.ucm.es 51 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 51 ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-70 honesto herrera soler titulares que tienen una interpretación no-literal, que otros autores han estudiado (cortés de los ríos, 2001; kövecses, 2002; charteris-black, 2003; koller, 2004; deignan, 2005; entre otros) nos permitirá primero identificar si el significado contextual de una unidad léxica contrasta con el significado básico y si se puede entender a través de la comparación para posteriormente categorizar, tanto en los titulares de la prensa económica británica como en los de la española, las distintas realizaciones lingüísticas de los titulares con relación a su estructura sintáctica, focos metafóricos y dominios fuente. palabras clave: corpus, negocios, titulares, metáforas, búsqueda manual. 1. introduction “texts will be judged not only on their content but also on their organisation and textual impact” (goatly, 1997: 1). this claim underlies a key issue raised in this article for, if the message is important, no less so is the way it is presented. this fact probably applies to headlines more than to any other text type. hence, the priority given to some terms and not to others and the metaphoric expressions used are crucially significant and demand a close analysis of all the elements headlines are built on. 1.1. the importance of headlines in the press headlines are multifunctional. they try to attract the reader’s attention to indicate the writer’s attitude to the story, to provide clues of what is going on or to highlight the focus of the article (morley, 1998). the density of that item of information in the press together with the limited space available force headlines writers or sub-editors to use terms which may be taken as unusual or sensational and which must necessarily be short. it is precisely in this part of the report where greatest efforts are made to deploy the overt or covert ideology by giving prominence to one aspect of the story rather than another (bell, 1991) or by structuring news in such a way that allow for reordering, prioritising and highlighting the events reported. to reach these aims journalists usually resort to the use of metaphors. koller (2004) points out, by using particular metaphors in the headlines of any front page, reporters may define a topic, favour a specific conceptualisation and persuade readers to share their metaphors. although facts are facts in the business world it is always the journalists’ perspective that readers come across. thus, it is advisable to bear in mind goatly’s (1997: 155) point of view on metaphors: 52 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 52 metaphor […] is not a mere reflection of pre-existing objective reality but a construction of reality, through a categorisation entailing the selection of some features as critical and others as non-critical, metaphors can consciously be used to construct [...] reality. the role metaphors play in transmitting the message is of such importance that it warrants an approach from a cognitive perspective. researchers (cubo de severino et al., 2001; hawkins, 2001; sandikcioglu, 2001; white & herrera soler, 2003; herrera soler, 2006a & 2006b) have highlighted the importance of metaphor in conveying ideology. their efforts have been addressed to unveiling the use of metaphors in establishing sometimes a marked, though most often a hidden ideology in the press, since even what is taken as neutral style in presenting the news presupposes a consensus reflecting the underlying belief and value system of particular groups (fowler, 1991). the challenge, therefore, of journalists is not only how to symbolise their ideas but also how to succeed in communicating them. their efforts will be addressed to finding a suitable structure, symbol, word or schema that allows them to transmit the intended message in a manner that attracts the reader’s attention. 1.2. need for a specific corpus two assumptions have to be faced when creating a specific corpus of metaphoric expressions. on the one hand, to have some knowledge of the field of study is necessary and, on the other, a certain background of the main tenets of conceptual metaphor theory is required. the importance of the latter is perceived in lakoff & johnson’s (1980) words when they argue that metaphor plays a central role in thought, and is indispensable to both thought and language. lakoff (1993) goes on to claim that many abstract topics central to our existence are understood entirely through metaphors. the former assumption, i.e. knowledge and experience in the business field, is something that will facilitate the researcher’s task. this background will also contribute first to the identification of the metaphorical expression and then to its categorisation. both assumptions are necessary to interpret headlines like the following: (1) una patata caliente sobre el tejado de rodrigo rato (“a hot potato on rodrigo rato’s roof ”) [em, april 27] using deignan’s (2005) terms, in this headline there are two noun phrases “hot potato” and “roof ” that are used to talk about entities other than those a metaphor corpus in business press headlines1 ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-70 53 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 53 referred to by their most basic meaning. it is easier to access abstract concepts such as “drastic measures” or “responsibility” in the business world through concrete terms such as “hot potato” and “roof ”, and that is what metaphors do. on the other hand, the knowledge shared between journalists and readers of the spanish political scene facilitates the understanding of the “hot potato” metaphor on rodrigo rato’s “roof ”. at the time of the news, it was well known that he was the chancellor of the spanish exchequer responsible for taxes and for deciding how the government was to spend its money. corpora usually rely either on concordance programs or on a hand-searched process. the concordance programs and the hand-searched surveys are different tools each with their respective pros and cons. to follow one or the other or to combine both systems depends on the aim of the intended research. by using concordance programs specific tokens or chunks of words are searched automatically, a system that favours an accurate quantitative analysis. but when personal surveys are conducted, automatism is not so highly prized as researchers interpretations are constantly required. this alternative to the computer search fosters second readings and is a good resource for quality analysis rather than for quantitative analysis. this qualitative approach may provide clues for significant patterns that in turn may become starting points for automatic searches in other corpora. the creation of this specific metaphoric headline corpus opts for a handsearched survey as the aim is to look for the terms and specific patterns journalists use so as to attract, have an impact on and persuade readers. it is a challenge then, to find out the way journalists use language in handling the intended message. to unveil journalists’ strategies drove us, at the very beginning, to create a corpus of all instantiations that appeared in the newspapers chosen. both literal and non-literal headlines were considered in a pilot study. but the data obtained soon showed how the use of the figurative outnumbered the literal ones (herrera et al., 2006). that evidence was the main argument to create a corpus based only on the non-literal headlines of the business press. 2. the present study 2.1. aims this study will be addressed firstly to identifying the non-literal business press headlines and secondly to analysing their (a) syntactic structure; (b) honesto herrera soler ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-7054 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 54 metaphor foci; and (c) source domains and the vehicle terms used. the purpose of this approach, in the short term, i.e. in this article, is to contribute to a better understanding of the business press target domains, and, in the long term, to facilitate foreign language learning, and more specifically help esp learners cope with figurative expressions (lazar, 1996; deignan et al., 1997; boers, 2000; fuertes et al., 2003; littlemore & low, 2006). 2.2. different models there are different criteria with regard to the identification and classification of source and target domains. they could be summarized as those that opt for specific clusters of metaphors (kövecses, 2002; koller, 2004) and those such as boers (2003) and deignan (2003) who are more concerned with cross-cultural variation in metaphor usage. additionally, an in-between position may be found in charteris-black (2003) and musolff (2005). an overview of these specific corpora will provide us with an insight into the different models. kövecses (2002) tries to find out which “sources” and “targets” occur most frequently by resorting to the following dictionaries: cobuild metaphor dictionary, the metaphor section of rodale´s phrase finder, the metaphors dictionary, the dictionary of everyday english metaphors, roget´s theasurus, etc. kövecses goes through a series of clusters that are linked directly or indirectly to the human body. abstract targets are understood in terms of salient features of the human body, which we know so well. thus, the “source domains” he works with could be ascribed to the following series of clusters: 1. expressions that involve “parts of the body”: head, face, legs, hands, back, bones, shoulders, etc. 2. expressions related to “properties” of this human body: health and illness 3. expressions referring to “activities” in which the human being is involved: economic transactions, entertainments (games and sports), or those related to cooking and nurturing 4. expressions concerned with “human experiences”: heat and cold, light and darkness, forces or movement a metaphor corpus in business press headlines1 ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-70 55 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 55 5. expressions linked to “objects” human beings use to get along: buildings and constructions, machines and tools. as for the “target domains” he focuses on internal and external human behaviour. the target domains are associated with: 1. psychological and mental states and events emotion, desire, morality, thought 2. social groups society, politics, economy, human relationships, communication 3. personal experiences and events time, life, religion. koller’s (2004) model works with electronic text corpora based on collections. her sources are magazines and newspaper articles on two issues in the field of the business press, “marketing and sales” on the one hand, and “mergers and acquisitions” on the other. her instantiations are drawn from business week, fortune, the economist and financial times in issues running between 1996-2001. her dominant clusters are linked to war, sports and games, with romance serving as an alternative in matters dealing with “marketing and sales”. metaphoric expressions gather round fighting, mating and feeding, with dancing being the alternative metaphor, when dealing with “mergers and acquisitions”. this corpus relies on a lexical field approach through lemmas. thus, in the case of the war domain, “blitz”, “campaign”, “cut-throat”, “field” and “launch” appear as key terms for the “marketing and sales” register. whereas when dealing with “mergers and acquisitions” the lemmas studied are different: “defence”, “hostility”, “raid”, “victim” and “vulnerability”. some of the lemmas she works on are split up into lexemes such as: • battle → battle, battlefield, battleground, to battle, etc.; or • sports in the western world → football, basketball, baseball, etc. koller resorts to deignan’s (1999) tuning devices of “intensification and attenuation” in her analysis of prefixes and attributes, progressive aspect and intensive trajectory of the linguistic realisation. thirdly, cross-cultural corpora are found in deignan et al. (1998), who are concerned with several clusters of english metaphors not used in spanish, and spanish metaphors not used in english: “horse-racing” versus “bullfighting” and “religion”. deignan (2003) focuses her research on the values, beliefs and interests that inform the different cultures. in metaphor and corpus honesto herrera soler ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-7056 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 56 linguistics (2005), still working with data drawn from large computerised corpus, her focal point is on naturally-occurring citations of words taken from many different sources. deignan’s aim in this corpus is to deal with typical language patterns rather than the innovative or literary metaphoric expressions. a cross-cultural approach is also observed in studies on national stereotypes referring to “gardening” in english culture versus “food” in french culture in boers & demecheleer (1997) and boers (2003) where it is suggested that the figurative language of a community might be seen as a reflection of that community’s conventional patterns of thought or world views. deignan and boers show similar schemes in their contrastive studies, though the perspective is different. boers is more interested in showing the particular source-target mappings, value-judgments associated with the source or target domains of shared mappings and the degree of pervasiveness of metaphor as such, whereas deignan (2003) is more involved in studying factors such as folk beliefs about attributes of the source domain that could explain possible differences across cultures. fourthly, an in-between position is found in charteris-black’s (2003) model in his comparative study of metaphor in english and malay. in this case, the data, restricted to the “human body and its parts”, he works with are drawn from english and malay dictionaries. by applying contrastive models to the phraseology of particular source domains he shows the influence of cultural values and beliefs on the metaphorical expressions used. for instance, in english there is a tendency to use metaphors referring to the “heart” as the centre of feeling whereas for malay feelings are referred to the “liver” in accordance with their traditional beliefs. a similar method is found in musolff ’s (2005) model. he maintains a contrastive design and at the same time he is in line with koller’s and kövecses’ cluster approach. his corpus is built on 87 passages from british and german newspapers containing metaphors whose source domain consists of notions of “family”, “love” and “parentage” and whose target domain is the political and economic development of the european union; the metaphors chosen in both cultures, in some cases, tend to present a particular evaluative stance towards the topic. 2.3. structure of our corpus most of the work has been based on headlines, although quotations, leadins, and sub-headlines are considered when they are instantiations of a metaphor corpus in business press headlines1 ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-70 57 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 57 innovative metaphors or when context is needed to decipher the non-literal meaning of the headlines (taylor, 2002). in this research, we have worked with el país (ep), el mundo (em) and financial times (ft) on the basis of being widely read and prestigious newspapers both in the spanish and british business world. the business section of these newspapers is surveyed on a specific day of the week from january to july 2003, providing a sum total of 1276 entries. it can be argued that this corpus is representative of that particular variety of language in the business press headlines at a specific time on the basis of the procedure followed and the amount of entries. on this ground, any inference that can be obtained from this corpus exceeds personal interpretations. but as is the case with any specific corpus, this one also has its strong and weak points. (a) strengths: it is a bottom-up search that helps to identify the contextual meaning of a word or multiword units in contrast with their basic meaning. this metaphor identification procedure favours the analysis of the grammar of metaphor, metaphorical foci, source domains and vehicle terms journalists use and allows us to find out the journalists particular view of the topic by the sort of metaphors they choose. by interpreting or unveiling metaphors journalists use we have an easier and quicker understanding of the underlying conceptual metaphors news are built on. finally, filing headlines under different domains or sub-domains facilitates the edition of individual or cross-domains at any moment, enables contrastive studies and provides keys for further research by resorting to concordances in other corpora. (b) drawbacks: any specific corpus has its own limitations. the size of the corpus may affect the risk of overuse or underuse of words or patterns. as we focus on what journalists take as the core metaphor of their article we may miss other innovative metaphors that may appear throughout the body of the text. and, finally, we may come across headlines that require additional information and we need to turn to sub-headlines, lead-ins or the body of the text to access the intended meaning. 2.4. procedure as we have seen through the different models one of the major developments in metaphor research in the last several years has been addressed to identifying and categorising metaphoric language. our aims in honesto herrera soler ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-7058 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 58 this specific corpus on business press headlines have been the same. once the task of reading and discussing the metaphorical linguistic realisations of headlines was carried out, data referring to “media”, “date”, “domains/subdomains”, “syntactic structure” and “focal points” were entered in our corpus2. this design allows for the addition of any sub-domain that had not been considered previously and for the recording of any instantiation in different domains: “natural phenomena”, “living organisms” (animals and plants) and all sorts of domains related to the “human being”. by entering the data in that way, any interrelated consultation may be carried out. the program will allow for the editing of any list of all the instantiations of any domain or sub-domain or cross-domains we decide to work on. 2.5. identification a hand-searched approach favours distinguishing literal from non-literal headlines and allows us to single out those expressions that apparently have a literal meaning but a semantic shift referring to other issues is observed in their lexical elements (white et al., 2004). the question, then, is what cues are taken into account to distinguish literal from non-literal headlines? the answer will be drawn on the hints given by journalists, editors or sub-editors in the text chosen for the headline that lead us to see his resort to metaphorical language. and that happens whenever the contextual meaning of a word or a multiword unit contrasts with its basic meaning and can be understood by comparison with it (pragglejaz group, 2007). to find out the metaphorical language, the following hints to stake out the boundary between a literal and non-literal expression are considered: 1. use of vocabulary that, at first sight, seems incompatible with what could be expected in the business register: (2) en la todopoderosa caixa toca el cierre de filas (“in the all powerful caixa, it is time to close ranks”) [em, may 11]. this sort of idiom “close ranks” (“cierre de filas”) is not the prototypical expression that can be expected in the business field. our knowledge of the world and experience takes us to the army register, where “to close ranks” is taken as a typical strategy of the army when there is trouble ahead. the journalist, by resorting to this expression, gives us an insight into the sort of policy “la caixa” intends to carry out at that moment. a metaphor corpus in business press headlines1 ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-70 59 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 59 2. resorting to such strategies as the use of puns or alliteration for the sake of humorous effect: (3) eu carmakers set for collision with tokyo [ft, may 8]. (4) trouble down the road as opinion shifts for the darling of detroit [ft, jan. 19]. (5) europa, del estado de bienestar al de estar medio bien (“europe from the welfare state to being half well”) [em, may 18]. in cases (3) and (4) journalists play with specific words. in the first instantiation the idea of “collision” that is inherent to a car crash is taken as “a vehicle term” to explain the market quota, whereas in the second, the pun focuses on “darling”, an adjective used to refer to “the apple of the eye” in the detroit car industry. there is no specific vehicle term in (5), but the inverted order and alliteration (“bien-estar” versus “estar medio bien”) raise awareness. 3. cultural heritage (bible, classical world, spanish and british culture): (6) markets fall out of love with the cinderella currency [ft, march 15]. the old tale of cinderella is used as a source domain to explain the position of what is considered a weak currency. 4. journalist’s stance towards the story s/he covers: (7) polanco y alierta: una plataforma para la eternidad (“polanco and alierta: a platform for all seasons”) [ep, feb. 1] the headline is understood in a context in which there is a shared knowledge regarding these two business tycoons in the spanish press and in telecommunications respectively. the headline highlights the duration of this platform by resorting to eternidad rather than to a more neutral term such as siempre “forever”. by using eternidad s/he is making a covert comment to show the feeling of helplessness in the face of this development while at the same time cashing in, on the one hand, on the well known book and film title un hombre para la eternidad (a man for all seasons) and on the other, on doomsday. 2.6. categorization once the outstanding metaphorical language is identified, business press honesto herrera soler ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-7060 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:34 página 60 headlines are analysed with regard to (a) their syntactic structure, (b) metaphoric focus or foci, (c) source domains and vehicle terms used. (a) syntactic structure (a.1) finite verb in the headlines: (8) bostonians finally see light at end of their $14.6bn ‘big dig’ tunnels [ft, jan. 18]. (9) el valor de enagás empieza a vislumbrar el final del tunnel (“enagas equity starts to see light at the end of the tunnel”) [em, april 6]. there is the same verbal expression but a different starting point in both newspapers. whereas for bostonians the process is over, for “enagás” equities it is the beginning of the process: “the end of the tunnel starts to be seen”. besides, bostonians and “enagás” resort not only to the same verbal pattern but also to the same object. we take perceiving is seeing as the underlying conceptual metaphor, but the “light at the end of the tunnel” that implies that bad times are over leads us to conceptualise this headline as goodness is light, as deignan (2005) did. (a.2) a non-finite structure in the headlines: (10) equities rising after switchback ride (ft, march 15). (11) un pacto salvado por la campana. (el precario acuerdo con el fmi permitirá mejorar la estabilidad interna de argentina) (“an agreement saved by the bell. (the shaky agreement with the imf will enable argentina to improve internal stability)”) [ep, feb. 2]. in both cases journalists have turned to present and past participle forms rather than infinitive forms to point out a shift in business and in negotiations. in both cases there is a move to positive expectations. (a.3) verbless phrases for headlines. it is not difficult in most of these cases to recover an existential, relational or de-lexicalised verb in the nominal group: (12) us choppy. (the dollar traded in a relatively tight range against the euro, reflecting the perceived ebb and flow of coalition forces’ success in iraq) [ft, april 5]. (13) el euro de hierro. (la dama de hierro) (“iron euro. (the iron lady)”) [ep, may 25]. a metaphor corpus in business press headlines1 ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-70 61 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 61 a context of explanation is quite frequently added when the headline is built on a verbless phrase. the resort to the sea metaphor in (12) is used to explain the dollar’s behaviour in the currency market against the euro. in (13) an explicit reference to the “iron lady” will favour the understanding of the intended meaning in this headline. (a.4) besides these three main categories, a fourth one labelled as “paragraph” has been considered. sometimes, journalists opt for complex rather than short sentences in headlines. it may happen that journalists either go on with the same metaphor in the sub-headline as can be observed in (14) or present the conceptual metaphor through a series of metaphorical expressions (15): (14) it is not easy these days to see big business through a clear lens. the focus is clouded by too many ambiguities and contradictions [ft, may 31]. (15) españa perdió el tren para invertir en los futuros socios, pero aún puede recuperar el paso. eso sí, debe darse prisa. (“spain missed the train to invest in future members, but there is still time to quicken its pace. however, it must hurry up”) [em, jan. 12]. the basic conceptual metaphor seeing is understanding underlies this instantiation (14), where negotiations is understood in terms of “lens” and “focus” that belong to the optical domain. these terms are modified by “clear” and “clouded”, respectively, intensifying the metaphorical value of these expressions. by choosing this order, the journalist prioritises the effect over the cause. it is not possible to get a sharp image of the economy at that moment, that is, it is not the right time for doing business. in (15) the journalist is more concerned with sequential events and shows three moments of the process which activate three closely related schemata: missing (a train) → chance (of quickening its pace) → measures (hurry up) by using “train”, “pace” and “hurry up” as vehicle terms the familiar conceptual metaphor life is a journey gives way to business is a journey. (b) metaphoric focus/foci (b.1) noun phrase : (16) the hangover from the 1990s still dogs the us economy [ft, jan. 5]. honesto herrera soler ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-7062 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 62 (17) drugmakers in need of medication [ft, april 26]. (18) el paso del vagón de cola al superavit económico (“the jump from the guard’s van to economic surplus”) [em, feb. 9]. (19) españa, el enfermo de europa en inflación (“spain, the sick man of europe in inflation”) [ep jan. 19]. it is not difficult to find the metaphorical foci in verbless phrases (17), (18) and (19) since there are no explicit verbs and our search for foci is reduced to looking at nouns and adjectives. we usually come across single nouns, collocates or prepositional groups which generate the metaphor. but there are also headlines in which not only nouns can be foci of metaphors but also verbs, as happens in (16). in this instantiation the nominal phrase “the hangover from the 1990s” is followed by “still dogs the us economy”. both “hangover” and “dogs” activate metaphoric schemata, though they are different. headlines of this sort are labelled as having two metaphorical foci. technically, these headlines are taken both under the noun phrase and verb phrase headings in the frame designed for the collection of data. things will be different the moment we try to categorise the different patterns the metaphor is realised by in both languages. (b.2) verb phrase (20) us shudders over deflation [ft, may 10]. (21) el tabaco extremeño echa humo (“extremenian tobacco is fuming”) [ep, june 15]. in these instantiations the foci of metaphors are found in their verb phrases “shudders” and “echa humo”. the latter is seen as a multiword unit and the metaphorical focus is understood as a whole. both us and “el tabaco extremeño” are metonymies: nation for citizens in the first case and “produce for producers” and both are personalised and as such they are entitled to take human attributes. these entities act as any human being would do. whereas us is afraid of a shift in its economy, producers of tobacco in extremadura are more than angry at the price of this commodity. they are fuming. (b.3) sentence there are headlines that being taken as metaphors do not have specific focus or foci. they are seen as a pattern in which all words contribute to the metaphorical meaning. there is no specific vehicle term to take as a a metaphor corpus in business press headlines1 ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-70 63 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 63 reference. it is the whole sentence that is taken as a metaphoric expression as can be observed in the following instantiations: (22) la libra esterlina se hace esperar (“sterling takes its time”) [ep, may 25]. (23) continental message is positive for airlines [ft, jan. 4]. in (22) all the elements contribute to the metaphorical expression; first, the personification “of sterling” and then, once it is taken as personified, anyone understands that “this entity” is ready “to take its time” against other currencies as any human would do. a similar situation is observed in (23). none of the elements are clear vehicle terms for a non-literal interpretation. thus, it is necessary to consider the whole text to understand the positive economic performance of continental airlines. a company, which is taken as a landmark for the rest of the airline industry, is offering the first hint of positive news for the sector. (c) source domains and vehicle terms the number of source domains drawn from the instantiations collected in the corpus is in accordance with the categorisation chosen for the analysis. a narrow one demands a detailed source domain specification based on the sharing of specific and concrete features, whereas a broad categorisation is more concerned with generic features that are the core of a considerable number of specific categories (see figure 1). as can be observed, “life cycle” is taken as the core where all the main categories converge. to some extent the “human being” is taken as the prototype of this “cycle of life” to whom everything is directly or indirectly related. he is at the top of the “chain of being”. whatever happens affects or is interpreted in one way or another in terms of “the human being”. thus, the source domain journalists turn to may refer to something that affects the individual’s body or psyche. these source domains comprising many specific source domains are labelled as “intra-phenomena”. but, when individuals are taken in their social dimension, all source domains related to interaction are filed under the “inter-phenomena” category. when the interaction is extended to “other living organisms” and to “natural phenomena”, the salient features of these categories are mapped onto humans’ behaviour in the business field. thus, living organisms and natural phenomena are the chosen landmarks to which several source domains and sub-domains may be attached or from which several radials may splay out. honesto herrera soler ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-7064 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 64 summarising the life cycle concept embraces human beings, on the one hand, as mere elements that are subject to the cycle of life and, on the other hand, as the main characters since everything that happens is related to our life or experience. then, business may be described in terms of: 1. animate or inanimate salient features; 2. natural phenomena and its elements; 3. physical, mental or emotional states; and, 4. mechanical, cultural or religious events. a metaphor corpus in business press headlines1 ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-70 65 figure 1. generic source domains of newspapers headlines. non-literal realisation of headlines source domains inter-phenomena intra-phenomena (interaction) (as individual) human being life cycle animals and plants land, sea and air growth recession inflation negotiations progress, success or failure trading in the business world competition cooperation other living organisms natural phenomena t a r g e t d o m a i n s social experiences war, games, sports, dance heritage: literature, culture and religion environment mechanics: tools buildings body ! parts ! properties hunger, health / illness ! experiences external senses, motion mental and emotional states 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 65 a sample of the source domains that can be developed in the collection of the non-literal instantiations can be observed in figure 2. source domain vehicle terms this categorisation is based on the vehicle terms identified in the instantiations so far commented on and numbers in brackets correspond to the examples presented. when analysing the specific source domains we come across single domains that have a coherent structure in their own right, and can be categorised under different sub-domains. for instance, the conceptual metaphor marketing is war emphasises the aspect of both fighting and strategy in the source domain (koller, 2004). and it is quite common that many instantiations are mapped onto different domains either through the same vehicle term, as we see in figure 2: campana (mechanics and sports) or due to a second focus in the same headline. the following instantiation reflects both possibilities. a first focus that can be filed under different source domains and a second focus that demands its own source domain: (24) la bolsa resucitará al cuarto año (“stock market resurrection to come on the fourth year”) [ep, jan. 12]. in our data-base this instantiation is labelled: (a) from a syntactical point of view as a “finite verb”; (b) as for the focus of the metaphorical expression we tick the verb phrase category resucitará and do not overlook the expression al cuarto día in this context; and (c) under the following source domain categories: national economy; market behaviour; and, cultural and religious allusions. it may be argued in this instantiation that as the stock market is expected to recover in four years’ time, it would also be acceptable to classify it under the growth sub-domain of the national economy honesto herrera soler ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-7066 honesto herrera soler ibérica 15 (2008): …-…14 source domain vehicle terms plant life “patata caliente” (1) war “close ranks” (2) mechanics “collision” (3); “darling (car)” (4); “campana” (11); “hierro” (13); “lens and focus” (14); “vagón” (18) health “bienestar” (5), “hangover” (16), “medication” (17), “enfermo” (19) literature “cinderella” (6). religion “eternidad” (7). human / animal life “see light”, “vislumbrar” (8), (9); “dogs” (16); “shudders” (20); “echar humo” (21) journey “ride” (10); “tren”, “paso”, “darse prisa” (15) sports “campana” (11) nautical “choppy” (12) figure 2. specific domains of the instantiations commented on. this categorisation is based on the vehicle terms identified in the instantiations so far commented on and numbers in brackets correspond to the examples presented. when analysing the specific source domains we come across single domains that have a coherent structure in their own right, and can be categorised under different sub-domains. for instance, the conceptual metaphor marketing is war emphasises the aspect of both fighting and strategy in the source domain (koller, 2004). and it is quite common that many instantiations are mapped onto different domains either through the same vehicle term, as we see in figure 2: campana (mechanics and sports) or due to a second focus in the same headline. the following instantiation reflects both possibilities. a first focus that can be filed under different source domains and a second focus that demands its own source domain: (24) la bolsa resucitará al cuarto año (“stock market resurrection to come on the fourth year”) [ep, jan. 12]. in our data-base this instantiation is labelled: (a) from a syntactical point of view as a “finite verb”; (b) as for the focus of the metaphorical expression we tick the verb phrase category resucitará and do not overlook the expression al cuarto día in this context; and (c) under the following source domain categories: national economy; market behaviour; and, cultural and religious allusions. it may be argued in this instantiation that as the stock market is expected to recover in four years’ time, it would also be acceptable to classify it under the growth subdomain of the national economy domain. what really is expected from the very beginning is to highlight the rise and fall domain, so common in the stock market. the vehicle terms of this expression allow for a third reading, not only is resucitará a key word and one of the main tenets among christians, but also the collocate “on the fourth year”, in which it will take place. the journalist has resorted to the pattern of resurrection, on which jesus was brought to life on the third day, to express the time the stock market will need to bring significant gains to stockholders. this reading, in which the stock market’s behaviour is 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 66 domain. what really is expected from the very beginning is to highlight the rise and fall domain, so common in the stock market. the vehicle terms of this expression allow for a third reading, not only is resucitará a key word and one of the main tenets among christians, but also the collocate “on the fourth year”, in which it will take place. the journalist has resorted to the pattern of resurrection, on which jesus was brought to life on the third day, to express the time the stock market will need to bring significant gains to stockholders. this reading, in which the stock market’s behaviour is explained in religious terms also demands a categorisation under cultural and religious allusions domain. this sort of analysis of instantiations has allowed us to create a specific metaphor in which any non-literal headline may be filed under different categories. by doing that, the same instantiation can be an object of different analyses from different points of view. 3. conclusion this metaphor corpus is a hand-searched model based both on british and spanish business press headlines. the metaphor identification procedure followed relies on the contrasts of the contextual and the basic meaning of a word or a multiword unit. the analysis of the syntactic structure, focus or foci, source domain and vehicles journalists resort to in this corpus helps to understand the communicative potential of the headline, to grasp what is abstract or distant or to unveil what may be hidden for a layman in business literature. its creation is a contribution, from a new perspective, to the other specific corpora in the business field. since this corpus favours not only quantitative analysis but also qualitative analysis from the syntactic as from the semantic point of view, it allows us to compile the vast range of source domains comprised in the “cycle of life” as its axis to understand the process, success or failure of the target domain, it covers all the metaphorical realisations and it is a good reference for contrastive studies in spanish and british business press headlines. acknowledgements i am highly indebted to marian amengual for her useful comments and suggestions on the design of this corpus and for her participation in its creation. (revised paper received september 2007) a metaphor corpus in business press headlines1 ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-70 67 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 67 references honesto herrera soler ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-7068 bell, a. (1991). the language of news media. oxford: blackwell. boers, f. (2000). “metaphor awareness and vocabulary retention”. applied linguistic, 21: 553-571. boers, f. (2003). “applied linguistics perspectives on crosscultural variation in conceptual metaphors”. metaphor and symbol 18: 231-238. boers, f. & m. demecheleer (1997). “a few metaphorical models in (western) economic discourse”. w.a. liebert, g. redeker & l. waugh (eds.), discourse and perspective in cognitive linguistics, 115-129. amsterdam: john benjamins. charteris-black, j. (2003). “metaphor and metonymy in english and malay phraseology”. metaphor and symbol 18: 289-310. cortés de los ríos, e. 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(eds.), 1-22. herrera soler, h. (2006a) “conceptual metaphors in press headlines on globalisation”. annual review of cognitive linguistics 4: 1-20. herrera soler, h. (2006b) “globalisers’ and anti-globalisers’ forums from a cognitive perspective”. c.a. hornero, m.j. luzón & m.a. ruiz (eds.), metaphor, blending and their application to semantic analysis, 61-80. zaragoza: anubar. herrera soler, h., m. white, b. villacañas & m. amengual (2006). “figurative language in english and spanish business press headlines and its effects on interand intra-cultural communication”. laud paper no. 661. 1-25. essen: universität duisburg-essen. koller, v. (2004). metaphor and gender in business media: a critical cognitive study. new york: palgrave macmillan. kövecses, z. (2002). metaphor: a practical introduction. new york: oxford university press. lakoff, g. (1993). “the contemporary theory of metaphor”. a. ortony (ed.), metaphor and thought 2nd ed., 202-251. cambridge: cambridge university press. lakoff g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago: chicago university press. lazar, g. (1996). “using figurative language to expand students’ vocabulary”. elt journal 50: 43-51. littlemore, j. & g. low (2006). “metaphoric competence, second language learning, and communicative language ability”. applied linguistics 27: 268294. mcenery, t. & a. wilson (2001). corpus linguistics, 2nd ed. edinburgh: edinburgh university press morley, j. (1998). truth to tell: forms and function in newspaper headlines. bologna: clueb. musolff, a. (2005). “cross-language metaphors: parents and children, love, marriage and divorce in the european family”. j. cotterill & a. ife (eds.), language across boundaries, 119134. london: continuum. pragglejaz group (2007). “mip: a method for identifying metaphorical used words in discourse”. metaphor and symbol 22: 1-39 sandikcioglu, e. (2001). “the otherness of the orient: politicalcultural implications of ideologi04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 68 dr. honesto herrera soler is associate professor of english for business and economics at facultad de ciencias económicas y empresariales, universidad complutense de madrid (spain). he has focused his research on how to take cognitive linguistics into the classroom. his main research interests are cognitive linguistics and research methodology. currently, he is working on a corpus of linguistic realisations of conceptual metaphors in business and economics media discourse. he is author and co-author of several articles in the abovementioned areas of research. notes 1 the research for this article has in part been financed by the spanish ministry of education, ref: hum2005-05957. 2 as texts and explanations sometimes exceed 242 characters allowed in any variable of the statistical package for social sciences (spss) we opted for a specific design based on microsoft access. a metaphor corpus in business press headlines1 ibérica 15 [2008]: 51-70 69 cal categorisations”. r. dirven et al. (eds.), 161-188. taylor, j. r. (2002). cognitive grammar. new york: oxford university press. white, m. & h. herrera soler (2003). “metaphor and ideology in the press coverage of telecom corporate consolidations”. r. dirven, r. frank & m. pütz (eds.), cognitive models in language and thought: ideology, metaphors and meaning, 215234. berlin: mouton de gruyter. white, m., h. herrera-soler & m. amengual (2004). “interaction between content and expression in news headlines”. i. sanz & á. felices (eds.), las nuevas tendencias de las lenguas de especialidad en un contexto internacional y multicultural, 239-249. granada: universidad de granada. 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 69 04 herrera.qxp 14/3/08 17:35 página 70 berica 13 ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168 abstract this paper addresses the interrelationship of languages and cultures in the process of learning/teaching english in translation faculties in spain. the fact that languages cannot be separated from their social and cultural contexts of use is widely recognised nowadays. in addition, for the last decade, intercultural language learning has been highlighted as a main objective of language acquisition, the term “intercultural” implying a back-and-forth movement across languages and cultures, a development of an understanding of one’s own language and culture in relation to a second one. building on a comprehensive review of the literature in the field of culture in language teaching, intercultural competence, and intercultural learning and teaching, the present paper aims at providing a framework for designing a curriculum for intercultural language learning and cultural mediation in translation faculties in spain. keywords: culture, intercultural competence, language learning, language teaching, mediation. resumen el aprendizaje intercultural de los idiomas: la mediaci�n cultural en la titulaci�n de traducci�n e interpretaci�n en el presente trabajo se estudia la interrelación entre lenguas y culturas en el proceso de enseñanza/aprendizaje del inglés en las facultades de traducción españolas. hoy en día se reconoce la imposibilidad de enseñar una lengua fuera de su contexto social y cultural. asimismo, en las últimas décadas, se ha hecho hincapié en el aprendizaje intercultural en el aula de idiomas como objetivo principal de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. el término “intercultural” intercultural language learning: cultural mediation within the curriculum of translation and interpreting studies richard clouet universidad de las palmas de gran canaria (spain) rclouet@dfm.ulpgc.es 147 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 147 implica un movimiento de vaivén entre lenguas y culturas, el desarrollo de la comprensión de la lengua y cultura propias en relación con otra lengua y cultura. en este análisis partiremos de un repaso amplio de la investigación acerca del papel de la cultura dentro de la enseñanza de idiomas, de la competencia intercultural y de la enseñanza/aprendizaje intercultural, para posteriormente elaborar una propuesta didáctica que integre un aprendizaje intercultural en las facultades de traducción en españa, insistiendo particularmente en la noción de mediación cultural. palabras clave: cultura, competencia intercultural, aprendizaje de lenguas, enseñanza de lenguas, mediación. introduction the task of both translators and interpreters is to achieve successful communication, and particularly successful intercultural communication. the latter involves much more than verbal communication and includes non-verbal communication –devices, such as body language, the use of space and time, etc., which differ from culture to culture. intercultural communication, indeed, is a complex competence that goes beyond the visible aspects of culture and embraces the so-called invisible aspects, namely those which govern behaviour based on the beliefs and values of a given social group. as such, intercultural communication competence is an area of study that is becoming more relevant in the increasingly multicultural communities that we live in –notably in teaching/learning environments– and much progress has been made in this area of research since the publication of edward t. hall’s the silent language, in 1959.1 therefore, it is the translator and interpreter’s role to reformulate a message, to communicate ideas and information from one cultural context to another without altering what is expressed in the original text or speech through the language of the writer or speaker. this is the main reason why translators and interpreters actually mediate rather than merely translate, as their task is to facilitate the process of intercultural communication. this aspect of translation should be taken more seriously into account in our translation and interpreting faculties, notably in the language class, where we think that teaching/learning should be undertaken with that perspective in mind. this paper departs from a brief theoretical review of the traditional approaches to culture in the language class, and then proceeds to explaining what we understand by intercultural language learning. finally, it provides richard clouet ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168148 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 148 particular examples of tasks that can be carried out in the language class for students of translation and interpreting studies. approaches to culture in language teaching although research on cultural aspects in language teaching started almost half a century ago, it was only in the 1980s that a greater number of books and articles became entirely devoted to this field. when reviewing the literature, it is possible to identify three major approaches to teaching culture in the language class: (1) teaching history, geography and the fine arts, including literature; (2) teaching students to observe the norms in the foreign culture that allow humans to live in peace and harmony with each other and their environment; (3) teaching students to interact in the new language and culture. these three approaches represent different views of the nature of culture, different levels of concern for the relationship between language and culture, and finally different understandings of the place of culture in language education. “big c culture” would be the first approach. this is the most traditional approach to teaching culture as a part of modern language teaching: mainly culture through literature, but also through the history, geography, and institutions of the target language country. in this case, cultural competence is viewed as a body of knowledge about those different aspects and it is measured in terms of the breadth of reading. “big c culture”, also sometimes called “high culture”, is seen as background information to understand language and society. in this approach, the learner does not use the language to communicate, but only to observe the culture s/he is studying. language is primarily used for naming events, institutions, people, and places, and for reading texts. kramsch (1995) argues that much of this approach to teaching started with the teaching of classical languages through which educated people had access to universal culture. the second approach that could be mentioned is that of viewing culture as a set of societal norms. anthropologists such as gumperz (1982a & 1982b) and hymes (1972 & 1974) can be said to be at the root of this cultural approach which became prevalent in the 1980s. cultures are then started to be described in terms of the practices and values which typify them. in turn, cultural competence means knowing about what people from a given cultural group are likely to do, as well as understanding the cultural values placed intercultural language learning ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168 149 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 149 upon certain ways of acting or upon certain beliefs. the main problem concerning this approach is that the learner remains primarily an observer and interpreter of what happens in the target culture with his own cultural preconceptions and even prejudices, which can lead to the danger of stereotyping the target culture (crawford-lange & lange, 1984), especially in contexts where the possibilities for interactions between speakers are limited. the third approach sees culture as sets of practices. in other words, learners are sensitized to a wide range of contexts in which they are required to act. cultural competence is, at this point, regarded as the ability to interact in the target culture in informed ways, the objective for the learner being to develop an intercultural perspective in which comparison between the native and the target cultures and languages will help him/her to develop intercultural communicative skills. although we believe that these approaches to culture do not represent alternatives and should all contribute to different understandings of the target culture, thus providing a solid basis of knowledge for the learner, we have chosen the last approach as the focus for the present paper. this last approach is, indeed, the only one that does not limit the perspectives to mere factual information (nostrand, 1974; brooks, 1975; lafayette, 1978) and that is not described as a static view of culture (liddicoat, 2002). contrarily, this view can be defined as a dynamic approach to culture (liddicoat, 2002): learners are required to interact, to structure and understand their own social world in order to be able to communicate with people from other cultures. as such, culture is not about background information, but about acting, interpreting and understanding (kramsch, 1993a; liddicoat, 1997). namely, cultural knowledge is not a case of acquiring information about the foreign culture; it is about being capable of interpreting cultural contexts and actually interacting and performing in those contexts. it is precisely this dynamic view of culture that translation students need to understand and acquire. what kramsch (1993b) applies to all language users is obviously applicable to translators. indeed, the latter, as linguistic and cultural mediators, need to be able to negotiate meaning across cultural boundaries, establishing their role and identity as users of other languages. they must understand how language is used and how things are said and done in a determined cultural context. all of the above imply that languages and, in this case, languages for translation students, cannot be taught independently from the context in richard clouet ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168150 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 150 which they are used (kramsch, 1993a; byram, 1988). a language will always be affected by the context in which it is found and understood by people who share the same understanding of that context. getting to know each other is thus not enough; understanding each other is much more important as it will be the only way of achieving intercultural communication. approaches like buttjes and byram’s (1991), nostrand’s (1991) or liddicoat’s (2002) have shown the need to recapture a definition of language competence for second language teaching and learning which would restore a fuller understanding of what is meant by “communicative competence” (hymes, 1972; saville-troike, 1989). crozet and liddicoat’s (1999) explanation of the different levels of interaction between language and culture is just such an example (see figure 1). it shows that language competence needs to be seen as more than a simple construct barely covering linguistic knowledge. indeed, culture interacts with language at a number of levels some of which can be thought of as being close to “pure” culture whereas others are closer to “pure” language. figure 1 shows that there is no level of language independent of culture and, therefore, which is intercultural language learning ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168 151 figura 1 correspondiente al archivo 08 iberica 16.pdf figure 1. relationship between language and culture (adapted from crozet & liddicoat, 1999). culture world knowledge (the cultural knowledge we have about how the world works) culture in context culture in general text structure spoken/written genres (what is considered good, elegant, or logical in one language/cultural context may not be thought of in the same way in another language/cultural context) pragmatic norms (norms of language use, especially politeness) culture within utterances culture in the organisation and selection of units of language norms of interaction (what it is appropriate to say at a particular point in a conversation, and what someone is expected to say at this point) culture in linguistic and paralinguistic structures grammar/ lexicon/ prosody/ pronunciation/ kinesics (the ways in which we encode ideas, concepts, and relationships in language, including things like appropriate registers, appropriate amounts of physical contact, appropriate personal space, etc.) language figura 1 correspondiente al archivo 08 iberica 16.pdf figure 1. relationship between language and culture (adapted from crozet & liddicoat, 1999). culture world knowledge (the cultural knowledge we have about how the world works) culture in context culture in general text structure spoken/written genres (what is considered good, elegant, or logical in one language/cultural context may not be thought of in the same way in another language/cultural context) pragmatic norms (norms of language use, especially politeness) culture within utterances culture in the organisation and selection of units of language norms of interaction (what it is appropriate to say at a particular point in a conversation, and what someone is expected to say at this point) culture in linguistic and paralinguistic structures grammar/ lexicon/ prosody/ pronunciation/ kinesics (the ways in which we encode ideas, concepts, and relationships in language, including things like appropriate registers, appropriate amounts of physical contact, appropriate personal space, etc.) language 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 151 not open to cultural variation, an aspect which is particularly relevant to language teaching. to this, we should also add the importance of the time factor (jayasuriya, 1990), as cultural knowledge varies over time. it can also be seen in the use of proverbs, expressions, or colloquialisms in everyday speech which may be old-fashioned or represent new ways of being/thinking in a culture. this obviously implies the need for foreign language teachers not only to be culturally and linguistically proficient, but also to keep their knowledge updated. intercultural competence as part of language proficiency the starting-point for understanding intercultural language learning lies in a closer examination of the notions of “communicative competence” and “intercultural competence”. communicative competence can be defined as “what a speaker needs to know in order to be able to communicate appropriately within a particular speech community” (gumperz & hymes, 1972: vii), an emphasis which has proved to be a problem for language teaching and learning. indeed, what is it that our students “need to know”? this is partly why the terms “cultural competence”, “intercultural competence” or sometimes “intercultural communicative competence” were introduced by linguists such as buttjes and byram (1991), nostrand (1991), or liddicoat (2002) to try and make more explicit what is meant by “what a speaker needs to know” to participate in a speech community. moreover, most of these linguists moved away from the perception of the native speaker as the target norm and set the focus on the “intercultural speaker” (byram & zarate, 1994; kramsch, 1998; liddicoat et al., 1999). language learners, indeed, have different communicative needs and need to be taught according to specific objectives. in the case in hand, learners –namely future translators and interpreters– first need a very good understanding of the native language norms so as to be able to interpret messages appropriately. secondly, they need to be able to reproduce language which is understood and interpretable by native speakers, even though they belong to another culture. in addition, as pauwels (2000) argues, translators and interpreters need to be aware that they might often use languages as linguae francae between non-native speakers from different cultural backgrounds, and not only with native speakers. richard clouet ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168152 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 152 in the case of english, nobody can deny its importance as an international language nowadays. as english has become a lingua franca, the whole approach to the teaching of english language and culture must change. english has effectively become de-nationalized, and there is no longer any particular culture associated with the language in general, so that it becomes hard to choose which culture to teach as background to english. obviously, in these contexts, the communicative and cultural needs of the students will be different. a greater focus will have to be placed on the notion of interculturality and on the sociocultural competence of learners. hence, the psycholinguistic models of communicative competence will be of little use to the language teacher in this context, as all these models are based on an underlying assumption that the communicative norm is the native speaker interacting with another native speaker. canale and swain (1981), van ek (1986), and bachman (1990), for instance, tend to ignore the interculturality that is necessarily a part of any communication involving a non-native speaker. this particular aspect is precisely what sociocultural models of linguistic competence have attempted to include in their definitions of communicative competence by recognizing the pre-existing attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of learners and their impact on communication. right from the mid-1990s, attempts were made to define cultural competence including dimensions of language use, contextual knowledge and attitudes. as early as 1994, byram and zarate (1994) proposed a model of intercultural competence around four sets of skills, attitudes, and knowledge, which they described using the french term savoir (“knowing”). these savoirs are: 1. savoirs (“knowings”) or “knowledge of self and other”, of interaction: individual and societal; 2. savoir comprendre or “knowing how to understand”: skills for interpreting and relating information; 3. savoir apprendre/faire or “knowing how to learn/to do”: skills for discovering new knowledge and for interacting to gain new knowledge; 4. savoir être or “knowing how to be”: attitudes involved in relativising the self and valuing the other. to these four, byram and zarate (1994) added a fifth component: intercultural language learning ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168 153 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 153 5. savoir s’engager or “knowing how to commit oneself ”: education involving the development of critical and political awareness. this particular view of intercultural competence is, in our opinion, of considerable use for teachers and students in translation faculties as it examines higher level competencies. this approach was further developed in the work of meyer (2000), who argues that intercultural competence is a combination of social and communicative skills, including: (1) empathy; (2) ability to deal with conflict; (3) ability to work collaboratively; (4) flexibility; (5) foreign language awareness; (6) awareness that culture causes different discussion styles, speech speeds, interpretation and thought patterns; (7) techniques for handling interactional difficulties; (8) reflection on one’s own cultural background; and (9) tolerance of ambiguity. another valuable contribution in the field of intercultural competence is that of professor geert hofstede (2001). indeed, all teachers and students of translation and interpreting studies should also linger over the practical applications of geert hofstede’s research on cultural differences. it gives us insights into other cultures so that we can be more effective when interacting with people in other countries, thus reducing the level of frustration, anxiety, and concern. his research could be summarized through his identification and validation of five independent dimensions of national culture2 differences: (1) power distance (large vs. small), (2) collectivism vs. individualism, (3) feminity vs. masculinity, (4) uncertainty avoidance (strong vs. weak) and (5) longvs. short-term time orientation. wrong decisions about translation and interpreting very often seem to be based on cultural errors of judgment, thus leading to misinterpretation and, eventually, culture-related problems among the participating actors. indeed, nobody is free from cultural catastrophes, hence the importance of taking the views of such keynote researchers into account when teaching cultural diversity. we also deem this approach as the best in a context where the lingua franca must be seen a means of communication which should not be bound to culturally specific conditions of use, but should be easily transferable to any cultural setting. everybody would agree that it is impossible to dissociate culture from language learning, but, at the same time, culture is still viewed as something that students will somehow absorb, while the proper business of a language course is seen as teaching the language; very often, unfortunately, where culture is present, it is restricted to the status of supplementary, background information. cultural knowledge in language richard clouet ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168154 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 154 classrooms has remained largely peripheral to language learning, acquired by students incidentally, but rarely focussed on for its own sake. intercultural learning and teaching the models discussed present some types of cultural knowledge which are essential for language learning, but they focus on the nature of the cultural component that should be included in the language class rather than on the nature of the learning which should come from the cultural component. we should then try to move on and attempt at describing the intercultural learning process, in other words at determining the sorts of skills and behaviours that are necessary for intercultural communication. for this purpose, we could start with the definition of culture learning provided by paige et al., (1999: 50): culture learning is the process of acquiring the culture-specific and culturegeneral knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for effective communication and interaction with individuals from other cultures. it is a dynamic, developmental, and on-going process which engages the learner cognitively, behaviourally, and affectively. this definition can be better understood in the light of the five elements paige and stringer (1997) had formerly suggested that should be included in the process. these are: 1. learning about the self as a cultural being; 2. learning about culture and its impact on human language, behaviour, and identity; 3. culture-general learning, focusing on universal intercultural phenomena including cultural adjustment; 4. culture-specific learning, with a focus on a particular language and culture; 5. learning how to learn about language and culture. such an approach also sees culture as a dynamic and constantly changing phenomenon interlinked with communication and interaction between individuals belonging to different intercultural contexts. in this newer perspective, the learning goals shift from the memorization of cultural facts intercultural language learning ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168 155 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 155 to the acquisition of “interactional competence” and learning how to learn about culture. it is thus obvious that intercultural learning is not static; it involves transformation of the student, of his/her ability to communicate and to understand communication, and of his/her skills for ongoing learning through observation and participation inside and outside the language class. this will help him/her to acquire a deeper understanding of the concepts of culture, cultural adaptation and intercultural communication, to develop strategies for dealing with cultural differences in communication, and finally to become more autonomous in the process of learning and to position himself/herself at an intermediate intercultural place between cultures. obviously, all these aspects have to be taken into account in the languagefor-translators classroom environment where learning can definitely not rely on the acquisition of knowledge about culture and should involve reflection and comparison between two sets of practices or more. this is why it is a mistake to follow programs focusing only on aspects of the target culture as elements of exoticism or to present a random collection of cultural facts without any coherence (paige et al., 1999). kramsch (1998) argues that dealing with culture learning involves multiple levels of perception that need to be integrated into language teaching, among which she highlights the perception of c1 and c2 (stereotypes), the real c1 and c2, the perception of the self and of others (socialisation). for kramsch, therefore, dealing with culture learning involves dealing with identity. however, a contradiction lies in the fact that even though any pedagogical approach to teaching language-and-culture requires some direct experience of the culture (crozet & liddicoat, 1999), the amount of culture that can be dealt with within the context of formal language learning is rather limited. given such limitations, the focus has recently been on developing methodologies for teaching culture in the language classroom in a way that develops comparison, reflection and integration of authentic intercultural experiences into the cultural identity of the learner. among these models, we can mention those developed by crawford-lange and lange (1984), byram (1988 & 1989), kramsch (1993a), seelye (1994) and crozet (1996 & 1998). they all have common features which can be seen as the basis for a methodology known as “intercultural language teaching”. these common features are: richard clouet ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168156 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 156 • cultural acquisition; • culture comparison; • culture exploration; • negotiation of one’s own “third place” between cultures. experience tells us that we cannot assume that students know their own culture. as a result, in order to learn about another culture, we need to learn about our own culture at the same time by comparing our own culture with the target culture. cultural mediation in the language class for translator trainees: some practical hints on the basis of the principles presented so far, we put forth some practical hints for cultural mediation in the language class for translator trainees. we have chosen to base such hints on an essential document for all language teaching professionals in the 21st century as far as the continent is concerned (the common european framework of reference for languages) and on liddicoat and crozet’s model for intercultural language teaching (crozet, 1996; crozet, 1998; crozet & liddicoat, 1999; liddicoat & crozet, 2001; liddicoat, 2002). starting with the first document, the notion of cultural mediation is very clearly presented in the common european framework of reference for languages, particularly in sub-chapter 4.4.4 under the heading “activities of mediation and strategies”: in mediating activities, the language user is not concerned to express his/her own meanings, but simply to act as an intermediary between interlocutors who are unable to understand each other directly –normally (but not exclusively) speakers of different languages. (council of europe, 2001: 87) in other words, the user of the language should not express his/her own thought, but simply play the role of an intermediary between interlocutors unable to understand one another directly. the common european framework gives examples of mediation activities including interpretation (oral), translation (written), as well as summary and reformulation of texts in the same language, when the original text poses problems of comprehension. intercultural language learning ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168 157 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 157 this definition draws on the four traditional competences of language learning/teaching: oral expression, oral comprehension, written expression and written comprehension. however, it underestimates the twists and turns that meanings can take in the process of negotiation between interlocutors, and it restricts cultural mediation to interpreting and translating, also forgetting to ascribe the role of mediator to the language teacher. in our translation and interpreting faculties, the first mediator who will teach students to, in their turns, mediate between various interlocutors is the language teacher himself/herself. the language teacher’s role as mediator and facilitator is fundamental. the latter needs to be able, not only to raise students’ awareness of the cultural patterns, but also to train and prepare them for their future job as mediators in intercultural encounters. consequently, when preparing their classes, we believe that language teachers should pay greater attention not only to knowledge (savoir), but also to skills and behaviours (savoir-faire), as well as attitudes (savoir-être): as a cultural mediator, the teacher will provide the student, who does not understand, with the means to understand and behave adequately in a particular context. all these aspects have consequences and repercussions in the didactic field and open up several methodological perspectives. the first one concerns stereotypes: teaching strategies should aim at avoiding erroneous simplifications and transcending them. the second one involves the transmission of knowledge (savoir) to students who were not socialised in the cultural context of the new language they are studying as well as the teaching of skills (savoir-faire) and attitudes (savoir-être). the third and last perspective has to do with the systematic reference to national identities. this should be avoided in a world where english is used as a lingua franca. liddicoat and crozet’s model for intercultural language teaching consists of four steps: awareness raising, experimentation, production, and feedback. these steps are summarized in table 1. some teachers worry that as nonnative speakers, they may not have enough insight into the other culture to teach it. however, it must be emphasized that being a native speaker is not always an advantage, because in an intercultural approach the teacher needs to know something about both cultures at play. as we have argued before, intercultural language teaching is comparative. consequently, if it is based on learning to notice differences, the important element is the exploration of difference rather than the teaching of difference, and this is something that teachers and students can do together, teachers being able to proffer their experiences of intercultural communication. this is all the more true since richard clouet ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168158 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 158 it is not enough simply to expose learners to culturally rich input. such an input needs to be thoroughly integrated into a culturally-centred curriculum and pedagogy. stages contents role of the learners role of the teacher material / activities materials and content should be employed in order to make learners aware of the cultural content of language learning, encouraging them to compare and contrast the foreign culture with their own. materials that do this will, as valdes (1990) suggests, prove successful with learners. popular coursebooks such as new english file (oxenden & latham-koenig, 2000) and new interchange (richards, 2000) show good examples of materials that provide intercultural language learning ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168 159 intercultural language learning ibérica 16 (2008): …-… 11 communication. this is all the more true since it is not enough simply to expose learners to culturally rich input. such an input needs to be thoroughly integrated into a culturally-centred curriculum and pedagogy. stages contents role of the learners role of the teacher material / activities a w a r e n e s s r a is in g learners are introduced to new linguistic and cultural input. learners are encouraged to compare the new culture with their own practices and language use. learners should have an opportunity to notice differences between the new input and their own culture. students have the opportunity to think and talk about what they notice. the teacher supports them in noticing differences. the teacher explains the function of particular actions in the target language. authentic video materials (cartoons, stories, etc.) e x p e r im e n t a t io n to help fix their newly acquired knowledge through experiential learning. students begin working with their new knowledge and trying out native speakers’ ways of acting and speaking. the teacher picks apart some of the language and cultural needs of the students for focused practice. short, supported communicative tasks p r o d u c t io n to apply the new knowledge in reallife situations. students try out being native speakers of the language students experience culturally different ways of interacting (comfort, discomfort, etc.). the teachers focus on language tasks that imply students’ involvement. role-plays written tasks f e e d b a c k to reflect on the experience of acting like a native speaker in the production phase. to allow students to discover their place between their first language and culture and their second. students discuss with the teacher how they felt about speaking and acting in a particular way. teachers comment on the language use of students. teachers allow students to express how they felt. oral or written feedback table 1. model for intercultural language teaching (adapted from crozet, 1996; crozet, 1998; crozet & liddicoat, 1999; liddicoat & crozet, 2001; liddicoat, 2002). materials and content should be employed in order to make learners aware of the cultural content of language learning, encouraging learners to compare and contrast the foreign culture with their own. materials that do this will, as valdes (1990) suggests, prove successful with learners. popular coursebooks such as new english file (oxenden & latham-koenig, 2000) and new interchange 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:38 página 159 plenty of opportunities for learners to examine other cultures and their own from a “third place” perspective. tomalin and stempleski (1993) propose a range of tasks such as class discussions, research and role-plays using materials drawn from englishspeaking countries that promote discussions, comparisons and reflection on the english culture and the learners’ own culture. these can be arranged around subjects such as cultural symbols and products (popular images, architecture, landscapes), cultural behaviour (appropriate behaviour, values and attitudes), patterns of communication (verbal and non-verbal communication), and exploring cultural experiences (looking at learners own feelings and experiences of the target culture). moreover, english language materials drawn from the learners’ own culture such as local newspapers can prove an excellent source of cross-cultural materials.3 in order to get a comprehensive picture of the target culture from many angles, we need to present our students with different kinds of information. furthermore, by using a combination of visual, audio and tactile materials, we are also likely to succeed in addressing the different learning styles of our students. as such, the following list shows some possible sources of information which can be used as materials for teaching culture in a language class: video, cds, tv, readings, internet, stories, students’ own information, songs, newspapers, fieldwork, interviews, guest speakers, anecdotes, souvenirs, photographs, surveys, illustrations, literature, etc. as far as activities are concerned, these should go beyond the traditional “discussion” activities suggested in many textbooks. quizzes, for instance, may be useful in learning new information, testing materials that have been taught previously, sharing in pairs the students’ existing knowledge and common sense, predicting information, introducing differences and similarities across cultures. for example, in a quiz activity, translation students are required to identify the odd item among the following ones: a) written constitution; b) upper house; c) lower house; d) supreme court of justice. the correct answer is a) because you can find all the others both in the united kingdom and in spain, but there is no written constitution in the uk. again, getting the correct answer is less important than thinking about the two cultures. similarly, when watching a video or working with some other materials, students can be asked to identify particular features and note all the differences with their own culture. watching frank oz’s death at a funeral (2007) can be as good a way as any of comparing a typical english funeral with a spanish one by asking students to view the film richard clouet ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168160 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:39 página 160 actively. making predictions about what will happen next will also force them to review their existing knowledge of the topic and raise their curiosity about whether their prediction is correct or not. some more standard activities to engage the students actively in the target culture and language can be role plays, field trips (like a day out in the southern part of the island with a targeted questionnaire for the holidaymakers), reading activities, listening activities, writing activities, discussion activities, or even singing. all such activities and materials should be judiciously chosen in order to portray different aspects of culture, highlighting attractive aspects vs. shocking ones, similarities vs. differences, facts vs. behaviour, historical vs. modern, old people vs. young people, city life vs. country life, etc. didactic application: example of class activity with all the above-mentioned in mind, we next describe a didactic application based on the use of alan parker’s film angela’s ashes (1999) in a language class within the curriculum of translation and interpreting studies (see appendix for detail). we believe that movies can be included in the list of authentic material, or realia, available to the language teacher to help students to discuss the unique relationship of the language to the society studied, to promote cross-cultural awareness and to help them establish the auditory, visual and mental links they need as future translators or interpreters. from the point of view of translation and interpreting, bringing native materials such as films into the class may, indeed, enhance the students’ skills for analysing and comparing key cultural elements in both their and the foreign cultures, bringing not only a perspective of how language and culture affect each other, but also a knowledge of and sensitivity to cultural differences. in the following approach to presenting cultural input through alan parker’s film, we have chosen to give particular importance to the transmission of knowledge –the fight for survival in the slums of limerick in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as the socio-political situation of ireland at that time– and the application of that knowledge to teach skills and attitudes. all the work involved in this activity was aimed at supporting simultaneous interpreting training about the irish conflict for which students were required to enrich their knowledge of irish culture and history, and to become used to the characteristic intonation and accent of the irish people. intercultural language learning ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168 161 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:39 página 161 while the first part of the worksheet is aimed at introducing cultural input and encouraging learners to compare the foreign culture and their own by making predictions and working with their own knowledge, the second part introduces new linguistic input, and particularly difficult colloquial expressions, before watching the film, consequently helping the students to understand it better. indeed, any previewing activity should be associated with developing learners’ comprehension strategies and preparing students for what they are going to see. later on, as they are watching it, students are asked to answer the questions in the third part of the worksheet, most of the questions being aimed at thinking about what they notice. selected scenes will then be shown again and accompanied with various activities to improve listening comprehension, teach vocabulary including slang and idioms, discuss the content, check comprehension of the script, and create conversations based on the content and script dialogue, all this with the feedback of the teacher and the students’ peers. thus, the film is used for two main purposes: to increase vocabulary recognition and usage, and to introduce content for discussions and conversations. post-viewing activities will also aim at encouraging and stimulating the use of newly acquired knowledge that came from the video, and the use of both written and spoken language. conclusion cultural mediation places the intercultural competence at the heart of language teaching, particularly when the language is used for specific purposes, namely for translation and interpreting. all of the above imply that all activities in a language class for translation students should be aimed at introducing deliberate contrasts, reflecting on the nature of language and culture, and gaining additional perspectives on the target culture and their own cultural background. indeed, teachers must provide some pathways to enter into learning more about the foreign culture, not only by providing cultural input, but also by helping students to fix this new input and apply it in real-life situations. at the same time, cross-cultural comparison will expose learners to a new set of values, meanings and symbols that can be understood in the light of their own cultural experience. when learning a new language, not only are we gaining access to a different way of viewing and understanding the world, but also of reconsidering our own world-view. richard clouet ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168162 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:39 página 162 all in all, as learners acquire a new language, they will also be acquiring a new culture; and as their understanding of the new language develops, they may come to understand other values and meanings that only belong to the foreign culture, even if their understanding will always be marked by the understanding of their native culture. hence the learner will always be some kind of go-between between the target culture and his own culture, thus having to interpret constantly instead of acquiring rigid stereotypical notions and never forgetting that intercultural understanding runs both ways. 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(2000). “globalisation and the impact of teaching languages in australia” in a.j. liddicoat & c. crozet (eds.), teaching languages, teaching cultures, 19-26. melbourne: language australia. richards, j.c. (2000). new interchange. cambridge: cambridge university press. saville-troike, m. (1989). the ethnography of communication. oxford: blackwell. seelye, h.n. (1994). teaching culture: strategies for foreign language teachers. lincolnwood, il: national textbook. tomalin, b. & s. stempleski (1993). cultural awareness. oxford: oxford university press. valdes, j. (1990). “the inevitability of teaching and learning culture in a foreign language course” in b. harrison (ed.), culture and the language classroom, 20-30. hong kong: modern english publications and the british council. van ek, j.a. (1986). objectives for modern language learning. strasbourg: council of europe. 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:39 página 164 notes 1 most people date the foundation of intercultural communication competence from the publication of edward t. hall’s the silent language, in 1959. the seeds of most of the major themes of hall’s lifework are to be found in the silent language, where, right from the first page, hall begins with two themes –time and space– to which he will later dedicate entire books: the hidden dimension (1966), beyond culture (1976) and the dance of life (1983). 2 geert hofstede (2001) distinguishes “organization cultures” from “national cultures”. national cultures distinguish similar people, institutions and organizations in different countries whereas organizational cultures distinguish different organizations within the same country or countries. his research has shown that organizational cultures differ mainly at the levels of symbols, heroes and rituals, together labelled “practices”; national cultures differ mostly at the deeper level, the level of values. as a consequence, the five dimensions of national cultures identified in his cross-national research, which are based on values, are not suitable for comparing organizations within the same country. whereas national cultures belong to anthropology, organizational cultures belong to sociology. 3 in the context of the canary islands, to set an example, english language newspapers such as canary news provide a useful selection of such materials. appendix intercultural language learning ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168 165 ibérica 16 (2008): …-… 17 dr. richard clouet is a lecturer at the faculty of translation and interpreting of the university of las palmas de gran canaria. his research fields include the teaching of foreign languages in translation studies and languages for specific purposes. notes 1 most people date the foundation of intercultural communication competence from the publication of edward t. hall’s the silent language, in 1959. the seeds of most of the major themes of hall’s lifework are to be found in the silent language, where, right from the first page, hall begins with two themes –time and space– to which he will later dedicate entire books: the hidden dimension (1966), beyond culture (1976) and the dance of life (1983). 2 geert hofstede (2001) distinguishes “organization cultures” from “national cultures”. national cultures distinguish similar people, institutions and organizations in different countries whereas organizational cultures distinguish different organizations within the same country or countries. his research has shown that organizational cultures differ mainly at the levels of symbols, heroes and rituals, together labelled “practices”; national cultures differ mostly at the deeper level, the level of values. as a consequence, the five dimensions of national cultures identified in his cross-national research, which are based on values, are not suitable for comparing organizations within the same country. whereas national cultures belong to anthropology, organizational cultures belong to sociology. 3 in the context of the canary islands, to set an example, english language newspapers such as canary news provide a useful selection of such material. appendix angela’s ashes i.the background to frank mccourt’s angela’s ashes richard clouet 1.1. ireland 1) have you ever considered going to ireland? why? 2) why do you think people want to go to ireland? think of three different reasons. 3) frank mccourt’s story takes place in the 1930s and 40s in ireland. what do you know about the political and social background of ireland at that time? 1.2. cultural references 1) once back in ireland, malachy wants to see the ira. why? 2) malachy says that he once fought for the flying columns during the troubles? what does this refer to? 3) what do you know about st. patrick? 4) what is the st. vincent de paul society? 5) what do you know about eamon de valera and michael collins? 6) what about pope leo xiii? why was he a famous pope among the working class? 1.3. guess before you watch 1) almost at the beginning of the film, francis mccourt says: “we must have been the only irish family in history to be saying goodbye to the statue of liberty instead of hello.” why? 2) what could the following sentence mean?: “we’re not handing out money to support the guinness family.” 3) angela’s mother and sister dont’ greet malachy when they arrive at limerick station? why? 4) why can’t they stay at grandma’s house? what did they do then? 5) malachy tells francis not to pick coal off the road. why? 6) the masters at leamy’s school hit their pupils for many reasons. can you guess some of them? ii.vocabulary 2.1. write the correct word in each space. filthy a docket the lingo rasher to sneer to jeer to sport a) a document entitling the holder to receive goods. b) to make rude and mocking remarks. c) to wear. d) the local dialect. e) disgustingly dirty. f) a thin slice of bacon. g) to smile or speak in a mocking manner. 2.2. explain the following colloquial words or expressions: richard clouet 1.1. ireland 1) have you ever considered going to ireland? why? 2) why do you think people want to go to ireland? think of three different reasons. 3) frank mccourt’s story takes place in the 1930s and 40s in ireland. what do you know about the political and social background of ireland at that time? 1.2. cultural references 1) once back in ireland, malachy wants to see the ira. why? 2) malachy says that he once fought for the flying columns during the troubles? what does this refer to? 3) what do you know about st. patrick? 4) what is the st. vincent de paul society? 5) what do you know about eamon de valera and michael collins? 6) what about pope leo xiii? why was he a famous pope among the working class? 1.3. guess before you watch 1) almost at the beginning of the film, francis mccourt says: “we must have been the only irish family in history to be saying goodbye to the statue of liberty instead of hello.” why? 2) what could the following sentence mean?: “we’re not handing out money to support the guinness family.” 3) angela’s mother and sister dont’ greet malachy when they arrive at limerick station? why? 4) why can’t they stay at grandma’s house? what did they do then? 5) malachy tells francis not to pick coal off the road. why? 6) the masters at leamy’s school hit their pupils for many reasons. can you guess some of them? ii.vocabulary 2.1. write the correct word at the end of each of the following definitions. filthy a docket the lingo rasher to sneer to jeer to sport a) a document entitling the holder to receive goods. b) to make rude and mocking remarks. c) to wear. d) the local dialect. e) disgustingly dirty. f) a thin slice of bacon. g) to smile or speak in a mocking manner. 2.2. explain the following colloquial words or expressions: 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:39 página 165 richard clouet ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168166 ibérica 16 (2008): …-…18 family.” 3) angela’s mother and sister dont’ greet malachy when they arrive at limerick station? why? 4) why can’t they stay at grandma’s house? what did they do then? 5) malachy tells francis not to pick coal off the road. why? 6) the masters at leamy’s school hit their pupils for many reasons. can you guess some of them? ii.vocabulary 2.1. write the correct word in each space. filthy a docket the lingo rasher to sneer to jeer to sport a) a document entitling the holder to receive goods. b) to make rude and mocking remarks. c) to wear. d) the local dialect. e) disgustingly dirty. f) a thin slice of bacon. g) to smile or speak in a mocking manner. 2.2. explain the following colloquial words or expressions: • a wee girl. • go easy with the sugar! • to have a long face. • to be on the dole. • beggars can’t be choosers. • he’s the spitting image of his sister. • money galore. • the sour puss. • the odd look. • to know something like the back of one’s hand. iii.while you watch 3.1. answer the questions below 1) how many children does angela give birth to in new york? and in limerick? what are their names? 2) how does malachy change after margaret is born? 3) why does mrs liebowitz want to find angela’s cousins? what does she do? 4) who pays for the mccourts to travel back to ireland? 5) how old was francis when they left new york? 6) who brought the fleas to ireland according to malachy? intercultural language learning 7) why does malachy go to the labour exchange? 8) why did they move into a new house? 3.2. who says what? uncle pat, aunt aggie, angela, malachy or the schoolmaster? this is the new ireland: wee men in wee chairs with wee bits of paper. you’re too grand to pick coal off the road. i don’t think why we should be paying for her mistakes. five born and one gone. me dad said it was a good thing she didn’t own the stable in bethlehem or the holy family would be wandering the world still crumbling with hunger. i wouldn’t want anything that was half limerick and half north of ireland. they didn’t give a fiddler’s fart about the irish. my little yankee doddle dandy. in the name of the father, the son and the holy toast. mr grand manner. 3.3. circle the correct answers. 1) grandma sheehan’s house is / isn’t a happy house. 2) religion is more / less important in limerick than in new york. 3) angela gets / doesn’t get help from the st vincent de paul society. 4) they want / don’t want to check that the family really needs / doesn’t need their help. iv.after watching 4.1. accents under the constitution of the republic of ireland, the irish language is the national language of the country, english being the second. the irish language belongs to the celtic branch of the indo-european family of languages. according to statistics, about 30 per cent of the population of the republic of ireland claim to have knowledge of irish. although irish gaelic is in decline, it has influenced irish english. a popular construction used in ireland is to be after doing, e.g. “he's after reading a book”, which means that he has just finished reading a book. in spelling, the english language used in ireland follows british practice. however, the irish accent is different from english accents, particularly from that of southeast england. it is very musical and has a characteristic intonation. irish people are also famous for their great sense of humour. listen to the following dialogue again and fill in the gaps with the appropriate word or expression. uncle pat: jesus, i said to meself. i have so much gas in my system, it is a great pity to waste it. so i shove a pipe up me arse, light a match to it, and there we have fine flame ready to boil water or anything. and the 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:39 página 166 intercultural language learning ibérica 16 [2008]: 147-168 167 ibérica 16 (2008): …-… 19 3) angela gets / doesn’t get help from the st vincent de paul society. 4) they want / don’t want to check that the family really needs / doesn’t need their help. iv.after watching 4.1. accents under the constitution of the republic of ireland, the irish language is the national language of the country, english being the second. the irish language belongs to the celtic branch of the indo-european family of languages. according to statistics, about 30 per cent of the population of the republic of ireland claim to have knowledge of irish. although irish gaelic is in decline, it has influenced irish english. a popular construction used in ireland is to be after doing, e.g. “he's after reading a book”, which means that he has just finished reading a book. in spelling, the english language used in ireland follows british practice. however, the irish accent is different from english accents, particularly from that of southeast england. it is very musical and has a characteristic intonation. irish people are also famous for their great sense of humour. listen to the following dialogue again and fill in the gaps with the appropriate word or expression. uncle pat: jesus, i said to meself. i have so much gas in my system, it is a great pity to waste it. so i shove a pipe up me arse, light a match to it, and there we have fine flame ready to boil water or anything. and the english came running from trenches all around to pay me ................................. to boil their water. aunt aggie: that’s no story ............................................... grandma sheehan: it is better than ................................................. uncle pat: i made so much money in the trenches that i was able ......................... the generals who didn’t normally ......................................... about the irish to let me out of the army and after i went to paris where i had a fine time drinking wine with the models and artists and talking .........................: “oui, oui”. you think that’s funny, do you? i had a great time over there. 4.2. practice 1) discuss with your partner. which of these would you hate most and why? everyone in your street using your toilet. having a pig’s head for christmas dinner. begging for money on the street. boys from school seeing you begging. your dad spending the family’s money on whisky. 2) try to enact the situation on christmas day using the appropriate register and collocations. ibérica 16 (2008): …-… 19 3) angela gets / doesn’t get help from the st vincent de paul society. 4) they want / don’t want to check that the family really needs / doesn’t need their help. iv.after watching 4.1. accents under the constitution of the republic of ireland, the irish language is the national language of the country, english being the second. the irish language belongs to the celtic branch of the indo-european family of languages. according to statistics, about 30 per cent of the population of the republic of ireland claim to have knowledge of irish. although irish gaelic is in decline, it has influenced irish english. a popular construction used in ireland is to be after doing, e.g. “he's after reading a book”, which means that he has just finished reading a book. in spelling, the english language used in ireland follows british practice. however, the irish accent is different from english accents, particularly from that of southeast england. it is very musical and has a characteristic intonation. irish people are also famous for their great sense of humour. listen to the following dialogue again and fill in the gaps with the appropriate word or expression. uncle pat: jesus, i said to meself. i have so much gas in my system, it is a great pity to waste it. so i shove a pipe up me arse, light a match to it, and there we have fine flame ready to boil water or anything. and the english came running from trenches all around to pay me ................................. to boil their water. aunt aggie: that’s no story ............................................... grandma sheehan: it is better than ................................................. uncle pat: i made so much money in the trenches that i was able ......................... the generals who didn’t normally ......................................... about the irish to let me out of the army and after i went to paris where i had a fine time drinking wine with the models and artists and talking .........................: “oui, oui”. you think that’s funny, do you? i had a great time over there. 4.2. practice 1) discuss with your partner. which of these would you hate most and why? everyone in your street using your toilet. having a pig’s head for christmas dinner. begging for money on the street. boys from school seeing you begging. your dad spending the family’s money on whisky. 2) try to enact the situation on christmas day using the appropriate register and collocations. 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:39 página 167 08 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:39 página 168 iberica 13 ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152 abstract the scenario for developing communicative competences in the experimental sciences degrees and within the new european space for higher education is highly complex. this is confirmed by research reported in the white papers on the new degrees in this subject area. therefore, to smoothly integrate communicative and linguistic competences into future syllabi, i should first make a careful analysis of the main factors at work in the new situation. this paper seeks to provide a preliminary approach to the problem. first, i describe the academic and professional tasks that constitute the objectives of future european science degrees. this is followed by an analysis of the communicative and linguistic parameters considered essential for satisfactory attainment of these objectives. finally, the specific skills that students must master in order to meet the demands imposed by the new framework are outlined. the results of this analysis will enable us to see how much the new situation differs from traditional university teaching. under this new model, the development of communicative and linguistic competences will no longer be a mere adjunct to a science curriculum, but instead will become of prime importance to the academic and professional training of future scientists. key words: communicative competence, scientific communication, european space for higher education, curriculum design, didactics. resumen las competencias comunicativas en las titulaciones del �rea de las ciencias experimentales en el marco del nuevo espacio europeo de educaci�n superior el nuevo espacio europeo de educación superior (eees) destila un complejo escenario comunicativo en el área de conocimiento de las ciencias communicative competences in experimental sciences degrees within the framework of the new european space for higher education joseba ezeiza ramos universidad del país vasco/euskal herriko unibertsitatea (spain) joseba.ezeiza@ehu.es 131 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:02 página 131 ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152 joseba ezeiza ramos experimentales. así lo confirman los análisis documentados en los libros blancos para las nuevas titulaciones de este ámbito disciplinar. por ello, parece pertinente tratar de desgranar los elementos principales de dicho escenario con la vista en una integración coherente de las competencias comunicativolingüísticas en los nuevos planes de estudio. en este trabajo trataré de ofrecer una primera aproximación a la cuestión. en primer lugar, esbozaré una caracterización general de las tareas académicas y profesionales que articulan los objetivos de los nuevos títulos de grado adscritos a esta área de conocimiento. a continuación, analizaré los parámetros comunicativos y lingüísticos que determinarán su adecuado cumplimiento. finalmente, señalaré las capacidades específicas que los estudiantes deberían desarrollar para responder eficazmente a las exigencias que este nuevo marco impone. los resultados de este análisis dejan entrever un panorama muy distinto al que emerge del modelo tradicional de las enseñanzas universitarias. en este nuevo modelo el desarrollo de las competencias comunicativo-lingüísticas deja de ser un mero complemento de la formación del científico, para ocupar un lugar relevante en su desarrollo académico y profesional. palabras clave: competencia comunicativa, comunicación científica, espacio europeo de educación superior, diseño curricular, didáctica. introduction of the generic competences listed in the white papers on the new degree programmes for the european space for higher education (eshe)1, communicative competences are given the highest rating by academics and professionals. in many cases they are also part of the specific competences called for in the different degree programmes in question. hence, development of communicative competences is clearly a fundamental objective of university education. the interest aroused by these competences within the eshe can be seen in the growing number of european collaboration projects, such as covcell (www.covcell.org), cmc (www.cmcproject.it), galanet (www.galanet.eu) and talc (www.euba.sk/talc/), and in the large number of educational research and innovation articles exploring formulas for building a communicative component into the syllabi of undergraduate degree programmes. worthy of mention in this regard are works by millán and argüelles (2005), pérez-llantada (2006), almahano et al. (2006), garcía and 132 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:02 página 132 troyano (2006), lópez and edwards (2007), fanizza-scheipe and linares (2007), gangaram, beijer and hajer (2007), fernández (2008), or pérezparedes (2008). a recently published volume edited by fortanet-gómez and räisänen (2008) stands out because it includes a whole collection of papers focused on esp in european higher education that gathers accounts and reflections on the theories and practices of esp pedagogy in order to meet the challenges of the bologna reform. some of the most recent publications (robles, 2006; castelló, 2007; durán & cuadrado, 2007; ezeiza et al., 2007; gonzález, 2007; sanz, 2007; or iriarte, núñez & felices, 2008) and the white papers for the new eshe degrees have focused on the development of foreign language competences rather than the competences that must be developed by students in their own language(s). for this reason, i felt that studies on the communicative language competences to be developed in the student’s mother tongue were needed within the framework of the eshe, and therefore undertook an r&d+i project with three objectives in mind2: i) to identify and stratify the communicative objectives to be attained in undergraduate degree programmes in the five knowledge areas into which higher education has been divided. ii) to make an audit of the teaching resources required (particularly those based on ict technology) in order to adequately meet the needs detected. iii) to develop specific contents, instruments and resources for their development within the context of the university of the basque country (upv-ehu). the project is currently under development (phases two and three). in this paper, i will describe the analytical structure applied during the first phase and then present the results obtained concerning studies in the field of the experimental sciences.3 theoretical assumptions and analytical framework this work is based on three general assumptions that clearly coincide with the educational approach adopted by the eshe: communicative competences in sciences degrees ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152 133 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:02 página 133 competences as a core objective of university education. action-oriented learning model. communicative capacity as a complex combination of different types of general and linguistic knowledge and skills. these principles are based primarily on the following sources: the pan-european “tuning” project (gonzález, 2007) which has inspired the guidelines for developing the eshe and other similar programmes in latin america. the conceptual framework found in the common european framework of reference for languages developed by the council of europe in 2001. the explanatory model for communicative competence based on the language capacities analysis proposed by bachman and palmer (1996). this is the baseline from which i (together with a research group) have built the following conceptual framework, addressing some of the ideas currently predominating in the teaching of languages for specific purposes at university level.4 competence-based approach today’s competence-based approach (le boterf, 2000; barnett, 2001; alberici & serreri, 2005; goñi, 2005; navío, 2005; fenner & newby, 2006; jonnaert et al., 2006; rodríguez, 2006; zabalza, 2006; council of europe, 2007; zabala & arnau, 2007; among others) dates back to a proposal first made in the field of language teaching in the usa in the 1980s (richards, 2001); however, it does not seem to have exerted a greater influence elsewhere until recently (pérez & zayas, 2007; lázár et al., 2008; etc). publication of language-teaching proposals based on the common european framework of reference for languages (council of europe, 2001) together with the imminent coming into force of the eshe seem to have awakened teaching and evaluation professionals to the potential of this approach. this new focus leads us to a teaching-learning model –despite the ambiguity of the term “competence” and the fact that it has been overly bandied about– that revolves around three widely-accepted criteria: joseba ezeiza ramos ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152134 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:02 página 134 the criterion of “transferability”, meaning that learning should be structured round objectives that are clearly related to students’ future professional careers. the criterion of “capacity”, which places the emphasis not so much on course content, but on the effective or potential capacities that the individual must develop in order to perform effectively the professional tasks called for in his/her chosen major or career. the criterion of “integration”, which focuses on the need to successfully combine conceptual, procedural and attitudinal learning at different (cognitive, functional, social, etc.) levels. although there are other equally valid proposals, one of the definitions of “competence” which best captures this three-fold essence is the one put forward in the final report of the tuning project. the definition reads as follows: a broad definition of the concept of competence might define it as including the capacities that all humans need to resolve the situations that arise in their lives effectively and autonomously. it is grounded on a deep knowledge – not only knowing what and how, but knowing how to be a person in a complex, changing and competitive world. another definition suggests that competences are complex integrated capacities, in different degrees, in which education must train individuals so that they can cooperate as responsible subjects in different situations and contexts of their social and personal life, knowing how to see, do, act and enjoy properly, assessing alternatives, choosing appropriate strategies and taking responsibility for the decisions taken. (….) competence is not an innate capacity, but instead can be developed and built up from each person’s internal motivations – motivations which must be communicated to the work group. the integration of these two areas makes up the life option for the development of an individual’s potential, vis-à-vis their environment, based on their interests and aspirations (gonzález, 2007: 31-32). in the case of the communicative language competences associated with each particular discipline, the aim should be to facilitate university students’ progressive incorporation into the discourse community in which their academic and/or professional career will unfold. this, then, is the key contribution of the competence-based approach to teaching specificpurpose communication skills within the eshe. communicative competences in sciences degrees ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152 135 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:02 página 135 action-oriented approach this position is concomitant with the most widely-accepted interpretation of the meaning of “action-oriented learning” within the field of language teaching. it first began with communicative action theory (habermas, 1999a & 1999b), was further specified in communication linguistics (gutiérrez, 2002), and –within the field of language teaching– was made operative through the action-oriented approach. in the common european framework of reference for languages, this approach is formulated in accordance with the following principle: language use, embracing language learning, comprises the actions performed by persons who as individuals and as social agents develop a range of competences, both general and in particular communicative language competences. they draw on the competences at their disposal in various contexts under various conditions and under various constraints to engage in language activities involving language processes to produce and/or receive texts in relation to themes in specific domains, activating those strategies which seem most appropriate for carrying out the tasks to be accomplished. the monitoring of these actions by the participants leads to the reinforcement or modification of their competences. (council of europe, 2001: 9). this approach highlights the fundamental challenges faced by university students regarding the communicative objectives that they must be able to meet successfully: a) first, they must be aware of the constraints imposed by the academic and professional context on scholarly or domain-specific communication; b) second, they must develop the necessary skills to effectively perform the functional operations underlying communication within the field in question; c) third, they must become sufficiently autonomous to practise communicating in ways appropriate to their future discourse community; and, d) finally, they must become sufficiently familiar with and confident in using the genres and registers of text types within their future discourse community. joseba ezeiza ramos ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152136 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:02 página 136 accordingly, development of domain-specific communicative language competences is primarily an “experiential” activity6. in this regard, universities must facilitate the process of “restructuring identity” (ricento, 2005: 904), which students must necessarily undergo in order to become full members of the academic or professional communities to which they aspire. this involves making students capable of being self-reliant in organising more and more of their work, and also of emphasising the personal experiences and contributions that this can entail (kohonen, 1992). therefore, at the specific level of language learning, the idea is to facilitate progressive acquisition of forms of expert communication, present in the discourse genres appropriate to the activity in question. this means that learning to be a good professional involves learning to be a good reader and writer in the discourse genres of the field (cassany, 2006). student capacities-based approach to progress towards a stage of expert knowledge, students must develop a range of capacities. following the proposal of bachman and palmer (1996), such capacities can be grouped into three categories: a) generic capacities which, while not specifically linguistic, nevertheless are crucial to communication. of special importance within this group are social and personal capacities (those that contribute to the process of personal growth referred to before), and instrumental capacities (capacities related to the idiosyncratic communicative customs and practices of the discourse community in question). b) language capacities related to the specific socio-cultural, functional, discourse, expressive and lexical-semantic knowledge that must be acquired by students in order to perform adequately in the domain-specific language in question. c) strategic capacities, meaning both the set of resources that will enable students to perform with confidence in their new communicative medium, and the capacity to learn through personal experience within a context of lifelong learning. these, then, are the key capacities that must be at the heart of programmes designed to develop communicative language competences at the university level. communicative competences in sciences degrees ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152 137 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:02 página 137 analytical framework given the ideas outlined in the three preceding sections, i feel that an appropriate scenario for developing communicative language competences within the eshe must comprise at least the following: a functional analysis of the tasks to be undertaken by graduates in each discipline, together with a catalogue of associated competences. an analysis of the most relevant dimensions of the communicative component entailed by those tasks. an analysis of the skills, factual knowledge and attitudes which together will make students capable of delivering effective career performance. in other words, i believe that answers must be given to the following questions: what are the key competences required to meet the objectives associated with domain-specific communication? what are the characteristics of the communicative framework arising from the set of competences to be learned? what capacities must students develop in order to perform within that framework with sufficient skill? these are the three specific points that have been studied in detail in our project. in the remainder of this paper, i will present and discuss the results obtained in the field of experimental sciences. in line with the framework outlined in this section, this material will be presented at three levels: level-1: tasks expected of graduates in the field. level-2: characteristics of the communicative framework associated with those tasks. level-3: capacities required to meet such demands successfully. the data discussed in the following sections are drawn from a detailed analysis of the 13 white papers published to date for the development of new undergraduate degree programmes in the experimental sciences.5 joseba ezeiza ramos ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152138 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:02 página 138 communicative tasks in the field of experimental sciences as can be seen in table 1, of the professional competences pinpointed as key components of new syllabi under the eshe, the white papers identify a large number as comprising tasks where communicative factors are crucial. although these tasks vary widely in nature and characteristics, the most farreaching appear to be those pertaining to the following categories: tasks associated with the performance of academic and teaching activities: understanding scientific discourse; explaining scientific knowledge; presenting research projects and/or results; developing teaching materials; etc. tasks pertaining to a career in business: science consultancy and advice; writing up technical innovation projects; documentation of research and development projects; quality management; etc. tasks involved in scientific talks and publications: publicising scientific concepts; awareness of risks of scientific technology; participation in discussions of concern to society; museum displays; etc. we have also documented other types of task-related communication activities such as scientific information management, compliance with regulatory and administrative protocols, legal advice, scientific appraisals/opinions, etc. finally, to this range of competences must be added those associated with interpersonal communication. these include tasks that may prove crucial in many areas of scientific work: persuasive argumentation in decision-making processes, defending personal positions or projects before colleagues and interdisciplinary teams, clarifying doubts, etc. therefore, these should also be taken into consideration. that is, students of science must not only be able to write and present research articles or reports; they must also know how to explain science in various situations and venues; they must be able to respond to the scientific concerns of different types of public; they must be proficient at handling regulatory and administrative documentation; they must be able to argue their positions effectively and issue precise opinions; etc. as can be seen, the new image of scientific communication under the eshe transcends the merely academic and has moved towards a situation where communicative competences in sciences degrees ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152 139 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:03 página 139 domain-specific communicative competences are viewed in line with the range of responsibilities expected to be held by experimental sciences graduates making a career in research, education, business, government and non-profit enterprises. joseba ezeiza ramos ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152140 joseba ezeiza ramos ibérica 18 (2009): …-…8 competence area 1: competences associated with document management ! writing up well-structured, well-written complex reports; etc. competence area 2: competences associated with legal activities ! legal, science and technical advisor to industry or government ! issuing technical opinions, reports and appraisals; etc. competence area 3: competences associated with government and administrative tasks ! filling out and writing regulatory and administrative forms and documents; etc. competence area 4: competences associated with academic tasks ! explaining, both in writing and in speech, scientific phenomena, facts, concepts, principles, theories and knowledge ! explaining, both in writing and in speech, the grounds, hypotheses, procedures, results and conclusions of research projects ! writing and delivering a talk (with appropriate audiovisual aids) on a planned project, study or report ! logical argumentation in problem solving; etc. competence area 5: competences associated with technical tasks ! cataloguing, evaluating and managing resources, materials, products, etc. ! conveying, both in writing and in speech, the grounds, hypotheses, procedures, results and conclusions of research projects ! writing up studies, reports, project proposals and technical research, development, management and production projects ! writing up and defending experiments in projects and reports ! making a solid defence of personal points of view based on well-grounded scientific knowledge, etc. competence area 6: competences associated with science education and popular science ! generating curiosity and interest in scientific topics ! publicising questions concerned with scientific culture ! spreading general knowledge of scientific facts in the news media, museums, educational contexts, etc. ! clarifying doubts concerning the implications of scientific research results, progress and discoveries ! participating in discussions on different ethical matters concerned with scientific progress and development in society; etc. competence area 7: competences associated with public communication ! interpreting and critically evaluating how society perceives science ! generating curiosity about science, showing how much fun it can be ! publicising questions concerned with scientific culture ! designing and executing scientific or technical education and communication programmes of interest to society ! participating in discussions on different ethical matters concerned with scientific progress and development in society competence area 8: competences associated with interpersonal communication ! fielding questions on science projects, reports, etc. ! legal, science and technical advisor to industry or government ! providing scientific advice concerning publicity and marketing tasks, and on the labelling and presentation of products ! presenting own work to an interdisciplinary group of professionals or experts ! making a solid defence of personal points of view based on well-grounded scientific knowledge table 1. key domain-specific competences for communication within the experimental sciences (ezeiza et al., 2007). 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:03 página 140 general configuration of the communicative framework for the experimental sciences the list of competences in table 1 results in a communicative framework that seems overly complex for comprehensive management within the new syllabi now being devised. clearly, some sort of systematization is needed to specify the parameters characterising domain-specific communication within the field of the experimental sciences –a systematization that will indicate which aspects should be given priority if we wish to provide a logical, wellbalanced, productive education in this field. following the analytical guidelines suggested by the “action-oriented principle” contained in the common european framework of reference for communicative competences in sciences degrees ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152 141 joseba ezeiza ramos variable 1: context of communication ! academic (among experts): universities; research centres; etc. ! academic (educational): universities; schools; publishing; museums; science workshops; scientific games and fun experiments; etc. ! career in business/industry: interdisciplinary work groups; commercial relations with various clients; scientific advice to businesses; etc. ! government: communication with government agencies; technical services; mediation and inspection services; etc. ! public communication media: newspapers; journals; magazines; web contents; publicity and awareness campaigns; etc. variable 2: aim of communication ! reporting: events of scientific importance, experiments, biographies, etc. ! describing: objects, phenomena, processes, etc. ! defining and delimiting: concepts, principles, laws, etc. ! presenting: data, examples, ideas, etc. ! explaining: situations, projects, procedures, practical cases, etc. ! directing and guiding: giving instructions, advice; proposing; correcting; etc. ! postulating: hypotheses, speculations, approaches; evaluations, outcomes; etc. ! discussing: giving opinions, reasoning, drawing conclusions, counter-arguments, criticising, etc. variable 3: subject of discourse ! scientific concepts, ideas, events and theories ! history of science, scientific milestones, etc. ! technical and scientific discoveries, progress and innovations ! scientific controversies or subjects of public interest ! research topics and projects ! work or research procedures, technical and scientific apparatus, etc. ! research results variable 4: focus ! scientific ! technical ! practical/applied ! educational/lay public ! social ! critical variable 5: mode of communication ! public vs. private ! discipline-specific vs. interdisciplinary ! oral vs. written ! direct vs. recorded ! synchronic vs. asynchronic ! unidirectional vs. interactional ! improvised vs. planned ! formal vs. informal table 2a. general configuration of the domain-specific communicative framework for the experimental sciences: variables 1-5 (ezeiza et al., 2007). 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:03 página 141 languages (council of europe, 2001), i have characterised the communicative needs of students in this area, according to the variables presented in tables 2a and 2b. joseba ezeiza ramos ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152142 communicative competences in sciences degrees ibérica 18 (2009): …-… 11 variable 6: audience/readers ! experts ! technical staff ! administrative/government staff ! members of social group ! reporters ! university, secondary or primary students ! social groups or laymen variable 7: media and support ! academic communication tools: video-conferences, postcards, slides, posters, summaries, etc. ! interpersonal communication tools: email, video-chat, etc. ! teaching materials: notes, teaching units, laboratory guides, etc. ! journals and papers ! forms and questionnaires variable 8: processes and operations involved ! information management: choosing relevant sources, looking up, compiling, selecting, interpreting, extracting, organising, analysing data, etc. ! bibliographic information: identifying key ideas, making outlines and summaries, direct and indirect quoting, etc. ! writing up information: suiting discourse to needs and profile of audience/reader; managing and guiding listener/reader comprehension; anticipating and offsetting potential listener/reader difficulties; clarifying concepts; resolving doubts; etc. ! text production: contextualising, planning, structuring, checking, revising, etc. ! presenting ideas: contextualising the subject; properly focusing and framing it; summarising background; posing possible hypotheses; developing possible ramifications; formulating own hypothesis; drawing conclusions; etc. ! argumentation: contrasting different points of view; delimiting own point of view; developing arguments on scientific bases; using persuasion strategies; aptly responding to listener/readers’ demands; etc. ! teamwork: asking and answering questions effectively; clarifying and negotiating objectives; agreeing ground rules of participation; promoting and facilitating participation; expressing own ideas briefly and concisely; obtaining relevant information and opinions; mediating in conflicts; negotiating and trying to reach agreements; etc. variable 9: communicative language activities ! oral comprehension activities: talks, explanations and discussions by colleagues, tv and radio programmes, etc. ! reading comprehension activities: usual bibliography; handbooks and monographs, government, administrative and legal texts; etc. ! oral expression activities: presenting scientific information and data; explaining ideas and opinions on subjects of interest; presenting research or innovation projects; communications on scientific subjects; public speaking; etc. ! written expression activities: specialised articles; articles for the general public; research reports; lab reports; teaching materials; etc. ! mediation activities: reviews and summaries; technical consultancy; adapting and simplifying scientific texts; didactic explanations; etc. ! interaction activities: participation in debates and discussions; working in groups; directing workshops and seminars; didactic interaction with students; etc. variable 10: text types ! highly specialised texts: articles, discussions, news, etc. ! technical content texts: catalogues, laboratory or research instrument user guides, instruction booklets, scientific appraisals, quality guides, etc. ! academic texts: notes, monographs, lectures, laboratory training reports, etc. ! talks/writing for the public: educational materials, magazine articles, talks, leaflets, museum records, cataloguing and signage, etc. ! legal writing: administrative and government regulations, legal reports, business laws, international recommendations, etc. communicative competences in sciences degrees variable 8: processes and operations involved ! information management: choosing relevant sources, looking up, compiling, selecting, interpreting, extracting, organising, analysing data, etc. ! bibliographic information: identifying key ideas, making outlines and summaries, direct and indirect quoting, etc. ! writing up information: suiting discourse to needs and profile of audience/reader; managing and guiding listener/reader comprehension; anticipating and offsetting potential listener/reader difficulties; clarifying concepts; resolving doubts; etc. ! text production: contextualising, planning, structuring, checking, revising, etc. ! presenting ideas: contextualising the subject; properly focusing and framing it; summarising background; posing possible hypotheses; developing possible ramifications; formulating own hypothesis; drawing conclusions; etc. ! argumentation: contrasting different points of view; delimiting own point of view; developing arguments on scientific bases; using persuasion strategies; aptly responding to listener/readers’ demands; etc. ! teamwork: asking and answering questions effectively; clarifying and negotiating objectives; agreeing ground rules of participation; promoting and facilitating participation; expressing own ideas briefly and concisely; obtaining relevant information and opinions; mediating in conflicts; negotiating and trying to reach agreements; etc. variable 9: communicative language activities ! oral comprehension activities: talks, explanations and discussions by colleagues, tv and radio programmes, etc. ! reading comprehension activities: usual bibliography; handbooks and monographs, government, administrative and legal texts; etc. ! oral expression activities: presenting scientific information and data; explaining ideas and opinions on subjects of interest; presenting research or innovation projects; communications on scientific subjects; public speaking; etc. ! written expression activities: specialised articles; articles for the general public; research reports; lab reports; teaching materials; etc. ! mediation activities: reviews and summaries; technical consultancy; adapting and simplifying scientific texts; didactic explanations; etc. ! interaction activities: participation in debates and discussions; working in groups; directing workshops and seminars; didactic interaction with students; etc. variable 10: text types ! highly specialised texts: articles, discussions, news, etc. ! technical content texts: catalogues, laboratory or research instrument user guides, instruction booklets, scientific appraisals, quality guides, etc. ! academic texts: notes, monographs, lectures, laboratory training reports, etc. ! talks/writing for the public: educational materials, magazine articles, talks, leaflets, museum records, cataloguing and signage, etc. ! legal writing: administrative and government regulations, legal reports, business laws, international recommendations, etc. ! administrative/regulatory texts: agreements, contracts, investigations, agenda 21-type protocols, etc. table 2b. general configuration of the domain-specific communicative framework for the experimental sciences: variables 6-10 (ezeiza et al., 2007). in view of the most general matters arising from the resulting analysis, the following conclusions should be stressed: 1) students pursuing degrees in the experimental sciences should prepare to undertake work in a broad range of communication contexts, including academic, corporate, and educational venues and the news media. 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:03 página 142 in view of the most general matters arising from the resulting analysis, the following conclusions should be stressed: 1) students pursuing degrees in the experimental sciences should prepare to undertake work in a broad range of communication contexts, including academic, corporate, and educational venues and the news media. 2) they must also be prepared to undertake various discourse functions, including narrating, describing, defining, presenting information and data, explaining scientific matters, giving instructions, advising and recommending, issuing and justifying opinions, etc. 3) even within highly restricted areas of knowledge, they must be able to cover a broad subject range, including theories, events, ideas, concepts, discoveries, experiments, projects, research, issues of public interest, etc. 4) moreover, they must be able to adopt different approaches in addressing scientific topics: theoretical, applied or practical; pedagogical or generally informative; deliberative or critical; etc. 5) the diversity of academic and professional contexts requires that students be able to adapt to multiple modes of communication: public or private; domain-specific, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary; speech or writing; live or recorded; synchronic or asynchronic; one-way or interactive; etc. 6) they also must be able to adapt to different types of (expert and non-expert) readers/listeners: academics, researchers, technical and administrative personnel, social influence groups, etc. 7) in addition, they must be able to communicate well through a variety of media: science journals, research reports, posters, information panels, teaching materials, administrative protocols, magazine articles, tv and radio programmes, documentaries, electronic media, etc. 8) they must master operations involved in documentation processes, including processing, interpreting and exploiting scientific material; text production procedures; strategies for effectively organising and presenting information; argumentation strategies; interpersonal communication strategies; etc. communicative competences in sciences degrees ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152 143 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:03 página 143 9) they must be able to engage in very diverse activities of language comprehension, oral and written expression, interand intralinguistic mediation, and interaction. 10)they must familiarise themselves with a wide array of genres, including articles, papers, talks, communications and panel discussions; catalogues, booklets, reports and technical evaluations; science news, stories, monographs and general readership materials; administrative procedures and bureaucratic protocols; contracts, agreements, investigations, applications and projects; etc. generally speaking, therefore, these are the main variables to bear in mind when devising university programmes in domain-specific language. communicative profile of experimental sciences graduates as can be seen, the prospects for didactic action being fostered by the eshe are much broader and more complex than those contained in previous undergraduate programmes in the experimental sciences. in any case, however, the long experience gained in linguistic studies in this field and in the training and advising of science professionals in language matters, shows the concern felt in the scientific community over issues related to language and communication. this concern is also reflected in the white papers regarding new university degrees. a good example is the abundance of communication descriptors that i have been able to document in the white paper sections outlining the objectives of the new undergraduate degrees and the professional profiles associated. these descriptors refer to very diverse types of capacities: capacities of an existential, social, or instrumental type or of a pragmaticfunctional type; capacities concerned with proficiency in handling domainspecific discourse genres; capacities concerned with the mastery of professional communicative style; capacities concerned with the knowledge and use of specialised vocabulary; etc. a full list is provided in tables 3a and 3b. joseba ezeiza ramos ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152144 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:03 página 144 from this broad spectrum of capacities, we see that a great deal is expected of experimental sciences graduates as far as domain-specific communicative skills are concerned. one of the most outstanding features of this profile is multi-faceted nature, since the scientist-communicator is now characterised from numerous angles and perspectives. the opening premise is that science graduates are expected to show awareness and responsiveness to issues associated with the impact on society and social perception of scientific progress. such awareness and responsiveness are reflected, for example, in students’ capacity to empathise communicative competences in sciences degrees ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152 145 joseba ezeiza ramos ibérica 18 (2009): …-…14 component 1: personal and social skills for domain-specific communication ! broad background in classic and modern science ! familiarity with the fundamental elements of communication and public perception of scientific innovations and their associated risks ! knowledge of the importance of communication in conveying and perceiving scientific information. ! capacity to place information and its interpretation in context in order to effectively convey compiled or acquired knowledge ! critical and self-critical capacity applied to logical argumentation on questions of science, technology and mathematics ! capacity to show the fun side of scientific knowledge ! attitudes of awareness and understanding of others and their contributions, points of view and opinions ! capacity to work and communicate in interdisciplinary groups ! interpersonal skills associated with the ability to relate to others and work in groups ! recognising the points of view and opinions of other members of the work group in order to easily handle interactions on the matters at hand in different communication contexts component 2: instrumental skills for domain-specific communication ! knowledge of information management systems and bibliographic databases ! utilising internet critically as a communication tool and source of information ! advanced skills in handling bibliographic sources ! capacity to look up and analyse relevant information for a given argument or science project ! capacity to critically evaluate bibliography consulted and to put it into theoretical perspective ! capacity to evaluate, interpret and summarise scientific data and information ! skill in classifying or organising a complex corpus of information ! capacity to structure information using comparative diagrams, concept maps, diagrams, etc. ! proficiency in handling information-presentation instruments including power point type programs, audiovisual presentations, etc. component 3: functional skills for domain-specific communication ! knowledge of the conventions used in academic publications ! knowledge of the rudiments of diverse languages (drawings, tables, formulas, graphs, etc.) used in academic genres ! mastery of the basic strategies of analysis and synthesis applied to organising and integrating diverse information ! precision in formulating arguments and ideas ! capacity to interact easily on scientific subjects in different communicative situations ! good oral and written communication skills demonstrated by easily and confidently presenting the results of an application or research project for critical evaluation by peers or reviewers in formal and informal environments ! knowledge, abilities and skills for capturing the attention of clients, companies, government, etc. ! capacity to communicate with non-experts when working as a guide or monitor, writer, reporter, specialised journalist, science writer or advisor ! capacity to generate curiosity and interest in scientific subjects table 3a. key capacities for effective mastery of domain-specific communicative competences in the experimental sciences: components 1-3 (ezeiza et al., 2007). 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:03 página 145 with persons or groups manifesting concern or disagreement over scientific matters, and in their ability to develop clear, convincing arguments, to think critically and engage in self-criticism, and to effectively show different sides of scientific activity. similarly, science graduates are expected to know how to adapt themselves to the requirements of experts and non-experts with whom they must work in carrying out their professional tasks. in short, they are expected to be able to place scientific information and interpretation in context in order to respond adequately to the concerns and needs of widely different groups of people. accordingly, they must be proficient in various forms of communication. they must be able to selectively handle a broad range of documentary resources and use them in intelligent ways. they must be familiar with different ways of organising information (diagrams, concept maps, tables, graphs etc.) and know how to use them effectively. and they must be skilled at handling audio-visual media, computer applications, internet and other electronic resources commonly used in scientific communication. joseba ezeiza ramos ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152146 communicative competences in sciences degrees ibérica 18 (2009): …-… 15 component 4: special discourse-writing knowledge ! knowledge of the particular distinctive traits of scientific production ! knowledge of the basic ways of logically and consistently organising scientific information ! knowledge of proper academic modes of communication (descriptions, definitions, justifications, etc.) ! high level of comprehension of complex scientific talks and papers ! capacity to process scientific, technical and mathematic information ! skill at summarising scientific, technical, legal and administrative documents ! capacity to relate and integrate information drawn from empirical observations and measurements, and theoretical assumptions in clear, logical and well-structured discourse ! capacity to integrate into discourse written and oral textual, numeric, graphic, iconic, etc. information ! capacity to build a solid defence of personal points of view based on well-grounded scientific knowledge component 5: knowledge of the criteria behind academic and professional style ! criteria and resources for clear, rigorous expression ! mastery of text revision and editing techniques component 6: specific lexical-semantic knowledge ! knowledge of the main features of specialised terminology ! knowledge of the main features of scientific nomenclature and international terminological conventions, and their adaptations to specific languages ! knowledge of the particular vocabulary used in expressing the concepts inherent in each discipline in order to properly understand and convey scientific concepts, principles and theories ! ability to utilise and criticise specialised terminology ! skill at expressing self correctly using the principles, terms and concepts associated with the scientific discipline in question ! ability to properly define the fundamental concepts of the scientific discipline in question so as to easily interact with others on the subject in different communicative situations table 3b. key capacities for effective mastery of domain-specific communicative competences in the experimental sciences: components 4-6 (ezeiza et al., 2007). from this broad spectrum of capacities, we see that a great deal is expected of experimental sciences graduates as far as domain-specific communicative skills are concerned. one of the most outstanding features of this profile is multifaceted nature, since the scientist-communicator is now characterised from numerous angles and perspectives. the opening premise is that science graduates are expected to show awareness and responsiveness to issues associated with the impact on society and social perception of scientific progress. such awareness and responsiveness are reflected, for example, in students’ capacity to empathise with persons or groups manifesting concern or disagreement over scientific matters, and in their ability to develop clear, convincing arguments, to think critically and engage in selfcriticism, and to effectively show different sides of scientific activity. similarly, science graduates are expected to know how to adapt themselves to the requirements of experts and non-experts with whom they must work in carrying out their professional tasks. in short, they are expected to be able to place scientific information and interpretation in context in order to respond adequately to the concerns and needs of widely different groups of people. accordingly, they must be proficient in various forms of communication. they 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:03 página 146 however, their capacities must not be confined to adequate contextualisation and effective communication of scientific information. in line with the above, experimental science graduates must be able to adapt their language to different levels of expertise. they must also be able to arouse curiosity and interest in science, and even be able to show how enjoyable and socially important it can be. this means that graduates in the experimental sciences must be able to choose from a broad, versatile repertoire of language. they must be familiar with the discourse properties (structure, organisation, functionality, etc.) of scientific communication, and they must also have the resources they need to express themselves clearly and concisely. they must know and apply general stylistic criteria and norms. and they must be able to demonstrate skill at using the fundamental elements of scientific terminology and domain-specific vocabulary in the different contexts of their future career. conclusions throughout this article, i have tried to provide at different levels an analysis of the communicative needs of experimental sciences graduates, taking as a reference the guidelines contained in the educational documents published to assist in the design of new undergraduate syllabi for the eshe. to this end, i have revised some of the key epistemological sources of the new framework for university studies, and, using these sources as a basis, have made a close study of the white papers published for 13 undergraduate degrees in the experimental sciences. on the basis of this analysis, i have outlined the tasks that students are confronted with in this field of study as well as the communicative requirements that such tasks entail. next, i have described the main features of the modes of communication associated with those tasks. finally, i have noted the capacities that students must develop in order to respond successfully to the communicative demands of their field. as we have seen, the declaration of intent of the eshe appears relatively demanding, if we compare it with the previous situation in which communicative language competences were seen as a mere adjunct to academic and professional training in the sciences. under the new framework, these competences have moved into the forefront and justifiably so, given the importance of science in all facets of professional activity and communicative competences in sciences degrees ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152 147 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:03 página 147 society. on these new bases, scientific activity is seen as more closely linked to language than ever before. indeed, science has surrounded itself with a space of communication that is particularly idiosyncratic and which is clearly and generally accepted as perfectly natural. and thus arises the challenge. today, adequate structural, programmatic and didactic solutions are required to address the situation. in other words, we must inevitably pose the question of how to structure education in such a way as to guarantee that these objectives will be met, or at least, to guarantee that experimental sciences graduates will have sufficient language skills to respond successfully to the demands of their academic and professional activity. science requires that this be so, as does the world of business. and the social projection of science demands it most of all. as was aptly noted by gutiérrez rodilla (1998) in the title to his book, “science begins with speech”.7 if we share this conviction, we must not miss the opportunity afforded by the present period of renovation and change, but should address the challenge head on. i trust that this work will prove useful in this endeavour. acknowledgements i wish to thank igone zabala unzalu, head of the department of basque philology at the university of the basque country and professor in the faculty of science and technology, for revising this paper and for her personal contributions to the subject discussed here. 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(2001). linking practice and theory. the pedagogy of realistic teacher education. london: lda. lázár, i. m. huber-kriegler, d. lussier, g., s. matei & c. peck (2008). developing and assessing intercultural communicative competence. a guide for language teachers and teacher educators. strasbourg: council of europe. le boterf, g. (2000). ingeniería de las competencias. barcelona: gestión 2000. lópez, m. & m. edwards (2007). las competencias comunicativas en el diseño de títulos universitarios en españa. url: http://www.eduonline.ua.es/jornadas2007/comunic aciones/1a6.pdf [30/01/2008]. millán valenzuela, m. & i. argüelles álvarez (2005). “el currículo de ingeniería y el aprendizaje de lenguas en el espacio europeo” in m.l. carrió pastor (ed.), perspectivas interdisciplinares de la lingüística aplicada, 171-178. valencia: aesla. navío, a. (2005). las competencias profesionales del formador. una visión desde la formación continua. barcelona: octaedro. pérez, p. & f. zayas (2007). competencia en comunicación lingüística. madrid: alianza editorial. pérez-llantada, m.c. (2006). enseñanza integrada de lenguas y contenidos curriculares mediante técnicas de aprendizaje cooperativo. url: http://www.unizar.es/eees/innovacion/ [30/01/2008]. pérez-paredes, p. (2008). “la adaptación de la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa a nivel avanzado al espacio europeo de educación superior: las perspectivas de los estudiantes y el docente” in f. monroy & a. sánchez (eds.), 25 años de lingüística aplicada en españa: hitos y retos, 403411. murcia: editum. ricento, t. (2005) “considerations of identity in l2 learning” in e. hinkel (ed.), handbook of research in second language teaching and learning, 895910. mahwah, n.j.: lawrence erlbaum. richards, j. (2001). curriculum development in language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. robles ávila, s. (2006). la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera a la luz del marco común de referencia. málaga: servicios de publicaciones de la universidad de málaga. rodríguez, m.l. (2006). evaluación, balance y formación de competencias laborales transversales. barcelona: laertes educación. sanz, i. (2007). el español profesional y académico en el aula universitaria. el discurso oral y escrito. valencia: tirant lo blanch. zabala, a. & l. arnau (2007). cómo aprender y enseñar competencias. barcelona: graó. zabalza, m. (2006). competencias docentes del profesorado universitario. calidad y desarrollo profesional. madrid: nancea. joseba ezeiza ramos ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152150 dr. joseba ezeiza ramos is a post-dissertation doctoral full time teaching assistant and a researcher working in the department of basque philology at the college of social sciences and communication of the university of the basque country. he obtained his phd in applied linguistics at the university antonio de nebrija (madrid). his research interests are focused on specialized communication and its didactics. he is responsible for two r&d projects on this topic and participates as a researcher in several projects on specialized discourse and terminology. notes 1 i refer to the white papers published by aneca, the spanish quality and accreditation evaluation agency. url: http://www.aneca.es [30/10/2007] 2 this article reports some of the results obtained from two r&d+i projects funded by the university of the basque country – prest (gfao6/06) and garaterm (ejieo7/o7), in cooperation with 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:03 página 150 the provincial council of guipúzcoa and the basque government, respectively. both projects are available at http://www.euskaraztrebatzen.org. 3 this study takes into account the white papers for the following experimental sciences degrees: biochemistry, biotechnology, oceanography, statistics, biology, nutrition, dietetics, environmental science, physics, optics, chemistry, mathematics and geology (url: http://www.aneca.es/publicaciones/librosblancos.aspx). 4 for further discussion, see ezeiza et al. (2007) and ezeiza (2008). 5 these white papers are available at url: http//www.aneca.es/publicaciones/libros-blancos.aspx 6 my position regarding experiential learning owes much to authors such as kolb (1984), kohonen (1992, 2000 & 2001) and korthagen (2001). 7 the title of one of this author’s best-known works. communicative competences in sciences degrees ibérica 18 [2009]: 131-152 151 08 iberica 18.qxp 16/9/09 17:03 página 151 ibérica 10 [2005]: 161-169 161 introduction i met ulla connor in 2001 when she came to the university of león as one of the plenary speakers of the aesla conference. however, it seemed as if i had known her for a long time through her work on contrastive rhetoric, which had had a tremendous influence on my phd thesis. when the opportunity came to organize the aesla conference on the general topic of recent perspectives on discourse, her name rapidly came to my mind, since she is one of the best text analysts that could provide applied linguists with a cross-cultural perspective on discourse phenomena. the title of her talk was �changing currents in contrastive rhetoric: an argument for a new research paradigm�, and her contribution was an immense success. i am really indebted to john swales for having encouraged her to accept this invitation. no sooner had the conference finished than we realized how close we were in many of our views on how to push the discipline of contrastive rhetoric forward. it was just a fortunate coincidence that my department had just scheduled me to coordinate a course in �research methods for spanish-english cross-cultural studies� within the quality doctoral programme in interculturalidad y traducción (intercultural studies and translation), which we were running. i needed to invite a prestigious professor in the field and ulla connor was just the right person. the moment she accepted my invitation to participate in this course was the beginning of a long collaboration that continues to date, for which i feel really privileged. the following interview was conducted at the department of modern languages of the university of león in may, 2005, during ulla connor�s visit as a participant in our doctoral programme. actually, it was done in order to be published in the first issue of a newsletter intended for our postgraduate students. however, i found ulla connor�s recent views on intercultural rhetoric and the other issues she talks about so entrevista con ... / an interview with ... ulla connor by ana moreno and lorena suárez universidad de león from contrastive to intercultural rhetoric � and the benefits of cross-cultural collaboration in teaching and research interesting that i thought it would be a good idea to share them with a wider audience. who better than ibérica readers, many of whom will have also met her in conferences and/or read her work? i am really grateful both to the president of aelfe, santiago posteguillo, and the editor of ibérica, jordi piqué, for their support and encouragement to submit this interview to the journal. ulla connor�s academic and professional profile ulla connor has been a professor of english since 1993. she has also been the director of the indiana center for intercultural communication since 1997. she received her ph.d. from the university of wisconsin, madison (in education and english linguistics) in 1978. she now holds a chair (barbara e. and karl r. zimmer) in intercultural communication at indiana university in indianapolis, where she has taught since 2003. she is on the editorial board of six refereed scientific journals. she has published seven books and around one hundred journal articles and book chapters. in 1996, her book contrastive rhetoric: cross cultural aspects of second language writing was published. she has been invited as a plenary speaker in to over ninety conferences around the globe. her major fields of specialization are second language teaching, contrastive rhetoric, linguistic and rhetorical analysis of texts, business writing, intercultural communication, language of fund raising. ana moreno departamento de filología moderna, universidad de león the interview am: ulla, you are probably one of the most, if not the most, prestigious and influential researchers in contrastive and intercultural rhetoric, who is helping enormously to make this discipline an academic discipline in its own right. could you tell us how you became interested in contrastive rhetoric? uc: i became interested in contrastive rhetoric when i was an international student getting a phd in english literature and linguistics at the university in the united states. i found it difficult to write papers in english even though i had written papers in finnish when i was a graduate student in finland, and i realised that there were different expectations about writing style, writing patterns and conventions between english and finnish, things that i ana moreno & lorena suárez ibérica 10 [2005]: 161-169162 had to learn as an l2 writer; and then i learnt about the interesting work that linguists were doing on contrastive rhetoric in the united states, helping international students like myself to be better writers in english through looking at differences and similarities between our first languages and the second language we were learning. am: what are the most important questions that this discipline attempts to answer? uc: the discipline of contrastive and intercultural rhetoric examines similarities and differences in texts and writing, and how writing is taught in different languages and cultures, and then tries to predict issues and problems that writers in second languages, especially in english as a second language, have, based on some of their experiences and understanding that they have about writing. am: in what sense can the scientific knowledge contributed by this discipline help society at large? uc: in today�s world, english is spoken all around the world, writing in english is expected of academics all around the world internationally and the motto �publish in english or perish� is really true. i feel that contrastive rhetoric has contributed to our understanding about scientific and academic writing across disciplines and across cultures, and has helped numerous academics in spain, in germany, in japan, in hong kong, in finland, all around the world, to write academic papers most successfully in english and get published. also, in today�s global english, in business environment, contrastive rhetoric has helped us understand how people communicate, how they correspond, how non-native speakers and native speakers interact to get business done, how they accommodate to each other�s speaking styles, etc. am: how have your research concerns evolved since you did your first study in this field? uc: my first studies, as many of the first studies in contrastive rhetoric, studied student essay writing or essay examinations, etc. today, contrastive rhetoric �and my own worklooks at academic writing, looks at professional writing, and more and more we are also looking at how writing is produced, not just as actual essays and papers, but we are also looking at how writers go about the writing and how readers an interview with � ulla connor ibérica 10 [2005]: 161-169 163 consume texts. two of the most exciting studies that i have been involved in were: one, when i got started, was an international 14 country study about writing achievement. we collected and analyzed essays written by students in various countries, which was really very exciting. another more recent study was a study of international business communication in which a finnish fish broker was analyzed buying and selling fish in tons, communicating in english with buyers and sellers from germany, japan, uk, estonia, etc. it was fascinating to find out how all the non-native speaking interactants negotiated in english and accommodated their writing and speaking styles in order to be understood and get what they wanted. am: who have been the most influential linguists, rhetoricians and researchers from other disciplinary areas in your own conception of the discipline and its object of study? uc: my own work has been very much influenced by a finnish text linguist and stylistics professor, nils enkvist, who helped build text linguistics 30-40 years ago into such a respectable discipline. text linguistics, like discourse analysis, is fairly new in the discipline of linguistics. looking at discourses rather than words and sentences was a big leap for linguists, and n. r. enkvist and some other text linguists like t. van dijk were very influential, encouraging us in linguistics to go beyond words and sentences. we cannot examine and discuss texts if we do not have tools for those analyses. so the work of linguistics such as enkvist, and van dijk, has been extremely influential. then, later on when text linguistics had grown, developed, there have been others such as the linguist john swales, whose work on genre analysis has been extremely influential. more recently, the text analyses that we are doing in contrastive rhetoric have been very much enhanced by the work in corpus linguistics. corpus linguists such as john sinclair and douglas biber have given us powerful tools to design large scale studies with large numbers of texts and, through computerized analyses, have made it possible for us to compare, to develop baselines for writing in spanish, writing in english, writing academic research papers across disciplines. they have made it possible for us to make generalisations. am: you are the director of the icic in indianapolis (usa); how did this centre get started and what are its current research and teaching projects? uc: icic got started as an english for specific purposes centre of research and connections of research and practice in teaching english for specific purposes at my ana moreno & lorena suárez ibérica 10 [2005]: 161-169164 institution in the united states and at many unites stated universities and around the world. english for specific purposes teaching has become very relevant. we don�t teach english for general purposes. we shouldn�t be teaching english for no obvious purposes. we teach english for specific purposes. our centre studies how language is used in the medical field, how language is used in business offices, etc., and then the research findings are translated into language teaching practice. so there is a research-practice connection that is specific for english for specific purposes and intercultural communication, and we have research projects ongoing in areas of fundraising and teaching of fundraising, and also in health discourse, studying how doctors and patients talk, studying how doctors write prescriptions or research articles, and in teaching, we help especially international doctors and nurses in the united states to write and communicate more clearly in english, with both native english speaking patients and with patients from diverse language and cultural backgrounds. as you know, the us is inhabited by large numbers of new immigrants with often limited english language skills and different cultural expectations about health practice. the other component of the icic, then, is intercultural communication and training for americans, not just english for internationals. for communication internationally to go smoothly, both parties need to understand each other, and i am talking about native speakers and internationals. often it is a burden on internationals or nonnative speakers of english to have to try to learn and speak like a native speaker. but more and more we understand that for true intercultural communication to take place, both parties need to accommodate. so my centre also gives workshops for international businesses in town to better communicate with their international partners or clients. so that�s the big part of it, not just teaching english to internationals, but also teaching americans to communicate more effectively with internationals. am: tell us about the conference that you are organizing for this summer. who might be interested? uc: it is a conference for researchers and teachers involved in intercultural rhetoric, contrastive rhetoric, intercultural communication, etc. last year we had participants from all around the world, maybe from some ten different countries talking about their work in intercultural writing and intercultural communication. we expect an an interview with � ulla connor ibérica 10 [2005]: 161-169 165 international set of participants again this year. there will be papers dealing with english writing for academic purposes and for professional purposes. out of 30 accepted proposals, five presentations will be given by researchers from spain, who will be speaking about their research on academic writing in english and spanish. am: you will be giving a plenary talk about your proposed change from the term contrastive rhetoric to intercultural rhetoric. could you summarize the major arguments that you will be putting forward? uc: contrastive rhetoric often forced us to talk about, to examine differences, instead of encouraging us to look at similarities. often, contrasting potentially makes ones language look inferior to another language. intercultural, on the other hand, underscores the point that communication, whether it is writing or speaking, internationally, requires both parties to be actively involved, where the accommodation to each other�s styles goes both ways. intercultural rhetoric is a good term because it takes us away from pure contrast and possible stereotyping and possible essentializing cultures and languages. it also encourages us to be able to examine communication in action. when we study writing and texts, we also need to understand how those texts are created and how they are consumed. in intercultural rhetoric studies we are also looking at speaking and communication, not just writing. so, studying international business communication in action, for example, fits under intercultural rhetoric. am: you have been participating in our doctoral programme for four years now and you have accepted the invitation to come back next year, too. what made you get interested in this collaboration and what has kept you interested? uc: i was invited to the aesla conference in 2001. that was organized by ana moreno and others from here, and it was an excellent discourse conference, well attended, with a wonderful array of speakers. there i was able to meet with the teachers of the english department, and was honoured to be invited as a teacher of this phd programme. this is my fourth year teaching here. the students are interested in the subject of research methods in cross-cultural and intercultural studies and are well-trained in linguistics before they take the course. it has been a pleasure to work with the students and help them identify researchable topics in cross-cultural communication and develop a proposal for a project with all the aspects of a major ana moreno & lorena suárez ibérica 10 [2005]: 161-169166 study. students have been excited. it has been a pleasure to meet with so many of the faculty. i have enjoyed the hospitality that has been extended to me, and every year i take up a little bit of spanish. the most attractive thing about this has been to be able to develop collaborative projects together with professor moreno and the students. we had lorena suárez as a visitor at my university. ana moreno was a visiting researcher in indianapolis, and ana and i published a research paper together. ana moreno is also an invited speaker at the conference on intercultural rhetoric this summer at my centre�s conference in indianapolis. ana and i have been able to teach together and collaborate in research. it has been perfect cross-cultural communication. for me, it has been an opportunity to teach intercultural rhetoric and research methods to an audience of excited and knowledgeable doctoral students. it has been rewarding to talk about the issues in the field and take the field forward together with them. that has been a marvellous opportunity because you here in león take crosscultural studies seriously. and your program of translation, cross-cultural text analysis, english for specific purposes, intercultural communication, and corpus linguistics, it has been a perfect place to visit. my own vision for applied linguistics concurs with yours. people need to communicate across cultures daily in today�s world. when crosscultural communication happens, there is a potential for misunderstandings. in intercultural studies of communication and language, our goal is to help people communicate more successfully. am: in what sense have both the icic in indianapolis and the department of modern languages in león benefited from this collaboration? uc: truly, a very beneficial thing for the icic, with dr. moreno�s visits, with lorena�s visits, and with the encouragements and the interest to view the issue as a hot topic, it is exciting. am: since you started, you have already taught over twenty doctoral students, what is your impression of the progress they made in this module? uc: oh, my goodness! yours students are such hardworking students. it�s amazing for me to imagine how diligent they are and how much they learn in forty hours. it�s amazing to think that in this course they not only master the material but that they have been able to come up with original researchable projects, which is great. i don�t know what other courses are offered in the program, but i think this particular course an interview with � ulla connor ibérica 10 [2005]: 161-169 167 is rather innovative because students learn research methods while actually doing research. also, i have seen as years go past that the english language proficiency level of the students improves and improves, and i don�t know why that has happened, whether students go overseas more, or it is that they have more english speaking instructors, friends or they are travelling more. ls: do you think that it is helpful for phd students to work on a smaller project before doing the phd dissertation? uc: personally, here i am relying a lot on experiences in our graduate programme in indianapolis. i encourage students to find a topic that they are interested in as early as possible in their graduate programme, do a term paper and focus on that project as early as possible and then improve it and work it into a thesis. that has worked for many students, but of course i cannot tell that the same would work for all of them. in our course in león we model for our students a process of empirical research projects. we teach them to find a researchable topic first. that is the most difficult stage, to find an interesting and researchable topic, and we help them to find the right questions to ask; we help them to focus, design the data and methodology to answer those questions. having experienced once a research project from start to finish � even with a small data set and a limited focus � students can transfer this process to other more ambitious projects, such as dissertations. ls: to which extent should the phd student work in isolation or share work with others (supervisors, other phd students, researchers at conferences, etc.)? uc: i emphasize the importance of working with others and not working in isolation. to me, research is a collaborative process, as is writing. i encourage students in our courses to comment on each other�s ideas, research topics, drafts, revisions, etc. and that same kind of process should be part of the phd programming of doctoral students. giving presentations at conferences, getting feedback from others, sharing your writing with others, if you are going to have writing groups with other graduate students, that could be helpful too, and really sharing your work, really going out and talking about your ideas, writing your ideas down and sharing them. regarding the relationship between supervisor and student, it varies. but from my personal experiences as an ma thesis mentor for countless students, i need to have ana moreno & lorena suárez ibérica 10 [2005]: 161-169168 close contact with the students. we need to come up with good models of mentoring. there must be trust, there must be respect and close contact. one thing that i do with my ma students is to set up a rigorous schedule of meetings and deadlines with the students. ls: so you think deadlines are good when working on a phd thesis� uc: yeah, absolutely! am: is león, and its university, a place you would recommend to other students around the world? uc: well, of course!! the city is a fun place, too, with many beautiful historic sites and convenient public transportation. the professors seem very approachable. am: finally, a personal question: how do you manage to attend to so many different domains of university life (teaching, research, service, social events�) and still be such a productive researcher? uc: well, i love my work. and in my field of applied linguistics, teaching, research, and service go hand in hand. it�s exciting to be able to teach students and share with them my own work and research and try to be a model for my students as a researcher, teacher and program administrator. and i love my friends, good colleagues around the world, including my friends in león. finally, my family � husband john and son timo � are extremely supportive of my professional life. in fact, they sometimes even travel with me, including visits to spain, of course, too. we would like to express our gratitude to prof. ulla connor for agreeing to be interviewed in the middle of her tight schedule in león, for sharing a bit more of her views and time with us, and for agreeing to submit the interview also to ibérica. an interview with � ulla connor ibérica 10 [2005]: 161-169 169 iberica 13 ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172 issn 1139-7241 zusammenfassung der aufgabenoriente unterricht deutsch für den tourismus stellt eine realitätsnähere variante des kommunikativen deutschunterrichts dar, die es ermöglicht, sinnvolle inhalte mit der effizienten bewältigung konkreter interaktionssituationen des berufslebens zu kombinieren. dabei werden die formellen aspekte der sprache weder aus dem unterricht ausgeklammert noch als reine form-funktionsbeziehungen eingeführt. grammatik wird vielmehr als eine metasprachliche aufgabe verstanden, die es kooperativ und interaktiv zu entschlüsseln und zu lösen gilt. schlüsselwörter: didaktik deutsch für den tourismus,   aufgabenorientierter deutschunterricht für den tourismus. abstract task-based language learning and focus on form as a teaching concept for german for tourism task-based german for tourism is the most realistic alternative among communicative language methods. it makes possible to combine relevant contents for professional purposes with real communicative tasks. cognitiveinteractionist approaches in second language acquisition research assume that communicative, meaning-oriented language learning needs to be complemented with more formal instruction. as a result of a task-based learning with focus on form, grammar becomes a metalinguistic task that has to be undertaken cooperatively and interactively. aufgabenorientierung mit proaktiver formfokussierung als didaktisches konzept für den deutschunterricht im tourismus gloria bosch roig universitat de les illes balears (spanien) gloria.bosch@uib.es 157 ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172 gloria bosch roig keywords: task-based language learning, german for tourism, focus on form. einleitung im gegensatz zum rein sprachorientierten stellt der berufsorientierte deutschunterricht und in unserem fall der unterricht deutsch als fremdsprache für den tourismus (im folgenden daft) an der universität der balearen eine besondere form der interaktionssituation dar, aus der sich eine ganze reihe von didaktischen überlegungen und konsequenzen ableiten. deutsch ist nicht nur die zweitmeist gelernte fremdsprache an den schulen, sondern auch die erste fremdsprache im wichtigsten wirtschaftssektor der insel mallorca. zurzeit macht der tourismus aus deutschland 41% des gesamten internationalen tourismus auf der insel aus. deutschland ist schon seit 19991 der erste entsendemarkt für den tourismus nach mallorca geworden, und das hat natürlich deutliche implikationen für die ausbildung der zukünftigen fachkräfte auf der insel. deutsch fungiert hier nicht nur als eine berufsrelevante sprache, sie ist darüber hinaus die erste fremdsprache auf dem arbeitsmarkt mallorcas. bedingt durch diese tatsachen und dank der erkenntnis der entscheidenden merkmale, die den deutschunterricht für den tourismus auf mallorca ausmachen, soll ein fremdsprachendidaktisches konzept entwickelt werden, das die stärken dieses lernszenarios für den lernprozess optimal nutzen kann. wir werden in diesem beitrag darauf verzichten, auf die wenigen lehrwerke für den spezifischen deutschunterricht im tourismus einzugehen, die es zur zeit auf dem markt gibt. deren überwiegende zahl berücksichtigt meines erachtens kaum zwei wichtige merkmale, die den unterricht „deutsch für den tourismus“ ausmachen: die sprachbedarfsund die realitätsorientierung. inhaltsorientierung wir verstehen den berufsorientierten deutschunterricht im tourismus primär als einen inhaltsorientierten unterricht mit reaktiver und proaktiver 158 formfokussierung. im prinzip stellen wir uns unter inhaltsorientierung eine unterrichtsform vor, in der die themen bzw. inhalte im vordergrund stehen. oft wird davon ausgegangen, dass die lerner beim inhaltsorientierten unterricht implizit und ohne explizite erklärungen eine fremdsprache erwerben.2 zahlreiche studien haben jedoch nachgewiesen, dass die gezielte beschäftigung mit sprachlichen formen den spracherwerb fördert (spada, 1997: 74). von besonderer bedeutung in diesem zusammenhang sind die durchgeführten forschungsarbeiten im rahmen der immersionsprogramme für englischsprachige schüler in kanada (fortune und tedick, 2008). im fach „deutsch für den tourismus“ (daft) wird gezielt und geplant die sprachform fokussiert, denn die unterrichtsfrequenz und unterrichtsdauer sind sehr gering. die unterschiede zwischen den l1 der studenten (meistens mallorquinisch und spanisch) und der l3, in diesem fall der deutschen sprache, sind zu groβ, um von den studenten ohne bewusstes lernen wahrgenommen werden zu können.3 die kognitiv-interaktionistisch ausgerichtete fremdsprachenforschung geht davon aus, dass im kommunikativen, bedeutungsorientierten unterricht bestimmte formale strukturen unvollständig erworben werden, wenn ihnen keine besondere aufmerksamkeit geschenkt wird. wir gehen hier von der hypothese aus, dass bewusstes lernen den l2erwerb fördert.4 aus diesem grund ergibt sich für den daft-unterricht die didaktische möglichkeit, dass die sprachform bzw. die grammatik immer im rahmen eines passenden und sinnvollen thematischen kontexts vermittelt wird. so können z. b. die lokalpräpositionen anhand der sehenswürdigkeiten des jeweiligen standortes oder die modalverben im zusammenhang mit der typischen lokalgastronomie konkret referenziert werden. wir wollen hier besonders auf die unterscheidung zwischen „grammatik einführen“ und „grammatik thematisieren“ aufmerksam machen. die grammatik wird im daft-unterricht nicht a priori als thema im passenden kommunikativen kontext eingeführt, sondern sie ist von anfang an präsent im unterricht und kann jederzeit sowohl vom lehrer als auch von den lernern thematisiert werden.5 die grammatik ergibt sich aus der interaktionssituation und dem tatsächlichen kommunikationsund verstehensbedarf der lerner. die grammatik ist demnach inhaltsabhängig und interaktionsorientiert. aufgabenorientierung mit proaktiver formfokussierung ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172 159 inhaltsorientierung setzt hier voraus, dass sich sowohl lehrer als auch lerner vorher aktiv mit den inhalten auseinandersetzen. kleine recherchen seitens der studenten zu einem bestimmten thema bilden einen zentralen bestandteil des aufgabenorientierten deutschunterrichts für den tourismus, da die vorbereitung der inhalte durch die studenten eine besonders relevante nebenfunktion im unterricht darstellt. sie bietet verstärkt die möglichkeit, handlungsorientiert im sinne eines kommunikativen bzw. aufgabenorientierten unterrichts zu arbeiten. die erarbeitung der inhalte seitens der studenten ist daher eine wichtige aufgabe im daft-unterricht. auf diesen konkreten aspekt des lernens werden wir später näher eingehen. zusammenfassend können wir hier die inhaltsorientierung sowohl als ein konzeptuelles als auch ein methodologisches prinzip verstehen, denn es geht darum, einen sprachlich sinnvollen kontext zu schaffen, an dessen gestaltung sich nicht nur die lehrer, sondern auch die studenten aktiv beteiligen und der genügend impliziten und expliziten input liefert. nicht zuletzt ist das implizite lernen neben dem expliziten lernen ein wichtiges prinzip des spracherwerbs. diese form des lernens setzt eine inhaltsund inputbasierte lernumgebung voraus, die ein qualitativ (im sinne von verständlich) und ein quantitativ (im sinne von frequent) adäquates sprachangebot bereitstellt. je häufiger und intensiver die lernenden an natürlichen, bedeutungsbezogenen sprachsitua tio nen beteiligt sind, desto schneller und effizienter werden sie die zielsprache erwerben. im daft-unterricht wird inhaltlich-sinnvolles mit explizit-bewusstem lernen stark kombiniert. handlungsund aufgabenorientierung das hauptziel des berufsbezogenen deutschunterrichts für den tourismus ist die entwicklung der sprachlichen handlungskompetenz der studenten. die mündliche und schriftliche kommunikation steht demnach im mittelpunkt des unterrichts. unsere studenten müssen am ende des tourismusstudiums in der lage sein, in den verschiedenen beruflichen kontaktsituationen mit deutschsprachigen kunden und arbeitgebern angemessen zu reagieren. die förderung prozeduralen wissens als das wissen, wie man eine bestimmte kommunikationssituation in der tourismusbranche bewältigt, erfordert eine differenziertere beschreibung vereinzelter kompetenzen und fertigkeiten. gloria bosch roig ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172160 besonders wichtig für unseren deutschunterricht für den tourismus sind die pragmatischen und soziolinguistischen kompetenzen und die interkulturellen fähigkeiten. diese fertigkeiten sind im gemeinsamen europäischen referenzrahmen6 näher definiert: (a) pragmatische kompetenz: hier wird zwischen diskurskompetenz und funktionaler kompetenz unterschieden. die erste bezieht sich auf die fähigkeit, teile eines mündlichen oder schriftlichen textes aufzubauen, wie z.b. ein telefongespräch durchzuführen oder eine e-mail zu schreiben. unter funktionaler kompetenz ist die fähigkeit zu verstehen, in einer bestimmten situation die eigene absicht auszudrücken und textsortenund situationsadäquat zu kommunizieren. dafür sind im deutschunter richt für den tourismus besonders feste wendungen und häufig auftretende sprachmittel vonnöten. (b) soziolinguistische kompetenz: in kontaktsituationen mit deutschsprachigen kunden ist es besonders wichtig, soziale beziehungen und soziale distanz sprachlich zu markieren. höflichkeitskonventionen, anredeund begrüβungsformeln, registerunterschie de usw. bedürfen im deutschunterricht in spanien eines intensiveren trainings, da im spanischen kontext soziale distanz sprachlich weniger markiert ist und es häufig zu negativen pragmatischen transfers7 kommen kann. (c) interkulturelle fähigkeiten: unter diesem aspekt wird die beziehung zwischen der eigenen und der zielkultur betont und die fähigkeit gefördert, strategien für den kontakt mit angehörigen der zielkultur zu identifizieren und anzuwenden sowie mit missverständnissen und konfliktsituationen umzugehen und stereotype zu überwinden. beobachtung, analyse und selbstreflexion sind hier unerlässlich. wenn wir also in den daft-unterricht eine pragmatische, eine soziolinguistische und eine interkulturelle perspektive integrieren wollen, müssen wir zunächst den passenden konzeptuellen und methodologischen rahmen finden und neu definieren. ein rein kommunikativer unterricht mit funktionsgrammatik kommt den sprachbedürfnissen der daft-studenten sicherlich nicht entgegen. deshalb stellt die aufgabenorientierung eine sonderform des traditionellen kommunikativen unterrichts dar, die eine verbindung zur realen arbeitswelt anstöβt. aufgabenorientierung mit proaktiver formfokussierung ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172 161 die grundlegende annahme, dass der lernerfolg umso gröβer sein sollte, je mehr die unterrichtliche und die auβerunterrichtliche verwendung der gelernten fremdsprache übereinstimmen, ist im daft-bereich besonders nachvollziehbar und durch einzelne erfahrungen gestützt. beim aufgabenorientierten unterricht herrscht allgemeine einigkeit darüber, dass die aufmerksamkeit der lerner nicht auf der sprachlichen form, sondern auf der durch die aufgabe geförderte problemlösung liegen sollte. „die fremdsprache ist primär kommunikationsmittel und erst sekundär lerngegenstand“ (solmecke, 2006: 237). in diesem zusammenhang kommt die berechtigte frage auf, was den ansatz des aufgabenorientierten lernens vom kommunikativen unterricht eigentlich unterscheidet. solmecke versteht das aufgabenorientierte lernen als eine „radikalere variante des mit dem aufkommen des kommunikativen ansatzes beginnenden versuchs, den fremdsprachenunterricht durch die annährung von weg und ziel effektiver zu gestalten“ (solmecke, 2006: 237). es geht also darum, den fremdsprachenunterricht so zu gestalten, dass die aufgaben, die lerner im klassenzimmer zu lösen haben, sich an den aufgaben orientieren, die sie auβerhalb des unterrichts bewältigen müssen. wir möchten an dieser stelle auf eine konzeptuelle differenzierung von aufgaben eingehen. es besteht einigkeit darüber, dass kommunikative aufgaben das produkt und das hauptziel des aufgabenorientierten unterrichts sind, es ist aber auch nicht von der hand zu weisen, dass produktaufgaben als resultat prozessorientierter aufgaben anzusehen sind. der begriff „aufgabe“ wird hier erweitert. wir verstehen aufgaben im weitesten sinne als anforderungen, die immer dann auftreten, wenn es im unterricht ein sprachoder kommunikationsproblem zu lösen gibt. die bewältigung kommunikativer aufgaben stellt trotzdem das intendierte hauptprodukt des aufgabenorientierten unterrichts dar. für den daft-unterricht bietet dieser ansatz einen klaren vorteil gegenüber dem traditionellen kommunikativen unterricht, denn unsere studenten werden im berufsleben ganz konkrete kommunikative aufgaben zu bewältigen haben. wir können also unsere lernziele genauer formulieren, indem wir diese aufgaben identifizieren und beschreiben. das ist die erste voraussetzung für einen effektiven daft-unterricht. anhand von bedarfsanalysen in den verschiedenen bereichen der tourismusindustrie sind wir in der lage, die kommunikativen aufgaben genauer zu beschreiben, mit denen unsere studenten in ihrem berufsleben konfrontiert werden. der daft-unterricht ist somit bedarfsorientiert. gloria bosch roig ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172162 aufgabe vs. übung bevor wir zu einer aufgabentypologie für den daft-unterricht kommen, ist es notwendig, dass wir die begriffe „aufgabe“ und „übung“ voneinander abgrenzen. es gibt zwischen „aufgabe“ und „übung“ zahlreiche überschneidungen und flieβende übergänge, aber wenn wir die didaktischen ziele fokussieren, werden uns die unterschiede deutlicher. unter „aufgabe“ versteht man einen arbeitsauftrag, der von den lernenden zu lösen ist. wichtig dabei ist das produkt, d.h. der gebrauch der fremdsprache und ihre authentizität hinsichtlich der kommunikationssituation. ellis (ellis, 2003: 16) definiert „task“ wie folgt: „a task is intended to result in language use that bears a resemblance, direct or indirect, to the way language is used in the real world“. das hauptziel einer aufgabe im fremdsprachenunterricht ist demnach, die anwendung der sprache in einer möglichst realitätsnahen kommunikations situation zu generieren. dabei werden mehrere kompetenzen und fähigkeiten, wie die pragmatischen, soziolinguistischen und interkulturellen, integriert. im gegensatz zu den aufgaben sind übungen auf das wiederholen und trainieren einzelner sprachphänomene und kompetenzen ausgerichtet. lexikalische oder grammatikalische einheiten können z.b. somit den lernern expliziter gemacht werden. übungen sind auch ein wichtiger teil des aufgabenorientierten daft-unterrichts mit formfokussierung. wenn wir aufgaben sowohl als produktwie auch als prozessorientiert verstehen, müssen wir im daft-unterricht folgende typologie unterscheiden: kommunikative aufgaben im gemeinsamen europäischen referenzrahmen versteht man unter den „kommunikativen aufgaben“ jene aufgaben, die realitätsbezogen sind. das sind aufgaben, die lerner in ihrem späteren berufsleben bewältigen müssen. die kommunikativen aufgaben sind die „produkte“ des aufgabenorientierten unterrichts. das hauptziel des daft-unterrichts ist, dass lerner am ende des studiums in der lage sind, solche aufgaben, wie die folgenden, effektiv und autonom zu lösen: die reservierung eines zimmers im hotel, touristen auskunft über sehenswürdigkeiten aufgabenorientierung mit proaktiver formfokussierung ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172 163 und interessante orte geben, eine reise buchen oder stornieren, auf beschwerden angemessen reagieren usw. metakommunikative aufgaben metakommunikative aufgaben sind prozessaufgaben, die zur realisierung einer kommunikativen aufgabe nötig sind. hier geht es um die ausführung der kommunikativen aufgabe und um die dazu erforderliche anwendung der sprache. metakommunikative aufgaben sind aushandlungsprozesse, die lerner untereinander durchführen, um eine bestimmte kommunikative aufgabe zu lösen. in diesem sinne sind sie auf die kooperation der kommunikationsbeteiligten angewiesen. metasprachliche aufgaben metasprachliche aufgaben sind wie die kommunikativen aufgaben ebenfalls prozessorientierte aufgaben. dabei geht es hauptsächlich um die sprachform; sie steht hier im vordergrund der aufgabe. immer, wenn bedarf besteht, werden jene aspekte der sprache thematisiert, die für die bewältigung einer bestimmten kommunikativen aufgabe nötig sind. metasprachliche aufgaben sind stark reflexive und interaktive momente des lernens, die im laufe des lernprozesses jederzeit stattfinden können. metasprachliche aufgaben tragen zum bewussten, expliziten lernen bei. metakognitive aufgaben die metakognitiven aufgaben sollen den lernern helfen, ihren eigenen lernprozess zu beobachten und zu steuern. sie fördern die lernerautonomie der studenten und ihre fähigkeit, sich selbst als lerner besser zu verstehen. sowohl die metakommunikativen, die metasprachlichen als auch die metakognitiven aufgaben können als didaktische aufgaben verstanden werden. sie stehen nicht im direkten zusammenhang mit den realitätsnahen aufgaben, welche das endziel des daft-unterrichts darstellen, dennoch sind sie sehr relevante aufgaben im lernprozess. gloria bosch roig ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172164 formfokussierung der begriff „formfokussierung“ (focus on form) ist seit beginn der 90er jahre in der kognitiv-orientierten angloamerikanischen fremdsprachenerwerbstheorie bekannt8. darunter versteht man einen fremdsprachendidaktischen ansatz, der formale aspekte der sprache mit kommunikativen zielsetzungen verbindet. diese vorgehensweise stellt einen kompromiss zwischen jenen zugängen dar, die explizite grammatikvermittlung aus dem unterricht ausklammern, und traditionelleren ansätzen, die formale aspekte der sprache auβerhalb eines kommunikativen zusammenhangs betrachten. die „aufmerksamkeit“ ist hier ein zentrales kognitives lernmoment und weist auf die von schmidt in den 90er jahren formulierte noticing-hypothese hin. demnach findet fremdsprachenlernen statt, wenn lerner neue elemente der sprache erkennen und bemerken und sie bewusst im gehirn registrieren. diese form von selektiver aufmerksamkeit führt nach schmidt (2001) zum effektiveren lernen. das bemerken und aufmerksamwerden auf eine neue linguistische form kann intern oder extern intendiert sein, denn die lerner können selbst beim versuch, sätze zu bilden, neues entdecken, und genauso kann der lehrer anhand von fragen die aufmerksamkeit der lerner auf die neue form bzw. auf die merkmale des neuen lernmaterials steuern. wichtig ist dabei, dass die lerner sich der diskrepanzen zwischen ihren eigenen nichtzielsprachenkonformen äuβerungen und jenen kompetenterer sprecher, die als vergleichsbasis verfügbar sind, bewusst werden. hier stellt sich die frage nach der explizitkeit bzw. nach der regelformulierung. welcher grad an metasprachlicher kommunikation im unterricht ist für die vermittlung der neuen form angemessen und notwendig? im aufgabenorientierten daft-unterricht für spanischsprechende studenten wird die formfokussierung sowohl zufällig (reaktiv) als auch geplant (proaktiv) erfolgen. erfahrungsgemäβ sind die sprachsysteme deutsch und spanisch zu verschieden, um auf die letztere variante der formfokussierung verzichten zu können. die deutsche sprache weist ein starkes kontrastverhältnis zur muttersprache der lerner auf. spanischsprechende deutschlerner haben in der regel besonders viele schwierigkeiten sowohl mit dem satzbau als auch der kasusmarkierung, der semantisierung, dem gebrauch von präpositionen oder der pronomen-abfolge im deutschen. aufgabenorientierung mit proaktiver formfokussierung ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172 165 ideal wäre natürlich, dass die aufmerksamkeit als spontane reaktion der lerner auf die im unterricht auftauchenden probleme bei der produktion oder beim verstehen der fremdsprachigen äußerungen erfolgen würde. das ist aber selten der fall, denn lerner müssen erst durch geplante formfokussierung darauf trainiert werden. sie bemerken eine neue form, sind aber am anfang des lernprozesses nicht in der lage, diese selbständig zu analysieren. der weg vom noticing zur awareness läuft hier über eine geplante formfokussierung, die am anfang des lernprozesses kognitiv aufdringlicher sein mag, in den späteren lernphasen aber zu einer stets reaktiveren formfokussierung führen soll. formfokussierungs-strategien im aufgabenorientierten daft-unterricht in diesem abschnitt werden wir die verschiedenen formfokussierungsstrategien beschreiben, die im aufgabenorientierten daft-unterricht angewandt werden. wir haben sie nach dem intendierten ziel der jeweiligen aufgabe klassifiziert. kommunikative aufgaben kommunikative aufgaben bilden den kern des aufgabenorientierten daftunterrichts. sie sind interaktiv und erfordern den einsatz von impulsund reaktionsorientierten formfokussierungs-strategien. inputorientierte strategien authentische schrifftliche und mündliche kommunikationsbeispiele werden in ausreichendem maβe mit der zu fokussierenden form präsentiert. wichtig ist dabei, möglichst auf originaltexte zurückzugreifen. originaltexte können aber auch in weiteren phasen des unterrichts bearbeitet und angepasst werden, so dass die neuen formen häufiger vorkommen. höroder lesematerial, wie ein dialog beim check-in im hotel, könnte diesem ziel dienen. durch kontextualisierungsund verständnisfragen sowie durch fragen, die auf die neue sprachoder satzform abzielen, kann die aufmerksamkeit der lerner gesteuert werden. wie fragt der rezeptionist nach dem ausweis des gastes? welche anredeform benutzt der hotelangestellte? gloria bosch roig ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172166 metakommunikative aufgaben die metakommunikativen aufgaben dienen der ausführung der kommunikativen aufgaben. prozess-aushandlungsstrategien hier planen die lerner miteinander die ausführung der kommunikativen aufgabe. die fokussierungstechnik besteht darin, klärende fragen zu stellen. in den ersten phasen des lernprozesses wird meistens der lehrer diese fragen stellen; in späteren stadien sollten die lerner dazu in der lage sein, selbst fragen zu stellen und zu beantworten. für die planung der aufgabe sind folgende fragen hilfreich: wer, was, wo, wann? wer spielt die rolle des hotelgastes, wer ist der/die rezeptionist/in? wann, wie lange soll der aufenthalt dauern? sind für die zeit hotelzimmer frei? form-bedeutung-aushandlungsstrategien bei der ausführung der kommunikativen aufgabe entscheiden sich die lerner für bestimmte sprachformen und redemittel. diese technik ermöglicht den vergleich zwischen normkonformen und von der norm divergierenden formen. sie kann aber auch das form-funktions-inventar der lerner erweitern, denn vielleicht kennen sie bereits die formel „kann ich ihnen helfen?“, von der ausgehend der lehrer einen weiteren impuls mit der frage geben kann: wie kann man sonst noch hilfsbereitschaft ausdrücken? die didaktische absicht, die dahinter steckt, ist, dass lerner sich in späteren phasen des lernprozesses diese frage selbst stellen. formfokussierungstechniken führen zu mehr lernbewusstheit und lernautonomie. metasprachliche aufgaben metasprachliche aufgaben sind explizitere lernmomente im unterricht. die formfokussierungs-techniken sind hier gezielter und präziser, sie thematisieren und lenken die aufmerksamkeit auf ein bestimmtes grammatikalisches phänomen. kooperatives bemerken und bewusstwerden in den anfangsphasen des lernprozesses ist es besonders wichtig, die lerner darin zu üben, neues lernmaterial zu bemerken und in den fokus aufgabenorientierung mit proaktiver formfokussierung ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172 167 ihrer aufmerksamkeit zu stellen. im unterricht kann man dieses ziel anhand einer kooperativen aufgabe erreichen. das bemerken und bewusstwerden wird zuerst in der gruppe geübt. schriftliche oder mündliche texte können dazu dienen, das neue material zu präsentieren und in einen kommunikativen rahmen einzubetten. der lehrer bringt die lerner mit hilfe von übungen und direkten und indirekten fragen dazu, die gewünschten neuen formen zu erkennen, sie laut auszusprechen, ihre bedeutung zu raten, analogien zu anderen sprachen zu bilden, morphologische merkmale, satzfunktionen zu erkennen usw. kooperatives erstellen und überprüfen von hypothesen diese strategie besteht darin, die lernergruppe zur erstellung und zur überprüfung von hypothesen zu motivieren. sie muss dabei selbst zur lösung des problems kommen. warum ist die adjektivendung hier „e“ und nicht „en“? was passiert, wenn ich denselben satz im plural sage? was hat sich da verändert? könnt ihr jetzt eine regel formulieren? metakognitive aufgaben diese aufgaben helfen den lernern, den eigenen lernprozess zu beobachten und zu kontrollieren. selbstkorrektion eine wichtige fokussierungstechnik ist die selbstinitiierte fehlerkorrektur. dafür ist es allerdings erforderlich, diese strategie im unterricht häufig geübt zu haben. in den anfangsphasen ist es empfehlenswert, dass die gesamte lernergruppe an der fehlerkorrektur beteiligt ist. anhand von satzpaaren und anderen kontrastübungen können die lerner auf die korrekte form aufmerksam gemacht werden. fragen wie „kann man das so sagen?“ können dem lehrer helfen, die aufmerksamkeit der lerner auf den fehler lenken. diese technik baut die monitorfunktion der lerner aus. in späteren phasen werden die lerner idealerweise diese monitorfunktion bei sich selbst und bei anderen übernehmen. reformulierungen reformulierungen haben eine wichtige funktion. sie helfen den lernern, form-funktionsbeziehungen im langzeitgedächtnis festzulegen. am gloria bosch roig ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172168 anfang können reformulierungen in der gruppe vorkommen, in späteren phasen sollten die lerner aber in der lage sein, diese strategie bei sich selbst anzuwenden. reformulierungen können reguliert werden. das bedeutet, dass wir vielleicht nur einen bestimmten aspekt verbessert haben wollen oder aber einen ganzen satz. das hängt vom niveau und von der kommunikativen aufgabe ab. wir können einen satz so oft reformulieren lassen, bis er akzeptabel oder richtig ist. die entscheidung hierüber trifft der lehrer, wobei die erfahrung und lehrer-lerner-beziehung eine wichtige rolle spielt. in der folgenden tabelle werden die formfokussierungsstrategien zusammengefasst. zusammenfassung prokuktund prozessiorientierte aufagen stellen den kern des unterrichts deutsch für den tourismus dar. die progressive entwicklung von formfokussierungsstrategien bei den lernern soll dazu beitragen, dass sie schrittweise in der lage sind, diese aufgaben selbständig zu meistern. es lassen sich für den daft-unterricht folgende merkmale erkennen: der daft-unterricht ist sprachbedarfsund realitätsorientiert. der daft-unterricht zielt auf die kommunikationsfähigkeit. produktaufgaben sind das resultat von prozessaufgaben. die aufgaben werden durch interaktion und kooperation in der gruppe gelöst. aufgabenorientierung mit proaktiver formfokussierung ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172 169 interaktive formfokussierungsstrategien kommunikative aufgaben produktorientiert inputorientierte strategien prozessorientiert metakommunikative aufgaben prozess-aushandlungsstrategien form-bedeutung-aushandlungsstrategien metasprachliche aufgaben kooperatives bemerken und bewusstwerden kooperatives bilden und überprüfen von hypothesen metakognitive aufgaben selbstkorrektion reformulierung tabelle 1: interaktive formfokussierungsstrategien. z die formfokussierung wird proaktiv anhand von strategien in der gruppe trainiert. der daft-unterricht fördert die lernerautonomie durch bewusstes und reflexives lernen. [artikel eingegangen am 30. november 2010] [überarbeiteter artikel angenommen am 28. mai 2011] literaturverzeichnis gloria bosch roig ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172170 conselleria de turisme (2009). libro blanco del turismo de las islas baleares, s. 60-62. mallorca: govern de les illes balears. eckmann, f. r. (1977). „markedness and the contrastive analysis hypothesis“. language learning 27: 315-330. ellis, r. (2003). task-based language learning and teaching. oxford: oxford university press. fortune, t.w. und d.j. tedick (2008). „one-way, two-way and indigenous immersion: a call for cross-fertilization“ in t.w. fortune und d.j. tedick (hrsg.), pahtways to multilingualism. evolving perspectives on immersion education, 3-21. clevedon: multilingual matters. krashen, s.d. (1981). second language acquisition and second language learning. oxford: pergamon. krashen, s.d. (1985). the input hypothesis: issues and implications. new york: longman. leow, r.p. (1997). „attention, awareness and foreign language learning“. language learning 47: 467-506. leow, r.p. (2001). „attention, awareness and foreign language behaviour“. language learning 51: 113-155. long, m.h. (1991). „focus on form: a design feature in language teaching methodology“ in k. de bot, r. ginsberg und c. kramsch, c. (hrsg.), foreign language research in cross-cultural perspective, 39-52. amsterdam: john benjamins. long, m.h. (1996). „the role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition” in w.c. ritchie und t.k. bathia (hrsg.), handbook of second language acquisition, 413-468. san diego: academic press. long, m. h. und p. robinson (1998). „focus on form: theory, research and practice“ in c.j. doughty und j. williams (hrsg.), focus on form in second language acquisition, 15-41. cambridge: cambridge university press. profile deutsch (2009). gemeinsamer europäischer referenzrahmen. lernzielbestimmungen, kannbeschreibungen und kommunikative mittel für die niveaustufen a1, a2, b1, b2, c1 und c2 des “gemeinsamen europäischen referenzrahmens für sprachen”. berlin: langenscheidt. rosa, e.m. und m.d. o’neill (1999). „explicitness, intake, and the issue of awareness: another piece to the puzzle“. studies in second language acquisition 21: 511-556. rosa, e.m. und r.p. leow (2004). „awareness, different learning conditions, and second language development“. applied psicholinguistics 25: 269292. schmidt, r. (1995). „conciousness and foreign language learning: a tutorial on the role of attention and awareness in learning“ in r. schmidt (hrsg.), attention and awareness in foreign language learning, 1-63. honolulu, hi: national foreign language resource center. schmidt, r. (2001). „attention“ in p. robinson (hrsg.), cognition and second language instruction, 3-33. new york: cambridge university press. siebold, k. (2008). „interkulturelle pragmatik – angenehm, sie kennenzulernen“. magazin 18: 813. solmecke, g. (2006). „aufgabenorientierung: einige gedanken zu einem neueren versuch, weg und ziel des fremdsprachenunterrichts einander anzunähern“ in k.r. bausch, e. burwitz-melzer, f.g. königs und h.-j. krumm (hrsg.), aufgabenorientierung als aufgabe. arbeitspapiere der 26. frühjahrskonferenz zur erforschung des fremdsprachenunterrichts , 237-243. tübingen: narr. dr. gloria bosch roig ist verantwortlich für den fachbereich deutsch an der universität der balearen und lehrt im masterstudiengang für lehramtstudenten methodologie und didaktik der deutschen sprache. sie ist autorin didaktischer materialien für deutsch für den tourismus im internationalen hueber-verlag. sie hat 2011 zwei bücher für den unterricht herausgegeben: übungsgrammatik deutsch für den tourismus und training deutsch im tourismus. fuβnoten 1 vgl. libro blanco del turismo de las islas baleares (conselleria de turisme, 2009: 60-62) 2 lernen und erwerben werden von mir synonymisch verwendet. über die monitor-theorie und den zusammenhang zwischen lernen und erwerben vgl. krashen, 1981 und 1985. 3 zum thema markiertheit und l1 transfer vgl. eckmanns markedness differential hypothesis (1977). 4 siehe dazu die noticing-hypothese, schmidt, 1995. über den zusammenhang zwischen noticing und awareness vgl. leow, 1997 und 2001; rosa und o’neill, 1999; rosa und leow, 2004. 5 longs konzept des focus on form fordert eine reactive und implizite vorgehensweise. vgl. long, 1991 und 1996. 6 vgl. gemeinsamer europäischer referenzrahmen in profile deutsch (2009). lernzielbestimmungen, kannbeschreibungen und kommunikative mittel für die niveaustufen a1, a2, b1, b2, c1 und c2 des „gemeinsamen europäischen referenzrahmen für sprachen“. berlin: langenscheidt. 7 zur interkulturellen pragmatik vgl. die kontrastive untersuchung spanisch-deutsch von siebold (2008). 8 vgl. long 1991, 1996 und 1998; und swain, 1998. aufgabenorientierung mit proaktiver formfokussierung ibérica 23 (2012): 157-172 171 spada, n. (1997). „form-focused instruction and second language acquisition: a review of classroom and laboratory research“. language teaching 30: 73-87. swain (1998). „focus on form through conscious reflection“ in c. doughty und j. williams (hrsg.), focus on form in classroom second language acquisition, 64-81. cambridge: cambridge university press. 01 editorial.qxd editorial this editorial opens with two items of news that deserve celebration. one is the promotion of ibérica to the first quartile (q1) in its double category of arts and humanities (language and linguistics) and social sciences (linguistics and language) in scopus, sjr (scimago journal rank) and web of science. our status has also been acknowledged by more local databases such as redib (red iberoamericana de innovación y conocimiento científico), fecyt (fundación española para la ciencia y la tecnología), and dialnet (universidad de la rioja, spain). the other cause for celebration is the renewal of the seal of excellence for scientific journals awarded by fecyt on may 7, 2021. both collective achievements will contribute to make aelfe yet more visible worldwide and give it appropriate recognition. the present issue revolves around five highly topical research strands: eme (english-medium education) and its points of convergence with esp/eap (english for specific and academic purposes), rhetoric, audiovisual translation, metadiscourse analysis, and lpp (languages for publication). in her guest contribution, emma dafouz milne makes the case for stressing the bonds between eme, esp and eap, maps out their common terrain, describes current trends, and encourages joint collaborative research and implementation of teacher education programmes. she additionally enriches the debate on the internationalisation of higher education by considering the option of a de-centralised or ‘embedded’ model of management of eme resources out of linguistics departments. rhetoric is the theoretical ground for two articles focusing on very different genres: academic websites and research articles. olga menagarishvili and bret zawilski delve into how the websites of academies of sciences transnationally present these scientific organisations by means of rhetorical temporality. from their contrast of the us national academy of sciences and the royal swedish academy of sciences, they develop useful taxonomies and draw important conclusions applicable to the websites of other types of organisations. rhetorical exploration also reveals the ways in which authors negotiate the theoretical value of novel research in the discussion sections of articles published in prestigious management journals. ibérica 41 (2021): 9-12 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 fei-weng cheng offers a tentative six-type taxonomy of rhetorical appeals derived from his study based on a 60-sample corpus, detects a strong promotional orientation, and suggests useful pedagogical implications. audiovisual translation (avt), traditionally researched from cross-cultural and reception studies perspectives, finds here yet more practical applications within the field of esp. pilar gonzález-vera’s article examines the didactic potential of avt and proposes a series of activities for enhancing the development of listening comprehension. in a similar vein, josé javier ávila-cabrera and pilar rodríguez-arancón resort to avt, and specifically to reverse subtitling activities, in order to help students improve their writing skills and use of vocabulary from the discipline of tourism. these authors prove the efficacy of avt as a pedagogical tool by means of a contrastive empirical study involving a control group and describe their research initiative, which stems from a project shared by three spanish universities: complutense and autónoma de madrid and universidad nacional de educación a distancia (uned). metadiscourse analysis constitutes today a vast research trend in a host of lsp domains. on this occasion, daniel gallego-hernández and patricia rodríguez-inés scrutinise metadiscourse markers in a trilingual corpus (english, french and spanish) of economics and business texts, with the ultimate purpose of classifying genre colonies in those two disciplines and displaying categories in an online platform with free access, which may aid translators, trainee translators, and translation and lsp trainers. the article is concerned with the empirical validation of the pilot corpus proposed. finally, the article on lpp included in this issue, by gisele dionísio da silva, draws on the notion of ‘semiperiphery’ to depict brazil’s standing in global scientific publishing and look into the language requirements demanded for manuscript submission by the author guidelines of brazilian english-medium journals indexed in the scielo database. to that end, she built a corpus of 98 guidelines sections from seven disciplines. her conclusion is that the primacy of the native speaker is endorsed across the disciplinary spectrum, which calls for a critical reflection on the hegemony of english as lingua franca in scholarly communication and on the attitudes and actions of policy-makers. the two book reviews that complete this spring issue deal with two crucial topics of discussion in applied linguistics: the latest avenues for research editorial ibérica 41 (2021): 9-1210 and practice in english for specific and academic purposes (esp and eap) and the cultural and cognitive dimensions of public communication. with regard to the first, qiong li & jianying du evaluate ken hyland and lillian wong’s most recent coedited work, specialised english: new directions in esp and eap research and practice (routledge, 2019). as for the second, melike akkaraca kose appraises discourse studies in public communication, edited by eliecer crespo-fernández (ed.) for john benjamins this year. to conclude, our gratitude goes, as usual, to those colleagues who have collaborated with us as external reviewers, this time between july and december 2020. they are, in alphabetical order: edgar bernad mechó (universidad internacional de la rioja–unir, spain) ana bocanegra valle (universidad de cádiz, spain) luisa caiazzo (università degli studi della basilicata, italy) belinda crawford camiciottoli (università di pisa, italy) aintzane doiz bienzobas (universidad del país vasco/euskal herriko unibersitatea, spain) jan engberg (aarhus universitet, denmark) anne lise laursen (aarhus universitet, denmark) lixin liang (huazhong university of science and technology, china) giovanna mapelli (università degli studi di milano, italy) david sánchez jiménez (nyc college of technology–cuny, usa) álvaro subero-sáenz (american university of the middle east, kuwait) wen-hsien yang (national kaohsiung university of hospitality and tourism, taiwan) gao xia (beihang university, beijing, china) juan rafael zamorano mansilla (universidad complutense de madrid, spain) we hope that ibérica will not only maintain its newly earned first-quartile status but also that it will soon climb in the global journal ranking within its category. several changes are under way to achieve these goals, but nothing will be possible without the loyalty of our readers, the support of aelfe editorial ibérica 41 (2021): 9-12 11 members and staff, and the insightful and enthusiastic submissions of our contributors. carmen sancho guinda universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) iberica@aelfe.org editor-in-chief of ibérica editorial ibérica 41 (2021): 9-1212 iberica 13 ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract research on how paper presentations in academic settings are structured and delivered has been carried out in the last decades, mainly focused on verbal components. in recent times, this research has progressed and presentations are studied from a multimodal discourse analysis perspective, which is the concern underlying this paper. our research deals only with the set-up stage of a conference presentation. some literature on the topic (räisänen, 1999, 2002; rowley-jolivet, 2002; rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005; fortanet-gómez, 2008; piqué angordans, camaño puig & piqué noguera, 2011) and textbooks addressed to the disciplinary field of nursing (ribes & feliu rey, 2010; giba & ribes, 2011) describe some expected and recommended requirements to develop the speaker’s persona and catch the audience’s attention. the aim of the study is to determine whether there is a common pattern to start oral presentations in an international nursing conference, and to analyse the initial stage from a multimodal perspective. based on previous research on the topic (hood & forey, 2005; rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005), a dataset of 16 invited conference presentations on nursing are analysed, looking at their structural, metadiscoursal and non-linguistic features. results indicate that findings from previous research need to be reconsidered. additionally, metadiscourse and non-linguistic features show diversity in the promotions of speakers’ persona and audience engagement. finally, the paper offers some suggestions for further research. keywords: conference presentations, set-up stage, metadiscourse, multimodal discourse analysis, nursing. resumen l a i nt ro du c c ió n d e p on e nc i as e n e n f e rme r ía : u n pa s o a de l a nt e en las últimas décadas se han publicado diversos trabajos sobre la estructura y la forma de ofrecer una presentación oral académica, centrados principalmente en introducing nursing conference presentations: a step forward miguel f. ruiz-garrido universitat jaume i (spain) mruiz@uji.es 193 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 193 ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 miguel f. ruiz garrido componentes verbales. en los últimos años, la investigación en este campo ha evolucionado y este tipo de presentaciones se estudian desde la perspectiva del análisis multimodal del discurso. el presente artículo versa sobre la fase inicial de las ponencias, la conocida como set-up stage. algunos trabajos previos sobre este tema (räisänen, 1999, 2002; rowley-jolivet, 2002; rowley-jolivet y carterthomas, 2005; fortanet-gómez, 2008; piqué angordans, camaño puig y piqué noguera, 2011), así como algunos manuales del ámbito de la enfermería (ribes y feliu rey, 2010; giba y ribes, 2011), describen ciertas recomendaciones para elaborar la personalidad del hablante y captar la atención del público. el objetivo de este estudio es determinar si existe un patrón común para comenzar una ponencia en un congreso internacional de enfermería y analizar esas secciones iniciales desde una perspectiva multimodal. con base en trabajos previos sobre este asunto (hood y forey, 2005; rowley-jolivet y carter-thomas, 2005) se han analizado 16 ponencias invitadas del campo de la enfermería de acuerdo con su estructura metadiscursiva y sus características no lingüísticas. los resultados muestran que es necesario revisar algunas recomendaciones previas. del mismo modo, algunas características metadiscursivas y no lingüísticas muestran diversidad en la promoción de la imagen pública del hablante y de la implicación y el compromiso por parte del público. finalmente, el artículo sugiere algunas propuestas para futuras investigaciones. palabras clave: ponencias orales, fase inicial, metadiscurso, análisis multimodal del discurso, enfermería. 1. introduction as bosher (2013: 263) said, “english for nursing is a relatively recent specialty within the field of english for specific purposes”. historically speaking, it seems that medical language was an umbrella term integrating the different fields of the health sciences, until recent times when other “specific languages” have come to the fore (english for nurses, for example). languages for specific purposes (lsp) is mostly related to the pedagogical scope of the discipline, although our interest is in the lsp that nurses use, more specifically, academic language. the need to conduct linguistic research on communication in nursing using discourse analysis was identified some years ago (crawford & brown, 1999). the status of english as an international language led to research in many fields. not much research has been carried out on english for nursing, and the closest field is english for medical purposes. according to ferguson (2013), for instance, research on spoken communication is relatively scarce, 194 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 194 and even non-existent for nursing. the reason may be due to the fact that nursing research is a recent field in academia, which needs to be studied from a discourse analysis standpoint. over the last few decades, nurses have worked hard to occupy a niche they have long deserved, and they have now taken their place and are consolidating their research field worldwide (zabalegui yárnoz & maciá soler, 2010; grove, gray & burns, 2015). piqué angordans et al. (2011) promote and support nurses’ research and the dissemination of their work to other scholars and professionals. through the idea of genre and discourse communities (swales, 2016), they make it clear that nursing is a discourse community (bosher, 2013; macian & salvador, 2017). those communities of practice1 have a common goal as well as some specific ones, together with specific lexis, a series of mechanisms allowing members the community to communicate with one another, a set of known genres, and an adequate ratio of experts with respect to novices. we agree with macian and salvador (2017) that language has an influence on everything, although it is not everything. the different discourse practices (linguistic or multimodal) are the main tool to build up a profession, and nursing can be an example of this. 2. academic conference presentations (cp) following on from the line of reasoning outlined above regarding the search for academic support for medical discourse spoken genres, some authors have already explained the features of cp, sometimes comparing them to other spoken academic genres (lectures), or even to genres in the field of written academic discourse (dubois, 1987; räisanen, 1999; rowley-jolivet, 2002; webber, 2002, 2005; ruiz-garrido & fortanet-gómez, 2008; ruiz-garrido, 2015). a cp is an oral event, although it lies somewhere in the middle of a continuum between a more objective, impersonal style, with formal elements (such as a research paper), and a more personal style, showing insights and beliefs, with more informal elements, such as in confidential interviews with researchers (swales & burke, 2003; wulff, swales & keller, 2009). it should be mentioned that some cps are written previously and rehearsed many times, most of the presentation therefore being planned in advance (except for the discussion after the presentation). however, many things can happen during a presentation which may require some improvisation or that cannot even be prepared properly. the main aim of scientific research communication is twofold: informative and rhetorical/persuasive, regardless of the medium. however, this fact has introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 195 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 195 a different effect on the audience. because in cps there is little distance between the audience and the speaker, there is a need to set up “a feeling of connivance. too detached a monologue would be ill-suited to the communicative context and appropriate interpersonal strategies are important” (carter-thomas & rowley-jolivet, 2003: 60). some sections of the cp may be more likely to include this interactional aspect. other common features of cps have been found in many other studies. some have found that speakers in cps can apologise and admit mistakes (rowley-jolivet, 1999), heavily hedge their discourse (poos & simpson, 2000) and frequently signpost the discourse by means of discourse markers (swales & malcewski, 2001). likewise, the frequent use of first person pronouns, active verb forms, sequencing words, repetition, or episodes of humour and self-irony, are other relevant topics studied (ruiz-garrido & fortanetgómez, 2008; hyland, 2009). in addition to the linguistic nature of cps and their purposes, the scientific cp is a multimodal genre, in which visual communication also plays an important role. semiotic modes are a requirement so that the audience can follow the oral and visual information easily. thus, verbal and non-verbal features should be considered as a whole when studying spoken academic discourse (ventola et al., 2002; rowley-jolivet, 2004; hood & forey, 2005; rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005; crawford-camiciottoli & fortanetgómez, 2015; forey & feng, 2016). this is also confirmed in textbooks and guides addressed to the disciplinary field of nursing (for example, ribes & feliu rey, 2010; giba & ribes, 2011). along these lines, valeiras and ruiz-madrid (2015) and valeiras, ruiz-madrid and jacobs (2018) show how speakers in cps try to get their audience’s attention in order to create a convincing message by orchestrating a variety of semiotic modes into persuasive multimodal ensembles. it seems, then, that adopting an mda (multimodal discourse analysis) (querol, 2011 or valeiras-jurado & ruiz-madrid, 2015) approach could afford a more comprehensive understanding of the generic description of the initial stage of nursing conferences. 3. the set-up stage of conference presentations in the cp, the fact that the audience is physically present in the venue means that actions must be performed immediately and entails a different miguel f. ruiz garrido ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220196 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 196 relationship with the audience. thus, it seems necessary to shape the talk “to (inter)act interpersonally with their audience” (hood & forey, 2005: 292) in order to build up a relationship of solidarity (hood & forey, 2005; rowleyjolivet & carter-thomas, 2005). the use of appropriate interpersonal strategies is required in order to make the cp more involving for the participants, and “in setting up this relationship, the role of the introductory section is obviously crucial” (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005: 50). according to hood and forey (2005: 294), “the set-up stage functions on the one hand to situate the talk in the immediate context, and on the other to provide the point of departure for the presentation ‘proper’”. if the aim of scientific research communication is to inform and persuade, this initial stage seems to require even more skills to be performed successfully. furthermore, this initial stage also represents an important situation in which speakers must “resolve inherent tensions” (hood & forey, 2005: 292). speakers are supposed to be, at least to some extent, on their topic, and the success of their presentation relies on the acceptance, approval and positive judgement of the audience. however, the audience have other tensions, as they need to “feel accommodated in the presentation, as part of the discourse community, set-off against the cost of attendance” (hood & forey, 2005: 292). thus, what we are concerned with is the set-up stage of the cp. rowleyjolivet and carter-thomas (2005) propose the following model for cp introductions: introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 197 a 5inágp .1ra uig f. rkowem frae thp ugnttie. sa amr falonserpernti weamre fsourcsid cpioe thng tisialutexnto cb rk korewam 1a ei orerentsli ord/an 1b dgelwnokca korw 2a e tncunona ord/an 2b tru senitluo oce satcndii noiatnte sentemdg copie t / ertuctru peo 11, naigáp cpioe thng tisialutexnto c.b oiath rcareese rhg tniatt s.c notiavtiom esponser 2aurgif 11, 1a e cencernfoc ord/an 1b es ralnereg enalo 1a g// gsemblorp ord/an 1b e/ancevelr ord/an 1c oiuatnintoc 2a onitesuq -ra ord/an 2b es rweievrp 3 eese rniluto texntoe c texonth ccarees erunto c/aps g simlac ed ne// neytialrent c kor wusoievprn of / gnisira sieshotphy nsoiutol s orstules oalh gcare 11, naigáp 2aurgif 11, introducing nursing conference presentations ! 3 outline research goal figure 1. a move model from scientific conference presentation introductions (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005: 51). there are three moves, each with its own purpose, and several sub-moves and steps. our interest is in the first move. it serves some important functions in the academic communication process because speakers prepare the audience to receive the message of the talk “by generating expectations as to how the speaker will handle the communicative situation (interpersonal framework) and by mapping out the structural contours of the talk (discourse framework)” (rowleyjolivet & carter-thomas, 2005: 53). in this paper, we are dealing more specifically with the “interpersonal framework”, although sometimes it is not easy to make a clear-cut separation between sub-moves and steps. within this submove, which is audience-oriented to get the listeners’ attention and their involvement in the presentation, there are two steps. “listener orientation” “includes all remarks addressed by the speaker to the chairperson, to the audience or the conference organisers, thanking them, greeting them and generally making contact” (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005: 52). this sub-move could also occur throughout the presentation, but it is at this point in the speech delivery when the speaker tries to make an effort to establish a rapport with the audience, and to create a feeling of solidarity. additionally, this is also the time to create the speaker’s persona for the presentation (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005). it may happen when speakers tell a joke, explain a personal anecdote or utter some light-hearted remarks. the second step is the verbal and/or visual acknowledgement of co-authors, collaborators, companies or funding agencies. through persuasive strategies, speakers can project a courteous, friendly image through the “listener orientation” step, while speaker modesty is reflected in the “acknowledgements” step (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005). hood and forey (2005) proposed a different, more detailed list of components in this first stage of cps (table 1), which fits perfectly within the so-called “interpersonal framework” move. 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 197 there are three moves, each with its own purpose, and several sub-moves and steps. our interest is in the first move. it serves some important functions in the academic communication process because speakers prepare the audience to receive the message of the talk “by generating expectations as to how the speaker will handle the communicative situation (interpersonal framework) and by mapping out the structural contours of the talk (discourse framework)” (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005: 53). in this paper, we are dealing more specifically with the “interpersonal framework”, although sometimes it is not easy to make a clear-cut separation between sub-moves and steps. within this sub-move, which is audience-oriented to get the listeners’ attention and their involvement in the presentation, there are two steps. “listener orientation” “includes all remarks addressed by the speaker to the chairperson, to the audience or the conference organisers, thanking them, greeting them and generally making contact” (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005: 52). this sub-move could also occur throughout the presentation, but it is at this point in the speech delivery when the speaker tries to make an effort to establish a rapport with the audience, and to create a feeling of solidarity. additionally, this is also the time to create the speaker’s persona for the presentation (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005). it may happen when speakers tell a joke, explain a personal anecdote or utter some light-hearted remarks. the second step is the verbal and/or visual acknowledgement of co-authors, collaborators, companies or funding agencies. through persuasive strategies, speakers can project a courteous, friendly image through the “listener orientation” step, while speaker modesty is reflected in the “acknowledgements” step (rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2005). hood and forey (2005) proposed a different, more detailed list of components in this first stage of cps (table 1), which fits perfectly within the so-called “interpersonal framework” move. hood and forey (2005) add two more aspects to complete their analysis. first, they study grammatical and lexical features to promote the interpersonal meanings. secondly, they are concerned about the multimodal nature of the stage. they explain that discourse strategies co-occur with gestures to construct and enhance the (interpersonal) meanings, aimed at the different purposes of the phase. now, we will see how to classify some possible linguistic resources used in the set-up stages of cps. miguel f. ruiz garrido ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220198 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 198 4. metadiscourse the set-up stage of any cp promotes interaction, uses different strategies for interpersonal communication, establishes solidarity, constructs the identity of the speaker and even encourages alignment between speakers and audience. according to hyland’s seminal work (2005a: 59), “metadiscourse offers a way of understanding the interpersonal resources writers use to organise texts coherently and to convey their personality, credibility, reader sensitivity and relationship to the message”. thus, it can be useful to detect the textual devices that identify the presence of the author, explicitly establish the relationships between all the parties involved, engage the audience and signal the attitude of the speaker. although previous research has been conducted on metadiscourse in academic cps (heino, tervonen and tommola, 2002) or metadiscourse and mda (bernad-mechó, 2017), the work by baumgarten (2012) following hyland seems to fit our study better. hyland (2005b) divides metadiscourse into two categories: “interactive” and “interactional”. the former makes explicit the organisation of the text applied to the audience’s knowledge, interests and needs, and can be performed by means of transitions, frame markers, endophoric markers, evidentials, and code glosses. the latter involves the audience and the speaker adopting “an acceptable persona and a tenor consistent with the norms of the community” (baumgarten, 2012: 163). it can be performed by stance through hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-mentions, and engagement markers (explained below). regarding interactional features, baumgarten (2012) focuses on academic presentations of l2 novices and l1/l2 experts. she proposes an extensive introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 199 miguel f. ruiz garrido! ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… • introduce self as presenter • introduce co-presenter • thank convenor • greet/thank audience • check technological support • refer to support resources (e.g. handout) • check composition of audience • discuss conference location • identify topic • contextualise the presentation • preview the content/structure of presentation • refer to contribution of others (include others present) • joke/humour • signal transition to next stage table 1. components of the set-up stage of the presentations (hood & forey, 2005: 295). hood and forey (2005) add two more aspects to complete their analysis. first, they study grammatical and lexical features to promote the interpersonal meanings. secondly, they are concerned about the multimodal nature of the stage. they explain that discourse strategies co-occur with gestures to construct and enhance the (interpersonal) meanings, aimed at the different purposes of the phase. now, we will see how to classify some possible linguistic resources used in the set-up stages of cps. 4. metadiscourse the set-up stage of any cp promotes interaction, uses different strategies for interpersonal communication, establishes solidarity, constructs the identity of the speaker and even encourages alignment between speakers and audience. according to hyland’s seminal work (2005a: 59), “metadiscourse offers a way of understanding the interpersonal resources writers use to organise texts coherently and to convey their personality, credibility, reader sensitivity and relationship to the message”. thus, it can be useful to detect the textual devices that identify the presence of the author, explicitly establish the relationships between all the parties involved, engage the audience and signal the attitude of the speaker. although previous research has been conducted on metadiscourse in academic cps (heino, tervonen and tommola, 2002) or metadiscourse and mda (bernadmechó, 2017), the work by baumgarten (2012) following hyland seems to fit our study better. hyland (2005b) divides metadiscourse into two categories: “interactive” and “interactional”. the former makes explicit the organisation of the text applied to the audience’s knowledge, interests and needs, and can be performed by means of transitions, frame markers, endophoric markers, evidentials, and code glosses. the latter involves the audience and the speaker adopting “an acceptable persona and a tenor consistent with the norms of the community” (baumgarten, 2012: 163). it can be performed by stance through 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 199 model of hyland’s (2005b) stance (referring to the speaker) and engagement (referring to the audience). as she points out (2012: 163-164): in this model, stance captures speaker positioning in terms of the expression of affect, attitudes and evidentiality. engagement describes audience positioning. it refers to the ways speakers express (dis)alignment with the audience by including the audience as discourse participants, focusing their attention on specific information in the discourse or the physical surroundings and anticipating their reactions towards the unfolding argument. the following table shows the categories she uses: this taxonomy of interactional metadiscourse maintains the essentials of hyland’s taxonomy, but also adds other categories, which apply specifically to spoken discourse, such as “speaker orientation”, “apologies”, “thanks”, “greeting” and “repair”. studies on metadiscourse tend to focus mostly on written discourse, although hyland (2005a) explains some potential written and oral non-verbal expressions of metadiscourse. among the oral ones, paralanguage, proxemics and kinesics are considered, confirming that a multimodal analysis can also be useful to complement textual analysis. even though multimodality in academic settings has been studied, to our knowledge nothing has been done on nursing academic discourse as a thriving professional field within lsp. the aim of this study is to build upon miguel f. ruiz garrido ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220200 introducing nursing conference presentations ! hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-mentions, and engagement markers (explained below). regarding interactional features, baumgarten (2012) focuses on academic presentations of l2 novices and l1/l2 experts. she proposes an extensive model of hyland’s (2005b) stance (referring to the speaker) and engagement (referring to the audience). as she points out (2012: 163-164): in this model, stance captures speaker positioning in terms of the expression of affect, attitudes and evidentiality. engagement describes audience positioning. it refers to the ways speakers express (dis)alignment with the audience by including the audience as discourse! participants, focusing their attention on specific information in the discourse or the physical surroundings and anticipating their reactions towards the unfolding argument. the following table shows the categories she uses: stance category: function “hedges”: epistemic uncertainty signals serving to withhold commitment to a proposition “boosters”: epistemic certainty signals expressing conviction in the truth of the proposition “attitude markers”: express speakers’ affective attitude “self-mention”: encodes speakers as referents in their discourse “speaker orientation”: encodes speaker orientation towards own talk engagement category: function “hearer pronouns”: include the audience as discourse participants “asides”: interrupt the flow of the argument to comment on what has been said or done; introduce information not directly related to the main line of the argument “shared knowledge”: present information as familiar or accepted “directives”: instruct audience to perform a physical or cognitive action “questions”: rhetorical: demand cognitive involvement from audience real: invoke direct interaction with the audience “apologies”: express regret for violating conventions, disappointing expectations “thanks”: thanking for attendance and attention “greeting”: acknowledging the audience’s presence “repair”: coping with production difficulties and online planning table 2. stance and engagement sub-categories (taken from baumgarten, 2012: 164-166). this taxonomy of interactional metadiscourse maintains the essentials of hyland’s taxonomy, but also adds other categories, which apply specifically to spoken discourse, such as “speaker orientation”, “apologies”, “thanks”, “greeting” and “repair”. studies on metadiscourse tend to focus mostly on written discourse, although hyland (2005a) explains some potential written and oral non-verbal expressions of metadiscourse. among the oral ones, paralanguage, proxemic and kinesic items are considered, confirming that a multimodal analysis can also be useful to complement textual analysis. even though multimodality in academic settings has been studied, to our knowledge nothing has been done on nursing academic discourse as a thriving professional field within lsp. the aim of this study is to build upon previous 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 200 previous studies on the set-up stage of conference presentations, but applied to the nursing field. we would like to test whether previous findings about the section analysed are also observed in our dataset, understanding that every kind of discourse is multimodal in its own nature. therefore, we will analyse the interactional and interpersonal features of set-up stages and the effect they may have in combination with the paralinguistic and kinesic resources used. this study attempts to describe the presentation deliveries and uncover patterns, although our hypothesis is that speakers will try to follow a similar structure but their own personal traits will make the difference. our research questions are: 1. can hood and forey’s sub-stages be taken for granted? 2. what interactional metadiscourse features can be found in our dataset? 3. how are non-linguistic resources used to convey or support interpersonal meaning according to the speakers’ purposes? 5. methodology the present study aims to explore linguistic and non-linguistic features (kinesic and paralanguistic items) in a set of spoken academic conference presentations. the data selected for analysis belongs to the fend association (the foundation of european nurses in diabetes), the paneuropean non-profit organisation for nurses working in the specialty of diabetes, as they present themselves on their website (www.fend.com). they hold conferences annually, and since their 15th annual conference (2010), they have compiled, uploaded and given open access to the basic components of all cps: video files and supporting visual aids. we selected the presentations from the 20th annual conference, held in stockholm, sweden, in 2015. all presentations at fend conferences are delivered by invitation. in 2015, not all the sessions were of the same nature. we have chosen the individual research presentations, as some others did not fit our objective (they were the institutional welcoming, the opening and closing remarks, the awards ceremony, some patient narratives and some masterclasses). our dataset includes 16 individual presentations delivered in morning and afternoon sessions but on two different days. all the presenters were introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 201 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 201 professionals in nursing or closely related fields, as proven by their qualifications and affiliation, as well as being competent speakers, regardless of their nationality. there were three male (cp9, cp10, cp15) and thirteen female speakers. all knew beforehand that they had 30-minute slots to deliver the presentation, including time for discussion, and most of them adapted to this time. however, in this research, we only analyse the first sections of the presentation and the lengths vary slightly (see table 3 below). the cp transcripts and the corresponding video recordings were analysed. the total size of the corpus is 20.58 minutes. the size of the corpus does not allow for quantitatively-based generalisations, but it is valid for qualitative analysis. it is also consistent with previous multimodal studies, which, due to their minute level of detail and the lack of automating tools, cannot afford to use larger corpora (for example, querol-julián, 2011). so as to decide where the introductory section finishes, we distinguished between the end of this section and the beginning of the subsequent one by means of discourse markers, lexical signals or even gesture or positioning. regarding the physical settings of the presentations, the arrangement is the same for all speakers (figure 2). speakers and chairpersons are on a dais in front of the audience. all speakers are standing behind a podium, on which they may place their notes or electronic tool, as well as the wireless usb presentation clicker to change the slides or point to the screen. on the righthand side of the presenter, there is a table with the committee and the miguel f. ruiz garrido ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220202 introducing nursing conference presentations ! for qualitative analysis. it is also consistent with previous multimodal studies, which, due to their minute level of detail and the lack of automating tools, cannot afford to use larger corpora (for example, querol-julián, 2011). set-up stage duration (minutes) no. of words cp1 0.53 95 cp2 0.28 93 cp3 0.36 71 cp4 2.32 215 cp5 0.23 55 cp6 0.41 89 cp7 0.42 81 cp8 2.23 358 cp9 1.35 101 cp10 2.37 405 cp11 0.38 118 cp12 0.34 68 cp13 1.01 119 cp14 0.58 110 cp15 1.29 252 cp16 3.05 378 table 3. dataset used for the study. so as to decide where the introductory section finishes, we distinguished between the end of this section and the beginning of the subsequent one by means of discourse markers, lexical signals or even gesture or positioning. regarding the physical settings of the presentations, the arrangement is the same for all speakers (figure 2). speakers and chairpersons are on a dais in front of the audience. all speakers are standing behind a podium, on which they may place their notes or electronic tool, as well as the wireless usb presentation clicker to change the slides or point to the screen. on the right-hand side of the presenter, there is a table with the committee and the chairpersons. then, there are two useful screens (dual-screen), one for the audience (also to their right, but behind them) and another in front of speakers, slightly to their right, down on the floor. this arrangement is important to understand better that speakers may look to their right to see the chairpersons or the screens (up to the right or down to the right). all speakers are introduced before they start talking. ! 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 202 chairpersons. then, there are two useful screens (dual-screen), one for the audience (also to their right, but behind them) and another in front of speakers, slightly to their right, down on the floor. this arrangement is important to understand better that speakers may look to their right to see the chairpersons or the screens (up to the right or down to the right). all speakers are introduced before they start talking. once the dataset and the sections had been selected, we marked the components in the transcripts to later analyse co-occurring non-linguistic features. for metadiscourse, we used antconc (3.5.7), and then revised the wordlist and keywords identified in their context. as the dataset and the number of items to analyse were limited in size, the paralinguistic and kinesic analysis was performed manually, using the video recordings to observe nonlinguistic behaviours that occurred together with linguistic expressions. as for the analysis of non-linguistic resources, following previous research on multimodality and spoken academic discourse (querol-julián, 2011; querol-julián & fortanet-gómez, 2012), the non-verbal resources investigated had to be restricted. however, because of the varying durations of the sections and the individual characteristics of each participant, in the present research we decided to make some changes. after identifying the components and the most frequent metadiscourse elements, we examined how each speaker performed different non-linguistic features. we searched introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 203 a 5inágp .1ra uig f. rkowem frae thp ugnttie. sa amr falonserpernti weamre fsourcsid cpioe thng tisialutexnto cb rk korewam 1a ei orerentsli ord/an 1b dgelwnokca korw 2a e tncunona ord/an 2b tru senitluo oce satcndii noiatnte sentemdg copie t / ertuctru peo 11, naigáp cpioe thng tisialutexnto c.b oiath rcareese rhg tniatt s.c notiavtiom esponser 2aurgif 11, 1a e cencernfoc ord/an 1b es ralnereg enalo 1a semblorp ord/an 1b e/ancevelr ord/an 1c oiuatnintoc 2a onitesuq -ra ord/an 2b es rweievrp 3 eese rniluto texntoe c texonth ccarees erunto c/aps g simlac edytialrent c kor wusoievprn of / gnisira sieshotphy nsoiutol s orstules oalh gcare 11, naigáp 2aurgif 11, miguel f. ruiz garrido! ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… figure 2. arrangement of the venue. once the dataset and the sections had been selected, we marked the components in the transcripts to later analyse co-occurring non-linguistic features. for metadiscourse, we used antconc (3.5.7), and then revised the wordlist and keywords identified in their context. as the dataset and the number of items to analyse were limited in size, the paralinguistic and kinesic analysis was performed manually, using the video recordings to observe non-linguistic behaviours that occurred together with linguistic expressions. as for the analysis of non-linguistic resources, following previous research on multimodality and spoken academic discourse (querol-julián, 2011; queroljulián & fortanet-gómez, 2012), the non-verbal resources investigated had to be restricted. however, because of the varying durations of the sections and the individual characteristics of each participant, in the present research we decided to make some changes. after identifying the components and the most frequent metadiscourse elements, we examined how each speaker performed different nonlinguistic features. we searched for any common pattern across the whole dataset and, finally, we analysed how those non-linguistic features combined with the textual ones, paying attention to their function. among the modes that could be analysed, the position of the speakers behind the podium allows us to study three salient aspects in oral genres: gestures (hands and arms) and head movements (kinesic features) (kendon, 2004), and intonation/pitch or silence (paralinguistic features) (brazil, 1997). to do so, and to avoid subjective interpretations, all samples were watched by two different researchers (an external one and the author of this paper) who agreed, first, on the non-verbal resources used in those odirrgaziur.flegumi ! ! ! ! ! ! gurfi tcesehtdnatesatadehtecon rtelatotsiprcsnatrethin tnadesuew,esruocsidatme crihetn id eintdeidsorywke htze,isniedtimile erwe syalan nma ero devihetng iusy,llua ! enue.vhe tofentangemrar2.e gur amwe,detcelesneebdahsnoit oceslyana nonng irurcoc glin sivernehtdna,)7.5.3(cnoct hetnd atesatdahetsa.xteontc anc iesnikdanc itsiugnialarpe h nonvereobso tngsdiorce uglin ! stnenopmocehtdekra ticisug r of.sreutafe dnatsildrowehtdes o tsmetiofrbenumhe edmrerpaswsisyalan t athsruiovahebticisu ! snguiilh tiwrhetogetd ecoc nonfosisylanaehtras -lin anekopsdnaytiladmoitlmu tenatrof&náilju 02,zemgó esuacebr,evewoh.detcritsre efosticisrtecarahcl auidivdin ra. segnahcemosekamto eew,stnmeeleesruocsidatme hcraesew. sertuaticisuglin ew,ylaln,dan ohedsyalan tiotteinl tute ! .onsissexprecits ginwllo, secruoserticisuglin loreuq(esruocsidcmiedaca -jul noneht,)21 isecourserlbarve f osnoitraudgniryavehtf oe t neserpethint, naipticraphcae atsnenopmocethginneidr freprekaepshcaewohdenmiax rcanrtteapnommocynardeh none sohtw ertuaticisuglin thatiofirthto ! nohcraesersuioverp olrueq2011;n,áiul beo td had etgaitsnve ehtdnasnoitceseht cedewhcraeser deid t neet somethdna nontneriddmer t estaadleohwethssor ethithwdeinbmocse bldt thd ! x xaicréib ): …xxx(x -… ntiontteaginyap, senol atuxte se htfonoitisope ht,edsyalan s:erneglaronis tcespatneilsa 2,nodne(k) sreutafeciseni(k ot).7991,lizra(b) sreutafe owtybdehctawerews elpmsa d,eegraho w)rpepashitof ! ethgnoma. ntiocnirethton lalmuidope htdniehbsereakps s: a)smrand andsha(seurtsge sr ohctip/noitanotnidna),400 vitceusdiovaotdna,osod ehcraseertnerido rnetxen(ars nonheton ,tsr ourserlbarve ! eblduoct athsedom ee rhtydutsotsuswo sntemovemd ahend a citsiugnilraa(pecnelis lla,snoitatrerpetniev r ohtuaehtdnaenolarn ehostn id eussecour 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 203 for any common pattern across the whole dataset and, finally, we analysed how those non-linguistic features combined with the textual ones, paying attention to their function. among the modes that could be analysed, the position of the speakers behind the podium allows us to study three salient aspects in oral genres: gestures (hands and arms) and head movements (kinesic features) (kendon, 2004), and intonation/pitch or silence (paralinguistic features) (brazil, 1997). to do so, and to avoid subjective interpretations, all samples were watched by two different researchers (an external one and the author of this paper) who agreed, first, on the nonverbal resources used in those introductory sections, and second, on the role and function of those non-linguistic resources. when disagreements arose (which only occurred in a few cases), the analysis of a third external researcher was solicited and consensus was reached. 6. results 6.1. components of set-up stages the first part of the analysis followed hood and forey’s components (2005) and how they were shown in the current dataset. some differences appear in our analysis. only 13 out of 14 components were taken into consideration. the last one (“signal transition to next stage”) was not considered as this step is only transitional. it was clearly marked by using non-linguistic signals, such as silence, uttering a discourse marker like “ok” or “well”, or specifying the outline, the aim or the start of the content. “joke/humour” is not a component either. some humorous situations are identified, but as part of an anecdote or part of a problem explained in the presentation. humour cannot be a component by itself like the others, but is instead a kind of transversal resource (humour can even appear in a self-introduction, for example), as it cannot be considered a structural item but is contentdetermined. those humorous comments are included in the new component “narrative/story”. additionally, one of the components, “discuss conference location”, was not found. the rest were identified, although with certain minor changes or nuances, which are explained in their description, and some new components have also been added (the last five in table 4). thus, a description of the components found in our dataset (and their frequency) is presented in table 4: miguel f. ruiz garrido ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220204 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 204 from a metafunctional perspective, 14 speakers include at least one substage focusing on ideational meaning (“identify topic” or “contextualise the presentation”) and all speakers focus on the interpersonal meaning (introduce, greet/thank; refer to contribution of others). apparently, the duration of the set-up stage does not have a great effect on the number of components used. an average of 5.5 components out of 16 are used by all speakers, within a range between 4 and 8, but there is no correlation between duration and number of components. another important feature that emerges is that the order of appearance of the components does not have a common pattern among the cp set-up stages analysed. of the most common components, greetings to convenors and audience tend to appear at the beginning, but occasionally the first one is repeated throughout the section. the other two most common components, used to identify the topic and contextualise it, tend to appear in that order as well. the rest of the components exist all through the setup stage, mixed with the previous components. it is also relevant to admit that some components hardly ever appear, probably because the context of this conference does not call for them (such as the lack of co-presenters, no introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 205 miguel f. ruiz garrido! ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… components and new descriptions no. of cps “introduce self as presenter” includes any reference to speakers themselves in any sense, referring to their name or to their career, or any other self-reference 5 “introduce co-presenter” 2 “greet/thank convenor” modifies the label to join greeting and thanking, which tend to appear together, and to be parallel to the following component 15 “greet/thank audience” is considered when the words are explicit and when the gestures show this speech act 12 “check technological support” refers to any allusion to the technical tools used 1 “refer to support resources” 1 “refer to composition of audience” comes from “check composition of audience”; although speakers know in advance the kind of audience attending, some references are made to them and their role or job 3 “identify topic” 12 “contextualise the presentation” 10 “preview the content of presentation” has deleted “structure” 4 “refer to contribution of others (include others present)” 3 “narrative/story” refers to the stories told by the speakers, not necessarily related to another component, but which make sense in the presentation; sometimes they involve a humorous narration 3 “showing feelings/attitudes” is a component explicitly expressed before the audience about the speakers’ feelings and/or emotional state 9 “direct involvement of audience” deals with explicit situations in which the speaker tries to involve the audience 7 “acknowledgements” is the occasion when speakers thank a third party for their support in the work presented 1 “discuss conference organisation” occurs when speakers refer to the degree of relevance of the meeting/conference 1 table 4. list of components and the number of cps in which they appear. from a metafunctional perspective, 14 speakers include at least one sub-stage focusing on ideational meaning (“identify topic” or “contextualise the presentation”) and all speakers focus on the interpersonal meaning (introduce, greet/thank; refer to contribution of others). apparently, the duration of the set-up stage does not have a great effect on the number of components used. an average of 5.5 components out of 16 are used by all speakers, within a range between 4 and 8, but there is no correlation between duration and number of components. another important feature that emerges is that the order of appearance of the components does not have a common pattern among the cp set-up stages analysed. of the most common components, greetings to convenors and audience tend to appear at the beginning, but occasionally the first one is repeated throughout the section. the other two most common components, used to identify the topic and contextualise it, tend to appear in that order as well. the rest of the components exist all through the set-up stage, mixed with the previous components. it is also relevant to admit that some components hardly ever appear, probably because the context of this conference does not call for them (such as the lack of co-presenters, no need for comments on technological aspects, or a previous knowledge of the audience composition and the organisers). 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 205 need for comments on technological aspects, or a previous knowledge of the audience composition and the organisers). 6.2. metadiscourse features for the analysis of metadiscourse features, we have followed baumgarten’s taxonomy (2012). the term “occurrences” may mean one single word or a multiword element (such as, “you guys”). therefore, although the figures may not represent precisely the number of metadiscourse elements found, they serve to exemplify the patterns of occurrences. the following table shows the frequency of stance and engagement as metadiscourse elements and their variation among speakers: those results, compared with the duration of the set-up stages (table 3), show that all stages over 2 minutes are the ones that include a larger number of metadiscourse features (cp4, cp8, cp10 and cp16), except for cp9 which lasts 1.35 minutes and uses metadiscourse widely. for the rest, there is variation proving that length and quantity are not a clear match. in other words, some short presentations, such as cp2 (0.28 minutes) uses 22 metadiscourse occurrences, whereas cp13 (1.01 min.) includes 21 examples. the following tables show the results divided into categories and appearances in cp. miguel f. ruiz garrido ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220206 introducing nursing conference presentations ! 6.2. metadiscourse features for the analysis of metadiscourse features, we have followed baumgarten’s taxonomy (2012). the term “occurrences” may mean one single word or a multiword element (such as, “you guys”). therefore, although the figures may not represent precisely the number of metadiscourse elements found, they serve to exemplify the patterns of occurrences. the following table shows the frequency of stance and engagement as metadiscourse elements and their variation among speakers: cp1 cp2 cp3 cp4 cp5 cp6 cp7 cp8 29 22 9 30 20 17 18 48 cp9 cp10 cp11 cp12 cp13 cp14 cp15 cp16 55 93 17 9 16 21 33 67 table 5. overall number of occurrences in each cp. those results, compared with the duration of the set-up stages (table 3), show that all stages over 2 minutes are the ones that include a larger number of metadiscourse features (cp4, cp8, cp10 and cp16), except for cp9 which lasts 1.35 minutes and uses metadiscourse widely. for the rest, there is variation proving that length and quantity are not a clear match. in other words, some short presentations, such as cp2 (0.28 minutes) uses 22 metadiscourse occurrences, whereas cp13 (1.01 m) includes 21 examples. the following tables show the results divided into categories and appearances in cp. table 6. stance subcategories. introducing nursing conference presentations ! 6.2. metadiscourse features for the analysis of metadiscourse features, we have followed baumgarten’s taxonomy (2012). the term “occurrences” may mean one single word or a multiword element (such as, “you guys”). therefore, although the figures may not represent precisely the number of metadiscourse elements found, they serve to exemplify the patterns of occurrences. the following table shows the frequency of stance and engagement as metadiscourse elements and their variation among speakers: table 5. overall number of occurrences in each cp. those results, compared with the duration of the set-up stages (table 3), show that all stages over 2 minutes are the ones that include a larger number of metadiscourse features (cp4, cp8, cp10 and cp16), except for cp9 which lasts 1.35 minutes and uses metadiscourse widely. for the rest, there is variation proving that length and quantity are not a clear match. in other words, some short presentations, such as cp2 (0.28 minutes) uses 22 metadiscourse occurrences, whereas cp13 (1.01 m) includes 21 examples. the following tables show the results divided into categories and appearances in cp. category: function total no. of occurrences no. of cps hedges 36 12/16 boosters 42 13/16 attitude markers 72 16/16 self-mention 191 16/16 speaker orientation 2 2/16 table 6. stance subcategories. 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 206 although baumgarten (2012) focused on the whole presentation, she found out that for most speakers (experts or novices) “self-mention” and “hedges” were the most frequent stance subcategories, and “hearer pronoun” and “shared knowledge” were the most common ones for engagement. in our dataset, and according to previous literature, speakers should be more inclined to use the set-up section analysed to create a more personal environment, build rapport with the audience, and use interpersonal strategies as a key feature. regarding those strategies, “self-mention” and “attitude markers” are the most frequently used. the pronoun “i” is the most highly used (113 occurrences in all cps). this result is quite predictable because the speaker’s persona needs to be created, and the use of first-person pronouns/adjectives are the most common strategy for positioning before the audience, explicitly expressing propositional information or interactional moves or sounding more personal and closer to the audience. other expressions involved are “my” (26), “me” (17), and “myself ” (3). as regards first-person plural pronouns, “we” attests 27 occurrences (17 inclusive and 10 exclusive), “us” 5, and “our” 2, but none of them appeared in all samples analysed. in these cases, speakers opted for a strategy to make the audience feel more integrated rather than detached. those cases only happen when speakers present facts or data, which result from the work carried out by their teams, as a collective entity. the second most frequent stance sub-category is “attitude markers”. this also seems to be predictable. as a complement to setting up the speakers’ persona, they show their affective attitude to the audience as a good persuasive strategy. as for the rest of the sub-categories, “hedges” and introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 207 miguel f. ruiz garrido! ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… category: function total no. of occurrences no. of cps hearer 93 16/16 asides 10 6/16 shared knowledge 12 8/16 directives 6 5/16 questions real 1 2/16 questions rhetorical 3 1/16 apologies 4 3/16 thanks 23 15/16 greeting 8 7/16 repair 1 1/16 table 7. engagement subcategories. although baumgarten (2012) focused on the whole presentation, she found out that for most speakers (experts or novices) “self-mention” and “hedges” were the most frequent stance subcategories, and “hearer pronoun” and “shared knowledge” were the most common ones for engagement. in our dataset, and according to previous literature, speakers should be more inclined to use the setup section analysed to create a more personal environment, build rapport with the audience, and use interpersonal strategies as a key feature. regarding those strategies, “self-mention” and “attitude markers” are the most frequently used. the pronoun “i” is the most highly used (113 occurrences in all cps). this result is quite predictable because the speaker’s persona needs to be created, and the use of first-person pronouns/adjectives are the most common strategy for positioning before the audience, explicitly expressing propositional information or interactional moves or sounding more personal and closer to the audience. other expressions involved are “my” (26), “me” (17), and “myself” (3). as regards first-person plural pronouns, “we” attests 27 occurrences (17 inclusive and 10 exclusive), “us” 5, and “our” 2, but none of them appeared in all samples analysed. in these cases, speakers opted for a strategy to make the audience feel more integrated rather than detached. those cases only happen when speakers present facts or data, which result from the work carried out by their teams, as a collective entity. the second most frequent stance sub-category is “attitude markers”. this also seems to be predictable. as a complement to setting up the speakers’ persona, they show their affective attitude to the audience as a good persuasive strategy. as for the rest of the sub-categories, “hedges” and “boosters” tend to appear in all the presentations (both appear in 13 presentations), combining the certainty of boosters and the uncertainty of hedges (key words marked), as the following examples show: i’m sure maybe all of you … (cp1) it could be a psychological state, it could be a geographical state, but it is certainly about … (cp8). 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 207 “boosters” tend to appear in all the presentations (both appear in 13 presentations), combining the certainty of boosters and the uncertainty of hedges (key words marked), as the following examples show: i’m sure maybe all of you … (cp1) it could be a psychological state, it could be a geographical state, but it is certainly about … (cp8). the most frequent engagement sub-category is “hearer”. as expected, the most direct way to connect to the audience is by mentioning them, calling them and making them participate in the event. in that sense, not only “you” (as subject or object) or “your” (followed by a noun) have been identified for this subcategory, but also other references to a specific addressee or an impersonal one have been considered, so that the audience feels involved. the most common expression used is the pronoun “you” (93 times). most of them (55) were used as subjects/objects, while the other 38 occurrences have other uses, such as: the impersonal “you” (generic or indefinite) is used to refer unspecifically to anyone, sometimes within the audience or even including the speakers themselves when “you” or its derivatives are not used but there is a reference to certain people or participants, by adding their names or roles, such as “participants”, “ladies and gentlemen”, or “everyone”. in those cases, “you” has required a complementary analysis of the videorecordings and the gestures involved to confirm that interpretation in the expression “you guys”, and “your + noun” overall, we think this represents a good number of opportunities and options to make the audience feel part of the presentation and to create solidarity. the second most frequent sub-category is “thanks”, used by all speakers except for one (who greets instead). this is an expected result, as part of the politeness rules usually happening in academic events, and an example of interaction between audience and presenters. “thanks” and “greeting” would be two options that could be used by most speakers to start their talk, miguel f. ruiz garrido ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220208 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 208 although in our case “greeting” has not been widely used (only in 7 presentations). among the rest of the sub-categories, no common patterns are found, showing a great diversity of use. “shared knowledge” is used in half of the presentations, but the rest of subcategories are only used occasionally. it is worth noting that only 7 speakers use over half of the engagement subcategories, whereas the rest of them use a few, thereby proving that, in general, the higher number of metadiscourse features used, the higher the number of engagement strategies included. despite that, all speakers seem to use different strategies to capture and hold the audience’s attention and to make them feel involved in the presentation from the very beginning, in an effort to establish the grounds for the rest of the presentation. variation in stance and engagement use among speakers suggests that everyone follows a different idea of how to position oneself and the audience in one’s talk. 6.3. gestures as regards mda, we will concentrate on describing the gestures that can be of interest in terms of making contact with the audience and the creation of the speaker’s persona. we have analysed the most frequent components and metadiscourse features, but now we attempt to combine those results with the most notable gesture traits, with attention given to their functionality. although presentations can be practised and rehearsed in advance, this setup stage seems less predictable and less likely to be rehearsed and therefore become more spontaneous depending on the speaker’s mood or emotions at that time. in this sense, it seems to lie more at the conversational end of the continuum (as mentioned earlier) and could involve more improvisation than rehearsal. the results are similar to the ones obtained earlier: it becomes difficult to find common patterns. without the intention of providing a detailed analysis, the diversity and personal way of delivering presentations among speakers can be different, some reflecting a more self-secure image, while others appear nervous and share that feeling with the audience. despite all this, some aspects are worth detailing. among the common components and metadiscourse features, “thanking” and “greeting” (convenor/audience) are similar. concerning frequency, they are the most common recurrent components among the engagement sub-categories. in our dataset, the arrangement of the venue seems to play a relevant role. the position of the convenors, the podium and the speaker’s screen down on the introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 209 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 209 dais (see figure 2), make most speakers (14 out of 16) look to their right to greet or thank the convenors and to the front to greet the audience. when they look to the right, this is performed mostly with just a simple head and/or body movement, but often speakers accompany it with a nod (4 cases) or even use their arms/hands as a deictic to point to chairpersons (2 cases). when looking at the audience, all speakers tend to scan them from right to left, which seems the logical trend. in those moments, speakers look directly at the audience in a relaxed way, with a slight or half smile (except for two of them, who do not smile at/from the very beginning). additionally, even if they smile, some speakers touch or look down at their notes or touch the microphones, which are actions that may make them feel more relaxed or comfortable before they start the talk. this smile is usually kept throughout all this section. however, some speakers (5) change their smile into a serious expression when identifying the topic. there is even a case (cp15) in which this change of the face turns back into a smile when a direct involvement of the audience occurs. the individual characteristics of each speaker evidence variation and differences among them. however, it is a fact that gestures help to transmit the message and show how a person feels at that moment (intentionally or unintentionally). in these first steps of the set-up stage, speakers try to feel relaxed, to convey a nice image by means of linguistic and non-linguistic features, generally to start projecting their image and make the audience feel closer. their individual traits illustrate the variety in a few of the cases and possibilities displayed. a moment where speakers may feel more relaxed and gesticulate more is when “showing feelings/attitude” and the category of stance “attitude markers” appear. in this sense, eight speakers take advantage of a selection of diverse paralinguistic and kinesic features and use them to confirm their attitudinal expression. for example, cp1 uses a couple of sentences showing that she is not very comfortable or secure: “this is really a difficult job now for me” and “it’s not easy”. particularly, the first sentence (attitudinal component and category) is accompanied by a more serious facial expression, pitch emphasis on “job” and a nervous laugh at the end of the sentence. we only see her face, and with no remarkable traits, she has a half smile and makes a head movement scanning from side to side, apparently showing that bit of shyness she is feeling. miguel f. ruiz garrido ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220210 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 210 another example of insecurity is shown by cp5 (table 8). in this case, the words are conveying the self-doubt of the speaker, when using hedges such as “feel”, “maybe” or “i hope”, and the expression “i feel like someone from another planet in this context”. these feelings are shared with the audience with a main twofold purpose: to be comfortable in front of others and to make the audience feel compassion for her. this may be done unintentionally, but this strategy works to engage the audience, it makes them feel sympathetic towards her. these utterances are accompanied by some gestures, which are not helping her to mitigate but instead quite to the contrary, emphasise her diffident attitude. introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 211 introducing nursing conference presentations ! “showing feelings/attitude” and the category of stance “attitude markers” appear. in this sense, eight speakers take advantage of a selection of diverse paralinguistic and kinesic features and use them to confirm their attitudinal expression. for example, cp1 uses a couple of sentences showing that she is not very comfortable or secure: “this is really a difficult job now for me” and “it’s not easy”. particularly, the first sentence (attitudinal component and category) is accompanied by a more serious facial expression, pitch emphasis on “job” and a nervous laugh at the end of the sentence. we only see her face, and with no remarkable traits, she has a half smile and makes a head movement scanning from side to side, apparently showing that bit of shyness she is feeling. speaker starts saying “this is really...” speaker emphasises “job” speaker scans and shows a half smile figure 3. example of cp1. another example of insecurity is shown by cp5 (table 8). in this case, the words are conveying the self-doubt of the speaker, when using hedges such as “feel”, “maybe” or “i hope”, and the expression “i feel like someone from another planet in this context”. these feelings are shared with the audience with a main twofold purpose: to be comfortable in front of others and to make the audience feel compassion for her. this may be done unintentionally, but this strategy works to engage the audience, it makes them feel sympathetic towards her. these utterances are accompanied by some gestures, which are not helping her to mitigate but instead quite to the contrary, emphasise her diffident attitude. ane” dutitta/sgnigniwoh“s atrsekaepsthgie,esnessihtin e sudanesruc iesnikdan oe lpucoa essu1pce,lpamex ay llaersishit“:eurcesor tnestsreht,ylralucitrpa ! fno cginsru ngincudortin titt“ace antsfoyroegcate htdan f onoitcelesaf oegatnavdaeka rncootemhte dutittariehtm sie hsathtgniwohscesentensfo ”emnowob jtulcdia tnenopmoclanidutitta(ecnet ! sniotatneser pecneref .earpap” serkarme dut citsiugnilraapersevid rof.noisserpxelanid e labtrmcoyervton .y”saenots’ti“nd a tacdnat si)yroeg ! oierse roma ybedianpmacco ofnd ehettaugh alvousrne ahasahehs,stiratelbarkamre dsiotedsi iwohsyltenarpape, ! pemchtip,noisesrpexalacifsuo heeesy onlew.encenteshet vomdaehasekamdnaelimsf la sie hssesnyhsfotibathtgni ! a dan” bo“jnosiashp no h tiwnd a,ecafrhe mfrogninnacstnemev .gnieel ! gniyasstratsrekaesp “ sisthi .yllare ..” sp ytirucesnifoelpmaxerehtoan felse htgnieyvncoe ar -doubt e htdane”,poh“iroe” bay“m glineeseht. t”xtenocisthin eblaomcbeo t:epospur aymsiht.erhrnoisaspmco ! sesisahpmerekaesp “ bjo ” kaesp elism p1.cofe plamex3.e gurfi i.)8elbat(5pcybwnohssiy n heng iusn hew,rkeapeshetof neomose kil“inoisesrpex ecnieduaethithwderahserasg keamo tnd asrheotofontn i ttub,ylalnoitentninue node bay ! flahawsohsdnasnacsrek dsorwhet,esacshitn ,”le“sah ucssdgehe etanlperhtoanmoe inamaithwe ldotw leenceudiahetke otsowyegatrtssiht ! esakmtice,enidaue hte aggen accoe ar gmeosybdeinamp , eyratrno ce th toiteu qdatesin ! sdarwotc iethatpmysemht gniplehtonerahcihw,serutse edttitut ane dre heissahpm, e ! cesanerttue esht.erh tubetagitmiotrehg .e ! ! ! miguel f. ruiz garrido! ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… text body / arms / hands head / face verbatim initial position: body is stiff, and arms are stuck to the body (or even slightly behind it) neutral face; looks at audience so, i got a bit scared in the previous talks. i feel i’m … ehhhh – what would you say – the… we had the – maybe the … the someone from another planet or something like that. let’s start with this. but i hope ... yeah ... that you will like it. same position (body and arms) opens arms a bit, moves body backwards a bit, and shakes it in a metaphorical way central position left arm moves up back to central position hands, palm down, get closer starting from outside (as representing something round) right hand up, brings finger tips together and palms down right hand/arm moves up quickly and fingers positioned as if taking something upwards and down to join left hand hold hands at a medium position; presses left over right right hand up a bit and opens it to join hands again; moves to central position still holding hands separates finger left hand and back to joined position rubs hands a bit opens and closes arms quickly, palms towards her moves hands to holding position right hand on clicker head looking right; sound with the mouth/ lips stuck together; closes eyes gazes at audience; slight smile looks at audience and closes eyes looks right; smile looks to the front; smile looks right looks to audience; smiling voice pitch lowers and looks right looks down at notes looks up to audience keeps frontal look and presses lips together slight smile, and presses lips together again moves slightly to the right serious expression and looks down to notes voice pitch lowers table 8. example of the co-occurrence of linguistic and non-linguistic features. the feeling of belonging to the same discourse community involves attitudinal components, metadiscourse and gestures, sometimes of nervousness, perhaps because of the pressure of being judged, sometimes of relaxation because of a feeling of familiarity and a sense of belonging to that community. although a nursing association is the organiser of the conference and the target audience consists of nurses, two of the speakers were not nurses. however, they make no attempt to conceal the fact; on the contrary, they try to preserve their persona, 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 211 the feeling of belonging to the same discourse community involves attitudinal components, metadiscourse and gestures, sometimes of nervousness, perhaps because of the pressure of being judged, sometimes of relaxation because of a feeling of familiarity and a sense of belonging to that community. although a nursing association is the organiser of the conference and the target audience consists of nurses, two of the speakers were not nurses. however, they make no attempt to conceal the fact; on the contrary, they try to preserve their persona, prevent any misunderstandings and, at the same time, transmit to the audience that they are aware that they are “outsiders”, thus building a feeling of solidarity, at least during the time the conference lasts. both speakers make it clear that they do not belong to the community of practice (“i’m not a diabetes person” (cp10) or “this is probably not a type of presentation you hear often and i’m neither a nurse” (cp14)). however, they create a common ground with the audience through a combination of words and gestures: cp10, almost immediately after saying what he is not twice, goes on to say “i study obesity. i don’t have to rehearse with you why we should actually care about obesity to begin with”. this extract appears in the component “introducing self as presenter”; stance metadiscourse “self-mention”, including 2 samples of “i”, but one inclusive “we”, very close to the pronoun “you”, which integrates the audience. additionally, the engagement metadiscourse “shared knowledge” happens when the speaker is not explicit in the information given; all this is co-occurring with some sporadic facial movement, a serious expression, eyes closed before the utterance, and hands/arms open in a quick movement and palms facing miguel f. ruiz garrido ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220212 miguel f. ruiz garrido! ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… so, i got a bit scared in the previous talks. i feel i’m … ehhhh – what would you say – the… we had the – maybe the … the someone from another planet or something like that. let’s start with this. but i hope ... yeah ... that you will like it. same position (body and arms) opens arms a bit, moves body backwards a bit, and shakes it in a metaphorical way central position left arm moves up back to central position hands, palm down, get closer starting from outside (as representing something round) right hand up, brings finger tips together and palms down right hand/arm moves up quickly and fingers positioned as if taking something upwards and down to join left hand hold hands at a medium position; presses left over right right hand up a bit and opens it to join hands again; moves to central position still holding hands separates finger left hand and back to joined position rubs hands a bit opens and closes arms quickly, palms towards her moves hands to holding position right hand on clicker head looking right; sound with the mouth/ lips stuck together; closes eyes gazes at audience; slight smile looks at audience and closes eyes looks right; smile looks to the front; smile looks right looks to audience; smiling voice pitch lowers and looks right looks down at notes looks up to audience keeps frontal look and presses lips together slight smile, and presses lips together again moves slightly to the right serious expression and looks down to notes voice pitch lowers table 8. example of the co-occurrence of linguistic and non-linguistic features. the feeling of belonging to the same discourse community involves attitudinal components, metadiscourse and gestures, sometimes of nervousness, perhaps because of the pressure of being judged, sometimes of relaxation because of a feeling of familiarity and a sense of belonging to that community. although a nursing association is the organiser of the conference and the target audience consists of nurses, two of the speakers were not nurses. however, they make no attempt to conceal the fact; on the contrary, they try to preserve their persona, 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 212 inwards, like pointing to the audience, showing overall a humble feeling that indicates he can feel part of the same discourse community for the day. cp14, after the sentence uttered – a kind of “apology” – she goes on by “introducing self as presenter” together with the use of “self-mention”, to reinforce her persona, using “hedges”, when referring to the kind of presentation delivered but also, later, when ironically she states that she could save lives after 20 years without medical practice. previously, her face displayed a serious expression; she moves her eyebrows upwards just before saying “i do have a medical degree”, and uses short movements with her left hand from the podium towards herself, palm facing up to her when the movement happens. finally, she finishes this excerpt by saying what she is (“civil servant”, “bureaucrat”), but being explicit that she knows “who the experts are and who i can ask for advice”, enhancing this last idea with a movement of her left hand from the podium upwards towards the audience, palm facing up and partly inwards, at the end of the movement. altogether, she seeks the solidarity of the audience to allow her to be part of the same discourse community for the duration of the talk. all these examples are simply a glimpse of the diversity of kinesic and paralinguistic features found combined with the language used and the interpretation of the intention of the message. thus, no common patterns are found except for a few traits, which may rely more on the personality and context of the speaker than on the cp itself. introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 213 miguel f. ruiz garrido! ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… speaker says “i’m neither a nurse” speaker emphasises “i do have a medical degree” speaker tell the audience she knows “who the experts are” figure 4. example of cp14. all these examples are simply a glimpse of the diversity of kinesic and paralinguistic features found combined with the language used and the interpretation of the intention of the message. thus, no common patterns are found except for a few traits, which may rely more on the personality and context of the speaker than on the cp itself. 7. conclusions clearly, the limited number of speakers in the sample, and the lack of depth of the analysis conducted preclude any definite conclusions from this study. as mentioned earlier, in a study that involves individuals, results may be affected by several factors that are beyond our control. nevertheless, we believe that this kind of study focused on the analysis of real academic conference presentations from a long neglected field of research (nursing), allows us to gain some further insights into the multimodal dimension of cp. more specifically, it provides additional knowledge of the set-up stages, thus making an important contribution to applied linguistics and, hopefully, to the field of nursing. our research has shown that the combination of all the elements analysed, the structure of set-up stages, the metafunctions (ideational and interpersonal), and the use of non-linguistic elements (paralinguistic and kinesic), overall prove the multimodal nature of spoken academic discourse and the need to analyse the different factors altogether. the results reveal that the study of certain items in isolation does not have the same value as when they are contextualised. some language expressions, disregarding the move where they appear in the text, the function they play, the metadiscourse they represent or the gesture accompanying them, may have a more comprehensive explanation when studied as a whole. going back to our research questions, some conclusions can nevertheless be drawn. our findings have shown that in most set-up stages, there seem to be certain moves or steps that are part of the standards in academic conference presentations. hood and forey’s proposal (2005) was an accurate one but, as we observed, those components may not be a complete list or a list of pre-established ordered odirrgaziur.flegumi ! ! ! ienm’i“syasrekaesp r aeth se”nur sp me miseraselpmaxeesehtlal seurtacitsnguiilarpa ntionteinethfontiotaerprtein chihw,stairta rtcepex nonahtrekaesp .lfe itsp ceth ! aevahodi“sesisahpmerekaesp ”eergedlacidme kaesp s know p14.cofe plamex4.e gurfi revidehtfoespmilgaylpm nguaalheth tiwd nebiomcound mmocon, suht. egassemethfo alnoserpe htnoe romyelraym ! ehsecneiduaehtlletrek e”ars texperhe tho w“s cisenikfoytisr dan hetnd ad eusgengua dnuerasnrtteapnom e htfotextncodanyti ! sonisulcon7. c forebmundetimileht,ylraecl e dueclrpedctudncosisyalan tdut s an i,reilra edenoitnme dnoyeberatahts rotcaflarevse yslnaaheton d eusudy tsof craeserfolddteclegengnlo iosneimdl adoltimumethtoin teshetofdgeelknow geatsup ! htdna,elpmasehtnisrekaepsf fsnoisuclncoe tindyane tluse r,slaudividn isevlovn itah t ewss,elehtreven.lortnocruod encerccimdeacalaerofsiys (hc n ngisur niagotsuswolla), it , llyacepserom. pcfonio ontcntatpormin ang kiamhust,sge ! ehtfohtpedfokcaleh sa.ydutssihtmo mast d etcabe dniks ihttahteveileb aomonsitantesepre sthgisnir ehrtfuemos l anitioddaseidvorpit d eipplao ton ibutiront ! dge geup th, tollyepo, hdn asticisuglin tahtwnohssahhcraeserrou tsefoerutcurst mhet,sgeatsup nonofeus nemleeticisuglin anladmoitlmu nekopsfoertu t.rhetogetlasortcafnterdi sethevaht onseodntiolaois agerisd, sniosserpxeegaugnla idatemeht,yalpyehtnoitcnfu pmo cero m aeva hya, mmeth ! porng , f olde th n ngisur . leehtllafonoitanibmocehtt ntind alonaitadei(onsitatem icseinkdnaticisuglinarap(tsn ethdnaesruocisdicmedacan udy tshetthatlaveerstulserhet ceraethnehwsaeluavemas indra ppeay heterhewovemhetg gehtr otnesrepreyehtersuocsi tu sneh wntioanlapx eeivsneherp ! ppl eht,desylanastneme hetnd a,)lonasrperent ethevorpll arevo, )ic etheslyanatodeen n ismetin iatrecofudy emos. delisatuxtenoc het,xtethetn irappe gniynapmoccareutseg . leoh w as adiedtu ! x xaicréib ): …xxx(x -… hcraeserruootkcabgnigo howsvehangsndiuron.wadr fotraperatahtspetsrosevmo 2(lasoporps’yerofdnadoho a e btonaymstennopmco ! snoisulcnocemos,snoitseuq testosmn ithatn how het,sgeatsup fnoccmiedacanisdradnatsehtf a,tubenoetaruccanaswa)5002 erpfotsila rotsile etlpmco ! e bseselhterevncan erhe mese intarecebto .snoitatneserpecner esbowesa esoht,derv eederdroedhsilabtes 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 213 7. conclusions clearly, the limited number of speakers in the sample, and the lack of depth of the analysis conducted preclude any definite conclusions from this study. as mentioned earlier, in a study that involves individuals, results may be affected by several factors that are beyond our control. nevertheless, we believe that this kind of study focused on the analysis of real academic conference presentations from a long neglected field of research (nursing), allows us to gain some further insights into the multimodal dimension of cp. more specifically, it provides additional knowledge of the set-up stages, thus making an important contribution to applied linguistics and, hopefully, to the field of nursing. our research has shown that the combination of all the elements analysed, the structure of set-up stages, the metafunctions (ideational and interpersonal), and the use of non-linguistic elements (paralinguistic and kinesic), overall prove the multimodal nature of spoken academic discourse and the need to analyse the different factors altogether. the results reveal that the study of certain items in isolation does not have the same value as when they are contextualised. some language expressions, disregarding the move where they appear in the text, the function they play, the metadiscourse they represent or the gesture accompanying them, may have a more comprehensive explanation when studied as a whole. going back to our research questions, some conclusions can nevertheless be drawn. our findings have shown that in most set-up stages, there seem to be certain moves or steps that are part of the standards in academic conference presentations. hood and forey’s proposal (2005) was an accurate one but, as we observed, those components may not be a complete list or a list of preestablished ordered components, even though we expect certain sections to appear, probably at the beginning (thanks and/or greeting). those first components, including showing feelings or directly involving the audience, are already promoting the creation of the speaker’s persona and the construction of the best relationship with the audience, although the particular context of the conference may modify the components used. yet the metadiscourse features analysed play a crucial role in the conveyance of interpersonal and interactional meanings. our findings show some common traits at the same time that they underline the diversity in their use depending on the individual speakers. some sub-categories seem to be more common and probably more expected than others (“self-mention” and “attitude miguel f. ruiz garrido ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220214 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 214 markers”). most stance subcategories are used in all cps, promoting the speaker’s personality (especially through “i”) and establishing part of the ground for the rest of the presentation. as for engagement metadiscourse, its use is recurrent (mainly “hearer” by means of “you”, and “thanks”, plus “greeting”), and the results are more varied. all speakers have their own strategies and combination of linguistic forms that enable them to pursue the same goal by means of different tools. their final aim is to create the rapport, engage the audience and relieve or release both the speakers’ and the listeners’ inherent tensions. another issue mentioned is that the duration of the set-up stage might have an influence on the components or the metadiscourse features included. the results do not completely match this idea. some longer set-up stages have the highest numbers of components and metadiscourse features, but this is not always the case, since some shorter stages have the same or higher number of elements. hood and forey (2005) stated that certain stages in cps are more likely to show interpersonal features, such as in introductions, greetings and the thank-you discourse, when referring to the contribution of others or when using humour on purpose. however, other examples of audience involvement and building up a feeling of solidarity have appeared in this stage. finally, the use of non-linguistic features seems fundamental to complete our analysis. nevertheless, no clear and conclusive common patterns have been found, so that we can propose a categorisation of the non-linguistic resources used with language. as hood and forey (2005: 302) state, “analyses reveal that the extent and nature of the gestures used vary markedly from speaker to speaker”. those differences suggest the influence of both individual and contextual variables when using gestures. we have observed that paralinguistics and kinesics play a relevant role when speaking in public, and in our case, when supporting the creation of the speaker’s persona and the relationship with the audience by means of words. in our analysis, pitch or silence, on the one hand, and head and hand/arm movements and gestures, on the other, were used to support the spoken language. the position of the chairpersons, the audience, the screens or even the podium lead speakers to use certain paralinguistic features to fit in such a physical context. additionally, whether the speaker feels nervous or relaxed (as the two extremes of speakers’ feelings), paralinguistic and kinesic traits in combination with words generate the creation of the speaker’s persona and rapport with the audience. when speakers display nervousness, they may introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 215 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 215 gain compassion from the audience and feel protected by the discourse community; when speakers can be seen as more relaxed, audience engagement is easier and their inclusion in the discourse community is taken for granted. at both ends of the same situation, the objective is to prove the speaker’s role, to connect with the audience and to create a common feeling of community belonging. some limitations must be pointed out. the use of specialised software in multimodal analysis (such as elan or multimodal analysis video software), instead of carrying out a manual analysis, is a future improvement in this study. however, the small number of cps studied allowed us to focus on a qualitative-based analysis. this sample of presentations needs to be extended in an attempt to reach conclusions that are more practical. nonetheless, the step ahead in cp set-up stages, as well as in the discourse of the nursing field, may lead to some further ideas. we have not studied the effect some gestures or expressions used may have on the audience or the effect that speakers wanted to produce. although very relevant for the usefulness of verbal and non-verbal features, this research would require an immediate ethnographic study (not possible in our case). some studies could include the textual dimension related to the one already studied, the use of persuasive strategies or the influence of other visual modes in some other sections of cps. finally, yet equally important, this research can also be applied to the classroom, to make nursing students aware of the existence and co-occurrence of those elements to improve their presentation skills. our teaching practices cannot leave aside our research, and nurses preparing for a research career may require some training on how to deal with those situations, which are relatively new for their discourse community. acknowledgements i would like to thank fend, and the president, anne-marie felton, for their collaboration in this research and the permission granted to use their online material in this paper. this study has been developed as part of two research projects, one funded by the ministry of science and innovation of spain (ref. ffi2011-24269), and the other by universitat jaume i (ref. uji-b2017-28). article history: received 3 august 2018 received in revised form 30 november 2018 accepted 6 december 2018 miguel f. ruiz garrido ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220216 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 216 references introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 217 baumgarten, n. 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(2015). “intensifying adverbs in academic spoken discourse: a contrastive study between english and spanish” in crawfordcamiciottoli, b. & i. fortanet-gómez (eds.), multimodal analysis in academic settings. from research to teaching, 61-82. new york / london: routledge. swales, j. m. & a. burke (2003). “‘it’s really fascinating work’: differences in evaluative adjectives across academic registers” in c. meyer & p. leistyna (eds.), corpus analysis: language structure and use, 1-18. amsterdam and atlanta: rodopi. swales, j.m. & b. malcewski (2001). “discourse management and new episode flags in micase” in r.c. simpson & j.m. swales (eds.), corpus linguistics in north america: selections from the 1999 symposium, 145-164. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. swales, j.m. (2016). “reflections on the concept of discourse community”. asp 69, 7-19. valeiras-jurado, j. & n. ruiz-madrid (2015). “a multimodal approach to product presentations”. procedia. social and behavioral sciences 173: 252-258. valeiras-jurado, j., n. ruiz-madrid & g. jacobs (2018). “revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres: towards a methodological framework for multimodal discourse analysis of research dissemination talks”. ibérica 35: 93-118. ventola, e., c. shalom & s. thompson (eds.) (2002) the language of conferencing. frankfurt a.m.: peter lang. webber, p. (2002). “the paper is now open for discussion” in e. ventola, c. shalom & s. thompson (eds.), the language of conferencing, 227-253. frankfurt a.m.: peter lang. webber, p. (2005). “interactive features in medical conference monologue”. english for specific purposes 24: 157-181. wulff, s., j.m. swales & k. keller (2009). “‘we have about seven minutes for questions’: the discussion sessions from a specialized conference”. english for specific purposes 28, 2: 79-92. zabalegui yárnoz, a. & l. maciá soler (eds.) (2010). desarrollo del máster y doctorado oficial de enfermería en españa. castelló: publicacions uji. 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 218 quarterly (2014) and in the book multimodal analysis in academic settings. from research to teaching (2016, routledge). notes 1 in this paper, we use “discourse community” and “community of practice” as synonyms, even though we do understand the differences they may have. introducing nursing conference presentations ibérica 37 (2019): 193-220 219 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 219 08 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:23 página 220 iberica 13 ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164 abstract “aviation english” is not only confined to pilots and air traffic controllers (atc), it also refers to english on general terms in aeronautical and/or aviation universities. it can be designed as integrated esp (english for specific purposes) curricula for students in the fields of aeronautics and/or aviation. learners of esp are supposed to master the vocabulary in their specific discipline as well as the english language skills. this paper explores the possibility of establishing aviation english as an esp specialty in aeronautical and/or aviation colleges and universities. needs analysis has been made and curricula designed for an integrated course of study in the chinese context, so that learners of esp can learn the target language more effectively and meet the standards set by the international civil aviation organization (icao). it reconsiders the esp theories and aims to develop a possible approach to esp teaching more suitable for the chinese learners. key words: aviation english, needs analysis, curriculum design. resumen reevaluando el lugar que debe ocupar el ingl�s de la aviaci�n: de un lenguaje especial al ingl�s para fines espec�ficos el “inglés de la aviación” no se limita exclusivamente a los pilotos y a los controladores del tráfico aéreo (cta) sino que también se aplica en términos generales a la lengua inglesa que se enseña en los centros universitarios de aeronáutica y/o aviación. como tal, los cursos pueden diseñarse como parte integral de módulos de inglés para fines específicos cursados por alumnos de estudios aeronáuticos y/o de aviación en los que se espera alcanzar el dominio del vocabulario específico de la disciplina concreta así como las correspondientes destrezas en lengua inglesa. en este artículo se estudia la posibilidad de establecer reassessing the position of aviation english: from a special language to english for specific purposes wang aiguo civil aviation university of china (china) kevinerau@yahoo.com 151 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 151 ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164 wang aiguo el inglés para aviación como especialidad propia integrada en los centros universitarios de aeronáutica y/o aviación. se ha realizado un análisis de necesidades y se ha programado un curso dentro del contexto de nuestro país (china) con objeto de que los alumnos de ife puedan aprender el lenguaje de especialidad y satisfacer las normas establecidas por la organización internacional de aviación civil (icao). se vuelven a examinar las teorías relativas al ife y sus objetivos así como un enfoque docente de ife que resulte más adecuado para los estudiantes chinos de inglés para aviación. palabras clave: inglés para aviación, análisis de necesidades, diseño curricular. 1. the theoretical base of classifying aviation english into esp aviation english can be defined as a comprehensive but specialized subset of english related broadly to aviation, including the “plain” language used for radiotelephony communications when phraseologies do not suffice. not restricted to controller and pilot communications, aviation english can also include the use of english relating to any other aspect of aviation: the language needed by pilots for briefings, announcements, and flight deck communication, and the language used by maintenance technicians, flight attendants, dispatchers, managers and officials within the aviation industry or even the english language studied by students in aeronautical and/or aviation universities. used in radiotelephony communications between air traffic controllers (atc) and pilots, radiotelephony english (rtfe) is the core of aviation english. it includes (but must not be limited to) the phraseology set by the international civil aviation organization (icao) and can require the use of general english at times. accordingly, aviation english can be a subdivision of esp, in the same rank as english for business and economy, english for science and technology, english for social sciences while rtfe, the core of aviation english, may be considered a kind of special english for occupational purposes (eop), or a restricted language as mackay & mountford (1978: 4) clearly illustrated: [...] the language of international air-traffic control could be regarded as “special”, in the sense that the repertoire required by the controller is strictly limited and can be accurately determined situationally, as might be the linguistic needs of a dining-room waiter or air-hostess. however, such restricted repertoires are not languages, just as a tourist phrase book is not 152 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 152 ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164 reassessing the position of aviation english grammar. knowing a restricted “language” would not allow the speaker to communicate effectively in a novel situation, or in contexts outside the vocational environment. thus aviation english contains two meanings with regard to the time and depth of language study: (a) aviation english (such as rtfe) for occupational purposes (5 months); (b) aviation english for general use (1-2 years); (c) aviation english for language skills and linguistic study (2 years). but in non-english speaking countries, the prerequisite of learning aviation english is an intermediate or higher english level. there are convincing reasons why aviation english course needs to be included in the specialty, so that students (including potential pilots who are entrusted to aviation colleges and/or universities by airlines) can master the english language before they go to english speaking countries to get their flying license. these students are selected either from high schools or from colleges and universities in china. they all learnt english in this way or either as a part of compulsory education, but their english proficiency varies a lot due to different backgrounds. equally important is the necessity of restructuring the english language specialty with a long time emphasis on general usage. great progress has been made in the research of aviation english for esp. one reason is the rapid growth of the aviation industry in the world, especially in a developing country like china. another reason is perhaps the development and influence of esp theory in english language teaching. radiotelephony english (rtfe) has started to be taught in aeronautical colleges and universities for the training of atc and pilots. meanwhile there has been a corresponding steady increase in the proportion of papers on eop and development of eap (english for academic purposes) courses. thus, aviation english courses taught in colleges and universities can generally be regarded as eap and /or eop, although it is hard to make a clear-cut distinction between the two and can be considered from three perspectives: (a) aviation english 1 (specifically rtfe) = typical selections from the language corpuses in a specific field of air industry + register analysis and/or discourse analysis (with a focus on aviation terminologies) for practical use. aviation english on this level includes english for air communication, english for cabin attendants, english for maintenance staff and english for airport service. it is actually a lingua franca and targeted at adult learners. 153 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 153 (b) aviation english 2 (general english for specific purpose, i.e. college english) = 21st century college english (textbook edited by zhai & zheng (2002) and compiled at fudan university in shanghai) for proficiency tests. aviation english on this level is not much different from general english teaching. (c) aviation english 3 (integrated aviation english course) = linguistic processing of language corpus in the field of air industry + register analysis and/or discourse analysis (with a focus on phonetics and the english language proficiency) for language skills and linguistic study. aviation english on this level is actually a combination of aviation english 1 and aviation english 2. in addition, linguistics (such as forensic linguistics concerning international air regulations, aviation psycholinguistics, aviation linguistics, etc.), translation theory and practice and esp theory become mandatory courses of this specialty. learners can further their studies by systematically learning linguistics and esp theories, thus getting to a higher level of language study. aviation english 3 is thus an academic and linguistic complex, belonging to the scope of eap and linguistics. 2. needs analysis for the establishment of aviation english as an esp specialty 2.1 external factors being a part of globalization in nature, aviation industry requires pilots, atc, cabin attendants, crewmembers, engineers, and service staff to be able to communicate with their counterparts in the world on work-related issues. such communication has two implications: on the one hand, it means the correct and standard use of terminologies or phraseologies in air/ground communication, aircraft manufacturing and its specification, even legal terms in aviation law; on the other hand, it refers to the general use of the english language among aviation staff in daily communication, regardless of its nationality, race, and different cultural backgrounds. in china, there is a huge market for aviation services. with the rapid growth of air industry and the flourishing chinese economy, more and more people are working or wish to work in airports and airlines. accordingly english is wang aiguo ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164154 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 154 fast becoming a requirement for professional promotion and even employment. moreover, with its de facto long-time use in this industry, english is the referred language used in international airports and airlines. china is carrying out its opening up policy and actively participating in international activities. english learning is advanced from middle school to primary school or even to kindergarten, and prolonged from undergraduate education to graduate or even to continuing education. as esp is closely related to the work of pilots, atc, engineers and those in various trades and professions, it is unavoidably a choice of the english language teaching approach in aeronautical and/or aviation universities and colleges in china. 2.2 internal factors robinson (1991) claims that needs assessment is a central element in esp curriculum design. in order to know the needs of our current and potential students, a survey was conducted. students were asked to fill out a questionnaire (see appendix 1) that was delivered to 100 undergraduates in civil aviation university of china (cauc) and 50 adult students in the continuing educational school of the same university. the interviewees are of different specialties, such as air traffic control, aviation business administration, flying skill, cabin attendant training, and english language. we received 143 pieces of feedback (97 from undergraduates and 46 from adult students). the results indicate that a 90% of the students surveyed want to work in the aviation industry. if there is an english test for the qualification of a flight interpreter, 45% students will take part in the test. obviously aviation-related english tests are the most favored ones. 73% students are interested in english for daily communication while a comparatively small percentage of others were also interested in phonetics, lexicology, syntax, and semantics. clearly they wish to learn english for practical use. 79% students prefer to learn general english (i.e. college english) with aviation features while 21% students do not. 74% interviewees think it is necessary to establish a specialty of aviation english in cauc. in short, the result of the survey shows that there is a definite need for the establishment of the aviation english as a specialty for a systematic study of esp. this is likely to bridge the gap between the english learners who are ignorant of systematic aviation information and the native english instructors with strong aviation backgrounds. learners are highly motivated and notably interested in esp. the boom of esp teaching both in college education and continuing education is the result of social demand for the reassessing the position of aviation english ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164 155 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 155 development of english language skills, as well as the rapid introduction of linguistics and educational psychology (li, 2001). such a situation requires the teaching of aviation english on a large scale to college students as well as adults, either in the long term for strategic programs or in the short term for current operations. with different objectives, different contents and targets, esp teaching has its own methodology and curriculum in various contexts. 3. methodological exploration concerning the teaching of aviation english in the chinese context 3.1 assessment of learners’ language ability and teachers’ methods the first step was to find out about the students’ background of learning aviation english. the result of an interview (ming, 2003) showed that it did not make much difference among college students in the same grade but varied significantly among the adult learners. the general english proficiency of adult learners was found to be rather low, though many of them had done some college work. in china, both college students and adult learners of esp are comparatively good at reading but poor at using the target language to communicate (li, 1995). the learner-centered curriculum module used by esp theorists and practitioners will surely change such a situation. this has been proved in business english teaching class where students are organized to participate in many well-designed interesting activities in the target language. they gain not only knowledge of the english language, but also down-to-earth techniques of business management and operation. the methodology adopted in business english teaching has been generally recognized in china. in the learner-centered curriculum module, learners’ needs and teachers’ teaching plans are not in conflict. the content and ways to have it performed in class are highlighted. the final goal of teaching aviation english is to cultivate the students’ communicative competence. classroom teaching plays an important part in aviation language teaching. the following aspects are stressed in teaching: (a) phonetics: a key area of training; large amount of rigorous drills of phonemes, intonations based on mimicking model readings; (b) speaking: mimicking the conversation; (c) listening: sporadic wang aiguo ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164156 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 156 teacher-student interaction; features of world englishes are to be identified in this kind of training; d) vocabulary: another key area of teaching and learning aviation english; extensive exercises designed for practice; terminologies and selected words from literary works rather than everyday vocabulary are emphasized. brown (2001) emphasizes that group work generates interactive language and offers an embracing affective climate, and that it promotes learner’s responsibility and autonomy. in the classroom teaching of aviation english, group work is widely used to create a more interactive learning environment for learners to actively engage in. by adopting the interactive role play, each group has to do both before-class practice and during-class oral presentation on the different topics of the situational conversations. during the oral presentation, esp learners are encouraged to arrange an authentic environment and atmosphere to experience the practical side of the language. 3.2 methodological exploration methodology is best considered an ongoing process, involving experimentation, data collection, and evaluation, and informed by constant reference to target objectives and to research on underlying learning, and communicative processes in second language acquisition (richards, 2001). as esp is focused on subject matter, what to talk about in class seems more important than how to talk about it. register analysis and discourse analysis are still popular approaches to esp teaching in the world. although they seem equally suitable for chinese learners, college students in china are insufficiently prepared in english language skills despite the fact that most of them start to learn english in primary school. to teach esp in china, we must take into consideration students’ english proficiency, their learning backgrounds and the proper use of teaching methods. we must teach students in accordance with their aptitude. contrastive approach plus linguistic analysis is now at its experimental stage, feedback shows that this approach is suitable for learners of esp or other specialties in aviation industry. in the integrated aviation english course at the cauc, for example, one hundred and twenty students selected aviation linguistics soon after its establishment and none decided to make a transfer. some students complain that it is a bit hard for them to learn without any adequate college english training first. reassessing the position of aviation english ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164 157 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 157 according to strevens (1977: 152), esp is the “global trend towards learnercentered education”, with its emphasis on learners’ needs and interest. english for science and technology has come to the fore because english is considered the major international language in these areas. it has been estimated that nearly two thirds of engineering texts appeared in english (mackay & mountford, 1978; pritchard & nasr, 2004). eap prepares students to study both the english language in the chinese context and other subjects in english as an auxiliary language, or to undertake specialized courses in english-speaking universities. it is not only language study but also training in study skills: listening to lectures and taking notes; reading texts related to the field; writing reports and papers; answering questions orally on specialized material. therefore, eap can be defined in the chinese context as general english or even specialty english (esp in this sense) in polytechnic universities and colleges. aviation english thus can become specialty english in cauc, with pure linguistic courses and literature courses replaced by esp teaching methods, genre analysis and materials corresponding to aviation or airports. in addition, quite a few courses in the english language department are actually concerned with linguistic analysis of aviation and airport related materials, which are excerpts from books written in english. so we are now in a dilemma, our courses are gradually overlapping with those taught in the aviation business administration department. this condition must be changed with esp courses being introduced. the establishment of aviation english as an esp specialty is certainly a trend towards learner-centered education in the chinese context. 3.3 challenges to face and measures to take in esp teaching in the chinese context as esp is to be properly placed in the chinese context, the challenge to face is how to include it in the right curriculum. many college teachers may not feel qualified to deal with esp. the point is that they need some advice or training in this area. though quite a number of textbooks have been compiled in cauc, high quality english for general academic purposes (egap) and english for specific academic purposes (esap) books are lacking here as well as in other chinese aviation or aeronautical universities and colleges. these will have to be made available. one way is to send qualified teachers to the english speaking countries for esp training. thus they can cooperate with their counterparts in those countries, and obtain technical assistance in the form of suggested syllabi, advice about the wang aiguo ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164158 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 158 integration of esp into the curriculum, workshops, materials, and help in developing materials. another way is to integrate esp into instruction about general language teaching. this should be feasible because esp does not differ too much from general english in terms of methodology. when esp is introduced into the college curriculum, the general language teaching methodology is also applied in teaching esp. in this way the language teachers will not only handle esp teaching tasks, but also obtain a perspective on general language teaching principles and ideas that they otherwise would neglect. 3.4 time allocation for the teaching of aviation english in china, the time ratio of teaching aviation english to that of teaching general english is about 1 to 4. in order to improve students’ language ability, we are designing the course on the following percentage of time allocation. reassessing the position of aviation english ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164 159 wang aiguo aviation english course components percentage of time spent on components a. aviation english components (for eap) aviation linguistics (phonetics and semantics) aviation psycholinguistics aviation forensic linguistics translation theory and practice listening and note-taking technical writing (aviation english centered) reading comprehension library/reference/research skills integrated language study project esp theory esp project (e.g. air communication, culture of aviation industry) cross cultural communication 10 10 10 10 10 5 10 5 (5) 15 5 5 b. general english for specific purpose (college english) 21st century english (volumes i-iv) english grammar and writing english listening and speaking fast reading 30 30 20 20 c. aviation english course (for eop) 1. english pronunciation and air communication 2. grammar and writing 3. eop projects (e.g. english for cabin attendants, english for maintenance staff, english for pilots and atc, etc.) 4. listening and speaking 25 25 25 25 chart 2. time allocation of aviation english course. 3.5 teaching oral aviation english with a contrastive approach aviation phonetics is the study of vocal sounds in air communication, and it is the core component of the curriculum in esp. in aviation verbal communication is the only effective means of passing information quickly. though visual display units occupy a large part of the modern aircraft cockpit, voice communication still plays the prime role as a means of rapid transfer of information. the factors which can affect the speech perception can be classified as (a) aviators speaking status; (b) effectiveness of communicating system; and, (c) presence of adverse conditions which interfere with the communication. 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 159 3.5 teaching oral aviation english with a contrastive approach aviation phonetics is the study of vocal sounds in air communication, and it is the core component of the curriculum in esp. in aviation verbal communication is the only effective means of passing information quickly. though visual display units occupy a large part of the modern aircraft cockpit, voice communication still plays the prime role as a means of rapid transfer of information. the factors which can affect the speech perception can be classified as (a) aviators speaking status; (b) effectiveness of communicating system; and, (c) presence of adverse conditions which interfere with the communication. considering the importance of phonetics in the communication of aviators and overall effect on flight safety, it is essential to take measures and screen the aviators at the selection level and also maintain the speech status while serving, by taking all preventive and corrective measures (ravishankar, 2002). on the basis of learning international phonetics systematically, learners will focus on aviation phonetics. this includes the reading of numbers, alphabets, time, code of airports, air pressure, and aircraft type, etc. in comparison with the chinese phonetic system (pinyin) and icao phonetic regulations, learners of aviation english in the chinese context could have a better understanding of phonetic knowledge. for example, in chinese air communication, “0” is read out /dòng/ instead of /líng/ as usual; “1” is read out /yão / instead of /yi/ as usual; “2” is read out /liăng/ instead of /èr/ as usual; “7” is read out /guăi/ instead of /qi/ as usual; “9” is sometimes read out /gŏu/ instead of /jiŭ/. similarly, in english air communication “3” is read out /tree/ instead of /θri:/ as usual, “4” is read out /fow-er/, “9” is read out /nin-er/ instead of /nain/ as usual, because, to pronounce the sound /θ/, we have to put the tongue between the teeth, in addition, it is voiceless and this makes it difficult to be heard by the listener in communication, so the /θ/ sound is replaced by alveolar and plosive /t/ in air communication, and the word “thousand” is pronounced as /tou-sand/. the benefit of phonetic contrast is that learners acquire every sound on theoretical basis in addition to pure imitation. they are aware of the place in the mouth where sounds are articulated and the manner in which specific sounds are vocalized, such as /v/ and /w/, with the former a labio-dental and the latter a bilabial in place of articulation and respectively, fricative and approximant in manner of articulation, while in the chinese context it is very hard to distinguish these two sounds. take “wán bì” (out) for example, it wang aiguo ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164160 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 160 does not make much difference if it is pronounced /wán bì/ or /ván bì/. but in english, wilco must not be pronounced as vilco*. 3.6 a conceptual change regarding the teaching of aviation english in china the aviation english course is designed to meet the demands of students, with consideration of the fact that they might possess beginner, intermediate or experienced skills. the specific problems that chinese students face when learning aviation english are targeted with the following design: • increase english vocabulary (including aviation phraseologies) • improve english listening comprehension • improve english speaking skills • improve english grammar • increase accuracy in english pronunciation • expand professional knowledge • expose students to aviation language and technology in the aviation english class, instruction changes from being teachercentered and content-driven to being more learner-centered and learning process-driven. for example, instead of having students receive information-loaded lectures devoted exclusively to the coverage of course content, learner-centered instruction involves engaging students in learning experiences that are designed not only to enable them to learn content, but also to learn process; students are encouraged to practice what they learn, to communicate with their partners or with their instructor. in the process of learning content, students learn how to acquire skills to use the language in different contexts. the student’s role changes from that of being a passive recipient to that of an engaged learner and active agent in the learning process. classroom teaching methods used to be instructor-centered. it is best illustrated by the uninterrupted, formal lecture wherein the instructor does virtually all of the talking and is in complete control of the class agenda. in aviation english class, however, the instruction involves less instructor domination and transfers more communicative tasks, control, and responsibility to the students. this is possible because (a) students’ english level has generally reassessing the position of aviation english ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164 161 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 161 improved due to the implementation of new english teaching methods; (b) a conceptual change in quality education in colleges and universities is playing an important role. 4. conclusion this paper has addressed peculiarities of esp, explored methodologies, and designed aviation english curricula in the chinese context. it illustrates a case of contrastive approach to teaching oral aviation english. the content of the paper was based on my dual professional experience as an esp and elt instructor designing and delivering the content-based language programme, aviation linguistics in cauc. these issues, where possible, have been supported by current and pertinent academic literature. it is hoped that the discussion in this paper can provide some insights into the challenges facing elt instructors acting as esp curriculum developers both in china and in the world. still, some points remain for further comment elsewhere; namely, what issues concerning the aviation english teaching approach in china need to be further addressed by elt professionals; how methodological issues in the chinese context relate to aviation english teaching in other contexts and to esp in general; or to what extent and how elt professionals can further develop the aviation english course and its components. (revised paper received may 2007) references wang aiguo ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164162 brown, h. d. (2001). teaching by principles. new york: longman. li, g. (1995). elt methodologies with chinese characteristics. shanghai: shanghai foreign language education press. li, h. (2001). “coordination of esp and english major in china”. journal of foreign language teaching 22: 40-43. mackay, r. & a. mountford (1978). “the teaching of english for specific purposes: theory and practice” in r. mackay, r. & a. mountford (eds.), english for specific purposes: a case study approach, 2-20. london: longman. ming, a. (2003). “a survey report on performance of communicative approach in college english teaching”. english teaching and research in higher normal education 6: 35-38. pritchard, r. & a. nasr (2004). “improving reading performance among egyptian engineering students: principles and practice”. english for specific purposes 23: 425-445. ravishankar, g.c.k (2002). “phonetics and flight safety —an orodental view point”. indian society of aerospace medicine 46: 54-58. richards, j.c. (2001). the context of language teaching. beijing: foreign language teaching and research press. robinson, p. (1991). esp today. hemel hempstead: prentice hall. 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 162 wang aiguo teaches english as a foreign language in civil aviation university of china. he has conducted several studies on curriculum design and methodology of teaching aviation english. his research interests lie primarily in applied linguistics and english for specific purposes, esp. aviation english as a global language in aviation industry. appendix 1: questionnaire reassessing the position of aviation english ibérica 15 [2008]: 151-164 163 strevens, p. (1977). “special purpose language learning: a perspective”. language teaching and linguistics 10: 145-163. zhai, x. & s. zheng (eds.) (2002). twenty-first century college english, vols. 1-4. shanghai: fudan university press. wang aiguo appendix 1: questionnaire questions (questionnaire delivered to 150 students – 143 were returned) answers (%) 1) are you an undergraduate or an adult student? a. 68% undergraduates b. 32% adults 2) do you wish to work in the aviation industry? a. 90% yes b. 8% no c. 2% hard to say 3) how far do you want/need to go with your english? a. 15% cet-4 b. 29% cet-6 c. 39% toefl, gre or ielts d. 45% flight interpreter e. 20% able to read english materials 4) what part of english are you most interested in? a. 32% phonetics and pronunciation b. 29% lexicology and vocabulary c. 23% syntax and sentence writing d. 26% semantics and meanings e. 27% phraseology or terminology f. 73% daily communication 5) which do you prefer? a. 79% college english with aviation features b. 21% college english without aviation features 6) do you think it necessary to establish a specialty of aviation english in the civil aviation university of china? a. 74% yes b. 15% no c. 11% no idea 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 163 09 aiguo.qxp 14/3/08 17:40 página 164 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 279-288 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in this research note we report on the first results of scap, the spanish corpus annotation project, applied to tourism discourse. in particular, we present and assess a new treetagger parameter set for spanish (scap-tt), which has been trained for the part-of-speech tagging (pos-tagging) and lemmatisation of spanish promotional tourism texts. although scap-tt has been trained for specialized tourism discourse, we also show promising results for the annotation of other text genres such as essays and literary texts. keywords: pos-tagging, lemmatisation, spanish, treetagger, tourism discourse, scap. resumen s ca pt t : e l e ti qu e ta do g ra ma tic al y l a l e ma ti z ac ió n de l d is c u rs o tur ís t ic o e s p a ño l , y má s a l l á en esta nota de investigación describimos los primeros resultados de scap, el spanish corpus annotation project, aplicado al discurso turístico. presentaremos y evaluaremos una nueva versión para el español del etiquetador treetagger (scaptt), diseñado específicamente para el etiquetado y la lematización de textos turísticos promocionales en español. si bien scap-tt ha sido diseñado para el discurso especializado del turismo, mostraremos también resultados muy prometedores para la anotación de otros tipos de discursos, como ensayos y textos literarios. palabras clave: etiquetado gramatical, lematización, español, treetagger, discurso turístico, scap-tur. scap-tt: tagging and lemmatising spanish tourism discourse, and beyond patrick goethals, els lefever and lieve macken ghent university (belgium) patrick.goethals@ugent.be, els.lefever@ugent.be & lieve.macken@ugent.be 279 ibérica 33 (2017): 279-288 p. goethals, e. lefever & l. macken 1. introduction this research was motivated by two observations. the first of them is that in spanish specialized discourse corpus compilation projects, posand lemmaannotation are not yet self-evident features. corpora often consist of raw text, allowing for word form-based queries, but not for more abstract posor lemma-based queries. regarding spanish tourism discourse, for example, the two main corpus projects, linguaturismo (http:// www.linguaturismo.it) and cometval (http://www.uv.es/cometval) do not (yet) contain linguistic annotations. this observation is not intended as a criticism towards these specific projects, but rather as one example of a broader dichotomy between current practices in corpus and computational linguistics. the second observation is related to treetagger1 (tt, schmid, 1994, 1995). tt is a tool for automatic pos-tagging and lemmatisation which predicts the most probable pos-tag for each word taking into account its inherent formal characteristics and the surrounding pos-context. tt can be run using the built-in parameters, but it also offers a training tool to generate new parameter sets, which means that it can be adapted and improved depending on the specific needs of a corpus project. although the main architecture is language-independent, the output quality varies according to the language, since the tool depends on language-specific input, such as a lexicon, a tag set, a list of multi-word items or a training corpus (for technical details, see schmid, 1994, 1995). it is generally accepted that the results for the spanish treetagger are not as good as for english, for example (göhring, 2009). moreover, it should be noted that the adaptiveness of treetagger appears to be underused, at least for spanish, since there are no newly trained and publicly available parameter sets for spanish. taking into consideration these observations, our aim is to use the inherent adaptiveness of treetagger and to make an improved parameter set for spanish. in order to stimulate the development of annotated corpora, the parameter set is made available at the project’s website (www.scap.ugent.be). at the same website, readers will find further technical information, as well as advanced tools and automated applications for further processing the ttoutput. in what follows, we will first briefly discuss the performance of the current spanish treetagger parameter set (standard-tt). then, we will describe the main decisions that were taken in the development of a new parameter set (scap-tt), and compare the results of scap-tt with standard-tt. finally, it is important to emphasize that in this research note, 280 we will not compare the results of treetagger with those of other tagging tools, such as iula (martínez et al., 2010), grampal (moreno & goni, 1995) or freeling (carreras et al., 2004) (see e.g. parra & martínez, 2015 for a recent comparison). 2. t r e e t a gg e r at least three features determine the success of a tagging tool among corpus linguists: its user-friendliness, the accuracy of the output and the granularity (or level of detail) of the coding categories. as has been argued by several authors (e.g. durán, 2010; argüelles & muñoz, 2012; crespo & frías, 2015), treetagger scores high on user-friendliness. it is free and easily downloadable, it can be run locally, it can be used with a high number of languages and it does not require advanced technical skills, especially since the publication of graphic interfaces by duibhín2 and anthony (tagant3). although some of these arguments might seem trivial for computational linguists, they are essential for corpus linguists, and the fact that treetagger scores high on userfriendliness basically guarantees that it will continue to be used in the future. however, with respect to accuracy, the results of the current spanish standard-tt are sub-optimal. reports vary between 90% and 95% accuracy, depending on the text type and on how accuracy is measured. in a recent comparison of several tools (treetagger, iula, freeling and ixa), parra and martínez (2015) conclude that standard-tt ends third out of four both for pos-tagging and lemmatisation. also with respect to granularity, tt does not score optimally, mainly because it does not include inflectional information. in this contribution, the focus is on improving the accuracy of both postagging and lemmatisation. in a later stage, when more training data will be available, we will attempt to also improve the granularity of the coding scheme. 3. design of the new parameter set in what follows we describe the main steps taken to generate a new parameter set for spanish. this information is not exhaustive: detailed and explicit coding guidelines can be found at the project’s website (www.scap.ugent.be). scap-tt: tagging and lemmatising spanish tourism discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 279-288 281 3.1. tokenization and multi-word units a first decision concerns an optional tt-feature that affects the definition of multi-word units. treetagger defines multi-word units (e.g. “sobre~todo”) during the tokenisation process, on the basis of a closed list (approx. 300 items in standard-tt). this procedure presents some inherent weaknesses. first, the built-in list seems relatively arbitrary, including for example “tal~vez”, “a~veces”, and “san~pablo” but not “a~lo~mejor”, “de~vez~en~cuando” or “santa~maría”. the end user can partly overcome this problem by adding or omitting items. the second weakness, however, is more problematic and is caused by the fact that multi-words are defined before the contextual analysis takes place (i.e. during the tokenisation process). this means that all instances of these word sequences are a priori defined as multi-words. in a sentence such as “sobre todo el territorio”, “sobre todo” would be analysed as a multi-word unit, just like in “es, sobre todo, muy inteligente”. therefore, we took the decision not to use a list of multi-word items. the end-user of treetagger is still free to use (and modify) such a list, but we do not recommend this, especially not with scap-tt, since it is not trained this way. 3.2. pos tag set: accuracy and granularity the total tag set increased from 77 tags in standard-tt to 110 in scap-tt. although the number of tags is sometimes used as an indicator of granularity, our main reason for remodelling some aspects of the tag set was to improve the accuracy. scap-tt scores at least as good, and perhaps slightly better, on granularity than standard-tt, but it still lacks inflectional information. in what follows, we discuss three decisions to illustrate the overall philosophy. as said before, a detailed comparison between the two tag sets can be found at the project’s website (www.scap.ugent.be). 3.2.1. past participles the classification of adjectival and verbal uses of past participles is a wellknown problem, which is handled differently by different taggers (parra & martínez, 2015). the distinction causes frequent errors (e.g. when “adecuada” in “una medida adecuada” is analysed as a verb and lemmatised as “adecuar”), and infelicitous decisions (e.g. when “pasado” receives the p. goethals, e. lefever & l. macken ibérica 33 (2017): 279-288282 same label in “los tiempos pasados” and in “ha pasado algo”). the consequence of this problematic labeling is that both categories of adjectives and verbal participles are contaminated and should be entirely corrected during post-edition, which is very time-consuming. as a pragmatic solution, parra and martínez (2015) decide to classify all past participles as verbal forms, and a similar option is taken in the eagles tagset.4 in fact, the problem is also conceptual, since it seems artificial to divide what is a continuum ranging from prototypical adjectival uses to prototypical verbal uses in only two categories. given both the pragmatic and conceptual arguments, we decided to create three categories: (i) adj, for adjectives not derived from a participle; (ii) vpart, for participles in their most prototypical verbal contexts, namely in combination with “haber” and in passive constructions with “ser”; (iii) adjv, for adjectives derived from a participle that do not occur in combination with “haber” and passive “ser”. as a result, the categories adj and vpart are far more homogeneous, and the end user can choose (i) whether it is necessary to check the intermediate category of adjv or (ii) to add the whole category of adjv to adj or to vpart. 3.2.2. enclitics treetagger does not separate verbal forms and enclitics, but assigns a specific pos-tag to verbs containing one or several clitics. in scap-tt, this option is further refined, assigning different labels to the four possibilities: (i) se when the verb is followed by “se”(“arrepentirse”); (ii) cli when the verb is followed by one pronoun (“comprarlo”); (iii) secli when the verb is followed by “se” and a pronoun (“decírselo”); (iv) cli2 when the verb is followed by two pronouns (“comprármelo”). scap-tt: tagging and lemmatising spanish tourism discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 279-288 283 3.2.3. articles in contrast with standard-tt, which has only one label for articles, scap-tt distinguishes between definite, indefinite and neutral (“lo más importante”) articles. 3.3. lexicon scap-tt uses a lexicon of almost 79,000 lemmas and 670,000 word form – pos tag pairs. this lexicon combines various sources, but takes as a starting point the stemming list made available by boleslav měchura5 (containing some 490,000 word form – lemma pairs). the latter list lacked important information: it did not include invariable forms (e.g. adverbs), word forms that coincide with the lemma, verbal forms with enclitics, and, most importantly, information on the pos-category of the word forms. in the scap lexicon all this information was added.6 3.4. training corpus the scap parameter set was trained on a manually annotated 200,000 word corpus containing two types of descriptive-promotional tourism texts: digital descriptions of tourism attractions published in minube, an online 2.0 travel guide, and brochures published by turespaña, the national tourism agency. 4. testing and results scap-tt was tested on three 5,000 words-corpora. the first testing corpus belongs to the same series of tourism brochures as those used in the training corpus. there is, however, no textual overlap between testing and training data. additionally, we considered two other 5,000 words excerpts from the essay las venas abiertas (e. galeano), and from the novel el club dumas (a. pérez reverte). the testing data allow us to assess the added value of scaptt, both in the specialized context for which it is trained, and in other discourse domains. two preliminary observations should be made. first, it is important to note that we applied an assessment procedure and not a gold standard procedure, which means that we evaluate accuracy with respect to the internal logic of the parameter set, and that tags are only counted as errors when they do not correspond to what is expected from the tag set definitions. this avoids that p. goethals, e. lefever & l. macken ibérica 33 (2017): 279-288284 the error analysis gets biased by judgments about the felicitousness of specific coding decisions. for example, “nadie” is systematically tagged by standard-tt as a quantifier, while it is a pronoun in scap-tt. although we believe that the second label is more appropriate than the first one, we did not count this as an error in the standard-tt output. on the other hand, when a participle following “haber” is tagged as vladj in standard-tt and as adjv in scap-tt, this is considered correct in the former case, but erroneous in the latter one, because in scap-tt we would expect to find vlpart. secondly, we will take into account the effect of using the optional tt-feature of “capitalization heuristics”. using this heuristics means that the tagger seeks unknown capitalized words in the lower-case lemma list, which may affect the ratio of proper nouns in the tagging output, and also the type of errors that occur. therefore, errors are subdivided in categories: (a) erroneous pos-tags excluding proper nouns, (b) items which receive a correct pos-tag but are not appropriately lemmatised, again excluding proper nouns, (c) proper nouns which were not recognized as such, and (d) items which were incorrectly labelled as proper nouns. two totals are provided: one excluding the proper nouns, and one overall total. the tourism testing corpus clearly shows that scap-tt improves postagging and lemmatisation substantially, especially when proper nouns are excluded. the number of errors is even reduced with more than 80% (30 vs. 215 or 37 vs. 271). in addition, not using the capitalization heuristics reduces the number of missed proper nouns drastically (27 vs. 135), although it also slightly increases the number of general pos-errors (27 vs. 17) and the number of false proper nouns (11 vs. 5). these are important results, but the question arises whether the improvements are only due to the specialized training modalities. yet, the results for the other testing corpora show that scap-tt yields better results in literary texts and essays as well, although the benefit is less pronounced than in the tourism domain. for example, considering the <–cap heuristics> modus, the total number of accuracy fails is reduced from 7,2% to 1,5% in the tourism testing corpus, from 6,2% to 2,8% in the literary corpus and from 4,1% to 2,7% in the essay corpus. we also notice that the most significant improvements in the literary and essay corpus concern lemmatisation, and that the use of capitalization heuristics leads to considerable shifts in the results of scap-tt. based on these results, the best strategy is to combine both outputs by replacing in the <+cap. heuristics> output those pos-labels in which the – capitalization heuristics tags a proper noun. scap-tt: tagging and lemmatising spanish tourism discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 279-288 285 5. conclusion we have shown that scap-tt considerably improves the tagging and lemmatisation results of the current spanish treetagger, especially but not p. goethals, e. lefever & l. macken ibérica 33 (2017): 279-288286 scap_tur: tagging and lemmatising spanish tourism discourse ibérica 33 (2017): …-… standard-tt scap-tt + cap. heuristics cap. heuristics + cap. heuristics cap. heuristics test 1: tourism brochure (a) pos-error (no proper nouns) 133 (2.7%) 134 (2.7%) 17 (0.3%) 27 (0.5%) (b) correct pos but erroneous or unknown lemma (no proper nouns) 82 (1.6%) 83 (1.7%) 13 (0.3%) 10 (0.2%) (c) missed proper nouns 159 (3.2%) 141 (2.8%) 135 (2.7%) 27 (0.5%) (d) false proper nouns 3 (0.1%) 3 (0.1%) 5 (0.1%) 11 (0.2%) total (no proper nouns) 215 (4.3%) 271 (4.3%) 30 (0.6%) 37 (0.7%) total 377 (7.5%) 361 (7.2%) 170 (3.4%) 75 (1.5%) test 2: literary prose (a) pos-error (no proper nouns) 132 (2.6%) 133 (2.7%) 58 (1.2%) 102 (2.0%) (b) correct pos but erroneous or unknown lemma (no proper nouns) 107 (2.1%) 108 (2.2%) 5 (0.1%) 5 (0.1%) (c) missed proper nouns 72 (1.4%) 68 (1.4%) 76 (1.5%) 29 (0.6%) (d) false proper nouns 2 (0.0%) 2 (0.0%) 2 (0.0%) 6 (0.1%) total (no proper nouns) 239 (4.8%) 241 (4.8%) 63 (1.3%) 107 (2.1%) total 313 (6.3%) 311 (6.2%) 141 (2.8%) 142 (2.8%) test 3: essay (a) pos-error (no proper nouns) 88 (1.8%) 91 (1.8%) 46 (0.9%) 54 (1.1%) (b) correct pos but erroneous or unknown lemma (no proper nouns) 73 (1.5%) 74 (1.5%) 7 (0.1%) 7 (0.1%) (c) missed proper nouns 68 (1.4%) 35 (0.7%) 107 (2.1%) 21 (0.4%) (d) false proper nouns 1 (0.0%) 4 (0.1%) 5 (0.1%) 53 (1.1%) total (no proper nouns) 161 (3.2%) 165 (3.3%) 53 (1.1%) 61 (1.2%) total 230 (4.6%) 204 (4.1%) 165 (3.3%) 135 (2.7%) table 1. testing results of standard-tt and scap-tt for three corpora. . exclusively for tourism discourse. we believe that this is an important contribution since it may reinforce the use of an already well accessible and well-known tool and, as such, contribute to integrating pos-tagging and lemmatisation into the current practice of spanish corpus researchers. unsurprisingly, we have also found that the new tagger gives the best results for the specific discourse domain for which it is trained. acknowledgements we wish to thank h. schmid for the very helpful and quick answers to our practical questions regarding the use of the treetagger training tool. . article history: received 5 may 2016 received in revised form 6 september 2016 accepted 9 september 2016 references scap-tt: tagging and lemmatising spanish tourism discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 279-288 287 argüelles álvarez, i. & a. muñoz muñoz (2012). “an insight into twitter: a corpus based contrastive study in english and spanish”. revista de lingüística y lenguas aplicadas 7: 37-50. carreras, x., i. chao, l. padró & m. padró (2004). “freeling: an open-source suite of language analyzers” in proceedings of _the fourth international conference on language resources and evaluation, lrec 2014, 239-242. lisbon: european language resources association (elra). url: http://www.lrec-conf.org/ proceedings/lrec2004/pdf/271.pdf [xx/xx/xxxx] crespo, m. & a. frías (2015). “stylistic authorship comparison and attribution of spanish news forum messages based on the treetagger pos tagger”. procedia-social and behavioral sciences 212: 198-204. durán muñoz, i. (2010). “a corpus-based ontoterminological tool for tourist translations”. international journal of translation 22: 149-165. göhring, a. (2009). spanish expansion of a parallel treebank. mathesis. university of zurich. martínez, h., j. vivaldi & m. villegas (2010). “text handling as a web service for the iula processing pipeline”. in proceedings of lrec 2010: workshop on web services and processing pipelines in hlt: tool evaluation, lr production and validation, 22-29. paris: european language resources association (elra). url: http://www.lrec-conf.org/proceedings/lrec2010/ workshops/w3.pdf [xx/xx/xxxx] moreno, a. & j.m. goni (1995). “grampal: a morphological processor for spanish implemented in prolog” in arxiv preprint cmp-lg/9507004. parra escartín, c. & h. martínez alonso (2015). “choosing a spanish part-of-speech tagger for a lexically sensitive task”. procesamiento del lenguaje natural 54: 29-36. schmid, h. (1994). “probabilistic part-of-speech tagging using decision trees” in proceedings of the international conference on new methods in language processing, 44-49. schmid, h. (1995). “improvements in part-ofspeech tagging with an application to german” in proceedings of the acl sigdat-workshop, 1-9. patrick goethals is associate professor at the department of translation, interpreting and communication, ghent university (belgium). his main research interests are spanish linguistics, corpus-based translation studies, multilingual communication, and tourism communication. he has published several articles in international journals such as journal of pragmatics, meta, linguistics, ibérica and multilingua. els lefever is assistant professor at the lt3 language and translation technology team at ghent university. she has a strong expertise in machine learning of natural language and multilingual natural language processing, with a special interest for computational semantics, cross-lingual word sense disambiguation and multilingual terminology extraction. she teaches terminology and translation technology, language technology and digital humanities courses. lieve macken is assistant professor at ghent university with strong expertise in multilingual language processing. research interests are computer-assisted translation, terminology extraction, human-computer interaction in translation and machine translation. she is the operational head of the language technology section of the department, where she also teaches translation technology, machine translation, localisation and technical translation. notes 1 http://www.cis.uni-muenchen.de/~schmid/tools/treetagger/. 2 http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/~oduibhin/oideasra/interfaces/winttinterface.htm. 3 http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software.html. 4 http://nlp.lsi.upc.edu/freeling/doc/tagsets/tagset-es.html. 5 http://www.lexiconista.com/datasets/lemmatization/. p. goethals, e. lefever & l. macken ibérica 33 (2017): 279-288288 01 editorial.qxd diccionario bilingüe de metáforas y metonimias científico-técnicas. ingeniería, arquitectura y ciencias de la actividad física / bilingual dictionary of scientific and technical metaphors and metonymies. engineering, architecture, physical activity and sports sciences. georgina cuadrado-esclapez, irina argüelles-álvarez, pilar duránescribano, maría-josé gómez-ortiz, silvia molina-plaza, joana piercemcmahon, maría-mar robisco-martín, ana roldán-riejos, paloma úbeda-mansilla (eds). london & new york: routledge, 2016. 510 + lxii pages. isbn: 978-1-13886005-6. the book under review is the product of a research project undertaken by eight specialists in language teaching and linguistics in the well-known spanish engineering university – universidad politécnica de madrid. in the first place, it is an english-spanish and spanish-english dictionary of vast scope, bringing together in one volume the specific terminology of all the engineering and science fields mentioned in the above title. it systematically ascribes each and every entry to the field/s where they are operative, additionally specifying subfields within the overall field and providing translations dependent on field of usage: e.g. “bank” ~ (constr) [civil eng] peralte; [aer eng] alabeo, ladeo, inclinación lateral; [comp sci] grupo, bloque; (rivers) [geog, geol] margen (page 252). consequently, it fulfills basic english-spanish, spanish-english dictionary needs for all those involved in engineering studies and practice and those concerned with translation to and from these languages in those fields. a major asset of the dictionary is that it not only focuses on individual words but provides a wealth of lexical combinations and phraseological units that are inherent to the specific discourse of the different fields. moreover, the authors’ methodological decision to include entries not only on the basis of one headword of phraseological units but of different lexical components of those units will act as a user-friendly device reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 265 greatly facilitating the task of looking up such complex units: e.g. “automatic feed” [aer eng] alimentación automática (page 248) and “feed, automatic-” (page 325); “chute finger”, ~ (mach)[indr eng] dedo guiador (page 281) and “finger, chute” (page 328); “extrusive sheet” ~ (vulcanol)[geol] capa de lava (page 320) and “sheet, extrusive” (page 451). from the foregoing considerations, the work can stand as a valid conventional english-spanish, spanish-english dictionary for all the specific engineering and science fields it embraces. moreover, the dictionary is copiously illustrated with photographs, drawings and sketches which are as didactic as they are elegant. while this would be a justification of the dictionary in its own right, that end is not its most salient nor its overall pursuit, rather, the driving force behind the work is utterly innovative and has to do with the academic record of the authors. over the years, these language practitioners and researchers had been publishing studies on several aspects of the discourse of the different engineering fields. their practice and research convinced them of the existence of productive patterns underlying that discourse and that these were particularly informed by metaphor and metonymy. a research project enabled them to undertake a systematic study across the discourses to analyse and document this conviction. that study allowed them to discover over-arching metaphors in all fields and they show that these metaphors with their respective submetaphors and linguistic realisations permeate engineering language use and particularly contribute to the coherence and cohesion of that discourse. as empirical source, they used not only existing dictionaries but, interestingly, they also counted on specialist journals in the respective disciplines. their analysis is well argued both from the vantage point of spanish and english in the introductions in both languages (pages xl-li & liilxii) and in the specific pages interspersed throughout the dictionary where they analyse, document and explain the different metaphor clusters and patterns discovered in the different engineering disciplines (see pages v-vi for lists). as a characteristic example, i could cite the over-arching metaphor civil engineering structures are living beings (page 261) which in turn evidences sub-metaphors such as civil engineering techniques are medical techniques where we find, among others, the following linguistic metaphors applied to buildings: rehabilitation, lifespan, curing, healing, rejuvenating agent. or a further sub-metaphor civil engineering problems are medical problems where linguistic metaphors include: abrasion, swelling, cripple, reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278266 stress, fatigue, blister, pathology, decay, skin friction, bleeding. as a characteristic conceptual metaphor in spanish, i could cite el acero es una persona evidencing linguistic metaphors characterizing steel as vivo, sano, envejecido, muerto, templado, tenaz, activo, inctivo, among others. particularly interesting are their observations on the similarities and differences between the metaphors found in each language. this focus is a major innovation for a dictionary in the field of engineering and could inspire further works of this kind in other languages. there are many other characteristics making this dictionary a highly recommendable work that will appeal to diverse audiences. i would especially like to underscore what it has to offer linguists of varying approaches. it is clearly of core interest to linguists of the current approaches to metaphor, but it also provides abundant resources to researchers working in, for example, applied linguistics, contrastive linguistics, historical linguistics and sociolinguistics and indeed those working on phraseology or cultural specificity. while the dictionary is synchronically focused, diachronic approaches are not eschewed: for instance, particularly interesting is the mention of the decline of parla mediterránea, a veritable naval lingua-franca in the mediterranean basin, as documented in timoteo o’scanlan’s first dictionary of naval terminology in spanish in 1831 (pages xlvii-xlviii). many further research issues of specific discourses along historical lines suggest themselves. for instance, it would be exciting to consider how vestiges of the distant past combine with renovation to keep abreast with the evolution and technological developments taking place within the world of each engineering or scientific field. such historical considerations could reveal crucial contrastive differences. for one thing, the different languages articulating the more primitively established engineering fields (for example, mining, agriculture, or civil engineering among others) are far more likely to evidence more substantial contrastive differences than those of more recent developments. for example, the anglo-centred driving force of the recent burgeoning of telecommunications and the language eclosion it spawned may mean that the specific expression of this industry and its disciplines in different languages are much more heavily influenced by english, rather than evolving from within the cultural paradigms of the languages in question. thus, while the linguistic resources for long established specific disciplines and practices largely evolved from within their own languages, the linguistic resources for telecommunications in those non-english languages may reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278 267 evidence far more extensive borrowing. the potential for research on this issue deriving from the resources provided by the dictionary under review is indeed enormous. among other striking features evident from the dictionary entries is the parsimony of original expressions, especially where metaphorical elements are involved. these are capable of synthesising very complex meaning in few words while their translation may require the employment of far more laboured forms in order to capture all the nuances encapsulated by such expressions in a transparent manner: e.g. “locked-in stall ~ [aer eng] pérdida de sustentación por un incremento repentino del ángulo de ataque” (page 381), or “grandfather rights ~ [aer eng] derechos adquiridos por un operador de líneas aéreas regulares en un determinado aeropuerto” (page 341). equally striking is how specific discourses tap ordinary vocabulary to articulate specific meanings: e.g. common words as acero (page 4) and its combinations have 43 entries, or agua and combinations (page 8) 38 entries, “eye” (page 320) 32 entries or “face” (page 321-2) 50 entries. amongst other striking contrastive features is the productivity of the spanish word alma (page 15) which counts on 15 entries for the word and its combinations with a main meaning focus of core or centre while the corresponding word in english, “soul” (page 461), has a mere single entry. in summary, the dictionary is an innovative and major contribution to research and provides abundant language resources, not only for practitioners and researchers in the fields of engineering and science but also for many different fields of linguistics. received 07 september 2016 accepted 30 september 2016 reviewed by michael white universidad complutense, madrid (españa) white@ucm.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278268 iberica 13 ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-92 abstract this paper carries out a contrastive analysis of biomedical research articles published in international english-medium journals and written by scholars from two cultural contexts (anglo-american and spanish). it first describes both similarities and differences in terms of the rhetorical effects that first-person plural references (“we”, “our” and “us”) create across the different sections of the imrad pattern (swales, 1990). then, the functions of these pronouns are explored following tang and john’s (1999) taxonomy of the discourse roles of personal pronouns. quantitative results show that, overall, spanish writers tend to use “we” pronouns more than their native counterparts, thus making themselves more visible in their texts particularly in introduction and discussion sections. on the other hand, results also indicate striking similarities regarding the discourse role of “we” as “guide”, “architect”, “opinion-holder” and “originator” –roles which seem to indicate writers’ awareness of the specific communicative purposes of “we” references in each ra section. this crosscultural variation is finally discussed in relation to the dominance of english as the international lingua franca of academic communication and research (benfield & howard, 2000; tardy, 2004; giannoni, 2008a). key words: contrastive rhetoric, personal pronouns, research articles, biomedical writing, english as a lingua franca. resumen an�lisis intercultural de las referencias de primera persona del plural en textos biom�dicos este artículo lleva a cabo un análisis contrastivo de artículos biomédicos publicados en revistas internacionales (publicadas en inglés) y escritos por investigadores de dos contextos culturales (el angloamericano y el español). en primer lugar, el artículo describe las semejanzas y diferencias entre estos textos an intercultural study of first-person plural references in biomedical writing oana maria carciu universidad de zaragoza (spain) oana_carciu@hotmail.com 71 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 71 en lo que se refiere a los efectos retóricos que realizan las referencias de plural de primera persona (“we”, “our”, “us”) en las distintas secciones de la estructura imrad (swales, 1990). en segundo lugar, el artículo analiza las funciones discursivas del pronombre de primera persona de plural (“we”) siguiendo la taxonomía de funciones propuesta por tang y john (1999). los resultados cuantitativos indican que, en general, los investigadores españoles tienden a utilizar con más frecuencia el pronombre de primera persona de plural, haciéndose así más visibles en sus textos, especialmente en las introducciones y en las discusiones de sus artículos. asimismo, el análisis contrastivo revela notables semejanzas en los roles discursivos de “we” como “el guía”, “el arquitecto”, “el que mantiene la opinión” y el “creador de las ideas”; roles éstos que indican que los investigadores de los dos contextos culturales analizados son conscientes de los usos comunicativos específicos de “we” en las distintas secciones retóricas del artículo de investigación biomédico. finalmente, el presente artículo valora esta variación intercultural en relación con el predominio del inglés como lengua franca de comunicación internacional en el ámbito académico e investigador (benfield y howard, 2000; tardy, 2004; giannoni, 2008a). palabras clave: retórica contrastiva, pronombres personales, artículo de investigación, textos biomédicos, inglés como lengua franca. introduction in academic writing, the use of the personal pronoun may be considered as a result of the writers’ effort to order things in the real world and then, after creating an order, to reproduce it through language, in a discursive world regulated by institutional norms deeply embedded in specific community practices (swales, 1990 & 2004; fairclough, 2003; hyland, 2005; ädel, 2006). medical research articles (henceforth ras) generally involve the collaborative work of different research group members. as a result, the referential value of the first-person plural pronoun in co-authored medical ras has come to encode an “exclusive-collective” reference (ädel, 2006).1 exclusive “we” emphasizes personal involvement and responsibility in the research process by showing the researchers as actively involved in a disciplinary community working for the development and progress of their discipline. several researchers have referred to the various discourse functions of the personal pronoun “we” considering also its inclusive and exclusive values in native academic spoken english (rounds, 1987; fortanet, 2003). oana maria carciu ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-9272 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 72 ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-92 an intercultural study furthermore, a rich line of investigation has explored cross-cultural variation in the use of personal pronouns in academic writing, mainly as regards the comparison of different disciplinary domains (hyland, 2000), genres (hyland, 2000 & 2001; samraj, 2002; stotesbury, 2003; martín martín, 2005) or european languages (breivega et al., 2002; salager-meyer et al., 2003; peterlin, 2005; van bonn & swales, 2007). however, in spite of the rise of english as the lingua franca of international academic communication, contrastive studies have revealed noticeable differences between native and nonnative writers of english in the use of personal pronouns in international research articles (valero-garcés, 1996; candlin & gotti (eds.), 2004; lorés, 2004; martín martín, 2005; mur, 2007, among others). in order to have their papers published in prestigious international “english-only” journals (belcher, 2007), nonnative english scholars (henceforth nnes) tend to adopt the anglo-american discursive practices and yet retain some of their l1 rhetorical conventions when they write in english. this mixing of discourses has been referred to as “interdiscursive hybridity” (mauranen, pérez-llantada & swales (eds.), forthcoming). first-person plural references in biomedical writing aim of this study the aim of this paper is to explore the rhetorical preferences of nnes and nes (native english scholars) in the use of the exclusive “we” pronoun and related oblique and possessive forms (“us” and “our”) when publishing internationally. following gosden (1993: 62), first-person references could be considered to “form a progressive cline of writer visibility, i.e., a means by which writers seek to present themselves and their viewpoints in the research community, with both very obvious and very subtle means of realization”. thus, the presence of the writer in the text could be placed along a scalar continuum since the three overt first-person references have their strong (“we”), intermediate (“our”) and weak (“us”) forms that mark the explicit presence of the writer as a visible participant in the research/reporting process. for this purpose, the overall frequencies of “we”, “our” and “us” were compared in ras written by scholars from anglo-american and spanish-based contexts. the frequency of these occurrences was investigated across the different sections of ras, as correlated with the rhetorical or communicative purpose ascribed to each 73 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 73 section. finally, the discourse functions of “we” pronouns were classified following tang and john’s (1999) taxonomy to highlight possible similarities or divergences across the two subcorpora under analysis. corpus and methodology we selected 48 medical articles from serac (the spanish-english research article corpus)2; half of these were written by nnes and the other half by nes (as judged from their names and/or institution affiliation in the case of nes). both subcorpora were coded into sections following biber et al.’s (2007) methodology. wordsmith tools (scott, 1999) was the software used to quantify the average frequency of first-person plural references in the two groups of texts. firstly, i conducted a quantitative analysis of “we” references (including “us” and “our”) across the ra sections: introduction, methods, results, and discussion. secondly, i analyzed the discourse functions performed by these pronouns using tang and john’s taxonomy of roles and identities at a discourse level. these roles are: a) the “representative”: “a generic first-person pronoun, usually realized as the plural “we” or “us”, that writers use as a proxy for a larger group of people” (tang & john, 1999: s27); b) the “guide”: “the person who shows the reader through the essay (…), locates the reader and the writer together in the time and place of the essay, draws the reader’s attention to points which are plainly visible or obvious within the essay” (tang & john, 1999: s27); c) the “architect”: a manifestation of the writer as a textual level, which “foregrounds the person who writes, organizes, structures, and outlines the material in the essay” (tang & john, 1999: s28); d) the “recounter of the research process”: a writer “who describes or recounts the various steps of the research process” (tang & john, 1999: s28); e) the “opinion holder”: a “person who shares an opinion, view or attitude (for example, by expressing agreement, disagreement or interest) with regard to known information or established facts” (tang & john, 1999: s28); e) the “originator”: involving “the writer’s conception of the ideas or oana maria carciu ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-9274 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 74 knowledge claims which are advanced in the essay”, which “calls for the writer to present or signal these as new” (tang & john, 1999: s29). identifying the roles in the texts was a difficult task because the use of “we” showed functional versatility due to the diverse rhetorical aims of the different sections where the pronoun appeared. for example, in expressions such as “finally we show that”, “here we report x”, “we” could be performing the roles of “architect” organizing the information when it occurs in the introduction section and focuses on the text, or “guide” showing the reader through the essay when it occurs in the discussion section. therefore, i deemed it necessary to further classify such roles and re-group them according to their orientation towards the “real world” or the “world of discourse” (ädel, 2006), as there are instances of “we” where the writer refers to her/himself as a writer (in the “world of discourse”), and cases when the writer refers to her/himself as a person in the “real world”. moreover, i had to take into account the speech-event considered –that is, whether the interaction involves the “text”, the “writer”, the “reader”, or the “participants” (ädel, 2006: 20). accordingly, the roles of “recounter”, “opinion holder” and “originator” were considered to display the writer’s attitudes to phenomena in the “real world”, while “representative”, “guide” and “architect” accounted for strategies belonging to the “world of discourse”. likewise, the distinction between “guide” and “architect” depended on the fact that the former referred to “text-external realities” –i.e., realities “making reference to the text as study, theory, argument” (hyland, 2005: 45), while the latter was concerned with “text-internal realities” –i.e., “making reference to the text as text” (hyland, 2005: 45). as a result, i have developed an improved model of tang and john’s (1999) initial taxonomy which is shown in figure 1. this improved model was specifically designed to disambiguate overlapping instances such as the one described earlier, and helped me to decide which function was more prominent in each case. in sum, the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches seeks to account for the rhetorical effects of firstperson plural references across the two cultural contexts selected for this study. an intercultural study ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-92 75 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 75 results overall results indicate that spanish writers tend to make themselves more visible than their anglo-american counterparts through the use of firstperson plural references (see table 1). the nonnative spanish-english subcorpus (henceforth speng) scored an average frequency of 5.90 occurrences per 1,000 words, whereas the native english subcorpus (henceforth eng) scored a lower frequency (3.99). comparing linguistic realizations, “we” scored the highest frequency in both subcorpora, followed by the possessive form “our”. the frequencies for the direct object “us” were too low to be considered for further analysis, unlike the results obtained for this reference in kuo’s (1998) research on first-person plural pronouns in the field of computer science, electronic engineering and physics. we our us total n f/1,000 n f/1,000 n f/1,000 n f/1,000 along the same lines, the projection of a strong authorial voice in medical research articles has also been reported in vázquez et al. (2006), whose research on exclusive pronouns and self-mentions shows that “urologists constructed a stronger authorial voice than that of applied linguists as they oana maria carciu ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-9276 an intercultural study ibérica 18 (2009): …-… 5 figure 1. a proposed classification of the roles of “we” in biomedical ras. results overall results indicate that spanish writers tend to make themselves more visible than their anglo-american counterparts through the use of first-person plural references (see table 1). the nonnative spanish-english subcorpus (henceforth speng) scored an average frequency of 5.90 occurrences per 1,000 words, whereas the native english subcorpus (henceforth eng) scored a lower frequency (3.99). comparing linguistic realizations, “we” scored the highest frequency in both subcorpora, followed by the possessive form “our”. the frequencies for the direct object “us” were too low to be considered for further analysis, unlike the results obtained for this reference in kuo’s (1998) research on first-person plural pronouns in the field of computer science, electronic engineering and physics. we our us total n f/1,000 n f/1,000 n f/1,000 n f/1,000 speng 305 3.99 138 1.80 8 0.10 451 5.90 eng 243 2.75 109 1.23 1 0.01 353 3.99 table 1. frequency of “we”, “our” and “us” in speng and eng. along the same lines, the projection of a strong authorial voice in medical research articles has also been reported in vázquez et al. (2006), whose research on exclusive pronouns and self-mentions shows that “urologists constructed a stronger authorial voice than that of applied linguists as they often tended to use personal pronouns for explaining the methodological decisions or for providing hypotheses and results” (vázquez et al., 2006: 201) and that “references to one’s an intercultural study ibérica 18 (2009): …-… 5 figure 1. a proposed classification of the roles of “we” in biomedical ras. results overall results indicate that spanish writers tend to make themselves more visible than their anglo-american counterparts through the use of first-person plural references (see table 1). the nonnative spanish-english subcorpus (henceforth speng) scored an average frequency of 5.90 occurrences per 1,000 words, whereas the native english subcorpus (henceforth eng) scored a lower frequency (3.99). comparing linguistic realizations, “we” scored the highest frequency in both subcorpora, followed by the possessive form “our”. the frequencies for the direct object “us” were too low to be considered for further analysis, unlike the results obtained for this reference in kuo’s (1998) research on first-person plural pronouns in the field of computer science, electronic engineering and physics. we our us total n f/1,000 n f/1,000 n f/1,000 n f/1,000 speng 305 3.99 138 1.80 8 0.10 451 5.90 eng 243 2.75 109 1.23 1 0.01 353 3.99 table 1. frequency of “we”, “our” and “us” in speng and eng. along the same lines, the projection of a strong authorial voice in medical research articles has also been reported in vázquez et al. (2006), whose research on exclusive pronouns and self-mentions shows that “urologists constructed a stronger authorial voice than that of applied linguists as they often tended to use personal pronouns for explaining the methodological decisions or for providing hypotheses and results” (vázquez et al., 2006: 201) and that “references to one’s 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 76 often tended to use personal pronouns for explaining the methodological decisions or for providing hypotheses and results” (vázquez et al., 2006: 201) and that “references to one’s own work were ostensibly more frequent in the hard knowledge disciplines, with the highest values being found in the medical ra” (vázquez et al., 2006: 202). section coding revealed further details as regards rhetorical similarities and differences across the two groups of biomedical ras under analysis. in general, first-person plural references were present in the four sections that typically constitute an experimental ra (introduction, methods, results, discussion/conclusion) in both subcorpora. table 2 shows their distribution across ra sections, while numbers in bold indicate the most salient occurrences. we our us total ra section spengeng spengeng spengeng speng eng overall, first-person plural references scored a high frequency in the introduction section of the two subcorpora. this may be justified by the fact that writers need to “create a research space” (the cars model, described in swales, 1990) through three main moves: establishing a research territory, establishing a research niche, and occupying the niche. more specifically, “we” has almost twice as many occurrences in speng as in eng. this finding indicates that spanish scholars are prone to express a stronger “voice” than native english-speaking writers. following hyland (2005 & 2006), through “we” realizations writers put forth a more visible stance which “involves expressing a textual “voice” or community recognised personality (...): the extent to which individuals intrude to stamp their personal authority onto their argument” (hyland, 2006: 29). moreover, martín martín (2004: 10) argues that there is a “higher tendency among spanish writers to make explicit their authorial presence in the texts by taking full responsibility for their claims”. his results are obtained from research carried on abstracts in the soft social sciences and they reflect how spanish writers address a smaller, national audience whose members are less likely to manifest such a strong critical opposition than those of an international audience (becher & trowler, 2001). however, martín’s (2004) results support an intercultural study ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-92 77 oana maria carciu ibérica 18 (2009): …-…6 own work were ostensibly more frequent in the hard knowledge disciplines, with the highest values being found in the medical ra” (vázquez et al., 2006: 202).section coding revealed further details as regards rhetorical similarities and differences across the two groups of biomedical ras under analysis. in general, first-person plural references were present in the four sections that typically constitute an experimental ra (introduction, methods, results, discussion/conclusion) in both subcorpora. table 2 shows their distribution across ra sections, while numbers in bold indicate the most salient occurrences. we our us total ra section speng eng speng eng speng eng speng eng introduction 8.15 4.77 0.65 0.95 0.10 0.00 8.90 5.72 methods 0.79 0.41 0.66 0.05 0.00 0.00 1.45 0.46 results 5.43 3.03 0.30 0.49 0.12 0.00 5.85 3.52 discussion 4.01 3.37 4.90 3.64 0.18 0.04 9.09 7.05 table 2. frequencies of “we”, “our” and “us” across ra sections. overall, first-person plural references scored a high frequency in the introduction section of the two subcorpora. this may be justified by the fact that writers need to “create a research space” (the cars model, described in swales, 1990) through three main moves: establishing a research territory, establishing a research niche, and occupying the niche. more specifically, “we” has almost twice as many occurrences in speng as in eng. this finding indicates that spanish scholars are prone to express a stronger “voice” than native englishspeaking writers. following hyland (2005 & 2006), through “we” realizations writers put forth a more visible stance which “involves expressing a textual “voice” or community recognised personality (...): the extent to which individuals intrude to stamp their personal authority onto their argument” (hyland, 2006: 29). moreover, martín martín (2004: 10) argues that there is a “higher tendency among spanish writers to make explicit their authorial presence in the texts by taking full responsibility for their claims”. his results are obtained from research carried on abstracts in the soft social sciences and they reflect how spanish writers address a smaller, national audience whose members are less likely to manifest such a strong critical opposition than those of an international audience (becher & trowler, 2001). however, martín’s (2004) results support the hypothesis that there might be a manifestation of a native authorial “voice” when writing in a second language. therefore, spanish scholars might transfer this strong overt authorial “voice” from their native writing. on the other hand, their projection of such a visible identity suggests that they are aware that the “createa-research space” metaphor privileges “an environment in which ‘originality’ (especially in theory) tends to be highly prized, competition tends to be fierce, and academic promotionalism and boosting are strong” (swales, 2004: 226). furthermore, gosden (1993) found that this explicit authorial presence is justified in the introduction section as one of the most important rhetorical part of a ra 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 77 the hypothesis that there might be a manifestation of a native authorial “voice” when writing in a second language. therefore, spanish scholars might transfer this strong overt authorial “voice” from their native writing. on the other hand, their projection of such a visible identity suggests that they are aware that the “create-a-research space” metaphor privileges “an environment in which ‘originality’ (especially in theory) tends to be highly prized, competition tends to be fierce, and academic promotionalism and boosting are strong” (swales, 2004: 226). furthermore, gosden (1993) found that this explicit authorial presence is justified in the introduction section as one of the most important rhetorical part of a ra (see also bhatia, 1997) where authors signal explicit commitment to their work. in addition, the expression of a strong self can be explained by the wish to be seen in a text presenting the extent and importance of their contribution –for instance, “we demonstrate”, “we analyze”, “we show”. this is due to the fact that, spanish scholars try to access an international research world with research projects led at a national level. as suggested by becher and trowler (2001), a national local community of researchers requires important financial resources which are difficult to obtain; besides, they get involved in projects that take longer time to reach conclusions that will prove relevant for international research. in consequence, it may be argued that through explicit first-person pronouns nonnative writers tend to explicitly mark the source of the research in a competitive field such as the medical sciences where discipline knowledge evolves rapidly, and that its use is a means of making themselves visible to establish and occupy the niche, among other interpersonal resources. as exemplified in (1)-(3) below, spanish writers use explicit gap indications (“this hypothesis has never been previously explored”, “only two reports”) and consistently rely on intertextual references anticipating the statement of purpose (“recent findings indicate that”) that reflect at a textual level their awareness of research competition in the international context. moreover, explicit references such as “we demonstrate”, “we show” signal collaborative effort and also, as pennycook (1994: 176) argues, that “there is an instant claiming of authority and communality”. when using the subjective “we”, writers speak with authority to make knowledge claims, affirm their contribution and commitment to these claims, and they appeal to the reader’s support both for themselves and to ratify the hypothesis advanced. in contrast, native scholars occupy the niche by stating the specific purpose or research objective only as a continuation of their own previous research oana maria carciu ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-9278 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 78 (note the use of self-citation before the “occupying the research niche” move). (1) interestingly, the dkk-3 gene which negatively modulates wnt7a signaling is frequently silenced by methylation in all 15,23.]it can thus be speculated that the functional loss of wnt antagonists can contribute to activation of the wnt pathway in all, and may play a role in the pathogenesis and prognosis of the disease; however, this hypothesis has never been previously explored. in this study, we demonstrate that silencing of the wnt antagonists by promoter methylation contributes to constitutive activation of the wnt signaling pathway in all. (speng1)3 (2) until now, these compounds have been tested mostly in cell lines, with only two reports describing ha14-1 as inducing apoptosis in a small number of primary acute myeloid leukemia samples [26,36]. here, we analyze the effects of the bcl-2 inhibitors ha14-1, antimycin a, and the novel panbcl-2 inhibitors gx15-003 and gx15-070 on cll cells ex vivo. (speng8) (3) using this transgenic fcgriia model, we previously observed increased clearance of igg-coated cells and an increased incidence of thrombocytopenia, suggesting a role for fcgriia in mediating platelet clearance from the circulation [16]. in the current study, we show that fcgriia transgenic mouse platelets (but not wild-type mouse platelets) as well as human platelets are able to endocytose igg complexes, a process inhibited by anti-fcgrii antibody. (eng17) the methods section reports on the methodological procedures and materials employed in the research in order to facilitate the replication and thus the validation of the study described in the article. although this section is an obligatory element in the research process (nwogu, 1997), it is not as rhetorically charged as the introduction and discussion section (gosden, 1993) since readers need to concentrate on the actual findings. as berkenkotter and huckin (1995: 42) explain: in major research laboratories, where articles are usually written as a team effort with various apprentices involved (…) the more routine parts of the article – the methods section and the presentation of raw results – are typically written by junior scientists or graduate students. in other words, it is only those elements of the article that promote news value that the laboratory head feels deserve his/her attention. an intercultural study ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-92 79 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 79 the above statement might be used as a suitable argument for explaining the extremely low frequency of first-person plural references (especially “we”) in methods sections as compared to the other ra sections. bearing in mind that passive constructions prevail in this section (giannoni, 2008b), “we” appears at the beginning of the methods section to indicate that the research process is a decision taken by researchers who assume responsibility for the choices they made when conducting the research/study. it is used mainly with performative verbs such as “perform”, “follow”, “use”, etc. to mark the steps of the research (this is, the selection or description of participants, technical information or statistics, materials used or observation of processes). likewise, giannoni (2008b) shows that the possessive “our” is an alternative option in the methods section to “reveal writers discursively” and “indicate ownership of particular systems or methodologies” (giannoni, 2008b: 73). as in examples (4) and (5), writers tend to make themselves visible at this point and signal the decisions previously made in their laboratories as regards research procedures and outcomes (see also vázquez et al., 2006): (4) for the comparison of means between groups, we used t-tests for those variables with a normal distribution and the mann-whitney nonparametric u-tests for those without a normal distribution. (speng19) (5) we followed five steps for hematopoietic differentiation and liquid culture. step 1. undifferentiated h1 cells were passaged onto irradiated fh-bhtert feeder layers and cultured with differentiation medium composed of (…) (eng22) the results section is where authors present their findings and highlight the “newsworthiness” of their research outcomes. here, writers construct their discourse in a different way from that of introduction and methods sections and make themselves more visible in this section through the use of self-mentions. overall, “we” again scored the highest frequency in both groups of ras, whereas “our” registers obtained very low frequencies (see figure 4). oana maria carciu ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-9280 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 80 “we” is thus the preferred reference in both speng and eng subcorpora, with a higher frequency in the former. as stated above, writers make themselves visible in order to assume responsibility for the claims advanced and to highlight their findings and specific observations. writers put forth the main findings through the first-person pronoun combined with mental process verbs such as “find” in examples (6) and (7): (6)when the weekly production of the ltc was evaluated, we found significant differences between patients and donors at each time point (fig. 1). thus, the mean number of total progenitors produced along the 8 weeks of culture was significantly decreased in patients (fig. 2). (speng16) (7) we found a significant (p 5 0.035) increase in survival times at 1 week for dogs treated with lc compared to historical control dogs (fig. 5). (eng19) the need to highlight specific observations in this section justifies the high frequency of “we” in both groups of texts. this explicit presence of writers is a textual indication that the researchers themselves play or have played a prominent role in the research process. also, it should be noted that impersonal and passive constructions appear in results sections as alternative options to the use of “we” when indicating specific observations. across sections, the discussion section is considered the most persuasive part of a ra. writers make their final claims about the importance of their research, summarize the main implications drawn from the results obtained and stress the most significant findings (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; nwogu, 1997; hyland, 2001 & 2005; swales & feak, 2004). an intercultural study ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-92 81 an intercultural study ibérica 18 (2009): …-… 9 make themselves more visible in this section through the use of self-mentions. overall, “we” again scored the highest frequency in both groups of ras, whereas “our” registers obtained very low frequencies (see figure 4). 1 2 3 4 5 0 6 our we speng eng 0 30 0 49 5 43 3 03 figure 4. frequency of “we” and “our” in results sections across subcorpora. “we” is thus the preferred reference in both speng and eng subcorpora, with a higher frequency in the former. as stated above, writers make themselves visible in order to assume responsibility for the claims advanced and to highlight their findings and specific observations. writers put forth the main findings through the first-person pronoun combined with mental process verbs such as “find” in examples (6) and (7): (6) when the weekly production of the ltc was evaluated, we found significant differences between patients and donors at each time point (fig. 1). thus, the mean number of total progenitors produced along the 8 weeks of culture was significantly decreased in patients (fig. 2). (speng16) (7) we found a significant (p 5 0.035) increase in survival times at 1 week for dogs treated with lc compared to historical control dogs (fig. 5). (eng19) the need to highlight specific observations in this section justifies the high frequency of “we” in both groups of texts. this explicit presence of writers is a textual indication that the researchers themselves play or have played a prominent role in the research process. also, it should be noted that impersonal and passive constructions appear in results sections as alternative options to the use of “we” when indicating specific observations. across sections, the discussion section is considered the most persuasive part of a ra. writers make their final claims about the importance of their research, summarize the main implications drawn from the results obtained and stress the most significant findings (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; nwogu, 1997; hyland, 2001 & 2005; swales & feak, 2004). swales (1990 & 2004) describes this section as reversing the direction of the introduction by moving from the study itself to the field as a whole. therefore, 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 81 swales (1990 & 2004) describes this section as reversing the direction of the introduction by moving from the study itself to the field as a whole. therefore, while in introduction sections “we” pronouns scored twice as much in the texts written by spanish writers, in the discussion section the frequency of this pronoun is similar for speng and eng texts. this observation is consistent with the nature and purpose of this section in which scientists evaluate and interpret the data collected in the experimental stage to put emphasis on the contribution made to the field (nwogu, 1997), anticipating agreements and/or disagreements from their peers, whereas the rhetoric function of the introduction section is primarily that of “promotion” (bhatia, 1997). it is also worth pointing out that when comparing the use of “we” and “our” in discussion sections, both native and nonnative writers use the two forms similarly, and frequencies are close to those of “we” (see figure 5). interestingly, this is the only ra section where “our” outnumbers “we”. by keeping a balance between explicit self-mentions (“we”) and less visible stance (“our”) the writers tend to establish more tentative positions in this final section of the ra (especially if we compare the frequencies with those of results sections), since the authority of the individual “we” is subordinated to the authority of the text (“results”). for example, in the expression “our results” the possessive determiner “our” marks not an explicit authorial presence, but that results are a consequence of personal choices in the process of research, also acknowledging the existence of alternative results. it is in the discussion section that the expert readership has to make the final decision of either accepting or rejecting the claims oana maria carciu ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-9282 oana maria carciu ibérica 18 (2009): …-…10 while in introduction sections “we” pronouns scored twice as much in the texts written by spanish writers, in the discussion section the frequency of this pronoun is similar for speng and eng texts. this observation is consistent with the nature and purpose of this section in which scientists evaluate and interpret the data collected in the experimental stage to put emphasis on the contribution made to the field (nwogu, 1997), anticipating agreements and/or disagreements from their peers, whereas the rhetoric function of the introduction section is primarily that of “promotion” (bhatia, 1997). it is also worth pointing out that when comparing the use of “we” and “our” in discussion sections, both native and nonnative writers use the two forms similarly, and frequencies are close to those of “we” (see figure 5). 1 2 3 4 5 0 6 our we speng eng 4 90 3 64 4 01 3 37 figure 5. frequencies of “we” and “our” in discussion sections across subcorpora. interestingly, this is the only ra section where “our” outnumbers “we”. by keeping a balance between explicit self-mentions (“we”) and less visible stance (“our”) the writers tend to establish more tentative positions in this final section of the ra (especially if we compare the frequencies with those of results sections), since the authority of the individual “we” is subordinated to the authority of the text (“results”). for example, in the expression “our results” the possessive determiner “our” marks not an explicit authorial presence, but that results are a consequence of personal choices in the process of research, also acknowledging the existence of alternative results. it is in the discussion section that the expert readership has to make the final decision of either accepting or rejecting the claims made. therefore, writers’ awareness of the impermanence of science and, more specifically, of the potential criticism and alternative views on the part of expert readers, might explain why authors carefully chose between “our” and “we” when they commit themselves to the claims made (kuo, 1998). this less visible authorial stance (if compared to that of introduction sections) in the two groups of texts appears to be directly related to the rhetorical purposes of this particular ra section, that is underlining the significance of research outcomes while in the same time anticipating possible rejections from the audience. as illustrated in example (8), the self-reference “our” is hedged by the 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 82 made. therefore, writers’ awareness of the impermanence of science and, more specifically, of the potential criticism and alternative views on the part of expert readers, might explain why authors carefully chose between “our” and “we” when they commit themselves to the claims made (kuo, 1998). this less visible authorial stance (if compared to that of introduction sections) in the two groups of texts appears to be directly related to the rhetorical purposes of this particular ra section, that is underlining the significance of research outcomes while in the same time anticipating possible rejections from the audience. as illustrated in example (8), the selfreference “our” is hedged by the verb “suggest” to help writers to be more tentative and tone down the strength of their “novelty” and “significance” claims. it is also worth noting that in both subcorpora “our” pronouns are accompanied by phraseological correlates such as “however”, “may/might”, “would”, “could/can”, “possible”, “suggest”, “recommend”, “infer”, playing a clear hedging function at a discourse level; this hedged discourse helps writers mitigate propositional meanings and distance themselves from their claims when stating new hypotheses. this can be observed through the “potentiality” feature in example (8) and restricting application of results to the “experimental” level in example (9): (8) our results suggest several potential applications for nic both invitro and invivo. we provide a novel culture system that can be used to investigate the complex process of mk differentiation. (eng7) (9) it can be inferred from our results that we have experimentally bypassed the need for migration by direct intrasplenic injections. (speng13) discourse role of first-person references given the frequencies of “we” across the rhetorical sections in the two subcorpora, it was deemed necessary to take a qualitative look at the specific discourse roles of this pronoun in the two groups of texts. as indicated in the introduction to this paper, the first-person personal pronoun “we” shows versatility since it is able to express a wide variety of discourse functions. this section presents a detailed analysis of “we” references in terms of the taxonomy elaborated on the model proposed by tang and john (1999) –i.e., “architect”, “guide”, “recounter of the research process”, “opinion-holder” and “originator”. the “architect” role emerges mostly in introduction sections in both an intercultural study ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-92 83 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 83 subcorpora. even though writers are acting in the world of discourse, they strictly focus on text-internal realities. here are some examples of this role: (10) here we show the spectrum of clinical, immunologic, and functional studies of apoptosis and the genetic features of this patient with lymphoproliferative syndrome but without sle. (speng5) (11) we report here that the hematopoietic cells produced by coculture on fhb-htert can be greatly expanded in vitro into fully mature primitive erythroid cells. (eng22) in examples (10) and (11) the speech component under focus is clearly the “text” (see the adverb “here”). the authorial voice is explicitly marked by the first-person plural pronoun and implicitly indicates that writers are attending to the ongoing discourse and its text-internal realities. the “architect” role of “we” is not threatening either for the writer or for his/her readers and in the present subcorpora both nes and nnes use it when they shape their introduction. however, in spite of the appearance of similarity, examples (10) and (11) seem to suggest cross-cultural variation in the textual development of arguments. thus, in example (11) there is a certain degree of evaluation (“greatly”), while there is no intensification of propositional content in example (10). this observation seems to be consistent throughout the eng texts. likewise, the “guide” role is activated in the “world of discourse”, though here the focus is on the “reader”, not the “text”. this role tends to recur in the discussion sections of the two groups of texts. the reader-focus implies reference to text-external realities, and the aim is to reach a conclusion that the reader is expected to share with the writers. textual metadiscourse signposts important aspects that the writer wants to render visible for the reader: (12) we have previously demonstrated that normal mouse and human b lymphocytes, human burkitt’s b-lymphoma cells, and human multiple myeloma cells express abundant pparg and undergo cell death after exposure to pparg ligands [1–3]. our data with human dlbcl precisely reflect these observations as we show that dlbcl of both gc and abc phenotype express pparg protein. (eng24) (13) in this report, we have studied the role and regulation of mmp-9 in bcll cells. we show for the first time that (1) mmp-9 is up-regulated in oana maria carciu ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-9284 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 84 response to distinct signals elicited by 4 1 integrin or cxcr4 ligand engagement; (…). our study also establishes that (…). (speng2) in example (12) there is an originator “we” in the first sentence, followed by a guiding “we” in the second. also, the possessive determiner, “our” (“our data”) and the use of an evaluative adverb (“precisely”), suggest that both groups of writers are reader-friendly when guiding their audience, as reported by mur (2007). this particular role appears in discussion sections both in eng and speng, as its use of “our” may also imply. the “recounter of the research process” is a role with “real world” reference as writers describe phenomena that have taken place in their laboratory. consequently, researchers establish an interaction with their readers as they describe the steps of the research to their audience. as shown in examples (14) and (15), this role occupies an important place in the results section of the two subcorpora. in example (14), “we” is followed by the process verb “divide”, which illustrates a stage in the process taking place in the laboratory, with reference to materials and research methods. hence, authors identify procedures “in sufficient detail to allow others to reproduce the results” (international committee of medical journal editors, 2008: 13). in example (15), “we” combines with adverbs that provide an accurate account of the different research steps, such as “measurements” (“next”). the use of “we” in both subcorpora with material process verbs and specific terminology suggests that researchers are expert members familiar with disciplinary practices. in addition, this use highlights the role played by the writer in a process that is frequently represented as agentless in the methods section but depicts him/her as a “recounter” in the results section: (14) similarly, in the current study we divided the methylation groups into nonmethylated (no methylated genes) and methylated group (at least, one methylated gene) (…). (speng1) (15) we next measured the level of cacs and epcs in the blood after treatment withamd3100 or g-csf in healthy donors for allogeneic stem cell transplantation. (eng10) the “opinion-holder” and “originator” roles appear to suggest that researchers are active members involved in research programs in order to interpret new information or established facts. at the same time, they display appropriate respect for alternatives –thus inviting the reader to participate in a debate. the “opinion-holder” role comes to the fore when “we” is linked an intercultural study ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-92 85 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 85 to linguistic devices revealing a shared opinion, view or attitude, through the expression of agreement, disagreement or interest. this is shown in examples (16) and (17): (16) the short number of patients included in our report limits the statistical analysis of the data and somehow the interpretation of our findings which we think are clinically relevant anyway. (speng21) (17) however, we believe that the definitions used provide sufficient reliability (…) (eng8) in contrast, the “originator” situates writers in a position from where they have to highlight findings and knowledge claims advanced in the study and stress their “newsworthiness”. this is shown in examples (18) and (19): (18) in this study, we defined a novel surface antigen expressed on murine platelets and endothelial cells with the help of a new mab. (speng14) (19) we have developed a new method to produce relatively large numbers of human erythroid cells in liquid culture from undifferentiated hescs. (eng22) similar discourse uses of first-person personal pronouns are most recurrent in the discussion section of the two subcorpora (where writers foreground the relevance of their research for persuasive purposes). these roles tend to overlap, as illustrated below in examples (20) and (21): (20) because alps are potent apoptotic inducers in cancer cells and mm is a slowly proliferating tumor of long-lived plasma cells, we reasoned that this disease could be particularly suitable for the therapeutic use of alps. (speng4) (21) this novel phenotype clearly affects the clinical therapy of patients with reduced vwf survival; thus, as more patients with this phenotype are identified, we propose a future new designation for these patients, vwd type 1c (1-clearance). (eng11) in example (20), writers rely on reasoning (“we reasoned”), with the subordinate clause introduced by the reason subordinator “because” emphasizing the writers’ expression of factual evidence. the speng scholars seem to show awareness of these roles by merging the “originator” identity in “we reasoned” with the “opinion-holder” signalled by the modal “could”, which minimizes the possible imposition and face-threatening oana maria carciu ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-9286 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 86 potential of the “originator”. moreover, the adverb “particularly” and the adjective “suitable” explicitly mark writers’ evaluation of the result of their “reasoning” as being useful for “therapeutic use”. therefore, they hedge the use of “we” both to signal that they are competitive, since they have the capacity to provide useful solutions to the problems of the discipline, and to minimize the degree of imposition and show deference to their colleagues. the eng writers manage to include both the “originator” and the “opinionholder” roles in one verb (“we propose”). the “new” feature of their “proposal” is underlined by the adjectives “future” and “new”. at the same time the verb “propose” signals deference: although it is from the researchers that the designation comes, it is only a suggestion, hence allowing the audience the freedom to agree with it or not. this identity represents writers who make their claims by combining cautiousness with commitment in this particular rhetorical section. however, eng writers use overt positive evaluation and then draw a conclusion (i.e., “thus … we propose”). conclusions and implications the current study has explored the frequency of first-person plural references and their different discourse functions (tang & john, 1999) in the various sections of biomedical ras written by nes and (spanish) nnes. the analysis indicates that they mainly have an “exclusive-collective” referential value, with a large number of authors engaged in collaborative work. in general, the presence of such references in the selected corpus suggests that both groups of writers use the ra genre as a “promotional” instrument (hyland, 2000: 68). bhatia defines promotion as the merging of “private intentions with socially recognized communicative purposes” in an “attempt to establish credentials” (1997: 197-198). the need to “create a research space” in introduction sections, to indicate consistent observations in results sections and to point out the significance of research outcomes in relation to previous outcomes in discussion sections, drives both nes and nnes biomedical ra writers to explicitly signal their presence in these sections through first-person references. however, spanish writers publishing in english tend to be more visible in their texts than writers from an anglo-american context, particularly when they justify the “newsworthiness” of their research in the introduction section. an intercultural study ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-92 87 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 87 the fact that the nonnative writers project themselves through “we” pronouns in introduction sections should also be framed within the concept of the privileged position of english as the lingua franca for academic exchange (tardy, 2004; curry & lillis, 2006; ferguson, 2007) –hence, the nonnative writers’ need to make themselves more visible, factual and “credible” when presenting new research in international “english-only” journals (see also mur, 2007; pérez-llantada, 2007). this does not appear to be the case with scholars from the anglo-american contexts –which confirms previous claims that authorial self-representation in academic writing may differ according to the authors’ cultural background (vassileva, 1998; breivega et al., 2002; martín martín, 2005; yakhontova, 2006; giannoni, 2008a). moreover, the analysis of “we” pronouns across the ra sections has revealed that instances of “we” in results sections tend to recur when writers refer to past research processes and outcomes so as to indicate specific observations and highlight their findings. on the other hand, the combination of “we” and “our” in discussion sections seems to suggest reasons of pragmatic politeness: as writers have to show awareness of potential readers that might reject their claims, they tone down their role to seek readers’ acceptance of the new knowledge claims. the possessive form “our” has also shown to be important in this last section of the articles and its presence, as described previously, may likewise be attributed to reasons of politeness. the use of “our” is also prominent in this particular ra section, as it restricts the claims made, implying that these claims only involve specific research conducted by the authors. a possible reason for this is that writers in both spanish and anglo-american contexts seem to be aware of the need to show deference in the final section of the article, where the international audience of experts has to take a final decision of either accepting or rejecting the claims made in their paper. however, in the present study, findings suggest that in the context of english as a lingua franca nonnative writers have the chance to “go native” (canagarajah, 2002: 37), especially in the introduction section, and still be published. although quantitative data point towards cross-cultural variability, particularly in terms of self-mention in the introduction section written by spanish writers, genre requirements and disciplinary factors may account for the similar use of “we” pronouns in terms of their discourse roles in each ra section. in general, “we” pronouns have shown to serve the main function of presenting the researcher as an accepted member of the discourse community, with an emphasis on personal involvement and responsibility oana maria carciu ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-9288 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 88 (kuo, 1998). in addition, more visible writers may exert a strong impact on their audience, a community of researchers who must be convinced of the “newsworthiness” of the research (hyland, 2000, 2001 & 2005). both spanish writers and their anglo-american counterparts signal their identity as producers of the text through the “architect” role in introduction sections, while they successfully establish writer-reader interaction through the “guide” or “recounter” role, without threatening their readers’ face (myers, 1989) or making themselves invisible in results sections. along similar lines, the “originator” and “opinion-holder” roles are made acceptable for the communicative purpose of discussion sections, where writers rely on the use of the less visible possessive determiner “our”. similarities across subcorpora may support the view that these roles and identities reflect genre conventions and instantiate how writer identity is created in international english-medium journals by a combination of discursive choices intrinsically related to the specific communicative purpose of each ra sections. in agreement with pérez-llantada (2007), a possible interpretation in this study is that the relatively similar linguistic realizations of authorial voice through first-person references across ra sections may be explained by the growing interest of spanish academics (under increasing institutional pressure) in publishing in international scientific journals. this increases their exposure to the influence of standard academic english (see also, mauranen, pérez-llantada & swales (eds.), forthcoming). the use of the prevailing international discourse norms of native english seems to be associated to the growing trend towards the internationalization –and progressive standardization– of academic discourse (benfield & howard, 2000; mauranen, 2001; bondi, 2004; ferguson, 2007). thus, while similarities in the use of “we” realizations between the two groups of scholars should be attributed to compliance with genre-specific conventions, different clines of authorial visibility through first-person plural references arise from the social and institutional specificities of variables other than language alone, for instance, academic competition or the need for promotion in the academic world (bhatia, 1997; hyland, 1997; swales, 2004). the focus on first-person plural references in the present study is an attempt to provide a picture of both cross-cultural similarities and differences in the use of self-mentions. pedagogically, the results suggest the need to raise novice writers’ awareness of the rhetorical effects of first-person plural references for conveying disciplinary knowledge while, at the same time, an intercultural study ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-92 89 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 89 persuading audiences of the validity of new knowledge. contrasting l1 and l2 realizations (salager-meyer & alcaraz ariza, 2004; martín martín, 2005; mur, 2007; moreno, 2008) may also contribute to our knowledge of emerging features of english as an academic lingua franca (tardy, 2004) as opposed to the “go native” trend (canagarajah, 2002: 37). 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(2001). “humble servants of the discipline? self-mention in research articles”. english for specific purposes 20: 207-226. hyland, k. (2005). metadiscourse: exploring interaction in writing. london: continuum. hyland, k. (2006). “disciplinary differences: language variation in academic discourses” in k. hyland & m. bondi (eds.), academic discourse across disciplines, 17-45. bern: peter lang. international committee of medical journal editors (2008). uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals: writing and editing for biomedical publication. url: http://www.icmje.org/ [25/02/09]. kuo, c.-h. (1998). “the use of personal pronouns: role relationships in scientific journal articles”. english for specific purposes 18: 121-138. lorés, r. (2004). “on ra abstracts: from rhetorical structure to thematic organisation”. english for specific purposes 23: 280-302. martín martín, p. (2004). “personal attribution in english and spanish scientific texts”. bells: barcelona english language and literature studies 12. url:http://www.publicaciones.ub.es/revistes/ bells12/pdf/art09.pdf[03/07/2009]. martín martín, p. (2005). the rhetoric of the abstract in english and spanish scientific discourse. a cross-cultural genre-analytic approach. bern: peter lang. mauranen, a. (2001). “descriptions or explanations? some methodological issues in contrastive rhetoric” in m. hewings (ed.), academic writing in context. implications and applications, 43-54. birmingham: university of birmingham press. mauranen, a., c. pérez-llantada & j. m. swales (forthcoming). “academic english: a standardised knowledge?” in a. kirkpatrick (ed.), the routledge handbook of world englishes. london/new york: routledge. moreno, a.i. (2008). “the importance of comparable corpora in cross-cultural studies” in u. connor, e. nagelhout & w.v. rozycki (eds.), contrastive rhetoric: reaching to intercultural rhetoric, 25-45. amsterdam: john benjamins. mur, p. (2007). “‘i/we focus on…:’ a cross-cultural analysis of self-mentions in business management research articles”. journal of english for academic purposes 6: 143-162. myers, g. (1989). “the pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles”. applied linguistics 10: 1-35. nwogu, k.n. (1997). “the medical research paper: structure and functions”. english for specific purposes 16: 119-138. pennycook, a. (1994). “the politics of pronouns”. elt journal 48: 173-178. pérez-llantada, c. (2007). “native and nonnative speakers publishing research internationally: a small-scale study on authorial (in)visibility”. journal of applied linguistics 4: 217-238. peterlin, a.p. (2005). “text-organising metatext in research articles: an english-slovene contrastive analysis”. english for specific purposes 24: 307319. rounds, p. (1987). “multifunctional personal pronoun use in educational setting”. english for specific purposes 6: 13-29. salager-meyer, f. & m.a. alcaraz ariza (2004). “negative appraisals in academic book reviews: a cross-linguistic approach” in c.n. candlin & m. gotti (eds.), 149-172. salager-meyer, f., m.a. alcaraz ariza & n. zambrano (2003). “the scimitar, the dagger and the glove: intercultural differences in the rhetoric of criticism in spanish, french and english medical discourse (1930-1995)”. english for specific purposes 22: 223-247. samraj, b. (2002). “introductions in research articles: variations across disciplines”. english for specific purposes 21: 1-17. scott, m. (1999). wordsmith tools. oxford: oxford university press. stotesbury, h. (2003). “who is speaking in research article abstracts? i/we, impersonal agents or previous authors in citations?” in m. koskela & n. pilke (eds.), kieli ja asiantuntijuus [language and expertise] afinla yearbook 2003, 259-274. jyväskylä: publications de l’association finlandaise de linguistiques appliqué. swales, j.m. & c.b. feak (2004). academic writing for graduate students: essential tasks and skills. ann arbor: university of michigan press. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis. english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. (2004). research genres. explorations and applications. cambridge: cambridge university press. tang, r. & s. john (1999). “the ‘i’ in identity: 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 91 exploring writer identity in student academic writing through the first-person pronoun”. english for specific purposes 18: s23-s39. tardy, c. (2004). “the role of english in scientific communication: lingua franca or tyrannosaurus rex?”. journal of english for academic purposes 3: 247-269. valero-garcés, c. (1996). “contrastive esp rhetoric: metatext in spanish-english economics texts”. english for specific purposes 15: 279-294. van bonn, s. & j.m. swales (2007). “english and french journal abstracts in the language sciences: three exploratory studies”. journal of english for academic purposes 6: 93-108. vassileva, i. (1998). “who am i / who are we in academic writing? a contrastive analysis of authorial presence in english, german, french, russian and bulgarian”. international journal of applied linguistics 8: 163-185. vázquez, i., e. lafuente, r. lorés & p. mur (2006). “how to explore academic writing from metadiscourse as an integrated framework of interpersonal meaning: three perspectives of analysis” in r. alastrúe, c. pérez-llantada & c.p. neumann (coords.), proceedings of the 5th aelfe conference, 197-208. zaragoza: prensas universitarias. yakhontova, t. (2006). “cultural and disciplinary variation in academic discourse: the issue of influencing factors”. journal of english for academic purposes 5: 153-167. ibérica 18 [2009]: 71-92 oana maria carciu oana maria carciu is a doctoral student at the university of zaragoza. she is currently working on her phd thesis on intercultural and inter-linguistic variations in the manifestation of authorial voice in medical research articles. her main research interests are english for specific purposes and english as a lingua franca of academic writing. notes 1 the personal pronoun “we” encodes two referential values: inclusive and exclusive reference (harwood, 2005); “inclusive we” refers to the writer and the reader together, also called “inclusive authorial we” (ädel, 2006), while “exclusive we”, which initially referred only to the writer, nowadays may also include other persons associated to the author, such as co-writers. according to ädel (2006), this latter is known as “exclusive-collective”, as opposed to another exclusive reference (such as “editorial we”). 2 the biomedical section of serac was compiled by the interlae research group (http://www.interlae.com) at the university of zaragoza and kindly made available for the present study. it comprises 24 medical research articles written in english by spanish scholars (the speng subcorpus), and 24 medical research articles written in english by writers belonging to an anglo-american context (the eng subcorpus). in each subcorpus articles were numbered from 1 to 24. a total of 48 medical academic articles were analyzed, which involved more that 164,000 words of core text. the writers of these articles were all researchers or professors with an university affiliation. all research articles are representative of the genre as they adopt the text form of scientific or objective argumentation, are written in standard english and conform to rhetorical practices of the international english-speaking scientific academic community. also, for the sake of comparison, the interlae research group carefully checked that none of the nonnative english papers had gone through language reviewers’ hands, as this factor might have hindered the results of the study. in order to have a corpus that is also representative in terms of the status of the publication, the samples were drawn from prestigious academic journals in the field of hematology: the british journal of haematology, the american society of hematology, international society for experimental hematology. text length of the articles ranged from 2,000 to 6,000 words of core text and all texts were published between 2000 and 2006 so that changes in terms of discourse practices could somehow be maintained under control. 3 for the ease of identification, in each subcorpus speng and eng, research articles were numbered from 1 to 24. hence, each text has been labelled with the abridged title of the subcorpus it belongs to and a unique number. 92 05 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:58 página 92 iberica 13 ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166 issn 1139-7241 abstract in the i faculty at the university of rome “la sapienza” medical school, one of the several methodology courses aims at developing approaches by physicians to patient queries. one such course comprises several disciplines: pathology, immunology, medical statistics, internal medicine and english, with the specific aim of furnishing students, all italian speakers, with skills for searching and evaluating the medical literature for answers to patient queries regarding risks and effectiveness of therapy. this paper describes the integration of english into a methodology course and delineates how the language component uses a content and language integrated learning (clil) approach to train students to write the highly specific genre of journal abstracts for medical experimental research articles. a corpus of student writing is presented and discussed with the aim of furnishing one didactic model for language teaching within the italian medical curriculum. keywords: clil, medical english, didactic model, research articles, abstracts. resumen la redacci�n de res�menes de art�culos cient�ficos en ingl�s: metodolog�a aicle dentro de un curso integrado de ingl�s y medicina uno de los distintos cursos metodológicos que se imparten en la facultad i de la universidad de roma “la sapienza” tiene por objetivo desarrollar enfoques que permitan a los médicos dar respuesta a las dudas que les plantean los pacientes. dicho curso comprende diversas disciplinas, como son: patología, inmunología, métodos estadísticos aplicados a las ciencias médicas, medicina teaching writing of scientific abstracts in english: clil methodology in an integrated english and medicine course philippa mungra università degli studi di roma “la sapienza” (italy) philippa.mungra@tiscali.it 151 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 151 ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166 philippa mungra interna y lengua inglesa, y, entre otros, pretende dotar a los alumnos, todos ellos hablantes nativos italianos, de destrezas de búsqueda y evaluación de bibliografía médica a fin de facilitar esas respuestas requeridas por los pacientes relativas a los riesgos y la eficacia de determinadas terapias. en el presente trabajo se describe cómo se ha llevado a cabo la integración de los contenidos relacionados con la lengua inglesa en dicho curso metodológico y, además, se ofrecen una serie de líneas generales relativas al empleo de una metodología de aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras (aicle) destinada a formar a los alumnos en la redacción de resúmenes tipo abstract característicos de los artículos de investigación que se publican en el área. se presenta y estudia un corpus de extractos redactados por los propios alumnos con la finalidad de elaborar un modelo pedagógico encaminado a la didáctica de lenguas dentro del plan de estudios médicos italiano. palabras clave: aicle, inglés médico, modelo pedagógico, artículos de investigación, resúmenes tipo abstract. 1. introduction medico-scientific research in many eu counties has often been criticized because of poor productivity in bibliometric comparisons with the us or other countries (soteriades et al., 2005; sheridan, 2006). many factors such as the lack of funds or poor dissemination and access to research publications are held responsible for this condition (eu commission, 2006), but a significant limitation is the ability to write in scientific english (man et al., 2004). thus, because of poor writing skills, researchers and residents find it quite difficult to break into the international research fields and many valid publications remain hidden in what is known as the “grey literature” (cook et al., 1993; berman, 1995). as a result, many valid and competent scientists, speakers of other languages, may often fail to enter into international debates about clinical or biomedical issues such as that seen in the editorial or letters in professional medical journals (magnet & carnet, 2006) and thus reverse the so-called decline of biomedical research in europe. many specialists in pedagogy suggest that the professional “persona” in-training has much to gain by developing and improving academic literacy (bazerman, 1988; johns, 1997) and this is particularly important for medical professionals, speakers of languages other than english. one of the many criticism levelled against language programs in tertiary education is the lack of integration between language and content. the 152 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 152 content-based language classroom has long been advocated in us tertiary education (grabe & stoller, 1997; benesch, 2001; hyland & hamp-lyons, 2002; song, 2006) with the development of content-based instruction (cbi) but it is rare in tertiary education in europe. in a recent conference held in maastricht in 2003, several patterns of integration between content and language, called clil or content and language integrated learning, have been proposed in academic fields such as engineering (raïsanen, 2004), political science (argondizzo & laugier, 2004), business management (slepovich, 2004) and architecture (winberg, 2004) but to the best of our knowledge, none in medicine. from the point of view of language learning, the lack of contextualization has also been documented in communicative language teaching (canagarajah 2002; bax, 2003; holliday, 2005). it has even been suggested that the highly specialized nature of academic texts may constitute an impediment to language learning (spector-cohen, kirshner & wexler, 2001) because of two missing features: the lack of contextualization and the absence of attention to the disciplinarity of the academic context. these authors proposed an eap syllabus consisting of four prongs with the first teaching modules consisting of firstly high frequency vocabulary and discrete linguistic forms, an idea supported by the findings of woodwardkron (2008). the next prong should consist of improving reading comprehension strategies. this is followed by the third prong: a top-down genre analysis using deconstruction of academic genres common to the specific academic discipline, in agreement with the suggestion by swales, (1990), holmes (1997) and bhatia (2004), all of whom highlight the genre specificity of academic language in several different fields. the fourth and final prong should consist of authentic criterion tasks. this paper describes one application of this four-prong approach in one of the courses in medical methodology integrated with english at our university and delineates how the language component trains students to examine experimental research articles (ras) with a specific aim to learn to write the highly specific genre of journal abstracts for medical experimental research articles. i first describe this integrated methodology course and how english is integrated into this course using the patterns proposed by finkel et al. (2003) and holloway et al. (2004). because this course comprises several disciplines (pathology, immunology, medical statistics, internal medicine) it was designated an “integrated” course. then i describe various exercises to develop language skills which illustrate application of the teaching writing of scientific abstracts ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166 153 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 153 different syllabus prongs. in order to exploit the full potential of such integration, english studies converged on research or laboratory publications with particular emphasis on one criterion exercise: the writing of the methods section of abstracts because of the documented importance of research and laboratory papers (braine, 1989 & 1995; jackson et al., 2006). finally, data from this criterion exercise is presented and discussed. 2. english within the integrated course 2.1 integration within the course the broad didactic aims of this methodology course consist of moving from a strictly clinical case to a more research-centered vision of medicine for an in-depth understanding of research and how clinical questions can be answered by research. in any given year, a single clinical case was chosen collegially and teaching modules of the three sub-courses were developed as schematized in figure 1. the modules were developed to overlap and integrate teaching material. for example, in the first module, identified by (1) in figure 1, lessons consisted of the reading of the clinical case itself in english with attention to lexis and form, followed by internal medicine lessons teaching how to approach the patient to extract clinically relevant information, the signs and symptoms characteristic of the clinical case in philippa mungra ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166154 philippa mungra internal medicine (1) patient contact and extracting patient information medical communication pathophysiologal topics (1) signs and symptoms pain interpreting laboratory and instrument analyses clinical case chosen collegially english (1) high frequency lexis of clinical cases form and general structure of ras academic register epidemiology & statistics (1) patient consent and ethics of patient data use design and exec ution of a research project how to process data : statistical analysis and its tools figure 1. inter-relationship between the elements in the integrated course.1 2.2 english language teaching because the patient is central to any academic reasoning in formulating clinical questions about possible therapeutic options, the patient was considered representative of a category and the treatment applied was compared to alternative treatments available to see if the results of some measurable parameter (called the outcome) were better or worse. this method of reasoning is given the name “pico” (patient, intervention, comparison and outcome) and is 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 154 patho-physiology, and the elements of legislation and ethics concerning informed patient consent in epidemiology. subject teachers focussed on the pathologies, treatment and surgical options and refining the differential diagnosis of the case. language teaching focussed on lexis, form and the structure of ras and the academic register. 2.2 english language teaching because the patient is central to any academic reasoning in formulating clinical questions about possible therapeutic options, the patient was considered representative of a category and the treatment applied was compared to alternative treatments available to see if the results of some measurable parameter (called the outcome) were better or worse. this method of reasoning is given the name “pico” (patient, intervention, comparison and outcome) and is shown in figure 2. it was first used by the putative fathers of ebm2 (oxman et al., 1993) not only for the formulation of a clinical question but also to create keywords in interrogating a medical database for pertinent literature. pico then acted as a kind of cognitive scaffolding for students to learn how to formulate clinical questions and interrogate a medical database. they were allowed to work in groups and to develop clinical questions of their own choice, based on the broad areas studied in this integrated course, such as patho-physiology, internal medicine, surgery, radiology or pharmacology, pertinent to the clinical case. once the clinical questions in pico and the keywords were decided on, students were asked to find a given research publication in its entirety and one other research abstract pertinent to the clinical case by searching databases and online libraries. these instructions stimulated not only their curiosity but also furnished opportunities for developing library skills and served to inculcate the habit of continuous updating, so essential in a medical professional. the creation of clinical queries also acted as a scaffolding of information for students to critically evaluate medical abstracts or ras. in this content-based framework, lessons in english for the other modules used a genre approach to identify the logical moves of an author of an academic publication, following the imrad pattern first used by swales (1990). teaching writing of scientific abstracts ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166 155 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 155 the next teaching step in this model used ebm standards to read and evaluate a pool of research abstracts aimed at highlighting the characteristics of different research designs. thus abstracts included both prospective and retrospective studies as well as longitudinal population studies and studies on selected cohorts. another purpose of this series of abstracts analysis, decided collegially with epidemiology, was to familiarize students with the different purposes of ras and rcts (randomized clinical trials)3 and to relate the study design to the characteristics of the rct. for the english classroom, students were asked to analyse a series of abstracts using a checklist for the presence of essential elements of rcts. the purpose of giving many abstracts was to increase student exposure to different types of abstracts and the various methodological study designs used in the abstracts. in so doing, cognitive load is taken off the student while reading a new unknown text for content. such scaffolding thus helps students to recognize the text type and associate it with the elements that constitute a good ra or rct. following lessons in epidemiology on experimental design, students were introduced to scientific ras or rcts and using a checklist of questions, they were asked to evaluate the entire text of a single rct for language. this checklist of cognitive scaffolding consisted of identifying the presence or absence of elements characteristic of this sub-genre such as inclusion/exclusion factors, enrolment, patient/guardian consent, matched groups, length of follow-up of patients and the other elements present in rcts. in the language lesson, new lexis, collocation, lexical bundles and philippa mungra ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166156 teaching writing of scientific abstracts ibérica 20 (2010): …-… 5 critically evaluate medical abstracts or ras. in this content-based framework, lessons in english for the other modules used a genre approach to identify the logical moves of an author of an academic publication, following the imrad pattern first used by swales (1990). figure 2. pico a method for formulating clinical questions. the next teaching step in this model used ebm standards to read and evaluate a pool of research abstracts aimed at highlighting the characteristics of different research designs. thus abstracts included both prospective and retrospective studies as well as longitudinal population studies and studies on selected cohorts. another purpose of this series of abstracts analysis, decided collegially with epidemiology, was to familiarize students with the different purposes of ras and rcts (randomized clinical trials) 3 and to relate the study design to the characteristics of the rct. for the english classroom, students were asked to analyse a series of abstracts using a checklist for the presence of essential elements of rcts. the purpose of giving many abstracts was to increase student exposure to different types of abstracts and the various methodological study designs used in the abstracts. in so doing, cognitive load is taken off the student while reading a new unknown text for content. such scaffolding thus helps students to recognize the text type and associate it with the elements that constitute a good ra or rct. following lessons in epidemiology on experimental design, students were introduced to scientific ras or rcts and using a checklist of questions, they were asked to evaluate the entire text of a single rct for language. this checklist of cognitive scaffolding consisted of identifying the presence or absence of elements characteristic of this sub-genre such as inclusion/exclusion factors, enrolment, patient/guardian consent, matched groups, length of followpatient intervention or treatment given – e.g. drug under test or at a specific dosage. patient considered as typical of a population – e.g. elderly hypertensive patients. comparison what treatment is given to the control group – e.g. another drug administered to a control group. outcome measures parameters being looked at. these may be primary (documented atrial fibrillation) or other outcomes – e.g. heart failure 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 156 various semantic phrases were reinforced and experimented with for meaning. in the following english lessons, a single research paper was deconstructed to identify the information structure and author moves with attention to linguistic features such as academic register, syntax and semantics, readerwriter interaction, lexico-grammatical choices and semantic meaning of the different sections of the research paper with particular attention to the introduction and the discussion. the same text was then explored for content of other medical areas such as pathophysiology and internal medicine. the language component was then tested in a single exercise set out as follows: students were given an unknown abstract from which the methods section had been removed and were asked to deduce information from the rest of the abstract to reconstruct a possible methods section in formal academic english. in the application of this teaching framework in the reconstruction of the methods section of an abstract, the didactic purpose was to activate medical content knowledge, cognitive as well as language characteristic of the genre of an authentic but unknown research article. this final test phase consisted of hypothesizing a methodologically sound procedure for a research abstract and writing the methods section of an abstract. this leaves cognitive energy for the production phase of the exercise, drawing on information of lexis and form that was introduced before. an example of this exercise was an authentic research paper which is given in figure 3 and the rubrics for the exercise are described in the following section together with a justification of the expected answers. 3. testing method in the rubrics, students were invited to reconstruct the text from which the methods section had been removed, using clues in the remaining sections (see figure 3). clues were identified by numbers in square brackets. the abstract required the following elements which were then used for grading the exercise: 1. recruitment of patients [2] with selection criteria of those with the clinical condition or disease [1] 2. testing such as the analysis of sera [4] or nasal aspirates [6]for teaching writing of scientific abstracts ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166 157 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 157 antigens in children hospitalized to estimate the prevalence of chlamydia spp. [3] 3. confirmation for the presence of chlamydia using a sophisticated molecular test. [5, 7] 4. treatment of the data, which in this case was a simple calculation of a percentage [3] to indicate how prevalent this infection is among children hospitalized and whether a simple blood test would be sufficient to diagnose this infection [8,9] having been trained to examine abstracts and knowing the ebm elements necessary for a research article, students were expected to concentrate on the task of formulating the correct academic sentence that would fit into this genre. a corpus of 55 student writings was collected with the aim of presenting one didactic model for language teaching within the italian medical curriculum. the marking scheme consisted of two elements. the first was content-based and consisted of the 4 criteria above, which were allotted 10 marks if present. another 10 marks were allotted for language fluency and form, the prior referring to correctness above the sentence and the latter, to below-the-sentence correctness. for language fluency, we were looking for philippa mungra ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166158 teaching writing of scientific abstracts children hospitalized and whether a simple blood test would be sufficient to diagnose this infection [8,9] having been trained to examine abstracts and knowing the ebm elements necessary for a research article, students were expected to concentrate on the task of formulating the correct academic sentence that would fit into this genre. chlamydia sp. in hospitalised children with community acquired pneumonia. jain r,j et al. department of microbiology, king george medical university, lucknow 226 003, india. aim: to document the prevalence of chlamydial infection in children less than five years of age with community acquired pneumonia (cap) methods: ricomporre la sezione “methods” di questo abstract dall’informazione date nel resto del brano e renderlo in corretto inglese accademico. reconstruct the methods section of the following abstract and write it in correct academic english. results: the prevalence [1] of chlamydia species infection in cap in children < 5 years of age [2] was 5.5% [3] corresponding to the 4/73 positive cases seen. two cases were positive for c. trachomatis antibodies [4] using igm microimmunoflourescence [5] studies ;while one case was positive for c. pneumoniae antibodies from nasal aspirates [6] and one case was positive for c. pneumoniae dna on pcr [7] conclusion chlamydia sp. have an important role in cap in children < 5 years and for early diagnosis of infection, use of more than one method [8] viz. pcr and serology is advisable [9] figure 3. example of an exercise requiring language and medical methodology skills: reconstruction of the methods section of an abstract. a corpus of 55 student writings was collected with the aim of presenting one didactic model for language teaching within the italian medical curriculum. the marking scheme consisted of two elements. the first was content-based and consisted of the 4 criteria above, which were allotted 10 marks if present. another 10 marks were allotted for language fluency and form, the prior referring to correctness above the sentence and the latter, to below-the-sentence correctness. for language fluency, we were looking for the appropriate structure of the paragraph and register, clarity of expression and cohesion and coherence devices. form referred to the appropriate grammatical structures and choice of lexis. 4. results 4.1 validation of overall grade earned the student grades were grouped into three levels of competence: “competent”, corresponding to >18, “intermediate” for the interval 16-18 and, finally, “sufficient”, corresponding to an overall grade of <16. there were no students 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 158 the appropriate structure of the paragraph and register, clarity of expression and cohesion and coherence devices. form referred to the appropriate grammatical structures and choice of lexis. 4. results 4.1 validation of overall grade earned the student grades were grouped into three levels of competence: “competent”, corresponding to >18, “intermediate” for the interval 16-18 and, finally, “sufficient”, corresponding to an overall grade of <16. there were no students with a grade less than 10, corresponding to 50% of the total points available. the distribution of grades is shown in figure 4. overall correlation measured by the pearson coefficient between the 4 criteria and the student grade was calculated to be 0.341, well within the range for a moderately positive medium relationship. 4.2 linguistic descriptions of results in the linguistic evaluation of each exercise, a global grade was given for items of academic register such as the use of passive rather than active sentences, the use of preand post-modifiers, the presence of complex nominal groups as the subject of a sentence and lexical variety in the choice of verbs. as already mentioned, the grades awarded were labeled “sufficient”, “intermediate” or “competent”. a selection of three examples from each of the three groups of competence is presented in the teaching writing of scientific abstracts ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166 159 philippa mungra with a grade less than 10, corresponding to 50% of the total points available. the distribution of grades is shown in figure 4. overall correlation measured by the pearson coefficient between the 4 criteria and the student grade was calculated to be 0.341, well within the range for a moderately positive medium relationship. distribution of grades /20 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 <16 16-18 >18 grades n o . o f st u d e n ts figure 4. grade distribution out of 20 marks in the corpus of student writing. 4.2 linguistic descriptions of results in the linguistic evaluation of each exercise, a global grade was given for items of academic register such as the use of passive rather than active sentences, the use of preand post-modifiers, the presence of complex nominal groups as the subject of a sentence and lexical variety in the choice of verbs. as already mentioned, the grades awarded were labeled “sufficient”, “intermediate” or “competent”. a selection of three examples from each of the three groups of competence is presented in the appendix. each of the sentences is numbered in round brackets for ease of reference. within the first group of answers, the most common errors were: absence of verbs, absence of concordance between subject and verb, invented verbs and absence of complete sentences, as can be seen in (3) from student 2 of the corpus. inventing verbs from similar-sounding italian words and the absence of complete sentences indicated weaknesses in the lexical, grammatical and semantic parts of the syllabus. this response is quite unusual in that the student was able to infer and reconstruct the procedure used, but was unable to formulate correct sentences, giving answers in a note form. the second group of answers again demonstrated the ability to understand the procedure, but clearly students were unable to formulate a procedure in keeping 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 159 appendix. each of the sentences is numbered in round brackets for ease of reference. within the first group of answers, the most common errors were: absence of verbs, absence of concordance between subject and verb, invented verbs and absence of complete sentences, as can be seen in (3) from student 2 of the corpus. inventing verbs from similar-sounding italian words and the absence of complete sentences indicated weaknesses in the lexical, grammatical and semantic parts of the syllabus. this response is quite unusual in that the student was able to infer and reconstruct the procedure used, but was unable to formulate correct sentences, giving answers in a note form. the second group of answers again demonstrated the ability to understand the procedure, but clearly students were unable to formulate a procedure in keeping with the register of the abstract. for example, student 4 summarizes the results in (2) and (3) instead of describing a procedure. student 55 mentions selection criteria, age of the patient population and two clinical tests but clearly demonstrates improper lexical choices and poor lexical variety in (1). the writing of student 27 is rudimentary in that notes rather than a text are presented in (1) and (2). however, in the final sentence of this answer (4), the student manages to formulate the sentence correctly with appropriate nominative and verbal groups and the correct use of the article. in (3), improper use of the possessive form is seen. many of these errors indicate weaknesses in the first two prongs of the syllabus. the last group, which was awarded the highest grades, generally used connectors for textual cohesion and all sentences were completely formed. student 34 started clauses (1) and (2) with a verb, a common error among italian native speakers. however, tight textual cohesion is seen in this text since every sentence starts with a connector showing anaphoric reference and the proper use of this pragmatic linguistic device. several post-modifiers are present. this text also showed several deictic pointers like this or that. student 46 demonstrated correct use of the article in clause (1), which also showed unusual negotiation of a series of adjectives. prosodic variation in (4) is present since this student places the complement in the start of the sentence. correct use of the articles is seen. this student was the only one to mention the statistical processing of data collected. a similar pattern is seen in the organization of the text of student 35. philippa mungra ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166160 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 160 5. discussion this exercise is not a simple one because it requires the processing of several contemporaneous tasks. the cognitive tasks used in this course are: extraction of information, assembling of a procedure/measurement of data and formulating the procedure in formal academic english. we recognize that this sequence of cognition has interesting parallels with the “fittspossner three stage theory of acquisition of motor skills” (reznick & macrae, 2006). in their paper, these scholars suggest that students learning surgical skills go through three stages: cognition, integration and automation of tasks. applying these stages to writing english, we can see that many students remain in the cognitive stage and never pass on to the others. for example most students were able to deduce the procedures from the remaining parts of the abstract but those getting the highest grades were only those able to formulate correctly this information in academic english in harmony with the rest of the paper. this corresponded to the group with grades 16-18 and over (see figure 4). this group was able to pass from the stage of mere possessing information to the stage of integration and automation in applying the skills of formulating correct sentences, using lexico-syntactic variety and applying the appropriate academic register. despite the complexity of this task, we believe that more practice with this kind of exercise would enhance student-writer’s writing skills and improve inter-personal aspects of writing by foregrounding a hypothetical reader. the model we propose attempts to integrate content and language, with the addition of a study-skills component which functions as a schema support. this is effectively the structure of a clil methodology but it differs from a classic clil classroom which uses a foreign language as a medium of instruction. such integration of content and language with explicit teaching of learning schema becomes meaningful and useful if it improves learners’ ability to process input, and frees them for higher level thinking skills, thus enhancing cognitive development. according to johns (1997) and bangertdrowns, hurley & wilkinson (2004), the use of meta-cognitive prompts such as those proposed by oxman et al. (1993) in the users’ guide series and the application of a mental schema or script, such as that suggested by charlin, tardif & boshuizen-henny, (2000) provide a theoretical framework for medical problem-solving. similarly, bhatia (2008) suggested that a closer interaction between discursive and professional practice would highlight the role of interdiscursivity in critical genre analysis. such interaction, in our case, consists of the complex processing of information, together with teaching writing of scientific abstracts ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166 161 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 161 activation of knowledge base. from a practical point of view, an awareness of meta-cognitive strategies and can help midand lower-level students by enabling them to effectively assess their understanding of a subject and encouraging them to apply a more sophisticated learning approach, to even reach the stage of automation of writing tasks in the target language. in this integrated teaching course, we used information from a hypothetical patient to explore the genre of research abstracts. the model presented in this paper (first lexico-grammatical aspects, followed by analysis and evaluation of a genre, followed by a criterion exercise in academic writing) was aimed at activating passive knowledge of language within a professional setting and applying grammar and lexis to a professional academic context. hopefully this would improve language competence and encourage researchers to publish in authoritative journals or journals with high impact factors. acknowledgements the author wishes to express her thanks to prof. stefania basili, coordinator of the course in clinical methodology of the corso di laurea magistrale “c” for her kind permission to use information and teaching material for this paper. [paper received january 2010] [revised paper accepted may 2010] references philippa mungra ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166162 argondizzo, c. & r. laugier (2004). ““a più voci” the implementation of a language and content based interdisciplinary course at the university level” in r. wilkinson (ed.), 275-286. bangert-drowns, r.l., m.m. hurley & b. wilkinson (2004). “the effects of school-based writing-tolearn interventions on academic achievement: a meta-analysis”. review of educational research 74: 29-58. bax, s. (2003). “call – past, present and future”. system 31: 13-28. bazerman, c. (1988). shaping written knowledge. madison, wi: university of wisconsin press. benesch, s. (2001). critical english for academic purposes: theory, politics, and practice. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. berman y. (1995). “knowledge transfer in social work: the role of grey documentation”. international. information & library reviews 2: 143-154. bhatia, v.k. (2004). “academic literacy in higher education” in r. wilkinson (ed.), 55-77. bhatia, v.k. (2008). “genre analysis, esp and professional practice”. english for specific purposes 27: 161-174. braine, g. (1989). “writing in science and 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 162 teaching writing of scientific abstracts ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166 163 technology: an analysis of assignments from ten undergraduate courses”. english for specific purposes 8: 3-15. braine, g. (1995). “writing in the natural sciences and engineering” in d. belcher & g. braine (eds.), academic writing in a second language, 113-134. new jersey: ablex publishing corporation. canagarajah, s. (2002). “multilingual writers and the academic community: towards a critical relationship”. english for academic purposes 1: 29-44. charlin, b, j. tardif & p.a. boshuizen-henny (2000). “scripts and medical diagnostic knowledge: theory and applications for clinical reasoning instruction and research”. academic medicine 75: 182-190. cook d.j., g.h. guyatt, g. ryan, j. clifton, l. buckingham, a. willan, w. mcilroy & a.d. oxman (1993). “should unpublished data be included in meta-analyses?”. journal of the american medical association (jama) 269: 2749-2753. eu commission, directorate-general for research (2006). study of the economic and technical evolution of the scientific publications market in europe. url: http://ec.europa.eu/research/sciencesociety/pdf/scientific-publication-study_en.pdf. 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(1993). “the users’ guides to evidence-based medicine”. journal of the american medical association 270: 2093-2095. raïsanen, c. (2004). “multiple literacies for the “new” engineer: learning to integrate content and language” in r. wilkinson (ed.), 264-274. reznick, r.k. & h. macrae (2006). “teaching surgical skills: changes in the wind.” new england j. medicine 355: 2664-2469. sheridan, d. (2006). “reversing the decline of academic medicine in europe”. lancet 367: 16981701. slepovitch, v. (2004). “content as a part of teaching business communication in english” in r. wilkinson (ed.), 313-319. song, b. (2006). “content-based esl instruction: long-term effects and outcomes”. english for specific purposes 25: 420-437. soteriades, e.s., e.s. rosmarakis, k. paraschakis & m.e. falagas (2005) “research contribution of different world regions in the top 50 biomedical journals (1995–2002)”. faseb j. 20: 29-34. spector-cohen, e., m. kirshner & c. wexler (2001). “designing eap reading courses at the university level”. english for specific purposes 20: 367-386. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis. cambridge: cambridge university press. wilkinson, r. (ed.) (2004). integrating content and language: meeting the challenge of a multilingual higher education. maastricht: universitaire pers 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 163 philippa mungra teaches english at the 1st medical school of the university of rome “la sapienza”. her current research priorities revolve around the structure and evolution of specialist medico-scientific publications from a communicative and textual point of view and integration of language and content. she holds an m.sc. in cytogenetics from the university of western ontario (canada) where she has carried out her own scientific research on aneuploidy due to aging. she also holds the rsa certification in tesol from cambridge. notes 1 with kind permission from prof. stefania basili, course co-ordinator. 2 ebmevidence based medicine, which is a school of thought for searching the medical literature for the best and most convincing evidence for options of patient care. 3 rcts refer to research articles published on outcomes of clinical trials involving treatment of large cohorts of patients. generally, the assignment of patient treatment is statistically randomized, hence the name randomized clinical trials. philippa mungra ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166164 maastricht. winberg, c. (2004). “language, content and context in the education of architects” in r. wilkinson (ed.), 320-332. woodward-kron, r. (2008). “more than just jargon: the nature and role of specialist language in learning disciplinary knowledge”. journal of english for academic purposes 7: 234-249. 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 164 appendix teaching writing of scientific abstracts ibérica 20 (2010): 151-166 165 philippa mungra ibérica 20 (2010): …-…14 appendix table showing a comparison between the original methods section published (first row of the table) and a selection of exercises from the corpus of written methods section of research abstracts. numbers correspond to student numbers in the course. original methods section seventy three children, 1 month to 5 years of age, hospitalized with cap were enrolled into this study over a period of one year. microimmunofluorescence (mif) was done to detect igm antibodies against chlamydia sp. in sera of all patients. pcr was performed to confirm the presence of specific chlamydia spp. dna in nasopharyngeal aspirates. 1 a total of 73 specimens was examined (1) the chlamyiadzyme assay was performed according to the manufacturer’s package.(2) 2 73 children less than 5 years of age were studied for early diagnosis of the prevalence of chlymidal spp infection because chlamydia spp. have an important role in cap(1). the authors use of more than one method to reseacher case positive(2). igm micoimmunofluorescence studies of c. tracomatis antibodies, nasal aspirates for c. pneumoniae and pcr for c. pneumoniae dna(3) a w a rd e d g ra d e o f “s u ff ic ie n t” < 1 6 o u t o f 2 0 m a rk s 3 patient specimens: a total of 73 hospitalised children< 5 years of age with cap. (1) diagnostic procedures: igm microimmunofluorescence studies, assay on nasal aspirates, pcr(2) 4 chlamydia is an important organism un children less than5 years of age.(1) infact, it is an important cause of cap(2) the prevalence is 5.5% in this study there 2 cases positive of c. tracomatis anibosidies using igm micro-immunofluorescence whereas only 1 case was positive for c. pneunomiae antibodies for nasal aspirates(3). finally one was positive for c. pneumoniae dna on pcr.(4) 55 a total of x baby with cap were selected by hospitalized children (1). all of them had less than 5 years(2). the study wanted to prove the prevalence of chlamydial infection and used more than one early diagnosis methods dna on pcr and serology (antibodies) on all the children (3). a w a rd e d g ra d e o f “i n te rm e d ia te ” 1 6 -1 8 o u t o f 2 0 m a rk s 27 patient specimens: 73 children< 5 years of age (1) assay procedures: (2) igm microimmunofluorescence: techniques of culture from nasal aspirates are requied for identification of species by immunoselectivity to species-specific monoclonal antibodies pcr of amplification c. pneumoniae’s dna (3). moleculare amplification techniques based on genomic sequences are now being used for the differenation of chlamydia. spp. (4) 34 for this study, were selected 73 children < 5 years of age hospitalized for cap (1). authors looked for the principal species of chlamydia that couse disease in human.(2) in particular, were used antibody using igm microimmunofluorescence to detect c. tracomatis and antibodies from nasal aspirates for c. pneumoniae(3). in addition to serology a method involving dna such as pcr was used to confirm results. (4) 46 73 hospitalised children less than 5 years of age with cap were enrolled to undergo igm microimmunofluorescence studies antibody detection assays from nasal aspirated and nucleic acid amplification tests (pcr) to detect chlamydia spp. infection (1). inclusion criteria were children less than 5 years and cap(2). exclusion criteria were children more than 5 years without pneumonia not hospitalized and with other infectious diseases (3). for all of the tests mentioned, the page insert instructions were followed and prevalence was calculated by standard statistical techniques.(4) a w a rd e d g ra d e o f “c o m p e te n t” < 1 8 o u t o f 2 0 m a rk s 35 a total of 73 children age <5 years with a cap diagnosis) were studied (1). differences between sex, race, weight and length were not significant(2). the diagnosis was based on clinical symptoms and both anterior-posterior and lateral chest radiographs(3). blood samples, bronchoalveolar lavages and nasal aspirates were collected from each child.(4) the 2ml blood sample for testing by pcr assay was processed according to the manufacturer’s package insert.(5) 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 165 07 iberica 20.qxp 14/9/10 18:06 página 166 iberica 13 ibérica 22 (2011): 163-172 issn 1139-7241 abstract thinking and writing in academic contexts: a university companion (falk, 2011), is designed to help students, especially those with l2 (or incipient l2) english, increase their proficiency levels in composing essays and short research papers in english. the book also aims to raise students’ awareness of the typical expectations academic readers have when they consider the quality level of a text. this research note first provides a brief description of the language proficiency levels of incoming undergraduate students who study english in sweden. spoken proficiency in english usually ranges from satisfactory to excellent among incoming swedish students, but these undergraduates typically need support and feedback on their texts so that their writing gains sophistication in language, structure, and content. the theoretical portion of this research note highlights some sociolinguistic perspectives concerning the linguistic development of young adults relating to the “developmental imperative” (eckert, 2000), the “linguistic market” or “marketplace dialect” (chambers, 2009), and the dynamic continuum of standard english (wolfram & schilling-estes, 2006; see also karstadt, 2002; falk, 2005). the second half of the research note provides a brief synopsis of the chapters in the book; it also mentions some of the approaches that are taken to share advice with readers. keywords: l2 english, the developmental imperative, linguistic awareness, swedish/english contrastive grammar, academic advice. teaching undergraduate academic writing in sweden: notes on a new book with developmental and sociolinguistic perspectives angela falk uppsala university (sweden) angela.falk@engelska.uu.se 163 08 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 163 ibérica 22 (2011): 163-172 angela falk resumen la docencia de la escritura académica en el contexto universitario sueco: notas a propósito de un nuevo libro desde las perspectivas sociolingüística y de desarrollo el volumen thinking and writing in academic contexts: a university companion (falk, 2011) ha sido diseñado para ayudar a los estudiantes, especialmente a los que tienen el inglés como segunda lengua, a adquirir un nivel superior respecto de la redacción de trabajos y breves artículos de investigación en inglés. asimismo, el libro pretende concienciar a los estudiantes acerca de las expectativas que tienen los lectores de textos académicos respecto de considerar la calidad de un texto. la presente nota de investigación ofrece, en primer lugar, una breve descripción de los niveles de competencia lingüísticos de los estudiantes noveles que entran en las universidades suecas para estudiar inglés. el nivel de entrada de los alumnos suecos relativo al inglés hablado suele variar entre satisfactorio y excelente, pero estos alumnos por lo general necesitan apoyo y retroalimentación en la redacción de sus textos de manera que el producto mejore ostensiblemente en cuanto al uso de la lengua, su estructura y su contenido. la sección teórica de la presente nota de investigación pone de relieve ciertas perspectivas de carácter sociolingüístico relativas al desarrollo lingüístico de adultos jóvenes con relación al “imperativo del desarrollo” (eckert, 2000), el “mercado lingüístico” o “dialecto del mercado” (chambers, 2009) y el continuo dinámico del inglés normalizado (wolfram y schilling-estes, 2006; véase también karstadt, 2002; falk, 2005). la cuarta sección de esta nota de investigación ofrece un breve resumen de los capítulos que componen este volumen y menciona algunos de los enfoques adoptados a fin de compartir consejos con los lectores. palabras clave: inglés como segunda lengua, el imperativo del desarrollo, conciencia lingüística, gramática contrastiva sueco-inglés, asesoramiento académico. 1. the communicative competence of incoming undergraduate students in the department where i teach, the vast majority of incoming undergraduate students are able to express themselves reasonably well in spoken english. many swedish students already have a varied and expressive vocabulary in english. nearly every academic term, i notice that some of the incoming students have impressively native-like pronunciation in english. not surprisingly, their listening comprehension skills range from satisfactory 164 08 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 164 to excellent. their typically high levels of spoken and listening proficiency are likely due to a combination of factors: (1) decades of cumulative media exposure to english in sweden, wherein a large portion of the televised programming is in english (dubbing english to swedish is extremely rare, being limited to films and television programs made for young children; in addition, the lyrics of popular music, even songs written by swedes, are frequently in english.); (2) a national curriculum for the subject of english in swedish upper-secondary schools which has placed emphasis on communicative competence; (3) international travel, as quite a number of young students have already travelled extensively and sometimes even worked abroad for a short period of time; and of course (4) exposure and communication in english via the internet, which includes networked games (see also crystal, 2003; jenkins, 2009). university students, already possessing strong listening and speaking skills, are highly motivated to reach the next level(s) of proficiency in english. many are willing to devote at least one academic term of full-time study in english. incoming students in our department complete diagnostic tests at the beginning of a term. one of the tasks on the diagnostic test asks students to write a brief essay explaining why they decided to study english and describe some of the things they hope to learn. students mention reasons that reveal their instrumental views. the diagnostic essays are usually nearly a page long, but below, in condensed form, are some (paraphrased) ideas that are frequently expressed by the students: • after i graduated from high school last year, i travelled a lot and had to use english. i want to be able to express myself even better. • i have always liked reading and speaking english. i want to learn more. • being better at english will help me in the other subjects i plan to study. • i will probably have an easier time getting a job in the future if my english is good. • i am going to be a teacher and will have to teach english to my pupils. i want to have better proficiency so that i can be the best possible teacher. while it is rare that an undergraduate student mentions a reason for studying english that indicates a slightly more specialized focus, such as “i want to teaching undergraduate academic writing ibérica 22 (2011): 163-172 165 08 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 165 increase my knowledge of e.g. shakespearean drama (or) american fiction (or) word-formation processes in english”, than those suggested above, all in all university-level teachers of english in sweden find themselves in a very favorable pedagogical environment. even if the students’ reasons are still fairly general, they nonetheless have a strong sense of what more knowledge of english might bring them. accompanying these very promising pre-conditions for teaching l2 academic english, however, are some complex pedagogical issues specific to higher education settings. these pedagogical issues are comprised of interlocking developmental and linguistic ones. i will briefly mention a few of the developmental issues before i turn to slightly fuller treatment of linguistic development in young adulthood. as we saw in the typical types of reasons paraphrased above, students aim for general improvement. some students have mentioned to me that they decided to study a term of english so that they have some time to think about what subject they ultimately will major in. thus the newest undergraduate students in our department have yet to galvanize their academic identities. over time, they need exposure to a combination of lectures, seminar meetings, discussion with classmates, and tutoring to help increase their awareness of university expectations of written english. 2. developmental issues that intersect with linguistic awareness changing awareness levels and developmental issues are of course not restricted to concerns of students in departments of english at swedish universities. sociolinguists have ample empirical (often l1) data demonstrating that pre-adolescents and adolescents change their language during these formative, young years. a pioneer researcher in this sociolinguistic arena is penelope eckert, who has examined the concept of the so-called “developmental imperative”. even if the focus of eckert’s empirical investigations has been on pre-adolescence and adolescence (as in her 2000 study), we see in the quotation excerpted below that eckert indeed conceptualizes the developmental imperative as a force that is perceptible across the lifespan: (…) kids are continually trying on new behaviors and styles, in a continual and conscious production of a new self. this imperative continues angela falk ibérica 22 (2011): 163-172166 08 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 166 throughout life, but is more noticeable in childhood and adolescence, since by adulthood one has learned to be more subtle in one’s efforts at selfreconstruction. linguistic style is an important part of age-appropriate behavior, and sociolinguistic development is a continuous process (eckert, 2000: 8). the work of chambers (2009), another sociolinguist who has been highly influential in accounting for the adjustments and even changes individuals make to their language over time, traces the linguistic construction and reconstruction of linguistic identities of young people. according to research he has summarized and interpreted (chambers, 2009), quite a lot of linguistic remodeling occurs in young adulthood, too, as young people become increasingly conscious of the role standard language forms play in the so-called “linguistic market.” the empirical studies cited by chambers to support the notion of marketplace pressures are studies of spoken language; thus the section title for a portion of his chapter on change over time is “young adults in the talk market” (chambers, 2009: 189). much of early adulthood – not coincidentally the time university-bound individuals usually invest to pursue further education – involves making a transition to the next developmental level, and language use – spoken and written – is a central part of demonstrating awareness of standard norms. it is not a trivial thing to observe that as young adults adjust their spoken language to correspond to the linguistic market, they also fine-tune their written abilities – specifically written skills in academic english. university-bound young adults are influenced by intense and cumulative exposure to a highly literate academic environment, and in certain kinds of collegeand university-town settings, such an environment promotes dense and multiplex campus networks. i have completed pilot studies of undergraduate students (l1 english) in america (karstadt [now falk], 2002; falk, 2005) and gathered some limited additional data in sweden to track whether – and if so when – undergraduate students adjust their viewpoints on standard patterning in english. much of my inspiration has come from wolfram and schilling-estes (2006), who offer a well-reasoned discussion of the standard continuum in english and its dynamic nature. 3. sources of inspiration for the book on academic writing when i began planning the contents of my book thinking and writing in academic contexts: a university companion, my intention was to create a teaching undergraduate academic writing ibérica 22 (2011): 163-172 167 08 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 167 companion book that would not only help students make a smoother transition into their new roles in a department of english but would also help them approach typical assignments systematically rather than simply wait for trial and error to give them insights. many outstanding comprehensive handbooks (anson, schwegler & muth, 2008) and course books (devitt, reiff & bawarshi, 2004) already exist, so my purpose was never to try to produce a similar one. instead, i aimed to write a compact book that would distill the issues i emphasize in writing courses and contextualize these for speakers of l2 english who are simultaneously being exposed to university expectations. the issues include urging students think about how to organize texts, recognize strong qualities in written texts so that they know what to aim for in their own writing, and talk about various strengths and weaknesses of academic texts in a constructive way. to fullyfledged academics, such cognitive and socio-/text-linguistic processes are nearly second nature, but for a newcomer to university discourse, very few of the skills surrounding these issues are automatic or intuitive. perhaps it is reasonable to say that much, if not most, of the developmental growth in academic writing in english involves increasing one’s awareness of university language norms and culture. my focus in planning the book was thus to try to anticipate developmental steps that would help students expand their understanding of texts. in the early phases of drafting this book, i was inspired by the direct prose style used by rachel toor (and to some extent by emily toth, who sometimes writes under the pseudonym “ms. mentor”), whose columns appear regularly in the chronicle of higher education. judging by the number of these and other advice-type features in the chronicle of higher education alone, the academic advice genre flourishes and grows, no doubt because it offers insights on improving academic writing (see especially toor, 2011) and interpreting university culture and collegial communication (see especially toth, 2010). toor and toth are probably among the more recent “academic advisers”, because for many years generations of instructors seeking advice and support have been turning to the informative and accessible handbook on teaching at the college and university levels known as mckeachie’s teaching tips (mckeachie & svinicki, 2006, is just one of the more than a dozen editions of this handbook). certainly, ethnographic descriptions of universities have existed for quite some time (a fairly recent one with coverage of swedish universities is ehn & löfgren, 2004). inspired by these numerous observers of academic life, i wanted to produce a companion-style advice handbook for swedish angela falk ibérica 22 (2011): 163-172168 08 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 168 undergraduate students that they can use as they write academic essays in english. the book turned into a style that is a “companion adviser” or “tutor in a book form”, that is, reminders of some things to notice about academic texts and how to handle quite a few of the typical problem areas. 4. synopsis of the book on academic writing this research note will now offer a synopsis of the content of the book (160 pages). the book has a preface, six chapters, an afterword, appendices, and a section with primary and secondary references. in most of the chapters, i provide scenarios describing some ways hypothetical students work on specific types of academic assignments, ranging from very short essays to degree projects based on research. my goal with using fictional but nonetheless realistic scenarios is to give undergraduate readers some distance from their own approaches so that they can try their hand at diagnosing what seems to be working well or less well for the hypothetical students. at the end of each chapter, i include a “question and answer” section called “ask the tutor”, in which i address questions students ask on topics directly related to the themes covered in the chapter. for example, a frequently-asked question on peer review is “what should i do if the feedback from my classmate contradicts what my teacher says?”, and in my answer i try to guide the student writer through ways of handling this thorny academic dilemma. the chapters in the first half of the book deal with concepts relevant to the coursework of all undergraduate writers, l1 english and l2 alike: (chapter 1) finding and developing a planning/pre-writing style that works well for certain kinds of academic assignments; (chapter 2) talking about other persons’ texts, especially in peer review settings; and (chapter 3) knowing how to add structural cues to texts by shaping topic sentences in paragraphs and making judicious use of transitional words and phrases. the second half of the book turns to issues that are slightly more advanced (chapter 4) and also more specific (chapters 5 and 6). chapter 4 presents fundamental issues and intellectual challenges in writing research papers, and it covers such areas as developing research questions, research hypotheses, and thesis statements. chapter 5 focuses on standard language patterning. for students who are not accustomed to receiving extensive feedback on their written academic language, the comments they receive from their tutors in the first term of study can seem like harsh clarion calls. the chapter on teaching undergraduate academic writing ibérica 22 (2011): 163-172 169 08 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 169 academic language (chapter 5 “making your language patterns more academic”) begins by describing the expectations academic readers deserve to have when they read a satisfactory text. the chapter then moves into a “how-to” handbook style. there is some specific advice to help students develop their level of academic literacy (see, for instance, the list “some practices and habits of scholars with active minds”). the longest section in the chapter is comprised of “how to fix typical problems”. the problems presented and addressed begin with a host of some sentence-level glitches that are not by any means limited to l2 writers in english (e.g. sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and strange semantics caused by mixed metaphors) before the treatment in the chapter shifts to addressing some typical negative transfer patterns from swedish to english. such negative transfer patterns involve semantic false friends, as well as some rather pervasive l2 practices with punctuation and numerals that – to the reader accustomed to standard, edited english texts – reveal “swenglish” patterning. to round off this chapter, i provide the readers with a copyediting checklist that will help writers locate some typical problem areas (toor, 2011), and then i conclude with a thematic “ask the tutor” section. even though undergraduate students in my department do not write research papers until their second term of study, they must abide by a code of academic ethics already in their first term of study. that is, they must sufficiently identify all secondary sources they consult and use in writing their assignments and avoid all forms of plagiarism and academic misconduct. the final chapter in my book (chapter 6 “documenting your sources”) explains the basics of documentation, including the use of internal documentation, footnotes, endnotes, and the basic patterns in mla and apa style sheets. as in the case of previous chapters, there are practical checklists that remind students what they need to watch for when they copyedit their papers, and the chapter rounds off with an “ask the tutor” section. 5. conclusion this research note highlighted some of the developmental and sociolinguistic issues that guided me as i wrote a very practical university companion for writers. in the future, i hope to be able to devote more time to conducting research on the developmental cline of language standardization patterns revealed by highly proficient non-native users of angela falk ibérica 22 (2011): 163-172170 08 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 170 english. until then, however, i hope that thinking and writing in academic contexts: a university companion will help undergraduate students as they make sure steps toward being fully-fledged academic writers. [paper received february 2011] [revised paper accepted april 2011] references angela falk is senior lecturer in english linguistics in the department of english at uppsala university, sweden. she teaches courses on academic writing and on sociolinguistics in the ma program in english, and a range of proficiency and teaching-methods courses in the english education program at uppsala university. teaching undergraduate academic writing ibérica 22 (2011): 163-172 171 anson, c.m., r.a. schwegler & m.f. muth (2008). the longman writer’s companion with exercises, 4th ed. new york: pearson longman. chambers, j.k. (2009). sociolinguistic theory. linguistic variation and its social significance, revised ed. chichester, west sussex: wiley-blackwell. crystal, d. (2003). english as a global language, 2nd ed. cambridge: cambridge university press. devitt, a., m.j. reiff & a. bawarshi (2004). scenes of writing. strategies for composing with genres. new york: pearson longman. ehn, b. & o. löfgren (2004). hur blir man klok på universitetet? lund: studentlitteratur. eckert, p. (2000). linguistic variation as social practice. the linguistic construction of identity in belten high. malden, mass: blackwell publishing. falk, a. (2005). “perceptions of standard english in two college towns” in b. melander, g. bergmanclaeson, o. josephson, l. larsson, b. nordberg & c. östman (eds). språk i tid: studier tillägnade mats thelander på 60-årsdagen (skrifter utgivna av institutionen för nordiska språk 67), 154-165. uppsala: department of scandinavian languages. falk, a. (2011). thinking and writing in academic contexts: a university companion. lund: studentlitteratur. jenkins, j. (2009). world englishes. a resource book for students, 2nd ed. london: routledge. karstadt [now falk], a. (2002). “standard englishes: what do undergraduates think?” english today 18: 38-47. mckeachie, w.j. & m. svinicki. (2006). mckeachie’s teaching tips. strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers, 12th ed. boston: houghton mifflin. toor, r. (2011). “how do you learn to edit yourself?” the chronicle of higher education. url: http://chronicle.com/article/how-do-you-learn-toedit/123609 [30/01/2011] toth, e. (2010). “where shall i go a-conferencing?” the chronicle of higher education. url: http://chronicle.com/article/where-shall-igo/66132/ [5/02/2011] wolfram, w. & n. schilling-estes (2006). american english: dialects and variation, 2nd ed. malden, mass: blackwell. ——-. the chronicle of higher education. url: www.chronicle.com [30/01/2011] 08 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 171 08 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 172 ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 resumen describimos el uso de estrategias de atenuación en 40 artículos de revisión (ar), publicados en español en revistas iberoamericanas entre 1994 y 2004. identificamos las estrategias empleadas en las secciones retóricas por medio de un análisis contextual de género y clasificamos los atenuantes en cinco categorías: construcciones impersonales, deícticos temporales, aproximadores, escudos y atenuantes compuestos. los resultados muestran que hay abundantes y variadas estrategias de atenuación en las tres secciones retóricas del ar, aunque son más frecuentes en el desarrollo y en la introducción. predomina el modal epistémico “poder”, los adverbios y los adjetivos de posibilidad y probabilidad, y los verbos epistémicos. registramos varias construcciones impersonales empleadas para atenuar. los aproximadores se usan para expresar honestidad y varios niveles de certidumbre en las proposiciones; los deícticos temporales, para expresar provisionalidad y sugerir varias interpretaciones. concluimos que la atenuación puede estar relacionada con la posición de los autores en la comunidad científica y con las características del ar como género discursivo. asimismo, el nivel de expectativa en la escritura de este género podría condicionar cómo se presentan las proposiciones. palabras clave: atenuación, artículos de revisión, español, odontología, análisis del discurso. abstract hedging in dental review articles published in spanish: an exploratory study this paper describes the use of hedges in 40 review articles (ra) published in spanish in hispanoamerican journals between 1994 and 2004. the hedges found in each section of the ra were identified and classified using contextual and genre la atenuación en artículos de revisión odontológicos en español: estudio exploratorio1 oscar a. morales*, daniel cassany* y carolina gonzález-peña** universitat pompeu fabra* y universidad de los andes (venezuela)** oscarula@ula.ve, daniel.cassany@upf.edu y caromorales27@hotmail.com 33 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 33 analysis. the hedges recorded were classified according to five pre-established categories: impersonal constructions, time deictic expressions, approximators, shields and compound hedges. results show that different hedging strategies are used very often in the three rhetorical sections of the ra, more frequently in the development and in the introduction sections. the use of the epistemic modal may, adverbs and adjectives of possibility and probability, and epistemic verbs predominate. different impersonal constructions used to mitigate are registered. approximators are used to express honesty and levels of certainty of the truth of propositions; the temporary deictics, to express tentativeness and to suggest other interpretations. we conclude that the use of hedges can be associated with the position of authors in the scientific community, the characteristics of ra as a discursive genre. moreover, what the members of the dental community expect of this genre could condition the way propositions are presented. key words: hedging, review articles, spanish, dental, discourse analysis. 1. introducción el artículo de revisión (en lo sucesivo, ar, en singular y plural) es muy popular en las ciencias médicas (velásquez, 1986; pulido, 1989; day, 1990; mulrow, 1994; oxman y guyatt, 1994; huth, 1999; matthews et al., 2000). tiene inestimable valor conceptual y práctico para clínicos e investigadores: mantiene actualizados a los primeros, que carecen del tiempo necesario para leer todo lo que se publica; y ofrece síntesis críticas de calidad a los segundos. el dominio del ar también es importante para los aprendices de pregrado y postgrado que aspiran a pertenecer a estas comunidades. en biomedicina existen bases de datos, revistas y anuarios dirigidos a la publicación de ar, además de volúmenes y ediciones sólo para este género. también en odontología el ar tiene aplicaciones profesionales y académicas (morales et al., 2006). el corpus de este estudio, por ejemplo, fue seleccionado de revistas internacionales (véase la relación detallada en el anexo) que tenían secciones fijas tituladas: revisión de la literatura, revisión bibliográfica, artículos de revisión, puesta al día y artículo de actualización. creemos necesario estudiar los discursos que se producen en las distintas disciplinas del saber para determinar sus particularidades. como el discurso producido en la comunidad odontológica no ha sido estudiado, esta investigación pretende identificar y describir retóricamente los atenuantes usados en los ar de odontología escritos en español, con el propósito de diseñar estrategias didácticas para la enseñanza de los mismos en la formación de odontólogos. o.a. morales, d. cassany y gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 34 2. atenuación y discurso científico 2.1. estudios previos existen numerosos estudios sobre el uso de la atenuación en el discurso oral y escrito en varias disciplinas y lenguas, sobre todo en inglés. en español sólo existen algunos trabajos interesantes como los de ballesteros (2002), que compara la cortesía del discurso oral en español e inglés; moreno (1998), mendiluce (2004), mendiluce y hernández (2005), oliver del olmo (2004) que se centran en el uso de la atenuación en los artículos científicos en inglés y español; y tolchinsky y rosado (2005) que estudian la modalidad epistémica en el discurso académico oral y escrito. entre los trabajos del discurso oral en inglés destaca el clásico de prince et al. (1982). en cambio, los estudios sobre el discurso escrito, tanto en inglés como en otras lenguas, son más numerosos. sin ánimo de exhaustividad, cabe destacar: myers (1989, 1990 y 1991), markkanen y schröder (1989, 1997a y 1997b), salager-meyer (1994), hyland (1998), salager-meyer et al. (1996), luukka y markkanen (1997), lewin (1998), salager-meyer y defives (1998), fortanet et al. (2001), del saz rubio (2001), pérez-llantada (2003), vass (2004) y vold (2006). a partir de estos estudios, inferimos que el discurso científico es altamente atenuado; el uso de las estrategias depende de la lengua, la disciplina, el género y su propósito o la sección retórica. asimismo, la mayoría reconoce dos grandes dimensiones asociadas a la atenuación: la semántica y la pragmática. 2.2. atenuantes en el discurso científico escrito la arrogancia y la exuberancia no son bien percibidas en el discurso científico. son motivo de rechazo de la publicación de trabajos o de la obtención de proyectos de investigación. myers (1990) describió cómo dos biólogos reconocidos tuvieron que transformar sus textos, eliminando la arrogancia y rebajando el tono de sus afirmaciones, para obtener recursos y publicar sus trabajos. la comunidad científica prefiere textos que proyecten modestia, humildad, precaución y honestidad (salager-meyer, 1994), que presenten los resultados como opiniones provisionales y no como hechos o verdades categóricas. las estrategias de atenuación permiten alcanzar estos objetivos. no hay acuerdo sobre la denominación hispana del término inglés hedging/hedges (moreno, 1998; salager-meyer y defives, 1998). se utiliza la atenuación en artículos de revisión ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 35 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 35 atenuación, matización, matizadores, matizadores asertivos, atenuantes, estrategias de atenuación, escudos lingüísticos o, simplemente, su forma anglosajona (hyland, 1998; varttala, 2001; mendiluce, 2004). aquí usaremos indistintamente las expresiones atenuación, atenuantes y estrategias de atenuación, siguiendo a haverkate (1994). myers (1989), swales (1990), salager-meyer (1994) y hyland (1998) coinciden en definir los atenuantes como un conjunto de mecanismos estilísticos, retóricos, semánticos y pragmáticos, muy persuasivos, convencionales de cada comunidad discursiva. se emplean en la comunicación científica entre especialistas con tres propósitos: a) suavizar o reducir la fuerza o el nivel de certidumbre de una proposición, para expresar así su provisionalidad y diferenciarla de los hechos que comparte la comunidad (moreno, 1998); b) reducir el grado de compromiso del autor con sus afirmaciones, para evitar las amenazas hacia los miembros de la comunidad ya establecidos y los potenciales rechazos y críticas (brown y levinson, 1987) y; c) proyectar amabilidad, deferencia y respeto hacia los colegas (moreno, 1998). además, la atenuación suele ser multifuncional: un recurso permite lograr varias funciones y una función puede alcanzarse con diferentes recursos (vass, 2004). 2.3. clasificación de la atenuación destacamos las clasificaciones de atenuantes más relevantes. prince et al. (1982) distinguen entre “aproximadores” y “escudos” en su estudio del discurso oral entre médicos: • los aproximadores afectan al contenido proposicional, su verosimilitud y su certidumbre (dimensión semántica), pero no al compromiso del hablante. se caracterizan por presentar los datos sin precisión, como: aproximadamente, alrededor, más o menos, de alguna forma, cerca de, etc. hay dos subtipos: los “redondeadores” y los “adaptadores”. • los escudos afectan al compromiso del hablante con lo expresado y con la audiencia (dimensión pragmática). los más comunes son adverbios y adjetivos epistémicos (probablemente, posiblemente), verbos modales epistémicos y verbos no objetivos. hay dos subtipos: a) de posibilidad: que expresan duda e incertidumbre; y b) de atribución, que atribuyen la creencia a alguien más, por lo que el nivel de compromiso personal del interlocutor sólo puede ser inferido indirectamente. o.a. morales, d. cassany y gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-5836 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 36 salager-meyer (1994) estudia los matizadores en artículos de investigación y reportes de casos médicos (o casos clínicos) y añade tres categorías: • dudas personales e implicación personal: son frases preposicionales y oraciones en primera persona (plural mayestático) que sugieren duda, como: en nuestra opinión, para nosotros, creemos, pensamos, desde nuestra perspectiva, desde nuestro punto de vista. • intensificadores cargados de emotividad: proyectan la reacción emotiva del autor, como: extremadamente, desafortunadamente, de particular importancia, interesante. • atenuantes compuestos: son frases que combinan dos o más estrategias de atenuación, como en el siguiente ejemplo que combina una forma impersonal o desagentivación, un condicional y un verbo epistémico: estos resultados podrían sugerir que... más adelante, salager-meyer y defives (1998) incluyen la voz pasiva como atenuante en el discurso médico: en las oraciones pasivas se oculta al responsable de lo dicho, lo cual reduce su compromiso con lo afirmado a los ojos del lector. también fortanet et al. (2001) adopta la taxonomía de salager-meyer e incluye dos nuevas categorías: el paréntesis y las comillas. del mismo modo, luukka y markkanen (1997) y oliver del olmo (2004) estudian las formas impersonales: desagentivación, nominalización, primera persona singular y plural mayestático (grupo vago, general) e impersonal propiamente dicho (se sabe, se puede, hay, se cree), que expresan falta de compromiso con el contenido. hyland (1998) distingue dos grupos: a) la atenuación orientada hacia el contenido, que incluye dos subtipos: la orientada hacia el escritor y la orientada hacia la precisión; y b) la atenuación orientada hacia el lector. finalmente, vold (2006) estudia artículos médicos y lingüísticos y distingue dos categorías: a) atenuantes reales, estrategias utilizadas para expresar incertidumbre o modalizar el nivel de certeza real de la proposición (semántico); y b) atenuantes estratégicos, asociados a la expresión de tentatividad, precaución, amabilidad y humildad. 2.4. el artículo de revisión (ar) el ar recibe varias denominaciones: revisiones sistemáticas, meta-análisis, monografías, revisiones narrativas tradicionales, revisiones bibliográficas, puesta al día, artículo de actualización, estado de la cuestión, revisión de la literatura, etc. aunque pueda tener formatos diferentes y seguir varias metodologías, muchas la atenuación en artículos de revisión ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 37 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 37 revistas no establecen distinciones y se refieren genéricamente a artículo de revisión (morales et al., 2006). el ar es “un estudio pormenorizado, selectivo y crítico, que integra la información esencial en una perspectiva unitaria de conjunto” (pulido, 1989: 745). consiste en la revisión y análisis de un tema que hace un experto desde dos perspectivas: su experiencia propia y el vaciado de la bibliografía publicada. el ar examina, resume e interpreta los estudios científicos previos más relevantes y fiables (myers, 1991; oxman y guyatt, 1994). huth (1999), day (1990) y salager-meyer et al. (1996) consideran que el ar carece de una organización preestablecida. en cambio, murlow (1995), petticrew (2003) y gisbert y bonfill (2004) clasifican los ar en dos grupos: “revisiones sistemáticas”, que siguen el formato clásico del artículo de investigación, y “revisiones narrativas tradicionales”, que siguen la superestructura expositiva “introducción, desarrollo y conclusión”. morales et al. (2006: 87-88) encontraron que los ar odontológicos siguen el formato de las revisiones narrativas tradicionales. 3. objetivos, metodología y corpus la presente investigación se propone determinar qué tipo de estrategias de atenuación se usan y para qué propósito en los ar publicados en revistas odontológicas iberoamericanas. para ello describimos y analizamos las atenuaciones usadas en las tres secciones retóricas del ar. como investigación exploratoria, descriptiva y cualitativa, adoptamos la perspectiva del análisis textual desarrollada por salager-meyer (salager-meyer, 1994; salager-meyer et al., 1996; salager-meyer y defives, 1998). nuestro análisis consistió en identificar, en contexto, las realizaciones lingüísticas empleadas como estrategia de atenuación. recurrimos a expertos odontólogos como informantes especializados para garantizar la validez y la fiabilidad de los resultados. 3.1. corpus de estudio componen el corpus 40 ar (240 páginas, 200.000 palabras, aproximadamente), publicados en español en seis revistas iberoamericanas entre los años 1994 y 2004: cuatro españolas, una argentina y una venezolana (para más detalle, véase el anexo). los ar tienen una extensión promedio de 5.000 palabras (oscilando entre 2.500 y 20.000), siendo 7.000 palabras la o.a. morales, d. cassany y gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-5838 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 38 extensión más frecuente (posiblemente porque así lo prescriben algunas revistas). el número de ar y el tamaño del corpus parecen suficientes al superar los utilizados en investigaciones previas en medicina y otras áreas (salager-meyer y defives, 1998). 3.2. criterios para la selección del corpus para seleccionar las revistas, consideramos estos criterios: a) ser publicaciones regulares; b) editarse en español, en algún país iberoamericano; c) estar respaldadas por las instituciones asociadas al campo profesional, académico e investigador de la odontología; d) estar indizadas en directorios de amplio acceso; e) contemplar la evaluación de los artículos que publican (arbitraje o peer reviews); y f) ser utilizadas por docentes e investigadores iberoamericanos. una vez definidas las revistas, seleccionamos los textos que cumplieran los requisitos siguientes: 1. estuvieran identificados como ar porque: a) así se especificaba en el título o resumen; b) se indicaba al inicio del texto, y c) aparecían en la sección correspondiente de la revista2 (para los casos en que estos criterios no fueron aplicables, verificamos que no fueran estudios clínicos o experimentales con formato de artículo de investigación); 2. hubieran sido escritos originalmente en español para la revista en la que se publicó; 3. tuvieran autoría hispanohablante, adscrita a instituciones iberoamericanas; y 4. se hubieran publicado entre 1994 y 2004. 3.3. taxonomía de atenuaciones para analizar los datos tomamos como referencia estas categorías (las cuatro primeras son adaptaciones de estudios previos y la última es una contribución propia): • “construcciones impersonales”: verbos impersonales, desagentivaciones y pasivas desagentivadas (que no hagan mención explícita al agente) y plural mayestático, referidos a colectivos generales, vagos, sin referencia a algún agente humano específico. ejemplos: los resultados sugieren, hoy sabemos, se sabe que. la atenuación en artículos de revisión ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 39 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 39 • “escudos”: verbos modales epistémicos, verbos epistémicos, adverbios y adjetivos de posibilidad y probabilidad. ejemplos: poder, podría, parecer, sugerir, posible, probable. • “aproximadores”: adverbios de cantidad, de grado, de frecuencia y de tiempo. ejemplos: aproximadamente, alrededor, más o menos, de alguna forma, cerca de, ocasionalmente, y verbos que expresan imprecisión, como oscilar, variar. • “atenuantes compuestos”: las combinaciones de dos ó más estrategias de atenuación. ejemplo: los resultados podrían sugerir (impersonal, modal epistémico y verbo epistémico). • “deícticos temporales”: expresiones que circunscriben las afirmaciones al momento en que se publicó el artículo. ejemplo: hoy en día, hoy día, actualmente, hasta ahora, en la actualidad, hoy, entre otros. 3.4. procedimiento de análisis el análisis tuvo tres fases: 1. identificación y registro manual de los atenuantes. 2. análisis de las realizaciones identificadas tomando como referencia el contexto (lingüístico y social) y el cotexto, para seleccionar sólo aquellas que expresaran atenuación y rechazar las que no cumplieran con los criterios teóricos (salager-meyer, 1994). para garantizar la fiabilidad y la validez de los resultados, siguiendo a oliver del olmo (2004), hubo un análisis intraevaluador (los investigadores repitieron en varias ocasiones las fases 1 y 2) y otro interevaluador (los odontólogos informantes validaron los resultados obtenidos). 3. clasificación de los atenuantes seleccionados a partir de la taxonomía anterior. 4. resultados y discusión presentamos primero algunos resultados cuantitativos. después describimos y analizamos cualitativamente y por separado las distintas estrategias de atenuación usadas en cada sección retórica del ar.3 o.a. morales, d. cassany y gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-5840 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 40 4.1. consideraciones cuantitativas desde el punto de vista retórico, los ar analizados siguen el formato de las revisiones narrativas tradicionales: introducción, desarrollo y conclusión. aunque los atenuantes se usan en todas las secciones retóricas, en la introducción y en el desarrollo se registran las medias más altas: 5% y 3%, respectivamente (véase la tabla i). esto representa una frecuencia de uso de 19 palabras, para la introducción, y de 29 palabras, para el desarrollo. la alta frecuencia de uso de atenuantes en la introducción (sección que ocupa el 10% de la extensión total) se debe probablemente a que este componente incluye los movimientos retóricos considerados macroestrategias de atenuación (lewin, 1998). en cambio, la conclusión (con una extensión media del 8%) presenta el promedio de uso de atenuantes más bajo (1%), con una frecuencia de uso de 93 palabras. probablemente, los autores, una vez que revisan y evalúan la literatura objeto de estudio, expresan con mayor responsabilidad y compromiso las proposiciones con las que están más identificados. esto coincide con los resultados de moreno (1998), quien encontró que en español se atenúa menos en las conclusiones debido a que el autor muestra mayor confianza en la certidumbre de las afirmaciones realizadas. en la tabla i, describimos la extensión promedio de las secciones del ar y la frecuencia de aparición de estrategias de atenuación en cada una de éstas. aunque la atenuación no se limita a ciertas secciones retóricas, algunas son más atenuadas que otras. esto coincide con estudios previos en los que se ha encontrado que la discusión y, en menor medida, la introducción de los artículos de investigación, son más atenuadas que la sección de metodología (salager-meyer, 1994; salager-meyer et al., 1996; salager-meyer y defives, 1998; fortanet et al., 1998a; oliver del olmo, 2004). asimismo, las estrategias de atenuación analizadas se usaron en proporciones similares en las distintas secciones retóricas del ar. por contraposición a los resultados la atenuación en artículos de revisión ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 41 o.a. morales, d. cassany y c. gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: …-…8 respectivamente (véase la tabla i). esto representa una frecuencia de uso de 19 palabras, para la introducción, y de 29 palabras, para el desarrollo. la alta frecuencia de uso de atenuantes en la introducción (sección que ocupa el 10% de la extensión total) se debe probablemente a que este componente incluye los movimientos retóricos considerados macroestrategias de atenuación (lewin, 1998). en cambio, la conclusión (con una extensión media del 8%) presenta el promedio de uso de atenuantes más bajo (1%), con una frecuencia de uso de 93 palabras. probablemente, los autores, una vez que revisan y evalúan la literatura objeto de estudio, expresan con mayor responsabilidad y compromiso las proposiciones con las que están más identificados. esto coincide con los resultados de moreno (1998), quien encontró que en español se atenúa menos en las conclusiones debido a que el autor muestra mayor confianza en la certidumbre de las afirmaciones realizadas. en la tabla i, describimos la extensión promedio de las secciones del ar y la frecuencia de aparición de estrategias de atenuación en cada una de éstas. extensión promedio por sección/artículo % media de atenuantes por sección/artículo % frecuencia de atenuantes por sección /artículo introducción 500 10 26,2 5,24 19,08 desarrollo 4080 82 138,1 3,38 29,54 conclusión 420 8 4,5 1,07 93,33 artículos 5000 100 168,8 3,37 29,62 tabla i. frecuencia relativa de uso de los atenuantes según la sección retórica. aunque la atenuación no se limita a ciertas secciones retóricas, algunas son más atenuadas que otras. esto coincide con estudios previos en los que se ha encontrado que la discusión y, en menor medida, la introducción de los artículos de investigación, son más atenuadas que la sección de metodología (salagermeyer, 1994; salager-meyer et al., 1996; salager-meyer y defives, 1998; fortanet et al., 1998a; oliver del olmo, 2004). asimismo, las estrategias de atenuación analizadas se usaron en proporciones similares en las distintas secciones retóricas del ar. por contraposición a los resultados de hyland (1998), en nuestro corpus se emplearon de forma similar las estrategias que modulan la certidumbre del contenido proposicional (dimensión semántica) y las que mitigan el compromiso del escritor con el contenido (dimensión pragmática). de forma general, predominó el uso de escudos y construcciones impersonales (37% y 33%, respectivamente), seguido de aproximadores (12%), atenuantes compuestos (10%) y deícticos temporales (6%). esto coincide con los resultados de salager-meyer (1994), salager-meyer et al. (1996), moreno (1998), salagermeyer y defives (1998), fortanet et al. (1998a) y oliver del olmo (2004). esta distribución se refleja claramente en la introducción y el desarrollo. en la conclusión se mantienen estos valores, pero los escudos aumentan, alcanzando el 53% de los casos de atenuación. en la tabla ii se describe el uso de las 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 41 de hyland (1998), en nuestro corpus se emplearon de forma similar las estrategias que modulan la certidumbre del contenido proposicional (dimensión semántica) y las que mitigan el compromiso del escritor con el contenido (dimensión pragmática). de forma general, predominó el uso de escudos y construcciones impersonales (37% y 33%, respectivamente), seguido de aproximadores (12%), atenuantes compuestos (10%) y deícticos temporales (6%). esto coincide con los resultados de salager-meyer (1994), salager-meyer et al. (1996), moreno (1998), salager-meyer y defives (1998), fortanet et al. (1998a) y oliver del olmo (2004). esta distribución se refleja claramente en la introducción y el desarrollo. en la conclusión se mantienen estos valores, pero los escudos aumentan, alcanzando el 53% de los casos de atenuación. en la tabla ii se describe el uso de las estrategias de atenuación en las distintas secciones del ar. 4.2. la atenuación en la introducción (1) construcciones impersonales las formas impersonales estaban asociadas, en general, a los movimientos retóricos de establecimiento del territorio y ocupación del nicho. funcionan como un mecanismo al que recurre el autor para protegerse de posibles críticas, evadir la responsabilidad de la afirmación o disminuir la fuerza de la afirmación (lewin, 1998). ejemplos:4 (1) se entiende como diente incluido la retención total o parcial de una pieza dentaria dentro del maxilar … (reoe-2) (2) se recomienda, también, que el tratamiento para cualquier paciente … (rcoe-3) (3) el término neuralgia significa … (reoe-5) (4) debido a su ubicación, considerada de alto compromiso estético, o.a. morales, d. cassany y gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-5842 la atenuación en artículos de revisión estrategias de atenuación en las distintas secciones del ar. escudos construcciones impersonales aproximadores atenuantes compuestos deícticos temp. introducción 36,25% 31,06% 19,42% 10,66% 2,59% desarrollo 37,33% 33,88% 10,94% 10,13% 7,7% conclusión 53,33% 25% 17,7% 2,77% 1,11% artículos 37,41% 33,29% 12,4% 10,1% 6,78% tabla ii. promedios de uso de las estrategias de atenuación en las tres secciones retóricas del ar. 4.2. la atenuación en la introducción (1) construcciones impersonales las formas impersonales estaban asociadas, en general, a los movimientos retóricos de establecimiento del territorio y ocupación del nicho. funcionan como un mecanismo al que recurre el autor para protegerse de posibles críticas, evadir la responsabilidad de la afirmación o disminuir la fuerza de la afirmación (lewin, 1998). ejemplos:4 (1) se entiende como diente incluido la retención total o parcial de una pieza dentaria dentro del maxilar … (reoe-2) (2) se recomienda, también, que el tratamiento para cualquier paciente … (rcoe-3) (3) el término neuralgia significa … (reoe-5) (4) debido a su ubicación, considerada de alto compromiso estético, estas situaciones merecen de una minuciosa evaluación antes de ser restaurada … (raoa-8) (5) existe la percepción entre los terapeutas que la caries por amamantamiento es menos frecuente que la producida por la alimentación natural … (aov-3) en los ejemplos 1 y 2, el impersonal clásico evita atribuir la responsabilidad de la afirmación a algún agente determinado. en los casos 3 y 4, se apela a la desagentivación, la eliminación de un agente humano, para dar voz a la propia investigación; de esta manera, el autor se protege de potenciales críticas (moreno, 1998). igualmente, permiten criticar con precaución (luukka y markkanen, 1997), como el ejemplo 5. de este modo, se da a entender que la crítica la realiza la comunidad científica y no el autor del artículo. las construcciones pasivas se usaron con propósitos similares. parece que al presentar las afirmaciones sin mencionar el agente que las produjo, el autor se siente más seguro, tal como se observa en los ejemplos 6, 7 y 8. markkanen y schröder (1989), luukka y markkanen (1997) y salager-meyer y defives (1998) han encontrado resultados similares. 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 42 estas situaciones merecen de una minuciosa evaluación antes de ser restaurada … (raoa-8) (5) existe la percepción entre los terapeutas que la caries por amamantamiento es menos frecuente que la producida por la alimentación natural … (aov-3) en los ejemplos 1 y 2, el impersonal clásico evita atribuir la responsabilidad de la afirmación a algún agente determinado. en los casos 3 y 4, se apela a la desagentivación, la eliminación de un agente humano, para dar voz a la propia investigación; de esta manera, el autor se protege de potenciales críticas (moreno, 1998). igualmente, permiten criticar con precaución (luukka y markkanen, 1997), como el ejemplo 5. de este modo, se da a entender que la crítica la realiza la comunidad científica y no el autor del artículo. las construcciones pasivas se usaron con propósitos similares. parece que al presentar las afirmaciones sin mencionar el agente que las produjo, el autor se siente más seguro, tal como se observa en los ejemplos 6, 7 y 8. markkanen y schröder (1989), luukka y markkanen (1997) y salager-meyer y defives (1998) han encontrado resultados similares. (6) el potencial de influencia de los medios de comunicación, sobre gran parte de la población, ha sido discutida por muchas instancias concluyendo que éste es innegable y concluyente (aov-9). (7) la necesidad de una dentición completa (14 unidades oclusales antagónicas) para mantener una adecuada función, ha sido por muchos años un dogma generalmente aceptado en odontología restauradora (aov-6) (8) los desordenes témporo-mandibulares se han identificado como la causa más frecuente del dolor no dental de la región orofacial … (reoe-1) coincidiendo con luukka y markkanen (1997), el plural mayestático también se empleó como construcción impersonal, al hacer referencia a un colectivo vago, a agentes humanos indeterminados, como en los ejemplos 9-11. (9) desde 1965 aceptamos que la enfermedad periodontal es una enfermedad infecciosa producida por las bacterias … (raoa-1). la atenuación en artículos de revisión ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 43 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 43 (10) aun en la actualidad, encontramos datos que encuentran variaciones de cordales incorrectamente erupcionados entre individuos jóvenes, oscilando desde el 77% ... (recom-3) (11) aunque al principio se creía que era un proceso de demencia presenil raro, en la actualidad conocemos que puede afectar a personas de cualquier década … (reoe-7) (2) escudos como en estudios previos, los escudos se usan con mucha frecuencia, para disminuir el compromiso del autor con las afirmaciones hechas (ejemplos 1213) y para matizar afirmaciones que puedan generar críticas, desacuerdos (ejemplo 14) o ser tomadas como una amenaza (brown y levinson, 1987; myers, 1989). (12) mientras la regla general del cuidado dental ha sido mantener una dentición completa, recientes estudios sugieren que esto pueda no ser necesario ni conveniente para todos los pacientes (aov-6) (13) dentro del marco que caracteriza al maltrato y al abuso físico, el odontólogo tiene la posibilidad de ver al niño con más frecuencia que el médico de cabecera … (aov-12) (14) la erupción dentaria es sólo una parte, quizás la más aparente, del total del movimiento … (reoe-4) por medio de los escudos también se proyecta honestidad y tentatividad (ejemplos 15-16) (salager-meyer, 1994). al no disponer de evidencia para afirmar categóricamente, el autor opta por modular el nivel de certidumbre (mendiluce y hernández, 2005); además, la afirmación categórica podría proyectar arrogancia, falta de modestia o una actitud poco aceptada por la comunidad científica (myers, 1989 y 1990). ejemplos: (15) sin embargo, existe también una preocupación añadida sobre su uso, debido a los posibles efectos que tiene sobre la salud, ya que las aleaciones contienen mercurio, que es potencialmente tóxico (reoe-3). (16) el método ideal debería permitirnos… (recom-1) o.a. morales, d. cassany y gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-5844 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 44 (3) aproximadores los aproximadores afectan, principalmente, al grado de certidumbre de las afirmaciones, pero no indican vacío de conocimiento, como encontró salager-meyer (1994). se emplean, en cambio, para expresar honestidad cuando no se dispone de datos exactos, cuando no es relevante precisar (ejemplos 17-18), o para evitar asumir posturas categóricas que puedan parecer arrogantes (ejemplos 19-20). (17) …pero se siguen encontrando índices de caries superiores al 60% (caries activas no tratadas) que se corresponden con índices de restauración en torno al 35% (rcoe-2) (18) …se ha avanzado igualmente en el conocimiento de la patología disfuncional de la atm, causa de la mayor parte de los problemas relacionados con la articulación … (reoe-1) (19) en la llamada “edad de la sabiduría” oscila generalmente entre los 18 y los 24 años … (recom-2) (20) se estima que casi nueve de cada diez venezolanas inician la alimentación natural … (aov-3) (4) atenuantes compuestos los atenuantes compuestos consisten en la yuxtaposición de distintas estrategias de atenuación en un mismo enunciado, para enfatizar la falta de compromiso y evadir la responsabilidad personal en relación con la verdad de las proposiciones (salager-meyer, 1994; hyland, 1998). se registra una mayor frecuencia de los atenuantes compuestos con las distintas formas impersonales, como puede observarse en los ejemplos 21-23 siguientes: (21) hoy en día se admite que la causa del fracaso no suele ser la anastomosis … (recom-1) (22) la afectación severa de la dentición temporal en el lactante se asocia frecuentemente al hábito de dormir con: biberones que contengan leche … (aov-3) (23) un estudio cuidadoso suele revelar que la región necrótica es paralela a un vaso sanguíneo del que está separado por una zona viable de 1 a 2 mm. probablemente, esta zona de 1 a 2 mm alrededor del vaso, representa la velocidad máxima a la que puede difundirse … (raoa-7) la atenuación en artículos de revisión ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 45 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 45 (5) deícticos temporales registramos numerosos deícticos temporales para expresar tentatividad del saber (ejemplo 24), abriendo la posibilidad de que un determinado problema se haya interpretado de manera distinta a la actual (ejemplo 25) y de que en el futuro haya interpretaciones y aplicaciones distintas e igualmente válidas (ejemplos 26-27). generalmente se acompañan con alguna forma impersonal. entre los más usados están: hoy en día, hoy día, actualmente, hasta ahora, en la actualidad, hoy. ejemplos: (24) trastornos alimenticios como la bulimia y otros, son en la actualidad motivo de consulta (aov-9). (25) hoy en día se da mayor importancia a ciertos requisitos como la estética y el bienestar funcional (aov-6) (26) la identificación de individuos susceptibles a la destrucción periodontal, así como los factores que hacen su susceptibilidad, es un desafío a la periodoncia de hoy (raoa-5) (27) hoy es aceptado por numerosos autores e investigadores que un diente … (raoa-4) 4.3. la atenuación en el desarrollo (1) construcciones impersonales al igual que en la introducción, las construcciones impersonales son muy usadas en esta sección retórica. hay desagentivaciones, nominalizaciones, pasivas desagentivadas, el plural mayestático referido a grupos vagos e impersonales propiamente dichos. sus propósitos varían: para atenuar la crítica (ejemplo 28), para presentar las afirmaciones como un saber socialmente compartido (ejemplo 29), para evitar asumir el compromiso de la verdad de la proposición (ejemplo 30), o para evitar posibles críticas al presentar datos controvertidos (ejemplos 31-32). (28) … no se ha determinado la etiología exacta de los puntos de gatillo … (aov-8) (29) la anestesia general se define como un estado reversible de inconsciencia producido por agentes anestésicos … (aov-4) (30) se han identificado diez tipos diferentes de s.e.d. (aov-2) o.a. morales, d. cassany y gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-5846 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 46 (31) las pautas actuales sugieren que para este procedimiento se cuente con … (aov-4) (32) … investigaciones realizadas reportan que la etiología de la periodontitis está asociada a la presencia de especies … (aov-10) (2) escudos registramos una amplia variedad de escudos: el modal poder, adverbios y adjetivos de posibilidad y probabilidad, y verbos epistémicos. algunos expresan la falta de compromiso del autor frente a la verdad de la proposición (ejemplos 33-35), y otros reproducen, textualmente, las palabras del documento original (ejemplo 36). como se mencionó, los datos a partir de los cuales se elaboran los ar provienen de publicaciones previas, por lo que la cita puede reproducir o parafrasear las estrategias de atenuación empleadas en el original. (33) … sin embargo, es posible que esta placa se extienda hasta el fondo del surco gingival. (aov-17) (34) esto parece tener una acción de bomba … (aov-13) (35) en sus hallazgos sugiere que la osteoporosis afecta la velocidad de la reabsorción ósea. (raoa-1) (36) en la primera hay una indicación de protección oral reglamentaria, mientras que en la segunda se sugiere la necesidad de uso de aparatos orales … (reoe-6) (3) aproximadores los aproximadores registrados se emplean sobre todo para proyectar honestidad, puesto que informan sobre la variabilidad de los datos. en algunos casos, esto refleja la modalización expresada por el autor del documento original, lo cual proyecta honestidad (ejemplos 37-40); en otros, son aproximaciones interpretativas del autor, realizadas con precaución para evitar potenciales críticas (ejemplos 41-43). (37) … puede “mojarla” al alcanzar ángulo de contacto (o de humectancia) cercanos a cero grado … (aov-14) (38) en general se estima que un diámetro de 2,5-3 mm de grosor con bordes bien definidos … (recom-2) la atenuación en artículos de revisión ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 47 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 47 (39) algunos autores consideran que este potencial decrece a partir de los 30 … (recom-2) (40) slots (1979) señala, que las bacterias aisladas a partir de individuos periodontalmente sanos son predominantemente cocos y bacilos. (aov-17) (41) … presentándoseles en numerosas veces, graves complicaciones hemorrágicas e infecciosas que frecuentemente terminaban con la vida del paciente … (aov-1) (42) está comprobado que el 3er molar tiene gran capacidad de erupción a los 18-20 años, pasando de situaciones de inclusión total a la erupción completa o parcial a los 27 años e incluso los treintena … (recom-3) (43) los valores registrados varían entre diferentes tejidos y entre diferentes pacientes, siendo sólo de ayuda … (recom-1) (4) atenuantes compuestos en el desarrollo, el uso de atenuantes compuestos sigue siendo frecuente. por lo general, se combina alguna construcción impersonal con otras estrategias de atenuación. pueden emplearse para evadir responsabilidad ocultando al agente (ejemplos 44-46), como en los casos descritos en la introducción, y simultáneamente proyectar honestidad y precisión, expresando la variabilidad de los datos (ejemplos 47-49): (44) esto puede ser atribuido a que … (aov-14) (45) existe evidencia clínica de que el sellado puede prevenir el progreso … (rcoe-2) (46) hay quien manifiesta que el uso de la anestesia intraligamentosa en el diagnóstico endodóncico puede ser … (rcoe-3) (47) diversas observaciones clínicas indican que los cambios en el hospedero son frecuentemente los responsables … (aov-15) (48) se ha demostrado que existe una estrecha correlación entre la formación del tubo (…) por lo que se ha sugerido desde entonces que este pudiera ser uno e los mecanismos … (aov-15) (49) signos que pueden sugerir la presencia de un canino incluido son … (reoe-2) o.a. morales, d. cassany y gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-5848 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 48 (5) deícticos temporales el uso de los deícticos temporales representa uno de los principales mecanismos para expresar tentatividad o provisionalidad, para indicar que existe la posibilidad de interpretaciones y aplicaciones alternativas (ejemplos 50-52). con eso se evita ser juzgado negativamente o considerado como arrogante. (50) …hasta convertirse en la actualidad en la principal técnica diagnóstica … (reoe-1) (51) actualmente el uso de amalgamas encapsuladas y la higiene en la práctica ha paliado esta situación (reoe-3) (52) hoy es evidente que la mayoría de los adultos padecen solamente de gingivitis… (aov-11). este tipo de atenuante es significativo en los ar en odontología, puesto que se trata de un género dirigido a ofrecer información actualizada para su aplicación clínica en una disciplina muy cambiante, en la que la tecnología juega un papel importante. permite, por lo tanto, diferenciar entre lo que fue aceptado y lo que se reconoce como válido en el presente, para abrir la posibilidad de otras interpretaciones, aplicaciones o realidades. 4.4. la atenuación en la conclusión en la conclusión los atenuantes son menos frecuentes pues sólo registramos casos en 25 de los 40 artículos (62,5%). en esta sección algunos autores prescriben, recomiendan o sugieren, afirmando con mayor propiedad y precisión. es probable que no vean la necesidad de mitigar el grado de certidumbre de sus argumentos, por lo que tienden a asumir la responsabilidad de las recomendaciones que ofrecen a objeto de que sean bien percibidas por los lectores (moreno, 1998; mendiluce y hernández, 2005). en consecuencia, optan por expresarlos usando formas activas con agentes concretos y modales deónticos como: debe, tiene que, debería, tendría. siguiendo la tabla ii, entre los más frecuentes están, en primer lugar, los escudos, seguidamente, construcciones impersonales y aproximadores y, finalmente, en muy baja proporción, los atenuantes compuestos y los deícticos temporales. la atenuación en artículos de revisión ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 49 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 49 (1) construcciones impersonales como muestra la tabla ii, los impersonales representan el 25% de los atenuantes usados en esta sección. entre éstos se encuentran: a) las desagentivaciones, empleadas para ocultar la presencia del autor y, de alguna manera, reducir su nivel de compromiso con las proposiciones (ejemplo 53); y b) las formas impersonales propiamente dichas (construcciones con se), que se usan para expresar las proposiciones que son consideradas parte del saber aceptado por la comunidad (ejemplo 54) o para criticar con precaución (ejemplo 55): (53) … los estudios demuestran mejores resultados estéticos … (reo-2) (54) la técnica mediante colgajos de reposición se define como una técnica más sencilla y rápida … (reo-2) (55) desde el comienzo de la microcirugía se ha intentado encontrar un método de monitorización que sea realmente fiable y que detecte precozmente los fallos (…) hasta la actualidad no hay unanimidad … (recom-1) en esta sección, las estrategias de atenuación también se usan para alertar a la comunidad científica de la necesidad de realizar más estudios en determinadas áreas (como se aprecia en los ejemplos 56-57), lo cual coincide con las conclusiones alcanzadas por pérez-llantada (2003) y mendiluce y hernández (2005). con esto podrían estar evitando potenciales críticas a tales afirmaciones: (56) definitivamente se requiere un nuevo enfoque de reeducación de la profesión (odontológica) … (aov-11) (57) por tanto se requieren nuevos estudios para evaluar si la ultrasonografía puede llegar a usarse de forma rutinaria … (reoe-1) (2) escudos los escudos representan la mayoría de los atenuantes empleados en esta sección, lo cual coincide con los resultados de salager-meyer (1994). entre éstos los más recurrentes fueron el verbo modal epistémico poder (ejemplos 58-59) y, en menor medida, verbos epistémicos como parecer y sugerir (ejemplos 60-61). o.a. morales, d. cassany y gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-5850 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 50 (58) en presencia de una enfermedad periodontal avanzada, puede agravar la pérdida ósea … (raoa-1). (59) la utilización de diapositivas o fotografías de las superficies oclusales podría estar indicada en algunos casos (rcoe-2). (60) … el número de microorganismos que permanece parece ser inofensivo para los tejidos (aov-14). (61) la frecuencia de estos microorganismos parece que aumenta con la edad (aov-15). una de las principales motivaciones del uso de atenuantes en la conclusión podría ser proyectar honestidad, ya que la proposición no pueda expresarse con mayor certidumbre. igualmente, cabría la posibilidad de que se trate de conocimientos provisionales (ejemplo 62). más que evitar afirmar categóricamente, como bien sugiere mendiluce y hernández (2005), podrían estar presentando con precaución las proposiciones de las que no tienen suficiente evidencia empírica (ejemplo 63): (62) sin embargo, dado que la remoción de una prótesis cementada puede representar dificultades técnicas considerables, su uso debe de limitarse a situaciones de poco riesgo (rcoe-1) (63) por último, recientes estudios están sugiriendo el uso de la ultrasonografía como una técnica de imagen dinámica, barata y no invasiva para el estudio de la atm (reoe-1) (3) aproximadores los aproximadores representan sólo 18% del total de atenuantes registrados en esta sección. se usan sobre todo para proyectar honestidad, variabilidad y provisionalidad del saber (ejemplo 64) así como para mostrar la imposibilidad de precisar (ejemplo 65), lo cual coincide con pérez-llantada (2003): (64) los cordales parcialmente erupcionados, sobre todo en menores de 30 años, son los que causan mayor sintomatología (recom2). (65) en estos casos, la mayoría de los niños mostrará una conducta de acuerdo con su edad, su nivel de madurez y su historia personal (raoa-3). la atenuación en artículos de revisión ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 51 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 51 (4) atenuantes compuestos los atenuantes compuestos se usan con poca frecuencia, con propósitos similares a los registrados en las secciones anteriores. se registraron combinaciones de impersonales con otras estrategias de atenuación, especialmente deícticos. en los ejemplos 66-67, se combina un deíctico temporal con un impersonal para evadir asumir la responsabilidad de la certidumbre de la proposición (hyland, 1998), presentándola como tentativa: (66) en los últimos 10 años se han aclarado muchos aspectos controversiales acerca de la inercación… (aov-4) (67) la participación del odontólogo en el manejo de pacientes a través de terapias con dispositivos intrabucales ha sido aceptada recientemente (aov-10). (5) deícticos temporales finalmente, el uso de deícticos temporales permite resaltar la provisionalidad del saber odontológico, situando las conclusiones a un tiempo determinado. del mismo modo que anteriormente se registraron interpretaciones distintas, dejan abierta la posibilidad de interpretaciones alternativas futuras (ejemplos 68-69). (68) actualmente la mejor manera de funcionar las piezas dentarias es individualmente … (raoa-6) (69) en la actualidad existen elementos de protección para reducir el número y la gravedad de las lesiones … (reoe-6). 5. conclusiones en el ar, como en el artículo científico, el uso de la atenuación no se supedita a la reproducción acrítica y pasiva de las normas. cabe concebirlo como un intento constructivo del autor por lograr sus propósitos; además, muestra su comprensión del proceso que debe seguirse para publicar un artículo. aunque el uso de atenuantes es parte de la cultura científica, las características del ar, su función comunicativa y la posición de los autores podrían condicionar la elección de determinado dispositivo de atenuación. el corpus está constituido en su totalidad por ar narrativos tradicionales. o.a. morales, d. cassany y gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-5852 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 52 los resultados dan cuenta sólo de este tipo de ar. probablemente los metaanálisis y las revisiones sistemáticas funcionen de forma similar, pero habría que confirmarlo con otros estudios. las estrategias de atenuación empleadas en nuestro corpus son similares a las registradas en estudios previos sobre el escrito médico. esto puede deberse, en parte, a la influencia que ha ejercido la medicina sobre la odontología. no obstante, a diferencia de los ar médicos, que son considerados como escritura científica de tipo enciclopédica, con pretensiones de universalidad y generalización (salagermeyer, 1994; salager-meyer et al., 1996), los ar de odontología analizados no se presentan como contenedores del conocimiento, sino como modestos intentos por publicar y, de esa manera, hacerse un lugar en la comunidad odontológica. esta actitud es propia de autores noveles (swales, 1990). coincidiendo con los estudios citados, existe una variación en el uso de los atenuantes según la sección retórica. los resultados sugieren que se usan en todas las secciones retóricas pero, como en el caso de los artículos de investigación, con mayor frecuencia en la introducción y el desarrollo. al igual que en estudios previos, la función retórica de la introducción supone la utilización de estrategias de atenuación. en esta sección, cuando se establece el territorio, el nicho y se ocupa el vacío de la investigación, los autores presentan sus proposiciones con precaución para evitar potenciales ataques. en cambio, debido a que en la conclusión los autores procuran implicarse más, éstos podrían comprometerse más con las proposiciones. los resultados de esta investigación tienen implicaciones didácticas para los programas de grado y postgrado de las facultades de odontología. la frecuencia de uso de las estrategias de atenuación y su distribución en el ar evidencia su importancia en odontología. por lo tanto, podría ser un aspecto a considerar en la enseñanza de la lectura y la escritura de los distintos géneros que se producen en la comunidad odontológica. esto permitiría estrechar el abismo que existe entre lo que se enseña en la universidad y lo que ocurre en el contexto profesional. formar parte de una comunidad científica implica, entre otras cosas, tener la habilidad de emplear las convenciones de la disciplina apropiadamente, como por ejemplo, cómo construir e interpretar géneros discursivos claves en la disciplina. sin duda para entender mejor el fenómeno de la atenuación en odontología, serán necesarias más investigaciones, cualitativas, cuantitativas y etnográficas, de otros géneros discursivos: casos clínicos, artículos de investigación, ponencias, carteles y conferencias. la atenuación en artículos de revisión ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 53 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 53 agradecimientos agradecemos a la dra. françoise salager-meyer y al dr. gustavo mendiluce sus constructivas y oportunas observaciones y recomendaciones. asimismo, agradecemos a ernesto marín y josé tona, odontólogos, profesores de la facultad de odontología de la universidad de los andes, su colaboración como informantes especializados. 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(2006). “epistemic modality markers in research articles: a cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary study”. international journal of applied linguistics 16: 61-87. 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 55 oscar alberto morales es licenciado en inglés, magíster en lectura y escritura, doctorando en comunicación multilingüe (upf), profesor asistente de lectura y escritura de discurso científico odontológico e investigador de la universidad de los andes, venezuela. autor de artículos en revistas científicas, coordinador de proyectos de investigación, ponente en eventos nacionales e internacionales, tutor de trabajos de grado de licenciatura y maestría, árbitro de revistas científicas. dr. daniel cassany es profesor titular de análisis del discurso en la universitat pompeu fabra, coordinador de proyectos de investigación financiados por el mce y coordinador del grupo de investigación literacidad crítica. carolina gonzález-peña es licenciada en idiomas, magíster en efl (upf), miembro del grupo de investigación geode, universidad de los andes. profesora de inglés y español en mérida, venezuela. corresponsable de proyectos de investigación. ha publicado artículos científicos y ha presentado ponencias en eventos nacionales e internacionales. notas 1 este estudio forma parte del proyecto de la tesis de doctorado estudio retórico discursivo de la atenuación en el discurso escrito de odontología: artículos de investigación, casos clínicos y artículos de revisión publicados en revistas hispanas entre 1999 y 2005, de óscar a. morales, dirigido por daniel cassany. también se inscribe en el proyecto de investigación hum2004-03772/filo, perteneciente al plan nacional de investigación del mecd http://www.upf.edu/dtf/recerca/grups/grael/lc/index.htm. para el desarrollo de este trabajo, recibimos financiamiento del cdcht de la ula, mérida, venezuela, código o-177-06-06-a. 2 además de identificar la sección, algunas revistas identifican el ar en la primera página con calificativos como revisiones bibliográficas, artículos de revisión, puesta al día, artículo de actualización, estado de la cuestión o revisión de la literatura. asimismo, algunos autores incluyen en el título del ar expresiones parecidas: revisión de la literatura, estado actual, revisión, puesta al día o actualización. 3 todos los ejemplos reproducen literalmente el original (ortografía, puntuación y léxico). 4 en cada ejemplo el subrayado es nuestro y el código final corresponde al nombre de la revista (según figura en la tabla del anexo) y al número del artículo, según la categorización que realizamos para el presente estudio. aunque por razones de espacio no hemos incluido la lista de los artículos que conforman la muestra analizada, quienes así lo deseen pueden solicitarla por correo electrónico así como copias de los artículos completos. o.a. morales, d. cassany y gonzález-peña ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-5856 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 56 anexo. revistas utilizadas la atenuación en artículos de revisión ibérica 14 [2007]: 33-58 57 ibérica 14 [2007]: …-… 21 3 todos los ejemplos reproducen literalmente el original (ortografía, puntuación y léxico). 4 en cada ejemplo el subrayado es nuestro y el código final corresponde al nombre de la revista (según figura en la tabla del anexo) y al número del artículo, según la categorización que realizamos para el presente estudio. aunque por razones de espacio no hemos incluido la lista de los artículos que conforman la muestra analizada, quienes así lo deseen pueden solicitarla por correo electrónico así como copias de los artículos completos. anexo. revistas utilizadas código título volúmenes (años) aov acta odontológica venezolana, facultad odontológica de la universidad central de venezuela, venezuela 32-42 (1994-2004) raoa revista de la asociación odontológica argentina, argentina 87-92 (1999-2004) rcoee revista del colegio de odontólogos y estomatólogos de españa, españa 3-9 (1998-2004) recom revista española de cirugía oral y maxilofacial, españa 20-25 (1998-2003) reo revista española de ortodoncia, españa 28-34 (1998-2004) reoe revista europea de odonto-estomatología, españa 10-16 (1998-2004) iademás de identificar la sección, algunas revistas suelen identificar el ar en la primera página con indicativos como: revisiones bibliográficas, artículos de revisión, puesta al día, artículo de actualización, estado de la cuestión o revisión de la literatura. asimismo, algunos autores incluyen en el título del ar expresiones parecidas a las anteriores, como: revisión de la literatura, estado actual, revisión, puesta al día o actualización 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 57 03 morales.qxp 16/10/07 17:27 página 58 iberica 13 ibérica 23 (2012): 9-28 issn 1139-7241 abstract swales (1985) has suggested that 1962 marks “the beginning of the story” of lsp. if that is the case, then we celebrate during 2012 the 50th anniversary of lsp as a field of applied linguistics. on the occasion of this golden anniversary, this article reflects on how the field of lsp has evolved over the past half century as it has matured and grown in significance. broad observations are made about changes that have occurred in the areas of (1) needs analysis, (2) language analysis, and (3) materials and methods, as reflected by leading scholars in four different time periods: halliday, strevens and mcintosh in the 1960s, strevens in the 1970s, dudley-evans and st. john in the 1990s, and belcher in the 2000s. two current areas of debate – specificity and power – are then described. the article concludes by commenting on likely trends and areas of importance in lsp in the decade ahead. keywords: needs analysis, language analysis, lsp materials and methods, critical pedagogy. resumen las lfe a los 50: mirando hacia atrás, mirando hacia delante swales (1985) sugirió que 1962 es el año que marca “el comienzo de la historia” de las lenguas para fines específicos (lfe). si esto es cierto, entonces en el año 2012 celebramos el 50º aniversario de las lfe como campo dentro de la lingüística aplicada. con motivo de estas bodas de oro, en el presente artículo reflexionamos sobre cómo ha evolucionado el campo de las lfe en el último medio siglo al tiempo que ha alcanzado madurez, y su importancia ha ido en ascenso. desde un punto de vista general hacemos algunas observaciones sobre los cambios acontecidos en lo relativo a 1) análisis de necesidades; 2) análisis del discurso; y 3) materiales y métodos, siguiendo los estudios de investigadores y académicos de prestigio en cuatro épocas distintas: por un lado halliday, lsp at 50: looking back, looking forward thomas a. upton indiana university-purdue university indianapolis (usa) tupton@iupui.edu 9 ibérica 23 (2012): 9-28 thomas a. upton strevens y mcintosh en los años 60, strevens en los 70, dudley-evans y st. john en los 90, y belcher en la primera década del 2000. seguidamente describimos dos cuestiones que en la actualidad se prestan a discusión y debate: especificidad y poder. para concluir, estudiamos las posibles tendencias y áreas de las lfe que pueden llegar a resultar significativas en la próxima década. palabras clave: análisis de necesidades, análisis del discurso, materiales y métodos en lfe, pedagogía crítica. the rise of lsp as a field of applied linguistics strevens (1977: 150-151) places the historical roots of “specific-purpose language teaching” (sp-lt), with language instruction as the primary focus rather than professional or occupational skills, in the early 1900s with the development of courses for international travel. these courses, though, typically did not require – nor even expect – any real development of second language proficiency. it was during world war ii that specific purposes language instruction gained increased interest as many of the world militaries established, as strevens (1977: 151) describes it, “massive programmes of sp-lt” in support of espionage efforts; he gives the example of royal air force personnel who learned japanese solely for the purpose of (a) listening, in the burmese jungle, to japanese fighter aircraft talking to their ground control stations, (b) identifying their targets, and (c) using this information to alert raf interceptor fighters. these students of japanese never learned to read or write the language, but they achieved the requisite listening-only command of this restricted form of the language in a matter of a few weeks of intensive learning. in many respects these war-time foreign language programs were not so different from the “spanish for tourists” courses of the early 1900s in that there was little theoretical underpinning guiding the exploration of what language was used, how it was used, for what purposes it was used, and what students’ needs were as learners and users of the language – all necessary characteristics of true lsp instruction. in the years after world war ii enormous social changes and massive economic development took place on a global level. europe and japan worked to rebuild themselves, and newly independent countries across asia and africa looked to modernize their economies (kumaravadivelu, 2006a). this global push to rebuild and modernize opened the door to explosive 10 growth of multinational business and trade, and was coupled with a vision for peaceful internationalization by organizations such as the united nations seeking to promote diplomacy, international communication and student exchanges (hutchinson & waters, 1987). it is during this fertile post-war period of the early 1960s that lsp is commonly recognized as being established as a field of applied linguistics (see, for example, robinson, 1980; swales, 2000). while swales (1985: x) opined that lsp “has no clear and indisputable beginning”, he suggests that barber’s (1962) article, “some measurable characteristics of modern scientific prose”, qualifies as the beginning of the lsp story as this was the first study to clearly demonstrate that descriptive linguistics can be used to analyze the language of science and technology, persuasively showing that “scientific” english differed in important ways from “general” english. while barber’s (1962) article may represent lsp’s beginning and promise, it was halliday, mcintosh and strevens who in their 1964 book, according to swales (2000), provide the theoretical foundation for lsp as a distinct field of study and not simply as an instructional endeavor: only the merest fraction of investigation has yet been carried out into just what parts of a conventional course in english are needed by, let us say, power station engineers in india, or police inspectors in nigeria; even less is known about precisely what extra specialized material is required. this is one of the tasks for which linguistics must be called in. every one of these specialized needs requires, before it can be met by appropriate teaching materials, detailed studies of restricted languages and special registers carried out on the basis of large samples of the language used by the particular persons concerned. (halliday, mcintosh & strevens, 1964: 189-190) as swales (2000: 59-60) describes it, this passage established the following agenda for lsp analysis and instruction: (1) research into language use should be descriptive, looking at what kind of language is used in particular contexts and how it is used; (2) the real language used by regular people (not famous or literary figures) should be the focus of analysis; (3) current, everyday language is of primary importance; (4) language as it is spoken or written in specific contexts should be the focus of study (not “authorial motives for linguistic choices”); and (5) there should be an analysis of functional grammar along with the contextual factors that influence language use. lsp at 50 ibérica 23 (2012): 9-28 11 in the words of hutchinson and waters (1987: 7), reflecting on early studies of language use, “the idea was simple: if language varies from one situation of use to another, it should be possible to determine the [language] features of specific situations and then make these features the basis of the learners’ course”. if barber’s 1962 article (nourished, if you will, by the contributions of others in the early 1960s) marks lsp’s birth, then we celebrate during 2012 the 50th anniversary of lsp as a field of applied linguistics. as we often do on “golden anniversaries”, this seems a meaningful point in time to stop and reflect on where we have come from as a field, what current issues we are still wrestling with, and what trends are likely to be a part of the future. in short, how has the field of lsp evolved as it has matured and grown in significance over the past half century? esp: the “tyrannosaurus rex” in the room before addressing the question just posed, it is important to insert a disclaimer into a piece such as this that strives to provide an overview of the field of lsp: while the study of lsp can encompass any language used in the world, the vast majority of the language analysis and instruction (and publication!) that has been done in lsp over the past 50 years has focused on english. consequently, the terms english for specific purposes (esp) and lsp are often used interchangeably (belcher, 2009), and even in this article on lsp much of the scholarship cited focuses on esp. the dominance of esp is reflected by the fact that two of the leading journals in lsp are titled english for specific purposes: an international research journal and journal of english for academic purposes. the dominance of esp is even seen in ibérica, the leading international journal with the broader of focus on lsp; for example, in four recent issues (fall 2009 – spring 2011), the journal published 27 scholarly articles of which 23 (85%) dealt – wholly or in part – with esp topics while only 4 (15%) focused exclusively on languages other than english. swales (2000) acknowledges the dominance of english in his article reviewing the field of lsp in a section titled english english everywhere: “one of the ironies of the emergent field of esp is that its very success in catering to the needs of nonnative speakers has contributed to the overpowering position of english in today’s worlds of sciences, scholarship, and business” thomas a. upton ibérica 23 (2012): 9-2812 (swales, 2000: 67). in an earlier article, swales (1997: 374) likened english in the realm of academia to a tyrannosaurus rex, “a powerful carnivore gobbling up the other denizens of the academic linguistic grazing grounds”. some would argue that it is a bit disingenuous to attribute the dominance of esp primarily to the efficacy of instruction. hutchinson and waters (1987), among others, explain the dramatic rise of esp as directly related to the international oil crisis of the early 1970s, which resulted in western money and knowledge – primarily british and american – flowing into oil-rich countries. the language of this knowledge was english. benesch (2001: 31) provides what she calls an overview of “esp’s unofficial history” in which she persuasively shows that “esp did not develop inevitably and naturally”; in fact, she argues that the dominance of esp is a direct result of “the conscious planning on the part of industry, aided by governments, foundations, and academic institutions working together to shore up markets in developing countries”. her point, which will be revisited below, is that esp – and lsp in general, for that matter – is a political and economic endeavor as much as it is a language-teaching one. in short, the emphasis in lsp on the analysis and teaching of english is because in many cases english is by far the most prominent language that non-native speakers are wanting, needing or expected to learn in particular contexts, and this has everything to do with power and money. bocanegravalle’s (forthcoming – 2012) article on “maritime english” illustrates this well. the shipping trade is global and even one shipment typically involves many countries, languages, and cultures. bocanegra-valle gives the example of one ship that “was built in spain, had a norwegian owner, was registered in cyprus, was managed from glasgow, was chartered by a french company, had a russian crew, was flying a liberian flag, and carried american cargo”. in this international context, english is the common language of the high seas. while esp has led the way in the field of lsp to date, the future is bright for other languages. for example, spanish, which has long been an important language of lsp in europe, no doubt will continue to grow in importance with the economic and political development of spanish-speaking countries in central and south america (sánchez-lópez, 2010). and with the economic and military rise of china, and the growing international reach of arabic-speaking countries, chinese and arabic are also likely to grow in importance in the field of lsp in the years ahead (kanoksilapatham, forthcoming – 2012). lsp at 50 ibérica 23 (2012): 9-28 13 lsp then and now: a reflective overview one way to provide an overview of the changing trends and focuses of lsp over the past fifty years is to look at how leading scholars have described lsp in three key areas: (1) needs analysis; (2) language analysis; and (3) materials and methodology. picking representative perspectives from different time periods is an individual choice, but most would not argue that leading thinkers in lsp – and specifically esp – include halliday, strevens and mcintosh in the 1960s, strevens in the 1970s, dudley evans and st. john in the 1990s, and belcher in the 2000s1. table 1 summarizes the perspectives that each has given in these three areas in their published work, and from this several broad observations can be made that will structure the discussion for the rest of this paper. thomas a. upton ibérica 23 (2012): 9-2814 halliday, strevens & mcintosh (1964: 189) strevens (1977: 150) dudley evans & st. john (1998: 4) belcher (2004, 2009) needs identify the “specialized” language used in specific contexts that learners need to know focus on “languageusing purposes of the learner” “designed to meet specific needs of the learner”, including wants, skill/ knowledge gaps, etc. “first and foremost (before, during, and even after instruction) finding out what learner needs are” (2009: 3) language analysis “detailed studies of restricted languages and special registers (…) used by the particular persons concerned” focus on “communicative needs” and “language-using purposes” that are restricted (by vocabulary, language skills, themes, etc.) to those “required by the learner’s purposes” “centred on the language (grammar, lexis, register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to these activities” emphasis on “socialsituatedness” of language use (2004: 166); understanding of language use in specific contexts is essential – using a variety of analyses materials & methods determine “appropriate” and “extra specialized” teaching materials use of methodology “appropriate to the learning/teaching situation” “makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines it serves” “developing or adapting materials and methods to enable needsresponsive instruction” (2009: 3) focus words and structures texts and purposes learners and genres contexts and interactions table 1. fifty years of evolving lsp theory as reflected by leading scholars. n n needs analysis needs analysis – or needs assessment – has from the start been identified as a defining characteristic of lsp (for example, johns & dudley-evans, 1991; basturkmen & elder, 2004). however, what is considered important to focus on in the needs analysis has evolved significantly through the years. halliday, mcintosh and strevens (1964) highlighted the importance of identifying the “specialized” language used in specific contexts that learners need to know. as reflected in their book and others of that time period, specialized language was understood primarily as the grammar and vocabulary that are distinct for that context, and thus the needs assessment primarily focused on sentence patterns and key vocabulary. herbert’s (1965) book, the structure of technical english, a contemporary to halliday, mcintosh and strevens’, and which swales (1985: 17) identifies as “the first ‘real’ esp textbook”, is an excellent example of this structural emphasis. in his discussion of the importance of herbert’s book, swales notes that its focus is solely on presenting the sentence patterns and vocabulary that are particular to technical english texts. by the 1970s, there is a noticeable shift from a simple focus on language structures to a broader goal of understanding the “language-using purposes of the learner”, with the goal being to meet “the requirements of the learner” (strevens, 1977: 146, 150). that is, while structures and vocabulary are still of importance, it was now recognized that these must be examined in light of how individual learners will need to use them. this shift in focus parallels broader changes going on at the time in educational psychology, and in second language education in particular, when there was growing recognition of the importance of language as a tool for communication by individuals. along with the broader communicative language learning movement, lsp also moved towards a more learner-centered focus, including the recognition that individual students have different needs and interests, and that these differences influenced not only students’ motivation to learn, but also the effectiveness of their learning. this focus on identifying the “specific needs of the learner” (dudley-evans & st. john, 1998: x) – as opposed to simply focusing on the language used in specific contexts – has carried forward through the 1990s to the present. there is, however, a notable change in the expectations of the needs assessment. the needs analyses of the 1970s and 1980s tended to focus on the situations, functions, tasks and/or skills students needed in the target lsp at 50 ibérica 23 (2012): 9-28 15 situation (west, 1997). by the 1990s, the scope of the needs assessment began to expand to include personal and professional information about learners (including wants, preferences and aspirations), learners’ needs and lacks, and even “means analysis” – information about the learning context (dudley-evans & st. john, 1998). the needs assessment as the basis for determining the syllabus for the specific context under consideration continues to be of primary importance in lsp. along with the developments highlighted above, the needs assessment is now more than ever seen as an on-going process, not a oneand-done event that never needs to be revisited. belcher (2009: 3) articulates this perspective in her belief that all of lsp/esp is united by a commitment to the purposes of the learners as reflected by “first and foremost (before, during, and even after instruction), finding out what learners’ needs are”. to summarize, while needs analysis has from the beginning been central to the field of lsp, our understanding of what the needs analysis entails has evolved markedly over the past fifty years. our focus has shifted from a simple, one-time pre-course evaluation of the grammar and vocabulary that are distinct for specific language contexts, to thick, on-going descriptions of the full range of language structures and communicative purposes that particular students need that also take into account learner characteristics and the teaching context (see table 1: needs). language analysis one of the cornerstones of lsp is the analysis of language and language use in order to inform teaching. as mentioned above, the early focus in lsp was the vocabulary and language structures used in specialized contexts – “register analysis”. early register analysis had to be done by hand, so typically focused on (often pre-determined) features that could be identified and counted using a fairly small corpus of texts. the goal, of course, was to highlight key language features that could then be taught to lsp learners (halliday, mcintosh & strevens, 1964). unfortunately, this approach isolated the language features from the context, resulting in reading passages that lacked authenticity and communicative purpose. lsp textbooks based on register analysis (almost exclusively focusing on scientific english) “left a lot to be desired” as the pedagogical application was out of step with the educational changes occurring in the 1970s (dudley-evans & st. john, 1998: 21). thomas a. upton ibérica 23 (2012): 9-2816 the primary critique of early register analysis was that it focused on language use at the sentence level. by the 1970s, discourse analysis – with the focus on the rhetorical structures and purposes at the discourse level – became the primary tool of lsp language analysis. broadly speaking, the goal of discourse analysis is to examine the language structures and patterns that are distinctive of and create meaning for texts as a whole. a key advantage of lsp materials developed from discourse analysis is that it helps students to focus on how language is used to accomplish different rhetorical purposes within texts/contexts rather than simply on learning correct grammar; in keeping with broader educational shifts, the focus turned more to the importance of communication (strevens, 1977). in the 1980s, there was a growing emphasis on language use and functions in specific text types, called “genres” in recognition of the rhetorical characteristics these texts have. swales (1990) is most closely identified with early efforts in genre analysis (a type of discourse analysis) as he developed a method for analyzing the shifting communicative purposes, called “rhetorical moves”, in a text. his analyses of research article introductions showed how scientists organize their texts in specific and fairly predictable ways in order to establish the context in relationship to previous research, credibility for their own research, and the purpose for the study they are presenting; importantly, these rhetorical moves can be taught to novices of that genre. as popular as genre analysis proved to be, questions began to be raised about how broadly genre-research findings could be applied. prior (1995), for example, challenged a key assumption that the text types that make up genres are predictable and stable across and within disciplines, at least within the eap context. prior (1995: 76-77) found academic discourse and academic environments instead to be “complex, constructed and unfolding events and not closed systems susceptible to taxonomic and rule-oriented description”. today, there is a clear understanding that genre is “more contextual than simply textual, dynamic than static, varied than monolithic, and interesting in its shaping of and being shaped by people” (belcher, 2006: 142). the result is that language analysis now has a much stronger emphasis on the social situatedness (the context) of the text, and the influence that has on meaning and rhetorical purposes. the types of analyses used today to understand language purposes, structures and uses are more varied and complex than the brief overview lsp at 50 ibérica 23 (2012): 9-28 17 above might suggest. what is important to note is the change in perspective that has occurred over the past fifty years (see table 1: language analysis). sensitivity to language in context has always been an underlying strength of lsp, but what is meant by context has evolved and, thus, the types of language analyses emphasized have also evolved. early on, the task was simply enumerating and describing linguistic features, primarily vocabulary and grammar, in the context of the sentence (halliday, mcintosh & strevens, 1964). in the 1970s and 1980s the focus shifted to broader concern at the discourse level with language structure, use and functions in specific text types for particular purposes (strevens, 1977). genre analysis focused the attention on the writer’s purpose, and how rhetorical considerations impact grammatical choices (dudley-evans & st. john, 1998). more recently, there has been greater acknowledgement that language is all about discourse and the social construction of knowledge, and thus there is growing recognition that the study of social practices must be integral to lsp research and teaching (belcher, 2004). in short, language analysis over the past 50 years has moved from simply the study of chunks of isolated texts (i.e., language products) to a broader examination of how whole texts – and contexts, including authors/speakers and intended audiences – interact with and influence each other, with attention now focusing on more context-specific texts and the communication strategies that are used to engage the audience. lsp has evolved, too, from simply detailing differences to understanding and explaining the differences between the language features used in different contexts. materials and methods as observed by swales (2000: 60), halliday, mcintosh and strevens’ (1964) foundational book “offered a simple relationship between linguistic analysis and pedagogic materials”. the teacher’s role, according to halliday, mcintosh and strevens (1964: 189, 190), is to determine “appropriate” and “specialized teaching materials” that could be used to teach the language structures and vocabulary. the educational and pedagogical sea changes that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, and in particular the move toward communicative language learning and the needs of individual learners, also influenced lsp materials and methods in at least two important ways. first was the push for “authentic” thomas a. upton ibérica 23 (2012): 9-2818 materials that reflect the contexts and uses of the language in the specific context. as coffey (1985: 84) frames it: “the main consideration in esp exercise typology must be that of authenticity. all esp work is in essence a simulation of a real-life task”. it did not take long to realize that the strength of the lsp approach, the focused attention on the language needs in specialized and specific contexts, also proved to be a weakness. as strevens (1977: 159) noted in the 1970s, “the biggest problem is the shortage of usable textbooks, readers, etc., for any given speciality”. the underlying necessity for context-specific materials as the basis for the lsp classroom led to the observation by several that lsp instruction has tended to be materials driven (e.g., johns & dudley-evans, 1991). robinson (1980: 34) puts it bluntly: “it thus seems to be an unavoidable fact of the esp teacher (…) that he should be materials writer as well”; bocanegra-valle (2010: 157) echoes this point three decades later: “esp practitioners are more often faced with the task and responsibility of developing learning materials”. in addition, the broader educational changes of the 1970s and 1980s freed teachers to draw on a wide range of methods, which also impacted lsp instruction. learner needs at this point were primarily defined in communicative terms: “in terms of what it is that people in those jobs normally do through language” (strevens, 1977: 157). in practice, the focus of instruction shifted from linguistic structures and vocabulary to notional, functional, and communicative categories determined by the teacher as “appropriate to the learning/teaching situation” (strevens, 1977: 150). even so, as observed by widdowson (1983), methodology still was not a major concern in lsp; the emphasis remained on needs analysis and syllabus design. by the 1990s, there was stronger recognition of the importance of the role of methodologies in lsp instruction, with a growing emphasis on not simply importing the teaching methodologies used in general language instruction but incorporating the “underlying methodology and activities” that are a part of the lsp context (dudley-evans & st. john, 1998: 4), including “innovative” methodologies like task-based and problem-solving approaches (flowerdew, 1990). johns and dudley-evans (1991: 305) were taking a stand when they wrote: we believe that esp requires methodologies that are specialized or unique. an english for academic purposes (eap) class taught collaboratively by a language teacher and a subject-area lecturer (…), sheltered and adjunct eap lsp at 50 ibérica 23 (2012): 9-28 19 classes (…), and special english classes for students in workplace (…), require considerably different approaches than those found in general english classes. while calling contemporary lsp teachers “methodologically free thinkers”, belcher (2006: 137) notes that a growing concern today in lsp pedagogy is the social situatedness of the instruction (belcher, 2004). lsp materials and methods now are not only content-based in nature and address language and purposes expected for the particular context, but at their best prepare students to understand why, when, and how to use language so that they can communicate for their own purposes, not just in terms of the expectations of the academic or occupational context. over the past 50 years, the focus in lsp materials and methods shifted first from a simple presentation of the structures and vocabulary used in targeted contexts to more eclectic methods that emphasize the use of authentic language for the communicative purposes common to the context (see table 1: materials & methods). lsp methods then became more focused on incorporating the methodologies and activities used in the specialized contexts, including problem-based and task-based learning that often incorporates input from, and in many cases participation with, subject-area specialists. there is today a growing concern for how best to help learners not just use the language of a particular context but understand how they can operate in the complexities of that context in a way that will make a difference in their own lives. as benesch (2001) points out, we now realize that social context is paramount and our lsp materials and methods must reflect that knowledge is socially constructed within specific contexts. current issues in lsp as with any maturing field of inquiry, debates on key issues in lsp speak to the complexity as well as the promise of this area of applied linguistics. controversy and debate are good things, as these are what drive the field forward, making it stronger and more robust. two areas of debate that have been of particular focus recently in lsp include the issues of specificity and power. thomas a. upton ibérica 23 (2012): 9-2820 specificity lsp is all about specificity – “detailed explications of the nature of the language used or required to communicate in specific academic and occupational settings, usually accompanied by specific pedagogical applications for non-native speakers” (master, 2005: 102). the level of specificity required in lsp instruction, however, has been a controversial question for more than thirty years. hyland (2002: 385) summarizes the issue this way: put most simply, this resolves into a single question: are there skills and features of language that are transferable across different disciplines and occupations, or should we focus on the texts, skills and language forms needed by particular learners? this question lies at the heart of what our profession is and what we do in our classrooms. the two sides to this issue are often framed as “narrow-angle” and “wideangle” (jordan, 1997). those favoring the narrow-angle perspective see the focus on specificity as the primary distinguishing trait between general language courses, with their embrace of instruction that covers a broad set of language structures and vocabulary, and lsp courses that target clearly articulated language needs in specific contexts (for instance, hyland, 2002). those favoring the wide-angle perspective – most typically those in language for academic purposes – note that there is a core of language and language learning strategies that is common across broad subject areas, and that students are best served by having exposure to language and language strategies that address wider, though closely related, contexts such as university classes (see spack, 1988). is it inappropriate to ever focus on general language concepts or use materials that do not immediately or directly address specific language contexts? it is not universally agreed where the dividing line is – on the continuum that stretches from general language instruction on the one end to the most focused and targeted instruction on the other – that differentiates a course as either “language for general purposes” or “language for specific purposes”. it is true that for many eap/lap contexts, for example, where students may take a wide variety of courses across multiple disciplines, teachers must work to prepare non-native speakers to succeed in increasingly complex as well as unpredictable academic domains and tasks; here, the wider-angle perspective will address student needs better. it is equally true that there are specific and highly lsp at 50 ibérica 23 (2012): 9-28 21 specialized contexts – such as for medical doctors – for which students would benefit from a narrower, specialized focus. finding the balance between the wideand narrow-angle perspectives, and whether one or the other is more appropriate in particular contexts, has long been an area of active debate. for example, while few hold this extreme of a view today, crombie and rika-heke (1991: 25) argued that only “very specific, formulaic or semi-formulaic occupationally-oriented course[s]” should be identified as esp courses, and any other kinds of “courses [that] relate directly to specific or specifiable purposes are misleading and should be abandoned”. huckin (2003) and more recently anthony (2011) argue that the level of specificity called for by hyland (2002) is, if nothing else, often impractical. as huckin (2003: 8) notes, “despite all the research of technical discourse that’s been done over the years by lsp scholars, it seldom happens, especially in mixed classes, that the lsp teacher has the disciplinary knowledge needed to provide reliably accurate instruction in the technical varieties of language”. anthony (2011: 44) makes a similar point for esp: “it is necessary (…) to consider an approach to esp that is situated in the realities of an english faculty in a real-world educational institution in which funding may be limited, wide-scale materials development projects impractical, research collaborations with subject specialists infeasible, and where teaching might be carried out by part-time faculty who have responsibilities at more than one institution”. johns and dudley-evans (1991) and more recently belcher (2006) strike a middle ground on this debate, recognizing the value and realities of both perspectives. belcher (2006: 139) goes so far as to say that for many “the wide versus narrow approach debate is a nonissue”, as the teaching approach should really be dictated based on what the learners need. current trends are to focus on empowering learners, helping them to develop the skills, strategies, and perspectives they need to become “astute analysts of the specialist discourse” (huckin, 2003: 17), so that they can take responsibility for their own development as specialist insiders when they are no longer in the lsp classroom (see, for example, swales & feak, 2004). power neither language nor pedagogy is neutral; they occur in and are influenced by social, cultural, and political contexts (pennycook, 1997). the many players in any lsp situation operate in these contexts where power is thomas a. upton ibérica 23 (2012): 9-2822 unequal – between students and teachers, teachers and administrators, and students and the wider social and cultural context. belcher (2006: 142-143) frames the debate around power this way: although many esp professionals may see meeting learners’ needs as empowering, in a world where english opens doors to technology, research findings, and educational and job opportunities, critical pedagogists (…) may see such efforts as a form of domination, supporting the spread of english, and thus strengthening, in efl settings, the hold of the developed world on the less developed (…) and in esl settings, aiding and abetting a too pervasive melting-pot process that effaces cultural identity. in the context of student needs, where much of the recent discussion about power roles in lsp has taken place, the concern is that the needs analysis does not simply serve the interests of the institution (or profession), thus marginalizing the students; this is likely to occur when the identification of learner needs focuses only on the perspective of the institution and downplays or ignores the students’ views. for example, does a lsp course focused on the service industry ultimately confine immigrants to specific low-paying jobs, limiting their opportunity to develop broader language skills that would open up better job opportunities (tollefson, 1991)? in other words, is it sufficient to simply focus on the language structures and communicative competence required in particular discourse contexts, or do teachers also need to help students recognize the conflicting perspectives of “privileged members” (for example, supervisors and teachers) and “novices” (for example, employees and students) – as well as other race, class and gender relationships – and help them navigate, influence and even challenge those power relationships (canagarajah, 2002)? benesch (2001), for one, has argued that needs analysis should be re-visioned as “rights” analysis; as belcher (2009: 7) describes it, this perspective enables lsp practitioners and their students to see target communities of practice as not solely defined by those in power, but as places where newcomers have rights too – to be included and accommodated – hence as interactive social systems that can, and should, change as new members join. this concern for a critical perspective on power has been most clearly articulated with respect to eap. for example, in their editorial in the first issue of the journal of english for academic purposes, hyland and hamp-lyons lsp at 50 ibérica 23 (2012): 9-28 23 (2002: 9) reflected on whether the goal of eap should primarily be to help students to effectively participate in their learning communities by teaching them the standard forms of discourse, or do teachers have the obligation also to “provide learners with ways of examining the academic sociopolitical status quo”, so that by understanding it they can challenge and manipulate it. a critical approach to lsp is not yet the mainstream view, but its influence on lsp is growing; for example, it is now well recognized that learner perspectives and even feelings need to be taken into account in the lsp classroom. the challenge, of course, is that learners may not be reliable sources of information about what they need, especially if they are novices in the job they are learning or in the class they are studying. but it is also true that the employer or teacher may not fully appreciate – or fairly represent – what the students really struggle with or what would be in the students’ best interests (benesch, 2001). indeed, many teachers are not always even aware of the agenda they are representing in the classes they teach; as kumaravadivelu (2006b: 23) argues with regard to the broader field of tesol, “whether they know it or not and whether they like it or not, most tesol professionals end up serving the profit motives of global corporations and the political motives of imperial powers” – the same might well be said for many lsp contexts. while not the mainstream view – and in many respects it is still a view that is largely ignored (if not resisted) in many contexts – there is growing recognition of the importance of empowering learners to more actively participate in identifying and addressing their language learning and language using needs. as morgan and fleming (2009: 265) argue for esp, (…) critical theories and pedagogies enhance contextual understanding and potentially expand the linguistic means by which goal-directed ends can be effectively achieved (…) and enhance the possibilities for transformative pedagogies that are invigorated through a fusion of pragmatic and politicized strategies. in a sense the onion is peeled back (…) through a focus on how esp can be used to illuminate inequalities based on categories of identity. trends for the future mackay (1975: 24) early on stated that the purpose of lsp is “the teaching/learning of a foreign language for a clearly utilitarian purpose of thomas a. upton ibérica 23 (2012): 9-2824 which there is no doubt”– the goal being occupational and academic success. three decades later, belcher (2009: 3) stated the rationale for lsp as the “motivation to help those especially disadvantaged by their lack of language needed for the situations they find themselves in, hope to enter, or eventually rise above”. while the goal of lsp, as articulated by belcher, is still occupational and academic success, she presents a clear shift in vision to emphasizing the learners’ perspectives in identifying what the language learning and teaching needs are. this critical perspective, about which there is at present some debate as discussed above, is likely to be the area in which lsp most significantly evolves in the decade ahead, particularly in areas outside of eap, where most of the discussion has to date taken place. bhatia (2011: 1), for example, recently noted that there is “a wide gap between the esp work in the classroom and the requirements of the world of work”, which for him highlights the importance of better analysis of both interdiscursivity (that is to say, interaction across and between genres) and “criticality in esp work”. as we look to the future of lsp, there is also no question that lsp instruction will become more diverse as well as specialized; consequently, the field of lsp must continue developing research perspectives and methods that provide not only a broader but also a more detailed understanding of learner needs within a changing world context (see upton & connor, forthcoming – 2012). instead of relying on the analysis of language and texts out of context, researchers need tools that will allow them to study the complex contextual, social, and ideological aspects of language interactions between people and between people and texts. these interactions are often multimodal (engberg, 2006), including text, talk and images, as well as other forms of content and message delivery, and the analyses must be able to capture the multimodal features. research methods that rely only on the study of words and discourses will continue to have their place, but are likely to be viewed as no longer sufficient. context-based methods such as observations and ethnographic approaches are likely to become more common, along with detailed analyses of interactions, not only to better understand the complexities of language use but also the pragmatic strategies that are necessary for effective communication in specific contexts and for specific purposes. for example, paltridge (2009a: 292) points to a study by flowerdew (2008) that uses ethnographic and corpus analytic techniques in order to gain a deeper, insider’s understanding of not only what professional writers of a genre do when they write, but why they do it; lsp at 50 ibérica 23 (2012): 9-28 25 studies like this facilitate helping the language learner “become a member of the community of practice”. in addition, as we look to future focuses of lsp research and teaching, there will no doubt be more concern with issues of power and accommodation between native and non-native speakers in contexts where languages are used as a lingua franca – for example in the case of english as the lingua franca in business contexts like the travel industry. paltridge (2009b: 1) noted in a recent editorial for the english for specific purposes journal that language “is the property of its users, native and non-native speakers alike”; if this is the case, how do we fairly share this “property”? the importance of this issue is reflected by the fact that ibérica recently published a special volume (no. 22, fall 2011) on the debates, concerns and realities of the use of english as a lingua franca in higher education in europe. in 1985, swales – noting how young the “profession” of esp was – wrote that “nobody has yet retired from spending a professional lifetime working within it” (swales, 1985: ix-x). in 2012, the year of lsp’s golden anniversary, swales and many others who spent their professional lifetimes working within esp and lsp have now retired. in many respects, the field of lsp looks very different now than it did fifty years ago. our understanding of what students’ needs are has evolved and expanded; how we analyze, describe and teach language is much richer; and our view of the contexts and purposes of language is much more complex. we have moved from prioritizing “words and structures”, to prioritizing “texts and purposes”, to prioritizing “learners and genres”, and are now more concerned with “contexts and interactions” (see table 1: focus). what has not changed is the underlying goal of lsp: to help language learners gain access to the language they want and need in order to become successful members of the academic, professional or occupational community of which they seek to be a part. acknowledgements i am grateful to ulla connor for our many stimulating conversations about esp through the years and, in particular, her insightful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. [paper received 8 december 2011] [revised paper accepted 20 january 2012] thomas a. upton ibérica 23 (2012): 9-2826 references lsp at 50 ibérica 23 (2012): 9-28 27 anthony, l. (2011). “why esp practitioners do not need to be subject specialists” in proceedings of the 2011 international conference and workshop on english for specific purposes, 39-52. taichung, taiwan: crane publishing co. barber, c. (1962). “some measurable characteristics of modern scientific prose” in f. behre (ed.), gothenburg studies in english: vol. 14. contributions to english syntax and philology, 21-43. gothenburg: university of gothenburg. basturkmen, h. & c. elder (2004). “the practice of lsp” in a. davies & c. elder (eds.), the handbook of applied linguistics, 672-694. oxford: blackwell. belcher, d. (2004). “trends in teaching english for specific purposes”. annual review of applied linguistics 24: 165-186. belcher, d. (2006). “english for specific purposes: teaching to perceived needs and imagined futures in worlds of work, study, and everyday life”. tesol quarterly 40: 133-156. belcher, d. (2009a). “what esp is and can be: an introduction” in d. belcher (ed.), 1-20. belcher, d. (ed.) (2009b). english for specific purposes in theory and practice. ann arbor: university of michigan press. benesch, s. (2001). critical english for academic purposes: theory, politics, and practice. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. bhatia, v. (2011). “critical genre perspectives in esp: bridging the gap between the classroom and the workplace” in proceedings of the 2011 international conference and workshop on english for specific purposes, 1-3. taichung, taiwan: crane publishing co. bocanegra-valle, a. 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(2008). the textual and the ethnographic in genre analysis for esp. paper presented at the american association of applied linguistics, washington, d.c. halliday, m., a. mcintosh & p. strevens (1964). the linguistic sciences and language teaching. bloomington: indiana university press. herbert, a. (1965). the structure of technical english. london: longman. huckin, t. (2003). “specificity in lsp”. ibérica 5: 317. hutchinson, t. & a. waters (1987). english for specific purposes. cambridge: cambridge university press. hyland, k. (2002). “specificity revisited: how far should we go now?” english for specific purposes 21: 385-395. hyland, k. & l. hamp-lyons (2002). “eap: issues and directions”. journal of english for academic purposes 1: 1-12. johns, a. & t. dudley-evans (1991). “english for specific purposes: international in scope, specific in purposes”. tesol quarterly 25: 297-314. jordan, r.r. (1997). english for academic purposes: a guide and resource book for teachers. cambridge: cambridge university press. kanoksilapatham, b. (forthcoming – 2012). “language for specific purposes in asia” in c. chapelle (ed.). thomas a. upton is professor of applied linguistics/tesol at indiana university purdue university indianapolis (iupui). he serves on the editorial boards of english for specific purposes and tesol quarterly, and is the co-editor for the lsp section (with ulla connor) of the forthcoming encyclopedia of applied linguistics (wiley-blackwell). notes 1 there are certainly others like john swales, who is liberally cited in this piece, who have had a major impact on the field of esp/lsp through the years. i have chosen to highlight the views of these scholars because their pieces clearly represent current thinking – in the areas of needs and language analyses, materials development and methodology – at the times of their publication. thomas a. upton ibérica 23 (2012): 9-2828 kumaravadivelu, b. (2006a). “dangerous liaison: globalization, empire and tesol” in j. edge (ed.), (re-)locating tesol in an age of empire, 1-26. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. kumaravadivelu, b. (2006b). “tesol methods: changing tracks, challenging trends”. tesol quarterly 40: 59-81. mackay, r. (1975). “languages for special purposes”. edutec 3: 24-33. master, p. (2005). “research in english for specific purposes” in e. hinkel (ed.), handbook of research in second language teaching, 99-115. new york: lawrence erlbaum. morgan, b. & d. fleming (2009). “critical citizenship practices in esp and esl programs: canadian and global perspectives” in d. belcher (ed.), 264-288. paltridge, b. (2009a). “afterword: where have we come from and where are we now?” in d. belcher (ed.), 289-296. paltridge, b. (2009b). “english for specific purposes: editorial”. english for specific purposes 28: 1-3. pennycook, a. (1997). “vulgar pragmatism, critical pragmatism, and eap”. english for specific purposes 16: 253-269. prior, p. (1995). “tracing authoritative and internally persuasive discourses: a case study of response, revision, and disciplinary enculturation”. research in the teaching of english 29: 288-325. robinson, p. (1980). english for specific purposes. oxford: pergamon press. sánchez-lópez, l. (2010). “el español para fines específicos: la proliferación de programas creados para satisfacer las necesidades del siglo xxi”. hispania 93: 85-89. spack, r. (1988). “initiating esl students into the academic discourse community: how far should we go?” tesol quarterly 22: 29-52. strevens, p. (1977). “special-purposes language learning: a perspective”. language learning 10: 145-163. swales, j. (1985). episodes in esp. oxford: pergamon press. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j. (1997). “english as tyrannosaurus rex”. world englishes 16: 373-382. swales, j. (2000). “languages for specific purposes”. annual review of applied linguistics 20: 59-76. swales, j. & c. feak (2004). academic writing for graduate students: essential tasks and skills, 2nd ed. ann arbor: university of michigan press. tollefson, j. (1991). planning language, planning inequality: language policy in the community. london: longman. upton, t. & u. connor (forthcoming – 2012). “overview of language for specific purposes” in c. chapelle (ed.). west, r. (1997). “needs analysis: state of the art” in r. howard & g. brown (eds.), teacher education for lsp, 68-79. clevedon: multilingual matters. widdowson, h. (1983). learning purpose and language use. oxford: oxford university press. iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.155 abstract our purpose in this research is to quantitatively analyse how the communication of managerial knowledge is realised in research articles written by experienced writers for publication and those produced by graduate students as a course grade requirement. specifically, we look at the ways these writers construct their authorial identities (textually conveyed in ‘voice’). to do so, we combine hyland’s (2008) interactional model of voice with lehman’s (2018), lehman & sułkowski (2021) conceptualisation of ‘writer identity.’ the study results reveal important differences with regard to the expression of interaction in written discourse, with novices employing more interpersonal features to involve readers and experienced authors making linguistic choices to establish authority in their texts. we show that the use of interpersonal metadiscourse renders academic texts more accessible, reader engaging and interesting. this enables us to work towards the development of more effective writing instruction which is particularly relevant for english for academic purposes pedagogy. keywords: discourse analysis, management writing, writer identity, reader inclusion resumen escribir para marcar la diferencia: análisis discursivo de la identidad del escritor en artículos de investigación sobre gestión writing to make a difference: discursive analysis of writer identity in research articles on management iga maria lehmana, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celisa & łukasz sułkowskib a university of social sciences, warsaw (poland) & b jagiellonian university, cracow (poland) ilehman@san.edu.pl, katarzyna.cybulska-gomez@uph.edu.pl, lukasz.sulkowski@uj.edu.pl 155 ibérica 44 (2022): 00-00 iga maria lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis & łukasz sułkowskib nuestro propósito en esta investigación es analizar cuantitativamente cómo se lleva a cabo la comunicación del conocimiento gerencial en artículos de investigación para su publicación por parte de autores experimentados y en aquellos producidos por estudiantes graduados como requisito de calificación del curso. específicamente, nos centramos en las formas en que estos escritores construyen sus identidades de autor (expresadas textualmente en “voz”). para ello, combinamos el modelo interaccional de voz de hyland (2008) con la conceptualización de la “identidad del escritor” de lehman (2018) y lehman & sułkowski (2021). los resultados del estudio revelan diferencias importantes con respecto a la expresión de la interacción en el discurso escrito, donde los principiantes emplean más características interpersonales para involucrar a los lectores, y los autores experimentados toman decisiones lingüísticas para establecer su autoridad en los textos que crean. mostramos que el uso del metadiscurso interpersonal hace que los textos académicos sean más accesibles, atractivos e interesantes para el lector. esto nos permite trabajar en el desarrollo de una instrucción de escritura más efectiva que es especialmente relevante para la pedagogía del inglés para fines académicos. palabras clave: análisis del discurso, escritura de la gestión, identidad del escritor, inclusión del lector. 1. introduction in the field of management there is a growing concern as to how managerial knowledge and belief claims are presented in scholarly texts with respect to the reader (grey & sinclair, 2006; hambrick, 2007; tourish, 2020). a cursory look at the content of the top management journals through scopus shows us that many articles are highly theoretical and abstract, and are written in unengaging, self-righteous, pompous and full of unnecessary jargon style. as tourish notes, authors are expected to develop convincing theories and use a “tortured writing style characterized by vagueness, euphemisms, and long words where shorter ones are readily available” (2020, p. 99), and he argues that this creates “barricades to keep readers out rather than open doors to invite them in” (tourish, 2020, p. 105). the ‘torture’ metaphor used by tourish follows grey and sinclair’s charge that “the assumption seems to be that writing and reading should involve suffering and that writing is not good enough unless it causes a little suffering” (2006, p. 448). it is clear then that more accessible writing is a desirable objective to attract, inform and persuade a more diverse and global readership. 156 in the current study, we quantitatively investigate whether there is a difference in the way experienced authors (further referred to as experts) and graduate students (further referred to as novices) construct their authorial identities (textually conveyed in ‘voice’). in doing so, we take hyland’s conceptualisation of metadiscourse as a point of departure (hyland & tse, 2004; hyland, 2005) which enables us to see how an academic text demonstrates both the writer’s stance on the propositional content and an awareness of readers’ responses. according to hyland, metadiscourse is “a cover term for the self-reflective expressions used to negotiate interactional meanings in a text, assisting the writer (or speaker) to express a viewpoint and engage with readers/listeners as members of a particular discourse community” (2005, p. 37). this definition goes to the essence of academic communication, that is an interactive construction of meaning by discourse participants in a communicative event. the interpersonal potential of metadiscourse is realised in the function of taking “account of the reader’s knowledge, textual experiences and processing needs and that it provides writers with an armoury of rhetorical appeals to achieve this” (hyland, 2005, p. 41) (see also fu & hyland, 2014; alonso belmonte, 2009). the present research approach is novel in that it analyses the nature of authorial identity of scientific writers in management with specific focus on whether knowledge and beliefs are communicated in a reader-inclusive or authoritarian way. this is achieved by the analysis of selected articles for the presence and frequency distribution of metadiscourse features that mark both reader-consideration and writers’ enforcement of their views and opinions on readers. we place a new lens on scholarly writing in management, suggesting more analytical scrutiny of the rhetorical conventions which exist in the field and support the recent efforts in critical management studies (cms) (grey & sinclair, 2006; kiriakos & tienari, 2018; gilmore et al., 2019; pullen et al., 2020) to ‘write differently’ to address the aesthetic, moral and political concerns of writing. 2. theorising concepts of identity, self and voice ‘identity’ is a central organising feature of public life, and social sciences and humanities increasingly regard it as a multifaceted phenomenon constituted in interpersonal exchange or, more specifically, in discourse. in this perspective, ‘identity’ becomes relocated from “the ‘private’ realms of writing to make a difference: discursive analysis of writer identity in research articles on management ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178 157 cognition and experience, to the ‘public’ realms of discourse and other semiotic systems of making meaning” (benwell & stokoe, 2006, p. 4). being ontologically multiple is not to say that identity is fragmented. identity is rather fluid as it entails different ways people think of themselves depending on the context of communicative event. the multiple social identities or aspects of identity both add to and influence each other. for example, a textual self-representation of a polish scholar writing in english for international publication is permeated by their other identities/or identity facets constituted by both prescriptive and normative standards of polish culture (including values, religious beliefs, worldview, history etc.) and transient participation in different social interactions, relationships and tasks. as handley et al. note, “[i]ndividuals bring to a community a personal history of involvement with workplace, social and familial groups whose norms may complement or conflict with one other” (2006, p. 642). consequently, writers move between different, socially available identity options depending on the context of the communicative situation. hence, the real concern related to the complex and evolving nature of identity refers to how these different options, which can be complimentary, incompatible or even contradictory, ultimately unite to comprise an identity of the individual writer. the production of an academic text is a particularly illustrative example of this process. every time a scholar reports scientific work, they make a decision to either draw on privileged or less privileged possibilities1 for textual self-representation. the tension between writers’ desires to claim their personal identities and the pressure to conform to institutional and community expectations has been reflected in many studies (e.g., see hyland and sancho guinda’s 2012 edited volume). as found by hyland (2012) in his research based on corpusapproaches for studying the discursive construction of identity, the interplay between the individual and social factors contributes to identity construction and evolution. following this perspective, lehman formulated a model of writer identity based on the trichotomy of selves (lehman, 2018; lehman & sułkowski, 2021), which consists of the individual self, collective self and depersonalised self (see figure 1). iga maria lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis & łukasz sułkowskib ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178158 figure 1. revised model of writer identity (primary sources: lehman 2018; lehman & sułkowski, 2021). within the field of identity studies, some researchers use the notions of ‘self ’ and ‘identity’ interchangeably (roeser, peck & nasir, 2006) while for others they are two different concepts (côté & levine, 2002). in lehman’s view (lehman, 2018), ‘identity’ is the whole kaleidoscopic picture while different ‘selves’ constitute colours and shapes which can be found in this picture. consequently, the various ‘selves’ exist: ‘ideal self ’, ‘independent self ’, ‘communitarian self ’, etc. the three selves from lehman’s conceptualisation are constituted by the author’s sense of self-worth, gender, psychological and intellectual capacities, socio-cultural and educational backgrounds, writing practices of their disciplinary community, and are textually conveyed in the respective voices. the individual self is constructed by an individual’s unique cognition, personality and life history and conveyed in an authoritative voice that signals the writer’s opinions, beliefs as well as their position towards the propositional content. the collective self refers to how the author positions themselves in different socio-cultural settings, relationships and tasks, and is textually manifested in a voice that communicates the writer’s struggle for affiliation and belonging to a shared discourse community. this is usually done by establishing a relationship of commonality and equality with the reader. the depersonalised self is devoid of any individuality which is dictated by the anonymity that academic writing typically requires and makes writing to make a difference: discursive analysis of writer identity in research articles on management ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178 159 ! ! the author assume an impersonal voice, free from the personal and cultural bias. this is manifested in the author’s alignment with the writing conventions of their disciplinary community. however, this adherence to the disciplinarily sanctioned rhetorical rules also shows consideration of the reader who, as a community member, has specific expectations about how disciplinary texts should be written. in the present conceptualisation, voice is perceived as a phenomenological concept (matsuda, 2001, 2015; hyland, 2008a). this has affinity to cheung and lau’s understanding of the term who argue that, in contrast to stance, “voice takes on a wider perspective, involving the construction of writer identity. research into voice helps to locate the ‘person behind the written word’ (hirvela & belcher, 2001, p. 85), perceived by the reader” (cheung & lau, 2020, p. 216). a consequential assumption of this approach is that voice situates writers culturally, socially and institutionally and is achieved through the ways they negotiate their textual representations within a particular discursive context of the text production. the link between identity, or identity aspects, and voice has been investigated from different perspectives, including pedagogy-oriented (castelló et al., 2012; liang, 2013; dressen-hammouda, 2014) and reader-oriented research (matsuda & tardy, 2007; tardy & matsuda, 2009; tardy, 2012b; morton & storch, 2019); and in a number of studies which examined voice as a typification linked to social identities (prior, 2001) and as the outcome of different types of positioning affecting identity formation (ivanič & camps, 2001) (see also flowerdew and wang’s review article of 2015). table 1 presents a description of the textual realisations of the three types of voice captured in two dimensions, or ‘systems’ as hyland (2008a) puts it, ‘writer stance’ and ‘reader engagement’. ‘stance’ dimension has been defined by hyland as “community recognised personality, an attitudinal, writeroriented function which concerns the ways writers present themselves and convey their judgement, opinions and comments” (2008a: 7). in this way, ‘stance’ represents an individualistic, or writer-oriented, aspect of voice which is, in hyland’s model, conveyed through four types of linguistic and discourse-level features: hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mention pronouns. hyland’s conceptualisation does not fully square with lehman’s point who places hedging devices in the ‘reader engagement’ dimension arguing that when academic writers present their findings tentatively and in a non-authoritative manner, they aim to forestall any criticisms from their iga maria lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis & łukasz sułkowskib ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178160 peers. indeed, ‘engagement’ dimension reflects writers’ consideration of their readers whose presence is rhetorically recognised in writers’ efforts to “actively pull them along with the argument, include them as discourse participants, and guide them to interpretations” (hyland, 2008a: 7). but when the writer is deliberately not employing these strategies, they are aiming for a more monologic and telling style corresponding to ‘stance’. as a result, ‘engagement’ signals an interdependent, or reader-oriented, aspect of voice which is, in hyland’s model, textually marked by the following five linguistic and discourse-level features: reader pronouns, personal asides, references to shared knowledge, directives, and rhetorical/audience directed questions and, in lehman’s conceptualisation by reader pronouns, references to shared knowledge, rhetorical/audience directed questions, hedges and directives (see table 1). table 1. textual realisations of three types of voice. the voices activated within these two dimensions are all dialogic in nature and potentially persuasive as they show how the writer positions themselves with respect to the reader. the individual voice (‘i’ voice) refers to writer stance and has the capacity to convince the reader by the author presenting writing to make a difference: discursive analysis of writer identity in research articles on management ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178 161 ! dimension 1: writer stance descriptors of ‘i’ voice metadiscourse markers that signal ‘i’ voice the writer presents the ideas and arguments in a way that shows their depth of knowledge of the topic. boosters (e.g., clear(ly), show, undoubtedly, must) the writer expresses a clear and firm opinion on the topic. authorial self-mention pronouns (e.g. i, my, we (exclusive), us (exclusive), the author (‘s)) the writer establishes authority for the content by citing their own work. self-citations the writer reveals their positive and negative feelings towards propositional content of the text. attitude markers (e.g., significant, better, surprsing(ly), unfortunately) dimension 2: reader engagement descriptors of ‘c’ voice metadiscourse markers that signal ‘c’ voice the writer reveals their thinking about the topic in a way that directly engages the reader. reader pronouns (e.g., you, your, we (inclusive), our (inclusive). the writer refers to shared knowledge and experiences with the reader. references to shared knowledge (e.g., it is generally thought, as we all know, of course) the writer invokes a response from the reader. rhetorical/audience directed questions writer uses words that reduce their commitment to claims hedges (e.g., might, perhaps, possible, sometimes) descriptors of ‘d’ voice metadiscourse markers that signal ‘d’ voice the reader feels that they are encountering a textual structure which is familiar, acceptable and helpful directives (e.g., note that, consider, first) themselves as a self-assured commentator who establishes authority for the content of their writing. the adoption of this kind of writing style creates a writer-dominant dialogue in the text. the collective voice (‘c’ voice) is linked to reader engagement as the writer invites the reader to enter into a dialogue by invoking the reader’s response and making references to common knowledge and experiences. in this way, the writer constructs an equable dialogue. similarly to ‘c’ voice, the depersonalised voice (‘d’ voice) is also captured in the reader engagement dimension. ‘d’ voice marks the writer’s alignment with the discursive practices of their disciplinary community and the authorial credibility is based on the universal, plain and objective language which allows for communicating unbiased ideas, knowledge and belief claims. writer position themselves as being impersonal towards the propositional content of the text and, thereby, distant from the readers. however, in being consistent with the discipline-sanctioned writing conventions, the writer is readersensitive and creates an equable dialogue with the reader to satisfy their expectations as to the discipline’s writing conventions. the three types of voice can be mapped onto hyland’s (2012) notions of individuality and communality. these two concepts are the mediating variables in the act of writer identity construction which reflect “an encounter, possibly a struggle, between our multiple experiences and the demands of the current context” (hyland, 2012, p. 147). by claiming ownership over the propositional content and demonstrating stylistic distinctiveness, the writer leaves an individual stamp on the text which can be linked to hyland’s notion of individuality and lehman’s concept of individual self encoded in individual voice. what these two concepts have in common is that they imply a writeroriented view of communication by emphasising the agentive power of “a unique selfhood [that] overflows the semiotic categories which [authorised] discourses offer us” (hyland, 2012, p. 148). since linguistic choices are typically made by academic authors from disciplinarily sanctioned resources, any act of writing involves negotiation between the writer’s desire for individuality and the need for alignment with the writing conventions of a given disciplinary community to satisfy the reader’s needs and expectations. the latter variable corresponds to hyland’s concept of communality and lehman’s conceptualisation of collective and depersonalised selves, textually conveyed in collective and depersonalised voices. the common denominator for these two notions is the idea of reader-oriented communication in which writers “create a mutual frame of reference and anticipate when their purposes will be retrieved by their audiences” (hyland, 2012, p. 27). iga maria lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis & łukasz sułkowskib ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178162 the proposed model of writer identity (see figure 1) comprises identity components, grouped into three, internally tied together, levels. the outer band, which describes the socio-cultural context involved in the process of identity construction, is made up of values, beliefs, norms, shared worldview, socio-cultural practices, history, dominant ideologies together with their discourses, and traditional communication conventions. the intermediate band, which refers to the disciplinary context of identity construction, includes disciplinary knowledge and beliefs, the ideology of an institution with the relations of power inscribed in it, and the rhetorical strategies sanctioned in a given discipline. the inner core explains the dynamics of writer-text-reader interaction in which different elements of this exchange are in continuous interplay. by activating specific identity facets (textually encoded in voice), the writer makes lexico-grammatical and rhetorical choices that support and validate their purpose in writing. for successful communication to occur, there needs to be a degree of shared disciplinary knowledge and beliefs, and awareness of the institutional and ideological context in which the text is written. it is necessary for the writer then to be able to exploit this context to involve the reader in the creation of meaning. to persuade the audience to accept the propositional content of the text, the author also has to skillfully choose from a wide repertoire of personal and disciplinary available rhetorical resources. a broken line between ‘reader’ and ‘text’ indicates potential communication failure. 3. study 3.1. rationale for the study the rationale for the present study is that, as things stand, scholarly writers have a paucity of advice concerning how to navigate the difficult terrain of scholarly writing. the awareness of how to use discursive strategies offers scholarly writers in management an opportunity to decide whether they want to be reader-sensitive, and in this way, challenge the existing rhetorical and lexical norms and rules which have been criticised within the field for their lack of reader inclusivity. recognising the importance of individual, social and dialogic aspects of voice in the construction of writer identity, the current study extends and expands tardy’s (2012a) work exploring further the link between textual identity2 and voice facets3. in doing so, it takes a critical perspective on writer writing to make a difference: discursive analysis of writer identity in research articles on management ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178 163 identity as a trichotomy of selves and investigates the metadiscoursal linguistic resources via corpus approach. 3.2. sample our sample comprises two types of data and, thus, two corpora of research articles, a pre-eminent genre of scholarly writing (swales, 2004). the first corpus consists of research articles from management journals which were highly rated by the scimago journal rank indicator and classified into the area of business, management and accounting. the journals include academy of management annals, academy of management review, strategic management journal, journal of management, annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, organization science, personnel psychology, journal of consumer research, and journal of marketing. it is worth noting that only two among the nine journals are of non-us origin. we selected 103 articles characterised by a similar length with the average number of words (word tokens) per text amounting to 10,272. the articles were published between 2016-2020 and were written by both singular and multiple writers. the collected corpus provided us with a wide and diverse range of data to explore a textual realisation of voice in management journals. the second corpus consisted of research papers written in english by management students at the master’s level for those courses which required them to design, conduct and report their own research. these courses included human resource management, intercultural management and leadership in contemporary world, business environment, business ethics, international business, strategic management, and operations management. student writers constituted a diverse group with regards to gender, institutional belonging and cultural and linguistic background and were enrolled in graduate management study programmes conducted in both public and private universities in poland. they were holders of business english certificate higher, certificate in advanced english (cae), certificate of proficiency in english (cpe), international english language testing system (ielts) or ielts academic test (with scores of 7, 8, and 9), bec higher, or university placement test scores at c1-c2 level according to the common european framework of reference for languages. we collected 100 research papers with the average text length of 3174,16 words/word tokens per each research paper. the collected corpus enabled iga maria lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis & łukasz sułkowskib ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178164 us to scrutinise how novice management writers convey their voice textually in their research papers. we considered our novice corpus in a way similar to yoon and römer’s (2020) automated approach employed to quantitatively analyse disciplinary voices in 829 upper-level student papers from 16 academic disciplines. the findings from their research brought to light notable differences in the patterns of interactional metadiscourse use based on hyland’s (2008a) dimensions of stance and engagement both across and within academic divisions. this points to the need for studies, like the current one, which focus on increasing the discursive awareness of students and practitioners and developing their knowledge of how to skilfully create interaction in written academic discourse. 3.4. methods and tools in the current study, we integrated lehman’s (2018) conceptualisation of writer identity as a trichotomy of selves (textually conveyed in three types of voice) with hyland’s (2008) framework incorporating interactive and interpersonal metadiscourse markers as linguistic representations of voice (see table 1). the research sought to answer research question: is there a difference in the way experts and novices construct their authorial identities (textually conveyed in ‘voice’)? we conducted an analysis of the differences in the frequency of metadiscourse markers that signal writer ‘stance’ and reader ‘engagement’, and which correspond to the descriptors for the textual realisations of lehman’s three voice types: individual – ‘i’ voice, collective – ‘c’ voice and depersonalised – ‘d’ voice (see table 1). the comparative aspect of our analysis focused on the areas of differences and similarities in the use of these features by experts and novices in the field of management. in accordance with hyland (1998), we excluded the following parts of articles published in the journals: references, appendices, notes and abstracts. typically, in linguistic analysis abstracts are treated as a compact summary irrespective of the main body of a research article. subsequently, we counted the metadiscourse markers (voice features) through the wordlist tool of antconc (version 3.5.8), ensuring manually the appropriateness of the function of the analysed words. after generating the concordance lists, we scrutinised each instance of voice features in each concordance line. in this way, all the data writing to make a difference: discursive analysis of writer identity in research articles on management ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178 165 obtained was examined and the non-relevant tokens were dismissed. next, we divided the number of the relevant tokens representing metadiscourse markers by the number of all tokens in the corpus (see table 2). table 2. number of voice features per total number of word tokens in the two corpora. finally, we calculated the percentage of metadiscourse features in the total number of metadiscourse resources and then established the frequency with which metadiscourse features correspond to each voice dimension (see table 3). iga maria lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis & łukasz sułkowskib ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178166 ! t total word tokens 1058055 (103 experts’ texts) 317416 (100 novices’ texts) voice dimension metadiscourse markers number of metadiscourse markers percent (%) of total number of word tokens number of metadiscourse markers percent (%) of total number of word tokens writer stance boosters 5232 0.49 1570 0.49 self-mention pronouns 6003 0.57 2001 0.63 self-citations 908 0.08 0 0.00 attitude markers 20934 1.98 1280 0.40 reader engagement hedges 22098 2.09 1690 0.53 reader pronouns 442 0.04 2833 0.89 directives 2804 0.26 2410 0.75 references to shared knowledge 51 0.004 150 0.04 rhetorical questions 248 0.023 200 0.06 table 3. percentage of metadiscourse features in the two corpora. pursuing to answer the study’s research question, the following hypotheses were formulated: h1: a higher percentage (proportion) of boosters is used by novices than by experts. h2: a higher percentage (proportion) of self-mention pronouns is used by novices than by experts. h3: a higher percentage (proportion) of self-citations is used by experts than by novices. h4: a higher percentage (proportion) of attitude markers is used by experts than by novices. h5: a higher percentage (proportion) of hedges is used by experts than by novices. h6: a higher percentage (proportion) of reader pronouns is used by novices than by experts. writing to make a difference: discursive analysis of writer identity in research articles on management ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178 167 ! total number of metadiscourse markers in experts’ texts = 58720 in novices’ texts = 12134 voice dimension metadiscourse markers number of metadiscourse markers percent (%) of total metadiscourse markers number of metadiscourse markers percent (%) of total metadiscourse markers writer stance boosters 5232 8.91 1570 13 self-mention pronouns 6003 10.2 2001 16.4 self-citations 908 1.55 0 0 attitude markers 20934 35.7 1280 10.6 total 33077 56.4 4851 40 reader engagement hedges 22098 37.6 1690 13.9 reader pronouns 442 0.75 2833 23.3 directives 2804 4.78 2410 19.9 references to shared knowledge 51 0.09 150 1.24 rhetorical questions 248 0.42 200 1.65 total 25643 43.6 7283 60 together 58720 100 12134 100 h7: a higher percentage (proportion) of directives is used by novices than by experts. h8: a higher percentage (proportion) of references to shared knowledge is used by novices than by experts. h9: a higher percentage (proportion) of rhetorical questions is used by novices than by experts. as is orthodoxy, inferences were made about relevant populations using the sample data. the above hypotheses were tested using a one-tailed t-test protocol adapted for use with a sampling distribution comprising proportions for each of the nine metadiscourse markers identified in the hypotheses. 4. findings the total word count in both corpora indicated the prevalence of the rhetorical option of ‘stance’ over that of ‘engagement’ in the expert corpus and the dominance of ‘engagement’ markers in the novice corpus. when the two corpora were compared against each other, the same categories of metadiscourse markers revealed statistically significant differences in occurrence (see table 4). iga maria lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis & łukasz sułkowskib ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178168 table 4. comparison of proportions of metadiscourse markers per total number of word tokens between the two corpora. the following data illustrates the differences which are summarised below: a) the percentage of the use of ‘stance’ items by experts (group 1) is 56.4% and by novices (group 2) is 40%, while the use of ‘engagement’ items is lower in the group 1 and equates 43.6% and as high as 60% for the group 2 (see table 3); b) novices use a higher proportion of self-mention pronouns, reader pronouns, directives, references to shared knowledge and rhetorical questions in research articles than experts (see table 4); c) experts use a higher proportion of self-citations, attitude markers and hedges in research articles than novices (see table 4); d) the differences between the proportions of boosters used by experts and novices are insignificant. writing to make a difference: discursive analysis of writer identity in research articles on management ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178 169 ! t !" #$ 58720 total number of metadiscourse markers in the research articles written by experts !% $ 12134 total number of metadiscourse markers in the research papers written by novices m et ad is co ur se m ar ke rs number of metadiscourse markers in experts’ texts number of metadiscourse markers in novices’ texts sample proportion for experts percent sample proportion for novices percent sample difference hypothesis (for one tailed test) test statistic result &" &% '" $ &" !" ! " '% $ &% !% " '" ( '% )" '" (#'%# #' *#+ ! boosters 5232 1570 0.00494492 0.494492 0.00494619 0.494619 -1.268e-06 '" ,#'% -0.0089317 insignificant selfmention pronouns 6003 2001 0.00567362 0.567362 0.00630403 0.630403 -0.00063041 '" ,#'% -4.09549794 significant selfcitations 908 0 0.00085818 0.085818 0 0 0.000858178 '" -#'% 16.50998216 significant attitude markers 20934 1280 0.01978536 1.978536 0.00403256 0.403256 0.015752798 '" -#'% 61.75162996 significant hedges 22098 1690 0.02088549 2.088549 0.00532424 0.532424 0.015561249 '" -#'% 58.982384 significant reader pronouns 442 2833 0.00041775 0.041775 0.0089252 0.89252 -0.00850745 '" ,#'% -86.2541183 significant directives 2804 2410 0.00265015 0.265015 0.00759256 0.759256 -0.00494241 '" ,#'% -39.7417378 significant references to shared knowledge 51 150 4.8202e-05 4.82e-03 0.00047257 0.047257 -0.00042436 '" ,#'% -17.3476677 significant rhetorical questions 248 200 0.00023439 0.023439 0.00063009 0.063009 -0.0003957 '" ,#'% -10.8358127 significant a 5. discussion our major findings are twofold: (1) the prevailing tendency in the textual self-representation of experts is to portray themselves as self-assured and confident commentators on the propositional content of the text, adopting an authoritarian (reader exclusive) writer stance encoded in ‘i’ voice. in contrast, (2) the novices demonstrate a preference for the use of communitarian (reader-inclusive) ‘c’ voice. the first finding supports hyland’s observation that sciences usually produce texts which do not consider the reader (2005, p. 144) whereas the latter confirms the results of lehman and sułkowski’s previous study (2021) into representations of voice in english essays written by english as an additional language (eal) students of business that novice authors tend to write ‘with the reader in mind’. due to juxtaposing the specific metadiscourse markers that were found dominant in the previous and the present study (see table 5), we can see that novices marked their authorial presence by assuming reader-inclusive positions mainly through the employment of reader pronouns, directives and hedges. table 5. comparative description of dominant metadiscourse markers found in the previous lehman and sułkowski’s (2021) study and in the current study. iga maria lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis & łukasz sułkowskib ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178170 ! o d previous study current study metadiscourse markers explanation metadiscourse markers explanation plural selfmentions the use 1st person plural and 2nd person singular and plural pronouns, and possessives to include the potential point of view of the reader you, your, yours, we, us, our, ours; reader pronouns the use 1st person plural and 2nd person singular and plural pronouns, and possessives to include the potential point of view of the reader. you, your, yours, we, us, our, ours; frame markers express structural relations within the text; often indicating sequences and stages in order to guide the reader in the process of reading and understanding the writer’s intention first/second/third, finally, to conclude directives the use of cohesive devices imperatives, obligation modals, or other phrases that direct readers to certain information that is presented elsewhere and instruct them how to interpret the author’s claims first, second, finally reader engagement markers make explicit appeals to the reader consider, note that, you can see, you will agree that consider, note that, you can see, you will agree that transition markers express semantic relations between clauses that signal additive, comparative, consequential and illustrative relations. addition: and, moreover, as well as comparison: similarly, alike, equally consequence: as a result, therefore exemplification: as an illustration, such as, for example and, moreover, as well as, as similarly, alike, equally as a result, therefore as an illustration, such as, for example hedges reduce force of statement, make statements indefinite and decrease responsibility for the claims made modal verbs: might, may, could, can adverbs of time: usually, sometimes adverbials of probability: maybe, possibly, perhaps hedges allow the writers to distance themselves from the claims being made allowing the readers the space to dispute or critically interpret what is being presented might, may, could, usually, sometimes,maybe, possibly, perhaps this is in contrast to the expert writers’ self-representations analysed in current research which shows that the sine qua non for scholarly writing in management seems to be the adoption of a strong and often authoritarian writer stance. among the ‘stance’ features, the most commonly employed by experts were attitude markers which can be illustrated by the following example: (1) attitude markers: “… there are likely other unique dynamics that occur when considering co-creation …”; “… work-family practices are effective in the recruitment and retention of employees …” attitude markers explicitly convey the writer’s attitude to what is being stated, and in this, the author invests their persona and credibility in the veracity and validity of these claims. the expression of the writer’s attitude also serves to develop an interaction with the reader and in so doing, to make the text’s whole argumentation more difficult to dispute. another metadiscourse feature that marks strong authorial presence in the corpus of experts’ articles are self-mention pronouns. they convey authorial assertiveness and confidence in the truth of the claims made. our analysis showed that this was mainly done by writers outlining the novelty of their research and contribution to their fields as illustrated by these examples: (2) authorial self-mention pronouns: “i address this shortcoming by showing that firms use”; “the answer, we anticipate, is that there is a strong implicit consensus about the essence of the field”; “i develop broader, more comprehensive theory regarding their unintended consequences”. other research (e.g., myers, 1989; hyland, 2005) also confirms this finding by indicating that the use of self-mention pronouns shows substantial differences between discourse communities and is much higher in soft fields, including management, where writers take apparent personal responsibility for their claims. in contrast to the findings from previous studies in other soft sciences (e.g. hyland, 2005), our study shows that boosters (see the example below), which seek to suppress alternative opinions to the propositional content of the text, are not very commonly used to report scholarly work in management. (3) boosters: “… which clearly was not our purpose”; “… the present results demonstrate that advancing understanding of …” writing to make a difference: discursive analysis of writer identity in research articles on management ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178 171 we interpret this finding as not going against the principal findings but rather that research articles in management, as a genre of discourse, may present their results in a less abrasive way. importantly, our research revealed that although expert writers tend to communicate their research in a self-assured way, at the same time, they employ hedging devices out of deference to their peers as presented in this example: (4) hedges: “… it is far more difficult, or possibly even ineffective, for foreign mnes to build up…”; “although equitable distribution might be more fair in many settings…”; “…underdog expectations could be perceived as more credible if observers demonstrate competence and trustworthiness in the domain …”. as mentioned before, in lehman’s conceptualisation hedges are indicative of ‘c’ voice and form part of the concept of ‘engagement’. they are used to highlight the subjectivity of a proposition often by demonstrating its contingency on other aspects of the argument. in this way, the writer is demonstrating that the claim is open to negotiation and that their commitment to that claim is reduced, or at the very least distanced (myers, 1991; hyland, 1998). this finding also confirms hyland’s claim that in humanities and social sciences hedges are particularly strongly represented. one interesting feature which we feel deserves further attention is the rather low count of references to shared knowledge in both corpora (51 items and 0.09% of total metadiscourse markers in group 1 texts and 150 items and 0.04% of total metadiscourse markers in group 2 texts). knowledge claims in the field of management are typically presented in two ways, namely, (1) through the experiences of individuals and organisations, and usually presented in narrative or case studies, and (2) through abstract theorising of management issues. however, neither sub-genre involves the solicitation and engagement of the reader’s shared beliefs and knowledge to substantiate the claims made. although this perspective stays outside the purpose of the current enquiry, we find that this is a promising area for future research. the results of the voice analysis in research articles produced by the novices show that reader consideration was a central aspect of their authorial selfrepresentations which was textually marked by a more frequent use, in comparison to group 1, of five interpersonal metadiscouse features organised below in order of importance. iga maria lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis & łukasz sułkowskib ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178172 (1) reader pronouns: “it is understandable that you can only gain experience by working (…)”; (…) “we should know more about the specifications of the company, and the position that we need an employee for”; “when you answer these questions, your customer…”; (2) directives: “secondly, technology is widely used in gaming industry …”; third of all, laws covering the preservation of genetic data…”; (3) rhetorical questions: “how can needs of customers be fulfilled in the e-commerce sector?”; …“…but can it lead to further development?”; (4) references to shared knowledge: “as we know, the examination of business environment gives us an opportunity to …”; “we all know that this sector is”. an interesting observation was a higher use of boosters and a lower use of hedges when compared to group 1. we interpret this result as the novices’ desire to present their ideas and arguments enthusiastically but deferentially, rather than assertively and confidently. (5) boosters: certainly, this does not mean that our investment in coaching will always bear fruit” “…it is obvious that their privacy statement will change…” “...and this proves that such procedures need to be regulated by law”; “…evidently, employees will seek assistance…”. this interpretation contrasts hyland’s (2008b) explanation of the high proportion of engagement markers in his research on clusters in published and postgraduate writing. hyland does not view the high proportion of engagement markers in such a positive light noting that while engagement markers guide the readers’ understanding and pull them along with the argument (‘c’ and ‘d’ voice), at the same time, they represent a reluctance on the part of the novice writer to adopt a more intrusive personal voice (‘i’ voice) (see hyland, 2008b). however, hyland’s follow-up interviews with the students’ professors revealed that the deployment of more ‘i’ voice resources in students’ work was a wish of their professors not the students themselves, who, we believe, had different reasons for not activating a selfassured writing style in their texts. herein lies the tension between expert and novice writing. the most revealing interpretation of this study’s findings is the novice writers’ preference for establishing a communication with readers based on the ideas of equality, commonality and a desire to help the reader comprehend the text. as darvin and norton rightfully point out, “students writing to make a difference: discursive analysis of writer identity in research articles on management ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178 173 do not just reproduce or internalize discursive practices, but exercise agency through resistance, innovation, and self-determination” (2019, p. 179). this implies an awareness that the writer has different identity options to choose from. for example, they may decide to use less privileged patterns of textual self-representation, which consider readers’ needs and expectations, and which may work as “a drop that wears away a stone”. if we accept that writer identity is socially co-constructed in discourse, then the opportunities and constraints that dictate how authors mark their presence in the text are influenced by the perceived relations of power that exist between the writer and the reader. when the writer assumes more power than the reader, they adopt a self-assured and assertive way of presenting disciplinary knowledge and beliefs, and this is indicative of ivoice. in table 1, which shows textual realisations of three types of voice, this type of reader-writer interaction is captured in the ‘stance’ dimension. when the writer employs ‘c’ voice, they recognise the role the reader plays in processing the meaning the writer intends to convey in the text. in this case, metadiscourse serves the function of a strategy of accommodation through which the writer actively seeks approval for their claims while being aware of the possibility of the reader holding diverse views. if the writer focuses on the accommodation of the rhetorical and lexical rules sanctioned in the shared discourse community and effaces their authorial presence, this is captured in ‘d’ voice. consequently, both ‘c’ and ‘d’ voices are indicative of the ‘engagement’ dimension. with the present study, we offer a new path of investigating the conditions within which publications in management set up multiple subject-positions for their writers. more specifically, the analysis of metadiscourse markers makes it possible to examine clearly how writers and readers negotiate interactional meanings in a text and how their conscious use allows writers to effectively control their authorial self-representations (e.g. ivanič & camps, 2001; matsuda & tardy, 2007; morton & storch, 2019). the important finding of this research is that novices intuitively tend to establish the relationship of equality and commonality with their readers and this potential, we argue, should not be suppressed but developed and reinforced. this new investigative avenue has important pedagogical implications enabling us to work towards the development of more effective writing instruction to assist teachers in introducing students of management to the linguistic choices available to them in the conscious creation of their writer identity and reader-sensitive academic texts. iga maria lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis & łukasz sułkowskib ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178174 6. future research although this research has only been an issue-raising study, it revealed differences in textual self-representations of experienced and novice writers on management issues. it has opened up new avenues for future research which include discoursal analysis of writer identity construction. further research into managerial written discourse should be carried out to better understand the genre-specific features of these texts. specifically, we need studies into the contextual circumstances under which one voice type assumes dominance in authorial self-representation, with specific attention given to the presence, or otherwise, of a reader-embracing discourse. undoubtedly, a detailed analysis of the socio-rhetorical contexts in which specific aspects of writers’ voice are employed is particularly relevant for novice academics and eal writers in the field who experience the sense of “disempowerment (…) in global business contexts where english is increasingly used as a lingua franca” (takino, 2020, p. 517). 7. conclusion since the field of management lacks discursive research based on empirical evidence and frameworks into the individual and social factors which influence scholarly writing, this study is an important contribution to fill this void. the creation of a credible writer identity involves the activation of authorial voice formed from the conscious and skillful use of available linguistic resources. this enables writers to mediate not only the contexts within which they write but also “to construe the characteristic structures of knowledge domains and argument forms of the disciplines that create them” (hyland, 2016b, p. 13). article history: received 02 march 2022 received in revised form 08 july 2022 accepted 16 august 2022 references writing to make a difference: discursive analysis of writer identity in research articles on management ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178 175 alonso belmonte, m i. 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(2020). quantifying disciplinary voices: an automated approach to interactional metadiscourse in successful student writing. written communication, 37(2), 208-244. <https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088319898672> intercultural rhetoric, with particular focus on identity construction in written discourse. she is the editor-in-chief of the bi-annual journal, discourses on culture which promotes research and development in the areas of interculturality and multidisciplinary in the social sciences and humanities. she has a wide experience of working in culturally diverse academic settings in the us and poland. katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis (ph.d.) received her phd in linguistics at warsaw university. she has worked for various higher education institutions, including siedlce university of natural sciences and humanities, warsaw university, and –between october 2020 and september 2021– she worked as assistant professor and english studies coordinator at the university of social sciences in warsaw. her research interests include language instruction at heis, language teacher education, language policy, identity in writing and intercultural negotiations. łukasz sułkowski is professor of economics and humanities and chair of hei’s management department at the jagiellonian university, clark university and management department at the university of social sciences in lodz, poland. he is the editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal of intercultural management. his main research interests are: hei management, critical management studies and organisational culture and intercultural management. notes 1 patterns of privileging is the idea introduced by wertsch who argues that “privileging refers to the fact that one meditational means, such as a social language, is viewed as being more appropriate and efficacious than others in a particular sociocultural setting” (1991, p. 124). 2 textual identity has been referred to by tardy (2012b: 65) as the way in which voice (as selfrepresentation) is constructed through text. 3 tardy’s (2012a) conceptualisation of voice encompasses three dimensions: the individual (representation of self in or behind the words), the social (disciplinary aspects, social groups, and the context), and the dialogic or interactional (co-construction of voice, including the interpretation of the reader) (fortanetgómez, 2014: 229). iga maria lehman, katarzyna cybulska-gómez de celis & łukasz sułkowskib ibérica 44 (2022): 155-178178 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 résumé le sport a renouvelé la vision du monde et a envahi les différentes sphères d’activités humaines sous de multiples aspects, entre autres la langue. sport et presse écrite participent de concert à la génération “d’une langue qui joue”. afin de décrire des événements sportifs ou en rendre compte, le journalisme génère un lexique qui s’est répandu progressivement jusqu’à conquérir la langue courante. inversement, les termes empruntés à d’autres champs d’activité, prennent des dimensions sémantiques intéressantes, lorsqu’elles immigrent vers les terrains sportifs. dans la présente contribution, notre objectif est de mettre en relief l’investissement du lexique du sport dans le discours politique et économique d’une part et celui d’autres domaines dans le discours sportif d’autre part, afin de souligner les effets de ce jeu “d’exportation/importation”. nous verrons à quel point le journalisme se permet des usages particuliers qui pourraient défricher des voies peu explorables. mots clés: sport/sportivisation, lexique, métaphore, sémantique, presse. abstract sport has renewed the vision of the world and invaded the different spheres of human activity in multiple aspects including language. sport and journalism participate together in creating “a language that plays”. on one hand, journalism generates a sport terminology that has gradually spread to conquer the current language. on the other hand, words borrowed from the other fields of activity immigrate to the sports fields. in this contribution, we aim to highlight the effects of this game of lexical exportation/importation. we’ll examine how journalism can allow new lexical uses. keywords: sport/sportivisation, lexicon, metaphor, semantics, press. le français sportif: un jeu lexical d’exportation/importation riham m. el khamissy université ain shams, le caire (egypte) rihamelkhamissy@yahoo.fr 173 ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190 riham m. el khamissy 1. introduction au début il y a le sport. une mimésis sélective de la réalité, laquelle “présente (…) l’avantage de proposer un spectre assez large de situations (individuelles, collectives, affrontements…) qui peuvent renvoyer à de multiples circonstances de la vie quotidienne”. (ohl, 2001: 194). ensuite toute une panoplie de mots, d’expressions et de structures phrastiques pour le décrire, le raconter: “des journaux à la radio puis à la télévision, le langage sportif a envahi l’espace social, il est devenu système hégémonique dans l’agir communicationnel fondé sur le langage” (gleyse, 1998: §23-24). d’entrée en jeu, il convient de préciser que le choix du langage sportif n’est pas aléatoire: premièrement, avec beaucoup de succès, le sport a généré – et continue d’ailleurs à le faire – un langage propre qui s’est répandu et popularisé au point d’être investi dans le langage courant; deuxièmement, ce langage compte peu d’études, notamment en linguistique. nous proposons, dans la présente contribution, une réflexion sur la langue du sport que nous illustrerons à l’aide d’exemples attestés recueillis ces dernières années1 dans la presse. notre objectif consiste à mettre en relief l’investissement du lexique du sport dans le discours politique et économique d’une part et celui d’autres domaines dans le discours sportif d’autre part afin de souligner les effets de ce jeu “d’exportation/importation”.2 sur ce, nous tenterons de déceler la visée sémantiquo-pragmatique de la sportivisation lexicale des discours ainsi que celle de l’importation de lexique non sportif au journalisme sportif. 2. la sportivisation lexicale des discours non-sportifs les termes sportifs, comme le précise jean-françois sablayrolles (2005: 51) “se conforment à l’évolution de la langue de la société dans laquelle se pratiquent ces activités et qu’ils façonnent en prenant une importance chaque jour croissante dans la vie et la langue de tous les jours”. l’emploi du lexique sportif comme paradigme désignationnel du politico-économique est une stratégie stylistique et communicative prisée par de nombreux journalistes visant une transposition conceptuelle de l’entente, de l’échange, de la coopération et de la paix. bref, “c’est beau un monde qui joue”.3 c’est 174 “la croyance partagée dans les vertus intrinsèques du sport (esprit d’équipe, coopération, solidarité, prise de décision, etc. qui est un facteur de communication” (fourre, 2014: 91). ce transfert des valeurs sportives positives est généralement le premier motif de l’utilisation de cette terminologie en dehors de son contexte d’usage habituel. l’emprunt à la terminologie sportive en général se fait notamment dans la presse politique. ce champ (le sport) met à la disposition des politiciens et de la presse des outils de comparaison assez puissants car le sport, une activité facilement appréhendable, véhicule les concepts primordiaux de l’existence: opposition, concurrence, victoire, défaite et même vie et mort. (khmelevskaia, 2007: 52) le sport-roi est indubitablement le football. sport populaire dans la plupart des pays du monde, le football est, en termes quantitatifs, la discipline dont la terminologie est la plus répandue. les journalistes investissent leur savoir sportif et le projettent sur l’actualité. ceci se manifeste principalement dans l’usage du lexique propre au foot notamment dans les domaines politiques et économiques. certains travaux dont ceux de christian bromberger (1998) et de denis barbet (2007) ont abordé le trope du foot en politique. leur objectif principal consistait à souligner que le football et la politique ont des propriétés communes lesquelles expliquent ces métaphores qui les unissent. les auteurs précités insistent également sur la notion de conflit comme vecteur commun favorisant les croisements politico-footballistiques. certes, ces études sont fort intéressantes et constituent une belle ébauche de travaux où le foot construit les identités collectives. or, outre la notion de conflit et de compétitivité, le football a cette particularité de réunir et de gommer les différences. c’est ce dont parle patrick mignon (2000) dans son article “footballisation de la politique” qui fait du foot un élément de socialisation conduisant au consensus de la société britannique. il s’agit d’une étude diachronique qui remonte au fil des siècles, puis arrive à l’époque contemporaine de thatcher et de blair. or, notre souci s'avère ici de montrer à quel point la terminologie sportive vise principalement à dédramatiser les faits, à rendre le réel acceptable et vivable. l’exemple emblématique de cette stratégie est bel et bien un article qui vante l’esprit d’équipe: l’économie mondiale y est assimilée à un match de foot, la constitution d’un portefeuille à la sélection des membres d’une équipe: le français sportif ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190 175 1) le processus s’apparente à la sélection d’une équipe de foot gagnante. lors de notre conférence à davos avec les gestionnaires de fonds de premier plan, sur fond d’engouement pour la coupe du monde, un de nos collègues a comparé la constitution d’un portefeuille à la sélection d’une équipe de football. (le fax d’agéfi, 3/7/2014) la sportivisation de l’économie l’enjolive. le sport dépeint, de ses couleurs vives, l’univers sec et impitoyable des chiffres et des statistiques. la façon de désigner ce dont on parle n’est jamais ni neutre ni aléatoire. elle corrige, renforce, contredit, parfois même oriente vers certaines conclusions. toute analyse du discours doit s’interroger sur la valeur des mots employés, en envisageant les autres choix lexicaux possibles. dans les contextes électoraux, le sport allège les tensions. 2) ils étaient déjà 11 députés socialistes à ne pas voter la confiance à manuel valls. bon début… sachant que près d’une centaine de rebelles potentiels s’échauffent sur le banc des remplaçants. (atlantico, 9/4/2014) 3) cinq listes au départ pour le premier tour des départementales le 22 mars sur le canton, et parmi elles, une sans étiquette, emmenée par jean-michel dupont, maire de douvrin, vice-président du siziaf et du sivom, et sylvie creton, adjointe à vermelles. à leurs côtés, sylvie grienche et joël bétrémieux, d’haisnes, seront sur le banc des remplaçants. (la voix du nord, 16/3/2015) sous l’optique sportive, les remplaçants sont une ligne de force et non une série b. positiver le rôle des remplaçants par l’image sportive, c’est augmenter leur crédit auprès de l’électorat. certains hommes politiques avertis et conscients de l’effet que pourrait avoir la “footballisation” des événements politiques sont amenés à insister sur les barrières qui séparent le sport de la politique. ils craignent la surgénéralisation du fait sportif et l’assimilation de la vie politique à un match, chose qui aura son impact sur les décisions qui peuvent changer la facette de l’europe: 4) l’europe ne peut pas fonctionner comme une partie de football: un carton jaune, deux cartons jaunes, un carton rouge et c’est l’expulsion. dans ces conditions, on finirait l’euro avec combien de pays sur le terrain? (le point, 8/7/2015) riham m. el khamissy ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190176 dans l’exemple susmentionné, le refus de comparer les pays membres de l’union européenne aux membres d’une équipe de foot est, implicitement, un refus de considérer l’expulsion d’un etat membre comme une affaire simple et plus ou moins tolérée comme c’est le cas des avertissements et expulsions lors d’un match. si le sport a ses avantages, il reste quand même un jeu qui fait passer en avant le côté ludique, le non sérieux. expulser un joueur ne touchera que son équipe et de manière temporaire. d’ailleurs, on voit rarement les exclus du match contester la décision de l’arbitre. la sanction a une valeur plutôt symbolique et passe en douceur. mais expulser un pays de l’ue n’est pas une décision simple vu les séquelles politicoéconomiques importantes que pourrait avoir un tel décret. outre le football, la scène politique est conquise par d’autres disciplines sportives. la devise du “plus fort, plus haut et plus vite”, propre à l’athlétisme, traduit cette tendance à atteindre l’extrême limite des compétences ou des possibilités de performance. le “sprint” – qui consiste à déployer un effort intense pour atteindre sa vitesse maximale à un moment déterminé de la course – est souvent utilisé dans des contextes non-sportifs: 5) c’est un peu comme si la future métropole aix-marseille provence voulait se lancer dans un sprint avec les autres métropoles de l’hexagone en chaussant des souliers de plomb. emploi, transport, pauvreté. (les echos, 29/9/2015) 6) pour julia gifford, la raison pour laquelle ces individus (les salariés les plus productifs) sont capables de donner le meilleur d’eux-mêmes est que le temps de travail est comparable à un sprint. (la tribune, 4/9/2015) dans l’exemple (5), c’est l’idée de la compétitivité qui est mise en valeur, et “sprint” est à prendre dans l’acception de course de vitesse. si le choix de “sprint” est heureux, à notre sens, c’est à cause des obstacles qu’affronte marseille, ce qui par conséquent exige le déploiement du plus grand effort, tout comme dans un sprint final. quant à l’exemple (6), la comparaison avec le sprint est bien dans l’idéologie de la quête des limites: le maximum d’effort et de productivité dans un temps assez restreint. dans une course, on parle de joli départ comme on parle de faux-départ. la vie économique et politique, quant à elle, comprend également ses fauxdéparts: 7) kiev espère une reprise samedi des pourparlers de paix à minsk avec les séparatistes pro-russes, encadrés par la russie et l’osce, après un fauxle français sportif ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190 177 départ vendredi au moment où les violences atteignent des niveaux critiques avec la mort d’au moins 24 personnes dans des combats et bombardements. (la voix du nord, 30/1/2015) 8) “faux-départ?”, “inquiétude”, mauvaise entrée en matière: les ong environnementales ont dédaigné les premières pour défendre la mesure. (la nouvelle république, 5/4/2014) le “tour de piste”, expression fréquente dans la terminologie de l’athlétisme puisque les courses se disputent toujours sur la piste et ses couloirs, est exportée au monde politique: 9) lundi soir, les partisans du “non”, consigne de vote du gouvernement d’alexis tsiparas, avaient manifesté à athènes thessalonique (nord) réunissant près de 17000 personnes, opposés à un nouveau tour de piste avec des institutions qui maintiennent sous perfusion financière leur pays depuis 2010. (agence france presse, 1/7/2015) l’association entre sport de combat d’une part et la politique d’autre part est universelle. les journalistes puisent dans la sphère du catch et de la boxe lexique et expressions. l’absence de violence, de haine, d’hostilité, sont autant d’avantages qui octroient au combat sportif l’étiquette “légitime”, et d’où les deux parties prenantes doivent en sortir – généralement – sains et saufs. l’arène sportive qui ne fait couler aucune goutte de sang (sauf bien entendu en cas de blessures accidentelles) est acclamée. contrairement à ce qui arrive dans notre monde où “une blessure lors d’un affrontement physique est sanctionnée par la loi, dans l’univers sportif, dans la plupart des cas, l’agression physique ne donne lieu à aucune sanction (voir les avants en rugby et, bien sûr la boxe ou le full-contact)” (gleyse, 1998). exporter une terminologie sportive propre au combat est donc souvent un choix lexical positivement orienté. ceci dit, le paysage politique ne manque pas de termes empruntés au technolecte des sports de combat, comme “les gants de boxe”. lorsque le ton monte, les acteurs politiques enfilent, métaphoriquement parlant, leurs gants de boxe: 10) nicolas sarkozy n’a jamais été meilleur que dans l’adversité. remarquez que l’adversité est le charbon de la vie politique. on l’a bien vu l’autre soir, l’ex-président avait remis ses gants de boxe, il bouillait sur le ring de tf1, tout en tension, rasé de frais, il a monté le ton et le son, un vrai sanglier traqué (…). rien de plus redoutable qu’une bête blessée. sarkozy s’est pris une pêche en pleine proie et il répond coup pour coup, pas encore k-o. (le figaro international, 4/7/2014) riham m. el khamissy ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190178 11) prêt à enfiler ses gants de boxe, le pen jure de se défendre pour conserver la présidence d’honneur, un titre dont sa fille, la patronne du fn, veut le priver pour qu’il n’engage plus la parole du parti. (le point, 5/5/2015) dans l’exemple (10), c’est l’allégorie du match de boxe. le studio de tf1 se transforme en arène “ring”: l’ex-président sarkozy est, dans sa colère, assimilé à un boxeur prêt à se battre, enfilant “ses gants de boxe” et ripostant sans répit (“coup pour coup”) sans pour autant arriver à la fin du combat ou au knock-out (k-o), comme se terminent certaines parties de boxe par le coup de grâce. quant à l’exemple (11), il met en place jean-marie le pen prêt à défendre sa présidence du fn, prêt à mettre ses gants de boxe face à sa fille marine le pen. le monde sportif possède cet atout de rendre admissible ce qui d’habitude ne l’est pas. une rixe ou un accrochage, hors cadre sportif, est juridiquement sanctionné. quand l’opposition verbale revêt les mœurs sportives, le lecteur, comme par magie, la recevra sans la moindre contestation et ne se sentira pas offensé. l’inacceptable devient acceptable, le redoutable devient familier. une coloration sportive suffit pour banaliser, voire positiver les faits, comme l’écrit ohl (2001: 188): “le sport ne choque jamais”. l’alliance politique-sport aquatique n’est fréquente dans la presse généraliste qu’au niveau des plongées. parler de plongée, c’est notamment faire appel aux notions de courage, de hardiesse, de défi. c’est également la mise à l’épreuve de l’endurance puisque le sportif, lors de la plongée, sollicite son corps au delà de ses ressources. l’environnement sous-marin double le challenge et rend ce sport un exercice à haut risque. emprunter la désignation de “plongée” pour des emplois non-sportifs, c’est donc viser l’héroïsme et l’effort inhérents à ce type de sport. par exemple, 30 représentants des communes du perche eurélien ont visité un opérateur historique qui produit de l’électricité. la visite est comparée à 12) une plongée en apnée au c’ur de l’électron (echos républicain, 13/6/2014). 13) sur le marché du prêt-à-porter, chez lacoste, le directeur artistique félipe olivera-baptista s’est offert une plongée en apnée dans les archives de la maison, récompensée par une pêche miraculeuse dont il résulte une fête de contraste où se mélangent époques et matières. (l’orient le jour, 25/2/2015) le français sportif ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190 179 en outre, un lexique général, appartenant à la “planète sport”, peut circuler dans le monde politico-économique: 14) il faut dire que françois asselin, le président de la cgpme, avait pris soin, avant la prise de parole du chef de l’etat d’appeler ses troupes à la discipline et au “fair-play”. (les echos, 18/6/2015) 15) en début de séance, nous avons pu assister à un moment de “fair-play” comme on dit dans le monde du sport. j-l. costes a félicité et fait applaudir les deux nouveaux conseillers départementaux, sophie gargowitch et daniel borie. (la dépêche du midi, 26/4/2015) 16) dès le coup de gong, la ruée vers shanghai a démarré. lundi, en début d’après-midi, les traders de hong-kong avaient déjà acheté 2,1 milliards de dollars d’actions dans leur nouvelle bourse “sœur”, située sur le continent sifflant la fin de la partie. (le figaro, 17/11/2014) 17) le coup de gong est venu, une nouvelle fois, de l’autre côté de l’atlantique. le président américain, barack obama, est intervenu dans le débat européen qui s’amorce sur l’attitude de la grèce. (bruxelles 2, 2/2/2015) dans les exemples précités, les concepts “fair-play” et “coup de gong” sont empruntés à la sphère sportive. le fair-play est l’une des éthiques sportives préconisant la conduite honnête des joueurs en toutes circonstances et dans toutes les disciplines. adopter cette éthique en économie relève toujours de cette tendance à améliorer le monde réelle en y appliquant les lois sportives. quant au coup de gong qui annonçait les jeux dans la grèce antique à l’olympe, il devient un symbole universel des signaux de début ou de fin d’une action (16) ou un avertissement en cas de danger quelconque (17). tous les exemples que nous avons examinés jusque-là, loin de constituer une liste exhaustive, ne font que consolider notre hypothèse de départ: la mobilité remarquable de la terminologie sportive dont l’extension a atteint les autres discours. en s’étendant au discours non-sportif, le lexique du sport l’enrichit et témoigne d’une tendance de plus en plus pressante vers la “socialisation” des lexies sportives et des images qui lui sont associées dans le langage quotidien. afin de parfaire notre travail, nous brosserons une statistique fondée sur les résultats de nos recherches.4 nous recensons la fréquence d’emploi, dans la presse française et francophone, des mots sportifs5 que nous venons de mentionner plus haut en dehors de tout contexte sportif, sur une période de deux ans (du 30 novembre 2013 au 30 novembre 2015). riham m. el khamissy ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190180 après avoir donné un aperçu sur le lexique sportif qui gagne du terrain dans d’autres domaines, nous tenterons dans les pages qui suivent d’explorer la piste inversement. 3. la non-sportivisation lexicale du discours sportif il arrive souvent qu’un lexique appartenant à des domaines non-sportifs trouve “un refuge”, voire des “investissements” intéressants dans le domaine sportif. nous pensons avec ascensión sierra-soriano (2002: 729) qu’il existe un “vaet-vient” qui a créé “une osmose entre les domaines”. avec le temps, le sport se trouve “ouvert à toutes les manipulations idéologiques” (nel, 1996: 13). à l’ère des médias et des multimédias, les différentes manifestations sportives sont devenues des “shows”. une forte correspondance entre le sport et les arts de spectacle s’impose: des analogies communes transforment les joueurs en vedettes, en stars, le terrain sportif en scène (herráez-pindado, 2006: 475). nous proposons dans ce qui suit une randonnée dans le sport vu sous les “feux des projecteurs” du spectacle. le rideau, emblématique du début et de la fin d’une représentation théâtrale ou musicale, se retrouve investi dans le domaine du sport. notons que plus de la moitié des emplois concerne le rideau défensif dans certains sports (foot, volleyball, etc.). les autres renvoient plutôt au début ou à la fin du match, de la saison, du championnat: 18) en lever de rideau, l’équipe recevra vernajoul. donc, un week-end qui verra à l’œuvre à foix les trois équipes seniors. (football. la dépêche du midi, 18/11/2015). le français sportif ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190 181 mots sport fréquence en contexte non sportif nombre de fois sprint 43 banc de remplaçants 3 carton rouge 77 gant de boxe 2 faux-départ 27 coup de gong 3 tour de piste 25 fair-play 52 plongée en apnée 75 table 1. fréquence d’emploi des mots sportifs sur une période de deux ans (du 30 novembre 2013 au 30 novembre 2015). a 3 le déjà-vu ou déjà connu renvoie souvent, dans une rencontre sportive, au “scenario”: 19) coupe de france 7ème tour. les spectateurs de cette rencontre ont assisté à un scénario hitchcockien. cardiaques s’abstenir. (football. ouestfrance, 17/11/2015) 20) j’aurais signé des deux mains pour vivre un tel scénario en fin d’année, confie-t-il (muray) au daily mail. (tennis. la libre belgique, 17/11/2015) or, c’est le spectacle musical qui a la cote en matière de terminologie nonsportive importée par les journalistes: 21) et gregg berhalter, le technicien de columbus crew pour arriver à ses fins pourra compter sur federico higuain, son soliste argentin, auteur du 2ème but libérateur lors du match aller. (football. all africa, 8/11/2015) 22) l’or en équipe et l’argent en solo. (natation synchronique. québec hebdo, 8/11/2015) 23) la partition du maestro (djokovic) n’a pourtant pas été aussi parfaite cette semaine lors de son incroyable tournée asiatique d’octobre. (tennis. le figaro, 9/11/2015) dans un article sur le football belge (sur l'équipe de gand), le journaliste rapproche, dans une parfaite allégorie, le foot de la musique et le joueur du chef d’orchestre: 24) pour être un bon maestro, il faut pouvoir varier le tempo. la baguette de svenkums est magique. le numéro 14 change de rythme en un clin d’œil. (football. sport foot magazine français, 4/11/2015) le rythme musical (tempo) est souvent indiqué dans une partition par le métronome. la projection conceptuelle du temps ou du rythme en musique est transposée au domaine sportif pour décrire le ralentissement ou l’accélération du rythme lors d’une rencontre, ou pour rester dans le rythme du match sans décalage par rapport au score de l’adversaire: 25) le week-end dernier, les seniors filles ont fait face en pré-national: rochefort a besoin d’une victoire pour rester dans le tempo de ce championnat pré-national. (basket. sud ouest, 29/10/2015) 26) andrea pirlo qui n’est pas le cristiano ronaldo mais le métronome de riham m. el khamissy ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190182 la juventus sait, lui aussi, faire ronronner le cuir. (football. la tribune de genève, 17/6/2015) 27) le n°4 français (tsonga) croisera le n°1 mondial pour une place en quart de finale. il espère que le soutien du public lui permettra de dérailler le métronome serbe. (tennis. le figaro, 1/6/2015) dans les deux derniers exemples, la justesse et la précision systématiques de pirlo (foot) et de djokovic (tennis) sont la raison principale de leur assimilation par voie métaphorique au “métronome”. le ténor en musique est le chanteur dont la voix masculine est la plus forte, la plus haute. une voix de ténor se travaille généralement pendant plusieurs années d’exercices vocaux. sur ce, elle reste rare et singulière. en sport, le concept de ténor renvoie surtout au grand champion, à l’adversaire redoutable tant pour sa force que pour son talent unique: 28) cette rencontre face à montpellier, ce n’est pas du plaisir pour mes joueurs qui vont avoir la satisfaction de se mesurer face à un ténor (l’équipe de montpellier) qui reste sur une victoire à domicile en championnat contre nancy. (football. la provence, 10/11/2015) dans les courses (moto, automobile, cyclisme), l’expression “faire l’accordéon” s’emploie pour désigner un peloton qui s’allonge puis se raccourcit, des sportifs qui lâchent et rejoignent le peloton plusieurs fois: 29) mais s’il (thibaut pinot) arrivait à mieux se placer au lieu de faire l’accordéon (monter-descendre) il perdrait moins d’énergie. (cyclisme. la provence, 18/7/2014) dans les autres disciplines, il est souvent question de faire une chose et son contraire, comme dans l’exemple suivant où le score fait l’accordéon, c’est-àdire augmente et diminue: 30) le match reste équilibré durant toute la troisième quart-temps. boudou et djaldi-tabdi, côté toulouse et carcaillon côté landais, se montrant les plus efficaces en attaque. le score continue ainsi de faire l’accordéon. (basket. sud ouest, 18/11/2015) ainsi, le sport avec ses règles, ses croyances mais surtout son aspect ludique et fascinant trouve des points de tangence avec la musique. si la presse le français sportif ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190 183 magnifie le spectacle, elle fait autant pour le sport, et comme nous l’avons constaté, va jusqu’à faire des correspondances entre ces deux sphères. une des analogies intéressantes à signaler est celle qui fait de l’univers sportif un vrai “bestiaire”.6 depuis longtemps, avant même la large diffusion des médias, les équipes sportives puisaient dans le règne animal des surnoms, notamment dans le monde du foot: les coqs français, les super aigles du nigéria, les éléphants de côte d’ivoire, les lions indomptables du cameroun, les lions de l'atlas du maroc, etc. une pléthore de surnoms appartenant à la faune. la presse écrite, quant à elle, est allée encore plus loin, en insérant dans ses textes des lexies issues de l’univers animal pour décrire des gestes sportifs, des comportements de joueurs ou de supporters: 31) l’italien renato canora (…) s’occupe du demi-fond. un autre italien, sandro damilano de la marche. les lancers de javelot peuvent picorer des conseils auprès de l’allemand uwe hohn, recordman du monde de l’ancien javelot-planeur. (athlétisme. géopolis, 21/8/2015) 32) pour arriver à la performance qui fait bêler la foule abrutie des supporters, tout est bon. (la tribune libre, 10/11/2015) à “picorer” et “bêler”, nous ajoutons l’emploi de “ruminer” qui, d’après nos constatations, est plutôt utilisé lors des performances défectueuses (ruminer une défaite, une déception, une contre performance) ou encore une nonsélection. 33) le nuc n’aura pas le temps de ruminer la lourde défaite subie à istanbul. (volleyball. l’express-l’impartial, 14/11/2015) 34) cela ne sert à rien de ruminer. nous avons analysé nos erreurs et nous avons revu nos bons moments aussi. (football. nord eclair, 19/9/2015) à notre sens, les journalistes sollicitent, par les emplois susmentionnés, le sourire complice du lecteur et son admiration. par ailleurs, le sport met en scène des valeurs telles la concurrence, le combat. pour être qualifié ou sélectionné, le fort a besoin du moins fort, le compétent du moins compétent. les notions de victoire et de défaite sont présentes: “la compétition, les sportifs, leurs actions, le terrain… s’identifient à un acte de guerre où certains attaquent et d’autres se défendent” (sierra-soriano, 2002: 730). la lutte au tennis ou dans quelques dizaines de sports d’équipe les plus complexes se trouve légitimée. le lexique de guerre est souvent riham m. el khamissy ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190184 utilisé pour faire allusion à la violence de la concurrence et/ou à dramatiser et amplifier les notions d’enjeu, de défi et de rivalité. 35) on n’a vu eliot atonietti passer à l’abordage, johan fransson et romain loeffel bombarder le portier des fribourgs. (hockey. la tribune de genève, 21/10/2015). 36) l’egyptien a battu le leader de boulogne, l’anglais paul drinkhall (3-1). (tennis de table. la provence, 8 /11/2015) 37) jacques stass: ce samedi, nous avons loupé des choses faciles, comme des lay ups, ou des lancers francs. mais nous n’avons perdu qu’une bataille, pas la guerre. (basket. nord eclair, 23/11/2015) 38) ça ne va pas selon le mérite. le hockey, ce n’est pas ça. c’est une guerre. (hockey. l’avantage, 28/11/2015) 39) les biterrois (…) maladroits, ils se battaient pour contenir les assauts répétés adverses. (football. midi libre, 28/11/2015) l’intérêt de telles représentations consiste en l’effet d’excitation, le passage du mode rationnel au mode passionnel. ce sont également les valeurs d’héroïsme qui se trouvent accrochées au vainqueur: il a bien mérité sa victoire qui survient suite à un effort persévérant. 4. les apports didactiques l’étude du lexique sportif aura une valeur didactique différente selon les destinataires de l’enseignement-même. certes, acquérir ce lexique est un objectif d’apprentissage en soi mais n’est-il pas possible de le considérer également comme moyen permettant à l’apprenant d’acquérir une double compétence, tant en français général qu’en français de spécialité? les étudiants spécialistes de la langue française auront comme objectif principal l’approfondissement de la connaissance de cette langue, la traduction, la rédaction générale ou spécialisé. en explorant le lexique du sport, ils atteindront un certain niveau de connaissance d’une discipline mais ils ne seront pas pour autant des experts en la matière. l’analyse des données authentiques appropriées vise à les habituer aux situations de communication liées aux discours de spécialité et constitue une étape essentielle dans la mise en place d’une formation langagière (mangiante et parpette, 2004: 46). en outre, nous pensons avec li keyong et david vandevelde (2008: 33) que le français sportif ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190 185 les français qui ont un jour tenté de lire une décision de justice savent bien que ce genre d’écrit est en général incompréhensible au non initié. de la même façon, un livre de médecine ou d’économie sera toujours obscur pour celui qui ne maitrise pas le vocabulaire propre à la matière. il ne s’agit donc pas d’un problème de niveau de français, mais bel et bien de connaissances particulières dans un domaine précis. par conséquent, la bonne maîtrise du lexique sportif permettra non seulement la compréhension de discours spécialisé sur le sport mais également celle du “dynamisme du langage sportif, favorisant ces glissements de sens” (pinelli, 2005: 109). a qui enseigne cette langue de spécialité, il s’agit d’une ouverture d’un monde souvent enfermé (en l’occurrence celui du discours spécialisé) sur d’autres plus diversifiés. saisir l’adoption de lexique non-sportif dans le domaine sportif décloisonnera différents mondes de connaissances et sollicitera la compétence de décodage chez l’apprenant qui cherchera à interpréter la connotation technique sportive qu’acquièrent les termes courants ou ceux appartenant à d’autres domaines de spécialités lors de leur passage à la langue du sport. des activités de réécriture, de production libre ou même des exercices de substitutions lexicales peuvent être proposés aux apprenants. objectif à atteindre: l’éducation par les langues-cultures et non pas l’éducation aux langues-cultures, comme le propose galisson (2002). 5. conclusion le sport a renouvelé la vision du monde et a envahi les différentes sphères d’activités humaines sous de multiples aspects entre autres la langue. sport et presse écrite participent de concert, comme nous l’avons constaté, à la génération “d’une langue qui joue”. notre travail a pris pour socle l’observation in situ d’un réel langagier qui prend de l’ampleur à l’époque contemporaine. une affluence du lexique sportif se propage au delà des terrains sportifs pour conquérir d’autres domaines et embellir notre univers. l’angle de vue sportif ajoute une coloration particulière de dynamisme et de valeurs morales qui entoure d’un halo l’actualité politico-économique. bref, améliorer le discours sur le monde réel en y insérant un langage imagé sportif. les journalistes puisent dans la sphère du football, de l’athlétisme, du catch, de la boxe, un lexique qui positivise. or, inversement, le monde “ideal” du sport ne reste pas intact. la presse sportive renouvelle sa production riham m. el khamissy ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190186 graduellement en réaction aux mutations de la société et du lectorat. elle ne manque pas, comme nous l’avons remarqué, de faire des emprunts à d’autres domaines à des fins diverses qui s’inscrivent grosso modo dans la ligne de la séduction du lectorat. de la musique et du théâtre à la guerre en passant par le monde animal, les cloisons entre discours spécialisé sur le sport et discours autres ne sont plus étanches. elles deviennent poreuses et favorisent des échanges sémantiquement riches en regard des nouvelles tendances communicatives du journalisme qui, à notre sens, œuvre en vue d’un double objectif: s’immerger dans l’univers du jeu pour décrire – et peut-être aussi décrier tacitement – grâce à la langue, un monde qui ne joue que rarement, et emprunter à ce monde réel sa langue qui ne joue pas pour rendre moins fantaisiste et plus conformiste le discours sur le sport. article history: received 27 march 2016 received in revised form 11 june 2016 accepted 11 june 2016 références bibliographiques le français sportif ibérica 33 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(2002). “les expressions sportives employées dans d’autres domaines et leur traduction (espagnol-français)” in mc. figuerola et al., la lingüística francesa en el nueva milenio, 727-735. lleida: universidad de lleida. riham m. el khamissy ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190188 dra. riham m. el khamissy est docteur en linguistique française etprofesseur-adjointe au département de français de la faculté des langues (al alsun), université ain shams, le caire, egypte. elle est l’auteure de plusieurs articles publiés dans des revues internationales de linguistiques françaises et a des contributions à des manifestations scientifiques de premier plan comme le colloque international “défis de la toponymie synchronique” à l’université de rennes 2 en 2012, le 3ème et le 4ème congrès mondial de la linguistique française (cmlf, lyon 2012; cmlf, berlin 2014). notes 1 plus précisément au cours des deux dernières années (de 2013 à 2015). 2 nadine celotti et maria teresa musacchio (2004: 267) parle de « nomadisme » de mots: leur voyage d’une discipline à l’autre, d’une discipline à la langue commune, de la langue commune à la spécialisée. 3 devise de la coupe du monde de football en france, 1998. 4 sur la base de données de la presse internationale factiva. 5 notons que les termes que nous avons recensés ne sont donnés qu’à titre indicatif et non exhaustif. 6 le mot est pris dans le sens d’inventaire ou de recueil de récits sur les animaux et le monde animal. appendix articles de presse cités (corpus) abou dib, fifi. 25/2/2015. “une semaine new-yorkaise marquée par la diversité” in l’orient le jour, http://www.lorientlejour.com/article/912858/une-semaine-new-yorkaise-marquee-par-la-diversite.html. bellan, marie. 18/6/2015. “hollande fait service après-vente du plan pme” in les echos, base de données factiva. berretta, emmanuel. 8/7/2015. “grèce: les dix jours qui ont fait trembler l’euro” in le point, http://www.lepoint.fr/politique/emmanuel-berretta/grece-les-10-jours-qui-ont-fait-trembler-l-euro-3-08-07-20151943153_1897.php. bossard, chloé. 5/4/2014. “la controverse sur l’écotaxe prend de l’ampleur” in la nouvelle république, http://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/francemonde/actualite/environnement/n/contenus/articles/2014/04/05/lacontroverse-sur-l-ecotaxe-prend-de-l-ampleur-1860305. cattapan, françois. 8/11/2015. in québec hebdo. base de données factiva. de larquier, ségolène. 5/5/2015. “jeanmarie le pen se confie au point” in le point, http://www.lepoint.fr/politique/jean-marie-le-pen-se-confie-au-point-05-05-2015-1926482_20.php. daudoin, jonathan. 19/9/2014. “des pauses de plus d’un quart d’heure boostent la productivité” in la tribune, http://www.latribune.fr/carrieres/20140919tribdfa81e083/des-pauses-de-plus-d-un-quart-d-heure-boostent-laproductivite.html. ezvan, jean-julien. 1/6/2015. “l’éclatant retour de jo-zilfried tsonga” in le figaro, http://www.epresse.fr/quotidien/le-figaro/2015-06-01/sommaire. falletti, sébastien. 7/11/2015. “ruée de capitaux étrangers sur la bourse de shanghai” in le figaro, http://bourse.lefigaro.fr/indices-actions/actu-conseils/ruee-de-capitaux-etrangers-sur-la-bourse-de-shanghai3448609. frat, muriel et palouapalou, anthony. 4/7/2014. “la france en short” in le figaro international n°2174, p.30. federbusch, serge. 9/4/2014. “la dissolution c’est dans un an ?” in atlantico, base de données factiva. gautier, guillaume. 4/11/2015. “el maestro” in sport foot magazine français, base de données factiva. gerdau, philippe. 19/9/2015. “la meilleure équipe belge” in nordclair, base de données factiva. gilles, benoit. 18/07/2014. “luc le blanc; il faut passer à l’offensive. champion du monde 1994, ancien grimpeur, livre son avis sur les chances tricolores avant les alpes” in la provence, base de données factiva. gros-verheyde, nicolas. 2/2/2015. “ne pressurez pas la grèce, washington rappelle l’europe à la réalité” in bruxelles2, http://www.bruxelles2.eu/2015/02/02/ne-pressurez-pas-la-grece-washington-rappelle-leseuropeens-a-la-realite/. haefele, mark. 7/4/2014. “faire équipe pour réussir” in le fax d’agéfie, base de données factiva. macre, celia. 21/8/2015. “mondiaux d’athlétisme à pékin: l’attractivité de la chine par le sport” in geopolis, base de données factiva. maillard, christian. 17/6/2015. “et il y avait andrea pirlo” in la tribune de genève, base de données factiva. marchand, stéphane. 13/6/2014. “maires et conseillers municipaux ont visité les installations du poste-source d’erdf” in l’echos républicain, http://www.lechorepublicain.fr/eure-et-loir/actualite/pays/leperche/2014/06/13/maires-et-conseillers-municipaux-ont-visite-les-installations-du-poste-sourcederdf_11040382.html. marchand, thibault et silina, loulia. 30/01/2015. “ukraine: kiev espère des pourparlers de paix à minsk samedi” in la voix du nord, http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/france-monde/ukraine-kiev-espere-des-pourparlers-de-paix-aminsk-samedi-ia0b0n2633322. marchon, david. 14/11/2015. “le nuc doit vite digérer la déception européenne” in l’express-impartial, base de données factiva. martinez, francis. 10/11/2015. “coupe de france; les martégaux veulent créer la surprise” in la provence, base de données factiva. morello-bethune, anna. 16/3/2015. “canton de douvrin: les ‘sans étiquette’ font le pari de l’indépendance” in la voix du nord, http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/region/canton-de-douvrin-les-sans-etiquette-font-le-pariia35b54046n2714815. rouquet, michel. 26/4/2015. “budget primitif difficile pour la communauté fumel” in la dépêche du midi n° 24270, p. 29, base de données factiva. schneider, romain. 9/11/2015. “une saison légende pour novak djokovic” in le figaro, http://sport24.lefigaro.fr/tennis/atp/actualites/une-saison-de-legende-pour-novak-djokovic-778283. vinel, thibault. 17/11/2015. “andy muray se rapproche d’une qualification” in la libre belgique, base de données factiva. 18/11/2013. “espoirs toulouse 52” in sud-ouest, base de données factiva 1/7/2015. “l’europe et une grèce en défaut cherchent un accord à l’arrachée avant le referendum” in agence france presse afp, base de données factiva. 29/10/2015. “vie des clubs. basket. charente-maritime” in sud-ouest, p. 27. 29/09/2015. “la future métropole aix-marseille provence cumule les handicaps, selon l’insee” in les echos, http://www.lesechos.fr/29/09/2015/lesechos.fr/021363170267_la-future-metropole-aix-marseille-provencecumule-les-handicaps—selon-l-insee.htm. 8/11/2015. “½ finales retour play-off drogba et l’impact de montréal à un pas de la finale” in all africa, base de donnés factiva. 17/11/2015. “en avant avait raison d’y croire jusqu’au bout” in ouest france, base de données factiva. 18/11/2015. “une pause avant d’affronter ramonville; football” in la dépêche du midi, http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2015/11/18/2219589-une-pause-avant-d-affronter-ramonville.html. le français sportif ibérica 33 (2017): 173-190 189 01 editorial.qxd diccionario lid del turrón. maría isabel santamaría pérez (coord). lid editorial empresarial, 2015. 270 páginas. ean-isbn: 978-84-8356-922-1. el diccionario lid del turrón, dirigido por isabel santamaría, es una obra lexicográfica especializada monolingüe que contiene alrededor de 500 términos definidos y ordenados alfabéticamente en español y que, a su vez, incorpora equivalencias en catalán, inglés, ruso, árabe y chino. se trata pues de una obra ambiciosa, bien planteada y ejecutada, así como novedosa, especialmente por la incorporación de lenguas de trabajo – tales que el ruso, el árabe o el chino – cuyo vínculo con este dominio de la industria agroalimentaria resulta a priori poco conocido por tratarse de mercados emergentes, lo que hace la obra aún más interesante. es por ello que se trata de un diccionario principalmente creado para convertirse en un eficaz instrumento traductológico multilingüe, así como en una herramienta lingüística asistencial en posibles intercambios comerciales y culturales. como se detalla en su índice, la obra – que se presenta además en un cómodo formato – está estructurada en sus secciones iniciales en torno a un prólogo (escrito por rafael ansón, presidente de la real academia de gastronomía), una presentación, una introducción a la macro y microestructuras del trabajo y una breve presentación de los autores. encontramos a continuación la obra lexicográfica especializada en sí: en primer lugar se nos presenta la sección “español – otros idiomas”, en la que los términos aparecen definidos y caracterizados en español junto con sus equivalencias en las lenguas de trabajo referidas. se inicia esta sección con unas útiles recomendaciones de uso y unas notas relativas a las variantes del catalán y a la manera de tratarlas en la obra. como secciones finales del diccionario se incluyen cinco glosarios inversos bilingües (catalán – español; inglés – español; ruso – español; árabe – español; chino – español), así como unas tablas (según la propia nomenclatura de la obra) que, pese a su innegable utilidad, son más bien figuras o imágenes ilustrativas. concluye la obra con una sección de la bibliografía consultada. cabe destacar que se trata de una obra cuyo espectro de acción no se limita al turrón como producto final resultado de una determinada elaboración con reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 269 unos ingredientes concretos. esta obra va más allá y se articula en torno a los diferentes subdominios que constituyen, según sus autores, la estructura conceptual del ámbito de especialidad objeto de estudio; como bien se indica en la propia portada y contraportada, esta obra incluye términos referidos a turrones, mazapanes y otros dulces similares, cultura y tradición turronera, materias primas para la elaboración, producción – procesos, maquinaria, técnicas, utensilios etc. – nutrición y salud, legislación, comercialización y denominación de origen del producto. se aprecia pues una aproximación holística al sector turronero y a los términos que en él se originan así como una voluntad hecha realidad de caracterizar terminológicamente el dominio de la manera más ordenada, completa y sistemática posible. es justo incidir además en la clara e ilustrativa explicación ofrecida sobre la micro y macroestructura de la obra, algo no tan habitual en las obras de lexicografía especializada como sería deseable pero que, en este caso concreto, se hace de manera impecable. las definiciones incluidas en las diversas entradas son ciertamente muy detalladas y descriptivas – lo que hace el concepto fácilmente asimilable – aludiendo incluso a aspectos históricos en algunos casos, y contextualizando, frecuentemente, los procesos completos en los que intervienen los conceptos descritos, especialmente los referentes a maquinaria, utensilios o ingredientes. resulta altamente positivo también que muchos términos, especialmente los relativos a maquinaria, estén ilustrados con imágenes, lo que hace mucho más visual una obra ya de por sí pedagógica. pese a la indudable buena calidad de la obra, existen, sin embargo, algunos pequeños aspectos, principalmente referidos a la siempre discutida conveniencia de incluir o no ciertos términos, que, de enmendarse en posteriores ediciones, podrían mejorar aún más el producto final. “textura”, por ejemplo, no aparece como entrada, si bien dicho concepto sí resulta determinante y aparece de manera explícita en las definiciones de numerosos términos como “mantecado de almendra”, “manteca de cerdo” o “mano de metate”, por lo que convendría incluirlo. además, la vertiente comunicativa de la obra mejoraría con la inclusión de ejemplos de uso en algunas entradas – aunque en absoluto sería necesario hacerlo en todas – cuyos conceptos pueden resultar más confusos como “flavor” o “turrón diverso”. podría valorarse incluso la inclusión de la pronunciación de los términos, algo que resultaría de gran ayuda en una obra como esta, diseñada como herramienta lingüística asistencial para intercambios comerciales/culturales, pero no muy habitual, sin embargo, en la práctica lexicográfica especializada. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278270 del mismo modo, puede observarse la existencia de múltiples acepciones (por ejemplo, del término “almendra”) pero la inexistencia de referencias cruzadas. es cierto que la inclusión de excesivas referencias cruzadas puede ser contraproducente e incluso confundir al usuario, pero podría considerarse en el caso de entradas con términos especialmente relevantes y tan estrechamente relacionados que conforman familias; en el caso de “almendra” podría, por ejemplo, haberse incorporado una figura-resumen que incluyera los distintos tipos de almendra con su término y correspondiente ilustración. sí hay, sin embargo, sinónimos que pueden ser considerados también como un tipo de referencia cruzada tales que “grasa” y “lípido”, lo cual es otro aspecto positivo a destacar. resulta curiosa también la presencia de términos como “blanqueado” pero no “blanqueante”, porque si bien este último concepto puede prácticamente inferirse por proximidad del término, la equivalencia sí puede resultar necesaria para el usuario. de igual modo, resulta llamativo que no aparezca ninguna entrada con los términos “tostar” ni “tueste”, máxime teniendo en cuenta la importancia de estos conceptos en la industria turronera. en esta misma línea, y como era de esperar, hay un claro predominio de las formas nominales, pero se echan en falta muchos de sus correspondientes verbos como el ya mencionado “tostar”, “desmenuzar”, “cocer”, “mezclar”, etc. es obvia la necesidad de una selección terminológica pero si “molturar” y “moler” sí están, ¿por qué no incluir entonces los que se acaban de mencionar? por otro lado, si bien resulta obvio que la abreviatura zh introduce las equivalencias en chino, quizá habría sido conveniente indicar mediante una breve nota que dicha abreviatura se basa en el nombre nativo de la lengua china: 中文 (zhōngwén). finalmente, y como sugerencia meramente mercantilista, si francia, italia y portugal son los países de la unión europea que, históricamente (y quizá debido al factor proximidad) más demandan el turrón español, quizá una extensión a las equivalencias en estas lenguas fuera, en un futuro, una línea a considerar por parte de los autores. por todo lo aducido, el diccionario lid del turrón es, en general, una obra de calidad, recomendable, bien articulada y ejecutada, así como correctamente planteada y diseñada para el fin que se creó, esto es, responder a las necesidades terminológicas y, por ende, comunicativas del sector turronero asentando las bases de los conceptos tratados y aportando las equivalencias a los idiomas de algunos de los principales mercados de exportación del turrón. subyace también en toda la obra la importancia otorgada a la usabilidad, un concepto clave en lexicografía y, en consecuencia, la relevancia reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278 271 otorgada a facilitar y optimizar la experiencia del usuario con la obra. es por ello que la gran mayoría de entradas del diccionario se fundamenta, principalmente, en completas y claras definiciones, así como en la inclusión de información contextual y/o histórica, sinónimos y equivalencias en distintas lenguas, todo lo cual hace de esta obra una valiosa y útil herramienta para el usuario y, en general, para el “dulce” sector al que se destina. recibida 18 diciembre 2016 aceptada 22 diciembre 2016 reseñado por nuria edo marzá universitat jaume i (españa) nedo@ang.uji.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278272 iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.391 abstract this paper takes a cognitive perspective on the semantics of moroccan brand names and analyses the role of metonymy in a corpus-based analysis of cosmetic brand names. more particularly, we aim a) to shed light on the metonymic cognitive operations in these names (domain expansion and domain reduction metonymies together with metonymic chains), b) to determine the occurrence frequency of metonymy in comparison to metaphor, c) to reveal the modes (monomodal, multimodal) in which the brand names are manifested, and d) to examine if there is any connection between the type of cosmetics and the metonymic operations cued. the paper yields some significant findings, the most salient feature of which is the low occurrence frequency of reduction metonymy that is largely outnumbered by its converse operation, namely, expansion metonymy. in this way, the conscious use of these mechanisms by brand designers can help to boost brand identity and economically build a favourable brand image. keywords: cognitive semantics, metonymy, branding, cosmetics, multimodality. resumen examinando la relación metonímica entre un nombre de marca y un producto: un estudio de caso de marcas de cosméticos marroquíes este artículo aborda la semántica de los nombres de marca marroquíes desde una perspectiva cognitiva y analiza el rol de la metonimia en un corpus de nombres examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product: a case study of moroccan cosmetic brand names fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos universidad de almería (spain) mecortes@ual.es & fe392@inlumine.ual.es 391 ibérica 44 (2022): 00-00 fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos de marca de cosméticos. más concretamente, nuestros propósitos son los siguientes: a) arrojar luz sobre las operaciones cognitivas metonímicas en dichos nombres (metonimias de expansión, metonimias de reducción y cadenas metonímicas), b) determinar la frecuencia de ocurrencia de la metonimia en comparación con la metáfora, c) revelar los modos (monomodales y/o multimodales) en los que se manifiestan los nombres de marca, y d) examinar si existe alguna conexión entre el tipo de cosméticos y las operaciones metonímicas anteriormente señaladas. tras el estudio llevado a cabo se desprenden los siguientes resultados: la característica más destacada es la baja frecuencia de ocurrencia de la metonimia de reducción que es superada en gran medida por su operación inversa, la metonimia de expansión. en consecuencia, podemos decir que el uso consciente de estos mecanismos por parte de los diseñadores de marcas puede ayudar a impulsar la identidad de la marca y a construir una imagen de marca más favorable de manera económica. palabras clave: semántica cognitiva, metonimia, branding, cosméticos, multimodalidad. 1. introduction brands have become part and parcel of every company, as well as one of the most priceless assets of a firm. whenever a new name, logo or symbol is given to a new product, we can assume that a new brand is created (keller, 2003). today’s market insists that brand names be short, distinctive, easy to remember, and suggestive. choosing the right brand name can enhance brand equity and help in building a favourable brand image for a newly introduced product (aaker, 1996; keller, 2003). moreover, with the increased number of brand names entering the marketplace, marketers are more interested in linguistics to help them produce desirable brand names. bergh et al. (1987, p. 42) constructed a four-fold linguistic typology to evaluate brand names, involving phonetic, orthographic, morphological, and semantic categories. for this study, we focus on the analysis of metonymic cognitive operations underlying the semantics of moroccan cosmetic brand names. most of the studies related to brand names are done by marketing experts aiming to boost brand equity (aaker, 1996; armstrong & kotler, 1997, 2018; keller, 2003). in the literature, to the best of our knowledge, few studies have explored the role of metonymy in branding from a cognitive linguistic point of view (pérez hernández, 2011, 2013; zeng, 2019); however, several 392 studies have analysed the role of metaphor in branding (ang & lim 2006; zaltman & zaltman, 2008; koller, 2009; burcea, 2016). in advertising, on the other hand, there is a plethora of research dealing with multimodal metaphor and, to a small extent, metonymy (forceville, 1996, 2006, 2009a, 2009b; mcquarrie & phillips, 2005; forceville & urios-aparisi, 2009; velasco sacristán, 2010; cortés de los ríos, 2010; hidalgo & kraljevic, 2011; villacañas & white, 2013; bolognesi, 2015; pérez sobrino, 2016, 2017; pérez hernández, 2019; kashanizadeh & forceville, 2020). this article presents an analysis of 109 brand names belonging to cosmetics, which have been drawn from the office marocain de la propriété industrielle et commerciale (ompic). the shortage of studies on this subject has fuelled our desire to explore how metonymy, a content cognitive operation1, is involved in the creation of moroccan cosmetic brand names. domain expansion and domain reduction together with metonymic chains can account for the drawing of inferences based on the verbal and pictorial cues provided by the brand name. more precisely, the paper addresses the following research questions: rq1. (a) what is the role of conceptual metonymy in shaping the semantics of moroccan cosmetic brand names? (b) what types of metonymic operations are used to cue the message? rq2. what is the frequency of metonymy in comparison to metaphor? rq3. what are the modes chosen to represent metonymic conceptual operations in brand names? is the message more likely to be conveyed through words, images, or a combination of both? rq4. is there any connection between the type of cosmetic products and the metonymic operations cued? section 2 outlines the theoretical background of this study. section 3 deals with the corpus and the methodology employed. section 4 seeks to provide an answer to the research questions through our corpus analysis. the final section presents concluding remarks. 2. theoretical background traditionally, metonymy was considered a figure of speech, in which one word stands for another, and it was regarded as a trope and a purely linguistic examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 393 phenomenon. however, with the arrival of cognitive linguistics, metonymy was recognized as a conceptual process, although initially, it received little attention compared to metaphor. nowadays, a considerable amount of research has been devoted to metonymy, and some scholars even claim that metonymy may be more fundamental than metaphor in conceptual organisation (gibbs, 1994; barcelona, 2000, 2005, 2011; radden, 2005; kalisz, 2007; mittelberg & waugh, 2009; pérez sobrino, 2017). in connection to this, koch (1999, p. 139) expresses this general interest we referred to as follows: i am convinced that metonymy occurs much more frequently than metaphor and tells us a great deal about our cognitive equipment. so it is worthwhile studying its cognitive bases in some details. cognitive linguists assume that metonymy is a figure of thought based on conceptual contiguity (gibbs, 1994; dirven, 2002). this notion of contiguity is used to express “a close or direct relationship between two entities” (evans & green, 2006, p. 311). according to this definition, it follows that metonymies have an associative relation. in other words, an entity is usually used to refer to another entity in the same domain (lakoff & johnson, 1980; ruiz de mendoza, 2000). kövecses and radden (1998, p. 39) adopted a different definition of conceptual metonymy, and they considered it a “cognitive process in which one conceptual entity, the vehicle, provides mental access to another conceptual entity, the target, within the same domain, or idealized cognitive model (icm)”. they viewed metonymy in terms of access rather than mappings in the sense that metonymy grants a way of access to a particular target within a single domain. barcelona’s (2000, p. 4) definition of metonymy as “a special case of activation” coincides with kövecses and radden’s perspective. he explained this process as follows: “the metonymic mapping causes the mental activation of the target domain” (barcelona, 2000, p. 4). the crucial difference between metonymy and metaphor, as ruiz de mendoza (1997) proposed, lies in the nature of the mapping, whether it is external or internal, in other words, if the mapping occurs within the domain matrix or if the mapping is located between two separate domains. ruiz de mendoza (2000) distinguishes two basic types of metonymies: source-intarget and target-in-source. fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416394 although both types are the result of domain and subdomain relations, they mirror two different kinds of metonymic relationships. domain expansion encompasses a source-in-target metonymy where the subdomain is developed into the matrix domain, also termed part-for-whole metonymy. in other words, as ruiz de mendoza and galera masegosa maintain, domain expansion consists of “broadening the amount of conceptual material that we associate with the initial point of access to a concept” (2014, p. 93). domain reduction, on the other hand, usually involves a target-in-source metonymy, in which the whole matrix domain is focalised, and it is the product of “giving conceptual prominence to part of a concept or of conceptual system” (ruiz de mendoza & galera masegosa, 2014, p. 93). this is also referred to as whole-for-part metonymy. metonymies can occur in metonymic chains (barcelona, 2005; hilpert, 2006; ruiz de mendoza, 2000; brdar-szabó & brdar, 2011; ruiz de mendoza & galera masegosa, 2014). metonymic chains involve the chained combination of two or more metonymies in which the starting point is usually an expanded or a reduced domain that results from a first metonymic operation affording access to another metonymic shift. ruiz de mendoza (2000) outlined four patterns of interactions: metonymic expansion plus metonymic reduction, metonymic reduction plus metonymic expansion, double metonymic expansion, and double metonymic reduction. several examples of these patterns of interactions are shown in the qualitative part of this paper. if we assume that metonymy only exists in verbal modalities and, hence, consider it a feature of language alone and not cognition, we might be contradicting the conceptual metaphor theory (cmt) belief that metonymy is a cognitive system that structures our thoughts and behaviour rather than merely a language phenomenon. nonetheless, cmt researchers limited their investigations to language and paid little attention to non-verbal manifestations of conceptual metonymy, and it took a while before scholars within this approach began to produce publications where they creatively applied theories of metonymy to studies of multimodality in advertising (forceville, 2009b; cortés de los ríos, 2010; pérez sobrino, 2017). of particular relevance in the field of cognitive semantics is the contribution of the study of pictorial metaphor by forceville (1996, 2002, 2006, 2009a, 2012, 2016). he suggested that many metaphors are not cued in a single mode/modality but draw on two or more modes simultaneously. examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 395 monomodal metaphors are “metaphors whose target and source are exclusively or pre-dominantly rendered in one mode” (forceville, 2006, p. 383), while multimodal metaphors are “metaphors whose target and source are each represented exclusively or predominantly in different modes” (forceville, 2006, p. 384). 3. corpus and methodology the corpus of this study consists of brand names that were drawn from the moroccan database, office marocain de la propriété industrielle et commerciale (ompic), released between 2010 and 2020. we have used this source mainly for two reasons: firstly, it includes all the brand names that are officially registered in morocco, and secondly, it provides all kinds of information about the brand names. this extra information may be useful for identifying the metonymic domains. the corpus was selected based on the following criteria: 1. the brand names should be either english mixed with one of the varieties spoken in morocco (standard arabic, moroccan arabic, tamazight, or french) or entirely english. 2. the brand names literally indicating the product were disregarded. 3. the brand names should involve at least one cognitive operation. an initial corpus consisting of 154 brand names was selected. after close scrutiny, the total number of brand names triggering cognitive content in the visual and/or verbal mode(s) is 109. the brands are organized into four subgroups within the general group of cosmetics. table 1 summarises the distribution of our corpus of 109 brands per type of product. table 1. distribution of brand names per product category. once all the brands were classified depending on their product type, we carried out a mixed a qualitative and quantitative analysis. in this regard, we fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416396 ! ! cosmetics personal care makeup perfumes skincare total 22 28 20 39 109 used a theoretical approach that applies ruiz de mendoza and galera masegosa’s (2014) model, that is, it examines the types of metonymies (expansion metonymy, reduction metonymy, and metonymic chains) that guide and constrain our semantic interpretations. in the context of branding, the product is usually represented by a brand name, a logo or both. ungerer claims that “brand name for product metonymy has developed into a powerful advertising tool which can be put to sophisticated uses, especially in the case of brand names” (2000, p. 335). usually, the brand designer uses the brand as a shortcut to highlight the most desirable attributes or effects of the product. pérez hernández (2011) suggested that metonymy is based on the concept of contiguity, so any element of the conceptual fabric that forms the target product can be used to name it. in this regard, studying brand names achieved through metonymic mapping offers a great opportunity for understanding the relationship between the brand and the product. this study develops a method suitable for metaphor and metonymy identification in brand names. the procedure outlined below adapts and combines approaches of metaphor identification in mip (metaphor identification procedure, pragglejaz group, 2007), mipvu (metaphor identification procedure vrije universiteit, steen et al. 2010) and forceville’s suggested method for multimodal metonymy (1996, 2009a, 2009b). below we provide examples of one metaphorical and one metonymic brand name from our corpus with a detailed identification procedure: (1) metaphorical brand names with single source domain: crown perfume a) read the brand name together with its information taken from the ompic. b) separate the brand name into two lexical units: crown and perfume. c) find out whether the contextual meaning of each lexical unit is equal to its basic meaning (basic meaning usually coincides with the first entry in the dictionary). d) contextual meaning versus basic meaning: the contextual meaning of crown differs from its basic meaning (a circular ornamental headdress worn by a monarch), but it can be examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 397 conceptualized by mapping between the two – we can understand the perfume in terms of the luxury and exclusiveness of the crown. e) the source (crown) and the target (perfume) belong to different domains. metaphorically used? yes. source domain found: one. what type of metaphor? comparison metaphor. in this way, we categorized crown perfume containing a comparison metaphor with a single source domain: the perfume is a crown. (2) metonymic brand name with two source domains: pure argan (skincare) a) read the brand name together with its information taken from the ompic. b) separate the brand name into two lexical units: pure and argan. c) find out if the contextual meaning is the same as its basic meaning. d) contextual meaning versus basic meaning: the contextual meaning is the same as the basic meaning; the lexical unit pure highlights the attribute of the product; and the lexical unit argan highlights the ingredient of the product. e) the source (pure) and the target domain (product) belong to one matrix domain. f) the source (argan) and the target domain (product) belong to one matrix domain. metonymically used: yes. source domains found: two. what type of metonymy? expansion metonymies. in this way, we categorize pure argan as a metonymic brand name with two sources: attribute for product and ingredient for product metonymies. fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416398 as for multimodal metonymies, our method can be described as follows. we first study all the information available in and about the product, since they tend to coincide with the target domain. subsequently, we focus on the verbal and visual elements for possible source domains that are mapped onto the target domains (or products) identified previously. once the source domain and target domain are singled out, we describe the mode used as monomodal, pictorial vs. verbal, or as multimodal, verbo-pictorial. the final step is to provide a verbalisation of the metaphor or metonymy at work. 4. results and discussion this section is divided into two parts. firstly, we present the qualitative results of the corpus under analysis. secondly, we present the quantitative results of the frequency of occurrence of metonymy per type and the frequency of occurrence of metaphor and metonymy, followed by the distribution of the use of modal cues in cosmetic products and, finally, the distribution of conceptual metonymy per category of product. 4.1. qualitative results 4.1.1. domain expansion and domain reduction metonymy in this corpus, among the metonymic sources found, the majority are identified as subdomains of the target and are categorised as the source-intarget type. the formal operation, whose role is to provide access to the most relevant aspect of a concept cueing provided by linguistic and pictorial elements, is the precondition for the activation of this operation (ruiz de mendoza & galera masegosa, 2014). the product is presented by the brand name, which metonymically stands for the item in question: brand name for product. thus, this type of metonymy is often used to highlight one important ingredient, effect, or attribute, of the target product; as a result, the subdomain identifies the product by emphasising its most representative characteristic (see figure 1). examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 399 figure 1. schematic representation of brand name for product metonymy. according to aaker (1996), brand identity consists of twelve dimensions organised around four perspectives: brand as a product (product scope, attributes, quality values, uses, users, country of origin), brand as an organisation (organisational attributes, local vs global), brand as a person (brand personality, brand customer relationships) and brand as a symbol (visual, imagery/metaphors and brand heritage). most of the brand names in this study belong to the first category, brand as a product. consequently, the most common metonymies are attribute for product and effect for product. it is worth mentioning that the choice of the source domain is closely related to the strategic and tactical management of the brand designers, whether they are focused solely on brand attributes or other dimensions. from a linguistic point of view, the importance of using lexical associates of the products is extremely relevant because it has a distinct recall advantage when used as a brand name. robertson (1989, p. 64) argues that “a natural verbal associate of the product class, when used as a brand name, has the cognitive advantage of already being stored (learned) as a representative member of the activated category”. thus, the high number of attributes or effects used as source domains in naming the products is relevant. the following figures are examples of the three most dominant source-in-target metonymies: ingredient for product, effect for product and attribute for product. an instance of ingredient for product metonymy is provided by bioargan, a skincare product (see figure 2). fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416400 ! ! a ! s ! a ! h ! o ! y ! q ! y ! y ! u ! o ! f ! y ! l ! c ! ! ! ! , ! ! ! ! o ! ! ! ! d ! b ! b ! m ! n ! s figure 2. schematic representation of ingredient for product metonymy. an instance of effect for product metonymy is provided by babyjoy, a personal care product (see figure 3). figure 3. schematic representation of effect for product metonymy. an instance of attribute for product metonymy is provided by superior oud: a perfume (see figure 4). examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 401 ! ! e ! o ! n ! c ! l ! n ! y ! g ! n ! n ! o ! o ! d ! o ! t ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! a ! s ! a ! r ! p ! ! ! ! t ! ! ! ! u ! e ! ! ! ! ! ! ! x ! n ! t ! o ! h ! t ! r ! y ! o ! o figure 4. schematic representation of attribute for product metonymy. after examining the three dominant types of expansion metonymies corresponding to the corpus selected, it can be observed that these sourcein-target metonymies are aimed at highlighting three main aspects of the product: (1) ingredient for product: this type of domain expansion operation is often used to highlight one special ingredient of the product (for example, mint). however, it is worth noticing that this type of source domain is the one least used to name cosmetic products. this could find explication in the fact that most of these products are made of chemical substances; thus, it would be inappropriate to highlight them. instead, as we have observed in the analysis, brand designers make use of other source domains, such as cleanliness or care as part of their identity to produce positive effects. (2) effect for product: this type of domain expansion operation concentrates on the positive effects obtained from the consumption of the product, which might be physical or emotional. some products make use of functional effects as a source domain, for example, energy, power, health, beauty, glamor, status, whereas other products, on the other hand, make use of the emotional effect as a source domain, so we have brand names such as joy, happiness, love, passion, comfort and care. (3) attribute for product: this type of domain expansion fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416402 ! ! a ! s ! a ! r ! p ! ! ! ! t ! ! ! ! u ! e ! ! ! ! ! ! ! x ! n ! t ! o ! h ! t ! r ! y ! o ! o operation aims at emphasising the quality of the product (see table 2 below). this is evident in the number of lexical items denoting quality, for example, top, super, superior, good and fresh. the following table represents the three dominant types of metonymies together with their source domains in the cosmetic sector: table 2. metonymic source domains of cosmetic brand names. finally, another instance of domain expansion has to do with acronyms and initialisms such as b.b (birth of beauty), m.n.s (moroccan natural secrets) and m.m (moroccan mint). these acronyms are used as logos accompanying the brand name, functioning as metonymic access points to their full brand names. the reason behind this strategy might be to imitate famous brand names such as d&g (dolce and gabbana), lv (louis vuitton), vs (victoria’s secret) and ch (carolina herrera), which adds a touch of modernity and internationality to the brand. regarding target-in-source metonymy, the matrix domain serves as a reference point for one of its subdomains, thereby reducing the semantic scope of the conceptual representation. nonetheless, in our corpus, a metonymic reduction is usually used as a double-chained metonymy, or in combination with other metonymic interactions resulting in metonymic chains. 4.1.2. metonymic chains our corpus analysis reveals that metonymic chains consisting of two or more metonymies are also present. they take as their point of departure either an expansion or a reduction metonymy triggered by verbal or pictorial cues, such as leaves, green colour, a crown and a star. however, most of the time, the last operation is an expansion metonymy, where the target domain is usually the product. the following are examples of metonymic combinations that are common in our corpus: examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 403 ! metonymy source domains ingredient for product argan, mint, moroccan oil, oud, olive oil effect for product beauty, glamor, ideal-skin, love, fab, trendy, glam, chic, happy, in-style, romantic attribute for product natural, bio, fresh, pristine, pure, organic, green, perfect, good, new, luxury, super, superior, top a. metonymic expansion plus metonymic reduction plus metonymic expansion the verbo-pictorial surroundings are precisely the ultimate cue to elicit the metonymic chain leaves for nature for nature-friendly for product. this metonymic complex involves a first metonymic expansion, from leaves to a more encompassing domain nature, and subsequently a metonymic reduction, from nature to a more specific domain naturefriendly. finally, the last mapping involves a consideration of the products as being healthy. this kind of mapping enables the consumer to prompt the connection and feel more engaged with the brand name; hence, instead of directly stating the attributes of the product (natural, healthy or pure), the brand designer uses a leaf, a tree, or adds a touch of green and leaves the task to the consumer to reach the intended conclusion (see figure 5). figure 5. schematic representation of leaves metonymic chain. furthermore, with the rise of concerns around sustainability, green advertising has reached its peak, and the promotion of sustainable products has become vital (ülkü & hsuan, 2017). according to erdman (2008), ecoconsciousness is now an expectation, and numerous brands across categories are in a race to see who can be the “greenest”. however, the abovementioned metonymy is indeed found in various environmentally friendly fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416404 ! leaves for nature for nature-friendly for product expansion + reduction + expansion! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ur eruta nro fsevael e noisanxp ! ! ur ro fe erutna dneifr n noitcude r+ apx e+ ! !a yld tcudor prof noisna ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! products, but it is also exploited to make synthetic products look more natural. these false or misleading claims are referred to as “greenwashing”. in this sense, brands such as bio cosmetics, green inspiration, maxibio and bioargan, which in fact contain several chemical substances, release misleading information as being “bio” or “green” products through a multimodal metonymic chain. besides that, through the activation of the well-connoted conceptual domain nature through the metonymic association to “green”, brand designers are constructing positive associations, such as environmentally friendly or healthy, for their potentially unhealthy or artificial products. b. double metonymic reduction plus metonymic expansion a special element used frequently as a naming strategy in our corpus of cosmetics is argan, cued verbally and pictorially. argan oil is a plant oil produced from the kernels of the argan tree (argania spinosa l.) which is endemic to morocco. in morocco, argan oil is edible, but it is mostly used for cosmetic purposes. it is known for protecting and revitalising the skin through its anti-ageing and anti-acne effects. nowadays, it is a major and internationally well‐established actor in the cosmetic oil market, where it is being used in face creams and as an ingredient in lip gloss, shampoo, moisturisers and soaps (guillaume et al., 2019, p. 317). the fact that this name is used exhaustively in cosmetic brands indicates that the brand designer wants to stress the fact that the product is made from natural ingredients of exclusive and authentic moroccan origin. in fact, the interpretation of the linguistic cue “argan” or the pictorial cue argan tree needs three subsequent metonymic shifts: argan tree for argan kernels (reduction), argan kernels for argan oil (reduction) and argan oil for cosmetic products (expansion). similar considerations are made by ruiz de mendoza and galera masegosa (2014) about the word “cotton”, which involves the cooperation of three metonymic operations: cotton plant for cotton wool (reduction), cotton wool for cotton cloth (expansion) and cotton cloth for cotton clothing (expansion). nonetheless, they suggest that present-day speakers do not activate the whole metonymic process for interpretation. in our example of argan, it is examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 405 ! argan tree for argan kernels for argan oil for product reduction + reduction + expansion only the first and last shift that remains active in most speakers’ minds. nerlich and clarke (2001, p. 123) label this phenomenon as “opaqueness of metonymic chains” (see figure 6). figure 6. schematic representation of argan metonymic chain. c. metonymic expansion plus metonymic reduction a significant number of brand names contain mosaic in the design of the logos. the mosaic represents the whole domain of moroccan artisanship and gives rise to typicality effects (typical examples), or simply put, what we consider good examples of a category. therefore, the pictorial cue allows us to construct the expansion metonymy mosaic for moroccan artisan and, by a metonymic reduction, connect the moroccan artisan to those particular products (shampoos, makeup, serums, perfumes) because moroccan artisanship is a broader domain capable of covering different hand-made products. this metonymy is further reinforced by the use of verbal cues, namely tradition, morocco, moroccan and so forth (see figure 7). fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416406 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! logo (mosaic) for moroccan artisan for product expansion + reduction ! ! r ofc) isamo (oglo ! ! nsaarti aroccanmo ! ! cturodr po fn ! ! ! ! ! ! x paex ! ! noticu red +nsiopan ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! figure 7. schematic representation of mosaic metonymic chain. d. double reduction metonymy this metonymic chain involves two consecutive processes of domain highlighting through a double metonymic reduction. our corpus has revealed that there are many cases in which the name of the founder of a given company is used to name the product made by that company (for example, silia, sidki, aya, asia, anissa). hence, the name of the founder stands for the company, and the company stands for its products. moreover, many international brands use this naming strategy, such as prada, louis vuitton, yves saint laurent, levi´s, and christian dior. however, as mentioned previously, consumers are rarely aware of this double reduction metonymy, that is, they do not associate the company with the products. they rather associate it directly with the founder of the company (ruiz de mendoza & galera masegosa, 2014). as a result, the product inherits relevant values from the source domain of the founder, such as those of heritage, prestige and family tradition. another metonymic relation considered to be a double target-in-source metonymy is place for source for product. in brand management, this strategy is referred to as “country of origin branding” (coob). brand examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 407 ! ! founder for company for product reduction + reduction ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! n er fdnuof red ! ! for pryr companoer f ticu red +noctiured ! ! ctudo for pr noti ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! designers use place names to refer to the source of the product. generally, consumers are ready to spend more money for a branded product from a coob with a more favourable country image (koschate-fischer et al., 2012). hence, naming a product moroccan treasures, moroccan nature or moroccan secrets acts as a signal of product quality because that country has a heritage in making the best within that product class, which directly affects the likelihood of purchase. e. double expansion metonymy this type of metonymy consists of two consecutive operations of domain expansion. in this pattern, there are two source-in-target metonymies, in which the target domain of the first metonymy works as the source domain of the second metonymy. in the example at hand, the first expansion metonymy functions at the grammatical level, in which the clipped noun gives a metonymic access point to the full noun, namely, from poly to polyester. a second metonymic expansion is needed, in which the material (polyester) stands for the product. other examples of salient part of constructional form for whole form metonymy are flex for flexible, bio for biological, diam for diamentine, eco for ecological, maxi for maximum, fab for fabulous and so forth. 4.2. quantitative results 4.2.1. types of metonymic operations and frequency of metaphor and metonymy among the first research questions guiding this study was quantifying the types of metonymic operations in cosmetic brand names. our quantitative analysis reveals that domain expansion metonymy is the most productive operation in the construction of a brand’s meaning, with 53% being involved in the design of most of the brands under scrutiny. the results reveal that 46% of metonymies are found to work in combination rather than in isolation resulting in metonymic chains. nonetheless, the most salient feature yielded by the corpus is the low frequency of occurrence of reduction fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416408 ! salient part of constructional form (poly) for whole form (polyester/material) for product expansion + expansion metonymy (1%), and it is largely outnumbered by its converse operation, expansion metonymy. the following figure offers the types of metonymies with their frequency of occurrence: figure 8. frequency of occurrence of metonymy per type. our second research question sought to compare the frequency of occurrence of metaphor and metonymy. table 3 shows the frequency and percentages of a total of 261 annotated metaphors and metonymies. table 3. frequency of occurrence of metaphor and metonymy. the most remarkable result of our study is that more instances of metonymy (78%) are found than of metaphor (22%); hence, we could argue that the role of metonymy in the construction of brand meaning is conceptually more important than that of metaphor. our view is in accordance with other scholars who claim that the role of metonymy is more fundamental than that of metaphor (panther & radden, 1999; gibbs, 2007; panther et al., 2009). 4.2.2. modal cues our third question is aimed at investigating the preferred modes used by brand designers to cue metonymic operations. in the selected corpus, the examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 409 ! 53 # $ 15 17 8 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 (% ) expansion reduction double expansion double reduction expansion+ reduction reduction+ expansion ! cognitive operation frequency percentage metaphor 57 22% metonymy 204 78% total 261 100% source domains of the metonymies are represented visually or verbally. however, target domains (product) are not always present, and they have a metonymic relation with the brand: brand name for product. hence, the type of modality of the target domain (product) depends on the way the brand name is represented. results indicate that two types of modalities were frequently used: monomodal verbal metonymies and multimodal verbo-pictorial metonymies. forceville (2009a) suggests that discussion on the modes cannot be separated from discussion on the material carrier of the message, that is, the medium. brands in the selected corpus pertain mainly to two categories: word marks and combination marks. the first category is a font-based logo that focuses on a brand name alone. the second category, on the other hand, comprises a combined word mark and a pictorial mark (for example, a pictorial logo). the picture and text can lie side by side, stacked on top of each other or integrated together. concerning this, we believe that the type of brand and whether it is an integrated verbal or pictorial brand has a direct effect on the nature of modality in conceptual operations. for instance, if the brand is a word mark and contains an expansion metonymy, by definition, this metonymy would be of a verbal monomodal type, whereas if the brand is a combination of marks, it may result in a multimodal operation. figure 9 shows the results of the use of modal cues in branding: 59% of the metonymic source and target domains identified in our corpus were delivered exclusively in text. by contrast, the monomodal pictorial mode was rarely used, which amounts only to 1%. as we can observe in figure 9, the hybrid verbo-pictorial mode amounts to 40%, and it was more present in metonymic chains. this is most clearly conveyed by the fact that the source domain of multimodal metonymic chains is usually visual, while the target domain (product) is either of a verbal or verbo-pictorial nature. fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416410 figure 9. distribution of the use of modal cues in cosmetic products. broadly speaking, the results indicate that there is a general tendency to favour the verbal mode. a higher percentage of occurrence of verbal mode is observed as compared with the pictorial mode, whose occurrence of frequency is very low. most of the metonymies in our corpus are creatively exploited for the promotion of product features; thus, the verbal mode is used directly to state those characteristics of the product, like being natural or being the best in the market, or suggest its effects such as power, beauty and happiness. in addition, the verbo-pictorial representativeness is also significant, although to a lower extent than the verbal mode. 4.2.3. distribution of conceptual metonymy per category of product our fourth question sought to establish whether there is a significant relationship between the metonymic operation underlying a brand and the product category. to date, the only comprehensive work on multimodal metaphor and metonymy across different types of products in advertising, as far as we know, is that by pérez sobrino (2017). with this work in mind, we tried to explore this relationship and apply it to branding. figure 10 depicts a graphic overview of the distribution of conceptual metonymies across four cosmetic categories, namely, makeup, skincare, perfumes and personal care. examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 411 ! 59% 1% 40% choice of mode in cosmetic brands verbal pictorial verbo-pictorial ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! oecioch ! rbcitemsocniedomfo ! sdna ! ! ! ! labrve aliortcpi obrve aliortcpi ! ! ! figure 10. distribution of conceptual metonymy per category of product. our study of metonymic operations across four types of products indicates that there is a prevalence of expansion metonymy over the remaining metonymic operations. it is worth mentioning that the four product types belong to utilitarian products, which result in the ownership of something tangible; hence, their reliance on the expansion metonymy, especially attribute for product and effect for product is reasonable. it is interesting to note that the perfume and personal care categories enjoy much lower frequencies of metonymic chains, as well as the absence of double expansion metonymy, whereas, in makeup and skincare, there is a significant number of metonymic chains. however, results indicate that there is consistency in the employment of expansion metonymies in all categories. nevertheless, reduction metonymy was found to be present in only a very small percentage in the skin care category. 5. conclusions this paper has attempted to provide an insight into the use of multimodal conceptual metonymy in cosmetic brand names (particularly, expansion metonymy, reduction metonymy, double expansion, double reduction, expansion plus reduction, and reduction plus expansion). the study’s findings show that brand naming is an extraordinary field that provides abundant data for the compilation of content cognitive operations. in brief, six types of metonymic brand names have been discussed. the source domains are semantically encoded by either the most significant and representative fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416412 ! %# && '$ ($ & #% ( #& #' ( & )# )( #) ( ## ## % & 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 m a k e u p s k i n c a r e p e r f u m e s p e r s o n a l c a r e % expansion reduction double expansion double reduction expansion+ reduction reduction+ expansion attributes, positive effects, or ingredients. highlighting the special features of a particular product is the safest branding strategy, and consequently, attribute for product, effect for product and ingredient for product are the most recurrent expansion metonymies in our corpus of cosmetics. in order to provide an answer to our initial four research questions, we will now summarise the following main conclusions from our study. our quantitative analysis reveals that domain expansion metonymy is the most frequent conceptual operation in the construction of brand meaning, being involved in the design of the four categories under scrutiny. it is interesting to note that our findings are different from pérez hernández’s (2013), according to whom domain reduction was the most productive cognitive operation in wine branding. nonetheless, wine branding, as pérez hernández (2013, p. 36) suggests, is “a special subclass of metonymic mapping known as eponymy, in which a proper name stands for a place, a thing, or an institution”. on the other hand, in cosmetics, the brand designer is more oriented towards highlighting the product´s attributes, effects, and ingredients. hence, we could argue that the choice of source domains has a close relationship with the branding strategy and product type. however, further research is needed to reveal the relation between product category and metonymic operations. further, the role of metonymy in other product types should be investigated. our results confirm previous findings about metonymy being as important as metaphor in meaning construction in advertising (pérez sobrino, 2017). however, the results obtained show that metonymy accounts for 78% whereas metaphor only covers 22%; therefore, we could argue that, in branding, metonymy plays a more fundamental role in meaning construction than a metaphor. the most salient feature yielded by our corpus is the low occurrence frequency of reduction metonymy that is largely outnumbered by its converse operations, expansion metonymy. regarding modality, the results indicate a general tendency to favour the verbal mode, especially in expansion metonymies. metonymic chains, on the other hand, seem to land themselves in the multimodal verbo-pictorial mode. this finding on multimodality raises an important question that should be addressed in future research – whether the specific choice of one modality over another leads to a different amount of metonymic complexity. in terms of figurative meaning, all categories showed the same preference for expansion metonymies and low occurrence of reduction metonymies, examining the metonymic relation between a brand name and a product ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416 413 regardless of the product type. further, metonymic chains were shown to have reliably significant relevance in the promotion of makeup and skincare products. the overall assessment of the results gives pride of place to the expansion metonymy as a suitable mechanism for the promotion of product features, which connects the product with the brand via this metonymic relationship. article history: received 16 february 2022 received in revised form 08 august 2022 accepted 26 september 2022 references fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416414 aaker, a. d. 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(2016). multimodal metaphor and metonymy in advertising: a corpus-based account. metaphor and symbol, 31(2), 73-90. maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos is a lecturer in the department of philology at the university of almería (spain). her main areas of research focus on cognitive semantics, axiological semantics, business english, and didactics applied to professional contexts. she has participated in international and national conferences and published several journal articles and book chapters. fatima azzahraa el yamlahi (phd) graduated in english philology by the university of abdelmalik esaadi tetuan (morocco) and has done her postgraduate studies at the university of almeria as master in english studies, professional application and intercultural communication. her main areas of research include cognitive semantics, axiological semantics, anglicisms, and morphology. notes 1 content cognitive operations are lower-level mechanisms used to make inferences on the basis of cues provided by the context or the linguistic expression (ruiz de mendoza & galera masegosa, 2014). fatima azzahraa el yamlahi & maría enriqueta cortés de los ríos ibérica 44 (2022): 391-416416 pérez sobrino, p. (2017). multimodal metaphor and metonymy in advertising. john benjamins. pragglejaz group (2007). mip: a method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. metaphor and symbol, 22(1), 1-39. radden, g. (2005). the ubiquity of metonymy. in j. l. otal, i. navarro, i. ferrando, & b. bellés fortuno (eds.), cognitive and discourse approaches to metaphor and metonymy (pp. 1128). publicacions de la universitat jaume i. robertson, k. (1989). strategically desirable brand name characteristics. journal of consumer marketing, 6(4), 61-71. ruiz de mendoza, f. j. (1997). cognitive and pragmatic aspects of metonymy. cuadernos de filologia inglesa, 6(2), 161-178. ruiz de mendoza, f.j. (2000). the role of mappings and domain in understanding metonymy. in a. barcelona (eds.), metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads (pp. 109-132). mouton de gruyter. ruiz de mendoza, f. j., & galera masegosa, a. (2014). cognitive modeling: a linguistic perspective. john benjamins. steen, g. j., dorst, a. g., herrmann, j. b., kaal, a. a., krennmayr, t., & pasma, t. (2010). a method for linguistic metaphor identification: from mip to mipvu. john benjamins. ungerer, f. (2000). muted metaphors and the activation of metonymies in advertising. in a. barcelona (eds.), metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads (pp. 321-340). mouton de gruyter. ülkü, m.a., & hsuan, j. (2017). towards sustainable consumption and production: competitive pricing of modular products for green consumers. journal of cleaner production, 142(4), 4230-4242. velasco-sacristán, m. (2010). metonymic grounding of ideological metaphors: evidence from advertising gender metaphors. journal of pragmatics, 42(1), 64-96. villacañas, b., & white, m. (2013). pictorial metonymy as creativity source in purificación garcía advertising campaigns. in l. hidalgo & b. kraljevic (eds.), metaphorical creativity across modes: special issue of metaphor and the social world, 3(2), 220-239. zaltman, g., & zaltman. l. h. (2008). marketing metaphoria: what deep metaphors reveal about the minds of consumers. harvard business press. zeng, w. h. (2019). a cognitive-pragmatic approach to metaphor and metonymy in brand names: a case study of film titles. taiwan journal of linguistics, 17(1), 1-47. el discurso del ámbito de la administración. una perspectiva lingüística iria da cunha granada: editorial comares, 2020, 210 pages. isbn: 97884-9045-955-3 the origins of linguistic research on legal language in spanish can be traced back to the nineties, when seminal works by martín martín (1991), álvarez (1995), aguirre and de larramendi (1997) or etxebarría aróstegui (1997), among others, were published. since then, there has been a growing interest in this domain of forensic linguistics in the spanish-speaking world, which is now far from being in its infancy. however, there are still many aspects that have been neglected. one of them is particularly striking: previous literature has focused on legal texts produced by professionals like judges, lawyers, or civil servants, but has generally overlooked specialized texts produced by ordinary citizens, who most probably have never been trained to write in such contexts. this is exactly the niche addressed by iria da cunha in her book el discurso del ámbito de la administración. una perspectiva lingüística (‘the discourse of the domain of the administration. a linguistic perspective’). the title already advances a relevant terminological choice: instead of using labels such as discurso administrativo (‘administrative discourse’) or discurso de la administración (‘discourse of administration’) – which are nonetheless included occasionally in some chapters for the sake of simplicity–, she prefers the noun phrase discurso del ámbito de la administración (‘discourse of the domain of the administration’) as an encompassing term to highlight the fact that she will not only refer to texts produced by administrative bodies, but also, and particularly, to administrative texts authored by citizens (e.g. complaints, requests, affidavits, etc.). this volume consists of seven chapters. the first one pertinently frames administrative texts within the broader domain of legal language and summarizes the key advances in research on this topic in spanish. it also announces the main features and contents of the book. the second chapter delves into administrative genres in spain. after offering an overview of the literature on specialized texts, the author, following reseñas / book reviews ibérica 42 (2021): 250-254 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 250 sánchez jiménez (2016), classifies administrative genres according to speakers’ and addressees’ identity. this allows her to distinguish three types of genres: texts produced by the administration addressing citizens; texts produced by and addressing the administration; and texts produced by citizens addressing the administration. in order to unveil which ones are more prominent in the literature, she draws upon the list included in sánchez jiménez (2016), which is one of the most recent and detailed catalogues of administrative genres, and identifies which ones are explicitly defined in the diccionario panhispánico del español jurídico (real academia española & consejo general del poder judicial 2020) as administrative text types. the results show that the text type terms included in this dictionary mirror the prevailing conception of administrative communication as that carried out by professionals through some genres addressing “passive” citizens for whom understanding them might be challenging. indeed, as for administrative texts usually produced by members of the public, such as peticiones (‘requests’) or quejas (‘complaints’), the genres shortlisted through this method were scarce, so the author needed to expand the list by integrating other text type terms analysed in previous studies, as well as those mentioned in an interview by a professional in the field of administration. she finally proposes a 25-item list of administrative texts authored by citizens. the third chapter provides an overview of the characteristics of administrative texts produced by professionals. special attention is paid to the plain language movement and its landmarks in spain. although the author concentrates on the role of average citizens as producers of administrative texts, this chapter seems a necessary step to accomplish the goals of this volume, since non-professionals tend to imitate the features they detect in administrative texts directed to them. the fourth chapter tackles administrative genres written by citizens. one of its objectives is to unveil which genres pose most difficulties to nonprofessionals. drawing from a varied range of sources –namely the aforementioned interview, handbooks of professional and academic writing in spanish, and a survey of 80 citizens–, the author establishes that the genres which are less frequently written by non-professionals (e.g. accusations, affidavits, appeals, etc.) are those that respondents considered more difficult to produce. in addition, the main challenges put forward by the participants surveyed are presented: in essence, they concern the structure of each text and the use of specialized vocabulary. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 42 (2021): 250-254 251 following these results, the author selects five genres (alegación (declaration, statement or submission), cover letter, letter of complaint, claim, and application) and analyses their linguistic features on the textual, lexical, and discursive level on the basis of a corpus of 100 texts. methodologically, she accurately combines different theoretical approaches and notions: van dijk’s discourse structures, swales’s moves, cabré’s communicative theory of terminology and mann and thompson’s rhetorical structure theory. from this analysis, she proposes an in-depth description of the distinctive patterns of each genre, with a view to its application to develop automatic tools to assist citizens in writing them. she also compares the core aspects of each genre statistically, which allows her to demonstrate that there are significant differences among some of them. the annexes complete the contents of this section. the fifth chapter offers a comprehensive, organized list of terminological resources in spanish for both the legal and the administrative domain, ranging from monolingual and bilingual dictionaries and lexicons to databases and thesauri. this catalogue seems particularly useful not only for researchers interested in the field of legal and administrative writing, but also for spanish for specific purposes practitioners, translators, or professionals of the administration. this also applies to the sixth chapter, which is devoted to technological tools designed to deal with administrative texts. it contains a thorough inventory of the available corpora, term extraction systems, and automatic systems for writing specialized texts in spanish. furthermore, it presents an innovative online text editor developed by a team led by the author of this book: artext. this free online tool aims at helping citizens to produce appropriate specialized texts through a simple, intuitive interface. it consists of several modules: the first one assists users with the general structure and contents of each genre, the second one warns them about spelling and formatting mistakes, and the third one suggests different types of improvements on a lexical and discursive level. interestingly, she also evaluates the accuracy of artext by means of triangulation: she compares the improvements manually marked by a trained annotator in a sample corpus with those automatically suggested by the tool. in addition, she considers the results of a survey of 25 artext users. based on this information, she concludes that, despite some weaknesses, the system proves to be robust and user-friendly. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 42 (2021): 250-254252 the volume ends with the seventh chapter, which summarizes the results of the previous chapters and reflects on the future steps in the study of specialized discourse in the field of administration. overall, the author manages to provide a very clear overview of previous research on administrative genres in spanish, with up-to-date inventories of helpful resources in this domain. this is why this book can be recommended to very different reader profiles, not only researchers and practitioners, but also civil servants, judges and other professionals of the field of the administration, as the author herself states in page 17. this book is also noteworthy for its ground-breaking approach, since it focuses on texts that had been largely disregarded: administrative texts written by members of the public. moreover, the pages devoted to artext are particularly stimulating, as they depict a helpful technological tool that deserves to be disseminated as widely as possible to reach non-professional authors of administrative genres, who would otherwise be struggling with textual conventions that they have not mastered. received 2 december 2021 accepted 10 december 2021 reviewed by dámaso izquierdo-alegría instituto cultura y sociedad (ics), universidad de navarra (spain) dizquierdo@unav.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 42 (2021): 250-254 253 aguirre, b. & h. de larramendi (1997). lenguaje jurídico el español por profesiones. sgel. álvarez, m. (1995). cuadernos de lengua española. tipos de escrito: epistolar, administrativo y jurídico. arco/libros. etxebarría aróstegui, m. (1997). “el lenguaje jurídico-administrativo: propuestas para su modernización y normalización”. revista española de lingüística 27(2): 341-380. martín martín, j. (1991). normas de uso del lenguaje jurídico. comares. real academia española & consejo general del poder judicial (2020). diccionario panhispánico del español jurídico. real academia española. url: <https://dpej.rae.es/> [10/12/2021]. sánchez jiménez, m. á. (2016). “marco legal sobre textos administrativos de extranjería” in e. eurrutia (ed.), el lenguaje jurídico y administrativo en el ámbito de la extranjería: estudio multilingüe e implicaciones culturales, 65-85. peter lang. iberica 13 ibérica 22 (2011): 173-178 issn 1139-7241 britt-louise gunnarsson by mona blåsjö stockholm university (sweden) mona.blasjo@nordiska.su.se parallel language use in academic and professional communication britt-louise gunnarsson is professor of modern swedish and sociolinguistics at uppsala university, the oldest university in scandinavia founded in 1477. for several decades, she has been director of the unit for advanced studies in modern swedish (fums). professor gunnarsson has managed several large research projects, such as “lsp texts in the 20th century” and “texts in european writing communities”. she has published extensively in the area of professional communication, lsp, academic discourse, text linguistics, historical text studies and multilingualism. as a compilation of her work, the book professional discourse (reviewed in this volume) was published in 2009. mona blåsjö (mb): in the 1990s, you conducted a large study on the parallel use of english and swedish at uppsala university. can you tell us about it? britt-louise gunnarson (blg): it all started when i was conducting a study on gender issues in phd students’ seminars. we were a multidisciplinary group doing the study on authentic interaction in seminars within the faculty of humanities, social sciences and science. we found out that in the science seminars, the phd students were speaking english, although they were swedish. this was in the mid 90’s, and i was quite surprised. it was also before the swedish authorities started the investigation about language use that eventually led to the new swedish language law.1 so this was the origin of a great survey at uppsala university on the use of english, swedish and other languages. it was an ordinary questionnaire survey, but it was big, covering all of the university, all disciplines, and it was the first time this was investigated. the results caused interest within the 173 entrevista con... / an interview with... m 09 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 173 academic community. among other things, we conducted seminars discussing the results at uppsala university.2 mb: your work was early in acknowledging the parallel use of speech and writing. recent studies such as airey (2009) have put focus on the different use of parallel languages like swedish and english in writing versus reading and listening, and between the written and spoken mode. how do you look upon this recent research on, for instance, different competencies among students in understanding english and producing english? blg: all students at swedish universities have to read english textbooks and other literature. for speech, we have less strict norms for correct use, still students tend to speak less when the teaching language is english instead of swedish. that is shown for instance in a recent phd thesis at my department by hedda söderlundh (2010). initially, lsp research was completely about written texts. now of course conversational analysis is a big area of research also in academic and professional contexts. there is a tendency in conferences to cover both writing and speech, but the two modes are not frequently investigated in the same study. i have always claimed the importance of studying both. for one thing, i wanted the international conference “discourse and the professions”, which was held in uppsala in 1992, to cover both text and talk, and so did also the books that emanated from this conference, the aslavolume (gunnarsson, linell & nordberg, 1994) and the longman volume (gunnarsson, linell & nordberg, 1997). also, my latest phd students have studied both speech and writing in the workplace. of course, different methods are required for studying speech and writing. but they are always intertwined. like now, you are both reading in your notes and writing what we say, while we are speaking. it is often claimed that the digital revolution has erased the distinction between speech and writing, but we wrote short messages that looked more like speech before that, too. mb: our special issue is about academic settings but in your work you have also addressed issues of multilingualism and parallel language use in other professional contexts? blg: yes. overall, you could say that the tendency today is that the opportunities for parallel language use in professional contexts are not fully exploited. in a study on commercial web pages, i found that the possibility to offer information in several languages was not used to the extent that you could expect, considering the lower cost compared with printed information. in a recent project one of my phd students, marie nelson (2010), found m. blåsjö ibérica 22 (2011): 173-178174 09 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 174 that proficiency in other languages, like spanish, was not efficiently made use of in the workplaces. multilingualism should be seen as an asset for the company, but employees with these competencies are not always acknowledged and given appropriate duties. one striking result of this study was the hierachization reinforced by the use of english: employees who had grown up in countries outside europe and the english-speaking world often had no or a weak proficiency in english, and in a company with english as a corporate language, they had difficulties reaching more advanced positions. the eu has had a significant role in arguing the case for languages other than english and for the importance of translation from and into national languages. the eu shows that there is not only a need for a lingua franca. there are ways of using several languages in parallel, as with simultaneous translation or interpretation. it is also used in international academic conferences sometimes, and it works fine. you sit with your earplugs and hear for instance a lecture in portuguese being interpreted into english. it becomes a type of realized parallel language use. mb: how would you describe the swedish lsp research field and its contribution? blg: in the beginning of research on lsp, the interest was more in the language system, the terminology and syntactic characteristics. the big question was “what is language for specific purposes? what discriminates it from everyday language?” also, the research was quite driven by educational needs. i suppose the main goal was to get a better ground for communication courses and the teaching of english as a second language. in sweden we have been more interested in the language practices outside the university walls and in investigating professional communication in authentic settings. how is corporate language used on the internet and in ads, for instance? that is why i prefer the concept of professional communication. when i am asked to write about lsp, i usually switch it to professional communication. in my project on academic communication, we called it “lsp texts” (facktext) to emphasize a different focus from the lexicogrammatical one. moreover, in sweden this kind of research is more often conducted in university linguistic departments rather than in business schools or other departments dealing with business or economics, which is usual in other countries. mb: in your earlier work, you argued for multilingualism at swedish universities. are you still of the same opinion? an interview with … britt-louise gunnarsson ibérica 22 (2011): 173-178 175 09 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 175 blg: if you mean that the alternative would be an entirely english-speaking and writing university, yes, i do. an entirely swedish or national language university, on the other hand, is obviously not an option today either. you have to remember that some disciplines, like law and history, are more locally situated. the law system of the anglo-saxon world is different from the one used in sweden, germany and other countries. there are not as many reasons for a scholar of law to write in english. recent studies, such as the one presented in hedda söderlundh’s (2010) phd thesis, show that students are more willing to discuss and ask questions in their mother tongue. also, in undergraduate education, it is important that students can read and use their mother tongue to get a deeper understanding of the subjects. partly, this is connected to the ability for the teachers and textbooks to put the new knowledge in relation to national conditions and societal circumstances. to become a deeper understanding, the new knowledge has to be in a shape and with concepts that involve appropriate associations and connotations. so, in the beginning of a student’s education, the mother tongue is needed. but of course there must be a balance, english being introduced step by step, to get the international perspective. [interview received march 2011] [revised interview accepted may 2011] references m. blåsjö ibérica 22 (2011): 173-178176 airey, j. (2009). science, language, and literacy: case studies of learning in swedish university physics. uppsala: uppsala university. gunnarsson, b-.l., p. linell & b. nordberg (eds.) (1994). text and talk in professional context. selected papers from the international conference “discourse and the professions”, uppsala, 26-29 august, 1992. uppsala: association suédoise de linguistique appliquée (asla) gunnarsson, b-.l., p. linell & b. nordberg (eds.) (1997). the construction of professional discourse. london: longman melander, b. (2005). “uppsala: engelska och svenska vid uppsala universitet – en uppföljning” in i. bäcklund, u. börestam, u. melander marttala & h. näslund (eds.), text at work. essays in honour of britt-louise gunnarsson 12 january 2005, 135-143. uppsala: institutionen för nordiska språk vid uppsala universitet. nelson, m. (2010). andraspråkstalare i arbete: en språkvetenskaplig studie av kommunikation vid ett svenskt storföretag. uppsala: uppsala university. söderlundh, h. (2010). internationella universitet lokala språkval: om bruket av talad svenska i engelskspråkiga kursmiljöer. uppsala: uppsala university. 09 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 176 notes 1 since 2009 sweden has had a special language law, stating the position of swedish and other languages in swedish and eu contexts. the intent of the law is to ensure the status of swedish as the official language in all areas and to legislate the official use of several minority languages. the authorities are particularly required to use swedish. see editorial for further information and reference to the language act, 2009. 2 the survey report shows a triangle with the angles english, swedish and other languages. the humanities tended to place themselves in the swedish angle, while science was closer to the english angle. closest to the other languages angle were linguistic disciplines and theology. a subsequent study (melander, 2005) has shown that the other languages alternative has become more or less invisible. an interview with … britt-louise gunnarsson ibérica 22 (2011): 173-178 177 09 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 177 09 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:04 página 178 iberica 13 ibérica 19 (2010): 141-154 issn 1139-7241 abstract information literacy is a complex phenomenon that requires a multifaceted interdisciplinary approach as it is related to verbal communication, literacy, functional literacy and academic literacy, including issues of plagiarism. it also includes text authoring in a full range of genres, among others abstracts. abstracting is a well-known act of verbal communication, and abstracts are a genre of written communication. the essence of abstracting is summarizing information making use of critical reading. abstracting thus can be regarded as one of the instances of exercising information literacy on a higher level. both information literacy and abstracting are of prime professional interest for linguists (among others in the field of esp) and information professionals. keywords: information literacy, abstracting, information professionals, critical reading, critical writing. resumen competencia informativa y creaci�n de res�menes: cuestiones interdisciplinares para ling�istas y profesionales de la informaci�n la competencia informativa es un fenómeno complejo que requiere la adopción de un enfoque interdisciplinar al tratarse de un asunto que guarda relación con la comunicación verbal, la alfabetización, la alfabetización funcional y la alfabetización académica, incluidos aspectos relativos al plagio. asimismo, abarca la autoría de los textos dentro de un amplio espectro de géneros, entre los cuales figuran los resúmenes. la elaboración de resúmenes puede considerarse un acto de comunicación verbal bastante conocido, y los resúmenes constituyen un género dentro de la comunicación escrita. la creación de resúmenes consiste information literacy and abstracting: interdisciplinary issues for linguists and information professionals tibor koltay szent istván university & university of west hungary (hungary) koltay.tibor@abk.szie.hu 141 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 141 ibérica 19 (2010): 141-154 tibor koltay fundamentalmente en resumir información mediante el uso de una lectura crítica, con lo que puede entenderse como uno de los ejemplos de materializar la competencia informativa a un nivel superior. tanto la alfabetización de la información como la elaboración de resúmenes adquieren un interés primordial para los lingüistas (entre otros, dentro del ife) y para los profesionales de la información. palabras clave: competencia informativa, creación de resúmenes, profesionales de la información, lectura crítica, escritura crítica. introduction the study of information literacy (il) requires a multifaceted interdisciplinary approach as it is a complex phenomenon. it is related to verbal communication, literacy, functional literacy and academic literacy, including issues of plagiarism. most of these issues are of interest both for linguists and information professionals. one of the important aspects known for the majority of the latter is that il is much more than acquiring the skills needed for using computers and the internet. it is however, not self-explanatory, although true, that il goes beyond the abilities of finding information. it requires communication skills related first of all to verbal communication. it is precisely this quality that represents the major interest for linguists. in this regard i will point out that information literacy has numerous ties with literacy, functional literacy and academic literacy, including issues of plagiarism, and i will also try to show that it includes text authoring in a full range of genres, first of all abstracts. the second part of the paper briefly addresses the issues related to writing abstracts in the context of information literacy. i will argue here that abstracting is a well-known act of verbal communication, and abstracts are a genre of written communication. abstracting however can be regarded as one of the instances of exercising information literacy on a higher level as its essence is summarizing information using critical thinking. a final argument will be that both information literacy and abstracting are of prime professional interest to linguists (among others in the field of esp) and information professionals. 142 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 142 what is information literacy? according to a well-known definition of il, information literate people are able to recognize when information is needed. they are also able to identify, locate, evaluate, and use information to solve a particular problem (ala, 1989). this definition directs our attention towards the active use of information. “greater expectations”, a national panel report issued by the association of american colleges and universities defines the nature of active use clearly by stating that information literate people are, among others, required to effectively communicate verbal information in oral and in written form, in their native language and in a second (foreign) language (aacu, 2002). as just defined, information literacy includes critical thinking but as reported in the information literacy competency standards for higher education (acrl, 2000), critical thinking, in its turn, is closely related to critical reading, an issue that i will later address in detail. information literacy is closely connected to information seeking, the essence of which is finding texts that answer our information needs. information seeking can be put into the context of writing, as writing is amongst the most common tasks within which information seeking is embedded (attfield, blandford & dowell, 2003). information literate people are required to do the following: • choose a communication medium and format that best supports the purposes and the intended audience; • use a range of information technology applications in creating the product or performance; • incorporate principles of design and communication; • communicate clearly and with a style that supports the purposes of the intended audience. (acrl, 2000: 13) all the above skills build a foundation for higher level abilities that can be summarized as follows: • recognizing, understanding, and analyzing the context within which language, information and knowledge are communicated and presented; • understanding the relationships among language, knowledge, and power; • using appropriate technologies to manage information collected or generated for future use; information literacy and abstracting ibérica 19 (2010): 141-154 143 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 143 • learning to critique our own and others’ works. (d’angelo & maid, 2004: 217) in accordance with this, “greater expectations” requires the learner to show extensive and sophisticated intellectual and practical skills in “transforming information into knowledge and knowledge into judgment and action” (aacu, 2002: 22). related literacies in addressing the communicative aspects of information literacy some issues of literacy, functional literacy and academic literacy should be discussed. literacy involves the integration of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and numeracy. it can be defined as an individual’s ability to understand printed texts and to communicate through print. functional literacy denotes most commonly the ability to read and use information essential for everyday life (bawden, 2001). in any case, without being able to read continuously and correctly it is impossible to exercise information literacy (frank, 2006). reading and writing are not limited to the print medium, especially as the amount of textual information available on the world wide web is considerable. academic literacy is of special interest to il and is defined by elmborg (2006: 196) as follows: “if literacy is the ability to read, interpret, and produce texts, academic literacy is the ability to read, interpret, and produce information valued in academia”. he goes on saying that this happens according to beliefs about how research should be done. academic literacy thus involves the comprehension of the entire system of thinking, values and information flows of academia. all this is based on a cultural identity of academia in which professional language and literature play a key role. in this system, information has a grammatical dimension, that information literate academics must master and students must be taught (elmborg, 2006). academic literacy includes the closely interrelated issues of citing and plagiarism, which acquire special importance by the fact that students often do not have the proper writing and citing skills to avoid plagiarism, fist of all because they are not able to delineate their own contributions from someone else’s (loo & chung, 2006). that is the reason why it is important for the students to learn to balance between the advantages of relying on the work tibor koltay ibérica 19 (2010): 141-154144 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 144 of others and the responsibility of doing their own part (d’angelo & maid, 2004). this latter statement especially shows that plagiarism is not only an issue for writing instruction, but an ethical concern that is in line with requirements towards information literate people to use information ethically (bawden, 2001). digital literacy is even more closely associated with information literacy. their relationship is, on the other hand, controversial and the terminology related to them is both confused and confusing. the phrase “digital literacy” is often used to denote the skills to use ict effectively, usually named “eliteracy”. in this sense, the meaning of digital literacy is improperly narrowed down. there is, however, a much wider view introduced by gilster (1997), according to which digital literacy denotes a broad concept that links together other relevant literacies, including information literacy and e-literacy (bawden 2008). similarly to literacy, il is a cultural knowledge which enables us to recognize and use language appropriate to different social situations (bawden, 2001). il is closely related to verbal communication. one of the reasons for this is that literacy is a way of functioning within complex communicative situations (geisler et al., 2001). in consequence, there are several dimensions of information literacy. i will further address questions related to the interconnectedness of reading and writing, the abilities that information literate people have to be able to present and activities in which these abilities materialize. readers and writers as seen from the definition, identifying, locating and evaluating information or, in other words, information seeking stands in the very heart of il. information seeking however is embedded in writing (attfield, blandford & dowell, 2003). one of the consequences of this is that the increase in the speed of access to information has serious effects on writing (chan & foo, 2004). quick information acquisition leads to the fact that communication increasingly involves finding or commissioning good texts (that is, selecting, arranging, filtering and recombining pre-existing information) instead of creating original texts (geisler et al., 2001). the reasons for this are manifold. besides the higher speed of information acquisition there is a more “traditional” cause: many of the writings involve reflection on written texts information literacy and abstracting ibérica 19 (2010): 141-154 145 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 145 as the thinking and research on the given subject have already been done (knott, 2008). despite of this, or rather as a consequence, information literate people are unavoidably writers as well as readers. this is especially true, as writing includes organizing, storing, designing and creating information as well as communicating and distributing it (dashkin, 2003). “recreating” texts occurs despite the fact that writing enables the creation of new knowledge and the process of writing and editing develops the functions of analysis and synthesis (sheridan, 1992). this is claimed by beeson (2005: 215) as follows: “as well as developing their capacity to understand and evaluate the work of others, [students] should develop their skills of articulation and explanation”. this scholar continues that for information to be useful, “the information literate person must be able not only to navigate the web effectively but also to integrate new information into a personal corpus which is communicable to others” (beeson, 2005: 216). to this comes that (in contrast to the stability of the print environment) in the present-day information environment digital information can be modified, copied, duplicated and redeployed in different contexts easily. with the appearance of web 2.0, tools for creating, seeking and managing information in a collective and dialogical fashion are widely used both by professionals and amateurs. all this makes the finding of reliable, authentic and authoritative texts difficult as there are fewer and less clearly defined contexts that would foster this (tuominen, 2007). critical reading as stated above, information literacy requires critical reading that is based on critical thinking. critical reading acquired especial importance with the growing number of writers on the web and is required by the above circumstances. the association of college and research libraries states explicitly that the information literate person “evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system” (acrl, 2000: 11). according to jones (1996), the criteria of critical thinking are: • differentiating between fact and opinion; • examining underlying assumptions, including our own ones; • looking for explanations, causes and solutions; tibor koltay ibérica 19 (2010): 141-154146 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 146 • being aware of fallacious arguments, ambiguity, and manipulative reasoning; • focusing on the whole picture, while examining the specifics; • looking for reputable sources. gilster (1997) puts this on a different level by saying that critical thinking means distinguishing between content and its presentation. lynch (1998) adds two more features: • assessing bias; • assessing accuracy. and knott (2008) presents a slightly different list of criteria: • determining the purpose of the text and assessing how the central claims are developed; • making judgements about the intended audience of the text; • distinguishing the different kinds of reasoning in the text; • examining the evidence and sources of the writing. it is to be added that critical thinking in the new information environment mentioned above has to be employed when creating documents, or describing them with abstracts, keywords, tags, etc. (beeson, 2005). information literacy and genre knowledge information literacy includes text authoring in a full range of genres including visual and multimedia communication (lynch, 1998) –thus, genre knowledge plays an important role. genre knowledge builds on basic rhetorical issues like purpose, audience and tone (ahmad & mcmahon, 2006) and it is a knowledge of conventions that is closely tied to rhetorical situations. rhetorical situations consist of interactions between the writer, the purpose, the audience, the subject and the context. if writers do not understand or simply neglect what is required by a given rhetorical situation, they lose their ability to reach and influence the intended audience. this means that it is not enough to have knowledge about the topic one is writing about. information literacy and abstracting ibérica 19 (2010): 141-154 147 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 147 writers should also know how to communicate the message to the intended audience in the most appropriate way and most effectively. in other words, they have to possess knowledge about how to communicate strategically within a discourse community. in this way “the concepts of discourse community, rhetorical situation and genre knowledge are bound together when writing a text” (andersen, 2006: 218). scholarship requires genres because they provide us with (…) explicit patterns for creating academic work the ways we construct our identities as writers and researchers, the ways we construct and interpret our major statements and use evidence, and the ways we conceive of the communities we address with our scholarship. (elmborg, 2006: 197) information literacy in abstracting an abstract is “a concise and accurate representation of the contents of a document in a style similar to that of the original document” (rowley, 1988: 10). abstracts are complete and self-contained. this means that they have to be understandable without consulting the original (rowley, 1988). the most important aspect of abstracting is representing the content of knowledge recorded in documents in natural language form (cleveland & cleveland, 1983). if we agree with the statement that abstracts have to be selfcontained, there is only one meaningful interpretation of this requirement: abstracts are natural language texts. abstracts are important for both linguists and information professionals for many reasons. one of the most important ones is the fact that abstracts help to overcome the language barrier as they are written in the users’ language and can serve as a key to understanding fully the argument of the original (cross & oppenheim, 2006). linguists and information professionals share interest in abstracting, because they recognize the fact that abstracts are important tools in the decisions about the relevance of information (pinto, fernández-ramos & doucet, 2008). these relevance decisions are based on determining what the essential content of a text is and this problem is central to all language processing (mathis & rush, 1975: 449). the interdisciplinary nature of abstracting is one of its most distinguishable characteristics and the role of linguistics in the study of abstracting is unquestionable as the processing of information is essentially conditioned by language (pinto, 1995). extraction and summarization of information tibor koltay ibérica 19 (2010): 141-154148 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 148 that form the core of abstracting play an important role in many forms and phases of communication (loo & chung, 2006; eisenberg, 2007). these processes are based on analysis and synthesis and build, among others, the foundation of classification, subject indexing and abstracting that are widely used in library environments. the importance and the usefulness of abstracting from the viewpoint of il is based on the fact that abstracting employs not only decoding and encoding, but critical reading as well (guinn, 1979). critical reading is central because the most important activity in abstracting is making decisions about what is really important in a text. in this sense abstracting is a special case of eliminating details from a complex perceptual field to reveal underlying structures (root-bernstein, 1991). an important part of information literacy is to be able to judge the relevance of information found with reasonable speed and accuracy and in a way that corresponds to the circumstances and requirements of today’s information environment (beeson, 2005). abstracting operations are predominantly of linguistic nature and abstracting can be both intralingual and interlingual. abstracting thus shows a number of similarities with translation. there is similarity in the process of communication as both processes require the presence of a mediating person, who has a mission to generate the required translation or abstract, respectively. the differences lie in the fact that translations are supposed to be equivalent to the original while abstracting is deliberately heterovalent both on the level of content and style. on the content level abstracting is characterised by the omission of content elements from the original that are judged to be less important. on the stylistic level the style displayed by the original text and the order of explanation do not have direct influence on the abstracted text (pfeiffer-jäger, 1982). summarizing can be done not only on the professional level but as a nonprofessional and semi-professional activity. we do non-professional, everyday summarizing when we tell the story of a recently seen movie. among the semi-professional summarizing activities those related to teaching and learning foreign languages take a special position as they require the adherence to more explicit rules. perhaps the best known example of such semi-professional summarizing is when students present shortened versions of different texts at foreign language examinations. professional summarizing results in written texts while the other levels tend to be oral activities. it demands high professional and communicative skills on information literacy and abstracting ibérica 19 (2010): 141-154 149 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 149 the summarizer and is essentially rule-based. for information professionals, summarizing (that is, abstracting) is a core qualification. the professional nature of this activity does not mean that all abstractors work full-time. on the contrary, most of them have no fixed employment as abstractors. they work in addition to other professional duties. abstractors (at least ideally) are equipped with summarizing skills and knowledge and they have acquired an explicit methodology for summarizing (endres-niggemeyer, 1998). the knowledge base of the abstractor consists of linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge. the source of linguistic knowledge is the text and it consists mainly of the ability to interpret the text. non-linguistic knowledge can be: • commonplace knowledge; • technical knowledge (professional knowledge of the given field); • knowledge of the users (recipients) of the given abstract (of the interests and needs of the audience); • knowledge of the specifications and instructions regulating the abstractors’ work. professional knowledge includes knowledge on the conditions and circumstances of how the source text came into existence. abstractors have to be familiar with the given problem, the results achieved in the particular field and they have to be able to answer the question: what is important in the given field? (pfeiffer-jäger, 1982). likewise, abstractors have to be aware of the communicative intention of the author of the source text in order to understand what the author regarded as important or noteworthy (belkin, 1993). the knowledge base of the abstractor should thus be sufficient to answer a second question: what is important in the given context? (pfeifferjäger, 1982). the interest of esp in abstracting as already mentioned, abstracts and abstracting represent interest for esp practitioners, even though this genre has not been studied as extensively as for example the research article. the linguistic study of abstracts is a growing field motivated by the interest of linguists to understand the mechanisms which underlie these multifunctional texts (lorés, 2004). as surveyed by chan and foo (2004), the main objectives of such studies are often genretibor koltay ibérica 19 (2010): 141-154150 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 150 based, that is their studies have been directed towards “identifying and assessing language conventions and rhetorical structures of abstracts in various disciplines, and on drawing implications for improving classroom practice and helping second language learners” (chan & foo, 2004: 102). one of the most popular practices in doing this was using the genre approach developed by swales (1990). there are differences in the approaches towards abstracting by esp researchers and information professionals. the perspectives of the two disciplines however are not mutually exclusive (chan & foo, 2004). a different, though predominantly linguistic point of view can be found in a number of short online guides on abstracting usually prepared for university students in the united states of america. these guides are presented by writing centres or similar institutions associated with the departments of english and often address abstracting from an esl perspective and usually treat abstracting as a practical writing issue. writings from all perspectives can be useful for those who are interested in abstracting, even though the terms used in some of the guides and technical writing sources reflect that the terminology in this field lacks of regulation and consequent usage. the examples of this are when the terms “abstract” and “summary” are used as synonyms or when indicative abstracts are called “descriptive”. there is no place however to discuss these issues in detail. the problem nonetheless exists (koltay, 1997). the approaches of information professionals do not necessarily exclude linguistic study. the reason of this lies in the nature of library and information science (lis) which is the underlying discipline that supports the work of information professionals. lis is heavily interdisciplinary (saracevic, 1999). it is a professional domain that draws on many kinds of knowledge, among others language and communication skills (hjørland, 2000). this is not by accident. many activities of information professionals result in linguistic artefacts (bade, 2007). the reason for this is that library and other information processing uses knowledge in the form of predominantly (although not exclusively) verbal texts. texts are not only subject to analysis, but they are the source of those intellectual tools that are used in library work. text undergoes not only analysis but in most cases the final goal of library activities is generating texts (horváth, 1999). 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(1999). “a könyvtártudomány és információtudomány alapjai” in t. horváth & i. papp (ed.), könyvtárosok kézikönyve, 18-75. budapest: osiris. jones, d. (1996). critical thinking in an online world. url: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/untangle/ jones.html [21/04/08] knott, d. (2008). critical reading towards critical 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 152 tibor koltay is professor and head of department at the department of information and library studies at szent istván university, faculty of applied and professional arts, jászberény, and also teaches at the department of library and information science, university of west hungary, szombathely, both in hungary. he teaches, among others, research methods and abstracting. information literacy and abstracting ibérica 19 (2010): 141-154 153 writing. url: http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/images/ stories/documents/critical-reading.pdf [10/09/08] koltay, t. 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(2007). “information literacy 2.0”. signum 5: 6-12. 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 153 07 iberica 19.qxp 22/3/10 17:24 página 154 iberica 13 ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract tasting notes are professional texts used in different specialized contexts with the purpose of organizing the taster’s sensory perceptions into attributes. there have been multiple studies focusing on the linguistic features of tasting notes, from their rhetorical structure to their use of metaphors; however, they have never been analysed using a combination of different, but complementary, linguistic perspectives, genre, and register. our methodology, by employing these approaches, will outline comprehensively their features. in this paper, we analyse the genre and register features of tasting notes in two different specialized languages using a corpus to find out whether there is a disciplinary variation or not. additionally, we will describe, classify, and contrast the way information is organized at different levels of analysis. our results will be useful for scholars of genre, register and discourse studies, and for experts and technical writers in the olive oil and wine sectors. key words: lsp genre, register, rhetoric, terminology, phraseology, corpus linguistics. resumen estudio del discurso de la cata en un corpus de fichas de cata de aceite de oliva y vino las fichas de cata son textos profesionales que se usan en diferentes contextos especializados con el propósito de organizar las percepciones sensoriales del catador en atributos. existen múltiples estudios que analizan aspectos lingüísticos de las fichas de cata, desde la estructura retórica hasta el uso de metáforas en ellas; sin embargo, no hay estudios que hayan combinado perspectivas diferentes, aunque complementarias, como son las del género y el registro. en el presente artículo, analizamos los rasgos de género y registro en un tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso university of valladolid (spain) mariabelen.lopez@uva.es, lucia.sanz.valdivieso@uva.es 205 ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso corpus de fichas de cata con dos lenguajes especializados, el del vino y el del aceite, con el fin de descubrir si presentan variación disciplinar. además, describiremos, clasificaremos y compararemos la forma en que se organiza la información de las fichas de cata en diferentes niveles de análisis. nuestros resultados serán de utilidad para lingüistas centrados en estudios discursivos y de registro, expertos en los campos objeto de estudio y escritores técnicos. palabras clave: género especializado, registro, retórica, terminología, fraseología, lingüística del corpus. 1. introduction tasting notes (tns1) are professional texts used in the wine and olive oil sector with the purpose of organizing the sensory perceptions for each product into attributes (diederich, 2015: 36). they are short standardized texts in which products are described, evaluated and often rated along a scale to record the different organoleptic features or components of wine or olive oil. tns can be analysed by focusing on different linguistic perspectives in order to comprehensively describe their features, from the point of view of both the register and the genre to which they belong. as biber and conrad (2019: 76) suggest, both perspectives are complementary since, “although the register and genre perspectives analyze different types of language features, it is often useful to add an analysis of genre features when undertaking a register analysis, in order to describe the text variety more fully.” even though wine tasting notes (wtns) have been extensively analysed and studied from different points of view (caballero, 2007, 2017; lópez-arroyo & roberts, 2014, 2016; paradis, 2010; suárez toste, 2017, among others), none of them have approached these texts using both register and genre analysis. at the same time, tasting notes are also used in other specialized contexts, such as the olive oil sector, but few studies exist on the description of olive oil tasting notes (otns) apart from some lexical and lexicographic analyses of language use (montoro del arco, 2012; roldán vendrell & fernández domínguez, 2012; montoro del arco & roldán vendrell, 2013a, 2013b; roldán vendrell 2007, 2010, 2013a, 2013b; santa maría, 2013). we are unaware of any studies that combine register and genre analysis in tns or explore these factors regarding wine and olive oil tasting notes. in this paper, we will thus compare wtns and otns to see whether there is 206 variation (parodi, 2013) or a significant number of similarities between the tns in these two different specialized professional discourses. our hypothesis is that the structure of the tns does not vary from one context to the other. particularly, we aim to: 1. describe to what extent wtns and otns share the same register. 2. analyse if they have the same function and are linked to the same type of discourse community. 3. contrast and set up the macro and micro linguistic features they share, i.e., beyond rhetorical structures. the best method to test our hypothesis seems to be the corpus linguistics approach since we need to look for regularities. first, we will describe the genre of tns. second, we will focus on their register, namely their situational context, linguistic features, and functional relationships between such aspects (biber & conrad, 2019: 6) as they are found in a monolingual english corpus. finally, we will contrast the results of the analysis of each corpus of tns to highlight their similarities and differences. this twopronged approach will provide a comprehensive view of these specialized languages. specifically, it will shed light on how communication is established in these specialized contexts and how the relationships between them are evidenced by them sharing features of genre and register. 2. the genre perspective the term ‘genre’ has been defined in a variety of ways, always connoting sameness in kind, type or form and function (swales, 1990, 2002, among others). this term has been broadly used to refer to “language use in a conventionalized communicative setting in order to give expression to a specific set of communicative goals of a disciplinary or social institution, which give rise to stable structural forms by imposing constraints on the use of lexico-grammatical as well as discoursal resources” (bhatia, 2004: 23). analysing genre implies focusing “on the linguistic characteristics that are used to structure complete texts” which occurs mainly once in a text and serves a crucial role in how texts from a particular variety are constructed (biber & conrad, 2019: 15-16). several scholars (bhatia, 1993; da cunha & montané, 2019; parodi, 2010) tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 207 have noted that, even though certain genres can be viewed as belonging to specific specialized languages, such as recipes for the culinary domain or laws for the legal domain, other genres—including research papers, abstracts, reports, formal letters, or theses—are crosscutting, extending beyond one specialized context and remaining largely unchanged across disciplines. accordingly, when a genre appears in more than one specialized context it is expected that there will be similar rhetorical structures, such as: the rhetorical organization of the genre, and the frequency of occurrence of moves and steps. however, as parodi (2013) notes, few studies have undertaken such an analysis. in his article, he seeks to compare the frequency of occurrence of macro-moves, moves and steps in a corpus of university textbooks from four disciplines. the main findings of his study show that there are differences in the occurrence of some discourse moves and steps across the selected texts. he therefore concludes that disciplinarity plays a major role in the knowledge construction process and, consequently, in the way in which organizational discourse patterns are detected. 2.1. the genre of tasting notes professional discourses have their own specific characteristics that constrain their use and interpretation (bhatia, 2008: 163). in this sense, tns are considered to be professional genres that reproduce the tasting event in a textual form; writers need to describe what a wine or olive oil looks, smells, tastes, and feels like as faithfully as possible, while, simultaneously, writing in a way that may be understood by the genre’s growing readership (caballero, 2017: 69). in this sense, tns2 are typically organized into three different sections (moves, according to esp approaches) which correspond to the three steps in any tasting procedure: “the assessment of wine’s colour, its smell (metonymically referred to as its ‘nose’), and its mouth-feel (a stage that involves smell, taste, and touch, which is metonymically referred to as the wine’s ‘palate’, and may be ‘de-composed’ into several stages)” (caballero, 2017: 69). 3. the register perspective register, characterized as the “expression-plane” of genre (martin, 1985, as cited in heid, 1994: 501), is more concerned with typical linguistic choices within different genres. furthermore, it functionally connects those features belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234208 to the situational context of the variety; the choices are then seen as resulting from the contextual variables of topics/actions of language, participants/relationships, and textual organization (biber & conrad, 2019: 22). because the focus is on words and grammatical features that are frequent, register analysis is pervasive. a situation analysis of wine and olive oil tasting notes3 points to three discourse communities among tns writers: the professional taster, the amateur4, and the journalist and/or critic writing for the readers of specialized magazines (peynaud, 1987). peynaud discusses several ways of talking about the taste of wine depending on the circumstances, training and the taster’s state of mind (1987: 163): • experts seek to express themselves with clarity and precision above all else. their style is strict and economical but the comments they make are reasoned. the experts’ conciseness is not due to a lack of imagination, but stems from choosing the most precise words, and in their reports they only use those terms with an accepted and agreedupon meaning within their specialized context. in spite of their skills, their language should be simple and intelligible to all. • the two other discourse communities, the critic, “[t]he more occasional taster”, and “the informed amateur” do not always express themselves precisely. their vocabulary is more limited, their style full of imagery but has less accuracy. they speak in metaphors and allusions, and not always in good taste. the inventiveness of their vocabulary conceals its vagueness. a comparison of the three different types of tns reveals differences (see lópez-arroyo & roberts, 2016) in the knowledge the participants share on the topic, the social role they play, and the communicative goal. therefore, it seems obvious that such a variety of writers would produce different types of tns, especially in terms of their micro and macro linguistic features. in this sense, and as ishizaki and kaufer (2012: 276) state, “the micro (surface) linguistic choices of a text contribute to the textual overall features”; hence, if the different type of tns writers use different language resources where different communicative goals may be assumed, and differences in the overall organization of the genre may be found out. in this sense, lópez-arroyo & roberts (2016: 373) argue that wtns written by authors with different profiles show macro and micro linguistic tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 209 differences. however, all three groups face the same problem: to understand the meaning of and express, in words, the subjective sensations of smell and flavour evoked when tasting wine or olive oil. in a previous study, sanz-valdivieso & lópez arroyo (2020: 31) found the same three profiles in otns. that means that specialized languages of wine and olive oil tasting notes share the same genre, regardless of author-type. however, to what extent do they share register features? to answer this, this paper will define the linguistic features of the tns in these two specialized languages in order to be able to compare them and prove our hypothesis. 3.1. register analysis of tns the linguistic analysis of a register is based on register features from all linguistic levels: words, grammatical characteristics or syntactic constructions that are: “(1) pervasive (distributed throughout a text from the register), and (2) frequent (occurring more commonly in the target register than in most comparison registers)” (biber & conrad, 2019: 54) in a text variety and that are associated functionally with a given situational context in order to identify the language features that are typical or characteristic of the target register. a basic concern, therefore, is how to determine whether a linguistic feature is “typical” in a given register. biber and conrad (2019: 52) describe what they call “three major methodological considerations” to determine typicality: (1) the need for a comparative approach; (2) the need for quantitative analysis; and (3) the need for a representative sample of texts. one approach to studying register is to focus on a particular aspect of language use and compare it across registers. 4. genre and register analysis in wine and oil tasting notes in this paper, we will compare and analyse one of the essential keys to the study of specialized languages: phraseological units (pus). pus are word combinations or multiword units—lexical collocations involving verbs, nouns, adjectives such as verb + noun, adjective + noun, noun + verb, etc.—used in specialized discourse (l’homme, 1995: 143). since it is difficult to agree on a suitable definition of these units, as they cover different realities for different linguists, we will not be engaging with this because it is beyond the belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234210 scope of this paper. we understand that pus is an umbrella term that covers a range of subtypes ranging from idioms and compounds that present a high degree of semantic and syntactic fixedness and are institutionalized to collocations and other units identified as lexical bundles, colligations, etc., which present some degree of lexical restriction but little fixedness and are not usually institutionalized (lópez arroyo & moreno-pérez, 2019: 36). the flexibility of this concept provides ample opportunity for the study of phraseology of the wine and olive oil tasting specialized languages. by analysing pus in wine and oil tns, we will cover different register features varying from lexis to grammar and syntax. lópez-arroyo & moreno-pérez (2019) describe the form and function of pus, which they call lexical chunks, in wtns and distinguish between five different categories based on recurrent patterns on the grammatical, textual, functional and collocational level: text organizing patterns, grammatical patterns, term forming patterns, term embedded collocations, and lexical collocations. it can be deduced that in that previous paper, it was not distinguished between genre and register features nor were they associated with the functional or situational context in which the tns were produced and one of the purposes of the present paper is to cover that gap. in this paper we will examine some genre features, as repetitive structures prescribed in writing tns—text organizing patterns. additionally, we will also describe register features at a: 1. grammatical and syntactical level: recurrent grammatical structures, e.g., passive voice. 2. lexical level: term-embedding collocations, which are verb-based structures that denote “what one can typically do with (or to) the object denoted by the base noun” (martin, 1985 as cited in heid, 1994: 238), such as to coat the mouth or to linger on the finish; term-forming patterns or multi-word terms, which are described as “collocates of a generic term” that add a higher degree of specificity, such as full body or zippy acidity; and lexical collocations, which are routine formulae that are not constructed around terms identified thorough recurrence, such as in the aftertaste or with hints of. tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 211 5. materials 5.1. corpus and corpus design as biber and conrad (2019) suggest (see section 3.1 above), the best way to describe linguistic features is through a representative sample of texts; in other words, a corpus. corpora are known to be valuable resources to carry out quantitative and qualitative analyses of real utterances of a language in the context in which they are produced. since there were no pre-existing corpora for this study’s chosen genre and specialized languages, we built an ad hoc domain-specific monolingual corpus (corpas & seghiri, 2009: 78). that is to say, a representative, reliable compilation (seghiri, 2015: 142) of wtns and otns originally written in english. another criterion considered when designing this corpus was to include samples from the different communicative situations in which tns are produced, that is to say, by the different types of writers described above (see section 3). texts written by amateur tasters were taken from blogs in which enthusiasts, newbies, influencers, and general consumers exchange their opinions about wine or olive oil. specifically, we took these texts from, for instance, olive oil online forum, wine spectator, and wine follies; the writers of the samples in this sub-corpus will be referred to as bloggers. texts written by wineries or olive oil press companies were taken from the websites registered to official and institutional wine and olive oil webpages such as the california olive oil council or vintners quality alliance (vqa) of ontario, just to name a few examples. this type of writer will be referred to as “producers”. finally, tasting notes written by critics were taken from international contests or reputable critics like the wine advocate, published by robert parker. our sub-corpora (see table 1 below) consist of 620 olive oil and 251 wine tns. the difference in the number of samples is due to their length, wherein olive oil tns are much shorter than wine tns. our aim was to design a balanced corpus regarding both the number of tokens (21,105 and 19,899 respectively) and, particularly, the number of samples by each type of writer. belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234212 table 1: size of otn and wtn corpora. it was important to assess whether the a priori design criteria had been effective as to achieve representativeness—a notion that still remains controversial among corpus linguistics experts (flowerdew 2004: 18). to do this, two tests were performed: the first consisted of two statistical and sampling formulae, allowing us to verify the quantitative representativeness of our corpus according to the quantity of samples and tokens in each one—the confidence interval (ci) of the mean and the standard error of the mean (sex ̄) our otns sub-corpus’ ci was calculated through the formula x±z s/√n, where x ̄ is the mean (33.47191011236 in our corpus); z is a value from 80% to 99.9%; chosen to calculate the desired value; s is the standard deviation according to the variable of text-length (18.391563599078 in our corpus); and n is the number of observations (620 samples). the resulting number was 33.47±2.43 for a 99.9% ci, from where it can be calculated that the standard error of the mean (sex ̄) equals to 0.737 in our otns sub-corpus. in the case of the wtns sub-corpus, x ̄=80.776892430279, z is chosen to be 99.9%, s=35.178033258049 and n=251, in which case ci=80.776892430279 ±7.306 and sex ̄= 2.220. these results can be interpreted in sample sizing as showing the corpus to be highly representative in quantitative terms. in fact, biber (1993: 248) states that “the smaller this interval is the more confidence a researcher can have that she is accurately representing the population mean.” secondly, in order to ensure the quantitative representativeness of our tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 213 corpora size otns corpus wtns corpus type of writer samples types tokens type of writer samples types tokens producers 250 1,223 8,933 producers 90 1,414 7,056 critics 230 720 9,779 critics 90 1,754 7,487 bloggers 140 559 2,322 bloggers 71 1,282 5,356 total 620 1,726 21,105 total 251 3,097 19,899 2 -2 t s corpus we used recor, a software developed by corpas et al. (2007) which performs an n-cor algorithm-based quantitative analysis, using the type/token ratio to determine the representativeness of the corpus in terms of its size and lexical density (seghiri, 2016: 386). the application generated two graphs5: • graph a shows the number of files on the horizontal axis, and the types/token ratio on the vertical one. it shows how many texts are needed for a corpus to be representative. • graph b displays the number of tokens on the horizontal axis. this graph can be used to determine the total number of tokens that are needed for the minimum size of a collection. both graphs show an exponential decrease as the number of texts selected increases (seghiri, 2015: 127). the corpus is determined to be representative at the point where the red and blue lines stabilize. it is here that we can observe the number of texts to include (corpas & seghiri, 2009: 127-128). according to our analysis using recor, our corpus starts to be representative when there are 390 otns notes totalling approximately 12,500 tokens, and at 130 wtns totalling 11,300 tokens. 5.2. corpus annotation figure 1: otns representativeness graph output by recor. belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234214 ! 2 2 ! figure 2: wtns representativeness graph output by recor tagging and labelling a corpus implies adding its respective linguistic and extralinguistic information so that queries and data retrieval can be carried out quickly and accurately, otherwise the process “would be almost unimaginable” (mcenery & hardie, 2012: 27-31). when labelling the samples, we followed the basic criteria by adding extralinguistic information so that they could be easily identified (see example 1 below). (1) “0108_ot_pr_opr_mz_18_en” where 108 is the id number; ot is the genre, in this case olive oil tasting note; pr the (producers) sub-corpus; opr the writer (california-based mill the olive oil press); mz the type of olive variety (manzanilla); 18 the year of publication (2018); and en (english) the language. we also tagged our samples grammatically, using a part of speech (pos) tagger designed for our purposes by the actres (análisis contrastivo y traducción english-spanish/contrastive analysis and translation englishspanish) team. 6. methodology and results 6.1. genre perspective: methodology and results all the texts contained in the corpus were tagged using pertinent rhetorical labels (moves and steps, according to swales, 1990, 2002) to allow for a more in-depth analysis. according to swales, a move is “a discoursal or rhetorical tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 215 6 & unit that performs a coherent communicative function in a written or spoken discourse” (2002: 228-229); a step is a division of a move. move analysis is a cognitive task which cannot be automatized. first, the “big picture” needs to be established by determining the overarching rhetorical purpose of the work. second, the functionality of each section of the sample should be examined to determine its local purpose (biber et al., 2007: 33). to describe this big picture, we identified the basic functional-semantic purposes of the tasting notes and grouped them together to reflect the moves and steps within each move (2007: 33). we took the three main sections—colour, smell, and mouthfeel (see section 2.1 above)—of the tasting process and their function in the text as a starting point of our analysis (caballero, 2017: 69). at this point, we referred to previous rhetorical studies on otns (sanzvaldivieso & lópez-arroyo, 2020) and wtns (lópez-arroyo & roberts, 2014), where a rhetorical structure was identified for the tasting notes in both contexts. these structures were checked against our corpora and helped us narrow down the information sections we intended to identify; thereby, making it easier to create additional tags for steps of each move. this analysis was performed for both tns and the different types of writers (see table 2 below). however, some moves and steps occurred more frequently than others (lópez-arroyo & roberts, 2014) and, consequently, we decided to apply suter’s distinction (1993) of obligatory and optional information. suter (1993: 119) divides these types of information, based on the frequency of semantic units, into five categories: obligatory information (80-100%); high priority optional information (60-80%); medium priority optional information (40-60%); low priority optional information (20-40%); and occasional information (20% or less). below, table 2 shows the rhetorical structure. the moves are marked one, two, three, etc., the steps are identified as a, b, c, etc., and compulsory and high priority moves are in bold. steps which are compulsory and high priority, given that the move they belong to occurs in a tn, are underlined. percentages were calculated after quantifying all items referring to each move and step, as in the following rhetorically tagged otn: [it is a strong and robust oil <intensity>] [that is characterized by a soft green entry <entry>], [aromas of freshly cut grass <aroma>], [slight bitterness <bitterness>] [and is mildly pungent <pungency>]. the tags from all the subcorpora were counted, aggregated, and normalized on a base of 100 to know the percentage of each move and step present in our samples. belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234216 table 2: wtn and otn rhetorical structure and distribution. 6.2. register perspective: methodology and results the rhetorical labelling of the texts also allowed us to identify keywords that are typical of the different moves and steps in tns as well as find the pus that are pervasive and frequent in the tasting register. in order to do this, we followed a method developed by thomas (1993: 47): “[o]ne way to determine the keyword or headword is […] to find which word takes ‘precedence’”. we looked for keywords, preferably nouns or verbs as headwords, because pus tend to occur under a headword previously defined as a term in a specialized subject field (l’homme, 1995: 239). we identified the candidate terms found in the corpus using the automatic term extractor termostat (drouin, 2010) which compares specialized corpora to a reference corpus of general language: half from the british national corpus and half from newspaper articles from the montréal daily newspaper la tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 217 otns wtns prod. critics blog. prod. critics blog. 1. colour 10.80% 13.47% 11.43% 24.44% 46.67% 54.90% a. hue, depth 92.59% 96.77% 93.75% 100% 100% 100% b. clarity 3.70% 64.52% 25.00% 50.00% 43.90% 21.43% c. density 14.81% 3.23% 25.00% 4.55% 19.51% 0% 2. aroma 47.60% 79.13% 44.29% 71.00% 55.56% 73.24% a. aroma 89.08% 93.96% 83.87% 100% 96.00% 100% b. intensity 17.65% 20.33% 29.03% 28.13% 28.00% 9.62% c. maturity 17.65% 15.38% 6.45% 34.38% 0% 0% 3. taste 99.20% 99.57% 100% 100% 100% 98.59% a. flavours 92.34% 94.76% 78.57% 98.89% 88.89% 95.71% b. finish 41.53% 32.75% 22.86% 61.11% 32.22% 48.57% c. pungency 56.45% 80.35% 34.29% 38.89% 45.56% 25.71% d. mouthfeel 29.03% 31.44% 30.00% 81.11% 78.89% 60.00% e. balance 32.26% 38.86% 15.00% 28.89% 13.33% 8.57% gazzette. the term extraction process starts by automatically adding pos tags to the corpus, upon which a filter is applied to “match different predefined syntactic matrices” such as noun + noun or adjective + noun. at the end of the process, the software allows for the retrieval of term candidates including data about their frequency, specificity, pos, concordance lines, etc. (drouin, 2010). the automatic output was examined manually to remove the noise6, allowing us to obtain a wordlist of terms found in the whole corpus with, at least, five occurrences in each corpus: 69 candidates were found in the otns out of which 54 are nouns and 15 are verbs and 91 candidates were found in the wtns, of which 58 are nouns and 33 are verbs. the next step consisted of examining our corpora with the aim of identifying the words, mainly nouns and adjectives, that collocate with these term candidates. to carry out this step we used lancsbox, a tool for monolingual corpus analysis focusing on concordancing and text analysis. this allowed us not only to identify lexical items that frequently collocate with a given noun or verb, but also to know how frequently that association happened, and at which point in the text it occurs. after these steps, 129 different pus were identified in the case of otns and 149 for wtns. see appendix 2 for a list of all pus common to both the otns and wtns subcorpora. below we include some examples of the pus found in both corpora (see section 4 above for a definition of the types of pus): term-embedding collocations: to display fruitiness and to open the nose (otns critics); to open with aromas (wtns producers). lexical collocations: in the aftertaste (otns critics); with hints of (otns producers, critics and bloggers, and wtns producers); on the nose (otns and wtns producers, critics and bloggers); a blend of (otns producers and critics, and wtns critics). term-forming patterns or multi-word terms seem to be the most prolific category in both corpora, with instances such as green fruit (otns producers); flavor profile (otns and wtns producers); bottle bouquet, lively entry and supple tannin (wtns producers). regarding grammatical features, we also found several recurring grammatical patterns in otns, which vary from irregular sentence structures to passive voice, the imperative or the simple present tense: belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234218 verbless phrases: delicate aromas and flavors of butter and pure olive fruit, with a zesty pepper finish (otns bloggers). passive voice: it is produced in late october; harvesting is performed by hand (otns producers). present simple verbal tense: it is spicy with hints of artichoke and has a medium-intense aroma with grassy tones; its aroma is clean and complex (otns producers). in wtns, the recurrent grammatical patterns are: passive voice: the entry is honeyed with ripe citrus (wtns producers). present simple tense of verbs: the wine is chewy on entry (wtns producers). imperative mode: savor and enjoy! (wtns producers). 7. discussion 7.1. genre perspective: discussion of results once the quantitative analysis was carried out, we started the functional interpretation of the results “from description to an account of why these patterns exist” (biber & conrad, 2019: 69) in order to determine linguistic similarities and differences in the genre and register in both tns and across the three different types of writers. table 3 shows the rhetorical choices reflected in our corpora, for both otns and wtns, and according to each type of writer: tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 219 table 3: otn and wtn move inclusion and preferred rhetorical combination. tns written by olive oil and wine producers have aroma and taste as compulsory moves and their preferred structures include either only taste, or both aroma and taste. perhaps this is due to their marketing strategy, which targets a particular audience so that the lay consumer understands the description of their products and is more likely to buy them. amateur writers’ (bloggers) preferred rhetorical structure differs between otns and wtns. in the case of olive oil, only taste or taste and aroma are included, while wtns combine at least aroma and taste, with the possibility of including all three main moves. olive oil critics include taste and aroma the most in otns, maybe because of their higher expertise on the subject. in the case of wtns, critics include taste as their only compulsory move, although they also mention colour and aroma to a fairly significant degree. in any case, the three writer profiles of both specialized languages seem to share the view that taste prevails over colour and aroma. colour is discussed the least in all cases. besides, taste and aroma are the most strongly associated moves in both otns and wtns, their combination being the most frequent in any writer profile. we then classified and contrasted the text-organizing patterns identified in each corpus, according to their form and function. these pus are the most surface-level manifestation of textual organization reflected above, but the different information units included in tns appear to be implicitly arranged belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234220 2 2 2 2 2 & t olive oil tasting notes wine tasting notes producers critics bloggers producers critics bloggers colour 10.80% 13.47% 11.43% 24.44% 46.67% 54.90% aroma 47.60% 79.13% 44.29% 71.00% 55.56% 73.24% taste 99.20% 99.57% 100% 100% 100% 98.59% a + c 7.20% 11.74% 6.43% 23.33% 31.11% 36.62% a + t 47.20% 78.70% 44.29% 71.11% 55.56% 71.83% c + t 9.60% 13.04% 11.43% 24.44% 46.67% 38.03% preferred t or a + t a + t t or a + t a + t a + c + t or t a + t or a + c + t according to each main move (colour, aroma, taste) by means of other types of pus and are not explicitly signalled by text-organizing patterns. both corpora show a similar usage of text-organizing patterns. producers use this resource the most in their texts, sharing the metonymical expressions (nose, palate) which also match the identified rhetorical structure (see table 2 above). there is one exception to these matches: tasting note appears a total of 46 times in the wtns corpus; however, all of these occur in tns written by robert parker (critics sub-corpus). thus, we may assume this cannot be taken as a feature of the genre, but rather as part of the individual style of that author. 7.2. register perspective: discussion of results next, we studied the pus according to the type of writer, their phrasal category (nominal phrase, prepositional phrase, verbal phrase) and the pos (part of speech) combinatorial pattern (adjective + noun, noun + preposition, etc.). the results enabled us to identify the function of those linguistic choices in relation to the situational context (see table 4 below): tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 221 table 4: otn and wtn distribution of pus per class and writer profile. the results show that the type/token ratio is different among classes of pus but similar in both specialized languages. term-forming patterns seem to be the class of pu most variedly and profusely used in both otns and wtns, followed by lexical collocations, and lastly term-embedding collocations. otn and wtn writers show the same tendency: all three writer profiles use term-forming patterns and lexical collocations rather than term-embedding collocations. the reason could be that tns are by design more contentoriented than action-oriented texts. in our corpus, verb-based pus (see otn a. below) do not seem to be the most useful resource for writers to describe and/or evaluate a product. instead, term-forming patterns (see otn b. below) are well suited to this purpose, given that they are collocates of generic terms. the purpose of these terms is usually to add specificity, which is a function that answers the communicative needs of the tasting belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234222 writer profile pu type term-embedding collocations lexical collocations term-forming patterns total ol ive oi l producers type7 9/21 42.86% 25/36 69.44% 53/72 73.61% 87 token 32/84 38.10% 214/649 32.97% 247/836 29.55% 493 critics type 14/21 66.67% 33/36 91.67% 53/72 73.61% 100 token 51/84 60.71% 376/649 57.94% 523/836 62.56% 950 bloggers type 1/21 4.76% 21/36 58.33% 31/72 43.06% 53 token 1/84 1.19% 59/649 9.09% 66/836 7.89% 126 total type 21/129 16.28% 36/129 27.91% 72/129 55.81% 129 token 84/1,569 5.35% 649/1,569 41.36% 836/1,569 53.28% 1,569 w ine producers type 11/20 55.00% 19/23 82.61% 81/106 76.42% 111 token 34/53 64.15% 106/237 44.73% 238/487 48.87% 378 critics type 4/20 20.00% 16/23 69.57% 50/106 47.17% 70 token 6/53 11.32% 66/237 27.85% 170/487 34.91% 242 bloggers type 9/20 45.00% 17/23 73.91% 35/106 33.02% 61 token 13/53 24.53% 65/237 27.43% 79/487 16.22% 157 total type 20/149 13.42% 23/149 15.44% 106/149 71.14% 149 token 53/777 6.82% 237/777 30.50% 487/777 62.68% 777 discourse community. as can be seen by comparing otns a. and b. below, the same sensory expressions related to the finish of the olive oil can be achieved by omitting the verb: a. a touch of ripe tomato and celery with a lingering pungent and bitter f i ni sh and hints of bitter almond. b. with a subtle nutty taste, this buttery oil f i ni sh e s w it h a pleasant bitterness. likewise, lexical collocations, as recurrent routine formulae, serve the purpose of connecting content across the text, given that they are not tied to any specific specialized context or rhetorical section of tns, as seen in wtn c. below: c. delicate and juicy sweet dessert wine w it h a h i nt o f sweet pears and mangos o n t h e f in i sh. these results match those found after we manually analysed all pus according to the phrasal category they belong to and to their pos combinatorial pattern. additionally, the phrasal categories of these pus coincide for both tns: the most common was the nominal phrase (np), followed by the prepositional (pp), and the verbal phrases (vp) as shown in table 5 below. tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 223 table 5: otn and wtn distribution of pus per phrasal category and writer profile. bloggers, in both specialized languages, do not use nps as frequently as the other type of writers. nevertheless, olive oil critics and wine producers use them more frequently than wine critics and olive oil producers. regarding pps, wtns show a slightly smaller variety of pus than otns. while olive oil producers use fewer pps than their critics, wine critics utilize a less varied pool of pps than wine producers. both olive oil and wine bloggers’ preferred phrasal category appears to be pps, both in variety and frequency of use, although wine amateurs use these phrases more than olive oil amateurs. vps are the least variedly employed category across the writers in both corpora; producers again use this category more than the other two profiles. on the other hand, regarding the pos combinatorial patterns, table 6 below shows those found in at least 5 different pus and whose frequency accounts for at least 10% of the patterns used by each writer profile in our corpora. belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234224 lópez arroyo & sanz-valdivieso writer profile phrasal category np pp vp total o liv e oi l producers type 64/86 74.41% 14/22 63.64% 9/21 42.86% 87 token 365/1,206 30.27% 96/279 34.41% 32/84 38.10% 493 critics type 66/86 76.74% 20/22 90.91% 14/21 66.67% 100 token 752/1,206 62.35% 147/279 52.69% 51/84 60.71% 950 bloggers type 39/86 45.35% 13/22 59.09% 1/21 4.76% 53 token 89/1,206 7.38% 36/279 12.90% 1/84 1.19% 126 total type 86/129 66.67% 22/129 17.05% 21/129 16.28% 129 token 1,206/1,569 76.68% 279/1,569 17.78% 84/1,569 5.35% 1,569 w in e producers type 89/116 76.72% 11/13 84.62% 11/20 55.00% 111 token 304/627 48.48% 40/97 41.24% 34/53 64.15% 378 critics type 59/116 50.86% 7/13 53.85% 4/20 20.00% 70 token 218/627 34.77% 18/97 18.56% 6/53 11.32% 242 bloggers type 43/116 37.07% 9/13 69.23% 9/20 45.00% 61 token 105/627 16.75% 39/97 40.21% 13/53 24.53% 157 total type 116/149 77.85% 13/149 8.72% 20/149 13.42% 149 token 627/777 80.69% 97/777 12.48% 53/777 6.82% 777 table 5: otn and wtn distribution of pus per phrasal category and writer profile. bloggers, in both specialized languages, do not use nps as frequently as the other type of writers. nevertheless, olive oil critics and wine producers use them more frequently than wine critics and olive oil producers. regarding pps, wtns show a slightly smaller variety of pus than otns. while olive oil producers use fewer pps than their critics, wine critics utilize a less varied pool of pps than wine producers. both olive oil and wine bloggers’ preferred phrasal category appears to be pps, both in variety and frequency of use, although wine amateurs use these phrases more than olive oil amateurs. vps are the least variedly employed category across the writers in both corpora; producers again use this category more than the other two profiles. table 6: otn and wtn distribution of most relevant pus per pos pattern and writer profile. there is a larger variety of patterns in otns than in wtns; adjective + noun (a+n) is the most common combinatorial pattern, as well as the more widely used, followed by the pattern noun + preposition (n+p) in terms of frequency of use, and by noun + noun (n+n) in terms of number of pus with that pattern. this logical preference for the structure a+n across different writer profiles and different types of pus confirms the results found by sanz-valdivieso & lópez-arroyo (2020) and by lópez-arroyo & tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 225 tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse on the other hand, regarding the pos combinatorial patterns, table 6 below shows those found in at least 5 different pus and whose frequency accounts for at least 10% of the patterns used by each writer profile in our corpora. pos pattern writer profile total producers critics bloggers type token type token type token type token a+n 41/87 47.13% 184/493 37.32% 41/100 41.00% 342/950 36.00% 26/53 49.06% 51/126 40.48% 57/129 44.19% 577/1,569 36.78% n+n 9/87 10.34% 46/493 9.33% 8/100 8.00% 109/950 11.47% 2/53 3.77% 7/126 5.56% 10/129 7.75% 162/1,569 10.33% v+p+n 3/87 3.45% 3/493 0.61% 7/100 7.00% 13/950 1.37% 0/53 0% 0/126 0% 10/129 7.75% 16/1,569 1.02% n+p 8/87 9.20% 99/493 20.08% 8/100 8.00% 207/950 21.79% 5/53 9.43% 19/126 15.08% 8/129 6.20% 325/1,569 20.71% p+d+n 4/87 4.60% 24/493 4.87% 6/100 6.00% 65/950 6.84% 4/53 7.55% 12/126 9.52% 6/129 4.65% 101/1,569 6.44% p+n 2/87 2.30% 5/493 1.01% 4/100 4.00% 8/950 0.84% 6/53 11.32% 11/126 8.73% 6/129 4.65% 24/1,569 1.53% p+n+p 5/87 5.75% 53/493 10.75% 5/100 5.00% 48/950 5.05% 2/53 3.77% 11/126 8.73% 5/129 3.88% 112/1,569 7.14% producers critics bloggers a+n 62/111 55.86% 176/378 46.56% 38/70 54.29% 142/242 58.68% 28/61 45.90% 66/157 42.04% 82/149 55.03% 384/777 49.42% n+n 19/111 17.12% 57/378 15.08% 12/70 17.14% 28/242 11.57% 6/61 9.84% 11/157 7.01% 22/149 14.77% 96/777 12.36% v+p+n 5/111 4.50% 12/378 3.17% 3/70 4.29% 4/242 1.65% 6/61 9.84% 8/157 5.10% 13/149 8.72% 24/777 3.09% n+p 6/111 5.41% 54/378 15.08% 6/70 8.57% 28/242 11.57% 5/61 8.20% 22/157 14.01% 6/149 4.03% 104/777 13.38% p+d+n 5/111 4.50% 30/378 7.94% 4/70 5.71% 12/242 4.96% 5/61 8.20% 26/157 16.56% 6/149 4.03% 68/777 8.75% table 6: otn and wtn distribution of most relevant pus per pos pattern and writer profile. roberts (2016: 12): “wine tasting notes […] are intended to describe wines and the obvious way to do so is by adding descriptors to the key words for different aspects of wine”. finally, table 7 below shows the recurrent grammatical patterns analysed in both corpora and in the three sub-registers: table 7: otn and wtn distribution of most relevant grammatical patterns per writer profile. in the case of passive voice, present tense, and the imperative mode, we tried to obtain a mean per text; the numbers compared were calculated as follows: instances of passive voice/texts (i.e., 0.248 instances of the passive voice per text). in the case of verbless sentences, we examined tns not only to calculate the mean for verbless sentences per text, but also to obtain information about whether each text was made up of any, some, or all verbless sentences, i.e., the number of tns containing no verbless sentences/total number of tasting notes, for example. producers use the passive voice and the present tenses more often than the critics, and critics employ these more regularly than amateur writers. this belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234226 lópez arroyo & sanz-valdivieso there is a larger variety of patterns in otns than in wtns; adjective + noun (a+n) is the most common combinatorial pattern, as well as the more widely used, followed by the pattern noun + preposition (n+p) in terms of frequency of use, and by noun + noun (n+n) in terms of number of pus with that pattern. this logical preference for the structure a+n across different writer profiles and different types of pus confirms the results found by sanz-valdivieso & lópezarroyo (2020) and by lópez-arroyo & roberts (2016: 12): “wine tasting notes […] are intended to describe wines and the obvious way to do so is by adding descriptors to the key words for different aspects of wine”. finally, table 7 below shows the recurrent grammatical patterns analysed in both corpora and in the three sub-registers: writer profile total producers critics bloggers olive oil wine olive oil wine olive oil wine olive oil wine passive voice 62/250 0.248 47/90 0.522 42/230 0.183 48/90 0.533 15/140 0.107 40/71 0.563 119/620 0.192 135/251 0.538 present tense 490/250 1.960 308/90 3.422 356/230 1.548 273/90 3.033 123/140 0.879 193/71 2.718 969/620 1.123 774/251 3.084 imperative mode 3/250 0.012 18/90 0.200 0/230 0.000 8/90 0.089 0/140 0.000 2/71 0.028 3/620 0.005 28/251 0.112 ve rb le ss s en te nc es tns with verbless sentences 27/250 10.80% 9/90 10.00% 142/230 61.74% 8/90 8.89% 20/140 14.29% 20/71 28.17% 189/620 30.48% 37/251 14.74% tns with all verbless sentences 17/250 6.80% 1/90 1.11% 22/230 9.57% 0/90 0% 57/140 47.41% 4/71 5.63% 96/620 15.48% 5/251 1.99% tns with no verbless sentences 206/250 82.40% 80/90 88.89% 66/230 28.70% 82/90 91.11% 63/140 45.00% 47/71 66.20% 335/620 54.03% 209/251 83.27% table 7: otn and wtn distribution of most relevant grammatical patterns per writer profile. in the case of passive voice, present tense, and the imperative mode, we tried to obtain a mean per text; the numbers compared were calculated as follows: instances of passive voice/texts (i.e., 0.248 instances of the passive voice per text). in the case of verbless sentences, we examined tns not only to calculate the mean for verbless sentences per text, but also to obtain information about whether each seems logical, since the passive voice puts the focus on the object —olive oil, wine, and their qualities— and the present simple is the most obvious verbal tense for description and evaluation. however, these patterns can be found more recurrently, around twice as often, in wtns than in otns. results regarding the use of the imperative mode leave no doubt as to whether it is a characteristic grammatical pattern in wtns, although not otns. perhaps this is because wine requires more specific consumption practices and dates than olive oil in terms of temperature, pouring, conservation, etc. only tns written by olive oil critics include some verbless sentences—more than half of their texts. the second most common case is texts containing at least one verbless sentence. as for tns made up entirely of verbless sentences, there is a considerable difference: wtns rarely include verbless sentences; notably those written by wine critics do not include any at all. as noted, this is in sharp contrast to olive oil critics. however, the rest of the writer profiles show similar tendencies. this, coupled with the popularity of wine tasting in comparison to olive oil tasting, could be explained as otns writers seeking to make their texts accessible by employing such methods as grabbing the reader’s attention, emphasizing certain elements, and/or enlivening the text by using an informal or conversational style (lópezarroyo & roberts. 2015: 166). in any case, these results are in line with those found in the analysis of pus above: verbs appear in wtns to a greater extent than in otns. 8. conclusions this study of olive oil and wine tasting notes has proven that certain specialized discourses share crucial genre and register features: 1. both have almost identical rhetorical structures in regards to moves and steps. text-organizing patterns seem to be restricted to producers’ tns, with writers generally organizing information implicitly, i.e., not using text-organizing patterns and simply sequencing information related to the different moves. although there are some variations across the writer profiles, both olive oil and wine tns share preferred rhetorical choices, meaning their texts show similar organizational patterns in their arrangement of the same information units. tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 227 2. both specialized languages share a register in which three distinct communicative goals can be identified. they are further characterized by a similar set of terms and pus although they are employed to different extents. all writers preferred term-forming patterns and lexical collocations when expressing content-based descriptions and evaluations, mostly in the form of nominal phrases made up of a+n. amateurs, however, seemed to prefer prepositional phrases and their overall use of pus is scarcer and more irregular than that of producers and critics. 3. producers and amateurs seem to behave similarly when writing tns. this may be due to the need for producers to reach as many consumers as possible, regardless of their expertise or experience in the specialized context of tasting, thus bringing their register closer to that of their target audience. 4. there are more differences among the different writers of otns than among wtns, which could point to the fact that the wine tasting discourse community is more homogeneous and less linguistically stratified than that of olive oil. perhaps this is due to the fact that wine tastings have a long history and have attracted participants from across the socio-economic spectrum resulting in more laypeople having the ability to access the specialized language of wine tasting. this, however, does not seem to be the case with olive oil tasting, which may be a consequence of the newness of tasting olive oil as a hobby outside of specialized and professional contexts. in future studies, it would be interesting to focus on other linguistic features complementary to phraseology in an effort to explore whether or not there is a shared nature in the tasting register and sub-registers. in any case, tns authors writing in english need to carefully consider their intended readership, not only because of the shared features of olive oil and wine tasting specialized languages, but also due to the different writer profiles, to ensure that their texts match the expectations of the target discourse community and are accepted as part of the genre of tasting notes. article history: received 9 february 2022 received in revised form 13 april 2022 accepted 23 april 2022 belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234228 references tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 229 bhatia, v. k. 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(2004). the argument for using english specialised corpora to understand academic and professional language. in u. connor & t. a. upton (eds.) discourse in the professions: perspectives from corpus linguistics (pp. 11-13). john benjamins. heid, u. (1994). on ways words work together topics in lexical combinatorics. in w. martin, w. meijs, m. moerland, e. ten pas, p. van sterkenburg & p. vossen (eds.), euralex’94 proceedings (pp. 226-257). vrije universiteit amsterdam. isizhaki, s. & kaufer, d. (2012). computer aided rhetorical analysis. in p. mccarthy & d. boonthum (eds.). applied natural language processing: identification, investigation and resolution. information science reference (pp. 275-295). hershey. l’homme, m. c. (1995). processing word combinations in existing term banks. terminology, 2(1), 141-162. <https://doi.org/10.1075/term. 2.1.08pro> lópez arroyo, b., & moreno pérez, l. (2019). lexical chunks in english and spanish sales contracts: a corpus based study. terminology, 25(1), 32-59. <https://doi.org/10.1075/term. 00027.lop> lópez arroyo, b., & roberts, r. p. (2014). english and spanish descriptors in wine tasting terminology. terminology, 20(1), 25-49. <https: //doi.org/10.1075/term.20.1.02lop> lópez arroyo, b., & roberts, r. p. (2015). unusual sentence structure in wine tasting notes: a contrastive corpus based study. languages in contrast, 15(2), 162-181. <https://doi.org/ 10.1075/lic.15.2.01lop> lópez arroyo, b., & roberts, r. p. (2016). differences in wine tasting notes in english and spanish. babel, 62(3), 370-401. <https://doi.org/ 10.1075/babel.62.3.02lop> mcenery, t., & hardie, a. (2012). corpus linguistics: method, theory & practice. cambridge university press. montoro del arco, e. t., & roldán vendrell, m. (2013a). las denominaciones del aceite de oliva en los reglamentos oficiales: evolución, normalización y problemas terminológicos. in c. sinner (ed.), comunicación y transmisión del saber entre lenguas y culturas (pp. 265-282). peniope. montoro del arco, e. t., & roldán vendrell, m. (2013b). terminología, normalización y comunicación: las categorías de aceite de oliva en español, inglés y chino. terminology, 19(1), 62-92. <https://doi.org/10.1075/term.19.1.03mon> montoro del arco, e. t. (2012). la fraseología especializada del área científica y socioeconómica del olivar y el aceite de oliva: entre la tradición y la modernidad. in a. pamies, j. m. pazos bretaña & l. luque nadal (eds.), phraseology and discourse: cross-cultural and corpus-based approaches (pp. 338-345). schneider verlag. belén lópez arroyo is an associate professor in esp at the university of valladolid (spain). she currently teaches esp and translation and corpus linguistics in the english studies degree. her research interests include terminology, contrastive analysis and translation. she is author of several articles and books related to contrastive analysis of scientific and professional genres and its implication for translation. in the actres team she is in charge of the rhetoric of expert-to-expert discourse (in different belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234230 muegge, u. (2012). 10 things you should know about automatic terminology extraction. the american translators association chronicle, 41(9), 24-28. paradis, c. (2010). touchdowns in winespeak: ontologies and construals in use and meaningmaking. in g. rambaud & a. poves luelmo (eds.), proceedings from the 1st conference on linguistic approaches to food and wine descriptions (pp. 112). uned. parodi, g. (2010). the rhetorical organization of the textbook genre across disciplines: a ‘colony-inloops’? discourse studies, 12(2), 195-222. <https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1461445609356500> parodi, g. (2013). genre organization in specialized discourse: disciplinary variation across university textbooks. discourse studies, 16(1), 6587. <https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1461445613496 355> peynaud, e. (1987). the taste of wine: art and science of wine appreciation. the wine appreciation guild. robinson, j. (2015). the oxford companion to wine. oxford university press. roldán vendrell, m. (2007). unidades de conocimiento especializado en textos del ámbito de la oleicultura antigua: aspectos sintagmáticos. in g. águila escobar, p. barros garcía & e. t montoro del arco (eds.), estudios lingüísticos, literarios e históricos. homenaje a juan martínez marín (pp. 327-336). universidad de granada. roldán vendrell, m. (2010). olivaterm: vocabulario multilingüe del aceite de oliva. in e. t. montoro del arco & j. a. moya corral (eds.), el español en contexto. actas de las xv jornadas sobre lengua española y su enseñanza (pp. 312319). universidad de granada. roldán vendrell, m. (2013). diccionario de términos del aceite de oliva. arco/libros. roldán vendrell, m., & fernández domínguez, j. (2012). emergent neologisms and lexical gaps in specialised languages. terminology, 18, 9-26. santa maría, s. (2013). the terminology of olive oil taste testing: a bilingual (spanish-english and english-spanish) glossary. translation journal, 17(2), 13-34. sanz valdivieso, l., & lópez arroyo, b. (2020). on describing olive oil tasting notes in english. fachsprache. journal of professional and scientific communication 42(1-2), 27-45. <https://doi.org/10.24989/fs.v42i1-2.1825> seghiri, m. (2015). determinación de la representatividad cuantitativa de un corpus ad hoc bilingüe (inglés-español) de manuales de instrucciones generales de lectores electrónicos. in m. t. sánchez nieto (ed.), corpus-based translation and interpreting studies: from description to application (pp. 125-146). frank & timme. seghiri, m. (2016). compilación de un corpus trilingüe de seguros turísticos (español-inglésitaliano): aspectos de evaluación, catalogación, diseño y representatividad. [doctoral dissertation, universidad de málaga]. riuma. <https://riuma. uma.es/xmlui/handle/10630/2715>. suárez toste, e. (2017). on the roles of metaphors and synesthesia in wine reviews. terminology, 23(1), 89-112. <https://doi.org/ 10.1075/term.23.1.04sua> suter, h. j. (1993). the wedding report: a prototypical approach to the study of traditional text types. john benjamins. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge university press. swales, j. (2002). research genres: exploration and applications. cambridge university press. thomas, p. (1993). choosing headwords from lsp collocations for entry into a terminology data bank. in h. b. sonneveld & k. l. loening (eds.), terminology. applications in interdisciplinary communication (pp. 43-68). john benjamins. areas) as well as of terminology and its applications for developing writing aids in english for spaniards. along with other members of the actres group she is the author of semi-automatic writing generators aids in the field of oenology. lucía sanz-valdivieso has a master’s in education and in advanced english studies. she is currently a phd candidate in the advanced english studies program and is a teaching assistant at the university of valladolid (spain). her research is devoted to the study of sensory language and the development of digital assisted-writing tools for specialized and professional communication. she has published some articles in the fields of specialized discourse in english and english-spanish contrastive analysis. notes 1 wtns and otns will be used to refer to wine and olive oil tasting notes respectively. 2 see appendix 1 for an illustration of the content and organization of typical otns and wtns, taken from our corpus. 3 for a complete description of the situational characteristics of register and genres, see biber & conrad, 2019: 40. 4 the term ‘amateur’ in wine tasting was introduced by robinson (2015) to describe laypeople or beginners in the world of wine. 5 recor software was developed by lexytrad, a lexicography and translation research group of the university of málaga, spain. the software is developed in spanish and therefore the legends in the graphs are available only in spanish. 6 invalid term candidates (muegge 2012: 24). 7 “type” and “token” are used in tables 4, 5 and 6 only in relation to pus, not to types and tokens in the whole corpus as described above. like this, two occurrences of long finish are accounted as one type (one form) and two tokens (two instances of use) in an effort to take into account both variety and quantity. tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 231 appendix 1: examples of otns and wtns by different writer profile olive oil producer tn (sample 0211_ot_pr_nap_ac_18_en from our corpus): this oil is a classic, stone fruit, ripe ascolano olive oil from california. it has a wonderful floral aroma and an intense peach-apricot-like taste with some nuttiness and butteriness too. it is very fresh, crisp, and zingy because of the green, herbaceous undertone qualities, which gives it a nice, teasing pungency. it is very fresh and the balance is perfect. wine critic tn (sample 0005_wt_cr_hab_re_98_en from our corpus): the dark garnet-colored 1961 haut-brion is pure perfection, with gloriously intense aromas of tobacco, cedar, chocolate, minerals, and sweet red and black fruits complemented by smoky wood. this has always been a prodigious effort (it was the debut vintage for jean delmas). it is extremely full-bodied, with layers of viscous, sweet fruit. this wine is akin to eating candy. consistently an astonishing wine! wine amateur tn (sample 0513_ot_bg_rus_bl_18_en from our corpus): quite a rich, golden colour, the nose is subtle and refined with notes of melon, lemon, thyme and pepper. the palate is full and almost creamy with a tangy grip on the finish. belén lópez arroyo & lucía sanz-valdivieso ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234232 appendix 2: pus present in both otn and wtn corpora tasting notes: a corpus-based study of olive oil and wine tasting discourse ibérica 43 (2022): 205-234 233 lópez arroyo & sanz-valdivieso appendix 2: pus present in both otn and wtn corpora text-organizing patterns nose palate term-embedding collocations to add complexity to open with aromas to open with scents lexical collocations aroma of with aromas of in color on the finish with hints of hints of a hint of with a hint of in the mouth on the nose in the nose notes of with notes of nuances of on the palate in taste in texture with a touch of a touch of term-forming patterns low acidity floral aroma fresh aroma intense aroma berry fruit full body aromatic nose floral notes clean finish spicy finish long finish rich finish fruit flavor ripe flavor tropical fruit exotic fruit citrus fruit red fruit stone fruit velvety texture rich texture iberica 13 ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-58 resumen en este artículo hemos llevado a cabo un análisis sociopragmático de una serie de variables relacionadas con la presencia de expresiones de alabanza en una muestra de 50 reseñas de libros publicadas en revistas médicas escritas en español en la década 1990-2000. las variables que hemos estudiado han sido las siguientes: 1) el libro reseñado (tipo de libro y lengua en la cual está escrito); 2) el autor del libro (autoría/editoría simple/múltiple); 3) el reseñador (identificación/afiliación institucional); y 4) la reseña en sí (frecuencia/ destinatarios de las expresiones de alabanza). los principales resultados obtenidos en nuestro estudio 1) reflejan el carácter social de la actividad científica en el campo de las ciencias de la salud; 2) son testigos de la función de lingua franca asumida por el inglés en la comunicación científica hoy en día; 3) indican que la presencia de expresiones de alabanza ponen de relieve el carácter esencialmente evaluativo de este género académico; 4) testimonian la profesionalización de la ciencia actual y la objetividad del reseñador a la hora de realizar su labor; 5) enfatizan la importancia del papel desempeñado en la interacción comunicativa entre sus diferentes participantes y áreas de participación (reseñador, autor, editor y posible lector de la obra reseñada, disciplina a la que pertenece la obra reseñada y revista en la que se publica la reseña); y 6) muestran que las expresiones de alabanza, en tanto que reflejo de las funciones ideacional e interpersonal del lenguaje en la formulación del significado evaluativo, se pueden utilizar como estrategias lingüístico-retóricas para establecer y mantener un marco de solidaridad y armonía dentro de la comunidad discursiva en la cual se producen. palabras clave: análisis de géneros, reseñas de libros, evaluación positiva, discurso médico español. las reseñas de libros médicos escritas en español: un estudio sociopragmático de las expresiones de alabanza maria ángeles alcaraz ariza universidad de alicante (spain) ariza@ua.es 37 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 37 abstract spanish-written medical book reviews: a socio-pragmatic study of expressions of praise the purpose of the present paper is to examine from a socio-pragmatic point of view a certain number of variables related to the presence of expressions of praise in a corpus of 50 book reviews published in spanish-written medical journals in the period 1990-2000. the variables we studied were: 1) the book reviewed (type of book and language in which it is written); 2) the book authorship (single/multi-authorship/editorship); 3) the book reviewer (identification/institutional affiliation); and 4) the book review itself (frequency/targets of the expressions of praise). main results achieved (i) reflect the social character of the scientific activity in the field of health sciences; (ii)) stress the function of english as the lingua franca of scientific communication; (iii) indicate that the presence of expressions of praise is a sign of the essentially evaluative character of this academic genre; (iv) emphasize the professionalization of the current science and the reviewer’s objectivity when carrying out their work; (v) highlight their important role in the communicative interaction among their different participants and areas of participation (book reviewer, author, editor and potential reader of the book reviewed, discipline to which the reviewed book belongs, and journal in which the book review is published); and (vi) show that expressions of praise, as a reflection of the ideational and interpersonal functions of language in the formulation of evaluative meaning, can be used as linguistic-rhetoric strategies to establish and maintain a frame of solidarity and harmony within the discourse community in which they are produced. key words: genre analysis, book reviews, positive evaluation, spanish medical discourse. introducción desde que en la década de los noventa el campo de la lingüística aplicada abordara el estudio de los géneros, muchos han sido los trabajos que han girado en torno a su análisis, tanto discursivo como retórico y léxicosintáctico. uno de los géneros académicos escritos investigados ha sido el de las reseñas (o recensiones) de libros que, además de ser indicadores significativos de la comunicación académica (lindholm-romantschuk, 1998), son una herramienta fundamental para estar al día de las nuevas publicaciones en las diferentes disciplinas (belcher, 1995). maria ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-5838 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 38 ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-58 las reseñas de libros médicos del estudio de este género, tanto desde distintas ópticas como en diferentes dominios, además de los autores ya citados, se han ocupado lingüistas como johnson y roen (1992), north (1992), motta-roth (1996 y 1998), hyland (2000), carvalho (2002), salager-meyer (2001), giannoni (2002), nicolaisen (2002a y 2002b) o stotesbury (2002). otros autores que también han abordado el análisis de las recensiones son gea valor (2000), burgess y fagan (2004), salager-meyer y alcaraz ariza (2004), shaw (2004), babaii (2005), salager-meyer et al. (2005, 2006, 2007a y 2007b), römer (2005), díaz galán y fumero lópez (2006), hartley (2006), navarro (2006), suárez tejerina (2006) y suárez y moreno (2008). ahora bien, todos estos estudios, excepto los realizados por el equipo de investigación coordinado por salagermeyer, se han centrado en entornos diferentes al médico, que es nuestro marco de trabajo. además, al abordar las reseñas escritas en español, hemos querido resaltar la creciente importancia de esta lengua, tanto en la comunicación internacional como en su categoría de idioma científico, lo que la ha convertido en objeto sistemático de análisis, no sólo desde un punto de vista estilístico general, sino también dentro del panorama de las lenguas para fines específicos (lfe). por otra parte, estas investigaciones también han puesto de relieve que, desde un punto de vista pragmático, las reseñas de libros deben considerarse como un acto amenazador de la imagen (brown y levinson, 1987), puesto que consisten primordialmente en opinar sobre la labor llevada a cabo por otras personas. asimismo, y basándonos en el punto de vista funcional del lenguaje de halliday (1985), estos estudios han demostrado que las recensiones cumplen dos funciones primarias: una ideacional, mediante la cual los reseñadores evalúan determinado libro, y otra interpersonal, que permite establecer una relación entre el reseñador y el autor del libro reseñado y que, según gea valor (2000), se materializa, por un lado, con las sugerencias que el reseñador propone para subsanar los posibles defectos observados y, por otro, con los esfuerzos que hace para intentar alcanzar un equilibrio entre las críticas negativas y positivas. ambos tipos de críticas, negativas y positivas, conforman la función evaluativa de las reseñas, que permite que sus autores valoren un texto por su calidad académica, su claridad y su aportación a una disciplina dada (hyland, 2000). y dentro de esta vertiente evaluativa, nos hemos decantado por el análisis de la evaluación positiva. 39 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 39 objetivos, muestra y metodología el presente trabajo se engloba dentro de un macroproyecto sobre el análisis del discurso médico escrito en español, francés e inglés. nuestro propósito en este estudio busca complementar una serie de trabajos anteriores sobre las evaluaciones negativas en la prosa médica española (alcaraz ariza y salagermeyer, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005a y 2005b), al abordar ahora las evaluaciones positivas encontradas en una serie de reseñas de libros publicadas en revistas médicas escritas en español. este objetivo principal se bifurca en los siguientes objetivos específicos: 1) un objetivo extralingüístico, que nos servirá para, por un lado, conocer el contexto en el que se insertan las evaluaciones positivas y, por otro, identificar los diferentes destinatarios de las evaluaciones positivas. 2) un objetivo lingüístico, que nos permitirá identificar los ejemplos de evaluación positiva. el material analizado en el presente trabajo se compone de 50 reseñas de libros publicadas en la década 1990-1999 en dos revistas médicas de referencia en español, medicina clínica y medicina intensiva. hemos elegido estas dos revistas por ser las más consultadas actualmente en la hemeroteca del hospital general universitario de alicante (alicante, españa), según nos informaron las dos bibliotecarias que prestan sus servicios en dicho organismo. nuestra selección de estas 50 reseñas ha sido la siguiente: 30 reseñas de la revista medicina clínica, y 20 reseñas de la revista medicina intensiva. el hecho de que nuestra muestra contenga un número menor de reseñas de la revista medicina intensiva se debe a que en el periodo analizado dicha revista contenía menos reseñas que medicina clínica. las 50 reseñas analizadas conforman un total de 30.049 palabras, lo que significa una media aproximada de 601 palabras por reseña. aunque siempre resulta difícil determinar el número adecuado de palabras para un estudio de esta naturaleza, creemos que la muestra examinada es lo bastante amplia como para alcanzar los objetivos que nos hemos propuesto en este estudio. el enfoque metodológico que hemos adoptado se ha basado en el análisis textual, y los resultados obtenidos se han interpretado desde una perspectiva sociopragmática. optamos por este marco analítico por considerar que para poder llegar a interpretaciones fiables, era necesario, por un lado, insertar nuestra unidad de estudio (las expresiones de alabanza) dentro de su contexto (las reseñas de libros), que son obra de un miembro (el reseñador) maria ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-5840 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 40 de una determinada comunidad discursiva (la comunidad médica española) y, por otro, recurrir también al contexto para identificar las expresiones de alabanza formuladas de manera implícita. por ello hemos desarrollado nuestra investigación en dos etapas. en la primera de ellas, hemos examinado las particularidades de las obras reseñadas y de los autores de las reseñas. la segunda etapa la hemos dedicado al estudio de las expresiones de alabanza propiamente dicho. más concretamente: primera etapa: características de las obras reseñadas: autoría del libro reseñado (simple/múltiple, editado/coeditado), tipo de obra reseñada (monografías, actas y memorias de congresos, manuales y tratados) y lengua en la cual están escritos los libros reseñados. datos sobre los autores de las reseñas. segunda etapa: identificación de expresiones de alabanza y contabilización de reseñas con expresiones de alabanza. identificación y contabilización de variantes y subvariantes en las expresiones de alabanza encontradas. en nuestra identificación de las expresiones de alabanza, hemos tenido en cuenta todas las proposiciones, independientemente de su configuración léxico-gramatical, con un significado semántico-pragmático positivo1. sirvan de muestra los ejemplos siguientes en los que figuran subrayadas las valoraciones positivas: (1) “esta afirmación se basa en la originalidad, en los planteamientos y el diseño del libro, junto a su rigor y sentido eminentemente práctico.” (2) “si además podemos leerlo en castellano …, ¿qué más se puede pedir?” (3) “este libro no sólo es útil para los médicos de cuidados intensivos y de áreas de reanimación posquirúrgica, sino para cualquier médico hospitalario que trate pacientes agudos, incluidos cirujanos, anestesiólogos, médicos de áreas de urgencia, etc.” en el ejemplo (1), al que le hemos asignado cinco valoraciones positivas, uno de los rasgos atribuidos al libro, su originalidad, es un sustantivo con un significado positivo explícito, al igual que lo tienen su rigor y sentido las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-58 41 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 41 práctico. sin embargo, el valor semántico asociado a sus planteamientos y diseño, dos términos en principio neutrales, se ha interpretado como positivo por tratarse de dos rasgos que justifican la originalidad de la obra reseñada, es decir, hemos acudido al cotexto anterior para identificar la referida positividad semántica. con respecto al ejemplo (2), la valoración positiva adscrita a la proposición “si además podemos leerlo en castellano...” se deriva de la oración posterior “¿qué más se puede pedir?”, lo que implica tener de nuevo en cuenta el cotexto, pero esta vez posterior y extra-oracional. en cuanto al ejemplo (3), consiste en una única expresión de alabanza, la utilidad del libro reseñado. con respecto al establecimiento de variantes y subvariantes en las expresiones de alabanza, nos hemos basado en los diferentes aspectos y subaspectos más evaluados en los libros reseñados. en este sentido, hemos utilizado una versión modificada de las taxonomías elaboradas por hyland (2000) y suárez tejerina (2006). la tabla 1 resume nuestra propuesta. variantes subvariantes así, los receptores generales identificados han sido “libro reseñado”, “autor del libro reseñado”, “editor de libro reseñado” y “otros aspectos”. dentro de la variante “libro reseñado”, hemos diferenciado su contenido de su forma. en su contenido se agrupan las observaciones positivas dirigidas a las siguientes subvariantes: “libro en su conjunto”, “partes del libro”, “capítulos”, “partes de capítulos”, “iconografía”, “bibliografía general” y “otras secciones”. en cuanto a la forma de libro reseñado, en ella se incluyen las valoraciones positivas recibidas por las subvariantes “lenguaje”, “edición” y “estructura”. las subvariantes incluidas en las variantes “autor maria ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-5842 las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 (2008): …-… 5 (3) “este libro no sólo es útil para los médicos de cuidados intensivos y de áreas de reanimación posquirúrgica, sino para cualquier médico hospitalario que trate pacientes agudos, incluidos cirujanos, anestesiólogos, médicos de áreas de urgencia, etc.” en el ejemplo (1), al que le hemos asignado cinco valoraciones positivas, uno de los rasgos atribuidos al libro, su originalidad, es un sustantivo con un significado positivo explícito, al igual que lo tienen su rigor y sentido práctico. sin embargo, el valor semántico asociado a sus planteamientos y diseño, dos términos en principio neutrales, se ha interpretado como positivo por tratarse de dos rasgos que justifican la originalidad de la obra reseñada, es decir, hemos acudido al cotexto anterior para identificar la referida positividad semántica. con respecto al ejemplo (2), la valoración positiva adscrita a la proposición “si además podemos leerlo en castellano...” se deriva de la oración posterior “¿qué más se puede pedir?”, lo que implica tener de nuevo en cuenta el cotexto, pero esta vez posterior y extra-oracional. en cuanto al ejemplo (3), consiste en una única expresión de alabanza, la utilidad del libro reseñado. con respecto al establecimiento de variantes y subvariantes en las expresiones de alabanza, nos hemos basado en los diferentes aspectos y subaspectos más evaluados en los libros reseñados. en este sentido, hemos utilizado una versión modificada de las taxonomías elaboradas por hyland (2000) y suárez tejerina (2006). la tabla 1 resume nuestra propuesta. variantes subvariantes “contenido del libro reseñado” “libro en su conjunto “partes del libro” “capítulos” “partes de capítulos” “iconografía” “bibliografía general” “otras secciones” “forma del libro reseñado” “lenguaje” “edición” “estructura” “autor/editor del libro reseñado” “prestigio” “labor realizada” “experiencia” “competencia” “otros aspectos” “ciencia médica” “otros estudios” tabla 1. variantes y subvariantes en las expresiones de alabanza. así, los receptores generales identificados han sido “libro reseñado”, “autor del libro reseñado”, “editor de libro reseñado” y “otros aspectos”. dentro de la variante “libro reseñado”, hemos diferenciado su contenido de su forma. en su contenido se agrupan las observaciones positivas dirigidas a las siguientes subvariantes: “libro en su conjunto”, “partes del libro”, “capítulos”, “partes de 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 42 del libro reseñado” y “editor del libro reseñado” son “prestigio”, “labor realizada” “experiencia” y “competencia”. la variante “otros aspectos”, por su parte, engloba las subvariantes “ciencia médica” y “otros estudios”. a continuación se ejemplifican las diversas subvariantes identificadas. (a) contenido de la variante “libro reseñado”: (a.1) subvariante “libro en su conjunto” (4) “este es un libro imprescindible para radiólogos, en especial para aquellos que están en período de formación.”2 (a.2) subvariante “partes del libro” (5) “destacaría por su claridad y rigor el apartado dedicado a la hipertensión arterial que complica la fase precoz del infarto cerebral.” (a.3) subvariante “capítulos” (6) “otro aspecto positivo lo constituyen los capítulos ¿qué es una fractura vertebral? escrito por nelson y kleerekoper además de la introducción a los métodos epidemiológicos, mencionada anteriormente y que me parecen originales y eminentemente prácticos.” (a.4) subvariante “partes de capítulos” (7) “cada capítulo se acompaña de abundantes citas bibliográficas.” (a.5) subvariante “iconografía” (8) “debemos felicitar al autor por las espectaculares imágenes ofrecidas.” (a.6) subvariante “bibliografía general” (9) “finalmente merece destacarse su amplia bibliografía, en la que se recogen las publicaciones de varios de nuestros autores.” (a.7) subvariante “otras secciones” (10) “completan la obra 2 apéndices, un amplio repertorio de notas bibliográficas y de campo, una extensa y selecta bibliografía así como un meticuloso índice onomástico y de materias.” (b) forma de la variante “libro reseñado”: (b.1) subvariantes “lenguaje”, “edición” y “estructura” las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-58 43 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 43 (11) “la redacción y la presentación del libro son correctas, si bien algunos capítulos utilizan términos difíciles, pero en todo caso adecuados para lo específico de algunos de los temas tratados.” (c) variantes “autor del libro reseñado” y “editor del libro reseñado”: (c.1) subvariante “prestigio” (12) “así, por sólo nombrar a algunos de ellos, tenemos a heaney en calcio y nutrición, wahner en densitometría, parfitt en el ciclo de remodelamiento óseo, mundy en las citocinas y remodelamiento, delmas y garnero en marcadores bioquímicos de remodelamiento óseo y reid en vitamina d, autores que se han convertido en “clásicos” en sus respectivos temas.” (c.2) subvariante “labor realizada” (13)“el presente manual constituye, en mi opinión, una de las ideas editoriales más felices que se ha aportado a la bibliografía médica española en los últimos años.” (c.3) subvariante “experiencia” (14) “la experiencia es necesaria para distinguir las variantes normales de las imágenes patológicas, por lo que se comprende fácilmente las ventajas de este libro, síntesis de la labor de un radiólogo con muchos años de práctica profesional y docente.” (c.4) subvariante “competencia” (15)“los 43 autores que colaboran en la redacción de los 21 capítulos del libro, entre los que figuran los dres. almendral, arenal y almendros del hospital gregorio marañón de madrid, que son de sobra conocidos por los interesados en la arritmología cardiaca, y algunos como breithardt, camm, coumel, kuck, lüderitz, siebel, steinbeck, touboul, wellens y el editor kappenberger, son verdaderos expertos en estos temas.” (d) variante “otros aspectos”: (d.1) subvariante “ciencia médica” (16) “el gran peso de la inmunología española tanto en el aspecto universitario, de investigación, como clínico, merecía una obra original y documentada realizada por nuestros inmunólogos.” maria ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-5844 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 44 (d.2) subvariante “otros estudios” (17) “a continuación se aborda el tema de las teorías holísticas de pierre flourens, hermann munk, friedrich leopold goltz y constantin von monakov, en franca oposición al localizacionismo, refrendadas por los primeros intentos de cartografía cerebral realizados por rudolf berlin, vladimir alexewitsch bets, carl hammarberg, alfred walter campbell y, sobre todo, korbinian brodmann, cuyos trabajos de 1909 todavía siguen vigentes en cuanto a la distribución topográfica de los lóbulos cerebrales.” resultados y discusión características de las obras reseñadas con respecto a la autoría de los libros reseñados, la tabla 2 refleja una menor presencia de libros de autor frente a más del doble de libros editados, lo que sería un indicio de que, al menos en el ámbito de las ciencias de la salud, la investigación 1) suele ser obra de varios autores; 2) podríamos hallarnos ante un fenómeno muy común en la ciencia actual, que consiste en inflar la lista de autores reales con “autores fantasma”, es decir, autores que no han participado en el trabajo, hecho que ha sido denunciado en algunas revistas de prestigio (mowatt et al., 2002, entre otros). en equipo también se hace, por lo general, el trabajo de los editores, puesto que los libros coeditados duplican a los libros con un solo editor. esta labor editorial conjunta se podría interpretar desde las siguientes perspectivas: 1) su propósito sería el de recopilar diferentes trabajos procedentes de autores diversos para facilitar la labor de búsqueda de investigadores interesados en un determinado tema, por lo que una labor de conjunto daría resultados más óptimos; 2) tal vez se trate de un libro, cuyos capítulos han sido escritos por diferentes colaboradores y cuya publicación ha sido coordinada por diversos autores convertidos en coeditores; 3) podríamos hallarnos ante la mencionada inflación, pero en este caso referida a coeditoría; 4) este fenómeno de coedición de libros científicos podría deberse a la presión actual, cada vez más fuerte, de “publicar o perecer” (publish or perish), ejercida por el mundo académico sobre los científicos en aras de su promoción. núm. de autores y editores por libro reseñado las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-58 45 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 45 según la tabla 3, las monografías3 son el tipo de libro más reseñado, muy por delante de los manuales y tratados. las actas y memorias de congresos apenas tienen representación en la muestra de estudio seleccionada (sólo tres ejemplares). varias son las conclusiones que se podrían extraer del predominio de las monografías, es decir, de libros que abordan un tema específico o se centran en una especialidad determinada y que son, generalmente, obras editadas o coeditadas: 1) por un lado, no es habitual que los editores encarguen reseñas de memorias y actas de congresos, pues en estos acontecimientos se suelen presentar los datos más relevantes de investigaciones (por el corto tiempo de presentación concedido), y el trabajo más detallado se reserva para su publicación en revistas; por otro lado, en los congresos es normal que se traten temas diferentes y es difícil que el recensor pueda opinar sobre todos ellos; 2) los manuales y tratados son usualmente de autoría simple y un medio menos ágil que las monografías para transmitir los continuos avances de la ciencia, ya que requieren más elaboración y, por tanto, un tiempo mayor para su redacción y también para su lectura; 3) este último punto estaría en consonancia con la mayor presencia de libros coeditados comentada a propósito de la tabla 2. tipo de libro núm. libros en cuanto al origen lingüístico de las obras reseñadas, en la tabla 4 se aprecia que, en su mayoría, están escritas en lengua inglesa. este hecho sería, por una parte, fiel reflejo de un fenómeno muy conocido y tratado en numerosos estudios, que no es otro que el de la supremacía de dicha lengua como transmisora de conocimientos en el ámbito de las ciencias de la salud y, por otra, de la internacionalización de la ciencia actual. sería, asimismo, testigo del dominio cada vez mayor de la lengua inglesa por parte de los científicos españoles, que no dudan en manejar y comentar obras escritas en inglés. por maria ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-5846 ibérica 16 (2008): …-…8 investigadores interesados en un determinado tema, por lo que una labor de conjunto daría resultados más óptimos; 2) tal vez se trate de un libro, cuyos capítulos han sido escritos por diferentes colaboradores y cuya publicación ha sido coordinada por diversos autores convertidos en coeditores; 3) podríamos hallarnos ante la mencionada inflación, pero en este caso referida a coeditoría; 4) este fenómeno de coedición de libros científicos podría deberse a la presión actual, cada vez más fuerte, de “publicar o perecer” (publish or perish), ejercida por el mundo académico sobre los científicos en aras de su promoción. núm. de autores y editores por libro reseñado un autor 12 un editor 10 más de un autor 04 más de un editor 24 total de libros 16 total de libros 34 tabla 2. autoría de los libros reseñados. según la tabla 3, las monografías3 son el tipo de libro más reseñado, muy por delante de los manuales y tratados. las actas y memorias de congresos apenas tienen representación en la muestra de estudio seleccionada (sólo tres ejemplares). varias son las conclusiones que se podrían extraer del predominio de las monografías, es decir, de libros que abordan un tema específico o se centran en una especialidad determinada y que son, generalmente, obras editadas o coeditadas: 1) por un lado, no es habitual que los editores encarguen reseñas de las reseñas de libros médicos memorias y actas de congresos, pues en estos acontecimientos se suelen presentar los datos más relevantes de investigaciones (por el corto tiempo de presentación concedido), y el trabajo más detallado se reserva para su publicación en revistas; por otro lado, en los congresos es normal que se traten temas diferentes y es difícil que el recensor pueda opinar sobre todos ellos; 2) los manuales y tratados son usualmente de autoría simple y un medio menos ágil que las monografías para transmitir los continuos avances de la ciencia, ya que requieren más elaboración y, por tanto, un tiempo mayor para su redacción y también para su lectura; 3) este último punto estaría en consonancia con la mayor presencia de libros coeditados comentado a propósito de la tabla 2. tipo de libro núm. libros monografías 34 manuales/tratados 13 actas/memorias de congresos 03 total de libros 50 tabla 3. tipo de libro reseñado. en cuanto al origen lingüístico de las obras reseñadas, en la tabla 4 se aprecia que, en su mayoría, están escritas en lengua inglesa. este hecho sería, por una parte, fiel reflejo de un fenómeno muy conocido y tratado en numerosos estudios, que no es otro que el de la supremacía de dicha lengua como transmisora de conocimientos en el ámbito de las ciencias de la salud y, por otra, de la internacionalización de la ciencia actual. sería, asimismo, testigo del dominio cada vez mayor de la lengua inglesa por parte de los científicos españoles, que no dudan en manejar y comentar obras escritas en inglés. por otra parte, digno de resaltar es que los manuales y tratados están todos ellos escritos en español, pues su traducción, al igual que su redacción, comentada en las tablas 2 y 3, requeriría más tiempo y su contenido podría quedar obsoleto. lengua núm. de libros inglés 29 español 13 traducción española del inglés 07 traducción inglesa del francés 01 total de libros 50 tabla 4. lengua de los libros reseñados. 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 46 otra parte, digno de resaltar es que los manuales y tratados están todos ellos escritos en español, pues su traducción, al igual que su redacción, comentada en las tablas 2 y 3, requeriría más tiempo y su contenido podría quedar obsoleto. lenguanúm. de libros datos sobre los autores de las reseñas con respecto a los autores de las reseñas, los datos correspondientes se indican en la tabla 5. de estos datos se pueden extraer las siguientes conclusiones: 1) una mayoría aplastante de reseñas efectuadas por un solo reseñador, prueba de que las reseñas se escriben en solitario frente a otros géneros como, por ejemplo, el artículo de investigación en el que, en el campo de las ciencias de la salud, suele primar la labor de equipo, como han puesto de relieve la tabla 2 (mayor presencia de libros coeditados) y la tabla 3 (supremacía de monografías) –en este sentido, la reseña se asemejaría a otros géneros como el editorial o el artículo de revisión aunque su valor académico no revista la misma importancia que estos dos últimos tipos de textos–; 2) una casi total identificación de los recensores y de su afiliación institucional; 3) una ausencia de estos datos en algunas reseñas, lo que pondría de relieve que en el periodo estudiado las dos revistas de las cuales hemos extraído nuestras reseñas carecían de normas editoriales establecidas a este respecto. las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-58 47 ibérica 16 (2008): …-… 9 actas/memorias de congresos 03 total de libros 50 tabla 3. tipo de libro reseñado. en cuanto al origen lingüístico de las obras reseñadas, en la tabla 4 se aprecia que, en su mayoría, están escritas en lengua inglesa. este hecho sería, por una parte, fiel reflejo de un fenómeno muy conocido y tratado en numerosos estudios, que no es otro que el de la supremacía de dicha lengua como transmisora de conocimientos en el ámbito de las ciencias de la salud y, por otra, de la internacionalización de la ciencia actual. sería, asimismo, testigo del dominio cada vez mayor de la lengua inglesa por parte de los científicos españoles, que no dudan en manejar y comentar obras escritas en inglés. por otra parte, digno de resaltar es que los manuales y tratados están todos ellos escritos en español, pues su traducción, al igual que su redacción, comentada en las tablas 2 y 3, requeriría más tiempo y su contenido podría quedar obsoleto. lengua núm. de libros inglés 29 español 13 traducción española del inglés 07 traducción inglesa del francés 01 total de libros 50 tabla 4. lengua de los libros reseñados. datos sobre los autores de las reseñas con respecto a los autores de las reseñas, los datos correspondientes se indican en la tabla 5. de estos datos se pueden extraer las siguientes conclusiones: 1) una mayoría aplastante de reseñas efectuadas por un solo reseñador, prueba de que las reseñas se escriben en solitario frente a otros géneros como, por ejemplo, el artículo de investigación en el que, en el campo de las ciencias de la salud, mª ángeles alcaraz ariza suele primar la labor de equipo, como han puesto de relieve la tabla 2 (mayor presencia de libros coeditados) y la tabla 3 (supremacía de monografías) –en este sentido, la reseña se asemejaría a otros géneros como el editorial o el artículo de revisión aunque su valor académico no revista la misma importancia que estos dos últimos tipos de textos–; 2) una casi total identificación de los recensores y de su afiliación institucional; 3) una ausencia de estos datos en algunas reseñas, lo que pondría de relieve que en el periodo estudiado las dos revistas de las cuales hemos extraído nuestras reseñas carecían de normas editoriales establecidas a este respecto. reseñadores por libro reseñado un reseñador 48 dos reseñadores 02 reseñadores claramente identificados [nombre completo/apellido(s)] 38 afiliación institucional de los reseñadores 41 tabla 5. datos sobre los autores de las reseñas. contabilización de reseñas con expresiones de alabanza por variante y subvariante tras leer detenidamente las 50 reseñas incluidas en la muestra estudiada, hemos observado que todas ellas contienen expresiones de alabanza. este dato, en cierta medida, no resulta sorprendente, ya que la reseña de un libro puede iniciarse de las formas siguientes: 1) el editor del libro le encarga el trabajo de revisión a un especialista o a un conocido para que evalúe el trabajo llevado a cabo por un miembro de su misma comunidad discursiva; 2) el autor del libro le pide a un colega de investigación o profesión que actúe de reseñador; 3) la revista que va a publicar la reseña considera que la obra es digna de ser reseñada y le encarga dicha reseña a un especialista de prestigio o a alguien que conoce y entiende 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 47 contabilización de reseñas con expresiones de alabanza por variante y subvariante tras leer detenidamente las 50 reseñas incluidas en la muestra estudiada, hemos observado que todas ellas contienen expresiones de alabanza. este dato, en cierta medida, no resulta sorprendente, ya que la reseña de un libro puede iniciarse de las formas siguientes: 1) el editor del libro le encarga el trabajo de revisión a un especialista o a un conocido para que evalúe el trabajo llevado a cabo por un miembro de su misma comunidad discursiva; 2) el autor del libro le pide a un colega de investigación o profesión que actúe de reseñador; 3) la revista que va a publicar la reseña considera que la obra es digna de ser reseñada y le encarga dicha reseña a un especialista de prestigio o a alguien que conoce y entiende como persona idónea para la tarea; 4) los editores de determinadas revistas envían por correo electrónico una lista de libros a posibles revisores y éstos seleccionan aquellos que quieren reseñar. una vez redactadas las reseñas, los recensores las pueden remitir a los editores por correo electrónico o colgarlas en la red para su posterior descarga mediante un programa de edición electrónico; 5) el revisor se ofrece por iniciativa propia para llevar a cabo el trabajo de recensión4. a no ser que la obra sea totalmente inaceptable, algo poco probable pues se pondría en entredicho la labor de todos sus participantes, el recensor sabe que si la ataca, también ataca a su autor, al editor que ha propuesto su publicación, a la casa editorial que la ha publicado e, incluso, a la revista en la que se va a publicar la reseña. y tal vez no sería muy adecuado o “políticamente correcto” que el reseñador, que en la mayoría de los casos se identifica claramente como se puede comprobar en la tabla 5, quiera granjearse enemistades dentro de su comunidad científica y cerrarse las puertas de publicación, no sólo para sus futuras obras en la casa editorial que ha publicado el libro que está reseñando, sino también para sus posibles recensiones en la revista que va a publicar su reseña actual, máxime si es dicha revista la que le ha hecho el presente encargo directamente. en el análisis de los diferentes destinatarios de las valoraciones positivas y, como ya se ha indicado en líneas anteriores, se han identificado cuatro variantes, ejemplificadas en la tabla 6. varios datos son, a nuestro juicio, dignos de resaltar. por un lado, los dos primeros puestos ocupados por las variantes “libro reseñado” y “autor del libro reseñado” serían ejemplos de que, como señala (motta-roth, 1998), felicitar al autor o alabar su obra es otro modo de aconsejarla. por otro lado, el primer puesto ocupado por la variante “libro reseñado” estaría en consonancia con el predominio de maria ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-5848 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 48 libros coeditados (tabla 2) y de monografías (tabla 3), cuya recopilación y redacción son obra de varios editores y autores, y sería difícil hacer referencia a todos ellos. también podría interpretarse como un intento de neutralidad por parte del recensor, que opta por centrarse en el análisis del contenido de la obra y no en su autor, aunque si bien es cierto que cuando se valora una obra, implícitamente se está valorando a su autor. asimismo, el hecho de que la variante “autor del libro reseñado” supere a la variante “editor del libro reseñado”, a pesar de que la muestra está formada por 16 libros de autor y 34 libros editados, se podría explicar desde las siguientes perspectivas: 1) el reseñador considera que la labor del editor es menos visible que la del autor de la obra reseñada, puesto que cuando se hace alusión a una obra se suele también citar su autor, pero no siempre su editor; 2) el recensor piensa que la labor editorial es menos valiosa que la del autor, ya que la primera consiste en reunir aportaciones de diferentes procedencias y no en redactar esas aportaciones, que son obra de sus autores; 3) el reseñador sigue queriendo mantener su neutralidad, pero de nuevo, de forma implícita también está valorando, no sólo la obra reseñada, sino también a su autor y a su editor, que ha sabido elegir las aportaciones más interesantes. a la variante “editor del libro reseñado” le aventaja también la variante “otros aspectos”, hecho que está probablemente relacionado con la disciplina a la cual pertenece la variante “libro reseñado” y con el contexto en el cual se inserta la obra objeto de revisión. variantes en las expresiones de alabanza reseñas con expresiones de alabanza de acuerdo con la metodología apuntada en la sección correspondiente, hemos contabilizado un total de 585 evaluaciones positivas, distribuidas en la tabla 7. el hecho de que el número de apreciaciones positivas dirigidas a la variante “libro reseñado” supere en tan gran porcentaje al de los recibidos por las demás variantes estaría en consonancia con los datos incluidos en la tabla 6. por otro lado, si se siguen comparando estas dos tablas, también se puede comprobar que en ninguna de las dos se ha producido alteración alguna en el orden de aparición de las variantes. variantes en las expresiones de alabanza expresiones de las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-58 49 las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 (2008): …-… 11 revista que va a publicar su reseña actual, máxime si es dicha revista la que le ha hecho el presente encargo directamente. en el análisis de los diferentes destinatarios de las valoraciones positivas y, como ya se ha indicado en líneas anteriores, se han identificado cuatro variantes, ejemplificadas en la tabla 6. varios datos son, a nuestro juicio, dignos de resaltar. por un lado, los dos primeros puestos ocupados por las variantes “libro reseñado” y “autor del libro reseñado” serían ejemplos de que, como señala (motta-roth, 1998), felicitar al autor o alabar su obra es otro modo de aconsejarla. por otro lado, el primer puesto ocupado por la variante “libro reseñado” estaría en consonancia con el predominio de libros coeditados (tabla 2) y de monografías (tabla 3), cuya recopilación y redacción son obra de varios editores y autores, y sería difícil hacer referencia a todos ellos. también podría interpretarse como un intento de neutralidad por parte del recensor, que opta por centrarse en el análisis del contenido de la obra y no en su autor, aunque si bien es cierto que cuando se valora una obra, implícitamente se está valorando a su autor. asimismo, el hecho de que la variante “autor del libro reseñado” supere a la variante “editor del libro reseñado”, a pesar de que la muestra está formada por 16 libros de autor y 34 libros editados, se podría explicar desde las siguientes perspectivas: 1) el reseñador considera que la labor del editor es menos visible que la del autor de la obra reseñada, puesto que cuando se hace alusión a una obra se suele también citar su autor, pero no siempre su editor; 2) el recensor piensa que la labor editorial es menos valiosa que la del autor, ya que la primera consiste en reunir aportaciones de diferentes procedencias y no en redactar esas aportaciones, que son obra de sus autores; 3) el reseñador sigue queriendo mantener su neutralidad, pero de nuevo, de forma implícita también está valorando, no sólo la obra reseñada, sino también a su autor y a su editor, que ha sabido elegir las aportaciones más interesantes. a la variante “editor del libro reseñado” le aventaja también la variante “otros aspectos”, hecho que está probablemente relacionado con la disciplina a la cual pertenece la variante “libro reseñado” y con el contexto en el cual se inserta la obra objeto de revisión. variantes en las expresiones de alabanza reseñas con expresiones de alabanza “libro reseñado” 48 (96%) “autor del libro reseñado” 29 (58%) “otros aspectos” 18 (36%) “editor del libro reseñado” 10 (20%) tabla 6. variantes en las expresiones de alabanza y reseñas con expresiones de alabanza por variante. de acuerdo con la metodología apuntada en la sección correspondiente, hemos contabilizado un total de 585 evaluaciones positivas, distribuidas en la tabla 7. el hecho de que el número de apreciaciones positivas dirigidas a la variante “libro reseñado” supere en tan gran porcentaje al de los recibidos por las demás variantes estaría en consonancia con los datos incluidos en la tabla 6. por otro 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 49 de acuerdo con la tabla 8, de las 489 valoraciones positivas dirigidas a la variante “libro reseñado” (tabla 7), 469 corresponden al contenido del libro y sólo 20 a su forma. esta enorme diferencia implicaría que la forma de los libros analizados no preocupa en demasía a sus recensores, que se interesan más por su contenido, es decir, por los conocimientos que puedan aportar, y que el aspecto exterior es tal vez cuestión que atañe más a las casas editoriales. tampoco habría que olvidar que la ausencia de errores ortográficos, e incluso lingüísticos, se debe hoy en día en gran medida al uso de la informática. este resultado estaría en consonancia con las afirmaciones vertidas a propósito de los datos incluidos en las tablas 6 y 7. contenido/forma de la variante “libro reseñado” expresiones de alabanza con respecto a las expresiones de alabanzas relacionadas con el contenido del libro reseñado, hemos establecido una diferenciación entre comentarios positivos globales, que se dirigen al libro en su conjunto, y comentarios positivos parciales, que giran en torno a alguna o varias de sus partes. dentro de la subvariante “libro en su conjunto”, hemos incluido comentarios positivos relacionados con la calidad del libro, su utilidad, su vigencia, los temas de los que trata, los datos que aporta, los objetivos que persigue, los planteamientos y fundamentos sobre los que se basa o la metodología que sigue. la subvariante “partes de capítulos” tiene que ver con las expresiones de alabanza dirigidas a la bibliografía, los comentarios, las descripciones, los ejemplos, los ejercicios o los resúmenes incluidos en estos capítulos. la última subvariante “otras secciones” está relacionada con anexos, índices, glosarios y prólogos. maria ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-5850 mª ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 (2008): …-…12 lado, si se siguen comparando estas dos tablas, también se puede comprobar que en ninguna de las dos se ha producido alteración alguna en el orden de aparición de las variantes. variantes en las expresiones de alabanza expresiones de alabanza por variante “libro reseñado” 489 (83,59%) “autor del libro reseñado” 57 (9,74%) “otros aspectos” 27 (4,63%) “editor del libro reseñado” 12 (2,05%) total 585 (100%) tabla 7. expresiones de alabanza por variante. de acuerdo con la tabla 8, de las 489 valoraciones positivas dirigidas a la variante “libro reseñado” (tabla 7), 469 corresponden al contenido del libro y sólo 20 a su forma. esta enorme diferencia implicaría que la forma de los libros analizados no preocupa en demasía a sus recensores, que se interesan más por su contenido, es decir, por los conocimientos que puedan aportar, y que el aspecto exterior es tal vez cuestión que atañe más a las casas editoriales. tampoco habría que olvidar que la ausencia de errores ortográficos, e incluso lingüísticos, se debe hoy en día en gran medida al uso de la informática. este resultado estaría en consonancia con las afirmaciones vertidas a propósito de los datos incluidos en las tablas 6 y 7. contenido/forma de la variante “libro reseñado” expresiones de alabanza contenido del libro 469 (95,91%) forma del libro 20 (4,09%) total 489 (100%) tabla 8. contenido/forma de la variante “libro reseñado”. con respecto a las expresiones de alabanzas relacionadas con el contenido del libro reseñado, hemos establecido una diferenciación entre comentarios positivos globales, que se dirigen al libro en su conjunto, y comentarios positivos parciales, que giran en torno a alguna o varias de sus partes. dentro de la subvariante “libro en su conjunto”, hemos incluido comentarios positivos relacionados con la calidad del libro, su utilidad, su vigencia, los temas de los que trata, los datos que aporta, los objetivos que persigue, los planteamientos y fundamentos sobre los que se basa o la metodología que sigue. la subvariante “partes de capítulos” tiene que ver con las expresiones de alabanza dirigidas a la bibliografía, los comentarios, las descripciones, los ejemplos, los ejercicios o los resúmenes incluidos en estos capítulos. la última subvariante “otras secciones” está relacionada con anexos, índices, glosarios y prólogos. en la tabla 8.1., en la cual se plasman estas subvariantes, se puede comprobar que un elevado porcentaje de valoraciones positivas, muy superior al de las mª ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 (2008): …-…12 lado, si se siguen comparando estas dos tablas, también se puede comprobar que en ninguna de las dos se ha producido alteración alguna en el orden de aparición de las variantes. variantes en las expresiones de alabanza expresiones de alabanza por variante “libro reseñado” 489 (83,59%) “autor del libro reseñado” 57 (9,74%) “otros aspectos” 27 (4,63%) “editor del libro reseñado” 12 (2,05%) total 585 (100%) tabla 7. expresiones de alabanza por variante. de acuerdo con la tabla 8, de las 489 valoraciones positivas dirigidas a la variante “libro reseñado” (tabla 7), 469 corresponden al contenido del libro y sólo 20 a su forma. esta enorme diferencia implicaría que la forma de los libros analizados no preocupa en demasía a sus recensores, que se interesan más por su contenido, es decir, por los conocimientos que puedan aportar, y que el aspecto exterior es tal vez cuestión que atañe más a las casas editoriales. tampoco habría que olvidar que la ausencia de errores ortográficos, e incluso lingüísticos, se debe hoy en día en gran medida al uso de la informática. este resultado estaría en consonancia con las afirmaciones vertidas a propósito de los datos incluidos en las tablas 6 y 7. contenido/forma de la variante “libro reseñado” expresiones de alabanza contenido del libro 469 (95,91%) forma del libro 20 (4,09%) total 489 (100%) tabla 8. contenido/forma de la variante “libro reseñado”. con respecto a las expresiones de alabanzas relacionadas con el contenido del libro reseñado, hemos establecido una diferenciación entre comentarios positivos globales, que se dirigen al libro en su conjunto, y comentarios positivos parciales, que giran en torno a alguna o varias de sus partes. dentro de la subvariante “libro en su conjunto”, hemos incluido comentarios positivos relacionados con la calidad del libro, su utilidad, su vigencia, los temas de los que trata, los datos que aporta, los objetivos que persigue, los planteamientos y fundamentos sobre los que se basa o la metodología que sigue. la subvariante “partes de capítulos” tiene que ver con las expresiones de alabanza dirigidas a la bibliografía, los comentarios, las descripciones, los ejemplos, los ejercicios o los resúmenes incluidos en estos capítulos. la última subvariante “otras secciones” está relacionada con anexos, índices, glosarios y prólogos. en la tabla 8.1., en la cual se plasman estas subvariantes, se puede comprobar que un elevado porcentaje de valoraciones positivas, muy superior al de las 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 50 en la tabla 8.1., en la cual se plasman estas subvariantes, se puede comprobar que un elevado porcentaje de valoraciones positivas, muy superior al de las restantes subvariantes, se dirige al “libro en su conjunto”, lo que estaría en consonancia con hyland (2000) de que la gran mayoría de comentarios positivos tienen por destinatarios aspectos globales del libro reseñado. esta subvariante, además, suele ir acompañada de las demás subvariantes, que sirven para reforzarla. ambos hechos no son de extrañar, pues convergerían en un mismo punto, que no sería otro que el de resaltar de una manera lo más completa posible la calidad de una obra, cuya lectura se está aconsejando. subvariantes (contenido de la variante “libro reseñado”) expresiones de alabanza en cuanto a las 20 expresiones de alabanza dirigidas a la forma del libro reseñado, en la tabla 8.2. se puede apreciar que el primer puesto lo ocupa la subvariante “lenguaje”, que varía en función de los autores de las obras reseñadas. la subvariante “edición” está relacionada con la labor del editor, mientras que la subvariante “estructura” corresponde al editor en caso de libros editados y al autor si se trata de libro de autor. estos datos, aunque poco significativos desde un punto de vista cuantitativo, por el bajo número de expresiones de alabanza dirigidas a la forma del libro reseñado, confirmarían los comentarios vertidos a propósito de la supremacía de determinadas variantes y subvariantes observadas en las tablas 6, 7 y 8.1. subvapor lo que respecta a las subvariantes de la variante “autor del libro reseñado”, de acuerdo con la tabla 9, se puede observar que la subvariante las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-58 51 las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 (2008): …-… 13 restantes subvariantes, se dirige al “libro en su conjunto”, lo que estaría en consonancia con la afirmación de hyland (2000: 46) de que “la gran mayoría de comentarios positivos tienen por destinatarios aspectos globales del libro reseñado”. esta subvariante, además, suele ir acompañada de las demás subvariantes, que sirven para reforzarla. ambos hechos no son de extrañar, pues convergerían en un mismo punto, que no sería otro que el de resaltar de una manera lo más completa posible la calidad de una obra, cuya lectura se está aconsejando. subvariantes (contenido de la variante “libro reseñado”) expresiones de alabanza “libro en su conjunto” 249 (53,09%) “partes del libro” 61 (13,00%) “capítulos” 50 (10,67%) “partes de capítulos” 49 (10,45%) “iconografía” 35 (7,46%) “bibliografía general” 20 (4,27%) “otras secciones” 05 (1,07%) total 469 (100%) tabla 8.1. contenido del libro reseñado. en cuanto a las 20 expresiones de alabanza dirigidas a la forma del libro reseñado, en la tabla 8.2. se puede apreciar que el primer puesto lo ocupa la subvariante “lenguaje”, que varía en función de los autores de las obras reseñadas. la subvariante “edición” está relacionada con la labor del editor, mientras que la subvariante “estructura” corresponde al editor en caso de libros editados y al autor si se trata de libro de autor. estos datos, aunque poco significativos desde un punto de vista cuantitativo, por el bajo número de expresiones de alabanza dirigidas a la forma del libro reseñado, confirmarían los comentarios vertidos a propósito de la supremacía de determinadas variantes y subvariantes observadas en las tablas 6, 7 y 8.1. subvariantes (forma de la variante “libro reseñado”) expresiones de alabanza “lenguaje” 11 (55%) “edición” 06 (30%) “estructura” 03 (15%) total 20 (100%) tabla 8.2. forma del libro reseñado. por lo que respecta a las subvariantes de la variante “autor del libro reseñado”, de acuerdo con la tabla 9, se puede observar que la subvariante “prestigio” es la que más valoraciones positivas recibe, lo que sería una consecuencia lógica de todas las cualidades atribuidas al autor. así, el prestigio del que este último disfruta es fruto de su experiencia y competencia en su campo de investigación, lo que le ha permitido escribir la obra que se está reseñando. las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 (2008): …-… 13 restantes subvariantes, se dirige al “libro en su conjunto”, lo que estaría en consonancia con la afirmación de hyland (2000: 46) de que “la gran mayoría de comentarios positivos tienen por destinatarios aspectos globales del libro reseñado”. esta subvariante, además, suele ir acompañada de las demás subvariantes, que sirven para reforzarla. ambos hechos no son de extrañar, pues convergerían en un mismo punto, que no sería otro que el de resaltar de una manera lo más completa posible la calidad de una obra, cuya lectura se está aconsejando. subvariantes (contenido de la variante “libro reseñado”) expresiones de alabanza “libro en su conjunto” 249 (53,09%) “partes del libro” 61 (13,00%) “capítulos” 50 (10,67%) “partes de capítulos” 49 (10,45%) “iconografía” 35 (7,46%) “bibliografía general” 20 (4,27%) “otras secciones” 05 (1,07%) total 469 (100%) tabla 8.1. contenido del libro reseñado. en cuanto a las 20 expresiones de alabanza dirigidas a la forma del libro reseñado, en la tabla 8.2. se puede apreciar que el primer puesto lo ocupa la subvariante “lenguaje”, que varía en función de los autores de las obras reseñadas. la subvariante “edición” está relacionada con la labor del editor, mientras que la subvariante “estructura” corresponde al editor en caso de libros editados y al autor si se trata de libro de autor. estos datos, aunque poco significativos desde un punto de vista cuantitativo, por el bajo número de expresiones de alabanza dirigidas a la forma del libro reseñado, confirmarían los comentarios vertidos a propósito de la supremacía de determinadas variantes y subvariantes observadas en las tablas 6, 7 y 8.1. subvariantes (forma de la variante “libro reseñado”) expresiones de alabanza “lenguaje” 11 (55%) “edición” 06 (30%) “estructura” 03 (15%) total 20 (100%) tabla 8.2. forma del libro reseñado. por lo que respecta a las subvariantes de la variante “autor del libro reseñado”, de acuerdo con la tabla 9, se puede observar que la subvariante “prestigio” es la que más valoraciones positivas recibe, lo que sería una consecuencia lógica de todas las cualidades atribuidas al autor. así, el prestigio del que este último disfruta es fruto de su experiencia y competencia en su campo de investigación, lo que le ha permitido escribir la obra que se está reseñando. 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 51 “prestigio” es la que más valoraciones positivas recibe, lo que sería una consecuencia lógica de todas las cualidades atribuidas al autor. así, el prestigio del que este último disfruta es fruto de su experiencia y competencia en su campo de investigación, lo que le ha permitido escribir la obra que se está reseñando. subvariantes de la variante “autor del libro reseñado” expresiones de alabanza por lo que respecta a las subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos”, en la tabla 10 figuran las dos subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos”, que sirven para contextualizar la obra reseñada. la aparición en primer lugar de la subvariante “ciencia médica” implicaría que el reseñador ha optado por centrarse en el ámbito general en el que se inserta la obra que está analizando. subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos” expresiones de alabanza por último, y en cuanto a las subvariantes de la variante “editor del libro reseñado”, la tabla 11 recoge las cuatro subvariantes de la variante “editor del libro reseñado”, que son las mismas que las de la variante “autor del libro reseñado” (tabla 9). al igual que en la variante “autor del libro reseñado”, la subvariante “prestigio” es la que más expresiones de alabanzas recibe, lo que se podría explicar desde dos ópticas diferentes: 1) la obra es fruto de un editor con cierta reputación, y por ello es digna de reseñarse; 2) el recensor ha recibido el encargo del editor y no puede atacar su labor de recopilación. maria ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-5852 mª ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 (2008): …-…14 subvariantes de la variante “autor del libro reseñado” expresiones de alabanza “prestigio” 23 (40,35%) “labor realizada” 15 (26,31%) “experiencia” 11 (19,30%) “competencia” 08 (14,03%) total 57 (100%) tabla 9. subvariantes en la variante “autor del libro reseñado”. por lo que respecta a las subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos”, en la tabla 10 figuran las dos subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos”, que sirven para contextualizar la obra reseñada. la aparición en primer lugar de la subvariante “ciencia médica” implicaría que el reseñador ha optado por centrarse en el ámbito general en el que se inserta la obra que está analizando. subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos” expresiones de alabanza “ciencia médica” 20 (74,07%) “otros estudios” 07 (25,92%) total 27 (100%) tabla 10. subvariantes en la variante “otros aspectos”. por último, y en cuanto a las subvariantes de la variante “editor del libro reseñado”, la tabla 11 recoge las cuatro subvariantes de la variante “editor del libro reseñado”, que son las mismas que las de la variante “autor del libro reseñado” (tabla 9). al igual que en la variante “autor del libro reseñado”, la subvariante “prestigio” es la que más expresiones de alabanzas recibe, lo que se podría explicar desde dos ópticas diferentes: 1) la obra es fruto de un editor con cierta reputación, y por ello es digna de reseñarse; 2) el recensor ha recibido el encargo del editor y no puede atacar su labor de recopilación. subvariantes de la variante “editor del libro reseñado” expresiones de alabanza “prestigio” 06 (50,00%) “labor realizada” 03 (25,00%) “competencia” 02 (16,67%) “experiencia” 01 (8,34%) total 12 (100%) tabla 11. subvariantes en la variante “editor del libro reseñado”. conclusión en este trabajo hemos analizado la función evaluativa de las reseñas de libros en su vertiente positiva. hemos interpretado los resultados obtenidos desde una óptica sociopragmática, pues hemos considerado que esta perspectiva era necesaria para poder llegar a interpretaciones fiables. por ello hemos tenido en mª ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 (2008): …-…14 subvariantes de la variante “autor del libro reseñado” expresiones de alabanza “prestigio” 23 (40,35%) “labor realizada” 15 (26,31%) “experiencia” 11 (19,30%) “competencia” 08 (14,03%) total 57 (100%) tabla 9. subvariantes en la variante “autor del libro reseñado”. por lo que respecta a las subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos”, en la tabla 10 figuran las dos subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos”, que sirven para contextualizar la obra reseñada. la aparición en primer lugar de la subvariante “ciencia médica” implicaría que el reseñador ha optado por centrarse en el ámbito general en el que se inserta la obra que está analizando. subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos” expresiones de alabanza “ciencia médica” 20 (74,07%) “otros estudios” 07 (25,92%) total 27 (100%) tabla 10. subvariantes en la variante “otros aspectos”. por último, y en cuanto a las subvariantes de la variante “editor del libro reseñado”, la tabla 11 recoge las cuatro subvariantes de la variante “editor del libro reseñado”, que son las mismas que las de la variante “autor del libro reseñado” (tabla 9). al igual que en la variante “autor del libro reseñado”, la subvariante “prestigio” es la que más expresiones de alabanzas recibe, lo que se podría explicar desde dos ópticas diferentes: 1) la obra es fruto de un editor con cierta reputación, y por ello es digna de reseñarse; 2) el recensor ha recibido el encargo del editor y no puede atacar su labor de recopilación. subvariantes de la variante “editor del libro reseñado” expresiones de alabanza “prestigio” 06 (50,00%) “labor realizada” 03 (25,00%) “competencia” 02 (16,67%) “experiencia” 01 (8,34%) total 12 (100%) tabla 11. subvariantes en la variante “editor del libro reseñado”. conclusión en este trabajo hemos analizado la función evaluativa de las reseñas de libros en su vertiente positiva. hemos interpretado los resultados obtenidos desde una óptica sociopragmática, pues hemos considerado que esta perspectiva era necesaria para poder llegar a interpretaciones fiables. por ello hemos tenido en mª ángeles alcaraz ariza subvariantes de la variante “autor del libro reseñado” expresiones de alabanza “prestigio” 23 (40,35%) “labor realizada” 15 (26,31%) “experiencia” 11 (19,30%) “competencia” 08 (14,03%) total 57 (100%) tabla 9. subvariantes en la variante “autor del libro reseñado”. por lo que respecta a las subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos”, en la tabla 10 figuran las dos subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos”, que sirven para contextualizar la obra reseñada. la aparición en primer lugar de la subvariante “ciencia médica” implicaría que el reseñador ha optado por centrarse en el ámbito general en el que se inserta la obra que está analizando. subvariantes de la variante “otros aspectos” expresiones de alabanza “ciencia médica” 20 (74,07%) “otros estudios” 07 (25,92%) total 27 (100%) tabla 10. subvariantes en la variante “otros aspectos”. por último, y en cuanto a las subvariantes de la variante “editor del libro reseñado”, la tabla 11 recoge las cuatro subvariantes de la variante “editor del libro reseñado”, que son las mismas que las de la variante “autor del libro reseñado” (tabla 9). al igual que en la variante “autor del libro reseñado”, la subvariante “prestigio” es la que más expresiones de alabanzas recibe, lo que se podría explicar desde dos ópticas diferentes: 1) la obra es fruto de un editor con cierta reputación, y por ello es digna de reseñarse; 2) el recensor ha recibido el encargo del editor y no puede atacar su labor de recopilación. subvariantes de la variante “editor del libro reseñado” expresiones de alabanza “prestigio” 06 (50,00%) “labor realizada” 03 (25,00%) “competencia” 02 (16,67%) “experiencia” 01 (8,34%) total 12 (100%) tabla 11. subvariantes en la variante “editor del libro reseñado”. conclusión en este trabajo hemos analizado la función evaluativa de las reseñas de libros en su vertiente positiva. hemos interpretado los resultados obtenidos desde una óptica sociopragmática, pues hemos considerado que esta perspectiva era necesaria para poder llegar a interpretaciones fiables. por ello hemos tenido en 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 52 conclusión en este trabajo hemos analizado la función evaluativa de las reseñas de libros en su vertiente positiva. hemos interpretado los resultados obtenidos desde una óptica sociopragmática, pues hemos considerado que esta perspectiva era necesaria para poder llegar a interpretaciones fiables. por ello hemos tenido en cuenta dos contextos, el primero relacionado con las obras reseñadas y el segundo con las expresiones de alabanza propiamente dichas que, a diferencia de hyland (2000) y a semejanza de suárez tejerina (2006), han abarcado todas las proposiciones, independientemente de su configuración léxico-gramatical, con un significado semántico-pragmático positivo. la muestra con la que hemos trabajado ha consistido en 50 recensiones publicadas en la década 1990-2000 en dos revistas médicas españolas de referencia. teniendo en cuenta en todo momento las limitaciones de nuestra muestra de estudio por su reducido tamaño, los datos más relevantes obtenidos en la primera etapa de nuestra investigación señalan que el tipo de libro más reseñado es la monografía coeditada, escrita en inglés y reseñada por un reseñador, por lo general claramente identificado, que suele trabajar en centros de salud y hospitales. estos resultados 1) reflejan el carácter social de la actividad científica en el campo de las ciencias de la salud; 2) son testigos de la función de lingua franca asumida por el inglés en la comunicación científica; y 3) subrayan la internacionalización de la ciencia actual. en cuanto a la segunda etapa de nuestro trabajo relacionada con la presencia de expresiones de alabanza y sus diferentes destinatarios, hemos podido comprobar que todas las reseñas de libros incluidas en nuestra muestra de análisis contienen valoraciones positivas y que su principal receptor es el contenido del libro reseñado, en detrimento de su forma, que apenas es mención de alabanza. dentro del contenido del libro, el libro en su conjunto es el que recibe más comentarios positivos, mientras que otros aspectos que le siguen en número, como sus diferentes partes o capítulos, presentan una frecuencia de aparición bastante inferior. a continuación, y por orden consecutivo, le siguen el autor del libro reseñado y su editor. en este sentido, nuestros resultados concordarían en parte con los de suárez tejerina (2006), puesto que en su análisis los aspectos más evaluados con respecto al libro reseñado son el contenido del libro y de capítulos específicos, su estilo y el libro en general. estos resultados nos permiten afirmar que 1) la presencia de expresiones de alabanza en las reseñas de libros pone de relieve el carácter esencialmente las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-58 53 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 53 evaluativo de este género académico; 2) el libro reseñado y sus diversas partes como mayores beneficiarios de las observaciones positivas testimonian la profesionalización de la ciencia actual y la objetividad del reseñador a la hora de realizar su labor; 3) los diversos receptores de los comentarios positivos son testigos de la importancia del papel desempeñado por las reseñas de libros en la interacción comunicativa entre sus diferentes participantes y áreas de participación (reseñador, autor, editor y posible lector de la obra reseñada, disciplina a la que pertenece la obra reseñada y revista en la que se publica la reseña); y 4) las expresiones de alabanza, en tanto que reflejo de las funciones ideacional e interpersonal del lenguaje en la formulación del significado evaluativo, se pueden utilizar como estrategias lingüísticoretóricas para establecer y mantener un marco de solidaridad y armonía dentro de la comunidad discursiva en la cual se producen. con respecto a una posible continuidad de este estudio, pensamos que podría servir de punto de partida para investigaciones futuras sobre el análisis de las expresiones de alabanza en reseñas de libros publicadas en revistas médicas escritas en español, francés e inglés, para averiguar si se repiten los mismos datos y patrones, o si existen algunas diferencias entre las tres lenguas. otro trabajo interesante podría residir en la comparación de críticas positivas y críticas negativas en las reseñas de libros médicos escritas en español, estas últimas abordadas en estudios nuestros anteriores. la información hallada se podría entonces contrastar con la obtenida en otras disciplinas5 con el fin de descubrir las similitudes y diferencias existentes tanto en el plano cuantitativo como cualitativo. creemos que todos estos estudios nos permitirían obtener un espectro muy amplio de las estrategias que se podrían utilizar para la enseñanza de la redacción de reseñas de libros en el español de las ciencias de la salud. de esta enseñanza se podrían beneficiar, no sólo los estudiantes extranjeros de español médico como segunda lengua, sino también los escritores españoles principiantes, puesto que una de las oportunidades de publicación es la escritura de una recensión, tarea que probablemente tengan que hacer alguna que otra vez en su vida laboral los profesionales de cualquier rama especializada. (artículo revisado recibido en abril de 2008) maria ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-5854 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 54 bibliografía las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-58 55 alcaraz ariza, m.á. y f. salagermeyer (2001). “la disensión (¿directa o velada?) en la prosa médica española (1930-1999)”. lebende sprachen 4: 180-185. alcaraz ariza, m.á. y f. salagermeyer (2002). “género y crítica en la prosa médica escrita en español: función comunicativa y relación de poder”. hermes 29: 163-186. alcaraz ariza, m.á. y f. salagermeyer (2003). “la ciencia en pugna: análisis retórico de la crítica en el discurso médico escrito en español (1930-1999)”. the especialist 24: 103-129. alcaraz ariza, m.á. y f. salagermeyer (2005a). “las reseñas de libros en español: estudio retórico y diacrónico”. spanish in context 2: 29-49. alcaraz ariza, m.á. y f. salagermeyer (2005b). “‘con su sistema tropezará el sr. garcerá con lamentables derrotas’ o ‘se encuentra a faltar un tema de restauración colectiva’: la crítica en las reseñas de libros académicos” en m. labarta (ed.), approaches to critical discourse analysis, 1-11. valència: universitat de valència. babaii, e. (2005). towards an analysis of book reviews as an academic written genre. tesis doctoral inédita. teherán: shiraz university. belcher, d. (1995). “writing critically across the curriculum” en d. belcher y g. braine (eds.), academic writing in a second language: essays on research and pedagogy, 135-154. norwood, n.j.: ablex. brown, p. y s. levinson (1987). politeness: some universals in language usage. cambridge: cambridge university press. burgess, s. y a. fagan (2004). “genre analysis and the novice researcher: the book review and the poster presentation” en m. brito y j.i. oliva (eds.), traditions and innovations. commemorating 40 years of english studies at ull (1963-2003), 6778. la laguna: rcei. carvalho, g. de (2002). “rhetorical patterns of academic book reviews written in portuguese and in english” en l. iglesias rábade y s.m. doval suárez (eds.), studies in contrastive linguistics: proceedings of the 2nd international contrastive linguistics conference, 261268. santiago de compostela: universidade de santiago de compostela. díaz galán, a. y m. del c. fumero lópez (2006). “the rhetorical structure of philology book reviews: a comparative analysis” en j.i. oliva, m. mcmahon y m. brito (eds.), on the matter of words: in honor of lourdes divasson cilveti, 103-116. universidad de la laguna: servicio de publicaciones. gea valor, m.l. (2000). a pragmatic approach to politeness and modality in the book review. sell monographs, 6. valencia: universidad de valencia. giannoni, d.s. (2002). “hard words, soft technology. criticism and endorsement in the software review genre” en m. gotti, d. heller y m. dossena (eds.), conflict and negotiation in specialized texts, 335-362. berna: peter lang. halliday, m.a.k. (1985). an introduction to functional grammar. london: arnold. hartley, j. (2006). “reading and writing book reviews across the disciplines: research articles”. journal of the american society for information science and technology 57: 1194-1207. hunston, s. (2004). “counting the uncountable: problems of identifying evaluation in a text and in a corpus” en a. partington, j. morley y l. haarman (eds.), corpora and discourse, 157-188. berna: peter lang. hyland, k. (2000). disciplinary discourses: social interactions in academic writing. londres: longman. johnson, d.m. y d.h. roen (1992). “complimenting and involvement in peer reviews: gender variation”. language in society 21: 27-57. lindholm-romantschuk, y. (1998). scholarly book reviewing in the social sciences and humanities: the flow of ideas within and among disciplines. westport: greenwood. moreno, a.i. y l. suárez (2008). “a study of critical attitude across english and spanish academic book reviews”. journal of english for academic purposes 7: 15-26. motta-roth, d. (1996). “same genre, different discipline: a genre-based study of book reviews in academe”. the especialist 17: 99-132. motta-roth, d. (1998). “discourse analysis and academic book reviews: a study of text and disciplinary cultures” en i. fortanet, s. posteguillo, j.c. palmer y j.f. coll (eds.), genre studies in english for academic purposes, 29-59. castellón: universitat jaume i. mowatt, g., l. shirran, j.m. grimshaw, d. rennie, a. flanagin, v. yank, g. maclennan, p. gotzsche y l. bero (2002). “prevalence of honorary and ghost authorship in cochrane reviews”. jama 287: 2769-2772. navarro, f.d. (2006). “la reparación en la estructura retórica de la reseña académica de libros, o cómo el escritor se transforma en autor. el caso de la re03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 55 dra. maría ángeles alcaraz-ariza es profesora titular de la universidad de alicante y ha publicado varios artículos relacionados con los rasgos discursivos de la prosa médica escrita en español, francés e inglés. es miembro del grupo de investigación giadis y del iulma. notas 1 para otros estudios relacionados con la identificación de actos evaluativos positivos, se puede también consultar, entre otros, a hyland (2000), hunston (2004) o moreno y suárez (2008). 2 este ejemplo estaría en consonancia con motta-roth (1998), para quien un criterio utilizado por los maria ángeles alcaraz ariza ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-5856 vista de filología hispánica” en c.p. neumann, r. plo alastrué y c. pérez-llantada auría (eds.), actas del v congreso internacional de aelfe, 28-34. universidad de zaragoza: prensas universitarias. nicolaisen, j. (2002a). “the scholarliness of published peer reviews: a bibliometric study of book reviews in selected social science fields”. research evaluation 11: 129-140. nicolaisen, j. (2002b). “structure-based interpretation of scholarly book reviews: a new research technique” en c. bruce, r. fidel, p. ingwersen y p. vakkari (eds.), emerging frameworks and methods, 123-135. westport, ct: libraries unlimited. north, s. (1992). “on book reviews in rhetoric and composition”. rhetoric review 10: 348363. römer, u. (2005). “this seems somewhat counterintuitive, though ... –negative evaluation in linguistic book reviews by male and female authors” en e. tognini bonelli y g. del lungo camiciotti (eds.), strategies in academic discourse, 97-115. amsterdam: john benjamins. salager-meyer, f. (2001). “‘this book portrays the worst form of mental terrorism’: critical speech acts in medical english book reviews” en a. kertész (ed.), approaches to the pragmatics of scientific discourse, 47-72. berlin: peter lang. salager-meyer, f. y m.á. alcaraz ariza (2004). “negative appraisals in academic book reviews: a cross-linguistic approach” en n.c. candlin y m. gotti (eds.), intercultural aspects of specialized communication, 149-172. berna: peter lang. salager-meyer, f., m.á. alcaraz ariza y n. zambrano (2005). “from emotionality, humour and sarcasm to matter-of-factedness: the rhetoric of criticism in medical english book reviews (1940-2000)” en m.l. carrió pastor (ed.), perspectivas interdisciplinares de la lingüística aplicada, 333-341. universidad politécnica de valencia: aesla. salager-meyer, f., m.á. alcarazariza y n. zambrano (2006). “big science, internationalisation, professionnalisation et fonction sociale de la science à travers l’analyse diachronique des recensions d’ouvrage”. lsp and professional communication 16: 8-25. salager-meyer, f., m.á. alcaraz ariza y m. pabón (2007a). “the prosecutor and the defendant: contrasting critical voices in frenchand english-written academic book reviews” en k. flottum (ed.), language and discipline perspectives on academic discourse, 109-127. cambridge: cambridge scholars. salager-meyer, f., m.á. alcaraz ariza y m. pabón (2007b). “collegiality, critique and the construction of scientific argumentation in medical book reviews: a diachronic approach”. journal of pragmatics 39: 1758-1774. shaw, p. (2004). “how do we recognise implicit evaluation in academic book reviews?” en g. del lungo camiciotti y e. tognini-bonelli (eds.), academic discourse: linguistic insights into evaluation, 121-140. berna: peter lang. stotesbury, h. (2002). “discourse of the opera review: expanding on the speech act model of book reviews” en e. kärkkäinen, j. haines y t. lautammus (eds.), studia linguistica et litteraria septentrionalia, 75-89. university of oulu: department of english. suárez tejerina, l. (2006). mode of evaluation and rhetorical patterns: a contrastive study of english and spanish book reviews. tesis doctoral inédita. león: universidad de léon. suárez, l. y a.i. moreno (2008). “the rhetorical structure of academic reviews of literature: an english-spanish cross-linguistic approach” en u. connor, e.r. nagelhout y w. rozycki (eds.), contrastive rhetoric: reaching to intercultural rhetoric, 147168. amsterdam: john benjamins. 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 56 lingüistas para alabar una nueva publicación es aludir al lector, y también con hyland (2000), que considera que un modo de recomendar la obra es dirigirse a los lectores potenciales. 3 en el cuerpo de tres reseñas se alude a la obra reseñada, bien como “monografía” bien como “libro de texto”. por ello hemos decidido adscribirlas a la categoría “monografía”. 4 las tres primeras opciones son fruto de nuestra experiencia personal. en cuanto a las dos últimas, han sido apuntadas por hartley (2006) y moreno y suárez (2008), respectivamente. 5 la obra ya mencionada de suárez tejerina (2006) sería un ejemplo pues en esta tesis doctoral la autora estudia de forma contrastiva e interdisciplinar los comentarios negativos y positivos en las reseñas de libros de literatura, historia y derecho publicadas en inglés y español. las reseñas de libros médicos ibérica 16 [2008]: 37-58 57 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 57 03 iberica 16.qxp 3/10/08 17:32 página 58 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 issn 1139-7241 abstract previous quantitative studies suggest that the burden researchers who use english as an additional language perceive when writing research articles (ras) for publication in english (as l2) is 24% greater than the burden they perceive when they write ras for publication in their l1. it remains unclear precisely which aspects of research article (ra) writing in english present these writers with the greatest challenge and just why they perceive this increase in difficulty. a structured questionnaire comprising thirty-seven questions about researchers’ publication experiences in scientific journals in english and in spanish was designed and sent out to all (n = 8,794) spanish postdoctoral researchers at one research-only institution and four universities in spain, yielding responses from 1,717 researchers. our first results show that the discussion is the section that is perceived as more difficult to write for english-medium journals, across the four broad knowledge areas in a way that cannot be fully explained by their lower level of proficiency in english (as l2). this article proposes the rhetorical transfer hypothesis as a possible explanation for their additional difficulty. our results also reveal that their increased perceived difficulty writing ra discussions in english (as l2) does not decrease noticeably until spanish researchers report high or very high levels of proficiency in english (as l2) for academic or general purposes or have published on average at least 37 ras as corresponding author in english-medium journals over the last ten years. implications for english for academic purposes (eap) research and pedagogy are discussed. spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty writing research articles for englishmedium journals: the impact of proficiency in english versus publication experience ana i. moreno1, jesús rey-rocha2, sally burgess3, irene lópez-navarro4 and itesh sachdev5 1[corresponding author] universidad de león (spain), 2csic (spain), 3universidad de la laguna (spain), 4universidad de león & csic (spain) 5university of london (united kingdom) 1ana.moreno@unileon.es, 2jesus.rey@cchs.csic.es, 3sburgess@ull.es, 4irene.lopez@cchs.csic.es, 5i.sachdev@soas.ac.uk 157 ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev keywords: research article, academic writing, difficulty, needs analysis, survey studies. resumen la dificultad percibida por los investigadores españoles al escribir artículos de investigación para revistas en inglés: los efectos del nivel de inglés y de la experiencia de publicación estudios cuantitativos previos sugieren que escribir artículos de investigación (ras) en inglés (como l2) supone una dificultad añadida del 24% a los investigadores cuya primera lengua no es el inglés con respecto a escribirlos en su primera lengua (l1). sin embargo, se desconoce qué aspectos de los ras les resultan más difíciles de escribir en inglés (como l2) y cuáles son precisamente las causas de dicha dificultad añadida. con este fin, se envió un cuestionario estructurado a 8.794 investigadores españoles doctores afiliados a cinco instituciones españolas, una de investigación y cuatro universidades, obteniéndose respuestas por parte de 1.717 investigadores. el cuestionario contenía 37 preguntas sobre sus experiencias de publicación en revistas científicas en inglés y en castellano. nuestros primeros resultados indican que la discusión es el apartado del ra que se percibe como más difícil de escribir en revistas en inglés en todas las áreas de conocimiento sin que el menor nivel de competencia lingüística lo explique completamente. el artículo propone la hipótesis de la transferencia retórica como posible explicación de dicha dificultad añadida. los resultados también muestran que la percepción de dificultad añadida no se reduce de forma apreciable hasta que los investigadores afirman tener un nivel alto, o superior, de competencia en inglés (como l2) para fines académicos o generales o han publicado por término medio al menos 37 ras como autores principales en revistas en inglés en los últimos diez años. se extraen implicaciones para la docencia y la investigación en inglés con fines académicos (ifa). palabras clave: artículo de investigación, escritura académica, dificultad, análisis de necesidades, estudios mediante encuestas. introduction in recent decades, multilingual researchers from many countries have been gradually moving towards publishing their research findings in english (lillis & curry, 2010). as has been widely discussed in the literature, these researchers frequently face the additional burden of not having english as 158 their first language (l1 henceforth), which reduces their chances of publication success (flowerdew, 1999; lillis & curry, 2006; hanauer & englander, 2011). spanish researchers are no exception (rey et al., 1998; curry & lillis 2004; gómez et al., 2006; pérez-llantada et al., 2010) and feel, in fact, at a linguistic disadvantage with regard to other writers for whom english is an l1 (ferguson, pérez-llantada & plo, 2011). although their concerns have been voiced infrequently until very recently (clavero, 2011), a clear indication that spanish researchers are facing additional challenges is reflected in their plea for specialised training in english for research publication purposes (erpp) in all scientific areas (see moreno, 2011, for a list of courses). these observations contrast with curry and lillis’ (2004) account of the situation earlier this century, when researchers working in contexts like spain were “unlikely to attend formal classes in english academic writing, if indeed such classes are available” (curry & lillis, 2004: 682). they are, however, consistent with fernández polo and cal varela’s (2009) more recent survey findings at the university of santiago de compostela. in their study at least 32.4% of their respondents said they would choose courses in written scientific english as one of three preferred ways of catering for their english language learning needs. given these circumstances, a number of applied linguists have called for a collective reflection on the most appropriate means of providing training in erpp for researchers who use english as an additional language (eal) (swales, 2002; harwood & hadley, 2004; moreno, 2010; pérez-llantada et al., 2010). moreno (2010), for instance, emphasises the importance of taking into account their specific recurrent difficulties with academic writing and the reasons for these difficulties. however, although english for academic purposes research has provided descriptions of academic texts that are both rich and increasingly accurate (hyland & salager-meyer, 2008), few studies have focused on the actual writing difficulties spanish researchers face (st john, 1987; curry & lillis, 2004; burgess, fumero pérez & díaz galán, 2005; moreno, 2012). this, together with the small scale nature of the few studies that do exist and their lack of rigorous procedures for selecting informants, means that there is insufficient systematic information on spanish researchers’ writing difficulties (including causes) relative to their level of proficiency and publication experience. without this, appropriate training programmes cannot be developed. recent survey studies have taken larger scale quantitative approaches to charting the difficulties that multilingual researchers confront. for instance, spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 159 duszak and lewkowicz (2008) report that 59% of the 99 researchers answering their questionnaire had difficulties with the language and 18% with writing academic texts. in their study, hanauer and englander (2011) suggest that the increased burden perceived by a sample of 148 spanishspeaking mexican researchers in writing ras for publication in englishmedium journals is 24% greater than that they experienced when writing for spanish-medium journals. however, while they attribute this increased burden to language, it is difficult to assess the significance of their finding for eap research and pedagogy since their study controls for neither the researchers’ level of proficiency in english (as l2) nor their research publication experience. none of these studies, furthermore, examines the relative difficulty the various sections of the research article (ra) present for researchers, though flowerdew (1999), drawing on 26 interviews with chinese researchers, has already shown that the degree of challenge varies. there are, then, a number of questions to which clearer answers are required before erpp teaching materials for spanish researchers can be designed. in particular, 1. which sections of the ra are implicated in the perceived increased difficulty in writing ras in english (as l2) as opposed to spanish (as l1)? 2. does the perception of increased difficulty writing these sections of the ra in english (as l2) vary across knowledge areas? 3. what is the relative impact of the researchers’ writing proficiency in english (as l2) versus their ra publication experience on their perception of difficulty writing the section of the ra they find most challenging to write in english? to answer these questions, this study has taken a large-scale comparative survey approach, probing spanish researchers self-reported perceptions of difficulty writing ras in english (as l2) as opposed to spanish (as l1). the survey is part of a larger multiple-methodology three-phase project carried out by the eneida (spanish team for intercultural studies on academic discourse) research group at one research-only institution and four universities in spain. one of its ultimate aims is to develop a comprehensive picture of the writing difficulties, both self-reported and real, that spanish researchers face when writing manuscripts for english-medium scientific journals (see moreno et al., 2011). drawing on moreno’s (forthcoming a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184160 2012) notion of intercultural rhetoric accommodation, we distinguish between perceived difficulties and actual writing obstacles in english (woes). woes are defined as those writing problems encountered in the process of ra publication making it necessary for multilingual authors to revise their manuscripts so as to conform to the expectations of englishmedium scientific journals. we also aim to offer spanish researchers pedagogical solutions to their real woes grounded in sound research. the present paper, however, focuses on their perceived difficulties writing ras in english (as l2) relative to writing them in spanish (as l1), and thus represents only a part of the larger picture needed to inform the design of future studies of their actual woes and of pedagogical resources. the following section outlines the major theoretical assumptions underlying the design of a number of items in our initial survey relevant to the present study and to the way the population was defined. theoretical framework our initial survey acknowledged the fact that the ra is not a monolithic genre (swales, 2004). as many studies have shown, each section of the ra has a different linguistic and rhetorical configuration, which may make some sections more difficult to write than others. in fact, writing introduction/literature reviews and discussions/conclusions in english is known to be especially challenging for multilingual researchers, so much so, in fact, that it is seen as “potentially critical to the acceptance or rejection of their articles, whatever the merits of their actual findings might be” (flowerdew, 1999: 259). our survey methodology also reflects the view that the most appropriate means of assessing this difficulty is through comparison with the difficulty felt by eal researchers writing these sections in their l1. thus, our survey charts researchers’ perceived difficulties writing each section of the ra in english (as l2) relative to their writing them in spanish (as l1). in addition, our survey recognised that the ra is not a stable genre (salager-meyer, 1999). for this reason, it focused on the publication experiences and difficulties of spanish researchers over the last decade, the period in which their erpp training needs have increased in number and specificity. our research also acknowledged the expected correlation between “the nature of knowledge domains and the nature of the spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 161 associated disciplinary cultures” (becher, 1994: 153) and assumed that academic writing features, communicative skills and discourse practices would vary across disciplines (hyland, 2000). likewise, since discipline is regarded as a key factor in the design of relevant pedagogical resources (dudley-evans & st john, 1998: 51), data on difficulties as a function of disciplinary area were also obtained. we also took into account various factors that have been proposed in the literature to explain the difficulties faced by multilingual researchers in the process of publication of ras in english-medium journals. one such factor is familiarity with academic discipline. as some applied linguists have argued, difficulty has more to do with having learned or failed to learn the disciplinary conventions of scientific writing than with using the language itself (swales, 2004). thus, to ensure that participants were well versed in the conventions of scientific writing in their disciplines, our survey targeted only spanish postdoctoral researchers and included finer indicators of familiarity with the ra genre in question. other researchers have argued that the factor that plays a major role, not only in a researcher’s reduced productivity (see man et al., 2004), but also in the perception of increased difficulty (flowerdew, 1999; hanauer & englander, 2011) is language proficiency. for this reason, our survey included operationalizations of this factor too. a third issue frequently debated in the literature is the influence of cultural factors in writing in english (as l2). as moreno (2008) explains, specific forms of socialisation into writing values, norms and practices characterising given educational and socio-cultural contexts interact in complex ways with the effects of communicating through a given language code. in eap research, the suggestion has also been made that a still uncertain number of rhetorical and stylistic habits that researchers have learned, or simply acquired, in the process of socialisation into their disciplinary cultures in their l1 are likely to be transferred unconsciously to their writing in erpp as an l2 (mauranen, 1993; moreno, 1998; flowerdew, 1999). this is especially likely in those academic fields in which the effects of globalisation in scientific communication have not yet had enough time to filter through. they are perhaps even more patent in settings, like spain, where english is used as a foreign as opposed to a second language (graddol, 1997). the rhetorical transfer hypothesis rests on the well-known contrastive rhetoric hypothesis (cr) (kaplan, 1996; connor, 2004), whereby (academic) a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184162 writers from different cultural and language backgrounds have distinct preferences for articulating messages which share a similar purpose. this hypothesis has recently been extensively explored in relation to spanish researchers presenting their research results in spanish-medium academic journals in comparison to anglo-american researchers writing for englishmedium academic journals (moreno, 2011, for a review of studies). for example, spanish researchers writing in spanish (as l1) for business management journals have been reported to omit move 2 (swales, 2004), the rhetorical move whereby authors situate their current research in terms of its significance in the field in ra introductions, more frequently than northamerican researchers writing in english (as l1) in the same field (mur dueñas, 2007). in our view, the absence of an evaluative writing move in the rhetorical structure of ra introductions may be related to the ways in which spanish researchers have tended to be socialised into their corresponding disciplinary communities of practice in castilian-spanish (henceforth spanish). our survey, therefore, ensured that our participants only included spanishspeaking researchers who had been socialised in spanish in a spanish educational context. thus the population for the present survey is defined as those spanish-speaking postdoctoral researchers who have received most of their secondary and pre-doctoral education in spain and in spanish (henceforth spanish researchers). given that this project was one component of a larger study to be carried out in the five institutions participating in the project, we decided to focus on the population of spanish researchers working for these institutions. in april 2010, we applied for the e-mail addresses of all the staff with doctorates at these institutions, obtaining a population of 8,794 postdoctoral researchers. method this section outlines the methodology used to design the survey items intended to answer the research questions posed in the introduction. it also briefly describes the procedures used for validating the questionnaire and implementing the survey. finally, it provides an overall characterization of the valid sample of participants (for fuller details of this methodology, see moreno et al., 2011). spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 163 interviews structured face-to-face interviews (1.5 hours long) were conducted in spanish at three of the institutions with 24 informants who represented a good cross-section in terms of gender, researcher seniority and knowledge area. the aim of these interviews was to validate the relevance of further phases of the project, to identify or confirm relevant variables for inclusion in the survey, and to find the most appropriate register/language for communication with our informants through an online questionnaire. the recorded (with permission) interviews were content analysed to help develop the survey. from our informants’ answers, we were able to confirm that training in erpp was considered to be highly relevant in most fields. in contrast, the need for training in spanish for research publication purposes was only suggested in a few cases. tools following these interviews, we designed a structured online questionnaire (our main tool) comprising thirty-seven questions phrased to avoid leading participants to answer in specific ways and to avoid ambiguities. the questionnaire was divided into several sections that included: 1) personal, professional, demographic, academic and language background; 2) self-reported level of competence in the use of spanish (as l1) and english (as l2); 3) motivations, feelings, views, attitudes toward publishing in english versus spanish, and academic journals preferred; 4) past experience and difficulties with publishing ras; 5) current strategies for writing ras for english-medium journals; and 6) ra writing learning strategies in these two languages, as well as future needs for erpp training. the information thus collected would allow us to carry out more complete needs analyses (dudley-evans & st. john, 1998) of specific groups of informants, as well as in-depth analyses of specific factors affecting writing for publication purposes of eal writers, such as the present one. a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184164 once we had a clean draft, our questionnaire was converted into an online format by means of the limeserver application. it was then hosted on a server to be accessible by means of a password. a covering letter was drafted to announce the survey explaining who we were and our project aims and to ask for recipients’ cooperation in completing the online questionnaire. both documents were written in spanish. the questions (translated from spanish and contained in the appendix to this paper) were posed in the survey to illuminate the particular issues under consideration in the present study. original numbering of the items in the questionnaire has been kept. question no. 25 (q25) was designed to answer research question 1 in our study. as can be seen from its layout in the appendix, instead of measuring perceived increased difficulty in relation to writing an ra as a whole (as in hanauer & englander, 2011), our survey measured perceived difficulty in relation to the various sections of an ra and to the documentation involved in the process of ra publication in spanish (as l1) and in english (as l2). we provided answers on a five-point likert scale with an additional option for those who did not consider each section or document applicable to their individual circumstances. question no. 9 (q9) uses a nominal scale to obtain answers for research question 2 on researchers’ perceptions of difficulty writing ra sections or documents across the disciplinary areas represented in our sample. as our interviews had shown, although there is a need for revision of many unesco codes at the lowest levels of delicacy, they allowed most informants to classify themselves down to the second digit level, that is, at the level of disciplinary area (e.g. life sciences). as the unesco system is widely used, this classification of disciplinary areas opened up the possibility of future comparisons with researchers from other national contexts. question no. 10 (q10) and question no. 11 (q11) were constructed to answer research question 3 on the relative impact of writing proficiency in english (as l2) on spanish researchers’ perception of increased difficulty when writing ras in english. answers were provided on a five-point likert scale. as previous studies have suggested, self-reported measures of proficiency correlate well with “objective” measures (gardner, 1985). moreover, our interviewees had no difficulty plotting their language proficiency on a five-point (very low to very high) scale. they also reported greater confidence in their performance in english for academic purposes than for general purposes and believed that their reading was better than spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 165 their writing and their spoken interaction in english. our survey thus includes an important innovation by operationalizing spanish researchers’ perceived proficiency level according to: a) communication purpose (general versus academic) b) language (spanish versus english); and c) language skill (which we glossed with examples to increase the reliability of informants’ answers). this procedure yielded four categories: spanish for general purposes (sgp), english for general purposes (egp), spanish for academic purposes (sap) and english for academic purposes (eap). it allowed us to better assess informants’ level of proficiency in the variables that interested us most, namely egp and eap writing. finally, question no. 12 (q12), using a ratio scale, also provided answers to question 3 on the relative impact of informants’ level of research publication experience. in order to operationalize this factor, we used the number of ras published as corresponding author as a direct indicator of their research publication experience, and of their probable familiarity with the conventions of ra writing in their disciplines both in spanish and in english writing cultures. from our interviews, we gathered that corresponding authors in most fields would generally be in a better position than other coauthors to report on the writing difficulties involved in the process of ra publication. procedures for validating the questionnaire and implementing the survey the online questionnaire was first validated with experts (both a selection of our interviewees and phase 1 team members other than the authors) and then with a random pilot sample of 200 informants from the eligible population at the five selected spanish institutions. after minor revision, it was administered to the entire population of staff with doctorates (n = 8,794) through the covering letter sent by e-mail. after two reminders, the survey was closed on 15th december 2010. the information retrieved was kept in a database called the eneida database. participants our survey yielded responses from 1,717 spanish postdoctoral researchers. of these, 1,454 (84.7%) met the l1 and educational background criteria we had established; 57.4% came from the research-only institution and 42.6% from the four universities. these varied in size, including one large, one a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184166 medium-sized and two small universities, one of which was bilingual (spanish and catalan). almost two thirds of the sample (63.6%) were male, while over one third (36.4%) were female. their mean age was 46.3 (sd = 8.8) and their mean degree of seniority was 16.2 (sd = 9.5) post-doctoral years. in terms of their academic status, 60.6% (n = 881) of the participants were permanent non-promoted staff, 31.5% (n = 458) were permanent promoted staff, and 7.9% (n = 115) were non-permanent staff. the analyses revealed that only 2% (n = 34) of the respondents reported not having published an article as corresponding author over the preceding ten years. of the rest, 52.3% (n = 742) published in both languages, 38.2% (n = 542) published only in english and 9.6% (n = 36) published only in spanish. the average number of articles published as corresponding author over the preceding ten years was 6.1 in spanish and 16.3 in english but the ranges were very wide (0-100 for spanish; 0-200 for english). it is also noteworthy that 90.1% (n = 1,279) of the informants in the sample reported acting as peer reviewers for at least one journal, principally for english-medium journals. this suggests that most of the informants in our sample are fullyfledged researchers in their fields, who can be assumed to be capable of providing highly reliable information on their perceived difficulties in the ra publication process. the researchers came from the following disciplinary areas ordered by frequency (from higher to lower number of participants): life sciences, technological sciences, chemistry, physics, agricultural sciences, earth and space sciences, history, medical sciences, economics, mathematics, linguistics, psychology, pedagogy, arts and humanities, law, astronomy and astrophysics, sociology, geography, political sciences, philosophy, anthropology, demography, logics and ethics. in the present study, we collapsed the 24 resulting disciplinary areas into four knowledge areas (natural and exact sciences, technological sciences, arts and humanities and social sciences). the result is that over half of the sample (56.2%) come from the natural and exact sciences, 16.9% come from the technological sciences, 16.9% come from the social sciences, 16.3% come from the arts and humanities and 2.5% remain unclassified (having classified themselves into three or more disciplinary areas). descriptive data in relation to most variables in the survey can be seen in moreno et al. (2011). spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 167 results and discussion in order to address the particular issues of the present study, this section presents the analyses of the responses to the survey items previously stated: 1. which sections of the ra are implicated in the perceived increased difficulty in writing ras in english (as l2) as opposed to spanish (as l1)? to ensure that participants were in a position to compare their perceived difficulty writing ras in english (as l2) as opposed to spanish (as l1), for the current study we selected only those who had published at least one ra as corresponding author both in english and in spanish. thus, the initial sample of 1,454 valid participants in our survey was reduced to 742 (52.3%). table 1 shows the means and standard deviations for informants’ perception of the difficulty writing ras in spanish (as l1) and in english (as l2). in order to determine whether the means for this paired sample were systematically different, we applied the student’s t-test, adjusted using the bonferroni correction. values in the same row not sharing the same subscript (a or b) are significantly different at p < 0.05 in the two-sided test of equality for column means. we also added a d-score which calculates the percentage of increased difficulty, following hanauer and englander (2011), in order to be able to compare results. as table 1 shows, spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty writing all the sections in english (as l2) is consistently and statistically significantly a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184168 1 (n = 742) (1 = none; 2 = a little; 3= some; 4 = quite a lot; 5 = a lot) q25. ra article section or publication-related document spanish (as l1) mean (sd) english (as l2) mean (sd) difference d-score (%) abstract 1.66b (0.94) 2.66a (1.17) 20.0% introduction 1.75b (0.94) 2.95a (1.18) 24.0% theoretical framework 1.80b (0.94) 2.95a (1.19) 23.0% materials & methods 1.63b (0.85) 2.52a (1.18) 17.8% results 1.72b (0.90) 2.82a (1.17) 22.0% discussion 1.98b (1.09) 3.43a (1.20) 29.0% other sections 1.66b (0.88) 2.78a (1.22) 22.4% conclusions 1.87b (1.10) 3.01a (1.26) 22.8% acknowledgements 1.25b (0.59) 1.81a (1.06) 11.2% submission letter 1.36b (0.70) 2.19a (1.21) 16.6% response to peer reviewers 1.71b (0.98) 2.92a (1.25) 24.2% correspondence with editor 1.46b (0.81) 2.39a (1.20) 18.6% table 1. difficulty experienced in writing the various sections of ras and publication-related documentation in spanish (as l1) and english (as l2). a higher than the difficulty experienced writing each comparable section in spanish (as l1), as might be expected. the average percentage of increased difficulty writing all the sections as a whole is 21%, this being slightly lower than, but comparable to, the percentage arrived at by hanauer and englander (2011) regarding the ra as one whole block (24%). in order to assess which sections were perceived as relatively more difficult to write within each language, we also calculated the confidence interval for the means of all sections in each language with a confidence level of 95% (see figure 1). as can be seen in figure 1, the degree of perceived difficulty of each comparable ra section across the two languages is very similar relative to other ra sections within the same language, although it is always spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 169 language means (all items) upper limit of the confidence interval lower limit of the interval confidence interval confidence level english l2 2.64 2.71 2.57 95% spanish l1 1.62 1.68 1.57 95% figure 1. spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty writing ra sections or publication-related documents in english (as l2) versus spanish (as l1). a 1,7 1,8 1,8 1,6 1,7 2,0 1,7 1,9 1,3 1,4 1,7 1,5 2,7 2,9 3,0 2,5 2,8 3,4 2,8 3,0 1,8 2,2 2,9 2,4 1,2 1,7 2,2 2,7 3,2 3,7 a bs tra ct in tro du ct io n th eo re tic al fr am ew or k m at er ia ls & m et ho ds r es ul ts d is cu ss io n o th er s ec tio ns c on cl us io ns a ck no w le dg em en ts s ub m is si on le tte r r es po ns e to p ee r r ev ie w er s c or re sp on de nc e w ith e di to r 1 = none; 2 = a little; 3= some; 4 = quite a lot; 5 = a lot lower limit l1 average l1 upper limit l1 lower limit l2 average l2 upper limit l2 significantly greater in english (as l2), as already demonstrated. the sections situated on the peaks, that is those lying outside the confidence interval, are those that show statistically significant differences from a greater number of other sections in the same language. those sections whose means are above the confidence interval can be said to cause the greatest difficulty for spanish researchers when writing ras in english (as l2). they include, in order of difficulty, the discussion, the conclusion, the introduction and the theoretical framework, the response to peer reviewers, the results and other sections. due to their position in the graph, the discussion and the conclusion can be said to be statistically significantly different to the other most difficult ra sections. furthermore, the discussion is the only section whose mean is consistently statistically significantly different to the means of the other most difficult ra sections. 2. does the perception of increased difficulty writing these sections of the ra in english (as l2) vary across knowledge areas? table 2 shows the means and standard deviations for our informants’ perception of the difficulty they felt writing ra sections and publicationrelated documents in english (as l2) across the four knowledge areas. the right-hand column (contrast) shows the result of our comparison. in order to determine whether the means for these four independent samples were systematically different, we also applied the student’s t-test, adjusted using the bonferroni correction. as table 2 shows, not all sections are perceived as equally difficult for spanish researchers across the four knowledge areas. for instance, writing the materials and methods sections is on average perceived as more difficult in the social sciences and in the arts and humanities than in the natural and exact sciences and the technological sciences. also, writing abstracts is perceived as more difficult in the social sciences than in the arts and humanities. in our view, this kind of information will serve to prioritize the design of relevant erpp training resources addressed to spanish researchers in particular knowledge areas. as can be observed, writing the discussion section is considered as the most difficult section for all participants in our sample, since the means for this section are on average systematically higher than the means for the other sections or documents across all knowledge areas. this suggests that resources to train spanish researchers to write discussion sections for english-medium journals in all knowledge areas will be especially relevant. a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184170 one reason for the discussion section being perceived as more difficult for spanish researchers to write in english (as l2) might well be their lower level of proficiency in english (as l2), as suggested by hanauer and englander (2011). in fact, our study hypothesises that the greater the level of proficiency in english (as l2), the lower the researchers’ perception of difficulty writing discussions in english. however, as table 1 demonstrates, the discussion stands out as being 8% more difficult for spanish researchers to write in english (as l2) (29%) than the rest of the ra sections as a whole (21%), relative to spanish (as l1). since the researchers’ level of proficiency in english (l2) is likely to have similar implications for all sections of the ra, it would appear that a factor other than their proficiency level in english must be at work here if we are to account for this extra increase in their perception of the difficulty involved. also, since the informants in our subsample have published at least one ra in each language, the disciplinary factor (swales, 2004) can be discarded as a potential explanation for our results. in our view, a plausible hypothesis to consider is the transfer of the spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 171 2 (n = 742) (1 = none; 2 = a little; 3= some; 4 = quite a lot; 5 = a lot) mean (sd) q25. ra section and document natural and exact sciences (ns) tech. sciences (ts) arts and humanities (ah) social sciences (ss) contrast abstract 2.62a,b (1.16) 2.77a,b (1.09) 2.37a (1.11) 2.85b (1.24) ss > ah introduction 2.81a (1.15) 2.98a,b (1.06) 2.79a (1.19) 3.33b (1.20) ss > (ns, ah) theoretical framework 2.70a (1.14) 2.89a (1.08) 3.11a,b (1.24) 3.51b (1.21) ss > (ns,ts) materials & methods 2.21a (1.06) 2.37a (1.15) 2.99b (1.22) 3.12b (1.17) (ss,ah) > (ns,ts) results 2.62a (1.11) 2.85a (1.11) 2.93a,b (1.25) 3.27b (1.16) ss > (ns,ts) discussion 3.36a (1.21) 3.32a (1.09) 3.19a (1.22) 3.79b (1.18) ss > (ns,ts,ah) other sections 2.51a (1.15) 2.73a,b (1.09) 3.06b,c (1.23) 3.28c (1.25) ss > (ns,ts) ah > ns conclusions 2.86a (1.25) 2.83a (1.19) 2.93a (1.18) 3.55b (1.22) ss > (ns,ts,ah) acknowledgements 1.70a (1.01) 1.76a,b (0.98) 2.00a,b (1.02) 2.05b (1.23) ss > ns submission letter 2.12a (1.19) 2.16a (1.18) 2.24a (1.08) 2.36a (1.27) none response to peer reviewers 2.86a (1.25) 2.97a,b (1.19) 2.44a (1.09) 3.23b (1.26) ss > (ns,ah) correspondence with editor 2.28a (1.17) 2.41a,b (1.18) 2.19a,b (1.03) 2.66b (1.28) ss > ns table 2. perceived difficulty writing the various sections of ras and publication-related documents in english (as l2) by knowledge area. a researchers’ l1 critical attitude in research publication contexts (moreno, 2010), for the following reasons. introductions and discussions have been identified by researchers in academic writing in english as those ra sections where readers need to be persuaded that the research is “sound, significant, and worthy of publication” (flowerdew, 1999: 259). as swales and feak (2004: 112) also explain, discussions or “data commentaries,” as they call them, “are exercises in positioning yourself ”. some common purposes of discussion sections these authors mention include the following: assessing standard theory, common beliefs, or general practice in light of the given data; comparing and evaluating different data sets; and discussing the implications of the data, among others. all of these purposes involve using critical thinking strategies and the use of subtle evaluative text resources. on the other hand, previous studies of academic discourse have demonstrated that spanish researchers tend to be less critical when evaluating the literature in their field in academic public settings than expected. for instance, in their study of the changes made to the initial version of an ra submitted by a full professor to an english-medium journal in educational psychology for publication, burgess, fumero pérez and díaz galán (2005) noted that one of the problems the writer had was that he had not articulated his contribution to the field clearly. as later discussed in moreno (2010), this professor’s problem was caused by his reluctance to criticize earlier work in the field and foreground his own contribution. the reluctance on the part of spanish researchers to be critical of earlier work is also shown by various contrastive studies of englishspanish academic discourse. for example, this is shown to happen consistently throughout all ra article sections in the field of business management (mur, 2007) and in literary academic book reviews (moreno & suárez, 2008). given the differences found in the critical attitude of spanish researchers towards previous academic works, and their own findings, it appears that a lack of critical attitude and/or a lack of positioning are more acceptable in the eyes of spanish-medium journal gatekeepers than they are to those with editorial control of comparable english-medium journals. this is likely to reflect an l1 rhetorical practice into which spanish researchers have been more or less implicitly socialised. we surmise that this rhetorical practice may have been unconsciously transferred to their writing of ras in english (as a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184172 l2), causing them to face some unexpected woes in the publication process, which is likely to affect their perception of increased difficulty writing discussions in english (as l2). thus in the present study we also hypothesise that the more familiar spanish researchers are with the conventions of the ra genre in english-medium journals (including the display of an appropriate critical attitude towards their own and others’ previous work) the less difficult they will find it to write discussions in english (as l2). in order to assess this effect better, we will compare it with the effects of familiarity with this genre in spanish-medium journals and with the effects of proficiency level in english (as l2), both egp and eap. 3. what is the relative impact of the researchers’ writing proficiency in english (as l2) versus their research publication experience on their perception of difficulty writing the discussion section in english? to explore this third question, we used the responses from the complete valid sample of informants (n = 1,454) in order to include both those informants who had research publication experience as corresponding authors and those who did not. in order to assess the relevance of distinguishing between writing proficiency in egp and eap, table 3 shows the means for informants’ proficiency in the two languages according to the two domains of communication purposes under consideration and language skill. to compare means, we also applied the student’s t-test, adjusted using the bonferroni correction. spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 173 q10-q11 1 = very low 2 = low 3 = medium 4 = high 5 = very high n = 1454 sgp egp sap eap contrast language skills mean (sd) mean (sd) mean (sd) mean (sd) listening 4.98 (0.157) 3.31 (1.035) 4.96 (0.228) 3.73 (1.070) (1) (2) (3) speaking 4.96 (0.224) 3.37 (1.046) 4.93 (0.300) 3.51 (1.115) (1) (2) (3) interacting 4.94 (0.282) 3.21 (1.100) 4.92 (0.322) 3.38 (1.155) (1) (2) (3) reading 4.98 (0.175) 4.18 (0.863) 4.97 (0.216) 4.45 (0.834) (1) (2) (3) writing 4.93 (0.293) 3.54 (1.055) 4.92 (0.327) 3.64 (1.135) (1) (2) (3) corresponding with editors, reviewers 4.93 (0.318) 3.83 (1.069) (2) contrast: (1) sgp > egp; (2) sap > eap; (3) eap > egp table 3. perceived level of proficiency in the use of sgp, egp, sap and eap. a t i as can be seen, the means for each skill in english (as l2) are consistently lower than those for each comparable skill in spanish (as l1) in both domains, as might be expected. in particular, spanish researchers perceive their level of proficiency writing in eap as 25.6% (1.28 points) lower than their level of proficiency writing in sap, the difference being statistically significant (for p < 0.05). in addition, our informants’ level of proficiency in egp for each skill is on average statistically significantly lower than their level of proficiency in eap (for p < 0.05), as is often mentioned. of all the variables in table 3, we selected writing proficiency in egp and in eap as the most relevant to our study. the model we tested was one that had the dependent variable as spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty writing ra discussions in english (as l2), and the four independent variables as: 1) their perceived level of proficiency writing in egp; 2) their perceived level of proficiency writing in eap; 3) the number of ras they had published as corresponding authors in spanish (as l1); and 4) the number of articles they had published as corresponding authors in english (as l2). we conducted categorical regression analysis (catreg) using data drawn from these four variables provided by the informants that answered our question about the dependent variable (n = 1,284). our results show that all independent variables included in the model are significant as explained by its standardized beta coefficient (proficiency in egp β= -.155, p < 0.000; proficiency in eap β= -.350, p < 0.000; number of articles in english β =-.087, p = 0.000) except for the number of articles in spanish (β = 0.061, p = 0.214). the model is significant (anova p < 0.000) and 24.3% of the variance in the dependent variable is explained by the independent variables (adjusted r square = 0.243). in order to graphically represent and compare the effects of all the variables included in this analysis, their values were typified so that the average was zero and the standard deviation was one. then, ranges were automatically assigned by the statistical program, under the following statistical assumptions: given that we chose five range categories in order to fit the five-point likert-type scale of the “writing proficiency” variables, the catreg performed an optimal partition of the “publication experience” variables in order to find the five categories maximizing the correlation among variables. thus those researchers who are within the same, but not necessarily regular, range in number of published ras experience on average similar levels of difficulty, however large the range may seem. the points on the curves in figure 2 below show where noticeable changes can be observed in the slopes. a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184174 as shown in figure 2, increases in value of the four independent variables are associated with decreases in the level of the dependent variable. however, relative to each other, spanish researchers’ perceived level of proficiency writing in eap exerted the greatest negative influence (β = -.350) on perceived difficulty writing ra discussions in english (as l2), followed by their perceived level of proficiency writing in egp. however, neither of these effects becomes noticeable until informants report high or very high levels of proficiency in english (as l2) (values 4 and 5). thus, the disadvantage that spanish researchers perceive in the research publication world relative to native speakers of english (ferguson, pérez-llantada & plo, 2011) is justified. importantly, the effect of self-reported level of proficiency writing in eap is more noticeable and gradual than that of egp. spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 175 -0,6 -0,4 -0,2 0,0 0,2 0,4 0,6 1 2 3 4 5 dependent variable: perceived difficulty writing ra discussions in english (as l2) writing proficiency in eap writing proficiency in egp n. of articles in spanish n. of articles in english independent variables: writing proficiency in eap and writing proficiency in egp: 1 = very low; 2 = low; 3 = medium; 4 = high; 5 = very high n. of articles in spanish over the last ten years: 1= 0-3 articles; 2 = 4-9 articles; 3 = 10-15 articles; 4 = 16-23 articles; 24-100 articles n. of articles in english over the last ten years: 1= 0-9 articles; 2 = 10-22 articles; 3 = 23-36 articles; 4 = 37-53 articles; 54-200 articles figure 2. effects of writing proficiency versus research publication experience on spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty writing ra discussions in english (as l2). a n 2 = 4 24-100 articles 2 = 10-22 articles; 3 = 23-36 articles; 4 because our informants’ average level of proficiency writing in eap is 3.64, it might then be productive for them to attend specific eap training sessions that allow them to improve their proficiency writing ras in english and thus experience a notable decrease in their perceived difficulty. as figure 2 also shows, the number of articles published in english-medium journals does contribute significantly (β = -.087), though to a lesser extent than proficiency writing in english (as l2). however, it is only when informants report having published at least 37 ras as corresponding author in english-medium journals over the preceding ten years (values 4-5) that they experience on average a noticeable decrease in their perceived difficulty writing discussions in english. since the number of ras published in spanish exerted an insignificant influence, it may be said that the type of publication experience that provides spanish researchers with an additional understanding of disciplinary conventions, going beyond the benefits of a better command of written english (whether eap or egp) and general familiarity with disciplinary conventions, is publication experience in english-medium journals. it is this additional understanding which might help them to lessen the potentially negative effects of transfer of certain l1 scientific writing rhetorical habits, such as their lower tendency to be critical. because our informants have written on average 16.3 ras for english-medium journals over the preceding ten years, their publication experience does not seem to be enough to achieve the benefits. this may also partly explain why they find it 8% more difficult to write ra discussions in english. spanish researchers might therefore benefit from increased awareness of the existing differences in the rhetoric and style of successful ra discussions across englishand spanish-medium journals, as proposed in moreno (2010). conclusions one major contribution of our survey study is that it has identified the discussion section as the most implicated in the increased difficulty perceived by spanish researchers writing ras in english (as l2) as opposed to spanish (as l1) across all knowledge areas. although these results are similar to those reported by flowerdew (1999) on the basis of 26 interviews with chinese researchers, they are more robust, given our more systematic data collection and rigorous analytical procedures and the considerably larger sample of a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184176 researchers under study. in our search for explanations, our innovative comparative approach has also made an important contribution to an ongoing debate in academic writing research by clarifying the relative impact of the level of writing proficiency in english (as l2) versus ra publication experience on spanish researchers’ increased difficulty writing ras discussions in english (as l2). our findings suggest that the factor that most contributes to reducing spanish researchers’ perception of increased difficulty writing ra discussions in english is their increased level of proficiency writing in eap. the effect of this factor is more noticeable and gradual than that of greater level of proficiency writing in egp. these results, on the whole, clearly support hanauer and englander’s (2011) conclusion that the level of proficiency in english (as l2) is a more influential factor than familiarity with the disciplinary conventions of scientific writing. however, as we have argued, our results are more robust, refined and specific. one clear pedagogical implication is that it would be more productive for spanish researchers to attend eap training sessions, with a special emphasis on writing ra discussions, than egp courses. we have also argued that spanish researchers’ lower level of proficiency in english (as l2) cannot be cited as the sole factor in the additional increase in their perception of the difficulty involved in writing ra discussions in english (as l2). those who have more extensive publication experience in english-medium journals seem to have an additional understanding of disciplinary conventions in the ra genre in english-medium journals that goes beyond the benefits of a better command of written english (whether eap or egp) and, surprisingly, of increased familiarity with disciplinary conventions in the ra genre in spanish-medium journals. thus, based on moreno’s (2010) hypothesis about the likely transfer of spanish researchers’ tendency to be less critical toward their own and others’ previous work in similar l1 research publication contexts, it is possible to suggest that increased publication experience in english may have helped spanish researchers to offset the negative effects of transfer of this and other l1 rhetorical and stylistic features when writing ras in english (as l2). further research will need to clarify whether transfer of such features does indeed occur, causing spanish researchers with less publication experience in english to encounter unexpected woes in the process of ra publication in english-medium journals. if that were the case, eap training sessions spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 177 specifically designed for spanish researchers should raise their awareness of the identified differences as early in their research career as possible so that they do not need to wait until they have published such a large number of ras in english to be able to reap the benefits. lastly, our findings need to be treated with some caution as they are based on spanish researchers’ selfreported perceptions of difficulty rather than on direct observations of their woes. be that as it may, the way forward in designing future multiple case studies of the actual woes encountered by given profiles of spanish researchers when writing ra discussions in english (as l2) is now much clearer. acknowledgements this study is part of a project financed by the spanish ministry of science and innovation (ref.: ffi2009-08336/filo), of which ana i. moreno is the pi. it would not have been possible without the collaboration of the following institutions and researchers: consejo superior de investigaciones científicas (csic); universidad de león; universidad de la laguna, pedro martín-martín; universitat jaume i, mª lluisa gea valor; universidad de zaragoza, rosa lorés, pilar mur and enrique lafuente; the following technical staff (josé manuel rojo, belén garzón and almudena mata) from the statistical analysis service at the csic; centro de supercomputación de galicia (cesga); our interview informants and all the survey participants. 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(1997). the future of english? a guide to forecasting the popularity of the english language in the 21st century. london: british council. hanauer, d.i. & k. englander (2011). “quantifying the burden of writing research articles in a second language: data from mexican scientists”. written communication 28: 403-416. harwood, n. & g. hadley (2004). demystifying institutional practices: critical pragmatism and the teaching of academic writing. english for specific purposes 23: 355-377. hyland, k. (2000). disciplinary discourses. england: pearson education. hyland, k. & f. salager-meyer (2008). “scientific writing”. annual review of information science and technology 42: 297-338. kaplan, r.b. (1966). “cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education”. language learning 16: 120. lillis, t. & m.j. curry (2006). “professional academic writing by multilingual scholars: interactions with literacy brokers in the production of english medium texts”. written communication 23: 3-35. lillis, t. & m.j. curry (2010). academic writing in a global context: the politics and practices of publishing in english. london: routledge. man, j.p., j.g. weinkauf, m. tsang & d.d. sin (2004). “why do some countries publish more than others? an international comparison of research funding, english proficiency and publication output in highly ranked general medical journals”. european journal of epidemiology 19: 811-817. mauranen, a. (1993). “contrastive esp rhetoric: metatext in finnish-english economics texts”. english for specific purposes 12: 3-22. moreno, a.i. (1998). “the explicit signalling of premise-conclusion sequences in research articles: a contrastive framework”. text 18: 545-585. moreno, a.i. (2008). “the importance of comparing comparable corpora in cross-cultural studies” in u. connor, e. nagelhout & w. rozycki (eds.), contrastive rhetoric: reaching to intercultural rhetoric, 25-41. amsterdam: john benjamins. moreno, a.i. (2010). “researching into english for research publication purposes from an applied intercultural perspective” in m.f. ruiz-garrido, j.c. palmer-silveira & i. fortanet-gómez (eds.), english for professional and academic purposes, 57-71. amsterdam: rodopi. moreno, a.i. (2011). “english for research publication purposes and crosscultural academic discourse analysis” in m. borham puyal, m.j. fernández gil, s. bautista martín, b. garcía riaza, j. ruano garcía, m.j. díez garcía & p. álvarez mosquera (eds.), current trends in anglophone studies: cultural, linguistic and literary research, 53-69. salamanca: ediciones universidad de salamanca. moreno, a.i. (2012). “the communication problems of spanish researchers to get research articles published in applied linguistics englishmedium journals: proposal and analysis”. url: https://buleria.unileon.es/handle/10612/1756 [06/06/12] moreno, a.i. (forthcoming 2012). “intercultural rhetoric in language for specific purposes” in c.a. chapelle (ed.), the encyclopedia of applied linguistics. oxford: wiley-blackwell. moreno, a.i., j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, p. martínmartín, mªl. gea-valor, i. lópez-navarro, garzón, b. & i. sachdev. (2011). “spanish researchers publishing in scientific journals: motivations, views, strategies, experiences and training needs”. url: https://buleria.unileon.es/handle/10612/1757 [06/06/12] ana i. moreno, senior lecturer in english at the universidad de león (spain), is the director of the eneida (spanish team for intercultural studies on academic discourse) research group. her research interests concern english for academic purposes, needs analysis, writing difficulties, intercultural rhetoric and genre analysis. jesús rey-rocha is senior researcher in the research group on scientific evaluation and transfer, consejo superior de investigaciones científicas (csic). his current research lines include the dynamics, attitudes and motivations of scientists in relation to science communication and the public communication of science. sally burgess is a lecturer in english at the universidad de la laguna and a member of the eneida team. her main research interests are crosscultural rhetoric, the contribution of language professionals to the preparation of research publications and the teaching of writing in the university context. irene lópez-navarro is an assistant researcher in the research group on scientific evaluation and transfer, spanish council for scientific research (csic). her exploration topics are focused on the perception of science and public communication of science and technology. she was hired by the universidad de león to do technical work for phase 1 of the eneida project. a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184180 moreno, a.i. & l. suárez (2008). “a study of critical attitude across english and spanish academic book reviews”. journal of english for academic purposes 7: 15-26. mur dueñas, p. (2007). a contribution to the intercultural analysis of metadiscourse in business management research articles in english and in spanish: a corpus-driven approach. unpublished doctoral dissertation, universidad de zaragoza, zaragoza. pérez-llantada, c., r. plo, g. ferguson & r. gibson (2010). ‘‘‘you don’t say what you know, only what you can’: the perceptions and practices of senior spanish academics regarding research dissemination in english”. english for specific purposes 30: 18-30. rey, j., m.j. martín sempere, l.m. plaza, j.j. ibáñez & i. méndez (1998). ‘‘changes on publishing behaviour in response to research policy guidelines: the case of the spanish research council in the field of agronomy’’. scientometrics 41: 101-111. salager-meyer, f. (1999). “from ‘‘mr. guthrie is profoundly mistaken...’’ to ‘‘our data do not seem to confirm the results of a previous study on...’’: a diachronic study of polemicity in academic writing (1810-1995)”. ibérica 1: 5-28. st. john, m.j. (1987). “writing processes of spanish scientists publishing in english”. english for specific purposes 6: 113-120. swales, j. (2002). “integrated and fragmented worlds: eap materials and corpus linguistics” in j. flowerdew (ed.), academic discourse, 151-164. bern: pearson education. swales, j.m. (2004). research genres: explorations and applications. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. & c.b feak (2004). academic writing for graduate students. ann arbor: the university of michigan press. itesh sachdev, professor of language and communication at the school of oriental & african studies, university of london, is the president of the international association of language and social psychology. his research lies in the social psychology of language and intergroup relations, with a special focus on attitudes and identity. spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 181 appendix: questions from online questionnaire (originally written in spanish) a.i. moreno, j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópez-navarro & i. sachdev ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184182 q25. indicate how much difficulty you experience in writing the following sections of research articles or the documentation involved in their publication in spanish and in english. use the following scale: 1 = none; 2= a little; 3 = some; 4 = quite a lot; 5 = a lot in spanish in english 1 2 3 4 5 n/a 1 2 3 4 5 n/a 1. the abstract 2. the introduction 3. the theoretical framework 4. the materials and methods 5. the results 6. the discussion 7. other sections 8. the conclusions 9. the acknowledgements 10. the letter accompanying the articles when it is sent to the journal 11. the response to peer reviewers’ comments. 12. the correspondence with the editor during the evaluation process 13. other: (please specify) ____________ (please specify) _________________ (please specify) _________________ q9. what is your research field? please indicate this using one or more of the unesco codes in the scrolldown menus. choose the code or codes that best fits your research area. spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty ibérica 24 (2012): 157-184 183 q10. what is your level of competence in the use of spanish and english for general purposes? please use the following scale: 1 = very low 2 = low 3 = medium 4 = high 5 = very high spanish english 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1. listening e.g. understanding tv and radio programmes 2. speaking e.g. describing events, giving instructions 3. interacting e.g. discussing topics of general interest 4. reading e.g. reading newspapers and popular science magazines 5. writing e.g. writing short stories, personal letters and letters of complaint. q11. what is your level of competence in the use of spanish and english for academic purposes? please use the following scale: 1 = very low 2 = low 3 = medium 4 = high 5 = very high spanish english 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1. listening e.g. understanding lectures 2. speaking e.g. giving papers at conferences 3. interacting e.g. asking and responding to questions at a conference 4. reading e.g. reading articles about my research field 5. writing e.g. writing research articles and book chapters e.g. corresponding with editors and peer reviewers q12. please give the number of scientific articles you have published as corresponding author in each language over the last ten years. number of articles a. spanish b. english c. other languages (please specify)____________ (please specify)____________ iberica 13 ibérica 23 (2012): 173-182 issn 1139-7241 abstract english is the language of research and scholarship as attested by the bulk of scientific articles published in international journals and by its adoption in scholarly meetings and in higher education. in countries where english is a foreign language, the role of english as a contact language must inform university syllabi and language lecturers should aim at familiarizing students with the academic genres pertaining to their field of study. to date, veterinary medicine has not attracted analysts’ attention and is an underrepresented field in genre analysis studies. to fill in part this gap, a survey was conducted among a group of veterinary pathologists – considered as a community of practice – on the academic written genres to be used in university curricula. results, shared to call attention on english as a foreign language education in veterinary medicine, show that respondents deem case-reports and monographs the genres to be used in english language courses; additionally, some respondents highlighted that language teachers should develop presentation skills to give talks at international conferences. keywords: veterinary medicine, academic genres, lingua franca english, discourse analysis. resumen ¿cuáles son los géneros académicos escritos que los veterinarios sugieren a sus alumnos de inglés académico? la lengua inglesa es la lengua de la investigación y la erudición, como así lo testifica el grueso de artículos científicos publicados en revistas internacionales y su uso en reuniones académicas y en la educación superior. en aquellos países en what written academic genres do veterinary pathologists suggest for eap students? eugenio cianflone university of messina (italy) ecianflone@unime.it 173 ibérica 23 (2012): 173-182 eugenio cianflone los que el inglés es la lengua extranjera, los programas docentes universitarios deben tenerlo en cuenta y los profesores de lengua deben conseguir que los alumnos se familiaricen con los géneros académicos pertinentes en su ámbito de estudio. hasta la fecha la medicina veterinaria no ha sido objeto de atención por parte de los investigadores lingüistas y tiene poca representación en los estudios de análisis de género. para cubrir en parte esta carencia, se ha realizado una encuesta entre un grupo de veterinarios (entendidos como comunidad discursiva) sobre los géneros académicos que a su juicio deben implementarse en los planes docentes universitarios. los resultados demuestran que los informes de casos y las monografías constituyen los géneros que deben utilizarse en los cursos de inglés y, junto a esto, que los profesores de lengua deberían desarrollar destrezas que guarden relación con las presentaciones orales en congresos internacionales. palabras clave: medicina veterinaria, géneros académicos, inglés como lengua franca, análisis del discurso. introduction state of the art in applied linguistics reckons the role of english as the international language of science and of scientific communication (sano, 2002; jenkins, 2007; hyland, 2009). this function is widely documented by the bulk of scientific articles published in international journals and authored by non-native speakers, by its use in international symposia and as the medium of phd theses and of university post-graduate courses in many european countries (ferguson, 2007). in publishing, this tendency has long been studied and results show that in the biomedical field english has reached a predominant role. researchers have, in fact, stressed that the number of scholarly articles written in english shifted from 72.2% in 1980 to 88.6% of published papers in 1996 (benfield & howard, 2000) with an exponential increase along the years that is now attested well beyond the 90% threshold (hyland, 2009). the rationale behind the “success” of english in academic settings can be ascribed to institutional constraints asking for the widest visibility of results within the international community (swales, 2004; hyland, 2009) and to the need of information access, data storage and results retrieval from online databases and scholarly indexes (tardy, 2004), a goal easily obtained by the worldwide use of a common language shared by speakers of different countries and linguistic backgrounds. 174 the role of english as the language of scientific communication asks for a change in contemporary ideas on its value: proficiency in english is not an optional accomplishment but it is necessary to access texts, to write and to communicate research results among peers (ferguson, 2007). this concept of text accessibility is of paramount importance for educational purposes since non-native speakers professionals are required to make use of a literature increasingly published by the english medium. this means that in english as a foreign language (efl) countries, university syllabi should consider not only general linguistic proficiency – in terms of basic grammar and basic written and spoken communicative or interactional skills – but should also aim at developing field specific literacy. this should be pivoted on the written practices – that is on the genres –, which define a given academic community and its writing conventions acknowledged by its members to provide and spread information (swales, 2004; hyland, 2007). the genre-based pedagogy offers efl students many educational benefits as it can lead to proficiency in the foreign language itself by raising rhetorical awareness of the written texts (see tardy (2006) for a review); this last ability can help learners locate information when reading for study purposes and can assist content-knowledge transfer beyond the language classroom (tardy, 2006) to develop some textual schemata for the world of work (hyland, 2007). the survey the impact of “anglicization” in publishing is well documented in many scientific fields, and educational materials are available to efl practitioners lecturing on english for academic purposes (eap) in fields such as biology, business, chemistry, economics or medicine (see dudley-evans & st. john, 1998; swales, 2004; hyland 2006). to this author’s knowledge, little attention has so far been paid to the impact of english in veterinary medicine and little is available on this branch of medicine to help english language practitioners shape university courses for veterinary doctors. the only existing data on the use of this language among vets and on some genres pertaining to the veterinary field are those published by civr (comitato di indirizzo per la valutazione della ricerca), and the results from a survey among the faculty members of an italian university (cianflone, macrì & mazzullo, 2009). what written academic genres ibérica 23 (2012): 173-182 175 civr is the italian research review body appointed by the italian ministry of university and research to evaluate the activity of the italian scientific community. the committee asks italian researchers, from academia and from national research bodies, to confer data on their scientific output along a given period. results from this survey offer a snapshot of the quality of the italian scientific productivity organized around 20 different disciplinary sectors, from aeronautics to medical science (civr, 2007). the figures for the agricultural and veterinary field depict a situation where more than 95% of results are published in english with a strong inclination for journal articles (civr, 2007), without any further specification on the type of written texts (that is, research papers, reports, review articles, editorials or case-reports) chosen by veterinary scholars to spread results. the second study on veterinary medicine in eap contexts is an investigation implemented among the members of the department of public health of one faculty of veterinary medicine (cianflone, macrì & mazzullo, 2009). respondents, all academics specialized in different disciplinary veterinary sectors, were asked, via a written questionnaire, to indicate the most important academic written genres for future vets. results showed that the case-report, the research article and books, with a 37%, 25% and 24% of preferences, respectively, were considered the most educational genres. the role of english as the lingua franca of international scientific communication highlighted by the above mentioned surveys has a strong impact on veterinary students’ education because data suggest that proficiency in english can serve two purposes: to acquire independent access to the english-medium literature for study purposes – that is to read english texts for an exam or for the end-of-course dissertation, and to develop reading skills to keep in touch with the latest medical trends or up-to-date literature once in the profession. in other words, the two surveys indicate that an important educational objective is to consider students as “consumers” and/or “producers” (tardy, 2004; hüttner, 2008) of the academic english texts related to the writing practices of the veterinary community. to reach this educational goal, that is to shape language courses tailor-cut on the needs evidenced above, the discussion should involve an analysis of the genres peculiar to the veterinary field, as stressed by current practice in eap education in university settings (see jordan, 1997; dudleyevans & st. john, 1998; basturkmen, 2006). results are better achieved if help from field specialists (dudley-evans & st. john, 1998) is sought – that is, from those facing this “anglicized” trend in their everyday practice. eugenio cianflone ibérica 23 (2012): 173-182176 outcomes from this search are highly wished for in the literature concerning the organization of language courses based on specific educational needs, because hints from the inside can assist in developing courses truly shaped around learners’ necessities (dudley-evans & st. john, 1998). moreover, this type of collaboration can avoid what has been called the “language teacher dilemma” (wu & badger, 2009) when dealing with content topics far from language teachers’ education, typically revolving around english language teaching theories and practice, as can be the case of veterinary english. to elicit the written genres peculiar to the community of veterinary pathologists to design a syllabus in line with the globalised requests of academia, that is to make students consumers and/or producers of academic english texts, and because of the lack of studies in the efl/eap literature specifically devoted to the veterinary field, some academics of one italian faculty of veterinary medicine were consulted. to this aim, all the members of the department of veterinary pathology at the university of messina, considered as representatives of a community of practice, as indicated by swales (2004), were interviewed on the issue of lingua franca english and on the specific written genres pertaining to their group and used by them to communicate findings. the notion of community of practice is very important in today’s globalised research settings, since any community consists of a set of people using language to achieve common interactional purposes like the exchange of information, the spreading of results or the reporting of work-in-progress (swales, 1990 & 2004). communities, as evidenced by analysts, tend to develop their own interactional style, consisting of a sort of slang made up of abbreviations and acronyms, together with linguistic collocations and connotations (swales, 1990), circumstantiated by the use of specific written and oral practices typified in written and spoken genres (swales, 2004; hyland, 2007 & 2009). these genres should be recognized by language teachers and exploited in their eap classes to let future practitioners be active members of their communities. the questionnaire to gather the data for this pilot study, the face-to face interview was deemed a suitable means of enquiry because a direct approach is likely to produce a relaxed and fruitful atmosphere among respondents involved in students’ education but not aware of efl teaching issues. what written academic genres ibérica 23 (2012): 173-182 177 the questions were of three types. the first aimed at outlining the personal involvement of the subjects with lingua franca english; it, therefore, consisted of general questions on the respondents’ status inside the faculty, on study or exchange visits abroad, on the number of papers published in english in international peer-refereed journals and on attendance at international meetings with english as the official working language. the second part of the interview aimed at eliciting the informants’ opinion on the language skills to be developed in courses in tertiary settings, namely spoken or written language expertise, reading and comprehension of academic texts and pronunciation skills. the last part, and the core of the research, replicating the only available questionnaire on veterinary efl teaching practice, discussed in cianflone, macrì and mazzullo (2009), asked interviewees to indicate the most suitable academic genres to be exploited for veterinary students, namely case-reports, research articles and monographs. prior permission was asked to the director of the department, who was informed on the scope of the research; the matter was discussed in a department meeting and formal authorization to proceed was granted. respondents’ anonymity was guaranteed to all participants as the main aim of the research was to consider answers as the expression of ideas from a whole group of academics on the issue of english as the lingua franca in the scientific domain. results no quantitative data are given here because they are outside the aims of the survey and because of the limited number of respondents; nevertheless, considering the small sample and the preliminary feature of the research, important insights were obtained from this pilot survey among the members of a circumscribed community, never interviewed before on such topics for efl and eap educational purposes. as concerns the unit of pathology, this section consists of three professors, four researchers and many post-graduate and phd students. these last two groups were not considered in the survey because given their learner position, that is as academics/practitioners to be, their ideas on lingua franca english would not be regarded as full-grown enough for the research purposes. therefore, the surveyed sample consisted of the seven academics forming the backbone of the unit. eugenio cianflone ibérica 23 (2012): 173-182178 from responses to the first question, the unit is very active on academic research and publishing in english with a mean average of 70 works printed in international peer-reviewed journals. the younger members were abroad for study purposes in foreign research institutions of outstanding importance to complete their education and they all attend international conferences, both as speakers and as chairmen, on a regular basis. for the present research goals, this involvement in using english on-the-field, both in italy and abroad, implies that their answers were sustained by a direct linguistic concern and have, therefore, a strong face value to define the language needs of a small community whose research efforts are strongly rooted within the globalised group of veterinary pathologists. the results of the second question evidenced how all the interviewed pathologists deemed reading and writing the most important skills to be developed in efl classes. this result is not surprising as this behavior probably mirrors the respondents’ practices revolving around access to literature in english for research purposes and the dissemination of findings in the same language. pronunciation was not considered at all, while the spoken skill was indicated by two respondents only and was connected to the ability of presenting a paper at international meetings. as regards the academic written genres to be exploited for educational purposes, that is the last question in the survey, case-reports and monographs ranked the highest, as they were indicated by all respondents. the other genre in the list, that is the research article, got a lower preference because it was considered a written type to be used in phd courses. the two most preferred academic genres emerging from the present pilot survey resemble those outlined in a similar staff assessment elicited for science students at a south african university (jackson, meyer & parkinson, 2006) where the written forms suggested by the academic professionals were laboratory reports and books. the former was considered a good medium to exhibit the knowledge acquired at lectures and through the suggested reading of the course. considering the results from the south african report and those highlighted by the investigation among the members of the department of public health (cianflone, macrì & mazzullo, 2009), the written academic genres elicited in the present survey are foreseeable because pathologists as a community center their medical research activity on the study of cases and are accustomed to compare and to contrast their findings with monographs or previous cases discussed in the literature. as a what written academic genres ibérica 23 (2012): 173-182 179 consequence, they are used to unfold their results through case-reports and, therefore, deem this medium of paramount importance to future veterinary practitioners. discussion clear educational suggestions for language educators working in university contexts emanate from this pilot survey among veterinary pathologists: casereports and monographs are the genres to build language courses on to increase eap proficiency and to foster the acquisition of the written genres peculiar to a given community of practice. results are not surprising since case-reports are considered the cornerstone of medicine (vandenbroucke, 1999). as a genre which examines a case, or a number of cases, and describes clinical praxis and decision-making, it ensures an important educational message, because this written academic text-type summarizes past and present care and suggests gaps by sharing innovative management plans (aitken & marshall, 2007) or groundbreaking techniques whose application can later be used in human medicine. case-reports, therefore, have a strong educational value in present day evidence-based medical practice, both for students and for medical practitioners as part of their life-long learning. monographs, on the other hand, are the means by which the basics of a discipline can be acquired as they embody disciplinary “truths and current areas of professional activity” (hyland, 2009: 114), and, therefore, are considered important educational devices to build field specific knowledge in terms of basic disciplinary concepts and scientific methods pertaining to a given community (hyland, 2009). an interesting issue emerged from the present survey is the attention to be paid to oral expertise in english. although indicated by a minority of respondents, and strictly related to international conferences, the presentation skill should not be put aside by any language course designer, because conference attendance plays today an important role in the spreading of research findings. symposia, in fact, are a common means to unfold results within the community of peers, thus claiming one’s own research space and territory (ventola, shalom & thompson, 2002; rowleyjolivet & carter-thomas, 2005). eugenio cianflone ibérica 23 (2012): 173-182180 conclusion the context of this survey, while acknowledging the worldwide share of english for some veterinary pathologists, originated from the need to define the educational objectives of english language courses for veterinary students in efl countries. the present research is not without limitations which mainly have to do with the small number of respondents and the local environment from which it originated. findings are, nevertheless, important as they are the first to provide both general and specific insights to be developed by future research on eap teaching issues in specific efl educational contexts. as concerns the former, this study is the first to have elicited responses from non-native english speaking veterinary pathologists – as members of a well defined community of practice – on the role this language plays in their research activities and how it impacts their academic proceedings. the latter insight mainly regards the written genres to be used in eap veterinary courses, namely case-reports and monographs. further studies will ameliorate the overall knowledge of pathologists’ point of view on lingua franca issues and should involve a larger sample of informants, possibly from different eap institutions and from different efl countries. [paper received 8 july 2011] [revised paper accepted 10 december 2011] references what written academic genres ibérica 23 (2012): 173-182 181 aitken, l.m. & a.p. marshall (2007). “writing a case study: ensuring a meaningful contribution to the literature”. australian critical care 20: 132136. basturkmen, h. (2006). ideas and options in english for specific purposes. mahwah, n.j.: lawrence erlbaum. benfield, j. & k. howard (2000). “the language of science”. european journal of cardio-thoracic surgery 18: 642-648. cianflone, e., f. macrì & g. mazzullo (2009). “l’inglese veterinario nella formazione moderna”. 30 giorni 2: 38-39. civr may 2007 executive summary, vtr 20012003. url: http://vtr2006.cineca.it [05/14/09]. dudley-evans t. & m.j. st. john (1998). developments in english for specific purposes. cambridge: cambridge university press. ferguson, g. (2007). “the global spread of english, scientific communication and esp: questions of equity, access and domain loss”. iberica 13: 7-38. hüttner, j. (2008). “the genre(s) of student writing: developing writing models”. international journal of applied linguistics 12: 146-165. hyland, k. (2006). english for academic purposes. an advanced resource book. london: routledge. hyland, k. (2007). “genre pedagogy: language, literacy and l2 writing instruction”. journal of second language writing 16: 148-164. hyland, k. (2009). academic discourse. london: continuum. jackson, l., w. meyer & j. parkinson (2006). “a study of the writing tasks and reading assigned to undergraduate science students at a south african university”. english for specific purposes 25: 260281. jenkins, j. (2007). english as a lingua franca: eugenio cianflone teaches efl and esp for the interuniversity degree in gastronomic sciences and eap for the phd in veterinary sciences and in food-andwine sciences at the university of messina (italy). his research interests include lsp in veterinary medicine and in food science, syllabus design and content based instruction. eugenio cianflone ibérica 23 (2012): 173-182182 attitude and identity. oxford: oxford university press. jordan, r. (1997). english for academic purposes. cambridge: cambridge university press. rowley-jolivet, e. & s. carter-thomas (2005). “the rhetoric of conference presentation introductions: context, argument and interaction”. international journal of applied linguistics 15: 4370. sano, h. (2002). “the world’s lingua franca of science”. english today 18:45-49. swales, j. (2004). research genres. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. tardy, c.m. (2004). “the role of english in scientific communication: lingua franca or tyrannosaurus rex?” journal of english for academic purposes 3: 247-269. tardy, c.m. (2006). “researching first and second language learning: a comparative review and a look ahead”. journal of second language writing 15: 79-101. vandenbroucke, j.p. (1999). “case reports in an evidence-based world”. journal of the royal society of medicine 22: 159-163. ventola, e., c. shalom & s. thompson (eds), (2002). the language of conferencing. frankfurt am main: peter lang. wu, h. & r.g. badger (2009). “in a strange and uncharted land: esp teachers’ strategies for dealing with unpredicted problems in subject knowledge during class”. english for specific purposes 28: 19-32. iberica 13 ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100 issn 1139-7241 abstract the last decade has brought a number of changes for higher education in continental europe and elsewhere, a major one being the increasing use of english as a lingua franca (elf) as the medium of instruction. with this change, eap is faced with a new group of learners who will need to use it predominantly in elf settings to communicate with speakers from other first language backgrounds. this overview paper first discusses the changes that have taken place in the field of eap in terms of student body, followed by an outline of the main findings of research carried out on elf. these changes and the results of recent elf research have important implications for eap instruction and testing. it is argued here that eap needs to be modified accordingly to cater for the needs of this group. these revolve around the two major issues: norms and standards for spoken english and target use. if the aim of eap instruction and testing is to prepare speakers for academic settings where english is the lingua franca, the findings of elf research need to be taken into consideration and then integrated into eap curriculum design and testing, rethinking norms and target use. the norms and standards used by eap instruction must be based on this realistic english, and educational resources should be deployed more realistically, including the usage of elf, thereby validating the pluralism of english. this paper argues that any practice that excludes this perspective would be reducing eap qualitatively and quantitatively. keywords: english as a lingua franca (elf), english-medium education, eap instruction, eap testing. resumen el inglés como lengua franca en la educación superior: implicaciones para el inglés con fines académicos la última década ha sido testigo de múltiples cambios en la educación superior en el continente europeo y en más lugares, y el cambio más importante es el uso english as a lingua franca in higher education: implications for eap beyza björkman stockholm university (sweden) and roskilde university (denmark) beyza.bjorkman@english.su.se 79 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 79 ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100 beyza björkman creciente del inglés como lengua franca (ilf) y como medio de instrucción. con este cambio, el inglés con fines académicos (ifa) se enfrenta a un nuevo grupo de alumnos que en su mayoría habrán de utilizar la lengua inglesa en entornos de ilf para comunicarse con hablantes de distintas lenguas maternas. el presente trabajo tiene un carácter general y estudia, en primer lugar, los cambios producidos en el ámbito del ilf por lo que respecta al grupo de estudiantes, esbozando seguidamente los resultados principales obtenidos tras una investigación realizada sobre el ilf. estos cambios, así como los resultados procedentes de otras investigaciones recientes sobre ilf repercuten con fuerza en la instrucción y evaluación del ifa. se argumenta que el ifa debe modificarse a fin de ajustarse a las necesidades de este grupo, y dichas necesidades atienden a dos cuestiones principales: normas y estándares para el inglés hablado, por un lado, y, por otro, objetivos de uso. si la instrucción y la evaluación del ifa tienen por finalidad preparar hablantes para los entornos académicos en los que el inglés es la lengua franca, habrán de tenerse en cuenta los resultados de las investigaciones en torno al ilf para integrarlos en el diseño y la evaluación de los currícula de ifa, reconsiderando las normas y los objetivos de uso. las normas y los estándares utilizados en la instrucción del ifa deberán basarse en esta realidad y las recursos educativos deberían distribuirse de un modo más realista, incluyendo el empleo del ifa como lengua franca y validando así el pluralismo del inglés. el presente trabajo expone que toda práctica que no tenga en cuenta esta perspectiva estará reduciendo el potencial del ifa tanto cualitativa como cuantitativamente. palabras clave: inglés como lengua franca (ilf), inglés como medio de instrucción, enseñanza del inglés con fines académicos, evaluación del inglés con fines académicos. 1. introduction today english is the main means of academic communication in northern european universities. it has long been the language of publication in this area, but it is also increasingly becoming the language of instruction in a large number of institutions throughout continental europe and elsewhere. this bottom-up practice is not in agreement with the top-down decision by the eu to favor a multilingual structure (seidlhofer, 2010). the reality is that english is the language of communication of scientific information in many domains. as ferguson says, the establishment of english as the dominant language of scientific communication is now so well-documented that its strong presence is undisputed even by those who are critical of this development (2007). this dominant position of english in scientific 80 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 80 communication has contributed to the growth of the field of english for academic/specific purposes (ferguson, 2007). this paper will have as its starting point the changes that have taken place in the student body in the field of english for academic purposes (eap), especially in the last decade, with reference to english as a lingua franca (elf). the very large groups of speakers who use elf in academia make it necessary to adjust eap instruction and testing accordingly. the first prerequisite for such an endeavor is to describe authentic language usage from eap settings today, and to be able to do so, we need appropriate corpora. after a discussion of the available corpora with reference to the groups they cater for, the paper will move onto a review of findings from leading elf research and will discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for eap instruction and testing. it is claimed here that excluding the elf perspective from eap instruction and testing would be excluding the very large groups of speakers in higher education settings throughout the world. 2. english for academic purposes: emerging groups, corpora and materials until recently, the teaching of english for academic purposes focused mainly on two groups of learners. eap referred, first of all, to the teaching of english for foreign students studying in english-speaking countries, e.g. chinese students studying in the uk. the aim in this kind of teaching is, primarily, to prepare these students for studies in an english-speaking environment. this group of students needs to make good use of both the receptive and productive skills in english since they need to use it in written and spoken contexts on a daily basis. in other words, they need to use english effectively in both spoken and written encounters. eap also means the teaching of english to students studying outside english-speaking countries, e.g. swedish students in sweden. in this second type of eap, the instruction focuses predominantly on helping these students use their course literature in english effectively. this is not unexpected, as these students will use english mostly in writing and reading. so unlike the first group of students described above, this second type of eap learner needs practice of the receptive skills, reading and listening, to be able to cope with their course literature and assignments in english. english as a lingua franca in higher education ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100 81 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 81 the nature of the typical eap learner has changed dramatically with the emergence of elf (björkman, 2008). globalization has made englishmedium higher education a common feature of many academic institutions in northern europe and elsewhere. although northern european universities seem to be more anglicized compared to the universities in southern europe, english is gaining significance with increasing academic mobility, which involves both students and staff. the medium of communication for this growing group is elf. many institutions in continental europe have acted to accommodate such groups and introduced english-medium programs consequently. in sweden, for example, this proportion has increased to about 65 per cent in master’s programs (salö, 2010). in swedish engineering education, it is not uncommon to have a german scholar lecturing a group of students from different language backgrounds, or for a group of chinese, spanish, indian and italian students to work on a group project, all through the medium of english. this linguistic development has given rise to a third target group of eap including such speakers: those who speak english as a lingua franca (björkman, 2009). this third group consists of speakers from different first language backgrounds and uses english primarily as a “spoken” medium. as this development largely took place in the last decade, the materials used in eap instruction have remained geared towards the needs of the first two groups described above with respect to mode (writing vs. speaking) and target (native-speaker as the ideal target): those studying in english-speaking countries and others who need it for their studies in non-english speaking countries. in an effort to help these groups, eap instructors have focused more on academic writing (and in the uk on listening), compared to academic speaking. this trend is considered a direct result of the research in academic english, which focused heavily on writing for various reasons (mauranen, pérez-llantada & swales, 2010). first of all, what is assessed in higher education is still mostly written language. students need to produce different types of academic texts in order to pursue their studies and advance to higher levels. second, it has been easier for eap instructors and researchers to access written materials. acquiring written materials is much less problematic compared to the hardships involved in capturing real academic speech. in addition, written discourse enables the use of traditional methods of linguistic analysis (mauranen, pérez-llantada & swales, 2010). finally, most eap courses and workshops have focused on written discourse, in an beyza björkman ibérica 22 (2011): 79-10082 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 82 effort to help users develop their academic skills (mauranen, pérez-llantada & swales, 2010). taken together, these factors explain the strong focus on written discourse in early eap instruction. about a decade ago, the focus shifted from written discourse to spoken discourse in eap, which will be our primary concern throughout this paper. this is a cause of the emergence of major spoken corpora of academic english. the first corpora of spoken academic english came from englishspeaking countries. the availability of the micase (michigan corpus of academic spoken english) corpus has provided us with an insight as to the usage of spoken academic english from an english-speaking country (simpson et al., 2002). the recordings in this corpus come naturally from the north american academic context and mostly from native speakers, with only about 12 per cent of the corpus capturing the speech of the first group described earlier in this section. the compilation of the micase corpus paved the way for other spoken corpora. an example is the base corpus of british spoken academic discourse.1 developed at the universities of  warwick and reading, it is also largely based on native speaker speech. similar to the micase corpus, base also provides us with information regarding the first group of eap students. the t2k-swal, based on north american academic contexts, was compiled to determine whether the listening and reading tests in exams mirror what goes on in academic contexts. again, like micase and base, t2k-swal includes the speech of the first group of eap users. these three corpora have been invaluable in documenting speech from english-speaking countries but fall short in describing elf speech, which is natural considering that the research teams are based in english-speaking countries. if our purpose is to understand the use of spoken english in academia today, we should analyze data from real elf settings. how do speakers express themselves in various academic situations? how do they communicate when they are in high-stakes spoken communication? how do they achieve communicative effectiveness in diverse language groups? how do they resolve conflicts? as schegloff (2000: 122)2 argues: the talk that learners are going to have to do when they’re not in the hothouse of the classroom is situated in the real world where they have real things to do, and that’s the talk that people ideally should be recording and studying if they want to understand what the real world problems are for those who are speaking a language that is not their native language. english as a lingua franca in higher education ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100 83 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 83 compilation of such spoken data is by no means straightforward; it is timeconsuming, complicated and costly. however, if we want to understand how lecturers and students interact through the medium of elf, we must investigate lingua franca settings. the increasing use of english as an academic lingua franca and the scarcity of spoken information from elf settings have resulted in two major corpus projects. the elfa (english as a lingua franca in academic settings) corpus work from finland is the largest work on elf usage in academic contexts.3 it has provided authentic data from a wide spectrum of naturallyoccurring academic speech events. another very important corpus work is the voice corpus (vienna-oxford international corpus of english).4 unlike the elfa corpus, voice does not consist entirely of academic recordings, including a variety of settings. these elf corpora have provided us with information on the use of elf from authentic elf settings and on what elf speech is like. at the time of writing, an asian corpus of english (ace) is being compiled by a team of researchers led by kirkpatrick. this team is working closely with the voice team and has the primary aim of analyzing and describing the distinctive linguistic features of elf. the second issue mentioned in the beginning of this section concerns target use outlined in eap instruction and testing. to cater for the needs of the first two groups mentioned above, target use has been native-speaker production in eap classes. to see why this is not appropriate for elf settings, we will need to turn to the primary findings of research carried out in academic elf settings. 3. research on elf in academic settings investigations on various aspects of spoken elf in academic settings have focused on descriptions of morphosyntactic (ranta, 2006; björkman, 2010), pragmatic (mauranen 2005a, 2005b, 2006a & 2007; mortensen, 2008; smit, 2010; björkman, 2011; haberland, 2011; hynninen, 2011; jenkins, 2011; knapp, 2011) and partly phonological issues (björkman, 2010). the overall results on morphosyntax can be summarized as a general tendency to reduce structures that are redundant, morphological creativity, and creating extra explicitness in general, all pointing towards a general cooperativeness. pragmatic studies have reported on metadiscourse (mauranen 2005a, 2005b, 2006a & 2007), proactive pragmatic strategies (penz, 2008; björkman, 2009 beyza björkman ibérica 22 (2011): 79-10084 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 84 & 2011; kaur, 2009) and low incidence of miscommunications in dialogic speech (mauranen, 2006a; björkman, 2009; kaur, 2009). as regards phonological issues, studies investigating academic elf speech are rather scarce, with the exception of some emerging studies, for instance a pilot study on question intonation of dialogic elf speech (björkman, 2010). of specific interest to our purposes are the ways in which speakers achieve communicative effectiveness in spoken academic communication. a study that investigated the effectiveness of spoken elf comes from a higher education setting in sweden (björkman, 2010). this investigation focused on authentic spoken communication from content courses (21 lectures and 24 group-work sessions) and analyzed the morphosyntactic and pragmatic nature of lecturers’ and students’ speech, as well as intonation in questions. the findings of the study show that non-standard morphosyntactic features do not seem to cause any overt disturbance in spoken communication in this elf setting, with the exception of nonstandard question formulation (björkman, 2008, 2009, 2010 & 2011). the speakers make use of a variety of pragmatic strategies which help them compensate for the wide range of levels of proficiency in elf settings and help them convey the message to their listeners (see table 1). the findings imply that the effectiveness of a speaker of english in similar elf settings is determined primarily by the speaker’s pragmatic ability and less by his/her proficiency. this finding suggests that, in similar settings, the assumption that communicative effectiveness is in direct proportion to proficiency is an incorrect one (see shaw (1992) for a discussion of communicative competence). being proficient in the language does not presuppose that one is also a pragmatically effective speaker. in settings where english is used as a vehicular language, communicative effectiveness takes precedence over accuracy, fluency and language complexity. any speaker may aim for better accuracy, fluency and language complexity, but when it comes to investing in a communicative situation, it is ways of achieving communicative effectiveness that help speakers produce the desired outcome. when it comes to intonation in questions, speakers seem to register an utterance as a question with utterance-final question intonation in both yes/no and wh-questions unlike native speakers, who are reported to have falling intonation almost as often as they rise in both yes/no and wh-questions (bolinger, 1998). this further suggests that the proficient/less proficient or the native/non-native speaker dichotomies in similar settings are not of english as a lingua franca in higher education ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100 85 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 85 primary relevance or utility to international settings, and that native speaker practices may actually be less effective than such elf practices in elf settings (björkman, 2008, 2009, 2010 & 2011). beyza björkman ibérica 22 (2011): 79-10086 main findings in spoken lingua franca usage in academic settings double comparatives and superlatives björkman, 2009, 2011 unraised negation björkman, 2009, 2011 devices that increase comprehensibility and create extra explicitness vocabulary-related explicitness seidlhofer, 2004 not marking the plural on the noun björkman, 2008 subject-verb agreement issues seidlhofer, 2004; breiteneder, 2005; cogo & dewey, 2006; björkman, 2009 reductions of redundancy nons analytic comparative björkman, 2010 non-standard question formulation björkman, 2009, 2010, 2011 tense and aspect ranta, 2006; kirkpatrick, 2008; björkman, 2010 m o r p h o s y n t a x other nonstandardness article usage seidlhofer, 2004; björkman, 2011 pragmatic fluency 1. appropriate use of routine pragmatic phenomena 2. ability to initiate topics and topic change, making use of appropriate routines 3. ability to “carry weight” in a conversation 4. ability to show turn-taking, replying/responding 5. appropriate rate of speech, types of filled and unfilled pauses, frequency and function of repairs house, 1999 metadiscourse mauranen 2005a, 2005b, 2006a, 2007 rephrasing and repetition mauranen 2005a, 2005b, 2006a, 2007; cogo and dewey, 2006; lichtkoppler, 2007; kaur, 2008; björkman, 2009, 2010, 2011 metadiscourse explicit negotiation of the topic mauranen 2005a, 2005b, 2006a, 2007; björkman, 2010, 2011 proactive pragmatic strategies signaling discourse structure prospectively björkman, 2009, 2010, 2011; kaur, 2009; mauranen, 2006a; penz, 2008 signaling discourse structure retrospectively björkman, 2009, 2010, 2011; kaur, 2009; mauranen, 2006a; penz, 2008 retroactive pragmatic strategies backchanneling björkman, 2011 p r a g m a t ic s other the practice of mediation (hynninen, 2011); managing conflicts (knapp, 2011); modal verbs and evidentiality (mortensen ,2008); ownership and maintenance issues (haberland, 2011) p h o n o l o g y 5 lingua franca core (jenkins, 2000), attitudes towards elf (jenkins, 2007), intelligibility and comprehensibility (pickering, 2006), teaching elf pronunciation (walker, 2010), question intonation (björkman, 2011) d seidlhofer, 2004 n r e backchanneling björkman, 2011 p t table 1. the main findings from elf research carried out in academic settings. 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 86 these research results find support from previous research on the topic of elf. thus, there are different types of non-standardness of morphosyntax (see table 1), and despite these non-standardnesses, there appear to be very few cases of overt miscommunication (mauranen 2006a; björkman, 2009; kaur, 2009). speakers use a number of pragmatic strategies to ensure the effectiveness of communication (mauranen 2005a, 2005b, 2006a & 2007; björkman, 2009, 2010 & 2011; kaur, 2009). table 1 is a brief summary of the findings of elf studies from a variety of academic settings, ranging from different types of student talk (mauranen, 2006a; mortensen, 2008; kaur, 2009; björkman, 2010 & 2011; hynninen, 2011; knapp, 2011) to teacher talk (cogo, 2009; björkman 2011). it includes the main findings of investigations into the morphosyntax, pragmatics and phonology of elf usage from academic settings. when these research results are considered, it becomes clear that the native speaker as the ideal target for spoken production is inappropriate, if the aim of eap instruction is to help those who will use it mostly in elf settings. the following section argues that targets in such elf settings need to be set by taking into account how effectiveness is achieved in such settings. we will now turn to the theoretical implications of these findings for the field of eap and then to some practical applications for eap instruction and testing. 4. adjusting eap for elf settings: theoretical implications 4.1. norms and standards for spoken english one of the most critical issues regarding eap today is the norms and standards for spoken english. as mentioned earlier in section 2, the eap focus remained on writing for both instruction and testing, at least until the emergence of major spoken corpora (mauranen, pérez-llantada & swales, 2010). it is not surprising that norms and standards for spoken english were consequently more appropriate for writing than for speaking. so, in the light of the new information from elf research, how should the norms and standards be modified? what is correct in spoken english and therefore acceptable? there is variation within native varieties of english, and it is by no means easy to draw clear boundaries between what is standard and non-standard. english as a lingua franca in higher education ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100 87 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 87 some features that are considered incorrect can be observed in native speaker speech frequently. when native speakers have non-standard usage in their speech, it is generally termed “variation” whereas when non-native speakers have the same usage (see shaw (1992) for a discussion of “variation”), it is considered an “error” in the language classroom. elf research has shown that non-native speakers too can have variation in their speech (earlier shown by gass, 1989), especially that the non-standardness shows clear patterns of reducing redundancy and increasing explicitness, both aimed for communicative effectiveness. the important question for this study concerns the standards for speech. if we approach the general concept of language as a set of rules, a clear and solid set of rules to prescribe for standard usage of the language becomes necessary. what is considered standard in traditional grammar books is traditionally based on written english. in other words, the standards for spoken english have long been set by written english and what would be considered correct and therefore acceptable in written discourse. a very significant step in recognizing this was taken by svartvik and quirk’s (1980) survey of english usage. written norms are not appropriate for speaking, for speech and writing are two very different types of discourse. the fact that speech is generally impromptu and requires real-time production and processing creates the biggest difference between these two types of discourse with regard to one’s production. so evaluating a speaker’s communicative competence by his/her adherence to the norms of writing would be against the nature of speaking, would be unjust to the speaker, being a practice that does not comply with the way natural speech is. the first preliminary in describing speech properly involves the compilation of spoken corpora – for instance, part of british national corpus (bnc), london-lund corpus (llc), micase (simpson et al., 2002), base, elfa and voice. these corpora all serve the purpose of providing spoken data from different settings. the second step to take towards providing appropriate norms for speech is to have a spoken corpus on its own presuppositions and not on presuppositions of writing. such a step was taken with cancode (“cambridge and nottingham corpus of discourse in english”), a corpus compiled earlier with the primary aim of exploring authentic spontaneous speech and investigating spoken grammar. however, cancode does not beyza björkman ibérica 22 (2011): 79-10088 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 88 document spoken english by non-native speakers. the speech recorded for cancode comprises speech from native speakers of english only, and the findings that arise from this corpus can explain variation in the spoken language of native speakers only, not in non-native speakers’ speech. in this sense, not only does the cancode corpus include a narrower group of speakers than the other corpora compiled in english-speaking countries, it also brings us back to the “target use” problem (see next sub-section). 4.2. target use carter and mccarthy suggest the usage of cancode data by learners of english so that they can “see, hear and understand conversational english in a range of different contexts of use” (carter and mccarthy, 1997: 7). it would be ideal that those who are studying english and consider themselves learners could be exposed to authentic usage of spoken english from a variety of contexts, situations and settings, and undoubtedly, cancode data are of great interest. they reveal variation in native speaker usage of spoken english, which is very important in studying spoken english. however, they exclude speech by speakers who speak it as a lingua franca. in this respect, they are not appropriate for speakers of english who will use it in elf settings. in elf contexts, the third essential is the availability of corpora that document usage of english in settings where it is used as a lingua franca. target use for speakers in elf settings is not native spoken usage that is culturally-loaded and is full of idioms, but rather effective speech. the cancode project was criticized by prodromou (1996) for this very reason. presenting learners of english with the heavy idiomaticity present in native spoken english is not likely to provide them with more choices; it is only likely to create opacity in their speech. prodromou (1996) discusses the concept of “authenticity” and claims that it is embedded in the context. when it is taken out of its context, it simply stops being authentic. wall street journal english may be authentic to those who deal with similar matters and are familiar with it (prodromou, 1996), but it certainly is not to speakers in all lingua franca settings. native speaker usage is not necessarily helpful for speakers in elf settings. although rising question intonation is not always present in native speaker usage, it helps speakers in elf settings register questions. the information and research findings that have been and will be generated by all the aforementioned corpora will enable research to produce english as a lingua franca in higher education ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100 89 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 89 descriptions of the use of elf. a thorough documentation of spoken english from authentic settings should contribute to the understanding of a “spoken grammar” and whether it is possible to set rules that reflect the nature of spoken english successfully. to date, there is no clear explanation or documentation of spoken grammar. however, the application of the research findings based on these corpora is critical. the place to apply the research findings is the language classroom, which brings the need for a discussion of the teaching of english for academic purposes. before moving on to such practical implications, a useful preliminary is a discussion of what good english may mean and whether it is synonymous with correct english. 4.3. good english the results of the present study and a discussion of the general notions of elf situations bring to the fore another important notion, albeit a much more general one: “good english”. what is good english? this question will naturally receive a variety of answers depending on a number of factors. greenbaum (1996: 17) discusses “good english” by contrasting it to “correct english” as follows: good english is sometimes equated with correct english, but the two concepts should be differentiated. correct english is conformity to the norms of the standard language. good english is good use of the resources available in the language. in that sense we can use a non-standard dialect well and can use the standard language badly. by good english we may mean language used effectively or aesthetically; language that conveys clearly and appropriately what is intended and language that is pleasing to the listener or the reader. considering good english as the effective use of the available linguistic resources, and drawing a clear distinction between correct english and good english suggests that “good english” is not a notion that is necessarily determined by one’s level of proficiency. in other words, speakers who have lower levels of proficiency are also capable of speaking good english. this seems to corroborate the findings of the present study in the dimensions of form and discourse. a large body of data in the present study showed that speakers who have lower levels of proficiency were able to use the language effectively. on the notion of effectiveness, with respect to elf settings where speakers use english as the vehicular language, using the language beyza björkman ibérica 22 (2011): 79-10090 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 90 effectively takes precedence over language complexity. “conformity to the norms” will naturally be less critical for anyone who is trying to complete a task through the medium of that language. this approach does not imply that correctness is irrelevant. naturally, grammatical accuracy is important; a sentence needs to be made up of the right constituents to be sensical. however, in elf settings where speakers are from a range of levels of proficiency, both native speakers/highly proficient speakers and those who are non-native speakers are challenged. 5. adjusting eap for elf settings: practical implications this section aims to address some pedagogical and practical applications of the elf research findings and make some tentative suggestions to adjust eap teaching and testing to elf settings. there are three important issues for the eap instruction: (1) the needs and expectations of the specific group; (2) comprehensibility as the priority in teaching english to those who will use elf in academic settings; and (3) the use of realistic course materials and testing criteria for spoken production. in identifying the needs and expectations of a specific learner group, we need to consider the norms and standards. the discussion in the previous section takes us to the pedagogical discussion of what norms and standards students should be presented with. in any debate on teaching english, we are reminded of the responsibility of prescribing a certain set of conventions as “correct” usage since the default assumption is that teaching is prescriptive (bex, 2008). this requires a description of standard english and automatically brings forward the question of what standard english is. it is impossible to provide an appropriate answer to this question considering a wide variety of learners. what can be done, however, is to distinguish between different types of learners and consider their needs and expectations. for example, there are learners who need to use english to speak to native speakers in english-speaking countries and those who need to speak it in international settings mostly to communicate with other nonnative speakers. as long as the teaching of english does not include the latter, its widest use in the world, it will be insufficient in providing learners with the knowledge and skills required. with regard to those who use english as a vehicular language on international grounds, the knowledge of english as a lingua franca in higher education ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100 91 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 91 how the language is used primarily among its non-native speakers for different purposes in international settings will be more relevant than how it is used in english-speaking countries by its native speakers. so eap can take steps towards meeting current demands instead of feeding on dated descriptions of english, and differentiating between different types of learners and their needs. more research and proper descriptions from a variety of settings will undoubtedly provide eap with invaluable information as to what english usage is like in different settings. until then, realizing the needs and expectations of different types of learners and producing materials including features they will need to use frequently in their target settings will be important steps in the right direction. the transition from description to prescription needs to be made with caution, and this task needs to be undertaken only after thorough descriptions from a variety of settings have been made available. the second issue of importance here is prioritizing comprehensibility in language teaching. in elf settings, the priority must be comprehensibility, followed by language complexity, provided that achieving complexity is one of the aims at all. prioritizing comprehensibility in language teaching was first put forward as early as in the 1970s, with the functional hypothesis and the functional sentence perspective (although not a teaching approach). so, the issue is by no means a new one. the challenge has been to suggest ways of putting such theory into practice. what should then the language teacher actually do in the classroom and how should the teaching of english be modified to prioritize comprehensibility and provide the learner with a realistic model? these issues have recently been brought to discussion in elf research. the importance of exposing learners to a wider range of english has been discussed in a number of studies (for instance, jenkins, 2006), as well as general “efforts to reduce the nativespeakerist element in some teaching materials” (jenkins, 2006: 169), “the merits of native and non-native teachers of english” (jenkins, 2006: 172), “challenges to learner language theory” (jenkins, 2006: 166) and the importance of providing the learner with modern and broad-based descriptions of language: clearly, if we want to prepare learners for the requirements of the real-world language use with any efficiency, we cannot afford to rely on inadequate and outdated descriptions of language. to meet current demands, we need beyza björkman ibérica 22 (2011): 79-10092 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 92 models that can be applied to a variety of communicative goals (...) (mauranen, 2006b:144) all these are central to improving language teaching. however, ways of achieving what is seen as important has been discussed much less, with the exception of the lingua franca core (jenkins, 2000), the inappropriateness of unilateral idiomaticity for elf settings (seidlhofer, 2004) and the importance of accommodation strategies (jenkins, 2000 & 2006). the question, then, remains: what types of modifications are suggested for the language classroom? this brings us to the third point, namely the use of realistic course materials and testing criteria for spoken production. the first modification needs to be made to course materials in an attempt to produce realistic course materials (jenkins, 2006: 169). this issue need not be as radical as some have suggested. there need not be a set of acceptable features in the form dimension for learners to adhere to. it has been shown that elf usage is in fact characterized by variability (firth, 2009) and is by no means a monolithic variety but a polylithic one. in this respect, the integration of elf usage into the forms traditionally used in eap teaching adds to the existing set of standards. the present study and other elf research point towards prioritizing the following items: • the inclusion of pragmatic strategies in speaking and listening materials: it is clear in the findings of elf research (table 1) that pragmatic strategies and negotiating meaning play an essential role in achieving communicative effectiveness in elf settings. after learners are presented with materials of authentic usage from elf settings (listening), role-plays and other communicative activities can be used to enable learners to practice these skills. this has been recently covered in walker’s work on teaching the pronunciation of elf (walker, 2010). • the inclusion of syntactic structures that help increase explicitness: in grammar teaching, it seems a useful practice to include heads and tails/preand post-dislocation as elements that increase explicitness (mauranen, 2007). exposing learners to authentic speech that includes these elements will help them see how heads and tails/preand post-dislocation can be used. english as a lingua franca in higher education ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100 93 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 93 • the inclusion and prioritizing of materials practicing features whose absence leads to overt disturbance: questions have been reported to be important for the effectiveness of spoken communication in elf settings (björkman, 2008, 2009 & 2011). they should be addressed thoroughly in language classrooms in communicative activities such as information-gap activities, or group-work activities, which would mirror real-life communicative situations. in connection with questions, word order issues need to be given enough space in the classroom. it appears that nonstandardness in word order can impede communication, create irritation, which in turn, may cause turbulence in communication. the inclusion of non-native speaker accents in listening comprehension materials: it is important that speakers who will operate in elf settings are exposed to a variety of accents, since this is precisely what they will need to do when they use elf. of special importance are materials for listening comprehension including a variety of accents (smith, 1982; smith & bisazza, 1982) and cases of disturbance where meaning is negotiated and where communicative strategies are employed (watterson, 2008). in addition, authentic recordings can be turned into course materials in which students test their listening comprehension and note-taking skills. another positive outcome of this practice would be increased student awareness of what authentic english is in international settings. the production of realistic materials is an issue primarily for material production but also for eap instructors who prepare course materials for their students. especially in higher education settings where students will use elf, listening materials must include english by speakers in lingua franca settings. this can be enabled by proper descriptions of lingua franca settings, as discussed above. the view that prioritizes comprehensibility in teaching is not shared by all. some have claimed that elf research suggests all teaching be done only based on comprehensibility, because “what is needed for comprehension is all that is needed to be produced” (kuo, 2006: 216). this is not the case. the present study suggests that features that are critical in terms of communicative effectiveness are prioritized, followed by features that are not equally vital for communicative purposes. the third issue here concerns testing. interestingly, the natural order of teaching and then testing needs to be modified when exposing learners to beyza björkman ibérica 22 (2011): 79-10094 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 94 authentic usage. testing is not necessarily an issue that needs to be dealt with after addressing issues concerning teaching. elt examination boards base their practices on the ownership of english predominantly by its native speakers. the same approach is taken by most teachers and teacher trainers (jenkins, 2006). if world englishes and elf researchers together point to a need for pluralism and inclusivity (bolton, 2005; seidlhofer, 2005), eap practice needs to follow. excluding the usage of english by its non-native speakers in elf settings and not giving it the airing space it needs in eap would be reducing eap qualitatively and quantitatively, and therefore, unhelpful to the learners. so how can testing be adjusted in the light of comprehensibility-based teaching and the findings of the elf literature so far (including the findings of the present study)? any set of criteria to evaluate the spoken production of a learner of english will need to consider the following carefully: • one of the types of non-standard morphosyntactic usage in the present study concerns successful reductions of redundancy. an example of this type of usage is the non-marking of the plural on the noun. it cannot be suggested that such non-standard forms should be taught to learners; however, not penalizing them on items that do not hinder communication and help communicative effectiveness could be a practice worth considering. • another type of morphosyntactic non-standard usage in the present study is about features that create extra explicitness, e.g. preand post-dislocation. although preand post-dislocation are considered incorrect in traditional grammar books (unlike heads/fronting and tails), considering the communicative role they play in making the message explicit to the listener, teachers do not necessarily need to correct such usage and penalize learners. another example of such usage is repetition. although repetition is generally considered undesirable (lichtkoppler, 2007), it does contribute to the communicative effectiveness of spoken english by fulfilling important functions in elf settings (lichtkoppler, 2007) and is considered an accommodation strategy used for efficiency and cooperation purposes (cogo & dewey, 2006; björkman, 2010). instead of penalizing learners because of the repetition in their spoken production, teachers can pay more attention to the types of items that are repeated and for what english as a lingua franca in higher education ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100 95 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 95 purposes the items are repeated. repetition for emphasis both in dialogic and monologic speech, and other repetition in dialogic speech help learners achieve communicative effectiveness. • dialogic speech gives us more information with reference to disturbance, pragmatic strategies and how speakers negotiate meaning in interaction. if teachers aim to test a learner’s ability to negotiate meaning and achieve communicative effectiveness through appropriate strategies, they should assign learners dialogic tasks. this would enable teachers to test the pragmatic strategies that they have exposed their students to (the present section, see priorities in teaching). in most language teaching classrooms in sweden, however, learners are assigned monologic tasks, presentations being a popular one. it is not possible to test how meaning is negotiated in such prepared speech. it is recommended that both monologic and dialogic speech events are used in the testing of a learner’s spoken production. this would be an attempt to mirror authentic elf situations in a language classroom setting, and it would be useful in preparing the learner for dialogic speech events. • it is important that native-speaker accents are not presented as the only acceptable accents to achieve the highest grades in the evaluation of a learner’s spoken production. the learner should be free to approximate his/her speech to a native variety if this is the learner’s aspiration, but this should not be a criterion. • in general, assessment criteria need to be adjusted considering the above, giving “effective use of the language” as the target. the criteria for higher grades should not be “native-like production”, for instance native-like pronunciation, for those who will use english as an academic lingua franca. this is a very questionable practice for two main reasons. first, as discussed in the present paper, it is problematic to define what “native speaker usage” is with the variability in native varieties. second, previous research (björkman, 2010) has shown that native-speaker-like production does not necessarily ensure communicativeness in elf settings, for instance in question intonation. for the above practice to be possible, the overall criteria used need to be adjusted accordingly, recognizing different purposes for using a language. beyza björkman ibérica 22 (2011): 79-10096 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 96 most countries within the eu are now in the process of implementing the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr). the council of europe (2001) defines this framework as a document that describes in a comprehensive manner i) the competences necessary for communication, ii) the related knowledge and skills and iii) the situations and domains of communication. it is precisely the competences necessary for communicative effectiveness that the elf paradigm emphasizes. so, on this note, criteria need to be adjusted accordingly, considering the aim of the task that is performed through english. 6. conclusion in this paper, we focused on one of the important changes that has taken place in higher education: the wide use of elf in a large number of higher education institutions and the emerging groups of elf speakers. the aim here has been to provide an overview of the use of elf in higher education today, with specific reference to northern europe, to outline the main findings of elf research, and to make tentative suggestions for eap instruction and testing. the discussion in this paper contributes to an ongoing debate on the extent of the use of english in english-medium higher education settings in europe. acknowledgements my thanks go to philip shaw, the anonymous reviewers and the guest editor maria kuteeva for valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper. 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(2006b). “spoken discourse, academics and global english: a corpus perspective” in r. hughes (ed.) spoken english, tesol and applied linguistics: challenges for 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 98 beyza björkman is currently a lecturer at the royal institute of technology in stockholm (http://www.speech.kth.se/~beyza/). she has a ph.d. in applied linguistics, on the topic of english as an academic lingua franca. she has published on this topic in journals, edited a special issue on the topic for the journal of pragmatics, written book chapters and an encyclopaedia entry and has presented her work at a number of international conferences. her general research interests include linguistic equality, language change and the use of english as a lingua franca for academic purposes. english as a lingua franca in higher education ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100 99 theory and practice, 143-158. london: palgrave macmillan. mauranen, a. 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(2002). the michigan corpus of academic spoken english. ann arbor, mi: the regents of the university of michigan. smit, u. (2010). english as a lingua franca in higher education. berlin/new york: de gruyter mouton. smith, l.e. (1982). readings in english as an international language. pergamon: london. smith, l.e. & j.a. bisazza (1982). “the comprehensibility of three varieties of english for college students in seven countries”. language learning 32: 259-269. svartvik, j. & r. quirk (eds.) (1980). a corpus of english conversation. lund studies in english, 56. lund: liber/gleerups. walker, r. (2010). teaching the pronunciation of english as a lingua franca. oxford: oxford university press. watterson, m. (2008). “repair of nonunderstanding in english in international communication”. world englishes 27: 378-406. wong, j. & d. olsher. (2000). “reflections on conversation analysis and nonnative speaker talk: an interview with emanuel a. schegloff”. issues in applied linguistics 11: 111-128. 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 99 notes 1 the base corpus is available at url: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/base/ 2 see wong and olsher, 2000: 122. 3 the elfa corpus is available at url: http://www.eng.helsinki.fi/elfa/elfacorpus.htm 4 the voice corpus is available at url: www.univie.ac.at/voice 5 not all of these studies are based on spoken academic usage. they have been included here, because they represent important research in elf phonology. beyza björkman ibérica 22 (2011): 79-100100 04 iberica 22.qxp:iberica 13 21/09/11 17:01 página 100 iberica 13 approaches to specialized genres kathy ling lin, isaac n. mwinlaaru & dennis tay (eds.) london and new york: routledge, 2020, 304 pages. isbn: 9780-367-14772-3. despite four decades of studies on genre, researchers sometimes still disagree on what genre is (martin, 2015). to answer this question and clarify some theoretical and methodological issues, routledge has published approaches to specialized genres, with contributions by some leading and emerging scholars in genre. this volume begins with an introduction by the three editors, who present an outlook for genre research into the 21st century. the volume is divided into five parts. the first part, titled “theory and concepts”, deals with some fundamental issues concerning genre. in one chapter “towards a meta-theory of genre”, one of the co-editors, isaac n. mwinlaaru, offers a comprehensive review on genre studies from three perspectives, namely genre as a social semiotic process, as a hierarchy of stratified layers of meaning and as a semiotic process interacting with other social, biological, and physical systems. the author also points out certain areas that need further research. for instance, little research has been done on the identification of phonological patterns in spoken professional encounters in business, legal, and media contexts. part ii, “rhetorical and generic structure”, focuses on the generic structure of genres. zhao and groom in chapter 2 conducted a corpus-based comparative study of rhetorical moves and move sequences in english abstracts published in international and chinese-language journals in accounting and finance. they find a range of salient differences in rhetorical move structures between these two kinds of journals as well as across the two areas. for instance, international abstracts tend to report research results, while chinese abstracts are likely to report research methods. authored by lin, another of the editors, chapter 3 provides a diachronic perspective on recent macro-structural developments in empirical research articles in two contrasting areas (viz. applied linguistics and civil engineering). the two areas exemplify the disciplines of humanities and science. this research illustrates both structural changes over time and related crossreseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 426-430 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.426 426 * * * * * * * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! t * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! k * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 0* * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! *** ! * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 9 ! * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! o * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! n * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! h * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! d * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! s * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! b * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! n * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! n * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ” * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! n * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! p * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! o * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! f * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! n * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! n * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! o * * * * * * * ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! of o reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 426-430 427 disciplinary variations. to supplement textual findings, the author conducted interviews with some expert writers from the two areas in a combination of methods that yields more convincing results. salmaso’s research in chapter 4 develops story genres. based on a taxonomy of five categories of narrative instances (ni), this study focuses on “recounts”, which is concerned with how one event in a narrative leads to another. by analysing some cases of “recounts”, salmaso identifies their three general characteristics, namely, the coproduction of nis, complex/inserted nis and canonical order of generic constituents. with a combination of a qualitative analysis of three instances of “recounts” and a quantitative analysis of fifteen “recounts” to generalise findings, the framework turns out to be useful to the study of story genres. xu and hu in chapter 5 examine the rhetorical characteristics of retraction notices (rns) from academic journals. based on a corpus of 255 rns written by authors of retracted articles and journal authorities, their research identifies 18 move types and discovers considerable variation regarding frequency. the authors argue that rns are a high-stakes academic genre. though still evolving, they have not achieved a stable generic structure. the research also notes that rns are located in particular social contexts and shaped for specific communicative purposes. afful’s study in chapter 6 analyses the generic structure of philanthropic fundraising letters (pfls) written by some deans and academics in a ghanaian university. it finds the pfls used a seven-move pattern. the purpose of pfls is to request readers to make donations. the academics showed different degrees of directness in their approach to writing these pfls, in terms of how soon they made their requests. this chapter sheds light on the interactions between sectors, including academic institutions and philanthropy, as well as providing guidance about how to write successful pfls. part iii is concerned with lexicogrammatical aspects of genres. chapter 7 by chan and chan focuses attention on the use of discourse markers (dms) by students in hong kong, where schools use different languages as medium of instruction. the study finds students from english-medium secondary school tend to use more sophisticated dms, especially at interpersonal and cognitive levels. by contrast, their counterparts from schools with chinese or both english and chinese as teaching medium use dominantly referential and textual/structural dms. lyons and moss’s research in chapter 8 concentrates on applying systems of transitivity, projection and appraisal in systemic functional linguistics to analysing the verbal clauses in academic registers of colombian spanish. they identify four types of grammatical strategies that the sayers (subject in a sentence) or participants construed as saying something in verbal clauses. the four types are explicit sayer, implicit sayer, covert sayer and absent sayer. the authors notice the different sayer realizations co-occur more frequently with direct, indirect or hybrid projections. choices of realization of sayers not only have an ideational importance, but also further the potential for epistemic and attitudinal framing of ideas and locutions of others. part iv deals with multisemiotic analyses of multimodal digital genres such as linguistics lecture slides and video ads. chapters 9 and 10 endeavour to respond to bondi’s (2016, p. 325) call for more research into instructional genres. based on empirical data, feng’s study surveys the generic structure and multimodal design of powerpoint slides for linguistics courses in china. it finds most lessons focus on the teacher-centred transmission of knowledge. feng further argues that learning objectives should be transformed from understanding concepts to training students to integrate linguistic theories in practice. by paying attention to interactions in a new instructional genre, queroljulián’s research draws on an integrated multimodal framework, which comprises four approaches to analyse the constraints and affordances of interaction in the digital environment of synchronous videoconferencing lectures (svls). quantitative analysis and visual representation of modal density and higher-level actions are combined with qualitative multimodal analysis in her discussion of teachers’ and students’ interaction in svls. pan and tay’s study in chapter 11 introduces a new six-step procedure to identify creative metaphors in video ads, called “creative metaphor identification procedure for video ads (cmipva)”. its reliability is supported by a study of 20 annotated ads from a corpus of 100 video ads. they note the relationship between filmic techniques and metaphors in video ads and the reason why metaphors can be detected through filmic techniques. the study argues that metaphor is of significance for advertising strategy, so learning how to construct a metaphor is important for ad designers, who can benefit from cmipva. part v observes genre in pedagogic and professional settings. charles’s research in chapter 12 reports on a dual approach to teaching the “literature reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 426-430428 reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 426-430 429 review” in theses. this approach relies on both top-down (i.e., starting from move structure study and then continuing to move-specific language use in particular subjects) and bottom-up perspectives (i.e., beginning with corpus searches of some outstanding features and then reaching the recognition of genre moves). it helps students explore the ways in which genre moves are performed and connect the moves to the typical phraseology of their subjects. cheng’s research in chapter 13 notices that a gap needs to be filled out between the office and the classroom. he focuses on one type of workplace genre, emails. analysing emails in 18 business and workplace writing textbooks, he proposes seven themes. he believes that emails can perform a range of rhetorical purposes and discusses what teachers and researchers can do to improve their teaching and research. yu and hafner in the last chapter focus on one hybrid genre, the training log book entry written by novice professional construction engineers in hong kong. this specialised discourse addresses multiple audiences with multiple purposes. they find the genre has some hybrid pedagogical-professional characteristics, as shown in its schematic structure, which reflect the communicative purposes and expectations of the discourse community. recent decades have seen a steady rise in interest in genre research, which has made great contributions to english language education. the widespread and demand for english has triggered teaching and studying english in different niches. this volume in question echoes this trend. all in all, the volume presents readers with rich methodologies and insights into genre research. various established and emerging genres are covered and many issues worthy of further discussion are raised, such as genre change and metafunctional diversity. however, in spite of all of these useful aspects, the overall structure of the current chapters could have been better rearranged. for instance, as chapters are contributed by different authors, there is always some inconsistency in writing styles. a future volume could be restructured in a more consistent way. received 08 april 2022 accepted 29 june 2022 reviewed by long yang northwestern polytechnical university (china) l.yang@nwpu.edu.cn references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 44 (2022): 426-430430 bondi, m. (2016). textbooks. in k. hyland & p. shaw (eds.), the routledge handbook of english for academic purposes (pp. 323-334). routledge. martin, j. (2015). one of three traditions: genre, functional linguistics, and the ‘sydney school’. in n. artemeva & a. freedman (eds.), genre studies around the globe: beyond the three traditions (pp. 31-79). trafford. iberica 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 59-74 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract there has been widespread concern over the issue of nonnative speakers’ engagement in english for research publication purposes (erpp). the question of what kind of language for research writing is expected from international journals calls for further research. this study reports on a qualitative analysis of 140 journal submission guidelines in a specific engineering discipline (i.e., chemical engineering, henceforth ce). the findings highlight that while the majority of the guidelines tend to ask for native-like english, there is an emerging inclusive trend calling for clarity and understandability in response to the diversity of english adopted by global scientific communities and also the underlying disciplinary practices of science and engineering (s&e). the study echoes and extends the literature on erpp. the implications are discussed mainly in two aspects. journal policy makers of engineering journal guidelines are expected to consider linguistic diversity in manuscript review and publication. academic writing instructors can design reading activities using instructions for authors in target journals for novice writers to have a systematic and solid understanding of journal language policies, or invite nonnative disciplinary researchers to share their experience in erpp writing practices. keywords: english for research publication purposes (erpp), english for academic purposes (eap), science and engineering; international academic publishing, journal submission guidelines, academic writing instruction, elf (english as a lingua franca). resumen sobre las exigencias referidas al uso del inglés en el actual mundo de la publicación científica internacional: un análisis de contenido de las normas de envío de artículos de ingeniería química english language requirements in the current international scientific publishing world: a content analysis of submission guidelines in chemical engineering bixi jin beihang university (china) bixijin@outlook.com 59 ibérica 40 (2020): 59-74 bixi jin ha habido una preocupación generalizada respecto a los hablantes no nativos en el ámbito del inglés para fines de investigación. son, no obstante, necesarios más estudios acerca de qué tipo de escritura para fines de investigación se espera en las revistas internacionales. el presente trabajo lleva a cabo un análisis cualitativo de las normas de envío de artículos de 140 revistas de una disciplina concreta: la ingeniería química. los resultados hallados evidencian que, si bien la mayoría de las revistas suelen solicitar artículos redactados en un inglés propio de un hablante nativo, también está surgiendo una nueva tendencia más inclusiva que otorga más importancia a la claridad y a la comprensibilidad, en respuesta a la gran diversidad del inglés empleado en las comunidades científicas globales, con las prácticas disciplinares subyacentes que ello conlleva en las ciencias y las ingenierías. este artículo presenta y amplía la bibliografía sobre inglés para fines de investigación y presta especial atención a dos implicaciones fundamentales: por una parte, las normas de envío de artículos de las revistas especializadas en las ingenierías habrían de contemplar la existencia de una diversidad lingüística a la hora de evaluar y publicar los manuscritos recibidos; por otra parte, los profesores de escritura académica pueden diseñar actividades de lectura a partir de las normas de envío de artículos de las revistas en las que se espera que publiquen investigadores noveles, de tal modo que estos puedan comprender de manera más sistemática y completa las orientaciones lingüísticas ofrecidas por tales revistas; asimismo, también cabría invitar a investigadores no nativos de la misma disciplina para que compartan su experiencia en el uso del inglés para fines de investigación. palabras clave: inglés para fines de investigación, inglés para fines académicos, ciencias e ingenierías, publicación académica internacional, normas de envío de artículos en revistas científicas, enseñanza de la escritura académica, inglés como lingua franca. 1. introduction and literature review over the past few decades, english has become the major medium of scientific communication in international publication (ammon, 2001; o’neil, 2017). it is estimated that by 2016, around 87% of the science citation index (sci) journals were published in english (curry & lillis, 2018). the importance of publishing in science and engineering fields (s&e) has long been recognized, as evidenced by its impact on researchers’ career advancement and university research assessment (hyland, 2016). a large number of studies on english for research publication purposes (erpp) (flowerdew, 1999, 2008; uzuner, 2008; cho, 2009; lillis & curry, 2010; pérez-llantada, plo & ferguson, 2011; mur dueñas, 2012; gnutzmann & 60 rabe, 2014; bardi, 2015) have reported scientists’ engagement in academic publishing. results from the majority of such studies have yielded useful insights into the challenges experienced by scientists who are non-native speakers of english (nnss). prior research pointed out that a wide array of non-linguistic factors (canagarajah, 1996; swales, 2004; belcher, 2007), such as poor research competence, lack of funding and facilities, isolation from central research networks, or bias against native-speakers of english (nss) among journal gatekeepers, may hinder the route to publication. however, it appears to be true that nns scientists are also linguistically constrained and do experience an extra burden in learning how to write compared to nss (ferguson, 2007). in recent years, given the increasing number of non-anglophone researchers as journal articles’ authors and gatekeepers in international publication (wood, 2001; ferguson, 2007; hyland, 2016), interest has emerged in the acceptance of non-standard forms of language use, influenced by literature about world englishes and english as lingua franca (elf) (mauranen, 2012; jenkins, 2014). in this sense, language forms that deviate from the native english standard are recognized as illuminating ‘differences’ or ‘variants’ rather than ‘deficits’ (jenkins, 2006). motivated by this heightened interest in pluralistic views of english standards in academic publishing, with particular attention to the occurrence of non-standard forms of language use, rozycki and johnson (2013) offered a close examination of english grammar in 14 best papers in electrical engineering journals. the findings showed that the language in these award-winning papers included non-standard usages such as missing articles and simplified grammar, further indicating the tolerance of non-standard english possibly because of the predominance of nnss as journal gatekeepers in s&e disciplines. the study raised the issue of making realistic investment in language editing services, given the fact that increasing numbers of papers are authored and reviewed by non-native science academics. similarly, flowerdew and wang (2016) and tribble (2017) identified the presence of non-standard language in published research articles. heng hartse and kubota (2014) critically examined nns researchers’ non-standard use of lexis and grammar in book publication textually mediated by native speakers. the findings raise doubt about the coexistence of standard english language and non-standard language use. they concluded that standard english still remains entrenched in the high-stakes academic publishing world, despite the sympathy for pluralizing the english language. martinez english language requirements in the current international scientific publishing world ibérica 40 (2020): 59-74 61 (2018) took a corpus-based approach by analyzing words and phrases in an nns corpus of research articles across two different periods, in comparison to a parallel ns corpus. instead of treating nnss’ writing as a deficit model, the lexical items typical of nnss were seen as the evidence of elf forms of language. these findings enrich our understanding of elf by showing that lexical items identified as salient in the nns corpus have been gradually accepted over the years, and further attest to the presence of elf-like expressions in international academic publishing. the abovementioned research provides insight into the role and nature of english language in academic publishing, further pointing to the need for close scrutiny of the language norms and standard expected by international journals. to date, studies that systematically investigated how english language requirements are regulated in journal guidelines in today’s scientific communication and publications have been surprisingly scarce, in particular in s&e disciplines. henshall (2018) probed into 341 economics journal guidelines by combing through the instructions for authors. the journal policies can be classified in terms of english language variety, grammatical correctness, and reader constraints. this paper concluded that journal english language policies are changing in response to increasingly diversified contributors. mckinley and rose (2018) approached the issue by conceptualizing the errors, standards, and nativeness in 210 journal guidelines in major commercial publishers (e.g., elsevier, wiley, springer, etc.) rather than academic disciplines. their qualitative interpretation illustrated how many journal guidelines still stick to the native english language standard, positioning l2 writers as deficient and needing linguistic support by native speakers. similar to henshall’s (2018) advocacy, their findings reiterate the need to reconceptualize error-free writing in journal guidelines in a way that enables nns scientists to focus more on the understandability of language, in consideration of increasingly diverse and multilingual writers. a solid understanding of journal submission guidelines, however, would have important implications for erpp and pedagogy. for erpp research, this understanding will further contribute to the growing body of literature on the role and nature of english in international scientific communication. this will allow us to carefully examine topics such as the standards of academic english in journal policy documents related to erpp. for academic writing instruction, awareness of language requirements in guidelines may help writing practitioners develop appropriate pedagogical interventions for bixi jin ibérica 40 (2020): 59-7462 novice scientists to be sensitive to the standard of written language in journal guidelines. the goal of the current research is to systematically examine the languagerelated requirements in ce journals only. my primary focus here, however, is not to establish causal relationships between language and publication practices, but to explore whether language requirements in international ce journal guidelines do exist. the results from the investigation are then discussed in light of the role of language in erpp literature. the implications of the findings for academic writing instruction in higher education can also be considered. 2. method the 140 chemical engineering journals were selected from the list of the journal of citation reports 2017 (jcr) under the classification of ‘chemical engineering’ (ce) in the web of science (wos), accessible from a university library portal. among them, seven journals were multilingual journals, which meant the articles were published both in english and in other languages (e.g., revista mexicana de ingeniería química). ce was under investigation because the choice of a single discipline can avoid the potential disciplinary variation in guidelines (martinez, 2018). disciplinary cultures including epistemological frameworks, research methodology, and analytical frameworks can vary considerably across disciplines, and might be a prominent factor in formulating language demands in academic writing and publishing (gnutzmann & rabe, 2014). several steps were taken to address the main research question, which is concerned with the description of english language requirements in scientific publishing. first, information regarding this aspect was extracted from the submission guidelines, in particular from the instructions for authors. second, following the language-related requirements identified in prior research (see henshall, 2018; mckinley & rose, 2018), the analysis was conducted in an interpretive and qualitative tradition. each journal guideline was read carefully throughout and special attention was directed to statements associated with the specifications on these aspects: (1) specifications on the variety of english (e.g., american/british english); (2) explicit or implicit request for grammatically correct english (e.g., “clear and accurate”, “correct language and devoid of errors”, “checked by native english language requirements in the current international scientific publishing world ibérica 40 (2020): 59-74 63 speakers before submission”); (3) explicit request for linguistic clarity and understandability for communicative effectiveness (e.g., “concise and in a readily understandable style”); and (4) no overt information regarding the english language. third, two expert ce scientists assisted my qualitative data analysis as long-term participants and were approached multiple times through face-to-face communication or via email. to increase the reliability of the analysis, i repeatedly discussed and checked with them on my findings to eliminate any potential bias in my interpretation. both of them were familiar with journal language policies because of their rich international publication experience. for instance, after consultation with them, the specification concerning the variety of english was added, as the choice of the particular variety of english was recognized in many guidelines, possibly as a means to represent a journal’s identity. there were 140 journals in total under investigation, as one journal was inaccessible online and therefore excluded. among these journals, over 65% were published by six major worldwide commercial publishers: 44 by elsevier, 16 by wiley, 14 by taylor & francis, 15 by springer, 3 by de gruyter, and 4 by the american chemical society. the rest of the journals were local or regional, from “developing countries or emerging research centers” (salager-meyer, 2015: 17). sixteen journals (11.4%) did not mention any requirements related to the english they expected from contributors (e.g., latin american applied research). in other words, no relevant information about english was made, either explicit or implicit, in their submission guidelines. 3. findings in response to the research question about english language requirements in ce international journals, qualitative content analysis was adopted to extract the relevant content. this section presents the findings concerning languagerelated requirements under three categories, i.e., conformity to a particular variety of english language, adherence to native norms and grammatical correctness, and style-related request for communicative effectiveness. 3.1. conformity to a particular variety of english language although 51 ce journals ask contributors to prepare their work in english, it is interesting to note that here ‘english’ is further specified into a variety bixi jin ibérica 40 (2020): 59-7464 of english, in most cases the american or british varieties. the publisher elsevier, where 44 journals (31%) are based, endorses either american or british english. journals like tenside surfactants detergents and hemijska industrija accepted a mixture of american and british english. three journals, i.e., periodica polytechnica-chemical engineering, macedonian journal of chemistry, and chemical engineering and technology make explicit that they privilege american english. canadian or australian english is not widely recognized in guidelines. only the canadian journal of chemical engineering endorses canadian english. even though the asia-pacific journal of chemical engineering is based in australia, it asks only for ‘english’ instead of australian english. the remaining journals only ask for ‘english’, but no further elaboration is made on the particular variety. 3.2. adherence to native norms and grammatical correctness english free from grammar, spelling, and typographical errors is required in 48 journals (34% of samples). an illustrative example is elsevier, whose journals (e.g., journal of catalysis) unanimously call for ‘good english’ which has been “spell-checked” and “grammar-checked” by the elsevier editing service. alternatively, some journals, such as reactive functional polymers, directly discard submissions due to formal aspects (manuscripts which are not written in fluent english will be automatically rejected without reviewing”) or demand correctness and standard varieties of the language, as do the canadian journal of chemical engineering (“standard academic formal language”) and oil & gas science and technology (“correct language and devoid of errors”). the guidelines acknowledge the importance of sticking to a stringent academic english style for manuscript acceptance. table 1 presents some examples illustrating the requirements of grammatical accuracy. english language requirements in the current international scientific publishing world ibérica 40 (2020): 59-74 65 3 journal name publisher examples implicit or explicit request of standard english journal of catalysis elsevier “spell-checked” or “grammar-checked” explicit industrial and engineering chemistry research american chemical society “idiomatic english” explicit canadian journal of chemical engineering wiley-blackwell “standard academic formal language” explicit chemical and biochemical engineering n/a “have manuscripts checked by a native speaker or professional editing services” implicit oil & gas science and technology n/a “correct language and devoided of errors” explicit table 1. examples illustrating grammatical correctness and standard english in ce journal guidelines. t three journals do not explicitly expect grammatical correctness but ask for “idiomatic english” (industrial and engineering chemistry research). these specifications seem to be directed to nns scientists. apart from idiomaticity, the orientation towards native-like english expressions is made explicit or implicit in several ways. for example, chemical and biochemical engineering specifies that “authors whose mother language is not english “are urged to” [emphasis added] have their manuscripts checked by “a native speaker1 or professional editing services.” the coloration technology journal asks for manuscripts to be “professionally edited by an english speaking person”. instead of explicitly mentioning nss, it is interesting to note here how some guidelines adopted careful wording to avoid explicit reference to the “native english speaker” (mckinley & rose, 2018). they advise potential nns authors to seek someone who is a fluent english user to edit their texts, for example, “a colleague fluent in english language” (turkish journal of chemistry), or “someone fully proficient in english language” (reactive and functional polymers). meanwhile, similar to the guidelines in economic journals (henshall, 2018), there are also nuanced ways of referring to non-native english speakers to reveal the ns/nns polarization, indicating that ns standard still remains entrenched, e.g., “authors for whom english is not their native language” (hemijska industrija), “non-english-speaking authors who do not have a good command of english” (asia-pacific journal of chemical engineering), “authors for whom english is a second language” (journal of chemical technology and biotechnology), and “authors whose mother language is not english” (chemical and biochemical engineering quarterly). 3.3. style-related requests for communicative effectiveness in addition to the common requests for error-free english, 22 journals (16% of samples) have several specifications highlighting the importance of clarity, understandability, and conciseness of english for communicative effectiveness, so that research can be understood by the international scientific community. typical illustrations in guidelines are presented in table 2. for example, three journals from de gruyter directly specify “clear and concise english” (e.g., reviews in chemical engineering). the expectation is detailed through a range of alternative expressions. springer, which comprises 10% of the journals in ce, recognizes the importance of understandability by asking contributors to ensure that their english is “of sufficient quality to be understood” (e.g., frontiers of chemical science and engineering, theoretical foundations of chemical engineering). analogously, the bixi jin ibérica 40 (2020): 59-7466 journal propellants explosives pyrotechnics stipulates that potential authors make their manuscripts suitable for a heterogeneous readership (”please use a simple and clear style”), and energy and environmental science, based in the professional academic publisher of royal society of chemistry’s (rsc), expects contributors to “avoid repetition and embellishment” and write in a “clear and concise way”; the iranian journal of chemistry and chemical engineering calls for a “readily understandable style”. moreover, the tendency towards understandability is also evidenced by the requests to avoid the repetitive use of long sentences and the passive voice (e.g., turkish journal of chemistry). further, a small portion of journals take additional steps to increase readability, for example, iranian journal of chemistry and chemical engineering calls for cutting down or minimizing unnecessary technical information (“technical descriptions of methods used should only be given in detail when such methods are new”). in addition, turkish journal of chemistry requests the avoidance of jargon, as reflected in the guideline “concise english without jargon should be used”. this suggests that journals seek clarity in disciplinary understandings by cutting down inextricable technical details, assuming that their potential readers, as hyland (2005: 184) says, share the same knowledge background so as to “decode references to specialized methods, instruments, materials, and models”. 4. discussion in the foregoing section i have drawn upon qualitative data analysis and interpretation to sketch out how the english language is framed in sci-index english language requirements in the current international scientific publishing world ibérica 40 (2020): 59-74 67 journal name publisher illustrations reviews in chemical engineering de gruyter “clear and concise english” energy & environmental science the royal society of chemistry’s (rsc) “clear and concise […] avoid repetition or embellishment” frontiers of chemical science and engineering springer “ensure that english language is of sufficient quality to be understood” process safety progress willey-blackwell “a clear, direct writing style is recommended” turkish journal of chemistry n/a ”repetitive use of long sentences and passive voices should be avoided”/ “without jargon” iranian journal of chemistry and chemical engineering n/a “technical descriptions of methods used should only be given in detail when such methods are new” table 2. examples illustrating style-related requests in ce journal guidelines. m journal guidelines in ce. the findings add new insights into the examination of the journals’ guidelines: whereas ‘english’ may be itemized as a particular linguistic variety, with american or british english dominating international scientific communication, more than half of the journals’ guidelines merely adopt the term ‘english’ without identifying a particular variety. the results are in general accordance with henshall’s (2018) findings, in which fewer than half of the economics journals’ guidelines tend to specify the variety of english. the unspecified variety of english and the few requests on australian or canadian english could be explained by the fact that recognition of a particular variety of english may contribute to the representation of a journal’s identity. most of the guidelines still uphold the native standard of english in international scientific publishing. the implicit or explicit request for manuscript editing by native speakers appears to create a distinction between ns and nns scientists and implies that the latter are less proficient in english and need to be linguistically supported, although this preference does not correspond to mauranen’s (2012) positive outlook, which suggests that editing by ns might not be necessary. the primacy of grammatical accuracy is also acknowledged in hynninen and kuteeva’s (2017) interview-based findings showing that linguistic correctness is highly valued by nns scientists. too many annoying and offensive non-standard grammatical expressions would leave a negative impression on reviewers or journal gatekeepers (lillis & curry, 2015). however, considering the status quo of a high proportion of nns writers in s&e disciplines, it is interesting to recognize the discrepancy between idiomatic ns english advocated in journal language policies and actual writing practices where the nns journal gatekeepers are dominant in the field. in actual practices, a certain number of non-standard forms might be acceptable for publication if they do not hinder understanding (rozycki & johnson, 2013; tribble, 2017), given the fact that there is an increasing number of nns scientists become reviewers or gatekeepers in s&e fields (wood, 2001). the situation may “allow for leeway in terms of language correctness and writing style” (gnutzmann & rabe, 2014: 36) and thus reduce language demands made on nns scientists. it further suggests that standard english is negotiable in publication practices if mutual understanding of the tolerance of non-standard forms can be built within the scientific research community, as hynninen and kuteeva (2017: 54) point out: “language norms in academic writing are being renegotiated in the process of writing and reviewing the manuscripts for publication”. bixi jin ibérica 40 (2020): 59-7468 we have seen that some guidelines expect content clarity and understandability, similar to the study reported by henshall (2018), in which clarity and intelligibility are also recognized in half of the economics journals. while this might be related to the journals’ expansion of readership, the language demands made on journals are inextricably related to a given disciplinary culture. epistemological and methodological preferences vary considerably across cultures and this factor should not be underestimated in erpp practices (hyland, 2013; kuteeva & mcgrath, 2013). guidelines as such bear upon gnutzmann and rabe’s (2014) study, which concludes that the strong reliance on experimental data and mathematical models means that science writing is expected to be less flowery and creative but stylistically intelligible. clarity and understandability are thus central in manuscript acceptance. along these lines, a few journals call for the avoidance or reduction of detailed technical procedures or jargon, which illustrates journals’ efforts towards strengthening content clarity and understandability. this advocacy in guidelines can be partly explained by hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse taxonomy, in which the ‘appeals to shared knowledge’ among specialists with the same or similar disciplinary background substitute long explanations about standard methods in a given field, and position the reader within the writer’s epistemological community. results also echo henshall’s (2018) finding that the reduction of jargon or technical information in economics journals’ guidelines benefits those who might be less interested in technical details and terminologies that might hinder understanding. put together, the guidelines give a glimpse of an emerging pluralistic picture of english in current scientific publishing, possibly because of an increasing participation of nns authors, journal gatekeepers and the nature of the ce discipline. however, the native-english benchmark (us/british english) still predominates in international publishing within s&e fields. in addition, no guidelines in the sampled journals suggest a complete non-compliance stance towards ns standard guidelines so far. the findings provide evidential arguments to support heng hartes and kubota’s (2014) and mckinley and rose’s (2018) conclusion that academia is still a long way off adopting a pluralistic orientation towards academic writing at a lexical-grammatical level. english language requirements in the current international scientific publishing world ibérica 40 (2020): 59-74 69 5. conclusion and implications by examining the english required by engineering journal guidelines, this study draws the attention of journal policymakers and academic writing specialists towards considering the efforts invested in improving nns scientists’ engagement in erpp practices. on the policy-making front, the issue to be addressed relates to the reconstruction of journal guidelines. jenkins (2011) argues that the global readership international journals aim for makes the adherence to native english standards less meaningful. however, heng hartes and kubota’s (2014) study in applied linguistics and gnutzmann and rabe’s (2014) in history suggest that the dominance of standard written english among nss makes it hard to promote the pluralization of english usage in publication any further. in the case of s&e disciplines, there seems to be a discrepancy between what is described as ‘standard english’ in submission guidelines and authors’ actual writing practices, in which the ‘native english standard’ is not strictly followed (see gnutzmann & rabe’s interview findings with scientists, 2014). therefore, given the recent attention shift from grammatical accuracy to clarity exhibited by some journals (see section 3.2) and the nature of disciplinary cultures in s&e fields, journal gatekeepers appear to seek a more open and flexible stance towards the english language used in the s&e fields, possibly including a reduced need for native-like expressions (hynninen & kuteeva, 2017: 62). this stance benefits nns scientists because it ensures that there is less prejudice against non-native writers in the decision process simply because of their non-standard usage of academic language, and more attention is thus paid to the scientific merits of their research. second, although the majority of the journals call for grammar-checking by nss, it should be noted that qualified proofreaders who have an informed understanding of the role of language in current academic publishing are sorely needed by nns researchers. from the current emphasis on understandability, it can be inferred that the proofreading practices for erpp should not be restricted to grammar or spell checking, because journal gatekeepers are gradually more willing to accommodate non-standard usage. the revision process could in this way focus more on content, generic structure, and format issues (rozycki & johnson, 2013) and make detailed suggestions to strengthen the manuscript’s overall clarity and argumentation. a number of editing strategies, such as post-proofreading conferences with nns scientists, direct or indirect revisions or summary comments could be adopted to make sure that the feedback is effective (harwood, austin & macaulay, 2012) and support nns scientists to actively engage in erpp. bixi jin ibérica 40 (2020): 59-7470 on the front of eap instructional support, the issue addressed concerns the contribution of teaching english to professional science communication. writing instructors can explicitly draw novice writers’ attention to the description of the english language requested by international journals. activities can be designed around a careful reading of journal submission guidelines in target journals, so that novice writers can have a systematic and solid understanding of journal language policies; or invite disciplinary nns researchers to share their experience in manuscript review and publication with particular attention on english language writing. it is hoped that nns scientists will be able to unravel english language requirements in submission guidelines expected by the international science community about manuscript preparation and review, which is often a notable omission in erpp training programmes. because this study is exploratory and relies on qualitative analysis as its primary source of data, the research it reports has several limitations. first, it is confined to one discipline (chemical engineering) and thus we cannot claim that the language-related journal guidelines presented are representative of other soft and hard fields. possible cross-disciplinary similarities and differences of english language-related requirements in publication policies are worth exploring, as work on this topic is surprisingly scarce. a second limitation is that only journals’ submission guidelines were analyzed, and thus it remains to be seen whether their demands coincide with the perceptions of researchers, reviewers and journal gatekeepers with regard to the role of language and actual unfolding of research writing activities in erpp, as journal policies may not reflect disciplinary writing practices (kuteeva & mauranen, 2014). a more complex picture between policies and actual practices could be revealed through the use of other research methods, such as survey-based studies or in-depth interviews with disciplinary researchers and journal gatekeepers. research of this kind could not only generate theoretical insights into the elfa (english as a lingua franca in academic settings) paradigm (jenkins, 2014) and pedagogical implications for research writing instruction in postgraduate research education, but also encourage doctoral science students and novice engineering scientists who use english in international publication to reflect critically upon their own practices, which will surely help them to advance in their professional development. article history: received 04 july 2019 received in revised form 24 may 2020 accepted 30 june 2020 english language requirements in the current international scientific publishing world ibérica 40 (2020): 59-74 71 references bixi jin ibérica 40 (2020): 59-7472 ammon, u. (2000). “towards more fairness in international english: linguistic rights of nonnative speakers?” in r. phillipson (ed.), rights to language, equity and power in education, 111116. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum. bardi, m. (2015). “learning the practice of scholarly publication in english – a romanian perspective”. english for specific purposes 37: 98111. belcher, d.d. (2007). “seeking acceptance in an english-only research world”. journal of second language writing 16: 1-22. canagarajah, a.s. (1996). “nondiscursive requirements in academic publishing, material resources of peripheral scholars, and the politics of knowledge production”. written communication 13: 435-472. cho, d.w. (2009). “science journal paper writing in an efl context: the case of korea”. english for specific purposes 28: 230-239. curry, m.j. & t. lillis. (2018). global academic publishing: policies, perspectives and pedagogies. bristol: multilingual matters. flowerdew, j. (1999). “problems in writing for scholarly publication in english”. journal of second language writing 8: 243-264. flowerdew, j. (2008). “scholarly writers who use english as an additional language: what can goffman’s “stigma” tell us?”. journal of english for academic purposes 7: 77-86. flowerdew, j. & s.h. wang (2016). “author’s editor revisions to manuscripts published in international journals”. journal of second language writing 32: 39-52. ferguson, g. (2007). “the global spread of english, scientific communication and esp: questions of equity, access and domain loss”. ibérica journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 13: 7-38. galloway, n. & rose, h. (2015). introducing global englishes. abingdon: routledge. gnutzmann, c. & f. rabe (2014). “‘theoretical subtleties’ or ‘text modules’? german researchers’ language demands and attitudes across disciplinary cultures”. journal of english for academic purposes 13: 1-40. harwood, n., l. austin & r. macaulay (2012). “cleaner, helper, teacher? the role of proofreaders of student writing”. studies in higher education 37: 569-584. heng hartse, j. & r. kubota (2014). “pluralizing english? variation in high-stakes academic texts and challenges of copyediting”. journal of second language writing 24: 71-82. henshall, a. (2018). “english language policies in scientific journals: signs of change in the field of economics”. journal of english for academic purposes 36: 26-36. hyland, k. (2005). “stance and engagement: a model of interaction in academic discourse”. discourse studies 7: 173-192. hyland, k. (2013). “writing in the university: education, knowledge and reputation”. language teaching 46(1), 53-70. hyland, k. (2016). “academic publishing and the myth of linguistic injustice”. journal of second language writing 31: 58-69. hynninen, n. & m. kuteeva (2017). “‘good’ and ‘acceptable’ english in l2 research writing: ideals and realities in history and computer science”. journal of english for academic purposes 30: 5365. jenkins, j. (2006). “points of view and blind spots: elf and sla”. international journal of applied linguistics 16: 137-162. jenkins, j. (2011). “accommodating (to) elf in the international university”. journal of pragmatics 43: 926-936. jenkins, j. (2014). english as a lingua franca in the international university: the politics of academic english language policy. abingdon: routledge. kuteeva, m. & l. mcgrath (2013). “the theoretical research article as a reflection of disciplinary practices: the case of pure mathematics”. applied linguistics 36(2): 215-235. kuteeva, m. & a. mauranen (2014). “writing for international publication in multilingual contexts: an introduction to the special issue”. journal of english for academic purposes 13: 1-14. lillis, t. & m.j. curry (2010). academic writing in a global context: the politics and practices of publishing in english. london: routledge. lillis, t. & m.j. curry (2015). “the politics of english, language and uptake: the case of international academic journal article reviews”. aila review 28: 127-150. martinez, r. (2018). “specially in the last years…: evidence of elf and nonnative english forms in bixi jin received her phd degree in english language education at the university of hong kong. she is now affiliated to the school of foreign languages, beihang university. her research interests include genre analysis, corpus-based academic discourse analysis, and writing for international publication. her recent work appeared in ieee transactions on professional communications. notes 1 an anonymous reviewer’s comments suggested to me that “checked by a native speaker seems to show very little understanding of what means to write in academic english not every native speaker can do it”. while it is true that being a ns does not necessarily mean being a qualified text editor or have a perfect mastery of academic english, a ns here is construed by default “as a proxy term for long-term residence in the united states or the uk, this being conducive to higher levels of english language proficiency and, thence, to greater control over the formal resources of vocabulary and grammar as drawn on in academic writing” (ferguson, 2007: 28). in this sense, they are supposed to be qualified to check nns writing based on their “intuitions of grammaticality” (p. 28). english language requirements in the current international scientific publishing world ibérica 40 (2020): 59-74 73 international journals”. journal of english for academic purposes 33: 40-52. mauranen, a. (2012). exploring elf: academic english shaped by nonnative speakers. cambridge: cup. mckinley, j. & h. rose (2018). “conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in english for research publication purposes: an analysis of journal submission guidelines”. journal of second language writing 42: 1-11. mur dueñas, p. (2012). “getting research published internationally in english: an ethnographic account of a team of finance spanish scholar’s struggle”. ibérica journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 24: 139-156. o’neil, d. (2018). “english as the lingua franca of international publishing”. world englishes 37(2): 120. pérez-llantada, c., r. plo & g.r. ferguson (2011). “you don’t say what you know, only what you can: the perceptions and practices of senior spanish academics regarding research dissemination in english”. english for specific purposes 30: 18-30. rozycki, w. & n. johnson (2013). “non-canonical grammar in best paper award winners in engineering”. english for specific purposes 32: 157-169. salager-meyer, f. (2015). “peripheral scholarly journals: from locality to globality”. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes 30: 15-36. swales, j.m. (2004). research genres: explorations and applications. cambridge: cup. tribble, c. (2017). “elfa vs. genre: a new paradigm war in eap writing instruction?”. journal of english for academic purposes 25: 30-44. wood, a. (2001). “international scientific english: the language of research scientists around the world” in j. flowerdew and m. peacock (eds.), research perspectives in english for academic purposes, 81-83. new york: cup. iberica 13 ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170 abstract this paper examines how the language learning strategies that learners prefer in learning professional language at tertiary level can be used for lifelong education. it is well known that when learning a language learners use various learning strategies, but not all learners are equally successful in their studies. this research is based on the analysis of data obtained from two different surveys of learners’ preferred language learning strategies. respondents spread over two levels of english proficiency and their learning strategies are compared. self-evaluation and reflections on learning outcomes reveal how important or unimportant various learning strategies are and which might be relevant to lifelong learning. the study found that learners’ preferred individual strategies can be an effective way to foster their motivation for self-development and, in the long run, lifelong learning. key words: lifelong learning strategies, self-evaluation, reflective practice. resumen un enfoque complementario a las estrategias de aprendizaje òpara toda la vidaó en el presente artículo se estudia cómo pueden utilizarse en la docencia que se rige por el principio de “para toda la vida” las estrategias de aprendizaje preferidas por los alumnos para el aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera aplicada a contextos profesionales que se desarrolla a nivel universitario. se tiene buena constancia de que en el aprendizaje de lenguas los alumnos emplean distintas estrategias de aprendizaje, pero no todos los aprendices muestran rendimientos igualmente satisfactorios. la investigación que se describe en el presente trabajo parte del análisis y la comparación de datos obtenidos mediante dos cuestionarios relativos a las estrategias de aprendizaje preferidas por los aprendices, que se reparten en dos niveles de aptitud lingüística. la a complementary approach to lifelong learning strategies galina kavaliauskienė and ligija kaminskienė mykolas romeris university & vilnius university (lithuania) gkaval@mruni.lt & ligija@bmi.lt 153 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 153 ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170 g. kavaliauskienė & l. kaminskienė autoevaluación y la reflexión sobre los resultados de aprendizaje demuestran la mayor o menor importancia de distingas estrategias de aprendizaje así como su pertinencia dentro del concepto de aprendizaje “para toda la vida”. asimismo, del estudio se desprende que las estrategias individuales preferidas por los aprendices pueden constituir una técnica eficaz para fomentar la motivación con vistas al auto-desarrollo y, a largo plazo, el aprendizaje “para toda la vida”. palabras clave: estrategias de aprendizaje para toda la vida, autoevaluación, práctica reflexiva. introduction the important part of education is learning how to learn. one of the objectives of a language course is to teach learners how to continue learning the language independently after the course has ended. the second valid point is the ability to evaluate the effectiveness of one’s own performance in a foreign language which is an important skill of critical thinking. the third valid point is the ability to use high technology for the benefit of effective learning. training learners in using strategies of effective learning such as self-monitoring and self-assessing is invaluable in attaining teaching goals. fostering learner strategies of effective learning is a factor for successful lifelong self-development. to ensure effective language learning, language teachers must make professional decisions about methodology and techniques to be used. decisions made during language instruction depend on various factors, among which the most important are the needs of the individual learner, the goals of the course, learner preferences and attitudes to the importance of various language skills. this paper addresses the issues of learners’ preferred strategies for language learning. research implications might be beneficial for fostering sustainable lifelong learning. the major indicators of lifelong learning are the same as learning strategies and include learners’ self-evaluation, learner reflections on one’s achievements or failures, personal organizer, or portfolio, e-learning, strategy training, learner autonomy and creativity in all learning activities. learners self-evaluation, reflections, application of electronic portfolio and training learners in developing awareness of their learning strategies have been used in this study. this article consists of the background review, which includes lifelong 154 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 154 learning, learning strategies, and strategy training, followed by the description of respondents and research methods, the results, discussion, conclusions, and references. background lifelong learning lifelong learning is a philosophy implying that it is never too late for learning and that learning is a continuous process to be achieved through the life span of an individual (european commission, 2001a). as räisänen and fortanetgómez (2008: 6) point out, “life-long learning is fast becoming a household word in the european sphere of education”. lifelong learning encompasses learning for personal, civic and social purposes as well as for employment. it takes place in a variety of environments in and outside the formal education and training systems. lifelong learning implies raising investment in people and knowledge; promoting the acquisition of basic skills, including digital literacy; and broadening opportunities for innovative, more flexible forms of learning. the aim is to provide people of all ages with equal and open access to high-quality learning opportunities, and to a variety of learning experiences. institutions of higher education have a key role to play in making this vision a reality. the european union commission stresses the need for member states to transform formal education and training systems in order to break down barriers between different forms of learning (european commission, 2006). in this sense: the recommendation to foster learning-to-learn skills so that learners may continue developing their linguistic competencies during (and after leaving) formal education is permanently put forward as an issue closely link to the lifelong-learning philosophy. (bocanegra-valle, 2008: 214) language learning is a lifelong activity, for which the european commission identifies the following specific objectives (european commission, 2001b): 1. learning of a mother tongue plus two other languages; 2. language learning in secondary education and training; 3. language learning in higher education; 4. language learning among adults; 5. encouragement for language learning by learners with special needs; 6. development of a wide range of languages. the action plan of language learning proposes teaching a subject through a foreign language, which would enable learners to use their a complementary approach ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170 155 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 155 language skills directly. language learning in higher education envisages promoting multilingualism. all learners should study abroad for at least one term and should gain an accepted language qualification as part of their degree course. according to the european commission, the main indicators of lifelong learning are learner autonomy, learners’ reflections on learning, selfevaluation, the application of information communication technology –i.e., e-learning, creativity and use of portfolio. more specifically, the european report on quality indicators of lifelong learning (european commission, 2002) describes fifteen indicators classified into four areas: 1) the “skills, competencies, and attitudes area” contains literacy, numeracy, new skills for the learning society, learning-to-learn skills, active citizenship skills, and cultural and social skills; 2) the “access and participation area” contains access to lifelong learning and participation in lifelong learning; 3) the “resources for lifelong learning area” contains investment in lifelong learning, educators and learning, and ict (information and communications technology) in learning; and 4) the “strategies and system development area” contains strategies for lifelong learning, coherence of supply, guidance and counselling, accreditation and certification, and quality assurance. there is a variety of widely implemented methods that help people learn successfully such as accelerated learning techniques, assessment alternatives, cooperative learning, learning styles, multiple intelligences, application of technology, etc. the role of technology in lifelong learning has become particularly important. learning strategies the notion of learning strategies was intuitively appealing to researchers and it was embraced with enthusiasm by language teachers, although “there is a lack of an unambiguous theoretical definition of the learning strategy construct, and most of the relevant literature in the l2 field pretends that with regard of learning strategies everything is more or less okay” (dörnyei, 2005: 169). according to dörnyei (2005), the definitions of learning strategies offered in the l2 literature are rather inconsistent and elusive. g. kavaliauskienė & l. kaminskienė ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170156 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 156 the initial research generated two well-known taxonomies of language learning strategies: the first one by oxford (1990), and the second one by o’malley and chamot (1990). oxford’s taxonomy consisted of six strategies: cognitive, memory, metacognitive, compensation, affective, and social. metacognition refers to thinking about cognition or reasoning about one’s own thinking. most definitions of metacognition include both knowledge and strategy components. metacognition is often referred to as “thinking about thinking” and can be used to help learners “learn how to learn”. metacognition has been linked with intelligence and it has been shown that those with greater metacognitive abilities tend to be more successful thinkers. o’malley and chamot (1990) carried out extensive research into learning strategies by means of the cognitive academic language learning approach which is based on findings in cognitive psychology and is concerned with how knowledge is acquired, stored, and retrieved. l2 learners use three main types of strategies: 1. metacognitive strategy, which involves planning and thinking about learning, its monitoring, and evaluating learning outcomes; 2. cognitive strategy, which involves conscious ways of tackling learning, i.e. note-taking, resourcing (using various resources like books, dictionaries, etc.), and elaboration – relating new information to old; 3. social strategy, which means learning by interacting with other people. interestingly, in their research usage of metacognitive strategies accounted for 30% of the learners’ choice, cognitive strategy was used by 53% of the learners, and social strategy equalled 17%. it should be noted that the type of strategy varies according to the task the learners are engaged in and learners’ language level. learning strategies can be identified by administering scientifically sound surveys to learners, and learners should be taught to use different strategies, so that acquired strategies can be transferred to new tasks and subjects. according to dörnyei (2005), compensation strategy refers to communication, which is related to language use rather than language learning. nevertheless, oxford’s (1990) strategy system is highly compatible with o’malley and chamot’s (1990) system, if communication strategies are excluded, and social / affective strategies are separated. the resulting typology comprises the following four main components (dörnyei, 2005): 1) cognitive strategies, involving the manipulation and transformation of the learning materials; 2) metacognitive strategies, involving higher order strategies aimed at analyzing, monitoring, evaluating and organizing one’s a complementary approach ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170 157 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 157 own learning process; 3) social strategies, involving interpersonal behaviors aimed at increasing the amount of l2 communication and practice interaction with native speakers, cooperating with peers; 4) affective strategies, involving control of the emotional conditions and experiences. according to cook (1996), good language learners are: 1. those who find a learning style that suits them; 2. those that involve themselves in the language learning process; 3. those that develop an awareness of language as a system and as a communication; 4. those that pay constant attention to expanding language knowledge; 5. those that take into account the demands that l2 learning imposes. in the recent years there has been considerable interest in the role of reflection in higher education. research on language learning strategies investigates the feasibility of helping learners become more effective language learners by teaching them learning strategies (chamot, 2004). the most valuable way to promote a change of attitude alongside the acquisition of skills is encourage the learners to reflect on what they are doing and why. the promotion of learner reflection remains one of the main benefits of alternative assessment (coombi & barlow, 2004). ability to reflect, learning strategies and learners’ attitudes are important aspects of learner autonomy that can lay the foundations for lifelong learning (tomlinson (ed.), 1998). active learning in higher education presupposes the ability to think critically, analyze and solve problems, use information and communication technology (ict) competently. critical thinking skills are not likely to develop spontaneously and need to be improved and trained in english classes (ustunluoglu, 2004). language learners need to explore different learning strategies, experimenting and evaluating, and eventually choosing their own set of effective strategies. the study of learner strategies indicates discrepancies between learner and teacher perceptions of language learning strategy use (griffiths & parr, 2001). learners rank social strategies as the most frequent, followed by metacognitive, compensation, cognitive, affective, and memory (the least frequent). teachers’ beliefs are different, i.e. memory strategies are the most frequent, followed by cognitive, social, metacognitive, compensation, and affective (the least frequent). griffiths and parr (2001) claim that it is possible that some of the discrepancies may be due to differing interpretations of the strategy groupings. the possible implications of learning strategies for teaching are: language g. kavaliauskienė & l. kaminskienė ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170158 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 158 learners need to explore different learning strategies, experimenting and evaluating, and eventually choosing their own set of effective strategies. it should be emphasized that learning strategies have never been explicitly rejected by teachers. however the concept of learning strategies is considered to be unfruitful for research purposes and the notion of selfregulation is thought to be a more dynamic concept because it refers to multidimensional construct, including cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, behavioral and environmental processes (dörnyei, 2005). learning strategy is only one component of self-regulation which consists of a long list: goal setting, strategic planning, monitoring, metacognition, time management, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, intrinsic interest, evaluation and self-reflection, feedback, etc. this complex construct of selfregulation still needs to be researched. strategy training the notion of learning to learn in l2 studies has a history of over three decades. strategy training is defined as the explicit teaching of how, when, and why learners should employ language learning strategies to enhance their efforts at reaching language program goals (chen, 2007). since the 1970s, researchers have addressed the need for strategy training in response to the lack of learners’ awareness of the cognitive tools and strategies available to them. evaluation of strategy training concerns the changes in learner behavior from the perspectives of task improvement, strategy maintenance, and strategy transfer. the impact of strategy training on the learner not only leads to the improvement of language proficiency, but also engages with the learners’ internal changes in the learning process. the theoretical model (chen, 2007) illustrates the relationship among the dimensions and categories of the changes in the participants’ learning processes and emphasizes the need for balancing all the criteria that may contribute to successful learning. strategy training frameworks aim to achieve the following goals (dörnyei, 2005: 178): to raise learners’ awareness about learning strategies; to encourage strategy use; to offer a number of relevant strategies for learners to choose from; to offer controlled practice in the use of strategies; to provide an analysis for students’ to reflect on their strategy use. it is claimed that the ultimate goal of strategy training is to empower learners by allowing them to take control of the language learning process (cohen, a complementary approach ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170 159 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 159 1998). however, some researchers caution teachers against investing too much effort into strategy training as this is not likely to be cost-effective, while proponents of strategy training claim that there is enough positive evidence to justify further work in this area (dörnyei, 2005). most studies evaluating the effectiveness of strategy training for second language learners have quantitatively measured improvements in their test scores following the completion of strategy training. chen (2007) argues that the evaluation methods must be supplemented by a qualitative analysis of the impact that strategy training has on the learning process; he contributes a theoretical model that illustrates the relationship among changes in participants learning processes and four dimensions for evaluation criteria, namely, the observable changes in learners’ behavior, changes in their learning process, strategy changes in approach to study a foreign language, and general changes in attitudes towards language learning. a number of models for teaching learning strategies agree on the importance of developing learners’ metacognitive understanding of the value of learning strategies. in cohen’s (1998) model, teachers act as a diagnostician, language learner, learner trainer, coordinator and coach. in the model suggested by grenfell and harris (1999), teachers raise awareness, discuss value of strategies, give learners practice, set goals, choose appropriate strategies to attain goals, and, finally, teacher and learners evaluate success of action plan. there are three current models for language learning strategy instruction: ssbi model (cohen, 1998), grenfell and harris’ (1999) model, and calla model (chamot, 2005). all these identify learners’ current learning strategies through activities such as completing questionnaires, engaging in discussions about familiar tasks, and reflecting on strategies used after performing a task. all the models suggest that the teacher should demonstrate the new strategy. moreover, current models are based on developing learners’ knowledge about their own thinking and strategic processes at the same time learners’ are encouraged to adopt strategies that will improve their language learning and proficiency. learners are often unable to transfer learning strategies to new tasks; therefore, learners should be taught and trained to apply learning strategies and become aware of themselves as learners, which is essential to the development of autonomy and, in the end, to the use of lifelong learning strategies in the future. transfer of strategies can increase significantly if g. kavaliauskienė & l. kaminskienė ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170160 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 160 teachers help learners understand their own learning processes. the issue of transfer has not been sufficiently investigated. differences were found between high attaining and low attaining learners: high achievers used more metacognitive strategies and were making transfers while low achievers failed to use strategies (harris, 2003). aim, respondents and methods the aim of the research is to identify what strategies of language learning can be beneficial to lifelong learning. the respondents were the full-time learners who study either psychology or social work at tertiary level. there were 90 participants altogether. the respondents were predominantly females between 19 and 22 years old. learners were spread over two english course levels: pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate according to their score on the oxford placement test at the beginning of the course. the amount of time spent in foreign language environment was 4 hours a week for 3 semesters. the most frequent and efficient method for identifying learners’ learning strategies is through self-reported data like questionnaires, interviews or diaries. this research used a real classroom situation to study learners’ language learning strategy use. two sets of the strategy inventory were used. the first questionnaire was based on o’malley and chamot (1990) and mccoy (2006), who used a modified questionnaire which grouped language learning strategies (under metacognitive, cognitive and social-affective). the obtained data are presented below. however, probably due to some uncertainty over strategy grouping, our results differ from similar research into strategies of learners at tertiary level (suchanova & sliogerinė, 2006). for this reason, a different type of strategy inventory for language learning (oxford, 1990), which is based on learners’ opinions, has been used. first, learners worked through the above mentioned questionnaire, then the strategy inventory version by oxford (1990) was applied. finally, following the brainstorming stage1 of language learning strategies, learners contributed their own ideas on the most important learning strategies. as a result, a new questionnaire was designed. it contains 16 items and appears to be similar in form and some of the content to that reported by griffiths (2007), although the latter is twice as long (32 items). a complementary approach ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170 161 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 161 results and discussion the basic instruments for the current study were the surveys on identifying learners’ strategies in learning english for specific purposes (esp). the statements of the strategy inventory are presented in table 1 and are taken after o’malley and chamot (1990), and mccoy (2006). the questions of the first survey are reproduced in the appendix. this is a self-scoring survey which consists of statements, to which learners responded on a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the 12 items of the survey are divided into four groups: metacognitive strategies (relating to how learners manage their learning), cognitive strategies (relating to how learners think about their learning), social strategies (involving learners by communication with peers), and affective strategies (relating to learners’ emotions). since social and affective strategies are often interrelated they are often combined (mccoy, 2006). metacognitive strategies positive responses negative responses uncertain responses the results of the learners’ positive, negative and uncertain responses (table 1) show quite an unexpected outcome, i.e. there are no significant preferences in learning strategies. in other words, positive, negative, and g. kavaliauskienė & l. kaminskienė ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170162 complementary approach metacognitive strategies positive responses negative responses uncertain responses advanced organizer 78% 12% 10% selective attention 75% 10% 15% self-management 80% 15% 5% self-monitoring and evaluation 70% 10% 20% delayed production 70% 10% 20% average 75% 11% 14% cognitive strategies positive responses negative responses uncertain responses repetition 75% 10% 15% resourcing 80% 10% 10% translation 80% 10% 10% inference 75% 10% 15% average 78% 10% 12% social / affective strategies positive responses negative responses uncertain responses clarification 75% 10% 15% cooperation (pair work) 80% 10% 10% participation (group discussions) 75% 5% 20% assistance 82% 8% 10% average 78% 8% 14% table 1. the findings of the survey on the use of metacognitive, cognitive, and social / affective strategies (o’malley & chamot, 1990, and mccoy, 2006). the results of the learners’ positive, negative and uncertain responses (table 1) show quite an unexpected outcome, i.e. there are no significant preferences in learning strategies. in other words, positive, negative, and uncertain responses are almost the same within the error limits: social/affective strategies equal 78%, cognitive 78%, and metacognitive 75%. contrary to our data, in the earlier paper by griffiths and parr (2001) learners ranked metacognitive strategies as the most frequent language learning strategies (6 on a scale from 6 to 1) while cognitive and affective strategies are less frequent (3 and 2, respectively). however, in a more recent article griffiths (2007) claims that many strategy items in oxford’s typology can be included in more than one group and, thus, the data might be inconclusive. moreover, some items such as consulting a dictionary were not included in the previous studies of various authors (griffiths, 2007). for this reason, it is expedient to find out what strategies learners prefer to use in mastering their language skills. 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 162 uncertain responses are almost the same within the error limits: social/affective strategies equal 78%, cognitive 78%, and metacognitive 75%. contrary to our data, in the earlier paper by griffiths and parr (2001) learners ranked metacognitive strategies as the most frequent language learning strategies (6 on a scale from 6 to 1) while cognitive and affective strategies are less frequent (3 and 2, respectively). however, in a more recent article griffiths (2007) claims that many strategy items in oxford’s typology can be included in more than one group and, thus, the data might be inconclusive. moreover, some items such as consulting a dictionary were not included in the previous studies of various authors (griffiths, 2007). for this reason, it is expedient to find out what strategies learners prefer to use in mastering their language skills. as it has already been mentioned, we have conducted investigation into learners’ preferred learning strategies by brainstorming the issue and generating a different type of survey. a newly designed questionnaire took into account learners’ reflections on their learning strategies. this strategy inventory consists of 16 items and is reproduced in table 2. learners were asked how often they used the strategy items, using a 5-point likert scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always). this new strategy inventory was completed by 90 learners who were spread over two basic english for specific purposes levels: pre-intermediate (pi, 50 learners) and upperintermediate (ui, 40 learners). the results in table 2 include the mean values (m) of learners’ responses and the standard deviations (sd). to determine a degree of freedom df, we subtracted 40 minus 1 (39), and 50 minus 1 (49), and added these two results together, i.e. df = 39 + 49 = 88. so there were 88 degrees of freedom for these two samples. when we checked the t-value in the theoretical statistics table of critical values (brown & rodgers, 2002) for the t-test statistic, we had to check in the row which strategy shows 88 degrees of freedom to decide whether the difference between the means was significant or not. if the exact df was not shown in the table of critical values, we took the closest value below it in order to be conservative. in our case it was 60, and in that row the critical value for tc at the .01 level of significance (two-tailed) was 2.660 (or t = 2.000 at the .05 level of significance). if the calculated t-value is greater than the critical value tc found in the table of critical values at .01 or .05, it means that there is a significant difference between two groups. the right-hand side column of table 2 displays the values of computed p which indicates a complementary approach ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170 163 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 163 whether there is a significance difference between learners’ responses. such p values are shown in italics in table 2. therefore, in such cases it may be concluded that learners with higher value of means are better at using a particular language learning strategy. however, the p values between 0.138 and 0.614 in table 2 show that the mean values for both groups can be interpreted as statistically close, i.e., there is no significant difference between groups in using these learning strategies. g. kavaliauskienė & l. kaminskienė ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170164 no statement pi level: 50 learners, mean values (m) pi level: standard deviations (sd) ui level: 40 learners, mean values (m) ui level: standard deviations (sd) two-tailed significance level (p) 1 homework assignments 3.62 0.75 3.92 0.76 0.064 2 pair work in class 3.73 0.64 3.83 0.79 0.510 3 use of online/paper dictionary 3.82 0.51 4.11 0.49 0.008 4 listening practice in class 3.91 0.83 3.82 0.85 0.614 5 revision of tenses 3.85 0.67 3.75 0.77 0.512 6 learning esp vocabulary 3.95 0.85 3.80 0.92 0.425 7 doing linguistic computer tasks 3.27 0.80 3.04 0.85 0.191 8 watching authentic tv films 3.23 0.92 3.51 0.83 0.138 9 revision of esp materials 3.11 0.80 3.36 0.75 0.134 10 talking to native english speakers 3.24 0.75 3.67 0.76 0.009 11 listening to english podcasts 3.85 0.62 4.12 0.78 0.071 12 writing entries to weblogs 3.85 0.62 4.14 0.78 0.053 13 analyzing one’s own mistakes 3.63 0.75 3.95 0.76 0.049 14 time spent on studying english 3.44 0.70 3.63 0.74 0.216 15 learning phrasal verbs 3.82 0.50 4.12 0.48 0.007 16 translation from l1 to l2 and vice versa 3.67 0.50 4.15 0.49 0.005 table 2. mean responses, standard deviations, and computed two-tailed significance levels p. (“pi” means pre-intermediate level, and “ui” stands for upper-intermediate level). 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 164 it is hardly expedient to rank these strategies into metacognitive, compensation, cognitive, affective, social, and memory groups, in the same way as many researchers have used before –basically because some of them overlap. the most important result is the types of strategies that learners find beneficial to mastering their language skills. another important point is the comparison of strategy use at different levels of proficiency. as it can be seen, some strategies are more significant at either higher or lower level of proficiency. learners’ individual differences outline the virtues and benefits of particular strategy use. the preferential use of certain strategies implies that learners might rely on them in the future –when the need for language refinement emerges. individual interviews with learners reveal that learners believe in the importance of translation from l1 into l2 and vice versa, listening to authentic english and use of dictionary in order to keep learning language in the future, after the course has finished. as a matter of interest it is worth mentioning that the coefficient of cronbach’s alpha, which is a coefficient of reliability or consistency of the data, has also been computed. the formula for the standardized cronbach’s alpha is ∝ = (n · r) / (1 + (n -1) · r, here n is equal to the number of items and r-bar is the average inter-term correlation among the items. a reliability coefficient alpha of .70 or higher is considered acceptable in most social science research situations. in our case, n = 90 and two variables (two groups of different proficiency levels) the value alpha is equal to .87 and shows high reliability of the presented data. learners’ reflections initially, many learners found the request to reflect on their learning a novel experience. moreover, some of them did not feel that self-evaluation is supportive to their learning. it should be emphasized that reflections are difficult for learners and may be even superficial because they include the ability to evaluate oneself critically. nevertheless, impartial reflections usually lead to self-knowledge, which is fundamental to learner development, and are employed as a means of monitoring one’s own learning. some researchers (kuit, reay & freeman, 2001) claim that reflection works best in collaboration with others, which is true for the academic staff, but questionable for learners, who are very sensitive about losing face. our a complementary approach ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170 165 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 165 research into learners’ reflections included an open-ended survey on their achievements in various class activities including tests and written work (kavaliauskienė et.al., 2007). the quality of learners’ reflections can be summarized as follows: 1) learners seem to find it easy to carry out reflections on what they did and how they did it, i.e., the difficulty or ease in their performance; 2) learners assess their own strengths and weaknesses realistically by exploring experiences and formulating ways for improvement; 3) learners are open about preferences, abilities, awareness of achievements, willingness to perfect knowledge and skills. the effectiveness of reflective strategy depends on the reflective activities and the commitment of the individuals who carry them out. for teachers, learners’ reflective responses are challenging because they stimulate staff to re-evaluate their teaching. conclusions and implications learners believe that in order to improve their language skills in the future, it is useful to employ such learning strategies as translation from l1 into l2 and vice versa, use of dictionary with the aim of learning an accurate meaning of the word and its usage, and habitual listening to authentic english. learners’ attitudes to various learning strategies essentially differ due to their individual differences. learning strategies constitute a useful tool for active learning, promote learner autonomy and prompt proficiency. due to the benefits and virtues of learning strategies learners increase the effectiveness of learning and extend their knowledge of “know how to learn”. such knowledge lays down foundations to lifelong learning which is essential for every person in the 21st century. the main implications of this study for teachers are to monitor learner’s individual differences and achievements, encourage learners’ reflective practice, and obtain feedback on the best learning strategies for a particular learner. the implementation of this unconventional approach to teaching a g. kavaliauskienė & l. kaminskienė ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170166 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 166 unique person rather than a class of very similar people might enhance learning motivation and justify teacher’s efforts for improving teaching quality. acknowledgements the authors are indebted to the recently demised dr. romualdas juozas kavaliauskas for his invaluable assistance with the application of statistical software to process the experimental findings. (revised paper received december 2008) references a complementary approach ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170 167 bocanegra-valle, a. (2008). “learning to learn in esp. fostering lifelong learning in european higher education under bologna requirements” in i. fortanet-gómez & c. räisänen (eds.), 213-232. brown, j.d. & t. rodgers. (2002). doing second language research. oxford: oxford university press. chamot, a.u. (2004). “issues in language learning strategy research and teaching”. electronic journal of foreign language teaching 1: 14-26. chamot, a.u. (2005). “the cognitive academic language learning approach (calla)” in p.a. richard amato & m.a. snow (eds.), academic success for language learners, 87-101. new york: longman. chen, y. (2007). “learning to learn: the impact of strategy training”. elt journal 61: 20-29. cohen, a.d. (1998). strategies in learning and using a second language. new york: longman. cook, v. (1996). second language learning and language teaching. london: arnold. coombi, ch. & l. barlow. (2004). “the reflective portfolio”. english teaching forum, 42: 18-23. dörnyei, z. (2005). the psychology of the language learner. individual differences in second language acquisition. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum. european commission (2001a). european area of lifelong learning. url: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/education_training_youth/lifelon g_learning/c11054_en.htm [28/06/09]. european commission (2001b). action plan on adult learning – it’s never too late to learn. url: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/education_ training_youth/lifelong_learning/c11102_en.htm [29/06/09]. european commission (2002). european report on quality indicators of lifelong learning. url: http://www.bologna-berlin2003.de/pfdreport.pdf [30/06/09] european commission (2006). lifelong learning programme 2007-2013. url: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/education_ training_youth/lifelong_learning/c11082_en.htm [29/06/09]. fortanet-gómez, i. & c. räisänen (eds.) (2008). esp in european higher education. integrating language and content. amsterdam: john benjamins. grenfell, m. & v. harris (1999). modern language and learning strategies: in theory and practice. london: routledge. griffiths, c. (2007). “language learning strategies: students’ and teachers’ perceptions”. elt journal 61: 91-99. griffiths, c. & m. parr. (2001). “language-learning strategies: theory and perception”. elt journal 55: 247-254. harris, v. (2003). “adapting classroom-based strategy instruction to a distance learning context”. tesl-ej 7/2. url: http://www-writing.berkeley. edu/tesl-ej/ej26/a1.html [22/06/09]. 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 167 kavaliauskienė, g., l. kaminskienė & l. anusienė. (2007). “reflective practice: assessment of assignments in english for specific purposes”. ibérica 14: 149-166. kuit, j.a., g. reay & r. freeman. (2001). “experiences of reflective teaching”. active learning in higher education 2: 128-142. mccoy, d. (2006). “utilizing students’ preferred language learning strategies for ielts test preparation”. ea journal 23: 3-13. o’malley, j.m. & a. chamot (1990). strategies used by second language learners. cambridge: cambridge university press. oxford, r.l. (1990). language learning strategies: what every teacher should know. new york: newbury house. räisänen, c. & i. fortanet-gómez (2008). “introduction. english for specific purposes after the bologna reform” in i. fortanet-gómez & c. räisänen (eds.), 1-7. suchanova, j. & j. sliogerienė (2006). “metakognityvinės taktikos ir strategijos itaka uzsienio kalbos mokymosi rezultatams”. santalka 14: 45-53. tomlinson, b. (ed.) (1998). materials development in language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. ustunluoglu, e. (2004). “language teaching through critical thinking and self-awareness”. english teaching forum 42: 2-7. g. kavaliauskienė & l. kaminskienė ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170168 dr. galina kavaliauskienė currently lectures at mykolas romeris university, lithuania, where she is an associate professor at the department of foreign languages. her research fields include various aspects of esp. her recent publications deal with learner assessment and self-assessment, paper and electronic portfolios, quality of teaching and learning, good practice in teaching speaking and listening skills, mother tongue and translation in esp, quality integration in teaching/learning esp. dr. ligija kaminskienė is a professor at the department of translation and interpreting studies of the faculty of philology at vilnius university, lithuania. her research fields include intertextual relations in translation, methods of teaching english for specific purposes, also eu policies on foreign language teaching and development of transferable skills at university level. notes 1 the idea of brainstorming in english classes has been known for years. it implies the discussion of a theme (topic) by learners who eventually generate new ideas, suggestions or notions. in our settings, the brainstorming stage of language learning strategies aimed at finding out what learning strategies, according to learner beliefs, might be or have been useful to each of them. ˇ ˇ 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 168 appendix. survey of learners’ metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies –based on o’malley and chamot (1990), and mccoy (2006). no a complementary approach ibérica 18 [2009]: 153-170 169 g. kavaliauskien & l. kaminskien ibérica 18 (2009): …-…16 appendix. survey of learners’ metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies –based on o’malley and chamot (1990), and mccoy (2006). no specification strategies metacognitive strategies 1 advanced organizer review materials and prepare for classes 2 selective attention focus on a specific language point at a time 3 selfmanagement arrange the best learning environment 4 self-monitoring& evaluation correction and identification of one’s errors 5 delayed production learn by listening, reluctant to talk cognitive strategies 6 repetition imitation of other people’s speech 7 resourcing use of dictionary or reference books 8 translation use of translation in learning 9 inference guess the meaning from context social /affective strategies 10 clarification ask for clarification of unknown words 11 cooperation (pair work) active in pair work 12 participation active in group discussions 13 assistance help others and their help in learning 09 iberica 18.qxp 15/9/09 16:59 página 169 iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.285 abstract this study investigates the practices of native, native-like and non-native english-speaking researchers in academic writing. the researchers developed a survey with likert-type items, which were created using the researchers’ personal experience, the bibliography of the field, and an initial open-ended questionnaire administered to 31 researchers. the resulting survey was validated through cognitive interviewing and piloting with 30 respondents. the validated version was administered to 249 respondents to gain comparative insights into how the three groups differ in their use of technology, strategies and dictionaries along with challenges they face in academic writing. the results globally indicated that non-native english-speaking researchers used strategies more frequently than native-like english-speaking or native english-speaking researchers. similarly, non-native english-speaking researchers mostly preferred the integration of technology into academic writing process and dictionary use. however, all three groups of researchers experienced similar challenges in academic writing, which globally suggests that language per se is not enough for success in scholarly writing and publishing. keywords: academic writing, native english-speaking researchers, nonnative english-speaking researchers, strategy use. resumen uso de la tecnología y estrategias en la redacción académica: hablantes nativos de inglés frente a hablantes no nativos este estudio investiga las prácticas de los investigadores de habla inglesa nativos, casi nativos y no nativos en la escritura académica. los investigadores technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus nonnative speakers of english arif bakla & ali karakaş ankara yıldırıım beyazıt university (türkiye) & burdur mehmet akif ersoy university (türkiye) abakla@ybu.edu.tr & akarakas@mehmetakif.edu.tr 285 ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 arif bakla & ali karakaş desarrollaron y validaron una encuesta likert. las preguntas de la encuesta se crearon utilizando la experiencia personal de los investigadores, la bibliografía y una encuesta inicial abierta administrada a 31 investigadores. la encuesta resultante se validó mediante entrevistas cognitivas y pruebas piloto con 30 encuestados. la versión validada se administró a 249 encuestados para obtener una visión comparativa de cómo los tres grupos difieren en el uso de tecnología, estrategias y diccionarios junto con los desafíos que enfrentan en la escritura académica. los resultados indicaron globalmente que los investigadores de habla inglesa no nativa utilizaron estrategias con más frecuencia que los investigadores de habla inglesa nativa o similar. del mismo modo, los investigadores de habla no inglesa preferían en su mayoría la integración de la tecnología en el proceso de escritura académica y el uso del diccionario. sin embargo, los tres grupos de investigadores experimentaron desafíos similares en la escritura académica, lo que sugiere a nivel global que el lenguaje por sí solo no es suficiente para el éxito en la escritura y publicación académica. palabras clave: escritura académica, investigadores hablantes nativos de inglés, investigadores hablantes no-nativos de inglés, uso de estrategias. 1. introduction in recent years, technology has become a central part of human life in almost every domain, and emerging technologies have greatly shaped the field of scholarly writing. as technology is an essential part of the academic writing process, what becomes imperative is to explore what technology integration into academic writing offers researchers to facilitate their practices in the demanding process of writing, “starting from deciding research topic or research conception, research design, data collection, data analysis, interpretation results, and research publication” (wajdi et al., 2018, p. 94). this process is dynamic in that it “involves the strategies for effective reading and research” and “requires using a number of techniques and strategies specific to writing and moves through several stages of development” (johnson, 2010, p. 23). additionally, it is vital to understand the extent to which researchers use available technological tools and strategies in their academic writing practices, as well as the challenges they face and how they cope with these challenges. for the purposes of the present study, a researcher is defined as someone who does scholarly research and is involved in writing up research results, regardless of their having a phd or not. researchers are divided into three 286 groups, based on their linguistic relationship with english: (a) native englishspeaking researchers (ners), who speak english as their l1, (b) non-native english-speaking researchers (nners), who speak it as a second or foreign language and (c) native-like english speaking researchers (nlers). the members of the third group stand somewhere in the middle of the nativeness and non-nativeness continuum. this group is usually defined as highly competent non-native speakers of english, most of whom are known to have spent some of their lives in an english-speaking country, although this is not a prerequisite. most researchers who publish and assume roles as reviewers and editors today are non-native english researchers (nners) (hyland, 2016a; hynninen & kuteeva, 2017). the use of technological tools and strategies in writing instruction and teaching has been extensively studied with undergraduate and graduate students of both native and non-native english backgrounds (cuff, 2014). research has also examined the issues of nativeness and nonnativeness in academic writing, such as differences in their language use, reporting practices (e.g., marti et al., 2019), authorial presence (e.g., candarli et al., 2015) and writing patterns (güngör, 2019; salazar, 2014). however, the issues of nativeness and non-nativeness have centred around teaching practices, with little or no attention given to research-publishing practices (karakaş et al., 2016; walkinshaw & oanh, 2014). in the field of english for academic purposes (eap), there is little well-documented research that has explored ners’ and nners’ academic writing practices in terms of technology and strategy use. gaining insights into these three groups’ research practices, strategies and technology use might reveal whether one group, particularly the group of ners, is advantaged over the others and what role different nativeness status might play in dealing with challenges of academic writing and how this affects the level and variety of technology use. this may also help counter the myth that ners are advantaged in academic writing and publishing, as reflected in the frequent request that nners should get their paper edited by native english speakers. such practices create the impression that nners are the only group facing challenges in academic writing while ners are portrayed as experts by nature of their nativeness (e.g., ferguson, 2007; mckinley & rose, 2018). against this backdrop, this research aims to investigate ners’ and nners’ engagement with technological tools and strategies in their academic writing practices and to explore the perceived challenges they face. technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 287 2. academic writing, technological tools and strategy use a widely held misperception is that academic writing is only writing performed for academic purposes, such as publishing scholarly research (murray & moore, 2006). however, academic writing does not entail the write-up process only, as it is a multi-stage process in which the write-up is just one of several stages. by its nature, it consists of a non-linear, recursive and “continuous process involving reflection, improvement, development, progress and fulfilment of various types and in varying measures” (murray & moore, 2006, p. 5). highlighting the importance of this point, johnson (2010) notes that academic “writing is not just putting words on paper to turn in, but a dynamic process that involves effective reading and research strategies” (p. 10). that is, the academic writing process denotes a superordinate notion with inter-reliant components; that is, research, reading and writing. in this, the research component necessitates researchers “to seek out information about a subject, take stand on it, and back it up with opinions, ideas and views of others” (winkler & metherell, 2011, pp. 3-4). this is interconnected with the reading component, which allows researchers to develop effective reading strategies (e.g., previewing, summarising, critical reading) while reading others’ work. however, research has shown that not only undergraduate and graduate students but also researchers feel challenged by particular issues emanating from incorrect referencing, inappropriate citation format, careless note-taking, plagiarism, and disorganised and unsaved quotations (helgesson & eriksson, 2015; jomaa & bidin, 2017; wajdi et al., 2018). despite previous research portraying plagiarism as a problem largely experienced by undergraduate and graduate students in academic writing, it is also a common problem among both ners and nners, especially among those with less experience in academic writing (shah et al., 2009). to respond to such challenges, researchers can benefit from certain strategies and technological tools to manage the tasks of appraising sources critically, finding and using online resources carefully, using and documenting sources reliably, especially to avoid plagiarism, and taking clear and comprehensive notes (guraya & guraya, 2017; johnson, 2010). for instance, assistive tools are available for doing research, managing citation styles and literature reviews, as well as storing and organising notes. these include arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314288 research databases, (e.g., google scholar and springer) (rucker, 2015), plagiarism software (guraya & guraya, 2017; johnson, 2010; wajdi et al., 2018), citation generators (katz, 2018; rucker, 2015), reference managers (e.g., mendeley and endnote) (kali, 2016), and tools to create textual, visual and audio notes (e.g., evernote and onenote) (rucker, 2015). as for the writing component, it denotes the process of transferring the information obtained from the reading and research processes into drafts. these tasks are also considered a part of the effective writing strategies, such as process writing, text structure application and summarising (wischgoll, 2017). although publishers’ expectations might not be the same for all researchers across any discipline, research on journal guidelines (oermann et al., 2018; schriger et al., 2006) indicates that researchers are expected to meet certain general sets of standards in their writing, including accurate sentence structure, wider vocabulary range, standard grammar, mechanics, a convincing academic voice, appropriate citations and reference style. as jenkins (2011) notes, “the vast majority of academic journals with international distribution remain deeply grounded in the norms of british and/or north american academic english, despite their (linguistically paradoxical) claims to internationalism” (p. 927). likewise, reviewers and journal editors are often negative about non-native features in papers (flowerdew, 2001). therefore, several lines of evidence suggest that researchers, especially less experienced researchers using english as an additional language, are facing various challenges in meeting the criteria (chireshe et al., 2014; goh & lepage, 2019; hyland, 2016b; kotamjani et al., 2018). in response to these expectations and challenges, researchers take some steps to facilitate the publication process and decrease the likelihood of rejection due to content, organisation, style and language-related issues. the most widely taken actions to improve text quality include but are not limited to using spell-check and grammar check tools (cavaleri & dianati, 2016; johnson, 2010), employing editing and proofreading strategies, getting feedback, taking regular breaks from writing, using writing models (hyland, 2016b; johnson, 2010; murray & moore, 2006) and using dictionaries or thesauri and corpus tools (chitez et al., 2015; goh & lepage, 2019; wischgoll, 2017). however, the vast majority of the above-mentioned studies were conducted in relation to the challenges faced by undergraduate and graduate technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 289 researchers. this suggests a need for research on more experienced researchers’ academic writing practices by exploring the technological tools and strategies they employ to grapple with the challenges they face. since “[w]riting for international publication presents challenges for both anglophone and non-anglophone researchers” (hynninen & kuteeva, 2017, p. 53), it is particularly important to address the challenges faced by these groups of researchers in their writing practices and look into their technology and strategy use. 3. the native and non-native dichotomy in academic writing previous studies have hotly discussed whether the native and non-native status of researchers affects their academic writing practices and whether ners enjoy a linguistic advantage over nners in the academic writing context. the overall discussion can be placed at the two opposite ends of the native and non-native continuum. linguistically considered, nners are depicted as suffering from several issues and difficulties, mostly languagerelated, in their academic writing practices (e.g., flowerdew, 2008; huang, 2010). nners’ failure to be accepted for publication in high-profile journals is predominantly attributed to language issues, even though the complex writing process can be influenced by other variables, such as researchers’ writing experiences (bardi, 2015; candarli et al., 2015; martín et al., 2014), academic literacy and genre-specific knowledge (casanave, 2008; ferguson et al., 2011), access to international research networks (hyland, 2016a) and language-related issues (flowerdew 2007; langum & sullivan, 2017). however, as mentioned earlier, there might be several other issues, such as disciplinary knowledge and differences, previous experiences and varied expectations of publishers as to academic writing conventions. however, as for the other end of the continuum, scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds, such as english as an academic lingua franca (elfa) (e.g., mauranen, 2006, 2012), academic literacies (e.g., lillis & scott, 2007), and genre approaches (e.g., hyland, 2009), argue against the linguistic injustice allegation claiming that the native and non-native status has nothing to do with effective academic writing, especially in terms of using academic english. this is mainly because, as ferguson (2007) notes, “the native speaker and the non-native speaker start as novices in the acquisition of arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314290 academic writing skills” (p. 28). highlighting the unique characteristics of academic english in the writing process, mauranen (2006) also contends that “[t]he genres and rhetoric of the discourse communities that we participate in need to be acquired by all novices” (p. 149) in academic writing regardless of their being ners or nners. based on this perspective, she further advances two arguments: (1) “there are no native speakers of academic english,” and (2) “the english of academic genres is new use to all its practitioners at the beginning”. it is, therefore, argued that what affects the success of one’s academic literacy goes beyond the issue of having a native or non-native background because it “depends on multiple factors of genre, style, disciplinary knowledge, writing experience and language, and language is only one of the factors” (zhao, 2017, p. 49). additionally, research on publication through english concludes that in comparison with genre-specific knowledge and the level of academic writing expertise, the case of nativeness is of less importance for successful academic writing (bocanegra-valle, 2014; ferguson et al., 2011; hyland, 2016a). moreover, casanave (2008) suggests that ners share most of the challenges experienced by nners in their writing, and these difficulties predominantly originate from unfamiliarity with academic conventions, lack of academic register and lack of writing experience in scholarly quarters. thus, what influences researchers’ academic writing practices is whether they have received training in academic writing and its conventions and have gained expertise in academic literacy. this is because academic writing cannot be considered “part of the native speaker’s inheritance” as “it is acquired rather through lengthy formal education and is far from a universal skill” (ferguson et al., 2011, p. 42). therefore, what would differentiate ners from nners may be the resources they use to acquire academic literacy. technological tools and various strategies available for effective reading, research and writing processes are among the possible ways both ners and nners can exploit to deal with the complicated demands of the academic writing process. in line with the importance of gaining insights into ners and nners’ academic writing practices in terms of technology and strategy use and the research gap in this field, this study addresses the following research questions: 1) what are the patterns of technology use in academic writing among native, native-like and non-native english-speaking researchers? technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 291 2) how do native, native-like and non-native english-speaking researchers differ in terms of research software and dictionary use? 3) what are the challenges faced by native, native-like and non-native english-speaking researchers in academic writing? 4. method this study aimed to explore the academic writing practices of the ners, nlers and nners, with a specific reference to strategy, technology and dictionary use. the researchers constructed a survey with likert-type items to collect data, since we aimed to research how often they used certain practices and experienced difficulties. 4.1. participants 30 researchers participated in the piloting phase of the study, and 249 participants, recruited through convenience sampling, responded to the validated survey. the survey was administered online through an url link on social media sites. the key point was to make sure that all the respondents were researchers. therefore, a particular item in the survey asked the participants if they write academic texts in english; 13 out of 249 reported that they did not, and 46 people failed to complete at least half of the items in the survey, while 4 did not specify if they were a native, non-native or native-like english speaker, so they were all excluded from the study. finally, 186 participants (59 males and 127 females) completed the survey; 24 out of 186 preferred not to respond to the last section in the survey (challenges experienced in academic writing). however, they were not excluded from the study as they successfully completed all the other parts. most of the respondents were non-natives (n= 118, 63.44%) (figure 1). arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314292 figure 1. native, non-native versus native-like distribution. the nlers and nners (n=157, 84.40%) came from various l1 backgrounds. turkish, arabic and spanish speakers formed the largest group. there were several respondents with other languages as their l1 (table 1). table 1. the mother tongues of the non-native respondents. regarding employment, 103 (55.38%) of the respondents were working at a university at the time of the study. most of them belonged to languagerelated areas, such as english language education, english language and literature, and translation. concerning field of study, the ‘other’ category of the respondents belonged to diverse fields ranging from health sciences to political sciences, and from film studies to history (table 2). technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 293 3 ! native englishspeaking; 29; 16% native-like englishspeaking; 39; 21%non-native english-speaking; 118; 63% ! ! mother tongue frequency arabic 33 chinese 4 french 2 german 7 hindi 2 japanese 1 portuguese 3 russian 2 spanish 19 turkish 43 urdu 4 vietnamese 1 other 37 missing 2 ! table 2. the crosstabulation of some key personal characteristics based on linguistic background. 4.2. data collection tools two data collection tools were used to gather data in the present study. the first was an initial online survey with three open-ended questions (appendix 1). the second was the main survey with likert-type items (appendix 2). the initial survey was constructed and administered to help the researchers enrich the item pool they prepared for the survey. two other sources of data were used to construct the main survey: (a) the researchers’ own research and teaching experience and (b) the bibliography. 4.3. the initial open-ended survey the researchers began to collect data through an initial online survey with three open-ended questions (appendix 1). although the researchers created a rich item pool (see section on “construction and validation”), they attempted to boost the content validity of the survey by constructing and administering a survey with three open-ended questions. seeking a group of respondents’ perspectives about an under-researched area can help explore different ideas and include all significant aspects of the topic under investigation, thereby increasing content validity, which, in creswell and plano clarke’s (2011) words, refers to “whether the items or questions are representative of possible items” (p. 210). this initial survey was administered to a cohort of researchers, including both native and non-native speakers of english, the largest group of respondents being english-l1 researchers arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314294 ! ! ! response ners nlers nners total f % f % f % f % employed at a university? yes 18 9.70 21 11.30 62 33.30 101 54.30 no 11 5.90 18 9.70 56 30.10 85 45.70 total 29 15.60 39 21.00 118 63.40 186 100 educational background ba 6 3.20 4 2.20 11 5.90 21 11.40 ma 11 5.90 10 5.40 50 27.00 71 38.30 phd 12 6.50 25 13.50 56 30.30 93 50.30 total 29 15.70 39 21.10 117 63.20 185 100 area of study language education 3 1.70 11 6.30 48 27.40 62 35.40 linguistics 6 3.40 7 4.00 26 14.90 39 22.30 literature 2 1.10 4 2.30 4 2.30 10 5.70 other 15 8.60 16 9.10 33 18.90 64 36.60 total 26 14.90 38 21.70 111 63.40 175 100 ! (n=12) followed by turkish-l1 researchers (n=10). the rest of the respondents came from various mother tongue backgrounds (figure 2). figure 2. l1 of the researchers who responded to the initial survey. the open-ended survey items (appendix 1) were intended to elicit information for the item construction process for the survey, which was the main data collection tool (appendix 2). the participants in the initial short survey usually provided shorter open responses. as suggested by given (2016), these qualitative responses were analysed using content analysis in line with the quantitative nature of the study, based on the frequency of certain words or phrases. the frequencies of the recurrent ideas were calculated, yet this was not the only factor for a theme to be turned into a survey item. technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 295 " english; 12; 39% turkish; 10; 32% bosnian; 3; 10% arabic; 1; 3% spanish; 1; 3% chinese; 1; 3% dutch; 1; 3% no response; 2; 7% " " " " " " " " " " " bicara ; 1; 3% shiansp ; 1; 3% eschine ; 1; 3% hcdut ; 1; 3% reno " 3% eponssre ; 2; 7% " shilgen ; 12; 39% " " turk nniabos ; 3; 10% " h 0isturk ; 10; 32% " " " " " " table 3. data from initial survey with three open-ended questions (used for item construction). 4.4. the survey the data from the initial survey mostly verified the items written using personal experience and the literature, yet they also helped to generate some new items. for example, the respondents mentioned problems regarding writing concisely, understanding the properties of different genres of academic writing, achieving clarity of expression, and finding the right words (table 3). using these sources of data, the authors checked the whole survey for its content, comprehensibility/readability and coherence. the online version of the survey was created using limesurvey v2.05. the final version of the survey is provided in appendix 2. arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314296 ! ! name # of respondents # of references theme_affective problems lead to poor writing 0 0 lack of confidence 5 5 perfectionism or procrastination 4 8 writer's block 1 1 thm_inability to write with a style is a major challenge 0 0 achieving clarity in writing 3 3 conciseness 7 8 difficulty in finding the right expressions 9 11 repetitiveness 3 4 theme_preferred strategies vary a lot 0 0 formulaic expressions 1 2 leaving time between writing and editing 3 3 peer review as a useful but difficult-to-seek tool 19 23 inadequate opportunities for peer-reviewing 5 7 reading aloud 13 13 recursiveness in writing and editing 0 0 recursive revising 6 6 multiple drafting 5 6 using dictionaries or translators 4 4 working on hardcopy 3 3 theme_technology functions as a facilitator 0 0 accessing relevant literature 5 5 bibliography management software 12 12 grammar-spelling checkers 19 28 plagiarism software 9 9 using corpora 1 3 using online dictionaries and thesauri 9 13 using the internet for cross-checking 4 5 theme_the nature of academic writing itself causes problems 0 0 academic genres 4 5 time consuming 3 3 ! 4.5. validation of the survey a two-step method was followed to validate the survey. first, it was examined by three native speakers of english with a phd in applied linguistics/tesol who were based at a uk university as lecturers. the scope of their expertise and research interests includes the issues and ideologies pertinent to (non-)nativeness. for this reason, they were not only asked to check the language of the items in the survey, but they were also asked to comment on the content of the survey. however, they suggested some revisions, mostly in the content of a few items, but saw no major problems in the wording. two likert-type items in the section reserved for academic writing practices were rephrased and moved to the next section: “my writing seems monotonous to me” and “i experience writer’s block (the state of being unable to write for some time)”. then, a cognitive interview was carried out with two turkish-l1 researchers. both respondents had a phd (the first in linguistics and the second in english language and literature), but they were not experts in survey development. these people were asked to read the survey items and explain what they understood from each item. in some items, they were asked to explain what certain terms or phrases meant for them. based on their suggestions, some revisions were made in the wording. the resulting survey was piloted with 30 researchers, most of whom were turkish. the data from the piloting phase were not used only to carry out a reliability analysis of the items on academic writing activities (14 items), difficulties experienced in academic writing (8 items) and personal problems in academic writing (5 items). an acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the first section (α = 0.78) and a higher one for the second (α = 0.86) were obtained, yet the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the last section was at a questionable level (α = 0.58), so all five items in this section were removed from the survey. 4.6. data analysis the text data from the initial survey with open-ended questions were analysed using nvivo v12. the researchers first read the responses thoroughly, and to identify potential survey items, they carried out quantitative content analysis, which is predominantly based on the calculation of frequency of the ideas expressed in the participants’ words when forming codes and categories. this analysis provided survey items technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 297 reflecting those written based on the researchers’ personal experience in academic writing. the data from the pilot version of the survey were directly imported into spss. the cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated for the sections about the frequency of practices and strategy use, and about how often they experienced various challenges, where five-point likert-type items were used (1: never, 2: rarely, 3: sometimes, 4: often and 5: always). they were also calculated for the section where participants responded about the problems they experienced through a five-point likert-type items (1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: undecided, 4: agree and 5: strongly agree). 5. results rq1) what are the patterns of technology use in academic writing among native, native-like and non-native english-speaking researchers? in the present study, 5-point likert-type items were used to seek information about the researchers’ strategy use and the challenges they experienced. globally considered, the nners used strategies more frequently than both the nlers and ners, who were the least frequent users of strategies. for instance, the ners used writing templates or formulaic expressions less often. they also used professional editing services less frequently and were less interested in attending courses/webinars or watching tutorials to improve their writing. the order of frequency of use was the same for the item about using a proofreading checklist and leaving a reasonable time between writing and revision. for all these items, nlers followed ners, and the nners were the most frequent user group (table 4). table 4. the practices/strategies which were less frequently preferred by the ners. arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314298 ! ! items about practices and strategies ners nlers nners n m sd n m sd n m sd i use a list of commonly used phrases to write in english. 29 1.41 0.78 39 2.54 1.35 118 2.93 1.22 i get help from professional editing services. 29 1.38 0.94 39 1.74 1.19 118 1.93 1.11 i use a proofreading checklist while checking my writing. 29 1.62 0.90 39 2.15 1.41 118 2.32 1.27 i leave a reasonable time between writing and proofreading. 29 3.00 1.22 39 3.28 1.30 118 3.38 1.12 i attend courses/webinars or watch tutorials to improve my writing. 29 1.93 1.28 39 2.56 1.31 118 2.63 1.20 ! " ! " on the other hand, the ners attached more importance to some practices/strategies. for instance, they considered pre-writing activities important, and they used them more frequently than the remaining two groups. the least frequent use belonged to the nners. likewise, using intuition to judge grammaticality was more important for the ners than the nlers and nners. table 5 shows that the ners also used spell-check software more often than the nners and nlers (m = 4.24, 3.68 and 3.36, respectively). the mean scores of the ners and the nners were similar (m = 2.41 vs. 2.38, respectively). the ners also used reading aloud (while writing or proofreading) more frequently than the other groups. the least frequent user of reading aloud was the nners. the nlers and nners had similar mean scores for this item (m = 3.54 and 3.48, respectively). table 5. the practices/strategies for which native english-speaking researchers were the most frequent users. for the last group of items, the groups had similar mean scores, and for some items there were variations with respect to the order of frequency of use among the three groups. for example, drafting multiple times was considered highly important by all the three groups as the mean score for this item was above 4. similarly, all the respondents used their computers to edit their work very frequently (m=434, 4.28 and 4.37 for the ners, nlers and nners, respectively). at the same time, all three groups used printed versions of their writing with almost equal frequency, and they all worked with peers during proofreading (table 6). technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 299 ! ! ! " items about practices and strategies ners nlers nners n m sd n m sd n m sd i do some pre-writing activities, such as freewriting, outlining, or listing etc. 29 4.21 0.90 39 3.74 1.14 118 3.60 1.26 i use my intuition to judge grammaticality of my writing. 29 4.45 0.69 39 3.36 1.16 118 3.57 1.09 i read my writing out loud while i am writing or proofreading. 29 3.69 1.23 39 3.05 1.43 118 2.81 1.41 mean 4.12 0.94 3.38 1.24 3.33 1.25 ! " table 6. a comparison of native, non-native and native-like english-speaking researchers in terms of strategy use. rq2) how do native and non-native english-speaking researchers differ in terms of research software and dictionary use? the data indicated that significant numbers of researchers used various software and dictionaries in academic writing. bibliographic data management tools, plagiarism software and various dictionaries were used by most of the participants. however, very few people used assistive software (e.g., nvivo) while conducting literature reviews, particularly among the ners or the nlers. similarly, corpus tools, collocation dictionaries and specific reference dictionaries were used by fewer respondents, while thesauri were preferred by nearly half. an easily discernible pattern of use was that more respondents among the nners utilised software and dictionaries in academic writing. the ners underutilized the software and dictionary types mentioned in the survey, except for grammar and spellcheck software. the nlers had higher percentages than the ners in seven of the ten items; slightly more ners than nlers used corpus tools and generalpurpose dictionaries, but almost all the ners (96.60%) used spell-check software. the percentage of spell-check software use was 79.50 and 88.10 for the nlers and nners, respectively. globally considered, except for these three items, the percentage of use went up from the ners to nners. spellcheck software was often preferred by all the groups, but more ners used them. in most cases, the percentages of use for these tools among the nlers approximated those of the ners, rather than those of the nners (figure 3). furthermore, some respondents provided information about the tools they used other than those listed in the survey (i.e., grammarly, google translate and google as a corpus). arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314300 items about practices and strategies ners nlers nners n m sd n m sd n m sd i draft my research paper several times before submitting it. 29 4.17 1.04 39 4.15 1.09 118 4.14 1.09 i request my colleagues to proofread my writing. 29 3.00 1.22 39 2.51 1.14 118 3.14 1.26 i help my colleagues to proofread their writing. 29 3.41 1.12 39 3.15 1.14 118 3.42 1.10 i edit my writing on the computer screen. 29 4.34 0.67 39 4.28 1.00 118 4.37 0.75 i use a printed version of my writing for proofreading. 29 3.10 1.35 39 2.87 1.38 118 3.08 1.36 i read books on how to improve my writing. 29 2.62 1.21 39 2.77 1.42 118 2.85 1.17 mean 3.44 1.10 3.29 1.20 3.50 1.12 ! figure 3. a comparison of software and dictionary use. rq3) what are the challenges faced by ners, nlers and nners in academic writing? one of the items in the section devoted to difficulties experienced in academic writing asked whether the respondents had difficulties in writing. interestingly, all three groups reported that they experienced difficulties, the mean scores being quite similar (table 7). all three groups had trouble finding the right words to express themselves and writing concisely. the mean scores for these items for the three groups were similar (the difference was 0.38 or less). however, there were also some unexpected data. for example, the ners (m=3.52) reported experiencing writer’s block more frequently than the nlers (m=3.07) or the nners (m=3.17). similarly, the ners (m=3.00) felt slightly more challenged at deciding on the structure of their paper compared to nlers (m=2.90) and nners (m=2.87). technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 301 ! ! note. the tendency line for each item is shown in the same colour"! ! -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 n % n % n % n % na tiv e na tiv elik e no nna tiv e to ta l use of spell-check software use of grammar software use of software to manage bibliographic data thesauruses general purpose dictionaries use of plagiarism software specific reference dictionaries (e.g., dictionary of literary terms) corpus tools use of software to conduct literature reviews collocation dictionaries table 7. a comparison of native, native-like and non-native english-speaking researchers in terms of difficulties experienced. for the remaining items (i.e., paragraphing, understanding different genres, finding a colleague for peer review, achieving clarity of expression and writing concisely), the native speaker group experienced the least difficulty. however, the difference among the groups was not large. in other words, the data from this section indicated that academic writing posed challenges not only for the nners but also for the nlers and the ners, yet in varying degrees. 6. discussion in relation to the first research question, one notable result was that there were discernible patterns of technology and strategy use among the ners, nlers and nners. the results indicate that nativeness led to less frequent use of all writing strategies, software and dictionaries (except for spell-check software). for example, for five of the strategies, the nners were the most frequent users and the nlers and the ners followed them (table 4). this finding also accords with earlier observations (e.g., politzer-ahles et al., 2016), which showed that working in l1 somewhat privileges ners in academic writing because they spend less effort in the areas of vocabulary and language use (e.g., sophisticated range, accurate word/phrase choice and usage), mechanics (e.g., standard english usage) and style (e.g., appropriate tone, distinctive voice) in academic writing compared to non-native researchers. arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314302 items ners nlers nners n m sd n m sd n m sd paraphrasing others’ ideas 25 2.00 0.82 30 2.73 0.91 107 2.97 0.99 finding the right words to express myself 25 3.20 0.65 30 3.23 0.86 107 3.36 0.98 achieving clarity of expression 25 2.92 0.95 30 3.20 0.85 107 3.32 0.89 writing concisely (being succinct and avoiding redundancy in my writing) 25 3.00 1.26 30 3.27 0.87 107 3.25 0.95 deciding on the structure of my paper 25 3.00 1.00 30 2.90 0.84 107 2.87 0.91 understanding the properties of different genres of academic writing 25 2.00 0.87 30 2.47 1.11 107 2.59 1.04 finding a colleague who could provide feedback on my writing 25 2.24 1.27 30 2.50 1.36 107 2.65 1.10 experiencing writer’s block (the state of being unable to write for some time) 25 3.52 0.87 30 3.07 1.11 107 3.17 0.97 mean 2.74 0.96 2.92 0.99 3.02 0.98 ! another major result was that some practices/strategies, such as pre-writing strategies, using intuition to judge grammaticality and reading aloud while writing or proofreading, were favoured and used more frequently by ners than the nlers and nners. this result may be explained by the fact that ners attach importance to process writing along with content and meaning making, as well as the accuracy of their written discourse. moreover, according to elbow (2010), reading aloud enables them to take an “outside perspective”; that is, to read their writing from the perspectives of potential readers. however, similar results were observed across groups with respect to some practices and strategies adopted (e.g., multiple drafting, getting and providing collegial help for proofreading, editing on the computer screen, using the printed version of written texts, and reading books on academic writing). this indicates that procedural aspects of academic writing (focus, content and organization), unlike its linguistic aspects (e.g., written conventions and style), can challenge writers equally, irrespective of their language proficiency background. as for the second research question, a higher percentage of nners reported using dictionaries and academic writing software (i.e., for bibliographic data management, grammar checking). the results of the present study indicated that nners use dictionaries to compensate for possible deficiencies in their writing, which lends support to earlier research findings (e.g., chitez et al., 2015; goh & lepage, 2019; wischgoll, 2017). as noted earlier, researchers have difficulty in meeting the publication criteria of major journals (chireshe et al., 2014; goh & lepage, 2019; hyland, 2016b; kotamjani et al., 2018). therefore, higher dictionary use among nners was observed because dictionaries and corpus tools could help them boost the quality of their writing and take a step towards meeting the expected publication criteria. an unexpected finding in this respect was that the ners were the most frequent users of spell-check software. a possible explanation for this may be that spelling proficiency of ners is guided by their intuitive knowledge resulting from their l1 acquisition process rather than conscious knowledge (krashen, 1989; schmidt, 1990). therefore, they prefer to be on the safe side by consulting spell-check software to be accurate in their spelling. another potential explanation may be related to the effort to use the right kind of english spelling required by publishers as “[e]ditors of academic journals insist on either british or american spelling” (cook, 1997, p. 474). with the help of spell-check software, it becomes easier for writers to learn the differences in spelling between british and american english, thereby fulfilling the journal submission criteria. technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 303 on the other hand, while one could naturally expect that ners and more proficient users of english would probably have less difficulty in writing up research, the results of the present study have shown that challenges in academic writing are common to all groups of academic researchers, regardless of their linguistic background. unlike what is claimed by some researchers (e.g., flowerdew, 2008; huang, 2010), not only nners but also ners experience difficulties. these difficulties include various issues related to language use (e.g., paraphrasing, finding the right words, writing concisely), or the properties of academic texts, collaboration with fellow researchers (e.g., seeking peer feedback), or experiencing writer’s block. such challenges obviously make it difficult for researchers to transfer what they obtained from reading and research into drafts. the data from the present study suggest that, although nativeness apparently offers a linguistic advantage in academic writing, much more experience in academic writing (huang, 2010) and academic literacy (braine, 2002) is needed for successful academic writing. academic writing is a multi-faceted skill, and it has complex conventions that affect all academic writers alike (ferguson, 2007; zhao, 2017). compared to the two other groups, the ners more frequently experienced writers’ block, which is an unexpected finding. there may be several causes for this, such as striving for perfection in their writing and/or feeling forced to publish (e.g., johnstone, 1983; kaufman, 1992; rahmat, 2020). there was also variability among the three groups with respect to the use of assistive technologies, such as bibliographic data management software or tools for literature reviews (e.g., nvivo or other qualitative data analysis software). using bibliographic management software is related with saving time while dealing with the mechanical aspects of writing. however, the data indicated that a lower percentage of the ners used such software. it could be possible that their confidence in their linguistic skills lead them to underutilize some assistive software that could be considered as tools outside the core area (grammar and spell-check tools). although they might not need dictionaries as often as nners do, they would benefit from assistive software to save time when formatting referencing styles to meet journal requirements (kali, 2016). using qualitative data analysis software enhances literature reviews and makes them more rigorous when dealing with an immensely large amount of research available online (o’neill et al., 2018). a major conclusion to be drawn is that some strategies which were more frequently used by the ners could be associated with being confident in arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314304 one’s linguistic competence and performance. for example, it appears effortless for ners to read their written work aloud, while nners might experience some trouble doing so. similarly, nners might not be comfortable enough to be able to use their intuition to judge grammaticality, owing to their lower levels of noticing (schmidt, 1990). on the other hand, having confidence in linguistic skills also leads to less frequent use of software (e.g., dictionaries, thesauri or corpora). however, confidence in linguistic skills could hardly explain the lower use of assistive technologies. furthermore, the use of some software (e.g., spell-check) could be attributed to their availability in most word processing tools and to user-friendliness of such tools, while corpus tools, bibliography tools or data analysis software imply steeper learning curves. moreover, more complex tools are usually paid software with time-limited trial versions. these two factors could account for their lower use. 7. conclusion the strategies and the software that different groups of researchers (ners, nlers and ners) use in academic writing differ markedly. this finding globally lends support to mauranen (2012), who observed that the technological tools and strategies to be employed by nners and ners in academic writing might vary owing to their different language backgrounds, writing cultures and needs. however, there may be some similarities regarding generic tools and strategies used. for instance, although the ners in the present study were less willing to use strategies and software in academic writing, they experienced nearly the same difficulties as nlers and nners. the nners apparently put in considerable effort to compensate for the linguistic disadvantage they experienced by using various strategies and software. however, although nners’ failure to publish in high-profile journals is predominantly attributed to language issues, there might be other equally important factors at play. for example, it is probable that higherquality academic writing instruction in western universities that emphasises critical thinking might offer an advantage to ners (shaheen, 2012). similarly, ners, most of whom are of anglo-american origin, usually send their publications to journals which are published by academics with similar educational and cultural backgrounds, which makes their task less challenging. their advantage in this regard can partly be due to their intimate familiarity with anglo-american and/or british academic expectations, technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 305 which can be more effortlessly fulfilled by ners compared to nners (cortazzi & jin, 1997). however, it should be noted that the ners in this study also reported experiencing challenges, which corroborates the argument that “there are no native speakers of academic english” (mauranen, 2006, p. 149), and thus the “crude native vs non-native polarization” (hyland, 2016a, p. 59) needs to be alleviated in order not to “further undermine the capabilities of l2 writers” who can achieve success in academic writing through coping strategies/practices (langum & sullivan, 2017, p. 20). lastly, one can conclude, based on the preceding discussions, that irrespective of researchers’ backgrounds, it is necessary for them to be informed about academic writing expectations and cultures of the target publishing houses, and trained for strategy and technology use to ensure eventual success in academic writing and scholarly publishing. 7.1. limitations and further research this study suffers from a few limitations. as our conclusions were based on survey responses, the concept of social desirability could have influenced the results. moreover, the category “i am a non-native speaker, but i have a native-like command of english” was based on the respondents’ selfperception; they might have overrated their english proficiency. furthermore, the number of respondents was moderate, and convenience sampling was used to recruit the respondents for the survey by sharing the survey link on social media sites. future studies could be carried out with carefully selected larger samples and fully validated tools (scales) with items examined through factor analysis. prospective researchers could qualitatively investigate researchers’ experience of using assistive software and writing strategies and compare ners and nners. future researchers could carry out mixed-methods research to ensure a deeper understanding of strategy and software use for academic writing. although we attributed less frequent use of dictionaries and corpus tools to the ners’ confidence, other factors might also be at play. therefore, future researchers should investigate why they use such tools less frequently than their non-native counterparts. article history: received 21 february 2022 received in revised form 06 september 2022 accepted 12 september 2022 arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314306 references technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 307 bardi, m. 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(2018). conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in english for research arif bakla is a faculty member at ankara yıldırım beyazıt university, türkiye. he holds a phd degree in elt. among his main research interests are call, l2 writing and technology-assisted translation. he has published in major international journals, including language learning & technology, recall, computers & education, qualitative research and instructional science. ali karakaş is an associate professor of english at burdur mehmet akif ersoy university, türkiye. his research focuses mainly on english-medium instruction, global englishes, language teacher education, and native/nonnative speakers/teachers. he has published in journals, such as asian englishes, taiwan journal of tesol, research in comparative and international technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 309 publication purposes: an analysis of journal submission guidelines. journal of second language writing, 42, 1-11. <https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jslw.2018.07.003> murray, r., & moore, s. 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(2017). native speaker advantage in academic writing? conjunctive realizations in eap writing by four groups of writers. ampersand, 4, 47-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amper.2017.07. 001> education and reflective practice, and he has contributed to edited collections for routledge and peter lang, he is the co-editor of the book entitled english as the medium of instruction in turkish higher education: policy, practice and progress published by springer. appendix 1 the open-ended questions in the initial survey 1. what is your native language? ş arabic ş bengali ş chinese ş english ş french ş german ş hindi ş japanese ş javanese ş korean ş portuguese ş russian ş spanish ş tamil ş telugu ş turkish ş urdu ş vietnamese ş other 2. what strategies do you use when you are revising and editing your academic writing in english? (e.g., reading aloud, using dictionaries/reference materials, asking someone for peer review, using professional editing services, etc.)? 3. how does technology help you in academic writing (e.g., use of referencing/plagiarism software, spell-check software etc.)? 4. what are the challenges that you encounter when you’re writing for scholarly purposes in english and revising/editing your work? please elaborate on them. arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314310 appendix 2 practices in academic writing this questionnaire has been designed to investigate the practices researchers in academic writing. please read each question carefully and respond to them. the data will be used for research purposes and will not be disclosed unless required by legal authorities. thank you for your participation. a. personal information 1. what is your name and surname? (optional) _________________________. 2. what is your gender? ş male ş female 3. how old are you? ş 20-24 ş 25-34 ş 35-44 ş 45-54 ş 55-64 ş 65+ 4. what is your area of study? ş language education ş linguistics ş literature ş other 5. what is your educational background? ş ba ş ma ş phd 6. are you employed at a university? ş yes ş no 7. what is your title in your current position? (respond to this question if your answer is “yes” to the previous question.) ş lecturer ş research assistant ş assistant professor ş associate professor ş full professor ş other 8. which of the following describes you best? ş i am a native speaker of english (i.e., born and brought up in an english-speaking country) technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 311 ş i am a non-native speaker, but i have lived in an english-speaking country for years and possess nativelike command of english. ş i am a non-native speaker of english. 9. what is your native language? ş arabic ş bengali ş chinese ş english ş french ş german ş hindi ş japanese ş korean ş portuguese ş russian ş spanish ş turkish ş urdu ş vietnamese ş other b. writing, editing and proofreading your work 1. do you write academic texts (e.g., articles, books, reports etc.) in english? ş yes ş no 2. have you ever used any software to manage your bibliographic data? ş yes ş no 3. have you ever used any software to conduct literature reviews? ş yes ş no 4. have you ever used any software to check your writing against plagiarism? ş yes ş no 5. do you use a dictionary while you are writing or editing in english? ş yes ş no 6. which of the following tools do you use while writing or revising? ş general purpose dictionaries ş collocation dictionaries arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314312 ş thesauruses ş corpus tools ş specific reference dictionaries (e.g., dictionary of literary terms): ş other 7. please specify how often you do the following activities while writing for academic purposes. please choose the appropriate response for each item. 8. which of the following difficulties do you experience in academic writing? please choose the appropriate response for each item. (respond to this question if your answer to “i experience some difficulties in academic writing.” is “always, frequently, sometimes or rarely”.) technology and strategy use in academic writing: native, native-like versus non-native speakers of english ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314 313 arif bakla & dr. ali karaka! 7. please specify how often you do the following activities while writing for academic purposes. please choose the appropriate response for each item. al w ay s (5 ) fr eq ue nt ly (4 ) so m et im es (3 ) ra re ly (2 ) ne ve r (1 ) i do some pre-writing activities, such as freewriting, outlining, or listing etc. ! ! ! ! ! i draft my research paper several times before submitting it. ! ! ! ! ! i use a list of commonly used phrases to write in english. ! ! ! ! ! i get help from professional editing services. ! ! ! ! ! i request my colleagues to proofread my writing. ! ! ! ! ! i help my colleagues to proofread their writing. ! ! ! ! ! i use a proofreading checklist while checking my writing. ! ! ! ! ! i leave a reasonable time between writing and proofreading. ! ! ! ! ! i use my intuition to judge grammaticality of my writing. ! ! ! ! ! i read my writing out loud while i am writing or proofreading. ! ! ! ! ! i edit my writing on the computer screen. ! ! ! ! ! i use a printed version of my writing for proofreading. ! ! ! ! ! i use grammar software to help me proofread my writing. ! ! ! ! ! i use spell check software to help me proofread my writing. ! ! ! ! ! i use plagiarism software to check the originality of my work. ! ! ! ! ! i use bibliography management software (e.g., endnote, zotero, mendeley, etc.). ! ! ! ! ! i find myself procrastinating while i am writing. ! ! ! ! ! i read books on how to improve my writing. ! ! ! ! ! i attend courses/webinars or watch tutorials to improve my writing. ! ! ! ! ! i experience some difficulties in writing. ! ! ! ! ! 8. which of the following difficulties do you experience in academic writing? please choose the appropriate response for each item. (respond to this question if your answer to “i experience some difficulties in academic writing.” is “always, frequently, sometimes or rarely”.) arif bakla & ali karakaş ibérica 44 (2022): 285-314314 arif bakla & dr. ali karaka! 7. please specify how often you do the following activities while writing for academic purposes. please choose the appropriate response for each item. 8. which of the following difficulties do you experience in academic writing? please choose the appropriate response for each item. (respond to this question if your answer to “i experience some difficulties in academic writing.” is “always, frequently, sometimes or rarely”.) al w ay s (1 ) fr eq ue nt ly (2 ) so m et im es (3 ) ra re ly (4 ) ne ve r (5 ) paraphrasing others’ ideas ! ! ! ! ! finding the right words to express myself ! ! ! ! ! achieving clarity of expression ! ! ! ! ! writing concisely (being succinct and avoiding redundancy in my writing) ! ! ! ! ! deciding on the structure of my paper ! ! ! ! ! understanding the properties of different genres of academic writing ! ! ! ! ! finding a colleague who could provide feedback on my writing ! ! ! ! ! experiencing writer’s block (the state of being unable to write for some time) ! ! ! ! ! ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-40 resumen la redacción e interpretación de textos jurídicos a nivel internacional constituye una urgente necesidad, sobre todo en el mundo de las transacciones comerciales. el problema reside en que el lenguaje jurídico de cada sistema legislativo es consecuencia directa de las fuentes y mecánica hermenéutica de cada uno de esos sistemas en sí. en concreto, el lenguaje del derecho americano en el área contractual �con gran incidencia en la confección de los tratados internacionales de comercio� presenta unos matices léxicos que, con frecuencia, los hacen intraducibles al español. específicamente, los falsos cognados o palabras técnicas con raíz latina son quizá los más peligrosos a la hora de analizar, por su semblanza con el español. precisamente, el llevar a cabo una sistematización y explicación de algunos de estos términos es el fin del presente trabajo. con esto esperamos al menos llevar a cabo una reflexión sobre lo que debe ser la tarea del traductor o lingüista a la hora de enfrentarse con las peculiaridades de esta área de estudio. palabras clave: interpretación jurídica, léxico contractual, lenguaje jurídico, discurso contractual, traducción jurídica abstract differences and similarities in the legal lexicon of english and spanish contract law drafting and interpreting legal texts at an international level constitutes an imperative need in itself, especially within the scope of transnational commercial agreements. the problem lies in the fact that every legal system has its own kind of language, as a direct consequence of the peculiarity of its own sources and hermeneutic procedures. specifically, the language of american contract law �which has a deep influence on the way international trade agreements are drafted� presents a variety of lexical hues that very often make them untranslatable into spanish. this is especially true of those terms called false cognates or false friends, technical words whose latin origin and similarity to spanish make them more dangerous when analyzed. precisely, creating a paradigm by means of which these terms could be studied and explained is the aim of the work at hand. to the very least, we would like to make translators and linguists aware of the difficulties of this area of specialized discourse. key words: legal interpretation, legal construction, contract terminology, contractual discourse, legal translation semejanzas y diferencias léxicas en el lenguaje contractual en inglés y en castellano maría ángeles orts llopis universidad de murcia mageorts@um.es 23 consideraciones generales: la naturaleza de la interpretación legal en los distintos sistemas el panorama actual de las relaciones comerciales del mundo global enfrenta al traductor y al lingüista con múltiples problemas, generados por las diferencias en las estructuras jurídicas y mercantiles de los distintos países. en concreto, es prominente la diferencia entre los sistemas de derecho continental y aquellos que son producto del common law. la mayoría de los sistemas legales europeos �incluida escocia� e, indirectamente, los de muchas otras partes del mundo, nacieron de la fuerte influencia ejercida por el derecho romano, solidificado en el siglo xix tras las guerras napoleónicas. sin embargo, en inglaterra y gales éste tuvo mucho menos peso, si exceptuamos algunas áreas especializadas, debido a que se desarrolló jurídicamente un siglo antes que la europa continental (caenegem, 1973). el método jurídico que se aplica hoy en día en inglaterra y gales, así como también en los estados unidos, canadá, australia y muchos países de la commonwealth, no es fruto de la creación de una normativa sistemática, sino que ha ido evolucionando muy paulatinamente a través de los tiempos, emanando de distintas fuentes: el common law, la equidad y la legislación parlamentaria, fundamentalmente. a favor del derecho inglés de los jueces (judge-made law) o derecho del caso (case law) se dice que es más flexible que el derecho continental, o derecho codificado, al tener la capacidad de adaptarse a situaciones nuevas. un código, una vez promulgado, sólo puede alterarse por medio de un intrincado proceso legislativo y puede cometer injusticias legales al hacerse obsoleto aunque, por el contrario, también es verdad que se considera que los sistemas continentales están redactados de manera mucho más vaga y holgada que las leyes inglesas y su interpretación es mucho más general. por otro lado, se argumenta que los sistemas basados en el precedente son de carácter más realista y práctico que los sistemas codificados, ya que se basan en problemas reales presentados ante los tribunales y no en hipótesis jurídicas y que, por contraste, esto mismo puede llevar a la confusión y a la falta de certeza que supone el esperar a que un caso legal se lleve a los tribunales antes de saber cuál será la posición legal a adoptar: sólo un código puede legislar de antemano. finalmente, es verdad que el derecho del caso es prolijo en detalles y reglas, pero esto también puede constituirse en desventaja, dada la masiva cantidad de jurisprudencia que se encuentra en los repertorios legales ingleses y americanos. en cualquier caso, es innegable que la globalización nos está enfrentando a una realidad a la que no se le puede dar la espalda: la necesidad de interpretar la legislación desde una perspectiva multilingüística y multiconceptual que dé soluciones a los conflictos mercantiles producto del día a día de las transacciones internacionales. en maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-4024 el caso de la unión europea, por ejemplo, aunque sean el francés y, sobre todo, el inglés, los instrumentos de trabajo gubernamentales y administrativos, los once idiomas comunitarios cuentan con la misma legitimidad y el mismo estatus de oficialidad por igual. por tanto, y como afirma engberg (2003), la interpretación legislativa en este ámbito se convierte en un auténtico reto en el que es esencial el conseguir la comprensión mutua y el consenso lingüístico. en muchas ocasiones existe una imposibilidad definitiva de acercamiento entre las voces de los diferentes idiomas y, como consecuencia, los tribunales han de instigar la creación de voces nuevas y válidas para la totalidad de las lenguas. lo que engberg llama la corriente �subjetiva� de interpretación legislativa defiende una humanización de la hermenéutica legal, la aceptación de que el lenguaje es un producto de la cognición humana, y la realidad de que el texto legal ha de ser interpretado por humanos en un contexto dado. la idea de que la interpretación legislativa es inseparable de su contextualización sociológica, histórica, política y temporal es también sostenida por solan (1993, 2001), quien se sitúa opuestamente a otras teorías o corrientes �objetivas�, como el new textualism, capitaneado por el juez scalia en los estados unidos (solan, 2001; engberg, 2003), quien afirma la objetividad del fenómeno interpretativo como única estrategia para la aplicación del texto legislativo. según engberg (2003), christensen y solowski llaman a esta teoría �más propia de los sistemas de derecho codificado que de los de derecho consuetudinariola del �lenguaje fuerte� en su intento de explicar que los textos legales tienen un significado autónomo y neutral y que, de hecho, el lenguaje existe independientemente del sistema legal en que se utilice. contrariamente a esta afirmación, solan (1993) y el mismo engberg (2003) consideran la interpretación legal como una actividad más del raciocinio humano, y opinan que la concepción del lenguaje como una entidad objetiva es insostenible, pues no puede existir comunicación sin recurrir a nuestro conocimiento colectivo e individual. comprender e interpretar textos legales no es, pues, decodificar elementos objetivos de significado. es, por el contrario, un proceso creativo en el que se combinan elementos mentales almacenados con anterioridad con aquellos procedentes del input situacional. ¿cómo se relacionan estas afirmaciones con la realidad legislativa de un mundo global? el crecimiento del comercio y de las comunicaciones hace que la interpretación del derecho de obligaciones y, más específicamente, el del contrato, sea una materia de especial interés, ya que a nivel global, la regulación contractual se encuentra en estado de descoordinación y fragmentación. ya hemos mencionado anteriormente que en europa hay razones políticas que imponen la unanimidad oficial de las once lenguas y todas las versiones de la ley han de declararse originales, lo que se consigue por medio de la traducción de la misma en once versiones semejanzas y diferencias léxicas en el lenguaje contractual ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-40 25 supuestamente idénticas. a nivel internacional y en organismos como el imf (russo, 2002), uncitral o unidroit, la necesidad de producir versiones idénticas de los distintos tratados internacionales causa grandes quebraderos de cabeza a la maquinaria traductológica de dichos organismos, así como a los tribunales que dirimen las disputas entre estados, pues con frecuencia no existen equivalencias que puedan determinar un sentido idéntico y común a todas las versiones. la solución que propone engberg para europa es la de establecer una institución legal con poder de construcción semántica que posibilite la creación consciente de significados idénticos, de acuerdo con la situación y el propósito general del texto legislativo. consideramos que este modelo constructivista sería susceptible de aplicación a nivel transnacional, ya que crearía una base cognitiva común para la comunicación entre juristas y lingüistas inmersos en los distintos estados de derecho, facilitando la argumentación homogénea en la aplicación de la ley. sin embargo, hasta que esta revolución legal no tenga lugar, la labor del traductor en la búsqueda de equivalencias de significado del la lengua/s origen a la lengua/s meta consiste en crear un panorama similar de interpretación textual válido en ambas lenguas y su cultura, valiéndose de la ayuda del especialista en derecho, de sus propias herramientas traductológicas, a saber, el uso de transposiciones léxicas, calques o préstamos, así como de su intuición y experiencia en el campo jurídico y legislativo. más concretamente, en el área del derecho contractual en inglés americano, el especialista en traducción, intérprete o jurista se enfrenta a varias dificultades. en principio, hasta el siglo xx el derecho del contrato estuvo fundamentalmente basado, como dicta el sistema del stare decisis, en la jurisprudencia de los jueces. dado el volumen jurisprudencial al que se enfrentaban los juristas americanos, todos los precedentes se fundieron a partir de los años treinta en lo que recibe el nombre de restatements of cases. los restatements �de los que existen dos versiones restatements (first) y restatements (second)�, en sí mismos no tienen la categoría de ley, pero constituyen una importante fuente de referencia en tanto en cuanto, recogiendo la esencia de lo dictaminado por los precedentes, reúnen los conceptos más importantes sobre los que se basa el derecho contractual en eeuu. sin ellos, juzgamos que el common law contractual es un área donde el precedente dicta una serie de principios morales que el juez aplica de manera discrecional y a veces sin mucha precisión matemática. para solventar las arbitrariedades del sistema, eeuu siguió el ejemplo de inglaterra (cuyo parlamento ya había aprobado en 1677 la primera legislación en este campo) y publicó, por primera vez en 1889, el uniform commercial code (baird et al., 2001), que no es aplicable a toda la jurisdicción contractual, pues, si bien rige la venta de mercancías, no se aplica a otras áreas como las transacciones inmobiliarias o los contratos de maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-4026 servicios. según la clase jurídica americana, el que solamente exista legislación para los contratos mercantiles se justifica porque las leyes que rigen las operaciones comerciales han de ser más estrictas que otras áreas contractuales, con el fin de normalizar y homogeneizar el comportamiento de los actores de las mismas y evitar la posible injusticia que se podría cometer en un sistema federal como el americano donde cada estado tiene un sistema de aplicación del precedente autónomo.1 del mismo modo, la globalización ha impulsado al sistema americano a adoptar los tratados internacionales de comercio. en armonía con un gran número de países, en 1980 y bajo el patrocinio de uncitral2 el sistema de derecho americano adoptó la llamada cisg (united nations convention for the international sale of goods).3 el ucc (uniform commercial code) y la csig guardan importantes diferencias entre ellas, como por ejemplo que la segunda no regula las transacciones internacionales sobre consumo y, sin embargo, sí es verdad que tiene el mismo vigor legal que los precedentes del common law y la legislación del ucc en el área de las transacciones internacionales que regula. es importante, además, resaltar que los idiomas oficiales de la naciones unidas son seis, pero gran parte del trabajo de redacción de tratados como el csig se han llevado a cabo en inglés. asimismo, el instituto internacional para la unificación del derecho privado (unidroit) ha trabajado desde los años veinte para promover la armonía y la modernización de las reglas que rigen las transacciones internacionales. si el csig se ha comparado con la legislación marcada por la ucc (knapp et al., 2003), los principios dictados por unidroit se han comparado a los restatements of contracts. sin embargo, si los restatements son producto de la máquina operativa del common law, también es verdad que los principios representan una mezcla de tradiciones legales basadas tanto en el derecho del precedente como en el derecho codificado. de igual manera, supone una importante fuente de referencia para los contratos comerciales, dada la neutralidad en la que están redactados. a partir de lo dicho anteriormente, parece que el derecho contractual español y americano podrían presentar, en principio, las diferencias habituales que existen entre el derecho civil y el derecho consuetudinario en general. como hemos apuntado arriba, con la excepción de los contratos de compra-venta, la doctrina contractual americana se apoya sobre todo en la base de la jurisprudencia y, si bien sus principios están resumidos en los restatements, estos no tienen el vigor legal de las decisiones judiciales y la última palabra la tiene el magistrado en el caso que ante él se presenta. por el contrario, el derecho español regula la totalidad de las relaciones contractuales por medio de la letra de la ley, al modo del derecho continental más puro. las bases contractuales están muy bien especificadas en los artículos 1254 a 1314 del código civil español (albaladejo, 1989; romanach, 1994), si bien de manera menos pormenorizada y plural que en el sistema americano, así como en los títulos iv y v semejanzas y diferencias léxicas en el lenguaje contractual ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-40 27 del código de comercio. sin embargo, es importante puntualizar que, en línea con el sistema americano, el proceso de adaptación del derecho internacional privado español al resto de los sistemas occidentales y su participación en los tratados internacionales es una realidad incontestable. la primera consideración que hacíamos en este apartado de nuestro trabajo es que, al ser el lenguaje producto de la cognición humana, las diferencias culturales, históricas y sociales del contexto en que se producen las distintas lenguas van a configurar la forma de ser de las mismas. por ende, dichas diferencias van a aparecer también en los distintos sistemas legales y en el instrumento de comunicación verbal utilizado en los mismos. esto parece apuntar a que, pese a que existan similitudes en los fundamentos de la doctrina contractual en españa y eeuu, deben aparecer áreas lógicas de dificultad y disimilitud en el lenguaje de ambos sistemas dentro de este campo, que nos disponemos a analizar seguidamente. el léxico contractual en eeuu. problemas de interpretación en español las características del léxico contractual americano no difieren mucho de las del léxico legal del common law en general. a continuación, pasamos a hacer un recuento general de estos rasgos, para, seguidamente, señalar las áreas de dificultad que se presentan para el intérprete, traductor, redactor o especialista legal que desarrolle su trabajo específicamente en el campo del derecho contractual americano. vale la pena indicar, sin embargo, que esta clasificación no es más que una perspectiva analítica y que el léxico del registro legal se puede mirar desde otros paradigmas de análisis, dependiendo del objetivo del mismo. en general, el primer rasgo a destacar, dentro del vocabulario de los sistemas consuetudinarios de derecho, son los arcaísmos legales. durante gran parte de su historia, la profesión legal inglesa fue trilingüe, utilizando alternativamente el inglés, el francés y el latín. de este hecho se deriva el conservadurismo léxico del inglés legal, que aún hoy en día preserva palabras y frases obsoletas de las tres lenguas mencionadas con anterioridad, a las que ha dado interpretaciones autorizadas y que, consecuentemente, han pasado la prueba del tiempo, quedando instaladas entre los vocablos especializados del léxico jurídico. entre los arcaísmos se encuentran las palabras chattels y replevin (del francés normando), fiat, habeas corpus y quantum meruit/valebat (del latín, quizás el grupo mas amplio de voces antiguas originales, incluyendo el assumpsit del derecho contractual) rig y feoffment (del inglés antiguo). maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-4028 una segunda característica a nivel léxico lo constituyen los términos procedentes de la jerga o argot legal, lo que mellinkoff (1963: 63) llama terms of art. aquí se incluyen, no sólo los términos peculiares y exclusivos del registro como lien, tort o trust, sino también aquellos que tiersma (1999: 111) llama homónimos legales, palabras del lenguaje ordinario �action, notice, party� que adquieren un significado especial dentro del contexto jurídico. finalmente, el lenguaje jurídico en inglés se describe como plagado de palabras y expresiones con significados generales, vagos o flexibles (palabras subjetivas del tipo de reasonable o due), resultado de la ambición inclusiva de los documentos generados por el common law y su práctica hermenéutica peculiar. harris (1997: 2) también señala la existencia de una serie de palabras procesuales (procedural) como argument o question. estas palabras tienen más que ver con la lógica que con el contenido, ya que fuera del texto carecen de realidad o sentido pero enlazan partes del texto de manera no sólo cohesiva (como los pronombres) sino también coherente, ya que el autor las puede utilizar para �comment on, label, evaluate, and generally negotiate the messages interpersonally� (sinclair & renouf, 1988: 56). las palabras procesuales, por no ser estrictamente discurso jurídico, no se constituirán en objetivo de nuestro trabajo. a la hora del análisis interpretativo o traductológico, el primer grupo de palabras, los arcaísmos, así como la mayoría de los terms of art que integran el segundo grupo, no presentan mayor dificultad de identificación. en el área del derecho contractual americano existen términos arcaicos y técnicos como demurrage, proceeds, promissory estoppel o duress, mencionados arriba, que no son trasladables al ámbito del derecho español, al ser peculiares del common law y no semejantes o análogos al léxico en español, formalmente hablando. algunas de estas voces no tienen tampoco equivalente lingüístico, al pertenecer a fenómenos ajenos al derecho civil español. consecuentemente, las probabilidades de confusión con otros términos cognados parece ser mínima, y la labor del traductor o intérprete se limita a la identificación del fenómeno jurídico en la lengua origen, y su traducción o paráfrasis en la lengua meta.4 con frecuencia es habitual también, como en el caso de palabras como las referidas a la finalización de un acuerdo contractual, como rescission, cancellation o termination, que sea posible una traducción literal del término por asemejarse al fenómeno legal en español. sin embargo, tal ejercicio de traducción es en ocasiones peligroso, ya que aunque el concepto sea el mismo, el efecto legal o el remedio prodigado por la ley no es el mismo en ambos sistemas. en este sentido, el problema reside en aquellos términos cognados, procedentes del latín, cuya raíz léxica es idéntica en ambos idiomas, inglés y español, pero cuyo significado es totalmente dispar en ambos sistemas legales. según alcaraz y hughes (2002: 85), se llaman parónimos las palabras emparentadas o que guardan parecido entre sí, ya porque semejanzas y diferencias léxicas en el lenguaje contractual ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-40 29 se hayan derivado de la misma raíz o porque procedan del mismo tronco común. alcaraz y hughes distinguen entre aquellas que, como complicidad (complicity), jurisdicción (jurisdiction) o difamación (defamation), tienen idénticos significados y aquellas que, procediendo de esa misma fuente, han ido adquiriendo diferentes significados y no se pueden traducir entre sí. a estas últimas se las ha denominado de manera común false friends, false cognates o falsos amigos (baker, 1992; tiersma, 1999; alcaraz & hughes, 2002). como apunta la misma baker, desde el momento en que un idioma toma prestada una voz nueva, el desarrollo que pueda sufrir en dicha lengua es impredecible y los significados que en ella pueda adquirir son incontrolables. en este último grupo incluimos tanto a los legal homonyms de tiersma (1999) �que mellinkoff (1963) llamó: �common words with uncommon meanings�� como aquellos generados por el ansia de flexibilidad o vaguedad del common law en general. quizás sea este el grupo más grande y más peligroso dentro del área contractual del derecho americano en lo que se refiere a su interpretación o traducción al español. los falsos amigos del inglés contractual americano. su equivalencia o posibilidad de traducción al español en el presente trabajo hemos acotado los falsos amigos o cognados en inglés americano en dos áreas problemáticas para su traducción o interpretación legal, a saber: a) términos básicos del léxico contractual como promise, intention, offer y consideration, que son voces tradicionales de la raigambre contractual americana, en su mayoría conceptos del common law, trasladados y resumidos por los restatements of law. b) adjetivos �flexibles� del lenguaje contractual como reasonable, constructive, implied, consequential, conspicuous o unconscionable, algunos de los cuales son el resultado de la ductilidad redactora del uniform comercial code y del statute of frauds, cuya composición es similar en muchos aspectos a los códigos civiles continentales o fruto de la idiosincrasia interpretativa del common law. los términos base del lenguaje contractual: la polisemia legal quizás la base y el fundamento de la teoría contractual americana sea la que genere la mayor cantidad de falsos cognados en español. no se puede hablar del contrato en inglés sin hacer referencia a los términos consideration, promise, offer, remedy o intention. todas estas voces son términos polisémicos en inglés, palabras que tienen un uso maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-4030 vulgar en la lengua común y adquieren otro sentido muy distinto en el contexto del discurso legal. precisamente, en la nota introductoria a los restatements se hace referencia a que la fuente de dificultad constante en el derecho del contrato es que las palabras tienen, con frecuencia, significados plurales, y que es realmente complicado captar en una sola definición constructos complejos, como consideration o promise,5 a los que dedicamos una atención especial. la noción de promesa en el derecho americano en principio, y tal y como dicta el common law americano, un contrato es una promesa (promise), pero en strictu sensu, como acto vinculante, con vigor legal, que tiene como resultado una obligación legal, o un conjunto de obligaciones legales; dichas obligaciones emanan de la capacidad legal del actor/es de la promesa (promissor), así como de la legalidad y ausencia de fraude en dicha promesa. así pues, una promesa en derecho contractual americano no sólo es la mera declaración de la intención (intention) de adquirir un compromiso, sino la aceptación no opcional como tal por el tenedor (promisee) de la misma. asimismo, puede manifestarse oralmente o por escrito, o deducirse total o parcialmente a partir de la conducta y �a diferencia del derecho español, donde el contrato puede existir a partir de una sola parte� al menos debe haber dos o más partes contratantes. todas estas nociones, las primeras que encontramos en el common law americano, contrastan con la definición de contrato dada por el derecho español, donde lo primero que se estipula no es el concepto de contrato en sí, sino el momento en que este entra en vigor; es decir, desde el instante del consentimiento, no la promesa, entre las partes. dicha noción de promesa no está presente en nuestro derecho y, sin embargo, es lo que constituye la diferencia en derecho americano entre lo que es una simple declaración de intenciones y, por otro lado, un acuerdo vinculante entre las partes o contrato. cuando dicha promesa es vinculante e induce al tenedor de la promesa a deducir �de manera razonable�6 que el que promete debe realizar una acción o abstenerse a ello, el common law actúa implacablemente a través de la doctrina del promissory estoppel (originada en el derecho de equidad, pero hoy incorporada como remedio legal por los tribunales consuetudinarios) para evitar que dicho promissor se desdiga de lo prometido. asimismo, la llamada promissory restitution opera para que el demandante y tenedor de la promesa pueda reivindicar el lucro que el demandado haya conseguido injustamente en la transacción, a veces incluso sin haberse llevado acabo un contrato en toda regla,7 simplemente por la llamada moral obligation entre las partes. semejanzas y diferencias léxicas en el lenguaje contractual ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-40 31 la consideration americana y sus implicaciones otro concepto importante en el derecho americano, como en el common law en general, es el de consideration. como la palabra promesa, la consideration es uno de esos homónimos legales que serian difíciles de reconocer en su sentido jurídico, incluso entre los mismos angloparlantes. alcaraz y otros la traducen al español como contraprestación, e incluso como causa contractual (alcaraz & hughes, 1993; alcaraz, 1994; y alcaraz et al., 2001). lo cierto es que el derecho americano, como todo aquel basado en el common law, supone que para que un contrato tenga lugar, ha de existir un intercambio o quid pro quo, offer y acceptance, entre el offeror (oferente) y el offeree (beneficiario de la oferta o aceptante). precisamente, el término consideration viene a precisar y ajustar el de promise, en el sentido de que una promesa, para perfeccionarse en contrato, ha de tener lo que en derecho español, el artículo 1261 del código civil viene a definir en sus puntos 2 y 3 como: a) el objeto cierto que sea materia del contrato y b) la causa de la obligación que se establezca. asimismo, el artículo 1262 esgrime que �el consentimiento se manifiesta por el concurso de la oferta y la aceptación sobre la cosa y la causa que han de constituir el contrato�. en esto, ambos sistemas de derecho parecen acercarse, llegando incluso a traducirse de manera equivalente por algunos autores (sánchez terán, 1985). sin embargo, y a diferencia del derecho español, lo cierto es que el concepto de consideration en derecho americano presupone que la promesa llega a poseer vigor legal en inglés cuando existe un valor concedido por una parte, a cambio del cumplimiento o la promesa de cumplimiento por la otra.8 esto implica que los contratos gratuitos, entre ellos las donaciones, que en españa se consideran causa contractual (artículo 1274 del código civil), en derecho americano se contemplan como meros gifts, regalos, pues no existe contraprestación en ellos, a menos que dichas donaciones se consideren charitable contributions.9 en lo que torgans y bushaw consideran �the everelusive common law concept of consideration� (2002: 5) la promesa de hacer una donación no se considera en ningún modo un contrato en derecho americano, pues tal promesa no está respaldada por consideration, o contraprestación entre las partes. los adjetivos �flexibles� del lenguaje contractual: reasonable, constructive, implied, express, actual y unconciousnable. la interpretación de los contratos y sus consecuencias dentro del sistema del common law, el mecanismo cognitivo de aplicación legal es la inducción (del caso particular a la máxima general) y una de las más poderosas armas maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-4032 hermenéuticas es la regla literal, por la cual cada palabra cuenta y tiene un peso específico propio. de entre las consecuencias lingüísticas que esto tiene, quizá la más importante sea la paradoja y problemática tensión entre la precisión y exactitud del mensaje que la ley intenta emitir, y la flexibilidad estratégica, por medio de la cual el derecho pretende incluir toda contingencia posible en el enunciado de dicho mensaje. el deseo de flexibilidad en la redacción de la ley no es ajeno a los sistemas continentales, pues estos se redactan según un mecanismo de interpretación deductivo y generalista. en concreto, en el área contractual americana los redactores legales y tribunales han establecido una diferenciación entre interpretation �o proceso de determinación del significado que las partes atribuyen al lenguaje contractual� y construction �o papel que la judicatura desempeña en la especificación del efecto legal de dicho lenguaje. hablábamos en la primera sección de este artículo sobre las corrientes subjetivas y objetivas de la interpretación jurídica, y precisamente esas mismas reflexiones podrían tener lugar en el campo contractual, donde la determinación del significado en caso de disputa de las partes ha hado lugar a normas de interpretación judicial de corte clásico (entre las que se encuentran el favorecer la intención de las partes,10 así como el interés publico) en la pretensión de dirigir al juez en su tarea de asignación de vigor legal. la llamada parol evidence rule del derecho contractual americano, por ejemplo, se dirige a controlar la posible parcialidad en la interpretación de los contratos. esta regla se aplica cuando el tribunal evita que las partes demuestren la existencia de otros convenios previos o coexistentes (orales o escritos) con el fin de repudiar o alterar las condiciones de un contrato escrito. de esta manera, la ley contractual americana tiende a favorecer los llamados integrated contracts, o versiones completas y autónomas de un acuerdo contractual por escrito (knapp et al., 2003). el adjetivo reasonable y la conveniencia de la imprecisión léxica la palabra reasonable ha probado ser un útil comodín para conseguir la maleabilidad en la interpretación legal. la jurisprudencia contractual se refiere hasta la saciedad a las expectativas razonables de una de las partes,11 sin precisar del todo cuál es el límite imparcial de la racionabilidad en las asunciones de las mismas. en concreto, la prueba objetiva de validez de un contrato se ha situado, durante varios siglos de jurisprudencia, en la mente del �hombre razonable� sin llegar tampoco a definir el perfil del mismo. por defecto, como apuntan knapp et al. (2003), el tribunal interpreta como razonable en common law contractual aquello que, si no se explicita en el contrato y tampoco está regulado puntualmente por el ucc, es deducible desde: a) el curso de la realización del contrato (course of performance) semejanzas y diferencias léxicas en el lenguaje contractual ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-40 33 b) el transcurso de otras transacciones previas entre las partes de ese contrato (course of dealing) c) las costumbres y tradiciones de esa área mercantil (usage of the trade). conectando con las consideraciones que hacíamos al principio sobre las distintas tradiciones o posturas hermenéuticas en cuanto al derecho, en este caso lo que la ley hace es adoptar una postura subjetiva, no limitándose a analizar texto legal, sino emprendiendo una labor pragmática de búsqueda contextual. de esta manera, el adjetivo reasonable funciona en todos los casos como un comodín, garantizando el que el tribunal acomode discrecionalmente la conducta de las partes en el contrato, o el contenido y condiciones del mismo. el adjetivo �razonable� no sólo aparece en el common law americano, sino también en el uniform commercial code, cuyo artículo 1-204 habla de reasonable time en los términos siguientes: (1) whenever this act requires any action to be taken within a reasonable time, any time which is not manifestly unreasonable may be fixed by agreement. (2) what is a reasonable time for taking any action depends on the nature, purpose and circumstances of such action. (3) an action is taken �seasonably� when it is taken at or within the time agreed or if no time is agreed at or within a reasonable time. en otros artículos del ucc (2-609), sin embargo, se habla de reasonable time como aquel que no exceda los 30 días en el contexto del cumplimiento de un contrato por sus partes. tal y como afirmábamos anteriormente, sin embargo, la mayoría de las veces la palabra reasonable se utiliza de forma contextual y su vaguedad es aprovechada a conveniencia y discreción de los tribunales. se trata, pues, de uno de los casos en los que la ley necesita ser imprecisa, aplicando el término de modo diferente en los distintos casos y, sea por favorecer la flexibilidad interpretativa o para conseguir un sistema legal más justo que dé cabida a la intención de las partes �como defiende el juez cardozo en numerosas ocasiones (knapp et al., 2003)�, lo cierto es que el adjetivo reasonable forma parte fundamental de lo que es derecho contractual jurisprudencial y legislativo en estados unidos. rellenando los huecos de la ley: los adjetivos implied y constructive, express y actual hay ocasiones en que un contrato silencia algunos términos, o que, por alguna otra razón, se crea un hueco legal en el mismo. en los casos en que tal silencio crea maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-4034 semejanzas y diferencias léxicas en el lenguaje contractual ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-40 35 confusión o injusticia, el derecho americano autoriza al tribunal a �rellenar los huecos� de ese silencio con los términos o la interpretación que considere más adecuada o razonable.12 es cierto que los parámetros de preferencia en la interpretación del common law marcan claramente que son preferibles los términos explícitos o express terms sobre otros razonamientos marcados por distintas fuentes legales. también lo es el que el deseo de laxitud en la letra de la ley viene a veces dado por la reticencia de los tribunales a inmiscuirse en acuerdos comerciales que juzga privados.13 es este el momento en que el tribunal está legitimado a recurrir a lo que llama implied o constructive terms, que no son exactamente el mismo fenómeno, pero sí guardan mucha similitud. según gardner (1999), los llamados implied terms son aquellos no expresados directamente, sino inferidos, con los que el tribunal intenta llevar a cabo lo que considera la intención de las partes. se distingue entre términos implied in fact y implied in law. los primeros son los que las partes dan por hecho, aunque no los explicitan en el contrato, pero sobre los que están de acuerdo. los segundos, por otro lado, son aquellos que, aunque tampoco sean patentes en el contrato, se materializan en virtud de lo que pronuncia al respecto la legislación, la jurisprudencia o el mero dictamen discrecional del tribunal. de otro lado, aquellos términos llamados constructive son, como apuntan alcaraz y hughes (1993) y el mismo gardner (1999),14 los que se consideran, a efectos legales, como habiendo tenido lugar aunque no hubieran sucedido de hecho. constructive no es sinónimo, pues, de express, sino de actual, pues este último define aquello visible, efectivo, que, contrariamente a constructive, sí existe de hecho. el adjetivo se deriva de la función pragmática que ejerce el tribunal de asignación de significado legal a su discreción, a la que antes nos hemos referido como construction. podría afirmarse que ambos, constructive e implied terms son resultado de la labor interpretativa de la jurisprudencia legal. sin embargo, mientras que los términos implícitos son aquellos que el tribunal supone con el fin de reflejar el deseo de las partes y así impedir la injusticia en aquello que no está estipulado verbalmente en el contrato, los constructive terms o términos analógicos o presuntivos,15 según traducción de alcaraz y hughes (1993), están destinados a conceder al tribunal la discreción de dirimir algo en contra de lo acontecido de facto, con el mismo fin de evitar resultados que se consideren parciales y fragmentarios. así, en palabras del profesor cohen (ver nota núm. 14) la expresión implied guarantee of merchantability alude a la calidad de la mercancía en una transacción, que si no ha sido expresamente asegurada por el vendedor, sí es supuesta por el tribunal. por otro lado, el término constructive receipt alude a la entrega de la mercancía en un plazo adecuado, en opinión del tribunal, que puede coincidir o no con dicha entrega en la realidad. lo que es unconscionable, la mala fe y el fraude otro vocablo difícil de interpretar en español es el término unconscionable. y lo es porque se trata de un término clave y amplio en derecho contractual americano, tanto en la jurisprudencia como en la legislación, comúnmente aplicado a la �práctica comercial fraudulenta� por algunos autores (alcaraz y hughes, 1993: 309). de hecho, lo unconscionable, según dispone el artículo 2-302 del ucc, en principio no tiene nada que ver con el fraude, pues ambos son conceptos teóricamente distintos, diferentes también a lo que se define como �falta de buena fe� en derecho americano del contrato, aunque todos estos constructos se refieran a las situaciones en las que una de las partes contratantes se comporte de manera deshonesta. el vocablo unconscionable se refiere, en concreto, a aquellas condiciones o términos contractuales que no deberían haber sido incluidos nunca en un contrato por considerarse abusivos e improcedentes. como consecuencia, el poder discrecional del tribunal puede dejar sin efecto la totalidad del contrato, o desestimar el término específico que causa dicho abuso o desmedida, pero en ningún momento proveer un remedio contractual como los daños y perjuicios, porque se considera que el contrato siempre careció de vigor legal. por el contrario, la falta de buena fe16 o la mala fe se refiere a la conducta posterior a la existencia del contrato en sí que, según summers (en knapp et al., 2003: 442), incluye la falta de diligencia, raciocinio y cooperatividad de los contratantes, así como el abuso de poder y la interpretación intencionadamente errónea por parte de los mismos y cualquier acción por una de las partes que conduzca a la demora en la realización del contrato. tanto el ucc (artículo 1-304), como el common law formulado por el restatement (second) imponen, de manera más amplia, la obligación de ejercer la buena fe y el comercio justo en la realización y puesta en vigor del contrato. finalmente, la conducta fraudulenta, normalizada por la legislación en el statute of frauds, abarca un área mucho más amplia que incluye no sólo el ámbito contractual, sino también los llamados torts o ilícitos civiles. como apunta anson (1919), la conducta fraudulenta tiene una explicación diferente y, como relatado, se le aplican remedios distintos en common law y equidad. en la primera, el fraude se define de manera un tanto amplia como albergando todo lo que son las afirmaciones y representaciones falsas de hechos esenciales que producen el detrimento en otros en el área de los ilícitos civiles y su compensación suelen ser los daños y perjuicios. como contraste, en �equidad� se ha relacionado, �desgraciadamente� (anson, 1919, en gardner, 1999: 263), con el comercio abusivo en los intercambios mercantiles, anulando la validez del contrato. esta biunivocidad de sentido es fruto, sin duda, de un derecho que se alimenta de varias fuentes jurídicas esenciales, con distinta forma de tratar el mismo fenómeno, de darle interpretación y procurarle remedio. maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-4036 conclusión. los términos difíciles en el lenguaje contractual americano. su posible solución traductológica en el presente trabajo hemos llevado a cabo el análisis de una pequeña parte de los fenómenos léxicos que tienen lugar en el lenguaje contractual americano. a lo largo de nuestro estudio hemos tenido la oportunidad de constatar los profundos matices semánticos que yacen dentro del uso de algunos términos clave de este sistema legal. hemos detectado como dichos matices nacen, de hecho, de la mecánica hermenéutica de un sistema cuyo origen es la tradición jurídica del common law, pero que también asienta en gran parte la normalización del comercio de mercancías en un sólido cuerpo legislativo, el llamado uniform commercial code. esta peculiaridad jurídica, las fuentes y la perspectiva interpretativa del derecho americano del contrato tienen, así, sus consecuencias en la terminología que hemos hecho objeto de nuestro estudio. a instancias de la posibilidad de traducción que el léxico jurídico americano tiene en español, la zona de más dificultad no la constituyen los arcaísmos o los terms of art de origen anglosajón o normando, sino aquellos identificados como cognados o falsos amigos, cuyo origen latino pueden provocar una errónea traducción directa. de un lado, hemos encontrado que hay palabras como promise, consideration, offer y acceptance que son parónimos de vocablos del español, perfectamente traducibles en su uso general. como términos claves del contrato en la ley americana y legal homonyms, sin embargo, son fenómenos intraducibles directamente a nuestro idioma, a riesgo de caer en la imprecisión léxica, tan peligrosa en el área del derecho. de otro lado, y de manera todavía más comprometida aún en lo que se refiere a su equivalencia en español, se hallan los adjetivos flexibles del inglés americano. entre ellos, sólo como ejemplo, hemos estudiado las palabras reasonable, implied, express, constructive, actual y unconscionable. son términos que ejemplifican, a nuestro modo de ver, la libertad y discreción otorgada a los jueces en un sistema donde la jurisprudencia juega un papel esencial. dichos adjetivos cobran su significado y propósito en este preciso contexto, y su traducción literal, realizada a menudo en español, carece de sentido sin contemplar los fenómenos desde la perspectiva hermenéutica anglosajona. la tensión entre la flexibilidad expresiva y la precisión léxica es la herramienta con la que constantemente juega el redactor y el intérprete de los instrumentos legislativos en el derecho anglosajón y, más específicamente, la ley contractual americana. como afirmábamos al principio de nuestro trabajo y creemos haber sabido ilustrar durante el transcurso del mismo, los sistemas de derecho y su lenguaje, como productos de la cognición humana, son el fruto de la mente colectiva de un pueblo, de su cultura y de su evolución histórica. así lo afirman prominentes miembros de la comunidad lingüística forense como solan (2001) y engberg (2003), y así lo creemos semejanzas y diferencias léxicas en el lenguaje contractual ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-40 37 firmemente desde aquí. en consecuencia, el reto fundamental que plantea la globalización, especialmente en lo que se refiere a las relaciones comerciales a nivel transnacional, es la homogenización equitativa en la aplicación e interpretación de las leyes nacionales y la redacción semánticamente equivalente de los tratados internacionales. para ese fin es fundamental la labor no sólo del redactor legislativo, sino también del traductor, pues ambos han de documentarse profundamente en lo concerniente a los distintos sistemas de derecho de las lenguas fuente y meta. sólo comprendiendo la peculiaridad e individualidad de cada sistema derecho y matizando la importancia del papel que el contexto legislativo juega en dicho sistema, a saber, las fuentes y las herramientas interpretativas, podremos acometer la tarea de la aplicación igualitaria de las leyes a nivel transnacional. de este modo, se conseguirá un mundo más justo, al menos, en lo que se refiere al espectro de nuestro estudio: los acuerdos que se albergan dentro del ámbito del derecho privado y las transacciones de compraventa de mercancías. (versión revisada recibida en enero 2005) agradecimientos la autora desea expresar su profundo agradecimiento al profesor lawrence m. solan, así como a la decana de la brooklyn law school (brooklyn, ny) joan wexler. sin su apoyo y hospitalidad durante el spring semester de 2004 este trabajo nunca hubiera podido hacerse realidad. asimismo, desea agradecer al profesor neil cohen los múltiples ratos generosamente dedicados a resolver las dudas que plantea el interpretar el derecho contractual americano. maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-4038 albaladejo, m. (1989). derecho civil: derecho de obligaciones. vol. 1. barcelona: bosch. alcaraz, e. (1994). el inglés jurídico: textos y documentos. barcelona: ariel. alcaraz, e. (2000). el inglés profesional y académico. madrid: alianza editorial. alcaraz, e., m. a. campos & c. miguélez (2001). el inglés jurídico norteamericano. barcelona: ariel. alcaraz, e. & b. hughes (1993). diccionario de términos jurídicos, inglés-español, spanish-english. barcelona: ariel. alcaraz, e. & b. hughes (2002). el español jurídico. barcelona: ariel. the american law institute (1981). restatements of the law (second): contracts, 2ª ed. st paul, minn: american law institute publishers. anson, w. r. (1919). �principles of the law of contract�, en gardner (ed.) (1999). baird, d. g., t. eisenberg & t. h. jackson (2001). commercial and debtor-creditor law. selected statutes (uniform commercial code). new york: foundation press. baker, m. (1992). in other words: a coursebook in translation. london: routledge. caenegem, r. c. (1973). the birth of english common law. cambridge: cambridge university press. engberg, j. (2003). �statutory texts as instances of language(s)consequences on interpretation�. actas del congreso creating and interpreting law in a multilingual environment. center for the study of international business law, brooklyn law school y the brooklyn journal of international law. bibliografía semejanzas y diferencias léxicas en el lenguaje contractual ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-40 39 maría ángeles orts hizo tu tesis doctoral sobre el discurso jurídico-mercantil en inglés, al que dedica la mayor parte de su investigación. lleva dieciséis años como titular de inglés empresarial y económico en la facultad de economía y empresa de la universidad de murcia, y ha impartido numerosos cursos monográficos y masters en inglés jurídico y empresarial. 1 incluso este argumento sería discutible, si pensamos que el ucc se aplica en versión individual para cada uno de los estados. 2 united nation comission on international trade law; en español, cnudmi, o comisión de las naciones unidas para el derecho mercantil internacional. 3 convención de las naciones unidas sobre los contratos de compraventa internacional de mercaderías. 4 diferente panorama ofrece la palabra bona fide, buena fe o good faith, que posee significados diferentes y consecuentemente difíciles de interpretar a la hora de manejar este concepto contractual en ambos sistemas. 5 the american law institute (1981), restatement of the law (second), p. 7. 6 esa esperanza razonable se puede ver malhadada con lo que la ley llama detrimental reliance, o perjuicio generado en el demandante y tenedor de la promesa por parte del demandado, como en wright v. newman ga. sup. ct., 266 ga. 519, 467 s.e.,2d 533 (1996). 7 vid. watts v. watts 137 wis. 2d 506, 405 n.w.2d 303 (1987). 8 vid. cook v. coldwell banker/frank laiben realty co. mo. ct. app., 967 s.w.2d 654 (1998); batsakis v. demotsis tx. ct civ. app.,226 s.w.2d 673 (1949). 9 vid. allegheny college v. national chahutauqua county bank n.y. ct. app., 246 n.y. 369, 159 n.e. 173 (1927). 10 incluso a veces, según la norma omnia praesumuntur contra proferentem, de una de las partes, aquella que no redactó el contrato. 11 vid. c&j fertilizer, inc. v. allied mutual insurance co. iowa supt. ct., 227 y alaska democratic party v. rice, alaska supt. ct., 934., como mínimos ejemplos de múltiples casos. notas gardner, b. a. (1999). black�s law dictionary, 3ª ed. st paul, minn.: westgroup. harris, s. (1997). �procedural vocabulary in law case reports�. english for specific purposes 16,4: 289-308 knapp, c. l., n. m. crystal & h. g. prince (2003). problems in contract law. cases and materials. new york: aspen. mellinkoff, d. (1963). the language of the law. boston: little brown. romanach, j. (ed.) (1994). civil code of spain. baton rouge: lawrence publishing company. rodríguez carrión, j. l. (1992). estudios de seguro marítimo. barcelona: bosch editor. russo, a. (2002). �préstamos del inglés en la jerga económica: ¿es posible evitar el sobreendeudamiento lingüístico?� 1er congreso internacional: �el español, lengua de traducción�, almagro, ciudad real [http://europa.eu.int/comm/translation /events/almagro/index_es.htm]. sánchez terán, m. a. (1985). �sales, leasing and work contracts� en b. cremades (ed) (2003), spanish business law, 120-130. hingham, ma: kluwer law. sinclair, j. & a. renouf (1988). �a lexical syllabus for language teaching� en r. carter & m. mccarthy (eds.), vocabulary and language teaching, 140-160. londres: longman. solan, l. m. (1993). the language of judges. chicago: the university of chicago press. solan, l. m. (2001) �ordinary meaning in legal interpretation�. pohjoissuomen tumarikoulou. rovaniemi. tiersma, p. m. (1999). legal language. chicago: the university of chicago press. torgans k. & a. bushaw (2002). �some comparative aspects of contract law in civil and common law systems�, en international legal perspectives, 37-72. westlaw 2004. maría ángeles orts llopis ibérica 10 [2005]: 23-4040 12 así lo estipula el apartado 204 del restatement of contracts: �when the parties to a bargain sufficiently defined to be a contract have not agreed with respect to a term which is essential to the determination of their rights and duties, a term which is reasonable in the circumstances is supplied by the courts�. 13 opinión recogida en palabras del catedrático de derecho contractual jurisprudencial de la brooklyn law school, ny, profesor lawrence solan, durante una de sus clases del spring term de 2004. 14 opinión, asimismo, recogida en palabras del catedrático de derecho contractual legislativo de la brooklyn law school, ny, profesor neil cohen durante sus clases del spring term de 2004. 15 constructive es a menudo traducido literalmente en español como constructivo, especialmente en los documentos internacionales de derecho de seguros y, como apunta rodríguez carrión, de forma equívoca, ya que no refleja el sentido que quiere transmitirse en inglés legal (1992). 16 vocablo de origen latino con interpretación distinta en los sistemas de derecho consuetudinario y civil, como apuntábamos al referirnos a la tipología léxica del inglés legal. iberica 13 ibérica 38 (2019): 349-352 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 integrating information and communication technologies in english for specific purposes. rosa muñoz-luna & lidia taillefer (eds.) cham, switzerland: springer, 2018. 211 pages. isbn: 9783-319-68925-8. the present volume, edited by muñoz-luna and taillefer, wisely combines the use of the information and communication technologies (henceforth icts) with the teaching and processing of english for specific purposes (henceforth, esp). in this combination of interrelated fields, as well as in the wide coverage of their state-of-the-art, resides the uniqueness of the book. it presents insights on methodological esp principles in both academic and professional situations, and emphasizes authenticity in teaching and learning contexts. the teaching and learning of esp have grown significantly, causing a proliferation of icts within the educational context. muñoz–luna and taillefer offer a broad panorama of the didactic applications of icts in the esp classroom: blended learning, learning management systems in tertiary education, virtual reality, and translation as a technology-assisted tool in the teaching and processing of esp. in the foreword (v-viii), surdyk concisely overviews how technology has evolved from its beginnings to the use of the web 2.0. next, he offers some considerations related to the concept of ludology and concludes by drawing a relationship between ludic strategies and icts, which have come to be associated with the concept of gamification in the learning of foreign languages. the book structure is divided into three sections that permit readers to easily find chapters related with the various subjects in which they might be interested. after the introduction by the editors (pp. 1-4), the first section demonstrates how english language teaching (elt) has been significantly 349 reseñas/book reviews 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 349 influenced by the use of technology (avalos, 2011: 10-20). this first section consists of three chapters: li li’s (pp. 7-25) presents the state-of-the-art of computer-assisted language learning and esp, establishes principles to combine technologies, and offers some exemplary practice, including diverse kinds of technological tools in english for academic purposes (eap) and english for professional purposes contexts (epp). the second chapter, by stroo, muñoz-luna and jurado navas (pp. 27-36), provides a summary of the most well-known and utilized basic technologies in esp, such as learning management systems (henceforth lms). a key aspect here is learner interaction and participation, being both of them the most important objectives of the application educlick. the chapter finishes with an examination of the various uses of mobile phones and audiovisual materials in the classroom. in the third chapter, lópez-ozieblo (pp. 37-53) argues that massive open online courses (henceforth, moocs) are not the best solution for esp teachers. however, the author is in favor of a methodology that integrates a face-to-face approach and technology use, such as blended teaching, and the flipped classroom in particular, as it encourages social interaction, essential to the learning process. the second section of this volume, devoted to eap, comprises four chapters. the fourth chapter, by díez-prados and cabrejas-peñuelas (pp. 57-78), describes how the internet can be used to facilitate the process of writing by suggesting resources for its different stages and proposing how these may be employed to conduct a writing task. one of these online resources is blackboard, a discussion tool that eases both educator-learner and learnerlearner feedback. the fifth chapter, by jurado-navas (pp. 79-92), brings to light the attitudes and real experiences of a group of undergraduates using digital lms in the classroom. recourse to lms by university tutors has been limited to the upload of files for learners, who can just search and read in a passive way, and as a result of this limitation, the author explores an enriching option consisting of a more updated classification of tools and apps, integrating the digital and offline use of such platforms. in the sixth chapter, ramos-garcía (pp. 93-106) makes an interesting suggestion to help a certain student population, that of future english teachers at a faculty of education, improve their listening skills in eap. she holds that increasing the exposure of learners to real input in an anxiety-free context can gradually develop their listening skills. her suggestion is the use of a parallel computer-based listening skills program in which learners have to follow reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 349-352350 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 350 aural instructions, so outcomes are expected to improve. in the last chapter, lan li (pp. 107-124) focuses on the use of virtual reality in elt, especially through online platforms such as second life. the author makes a strong case for multimedia instruction and learning to assist students’ knowledgebuilding: her research shows how second life could be utilized to share knowledge, teach language functions, begin instant communication, and give peer assessment during the learning process. it stresses the stimulating, interactive and entertaining nature of this technology. the third section of the volume deals with english for specific purposes (pp. 125-203) and encompasses four chapters. in the first, fuertes-olivera (pp. 127-143) reflects on the use of collaborative dictionaries (e.g. wikipedia) to help esp students broaden their knowledge in fields such as business and economics. chapter nine, by postigo-pinazo and mira-rueda (pp. 145-163), concentrates upon the field of medicine and the improvement of the competences of scientific writers, medical translators and interpreters with the use of technology, which may meet their needs and propel a flourishing labor market in southern spain. in chapter ten, taillefer (pp. 165-182) reconsiders the design of business english courses in the digital era, drawing on her previous experience, not only classroom-based but also with online learning. she proposes surveying learners and educators and following a combined approach to improve course adjustment to the learners’ needs, in order to avoid traditional educational problems and fully benefit from technology. her analyses prove blended methodology and the use of online resources, tasks and tools are the best option for esp curriculum improvement. the last chapter, by leah leone (pp. 183-203), shows that training translators online brings them the benefits of learning within the actual context in which they will eventually work. the author does a needs analysis that is reported by the practice of backward course design. then, she outlines effective applications of the online platform to finally close the chapter with several suggestions for technology-based translation tasks. the book successfully meets its goal of presenting the state-of-the-art of technological innovation in the teaching and learning of esp: the three sections covered are relevant and provide enlightening current knowledge and research in the interrelated fields of computer-assisted language learning/teaching and the teaching and learning of esp. the collection of articles not only contributes insightful discussions on varied issues related to the practice of esp in the classroom, but also expands the existing network of publications on lsp (e.g. arnó, soler & rueda, 2006; bárcena, read & reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 349-352 351 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 351 arús, 2014; martín-monje & barcena, 2015; martín-monje, elorza & garcíariaza, 2016). perhaps the major strength of the volume reviewed is that it provides holistic and cross-disciplinary solutions to future challenges and technological barriers recently arisen in english language teaching and learning, mostly in esp. it is shown how social and computer sciences and technological devices can synergize to create more interactive and practical learning backgrounds where recent frameworks can be applied for academic and personal purposes alike. the intended readership of this book embraces esp researchers, educators and students, since it facilitates case studies of how ict can be used in english for a variety of purposes. authors share their experiences of combining tools and methods and each chapter furnishes valuable pedagogical implications. received 3 august 2018 accepted 5 october 2018 reviewed by salvador montaner villalba universidad politécnica de valencia (spain) smonvil@idm.upv.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 349-352352 arnó, e., a. soler & c. rueda (eds.) (2006). information technology in languages for specific purposes. issues and prospects. new york: springer. avalos, b. (2011) “teacher professional development over ten years”. teaching and teacher education 27: 10-20. bárcena, e., t. read & j. arús (eds.) (2014). languages for specific purposes in the digital era. new york: springer. martín-monje, e. & e. bárcena (eds.) (2015). language moocs. providing learning, trascending boundaries. london/new york: de gruyter open. martín-monje, e., i. elorza & b. garcía riaza (eds.) (2016). technology-enhanced language learning for specialized domains. practical applications and mobility. london/new york: routledge. 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 352 ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114 abstract the enormous number of anglicisms used everyday in spanish language generates lexical interference between both languages. this paper provides a semantic analysis of the changes in lexis this language contact brings about, through the different linguistic mechanisms of inter-language adaptation involved. when these anglicisms come from the current trend to include english words in spanish discourse, we also add appropriate equivalents which could avoid the excess of redundant neologisms. a glossary of the most habitual terms derived from interference in english and spanish in the economic field is included as a result of this study. key words: terminology, semantics, linguistic interference, second language (sl) resumen los anglicismos económicos: adaptación al sistema lingüístico español la ingente cantidad de anglicismos que cada día entran en el idioma español a través del inglés en el ámbito económico produce una serie de interferencias entre ambos idiomas. en este artículo se realiza un estudio semántico de tales interferencias a través de los mecanismos lingüísticos de adaptación interidiomática utilizados en cada caso. asimismo, cuando los anglicismos utilizados son sólo producto de la tendencia actualmente de moda de insertar vocablos ingleses en el discurso, se aportan los equivalentes apropiados en el lenguaje español que podrían evitar el exceso de neologismos redundantes. este análisis se lleva a cabo a través de un glosario de los términos más habituales procedentes de las interferencias entre el inglés y el español en el contexto económico. palabras clave: terminología, semántica, interferencias lingüísticas, segunda lengua 1. introduction the aim of the present paper is to provide a comparative insight into the semantic study of lexical interference1 in english and spanish within the economic terminological field, through the linguistic mechanisms of inter-language adaptation involved. economic anglicisms: adaptation to the spanish linguistic system paloma lópez zurita universidad de cádiz paloma.lopez@uca.es 91 semantic changes take place especially within the lexical level, in which we study the linguistic strategies involved in the process of translating meaning from original english terms to the target language. the regular adaptation devices include borrowings, calques, equivalents, and simple and explicative periphrases. these changes in lexis usually entail changes in semantic relations that may result in the generalisation or specialisation of the term. in the present paper we gloss isolated examples which illustrate the wider trend of english interference.2 2. anglicisms in the spanish language language contact and the ensuing changes of meaning constitute a very rich area of linguistic inquiry that has produced an extensive bibliography on the subject, as there seems to be a general concern among language specialists about the linguistic consequences the incorporation of so many anglicisms into the spanish language may imply. pratt (1980) and lorenzo�s (1996) benchmark research focused on the influence of english over spanish by compiling the most common anglicisms and studying their process of incorporation into the second language (sl), a concern which has been a constant feature up to now. recently, different approaches to the topic have been carried out. as examples regarding general language, rodríguez (1997) highlighted the cultural influence among english and spanish speaking countries through the existing borrowings; gimeno (2003) stated different lexical types according to category changes, collocations and lexical calques, focusing on social multilingualism; páramo garcía (2003) introduced a historical perspective by studying the lexical anglicisms used in translations during the period 1750-1800; medina lópez (2004) established the possible extra-linguistic factors which may explain the use of anglicisms as well as a practical approach towards their classification. the current trends in discourse analysis examine the phenomenon of anglicisms from a specific point of view and bibliography on particular fields is also relevant. for example, rodríguez segura (1999) studied the influence of english on mass media; alcaraz ariza (2000) wrote her doctoral thesis on the importance of anglicisms in health sciences; castelo montero (2003) compiled a specific dictionary of english business terms used in spanish, as well as the most recent paper by alejo (2004) concerning the huge impact of english on economic terminology, among others. paloma lópez zurita ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-11492 nowadays a growing number of anglicisms are being exported into the spanish language. their usage seems to be catching on in spain, inundating language with new words and expressions, often unnecessary. we cannot miss the opportunity to reproduce part of an article regarding this tendency we read in one of the numerous internet pages related to this topic. here, the anonymous author humorously observes a disappointing reality: desde que las insignias se llaman pins, los maricones, gays, las comidas frías lunchs y los repartos de cine castings, este país no es el mismo: ahora es mucho, muchísimo más moderno. antaño los niños leían tebeos en vez de comics, los estudiantes pegaban posters creyendo que eran carteles, los empresarios hacían negocios en vez de business y los obreros, tan ordinarios ellos, sacaban la fiambrera al mediodía en vez del tupperware. yo, en el colegio, hice aérobic muchas veces, pero, tonta de mí, creía que hacía gimnasia. nadie es realmente moderno si no dice cada día cien palabras en inglés. (asociación cultural grupo búho, 2004) this neology trend can be clearly observed in general language, but its effects are also considerable in the economic scope, as the importance of business matters in daily life is so spread that, with the exception of specialised forums, most lexical units could be part of everyday common vocabulary. the current influence of english upon spanish makes it difficult to establish in which cases we are dealing with a word and in which ones we are dealing with a term. on this question we share the idea cabré and feliu (2001: 23) proposed in the following paragraph: estas unidades (unidades léxicas), que no son inicialmente ni palabras ni términos, sino solo potencialmente términos o no términos, pueden pertenecer a ámbitos distintos. el carácter de término se activa en función de su uso en un contexto y situación adecuados. esta activación pragmática consiste en una selección de los módulos de rasgos apropiados, que incluyen los rasgos morfosintácticos generales de la unidad y una serie de rasgos semánticos y pragmáticos específicos que describen su carácter de término dentro de un determinado ámbito. thus, we will verify how in some cases the analysed anglicisms coming from interference between english and spanish have been included in the spanish language system either as general words or as terms in specific contexts. economic anglicisms ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114 93 likewise, specialised phraseological expressions are common in these cases of interference. the characteristics of specialised phraseological expressions have been established, among other authors, by bevilacqua (2001). the criteria for their identification include the common features established by corpas pastor (1996: 19-20) for the simple phraseological units: these units are institutionalised and stable expressions formed by various words, whose elements have some syntactic or semantic peculiarity. in the case of specialised phraseological units, at least one terminological unit is added, as well as its usage in a specific scope and a relevant frequency in specific texts (bevilacqua, 2001). 3. adaptation to the spanish language system the most frequently claimed linguistic mechanisms used to translate the meaning of a word or expression into the target language, in this case, spanish, are as follows: 3.1. borrowing languages in contact habitually tend to incorporate lexical borrowings from the most influential one to the other. this linguistic device has produced an important terminological confusion in spanish. most authors prefer the term �préstamo� to refer to an �elemento lingüístico (léxico, de ordinario) que una lengua toma de otra, bien adoptándolo en su forma primitiva, bien imitándolo y transformándolo más o menos� (lázaro carreter, 1990: 333). others consider the term �préstamo� inaccurate and have coined the alternative �trasplante� or �préstamo extranjero� (casas, 1986: 163), as well as �adopción lingüística� or �aportación lingüística.�3 the different degrees of adaptation into the sl have also generated the term �extranjerismo.� according to lázaro carreter (1990), an �extranjerismo� is a type of borrowing which has not been incorporated into the spanish language system. on the other hand, clyne (1967), payrató (1984) and gómez capuz (2000), among others, after studying these terminological shortcomings concerning �préstamo� and �borrowing,� introduced the term �interferencia� or �interference� as a positive alternative. nevertheless, the traditional terms continue being used despite their possible polysemy. for this reason a definition of the terminology used in this paper is worth making. hereafter �incorporated borrowing� and �sporadic borrowing� will be used to refer, in the first case, to the adoption of a foreign word or expression, whose incorporation into spanish has been attested in a spanish language dictionary. obviously, not every word or expression will be in the same stage in this process, so some elements have had evident paloma lópez zurita ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-11494 graphic or phonological adaptations (e.g.: broquer, crac, etc.), while in many others the foreign origin of the word is clearly identified, as its spelling remains unchanged. on the other hand, a �sporadic borrowing� takes place when the word or expression has not been incorporated into the spanish language system, and for this reason it is not included in any spanish dictionary of general language (e.g.: brief, cash flow, etc.). as we have just mentioned, some authors refer to this kind of borrowing as �extranjerismo,� as it is situated on the cusp of what could be called �préstamo.� gómez capuz (2000) considers �extranjerismo� is the word the speaker perceives strange, either because of its spelling or by its limited usage. this author also uses the terminology �extranjerismo ocasional fuera del sistema� to refer to the same concept we have here called �sporadic borrowing,� but he considers the borderline between �préstamo� and �extranjerismo� is not clear: [...] no hay razón para negar al extranjerismo el estatus de préstamo, es decir, elemento que surge como resultado de los contactos interlingüísticos. pero cuando el extranjerismo se presenta siempre en la forma extranjera original, goza de un uso escaso o limitado a ciertos subgrupos de la comunidad lingüística (tecnolectos, argot marginal) y además no suele ser comprendido por el hablante medio de la lengua receptora, nos encontramos ante un caso extremo en los hechos de préstamo. (gómez capuz, 2000: 36) 3.2. calque and equivalent as seen above, a borrowing is the incorporation of a foreign word into a language either having had some phonetic alterations or not, whose foreign origin (at least in the first step of incorporation) is clear to a greater or lesser degree. a common example in this case is the word �fútbol,� an english borrowing whose spanish spelling reflects the english phonetics. on the other hand, a calque is the incorporation of a foreign word into another language whose meaning has been directly translated (e.g.: �balompié�). again, we share the opinion of cabré (1993: 191): la diferencia entre un préstamo y un calco reside en que un préstamo conserva inicialmente su forma originaria, y por lo tanto es a menudo identificable: un calco es la traducción literal de una palabra de otra lengua, por lo que parece una palabra genuina. in this paper, we use the term �calque� for these words or expressions of foreign origin that have been translated literally with a possible lack of sense in the target language, as the economic anglicisms ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114 95 translated word is not used with the same sense value and in the same contexts. an example of this is the use of �posición,� from english �position� with the sense �puesto de trabajo.� we use the term �equivalent� for those words that, although translated directly, have the same sense value in the sl. the term �equivalent� is widely used in the framework of translation theories. in 1959, roman jakobson (considered by many authors the founder of the modern linguistic theory on translation with his article �on linguistic aspects of translation�) stated that translation involves two equivalent messages in two different languages (jakobson, 1959: 232-239). zuluaga (2001) describes the equivalence relations in which translation is based. equivalences are text units that do not always coincide with their language system correspondences, which are themselves system units. so, there are words that, although not corresponding to each other into their own language systems, do correspond after the process of translation and have the same sense value, as in the case of �nacional� for �domestic,� or �solicitar� for �to apply.� this equivalence relation is not unidirectional: translation is the equivalence of the original text, but not vice versa. at the same time, it is a relative concept, because equivalence is not absolute but partial. were it a relation of equality, every constitutive factor of text sense would not vary (lexemes with the same meaning and denotation), and translation would not be possible. zuloaga (2001: 1-3) resorts to the concept of similarity of application and explains it by quoting lyons, who explains this as follows: when items of different languages can be put into correspondence with one another on the basis of the identification of common features and situations in the cultures in which they operate we may say that the items have the same application. (lyons, 1977: 434) on the other hand, in the sixties nida (1964) had established the existence of formal equivalences, that is, those that look for correspondence in form and content, and dynamic equivalences, whose aim is to have the same effect on the reader. 3.3. periphrasis in most cases, when either there is no analogous or equivalent element to the one we want to translate in the mother tongue or our intention is to clarify its possible sense, the most habitual alternative is the use of an explicative or defining periphrasis. paloma lópez zurita ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-11496 dubois et al. (1992: 477) defines periphrasis as a rhetorical device that substitutes one term by a number of words, a locution, which defines and paraphrases it. this author also makes the distinction between grammatical periphrasis �those that respond to analytic trends of language� and poetic or stylistic periphrasis �those with which an author may substitute the simple designation of a notion by some words that express the main characteristics of that notion. this distinction is also held by lázaro carreter (1990: 319), who defines the grammatical periphrasis as one which derives from a lack of a single word to express a single concept. he also includes literary periphrases and the taboo periphrases. they usually appear in literary texts and, as this is not included in the scope of the present work, its appearance in the analysed corpus is irrelevant. 4. semantic relations the previous linguistic mechanisms usually bring about changes in semantic relations. the most common semantic relations are: 1. generalisation, widening or extension of the original meaning �where a hyperonym is used instead of the element to translate� 2. specialization, restriction or reduction of the original meaning through a hyponym, or 3. neither of the previous possibilities, in which case co-hyponyms could be considered as synonyms in english and spanish (taking into account the cross-cultural differences and without assuming if synonymy can be total and absolute in different languages or not). 5. glossary the corpus of terms and expressions analysed hereafter have been drawn from specialised books, written news, internet pages, etc., and also include those examples which reach us through mass media (tv, radio), conferences and expert colleagues� opinions about the topic, etc. (see appendix). they are situated within the scope of discourse linguistics, where the type of designation, connotation and sense relation the terms have are sometimes difficult to establish. here we include some of the numerous cases of anglicisms and linguistic interference in the economic field: economic anglicisms ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114 97 activity based costing: this specialised phraseological unit is often used as a sporadic borrowing, although the existence of the calque �costos/costeos basados en la actividad� has also been attested. it is also known as abc in economic forums. e.g.: las aplicaciones experimentales del abc (activity based costing) empezaron a mediados de la década del 80, y se procuraba calcular con mayor precisión los costos de los productos y de los servicios [...]. (salas, 2001) agenda: the original meaning of �agenda� in spanish is a diary. nevertheless, it is also used as an anglicism with the english meaning �orden del día� in business meetings. this usage has already been included into the d.r.a.e. as an incorporated borrowing from english. e.g.: se ha reservado para este día, 14 de julio a las 4pm, la sala de rediris [�] la agenda inicial será: 1. presentación del tema �collaboration @ work� (i. laso), 2. iniciativas grid en españa, 3. [...]. (irisgrid, 2004) antidumping: the origin of this well known anglicism is a united states law, passed in 1921. its common usage has caused the incorporation into the spanish language with the meaning of the action taken against the commercial practice of selling more cheaply than competitors to control the market. as an advanced borrowing, the spelling has been adapted to the spanish phonological system, with the falling of the final -g (antidumpin). the antonym �dumping� has undergone the same process. the periphrasis �rebaja desleal de precios� also exists but the borrowing tends to be the most habitual term used. e.g.: si una empresa exporta un producto a un precio inferior al que aplica normalmente en el mercado de su propio país, se dice que hace �dumping�. el acuerdo de la omc [�] establece disciplinas para las medidas antidumping [...]. (organización mundial del comercio, 2004) antitrust: in spite of having an equivalent in �antimonopolio,� �antitrust� has become so widespread that finally it has been incorporated into the spanish language. the antonym �trust� is also well known, used generally to refer to the group of firms which try to control a product on the market. e.g.: paloma lópez zurita ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-11498 economic anglicisms ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114 99 pocas personas en el ámbito antitrust han tenido un papel tan destacado como el juez richard a. posner, [...]. (cátedra fundación ico-nebrija de derecho y economía de la competencia, 2002) aplicar: �aplicar� is the direct calque of the english �to apply� when used with the meaning �solicitar un empleo/la entrada en una organización,� etc. the semantic relation of this word has also been modified in this translation, as the resulting term is a specialised hyponym. this neologism is redundant and could be avoided by substituting the appropriate equivalent �solicitar� or �tramitar.� although as yet its usage is not widespread in the iberian peninsula, it is very common in south america. e.g.: en u.s., el (curriculum vitae o c.v.) y la entrevista es el aspecto más crucial para obtener un trabajo, sin embargo también ayuda inmensamente a tu primer empleo la obtención de conocimiento [...], antes de empezar a aplicar. (vida americana, 2004) atachar: widely used in electronic correspondence, �atachar� is a phonologically adapted borrowing that also calques semantically the original �to attach� instead of the proper equivalents �unir, atar, sujetar, adjuntar,� etc. background: the semantic possibilities of �background� are so varied (including education, experience, capacity, skills, etc.), that translation sometimes becomes problematic. �bagaje� has an appropriate equivalence in spanish but it is clearly losing popularity in favour of the above borrowing. in spite of this, �background� continues to be redundant in general language. nevertheless, in specific contexts such as marketing its meaning has undergone a process of specialisation and functions as a hyponym referring to the additional information given about a product or service. e.g.: [�] inicialmente entramos en las agencias de publicidad, debido a que estas no solían contar con un departamento de rrhh que hiciera esta labor y a la alta movilidad de profesionales del sector. [...] además, con el background de florentino en marketing, también empezamos a cubrir esta otra área. (instituto de comercio electrónico y marketing directo, 2003) bancarización: not only in �bancarización� but also in �bancarizar� a clear calque of the english �banking� is observed. spanish language has a lexical vacuum to refer to the development of economic activities through a bank, or to the actions made by the bank to expand its client list. so in this case the use of the anglicism is justified as there is no equivalence but the translation of the periphrasis above. e.g.: las normas de bancarización exigen que todo pago de sumas de dinero a partir de s/. 5,000 ó usd 1,500 deba ser realizado utilizando determinados medios de pago. (superintendencia nacional de acción tributaria, 2004) brief: �brief � may be a verb and a noun in english but its usage as a sporadic borrowing in spanish adheres almost exclusively to the nominal function. again, it is a redundant neologism that coexists with its equivalent �informe.� in the scope of marketing it has been specialised in a hyponym that focuses on sales strategy. e.g.: el brief del producto, es la presentación del entorno y la estrategia de venta [�] tiene que ver mucho con las estrategias de marketing que se van a usar, la imagen del producto y sobre todo las características del mismo. (gestiopolis, 2004) broker: �agentes de bolsa� or �intermediarios financieros� are usually called �brokers� in spanish. although having appropriate semantic correspondents, this term continues to be a habitual sporadic borrowing. so far it has not been included in the drae (2004), although the spelling has been modified according to the spanish language, resulting in �bróker� and �broquer.� e.g.: esto lo podéis hacer ahora mismo con vuestro broquer, basta que os diga el precio de la opción el de la acción a la que optas y la fecha de su vencimiento. (plaza & alonso, 2003) businessman/businesswoman: these are common terms to refer to �empresario/a,� but the semantic calque of these words through periphrases as �hombre/mujer de negocios� is also a regular practice. in this case the three alternatives coexist, although from the point of view of the spanish language it would be preferable to use �empresario/-a.� e.g.: el imperio rockefeller supuso una referencia aleccionadora para su tiempo y para el management del siglo xx. sin embargo, nuestro businessman no parecía brillar en nada en su niñez. (enebral fernández, 2004) paloma lópez zurita ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114100 cash-flow: to refer to the �liquidez� or �efectivo� of a firm (elements that have a correct equivalence in spanish), it is frequent to turn to the semantic calque through periphrases like �flujo de caja, flujo de fondos, fondos generados, etc.� nevertheless the sporadic borrowing is increasingly catching on in economic forums. e.g.: el grupo krones consiguió un cashflow (recursos generados) de 100,2 millones de �, situándose con ello a un 6,1 % por encima del valor del año anterior (94,4 millones de euros). (krones grupo, 2004) commodity: there is no spanish word equivalent for �commodity� (except the periphrasis �productos o bienes de primera necesidad�) and no calque of the english word has been produced. for this reason it is directly used as a sporadic borrowing to refer to the meaning above and also to products used habitually and non-specialised services. at the same time the noun �comoditización� has also been recorded to express the similarity or generalization of products, as well as the verb �comoditizar,� although they are used almost exclusively in specialised context, as, for example, marketing. e.g.: a su juicio, las entidades deberán poner �énfasis� [...] en mejorar la eficiencia comercial, ofreciendo lo que demanda cada cliente y evitando �comoditizar� la relación con ellos. (caja madrid, 2004) corporación: originally �corporación� had a public sense in spanish. its meaning has been generalised and now functions as a hyperonym to refer to any private firm as well. it has undergone a clear process of contamination from the anglo-saxon �corporation.� examples of this change can be observed in �corporate card,� calqued as �tarjeta empresaria,� or in �corporate image� as �imagen corporativa� instead of �imagen institucional.� in summary, the calque has been produced in all these cases where �corporative� is considered a synonym of �empresario.� crack: the word �crack� is an incorporated borrowing and as such it has three different entries in the drae (2004): 1. drug derived from cocaine, 2. horse that stands out in a race, 3. high quality sportsman/woman. nevertheless, its economic sense is not included under this entry but under �crac.� this phonological adaptation reflects the advanced stage in its incorporation into spanish which �crac� has attained. as can be observed this process has taken place with the specific economic term and not with the general word, which still remains �crack.� to avoid redundancy �crac� economic anglicisms ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114 101 could be translated by the correspondent equivalent �quiebra� in some contexts while in others spanish language has to turn to the perifrasis �cadena de quiebras.� e.g.: a la luz de esta situación ya hay algunos economistas que piensan que el derrumbe bursátil puede convertirse en un crac, es decir, en una cadena de quiebras bursátiles. (altamira, 2005) crash: closely related to the previous term, �crash� is still considered a sporadic borrowing. the onomatopoeic sense refers metaphorically to a rapid and severe drop on the stock exchange. there are appropriate equivalents in spanish that would work better than the anglicism, as �quiebra� or �crisis.� e.g.: las arcaicas y obsoletas medidas anticrash vigentes en estados unidos han vuelto a conseguir evitar un crash [...] estas medidas actúan en cuatro fases. la primera entra en vigor cuando el dow jones cae 150 puntos [...]. (alonso, 2004) customizar: this sporadic borrowing has been adapted to the spanish spelling. �customizar� from english �to custom� has become a usual term to make reference to the adaptation of a service or product to the needs of its end-users. e.g.: �cómo �customizar� la información a la medida del usuario� (consultorio rrhh, 2005). the adjective �customizado� or the noun �customización� have also been attested. dafo: marketing experts use the acronym dafo (debilidades, amenazas, fortalezas, oportunidades) to refer to the strategic analytical tool that delimits the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a firm or product. it is a simple and direct calque of the english swot. e.g.: pienso que es la herramienta estratégica por excelencia, ya que en mi trayectoria docente y profesional he observado que es muy utilizada, aunque a veces de forma intuitiva y sin conocer su nombre técnico. el nombre lo adquiere de sus iniciales dafo. (muñiz gonzález, 2003) doméstico: increasingly �doméstico� is unusually collocated in spanish, for example, �vuelos domésticos,� �comercio doméstico,� �comunicaciones domésticas,� etc. these expressions do not have a real meaning, as �doméstico� refers exclusively to something of or relating to the home. in english it may involve the home or family, but it also may paloma lópez zurita ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114102 concern the internal affairs of a nation, or the production of a particular country. in this latter case the term �domestic,� should be translated as �nacional� or �interior.� the direct calque implies a hyperonymic process that includes new and foreign senses which do not correspond to its meaning in spanish. e.g.: [...] la segunda parte interrelaciona los cambios en los principales sectores productivos durante el siglo xix � con especial hincapié en la agricultura, la industria y el comercio doméstico e internacional. (de la torre & lana, 2004) establishment: in spanish �establishment� is now commonly used to make reference to the group of people who hold senior positions in a firm or any other organization. this has resulted in a specialization of the term through a hyponym. it is one of these fashionable words that seem to imbue the person who uses them with a cosmopolitan and modern touch. e.g.: el top 25 del establishment. (el mundo, 2004a) franchising: in spanish language �franchising� is used to mean �sistema de licencias o de cesión de uso de marca.� at the same time it coexists with �franquicia,� term that also maintains a semantic calque. the periphrasis used above has a limited usage, and �franquicia� has become the most frequently used term to refer to �licencia.� there are as well semantic calques in the borrowings �franquiciante� or �franquiciador� �from franchisor� and �franquiciado� �from franchisee. e.g.: el franchising es un sistema de distribución de productos y/o de servicios, según el cual una empresa [...] transmite a otro empresario independiente todos sus conocimientos específicos y experiencia sobre el negocio original, a cambio de un derecho inicial más un porcentaje de regalías mensuales [...]. (lópez, 2004) home-banking: this term is closely related to new technologies. spanish language has not created a satisfactory word to define the financial operations made from home by telephone or computer yet. there have been some attempts, such as �banca hogareña,� although it still has a very limited and unsatisfactory usage, being a mere calque from english. this financial activity from home has also produced a number of different calques depending on the action involved, resulting in �home-shopping,� �home-work-er,� etc. e.g.: economic anglicisms ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114 103 la aplicación de banca electrónica [...] ha sufrido una evolución continua siguiendo el mismo proceso de extensión del comercio electrónico y de internet, que ha desembocado finalmente en los actuales portales y bancos �on-line�, conviviendo con los primeros desarrollos de �home banking�. (fuyitsu, 2003) joint-venture: spanish language does not have any term equivalent to �joint-venture.� to refer to the company which has the capital of its members pooled in a common fund �broadly speaking� we must either turn to an explicative periphrasis or to the sporadic borrowing, whose usage is becoming more prevalent in economic fields. e.g.: el joint venture es un mecanismo de solución óptima para penetración a nuevos mercados, cuando no se cuenta con los recursos suficientes. (arias núñez, 2003) junk: the collocation of the english word �junk� (literally �basura� in spanish) has caused different calques in spanish which coexist with their corresponding sporadic borrowings: �junk bond� is calqued in �bono basura,� �junk mail� in �correo basura,� etc. e.g.: los mercados financieros también han generado mucho criticismo [...] hasta la sospecha de que los �bonos basura� (junk bonds) merecen ese nombre. (hicks, 2004) lease back: �lease back� is renting out or letting again of a product or service which has already been sold. although spanish has the equivalent �alquiler de retrocompra,� this alternative continues to be a semantic calque of english. in spite of this, the current and growing tendency is the usage of the sporadic borrowing. leasing: the difficulty of translating �leasing� into spanish, as there exists a lexical void in this language, has caused its incorporation into the language system with the definition �arrendamiento con opción a compra del objeto arrendado� (drae, 2004). because there is not an equivalent term, the only possible solution to avoid the borrowing would be the periphrasis. e.g.: sale and lease back es una modalidad de arrendamiento financiero, en el cual la empresa realiza una compra/venta y arrendamiento de sus propios activos; lo paga mediante cánones y al final del plazo los vuelve a adquirir ejerciendo la opción de compra en un valor simbólico (% del valor facturado al banco) [...] tipos de leasing [...]. (banco bilbao vizcaya argentaria, 2003) paloma lópez zurita ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114104 libor: this acronym refers to the inter-bank interest rate from london. it is the lexicalisation of �london inter bank offered rate.� it has not been translated into spanish (as has occurred with other acronyms such as dafo) because the english term is used in this specific banking context in almost every country. e.g.: los pagos que han de efectuarse [...] son las diferencias entre el libor a un año y el tipo de interés fijo al 6%. es evidente que el libor correspondiente al segundo y tercer año solo se conocerá al comienzo de cada uno de esos años. (ciberconta, 2004) lobby: the word �lobby� has two possible meanings in both english and spanish. it may mean either a large entrance/reception room or a group of people who actively try to influence legislation. although the etymologic stem comes from latin, the transference to spanish has taken place through english. thus, �lobby� is an incorporated anglicism that stands for the two previous senses in the equivalent word �vestíbulo� and the periphrasis �grupo de presión finaciera.� the usage of the nouns �lobista� and �lobying� has also been attested. e.g.: la ex ministra de asuntos exteriores, ana palacio, ha confirmado que el �lobby� que contrató el gobierno en washington �colaboró� con las gestiones de la embajada española en eeuu para �apoyar� la concesión de la medalla de oro del congreso de aquel país a aznar. (el mundo, 2004b) mail: the growing expansion of electronic mail together with the widespread practice of traditional mail with commercial aims, including not only letters but also leaflets, brochures, surveys, packages, etc. has caused the generalisation of its meaning in english through a hyperonymic process. it does not only mean the sacks of letters and packages transported by the postal service but also includes a wide range of commercial and marketing techniques. for this reason �mail� is a sporadic borrowing frequently used in spanish instead of the general equivalent �correo.� it is also used to create a number of collocations relating to this field, such as �mailing list,� �mailing card,� etc. e.g.: cuanto mayor sea la preparación de una campaña de marketing directo, mayor será la cuota de respuesta. de este modo, unos catálogos (extensos) alcanzan una cuota de respuesta que oscila entre un 5 y un 30%. unos mailings sencillos alcanzan cuotas que oscilan entre un 1 y un 3%. (marketing directo, 2005) economic anglicisms ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114 105 paloma lópez zurita ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114106 management: it is almost impossible to translate the term �management� into spanish as it includes concepts so varied as �gestión, administración, recursos humanos, dirección,� etc. (see also lópez zurita et al., 1999). for this reason it is a very usual sporadic borrowing in economic contexts. so far it has not been incorporated into the spanish language system but its widespread usage convinces us it will be included as an incorporated anglicism sooner or later. e.g.: el buen management, en definitiva, consiste primordialmente en mostrarle a la gente común cómo se puede convertir en gente excepcional. (cestau liz, 2003) marketing: the word �marketing� involves a series of strategies whose aim is to make a particular product a priority for consumers, in order to expand sales and the brand value. it is an incorporated borrowing widely prevalent either in specialised or in general contexts. it coexists with the equivalent �mercadotecnia,� although this spanish term is clearly losing popularity in favour of the borrowing �even the studies related to this area are named by the english word. this superiority in usage can also be observed in the consolidated existence of collocations such as �marketing mix.� this concept includes the so called marketing four ps � place, product, price and promotion, which are used in english instead of the equivalents �lugar, precio, producto y promoción.� the verb �marquetinear� or �marketinear,� adapted to the spanish spelling, also exists. its meaning includes all the activities related to the marketing of a product in a hyperonymic process. this usage could be avoided with the equivalent �comercializar.� merchandising: �merchandising� basically means the exchange of goods for an agreed sum of money, but it also refers to the techniques and methods used to promote those goods in the market, the decision making process to chose those techniques and methods, and even the very product or good by itself. this term has lot of different senses difficult to translate and is habitually used as an english borrowing. �comercialización� includes some of these senses, but experts prefer the foreign term. some periphrases and simple terms which adapt the meaning of �merchandising� to the context in which it is being used have been proposed, such as �actividades de compra-venta,� �promoción,� �mercadeo,� �dirección comercial,� �incentivación de ventas,� �promoción en el punto de ventas,� �artículos de propaganda para promocionar otro producto,� etc. economic anglicisms ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114 107 the use of �merchandiser� has also been attested. although frequently translated by �promotor comercial,� it is also preferred by experts, who consider its meaning to be wider and more effective than the spanish one. e.g.: la compra interna de productos de merchandising se realiza a través de la página web �solicitud de productos de merchandising� del servicio de comunicación y publicaciones de la uji. (universia, 2003) packaging: once again in the field of marketing, the borrowing �packaging� is used instead of the partial equivalents �envase,� �empaquetado� or �embalaje.� this anglicism is explained by the hyperonymic sense of the english term, whose meaning has been generalised including not only the place where the product is contained and protected, but also the kind of material which makes it easier to be handled, the process of design to attract customers, the place it should have on the shop shelves, and even the message issued on behalf of some products. all these specific meanings make �packaging� almost impossible to be translated into spanish, as all the attempts lack any or other of the previous sense values. thus, the usage of this term is justified because there is no way of defining the design, content, ways of promotion, etc. of a product but through �packaging.� e.g.: con una facturación anual de 9.000 millones de euros, la industria del packaging se ha convertido en uno de los sectores económicos más importantes de españa. (plast univers, 2004) posición: nowadays spanish language usually refers to the position within an enterprise by the word �posición,� instead of �empleo,� �puesto de trabajo,� or even �cargo.� this is a mere calque of the english �position� with this sense. it functions as a hyponym in specific contexts. e.g.: recuerde que todo cambio tiene implicaciones y que nuestro nivel de adaptabilidad o adaptación a dichos cambios van a determinar el éxito o fracaso en nuestra nueva posición laboral. (porfinempleo, 2005) posicionar: being a calque of the english �to position,� in the last few years �posicionar� has been used in spanish as a verb instead of the equivalents �colocar� or �ubicar.� at the same time, �posicionamiento� is being coined as a new word with a sense different to �posición� (see above). marketing experts use it to refer to the consolidation and establishment of a particular make, brand or product in the market. this is supposed to be the origin of the borrowing in spanish. nevertheless, �posicionar� or �posicionamiento� are generalising their meanings to refer also to a way of regarding situations or topics, to the relative position of things and people in a society or to a rationalized mental attitude towards a situation. e.g.: seguramente, para muchos, la palabra posicionamiento es ya bien conocida, pero también es probable que el significado real sea confuso: posicionamiento significa tomar o hacernos de un lugar. en publicidad y mercadotecnia significa hacernos los dueños de una posición en la mente del consumidor. (urdiain, 2000) prospecto: �prospecto� does exist in the spanish language system to refer to a short account or advertisement given to the public about a particular product in general (english �prospectus�). nevertheless, in the commercial or economic field it is being used as a semantic calque of english �prospective� (from the collocation �prospective client�) with the meaning �concerned with or related to the future.� so, the specific expressions �cliente futuro� or �cliente en potencia� are merely direct calques from english. this usage could be avoided by the equivalents �candidato,� �interesado,� or any other periphrasis. e.g.: uno de los errores más comunes de la gente de ventas es su impaciencia cuando el cliente prospecto es lento para entender su oferta o tomar una decisión. (milenium network, 2001) publicitar: once again in the field of marketing, the adapted borrowing �publicitar� is used as a semantic calque of �to publicise.� this term is still considered incorrect, and linguists advise the use of the equivalents �divulgar,� �promocionar,� �anunciar,� etc., and even the periphrasis �hacer publicidad,� instead. e.g.: dove busca un nuevo canon para publicitar la belleza femenina. (pérez, 2005) reportar: it is usual to read �reportar� in spanish job advertisements. this term is a semantic calque of one of the numerous english meanings of �to report� with the sense �depender de alguien� or �estar bajo las órdenes de alguien.� it is an incorporated borrowing, as it is admitted in spanish with the general sense of �informar.� at the same time, �reporte,� as a noun, is sometimes used instead of the paloma lópez zurita ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114108 economic anglicisms ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114 109 equivalents �informe� or �noticia� but this usage is still unusual, although, as in the previous cases, its expansion is a question of time. e.g.: reporting to the general manager he/she will be responsable of developing dealers network, maximise parts profitability ensuring excellent availability, etc. (el país, 1993) royalty: the etymologic origin of english �royalty� and the spanish equivalent �regalía� is the latin �regalis.� nevertheless, the spanish word now sounds obsolete in most contexts while the incorporated borrowing �royalty� is preferred, coexisting with other equivalents as �derecho,� �patente,� or �canon.� e.g.: el franquiciado o franquiciatario, está obligado a pagar un derecho de ingreso al sistema y además de un canon generalmente mensual, un «royalty» sobre las ventas. (abatí & roca, 2004) soft: the english adjective �soft� has caused a varied number of lexical collocations in spanish which have calqued the sense �delicate,� �lacking in hardness,� etc. with different results: the english expression �soft loan� is used to refer to low interest loans through the spanish calque �préstamo blando�; �soft currency� is also calqued as �moneda blanda,� etc. sometimes �soft� is used as a direct and sporadic borrowing. for example, the product range offered at a discount store (also calqued in spanish as �tienda de descuento�) is known directly as �soft discount.� in other cases, spanish language turns to the periphrasis to refer to this concept, as in �soft goods,� translated as �bienes de consumo� or �bienes perecederos.� e.g.: basta hojear la sección de información económica de cualquier periódico para toparnos, una y otra vez, con la incorrecta traducción literal del inglés �soft loan� como préstamo blando. (agencia efe, 2001) sponsor: although it is often used with its english spelling, �sponsor� has already been incorporated into the spanish language system with some adaptations, resulting in �espónsor.� spanish language purists advise the usage of the equivalent �patrocinador.� nevertheless, the meaning of �sponsor� is wider as it also includes other possible equivalents as �promotor,� �fiador� or �garante,� depending on the context. in addition, there exists the verb �esponsorizar� or even �sponsorear� and �esponsorear,� and the nouns �esponsorización,� �esponsoreo,� �sponsoreo.� the existence of different spellings shows a less consolidated usage of these words, still considered sporadic borrowings. staff: in spanish the word �staff � refers to the highest positions in a firm. although being a well known borrowing, its usage differs semantically from the english original. in english �staff � includes all the personnel in an organization or firm, whereas in spanish it usually only includes the senior posts (directors and executives). in some cases it does attach to its original meaning � as in the academic field, where �staff � does refer to the whole group of workers, teachers, administrators, etc. as an extension of this meaning, the noun �staffing� is also used in spanish as a sporadic borrowing which defines the process of recruiting new personnel as well as its administration and management. e.g.: staff. la redacción de el periódico. director: antonio [...]. (el periódico, 2005) stock: the term �stock� is used in spanish with two possible senses, either with the meaning �mercancías en depósito,� �existencias,� �reservas,� �surtido,� etc, in a broad commercial context, or as �acciones,� �bonos� and �títulos,� in stock market terminology. only the first of these two meanings has been attested in spanish dictionaries. so, both senses are in a different stage of incorporation. the second one is still considered a sporadic usage of the borrowing. due to the rapid expansion of this anglicism we think its final incorporation into the spanish language is again a question of time. swap: there is no equivalent to �swap� in spanish. for this reason it is used as a sporadic borrowing in specialised contexts. the only solution to avoid this foreign term would be to turn to explicative periphrases which make reference to the financial flow or interchange between two banks or firms to combat interest rate variability. in some cases spanish experts use the expression �permuta de flujo,� although most of them prefer the direct use of the borrowing. e.g.: las técnicas de intercambio que proporcionan las operaciones swap permiten a dos o más partes intercambiar el beneficio de las respectivas ventajas que cada una de ellas puede obtener sobre los diferentes mercados. (ministerio de industria, turismo y comercio, 2005) paloma lópez zurita ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114110 6. conclusions it is clear that the anglo-saxon economic supremacy together with its ever expanding market is also exporting an increasing number of linguistic terms into other languages. allied with its economic consequences, globalisation also impacts on a cultural level and the spanish language is no exception. language is a defining characteristic in the idiosyncrasy and identity of a country. for this reason we have preferred spanish equivalents to avoid excessive english borrowings whose usage implies redundancy, as they coexist with native terms. this happens in the case of �atachar, agenda, brief, cash-flow,� etc. on the other hand, in some cases the rapid growth of economic development makes borrowings necessary because there are no semantic equivalences in spanish, as in �bancarización, commodity, joint-venture, leasing, management, swap,� etc. within the economic scope, although anglicisms are attested almost in every field, it is marketing where they have the strongest influence. examples of this are �publicitar, merchandising, mailing, dafo, customizar,� etc. while this tendency is taking place in iberian peninsular spanish, its main effects are observed in south american spanish, where language contact brings about continuous interference. 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(2004). �liderazgo. rockefeller i y su tiempo.� temática. http://www.sht.com.ar/archivo/lideraz go/rockefeller.htm [09/11/04]. fuyitsu (2003). http://es.fujitsu.com /banca/belectronica.html [07/01/04]. gestiopolis (2004). �¿qué es un brief de producto y de qué elementos está compuesto?� http://www.gestiopolis.com/recursos /experto/catsexp/pagans/mar/no10/ briefde producto.htm [14/12/04]. hicks, s. 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(2005). �dove busca un canon para publicitar la belleza femenina.� cinco días. http://www .cincodias.es/articulo.html?xref=200 50125cdscdiemp_35&type=tes&an chor=cdssec plast univers. redacción (2004). �barcelona tendrá un centro tecnológico del envase y embalaje en el 2006.� http://www.plastunivers .com/tecnica/hemeroteca/articulo completo.asp?id=8272 [13/06/04]. plaza, j. m. & j. l. alonso (2003. �sobre los derivados.� bols@manía. la web de la bolsa y los mercados de valores. http://www.bolsamania .com/serviciosbolsamania/formacio nderivados1.php3 [04/12/03] porfinempleo (2005). �finalmente encontré trabajo� ¿tendré éxito?� porfinempleo. appendix (bibliographical material used for the glossary) paloma lópez zurita ibérica 10 [2005]: 91-114114 http://www.porfinempleo.com/news/ trabajo.jsp [14/02/04] salas, r. (2001). �gestión del abc.� winred. http://winred.com/ep/ar ticulos/negocios/a739.html [15/09/04] superintendencia nacional de acción tributaria (sunat) (2004). �medios de pago para evitar la evasión. la bancarización de la economía.� http//www.sunat.gob.pe /orientacion/bancarizacion/faq/banc arizacion.htm [10/10/04]. universia (2003). http://www.universia .es/contenidos/servicios/servicios_tie ndas.htm [02/02/05]. urdiain, r. (2000). �a posicionar tu empresa.� soy entrepeneur. http:// www.soyentrepeneur.com/pagina.ht s?n=11852 [13/09/03] vida americana (2004). �cómo encontrar un trabajo en américa.� http://www.vidaamericana.com/find ajob.shtml [22/11/04] 01 editorial.qxd technology-enhanced language learning for specialized domains. practical applications and mobility. elena martín-monje, izaskun elorza and blanca garcía riaza (eds). london & new york: routledge, 2016. 286 pages. isbn: 978-1-138-12043-3 (hbk). about a decade ago arnó macià, soler cervera and rueda ramos (2006) published a celebrated book on educational technology in the context of languages for specific purposes (lsp). it was the first time that a whole book was focused on the latest advancements in computer technologies and the ways they should be integrated in language teaching, learning and research. today, there is an increased interest in computers among teachers, researchers, translators and applied linguists; however, technology has evolved so fast and so significantly in the past decade that the issues raised by arnó macià, soler cervera and rueda ramos (2006) have been largely replaced by completely new concerns, new needs and new goals in the field (e.g. the use of educational apps). this book, thus, addresses the latest key topics in computer-mediated communication “like a kaleidoscopic snapshot of an erupting volcano”, in colpaert’s words (see foreword to the book), and offers exciting opportunities for using the latest technological applications in the teaching, learning and translation of foreign and specialized languages. editors and contributing authors are all experienced teachers, researchers and translators in computer-mediated communication. the volume has been developed as an outcome of the atlas research group (see also bárcena, read & arús, 2014; martín-monje & bárcena, 2015) and offers a rich and diverse set of topics across twenty chapters comprised in six main sections. the foreword by colpaert, and the editors’ introduction and afterword complete the main text of the book. part 1 examines general issues about learning languages with computers and includes four chapters. chapter 1 places the focus on digital literacies and how these portray a landscape that concerns both language teachers and students. pegrum classifies digital literacies into three broad areas and six sub-areas: language-related (which include multimodal and code literacies), informationreseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 273 related (which include information and data literacies), and connection-related (which include network and participation literacies). next is vinagre’s proposal to promote intercultural competence and the main outcomes from an 8-week international collaborative project participated by twenty students of british civilization and culture at a spanish university and ten students of spanish at a british university. the third chapter, authored by jiménezmuñoz, observes the need to carry out proper evidence-based research in the field of ict-enhanced language learning, which entails “a quantum leap” (page 42) in specialized domains. escobar presents a case study aiming to gauge the academic results of students involved in different tasks developed for an online course. her conclusions attest that “making the move to elearning requires learners to have explicit evidence along with online resources through a task-based methodology” (page 56). part 2 also comprises four chapters and is focused on technology-enhanced language assessment. fernández álvarez offers an overview of the capabilities afforded by the many different kinds of computerized assessment methods that are in use today: computer-based, computer adaptive and web-based testing methods. next beltrán-palanques reports the main outcomes of a study on synchronous computer-mediated communication involving twelve students in an english for psychology course in spain. this scholar highlights the usefulness of the tool for promoting interaction and collecting speech data across interactive events. quality assessment in the field of digital educational materials in higher education and the need to produce quality specialized digital academic materials are the issues explored by domínguez romero, de armas ranero and fernández-pampillón cesteros. to achieve this goal, they propose the “coda scoring rubric”, still under development at the time of writing and expected to be completed by the end of 2016. last, pareja-lora depicts “ontotag”, an architecture and methodology for the joint annotation of semantic web pages. based on a small corpus from the domain of cinema reviews, the different stages for text annotation are clearly illustrated and explained – i.e. distillation, tagging, standardization, decanting and merging phases. the three chapters that make up part 3 deal with mobile-assisted language learning. first, underwood focuses on the designs for mobile-assisted language learning (mall) that are appropriate for lsp courses in general. his main purpose is to explore the challenges and opportunities in delivering these mall designs as effective vocabulary learning tools. the teacher as reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278274 designer of mobile-based learning experiences is the object of the second chapter in this section authored by hockly. this study is, broadly speaking, “an attempt to create a practical framework for designing and implementing mobile-based communicative tasks in the language classroom” (page 143). to close this section, read, bárcena and kukulskahulme illustrate the value of mobile-assisted language massive open online courses (malmoocs) and how they take advantage of the mobility factor to offer richer learning scenarios or greater opportunities for peer interaction and communication. part 4 focuses on language massive open online courses (moocs) and contains three chapters. sokolik observes that the challenges faced by academic writing in moocs environments are significant and lists five of them: “content delivery”, “discussion forums”, “assessment tools”, “plagiarism and translation tools” and “attrition”. also, she identifies the rewards brought about in this same environment and their benefits to both students and researchers alike. rubio, fuchs and dixon also address the challenges of the massive online format but they use this analysis to offer practical recommendations to course designers. a relevant issue raised in this chapter is how to hold students accountable for their exchanges and their learning experiences in the moocs. last, martín-monje and ventura focus on specialized vocabulary through social learning in language moocs and the ways to enhance its teaching and learning. after describing their own experience with “professional english”, the first mooc in spain in the field of lsp, authors arrive at the conclusion that “social learning can be enhanced when attaching a social network such as facebook to these online courses” (page 197). the common thread of the three chapters contained in part 5 is the application of corpus-based approaches to specialized linguistic domains. in the first chapter, berber sardinha presents the two perspectives (i.e. the “phraseology-centered” and the “register-centered” perspectives) for performing a corpus-based analysis with the final aim of preparing activities for lsp teaching. these perspectives are complementary and inter-related, one feeding off the other. in the second chapter, carranza díez reports the compilation, transcription and annotation of a non-native speech corpus with the double aim of serving as “a linguistic resource for empirical studies on l2 pronunciation acquisition and as a database of the development of capt [computer-assisted pronunciation training] software” (page 225). to conclude this section, sánchez ramos and vigier reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278 275 moreno turn to public service interpreting and translation settings to show their work for the compilation of an ad hoc virtual corpus that can be very useful as a resource for legal translation training. the three last chapters are contained in part 6 and concerned with computer-assisted translation tools for language learning. first, fernández-parra explores the possibilities of computer-assisted translation tools in the learning of specialized languages, outlines their main features and illustrates ways to enhance the development of language skills. second, bermúdez bausela discusses the use of corpus analysis tools in the translation of specialized texts in english. in particular, this chapter illustrates the work with lexical and grammatical patterns through the retrieval of concordances, clusters or collocates, and, most importantly, how to choose the textual conventions that may be regarded as most acceptable by the target community. third, ibáñez-moreno and vermeulen present visp, “a mobile app that has been conceived within the framework of mall for the promotion of oral production skills” (page 268). visp is short for “videos for speaking” and aims at becoming a widely used mallbased app across language learning settings. technology-enhanced language learning for specialized domains is a thoughtful compilation which provides readers with the latest knowledge on computermediated language teaching, learning and translation in specialized settings. it is comprehensive and well-balanced between theory and practice. i am certain that the variety of topics that are covered, the state-of-the-art chapters, the description of education studies, the compilation and practical implementation of research cases, and the presentation of emerging computer-based tools will awaken the interest of in-service teachers, researchers, in-service translators, translator trainers and doctoral students not only within the field of lsp and higher education settings, but also among those dealing with foreign languages at any education level. moreover, this book will be of interest to a global audience because the technologies addressed are developing rapidly as education tools in many countries and are common to many educational systems and professional practices around the world. received 10 february 2017 accepted 14 february 2017 reviewed by ana bocanegra-valle universidad de cádiz (spain) ana.bocanegra@uca.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278276 references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 33 (2017): 261-278 277 arnó, e., a. soler & c. rueda (eds.) (2006). information technology in languages for specific purposes. issues and prospects. new york: springer. bárcena, e., t. read & j. arús (eds.) (2014). languages for specific purposes in the digital era. new york: springer. martín-monje, e. & e. bárcena (eds.) (2015). language moocs. providing learning, trascending boundaries. london/new york: de gruyter open. 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper is a qualitative and quantitative corpus-based study analysing the correlation of clusivity, tense, and modality patterns in ted (technology, entertainment, design) talks, which are popularising speeches aiming at knowledge dissemination among laypersons. using a corpus composed of the ted talks presented in 2012, the study investigates the ways in which ted speakers use first-person plural and singular pronouns when interacting with their audiences. the patterns of clusivity used in the corpus confirm one of the main characteristics of ted talks, that is to say, the abolition of the ‘scientistmediator-audience’ triangulation, typical of canonical popularising genres. the inclusive pronouns used in the corpus construct positive politeness, making the audience feel part of the knowledge-spreading experience. the analysis also reveals how ted talks are actually an ‘innovative’ means of popularisation, in which there is no longer a distinction between ‘i’, the speaker, and ‘you’, the audience. ‘i’ and ‘you’ become ‘we’, in a common project which invites the audience to take on specific attitudes and behaviours and concretely participate in changes. keywords: ted talks, clusivity, popularisation, scientist-audience interaction, discourse analysis resumen m od e l os d e i nc l us ió n e n l a s c h ar l as d e t e d: c ua nd o ‘ tú ’ a nd ‘ yo ’ s e c on v ie r te n e n ‘ no s ot ro s ’ este artículo presenta un estudio cualitativo y cuantitativo que analiza la correlación de patrones lingüísticos de inclusión, tiempos verbales, y modalidad en un corpus de charlas ted (technology, entertainment, design), que son ejemplos de discursos de popularización que buscan diseminar el conocimiento patterns of clusivity in ted talks: when ‘you’ and ‘i’ become ‘we’ giuseppina scotto di carlo università degli studi di napoli ‘l’orientale’ (italy) gscottodicarlo@unior.it 119 ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 giuseppina scotto di carlo entre los no expertos. utilizando un corpus de charlas ted presentadas en 2012, este studio investiga el modo en que los conferenciantes de ted usan la primera persona del plural y los pronombres en singular en la interacción con su audiencia. los patrones de incusión lingüística usados en el corpus confirman una de las características principales de las charlas ted, la eliminación de la triangulación ‘científico-mediador-audiencia’, típica de los géneros tradicionales de popularización. los pronombres inclusivos usados en el corpus construyen la cortesía positiva, haciendo que la audiencia se sienta parte de la experiencia de diseminación del conocimiento. el análisis también muestra cómo las charlas ted talks son en realidad un método ‘innovador’ de popularización, en el cual ya no se establece una distinción entre ‘yo’, el hablante, y ‘tú’, la audiencia. ‘yo’ and ‘tú’ se convierte en ‘nosotros’, en un proyecto común que invita a la audiencia a adopter actitudes y comportamientos específicos y más concretamente a participar en los cambios. palabras clave: charlas ted, patrones lingüísticos de inclusión, popularización, interacción científico-audiencia, análisis del discurso 1. introduction and aims this paper is a qualitative and quantitative corpus-based study analysing the use of the personal pronouns ‘we’ and ‘i’ in the popularising genre of ted talks. popularisation “[...] is a social process consisting of a large class of discursive-semiotic practices […] aiming to communicate lay versions of scientific knowledge […]” (calsamiglia and van dijk, 2004, p.371).traditionally, research on popularising texts has concentrated on a ‘canonical view’ of popularisation (grundmann and cavaillé, 2000), according to which science is built on a hermetic language that needs to be ‘translated’ from the science world to a popularised context, where the audience is seen as an ignorant mass on which the scientific community has the power to decide what has to be known and what does not. in gotti’s (2014: 19) words, popularisation was mainly viewed as a “reformulation”: […] that is, a kind of redrafting that does not alter the disciplinary content – object of the transaction – as much as its language, which needs to be remodelled to suit a new target audience. in the process, information is transferred linguistically in a way similar to periphrasis or to intralinguistic translation. during the last decades, studies on professional-lay interaction have focused more on mass media, which have become the main channel through which 120 popularisation is diffused (tsou et al., 2014; berkenkotter, 2012). the media constitute a triangular communication space, a ‘meeting point’ between scientists, the public, and text producers (berruecos, 2000). the latter are mediators, usually journalists, who master an original technical/scientific language and ‘translate’ a scientific discourse into everyday language. recently, the science/popularised discourse dichotomy has been further questioned and new approaches have taken the concept of popularisation from ‘translation’ or ‘transposition’ to a perspective of re-contextualisation of scientific content depending on the context (calsamiglia and lópez, 2003: 141). as gotti (2014: 23) explains, […] in this approach, the journalist carries out a creative reelaboration which implies more than mere terminological adjustments and involves all linguistic levels from the structure of the new text to its communicative function, from a change in register to a consideration of the public’s prior knowledge of the subject matter. moreover, the final text is dependent on the extremely hierarchical internal organisation of the media, as each news item is usually subjected to revision at different levels. according to this new approach, popularisation is thus not just seen as a category of texts, but as a recontextualisation process that implies relevant changes in the roles taken on by the actors and institutions involved, and their degree of authoritativeness. it is against this backdrop of popularisation as recontextualisation that this study positions itself, considering ted talks not as reformulations, but as a process involving texts, contexts, and knowledge of all the actors involved. this perspective is in line with new forms of popularisation, which seem to be tending towards a more audience-participatory concept of popularisation, directly involving the audience as an active part of knowledge formation (calsamiglia and van dijk, 2004, caliendo, 2012, bamford, 2014, bondi, 2014, compagnone, 2015). ted is a non-profit organisation involved in knowledge dissemination, or as its motto recites, in ‘ideas worth spreading’1. it started off in 1984 as a conference devoted to the dissemination of technology, entertainment, and design (hence ted), and in 2006 it began to host the videos of its conferences online, eventually becoming a new popularising web-based genre. its website and youtube channel (ted, n.d.) have extended its audience to a potentially worldwide level. as vincent (2015: xiii) remarks: patterns of clusivity in ted talks ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 121 ted has stirred up everyone’s thirst for knowledge and it makes ideas freely available on the internet taking the ted talks from the privileged and elitist scenario of the main conference venues to the online reality, and in doing so, they created an innovative platform that can propel ideas forward. these channels allow experts1 to disseminate knowledge to a lay audience outside their disciplinary communities, at two levels: to the group of participants attending the ted conference and to web-users. ted’s short (not more than twenty minutes) popularising videos are provided with a transcription, a translation into several languages, a blog, and a comment area, which have given rise to a phenomenon of genre and modality mixture. caliendo (2012: 101) gives a very useful insight into the nature of the hybridity of ted: their discursive hybridity stems from the fact that they are similar to newspaper articles that they prioritize results rather than methods (bamford, 2012). not dissimilarly from university lecturers, ted talks are planned speech events during which speakers often employ multimedia resources such as visuals, music or filmed extracts. like conference presentations, ted talks have a limited time slot, which cannot exceed eighteen minutes. unlike other spoken dissemination genres such as public lectures, ted presenters display a certain degree of informality and colloquialism in their delivery. the innovative element of ted in the spectrum of popularising genres is that these talks breach the typical ‘scientist-mediator-audience’ triangulation (berruecos, 2000, scotto di carlo, 2014 and 2015), by bringing experts directly into contact with their audience. unlike traditional popularising contexts, ted talks do not involve a third person who “translates” (mortureux, 1986: 73) specialised terminology, syntax, and ideas into lexicon and syntax understood and used by non-experts. in ted talks, it is typically the speaker that interacts directly with the audience. this direct contact requires experts to be able to communicate with their audience and especially with non-experts (cf. calsamiglia and van dijk, 2004). as suggested by marshall (2012), in order to deliver an engaging talk, speakers must analyse their audience to understand their knowledge background and interests, and adapt content to them. above all, presentations should be dynamic and try to transmit enthusiasm, passion, and sense of belongingness. as a matter of fact, sense of inclusion is fundamental for the success of ted talks. as baumeister et al. (2005: 28) point out: giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144122 after primary needs such as food and shelter are satisfied, the need to belong is among the strongest of human motivations. in fact, human social life relies to a great extent on a network of diverse relationships we form with others as a means of seeking and maintaining both belongingness and inclusion. for these reasons, special attention must be paid to the linguistic features expressing a sense of in-groupness or out-groupness, such as stance, pathos, humour, lexical patterns, etc., as mentioned in other studies on linguistic patterns in ted talks (cf. caliendo and bongo, 2012; caliendo and compagnone, 2013; scotto di carlo, 2014a and b). these features can make the audience feel either part of the community or excluded from it. from a linguistic viewpoint, one of the most significant linguistic strategies required in the interaction between experts and the ted talks audience is clusivity, which will be discussed in this work, in line with other studies, such as those by vincent (2015), rasulo (2015), and d’avanzo (2015). according to these authors, unlike other forms of popularisation, ted talks express this sense of clusivity through inclusive linguistic patterns, such as the inclusive ‘we’ form. the paper is structured as follows: a first section will focus on the function of referentiality in the first-person plural pronouns used throughout the corpus dividing them into the distinct patterns of inclusive and exclusive plural, and inclusive and exclusive dual ‘we’ forms (cf. scheibman, 2004). the aim is to understand whether these talks are actually audience-oriented or if there is a predominance of exclusive ‘we’ forms, emphasising the experts’/speakers’ position. a second section will further analyse the occurrences of the we form depending on whether they are used in combination with present, past, or future tense and with the english central modals (can, cannot, could, could not, might, might not, must, shall, should, should not, would, and would not). the aim is to understand if the we forms are mainly used by the speakers to talk about past events in which the audience is not involved, to introduce events occurring during the speech, or to discuss about future plans involving the audience. finally, the study will focus on a comparative analysis between the uses of the plural personal pronoun we and the singular personal pronoun ‘i’, to highlight their different distribution in the five groups of the corpus. the aim of this section is to understand whether there is a predominance of one of the pronouns in a group and the reasons for such distributional variation. the ‘i’/’we’ ratio distribution would reveal which groups focus more on the creation of a sense of similarity and patterns of clusivity in ted talks ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 123 belongingness among the audience and which are more focused on personally reporting the results of their studies, explaining their personal contribution to a research. the overall aim of the work is thus to understand how ted speakers use patterns of pronouns conveying inclusiveness as a linguistic strategy, to interact with the audience and breach the expert/non-expert ‘barrier’, to build their image as experts, and to attempt to persuade lay audiences to take on specific attitudes and behaviours. in the light of the above, using the criteria of referentiality, modality, and tense to investigate the linguistic patterns featuring the pronoun ‘we’, the paper will enquire upon the mechanisms behind the conceptual representation of clusivity in ted talks. the study would like to contribute to the analysis of ted talks as one of the recent modalities in which science is being spirited away from the privileged and elitist conference venues to the online reality, thereby creating an innovative forum that supports the development of new ideas. in other words, the study looks into how ted speakers use the capacity of discourse to create a participatory relationship between the scientist and the beneficiary of scientific information, to express judgments and to encourage the audience to take up positions. 2. theoretical framework and corpus this section describes the theoretical framework of the study, as well as the ad hoc corpus on which the qualitative and quantitative analysis of this work have been based. 2.1. theoretical framework the theoretical framework of the study draws upon scheibman’s (2004) theories on clusivity, a concept that indicates various aspects of inclusion and exclusion that are cognitively construed and linguistically encoded in discourse and conveyed through personal pronouns. in the analysis that follows, particular emphasis is placed on the use of the pronoun we, which is quite problematic in that, as pennycook (1994: 175) points out, “[it] is always […] a pronoun of solidarity and of rejection, of inclusion and exclusion”. specifically, the paper will present a threefold analysis based on scheibman’s methodology of coding conversational utterances, according to which personal pronouns can be classified for a variety of structural and giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144124 functional features depending on referentiality and number (exclusive/inclusive and dual/plural), tense (present, past, future), and modality. scheibman distinguishes five values used to code the personal pronoun ‘we’: inclusive dual, inclusive plural, exclusive dual, exclusive plural, and generic, as summarised in table 1 below: as can be seen in table 1 above, the inclusive dual pattern refers to the speaker and one addressee (‘i’ + you singular); the exclusive dual refers to the speaker and another person not directly addressed (‘i’ + s/he/it); the inclusive plural pattern includes the speaker and more than one addressee (‘i’ + you plural); and the exclusive plural refers to the speaker and more than one person (‘i’ + they). the study will analyse how ted speakers use linguistic categories as a rhetorical strategy, to construct their relationship with their audiences, in the attempt of persuading lay audiences to accept what is being said, and perhaps modify their mindsets and behaviours pertaining to the issue presented during the talk. in order to do so, the work will be grounded on hyland’s (2010: 117) concept of ‘proximity’: i use the term proximity here to refer to a writer’s control of rhetorical features which display both authority as an expert and a personal position towards issues in an unfolding text. it involves responding to the context of the text, particularly the readers who form part of that context, textually constructing both the writer and the reader as people with similar understandings and goals. in other words, proximity consists of linguistic features which reveal the speaker’s conception of the audience and the types of appeal used to patterns of clusivity in ted talks ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 125 giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): …-… scheibman!s 2004 taxonomy of “we” patterns, based on the value of referentiality type context example inclusive dual speaker addressing a friend in the conversation we better go up to dillards. inclusive plural five family members celebrating one of their birthdays together we gotta get a picture. exclusive dual one member of a couple referring to herself and her partner, speaking to a dinner guest we read this great book. exclusive plural speaker referring to herself and her classmates at the school where she is studying to be a farrier we have to put ointment on ‘em and stuff. generic2 generic contextwe take our air for granted. table 1. scheibman’s (2004: 383) taxonomy of ‘we’ patterns of referentiality. as can be seen in table 1 above, the inclusive dual pattern refers to the speaker and one addressee (‘i’ + you singular); the exclusive dual refers to the speaker and another person not directly addressed (‘i’ + s/he/it); the inclusive plural pattern includes the speaker and more than one addressee (‘i’ + you plural); and the exclusive plural refers to the speaker and more than one person (‘i’ + they). the study will analyse how ted speakers use linguistic categories as a rhetorical strategy, to construct their relationship with their audiences, in the attempt of persuading lay audiences to accept what is being said, and perhaps modify their mindsets and behaviours pertaining to the issue presented during the talk. in order to do so, the work will be grounded on hyland’s (2010: 117) concept of ‘proximity’: i use the term proximity here to refer to a writer’s control of rhetorical features which display both authority as an expert and a personal position towards issues in an unfolding text. it involves responding to the context of the text, particularly the readers who form part of that context, textually constructing both the writer and the reader as people with similar understandings and goals. in other words, proximity consists of linguistic features which reveal the speaker’s conception of the audience and the types of appeal used to persuade and engage with a specific audience (crismore, 1989). in expert to non-expert communication, the speaker’s perspective typically dominates over the discourse space, creating a separation between him/her and the audience, which is pragmatically evident in the speaker’s utterances. however, in ted talks, the original prospective may be occasionally shifted so that it becomes a shared ingroup point of view, in an attempt to establish a bond with the potential audience. this is mainly conveyed through the use of inclusive ‘we’ forms, rather than with the first-person singular ‘i’ or with exclusive ‘we’ forms. inclusive pronouns construct audience involvement, making the listeners feel persuade and engage with a specific audience (crismore, 1989). in expert to non-expert communication, the speaker’s perspective typically dominates over the discourse space, creating a separation between him/her and the audience, which is pragmatically evident in the speaker’s utterances. however, in ted talks, the original prospective may be occasionally shifted so that it becomes a shared in-group point of view, in an attempt to establish a bond with the potential audience. this is mainly conveyed through the use of inclusive ‘we’ forms, rather than with the first-person singular ‘i’ or with exclusive ‘we’ forms. inclusive pronouns construct audience involvement, making the listeners feel part of what is being said, as the speaker transmits the message that ‘you and i are alike’. finally, since the paper focuses on the interdiscursive nature of ted as a hybrid genre, its theoretical framework also draws on discourse analysis studies and genre theory (bhatia 2004, 2007, and 2012), which consider ted as a new pragmatic framework wherein “professional writers [and speakers] use the language to achieve the objectives of their professions” (bhatia, 2012: 24), in a genre in which informational and promotional aims overlap, building up the experts’ identities and promoting their research – besides informing lay audiences (compagnone, 2015). 2.2. corpus this theoretical background, which emphasises the strong correlation between linguistic and extralinguistic aspects involved in discourse analysis, has been particularly useful for the analysis of the ted corpus under examination. after a qualitative scrutiny of the corpus, the transcriptions of ted talks presented in english in 20123 were collected as an electronic corpus (hereinafter ted2012) of 154,390 tokens. it must be said that this selection is actually drawn from a major corpus of 1,386 ted talks, elaborated for a research project of the department of modern philology of the federico ii university of naples (italy)4. as the talks have been delivered by different types of experts (doctors, politicians, literary men and women, artists, etc.), the corpus used for this work has been classified into five macro areas, on the basis of an archive available on the ted website5: arts and design, business, education and culture, politics and global issues, and science and technology, as can be seen in table 2 below. giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144126 the quantitative analysis will mainly rely on the use of antconc, a concordancer developed by laurence anthony (waseda university of japan6). considering the nature of the information sought, automated interrogations will be supplemented with manually retrieved data and qualitative analysis. 3. results and analyisis 3.1. inclusive and exclusive ‘we’ forms in “ted2012” table 3 displays the distribution of inclusive and exclusive ‘we’ forms in the corpus. patterns of clusivity in ted talks ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 127 patterns of clusivity ibérica 35 (2018): …-… part of what is being said, as the speaker transmits the message that ‘you and i are alike’. finally, since the paper focuses on the interdiscursive nature of ted as a hybrid genre, its theoretical framework also draws on discourse analysis studies and genre theory (bhatia 2004, 2007, and 2012), which consider ted as a new pragmatic framework wherein “professional writers [and speakers] use the language to achieve the objectives of their professions” (bhatia, 2012: 24), in a genre in which informational and promotional aims overlap, building up the experts’ identities and promoting their research – besides informing lay audiences (compagnone, 2015). 2.2. corpus this theoretical background, which emphasises the strong correlation between linguistic and extralinguistic aspects involved in discourse analysis, has been particularly useful for the analysis of the ted corpus under examination. after a qualitative scrutiny of the corpus, the transcriptions of ted talks presented in english in 20123 were collected as an electronic corpus (hereinafter ted2012) of 154,390 tokens. it must be said that this selection is actually drawn from a major corpus of 1,386 ted talks, elaborated for a research project of the department of modern philology of the federico ii university of naples (italy)4. as the talks have been delivered by different types of experts (doctors, politicians, literary men and women, artists, etc.), the corpus used for this work has been classified into five macro areas, on the basis of an archive available on the ted website5: arts and design, business, education and culture, politics and global issues, and science and technology, as can be seen in table 2 below. ted2012 corpus field abbreviation ted talks tokens arts and design (ar/ds) 18 28,089 business (bs) 6 9535 education and culture (ed/cl) 17 34,240 politics and global issues (pol/gl) 13 31,518 science and technology (sc/tc) 30 51,008 total 84 154,390 table 2. corpus of ted talks 2012. the quantitative analysis will mainly rely on the use of antconc, a concordancer developed by laurence anthony (waseda university of japan6). considering the giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): …-… nature of the information sought, automated interrogations will be supplemented with manually retrieved data and qualitative analysis. 3. results and analyisis 3.1. inclusive and exclusive "we! forms in “ted2012” table 3 displays the distribution of inclusive and exclusive ‘we’ forms in the corpus. table 3: occurrences of inclusive and exclusive ‘we’ forms in ted2012. as can be seen in table 3 above, the contrastive analysis between the occurrences of inclusive and exclusive ‘we’ forms has revealed that the majority (57.90%) of the first-person plural utterances in the ted corpus express inclusivity (‘i’ + you plural). this pattern serves the function of assuming shared knowledge, goals, beliefs, etc., including both the speaker and the entire ted audience, as can be seen in the examples provided below: 1. shame is an epidemic in our culture. and to get out from underneath it, to find our way back to each other, we have to understand how it affects us and giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): …-… nature of the information sought, automated interrogations will be supplemented with manually retrieved data and qualitative analysis. 3. results and analyisis 3.1. inclusive and exclusive "we! forms in “ted2012” table 3 displays the distribution of inclusive and exclusive ‘we’ forms in the corpus. inclusive and exclusive ‘we’ forms in ted2012 field plural inclusive (n. tokens) plural exclusive dual exclusive arts and design 134 147 21 business 48 82 4 education and culture 362 138 6 politics and global issues 279 222 3 science and technology 498 321 13 total (tokens) 1321 910 447 total (percentage) 57,90% 39,09% 22,06% table 3: occurrences of inclusive and exclusive ‘we’ forms in ted2012. as can be seen in table 3 above, the contrastive analysis between the occurrences of inclusive and exclusive ‘we’ forms has revealed that the majority (57.90%) of the first-person plural utterances in the ted corpus express inclusivity (‘i’ + you plural). this pattern serves the function of assuming shared knowledge, goals, beliefs, etc., including both the speaker and the entire ted audience, as can be seen in the examples provided below: 1. shame is an epidemic in our culture. and to get out from underneath it, to find our way back to each other, we have to understand how it affects us and as can be seen in table 3 above, the contrastive analysis between the occurrences of inclusive and exclusive ‘we’ forms has revealed that the majority (57.90%) of the first-person plural utterances in the ted corpus express inclusivity (‘i’ + you plural). this pattern serves the function of assuming shared knowledge, goals, beliefs, etc., including both the speaker and the entire ted audience, as can be seen in the examples provided below: 1. shame is an epidemic in our culture. and to get out from underneath it, to find our way back to each other, we have to understand how it affects us and how it affects the way we’re parenting, the way we’re working, the way we’re looking at each other. (brené brown: listening to shame-march 2012) 2. we overestimate our longevity, our career prospects. in short, we’re more optimistic than realistic, but we are oblivious to the fact. take marriage for example. in the western world, divorce rates are about 40 percent. that means that out of five married couples, two will end up splitting their assets. but when you ask newlyweds about their own likelihood of divorce, they estimate it at zero percent. (tali sharot: the optimism biasfebruary 2012) the use of the inclusive ‘we’ in ted talks evokes a sense of commonality between the speakers and their audience. this pattern constructs positive politeness, making the audience feel involved in what is said, addressing them as peers rather than apprentices. this aspect highlights one of the main differences between ted talks and canonical academic conferences, which are characterised by a high frequency of the first-person singular pronoun ‘i’, due to the major communicative purpose of presenting the speakers’ own research claims and findings (caliendo and compagnone, 2014). from a rhetorical point of view, the “intimate” tone (wales, 1996) and the sense of involvement of ted talks tend to make the audience more receptive to the speaker’s claims. in fact, inclusive ‘we’ forms actually help the speaker capture the audience’s attention, trying to ensure that they feel part of a “joint enterprise” (quirk et al., 1985: 350). this strategic pattern allows speakers to introduce ideas and hypotheses, expecting the community to endorse them. paraphrasing hyland’s (2001: 560) metaphor, while the talk “is a shared journey of exploration for both the speaker and the audience, it is always the speaker who is leading the expedition”, in the attempt of convincing the audience on the ideas that are conveyed through the talk. giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144128 exclusive ‘we’ forms (‘i’ + they) rank second in frequency (39.90%) among the various semantic references of the first-person plural ‘we’. this pattern conveys the idea that the speaker refers to him/herself and other referents that are not part of the audience; for instance in: 3. so we see a lot of this. when we have a workshop or when we have clients in to work with us side by side, eventually we get to the point in the process that’s fuzzy or unconventional. […]  when we track them down and ask them what’s going on, they say something like, “i’m just not the creative type”. but we know that’s not true. (david kelley: how to build your creative confidence-march 2012) 4. we’re gathering thousands of interactions per student per class, billions of interactions altogether, and now we can start analysing that, and when we learn from that, do experimentations that’s when the real revolution will come. and you’ll be able to see the results from a new generation of amazing students. (lisa kristine: photos that bear witness to modern slaveryjanuary 2012) similar to what happens in academic contexts, the exclusive ‘we’ form is used in ted talks with a “representation-of-group function” (rounds, 1987; caliendo and compagnone, 2014). the pronoun allows the speakers to signal their belonging to an academic or research community, so as to build their image as experts. it is interesting to note that the majority of exclusive ‘we’ forms are distributed among the sub-group of science and technology talks, and they perform the discourse function of explaining research processes. in this sub-group, exclusive ‘we’ is used to propose theories or approaches, state a goal, show results or findings, conveying the speakers’ commitment and personal contributions to their field of research. a limited percentage (2.06%) of we forms can be coded as dual exclusive (‘i’ + s/he/it). this means that the speaker talks about him/herself and another referent, which is not part of the audience, as in: 5. and i said, “let me ask you something”. and she said, “yeah”. and i said, “do you remember when we were in college and really wild and kind of dumb”? and she said, “yeah”. and i said, “remember when we’d leave a really bad message on our ex-boyfriend’s answering machine? then we’d have to break into his dorm room and then erase the tape?” and she goes, “uh... no”. (brené brown: listening to shamemarch 2012) patterns of clusivity in ted talks ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 129 6. in nature’s great events, a series for the bbc that i did with david attenborough, we wanted to do just that. images of grizzly bears are pretty familiar. you see them all the time, you think. but there’s a whole side to their lives that we hardly ever see and had never been filmed. so what we did, we went to alaska (karen bass: unseen footage, untamed nature-may 2012 ) this form is included in ted talks to give credit to contributors who had been personally involved in a research or in a life experience with the speaker, but were not attending the conference. table 3 does not include dual inclusives (‘i’ + you singular), as there were no occurrences in the corpus. this is because the speaker does not address a single individual, but the audience as a whole. thus, summarising the results illustrated in table 3 on the first-person plural ‘we’ in terms of referentiality, it can be said that the major use of inclusive ‘we’ instead of exclusive ‘we’ forms confirms ted talks’ characteristic of creating a direct contact between the speaker and the audience. inclusive ‘we’ personalises the text, helping the speaker construct a bond with the audience. it breaches the barrier between experts and audience that is usually perceived in ‘canonical’ popularising genres. 3.2. “we + present, past, and future tense” patterns with reference to the second section of the analysis, the rhetorical strategy of using inclusive ‘we’ patterns as a means to create a connection between the speaker and the audience has been further confirmed by the analysis of the tenses and modal verbs used in conjunction with inclusive/exclusive ‘we’ forms. the occurrences of the first-person plural were further analysed on the basis of their combination with present, past, and future tense, as can be seen in table 4, to verify the existence of a predominant pattern of inclusive/exclusive ‘we’ forms in combination with a specific verb tense. giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144130 in almost half of the instances (42.05%), the present tense is used in inclusive ‘we’ forms, for example: 7. we’re born problem solvers. we’re compelled to deduce and to deduct, because that’s what we do in real life. it’s this well-organised absence of information that draws us in. there’s a reason that we’re all attracted to an infant or a puppy. (andrew stanton: the clues to a great story-february 2012) 8. we’re, in a sense, failing to act in the future. we’re purposefully, consciously being laggards. we’re lagging behind. frantz fanon, who was a psychiatrist from martinique, said, “each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, and fulfil or betray it.” what is our mission? what do we have to do? i think our mission is to reconcile, to reintegrate science and the arts, because right now there’s a schism that exists in popular culture. you know, people have this idea that science and the arts are really separate. we think of them as separate and different things, and this idea was probably introduced centuries ago, but it’s really becoming critical now, because we’re making decisions about our society every day that, if we keep thinking that the arts are separate from the sciences, and we keep thinking it’s cute to say, “i don’t understand anything about this one, i don’t understand anything about the other one,” then we’re going to have problems. (mae jemison: teaching arts and sciences together-february 2002) the reason for such a pattern could be that, in these cases, inclusive ‘we’ is used as a rhetorical strategy to highlight the sense of inclusiveness and similarity between the speaker and the audience as the talk takes place, in order to convince them about the speaker’s claims. specifically, the high incidence of inclusive ‘we’ with present tense is used to indicate universal patterns of clusivity in ted talks ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 131 patterns of clusivity ibérica 35 (2018): …-… speaker and the audience has been further confirmed by the analysis of the tenses and modal verbs used in conjunction with inclusive/exclusive ‘we’ forms. the occurrences of the first-person plural were further analysed on the basis of their combination with present, past, and future tense, as can be seen in table 4, to verify the existence of a predominant pattern of inclusive/exclusive ‘we’ forms in combination with a specific verb tense. patterns of ‘we’ + present, past, and future tense tense inclusive ‘we’ % ( n= 1132) exclusive ‘we’ % (n= 809) dual exclusive % ( n= 43) present 42,50% 15,30% 0,80% past 5,09% 19, 07% 0,90% future 2,19% 1,14% 0,10% table 4: patterns of !we’ + present, past, and future tense. in almost half of the instances (42.05%), the present tense is used in inclusive ‘we’ forms, for example: 7. we’re born problem solvers. we’re compelled to deduce and to deduct, because that’s what we do in real life. it’s this well-organised absence of information that draws us in. there’s a reason that we’re all attracted to an infant or a puppy. (andrew stanton: the clues to a great story-february 2012) 8. we’re, in a sense, failing to act in the future. we’re purposefully, consciously being laggards. we’re lagging behind. frantz fanon, who was a psychiatrist from martinique, said, “each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, and fulfil or betray it.” what is our mission? what do we have to do? i think our mission is to reconcile, to reintegrate science and the arts, because right now there's a schism that exists in popular culture. you know, people have this idea that science and the arts are really separate. we think of them as separate and different things, and this idea was probably introduced centuries ago, but it’s really becoming critical now, because we're making decisions about our society every day that, if we keep thinking that the arts are separate from the sciences, and we keep thinking it's cute to say, “i don't understand anything about this one, i don't understand anything about the other one,” then we’re going to have problems. (mae jemison: teaching arts and sciences together-february 2002) the reason for such a pattern could be that, in these cases, inclusive ‘we’ is used as a rhetorical strategy to highlight the sense of inclusiveness and similarity human qualities (example 7) or shared experiences, as in example 8. as the passage refers to the mission of each generation of people, the inclusive ‘we’ could be interpreted to refer to the fact that both the speaker and his/her listeners belong to the same present generation. with reference to the “we + future tense” pattern, 2.19% of future tenses introduced by ‘we’ subjects express an inclusive meaning: 9. i believe that, despite the fact that it is so dramatic and so beautiful and so inspiring and so stimulating, we will ultimately not be judged by our technology, we won’t be judged by our design, we won’t be judged by our intellect and reason. (raghava kk: what’s your 200-year plan?april 2012) 10. we need mathematicians to come in and simulate this, to do monte carlo things to understand how these tools combine and work together. of course we need drug companies to give us their expertise. we need rich-world governments to be very generous in providing aid for these things. and so as these elements come together, i’m quite optimistic that we will be able to eradicate malaria. (bill gates: mosquitos, malaria and education-february 2009) the reason for such a pattern may be found in the proactive purpose of ted talks, which encourage the audience to make changes in everyday life, spreading the ideas presented during the ted conferences. while the “we + present tense” pattern creates a common ground between the speaker and the audience, the “we + present tense” pattern tries to persuade the audience to take on specific attitudes and behaviours. it is used as a rhetorical strategy to make the audience feel part of a common project of changes that would be beneficial to the whole community. with reference to the ‘we + past tense’ pattern, 19.07% of all past tense predicates present exclusive ‘we’ subjects, compared to only 5.09% of inclusives; for instance in: 11. in our earliest days at pixar, before we truly understood the invisible workings of story, we were simply a group of guys just going on our gut, going on our instincts. you’ve got to remember that in this time of year, 1993, what was considered a successful animated picture was “the little mermaid”, “beauty and the beast”, “aladdin”, “lion king”. (andrew stanton: the clues to a great story-march 2012) 12. i wanted to fix this. i got a friend of mine, an engineer, and three other giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144132 doctors -abhishek joined the teamand we wanted to solve this problem. (myshkin ingawale: a blood test without bleeding-february 2012) the higher frequency of exclusive predicates occurrence in the past tense over that of inclusive predicates suggests that this structure participates less in interpersonal negotiations and more in direct assertion than inclusive clauses do. when using exclusive ‘we’ forms, speakers typically refer to an institutional group such as a university affiliation or a place of employment, and so, the main function of exclusive ‘we’ forms in ted talks is to recount and summarise research or life experiences that the speaker wants to recount and share with the audience. this aspect is further confirmed through the analysis of the patterns we in combination with modal auxiliary verbs in section 3.3. 3.3. “we + modal verbs” patterns table 5 below summarises the distributional properties of utterances with modals in the corpus. patterns of clusivity in ted talks ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 133 giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): …-… distributional properties of "we’ + modal auxiliary verbs modals inclusive ‘we’ % (n=186) exclusive ‘we’ % (n=101) dual exclusive ‘we’ % (n=4) total % (n=291) can 31,20% 20,20% 0,30% 51,80 % cannot 5,10% 2,40% 0% 7,50% could 10,90% 1,70% 0,30% 13,05% could not 0,30% 1,70% 0% 2,06% might 1,0% 0,30% 0% 1,30% might not 0% 0% 0% 0%% must 0,60% 0,30% 0% 1,0% must not 0% 0% 0% 0% shall 1,0% 0% 0% 1,0% should 5,40% 0,30% 0,30% 6,10% should not 0% 0% 0% 0% would 3,40% 7,20% 0,30% 12,02% table 5: distributional properties of !we’ + modal auxiliary verbs. the most frequent modals in the corpus are can (51.08%), could (13.05%), and would (12.02%). similarly to the patterns ‘we + present’, ‘we + past’, or ‘we + future’, the percentage of utterances containing central modals is more numerous for inclusive tokens (63.90%) than for exclusive uses (34.70%). only 1.30% of modal verb forms are used in dual exclusive patterns. some examples of the main modal patterns ‘we + can’, ‘we + could’, and ‘we + would’ are provided below. (i) inclusive ‘we + can’: 13. but somehow we can insulate ourselves from this problem. it’s not our problem. it’s not our burden. it’s not our struggle. (bryan stevenson: w e need to talk about an injustice-march 2012) (ii) exclusive ‘we + can’: 14. we’re americans, we can’t just stand there, we have to do something. we can compute that during the game. and we can use that to sort of carve up the behaviour. (ivan oransky: are we over-medicalized?april 2012) (iii) dual exclusive ‘we + can’: 15. “mommy, can we come back tomorrow?” (david kelley: how to build your creative confidence-march 2012) (iv) inclusive ‘we + could’: 16. what if we could make energy do our work without working our giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144134 giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): …-… would 3,40% 7,20% 0,30% 12,02% would not 0% 0% 0% 0% may not 0% 0% 0% 0% may 5,40% 0,30% 0% 3,70% ought to 1,0% 0% 0% 1,0% total 63,90% 34,70% 1,30% 291 table 5: distributional properties of !we’ + modal auxiliary verbs. undoing? could we have fuel without fear? could we reinvent fire? (amory lovins: a 40-year plan for energy-march 2012) (v) exclusive ‘we + could’: 17. and we could not find 25 girls in high school. all of these girls went to the gold mine, and they were predominantly prostitutes doing other things. (leymah gbowee: unlock the intelligence, passion, greatness of girlsmarch 2012) (vi) dual exclusive ‘we + could’: 18. i was giving some lectures in germany about the death penalty. it was fascinating because one of the scholars stood up after the presentation and said, “we don’t have the death penalty in germany. and of course, we could never have the death penalty in germany”. (bryan stevenson: we need to talk about an injustice-march 2012).7 (vii) inclusive ‘we + would’: 19. without the optimism bias, we would all be slightly depressed. people with mild depression, they don’t have a bias when they look into the future. they’re actually more realistic than healthy individuals. (tali sharot: the optimism bias-february 2012) (viii)exclusive ‘we + would’: 20. but now we would like you to put joey through some paces. and plant. thank you. and now just… all the way from sunny california we have zem joaquin who’s going to ride the horse for us. (handspring puppet co.: the genius puppetry behind war horse-march 2011) (ix) exclusive dual ‘we + would’: 21. we would have calibrated the difficulty level of the puzzles to your expertise. (baba shiv: sometimes it’s good to give up the driver’s seat-may 2012) there is also another aspect that can explain the predominance of inclusive ‘we’ forms in conjunction with modal auxiliary verbs. predicates with modal auxiliaries in inclusive utterances highlight the speaker’s stance or commitment towards a proposition. for instance: patterns of clusivity in ted talks ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 135 22. and when it comes to leadership, introverts are routinely passed over for leadership positions, even though introverts tend to be very careful, much less likely to take outsize risks, which is something we might all favor nowadays. an interesting research by adam grant at the wharton school has found that introverted leaders often deliver better outcomes than extroverts do, because when they are managing proactive employees, they’re much more likely to let those employees run with their ideas. (susan cain: the power of introverts-february 2012) 23. we’re going to devote enormous social resources to punishing the people who commit those crimes, and that’s appropriate, because we should punish people who do bad things. but three of those crimes are preventable. but three of those crimes are preventable. if we make the picture bigger and devote our attention to the earlier chapters, then we’re never going to write the first sentence that begins the death penalty story. thank you. (david r. dow: lessons from death row inmates-february 2012) the properties of these first-person plural patterns demonstrate that when ted speakers use inclusive ‘we’, they are sensitive to the interpersonal stakes involved in negotiating consensus for their assertions in the same ways that motivate them to mediate assertions towards addressees by using inclusive ‘we’ forms. on the opposite, the fact that exclusive predicates are less likely to include modal elements than their inclusive counterparts suggests that these structures participate less in interpersonal negotiations (avraamidou and osborne, 2009; dahlstrom, 2014). thus, it can be said that these talks tend to involve the audience, breaching the typical barrier that could be perceived between the scientific community and the audience. this is evidenced by the use of inclusive ‘we’ more than exclusive forms, and further by the use of present tense used in combination with inclusive ‘we’ forms, to stress the shared background between the speaker and the audience. moreover, the use of future tense invites the audience to become actually part of change, through concrete participation. these patterns seem to be used as a rhetorical strategy to make the audience feel part of a common project of changes involving the whole community. to further analyse the interaction between the audience and ted speakers, the next section will focus on a contrastive analysis between the uses of the first-person plural pronoun we and the first singular person ‘i’ in the 2012 corpus. the aim is to understand how ted speakers further negotiate their role as experts during ted talks. giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144136 3.4. first-person singular ‘i’ patterns for a contrastive analysis between the patterns of first-person singular and plural, the corpus was scrutinised in order to distinguish the occurrences of ‘we’ and ‘i’, dividing them on the basis of the five groups which constitute the corpus: arts and design, business, culture and education, global issues and politics, and sciences and technology, as reported in table 6 below. comparing the total number of occurrences of ‘i’ and ‘we’, it can be seen that the latter is the prevalent pronoun, with 2,278 we forms vs. 1,253 i forms, with a ratio of 1.81. the first-person singular ‘i’ is used to either address the audience and to speak about the speaker’s position as an expert, as can be seen in the examples (examples 24-26) below. 24. so my name is taylor wilson. i am 17 years old and i am a nuclear physicist, which may be a little hard to believe, but i am. and i would like to make the case that nuclear fusion will be that point, that the bridge that t. boone pickens talked about will get us to. so nuclear fusion is our energy future. and the second point, making the case that kids can really change the world. (taylor wilson: yup, i built a nuclear fusion reactor-march 2012) patterns of clusivity in ted talks ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 137 patterns of clusivity ibérica 35 (2018): …-… person plural pronoun we and the first singular person ‘i’ in the 2012 corpus. the aim is to understand how ted speakers further negotiate their role as experts during ted talks. 3.4. first-person singular ‘i’ patterns for a contrastive analysis between the patterns of first-person singular and plural, the corpus was scrutinised in order to distinguish the occurrences of ‘we’ and ‘i’, dividing them on the basis of the five groups which constitute the corpus: arts and design, business, culture and education, global issues and politics, and sciences and technology, as reported in table 6 below. patterns of ‘we’ and ‘i’ ted 2012 fields of expertise inclusive ‘we’ % (n=1321) exclusive ‘we’ % (n=910) exclusive dual % (n=47) total ‘we’ % (n=2278) !i" % (n=1253) arts and design 10,10% 16,10% 44,60% 13,20% 18,1% business 3,60% 9,0% 8,50% 5,80% 6,50% culture and education 27,40% 15,10% 12,70% 22,20% 22,30% global and politics 21,10% 24,30% 6,30% 9,80% 19,80% science and technology 34,90% 33,07% 7,60% 34,06% 32,6% table 6: occurrences of ‘we’ and ‘i’ forms. comparing the total number of occurrences of ‘i’ and ‘we’, it can be seen that the latter is the prevalent pronoun, with 2,278 we forms vs. 1,253 i forms, with a ratio of 1.81. the first-person singular ‘i’ is used to either address the audience and to speak about the speaker’s position as an expert, as can be seen in the examples (examples 24-26) below. 24. so my name is taylor wilson. i am 17 years old and i am a nuclear physicist, which may be a little hard to believe, but i am. and i would like to make the case that nuclear fusion will be that point, that the bridge that t. boone pickens talked about will get us to. so nuclear fusion is our energy 25. i don’t know if you know albert bandura. but if you go to wikipedia, it says that he’s the fourth most important psychologist in history like freud, skinner, somebody and bandura. and so i went to see him because he has just worked on phobias for a long time, which i’m very interested in. he had developed this way, this kind of methodology, that ended up curing people in a very short amount of time. in four hours he had a huge cure rate of people who had phobias (david kelley: how to build your creative confidence-march 2012) 26. when i was nine years old i went off to summer camp for the first time. and my mother packed me a suitcase full of books, which to me seemed like a perfectly natural thing to do. because in my family, reading was the primary group activity. and this might sound antisocial to you, but for us it was really just a different way of being social. (susan cain: the power of introverts-february 2012) the comparison of the use of ‘i’ and ‘we’ in the five groups reveals that ‘i’ is used more in the group of science and technology. it must be said that this group includes the highest number of talks (35.70% of ted2012). however, the major use of the first-person singular pronoun in this group can also be explained contextually by the fact that this is the only group in which scientists directly report the results of their studies, explaining their personal contribution to a research. this is the case of taylor williams, quoted in example 24, who discusses his discoveries as a nuclear physicist, or david kelley’s collaboration with albert bandura on phobias, quoted in example 25 above. the science and technology sub-group also includes the highest rank of exclusive ‘we’ forms (33.07%), which is correlated to the recounting of personal research. 4. conclusions this study has analysed the patterns of clusivity in ted talks, specifically the way in which ted speakers use first-person plural and singular pronouns to negotiate their role as experts and interact with their audience. the analysis makes a contribution to further advancement of knowledge in the field of the popularising genre of ted talks, in which the canonical scientist-mediator-audience triangulation is no longer a pattern, nor are the scientific terminology, syntax, or lexicon ‘translated’ any longer by a mediator to the lay audience. instead, the speaker’s ability to engage the audience directly, via a dynamic, often passionate register, creates a feeling of belongingness and inclusion which acts as a strong motivator for the public. overall, these speaker discourse specifics are part of the strategic creation of giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144138 a channel through which a recontextualisation of the scientific ideas occurs and which contributes, alongside the speaker’s register, to the creation of an audience-participatory concept. through the analysis of the linguistic patterns of inclusiveness/ exclusiveness used in the corpus, it has been noticed that these audienceoriented talks do not concentrate on the speakers’ identity and reputation, but on the relationship that the experts have with the content of the talk and on how they are personally involved in the topic of the speech. from a quantitative viewpoint, the analysis has revealed a majority of inclusive we forms (57.90%). this result highlights the main characteristic of ted talks, for which inclusive pronouns are used to construct audience involvement, breaching the barrier between experts and audience that is usually perceived in ‘canonical’ popularising genres. this sense of similarity and belongingness was further confirmed by the analysis of the tenses used with inclusive/exclusive ‘we’ forms. 42.50% of present tense is used in inclusive ‘we’ patterns. this tense is used with inclusive ‘we’ forms to stress what the speaker and the audience share as human conditions and experiences.19,07% of all past tense predicates present exclusive subjects. the majority of past tense occurrences with exclusive we forms are used to tell stories or recount events that have happened in the speakers’ lives, which necessarily do not involve the audience directly. finally, 2.19% of future tenses are used in inclusive occurrences. the use of the future tense with inclusive occurrences is used to encourage the audience to make changes in everyday life, spreading the ideas presented during the ted conferences. similarly to the present and future patterns, the percentage of utterances containing central modals is more numerous with inclusive tokens of ‘we’ (63.90%). finally, the analysis of the ‘i’/’we’ ratio confirmed the preponderance of inclusive ‘we’ forms in the corpus, with 2,275 we forms against 1,253 ‘i’ forms. the group of science and technology included the major use of the first-person singular pronoun, as ‘i’ is necessary to report the results of personal studies and experiments. therefore, it can be said that the overall use of the patterns ‘i’ and ‘we’ have confirmed the main characteristic of ted talks, that is to say, the abolition of the typical ‘scientist-mediator-audience’ triangulation. inclusive pronouns construct positive politeness, making the audience feel included, while the speaker seems to be acting on behalf of the audience as a kind of spokesperson, elaborating an argument with which the community concurs. patterns of clusivity in ted talks ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 139 overall, while canonical scientific texts and presentations institutionalise the results of research experiences, in ted talks the speakers clearly humanise their intellectual experience. of course, a general analysis like this does not allow drawing completely exhaustive and generalisable conclusions, especially for a complex genre like ted. in fact, the effect of the inclusive ‘we’ might not always be used to address the audience as peers of the expert, but to address them as part of humanity and to present them with knowledge which is assumed to apply universally, including the speaker and the audience. moreover, it would be interesting to analyse the use of clusivity depending on the type of experts involved (e.g. politicians certainly use a higher frequency of inclusive ‘we’ forms than teachers). in this sense, further study is still needed, to further confirm whether the inclusive pronoun phenomenon is a prerogative of some groups or if it significantly occurs even in groups where it is generally less expected. however, in a world in which formal cultural institutions no longer detain the centrality and monopoly of knowledge dissemination, the success of popularised genres depends on how experts contribute to the way in which the audience approaches science not as something distant and separate, but as a heritage belonging to the whole community. through ted, experts contribute to the ‘humanisation’ of knowledge, establishing an interpersonal proximity with the audience, which feels part of the knowledge dissemination. therefore, ted talks can be considered an innovative means of popularisation, which position themselves within the approaches considering popularisation as not ‘ancillary’ to the elite of technical/specialised texts (hilgartner, 1990). they are rather a process taking place along “[...] an expository continuum [...]” between genres (cloître and shinn, 1985: 58). this new perspective is starting a process of convergence, which is taking popularisation from the concepts of ‘vulgarisation’, ‘debasement’, ‘translation’, or ‘transposition’ to a perspective on recontextualisation of scientific content depending on the context (calsamiglia and lópez, 2003: 141). ted talks thus view science dissemination as no longer having a sharp distinction between ‘i’, the speaker, and ‘you’, the audience. ‘i’ and ‘you’ become ‘we’, in a common project, in compliance with ted’s mission of 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(2012). ted talk. teaching arts and sciences together. url: http://www.ted.com/ talks/mae_jemison_on_teaching_arts_and_scienc es_together [25/06/16] ingawale, m. (2012). ted talk. a blood test without bleeding. url: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ryeqt0godse [25/06/16] kelley, d. (2012). ted talk. how to build your creative confidence. url: http://www.ted.com/ talks/david_kelley_how_to_build_your_creative_c onfidence [25/06/16] kristine, l. (2012). ted talk. photos that bear witness to modern slavery. url: http://www.ted. com/talks/lisa_kristine_glimpses_of_modern_day _slavery [25/06/16] lovins, a. (2012). ted talk. a 40-year plan for energy. url: http://www.ted.com/talks/amory_ lovins_a_50_year_plan_for_energy?language=it [25/06/16] marshall, m. (2012). ted talk. talk nerdy to me. url: http://www.ted.com/talks/melissa_marshall _talk_nerdy_to_me.html [25/06/16] oransky, i. (2012). ted talk. are we overmedicalized? url: http://www.ted.com/talks/ivan_ oransky_are_we_over_medicalized [25/06/16] raghava, kk. (2012).ted talk. what’s your 200year plan? url: https://www.ted.com/talks/ raghava_kk_what_s_your_200_year_plan [25/06/16] giuseppina scotto di carlo holds a phd in english for special purposes (esp) from the university of naples federico ii and teaches legal english at the university of naples ‘suor orsola benincasa’, school of law. among her works, vagueness as a political strategy: weasel words in security council resolutions relating to the second gulf war (cambridge scholars publishing 2013), diachronic and synchronic aspects of legal english: past, present, and possible future of legal english (cambridge scholars publishing 2015), and “the role of proximity in online popularizations: the case of ted talks” (discourse studies, 2014). notes 1 the term ‘experts’ used throughout this paper should be understood as specialists belonging to the professional categories of academics, entrepreneurs, employees in companies and consultants, politicians, artists, literary writers and lay people (both vips and ordinary people), as described in the corpus section. the categories are grouped as follows: arts and design, business, education and culture, politics and global issues, and science and technology. 2 these very generic usages will not be analyzed in this study. 3 all the transcripts of the excerpts used in this paper are available in their full version at www.tedtalks.com. 4 the project is headed by professors g. bongo, g. caliendo, and m. rasulo. the data discussed in this paper is part of the results obtained as a contributor to the research project, as the author has been asked to focus on the talks held in 2012. 5https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0askzpc8gybmtcgphbflilthbszhmzkrhnm8yyl lswgc&hl=e%20%20n#gid=0 (last accessed: june 2016) 6 antconc is retrieved from http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/antconc_index.html. its features include word and keyword frequency generators, concordance distribution plots, and tools for clusters, n-grams, and collocates analysis. patterns of clusivity in ted talks ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144 143 sharot, t. (2012). ted talk. the optimism bias. url: http://www.ted.com/talks/tali_sharot_the_ optimism_bias?language=it [25/06/16] shiv, b. (2012). ted talk. sometimes it’s good to giveup the driver’s seat. url: https://www. ted.com/talks/baba_shiv_sometimes_it_s_good_t o_give_up_the_driver_s_seat [25/06/16] stanton, a. (2012). ted talk. the clues to a great story. url: https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_ stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story [25/06/16] stevenson, b. (2012). ted talk. we need to talk about an injustice. url: http://www.ted.com/talks/ bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_inj ustice [25/06/16] ted, ideas worth spreading. url: http://www. ted.com [25/06/16] ted, youtube channel. url: https://www. youtube.com/user/tedtalksdirector [25/06/16] wilson, t. (2012). ted talk. yup, i built a nuclear fusion reactor. url: https://www.ted.com/talks/ taylor_wilson_yup_i_built_a_nuclear_fusion_react or [25/06/16] 7 this example has a dual function, as its generalised ‘we’ could be interpreted as referring to ‘people in germany’ where the speaker presents himself as a member of the group attending the conference. however, it can also be seen as having an exclusive role in the opposition ‘germany’/ rest of the audience/world. giuseppina scotto di carlo ibérica 35 (2018): 119-144144 maquetación 1 ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract metaphor is a cognitive tool that helps create intimacy (bowles & katz, 2015). lately, big data methods have enabled text analysis on a large scale, especially relevant for investigating language use on the internet. although several text mining techniques have been used before, the use of big data allows the development of new text analysis methods, especially those capable of sentiment analysis and lemmatization. this paper explores recent changes in cross-cultural communication with regard to metaphor use and its function in communication on the internet, specifically about mobile phone use. big data methods were employed to search for selected phrases in cross-cultural communication, and a list of commonly used metaphors was made. big data technologies used in the survey permitted the identification of the phrases and collocations employed by internet users. text mining methods were used, including extraction of the information from unstructured data sources. the survey addressed the users of social media and mobile phone technology forums. they were profiled regarding their country and language, limiting the detailed analysis to english and polish examples. results show the growing scale of the creation of new metaphors in cross-cultural communication, and the importance of the cognitive functions of metaphor in a culturally and linguistically diverse environment. keywords: metaphor, social cognition, cross-cultural communication, discourse processing, information technologies. resumen c om uni c a c ió n c o n me tá f or as : a ná l i si s in te rc u l tu ra l d e f or os te c n ol ó g i c os la metáfora es una herramienta cognitiva que favorece la creación de intimidad (bowles & katz, 2015). últimamente, los métodos de big data han permitido el communicating with metaphors: a cross-cultural analysis of technology forums dorota sylwia majewicz and jacek maślankowski university of gdańsk (poland) dorota.majewicz@ug.edu.pl & jacek.maslankowski@ug.edu.pl 43 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 43 ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski análisis de textos a gran escala, especialmente relevantes al investigar el uso de la lengua en internet. aunque diversas técnicas de minería de datos se habían utilizado previamente, las fuentes de big data permiten desarrollar nuevos métodos de análisis de textos, especialmente aquellos capaces de analizar sentimientos y lematizar. este artículo examina los cambios recientes en la comunicación intercultural relativos al uso de metáforas y su función para establecer un ambiente cordial en internet entre los que debaten sobre el uso de teléfonos móviles. en este artículo, se emplearon métodos de big data para buscar expresiones usadas en la comunicación intercultural y se creó una lista de metáforas de uso común. las tecnologías de big data permitieron identificar la cantidad de expresiones y colocaciones léxicas empleadas por los usuarios de internet. se utilizaron métodos de minería de datos incluso para la extracción de información proveniente de fuentes de datos sin estructurar. la encuesta fue dirigida a usuarios de las redes sociales y foros de telefonía móvil. el perfil de los usuarios se hizo en base al país e idioma y el análisis detallado se limitó a los casos ingleses y polacos. los resultados del análisis muestran la escalada de la creación de metáforas en la comunicación intercultural y la importancia de las funciones cognitivas de las metáforas en un ambiente cultural y lingüísticamente heterogéneo. palabras clave: metáfora, cognición social, comunicación intercultural, procesamiento del discurso, tecnologías de la información. 1. introduction and theoretical framework analysis the concept of metaphor has been broadly used in both scholarly and scientific discourse, since metaphors reflect ideas and concepts, while they additionally reveal thought models for language users (lakoff & johnson, 1980). the constant development of information and computer technology (ict) has had a huge impact on people’s communication and on the formation of new metaphors to describe those changes (colvin & bullock, 2014). metaphors, in fact, define the way people perceive, think, act, and, what is more, the way they learn (tait-mccutcheon & drake, 2016). the aim of this paper is to analyse metaphor use among students in order to show the relevance of their awareness when using conceptual metaphors in the mobile phone era. a secondary goal is to explore the importance of conceptual beliefs about the nature of technology via metaphor analysis. despite the large body of research into different types of metaphor, not to mention the variety of classifications provided, there still appears to be a necessity for further research, especially in developing areas, such as is/it, 44 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 44 with respect to different types of approach, such as project approach (cornelissen, oswick, christensen & philips, 2008). however, little is yet known about how language users elicit new types or classifications of metaphors (jackson, 2016). therefore, this paper investigates both the metaphors produced by language users and the level of comprehension of the metaphors used among participants of mobile phone forums. despite the broad literature and the many studies highlighting the metaphors present in everyday life, an unambiguous list of such metaphors in different fields of our lives has not yet been proposed, although a number of researchers have attempted to do so. the implementation of conceptual metaphors offers the possibility to describe and provide linguistic representation to help structure abstract concepts and show a variety of ways in which the world can be understood (turner, 1987; gibbs, 1994; kövecses, 2005). some of the most commonly used metaphors are those related to the broad field of technology. for example, there are several fields of research related to technological metaphors, such as photography (mykytka, 2016). other uses of metaphors may refer to the process of technological innovation, such as revolutionary or calm technology (lindh & nolin, 2017), which, in some cases, can be referred to as falling within the category of threats, e.g., virus (koc, 2013), or metaphor community, which can be classified within the area of the study of virtuality (jackson, 2016). more detailed metaphors may relate to specific devices, such as pda – personal digital assistant – which use the metaphor of a day planner (yanga, hana & park, 2010), or may refer to the internet as a medium (firat & yurdakul, 2012; tanasescu, 2009). furthermore, members of the younger generation are called “digital natives”, as they use new technologies in their everyday life (smith, 2013), where technological metaphors have been classified as those perceived in several different dimensions, i.e., people, living organisms, machines or lifestyle (papadoudi, 2010). we can also find publications on the categorization of technological metaphors that are included as the foundation layer of cla –causal layered analysis (carbonella, sánchez-esguevillas & carro, 2016). technology leads to the creation of metaphors of code, which include the following examples: machine, organism, brain, flux and transformation, culture, political system, psychic prison, instrument of domination and carnival (dufva & dufva, 2016). the examples of the current literature just mentioned show that although technological metaphors are not a new phenomenon, there are still a lot of new contributions that may be added to this research area. this article suggests a shift from the broadly researched communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 45 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 45 theoretical approach to metaphor to one that discusses the utility of metaphor as an analytic tool (denny & sunderland, 2005). therefore, in this piece of research, technological metaphors have been referred to as “utility metaphors” (lindh, 2016). an efficient way of comprehending metaphor is to understand it as source domain and target domain, that is, “understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (lakoff & johnson, 1980: 5). the source represents the original concept used to reason about the target, whereas the target is the new domain of experience one wants to deal with. in this respect, cuadrado and durán (2013) proposed a hierarchy of metaphorical terms based on the distance between the categories of the source and the target domains, in which the source domain categories come from the human world, and the target from science and technology. according to the authors, the distance, which appeared very high in most of the analysed cases, “can constitute a parameter to be taken into account when evaluating the level of metaphoricity of these terms” (2013: 1-14). furthermore, the increasing role of metaphors at a regional level has also been investigated in numerous publications regarding particular countries’ specific semantics (shu, 2015; shuk-ling & foong ha yap, 2015; su, tian & chen, 2016; yingli, rezanova & shilyaev, 2015; nguyen, 2016; salahshour, 2016). concerning metaphor, a teacher’s belief system influences the effect of technology integration upon his or her students, affecting them as language participants (ertmer, 2005). bearing in mind the relevance of teachers’ knowledge on their specific fields, our aim was to indicate the importance of their linguistic awareness with regard to courses of english for specific purposes (esp), especially in the use of metaphors in technology. thus, in the first phase of this study, we decided to test the metaphor knowledge associated with mobile phones through an analysis of a questionnaire given to students of the institute of english and american studies at the university of gdańsk (poland) being trained to be english teachers. as such, they will teach courses that focus on developing english communication skills in a specific discipline, such as marketing, management, human resources, finance or engineering. accordingly, extended research has been recently found with respect to a variety of esp fields, including aeronautics (robisco & cuadrado, 2003), economics (cortés de los ríos, 2010), finance (hoa & cheng, 2016), geology and information technologies (it) (durán & argüelles, 2016), and the internet technological forums (gauducheau, 2016; wo, ha & chen, 2016). dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6846 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 46 with regard to the creation of metaphorical expressions in the field of it, durán and argüelles (2016) provide examples of new electronic and computer science terms linked to already existing earth science concepts, such as flow as in control flow, data flow, and traffic flow. the authors claim “context is not only important for the comprehension of metaphor, but also necessary to understand metaphoric usage of a term in a new specific domain as well as the new meaning the word acquires” (2016: 108). this notably applies to metaphorical meaning extension, “where the convergence of form and content needs to be contextualized in both source and target scientific fields in order to understand metaphoric coinages” (2016: 110), as we shall see in section 2.1. the importance of metaphors’ cognitive functions is that they are culturally and linguistically diverse, as has been confirmed in numerous research papers (cohen, 1978; lakoff & johnson, 1980, 1999; lakoff, 1993; clausner & croft, 1997; grady, 1997; colston & katz, 2005; cameron, 2008; lucke, kostova & roch, 2014). moreover, metaphors help create intimacy in an otherwise miscellaneous environment (bowles & katz, 2015). in this work, the emphasis was placed on cross-cultural communication, which has been the subject of a more extensive study with an increasing number of foreign students arriving to study in poland. this, in turn, justifies the need for an awareness of semantic differences that occur among native and non-native users of english. therefore, we have studied whether the same english expression may belong to different semantic fields with regard to the language used in the process of communication; i.e. whether the same english metaphorical expression at a mobile-phone user forum might have different meanings among speakers of english from speakers of polish. this paper is divided into four sections. in the first part, we present a theoretical framework analysis underlying the research undertaken on technological and mobile phone metaphors. the second part is devoted to a general overview of the empirical study methodology in relation to the main goal of this paper. it starts by the first phase of the survey, its aim being to select metaphors related to mobile phones based on the literature and a website review, namely, internet forums. it is followed by a detailed description of the second stage of the survey which shows the current usage of mobile phone-related metaphors among student young users. the third part concentrates on an analysis of the results. finally, it concludes by showing the main contributions of this project to the research field of mobile phone metaphor expressions. communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 47 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 47 2. data and methodology to accomplish the main goal of this paper, we conducted a survey divided into two phases. phase one focused on the use of big data tools to determine the popularity of metaphors once they were identified by the metaphor identification procedure (pragglejaz group, 2007) described below. the second concentrated on preparing the questionnaire based on the results from the first phase, including all the popular metaphors identified previously. all told, this covered 32 english metaphors and 30 metaphors in polish. the main purpose of the first phase was to use big data methods and tools to web scrape internet forums in which people share opinions and knowledge on the use of mobile phones. for web scraping, we used the apache spark with apache hadoop engine to execute python scripts. text mining methods were used to extract and process the information from unstructured data sources. the main purpose of text mining is to find patterns in unstructured data (miner, 2012). the html parser used to web scrape and tokenize the text was beautifulsoup4. we counted the number of occurrences doing wordcount analysis supported by mapreduce algorithms. such methods are core components for efficient data analysis using big data (hashem et al., 2016). the data was stored in a hdfs (hadoop distributed file system) that is a default data storage for apache hadoop, the core component of the big data ecosystem (arias, gamez & puerta, 2017). the main goal of this phase was to identify which of the metaphors on mobile phones are most commonly used in a modern society. the metaphors tested by big data tools were selected based on a theoretical framework analysis underlying the research undertaken as well as their identification by deep analysis of internet forums and other sources related to the use of mobile phones. next, the big data tools were used to assess their popularity. in our study, we decided to use both polish and english metaphors to gain a better understanding of their cross-cultural dependencies. both polish and english metaphors identified by big data analysis were used in the second phase of the survey. this part was conducted empirically using a traditional questionnaire, which included most of the metaphors identified in the first phase. the aim was to assess the consciousness of the metaphor’s meaning among students aged 19-24 studying non-technological fields. these metaphors were divided into dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6848 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 48 polish and english. an overview of the framework of the survey consisting of two phases is presented in figure 1. although there are several research methods to identify metaphor use, such as wmatrix (sun & jiang, 2014), q-methodology (kendall & kendall, 1993), mip (pragglejaz group, 2007), our two-phase survey propelled us to choose a combined approach on big data (word count algorithm) and mip, as well as a traditional survey with a questionnaire. with this approach we aimed at maximum omission of the weaknesses of particular approaches mentioned above. for instance, in q-methodology all of the statements used represent the possible domain of opinion on a particular topic (kendall & kendall, 1993) while we focused our attention on the possibility of metaphor extension and the existence of new ones. it helped us to construct a sufficient framework that provides reliable data (figure 1). as shown in figure 1, phase 1 was devoted to the use of big data tools in order to identify the most popular metaphors. in phase 2 we identified the level of awareness of these metaphors to ensure that they were in common use by students of non-technological fields, aged 19-24. it was important to examine those metaphors shared by a group of users, rather than those specific to individuals. 2.1. phase 1–analysis of the occurrence of technology metaphors on the internet as already mentioned in the theoretical section, there are numerous studies that identify and describe technological metaphors; thus, we limited the population of the survey to people using metaphors in technological forums related to mobile phones. to obtain good results from the survey, we decided to conduct a deep analysis of technological metaphors presented in the communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 49 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… combined approach on big data (word count algorithm) and mip, as well as a traditional survey with a questionnaire. with this approach we aimed at maximum omission of the weaknesses of particular approaches mentioned above. for instance, in q-methodology all of the statements used represent the possible domain of opinion on a particular topic (kendall & kendall, 1993) while we focused our attention on the possibility of metaphor extension and the existence of new ones. it helped us to construct a sufficient framework that provides reliable data (figure 1). figure 1. general overview of the framework of the survey. as shown in figure 1, phase 1 was devoted to the use of big data tools in order to identify the most popular metaphors. in phase 2 we identified the level of awareness of these metaphors to ensure that they were in common use by students of non-technological fields, aged 19-24. it was important to examine those metaphors shared by a group of users, rather than those specific of individuals. 2.1. phase 1–analysis of the occurrence of technology metaphors on the internet as already mentioned in the theoretical section, there are numerous studies that identify and describe technological metaphors; thus, we limited the population of the survey to people using metaphors in technological forums related to mobile phones. to obtain good results from the survey, we decided to conduct a deep analysis of technological metaphors presented in the literature as well as manually analyze internet forums. the goal was to find potential metaphors that could be used in the second phase of the survey. the survey employed big data tools and methods to web scrape and analyze instances of metaphors on internet forums. the general methodology of this survey consisted of five steps. 1. select internet forums on mobile phones that have the highest number of posts. iewajma iwsyla trodo cz & kecja bnoachorpapednibmco dig qaithwyevrusl anitiodatr ehtfonoissmiom muixma qnice,antsnirofe.voab -me on niopiofn iadomeblispos oitnettaruodesucweeliwh ikswoknla!amk na)mithrolgat nuocdrow(taad ppaisthithw. eiranntiose paraluciapfosessenkaew nmeetatsehtfollaygolodohtme ndaek(copitraulcitrpaaon hpatemfoytilibissopehtnono asall ewsa, pimdn t adeimaewhcaor denoitnmesehcaorpp ustn ehttnseerperdse 1993),llndaek&llnda ehtdnanoisnetxeroh hti.esnoewnfoce entsiex dovipr rugif(a atde labielres e ciusa cturtsncootsuedpel .)1e athtkroewamtenci 1e gurfi . nge esahp,1erugifniwnohsas rlaupopt somethneidto ohapetme eshtfosesenaraw nonfos tnedust aicgloonhcte ybderahssrohptaemesoth lsauidivdin . evrusehtfokrowmearfehtfoweivrevolare swa1 biofeusheto td evotde idew2esahpni. srohptaemr e erweyhtathte rusenotsro 91dega, sldl a misawti24. athrethar, sresufopuorga ye . rdeorn isooltatdag bi fol evleethdneid ybe sunommconi pom enimaxeottnart focepsesothna 1.2. 1esaph – ofsiysalan tenrtenieth ehtnidenoitnemydaerlaas loonhcteeibrcseddnaneid lepoeptoyevruseth mng ius ulsergood n iaobto t.sphone mcaligolonechtfosisyalan rtenretniezylanayllaunma pdnecose htniedsue bdluco ogy olnhcetofecnerrucoceht neraereht,noitceslaciteroeht itelimew, suth; srohptaeml aicglo umlacogihnolcetn isphoratem deicdeewy,veurshetomstul le htniedtenesrpsrohapetm awlaogeht.ms topdnots .eyvruse htfoe ash onsorhaptemogy tahtseidutssuoremun fontiolaupopethdite elobimo td etalersum p edeatonducco td de aslelwase ruaterti tahts rohpatemlaitnet 6 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…6 adgibdeyolpmeyevruseth inosrohptaemfosecntasin evfodestsinocyevrsu s spte 1. murtenretnitcelse .stposof bewotsdohtemdnaslootata l arenegeht. smt eteni . evahtahtsenohpelibomnosm ezylanadnaeparcsb isthfoygloodothem rebmuntsehgihehte 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 49 literature as well as manually analyze internet forums. the goal was to find potential metaphors that could be used in the second phase of the survey. the survey employed big data tools and methods to web scrape and analyze instances of metaphors on internet forums. the general methodology of this survey consisted of five steps. 1. select internet forums on mobile phones that have the highest number of posts. 2. analyze selected forums and research papers on technological language to identify metaphorical expressions related to mobile phone technology. 3. use the selected metaphors for further big data analysis to provide information on their frequency (word-count algorithms). 4. compile a final list of metaphors related to the use of mobile phones. 5. find cross-cultural relations between metaphors. as noted above, the survey began with the selection of internet forums related to mobile phone technology. we used the following criteria to ascertain the final list of the data sources: 1. the number of posts on the forum, 2. the variety of topics, 3. topics related mostly to issues of mobile phone use, not hardware issues, 4. the language of the internet forum. the way these criteria were formulated enabled the identification of the five english-language internet forums on mobile phone use listed in table 1. dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6850 communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): …-… 2. analyze selected forums and research papers on technological language to identify metaphorical expressions related to mobile phone technology. 3. use the selected metaphors for further big data analysis to provide information on their frequency (word-count algorithms). 4. compile a final list of metaphors related to the use of mobile phones. 5.find cross-cultural relations between metaphors. as noted above, the survey began with the selection of internet forums related to mobile phone technology. we used the following criteria to ascertain the final list of the data sources: 1. the number of posts on the forum, 2. the variety of topics, 3. topics related mostly to issues of mobile phone use, not hardware issues, 4. the language of the internet forum. the way these criteria were formulated enabled the identification of the five english-language internet forums on mobile phone use listed in table 1. id website address number of threads (thousands) en1 https://www.avforums.com/forums/mobile-phones-forum.106/ ca. 17 en2 https://www.cnet.com/forums/phones/ ca. 15 en3 http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=1 ca. 40 en4 https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=187&page=157 ca. 10 en5 https://www.boards.ie/b/forum/411 ca. 25 table 1. selected english-language forums on mobile phones (step 1). the number of threads on these english language forums varied from 10 to 40 thousand topics related to the different areas of mobile phone use. we did not classify any forums as more or less relevant due to the number of topics available on the forums. because of the necessity to find various metaphors in cross-cultural communication, we also included polish forums related to the same issues as those given in table 1. as a result, six internet forums on mobile phones available in polish were added to the survey. the goal of this step was to ensure that the same metaphors were used in these two different languages. the list of polish forums is presented in table 2. 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 50 the number of threads on these english language forums varied from 10 to 40 thousand topics related to the different areas of mobile phone use. we did not classify any forums as more or less relevant due to the number of topics available on the forums. because of the necessity to find various metaphors in cross-cultural communication, we also included polish forums related to the same issues as those given in table 1. as a result, six internet forums on mobile phones available in polish were added to the survey. the goal of this step was to ensure that the same metaphors were used in these two different languages. the list of polish forums is presented in table 2. in phase two, we conducted a text analysis of metaphors presented on topics available from the forums listed in tables 1 and 2. an additional data source was a theoretical framework analysis underlying the research undertaken related to technological metaphors. we compared our results with the results from research papers to ensure that our identified metaphors overlapped. this was done in the first stage of this research. to find possible metaphors, posts from internet forums were selected from different topics according to the popularity of each post. it was not possible to search through all the posts and topics because web scrapers could be blocked by forum administrators. therefore, only selected items were analysed in depth to find the popularity of potential metaphorical expressions. this was consistent with the strategy of this survey, which assumed manual identification of possible metaphors as the second step of the research phase. the method used to accomplish this task was consistent with the metaphor identification procedure (mip) developed by the pragglejaz group (pragglejaz group, 2007). in accordance with mip we decided to determine the lexical units in the entire text (internet forums). after that, we established the meaning of the metaphor in contrast to basic meaning. if the meaning was different to the basic meaning, we identified that lexical unit as a metaphor. examples of communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 51 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… id website address number of threads/posts (thousands) pl1 http://www.telepolis.pl/forum/ ca. 50 (threads) pl2 http://forum.benchmark.pl/forum/32-telefony-kom%c3%b3rkowe-i-smartfony/ ca. 30 (threads) pl3 http://www.chip.pl/forum/viewforum?fid=14 ca. 1 (threads) pl4 http://www.komorki.fora.pl/ ca. 4.5 (threads) pl5 http://forumgsm.pl/ ca. 50 (posts) pl6 http://forum.purepc.pl/forum/98-telefony-kom%c3%b3rkowe/ ca. 1 (threads) table 2. selected polish language forums on mobile phones. in phase two, we conducted a text analysis of metaphors presented on topics available from the forums listed in tables 1 and 2. an additional data source was a theoretical framework analysis underlying the research undertaken related to technological metaphors. we compared our results with the results from research papers to ensure that our identified metaphors overlapped. this was done in the first stage of this research. to find possible metaphors, posts from internet forums were selected from different topics according to the popularity of each post. it was not possible to search through all the posts and topics because web scrapers could be blocked by forum administrators. therefore, only selected items were analysed in depth to find the popularity of potential metaphorical expressions. this was consistent with the strategy of this survey, which assumed manual identification of possible metaphors as the second step of the research phase. the method used to accomplish this task was amenable with the metaphor identification procedure (mip) developed by the pragglejaz group (pragglejaz group, 2007). in accordance with mip we decided to determine the lexical units in the entire text (internet forums). after that, we established the meaning of the metaphor in contrast to basic meaning. if the meaning was different to the basic meaning, we identified that lexical unit as a metaphor. examples of english metaphors selected from english language forums are presented in table 3. table 3. identification of possible metaphors on internet forums. from the analysis of possible metaphors, we may conclude that people on internet forums use a limited range of metaphors in their posts. because numerous posts on internet forums are written by users with different language 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 51 english metaphors selected from english language forums are presented in table 3. from the analysis of possible metaphors, we may conclude that people on internet forums use a limited range of metaphors in their posts. because numerous posts on internet forums are written by users with different language levels, there appear numerous language mistakes, such as misspellings or grammar mistakes, which also pertain to metaphorical phrases. it is important to note that the basic set of metaphors presented in this study was prepared not only based upon the forum analysis but also from the theoretical framework analysis underlying the research undertaken. this precipitated the conclusion that some of the mobile phone-related metaphors are the same as those found in any technological domains. for example, the word phishing is mostly related to the phenomenon of information security. the pronunciation of the word itself is a homophone of the word fishing, which describes an act of catching fish as prey; therefore, the metaphorical “prey” are the victims whose data has been stolen. the word shot (in the meaning of taking a photo) is related to photography. even though it is used by mobile phone users, it was long-ago adopted from the set of photography-related metaphors. the third step of this phase was to conduct a word count analysis to ensure a metaphor’s popularity among internet users of forums related to mobile phone technology. to accomplish this task, a basic big data framework was used to web scrape the web page. then, an analysis of word occurrence was made using traditional mapreduce algorithms for the word count analysis. since the technology used is not an issue for this paper, we will not concentrate on technological aspects of the big data framework. the wordcount analysis resulted in a final set of metaphors, which was prepared in the fourth step of this phase. the results of this procedure are briefly described dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6852 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… table 2. selected polish language forums on mobile phones. in phase two, we conducted a text analysis of metaphors presented on topics available from the forums listed in tables 1 and 2. an additional data source was a theoretical framework analysis underlying the research undertaken related to technological metaphors. we compared our results with the results from research papers to ensure that our identified metaphors overlapped. this was done in the first stage of this research. to find possible metaphors, posts from internet forums were selected from different topics according to the popularity of each post. it was not possible to search through all the posts and topics because web scrapers could be blocked by forum administrators. therefore, only selected items were analysed in depth to find the popularity of potential metaphorical expressions. this was consistent with the strategy of this survey, which assumed manual identification of possible metaphors as the second step of the research phase. the method used to accomplish this task was amenable with the metaphor identification procedure (mip) developed by the pragglejaz group (pragglejaz group, 2007). in accordance with mip we decided to determine the lexical units in the entire text (internet forums). after that, we established the meaning of the metaphor in contrast to basic meaning. if the meaning was different to the basic meaning, we identified that lexical unit as a metaphor. examples of english metaphors selected from english language forums are presented in table 3. posts metaphor meaning “it hasn’t affected the battery life at all” battery life this means the duration of the efficient work of a battery; similar to application life (up to date application). “upload my files to a cloud” cloud remote location, remote storage “tried to get some shots” shot take a photo with a mobile phone “the worst phishing email” phishing an attempt to obtain sensitive information “our mobile virtual community” virtual community a group of people for whom a meeting place is virtual table 3. identification of possible metaphors on internet forums. from the analysis of possible metaphors, we may conclude that people on internet forums use a limited range of metaphors in their posts. because numerous posts on internet forums are written by users with different language 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 52 in point 4.2. as mentioned above, this third step aimed to discover whether the list of metaphors selected in the previous step of the survey was relevant and worth including in the traditional survey to determine the overall understanding of the topics by students. this resulted in the preparation of a final set of metaphors related to mobile phones, whose final list is in appendix 1. from the final list of metaphors, we suggest the following classification of mobile phone-related metaphors in terms of their source area: nature, people, technology, food. the most popular way is to construct metaphors based on phenomena related to nature, be it biological, environmental or otherwise. for example, in application life (nature), it specialists borrow the term “life” from biology to name the length of time when an application is up to date. in fat finger (people), the metaphor refers to a situation of accidental, inaccurate typing on a computer or smartphone keyboard. a popular form based on people-related metaphors is community. another frequently used metaphor, sweet photo, related to food, has become one of the best-known ones when smart phones first came into common use. the final list of mobile phone related metaphors (see appendix 1) correspondingly refers to technological metaphors, which were adopted to fulfill mobile phone users’ expectations. such metaphors enable the creation of a common language with technological experts as well as computer geeks also using mobile phone technology. the basis of the relationship between mobile phone metaphors and technology is that modern smart phones have the functionality of a computer, tablet and camera. some of the metaphors relate to the specific functionality of a mobile phone, such as access to social media. linguistically, it means that users of a particular language consider all those technology devices semantically coherent and overlapping. therefore, the metaphors that refer to mobile phones simultaneously apply to other similar devices. the next step in our research aimed at discovering whether the same metaphors are used in different languages and different cultures. for this reason, we decided to test the sample keywords in other internet forums, such as those listed in table 2. the main conclusion we reached demonstrates that every english metaphor from the list was adapted to polish. however, this process may respond to five different methods of adaptation. 1. by the use of an english word (e.g. phishing) communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 53 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 53 2) by direct translation /loan translation (e.g. cloud – chmura) 3) by translation with some minor changes (e.g. application life – czas życia aplikacji) 4) by using a completely different word, but with the same meaning (e.g. shoot – cykać) 5) by using a phonologically similar word (e.g. like – lajk, photo – fota) the final list of english and polish metaphors enabled the planning of the second phase of the survey described in this paper. these lists became the source for producing a questionnaire used to identify the level of knowledge of metaphors among the selected population. 2.2. phase 2 – survey and the analysis underlying the research a traditional survey was conducted in 2016 on a population cohort of two hundred respondents. we decided to have a population of students ages 1924 whose field of study was unrelated to technology. the method used to select respondents was a non-probability sampling, and we considered it especially important in the description of social processes that occur in a changing society due to the use of new technologies. the decision to select respondents ages 19-24 was made for two reasons. firstly, young people use mobile phones for different purposes, and contrary to more mature users, are usually more familiar with metaphorical expressions related to various fields of technology. moreover, young users are more familiar with international forums and social media, which means that they have better knowledge of english metaphors. although many english metaphors have been adapted directly into polish, there are still metaphors that have been translated instead of being used in their original english form. the sample selected for this survey enabled the identification of the overall phenomenon of familiarity with such metaphors in modern society. to sum up, in this survey a typical sampling unit was a person aged 19-24 involved in a non-technology related field of study. the sample characteristics are in table 4. dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6854 communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): …-… in this survey a typical sampling unit was a person aged 19-24 involved in a nontechnology related field of study. the sample characteristics are in table 4. specification total completed number of questionnaires with polish metaphors 200 157 number of questionnaires with english metaphors 200 156 table 4. characteristics of the traditional survey. as the table above shows, we collected one hundred and fifty-seven questionnaires with polish metaphors along with one hundred and fifty-six questionnaires with english metaphors. the way each questionnaire was constructed allowed conclusions to be drawn based on their familiarity. the qualitative character of the survey lead to the goal of presenting how metaphors are perceived in a cross-cultural society. the traditional questionnaire was constructed upon the assumption that a student must complete it in less than twenty minutes. therefore, it consisted of four parts: 1. knowledge of thirty two given english metaphors 2. the level of certainty (from 1 to 5) 3. knowledge of thirty given polish metaphors 4. the level of certainty (from 1 to 5). in the first part, we asked respondents about their general understanding of selected english metaphors. they could choose their answer from the following options: “yes”, “no”, or “not sure”. in the second part of the survey, subjects were asked to assess their level of understanding of selected metaphors. the scale ranged from 1 to 5, where “5” indicated a good understanding of the metaphor and “1” indicated not being sure what a specific metaphor actually meant. in the third part, the survey was repeated with polish metaphors. these were randomized, to see whether respondents were more familiar with polish equivalents. as in the second step, the fourth step was to identify the level of the respondents’ comprehension. 3. discussion of results the survey results show that students aged 20-24 enrolled in non-technological fields of study have a good understanding of english metaphors. of the thirtythree selected metaphors, fifteen were chosen by more than 90% of the cohort as well-known metaphors (see figure 2). 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 54 as the table above shows, we collected one hundred and fifty-seven questionnaires with polish metaphors along with one hundred and fifty-six questionnaires with english metaphors. the way each questionnaire was constructed allowed conclusions to be drawn based on their familiarity. the qualitative character of the survey led to the goal of presenting how metaphors are perceived in a cross-cultural society. the traditional questionnaire was constructed upon the assumption that a student must complete it in less than twenty minutes. therefore, it consisted of four parts: 1. knowledge of thirty two given english metaphors 2. the level of certainty (from 1 to 5) 3. knowledge of thirty given polish metaphors 4. the level of certainty (from 1 to 5). in the first part, we asked respondents about their general understanding of selected english metaphors. they could choose their answer from the following options: “yes”, “no”, or “not sure”. in the second part of the survey, subjects were asked to assess their level of understanding of selected metaphors. the scale ranged from 1 to 5, where “5” indicated a good understanding of the metaphor and “1” indicated not being sure what a specific metaphor actually meant. in the third part, the survey was repeated with polish metaphors. these were randomized, to see whether respondents were more familiar with polish equivalents. as in the second step, the fourth step was to identify the level of the respondents’ comprehension. 3. discussion of results the survey results show that students aged 19-24 enrolled in nontechnological fields of study have a good understanding of english metaphors. of the thirty-three selected metaphors, fifteen were chosen by more than 90% of the cohort as well-known metaphors (see figure 2). communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 55 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 55 the most common and well-known metaphor is selfie stick. it is worth noting that it is used in other languages as a loan expression. the second most wellknown metaphor is virtual reality, a basic one to describe the digital era. cell phone, a metaphor used to describe mobile phones within the field of cellular technology, was one of the most familiar terms for polish students. even though the word cloud has a different name in polish, it is also very wellknown in its english form. finally, we included the frequently used expression sweet photo, which refers to a picture usually taken with the front camera of a mobile phone. on the other hand, the least well-known metaphors were presented in figure 3. metaphors that proved obscure, although they are often used by more experienced users of internet forums, are: cadillac solution, rubber duck debugging, fat finger and sentiment analysis. the first metaphor, whose meaning is to describe something very expensive, has a self-defining nature – usually cadillacs are very expensive cars. nonetheless, some students are not certain about the meaning of the given metaphor. the second metaphorical expression, rubber duck debugging, evolved mostly from communication among dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6856 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… figure 2. understanding of english metaphors. the most common and well-known metaphor is selfie stick. it is worth noting that it is used in other languages as a loan expression. the second most wellknown metaphor is virtual reality, a basic one to describe the digital era. cell phone, a metaphor used to describe mobile phones within the field of cellular technology, was one of the most familiar terms for polish students. even though the word cloud has a different name in polish, it is also very well-known in its english form. finally, we included the frequently used expression sweet photo, which refers to a picture usually taken with the front camera of a mobile phone. on the other hand, the least well-known metaphors were presented in figure 3. figure 3. unfamiliar english metaphors metaphors that proved obscure, although they are often used by more experienced users of internet forums, are: cadillac solution, rubber duck debugging, fat finger and sentiment analysis. the first metaphor, whose meaning is to describe something very expensive, has a self-defining nature – usually cadillacs are very expensive cars. nonetheless, some students are not certain about the meaning of the given metaphor. the second metaphorical expression, rubber duck debugging, evolved mostly from communication among iewajma iwsyla trodo cz & kecja ikswoknla!amk 2e gurfi llewdnanommoctsometh 2. srohpatemhsilgenfognidnatsredun . siphoratemn know cistese kc gtinonthrowist i. ugnlarethoindesuisit t ath siphoratemn know rlautrvi phone esurohptaema, deo td methfoenosaw, ygloonhcte droweth duocl nterdiasha cniew,yllanif.mrhsilgen ausuerutcipaotsrerhciwh wetsaeleht,dnahrehtoehton ht. niosserpxenaloasasegau ilea eibrcsedtoenoicsaba, n hitiwsphoneelobimbeircsde shlisoprsmrteriliamaft som veo slasitih,siolpn iemnant ehtdedulc pxedesuyltneuqfre remactnoehthtwinekatylla llwe eprerewsphoratemn know llewt somdnoceseh . arel itaigdethe llce raulllecofd lehetn hguothneve. tsnedtu llewy rve stin in know noissrep otohpteesw , .enohpelibomafoar 3egurifn id entese . gurfi 3e gur . srohpatemhsilgenrailimafun 6 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…12 bodevorptahtsrohpatme nertnifosersucedenierpex ngbuggide , rfint fa dan nse revginthemoseibrcsedtois evisnepxeyreverascallidca fognieanme httuoab ivgeth gniubkcr ebbru , foerayehthguohtla,erucs e:ar,smuretn oscallca ssianatnemit ptaemt seht. lfesasah, eivsnepxeyr nide dutsemos,sselehtenon.srace taemdnoceseht. rohptaemneiv mocmotlysomdelvove eromybdesune noitulo , kcr ebbru ginnaemesohw, rohp eurtnang ni – y lluaus niatrectonerastned , niosserpxel aicrohpta gnomantioaicnumm dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… figure 2. understanding of english metaphors. the most common and well-known metaphor is selfie stick. it is worth noting that it is used in other languages as a loan expression. the second most wellknown metaphor is virtual reality, a basic one to describe the digital era. cell phone, a metaphor used to describe mobile phones within the field of cellular technology, was one of the most familiar terms for polish students. even though the word cloud has a different name in polish, it is also very well-known in its english form. finally, we included the frequently used expression sweet photo, which refers to a picture usually taken with the front camera of a mobile phone. on the other hand, the least well-known metaphors were presented in figure 3. figure 3. unfamiliar english metaphors metaphors that proved obscure, although they are often used by more experienced users of internet forums, are: cadillac solution, rubber duck debugging, fat finger and sentiment analysis. the first metaphor, whose meaning is to describe something very expensive, has a self-defining nature – usually cadillacs are very expensive cars. nonetheless, some students are not certain about the meaning of the given metaphor. the second metaphorical expression, rubber duck debugging, evolved mostly from communication among iewajma iwsyla trodo cz & kecja ikswoknla!amk 2e gurfi llewdnanommoctsometh 2. srohpatemhsilgenfognidnatsredun . siphoratemn know cistese kc gtinonthrowist i. ugnlarethoindesuisit t ath siphoratemn know rlautrvi phone esurohptaema, deo td methfoenosaw, ygloonhcte droweth duocl nterdiasha cniew,yllanif.mrhsilgen ausuerutcipaotsrerhciwh wetsaeleht,dnahrehtoehton ht. niosserpxenaloasasegau ilea eibrcsedtoenoicsaba, n hitiwsphoneelobimbeircsde shlisoprsmrteriliamaft som veo slasitih,siolpn iemnant ehtdedulc pxedesuyltneuqfre remactnoehthtwinekatylla llwe eprerewsphoratemn know llewt somdnoceseh . arel itaigdethe llce raulllecofd lehetn hguothneve. tsnedtu llewy rve stin in know noissrep otohpteesw , .enohpelibomafoar 3egurifn id entese . gurfi 3e gur . srohpatemhsilgenrailimafun 6 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…12 bodevorptahtsrohpatme nertnifosersucedenierpex ngbuggide , rfint fa dan nse revginthemoseibrcsedtois evisnepxeyreverascallidca fognieanme httuoab ivgeth gniubkcr ebbru , foerayehthguohtla,erucs e:ar,smuretn oscallca ssianatnemit ptaemt seht. lfesasah, eivsnepxeyr nide dutsemos,sselehtenon.srace taemdnoceseht. rohptaemneiv mocmotlysomdelvove eromybdesune noitulo , kcr ebbru ginnaemesohw, rohp eurtnang ni – y lluaus niatrectonerastned , niosserpxel aicrohpta gnomantioaicnumm 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 56 programmers and it experts. the meaning is to explain something very carefully, step by step, to someone who knows very little or nothing about computers and programming. another one, fat finger, refers to mistakes made on a phone while typing on the keypad. because most mobile phones have touchable screens now, it is quite easy to understand that a fat finger will make mistakes on the keypad. for some people, this metaphor may appear offensive or negative. the last one, sentiment analysis, indicates the process of trying to understand the general meaning and tenor of a text message. its meaning may sometimes be difficult to understand, especially when used sarcastically. to gain a better overview and reconfirm all the results mentioned above, we decided to show metaphors that were difficult to understand (see figure 4). respondents indicated five different metaphors as not easy to identify, which shows that their general meaning may be considered somewhat ambiguous. the list of metaphors that appear dubious for speakers of polish include expressions such as mapping, sentiment analysis, application life, garbage in garbage out and big day. the word mapping was well known for 40% of the respondents, 39% of them did not know what mapping in mobile phone terminology was, while 20% remained uncertain about the meaning of this metaphor. even though the word life is used very often in various metaphors, not only in the context of technology, it was quite difficult for 15% of students to correctly identify it. the metaphor big day, used to describe the time of the release of new software or a new mobile phone, is also used in other activities of our life. however, about 10% of respondents were not able to define this metaphor correctly and more than 50% of them did not know the meaning of this word. communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 57 communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): …-… programmers and it experts. the meaning is to explain something very carefully, step by step, to someone who knows very little or nothing about computers and programming. another one, fat finger, refers to mistakes made on a phone while typing on the keypad. because most mobile phones have touchable screens now, it is quite easy to understand that a fat finger will make mistakes on the keypad. for some people, this metaphor may appear offensive or negative. the last one, sentiment analysis, indicates the process of trying to understand the general meaning and tenor of a text message. its meaning may sometimes be difficult to understand, especially when used sarcastically. to gain a better overview and reconfirm all the results mentioned above, we decided to show metaphors that were difficult to understand (see figure 4). respondents indicated five different metaphors as not easy to identify, which shows that its general meaning may be considered somewhat ambiguous. figure 4. english metaphors that were difficult to identify for language users. the list of metaphors that appear dubious for speakers of polish include expressions such as mapping, sentiment analysis, application life, garbage in garbage out and big day. the word mapping was well known for 40% of the respondents, 39% of them did not know what mapping in mobile phone terminology was, while 20% remained uncertain about the meaning of this metaphor. even though the word life is used very often in various metaphors, not only in the context of technology, it was quite difficult for 15% of students to correctly identify it. the metaphor big day, used to describe the time of the release of new software or a new mobile phone, is also used in other activities of our life. however, about 10% of respondents were not able to define this metaphor correctly and more than 50% of them did not know the meaning of this word. the second part of the survey aimed at determining whether respondents were able to define each metaphor precisely. the question was asked as a selfassessment concerning knowledge of the correct definition of each metaphor. rxpeetind asremmaogrpr sot,eptsybepts,yllcar .gnimamrgorpdansertupmco nognipyte lihwe nohpa qisit , wonsneercslebahcuto yekehtnosekatsmi sorfd.pa catunimmco xpleo tsing niaemhet.str ttilvswonkohwe neomos e,noerhtona regfint fa srer, mtsome secaub.adpeyke ht at athdntasrednutoysaeiteuq amphoratemshit,eoplpeeoms mh tiwngicat rsetapho y rveng hiteomsn iaxpl nihtonroe lt boutag noedamsektaismtos e avhesnohpe libom a rfint fa ekamllwi orveinsrappeay a ,onetsalhet.veitgane tnse niaemlarnegehetnd atsrunde dnuottlucidebs emitemso aweivrevorettebaniagto sphoratemhowso td deicde devdetacidnistnednopsre ninaemlarenegs titahts wosh ssianatnemit ethsteaicdin, assemxtetaofnoretnd ang ni spe,dnastre sedsuenhwylaleci mstluserehtllamrnocerdna srundeo ttulcdierewthat saetonsasrohpatemtnerid ahwemsoderedsinocebyamgn toginytrfossecorp y amng niaemsti.gea .ylcalitcasars ew,evobadenoitnem .4)egurifees(nd ats ,itnediotys hciwh gibmata .uous 4e gurfi . atemhsilgen tahtsrohpatemfotsileth aschussnoisesrpex i outbagegar dan dayg bi ht. mehtf o%93,stnednopsre %02ilehw, sawyglooinmrte wehthguohtneve.rohpatme hnolcetofxteontchetn iy onl etme ht.tiitendiylectrrco nar oreawftoswenf oesaelre ugnalrofyfitnediottluciffiderwetahtsrohpa rekaepsrsuoibudraeppa g, ssianatnemitnse , atciappl droweh gni nkllweswa tahwwonktondid ni t uobaintarecnudeinamer% drow life avinnoyrevdesuis ogy,hnol lt uditeuqsawit rohapet dayg bi csedtodesu, desuoslasi,enohpelibomwen sresuegau . edulcnihsilopfosr lon iat , n ibagegar htfo%04rwnon e gn enohpilebomin isthfoginnaemeth t on, srohptaemsuiora totsnedtusfo%51r ethfoetimetheibrc f oseitivitcar ehtonid 10%bouta,rveeowh.ilour ermodnayltcerrocrohpatme .drwo evrusehtfotrapdnoceseth hapetmeache ndote lab wonkgnincerncotenmsessas ibér ,p erewsntpondeserof10% not wonktondidm ehtfo%05naht htehwgninimretedtademiaye wnoitesuqe ht.yelsecirproh oitindectrrcoe htfoe gedlw 36ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 13 shitnedeo tebla sihtfogninameehtw erewstnednopserreh elsa asedkasasw f.rohapetmeachfon 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 57 the second part of the survey aimed at determining whether respondents were able to define each metaphor precisely. the question was asked as a self-assessment concerning knowledge of the correct definition of each metaphor. metaphors marked with the maximum amount of certainty by the first and third quartile of the population are presented in table 5. the column “average” is a mean of the level of certainty marked by respondents on a scale of 1 to 5. the column “sum of points” shows the total of all marked levels. “number of collected answers” shows how many people completed this point of the questionnaire without making a mistake. as presented in table 5, respondents claimed to be certain about only four metaphors they had identified, namely selfie stick, cell phone, sweet photo, and spam. all those were also specified as easy to define in terms of their meaning (a firm positive answer to the question: “do you clearly understand the meaning of the following metaphors?”). on the other hand, metaphors that were very hard to define and understand correctly are presented in table 6. among the list of metaphors, five of them have an average level of certainty below 2.5: garbage in garbage out, sentiment analysis, fat finger, rubber duck debugging and cadillac solution. it is consistent with the answers included in the first part of this survey (the answer – “not sure”). dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6858 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… metaphors marked with the maximum amount of certainty by the first and third quartile of the population are presented in table 5. the column “average” is a mean of the level of certainty marked by respondents on a scale of 1 to 5. the column “sum of points” shows the total of all marked levels. “number of collected answers” shows how many people completed this point of the questionnaire without making a mistake. metaphor average median sum of points number of collected answers quartile 1 quartile 3 selfie stick 4.92 5 645 152 5 5 cell phone 4.81 5 630 152 5 5 sweet photo 4.70 5 588 146 5 5 spam 4.58 5 563 144 5 5 table 5. metaphors easy to define in respondents’ opinion. as presented in table 5, respondents claimed to be certain about only four metaphors they had identified, namely selfie stick, cell phone, sweet photo, and spam. all those were also specified as easy to define in terms of their meaning (a firm positive answer to the question: “do you clearly understand the meaning of the following metaphors?”). on the other hand, metaphors that were very hard to define and understand correctly are presented in table 6. table 6. the most difficult metaphors to define by respondents. among the list of metaphors, five of them have an average level of certainty below 2.5: garbage in garbage out, sentiment analysis, fat finger, rubber duck debugging and cadillac solution. it is compliant with the answers included in the first part of this survey (the answer – “not sure”). to gain a better understanding of cross-cultural communication and the adaptation of different metaphors, we decided to design a similar questionnaire, but include only polish metaphors. figure 5 shows well-known polish metaphors. dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… metaphors marked with the maximum amount of certainty by the first and third quartile of the population are presented in table 5. the column “average” is a mean of the level of certainty marked by respondents on a scale of 1 to 5. the column “sum of points” shows the total of all marked levels. “number of collected answers” shows how many people completed this point of the questionnaire without making a mistake. table 5. metaphors easy to define in respondents’ opinion. as presented in table 5, respondents claimed to be certain about only four metaphors they had identified, namely selfie stick, cell phone, sweet photo, and spam. all those were also specified as easy to define in terms of their meaning (a firm positive answer to the question: “do you clearly understand the meaning of the following metaphors?”). on the other hand, metaphors that were very hard to define and understand correctly are presented in table 6. metaphor average median sum of points number of collected answers quartile 1 quartile 3 garbage in garbage out 2.26 2 138 82 1 3 sentiment analysis 2.05 1 121 80 1 3 fat finger 2.03 1 124 82 1 3 rubber duck debugging 1.62 1 89 76 1 2 cadillac solution 1.30 1 73 77 1 1 table 6. the most difficult metaphors to define by respondents. among the list of metaphors, five of them have an average level of certainty below 2.5: garbage in garbage out, sentiment analysis, fat finger, rubber duck debugging and cadillac solution. it is compliant with the answers included in the first part of this survey (the answer – “not sure”). to gain a better understanding of cross-cultural communication and the adaptation of different metaphors, we decided to design a similar questionnaire, but include only polish metaphors. figure 5 shows well-known polish metaphors. 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 58 to gain a better understanding of cross-cultural communication and the adaptation of different metaphors, we decided to design a similar questionnaire, but include only polish metaphors. figure 5 shows wellknown polish metaphors. compared to figure 2, these metaphors are almost the same and include: 1. spam (the same in english) 2. selfie stick (the same in english) 3. komórka (cell phone) 4. sieć (network) 5. wirtualna rzeczywistość (virtual reality) 6. chmura (cloud). this means that there is both a direct influence upon, and adaptation of, new metaphors to different languages. communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 59 communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): …-… figure 5. understanding of polish metaphors. compared to figure 2, these metaphors are almost the same and include: 1. spam (the same in english) 2. selfie stick (the same in english) 3. komórka (cell phone) 4. sie" (network) 5. wirtualna rzeczywisto#" (virtual reality) 6. chmura (cloud). this means that there is both a direct influence upon, and adaptation of, new metaphors to different languages. figure 6. unfamiliar polish metaphors. polish students did not understand the following metaphors in the polish questionnaire: phishing, analiza sentymentu (sentiment analysis), mapowanie (mapping) and cykl !ycia aplikacji (application life). three additional metaphors were also included in the list of those which are considered as obscure, and, thus, difficult to identify among polish language users (see figure 7). catunimmco mh tiwngicat rsetapho e gurfi meseht,2erugifotderapmco 1. spam eniemaseh(t 5. srohpatemhsilpofognidnatsredun . erasrohpatem e amse httsomal )hsilgn educlnidan : 2. kcitsese emaseh(t 3. akrómko nohplle(c 4. "esi )rkowte(n 5. tsiwceanlautrwi 6. mch aur ).duol(c tobsierehttahtsnaemsith augnaltneridotsrohpatme )hsilgnenie )e "#ot )ytilarelaurti(v dna,nopuecneunitceridaht sega . wenonoitatpadad gurfi nutondidstnedutshsilpo :erionnaitsque ihsiph , anal ni(m dan ilacykl tsilehtnidedulcnioslaerwe olpong maintdeio ttulcdi ibér 6.e gur .srohpatemhsilporailimafun atemgniwollehtdnatsred analnteminteu ntemesa zianal lnoitcailicjkai eerht. deredisnocerahciwhesohtfo egurifees(sreusgenguaalh siol 36ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 15 hsilpoehtnisrohp is , einawo srohptaeml anitiodda ,suht,dna,erucsbosa 7)e . communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): …-… figure 5. understanding of polish metaphors. compared to figure 2, these metaphors are almost the same and include: 1. spam (the same in english) 2. selfie stick (the same in english) 3. komórka (cell phone) 4. sie" (network) 5. wirtualna rzeczywisto#" (virtual reality) 6. chmura (cloud). this means that there is both a direct influence upon, and adaptation of, new metaphors to different languages. figure 6. unfamiliar polish metaphors. polish students did not understand the following metaphors in the polish questionnaire: phishing, analiza sentymentu (sentiment analysis), mapowanie (mapping) and cykl !ycia aplikacji (application life). three additional metaphors were also included in the list of those which are considered as obscure, and, thus, difficult to identify among polish language users (see figure 7). catunimmco mh tiwngicat rsetapho e gurfi meseht,2erugifotderapmco 1. spam eniemaseh(t 5. srohpatemhsilpofognidnatsredun . erasrohpatem e amse httsomal )hsilgn educlnidan : 2. kcitsese emaseh(t 3. akrómko nohplle(c 4. "esi )rkowte(n 5. tsiwceanlautrwi 6. mch aur ).duol(c tobsierehttahtsnaemsith augnaltneridotsrohpatme )hsilgnenie )e "#ot )ytilarelaurti(v dna,nopuecneunitceridaht sega . wenonoitatpadad gurfi nutondidstnedutshsilpo :erionnaitsque ihsiph , anal ni(m dan ilacykl tsilehtnidedulcnioslaerwe olpong maintdeio ttulcdi ibér 6.e gur .srohpatemhsilporailimafun atemgniwollehtdnatsred analnteminteu ntemesa zianal lnoitcailicjkai eerht. deredisnocerahciwhesohtfo egurifees(sreusgenguaalh siol 36ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 15 hsilpoehtnisrohp is , einawo srohptaeml anitiodda ,suht,dna,erucsbosa 7)e . 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 59 polish students did not understand the following metaphors in the polish questionnaire: phishing, analiza sentymentu (sentiment analysis), mapowanie (mapping) and cykl życia aplikacji (application life). three additional metaphors were also included in the list of those which are considered as obscure, and, thus, difficult to identify among polish language users (see figure 7). among the list of polish metaphors, four were tough to define and these were almost the same as in english: cykl życia aplikacji (application life), mapowanie (mapping) as well as analiza sentymentu (sentiment analysis). if we compare figure 4, three english metaphors were almost the same. 4. conclusions the present paper has aimed to confirm the occurrence of a variety of metaphors in the discourse of mobile phone users on the internet forums as an extension for specialized language analysis. we have attempted to highlight the fact that the language of internet forums is filled with metaphors related to mobile phones as well as other technological devices, e.g., cameras, which have not as yet been subject to extensive study. our analysis showed that the majority of these metaphors are used crossculturally and in different languages, based on english-polish adaptation. english language forum users are both speakers of english as a first and as a second language. thus, our findings have proved that the semantic fields for particular metaphors may differ with regard to whether english is the first or the second language for the speaker. forum users tend to use the same metaphors; however, when they are presented in english their meaning may vary from their loan word in polish. dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6860 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… figure 7. polish metaphors that were difficult to identify for language users. among the list of polish metaphors, four were tough to define and these were almost the same as in english: cykl !ycia aplikacji (application life), mapowanie (mapping) as well as analiza sentymentu (sentiment analysis). if we compare figure 4, three english metaphors were almost the same. 4. conclusions the present paper has aimed to confirm the occurrence of a variety of metaphors in the discourse of mobile phone users on the internet forums as an extension for specialized language analysis. we have attempted to highlight the fact that the language of internet forums is filled with metaphors related to mobile phones as well as other technological devices, e.g., cameras, which have not as yet been subject to extensive study. our analysis showed that the majority of these metaphors are used cross-culturally and in different languages, based on englishpolish adaptation. english language forum users are both speakers of english as a first and as a second language. thus, our findings have proved that the semantic fields for particular metaphors may differ with regard to whether english is the first or the second language for the speaker. forum users tend to use the same metaphors; however, when they are presented in english their meaning may vary from their loan word in polish. this analysis allows us to reach several conclusions related to the utility of metaphorical expressions concerning mobile phones. the adaptation of the conceptual metaphor theory as well as the metaphor identification procedure (mip) gave an insight into the identification and categorization of novelty in the process of metaphor formation among mobile phone language users. then, a theoretical framework analysis underlying the research undertaken has proved that technology metaphors can be classified into different semantic domains and iewajma iwsyla trodo cz & kecja ikswoknla!amk 7e gurfi . patemhsilpo emhsilopfotsilehtgnoam ugnalrofyffyitnediottluciffffiderwetahtsrohp dothguoterweru,srohpate sresuega . erweesehtdnaene emhsilopfotsilehtgnoam eniase amse httsomal nieinawo elwas ilgneee rht,4e rugife arpmco 4. sonisulconc demiasahrepaptneserpeth hpilebomfoesruocisdethin s.siylanaegaugnaldezilaicesp dothguoterweru,srohpate :hsilgn iilaiclkcy aslel itneutnemnesazilaan i ehtstomlaerews rohpatemsh afoecneuccoehtmrnocot murt enrteniethnosresueno lhgihotdetpmettaevahews. erweesehtdnaene lnoitacil , isanatnemi ewfi. emsa . srohpatemfoyteirav rniosntexenasasm ehttahttcafehtthgil issmurt etenifoegaugnla ehtosallwe dlacigolonhcetr .ydustevsinetxeottcesu ssorcdesuerasrohpatme tlcu nalhsilgne.noitatpadahsilpo anldnecosa asdantsra alucitraprs dlecitnamse cesehtrotsrehtsihsilgen how;sphoratememasheteus riehtm oavymagniname llilith dtelaersrohptaemithwdis hhcihw,sraemac,.g.e,secived httahtdewoshs siylanaruo aguganltenidnidanylalrut augn pesh boterasreusumge hsgnidnruo,suhte.agugan htiwridyams rohpatemra .rekaepsehtregaugnaldnoc ntesepreray hetn hew,rveehow .hsilopnidrownaol lillh sasenohpilebomtod neebteysatonevah seehtfoytiromeh hsilgnenoedasb,es sah singleofsrkeape e htathtedvorpe avh rehtehwotdragerh otdnetsresumurfo riheth singlen id ent filihd 6 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…16 rotsuswollasisylanasith ocsnoisserpxelacirohpatme yroehtrohpatemlautpecnco htotnithgisninaevag) ip(m itamphoratemofsseocpr slyanakrowemal aticeroeth acsrohptaemygloonhctet ath alersnoisulcnoclareveshcaer iecno het.sphoneelobimng edirohpatemehtsallewsay tazriogetacdnanoitacfiitnedieh nguaalphoneelobimong maon i nuhcraeserethginlyrednuiss est nerdtoindsslacebna foytilituehtotdeta hetofon itaptdaahe erudecorpnoitacitn ehtniytlevonf onoit gengua an,het.sreus devorpsahnektaredn dnasinamodticname 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 60 this analysis allows us to reach several conclusions related to the utility of metaphorical expressions concerning mobile phones. the adaptation of the conceptual metaphor theory as well as the metaphor identification procedure (mip) gave an insight into the identification and categorization of novelty in the process of metaphor formation among mobile phone language users. then, a theoretical framework analysis underlying the research undertaken showed that technology metaphors can be classified into different semantic domains and categorized by different dimensions. for instance, they can be used as a service description (e.g. cloud that comes from cloud computing) or a development (e.g. revolutionary or calm technology). empirical studies have confirmed that metaphor meaning depends on different levels of understanding, namely that users of mobile phones classify these themselves as either well-known, completely unfamiliar or partly identified. well-known metaphors, such as selfie stick, are commonly used even by inexperienced users posting on internet forums with basic mobile phone problems. on the other hand, less frequently used metaphors, such as big day (the time of release of a particular type of software) remain incomprehensible, as their meaning seems hazy for most mobile phone users. secondly, the literature analysis resulted in the conclusion that most mobile phone metaphor expressions were adopted directly from other fields of technology and other technology-related metaphors, such as camera shot or phishing. metaphors adapted from technology directly into the field of mobile phone language are related to both concepts and activities, as could be observed in section 2.1. lastly, polish native-speaking respondents proved to be more familiar with the polish equivalents of the metaphors, even though the difference in their knowledge of polish and english metaphors was similar. metaphor comprehension has proved to be culture-dependent, i.e. speakers of polish understand particular metaphors differently than speakers of english. this could be found by our extensive study with big data tools, which have a high potential in metaphor identification, considering previous attempts made by researchers using, e.g., wmatrix or word frequency approach, which have not proven satisfactory enough. we hope to be able to extend our research on the use of metaphors in specialized discourse such as with mobile phone forum users, and offer further analyses of other metaphors, which have indicated significant communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 61 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 61 differences in the semantic analysis of the corpora. the results could not be included in this paper due to space limitations; however, such results will probably offer a broader perspective on the issue. article history: received 29 january 2017 received in revised form 16 may 2017 accepted 17 may 2017 references dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6862 arias, j., j. gamez & j. puerta. 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(2016). “tracing topic discussions with the event-driven sir model for 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 63 dr. dorota sylwia majewicz is an assistant professor in the institute of english and american studies at the university of gdańsk, poland. her current research includes semantic aspects of natural language processing and discourse analysis of conflict management in adr (alternative dispute resolution) methods in labor and employment cases, with emphasis on international mediation processes. dr. majewicz is a certified court mediator at the regional court in gdańsk and the regional court in poznań. dr. jacek maślankowski is an assistant professor in the faculty of management at the university of gdańsk. his numerous research papers relate to text analytics applying big data in unstructured web data analysis. his more recent research interests focus on providing valuable information from human generated data, including social media communication forms. appendix 1 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6864 online forums”. journal of electronic commerce research 17,2: 169-187. yanga, h., s.h. hana & j. park. (2010). “user interface metaphors for a pda operating system”. international journal of industrial ergonomics 40,5: 517-529. yingli d., z.i. rezanova & k.s. shilyaev (2015). “metaphors for language and speech in russian and chinese: a comparative study”. procedia social and behavioral sciences 200: 574-578. communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): …-… nombre apellido(s) dr. jacek ma"lankowski is an assistant professor in the faculty of management at the university of gda!sk. his numerous research papers relate to text analytics applying big data in unstructured web data analysis. his more recent research interests focus on providing valuable information from human generated data, including social media communication forms. appendix 1 english metaphors related to mobile phones no. metaphor meaning classification 1.! rubber duck debugging explaining a programming problem to someone else, possibly even to someone who knows nothing about programming, and then hitting upon the solution in the process of explaining the problem. in describing what the code is supposed to do and observing what it actually does, any incongruity between these two becomes apparent. (silicon valley dictionary, 2017) technology 2.! application life application life cycle management (alm) is the combined coordination of various development life cycle activities, including requirements and modeling development, built and tested by: • proper enforcement of processes that cover these activities. • managing relationships between development artifacts used or produced by these activities. • creating progress reports of the complete development cycle. application life cycle management is also known as software life cycle management. (technopedia tm, 2017) nature 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 64 communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 65 communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): …-… nombre apellido(s) dr. jacek ma"lankowski is an assistant professor in the faculty of management at the university of gda!sk. his numerous research papers relate to text analytics applying big data in unstructured web data analysis. his more recent research interests focus on providing valuable information from human generated data, including social media communication forms. appendix 1 english metaphors related to mobile phones 2.! application life application life cycle management (alm) is the combined coordination of various development life cycle activities, including requirements and modeling development, built and tested by: • proper enforcement of processes that cover these activities. • managing relationships between development artifacts used or produced by these activities. • creating progress reports of the complete development cycle. application life cycle management is also known as software life cycle management. (technopedia tm, 2017) nature 3.! big day the day that something important happens <tomorrow is the big day.> (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017); the date of release of a new mobile phone/application people 4.! fat finger to accidentally press a button or key adjacent to the desired one. —a situation in which you press the wrong button by accident when you are using a computer keyboard (cambridge english dictionary, 2017) —used to refer to clumsy or inaccurate typing, typically resulting from one finger striking two keys at the same time: ‘the programming problem turned out to be a case of fat finger’ (oxford english dictionary, 2017) nature 5.! garbage in garbage out bad input data produce bad output (wrong application should be deleted). —something you say that means that something produced from materials of low quality will also be of low quality (cambridge english dictionary, 2017) —garbage in, garbage out (gigo), in the context of information technology, is a slang expression that means regardless of how nature dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… accurate a program's logic is, the results will be incorrect if the input is invalid.! —while the term is most frequently used in the context of software development, gigo can also be used to refer to any decision-making systems where failure to make right decisions with precise, accurate data could lead to wrong, nonsensical results. (technopedia, 2017) 6.! cadillac solution —an application or phone which is too expensive. a high-priced solution to a problem that may require only ingenuity/diligence (solarwinds, 2017) technology 7.! tweet —a post made on the twitter online message service (merriamwebster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017)! —to post a message, image, etc. on twitter; communicate with (someone) on twitter (oxford english dictionary, 2017) nature 8.! cloud a remote storage location. —the computers and connections that support cloud computing <storing files in the cloud> (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017) —cloud computing: the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer (oxford english dictionary, 2017) nature 9.! spam unwanted e-mail or short text message. —irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the internet, typically to a large number of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware, etc. (oxford english dictionary, 2017) —unsolicited usually commercial e-mail sent to a large number of addresses (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017) food 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 65 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6866 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… 9.! spam unwanted e-mail or short text message. —irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the internet, typically to a large number of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware, etc. (oxford english dictionary, 2017) —unsolicited usually commercial e-mail sent to a large number of addresses (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017) food 10.! navigation application menu —the science of getting ships, aircraft, or spacecraft from place to place; the method of determining position, course, and distance traveled (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017); the action of moving around a website, the internet, etc. (oxford english dictionary, 2017) technology 11.! community a group of people sharing mobile phone knowledge. —a unified body of individuals: such as people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself <the problems of a large community> —a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society <a community of retired persons> <a monastic community> (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017) people 12.! virtual community a group of people sharing the same virtual meeting place. — a community of people sharing common interests, ideas, and feelings over the internet. (oxford english dictionary, 2017) people communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): …-… 13.! virtual reality a world which exists only in electronic form. —the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors. (oxford english dictionary, 2017) —an artificial environment which is experienced through sensory stimuli (as sights and sounds) provided by a computer and in which one's actions partially determine what happens in the environment; also: the technology used to create or access a virtual reality (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017) nature 14.! cell phone —a portable usually cordless telephone for use in a cellular system (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017) —a telephone with access to a cellular radio system so it can be used over a wide area, without a physical connection to a network. (oxford english dictionary, 2017) 15.! connecting people to establish emotional connection with a person via a mobile phone. people 16.! networking a group of people. —the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions; specifically : the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business < … networking remains the no. 1 cause of job attainment … — hal lancaster> —the establishment or use of a computer network <he has extensive experience in computer networking and information security.> (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017) people 17.! social networking a group of people using social media as a communication medium. —the creation and maintenance of personal and business relationships especially online (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017)! the use of dedicated websites and applications to interact with other users, or to find people with similar interests to oneself. (oxford english dictionary, 2017) people 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 66 communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): 43-68 67 communicating with metaphors ibérica 36 (2018): …-… 17.! social networking a group of people using social media as a communication medium. —the creation and maintenance of personal and business relationships especially online (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017)! the use of dedicated websites and applications to interact with other users, or to find people with similar interests to oneself. (oxford english dictionary, 2017) people 18.! mapping to fit something into a specific pattern. —the activity or process of creating a picture or diagram that represents something. (cambridge english dictionary, 2017) —an operation that associates each element of a given set (the domain) with one or more elements of a second set (the range). (oxford english dictionary, 2017) technology 19.! cellphone era a world in which we are using mobile phones. —a period of time typical for cell phone development (authors’ definition) nature 20.! network the internet. —a large system consisting of many similar parts that are connected together to allow movement or communication between or along the parts, or between the parts and a control nature dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… centre, 2. a number of computers that are connected together so that they can share information (cambridge english dictionary, 2017)! —an interconnected or interrelated chain, group, or system <a network of hotels> —a system of computers, peripherals, terminals (see 2 terminal 5), and databases connected by communications lines; 5: usually informally interconnected group or association of persons (as friends or professional colleagues) <a support network available to single mothers> <a network of bird watchers> (merriam-webster dictionary, 2017) 21.! selfie stick a stick to facilitate taking the photo of oneself, usually taken with the front camera of the mobile phone. —a long device that you can attach to your mobile phone and use for taking a selfie (= a photograph of yourself) from a distance, so you can fit more people or things into the picture (cambridge english dictionary, 2017) nature 22.! sweetphoto the same as selfie, with the person being photographed smiling (authors’ definition) food 23.! electronic world a world in which we communicate via mobile phones or computers. —(digital world) electronic spectrum of data creation, storage, retrieval and synchronization (reverso dictionary, 2017)! —the use of digital media (facebook, twitter, instagram) in order to socialize via digital technological devices, i.e. cell phones, computers; also the use of technology for professional purposes, e.g. power point presentations or more advanced multi-media technologies (authors’ definition) nature 24.! sentiment analysis analysis of people's opinions and emotions. —the process of computationally identifying and categorizing opinions expressed in a piece of text, especially in order to determine whether the writer's attitude towards a particular topic, product, etc. is positive, negative, or neutral: (“companies have key lessons to learn about harnessing the power of social media and sentiment analysis” (oxford english dictionary, 2017) people 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 67 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek maślankowski ibérica 36 (2018): 43-6868 dorota sylwia majewicz & jacek ma!lankowski ibérica 36 (2018): …-… 25.! phishing a way sensitive data are obtained, such as user names/passwords, addresses etc. —a scam by which an e-mail user is duped into revealing personal or confidential information which the scammer can use illicitly (merriam-webster dictionary and thesaurus, 2017) — an attempt to trick someone into giving information over the internet or by email that would allow someone else to take money from them, for example by taking money out of their bank account (cambridge english dictionary, 2017) nature 02 iberica 36_iberica 13 30/10/18 7:40 página 68 iberica 13 optimizing the process of teaching english for medical purposes with the use of mobile applications: a memrise-based study. maria chojnacka frankfurt am main: peter lang, 2017. 205 pages. isbn: 9783-631-73061-4. the title of the monograph by maria chojnacka, optimizing the process of teaching english for medical purposes with the use of mobile applications: a memrise-based study, speaks for itself and points to a timely contribution to the current literature on teaching english for specific purposes (esp). the author aims to improve the teaching of english for medical purposes (emp) through an innovative pedagogical methodology, the use of a mobile application called memrise, and touches upon three important topics in the fields of applied linguistics; namely, esp pedagogy, learner autonomy, and technology-assisted language learning. this is a pioneering study exploring the effect of innovative teaching methods within esp pedagogy. according to garcia laborda and litzler’s (2015) review of the current literature, the main areas of esp teaching research include needs analysis, specialist text and discourse analysis, and curriculum development (course planning, material development and instructional methods). with regard to the latter, the efficacy of certain methodologies is yet to be explored and in chojnacka’s research, one of the research questions is precisely the effectiveness of the use of mobile technology in learning emp. the author draws on motivational theories and autonomous learning as theoretical frameworks. according to gollin-kies, hall and moore (2015), one intersection of globalization and digital technologies for language for specific purposes (lsp) research in the new century is independent or autonomous learning. chojnacka has developed a mobile learning environment that allows for self-paced autonomous learning of emp on the part of the medical students involved. she also explores the students’ change of attitude towards such an autonomous learning model, their progress in emp as a result of such a model and their evaluations. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 353-355 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 353 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 353 the book also advances knowledge of the use of technology-assisted learning in the context of emp teaching. the creation of innovative pedagogical models, such as combining new technologies with language learning, is an area to be explored further in lsp teaching (gollin-kies, hall & moore, 2015). this same opinion is also held by arnó-maciá (2012), who believes that new technologies can change lsp teaching and learning through the creation of online courses and enhancement in learner autonomy, and that the integration of new technologies into lsp for more efficient learning is one area that merits further analysis. chojnacka’s contribution is one of the pioneering efforts in integrating mobile technologies to create a virtual learning environment for emp students. the monograph is divided into six chapters. in chapter 1, the author gives a panoramic view of key concepts in teaching esp, including its singular characteristics, its methodology and research history. then chapter 2 moves on to focus upon the characteristics of emp as a specialized language or register at lexical, grammatical and discourse levels. as the theoretical foundations of the whole research project, chapter 3 draws upon motivational theories and learning autonomy in language learning research and tailors them to the use of mobile technologies to create an omnipresent mobile learning environment. based on chapter 3, chapter 4 defines mobile learning, reviews the current literature on the topic as well as on the use of technologies in esp teaching, and thoroughly describes memrise, the mobile application that helps create a mobile learning environment in the project. chapter 5 is the most important part of the monograph because it reports on a case study of using the mobile learning model in a given context. to investigate the learners’ change of attitude towards the mobile learning model, their progress in emp as a result of its application, and their evaluations, forty first-year medical students contributed to data collection through two questionnaires and preand post-tests. findings are discussed in chapter 6, together with the basic principles and design of a new educational solution to assist emp learning (mobile medical english companion). two limitations are notable in the study: firstly, the participants are first year medical students. the problem of recruiting novice students as informants is that they have very little knowledge about the subject they are going to learn and do not have enough abilities to judge their learning process. this may pose challenges to the credibility of the results. secondly, the research was set in a specific university context and only forty students were involved. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 353-355354 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 354 the very nature of case studies does not allow generalizations and extrapolations of results into other contexts. in spite of the above limitations, the current book is still worth reading, as it usefully explores the integration of mobile technologies into emp teaching and provides a good starting point for further studies in the future. therefore, i would like to recommend this monograph to scholars, teachers, advanced graduates and many others who are interested in lsp pedagogy, learner autonomy, and technology-assisted language learning. received 29 august 2018 accepted 5 october 2018 reviewed by xiangdong li xi’an international studies university, xi’an (china) xiangdong813@gmail.com references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 353-355 355 arnó-maciá, e. (2012). “the role of technology in teaching languages for specific purposes courses”. modern language journal 96(s1): 89104 garcia laborda, j., & m. f. litzler. (2015). “current perspectives in teaching english for specific purposes”. onomázein 31: 38-51. gollin-kies, s., d. hall & s. moore. (2015). language for specific purposes. new york: palgrave macmillan. 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 355 01 editorial.qxd editorial another stage opens in ibérica’s journey, this time with a new, larger editorial team that will concentrate efforts on maintaining the academic quality and international visibility that we have attained so far, as well as on upgrading the current management system and revamping the journal’s image. we are aware that the challenges lying ahead are massive, but we undertake them enthusiastically and with deep gratitude to our predecessors, who have paved the way for us, working so hard and efficiently to achieve the present publishing standards, and to the members of the editorial and advisory boards, whose expertise and constructive criticism are crucial to bring such an ambitious and exciting enterprise to fruition. the field of languages for specific purposes (lsp), both professional and academic, has undergone rapid and substantial changes over the last two decades, as new technological affordances and social needs have emerged and, alongside these, new communicative habits and phenomena, discourses, genres, intended audiences, theoretical frameworks, methodologies, subdisciplines, and research areas demanding interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives that inspire innovative pedagogies. the speed at which these changes have happened in the past few years, together with the ensuing diversification and specialization within applied linguistics, make it necessary, more than ever, that ibérica attests to the dynamism inherent in the discipline, reflects these trends and others to come, and provides an active discussion forum for scholars and professionals alike. in this joint venture i will be accompanied by my colleagues and friends dr. begoña belles fortuño (universitat jaume i, spain) and dr. ruth breeze (universidad de navarra, spain) in the directive team, and by a young group of committed editorial assistants: lucía bellés-calvera (universitat jaume i), sofía brotóns arnau and dámaso izquierdo alegría (universidad de navarra), and teresa molés cases (universitat politècnica de valència, spain). to all of them i want to express my heartfelt thanks for their keen and quick response. i am also grateful to dr. ana bocanegra valle for her editorial legacy and personal support, and feel especially indebted to the previous editor-inchief, dr. carmen pérez-llantada auría, and the whole of her team (dr. ibérica 36 (2018): 9-14 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 00 iberica 36_01 editorial.qxd 26/10/18 20:17 página 9 concepción orna montesinos, dr. ignacio guillén galve, dr. oana maria carciu and dr. diana giner alonso) for their encouragement and generosity in the almost complete management of this issue, their advice, and their involvement to ensure a smooth transition. this fall issue brings us a multilingual collection of eight articles that embody the international spirit of the journal and showcase important directions in the lsp discipline: multimodality, cognitive linguistics, terminology, corpus linguistics in its rhetorical and variationist approaches, genre analysis, and language-across-the-curriculum pedagogy. the opening article, christoph hafner’s guest contribution, explores the features, communicative context, generic structure and semiotic innovations of the video methods article (vma), a multimodal genre gaining ground in the dissemination of experimental research since the early 2000s. from a multi-perspective approach to genre analysis and drawing on mixed methods, hafner establishes connections with other digital research genres, highlights the hybrid nature of vmas and their role as engagement devices and enhancers of discoursal identity, and points to the need for training in visual design as part of esp and eap education. in the next contribution, dorota sylwia majewicz and jacek maślankowski examine the role of metaphor in cross-cultural computer-mediated communication. through big data technologies and text mining they analyse english and polish metaphorical instances from internet forums on the use of mobile phones, and conclude that metaphor coinage increases in culturally and linguistically heterogeneous environments, where the use of figurative language fulfils key cognitive functions. metaphor is viewed from a different angle in the translation-oriented study authored by carmen mateo gallego and guadalupe ruiz yepes. these scholars delve into the typology and function of metaphors in the institutional discourse of the international monetary fund’s reports in the particular context of the world economic crisis. their comparison of english source texts with their spanish and german versions reveals a need to optimise the existing translation strategies. the following article focuses on the phenomenon of explicit terminological variation in the domain of brazilian lexicography. its authors, lucimara alves costa and sabela fernández-silva, start out from modern cognitive-based terminology theories that regard term variation as intrinsic to specialized communication, and go on to consider cognitive and editorial ibérica 36 (2018): 9-1410 00 iberica 36_01 editorial.qxd 26/10/18 20:17 página 10 contextual factors such as chronological evolution, specialization, or viewpoint, as well as their potential cognitive repercussions. they finally propose a lexicographic representation of such multidimensional variation in a terminological resource traditionally underrepresented and deemed prescriptive: the specialized lexicography dictionary for learners. a further revisit to conceptual metaphor is offered by gracia piñero piñero, now in the professional arena of political discourse and drawing on the blended theoretical frameworks of cognitive linguistics and critical discourse analysis, which fruitfully complement each other. the source domain under study, deeply influenced by cultural and mental individual models, is that of theatre and spectacle, given its prominent recourse for delegitimizing public figures through the focalization of deception, pretence and imitation, and its bi-functional role as coherence device and narrative motif conveying negative emotion. through qualitative and quantitative methods, araceli cristobalena then looks into the ‘architexture’ (i.e. the macroand micro-rhetorical structure of a given text and its typical use of language) of instruction manuals for household appliances in british english and peninsular spanish. her findings evince a sort of hybrid style with characteristics of the scientific-technical and commercial registers across the two languages, although each foregrounds a different aspect of content: the british english samples appear to stress safety above any other feature, whereas the peninsular spanish ones tend to prioritise environmental impact through recycling. one more contrastive study integrates the wide array of topics contained in this issue: maría-josé luzón’s research on reporting verb variation in the citation practices of english-medium research articles. samples written by anglophone scholars are compared with others from contexts where english is an additional language, with the purpose of detecting divergences in use patterns and investigating their degree of acceptance in international publications. according to her results, the major usage differences between the two corpora concern the type of verbs (i.e. discourse, research, mental), their variety, and the frequency of certain types, and bilingual literacy and conformity to genre conventions seem to condition the patterns displayed by non-anglophone writers. the final research contribution to this issue reports on the design and implementation of an advanced course on spanish for the sciences in a editorial ibérica 36 (2018): 9-14 11 00 iberica 36_01 editorial.qxd 26/10/18 20:17 página 11 stem (i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics) college environment in the usa, with a focus on public dissemination and scholarly communication and based upon the language across the curriculum (lac) model. óscar a. pérez describes the learning scenario and the advantageous pedagogical impact of this initiative, which allows students to become responsible for their learning process and take on the role of facilitators, develop technical and soft skills, inter-relate notions and languages, question culturally-biased social conceptions of ‘science’, and take part in spanish-speaking scientific circles. the book reviews compiled here are no less stimulating and representative of today’s tendencies in lsp. in the first of them, mercedes querol julián reviews certainty and doubt in academic discourse: epistemic modality markers in english and polish linguistics articles, by krystyna warchał, a volume that promises to be extremely useful for polish academics and students disseminating their research in english as a lingua franca, linguists specialising in (epistemic) modality, and writing instructors, due to its crosscultural and cross-linguistic approach, its contextualised examples, and its overview of linguistic modality and academic discourse. elisa gironzetti evaluates escribir a través del currículum. una guía de referencia, coedited by bazerman et al., a translation into spanish of the original reference guide to writing across the curriculum (2005) and contextualised for latin american educational settings. it amply meets its goal of divulgating the wac (writing across the curriculum) movement and generating debate, and its translations afford plenty of footnotes that enrich the english version. overall, this work is likewise of unquestionable usefulness for course designers, language and content teachers, postgraduates, and educational managers. following, vicent beltrán-palanques assesses medical discourse in professional, academic and popular settings, coedited by pilar ordóñez-lópez and nuria edo-marzá. this book not only brings workplace research to the fore and informs about the traits and scenarios of the discourse of doctors and caregivers, but also helps us gain insights into how such discourse is constructed and addresses a much broader audience seldom taken into account by traditional research on this kind of specialised discourse: patients, interdisciplinary professionals and the general public. these three social groups receive, process and evaluate the discourse of health workers, which along this book’s chapters is scrutinized from a myriad of captivating editorial ibérica 36 (2018): 9-1412 00 iberica 36_01 editorial.qxd 26/10/18 20:17 página 12 standpoints and approaches. they comprise its evolution towards interactivity, metaphor use across genres and in the discourse of mindfulness, contrasts between expert and lay genres, the cultural and conceptual asymmetries between experts and discipline outsiders, stylistic adequacy, identity construction through medical narratives, and the relationship between writer affiliation and rhetorical positioning. the fourth and last review, by mirela bardi, underlines the critical sociopragmatic spin of the work coedited by maría ángeles orts llopis, ruth breeze and maurizio gotti, entitled power, persuasion and manipulation in specialised genres: providing keys to the rhetoric of professional communities. it merges genre theory and the contextual and linguistic study of disciplinary cultures and specialised languages to dissect the social reality, with respect to the phenomena of manipulation and persuasion, pictured by professional discourses. (de)legitimisation and the expression and influences of communicative purpose, ideology and power cross-cut an extensive range of purposes (e.g. strictly informative, promotional, conflict-solving), discourses (e.g. institutional, organisational, disciplinary, of the mass media), genres (some as infrequent as surrogacy websites and aircraft-accident aviation dockets) and discursive phenomena (e.g. appropriation and hybridisation). i do not want to conclude this editorial without making grateful acknowledgement, also on behalf of the former editor-in-chief, to all the scholars who have collaborated in the peer-review process of the articles included in this issue. the in-house reviewers who have participated are, in alphabetical order, rafael alejo (universidad de extremadura, spain), maría luisa carrió (universitat politècnica de valència, spain), claus-peter neumann (universidad de zaragoza, spain), and lourdes pomposo (universidad camilo josé cela, spain). also mentioned alphabetically, the external reviewers who devoted their knowledge and time to this fall issue are: elisabet arnó (universitat politècnica de catalunya, spain) mª teresa cabré (universitat pompeu fabra, spain) emma dafouz (universidad complutense de madrid, spain) marisa díez arroyo (universidad de oviedo, spain) mercedes eurrutia (universidad de murcia, spain) inmaculada fortanet (universitat jaume i, spain) maria lluïsa gea-valor (universitat de valència, spain) sara gesuato (università degli studi di padova, italy) editorial ibérica 36 (2018): 9-14 13 00 iberica 36_01 editorial.qxd 26/10/18 20:17 página 13 joyce kling (københavens universitet, denmark) mª carmen lario de oñate (universidad de cádiz, spain) david lasagabaster (universidad del país vasco/euskal herriko unibertsitatea, spain) carmen lópez ferrero (universitat pompeu fabra, spain) maría de la nava maroto (universidad politécnica de madrid, spain) pedro martín martín (universidad de la laguna, spain) josé joaquín martínez egido (universidad de alicante, spain) giovanni parodi (pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso, chile) giulia adriana pennisi (università degli studi di palermo, italy) javier pérez guerra (universidade de vigo, spain) christine räisänen (chalmers tekniska högskola/chalmers university of technology, sweden) noelia ruiz madrid (universitat jaume i, spain) inmaculada sanz álava (universitat politècnica de valència, spain) gail taillefer (université toulouse 1 capitole, france) shona whyte (université nice sophia antipolis, france) severine wozniak (université grenoble alpes, france) last, but by no means least, i must give thankful recognition to the reviewers who have recently had to leave our editorial board after years of invaluable service: elena bárcena (universidad nacional de educación a distancia, spain), rosa giménez (universitat de valència, spain) and marisol velasco (universidad de valladolid, spain), and my warmest welcome to cristina calle (universidad camilo josé cela, spain) and carmen pérez sabater (universitat politècnica de valència, spain) as new members. i trust that scholars, practitioners, students and experts from any field interested in specialised communication will find this issue thoughtprovoking and discover in it inspiration to underpin their own research and professional routines. carmen sancho guinda universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) iberica@aelfe.org editor-in-chief of ibérica editorial ibérica 36 (2018): 9-1414 00 iberica 36_01 editorial.qxd 26/10/18 20:17 página 14 engagement in professional genres carmen sancho guinda (ed.). amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins publishing company, 2019. 373 pages. isbn 9789027202185 and 9789027262943. the notion of engagement is a broad concept that explains how writers rhetorically acknowledge the presence of the readers in their text. based on the bakhtinian view that all verbal communication is dialogic (1982), the study of engagement centres on the different forms of interaction that take place through text. when a writer tells a story or sets out an argument, he/she uses a range of strategies to involve readers. this often means drawing on shared beliefs and experiences, making use of arguments that peers could recognize as effective, and bearing the interests, background knowledge and expectations of readers in mind. consideration of engagement also focuses on discursive features such as the use of pronouns, hedging or boosting, and modality, which shape the relationship between writer and reader. in the case of professional groups, engagement is particularly interesting in what it reveals about how this community, the relationships within it, and its activities are conceptualized and materialized discursively. focusing specifically on engagement in professional discourses, this volume is divided into two main sections with a total of eighteen chapters. in the first section, the authors present specialized studies of engagement in monomodal professional genres while the second section is centered on intersemiotic genres. the chapters explore the potential for engagement in a range of professional and academic genres, shedding new light on the way engagement is materialized in face-to-face, computer-mediated, and multimodal communication contexts. the introductory chapter by the editor carmen sancho guinda explores the concept of metadiscursive engagement, providing an overview of research on this field and addressing the personal and interpersonal assumptions that underlie it. sancho focuses on the idea of ‘di(stance)’ related to engagement and establishes connections among the diverse contributions of the whole volume, presenting a clear picture of engagement seen from different reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 266-269 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 266 perspectives. importantly, this introductory chapter contextualizes research on metadiscursive engagement, bringing together the three theoretical frameworks used in the volume, that is, the appraisal system, hyland’s metadiscourse model and multimodality. the first section of this volume has seven chapters covering topics ranging from news to legal and healthcare communication. in chapter 2, feng jiang and xiaohao ma compare authorial identity and engagement with the reader in expert and novice academic writing, finding a greater range and degree of engagement in the former. chapter 3, by maría luisa carrió-pastor, draws attention to a genre that for practical reasons is rarely studied, namely business emails written by managers, comparing messages written in english by spanish and chinese businesspeople. she finds that spanish writers use more attitude and engagement markers, and try harder to include readers in the discourse, while chinese writers tend to be very concise and avoid relational elements. chapter 4, by anne mccabe and isabel alonso belmonte, uses appraisal for a detailed textual investigation of how news articles align readers ideologically despite an outward display of strict neutrality. in the next chapter, yvonne mclaren-hankin examines press releases addressing customer complaints in the banking sector, showing how one bank seeks to transmit ability and benevolence to reshape its relationship with dissatisfied clients. following on from this, michele sala’s chapter on “interrogative engagement” as a pragmatic and textual function in academic law papers demonstrates how questions are used strategically to align readers to the writer’s position and nudge them towards the desired interpretation. he stresses the high frequency of interrogative resources in legal research compared with academic papers in other areas, explaining their special role in guiding information processing and persuading readers in this context. chapter 7 turns to how patients engage doctors in healthcare. experts robyn woodward-kron, emily wilson and jane gall examine the contributions of patients as co-participants in patient-centered care by studying 15 audio-recorded doctor-patient consultations from a general practice in australia. stressing the importance of conceiving the relation patient-doctor as an alliance, these authors highlight the importance of treating the patient as a person rather than a disease, emphasizing the construction of ‘relationship-centered care’ as a better way of explaining collaboration between patients and doctors. the last chapter in section one is by belinda crawford-camiciottoli, who extends her work elsewhere on reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 266-269 267 earnings conference calls (crawford-camiciottoli, 2019), this time through an analysis of engagement in this context. the second section of this volume is composed of ten chapters including studies on visual-verbal intersemiosis, engagement in video, verbal and nonverbal engagement devices, multimodal engagement in online science news, gestural silence, organizational metadiscourse across lecturing styles and client engagement in tourism. in chapter 9, daniel lees fryer addresses the interplay of visual-verbal resources in an online medical research article, developing an interstratal approach (i.e. top-down and bottom-up) to understanding interaction with readers. chapter 10, by jan engberg and carmen daniela maier, also looks at academic user engagement and knowledge construction processes, this time in the context of video articles from the journal of visualized experiments (hafner, 2018). in chapter 11, ‘recruitment websites and the socialization of new employees’, ruth breeze uses the appraisal framework to analyse the system of engagement operating multimodally in the recruitment and careers websites of twenty high-profile companies. she illustrates how text and multimodal messages are deployed to shape employees’ feelings and expectations, balancing positive presentations of the company with positive qualities associated with those who want to work there, and proposing suitable roles and attitudes to be adopted by novice employees. still in a business context, mercedes díez prados then turns to the “elevator pitch” in a chapter on engagement devices in persuasive discourse that combines linguistic approaches from appraisal with analysis of non-verbal signs. returning to the area of science, in chapter 13 yiqiong zhang looks at engagement on a science communication website, showing the increasing importance of multimodal resources in the move towards “scifotainment” over a period of four years. interestingly, the next three chapters revolve around the theme of silence or non-engagement. ismael arinas pellón’s chapter looks at the absence of references to readers and drafters in the patent genre, while chlöe fogartybourget, natasha artemeva and janna fox develop the theme of “gestural silence” and explore its communicative functions in university mathematics classes. the third of these chapters, by mercedes querol-julián and blanca arteaga-martínez, analyses silence and engagement in the multimodal genre of lectures delivered through real-time videoconferencing, emphasizing the importance of multimodal strategies to repair silences in response to teachers’ questions or while interacting with course materials. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 266-269268 the next chapter, by edgar bernad-mechó and inmaculada fortanetgómez, builds on their previous multimodal research on university teaching, distinguishing three approaches to lecturing, which they term a “reading style”, a “conversational style” and a “rhetorical style”. these styles can be distinguished through the differential use of semiotic resources and can be arranged along a continuum from low to high modal density. the final chapter, by francisca suau-jiménez, returns to the theme of engagement in customer communication, and uses material from the cometval corpus to investigate e-genres in tourism in english and spanish. the chapters in this volume bear witness to the potential of engagement in very diverse areas and in combination with various other approaches to shed light on a range of professional and academic genres. it illustrates how the principled study of engagement can provide fascinating insights into writer-reader and speaker-listener relations. as for research, this volume can be considered as a follow up work of the author’s and hyland’s book stance and voice in written academic genres (2012). the main contribution of the present volume consists in bringing the so far scarce and disperse research on engagement together and expanding its definition with notions such as proximisation, detachment, distance and stancetaking. besides, new variables (such as placement of images, sound, humour, deixis, titles, headings and emojis) are explored and authors pinpoint some current challenges and emerging issues in applying the concept of engagement. by and large, for esp researchers and practitioners and for students of applied linguistics, this book opens up new fields of inquiry and should provide an inspiration for further research. received 13 april 2022 accepted 05 may 2022 reviewed by sofía brotóns & pilar gerns institute for culture and society (ics), university of navarra mgerns@unav.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 266-269 269 bakhtin, m. (1982). the dialogic imagination. university of texas press. crawford-camiciottoli, b. (2019). multimodality and financial communication: the case of earnings calls. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 37, 17-38. hafner, c. (2018). genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly communication: video methods articles in experimental biology. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 36, 15-42. sancho guinda, c. & hyland, k. (2012). stance and voice in written academic genres. palgrave macmillan. iberica 13 ibérica 32 (2016): 15-34 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper addresses academic disciplinary writing practices, and how these are affected by changes in the landscape of higher education in the uk. after exploring the definition and understanding of the notion of “discipline”, the paper presents research from an esrc-funded research project studying academics’ everyday writing practices, working closely with academics across different disciplines and different kinds of higher education institutions. the changing context of higher education in the uk is presented, in particular the emergence of new kinds of managerial practices which shape and co-ordinate the everyday writing work of academics. the paper shows that while some disciplines, such as history and pure mathematics, are associated with clearlydefined writing practices, others are more diverse. it discusses how managerial practices, particularly those driven by centralised national research evaluations, affect different disciplines in different ways. keywords: academic writing; managerialism; higher education; literacy practices; history; mathematics. resumen l a e s c r itu ra e n l as d is c ip l in as : l a p ro du c c i ón de l c ono c i mie n to di s c i pl i na r e n e l c o nt e xto c ont e mp or án e o de l a e d uc a c i ón s u pe r io r este artículo analiza las prácticas de escritura académica disciplinares y la manera en la que dichas prácticas están condicionadas por los cambios actuales de la educación superior en el reino unido. en primer lugar, definimos el concepto de “disciplina”, para posteriormente presentar los planteamientos de un proyecto de investigación financiado por la esrc que estudia las prácticas writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge in the context of contemporary higher education karin tusting and david barton lancaster university (uk) k.tusting@lancaster.ac.uk & d.barton@lancaster.ac.uk 15 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 15 ibérica 32 (2016): 15-34 k. tusting & d. barton cotidianas de escritura de los académicos, trabajando con ellos en distintas disciplinas y en distintas instituciones de educación superior. a continuación describimos el cambiante contexto de la educación superior en el reino unido, prestando especial atención a los nuevos tipos de prácticas de gestión que configuran y coordinan las prácticas de escritura de los académicos. el artículo muestra cómo algunas disciplinas, como historia y matemáticas puras, están asociadas a prácticas de escritura muy bien definidas y cómo en otras las prácticas son diversas. también valora las prácticas de gestión académica, en concreto, las dependientes de procesos centrales de evaluación de la investigación, tienen impacto diferente en las diferentes disciplinas. palabras clave: escritura académica: actividades de gestión; educación superior; prácticas de literacidad; historia; matemáticas. 1. introduction a central aspect of the field of languages for specific purposes is to address the patterns and practices of language usage within particular academic disciplines. disciplinary knowledge is constituted in research texts such as journal articles and monographs, but also in teaching, through social media, in research funding bids, in articulations produced for accountability requirements, and in the myriad of other written genres academics engage with and produce. this paper addresses how disciplinary writing practices are affected by changes in the contemporary context of higher education. drawing on data from a uk-based research project, funded by the economic and social research council, it asks specifically how changes in managerial practices, in relation to research and teaching practices, are reshaping the kinds of writing which take place within particular disciplines, in varying ways. 2. what is a discipline? in order to address this question, we must first ask what we mean when we talk about “a discipline”. generally speaking, academic disciplines refer to a particular area of subject knowledge, which is studied and developed by a particular group of academics. disciplines have recognised histories, traditions and intellectual lineages, as well as recognised areas of conflict and debate. disciplines are associated with recognised practices for data or source collection and analysis, and also with specific forms of writing – 16 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 16 established genres and discourses for conveying the knowledge created by the discipline, which are structured in recognisable ways. we return to this topic later. disciplines can be identified at a range of levels, and there is often debate over what constitutes a specific discipline, what is a subdiscipline, and alternatively what is a “field of knowledge” which might draw on the tools and body of knowledge of several other disciplines. fields defined by a specific empirical topic in the social sciences are often positioned in this way – think of gender studies, or educational research. disciplines, and the relationships between them, are not fixed, and change over time. very few of them are unproblematic and boundaries are often disputed. individual academics may locate themselves as being more central or more peripheral to a given discipline, and this can change depending on the context they are situated in and the stage they are at in their trajectory of intellectual development. there is clearly a relationship between the area and nature of the knowledge a discipline is aiming to develop, and the practices that discipline is associated with. becher and trowler (2001) make this the central plank of their argument in tribes and territories, which suggests that the nature of the knowledge structures in academic disciplines, “the territories”, shapes the behaviour and values of the academic “tribes” who make them up. trowler (2012: 9) has built on this work more recently to develop a more nuanced social practice approach, which accounts for the similarities within disciplines, and the differences both within and between them. within this model, people are carriers of social practices, patterns of behaviour and ways of knowing drawn from broader reservoirs; and disciplines are enacted as people perform these practices. disciplines provide the reservoirs of knowledge resources, both about the topic(s) under study within the discipline, and about ways of creating knowledge about this topic which students are inducted into: regularised discourses, ways of thinking, research and writing procedures, emotional responses and motivations. individuals draw on this reservoir in their biographical trajectory, putting together individualised repertoires which make up their own embodied instantiation of the discipline. groups of people who work together, whether in departments and institutions or as research and writing collaborators, build up shared repertoires by drawing on these disciplinary reservoirs of knowledge resources in their everyday practices. this explains why disciplines emerge with different characteristics in different institutional locations. practitioners share a degree of common background knowledge writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge ibérica 32 (2016): 15-34 17 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 17 about key figures, conflicts, and achievements within the discipline, and of course individuals within the discipline can adopt rather differing positions in relation to such conflicts and achievements. and disciplines have organisational forms, hierarchies, and power structures. this social practice model helps to explain how different individuals can recognisably be members of the same discipline but also have rather different collections of and orientations towards knowledge resources. and it enables us to talk about disciplines in terms of shared ways of doing things, as well as shared understandings and knowledge resources. this paper focuses on the shared ways of doing writing associated with particular disciplines, and the different ways in which the introduction of external managerialist strategies impacts on some aspects of these ways of writing. 3. disciplines and written communication the social practices of disciplines include shared ways of using language. within applied linguistics a significant amount of attention has been paid both to developing theories of discipline which are oriented to language use, and to describing the language practices associated with particular disciplines. the notion of discourse communities was developed by swales (1990) to label the distinctive kinds of communities characterised by shared communication towards the achievement of common purposes – “sociorhetorical networks that form in order to work towards sets of common goals” (swales, 1990: 9). these networks may include people who never meet and interact face to face but nevertheless participate in the communicative practices of the community. discourse communities share distinctive genres, practices, and uses of time and space, and their shared purposes are achieved through interaction – spoken and written. while this concept may be applied to many different kinds of communities, from internet forums to stamp collectors, it has been extensively drawn on, by swales and others, to characterise academic disciplines, whose shared purposes and goals relate to building and testing knowledge about a particular subject or topic area. written communication is central to membership of and participation in these academic discourse communities. as flowerdew and wang (2015: 82) k. tusting & d. barton ibérica 32 (2016): 15-3418 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 18 state, “in the field of academic research and higher education, textual production is at the core of negotiating the interactive relationships among the members of academic communities”. face to face spoken interaction is of course important too, in interacting with local colleagues, research collaborators and co-writers, and members of the more extended discourse community, at conferences and other academic meeting places. but it is through written communication that the body of knowledge which forms the discipline’s reservoir of knowledge resources is built up. engaging in written communication within a discourse community requires shared knowledge of the genres and discourses which are drawn on by that community. scholars of academic writing have developed a range of ways to characterise this shared knowledge. bhatia (2004) highlights the different “genre sets” associated with different disciplines. berkenkotter and huckin (1995) argue that knowledge of the different genres of a community and the ways in which these are used in distinctive ways should be considered a kind of situated cognition, embedded in and shaped by the other kinds of activities associated with that discipline. much of hyland’s influential work in this area has characterised specific patterns of language use associated with particular disciplines. for example, his recent corpusand interviewbased study (hyland, 2012) identified distinctive patterns of interpersonal features of language, such as self-mention, stance, and positioning, in different disciplines. he explained these in relation to the distinctive writerreader relationships seen to be appropriate in the attempt to achieve persuasion in writing within these different disciplinary communities. naturally enough, the patterns identified by research in this tradition have served as the basis of pedagogical materials for students apprenticing into the discourse practices of different disciplines (see, for example, nesi & gardner, 2012 for a corpus-based approach to this). indeed, such work forms the basis for the field of languages for specific purposes. so it is clear from the above brief review that academic disciplines are constructed and maintained through language practices, particularly written language practices, and that different disciplines are associated with different kinds of language practices. these language practices are engaged in by scholars working in particular institutional settings, associated with specific historical configurations of context and pressure which change over time. the rest of this paper explores the question, how are practices of written communication associated with particular disciplines affected by changes writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge ibérica 32 (2016): 15-34 19 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 19 and transformations in the contemporary context of higher education as a workplace? 4. research and methods the paper draws on research carried out as part of the project “the dynamics of knowledge creation: academics’ writing practices in the contemporary university workplace”, at lancaster university, funded by the economic and social research council in the uk1. we are approaching academics’ writing from a practice point of view. the two principal theoretical framings which inform the project are, broadly speaking, a literacy studies perspective and a sociomaterial perspective. the literacy studies perspective means that we are interested in writing as something that people do, shaped by their contexts, life histories, resources and experiences, situated within historical dynamics and power relationships, best studied by spending time with people, observing what they do with reading and writing, and interviewing them to understand their perspectives and experiences (see barton & hamilton 2001; barton, 2007). the sociomaterial perspective means that we are particularly focused on understanding how social and material resources are networked together to construct writing practices, and how the nature of writing practices is shaped by resources like space, material tools used in writing, and the impact of digital resources on people’s writing practices (fenwick et al., 2011). we are approaching academic writing as a workplace practice, shaped by the particularities of the contemporary context. so we are interested in all the different kinds of writing that people do on a day to day basis. rather than privileging scholarly writing, we have been examining the relationships between the multiple kinds of writing academics engage in. we view knowledge production as including writing for teaching, administrative, “impact” and publicity purposes, in addition to the traditional research genres of monograph and journal article. the aim is to understand whether and how such practices are being influenced by aspects of the contemporary context of higher education which have changed significantly in recent years. k. tusting & d. barton ibérica 32 (2016): 15-3420 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 20 5. higher education in the uk higher education in the united kingdom, which was historically the province of a small elite, has expanded vastly since the mid-1980s – the so-called “massification” of both teaching and research. this massification has changed the nature of the everyday work carried out by academics, and the relationships between students and academic staff. the introduction of student fees in england, wales and northern ireland in 1998, and particularly the increase in fees to up to £9000 a year from 2010 onwards, have been associated with universities adopting a more marketised presentation of themselves, with more centralised assessment of the quality of teaching, increased weighting given to student satisfaction, and a more consumerised model of what it is to be a university student. funding for research, always competitive, has become more so, particularly with the introduction of centralised research evaluations (on which, more later). academics are being encouraged to become increasingly entrepreneurial in their approach to their own research careers, working on portfolios of short-term projects more as “managed professionals” than as autonomous intellectuals. such shifts mean that universities as a whole become increasingly complex in their organisation. in some institutions, this has led to a greater separation than has historically been the case between teaching and research (whitchurch, 2010; trowler, 2012). such transformations are inevitably associated with changes in the working practices of those who experience them. the research drawn on in this paper focuses on academics’ writing practices, asking whether changes in the overall context of higher education are influencing these writing practices, and what the implications of these changes might be. questions explored by the project include: 1. how are academics’ writing practices shaped by socio-material aspects of their situation? (tools, resources, space and place, time, social networks) 2. how are digital communications technologies shaping these practices? 3. how are managerial practices in higher education institutions shaping and co-ordinating writing work? 4. are there any changes to academic professional and scholarly identities as a result of these changing practices? writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge ibérica 32 (2016): 15-34 21 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 21 this paper focuses particularly on question 3. the design for data collection reflects our view that such changes in universities are playing out differently in different kinds of universities, and in different disciplines. the university sector in the united kingdom is quite diverse, and can be analysed in different ways. throughout most of the 20th century, the higher education sector was split into “universities”, which focused on research and the provision of academic degrees, and “polytechnics” and “technical colleges” which provided more vocational and applied education. after changes in legislation in 1992, these polytechnics and technical colleges were able to apply to become universities, with their own degree-awarding powers, and most of them did so. they often remain strong in vocational areas, often have a greater proportion of their income coming from teaching than the “older” universities, and tend to be less focused on research overall, although many of them are strong in research in specific areas. these are known as the “post-1992” or “new” universities. another common way of grouping the universities is to follow the universities’ own “mission groups”, strategic groupings which institutions have set up through agreements between one another, designed to provide status and give institutions a significant voice in policy decisions. the “russell group” of universities positions itself as the most prestigious of these mission groups, bringing together universities which are large, research-intensive, and lay claim to being the top universities in the country. however, there are many research-intensive universities of high quality and recognised reputation which do not form part of the russell group. some of these used to be part of an alternative grouping, the “1994 group”, but this disbanded in 2013. the post-1992 universities also have their own mission groups, to represent their interests in policy and resourcing debates, such as the “million+”, highlighting the numbers of people educated by these institutions, and “university alliance”, highlighting their strong links with business and industry. a third way in which universities are grouped is to associate them with the historical period of their establishment. there have been some key moments in the history of the uk in which universities have increased in number. the “ancient” universities, instituted in medieval times, are relatively few, wealthy, and highly prestigious (oxford and cambridge in england). the “red-brick” and “civic” universities refer to universities established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, usually in industrial cities. the “1960s” or “plate-glass” k. tusting & d. barton ibérica 32 (2016): 15-3422 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 22 universities emerged in a doubling of the numbers of universities in the 1960s, and are often located on their own campuses. they share similarities of architecture and, historically at least, tended to be associated with more radical ideologies of education. finally, we have seen how the post-1992 universities were established from polytechnics and technical colleges. there are also other distinctions which can be made – between larger and smaller institutions, for instance, or between campus and urban universities – all of which influence the everyday working and writing practices of the academics concerned. in the project reported on here, we chose to work with academics in three universities. one of them is a more teaching-intensive post-1992 institution, in an urban setting. the other two are more research-intensive. one of these is a smaller 1960s university, located on a greenfield campus outside a small, historic city. the other is a larger, red-brick, russell group institution, located in a large post-industrial city. the other line of distinction in the project is between disciplines. as we have already established, disciplines have their own distinctive writing practices. while disciplines are often grouped together for administrative purposes (the arts and humanities disciplines; the social sciences; the science, technology, engineering and mathematics or stem disciplines; the professional/applied disciplines), in fact the writing practices of disciplines within each of these broad groupings can be very different, a point made lucidly by swales (1998). in the arts and humanities, for example, the practices of a literature scholar differ greatly from those of a scholar of the fine arts. in the sciences, a botanist engages in very different practices from a particle physicist. however, choices had to be made in order to carry out in-depth research with individuals which would be comparable across institutions. to get a range of approaches we chose to work with mathematics as a stem discipline, history as a humanity, and marketing as a professional/applied discipline, at the same time carrying out autoethnographic work and pilot work in the social sciences as the area in which we are located and which we know the best. working with 3 disciplines in 3 different universities provided us with nine case study sites for the research. we worked closely with academics in these case study sites. initially there were 16 focal participants across the 9 sites who were interviewed in 3 ways, with a walk-around interview focusing on their job and immediate surroundings, then with a techno-biographic writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge ibérica 32 (2016): 15-34 23 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 23 interview about their histories of writing and technology use, and thirdly a day-in-the-life interview focussing on the writing carried out on specific days and at particular times. recordings were made of their writing processes, using screen-capture software (camtasia), and their colleagues, line managers and administrative staff in the department were interviewed to provide a broader context for their data and to test out emerging findings. overall, 54 participants were interviewed as part of the main study, in addition to the auto-ethnographic records of the research team and pilot interviews carried out in the social sciences. data collected from the project was imported into atlas.ti qualitative analysis software, and coded following a coding scheme which was initially based on the research questions of the project as outlined above, and then became more complex as further ideas and concepts emerged through working with the data. our emerging ideas were discussed at dissemination meetings in three university sites, testing out and deepening our understandings. 6. disciplinary writing practices within our dataset, each of the disciplines we worked with were clearly defined by very specific writing practices. the historians that we spoke to tended to orient to a very clear narrative about what were the important kinds of writing for them, as historians. this is expressed eloquently by rebecca2, a lecturer working at a research-intensive university, who said, “for most historians, including myself i think, that’s the bit that we enjoy the most, is the actual writing of the history”. the way the process is expressed here is interesting. as a historian, she does not talk about herself as writing about history, but actually writing the history. this practice of “writing the history” involved individuals spending time in archives, working through historical source material, and eventually writing single-authored texts on the basis of that careful historical work. it is through this historical writing that the discipline is being continually brought into being, and this is the centrally meaningful task of them, as historians. nevertheless, not all of our historian participants described themselves and their own work as fitting this model. d. blue, a senior academic with a background in history, accepted the idea of writing history but now located himself more in cultural studies, and tended to draw on the work of other k. tusting & d. barton ibérica 32 (2016): 15-3424 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 24 historians rather than doing archival work himself. however, he recognized that for some, this could identify him as not being a “proper” historian. he recognised that “the historians will always say, ‘oh gosh, you didn’t find this document yourself, how do you know about it?’ i’ll always say, ‘well, i’m trusting the historian’”. he characterises himself now as an interdisciplinary scholar, but he recognises that this shift leaves him in a more vulnerable position in terms of his own intellectual identity: “working interdisciplinarily means that there are always people there ready to shoot you down”. one particular genre is privileged in this production of history as a discipline: the scholarly monograph, described by rebecca as “the heavyweight, solely authored piece of research work, which is usually the result of years of research in archives”, destined to be read by a “very small group of other academics”. there was a clear tendency to work alone, rather than to work collaboratively. verity, a senior academic historian, told us, “there’s quite a high premium on the monograph that literally is a monograph, so written by a sole author”. the format of historical writing is also quite specific, with for instance the use of long footnotes being characteristic, serving as evidence of the careful work with sources and extensions of the primary argument. verity had an especial dread of encountering publishers who insisted on the use of the harvard system of referencing. pure mathematics is another discipline in our data in which research participants described very specific practices. pure mathematics as a discipline has the mathematical proof at its heart. our participants explained to us the writing practices that they engaged in, which were designed to carefully test out the logic of the proof step by step. most of them described a practice of switching between scribbling on paper and writing things up on the computer, carefully testing out the logic of the proof at each point. ian, a lecturer in the 1960s plate glass institution, explained the process: you start off with scribbled bits of paper, and once you think you can prove a statement is true you put it down on the computer. “then as you’re going through the different steps that are required to prove that, in the process of doing that you might realise, ‘oh well this bit that in my head i thought was easy is not as easy as i imagined’. so that then requires you to input an awful lot of extra detail and so on, or to go back and start scribbling more on the paper and so on”. all of this required silence and focus; as ian explained, “maths is a solitary activity”. some of our interview questions were around changes to work writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge ibérica 32 (2016): 15-34 25 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 25 space in institutions, including the introduction of open-plan offices. the mathematicians had disciplinary objections to this idea; as gareth, a senior academic, explained, “the staff would react horrifically to open-plan, because it’s all about quiet thinking. if you’re trying to think technical mathematics, you do really need quiet”. however, despite the focus on detailed individual work to develop proofs, while most mathematics articles were sole-authored until the 1990s, our participants reported far more collaborative papers being published more recently, with the advent of digital communication making collaborative work more possible. still, the actual doing of the mathematics remained largely a solitary activity. the professional mathematics writing process of testing the logical sequence of steps of a proof was reflected in the writing practices associated with teaching in this area. the characteristic practice of teaching pure mathematics was to use large boards – traditionally blackboards, though whiteboards and visualisers were also in use by our participants – and to write out the argument, the various lemmas and proofs being taught, step by step, talking the students through each step and the logical connections between them. the temporality of this was important. the time it took to write out the steps on the board and to talk the students through each step was seen as providing the necessary and appropriate pace for students to follow and appreciate the logic as it was being built up, and to test out each step in their own minds. the spatial aspects of this presentation were also key. powerpoint was not seen as being a particularly useful tool for teaching in this area, because of the limited space available on a powerpoint slide. with a board, students had the entire sequence of steps in the proofs visible to them throughout and so could easily refer back to particular steps as and when this was necessary. while history and pure mathematics were associated with clearly-defined writing practices, other disciplines we worked with had much less clear-cut disciplinary writing practices. both marketing and the more applied areas of mathematics displayed a much more diverse range of subject areas, genres, and writing practices, and the same was true of the social sciences represented in our auto-ethnographic and pilot work. k. tusting & d. barton ibérica 32 (2016): 15-3426 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 26 7. strategic management of research writing the first area in which the changing context of higher education was directly affecting our participants’ workplace writing practices was in the area of research writing. since the 1980s, universities in the uk have been subject to regular research evaluation exercises in which departments (or, rather, units, disciplinary groupings that normally map onto departments to some extent) are competitively ranked according to the quality of their research, and centralised research funding budgets are allocated according to the results of these assessments, with the more highly-ranked institutions receiving proportionately greater amounts of funding. the 2014 research excellence framework (ref) evaluation judged units according to a selection of four research outputs from each individual academic; an account of the research environment; and case studies of the social and economic impact resulting from selected research emerging from that unit. research outputs (publications) are read by a panel of peer experts in the field, and are ranked between one and four stars on criteria of originality, significance and rigour, with four stars indicated a “world-leading” publication and one star being work that is “recognised nationally” (http://www.ref.ac.uk/panels/ assessmentcriteriaandleveldefinitions/). the 2020 ref is thought likely to adopt a similar approach. with centralised research income being a significant source of income, particularly for the more research-intensive universities, most uk academic institutions have adopted strategies for managing research and researchers which are intended to maximise the institution’s performance in the ref. these vary depending on the institution, and there is of course a delicate balancing-act here where interference with academic freedom is still seen as something to be avoided. but strategies which reward and encourage publication in particular kinds of venues (usually high-impact-factor international journals), publications of particular types, an appropriate number of research publications in a six-year period, and mechanisms to support and encourage the social and economic impact of research are common. overall strategies in this area, set by senior university management, would usually be mediated through management at the more local level of the department or faculty. these managerial pressures affect the different disciplines in our dataset in different ways. we have already seen the dominant valuing in history of the single-authored monograph, based on extensive amounts of time invested in writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge ibérica 32 (2016): 15-34 27 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 27 archival research. the historians in our dataset felt that this very particular disciplinary writing practice was not really appreciated within the dominant managerialist strategies of higher education, for at least two reasons. firstly, as a discipline which valued the single-authored monograph, they felt that history was placed at a disadvantage given the structure of the ref in comparison to other disciplines where people would routinely be producing many collaboratively-authored journal articles. rebecca, an established academic in history, felt that: “we would turn it round and say, ‘well, other disciplines, they’re well-practiced in collaborative work, for example, and they can churn out lots and lots of one page, two page, five page articles, all of which apparently carry some sort of research weight or scholarly weight. whereas we are more attuned to working on our own, and locking ourselves away in a little room for years on end, burrowing away in these archives to produce a piece of work’”. she felt that a result of institutional strategies adopted as a result of the ref, “we are being stretched away from the monograph”. secondly, the introduction of the “social and economic impact” criterion in the ref was felt to disadvantage history and historians. the purpose of writing history was not, for many of our historians, seen as being one of making direct social and economic impact. james, at another researchintensive institution, who was teaching and researching marketing but identified as a historian by training, explained that “impact, capital i, in ref terms is not something that i worry all that much about i guess. [...] part of that is because i was trained as a historian. historians don’t set out to change people’s lives in the same way that a social worker might, even here in the school a marketing person might do”. and rebecca felt that there was an implicit equation made between the amount of time taken to produce a particular written output, and the social and economic impact which it “should” generate. “people don’t appreciate the amount of work that goes into it, the length of time it takes. if it takes that much time to produce, then they want it to be proportionately more impactful”. the cumulative effect of these changes was, for rebecca, an assault on the writing which essentially constituted the knowledge production of her discipline; because “[the monograph] is regarded as the core part of our discipline, what it is to write history […] is under attack”. other disciplines were affected by managerialist pressures in different ways. in marketing, there was no single dominant genre like the historical k. tusting & d. barton ibérica 32 (2016): 15-3428 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 28 monograph, and the ref requirement to produce four high-quality outputs in six years was not unreasonable in quantity, in a discipline where people expected to be producing journal articles regularly. and in an applied discipline, where academic work often emerged from consultancy or other relationships with business and industry, the impact agenda was not described as a threat in the same way. the pressures encountered by our participants in marketing were of a different kind, focusing on the particular venue of publication rather than the genre. our participants in marketing were acutely aware of an influential journal ranking list produced by the chartered association of business schools, the “academic journal guide”. this “cabs list” ranks journals in the broad area of business and management studies, giving journals a rating of between one and four stars, depending on peer review, expert judgement, and citation information (https://charteredabs.org/academic-journal-guide2015/). these star ratings do not map directly onto the ratings which the ref places on research outputs. it cannot be assumed that a publication in a four-star journal will necessarily be rated by the ref panel as world-leading. however, in the way our participants talked about journal articles in interviews, publication in threeand four-star journals was clearly being used as a proxy for producing threeand four-star ref outputs. emma, an early career lecturer at a research intensive institution, explained that successfully achieving probation required her to publish at least two articles “at three star”. diane, a senior academic in this area, talked through the process she and her colleagues went through in deciding where a particular article should be located: “we were very clearly targeting 3 or 4 [star journals] because we needed a ref return”. she explained that the list had produced profound changes in her discipline: “the idea was that if you gave people guidance as to where they should publish, everybody would try to go for the best. that got attached to the ref, research excellence framework. then that got attached to career progression, and that got attached to i guess market prices for academics as well. […] it’s changed the culture of universities profoundly. it’s changed the writing practice”. this presented marketing academics with a problem, since very few marketing journals were highly-rated in this list. the 2015 guide assessed 1,401 publications, awarding 84 of these 4* ratings, and 312 of them 3* writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge ibérica 32 (2016): 15-34 29 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 29 ratings. marketing had only five 4* rated journals (https://www. timeshighereducation.com/news/abs-ranking-reveals-world-elite-ofbusiness -journals/2018722.article ). those that were highly rated tended to publish large-scale, quantitative, positivist work. this did not fit with the approaches to research which most of our participants identified with. as diane explained, “what concerns me now is the way that the list is produced for our discipline [...] is particularly bad. it recognises one very discrete form of knowledge. so actually it’s killing the production of knowledge because the only thing that’s valued is a four-star publication”. this put her in a difficult position because she did not produce work which fitted this very discrete form of knowledge. “i’m not a positivist, i don’t do modelling. i have no way of engaging with that world.” in order to achieve publication in the kinds of journals which she felt were expected of her, she tended to publish her work in journals which were “not in discipline”; either highly-starred general management journals, or journals in fields relating to the empirical area in which she was carrying out research which were outside the ambit of the cabs list. while this was a successful strategy in terms of her career success, she described this as a process of having been “pushed out” of marketing as a discipline, and experienced what she called “a bit of a crisis” in her own intellectual identity as a result. 8. strategic management of teaching research is not the only area in which academics are subject to strategic management. teaching is increasingly subject to pressures from outside the department, and this brings its own pressures on disciplinary writing practices. since the introduction of student fees, and particularly higher rate student fees in the uk in 2012, following a change in legislation in 2010, institutions have been increasingly concerned with the management of student experience, as measured in surveys like the national student survey. these surveys, and the league tables of universities which result from such measures, are important for young people deciding which university to attend, and it has become very important to universities to market themselves to those who are going to pay large amounts of money to attend their courses. the crucial importance of revenue from these fees for the survival of institutions is driving another set of managerial pressures, towards maintaining student satisfaction and maintaining institutions’ k. tusting & d. barton ibérica 32 (2016): 15-3430 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 30 positions in comparative national and international league tables which are important for student recruitment. this means that managerial attention is now paid to factors which count or are seen to count in the league table scores and in student satisfaction surveys, including things like teaching contact hours, the extent and quality of written feedback on student papers, the provision of pastoral support from named academics within departments, the development of “employability” through a degree programme measured by student destinations after graduation. pedagogical considerations are now not the only considerations when planning teaching. there is a wider debate to be had here around how this changes the relationship between students and universities, and what the effects are of positioning students as consumers. in relation to the writing practices around teaching in particular, it is clear that there is an increasing interest from university management in the details of how university teaching is carried out. some aspects of this interest have a direct effect on the writing practices of teaching. to return to the example of the historians we worked with, some of them had experienced significant changes to their established teaching practices as a direct result of management decisions about contact hours. history has traditionally been one of the arts and humanities disciplines which has been taught using relatively few hours of direct contact between tutors and students. in between lectures and seminars, students have been expected to engage in independent study in libraries and archives, reading and writing to develop their understandings of the discipline. the parallels here between the independent work of professional historians in archives outlined above are clear. in comparison to students in the sciences, who traditionally spend a lot more of their time in direct contact with tutors, traditional history teaching therefore appears to be low in contact hours, and this became of concern in many universities, since contact hours is one of the criteria drawn on in putting together league tables of universities. at verity’s university, to address this issue, history lectures were now in three hour blocks. she explained, “there’s such a neurosis in universities, as far as arts and humanities subjects are concerned that compared with science subjects, stem subjects, there aren’t enough contact hours”. as a result, all of her established lecturing writing practices needed to change to address this. this increase in contact hours transforms the way students are apprenticed into the discipline. writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge ibérica 32 (2016): 15-34 31 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 31 9. conclusion what have we learned about how changes in the broader context of higher education are affecting academic disciplines? we have seen that disciplines can be characterised by regularised practices, discourses, ways of thinking, procedures, emotional responses, motivations, and genres. contemporary changes in the context of higher education in the uk, particularly management strategies relating to the evaluation of research writing and relating to the marketisation of university teaching, are having direct effects on the established writing practices of disciplines. they are affecting the genres people write in, particularly with a perceived pressure to produce journal articles rather than monographs. they are affecting decisions about the particular journals in which people publish. they are affecting practices around teaching preparation and delivery, driven by imperatives of marketisation rather than the imperatives of the discipline. different disciplines are affected in different ways, depending on the tradition and history of the discipline concerned. the clarity which the more established, traditional disciplines have about the writing practices which are valued within them may provide them with a more secure platform to defend those practices, in comparison to disciplines with less well-established traditions which may find themselves more vulnerable to external pressures. acknowledgements we would like to thank all those who have participated in our research, sharing very generously of their time and their experiences. without their engagement, this research would not have been possible. we would also like to acknowledge the economic and social research council which has funded the research. a version of this paper was first presented at the british association for applied linguistics annual conference 2016, at anglia ruskin university. article history: received 28 september 2016 accepted 6 october 2016 k. tusting & d. barton ibérica 32 (2016): 15-3432 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 32 references writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge ibérica 32 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(2007). literacy: an introduction to the ecology of written language, 2nd ed. oxford: blackwells. barton, d. & m. hamilton (2000). “literacy practices” in d. barton, m. hamilton & r. ivanič (eds.), situated literacies, 7-15. london and new york: routledge. becher, t. & p. trowler (2001). academic tribes and territories: intellectual enquiry and the culture of disciplines, 2nd ed. buckingham: society for research into higher education & open university press. berkenkotter, c. & t. huckin (1995). genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: cognition/culture/power. hillsdale, n.j.: lawrence erlbaum associates. bhatia, v.j. (2004). worlds of written discourse: a genre-based view. london: continuum. fenwick, t., r. edwards & p. sawchuk (2011). emerging approaches to educational research: tracing the socio-material. london and new york: routledge. flowerdew, j. & s. h. wang (2015). “identity in academic discourse”. annual review of applied linguistics 35: 81-99. hyland, k. (2012). disciplinary identities: individuality and community in academic discourse. cambridge: cambridge university press. nesi, h. & s. gardner (2012). genres across the disciplines: student writing in higher education. cambridge: cambridge university press. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge applied linguistics. swales, j.m. (1998). other floors, other voices: a textography of a small university building. hillsdale, n.j.: lawrence erlbaum associates. trowler, p. (2012). “disciplines and interdisciplinarity: conceptual groundwork” in p. trowler, m. saunders & v. bamber (eds.), tribes and territories in the 21st century: rethinking the significance of disciplines in higher education. london and new york: routledge. whitchurch, c. (2010). “the challenges of a diversifying workforce” in g. gordon & c. whitchurch (eds.), academic and professional identities in higher education. london and new york: routledge. karin tusting is a senior lecturer in the department of linguistics at lancaster university. her main interests are in the area of literacy in everyday working life, and she is particularly interested in how bureaucracy and accountability play out in people’s working practices and change people’s identities. her previous work has been in the areas of literacy and identity, adult literacy, and communities of practice. she is principal investigator on the esrc project the dynamics of knowledge creation: academics’ writing practices in the contemporary university workplace. david barton is professor in the department of linguistics at lancaster university and erstwhile director of the lancaster literacy research centre. his current work is mainly concerned with rethinking the nature of language and literacy in the online world and developing appropriate methodologies for online research. his most recent books, both co-authored and published by routledge are language online (2013) and researching language and social media (2014). he is co-investigator on the esrc project the dynamics of knowledge creation: academics’ writing practices in the contemporary university workplace. 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 33 notes 1 in addition to the authors of this paper, the academic project team includes ibrar bhatt, mary hamilton and sharon mcculloch, with dee daglish providing invaluable administrative support. 2 all names used are pseudonyms. k. tusting & d. barton ibérica 32 (2016): 15-3434 01 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 34 iberica 13 ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen en la esfera pública, las personas plantean deberes y prohibiciones a los actores sociales que participan o son mencionados en discusiones sobre asuntos públicos, buscando establecer una regulación de sus conductas para afectar las relaciones de fuerza dentro de un espacio político determinado. en los blogs de periodismo, cuya naturaleza textual es fundamental, los comentaristas ingresan al espacio público y convocan a otros actores sociales a realizar dichas acciones propuestas. los lectores-comentaristas de dichos blogs participan problematizando, evaluando y proponiendo formas de tratar los temas de interés público que allí se discuten. esta búsqueda por influir en el comportamiento de actores sociales o instituciones se conoce como una forma de regulación social. la investigación que aquí se presenta estuvo dirigida a describir los distintos tipos de regulación social que se expresan en los discursos político-ciudadanos en las cadenas de comentarios realizados a columnas de opinión. para ello, se analizó la modalidad deóntica, que configura dicha regulación social, y los actores sociales involucrados. se trabajó sobre un corpus conformado por las cadenas de comentarios de 10 columnas de opinión pertenecientes a los diarios chilenos el mercurio y el mostrador. de forma significativa, se evidencia que las regulaciones sociales no solo son dirigidas hacia los participantes de esta práctica comunicativa, sino que también están dirigidas a los actores sociales y/o instituciones que forman parte de la esfera pública, pero que no intervienen directamente en estos espacios de discusión. palabras clave: discurso político, esfera pública, modalidad deóntica, fuente modal, agente modal. modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social en el discurso político ciudadano en las cadenas de comentarios en blogs de periodismo cristian gonzález arias1 y juan satt román2 pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso (chile) 1cristian.gonzalez@pucv.cl & 2juan.satt.r@gmail.com 201 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 201 ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220 c. gonzález arias & j. satt román abstract d e on ti c m od al i ty a s a n e xp re s s io n of s oc i al re g ul a tio n in c i ti z e n p o l iti c a l d i s c ou rs e on j ou rn al i s m bl o g s c o mme n ts in the public sphere, individuals express duties and prohibitions to the social actors involved or mentioned in discussions about public matters. the aim is to regulate behaviour and influence the power struggles inside a given political space. in journalism blogs, the text is the medium through which commentators enter the public space and urge other social actors to perform those requested actions. readers-commentators in blogs identify problems, evaluate and propose new ways of dealing with public issues. this quest for influencing the behaviour of social actors and institutions is known as social regulation. this research aimed to describe the different modes of social regulation found in the citizens’ political discourses in the comments sections of opinion columns. for that purpose, the deontic modality which configures social regulation was analysed in a corpus of 10 opinion columns and their respective chains of comments published in the chilean journals el mercurio and el mostrador. the analysis showed that social regulations are addressed not only among the participants of this communicative practice, but also to social actors and/or institutions belonging to the public sphere, which do not participate in this discussion arena. keywords: political discourse, public sphere, deontic modality, modal source, modal agent. 1. introducción el desarrollo de la web 2.0, particularmente la incorporación de blogs en la entrega informativa en los periódicos electrónicos, ha permitido el surgimiento de nuevas prácticas discursivas en la esfera pública, como son los espacios para comentarios a los diversos géneros discursivos de la prensa. los blogs representan una actualización del diario en papel, aumentando considerablemente su potencial interactivo. mientras que el diario tradicional solo contaba con las cartas al director como una forma de consolidación de la interacción, los diarios electrónicos ofrecen múltiples maneras de interacción, por ejemplo, hacer clic para ampliar una noticia, reenviarla, comentar directamente el contenido o interpelar a otros participantes del blog o actores sociales del espacio público. un aspecto muy importante de la interacción que se produce es que se realiza exclusivamente a través de textos, es decir, toda la relación se establece usando palabras. 202 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 202 los medios de comunicación poseen un rol fundamental en el escenario político de las democracias, a través de los contenidos y puntos de vista que promueven (tumber, 2001; castells, 2009). en el mismo sentido, gobernantes y políticos necesitan de los medios para tener visibilidad pública y mantener un vínculo con la ciudadanía. al respecto, arriagada y navia (2013: 12) sostienen que “la evolución de los medios ha cambiado radicalmente la relación que existe entre estos y sus audiencias. indirectamente, ello también ha afectado la forma en que los medios ejercen su rol de intermediario entre las autoridades y la gente”. en este contexto, surge la necesidad de volver a pensar la relación entre los medios, la política y la ciudadanía, representados, en este caso, por la noticia, la contingencia social y el lector-comentarista, respectivamente. desde nuestra perspectiva, el discurso político no solo hace referencia a lo que puedan decir los políticos en el ejercicio de su función social, sino también consideramos todos los discursos producidos por los ciudadanos cuando participan en el espacio público y abordan los temas de interés colectivo o interpelan a actores o instituciones que constituyen el estado (fabbri & marcarino, 2002). podemos sostener que la implementación de blogs para presentar las noticias ha dado lugar al surgimiento de un nuevo tipo de lector y a una nueva forma de participación ciudadana. la idea del lector pasivo que compra un diario para informarse de lo que acontece en su país y en el mundo, se ve reemplazada por la de un lector más activo que participa con sus comentarios problematizando, evaluando y proponiendo formas de tratar los temas de interés público que allí se discuten, así como también, proponiendo pautas de comportamiento tanto para los participantes directos de la discusión como para los diversos actores de la política que allí se mencionan. desde la óptica de las relaciones de poder a través del uso del lenguaje, charaudeau (2009) sostiene que actuar sobre otro significa que la posición de poder en el lenguaje es una instancia en la cual se busca modificar, física o mentalmente, a otro, que no puede confundirse con la posibilidad concreta de actuar sobre el otro. ahora bien, el actuar sobre otro no se restringe solo a declarar que otro sujeto diga, haga o piense algo; también, de manera implícita, contiene un deseo de que se cumpla la exigencia. a esta búsqueda por influir en el comportamiento de otro u otros y la relación que se establece entre ellos, sean actores sociales o instituciones, se denomina regulación social. para gordillo (2009) regulación social es el establecimiento de reglas o patrones de conductas tendientes a normar las relaciones de los modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220 203 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 203 individuos en sociedad. siguiendo a charaudeau (2009), este acto de poder emana de la necesidad de lograr un bien común (gratificación) o de remediar un mal (amenaza). una manera de estudiar la regulación social es a partir del análisis de la modalidad deóntica del lenguaje (palmer, 1986), entendida como los actos de habla que expresan el deseo de acciones que oscilan entre dos polos, la prohibición y el permiso (vásquez, 1999), es decir, la modalidad deóntica da cuenta de los grados de compromiso que el hablante imprime en sus enunciados. consideramos que describir la regulación social a través de la modalidad deóntica es una forma de dar cuenta de las relaciones que se establecen en el espacio público mediático entre los medios y sus audiencias y los diversos actores políticos convocados en estos espacios. el objetivo de esta investigación es describir los distintos tipos de regulación social que se expresa en el discurso político ciudadano en las cadenas de comentarios realizados a columnas de opinión cuando se abordan temas políticos. el presente artículo expondrá, en primer lugar, el marco teórico que aborda los conceptos de modalidad y modalidad deóntica, conceptos centrales de la investigación. en el apartado de metodología se definen el corpus y las categorías de análisis seleccionadas, cuyos resultados se exponen en el tercer apartado. finalmente, se establecen conclusiones que sintetizan los hallazgos de mayor relevancia y su significancia para la investigación. 2. marco teórico 2.1. dimensiones de la modalidad la modalidad expresa un amplio campo de matices semánticos de una actividad comunicativa, revelando la subjetividad inherente al lenguaje. de acuerdo a la actitud del emisor ante su enunciado y ante su interlocutor, se pueden identificar expresiones de subjetividad tales como certeza, duda, probabilidad, posibilidad, creencia, predicción, obligación, permiso, deseo, valoración, etc. la modalidad, como fenómeno discursivo, se refiere a cómo decimos las cosas, es decir, a la expresión verbal o no verbal que utilizará el locutor para referirse al contenido de sus enunciados. en tal sentido, afecta a lo dicho el contenido proposicional del enunciado porque añade la perspectiva desde la cual el locutor considera lo que dice y por tanto se trata de la visión o modo en que se ve aquello de que se trata (calsamiglia & tusón, 2002: 175). c. gonzález arias & j. satt román ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220204 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 204 palmer (1986) clasifica la modalidad lingüística en tres tipos: epistémica, deóntica y dinámica. para este autor, la modalidad epistémica es un sistema modal que indica un grado de compromiso del hablante con su enunciado. la subdivide en el sistema modal de los juicios y el sistema modal de las evidencias. respecto a los juicios, menciona las proposiciones que denotan duda, mientras que las evidencias denotan una relativa seguridad. por modalidad deóntica, palmer entiende el sistema modal que presenta un elemento de voluntad que envuelve la acción de un hablante o de otra persona. dicha acción recae sobre un agente y se espera que la realice. así mismo considera la existencia de los siguientes grados de involucramiento de parte del hablante: puede estar totalmente envuelto (personalmente), envuelto de algún modo (personalmente, mas no directamente) o envuelto como un miembro de la sociedad que instiga a la acción (indirectamente). para demostrar cómo se da esta gradación, palmer ejemplifica con dos verbos ingleses: can (poder) y must (deber). el modal can es, en algunos casos, utilizado para expresar una declaración factual no-modal, como en john can speak italian (john puede hablar italiano). como comenta el autor, esa expresión no contiene la opinión del hablante, ni la actitud de este, simplemente afirma que john posee la habilidad de hablar italiano, a pesar de que can sea un verbo modal en inglés. el modal must, por su parte, puede ser usado para indicar el involucramiento del hablante, dado que su uso indicaría que el hablante desea que john hable en italiano. como ejemplos para ambos casos, palmer utiliza las siguientes oraciones, respectivamente: debes venir para acá de una vez y debes irte ahora o no alcanzarás el bus. a partir de los ejemplos dados por palmer, observamos que si bien podemos categorizar ciertos verbos como deónticos, la distinción no es tan clara una vez que observamos su uso en contexto. existe una gradación de la subjetividad en algunos de estos verbos modales dependiendo de su uso, mientras que en otros casos su uso cumple una función completamente distinta. por lo tanto, se reconocerá que, en primera instancia, la identificación de una modalidad no es discreta y, en segunda instancia, que para poder clasificar un acto modal de acuerdo a las taxonomías existentes, se vuelve necesario comprender lo dicho en su situación de enunciación, considerando específicamente el propósito o intencionalidad de cada acto. 2.2. modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social por modalidad deóntica, lyons (1977) entiende la proposición relacionada a la posibilidad de actos realizados por agentes moralmente responsables. por modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220 205 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 205 lo tanto, hablamos no de la descripción de un acto propiamente tal, sino de un estado de las cosas que podría obtenerse en la medida que este acto sea realizado. lyons (1977) ilustra la modalidad deóntica con el ejemplo ¡abre la puerta!, el cual será comprendido como una imposición de obligación de alguien a otro, dependiendo de quiénes estén envueltos en el acto interlocutivo. un segundo aspecto que destaca el autor es que una de las maneras de averiguar la validez de un enunciado deóntico es hacernos la pregunta “¿quién dice eso?”, puesto que es necesario reconocer la autoridad de quien enuncia. lyons (1977) aborda la modalidad deóntica en términos de obligación, prohibición y permiso. las relaciones lógicas que establecerá son las siguientes: (i) no obligado: permiso de no hacer. (ii) obligado: no tiene permiso para no hacer. (iii) permiso: no está obligado a hacer. (iv) no permitido: obligado a no hacer. de acuerdo a estas relaciones, la modalidad deóntica se caracteriza como aquella que se encuentra entre los polos obligatorio y prohibido, pasando por un nivel intermedio que llamará permiso. un segundo aspecto relevante de los estudios de lyons (1977) es la caracterización que realiza de la modalidad deóntica, en oposición a las modalidades lógicas y epistémicas. los principales rasgos que establece son los siguientes. (i) la modalidad deóntica se relaciona con la necesidad o posibilidad de actos realizados por agentes moralmente responsables. por lo tanto, cuando le imponemos a alguien una obligación o nos sometemos a una obligación, damos cuenta de las implicancias que surgirán en caso de que el acto en cuestión se realice. (ii) la modalidad deóntica posee una relación intrínseca con la futuridad. de acuerdo al autor, el valor de verdad de una proposición deóntica es determinado por un mundo posterior al de la enunciación, es decir, la validación del acto se actualiza cuando se cumple la obligación, c. gonzález arias & j. satt román ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220206 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 206 (iii) la necesidad deóntica deriva de un origen o causa. esto implica que cuando se define que un agente está obligado a realizar una acción, será posible identificar algo o alguien que ha hecho recaer la obligación sobre el agente. podemos estar hablando, principalmente, de una persona o una institución que posee autoridad sobre las personas, ya sea de carácter moral o legal. lyons (1977) asume que existen algunas nociones de obligación que son universalmente válidas, cuyas variaciones taxonómicas de sanción estarían ligadas a aspectos culturales. estas variaciones estarían encapsuladas en palabras como “correcto” o “incorrecto” y en especificaciones, tales como: “inconstitucional”, “ilegal”, “inmoral”, “impropio”, “blasfemo”, “tabú”, etc. en cuanto al origen de la modalidad deóntica, lyons (1977) propone dos funciones básicas: la desiderativa y la instrumental. mediante la primera, expresamos voluntades o deseos, mientras que la segunda nos permite conseguir que otros hagan cosas que deseamos. los enunciados imperativos constituyen otro aspecto relevante de la modalización deóntica, puesto que tanto la regulación social del enunciado deóntico, como el uso de frases imperativas apuntan hacia un orden de las cosas. coracini (1991) se adscribe a esta línea al afirmar que las frases imperativas están estrechamente ligadas a la modalidad deóntica, dado que tanto la obligación como la prohibición poseen un carácter imperativo. de manera similiar a lyons (1977), palmer (1986) utiliza el término deóntico para describir las modalidades que poseen un grado de voluntad. los significados relacionados a esa modalidad refieren a actos realizados por otros y no por el hablante. para el autor, los tipos de modalidades deónticas más importantes en un estudio gramatical son los directivos y los compromisorios, categorías que podemos homologar a las funciones propuestas por lyons, instrumentales y desiderativas, respectivamente. los actos directivos se caracterizan porque el hablante obliga al oyente a ejecutar una acción. los actos compromisorios son aquellos mediante los cuales nos imputamos a nosotros mismos, es decir, asumimos un compromiso, pudiendo ser este una obligación o un propósito asumido. en menor grado, y de forma más sutil, palmer (1986) considera que algunas expresiones que dan cuenta de deseo o esperanza poseen un valor deóntico relativo, dado que, al expresar este deseo, el hablante buscaría implícitamente que el oyente realizara una acción. en síntesis, sobre la modalidad deóntica, podemos afirmar que: modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220 207 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 207 (i) se caracteriza por encontrarse entre los polos de obligación y prohibición, existiendo una categoría intermedia que se define como lo permitido. (ii) las acciones que se demandan mediante la modalidad deóntica se comprenden como actos realizados por agentes moralmente responsables. (iii) toda necesidad deóntica proviene de una fuente u origen, la cual se denominará fuente modal (verstraete, 2005). esta podrá ser una persona, una institución o un cuerpo de normas de carácter moral o legal. (iv) el carácter imperativo de la modalidad deóntica no solo se asocia a la función de obligación, sino también a la de permiso. a continuación, revisaremos los aspectos metodológicos que ilustran la manera de aplicar esta conceptualización de la modalidad al análisis de interacciones verbales en el espacio público. 3. metodología desde la perspectiva del análisis del discurso, se abordó el fenómeno considerando un análisis gramatical y contextual. a través del análisis de la modalidad deóntica, se accede a los principales rasgos de la regulación social. considerando que concebimos a los blogs de periodismo como generadores de espacios en los cuales se instalan discusiones respecto a la realidad social de un país, y que los participantes de estos espacios establecen reglas y/o normas que buscan proponer al resto de los comentaristas, a quienes reconocen como ciudadanos, involucrando dentro de este diálogo a los actores sociales propios del espacio público, surge la necesidad de comprender cuáles son las normas o reglas que se proponen y cómo se expresan, en atención a la naturaleza textual de los intercambios. por lo tanto, la pregunta que guió esta investigación buscaba averiguar cuáles son las principales regulaciones expresadas en los discursos de los comentaristas. para la identificación de los comentarios en los que se enunciaba un acto deóntico, se utilizó como criterio la presencia de alguna de las siguientes perífrasis modales: c. gonzález arias & j. satt román ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220208 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 208 (i) obligación: “deber” + infinitivo, “tener que” + infinitivo, “haber que” + infinitivo, “haber de” + infinitivo, “deber de” + infinitivo. (ii) permisión: “poder + infinitivo”. (iii) prohibición: “no” + alguna de las perífrasis modales de las categorías anteriores. luego, se clasificó cada acto deóntico como objetivo o subjetivo. para identificarlo como objetivo se consideraron dos rasgos: la impersonalidad del enunciador y la referencia explícita a normas sociales, jurídicas o morales. (1) no pueden fumar dentro de un cine. está prohibido por ley. para clasificar un acto deóntico como subjetivo, este debe presentar, al menos, uno de los siguientes dos rasgos: i) el enunciador es una primera persona singular o plural; ii) el enunciador entrega argumentos que no se respaldan en normas preestablecidas, sino en apreciaciones personales para justificar el acto deóntico. (2) no pueden fumar dentro de la casa. no me gusta el olor. por último, para clasificar al agente modal, entiéndase, el destinatario del acto deóntico, existen categorías: (i) primera persona: el agente modal es el mismo sujeto que enuncia el acto deóntico. (3) debería votar por los independientes. (ii) segunda persona: el agente modal es un otro. el enunciador se dirige a él directamente. (4) deberías votar por los independientes. (iii) fuente y agente modal: por fuente modal, nos referimos al enunciador del acto deóntico (verstraete, 2005). en este caso, el acto es dirigido hacia un nosotros inclusivo. (5) deberíamos votar por los independientes. (iv) tercera persona: el agente modal es otro u otros. el enunciador no se dirige a él, se refiere indirectamente. (6) deberían votar por los independientes. modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220 209 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 209 4. corpus el corpus estuvo constituido 693 comentarios realizados a 10 columnas de opinión. las columnas de opinión que abordan temas políticos son las más comentadas por los lectores de los diarios incluidos en esta investigación: el mercurio (me) y el mostrador (mo). la selección de estos dos diarios radica en que el mercurio es el diario de mayor tradición en el país, así como también el de mayor circulación al pertenecer a una de las dos empresas que controlan la prensa escrita en chile, el mercurio s.a.p. otro rasgo a considerar es que su línea editorial es conservadora y de derecha. el mostrador fue seleccionado por ser el primer diario digital de chile, por ser uno de los sitios de noticias más visitados del país, de acuerdo a la página alexa.com que sondea la actividad de las páginas webs, y por ser un diario cuya línea editorial es de carácter progresista. en la tabla 1 se ilustra un desglose del corpus recolectado de manera aleatoria entre las columnas publicadas desde el 29 de mayo al 24 de junio de 2014 (anexo 1). 5. resultados los resultados se presentarán siguiendo el mismo orden de análisis que se expuso en el apartado metodología. en primer lugar, se expondrán las frecuencias de perífrasis verbales deónticas identificadas y la función social que cumplirían estas (obligación, permiso o prohibición), en segundo lugar, se expondrá la clasificación de los actos deónticos de acuerdo a su nivel de subjetividad y, por último, en tercer lugar, se detallarán las frecuencias asociadas a los agentes modales identificados en los actos deónticos. c. gonzález arias & j. satt román ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220210 modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): …-… diario columnas de opinión número de comentarios el mercurio me1 86 me2 84 me3 78 me4 52 me5 100 el mostrador mo1 45 mo2 48 mo3 98 mo4 54 mo5 48 tabla 1. número de columnas y comentarios. 5. resultados los resultados se presentarán siguiendo el mismo orden de análisis que se expuso en el apartado metodología. en primer lugar, se expondrán las frecuencias de perífrasis verbales deónticas identificadas y la función social que cumplirían estas (obligación, permiso o prohibición), en segundo lugar, se expondrá la clasificación de los actos deónticos de acuerdo a su nivel de subjetividad y, por último, en tercer lugar, se detallarán las frecuencias asociadas a los agentes modales identificados en los actos deónticos. figura 1. perífrasis modales. la figura 1 presenta la distribución, en términos porcentuales, de la recurrencia de perífrasis modales. el primer dato a destacar es la predominancia de la construcción “deber” + infinitivo, con un 56%, seguido por la construcción “poder” + infinitivo, con un 24%. considerando el trabajo de polo (2014), es lamod oiradi oirucremel cacitóneddadi edóniserpxeomo edsanmulco nóiniop mnú emco 1me me2 me3 me4 me5 100 ale alcison óaciulreg edorem soiratne 86 84 78 52 100 rodartsomel 1.a tabl ostadluse5. r me5 100 mo1 mo2 mo3 mo4 mo5 1. .soiratnemocysanmulocedoremnú 100 45 48 98 54 48 áratneserpessodatluserslo etmoadtarapelenosupex brevsisafrírepedsaicneucefr nóacigilbo(astesanírilpmcu e dnócaciiascla lá rdnopex dadivitesu pory, n eo,mitúl itendiesaldomestenagsola nedroomsimleodneiugisná argulermirpnea.ígolodoet ysadacfiitnedisacitnóedselab ,n ónicbiohipro o simrpe ), en acue dscoitneódsoactsole fsaln árallatdees,rugalrecretn eódsoactsolensocad .oscint eseuqsisilánaedn aslánrdnopexe s, euqlaicosnóicnfual e s,argulodnuegsen e delvinusa oderacu sdaaiocsasaincuece arugifla 1 irtsdialantesepr prle.selodamsisaírpede nócciurtsnco “ rbede ” nni+ “ rpode ” ovitinni+ , nunco ibér 1.a gurfi .seladomsisarfírpe uantecpornosimrétn eón,ibuc pralseracatsdeao tdaremipr ovitin , odiuegs,%65nunco oajabrtelodanerdisnoc.%42 32ca ibér 610(2 ): …-… 9 aincerurceralde,selua aldeaincnaidomepr op nóiccrutsnocalr )4102(olope do , es 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 210 la figura 1 presenta la distribución, en términos porcentuales, de la recurrencia de perífrasis modales. el primer dato a destacar es la predominancia de la construcción “deber” + infinitivo, con un 56%, seguido por la construcción “poder” + infinitivo, con un 24%. considerando el trabajo de polo (2014), es necesario mencionar que dentro de los estudios de perífrasis deónticas en español, se ha observado que el auxiliar “deber” tiende a ser el de mayor uso, seguido por “poder”, mientras que en tercer lugar, tal como se ha demostrado en esta investigación, les sigue la perífrasis “haber que” + infinitivo. ejemplo de “deber” + infinitivo: (7) [sic] el sistema político es el encargado de “defendernos” por la vía de representarnos. de ellos emanan las leyes y surgen los gobiernos. son los políticos quienes deben cuidar que el poder económico no haga de las suyas. lo cierto es que nuestra clase política no da el ancho y no nos representa ni nos protege adecuadamente. el mercado hace lo suyo, los políticos no. y seguiremos así en tanto hayan seguidores fanáticos que defienden el actuar de nuestros políticos y se nieguen a reconocer la evidencia. el negocio político pasa por mantener dividida a la población. (me1) ejemplo de “poder” + infinitivo: (8) este caballero cuando dice que se quería intervenir un sector “escasamente poblado” de ahí para adelante todo mal. no tiene idea lo que significa para la flora y fauna de un sector, no solo la vida humana, poner una represa, es decir, impedir que las aguas sigan su curso normal, modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220 211 modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): …-… tabla 1. número de columnas y comentarios. 5. resultados los resultados se presentarán siguiendo el mismo orden de análisis que se expuso en el apartado metodología. en primer lugar, se expondrán las frecuencias de perífrasis verbales deónticas identificadas y la función social que cumplirían estas (obligación, permiso o prohibición), en segundo lugar, se expondrá la clasificación de los actos deónticos de acuerdo a su nivel de subjetividad y, por último, en tercer lugar, se detallarán las frecuencias asociadas a los agentes modales identificados en los actos deónticos. figura 1. perífrasis modales. la figura 1 presenta la distribución, en términos porcentuales, de la recurrencia de perífrasis modales. el primer dato a destacar es la predominancia de la construcción “deber” + infinitivo, con un 56%, seguido por la construcción “poder” + infinitivo, con un 24%. considerando el trabajo de polo (2014), es lamod oiradi oirucremel cacitóneddadi edóniserpxeomo edsanmulco nóiniop mnú emco 1me me2 me3 me4 me5 100 ale alcison óaciulreg edorem soiratne 86 84 78 52 100 rodartsomel 1.a tabl ostadluse5. r me5 100 mo1 mo2 mo3 mo4 mo5 1. .soiratnemocysanmulocedoremnú 100 45 48 98 54 48 áratneserpessodatluserslo etmoadtarapelenosupex brevsisafrírepedsaicneucefr nóacigilbo(astesanírilpmcu e dnócaciiascla lá rdnopex dadivitesu pory, n eo,mitúl itendiesaldomestenagsola nedroomsimleodneiugisná argulermirpnea.ígolodoet ysadacfiitnedisacitnóedselab ,n ónicbiohipro o simrpe ), en acue dscoitneódsoactsole fsaln árallatdees,rugalrecretn eódsoactsolensocad .oscint eseuqsisilánaedn aslánrdnopexe s, euqlaicosnóicnfual e s,argulodnuegsen e delvinusa oderacu sdaaiocsasaincuece arugifla 1 irtsdialantesepr prle.selodamsisaírpede nócciurtsnco “ rbede ” nni+ “ rpode ” ovitinni+ , nunco ibér 1.a gurfi .seladomsisarfírpe uantecpornosimrétn eón,ibuc pralseracatsdeao tdaremipr ovitin , odiuegs,%65nunco oajabrtelodanerdisnoc.%42 32ca ibér 610(2 ): …-… 9 aincerurceralde,selua aldeaincnaidomepr op nóiccrutsnocalr )4102(olope do , es 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 211 el daño es enorme e irreparable, podría leer un poco al respecto. es muy ignorante. bueno que siempre se informa con el mercurio. ahí está la cosa. (mo2). la figura 2 muestra los porcentajes de recurrencia de las perífrasis modales una vez agrupadas de acuerdo a su valor deóntico. lyons (1997) define que las funciones sociales asociadas a la modalidad deóntica son la obligación, el permiso y la prohibición. siguiendo a de cock (2014), verbos y perífrasis pueden clasificarse de acuerdo a estas funciones. es así como dentro de la función obligación, se encuentran las perífrasis “deber” + infinitivo, “haber que” + infinitivo y “tener que” + infinitivo. la función de permiso se expresará mediante la perífrasis “poder” + infinitivo, mientras que la prohibición se manifiesta mediante las perífrasis pertenecientes a las otras dos categorías más el adverbio de negación “no”. ejemplo de “no” + “haber que” + infinitivo (9) [sic] si juntamos plata usémosla donde se debe, en lo que funciona peor, o sea en su mayoría en las municipales o en cualquiera que esté dando malos resultados, sino hay que ser cerrado con eso, pero darle vuelta la mesa a todos porque hay gente ineficiente o estafadora no tiene sentido. (me5) una vez que se agrupan los verbos de acuerdo a sus funciones, se observa que la tendencia de los comentaristas que enuncian actos deónticos es solicitar imperativamente la realización de determinadas acciones. las perífrasis modales de obligación son indicadores formales de dicha fuerza. ahora bien, un punto central de la variedad de actos deónticos existentes, c. gonzález arias & j. satt román ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220212 c. gonzález arias & j. satt roman ibérica 32 (2016): …-… necesario mencionar que dentro de los estudios de perífrasis deónticas en español, se ha observado que el auxiliar “deber” tiende a ser el de mayor uso, seguido por “poder”, mientras que en tercer lugar, tal como se ha demostrado en esta investigación, les sigue la perífrasis “haber que” + infinitivo. ejemplo de “deber” + infinitivo: (7) [sic] el sistema político es el encargado de “defendernos” por la vía de representarnos. de ellos emanan las leyes y surgen los gobiernos. son los políticos quienes deben cuidar que el poder económico no haga de las suyas. lo cierto es que nuestra clase política no da el ancho y no nos representa ni nos protege adecuadamente. el mercado hace lo suyo, los políticos no. y seguiremos así en tanto hayan seguidores fanáticos que defienden el actuar de nuestros políticos y se nieguen a reconocer la evidencia. el negocio político pasa por mantener dividida a la población. (me1) ejemplo de “poder” + infinitivo: (8) este caballero cuando dice que se quería intervenir un sector “escasamente poblado” de ahí para adelante todo mal. no tiene idea lo que significa para la flora y fauna de un sector, no solo la vida humana, poner una represa, es decir, impedir que las aguas sigan su curso normal, el daño es enorme e irreparable, podría leer un poco al respecto. es muy ignorante. bueno que siempre se informa con el mercurio. ahí está la cosa. (mo2). figura 2. funciones sociales de los verbos deónticos. la figura 2 muestra los porcentajes de recurrencia de las perífrasis modales una vez agrupadas de acuerdo a su valor deóntico. lyons (1997) define que las funciones sociales asociadas a la modalidad deóntica son la obligación, el permiso y la prohibición. siguiendo a de cock (2014), verbos y perífrasis pueden clasificarse de acuerdo a estas funciones. es así como dentro de la función obligación, se encuentran las perífrasis “deber” + infinitivo, “haber que” + infinitivo y “tener que” + infinitivo. la función de permiso se expresará as ariezálnzogc. & amorttasj. dequeronaincemo irasecne e uqoadversboa he s,loañpes odiugse por “ rpode ” atrniem, a le ugisesl,nóacigitesvnia tes edolpmeej “ rbede ” vitinni+ n rpedeosuditseosldeo rntde arilixauele “ rbede ” aedntie omocl ta, raglurecrtenees siasíerpa “ querbeha ” inni+ :ov n esacióntdesisaír , osuroyamedl eres ahes doartosmde en oviti . ) (7 etsisle] ci[s lopma olleed.sornatnesrepre cn bedesneequioscitípol ase cla restune uqes oterci ageeotpr .entemdauacde useganayhotantenasí an gueeniesy oscitípol opalaadidividrenetnma edolpmeej “ rpode ” vitinni+ ) (8 dnaucorellabacetes do”apobl deaarpahíade ned“edodagracneleseocitíl olnergusyseyelsalnanames no o cionómcerpodelequerdauic onyochanela donca itílopase ípolosluyo,so lechado acremle endende uqs coiátes rodiu gocnele.aincdeviealreonoccera nóicalbo )1em. ( ov : euqecidod urienvertnia íeruqse queo ladeineeito n.lamodo tental ”sonredn deavíalpor solnos.sorneibogso o l.suyassaldegahano s onina tesenreprs ono osmerguiesyno.oscití s orestune daruactel poraspao citípolo igoc “rosectnu esc e tenasam aoralarpaacgniisque pobl pa no ,ortcesun deunay urcu sn gaissguaasalque serlao pocun seo.tcpe oirucrme so c latásí eh. a que erunarpone,naahumdavialo ols eemnoreseño dale,lamnoro sur meisqueno ueb.entagnoriuy m )2om. (as . pagnique rdipemi,ricdese,asepr reelaípodr,eblarpaerri on camieseprm el 2.a gurfi func arugifla ecporoslartsuem2 .oscideóntboservoslde esaliocsonesifunc pesaldeaincerurcerdesente unaselodamsisaírpe 2 3aicréib 610(2 ): …-…10 arugifla ecporoslartsuem2 uecadesdaupagrazve aord sadaicosaselaicossenoicnfu són.icbiohipraly o simrpe ruecadeesracisalcn depue neucnees,nóicagilbonóicnfu yovitinni+ “ erente ” + pesaldeaincerurcerdesente (1snoyl.ocitnóedr olavusa osacitnóeddadiladomalas ,2014)(k occedando eguiis ase.soneisatseado r sí sisafrírepsalnartn “ rbede ” ni+ pednóicnal.ovitinni+ unaselodamsisaírpe saleuqened) 799(1 le,nóicagilboalno sisaírpey bosrve aledortnedomoc ,ovitinn “ querbeha ” áraserpxeesosimrep 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 212 dependiendo de la regulación que se desee realizar, es que el propósito comunicativo determinará el uso de ciertos recursos lingüísticos en vez de otros, modificando el efecto que se detendrá sobre el destinatario. en términos de polo (2014: 2): “(…) dichos marcadores constituyen uno de los recursos fundamentales que el sujeto enunciador tiene a disposición para obtener ciertos comportamiento por parte del destinatario”. a partir de esta idea, es posible inferir que el uso de perífrasis verbales que indican obligación, dan cuenta de una relación de involucramiento directa entre el enunciador y el destinatario, ya que el primero esperaría que el segundo realice efectivamente la acción que enunció. pero tal como se observa en el ejemplo (7), la perífrasis de obligación se utiliza para asignarle una acción a una tercera persona del plural, los políticos, que no forman parte activa de la discusión. 5.1. subjetividad u objetividad de los actos deónticos de acuerdo con garcía (1999), los actos deónticos objetivos se basan en la enunciación de regulaciones que poseen una validación institucional o normativa. esto significa que su uso requiere un mayor número de condiciones. en oposición, los actos deónticos subjetivos son fundamentados por el mismo enunciador y no remitirán, necesariamente, a ninguna norma social, lo que facilitaría su enunciación. en este apartado, los resultados arrojan una clara predominancia de actos deónticos subjetivos, con un 92% de los casos. a través de los siguientes ejemplos, se explicará cómo se manifestaron en la práctica discursiva analizada estos dos tipos de actos deónticos. modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220 213 c. gonzález arias & j. satt roman ibérica 32 (2016): …-… figura 3. tipos de actos deónticos de acuerdo a sus fundamentos. en este apartado, los resultados arrojan una clara predominancia de actos deónticos subjetivos, con un 92% de los casos. a través de los siguientes ejemplos, se explicará cómo se manifestaron en la práctica discursiva analizada estos dos tipos de actos deónticos. ejemplo de acto deóntico objetivo: (10) [sic] ciudadano, empresario defienda su derecho, no acepte imposiciones torpes, usted puede protestar, no financie a medios de comunicación comprometidas con la ideología del odio, apoderado no permita la arbitrariedad de eyzaguirre. (me03) ejemplo de acto deóntico subjetivo: (11) [sic] ¿ud sabe por qué fue rechazado este proyecto? si lo sabe informe punto a punto lo que los ministros debieron revisar. ¿ud cree que los ministros son imbéciles? usted cree que el pueblo es imbécil?. yo no creo que ud. sea imbécil, pero debe demostrar punto a punto por que fue rechazado este proyecto, de lo contrario ya sabe que le diremos o que pensaremos de ud. (mo2) como ya mencionamos, el acto deóntico objetivo posee dos rasgos distintivos; el primero de ellos es que el enunciador evita toda marca de identidad al expresarse impersonalmente; el segundo rasgo es que el acto deóntico se verá fundamentado a partir de una norma social o institucional que puede ser explicitada o evocada. en el texto me3, se pueden observar ambos rasgos. el enunciador evita toda marca de subjetividad al utilizar un registro impersonal, la única identidad perceptible es la de los destinatarios, a los cuales apela directamente: empresario y apoderado. respecto al fundamento del acto deóntico, el enunciador evoca los derechos de los destinatarios, entre ellos la capacidad de protestar o manifestarse. esta evocación corresponde a un derecho constitucional que poseen todos los ciudadanos, por lo tanto, lo que realiza el enunciador es actualizar o poner en contexto una norma creada por una institución. como contraparte, el texto mo2 presenta los rasgos propios de un acto deóntico subjetivo. el enunciador se hace presente mediante la construcción de una identidad de primera persona del singular y plural. en su enunciado mediante el pronombre ”yo”, da cuenta de su as ariezálnzogc. & amorttasj. n 3.a gurfi de posti en luesrsol,oadape tes un on c,vositeubjsoscióntde omcóá carilpexe s,solpemej undamfussa do ueracde oscideóntostacde edrpa arcla nuanrarsoadt véarta.ossacoslde92%un ca iáctrpa lennoartianme s .osentundam soacte da ciannimoed senteguiisosldesvé a zadialana visrcusid tneódsoacte dsopitsodsotes eoocitnóedotcaedolpmeej ) 0(1 me,onadaduic] ci[s pedeupdtesu, seprto eoda i lnas codietmorpmco )3e0m(.erriugazey usocitnóedotcaedolpmeej ) 1(1 qr opebasdu¿] ci[s inims ole uqolotnupa dte?ileébim i .sco ovite : n,ohcreedusadneedoriasrepm iodemaiecnaon, rtasteorp er po noaderdo ap,oid oela dígoleo ovitej : s?otceyropetseodazahcreeéuq ee crdu¿.sarievrnoeriebds orsti yil?ébimlobl senoicisopmietpecaon niócaicnumocedsio tiba ara ltimer eddaderira otnupermniebasoli nsos orstinims ole uq il, ébimd uqeercdtesu?silecébim puntrartosmdebedeo rpe de le uqe saba yoiarrtnco cale,somanoicnemayomco nuncelequeseoslledeo remipr odnugesl e; tenelmanosrepim oalciosa mrona nue dritarpa nedeupes,e3motxetleen tuladadiviteusedacrma naitsdeosldealseebliptecrpe rdo.arpodeay naloectpes ee rconoy. il?cébimselobeupl do azhacerqueporo puntao punt (.due ds oemsarenpe uqos oemrid sodeesopoviteoocitnóedot deideacramodatatviedorainunc soticnóedtocal eeuqseogsar exerse edupe uqalnociutitsnio eel.sogsarsobmaravresbon lanosrempiortsigernurazilit cerdialpeaseluacosla,osiratna enel,coitneódoacteldotenamd il, cébimaes. dueuqoe o ldeo,tcoyepretsedo )2om gsar vosintitsdios ; el esrasexprelad daintde odtanemadnáreves oevoa adtciilpex a.cad adotativerodaicnun daditnediacinúal, o iraseprme:entematc solca oevroadcinuen 2 3aicréib 610(2 ): …-…12 podey p ,osiratnaitsdeosldehoscerde ednopserrocnóicacoveates ol,otantolrop,soanadduci opa eadcra mrona nuotextnco deosopiprgossaroslantesepr ucrtonscalentadiementesepr cnunesune.larulpyralugnsi , otprded daicpaacaloslleernte qlanoicutitsnocohcerednua q asedorainunceleazilaerue .nóciutitsnia nuro rtnocomco evo.iteubjso cióntdeo tcaun de intdeiunadeón icuc ded da erbmonorpleetnaidemodaic ”y .esratsniamo ratseot solsodotneesopeuq n erponeo raziluatca 2omotxetle,etrapar echaesdorainuncele onasrpearemipr lde ”yo” usedtaneucad, 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 213 ejemplo de acto deóntico objetivo: (10) [sic] ciudadano, empresario defienda su derecho, no acepte imposiciones torpes, usted puede protestar, no financie a medios de comunicación comprometidas con la ideología del odio, apoderado no permita la arbitrariedad de eyzaguirre. (me3) ejemplo de acto deóntico subjetivo: (11) [sic] ¿ud sabe por qué fue rechazado este proyecto? si lo sabe informe punto a punto lo que los ministros debieron revisar. ¿ud cree que los ministros son imbéciles? usted cree que el pueblo es imbécil?. yo no creo que ud. sea imbécil, pero debe demostrar punto a punto por que fue rechazado este proyecto, de lo contrario ya sabe que le diremos o que pensaremos de ud. (mo2) como ya mencionamos, el acto deóntico objetivo posee dos rasgos distintivos; el primero de ellos es que el enunciador evita toda marca de identidad al expresarse impersonalmente; el segundo rasgo es que el acto deóntico se verá fundamentado a partir de una norma social o institucional que puede ser explicitada o evocada. en el texto (10), se pueden observar ambos rasgos. el enunciador evita toda marca de subjetividad al utilizar un registro impersonal, la única identidad perceptible es la de los destinatarios, a los cuales apela directamente: empresario y apoderado. respecto al fundamento del acto deóntico, el enunciador evoca los derechos de los destinatarios, entre ellos la capacidad de protestar o manifestarse. esta evocación corresponde a un derecho constitucional que poseen todos los ciudadanos, por lo tanto, lo que realiza el enunciador es actualizar o poner en contexto una norma creada por una institución. como contraparte, el texto (11) presenta los rasgos propios de un acto deóntico subjetivo. el enunciador se hace presente mediante la construcción de una identidad de primera persona del singular y plural. en su enunciado mediante el pronombre ”yo”, da cuenta de su identidad singular, mientras que a través de verbos como “diremos” y “pensaremos” manifiesta una identidad plural. el segundo aspecto a destacar de este ejemplo es que el enunciador justifica la exigencia de acción que realiza. declara que el agente modal debe demostrar algo para así evitar ser insultado por sus lectores. estos rasgos subjetivan el acto deóntico puesto que se desprende que la exigencia y los fundamentos del enunciador provienen solamente de él y no de una fuente institucional o de carácter normativo-legal. este fue el tenor c. gonzález arias & j. satt román ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220214 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 214 de los actos deónticos subjetivos identificados: el enunciador establece de manera justificada e imperativamente que el agente debe proceder a realizar una acción. en el siguiente apartado se abordarán los resultados concernientes a los agentes modales que se identificaron. 5.2. agentes modales respecto a los resultados que se muestran en la figura 4, cabe destacar una clara predominancia de la tercera persona, ya sea singular o plural. esta tercera persona se entiende como alguien que es distinto al enunciador y al destinatario. en los casos analizados, se detectó que la tercera persona que es referenciada tiende a ser una persona, grupo de personas o institución, a los que denominaremos como actores sociales. dado que la columna de opinión consta de la reflexión de un experto o de alguien socialmente reconocido respecto a un hecho de actualidad, estos hechos podrían ser, por ejemplo, proyectos de ley, protestas, declaraciones o implementación de políticas públicas; los actores sociales que podrían estar relacionados serían diputados, estudiantes, profesores, ministros o alcaldes. junto a estos casos, es necesario destacar, que en el caso de un agente modal en tercera persona, este puede encontrarse explícitamente en el enunciado o su identidad puede inferirse. ejemplo: (12) [sic] (..) y el primer paso para ello, teresita, es que la educación se vuelva a pensar como un todo, como una sola gran area que debe ser discutida por políticos y profesores y reorientada como pais. no como modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220 215 modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): …-… identidad singular, mientras que a través de verbos como “diremos” y “pensaremos” manifiesta una identidad plural. el segundo aspecto a destacar de este ejemplo es que el enunciador justifica la exigencia de acción que realiza. declara que el agente modal debe demostrar algo para así evitar ser insultado por sus lectores. estos rasgos subjetivan el acto deóntico puesto que se desprende que la exigencia y los fundamentos del enunciador provienen solamente de él y no de una fuente institucional o de carácter normativo-legal. este fue el tenor de los actos deónticos subjetivos identificados: el enunciador establece de manera justificada e imperativamente que el agente debe proceder a realizar una acción. en el siguiente apartado se abordarán los resultados concernientes a los agentes modales que se identificaron. 5.2. agentes modales figura 4. agentes modales. respecto a los resultados que se muestran en la figura 4, cabe destacar una clara predominancia de la tercera persona, ya sea singular o plural. esta tercera persona se entiende como alguien que es distinto al enunciador y al destinatario. en los casos analizados, se detectó que la tercera persona que es referenciada tiende a ser una persona, grupo de personas o institución, a los que denominaremos como actores sociales. dado que la columna de opinión consta de la reflexión de un experto o de alguien socialmente reconocido respecto a un hecho de actualidad, estos hechos podrían ser, por ejemplo, proyectos de ley, protestas, declaraciones o implementación de políticas públicas; los actores sociales que podrían estar relacionados serían diputados, estudiantes, profesores, ministros o alcaldes. junto a estos casos, es necesario destacar, que en el caso de un agente modal en tercera lamod satrniem, rlauginsdatidneid “ osmeranspe ” anuatseinma es cnunel eeselopmete dladometnegaleeuqaralcde s.erotcels su otes s naviteussogsra el cacitóneddadi edóniserpxeomo sobrevedsévatraeuqs aodnugesle.larulpdaditnedia ediacneigxelaasujrodiac veísaarapoglarartsomedebed se otesupcoitneódoact ale alcison óaciulreg omoc “ osmerdi ” y edracatsedaotcepsa . alizaereuqnióccae ropodatlusniresrativ a le uqe denrpesde otes s naviteussogsra el sotenamdnsolya ciengiex deo lonaiuctitnsientuna isovietusscoitneódsoact tenemavtiarepmieadacitsju baesodatrapaetneiugisleen .noracitnedieseuqseladmo sealodmsetngea2.5. se otesupcoitneódoact amlosenenivorproadcinueneld voitamnorretcárac tesel. agle adcinuenel:socaditendi eor aredecorpebedtenegal eeuqte recnocsodatlusersolnáradrob a le uqe denrpesde e donyéle de tenam sloedrontel eete arneamdeeceblatse .nióccaanuraizlaera setnegasolasetneinr euqsodatlusersolaotcepsre arecretaldeaincnaidomepr guilao omcndeeinteesonasrpe des,sodazilanasosacsolen , anosrepanuresaedntie seortcao omcosmernainomde 4.a gurfi .seladomsetneag nenartseumese aruigfla ac4, o rangulisaesya,onasrpea ainuncelao ntitsdisequen egui anosreparecretaleuqótceted titusinosanosrepedopurg .selaiocss aralcunaracatsdebea arecretatse.laurpl oiratnaitsdelay dora . adaicnererseeuqa euqsloa, nióctitu poedanmulocaleuqodda cionecore tenmalcioseniugal o,plmepor,resn aípodr salíticopednióctanemlepim upidnaríessodanoicalre sodta esdoiarecesnes,socassotesa ibér nóixeeraledatsnocnóinip uacte doechhnua oectpesrod atseotpry,eldeostcoyepr leiacossertocaslo; salicbúp isinm, serosorp, steniadtuse, enagnue docaselene uq,acartes 32ca ibér 610(2 ): …-… 13 otrepxenued deo soechhsotes,addialu o soneicaralcde,sa rtaseníardopeuqsle tonuj. seldalcaosotris a cerertenaldome ten 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 215 miles de emprendimientos personales, miles de apuestas privadas y municipales dirigidas por un monton de muy diferentes individuos en idiologia, intereses, caracter e ideas (y sin hablar de intereses economicos, obscenidad que nunca debio haberse permitido). en otras palabras, la educación debe volver al estado, al ministerio de educacion mas precisamente (que para eso fue creado o no?) y dejar solo un espacio minimo por la buena onda a los privados. ahi y solo ahi, la educacion chilena tendrá algun caso. (mo4) el texto (12) nos permite ejemplificar, en primer lugar, cómo se puede distinguir, por un lado, al destinatario del comentario, y por otro, al agente modal o destinatario del acto deóntico; en segundo lugar, nos muestra los dos casos posibles de un agente modal en tercera persona, entiéndase, uno explícito y uno implícito. el destinatario del comentario es teresita (la columnista), tal como se establece en la primera línea. avanzando en el texto, se presentan los actores sociales, políticos y profesores, y el acto deóntico que se les asigna, la obligatoria discusión para mejorar la educación, manifestada a través de la perífrasis “debe ser discutida”. estos agentes modales, por lo tanto, son explícitos. no obstante, este comentario presenta otro acto deóntico, evidenciado en la perífrasis modal “debe volver”. en este caso, solo queda explicitado que la acción a realizar es devolverle al estado y al ministerio de educación el control sobre la educación. a partir de esto, se podrá inferir que el agente modal son los políticos, ya que ellos tienen la facultades para realizar dicha acción. la segunda categoría de mayor recurrencia fue fuente y agente modal. siguiendo a verstraete (2005), por fuente modal entenderemos a la persona o entidad de la cual emana el acto deóntico, mientras que el agente modal será aquel que se espera cumpla con este acto. la fuente modal puede ser distinta del enunciador, pero en esta investigación, se identificó que en gran parte de los actos deónticos, tal como se muestra en la figura 3, el comentarista generó desde su propia subjetividad la regulación social. ejemplo: (13) [sic] y usted que me dice de que fusilar a un delincuente o torturar y matar a un adversario por razones políticas sea un atentado contra los derechos humanos, una barbarie sin justificación y algo completamente inaceptable en una sociedad evolucionada (en lo que todos estamos de acuerdo), pero que despostar a un niño en formación mientras está en el útero de su madre sea una expresión del derecho a elegir de una c. gonzález arias & j. satt román ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220216 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 216 mujer? me parece que como sociedad debemos entender que el derecho a la vida empieza con la concepción. (me1) este comentario refleja la tendencia de esta categoría. en la mayoría de los casos, el enunciador se identificó a sí mismo como parte de un conjunto receptor del acto deóntico. el comentarista afirma que la sociedad debe entender que el derecho a la vida empieza con la concepción. al formular la perífrasis “deber” + “entender” desde una primera persona del plural, él se incluye dentro de la sociedad. en los otros casos clasificados de esta manera, el comentarista hizo alusión a otras identidades colectivas, tales como chilenos, ciudadanos o consumidores, entre otros. los últimos datos relevantes de este apartado son aquellos relacionados con el agente modal expresado a través de la segunda persona gramatical o la apelación directa. una de las manifestaciones más elementales de la modalidad deóntica es en las interacciones directas entre personas. por consiguiente, resulta interesante la baja frecuencia de agentes modales configurados mediante la segunda persona, dado que esta práctica discursiva se caracteriza por ser un espacio en el cual discuten los contenidos del diario y los temas que ellos mismos van creando, por lo que existe una interacción entre comentaristas. sin ir más lejos, la mayoría de los casos de este tipo no refieren a una relación entre comentaristas, sino entre un comentarista y el redactor de la columna. como se observa en el texto (14), el comentarista apela directamente a un “usted”, al cual identifica como diplomático (un ex embajador que escribió la columna). ejemplo: (14) [sic] “perú darle señales claras que chile posee y es dueño del triángulo terrestre.....” ud. como diplomático debe conocer los tratados, e interpretarlos si hubiera alguna duda, le adjunto el plano firmado por el representante chileno, el cual no deja dudas. (me4) 6. conclusiones como hemos sostenido en este artículo, en la práctica discursiva de participar en el espacio público comentando las noticias, la modalidad deóntica nos ha permitido caracterizar la búsqueda de regulaciones sociales modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220 217 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 217 en estos espacios. la virtualidad del espacio mediático y el carácter eminentemente verbal facilita la interacción de un número importante de personas. estos participantes, al no conocerse, deben recurrir a mecanismos mediante los cuales pueden definir conocimientos o comportamientos comunes. la regulación social se nos presenta como uno de estos mecanismos, el cual nos permite normar las conductas de aquellos individuos que reconocemos como parte de la sociedad. mediante el análisis de la modalidad deóntica, se propuso abordar este fenómeno social en un espacio mediático que extiende el espacio público al ambiente virtual y que se caracteriza por proveer nuevas formas de interacción entre individuos. la observación del sistema deóntico en este tipo de práctica nos permitió observar cómo se representan y construyen aspectos claves de la opinión pública por parte de un segmento de la población. el análisis lingüístico nos permitió observar un amplio despliegue de regulaciones que expresan obligación, tal como se ha observado en otras investigaciones que han abordado este mismo fenómeno, pero en otras prácticas discursivas. respecto al grado de objetividad de los actos deónticos, se evidenció una clara predominancia de actos subjetivos, es decir, aquellas regulaciones sociales que son creadas y justificadas por los mismos enunciadores. este resultado podría explicarse por el tipo de situación comunicativa que estudiamos y refleja que los lectores comentaristas se perciben con derechos en el ámbito público. esta es una práctica informal y espontánea y, por lo tanto, los comentaristas no se ven en la obligación de respaldar con normas institucionales las regulaciones que proponen, aunque también existe la posibilidad de que desconozcan la información necesaria para objetivar sus regulaciones. la mayoría de los agentes modales que se configuraron en los actos deónticos no fueron sujetos que participaban en la discusión que se desarrollaba en la cadena de comentarios, sino sujetos que forman parte de un contexto social más amplio, como, por ejemplo, los sujetos que fueron identificados explícitamente en las columnas de opinión o en los comentarios como agentes asociados a las problemáticas abordadas. esta tendencia indicaría que los comentaristas se concentran en enunciar regulaciones que ellos consideran apropiadas para mejorar problemas que afectan al conjunto de la sociedad. ahora, en vez de establecer que los agentes de cambio son sus pares, comentaristas-ciudadanos, reconocen como agentes de cambio a los actores c. gonzález arias & j. satt román ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220218 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 218 sociales que podrían influir directamente en la realidad del país, tanto las instituciones que organizan el estado como los responsables de dichas instituciones, los funcionarios públicos. considerando la clasificación de actos deónticos en instrumentales y desiderativos, en esta práctica se observaría un fenómeno particular. si bien las regulaciones sociales se enmarcan dentro de apelaciones directas a los agentes modales, no es posible definirlas como instrumentales, puesto que los agentes no forman parte de la discusión en los comentarios. por lo tanto, la finalidad de las regulaciones sociales enunciadas se inclina hacia un propósito desiderativo, dado que los comentaristas solo pueden manifestar un deseo respecto a las situaciones y acciones que plantean. article history: received 4 diciembre 2015 received in revised form 3 mayo 2016 accepted 10 mayo 2016 references modalidad deóntica como expresión de la regulación social ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220 219 arriagada, a. & p. navia (eds.) 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(2009). “la defensa del usuario y del administrado la regulación económica y social”. url: http://www.ijeditores.com.ar/articulos.php? idarticulo=30497&print=2 [08/09/2016] kalinowski, g. (1976). un aperçu elémentaire des modalités déontiques. langages 10(43): 10-18. kiefer, f. (1987). “on defining modality”. folia linguistica, v. 21. koch, i. (1996). argumentación y lenguaje. são paulo: corte. lyons, j. (1977). semantics. cambridge: cambridge university press. neves, m. (1997). a gramática funcional. são paulo: martins fontes. palmer, f. (1986). mood and modality. cambridge: cambridge university press. polo, a. (2014). “valores deónticos en un corpus comparable” en s. ondelli (ed.), relaciones textuales híbridas en el contexto europeo (107126). trieste: eut edizioni università di trieste. tumber, h., (2001). “democracy in the information age: the role of the fourth estate in cyberspace”. information, communication & society 4(1): 95-112. vázquez, m. (1999). “modalidad deóntica objetiva y subjetiva”. nueva revista de filología hispánica 47,1: 1-32. verstraete, j. (2005). “scalar quantity implicatures and the interpretation of modality: problems in the deontic domain”. journal of pragmatics 37: 14011418. 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 219 cristian gonzález arias obtuvo en cotutela el grado de doctor en lingüística por la pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso, chile y docteur en sciences du langage en la universidad paris 13, francia. actualmente es profesor adjunto en la pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso. investiga en el ámbito de la lingüística del discurso desde la perspectiva semiolingüística, centrado en el discurso mediático, político y académico. juan satt román. profesor de castellano y comunicación y licenciado en literatura y lenguas hispánica de la pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso. actualmente, se desempeña como profesor universitario e investigador en el ámbito del análisis gramatical y análisis del discurso. appendix corpus de columnas de opinión y comentarios c. gonzález arias & j. satt román ibérica 32 (2016): 201-220220 c. gonzález arias & j. satt roman ibérica 32 (2016): …-… corpus de columnas de opinión y comentarios me1 kaiser, axel. “sobre la libertad”. url: http://www.elmercurio.com/blogs/2014/06/03/22369/sobrela-libertad.aspx [03/06/2014] me2 covarrubias, francisco josé. “¡no es la revolución, es la utopía!” url: http://www.elmercurio.com/blogs/2014/06/07/22481/no-es-la-revolucion-es-la-utopia.aspx [07/06/2014] me3 schmidt-hebbel, klaus. “propuesta para una verdadera reforma tributaria: 2a carta abierta al senado”. url: http://www.elmercurio.com/blogs/2014/06/24/22952/propuesta-para-una-verdaderareforma-tributaria-2-carta-abierta-al-senado.aspx [24/06/2014] me4 lazarte, jorge. “¿qué se puede esperar de la demanda boliviana ante la haya?” url: http://www.elmercurio.com/blogs/2014/06/24/22959/que-se-puede-esperar-de-la-demanda-debolivia-ante-la-haya.aspx [24/06/2014] me5 peña, carlos. “desalojo del instituto nacional”. url: http://www.elmercurio.com/blogs/2014/06/15/22688/desalojo-del-instituto-nacional.aspx [15/06/2014] mo1 ortiz, edison. reformas en educación: avanzar caminando hacia atrás. url: http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2014/06/03/reformas-en-educacion-avanzar-caminandohacia-atras/ [03/06/2014] mo2 perez de arce, hermógenes. “el precio de la imbecilidad”. url: http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2014/06/13/el-precio-de-la-imbecilidad/ [13/06/2014] mo3 marinivic, teresa. “soberanía mapuche aquí y ahora”. url: http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2014/06/19/soberania-mapuche-aqui-y-ahora/ [19/06/2014] mo4 marinovic, teresa. “la educación no tiene caso, ni siquiera la de la elite”. url: http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2014/06/04/la-educacion-no-tiene-caso-ni-siquiera-la-dela-elite/ [04/06/2014] mo5 marinovic, teresa. “ni contrarios a la vida, ni defensores de la pena de muerte”. url: http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2014/05/29/ni-contrarios-a-la-vida-ni-defensores-de-lapena-de-muerte/ [29/05/2014] 09 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 220 iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.369 abstract this article focuses on acronyms and related items, namely abbreviations, alphabetisms, blends, and clippings in the language of photography, a field that has not been previously examined. numerous studies have dealt with these word-formation processes in the general language and, although to a lesser extent, in the different specialized languages. to date, despite the ubiquitous presence of photography in the modern world, no research has addressed the use of these categories in the language of photography, as one of the many fields of esp. this paper intends to fill this gap and to identify, analyse and classify acronyms, alphabetisms, abbreviations, blends, and clippings in photography discourse focusing on their structure and characteristics. to meet this objective, a corpus-based approach was followed. the data were gathered from professional photography blogs providing authentic up-to-date lexis. the results suggest that these categories abound in the language of photography. although to differing extents, there are acronyms (e.g., lomo, gobo), alphabetisms (e.g., dslr, hdr), abbreviations (e.g., mpx, mm), blends (squinch, bit), and clippings (e.g., photog, cam), in addition to peripheral cases (e.g., b&w, raw, l*a*b*) and hybrid categories (e.g., png, jpeg). keywords: acronyms, abbreviations, blends, clippings, photography. resumen acrónimos y categorías vecinas en el lenguaje de la fotografía este artículo se centra en los acrónimos y en categorías vecinas, en concreto, las abreviaturas, alfabetismos, cruces léxicos y acortamientos en el lenguaje de la fotografía, un campo que todavía no ha sido examinado. numerosos estudios han tratado estos procesos de formación de palabras en el lenguaje general y, en menor medida, en los distintos lenguajes especializados. hasta el momento, a acronyms and neighbouring categories in the language of photography iryna mykytka universidad de alicante (spain) iryna.mykytka@ua.es 369 ibérica 44 (2022): 00-00 iryna mykytka pesar de la omnipresencia de la fotografía en el mundo moderno, ninguna investigación ha abordado el uso de estas categorías en el lenguaje de la fotografía, entendido como uno de los numerosos campos de inglés para fines específicos. este artículo pretende cubrir esta laguna e identificar, analizar y clasificar los acrónimos, alfabetismos, abreviaturas, cruces léxicos y acortamientos en el discurso de la fotografía, con especial atención a su estructura y características. para cumplir con este objetivo se siguió un enfoque basado en corpus. los datos se recopilaron de blogs de fotografía profesionales que muestran un léxico auténtico y actualizado. los resultados sugieren que estas categorías abundan en el lenguaje de la fotografía. aunque en diferente medida, existen acrónimos (p. ej., lomo, gobo), alfabetismos (p. ej., dslr, hdr), abreviaturas (p. ej., mpx, mm), cruces léxicos (squinch, bit) y acortamientos (p. ej., photog, cam), además de algunos casos periféricos (p. ej., b&w, raw, l*a*b*) y categorías híbridas (p. ej., png, jpeg). palabras clave: acrónimos, abreviaturas, cruces léxicos, acortamientos, fotografía. 1. introduction the study of word-formation processes is not new and researchers have long been interested in this topic (see e.g. adams, 1973, 2013; bauer, 1983; bloomfield, 1935 [1933]; jespersen, 1942; marchand, 1969; plag, 2018). as algeo (2010) remarks, “most new words come in one way or another from older words”, for example by compounding, derivation, conversion, or other word-formation devices, and creating a word out of nothing is a very rare phenomenon (p. 224). thus, except for a few cases (e.g. kodak) that were arbitrary combinations of letters, the majority of new words are made from other existing words. although there is no single theory of word making, as pointed out by bauer (1983, p. 1), it appears that some word-formation processes have received more attention than others. if compounding and derivation are treated with special interest from linguists (see, e.g., adams, 1973, 2013; bauer, 1983, 2017; marchand, 1969; o’grady et al., 1997), blending, acronymy, or clipping, for example, usually make a brief appearance in books on english word-formation. labelled as “oddities” (aronoff, 1976, p. 20), “unpredictable formations” (bauer, 1983, p. 232), “extra-grammatical” formations (dressler & barbaresi, 1994, pp. 36-41; mattiello, 2013), these phenomena have often been considered of “minor” importance (huddleston & pullum, 2002; scalise, 1984, p. 98) and, therefore, marginalized. 370 one of the reasons is the lack of predictable rules in many processes, and lack of agreement among scholars on terminology, definitions, taxonomic arrangements, not to mention their fuzzy boundaries that make many wordformation processes poorly defined. in the case of acronyms, alphabetisms, abbreviations, blends, and clippings the inconsistency is especially apparent. for instance, mcarthur et al. (2018) use the term “abbreviation” as an umbrella term for “initialisms” –those composed of initial letters where each letter is pronounced individually (fbi)–, “acronyms” –where the letters in the abbreviated form are pronounced using english reading rules (radar)–, and “clippings” –words formed by removing one or more syllables (pro < professional)–. cannon (1989, p. 99), in contrast, uses “initialism” as a superordinate comprising “acronyms”–items “created from the first letter (and infrequently the second or even third letters) of all or most of the 3-9 constituents of an existing compound […] pronounced syllabically”– and ‘abbreviations’ –“items created from one or two first letters of all or most of the 1-5 constituents of an existing item [...] pronounced letter by letter” (p. 116)–. to quirk et al. (1972, p. 832), cannon’s (1989) abbreviations and mcarthur et al.’s (2018) initialisms are “alphabetisms”. kreidler (1979) regards acronyms and clippings as ‘shortenings’ and blends as ‘multiple clippings’. blends are also known as ‘portmanteau words’ and there exist as many as twenty-nine synonyms for them (wentworth, 1933). for the purpose of this study, i will mainly follow the terminology and typology suggested by lópez rúa (2002, 2019) who presents exhaustive research on acronyms and the neighbouring categories and proposes a parameter-based description and classification for each type: acronyms (laser), alphabetisms (bbc), abbreviations (mr.), clippings (lab), and blends (motel). i will also take into consideration studies by beliaeva (2014, 2016) that help to draw a clearer distinction between blends and compound clippings. in addition, taking into account that all have in common the loss of material, i will refer to them all as ‘shortenings’ following cannon (1989): “we will propose […] the common term shortening as the name of the division that produces blends, acronyms, abbreviations, and other reduced items” (p. 107). despite a great deal of variation concerning terminology or typology and other discrepancies, these formations are so common in the english language (bauer, 1983, p. 232) that they deserve more attention. researchers agree that shortenings, in general, have become increasingly productive throughout the second half of the 20th century and they continue proliferating in the 21st (ayto, 1999, p. ix; kostina et al., 2015, p. 706; acronyms and neighbouring categories in the language of photography ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390 371 mattiello, 2013, p. 2) especially in fields related to technology, for example, computer-mediated communication contexts (mcarthur et al., 2018). in recent decades, numerous studies appear to pay more attention to acronyms and the neighbouring categories not only in the general language (gries, 2004a, 2004b; harley, 2004; lópez rúa, 2002; mattiello, 2013; silaški, & đurović, 2013) but also in specialized languages. for example, there are studies in medicine (e.g. kuhn, 2007), business and finances (mirabela & ariana, 2009, 2014), and computer science and technology (e.g. tavaglione, 2020; vlietstra, 2001), just to mention a few. yet, not all esp discourses have received the same degree of attention and the discourse of photography is one such case where little work has been done so far. despite the vast amount of literature on photography from different perspectives –historical (newhall, 1984; rosenblum, 1997), anthropological (sontag, 1977), artistic (bourdieu & whiteside, 1996; duchemin, 2012; scharf, 1990) and technical (evening, 2015; kelby, 2018)–, research into the language of photography in english is limited. there are a few studies of metaphors in photography in english (assfalg et al., 1999; keats, 2010; mykytka, 2016; pollen, 2013), of noun compounds (mykytka, 2020a), of its lexical and semantic features (mykytka, 2020b; navab, 2001), and english loanwords in the language of photography in spanish (mykytka, 2017). yet, to my knowledge, no work exists that deals with acronyms or other shortenings in photography discourse. the lack of empirical studies on the lexis of photography indicates that there is a clear need for research in the area. the current study, therefore, aims to partially fill this gap. the main questions addressed are whether the language of photography makes use of acronymy, alphabetisms, abbreviations, blending, and clipping and, if so, which terms are present and to what extent, how they were created, and how they could be classified. this study will thus benefit both lexicology and photography. the popularity of the latter is growing and its significance should not be overlooked, since it is embedded in our daily lives. if in 1982 burgin pointed out that it was “almost as unusual to pass a day without seeing a photograph as it is to miss seeing writing” (my emphasis) (burgin, 1982), nowadays it is impossible to spend a day without seeing a photograph. the arrival of the internet and social networks, as well as other forms of communication (e.g. online magazines, blogs, and forums), has enabled the sharing of photographs on a truly massive scale. photography can be an art, a technique for capturing iryna mykytka ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390372 moments in our lives, a resource or tool for other disciplines, a profession, or a hobby. it has become an essential part of our society, and its language, without a doubt, also deserves attention. 2. language of photography to begin with, it should be noted that “photography language” or “the language of photography” commonly refers to the means of expression or communication, i.e., the capacity of photographs to convey messages and ideas (see burgin, 1982; chandler & livingston, 2016; fairey & orton, 2019; scott, 1999, 2020). however, it may also refer to the verbal language used by photographers. the latter is the focus of this paper, which addresses the different types of shortenings of this particular register. photography lies at the crossroads between art, science, and technology. it is the result of a centuries-long collaborative effort by artists, scientists, and technological advances. artists were the forerunners in promoting first the camera obscura and then the camera lucida, two precursors to the photographic camera. however, when artists used it solely as an aid in the creation of their paintings, scientists went further and dedicated themselves to discovering how to make a camera capture images by itself without the intervention of an artist’s hand. after numerous scientific experiments with different photosensitive chemicals and materials, they managed to create permanent prints and to invent photography (see, e.g., newhall, 1984, for a detailed history of photography). once invented, thanks to technological advances, it began its remarkable development which continues at present. as a result, art, science, and technology have left their mark on the history and lexis of photography. the diverse nature of photography entails, on the one hand, the lexis shared among different disciplines, such as painting, computing, chemistry, optics, physics, geometry, astronomy among others, providing photography with an interdisciplinary character (mykytka, 2020b). on the other hand, the technological facet of photography involves the continuous incorporation of new words, since technology is advancing at a great pace, as is photography. photography is now at the centre of continual growth, seeking greater quality, more megapixels, new effects, and new possibilities. as a result, new realities emerge that require naming. for example, the incorporation of a camera in a smartphone (specifically the front-facing camera) has enabled us to take selfies. the appearance of instagram, a popular photo-sharing acronyms and neighbouring categories in the language of photography ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390 373 application, yielded the word instagrammer. the term reels, which traditionally referred to “film reels” in photography, acquired new meanings: on instagram or tiktok reels are short videos. photoshop, the popular image editing software, gave rise to the verb to photoshop. similarly, the proper noun plotagraph, a software released recently whose purpose is to create a dynamic image from a still one, seems to be established as a common noun: plotagraph (“so having done my first plotagraph earlier, i’ve been playing around some more”; batty, 2016). therefore, the lexis of photography is constantly changing and incorporating new terms. although there are numerous dictionaries of photography (e.g. herschdorfer, 2015; lynch-johnt & perkins, 2008), as well as encyclopedias (e.g. peres, 2013), very few have devoted themselves to researching the language of photography from a linguistic perspective and most writings on this subject are brief and tangential to other research concerns. apart from the works mentioned in the introduction (assfalg et al., 1999; keats, 2010; mykytka, 2016, 2017, 2020a, 2020b; navab, 2001; pollen, 2013) to date no research has addressed the acronyms and other shortenings in the language of photography. the present study, therefore, seeks to address this gap. 3. method the purpose of this study is to identify the abbreviations, alphabetisms, blends, and clippings used in the language of photography and classify them following a corpus-based methodology. as pointed out by biber et al. (1998, p. 1) a corpus is the ideal means for examining how language is used in naturally occurring texts rather than exploring what is theoretically possible. the data used in this study were gathered from the internet. photography blogs were chosen as the source material from the variety of genres available because they provide authentic usage of language, they are up-to-date, free, and easily accessible. six blogs were selected for the study, namely beyond megapixels (bm; joyce, 2007), photofocus (pf; harrington, 2008), roesch photography (rp; roesch), scott kelby photoshop insider (sk; kelby, 2007), strobist (st; hobby, 2006) and the urban exploration photography blog (ux; roesch). after the texts were identified, their contents were manually downloaded into text files. each blog and each post was tagged with its own reference, which is used throughout this article to indicate the source of the items. the tags are formed with the initials of the blog and the date of iryna mykytka ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390374 publication –year, month, day– of the post on the internet. for instance, bm_090710 means that the item was extracted from a post published on the beyond megapixels blog on july 10, 2009. i compiled a corpus of about 900,000 words, composed of 1,644 blog posts on photography, written between 2006 and 2017 by professional photographers who are native speakers of american english. once the corpus was compiled, the photography terms were manually extracted. two factors were considered while identifying photography terms: frequency and meaning. in terms of frequency, the corpus-comparison approach proposed by sutarsyah et al. (1994) and adopted by mihwa chung (2003a, 2003b) shows that technical terms are more common in the discipline to which they belong and are rare in general english. therefore, the british national corpus (bnc) was employed for comparison, as well as the sketch engine (kilgarriff & rychl, 2003) to determine the frequency of the words. the technicality analysis model (tam) proposed by ho ha and hyland and based on frequency and meaning was also applied (see mykytka, 2018 for the detailed explanation of procedure). different tools were used to check specialized meaning, mainly the oxford english dictionary online (2019) and specialized dictionaries on photography, such as the illustrated dictionary of photography (lynch-johnt & perkins, 2008) and the thames & hudson dictionary of photography (herschdorfer, 2015). other dictionaries were also consulted occasionally. as a result, 1,144 photography terms were extracted and then the photography acronyms, abbreviations, alphabetisms, blends, and clippings were manually selected and classified mainly following the parameters proposed by lópez rúa (2002, 2019), and taking into account studies by beliaeva (2014, 2016), especially when distinguishing compound clippings from blends. 4. analysis and results 129 items were identified. the analysis shows that the most common type of shortenings in the language of photography are alphabetisms (67 items; 52%) with clippings in second place (23 items; 18%) and abbreviations in third (17 items; 13%). other groups were less common: acronyms (7 items; 5%) and blends (5 items; 4%). the final group comprises hybrid items that could not be included in any of the categories since they combine acronyms and neighbouring categories in the language of photography ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390 375 characteristics from different groups (10 items; 8%). within each group (except hybrids) the distinction has been made between prototypical, typical, and peripheral items, following the parameters suggested by lópez rúa (2002, 2019). 4.1. acronyms in the language of photography although not particularly common (7 items; 5%), acronyms do occur in the language of photography. two prototypical acronyms were found in this sample: (1) gobo <goes before optics/ˈgoʊˌboʊ/): the gobo is on the side of the flash closest to the camera. (st_060500) lomo<rus. leningradskoye optiko-mekhanicheskoye obyedinenie (leningrad optical mechanical association) ˈloʊˌmoʊ/: he started experimenting when he got interested in lomo cameras. (bm_080305) they both follow all the parameters of prototypical acronyms established by lópez rúa (2002, p. 40): (a) syllabic pronunciation, (b) maximal degree of shortening (one or maximum two letters per word), (c) both are used orally and in writing (d) being written in small letters (e) whose source is a phrase. in the case of lomo, it is made up exclusively of initial letters of the lexemes, while gobo includes an intermediate element “o”, which was probably used to obtain a pronounceable sequence. examples in (2), however, are not prototypical acronyms mainly due to their orthography, as they are written in capital letters (more typical of alphabetisms) and not in small letters: (2) evil< electronic viewfinder with interchangeable lens /ˈiːvəl/: sneak peek at sony’s evil lcd and menus. (pb_100311) gif < graphics interchange format /gɪf/: this will convert the file to a gif or png. (pf_150726) tiff < tagged image file format /tɪf/: i now have three new tiff images at 16 bit. (bm_090706) exif/exif< exchangeable image file format /ˈɛksɪf/: every photo taken on a digital camera automatically is assigned exif data. (bm_091207) iryna mykytka ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390376 most of them refer to the different image formats (gif, tiff, exif/exif). evil, in contrast, refers to a type of camera with an electronic viewfinder, that is, the one lacking a mirror, which allows different lenses to be attached. exif/exif would be a prototypical acronym if it did not present the two options in writing. interestingly, the official name of this format is exif but the other version is very commonly used too, probably due to the fact that usually image formats are written in capital letters. yet, despite the use of capitals, these terms seem to be closer to acronymy than to alphabetisms because of the orthoepic pronunciation, i.e., they are pronounced as words. (3) raw < raw /rɔ/: thought of the day: raw or jpeg? (rp_120403) there is one case of peripheral acronyms, a false acronym raw. it resembles acronyms in the orthoepic pronunciation and the capitals suggest that it comes from a phrase, but in fact it is the common word ‘raw’ referring to an unprocessed or raw image format that contains all of the data as captured by the camera’s sensor. this is one of the numerous image formats, which normally appear in uppercase, and which usually are either acronyms, alphabetisms, or hybrids of both (e. g. tiff, jpeg, png, gif), but speakers often misinterpret the raw format as an acronym and write it in uppercase as in example (3). 4.2. alphabetisms in the language of photography this is the largest group of shortenings in the photography lexis (52%; 67 items). similarly, as with acronyms, among the most significant values in alphabetisms, according to lópez rúa (2002, p. 41), are their unexpanded pronunciation letter by letter and the maximal degree of shortening (1 initial per lexical word). in addition, they are prototypically written in capital letters whose source form is a phrase. below there are some examples of prototypical alphabetisms in photography language: (4) ttl < through-the-lens: i still do not trust ttl with digital, so i always use manual […]. (st_060700) dslr <digital single lens reflex: get your dslr out of auto mode and go manual. (sk_170818) tlr < twin-lens reflex: i got a blackbird, fly which is a 35mm tlr. (bm_090322) efl <effective focal length: the fixed focal length lens on the x100t acronyms and neighbouring categories in the language of photography ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390 377 has an effective focal length (efl) of 35mm. (pf_150221) hdr <high dynamic range: hdr photographs can look realistic, or not, […]. (pf_170314) in contrast with the prototypical cases, there are some examples of typical cases that do not conform completely to the characterization of the prototypes: cases where a lexeme is represented by more than one letter, or there are lexemes omitted in the alphabetism. thus, for example, there are terms such as ddssm (<direct drive super sonic wave motor), where not all lexical words are initialized, dng (<digital negative) where two letters represent the term negative, or xsm (extra silent motor) that include an intermediate component instead of an initial one. further examples of central or typical alphabetisms are those items whose source form is a word instead of a phrase (5), a group of words (6), or alphabetisms with a written alternative in small letters (7): (5) l < luxury: canon ef 35mm f/1.4l usm wide angle lens. (bm_100921) (6) rgb < red, green, blue: an rgb (red, green, blue) color wheel shows how digital cameras and photoshop (lightroom too) create the spectrum of hues in digital photography. (pf_170313) cmyk < cyan magenta yellow key: they are used for mixing paints and inks for printing on paper in cmyk (cyan, magenta, yellow, key [black]). (pf_170313) hsl < hue, saturation, luminosity: below it is the version with the hsl sliders. (pf_150702) (7) lpi < lines per inch: an increase in lpi results in smooth images. (pf_150722) ppi <pixels per inch: […] and i chose a resolution of 240 ppi. (sk_170619) some instances of peripheral alphabetisms are those including numbers (4k), slashes (ƒ/ < f number), hyphens (ef-s < electro focus short back focus; e-ttl < evaluative through-the-lens) or symbols (l*a*b*). the latter is particularly interesting, as it has various forms: it may be a typical alphabetism (lab) or it may use the asterisks moving towards peripheral alphabetism. iryna mykytka ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390378 4.3. abbreviations in the language of photography the next groups consist of abbreviations (13%; 17 items). compared to acronyms and alphabetisms, abbreviations have a rather graphic character since they are only used in writing, appearing prototypically in lower case letters or combined with capitals, their degree of shortening is variable (from low to high) and their source can be a word or a phrase (lópez rúa, 2002, p. 42). the most significant parameter according to lópez rúa (2002, p. 42) is their expanded pronunciation. the photography terms that follow these criteria are the following: (8) mm < millimeters: the canon ef-s 55-250mm f/4-5.6 is. (bm_071103) fps < frames per second: users can choose to record super slow motion video at frame rates of 960fps, 480fps, and 240fps. (pf_150610) px < pixel: therefore, a 6399px by 4170px image can be printed at a maximum size […]. (pf_150624) mpx < megapixels: kodak zd15 digital camera 10mpx. (bm_091123) central but not prototypical abbreviations in photography are mainly those written in capitals, such as bw (< black and white), mk (mark = version), ff (< full frame), ca (< chromatic aberration), mf (< manual focus), g.w.c (< guy with camera). finally, examples of peripheral abbreviations in photography language are those including symbols, in particular, the ampersand: b&w (< black and white) and p&s (<point and shoot). 4.4. clippings in the language of photography clippings are the second most frequent group in this photography corpus (18%; 23 items). this word-formation process has been defined as “the process by which a word of two or more syllables (usually a noun) is shortened without a change in the function taking place” (adams, 1973, p. 135). prototypical clippings, according to lópez rúa (2002, p. 41), are shortenings of single simple words –usually common nouns or adjectives– written in lower-case letters whose degree of shortening is medium. this process usually affects either the end of the word (back clipping) or the beginning (fore clipping). probably the most popular examples of prototypical clippings in photography are pic (< picture), photo (< photograph), and fav (< favorite), which are commonly used not only by photographers but also by the general public. other examples located in this study are the following: acronyms and neighbouring categories in the language of photography ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390 379 (9) cam < camera: i used to keep my cam in a normal shoulder bag […]. (bm_090605) photog < photographer: […] what many different photogs [...] do with the exact same assignments. (st_060600) comp < composition: this video is an introduction to the app [...] for creating comps quickly and easily. (pf_150418) pano < panorama: deal with those white gaps left in the corner of panos [...]. (sk_160129) tele < telephoto (lens): bring out the tele, and use the is [...]. (bm_090509) as can be observed, they are all examples of back clipping, preserving the beginning of the lexeme and eliminating the end. their degree of shortening is medium, and their source is a single word. examples of typical clippings are not frequent in the sample. just one case has been identified: tog, which seems to combine fore and back clipping of photographer, although it could also be seen as fore-clipping of already shortened photog. its degree of shortening can be described as high, not common in the prototypical clipping, as noted by lópez rúa (2002, p. 43). (10) tog < photographer: this ‘advice’ is almost always aimed at the younger generation of togs […]. (sk_160420). from a grammatical and syntactic point of view, clippings are usually nominal and rarely belong to other grammatical categories. this study is in line with this as most of the cases located belong to the nominal category. yet some exceptions were found too: the verb pan, whose origin is not clear as it could come from the noun panorama or the adjective panoramic, according to oed. therefore, it seems that clipping does not modify the meaning, although apparently, it can modify the category. this can also be observed in the noun strobe which originated from the adjective stroboscopic. (11) pan < panorama/panoramic: the user can zoom and pan, straighten photos, crop […] (bm_100610) strobe < stroboscopic: [...] shooting wildlife with strobes [...]. (st_061200) it should be noted that this type of word formation is highly unpredictable and, therefore, as adams (1973, p. 135) points out, there do not seem to be any graphical or phonological norms that allow us to predict how a word iryna mykytka ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390380 would be shortened. the trend seems to be that the first syllable (pic < picture, post < post-processing), or the first two (tele < telephoto, photo < photograph, pano <panorama) are usually retained. however, it sometimes does not respect syllabic division, as in cam < camera, pan < panorama / panoramic, or comp < composition. furthermore, it is important to mention that clippings also appear in compound words (adams, 1973, p. 137; bauer, 1983, p. 233). thus, authors speak of “clipped compounds” (bauer et al., 2013), “clipping compounds” (beliaeva, 2014, 2016; marchand, 1969, p. 441), or “complex clippings” (gries, 2004a, 2006; lópez rúa, 2019). currently, there is no unified set of defining criteria for this type of word-formation. sometimes they are treated as blends (adams,1973; berg, 1998; lópez rúa, 2002, 2004, 2019), although many researchers (bauer, 2012; beliaeva, 2014, 2016; cannon, 1986; gries, 2006) exclude these coinages from the category of blends and classify them as two different word formation types. i will follow the latter approach, in particular beliaeva (2014, 2016) who proved that “blends and clipping compounds are definitely not the same” (2014, p. 51) as they show different reasons for appearing, they are formed according to different principles, and also they differ in terms of the way they are processed showing different semantic behaviour (2016). in terms of the formula from plag (2003, p. 123): ab + cd = ad, where ab is the first source word and cd is the second one, blends are labelled as ad, and clipping compounds as ac forms. in this sample, there are a few such cases that have been grouped as peripheral clippings. special attention is warranted by digicam and pixel, both presenting ac form, although the formation process of the latter is more complex due to graphic modifications and adaptations: picture after being shortened to pic and pluralized (pics) undergoes a graphic adaptation based on the pronunciation, where “cs” becomes “x” (pix). regarding the former, beliaeva (2014, p. 29) notes that a blend of digital camera would be *digamera following the pattern ad, and not digicam, as is the case. (12) pixel <picture + element: […] keep your photos sized at 400 (total) pixels on the long dimension […]. (st_060500) digicam < digital + camera: what do you do with your old point-andshoot digicam now that you are a dslr user? (st_061200) other examples which have been grouped as clipping compounds and included within peripheral clippings are adjectives full-res < full resolution acronyms and neighbouring categories in the language of photography ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390 381 (image), hi-res < high resolution (image), off-cam < off-camera (flash), tri-di < tri-dimensional (pictures), and a proper noun leica < leitz + camera, which refers to a german company founded by ernst leitz in 1914 dedicated to producing prestigious photographic equipment. 4.5. blends in the language of photography despite the unanimity among numerous authors (e.g., algeo, 1977; bauer, 1983; cannon, 1986) that lexical blending is a very popular and productive word-formation mechanism today, in the language of photography it seems rather limited (4%; 5 items). thus, following the parameters of lópez rúa (2019) blends located in this sample have been classified into prototypical and typical; no peripheral cases were encountered. prototypical blends are squinch, bit, kodachrome, and instagram. following lópez rúa (2019) they exhibit unexpanded orthoepic pronunciation and lowercase spelling. their degree of shortening varies from high to minimum (provided that at least one of the source words is shortened to some extent, and that both source words do not undergo maximum shortening) and their degree of phonic integration is high or medium, often with sound overlaps. from the point of view of orthography, they are written in small letters and they undergo final + initial shortening. (13) squinch < squint + pinch: my biggest fear was that other photographers would find out about the squinch. (pf_131120) bit < binary digit: […] you can often choose to work in 16 bits per channel in adobe photoshop. (pf_150726) kodachrome <kodak + chrome: this photo […] was taken using kodachrome 64 slide film. (bm_100914) instagram < instant + telegram: you can upload the image to google+ and share to instagram from there. (sk_160201) the term squinch was coined by the professional portrait photographer peter hurley (2017) in 2013 to refer to a technique that consists in “narrowing the distance between the lower eyelid and the pupil”, in other words, to pinch the lower eyelids so the subjects appear more confident. even though this term is still a neologism, not included in any dictionary, its use is significantly increasing, not only in the english language but it has also been borrowed by other languages, for example, spanish. kodachrome, however, refers to a photographic film invented in 1935 that ceased production in 2009 (brandes, 2009). iryna mykytka ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390382 only one blend has been categorized as typical: memcard (< memory + card). following lópez rúa (2019), typical blends, contrary to prototypical blends, present low phonic integration with clustering, which is the case of memcard. it is important to note that it could also be considered as a shortening of an already existing compound word (memory card). adams (1973, ch. 12) calls these types of words “compound-blends” while plag (2018, p. 155) considers them as lexical blends of an endocentric type, where the first element modifies the second. 4.6. hybrids this group comprises exemplars with fuzzy boundaries (8%; 10 items), which could be analysed within different types of word-formation. as noted by algeo “although it is easy to recognize some words as ‘pure’ examples of a type of word-formation, there are many others that fall between stools” (1987, p. 123). thus, in the language of photography, most such cases fall between acronyms and alphabetisms (8 items out of 10), one item combines features of blending and acronymy and another one could be treated as an acronym, alphabetism, or an abbreviation. 4.6.1. acronyms – alphabetisms examples of hybrids in this group are those that allow both pronunciations: the orthoepic pronunciation and letter by letter pronunciation, such as iso (< international standards organization), or asa (< american standard association) which may be read /aɪsəʊ/ and /ˈeɪsə/ respectively or may be spelled. sometimes terms combine both pronunciations as in jpeg (< joint photographic experts group), pronounced as /dʒeɪpɛɡ/ or cmos (< complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) known as /sɪmɒs/, in both cases the first element is spelled out while the rest is read. another interesting example is an acronym that resembles an alphabetism in its form: png (< portable network graphics), an image format known as /pɪŋ/. as can be observed, this sequence has been made pronounceable by adding a vowel /ɪ/ between “p” and “n”. 4.6.2. acronyms – alphabetisms – abbreviations this group is represented by gas/g.a.s. (< gear acquisition syndrome) that has two spellings –with or without periods– and three possible readings: acronyms and neighbouring categories in the language of photography ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390 383 orthoepic, letter by letter, or expanded. it refers to the desire to expand someone’s collection of photographic gear: “don’t have g.a.s. (gear acquisition syndrome). it takes your time, attention, money and energy away from what matters most in photography” (ux_150131). 4.6.3. blends – acronyms just one item is on the borderline between blending and acronymy: the proper noun nikon (< nippon + kogaku + ikon), a japanese company, currently among the leaders of the photographic sector, founded in 1917 under the name of “nippon kogaku” (meaning “japanese optics”), which in 1946 became known as nikon, merging its name with the word “ikon” as in zeiss ikon camera (camsolo, 2011). it exhibits high phonic integration and maximal degree of shortening which brings it closer to acronyms. on the other hand, the overlap of shared phonological segments and the joining of the initial elements with the final allows a connection to blends. 5. discussion and conclusions the results show that the most frequent type of shortenings in photography lexis are alphabetisms (67 items; 52%), while the least frequent are blends (5 items; 4%). the high frequency of alphabetisms could be motivated by the close connection of photography to technology, as explained in section 2. the latter seems to be particularly fond of alphabetisms, together with abbreviations and acronyms, considering the number of publications that exist, in particular dictionaries and glossaries: for example, tavaglione (2020) collected 7,000 items and vlietstra (2001) over 33,000. alphabetisms, acronyms, and abbreviations, seem to be especially popular in the names of cameras and lenses, which are closely related to technological advances. to illustrate this idea let us have a closer look at the following camera: canon eos 6d mk ii, where eos (< electro-optical-system) may be either an acronym or an alphabetism depending on its pronunciation, d (< digital) is an alphabetism, and mk (< mark) is an abbreviation. another example could be the lens canon ef 70-300mm f/4-5.6l is usm, in which ef (< electro-focus), f/ (< focal number), is (< image stabilizator), and usm (< ultrasonic motor) are alphabetisms, while mm (< millimeters) and l (< luxury) are abbreviations. thus eos, d, ef, is, usm, f/ are all technological concepts describing different features of the beforementioned products. iryna mykytka ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390384 the speed at which the updated versions of cameras and lenses are launched is astonishing and so is the appearance of new concepts and features that need to be named. let us take for example canon: in 2012 it launched its first mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera (milc) canon eos m, where m stands for “mirrorless”. the novelty of this camera consisted in eliminating the reflex mirror present in digital single-lens reflex (dslr) cameras. since then, 18 new versions of cameras with this system appeared, the most recent being the canon eos r7 and the canon eos r10 announced in may 2022, where “r” comes from “reimagine optical excellence” (go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/template:canon_eos_digital_cameras to see the canon eos digital camera’s timeline). each of these 18 versions introduced new features, for instance, the dual pixel cmos autofocus system, the digic 8 image processor, the 15fps continuous mechanical shutter, etc. these and many other examples mentioned in this study are instances of technology-related concepts in photography which go in lockstep with the technological advances. on the other hand, the reason why blends are so few in the photography language is probably that their motivation is different from alphabetisms; they are often created with humorous or artistic purposes. for example, lopez rúa (2019, p.198) studied the motivation behind blends in the field of videogame titles and found that the reasons for blend creation in this field were essentially pragmatic, ludic, anticipatory, group-binding, and artistic. the language of photography has no need to attract potential clients or to be anticipatory for them, nor does it need to be ludic or creative. this jargon is mainly used among photographers and its principal purpose seems to be the economy of time and group-binding. it should be also noted that shortenings are not created out of nothing but they are formed from other already existing words. the language of photography seems to be especially fond of gradually shortening its terms. for instance, some of the items were created as compounds and gradually ended as abbreviations: automatic focus > auto-focus > af or automatic white balance > auto-white-balance > awb). pixel originated as a blend and ended as an abbreviation px or even p, as in mp (< megapixel). hence, it seems that the language of photography tends to shorten words, a tendency present in the current society, which aims at retrenching time in any possible way. in this regard, marchand (1969, p. 447) explains that shortenings originate within specific groups of speakers “in the intimacy of a milieu where a hint is sufficient to indicate the whole”. acronyms and neighbouring categories in the language of photography ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390 385 to conclude, this study has shed light on the shortenings used in the language of photography, a field that had not previously been researched. the research questions posed at the start of this article have been answered. firstly, it has been shown that the lexis of photography does make use of shortenings, found in 11.4% of photography terms in the selected corpus. secondly, a variety of shortenings in this particular corpus has been identified, and they have been classified and explained in detail. specifically, acronyms (5%), alphabetisms (52%), abbreviations (13%), blends (4%) and clipping (18%) have been identified. cases whose dividing line was not clear have been gathered under the title of “hybrids” (8%). the results are based on a limited sample that may not fully capture the variety of shortening in the language of photography. this could be remedied by analysing larger corpora and by considering genres other than blogs, such as photography magazines, forums, or manuals. researchers are encouraged to continue studying the lexis of photography, which still has much to offer. article history: received 04 february 2022 received in revised form 06 july 2022 accepted 22 july 2022 references iryna mykytka ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390386 adams, v. 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(2018). una aproximación lexicológica al inglés de la fotografía. unedited phd dissertation, university of alicante. mykytka, i. (2020a). noun compounds in photography. atlantis. journal of the spanish association for anglo-american studies,42(2), 7298. <http://doi.org/10.28914/atlantis-2020-42.2.04> mykytka, i. (2020b). interdisciplinariedad y agresividad. características del lenguaje de la fotografía en lengua inglesa. revista de lenguas para fines específicos, 26(2), 87-100. navab, a. d. (2001). re-picturing photography: a language in the making. journal of aesthetic education, 35(1), 69-84. <https://doi.org/10.2307/ 3333772> newhall, b. (1984). the history of photography from 1983 to the present (5th ed.). the museum of modern art. o’grady, w., dobrovolsky, m., & katamba, f. (eds.) (1997). contemporary linguistics: an introduction. st. martin’s publishing. oxford english dictionary online (2019). [accessed online on september 10, 2021]. peres, m. r. (ed.) (2013). the focal encyclopedia of photography (4th ed.). taylor & francis. plag, i. (2018). word-formation in english (2nd ed.). cambridge up. pollen, a. (2013). moving targets: photography and its metaphors. modernism/modernity, 20(1), 123-127. quirk, r., greenbaum, s., leech, g., & svartvik, j. (1972). a grammar of contemporary english. longman. rosenblum, n. (1997). a world history of photography. abbeville press. scalise, s. (1984). generative morphology. foris. scharf, a. (1990). art and photography. penguin. scott, c. (1999). spoken image: photography and language. reaktion books. scott, g. (2020). new ways of seeing: the democratic language of photography. routledge. silaški, n., & đurović, t. (2013). of ‘siliconaires’ and ‘millionerds’ – how esp learners understand novel blends in english. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 25, 85-105. sontag, s. (1977). on photography. palgrave macmillan. sutarsyah, c., nation, p., & kennedy, g. (1994). iryna mykytka holds a ph.d. in arts and humanities from the university of alicante (spain). she is currently a lecturer and a researcher at the department of english studies at the same university. her research interests lie in the area of english for specific purposes, lexicology, and wordformation processes, with a particular focus on the lexis of photography. she has participated in numerous national and international conferences, and she has published in high-quality journals. acronyms and neighbouring categories in the language of photography ibérica 44 (2022): 369-390 389 how useful is eap vocabulary for esp? a corpus based case study. relc journal, 25(2), 34-50. <https://doi.org/10.1177/003368829402500203> tavaglione, d. (2020). acronyms and abbreviations of computer technology and telecommunications. crc press. vlietstra, j. (2001). dictionary of acronyms and technical abbreviations: for information and communication technologies and related areas. springer science & business media. wentworth, h. (1933). twenty-nine synonyms for ‘portmanteau word’. american speech, 8, 78-79. harrington, r. (ed.) photofocus (blog). [accessed online on may 31, 2019]. hobby, d. (ed.) strobist (blog). [accessed online on may 31, 2019]. joyce, t. (ed.) beyond megapixels (blog). [accessed online on may 31, 2019; no longer available]. kelby, s. scott kelby photoshop insider (blog). [accessed online on may 31, 2019]. roesch, r. roesch photography (blog). [accessed online on may 31, 2019; no longer available]. roesch, r. the urban exploration photography blog (blog). [accessed online on may 31, 2019; no longer available]. sources used in this study 01 editorial.qxd beyond the universe of languages for specific purposes: the 21st century perspective. mary frances litzler, jesús garcía laborda y cristina tejedor martínez (eds). madrid: servicio de publicaciones de la universidad de alcalá, 2016. 175 pages. isbn: 978-84-16599-83-7. this volume represents a good contribution to the field of language for specific purposes (lsp), as it reunites 29 papers, all of them showing leading topics in lsp. the distribution of papers is gathered according to interests related to the areas of (a) teaching, (b) linguistics, and (c) translation. the contributors are well-known in their disciplines, and that calls for the quality of their papers. the length of the papers does not seem to go beyond the three thousand words each, but this should not stand as a drawback, since they fulfil the objective of showing updated material in lsp research as well as descriptions of ongoing projects. there is not a proper introduction, and a “foreword” written by two of the editors, dr. garcía laborda and dr. litzler, contextualises lsp and offers a justification of its importance, including historical evidence. the title of the book seems self-explanatory, but the reader should not expect a substantial number of languages under focus. english and spanish are principal, but the methodology developed in all of them are of use for application with other language bodies of data. the majority of papers supports the use of technological implements, e.g. videoconference or software for management of large textual corpora and text retrieval. translation also occupies a third of the volume, and this is not reflected in the title. there are some aspects i have some reservations about. some studies are not placed in the correct sections in the volume. these are the cases of (a) santamaría garcía’s contribution, which should be placed in the linguistics section, (b) rábano llamas and hernández barriopedro’s paper, which should be also allocated in the linguistics section, and (c) the cognitive study developed in cortés de los ríos and bretones callejas. this last one, allocated in the translation section, explores the use of mental reseñas / book reviews ibérica 35 (2018): 232-234 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 232 schemes and representations, as suggested in car adverts in iberia ronda magazine. this is not made explicit in the corpus description, but unless the authors had focused on the adverts included in this in-flight magazine and possible renderings in a second language there included, the paper should appear in the central section of this monograph, i.e. linguistics. some of the studies do not include a thorough description of the data and/or the method carried out to accomplish the research described. in general, in specific studies based on corpora, i miss some more information on the compilations, and how texts were collected and handled. from this perspective of methodology, readers are not always informed whether analyses are performed manually or through corpus tools. some papers omit information on which statistics could be raised as well as other fundamental features in corpus making and use, e.g. corpus length. besides, there are cases in which no normalisation of data to make findings comparable is made in contrastive studies. finally, i have missed some key references and names in the bibliography in some fields, as happens with intercultural studies, for example. one clear absence is kecskes (2014). other fundamental omissions are concerned with the study of mood and modality, among which i would include palmer (1998), and nuyts and van der auwera (2016), the least. all the papers are instructive as well as challenging. for reasons of space, i cannot offer a complete analysis of each one of them. i do not want, however, to miss the opportunity to make a special mention of barreiro elorza and sancho guinda’s paper. this work describes a long-term clil experience at universidad politécnica de madrid for the promotion of sci-tech innovation. their work deals with genre and styles, and students learn to become autonomous in a real environment after a training program developed in a designed workshop, where they acquire minimal competences in this respect. the result is a simultaneous contribution between communication and technology. the complete venture, as the authors themselves named their research and experiment, leaves a number of questions concerning clil assumptions the authors propose for further consideration. altogether, this is high-quality research and represents an excellent contribution for lsp teaching and learning, as it shows how linguistic knowledge and technology can be integrated to provide professional results. much in the line with what has been done in historical pragmatics with the study of changing forms and functions over time, the reseñas / book reviews ibérica 35 (2018): 232-234 233 authors come to evince the way in which the evolution of scientific thought goes hand-in-hand with the evolution of scientific textual genres. my final words are of praise for the quality of the research these papers exhibit. even if editorial nuances are somehow inevitable, there are some omission, misspelling and punctuation issues that should be detected in case a reedition is ever thought as a possibility. this also includes other formatting aspects, such as the fact that some section headings appear on one page and accompanying running text appears on the following. besides, references should show the same citing conventions throughout the complete volume, and make sure all of them are complete. in addition, also from a formal, technical perspective, my opinion is that abstracts in english should precede all the contributions texts to give it a more international scope. as a reader interested in lsp, i have missed a proper introduction describing the internal organisation of the volume and in what way(s) this monograph is innovative. received 10 february 2018 accepted 19 february 2018 reviewed by francisco alonso almeida universidad de las palmas de gran canaria (spain) francisco.alonso@ulpgc.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 35 (2018): 232-234234 kecskes, i. (2014). intercultural pragmatics. oxford: oxford university press. nuyts, j. & j. van der auwera (eds.) (2016).the oxford handbook of modality and mood (oxford handbooks). oxford: oxford university press. palmer, f.r. (1998). mood and modality. new york: cambridge university press. ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-78 resumen en 1748 se funda en cádiz (españa) el real colegio de cirugía de la armada. uno de los legados más importantes que se conservan de aquella fundación es su valioso catálogo bibliográfico humanístico y científico. hemos analizado diccionarios y manuales de gramática destinados al aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras (fundamentalmente francés e inglés) con el fin de llevar a cabo un estudio y recrear lo que pudo ser el método de adquisición de lenguas durante los siglos xviii y xix y encontrar un posible embrión del aprendizaje de lenguas para fines específicos en la universidad de cádiz. palabras clave: aprendizaje de lfe, gramáticas, diccionarios. abstract the beginnings of languages for specific purposes in el real colegio de cirug�a de la armada of cadiz el real colegio de cirugía de la armada was founded in cadiz (spain) in 1748. one of the most important legacy of this foundation is its valuable catalogue of bibliographical scientific and humanistic material. we have analysed dictionaries and grammar textbooks (mainly in french and english) in order to carry out a study, to recreate how the method of language acquisition might be during the 18th and 19th centuries and to find a possible embryo of the learning of languages for specific purposes in the university of cadiz. key words: lsp learning, grammar books, dictionaries. los inicios de la enseñanza de las lenguas para fines específicos en el real colegio de cirugía de la armada de cádiz manuel botella rodríguez y pilar gonzález rodríguez universidad de cádiz manuel.botella@uca.es y pilar.gonzalez@uca.es 59 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 59 1. introducción si partimos de la afirmación de que las lenguas para fines específicos (lfe) reflejan la interacción entre la lingüística aplicada y la enseñanza de la lengua extranjera para fines profesionales (aguado y durán, 2001), tendremos que llegar a la conclusión de que este ámbito de estudio es un producto del siglo xx y, además, fruto de la evolución de las distintas corrientes metodológicas preponderantes destinadas, en su esencia, a la enseñanza y aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera (howatt, 2004). pero si contemplamos este fenómeno desde la perspectiva de las necesidades y la comunicación profesional, aspectos importantes en la elección de la metodología, con absoluta seguridad podremos descubrir que dos siglos antes ya existía material en la biblioteca del real colegio de cirugía de la armada de cádiz para aquellos que necesitaban adquirir destrezas concretas en alguna lengua extranjera. a pesar de que oficialmente en españa el interés investigador por las lenguas para fines específicos dentro del campo de las filologías tiene cerca de 22 años (bueno lajusticia, 2003), podemos decir que la práctica docente data de un par de siglos, ya que hemos encontrado gramáticas y diccionarios que apuntan un uso específico que se remontan a la segunda mitad del siglo xviii. aunque sí existía conciencia de las necesidades específicas para el aprendizaje de lenguas en el xviii, no es hasta finales del xix cuando aparecen manuales y diccionarios netamente específicos. atendiendo a hutchinson y waters (1987), la enseñanza de lenguas para fines específicos se caracteriza por adoptar un enfoque basado principalmente en las necesidades de los aprendices. esta máxima se cumple en el caso que nos ocupa, pues no es tanto el hecho de que los autores de las obras consultadas las diseñaran con un carácter más o menos específico, sino el fin último por el que los responsables de la biblioteca del real colegio de cirugía de la armada las adquirieron en su momento: las necesidades de los estudiantes de cirugía. ¿hubo motivos “específicos” por parte de los que se encargaron de la compra de material para la biblioteca del real colegio? pensamos que sí. widdowson (1983) también defiende la idea de que es la necesidad la que determina el diseño de un curso de lenguas para fines específicos. en el caso que aquí nos ocupa, la consecuencia lógica es la siguiente: si los que iban a ser futuros cirujanos de la armada estudiaban francés e inglés para cubrir una necesidad, aún cuando el enfoque metodológico no era específico, cabe pensar que abordaban estas lenguas con intereses y finalidades académicas. como también apuntó robinson (1991), el alumno de lenguas para fines m. botella rodríguez y p. gonzález rodríguez ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-78 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 60 ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-78 los inicios de la enseñanza de lfe específicos no aprende una lengua extranjera porque sienta un interés especial hacia ella sino porque necesita conocerla para el desarrollo de su profesión o carrera. si además encontramos material que presta una atención especial a la terminología especializada de algunos campos, podemos afirmar que ya hay especificidad en estos manuales y diccionarios que tratamos en este estudio. cuando dudley-evans y st. john (1998) mencionan los cuatro tipos de english for academic purposes atendiendo al factor situación, afirman que uno de los criterios para denominarlo de este modo es que los estudiantes necesiten la lengua extranjera para poder recibir instrucción en un país extranjero; esto solía ocurrirles a los alumnos más aventajados en los estudios de cirugía, que podían completar sus estudios médicos en las más prestigiosas universidades de francia e inglaterra. 2. antecedentes sobre los orígenes de las lfe en cádiz además de un trabajo nuestro anterior (botella y gonzález, 2005), la única investigación sobre los orígenes de la enseñanza de lenguas con fines específicos en la universidad de cádiz es, hasta la actualidad, “el inglés para fines específicos en españa a finales del siglo xix y principios del xx” (lario, 1999). la autora afirma al respecto: la universidad de cádiz, aunque joven (cuenta tan sólo con 20 años) tiene unas raíces que se remontan a muchos años atrás y en esos estudios que entonces se impartían ya constaban los idiomas específicos. esta concienciación del aprendizaje de lenguas para fines específicos continuó desarrollándose a lo largo de los años y aplicándose a diferentes ciencias que requerían el conocimiento de otro idioma. (lario, 1999: 46) este interesante artículo nos sitúa el inicio de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en el ámbito gaditano al amparo de las necesidades derivadas del monopolio del comercio con las indias. así, el primer dato fehaciente que nos proporciona es la convocatoria de plazas de dos profesores de lenguas vivas: uno de francés e italiano y otro de inglés para la real junta de comercio en 1803. en la segunda mitad del siglo xix ya podemos decir que se imparten en cádiz las asignaturas de inglés y francés con fines comerciales de acuerdo con los planes de estudios estatales. más tarde este estudio de lenguas se verá reforzado en el ocaso del siglo con la inclusión de la enseñanza de inglés, francés, italiano y alemán con fines comerciales en la escuela superior de comercio. será más adelante, a finales del siglo xix, 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 61 cuando aparezca la figura de d. agustín garcía gutiérrez, catedrático interino de inglés de la escuela de comercio, en el que ya podemos apreciar una fuerte defensa de una metodología basada en el análisis de necesidades y en los aspectos más puramente prácticos del uso de las lenguas. acaba, pues, el siglo xix con el convencimiento, por parte de la comunidad educativa, de la importancia de los tecnicismos y de la necesidad del desarrollo de competencias, que permitan un aprendizaje de lenguas eminentemente práctico. 3. fundación del real colegio de cirugía de la armada al calor del pragmatismo de las ideas ilustradas y de las políticas renovadoras en materia de educación de los ministros de fernando vi, se funda en cádiz en noviembre de 1748 el real colegio de cirugía de la armada (bustos, 1983). la fundación de esta institución coincide con el auge de la burguesía mercantil gaditana, impulsora en la ciudad de un gran esplendor social, económico e intelectual. como respuesta a la necesidad urgente de formar cirujanos para la flota de indias y renovar el saber científico de una españa secularmente atrasada, se pusieron las bases de lo que actualmente es la facultad de medicina de la universidad de cádiz. a lo largo del siglo xviii, cádiz, gracias al monopolio del comercio con américa, se convierte en uno de los enclaves referentes de la cultura en españa y presume de ser una de las ciudades donde reside un próspero comercio de libros, llegados principalmente de francia, pero también de suiza y otros países occidentales. esta actividad comercial hay que contemplarla desde dos perspectivas diferentes: la de quienes conciben la ciudad como un simple lugar de importación y exportación a las indias y la de quienes negocian en la propia urbe. gracias a estos comerciantes, las ideas ilustradas se siembran en la decaída intelectualidad española a pesar de las severas prohibiciones del tribunal del santo oficio. buena cantidad de estos libros llegados al puerto gaditano son de carácter científico y médico, ya que la plaza militar cuenta con el real colegio de cirugía de la armada. no es de extrañar que los estudiantes gaditanos del xviii tuvieran al alcance de la mano una amplia gama de libros científicos, médicos o filosóficos. m. botella rodríguez y p. gonzález rodríguez ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-7862 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 62 4. biblioteca del real colegio de cirugía de la armada uno de los grandes legados y tesoros que se conservan de aquella fundación es el magnífico y valioso fondo bibliográfico, cuya excelente catalogación humanística se debe a la tesis doctoral de gestido del olmo (1994). éste abarca los más variados saberes y disciplinas, tanto en el aspecto científico como en el humanístico. una gran parte de este legado cultural está escrito en lenguas extranjeras, fundamentalmente francés e inglés. de entre este histórico fondo documental nos parece de sumo interés destacar la colección de manuales de gramática y diccionarios destinados al aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras. es de suponer, que si bien nunca figuraron en los programas académicos de los futuros cirujanos, el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras debió de adquirir gran importancia, máxime cuando un elevado número de alumnos estudiaba con manuales de procedencia extranjera y, en bastantes casos, los profesores seleccionaban a algunos alumnos brillantes para ser enviados a completar su formación en universidades de inglaterra y francia. tras la creación del real colegio, en las ordenanzas y decretos dictados, así como en sus propios estatutos fundacionales, se llega a establecer en relación al puesto de bibliotecario, que “para este empleo es menester un cirujano que sea aplicado y entienda los más idiomas posibles, particularmente el francés y el latín por ser la biblioteca la mayor parte de ellos en estos idiomas” (citado en lópez, 1969: 5). estas palabras nos llevan a pensar que el aprendizaje de lenguas con fines profesionales pudo surgir de manera espontánea en el panorama cultural y científico gaditano del xviii, aunque probablemente los protagonistas de esta historia no fueran conscientes en ese momento de este hecho trascendental para los estudios de filología dos centurias después. los primeros libros adquiridos en 1749 son los publicados hasta la fecha por la reales academias de ciencias de parís y de londres. en 1843 se suprimen los reales colegios de cirugía en españa y se transforman en facultades de ciencias médicas. el de cádiz está a punto de desaparecer pero el comercio de la ciudad y las autoridades municipales consiguen su reapertura en 1844, pasando a formar parte un año más tarde de la universidad literaria de sevilla. los diccionarios y manuales de gramáticas que comentamos en este artículo (véase el apéndice final en el que figuran las fuentes documentales consultadas) proceden bien de la biblioteca del primitivo real colegio de cirugía de la armada de cádiz, bien de donaciones de particulares a la posterior facultad de medicina realizadas a lo largo del tiempo. los inicios de la enseñanza de lfe ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-78 63 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 63 5. métodos docentes de la época durante el periodo que abarca este estudio, sólo se conocía como método de enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras el método de gramáticatraducción. es el mismo método que se utiliza para la enseñanza de las lenguas clásicas, y, aunque sus comienzos se remontan al siglo xvii, ha pervivido como método de enseñanza de lenguas hasta el siglo xx. su objetivo era el aprendizaje de nuevas lenguas. su principal característica es que se limita al estudio de la lengua escrita, y que tiene como modelo de ésta la lengua literaria; es decir, se perseguía la consecución de dos únicas destrezas: la comprensión lectora primero y la producción escrita más tarde. en cuanto a los aspectos gramaticales, destaca la fidelidad absoluta a la lengua latina y el predominio de listas interminables de reglas gramaticales, vocabulario, ejemplos, etc. a los alumnos se les enseñaba fundamentalmente morfología mediante ejercicios de traducción y explicaciones exhaustivas, que recurrían a estas listas mencionadas anteriormente para su memorización de forma descontextualizada, dejando prácticamente de lado la sintaxis. la lengua que se emplea es la lengua materna del alumno, ya que la lengua objeto de estudio no era utilizada en ningún momento durante el proceso de enseñanza. este método no tenía en cuenta el aspecto oral de la lengua, y descuidaba por completo la competencia comunicativa del lenguaje. ya en el siglo xix, en 1878, m.d. berlitz preconizó el método directo en los estados unidos. este método docente comparte algunas características con el denominado método de gramática-traducción. se trata de lo que algunos lingüistas como vez (2000: 31) denominan “formulaciones prelingüísticas”. este método supuso el primer intento de reproducir en la clase de lenguas las condiciones naturales del desarrollo de la lengua materna, lo que iba a cambiar de alguna manera el punto de vista de la enseñanza de lenguas a partir de estos momentos. se evitaba el uso de la lengua materna en el aula para que los estudiantes establecieran una relación directa entre el signo lingüístico y su significado mediante fotos, objetos, dibujos, etc. por este mismo motivo se renunció a la traducción en el aula si no era como método de evaluación al final del proceso. la lengua escrita pasó a un segundo plano cediendo el primer lugar a la lengua oral, y cobrando importancia la correcta pronunciación, tal y como sucede en la adquisición de la lengua materna. se recurría al uso de estructuras y de vocabulario cuando hacían falta, sin atender a un orden planificado o sistematizado. asimismo, la gramática no se explicaba de forma explícita, sino que se pretendía que ésta fuera asimilada por el estudiante de forma implícita a m. botella rodríguez y p. gonzález rodríguez ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-7864 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 64 través de su uso en la clase. las actividades que se realizaban más frecuentemente eran las lecturas en voz alta, ejercicios auto correctivos, prácticas de conversación, dictados, etc. el contenido temático de estas actividades eran las diferentes realidades socioculturales de los hablantes de estas lenguas extranjeras. los textos no sólo pertenecen al ámbito de la literatura, sino que se recurre también a textos de carácter histórico, geográfico o cultural sobre los pueblos que hablan esas lenguas objeto de estudio. esto se debe a un deseo de aumentar el estímulo motivador en los estudiantes. desde las primeras obras estudiadas comprobaremos cómo aparecen algunas de las características de este último modelo metodológico, sobre todo las referidas a la tipología de las actividades en los manuales de gramática y las concernientes a los aspectos fonéticos y orales de los diferentes diccionarios. 6. objetivos y descripción del corpus a partir de las fuentes primarias de carácter didáctico seleccionadas (véase apéndice) hemos llevado a cabo el estudio y análisis de sus características a fin de: 1. recrear lo que pudo ser el método de aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras en el real colegio de cirugía de la armada de cádiz en la segunda mitad del siglo xviii y bien entrado el xix; y 2. contemplar con la perspectiva de casi dos siglos y medio lo que podríamos llamar el embrión del aprendizaje de lenguas para fines específicos en la universidad de cádiz. para este análisis hemos rescatado del fondo antiguo de la biblioteca de ciencias de la salud de la universidad de cádiz manuales de gramática y diccionarios de inglés y francés, aunque también existen materiales para otras lenguas como el alemán e italiano. ninguna de estas obras está exclusivamente dedicada al campo de la medicina, aunque en muchos de los diccionarios las ciencias médicas sean uno de los campos de estudio incluidos. a grandes rasgos, y atendiendo a las lenguas objeto de estudio, el material analizado arroja el siguiente resultado: diccionarios de lenguas modernas (véase la tabla 1): los inicios de la enseñanza de lfe ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-78 65 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 65 • un diccionario francés-italiano/italiano-francés de d’alberti de villeneuve (1796). existe una edición anterior de 1772 de la que sólo se conserva el tomo dedicado al italiano-francés; • dos diccionarios francés-inglés e inglés-francés: boyer (1761) y thunot (1846); • tres diccionarios francés-español y español-francés: gattel (1790), núñez de taboada (1842) y domínguez (1853); • un diccionario monolingüe de lengua francesa de furetière (1727); • un diccionario monolingüe de inglés de johnson (1766) y con una versión más moderna de 1809; • un diccionario de francés-latín de lallemant (1785); • un diccionario etimológico de lengua francesa de morin (1803); • un diccionario de español-francés-latín de sobrino (1776); • un diccionario de francés-latín-italiano de terreros y pando (1786); • un diccionario de pronunciación inglesa de velázquez de la cadena (1858). gramáticas (véase la tabla 2): • cuatro gramáticas francesas dirigidas al aprendizaje de hispanoparlantes de chantreau (1845), chantreau (1850), berbreugger (1851) y benot (1873); • una gramática alemana dirigida al público franco-parlante de gottsched (1787), que no pudimos consultar por su lamentable estado de conservación; • una gramática francesa para italianos de goudar (1785); • dos gramáticas inglesas de casey (1827) y ocrowley (1841), y un manual de urcullu (1828) dedicado a la pronunciación. las tres obras están dirigidas a españoles; • unas gramáticas de inglés escritas para franco-hablantes de miège (1793) y o’sullivan (1840); • una gramática francesa para anglo-parlantes de wanostrocht (1795); • un manual para el aprendizaje de la lengua holandesa escrito en francés de zeydelaar (1781). m. botella rodríguez y p. gonzález rodríguez ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-7866 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 66 7. metodología hemos seguido una metodología similar para el estudio tanto de los diccionarios como de las gramáticas que integran el corpus de este trabajo. en ambos casos hemos seleccionado unas características comunes a dichas obras que inciden en el hecho de que en esta época, en el real colegio de cirugía de la armada de cádiz, ya existía una conciencia clara de que había que renovar el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras, teniendo en cuenta principalmente, las necesidades del público al que iban dirigidas dichas obras y las nuevas tendencias metodológicas que estaban germinando en ese momento. a continuación especificamos dichos rasgos. 7.1. diccionarios tal y como se muestra en la tabla 1, hemos considerado en primer lugar la lengua o lenguas de referencia, distinguiendo entre diccionarios monolingües, bilingües y trilingües, y por tanto diferenciando aquellos que sólo poseen definiciones o traducciones o ambas cosas. otro rasgo de suma importancia es la inclusión de terminología específica y ejemplos contextualizados. también hemos reseñado aquellos diccionarios que incluyen información gramatical (morfología, sintaxis y ortografía), así como los que contienen información de carácter etimológico. muy interesantes son aquellos diccionarios que nos ofrecen información fonética, ya que, aunque no tan desarrollada como en los diccionarios actuales, si resultan muy útiles al hacer una descripción de los sonidos de la lengua extranjera y compararlos con la española, en su caso. por último y a modo de anécdota o curiosidad, hemos considerado otros rasgos de carácter variado que hemos denominado aspectos culturales (mitología, nombres propios, refranero, geografía, prosodia, etc.). 7.2. gramáticas el primer aspecto considerable es la lengua en la que están escritos los diferentes manuales analizados, ya que hasta finales del xix parece ser que no comienzan a publicarse gramáticas francesas o inglesas en español. otro elemento importante que hemos considerado es si, además de tratar aspectos relacionados con la morfosintaxis, propios de cualquier gramática, estos manuales abordan cuestiones relacionadas con el vocabulario. en este estudio nos interesa comprobar si todas estas gramáticas de carácter descriptivo aportan otras informaciones útiles para el estudiante, como pudiera ser mediante la inclusión de apéndices prácticos (frases hechas, los inicios de la enseñanza de lfe ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-78 67 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 67 modelos de cartas, actos de habla, etc.), ejercicios de traducción, ejercicios gramaticales, métodos de pronunciación y de lectura, ejercicios de ortografía y prácticas de conversación. también resulta interesante averiguar si presentan críticas o revisiones metodológicas a trabajos anteriores o muestran algún interés o criterios a la hora de abordar cuestiones didácticas. por último, lo más destacable en lo que respecta al trabajo presente, es verificar si estas gramáticas contienen algún elemento que hoy podríamos considerar como propio de la enseñanza de lenguas para fines específicos. toda esta información queda resumida en la tabla 2. 8. resultados en el presente estudio exponemos los resultados del análisis de diccionarios y manuales anteriores a la fundación y desarrollo de las escuelas de comercio, además de documentación legal de la época de la fundación del real colegio de cirugía de la armada de cádiz. estos datos podrían poner de manifiesto que los inicios de la enseñanza de lenguas para fines específicos datan de fechas anteriores a la impartición de estas disciplinas instrumentales en las escuelas de comercio, como apunta lario (1999), aunque no existiera una conciencia clara de ello. las tablas 1 y 2 sintetizan la información más relevante presentada en los diccionarios y gramáticas, respectivamente, y que pasamos a comentar a continuación. 8.1. diccionarios por orden cronológico, el diccionario más antiguo es el monolingüe dictionnaire universel, contenant généralement tous les mots françois tant vieux que modernes, et les termes des sciences et des arts de furetière de 1727. pese a ser de principios del xviii es uno de los mas completos en lo que respecta a la inclusión de términos científicos, artísticos y de oficios, como se desglosa en el propio título, con ejemplos contextualizados de autores franceses. aporta información gramatical, referencias etimológicas y fonéticas, apreciándose un interés especial en destacar la evolución de la lengua francesa a la modernidad distinguiendo la pronunciación académica de la popular. boyer en 1761 publica su diccionario bilingüe inglés-francés dictionnaire royal, françois-anglois et anglois-françois, tiré des meilleurs auteurs qui ont écrit dans ces langues par mr. a. boyer, con ejemplos de autores en ambas lenguas, como él mismo afirma en el título. además de las pertinentes definiciones de cada m. botella rodríguez y p. gonzález rodríguez ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-7868 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 68 una de las palabras y sus traducciones al inglés, añade notas gramaticales y de pronunciación, así como aspectos sobre derivación de palabras. de 1766 es el diccionario de johnson a dictionary of the english language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, explained in their different meanings, and authorized by the names of the writers in whose works they are found, del cual existe otra versión en miniatura actualizada en 1809, que cuenta con etimología, ortografía, sintaxis y prosodia. es el diccionario de lengua inglesa más antiguo de los hallados. francisco sobrino publica en 1776 un diccionario trilingüe (español-francéslatín) titulado sobrino aumentado o nuevo diccionario de las lenguas española, francesa y latina compuesto de los mejores diccionarios, que hasta ahora han salido á (sic) a la luz. debido a su precario estado de conservación no hemos podido analizar con detalle esta obra. este diccionario podría explicar la situación real de los estudiantes de medicina de la época, que oficialmente tenían que conocer lenguas clásicas y oficiosamente, debido a la cantidad de publicaciones en francés, se veían obligados a conocer esta lengua. la obra de terreros y pando de 1786, diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes en las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, está dedicada al conde de floridablanca y contiene un amplísimo prólogo de treinta y cuatro páginas para justificar la existencia y la metodología de la obra. en él se definen las voces del español y se traducen al francés, italiano y latín exclusivamente los términos propios de las ciencias y de las artes. lo podemos entender como uno de los primeros diccionarios de carácter específico destinado a estudiantes no filólogos que necesitaban estas lenguas para profundizar y acceder al material más moderno escrito en otras lenguas. en 1790, gattel publica su diccionario trilingüe, nouveau dictionnaire espagnol et françois, françois et espagnol, avec l’iterpretation latine de chaque mot, a partir de las academias española y francesa. de éste sólo se conserva el segundo tomo. el autor despliega en esta obra un curioso trabajo de gramática comparada de la época y enriquece la obra con aportaciones de conocimientos ortográficos, fonéticos, geográficos y del refranero popular castellano. “enrichi de tous les termes propres de sciences et des arts” proclaman en la portada los editores del diccionario de d’alberti villeneuve (1796), bilingüe francés-italiano, nouveau dictionnaire françois-italien, composé sur les dictionnaires des academies de france et de la crusca, en el que claramente se especifica, en el caso de los términos, el área de las artes y de las ciencias a la que pertenece, incluyendo oficios. se definen en francés las diferentes acepciones de cada los inicios de la enseñanza de lfe ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-78 69 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 69 palabra y se añaden notas sobre pronunciación de algunas de ellas. al final de esta obra se incluye un índice de nombres propios y su traducción al italiano, así como un glosario de geografía francesa e italiana. morin publica en 1805 dictionnaire étymologyque des mots fraçois dérivés du grec et usités principalement dans les sciences, les lettres et les arts, un curioso diccionario etimológico de palabras francesas derivadas del griego y usadas sobre todo en las letras, las ciencias y las artes. este diccionario debió de ser muy útil para los estudiantes de medicina que se veían obligados a consultar bibliografía escrita en francés. el vocabulario específico de las ciencias médicas, tanto en francés como en español, posee una gran abundancia de neologismos de origen griego, por lo cual podemos casi asegurar el alto índice de consultas de este material. es digno de mención que en esta obra de consulta se define el término tal y como se entendía en la antigüedad y el uso que había adquirido a la fecha de publicación. en barcelona, en 1842, núñez de taboada sacó a la luz la segunda edición de su diccionario bilingüe francés-español/español-francés nuevo diccionario francés-español, más completo que cuantos se han publicado hasta el día, que, además de la acostumbrada traducción, aporta la definición de cada palabra, apuntes gramaticales, y vocabulario mitológico, histórico y geográfico. especial atención merece un bilingüe inglés-francés/francés-inglés publicado en 1846 por thunot nouveau dictionnaire anglais-fraçois et françoisanglais abrégé de boyer, collationné d’aprés les dictionnaires d. f. johnson, todd, crabb ..., en el que, además de la traducción de voces al francés, la explicación de breves apuntes gramaticales y la simulación de la pronunciación de la lengua inglesa, se presta un interés particular a términos específicos variados y su campo de aplicación. en la segunda edición del diccionario francésespañol/español-francés, de domínguez (1853) titulado diccionario universal francés-español/español-francés por don ramón joaquín domínguez se recogen: (…) no solo las voces de las dos academias, sino también todos los términos de literatura, historia, filosofía, matemáticas, economía, política, diplomacia, técnica militar, química, mineralogía, botánica, zoología, cirugía, medicina, sagrada teología, derecho canónico, sectas religiosas, jurisprudencia, agricultura, geografía, astronomía, mitología, comercio, marina, artillería, fortificación, y demás facultades, sin omitir el tecnicismo de todas las artes. (portada interior) además de especificar el área o campo al que pertenece el término, domínguez lleva a cabo una exposición de fonética comparada de la m. botella rodríguez y p. gonzález rodríguez ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-7870 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 70 pronunciación francesa frente a la española. los tibios avances en la metodología de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras se aprecian en el prólogo de esta obra, donde el propio autor recomienda la práctica real con nativos para adquirir la correcta pronunciación de determinados fonemas españoles inexistentes en francés. en la misma línea, velázquez de la cadena (1858) edita a pronouncing dictionary of the spanish and english languages, un diccionario de pronunciación del español y del inglés que, además, añade un compendio gramatical de ambas lenguas, traducciones de las voces y campos de uso de los términos específicos. 8.2. gramáticas la primera gramática conservada grammaire générale raisonée hollandoise. a l’usage des étrangers et principalement des françois qui veulent apprendre cette langue par ernst zeydelaar (zeydelaar, 1781) está escrita en francés y dedicada al estudio los inicios de la enseñanza de lfe ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-78 71 ibérica 14 [2007]: …-… 11 inglesa, presta particular específicos y campo de aplicación. en la segunda edición del diccionario francésespañol/español-francés, de domínguez (1853) titulado diccionario universal francés-español/español-francés por don ramón joaquín domínguez se recogen: (…) no solo las voces de las dos academias, sino también todos los términos de literatura, historia, filosofía, matemáticas, economía, política, diplomacia, técnica militar, química, mineralogía, botánica, zoología, cirugía, medicina, sagrada teología, derecho canónico, sectas religiosas, jurisprudencia, agricultura, geografía, astronomía, mitología, comercio, marina, artillería, fortificación, y demás facultades, sin omitir el tecnicismo de todas las artes. (portada interior) además de especificar el área o campo al que pertenece el término, domínguez lleva a cabo una exposición de fonética comparada de la pronunciación francesa frente a la española. los tibios avances en la metodología de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras se aprecian en el prólogo de esta obra, donde el propio autor recomienda la práctica real con nativos para adquirir la correcta pronunciación de determinados fonemas españoles inexistentes en francés. d ic c io n a ri o s m o n o li n g ü e b il in g ü e t ri li n g ü e c u a tr il in g ü e d e fi n ic io n e s t ra d u c c io n e s e s p e c íf ic a e je m p lo s g ra m á ti c a e ti m o lo g ía f o n é ti c a a s p e c to s c u lt u ra le s furétière (1727) x x x x x x boyer (1761) x x x x x x jonson (1766) x x x x x x sobrino (1776) x terreros y pando (1786) x x x x gattel (1790) x x x x x d’alberti (1796) x x x x x x morin (1803) x x x x núñez (1842) x x x x x thunot (1846) x x x x x domínguez (1853) x x x x velázquez (1858) x x x x x m. botella rodríguez y p. gonzález rodríguez tabla 1. diccionarios. en la misma línea, velázquez de la cadena (1858) edita a pronouncing dictionary of the spanish and english l a n g u a g e s , un diccionario de pronunciación del español y del inglés que, además, añade un compendio gramatical de ambas lenguas, traducciones de las voces y campos de uso de los términos específicos. 8.2. gramáticas la primera gramática conservada grammaire générale raisonée hollandoise. a l’usage des étrangers et principalement des françois qui veulent apprendre cette langue par ernst zeydelaar (zeydelaar, 1781) está escrita en francés y dedicada al estudio del holandés. fue importada por una conocida librería gaditana de la época. sobra decir que la demanda estaría motivada por necesidades comerciales de la burguesía mercantil de la ciudad, a la que arribaban barcos procedentes de toda américa y de las principales potencias europeas. se trata de una gramática descriptiva con apartados de pronunciación, morfología, sintaxis y vocabulario organizado por temas. de igual modo, goudar (1785) había publicado una gramática italiana y francesa, grammatica italiana, e francese di ludovico goudar, de tipo descriptivo, con un apéndice práctico de frases hechas y con modelos de cartas, cuyo objetivo podría ser responder a las necesidades específicas de un público determinado: los comerciantes de la ciudad. en 1793 se publica una gramática anglo-francesa gracias a los esfuerzos de miège titulada grammaire angloise-françoise par mrs miège et boye, contenant une méthode claire & facile pour acquerir en peu temps l’usage de l’agloise. en 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 71 del holandés. fue importada por una conocida librería gaditana de la época. sobra decir que la demanda estaría motivada por necesidades comerciales de la burguesía mercantil de la ciudad, a la que arribaban barcos procedentes de toda américa y de las principales potencias europeas. se trata de una gramática descriptiva con apartados de pronunciación, morfología, sintaxis y vocabulario organizado por temas. de igual modo, goudar (1785) había publicado una gramática italiana y francesa, grammatica italiana, e francese di ludovico goudar, de tipo descriptivo, con un apéndice práctico de frases hechas y con modelos de cartas, cuyo objetivo podría ser responder a las necesidades específicas de un público determinado: los comerciantes de la ciudad. en 1793 se publica una gramática anglo-francesa gracias a los esfuerzos de miège titulada grammaire angloise-françoise par mrs miège et boye, contenant une méthode claire & facile pour acquerir en peu temps l’usage de l’agloise. en ella el autor diferencia las distintas competencias lingüísticas necesarias para el dominio de la lengua inglesa, defendiendo que con un buen diccionario y una buena gramática su aprendizaje es posible. dejando al margen los aspectos relacionados con la pronunciación, la ortografía, la morfología y el vocabulario básico, incluye un listado de frases utilizadas en determinadas situaciones (lo que hoy denominaríamos actos de habla) como preguntar por la salud, o “pour prier quelqu’un de chanter” (miège, 1793: 382). como respuesta al déficit de gramáticas francesas en inglés, wanostrocht (1795) publica a grammar of the french language. se trata de una gramática descriptiva con ejercicios de traducción. en 1827 casey publica nueva y completa gramática inglesa para uso de los españoles, de la que afirma que es la primera obra de estas características “basada en los más acreditados filólogos modernos” (casey, 1827: 6), pues hasta ahora todas estaban escritas en francés. resulta muy interesante la revisión metodología que hace en su prólogo de otras gramáticas, ya que es la primera vez que encontramos un trabajo crítico de metodología didáctica. en esta revisión cita a don jorge shipton, “cuya gramática impresa en cádiz en 1812 reúne mucha precisión a un buen método” (casey, 1827: 6). es de destacar el consejo que el autor da respecto al buen conocimiento de la gramática española como clave para entender el inglés. en la misma línea, urcullu, en 1828, escribe también en español una gramática de la lengua inglesa en veintidós lecciones denominada gramática inglesa, reducida a veinte y dos lecciones por d. josé de urcullu. justifica su obra por el hecho de no existir apenas gramáticas inglesas para españoles, pues “nadie m. botella rodríguez y p. gonzález rodríguez ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-7872 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 72 habría tan sandio (sic) que fuese a valerse de un tercer idioma para aprender inglés” (urcullu, 1828: 2). defiende el aprendizaje de una lengua lo antes posible y de la lengua inglesa en particular por “el grado de grandeza, opulencia y poderío que ha llegado la inglaterra” (urcullu, 1828: 8). además de la descripción de la gramática y de los temas de traducción, añade una introducción a la conversación y una serie de ejercicios gramaticales variados. noel y su nouvelle grammaire française de 1838 abundan en el mismo planteamiento renovador con frases para comentarios, ejemplos y contextualizaciones. más rebuscada es la nouvelle grammaire anglaise: rédigéee sur un plan entièrement neuf contenant un traité complet de versification anglaise destiné principalement à faire connaitre les differens genres de pöemes, la rime et le mecanisme de vers anglaise par d. o’sullivan (1840). este autor, además de las descripciones morfológicas y sintácticas habituales, propone un acercamiento a la lengua inglesa haciendo una comparación de la poesía en esta lengua con la francesa. el profesor gaditano ocrowley en su spelling book ilustrado (1841), escrito en español, sigue el método para leer inglés de los escolares británicos de la época, añadiendo a este manual de pronunciación explicaciones y ejercicios orales, desde el silabeo a la lectura completa de oraciones. la importancia de francia como enclave del comercio y la industria internacional en esta época hacen del francés una herramienta de primera necesidad sobre todo en el ramo del comercio. así cornellas en su gramática francesa (1845) titulada gramática francesa teórico-práctica, para uso de los españoles por d. clemente cornellas, aporta un apéndice de cartas con un apartado especial dedicado a los negocios y al comercio. su pretensión primordial es hacer una reforma de la enseñanza de la lengua francesa y lo manifiesta así en la página v del prólogo con las siguientes palabras: “juventud española, si puedo lograr que este método te sea menos pesado, más rápido y más provechoso (lo que no dudo), lograré mi objeto, y tendré por bien recompensados los ratos que te he consagrado”. con el mismo propósito, chantreau (1850) publica chantreu o gramática francesa, una obra que se utilizaba en la mayor parte de establecimientos de enseñanza y que tuvo muy buena acogida tanto por maestros como alumnos de francés, “siendo muy útil para cualquier carrera que se emprenda” (chantreau, 1850: 1). este autor relaciona el aprendizaje de lenguas con las necesidades laborales del público al que iba dirigida la obra. berbreugger en su curso de temas franceses ó gramática práctica por adriano berbreugger (1851) insiste en el prólogo en la necesidad de estudiar las reglas los inicios de la enseñanza de lfe ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-78 73 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 73 morfosintácticas sin olvidar la aplicación práctica de las mismas, utilizando como medio idóneo la traducción. el intelectual gaditano eduardo benot publica su gramática francesa, y método para aprenderla por eduardo benot (1873). ya desde el principio advierte cómo hay que enseñar y aprender el francés, diferenciando entre alumnos “aventajados, medios o de muy corto alcance” (benot, 1873: 6), garantizando el éxito de su manual a menos que se sea “imbécil o idiota” (benot, 1873: 6). el método, bastante avanzado para la época, se basa, además de en las acostumbradas explicaciones y traducciones, en ejercicios de lectura y de pregunta-respuesta en voz alta. el aspecto oral y comunicativo de las lenguas extranjeras adquiere ya en la época cierto peso frente a la exclusividad de lo escrito y gramatical que había predominado hasta entonces. es graciosa la ingenuidad de estos primeros autores interesados en la metodología del aprendizaje de lenguas, pues casi todos estaban convencidos del éxito completo de sus obras. m. botella rodríguez y p. gonzález rodríguez ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-7874 los inicios de la enseñanza de lfe g ra m á ti c a s id io m a d e e s tu d io id io m a p u b li c a c ió n v o c a b u la ri o p rá c ti c o s t ra d u c c ió n g ra m a ti c a le s o rt o g ra fí a f o n é ti c a c o n v e rs a c ió n c u e s ti o n e s d id á c ti c a s e s p e c if ic id a d zeydelaar (1781) holandés francés x x x x goudar (1785) italiano / francés francés x x miège (1793) francés inglés x x x x x x wanostrocht (1795) francés inglés x casey (1827) inglés español x urcullu (1828) inglés español x x x x noel (1838) francés francés o’sullivan (1840) inglés francés x x ocrowley (1841) inglés español x x cornellas (1845) francés español x x chantreau (1850) francés español x berbreuger (1851) francés español x benot (1873) francés español x x x tabla 2. gramáticas. 9. conclusiones a modo de conclusión: 1. podemos afirmar que en el caso del real colegio de cirugía de la armada, las lenguas extranjeras se estudiaban con fines específicos y concretos para tener acceso al ingente material científico no escrito en español, aunque no se utilizaran diccionarios y gramáticas destinadas al aprendizaje del inglés o del francés con fines médicos. no consta en los planes de estudios que el inglés o el 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 74 9. conclusiones a modo de conclusión: 1. podemos afirmar que en el caso del real colegio de cirugía de la armada, las lenguas extranjeras se estudiaban con fines específicos y concretos para tener acceso al ingente material científico no escrito en español, aunque no se utilizaran diccionarios y gramáticas destinadas al aprendizaje del inglés o del francés con fines médicos. no consta en los planes de estudios que el inglés o el francés tuvieran el carácter oficial de asignaturas y es probable que se abordaran como complementos al estudio de las lenguas clásicas, consideradas imprescindibles, hasta el punto de exigirse una prueba de aptitud en latín y griego para el ingreso. 2. podemos afirmar, a tenor de la información obtenida, que la lengua franca, y por tanto la de las ciencias y el comercio, durante los siglos xviii y xix era el francés, ya que la mayor parte del material encontrado y analizado está escrito o trata del aprendizaje de esta lengua. a pesar de ello, algunos autores de gramáticas inglesas ya vislumbraron en la segunda mitad del siglo xix la importancia que adquirió el inglés en fechas posteriores, como consecuencia de la gran expansión política, económica y cultural del imperio británico. 3. por las fechas de edición de las obras escritas para hispanohablantes, tanto de lengua francesa como de lengua inglesa, podemos deducir la tardía incorporación de las editoriales españolas a la publicación de manuales para el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras modernas; no obstante la demanda social es más que evidente casi un siglo antes, en que, en este caso concreto del real colegio de cirugía, se importaban diccionarios y manuales escritos y publicados en otros países europeos. es de destacar, no obstante, que algunas imprentas de la ciudad editan manuales de gramática en pequeñas tiradas para responder a las demandas de un público concreto. 4. en las obras objeto de este estudio, y sobre todo en las más recientes, se empiezan a apreciar los primeros pasos de un enfoque de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras más moderno, que se aparta en cierta medida de los cánones clásicos imperantes hasta el siglo xviii, de ahí la importancia de la práctica de la lengua escrita, la traducción y los ejercicios de repetición oral. (artículo revisado recibido en enero de 2007) los inicios de la enseñanza de lfe ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-78 75 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 75 bibliografía manuel botella rodríguez es profesor de la escuela de ciencias de la salud de la universidad de cádiz. imparte docencia de inglés sanitario y turístico. su campo de investigación se centra en la terminología médicosanitaria y turística. pilar gonzález rodríguez es profesora titular de escuela universitaria en la facultad de ciencias sociales y de la comunicación de la universidad de cádiz. imparte docencia en la titulación de turismo, en el área de francés. su campo de investigación se centra en la terminología específica. apéndice: fuentes documentales m. botella rodríguez y p. gonzález rodríguez ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-7876 aguado, g. y p. durán (2001). “panorama de la investigación en lenguas aplicadas en españa” en g. aguado y p. durán (eds.), la investigación en lenguas aplicadas: enfoque multidisciplinar, 9-24. madrid: universidad politécnica, departamento de lingüística aplicada a la ciencia y a la tecnología. botella, m. y p. gonzález (2005). “el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras en el real colegio de cirugía de la armada de cádiz” en a. curado, m. rico, e. domínguez, p. edwards, r. alejo y j.a. garrido (eds.), languages for academic and professional purposes in the 21st century university framework, 139-144. cáceres: universidad de extremadura. bueno lajusticia, m.r. (2003). lenguas para fines específicos en españa a través de sus publicaciones (1985-2002). madrid: proyectos córydon. bustos rodríguez, m. (1983). los cirujanos del real colegio de cádiz en la encrucijada de la ilustración (1749-1796). cádiz: universidad de cádiz. dudley-evans, t. y m.j. st. john. (1998). developments in english for specific purposes. a multi-disciplinary approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. gestido del olmo, m.r. (1994). una biblioteca ilustrada gaditana: los fondos bibliográficos humanísticos del real colegio de cirugía de cádiz. cádiz: universidad de cádiz. howatt, a.p.r. (2004). a history of english language teaching, 2nd ed. oxford: oxford university press. hutchinson, t. y a. waters (1987). english for specific purposes. a learning-centred approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. lario, m.c. 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(1761). dictionnaire royal, françois-anglois et anglois-françois, tiré des meilleurs auteurs qui ont écrit dans ces langues par mr. a. boyer. lyon: chez j. marie bruyset. d’alberti de villeneuve, f. (1796). nouveau dictionnaire françois-italien, composé sur les dictionnaires des academies de france et de la crusca. marseille: chez mossy fréres. domínguez, j. (1853). diccionario universal francés04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 76 los inicios de la enseñanza de lfe ibérica 14 [2007]: 59-78 77 español/español-francés por don ramón joaquín domínguez. madrid: establecimiento de mellado. furetière, a. (1727). dictionnaire universel, contenant généralement tous les mots françois tant vieux que modernes, et les termes des sciences et des arts. la haye: chez pierre husson. gattel, c.m. (1790). nouveau dictionnaire espagnol et françois, françois et espagnol, avec l’iterpretation latine de chaque mot. lyon: chez bruyset fréres. johnson, s. 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(1781). grammaire générale raisonée hollandoise. a l’usage des étrangers et principalement des françois qui veulent apprendre cette langue par ernst zeydelaar. utrecht: chez b. wild. 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 77 04 botella.qxp 16/10/07 17:28 página 78 iberica 13 ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract university websites play a pivotal role in the recruitment of international students for australian universities, in particular at a time of fierce global competition. these websites make an interesting specialised genre for discourse analysis. this article conceptualises university websites as multimodal texts employing language and other semiotic resources such as images to represent international students in the context of shifting conceptualisations of international student education. based on a qualitative inquiry into the webpages for international students on the official websites of three australian universities, the article shows how the universities categorise international students and represent them in perceived activities and interpersonal relations through language and other modalities. the discursive representation of international students by the three australian universities is discussed in relation to conceptual shifts in international student education, diversity management and multimodal discourse analysis. the article concludes with implications for international student representation and university webpage design. keywords: university websites, multimodal discourse analysis, international students, interplay between modalities, webpage design. resumen l a re p re s e n ta c ió n de l os e s t ud ia nte s in te rn ac io na l e s e n l as pá g in as we b d e l as un iv e r s id ad e s a us t ra l ia na s : u n an ál i s is c r ít ic o d e l di s c ur s o mu l ti mod al las páginas web universitarias desempeñan un papel esencial en la captación de estudiantes internacionales en las universidades australianas, especialmente en un contexto de gran competencia global. estas páginas web constituyen un género representation of international students on australian university websites: a critical multimodal discourse analysis zuocheng zhang and wenchao tu university of new england (australia) and university of sydney (australia) zzhang26@une.edu.au 221 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 221 ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu especializado de interés para el análisis del discurso. en el presente artículo se conciben las páginas web universitarias como textos multimodales que emplean el lenguaje y otros recursos semióticos, como las imágenes, para representar a los estudiantes internacionales en un contexto cambiante sobre el concepto de la educación de estudiantes extranjeros. basándonos en una investigación cualitativa de las secciones para estudiantes internacionales en las páginas web oficiales de tres universidades australianas, el artículo muestra cómo las universidades categorizan a estos estudiantes y los representan en actividades y en relaciones interpersonales percibidas a través del lenguaje y de otros modos semióticos. además, se examina la representación discursiva de este grupo de alumnos en las tres universidades australianas en relación con los cambios conceptuales en la educación de los estudiantes internacionales, la gestión de la diversidad y el análisis multimodal del discurso. el artículo concluye con algunas implicaciones para la representación de los estudiantes internacionales y para el diseño de las páginas web universitarias. palabras clave: páginas web universitarias, análisis del discurso multimodal, estudiantes internacionales, interacción entre modalidades, diseño web. 1. introduction websites are an important genre of technology-mediated discourses in institutional, organisational and interpersonal communication. they are multimodal as they typically draw on a variety of semiotic resources (jewitt, 2009) or communicative modes (norris, 2004) such as linguistic text, image, sound, video, colour and spacing. just as linguistic texts are generally acknowledged to be able to construct various social meanings, so are websites frequently used by government agencies, commercial or noncommercial organisations to give expression to their purposes, intentions and goals and help “create and maintain a distinct identity” (saichaie, 2011: 160). for example, chiew (2004) analysed the ministry of education of singapore’s website, showing how the “institution and its objectives become translated, transmitted and received through the hypertext medium” (2004: 131). university websites are no exception. as they are typically the first port of call for prospective students in their selection of universities to apply to and for current students who rely on them for their participation in university life, university websites are a key specialised discourse in contemporary tertiary education. research has shed valuable light on university websites, in particular web design, usability and marketing of universities to international 222 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 222 students (e.g., baldry & o’halloran, 2019; cerdá suárez, 2016; tomášková, 2015). what seems to be under-researched is university websites as a crucial type of “cultural expressions” (pauwels, 2012: 247) in the sense that such multimodal texts construct discursive representations of educational practices in specific geographical and sociocultural milieus today. in the era of internationalisation of education and mobility of students on a global scale, the discursive representation of international students on university websites is an important undertaking. an investigation of australian universities’ construction of international students on their websites may contribute to the unpacking of the cultural expressions in some unique ways. as one of the most popular destinations for international students from across the world, australian universities have been experiencing increasing diversity on their campuses and in their classrooms. managing diversity is an on-going challenge for australian universities. there have been continuing discussions of attending to diversity through inclusivity to engender a positive and productive learning experience for international students (e.g., arkoudis, baik, marginson & cassidy, 2012; arkoudis & doughney, 2014; ziguras & harwood, 2011). australian researchers and educators are also critically reviewing the conceptualisations of international education over time and working to develop new concepts in response to the changing reality. for example, rizvi (2011: 700) argues, if the neo-liberal market view of international education was largely about recruiting students, enabling them to experience international education, then the emphasis on transnational collaborations implies rethinking the nature and scope of that education itself. this important critique raises the issue of how we define and understand international students in contemporary australia and indeed in the world as a whole. as diversity is a recognised fact of life on university campuses and in the classrooms, an education that assists international students and their domestic peers in their academic study and personal growth becomes highly relevant to research. while it is important to investigate how international students are engaged in day to day educational practice (e.g., kettle, 2017), it would also be useful to look into the texts that are produced in the processes, in particular university websites, which are understandably an important venue for diversity management and engagement. this article aims to work in this direction by conceptualising university websites as a genre involving multimodal discourses, and by exploring how international students are representation of international students on australian university websites ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 223 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 223 represented by australian universities via their websites. it is guided by the following two questions: 1. how do australian universities view international students as shown through the linguistic texts and other modalities on their university website? 2. to what extent have these universities demonstrated application of research insights into engaging international students on their website? findings from this research will contribute to multimodal discourse studies and international student education by generating insights into multimodal representation of international students through the complex genre of university websites. 2. literature review the rapid development and widespread use of modern technology in commercial and non-commercial sectors has prompted research that goes beyond analysing language on its own to investigating language in connection with other modalities such as images, sounds and spatial layout to entertain, engage and/or persuade target audiences. this is referred to as multimodal discourse analysis (e.g., kress & van leeuwen, 2006). similar to the interest in meaning making in traditional “monomodal” print texts, researchers have been unveiling how multimodal texts make meaning. for example, bateman (2009, 2011, 2014) emphasises the importance of exploring how different modes of semiotics interplay to present meanings. websites as a multimodal genre are considerably different from print genres as information is no longer presented in a linear way, but is typically modularised (bezemer & kress, 2016; kress, 2015) and there are more connections and reading pathways than in plain texts or other print genres (askehave & nielsen, 2005; hirsch & jenstad, 2016). a critical slant in research on multimodal texts has also occurred to explore sociocultural factors behind choices made in discourses (e.g., van leeuwen, 2013, 2014). there has been a call for merging parts of systemic functional linguistics, multimodal analysis and critical discourse analysis (jancsary, höllerer & meyer, 2016; machin, 2013). zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244224 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 224 as an important component of the multimodal discourse studies landscape, research for university websites has generated useful insights into the discursive practices of universities by using internet technology. for example, university websites in different cultural contexts are likely to differ in interesting ways. through comparing two university homepages, tsinghua university’s chinese homepage and the national university of singapore’s english homepage, zhang and o’halloran (2012) showed how the two universities employ multimodal resources to create a gateway for web users to access and browse the websites and project their university’s identity. while tsinghua university took a more university-centred position in designing its homepage, the national university of singapore’s website evolved to present more appealing images and highlight a more vibrant community with the effect of looking more global, promotion-oriented than tsinghua university’s homepage. images are found to be an important semiotic resource in multimodal discourses. kress and van leeuwen (2006) demonstrate that analysing images can help researchers to understand the interactive relationship between image producer and the viewer of the images. they provide researchers powerful tools to identify interactive meanings in images. for example, the social distance that the image producer wants to keep from the viewer can be assessed by analysing the proximity of shots such as close shot, medium shot, or long shot; the power relationship between the image producer and the viewer can be evaluated by examining the vertical angles of the images such as high angle, eye-level angle, or low angle; the extent to which the image viewer is designed to be involved with the represented participant(s) of the images can be weighed by the horizontal angles of the images such as frontal angle and oblique angle; the way in which an image producer addresses the viewer(s) can be evaluated by whether direct eye contact (gaze) is established in the image that “demands” a direct contact, or whether the image producer is just intending to “offer” information. following this framework, harvey (2013) analysed eight commercial hair-loss websites with the finding that the images of balding men were presented as “offer” pictures, and the images of hirsute men were presented as “demanding” images. tu’s (2016) analysis of 40 chinese university introduction webpages showed that eye-level and low angle images were presented far more than high angle images. the images of university architecture which were taken and presented from a low angle made the architecture appear more imposing and remarkable and the university authoritative and noble. representation of international students on australian university websites ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 225 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 225 by its very nature, multimodal discourses presuppose the co-occurrence of multiple semiotic resources (e.g., zhang, 2015; norris, 2007). the interplay between the modalities may take the form of enhancement, complementarity or contradiction (xing, 2014). there are several interesting findings concerning the interplay between modalities on university websites. tomášková’s (2015) study of university homepages and prospective students’ pages indicates that the visual resources presented on the webpages correlated with written texts and illustrated written messages. tu’s (2016) analysis of university introduction webpages demonstrates the connection between the organisational structures of written texts, various modes of visual design, evaluative meanings and interpersonal positioning in achieving each university’s communication purposes and the cross-cultural adaptation necessary to ensure the appropriate transmission of information to different target audiences. these insights into the features of various modalities in multimodal texts and the interplay between them to express a range of social meanings are useful for understanding the construction of international students through multimodality. research in systemic functional linguistics is also relevant to this end. texts in discourse studies, in particular studies with a critical orientation, are often treated as social practice which may be unpacked through linguistic analysis (fairclough, 1992). systemic functional linguistics provides the model of language and descriptive tools suitable for this unpacking process (eggins, 2004). for example, a human experience may be construed as a material process, relational process, mental process, behavioural process, verbal process or existential process where the humans, objects, time, place and manner may be presented as actors or goals or circumstances in the clause. the resultant clauses provide particular takes on the same human experience to the reader. these clauses may take the form of a statement which offers information, or a question which invites a response, or an imperative which commands action. clauses, and by extension texts, offer “reading positions” (kress, 1989: 37) readers/viewers are persuaded to take. these linguistic tools and perspectives are useful for studying the representation of international students on university websites. for example, examining what experiences are perceived for international students, what roles are assigned to them in the clauses, and how universities set up the interaction between them and international students through speech functions in the webpage texts would help researchers to decipher the university’s approach to portraying international students. zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244226 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 226 it is useful to extend peirce’s discussion of sign in terms of icon and index in understanding the relations between the different blocks or clusters of texts on webpages. an icon mirrors the object that it denotes (e.g., a photo mirrors a specific person), while an index points to the object through invoking the association that is established between itself and the object, for example, smoke indexing fire (peirce, 1931-1958). when one linguistic or multimodal text imparts the same message as another linguistic or multimodal text in the same composition, for example, a webpage, the two texts may be viewed as in an iconic relationship. an indexical relationship holds when association between the two texts needs to be actively worked out by invoking life experience or background knowledge of the viewer. such intertextual relationships are helpful for understanding the design of compositional meaning on university websites to position international students in their reading/viewing. 3. methods 3.1. data collection of all 37 public universities in australia, three were selected for this preliminary study, including one prestigious metropolitan university (hereinafter ua), one prestigious university in the nation’s capital (hereinafter ub), and one reasonably well-known university located in the country’s regional and rural area (hereinafter uc). in addition to the consideration of location and prestige, these three universities were selected due to their respective initial feel, which is argued as an important factor in website analysis (pauwels, 2012). for example, a first encounter with ub’s website impressed the authors as more academically oriented, efficient and functional, while ua appeared to be more dynamic, modern and less offputting, and uc looked different from ua and ub, featuring more maturelooking students and a somewhat cluttered webpage. the official websites of the three universities were sourced for data in the analysis of their way of representing international students. as this research concerns the information on international students, the university websites were browsed to locate such information, from the homepage to the pages that were hyperlinked to the homepage to target at international students. this search led to the finding that there was a similar webpage designated for international students on the websites of ua, ub representation of international students on australian university websites ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 227 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 227 and uc. the pathways leading from the homepages to the international student webpages, however, differed across the three universities. table 1 is a summary of the reading pathways leading from the homepage of each university to its webpage designated for international students. we would refrain from suggesting that these would be the reading pathways international students would actually follow in their browsing of the webpages for relevant information given the possibly multiple starting and ending points when viewing a multimodal text (askehave & nielsen, 2005; hirsch & jenstad, 2016). as table 1 shows, each university provided three pathways destined for the webpage for international students. one common pathway started from the “study” menu on each university’s homepage. ua and ub also had a pathway leading from the “current students” menu and “admissions” menu on their homepage respectively to the international student webpage. it is interesting to note that for ub and uc, each had a separate sub-block for international students in the middle block of its homepage. the sub-block for international students at uc’s homepage was located along with three university functions such as student accommodation, research and study mode. ub’s webpage featuring various study information listed international students among “undergraduate students”, “postgraduate students”, “postgrad research students”, “parents & guardians”, “career advisors” and “agents representatives”. the significance of these features to international student representation will be discussed in section 4. as each university had more than one webpage directed to international students, only the webpage that was directly hyperlinked from the homepage’s zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244228 representation of international students at australian university websites ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… universities reading pathways ua •! homepage^study(top menu)^admissions^why study in australia •! homepage^current students(top menu)^administration^international students^support for international students* •! homepage^study(top menu)^admissions^academic support^support for international students** ub •! homepage^study(top menu)^information for international students •! middle block of the homepage with a sub-block for international students^ information for international students •! homepage^admission(bottom menu)^international^information for international students uc •! homepage^study(top menu)^international •! middle of the homepage with a block for international students^ international •! homepage^study(bottom menu)^international table 1. summary of reading pathways for ua, ub and uc.1 as table 1 shows, each university provided three pathways destined for the webpage for international students. one common pathway started from the “study” menu on each university’s homepage. ua and ub also had a pathway leading from the “current students” menu and “admissions” menu on their homepage respectively to the international student webpage. it is interesting to note that for ub and uc, each had a separate sub-block for international students in the middle block of its homepage. the sub-block for international students at uc’s homepage was located along with three university functions such as student accommodation, research and study mode. ub’s webpage featuring various study information listed international students among undergraduate students, postgraduate students, postgrad research students, parents & guardians, career advisors and agents representatives. the significance of these features to international student representation will be discussed in section 4. as each university had more than one webpage directed to international students, only the webpage that was directly hyperlinked from the homepage’s “study” menu was selected in this research to facilitate across-case comparison. for ua, this page included a big photo taken from the university building looking onto the cbd which was placed at the top of the page, followed by a tripartite layout: a list of menus along with hyperlinks such as “international student stories”, “our ties with your region” and “contact our regional experts” on the left-hand side, a series of multimodal text blocks in the middle explaining “why study in australia?”, and news about the university’s external ranking, hyperlinks to various support available to international students and student stories on the right-hand side. the middle column had, from top to bottom, a linguistic text block introducing benefits to studying in australia, a video depicting the natural scenery of the university campus and various activities for university students including a graduation ceremony and celebration, the specific reasons for choosing to study in australia, and a video showing the application procedures. the bottom of the whole webpage included three related articles, which were 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 228 “study” menu was selected in this research to facilitate across-case comparison. for ua, this page included a big photo taken from the university building looking onto the cbd which was placed at the top of the page, followed by a tripartite layout: a list of menus along with hyperlinks such as “international student stories”, “our ties with your region” and “contact our regional experts” on the left-hand side, a series of multimodal text blocks in the middle explaining “why study in australia?”, and news about the university’s external ranking, hyperlinks to various support available to international students and student stories on the right-hand side. the middle column had, from top to bottom, a linguistic text block introducing benefits to studying in australia, a video depicting the natural scenery of the university campus and various activities for university students including a graduation ceremony and celebration, the specific reasons for choosing to study in australia, and a video showing the application procedures. the bottom of the whole webpage included three related articles, which were three blocks of multimodal texts about dealing with homesickness, essential learning at university and making friends at university. ub’s webpage for international students was composed of a multimodal text block at the top, inviting viewers to learn about applying to study at ub, followed by nine multimodal text blocks including rationale for choosing ub, various programmes, entry requirements, application procedures, financial support information, alternative pathways, agent and representative, publications and guides for international students and student visa requirements. the bottom section of the webpage provided hyperlinks to related websites in ten foreign languages in both english and the foreign language script in addition to contact information. uc’s designated webpage for international students had the title “international” which was followed by a multimodal text block featuring a chat facility for international students and a male in medium shot smiling brightly at the viewer. below this text block were 12 self-contained textimage sub-blocks, four in a row and three rows in total. the sub-blocks provided information on application, choices of available academic programmes, research, financial matters, social networks for international students, opportunities for mobility experiences, agents of the university, sources of information for international students, english language support, services the university provides for international students, policies and rules the university complies with in its business operations, and contact information on international staff. representation of international students on australian university websites ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 229 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 229 all the webpages described above were captured through the uniform resource locator on 13 june 2018 and stored in the computer for close coding and analysis. 3.2. data processing the two authors organised themselves to view and code the captured webpages at the same time and communicate their viewing via wechat (a mobile app enabling sharing viewing and oral interaction). the coding focused on the representation of international students in light of their “roles” in clauses, the “speech functions” of the clauses and the “use of images” to create the dyad between the university and international students and the interplay between texts. the coding of the linguistic texts in relation to participant roles in clauses and speech functions was informed by halliday’s (1994) functional grammar. clauses were identified from the webpage text and the process type each clause exemplifies was determined, i.e., whether the clause was a material, relational, mental, verbal, behavioural or existential process. the focus was on the “role” international students and the university under question were assigned in each clause, i.e., as actor, carrier, senser, sayer, behaver, existent, or goal, beneficiary, phenomenon, recipient, verbiage, or circumstances. the “speech function” of each clause was also determined, i.e., as a statement, a question or imperative. these results indicate how each university portrayed international students by presenting their activities, their roles in the activities and the interactional relationship between the university and the students in the activities. the “analysis of the images” in this study focused on how the universities position their webpage viewers from four dimensions: “social distance”, “power relationship”, “level of involvement”, and “visual address”. following tomášková (2015) and zhang and o’halloran (2012, 2013), we put the images into two groups: “personal images” (which feature people or contain people as part of the image) and “non-personal images” (which are images without people present) in order to investigate the university’s approach to constructing social distance with the viewer. we also coded the visual power established by the university in relation to its webpage viewers by examining the “angles of the images”, that is, the angle from which a photo is taken or a picture is composed visually, or in other words, the angle from which viewers are invited to view the image. the angles of images zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244230 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 230 imply a situation of visual power (feng, 2011) and reveal how the universities position themselves in relation to international students. in addition, we coded the way universities visually address the webpage viewers according to whether the eye-contact between represented participants and viewers is direct, which addresses the viewer as “you” and demands a response or action, or indirect, which does not require strong viewer involvement (kress & van leeuwen, 2006). we also attended to the “compositional meaning”. each text block was related to other text blocks on the same webpage to help understand the construction of the interplay between the text blocks, including between linguistic texts and other linguistic texts and between linguistic texts and multimodal texts. for example, on ua’s “admissions” webpage, there were two linguistic text blocks (linguistic captions under their images) [ua] has been ranked in the top 50 universities in the world for the 14th year in a row. [ua] has been ranked number one in australia and 28 globally in the new thomson reuters’ innovation ranking – ‘top 75: asia’s most innovative universities’. which were placed in the third column to the right of the following linguistic text, located in the middle column of the webpage: deciding to study in australia secures you a globally recognised education, access to world-class facilities, and memorable student experiences clearly, the first two texts are in an evidence-claim relationship with the third text: the externally assigned ranking of ua supports the claims ua makes about its quality education, superb facilities and student experiences. it is also more or less an iconic relationship as the claim text (third text) is mirrored in the evidence texts (first two texts) and would require little effort to associate one with the other. 3.3. inter-rater reliability and trustworthiness of the study qualitative research is often judged for its trustworthiness and reliability (bryman, 2012). the two authors coded the collected webpages independently and then compared their coding through telephone or representation of international students on australian university websites ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 231 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 231 wechat until they agreed on the results of coding and analysis. this process of securing inter-rater reliability assisted in achieving reliability for this study. we also made the data collection and processing procedures explicit to make the results verifiable and thus to reach a substantial trustworthiness in our research. the next section reports on the results of the analysis. for the sake of anonymity and copyright concerns, no image captured from the university websites will be reproduced in this article. what there is in the original image is described in considerable detail to facilitate understanding for readers of this article. 4. results and discussion this section reports the results of the data analysis and relates them, where appropriate, to theoretical discussions and practical issues in international student education. 4.1. categorisation of international students the analysis of the presentation of international students on the reading pathways on the websites of ua, ub and uc indicates that international students were categorised differently across the universities. all three universities had a designated international student webpage and unsurprisingly, this designated webpage was among the series of hyperlinks starting from the “study” menu on the university’s homepage. as studying is the main business of students at universities, it would be normal to have international students channelled through the study reading pathway. what was intriguing in the analysis of the presentation of international students is the way they were channelled in other ways and signposted on the webpages. for example, ua had two other reading pathways, including through the “current students” menu and “admissions” menu. it seems that international students were just another group of subjects to be managed through the university’s administration or admissions procedures. ub had its link to the designated international student webpage conspicuously signposted on its homepage. international students were also listed along with other student or people groups as if for ub, international students were different types of students or people from the other groups at the university. similar to ub, uc had its designated international student webpage conspicuously signposted on its homepage and straightforwardly zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244232 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 232 hyperlinked. uc also put the link to its international student webpage among the links to university functions. international students appear to be the ‘odd man in’ at uc as the other three links were not groupings of students or university personnel. when the channelling and juxtaposition practices were considered together and across ua, ub and uc, it led to the argument that international students are represented in three distinct ways. given ua’s deep embedding of international students in its operational procedures, the university seems to treat international students as undifferentiable and weaves them seamlessly into the university fabric. for ub, international students make a patch that is added to the university fabric, while at uc, international students, in the form of a patch, do not seem to find an easy fit in the university fabric. international students thus appear to be an ambivalent group, similar to other groups on campus (e.g., domestic students) but also different enough to be given an umbrella sub-heading on its own. ua, ub and uc seem to be aware of the diversity of their student population, and were responding to it, knowingly or unknowingly, by applying different “grids of specification” (foucault, 1972: 19): diversity is acknowledged and represented in a matter-of-fact manner, as in ub and uc, and backgrounded, not to be represented as salient, as in ua. these different approaches may be a reflection of the difficulty in discussions of diversity: a colourful stance where differences are noted and a colour-blind stance where differences are viewed as invisible or non-existent (e.g., stevens, plaut & sanchez-burks, 2008). ua’s approach would have the danger of overlooking international students’ unique needs. the approach taken by ub and uc, on the other hand, may run the risk of continuing the othering of international students. there have been several concepts developed to manage diversity, including equity and inclusivity. inclusivity in education is associated with equal access to opportunity and participation and equitable outcomes for students (e.g., hyde, 2017). understandings of diversity and inclusivity seem to be undergoing a change from the universalist perspective and business model on diversity towards a diversity leveraging perspective, at least in the commercial sector (e.g., wallace, hoover & pepper, 2014). there seems to be a similar change in current research in international student education. engagement, as understood to mean catering to international students’ needs such as their english language needs, integrating with domestic students, participating in academic practices in the classroom and achieving personal growth (kettle, 2017), would be a way of diversity management representation of international students on australian university websites ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 233 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 233 which contributes to the drive for internationalisation of education at australian universities with a view to integrating their student groups to enrich learning experiences for all (arkoudis et al., 2012). in this light, it would be less productive to avoid viewing international students as a distinct group, or being “international student-blind” by treating them as a group “equal” to dominant groups on campus. it would be more productive to explore ways of representing them along with domestic students in both academic studies and personal growth to achieve the outcome of transformation for both. 4.2. role assignment for international students in class international students were assigned a variety of roles in the clauses of the webpage texts that target them. table 2 summarises the represented roles of international students in the material, mental, relational and verbal processes identified in the data. it is clear that international students were represented as participating in a range of experiences at university and more importantly were assigned agentive roles in a sizable number of clauses as the actor, senser, carrier and sayer in the processes. ua appears to be the most generous in assigning the agentive roles to its prospective international students, seconded by ub. uc seems to assign the least opportunities to its prospective international students to initiate an experience. 4.3. dyads between the university and international students through speech functions and images the tasks involved in application and admission of international students create a dyad between universities and international students. the three universities zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244234 zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… 4.2. role assignment for international students in class international students were assigned a variety of roles in the clauses of the webpage texts that target them. table 2 summarises the represented roles of international students in the material, mental , relational and verbal processes identified in the data. it is clear that international students were represented as participating in a range of experiences at university and more importantly were assigned agentive roles in a sizable number of clauses as the actor, senser, carrier and sayer in the processes. ua appears to be the most generous in assigning the agentive roles to its prospective international students, seconded by ub. uc seems to assign the least opportunities to its prospective international students to initiate an experience. name of university ua ub uc number of text blocks 11 12 14 number of clauses 72 28 31 international student vs. uni. as “actor” in material process 17/5 6/4 4/6 international student vs. uni. as “senser” in mental process 10/1 10/1 3/0 international student vs. uni. as “carrier” in relational process 6/4 1/0 0/3 international student vs. uni. as “sayer” in verbal process 2/4 4/0 3/1 international student vs. uni. as “circumstance”, “goal”, “beneficiary” or in “no explicit role” in the clause 37/58 7/23 21/21 table 2. representation of international student versus the university in the clauses.2 4.3. dyads between the university and international students through speech functions and images the tasks involved in application and admission of international students create a dyad between universities and international students. the three universities constructed different dynamics of the dyad, which can be attested by the speech functions and the images deployed on the webpages. the linguistic texts were found to include statements, questions and imperatives that indicate the interpersonal relationship the universities were constructing with their prospective international students. table 3 is a summary of the analysis of speech functions of the clauses on the webpages of ua, ub and uc. table 3. summary of speech function of clauses for ua, ub and uc. 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 234 constructed different dynamics of the dyad, which can be attested by the speech functions and the images deployed on the webpages. the linguistic texts were found to include statements, questions and imperatives that indicate the interpersonal relationship the universities were constructing with their prospective international students. table 3 is a summary of the analysis of speech functions of the clauses on the webpages of ua, ub and uc. what can be seen in table 3 is that the largest number of clauses goes to statements for ua and uc while ub tends to have a much higher number of imperatives in its webpage text. as statements offer information, while questions and imperatives command response or action, the three universities seem to hail their (prospective) international students differently: as “patient provider of information”, for ua and uc, and “keen recruiter” for ub. in marketing terms, ua and uc adopted the “soft sell” approach by offering information for informed decision on the part of the viewer/prospective international students who were enticed to seek membership, whereas ub opted for the “hard sell” approach by commanding their viewer to act and respond. images and other modalities contribute to the different dyads that were identified through the linguistic text analysis. table 4 provides the summary of the analysis of the images from social distance, visual power, visual address and involvement to show how the three universities constructed an interpersonal relationship with their international students. table 4 shows that compared with non-personal images, personal images were preferred by the universities on their webpages. ub, particularly, chose to present only personal images. it should be added that the participants represented in these personal images appear to be university students of different ethnic backgrounds. according to tomášková (2015) and zhang and o’halloran (2012, 2013), presenting the image of students on the webpage creates a more emotional sense of the university: welcoming, multicultural and inviting to potential students. representation of international students on australian university websites ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 235 zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… 4.2. role assignment for international students in class international students were assigned a variety of roles in the clauses of the webpage texts that target them. table 2 summarises the represented roles of international students in the material, mental , relational and verbal processes identified in the data. it is clear that international students were represented as participating in a range of experiences at university and more importantly were assigned agentive roles in a sizable number of clauses as the actor, senser, carrier and sayer in the processes. ua appears to be the most generous in assigning the agentive roles to its prospective international students, seconded by ub. uc seems to assign the least opportunities to its prospective international students to initiate an experience. table 2. representation of international student versus the university in the clauses.2 4.3. dyads between the university and international students through speech functions and images the tasks involved in application and admission of international students create a dyad between universities and international students. the three universities constructed different dynamics of the dyad, which can be attested by the speech functions and the images deployed on the webpages. the linguistic texts were found to include statements, questions and imperatives that indicate the interpersonal relationship the universities were constructing with their prospective international students. table 3 is a summary of the analysis of speech functions of the clauses on the webpages of ua, ub and uc. name of university ua ub uc number of statements 64 13 26 number of questions 5 1 1 number of imperatives 3 14 4 table 3. summary of speech function of clauses for ua, ub and uc. 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 235 regarding the proximity of the shot of the images, ub and uc presented more close shots of images, which establish a more personal space between the university and its viewers. in contrast, ua seems to keep a certain distance through its lower use of close shots (another reason could be that ua’s webpage did not have as many images as on ub’s and uc’s webpage). this result seems to align with that from the analysis of the “frontal” versus “oblique” angles of images. while ua’s and uc’s webpages were mostly of images taken from an oblique angle, more than half of the images shown on ub’s international student webpage were taken from a frontal angle. following kress and van leeuwen (2006), ua and uc gave the impression of keeping a certain distance and being detached from the participants represented in the images, whereas ub seems to be more involved with their participants. the images of the three universities were taken predominantly at eye-level, with only a small number of high angle images and occasional low angle images. what this shows is that all three universities seem to be trying to build an equal relationship with international students and even allowing a slightly more powerful position to them than to the universities themselves (feng, 2011; kress & van leeuwen, 2006). concerning visual address, ua and uc images stood out for their absence of gaze , while ub made more use of gaze in its images, with nearly half of them having the represented participants looking directly at viewers, as if inviting or even demanding a personal contact and involvement. tables 3 and 4 show the workings of modalities in their own terms. when the two tables are read together, two findings can be generated. first, the zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244236 representation of international students at australian university websites ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… what can be seen in table 3 is that the largest number of clauses goes to statements for ua and uc while ub tends to have a much higher number of imperatives in its webpage text. as statements offer information, while questions and imperatives command response or action, the three universities seem to hail their (prospective) international students differently: as “patient provider of information”, for ua and uc, and “keen recruiter” for ub. in marketing terms, ua and uc adopted the ‘soft sell’ approach by offering information for informed decision on the part of the viewer/prospective international students who were enticed to seek membership, whereas ub opted for the “hard sell” approach by commanding their viewer to act and respond. images and other modalities contribute to the different dyads that were identified through the linguistic text analysis. table 4 provides the summary of the analysis of the images from social distance, visual power, visual address and involvement to show how the three universities constructed an interpersonal relationship with their international students. categories of interpersonal meanings features displayed in the images meanings made through the deployment of features social distance personal (ua--7/9; ub--9/9; uc--10/14) non-personal (ua--2/9; ub--0/9; uc--4/14) personal & emotional impersonal social distance close shot (ua--1/9; ub--4/9; uc--6/14) medium shot (ua--5/9; ub--4/9; uc--5/14) long shot (ua--3/9; ub--1/9; uc--3/14) personal/intimate social impersonal visual power high angle (ua--3/9; ub--1/9; uc--1/14 eye-level angle (ua--5/9; ub--8/9; uc--13/14) low angle (ua--1/9; ub--0/9; uc--0/14) represents viewer power equality represents participant power visual address gaze (ua--2/9; ub--5/9; uc--3/14) absence of gaze (ua--7/9; ub--4/9; uc--11/14) demand (contact) offer involvement frontal angle (ua--3/9; ub--5/9; uc--3/14) oblique angle (ua--6/9; ub--4/9; uc--11/14) involvement detachment table 4. constructing interpersonal relationship through images.3 table 4 shows that compared with non-personal images, personal images were preferred by the universities on their webpages. ub, particularly, chose to present only personal images. it should be added that the participants represented in these personal images appear to be university students of different ethnic backgrounds. according to tomá!ková (2015) and zhang and o’halloran (2012, 2013), presenting the image of students on the webpage creates a more emotional sense of the university: welcoming, multicultural and inviting to potential students. regarding the proximity of the shot of the images, ub and uc presented more close shots of images, which establish a more personal space between the university and its viewers. in contrast, ua seems to keep a certain distance through its lower use of close shots (another reason could be that ua’s 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 236 messages imparted through the linguistic texts and the images largely align with each other. for example, by using a large number of statements in their linguistic texts, ua and uc were found to be providing information that was reflected or enhanced through the absence of gaze in their images, which means that no contact was explicitly required to be made. ub, on the other hand, shows a more demanding position both visually (large number of demand gaze) and linguistically (large number of imperative clauses) to invite/demand direct contact with the web users and their response and action. the differences that have been noted between the dyads the three australian universities were constructing may derive from the basic premise each university seems to be playing with. ub builds on its claim as the leading university of the country and does not seem to find much need to promote itself while the other two universities devote many of their respective linguistic and visual resources to providing the evidence to win the favour of their viewers (prospective students). on the external rankings of australian universities over the years, ub has had better rankings than the other two universities. from a sociolinguistic point of view (e.g., sarangi & roberts, 1999), ub’s discourse seems to be reflecting its status in the tertiary education sector (discourse construes reality) and brings it into being through the discourse (discourse constructs reality). 4.4. compositional meanings the analysis of the webpages reveals very interesting patterns of composition involving linguistic texts in relation to other linguistic texts and to the images. two most striking findings include: 1) ua’s and uc’s use of blocks of linguistic texts or blocks of images to set up a claim and evidence relationship, and 2) the frequent use of images as indexical, particularly on ub’s webpage. the designated international student webpages of ua and uc feature a number of examples of linguistic or multimodal texts in a claim-evidence relationship. for example, one of uc’s images is an event photo in which its international office was offering assistance to international students through colourful posters and face-face consultation. this image is placed above the linguistic text, providing evidence for the claim in the text’s punch line “international services can help!”. the extensive use of the claim-evidence sequence in composition may well reflect the western tradition of evidencerepresentation of international students on australian university websites ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 237 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 237 based argument (wang, 2004) in academia. the discursive practice resonates with ua’s and uc’s basic premise in their respective argument for being a university of choice for international students: long tradition, heritage and educational values. together with this emphasis on academic tradition, ua’s and ub’s inclusion of hyperlinks to regional ties and representatives of international students and websites in international students’ home language on their respective webpage may indicate an awareness on the side of australian universities of the need to return to traditional educational values in providing international education and to enact the transition from the neo-liberalist conceptualisation of international education as an entrepreneurial undertaking to some signs of transnational collaboration (rizvi, 2011). the analysis of the interplay between linguistic texts and multimodal texts (mainly images in the data) yields other interesting insights. ub and uc both make extensive use of images on their webpages for international students. for every linguistic text block, there is an image. what is worth noting is that uc’s images are more often iconic than indexical while the exact opposite is true of ub. for example, uc’s images are often photos of its campus indicating the natural environment of the university or the location of the university personnel responsible for international student affairs. the messages through the images are often congruent with the messages of the accompanying linguistic texts. a good example of this iconic relationship is the image including a microscope and stethoscope suggesting the disciplines that are studied at the university, and the linguistic text with the title “research”. ub’s images are frequently indexical in the sense that the connection between the messages through the image and the linguistic text needs to be worked out by invoking the viewer’s life experience. for example, the image chosen to accompany the linguistic text about entry requirements is a medium shot of an international student standing in front of the lawn, holding a folder, smiling at the viewer. while the linguistic text is explicitly about the message “find out about the entry requirements for international students”, what the image is imparting is less immediate. the viewer needs to infer that the folder contains print information on entry requirements and that such information is for international students. uc’s images seem to be more candid in being informational and functional while ub’s images tend to have a more inspirational and motivational intention (owl at purdue, 2013). although ua does not couple each linguistic text with an image, the two videos located at the top and bottom of the international student zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244238 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 238 webpage are in an ideal (top) and real (bottom) semantic structure (kress & van leeuwen, 2006). viewers are visually persuaded to do the real (making the application) to achieve the ideal (dynamic university life and graduation). the image-linguistic text relation on ua’s webpage would also be described as iconic. it may be inferred that the choice of an iconic or indexical relationship between linguistic texts and images aligns with the conceptualisation of international student education that underlies the discursive practices. in other words, when marketing is the overt goal, go for indexical. 5. conclusions this article sought answers to the questions of how australian universities represent international students on their websites through multimodality and whether current thinking in international student education has made inroads into the universities’ discursive practices. although the nature of this qualitative inquiry restrains us from providing any conclusive answers, we would argue that australian universities seem to be struggling with a uniform representation of international students. through linguistic texts, multimodal texts, and the intertextual relations between them on the university websites, international students are portrayed either as a group of students equal to other student groups, studying and growing on the same campus, being informed of and gently socialised into the same (western) academic tradition, in a somewhat egalitarian relationship with the university (e.g., informed decision-making, equality in social interaction), as exemplified by ua. or as in the example of ub, they are represented as part of a composite, being different from but equal to all other groups of people on campus, and more saliently, the group earnestly approached. and somewhere in between these two polar representations, as shown in the case of uc, international students are recognised as a real existence that is, nonetheless, not comfortably engageable (e.g., limited interaction between international students and the university in both the linguistic texts and images). these distinct discursive practices prompt us to link the multimodal representation of international students to bigger issues that are being attended to in the literature, in particular the changing trend in conceptualisation of international student education in the era of globalisation and perhaps the apparent uncertainty in globalisation in the last two years. as an institutional discourse, university websites are motivated. representation of international students on australian university websites ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 239 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 239 they seem to be informed by current research and in a sense, are also contributing to shaping the transitional status in thinking about international education (e.g., international education as an entrepreneurial undertaking for people’s development versus as transnational collaboration) and the management of diversity (e.g., colour-blindness versus colourful approach). this study has provided further evidence for the power of critical multimodal approaches to understanding meaning-making. the interplay between images and linguistic texts assists in achieving a mitigating effect in human communication. some of the apparently strong linguistic speech functions, e.g., imperatives, may be tempered by the use of images that are welcoming and inviting. it is also useful to note the alignment of iconic versus indexical relations between clusters of texts with the overall goal of discursive practices. these insights should have considerable value for education in languages for specific purposes and webpage design. for further research, a corpus linguistics approach (e.g., baldry & o’halloran, 2019) may be usefully adopted to validate the findings reported in this article. our analysis focused on the international student webpage, without including the further hyperlinked pages which elaborate the different text blocks on the international student webpage. it would be interesting to examine the more detailed texts to see if the patterns reported would still apply. it would be useful to investigate prospective and current international students’ real experience of viewing the webpages by tracking their reading pathways, for example, through eye-tracking research, and inviting them to comment on the indexical rather than iconic images in relation to clarity and persuasive effect. university personnel may also be interviewed to seek their perception of representing international students on their university websites to validate the claims in this study. it would be most interesting to compare the webpages for international students in varied geographical and sociocultural settings to develop a deeper understanding of multimodal representation of international students and internationalisation of education in a rapidly transforming world. article history: received 15 august 2018 received in revised form 8 november 2018 accepted 19 november 2018 zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244240 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 240 references representation of international students on australian university websites ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 241 arkoudis, s., c. baik, s. marginson & e. cassidy (2012). internationalising the student experience in australian tertiary education: developing criteria and indicators. url: http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au [20/07/2018] arkoudis, s. & l. doughney (2014). good practice report – english language proficiency. url: https://melbournecshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004 /1489162/gpr_english_language_2014.pdf [15/08/2018] askehave, i. & a. e. nielsen (2005). “digital genres: a challenge to traditional genre theory”. 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(2007). “the micropolitics of personal national and ethnicity identity”. discourse and society 18,5: 653-674. 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 241 zuocheng zhang is a senior lecturer at the university of new england, australia. he has published four scholarly books and around 50 articles on english for specific purposes, multimodality, and literacy education, including his recent books multimodal study of situated discourses (2014, with world publishing corporation) and learning business english in china: the construction of professional identity (2017, with palgrave macmillan). his current projects concern university websites as multimodal discourses and international students’ study-abroad experiences. zuocheng zhang & wenchao tu ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244242 owl at purdue. (2013). visual rhetoric: analyzing visual documents. url: https://owl.purdue.edu/ owl/general_writing/visual_rhetoric/analyzing_visu al_documents/index.html [20/07/2018] pauwels, l. 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(2015). “a walk through the multimodal landscape of university websites”. brno studies in english 41,1: 77-100. tu, w. (2016). how universities introduce themselves on the internet: a critical multimodal comparative genre study (doctoral thesis). sydney: the university of sidney. van leeuwen, t. (2013). “critical analysis of multimodal discourse” in c. a. chapelle (ed.), the encyclopedia of applied linguistics, 1416–1421. oxford: blackwell. van leeuwen, t. (2014). “critical discourse analysis and multimodality” in c. hart & p. cap (eds.), contemporary critical discourse studies, 281-296. london: bloomsbury. wallace, h. m. l., k.f. hoover & m. b. pepper (2014). “multicultural ethics and diversity discourse”. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal 33,4: 318-333. wang, w. (2004). “a contrastive analysis of letters to the editor in chinese and english”. australian review of applied linguistics 27: 72-88. xing, j. y. (2014). “the mechanism of complementarity between modalities in situated discourses” in z.c. zhang, j. y. xing, y. wang, m. h. zhu, j. q. sun & j. x. liu, duomotai jixihuayu yanjiu (multimodal study of situated discourses), 39-48. guangzhou: world publishing corporation. zhang, y. & k. l. o’halloran (2012). “the gate of the gateway: a hypermodal approach to university homepages”. semiotica 190: 87-109. zhang, y. & k. l. o’halloran (2013). “toward a global knowledge enterprise: university websites as portals to the ongoing marketization of higher education”. critical discourse studies 10,4: 468485. zhang, z. c. (2015). “disagreements in plenary addresses as multimodal action” in b.c. camiciottoli & i. fortanet-gómez (eds.), multimodal analysis in academic settings: from research to teaching, 17-38. london: routledge. ziguras, c. & a. harwood (2011). principles of good practice for enhancing international student experience outside the classroom. url: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/130672/201201311750/www.isana.org.au/images/file/isana%20goo d%20practice%20guide.pdf [12/08/2018] 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 242 wenchao tu has recently graduated from the university of sydney. her phd thesis investigated universities promoting themselves through their websites. notes 1 ^ indicates sequence of the hyperlinks. * and ** are named the same but have different content information. they seem to be different versions with one being the revised and the other being the old version. 2 clauses include finite and non-finite clauses as well as phrases presented as a self-contained unit of information in the webpage texts. “/” in the statistics indicates comparison between the number of the role assigned to the student versus to the university. 3 the first digit shows the number of images that have the particular feature out of the total number of images (indicated by the second digit following “/”) on the university’s webpage for international students. representation of international students on australian university websites ibérica 37 (2019): 221-244 243 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 243 09 iberica 37_iberica 13 8/5/19 18:24 página 244 06 juan josé calvo.qxd ������� ��� ��� ������ � �������� ������������ �� ������ ��� ����� � ���� � ���� �� ��� �� ������ ��� �� ��� �� ���� �� � ����� ����� �� ����������� �������� ���������� ���� ��� ������� ������ �������� �� �� ����������� ����� � �� ���������� ���� �������� ��������� ��� ��� �� �� �� � ���� ��������� � ���� � �� �������� ���� ���� �� ��������� ������ ��� �� ������ ����� ��� ���� �� �� � ������� ����� 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���������� =jli� =jln� =j2=� =lin� =l=j� =laa� =lna� =lnj� =lrn� =lka� =lw2� =llr� =ll2� =2=r� =2ak� =2aj� =2nw� =2n2� =2rj� =2ki� =2kw� =2ji� =2lr� =2l2 ��� =22a� e �� ���� ��� 8d��� 9� ��� � 8<���� 9 �� =2aj ��� ��� �� ��� =2lr ��������� ,0�"! iberica 13 ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this cross-disciplinary paper explores the ways in which writers promote their research articles in the highlights section of journals available online as a digital academic genre. a corpus of highlights from 300 research articles was randomly selected from journals in two major domains of knowledge, hard sciences and soft sciences. the corpus contained texts from the fields of (1) chemistry and (2) computer science representing hard sciences and from (3) linguistics and (4) management representing soft sciences published in reputable journals in 2018 and 2019. the corpus was analysed in terms of the promotional and rhetorical moves based on a model developed by the researchers using the uam corpus tool. the results show that despite similarities in the use of rhetorical moves, for example, promoting the results (move 4) as the most frequently used move in both corpora, there were disciplinary variations in the highlights section. whereas hard science majors give secondary importance to promoting the value (move 2) of their research, soft science majors promoted the scene of the study (move 1) in the highlights. analyses of the cyclical patterns of the highlights reveal that whereas hard sciences researchers combined promoting the results with promoting the methodological issues (move 3), soft sciences writers showcased their results as well as promoting background information (move 1) related to their actual research. keywords: move analysis, digital academic genre, soft and hard sciences, highlights section, research articles. resumen explorando movimientos retóricos en un género académico digital: estudio interdisciplinar de la sección de destacados exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section1 erdem akbaş & maryam farnia erciyes university (turkey) & payame noor university (iran) erdemakbas@erciyes.edu.tr, erdemakbas@alumni.york.ac.uk & mfarnia@pnu.ac.ir 85 ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 erdem akbaş & maryam farnia el presente artículo explora desde una perspectiva interdisciplinar las diferentes maneras en que los escritores promocionan sus artículos de investigación en la sección de destacados de revistas en línea, entendiendo tales textos como una forma de discurso académico digital. con este fin, se ha confeccionado un corpus compuesto por 300 artículos destacados de revistas de investigación seleccionados de manera aleatoria pertenecientes a dos grandes áreas de conocimiento: las conocidas como ciencias duras y ciencias blandas. en concreto, el corpus está compuesto a partir de textos publicados en revistas de renombre en 2018 y 2019 de las siguientes disciplinas: como representantes de las ciencias duras, (1) química y (2) ciencias de la computación, y, como representantes de las ciencias blandas, (3) lingüística y (4) administración. se han analizado los movimientos promocionales y retóricos de estos textos con base en un modelo desarrollado utilizando la herramienta uam corpus. los resultados evidencian que, a pesar de las similitudes en el uso de movimientos retóricos (por ejemplo, el movimiento promocionar los resultados (movimiento 4) es el más frecuente en los dos corpus), hay variaciones en la sección de destacados que atañen a la disciplina en cuestión: mientras que las especialidades de las disciplinas duras otorgan una importancia secundaria a resaltar el valor de su investigación (movimiento 2), las disciplinas de las ciencias blandas incidieron en promover los antecedentes del artículo e introducir el problema y los objetivos (movimiento 1). los análisis de los patrones cíclicos de los textos de la sección de destacados revelan que, mientras en las ciencias duras se prefiere combinar el movimiento de resaltar los resultados con el de promocionar los problemas metodológicos (movimiento 3), en las ciencias blandas se tiende a ofrecer los resultados destacando principalmente los antecedentes (movimiento 1) relacionados con su investigación. palabras clave: análisis de movimientos, género académico digital, ciencias blandas y duras, sección de destacados, artículos de investigación. 1. introduction it has long been known that scholarly articles, or research articles (ras), encompass a number of complex communicative functions (gillaerts & van de velde, 2010). many studies (e.g., farnia & baratizade, 2020; kanoksilapatham, 2015; moghaddasi et al., 2019) have specifically examined research articles and their sub-sections to find communicative functions, rhetorical and linguistic features peculiar to ras. however, research has shown that both the rhetorical and organizational preferences of writers vary across sections of ras (samraj, 2002), cultures (li & xu, 2020) and disciplines (hyland, 2000). regarding disciplinary practices, hyland (2005: 176) points out that writers attempt to build ‘‘a recognizable social world 86 through rhetorical choices’’ in their academic discourse while maintaining disciplinary norms and goals. several studies have shown cross-disciplinary differences regarding the relationship between writer and audience (hyland, 2008), and the use of evaluative (farnia et al., 2020) and multi-word expressions (omidian et al., 2018) in the articles. farnia et al. (2020), for instance, reported hard science disciplines employed a more frequent use of certain lexico-grammatical features, intensification and quantification devices in the conclusion section than soft science disciplines. in other words, the hard science authors expressed their argument and evaluation more strongly compared to soft science authors. hyland (2008) reported that soft science authors emphasized more the personal projection in their text, whereas hard science authors highlighted the replicability of their research and generalizability of their findings. there is no doubt that research on academic genres is likely to shed light on how communicative language use and discourse organization in scholarly publications, and can contribute to creating effective and efficient disciplinespecific academic communication. bhatia (2005), however, stressed that academic genres have recently been associated with another very prevailing feature, almost common to all. that is the “invasion of promotional values” (bhatia, 2005: 123) attached to these discourses, which has made the promotional elements and genres become a focus in the field of discourse analysis. in other words, it is now widely known that scholarly publication is a kind of promotion of not only the work itself but also the researchers. nevertheless, as a recently introduced and only-digitally-available emerging genre with promotional value, the highlights section of ras appears to have gone unnoticed. since the introduction of the concept of highlights for ras in 2010, little (for example, malmir et al., 2019; yang, 2016) has been done to explore the nature and function of highlights even though they are the means of drawing the attention of both the general and the expert readership to a specific study in a field at a glance. the highlights section as an emerging genre is unique in the sense that it is what welcomes a potential reader onto the journal webpage about a specific article, just after the title and before the abstract, by promoting the relevant points of the study. this involves a more concentrated version of key points compared with abstracts. these eye-catching ‘adverts’ for ras are expected to help readers find a relevant article and reach a quick conclusion about what is unique about it. keeping the very little attention paid so far to the highlights section available only in an online space in mind, this genreexploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 87 oriented analysis will primarily deal with the rhetorical moves and related issues about the highlights section (i.e., lexical and grammatical) published in hard and soft sciences by taking a cross-disciplinary view. 2. digital academic discourse and research on highlights section as a part-genre the ongoing evolution of academic discourse has recently moved to more technology-oriented domains triggering brand-new forms of knowledgesharing platforms for academic communication. in addition to more prototypical and ‘analogue’ (kuteeva & mauranen, 2018: 2) modes of academic discourses, new constellations of genres with new academic practices seem to be taking their place in digital academic discourse, which can be attributed to a move towards making academic communication largely digitalized. an up-to-date definition of digital academic discourse by kuteeva and mauranen (2018: 2) describes the written dissemination of an academic activity as “online with the support of digital media”. the interplay between the production of academic knowledge and dissemination through new domains clearly contributes to restructuring interaction patterns and practices. such digitally-transformed practices may be unique to these digital academic discourses (i.e., visual abstracts) or a continuation of previously followed academic activities peculiar to established genres. even so, mauranen (2013) pointed out that the established categorizations of various genres, and even sub-genres, can be re-visited when a new means of communication is introduced. digital genres and practices as a necessary part of language for specific purposes (lsp) inquiry (hafner & pun, 2020) have become noticeable in contemporary research publications. several studies have analyzed digital genre practices in blogs (e.g., luzón, 2017), research websites (lorés, 2020), and personal webpages (e.g., dillon & gushrowski, 2000), to name a few. however, while research on digital discourse practices and online language use may be abundant, research on academic contexts of digital discourse has not received much attention (kuteeva & mauranen, 2018). following herring et al. (2004) in conceptualizing communication through the digital form of a text as genre, we seek to characterize the highlights section as an emerging part-genre bound to research articles available only in an online space, and to re-visit it with a closer examination in order to see and erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-11488 understand the nature of this emerging genre. with this in mind, we also consider the promotional value of the highlights section within the nature of the research article, with its to-the-point, sentence-like snapshots. communication achieved by the highlights section can be linked to the idea of the ‘marketization’ (shaw et al., 2014) of a particular research article. the promotion of academic knowledge through such a new channel not only makes it unique, but a highlights section could also be seen as an online advertisement for a study which can be read before purchasing/downloading the article. the promotional value provided by the highlights section therefore contributes to our understanding of how “promotional genres, in this respect, undoubtedly have become the most versatile and fast developing area of discourse” (bhatia, 2005: 213). as the first study examining the highlights section, yang (2016) primarily dealt with evaluative language in the highlights (i.e., hedges, boosters) and explored the opinions of editors and authors about the significance of the highlights section via questionnaires. in this study, yang (2016: 91) categorized the emerging part-genre as an “attendant genre” which is part of a larger genre and cannot exist independently but is intended to increase the visibility of the main work. in line with this, it is important to see how the highlights section with very brief presentations of what is significant about the main work could add to the visibility of the article with its promotional nature and elements. elsevier (n.d.)2 stated that the highlights need to include result-oriented points, indicating the organizational structure. nevertheless, little is really known about the generic structure, the type of language used and especially what is really being highlighted, particularly when the following highlights from yang’s (2016: 98) corpus are taken into account: 1. functional theories often characterize language as tool for communication. 2. fcit pioneered a missing market (investment in diversified portfolios by the general public). 3. it was the first institutional investor in emerging markets. yang (2016) pointed out that some of these highlights do not essentially highlight a core result unique to the studies conducted, but bring some other valuable information forward in order to promote it as something deserving to be announced. nonetheless, as yang (2016) also claimed, providing points exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 89 not matching the publisher’s guidelines does not really meet the expectations and comply with the communicative functions of a highlights section. a detailed examination of the highlights sections from different disciplines could therefore contribute to exploring the nature of the highlights section and establish whether writers are complying with the guidelines. malmir et al. (2019) analyzed the rhetorical moves and metadiscourse devices of highlights sections in applied linguistics only. analyzing the corpus by means of antconc, they found that the writers not only discussed their research findings and methodology as the focus in a new study, but the highlights in applied linguistics even represented instances of previous literature and gaps. in line with this, yang (2016) also pointed out that in soft disciplines (i.e., applied linguistics) the highlights are constructed to link new and old knowledge by acknowledging and discussing previous knowledge or research gaps. moreover, the results in malmir et al. (2019: 60) showed that the highlights section as a promotional genre shared similar features with ‘advertising language’ such as the use of phrases, and determiner omissions. in this respect, given the scarcity of previous research and a need for a systematic investigation of the highlights section as an understudied partgenre, the aim of this study is threefold. first, we shall seek to identify the rhetorical and communicative functions of highlights in ras from a discipline-based perspective (chemistry and computer science representing hard sciences and linguistics and management representing soft sciences). this will also enable us to establish the obligatory, conventional or optional moves (swales, 1990) across disciplines. we shall focus on the observed moves to confirm the potential discipline-based variations. second, we shall look at the rhetorical combinations to learn the most frequent cyclical patterns in the corpus. third, while dealing with the highlights in each discipline, we intend to address the discrepancy between what is asked by the publisher in the guidelines and what is practised by writers. 3. research method 3.1. corpus the present study analyses a corpus of highlights from 300 articles randomly collected from four subject disciplines representing the hard sciences, chemistry (ch) and computer sciences (cs) and the soft sciences, linguistics erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-11490 (li) and management (ma). the reason why different disciplines were included in the study is because we needed different academic domains in order to better understand the nature of highlights. table 1. journals of research articles. the data were selected from the highlights of ras published in reputable leading journals by elsevier with high impact factors. in total, 300 highlights sections, comprising 1244 individual highlights, from the journals listed in table 1, were randomly collected by considering ‘the status of equivalence’ (moreno, 2008) with all texts representing the same academic genre, the same language code (english), addressing an issue in their specific field of research, and intended for similar readership. 3.2. data collection and data analysis procedure to compile the corpus, first, the subject disciplines were randomly selected from those published under physical sciences and engineering, and social sciences and humanities on elsevier’s publishing webpage: chemistry and computer sciences were selected as representatives of physical sciences and engineering (we refer to them as hard sciences), and linguistics and management were selected as representatives of social sciences and humanities (we refer to exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 91 knowledge domain subject discipline number of texts journal title hard sciences chemistry (ch) 75 analytical biochemistry forensic chemistry food chemistry journal of molecular structure journal of fluorine chemistry computer sciences (cs) 75 journal of informetrics journal of computational science information systems applied soft computing sustainable computing: informatics and systems total 150 soft sciences linguistics (li) 75 english for specific purposes journal of pragmatics journal of second language writing language and communication linguistics and education management (ma) 75 human resource management review international journal of information management organizational behavior and human decision processes journal of vocational behavior journal of strategic information systems total 150 them as soft sciences). five journals (see table 1) in each subject discipline were then randomly selected from journals published by elsevier and indexed in ssci, sci, scie or scopus. to keep an equal number of highlights across the disciplines, we relied on the journals publishing highlights sections online for at least two years since not many journals added highlights section to their journal profiles earlier than their 2018 volumes. finally, 75 articles with highlights sections were selected for each subject discipline, yielding a total of 300 articles representing hard and soft sciences3. the highlights sections were then labeled with a code to represent the research article and subject discipline and were uploaded into uam corpus tool 3.3 for further qualitative and quantitative analyses of individual highlights (n=1244). we compared what was found in the corpus with the author guidelines issued by elsevier (n.d.) for creating highlights to examine whether there were any discrepancies. we read and re-read each highlights section and created the potential moves and steps (see figure 1) based on the lexico-grammatical clues which are generally used to represent ideas in a research article. sometimes, we consulted professionals in each subject discipline for their feedback on the rhetorical categories which we developed based on checking the contents against the article. figure 1. manual analysis of highlights and creating potential categories. to develop the rhetorical categories and ensure that we had created a relevant/appropriate category, we also checked all decontextualized sentences/phrases functioning as highlights against their articles since we erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-11492 i t s d g w p i o w ( v a o t e h h ( ) s o ( realized that not all authors followed the guidelines to include ‘only results’ of their study. for example, although two of the consecutive decontextualized highlights (1) and (2) below taken from an article published in human resource management review could be seen as either gap/problem/niche or results of the research, we needed a close whole-article examination. (1) despite availability of theoretical and empirical advice, many organizations failed to take up effective approaches to hrm. (2) neither academia nor hrm practitioners are incentivized to change current practice. when that particular paper was carefully studied and the following sentences (see sentences below, 3 taken from introduction and 4 taken from abstract) were checked against them, we found that (1) served as making a statement of a problem/challenge/niche whereas (2) did not function as a representation of a problem/challenge/niche but a result of the study. in such cases, judging the highlights based on the overall semantic meaning did not generate a reliable coding. we therefore conducted contextualized analyses of the highlights one by one in order to ensure that the coding was successful. (3) a number of studies have shown that, despite availability of theoretical and empirical advice, many organizations failed to take up effective approaches to hrm (becker and gerhart, 1996, de gama et al., 2012, kane et al. 1999). (taken from the introduction to the same article from management) (4) it concludes that neither academia nor hrm practitioners are incentivized to change current practice with negative consequences for employees, organizations, and hrm practitioners. (taken from the abstract of the same article from management) after a careful examination of the corpus, we created major moves and steps in highlights sections (see table 2 in results). once the model was developed, in order to assess the inter-rater agreement on the coding, researcher 1 coded half of the corpus and researcher 2 coded the other half. the coders then exchanged their datasets to recode and compare with the previous coding done by the other. this technique was employed to check how consistent the coders were in identifying the moves and to ensure the consistency of the coded data. any discrepancy between coders was discussed to reach an agreement. the process of developing the model and coding the data took around five months. exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 93 following agreement on the moves and steps and to explore the objectives of the study, we examined the corpus to report a frequency-based descriptive analysis for cross-disciplinary comparison. we also examined the data for possible cyclical patterns and rhetorical combinations of the moves to report obligatory, conventional or optional moves (swales, 1990) in each discipline. the last step was about the analyses regarding salient lexicogrammatical characteristics for this part-genre as well as the number of highlights per text and the number of characters per highlight across disciplines, in order to identify some of the discrepancies. 4. results and discussion 4.1. analytical framework based on move analysis from the genre analysis of the highlights sections taken from articles in four different subject disciplines (chemistry, computer science, linguistics and management), we identified five major moves and eight steps under relevant major moves in the corpus (see table 2). move 1 – promoting scene refers to phrases or sentences giving background knowledge about the article, introducing a problem that is dealt with or an objective of the research. move 2 – promoting the value of the research refers to very easily identifiable highlights in order to demonstrate the significance of the tool/framework developed or the overall research to reveal the distinct contribution to the field. move 3 – promoting methodological issues is attributed to highlights with the functions of detailing any kind of methodological issue ranging from a method used to data of the study. move 4 – promoting results covers the highlights reporting a specific result unique to that particular study. move 5 – promoting recommendations foregrounds any kind of recommendation in the form of a suggestion for future research or any kind of pedagogical/technical implication for practitioners in the field. erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-11494 table 2. moves in highlights section. in the following sections, we shall focus on the overall findings of the moves across disciplines by introducing and discussing the major moves and their constituent steps. next, the move combinations in the highlights and the distribution of moves in the hard and soft sciences will be presented. considering the guidelines reserved for producing highlights for articles published in elsevier’s journals, we shall report some discrepancies and challenges found between what is required by the guidelines and what is practised. 4.2. moves and steps across disciplines table 3 shows the distribution of major moves across the corpora. as the most frequent move, writers in all disciplines gave a high priority to highlighting/promoting results. however, although writers are expected to summarise their findings in the form of three to five bullet-point highlights following elsevier’s guidelines, the corpus showed the employment of moves other than results. table 3 shows that the second most frequent move which ch writers used in their highlights was promoting methodological issues (23.05%) while for sc writers it was promoting the value of the research (30.30%), whilst li and ma writers used promoting scene (12.30% and 19.35% respectively) as the second most frequent move. writers in ch, li and ma gave equal importance to promoting the value of the research as the third most frequent move in the corpus, whereas cs writers preferred to highlight their methodological issues. writers in all disciplines placed the least value on promoting recommendations. exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 95 major moves steps move 1: promoting scene providing background information making a statement of a problem/challenge/niche presenting an aim move 2: promoting the value of research promoting the study itself promoting developed tools/framework move 3: promoting methodological issues referring to an approach/method presenting data sources describing developed tools/framework move 4: promoting results move 5: promoting recommendations table 3. overall findings across the corpus. the results suggest writers’ tendencies in using discipline specific moves to develop highlights sections. in other words, some moves are more frequent in one discipline compared with the other(s). a detailed analysis revealed that besides promoting results, ch researchers promoted their methodology by referring to the materials used in their research, whilst cs writers promoted their tools/models in the highlights sections. on the other hand, li and ma writers acknowledged the importance of what is already known to the reader, indicating the gap, and presenting the aims. 4.2.1. move 1: promoting scene promoting scene comprises three steps: (1) providing background information, (2) making a statement of a problem/challenge/niche, and (3) presenting an aim. table 4 presents the number of occurrences of steps in move 1 in the corpus. promoting scene is similar to the introduction sections of research articles: they provide a literature review in the introduction to support a niche (samraj, 2002), then they indicate a gap and state the aims. table 4. distribution of move 1 across the corpus. erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-11496 moves hard sciences soft sciences chemistry computer science linguistics management n % n % n % n % move 1: promoting scene 23 7.80 47 14.80 39 12.30 61 19.35 move 2: promoting the value of research 44 14.90 96 30.30 34 10.75 26 8.25 move 3: promoting methodological issues 68 23.05 61 19.25 19 6 18 5.70 move 4: promoting results 151 51.20 109 34.40 211 66.55 199 63.20 move 5: promoting recommendations 9 3.05 4 1.25 14 4.40 11 3.50 total 295 100 317 100 317 100 315 100 steps hard sciences soft sciences chemistry computer science linguistics management n % n % n % n % move 1: promoting scene step 1: providing background information 6 26.10 2 4.25 11 28.20 22 36.10 step 2: making a statement of a problem/challenge/niche 1 4.35 13 27.65 7 17.95 12 19.65 step 3: presenting an aim 16 69.55 32 68.10 21 53.85 27 44.25 total in subject disciplines 23 100 47 100 39 100 61 100 total in major disciplines 70 41.20 100 58.80 presenting an aim was the most frequently used step in promoting scene across the dataset (see table 4). stating a ‘reference to research purpose’ was particularly found in hard sciences (maswana et al., 2015). in other words, the importance of stating aims in the introduction is reflected in the highlights section of research articles. table 4 also suggests some discipline-specific results. ma and li were found to have similar orders of frequency in steps with presenting an aim as the most frequent and making a statement of a problem/challenge/niche as the least frequent. however, compared with other disciplines, ch writers showed fewer tendencies to establish a gap. this clearly shows another disciplinespecific nature of highlights, as ch writers gave less priority to steps 1 and 2 and more to the aims of the study, whilst cs writers had a greater preference for stating gaps than the other disciplines. overall, the soft science disciplines had more elaboration on steps in move 1 than the hard science disciplines. this is in line with previous findings which demonstrated that the disciplinary variation influenced the rhetorical organization and language use (see kanoksilapatham, 2005; swales, 1990). 4.2.1.1. step 1: providing background information an author highlights a piece of information which is most likely known to be background knowledge for the readers, as in examples (5) to (8) excerpted from our corpus. the sources of excerpts in the corpus are shown with an abbreviation in parentheses. (5) midsized noncoding rnas have an ever-expanding role in molecular biology. (ch) (6) there are multiple methods (diachronic, synchronous variants) for creating bibliometric time-series. (cs) (7) technical vocabulary is important for l1 and l2 learners of plumbing. (li) (8) employee inclusion is an important outcome of hr diversity practices. (ma) these instances provide background information to the reader, stating a concept/fact already accepted and not requiring further study. some highlights can carry this function even if they are decontextualized, indicating they are not at least presenting results. however, there are some highlights which might confuse readers, giving them an assumption that the writer is presenting the results of the paper when s/he is not. this can only exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 97 be alleviated after a close examination of the article where the reader might find that the highlights in the highlights section were drawn from/stated in the introductory lines of the abstract or introduction sections of the article, which does not meet the readers’ expectation that highlights summarise the results of the study. 4.2.1.2. step 2: making a statement of a problem/challenge/niche an author highlights a particular research problem, challenge or niche, which generally stands out as the motive or gap of the study, as in examples (9) to (13). (9) using proper social media content in decision making is an ongoing challenge. (cs) (10) while some approaches were devised for the public and query stages, the enrich stage has not been investigated yet. (cs) (11) teaching article writing to graduate students before they do research is challenging. (li) (12) the conditions under which the self is dehumanized remain understudied. (ma) (13) not much work done to examine the core knowledge about facebook. (ma) the words in italics in these examples establish an indication to a gap/problem/niche which, in samraj’s (2002) term, are “positive justifications” of what is reported in the study. words such as ‘lack’, ‘challenge’ and ‘struggle’ were used to indicate a gap/problem/niche in the research highlights. 4.2.1.3. step 3: presenting an aim an author highlights the aim of the research article so that readers can easily obtain information about the subject of the article. presenting an aim is mostly a response to questions such as ‘why did the researcher carry out the study?’ and ‘what does s/he do in this paper?’ as in examples (14) to (17). (14) we present an axiomatic analysis of the journal rank aggregation problem in the formal framework of social welfare functional. (cs) (15) we aim to reduce developers’ efforts and reuse knowledge in assessing alternatives. (cs) erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-11498 (16) this work explores the meanings of plateaus and rises in list contents using experimental methods. (li) (17) we investigate how gender influences continuance intention to use snss. (ma) these examples show that the writers explicitly described the function of the highlights using verbs such as ‘explore’, ‘investigate’ and ‘aim’. 4.2.2. move 2: promoting the value of the research promoting the value of the research comprises two steps: step 1, promoting the study itself and step 2, promoting a developed tool/framework/method. table 5 shows the occurrence of the steps in move 2 in the corpus. this move could probably be the one which attracts the reader to study the article. researchers are generally looking for innovation in a research article which can be promoted either in the form of the study itself, or the employed framework/tools. table 5. distribution of move 2 across the corpus. similar to move 1, the results of move 2 show a discipline-specific preference in employing the steps. ch and cs writers employed promoting developed tools/framework/model more frequently than promoting the study itself. although the occurrence of steps 1 and 2 was equal in li, with only a slight difference, the order of the steps was also similar in ma. the variation of use in the hard and soft sciences indicates the nature of the study, as hard science writers want to demonstrate the importance of the developed tool/framework/model used in their research. the overall findings show that hard science writers opted for more description of the steps in move 2 than the soft science writers (see table 5). exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 99 steps hard sciences soft sciences chemistry computer science linguistics management n % n % n % n % move 2: promoting the value of the research step 1: promoting the study itself 6 13.65 5 5.20 17 50 14 53.85 step 2: promoting developed tools/framework 38 86.35 91 94.80 17 50 12 46.15 total in subject disciplines 44 100 96 100 34 100 26 100 total in major disciplines 140 70 60 30 4.2.2.1. step 1: promoting the study itself an author highlights what is significant about the research in general in order to draw readers’ attention to the contribution of the study to the specific research field, as in examples (18) to (21). (18) the contents of mn in wild grape (vitiscoignetiae) wines are reported for the first time. (ch) (19) the study provides better solutions comparing to antenna synthesis in previous literatures. (cs) (20) the article advances our empirical knowledge of expressive resources in the world’s languages by describing the form, semantics and pragmatics of a highly conventionalized contour used in several languages of the arnhem land region in australia. (li) (21) a reconceptualization of error in english academic writing is proposed. (li) in (18), the writer(s) used for the first time to indicate the value of the research, whereas (19) compared the present research and assigned a better evaluation compared with previous research. in (20), the writer(s) referred to the advancement which the article brought whereas in (21), the author(s) provided a new conceptualization at the end of their paper after their systematic analysis in order that the reader can better understand errors in english academic writing and this opens up a new area in the field, indicating the value of the research. 4.2.2.2. step 2: presenting developed tools/framework an author highlights a new/unique tool or method specifically used in the study in order to promote it as one of the outcomes of the study, as in (22) to (25). (22) the developed electrochemical sensor possesses high sensitivity, easy operation, and low cost. (ch) (23) tan can overcome the limits of recent literature based on naïve bayes theories. (cs) (24) new and hybrid method to identify technical words. (li) (25) proposes a multilevel framework of implicit leadership network theories (ilnts). (ma) erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114100 (22) demonstrates that the ch writer(s) attempted to promote the sensor which they developed by stating its qualities compared with other sensors. in (23), the cs writer(s) promoted tan as a new model of bayes superseding ‘naïve bayes model’; in (24), the li writers promoted a new hybrid method for recognising new words, and in (25), the ma writers promoted a new framework. 4.2.3. move 3: promoting methodological issues promoting methodological issues comprises three sub-moves: (1) referring to an approach/method, (2) presenting data sources, and (3) describing the research process. table 6 shows the distribution of move 2 and its constituent steps across the corpus. table 6. distribution of move 3 across the corpus. the results show that writers in ch, cs and li gave priority to describing the research process in their highlights, whereas ma writers promoted the approach/method used in their study. presenting data sources was the least frequently used step in the dataset. 4.2.3.1. step 1: referring to an approach/method an author highlights the particular/general field-specific approaches or methods used to carry out the study, as in examples (26) to (29). (26) β-1.2-glucooligosaccharides were colored by the anthon-mbth method to similar extent. (ch) (27) we employ several diffusion indicators (e.g., diffusion breadth and speed on the article, journal and domain levels) to provide insight into the influence and diffusion patterns of the three software tools. (cs) exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 101 steps hard sciences soft sciences chemistry computer science linguistics management n % n % n % n % move 3: promoting methodological issues step 1: referring to an approach/method 18 26.50 6 9.85 4 21.05 11 61.10 step 2: presenting data sources 3 4.40 6 9.85 3 15.80 2 11.10 step 3: describing research process 47 69.10 49 80.30 12 63.15 5 27.80 total in subject disciplines 68 100 61 100 19 100 18 100 total in major disciplines 129 77.70 37 22.30 ( (28) phrases are objectively derived but also contain teacher ratings. (li) (29) this study employed a two-stage analytical approach by merging structural equation modeling and neural network analysis. (ma) the difference between referring to an approach/method and promoting a developed tool/method is that the former presents what approach/method the authors used in their study whilst the latter provides some evidence in the highlights to differentiate that the tools/methods used in the study were genuinely new. in (28), the writers attempted to explain how they developed corpus-based resources for secondary schools by discussing the approach which they followed to decide on the phrases. in other examples (26, 27 and 29), the writer(s) simply described which method/approach was employed to carry out the research. 4.2.3.2. step 2: presenting data sources an author highlights the data of the study in order to inform readers about the sample of the particular study, as in (30) to (34). (30) eriocheir sinensis specimens are collected from eight sites in china. (ch) (31) the 8640 editor members from the 211 economics journals in the abs journal guide are collected for the empirical research. (cs) (32) tef was extracted from 93 drafts written by 64 students and 93 chats. (li) (33) the data were taken from the international corpus of english-nigeria. (li) (34) a questionnaire survey was conducted to collect the required data from convenience sampling of saudi bank customers. (ma) the examples clearly show that the highlights are describing data sources such as the number of sites (in 30), journals (in 31), students and chats (in 32), corpus (in 33) and participants (in 34). this highlight step, however, was the least preferred step among writers. 4.2.3.3. step 3: describing the research process an author highlights the research process by summarising some procedural issues with respect to how the research was completed, as in examples 35 to 38. erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114102 (35) the analytical performance of both libs and la-icp-ms are compared. (ch) (36) we performed an extensive experimental analysis on a data set extracted from a social network. (cs) (37) knowledge constructing talk across three online subjects was analyzed and described. (li) (38) citation, co-citation & cluster analyses were used to identify six core knowledge areas. (ma) as these examples show, the writers described the sequence of stages or actions used as the methodology to reach the results. 4.2.4. move 4: promoting results promoting results was the most frequently used move in the data set, which is in line with the purpose of writing highlights in the journals. an author highlights any particular finding or result which deserves to be mentioned compared with many others, as in examples 39 to 42. (39) acetonitrile/water addicted with acetic enhanced the ionization efficiency. (ch) (40) we find a clear separation between usage and citation metrics in research gate (cs) (41) participants reported increased skills and confidences to read and write international article post-course. (li) (42) the results revealed idiosyncratic associations among privacy concerns, affects, and coping. (ma) promoting results seems to be the easiest move to recognize (as these examples show), but there were instances of the function of the highlights being different from what it seemed to be, as in 43. (43) the decaying process of vertebrates leads to the emission of volatile compounds. (ch) in (43), at first glance, a reader might assume that the writer was describing the results, but checking the highlight against the paper revealed that (43) described background information. exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 103 4.2.5. move 5: promoting recommendations promoting recommendations was the least frequently used move in the corpus. in this move, an author highlights a piece of information as a recommendation in the form of a suggestion for future research or a pedagogical implication to be used for educational purposes or by practitioners in the field, as in examples (44) to (48). (44) further research is needed on the volatile changes through drying and storage. (ch) (45) the effect may extend to institutional as well as national comparisons and has further implications for analytical methodology. (cs) (46) it is recommended that translingual scholars consider the unique demands of spoken and written genre. (li) (47) genre-based pedagogy can be a useful pedagogical framework for clil. (li) (48) useful list of frequent technical words in finance that can inform teachers, classroom instruction, and material development. (li) examples (44) to (46) recommended new objectives for further research, whereas (47) and (48) suggested how the results can be pedagogically employed in educational settings. in summary, the findings show distinct variations in the type and frequency of rhetorical moves in different disciplines. despite the differences, however, there were more similarities in highlights sections featuring subject disciplines in the hard and the soft sciences. it can therefore be suggested that there are still cross-disciplinary variations in creating highlights. 4.3. move combinations across disciplines since we found different moves other than result-oriented highlights, we investigated whether there was a cyclical pattern for each subject discipline favouring combinations of particular moves. erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114104 table 7. distribution of moves across the corpus. the results show a clear distinction between the hard and soft sciences with respect to move 2 promoting the value of research. table 7 shows that more than half of the texts in the hard sciences employed this particular move to promote their developed tool/framework/method, whereas it was not a very actively employed move in the soft sciences. similarly, hard sciences writers put great emphasis on move 3 methodological issues with explicit references to the research process/approach or data sources in their highlights sections compared with the soft sciences. although both knowledge domains included their results in the highlights (move 4), it is apparent that more articles in the soft sciences (n=132) presented their results in the highlights section compared with the hard sciences (n=111). we argue that li and ma highlights sections were more result-oriented when overall results in table 3 (260 vs. 410 move 4 promoting results) are taken into account. swales (1990) stated that a move is obligatory when it is found in 67% of the total texts, conventional if it is between 33% and 66%, and optional if it is less than 33%. in the hard sciences, there was only one obligatory move, move 4 promoting results. moves 1, 2, and 3 in the hard sciences were found to be conventional whereas move 5 seemed to be optional. in the soft sciences, however, we found that move 4 was again the only obligatory move; move 1 was conventional and the rest seemed optional. conforming to the guidelines, table 8 shows that move 4 promoting results was the most commonly used move and was used in combination with other moves in all disciplines. when the combinations were scrutinized closely, however, there seemed to be a major discipline difference between the hard and soft sciences. exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 105 move 1 move 2 move 3 move 4 move 5 number of texts % number of texts % number of texts % number of texts % number of texts % hard sciences total (150) 50 33,33 81 54,00 77 51,33 111 74,00 9 6,00 chemistry 16 21,33 31 41,33 37 49,33 60 80,00 6 8,00 computer science 34 45,33 50 66,67 40 53,33 51 68,00 3 4,00 soft sciences total (150) 70 46,67 41 27,33 28 18,67 132 88,00 18 12,00 linguistics 30 40,00 21 28,00 15 20,00 66 88,00 9 12,00 management 40 53,33 20 26,67 13 17,33 66 88,00 9 12,00 note: this analysis is based on the number of texts in which the individual moves are present. table 8. the combination of moves across the corpus per text. writers in the hard sciences preferred to combine showcasing their results and move 3 promoting methodological issues, whereas soft science writers appeared to report their results and move 1 promoting scene (aims/problems/background knowledge) related to their actual research quite regularly. it seems that hard science researchers find innovation in their research employing different methodologies, while soft science researchers promote their studies by introducing their distinct settings. this might explain why move 3 was used more in the hard sciences as well as why move 1 was employed more in the soft sciences. when ch and cs are compared, interestingly, move 1 was found to be conventional for the latter. this is simply illustrated by the number of instances of move 1 in this subject discipline combined with other moves and the higher number of texts adopting move 1 as shown in tables 7 and 8. we found that the highlights sections in li (51%) and ma (57%) were dominated either by move 4 or by the combination of move 1 with move 4. 4.4. discrepancy between the guidelines and what is practised while dealing with the rhetorical moves in the highlights section for each discipline, we also explored the nature of highlights in order to better erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114106 chemistry computer science linguistics management moves f (text) moves f (text) moves f (text) moves f (text) m3+m4 15 m4 10 m4 28 m1+m4 22 m4 12 m2+m4 10 m1+m4 10 m4 21 m2+m4 10 m1+m2+m3 9 m1+m3+m4 6 m1+m3+m4 5 m2+m3+m4 9 m2+m3 8 m2+m4 6 m1+m2+m4 4 m1+m4 6 m2+m3+m4 8 m1+m2+m4 4 m2+m4 4 m3 5 m1+m3+m4 7 m4+m5 3 m2+m4+m5 3 m2 3 m1+m2+m4 6 m2+m3+m4 3 m2+m5 2 m1+m2 3 m1+m2+m3+m4 3 m2 2 m1+m2+m3 2 m2+m3 2 m2 3 m1+m4+m5 2 m3+m4 2 m1+m2+m3+m4 2 m1+m2 3 m1 2 m1+m2 2 m4+m5 1 m3+m4 2 m1+m2+m3+m4 2 m4+m5 2 m3+m4+m5 1 m1+m4 2 m1+m2 1 m2+m3+m4 1 m2+m4+m5 1 m1+m3+m4+m5 2 m3+m4 1 m1+m4+m5 1 m1+m5 1 m1+m4+m5 1 m5 1 m1 1 m1+m2+m3 1 m1+m3 1 m1+m2+m3 1 m1+m2+m3+m5 1 m1+m3+m4 1 m2+m3+m5 1 m1+m2+m3+m4 1 m1+m4+m5 1 m1+m3+m5 1 m1+m3 1 m1+m3+m4+m5 1 m1+m2+m5 1 75 75 75 75 note: the frequency of the combinations is based on the number of the texts in the sub-corpora having that particular combination. as an example, m2+m4 in computer science can only be seen in 10 texts. understand their use. we checked elsevier’s guidelines and underlined various key specifications of highlights, ranging from the length of highlights to what the highlights should convey to the readers. we identified a few discrepancies between the guidelines and what was practised. the results are presented in table 9. table 9. highlights and characters across the corpus. first, comparison of the lexical features of the highlights with the guidelines showed that the ras displayed approximate conformity. as table 9 shows, all the disciplines abode by the guidelines in relation to the number of highlights per text. elsevier’s guidelines clearly recommend that highlights be “three to five result-oriented points”. our analysis showed that authors used 3.93 to 4.22 highlights per text, which matches the guidelines perfectly. some authors, however, especially cs researchers, produced relatively longer highlights, exceeding the upper limit stated (“must be 85 characters or fewer, including spaces”) in the guidelines. on the one hand, there were some authors who simply transformed their longer results/findings, as in (49), into a very condensed form, as in (50), in order to conform to the specific requirements. on the other hand, there were others, as in (51), who did not comply with the relevant guidelines but produced very long highlights sections. (49) our results show that both perceived justice and perceived value influence knowledge integration, which in turn affects knowledge quality. (from an abstract in ma) (50) both value and justice matter for knowledge integration. (ma) exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 107 knowledge domain discipline highlights highlights per article* characters characters per highlight** hard sciences total 612 4.08 54,398 88.88 chemistry 295 3.93 25,378 86.02 computer science 317 4.22 29,020 91.54 soft sciences total 632 4.21 55,668 88.08 linguistics 317 4.22 27,742 87.51 management 315 4.20 27,926 88.65 * the guidelines for authors on elsevier ask for three to five highlights per article. ** the guidelines for authors on elsevier ask for 85 characters including space per highlight, which can be between 10-12 tokens for each. ( (51) we show how these responses shape the effects of diversity practices on employee inclusion, and question a commonly held assumption that leaders’ full alignment with hr’s practices is always the most conducive for achieving favorable employee outcomes such as felt inclusion. (ma) (49) is taken from an ma abstract and we found a substantially matching reflection of that result-oriented long sentence in the highlights. the writers made it acceptable for the highlights section by condensing the main idea into sixty-one characters as can be seen in (50). in comparison, (51) contained 280 characters in order to provide a result-oriented point from the study, but an identical sentence was found in another section of the article, indicating that there had been no attempt to convert a result into a highlight. some of the respondents in yang’s (2016: 100) study reported that they could not effectively convey the importance of what they found with a character limit for each highlight. this could contribute to understanding why some produced longer highlights to convey core issues of their research. another issue is the impracticality of decoding the functions of some highlights easily since they cannot be decoded unless they are checked against the paper. this might be due to elsevier’s limit on characters (eightyfive characters including spaces). in other words, the fewer characters the authors use, the less clear the highlight might be. for example, (52) below has the function of background knowledge according to the relevant article; however, standing alone, it could read more like a result. as such, adding a lexical unit which signals that it is background knowledge would solve the problem (as in 53). (52) semantic wave is a useful analytical tool to study… (53) semantic wave is [known to be] a useful analytical tool to study… with respect to the syntactic features of the highlights, they were found to fall into three major types: (1) full sentences; (2) noun phrases; and (3) verb phrases as highlights. irrespective of the disciplines, it was discovered that highlights were overwhelmingly written in the form of a full sentence. from the readers’ perspective, sentences could be easier to grasp, because some phrases might seem problematic for readers to realize what is meant since such chunks are subject to special grammatical rules. a good characteristic of a highlight could be linked to the extent to which it minimizes the load on the working memory on the reader’s comprehension because decoding erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114108 phrases might cause the memory to be loaded until the phrases are finalized, especially when the phrase is at least 85 characters long, as in (54). malmir et al. (2019) also suggested that the lexico-grammatical choices the authors use in the process of writing their highlights could simply create comprehension difficulties that potentially trigger ambiguity and hinder dissemination of knowledge. (54) extensions and fine tuning of our schemes for the safe zone monitoring [26] concepts. the head nouns in (55) to (57) illustrate that the authors attempted to bring forward an important element of their research and write their highlights in the form of noun phrases. as an example, (55) shows that the authors shared the significance of their research by stating it is the ‘first report’ of a case. however, it appeared relatively more frequent for hard sciences writers, especially for chemistry, to use noun phrases as highlights, as in (56). (55) first report of libs and la-icp-ms for the analysis of tapes as forensic evidence. (ch) (56) producing polyfluorinated amino quinolones by reduction of nitro quinolones. (ch) (57) striking comparisons in arsenic l3 (s, d)-edges peaks for the polymorph of as2s3 crystals. (cs) the last category that the highlights fall into in terms of the grammatical features is the form of verb phrases as in (58) to (60). these highlights were either in simple present tense or past tense. nevertheless, regarding the present tense highlights, some highlights in the form of verb phrases used the base form (58), indicating either first person singular or plural pronoun as their subjects. in contrast, some other highlights with verb phrases included the third person singular -s, indicating a subject of the third person singular pronoun. we believe that the subjects of these sentences could be ‘the study, research, article or paper’ and the authors may have strategically deleted them so as to save some characters. (59) can be a good example for this case with eighty-seven characters, conforming to the guidelines. otherwise, with the inclusion of ‘the study, research, article, paper’ as its subject, the number of characters in that particular highlight could have easily surpassed the upper limit based on the guidelines. exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 109 (58) evaluate the performance analytically and experimentally. (cs) (59) suggests that the awareness of linguistic elasticity may benefit health communication training. (li) (60) examined the relations between adaptability, satisfaction, and intended academic persistence. (ma) although the guidelines clearly recommend that highlights be resultoriented, some articles did not report result-oriented highlights. instead, they reported new approaches, new tools or frameworks in their highlights. this could clarify why some authors promoted their tools/framework rather than presenting results. as agreed by both the authors and editors who participated in yang’s study, the lack of any explicit mention related to why highlights are promotional and need to be result-oriented “often causes a disparity between what the guidelines describe and what the authors actually write” (yang, 2016: 101). we therefore suggest a new conceptualization of highlights section for such articles. 5. concluding remarks accepting the significance and value of highlights as an attendant (tse, 2012: 83) and emerging genre in ras, we have reported our genre analysis of the highlights section with a cross-disciplinary approach and have proposed our model for exploring the generic structure and rhetorical moves for this digital academic genre. in spite of similarities in promoting results across a corpus comprising 1244 highlights from 300 articles, some disciplinespecific results were found across the hard and soft sciences which ranged from variations in types and frequency of moves to combinations of moves or cyclical patterns in developing highlights, which is in some contradiction to elsevier’s guidelines requiring researchers to solely promote the results of their research in the highlights section. this could be explained by yang’s (2016: 101) argument with respect to ‘inevitable marketing strategy’ role that the authors are expected to take on since the authors in our dataset clearly signified various aspects of their research to be promoted other than the results, to accomplish the promotional value attached to the part-genre. a major noticeable difference in disciplinary specificity concerning highlights is that the authors from hard sciences presented relatively higher instances of methodological issues to capture their readers’ attention along with their erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114110 prevalent result-oriented highlights whereas authors from soft sciences appeared to write highlights functioning as providing the readers with domainspecific knowledge. authors from soft sciences did accord with the observation by yang (2016: 99), that is, showing ‘a kind of implicit appeal to share background knowledge, placing the readers within obviously naturalised boundaries of disciplinary understanding’. regarding the relationship between the lexical and syntactic features of the highlights and the disciplinary specificity, we could not find any strong association which signals that the lexico-grammatical choices are more related to the authors’ style preferences. this can also be supported by the results of malmir et al. (2019: 60) that there had been variations with respect to the lexical and syntactic preferences even in the same discipline, characterizing the lexico-grammatical aspect of highlights as ‘intrinsically context-dependent structures’. despite the findings made with our proposed model, this study has a number of limitations. first, the data were analysed from four subject disciplines, so further studies could include more subject disciplines from the same major disciplines to investigate possible variations across the same disciplines. also, we only analysed highlights from journals in the field of physical sciences and engineering (hard sciences) and social sciences and humanities (soft sciences). further research could take other disciplines such as life sciences and health sciences into consideration to have a more generalizable view and understanding of the part-genre. the findings have several implications for researchers and publishers to benefit from the potential of highlights section with a promotional value to attract readers. first, the highlights section as a recently developed part-genre requires clearer templates for authors to facilitate decisions on what to put on the journal profile as a promotion of their articles. second, the findings show that authors in different disciplines used different rhetorical patterns in the organization of their highlights section. future authors could therefore learn what aspects of a study are more prominent to be included in the highlights section. third, the results show that the function of some highlights cannot be realized without checking them against the paper. authors are therefore strongly recommended to create highlights whose function can be understood outside the main text. according to elsevier’s guidelines, highlights can be added to a paper once it is accepted for publication; however, we suggest that submission of highlights be made along with manuscript submission so that reviewers can also evaluate the relationship of the highlights with the results of the study. exploring rhetorical moves in a digital academic genre: a cross-disciplinary study of the highlights section ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114 111 the following perspectives could be adopted by journals which could then inform potential authors to write highlights once the paper is accepted. this might even result in updating the guidelines. if the paper is a dataoriented/empirical research article, we suggest that move 1 followed by move 4 would be an appropriate combination as far as our results are concerned. if the article is more theory-based research with the intention of conceptualizing or devising a new method/approach/framework/tool, the authors can be advised to take move 1 followed by move 2. regarding the variability of the grammatical formats used in the highlights (sentences, phrases, bullets with abbreviations), authors could be asked to produce grammatically correct short sentences to showcase their results. with regard to the nature of disciplines, journals could suggest different guidelines; other than presenting result-oriented highlights, some disciplines could require more emphasis on the method whereas others might need to highlight other aspects. article history: received 15 april 2020 received in revised form 6 january 2021 accepted 13 march 2021 references erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114112 bhatia, v. k. 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(2002). “introductions in research articles: variation across disciplines”. english for specific purposes 21(1): 1-17. doi: <https:// doi.org/10.1016/s0889-4906(00)00023-5>. shaw, p., m. kuteeva & a. okamura (2014). “submission letters for academic publication: disciplinary differences and promotional language”. journal of english for academic purposes 14: 106-117. doi: <https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jeap.2014.02.002>. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge university press. tse, p. (2012). “stance in academic bios” in k. hyland, c. sancho guinda (eds.), stance and voice in written academic genres, 69-84. palgrave macmillan. doi: <https://doi.org/10. 1057/9781137030825_5>. yang, w. (2016). “evaluative language and interactive discourse in journal article highlights”. english for specific purposes 42: 89-103. doi: <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2016.01.001>. conference on metadiscourse in 2017, 2019 and 2021 and published an edited book and an edited special issue on metadiscourse. maryam farnia is assistant professor of applied linguistics at the department of linguistics and foreign languages, payame noor university, iran, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses. she has published papers in several national and international journals such as asian esp journal and journal of intercultural communication. her areas of research include sociolinguistics, esp, and speech acts. notes 1 an earlier version of this paper was presented at the second international metadiscourse across genres (mag) conference titled “metadiscourse in digital communication: what has changed?” hosted by cerlis in june, 2019. 2 <https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/highlights> [25/01/2020]. 3 akbaş, e., & farnia, m. (2022). corpus of highlights section (version 1) [data set]. mendeley data. https://doi.org/10.17632/dsc6ydj293.1 erdem akbaş & maryam farnia ibérica 42 (2021): 85-114114 iberica 13 novice writers and scholarly publication: authors, mentors, gatekeepers. pejman habibie & ken hyland (eds.) london: palgrave macmillan, 2019. 297 pages. isbn: 9783-319-95332-8. publication in quality journals is considered an essential qualification to most academics. however, it places tremendous demands on apprentice scholars, particularly doctoral students and newly initiated academics. this book, novice writers and scholarly publication, sets out to provide valuable experiences, opinions and suggestions to both anglophone scholars and english-as-anadditional-language (eal) scholars. the subtitle authors, mentors, gatekeepers hints at the divergent range of perspectives of senior writers, mentors, journal editors and reviewers, providing individual views and empirical research on the practices and challenges in writing for publication. this volume is structured into four parts with 15 chapters, including an introduction. each part centres around perspectives on publication from one particular group. in the introductory chapter, habibie and hyland provide an overview of this volume and a succinct summary of each chapter. part one (ch. 2-4) “perspectives on scholarly publication” is opened by ken hyland. drawing on literature upon linguistic injustice in paper publication, hyland acknowledges the publication challenges encountered by non-english writers, but claims that simply framing publication difficulties in terms of the ‘linguistically advantaged native english speakers vs disadvantaged eal writers’ polarization both demoralises eal writers and underestimates difficulties experienced by apprentice english-speaking academics. more holistic and balanced views of publication are expected, as academic writing is not just about grammatical accuracy but entails a complex discursive practice involving “rhetorical knowledge, persistence, and an awareness of an authorial self ” (page 28). habibie echoes hyland’s claim in chapter 3, highlighting the dearth of investigations into writing for publication practices of novice anglophone scholars. he presents a critical view on a mispresented assumption, namely reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 356-360 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 356 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 356 “the lucky anglophone scholar” orthodoxy, which suggests that the geolinguistic advantages of native english speakers may guarantee their academic publications. on the contrary, reviewing existing literature, habibie discusses how novice anglophone writers, particularly doctoral students, unlike their eal peers, are less likely to be exposed to academic discursive and rhetorical training that could scaffold their scholarly publication practice. this chapter, then, is a call for more explicit, practical support in anglophone student academic literary development. tribble, in chapter 4, critiques the new paradigm to eap, that is, elfa (english as a lingua franca for academic purposes), which contends that eap programmes are designed on the premise of native models. he rebuts that misassumption with discoursal, lexico-grammatical and disciplinary evidence from a self-compiled corpus of quality journals from four disciplines, claiming that academic writing is shaped by disciplinary epistemology rather than by simply following the native norms. thus, he suggests, more academic literacy programmes should be introduced to apprentice writers to enhance genre awareness, regardless of their native language backgrounds. part ii, “perspectives of authors” (ch. 5-8), presents case studies and personal reflections on the process of paper writing. drawing on tardy’s (2009) classification of “genre knowledge” and recording two anglophone doctoral students’ interviews in a longitudinal study, fazel reports that both anglophone and eal writers encounter discursive and non-discursive challenges in paper writing. this study thus provides evidential support to the claims proposed in part i, suggesting that more investigations should be conducted on novice anglophone writers’ issues and challenges in paper writing. however, fazel does not elaborate on subject-matter domain, which is a key part of tardy’s classification. with this elaboration and a larger sample size, fazel’s arguments could be more solid and convincing. in the following chapter, mur-dueñas looks back on her research trajectory and paper publication histories as an eal writer in self-reflective autoethnographic narrative. she highlights the point that participation in national or international conferences is an essential way to construct academic research networks. she claims that intercultural skills and genre knowledge, especially rhetorical and formal knowledge in paper writing, are particularly challenging. she also admits in the narrative that international publication may require more efforts and cost for non-anglophone writers. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 356-360 357 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 357 xu, in chapter 7, presents a critical review of two approaches in writing for publication, which she refers to as “the linguistic approach” and “the genre approach”. she suggests that the complementation of the two approaches may inform the dual nature of language as being analytical and holistic. drawing on a case study of a chinese linguist, xu demonstrates how the memorization strategy bridges between linguistic and genre knowledge in scholarly writing. in chapter 8, casanave addresses the difficulties in writing for publication. as a native speaker of english, she argues that publication even gets more difficult for her. invisible factors, such as expertise, patience for publication, facing overwhelming research information and finding new ways to existing theories all pose challenges. however, instead of discouraging novice writers, she inspires young scholars to face those challenges and push beyond their current limits. part iii “perspectives of mentors” (ch. 9-13) features empirical studies and shared experiences in mentoring scholarly writing. each chapter presents an individual yet somewhat repetitive opinion: co-authoring could benefit both students and supervisors. shvidko and atkinson present this argument from early-career scholars’ perspectives. they explore the difficulties, challenges and reflections in the publication experience shared by six novice writers via interview on five related themes. the study indicates that seeking support from senior writers, institutional culture, motivation for publication and persistence in the face of rejection all contribute to successful paper publication. less important in scholarly writing is the native/non-native line, according to the informants. in chapter 9, darvin and norton share their experience of collaborative writing between students and supervisors, claiming that the full participation of a student in a given academic context with the help of a supervisor not only involves rhetorical endeavor but also non-discursive factors, such as the negotiation of identity, ideology and capital. cargill, in chapter 11, goes on to explore the value of writing for publication workshops (wfpws) in helping novice writers develop scholarly writing skills. she suggests that the participants in those workshops gained significant confidence in both writing papers and dealing with the publication process. in chapter 12, ferris discusses the challenges faced by graduate students and provides “four-stage cycle” strategies (page 221) for mentoring them. in the following chapter, li explores the features of co-authoring interaction reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 356-360358 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 358 between junior scientists and senior writers. she takes the existing literature as a starting point and suggests further research focused on the publication experience of science doctoral students, which would be necessary to overcome the barriers existing between “academic tribes” (becher & trowler, 2001). part iv “perspectives of accessors” (ch. 14-15) shifts to gatekeepers’ perspectives on writing for publication. both chapters provide detailed information on the reviewing process and personal suggestions for new academics. starfield and paltridge perceive the role of editor more as a custodian than as a gatekeeper, as he/she serves to enhance the journal’s reputation and supports the production of worthy knowledge. drawing on the responsibilities of authors and their own experiences as journal editors, these authors offer applicable suggestions to novice writers to better understand the publication process. closing the chapter, starfield and paltridge highlight the importance of holding a positive attitude towards rejections from journals, as there is still a lot to be learnt in the reviewing process. in the last chapter, tardy seeks to unpack the myth of peer review. she unveils the roles peer reviewers play, outlines the perspectives they hold in the publication and review processes and comments on her own experience as a reviewer and editor. acknowledging the challenges encountered by new academics in working with peer reviewers, she claims that harsh criticism or even rejection is a part of publication. she further offers suggestions to novice writers for negotiating review comments, and contends that the nameless reviewers are playing quite valuable and effective roles in knowledge production. this book offers its readers, especially newly initiated scholars, the opportunity to get insights into publishing in quality journals by providing divergent perceptions. despite the informed suggestions of the book, however, the authors might consider including more shared experience or personal stories about the transition period from novice writer to widelypublished experts, particularly the strategies applied to tackle both discursive and non-discursive challenges in writing for publication and appropriately responding to reviewer’s feedbacks. to recapitulate, as an eal novice writer, i should state that it is very encouraging to learn from published writers’ perspectives, their paperwriting trajectories, and the constructive suggestions from journal reviewers reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 356-360 359 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 359 and editors. in short, i would add that it is a very welcome publication because it unpacks the myth of writing for publication and explores the misassumption of the native/non-native divide in scholarly writing. thus, it will be of interest to doctoral students, newly initiated scholars, and teachers or instructors of academic english writing. received 22 january 2019 accepted 9 april 2019 reviewed by jingjing wang hubei university (china) cewangjingjing@163.com references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 356-360360 becher, t. & p.r. trowler (2001). academic tribes and territories. buckingham: open university press. 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 360 iberica 13 ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the comenego (corpus multilingüe de economía y negocios [multilingual economics and business corpus]) project aims to compile a corpus that will be freely available online and useful for lsp trainers, translators, trainee translators and translator trainers. the project’s stages include designing a virtual platform for access to the corpus’s texts, and compiling and analysing a pilot corpus to evaluate the proposed text categories, which will be used as a means of filtering searches in the corpus once it is online. many text classifications are based on prior experience or other classifications and are never empirically validated. while the classification proposed here draws on previous proposals and observation of the professional and academic arenas, we have also looked to validate it empirically, and it is that validation with which this paper is concerned. we have used corpus linguistics tools to analyse metadiscourse in three subcorpora (english, french and spanish), taking hyland’s (2005) work as a basis in the case of english, to determine if our proposed categories have internal linguistic characteristics that support or confirm their taxonomic validity. keywords: metadiscourse markers, taxonomic validity, economics, contrastive analysis, corpus. resumen estudio taxonómico de colonias de géneros de economía y negocios. análisis basado en corpus de marcadores metadiscursivos en inglés, francés y español a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies. a corpus-based analysis of metadiscourse markers in english, french and spanish daniel gallego-hernández & patricia rodríguez-inés universidad de alicante (spain) & universitat autònoma de barcelona (spain) daniel.gallego@ua.es, patricia.rodriguez@uab.es 103 ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés el proyecto comenego (corpus multilingüe de economía y negocios) trata de compilar un corpus especializado en los ámbitos mencionados, de libre acceso a través de internet y de utilidad para, entre otros, profesores de lenguas para fines específicos, traductores en formación, formadores y traductores. tal proyecto pasa por varias etapas entre las cuales se encuentra el diseño de una plataforma virtual que dé acceso a los textos a través de internet, y la compilación y análisis de un corpus piloto que permita valorar la clasificación de los textos en distintas categorías. en muchos casos las clasificaciones de textos no se validan empíricamente y nacen de experiencia previa u otras clasificaciones. en este caso la clasificación propuesta también se basa en propuestas anteriores y la observación del mundo profesional y académico, pero se ha querido aportar una validación empírica que la sustente. el objetivo del presente trabajo tiene que ver con el análisis de las categorías textuales del corpus, cuya clasificación servirá, por ejemplo, para ayudar a filtrar búsquedas, una vez el corpus se encuentre disponible en internet. en concreto, analizamos tres subcorpus (inglés, francés y español) desde el punto de vista del metadiscurso tomando como referencia el trabajo de hyland (2005) para el inglés, con el propósito de responder a la pregunta de si estas categorías tienen rasgos lingüísticos internos que apoyan o confirman su validez taxonómica. para ello, utilizamos herramientas de la lingüística de corpus. palabras clave: marcadores metadiscursivos, validez taxonómica, economía, análisis contrastivo, corpus. 1. introduction translators and lsp writers of economics, financial and business texts can use the internet to access a wealth of information to solve writing and translation problems and difficulties. thanks to technology, there are various strategies for making the most of sources of such information. in addition to terminographic resources, such as dictionaries, glossaries and terminological databases, the internet offers translators and lsp writers parallel texts, i.e. texts comparable, in terms of function, subject matter and/or communicative situation, to that which they are translating or writing. here we will focus on the development of a resource that can meet translators’ terminographic needs. translators can work with parallel texts in different ways. they can use their intuition or experience to locate texts online and read the segments they deem useful; use the internet as if it were a corpus (web-as-corpus approach); compile texts on their computer and study them by means of 104 corpus analysis applications (web-for-corpus approach); or consult precompiled online corpora (stable corpora). the web-as-corpus approach involves using search engines (e.g. google) as if they were concordancers. specific research in which this approach is applied to the practice of economic translation is scarce (gallegohernández, 2012a). the methodology requires the establishment of a series of parameters related to original and parallel texts, as well as the strategic use of search engine functions and operators. rather than downloading texts, translators consult them online on the basis of the descriptions and results search engines provide. there are various studies that discuss the web-for-corpus approach application to translation (bernardini & zanettin, 2000; zanettin, bernardini & stewart, 2003; sánchez gijón, 2004; beeby, rodríguez-inés & sánchez gijón, 2009; rodríguez-inés, 2009), and even some looking at its application to economic translation (gallego-hernández, 2012a; krüger, 2012; barceló & delgado, 2014). designing and compiling a corpus in this way essentially entails swiftly gathering together a number of texts whose terminological, phraseological and conceptual information allows a translator to solve a particular translation’s problems and difficulties. generally speaking, compilation involves locating and downloading texts, making them compatible with concordancing software and, if necessary, formatting them. stable corpora are corpora of a relatively fixed size and design which, in general, have been pre-compiled and prepared for online exploitation, and most thus have an interface for retrieving information. some specialised economics corpora exist, such as pompeu fabra university’s iula technical corpus, which is multilingual (spanish, english and catalan) and freely available (cabré & martorell, 2004: 174). vigo university’s cluvi corpus includes egal, an economics subcorpus containing 0.4 million words in spanish, and consumer, a subcorpus on consumption containing 1.8 million words in spanish. the mlcc multilingual and parallel corpora, created in 2005 by the european languages resources association (elra), feature a generic subcorpus of financial articles from newspapers in various languages. other corpora containing economics or business texts include the cobuild business corpus (initially created for lexicographical purposes), the wolverhampton business english corpus (with texts from 1999 to 2000), mike nelson’s business english lexis site, the business a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 105 letter corpus, and the cambridge and nottingham spoken business english corpus (canbec). working with parallel texts has advantages for economic translation and its teaching, but also certain drawbacks. the web-as-corpus methodology entails using a tool for a purpose for which it is not intended. consequently, the content obtained (which might not correspond to the original text), users (who might be incapable of making the most of the internet) and search engines (whose functions translators might find limited, depending on their needs) can all be obstacles to benefiting fully from online texts. the web-forcorpus approach, meanwhile, requires various extra skills and an investment of time that could put translators off. in this case too, the content obtained depends on the scope conventional search engines offer for retrieving texts. lastly, existing stable corpora do not seem to be adapted to translators’ needs. some are obsolete and tend to be predominantly in english (see all the aforementioned corpora); their range of text genres1 is rather limited (e.g. consumer, mlcc), bearing in mind the variety of texts economic translation encompasses; and their interfaces are not designed with translators’ needs in mind (e.g. canbec, wolverhampton business english corpus). against that backdrop, we are working on the design of a virtual platform geared specifically to the exploitation of multilingual corpora by translators of economics texts. filtering searches is one of the functions the platform must have, for which purpose text categories are necessary. several authors have written about taxonomies of economics texts (e.g. fernández antolín & lópez arroyo, 2008; pizarro sánchez, 2009; socorro-trujillo, 2010; herrero rodes & román mínguez, 2015; álvarez garcía, 2017). it can be said, in general, that business text genres are numerous and are affected by terminological variation, that researchers have failed to agree on their classification, and that many of their texts are of a hybrid nature and can thus also be associated with other areas, such as law or advertising. with regard to the platform’s filter system, if the diversity of businessrelated text genres means presenting users with long lists of names of genres or text types (some of which they may know by other names), filtering by genre or text type could prove largely ineffective, hindering corpus exploitation. a solution could be to group genres2 or text types together in categories, although, here too, there is a lack of consensus on how to do so. gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130106 with the above in mind, we have compiled a pilot corpus in three languages and categorised its texts according to criteria described further below. the objective of this article is to study whether our proposed categories can be considered valid insofar that there are intra-linguistic differences between them. to that end, we performed discourse analysis in the hope of identifying internal linguistic features supporting or confirming our categories’ taxonomic validity, with the ultimate aim of determining whether, from a discursive perspective, our current category structure is justified or ought to be changed in any way. we will now describe our theoretical framework, which revolves around the concept of “metadiscourse”. we believe studying metadiscourse on the basis of corpora to be a suitable way to undertake an initial text analysis because, as will be shown later, doing so helps establish the texts’ metadiscourse profile and, thus, the differences and similarities between text genres and between languages. we will then explain our corpus analysis methodology (pilot corpus description and exploitation), which is fundamentally based on corpus linguistics tools, before presenting our results, in the form of metadiscourse profiles, and discussing the most significant differences and similarities between categories and between languages. 2. theoretical framework the concept of “metadiscourse” was introduced by vande kopple (1985) and crismore, markkanen & steffensen (1993). hyland (2005: 37) defines it as “the cover term for the self-reflective expressions used to negotiate interactional meanings in a text, assisting the writer (or speaker) to express a viewpoint and engage with readers as members of a particular community”. functionally, metadiscourse helps a writer establish links with readers (through entertainment, persuasion, dissuasion, etc.). socially, metadiscourse may vary according to the purposes different communities have when communicating. hyland (2005: 48-54) identifies two main categories of metadiscourse, namely interactive resources, which are used “to organize propositional information in ways that a projected target audience is likely to find coherent and convincing”; and interactional resources, which “involve readers and open opportunities for them to contribute to the discourse by alerting them to the author’s perspective towards both propositional information and a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 107 readers themselves”. he distinguishes five categories of interactive resources (see appendix for examples): i. transition markers, which are primarily logical connectors, such as conjunctions and adverbial phrases, for helping readers interpret pragmatic connections between propositions. they indicate additive, contrastive and consequential steps in discourse. ii. frame markers, which signal text boundaries and elements of schematic text structure. iii. endophoric markers, which refer to other parts of the same text. iv. evidentials, which refer to ideas from external sources. v. code glosses, which help rephrase, explain or elaborate on what has been said, to ensure readers understand. likewise, he distinguishes five categories of interactional resources: i. hedges, which help emphasise a position’s subjective nature by allowing information to be presented as opinion rather than fact. ii. boosters, which, in contrast to hedges, help close down alternatives or head off conflicting views. iii. attitude markers, which convey the writer’s affective attitude to propositions, such as surprise, agreement, obligation or frustration. iv. self mentions, which are quantifiable on the basis of the frequency of first-person pronouns, possessive adjectives and/or verbs. v. engagement markers, which help the writer address readers directly to focus their attention or include them as participants in the discourse. hyland (2005) studies metadiscourse and its markers from an academic viewpoint, which has proved insufficient for some corpora and for areas of specialisation such as tourism, business and journalism. he actually highlights (2005: 87) that one of the concept’s main features is its dependence on context, and it is thus closely related to the standards and expectations of certain text genres. that explains why more study has gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130108 apparently been conducted on the interactional dimension, an essential part of halliday’s (1978) “register”, than on the interactive dimension, particularly in non-academic texts. non-academic texts’ metadiscourse (especially interactional) has seemingly been studied more than that of academic texts, with examples including journalistic genres of opinion (dafouz-milne, 2008), web pages promoting tourism (suau-jiménez, 2006) and letters from ceos (gallego-hernández, 2012b). the studies in question show just how important context is for establishing markers that effectively describe a specialised discourse or text. there have also been studies of the metadiscourse of some genres of economics texts. valero-garcés (1996), for example, compares two texts in english written by non-native speakers with two written by native speakers, focusing on four subtypes of metatext (connectors; reviews or earlier markers; previews or later markers; and action markers). her results show that spanish-speaking writers use less metatext and favour a more impersonal style than anglo-american writers (1996), suggesting that choice of rhetorical strategies depends not only on the individual author but also on their culture and the context of the target culture. moreno-fernández (1998) analyses hedges and boosters in a bilingual corpus of economics and business research articles in spanish and english written by native speakers of the respective languages. according to her results, spanish texts contain fewer hedges than english texts. in another study of the use of boosters, in texts written in english by non-native speakers in this case, carrió-pastor and calderón (2015) analyse a corpus of 100 emails composed by spanish and chinese employees of an export company. their results reveal that the two groups are similar in terms of their frequent use of certain markers (know, confirm), but differ in that the spaniards are more assertive when communicating in english (use of must, for instance). pizarro-sánchez and bravo-gozalo (2006) study the translation and integration of tables in a parallel corpus (english-spanish) and a comparable corpus (english) of corporate annual reports. the main difference observed in the way tables are integrated into the texts is that all the translations and the spanish originals analysed use verbal integrating elements (e.g. a continuación, en el siguiente, following, as follows), while less than half of the english originals analysed do, leading the authors to state that by presenting the information more explicitly, “translators do not respect the conventional use of this rhetoric element in the tl polysystem” (2006: 170). mur-dueñas (2010) studies metadiscourse in a comparable corpus of research articles on business a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 109 management written in us english and peninsular spanish. she focuses on attitude markers (in the form of verbs, adjectives, nouns, adverbs and phrases) and compares aspects such as frequency of use, tendencies and the values expressed. her results indicate that attitude markers are used very frequently in both subcorpora (attributable to the interest of the authors of such articles in presenting and promoting their findings) and that there are certain similar tendencies in both languages, suggesting that the authors, whose sociocultural contexts are different, share disciplinary values. looking beyond the results of any particular study, this brief literature review indicates that the presence of a given metadiscourse resource can help establish what we refer to in this article as metadiscourse profiles. the metadiscourse profiles of text genres contextualised in didactic communication situations, for example, could be expected to reflect a high presence of interactive markers, especially code glosses, used by senders to teach or transmit specialised knowledge to an audience possibly unfamiliar with the subject being dealt with. it is our understanding that metadiscourse analysis is not limited to a single text genre but can extend to groups of genres, i.e., in our case, the different categories into which our pilot corpus’s text types/genres are distributed. we believe that studying metadiscourse profiles to identify differences in those of each of comenego’s text categories could contribute to determining the categories’ taxonomic validity.. 3. methodology 3.1. pilot corpus the pilot corpus’s texts were chosen primarily on the basis of their potential usefulness for economic translation training and practice (gallegohernández & krishnamurthy, 2013; rodríguez-inés, 2014). table 1 gives examples of the genres and genre colonies involved and shows how they are categorised at present. gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130110 our “technical” (tec) and “scientific” (sci) categories correspond to the functional types of communication in organisations cassany (2004: 53-55) identified on the basis of pragmatic and discursive criteria (function, interlocutors, structure and style). the two categories’ discourse has a chiefly referential function, is intended to transmit information objectively and arises in an organisation’s technical activities (projects, auditing, research). our “organisational” (org) category draws on cassany’s conception of organisational discourse, which can have a conative, referential or metalingual function, is aimed at systematising and regulating an organisation’s activity, and tends to arise in specific areas of work (general management, human resource management, administration, appraisal, quality control). however, whereas cassany’s organisational category includes what he calls administrative and legal languages, we have established a separate “legal” (leg) category. while closely related to the organisational category, it comprises texts intended to regulate the activity not of a particular organisation but of all the organisations of one or more countries. we have also included a “commercial” (com) category based on cassany’s classification. such discourse, the function of which lies between conative and referential, seeks to influence the reader’s opinion and behaviour, and generally occurs in specific activities (marketing, advertising, communication, sales). we have established another two categories, “didactic” (did) and “press” (prs), mainly on the basis of pragmatic criteria. did contains texts designed to educate, in either academic contexts (e.g. courses, notes) or professional contexts (e.g. consumer guides, explanations about the stock exchange for investors). prs comprises organisations’ press releases, as well as informative texts on economic, financial or business matters published by the general or specialised press. the pilot corpus has a french, a spanish and an english subcorpus. the spanish and french subcorpora were compiled on the basis of the a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 111 table 1. examples of texts as distributed in comenego. o genres and genre colonies categories descriptions of bank products, financial products and insurance; corporate web pages (commercial websites) commercial (com) online courses; guides for consumers, investors and bank clients (web pages of teachers, universities, institutions and companies) didactic (did) laws, codes, decrees (websites of ministries and agencies) legal (leg) articles of association, regulations, minutes of annual meetings, rules (corporate and informative websites) organisational (org) press releases, news, newsletters (corporate websites and newspapers) press (prs) academic papers (general-interest and specialised websites, specialised journals) scientific (sci) financial prospectuses, annual accounts, annual reports, financial results, corporate responsibility reports, management reports, analyses, countryand sector-specific reports, marketing plans, quarterly results (corporate and informative websites) technical (tec) discourse-centred text classification described above, and their texts chosen using intuition, experience and previous works on economics, business and financial text taxonomies (author 1). an effort was made to make these two corpora balanced in terms of number of tokens. the english subcorpus was compiled two years later and is smaller. it has the same categories as the other subcorpora, but was developed following more objective general and specific criteria (rodríguez-inés, 2014). the primary general criterion applied when selecting texts in english was statistical. tolosa-igualada (2014) provides a range of data concerning economic translation from spanish to english and vice versa, obtained in 2013 through a survey of professional translators. the english subcorpus includes texts from almost all the survey’s main genres, such as sales contracts, licensing agreements, correspondence, letters, annual accounts and financial statements, deeds of sale, powers of attorney, memorandums and articles of association, shareholders’ agreements, delivery notes, minutes of board meetings and general meetings of shareholders, audits of accounts, terms and conditions of contract, service contracts, employment contracts, advertising leaflets and brochures, reports, legal advice with economic and financial content, press articles and opinion pieces, company registration certification, certificates of employment, product descriptions and payment documents. the only document type we were unable to include was internal communication, due to the lack of availability of specimens. we also took into account the subjects survey respondents mentioned most frequently (tolosa-igualada, 2014: 16), notably including intrinsically economic activities, banking and insurance, all of which are well represented in comenego’s english subcorpus. our second general criterion was organisations’ consent to add their texts to comenego’s virtual platform (all the consenting organisations are listed at http://dti.ua.es/es/comenego/agradecimientos.html). another general criterion was ease of access to texts, in terms of it being possible not only to locate them but also to download them and convert them to plain text. we looked for texts available via the public internet (by searching for keywords in google) which we could download directly (e.g. using httrack) as web pages or pdf files and then convert to plain text (using html2txt converter and ultra document text converter). it is worth pointing out that all the english subcorpus’s texts are complete texts rather than samples, although some are templates or models, especially gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130112 in the case of genres such as business letters, contracts, delivery notes, payment documents and application forms. lastly, we targeted diversity where sources are concerned. we collected texts from anglophone and non-anglophone countries and emerging and developed economies throughout the world, written by native and nonnative speakers alike. they include both originals and translations, and correspond to businesses and bodies of different sizes and natures. in addition to the general criteria described above, we made use of external quality criteria for certain categories. in the case of scientific texts, we decided to select articles on subjects prominent in the aforementioned survey from specialised journals included in either the social sciences citation index (e.g. the geneva papers on risk and insurance; international review of finance; journal of corporate finance; emerging markets review; accounting, auditing & accountability journal) or the scopus database (e.g. journal of internet banking and commerce; international journal of business science and applied management). we also applied a specific criterion to select texts from the press. we took them either from well known or reputed regional, national or international dailies that have an online version and specialise in economics or similar matters, or from specialised sections in generalist dailies. the english subcorpus thus includes articles and opinion pieces from sources as varied as the new york times, financial times, the economist, the guardian, the wall street journal, the washington post and the telegraph. table 2 shows the pilot corpus’s content in terms of the finite number of files and tokens in each category and language. a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 113 i w table 2. number of files and tokens in the comenego pilot corpus by category and language. lang item com did org tec sci leg prs total fr files 3 909 1 121 634 133 203 21 2 859 8 880 tokens 1 325 544 1 304 585 1 365 468 1 187 806 1 301 102 1 293 704 1 308 418 9 086 627 mean 339 1 164 2 154 8 931 6 409 61 605 458 1 023 es files 5 255 1 491 429 351 99 211 2 214 10 050 tokens 1 329 915 1 276 089 1 337 822 1 188 068 1 311 731 1 342 698 1 329 029 9 115 352 mean 253 856 3 118 3 385 13 250 6 363 600 907 en files 247 253 172 308 67 12 535 1 594 tokens 614 112 622 749 633 381 646 585 632 644 668 350 666 194 4 484 015 mean 2 486 2 461 3 682 2 099 9 442 55 696 1 245 2 813 3.2. corpus queries despite showing the usefulness of interactional metadiscourse in economic contexts, the studies mentioned in the theoretical framework analyse specific economics and business genres in specific languages, and we were thus unable to use their results as a basis for validating our pilot corpus’s categories. nonetheless, their methodologies, particularly those of gallegohernández (2013) and suau-jiménez (2014), who have already proposed a methodological approach to analysing the pilot corpus based on interactional markers, are used in this article. corpus linguistics has generated various analytical tools (e.g. wordsmith tools and antconc) capable of extracting data in the form of frequent word lists, concordances, collocates and n-grams. we used antconc’s concordance function to establish each subcorpus’s metadiscourse profile, extracting concordances based on pre-established lists of keywords potentially representative of each category of interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers (see appendix). having found no list of french or spanish keywords potentially representative of any particular category of metadiscourse in the aforementioned previous studies, we translated the list of words in english originally presented by hyland (2005: 218-224). the words used to extract concordances from each subcorpus are included in the appendix to this article. through antconc, we interrogated the corpus using regular expressions (all of which are set out in the appendix). we used the symbol | to search for all the words representative of a given category in a single query; the symbols * and + to allow for inflection, especially in spanish and french3; and the symbol @ to allow for lexical variation (e.g. dicho de otro modo vs. dicho en otras palabras). after extracting the concordances of each metadiscourse resource in each language, we read through every single concordance to verify that its keyword actually constituted metadiscourse and was not simply noise. our aim was to count the number of times each resource appears in each category and subcorpus so as to establish comenego’s metadiscourse profile. gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130114 for illustrative purposes, figure 1 shows the concordances of the keyword image extracted from the french subcorpus to study endophoric markers. concordances 1, 2, 4 and 8 all correspond to metadiscourse (e.g. cliquez sur l’image, “click on the image”). however, image is not used in reference to another part of the same text in the remaining concordances, which we thus omitted from our quantitative analysis. 4. results and discussion table 3 contains the results we obtained by applying the aforementioned methodology to each metadiscourse resource and each of the corpus’s a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 115 h figure 1. concordances of image. f table 3. comenego's metadiscourse resources. t lang cat interactive interactional transition frame endophoric evidential gloss booster hedge attitude self mention engagement en com items 1888 735 1139 47 814 2239 5529 909 5526 7380 % 7,2 2,8 4,3 0,2 3,1 8,5 21,1 3,5 21,1 28,2 did items 3396 1076 1701 73 1610 4532 6866 1806 2079 7345 % 11,1 4,1 6,5 0,3 6,1 17,3 26,2 6,9 7,9 28,0 org items 1356 15052 9837 52 317 3199 6475 816 63 1 % 3,6 57,4 37,5 0,2 1,2 12,2 24,7 3,1 0,2 0,0 tec items 1500 2800 2360 68 366 2306 4961 801 2815 2547 % 7,3 10,7 9,0 0,3 1,4 8,8 18,9 3,1 10,7 9,7 sci items 3677 446 374 288 770 2476 5623 1414 5097 1247 % 17,2 1,7 1,4 1,1 2,9 9,4 21,5 5,4 19,4 4,8 leg items 4744 1038 2428 221 1745 3184 5780 1365 4525 156 % 18,8 4,0 9,3 0,8 6,7 12,1 22,1 5,2 17,3 0,6 prs items 1547 750 1693 100 567 1568 2954 946 5441 284 % 9,8 2,9 6,5 0,4 2,2 6,0 11,3 3,6 20,8 1,1 fr com items 3231 328 178 15 776 1900 1010 5562 5922 44616 % 5,1 1,3 0,7 0,1 3,0 7,3 3,9 21,2 22,6 170,3 did items 5550 777 1864 197 2766 2260 1918 5848 1750 1488 % 22,7 3,0 7,1 0,8 10,6 8,6 7,3 22,3 6,7 5,7 org items 4270 341 578 6 714 565 1369 3350 931 876 % 32,8 1,3 2,2 0,0 2,7 2,2 5,2 12,8 3,6 3,3 tec items 3964 439 1099 223 898 1309 1954 4230 4068 613 % 21,1 1,7 4,2 0,9 3,4 5,0 7,5 16,1 15,5 2,3 sci items 8201 1626 3156 5888 2174 2485 2997 5647 5768 391 % 21,4 6,2 12,0 22,5 8,3 9,5 11,4 21,5 22,0 1,5 leg items 3053 12788 4389 0 318 269 392 1657 437 2433 % 11,9 48,8 16,7 0,0 1,2 1,0 1,5 6,3 1,7 9,3 prs items 4484 644 166 27 493 2291 1833 6765 3637 1912 % 20,2 2,5 0,6 0,1 1,9 8,7 7,0 25,8 13,9 7,3 es com items 3458 266 399 0 266 3857 4788 6916 8112 11570 % 8,7 1,0 1,5 0,0 1,0 14,7 18,3 26,4 31,0 44,2 did items 5615 1148 1787 510 893 4211 6125 5742 8550 3318 % 14,8 4,4 6,8 1,9 3,4 16,1 23,4 21,9 32,6 12,7 org items 3077 401 2141 0 268 1472 2007 5485 1739 1070 % 17,4 1,5 8,2 0,0 1,0 5,6 7,7 20,9 6,6 4,1 tec items 4752 1069 1544 119 475 4158 2257 5109 1069 475 % 22,6 4,1 5,9 0,5 1,8 15,9 8,6 19,5 4,1 1,8 sci items 7608 1836 3017 2361 787 4985 6427 6952 2492 787 % 20,4 7,0 11,5 9,0 3,0 19,0 24,5 26,5 9,5 3,0 leg items 3491 671 5774 0 269 1343 1074 3625 269 806 % 20,2 2,6 22,0 0,0 1,0 5,1 4,1 13,8 1,0 3,1 prs items 4652 665 133 133 399 4652 1994 6911 3323 930 % 19,6 2,5 0,5 0,5 1,5 17,8 7,6 26,4 12,7 3,5 languages and text categories. as the three subcorpora are of different sizes, in order to facilitate comparability, we normalised the results by providing not only the number of markers observed for each category but also their percentage frequency distributions in each category. to check whether the distribution of the values observed for each marker differs from category to category, we used the chi-square test of homogeneity for each language: english: χ2 (54) = 86937.8, p < 0.001, v = 0.286 french: χ2 (54) = 206981.1, p < 0.001, v = 0.410 spanish: χ2 (54) = 67063.5, p < 0.001, v = 0.240 the results of the tests are statistically significant, as the p-value is lower than the preestablished significance level (χ = 0.05). it can therefore be concluded that the markers are distributed in a non-homogeneous manner in the three languages. that non-homogeneity is greatest in the case of french, given that it is the language with the highest cramér’s v. the data contained in table 3 are graphically represented in figures 2-4, which show the metadiscourse profiles identified for english, french and spanish respectively. comenego’s text categories are shown on each profile’s vertical axis, while its horizontal axis shows the frequency of use of each metadiscourse resource, i.e. the number of markers observed for each category. we will now describe and discuss the metadiscourse profiles identified for each language in each text category. 4.1. metadiscourse profile in english figure 2 shows the metadiscourse profile of each text category in english. logically, given that texts in the com category seek to establish a relationship between sellers and customers and to influence the opinion and behaviour of the latter, it is notable for a high frequency of self mentions (especially the markers we, our and us) and, in particular, engagement markers (you). examples include: gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130116 1. for 50% of the capital provided, we will pay you 100% of the increase in the cpi 2. doing up your home? buying a car? we can offer you a personal loan tailored to meet your needs. another notable aspect of this category is a high presence of hedges, especially may, should and would. examples include: 3. you should consult your tax adviser regarding specific questions 4. the tax position above may change at any time which may affect 5. you must advise us in writing if you would prefer us to pay you interest… the did category stands out in two respects where interactive markers are concerned. the first is a high use of code glosses (especially such as, for example and called), confirming the explanatory nature of the texts in this category. examples include: 6. this can suggest a few things such as less repeat calls, better product stability… 7. a share sicav can specialise, for example, by geographical region or sector 8. this is called a loss leader. a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 117 t figure 2. metadiscourse profile of comenego's english subcorpus. f 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional c o m d id l e g o r g pr s sc i t e c transition frame endophoric evidential glosses booster hedge attitude self mention engagement the second is a high frequency (second only to sci) of transition markers (but, however, because). examples include: 9. most trusts will specialise in one of these, but some deliberately have a balanced strategy 10. with higher profits comes a higher tax bite, however, the higher income looks better to prospective investors and lenders 11. it is called preferred because the dividend must be paid before dividends are paid on the common stock. in relation to interactional markers, did is the category that makes the greatest use of boosters (important, even, usual) and hedges (may, should, would). examples include: 12. the most important brokered securities markets are… 13. the usual formula for calculating the working capital… 14. as your company grows, you should consider contracting out as many tasks as possible 15. this type of borrowing may offer tax advantages. like com, did features a considerable number of engagement markers, mainly the keyword you. interaction between authors and readers is necessary in both categories, owing to the importance of the reader understanding the content in the case of did texts, and to the importance of the customer being persuaded to do something in the case of com texts. the org category differs from com and did in that it has more frame markers (particularly in the form of numbered lists) and endophoric markers (chiefly the keywords section, above and below, with examples including: 16. paragraph (a) above applies to… 17. the following terms have the meanings specified below 18. procedures established under section 5.4 and section 5.5 hereof. org is the category with the third highest presence of engagement markers, and one of those with the fewest code glosses (along with leg and tec) and self mentions (along with did and leg). this may be due to the fact gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130118 that in org texts the author is irrelevant but the content is partly geared to regulating the addressee’s behaviour. while the tec and sci categories may seem similar a priori, they differ in some respects. for instance, sci has more code glosses (such as, for example, e.g.), evidentials (according to, cited) and transition markers (but, however, because). examples include: 19. according to iso 17021… 20. recently, a number of studies, e.g. bae and goyal (2010) and mitton and o’connor (2012), have… this is logical, as scientific language requires connectors and explanations to articulate its discourse, and needs to refer to other works or texts. sci has more interactional markers than tec, except in the case of self mentions. both categories contain very few engagement markers. leg is, by far, the category with the most frame markers (particularly in the form of numbered lists and keywords such as section and chapter) and endophoric markers. this is attributable to its texts (laws, regulations, etc.) being of a highly structured nature and, in many cases, long. leg features virtually no self mentions, as its texts are impersonal. the prs category has certain distinguishing characteristics, including a low frequency of interactive markers other than transition markers. with regard to interactional markers, it does not seem to differ substantially from other categories. engagement markers are its most common interactional resource, followed by hedges (would, may, could, should) and self mentions (our, we). most of the keywords corresponding to self mentions appear in quotes, however, and were therefore disregarded in our analysis to avoid any misinterpretation of results. 4.2. metadiscourse profile in french figure 3 shows the metadiscourse profile of each text category in french. the com category stands out due to its large number of engagement markers (vous and votre in particular, and, to a lesser degree, interrogatives and directives), which, together with self mentions (nous, nos, notre) and attitude markers (especially exclamations, adjectives such as grand, bon, simple, mieux and important, and the expression grâce à), reinforce the idea of discourse in which senders (sellers) establish direct contact with receivers (customers) to a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 119 influence their behaviour (persuade them to make a purchase). examples include: 21. une grande souplesse de remboursement grâce au prêt facilimmo 22. devis d’assurance: assurez-vous à bon prix! 23. les numéros importants pour votre tranquillité. the did category is notable for a high presence of all types of transition markers (contrastive: or, cependant, alors que; additive: de plus, également, par ailleurs; and consequential: afin) and attitude markers (grand, important, il faut, bon, simple). as might be expected, it also has many code glosses (especially par exemple, c’est-à-dire, appelé, considérer comme and autrement dit). examples include: 24. prenons par exemple l’hypothèse la plus simple 25. de plus, afin d’éviter le blocage de la succession, tout héritier ou créancier pourra... did is actually the category with the most code glosses, ahead of even sci. org does not differ greatly from the other categories in terms of a particular metadiscourse resource’s presence. along with leg, it appears to gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130120 figure 3. metadiscourse profile of comenego's french subcorpus. f t 2 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional c o m d id l e g o r g pr s sc i t e c transition frame endophoric evidential glosses booster hedge attitude self mention engagement be the category with the fewest metadiscourse markers, other than transition markers (especially additive markers: également, en outre, par ailleurs, de plus; and consequential markers: afin, en vue de, en conséquence), which feature in every category, and attitude markers (particularly adjectives with nuances of positivity, simplicity and importance, such as bon, grand, simple, important, approprié, mieux and significatif). even so, it has fewer attitude markers than any category other than leg, confirming its regulatory nature. the tec and sci categories’ profiles are similar but differ in terms of the various markers’ proportions. with the exception of engagement markers, which are present to practically the same degree in both categories, the frequency of every interactional and interactive resource is much higher in sci. significantly, sci has more evidentials (mainly due to the use of bibliographic reference systems) and hedges (especially forms of the verb pouvoir; conditional forms of other verbs, such as serai*, devrai* and aurai*; verbs such as sembler and paraître; and the adjective possible). the presence of signs of intertextuality, established through allusion to prior work and studies, and a tendency to qualify statements confirm the special nature of sci, where academic language is prominent. the leg category is notable, as it was in english, for its high number of endophoric markers, transition markers (especially additive markers, such as également, en outre, de plus and d’autre part; the contrastive marker toutefois; and consequential markers, such as en vue de, afin and dès lors) and, in particular, frame markers (chiefly the keywords article, chapitre and section, which appear in the titles of each text’s articles, chapters and sections, as well as numbered lists). leg is also characterised by a very low presence of other metadiscourse resources, some of which (e.g. evidentials) are almost totally absent. lastly, the prs category is noteworthy for its high number of attitude markers (especially qualifiers with positive nuances, such as grand, important, bon, meilleur, significatif and exceptionnel, as well as the expression grâce à), transition markers (particularly the additive markers également, de plus and par ailleurs) and, in the case of press releases, self mentions (nous, notre, nos). it is second to sci as the category with the most boosters (particularly adverbs such as très, totalement, entièrement, parfaitement and pleinement; the verb démontrer; and the adjective véritable). examples include: 26. plusieurs mois un véritable engouement, jouant pleinement son rôle de valeur refuge… a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 121 27. il démontre également la qualité du groupe, et de son équipe 28. la réaction très forte des investisseurs reflète clairement la confiance que les marchés accordent au groupe. 4.3. metadiscourse profile in spanish figure 4 shows the metadiscourse profile of each text category in spanish. in addition to being the category with the most engagement markers (the pronouns tú and usted, as well as interrogatives), com is characterised by a high presence of self mentions (first-person plural verb forms and the pronouns and possessives nosotros, nuestro and nos) and attitude markers (mainly adjectives and adverbs with positive nuances, such as mejor, principal, gran, especial, importante and buen). this helps confirm that its texts involve senders (sellers) trying to persuade receivers (customers) to make a purchase, as suggested previously in relation to the other subcorpora. examples include: 29. tenemos una amplia gama de hipotecas para usted. encuentre la que mejor se adapta a sus necesidades 30. gran profesionalidad: formarás parte de un equipo innovador, exigente y con talento. gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130122 figure 4. metadiscourse profile of comenego's spanish subcorpus. f 3 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional interactive interactional c o m d id l e g o r g pr s sc i t e c transition frame endophoric evidential glosses booster hedge attitude self mention engagement like com, the did category has many engagement markers (especially interrogatives, as well as imperatives and pronouns such as usted and, to a lesser degree, tú), self mentions (mainly first-person plural verb forms) and attitude markers (adjectives and adverbs with positive nuances, such as gran, mejor, principal, importante and buen), possibly to aid learning by establishing direct contact between senders and receivers. did differs from the other categories, including com, in that, as it was in english and french, it is the category with the most code glosses (the participles llamado and denominado, expressions such as es decir and por ejemplo, and the verb significar). it also features many transition markers, especially contrastive markers (such as aunque, sino, sin embargo, mientras que, no obstante, por el contrario and a pesar de) and consequential markers (por tanto, por lo que, por ello, por lo tanto). examples of such expressions include: 31. sin embargo, no significa decir que el método convencional tenga perdido… 32. la diferencia más importante está en que lo que habitualmente se ha denominado en europa y, más concretamente, en gran bretaña. the org category’s main trait is that attitude markers (expressions such as de calidad, mejor and adecuado) are its most common metadiscourse resource, followed by transition markers (asimismo, además, no obstante, por tanto, igualmente) and endophoric markers (keywords such as apartado, capítulo and párrafo). evidentials, code glosses, self mentions and engagement and frame markers are scarce in this category. the tec and sci categories are characterised by a high frequency of transition markers (the most common being además, aunque, sin embargo and por tanto in the case of sci, and además, aunque, sin embargo, por lo que and asimismo in the case of tec) and attitude markers (adjectives with positive nuances, the most common in both categories being gran, mejor, importante, principal and significativo). in the case of attitude markers, dueñas (2010) found similar frequencies in american business management and local spanish research articles (sci). tec and sci are the categories with the most frame markers (in the case of sci, expressions related to sequence, such as finalmente, en primer lugar, por último and a continuación; in the case of tec, expressions related to sequence, such as a continuación, por último and finalmente, and others used to change topic, such as en cuanto a, respecto de and con respecto de), as might be expected given that their texts are very long and thus require such resources to structure their discourse. tec and sci differ a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 123 from one another in that the latter contains many more hedges (mainly conditional verb forms, the verbs poder and parecer, and the adjective posible) and code glosses (the verbs denominar, significar and llamar, and expressions such as en particular, particularmente and de la siguiente forma). this difference is logical, bearing in mind that the resources in question are widely used in academic language (corresponding to sci). as in english and french, the leg category stands out due to its large number of frame markers (particularly the keyword artículo, used in the title of each of the articles into which texts are organised), endophoric markers (keywords such as apartado, capítulo, artículo, párrafo and parte) and transition markers (mostly additive markers, such as asimismo, además and igualmente, but also contrastive markers, such as no obstante, aunque, sino and sin embargo, and consequential markers, such as por tanto, por lo que and en consecuencia). it has few evidentials, code glosses or self mentions. finally, the prs category is characterised by a high presence of attitude markers (again, adjectives with positive nuances, such as mejor, gran, principal and importante), transition markers (additive markers, such as además, asimismo and igualmente; and contrastive markers, such as aunque, mientras que and sino) and boosters (words or expressions such as muy, demostrar, sobre todo, pleno and claramente), as was the case in french. 5. conclusion this paper presents an initial analysis aimed at confirming or rejecting our pilot corpus’s current text categories. our object of study to that end has been metadiscourse markers. the results of our analysis indicate differences and similarities between the corpus’s categories. each category seems to have at least one metadiscursive trait that distinguishes it from the rest. the com category, for example, is mainly marked by interactional metadiscourse, particularly engagement markers and self mentions, owing to the direct contact established between senders (sellers) and receivers (customers). attitude markers are also highly present in com, reflecting its characteristic conative function. did and sci differ from the other categories on the basis of interactive metadiscourse, specifically a high frequency of code glosses, which their texts use to fulfil their communicative goal (educating about aspects of gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130124 economics) through explanations, examples, etc. they also differ from each other on the basis of interactive resources, in this case evidentials, which are more common in sci (which features academic language with many references to previous work). there are differences between the two in terms of interactional resources too, particularly self mentions and engagement markers, with sci seemingly having a greater tendency towards impersonality. org and leg are the categories with the least marked interactional profiles in spanish and french. in english, in contrast, both categories are marked by hedges and boosters (the main difference between the two lies in self mentions and engagement markers, which are practically absent in leg). a tendency towards impersonality seems to be a distinguishing trait of leg in particular (a category that includes essentially normative texts, with more interactive than interactional resources, potentially calling the current trend of basing analyses exclusively on interactional metadiscourse into question) in all three languages. in terms of interactive metadiscourse, org and leg (particularly the latter) are chiefly characterised by the use of frame, transition and endophoric markers, which distinguishes them from the other categories and is attributable to their very long texts being highly structured (information organised into articles and titles; internal references; etc.). the tec category is very similar to sci in all three languages as far as interactional resources are concerned. the two differ with regard to interactive metadiscourse, however, with tec containing far fewer resources, especially evidentials, which it lacks almost entirely. prs, finally, is similar to other categories (e.g. com) in terms of interactive resources, of which it has very few besides transition markers. in the case of interactional metadiscourse, however, its profiles appear to be unique, with little resemblance to those of other categories in any of the languages. this paper presents merely an initial analysis of the comenego pilot corpus, one that can be complemented with studies of other objects (terminology, phraseology, metaphor, etc.) for the purpose of validating or rejecting the corpus’s current text categories. with regard to the present configuration of our virtual platform for working with the corpus texts, the results of our analysis indicate that some of the categories, such as com and prs, have distinctive traits and may thus be retained. a decision is yet to be made as to whether having a single type of defining resource (e.g. code glosses in the case of did and evidentials in that a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 125 of sci) is sufficient to justify a category’s inclusion among the platform’s search options, or whether the most similar categories (e.g. tec and sci, or sci and did) should be merged. in the face of this dilemma, it seems appropriate to keep platform users informed of the text types or genres each category contains, and to enable them to filter searches not only by category but also by text genre. in any case, as stated previously, this analysis is by no means definitive. further in-depth studies of the characteristics of the corpus’s texts ought to be carried out, bearing in mind the hybrid, permeable nature they can have. article history: received 29 august 2018 received in revised form 03 august 2020 accepted 10 may 2021 references gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130126 álvarez garcía, c. 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(2006): contrastive analysis of non-verbal elements in the discourse of economics in english and in spanish. in j. bravo gozalo (ed.), aspects of translation (pp. 145-172). secretariado de publicaciones e intercambio editorial, universidad de valladolid. rodríguez-inés, p. (2009). evaluating the process and not just the product when using corpora in translator education. in a. beeby, p. rodríguezinés & p. sánchez-gijón (eds.), corpus use and translating: corpus use for learning to translate and learning corpus use to translate (pp. 129-149). john benjamins. rodríguez-inés, p. (2014). comenego: compilación del corpus piloto en inglés y primeros análisis. monográficos de la revista hermēneus, 16, 187–199. sánchez gijón, p. (2004). l’ús de corpus en la traducció especialitzada: compilació de corpus ad hoc i extracció de recursos terminològics. upf. sinclair, j. (1996). preliminary recommendations on corpus typology. url: http://www.ilc.cnr.it/ eagles/corpustyp/corpustyp.html [05/08/18]. socorro trujillo, k. (2010): a text typology for the international trade: a pedagogical tool in the translation classes for this specific purpose. in j. cifuentes honrubia, a. gómez gonzález-jover, a. lillo buades, j. mateo martínez & f. yus ramos (eds.), los caminos de la lengua. estudios en homenaje a enrique alcaraz varó (pp. 1479–1490). universidad de alicante. suau-jiménez, f. (2006, july). el metadiscurso en el género servicios y productos turísticos en inglés y español: importancia de su traducción como recurso para la persuasión del cliente. paper presented at the i congreso internacional de traducción especializada, buenos aires, argentina. suau-jiménez, f. (2014). preparación pretraductológica de textos de economía a través del análisis metadiscursivo interpersonal: estudio piloto del corpus comenego. monográficos de la revista hermēneus, 16, 149–166. tolosa-igualada, m. (2014). dime qué traduces y “les” diré quién eres. estudio basado en encuestas acerca de los documentos traducidos por traductores económicos (inglés-español y español-inglés). monográficos de la revista hermēneus, 16, 23–41. valero-garcés, c. (1996). contrastive esp rhetoric: metatext in spanish–english economics texts. english for specific purposes, 15(4), 279–294. vande kopple, w. j. (1985). some exploratory discourse on metadiscourse. college composition and communication, 36, 82–93. zanettin, f., s. bernardini, & d. stewart (eds.) (2003). corpora in translator education. st. jerome. well as terminology at his faculty. his individual publications include a book entitled business translation and corpora. patricia rodríguez-inés is a senior lecturer at the department of translation, interpreting and east asian studies of the universitat autònoma de barcelona in spain. her research interests include corpus linguistics applied to translation, translation competence and its acquisition, and translator education. she has authored and co-authored papers published in top ranking journals within translation studies. notes 1 “[genre] is a collective product that results from each particular circumstance of communication. any form of conventionalised and culturally determined text, regardless of the field (specialised or not) in which the communication takes place, can therefore be considered a genre. nevertheless, the notion is especially significant in the fields of specialised communication” (garcía izquierdo, 2011: 14). 2 “[genre colony] a grouping of closely related genres ‘serving broadly similar communicative purposes, but not necessarily all the communicative purposes in cases where they serve more than one’” (bhatia, 2004: 59). 3 for example, to locate engagement markers in spanish, we used searches designed to cover future and imperative form endings: ?*ese|?*ate|no ?*e|no ?*es|*ás [futuro]|? [interrogación]|señoras|señores| te|tenga|permita|recuerde|deje|busque|compre|encuentre|haga|tú|tu|tus|usted++ appendix hyland’s metadiscourse items in english (2005: 218-224). french and spanish versions are own translations. gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130128 endophoric markers: article+|au+dess++s|cf.|chapitre+|diagramme+|encadré|exemple+|figure+|graphique+|image+|infra|lignes|p.|page+|paragraphe+|partie+|plus bas|plus haut|schéma+|section+|supra|table+|tableau+|v.|voir frame markers: à ce point|à ce stade|à commencer|à l'égard|actuellement|alors|au bout du compte|autrement|avant tout|bref|brièvement|but de|ce qui m'intéresse|ce qui nous|ce qui nous intéresse|cela conduit à|cinquième lieu|cinquièmement|comme indiqué précédemment|commen+ons|concentr* sur|conclusion|d'abord|d'ailleurs|dans ce travail|dans cette étude|dans cette leçon|dans le présent document|dans un sens général|d'autre part|dernier lieu|désir*|deuxième lieu|deuxièmement|d'un côté|d'une part|en ce qui concerne|en conclusion|en fin de compte|en résumé|en revanche|en somme|en troisième lieu|en un mot|enfin|ensuite|généralement|grossièrement|intention de|intention est|je voudrais|jusqu'alors|l'intention de|l'objet|maintenant|nous voudrions|objectif est|par ailleurs|par rapport|pour ce qui est|pour conclure|pour finir|pour le moment|pour terminer|précédemment|premier|premièrement|prétendons|principalement|puis|quant à|quatrième lieu|quatrièmement|récapitulant|résumant|revenons|second lieu|septième lieu|septièmement|sixième lieu|sixièmement|souhait*|synthès*|tenons à|thème|troisièmement|un autre aspect qui|voudr* transition markers: à cause d*|à force d*|à tel point qu*|afin d*|afin qu*|ainsi|ajoutons qu*|alors|alors qu*|au contraire|au lieu d*|au lieu qu*|au point d*|au point qu*|aussi|aussi bien|bien qu*|ce n'est pas qu*|ce* a pour effet|ce* empêche|ce* pousse à|ce* provoque|ce* s'oppose à|cependant|certes|c'est la raison pour laquelle|c'est pourquoi|conséquemment|contrairement à|d'ailleurs|d'autre part|de crainte|de façon à|de façon qu*|de là|de la même manière|de manière à|de manière qu*|de peur d*|de peur qu*|de plus|de@sorte qu*|dès lors|donc|d'où|du moins|du reste|d'un autre côté|également|en conséquence|en dépit d*|en outre|en plus|en revanche|en sorte d*|en sorte qu*|en sus d*|en vue d*|encore qu*|ensuite|faute d*|il est exact q*|il se peut qu*|inversement|loin d*|mais|malgré|même si|même s'il*|néanmoins|non seulement|or|outre|par ailleurs|par conséquent|par contre|par manque d*|par suite|partant|pour|pour que|pour sa part|pourtant|puis|quant à|s'ajouter|sans compter q*|sans doute|seulement|si quand|sinon|sous prétexte d*|tandis qu*|tant de +nom que|tant et|tant que|tellement|toutefois evidentials: (????)|, ????)|, ????]|[????]|comme en témoign*|comme l'* conseill*|comme l'* indiqu*|comme l'* not*|comme l'* suggèr*|comme le conseill*|comme le not*|comme le suggèr*|comme l'indiqu*|comme mentionné+ c a taxonomic study of economics and business genre colonies ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130 129 figure 5. interactive resources (french keywords). figure 6. interactional resources (french keywords). code glosses: à savoir|à titre d'exemple|appelé*|autrement dit|c.-à-d.|ce qui démontre qu*|ce qui explique qu*|ce qui illustre le fait qu*|ce qui montre qu*|ceci démontre qu*|ceci explique qu*|ceci illustre le fait qu*|ceci montre qu*|ceci prouve qu*|ceci prouve qu*|cela démontre qu*|cela explique qu*|cela illustre le fait qu*|cela montre qu*|cela prouve qu*|c'est à dire|c'est-à-dire|concrètement|connu* comme|connu* sous|consid* comme|de fait|défin* comme|désign* par|d'une manière concrète|effectivement|en d'autres mots|en d'autres termes|en effet|en fait|en réalité|en somme|en un mot|ex:|ne signifie pas qu*|notamment|on entend par|p. ex.|par exemple|par le fait|plus simplement|porter la mention|précisément|prenons le cas|qualifié* d*|que l'on appelle|qu'on appelle|si l'on prend le cas|signifie qu*|spécialement|spécifiquement|suffise de rappeler qu*|tel est le cas|tel* qu*|un autre exemple|veut dire qu*|voilà en outre hedges: aurai*|certain*|devrai*|donnerai*|environ|paraît*|peut|pouvons|peuvent|pouvez|peut-être|possible*|pourrai*|semble*|serai* boosters: bel et bien|bien sûr|clairement|démontr*|effectivement|entièrement|évidemment|extrêmement|incontestablement|parfaitement|pleinement|plus que jamais|sans aucun doute|surtout|totalement|très|véritable+|véritablement|vrai++ attitude markers: adéquat++|ambitieu+++|ambition|approprié++|attrayant++|beau+|belle+|bon+++|chalereusement|chaleureu+++|confiance|confiant++|considérable+|convaincu+++|conviction|crain*|de qualité|efficace|espérons|essentiel+++|excellent++|exceptionnel+++|excessi+++|exclamación|extraordinaire+|fantastique+|fier+ d*|formidable+|grâce à|grâce au+|grand++|grave+|heureu+++|heureusement|il faut|important++|inapproprié++|ingrat++|innovateu+++|irréprochable+|malheureusement|mieux|meilleur++|nécessairement|nous intéress*|s'intéress*|m'intére*|optimal|optimiste+|optimisme+|paradoxalement|persuadé++|précieu+++|préférable|principale+|prometteu+++|raisonnable+|rapide+|redout*|regrettons|regrettable|remar quable+|remarquablement|remerci*|rêv*|rigoureu*|satisfaisant++|significatif++|significativement|simple|souci|soucieu+++|souhaitable+|souhait ons|spectaculaire+|substantiel+++|surprenant++|terrible+|vivement|voulons self mentions: nos|notre|nôtre|nous engagement markers: *ez [imperativo]|? [interrogación]|mesdames|votre|vous figure 7. interactive resources (spanish keywords). endophoric markers: anteriormente|cf.|cuadro+|est++ apartado+|est++ artículo+|est++ capítulo+|est++ cuadro+|est++ diagrama+|est++ gráfico+|est++ párrafo+|esta+ figura+|esta+ parte+|esta+ secci+n++|gráfico|l++ apartado+|l++ artículo+|l++ capítulo+|l++ cuadro+|l++ diagrama+|l++ ejemplo+|l++ gráfico+|l++ párrafo+|la figura|la parte|la sección|las figuras|las líneas siguientes|las partes|las próximas líneas|las secciones|las siguientes líneas|más abajo|más arriba|p.|página+|pie de página|próxima+ parte+|próxima+ secci+n++|próximo+ apartado+|próximo+ artículo+|próximo+ capítulo+|próximo+ párrafo+|siguiente+ apartado+|siguiente+ artículo+|siguiente+ capítulo+|siguiente+ párrafo+|siguiente+ parte+|siguiente+ sección+|table+|v.|véa+se frame markers: a continuación|a modo de conclusión|al margen de|cabe preguntarse si|ánimo de|ánimo es|ante todo|antes de todo|así mismo|asimismo|cabe concluir que|cambiando de tema|centraré en|centraremos en|comencemos con|como breve conclusión|como dijimos al principio|con respecto a+|con todo y lo anterior|concluyamos|continuaremos|de entrada|de igual forma|de igual manera|de igual modo|de manera global|de momento|de otra parte|de un lado|deseamos|desearía|desearíamos|deseo|después|en conclusión|en conjunto|en cuanto a+|en cuarto lugar|en definitiva|en el presente trabajo|en esta lección|en este estudio|en este trabajo|en líneas generales|en lo que respecta a|en primer lugar|en quinto lugar|en resumen|en resumidas cuentas|en segundo lugar|en séptimo lugar|en sexto lugar|en síntesis|en suma|en tercer lugar|en último lugar|en un sentido general|esto nos lleva a|finalmente|globalmente|hasta ahora|hasta aquí lo|hasta el momento|hasta este momento|hay otro aspecto que|igualmente|intención de|intención es|llegado+ a este|nos conduce|nos lleva|objetivo de|objetivo es|para comenzar|para concluir|para empezar|para terminar|pasemos a|por el momento|por lo demás|por lo que se refiere a+|por otra parte|por otro lado|por su parte|por último|por una parte|pretendemos|pretendería|pretenderíamos|pretendo|previamente|primeramente|propósito de|propósito es|prosiguiendo con el tema|pues bien|queremos|querría|querríamos|quiero|recapitulando|recapitulemos|respecto a+|respecto de+|resumiendo|si volvemos atrás|sintetizando|volvamos a|volviendo a transition markers: a no ser que|a pesar de|además|ahora bien|antes bien|así mismo|así pues|así que|así y todo|asimismo|aun así|aunque|con todo|contrariamente|de ahí que|de donde se sigue|de ello resulta que|de hecho|de igual forma|de igual manera|de igual modo|de manera que|de modo que|de suerte que|de todas formas|de todas maneras|de todos modos|del mismo modo|después de todo|en cambio|en consecuencia|en cualquier caso|en efecto|en lugar de|en tanto que|en vez de|excepto si|igualmente|mientras que|no obstante|pese a|por consiguiente|por dicha causa|por dicha razón|por dicho motivo|por el contrario|por ello|por ende|por esa causa|por esa razón|por ese motivo|por lo que|por lo tanto|por tal causa|por tal motivo|por tal razón|por tanto|sea como sea|sin embargo|sino|tal como|tal y como|y con eso evidentials: (????)|, ????)|, ????]|[????]|como aconseja+|como advierte+|como apunta+|como constata+|como demuestra+|como menciona+|como muestra+|como observa+|como recomienda+|como señala+|como sugiere+ code glosses: a saber|calificad* de|como el|como l++|concretamente|conocid++ como|de hecho|de la siguiente manera|forma|modo|definid++ como|denominad++|dicho con otras palabras|dicho de otra forma|dicho de otra manera|dicho de otro modo|efectivamente|en concreto|en cuatro palabras|en dos palabras|en otras palabras|en particular|en pocas palabras|en realidad|en una palabra|entendid++ como|es decir|específicamente|esto es|esto quiere decir|esto significa|llamad++|lo que quiere decir|lo que quiere significa|mejor dicho|o sea|p.ej.|particularmente|por ejemplo|queremos decir|quiero decir|realmente|significa|sirva de ejemplo|verdaderamente hedges: daría|debería*|en torno a|habría|habrían|parec*|podría*|posible+|posiblemente|puede|pueden|puedes|puedo|quizá+|serí*|supondría|tendría boosters: absolutamente|altamente|claramente|completamente|dem++str*|efectivamente|evidentemente|extremadamente|más que nunca|muy|notablemente|de forma notable|de manera notable|perfectamente|plen++|plenamente|por supuesto|significativamente|sin lugar a dudas|sin duda|sobre todo|totalmente|verdader++|verdaderamente a gallego-hernández & rodríguez-inés ibérica 41 (2021): 103-130130 figure 8. interactional resources (spanish keywords). attitude markers: !|adecuad++|afortunadamente|por fortuna|agradec*|ambici*|apropiad++|atractiv++|bella+|buen++|conf+a*|considerable+|convencid*|convicción|cualificado+|de calidad|desafortunadamente|deseable+|deseamos|efica+++|eficazmente|esencial++|especial++|espectacular++|esperamos|excelente+|excepcional++|excesiv++|extraordinari++|fantástic++|favorablemente|feliz |felices|formidable+|gracias a+|gran+++|grave+|hay que|importante+|inapropiad++|ingrat++|innovador++|interesamos|*mos interés|nuestro+ inter+s++|mi+ inter+s++|lament*|mejor++|necesariamente|óptim++|optimist++|optimismo|orgullo* de+|paradójicamente|precios++|preferible+|preocupa*|pretendemos|principal++|principalmente|prometedor++|queremos|rápid++|razonable+|riguros++|satisfactori++|significativ++|simple+|simplemente|so ña* |sueñ*|sorprendente+|sustancial++|teme*|temor|terrible+ self mentions: *emos|*amos|*imos|nos|nosotros|nuestr++ engagement markers: ?*ese|?*ate|no ?*e|no ?*es|*ás [futuro]|? [interrogación]|señoras|señores|te|tenga|permita|recuerde|deje|busque|compre|encuentre|haga|tú|tu|tus|usted++ figure 9. interactive resources (english keywords). figure 10. interactional resources (english keywords). endophoric markers: in chapter *|in part *|in section *|in the * chapter| in the * part| in the * section|in this chapter|in this part|in this section|example|fig.|figure|p.|page|table|above|before|below|earlier|later frame markers: chapter|part|section|the * chapter|the * part|the * section|this chapter|this part|this section|finally|first|first of all|firstly|last|lastly|(a)|a)|a.|next|(1)|1)|1.|second|secondly|subsequently|then|third|thirdly|to begin|to start with|all in all|at this point|at this stage|by far|for the moment|in brief|in conclusion|in short|in sum|in summary|now|on the whole|overall|so far|thus far|to conclude|to repeat|to sum up|to summarize|this chapter|this part|this section|aim|desire to|focus|goal|intend to|intention|objective|purpose|seek to|want to|wish to|would like to|back to|digress|in regard to|move on|now|resume|return to|revisit|shift to|so|to look more closely|turn to|well|with regard to transition markers: accordingly|additionally|again|also|alternatively|although|and|as a consequence|as a result|at the same time|because|besides|but|by contrast|by the same token|consequently|conversely|equally|even though|further|furthermore|hence|however|in addition|in contrast|in the same way|leads to|likewise|moreover|nevertheless|nonetheless|on the contrary|on the other hand|rather|result in|similarly|since|so|so as to|still|the result is|thereby|therefore|though|thus|whereas|while|yet evidentials: (*)|cite|quote|[*]|according to|cited|quoted code glosses: |(*)|as a matter of fact|called|defined as|e.g.|for example|for instance|i mean|i.e.|in fact|in other words|indeed|known as|namely|or|put another way|say|specifically|such as|that is|that is to say|that means|this means|viz|which means hedges: about|almost|apparent|apparently|appear|appeared|appears|approximately|argue|argued|argues|around|assume|assumed|broadly|certain amount|certain extent|certain level|claim|claimed|claims|could|couldn’t|doubt|doubtful|essentially|estimate|estimated|fairly|feel|feels|felt|frequently|from my perspective|from our perspective|from this perspective|generally|guess|indicate|indicated|indicates|in general|in most cases|in most instances|in my opinion|in my view|in this view|in our opinion|in our view|largely|likely|mainly|may|maybe|might|mostly|often|on the whole|ought|perhaps|plausible|plausibly|possible|possibly|postulate|postulated|postulates|presumable|presumably|probable|probably|quite|rather|relatively|roughly|seems|should|sometimes|somewhat|sugges t|suggested|suggests|suppose|supposed|supposes|suspect|suspects|tend to|tended to|tends to|to my knowledge|typical|typically|uncertain|uncertainly|unclear|unclearly|unlikely|usually|would|wouldn’t|in general terms boosters: actually|always|believe|believed|believes|beyond doubt|certain|certainly|clear|clearly|conclusively|decidedly|definite|definitely|demonstrate|demonstrated|demonstrates|doubtless|establish|established|evident|evidently|find|finds|found|in fact|incontestable|incontestably|incontrovertible|incontrovertibly|indeed|indisputable|indisputably|know|known|must|never|no doubt|obvious|obviously|of course|prove|proved|proves|realize|realized|realizes|really|show|showed|shown|shows|sure|surely|think|thinks|thought|truly|true|undeniable|undeniably|undisputedly|undoubtedly|without doubt attitude markers: !|admittedly|(we/i) agree|agrees|agreed|amazed|amazing|amazingly|appropriate|appropriately|astonished|astonishing|astonishingly|correctly|curious|curiously|desirable|desirably|disappointed|disappointing|disappointingly|disagre e|disagreed|disagrees|dramatic|dramatically|essential|essentially|even|expected|expectedlly|fortunate|fortunately|hopeful|hopefully|important|imp ortantly|inappropriate| inappropriately|interesting|interestingly|prefer|preferable|preferably|preferred|remarkable|remarkably|shocked|shocking|shockingly|striking|strikingly|surprised|surprising|surprisingly|unbelievable|unb elievably|understandable|understandably|unexpected|unexpectedly|unfortunate|unfortunately|unusual|unusually|usual self mentions: i|we||me|my|our|mine|us|the author|the author’s|the writer|the writer’s engagement markers: (|?|reader’s|add|allow|analyse|apply|arrange|assess|assume|by the way|calculate|choose|classify|compare|connect|consider|consult|contrast|define|demonstrate|determine|do not|develop|employ|ensure|estimate|evaluate|find|follow|go|have to|imagine|incidentally|increase|input|insert|integrate|key|let|let us|let’s|look at|mark|measure|mount|must|need to|note|notice|observe|one’s|order|ought|our|pay|picture|prepare|recall|recover|refer|regard|remember|remove|review|see|select|set|should|show|suppose|state|take|think about|think of|turn|us|use|we|you|your iberica 13 ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract one major purpose of the introduction of a research text is to announce the direction of the study (dos). yet, formulating a dos can be quite a demanding task for the novice writer. this explains why it is a common topic covered in research manuals and guidebooks of english for research and publication purposes (erpp), with both offering advice on the use of three generic linguistic resources: the purpose statement, the research question and/or the hypothesis collectively referred to by lim (2018) as directional determinants (or the determinants hereafter). the coverage of the trio, however, varies greatly between the two types of literature. research manuals often emphasize the epistemological orientation of an inquiry as a key shaper of the use of the determinants, paying little attention to their textual realizations. in contrast, erpp guidebooks tend to provide instructions concerning often overly-general linguistic conventions while downplaying how they may be constrained by epistemological considerations. both lacunae have resulted from a lack of systematic inquiries of the determinants from which empirical insights can be drawn. addressing these gaps, this paper presents a study that compares the use of the determinants in the introductions of three types of research articles published in information systems: behavioural science research, interpretivist research and design science research. results indicate marked differences in the use of the determinants across the three types of writing in terms of their choices, propositional content and linguistic realizations. drawing on these observations, the paper also discusses how to instruct novice writers in formulating epistemologically-specific directional determinants. keywords: direction of study, directional determinants, english for research and publication purposes, research articles. formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems becky s.c. kwan city university of hong kong enbkwan@cityu.edu.hk 191 ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 becky s.c. kwan resumen formulando la dirección de un estudio: variaciones en tres tradiciones epistemológicas en el ámbito de los sistemas de información uno de los principales objetivos de la introducción de un texto de investigación es anunciar la dirección que va a seguir el estudio. ahora bien, formularla puede ser una tarea bastante exigente para un investigador novel. no es, pues, de extrañar que este sea un contenido recurrente en los manuales de investigación y en las guías de inglés para la investigación y para la publicación (erpp en inglés), que ofrecen diferentes consejos relacionados con el uso de tres recursos lingüísticos genéricos: los objetivos, la pregunta de investigación y/o las hipótesis, a los que lim (2018) hace referencia bajo el término determinantes direccionales (en adelante, determinantes). no obstante, estos tres elementos son objeto de un tratamiento muy diferente en dos tipos de referencias bibliográficas. los manuales de investigación suelen hacer hincapié en la orientación epistemológica de una investigación como el principal elemento que da forma al uso de los determinantes, sin prestar mucha atención a sus realizaciones textuales. sin embargo, las guías tienden a proporcionar instrucciones respecto a convenciones lingüísticas que, a menudo, son excesivamente generales, al mismo tiempo que restan importancia al modo en que estas se constriñen por consideraciones epistemológicas. estas dos lagunas son el resultado de una falta de investigación sistemática de los determinantes de la que podrían abstraerse conocimientos empíricos. este artículo aborda estas lagunas a través de un estudio que compara el uso de los determinantes en las introducciones de tres tipos de artículos de investigación publicados en el ámbito de los sistemas de información: investigación en ciencia del comportamiento, investigación interpretativa e investigación en ciencia del diseño. los resultados obtenidos evidencian la existencia de marcadas diferencias en el uso de los determinantes en los tres tipos de investigación en lo que respecta a sus elecciones, contenido proposicional y realizaciones lingüísticas. con base en estas observaciones, el artículo reflexiona acerca del modo en que cabría instruir a los escritores noveles en la formulación de determinantes direccionales específicos desde un punto de vista epistemológico. palabras clave: dirección de estudio, determinantes direccionales, inglés para la investigación y para la publicación, artículos de investigación. 1. introduction one extremely important part of a research undertaking is setting its direction concerning what to inquire about and what to achieve, which 192 dictates how the rest of the project proceeds and keeps the researcher from “going off in unnecessary directions and tangents” (bryman, 2004: 31). in high-stakes research texts such as the thesis and the research article, the direction needs to be announced clearly in the introduction and is assessed rigorously for, inter alia, its merit and alignment with other parts of the study (e.g., theoretical framework, methodology, findings, etc.) (patton, 2015). finding the direction for an inquiry is seldom a straightforward task and is contingent upon a range of exigencies ranging from the researcher’s epistemological inclination, his/her theoretical orientation towards the subject matter, resources and to the intellectual currency of the research outcomes (see, pryor, 2010). if we add to this web of demands the linguistic dexterity involved in articulating the direction, it is not difficult to imagine how taxing the whole process can be to the budding researcher (see e.g., andrews, 2003; holliday, 2007; lim et al., 2014; patton, 2015; pryor, 2010; thomas, 2009). this explains why the topic is often given some attention in research handbooks (e.g., andrews, 2003; brown, 2010; creswell, 2009; holliday, 2007; huff, 2009; krathwohl & smith, 2005; newsome, 2016; patton, 2015; pryor, 2010; thomas, 2009) and guidebooks on english for research publication purposes (erpp) (e.g., cargill & o’connor, 2013; feak & swales, 2011; weissberg & buker, 1990). discussions often touch upon what lim (2018) refers to as three common directional determinants (“the determinants” hereafter), namely, the purpose statement, the research question and the hypothesis that can be used to express the goals of an inquiry (e.g., creswell, 2009; feak & swales, 2011; holliday, 2007; krathwohl & smith, 2005; weissberg & buker, 1990). treatment of the trio, however, varies considerably between the two kinds of literature. advice is often extensive in research manuals, emphasizing how various exigencies such as those listed earlier may constrain the choice and formulation of the determinants. among the most often discussed is the epistemological orientation of an inquiry. a distinction is usually made between positivist research (adopting mostly quantitative/statistical methods) and interpretivist research (employing mostly qualitative and hermeneutic methods of analysis), almost to the exclusion of other types of inquiries such as those seeking to solve some real-world problems, such as action research or design science research, which are gaining wide recognition in a number of disciplines. formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 193 in erpp writing guidebooks, epistemological orientations are seldom mentioned. embedded mostly in a unit on introduction-writing informed by the well-validated cars model (swales, 1990, 2004),1 instruction mostly focuses on the purpose statement normally found in the last move of the model. attention tends to be paid to a limited range of linguistic conventions of the determinant, which are usually illustrated using samples comprising simple single sentences. though complementing what is lacking in methodology manuals, the advice is largely over-general and draws on anecdotal evidence (a limitation also observed in research manuals). the drawbacks in both types of reference literature are very likely a result of the limited empirical studies on the determinants that can shed light on instruction. among the few studies addressing this lacuna are three conducted by lim and his colleagues (lim, 2014; lim et al., 2014; lim et al., 2015), which examined the use of determinants in the introduction chapters in theses in applied linguistics and language education. several key findings reported by these authors are worth noting. one is that the purpose statement (lim et al., 2015) and the research question (lim, 2014) are used much more frequently than the hypothesis (lim et al., 2014). second, the objects of inquiry represented in the purpose statements and the research questions are mostly about causal relationships among variables, a phenomenon attributable to the positivist nature of the experimental studies presented in the theses. third, the determinants are sometimes used in close proximity and notably in shift patterns (e.g., research questions shifting to hypotheses). fourth, the purpose statements in the theses were presented in a variety of complex syntactical patterns that stand in sharp contrast to those shown in most writing guidebooks. taken together, the observations reported in the studies suggest that investigations of the determinants need to take into consideration the epistemological orientation of the research writing in question. yet, when making recommendations for further studies, the authors only proposed validating their findings through cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary comparisons of positivist theses, while stopping short of calling for investigations of writing manifesting other types of epistemological traditions. nor did the authors suggest extending inquiries into the determinants used in published articles. addressing the research gap highlighted thus far, the study reported in this paper was conducted to compare the use of the three directional determinants in the introduction sections of three groups of research articles (ras) published in journals from the field of information systems, with each becky s.c. kwan ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218194 representing one of the distinct epistemological traditions, namely positivist, interpretivist and pragmatist, which make up the diverse paradigmatic landscape of this discipline. 2. conceptual framework section 2 presents the conceptual framework of the study by establishing the operational definitions of the directional determinants. this is followed by a discussion of how the use of the determinants may be constrained by the epistemological assumptions of an inquiry. 2.1. operational definitions 2.1.1. the purpose statement interpretations of the purpose statement (ps) vary in the literature. while some research guidebooks use it as an umbrella term for all three determinants (e.g., see, wilkinson, 1991), some take it to mean a descriptive statement specifying not only the goals of a study but also its justification (e.g., locke et al., 2014), context and methods (e.g., creswell, 2009). in the erpp literature, a ps is not so much defined as it is exemplified. based on the examples shown in these sources, it can be concluded that erpp scholars see a ps as a declarative sentence(s), which announces what a study intends to study and is differentiated from a standalone account that summarises a research context or research procedure (see, e.g., lim et al., 2015; swales, 1990). although the determinant can be realised in various syntactical patterns (see, lim et al., 2015), it carries an obligatory pair consisting of an investigative verb and an inquiry object realised in different grammatical units, e.g., a finite verb phrase or an infinitive verb phrase (see lim et al., 2015). such is the working definition of the determinant adopted in the current study as illustrated in the following examples. this study examined [inquiry act] the effectiveness of daily poetry reading [inquiry object]. this study is designed to investigate [inquiry act] the relationship between … [inquiry object]. (lim et al., 2015: 81-82) formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 195 2.2.2. the research question a research question (rq) is an interrogative about an inquiry object (see, e.g., andrews, 2003; creswell, 2009; lim, 2014) realised in a standalone question form or embedded in a ps-like statement as illustrated in the following examples. do learner factors, such as … have an effect on learner understanding of …? (lim, 2014: 73) what is the impact of siop on teachers and english language learners…? (lim, 2014: 81) … this study uses interviews to determine whether employees ... would give examples that appeared to be pro-social rather than selfish or organizationally destructive. (feak & swales, 2011: 112) 2.2.3. the hypothesis following research guidebooks (see, e.g., creswell, 2009), a hypothesis (h) is taken to mean a declarative sentence that predicts the relationship between two variables. hs can be signaled using the variant forms of the word “hypothesis” (e.g., “it is hypothesized that…”) or synonymous words such as “predict” or “expect” (e.g., “it is predicted that …” or “it is expected that...) (see lim et al., 2014). hs can be differentiated into the null and the alternative type. the former predicts no relationship between two variables whereas the latter predicts that a relationship exists. an alternative hypothesis can be directional (i.e., specifying how two variables are related) or non-directional. (see examples below for each type.) there is no significant difference between the effects of verbal cues and … [null] publicly traded firms will have higher growth rates than privately field firms. [alternative: directional] gender identity of religious and secular arab and jewish women is related to different sociopolitical social orders ... [alternative: non-directional] (creswell, 2009: 134-135) becky s.c. kwan ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218196 2.3. epistemological orientations and use of the determinants as briefly pointed out earlier, the epistemological orientation of an inquiry is key to the choice and the formulation of determinants. notably, h is unique to studies with a positivist orientation (see, e.g., creswell, 2009; krathwohl & smith, 2005) and in particular those operating with a hypothetico-deductive logic. inquiries of this sort normally start with formulation of hypotheses about variables, which are then proved or disproved through quantitative methods involving statistical tests. as for the rq, though it is believed to be common in both positivist and interpretivist studies, its formulations are distinct in the two types. for the latter type of research, which often adopts an inductive approach and employs qualitative methods, open non-polar rqs are usually suggested, mainly because of their exploratory or emergent rather than confirmatory nature (see, e.g., andrews, 2003; creswell, 2009)2. positivist rqs have received somewhat less attention. among the few references that have dealt with the determinant in some detail is creswell (2009), who proposes using the descriptive question to ask about the measurement of a variable and the inferential question to ask about the relationship between two variables. the former type begins with an interrogative word such as “how” and “what” whereas the latter is realised in polar form (see examples below). creswell also suggests that the inferential question and the hypothesis can be used interchangeably. how do students rate critical thinking skills? [descriptive question]. what are students’ achievement levels in science classes? [descriptive question]. does critical thinking ability relate to students’ achievement? [inferential question]. (creswell, 2009: 137) further, creswell offers the following two model scripts to distinguish the writing of a quantitative and a qualitative ps. the two can be differentiated respectively as inferential and non-inferential, although creswell does not specifically remark on that: script of quantitative ps the purpose of this __________ (experiment? survey?) study (was? will be?) to test the theory of __________ that (compares? relates?) the __________ (independent variable) to __________ (dependent variable), controlling for __________ (participants) at __________ (the research site). formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 197 script of qualitative ps the purpose of this __________ (strategy of inquiry such as ethnography, case study or other type) is (was? will be?) to (understand? describe? develop? discover?) __________ (the central phenomenon being studied)… (creswell, 2009: 131, 133) the advice of ps and rq formulation creswell provides, unfortunately, is not entirely borne out by the findings of the studies by lim and his colleagues. lim (2014) found that the rqs in his thesis corpus are predominantly inferential realised both in polar and non-polar forms while making no mention of the descriptive question. also, lim et al. (2015) identified nine syntactical patterns, suggesting the presence of a variety of possible ways of stating a purpose, which depart quite markedly from the script creswell proposed (and also from what is exemplified in erpp guidebooks). further, the determinant shift in lim et al.’s (2014) study is not mentioned either. indeed, such gaps can also be observed in other research manuals and writing guidebooks. taken together, the observations suggest a need for systematic inquiries to validate existing instruction regarding the three determinants in terms of their use propensity and linguistic realisations in research texts that assume various epistemological orientations, such as the three examined in this study. 3. the study this section first canvasses the epistemological background of information systems, showing how the field is an appropriate one for studying epistemology-sensitive use of directional determinants. it then reports the data collection strategies and the coding procedures. 3.1. information systems (is) is started out in the 1950s as a type of techno-centric research in business schools conducted by scholars trained primarily in computer science and systems engineering. work in this period was concerned mainly with designing technological systems (“systems research” hereafter) to tackle the increasing demands and problems in data management in business organisations (goes, 2014). when various social issues revolving around the use of information technology (it) emerged in the 1970s, the scope of is becky s.c. kwan ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218198 research gradually widened to include social it-related phenomena. nonsystems research traditions were brought in from other social sciences (westin et al., 1994). in the 1990s onwards, is evolved into an applied social science discipline of its own with a multi-paradigmatic landscape (avison & elliot, 2006), which now embraces three notable traditions: behavioural science research (bsr), interpretivist research (ir), and design science research (dsr) (bhattacharjee & paul, 2004; hevner et al., 2004). each tradition is distinguishable by its own goals and mode of inquiries, which in turn dictate its research methods. bsr in is is positivist in nature, as one of its main goals is to devise and prove hypotheses about the shapers of it-related social or behavioural phenomena. methods used are mostly quantitative, relying heavily on statistical tests (avison & pries-heje, 2005). classic examples are studies which develop and test hypotheses predicting acceptance of specific forms of it within organisations based on users’ perceptions of the usefulness of the it in focus (hevner et al., 2004). different traditions of ir are practised in is (chen & hirschheim, 2004) to understand holistically various cultural and social facets of it-related phenomena using various types of qualitative methods. ir is inductive in nature and analyses are mostly done hermeneutically, with many following canonical procedures of grounded theory. an example is an ethnographic case study examining what attracted software companies to outsource services to facilities in countries lacking track records of software development (abbott & jones, 2012). systems research was consolidated and renamed in the early 2000s as design science research (see, hevner et al., 2004), which is often differentiated from bsr and ir by dsr scholars in the field as pragmatist in nature in that it is concerned with generating it artefacts that have utility values. ras framed explicitly as dsr started to appear in 2008 after hevner et al. (2004) had published their influential paper that lays out the framework and guidelines of dsr. one primary goal of dsr is to create novel technological artefacts to solve “wicked problems” (hevner et al., 2004: 81) in various real-world domains and to generate knowledge about artefact designs. dsr thus operates with a problem-solving mode, which usually involves five phases of work: problem/need identification, artefact design, construction, implementation and evaluation (see, e.g., hevner & chatterjee, 2010). in dsr studies, methods take on different meanings in different phases of work. formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 199 they may mean empirical or literature search methods applied to study a target problem, empirical or theoretical methods used to evaluate artefacts, or methods of designing and implementing artefacts (see kwan, 2017). an example to illustrate such diverse method types can be found in the study by yang et al. (2012) in which the authors designed an integrated information platform for emergency response management in the beijing olympic games. their study began with a literature review and field studies involving interviews, on-site observations and round-table discussions about types of emergency that might arise in the event and the types of management response required. outcomes were fed into the design of the response system architecture, its construction and its implementation using various methods such as the compartmentalisation approach and visualisation by an online desktop geographic information system. the artefacts were evaluated in multiple iterations using methods such as laboratory testing, trial runs with personnel of the event, and interviews (yang et al., 2012). taken together, the co-existence of bsr, dsr and ir in is characterised above makes the discipline an appropriate case for comparing the use of the three directional determinants in the writing of the three types of research. data for this study comprises three corpora of introductions, each carrying 25 sourced from ras representative of each epistemological orientation in question. 3.2. the data text selection began with identifying dsr articles in journals belonging to the basket of eight (b8) that are listed on the social science citation index (ssci) and considered by is scholars as the most prestigious in the discipline (association of information systems, 2011). searches done using a judgement method were first conducted in the science direct database using keywords associated with the type of research (e.g., “design science”) and names of widely cited dsr scholars (e.g., hevner and dsr proponents cited in hevner et al., 2004). the articles generated in the search output were then read to decide whether the studies reported were qualified as dsr. the key attributes of dsr described in section 3.1 and in particular the characteristic key phases of work typical of dsr were used for the screening, namely, problem identification, design, implementation, and evaluation. in most of the articles, the first phase tends to be presented in the literature review sections whereas the other phases tend to be reported in separate sections named after the phases of work although there are a few which becky s.c. kwan ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218200 present the phases in a single section named as “methodology”.3 although a considerable number of qualified articles were found, they were distributed unevenly across the b8 journals owing to their varied scopes and orientations. with five having published very few dsr papers, searches were extended to other ssci-listed journals. the 25 articles eventually chosen were sourced from three b8 and two non-b8 journals (see4 for the titles), with five articles selected also using judgement sampling from each. all the dsr articles collected were published between 2008 (see section 3.1 for the reason) and 2015. the bsr and the ir articles were also sourced from the same five journals published in the same period (see5 for the breakdown by years). the representative characteristics of the two types of research as discussed in section 3.1 and 3.2 were used as criteria to determine the suitability of the articles. the bsr articles needed to involve hypothesis or model development6 and quantitative analyses, whereas the ir articles needed to involve primarily qualitative methods in data collection and analysis, and had no hypothesis development or testing. 3.3. coding the articles chosen were downloaded and converted into word files. the determinants used in their introductions were identified and coded in different phases using win max qda 12 (see below). to minimise subjectivity, coding in all phases was conducted independently by the author and a research assistant trained in academic discourse analysis. prior to the coding in each phase, the assistant was briefed on the coding criteria and tried out the coding procedures. at the end of each coding phase, the author and the assistant compared their coding and resolved discrepancies through discussions. when all the three phases of coding were completed, there were nine segments which both the author and the assistant agreed on as ambiguous or unclassifiable. these segments were excluded from the analysis. inter-rater reliability of coding in phases 2 to 3 was measured using the kappa statistic in spss version 23. the kappa value obtained was 0.722.7 phase 1: each introduction was read and the parts with the announcement of the direction of the reported study were coded. as determinants are located in the third move of swales’s cars structure (swales, 1990, 2004), this model was used to facilitate the searches. various linguistic cues signalling the move as reported in the literature (e.g., lim, 2014; lim et al., 2014; lim et al., 2015; swales, 1990, 2004) were used to identify the move. formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 201 phase 2: all coded move 3 segments were read to identify the determinants in them, if any. manifest determinant segments were examined and coded according to the working definitions presented in section 2.1. a determinant segment may span one or more consecutive clausal units. for example, an h segment may be realised in one independent clause with only one hypothesis. it may also straddle several coordinated and/or independent clauses with each carrying one hypothesis (or more). phase 3: this phase was prompted by the observations in phase 2, in which nuanced differences were found in the coded ps and rq segments. for example, the ps segments display two distinct types of inquiry act inquiry object pairing. one type, which fits the description in section 2.1, carries an investigative verb (e.g., “confirm”, “examine”, “explore”, “study”, “test”, etc.) and an inquiry object associated with a phenomenon or a type of behavior (e.g., “governance practices”, “the information flows”, etc.). the other pairing type is characterised by a generative verb (e.g., “develop”, “produce” or “design”) and an object associated with an artefact sought after as a research outcome (e.g., “a model”, “a method”, or a “system”). the two types of ps were respectively differentiated as investigative and generative (see examples in figure 1). among the investigative pss, two further types were distinguished. one group is inferential i.e., examining the relationship between two phenomena, and these segments were coded as inferential pss. the other group was coded as non-inferential. inquiry objects found in these segments are nonrelationship oriented. examples include experience, methods, practices, and processes (see examples in figure 1). a similar inferential/non-inferential distinction was also drawn for rqs, which were coded accordingly. note that the non-inferential rqs are different from the descriptive rqs exemplified by creswell (2009) which ask about the measurements of variables and, in fact, do not exist in these corpora. the coding generated a taxonomy8 of variants of the three generic determinants (see figure 1). the variants were subjected to a series of crosscorpora comparative analyses. details about the analytical procedures and the results are provided in section 4. becky s.c. kwan ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218202 figure 1. taxonomy of determinants developed in the current study. formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 203 determinants & sub-types glossary and sample texts purpose statement (ps) investigative ps – announces the object the author investigated – can be inferentiali or non-inferentialii, e.g., inferential …we examine the role of vws in the context of organizational team performance… specifically, we explore the dispositional factors that may contribute to vw use… bsr_jais_2012_13_735 non-inferential we explored patterns of benefits realization in the years after “golive” by conducting case studies of erp system use in four manufacturing companies in australia. ir_jais_2012_13_424 generative ps – announces artefact the author produced – can be inferential or non-inferential, e.g., inferential using cognitive emotion theory [18] as a theoretical lens, we proposed… a model relating the online store beliefs about merchandise attractiveness, site ease of use, enjoyment, and website communication style to consumer impulse buying behavior, mediated by the consumers’ emotion. bsr_im_2011_48_320 non-inferential in an effort to tackle this problem, we have developed a bayesiannetwork-based mobile application prototype… dsr_dss_2008_44_710 research question (rq) inferential rq – asks about the relationship between two phenomena, e.g., the current study asks this research question: how do business and it change affect the alignment of is strategy and business strategy via the sisp horizon and the planning process? bsr_ejis_2008_17_198 we hope to find out whether social contextual information can help improve the effectiveness of identity matching techniques… dsr_jais_2007_8_524 non-inferential rq – asks about experience, processes, methods, and practices, e.g., the study addresses a central topic in trust theory, namely what the premium on trust is. bsr_misq_2008_32_3_531 to make our research operational, we focused on the following research questions: (1) how did grupo santander manage the m&a process to generate these synergies? and (2) what role did partenón (the ict platform) play in the evolutionary m&a process? ir_ejis_2015_24_178 … how can we incorporate security as a functional requirement in the analysis and modelling of business processes? dsr_ejis_2008_17_538 hypotheses (h) directional h – specifies how one phenomenon is related to another, e.g., … this study argues that in the context of oss development projects, td positively affects both development speed and the quality of the code generated. this study also hypothesizes that these relationships are moderated by the complexity of the software being developed. bsr_jais_2010_11_684 non-directional h – does not specify how one phenomenon is related to another, e.g., our main thesis is that cfp is influenced by an individual’s dispositional differences or personality traits. bsr_ejis_2008_17_387 i focusing on casual relationship between phenomena ii non-relationship-oriented, e.g., experience, methods, practices or processes 4. results of analyses and discussion this section presents the results of the series of cross-corpora comparative analyses performed on the determinant variants (or the variants hereafter). the following analytical questions based on the discussions in the conceptual framework section and observations in the coding procedures were developed to anchor the comparisons: 1. do the rates of use of the determinant variants differ markedly within each type of ras, and do they differ markedly across the three kinds? 2. what types of inquiry objects are represented in each determinant variant and do such objects vary across the three kinds of ras? 3. do the linguistic realisations of the determinant variants vary across the three kinds of ras, and if so, what are some notable differences? to address the first question, the proportion (%) of articles in each corpus carrying a particular variant (e.g., a generative ps) was calculated. the results were then used to determine the variant’s status (i.e., obligatory, quasioptional or optional) using the benchmarking norms employed by lim (2014) for his thesis corpus: 100% as obligatory, 51-99% as quasi-obligatory, and 1-50% as optional. to ascertain that there are cross-variant and crosscorpus variations in use rates of the variants, coded segments of each variant type found in each corpus were first counted. the counts were then subjected to statistical tests run on spss version 23. the one-way (univariate) analysis of variance (anova) was first conducted (measured in effect size, η 2). an effect size of .01 is considered to be a small difference, .06 medium, and .14 large (see cohen, 1988). if a significant degree of difference was detected, the tukey post-hoc test was conducted for pairwise cross-corpora comparisons (i.e., bsr vs dsr, bsr vs ir and dsr vs ir). a p-value of less than 0.05 (<.05) indicates a significant difference. to address the second and the third analytical questions, semantic and linguistic attributes of individual variants found in each corpus were examined qualitatively also for crosscorpora comparison purpose. answers to the analytical questions are presented in the following subsections. 4.1. distribution of the generative ps and the investigative ps the generative ps (gps) and the investigative ps (ips) were found distributed becky s.c. kwan ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218204 unevenly across the three corpora. gps is quasi-obligatory in the dsr corpus but optional in the other two (see table 1). the skewed pattern was ascertained by the statistical tests (see table 2), indicating that gps is typical of dsr writing only. table 1. descriptive statistics of gps and ips in the three sub-corpora. table 2. inferential statistics of gps in the three sub-corpora. as explained earlier, gps is characterised by an obligatory pairing of a generative act – an artefact. three key verbs observed in the dsr generative pss are “develop”, “design” and “create”, which are followed by various types of technological artefacts produced by the authors (see the underlined part in text 1). the high occurrence rate of the variant in the dsr texts is attributable to their ultimate research goals of developing solutions to tackle existing problems of system design (hevner et al., 2004). such goals are encapsulated conspicuously in move 2 and move 3 of many of the dsr introductions as also illustrated in text 1. the matching problem together with the ineffectiveness of existing methods to tackle it as highlighted in move 2 of the text only makes it natural for the authors to announce in move 3 the new method they designed to solve the problem as a key goal of their study. (1) [move 2] information technology has played a critical role in tackling the identity matching problem. various techniques have been proposed. unfortunately, the effectiveness of these techniques still needs to be improved. [move 3 generative ps] … we design a new method for tackling the problem of matching criminal identities. (dsr_jais_2007_8_524) formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 205 t subdeterminant bsr dsr ir freq m sd % articles � (status) freq m sd % articles� (status) freq m sd % articles� (status) gps 7 .28 .54 24.0 (o) 20 .80 .65 68.0 (qo) 5 .20 .41 20.0 (o) ips 26 1.04 1.02 68.0 (qo) 3 .12 .33 12.0 (o) 21 .84 .75 68.0 (qo) � n=25 qo: quasi-obligatory o: optional test results anova test f(2, 72) = 9.08, p <.000, !2 = .201 post-hoc test (paired-corpora comparisons) dsr vs bsr p=.032 dsr vs ir p=0.01 bsr vs ir p=.860 t gpss also exist in the bsr and ir corpora but in small quantities only. they are, however, qualitatively different from those in the dsr texts. the inquiry objects in the seven bsr gpss found are primarily predictive models consisting of hypotheses (see text 2), and the generative verb “develop” was exclusively used, as opposed to others employed in the dsr generative ps such as “create” and “design” that denote some type of creativity. the bsr gpss are in line with the goal of the hypothetical stage typical of positivist inquiries, but probably since bsr studies do not normally end with hypothesising, they are rare in the corpus. (2) we developed a model of the dispositional factors that contribute to team technology use …(bsr_jais_2012_13_735) the five ir generative ps identified vary somewhat, ranging from developing metalanguage and proposing a frame of reference to advancing a theory (as illustrated in the underlined part of text 3). (3) in this paper, we take a step to narrow the chasm by advancing a dialectic theory of collective minding… (ir_misq_2012_36_1081) the purpose statements in both the bsr and the ir texts are predominantly investigative (ips). quasi-obligatory in both corpora (see table 1), these are only minimally optional in the dsr articles. the lopsided distribution was further confirmed by the statistical test results (table 3). table 3. inferential statistics of ips in the three sub-corpora. the distribution of ips is somewhat expected since both bsr and ir in is aim at gaining some understanding of some under-investigated phenomena as exemplified in texts 4-5 (see the underlined parts). it is logical that such phenomena are made primary objects of investigation (see the italicised parts of texts 4-5). (4) [move 2] however, the nature of the factors influencing the utilization of km technologies has not been well understood …. [r]elatively few studies becky s.c. kwan ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218206 test results anova test f(2,72) = 10.289, p = .000, !2 = .222 post-hoc test (paired-corpora comparisons) bsr-ir pair p=.619 bsr-dsr pair p=.000 ir-dsr pair p=0.003 have empirically examined this topic. [move 3] hence, this study builds on existing literature by examining the utilization of km technologies, specifically, knowledge portal (k-portal)... (bsr_ejis_2008_17_558). (5) [move 2] … notwithstanding their evident relevance, it remains unclear how exactly information systems can contribute to the sustainability transformation of organizations. …. [move 3] in this paper, we aim to identify the functional affordances information systems can provide to assist organizations in … (ir_misq_2013_37_1275) the investigative ps exists in several dsr texts only but their inquiry objects are all artefact-related as exemplified in text 6, which announces the approach the authors explored for designing a supply-chain. a search for a solution method is typical of the initial phase of the artefact design stage (see section 3.1) that leads to the actual design, implementation and evaluation of the artefact. the variant is rare in dsr introductions most probably because it is seldom the ultimate purpose of a dsr project to examine ways of designing an artefact only but to build it and demonstrate its effectiveness. where it is used, the dsr investigative ps is followed by an implicit generative goal as alluded to in text 6 (underlined part). (6) in the study reported here, we have explored a specific approach to creating a reliable and fault-tolerant supply chain capable of delivering facts stated anywhere in the entire web... (dsr_jais_2008_9_175) 4.2. distribution of the inferential and the non-inferential investigative determinants as explained earlier, both the investigative ps and the investigative rq can be inferential or non-inferential. expectedly, the inferential ps and the inferential rq show up as quasi-obligatory in the bsr corpus only (table 4) but are very rare in the ir texts. in the dsr corpus, the inferential rq is also rare but the inferential ps is non-existent. the uneven distribution pattern was further confirmed statistically (see table 5). the non-inferential investigative ps shows a rather different occurrence pattern. optional in the bsr and the dsr texts (see also table 4), it is quasiobligatory in the ir corpus, a propensity also ascertained by the statistical tests (table 5). again, the observation is somewhat expected because of the non-inferential goals of the studies reported in the ir articles. formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 207 table 4. descriptive statistics of the inferential (inf) and the non-inferential (non-inf) investigative determinants. table 5. inferential statistics of the inferential (inf) and the non-inferential (non-inf) determinants. interesting to note also is the scarcity of the non-inferential rq, which only shows up in small portions of the three corpora (see also table 4), making it optional in all three. the statistical tests show no significant cross-corpora differences. this goes against what some literature suggests about rq as a common determinant of qualitative inquiries (see, e.g., andrews, 2003). despite their paucity, the non-inferential rqs in the bsr and the ir corpora are qualitatively different from those found in the dsr texts as exemplified by texts 7-9 with each representing one of the traditions. the rqs in the three texts are all open-ended. text 7 (bsr) and text 8 (ir) ask about some social phenomena (also observed in the investigative pss of the two corpora). in contrast, the rqs in text 9 ask specifically about an it artefact, first about becky s.c. kwan ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218208 subdeterminant bsr dsr ir freq m sd % articles� (status) freq m sd % articles� (status) freq m sd % articles� (status) inf ps 19 .76 .88 56.0 (qo) 0 .00 .00 0.0 1 .004 .20 4.0 (o) inf rq 16 .64 .64 56.0 (qo) 1 .04 .20 4.0 (o) 4 .16 .37 16.0 (o) non-inf ps 7 .28 .54 24.0 (o) 3 .12 .33 12.0 (o) 20 .80 .65 68.0 (qo) non-inf rq 3 .12 .33 8.0 (o) 7 .28 .46 28.0 (o) 7 .28 .46 28.0 (o) � n=25 qo: quasi-obligatory o: optional test results anova inf ps f(2,72) = 38.853, p=.000, !2 = .350 inf rq f(2,72) = 21.077, p = .000, !2=.233 non-inf ps f(2,72) = 26.318, p=.000, !2=.264 non-inf rq rq f(2,72) = 1.314, p = .272, !2= .018 post-hoc (paired-corpora comparison) inf ps bsr vs ir p=.000 bsr vs dsr p=.000 ir vs dsr p=.834 inf rq bsr vs ir p=.000 bsr vs dsr p=0.00 ir vs dsr p=.205 non-inf ps ir vs dsr p=.000 bsr vs ir p=.000 bsr vs dsr p=.455 non-inf rq bsr vs ir p=.276 bsr vs dsr p=.318 ir vs dsr p=1.000 the way to create it and then its effectiveness in solving the problem highlighted in a preceding move 2. the two questions are similar to those in the other few dsr texts. (7) the goal was to better understand and explain how and why these organizations experienced the outcomes they did… (ir_jais_2012_13_424) (8) …we are going to address the following research question: what portfolios of exchange relationships are formed by buyers with their suppliers…? (bsr_dss_2009_47_297) (9) two research questions were examined: (1) how should an e-learning system be designed to align learning with work performance in the workplace? and (2) to what extent is such an e-learning system effective for learning in the workplace? (dsr_im_2011_48_260) 4.3. rarity of h h was expected to be predominant in the bsr corpus owing to the positivist orientation. however, this was not borne out by the data. only 10 segments of h were identified, with 9 found in 7 (28%) of the bsr texts, making it optional in the bsr corpus. among these 7 instances, 5 are non-directional and 2 directional while the null hypothesis is non-existent. the rate of h in the corpus is markedly lower than that (50%) observed by lim et al. (2014) in their applied linguistics thesis corpus, in which both directional and null hs were used. the scarcity of h can be explained by the strong presence of the inferential ps and the inferential rq in the corpus (see tables 2a & 2b), which suggests that the two are more preferred in the introductions. however, its paucity does not mean that it is not common in the bsr articles. in fact, the determinant variant occurs in large quantities in some post-introduction sections, many of which are directional and expand the inferential pss or inferential rqs announced in the introductions. this is illustrated in the following two texts. text 10a, cited from the introduction of an article, is an overall inferential rq spearheading the study. it is expanded into a total of 15 sets of hs in a hypotheses section of the article, four of which are captured in text 10b. (10a) the current study asks this research question: how do business and it change affect the alignment of is strategy …? (bsr_ejis_2008_17_198) formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 209 (10b) h1 more rapid business change predicts shorter strategic information systems planning horizons. h2 more rapid it change predicts shorter strategic information systems planning horizons. h3 a longer strategic information systems planning horizon predicts more strategic information systems planning. h3a a longer strategic information systems planning horizon predicts more strategic awareness. h3b […]. h3c […]. h15 a longer strategic information systems planning horizon predicts more strategic information systems planning. (bsr_ejis_2008_17_198) the strong presence of hs in a post-introduction section can be explained by the limited space that an introduction can afford for the writer to list and explain how the hs have been developed. text 10b again is a good example to illustrate this point. the hypothesis section from which the text is cited takes up four pages of the article (as opposed to the 2-page introduction), with each set of the 15 hs preceded by an extensive review of the literature (the longest one carrying 377 words) showing how the writers had arrived at the set. in fact, the section is the third in the article preceded by a three-page constructs section, in which the writers discuss at great length the variables appearing in the fifteen hypothesis sets. this is impossible in the introduction. drawing together the findings presented so far, it can be concluded that among the three generic directional determinants, ps is the most common in all three corpora. yet pss used in the dsr writing are predominantly generative. those used in the bsr and the ir texts are mostly investigative, with those used in the bsr writing being mostly inferential as opposed to the non-inferential ones in the ir texts. rq on the other hand is less frequently used. rqs tend to be employed in bsr writing mainly and are mostly inferential in the corpus. lastly, the use of h is somewhat restricted to a post-introduction section in the bsr texts only. this propensity suggests cross-epistemological variations in the choice and formulation of the three determinants. 4.4. integrated use of determinants notable in the data is the integrated use of multiple variant types that are becky s.c. kwan ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218210 tightly knit, as illustrated in text 11. the segment begins with a two-sentence investigative inferential ps announcing the overarching goal of the study that is elaborated in the subsequent parts. in the first half of the sentence in the ensuing paragraph, a generative ps (the italicized part) is used to introduce the interim aim of model-building associated with the hypothetical part of the study, which is immediately followed by an investigative inferential rq (the underlined part). in the last paragraph, the deductive goal of the study (i.e., validating the model) is announced through an investigative inferential ps. (11) this research examines the role of vws in facilitating team performance. to do this, we explore the dispositional antecedents and downstream consequences of vw use in teams. as such, we: (1) developed a model of the dispositional factors both general and it-specific that contribute to team technology use to understand how these relationships are affected over time by the technology design; and (2) empirically tested the model in a year-long longitudinal field study… (bsr_im_2013_50_197) integrated use of determinants was observed mostly in the bsr texts (48% of the articles as opposed to 12% and 8% of the ir and the dsr texts respectively). this observation resonates somewhat with the determinant shifts noted in lim and his colleagues’ studies of experimental theses. two notable patterns they found were ps-rq shifts (lim, 2014) and rq-h shifts (lim et al., 2014), which, however, were not observed in the bsr corpus. some of the shifts found are realised in rather complex syntactical structures, as can be observed in the second paragraph of text 11, which displays an integrated use of a generative ps in a main clause with an inferential rq nested within the infinitive verb phrase of “to understand…”, as also part of the direction of the study. 4.5. syntactical complexity of ps structural complexity was also observed within purpose statements alone. an examination of the variants of pss shows that in addition to the types reported by lim et al. (2015), there is a host of other realisations, which can be far more complex. it was also observed that some of the pss are integrated with various types of epistemic information manifested in different phrasal units. for example, in a few bsr articles, the writers formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 211 incorporated phrases showing how their studies are connected to the existing literature or indicating sites and/or methods of studies. this can be illustrated by text 12, in which the authors use the main verb (the underlined part) to state upfront the connection between their work and the existing literature before announcing the study aim through a post-modifying phrase (the italicized part), which is further specified in a noun phrase insertion (the bolded part). the sentence ends with a prepositional phrase about the method and context of study (the boxed part). (12) hence, this study builds on existing literature by examining the utilization of km technologies, specifically, knowledge portal (k-portal), through a survey of knowledge workers in consulting firms. (bsr_ejis_2008_17_558) in some ir pss, methodological or theoretical orientations are also included. in text 13, for example, methodological framing is done through a participial phrase in the marked theme position. in text 14, the theoretical orientation is represented as the object of the main verb followed by the infinitive of an investigative verb phrase. in text 15, the theoretical lens is realised as the object of a prepositional phrase placed in a final position. inclusions of methodological and theoretical orientations can be ascribed to the interpretivist traditions the authors followed, as they needed to rely on existing theories to frame their studies (e.g., the object of inquiry as in text 15) or to interpret their data (see review by wernet, 2014). (13) using a grounded theory approach, we determine the ways in which the system consisting of […] assist [sic] the skilled routine work of the caregivers on the ward. (ir_ejis_2011_20_510) (14) […] this paper takes a socio-technical approach to investigate the interaction of cotton growers […] with the agricultural dss cottonlogic by exploring both the societal and technical aspects of dss implementation. (ir_dss_2009_47_143) (15) we identify the imperative issues in foss deployment through the lens of the technology–organization–environment (toe) framework [36]. (ir_dss_2013_55_1) likewise, inclusions of the design science approach as an epistemological frame were observed in some of the dsr generative pss (see the underlined parts of texts 16 and 17), which include also the goals or capabilities of the artefacts (the italicised parts). becky s.c. kwan ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218212 (16) guided by the design science approach by hevner et al [27], we develop nano mapper, a web-based knowledge mapping system capable of providing researches and practitioners with comprehensive depictions of knowledge in the nanotechnology domain. (dsr_dss_2011_50_415) (17) we follow the design science research guidelines of hevner et al. [7] and peffers et al [12] to develop a methodology for dealing with form-based knowledge storage and representation based on the principles of factoring and synthesis and cognitive fit theory. (dsr_im_2009_46_365) these observations suggest not only the syntactic complexity of a ps but also the possible variations across the three types of writing in terms of the additional information packed into the determinant variants through various grammatical units. 5. conclusions and pedagogical implications the study reported above initially examined the three directional determinants, ps, rq and h (lim, 2018) and their textual realisations in the introduction sections of bsr, ir and dsr articles published in journals of information systems. however, as the coding of the determinants unfolded, both ps and rq each need to be differentiated further to capture more precisely their nuanced manifestations in the three types of writing, a need that has seldom been pointed out in existing methodology manuals and writing guidebooks (e.g., andrew, 2003; creswell, 2009; feak & swales, 2011). this led to the development of a taxonomy of the variants of the determinants (see column 2 in figure 2). results of analyses show that while none of the determinant variants is obligatory, each type of ra has its own characteristic, quasiobligatory ones, which calls for an epistemologically-sensitive determinant typology such as the one presented in figure 2 (see columns 3-5). figure 2. characteristic determinants in introductions of bsr, dsr and ir articles. formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 213 determinants variants bsr dsr ir ps investigative-inferential quasi-obligatory optional optional investigative-non-inferential optional optional (generative implícit) quasi-obligatory generative-inferential optional –– optional generative-non-inferential –– quasi-obligatory optional rq investigative-inferential quasi-obligatory optional optional investigative-non-inferential optional optional (generative implícit) optional h null –– –– –– directional optional –– –– non-directional optional –– optional the findings also point to some other kinds of varied use of the determinants across the three types of writing, including the more integrated use of multi-determinant types in bsr writing, integration of theoretical and epistemological framing in the pss of ir and dsr writing, or goals of artefacts as well as their functionalities in generative pss in dsr writing. such manifestations of the ps variants and in particular the structural complexities involved stand in sharp contrast to the rather simple, standalone ps structures exemplified in methodology and writing guidebooks. taken together, the outcomes of the study have extended the current understanding of the use of the three generic determinants. yet the findings would benefit from further validation using data from a larger sample of ras in is and other disciplines. research is also required to confirm whether hs and in particular directional ones tend to be used in a post-introduction section such as literature review or theoretical framework in place of inferential pss and inferential rqs. research could also be conducted to examine the determinants used in other epistemological traditions such as action research (kwan, 2018) or research that relies on theoretical proof. as alluded to at the outset of this paper, one major motivation for conducting the study was to generate empirical findings that can inform pedagogy. to address this, several implications are drawn here. first, following the practice in research manuals, instruction needs to underscore the connection between the use of directional determinants and the epistemological orientation of an inquiry. second, the determinant variants observed in this study (e.g., those for dsr projects) and their possible linguistic realisations can also be introduced. in an erpp course, students’ awareness of these can be raised through a series of exploratory activities, preferably after they have gained some knowledge about the epistemological traditions involved and the cars model. a procedural framework targeting instruction in is research writing is proposed below for illustration. students can first be asked to brainstorm for ways to express the direction of a study to draw out their knowledge of the three generic determinants (ps, rq and h). they can then be shown introductions from the three types of is articles in question and guided to observe the determinants used in move 3 of the texts. students can then share their observations, and the teacher can comment on the students’ sharing and introduce the typology shown in figure 2 to confirm and/or add to their observations. students can be further guided to explore the integrated use of determinants and their becky s.c. kwan ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218214 possible linguistic realisations (e.g., theoretical insertions in ir writing and methodological framing in dsr). the syntactical profiles of ps and rq developed by lim et al. 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(1991). the scientist’s handbook for writing papers and dissertations. prentice hall. yang, l., g. su & h. yuan (2012). “design principles of integrated information platform for emergency responses: the case of 2008 beijing olympic games”. information systems research 23: 761-786. doi: <https://doi.org/10.1287/isre. 1110.0387>. notes 1 the cars (creating a research space) model posits that introductions in research articles tend to be realised in three different moves: staking the territory, establishing a research niche, and occupying the niche. the model has also been found applicable to the description of the rhetorical structures in thesis introductions. the three determinants are primarily found in the last move of the model. 2 in many research manuals, quantitative research is used to mean positivist research while qualitative research is used to as a covering term for interpretivist research as in creswell (2009). however, this is misleading. positivism and interpretivism represent two distinct philosophical systems (beliefs) about knowledge and govern approaches to knowledge production whereas the two modifiers quantitative and qualitative mainly represent research methods or strategies. 3 there was no intention to differentiate dsr articles according to the methods of evaluation. but it was observed that in the studies presented in the dsr articles harvested for the current study, the researchers evaluated their artefacts using mostly empirical methods involving participants, but also some simulation methods. none of them reported theoretical proof. 4 the three b8 journals selected are: european journal of information systems, journal of the association for information systems, and mis quarterly. the two non-b8 journals are: decision support systems and information and management. 5 breakdown of the number of articles (n=75) by publication years: 2008 (n=17); 2009 (n=11); 2010 (n=4); 2011 (n=12); 2012 (n=13); 2013 (n=11); 2014 (n=4); 2015(n=3). 6 a model in a bsr study normally refers to a set of interrelated hypotheses, which are represented schematically using arrows. 7 kappa values ranging from 0.61 to 0.80 are regarded as substantial and those between 0.81 and 1.00 suggest “almost perfect agreement” (landis & koch, 1977: 165). 8 the taxonomy only includes types that were manifested in at least two separate segments in the data. formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems ibérica 42 (2021): 191-218 217 02 barry pennock.qxd ������� ��� ��� ���� � �������� ��������� �� ��� ������������������������������ �� ����� ���������� �� � � ��� �������� �� �� �� ���� ���� ���� ��� ����� � ��� ���� ������ �� �� ������ ���� � ��� �� ��� �� ������� �� ��� ����� ���������� �� � �������������������� ���� ������ ��� ������ !""!#� �� � �������� �� �� ���� ��������� ���� ���� � �������� �� �� � ���� ��� � ��� ��� $�� ���� ��� �������������� ����������� ������������� �� ����������� 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#�����uq 4)� ������� � ������ �� �)� . � $�.��� � �1���� �� � ���������� �� :�� �;� �� �� 4� ��� ����"� �������� �� ���1� %� ��' &��� � ��0��� � �����0�%��������� > '++�� h 7����� ;� / �.& m�7 8������ .��� �� �� �/�-' �/ ���������� ��� �� � ����2��������������,� ���� � ����� �-�� � ������ <�������� ���� ������ ������ ������������������ ��� �� ������������ ��� ��������� ��������������� ���� ��� ��@������� ������������������� ���� ��������� ����� ������� ���������� 0���&� ��� ��-�1 ������� �� � ����2��������������,� ���� � ��.�� �-�� � ���� �-�� � ������ ������������ �������� ������� ��� ���������� �� ����� ,� ���������� � ������ � ��� ���� ���� �������� ��������������� ������� :2jja(k� � )�/� /� *2l���m ibérica 11 [2006]���� �!d b (�� h<��������� ��� ������� ��� ��� +�,�i ��� h<���� �� � ����% ��������� �� ���� �� �� � ������ ���� �� ��������i �� ��� ���>������ �� ��& ����� ��& ������� ����&���0&����!����� ! :� *������� h/����� l��� � �� �� �������� �� � q���� � 2@�����i ���� � ������ �� � ���� h/��� �� � (�����i � ��� �����%&& � ���� ������ �&(������������� �&/��-(�����&#. ���������������� �������(�������������q���� ����������2�������1�� �� �2�� ������� � ����������&�� ����&�� �&q���� (�����& ������ ��������; �� ����� f���� ��!"� !""g=#������������� ������� 7�� ���� ,2�*01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in order to gain a cultural understanding of the discourse on education used by president obama, this article examines the source domains commonly used to refer to education in his state of the union addresses, from the time he took office in 2009 to 2016 when he will leave office. the study will proceed by applying insights from conceptual metaphor theory (cmt), within the field of cognitive linguistics, supplemented by the metaphor identification procedure (mip) developed by the pragglejazz group. the source domains identified and discussed are: competition and economics. in fact, the strong coherence in obama’s speeches relies on the use of the story of competition as the concept that is repeated in and across speeches and that works as a persuasive device by framing reality and directing the audience’s thinking, perception and even action. keywords: educational discourse, conceptual metaphor, cognitive analysis, president obama’s state of the union addresses. resumen u n e s tu di o c og nit iv o d e l di s c u rs o e du c at iv o d e l pr e s id e nt e ob am a a t ra v é s d e s us di s c ur s os de l e s ta d o de l a u n ió n ( 2 0 0 9 2 0 1 6 ) con el objetivo de presentar una aproximación cultural al discurso sobre educación utilizado por el presidente obama, este artículo examina los “campos a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse through the lens of his state of the union addresses (2009-2016) victoria martín de la rosa1 and luis miguel lázaro2 1complutense university of madrid (spain) and 2university of valencia (spain) mvmartin@ucm.es & luis.lazaro@uv.es 191 ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 v. martín de la rosa & l.m. lázaro origen” que habitualmente emplea para referirse a la educación en sus discursos del estado de la unión, desde que asumió el cargo de presidente en 2009 hasta este último año de su mandato, 2016. el estudio se plantea y desarrolla desde la aplicación de la teoría de la metáfora conceptual, en el campo de la lingüística cognitiva, complementado con el procedimiento de identificación de metáforas (mip) que ha desarrollado el grupo pragglejazz. los “campos origen” identificados y analizados son: la competición y la economía. en realidad, la fuerte coherencia que se observa en los discursos de obama al abordar la educación se apoya en el uso de la competición como el concepto que se repite con regularidad en sus intervenciones y que funciona como un mecanismo de persuasión que determina y condiciona el pensamiento, la percepción e incluso la acción de sus audiencias. palabras clave: discurso educativo, metáfora conceptual, análisis cognitivo, discursos de la unión del presidente obama. 1. introduction education policy is nowadays a high-priority topic on the agenda of many politicians in oecd (organisation for economic co-operation and development) member countries. such is the case in the united states, where in one way or another it has been present in the legislative debate, committee reports, and presidential meetings and speeches in the last halfcentury. indeed, it has always been a very controversial issue because as goldstein (2014: 4) claims “every new era of education reform has been characterized by a political and media war”. over the last few decades there has been a call to improve students’ performance by, in large part, raising standards. this increased interest on the part of politicians is in line with that of the audience, who have begun to pay more attention to issues such as how well schools work or students perform (diperna, 2014). in accordance with this perception and understanding, several reform initiatives have been implemented. one of the most important ones has been the effort to create a national system of standards. this move was initiated in the law goals 2000: educate america act, which was announced by president clinton in his 1997 state of the union address. he claimed to be pursuing a path of education standards, which represented what all students must know to succeed in the knowledge economy of the 21st century. the culmination of this line of thought was the test-based accountability with the enactment of the act 192 no child left behind of 2001, put forward by president bush and passed by congress with the support of both republicans and democrats. an act which to lipman (2007: 35) “crystallizes key neoliberal and neoconservative business-oriented education policies”. in 2009, president obama launched his race to the top program, which, not by accident, was a central part of the american recovery and reinvestment act (arra), a program designed to boost the economy and overcome recession. these reform initiatives in the federal education policy have been the response to a sustained concern among families, educators and public opinion because of the low academic results of primary and secondary north-american students when compared with those of other developed countries. all this has led politicians and the media to speak about an education crisis in the us, which has become a highly controversial issue nowadays. bearing in mind the most recent academic achievement results, both on a national national assessment of educational progress (naep, ies/nces, 2014) and scholastic aptitude test (sat, college board, 2014) and on an international basis programme for international student assessment (pisa, oecd, 2011; 2014) for some progressive scholars, talking about the education crisis in the usa is a spurious interpretation to cement a particular perception generated by social and economic sectors interested in promoting the development of privatization in northamerican public schools (ravitch, 2013; berliner & glass, 2014). for other more conservative sectors, it is clear that the american education system is in crisis (maranto & mcshane, 2012). in the rhetoric used in public school reform by the former presidents of america over the last thirty years, we find a very powerful device which helps both politicians and their audiences to better cope with the complex universe of politics, more particularly school reform, by giving meaning and order to what might appear as a confusing picture: metaphors. as some scholars have pointed out (lakoff & johnson, 1980; nelkin, 2001), metaphors have some kind of explanatory power to organize and simplify information and illuminate understanding. however, metaphors are not just linguistic devices but cultural ones, as certain cultural practices where some community values are selected over others will be behind the choice of particular metaphors (kövecses, 2005; lakoff, 2006). thus, a cultural understanding of school reform lies in the conceptual metaphors which politicians resort to and which serve to organize, guide and naturalize their discourse. a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 193 in this paper we will analyze the direction of president obama’s education policy to overcome some of the problems facing american education and public school. those education issues have been reflected in obama’s state of the union addresses, which have marked his tenure over the past seven and a half years and constitute a significant part of his educational ideology and, by extension, of his own political party. more particularly, the purpose of this study is to uncover the conventional metaphors on schooling and school improvement which pervade the thinking of policy makers, as audiences will use the same points of reference to think, talk, and act on those issues. therefore, given the relevance of the topic of education for american public opinion frequently discussed in the media (cossentino, 2004; diperna, 2014) the main contribution and novelty of this paper lies precisely in analyzing, within the framework of conceptual metaphor theory (cmt), this particular topic in key speeches such as obama’s state of the union addresses. as will be seen later, the importance of those addresses stems from the fact that they will be the basis to identify the programmatic priorities on the president’s legislative agenda (campbell & jamieson, 2008; shogan, 2015). we hypothesize that the metaphors used could well reflect a certain ideological position on the part of politicians and, in turn, serve to legitimize a type of discourse by framing political issues in a given way, directing the audience’s thinking and perception and eliminating alternative points of view (thompson, 1996; semino, 2008; charteris-black, 2011). thus, the guiding question is ‘in what way is education represented in obama’s speeches through the choice of the different source domains?’ the paper is organized into four sections. the first section deals with the theoretical framework, which supports the body of the paper; secondly, methodological issues are addressed; next comes the analysis section, where we present the different source domains which president obama relies on in his use of metaphors to substantiate his discourse on education, as reflected in the state of the union addresses (2009-2016) competition and economics. finally, the last section presents the conclusions drawn from analyzing the metaphors in the speeches. 2. theoretical framework this paper is primarily based on the work done on cognitive linguistics (lakoff & johnson, 1980; johnson, 1987; lakoff, 1987; lakoff & turner, v. martín de la rosa & l.m. lázaro ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212194 1989; lakoff & johnson, 1999; kövecses, 2002, 2005; lakoff, 2006). within this branch, there is a cognitive device that has proved very fruitful in yielding results, namely, metaphor. according to lakoff and johnson (1980) and kövecses (2002), conceptual metaphors allow us to understand an abstract or inherently unstructured concept in terms of a more physical, more highly structured one. in other words, this more concrete concept is based on our experience of space and motion, and on the perception we have of the world as embodied beings. the theory of embodiment, which claims that our concepts and forms of reasoning arise mainly from our bodily structures and interaction with the environment, was developed by johnson (1987) and lakoff and johnson (1999). however, it is important to stress that our concepts can go beyond our personal experience and also be acquired through communication with our peers (ritchie, 2003). a good way of representing this view of metaphor is the following: conceptual domain (a) is or stands for conceptual domain (b), which is what we call conceptual metaphor as in the wellknown example life is a journey (lakoff & johnson, 1980). it consists of two conceptual domains (a and b), and the metaphor links one to the other. a conceptual domain is a coherent organization of experience. thus, we have organized knowledge about journeys that we resort to when understanding life. understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another implies that there is a tight mapping according to which entities in the domain of life correspond to entities in the domain of journeys. the mappings are not arbitrary but grounded in our experience of the world we live in, both physical and cultural (kövecses, 2002; cortés de los rios, 2010; herrera-soler & white, 2012). at this point, we need to distinguish conceptual metaphors from metaphorical linguistic expressions. when in a relationship we say we aren’t going anywhere, we are using linguistic expressions that come from the more concrete conceptual domain “journey”, to talk about the more abstract conceptual domain “life”. the distinction is important because even though metaphors are a conceptual phenomenon they do not occur in language we have access to them through the linguistic expressions we use, which are a manifestation of the metaphor that operates in our minds. in the analysis section in the same fashion as charteris-black (2011) we will focus on the source domains chosen by president obama (competition and a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 195 economics) to convey information about the target domain: education. in the preceding lines, we have worked with a general definition of metaphor, as a process where a number of correspondences are mapped across two conceptual domains, involving some form of comparison; in other words, a process by which speakers/writers “talk about something in terms of something else” foregrounding some aspects of the phenomenon and downplaying others, as claimed by semino (2008: 86). however, even though our view of metaphor is primarily based on the work by lakoff and johnson (1980), who place metaphors in the conceptual domain, in this paper we would like to go further by analyzing metaphors as part of language use or as events of discourse following scholars such as semino (2008), steen (2008, 2011) and charteris-blacks (2011). thus, any word can be metaphorical depending on how it is used: when the meaning assigned is not the basic or common meaning of the word (as it appears in a dictionary), then it is being used metaphorically. but how is metaphor interpreted in language use? the key aspect to be taken into account is whether metaphor has been used deliberately or not, which emphasizes the communicative dimension of metaphor (steen, 2008). thus, when conventional metaphors are deliberately used, they are “revitalized” (steen, 2011), which means that they are recharged with their full metaphorical potential and processed metaphorically again. therefore, in this new perspective, a metaphor does not only exhibit a linguistic form and a conceptual nature but a communicative purpose. in that case the addressee is invited to adopt a change of perspective by looking at the target of the metaphor from the standpoint of another conceptual domain as a discourse strategy implemented for persuasive reasons. hence, this communicative aspect of metaphor will be key to analyzing metaphors as part of actual language use. on the other hand, this different approach to metaphor places the device in a new light since the metaphorical meaning which a word or expression will convey is a potential meaning which, depending on language use, will or will not be activated. in other words, meaning is not accessed or retrieved from long-term memory, as claimed by the proponents of cmt, but rather it is created by how language is used (gibbs, 2011). along the same lines, charteris-black (2011) states that politicians in trying to maximize their potential as communicators tend to rely on conventional metaphors as they v. martín de la rosa & l.m. lázaro ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212196 contribute to sounding right, which suggest the deliberate nature of metaphors and their persuasive function. the shift in meaning from one sense to the other is what enables metaphors to trigger emotional responses and persuade readers into a way of thinking (and acting). 3. texts and methodology in this section we offer an overview of the different steps taken to address the methodological issues in this analysis. firstly, we provide the criteria adopted to collect the texts which form our corpus, followed by the method used for metaphor identification and analysis. 3.1. corpus in order to make this analysis more manageable, taking into account that the topic of school reform has always attracted much media attention (cossentino, 2004), we decided to focus on the state of the union addresses from 2009 to 2016, covering the whole period from the time president obama took office to date. they are all available on the website provided in appendix 1. the total corpus size, which will help us identify the source domains used by president obama in his state of the union addresses when talking about education, is 53,947 words and spans a period of almost eight years (see appendix 3). regarding the relevance of the state of the union addresses for this paper, they may be considered the most important presidential speeches of each legislative year. they are characterized by the following features: a wide audience, both the nation and members of congress, and the policy proposals and programmatic priorities for the upcoming year (shogan, 2015). another interesting feature discussed by campbell and jamieson (2008) is that each state of the union address typically has a number of sequential arguments, which can be summarized in the following two ideas: reflection upon the current conditions of the us and identification of the issues which will constitute the president’s legislative agenda. besides, it should be pointed out that modern presidents, as is the case of president obama, have paid much attention to domestic policy (cohen, 2012). their concern to improve the educational situation in the us is a good illustration of this. finally, as for the 2009 speech, it is important to highlight that strictly speaking it is not a state of the union address as he gave that initial speech a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 197 (like the previous five presidents) when he had just been in office for a short time. however, for purposes of research, it is considered to be so by specialists since its audience, impact and influence are at the same level. 3.2. methodology since one of the most frequent criticisms of cmt is the lack of explicit criteria for identifying what constitutes a metaphor when analyzing language in discourse (gibbs, 2011), a group of scholars, known as the pragglejazz group (2007), developed the metaphor identification procedure (mip) in order to reliably identify metaphorically used words in discourse in an explicit manner. hence, our approach to the identification of metaphorical expressions is based on this method. such procedure follows a number of steps: 1. read the entire text-discourse to establish a general understanding of the meaning; 2. determine the lexical units in the text-discourse; 3a. for each lexical unit in the text, establish both its contextual meaning and its more basic contemporary meaning; 3b. for each lexical meaning, determine if it has a more basic contemporary meaning in other contexts than the one in the given context; 4. if that is the case, mark the lexical unit as metaphorical. as a result of completing the process set out above in each speech, a number of lexical items (the tokens of metaphor) were marked as metaphorical. so that the reader can know the lexical items which were identified in this manner, these lexical items will appear in italics, both in the examples found throughout the text and in appendix 2. at this stage, it must be asserted that only those lexical items which were clear examples of a metaphor were included; the less clear examples were discarded. 4. metaphor analysis: source domains after a close reading of the speeches, a total of 44 metaphors were identified in the corpus (53,947 words) roughly one every 1,200 words. these v. martín de la rosa & l.m. lázaro ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212198 metaphors originate mostly from two common source domains: competition and economics. for the sake of clarity, each of them will be treated separately, even though there is a clear intersection between both of them as will become clear. as regards the source of competition, it is very closely linked to the domain of sports, which is one of the most common source domains identified by scholars such as semino (2008) and charteris-black (2011) when analyzing political discourse. it comes as no surprise that the concept of competition, a deeply-rooted experience in western culture, is equally applied to the domain of education. economy, on the other hand, arises as a source domain exploiting projections such as education as commodity which was already identified by goatly (2007) but adding new projections such as education as an investment. further in this line of thought, the very president obama declared, in a speech given at the university of texas at austin on august 9, 2010 that “education is the economic issue of our time”. both domains have been chosen because the tokens of such metaphors are repeated frequently as will be seen in the analysis section. this means that they play a very important role in framing education. the exact number of times that each source domain was repeated in each speech can be consulted in appendix 4. before analyzing the different source domains identified, it is important that we begin by referring to one ontological metaphor: education as an entity, frequently with a bounded area (a container) as it serves as a foundation metaphor to the discourse on education. thus, this ontological metaphor will be pervasive in this type of discourse. this explains why in the speeches there are sentences such as “having access to world-class education” or “investing in education”, or “drop out rates”, where education is presented as an entity with an inside and an outside. let us look now at the additional meanings which this entity may embrace when projected onto the source domains of competition or economics. 4.1. competition metaphor according to scholars (thompson, 1996; charteris-black, 2004), press reporters tend to draw metaphors from the familiar domain of sports. the same can be said of political speeches, where one clear purpose is to involve the audience and arouse their emotions by relying on a domain of experience which, as stated by semino (2008: 99), “can simplify the a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 199 complexities of politics”. other scholars (howe, 1988; gibbs, 1994) have equally touched on the pervasiveness of the source domain of sports among american politicians, clearly eliciting the cultural values of the community where such a domain is used. accordingly, turning to sports, where the element of competition is obvious, seems to be a safe bet when trying to describe political issues. the generic metaphor life as a competition (charteris-black, 2004, 2011; al-zahrani, 2008), which underlies the notion of struggle for survival of the fittest, provides a supporting skeleton for politicians, the media and their audience to reflect, talk and act upon it. that is to say, the story of competition, which will be central to our analysis, is a powerful frame to make sense of our daily life (nerlich, 2004). hence, life can be said to be a sort of competition where to survive and to thrive, both in the social and economic spheres, you have to compete with the others around you. following charteris-black (2004), this generic metaphor can be divided into more specific metaphors by resorting to the different domains of life, education as one of them. the metaphor then becomes education is competition. elaborating on that idea, since the prototype for all kinds of competition is a physical competition (such as a race), it is hardly surprising that many of the examples we come across in the speeches account for the metaphor education is a (physical) competition, mainly a race. in other words, entering a physical competition such as a race is a prototypical way of being engaged in competition. a perfect illustration of this type of thinking can be found in the words by the scholar counts (1930: 60) when claiming: there is no principle that is more characteristic of the american theory and mode of life and that has played a larger role in shaping the development of the american educational system than the principle of individual success. […] to the americans the world is an arena and life is a race. in fact, beneath the rhetoric of many of the examples in this section, we find one of the most important clusters of conceptual metaphors grouped under the event structure metaphor (gibbs, 1994; lakoff & johnson, 1999), where the domain of events is conceptualized in terms of the domain of motion in space. this results in the metaphor activity is movement forward, which in turn branches out into other projections such as developing/succeeding is moving forward, intense v. martín de la rosa & l.m. lázaro ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212200 activity is speed or activity/competition is race (goatly, 2007). an example of this competition metaphor can be found, for instance, in the following speech: (1) that’s why instead of just pouring money into a system that’s not working, we launched a competition called race to the top. to all 50 states, we said, “if you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we’ll show you the money”. (january 25, 2011) the metaphor of racing others (race) implies the idea that contenders, in this case other states, must compete to be eligible for a grant, which will translate into additional federal dollars. moreover, this race makes also explicit the destination of such movement, the top or reaching the highest place, which stands for accomplishing an activity very successfully. the equation between speed and intense activity pushes individuals to move as quickly as possible creating in them the illusion of greater achievement. the issue of competition is consequently essential to the policies put forward by obama, as can be seen in the naming of his first initiative race to the top program. when thinking of a race, as a type of competition for speed, we picture rivals starting from the same position, so that no advantage is given to any of them. if such were the case, the situation would be considered unfair for those at a disadvantage, since to win the race they would have to invest a greater amount of effort and energy than the others. this is precisely the creative projection being exploited in the speeches: there are a number of students, mainly referring to students at an early age, who start the race from behind. of course this is an extension of the race metaphor, where the concept of race is again used differently from its basic meaning (a competition of speed) and is superimposed over the concept of students’ life; thus, life can be said to have students who are either ahead or behind, which counts as another token of metaphor. the resulting implication of being behind is that those students are more likely to fail than the others who had a privileged starting point, as shown in the following statement: (2) so let’s do what works and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. (february 12, 2013) this metaphor, where education is perceived as a race with students competing against each other, is then used as the building block for a further a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 201 elaboration of the message, which takes us to a more abstract type of competition. thus, from a physical scenario we move to a business one, where contenders are competing to be economically more powerful. thus, education as a race becomes education as a business race. in this elaboration, we can see that the competition scenario applies equally to individuals and nations, considered as anthropomorphic entities. students compete against other students in the same way as nations compete against other nations. thus, education as a race and education as a business race become the main frame of reference in the discourse on education through its repeated use by politicians, particularly by president obama. such repetition promotes a sense of familiarity on the part of the audience which, in turn, awakens some degree of trust and lack of emotional tension. therefore, the audience is encouraged into accepting naturally the frame they are exposed to. (3) this is a prescription for economic decline, because we know the countries that out-teach us today will outcompete us tomorrow. (february 24, 2009) this example takes us back again to the action is movement metaphor, as those countries with a higher standard of teaching than the usa will move forward more quickly, which represents interim success. however, for the success of this competition among nations to work, it is necessary to activate the pervasive metaphor in western thinking a state is a person (gibbs, 1994; kövecses, 2002), which allows us to project over nations skills attributed to human beings, such as racing other countries. the speed in the race metaphorically refers to the quality of teaching, in such a way that the better the standard of teaching given to students, the more advanced as a country you will be in the race on a running track, as another token of metaphor: (4) the quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. (january 25, 2011) (5) america thrived in the 20th century because we made high school free, sent a generation of gis to college, trained the best workforce in the world. we were ahead. but other countries caught on. (january 20, 2015) at the core of the source domain under discussion (competition), we find the journey metaphor whose importance is well accounted for in the work of different scholars such as semino (2008) or charteris-black (2011). v. martín de la rosa & l.m. lázaro ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212202 indeed, it serves a very important purpose for politicians as it is widely used to conceptualize any type of purposeful activity as being engaged in a race. it builds on the previously mentioned metaphor activity is movement forward (gibbs, 1994; lakoff & johnson, 1999). 4.2. economics metaphor it seems to be a fact that the discipline of economics provides a sound framework for addressing many critical educational issues faced by policymakers, as stated by hanushek and wößmann (2007). some of those issues, such as vouchers, school management, education expenditures or making schools accountable to education outcomes have come to the fore over the last few years. however, this is not something new, but rather a line of thinking which has been pursued for decades. it means that the addressee is invited to look at the target of education from a different perspective, through the eyes of the domain of economics. in this new frame, there are a number of correspondences which are mapped between both domains and which are exploited by obama in his speeches. one correspondence that is projected through the use of this metaphor is education seen as an investment. hence, in the public and compulsory levels of education, it becomes an activity where students commit resources, mostly their time as money will be provided by the state which needs to be accompanied by hard work in the hope of gaining some type of future benefit: a well-paying job, as the well-deserved prize for the person who is willing to put in all the effort needed for that future success. this is clearly implied by obama when saying: “it’s a simple fact the more education you’ve got, the more likely you are to have a good job and work your way into the middle class” in the speech given on february 12, 2013 or “real opportunity requires every american to get the education and training they need to land a good-paying job” in the speech given on january 12, 2016. that is to say, education becomes a type of investment since everything is done with an eye on the future: great expectations are generated regarding both the type of job that will be open to students, and the income they will have access to as long as they work hard enough. however, education can also be seen as an excellent investment choice on the part of the government when investing money in students. this line of thinking can be found in some of the statements by obama: a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 203 (6) every dollar we invest in high-quality early childhood education can save more than seven dollars later on by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime. (february 12, 2013) in this example we can see two metaphors. the first one, as mentioned above, touches on the issue that education is an investment, where the longterm benefits are: higher graduation rates, fewer teen pregnancies and less violent crime. the second one is the preposition “in”. its basic meaning opens up the scenario for a container, but in the contextual meaning the preposition is applied not to a container but to an abstract concept, namely “high quality early childhood education”. thus, this abstract concept is turned into a physical space. another correspondence which is exploited through the use of this metaphor is that education is treated as a commodity to be possessed (giroux & schmidt, 2004; ball, 2007; goatly, 2007), as an external object which can be obtained at a certain price to satisfy a certain need or even be sold later, in the same manner as we purchase or sell marketable items. that is to say, a great deal of emphasis is placed on having the financial means needed to bear the cost of education, as the more academic studies you do, the more expensive it becomes. for that reason, president obama, fighting in the direction of making education accessible to all, claims that it should be made more affordable and not a luxury: (7) higher education can’t be a luxury. (january, 24, 2012) (8) we have to make college affordable for every american. (january 12, 2016) as tuition fees continue to rise, college education is still out of reach for many families. however, the obama administration affirms that higher education is in fact the “pathway to individual opportunity” and a necessity for “america’s competitiveness”. for that reason, they want to ensure that every student has access to “an affordable and high-quality postsecondary education” since their success in life will depend on their skills and education (u.s. department of education, 2016). since it is true that metaphors are illuminating not only by what is retained in the mapping between source and target, but by what is left out, we must turn our attention to what is left in the dark. thus, education could also be seen as an enriching personal process where effort and hard work make sense not just from the standpoint of likely future success, but also because v. martín de la rosa & l.m. lázaro ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212204 of the present benefits of developing the potential of the mind as an individual task and as collaborative learning. however, collaborative learning seems to be left aside, since the competitive environment arising out of a marketing-based scenario appears to promote a more individual approach to learning issues. 5. conclusions the main purpose of this paper was to identify the main source domains used to talk about the target domain of education by the obama administration. for the analysis, the data we collected and used were all the state of the union addresses given by president obama (2009-2016). two source domains were chosen for analysis based on their high frequency. as for the domain of competition, it is interesting that it has a physical version education is a (physical) competition, as when two or more contenders enter a race, and an abstract version education is a (business) competition, as a metaphorical elaboration of the physical one, where the competition holds among nations. regarding the domain of economics, it makes sense because resources available to students (mostly money) are scarce, which gives way, in turn, to the competition frame. the overarching idea giving structure to the whole discourse on education and permeating the other source domain is precisely the scenario of competition, which is a concept that triggers much emotional activity (de landtsheer, 2009) and which has a high cultural salience in the usa (kövecses, 2005). thus, competition clearly underpins the domain of economics as education is portrayed as a skill to be attained through confrontation with other contenders since resources are limited. the repetition of these source domains in the same speech and across speeches operating as rhetorical devices which direct people’s attention helps in the establishment of coherence running between those texts (semino, 2008) and in creating the intended meaning as the naturalized discourse on the topic. the fact that no new source domains apart from competition or economics (very marketing-based) have been tried and tested proves that replacing conventional metaphors, at least in this type of discourse, appears to be a challenging task. a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 205 let us now go back and analyze the guiding question that was stated at the beginning of the paper. could conceptual metaphors reflect a certain ideological position on the part of politicians? the answer is a clear “yes”. taking into account that metaphors are used to focus an audience’s attention on certain elements of a communicative situation while ignoring others (semino, 2008; charteris-black, 2011), we can see in this paper that president obama relies mostly on a traditional view of education by highlighting ideas such as those of “competition” (darling-hammond, 2010; ravitch, 2010). even though this competition scenario has been equally relied upon by the last five presidents (cuban, 2013) in order to address the so called crisis of american public education, the question remains whether, as advanced by other scholars (miller & fredericks, 1990; lakoff & johnson, 1999; goatly, 2007; lakoff & wehling, 2012), alternative metaphors should be introduced to emphasize new aspects of education such as, for example, enhancing the importance of students’ role focusing on their motivation to learn and their individual growth or the fact that classmates can be seen as cooperators and not as competitors. therefore, it matters greatly which metaphors are used because of the impact they can have on political action and on shaping the minds of politicians’ audiences. another interesting point to mention is that, in the light of the results shown in appendix 4, the topic of education does not seem to play a very important role when an election year is on the horizon. consequently, metaphors on education were less visible in 2012, which was the last year of president obama’s first term in office, and this year, 2016, as it is the last year of his second and final term in office. as a concluding remark, let us say that the unifying and communicative potential of obama’s discourse on education relies on the repeated use of the story of competition, which everybody can easily relate to and which simplifies the complex flow of political events into very manageable terms. at the same time, this competition frame makes his rhetoric persuasive and compelling for americans, and bestows authority to his discourse making it sound right. article history: received 25 january 2016 received in revised form 01 june 2016 accepted 04 june 2016 v. martín de la rosa & l.m. lázaro ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212206 references a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 207 al-zahrani, a. 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(2007). washing the brain. metaphor and hidden ideology. amsterdam: john benjamins. goldstein, d. (2014). the teacher wars: a history of america’s most embattled profession. new york: doubleday. hanushek, e.a. & l. wößmann (2007). the role of school improvement in economic development. world bank policy research working paper 4122. washington: world bank. url: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/h andle/10986/7154/wps4122.pdf [05/06/2015] herrera, s.h. & m. white (eds.) (2012) metaphor and mills: figurative language in business and economics. berlin; boston: de mouton gruyter. howe, n. (1988). “metaphor in contemporary american political discourse”. metaphor and symbolic activity 3: 87-104. ies/nces (2014). results for 2013 naep mathematics and reading assessments. the natio’s report card. institute of education sciences/national center for education statistics. url: http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_math_2 013/#/executive-summary and http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_math_2 013/#/ [03/15/2015] johnson, m. (1987). the body in the mind. the bodily basis of meaning, imagination and reason. chicago: the university of chicago press. kövecses, z. (2002). metaphor. a practical introduction. oxford: oxford university press. kövecses, z. (2005). metaphor in culture. universality and variation. cambridge: cambridge university press. lakoff, g. (1987). women, fire and dangerous things. chicago: the university of chicago press. lakoff, g. 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(2001). “molecular metaphors: the gene in popular discourse”. nature reviews genetics 2: 555-559. nerlich, b. (2004). “war on foot and mouth disease in the uk, 2001: towards a cultural understanding of agriculture”. agriculture and human values 21: 15-25. oecd (2011). lessons from pisa for the united states. strong performers and successful reformers in education. paris: oecd publishing. oecd (2014). pisa 2012 results: what students know and can do – student performance in mathematics, reading and science, volume i, revised edition, february 2014. paris: pisa, oecd publishing. pragglejaz group (2007). “mip: a method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse”. metaphor and symbol 22: 1-39. ravitch, d. (2010). the death and life of the great american school system. how testing and choice are undermining education. new york: basic books. ravitch, d. (2013). reign of error. the hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to america’s public schools. new york: alfred a. knopf. ritchie, d. (2003). “argument is war or is it a game of chess? multiple meanings in the analysis of implicit metaphors”. metaphor and symbol 18: 125-146. semino, e. (2008). metaphor in discourse. cambridge: cambridge university press. shogan, c.j. (2015). the president’s state of the union address: tradition, function, and policy implications. washington: congressional research service, 7-5700. url: https://www. fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/r40132.pdf [05/12/2015] steen, g. (2008). “the paradox of metaphor: why we need a three-dimensional model of metaphor”. metaphor and symbol 23: 213-241. steen, g. (2011). “metaphor, language, and discourse processes”. discourse processes 48: 585-591. thompson, s. (1996). “politics without metaphor is like a fish without water” in s.j. mio and a.n. katz (eds.), metaphor: implications and applications, 185-201. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum. u.s. department of education (2016): “college affordability and completion: ensuring a pathway to opportunity”. url: http://www.ed.gov/college [05/15/2016]. v. martín de la rosa & l.m. lázaro ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212208 victoria martín de la rosa works as a lecturer at the ucm department of english language and linguistics. apart from her participation in research projects on european evidentiality and modality (euroevidmodffi2011-23181, evidisprag-ffi2015-65474-p), her main field of research lies on exploring the use of metaphor in different areas such as the advertising discourse or the north-american education policy (obama’s educational discourse). co-editor of thinking modally: english and contrastive studies on modality. luis miguel lázaro is a full-professor in theory and history of education at the university of valencia. he works mostly in the field of comparative and international education. he has published numerous papers and supervised many research projects in that field. his recent research has focused on the study of the north-american education policy in the last thirty years. appendix 1 corpus sources obama, b. (2009). remarks by the president in the state of the union address. url: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-barack-obama-address-joint-session-congress. [03/04/2015] obama, b. (2010). remarks by the president in the state of the union address. url: http://www.whitehouse.gov/thepress-office/remarks-president-state-union-address. [03/04/2015] obama, b. (2011). remarks by the president in the state of the union address. url: http://www.whitehouse.gov/thepress-office/2011/01/25/remarks-president-state-union-address. [03/04/2015] obama, b. (2012). remarks by the president in the state of the union address. url: http://www.whitehouse.gov/thepress-office/2012/01/24/remarks-president-state-union-address. [03/04/2015] obama, b. (2013). remarks by the president in the state of the union address. url: http://www.whitehouse.gov/thepress-office/2013/02/12/remarks-president-state-union-address. [03/04/2015] obama, b. (2014). remarks by the president in the state of the union address. url: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/28/president-barack-obamas-state-union-address. [03/04/2015] obama, b. (2015). remarks by the president in the state of the union address. url: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/20/remarks-president-state-union-address-january-20-2015. [03/04/2015] obama, b. (2016) remarks by the president in the state of the union address. url: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/12/remarks-president-barack-obama-%e2%80%93-prepareddelivery-state-union-address. [01/13/2016] appendix 2 source domains found in obama’s state of the union addresses, 2009-2016 source domain type a) competition: 1) this is a prescription for economic decline, because we know the countries that out-teach us today will outcompete us tomorrow. (2009) a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 209 2) […] by launching a national competition called race to the top to improve our schools. (2010) 3) but if we want to win the future […] then we also have to win the race to educate our kids. (2011) 4) the quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. (2011) 5) that’s why instead of just pouring money into a system that’s not working, we launched a competition called race to the top. (2011) 6) race to the top is the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation. (2011) 7) and race to the top should be the approach we follow this year as we replace no child left behind with a law that’s fully... (2011) 8) of course, the education race doesn’t end with a high school diploma. (2011) 9) so let’s do what works and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. (2013) 10) and four years ago, we started race to the top […]. (2013) 11) race to the top, with the help of governors from both parties, has helped states raise expectations and performance. (2014) 12) […], we’ll invest in new partnerships with states and communities across the country in a race to the top for your youngest children. (2014) 13) america thrived in the 20th century because we made high school free, […] we were ahead of the curve. but other countries caught on. (2015) 14) […] so that two years of college becomes as free and universal in america as high school is today. let’s stay ahead of the curve. (2015) b) economics: 1) […] where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge […]. (2009) 2) […], we’ve made historic investment in education […]. (2009) 3) we’ve made college affordable for nearly 7 million more students. (2009) 4) […], we will make sure that you can afford a higher education. (2009) 5) to make college more affordable, […]. (2010) 6) to compete, higher education must be within the reach of every american. (2011) 7) […], and used the savings to make college affordable […]. (2011) 8) higher education can’t be a luxury. (2012) 9) it is an economic imperative that every family in america should be able to afford [higher education]. (2012) 10) […] skyrocketing costs price too many young people out of a higher education, […]. (2013) 11) […] we’ve made college more affordable […]. (2013) 12) every dollar we invest in high-quality early childhood education […]. (2013) 13) […], so that no middle-class kid is priced out of a college education. (2014) 14) […] too many bright, striving americans are priced out of the education they need. (2015) 15) we have to make college affordable for every american. (2016) appendix 3 number of words per speech forming the final corpus v. martín de la rosa & l.m. lázaro ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212210 1) february 24, 2009: 6,176 words 2) january 27, 2010: 7,465 words 3) january 25, 2011: 7,036 words 4) january 24, 2012: 7,172 words 5) february 12, 2013: 6,945 words 6) january 28, 2014: 6,795 words 7) january 20, 2015: 6,893 words 8) january 12, 2016: 5,465 words appendix 4 number of tokens of each source domain in each speech a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse ibérica 33 (2017): 191-212 211 a cognitive-based approach to president obama’s educational discourse ibérica 33 (2017): …-… appendix 4 number of tokens of each source domain in each speech no tokens 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 competition 27 2 2 10 x 4 4 5 x economics 17 5 1 2 2 4 1 1 1 01 editorial.qxd editorial a review of languages for specific purposes (lsp) research over the past years, as seen through the lens of an international, jcr1 journal like ibérica, reveals a wealth of interdisciplinary research on academic and professional discourses. this is also reflected in this new issue of ibérica, which contains eight original research articles and two book reviews that provide rich interdisciplinary insight into lsp. all the contributions illustrate the wideranging scope of current research in the field of lsp, as well as the wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches. these various approaches enable us to gain a better grasp of how specific languages work and what functions they perform in real life communication. the eight contributions of this new issue are summed up below. the issue opens with an invited contribution by elena sheldon, from the university of technology, sydney (australia). her article, entitled “dialogic spaces of knowledge construction in research article conclusion sections written by english l1, english l2 and spanish l1 writers”, provides a very insightful corpus-based comparison of evaluative resources in academic written discourse in three language variables. this author draws on the appraisal framework to assess how writers negotiate and construct interactive relations through the functions of evaluative language in written texts. this article also offers important insights for teaching multilingual researchers. following sheldon’s contribution, ruth breeze’s original article “researching evaluative discourse in annual reports using semantic tagging” analyses the genre of the annual report to discuss the advantages of semantic tagging tools for investigating professional discourses. using a corpus of annual reports from the field of business, this author provides an insightful description of the discourse of annual reports to shareholders from leading uk-based companies in four sectors: pharmaceuticals, food, mining and finance. the main aim of this article is to identify and critically assess the presence of shared value-systems in the discourse of the reports. the article “améliorer la formation en français des personnels chargés du maintien de la paix: le cas des policiers jordaniens”, by elie alrabadi and ghaleb kasasbeh (yarmouk university, jordan), provides an in-depth reflection of the linguistic needs of a professional community — police officers currently undertaking their missions of peacekeeping in ibérica 35 (2018): 9-12 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 francophone countries. the rationale for the study lies in the authors’ own interest in improving their teaching approach as esp practitioners in the jordanian police languages institute, jordan. the article analyses the linguistic difficulties police face during their missions and discusses ways in which the precise language needs of these professionals can best be catered for. the original article by julia valeiras-jurado (universitat jaume i, castelló/ghent university), noelia ruiz-madrid (universitat jaume i, castelló) and geert jacobs (ghent university), entitled “revisiting persuasion in oral academic and professional genres. towards a methodological framework for multimodal discourse analysis of research dissemination talks”, focuses on oral academic and professional discourses. the authors propose a methodological framework for multimodal discourse analysis (mda) of persuasion with the aim of analysing the wide range of different semiotic modes including words, intonation, head movements and gestures. the authors also propose an interesting tentative taxonomy of persuasive strategies and provide a detailed account of how these strategies are realised multimodally. in her article “patterns of clusivity in ted talks: when ‘you’ and ‘i’ become ‘we’”, giuseppina scotto di carlo (università degli studi di napoli ‘l’orientale’, italy) adopts a discourse analytical approach to examine the persuasive functions of language in science popularisation discourse. the article combines qualitative and quantitative corpus-based methods in order to identify and describe features of scientist-audience interaction in ted (technology, entertainment, design) talks. the correlation of clusivity, tense, and modality patterns in these talks is explored and the strategies that scientists use in order to invite their audience to take on specific attitudes towards what is communicated are discussed. the original article by yan zhang (shanghai maritime university, china) and clive cole (world maritime university, sweden), entitled “maritime english as a code-tailored esp: genre-based curriculum development as a way out”, provides a sound and fundamental reflection on genre-based curriculum development in the context of maritime english. its authors propose a very insightful and comprehensive framework that bridges the code-tailored me curriculum development with the communicative language teaching approach. as these authors sensibly contend, the curriculum can be designed as to integrate linguistic systems, professional motivation and behaviours, communicative skills and cultural awareness into the teaching process. editorial ibérica 35 (2018): 9-1210 the original article “culture and identity on intercultural business requests: a genre-based comparative study”, authored by bertha dubabcock (city university of hong kong) and haiying feng (university of international business and economics, beijing, china), explores the impact of the writer’s and the receiver’s national cultures and analyses the writer’s professional identity on the move structures of persuasive requests. the study draws on the genre analysis framework to describe similarities and differences in the use of structural moves in two corpora. the article also adopts a grounded theory approach to discuss the use of persuasive strategies in writing business requests. the last original article, entitled “the perception of the “english element” in croatian ict magazines with undergraduate and graduate computer science students”, authored by daniela matić (university of split, croacia) reports on the results of a questionnaire administered to undergraduate and graduate students in computer science. the article contains an interesting commentary on students’ perceptions of issues of language acceptability and english borrowings in croatian ict terminology. as stated previously in this editorial, this new issue of ibérica also contains two reviews. the first one is a review of the volume discourse in context, edited by john flowerdew. this is a highly recommended reading for ibérica’s audience. anna stermieri’s review very convincingly argues how the book achieves its purpose. stermieri elaborates on the main strength of the volume, namely, its interdisciplinary approach, as it compares, contrasts and debates different theories and approaches to analyse discourse in context. francisco alonso almeida reviews beyond the universe of languages for specific purposes: the 21st century perspective, edited by mary frances litzler, jesús garcía laborda and cristina tejedor martínez, a collection of papers that addresses topics of interest in the field of lsp. finally, i would like to thank the following members of the editorial board (listed below in alphabetical order) for their time and interest in supporting a high quality peer-review process: mercedes rico (universidad de extremadura) and mª luisa carrió (universidad politécnica de valencia). invited external reviewers have also generously supported this process over the past months. i would also like to thank them for their detailed assessment of the manuscripts. their expertise in providing relevant feedback on the submitted work is very much appreciated. these are, in alphabetical order: annelie ädel (dalarna university, sweden) editorial ibérica 35 (2018): 9-12 11 laurence anthony (waseda university, japan) laura aull (wake forest university, us) begoña bellés (universitat jaume i, castelló, spain) miguel ángel candel (universidad politécnica de valencia, spain) tatiana canziani (university of palermo, italy) francesca costa (the open university, uk) tomas costal (universidad nacional de educación a distancia, uned, spain) olga dontcheva-navratilova (masaryk university, brno, czech republic) mercedes eurrutia (universidad de murcia) francisco ivorra (universidad politécnica de valencia, spain) michele van der merwe (stellenbosch university, south africa) guzmán mancho (universitat de lleida, spain) silvia molina (universidad politécnica de madrid, spain) sandro nielsen (aarhus university, denmark) carmen soler-monreal (universidad politécnica de valencia, spain) girolamo tessuto (university of campania ‘luigi vanvitelli’, italy) krystyna warchał (university of silesia, poland) the present issue will be the last issue managed by the current editorial team. to all of us, supporting ibérica for the past four years has been a truly rewarding experience, both personally and professionally. as this is going to be my last editorial, i would like to take the opportunity to thank my colleagues of the editorial team, for their generosity with their time and dedication in maintaining the high quality standards of ibérica. also, i am most grateful to all the members of aelfe’s executive board, the journal editorial board and the international advisory board for their support and guidance. last, but not least, on behalf of the editorial team, i would like to thank ibérica’s authors and readers, as well as aelfe members, for their interest in the journal and for making it a truly international hub for knowledge sharing and knowledge exchange in the field of lsp. carmen pérez-llantada universidad de zaragoza (spain) editor-in-chief of ibérica notas 1 2017 journal citation reports® (clarivate analytics, 2017). http://images.info.science. thomsonreuters.biz/web/thomsonreutersscience/%7bda895e0c-0d4f-44f2-a6d5-6548d983a79f%7d_ m151_crv_jcr_full_marketing_list_a4_fa.pdf (accessed 18/02/2018). editorial ibérica 35 (2018): 9-1212 iberica 13 ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper describes how computer science doctoral writers construct the closing chapters of their phd theses. the data are drawn from the chapters playing a concluding role of 48 phd theses defended at the university of glasgow from 2008 to 2014. the analysis applied a qualitative-quantitative approach. the titles of the concluding chapters of the theses were first examined and also their divisions into sections and sub-sections. then the chapters were subjected to a move-step analysis: move 1 (m1) “revisiting the study”; move 2 (m2) “consolidating research space”; move 3 (m3) “proposing practical applications and implications”, move 4 (m4) “recommending future work” and move 5 (m5) “recapitulating the study”. the results revealed that most of the computer science phd theses have one final concluding chapter with three main moves: m1, m2 and m4. the most frequent steps are “reviewing the work carried out” and “summarizing the specific work reported in every thesis chapter” in m1, “presenting results and contributions”, “answering the initial research questions or hypotheses”, and “making claims” in m2, and “acknowledging limitations” and “suggesting further research” in m4. movestep patterns appear in recurrent cycles throughout the concluding chapters. several suggestions for pedagogical purposes are provided. keywords: genre analysis, academic writing, phd thesis, computer science, conclusion. resumen a n ál i s is de mo v im ie n to s y p a s os e n l os c a pí tu l os de c o nc l u s io ne s de te s i s d o c to ra l e s e n i nf o rm áti c a este artículo describe cómo los autores de tesis doctorales en el área de la informática elaboran los capítulos de conclusión. los datos proceden de los a move-step analysis of the concluding chapters in computer science phd theses carmen soler-monreal grupo gecoler. dpto. de lingüística aplicada. universitat politècnica de valència (spain) csoler@upv.es 105 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 105 ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 carmen soler-monreal capítulos finales de 48 tesis doctorales defendidas en la universidad de glasgow entre 2008 y 2014. para el análisis se siguió un enfoque cualitativo y cuantitativo. en una primera etapa, se examinaron los títulos de los capítulos de conclusión de las tesis así como sus divisiones en secciones y subsecciones. posteriormente, se analizaron los capítulos atendiendo a unidades informativas organizadas en movimientos y pasos: movimiento 1 (m1) “revisión del estudio”; movimiento 2 (m2) “consolidación del espacio de investigación”; movimiento 3 (m3) “propuesta de aplicaciones prácticas e implicaciones”, movimiento 4 (m4) “recomendaciones para futuras investigaciones” y movimiento 5 (m5) “recapitulación del estudio”. los resultados indican que la mayoría de las tesis de este corpus de informática tiene un único capítulo final de conclusiones con tres movimientos principales: m1, m2 y m4. los pasos más frecuentes consisten en “revisar el trabajo llevado a cabo” y “resumir el trabajo específico desarrollado en cada capítulo de la tesis” en m1, “enunciar los resultados y las contribuciones en respuesta a las hipótesis y preguntas iniciales” y “reivindicar su aportación” en m2, y “reconocer limitaciones de la investigación” y “sugerir investigaciones futuras” en m4. la práctica habitual consiste en utilizar patrones de movimientos y pasos en ciclos recurrentes a lo largo de la conclusión. se aportan sugerencias con fines pedagógicos. palabras clave: análisis de género, escritura académica, tesis doctoral, informática, conclusión. 1. introduction more than four decades have elapsed since the first corpus-based genre analyses were carried out. many studies have focused on the structure of the research article (ra) written in english in order to investigate its rhetorical features. the cars (create a research space) model proposed by swales in 1990 to describe the structure of ra introductions has served as a basis for research on the rhetorical organization of other sections of academic written discourse, largely motivated by pedagogical concerns (holmes, 1997: 321). investigation of the final sections of ras has not usually distinguished between the terms “discussion” and “conclusions” (lindeberg, 1994; swales & feak, 1994; holmes, 1997; posteguillo, 1999). many studies have analyzed this discussion/conclusion section of ras in a variety of disciplines (peng, 1987; lindeberg, 1994; berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; lewin & fine, 1996; holmes, 1997, 2001; nwogu, 1997; posteguillo, 1999; peacock 2002; soler-monreal & gil-salom, 2010; basturkmen, 2012) and sub-disciplines (kanoksilapatham, 2015). they have proposed models for 106 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 106 ra discussions with various move structures, the commonest moves being related to the statement of results, the deduction, the claim and the recommendation for further research. however, and although the titles “discussion” and “conclusions” could be synonymous in an imrd four-section ra, analyses of the overall structure of ras have shown that ras in some disciplines lack a systematic pattern. in his study of 40 ras selected from three different academic journals in computer science, posteguillo (1999) could not identify a structural pattern common to a majority of ras. he found that some ras had no clearly recognizable structural model, while others tried to more closely follow wellestablished models common in other disciplines, or at least to use some of the sections in these patterns (especially introductory and concluding sections). in fact, ras very often consist of more than four sections and, apart from the discussion section, a conclusion(s) and even an implications section may be found. this led yang and allison (2003) to explore the structure of the ra closing sections reporting empirical research in applied linguistics. they used a move-step method of genre analysis based on the cars model (swales, 1990). in this model, a move categorizes segments of text in terms of their particular intentions or functions. the steps for a move are the set of rhetorical choices writers use to realize a specific purpose (yang & allison, 2003: 370). according to yang and allison, the titles of the ra closing sections reflect the most important purpose of the sections. the move characterizing the discussion section is commenting on results, while the key move in a conclusions section is “summarizing the study” and the typical move in the pedagogic implications section is “dealing with pedagogic issues”. using yang and allison’s description of moves in the final sections of ras in applied linguistics as the starting point of their analysis, other researchers developed a model to suit their findings on ras and masters dissertations. for example, in their study on ras in information systems as a branch of business and management sciences, kwan and chan (2014) noted that some moves were present in both the results and discussion sections although their frequencies of occurrences varied. they established a unified list of move and step categories for both sections (table 1). re-stat ing the niche (niche) a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 107 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 107 basturkmen (2009) also used yang and allison’s model for closing ra sections in her study of the “commenting on results” move in the discussion of results sections of ras and masters dissertations in language teaching. she concluded that the writers of the ras and dissertations repeated resultcomment sequences involving the step of explanation, the main differences between the two genres being that the sequences in the dissertations were lengthier and more detailed. she also found that the dissertation writers drew on the literature for explaining results rather than proposing alternative explanations, as ra writers did. the dissertation writers seemed to perceive themselves as novices in the academic discourse community, which made them adopt an appropriate stance by putting their own claims in the background (basturkmen, 2009: 248-249). apart from research on masters dissertations (dudley-evans, 1986; samraj, 2008; basturkmen, 2009; lewkowicz, 2009; asunción & querol, 2013), interest in scholarly texts has also been directed towards doctoral theses with the aim of helping students overcome the difficulties they face. there have been studies of the structure of phd thesis introductions (bunton, 2002; carbonell-olivares, gil-salom & soler-monreal, 2009; soler-monreal, carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132108 a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): …-… analysis based on the cars model (swales, 1990). in this model, a move categorizes segments of text in terms of their particular intentions or functions. the steps for a move are the set of rhetorical choices writers use to realize a specific purpose (yang & allison, 2003: 370). according to yang and allison, the titles of the ra closing sections reflect the most important purpose of the sections. the move characterizing the discussion section is commenting on results, while the key move in a conclusions section is “summarizing the study” and the typical move in the pedagogic implications section is “dealing with pedagogic issues”. using yang and allison’s description of moves in the final sections of ras in applied linguistics as the starting point of their analysis, other researchers developed a model to suit their findings on ras and masters dissertations. for example, in their study on ras in information systems as a branch of business and management sciences, kwan and chan (2014) noted that some moves were present in both the results and discussion sections although their frequencies of occurrences varied. they established a unified list of move and step categories for both sections (table 1). re-stating the niche (niche) re-stating the territory re-stating the niche (gaps/problems) re-stating the hypotheses/objectives of research demonstrating methodological rigors (methods) presenting general research procedures presenting statistical procedures reporting results (results) reporting results in general reporting results in relation to specific hypotheses reporting results in relation to models commenting on results (comments) interpreting results comparing results against claims reported in the existing literature accounting for results qualifying overall claims of study (qualification) acknowledging limitations alleviating limitations claims extending the existing territory (extension) announcing contributions recommending further actions table 1. kwan and chan’s (2014) move and step model for results and discussions of ras in information systems. 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 108 carbonell-olivares & gil-salom, 2011; lim, 2014; lim, loi & hashim, 2014; lim, loi, hashim & liu, 2015); on literature review chapters (kwan, 2006; thompson, 2009; ridley, 2011; soler-monreal & gil-salom, 2014a; gil-salom & soler-monreal, 2014b; soler-monreal, 2015); on the discussion of results section (bitchener & basturkmen, 2006) and on the conclusion chapter (bunton, 2005; lewkowicz, 2012). these studies have identified disciplinary and language-specific variations in rhetorical features, offering guidelines to both supervisors and students in the writing of the phd genre. however, research on the final chapters of a phd thesis remains limited to date in spite of their important communicative role. this study examined the rhetorical structure of separate closing chapters of phd theses in computer science. the analytical focus was on how computer science writers of phd theses construct their arguments in the concluding chapters as a series of strategies for communicating scientific findings and emphasizing their contribution to the discipline. the study was limited to one discipline, since different disciplines may follow different organizational and communicative strategies (hyland, 2004: 151). computer science was chosen because i had already examined other chapters of phd theses in the field and i wanted to obtain a complete representation of the discipline in the genre. the study focused on one british university so as to investigate the actual practice of doctoral writers in computer science and ensure homogeneity in the instructions and general guidelines available to the thesis writers. as the doctoral research had taken place in an institution located in uk, i assumed the theses met native-speaker standards for english. i also assumed that the computer science thesis supervisors shared the same views on thesis writing, as confirmed by the results of a survey among them for a previous study (soler-monreal, 2015). closely related to this study is bunton’s (2005) comparative study of 45 phd conclusion chapters in science and technology, humanities and social sciences disciplines. bunton distinguished between thesis-oriented and fieldoriented conclusions. for thesis-oriented conclusions he proposed two move-step models with some disciplinary variation (see tables 2 and 3). a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 109 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 109 bunton found that m1 of most of the science and technology phd theses focused on the work carried out while less than 50% established the territory, centrality and the gap/niche in research. conversely, the humanities and social sciences phd theses more often focused on purpose, research questions or hypotheses. he also found that the steps in m2 often occurred in multiple cycles in all the disciplines. in both models, the most frequently used steps in m2 were method, findings/results, claims and references to previous research. the science and technology phd theses also reported on products and evaluated them. a distinct m3 was usual in the humanities and social sciences conclusions while it was often embedded in m2 or m4 in the science and technology phd theses. conversely, m4 was presented as a carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132110 a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): …-… conclusions. for thesis-oriented conclusions he proposed two move-step models with some disciplinary variation (see tables 2 and 3). usually present ! 50% present ! 25% move 1: introductory restatement territory work carried out centrality gap/niche move 2: consolidation of research space explanation method uncertainty findings/research significance claims limitations references to previous research recommendations for future research product(s) practical applications and implications move 3: practical applications and recommendations applications or implications recommendations move 4: future research previous research recommendations limitations table 2. science and technology thesis-oriented phd conclusions (bunton, 2005). usually present ! 50% present ! 25% move 1: introductory restatement gap/niche purpose, research questions or hypotheses method reference to previous research preview of chapter move 2: consolidation of research space explanation method theory findings/research information claims significance references to previous research question-raising limitations future research move 3: practical applications and recommendations reference to previous research implications claims recommendations caution/warning move 4: future research recommendations move 5: concluding restatement overall claims/findings table 3. humanities and social sciences thesis-oriented phd conclusions (bunton, 2005). bunton found that m1 of most of the science and technology phd theses focused on the work carried out while less than 50% established the territory, centrality and the gap/niche in research. conversely, the humanities and social sciences phd theses more often focused on purpose, research questions or hypotheses. he also found that the steps in m2 often occurred in multiple cycles in all the disciplines. in both models, the most frequently used steps in m2 were method, 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 110 separate distinct move in the science and technology phd theses, while it was often embedded in m2 or m3 in the humanities and social sciences conclusions. disciplinary variation was revealed because the science and technology phd theses placed greater emphasis on future research and less on practical implications and applications. moreover, m5 was not used in the science and technology conclusions. bunton also found that the science and technology chapters tend to be shorter, with fewer sections and cycles than the humanities and social sciences chapters. taking bunton’s findings for science and technology thesis-oriented phd conclusions as a reference, this study attempted to provide a detailed description of how information is organized in the closing chapters of a set of 48 phd theses in computer science defended at the university of glasgow to identify the statistically most important moves and steps. i compared data with previously investigated final chapters of dissertations or ra sections in engineering fields so as to detect specific features of the thesis genre in the discipline of computer science. 2. the discipline computer engineering emerged as a result of the development of technology in the 1940s. since then, it has experienced dramatic growth and diversification, doing research in a wide range of domains such as artificial intelligence, software development and application, hardware maintenance and implementation, telecommunications and biomedicine. computer science is concerned with the development of it system architecture, computing models and techniques, either to facilitate information communication and knowledge sharing, extend applications or improve existing models. very often, the contribution to research in the area is presented as a problem/need solving task aiming to provide users with novel or more efficient forms of technology. in some cases, a problem is introduced and an algorithm or approach is proposed as a possible solution or improvement/optimization strategy. in other cases, a new model or system architecture is presented and the results of its implementation are analyzed. another type of research consists in applying models to new environments. to accommodate to the nature of research in the field, specific textual organizations and structures are expected. a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 111 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 111 3. the corpus forty-eight theses defended between 2008 and 2014 were selected (see appendix). while the research topics of all the theses were scrutinized to avoid any remarkable deviation from empirical research, the length, gender and nationality of the authors were not controlled in the selection. the theses are examples of successful doctoral texts having all met the criteria set by the university of glasgow for the examination of doctoral work in the computing department, which provides a common link between the theses and also warrants a quality level for all of them. the number of chapters in the theses varies from 6 to 12 different chapters, divided into sections and sub-sections. five theses have traditional imrd simple patterns and one thesis is a compilation of ras. but the predominant thesis structures are the traditional complex and topic-based types. accordingly, traditional complex structures present an introduction, a literature review, an optional general methods chapter, different case studies under the imrd format, a discussion and a conclusions chapter. topic-based theses follow the structure proposed by paltridge (2002), consisting of introduction, literature review (optional), theoretical framework (optional), method, topic 1: analysis-discussion, topic 2: analysis-discussion…conclusion. the total number of pages under analysis amounts to 351 pages (mean 7.31; sd: 3.95), which represents 4.45% of the total pages of the corpus (excluding abstracts, indexes, lists of tables and figures, bibliography and appendices). the number of words is about 126,000 words. due to their complex thesis structure, most of the theses have several chapters including concluding sections or subsections with headings such as “discussion”, “summary” or “conclusion” related to a specific topic or case study. only four theses in the corpus have a separate chapter titled “discussion” (8.33%). however, all the theses have one or two separate final chapters with other titles. these closing chapters were selected for analysis. the first stage of the study was about external organizational aspects. at the second stage, internal genre structures were investigated. a quantitativequalitative approach examined the most frequent titles, the number of closing chapters used in the theses and the sections they were divided into. then these final chapters were analyzed in terms of moves and steps. carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132112 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 112 the genre analysis of the data took into account lexical signals, propositional meanings and the overall purposes of each thesis. although it is difficult to avoid subjectivity in such a qualitative study, the move-step structures were analyzed by inter-coder reliability to ensure high inter-rater agreement. one applied linguistics researcher, who shared my research interests, and myself acted as independent move-step coders. first, we created a move-step list to obtain a framework of analysis inspired on yang and allison’s (2003), bunton’s (2005) and kwan and chan’s (2014) classifications. then, each of us carried out a preliminary round of coding independently. the analysis of the actual data led us to modify some labels of moves and steps and include new categories for segments which could not match the initial typology. another round of independent coding was then undertaken. finally, meetings between the two of us took place in which we developed our move-step typology. the texts were reanalyzed looking for as much reliability and consistency of the criteria as possible. disputable cases were discussed until an agreement was reached both on the labels and the classification of the segments. to keep the analysis as simple as possible, we included neither embedded moves/steps nor sub-steps in our taxonomy. 4. results and discussion in this section, the findings of the analysis of the closing sections of the corpus are presented. first the number of closing chapters, the chapter titles and the divisions into sections and subsections are discussed. then the move-step structures and sequences are described. 4.1. analysis of chapter titles table 4 shows the titles of the closing chapters of the 48 phd theses organized according to a thematic criterion. it also contains the number of theses sharing a title and the percentage of use in the corpus. all the final chapters are conventionally labeled, the most common labels being: “conclusion(s)” (56.25% of the theses) and merged “conclusion(s) and future/further work/outlook” (37.5%). only two theses (t13, t38) end with “discussion and conclusion(s)” labels (4.17%). one final concluding chapter appears in most of the theses (87.5%), but a minority of theses have two final chapters (12.5%) with the following generic titles: “conclusion” and “future work” (t36), “future work” and “conclusion” (t6, t16, t30), a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 113 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 113 “summary and conclusions” and “future work” (t21), and “future directions” and “conclusions” (t25). in line with bunton’s (2005) conclusions, the titles corroborate the significant role of the free-standing closing conclusion(s) chapter in the thesis genre. 4.2. analysis of sections and subsections the length of the thesis and the complexity of the research often require divisions of the chapters into sections and subsections in order to organize contents with clarity. at a second stage of the analysis, i examined the divisions and subdivisions of the chapters. the conclusion chapters of 42 theses in the corpus have sections (85.5%) and 19 theses in the corpus have from two to six sub-sections (39.6%). table 5 shows the number of sections in the conclusion chapters. the data about the six theses with two closing chapters refer to the chapters including the word “conclusion(s)” in their title (the six separate chapters about future work containing from zero to five sections). most of the chapters are divided into two to four sections (58.33%). the most usual structure is that of three sections (25%). carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132114 a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): …-… title theses total number of theses % conclusion(s) t1, t3, t6, t8. t9, t10, t11, t12, t15, t16, t17, t18, t19, t20, t23, t25, t28, t30, t31, t33, t35, t36, t40, t41, t42, t44, t47 27 56.25 future work t6, t16, t21, t30, t36 5 10.42 future directions t25 1 2.08 conclusion(s) and future/further work/outlook t2, t4, t5, t7,t9, t22, t27, t28, t14,t29,t32, t34, t37, t39,t43, t45,t46, t48 18 37.5 conclusions and future research directions t24 1 2.08 discussion and conclusion(s) t13, t38 2 4.17 summary and conclusions t21 1 2.08 table 4. titles of the concluding chapters of 48 phd theses in computer science with numbers and percentage of use. 4.2. analysis of sections and subsections the length of the thesis and the complexity of the research often require divisions of the chapters into sections and subsections in order to organize contents with clarity. at a second stage of the analysis, i examined the divisions and subdivisions of the chapters. the conclusion chapters of 42 theses in the corpus have sections (85.5%) and 19 theses in the corpus have from two to six sub-sections (39.6%). table 5 shows the number of sections in the conclusion chapters. the data about the six theses with two closing chapters refer to the chapters including the word “conclusion(s)” in their title (the six separate chapters about future work containing from zero to five sections). most of the chapters are divided into two to four sections (58.33%). the most usual structure is that of three sections (25%). 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 114 the section headings and subheadings in the conclusion chapters of the theses in the corpus were also examined. i suspected this analysis could provide a macro-level framework of text organization aligned with the choice of linguistic patterning, which is situated at the root of the move-step scheme for the concluding chapters of a thesis. the analysis revealed that the majority of section headings are generic, while most of the subheadings are topic-specific. topic-specific section headings also predominate in the separate chapters about future work of the theses with two closing chapters. table 6 presents the section headings used in the conclusion chapters. as stated previously, the concluding chapters of six theses in the corpus are not divided into sections, and so no section heading is found in them. in addition, in the concluding chapters of 25 theses there is an initial paragraph that restates the work done, purpose, method and/or the main results and usually presents the chapter structure (59.5%). this introductory paragraph has no heading, except in the conclusion of t1, where it is labelled “preamble”. the varied headings of the subsequent sections show that there is freedom to decide on the words and also on the organization of the information in the concluding chapters of a thesis. however, table 6 shows that some words in the section headings predominate (although combined differently in the corpus), revealing the main purposes of the chapter: summary, contributions, future work, closing remarks. this suggests that summarizing the work done in the thesis and the contributions to research in the field, together with suggestions for future research and final remarks are obligatory in the closing chapters of the phd theses under study. however, this does not mean that, for example, sections titled “contributions” only include the description of some novel or efficient computing product like an algorithm, system architecture, model or a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 115 carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): …-… number of sections theses number of theses % 01 t7, t6, t5, t21, t25, t35 6 12.5 1 t20, t33, t34 3 6.25 2 t8, t16, t22, t30, t32, t24, t46 7 14.58 3 t11, t12, t15, t18, t23, t26, t31, t36, t39,t41, t42, t44, 12 25 4 t2, t3, t14, t17, t28, t29, t37, t43, t45 9 18.75 5 t4, t9, t19, t40 4 8.33 6 t27, t38, t48 3 6.25 7 0 0 8 t13 1 2.08 9 t1 1 2.08 table 5. number of sections in each conclusion chapter. the section headings and subheadings in the conclusion chapters of the theses in the corpus were also examined. i suspected this analysis could provide a macrolevel framework of text organization aligned with the choice of linguistic patterning, which is situated at the root of the move-step scheme for the concluding chapters of a thesis. the analysis revealed that the majority of section headings are generic, while most of the subheadings are topic-specific. topicspecific section headings also predominate in the separate chapters about future work of the theses with two closing chapters. table 6 presents the section headings used in the conclusion chapters. as stated previously, the concluding chapter of six theses in the corpus are not divided into sections, and so no section heading is found in them. in addition, in the concluding chapters of 25 theses there is an initial paragraph that restates the work done, purpose, method and/or the main results and usually presents the chapter structure (59.5%). this introductory paragraph has no heading, except in the conclusion of t1, where it is labelled “preamble”. the varied headings of the subsequent sections show that there is freedom to decide on the words and also on the organization of the information in the concluding chapters of a thesis. however, table 6 shows that some words in the section headings predominate (although combined differently in the corpus), revealing the main purposes of the chapter: summary, contributions, future work, closing remarks. this suggests that summarizing the work done in the thesis and the contributions to research in the field, together with suggestions for future research and final remarks are obligatory in the closing chapters of the phd theses under study. however, this does not mean that, for example, sections titled “contributions” only include the description of some novel or efficient computing product like an algorithm, system architecture, model or technique that was proved to work, solved a problem or had good performance. likewise, sections under the heading “future work” do not only contain a list of recommendations for further research. in fact, the move analysis revealed more complex structures. 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 115 technique that was proved to work, solved a problem or had good performance. likewise, sections under the heading “future work” do not only contain a list of recommendations for further research. in fact, the move analysis revealed more complex structures. carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132116 a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): …-… section headings theses total number of theses no section heading/preamble t1, t2, t3, t4, t8, t10, t12, t13, t14, t16, t17, t20, t29, t30, t31,t33, t34, t36, t38, t39, t41, t43, t44, t45, t47 25 first section heading 41 introduction t1, t19, t27, t37, t48 5 chapter summary t23 1 review of the thesis/(thesis)review/summary (of thesis/work) t11, t13, t14, t15, t17, t38, t39, t40, t41 9 summary of objectives t18 1 motivation revisited t4 1 thesis statement (revisited) t12, t43, t29 3 summary of findings t44 1 summary of gp modelling approach t3 1 (principal) conclusion(s) t24, t42, t46 3 (thesis) contributions t2, t16, t30 3 contributions and conclusions t22, t26, t32 3 limitations t8, t28 2 limitations and future work t33 1 future/further work t21, t34, t45 3 outstanding issues and implementations t20 1 implicit feedback t45 1 topic specific t9, t47 2 second section heading 39 (thesis) summary (of thesis) t19, t30 2 thesis statement revisited t37 1 research question 1 t35 1 significant results t13, t38 2 contributions/novel contributions to research t2, t11, t18, t29, t36, t40, t41, t43 8 measures of success t23 1 directions for future work/future research directions t15, t22, t26, t32 4 limitations t24 1 future work t17 1 strengths and limitations of the approach t8, t12, t28, t46 4 recommendations to developers t3 1 overview of research aim, objectives and programme t48 1 conclusion t39, t14 2 closing t47 1 topic-specific t2, t4, t9, t20, t22, t34, t44 7 third section heading 31 dissertation summary t40 1 answering the thesis statement t15 1 research question 2 t13, t38 2 research contributions t4 1 summary of research contributions t48 1 evaluation t36 1 summary and conclusions t12 1 further results t2 1 limitations t14 1 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 116 4.3. analysis of move structure in this section the move structure of the closing chapters in this corpus of computer science phd theses is presented. table 7 shows the five-move model for the closing chapters and the number of theses containing each move. for the six theses with two closing chapters, the moves in both chapters were included in the counting in order to obtain the complete picture of each thesis. with reference to this, as also found by yang and allison (2003), we must indicate that the moves found in the separate chapters dealing with future work match the corresponding moves in the separate conclusion chapters, which means that these chapters draw a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 117 carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): …-… future work t17, t18, t29, t31, t35, t39, t41, t42, t43, t44 10 scope for future work t3 1 future directions for research t37 1 guidelines t19 1 future work and improvements t23 1 closing remarks t26 1 conclusion t11 1 topic-specific t1, t9, t27, t28, t47 5 fourth section heading 18 research question 3 t13, t38 2 summary t29, t47 2 limitations of the research t48 1 future work t2, t4, t14, t40 4 limitations and future work t19 1 closing remarks t28 1 a final thought t17 1 conclusion(s) t3, t37 2 summary and conclusions t43 1 topic-specific t1, t9, t27 3 fifth section heading 9 research question 3 t13 1 the framework t38 1 directions for future research t48 1 conclusions t4 1 in closing t40 1 final remarks t19 1 topic-specific t1, t9, t27 3 sixth section heading 5 guidelines t13 1 conclusions t38 1 concluding remarks t48 1 topic-specific t1, t27 2 seventh section heading 2 ethical implications t1 1 future work t13 1 eighth section heading 2 future work t1 1 conclusions t13 1 ninth section heading 1 summary t1 1 table 6. organization of the information in the conclusion chapters according to section headings. 4.3. analysis of move structure in this section the move structure of the closing chapters in this corpus of computer science phd theses is presented. table 7 shows the five-move model for the closing chapters and the number of theses containing each move. for the six theses with two closing chapters, the moves in both chapters were included in the counting in order to obtain the complete picture of each thesis. with reference to this, as also found by yang 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 117 on the same moves. moreover, the moves can be used across chapters in the theses with two final closing chapters, and even sections, in the theses with one unique concluding chapter. the dominant moves are m1, m2 and m4, present in 100%, 100% and 95.83% theses respectively. in his analysis of the move structure of computer science ras, posteguillo (1999) found that concluding sections were built on two main moves: the “statement of results”and the “recommendation for further research” moves. however, this study revealed that the bulk of the conclusion of the phd theses in the corpus comprises three moves: the review of the research carried out (m1), the presentation of the results of implementing a computing model, technique or algorithm (m2) and the suggestions for future research (m4). unlike the 25 science and technology theses of bunton’s (2005) study, which did not use a concluding restatement (only one thesis-oriented phd conclusion presented it), more than half of the computer science theses in the corpus (60.42%) also have a final move recapitulating the overall study and contributions (m5). in contrast, m3 is used as a separate move by only half of the thesis writers in the corpus, probably because it is part of the thesis research itself as much research in computer science focuses on simulations and applications of a computing approach, model, algorithm or system architecture, thus evidencing practical applications and implications. this perhaps made bunton regard m3 as often embedded in m2 in the science and technology conclusions. however, although m3 can be considered to be embedded in m2 in some cases in the corpus, the sequence of move patterns allows us to treat it as a separate independent move used cyclically in combination with other moves. the moves are used in recurrent patterns in the closing chapters of 47 theses (only t25 presents the structure m1-m2-m4). the length of each thesis affords the writer space in which to discuss any decision, noteworthy results and suggestions and allows for a number of move-step cycles at different levels (the thesis, each thesis chapter, the whole study). this helps to keep the reader aware of the contribution of the current research, thus facilitating the selective reading of the thesis to the examiners. m1-m2 cycles are typically used in the corpus because the thesis writers present the specific work done in each thesis chapter together with the findings, products and claims directly related to it. although less frequently used, other cycles are m1-m4, m2-m4, m4-m3, m4-m5 and m5-m4. carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132118 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 118 4.4. analysis of step structure tables 8 to 12 show the steps found in the corpus and the frequency of the steps in each move. as done with the analysis of moves for the theses with two closing chapters, the move steps in both chapters were included in the counting to obtain the complete picture of each thesis. the main function of m1 is to remind the reader of the study and summarize what has been done through the thesis (yang & allison, 2003; lewkowicz, 2012). bunton’s (2005) findings for the set of science and technology theses showed that only the step restating the work carried out was present in at least 50% of the phd conclusions. however, the results of this analysis reveal that four steps in m1 are used by more than 50% of the thesis writers: step 1 “presenting the work carried out in the thesis”, step 2 “restating the purpose of research/research questions or hypothesis/thesis statement”, step 7 “restating the problem/need”, and step 11 “summarizing the specific work reported in every thesis chapter”. some examples of these steps are: m1 step 1: we have presented various different approaches for applying model checking to abl systems. t14 a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 119 carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): …-… move number of theses % move 1: revisiting the study 48 100 move 2: consolidating the research space 48 100 move 3: suggesting practical applications/implications 24 50 move 4: extending research in the existing territory 46 95.83 move 5: recapitulating the overall study 29 60.42 table 7. moves used in the closing chapters of the computer science phd theses. 4.4. analysis of step structure tables 8 to 12 show the steps found in the corpus and the frequency of the steps in each move. as done with the analysis of moves for the theses with two closing chapters, the move steps in both chapters were included in the counting to obtain the complete picture of each thesis. step number of theses % 1. presenting the work carried out in the thesis 40 83.33 2. restating the purpose of research/research questions or hypothesis/thesis statement 27 56.25 3. justifying the work carried out in the thesis/chapter 5 10.42 4. restating the territory 20 41.67 5. restating centrality 7 14.58 6. restating the focus of the study 13 27.08 7. restating the problem/need 27 56.25 8. restating the method 23 47.92 9. making references to previous research 12 25 10. previewing the chapter or section 23 47.92 11. summarizing the specific work reported in each thesis chapter 35 72.92 table 8. move 1: revisiting the study. the main function of m1 is to remind the reader of the study and summarize what has been done through the thesis (yang & allison, 2003; lewkowicz, 2012). bunton’s (2005) findings for the set of science and technology theses showed that only the step restating the work carried out was present in at least 50% of the phd conclusions. however, the results of this analysis reveal that four steps in m1 are used by more than 50% of the thesis writers: step 1 “presenting the work carried out in the thesis”, step 2 “restating the purpose of research/research questions or hypothesis/thesis statement”, step 7 “restating the problem/need”, and step 11 “summarising the specific work reported in every thesis chapter”. some examples of these steps are. m1 step 1: we have presented various different approaches for applying model checking to abl systems. t14 carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): …-… move number of theses % move 1: revisiting the study 48 100 move 2: consolidating the research space 48 100 move 3: suggesting practical applications/implications 24 50 move 4: extending research in the existing territory 46 95.83 move 5: recapitulating the overall study 29 60.42 table 7. moves used in the closing chapters of the computer science phd theses. 4.4. analysis of step structure tables 8 to 12 show the steps found in the corpus and the frequency of the steps in each move. as done with the analysis of moves for the theses with two closing chapters, the move steps in both chapters were included in the counting to obtain the complete picture of each thesis. step number of theses % 1. presenting the work carried out in the thesis 40 83.33 2. restating the purpose of research/research questions or hypothesis/thesis statement 27 56.25 3. justifying the work carried out in the thesis/chapter 5 10.42 4. restating the territory 20 41.67 5. restating centrality 7 14.58 6. restating the focus of the study 13 27.08 7. restating the problem/need 27 56.25 8. restating the method 23 47.92 9. making references to previous research 12 25 10. previewing the chapter or section 23 47.92 11. summarizing the specific work reported in each thesis chapter 35 72.92 table 8. move 1: revisiting the study. the main function of m1 is to remind the reader of the study and summarize what has been done through the thesis (yang & allison, 2003; lewkowicz, 2012). bunton’s (2005) findings for the set of science and technology theses showed that only the step restating the work carried out was present in at least 50% of the phd conclusions. however, the results of this analysis reveal that four steps in m1 are used by more than 50% of the thesis writers: step 1 “presenting the work carried out in the thesis”, step 2 “restating the purpose of research/research questions or hypothesis/thesis statement”, step 7 “restating the problem/need”, and step 11 “summarising the specific work reported in every thesis chapter”. some examples of these steps are. m1 step 1: we have presented various different approaches for applying model checking to abl systems. t14 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 119 in this thesis, we have introduced bigraphs with sharing, a novel generalization of milner’s bigraphs specifically conceived to enable a direct representation of spatial locations shared among several entities. t30 this thesis has described the development of a tool which allocates jobs to resources according to an assessment of suitability which takes into account a wider range of information than other comparable tools, such as the workload management system (wms). t32 m1 step 2 this dissertation was opened by posing two research questions. these were intended to focus the research such that it might lead to potential solutions to the problems. these research questions were stated in section 1.1: rq1. how can the results of human computation be improved to match the specific needs of other systems? rq2. how can human computation be extended to collect and classify useful contextual information in mobile environments? t10 the research aim of this work was defined in the introductory chapter as: to investigate and design a network routing structure and protocol suitable for assisting in the delivery of large scale content services such as video streaming services in a more efficient and localized manner exploiting localized resources and services where available. t37 the thesis statement postulated that both structures and field-based user studies are an effective methodology in developing new algorithms and visualization techniques for biological research. t47 m1 step 7 the dynamic routing problem, finding an optimal route between arbitrary pairs of nodes in spite of network dynamics, poses a unique challenge ̶ complexity. t15 in transferring systems from the laboratory to end users, a number of challenges arise: designers will likely not have easy access to individuals, there are a myriad of individual differences which means systems must be customized for each individual, and carrying out user studies with bci is costly. t28 step 11 in chapter 4, we proposed a novel news search framework that describes the search process of a universal web search engine and supports a news vertical […] in chapter 5, we presented the diverse datasets that were used to validate carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132120 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 120 our thesis statement […] in chapter 7, we investigated the news query classification component of our news search framework… t19 in m2 the thesis writer consolidates the research space s/he intended to occupy and presents the achievements and results of the study. the main objective is to show how the findings and work done contribute to the research field. in computer science research can be oriented towards evaluating the results of applying existing approaches to new situations or towards proposing a new method, algorithm or system architecture able to improve performance in a specific setting. it was observed that many theses in the corpus present both kinds of contributions. they present results based on a certain method and propose new products that prove more effective or beneficial, or vice versa. four from 12 possible steps in m2 are most often selected. typically, the theses either “describe the method of research used” (step 2), “present results” (step 3) and “establish claims” (step 10), and/or “present a new computer model, approach, algorithm or system” (step 4). “evaluating the product” (step 11, 37.5%) is also used at higher frequency than the rest of steps. m2 is lengthy and involves much detail. m2 step 3 patterns occur frequently in the corpus, as the writers profusely report on the results in each thesis chapter, showing they are aware of the need to highlight the contribution of their research in order to appeal to the examiners. some examples of these steps are: m2 step 2 continuous, transparent authentication has the potential to provide a secure environment that allows security provision to remain largely in the a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 121 carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): …-… step number of theses % 1.preview of chapter 2 4.17 2. describing the method of research/procedure 35 72.92 3.presenting findings, results, answers to rqs, confirmation of thesis statement, solutions 45 93.75 4. presenting product (model/approach/algorithm/system) 32 66.67 5. comparing results with those reported in the literature 9 18.75 6. accounting for results 10 20.83 7. interpreting results 10 20.83 8.exemplifying 2 4.17 9. evaluating results 2 4.17 10. establishing the claim 26 54.17 11. evaluating product (model/approach/algorithm/system) 18 37.5 12. indicating significance of product (model/approach/algorithm/system) 10 20.83 table 9. move 2: consolidating the research space. in m2 the thesis writer consolidates the research space s/he intended to occupy and presents the achievements and results of the study. the main objective is to show how the findings and work done contribute to the research field. in computer science research can be oriented towards evaluating the results of applying existing approaches to new situations or towards proposing a new method, algorithm or system architecture able to improve performance in a specific setting. it was observed that many theses in the corpus present both kinds of contributions. they present results based on a certain method and propose new products that prove more effective or beneficial, or vice versa. four from 12 possible steps in m2 are most often selected. typically, the theses either “describe the method of research used” (step 2), “present results” (step 3) and “establish claims” (step 10), and/or “present a new computer model, approach, algorithm or system” (step 4). “evaluating the product” (step 11, 37.5%) is also used at higher frequency than the rest of steps. m2 is lengthy and involves much detail. m2 step 3 patterns occur frequently in the corpus, as the writers profusely report on the results in each thesis chapter, showing they are aware of the need to highlight the contribution of their research in order to appeal to the examiners. some examples of these steps are: m2 step 2 continuous, transparent authentication has the potential to provide a secure environment that allows security provision to remain largely in the background, and to help alleviate the memory and task load of the device owner. in this way, it becomes another tool in a developer’s authentication and security toolbox. t4 the presented techniques included a novel mapping of exhaustive search to a constraint satisfaction problem and a hill climbing local search algorithm. t26 m2 step 3 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 121 background, and to help alleviate the memory and task load of the device owner. in this way, it becomes another tool in a developer’s authentication and security toolbox. t4 the presented techniques included a novel mapping of exhaustive search to a constraint satisfaction problem and a hill climbing local search algorithm. t26 m2 step 3 […] we have theoretically demonstrated that it is possible to look at exhaustivity and specificity as two views of the same aboutness property and not as two different aboutness relations […] we have found that all analyzed filters intersect with their underlying aboutness systems […] for xml vector space retrieval model, for instance, we could show how the brute –force filter eliminates many of its advanced reasoning capabilities. t1 m2 step 10 simulation is thus shown to be a useful tool for estimating task performance. t28 overall, the results of the evaluation suggest that the prediction of topic relevance, using the above approach, is feasible and to a certain extent implicit feedback models can benefit by incorporating such affective features. furthermore, the integration of affective features could facilitate a more natural and meaningful interaction, improve the quality of the query suggestions, as well as influence other facets of the information seeking process […] the findings suggest that affective feedback, as determined from facial expression analysis, can significantly improve the performance of a recommender system over other popular feedback techniques. t44 another contribution is the use of semantics to identify recommendations. as our evaluation indicated, semantic recommendations can successfully be employed to improve the recommendation quality. t45 move 2 step 4 using the common designs of previous systems as a guideline, a game with by-products was built called eyespy. a particular contribution of this research was that, unlike previous games with by-products, eyespy was set in a mobile environment and had the players create, validate and label image byproducts that were contextually relevant to that environment. t10 derived from this study, one contribution of this work is a model for exploiting community-based usage information for video retrieval […]. t45 from these more detailed findings and from within the literature review, a carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132122 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 122 higher-level framework was created that designers can use when designing to support impression management. t46 move 2 step 11 this system proved successful in producing useful by-products and being enjoyable to play. t10 the experimental studies reported in chapters 5-7 indicated that hds leads to good estimations of the relative arithmetic means of all the numerical values in each row or column, regardless of the size of the table, achieving 80%-90% accuracy in most cases. t42 comparisons with related literature (m2 step 5) and comments on results are not a priority (m2 steps 6, 7, 8 and 9), as also found by posteguillo (1999) in his study of ra discussion/conclusion sections in computer science. contrary to the findings in basturkmen (2009) for dissertations in language teaching, the writers of the computer science theses do not usually compare results obtained in the study with results in the literature (step 5, 18.75%) nor offer explanations for results (step 6, 20.83%), but highlight their own findings in the closing chapters of their thesis. this could be related to the fact that there is not much previous research work which may be referred to (because the thesis reports novel research or new applications), and also that explanations have been provided at length in the previous chapters of the theses. as previously stated, m3 is the least frequently used move in the corpus. much of the research in computer science deals with applying a computer approach/system/model to new uses or in new situations. thus, m2 and m3 are interrelated. the only step in m3 is found isolated from m2 in only 50% of the closing chapters. these are two examples from the corpus: this study can be of benefit to any proxemic interaction or context-aware systems that explore the use of mobile inertial sensors and external position sensing device for user matching and identification […] for instance, the system has the potential to be used in a family environment to provide personalized multimedia services and tv programs to each family member when the system matches a skeleton with a personal device through his/her everyday movements. t9 a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 123 carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): …-… study with results in the literature (step 5, 18.75%) nor offer explanations for results (step 6, 20.83%), but highlight their own findings in the closing chapters of their thesis. this could be related to the fact that there is not much previous research work which may be referred to (because the thesis reports novel research or new applications), and also that explanations have been provided at length in the previous chapters of the theses. step number of theses % proposing applications or implications 24 50 table 10. move 3: suggesting practical applications/implications. as previously stated, m3 is the least frequently used move in the corpus. much of the research in computer science deals with applying a computer approach/system/model to new uses or in new situations. thus, m2 and m3 are interrelated. the only step in m3 is found isolated from m2 in only 50% of the closing chapters. these are two examples from the corpus: this study can be of benefit to any proxemic interaction or context-aware systems that explore the use of mobile inertial sensors and external position sensing device for user matching and identification […] for instance, the system has the potential to be used in a family environment to provide personalized multimedia services and tv programs to each family member when the system matches a skeleton with a personal device through his/her everyday movements. t9 the openness and dynamism of domino’s system architecture is applicable to a variety of systems, but is especially appropriate for mobile systems because of their variety and unpredictability of patterns of use, their frequent disconnection from fixed networks, and their relatively limited amount of memory. t40 step number of theses % 1. preview of section/chapter 8 16.67 2. indicating limitations 32 66.67 3. relating to existing research 10 20.83 4. planning further actions 7 14.58 5. recommending future work (guidelines for continuing research) 44 91.67 6. overviewing the chapter 2 4.16 table 11. move 4: extending research in the existing territory. m4 suggests further research on the topic and can be considered to be obligatory in the closing chapters of the computer science theses. generally, the writers admit limitations in the study (step 2, 64.58%) or simply suggest future action (step 5, 93.75%). less frequently, the writers mention their plans for further action (step 4, 14.58%) and make references to existing research (step 3, 20.83%) to provide a link between the previous work in a specific area and the suggested further research. 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 123 the openness and dynamism of domino’s system architecture is applicable to a variety of systems, but is especially appropriate for mobile systems because of their variety and unpredictability of patterns of use, their frequent disconnection from fixed networks, and their relatively limited amount of memory. t40 m4 suggests further research on the topic and can be considered to be obligatory in the closing chapters of the computer science theses. generally, the writers admit limitations in the study (step 2, 64.58%) or simply suggest future action (step 5, 93.75%). less frequently, the writers mention their plans for further action (step 4, 14.58%) and make references to existing research (step 3, 20.83%) to provide a link between the previous work in a specific area and the suggested further research. m5 recapitulates the study and summarizes the contents of the closing chapters. the most usual steps are step 7 “highlighting overall claims/findings” (52.08%) and step 5 “recapitulating the work carried out” (31.25%). the writer aims at reviewing the thesis work and highlighting her/his claims and achievements. examples of m5 step 7 are: carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132124 carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): …-… study with results in the literature (step 5, 18.75%) nor offer explanations for results (step 6, 20.83%), but highlight their own findings in the closing chapters of their thesis. this could be related to the fact that there is not much previous research work which may be referred to (because the thesis reports novel research or new applications), and also that explanations have been provided at length in the previous chapters of the theses. step number of theses % proposing applications or implications 24 50 table 10. move 3: suggesting practical applications/implications. as previously stated, m3 is the least frequently used move in the corpus. much of the research in computer science deals with applying a computer approach/system/model to new uses or in new situations. thus, m2 and m3 are interrelated. the only step in m3 is found isolated from m2 in only 50% of the closing chapters. these are two examples from the corpus: this study can be of benefit to any proxemic interaction or context-aware systems that explore the use of mobile inertial sensors and external position sensing device for user matching and identification […] for instance, the system has the potential to be used in a family environment to provide personalized multimedia services and tv programs to each family member when the system matches a skeleton with a personal device through his/her everyday movements. t9 the openness and dynamism of domino’s system architecture is applicable to a variety of systems, but is especially appropriate for mobile systems because of their variety and unpredictability of patterns of use, their frequent disconnection from fixed networks, and their relatively limited amount of memory. t40 step number of theses % 1. preview of section/chapter 8 16.67 2. indicating limitations 32 66.67 3. relating to existing research 10 20.83 4. planning further actions 7 14.58 5. recommending future work (guidelines for continuing research) 44 91.67 6. overviewing the chapter 2 4.16 table 11. move 4: extending research in the existing territory. m4 suggests further research on the topic and can be considered to be obligatory in the closing chapters of the computer science theses. generally, the writers admit limitations in the study (step 2, 64.58%) or simply suggest future action (step 5, 93.75%). less frequently, the writers mention their plans for further action (step 4, 14.58%) and make references to existing research (step 3, 20.83%) to provide a link between the previous work in a specific area and the suggested further research. a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): …-… step number of theses % 1. previewing the chapter/section 1 2.08 2. reiterating the overall purpose/research questions or hypothesis/thesis statement 9 18.75 3. reiterating the problem/need 4 8.33 4. reiterating the method 7 14.58 5. recapitulating the work carried out 15 31.25 6. reiterating the significance of the work carried out 2 4.16 7. highlighting overall claims/findings 25 52.08 8. summarizing recommendations for future work 2 4.16 table 12. move 5: recapitulating the overall study. m5 recapitulates the study and summarizes the contents of the closing chapters. the most usual steps are step 7 “highlighting overall claims/findings” (52.08%) and step 5 “recapitulating the work carried out” (31.25%). the writer aims at reviewing the thesis work and highlighting her/his claims and achievements. examples of m5 step 7 are: the presented methodology can help in the early stages to structure design approaches and develop evaluation techniques. t1 the evaluations presented in this thesis make a significant contribution to the understanding of how users make decisions about performative interactions in real world settings. t36 this thesis has provided the first detailed experimental investigations into the design of crossmodal icons. […] this is the first time that this approach has been applied to the design of audio and tactile icons. t43 4.5. move and step sequences and cycles the m1-m2-m3-m4-m5 sequence used in the model of analysis reflects the most widely used order in which the moves appear in the texts, from most specific information reviewing the thesis work to open suggestions derived from the work done and final remarks. however, this sequence of moves is altered in some cases. for example, m4 precedes m1 in t25, and is presented in medial positions after m1-m2 cycles or in cycles with either m1 or m2 in eight theses (t2, t5, t6, t10, t12, t27, t30 and t32). the most frequent cycles of moves in the concluding chapters involve a review of the work done (m1) and of the results and contributions (m2). in 35 theses the specific work carried out in each chapter is reviewed (m1-step 11) and the partial results obtained in each chapter are presented in turn (m2-step 3). an example of this pattern is found in t29. m1 step 11. chapter 4 reported an experiment investigating the effect of layout aesthetics on performance and preference, as well as the relationship between preference and performance. 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 124 the presented methodology can help in the early stages to structure design approaches and develop evaluation techniques. t1 the evaluations presented in this thesis make a significant contribution to the understanding of how users make decisions about performative interactions in real world settings. t36 this thesis has provided the first detailed experimental investigations into the design of crossmodal icons. […] this is the first time that this approach has been applied to the design of audio and tactile icons. t43 4.5. move and step sequences and cycles the m1-m2-m3-m4-m5 sequence used in the model of analysis reflects the most widely used order in which the moves appear in the texts, from most specific information reviewing the thesis work to open suggestions derived from the work done and final remarks. however, this sequence of moves is altered in some cases. for example, m4 precedes m1 in t25, and is presented in medial positions after m1-m2 cycles or in cycles with either m1 or m2 in eight theses (t2, t5, t6, t10, t12, t27, t30 and t32). the most frequent cycles of moves in the concluding chapters involve a review of the work done (m1) and of the results and contributions (m2). in 35 theses the specific work carried out in each chapter is reviewed (m1-step 11) and the partial results obtained in each chapter are presented in turn (m2-step 3). an example of this pattern is found in t29. m1 step 11. chapter 4 reported an experiment investigating the effect of layout aesthetics on performance and preference, as well as the relationship between preference and performance. m2 step 3 […] results showed that, regardless of the search tool used performance (as represented by response time) increased with higher aesthetics levels, and decreased with lower aesthetics levels […]. m1 step 11. chapter 5 reported an experiment investigating participants’ preferences with fifteen layout metrics […] m2 step 3 results showed that there was a large variation in preferences, which indicated that it is difficult to predict interface preference precisely […]. m1 step 11. chapter 6 reported an experiment investigating visual effort with respect to layout aesthetics. m2 step 3 […] the results associated with the three levels of aesthetics a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 125 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 125 showed that visual effort increased at lower aesthetics and decreased at higher aesthetics level […]. m1 step 11. chapter 7 reported an experiment investigating the relationship between classical layout aesthetics and background image expressivity. m2 step 3. the results showed that in the context of classical aesthetics, performance was highest at high and low levels of aesthetics and worse at medium levels of aesthetics. t29 other more complex organizations recur repeatedly to various steps both in m1 and m2 at the thesis and the chapter level. first, they review the work done in the thesis (m1 step 1) and the thesis statements or initial research questions (m1 step 2). second, the specific work done (m1-step 11) is revisited and the findings (m2 step 3) or new products (m2 step 4) are presented as confirmations of the thesis statements or answers to the research questions. one explanation to this may be that the writers assume that the examiners read the introduction and conclusions chapters so as to have a clear idea of what the thesis is about before reading the whole text. an example of this pattern is found in t42: m1 step 2. research question 1 asked: how can overview information from tabular numerical data sets be obtained non-visually? m1 step 11. rq-1 was addressed firstly through a review of the literature on current accessibility tools and technologies available for visually impaired users, as well as new accessibility techniques for numerical information that are under development. secondly a user-centered requirements capture process […] provided a list of requirements. these requirements were later applied in the design of the techniques that form the main contributions of this thesis. m2 step 3. experiments reported in chapters 5 to 8, in addition to providing quantification of the performance attainable with these techniques (thus responding to rq-2 of the thesis, as summarized in section 9.2.2 below), also provided information that contributed to further answering rq-1. these findings are summarized below […] m1 step 2. research question 2 asked: what level of performance can be achieved with the techniques proposed in this thesis? m1 step 11. rq-2 has been addressed through the empirical studies reported carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132126 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 126 in chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8. these chapters reported a series of experiments which investigated the performance which could be attained in the exploration of tabular data sets for overview information using hds as implemented in tablevis. […] m2 step 3. the findings of each experimental study, and how these relate to rq-2, are summarized below […] t42 in m4, alternating recurrent steps are found: step 2 “limitations of the study” and step 5 “suggestions for further research” patterns acknowledge the limitations and suggest future research for each of the research actions presented in the thesis. such cyclicity and recurrence of patterns causes the same propositions and contents to be repeated throughout the closing chapter. the variety of patterns suggests that writers may organize their closing chapters with a certain amount of flexibility and freedom. however, repetitive contents might also indicate that writers do not know exactly how to treat the information and certain tuition could be useful. 5. conclusions in this study i analyzed how computer science doctoral writers construct the closing chapters of 48 phd theses defended at the university of glasgow using a qualitative-quantitative approach and a move-step framework. the results corroborated partly the earlier research findings about the concluding chapters of theses. i found that most theses have only one final concluding chapter, usually titled “conclusion(s)”, which is divided into sections and subsections. the section headings are generic, while the subheadings are topic-specific. another finding was that the writers of the computer science phd theses organize the contents of the closing chapters around m1-m2-m4 sequences that review the thesis work (m1), focus on the results and products developed one by one (m2) and make recommendations for further research related to every aspect under analysis (m4), thus allowing for cyclical patterns. this result is consistent with bunton’s (2005) results for a corpus of science and technology phd conclusions. however, contrary to bunton’s data, i also found that reiterating overall findings and claims in m5 occurred frequently in the computer science phd conclusions. a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 127 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 127 move-step patterns are repeated throughout the computer science phd concluding chapters. three of the possible steps in m1 are used frequently, and they are: step 1 “presenting the work carried out in the thesis”, step 2 “restating the purpose of research/research questions or hypothesis/thesis statement”, step 7 “restating the problem/need” and step 11 “summarizing the specific work reported in every thesis chapter”. the most common steps in m2 are step 2 “describing the method of research/procedure”, step 3 “presenting findings, results, answers to research questions, confirmation of thesis statement, solutions”, step 4 “presenting product (model/approach /algorithm/system)”, step 10 “establishing the claim” and step 11 “evaluating product (model/approach/algorithm/system)”. in m5, step 7 “highlighting overall claims/findings” and step 5 “recapitulating the work carried out” are the most frequently present. a possible reason for the strong presence of these steps in these theses is that the writers make efforts to promote their research and show that the results and products presented are an improvement in the field. if we compare these findings to research in other disciplines, differences emerge. indeed, the results in this study contrast with basturkmen’s (2009: 249) conclusions on language teaching dissertations, pointing out that the writers might not find it necessary to highlight the value of their research because of the limited audience of the supervisor and the examiners. the findings in this study also differ from lewkowicz’s (2012) results on a set of 12 thesis conclusions in english studies written in polish. lewkowicz concluded that the writer’s major aim was to remind the reader of important points in individual chapters rather than consolidate the research space. however, it seems that the computer science community expects thesis writers to emphasize the contribution to the field. given the complex structure of certain concluding chapters, full of movestep cycles and recurrent ideas, some guides related to the specific genre conventions could prove beneficial. eap courses could encourage practice in the phd genre and critical reflection on the relationships which are established between the thesis writer and the board of examiners. students of research writing should be informed of move-step structures which are typical of the phd closing chapters. students should also learn about the specific characteristics of the field of computer science. teaching materials could be prepared on a selection of concluding chapters in the discipline. activities based on authentic materials should focus on the purposes and patterns most often found in the conclusions of phd theses in computer carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132128 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 128 science. this could raise the students’ rhetorical consciousness and understanding of the conventions of the discipline and would help them in their own writing. drawing from a move-step model, students could discuss on the organization of the chapters and the function of the moves and steps. comparing the variety of patterns could help them discover effective strategies to write their own conclusion chapters. this study on phd thesis concluding chapters in computer science has been limited to only one university, which affects the generalizability of the findings. plans for future research concern enlarging the corpus and investigating variation across languages, disciplines and university institutions. another aspect worth of future investigation would be to compare the introduction and the conclusions chapters of the theses. this work contributes to the genre of the phd thesis by examining the rhetorical structure of separate phd thesis concluding chapters within computer science and the move structure identified can be used as a 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(2006). “the schematic structure of literature reviews in doctoral theses of applied linguistics”. english for specific purposes 25: 30-55. kwan, b. & h. chan (2014). “an investigation of source use in the results and the closing sections of empirical articles in information systems: in search of a functional-semantic citation typology for pedagogical purposes”. journal of english for academic purposes 14: 29-42. lewin, b.a. & j. fine (1996). “the writing of research texts: genre analysis and its applications” in g. rijlaarsdam, h. van der bergh & m. couzjin (eds.), theories, models and methodology in writing research, 423-444. amsterdam: amsterdam university press. lewkowicz, j. (2009). “concluding your master’s level thesis”. revista canaria de estudios ingleses 59: 63-72. lewkowicz, j. (2012). “the challenges of writing a successful thesis conclusion” in r. tang (ed.), academic writing in a second or foreign language, 107-125. london: continuum international publishing group. lim, j.m.h. (2014). “formulating research questions in experimental doctoral dissertations on applied linguistics”. english for specific purposes 35: 66-88. lim, j.m.h., c.k. loi & a. hashim (2014). “postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations on applied linguistics: a qualitative investigation into rhetorical shifts and linguistic mechanisms”. ibérica 27: 121-142. lim, j.m.h., c.k. loi, a. hashim & m.s m. liu (2015). “purpose statements in experimental doctoral dissertations submitted to u.s. universities: an inquiry into doctoral students’ communicative resources in language education”. journal of english for academic purposes 20: 69-89. lindeberg, a. (1994). “rhetorical conventions in the discussion/conclusion sections of research articles in finance, management and marketing” in m. brekke, o. anderson, t. dahl & j. myking (eds.), applications and implications of current lsp research. proceedings of the 9th european lsp symposium, bergen, norway, august 1993, 761-779. bergen, norway: fagbokforlaget. nwogu, k.n. (1997). “the medical research paper: structure and functions”. english for specific purposes 16,2: 119-138. paltridge, b. (2002). “thesis and dissertation writing: an examination of published advice and actual practice”. english for specific purposes 21: 125-143. peacock, m. (2002). “communicative moves in the discussion section of research articles”. system 30: 479-497. peng, j. (1987). “organizational features in chemical engineering research articles”. elr journal 1: 79-116. posteguillo, s. (1999). “the schematic structure of computer science research articles”. english for specific purposes 18,2: 139-160. ridley, d. (2011). the literature review. a stepby-step guide for students, 2nd ed. london: sage publications. samraj, b. (2008). "a discourse analysis of master's theses across disciplines with a focus on introductions". journal of english for academic purposes 7,1: 55-67. soler-monreal, c. & l. gil-salom (2010). “moves, steps and linguistic signals in ra discussion sections”. in w. hahn & c. vertan, c. (eds.), fachsprachen in der weltweiten kommunikation / specialised language in global communication. series sprache in der gesellschaft, band 30 / language in the society 30, 519-528. bern: peter lang. soler-monreal, c., m. carbonell-olivares & l. gilsalom (2011). “a contrastive study of the rhetorical organisation of english and spanish phd thesis introductions”. english for specific purposes 30,1: 4-17. soler-monreal, c. & l. gil-salom (2014a). “academic voices and claims. reviewing practices in research writing”. in l. gil-salom & c. solermonreal (eds.), dialogicity in written specialised genres, 23-54. amsterdam: john benjamins. soler-monreal, c. (2015). “announcing one’s work in phd theses in computer science: a comparison of move 3 in literature reviews written in english l1, english l2 and spanish l1”. english for specific purposes 40: 27-41. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132130 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 130 swales, j. & c. feak (2004). academic writing for graduate students, 2nd ed. ann arbor, michigan: the university of michigan press. thompson, p. (2009). “literature reviews in applied phd theses: evidence and problems” in k. hyland & g. diani (eds.), academic evaluation. review genres in university settings, 50-67. new york: palgrave macmillan. yang, r. & d. allison (2003). “research articles in applied linguistics: moving from results to conclusions”. english for specific purposes 22: 365-385. a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132 131 carmen soler-monreal is senior lecturer of english at the universitat politècnica de valència, spain. her research interests include genre-based and contrastive analysis of academic writing in engineering fields. she has published articles in espj and jeap (elsevier), sic (john benjamins) and ijes (universidad de murcia). in 2014, she was the co-editor of a monograph for john benjamins on dialogicity in written specialised genres. notes 1 when the concluding chapters are not divided into sections, the number of sections is 0. appendix list of computer science phd theses defended at the university of glasgow: carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): …-… list of computer science phd theses defended at the university of glasgow: t1. arapakis, i. (2010). affect-based information retrieval. t2. blanke, t. (2011). theoretical evaluation of xml retrieval. t3. cahir, c. (2014). approaches to adaptive bitrate video streaming. t4. crawford, h. a. (2012). a framework for continuous, transparent authentication on mobile devices. t5. dempster, m. a. (2013). an information analysis of the interaction between sensory signals and ongoing cortical activity using a novel mechanistic cortical model, behavioural and meg studies. t6. donaldson, r. (2012). modelling and analysis of structure in cellular signalling systems. t7. dooner, m.t. (2012). towards a robust, passive stereo depth sensor with confidence and intensity guided anisotropic diffusion disparity refinement. t8. elliott, d. (2011). an empirical analysis of information filtering methods. t9. feng, s. (2014). sensor fusion with gaussian processes. t10. ferguson, j.u. (2011). mutually reinforcing systems. t11. hall, m. (2008). contextual mobile adaptation. t12. hamilton, g. (2014). distributed virtual machine migration for cloud data centre environments. t13. hoggan, e.e. (2010). crossmodal audio and tactile interaction with mobile touchscreens. t14. hopfgartner, f. (2010). personalised video retrieval: application of implicit feedback and semantic user profiles. t15. hutton, a.j. (2008). an empirical investigation of issues relating to software immigrants. t16. jakubowska, j. (2008). genome visualisation and user studies in biologist-computer interaction. t17. keir, p. (2012). design and implementation of an array language for computational science on a heterogeneous multicore architecture. t18. kelly, t. (2014). unwritten procedural modeling with the straight skeleton. t19. kildal, j. (2009). developing an interactive overview for non-visual exploration of tabular numerical information. t20. kirwan, r. f. (2014). applying model checking to agent-based learning systems. t21. koliousis, a.k. (2010). an elementary proposition on the dynamic routing problem in wireless networks of sensors. t22. macdonald, c. (2009). the voting model for people search. t23. macisaac, l.j. (2013). modelling smart domestic energy systems. t24. manaseer, s. (2010). on backoff mechanisms for wireless mobile ad hoc networks. t25. mcbryan, t. (2011). a generic approach to the evolution of interaction in ubiquitous systems. t26. mccreadie, r. (2012). news vertical search using user-generated content. t27. mcdermid, e.j. (2011). a structural approach to matching problems with preferences. t28. mcginniss, i. (2013). theoretical and practical aspects of typestate. t29. mcilroy, r. (2010). using program behaviour to exploit heterogeneous multi-core processors. t30. mckechnie, p.e. (2010). validation and verification of the interconnection of hardware intellectual property blocks for fpga-based packet processing systems. t31. mcmillan, d.c. (2012). mass participation user trials. t32. peng, j. (2010). learning to select for information retrieval. t33. perry, t.p. (2013). software tools for the rapid development of signal processing and communications systems on configurable platforms. t34. power, c. (2012). probabilistic symmetry reduction. t35. pullinger, s. (2010). a system for the analysis of musical data. t36. psarras, i. (2009). colombus: providing personalized recommendations for drifting user interests. t37. quek, m. (2013). the role of simulation in developing and designing applications for 2-class motor imagery brain-computer interfaces. t38. salimun, c. (2013). the relationship between visual interface aesthetics, task performance, and preference. t39. sevegnani, m. (2012). bigraphs with sharing and applications in wireless networks. t40. shannon, m. (2011). the construction of high-performance virtual machines for dynamic languages. t41. sherwood, s.c. (2008). designing to support impression management. t42. steward, g.p. (2012). optimisation strategies for large-scale distributed computing and data management in the presence of security and other requirements. t43. strowes, s.d. (2012). compact routing for the future internet. t44. thompson, k.r. (2009). implementation of gaussian process models for non-linear system identification. 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 131 carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): 105-132132 carmen soler-monreal ibérica 32 (2016): …-… list of computer science phd theses defended at the university of glasgow: t1. arapakis, i. (2010). affect-based information retrieval. t2. blanke, t. (2011). theoretical evaluation of xml retrieval. t3. cahir, c. (2014). approaches to adaptive bitrate video streaming. t4. crawford, h. a. (2012). a framework for continuous, transparent authentication on mobile devices. t5. dempster, m. a. (2013). an information analysis of the interaction between sensory signals and ongoing cortical activity using a novel mechanistic cortical model, behavioural and meg studies. t6. donaldson, r. (2012). modelling and analysis of structure in cellular signalling systems. t7. dooner, m.t. (2012). towards a robust, passive stereo depth sensor with confidence and intensity guided anisotropic diffusion disparity refinement. t8. elliott, d. (2011). an empirical analysis of information filtering methods. t9. feng, s. (2014). sensor fusion with gaussian processes. t10. ferguson, j.u. (2011). mutually reinforcing systems. t11. hall, m. (2008). contextual mobile adaptation. t12. hamilton, g. (2014). distributed virtual machine migration for cloud data centre environments. t13. hoggan, e.e. (2010). crossmodal audio and tactile interaction with mobile touchscreens. t14. hopfgartner, f. (2010). personalised video retrieval: application of implicit feedback and semantic user profiles. t15. hutton, a.j. (2008). an empirical investigation of issues relating to software immigrants. t16. jakubowska, j. (2008). genome visualisation and user studies in biologist-computer interaction. t17. keir, p. (2012). design and implementation of an array language for computational science on a heterogeneous multicore architecture. t18. kelly, t. (2014). unwritten procedural modeling with the straight skeleton. t19. kildal, j. (2009). developing an interactive overview for non-visual exploration of tabular numerical information. t20. kirwan, r. f. (2014). applying model checking to agent-based learning systems. t21. koliousis, a.k. (2010). an elementary proposition on the dynamic routing problem in wireless networks of sensors. t22. macdonald, c. (2009). the voting model for people search. t23. macisaac, l.j. (2013). modelling smart domestic energy systems. t24. manaseer, s. (2010). on backoff mechanisms for wireless mobile ad hoc networks. t25. mcbryan, t. (2011). a generic approach to the evolution of interaction in ubiquitous systems. t26. mccreadie, r. (2012). news vertical search using user-generated content. t27. mcdermid, e.j. (2011). a structural approach to matching problems with preferences. t28. mcginniss, i. (2013). theoretical and practical aspects of typestate. t29. mcilroy, r. (2010). using program behaviour to exploit heterogeneous multi-core processors. t30. mckechnie, p.e. (2010). validation and verification of the interconnection of hardware intellectual property blocks for fpga-based packet processing systems. t31. mcmillan, d.c. (2012). mass participation user trials. t32. peng, j. (2010). learning to select for information retrieval. t33. perry, t.p. (2013). software tools for the rapid development of signal processing and communications systems on configurable platforms. t34. power, c. (2012). probabilistic symmetry reduction. t35. pullinger, s. (2010). a system for the analysis of musical data. t36. psarras, i. (2009). colombus: providing personalized recommendations for drifting user interests. t37. quek, m. (2013). the role of simulation in developing and designing applications for 2-class motor imagery brain-computer interfaces. t38. salimun, c. (2013). the relationship between visual interface aesthetics, task performance, and preference. t39. sevegnani, m. (2012). bigraphs with sharing and applications in wireless networks. t40. shannon, m. (2011). the construction of high-performance virtual machines for dynamic languages. t41. sherwood, s.c. (2008). designing to support impression management. t42. steward, g.p. (2012). optimisation strategies for large-scale distributed computing and data management in the presence of security and other requirements. t43. strowes, s.d. (2012). compact routing for the future internet. t44. thompson, k.r. (2009). implementation of gaussian process models for non-linear system identification. a move-step analysis ibérica 32 (2016): …-… t45. trinder, j.j. (2012). mobile learning evaluation: the development of tools and techniques for the evaluation of learning exploiting mobile devices through the analysis of automatically collected usage logs! an iterative approach. t46. unsworth, c. (2008). a specialised constraint approach for stable matching problems. t47. williamson, j.r. (2012). user experience, performance, and social acceptability: usable multimodal mobile interaction. t48. windmill, c.m. (2013). hierarchical network topographical routing. 05 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:06 página 132 maquetación 1 ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract my aim in this paper is to describe the rhetorical structure of the sub-genre of instruction manuals for household appliances in british english (be) and peninsular spanish (ps). this study is based on the concept of genre, and it consists of a move analysis of an ad hoc specialised corpus. the analysis has two discrete parts: a qualitative analysis to establish the structure of this sub-genre; and a quantitative one, to identify the presence of each feature in order to determine the prototypical structure of this sub-genre. finally, some possible implications of these findings are presented. keywords: rhetorical move analysis, instruction manuals, english for science and technology (est), instructional genre. resumen a n ál i s is r e tó ri c o d e l s u bg é ne ro d e l o s ma nua l e s d e i ns tr uc c io ne s d e e l e c tro d omé s t ic o s b a s ad o e n c o rp us el propósito de este artículo es la descripción de la estructura retórica del subgénero de los manuales de instrucciones de aparatos electrodomésticos en inglés británico y en español peninsular. este estudio se basa en el concepto de género y consiste en un análisis de movimientos de un corpus ad hoc especializado. el análisis tiene dos partes diferenciadas: un análisis cualitativo, donde se establece la estructura de este subgénero; y otro cuantitativo, en el que se identifican las diferentes características con el fin de determinar la estructura prototípica de este subgénero. por último, se presentan algunas posibles implicaciones de los resultados. corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals for household appliances araceli cristobalena universidad de león (spain) acrif@unileon.es 143 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 143 ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 araceli cristobalena palabras clave: análisis de movimientos retóricos, manuales de instrucciones, lenguaje científico-técnico, género de la instrucción. 1. introduction why do we write a text belonging to a genre the way we do? why do we follow the conventions of a given genre? it all depends on its communicative purpose. the role of the linguist when facing a genre is to find out everything about it and discover its true nature (bhatia, 1993: xiii; 2004). we need to understand its arquitextura –“architexture” – (bustos-gisbert, 2013), that is the overall structure as well as the internal structure and the typical language used. this concept, although not very widespread in the literature, has also been applied by other scholars, as the adjective “architextual”, used to mean “the different generic, discursive, lexical, thematic, and structural blueprints from which a given text emerges and is created” (herbeck, 2017), links to the swalesian model of moves and steps that vertebrate a text in genre theory (swales, 1981; 1990). this paper tries to understand this “architexture” of instruction manuals, called here the instructional genre. adopting a corpus-based methodology, i focus on instruction manuals for household appliances to find out how one specific sub-genre within this instructional genre works, using swales’ well grounded and widely known move and step model (1981; 1990) to investigate the “architexture” of these texts. 2. theoretical framework 2.1. genre analysis genre analysis is an applied discipline which seeks to distinguish the conventionalized uses of language; its nature is thus versatile and dynamic, and it does not aim merely to describe but also to provide explanations about the nature of genres. its scope may be small, but it conveys a wide perspective. genre analysis means investigating highly conventionalized texts within a context to understand how the members of a specific discursive community interpret and use a genre to reach communicative goals (bhatia, 2002). the central objective of this paper is to identify all those elements always present in the sub-genre of instruction manuals for household appliances: 144 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 144 i.e. the obligatory moves. if one of these elements is missing, the perception we obtain is that the text is incomplete. then, i will identify the optional elements, which are determined by the “textual context”, and are not present at random. all this provides a “potential generic structure” (halliday & hassan, 1989) or “prototypical structure” (rosch, 1978; bondarko, 1991). the prototypical structure cannot lose any of the obligatory elements, which would make up the core of the genre, but other peripheral elements are optional and may not be present. the objectives of genre analysis are mainly pedagogical, as bhatia and other scholars suggest (hopkins & dudley-evans, 1988; albadalejo, 1989; bhatia, 1993, 2002; bustos-gisbert, 2013). nonetheless, there are other implications that go beyond pedagogy: [there is] a development of genre theory from a purely esp or lsp pedagogic application to a more critical engagement leading to demystification of the realities of the professional world. [genre analysis is] a multidimensional and multi-perspective methodological framework to understand and analyse professional and academic genres, professional practices, and disciplinary and professional cultures as comprehensively as possible. (bhatia, 2012: 26) a key concept in the above definition is “framework”. this metaphor of the genre as a “frame” is also present in bazerman: genres [...] are frames for social action. they are environments for learning. they are locations within which meaning is constructed. genres shape the thoughts we form and the communications by which we interact. genres are the familiar places we go to create intelligible communicative action with each other and the guideposts we use to explore the familiar. (bazerman, 1994: 19) according to swales (1990), this “frame” is only an orientation about how speakers or writers may order their ideas and how listeners or readers may orientate their expectations. todorov spoke about “horizons of expectation” for readers and “models of writing” for authors (todorov, 1990: 18), and genre analysis is “pattern seeking rather than pattern imposing” (hart, 1986: 280). in fact, what people remember about a genre is its macro-structure, which reflects what chesterman calls “macropropositions” (1998: 166). corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 145 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 145 2.2. the concept of genre and its purpose to have a clear idea of the concept of genre in relation to its purpose, it is enough to recall the following quote which provides the basis for the lsp approach: it is a recognizable communicative event characterized by a set of communicative purpose(s) identified as mutually understood by the members of the professional or academic community in which it regularly occurs. (bhatia, 1993:13) bhatia also adds that “each genre is an instance of a successful achievement of a specific communicative purpose using conventionalized knowledge of linguistic and discoursal resources” (bhatia, 1993: 16). the functional-systemic sydney school takes the previous concepts but also emphasizes discourse functionality, as rose states: [g]enres have been characterized in this research tradition as staged, goal oriented social processes: social since texts are always interactive events; goal oriented in that a text unfolds towards its interactants’ purposes; staged, because it usually takes more than one step to reach the goal. in functional linguistic terms this means that genres are defined as a recurrent configuration of meanings, which enact the social practices of a culture. (rose, 2012: 209) our current approach to professional genres thus integrates rhetorical concepts, and has a twofold objective: (a) inductive, as we study previous texts belonging to the same genre to establish their characteristics, and (b) projective, as previous study will help in the construction (and teaching) of future texts according to the conventions discovered (albadalejo, 1989). these objectives are also expressed by bhatia (2002) in the following terms: to represent and account for the seemingly chaotic realities of the world; to understand and account for the private intentions of the author, in addition to socially recognized communicative purposes; to understand how language is used and shaped by socio-critical environment; and, to offer solutions to pedagogical and other applied linguistic problems. (bhatia, 2002: 5) specific genres have been the object of a considerable volume of recent research, such as du-babcock and bhatia (2013) himself on business and technical communication, lópez-arroyo and roberts (2015) on wine araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170146 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 146 tasting notes, rabadán, colwell and sanjurjo-gonzález (2016) on the gastro industry, pérez-blanco (2016) on newspaper opinion discourse or coxhead (2018) on language and vocabulary for specific purposes. however, the instructional genre has so far received little critical attention. 2.3. the instructional genre the instructional genre is often taught within the framework of english for occupational purposes (eop), which is divided into: (a) english for professional purposes, and (b) english for vocational purposes (dudleyevans & st. john, 1998). instruction manuals can be situated in the intersection between these last two categories; they are not an instance of expert-to-expert language, as is the case of pure professional language, but an example of expert-to-non-expert language, so the register also has some characteristics typical of the language used for vocational purposes. pearson (1998) differentiates four levels of specialization distinguished by the register used: (a) expert-to-expert; (b) expert to initiates; (c) relative experts to the uninitiated; and (d) teacher-pupil communication. other authors prefer to distinguish three levels of specialization (bowker & pearson, 2002; buendía & ureña, 2010): (a) advanced texts with a very high level of specialization; (b) instructive texts, generally with a pedagogical character; and (c) popular texts for the general public. instruction manuals belong to the third level according to the first classification, and share characteristics of the second and the third levels according to the second. they are instructive texts, with a pedagogical objective; besides, no previous knowledge can be presumed on the part of the reader, so the writer has to focus on a potential reader who may not know anything about the appliance. in scientific and technical writing, the general goal is to inform, define or describe and/or argue. the main intention in an instruction manual for an appliance is that of “informing” about it and its functions. nonetheless, for this purpose we have to describe, categorize and distinguish it from other members of its own category (kindelán-echevarría, 2010). language functions are related to social behaviour and they represent the intention of the source (hutchinson & waters, 1987). the way in which these functions are related and how they are linguistically realized are what establishes the particular conventions of each genre (widdowson, 1988). the language for science and technology (lst) functions proposed by trimble (1985) can be seen in table 1. corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 147 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 147 all the functions described above are present in instruction manuals to a greater or lesser extent. with them, a descriptive frame can be built in functional terms, only with the necessary categories for the description of the communicative event in question and related to the text by means of: (a) the content of the message; (b) the internal logical organization; and (c) how audience is taken into account, as well as establishing a rhetorical referential swalesian frame (hopkins & dudley-evans, 1988). thus, i will attempt to establish the rhetorical structure of the sub-genre of instruction manuals for household appliances. 3. materials and methods the objective of this research is: (a) to establish how the genre is structured in instruction manuals (qualitative analysis); and (b) analyse and contrast their prototypical structure in be and in ps (quantitative analysis). araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170148 corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals 5 ibérica 36 (2018): …-… description physical description function description process description definition simple/single-sentence definition formal definition semi-formal definition non-formal definition complex definition stipulation operation explication classification direction of the classification finding the members of a given class finding a class for one or more given members explicit full classification partial classification implicit instructions telling someone what to do direct instructions indirect instruction instructional information explanations theory warnings (or any other additional information) visual-verbal relationships illustrative/graphical material table 1. rhetorical functions of lst (trimble, 1985). all the functions described above are present in instruction manuals to a greater or lesser extent. with them, a descriptive frame can be built in functional terms, only with the necessary categories for the description of the communicative event in question and related to the text by means of: (a) the content of the message; (b) the internal logical organization; and (c) how audience is taken into account, as well as establishing a rhetorical referential swalesian frame (hopkins & dudley-evans, 1988). thus, i will attempt to establish the rhetorical structure of the sub-genre of instruction manuals for household appliances. 3. materials and methods the objective of this research is: (a) to establish how the genre is structured in instruction manuals (qualitative analysis); and (b) analyse and contrast their prototypical structure in be and in ps (quantitative analysis). 3.1. corpus data 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 148 3.1. corpus data a research study based on real texts gives a reliable description of language use in a genre. in order to study how these manuals are structured, i built a linguistic corpus that meets the particular needs of this analysis. it consists of two sub-corpora, one in be and one in ps; it is therefore bilingual and comparable as the texts have similar characteristics in the two languages. i included complete written texts, and they were codified or annotated following a manual tagging process using rhetorical tags within a previously established frame (cristobalena, 2015). it was thus built “[…] using the same sampling frame and similar balance and representativeness, e.g. the same proportions of the texts of the same genres in the same domains in a range of different languages in the same sampling period” (mcenery & xiao, 2005: 3). in order to create a valid and representative corpus of instruction manuals, i established a data set belonging to the sub-genre of manuals for household appliances and organized according to criteria of language, brand and type of appliance, as can be clearly seen in tables 2 and 3. the corpus collected consists of forty manuals for household appliances in be and forty in ps. the word count in each text varies from 17 264 words, in the longest case, to 644 in the shortest. the total number of words collected is 206 669 in be and 174 134 in ps, making up a total of 380 803 words. this is enough for an lsp study as “a few thousand and a few hundred thousand words” are an appropriate amount when the texts are of a highly specific genre or specialised nature (bowker & pearson, 2002). to maintain a criterion of variety within the homogeneous group of appliances used in household chores, i fixed a limit of 20% of texts belonging to the same brand or type of appliance. this limit was necessary because manuals from the same manufacturer usually have a similar style, and manuals for similar appliances have a very similar content lexis. unfortunately, no information was available concerning whether the texts were originals or translations. corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 149 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 149 araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170150 corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals 7 ibérica 36 (2018): …-… n tagging id brand type of appliance number of words 1 [040igws__130114techen] beyond appliances microwave oven 13 330 2 [008igws__111022techen] bosch induction cooker 5 389 3 [012igws__111021techen] breadman automatic bread baker tr2828g 17 264 4 [034igws__130424techen] breville extreme steam 2400w 2 787 5 [035igws__130417techen] breville 4 slice toaster 2 143 6 [022igws__120110techen] elica suction cooker hood 2 045 7 [003igws__130115techen] fagor refrigerator/freezer + vacuum packing 2 796 8 [009igws__111023techen] fagor coffee grinder ml-2006 x 1 087 9 [031igws__130114techen] indesit oven fi 31 k.b gb 3 521 10 [001igws__130115techen] miele compact oven h 5040 b 13 131 11 [004igws__130115techen] miele dishwasher 11 073 12 [006igws__130117techen] miele built-in coffee machine cv 3660 16 403 13 [011igws__120111techen] miele washing machine w 1613 12 757 14 [024igws__130116techen] miele freezer f 12011 s-1 9 103 15 [036igws__130115techen] miele microwave oven m 8151-2 15 431 16 [019igws__111022techen] moulinex yogurteo 2 291 17 [025igws__111022techen] moulinex juice extractor 585 18 [026igws__111022techen] moulinex audacio juice extractor 666 19 [027igws__111023techen] moulinex bebeo steamer blender 1 416 20 [028igws__111023techen] moulinex ovatio food processor 2 752 21 [033igws__130114techen] nodor extractor hood 1 349 22 [010igws__111019techen] philips airfryer hd9225 3 411 23 [013igws__111019techen] philips mixer hr1565 1 483 24 [020igws__111019techen] philips vacuum cleaner fc8149 fc8140 2 109 25 [029igws__111019techen] philips blender hr2084 3 026 26 [018igws__111019techen] philips saeco automatic coffee maker 12 361 27 [005igws__130115techen] samsung refrigerator 9 530 28 [014igws__111023techen] siemens vacuum cleaner 2 275 29 [030igws__111022techen] siemens washer-dryer 7 708 30 [032igws__130203techen] siemens freezer 3 448 31 [037igws__130504techen] swam soup maker sp18010n 3 317 32 [038igws__130504techen] swam grill chef sp19010cdwmn 1 582 33 [002igws__111018techen] tefal coffee maker 866 34 [007igws__111018techen] tefal oléoclean fryer 3 769 35 [015igws__111010techen] tefal kettle 1 843 36 [016igws__111019techen] tefal x'press cooker 3 294 37 [017igws__111019techen] tefal steam generator 2 289 38 [021igws__111019techen] tefal steamer aqua timer (food 1 475 araceli cristobalena 8 ibérica 36 (2018): …-… processor) 39 [023igws__111019techen] tefal astucio electric casserole 1 273 40 [039igws__130504techen] wmf perfect plus (express cooker) 4 291 table 2. be sub-corpus. 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 150 corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 151 araceli cristobalena 8 ibérica 36 (2018): …-… table 2. be sub-corpus. n tagging id brand type of appliance number of words 1 [003igws__130115teches] fagor refrigerator/freezer + vacuum packing 2 810 2 [005igws__120109teches] fagor refrigerator/freezer 2 670 3 [009igws__111023teches] fagor coffee grinder ml-2006 x 1 140 4 [022igws__120110teches] fagor oven 3 056 5 [027igws__130118teches] fagor kettle tk-400 1 155 6 [035igws__130114teches] fagor steam ironing station plc-809cc 2 524 7 [039igws__130504teches] jata electro fryer fr276 1 297 8 [040igws__130504teches] jata electro food steamer 200 1409 9 [036igws__130515teches] lg induction cooker 5 728 10 [008igws__111018teches] magefesa express pressure cooker 2 960 11 [016igws__111023teches] magefesa electric mincer 1 049 12 [017igws__120504teches] magefesa electric grill 1 260 13 [018igws__111023teches] magefesa electric pan cooker 1 568 14 [021igws__111023teches] magefesa pressure cooker 5 581 15 [002igws__130115teches] miele dishwasher 12 953 16 [004igws__130115teches] miele compact oven h 5040 b 16 094 17 [006igws__130115teches] miele coffee machine cm 5100 16 070 18 [007igws__130115teches] miele washing machine w 1714 11 654 19 [012igws__111022teches] moulinex home bread 4 319 20 [019igws__111022teches] moulinex yogurt maker 2 285 21 [023igws__111022teches] moulinex electric carving knife 648 22 [024igws__111022teches] moulinex accessimo juice extractor 730 23 [026igws__111022teches] moulinex audacio juice extractor 644 24 [010igws__120111teches] mxonda steam ironing station mxcpv2034 3 863 25 [033igws__130114teches] nodor suction cooker hood 1 516 26 [013igws__111019teches] philips kneader hr1565 1 613 27 [020igws__111019teches] philips vacuum cleaner fc8149 fc8140 2 360 28 [029igws__111019teches] philips blender hr2084 3 272 29 [032igws__111019teches] philips senseo coffee machine 5 054 30 [034igws__130114teches] rowenta air force vacuum cleaner 2 895 31 [037igws__130503teches] samsung microwave oven 12 824 32 [011igws__111022teches] siemens washer and dryer 8 555 33 [014igws__111023teches] siemens vacuum cleaner 2 384 corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals 9 ibérica 36 (2018): …-… 34 [015igws__111023teches] siemens freezer 4 967 35 [001igws__111206teches] tefal ultra compact sandwich maker 648 36 [028igws__130122teches] tefal multi delices yogurt maker 4 482 37 [031igws__111018teches] tefal pro minute steam ironing station 2 188 38 [038igws__130504teches] tefal actifry family 3 369 39 [030igws__130114teches] vorwerk thermomix tm 31 10 414 40 [025igws__111023teches] wmf perfect pressure cooker 4 126 table 3. ps sub-corpus. 3.2. procedure: rhetorical analysis linguistics is essentially a social science but also an applied science (stubbs, 1993). for this reason, a methodology combining both qualitative and quantitative methods is needed. a mixed methodology combining data of both kinds (teddlie & tashakkori, 2003) was therefore used. the move analysis aims at establishing the structure and function of the instruction manuals for household appliances. for this purpose, and drawing on swales (1981; 1990), a rhetorical structure is proposed based on moves, steps and sub-steps. the specific analytical framework proposed has already been used in a previous pilot study (cristobalena, 2015). it was established after a thorough observation of a number of texts of the corpus, as no other similar analyses had been found to exist in this restricted field. 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 151 3.2. procedure: rhetorical analysis linguistics is essentially a social science but also an applied science (stubbs, 1993). for this reason, a methodology combining both qualitative and quantitative methods is needed. a mixed methodology combining data of both kinds (teddlie & tashakkori, 2003) was therefore used. the move analysis aims at establishing the structure and function of the instruction manuals for household appliances. for this purpose, and drawing on swales (1981; 1990), a rhetorical structure is proposed based on moves, steps and sub-steps. the specific analytical framework proposed had already been used in a previous pilot study (cristobalena, 2015). it was established after a thorough observation of a number of texts of the corpus, as no other similar analyses had been found to exist in this restricted field. 3.3. tools the tools used in this study are those designed by the actres1 research group: (a) a custom-made rhetorical tagger adapted for the needs of this sub-genre; and (b) a browser, which shows concordances in the rhetorical araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170152 araceli cristobalena 10 ibérica 36 (2018): …-… moves step sub-steps identification manual’s title manufacturing company name model artwork elements purpose praise self praise gratitude objective description specifications reference functions installing installing stages operating operating stages advice (extra) tips recipes timing dos don’ts maintenance maintenance stages troubleshooting problem/solution guarantee consumer service legislation safety recycling table 4. moves, steps and sub-steps of instruction manuals for household appliances. 3.3. tools the tools used in this study are those designed by the actres1 research group: (a) a custom-made rhetorical tagger adapted for the needs of this sub-genre; and (b) a browser, which shows concordances in the rhetorical move or step selected from both languages on the screen and also offers wordlists and statistical information (see figures 1 and 2). 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 152 move or step selected from both languages on the screen and also offers wordlists and statistical information (see figures 1 and 2). 4. results and discussion 4.1. qualitative analysis of the rhetorical structure from the five rhetorical functions of lst (description, definition, classification, instruction and visual-verbal relationships) (see table 1), i found, in a first reading, that the descriptive elements are the most outstanding. following the same taxonomy, a description can be: (a) physical, a description of the appliance and its elements; (b) functional, the purpose of the appliance itself or of each specific part; and (c) of a process, a description of the appliance’s operation. the first two types of description, corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 153 corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals 11 ibérica 36 (2018): …-… figure 1. actres rhetorical tagger. figure 2. actres rhetorical browser. 4. results and discussion 4.1. qualitative analysis of the rhetorical structure from the five rhetorical functions of lst (description, definition, classification, instruction and visual-verbal relationships) (see table 1), i found, in a first reading, that the descriptive elements are the most outstanding. following the same taxonomy, a description can be: (a) physical, a description of the appliance and its elements; (b) functional, the purpose of the appliance itself or of each specific part; and (c) of a process, a description of the appliance’s operation. the first two types of description, physical and functional, are found in the first move rpusco rirhetobased subthe f os ysianalcalri ofernge slaunmaonitcurtsniof gurfi 1.e gur reggatlaciroterhactres . gurfi onissucsi dd antsluse4. r ofsiysalanveiattialuq1.4. 2.e gur laciroterhactres .serowbr on erutcurtsalciortehrehtof 11 tcnlacirotehrevehtmofr lauisvdnantiocutrsin lbarve evitpricsedehttaht,gnidare ymonoxatemsa ntioiprcseda, noictn)b(;stenemelstidan corpafo)c(dna;trapcicesp edf osepytowttsrfi ,noitpirsc ib ed,noitpircsed(stlfosnoit 1)eblatees()pshionsitalerl natstuotsomehtreastnemele iprcsedal, aicsyhp)a(: ebnacn anilpape htfoe soprupe ht,aln ailppaehtfonoitpirscedass,ec era,lanoitcndnalacsiyhp 6 3aicréib ): …810(2 -… ,noitacissalc,noitini tsran ii, ehtgniwollof.gnidn ecnliappaethfontioip eachforofelstice an eht.noitarepos ’ecna evomstrehtnidnuo 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 153 physical and functional, are found in the first move called “identification” (see table 4), also to be found in the information about the name of the company, the name of the appliance, the model and one or more illustrations of the appliance and its elements. this last function belongs to “visual-verbal relationships”. we can also find physical descriptions in the technical specifications of the appliance. however, the last kind of description mentioned, “description of a process”, is not found in the identification of the appliance, it is in a different move. it has also been noted that there are several “descriptions of processes” in the manuals and they do not only refer to the operation of the appliance, but to its installation and its maintenance as well. this move is called “functions”. the rhetorical functions of “definition” and “classification” are not inherent to instruction manuals; instead, the “instruction” is the central axis of the instructional genre. trimble defines instruction as “the rhetoric of telling someone what to do and how to do it to achieve a certain goal” (trimble, 1985: 20) and he divides it into two groups: (a) instructions, the action of telling someone what to do; and (b) instructional information, additional information surrounding the instructions. in the case of instruction manuals, we can find instructions related to the operation of the appliance, as well as instructive information such as advice on what to do or not to do with the appliance. below, taking the rhetorical frame already established (see table 4) as a reference, i present the qualitative analysis of the corpus collected: move 1: <identification> in this move we have all the information that identifies the appliance. it is divided into different steps. step 1. <manual’s title> this is the name that is given to the manual. it may seem very obvious but it is often included in the text. the noun “instruction” and its equivalent in ps, “instrucción”, nearly always appear. the most popular option in be is “instruction manual” while in ps is “manual de instrucciones”. step 2. <manufacturing company> this is the commercial name of the company or brand. companies usually prefer names that are easy to pronounce in different languages to avoid changing the name depending on the country. “miele” is the brand that araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170154 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 154 stands out in both sub-corpora. all instruction manuals include the name of the company, but some brands tend to repeat their own name more frequently, for example on the front cover, back cover, etc. step 3. <name> this is the name of the appliance in general; here we find nouns or noun phrases such as “microwave oven” or “lavadora automática”. but sometimes we also find neologisms to emphasize that it is a new invention (“thermomix”). step 4. <model> this is to distinguish the different versions of the same appliance by the same company. we usually find here an alphanumeric code (“cv200”), but neologisms are also used in this case, like “yogurteo” in be or “supernova” in ps; in fact, we could not say which language these words belong to without their co-text. step 5. <artwork> although this is not written language, a photo or illustration is present in almost every manual. it can be a general illustration for the cover, or a detailed illustration to facilitate identification of all the different parts and controls of the appliance with numbers or letters. step 6. <elements> here, the user is given the names of the different parts of the appliance. this is very closely related to the previous step and they generally come together corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 155 corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals 13 ibérica 36 (2018): …-… this is the name of the appliance in general; here we find nouns or noun phrases such as “microwave oven” or “lavadora automática”. but sometimes we also find neologisms to emphasize that it is a new invention (“thermomix”). step 4. <model> this is to distinguish the different versions of the same appliance by the same company. we usually find here an alphanumeric code (“cv200”), but neologisms are also used in this case, as “yogurteo” in be or “supernova” in ps; in fact, we could not say which language these words belong to without their co-text. step 5. <artwork> although this is not written language, a photo or illustration is present in almost every manual. it can be a general illustration for the cover, or a detailed illustration to facilitate identification of all the different parts and controls of the appliance with numbers or letters. figure 3. washing machine. step 6. <elements> here, the user is given the names of the different parts of the appliance. this is very closely related to the previous step and they generally come together by means of numbers or letters. we usually find noun phrases in both languages (“power cord”, “depósito de agua”). step 7. <purpose> apart from giving the name of the element of the appliance, we can also find an explanation of its purpose. this breaks with the trend in the tendency to rely on nouns or noun phrases. now, we can also find complete sentences: this function allows the creation of a new user. rpusco rirhetobased ailppaehtfoemanehtsisith o”nevoevaworcim“s ahcsu ezisahpmeotsmsigoloendnfi >ledo<m.4pest idehthsiugnitsidotsisith subthe f os ysianalcalri ofernge ondnewereh;larenegniecna tub.”acitámotuaarodaval“ro ht“(noitnevniwenasititahte paemasehtfosnoisrevtnerff slaunmaonitcurtsniof sesarhpnuonrosnuo solaews emitemsot .)”ximomreh emasehtybecnailpp dnylalusue w.yanpmco n id euso slaerasmsogiolne wyastondluocew,tcnips; cot.xte >owtr<a.5pest lnettiwrtonsisihthguohtal a e bcanti.aluanmyerev ilcaftontioatrsillu tifneidteita etlroserbmunhtiwce anilpap coc iermuanhpalane erhd ebn io”etogury“sa,esacshit ihw elbsdrowe eshte aguganlch noitartsullirootohpa,egaugna coe htrnoiatrtsullialereng tsrapt nerdethll afontioa sertet . tub,”)002vc“(e dco n i”novarupes“ore reihttuohtiwotgnoel tsomlanitneserpsin edlaietda ro,ervco ethfolsotrnocdnats >stnemel<e.6pest anehtnevigsiresueht,erhe detalery leoslcy rve pethto .srettelrosrembunfosname aedotisóped“”rdocr ewop(“ 3.e gurfi .enihcamgnihswa tfostraptneridehtfosema llyarenegyethdnaptessuiover esarhpnuondnyllausuew. ).”auga sisiht.ecnailppaeht ybrethegtoemoclly segaugnalhtobnise 13 aedotisóped,rdocr ewop(“ >esopru<p.7pest oemanehtgnivigmotraap hte.soprupstifonoiatanlpex ,own.sesaphrnoun ornouns ehtswollanoitcnsith ib ).auga ecnailppaehtfotnemeleehtfo e htnidenrte hthtiwseakrbsih nteseteplomcnd o slan acew .resuwenafonoitaerc 6 3aicréib ): …810(2 -… anacwe,e nadols noyelrotcyendente :sencent 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 155 by means of numbers or letters. we usually find noun phrases in both languages (“power cord”, “depósito de agua”). step 7. <purpose> apart from giving the name of the element of the appliance, we can also find an explanation of its purpose. this breaks with the trend in the tendency to rely on nouns or noun phrases. now, we can also find complete sentences: this function allows the creation of a new user. enciende el horno (symbol). move 2: <praise> in this move, we do not find objective language, for this is the commercial part of the manual. the user has already bought the appliance; the objective of the manufacturer is no longer to sell the product, but to make the client feel that this was the best choice. step 1. <self praise> this step refers to the language the manufacturer uses to refer to the properties of the appliance. we mainly find complex/compound sentences in the present tense in be and ps. we can also find structures that take the form of the slogan: your new airfryer allows you to prepare your favourite ingredients and snacks in a healthier way. lo mejor de nosotros para su familia. step 2. <gratitude> here the manufacturer congratulates or thanks the client. congratulations on your purchase and welcome to philips! le agradecemos que haya elegido un aparato de la gama moulinex. move 3: <objective description> this move presents the characteristics of the appliance with objective information. step 1. <specifications> araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170156 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 156 this step shows schematic technical information in the form of noun phrases: width: 1 850 mm altura 48 mm but we can also find sentences of the complex/compound type in the present tense: this appliance contains the coolant isobutane (r600a), a natural gas which is environmentally friendly. este aparato funciona con refrigerante r600a, que no deteriora el medio ambiente. step 2. <reference> this step tells us where we can find further information, either included in the manual (internal reference) or somewhere else, such as a webpage (external reference). this is what is known as “intertextuality” (beaugrande & dressler, 1981). here the imperative is the tense used in the sentences: see cleaning and storing, pages 19-20. consulte la lista de centros de servicio autorizados rowenta o contacte con el servicio al consumidor rowenta. move 4: <functions> this is the core of the instruction manual. here the user is told how to handle the appliance. step 1. <installing> first we are told how to prepare the appliance for installation. most of this is in complex/compound sentences in the present simple and the imperative: this is important for the correct electronic functioning of the appliance. remove all packaging, stickers or other accessories from the inside and outside of the kettle. antes de utilizar la aspiradora por primera vez, la batería debe cargarse durante 6 horas. limpie su thermomix tm 31 minuciosamente antes del primer uso. corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 157 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 157 sub-step 1. <installing stage> in this step, we get detailed direct instructions for installing the appliance. very frequently, we find the stages highlighted with bullets or numbers, to stress the order of the installation process. here we have complex/compound sentences that take the imperative as the main verb, together with many details on how to proceed: fit the appliance door from below onto upper hinge pin 4 and then close the appliance door. pulse el botón de encendido/apagado y, a continuación, pulse brevemente los botones de 1 taza (symbol) y 2 tazas (symbol) al mismo tiempo. step 2. <operating> in this step, the manufacturer gives the instructions on how to operate the appliance. first, we may find explanations, for example why it is important to perform such an action. complex/compound sentences are preferred as well as present tenses: the microwave cooks the food, and the grill browns it. esto facilita el ahorro de energía cuando no se utiliza el horno. sub-step 1. <operating stage> in this sub-step we find the actual operating instructions. again, the stages are highlighted, there is a preference for complex/compound sentences using the imperative and we may also observe the use of adjuncts: turn the speed selector to position 2 to start the appliance. desconecte el lavavajillas pulsando la tecla (symbol). move 5: <advice> this move is different from the previous one since the instructions given here are not directly related to operating the appliance. this advice has a wider scope, and may or may not directly involve the appliance, covering such topics as what products should be used to clean the appliance, or what operations must not be performed because they are dangerous. step 1. <(extra) tips> araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170158 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 158 these are optional recommendations made by the manufacturer for better performance of the appliance, to save energy, and so on. here we find syntactic structures of all kinds and they use mainly the present tense: we recommend using the universal tray with the rack on top. una correcta dosificación reduce el impacto ambiental y proporciona un resultado óptimo de lavado. step 2. <recipes> in the case of appliances used for cooking, we can also find recipes. here the noun phrase is very important because we have the list of ingredients, which means there are also quantifiers. in the main body of a recipe, be prefers the imperative and ps prefers the present tense: toscana bread, ingredients: […] add the butter. alubias con chorizo cerramos la olla y mantenemos en cocción durante 10 minutos. step 3. <timing> this step shows the time lapse needed for a task. it is very closely related to recipes but it is also found in other kinds of appliances with automatic programmes. this is usually presented in the form of a data table with many numerical noun phrases: chips 1000 g 14-16 min. tiempo de cocción 5 min. step 4. <dos> compulsory advice: the user must perform the instruction given. in this step we can find caution symbols emphasising the message, traffic signs and exclamation marks being common, as some previous knowledge of the world is needed. sentences take the form of direct orders, using the imperative: keep children away from the machine at all times. apague siempre el aparato antes de limpiarlo. corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 159 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 159 step 5. <don’ts> this step only differs from the previous one in the use of the negative, and implies not performing an action because it is dangerous and must be avoided. here, we also find caution symbols. there are generally complex/compound sentences and they take the negative imperative form: do not install or use a damaged washing machine. no almacene en el congelador bebidas gaseosas. step 6. <maintenance> this step shows how to maintain the appliance. first, we are given general information. this information takes the form of complex/compound sentences in the present tense: changing the filter on time provides you with the freshest, cleanest water from your fridge. el aparato tiene un sistema electrónico que controla la vida del cartucho antical. sub-step 1. <maintenance stage> as in the installation and operation steps, here there is also a sub-step including detailed instructions, the difference being that here the instructions are about the cleaning and maintenance of the appliance. we can find simple as well as complex/compound sentences and the use of the imperative as the main verb: wash and dry the accessories. enjuague y seque. step 7. <troubleshooting> in this step, the user will find the information necessary if the appliance fails to work properly. it is divided into three sub-steps: problem/solution, guarantee and consumer service. sub-step 1. <problem/solution> users will be referred to this part to try to solve a problem themselves. this is a very visual sub-step as it appears in the form of a table, columns or lists araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170160 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 160 to clearly show the possible problem and how to solve it. the complex/compound sentence does not prevail in this case and the present simple is the tense used most. a special characteristic of this sub-step is the use of the interrogative. it not very important quantitatively, but it stands out as it is the only sub-step where we can find it: what’s wrong? if you have difficulty removing bread from the bread pan, slide a flat rubber or plastic spatula along the sides of the pan to loosen the loaf. ¿qué debo hacer? comprueba que la puerta esté bien cerrada. sub-step 2. <guarantee> in this sub-step the user can find the terms and conditions of the appliance guarantee. this language has legal connotations and, together with the language in step “praise”, it can be clearly differentiated from the rest of the instruction manual. in general, there are long and complex/compound sentences in the present tense, and other salient features, such as the use of the passive voice in ps and the use of “shall” in be, both of which are typical of legal language: repair, replacement or refund shall be the sole remedy of the purchaser under this warranty, and in no event shall salton be liable for any incidental or consequential damages, losses or expenses. este aparato no está diseñado para ser utilizado por personas (incluyendo niños) con alguna discapacidad física, sensorial o mental, o falta de experiencia y conocimientos, a no ser que sean supervisados o la persona responsable de su seguridad les haya proporcionado instrucciones precisas sobre el funcionamiento del aparato. sub-step 3. <consumer service> in case the user still has difficulties, the manufacturer provides a list of customer service providers where, if necessary, the user can have the appliance repaired. this list of providers takes the form of a noun phrase, but there are also sentences with explanations and directions on how to proceed. here, be prefers the present tense, tends to be more descriptive, and ps prefers the imperative, and prefers the direct instruction. corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 161 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 161 you may contact tefal uk limited for a replacement. en caso de anomalías que no pueda solucionar vd. mismo, póngase en contacto con su distribuidor miele o el servicio post-venta miele. step 8. <legislation> this step deals with the current regulations affecting the appliance. sub-step 1. <safety> the first sub-step refers to safety regulations country by country. in the uk, for example, there are very restrictive regulations concerning electrical plugs. syntactically there are different structures, but the complex/compound sentence is the one favoured. it also has a very descriptive character, noticeable in the use of the present tense. the wire which is coloured blue must be connected to the terminal which is marked with the letter n or coloured black. esto garantiza protección suficiente contra descargas eléctricas, como requiere el organismo de certificación. sub-step 2. <recycling> finally there are instructions on how to dispose of the appliance. this substep is linguistically very similar to the previous one; it prefers the complex/compound sentence and the tense used is mainly the present. there are also many adjuncts indicating place and purpose, indicating where to take the appliance for recycling and why. the european directive 2002/96/ec on waste electrical and electronic equipment (weee), requires that old household electrical appliances must not be disposed of in the normal unsorted municipal waste stream. este aparato cuenta con las marcas prescritas por la directiva europea 2002/96/ce relativa a la retirada y reciclaje de residuos de aparatos eléctricos y electrónicos (raee). according to this description of the different moves, steps and sub-steps, and once the corpus has been tagged accordingly, i can now measure in quantitative terms the relative weight of each one in relation with the whole corpus. araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170162 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 162 4.2. quantitative analysis of the rhetorical structure when shaping the genre and its conventions, the most suitable procedure is to analyse probabilistic criteria rather than canonical ones (bustos-gisbert, 2013). once the rhetorical structure has been established, the weight that each particular move, step and sub-step has in the instructional genre can be quantitatively determined from the corpus data. the present study uses the statistics tool of the actres rhetorical browser (see figure 4). in this example we can see the percentage of text included in the step “purpose”. following this procedure, the table below presents the percentages that show the amount of text each sub-corpus allocates to the different rhetorical sections. in general, there are no major differences across languages, but i have highlighted those with a difference wider than three texts, as this equals a minimum of 7.5%. a narrower difference is not considered significant. corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 163 araceli cristobalena 20 ibérica 36 (2018): …-… figure 4. actres rhetorical browser (statistics). following this procedure, the table below presents the percentages that show the amount of text each sub-corpus allocates to the different rhetorical sections. in general, there are no major differences across languages, but i have highlighted those with a difference wider than three texts, this equals a minimum of 7.5%. a narrower difference is not considered significant. enabalstocriiaracel 4.e gurfi eht,erudecorpsihtgniwollfo fotnuoam bushcaet xte -co diormno eraerhet,larnege reidwecnerdaithwesoth iencerdireowrrna noctons )scitsitats(rewsorblaciroterhactres . ecrepehtstneserpwolebelbate hrtenide htotescatolalsup but,sgenguaalsosrcasencerdi malsauqeisth, tsxteeerthnath tnacingsideredsin . ehtwohstahtsegatne ni.snoiectscaliroeth d eghtighlhivehaibut a. %.57fomuiminm 20 6 3aicréib ): …810(2 -… 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 163 in table 5, we can appreciate the different moves as well as the steps in which they are divided, and the sub-steps which in turn are sub-divided. the first difference shown is placed in move 1 step 1 (“manual’s title”). ps tends to repeat the manual’s title more often than be, the difference is 7.5%. this difference is also found in move 1 step 2 (“manufacturing company”). this could be because some companies tend to repeat their own name more often than others. it is not present in 100% of texts because when the files of some manuals were requested from companies, the covers were not included, causing a loss of information. move 1 step 3 (“name”), move 1 step 4 (“model”), move 1 step 5 (“artwork”) and move 1 step 6 (“elements”), show very similar percentages in both languages. it is in the case of move 1 step 7 (“purpose”) where there araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170164 corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals 21 ibérica 36 (2018): …-… ps be number of texts percentage number of texts percentage move 1 identification 40 100.00% 40 100.00% step 1 manual’s title 25 62.50% 22 55.00% step 2 manufacturing company 39 97.50% 36 90.00% step 3 name 26 65.00% 24 60.00% step 4 model 25 62.50% 24 60.00% step 5 artwork 40 100.00% 40 100.00% step 6 elements 37 92.50% 35 87.50% step 7 purpose 17 42.50% 21 52.50% move 2 praise 19 47.50% 16 40.00% step 1 self praise 10 25.00% 9 22.50% step 2 gratitude 12 30.00% 9 22.50% move 3 objective description 32 80.00% 37 92.50% step 1 specifications 18 45.00% 20 50.00% step 2 reference 27 67.50% 32 80.00% move 4 functions 40 100.00% 40 100.00% step 1 installing 32 80.00% 35 87.50% sub-step 1 installing stage 29 72.50% 29 72.50% step 2 operating 39 97.50% 39 97.50% sub-step 1 operating stage 38 95.00% 35 87.50% move 5 advice 40 100.00% 40 100.00% step 1 extra tips 34 85.00% 34 85.00% step 2 recipes 9 22.50% 8 20.00% step 3 timing 17 42.50% 14 35.00% step 4 do’s 40 100.00% 40 100.00% step 5 don’ts 40 100.00% 40 100.00% step 6 maintenance 39 97.50% 40 100.00% sub-step 1 maintenance stage 35 87.50% 36 90.00% step 7 troubleshooting 40 100.00% 40 100.00% sub-step 1 problem/solution 27 67.50% 28 70.00% sub-step 2 guarantee 35 87.50% 35 87.50% sub-step 3 consumer service 37 92.50% 38 95.00% step 8 legislation 35 87.50% 38 95.00% sub-step 1 safety 29 72.50% 35 87.50% sub-step 2 recycling 28 70.00% 25 62.50% table 5. frequency of moves, steps and sub-steps in the corpus in table 5, we can appreciate the different moves as well as the steps in which they are divided, and the sub-steps which in turn are sub-divided. the first difference shown is placed in move 1 step 1 (“manual’s title”). ps tends to repeat the manual’s title more often than be, the difference is 7.5%. this difference is also found in move 1 step 2 (“manufacturing company”). this could be because some companies tend to repeat their own name more often than others. it is not present in 100% of texts because when the files of some manuals were requested from companies, the covers were not included, causing a loss of information. 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 164 is a difference of ten percentage points. this shows more explanations about the purpose of the elements in be than in ps. move 2 (“praise”) also reveals some differences very much linked to move 2 step 2 (“gratitude”). move 2 is, in general, more frequent in ps (7.5%). the difference in move 2 step 1 (“self praise”) is also minor and in favour of ps. it is in move 2 step 2 (“gratitude”) where the difference reaches 7.5% also in favour of ps. we may therefore conclude that, though not to a great extent, ps tends to include flattering language expressing self praise as well as gratitude. move 3 (“objective description”) also presents differences, but in this case in favour of be. regarding move 3, there is an overall difference of 12.5%. move 3 step 1 (“specifications”) presents a small difference (5%) in favour of be. however, move 3 step 2 (“reference”) gives the broadest difference (12.5%). be tends to give more references, which are internal as well as external (inside or outside the manual). move 4 (“functions”) is the core of the manual with 100% presence in both sub-corpora. in spite of this, there are some internal variations. move 4 step 1 (“installing”) shows a 7.5% difference in favour of be, but in move 4 step 1 sub-step 1 (“installing stage”), where the actual instructions to follow are located, there is no difference, the percentage is the same (72.5%). move 4 step 2 (“operating”) also has the same percentage, with some differences in move 4 step 2 sub-step 1 (“operating stage”); here the rate is a little higher in ps (7.5%). we could determine that the appliances in the be sub-corpus give more explanations on how to instal them and, on the contrary, ps manuals come with more explanations on how to use the appliances. move 5 (“advice”) is present in 100% of cases in be and ps, but it is also the most extensive and it offers advice of different kinds, consequently it presents variations in both languages. in move 5 step 3 (“timing”) there is a difference of 7.5%; ps tends to give more data about the length of programmes of appliances, which could also mean that there are more appliances with programming functions in ps. it is in move 5 step 8 (“legislation”) that the difference across languages is greater. in the whole of move 5 step 8, the difference is 7.5% in favour of be. nonetheless, if we observe both sub-steps, the first one, move 5 step 8 sub-step 1 (“safety”), has a higher rate in be and the second one, move 5 step 8 sub-step 2 (“recycling”), has a higher rate in ps. the differentiation in the first sub-step is 15% and in the second 7.5%. this implies that the section on security has corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 165 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 165 a higher importance in be and the part on recycling is more important in ps. this is because be texts give very detailed information about the wiring of the appliances with very specific information only needed in the uk. on the other hand, ps seems to try to promote recycling, as the amount of text about it is larger in ps. finally, it can be said there are small quantitative variations along the general rhetorical structure of this sub-genre comparing be and ps; however, there is no single reason for these variations, the reasons i have tried to formulate are varied and each one is justified by different motivations. 4.3. prototypical structure of instruction manuals for household appliances the percentages shown in table 6 are useful not only for comparing be and ps percentages, but also to establish the prototypical moves, steps and substeps in the sub-genre of instruction manuals for household appliances, according to their percentage occurrence in the corpus. to this end, the following rate parameters are taken as reference and they will help in establishing the prototypical structure in be and in ps: higher than 80%, obligatory; from 79% to 60%, high priority; from 59% to 40%, medium priority; from 39% to 20%, low priority; less than 20%, should not be considered. regarding the prototypical structure, there are no steps or sub-steps below a 20% rate to reject automatically. those sections with a low priority: move 2 step 1 (“self praise”) and move 2 step 2 (“gratitude”), are not prototypical, so move 2 (“praise”) could be considered a peripheral element in both languages. regarding move 5 step 2 (“recipes”), if the appliance is not for cooking, it does not make sense to have a recipe section. finally, although move 5 step 3 (“timing”) has a medium rate in ps, it is very close to low priority (40%). this makes it a peripheral element in be, and it could also be thus considered in ps. consequently, the prototypical structures of the instructional genre could be established as in table 6. this means that only the moves regarding “praise” and “recipes” can be considered peripheral in both languages along with “timing” in be. araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170166 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 166 6. conclusions throughout these pages, i have developed an analysis of the “architexture” of the subgenre of instruction manuals for household appliances, which was the main objective. the conclusions i have reached are the following: the sub-genre of instruction manuals for household appliances is well established in ps and in be, its structure is well defined and the language used in each step and sub-step has its own characteristics with no major differences across languages. these characteristics are very much linked to the general use of language for science and technology. we can also find language not only belonging to this text type, but there are also traces of other genres such as commercial language in move 2 (“praise”) or in move 5 step 6 sub-step 2 (“guarantee”), where legal language may be found. corpus-based rhetorical analysis of the sub-genre of instruction manuals ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170 167 araceli cristobalena 24 ibérica 36 (2018): …-… ps be percentage priority percentage priority move 1 identification 100.00% obligatory 100.00% obligatory step 1 manual’s title 62.50% high 55.00% medium step 2 manufacturing company 97.50% obligatory 90.00% obligatory step 3 name 65.00% high 60.00% high step 4 model 62.50% high 60.00% high step 5 artwork 100.00% obligatory 100.00% obligatory step 6 elements 92.50% obligatory 87.50% obligatory step 7 purpose 42.50% medium 52.50% medium move 2 praise 47.50% medium 40.00% medium step 1 self praise 25.00% low 22.50% low step 2 gratitude 30.00% low 22.50% low move 3 objective description 80.00% obligatory 92.50% obligatory step 1 specifications 45.00% medium 50.00% medium step 2 reference 67.50% high 80.00% obligatory move 4 functions 100.00% obligatory 100.00% obligatory step 1 installing 80.00% obligatory 87.50% obligatory sub-step 1 installing stage 72.50% high 72.50% high step 2 operating 97.50% obligatory 97.50% obligatory sub-step 1 operating stage 95.00% obligatory 87.50% obligatory move 5 advice 100.00% obligatory 100.00% obligatory step 1 extra tips 85.00% obligatory 85.00% obligatory step 2 recipes 22.50% low 20.00% low step 3 timing 42.50% medium 35.00% low step 4 dos 100.00% obligatory 100.00% obligatory step 5 don’ts 100.00% obligatory 100.00% obligatory step 6 maintenance 97.50% obligatory 100.00% obligatory sub-step 1 maintenance stage 87.50% obligatory 90.00% obligatory step 7 troubleshooting 100.00% obligatory 100.00% obligatory sub-step 1 problem/solution 67.50% high 70.00% high sub-step 2 guarantee 87.50% obligatory 87.50% obligatory sub-step 3 consumer service 92.50% obligatory 95.00% obligatory step 8 legislation 87.50% obligatory 95.00% obligatory sub-step 1 safety 72.50% high 87.50% obligatory sub-step 2 recycling 70.00% high 62.50% high table 6. different priorities across ps and be. regarding the prototypical structure, there are no steps or sub-steps below a 20% rate to reject automatically. those sections with a low priority: move 2 step 1 (“self praise”) and move 2 step 2 (“gratitude”), are not prototypical, so move 2 (“praise”) could be considered a peripheral element in both languages. regarding move 5 step 2 (“recipes”), if the appliance is not for cooking, it does not make sense to have a recipe section. finally, although move 5 step 3 (“timing”) has a medium rate in ps, it is very close to low priority (40%). this makes it a peripheral element in be, and it could also be thus considered in ps. consequently, the prototypical structures of the instructional genre could be established as in table 6. this means that only the moves regarding “praise” and “recipes” can be considered peripheral in both languages along with “timing” in be. 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 167 this piece of research also has future projections. the first one would be a study of other related genres such as, for example, instruction manuals for toys. a second one would include a parallel investigation with other languages, french, german, italian, japanese, etc. to contrast the results with those from this study. finally, a further perspective would include interdisciplinary applications in machine translation. acknowledgements i am grateful to the actres research group for all their support and their permission to use actres research tools in this paper. article history: received 01 january 2017 received in revised form 23 september 2018 accepted 23 september 2018 references araceli cristobalena ibérica 36 (2018): 143-170168 albadalejo, t. 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(1981). aspects of article introductions (2011 ed.). ann arbor, mi: the university of michigan press. swales, j. m. (1990). genre analysis. cambridge: cambridge university press. teddlie, c., & a. tashakkori (2003). “major issues and controversies in the use of mixed methods in the social and behavioral sciences” in a. tashakkori & c. teddlie (eds.), handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research, 3-50. thousand oaks, ca: sage. todorov, t. (1990). genres in discourse. cambridge: cambridge university press. trimble, l. (1985). english for science and technology. cambridge: cambridge university press. widdowson, h. g. (1988). “teaching the communicative use of english” in j. m. swales (ed.), episodes in esp, 73-87. hemel hempstead: prentice hall. 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 169 06 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 170 iberica 13 ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the aim of this paper is to offer a much-needed longitudinal description of lexical richness in the l2 historical writing of clil bilingual secondary school students over a three-year period. the automated tool coh-metrix 3.0 was used to analyse the evolution of the lexical diversity, density and sophistication of a learner corpus made up of 75 history essays composed by the same 15 students as part of their l2 (english-taught) history lessons. the results show an increase in the number of lexical items employed by the students and in the abstractness and associability of these items. this indicates that students improved their lexical richness, while developing their writing proficiency and history literacy skills. keywords: lexical richness, l2 writing proficiency, history literacy, cohmetrix, clil. resumen estudio longitudinal de la escritura histórica en una l2: la riqueza léxica y la competencia escrita en el aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras el propósito de este estudio es ofrecer una descripción longitudinal de la riqueza léxica en el discurso sobre historia en l2 de estudiantes de enseñanza secundaria bilingüe aicle a lo largo de tres años. se ha empleado la herramienta computacional coh-metrix 3.0 para analizar la evolución de la diversidad, densidad y sofisticación léxicas de un corpus de aprendices a longitudinal study of l2 historical writing: lexical richness and writing proficiency in content and language integrated learning adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez & francisco lorenzo universidad pablo de olavide (spain) agranav@upo.es, mdlopezji@upo.es, fjlorber@upo.es 129 ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez & francisco lorenzo compuesto por 75 textos producidos por 15 estudiantes en sus clases de historia en inglés como l2. los resultados muestran un incremento en la cantidad de unidades léxicas empleadas por los estudiantes, así como en la abstracción y asociabilidad de los términos, lo cual indica que los estudiantes mejoraron su riqueza léxica, a la vez que desarrollaron su competencia escrita y su literacidad histórica. palabras clave: riqueza léxica, competencia escrita en la l2, literacidad histórica, coh-metrix, aicle. 1. introduction the writing-to-learn approach (e.g., britton, martin & rosen, 1966) and its secondary trends, ‘writing across the curriculum’ (e.g., young & fulwiler, 1986) and ‘writing in the disciplines’ (e.g., deane & o’neill, 2011), share the assumption that disciplinary content is deeply ingrained in the very act of literacy development. furthermore, they are concerned with disciplinary discourses and their enactment in genres, which have their own particular characterisation across all language levels (rose, 2008; shanahan & shanahan, 2008). these trends as a whole have paved the way for the current consideration of disciplinary content and writing conventions as focal points in literacy research, so much so that disciplinary literacy is often added to the traditional distinction between basic interpersonal communicative skills (bics) and cognitive academic language proficiency (calp) (dressenhammouda, 2008; harwood & hadley, 2004; see cummins, 1979, for bics and calp). in this study, the focus is on historical literacy, and the writing proficiency of a group of students is examined regarding the specialised language of history. writing proficiency is a subset of language competence in which the mastery of genres and rhetorical devices should be combined with language-specific abilities, such as the use of a range of vocabulary and syntactic structures (wolfe-quintero, tnagaki and kim, 1998; in lahuerta, 2015). indeed, the linguistic features employed by most writing researchers fall into three areas: lexis, syntax and cohesion (mcnamara, crossley & mccarthy, 2010). of these constructs, lexical richness is considered one of the most important proxies for text quality (e.g., crossley & mcnamara, 2011; engber, 1995; grobe, 1981; jarvis, 2002; malvern, richards, chipere & durán, 2004; mcnamara et al., 2010; nold & freedman, 1977) and is perhaps the most commonly used one (crossley, 2020). both usage-based and psycholinguistic 130 approaches (see ellis, 2002, 2012, respectively) assume that “more proficient writers produce words that are more difficult to process and recognise, either because of exposure to the words or because of properties inherent to the words” (crossley, 2020, p. 418). the aim of this paper is therefore to provide a longitudinal description of the lexical richness of secondary school students’ l2 history essays (see breeze & gerns, 2019, for the impact of academic writing instruction on this population). the description of l2 development in a school setting is still incomplete for several reasons. firstly, language assessment is not often content-bound and therefore the evidence of competence derives from language output disconnected from both the discipline in question (e.g., history, science, mathematics, etc.) and the curriculum (the industrial revolution, ecosystems, integers, etc.). secondly, corpora produced in formal learning settings are mostly cross-sectional, which means that writers’ development is difficult to track (dóczi & kormos, 2016; nikula, 2017; pellicer-sánchez, 2018). by tracing how the lexical richness of secondary education students’ l2 historical essays developed over a period of three years, we wanted to gain further insights into the evolution of academic writing proficiency at a critical moment in students’ literacy development, namely from early to mid-adolescence. 2. the development of lexical richness 2.1. lexical richness despite the popularity of linguistic lexical features as a measure of text quality and learners’ writing proficiency, there is still a certain disparity in the conceptualisation of lexical richness. for crossley (2020), it consists of the number of unique words (lexical diversity), the proportion between content and function words (lexical density) and the proportion of advanced words (lexical sophistication) in a text. the problem lies in the operationalisation of the advanced word construct. traditionally, research has focused on the number of low frequency words (laufer & nation, 1995), but, as crossley puts it, this construct has evolved to encompass a vast number of word properties (crossley, 2020, p. 418): sophisticated words have been defined as words that are more likely found in academic texts (coxhead, 2000), words that are less concrete, imageable, and familiar (crossley & skalicky, in press; saito et al., 2016; salsbury, a longitudinal study of l2 historical writing ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 131 crossley, & mcnamara, 2011), words that have fewer phonological and orthographical neighbors, words that have higher latencies in word naming and lexical decision tasks (balota et al., 2007), more specific words (fellbaum, 1998), and words that are less diverse based on context (mcdonald & shillcock, 2001). for jarvis (2013, 2017; in vanhove, bonvin, lambelet & berthele, 2019), the lexical richness of a text may be reflected in six dimensions: the total number of words (volume), the lexical diversity (variability), the equal or unequal repetition of words (evenness), the frequency of words in the language as a whole (rarity), the similarity of words (disparity) and the distribution of repeated words in the text (dispersion). the problem with this theoretical model is, once again, the operationalisation of the dimensions, particularly those pertaining to the textual relationship between words: evenness and dispersion. for evenness, jarvis (2013b) uses the standard deviation of the counts of tokens per type. regarding dispersion, he considers it to be the mean distance between different tokens of the same type, averaged over all types in the text, but admits that he presently computes it as “the number of times that types are repeated within the next n (e.g., 20) tokens” (vanhove et al., 2019: 502). as can be appreciated, both conceptualisations are totally compatible, only differing in the grouping of indices in dimensions and the extent to which textual relations between words are considered. nevertheless, studies focusing on the development of lexical richness tend to use a combination of the aforementioned parameters. 2.2. lexical richness and writing proficiency a comprehensive review of the empirical findings regarding the relationship between text quality and lexical richness can be found in crossley (2020). with respect to l1 writing, research has shown that more proficient writers tend to use more academic words (douglas, 2013), more specific and less1 polysemous words and more imageable and concrete words (crossley, roscoe, mcnamara & graesser, 2011; mcnamara, crossley & roscoe, 2013), less meaningful words (mcnamara et al., 2013), longer words (crossley, weston, mclain & mcnamara, 2011; gardner, nesi & biber, 2019; haswell, 2000), less familiar words (crossley, weston, mclain & mcnamara, 2011) and more infrequent words (crossley, roscoe, mcnamara & graesser, 2011; mcnamara et al., 2010). adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez & francisco lorenzo ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154132 as to l2 writing, similar patterns have been reported. according to the research, more proficient l2 writers tend to use more specific and less polysemous words (guo, crossley & mcnamara, 2013; kyle & crossley, 2016), less meaningful words (crossley & mcnamara, 2012), longer words (grant & ginther, 2000; reppen, 1994) and less familiar and more infrequent words (crossley & mcnamara, 2012). the only difference in l1 writing has been observed in the imageability and concreteness of words, as more proficient l2 writers have been found to use less imageable words (crossley, kyle, allen, guo & mcnamara, 2014). according to jarvis’s theoretical model (2013, 2017), three of his six dimensions predict expert ratings of overall text quality (vanhove et al., 2019): variability or lexical diversity, (crossley & mcnamara, 2011; engber, 1995; grobe, 1981; jarvis, 2002; kuiken & vedder, 2014; malvern et al., 2004; mcnamara et al., 2010), rarity or the number of less frequent words (crossley & mcnamara, 2011; guo et al., 2013; malvern et al., 2004; mcnamara et al., 2010) and volume or the overall number of words (grobe, 1981; jarvis, grant, bikowski & ferris, 2003; nold & freedman, 1977). given the considerable number of lexical indices, crossley, salsbury, mcnamara and jarvis (2010) attempted to identify those that better predict human ratings of lexical proficiency. after analysing word length, lexical diversity, word frequency, hypernymy, polysemy, semantic co-referentiality, word meaningfulness, word concreteness, word imageability and word familiarity, they concluded that the best predictors of written lexical proficiency were lexical diversity, hypernymy and frequency, which explained 44 per cent of the variance in the human evaluations. 3. the development of history literacy the development of lexical richness and writing proficiency needs to be framed within the development of disciplinary literacy. biliteracy –and therefore disciplinary literacy in an l1 and l2– is a continuum (hornberger, 2004). the transition from plain, here-and-now conversational language (bics) to mature there-and-then academic language (calp) is a watershed in individual language use, especially in writing. the longitudinal study of general academic language has brought out various aspects of language growth and development across life stages (see biber, 1992, on academic genre acquisition; christie, 2012, on language education from a functional a longitudinal study of l2 historical writing ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 133 perspective; grabe, 2002, on the transition from narrative to expository texts; ortega & byrnes, 2008, on advanced discourse). the development of academic language results from the consolidation of the language of a discipline in the form of sentential components (lexicogrammar) and discourse aspects (the discipline’s functions and genres). these language features shape knowledge structures in each academic area and constitute disciplinary literacy, to wit, literacy in biology, mathematics, history, etc. (shanahan & shanahan, 2008). thus, just as descriptions and definitions are key to science (mohan, leung & davison, 2001) and argumentation is important in algebra (prediger & hein, 2017), so too is history characterised by particular language features in which lexical richness plays a substantial role: nominalisations, implicit causal and temporal organisation and cause-effect relations within clauses (see achugar & schleppegrell 2005; coffin, 2006, 2009; lorenzo, 2017; nokes, 2013; schleppegrell & colombi, 2002; see also achugar & carpenter, 2014, for a description of language in history, both as an l1 and l2). furthermore, history is fundamentally a written discipline, to the point that the historical periods for which there are no written testimonies are referred to as prehistory. the linguistic turn of this discipline has even led historiographers to declare that ‘history as science’ is nothing more than a ‘literary artefact’ (white, 2010). history literacy is an evolutionary construct. coffin (2006) proposes a threestage model of historical thinking: first, a purely narrative period (recording, corresponding to the 11-13 age bracket); then, an exploration of causes and consequences including multifactorial causality (explaining, corresponding to the 14-16 age bracket) and, finally, personal judgement, plus an ideological stance (arguing, corresponding to the 16-18 age bracket). when learning history, students need to leverage arguments, evaluations, generalisations, and abstractions in order to progress (christie & maton, 2011). mature history narratives employ a higher concentration of nominals, more morphological narrative complexities and more present and past participles over time (asención-delaney & collentine, 2011). these features modify the writing styles of students, who can consequently meet more complex academic and discursive requirements. adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez & francisco lorenzo ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154134 4. methodology 4.1. research background this research builds on a series of previous studies in the european field of clil (granados, lorenzo-espejo & lorenzo, 2021; lorenzo & granados, 2020; lorenzo & moore, 2009; lorenzo & rodríguez, 2014; lorenzo, granados & rico, 2021), inquiring into issues such as the advantages of clil versus monolingual education and the description of incidental learning and positive transfer between an l1 and an l2. particularly, lorenzo, granados and ávila (2019) explored the development of fluency, syntactic complexity, and text easability of the learner corpus analysed in this paper, and granados and lorenzo (2021) described the development in the use of connectives. in the research context described above, the aim of this study is to analyse the development of l2 written lexical richness in the discipline of history and how it fluctuated in a formal bilingual setting within an established time frame: three academic years. 4.2. research questions in order to fulfil this objective, several research questions were formulated: 4.2.1. rq 1. did the lexical richness of the students’ l2 historical writing develop over time? employing crossley’s (2020) conceptualisation, written lexical richness was analysed as the number of unique words (lexical diversity), the proportion between content and function words (lexical density) and the proportion of advanced words (lexical sophistication) in the essays. 4.2.2. rq 2: if so, which lexical dimensions evolved in the students’ l2 historical writing? each dimension was studied separately to determine whether or not they developed differently as students matured. if a dimension evolved, it meant that it developed during the critical period of adolescence and that it was sensitive enough to maturation to vary over a three-year period. 4.2.3. rq 3: if so, was there any lexical dimension that did not evolve in the students’ l2 historical writing? this would imply that there are dimensions that did not develop during the a longitudinal study of l2 historical writing ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 135 critical period of adolescence or which were not sensitive enough to maturation to vary over a three-year period. 4.3. sampling and participants this study was performed on a sample of students from a state secondary school in andalusia (southern spain), which has been running an optional english-spanish bilingual programme for the past 15 years, in keeping with the spanish and european trend towards clil-type multilingual education. the study sample was made up of 20 students enrolled in the bilingual programme, all of whom were l1 spanish speakers and belonged to the same grade and class. this made it possible to neutralise many of the variables present in learning environments (the teaching methodology, the quality and quantity of language exposure, the number and nature of courses taught in english, etc.), thus providing an adequate setting for a longitudinal study. since students were in the andalusian bilingual programme, they received 45 weekly contact hours of explicit l2 instructions (depending on the school year they were in) and at least two content subjects were taught in the l2 (one of them always being social sciences). a minimum of 30% and a maximum of 50% of the curriculum had to be taught in english (see andalusian department of education, 2017, for more information). these students were tested five times over a three-year period. when the first test (test 1) was administered, they were all ninth-graders (aged between 14 and 15) who had already received two years of education in the bilingual programme. they had an english level of a2 according to the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr). by the time the fifth test (test 5) was administered, they had become eleventh-graders (aged between 16 and 17) and were expected to oscillate between a b1 and b2 level of english within the following two academic years. nevertheless, the sample suffered attrition. three of the students abandoned the bilingual programme in the tenth grade (because of the extra cognitive demands involved, the amount of work required or other academic reasons) and two had to retake a year (ninth grade). as a result, a total of 15 students sat the five tests. 4.4. instrumentation and data collection five tests in the form of history essays were administered to the students without prior notice. the test topics were in keeping with the official history adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez & francisco lorenzo ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154136 curriculum being taught in class, specifically, 9/11 and the clash of civilisations, the avant-gardes, the industrial revolution, the american revolution, and the spanish civil war. during the three-year study time frame, the history teacher informed the research team when each topic was being studied. on the basis of this information, tests 1 and 2 were administered in the ninth grade (14-15 years old), tests 3 and 4 in the tenth grade (15-16 years old) and test 5 in the eleventh grade (16-17 years old). the essays composed by the students were based on what they had learnt in the ordinary history course. they were not allowed to consult any additional materials when sitting the tests, which were supervised. besides the minimum length for the essay, they were only given the following guidelines: (a) define the given concept or historical period; (b) explain its causes and consequences; and (c) give your opinion on its historical implications. the data collection process resulted in a learner corpus made up of 75 essays, totalling 12,000 words, which were organised in three periods of composition (year 1, year 2, and year 3), corresponding to the three years of the study. year 1 encompassed the combined results of tests 1 and 2, and year 2, those of tests 3 and 4. in the third and final year (year 3), only one test (test 5) was administered in order to avoid further dropouts which would have seriously compromised the study. 4.5. computational analysis the students’ essays were coded and processed with the coh-metrix computational tool, which produces indices of the linguistic and discursive representations of a text in five major dimensions: narrativity, syntactic simplicity, word concreteness, referential cohesion and deep (causal) cohesion (mcnamara, louwerse, cai & graesser, 2014). coh-metrix has been validated by numerous researchers, including polio and yoon (2018). these authors compared coh-metrix results with hand-coding, confirming that it is a non-redundant and reasonably transparent tool for measuring cohesion, complexity, and coherence metrics, as well as being capable of reflecting differences in genres among english-as-an-l2 (esl) writers with reliability. similarities in results and metrics have also been found with other software tools used to analyse the lexical complexity of history essays (lorenzo & rodríguez, 2014). in this study, crossley’s (2020) conceptualisation was used. written lexical richness was therefore analysed as the number of unique words (lexical a longitudinal study of l2 historical writing ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 137 diversity), the proportion between content and function words (lexical density) and the proportion of advanced words (lexical sophistication) in the essays. the following coh-metrix indices were employed: 4.5.1. written lexical diversity a. the type-token ratio for content words and for all words lexical diversity assesses the range of vocabulary employed in a text (mcnamara et al., 2014). the most reputed measure of lexical diversity is the type-token ratio (hereinafter ttr), a coefficient resulting from dividing the number of unique words in a text (i.e., types) by the overall number of words (i.e., tokens). the type token ratio can be measured by means of two cohmetrix indices: (a) coh-metrix index 48, which only processes content words (i.e., nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) sharing a common lemma (e.g., tree/treed; mouse/mousey; price/priced, etc.); and (b) coh-metrix index 49, which measures the type-token ratio for all words. b. the measure of textual lexical diversity (mtld) and vocd lexical diversity measures for all words ttr has proved to be extremely sensitive to text length and, therefore, a poor predictor of lexical proficiency when text length is not constant. in fact, “as the number of word tokens increases, there is a lower likelihood of those words being unique” (mcnamara et al., 2014, p. 67) and ttr tends to be lower. in order to overcome these metric limitations, coh-metrix includes indices that use estimation algorithms such as the measure of textual lexical diversity (hereinafter mtld) and vocd, indices 50 and 51, respectively. the mtld is calculated as the mean length of sequential word strings in a text which maintain a given ttr value (mcnamara et al., 2014, p. 67). similarly, vocd is calculated through a computational procedure that matches ttr random samples with ideal ttr curves (mcnamara et al., 2014, p. 67). both indices allow researchers to compare the lexical diversity of texts differing in length, although validation studies tend to favour mtld over vocd (mccarthy & jarvis, 2010). 4.5.2. written lexical density lexical density is the proportion between content and function words. cohmetrix indicates the incidence of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez & francisco lorenzo ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154138 (indices 84-87) per 1000 words. by combining these indices, the proportion between content and function words can be calculated. 4.5.3. written lexical sophistication this dimension was operationalised by means of the following indices: a. familiarity, concreteness, imageability and meaningfulness for content words familiarity (coh-metrix index 98) refers to how familiar a word seems to an adult on a 700-point scale (100 for unheard words and 700 for those heard almost every day), according to the mrc psycholinguistic database (mcnamara et al., 2014). concreteness (coh-metrix index 99) indicates how concrete or non-abstract a word is on the same scale –100 for words that score low in concreteness, like ‘protocol’ (264), and 700 for words referring to things that can be touched, heard, or tasted, like ‘box’ (597)– according to the mrc psycholinguistic database (mcnamara et al., 2014). meaningfulness (coh-metrix index 100) refers to the extent to which one word can be associated with others, on the same scale –100 for words with a weak association, like ‘abbess’ (218), and 700 for those with a strong association, like ‘people’ (612)– according to the mrc psycholinguistic database (mcnamara et al., 2014). imageability (coh-metrix index 101) indicates how easy it is to construct a mental image of a word, on a similar scale –100 for low-imagery words, like ‘reason’ (267), and 700 for high-imagery words, like ‘hammer’ (618)– according to the mrc psycholinguistic database (mcnamara et al., 2014). b. word length word length is calculated in relation to the mean number of syllables per word (coh-metrix index 8) and the mean number of letters per word (cohmetrix index 10). c. word frequency word frequencies for content words (coh-metrix index 94) are given in accordance with the celex lexical database (baayen, piepenbrock & gulikers, 1995). d. polysemy and hypernymy a longitudinal study of l2 historical writing ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 139 polysemy (coh-metrix index 102) is computed as the mean number of senses (core meanings) of the content words used in a text, according to the wordnet lexicon. hypernymy indicates the rank of a word on the hierarchical scale of the wordnet lexicon. for instance, ‘entity’ is considered as the hypernym of all nouns and, therefore, has a hypernymy value of 1. for its part, ‘chair’ has many higher hypernymy categories (only as regards the object, e.g., ‘furniture’, ‘furnishing’, ‘instrumentality’, ‘artefact’, ‘whole’, ‘object’, ‘physical entity’ and ‘entity)’ and, therefore, has a hypernymy value of 8.5. coh-metrix provides the hypernymy values for nouns (index 103) and for verbs (index 104). the results and the mean values of each coh-metrix index were studied in order to perform a descriptive analysis on lexical development, with the aim of revealing quantitative and qualitative tendencies in multiple case studies. 5. results 5.1. written lexical diversity 5.1.1. the type-token ratio for content words and for all words as can be seen in figure 1, the mean type-token ratio for content words and the mean type-token ratio for all words followed the same decreasing pattern, although the type-token ratio for all words registered lower results. this gap in figure  1 is perfectly logical: non-content words such as conjunctions (‘and’, ‘but’, etc.), prepositions (‘in’, ‘out’, etc.), or pronouns (‘he’, ‘who’, etc.) are much more frequent and therefore repeated in a prototypical text. when considered, lexical diversity is necessarily lower. at first sight, therefore, the students’ lexical diversity decreased as the study advanced. adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez & francisco lorenzo ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154140 figure 1. mean type-token ratio of the students’ essays. however, as already explained in section 3.5, ttr has proved to be extremely sensitive to text length and, therefore, a poor predictor of lexical proficiency when textual length is not constant. that is precisely the case here, as the students displayed higher levels of conceptual fluency over time, which led to much longer texts. in order to remedy the metric limitations, coh-metrix includes indices that use estimation algorithms such as the mtld and vocd. 5.1.2. mtld and vocd lexical diversity measures for all words as shown in figure 2, even though the degree to which lexical diversity increased differed noticeably from mtld to vocd (the former being regarded as more reliable), both measures indicated a clear growth (by more than 20%, according to mtld; and by almost 50%, according to vocd). these gains were constant over time and developed gradually from year 1 to year 2, and from this mid-point to year 3. one full-text example of this development is shown in table 2, at the end of the results section. a longitudinal study of l2 historical writing ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 141 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 5 ! l ! s figure 2. mean mtld and vocd of the students’ essays. from this steady increase in lexical diversity, it can be inferred that the students became more proficient as they grew older and progressed in the bilingual education system (jarvis, 2002; mcnamara et al., 2010; crossley, weston, mclain & mcnamara, 2011; crossley & mcnamara, 2012). 5.2. written lexical density the proportion between content and function words is shown in table 1. the overall proportion of content words increased slightly from year 1 to year 3. this was due to the considerable growth in the proportion of adjectives, which compensated for the slight decreases in the proportion of nouns and verbs. this growth in the proportion of adjectives could be related to the expansion of noun phrases, a feature of academic writing. despite these minor variations, however, no remarkable development was observed in this dimension. table 1. mean proportion of content words in the students’ essays. adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez & francisco lorenzo ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154142 5.3. written lexical sophistication 5.3.1. familiarity, concreteness, imageability and meaningfulness of content words the study results displayed in figure 3 show that familiarity levels remained very similar, with a variation of less than one point up or down the scale over time (573, 572 and 574, respectively), meaning that word difficulty remained constant. the concreteness and imageability indices fell considerably during the first two years, while remaining constant during the final year, thus implying a higher degree of abstraction. the essays became less picturesque and anecdotal, hinting at a transition from more narrative to more expository texts. finally, lexical meaningfulness increased moderately but steadily, pointing to the construction of more cohesive texts with words better knitted in clusters and lexical bundles, thus proving that lexical development is not random but develops in semantic networks. a full-text example can be consulted in table 2, at the end of the results section. figure 3. mean familiarity, concreteness, imageability and meaningfulness of the students’ essays. 5.3.2. word length, word frequency, polysemy, and hypernymy finally, no remarkable development was observed for word length, word frequency, polysemy, and hypernymy. their evolution was subtle and irregular. their values can be consulted in the appendix. a longitudinal study of l2 historical writing ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 143 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! table 2. student 10’s first and last essays. original grammar and spelling. 6. discussion this study has analysed the development of lexical richness in l2 historical writing according to three dimensions: the number of unique words (lexical diversity), the proportion between content and function words (lexical density) and the proportion of advanced words (lexical sophistication). in these dimensions, a clear evolution was observed in only two: lexical diversity and lexical sophistication. the second dimension, lexical density, remained constant during the three-year study period. within lexical sophistication, development was detected in the familiarity, concreteness, imageability and meaningfulness of words. word length, word frequency, polysemy and hypernymy also remained unaffected. the development of each dimension will now be addressed in turn. furthermore, in order to flesh out the raw data, the results will be discussed on the basis of a corpus sample of one of the student’s essays from year 1 and year 3 (i.e., from the first and last tests administered), which are included in table 2 (results section). adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez & francisco lorenzo ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154144 high levels of lexical diversity entail lower cohesion and higher difficulty: there are more unique words introducing new information that needs to be processed and integrated into the discourse by the reader (mcnamara et al., 2014). in contrast, the greater the frequency with which the same words are used multiple times across the text, the lower the lexical diversity and the higher the text cohesion will be. in this study, the increase in the number of lexical items employed by the students has been confirmed, a trait that indicates that they were becoming more proficient l2 writers (crossley & mcnamara, 2011; crossley & mcnamara, 2012; engber, 1995; grobe, 1981; jarvis, 2002; kuiken & vedder, 2014; malvern et al., 2004; mcnamara et al., 2010). moreover, if the nature of this increase in the breadth of vocabulary is examined in the students’ essays, the first feature to emerge is the persistence of semantic extension over time (harmon & kapatsinski, 2017). learners initially extend the l1 semantic load of lexical items to l2 equivalents. this was represented in the students’ essays by the presence of calques, like ‘conform’, which is employed with the meaning of the spanish verb conformar (‘form’, ‘make up’, ‘constitute’). semantic extensions decline over time, however, when l1 intake is blocked out and l2 intake is connected only to l2 relations. research has called this process a move from ‘word association representation’ to ‘conceptual mediation representation’ (spöttl & mccarthy, 2004). these results show that in this bilingual model, once compulsory education has been completed, there are still indications of overreliance on l1 for word generation in the form of transliteration, calques or extreme translanguaging. these are different forms of the ‘oneto-one principle’, namely, the naïve belief that lexical units in the two languages match perfectly. high idiomaticity levels are an indication of l2 proficiency, but here the first language still contaminates l2 production, especially as regards academic vocabulary (see, for example, the misspelling of cognates like *‘comunists’ and *‘acused’, and the structural calques *‘the separation that suffered the society’ and *‘get a job to those people’). the second dimension in which evolution was observed is lexical sophistication, particularly as regards the familiarity, concreteness, imageability and meaningfulness of words. these are key indices for writing proficiency: less familiar words are more difficult to learn and take longer to process (mcnamara et al., 2014), word concreteness and word imageability are indirectly proportional to abstraction (barber, otten, kousta & vigliocco, 2013) and the average meaningfulness of a text is indirectly a longitudinal study of l2 historical writing ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 145 proportional to text difficulty, since words with a stronger association imply that readers need to process and integrate less new information into the discourse (crossley & mcnamara, 2012). in this regard, research has found that more proficient l2 writers tend to use less concrete and imageable words (crossley et al., 2014) and less familiar and meaningful words (crossley & mcnamara, 2012). in this study, the students did indeed use less concrete and imageable words; that is, there was a greater degree of abstractness. contrary to crossley and mcnamara’s (2012) findings, however, familiarity remained constant and there was an increase in the meaningfulness of lexical items; namely, terms had a greater degree of associativity. this divergence might have been due to the age and the developmental stage of the students making up the sample, as they are far from reaching the top proficiency levels. in terms of associativity, one implication of the net gains reported is that lexical growth is not random but develops in semantic networks. example 2, from year 3 (table 2, results section), includes a wide variety of words related to conflict: ‘war’, ‘battle’ and ‘rebellion’. indeed, lexical development goes hand in glove with a better control of derivational mechanisms which improve the quality of academic writing. in example 2, three different word forms for the same word family concur: noun (‘rebellion’), adjective (‘rebel’) and verb (‘rebelled’). derivational expertise goes a long way to helping text cohesion and textual cross-references. the new constellation of semantic fields not only includes nominal groups, because grammar words for expressing functional categories also increase over time, as will be seen below regarding the expression of causality. as to abstractness, research has observed that abstraction in academic writing is achieved by means of signalling nouns, namely, abstract nouns which refer to a general area of meaning whose specific meaning is found elsewhere in the clause or text (flowerdew, 2014: 96). one such example can be detected in example 2 (year 3), in the account of a historical episode in which ‘difficulties’ are mentioned ‘for the armies involved in warfare’. the actual embodiment of such difficulties is only found further on in the sentence. this dummy word exists mostly for the sake of anticipating semantic processes, here of a historical nature. lexical gains, therefore, follow a tendency towards more abstract language. the development of abstraction in written language relates in part to that of nominalisation. nominalisation characterises mature academic language like adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez & francisco lorenzo ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154146 no other construction (lorenzo et al., 2019, granados et al., 2021). at earlier ages, as in test 1, language includes more verbs and more prototypical theme/rheme sentences. over time, language evolves and becomes more nominal. terms like ‘separation’ and ‘support’ represent the typical grammatical metaphor, whereby noun phrases are used instead of verb-like sentences. as is well-known in functional systemics, nominalisations freeze actions and transform eventful episodes into non-temporal abstract processes: as in the use of ‘rising’ (as in a coup d’état) in example 2, as opposed to a non-nominalised ‘x rose against y’ pattern, which would have been more typical in the case of a younger student. when describing this composition device, halliday (2004) posited that when writers express a process by means of nominalisation, a rhetorical tension is created between the semantic level (which describes a process as if it were an agent undertaking an action) and the lexicogrammatical level (the actual nominal word forms which embody the action). he went on to say that this is regarded as a metaphor because the end result is a virtual entity which only exists as semiosis. the use of ‘rising’, instead of military insurrection, in example 2 further elaborates on the metaphor within. the fact that the action described (‘the military rose in arms’) is represented by a neutral or even positive action (‘rising’) ties in with the fascist propaganda following the military coup. this bilingual student’s command of history vocabulary demonstrates not only advanced lexical knowledge, but also the consolidation of abstract thought in ideological writing (e.g., ‘the support of fascist countries such as germany or italy, the numerous *comunist politicians that *conformed the government, and as a result of past disagreements’). to conclude the discussion on lexical richness, it should also be noted that it was possible to glimpse the bigger picture by just glancing at the general discourse structure of the essays. in addition to the differences in lexical constituents, the essays composed in test 5 show variations in discourse texture. in later stages, they are more densely packed with lexical collocations (e.g., adverb + adjective, like the phrase ‘extremely high number of *dissapeared people’, in example 2 from test 5). this implies a new approach to text construction involving longer units with more preand post-modifications. having said that, the results should be interpreted with caution due to two research limitations. firstly, in longitudinal multiple-case studies like this one, which aimed at neutralising contextual variables (by testing students taught a longitudinal study of l2 historical writing ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 147 under the same conditions), the results are merely descriptive. the findings discussed here should pave the way for future large-scale, cross-sectional analyses aimed at testing their generalisability. secondly, even though the study included five tests per student over a three-year period, individual text topics might have affected the range of vocabulary used by the students (tracy-ventura, mitchell & mcmanus, 2016). despite these limitations, this paper describes a pioneering longitudinal study of lexical development in l2 historical writing in a formal bilingual setting, at a crucial moment for the academic language development of students. 7. conclusion writing proficiency is usually analysed by means of three constructs: lexical, syntactic and cohesion (mcnamara et al., 2010). our study has focused on the lexical construct and has examined the lexical richness of secondary school students’ l2 historical writing in relation to their lexical diversity, density, and sophistication. our results show that, after three years of formal bilingual education, the students in the sample used more lexical items and employed terms with a larger degree of abstractness and associability. this points to their greater lexical richness, their higher writing proficiency, and their more profound grasp of history literacy. history is a fundamentally written discipline, a literary artefact to postmodern historiography (white, 2010). following this conception, international institutions such as the council of europe have even developed language descriptors which evaluate writing in relation to the discipline of history. in this context, the fact that the students’ history literacy and writing proficiency matured during the three-year study period may help us to 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(2004). comparing the knowledge of formulaic sequences across l1, l2, l3 and l4. in n. schmitt (ed.), formulaic sequences: acquisition, processing and use (pp. 191-225). john benjamins. adrián granados is a postdoctoral researcher at universidad pablo de olavide (seville, spain). his research focuses on the study of second language acquisition and bilingualism, and he is specialised in processing academic corpora with linguistic analysis software. he has published in journals such as applied linguistics, journal of english for academic purposes, and international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism. maría dolores lópez-jiménez is a senior lecturer at universidad pablo de olavide (seville, spain). she has also held visiting scholar positions at indiana university. her research focuses on the teaching and learning process of vocabulary and (inter)cultural aspects in an l2, publishing in journals such as porta linguarum, revista de educación, and resla. francisco lorenzo is a full professor at universidad pablo de olavide (seville, spain). he has held visiting scholar positions at harvard university, university of london and university of jyväskylä. his research focuses on the study of second language acquisition and bilingualism, sociolinguistics and sociology of language, and european language policies. he has authored more than sixty publications in journals such as applied linguistics, language policy, system, and language and education. notes 1 throughout the manuscript, when less is followed by an adjective, it is always functioning as an adverb, not a determiner (e.g., by less polysemous words we mean words which are less polysemous, and not fewer polysemous words). adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez & francisco lorenzo ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154152 tracy-ventura, n., mitchell, r., & mcmanus, k. 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(1986). writing across the disciplines: research into practice. boynton/cook. acknowledgements this research was supported by the european regional development fund (erdf, 80%) and by the department of economy, knowledge, business and university of the andalusian regional government (20%), within the framework of research project upo-1380541. appendix. mean values of word length, word frequency, polysemy, and hypernymy table 3. mean values of word length, word frequency, polysemy, and hypernymy. a longitudinal study of l2 historical writing ibérica 43 (2022): 129-154 153 iberica 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper examines the role of the adjective “unique” in car manufacturers’ websites. the presence of adjectives is generally acknowledged to be a significant feature of advertising texts; however, analyses often focus on issues relating to the statistical frequency of occurrence of such items. based on a corpus of sixteen uk car manufacturers’ websites, the present study considers the adjective “unique” in order to extract lexical information about its use and possible interpretation. from a relevance-theoretic approach to lexical pragmatics, findings indicate that this item shows an extraordinary sensitivity to context, and a number of ad hoc concepts are identified. results also show that the word “unique” performs a significant persuasive role in online car advertising, adapting perfectly to the defining characteristics of this medium, as well as to the distinguishing features of the automobile as a commodity product. keywords: adjective use, car advertising, relevance theory, lexical pragmatics, ad hoc concepts. resumen el adjetivo “unique”: algo más que una palabra llamativa en el lenguaje publicitario este trabajo analiza el uso del adjetivo unique en páginas web de fabricantes de coches. a pesar de que los adjetivos tienden a considerarse elementos destacados en los textos publicitarios, su estudio suele centrarse en cuestiones de índole estadística. el presente artículo ofrece un análisis del adjetivo unique basado en un corpus de 16 páginas web de fabricantes de coches del reino unido con el propósito de extraer información léxica sobre el uso e interpretación de esta palabra. los resultados obtenidos, basados en la teoría de la relevancia, revelan que la interpretación de este adjetivo muestra una enorme dependencia del the adjective “unique”: more than a buzzword in the language of advertising marisa diez-arroyo universidad de oviedo (spain) arroyo@uniovi.es 149 ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 marisa diez-arroyo contexto, lo cual permite identificar varios conceptos ad hoc. asimismo, este trabajo pone de manifiesto el valor persuasivo del adjetivo unique en la publicidad del sector automovilístico en internet, en perfecta sintonía con las características del tipo de canal empleado y de los rasgos distintivos del automóvil como producto de consumo. palabras clave: uso adjetival, publicidad del automóvil, teoría de la relevancia, pragmática léxica, conceptos ad hoc. 1. introduction advertising, as a goal-oriented activity whose purpose is to sell a product, service or idea, naturally falls within the category of persuasive communication. even though the intention to convince may be carried out through both verbal and non-verbal means (images, music, paralanguage), this study, in line with much other scholarly work in the field, is concerned especially with linguistic expression as a persuasive tool (leech, 1966; vestergaard & shrøeder, 1985; myers, 1994; goddard, 2002, and many others). among the words which may move the customer to action, adjectives, due to their highly informative meaning and descriptive value, are generally acknowledged as having a significant presence in an advertisement, be it a slogan or a longer stretch of text. it is somewhat surprising, then, that, to our knowledge, a detailed analysis of the adjective phrase (ap) in the language of advertising has yet to emerge in the literature. unlike in the case of nouns (rush, 1998; ramón & labrador, 2018), aps are discussed principally in terms of their specific role in a given advertisement, which limits the scope for commentary on them to short passages within longer texts, and considerably reduces the possibility of drawing overriding conclusions. adjective frequency in the language of advertising, however, has attracted more interest; thus, studies often present lists of the most common aps used in advertisements (leech, 1966; goddard, 2002; ke & wang, 2013; hakkarainen, 2016). yet this seems to derive from mere statistical curiosity, with generalisations often contradicting those found in other studies. for instance, whereas for goddard (2002: 73), adjectives such as “new” or “good” (terms that tend to rank high in such lists) can be labelled as “buzzwords” or “spin words” (words that cause a special impact on the reader), leech (1966: 151, 152) deems them to be part of the general stock vocabulary that advertisers rely on, and, accordingly, categorises them as “all-purpose epithets”. furthermore, leech (1966: 153) notes “that 150 certain commendatory adjectives are preferred to others” and that this “is less easy to explain”. several decades later, ke and wang (2013: 281), despite their arguments being perhaps more superficial than would be desirable, pointed out that adjective frequency in advertising only becomes meaningful when considered within the wider frame of “a relationship among human civilisation, advertising effect, [and] lexicology”. it is on these lines that the present paper has been conceived. a sample of 124 texts from sixteen uk car manufacturers’ websites during the year 2017 was compiled: eight of these being luxury marques (lms) (aston martin, audi, bentley, bmw, jaguar, lexus, maserati and mercedes benz) and the other eight non-luxury marques (nlms) (citröen, ford, mini, nissan, renault, vauxhall, volkswagen and volvo), with the aim of contributing to the study of aps in the language of advertising through focusing on the use and interpretation of the term “unique” in the corpus. adjective frequency has been discussed in the literature, and in this context we can say that “unique” deserves attention, in that, according to the data extracted from the sixteen car websites examined in this paper, it ranks fifth in frequency after the aps “new”, “black”, “rear” and “blue”, with 116 occurrences, 76 in lms texts and 40 in nlms. the current paper addresses the following research questions: can the item “unique” be categorised as an allpurpose epithet, a buzzword, or does it have some meaning of its own? what is the persuasive value of the lexical unit “unique” in the particular setting of automobile advertising? might there be a relationship between the use of the term “unique” and the channel (the internet) where it appears? the study is structured as follows. section 2 sets out the defining features of online advertising, along with a characterisation of the automobile as a marketing product. section 3 introduces the theoretical literature employed to analyse the use and interpretation of the term “unique”. section 4 constitutes the empirical part of the study, and is divided into seven subsections, these corresponding to seven different contexts of use. section 5 then provides some final remarks. 2. online advertising and automobiles in order to address the research questions set out above, the first step is to specify the medium in which the adjective “unique” appears, as well as the product it is used to describe. hence, this section first explains the the adjective “unique”: more than a buzzword in the language of advertising ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 151 characteristics of the internet as an advertising channel, then moves on to describe the automobile as a marketing product, its particular determining factors, and the relationship it has with the medium in which it appears. while there is no doubt that online advertising is an example of persuasive communication, it is no less true that the advent of digital technology has transformed it into an interactive communicative act. first, digital consumers are in control not only of the amount of information they can gather before making a purchase (the expression “research-shopper phenomenon” (verhoef et al., 2007) refers to the techno-literate consumer who uses the web to learn more easily and quickly about a product), but also of where, when and how they decide to collect such information. second, manufacturers’ websites differ considerably from other forms of advertising (print advertisements, television and radio commercials, billboards). the difference lies not only in that the latter have been designed to attract attention in a matter of seconds by means of short, catchy phrases, but also in that these more traditional sorts of advertising are largely unsolicited. web users, by contrast, have typically “landed” on the website. this may happen for a great many reasons, such as gathering specific information, keeping themselves informed about new developments and products, browsing casually and aimlessly, and so on. finally, digital product reviews by consumers further reinforce the interactive character of online advertising. the immediate consequence of electronic word-of-mouth behaviour (steffes & burgee, 2009) is that while the temptation by advertisers to use exaggerated claims might be minimised, consumers’ belief in the claims of copywriters might also be enhanced. all of this, it seems, goes some way towards explaining why website advertising content has been characterised as highly informative and exhibiting a certain length (janoschka, 2004). turning specifically to the type of commodity advertised here, we can say that the automobile constitutes a product with considerable cultural and social repercussions. at a first approximation, it is responsible for changes in the morphology of the landscape (construction of road networks to manage the increasing flow of traffic) and the organization of our towns and cities (streets, parking spaces) (inglis, 2004: 200). however, the significance of the car as a cultural and social element goes far beyond its function as a means of transport, and can only be fully appreciated when we consider how it embodies certain sign values, from its role as an instrument of freedom and leisure, as an opportunity for social connectedness (an interest in similar cars marisa diez-arroyo ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170152 may generate group membership), to a symbol of individuality (gartman, 2004; gossling, 2017). since this last feature relates directly to the content of the present study, we will address it in more detail. for the purposes of this investigation, car ownership and driving can promote individuality, as a minimum, through encouraging competitive behaviour as well as providing the possibility for (aesthetic) differentiation. through the car, people take risks, feel in control, and express dominance; thus, it becomes a symbol of personal success, a way to “gain” respect, and a means for self-expression (gossling, 2017: 1, 23). simultaneously, the car as a publicly visible object reflects the aesthetic preferences of its owner. all of this can be at the base of the emotional and affective relationship that may develop between the car and its owner. interestingly, advances in manufacturing and information technology have made it possible to target differentiation at a cost comparable to standard vehicle prices, a phenomenon known as “mass customization” (graessler, 2003), which greatly contributes to channel the individuality traits of owners. thanks to the internet and digital technologies, car manufacturers can offer their customers the option of participating in the design of certain features of the car, sometimes called “vehicle configuration” (graessler, 2003: 568), a traditional prerogative of the wealthy that now becomes available to a wide variety of buyers. empowering customers in this way has been seen as advantageous for brands in general (acar & puntoni, 2016): since customers spend more time considering the product, and thinking about what can make it different for them, they may eventually develop positive attitudes towards the brand in question. all of this can offer customers the opportunity to experience psychological ownership of the product, leading them to value and, indeed, to like and admire their own creations. arguably, then, because of all these advantages, vehicle configuration through customer empowerment on car manufacturers’ websites can be seen as a persuasive strategy in its own right. furthermore, we hypothesise that the use of the adjective “unique” in online automobile advertising not only contributes to an intensification of the cultural and social values of distinction and differentiation that surround car ownership, but also plays a significant role in vehicle configuration and customer empowerment, boosting the persuasive potential of the advertising message. yet in order to study the behaviour of “unique” in real examples of text and to draw valid conclusions, it is first necessary to describe the theoretical tools the adjective “unique”: more than a buzzword in the language of advertising ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 153 that will make such an analysis possible. in the following section, then, we will outline a lexical-pragmatic account of meaning, framed within relevance theory (henceforth rt) (sperber & wilson, 1995; wilson & sperber, 2004; 2012), which aims to show how pragmatics, aided by encyclopaedic (or realworld) knowledge, has a constructive role to play in the interpretation of the adjective “unique” in online automobile advertising. 3. lexical pragmatics and interpretation adjectives, along with nouns, verbs and adverbs, are classified as lexical or content words because they contribute to the meaning of the sentence in terms of its propositional content. however, lexical words do not always supply the same meaning here. for example, the adjective “empty”, widely discussed in the literature, well illustrates how different specifications can be acquired depending on the elements with which it is combined. thus, the meaning of “empty” varies significantly in sentences like “make sure your pockets are empty” (before putting your clothes in the washing machine) and “the theatre is empty” (uttered by an usher following a performance); while in the former example, the adjective “empty” means “empty of contents”, in the latter it indicates “empty of public”. furthermore, we note that the encoded concept does not in fact apply literally in either sequence: whereas pockets might contain no easily identifiable objects, they might contain small traces of things (sand, dust, etc.), and the theatre will surely contain the stalls, scenery and stage, and indeed might still have people in it (ushers, performers). thus, the encoded, literal meaning of a lexical item is always potentially elusive, and in these examples a more fine-tuned notion of emptiness is necessarily conveyed. the goal of pragmatic theory, then, is to explain how the message is interpreted so that the more specific, intended meaning is successfully communicated. taking as a starting point the idea that the meanings of words in context usually differ from the encoded or specified meaning that the grammar assigns them, a central concern for lexical pragmatics is to investigate the processes that are at play in this modification (carston, 2002; wilson & carston, 2007; wilson & kolaiti, 2017). for rt, lexical pragmatics involves the construction of occasion-specific or ad hoc concepts. carston (2002: 323) defines an ad hoc concept as either “an established component of the hearer’s conceptual repertoire” or “a new construction accessed in the marisa diez-arroyo ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170154 process of understanding a particular sentence, but that will never be employed again”. the narrowing and broadening of the scope of the linguistically specified meaning are widely held to be the two possible outcomes of the ad hoc concept construction or lexical adjustment process. in the present study, however, we will adhere to the classical approach to lexical pragmatics. to follow the traditional approach involves treating the encoded concept under examination, unique, with the meaning “being the only one”, as an absolute concept that is in fact rarely satisfied in a strict sense. as wilson and kolaiti (2017: 167) explain, it then follows that “on almost all occasions of use, some broadening of the denotation of the encoded concept takes place”. the resulting broadened readings will be represented, according to the notation used in lexical pragmatics, by small capitals with one or more asterisks to the right (unique*, unique**, etc.). one of the goals of lexical pragmatics is to explain how hearers infer the appropriate broadened interpretation. the relevance-theoretic view is that the construction of broadened concepts is influenced by contextual and cognitive factors; in particular, the encyclopaedic knowledge associated with the encoded concept and the goal of finding an interpretation that satisfies expectations of relevance. the relevance-theoretic approach to pragmatics consists of a cognitive account of utterance interpretation, driven by two central claims. the first of these sees relevance as a matter of degree in an indirect relationship between processing effort and cognitive effects: the less effort (of perception, memory and inference) an input takes to be processed, and the more cognitive effects it yields (strengthening, revising or cancelling previous held assumptions or deriving contextual implications), the higher the degree of relevance of that input (wilson & sperber, 2004: 608). this is the cognitive principle of relevance (sperber & wilson, 1995: 260). the second central claim of rt is contained in the communicative principle of relevance (sperber & wilson, 1995: 260). this states that an utterance creates in the addressee (who, by default, following rt, is taken to be male) the presumption of optimal relevance, that is, the utterance is relevant enough to be worth processing and should be regarded as the most relevant one that is compatible with the speaker’s abilities and preferences (sperber & wilson, 1995: 270). consequently, the receiver’s goal in communication is to find an interpretation that meets the expectations of relevance raised by the ostensive stimulus. the adjective “unique”: more than a buzzword in the language of advertising ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 155 it is worth noting here that theorists of rt deny that there is a clear theoretical divide between literal and figurative uses of language. rather, they support a unitary theory of utterance interpretation, this governed by the same interpretive mechanisms and principles, in which there is a continuum of cases, “ranging from those where there is a specific cognitive content the speaker wants to get across, to those where the speaker’s intention is much vaguer, and […] might be best described as an “impression”” (wilson & kolaiti, 2017: 150). so far in this section we have seen how lexical pragmatics looks at the processes that intervene in the modification of encoded word meaning in context. according to rt, this is explained through a combination of realworld knowledge associated with the word in question, along with pragmatic factors, that is, with the aim of finding an interpretation that satisfies expectations of relevance. these expectations are governed by relevancebased comprehension heuristics: testing interpretive hypotheses in order of accessibility, following a path of least effort, and yielding high contextual effects. the next step is to show the practical application of the theory for the analysis of our key term, “unique”. 4. the adjective “unique” in online automobile advertising: use and interpretation this section addresses the empirical analysis of the adjective “unique” in car manufacturers’ websites. aside from the issue of frequency of occurrence already mentioned, this adjective itself appears to be an interesting choice for several reasons. grammatically, according to the etymologically encoded meaning of “being the only one” or “having no like or equal”, the item “unique” can be classified as an absolute or non-gradable adjective (quirk et al., 1991). thus, whereas it may sound strange in explicit comparative structures (“?my car is more unique than yours”), it is compatible with adverbial modifiers such as “completely” and “truly” (“create a bentley that is completely unique to you”,1 “make your [audi] a6 truly unique”).2 second, because of its absolute meaning, “unique” seems to be in tune with the cultural and social values of distinction and differentiation that are attached to car ownership, as described in section 2, above. third, it qualifies as a positive adjective that enhances the laudatory description of the product, an essential characteristic of adjectives in advertising language. finally, the issue marisa diez-arroyo ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170156 of uniqueness poses a genuine conundrum for sectors such as the automobile industry, which is often divided between the need for creativity (the quest for novelty, constant innovation, crossing established limits) and branding (building and maintaining a recognisable image, ensuring continuity and consistency) (vangkilde, 2017: 179). furthermore, for a large percentage of drivers, part of the charm of driving a vehicle lies in the ability to be recognised as belonging to a certain marque. therefore, when car manufacturers claim that a model is “unique”, it can only be so to a certain extent. regarding methodology, the present paper adopts the approach of corpus pragmatics, which integrates the notion of vertical reading (the occurrences of forms), typical of corpus linguistics, with a horizontal reading (the functions of these forms in contexts), characteristic of pragmatic analysis. initially, a vertical reading has been used here to identify the expressions that collocate with the item “unique” and the type of text, lms texts and nlms texts, in which they appear. subsequently, the range of forms has been examined horizontally in terms of their pragmatic functions, this from a relevance-theoretic perspective. such an analysis has led to seven different general contexts, and these will be discussed in the seven subsections below. however, in examining more specific adjective-noun combinations, some of these general contexts have been broken down into smaller groups, so that there are in fact thirteen lexical adjustments of the adjective “unique”. 4.1. context of colour the adjective “unique” presents eleven occurrences in the context of colour, nine of these in lms texts and the other two in nlms texts. they are distributed in the following way, with text type and token frequency indicated in brackets: (1) unique + colour(s) (lms 4); unique + (colour) combinations (of colour) (lms 1; nlms 1); unique + colour split(s) (lms 2); unique + colour name (lms 1; nlm 1); unique + paint treatments (lms 1). the interpretation of the encoded concept unique in combinations such as those in (1) will lead potential readers to consider how their expectations of relevance are satisfied in this particular discourse context, namely, colour in automobiles. encyclopaedic knowledge about colour as a visual element for differentiation may give rise to more accessible assumptions such as “colour the adjective “unique”: more than a buzzword in the language of advertising ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 157 is an outstanding, differentiation feature”, “automobile manufacturers launch new colours regularly”, “car colours symbolise aesthetic trends” or “colours require complex technological processes”. through these assumptions, following a path of least effort, the reader may arrive at the activation of implications about colour as a sign of sophistication and distinction, as the result of difficult technological processes, as a conscious effort for innovation, and so on. all of this would originate the broadened ad hoc concept unique*, which denotes aesthetic distinction, innovation and a certain degree of boldness (ford uses the coinage “metalicious” to describe a colour for its model s-max).3 thus, through colours, copywriters seek to entice potential consumers emotionally. furthermore, it is possible that this lexical adjustment can be further enriched with a competitive interpretation of the adjective-noun combinations in (1): the (technological) difficulty and practical effort involved in attaining colours may favour a reading in which the unit “unique” indicates that the colour palette is exceptionally diverse and wider than that of rival marques. thus, “unique” would exemplify an implicit variant of what is known as “an unqualified comparative” (leech, 1966: 160; goddard, 2002: 72), that is to say, incomplete comparative constructions of the type “x washes whiter”. it should be noted that the imbalance in the use of “unique” between lms and nlms observed in (1), in favour of the former, may lend additional support to the interpretation of unique* proposed here. notably, this could be taken to reinforce assumptions and implications of car differentiation through colour as an element in the refinement and individuation characteristic of luxury products and, accordingly, desired by all consumers. 4.2. context of personalisation consider the following sequences, with text type and token frequency indicated in brackets. the sample has yielded seventeen examples, thirteen from lms texts and the remaining four from nlms texts. (2) as unique as your fingerprint (lms 1); unique automotive masterpiece (lms 1); unique + car/marque (lms 3); unique choice of text (lms 1); unique finishing touch (lms 1); unique style (lms 2; nlms 1); unique styling touches (nlms 2); unique taste (lms 1); unique to you (lms 3; nlms 1). the concept “unique” in (2) continues to be associated with differentiation, typical of its encoded meaning, but, interestingly, the expressions that follow marisa diez-arroyo ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170158 the adjective seem either to cite the cause of the differentiation (choice of text, finishing touch, style, styling touches, taste) or the result of this (as unique as your fingerprint, automotive masterpiece, car/marque, to you). in fact, to get a clearer picture of what is going on here, the sentence situation should be extended to include the verbal units surrounding the sequences in (2). this group of verbs is formed by “add”, “choose”, “create”, “customise”, “personalise” and “tailor”. within this wider sentence situation, we can see that the adjective “unique” relates to the phenomenon of vehicle configuration and customer empowerment, as described in section 2, above. how does this affect the interpretation of the item “unique”? in the world of the automobile industry, dominated as it is by highly skilled professionals, transferring part of the responsibility for decision making to potential buyers is likely to reinforce in these subjects assumptions about personal autonomy, a powerful and dominant personality, and narcissistic behaviour. therefore, the reader may draw implications about how he himself has imaginative ideas, good taste and wise opinions, and, accordingly, is trustworthy. this would lead to the broadened ad hoc concept unique** with the meaning of personal and individual. this section has shown how copywriters, taking advantage of two characteristics that define online automobile advertising, specifically, vehicle configuration and customer empowerment, use the lexical unit “unique” to flatter customers’ self-esteem, enhancing through the use of this item an emotional evaluation of their own worth. 4.3. context of innovation the analysis in this section is based on twelve examples, eight from the lms texts and the remaining four from nlms texts. according to the sample, the adjective “unique” forms with the nouns in (3) a recurring structure of the type “a + unique + noun + of / between”, where the prepositional complement (usually consisting of two noun phrases coordinated by the conjunct “and”) helps in the recovery of the interpretation of the encoded concept “unique” that the copywriter may have intended. thus, within this wider sentence situation, it is possible to read, for instance, that bmw claims “a unique combination of modern dynamics and timeless elegance”,4 and that mercedes describes a “unique fusion of dynamic coupé styling with four-door practicality”.5 likewise, nlms, such as ford and citroën, describe, respectively, “the car’s unique blend of usability and head-turning good looks”6 and “a unique balance between the needs of family motoring and the adjective “unique”: more than a buzzword in the language of advertising ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 159 real driving pleasure”.7 all these extracts illustrate the shared assumption of the apparent difficulty in connecting two aspects that have traditionally been regarded as opposites or as difficult to bring together in car making, that is, modern dynamics versus timeless elegance, coupé styling versus four door practicality, usability versus head-turning good looks and needs of family motoring versus real driving pleasure. when automobile manufacturers report that they have been able to unite these pairs, the addressee, in his search for the relevance of such an assertion, is likely to trigger implications about manufacturers’ innovative design, originality, the use of new methods and techniques in the car manufacturing process, their overriding concern for improvement, and so on. this interpretation seems to be reinforced by the range of nouns that collocate with the adjective “unique”, in allusion to a successful connection of elements and a sense of far-sightedness: (3) approach (lms 1); balance (nlms 2); blend (lms 1; nlms 2); combination (lms 2); features (lms 1); fusion (lms 1); harmony (lms 1); vision (lms 1). all of this information may result in the broadened ad hoc concept unique***, which, in this case would denote innovation and challenge. as we have seen, this third lexical adjustment of the term “unique” relates to aspects of the manufacturing process. in the following section, the adjective “unique” combines with elements that seem to determine the extraordinariness of the product, and may ultimately justify the presence of such an adjective. 4.4. context of brand identity this section is based on thirty-one occurrences of the item “unique”, eighteen appearing in lms texts and the remaining thirteen in nlms texts, as reflected in (4). we hypothesise that the “unique + noun” combinations here present the noun as a special characteristic, typical either of the particular model of car described, or, more generally, the marque. thus, context of brand identity refers to the desire of the automobile industry in general, and advertising practice in particular, to find either an outstanding feature that makes the vehicle different, or an element that consumers might like and, accordingly, for which they might develop empathy. this is not surprising if we take into account that automobile buyers are noted for their brand loyalty (huber & herrmann, 2001). let us consider (4), where the sequences modified by “unique” are summarised: marisa diez-arroyo ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170160 (4) décor inlays (nlms 1); design (features) (lms 2; nlms 4); styling elements (nlms 1); race-bred energy (lms 1); light features (nlms 1); finish (lms 1); exhaust tail pipe finishers (lms 1); door finishers (nlms 1); pinstripe graphic (lms 1); silk interiors (lms 1); materials (lms 1); perforation pattern (lms 1); trim and material patterns (lms 1); fascia plates (lms 1); rear lights (nlms 1); personalisation service (lms 1); specification (lms 1); steering wheel (lms 1; nlms 2); stitching (lms 2); system (nlms 1); wheels (lms 2; nlms 1). as can be seen, the item “unique” accompanies some expressions that refer to design elements (inlays, finish, patterns, stitching) whose successful execution demands a degree of technical expertise. assuming, then, that fine performance requires skill, the potential addressee can yield implications about the things carried out with skill as being exceptional, unconventional, outstanding, and so on. in other instances, the modified elements are constituent parts of all cars (rear lights, steering wheels, wheels), and thus unless the sentence situation is widened, it is not clear how these may be seen to become special features. by means of illustration, when prospective consumers read that bentley’s continental gt includes “unique 22” wheels”,8 that aston martin’s v12 vantage s comes with a “unique ‘heat aged’ exhaust tailpipe finishers, produced in conjunction with aircraft restoration company”,9 that nissan’s “unique door finishers [are] inspired by a diver’s fin”10 or that ford’s b-max features a “unique [ford easy access door] system”,11 they may trigger implications relative to the marque’s concern for innovation and improvement, its commitment to quality, safety and comfort, and so on. therefore, all the nouns in (4) are paired with some extraordinary or unusual attribute that allows the reader, following a path of least effort, to arrive at an interpretation where the encoded concept “unique” is broadened to mean “special” or “unusually characteristic”, applied to a distinguishing feature included in the vehicle/marque. additionally, because of this meaning of “identifiable differential feature” that the presence of “unique” attaches to the car/marque, potential consumers may also activate implications relative to the degree of exclusivity that the car thus advertised enjoys, which would make the adjective “unique” an example of an implicit unqualified comparative. all of this would result in a new lexical adjustment represented by the broadened, occasion-specific concept unique****. the following section will examine further adjustments of the encoded adjective “unique” that can be related to the meaning of differentiation the adjective “unique”: more than a buzzword in the language of advertising ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 161 deriving from distinguishing features such as those discussed in (4). this time, however, the term “unique” applies to the vehicle itself. 4.5. context of the vehicle itself we will explore here four additional lexical adjustments of the adjective “unique”, each highlighting the car or part of it as an extraordinary element: the car as a thing complete in itself (5), its metaphorical, human nature (6), its physical, exterior beauty (7), and its interior, as a space for comfort (8). the first group is organised around eight examples, five from lms texts and three from nlms texts, as indicated in (5). our main contention is that, as a consequence of some special feature, such as those in (4), the potential reader is encouraged to arrive at an interpretation of the extraordinariness of the vehicle as a whole. (5) vehicle + (absolutely/truly) + unique (lms 5); unique + vehicle (nlms 2); name of model + unique (nlms 1). as we can see, common to all of these combinations is the presence of the noun “vehicle”, although this is replaced by the name of the model in one example. enlarging the sentence situation, we can see how copywriters claim special features (similarly to those previously discussed, above) which, alongside the use of the structure “make the vehicle truly / absolutely unique” in four out of the five examples drawn from lms texts, may lead the reader to perceive implications about the car thus described as an extraordinary, outstanding vehicle, one which has been carefully planned and designed. all of this information would originate the broadened occasionspecific concept unique***** with the meaning of “extraordinary”. the relationship between the adjective “unique” and the vehicle as an outstanding element is further explored in the following group of examples. consider the thirteen adjective-noun collocations in (6), seven from lms texts and the other six from nlms texts. (6) character (lms 1); elegance (lms 1); expression (nlms 3); personality (lms 2; nlms 3); qualities (lms 1); vitality (lms 2). these combinations show the vehicle characterised with human qualities. what is the relevance of this decision for the interpretation of the adjective “unique”? encyclopaedic knowledge about human beings indicates that, marisa diez-arroyo ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170162 although similar in many respects, we can be distinguished from one another by (mental and behavioural) characteristics that make us entirely different from our fellow humans. hence, when the addressee tries to recover the meaning that the copywriter has sought to transmit here, in accordance with relevance-comprehension heuristics, he is able to trigger implications about the automobile in question as having particular, defining characteristics that shape its recognisable individuality. this is the information that would originate the ad hoc concept unique******. similarly, the set of nine examples in (7) below, seven from lms texts and the remaining two from nlms texts, also fall within the scope of the car’s uniqueness as a distinguishing feature, as reinforced by the verbal elements that surround the collocations in (7), that is, “add”, “create”, “enhance”, “give”, “have”, “produce”, “set apart” and “select”. it is worth pointing out that the item “face”, whose single quotation marks are used in the original text to signal its metaphorical meaning, has been included in this group because it indicates the front of the car, and, hence, its physical aspect. (7) aesthetic (lms 1); ‘face’ (lms 1); look (lms 4; nlms 1); road presence (lms 1); shape (nlms 1). in the case here, the nouns refer to the vehicle as it appears to the eye. the distinguishing feature, hence the use of the adjective “unique”, seems to be the car’s exterior beauty, which appears to derive from other notable elements. consumers of products with high social visibility tend to attach a great deal of importance to their beauty or, more generally, their aesthetics (hudders & vyncke, 2008). against this backdrop, possible readers may recover implications like “people enjoy looking at beautiful things/cars”, “beautiful things/cars are a delight to the eye”, “beautiful things/cars arouse admiration”, “beautiful things/cars result from exclusive design”, and so on. furthermore, for hudders & vyncke (2008) aesthetics as a motive for purchasing occupies an intermediate position between a personal and a social motive. thus, following a path of least effort, potential readers could yield implications such as that a beautiful car causes a good impression on people, that it symbolises its owner’s good taste and refinement, it makes its owner look more attractive, it is a sign of prestige and status. also, it is arguable that the interpretation of “unique” based on beauty can be understood as a further example of an implicit unqualified comparative: our vehicle is more beautiful than that of our competitors. all of this information would result in the lexical adjustment of the encoded concept the adjective “unique”: more than a buzzword in the language of advertising ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 163 “unique”, originating the broadened, occasion-specific concept unique*******. it should be noted how the persuasive value of the item “unique” lies in its appeal to emotions and its ability to flatter the customer. finally, (8) is based on three examples, two from lms texts and the other one from nlms texts, where the adjective “unique” collocates with nouns that denote a setting: (8) atmosphere (nlms 1); environment (lms 2). sociologists (inglis, 2004) have identified a homely aspect of the car, whose interior serves as a kind of domestic arena or cosy cocoon adapted to the owner’s personal likes or needs. from such a viewpoint, the car becomes an alternative form of individualism and differentiation, a personal possession that rivals not only other cars, but also the house, as a space of comfort and freedom. thus, the nouns in (8) might arguably lead the potential reader to activate implications around a new sensibility in which the car is a place of one’s own, an intimate space that can express the individuality of its owner. all of this information would lead to the encoded concept “unique” in order to yield the broadened ad hoc concept unique********. thus far in this section we have seen how the adjective “unique” can acquire different meanings when it refers to the vehicle itself. the next section focuses on the feelings that can be developed around the car as an object of consumption. 4.6. context of hedonism this section explores six examples of the adjective “unique” with an even distribution between lms texts and nlms texts, with three occurrences in each, as shown below: (9) driving experience (lms 1); onboard experience (nlms 2); pleasure (lms 2); sense of well-being (nlms 1). we suggest that, through the adjective “unique” combining with the nouns in (9), copywriters employ hedonism as a call for action. real-world knowledge tells us that people in general have a desire for happiness, and thus potential readers would have easy access to assumptions like “enjoying life is important” and “one should try to get as much pleasure and enjoyment out of life as possible”. hence, a situation in which the vehicle has been marisa diez-arroyo ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170164 carefully designed, that incorporates innovation, and that can be adapted to the consumer’s particular needs and taste (all the various features that have been described and analysed in previous sections), can lead the reader to derive implications about that car as an instrument of pleasure, as an element that will make his/her life more agreeable and happier, as a well-deserved reward, and so on. all of this information would originate the broadened ad hoc concept unique********* with the meaning of enjoyable and pleasant. because of its extraordinary sensitivity to the surrounding context, the item “unique” allows us to see how adjectives are sometimes not used to describe the product itself, but rather the feelings that it may bring about, a point noted by ke and wang (2013: 280). 4.7. miscellaneous context this final section consists of six examples which have been grouped into four sets. to begin with, the adjective “unique” appears twice, once in each text type, modifying an adjective of place: (10) japanese ‘omotenashi’ welcome (lms 1); scandinavian attitude (nlms 1). this sentence situation, with the inclusion of the japanese word itself, is likely to lead the reader to access assumptions about the philosophy of japanese hospitality (the great attention to detail in order to entertain guests, the importance attached to traditions and ceremonies) or about the scandinavian lifestyle (their beautiful and functional design ethos, their pragmatism towards everyday life). with this information, following a path of least effort, potential consumers may arrive at the interpretation of the term “unique” as “genuine”, in what would be the broadened occasionspecific concept unique**********. two examples from bentley illustrate another possible lexical adjustment of the adjective “unique”, that is, car covers which are stitched to the “unique contours of your car / the mulsanne”.12, 13 the sentence situation here seems to guide the reader towards the interpretation of the term “unique” as “specific” or “particular”, with all the implications of exclusivity and luxury. this would originate the ad hoc concept unique***********. the sample also contains a one-off occurrence of the element “unique” in the expression that introduces volkswagen’s new up!: “always unique, never the adjective “unique”: more than a buzzword in the language of advertising ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 165 ordinary”.14 in this sentence situation, reinforced by the opposition of the two adverbial forms, “always” versus “never”, the adjective “unique” can be regarded as the antonym of the word “ordinary”, and, hence, denote everything that is exceptional, exciting, imaginative, unconventional. this would originate the ad hoc concept unique************. finally, consider the following example: (11) aston martin unveiled its most extreme roadster ever at the 2016 goodwood festival of speed in the unique form of the one-off vantage gt12.15 arguably, this single occurrence of the adjective “unique”, coexisting with the noun “one-off ”, has the encoded meaning of “being the only one”. within the sentence situation in (11) it is the presence of this noun that may lead the reader to interpret the adjective “unique” as denoting exclusivity and individuality. all of this would originate the broadened ad hoc concept unique*************, with a meaning close to its literal sense, but possibly further adjusted to indicate an excellent, singular car and, consequently, an item of luxury. 5. final remarks this paper has argued that the adjective “unique” is an appropriate and effective word for the online advertising of automobiles. in the first place, with the help of rt, the results show the extraordinary sensitivity of this adjective to the surrounding sentence situation: the reader is provided with a wide range of information in constructing an overall interpretation and in originating various ad hoc concepts. second, in spite of the different lexical adjustments, the meaning of the linguistically encoded concept as “sole” or “unequalled” is not automatically excluded. along with the fact that, according to the sample, the term is more common in lms texts, this can have a twofold consequence: the item “unique” serves to support and enhance the social values of differentiation and individuality characteristic of the automobile culture, on the one hand, and, simultaneously, it has an obvious application in salesmanship, contributing to the presentation of the product as (implicitly) the best among its competitors, which in itself can be a variant of the traditional unqualified comparative forms. finally, the term adapts well to the online advertising medium, and thus helps to shape the marisa diez-arroyo ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170166 concepts of mass customisation and customer empowerment. due to all of these features, the adjective “unique” qualifies as an emotionally motivating word, which undoubtedly elevates it from being a mere advertising epithet or gratuitous buzzword, making it instead an ideal candidate for channelling consumers’ potential notions of distinction and style about the vehicle that they would like to drive. acknowledgments i thank the two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments. article history: received 24 march 2019 received in revised form 01 november 2019 accepted 23 december 2019 references the adjective “unique”: more than a buzzword in the language of advertising ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 167 acar, o. & s. puntoni (2016). “customer empowerment in the digital age”. journal of advertising research 56(1): 4-8. carston, r. 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(2016). they sell it how? a study on adjective use in english and finnish ford adverts. ma thesis. university of eastern finland. url: <http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_nbn_fi_uef20160983/> [17/01/2019]. huber, f. & a. herrmann (2001). “achieving brand and dealer loyalty: the case of the automotive industry”. international review of retail, distribution and consumer research 11(2): 97122. hudders, l. & p. vyncke (2008). “a dress to impress and a toy to enjoy. how consumer motivations can be used in luxury ads” in f. costa, j. veríssimo & p. neijens (eds.), new trends in advertising research, 27-44. lisbon: sílabo. inglis, d. (2004). “auto couture. thinking the car in post-war france”. theory, culture and society 21(4-5): 197-219. janoschka, a. (2004). web advertising. new forms of communication on the internet. amsterdam: john benjamins. ke, q. & w. wang (2013). “the adjective frequency in advertising english slogans”. theory and practice in language studies 3(2): 275-284. leech, g. (1966). english in advertising. a linguistic study of advertising in great britain. london: longman. myers, g. (1994). words in ads. tonbridge, kent: green gate publishing. quirk, r., s. greenbaum, g. leech & j. svartvik (1991 [1985]). a comprehensive grammar of the english language. london: longman. ramón, n. & b. labrador (2018). “selling cheese online: key nouns in cheese descriptions”. terminology 24(2): 210-235. rush, s. (1998). “the noun phrase in advertising english”. journal of pragmatics 29(2): 155-171. sperber, d. & d. wilson (1995). relevance, marisa diez-arroyo is a senior lecturer in the department of english studies at the university of oviedo (spain), where she teaches english language. her research interests cover pragmatics, discourse analysis and persuasive communication, with special focus on the language of advertising. her more recent publications have appeared in english today, pragmatics and lingua. notes 1 https://www.bentleymotors.com/en/models/bentayga.html [28/10/17] 2 https://www.audi.co.uk/content/dam/audi/production/pdf/priceandspecguides/a6-s6-saloonavant-allroad.pdf [04/04/17] 3 http://www.ford.co.uk/cars/s-max [24/03/17] 4 https://www.bmw.co.uk/en_gb/new-vehicles/6.html [31/03/17] marisa diez-arroyo ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170168 communication and cognition (2nd ed.). oxford: blackwell. steffes, e. & l. burgee (2009). “social ties and online word of mouth”. internet research 19(1): 42-59. vangkilde, d. (2017). “creativity versus branding: totemism, animism and the pursuit of uniqueness in fashion”. journal of cultural economy 10(2): 178-190. verhoef, p., s. neslin & b. vroomen (2007). “multichannel customer management: understanding the research-shopper phenomenon”. international journal of research in marketing 24(2): 129-148. vestergaard, t. & k. schrøder (1985). the language of advertising. oxford: blackwell. wilson d. & d. sperber (eds.) (2012). meaning and relevance. cambridge: cup. wilson d. & d. sperber (2004). “relevance theory” in l. horn & g. ward (eds.), the handbook of pragmatics, 607-632. oxford: blackwell. wilson, d. & p. kolaiti (2017). “lexical pragmatics and implicit communication” in p. cap & m. dynel (eds.), implicitness. from lexis to discourse, 147175. amsterdam: john benjamins. wilson, d. & r. carston (2007). “a unitary approach to lexical pragmatics: relevance, inference and ad hoc concepts” in n. burtonroberts (ed.), pragmatics, 230-259. london: palgrave macmillan. automobile urls: aston martin: https://www.astonmartin.com/ audi: https://www.audi.co.uk/ bentley: https://www.bentleymotors.com/en.html bmw: https://www.bmw.co.uk/ citroën: https://www.citroen.co.uk/home ford: https://www.ford.co.uk/ jaguar: https://www.jaguar.co.uk/index.html lexus: https://www.lexus.co.uk/# maserati: https://www.maserati.com/maserati/gb/en mercedes benz: https://www.mercedes-benz.co. uk/passengercars.html mini: https://www.mini.co.uk/en_gb/home.html nissan: https://www.nissan.co.uk/ renault: https://www.renault.co.uk/ vauxhall: https://www.vauxhall.co.uk/ volkswagen: https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/ volvo: https://www.volvocars.com/uk 5 http://www.mercedes-benz.co.uk/content/unitedkingdom/mpc/mpc_unitedkingdom_website/en/ home_mpc/passengercars/home/new_cars/models/cls-class/_c218/fascination/design.0002.html [05/04/17] 6 http://www.ford.co.uk/cars/fiesta/st-line [20/03/17] 7 http://www.citroen.co.uk/new-cars-and-vans/citroen-range/citroen-c4-picasso [29/04/17] 8 https://www.bentleymotors.com/en/models/new-continental.html [05/10/17] 9 http://www.astonmartin.com/q-by-aston-martin [12/05/17] 10 https://www.nissan.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/juke.html [07/04/17] 11 http://www.ford.co.uk/cars/b-max [22/03/17] 12 https://www.bentleymotors.com/en/models/flying-spur.html [13/12/17] 13 https://www.bentleymotors.com/en/models/mulsanne.html [12/10/17] 14 http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/new/up-pa/explore [25/03/17] 15 http://www.astonmartin.com/q-by-aston-martin [12/05/17] the adjective “unique”: more than a buzzword in the language of advertising ibérica 40 (2020): 149-170 169 iberica 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper focuses on plagiarism detection in a professional legal genre: the lawsuit (alcaraz varó & hughes, 2002; cabré, 2003: 163-199; ruiz-garrido, palmer-silveira & fortanet-gómez, 2010; nagy, 2014: 261-273). its main aim is to analyse the major approaches to extrinsic plagiarism detection, namely computer-based approaches and language-based approaches, either form-onlybased or integrated. our discussion attempts to answer five questions: (a) what type of language evidence can be obtained through an extrinsic plagiarism detection tool? (b) what type of language evidence can a text-only based approach to plagiarism provide? (c) what type of language evidence can an integrated approach to plagiarism provide? (d) what are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these approaches? and (d) how relevant can the language evidence provided by each approach be for the legal decision? the analysis is grounded in an exemplary case study on plagiarism between lawyers that was tried in a high court of justice in spain (judgment 107/2017, 2nd march 2017). findings from this paper confirm that plagiarism detection is a complex, multilayered task going beyond and above the discovery of copied text of an earlier original work into another, and show the relevance of context in discerning between real cases of plagiarism and those that are not. keywords: copyright infringement, extrinsic plagiarism detection, professional legal genres. resumen la relevancia del contexto en la detección de plagio: el caso de un género profesional jurídico este artículo aborda la detección de plagio en un género profesional jurídico: la demanda (alcaraz varó & hughes, 2002; cabré, 2003: 163-199; ruiz-garrido, the relevance of context in plagiarism detection: the case of a professional legal genre victoria guillén nieto universidad de alicante (spain) victoria.guillen@ua.es 101 ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122 victoria guillén nieto palmer-silveira & fortanet-gómez, 2010; nagy, 2014: 261-273). su objetivo es analizar los principales métodos para la detección de plagio externo, a saber, métodos asistidos por herramientas informáticas y métodos basados en el análisis lingüístico, bien de naturaleza formalista o bien de naturaleza integrada, de los textos sospechosos. las cinco preguntas a las que se intenta dar respuesta son: (a) ¿qué tipo de evidencia se puede obtener con una herramienta diseñada para la detección de plagio externo? (b) ¿qué tipo de evidencia se puede obtener con el análisis lingüístico de los textos sospechosos? (c) ¿qué tipo de evidencia se puede obtener con el análisis integrado de los textos sospechosos? (d) ¿cuáles son las fortalezas y las debilidades de cada uno de estos métodos? y (e) ¿qué importancia puede tener la evidencia obtenida con cada método en la decisión judicial? el estudio se basa en un caso ejemplar sobre plagio que fue juzgado en un tribunal superior de justicia en españa (sentencia 107/2017, 2 de marzo de 2017). los resultados de esta investigación confirman que la detección de plagio es una tarea compleja y de múltiples niveles que va mucho más lejos de la mera identificación de texto copiado de una obra original anterior en otra nueva, y demuestran la relevancia del contexto para discernir entre los casos de plagio que son reales y los que no lo son. palabras clave: infracción de derechos de autor, detección de plagio externo, géneros profesionales jurídicos. 1. introduction “intertextuality” (chaski, 2013: 333) is a specialised area of forensic linguistics in which the expert linguist analyses suspicious textual similarity in trade mark conflicts (guillén-nieto, 2011: 63-83; shuy, 2012: 449462) and in cases involving copyright plagiarism (woolls, 2003: 102-112; 2012: 517-529; turrell, 2004: 1-26; 2005: 275-298; 2008: 265-299; shuy, 2008; 2012: 449-462; coulthard et al., 2010: 523-538; butters, 2012: 463477). in the past, plagiarism detection was the exclusive domain of wellinformed human readers. their job was to discover if a questioned document had unacknowledged borrowings from one or more reference texts, and to assemble a case from the passages found in common between the works compared. since the 1990s, plagiarism detection has been mainly software-assisted with the result that the task can be performed automatically and much faster than if it were performed manually (lukashenko, graudina & grundspenkis, 2007: 1-6; woolls, 2010: 576-590; hage, rademaker & van vugt, 2010: 1-26). this paper focuses on plagiarism detection in a professional legal genre: the lawsuit 102 (alcaraz varó & hughes, 2002; cabré, 2003: 163-199; ruiz-garrido, palmer-silveira & fortanet-gómez, 2010; nagy, 2014: 261-273). it aims at analysing the major approaches to plagiarism detection, namely computerbased approaches and language-based approaches, either text-only based or integrated.1 we attempt to answer five questions: (a) what type of language evidence can be obtained through an extrinsic plagiarism detection tool? (b) what type of language evidence can a text-only based approach to plagiarism provide? (c) what type of language evidence can an integrated approach to plagiarism provide? (d) what are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these approaches? and (e) how relevant can the language evidence provided by each approach be for the legal decision? the analysis is grounded in an exemplary case study on plagiarism between lawyers that was tried in a high court of justice in spain (judgment 107/2017, 2nd march 2017). for purposes of analysis, different tools were employed in the investigation, namely an extrinsic plagiarism detection system, specifically copycatch gold v2 (woolls, 2002), and language-based approaches, either form-only-based or integrated. 2. plagiarism and copyright infringement the merriam-webster online dictionary defines plagiarism in the following terms: (a) to copy and pass off (the expression of ideas or words of another) as one’s own: use (another’s work) without crediting the source. and (b) to present as new and original an idea or work derived from an existing source. from this definition, it can be inferred that plagiarism is, basically, the act of copying another author’s original work without attribution along with the subsequent deception involved in the same act. green (2002: 205-206) refers to plagiarism as a violation of the european doctrine of moral rights. this consists of three basic parts: (a) the right of integrity, (b) the right of disclosure, and (c) the right of attribution. of these, the right of attribution is probably the most relevant in the context of plagiarism: “an author or artist has the right both to be identified as the author of any work that she has created and to prevent the use of her name as the author of a work she did not create” (green, 2002: 206). by contrast, in the us, the doctrine of moral rights is much more limited to the degree that it has no application to literary works. the relevance of context in plagiarism detection ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122 103 as we have already mentioned, apart from being considered academic dishonesty, violation of the workplace honour code, and a breach of professional ethics, plagiarism can also become a legal issue, if it involves “copyright infringement”. in both common law and civil law systems, copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to the creator of an original work. the rights covered include: (a) to copy the work, (b) to issue copies of the work to the public, (c) to rent or lend the work to the public, (d) to perform, show or play the work in public, (e) to communicate the work to the public, and (f) to make an adaptation of the work. these exclusive rights are not absolute, but limited in time, e.g. 70 years after the death of the author is the set time for literary works, and by restrictions of copyright law. furthermore, the notion of “fair use” or “fair dealing” is an important limitation upon what constitutes copyright violation. it refers to acts that are permissible without infringing copyrighted material, such as for example private research, copies for educational purposes, news reporting, caricature, parody, and pastiche. plagiarism violates the above-mentioned exclusive rights granted to the creators of original works by copying the work without permission, and/or by distributing it. however, it is important to note that not all plagiarisms are copyright infringements. for instance, one can plagiarise from sources that are in the public domain and consequently out of copyright, or one can plagiarise short, or even long, uncreative passages without attribution, but this is unlikely to involve a copyright infringement. green summarises the essential difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement in these words: “copyright law protects a primarily economic interest that a copyright owner has in her work […] whereas the rule against plagiarism protects a personal, or moral, interest” (green, 2002: 202). in both common law and civil law jurisdictions, copyright infringement is actionable by the copyright owner, and can be punished in a court of justice for prejudices caused by copyright infringement and violation of moral rights. it should be noted that copyright infringement is only subject to criminal prosecution in extreme cases, specifically if the plagiarism is intended for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, namely “piracy” and “counterfeiting”. 3. criteria regarding the types of use of another author’s work lawyer nettel díaz analyses the criteria provided by maurel-indart (as cited in nettel díaz, 2013: 135-152) regarding the types of use of another author’s work. these are: victoria guillén nieto ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122104 1) the borrowing is either direct (verbatim) or indirect (modified). 2) the borrowing involves either a part or the whole of a reference text. 3) the borrowing is either intended or unintended. 4) the borrowing is either evident or hidden. combined in various ways, these four criteria may give rise to different types of borrowings that do not necessarily have to involve plagiarism, as depicted in table 1. the creation of new academic, scientific, professional, literary and artistic knowledge draws, to a greater or lesser extent, on the content of previous works. therefore, one must always presume a certain amount of similarity between texts that are of the same type and topic related. in table 1 above, the cases that are likely to involve real plagiarism, either relating to copyright infringement or not, are shaded. these cases concern two criteria: (1) the borrowing is intended and (2) the borrowing is hidden. consequently, any borrowing used without permission, not giving credit to the source, intended, and hidden may be seen as pieces of language evidence pointing to plagiarism. lawyer nettel díaz (2013: 150-151) argues that it is also essential to discern between the “fair use” or “fair deal” and the “unfair use” of the borrowing. furthermore, lawyer aznar auzmendi has attracted attention to what seems to be a concluding legal criterion for spanish courts of justice in relation to copyright infringement plagiarism (supreme court, judgment of february 20th, 1992 (rj 1992/1329)): although in common language we often feel tempted to call plagiarism any coincidence between two works that strikes us, the truth is that there is no the relevance of context in plagiarism detection ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122 105 ! ! ! ! borrowing total partial evident hidden hidden evident intended intended intended unintended intended di re ct topic analogy collage coincidental match quotation common ground topic analogy similarity of ideas similarity of ideas similarity of ideas in di re ct adaptation adaptation literary school literary movement literary school literary movement coincidental match translation pastiche pastiche summary summary reminiscence reminiscence parody analysis analysis allusion allusion table 1. criteria regarding the types of use of another author’s work (translated from nettel díaz 2013: 145). t such plagiarism when the works compared are sufficiently different and clearly distinguishable, even if they have points of exposure in common.2 from this excerpt, it can be inferred that, according to spanish legal practitioners, a conclusive criterion for determining that a plagiarism does not imply copyright infringement should be the fact that the works under comparison are “sufficiently different” and “clearly distinguishable”, especially in terms of their genres, their communicative purposes, their superstructure, and their macrostructure. for example, it could be argued that a scientific paper and a teaching project are “sufficiently different” and “clearly distinguishable”; or that an informative article and a massive open online course (mooc) are also “sufficiently different” and “clearly distinguishable”. in conclusion, it has been shown that the task of plagiarism detection, whether including copyright infringement or not, is a complex, multilayered task going beyond and above the discovery of copied text of an earlier original work (the reference text) into a new one (the questioned text). for this reason, it is vital for expert linguists to be able to answer a number of essential questions when reporting on plagiarism. the following list of ten questions is proposed as useful guidance for accomplishing such a task: 1) is the reference text a copyrighted work? 2) does the reference text contain original ideas? 3) has a substantial amount of original text been copied? 4) could the borrowing fit in the category of “fair use” or “fair deal”? 5) did the suspect have permission from the author of the reference text to copy original ideas or a substantial amount of text into the questioned text? 6) does the borrowing in the questioned text embrace the whole or only a part of the reference text? 7) is the borrowing direct (verbatim) or indirect (modified)? 8) is the borrowing evident or hidden? 9) is the borrowing intended or unintended? 10) are the works under comparison sufficiently different and distinguishable? 4. case study: plagiarism between lawyers the case study under discussion concerns plagiarism between lawyers and was tried in a supreme court of justice in spain (judgment 107/2017, 2nd march 2017), consequently the dispute must be understood and interpreted within the legal framework of a roman civil law jurisdiction. briefly, the case victoria guillén nieto ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122106 can be summarised as follows: the plaintiff, a junior lawyer, sued a senior lawyer in a legal firm seeking declaration of copyright infringement of an appeal for reversal that she had single authored, and requesting compensation for moral damage. the pair of suspicious texts in the case, therefore, were: (1) the reference text: an appeal for reversal (4,079 words) dated 26th may 2009, and (2) the questioned text: a lawsuit (18,768 words) dated 18th september 2009. in the next two sections, we will look at the type of language evidence three major approaches to plagiarism detection can provide, analysing their strengths and weaknesses, in addition to discussing their relevance for the legal decision. 4.1. computer-based approach the computer-based approach can be applied to two major frameworks: (a) “intrinsic plagiarism detection”, and (b) “extrinsic plagiarism detection” which we will briefly discuss in the next paragraphs, before moving on to analyse the pair of suspicious texts in the case under discussion. “intrinsic plagiarism detection” and “authorship verification” are, according to stein, lipka and prettenhofer (2011: 63-82), “two sides of the same coin”. in both cases one is given a single document (there is no reference corpus) and one must deal with the problem of finding the suspicious sections by identifying irregularities or inconsistencies in the author’s writing style within the same document, namely stylometric features and average word frequencies (meyer zu eissen & stein, 2006: 565-569) or character-gram profiles (stamatatos, 2009; dam, 2013). by contrast, in “extrinsic plagiarism detection”, a reference text or a corpus is given and the task is to identify, using algorithms that compare the questioned document against potential source documents, the presence of identical words, sequences of words, sentences, and paragraphs in common between the suspicious texts (lukashenko, graudina & grundspenkis, 2007: 1-6; potthast et al., 2010). some well-known examples of extrinsic plagiarism detection tools are turnitin (the questioned text is compared against potential reference documents available in databases and on the internet) and copycatch gold v2 (a questioned text is compared against a reference text) (woolls, 2002). although extrinsic plagiarism detection performs well in identifying copied, or even slightly modified, material, it assumes a closed world: the relevance of context in plagiarism detection ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122 107 […] a reference collection must be given against which a plagiarised document can be compared. this raises the question whether plagiarised passages within a document can be detected automatically if no reference is given, e.g. if the plagiarised passages stem from a book that is not available in digital form (meyer zu eissen & stein, 2006: 565). from the above quote, some important ideas emerge. firstly, computerbased extrinsic plagiarism detection may only serve to identify in a questioned text evident, verbatim copy, or slightly modified copy of the whole or of a part of a reference text available in a database or on the internet. secondly, computer-based plagiarism detection is difficult once there is a departure from full copy-pasted text of an earlier work, due to the technical difficulties involved in creating suitable software modelling language use. for this reason, extrinsic plagiarism detection software may well not be able to detect lexical and grammatical transformation of a text, namely lexical substitution, paraphrasing and nominalisation. in this context, vector space models (vsms) seem to provide interesting alternatives because they perform well on tasks that involve measuring the similarity of meaning between words, phrases, and documents, as shown in the works by turney and pantel (2010: 141-188), and mikolov et al. (2013). furthermore, latent semantic analysis (lsa) and topic modelling (lda) have proved to be successful vsms in the analysis of lexical similarity and lexical collocations (osman et al., 2012: 1493-1502). as mentioned before, the extrinsic plagiarism detection tool employed in the case under discussion is copycatch gold v2 (woolls, 2002). this tool has been selected because, apart from having been originally designed to detect likely plagiarism and collusion between students, it is seen as software for forensic text analysis (guillén-nieto et al., 2008: 9-12), as shown in the works by johnson (1997: 210-225), turell (2004: 1-26; 2008: 278-280), and coulthard et al. (2010: 523-538). before analysing the suspicious pair of texts, the linguist using copycatch gold v2 must perform certain tasks. these are: 1) limit the number of pairs on show by setting the score for similarity. this is typically set up at 50% for works that are topic-related, and at 70% for derivative works e.g. translations. 2) add to the “stop list”, which contains a list of functional words in the language of the suspicious pair of texts, specific content words that are likely to be shared between the texts under examination. 3) load the “stop list” by click-ing on the “language” button. victoria guillén nieto ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122108 4) select the comparison files, namely the appeal for reversal (the reference text) and the lawsuit (the questioned text). 5) search for matches between the reference text and the questioned text at both a word level and a sentence level of linguistic analysis by clicking on the “copycatch” button. when searching for similarities between the words compared, the following tasks can be done automatically: 1) calculate the similarity threshold level between the reference text and the questioned text, namely the score above which one can state that a substantial amount of text has been borrowed. 2) identify and measure the vocabulary and sentences shared more than once between the reference text and the questioned text. 3) detect and measure the vocabulary and sentences that are present only once in each separate text and shared only once between them (hapax legomena). 4) discover and measure the vocabulary that is only in one text and not in the other. 5) get lists of content word and function word frequencies. 6) obtain a percentage analysis. we will now move on to present the results yielded by copycatch gold v2 in the case under examination: firstly, the “similarity threshold level” yielded a score of 64%, which points to a substantial amount of copied text from the appeal for reversal (the reference text) (4,079 words) into the lawsuit (the questioned text) (18,768 words). secondly, 62% of the words of the reference text are present in the questioned text. thirdly, 81% of the sentences in the reference text are also present in the questioned text. finally, a very high number of hapax legomena (328 content words) are found to be only once in the reference text and suspiciously only once in the questioned text too. although copycatch gold v2 does not report on the “originality” of the words or expressions used in the appeal for reversal, the list of content word frequencies the tool provides enables the analyst to seek for “original” words or expressions that can be further analysed with the aid of databases and linguistic tools. copycatch gold v2 also assists in the task of finding the excerpts in common between the works compared automatically, preparing the ground for further linguistic qualitative analysis. additionally, copycatch gold v2 provides quantitative data, at both a word level and a sentence level the relevance of context in plagiarism detection ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122 109 of linguistic analysis. these data, which result, from a computer-based approach to plagiarism detection, may serve to answer four of the ten relevant questions earlier proposed as guidelines for expert linguists: a substantial amount (>50%) of text seems to have been borrowed from the reference text into the questioned text; the borrowing embraces, in effect, the whole of the reference text; it is mostly a direct (verbatim) copy, and, for this reason, evident. 4.2. language-based approaches in this section, we analyse the two main language-based approaches to extrinsic plagiarism detection, namely a form-only-based approach, and an integrated approach. 4.2.1. form-only-based approach typically, a form-only-based approach to extrinsic plagiarism detection consists in identifying matches between the reference text and the questioned text at a word, sentence, and discourse level of linguistic analysis. communication in specific domains is governed by either academic or professional criteria, and it is characterised by both language-based features and text-based-features. consequently, the task of detecting plagiarism in a professional legal genre is not an easy one, because the works under comparison are likely to share the same specialist grammatical, lexical, and discursive features. in the case open to discussion, the works compared are, as above mentioned, an appeal for reversal and a lawsuit. both of them can be classified as text-types of the professional legal genre. whereas the appeal for reversal can be lodged against acts that exhaust the administrative procedure, the lawsuit is the procedural act by which judicial proceedings are initiated. both the appeal for reversal and the lawsuit share the specialist language features listed below, among others: (1) their communicative goal is to demand the reconsideration of a decision that is thought to be unfair and does not meet the interests of the claimant. (2) they have a conventional superstructure, namely encabezado (header), hechos (facts), fundamentos de derecho (legal reasons for decision) and suplico (plea for demand). (3) they are expressed in formal register and have a solemn tone. (4) they are encoded in expository discourse. victoria guillén nieto ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122110 (5) they are expressed through legal vocabulary, e.g. formulaic expressions, latinisms, semi-technical words, specific terminology, lexical metaphors, and lexical collocations (alcaraz varó & hughes, 2002: 31-78). (6) their syntax is convoluted and long winded, e.g. long nominal groups, abundant gerund and past participle clauses, explicative clauses, archaic verb forms, such as the imperfect future of the subjunctive mode (e.g. no cumpliere, atendiere), and extremely long sentences due to the extensive use of hypotaxis and parataxis (alcaraz varó & hughes, 2002: 103-136). if the appeal for reversal and the lawsuit share the specialist language features above referred, then the question is: what type of language evidence may be indicative of plagiarism in a professional legal genre? as nagy (2014: 266) has explained, specialist texts are subject to language variation, namely individual variation (idiolect) and regional variation (dialect). whenever the reference text is rich in idiolectal and/or in regional dialectal features that are specific to its author, and these are also present in the questioned text, one may argue that the texts may not have been written independently from each other. therefore, the linguistic categories of idiolect and dialect can be useful tools for finding pieces of language evidence hinting at plagiarism. idiolect is commonly defined as an individual’s unique variety and/or use of language from the level of the phoneme to the level of discourse. at a discourse level, the idiolect of an author can be made evident through other linguistic categories such as “voice” and “stance” (hyland & sancho guinda, 2012). “voice” involves both individual and social dimensions. on the one hand, the “individualised voice” is, according to tardy, “[…] a writer’s unique and recognizable imprint, associated with authenticity, resonance, authoritativeness, and authorial presence within a text” (tardy, 2012: 37). on the other hand, from a social perspective, “[…] voice relates to selfrepresentation and authorial presence […] but constructed by the social worlds that the author works within” (tardy, 2012: 39). the second category indicative of individual variation in a text is, as mentioned before, “stance”. gray and biber (2012: 15-33) have summarised the different conceptions of “stance” in two: “evidentiality markers” and “affect markers” that are linguistically encoded in grammatical and lexical categories. whereas “evidentiality markers” express evaluations of knowledge contained in the propositions, “affect markers” express personal feelings, emotions and attitudes associated with persons and/or situations. table 2 illustrates copy-pasted fragments of the section “facts” of the appeal for reversal into the lawsuit. the relevance of context in plagiarism detection ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122 111 the two copy-pasted excerpts shown in table 2 belong to the exposition of facts supporting the appeal for reversal. although the appeal for reversal and the lawsuit, as is the case with other legal text-types, are encoded in templatelike writing, which is typically characterised by abundant legal formulas and set phrases, the exposition of facts is the section in which spontaneous writing showing features of the idiolect and regional dialect of the author is more likely to be found. the authorial presence of the junior lawyer is linguistically expressed through different grammatical and lexical categories. for example, verbs are conjugated in the first person singular (he debido prepararme/i had to study, homologué/i had my aca-demic certificates recognised); possessive adjectives are in the first person (mi título/my academic degree, mis estudios de doctorado/my phd studies, mi título de licenciada/my academic certificate); nouns are in their feminine form (licenciada/graduate). in addition, the stance of the author of the appeal for reversal is linguistically encoded in epistemic markers. these indicate that the information the author provides is based on her knowledge and direct experience (“i know that…”). the epistemic markers are linguistically realised through grammatical and lexical categories such as the present of indicative. for example, es imposible aprobar/it is impossible to pass, el examen de conjunto requiere de un manejo profundizado del derecho español en todas las áreas/the examination requires a thorough understanding of spanish law in all areas; and the phrase de hecho/in fact. for example, de hecho son muy pocas personas las que logran superarla […]/in fact, very few people manage to pass it [...]. moreover, the two excerpts of the appeal for reversal copied into the lawsuit are very rich in “boosters” (hyland, 2000: 179-197) whose function victoria guillén nieto ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122112 appeal for reversal lawsuit x. por lo tanto he debido prepararme durante un año completo, pues es imposible aprobar dicha prueba de otra manera. de hecho son muy pocas las personas que logran superarla ya que el examen de conjunto requiere de un manejo profundizado del derecho español en todas las áreas. xiii. homologué mi título de licenciada con la intención de continuar en españa mis estudios de doctorado obteniendo una beca de investigación de ayudas para la formación de personal investigador. en las bases de las sucesivas convocatorias nada dice sobre que se considerará la fecha del título de origen […]. xiii. por lo tanto he debido prepararme durante un año completo, pues es imposible aprobar dicha prueba de otra manera. de hecho son muy pocas las personas que logran superarla ya que el examen de conjunto requiere de un manejo profundizado del derecho español en todas las áreas. xx.. homologué mi título de licenciada con la intención de continuar en españa mis estudios de doctorado obteniendo una beca de investigación de ayudas para la formación de personal investigador. en las bases de las sucesivas convocatorias nada dice sobre que se considerará la fecha del título de origen […]. table 2. examples of copy-pasted text including idiolectal features of the author of the appeal for reversal. t is to demonstrate the confidence of the author as well as to convey a sense of self-assurance and certainty (“i know that…”). boosters are linguistically realised through nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. some illustrative examples of boosters shared by the texts under comparison are listed below: 1) un año completo/one full year [adjective] 2) es imposible aprobar dicha prueba/it is impossible to pass such test [adjective] 3) son muy pocas las personas/there are very few people [adverb + adjective] 4) que logran superarla/that manage to pass it [verb] 5) el examen requiere de un manejo profundizado del derecho español/the examination requires a thorough understanding of spanish law [adjective] 6) en todas las áreas/in all areas [adjective] 7) nada dice sobre que se considerará la fecha del título de origen/ nothing is said about what should be considered the date of the original academic title [indefinite pronoun] dialect is a regional variety of language that signals where a person comes from; it is distinguished by features of pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar from other regional varieties of language. in the case under discussion it was found that the appeal for reversal contains words and expressions that are not typical of peninsular spanish; these words and expressions are coincidentally present in the lawsuit presumably written in peninsular spanish. some of these instances were looked up in the diccionario panhispánico de dudas (2005) of the spanish royal academy and found to be common anglicisms in american spanish. for instance, let us take the anglicism: las becas para las que he aplicado/the scholarships i have applied for (las becas que he solicitado is the correct expression in peninsular spanish). other uncommon words in peninsular spanish that are found in the appeal for reversal, which are also present in the lawsuit, are: defensoría del pueblo and puntaje. after looking them up in the database corpes xxi of the spanish royal academy, one can confirm that these are dialectal markers of rioplatense spanish, namely the spanish dialect spoken in the river plate region. more specifically, 1,023 instances of the usage of defensoría del pueblo (defensor del pueblo in peninsular spanish) were found in a total of 527 documents. whereas the highest absolute and relative frequencies relate to the andean region (398 documents/19.86%) and the river plate region (94 documents/2.60%), the lowest absolute and relative frequencies (5 documents/0.05%) point toward spain. similarly, 1,493 instances of the usage of puntaje (puntuación in peninsular spanish) were found in a total of the relevance of context in plagiarism detection ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122 113 703 documents. once more, the highest absolute and relative frequencies relate to the andean region (234 documents/11.67%) and the river plate region (222 documents/6.14%), and the lowest absolute and relative frequencies refer to spain (10 documents/0.11%). at a discourse level, apart from the idiolectal and dialectal features that were copy-pasted in the lawsuit, there are other instances hinting at plagiarism. for instance, the thematic sequence in the section hechos (facts) of the appeal for reversal is organised in chronological order, namely the application for a scholarship is presented as a first fact and the rejection of the application by the local administration as a second fact. although the lawsuit exhibits a verbatim copy of this section of the appeal for reversal, it can be clearly seen that the facts are presented in a different order. as a result of the act of copyand pasting, one can see that the thematic sequence of the text of the lawsuit is illogical. in other words, the rejection of the application by the local administration is presented as a first fact (when it should be the second fact), the file of the appeal for reversal is presented as a second fact (when it should be the third fact), and the application for the scholarship is presented as a third fact (when it should be the first fact). similarly, the formal expression and content in the section fundamentos de derecho (legal reasons for decision) of the questioned text are a direct (verbatim) copy of the reference text. ostensibly, the lawsuit even includes the misprints and grammatical errors found in the appeal for reversal. however, some minor modifications are observed in the questioned text. these include a different thematic sequence in the exposition of the doctrine, addition of information, namely applicable law, legal citations and explanatory clauses. yet again, the content and formal expression in the section suplico (plea for demand) of the questioned text is a direct copy of that of the reference text, except for the supplementary information and extra pleas that have been added at the end of the text. moreover, the questioned text contains errors resulting from the act of copy-and-pasting from the appeal for reversal into the lawsuit. these include, for instance, misprints, numbering errors, and, as shown in table 3, the date of the lawsuit mistakenly matches that of the appeal for reversal filed four months earlier. the correct date of the lawsuit should be 18th september 2009, rather than 26th may 2009. victoria guillén nieto ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122114 appeal for reversal lawsuit en salamanca, a 26 de mayo de 2008. es justicia que pido en salamanca, a 26 de mayo de 2008. table 3. error in the date of the lawsuit. f from the above discussion it can be concluded that the language evidence obtained with a text-only-based approach to plagiarism detection is mainly qualitative and may be useful to answer four of the ten relevant questions that were earlier proposed as guidelines for expert linguists: (1) the borrowing is a direct copy of the reference text. (2) the borrowing is evident. (3) there is no language evidence to support the idea that the formal expression and content of the appeal for reversal are “original”. however, both idiolectal and regional dialectal features of the author of the appeal for reversal are also present in the lawsuit presumably written in peninsular spanish. (4) the suspicious pair of texts are topic-related and share many specialist language features at a word level (e.g. legal lexicon), sentence level (e.g. convoluted syntax and hypotaxis), and discourse level (e.g. predetermined superstructure) of linguistic analysis. then it cannot be stated that the works compared are “sufficiently different” and “distinguishable”. 4.2.2. an integrated approach to plagiarism detection as its name suggests, an integrated approach to plagiarism detection integrates the analysis of linguistic and extralinguistic data. in such a broader pragmatic perspective, the expert linguist examines the way the works compared are affected by (and affect) the social environment in which they were produced. in other words, in an integrated approach to plagiarism detection, the focus of analysis is shifted from the analysis of the formal aspects of the works compared to the analysis of the appropriateness of language use and discourse in the communicative situation in which the case is embedded. in what follows we will refer to the communicative situation framing the case in dispute. van dijk has explained communicative situations in terms of “context models”: such models consist of simple a schema of culturally variable categories used by language users in the interpretation and representation of the communicative situation, such as spatiotemporal setting, participants and their different identities and roles, ongoing social action, goals and current knowledge (van dijk, 2008: 2). a) setting spatiotemporal information defines language users’ ongoing awareness of the space and time in which the communicative situation takes place, and controls the properties of discourse. in the case under discussion, the setting refers to a professional legal context in spain between 2009 and 2011. the relevance of context in plagiarism detection ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122 115 b) participants the contextual representation of participants, as well as their social identities, roles and relationships control many text properties. categories of gender, age, ethnicity and social status are socially construed and control participation structure in discourse. the participants in the case are a junior female lawyer from argentina and a senior lawyer from spain. the former had a collaboration contract for professional legal services with the senior lawyer’s legal firm. therefore, it is clear that there is an asymmetric social relation of power between both lawyers in the communicative situation. c) action and goals in his seminal work how to do things with words (1975[1962]), austin laid the pragmatic foundation of speech act theory, that is, the way words can be used not only to present information but also to carry communicative actions of various types, namely social, political, legal, and cultural. these communicative actions are driven by the participants’ intentions and can only be defined in terms of the goals they want to reach (van dijk, 2008: 8). the actions performed by the participants in our case are of a professional legal type. more specifically, these are, on the one hand, to request a higher instance to reverse an administrative decision that is deemed unfair, and, on the other hand, to sue for copyright infringement. these legal actions control, and are controlled by, the specific discourse structures of the professional legal genre. more specifically, the participants in the case use two closely-related text-types of the professional legal genre as instruments of social interaction in order to achieve one communicative goal: to reverse the rejection of an application for a scholarship. these text-types are, as referred above, an appeal for reversal and a lawsuit. while the former puts an end to the administrative proceeding, the latter initiates the legal proceeding in the court of justice. on 26th may 2009, before the junior lawyer had started working as an intern in the legal firm, she had filed an appeal for reversal in her own defence against the local administration’s rejection of the scholarship she had applied for. later, when she was hired by the legal firm, she decided to take legal action against the local administration, and for this reason granted power of attorney to the senior lawyer to act for her in the legal proceeding. it is important to note that the senior lawyer used the appeal for reversal written by the junior lawyer to work on the preparation of what would be the final lawsuit. this was cosigned by the senior lawyer and the junior lawyer. meanwhile the junior lawyer registered the appeal for reversal as a creation of scientific doctrine in the victoria guillén nieto ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122116 intellectual property registry. subsequently, in 2011, the junior lawyer sued the senior lawyer seeking declaration of copyright infringement of the appeal for reversal and requesting economic compensation for copyright infringement and moral damage. d) knowledge communicative actions require that participants have or lack specific knowledge, manage knowledge such as presupposition, implications and implicatures, and share knowledge such as the beliefs that are presupposed in public discourse, in our case professional legal discourse. accordingly, it is important for the expert linguist to have access to such background knowledge that is crucial for the right understanding and interpretation of the case. in the paragraphs that follow, we will refer to some relevant issues that must be clarified before giving an expert opinion. firstly, an essential question in the case is whether or not the professional writings of lawyers can be protected by copyright. article 10.1 of spanish intellectual property law establishes that all original literary, artistic or scientific creations expressed by any means or support, tangible or intangible, currently known or to be invented in the future, are the object of intellectual property, and includes a list of intellectual creations that can be considered original works among which professional legal genres are not included, but in letter a) reference is made to the writings of forensic reports, in which the professional writings of lawyers can fit. then, the appeal for reversal can be considered a copyrighted work. secondly, a controversial issue was whether or not the senior lawyer had permission from the junior lawyer to use and modify the text of the appeal for reversal which she had single authored. as love (2002: 40-50) has explained, in forensic linguistic analysis one must discern between different kinds of authorship: a precursory author is the one that provides the source or ideas; an executive author is the one that writes the text; a declarative author is the one that features as author; and the revisionary author is the one that edits and introduces amendments. to the best of our knowledge, the author of the appeal for reversal fulfilled all authorial functions. on the other hand, as mentioned above, the junior lawyer had granted power of attorney to the senior lawyer to act for her in the legal proceeding. this act implies that the senior lawyer was also given permission to borrow text from the appeal for reversal into the lawsuit as well as to modify it, in order to accomplish the communicative goal of the new text. although the lawsuit the relevance of context in plagiarism detection ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122 117 was co-signed by the senior lawyer and the junior lawyer, due to the hierarchical relationship existing between them, their authorial functions were different. whereas the senior lawyer performed the functions of executive author, declarative author featuring in the first place as manager of the legal proceedings, and revisionary author, the junior lawyer performed the functions of precursory author and declarative author featuring in the second place as assistant. then, rather than considering the lawsuit a collaborative work (spanish intellectual property law, art. 7), this should be seen as a composite work (spanish intellectual property law, art. 9). more specifically, a collaborative work is the unitary result of the collaboration of several authors in the writing process, which requires an action at the same level between them, namely without a hierarchical or subordinate relationship. by contrast, a composite work (spanish intellectual property law, art. 9) is a new work that incorporates a pre-existing work. the composite work, therefore, implies a transformation of a pre-existing work (spanish intellectual property law, art. 21) giving rise to a derivative work (spanish intellectual property law, art. 11) resulting from the process of transformation or modification, over which both the author of the transformed work and the author of the work resulting from the transformation into a derivative work will share rights. the language evidence obtained with an integrated approach to plagiarism detection is qualitative and is essential to adequately interpret the results obtained in the other two approaches to plagiarism detection, namely the computer-based approach and the form-only-based approach. furthermore, an integrative approach helps us to give an answer to two crucial questions: (1) the earlier work is copyrighted, and (2) the suspect had legal permission from the author of the appeal for reversal to borrow a substantial amount of text and modify it for purposes of elaborating the lawsuit. 5. conclusions it was demonstrated that an extrinsic plagiarism detection tool like copycatch gold v2 (woolls, 2002) can be suitable for purposes of discovering and measuring substantial formal similarity between two texts. besides, it was verified that this tool performs well in detecting direct (verbatim), and therefore evident, copy of words, sequences of words, sentences, and longer passages from an author’s earlier work into another author’s work. however, victoria guillén nieto ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122118 attention was drawn to the fact that language-based approaches, either formonly-based or integrated, seem to provide more complete language evidence to sustain a real case of plagiarism. specifically, owing to the findings obtained by means of an integrated approach, in which linguistic elements and extralinguistic data are combined into the task of plagiarism detection, it was possible to give an answer to the three questions that happened to be the most relevant in the case, according to the legal verdict (judgment 107/2017, of 2nd march 2017): (1) the appeal for reversal is a copyrighted work. (2) the use of the appeal for reversal made by the senior lawyer was appropriate to the context in which the case must be understood and interpreted, because he had been given power of attorney by the author of the appeal for reversal to represent her in the legal proceeding and consequently, he had permission to borrow and modify the text of the earlier work for the elaboration of the lawsuit. (3) according to spanish intellectual property law, the lawsuit should be seen as a composite work giving rise to a derivative work, rather than as a collaborative work. in spite of the fact that the language evidence yielded by the computer-based approach and the linguistic form-only-based approach clearly hinted at plagiarism, concluding that the author of the questioned text plagiarised the appeal for reversal may seem naive and inappropriate in the eyes of the court of law. the integrated approach offered the possibility to interpret the quantitative and qualitative data obtained in the two other approaches, bearing in mind the setting, the participants involved, their actions and goals, and knowledge that are relevant to the communicative situation. on these grounds, the high court of justice that tried the dispute finally ruled that there was neither plagiarism nor copyright infringement in the case (judgment nº107/2017, of 2nd march 2017). from the analysis of the exemplary case study, it can be concluded that the expert linguist must be cautious when reporting cases involving plagiarism because, on the one hand, not every single instance of copy-pasted text is plagiarism, and because, on the other hand, not every single instance of plagiarism implies copyright infringement. since plagiarism detection goes far and beyond the task of identifying copied text from an earlier work into another author’s work, it would be beneficial for the profession that expert linguists use an integrated approach, analysing the appropriateness of the questioned text in its context of production. the suggested pragmatic turn may have a positive effect on the relevance and accuracy of the linguistic evidence that the expert linguist can provide to the courts of justice. the relevance of context in plagiarism detection ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122 119 acknowledgements the author would like to thank the editors and reviewers for careful reading, thoughtful comments and constructive suggestions for this article. article history: received 8 october 2018 received in revised form 11 march 2020 accepted 27 april 2020 references victoria guillén nieto ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122120 alcaraz varó, e. & b. hughes (2002). el español jurídico. barcelona: ariel. austin, j.l. 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(2013). “derecho de autor y plagio”. alegatos 83: 135-152. osman, a.h., n. salim, s. binwahlan, r. alteeb & a. abuobieda (2012). “an improved plagiarism detection scheme based on semantic role labelling”. applied soft computing 12(5): 14931502. potthast, m., b. stein, a. barrón-cedeño & p. rosso (2010). “an evaluation framework for plagiarism detection” in coling’10: proceedings of the 23rd international conference on computational linguistics, 997-1005. provincial court in salamanca. judgment of 2nd march 2017 (nº 107/2017). url: <https://www. iberley.es/jurisprudencia/sentencia-civil-n-1072017-ap-salamanca-sec-1-rec-503-2016-02-032017-47715175> [29/02/2020]. real academia española (2016). banco de datos (corpesxxi). corpus del español del siglo xxi. url: <http://www.rae.es> [02/03/2020]. real academia española (2005). diccionario panhispánico de dudas (dpd). url: <https:// www.rae.es/recursos/diccionarios/dpd> [02/03/2020]. ruiz-garrido, m.f., j.c. palmer-silveira & i. fortanet-gómez (2010). english for professional and academic purposes. amsterdam, new york: rodopi. shuy, r.w. (2012). “using linguistics in trademark cases” in p. tiersma & l. solan (eds.), the oxford handbook of language and law, 449-462. new york: oup. shuy, r.w. (2008). fighting over words: language and civil law cases. new york: oup. spanish intellectual property law 1 /1996, 12th april. url: <https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt. php?id=boe-a-1996-8930> [02/03/2020]. stamatatos, e. (2009). “intrinsic plagiarism detection. using character n-gram profiles” in e. stamatatos et al. (eds.), proceedings of the sepln’09 workshop on uncovering plagiarism, authorship and social software misuse, 38-46. stein, b., n. lipka & p. prettenhofer (2011). “intrinsic plagiarism analysis”. language resources and evaluation 45(1): 63-82. tardy, c.m. (2012). “current conception of voice” in k. hyland & c. sancho guinda (eds.), stance and voice in written academic genres, 34-48. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. turell, m.t. (2008). “plagiarism” in j. gibbons & m.t. turell (eds.), dimensions of forensic linguistics, 265-299. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. turell, m.t. (2005). “el plagio en la traducción literaria” in m.t. turell (ed.), lingüística forense, lengua y derecho. conceptos, métodos y aplicaciones, 275-298. barcelona: iula, universitat pompeu fabra. turell, m.t. (2004). “textual kidnapping revisited: the case of plagiarism in literary translation”. speech, language and the law 11(1): 1-26. turney, p.d. & p. pantel (2010). “from frequency to meaning: vector space models of semantics”. journal of artificial intelligence research 37: 141188. turnitin. url: <http://turnitin.com/> [02/03/2020]. van dijk, t.a. (2008). “context theory and the foundation of pragmatics”, studies in pragmatics 10: 1-13. woolls, d. (2012). “detecting plagiarism” in p.m. tiersma & l.m. solan (eds.), the oxford handbook of language and law, 517-529. new york: oup. woolls, d. (2010). “computational forensic linguistics. searching for similarity in large specialised corpora” in m. coulthard & a. johnson (eds.), the routledge handbook of forensic linguistics, 576-590. london/new york: routledge. woolls, d. (2003). “better tools for the trade and how to use them”. the international journal of speech language and the law: forensic linguistics 10(1): 102-112. woolls, d. (2002). copycatch gold v2. cfl software development, united kingdom. victoria guillén nieto ibérica 40 (2020): 101-122122 victoria guillén is tenured associate professor at the university of alicante, where she directs the master’s in english and spanish for specific purposes and teaches applied linguistics and forensic linguistics. since 2009 she has provided professional linguistic service as an expert linguist in spain, germany, sweden, and the us. she is currently doing research on language crimes, especially harassment and hate speech. notes 1 this approach integrates the study of linguistic and extralinguistic contextual elements into the task of plagiarism detection. 2 this is an english translation of the source text in spanish: “de este modo, y aunque en el lenguaje común nos sintamos muchas veces invitados a llamar plagio a cualquier coincidencia entre dos obras que nos resulte llamativa, lo cierto es que no existe tal plagio cuando las obras comparadas resulten suficientemente distintas y diferenciables, aunque tengan puntos comunes de exposición (sentencia de 20 de febrero de 1992)”. url: <https://www.huffingtonpost.es/jose-maria-aznar-auzmendi/que-es-y-que-noes-un-plagio_b_3042814.html> [28/02/2020]. iberica 13 english for research publication purposes: critical plurilingual pedagogies. karen englander y james n. corcoran nueva york: routledge, 2019. 299 páginas. isbn 978-1138-69831-4 el libro english for research publication purposes: critical plurilingual pedagogies representa una apuesta por un desarrollo académico-científico diverso, plurilingüe y, en la medida de lo posible, igualitario. a lo largo de sus páginas, los autores, karen englander y james n. corcoran, organizan un argumento en favor de una transformación pedagógica que permita, a largo plazo, un cambio dentro del mundo de la divulgación científica, en la actualidad dominado principalmente por el idioma inglés. para exponer su alegato, los autores han organizado y dividido el libro en tres partes fundamentales. la primera, titulada what we know (“lo que sabemos”), presenta una introducción sobre el enfoque del libro, con el fin de situar al lector sobre cuál es el punto de partida de este volumen. esta sección sintetiza el discurso actual relacionado a la publicación científica y presta especial atención al contingente denominado “académicos de la periferia”, esto es, aquella población cuya lengua primaria no es el inglés. en particular, se centra en el caso de los investigadores de américa latina. la segunda parte, titulada what we learned (“lo que hemos aprendido”), está destinada a detallar la metodología y hallazgos de los autores al estudiar de forma específica el programa de english for research publishing purposes de una universidad a la que se hace referencia en el volumen con el pseudónimo “universidad de méxico” para garantizar el anonimato de la institución investigada. es precisamente la información recopilada a lo largo de este estudio lo que permite la organización de la tercera parte, titulada incorporating what we’ve learned (“aplicando lo que hemos aprendido”). en este apartado se utiliza la información obtenida en el estudio de caso de la universidad de méxico para la puesta en práctica de enfoques pedagógicos críticos plurilingües con el fin de impulsar un curso anclado en el pragmatismo crítico. la intención de configurar un curso para formar a académicos interesados en publicar sus investigaciones en inglés y que, al mismo tiempo, tenga unos reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 361-364 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 361 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 361 sólidos cimientos en el imaginario del pragmatismo crítico responde en gran medida a la experiencia previa de los autores. tanto karen englander como james n. corcoran han tenido un abundante contacto intercultural y han colaborado con académicos internacionales cuya lengua primaria no es el inglés. las conversaciones y experiencias con estos académicos los han llevado a reconocer tanto los beneficios como las limitaciones que tiene la hegemonía del inglés como lengua de divulgación científica. una hegemonía que, necesariamente, va acompañada de relaciones de poder, limitaciones de acceso y de toda una serie de dinámicas que inciden sobre la población académica de la periferia. por este motivo, los autores presentan un argumento, que, si bien no resulta especialmente revolucionario, sí va en favor de la creación de programas académicos que no solo ofrezcan una formación a los investigadores desde una perspectiva lingüística crítica, sino también herramientas para desenvolverse dentro del mundo científico y académico existente. de este modo, se conjuga un esfuerzo de autocrítica sobre el sistema actual y se aportan mecanismos que simultáneamente lo sustentan e intentan transformarlo. esto constituye la representación más evidente de la complejidad de la vida social donde confluyen los imaginarios de lo político, lo académico y del mundo cotidiano. es la materialización de un esfuerzo pedagógico que rebasa los límites de la academia y cuestiona la organización de las relaciones de poder dentro del paradigma de la era de la información, aunque, al mismo tiempo, funcione como un elemento que sustente la hegemonía del inglés como idioma de divulgación científica. un punto fundamental dentro de este entramado de relaciones lingüísticas, simbólicas y políticas es que, en su propuesta, los autores abogan por la creación de cursos de formación docente que vayan más allá de la consecución de objetivos pragmáticos. según englander y corcoran, es crucial que se incluyan tres elementos de análisis crítico que aportarán profundidad a la actividad divulgativa. estos son (pp. 227-229) el conocimiento del género que se va a redactar (genre awareness), la conciencia crítica sobre el lenguaje o critical language awareness, y las prácticas de escritura sostenible (sustainable writing practices). la combinación de estos elementos ofrece, en primer lugar, un esquema crítico que posibilita la reflexión sobre las publicaciones científicas y reconoce el potencial y posibilidades de cambio que tiene a su alcance. por otra parte, la noción crítica del lenguaje permite la formulación de interrogantes respecto al discurso, a su simbología y usos y fomenta el cuestionamiento de la rigidez reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 361-364362 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 362 de las fronteras lingüísticas y disciplinarias. por último, el elemento de sostenibilidad va dirigido a explorar las posibilidades que ofrece una comunicación científica plurilingüe y los diversos efectos que podría tener en las poblaciones académicas tanto de la periferia como del centro. además, se ofrecen recomendaciones para su aplicación en las aulas, se ofrecen sugerencias para la creación de grupos de docencia para la publicación y se facilitan pautas de organización curricular y temporal para estos cursos. en este sentido, el libro english for research publication purposes: critical plurilingual pedagogies aporta una visión atractiva y de especial interés, tanto para estudiantes universitarios como para profesores y cuerpos administrativos de la educación superior. si bien es cierto que parte del discurso se centra en aspectos teóricos del lenguaje y en distintos enfoques pedagógicos, también ofrece guías prácticas y recomendaciones que muy probablemente serán de utilidad para la mejora de estrategias de publicación, organización institucional y prácticas de enseñanza. recibida 28 septiembre 2019 aceptada 31 octubre 2019 reseñado por víctor a. meléndez garcía universidad de navarra (españa) vmelendez@alumni.unav.es reseñas / book reviews ibérica 38 (2019): 361-364 363 13 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:57 página 363 iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.127 abstract this study analysed the information-argument structure of the introduction sections of sociology research papers, to identify differences across three types of sociology research: investigative research, development and evaluation research, and descriptive research. the information-argument analysis framework bears some resemblance to rhetorical structure frameworks following swales’ cars model, but focuses on the argumentative aspect of text and how information is used to support argument claims. the coding scheme specifies information types, subdivided into those that imply an argument claim and those that play the role of argument support. seventy papers were sampled from ten sociology journals for analysis. sequential association rule mining was used to identify sequential information-argument patterns. the study identified significant differences in information-argument profile across the three types of research papers, as well as differences in sequential patterns. methodology contributions of the paper include the coding scheme for information-argument types in research papers, and the method of analysing sequential patterns. keywords: academic writing, argument structure, argument structure analysis, argumentation, academic argument. resumen patrones de información y argumentos en las secciones de introducción de los trabajos de investigación en sociología el presente estudio analiza la estructura de la información y argumentos en la introducción de los trabajos de investigación en sociología, con el objetivo de information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo shanghai university (china) & nanyang technological university (singapore) wcheng009@e.ntu.edu.sg & chriskhoo@pmail.ntu.edu.sg 127 ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo identificar diferencias entre los siguientes tres tipos de investigación: la investigación “investigadora”, la investigación de desarrollo y evaluación, y la investigación descriptiva. el marco para el análisis de la información y los argumentos guarda cierta semejanza con los marcos de estructura retórica que siguen el modelo de swales, cars, pero, a diferencia de ellos, se centra en la argumentación del texto y las maneras en que respaldar las afirmaciones. el esquema de codificación implementado diferencia entre dos tipos de información: los que incluyen una afirmación de los argumentos y los que contienen un apoyo. como muestra de análisis se escogieron setenta artículos de diez revistas de sociología. se han utilizado diferentes reglas de asociación secuencial para poder identificar posibles patrones secuenciales formadas por una estructura de información y argumentos. el estudio ha identificado diferencias significativas en el perfil de la estructura información-argumento entre los tres tipos de trabajos de investigación y entre los patrones secuenciales. las contribuciones metodológicas del artículo incluyen un esquema de codificación para los tipos de argumentos de información en artículos de investigación y un método de análisis para patrones secuenciales. palabras clave: escritura académica, estructura del argumento, análisis de estructura argumental, argumentación, argumento académico. 1. introduction this is part of a broader study of the information and argument structure of research papers, focusing initially on sociology research papers. this paper reports our analysis of the introduction section of sociology research papers, using our information-argument analysis framework and coding scheme. the framework is derived partly from rhetorical structure analysis frameworks following swales’s (1990) creating a research space (cars) model. rhetorical structure analysis is a kind of discourse analysis focusing on the author’s persuasive strategy and tactics (i.e., rhetorical steps or rhetorical functions). however, the rhetorical purpose must be to persuade or convince the reader about something, namely information and arguments. our perspective is that discourse analysis of academic writing focusing on its argumentative aspect and how information is used in argument claims will yield a deeper understanding of the nature of a research study, that is, how it constructs new knowledge using a network of argument claims, supports and information. our coding scheme for information-argument types overlaps with the list of rhetorical steps in swales’s (1990) cars model (listed in table 1), and 128 subsequent elaborations by researchers in genre studies. many of the steps in the cars framework lack an obvious persuasive function. for example, research objective is a type of information and statement of research intent, rather than a persuasive strategy. of the eleven rhetorical steps in the cars framework, five clearly indicate argument claims: claiming centrality, counter-claiming, indicating a gap, making topic generalisations and announcing principal findings. the other six rhetorical steps appear to refer to types of information, but may be considered to contain embedded arguments. for example, reviewing items of previous research may include conclusions synthesised or generalised from previous research papers. continuing a tradition may include justifications of why that is useful. thus, the rhetorical steps mix persuasive functions with information types and argument claim types. our coding scheme (listed in table 2) starts with a list of information types, but groups them into those that carry or imply an argument claim (group 1), those that typically take the role of argument support (group 2), those that are not argumentative but indicate types of descriptive information (group 3), and those that indicate types of context information (group 4). focusing on the argumentative aspect of a text allows us to analyse the text in terms of support => claim links, bearing in mind that a claim can function as a support to another claim (i.e., claim => claim), and furthermore a support statement can occur in the text after the claim statement (claim <= support). our analysis identified frequently occurring sequences of argument claims in the text (referred to as sequential argument patterns). we also analysed logical links between argument claims and argument supports that are independent of the sequence in which they appear in the text, thus conflating support => claim and claim <= support sequences we refer to these as logical argument patterns.1 we attempt to show in this paper that by foregrounding the argumentative aspect of discourse and its relation to information types, we gain by linking information-argument elements into a network structure of discourse. in an earlier study (cheng, 2020), we identified five types of sociology research represented in our corpus. as three of the research types were found in only a few papers and most of these studies employed qualitative methods, we combined them into one descriptive research category. thus, we carried out information-argument structure analysis for three types of sociology research papers, to identify discourse differences between them: investigative research, development and evaluation research, and descriptive research (defined later in table 4). information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 129 the objective of this study was therefore to analyse the informationargument structure of the introduction sections of sociology research papers, to identify differences across three types of sociology research. more specifically, we sought to find out: 1. how their information-argument profiles differ—in terms of the relative proportions of the different argument claim, support and information types. 2. how the sequential and logical argument patterns found in the papers are different. one innovation in our analyses was the use of sequential pattern mining (a data mining technique) to identify frequent sequential patterns of argument claim, support and information types. table 1. swales’ cars model for introduction sections of research papers. wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154130 ' 2 ' moves steps move 1: establishing a territory step 1: claiming centrality step 2: making topic generalisations step 3: reviewing items of previous research move 2: establishing a niche step 1a: counter-claiming step 1b: indicating a gap step 1c: question-raising step 1d: continuing a tradition move 3: occupying the niche step 1a: outlining purposes step 1b: announcing present research step 2: announcing principal findings step 3: indicating the structure of the research article ! ' 2 ' ! coding scheme code group 1. information types that carry/imply an argument claim argc01 research issue argc02 research gap argc03 research question argc04 research objective argc05 research method argc06 research hypothesis argc07 research result argc08 general result argc09 research contribution/recommendation argc10 topic centrality argc11 general statement argc12 research idea/approach argc13 address research limitation table 2. coding scheme for information-argument analysis framework. information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 131 ' 2 ' ! argc14 develop something new argc15 concept/theory/model–apply argc16 concept/theory/model–compare/relate argc17 concept/theory/model–derive argc18 concept/theory/model–define argc19 concept/theory/model–evaluate/critique argc20 literature–summarise/generalise argc21 literature–derive/infer argc22 literature–highlight claim argc23 literature–concession argc24 literature–counter argument argc25 literature–evaluate/critique argc26 literature–difference to current research argc27 literature–compare/relate argc28 literature–highlight scholar/concept argc29 concession/counter argument argc30 novelty code group 2. information types playing an argument support role args01 research method args02 practical problem args03 data analysis args04 example args05 established knowledge args06 inference chain args07 important implications args08 theoretical mechanism args09 explanation/elaboration args10 cited author’s claim/opinion args11 research motivation/justification args12 theoretical framework args13 extension of previous research code group 3. descriptive information types infd01 research scope infd02 research area infd03 outline the structure infd04 data context infd05 single study description infd06 own previous work description infd07 literature signpost infd08 concept/theory/model-details code group 4. context information types infc01 practical background infc02 historical background infc03 personal background infc04 theoretical background infc05 topic classification structure ! 2. analysis framework: information-argument analysis framework in relation to rhetorical structure frameworks our coding scheme for information-argument types was developed bottomup from an analysis of 20 sociology research papers, and confirmed and refined using an additional 50 papers. the focus of the coding was on identifying types of information and types of argument claim and support that appear to be important to social science research, especially in arguing the validity of the research results and that a significant research contribution was made. thus, research result and research contribution are two important information types, which carry the implicit claim that they are valid. “claim” suggests that the propositions in the research result and research contribution statements are not self-evidently true; the author has to adduce support for the claims to show that the claims are valid or at least reasonable. thus, other information types are used as argument supports for the claims. we consider the main information-argument types in research papers to be research issue, research gap, research objective, research result, and research contribution. these coding categories indicate information or content types, but they also embody certain implicit claims. the research objective statement implies the following claims: 1. it is well-formed: the statement is a clear research objective, and is researchable 2. it is well-founded: founded on theory, the literature or common knowledge (i.e., prior knowledge) 3. it is well-worth researching: addresses a research gap, research issue or practical problem. these embedded claims in a research objective statement are, we assume, common knowledge of experienced researchers, often explained in research method textbooks (e.g., munyua, 2021), and taught in phd programs. that the research objective is “well-formed” (i.e., clear, unambiguous and researchable) is supported by offering definitions, explanations, and elaborations. thus, the following sequence of information-argument elements indicate support that the research objective is well-formed: explanation/elaboration => research objective. wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154132 the following sequences provide support for the research objective’s wellfoundedness (i.e., founded on theory, the literature or common knowledge): theoretical framework => research objective literature–summarise/generalise => research objective established knowledge => research objective. the following sequences argue that the research objective is well-worth researching: topic centrality => research objective research gap => research objective. examples of these support => claim sequences from our corpus are available from dr-ntu (data)—the data repository of the nanyang technological university.2 it is clear from the above support => claim sequences and the examples that the argument support statement clarifies or makes explicit which claim is supported, for example, whether the research objective is well-formed, well-founded or well-worth researching. in other words, the argument support statement does not merely support the claim, but also highlights which claim it supports, if there are multiple implied claims. in fact, for some researchers in the field of argumentation, the term argument refers to the argument support (van eemeren et al., 2014; tindale, 1999). the research result statement carries the implied claim that it is valid and, for quantitative research studies, replicable. these claims are often supported by research method and data analysis statements: research method & data analysis => research result. in the coding scheme, research method is the only category that appears in both group 1 (a claim) and group 2 (a support). this is because research method can be used to support the research result, but may itself need to be defended as appropriate to address the research objective. most of the other group 1 information-argument types carry the implication that the claim is valid or reasonable. although our coding scheme was developed bottom-up based on analysing sample texts, our prior experience in rhetorical structure coding has information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 133 obviously influenced us to create several categories that are similar to rhetorical steps, for example topic centrality (sometimes called centrality/importance of the topic) and general statement (or topic generalisation). indeed, several authors in the field of argumentation have pointed out the interrelatedness of argumentation and rhetoric. hinton (2019) noted that the “distinction [between persuasion and argument] is difficult to maintain (…) and it is clear that any investigation into how language is used to put across arguments cannot remain aloof from considerations of rhetorical impact” (p. 96). a comparison of our information-argument coding scheme with extant rhetorical structure coding schemes (i.e., kanoksilapatham, 2005; kathaplia & khoo, 2020; swales,1990; zhang et al., 2011) can usefully highlight the characteristics of our framework.3 the extra categories in our coding scheme include: research issue, research idea, develop something new, and novelty. these types of claims are clearly important to researchers. our coding scheme has more refined categories for theory: concept/theory/model–apply, concept/theory/model–compare/relate, and concept/theory/model–derive. the coding scheme includes the following categories as argument support: theoretical mechanism, and theoretical framework. it has an extensive list of categories related to literature review, including: literature–derive/infer, literature–highlight claim, literature–counter argument, and literature–difference to current research. the detailed coding scheme for information-argument types, and resources to support xml tagging and display of coded text in a web browser, have been deposited in dr-ntu (data).4 3. argument structure information-argument structure analysis starts with tagging text units (usually sentences) with categories in the coding scheme. a text unit that is tagged with an argument claim or argument support type (i.e., group 1 and group 2 categories in table 2) is referred to as an argument discourse unit, following peldszus and stede (2013). we then extract sequences of argument claims and supports, such as claim => claim => claim and support => claim => claim. we refer to these as argument chains. the shortest argument chain is the two-step pattern claim => claim or support => claim called an argument step. wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154134 a frequently occurring sequential argument chain is referred to as a sequential argument pattern. we also identified sequential argument patterns where some claims in the argument chain are skipped over (explained later). as mentioned earlier, the support for a claim may appear after the claim statement in a text (i.e., claim <= support). we attempted to analyse support-claim relations independent of text presentation order, thus conflating support => claim and claim <= support. furthermore, the support for a claim may not appear immediately before or after the claim statement, but may occur some distance away. we refer to a support => claim relation independent of presentation order as a logical argument step. this kind of relation is difficult to code as it has to be inferred based on the coder’s understanding. nevertheless, it is important to try as this can uncover a deeper argument structure that may be obscured by sequential presentation order. argument structure can refer to the internal logical structure of propositions (called microstructure). our concern is with what freeman (2011) termed macrostructure, which is concerned with: how its component statements (together perhaps with other elements) fit together as wholes to allegedly lend support to some claim or claims. which statements are put forward to support which other statements in the course of an argument and how, if at all, are those claims of support qualified?. (p. 1) we use argument structure to refer to a set of argument elements (i.e., claims and supports) in a section of a document, linked together (by logical argument steps) into a network structure. argumentation refers to the way of developing an argument structure in a research paper. table 3 lists our definitions of these terms. information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 135 table 3. definitions of argument-related terms. 4. argument structure in linguistics literature there is substantial interest in argument structure analysis in genre studies: a literature search in the linguistics and language behavior abstracts carried out in july 2022 found 555 peer-reviewed publications published from 2010 to 2022 with the query ab (argument* pre/0 (structure? or pattern? or scheme?)). surprisingly, we have not identified any paper focusing on argument structure of research papers. limiting the search to research papers (by adding the query phrase ab((academic or research or journal) pre/0 (paper? or article? or report?))) retrieved only one paper that focused on hedging strategies. linguistics scholars have proposed different approaches for analysing argument structure. folli and harley (2013) proposed an analysis method from a syntactic perspective, using a set of grammatical rules to identify relations between arguments; moretta, feltracco, jezek, and magnini (2018) proposed a method from a semantic perspective, using different signifiers such as words or phrases to indicate semantic roles. some researchers (e.g., kohen et al., 2011; sheinfux, 2017) investigated the structure between the syntactic and semantic level. some studies focused on the argument flow (i.e., sequence of arguments) in student essays without categorising types of arguments (i.e., just identifying the argument claims) (jalilifar et al., 2017; lee, 2013; rusfandi, 2015; liu & furneaux, 2015). wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154136 term definition argument claim the proposition that the author seeks to convince the reader is true, valid or reasonable. argument support a proposition that supports the argument claim. it may also clarify or make explicit the claim that is supported (out of a set of possible implied claims). sequential argument step a claim=>claim or support=>claim sequence in presentation order in the text. sequential argument chain a list of claims and supports in order in which they are presented in the text, not necessarily spanning the whole section of a research paper. sequential argument pattern a frequently occurring argument step, or sequential argument chain, possibly allowing some claims in the chain to be skipped. logical argument step a support=>claim or claim=>claim relation independent of presentation order, but deemed conceptually linked. logical argument pattern a frequently occurring logical argument step. argument structure the set of all the argument elements (i.e., claims and supports) found in a section of a research paper, linked into a network structure by logical argument steps. the argument structure supports the coherence of the section of the paper. argumentation a way or method to develop the argument structure in a research paper. these approaches are unsatisfactory as they are not general methods that can be applied to any academic paper. they are akin to case studies of individual papers to understand the author’s arguments, but do not try to identify patterns that can be generalised to other papers. erduran, simon and osborne (2004) and simon (2008) used toulmin’s framework to develop indicators of the quantity and quality of argumentation in science classroom discussion, as well as to measure improvement in argumentation after changes in instructional support. several authors (e.g., wingate, 2012) have noted that the framework can model only micro-level argument instances, and not macro-level argument structures. most of the studies of academic arguments are for designing scientific research, and hardly any for scientific research papers and none that we know of for social science research. specifically, we lack studies investigating types of arguments relating to research objectives, results and contributions. a commonly used argument framework in the field of academic writing and genre studies is toulmin’s (2003) model of argument, which indicates that the argument claim may have qualifiers and potential rebuttals, and the argument supports include the data or evidence (forming the basis for the claim), the warrant (that authorises the step from the data to making the claim), and backing (that provides support for the warrant). however, in a research paper, some of these elements are not explicitly stated or are implied (van eemeren et al., 2014). for example, the warrant is often implied prior knowledge in the research community, and is provided only when the research method is new or when the warrant is controversial. we include data, warrant, and backing under support. 5. types of sociology research social science research can be divided into different types, the simplest division being between quantitative and qualitative studies. our pilot study (cheng, 2020) identified five types of sociology research: investigative research, development & evaluation research, descriptive research, historical analysis, and identification research. they are defined in table 4. these types of research have quite different end goals and we expected the authors to use quite different information and argument structures. because of the small number of papers belonging to the last three research types (descriptive research, historical analysis, and identification research), these were combined into information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 137 one descriptive research category for the analysis, as most of them used qualitative research methods. the different research types reflect different epistemic paradigms, seeking different kinds of knowledge and presenting different kinds of arguments. investigative research, which investigates a research relation (usually a causeeffect relation) between two concepts or entities, typically employ quantitative research methods. they can be characterised as adopting a positivist paradigm of research, rather than a postmodernist, constructivist, interpretivist or critical theory paradigm (lincoln et al., 2011; schwandt, 1998), which is more likely to characterise descriptive research. the research type can be identified solely from the research objective and research method statements, which contain different indicative keywords. for example, as investigative research seeks to investigate a causal or association relation between two concepts, its indicative keywords include affect, influence, and improve. using these definitions and indicative keywords, even undergraduate coders were able to identify the types of research quite accurately. intercoder reliability results are provided in the next section. table 4. definition of each type of sociology research. 6. method 6.1. scope of the study seventy papers were annotated with the coding scheme: 30 reporting investigative research, and 20 each for development and evaluation research and descriptive research. the information-argument profiles for the three types of sociology research were identified, characterised by frequency distributions and percentages for the different types of claims, supports, and information. significant differences across the three types of sociology wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154138 research type definition investigative research the research seeks to investigate a causal or associative relation between concepts or entities, often by using quantitative research methods (e.g., questionnaire survey). development & evaluation research the research seeks to develop a complex concept (i.e., theory, method or system), or to evaluate such a concept, usually using a quantitative research method. descriptive research the research seeks to explicate a phenomenon or an event, often using qualitative research methods (e.g., ethnography). historical analysis the research seeks to explicate a change in a particular social, economic, cultural and institutional phenomenon (including the development of an entity) over a period of time, often based on the analysis of historical data. identification research the research seeks to identify a subtype or instance of a concept (e.g., pattern), usually using a qualitative research method. research were identified. sequential association rule mining (a data mining method) was used to identify frequently occurring patterns of claims and supports, considering the presentation order in the text (referred to as sequential argument patterns). frequently occurring support => claim patterns occurring in adjacent sentences, but irrespective of presentation order, were also identified (referred to as logical argument patterns). 6.2. corpus the corpus for this study comprises research papers from ten journals with the highest impact factor in incites journal citation reports for sociology, listed in table 5. the articles were published in the late 2015 or early 2016 volumes of the journals. only articles reporting research that involved data analysis were included. journal articles that report literature surveys or philosophical/theoretical discussions were excluded. table 5. number of research papers selected from sociology journals. 6.3. coding of information-argument types we carried out manual annotation of argument elements in the text using oxygen xml editor version 18.1 (a software for annotating and editing xml files). the coding was usually at the sentence level. only one code was assigned to each text unit. if multiple argument types were possible (depending on the reader’s interpretation), the coder had to select the best code. figure 1 gives an example of annotated text. argument claims are information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 139 code journal title sample s01 american journal of sociology 6 s02 annals of tourism research 9 s03 cornell hospitality quarterly 7 s04 european sociological review 6 s05 gender society 6 s06 information communication society 8 s07 journal of marriage and family 7 s08 social networks 10 s09 qualitative research 5 s10 american sociological review 6 total 70 note: the different sample sizes is because development and evaluation research and descriptive research papers are less common, and additional papers in these two categories were sampled from journals that published more of such research papers. t g edco 1s0 g eltitalnrujo msa ygoloicsofolanruojnaciream 6 elpm 2s0 3s0 4s0 5s0 6s0 7s0 8s0 9s0 hcraesremsirutofoslanan 9 ylretrauqytilatipshollenrco 7 weivrelacigoloicsonaeporeu 6 yteicosrednge 6 ntioaicnummo cntioarmfoin yteicso 8 yliamfand age irarmofnaljour 7 skrwotnelaicso 10 hcraeserevitatilaqu 5 10 6 0s1 altot acebsiseziselpmastnereffideht:etno paperonalitaddiand on,mcomess le ar s.paperch esearrsuch weiverlacigoloicosnaciream 6 70 tnempolevdeesua and ahcraesernoitaulaev eplsame erwes iegorcato wthese tn is d mfro 70 hcraeserevitpircsdedna s paper f oreo mdehlisbut pa thlsarnu jo l v f n n s o n u y d h , shown with red background colour; argument supports with yellow background. 6.4. sequential association rule mining to analyse sequential argument patterns, we carried out sequential association rule mining using ibm/spss modeler version 18.1 to identify common sequences of argument elements that occurred in at least 20% of the papers. we analysed sequences of two to five adjacent elements, as well as sequences of up to five elements that are not necessarily adjacent (i.e., with any number of intervening elements), thereby allowing some claims in an argument chain to be skipped. figure 1. example argument element coding. in addition to mining sequential argument patterns, we also analysed logical argument patterns. it is difficult to analyse logical argument patterns because the argument supports may be presented a few sentences before or after the claim. furthermore, the argument support may not be explicitly expressed, but implied by adding citations in parenthesis, or by tacit appeal to general knowledge. we focused our analysis on explicit support => claim and claim <= support sentence pairs that have a clear relationship. we view this explicit support => claim relation as a kind of coherence relation, where the reader readily makes out a logical or conceptual relation between the sentences. 6.5. inter-coder reliability in this study, argument element coding was carried out by the two authors. the first author annotated the text first, which was reviewed and revised by the second author (deemed the more experienced researcher). this two-phase coding compensates for individual oversights and biases, as the second coder would be well aware of the first coder’s perspective and will take that into wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154140 t g g e 2 h 1 6 0 w 7 l v f n n s o n u y d h , consideration before changing a code. we found that coding of argument claims and supports has to be done by experienced researchers: it is difficult to train undergraduate and graduate students to do this analysis (cheng, 2020). in total, 21% of the codes were changed by the second coder. intercoder analysis of the changes made by the second author reveals differences of interpretation, but also highlights the assumptions underlying the final coding. the error analysis suggests that the first author was looking at more superficial features (word markers that suggest the code), whereas the second author was looking at deeper intentions (that may need to be inferred). some of the coding conflicts reflect difficulties with the following types of argument claims and supports: 1. concept/theory/model-related claims and literature review-related claims. this reflects a common confusion of whether a cited paper is related to a particular concept/theory/model; 2. research result, general result and research contribution/recommendation claims. this reflects the common difficulty of understanding general (broader) and detailed (narrower) research findings. a small intercoder reliability test was carried out on this coding. a sample of 10 articles from the corpus was coded by both authors. cohen’s kappa coefficient of 0.782 was obtained by analysing 261 argument and nonargument elements. cohen’s kappa measures the proportion of agreement after removing chance agreement between two coders, and our value of 0.782 can be considered substantial agreement. some authors considered kappa values of 0.21 to 0.40 to represent fair agreement, 0.41 to 0.60 moderate agreement, and 0.61 to 0.80 substantial agreement (cohen, 1960; landis & koch, 1977; viera & garrett, 2005). an analysis of the conflicts found that the following pairs of argument types tended to be confused: 1. topic centrality and general statement claims. both are broad overview claims, and whether there is an intention to highlight the importance of the research topic is a judgement call. 2. literature-evaluate/critique, concept/theory/model/-evaluate/critique, and research gap claims. these three claims may overlap: a research gap may be highlighted by critiquing previous papers and theories. information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 141 3. literature review-related claims versus literature review-related supports. for example: • literature-highlight claim is considered a claim, whereas cited authors claim/opinion can be coded as supporting a claim, such as a general statement. • literature-summarise/generalise is considered a claim, but it may be coded as explanation/elaboration and established knowledge to support a claim. this highlights the issue of whether to code a cited paper as a support or a claim. as for identifying the five types of research, six undergraduate students were recruited to do the analysis. the average inter-coder reliability scores (percentage agreement between coders, and cohen’s kappa) were substantial at 0.72 and 0.60, showing that it not difficult to distinguish between the research types. 7. findings 7.1. information-argument profile across the three research types one-way analyses of variance (anova) were performed to identify significant differences in the information-argument type frequencies across the three types of research. table 6 lists the information-argument types with significant differences (α=0.05). the information-argument profile for the three research types can be characterised as follows: 1. for investigative research: research gap, research hypothesis, research method, research purpose (especially research objective), and research finding (including research result and research contribution) elements had the highest frequencies. 2. for development and evaluation research: concept/theory/modelrelated elements (especially concept/theory/model-derive and concept/theory/model-evaluate/critique) had the highest frequencies. the non-argumentative descriptive information element occurred on average about six times, especially concept/theory/model-details and outline the structure. wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154142 3. for descriptive research: the research result element had a slightly higher frequency. descriptive information elements occurred about five times on average. this reflects different information and argument strategies needed for different research types: 1. investigative research papers usually argue for a research gap to justify the research objective. research finding (particularly research contribution) is also claimed in the introduction. 2. development and evaluation research papers have to argue for the novelty (idea) for the theory or method proposed. as most of these studies in sociology sought to develop a new theory or improve an old theory, it is not surprising that there were more theory-related elements. an outline of the paper structure was often found at the end of the introduction section, suggesting that there is no standard structure for the whole paper. 3. descriptive research papers do not have a distinctive argument strategy. however, they have more descriptive elements and contextual information. a summary of the research results is often provided. an outline of the paper structure is often provided at the end of the introduction section. information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 143 table 6. common information-argument types in the introduction sections (frequency distribution). 7.2. opening move, middle game and concluding move we analysed the information-argument patterns in terms of which information-argument types tended to appear at the beginning, middle and end of the introduction section in other words, the opening move, middle game and concluding move (see table 7). for all types of research, the introduction section often opened with topic centrality (20% to 40% of the sample) or general statement (20% to 30%). descriptive research sometimes opened with non-argumentative descriptive or context information (20% to 25%). wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154144 information-argument type type of research investigative development and evaluation descriptive (n=30) (n=20) (n=20) main research claims research gap mean 2.03 1.00 0.80 sd 1.65 1.97 1.11 research purpose claims mean 4.57 2.05 2.45 sd 1.91 1.70 2.21 research objective mean 2.77 1.45 1.80 sd 1.63 1.19 1.36 research hypothesis mean 0.90 0.16 0.00 sd 1.09 0.50 0.00 research method mean 1.87 0.55 0.80 sd 2.16 0.89 1.06 research finding claims mean 3.00 2.05 1.80 sd 3.41 3.52 2.07 research result mean 1.07 1.05 1.30 sd 2.08 1.67 1.95 literature review-related claims literature-summarise/generalise mean 2.53 1.50 0.80 sd 2.11 1.99 0.83 concept/theory/model-related claims mean 3.23 7.90 3.20 sd 3.48 7.76 3.76 concept/theory/model-derive mean 0.07 1.00 0.10 sd 0.25 1.34 0.31 concept/theory/modelevaluate/critique mean 0.17 1.45 0.05 sd 0.59 2.42 0.22 descriptive information mean 0.97 5.40 4.75 sd 1.61 5.13 5.16 concept/theory/model-details mean 0.10 1.45 0.15 sd 0.55 3.19 0.67 outline the structure mean 0.63 2.30 1.50 sd 1.40 2.64 1.91 note: significant differences across the research types (!=0.05). t ' at the end of the introduction section, all research types had outline the structure as the final element: more often for development and evaluation research and descriptive research (40% to 45% of sample) than for investigative research (23%). investigative research and descriptive research concluded with research result and research contribution/recommendation 20% to 37% of the time. in contrast, development and evaluation research made concept/theory/model-related claims about 20% of the time. in the middle of the introduction sections, investigative research and descriptive research typically made use of this sequence of elements: literature-summarise/generalise … research gap … research objective. descriptive research sometimes added a concept/theory/model-apply claim. however, development and evaluation research can have any kind of elements (i.e., there is no dominant pattern). table 7. common argument elements at the beginning, middle and end of introduction sections, across the research types. information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 145 type of research position common argument elements investigative research begin topic centrality or general statement middle literature-summarise/generalise … research issue or research gap or research question … research objective … end research contribution/recommendation inserted element research method: anywhere in the introduction section concept/theory/model-define: anywhere in the introduction section development and evaluation research begin topic centrality or general statement or (topic centrality -> concept/theory/model-define) middle (any argument element) end outline the structure inserted element any argument element: in the middle of the pattern descriptive research begin topic centrality or descriptive information or context information middle literature-summarise/generalise … research gap (concept/theory/model-apply)? … research objective …(concept/theory/model-apply)? … end outline the structure inserted element research method: before or after the research objective concept/theory/model-define: anywhere before the research objective 7.3. sequential argument patterns we analysed the sequences of information-argument types starting with 2step and 3-step adjacent patterns. we then analysed sequences of information-argument types with any number of intervening elements (i.e., allowing some claims/supports in an argument chain to be skipped). sequential argument patterns in the introduction sections are too numerous to list here. they are listed in the first author’s phd thesis (cheng, 2020). we attempted to derive one basic or overall sequential argument pattern for the introduction section, by linking and combining the frequent sequences of adjacent and non-adjacent elements. the assumption is that researchers doing a particular type of research should be familiar with these basic argument patterns. in practice, researchers are expected to modify or extend the basic argument pattern to present a strong case for their research. the basic argument patterns that we derived for each research type can be considered a theory underlying the argument structure of each research type. we summarise the basic sequential argument patterns separately for each research type below. examples of the argument patterns from our corpus are available from dr-ntu (data).5 7.3.1. investigative research the sequential pattern mining did not detect any pattern with a high frequency (over 50%). the most common pattern was research objective -> research method -> research result (40%). moreover, general statement was the first argument claim in about 30% of the introduction sections; and topic centrality in about 20%. the results indicate the following basic argument pattern in the introduction sections: (general statement or topic centrality) … literature-summarise/generalise … (research issue or research gap or research question) … research objective … research contribution/recommendation. in addition, we found four other more specialised patterns: 1. the basic argument pattern, with additional literature review to support research gap. a literature-summarise/generalise claim may be wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154146 inserted before or after a research gap claim, or between two research gap claims. 2. multiple research gap claims, supported by literature review. 3. extended literature review, leading to the research objective. 4. additional research method element, with the research method appearing after the research objective or between two research objective claims. 7.3.2. development and evaluation research the sequential argument patterns were more elaborate than those for investigative research, as development and evaluation research papers had more concept/theory/model-related claims (20%). a concept/theory/modelevaluate/critique claim (20%) was often the final element. thus, the following basic sequential argument pattern was derived: (research objective or concept/theory/modeldefine/derive/apply)… research idea/approach … research objective … (research result or concept/theory/modelevaluate/critique or research contribution/recommendation). in the above pattern, research idea/approach replaces the research gap in the argument pattern derived for investigative research, because development and evaluation research generally proposes a new idea or approach, rather than address a research gap in the literature. 7.3.3. descriptive research non-argumentative elements (i.e., descriptive information and context information) played an important role in descriptive research. the following elements each comprise 10% to 15% of the introduction sections: 1. descriptive information (especially data context, and outline the structure); 2. context information (especially practical background, and historical background) information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 147 3. literature review-related claims; 4. concept/theory/model-related claims. this indicates that descriptive research papers have more descriptions of qualitative data, which is based on a theory/model/framework and previous research. the analysis of sequential argument patterns did not find any pattern with a high frequency (over 50%). the results indicated the following overall/basic argument pattern in the introduction sections: (topic centrality or descriptive information or context information) … literature-summarise/generalise … research gap … (concept/theory/model-apply)? … research objective … (concept/theory/model-apply)? … outline the structure. concept/theory/model-define claim can be inserted anywhere before the research objective claim; the research method claim may be inserted before or after the research objective claim. 7.4. logical argument steps in the introduction sections we also analysed logical argument steps irrespective of sequential order in the text. however, this analysis was limited to argument elements occurring in adjacent sentences, so that the relation between argument claim and argument support is direct and explicit. thus, only a relatively small number of explicit argument steps were found in each introduction section. we found that authors exerted considerable effort to support the research objective with research gap (18 of 70 papers) or research motivation/justification (13) or topic centrality (7). investigative research and descriptive research papers tended to support the research objective with a research gap claim. investigative research also used topic centrality, whereas descriptive research used practical problem to support a topic centrality. two common logical argument steps were found in all research types: 1. literature-summarise/generalise => research gap (11 of 70 papers) wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154148 2. explanation/elaboration => topic centrality (10). this indicates that authors typically support a research gap by summarising previous studies, and support the importance (centrality) of the research topic with additional explanations. the common logical argument steps across the research types are shown in figure 2. figure 2. common logical argument steps across the types of research. 8. conclusion we have analysed the types of information and argument claims and supports used in the introduction sections of sociology research papers, as well as common patterns of claims and supports. we identified three types of sociology research: investigative research, development and evaluation research, and descriptive research. a coding scheme was developed for information-argument types, divided into those that carry or imply an argument claim (group 1), those that play the role of argument support (group 2), descriptive information types (group 3) and context information types (group 4). we identified significant differences in information-argument profile (i.e., distribution of information-argument types) among the three types of research papers, as well as differences in sequential argument patterns and logical argument patterns. the introduction sections reflect different information and argument information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 149 ! ! strategies across the three research types: investigative research papers usually argue for a research gap to support the research objective. research contribution is also often claimed in the introduction. development and evaluation research papers typically argue for the novelty of the proposed theory or method. there are also more theory-related elements to support the new theory or method, and more descriptive elements to give details of the theory. descriptive research papers do not have a distinctive argument strategy, but have more descriptive elements and context information, especially at the beginning of the introduction. a summary of the research results is often provided. both development and evaluation research and descriptive research papers have outline the structure at the end of the introduction nearly half the time, suggesting that there is no standard paper structure, and a paper outline is helpful to the reader. the results of sequential pattern mining of introduction sections indicate the following basic argument pattern in the introduction sections: (general statement or topic centrality) … literaturesummarise/generalise … (research issue or research gap or research question) … research objective … research contribution/recommendation. development and evaluation research and descriptive research papers may modify the basic argument pattern with concept/theory/model-related claims. development and evaluation research papers often replace research gap with research idea/approach, whereas descriptive research papers open with descriptive information (especially data context) or context information (especially practical background, and historical background) about a quarter of the time. from an analysis of the logical argument steps irrespective of sequential order, but presented in adjacent sentences, we derived a typical argument structure for the introduction section, represented in figure 2. our method of argument element coding using xml tags has allowed us to carry out quantitative analysis and sequential pattern mining to gain insights into the information-argument structure of academic texts. we expect that applying this analysis method to other sections of the research paper (i.e., literature review, results, discussion/conclusion) will yield more interesting results. we believe our results for introduction sections would generally hold for other social science fields, though this is to be confirmed in subsequent studies. scientific and engineering disciplines may have other research types that have evolved other kinds of information-argument structure. wei-ning cheng & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154150 our information-argument structure analyses were carried out mainly at the sentence level to find patterns in what freeman (2011) termed argument macrostructure. in complementary work, we are analysing the information microstructure of argument claims and supports at the level of concepts, entities and semantic roles, to identify information links between claims and their supports. an initial study of how comparison information structures and cause-effect information structures are linked together to support the validity of the cause-effect claim (in research result) has been reported in cheng and khoo (2021). acknowledgement this study was funded partly by the singapore ministry of education research grant moe2015-1-tr05. article history: received 10 february 2022 received in revised form 30 august 2022 accepted 11 september 2022 references information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of 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(1998). constructivist, interpretivist approaches to human inquiry. in n. k. denzin & y. s. lincoln (eds.), the landscape of qualitative research (pp. 221-259). sage. sheinfux, l. h., melnik, n., & wintner, s. (2017). representing argument structure. journal of linguistics, 53(4), 701-750. simon, s. (2008). using toulmin’s argument pattern in the evaluation of argumentation in school science. international journal of research & method in education, 31(3), 277-289. <https://doi.org/10.1080/17437270802417176> swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge university press. tindale, c. w. (1999). acts of arguing: a rhetorical model of argument. suny. toulmin, s. (2003). the uses of argument (2nd ed.). cambridge university press. van eemeren, f. h., garssen, b., krabbe, e.c.w., snoeck henkemans, a.f., verheij, b., & wagemans, j.h.m. (2014). handbook of argumentation theory. springer. viera, a. j., & garrett, j. m. (2005). understanding interobserver agreement: the kappa statistic. family medicine, 37(5), 360-363. wingate, u. (2012). ‘argument’ helping students understand what essay writing is about. journal of english for academic purposes, 11(2), 145-154. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2011.11.001> zhang, l., kopak, r., freund, l., & rasmussen, e. (2011). making functional units functional: the role of rhetorical structure in use of scholarly journal articles. international journal of information management, 31(1), 21-39. <https://doi.org/10.1002/meet.14504701215> university, singapore. he teaches courses in knowledge organisation, and data analytics. his research interests are in knowledge graph, text mining, and multidisciplinary study of academic writing & thinking. notes 1 by “logical” we do not mean logical entailment as used in formal logic (propositional logic or first order logic), but that the support => claim links are independent of the surface (sequential) presentation in the text. the support and claim need not even appear close together in the text. thus, a logical argument structure is a representation of the conceptual structure that is hypothesised to be constructed in the reader’s mind after reading the research paper. 2 https://researchdata.ntu.edu.sg/file.xhtml?fileid=96819&version=2.0 3 https://researchdata.ntu.edu.sg/file.xhtml?fileid=96821&version=2.0 4 https://doi.org/10.21979/n9/ld3ebq 5 https://researchdata.ntu.edu.sg/file.xhtml?fileid=96819&version=2.0 information and argument patterns in the introduction sections of sociology research papers ibérica 44 (2022): 127-154 153 iberica 13 ibérica 42 (2021): 15-32 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract developed as a socio-constructivist theory with the aim of understanding discursive construction of selves, positioning theory has been applied to the analysis of conversations and narratives across disciplines. this paper provides an overview of positioning theory developed by rom harré and his colleagues and describes the basic concepts and principles of the theory. by illustrating how it has been applied to studies in contexts that involve english language learners or teachers, the paper identifies ways that positioning theory may positively impact classroom practice and outlines areas for further research that emi classroom practitioners can carry out. a number of practical guidelines for conducting positioning analysis are also offered. keywords: positioning theory, positioning analysis, english-medium instruction, positioning and identity. resumen la teoría del posicionamiento en la práctica de la instrucción por medio del inglés: avances e implicaciones para la enseñanza y la investigación desarrollada como una teoría socio-constructivista para comprender la construcción discursiva de uno mismo, la teoría del posicionamiento se ha aplicado al análisis de conversaciones y narrativas en diferentes disciplinas. este artículo ofrece una visión panorámica de la teoría del posicionamiento, desarrollada por rom harré y sus colaboradores, y describe los conceptos y principios básicos de la teoría. tras mostrar de qué forma se ha aplicado a diferentes investigaciones referidas a estudiantes y profesores de inglés, este artículo identifica diversas maneras en que la teoría del posicionamiento puede positioning theory for english-medium instruction (emi) praxis: insights and implications for teaching and research hayriye kayi-aydar & angel steadman university of arizona (united states) & highline college (united states) hkaydar@arizona.edu & asteadman@highline.edu 15 ibérica 42 (2021): 15-32 hayriye kayi-aydar & angel steadman tener una influencia positiva en la práctica del aula y esboza algunas áreas relevantes para futuras investigaciones que podrían explorar aquellos docentes que trabajan en entornos en que el inglés funciona como medio de instrucción. asimismo, se ofrece una serie de guías prácticas para realizar análisis de posicionamiento. palabras clave: teoría del posicionamiento, análisis del posicionamiento, instrucción por medio del inglés, posicionamiento e identidad. 1. introduction introduced as a socio-constructivist theory in the 1990s by rom harré, positioning theory has its origins in discursive or cultural psychology and narratology and aims to explore and explain how social interaction and selves are constructed in and through discourse in culturally constructed and morally shaped contexts (davies & harré, 1990). given its focus on social interactions, the theory has been widely used in investigating a range of topics across disciplines over three decades. in educational research, it has been further developed and used “as an analytic lens and explanatory theory to show how learning and development of identity evolves through discourse” (green et al., 2020). in particular, researchers of literacy (e.g., green et al., 2020; mcvee et al., 2018) as well as those of mathematics education (e.g., herbel-eisenmann et al., 2015) have used positioning theory extensively, developing it further for educational research. positioning theory can be especially useful in investigating issues in diverse classrooms where numerous social factors are intertwined and influence the construction and distribution of rights and duties. for example, in an english for specific purposes (esp) class in english-dominant contexts, various social categories, such as race, ethnicity, language background and proficiency level, age and life experiences, gender, or disciplinary expertise may intersect in complex ways that shape classroom interactions. positioning theory helps unpack such complexity so that researchers and educators may better understand the affordances and limitations that members of the classroom community may have to say and do things in various interactions. in this paper, we first offer an overview of positioning theory, in which we define its essential constructs and describe its main principles. we then explain how positioning theory can be used as a framework for guiding praxis involving academic and professional discourses in the context of 16 academic english language use. the paper concludes with a discussion of the ways that positioning can impact classroom discourse in daily teaching and offers evidence-based implications for english language teaching and action research in emi or similar contexts. 2. positioning theory: a brief overview individuals have certain rights and duties based on the roles that they have in their lives. however, these rights and duties are not distributed in a random fashion, nor is their distribution always a priori in a given conversation. positioning theory explores how rights and duties are challenged, disputed, negotiated, rejected, or accepted in discursive social practices. by studying rights and duties, the theory illustrates how individuals are “located in conversations as observably and subjectively coherent participants” (davies & harré, 1999: 37), which is called positioning. describing positioning theory as “part of the burgeoning growth of ‘psychology as a moral science’”, harré and dedaic (2012: 49) acknowledge that positioning theory has been developed as an answer to the following questions: how do we investigate the way that unequal access to resources, and unequal rights to exercise skills a person of a certain category (child, woman, medical doctor), come into being, are sustained, and could be challenged? how can we analyze the situation that then obtains, and how can we explore the discursive means by which a certain distribution of rights and duties was established? in responding to these questions, positioning theory draws upon positions, acts, and story lines, which make up the three essential elements of positioning theory that contribute to the formation of selves. harré and dedaic (2012: 49) explain this positioning cluster: there are positions (beliefs about rights and duties which are ascribed in any episode to the actors). there are the repertoires of acts available to a person positioned in a certain way in a group. there are the story lines that are lived out in everyday encounters. finally, there are the ‘selves’ which are produced in the course of an unfolding episode. unlike roles, most of which are known to be fixed, permanent, and formally defined, positions are dynamic and emerge from, influence, and are positioning theory for english-medium instruction (emi) praxis: insights and implications for teaching and research ibérica 42 (2021): 15-32 17 influenced by evolving story lines. however, the roles one has, along with personal attributes, characteristics, and previous experiences, might influence the construction of positions. these may be brought into the story line(s) to construct certain positions, otherwise known as prepositioning. in the act of narrating or conversing, individuals may, intentionally or unintentionally, position themselves and others and/or be positioned by them, ultimately shaping the distribution of rights and duties and “momentby-moment meanings of speaking and acting” (harré & moghaddam, 2015: 230). mcvee et al. (2018: 389) note that “moral orders and the rights and duties associated with them and our own lived experiences influence story lines we can construct, or concomitantly, story lines we may refuse to enter, if we feel we have power to do so”. according to van langenhove (2017: 4), moral orders are “a set of habits and prescriptions” that govern social interactions and allow people “to judge what is proper and improper to do or say” in a story line. a variety of moral orders exists; they may be cultural, legal, institutional, conversational, or personal. influenced by moral orders, positions and story lines developed momentarily have the power to shape identities and relationships. 3. emi and teaching: insights from positioning studies due to its flexibility and scalability, positioning theory has emerged as a useful tool for analyzing numerous topics in research settings that involve learners who speak english as an additional language. adopting positioning theory as a theoretical or methodological lens in emi contexts is particularly helpful as it helps analyze and understand simultaneous complexities associated with content knowledge acquisition and the learning and use of english as a lingua franca (elf). current immigration/refugee trends, internationalization efforts in emi educational settings, as well as increasing globalization that demands a common language for trade, commerce, and foreign policy all contribute to the status and power of the elf. how do students and teachers position themselves in this larger context? who gains access to power and symbolic capital (bourdieu, 1986), and who gets excluded and how? what are the implications of access to power and symbolic capital for classroom positioning and learning? positioning theory makes it possible to address these questions and others by its particular focus on power, discourse, and interactional opportunities. hayriye kayi-aydar & angel steadman ibérica 42 (2021): 15-3218 a large number of the positioning studies that involved english learners or teachers have focused on the ongoing negotiation of identity, agency, and access within multilingual educational settings (for a review of classroombased positioning studies see kayi-aydar & miller, 2018), offering practical insights and implications for english language learners and teachers. as with all forms of education, english language teaching and learning is not a neutral process; it rather is closely tied to race, ethnicity, culture, and sociopolitical issues. by extension, in multilingual and multicultural classrooms where learners are from various racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds, all interactions that take place are intertwined with both the identities of learners and the classroom teacher. when educators actively work to make sense of their students’ identities, they are better able to recognize students’ needs, tailor the support that they provide accordingly, and cultivate learning environments that foster student agency. likewise, when educators interrogate how their own identities shape their assumptions and pedagogical decisions, they may be able to locate areas in which they can strengthen their practice and provide greater support for students’ identity development and membership within the classroom community. as identity research grows more nuanced in its consideration of intersectionality and power dynamics, positioning theory’s attention to ongoing negotiations in multilingual contexts offers a lens through which researchers may examine the kaleidoscopic threads of individuals’ community memberships, lived experiences, and aspirations for the future as they are enacted in interactions with one another. as one example, gu et al. (2014) described how work-related elf communication allowed three interlocutors with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds to overcome a critical-face threatening moment at work. through positioning analysis of one conversation, the authors were able to show how the three participants (one librarian and two teaching staff) shared cultural knowledge and constructed a multicultural identity in a single elf interaction at a multilingual university in hong kong, eventually facilitating workplace communication. the positioning analysis detailed how individuals presented expert identities; challenged and negotiated them by drawing upon their institutional roles, personal histories, values and expertise in different areas; and shifted positions to establish alignment. the researchers point out that “the multilingual elf users in this conversation reach alignment through difference and establish a commonality based on their all being multilingual and multicultural” (gu et al., 2014: 139). while this study does not focus on positioning theory for english-medium instruction (emi) praxis: insights and implications for teaching and research ibérica 42 (2021): 15-32 19 a classroom interaction, it provides insight into the usefulness of applying positioning analysis to elf conversations. similar analyses focusing on interactions in emi classes may help researchers and educators recognize complexities in students’ identity performance and positioning as well as identify how conflicts, tensions, or misunderstandings might occur and get resolved (or not). in this way, emi teachers can gain a deeper and more holistic view of the students they serve as well as the nuances of classroom communication. such nuanced attention to identity can also help educators and researchers recognize ways that teaching practices or school policies may oppress or marginalize students. indeed, as positions are bound up with sets of rights and duties, and therefore privileges and expectations for how individuals are expected to act, positioning theory is ideally suited for social justice and equity-based approaches (warren & moghaddam, 2018). in their study on elite appropriation of emi policy and epistemic inequalities in himalayan schools, sah and karki (2020: 2) point out similarities across different emi contexts: ghana and rwanda have failed to continue the emi policy because of the lack of infrastructure, teachers’ proficiency in english, and preservice and inservice training programmes. similarly, there are extensive reports from south asian countries, [...] that emi has not produced quality education, but it has rather reproduced inequalities for minoritized students. these macro level issues may manifest themselves in classroom discourses. socioeconomic status, ethnic/racial background, language proficiency, pedagogical and content knowledge, among others, all influence classroom conversations and shape positioning, perhaps marginalizing some learners while empowering others. the experiences of marginalization or privilege have been documented in a large number of studies in non-emi settings that have adopted positioning theory (e.g. yoon, 2008). such research is also needed in emi settings, where the use of elf is inextricably linked with sociopolitical forces, thereby creating a microcosm in which global systems of power, privilege, and marginalization influence the positions that may be taken up by students and instructors alike. applications of positioning theory in understanding how power flows and reverberates within educational settings can also help educators develop strategies to avoid or counteract oppressive power dynamics as they begin to emerge. rooted in an immanent perspective, which situates positioning hayriye kayi-aydar & angel steadman ibérica 42 (2021): 15-3220 within the moment interaction takes place and between the interlocutors present, positioning theory offers researchers the ability to pinpoint interactional shifts that may open or close potential routes of discursive access and legitimacy. this attention to small, momentary interactions provides a means by which researchers and educators can challenge potentially negative story lines by allowing for ongoing opportunities to reposition oneself in new and different ways. by seeking out and providing moments of discursive access or opportunities for repositioning, particularly for students who have been historically marginalized, educators can help students see themselves as active agents in their learning. although the majority of research has focused on learner positioning, this framework can be a valuable lens for teachers’ self-reflection on the positions they take up or assign to students within the classroom and how those positions impact others within the classroom or larger school ecology. teachers’ beliefs about their work influence the positions with which they align themselves, as well as the rights and duties that those positions entail. for example, erickson and pinnegar (2017) tied positioning to the use of metaphors to understand how four teachers approached their work. the identified metaphors of gardener, traveler, butterfly, and queen of england illustrated a range of perceived obligations that teachers felt they had toward their students, as well as differing power dynamics between teachers and students. a student whose teacher positions themselves as a gardener who cultivates and nurtures, for example, has a different range of positions (and associated rights and duties) available to them than does a student whose teacher positions themselves in the more powerful and imposing position of the queen of england. in emi contexts, how emi teachers construct professional identities for themselves and position their students are closely linked to how they position the english language, emi, and their areas of expertise. as shown by numerous studies (see fenton-smith et al., 2017), the emi instructors’ perceptions and attitudes about english and emi influence their classroom practices and relationship with their students. in emi settings, positioning theory can be a valuable tool in research related to tensions that instructors face as they navigate the myriad responsibilities of the profession. in his study on the emi-related perspectives and experiences of six faculty members within the faculty of business and economics at a large emi tertiary institution in hong kong, trent (2017: 236) portrays how the participants, who were economic and finance professors, struggled between positioning theory for english-medium instruction (emi) praxis: insights and implications for teaching and research ibérica 42 (2021): 15-32 21 “the discourse of rationality” and “the discourse of potentiality”. according to trent (2017: 227), the discourse of rationality: advocated the minimization of time spent addressing the language needs of students in favour of engagement in practices and activities that are more likely to bring rewards, such as promotion and contract renewal, which were identified as research-related activities. the discourse of potentiality, on the other hand, involved various imagined possibilities, such as building awareness of language, seeking and adopting teaching strategies to “cope with the language demands of economics and finance” (trent, 2017: 231), as well as building close relationships with english language instructors. those two competing discourses, which are commonly reported in various other studies on emi contexts, offered competing subject positions to choose from, such as ‘academic economist,’ ‘researcher,’ and ‘teacher’ to those professors, ultimately creating tensions in their identity negotiations. relatedly, positioning theory may be used to understand conflict or frustration that may occur when teachers have forced positions (harré & van langenhove, 1999) imposed upon them. within the context of emi, the long-standing tension between the dual teaching responsibilities related to teaching content and language provides an example of such forced positioning and its implications. for example, block and moncada-comas (2019: 13) demonstrated how three stem lecturers in an institution in catalonia appeared to be unwilling to position themselves as english language teachers, instead drawing “on their understandings of their rights, duties, and obligations as stem discipline-bound lecturers”. thus, the lecturers did not perceive the presentation of linguistic features or correction of students’ language errors to be part of their teaching practices. rather, in positioning themselves purely as content teachers, they actively resisted taking on the language-related duties that their forced positions as emi instructors entailed, creating tensions between institutional expectations and individual choices. instructors may also impose forced positions on students based upon assumptions about their personal experiences and future trajectories. in a particularly salient study of physics lecturers in emi contexts in sweden, airey (2012) found that lecturers’ choice of instructional language was related to the institutions in which they taught. physics lecturers at smaller hayriye kayi-aydar & angel steadman ibérica 42 (2021): 15-3222 institutions used less english because they assumed that their students would be future teachers or engineers in less need of the english language; meanwhile, lecturers at larger institutions were more likely to teach in english due to their assumption that their students were future physicists and members of the academy. when viewed through the lens of positioning theory, this distinction highlights the ways that such assumptions can both afford and constrain the positions that students may take up. students in larger institutions, positioned as being in greater need of english, are given a greater right to education in english, and correspondingly, their lecturers perceive that they have a greater duty to use english in their teaching. on the other hand, students in smaller institutions are not afforded this right to the same degree, potentially limiting access to future opportunities. such studies demonstrate how positioning analysis can help researchers and educators disentangle and better understand areas of conflict and tension, not only within the classroom itself, but also within the larger institutional and social context. 4. doing positioning analysis: guidelines for emi teachers as seen from our review above, positioning theory has guided researchers in their investigations of numerous topics in contexts that involve english language teachers and learners, though we should note that the number of studies conducted in emi settings is extremely small. still, as the positioning studies in multilingual/multicultural contexts contribute to our knowledge about english language learning and teaching in diverse settings, they also show how educators can benefit from applying positioning theory into their own teaching contexts. the topics that can be examined using positioning theory may include but are not limited to different aspects of classroom participation (e.g., membership, inclusion, communication challenges, silence), identity, agency, advocacy, social justice, cultural or content-related misunderstandings, conflict, and access to learning opportunities. since positioning theory is situated in narratology and uses techniques of discourse analysis, the kinds of data best suited for positioning analysis may include conversational talk, classroom discourse, and written or oral narratives. in this section, we discuss how emi teachers can collect data and engage in positioning analysis in order to positively shape the learning and teaching processes in their classrooms. positioning theory for english-medium instruction (emi) praxis: insights and implications for teaching and research ibérica 42 (2021): 15-32 23 4.1. topics and data research that uses positioning theory as a lens highlights the need for teachers to provide opportunities for students to reflexively position themselves, and then to listen carefully to how these positions are taken up rather than using one’s teaching authority to impose positions on students. with its attention to ongoing negotiation of positions in dynamic story lines, positioning theory is useful in helping educators recognize ways that students can be empowered through inclusion in the stories that make up their educational contexts. incorporating practices such as storytelling assignments can be a powerful way to encourage students to enact their agency through intentional reflexive (self) positioning. when students are able to draw upon their lived experiences and the story lines they bring with them into the classroom, they have opportunities to reclaim their agency and position themselves in new and potentially unexpected ways. in applying the tenets of positioning theory to mathematics classes, wagner and herbeleisenmann (2009) discuss the potential for “re-mythologizing” the potentially abstract and intimidating discipline of mathematics. through encouraging students to consider story lines that go beyond traditional mathematics instruction, educators may simultaneously humanize the discipline and invite students to see themselves as agentic actors within larger narratives. likewise, in a study that examined the development of advocacy among english language learners in a secondary school setting, martinbeltrán et al. (2020) describe the ways that student-created autobiographical narratives may help to position students as legitimate speakers and empowered advocates for themselves and others. the authors encourage educators to include narrative storytelling with authentic purposes and for a broader audience in their classes because “these practices intentionally position students as social justice advocates whose voices are worth listening to beyond the classroom” (martin-beltrán et al., 2020: 16). storytelling assignments such as these may also be an enlightening form of action research. by allowing students to position themselves in empowering story lines and then recognizing the positions they take up, students can negotiate meaning, power, and conflict in english, thereby developing identities as not only learners but also agentic users of the language. furthermore, learner stories or narratives show how learners position themselves and others across time and in different settings; those narratives and stories, therefore, provide an opportunity to learn about students’ diverse identities and backgrounds. while storytelling can be integrated as a hayriye kayi-aydar & angel steadman ibérica 42 (2021): 15-3224 classroom activity or task, it might also be incorporated as part of a diary or journaling assignment or project. similar practices that involve storytelling analysis may also be undertaken by instructors to examine their own positioning and its impacts on their teaching. journaling projects in which teachers reflect on their beliefs and assumptions about their teaching, and the positions these beliefs and assumptions lead them to take up, can be especially enlightening. when teachers consider how they position themselves in the classroom and how these positions may affect the positions their students are able to take up in relation, they may be able to identify areas in which their positioning, and the story lines that such positioning sets in motion, either interferes with or furthers their pedagogical goals. storytelling does not necessarily have to be about telling stories of personal experience. for example, in their study, mogul et al. (2019) asked a number of engineering students to write a social “context for a traditional ‘decontextualized’ engineering science problem” (mogul et al., 2019: 1). the engineering students were expected to include various relevant stakeholders, social justice issues, and technical problems in their contextualized engineering problems. a close reading and analysis of learners’ story line(s) in such recreated problems can show how students perceive and position themselves as problem solvers or engineers in their storied and languaged experiences, what rights and duties become dominant in their narratives, and how those narrated and contextualized story lines and positions might influence their english language learning practices and experiences. video and audio recordings of classroom activities may also provide valuable insights into the ways that both teachers and students continually negotiate their positions. as one example, a case study by schieble et al. (2015) examined how erica, a novice teacher enrolled in a teacher education program, combined teaching videos and reflective writing with positioning theory and other discourse analytic approaches to compare her actual teaching practice with her stated teaching philosophy. through a series of 10-15 minute recordings of her teaching, she was able to reflect on her positioning of students and the ways that they took up or challenged those positions, areas in which she was more or less successful in enacting her preferred teacher identity, and ways that her professional identity was constrained by institutional requirements. likewise, strategically placed recording devices can be used to pick up students’ reflexive and interactional positioning at times when the teacher may not be immediately present, such positioning theory for english-medium instruction (emi) praxis: insights and implications for teaching and research ibérica 42 (2021): 15-32 25 as during group or partner work. through analyzing a series of video recordings of group work, one can trace the accumulation of positions over time (see anderson, 2009). we recognize that, while longitudinal audioor video-recorded observations of classroom events are ideal in terms of documenting the identity development and unpacking the details of learning/teaching processes in the classroom, they may be difficult for fulltime instructors to collect and analyze. nevertheless, the inclusion of periodic and systematic audioor video-recording classroom events, even if necessarily infrequent, will yield important findings and insights for the classroom instructor. positioning analysis can be also applied to the content of learning materials and other similar artifacts. for example, by analyzing how individuals are positioned in a language textbook, teachers can evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of the material, in terms of inclusion, representation, or diversity, for their own students. textbooks and other similar materials include multiple examples of “intentional positioning” (van langenhove & harré, 1999: 22) through which individuals or groups of people from certain backgrounds are intentionally positioned in certain ways. a good example of positioning analysis of textbook content is offered in a study by uzum et al. (2018), who illustrated how the pronoun “we” was used to position individuals and communities included in various textbooks. the authors (uzum et al., 2018) demonstrated how, through interactional (other) and reflexive (self) positioning, the textbook authors were able to “define who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’ of the imagined construction of community or culture” (643), and they encourage teachers to “use criticality and reflexivity when approaching exclusionary discourses and representations that neglect the particularities of individuals from different cultures” (625). in contexts where english is taught for specific purposes, it would be useful to analyze how learners are portrayed and positioned in the textbooks or materials and what implications those might have. in another study, steadman (2020) documented how online course design (e.g., structure of discussion posts, the nature of opportunities to interact with course content, etc.) positioned course participants in certain ways, privileging certain identities over others. extending positioning analysis beyond human-to-human interaction, steadman demonstrated how learning materials or modalities might also impact the positions available to both learners and teachers. emi instructors who teach online or use digital materials can conduct positioning analysis within the platforms, resources, and content they use in their teaching in hayriye kayi-aydar & angel steadman ibérica 42 (2021): 15-3226 order to understand how their students and the communities that their students are part of are positioned and what the implications of those positioning acts may be for student learning in digital spaces. 4.2. methodological considerations as seen, a wide range of data sources are available to teachers who wish to engage in positioning analysis, both to gain insights into their classroom interactions and to carry out action research projects. however, several important methodological considerations are necessary to design and engage in positioning analysis successfully. numerous studies have shown the importance of conceptualizing and integrating positioning analysis across multiple settings; this sort of multifaceted approach provides a more thorough understanding of how positions shift over time and within different contexts. tracing and examining the ways positions shift as individuals interact with different interlocutors in different settings offers a more nuanced understanding of the ways that power and interpersonal relationships impact the positions that are taken up, allowing the dynamic nature of positioning to be seen more clearly. regardless of the setting, detailed attention to discursive choices is an essential element of effective positioning analysis. a position in a story line can be identified through pronoun analysis and categorical membership, lexical choices, narrative/discourse strategies, as well as paralinguistic cues (kayi-aydar, 2021). positions are sometimes explicitly available in a story line, as in the example, “she is an outstanding student”, but they may also be more descriptive or implicit in nature. for example, in the utterance, “unlike other teachers, she tries so hard to help her students”, the teacher is positioned as a caring or hard-working teacher, a position here defined in opposition to what is perceived to be the norm. rather than being an explicit label, the position in this utterance is more descriptive in nature and therefore requires additional interpretation, and perhaps additional contextual knowledge, to be identified. positioning may also involve silence, or the silencing of an interlocutor, as the right to speak and be heard is challenged by others in the interaction. successful positioning analysis entails careful attention not only to what is being said, but also how it is said and what is not said. earlier in the paper, we noted that positions, story lines, and speech acts are the essential elements of positioning theory, often referred to as a positioning theory for english-medium instruction (emi) praxis: insights and implications for teaching and research ibérica 42 (2021): 15-32 27 positioning cluster (as above) or a “positioning triangle” (e.g., davies & harré, 1990). these elements provide an ideal starting point for those interested in using positioning theory and help ensure a thorough and balanced analysis. a number of questions can be asked during the data collection and analysis stages to help disentangle and examine the interplay of the three elements. these are not meant to be research questions but rather points of inquiry to guide the analysis. the questions are presented in table 1. table 1. questions to guide positioning analysis. however, there is much benefit to incorporating the concepts of positioning theory, particularly self and other positioning, in smaller analyses of interactions such as classroom talk or learner narratives. even a simple matrix (see tables 2-3), in which teachers can mark who positions whom in the focal interaction, may provide useful insights regarding what positions are made available, who constructs them, and what they reveal about classroom interactions and language use. for example, in an analysis of classroom talk, a matrix can give teachers a visual representation of how their self-positioning is linked with and reinforced by their other-positioning, as well as the ways that each of these positions may be alternately challenged or reinforced by the positions that students take up in the same interaction. likewise, in examining oral or written learner narratives, a matrix that splits the narrator’s selfand other-positioning from the positions allocated to characters can help identify tensions and illuminate students’ identity work as they locate themselves within the stories they tell. teachers who are just getting started with positioning theory as a form of action research may choose to select particularly thought-provoking interactions for inclusion in matrices such as those provided in table 2-3 as a way to familiarize hayriye kayi-aydar & angel steadman ibérica 42 (2021): 15-3228 e positions story lines speech acts who constructs, assigns, takes up, negotiates, and/or refuses positions? what positions become dominant in the story line(s)? what personal traits, autobiographical fragments, previous histories are brought into the story line(s) to construct certain positions? when and how, in a story line, are forced positions assigned? what story line(s) emerge in the conversation/narrative? what story line(s) become dominant? who are the characters in the story line(s)? who gets excluded or included, and who decides? what moral orders shape story line(s)? what strategies, if any, are used to negotiate forced positions in a story line? what rights and duties are associated with the positions that emerge? how do positions and story lines create, challenge, or uphold power dynamics? what are the consequences (e.g., moral, emotional, behavioral) of positionings in the story line(s) for the participants and characters involved? themselves with the basic principles of positioning analysis and formulate ongoing investigations based on the new awareness that this activity may provide. table 2. positioning matrix for classroom talk. table 3. positioning matrix for learner narratives. 5. conclusion identifying and analyzing positions, acts, and story lines in discursive social practices, positioning theory sheds light on how rights and duties are morally and culturally constructed and distributed among individuals (davies & harré, 1999). in doing so, it can help educators and researchers trace the dynamic nature of these rights and duties across time and context as positions and story lines shift, with especially fine-grained insight into how people continually negotiate their identities through interaction. it is offered as a descriptive lens to understand social interactions and identity work; importantly, it is not prescriptive in nature, nor does it offer causation in explaining distribution of rights and duties (green et al., 2020). it sits alongside the recognition that no interactional context is fully neutral and therefore may include unequal power relations due to social status, language background, race, ethnicity, or other social factors. as such, positioning theory can be a very valuable tool to help illuminate not only how learners and teachers navigate the discourses within their classroom interactions, but also how they connect their use of english to their identities and memberships within larger communities. positioning studies offer guidance for teachers in emi settings who strive to positioning theory for english-medium instruction (emi) praxis: insights and implications for teaching and research ibérica 42 (2021): 15-32 29 teacher student(s) story line self-positioning (reflexive positioning) other-positioning (interactive positioning) i p narrator characters story line self-positioning (reflexive positioning) other-positioning (interactive positioning) i p create supportive, nurturing classroom environments in which their students can thrive and develop identities as competent users of english and content experts. these studies indicate that, by giving ample opportunity for students to position themselves in various ways and contest negative or limiting positions that may be imposed upon them, educators can better know what story lines are important to their students and disrupt positions or story lines that impede students’ success and well-being. positioning-based action research, carried out either to learn more about student positioning or the effects of teachers’ positioning, can also highlight areas of disconnect between intentions and results or between values and actions. it has been our goal in writing this brief introduction to positioning theory to offer a tool that, when understood and used appropriately, has the potential to prompt deep reflection, shape new and better classroom practice, and provide a fresh view of the many ways that our interactions shape ourselves and one another. article history: received 27 may 2021 received in revised form 5 november 2021 accepted 11 november 2021 references hayriye kayi-aydar & angel steadman ibérica 42 (2021): 15-3230 airey, j. 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(2020). raising the curtain: positioning and identity construction in online language teacher education. doctoral dissertation. the university of arizona. trent, j. (2017). ““being a professor and doing emi properly isn’t easy”. an identity-theoretic investigation of content teachers’ attitudes towards emi at a university in hong kong” in b. fentonsmith, p. humphreys & i. walkinshaw (eds.), english medium instruction in higher education in asia-pacific: from policy to pedagogy, 219-239. springer. uzum, b., b. yazan & a. f. selvi (2018). “inclusive and exclusive uses of we in four american textbooks for multicultural teacher education”. language teaching research 22(5): 625-647. doi: <https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168817718576>. van langenhove, l. (2017). “varieties of moral orders and the dual structure of society: a perspective from positioning theory”. frontiers in sociology 2: 9. doi: <https://doi.org/10.3389/ fsoc.2017.00009>. van langenhove, l. & r. harré (1999). “introducing positioning theory” in r. t. harré & l. van langenhove (eds.), positioning theory: moral contexts of intentional action, 14-31. blackwell. wagner, d. & b. herbel-eisenmann (2009). “remythologizing mathematics through attention to classroom positioning”. educational studies in mathematics 72(1): 1-15. doi: <https://doi.org/10. 1007/s10649-008-9178-5>. warren, z. & f. moghaddam (2018). “positioning theory and social justice”, in p. l. hammack (ed.), the oxford handbook of social psychology and social justice, 319-330. oxford university press. yoon, b. (2008). “uninvited guests: the influence of teachers’ roles and pedagogies on the positioning of english language learners in the regular classroom”. american educational research journal 45(2): 495-522. doi: <https://doi. org/10.3102/0002831208316200>. hayriye kayi-aydar is an associate professor of english applied linguistics/tesol at the university of arizona. often using narrative inquiry and positioning theory, her research focuses on the professional/intersectional identities and agency of teachers in multilingual contexts. angel steadman is tenure-track faculty at highline college in washington. her research focuses on teacher education, identity development, and equity-based instruction in online educational contexts. hayriye kayi-aydar & angel steadman ibérica 42 (2021): 15-3232 ibérica 10 [2004]: 115-131 metaphor and esp: metaphor as a useful device for teaching l2 business english learners marisol velasco sacristán universidad de valladolid marisol@tita.emp.uva.es 115 abstract metaphor, as a widespread feature of everyday thought and language, represents a central issue for both l2 esp instructors and learners. in this paper we argue for the idea that including metaphor in a specific english language programme can provide students with a useful device to raise awareness of key concepts, models and issues and to improve their reading and translating skills. we put forward different exercises taken from an example of l2 esp programme, the optional course 'business english i', currently taught at the university of valladolid (spain). these exercises can prove revealing, telling us that metaphor has a useful function in teaching l2 esp students effectively, thus leading us to conclude that metaphor should be included as part of any l2 esp programme and, probably, as part of any foreign-language learning process. key words: cognitive semantics, metaphor, teaching, english for specific purposes (esp), business english. resumen la metáfora y el ipa: la metáfora como herramienta útil para la enseñanza de inglés empresarial como segunda lengua la metáfora, como fenómeno omnipresente en el pensamiento y lenguaje cotidianos, constituye un aspecto central tanto para profesores como para estudiantes del inglés profesional y académico (ipa) en una segunda lengua. en este artículo se defiende la hipótesis de que la inclusión de la metáfora en un programa de lengua inglesa para fines específicos puede suponer una herramienta útil para que los estudiantes conozcan conceptos, modelos y aspectos claves y mejoren sus destrezas de lectura y traducción. se proponen diferentes ejercicios extraídos del programa de un ejemplo del ipa en una segunda lengua, la asignatura optativa 'inglés empresarial i', impartida en la actualidad en la e. u. de estudios empresariales de la universidad de valladolid (españa). estos ejercicios pueden revelar el papel útil que desempeña la metáfora a la hora de enseñar eficazmente a estudiantes del ipa en una segunda lengua, lo que nos lleva a concluir que dicha figura debería incluirse como parte integrante de los diferentes programas del ipa en una segunda lengua y, probablemente, como parte de cualquier proceso de aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera. palabras clave: semántica cognitiva, metáfora, enseñanza, ipa, inglés empresarial 1. introduction metaphor is a dominant feature of natural language. this is true both of everyday language (lakoff & johnson, 1980) and academic language (charteris-black & ennis, 2001). yet, despite its important function in language, the status of metaphor in linguistic studies has not always been the same. traditional approaches (halliday, 1985) consider metaphor as a mere figure of speech, and historical semanticists regard metaphor as an important procedure of semantic change (geeraerts, 1997; fritz, 1998) whereas more recent frameworks such as cognitive semantics (lakoff & johnson, 1980; johnson, 1987; turner, 1987, 1991; lakoff & turner, 1989; lakoff, 1990, 1993) view metaphor as a cognitive mechanism (ibarretxe-antuñano & nerlich, 2000). in line with this last approach recent studies within the field of english for specific purposes (esp) are analysing the role and function of metaphor in areas such as economics (henderson, 1982, 1986; mccloskey, 1983; duddleevans & henderson, 1990; mason, 1990; white, 1996; fuertes olivera, 1998; charteris-black, 2000; charteris-black & ennis, 2001; cortés de los ríos, 2001; fuertes-olivera & pizarro sánchez, 2002), science (salager-meyer, 1990; goatly, 1996; �tambuk, 1998; cuadrado esclapez, 2001) or politics (chilton, 1987; chilton & ilyin, 1993; charteris-black, 2004; mussolf, 2004), among others. concerning the definition of metaphor, much of the difficulty in defining it originates in the problem of whether it is best considered as a cognitive phenomenon related to how we understand things or as a linguistic phenomenon related to how we express them (cameron & low, 1999). therefore, the problems of defining metaphor arise from the complexity of the relationship between thought and language. the traditional view of metaphor characterised this figure as a linguistic phenomenon, used for some artistic and rhetorical purpose, based on a resemblance between the two entities that are compared and identified (kövecses, 2002). yet, in 1980 lakoff and johnson challenged this entrenched view of metaphor by developing a new theory that has become known as the �cognitive view of metaphor�. according to this perspective metaphor is defined as a cognitive mechanism whereby one conceptual domain is partially mapped onto a different marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131116 conceptual domain, the second domain being partially understood in terms of the first one, with the linguistic metaphor deriving from those domains. the domain that is mapped is called the source or donor domain and the domain onto which it is mapped is called the target or recipient domain. both domains have to belong to different superordinate domains (barcelona sánchez, 1997; white, 2001). we will use lakoff and johnson�s widely accepted definition of metaphor for our line of research in this paper. if, as lakoff and johnson (1980: 5) affirm, �the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one type of thing in terms of another� the possibilities that this figure offers for teaching are obvious. danesi (1994) puts forward the view that the l2 learner speech sounds non-native because of its literalness or absence of metaphor use. charteris-black and ennis (2001) describe the importance of metaphor in economics vocabulary teaching and littlemore (2004) examines the tendency of language learners to use metaphoric extension strategies to work out the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary. we can see, therefore, that metaphor is a central issue in esp teaching. the aim of this paper is to show that metaphor should be included in specific language programmes. the texts and sample exercises selected in this study are aimed at students following an l2 esp programme, the optional course �business english i� currently taught at the business school at the university of valladolid (spain). we have focused on three different possibilities of using metaphor in teaching this subject: (1) business vocabulary learning; (2) specialised business reading; (3) business texts translation into spanish. 2. business english and metaphor the term �business english� refers to a wide range of esp courses characterised by having a sense of purpose, a mix of specific content and general content, and many varieties (ellis & johnson, 1994; donna, 2000). the recent literature on business english highlights the following ideas (fuertes-olivera & gómez martínez, 2004): • business english is one of the current areas of growth in esp (ellis & johnson, 1994); metaphor and esp ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131 117 • many business english courses either take a skills-focused approach or a language-focused one (edwards, 2000); • research is being devoted to cross-cultural awareness (hemais, 2001); • cognitive linguistics highlights the important role metaphor plays in business english (charteris-black & ennis, 2001; fuertes-olivera & pizarro sánchez, 2002); • oral communication skills are central for undergraduate business students if they are not to be disadvantaged in the workplace (crossling & ward, 2002). these findings are interesting to be incorporated into our daily practice as teachers of business english. of special relevance here is the cognitivist approach to metaphor in business english. indeed, several authors have pointed out that the language of economics is highly metaphorical (henderson, 1982, 1986; mccloskey, 1983; mason, 1990; white, 1996; fuertes olivera, 1998; boers, 2000; charteris-black, 2000; charteris-black & ennis, 2001; fuertes olivera & pizarro sánchez, 2002). there is evidence for this in numerous figurative expressions of animate metaphors used to describe economy (i.e. growth, depression, etc.) and economic organisations (i.e. parent/sister company, etc.); inanimate metaphors used to describe, for instance, market movements as animals (i.e. bear market, bull market, etc.) or inflation as horse (i.e. galloping inflation, trotting inflation, etc.); business as war (i.e. advertising campaign, corporate raiders, market competition, etc.); business as sports (i.e. an outsider, a stalemate, key players, etc.), and so on. all these metaphors are used in the field of economics for various reasons. they highlight some aspects of the �target� while leaving other aspects on the dark. in this sense, describing socio-economic processes in terms of �machines and mechanisms�, for example, may leave the impression that they are under control and fully predictable, unlike human behaviour. a conception of socio-economic processes in terms of �health care and fitness� can be used by employers to argue in favour of slimming their companies, etc. �fighting and warfare� metaphors can be used by employers or for protectionist measures on the part of the government, etc. (boers 2000). according to boers (2000) typical metaphorical themes in economics are: mechanisms and machines, animals, plants and gardening, health and fitness, fighting and warfare, ships and sailing, and sports. henderson (1982) argues that metaphors in the economic discourse can be of different types: (i) that which is used for textual decoration or illustration (i.e. image marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131118 metaphor), (ii) that which occurs in as a central organising principle of all language (i.e. generic-level metaphor), (iii) that which aids in exploring specific economic problems and as a basis for extending the domain of economic ideas (specific-level metaphor). it may be argued that this frequent presence of metaphor in economic and business texts may be a hurdle for second language learners when approaching l2 specialised discourse. it follows then that a better understanding of the metaphor use in l2 business discourse will lead to better l2 business comprehension and reading on the part of the non-native english speaking student and better translation. in this way the exercises we propose in the following section are hoped to provide an account of the use of metaphor in business english and to help students to raise awareness of business lexis, to improve language learner�s specialised reading of business texts and to help them produce native-like discourse when they translate business texts. 3. a proposal for using metaphor in the teaching of business english this proposal has been devised to gain insights on the role played by metaphor in learning business english by students whose first language is not english �in the present case spanish students. our claim is that an enhanced metaphoric awareness on the part of these students can be beneficial to their specialised understanding of the subject, specialised reading and translation. 3.1. the business english syllabus the business english module offered by the business school at the university of valladolid (spain) is taught for two years (120 and 90 hours respectively). for this concrete study we have only focused on the first year course, namely �business english i�. in it at present we are offering a mixed syllabus focused on both business and language skills to students with an intermediate level of english, which includes the following: • writing (i.e. commercial correspondence) • listening (i.e. business telephoning) • technical and semitechnical vocabulary metaphor and esp ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131 119 marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131120 • reading • translating • speaking basically we follow a combination of typical communicative methodology (e. g. asking students to engage in role plays and simulations) and a task-based approach. the published materials used are reported in �appendix�. 3.2. subjects since the module is optional, students of �business english i� are from different degrees. in this proposal the students under study are mainly in their twenties (20-22 group) and come from different degrees, such as �business�, �economics�, �chemical engineering�, �english philology� and �telecommunications�. they are representative of spanish university undergraduates studying numerous subjects (usually in the range of 10 to 15 subjects per year), with lectures and exams for each. the business english module is unusual in that it has tutorials whereas most courses in spanish universities only comprise lectures. on average, they have studied english for at least five years before entering university (some of them with extra classes in private language institutions). concerning the socio-economic circumstances under which these students are living, they are characterised by a shortage of adequate labour opportunities, a massive entry into university, cheap enrolment fees, lack of adequate social status for professional training, lack of emancipation from their parents and comprehensive education in the years prior to university1. 3.3. procedure the proposal comprises two parts: an activation of the students� awareness of metaphor and the presentation of the methodology and exercises used (1) to increase the students� knowledge of technical and semi-technical business vocabulary; (2) to improve specialised business reading fluency; and (3) to improve translating business texts into spanish. (a) activation of the students� awareness of metaphor first, we would check out the students� awareness of metaphor by asking the following questions to our students: �what do you understand by metaphor?�, �what type of metaphors do you know?�, �what other figures of speech (e. g. metonymy, simile, etc.) do you know?�, �what is the difference between them and metaphor?� �can you provide examples of metaphors used in literary texts, general english language texts, specific language texts or spoken discourse?�, �what is metaphor used for (e. g. identification, classification, comparison, etc.)?� (cortés de los ríos, 2001). secondly, students would be introduced to the topic of cognitive metaphor by giving them the lakoffian definition of metaphor and characteristics of it (see �introduction�). in this respect, we would teach the terminology of the structure of this figure (i. e. target domain and source domain) and the directionality between them (i. e. the comprehension of an abstract concept via another specific one). we would illustrate this explanation with typical examples of conceptual metaphors taken from lakoff and johnson�s (1980) metaphors we live by: life is a journey, an argument is war or ideas are food. in the same way we would present the metaphorical concept and the metaphorical expressions and show how they are different. we would also illustrate this explanation with linguistic expressions typical of the above-presented conceptual metaphors. lastly, we would explain the difference between literary metaphor and cognitive metaphor and would refer to other contributions as regards the figure (see �introduction�). in order to put these theoretical concepts into practice we have established the following sample exercises: 1. which metaphor, i.e. which source domain and which target domain, can you recognise in the following linguistic expressions: (1) �economic growth�; (2) �corporate disease�; (3) �a price war�; (4) �a bear market� and (5) �cash flow�?. (source: adapted from z. kövecses [2002], metaphor. a practical introduction, p. 13) answers: 1 and 2: business (target) is a human being (source) 3: business (target) is war (source) 4: business (target) is an animal (source) 5. business (target) is water (source) 2. what linguistic expressions can you collect as examples of the conceptual metaphor business is war? (source: adapted from z. kövecses [2002], metaphor. a practical introduction, p.13) metaphor and esp ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131 121 possible answers: �trade war�, �a price war�, �advertising campaign�, �a takeover battle�, �invading new markets�, �conquering the market�, �joining forces with other companies�, �market competition�, �mobilise ones� sales force�, �beat the competition�, corporate raiders�, etc. 3. what mappings characterise the economy is an organism metaphor? lay out the set of correspondences between these elements of the source and those of the target domain? (source: adapted from z. kövecses [2002], metaphor. a practical introduction, p. 13) possible answer: source: an organism target: economy (a) a growing organism ⇒ economy is going up (b) a changing organism ⇒ economy is changing (c) a decaying organism ⇒ economy is going down (d) a healthy organism ⇒ economy is in a good state (e) a sick organism ⇒ economy is in a bad state (b) methodology and sample exercises business vocabulary learning metaphors provide insight into particular ways of thinking in relation to the development of technical and semi-technical registers (boers, 2000). as charterisblack (2000: 153) argues, [...] in the case of vocabulary language teaching, if there is no clear-cut boundary between literal and figurative meanings, and the literal meanings of words are extended to provide figurative meaning, there are implications for second language learners who may not be able to distinguish between such literal and metaphorical uses. the following sample exercises are geared towards teaching typical business metaphors (i. e. business is an organism, business is water, business is health, business is sports, or business is a plant) to assist l2 learners in the understanding of content specific business lexis: marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131122 1. match the following expressions of the conceptual metaphors the market is an organism and the market is water (indicated by numbers) with their meanings (indicated by letters): 1. the market has grown a. supply exceeds demand 2. the market is depressed b. the market is in a good state 3. the market is flooded c. the market is in a bad state 4. the market is buoyant d. the market is bigger than it used to be 5. the market has suffered e. the market is smaller than it used to be 6. the market has dried up f. the market is undergoing a gradual process (source: adapted from m. powell [1996], business matters, p. 28) answers: 1d, 2e, 3a, 4b, 5c, 6f. 2. now complete the following extract with some of the expressions from exercise 1: the us market was fairly 1. _______________ when we finally managed to penetrate it three years ago, even though it was largely dominated by two or three big american players. and over the next two years both the market itself and our market share 2. _______________ significantly (...). i�m afraid the picture in western europe is not much better. european trade disputes have further 3. _______________ a market which was already 4. _______________ from the effects of the recession. (source: adapted from m. powell [1996]. business matters, p. 28) answers: 1. buoyant; 2. flooded; 3. depressed; 4. suffering. 3. this exercise gives the literal meanings of the following words (i. e. verbs, nouns and adjectives), commonly used to talk about markets and marketing in terms of something else (i.e. ships, people, water, war, etc.). can you match them? collapse prune target launch saturate flood skim dry up penetrate blitz shrink push 1. ____________ send a rocket into space or a new ship into water for the first time. 2. ____________ aim at something �when shooting at something. 3. ____________ remove something from the surface of something. 4. ____________ go into something �a bullet into a body. 5. ____________ cover with water �when a river bursts its banks. 6. ____________ move something away from you. 7. ____________ drop a lot of bombs on one area. 8. ____________ when some soft substance is full of water so that it cannot absorb any more. metaphor and esp ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131 123 9. ____________ fall suddenly �a building during an earthquake. 10. ___________ when something gets smaller �clothes when they are washed. 11. ___________ when all the liquid in something disappears �perhaps because of too much heat. 12. ___________ when you cut branches off a tree so that it will grow better in the future. (source: i. mackenzie [1997], management and marketing, p. 80) answers: 1. launch; 2. target; 3. skim; 4. penetrate; 5. flood; 6. push; 7. blitz; 8. saturate; 9. collapse; 10. shrink; 11. dry up; 12. prune. 4. write sentences of your own that contain metaphorical uses of the words from exercise 3. (source: own elaboration) answers: students� own answers. 5. match up the metaphors on the left (taken from horse-racing, athletics, football and chess, and indicated by numbers) with the meanings on the right (indicated by letters): 1. an outsider a. a contestant thought to have little chance of winning. 2. the front runner b. an action that causes damage to who ever does it. 3. the odds c. a serious setback that ends your hopes 4. a knockout blow d. a situation in which neither side can win 5. on the ropes e. barriers or obstacles to overcome 6. hurdles f. to be in a difficult situation 7. an own goal g. the chances or possibilities of winning 8. to be shown the red card h. the contestant currently leading a race 9. to move the goalposts i. to be disqualified 10. a stalemate j. to change the rules while something is in progress (source: adapted from i. mackenzie [1997], management and marketing, p. 20) answers: 1a, 2h, 3g, 4c, 5f, 6e, 7b, 8i, 9j, 10d. specialised business reading in line with boers (2000) we believe that an enhanced metaphoric awareness on the part of language learners can be beneficial to their specialised reading. as one of the objectives of the �business english i� course is for students to be able to read and discuss real and adapted business articles, we propose now exploring if students cope marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131124 better with a register of socio-economic discourse when aware of its metaphorical underlying content. one simple way of raising learners� metaphoric awareness is to draw their attention to the source domain or to the origin of the unfamiliar figurative expressions as they encounter these in their specialised reading. the method proposed here is clearly meant for in-depth reading rather than �skimming� or �scanning activities� (boers 2000). sample exercises proposed: 1. underline the metaphorical expressions that you encounter in the following text: �coke versus pepsi; nike versus reebok; nintendo versus sega � the battle is on amongst the world�s top brands. aggressive comparative advertising has now reached fever pitch; extra millions are pouring into r & d, and the market leaders are under constant pressure to slash their prices in a cut-throat struggle for market domination. when philip morris knocked 40c off a packet of marlboro, $ 47-and-a-half billion was instantly wiped off the market value of america�s top twenty cigarette manufacturers lesser brands went to the wall. and that�s just one example of how fair competition within a free market has rapidly escalated into all-out brand war�. (source: passage from m. powell [1996], business matters, p. 42; own elaborated exercise on it) answers: �coke versus pepsi�, �nike versus reebok�, �nintendo versus sega�, �the battle is on�, �the world�s top brands�, �aggressive advertising�, �has now reached fever pitch�, �millions are pouring into r & d�, �the market leaders�, �are under constant pressure�, �to slash their prices�, �in a cut-throat struggle�, �market domination�, �knocked (...) off (...)�, �was instantly wiped off �, �america�s top twenty cigarette manufacturers�, �lesser brands�, �went to the wall�, �fair competition�, �free market�, �has rapidly escalated�, �all-out brand�. 2. match the conceptual metaphors that the metaphorical expressions from exercise 1 highlight (source: own elaboration): answers: business is war business is water metaphor and esp ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131 125 3. match the expressions identified in exercise 1 with their corresponding conceptual metaphor identified in exercise 2. (source: own elaboration) answers: business is war: all expressions except �millions are pouring into r & d (...)� and �was instantly wiped off �. business is water: �millions are pouring into r & d� and �was instantly wiped off �. 4. discuss the following issues raised in the article: �price wars in retail marketing�, �quality versus price� and �brand wars�2. students are encouraged to activate metaphorical mappings by using some of the expressions identified in exercise 1 and bringing in different ones by activating their knowledge of the subject from l1 and prior l2 knowledge. (source: own elaboration) answers: students� own answers. business texts translation into spanish differences in metaphor use between languages may result in l2 learners and translators producing marked and non-native like translations into their l1. the extent to which metaphor presents a hurdle for second language learners� translations may depend on the extent to which there is overlap between the metaphorical systems of the l1 and l2. thus, it would not be surprising if there were some major differences in metaphor use between languages that if not taken into account, would result in l2 learners producing unacceptable translations into l2. this may have negative consequences for aspirant members of professional and academic discourse communities since it would lead to rejection to their translations in their academic and professional setting. it follows then that a better understanding of the similarities and differences in metaphor use between languages will lead to better translations (charteris-black & ennis, 2001). concerning different proposals for the translation of metaphor, dobrzyńska (1995), who follows newmark (1988), summarises different possibilities in the translation of metaphors: (i) to use an exact equivalent of the original metaphor; (ii) to look for another metaphorical phrase which would express a similar sense; and (iii) to replace an untranslatable metaphor of the original with its approximate literal paraphrase. marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131126 these strategies were developed for analysing literary texts but, in our view, they can equally be used for the translation of metaphor in specialised texts. for this reason, our students have been taught these three different strategies to deal with the translation of metaphorical expressions, idioms, etc. in their practice of the �translating� skill in each of the units of �business english i�. in this section students normally translate articles from the economist or fortune, as they offer a register of economic discourse that is rather specialised but at the same time fairly popular and often argumentative. the use of metaphors in this type of journalistic discourse serve many different purposes and may offer a greater linguistic variety than would be expected from the use of metaphors in more technical economic registers (specialised research articles on text books on economics) (boers, 2000). sample exercises proposed: 1. render the following metaphorical collocations into spanish (i.e. phrases, idioms, etc.) from the text �the real story� (fortune, 3 may 2004) into spanish and identify the translation strategy procedure in operation in your proposal: 1. �(....) he needed constant shoring up (...)� 2. �(....) a retired coke executive (who) had been passed over for the top job earlier�. 3. �(...) coke isn�t crippled yet (...)� 4. �(...) the brand strength (...) has remained vigorous in a time of management fiasco�. 5. �(...) aspersions on his work were leaked to the press�. 6. �(...) three days later, coke backtracked (...)�. 7. �(...) it�s been obvious for some time that the company�s management team is in disarray (...)�. 8. �(...) he is tough as a nail, sharp as a tack (...)� (source: own elaboration) posible answers:3 1. �(...) él necesitaba constante apoyo (...)� � approximate literal paraphrase. 2. (...) �un ejecutivo de coca-cola ya jubilado al que se le habían adelantado en su puesto con anterioridad� � an exact equivalent. 3. �(...) coca-cola no se encontraba maltrecha aún� � another metaphorical phrase. 4. �(...) la solidez de la marca se ha mantenido en plena forma en un momento de fracaso en la organización (...)� � exact equivalent. metaphor and esp ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131 127 5. �(...) su trabajo fue puesto en entredicho por la prensa� � approximate literal paraphrase. 6. �(....) tres días más tarde coca-cola dió marcha atrás (...)� � an exact equivalent. 7. �(...) durante algún tiempo resultaba obvio que el equipo de directores vagaba sin rumbo (...)� � another metaphorical phrase. 8. �(...) es duro como el acero y astuto como un zorro (...)� � other metaphorical phrases. 2. propose another translation for the following translations4 of metaphorical collocations, taken from the article �the future of advertising�, the economist, 26 june 2004). compare your proposed translation with the one provided. do they differ in the translation strategy used? (source: own elaboration) 1. �(...) in some cases, it can be a lot more than half of the client�s budget that is going down the drain (...)�: �(...) en algunos casos puede suceder que bastante más de la mitad del presupuesto se vaya por la borda (...)�. 2. �(...) there�re lots of ways to skin a cat today�: (...) �hay muchas formas de llevarse el gato al agua hoy en día (...)�. 3. �so far, the internet accounts for only a tiny slice of the overall advertising pie (...)�: �hasta el momento internet constituye tan sólo una mínima parte de todo el gasto publicitario (...)�. 4. �and google and yahoo! have yet to unleash the full potential of their technology (...)�: �y google y yahoo tienen aún que dar rienda suelta a todo su potencial tecnológico�. 5. �the potential for advertising on the internet is tempting more firms to join the fray (...)�: �el potencial de la publicidad digital es tal que cada vez son mas las empresas que se ven tentadas a entrar en liza�. answers: students� own answers. 4. conclusion it is worthwhile to draw l2 esp instructors� attention to the important role of metaphor as a teaching device. this paper has attempted to show that metaphors may have a useful function in teaching by helping to raise l2 learners� awareness of technical and semi-technical vocabulary, to improve specialised reading and to render better translations of specialised texts into l1. marisol velasco sacristán ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131128 the different activities presented here from an example of l2 esp programme, the optional course �business english i� currently taught at the business school at the university of valladolid, may show that the incorporation of metaphor in a specific language programme facilitates the learners� development of the conceptual and communicative competence in l2. this might also be useful to those involved in creating esp materials for students whose first language is not english. in addition, the teaching procedure discussed here may leave the door open to a further discussion with regard to developing and improving other learners� competence on skills such as �speaking�, �listening� or �writing�, not only in l2 esp teaching but also as part of any l2 learning process. acknowledgments i am grateful to prof. pedro a. fuertes olivera for his comments on an earlier draft of this article. (revised article received june 2005) metaphor and esp ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131 129 barcelona sánchez, a. (1997). �clarifying and applying the notions of metaphor and metonymy within cognitive linguistics.� atlantis 19,1: 21-48. boers, f. (2000). �enhancing metaphorical awareness in specialised reading.� english for specific purposes 19: 137-147. cameron, l. & g. low. (1999). �metaphor.� language teaching 32: 77-96. charteris-black, j. (2000). �metaphor and vocabulary teaching in esp economics.� english for specific purposes 19: 149-165. charteris-black, j. (2004). politicians and rhetoric. the persuasive power of metaphor. hampshire: palgrave macmillan. charteris-black, j. & t. ennis. (2001). �a comparative study of metaphor in spanish and english financial reporting.� english for specific purposes 20: 249-266. chilton, p. (1987). �metaphor, euphemism and the militarization of language.� current research on peace and violence 1,1: 7-19. chilton, p. & m. ilyin (1993). �metaphor in political discourse, the case of the «common european house».� discourse & society 4,1: 7-31. cortés de los ríos, e. (2001). �the teaching of metaphor in the advertising discourse of business papers.� ibérica 3: 91-106. crosling, g. & i. ward. (2002). �oral communication: the workplace needs and uses of business graduates employees.� english for specific purposes 21: 41-57. cuadrado esclapez, g. (2001). �el lenguaje metafórico en la ciencia: análisis de la metáfora en la ciencia: análisis de la metáfora en textos de física y astrofísica en inglés y en español.� alcalá de henares: universidad de alcalá de henares. unpublished dissertation. danesi, m. (1994). �recent research on metaphor and the teaching of italian.� italica 71: 454-464. dobrzyñska, t. 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(1988). approaches to translation. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. salager-meyer, f. (1990). �metaphors in medical english prose: a comparative study with french and spanish.� english for specific purposes 9: 145-159. �tambuk, a. (1998). �metaphor in scientific communication�. meta 43,3: 1-17. turner, m. (1987). death is the mother of beauty: mind, metaphor, criticism. chicago: university of chicago press. turner, m. (1991). reading minds. the study of english in the age of cognitive science. princeton, nj: princeton university press. white, m. (1996). �la metáfora en el tratamiento de la crisis monetaria en la prensa británica.� madrid: universidad complutense. servicio de publicaciones de la ucm, cdrom. white, m. (2001). �metaphor and metonymy in thought and expression� in g. aguado & p. durán (eds.), la investigación en lenguas aplicadas: enfoque multidisciplinar, 47-64. madrid: fundación gómez pardo, universidad politécnica de madrid. metaphor and esp ibérica 10 [2005]: 115-131 131 ashley, a. (1996). a correspondence workbook. oxford: oxford university press. ashley, a. (2003). a handbook of commercial correspondence, new ed. oxford: oxford university press. comfort, j. (1996). effective telephoning. oxford: oxford university press. cotton, d., d. falvey & s. kent. (2000). market leader. intermediate business english. longman. kövecses. z. (2002). metaphor. a practical introduction. oxford and new york: oxford university press. lannon, m., g. tullis & t. trappe. (1993). insights into business. nelson business english. mackenzie, i. (1997). management and marketing. london: ltp business. powell, m. (1996). business matters. london: ltp business. �the future of advertising�. the economist, 26 june 2004. �the real story�. fortune, 3 may 2004. appendix: materials used in �business english i� 1 these data have been taken from a research project to adapt our business english module to the forthcoming changes in the spanish and european universities (fuertes-olivera & gómez-martínez, 2004). 2 this task, derived from reading a business text, proves that metaphorical awareness can also be beneficial for improving the l2 learners� command of the �speaking� skill. in this sense, as henderson (1986) argues, helping students to recognise the metaphors behind commonly accepted economic models and encouraging them to adopt alternative metaphorical perspectives may foster questioning attitudes. 3 these were some of the translations rendered by our students in the classroom in the 2004-2005 academic year. 4 these were again some of the translation rendered by our students in the classroom in the 2004-2005 academic year. notas ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-62 advertising books: a linguistic analysis of blurbs mª lluïsa gea valor universitat jaume i (castelló) gea@ang.uji.es abstract the purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary approach to the study of blurbs, brief texts traditionally displayed on bookcovers, and nowadays also on the internet, which provide information about a book to potential readers. this study focuses on four of the most widelyknown publishing and bookselling companies in the english-speaking world: penguin, ballantine, routledge, and barnes & noble, and analyses more than 60 blurbs displayed on their web sites. the study indicates that blurbs may constitute a genre characterised by a definite communicative purpose and by the use of specific linguistic and discourse conventions. blurbs perform an informative function based on the description of the contents of a book. but this function is secondary to their persuasive purpose, characteristic of advertising discourse, because blurbs recommend the book by means of review extracts from various sources in an attempt to persuade the prospective reader to buy the "product." in order to achieve their communicative purpose, blurbs make use of a wide range of linguistic and discourse conventions typical of advertising discourse: complimenting, elliptical syntactic patterns, the imperative, the address form "you," and what i have called "curiosity arousers," usually in the form of rhetorical questions and excerpts from the book. key words: genre analysis, advertising discourse, communicative function, persuasion, manipulation resumen la publicidad de libros: un análisis lingüístico de los "blurbs" el objetivo de este artículo es llevar a cabo un estudio preliminar de los "blurbs," breves textos que ofrecen información al lector sobre un libro y que pueden encontrarse tanto en la propia portada como en internet. para ello se ha analizado un corpus de más de 60 "blurbs" localizados en los sitios web de cuatro de las más conocidas editoriales dentro del mercado en lengua inglesa: penguin, ballantine, routledge y barnes & noble. este estudio parece indicar que los "blurbs" constituyen un género caracterizado por un propósito comunicativo específico y por el uso de una serie de convenciones tanto lingüísticas como discursivas. los "blurbs" realizan una función informativa basada en la descripción del 41 contenido del libro, pero dicha función es secundaria a su propósito persuasivo, típico del discurso publicitario y promocional, con el cual se observan muchos rasgos en común. para cumplir dicha función comunicativa, los "blurbs" emplean diversos elementos lingüísticos y convenciones discursivas, tales como la alabanza, la elipsis, el imperativo, el pronombre "you" para dirigirse al lector, y lo que he denominado "estimulantes de la curiosidad," que incluyen tanto preguntas retóricas como extractos del libro. palabras clave: análisis del género, discurso publicitario, propósito comunicativo, persuasión, manipulación 1. introduction it is a well-known fact that publishing companies spend much money, time and energy in designing their book covers to attract potential customers. indeed, every time we buy or intend to buy a book, the first thing we look at is its front cover. however, if we wish to know more about the book we are about to buy or read, we usually look at the information on its back cover. this information can also be found on the web sites that most publishing houses design in order to reach a wider public via the net. we should not forget that we live in a technologically advanced society where one of the most powerful and widespread tools of communication is undoubtedly the internet. and like so many other companies all over the world, publishing firms make use of this effective tool to advertise and sell their product, in this case books. whether information about a book appears on its covers or on a web page, these short descriptive texts are generally known as blurbs. if we look up the term �blurb� in the dictionary, we find the following definition: �publisher�s short description of the contents of a book, usually printed on the jacket or cover� (oald, 1990). however, it is my contention that blurbs not only describe the contents of a book, but also evaluate and recommend the book by means of extracts from reviews in well-known newspapers, journals and magazines which praise the qualities of the book and the author. therefore, blurbs seem to function as factual marketing strategies aimed at getting the potential customer to buy and read the book. the purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary approach to the study of blurbs in an attempt to demonstrate that, although blurbs cannot be considered representative instances of advertising discourse, they do share the same communicative purpose �to persuade the potential customer� and they also present many linguistic features typical of such discourse. mª lluïsa gea valor ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-6242 2. the discourse of advertising and the blurb although familiar to all book browsers and readers, blurbs have surprisingly attracted little attention in linguistic research. one of the few relevant studies taking blurbs into consideration is that by bhatia (1997), whose objective is to explore the way generic conventions are manipulated and mixed for promotional purposes in academic introductions. bhatia focuses on the three main realisations of this introductory genre, namely introduction, preface and foreword, and states that �genres traditionally considered non-promotional in intent, including book introductions, are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from publishers� blurbs� (bhatia, 1997: 190). here bhatia indirectly points at the promotional nature of blurbs, although his analysis focuses on the mixing of private intentions with conventional communicative purposes in academic introductions. in contrast, this paper attempts to explore the persuasive function of blurbs beyond the constraints of the academic domain and consequently their connection with advertising discourse. advertising is omnipresent in our everyday life. such is its power that a great many studies have tried to unveil the mechanisms of advertising: the linguistic dimension of the message, the use of image and sound, the processes of coding and decoding, the interaction between message and audience, etc. lately, with the advent of the new information and communication technologies, a new dimension has come into play: internet advertising, also known as �netvertising� (fortanet et al., 1999). fairclough (1994: 198) defines the discourse of advertising as basically strategic, because it is �oriented to instrumental goals, to getting results.� this expected pragmatic response has also been underscored by moriyón mojica (1994), who speaks of four main communicative stages in any advertisement: capture the receiver�s attention, engage his/her interest, generate desire, and obtain the act, which is the ultimate purpose of advertising. goddard (1998: 101) introduces a very interesting element which she considers central to advertising discourse: �the factor of conscious intention behind the text, with the aim of benefiting the originator materially or through some other less tangible gain, such as enhancement of status or image.� the discourse of advertising is characterised by two main communicative elements: information and persuasion. although it might seem at first sight that both functions are advertising books: a linguistic analysis of blurbs ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-62 43 necessary for an advertisement to be effective, most of the studies in the area have shown that persuasion is the ultimate purpose of advertising, and that the informative function is thus secondary to the persuasive one. as harris and seldon (1962: 74, quoted by vestergaard & schröder, 1985: 5) claim: �advertising [is] frankly and legitimately persuasive, but [...] it persuade[s] by being informative.� in the same line, del saz (2000) states that advertising discourse adopts an informative aspect to camouflage a purely persuasive intention. díez arroyo (1998: 58) also insists on the persuasive function of advertising: así pues, no negamos que la publicidad informe, instruya y entretenga. esos constituyen fines parciales que, como decíamos antes, explicitan ciertas estrategias de acercamiento al emisor. son, pues, funciones subsidiarias al servicio de un objetivo principal que le es inherente: influir en la conducta del público en beneficio, en último término, de los propietarios de la marca anunciada. a slightly different perspective is offered by cook (2001: 10), who claims that the persuasive function is not sufficient to characterise advertising: �even if the majority of ads have the function of persuading their addressees to buy, this is not their only function. they may also amuse, inform, misinform, worry or warn.� however, the essence of his stance does not contradict the previous views. another objective of cook�s work is to define advertisements as a genre by analysing their main features or components. he concludes that, despite their complex nature and the difficulty of establishing clear boundaries between genres, advertisements �have the typical instability of a relatively new genre� (cook, 2001: 221). cook categorises advertisements according to various criteria: by medium (newspapers, magazines, hoardings, radio, television, internet); by product or service (luxuries versus household necessities, product ads versus non-product ads); by technique (the �hard-sell� advertisement, which makes a direct appeal to the prospective buyer, and the �soft-sell� ad, which works through indirectness and implication); and finally, by consumer, which advertisers regard as the most important factor for an advertisement to be successful. vestergaard and schröder (1985) classify advertisements into two broad types: commercial and non-commercial. commercial advertising includes three sub-types: prestige, industrial, and finally consumer advertising, which is by far the most widespread and pervasive in our society, because it involves the promotion of goods and/or services mª lluïsa gea valor ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-6244 to potential buyers. furthermore, there are two types of needs that the consumption of goods satisfies: material needs (food, drink, clothing) and social needs (membership, recognition, friendship, love). for a prospective customer to buy commodities, these must be of �use value� to him/her. in order to claim any social use value for a product, the advertiser is �bound to leave the area of factual information and enter the area of persuasion� (vestergaard & schröder, 1985: 9), where the original use value of a product is disregarded, and emphasis is placed on the achievement of social aims. considering all this, if we were to categorise books as a product, the most reasonable option would be to classify them as a luxury rather than satisfying a material need. undoubtedly, the use value for the potential buyer is an emotional or intellectual one, and this value is highlighted in the blurb, especially in review extracts. moreover, in order to convince the prospective reader of the �beneficial� effects of a given book, publishing houses usually resort to the opinions given by literary critics in renowned newspapers and magazines as authoritative and objective voices that evaluate and recommend the book. in this sense, blurbs can be said to straddle the book review and the advertisement, but it is my contention that the persuasive nature of blurbs outweighs their surface appearance as book reviews. therefore, this paper studies blurbs as book advertisements and argues that they are primarily persuasive, despite possible connections with other genres. 3. the study: methodology and corpus in the last decade, traditional methods of advertising books, especially catalogues, have been gradually complemented by a new advertising medium: the internet. there is no doubt that publishers and booksellers have found in the world wide web one of the most effective media to advertise and sell their books. this new advertising channel offers many advantages, such as universal reach (at least in the western world), interactivity, non-linearity, bidirectional or two-way communication, and obviously the opportunity for the customer to order and buy online. this paper explores four of the best-known publishing and bookselling houses in today�s english-speaking market: penguin (http://www.penguin.co.uk), ballantine (http://www.randomhouse.com), routledge (http://www.routledge.com), and barnes & noble (http://www.bn.com), and analyses the online blurbs of more than 60 books published between september 2002 and june 2003. advertising books: a linguistic analysis of blurbs ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-62 45 all the firms in this study offer a section on their web sites where newly-published books are advertised: �new releases� in penguin, �new books� in ballantine and barnes & noble, and �current featured titles� in routledge. all of them give similar �technical� information about their books (price, format, category or genre, number of pages, isbn, and date of publication, together with a picture of the front cover), but there are certain differences worth noting: 1. penguin�s online section �new releases� features all its recently published books, and is divided into several subsections according to genre: biography, crime and thriller, fiction, history, politics and society, science, etc. under each genre, a new page opens displaying all new releases by means of a picture of the book cover, the price, a critical extract, and two internal links: one to the blurb itself and another one to the author. the blurb includes description of the book�s contents, and usually one or more review extracts. readers are offered the possibility to write and send their own reviews, which may appear online through the link �customer�s reviews.� 2. ballantine devotes the section �new books� to all its new releases. unlike penguin, this firm does not categorise books according to genre, but simply provides the title of the book, the name of the author and technical information (price, format, etc.). in the pages that display the blurb, the description of the book�s contents is followed by the critical extract(s) and the author�s biography. it is interesting to note that review excerpts in ballantine are very frequently written in bold or in capital letters, in order to attract more effectively the potential reader�s attention. this is a recursive feature in all the blurbs analysed, which clearly resembles the style of headlines and slogans. 3. routledge presents its new books under the label �current featured titles.� after clicking on each title, a new page opens displaying a picture of the book cover, information about the isbn and the price, and finally the blurb. the blurb usually includes one or more review extracts (usually written in bold as well, as in ballantine), description of the contents of the book, and a brief paragraph with information about the author. there is an internal link, called �buy this book online,� which leads to the section �details� offering more specific information about the book in question. mª lluïsa gea valor ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-6246 this section includes in some cases more review extracts, an extension of the ones displayed on the previous web page, a list of the contents, usually the title of each chapter, and a more complete author�s biography. 4. finally, barnes & noble devotes the section �new releases� to all its new books. unlike penguin, the books are not classified by genre, but both firms coincide in offering internal links to both the book and the author. the section �about the book� displays several subsections: �from the publisher� or �from our editors� usually offers a description of the book�s contents, and also some evaluation and recommendation; �from the critics� is a collection of shortened critical reviews from sources of excellent reputation such as kirkus reviews, the new yorker, publisher�s weekly, the washington post, the new york times book review, library journal, etc.; and finally �customer reviews� invites readers to send their reviews online and rank the book by stars, from one to five, like in penguin. therefore, a �multivocal� effect is clearly sensed, because the prospective reader is offered various perspectives on the book, ranging from professional ones (the publisher and the critics) to non-expert ones (customers). as can be observed, all four publishing and bookselling firms advertise their books online by means of blurbs, which usually provide a description of the book�s contents, recommend the book to the audience, and offer information about the author. these �communicative steps� are organised into a certain rhetorical structure. thus, the first stage in the study was devoted to exploring the rhetorical structure of blurbs from a genre-analysis perspective (swales, 1990; bhatia, 1993) in order to determine their global communicative purpose. next, the analysis focused on the most salient linguistic and discursive features of these texts, with a twofold objective: on the one hand, to unveil the relation between form and function, that is, between the form of linguistic resources and the functional aspects they textualise in discourse; and, on the other hand, to explore whether the blurb is connected with advertising discourse. 4. results according to swales (1990) and bhatia (1993), the defining factor of genre is the communicative purpose it fulfils. communicative purpose, a key element in genre theory, is reflected in the rhetorical structure or organisation of the genre. moreover, advertising books: a linguistic analysis of blurbs ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-62 47 mª lluïsa gea valor ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-6248 the use of conventional linguistic features is also a relevant element in order to achieve the communicative goal of genres. in the case of blurbs, both requirements are accomplished. on the one hand, the main communicative purpose of blurbs is to persuade potential readers to buy the book by providing both information and positive evaluation. this purpose is reflected in the rhetorical organisation of the blurb. on the other hand, a wide range of conventional strategies are employed in order to fulfil that communicative purpose. therefore, blurbs may be considered as a genre, characterised by its own communicative purpose, rhetorical organisation and linguistic conventions. generic structure the rhetorical structure of blurbs consists of three main moves, each one performing a specific function: move 1. description move 2. evaluation move 3. about the author move 1. description: this is the only obligatory move in the blurb, since only a nonsignificant number of the blurbs analysed do not include it. description usually means a summary of the book�s contents, which may refer either to the plot or to the line of argument according to the literary genre in question; that is, if the book involves a story (fiction, crime, thriller), the plot and the characters are usually described, whereas if the book deals with science, history or politics, the argumentative line is offered. although description of the book is the main purpose of this move, some evaluation is also carried out, as can be seen in the underlined phrases below: �published for the first time more than fifty years after the war, first light is geoffrey wellum�s gripping memoir of his experiences as a fighter pilot� (first light, by geoffrey wellum. penguin). �when the philosopher�s dog was published in australia late last year, it was greeted with rapturous acclaim. a work of amazing clarity, yet tempered with a profound humanity, it will stand as a landmark of its time. we are truly honoured to be publishing raimond gaita�s latest work� �publishers� note (the philosopher�s dog, by raimond gaita. routledge). �jonathan kellerman is a master at creating psychologically nuanced novels of suspense�an author whose name is synonymous with unrelenting action, intriguing plot twists, and penetrating insight into the criminal mind. now, he ventures into bold, new territory with his biggest and best novel yet� (a cold heart, by jonathan kellerman. barnes & noble). move 2. evaluation by means of review excerpts: together with description, blurbs usually include extracts from longer reviews published in newspapers and magazines, often specialised ones, within a section devoted to arts and entertainment, or more specifically, books: �new releases.� in this case, the original publication source is stated, i.e. the washington post, the guardian, the times, the sunday telegraph, etc., but the name of the critic may not be. other reviews are written by independent writers, that is, with no affiliation to any journal or periodical, in which case their name and professional background are generally stated. examples: �a masterwork. i doubt that i have read a book as moving in at least a decade� �fergal keane, independent (the story of lucy gault, by william trevor. penguin). �... one of the key sources for british politics� �charles reiss, the evening standard (the almanac of british politics, by robert waller and byron criddle. routledge). �... sets the historical record straight ... pitch-perfect prose ... hands-down the best biography of jfk ... a truly remarkable achievement� �douglas brinkley, author of the unfinished presidency: jimmy carter�s journey beyond the white house and director of the eisenhower centre for american studies at the university of new orleans (an unfinished life: john f. kennedy, 1917-1963, by robert dallek. barnes & noble). in other cases the publishing firm provides its own evaluation of the book without resorting to any external source: �nuala o�faolain�s personal story of middle age is intelligent, thoughtful, hilarious and most of all, full of surprises� (almost there, by nuala o�faolain. penguin). advertising books: a linguistic analysis of blurbs ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-62 49 mª lluïsa gea valor ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-6250 surprisingly, there are a few review extracts which simply describe what the book is about, and render little or no evaluation: �tells the history of the way we look at the world and why� �the daily mail (seeing double, by j. richard block. routledge). �the debate over whether it is ethical to send children to private schools has been reignited by a controversial new book by an oxford academic� �the oxford times (how not to be a hypocrite: school choice for the morally perplexed parent, by adam swift. routledge). the purpose of these review extracts is to evaluate and recommend the book by praising its qualities and the qualities of its author. therefore, evaluative language is abundant and recurrent. moreover, these excerpts tend to be short and visually attractive �often written in capital letters, in bold or both, as in ballantine and routledge� in order to catch the potential reader�s attention, and in this respect they function as �attention-seeking devices� (goddard, 1998: 9). this move, which clearly produces the most striking effect on readers, can be considered the headline or the slogan for the book, which is the most important part in an advertisement. according to díez arroyo (1998), the main purpose of slogans, which are brief and concise formulae, is to capture the consumer�s attention and arouse his/her interest in the product. in fairclough�s (1994: 205) words: �it is the syntax of concise, no-nonsense, to-the-point efficiency.� once readers have been attracted to the book, they may click either on the title or on the author�s name to obtain further information. critical excerpts usually appear before the description move (move 1), as is the case in penguin and routledge. sometimes they are combined and interwoven with move 1, giving rise to a cyclical structure where a critical excerpt is followed by a descriptive paragraph, which is followed in turn by more review extracts, as is often the case in ballantine. in barnes & noble, however, critical reviews are usually offered after the description move, within the section �from the critics.� finally, penguin and barnes & noble offer their readers an interesting option as far as evaluating the book is concerned: the possibility to write and send their own reviews (usually comments, reactions, impressions) through the link �review this book� and �write your own online review� respectively, which are displayed online under the link �customer�s reviews.� the main purpose of this is to offer the potential reader the opinions and rankings of other readers, which seems to confer more objectivity to the appraisal. move 3. about the author: description and evaluation are generally complemented by a section on the author�s life. in this move, the author�s professional background is offered, which usually includes previous publications, awards won, current interests, and occasionally place of residence and family details. examples: �sylvia boorstein is a cofounding teacher at spirit rock meditation center in woodacre and a senior teacher at the insight meditation society in barre, massachusetts. she has a ph.d. in psychology and teaches and lectures widely. she is the author of it�s easier than you think; don�t just do something, sit there; and that�s funny you don�t look buddhist. she and her husband, seymour, live in sonoma county, california� (pay attention, for goodness� sake. the buddhist path of kindness, by sylvia boorstein. ballantine). �robert dallek is one of the most highly regarded historians in america, and the author of six books, including the acclaimed two-volume of lyndon johnson, lone star rising and flawed giant. his franklin d roosevelt and american foreign policy won the 1980 bancroft prize and was nominated for an american book award, and american style of foreign policy was a 1983 new york times notable book of the year� (an unfinished life: john f. kennedy, 1917-1963, by robert dallek. barnes & noble). information about the author is given either through an internal link (penguin, routledge, and barnes & noble) or immediately after the description of contents (ballantine, and occasionally routledge and barnes & noble, in the section �about the author� or �author biography�). in some cases, after clicking on the author�s name, instead of the author�s biography more titles by the same author may appear, which link in turn to other blurbs giving information and recommending these books. this is characteristic of online or electronic texts, with links leading the reader to other web pages and new links, in a way that has been compared to �a set of russian dolls� (goddard, 1998: 92). all in all, describing the book�s contents (move 1) and the author�s biography (move 3) can be considered as obligatory moves, while extracts from the critics� reviews (move 2) should be regarded as optional, since surprisingly not all the blurbs analysed include them. as for the communicative function of these moves, move 1 and move 3 mainly perform an informative function, because both provide information �about the advertising books: a linguistic analysis of blurbs ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-62 51 book�s contents and about the author, respectively. move 2, on the other hand, performs an affective function, because it aims to convince the potential buyer of the qualities and beneficial effects of the book. in blurbs, therefore, the informative function intertwines with, and is secondary to the persuasive function, which is their principal purpose. taking all this into account, blurbs fulfil one of the key prerequisites for a textual type to be considered as a genre: a communicative purpose. linguistic and discourse conventions in order to perform their persuasive function, blurbs make use of a wide range of strategies which are basically meant to attract the potential reader�s attention, and to get the customer to buy the book by emphasising and praising its qualities: complimenting: intensifying adverbs, positive evaluative adjectives and superlative constructions are abundantly used to praise the book and the author, especially in the move offering critics� reviews. complimenting the book: in this case, praise usually appeals to the emotions by underlining the effects of the book on the reader, that is, what he/she will feel when reading the book in question: �a really great, hilarious, rollicking, fantastic read� �newsnight review (stupid white men, by michael moore. penguin). �a beautiful, funny, wise book, full of understanding, gentle direction, brilliance, and heart� (pay attention, for goodness� sake. the buddhist path of kindness, by sylvia boorstein. ballantine). �witty, energetic ... it�s deeply satisfying to read a work of fiction so informed about its subject and so alive to every nuance and detail. smiley�s final chapters have a wonderful restorative quality� (horse heaven, by jane smiley. ballantine). �refreshing ... essential ... sharp ... revealing ... discerning ... indispensable ... witty ... informative ... insightful ...� (the almanac of british politics, by robert waller and byron criddle. routledge). mª lluïsa gea valor ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-6252 advertising books: a linguistic analysis of blurbs ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-62 53 furthermore, the superlative is a feature abundantly employed in blurbs when complimenting: �this is not only the best book so far written on the six-day war, it is likely to remain the best� �the washington post book world (six days of war: june 1967 and the making of the modern middle east, by michael b. oren. ballantine). �the most honest, observant and timely book written this year about the american generation now approaching thirty� �new york newsday (fitting ends, by dan chaon. ballantine). there are excerpts which simply underline the awards won by the book as a guarantee of its quality: �winner of the 2002 whitbread book of the year award� (samuel pepys. the unequalled self, by claire tomalin. penguin). �nominated as one of the top 21 titles in the bbc big read� (the catcher in the rye, by j.d. salinger. penguin). �chosen by the los angeles times as one of the best books of the year� (horse heaven, by jane smiley. ballantine). complimenting the author: in this case, praise tends to highlight the author�s writing qualities and style, as in these examples: �uproarious and touching! gervase phinn writes with enormous warmth and wit� �daily mail (head over heels in the dales, by g. phinn. penguin). �sean mcconville graphically recounts both sides of this story�and does so with an even-handedness and objectivity that must command the respect of all his readers, whatever side of the irish sea they may be on� �dr. garret fitzgerald, the guardian (irish political prisoners 1848-1922: theatre of war, by seán mcconville. routledge). �ridpath has that read-on factor that sets best-sellers apart� �guardian (fatal error, by m. ridpath. penguin). this last example takes us to another typical feature of praise for the author, which consists of underlining the writer�s reputation or success as a guarantee for the book. this is very often conveyed by means of the superlative and similar superlative constructions: �from the no. 1 international bestselling author of stupid white men ...� (dude, where�s my country, by michael moore. penguin). �from the author of the controversial bestseller fast food nation� (reefer madness, by eric schlosser. penguin). �#1 national bestseller. a new york times notable book� (horse heaven, by jane smiley. ballantine). �brave, learned, sassy, wildly funny, terry castle [is] not only our best female literary critic and one wise babe. she�s the most expressive, most enlightening literary critic at large today� �susan sontag (boss ladies watch out! essays on women, sex and writing, by terry castle. routledge). on the other hand, the force of the superlative may be toned down by means of the modal adverb �probably� or the construction �one of+superlative,� as shown in the examples below. according to díez arroyo (1998: 248), this method is very frequently used by advertisers in order to convey modesty and gain believability from the audience: �probably the most important novelist of the past two decades� �guardian (pattern recognition, by william gibson. penguin). �proof, once more, that townsend is one of the funniest writers around� �the times (the public confessions of a middle-aged woman aged 55 3/4�, by sue townsend. penguin). �robert dallek is one of the most highly regarded historians in america� (an unfinished life: john f. kennedy, 1917-1963, by robert dallek. barnes & noble). complimenting both the book and the author: in some cases, the review extract praises both the book and the author in the same statement: mª lluïsa gea valor ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-6254 advertising books: a linguistic analysis of blurbs ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-62 55 �a novel of passion in every sense ... [she does] it all with aplomb, with a demon narrative intelligence� �the boston sunday globe (horse heaven, by jane smiley. ballantine). �this is a terrific book, which will add to kathleen wilson�s reputation as a talented historian of nation and empire in the eighteenth century. it is well written, rich in historical imagination and innovative thinking� �catherine hall, university college london (the island race: englishness, empire and gender in the eighteenth century, by kathleen wilson. routledge). �the tension is incredible and the mystery intriguing ... french [is] immensely talented at writing horrifying, suspenseful thrillers� (land of the living, by nicci french. barnes & noble). ellipsis: blurbs, especially in move 2, generally make use of elliptical syntactic patterns, especially minor sentences (sentences with no verb), in order to impact the reader and attract his/her attention. thus, ellipsis brings blurbs closer to advertising slogans and headlines, which tend to be as simple and direct as possible to catch the reader�s eye. another purpose of ellipsis is to imitate real speech and to establish proximity with the audience. as pointed out by goddard (1998: 107), speakers who know each other well �don�t need to be all that explicit about their meanings, because they know the other person will fill in the gaps as a result of shared knowledge and shared history.� similarly, carter et al. (1997: 211) state that ellipsis can be used deliberately �to create an illusion of closeness [...]. the reader is forced to adopt the same position towards the writer that a speaker would adopt to a close friend in a conversation.� so ellipsis functions as �a binding factor because ties between writer and reader are strengthened through the work that the reader has to do to fill the gaps.� this is especially so in advertising, where the effectiveness of the message is based on the decoding by the receiver. in blurbs, ellipsis is pervasive, as the following examples show: �a triumph� �ali smith (an evening of long goodbyes, by paul murray. penguin). �a huge hit� �guardian (artemis fowl: the eternity code, by eoin colfer. penguin). �one of britain�s most prolific writers and a giant among historians� (the diaries of a. l. rowse, by a. l. rowse. penguin). �... poignant and illuminating ...� �roger scruton, sunday telegraph (the philosopher�s dog, by raimond gaita. routledge). �genuine chills and page-turning suspense� �entertainment weekly (land of the living, by nicci french. barnes & noble). in addition, omitting the subject (�the book,� �the story,� �the author�) is also a characteristic elliptical pattern of blurbs, as in these examples, which remind us of spoken language: �inspiring ... offers a real sense of what it�s like to be at the beginning of something big� (sync, by steven h. strogatz. penguin). �extraordinary depth and resonance. will rank among the finest of second world war memoirs� �independent (first light, by g. wellum. penguin). �... sets the historical record straight ... pitch-perfect prose ... hands-down the best biography of jfk ... a truly remarkable achievement� �douglas brinkley (an unfinished life: john f. kennedy, 1917-1963, by robert dallek. barnes & noble). �an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller ... keeps the reader on a white-knuckled, hair-raising thrill ride until the last page� (land of the living, by nicci french. barnes & noble). imperative: another characteristic feature of blurbs is the imperative, which is pervasive in advertising discourse. as fairclough (1994) observes, the imperative and the address form you, which is dealt with below, evidence a personalised relationship between producer and consumer, in which the audience members are individually addressed. by means of the imperative, the persuasive function of the blurb becomes clear since it is used to address the potential buyer directly. in this case, the imperative form has to be understood as an invitation or recommendation, not as a command or an imposition (del saz, 2000), as in the following examples: mª lluïsa gea valor ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-6256 �steel yourself for a gripping tale of obsession, madness and fear� �sunday mirror (land of the living, by nicci french. penguin). �enter the world of susan lilian townsend �sun-worshippers, work-shy writers, garden centre lovers and those in search of a good time are all welcome ...� (the public confessions of a middle-aged woman aged 55 3/4�, by sue townsend. penguin). �quirky, intelligent and at times, downright maddening ... persist with it� �irish examiner (the philosopher�s dog, by raimond gaita. routledge). as del saz suggests, a way of mitigating the original illocutionary force of the imperative is the use of politeness strategies, such as giving reasons before or after the imperative form, as in the next examples, where we are invited to read the book because of the author�s writing qualities: �ali smith has got style, ideas and punch. read her� (the whole story and other stories, by ali smith. penguin). �if everyone who wants to be a writer would read this book there would be many more good writers, many more happy writers, and editors would be so overwhelmed by sweetness they would accept many more good books. so what are you waiting for? read it� �ursula k. le guin (making a literary life, by carolyn see. ballantine). another use of the imperative is to make the recommendation of the book more personal, and the appeal to the reader even more direct and one-to-one, as in the following examples, especially the second one, which illustrates what may be considered an aggressively overt advertising style: �this time, it�s a small town in the mid-atlantic states with a savings-and-loan in 1982, and you want to be there. trust me on this� �donald e. westlake (good faith, by jane smiley. barnes & noble). �however, it�s not all bad news if you�re caught in the dilemma. read and find out why!� (how not to be a hypocrite: school choice for the morally perplexed parent, by adam swift. routledge). advertising books: a linguistic analysis of blurbs ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-62 57 address form �you�: this textual feature is closely related to the previous one, the imperative. blurbs often employ the typical advertising address form �you� (goddard, 1998) with the purpose of involving the prospective reader and getting his/her interest in the story, as in the following examples: �gripping, harrowing. a true triumph over tragedy. you may start kevin lewis�s book in tears, but you finish it exultant� �mail on sunday (the kid, by kevin lewis. penguin). �the book that will get you marching mad� (globalization and its distontents, by joseph stiglitz. penguin). �one of those stories that will have you muttering �just one more chapter� at two in the morning� �washington post (the tutor, by peter abrahams. penguin). �you are on the verge of entering the wise, provoking, benevolent, hilarious, and addictive world of douglas adams� �stephen fry, author of the liar and making history: a novel (the salmon of doubt, by douglas adams. ballantine). �it�s huge, fascinating, funny and rude. you can dip into it and it would keep you howling with laughter for months� �daily mail (a dictionary of slang and unconventional english, by eric partridge. routledge). �if you�re in the mood for mind games, shutter island is an engrossing read� �sam allis, the boston globe (shutter island, by dennis lehane. barnes & noble). �if your job is more stressful that it is satisfying and you fantasize about leaving it for a career you truly love, here is the book for you! (...). the choice is yours to make. (...) this extraordinary book will help you find the courage to succeed in the ways that really make a difference. it�s true: you can at last do what you love for the rest of your life!� (do what you love for the rest of your life. a practical guide to career change and personal renewal, by bob griffiths. ballantine) another use of �you� is for generalising the reviewer�s feelings, emotions and reactions to the book: mª lluïsa gea valor ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-6258 �richly detailed, ingeniously constructed ... you will revel in jane smiley�s horse heaven� �san diego union tribune (horse heaven, by jane smiley. ballantine) �carolyn see doesn�t just tell you to sharpen your pencils, she shows you how to sharpen your wits� �rita mae brown (making a literary life, by carolyn see. ballantine). �it has the headlong suspense and whopper of a story you would expect in any wellmade thriller� �joseph barbato (shutter island, by dennis lehane. barnes & noble). curiosity arousers: these are intended to pique the reader�s interest. to this category belong excerpts from the books, and questions concerning their contents. excerpts from the book are often included in the blurb, especially powerful meaningful sentences which aim to capture the reader�s attention and arouse his/her interest in the story: �i always thought you knew what you were �now i know different. the world�s slippery. all it takes is for one thing to shift and everything can slide away. it�s like falling off the edge of the world� (bad influence, by william sutcliffe. penguin). �we have no future because our present is too volatile ... we have only risk management. the spinning of the given moment�s scenarios. pattern recognition ...� (pattern recognition, by william gibson. penguin). �kadi read with outrage the american newspaper description of her son as �an unarmed west african street vendor.� �nothing,� she writes, �could be more distant from the truth.� now, with great pride and searing love, kadi diallo finally tells the truth about herself and her son� (my heart will cross this ocean. my story, my son, amadou, by kadiatou diallo and craig wolff. ballantine). ��it happens that i am going through a period of great unhappiness and loss just now,� she admits� �book magazine (unless, by carol shields. barnes & noble). �when the first bullet hit my chest, i thought of my daughter ...� (no second chance, by harlan coben. barnes & noble). advertising books: a linguistic analysis of blurbs ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-62 59 curiosity arousers may also appear in the form of rhetorical questions containing key elements of the plot or argument and leaving the reader on a cliff-hanger. as brierley (1995) states, posing questions to arouse curiosity and involve the reader is a common technique in advertising. the following examples illustrate this point: �are the differences between the sexes really just down to our upbringing�or is there another, more fundamental explanation?� (the essential difference, by simon baroncohen. penguin). �how do social and economic characteristics affect political behaviour and preference? what are the local and national determinants of voting patterns? how strong are regional factors, or the personal votes of mps and candidates? what makes each parliamentary seat tick?� (the almanac of british politics, by robert waller and byron criddle. routledge). �what is a woman�s price? from the bestselling author of the last time they met comes a brilliant new novel about love, jealousy, and loss� (all he ever wanted, by anita shreve. barnes & noble). �at 29, julie barenson is too young to give up on love. four years after her husband�s tragic death, she is finally ready to risk giving her heart to someone again. but to whom? should it be richard franklin, who is handsome and sophisticated and treats her like a queen, or mike harris, who is julie�s best friend in the world, though not as debonair?� (the guardian, by nicholas sparks. barnes & noble). 5. manipulation in blurbs a very interesting aspect which is distinctly present in advertising is manipulation. feliu garcía (1984: 334) states that �la manipulación es el rasgo caracterizador fundamental en la publicidad actual,� and claims that the receivers of the message, their interests, the message itself and even the universe, the reality around them, are manipulated. this complex phenomenon, with clearly negative connotations, has been studied from different perspectives: communication studies, psychology, linguistics, politics, etc. vázquez and aldea (1991) offer a very thorough account of the various mª lluïsa gea valor ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-6260 approaches to this phenomenon, and conclude that in general most studies define manipulation as �un desvío de la realidad de modo que los receptores consideren exclusivamente la postura que conviene al emisor� (1991: 121). moreover, through manipulation the receiver of the message is oriented towards one choice only, with no other alternatives. another insightful approach is fairclough�s (1994), who analyses the power and �hidden relations� of power in media discourse. according to this author: �producers exercise power over consumers in that they have sole producing rights and can therefore determine what is included and excluded, how events are represented, and even the subject positions of their audiences� (1994: 50). in the case of blurbs, publishing houses seek to send only one message to the potential reader, basically that the book has many qualities and the author is a good writer. as has been seen, this positive evaluation and recommendation is supported by review extracts, which are exactly that: selected pieces of longer reviews. therefore, these extracts have been manipulated before reaching the reader, so the potential buyer has no access to the rest of the review, which might contain negative criticism. only one of the firms under study, barnes & noble, offers the original whole review. but even in this case, the firm decides which reviews to display and which not. the same applies to the so-called �customer�s reviews,� which have also been dealt with in this paper: by including the opinions and comments of readers, publishing houses seem to gain objectivity because the promotion of their goods does not come from their own employers, but from customers. however, it is clear that even these customer�s reviews are selected and only the positive ones are displayed. 6. concluding remarks this preliminary study of blurbs has tried to shed some light onto a genre with which we as readers are very familiar but whose study has been somewhat neglected so far. after analysing a corpus of more than 60 blurbs, this paper seems to provide evidence that blurbs constitute a genre characterised by its own communicative purpose: to persuade the reader to buy the book by describing its contents and by praising its qualities. this communicative purpose, characteristic of advertising and promotional genres, is reflected in the rhetorical structure of the blurb, which consists of three main moves: description, evaluation and author�s biography. advertising books: a linguistic analysis of blurbs ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-62 61 moreover, blurbs make use of a wide range of textual features and linguistic conventions, most of them typical of advertising, in order to achieve their communicative purpose. however, further research is needed to unveil the many interesting aspects that blurbs present. in this sense, the evolution of blurbs from a diachronic perspective, the connection between blurbs and book reviews, and the status of the internet blurb in relation with its non-digital counterpart may constitute possible lines of research for further exploration of this fascinating topic. (revised paper received april 2005) mª lluïsa gea valor is a lecturer in english language and english for specific purposes at universitat jaume i (castelló, spain). her research interests lie in the field of genre analysis, especially academic and digital genres. she is the author of a pragmatic approach to politeness and modality in the book review (2000). mª lluïsa gea valor ibérica 10 [2005]: 41-6262 bhatia, v. k. (1993). analysing genre: language use in professional settings. london: longman. bhatia, v. k. (1997). �genre-mixing in academic introductions.� english for specific purposes 16, 3: 181-196. brierley, s. (1995). the advertising handbook. london & new york: routledge. carter, r., a. goddard, d. reah, k. sanger & m. bowring (1997). working with texts: a core book for language analysis. london: routledge. cook, g. (2001). the discourse of advertising. london & new york: routledge. del saz, m. (2000). la cortesía en el discurso publicitario. valència: universitat de valència. sell monographs, nº 8. díez arroyo, m. (1998). la retórica del mensaje publicitario. un estudio de la publicidad inglesa. universidad de oviedo: servicio de publicaciones. fairclough, n. (1994). language and power. london: longman. feliu garcía, e. (1984). los lenguajes de la publicidad. alicante: universidad de alicante. fortanet, i., j. c. palmer & s. posteguillo (1999). �the emergence of a new genre: advertising on the internet (netvertising).� hermes, journal of linguistics 23: 93-113. goddard, a. (1998). the language of advertising: written texts. london & new york: routledge. moriyón mojica, c. (1994). exégesis pragmalingüística del discurso publicitario. valladolid: universidad de valladolid, ice. oald (1990). the oxford advanced learner�s dictionary. oxford: oxford university press. swales, j. m. (1990). genre analysis. english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. vázquez, i. & s. aldea (1991). estrategias y manipulación del lenguaje. análisis pragmático del discurso propagandístico. zaragoza: universidad de zaragoza. vestergaard, t. & k. schröder (1985). the language of advertising. oxford (uk) and cambridge (usa): blackwell. references iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.75 abstract in research writing, one of the challenging questions is about the extent to which methods need to be succinctly summarised in introductory sections. to answer this intriguing question, swales’ (2004) genre-based analytical framework was used to examine the frequencies of method summaries (mss) in the research article introductions (rais) in two major social science disciplines, namely ethnic studies (es) and industrial relations (ir), which have been overlooked in previous studies. apart from examining expert writers’ recurrent lexicogrammatical resources, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six specialist informants in both disciplines. we have found that the mss are characterised by the recurrent use of prepositional phrases expressing data sources, cardinal numerals accentuating subjects’ involvement, post-modifying structures describing samples, and verb-infinitive/preposition structures signalling facilitation. ir researchers exhibit a greater propensity to foreground mss than es researchers, and the difference is ascribable to the underlying philosophical assumptions behind the adoption of methodological approaches. in our concluding remarks, we (i) demonstrate how findings based on an analysis of salient language resources can help instructors make informed decisions while guiding learners to craft a cogent method summary, and (ii) argue that the information derived from our textual analysis and specialist informants’ inputs can further contribute to our understanding of expert writers’ rhetorical practices across different social science disciplines. keywords: english for academic purposes, genre-based analysis, research article introductions, summarising methods, social sciences. succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim jiangsu university of technology (china) & ucsi university (malaysia) lxq@jsut.edu.cn & drjasonlim@gmail.com 75 ibérica 44 (2022): 00-00 xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim resumen resúmenes sucintos de métodos de investigación: un análisis de género de los recursos comunicativos de escritores expertos en ciencias sociales en la escritura de investigación, una de las preguntas de mayor complejidad es hasta qué punto se deben resumir sucintamente los métodos en las secciones introductorias. para responder a esta pregunta, se ha utilizado el marco analítico en torno a la noción de género de swales (2004) para examinar la frecuencia con la que los resúmenes de métodos aparecen en la introducción de artículos de investigación pertenecientes a dos disciplinas importantes de las ciencias sociales, en concreto, de los estudios étnicos y de las relaciones industriales, que se han pasado por alto en estudios previos. además de haber examinado los recursos léxico-gramaticales recurrentes de escritores expertos, se han realizado entrevistas semiestructuradas a seis especialistas de ambas disciplinas. hemos encontrado que los resumes de método se caracterizan por un uso recurrente de frases preposicionales que expresan fuentes de datos, números cardinales que acentúan la participación de los sujetos, estructuras posmodificadoras que describen muestras y estructuras compuestas por un verboinfinitivo/preposición que señalan una facilitación. los investigadores de relaciones industriales muestran una mayor propensión a destacar los resúmenes de métodos que los investigadores de los estudios étnicos. la diferencia se puede atribuir a sus suposiciones subyacentes a la hora de adoptar un enfoque metodológico. en los comentarios finales, (i) demostramos cómo los resultados, que se basan en un análisis de recursos lingüísticos destacados, ayuda a los instructores a tomar decisiones informadas mientras guían a los alumnos a desarrollar un resumen de método convincente, y (ii) argumentamos que la información derivada según nuestro análisis textual y las aportaciones por parte de los especialistas puede contribuir a un mejor entendimiento de las prácticas retóricas de los escritores expertos en las diferentes disciplinas de las ciencias sociales. palabras clave: inglés con fines académicos, análisis basado en el género, introducciones de artículos de investigación, métodos de resumen, ciencias sociales. 1. introduction research articles (ras) are considered the “central genre of knowledge production” and “the main means by which the majority of academics disseminate their work and establish their reputations” (hyland, 2019, p. 107). academic scholars and postgraduate students across the world are 76 expected to write and publish research articles in established journals in a bid to achieve professional advancement and increase international visibility. nevertheless, despite the significant role played by research articles in new knowledge dissemination, novice academic writers in different disciplines often encounter difficulties in presenting research reports which are submitted to high-impact international journals in english (e.g., martín & león pérez, 2014; swales, 2004). the exigencies are particularly noticeable under circumstances where apprentice writers are expected to solve language-related issues on their own while studying specific subjects in english at tertiary level (breeze & dafouz, 2017). as such, instructional materials need to be developed to meet the emerging needs of academic writers, especially second language writers of research papers (takahashi, 2014). it is even more important to consider how research relating to research genres can possibly help instructors make findings-based decisions while guiding novice writers to craft different parts of a research report. despite a substantial body of genre-based research (e.g., basturkmen, 2012; del saz rubio, 2011), we are uncertain about the extent to which some rhetorical steps need to be included in the research article introductions (rais) in some major social science disciplines. such information is needed to help instructors make informed decisions while guiding novice writers to present rais in these disciplines which have received less attention in previous studies. likewise, the extent to which the linguistic regularities differ across different social science disciplines merits some attention so far as the teaching and learning of academic writing at tertiary level is concerned. in fact, few have focused on the cross-disciplinary differences in the use of specific steps, such as “summarising methods” (swales 2004, p. 232). ‘summarising methods’, hereafter also referred to as a ‘method summary’, is notably a step that foregrounds essential information on the writers’ own research procedures in the introductory section of a research report. our in-depth focus on method summaries (mss) was initially motivated by the need to resolve difficulties in deciding (i) whether such procedural summaries have to be incorporated in some social science disciplines involving our students taking a course on academic writing, (ii) what information has to be highlighted (in cases where they are expected), and (iii) how such summaries can be succinctly presented using appropriate linguistic resources. in this study, we have chosen to study method summaries in two major social science disciplines involving our students, namely ethnic succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 77 studies (es) and industrial relations (ir), for two reasons. first, looking at disciplinary differences from a broad perspective, we noted that numerous previous studies have investigated rhetorical moves of research articles in applied sciences, such as conservation biology (samraj, 2005), computer science (shehzad, 2008, 2010), agricultural science (del saz-rubio, 2011), forestry (joseph & lim, 2018, 2019), mechanical engineering (le & pham, 2020), and information systems (kwan, 2021). in contrast, relatively less attention has been devoted to certain social sciences, such as es and ir. while research articles in a broad range of social science disciplines can be included in an analysis, we decided to focus exclusively on two sociology-related disciplines in order to provide essential information that can be further used in future genre-based studies. such information is needed since numerous past studies into research introductions have focused on education-related social sciences such as educational psychology (loi & evans, 2010) and applied linguistics (hirano, 2009; lim, loi & hashim, 2014; ozturk, 2007) rather than sociology-related disciplines such as es and ir. second, the concept of comparability needs to be considered in relation to international recognition of es and ir as two distinguishable disciplines, given that “there is no single method of enquiry, no standard verification procedure, no definitive set of concepts that uniquely characterises each particular discipline” (becher & trowler, 2001, p. 65). this means that “it is more accurate to see communities in the overlapping subsidiary domains” (hyland, 2018, p. 28), and recognise the aforementioned “patterns of similarity and difference that cut across disciplinary boundary” between es and ir while considering whether the disciplines are comparable in view of their apparent commonalities and differences (becher & trowler, 2001, p. 65). the two social science disciplines that are compared in this inquiry have to be sufficiently different from each other to merit investigation, especially in terms of major research focuses. such differences need to be recognised by an established international institution, because “how far realms of knowledge come to be accepted as disciplines” is “largely a matter of institutional recognition” and “international significance” (hyland, 2018, p. 28). in this context, notwithstanding their sociological leanings and possible overlaps in some aspects, es and ir have been categorised by web of science, an established international indexing body, as two largely different social science disciplines (thomson reuters, 2015). on the one hand, despite focusing on human behaviours and interactions under varying social xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 44 (2022): 75-10078 circumstances, es places a greater emphasis on racial issues involving people in different socio-economic and socio-cultural settings (medina & menjívar, 2015). on the other hand, ir, albeit being devoted to human behaviours and interactions, focuses on employer-employee relationships, rather than racial issues, and places more emphasis on how relations between employees and employers are affected by socio-economic and socio-cultural settings (filippin & van ours, 2015; reich & west, 2015). overall, despite being internationally recognised as two separate disciplines, es and ir are sufficiently comparable and are likely to furnish discipline-related information relating to each field so as to facilitate a meaningful and informative inquiry. notwithstanding the commonalities and interconnections mentioned above, attention has yet to be directed to the major cross-disciplinary differences involving ‘summarising methods’. even though previous studies have thoroughly investigated other major steps relating to ‘presenting the present work’ (swales, 2004), particularly ‘announcing principal outcomes/findings’ and ‘stating the value of the present research’ in research introductions (shehzad, 2010), no detailed research has yet to be conducted on ‘summarising methods’ which could be a useful rhetorical step in some disciplines. in this vein, this study looks into the occurrences and linguistic realisations of ‘summarising methods’, rightly pointed out by swales (2004, p. 231) as one of the “further options” needed for presenting the present work, “especially in papers whose principal outcome can be deemed to reside in their methodological innovations”. it is, however, not clear in regard to (i) what information is selectively included in the writers’ mss in these social science rais, (ii) the circumstances under which such summaries are needed, and (iii) how expert writers use mss to highlight the significance of their studies. for instance, although this rhetorical step has been reported to be completely absent in rais in political science and political philosophy which are largely literature-based (martín & león pérez, 2014), it is used in over a fifth of law rais (tessuto, 2015), thus prompting us to consider whether obvious frequency differences actually occur in the mss across social sciences. the aforementioned information on disciplinary variation is likely to help writers avoid over-generalisations while crafting rais in some social sciences. in fact, it is often the pedagogical reality of research writing classes to offer advice to learners from different disciplines (moghaddasi & graves, 2017), and it is part of an instructor’s responsibility to consider the extent to which succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 79 findings on information elements are (i) restrictively applicable to certain “disciplines from which the genre samples are collected”, or (ii) “more universally applicable to students across the disciplines” concerned (cheng, 2019, p. 44). another dimension relating to the main thrust of this study is connected with a major aspect relating to linguistic resources in the writing of method summaries. while previous research has reported on the degrees of prevalence of such summaries in various fields of study, scant attention has been directed to the language resources needed in method summaries. this study therefore aims to ascertain the range of salient linguistic resources used in the two major disciplines mentioned above in an effort to help language instructors make informed choices while guiding their students to use the appropriate language needed. in line with the rationale explained above, two research questions are formulated as follows: (1) to what extent and under what circumstances do expert writers include a summary of their research methods in the introductory sections of research articles in ethnic studies and industrial relations? (2) how do these expert writers use language resources to summarise research methods in the research introductions in the two disciplines? the first research question sought quantitative text-based data about the frequency of ‘summarising methods’ and the percentages of texts containing it across the two disciplines, and specialist informants’ input was elicited to further explain the circumstances under which method summaries are incorporated. the second research question sought text-based qualitative data about the recurrent linguistic resources employed by expert writers in summarising methods (explained in the subsequent section on research methods). 2. research methods the following sub-sections illustrate (i) how our dataset of research articles in the two social science disciplines was compiled to study mss, (ii) how the coding process was conducted to determine percent reliability, and (iii) the procedure involved in eliciting additional inputs from six specialist xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 44 (2022): 75-10080 informants, including three informants in ethnic studies (es-si1, es-si2 and es-si3) and another three informants from industrial relations (ir-si1, ir-si2, and ir-si3). a total of 60 articles were collected from six journals, three of which were chosen from each discipline. these journals comprised (i) ethnicities, ethnic and racial studies, and ethnicity and health in the field of es, and (ii) industrial relations, journal of industrial relations, and european journal of industrial relations in the field of ir. this means that 10 most recently published empirical data-based research articles (not review research articles) were chosen randomly from each of the six journals at the time of commencement of this study. the six journals were quartile 1 or quartile 2 journals listed in the journal citation reports with impact factors ranging between 0.525 and 1.706 (thomson reuters, 2015). after the 60 empirical articles were selected randomly, an attempt was made to ascertain the proportions of articles which were based on quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods approaches. regarding the types of research methods employed, table 1 shows the proportions of articles using quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods approaches in both disciplines. table 1. numbers and percentages of different research methods used in ethnic studies and industrial relations. as indicated in table 1, most (56.67%) of the es articles were based on research methods which were either completely qualitative (30.00%) or mainly qualitative (26.67%), while the majority (73.34%) of the ir research articles were based on research methods that were either completely quantitative (66.67%) or mainly quantitative (6.67%). we did not select an equal number of articles for each of the three aforementioned categories for three reasons. first, we intended to first find out the normal proportions of randomly selected articles that could be objectively categorised as quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies before deciding on what aspects were worth comparing. second, we initially observed that many studies in both disciplines were not purely qualitative or purely quantitative. third, the original focus of our study was on general rhetorical functions succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 81 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! research method(s) ethnic studies industrial relations no. % no. % qualitative method(s) 9 30.00 6 20.00 quantitative method(s) 13 43.33 20 66.67 mixed-method(s) mainly qualitative method(s) 8 26.67 2 6.67 mainly quantitative method(s) 0 0.00 2 6.67 and language choices which are sufficiently common in the two corpora of research articles. to analyse the mss in the aforementioned corpora, moreno and swales’ (2018, p. 48) coding protocol was adopted. to do this, we treated these “moves as truly ‘functional’ rather than ‘formal’ units”, and proceeded “to annotate each and the same text fragment both at the step and move level” by referring to the communicative functions of text segments. coding was conducted by two coders, as suggested by biber, connor and upton (2007). overall, the unit of analysis was a rhetorical step, which could be minimally realised by a clause (or generally realised by a sentence or a group of sentences constituting a paragraph or several paragraphs), as long as it performed a communicative function reflected by the functional label representing the step. given that our major focus was on ‘summarising methods’, lim’s (2011, 2014, 2017, 2019) descriptions of rhetorical categories in method sections of ras were initially employed to explore the possible sub-steps in ‘summarising methods’ in rais in es and ir. the reliability of the coding mentioned above was measured in terms of “percent agreement”, which reflected “the number of agreements per total number of coding decisions” (biber, connor & upton, 2007, p. 35). the ‘number of agreements’ was defined as the number of coding decisions (made by the first and second coders) that were the same in each corpus. the coding agreements attained in this investigation are shown as follows: as illustrated above, the inter-coder agreement in the first round was 93.41% in ethnic studies and 93.08% in industrial relations, thus meeting the requirement that inter-coder reliability should be above 85.0% (miles et al., 2014). six months after the first round of coding, the two coders “discussed their segmentation and labelling” in order to iron out the discrepancies arising from the independent coding decisions reported above (moreno & swales, 2018, p. 51). the second coding (recoding) was subsequently conducted by both coders for each segment, and a complete inter-coder agreement was eventually attained. xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 44 (2022): 75-10082 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ethnic studies: 864 (i.e., 432 + 432) coding decisions _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ x 100% = 93.41% 459 coding decisions by coder 1 + 466 coding decisions by coder 2 industrial relations: 1224 (i.e., 612 + 612) coding decisions _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ x 100% = 93.08% 642 coding decisions by coder 1 + 673 coding decisions by coder 2 based on the coding decisions, we proceeded to interview six disciplinary experts in the two disciplines. face-to-face interviews were conducted with three experts from each discipline so as to “triangulate the discourse analysis” (berkenkotter, 2009, p. 13). when choosing specialist informants, we ensured that each specialist informant in this study was (i) a practising member of the disciplinary culture in which the genre is regularly used (bhatia, 1993), and (ii) an experienced member who could provide related insights and explain the socio-cultural events beyond what is experienced physically by the informants (martin, 2017). the interview questions focused largely on (i) the prevalence of ‘summarising methods’ (based on our preceding textual analysis), and (ii) the circumstances under which method summaries were written. given that this study focused on ‘summarising methods’, we calculated the mean numbers of sentences, clauses and words used in method summaries in both disciplines before conducting a linguistic analysis of the salient language resources of method summaries. all text segments that performed the rhetorical functions of ‘summarising methods’ in rais in both disciplines were collected and presented in two main lists, thus representing ‘summarising methods’ as a step in the two disciplines. all instances in each main list were then divided into sub-lists, each of which contained recurrent linguistic resources that realised the same communicative function. in the analysis of the data in the current corpora of es and ir articles, when similar linguistic resources occurred repeatedly to accomplish the same communicative function in each corpus, they were considered as sufficiently salient in performing the rhetorical function concerned. 3. results and discussion based on our analysis, we will first report the frequencies of ‘summarising methods’ and the related degrees of prevalence in ethnic studies and industrial relations before moving on to present our results on the language resources needed in method summaries. 3.1. frequencies and degrees of prevalence of method summaries table 2 displays the numbers and percentages of rais which incorporate ‘summarising methods’ and their two associated sub-steps in es and ir. our analysis of the dataset has revealed that the mean frequency of ‘summarising succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 83 methods’ in ir (m=1.10, sd=0.92) is markedly higher than that in es (m=0.47, sd=0.51). table 2. frequencies of ‘summarising methods’ and its sub-steps and their degrees of prevalence in the rais on ethnic studies (n=30) and industrial relations (n=30). while ‘summarising methods’ is incorporated in less than half (46.67%) of the rais on es, it is employed in a vast majority (76.67%) of the rais in ir (see table 2), thus suggesting that method summaries are markedly more prevalent in ir than es. results of the independent samples t-test (see table 3) also shows that the frequencies of ‘summarising methods’ in ir rais are significantly higher than those in es rais (p=0.002, df=58, se=.192). table 3. results of independent samples t-tests indicating the degrees to which frequencies of ‘summarising methods’ and its two sub-steps differ across es rais (n=30) and ir rais (n=30). more information can be derived if we look further into the occurrences of the sub-steps of ‘summarising methods’, which are (i) ‘describing data collection procedures’, and (ii) ‘elucidating data analysis procedures’ (see table 2). the mean frequency of ‘describing data collection procedures’ (sub-step 1) in ir (m=0.87, sd=0.73) is higher than that in es (m=0.47, sd=0.51). results of the independent samples t-test (see table 3) also xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 44 (2022): 75-10084 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! category ethnic studies industrial relations summarising methods substep 1 substep 2 summarising methods substep 1 substep 2 frequency of the step or sub-step 14 14 1 33 26 7 mean frequency of the step or sub-step 0.47 0.47 0.03 1.10 0.87 0.23 standard deviation 0.51 0.51 0.18 0.92 0.73 0.57 no. of ras containing the step/sub-step 14 14 1 23 21 5 percentage of ras containing the step/sub-step (%) 46.67 46.67 3.33 76.67 70.00 16.67 p ‘ ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! p category summarising methods sub-step 1 sub-step 2 t-statistic -3.294 -2.464 -1.835 level of significance (p-value, 2tailed) 0.002 0.017 0.075 degree of difference (df) 58 58 34.923 mean difference -0.633 -0.400 -0.200 standard error of difference (se) 0.192 0.162 0.109 ‘ shows that the frequencies of ‘elucidating data collection procedures’ in ir rais are significantly higher than those in es rais (p=0.017, df=58, se=0.162). different results were obtained for ‘elucidating data analysis procedures’ in sub-step 2 (see table 2). although the mean frequency of ‘elucidating data analysis procedures’ in ir rais (m=0.23, sd=0.57) is apparently higher than that in es rais (m=0.03, sd=0.18), results of the independent samples t-test (see table 3) indicates that the frequencies of ‘elucidating data collection procedures’ in ir rais are still not significantly higher than those in es rais (p=0.075, df=34.923, se=0.109). in terms of percentage of rais containing each sub-step, sub-step 1 (‘describing data collection procedures’) constitutes an overarching sub-step in ir rais, as it occurs in most (70.00%) of the rais concerned. in contrast, sub-step 2 (‘elucidating data analysis procedures’) occurs in merely 16.67% of the ir research introductions. nevertheless, the percentages of rais incorporating both steps in ir are still markedly higher than those in es, thus suggesting that expert writers in both disciplines have a greater propensity to report data collection procedures compared to data analysis procedures in their research introductions; however, the emphasis on foregrounding data collection procedures early appears to be more prominent in ir than in es. the markedly lower percentage of texts containing method summaries in es rais can be explained with reference to our specialist informants’ statements. es-si1 reported that “many investigations in ethnic studies are qualitative” because es researchers generally study ethnicity in relation to “development of policies” in order to see “how they (policies) have an impact on the society” concerned, and such discussion on policies require qualitative descriptions. es-si1’s statement about the tendency of ethnicity-related research to adopt qualitative approaches is consistent with hesse-biber and leavy’s (2011) emphasis that studies in ethnicity often (i) involve “people with a racial minority status”, and (ii) require qualitative research approaches that look into how prejudices influence people’s emotions, attitudes and identities of ethnic groups. es-si1 argued that results of a study in such qualitative studies are relatively more prominent in comparison to methods, thus explaining why researchers in the discipline “do not really concentrate much on the methods”. es-si1 further pointed out that research methods can be mentioned succinctly in the introduction section of ethnic studies if the study is qualitative because researchers have to “concentrate more on the succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 85 results” or “output of the study”, instead of the process which generates the es study. es-si1’s informational input was consistent with neuman’s (2013, p. 20) emphasis that a “qualitative researcher is likely to collect, analyse and interpret data simultaneously”, and such interpretation of data generally occurs only in the results and/or discussion section(s), and not in the introduction section. in relation to the prevalence of mss in es rais, es-si2 acknowledged that method summaries are occasionally used by expert writers only as a way to define their research objects, and merely to show whether the focus of the study “is political or purely scientific”, especially since research in es is “in essence political”, and often “involves policies and political issues”. likewise, es-si3 acknowledged that she did not include any description of methodology in the introduction of her es rais apart from briefly mentioning that her research is largely qualitative or quantitative. to her, as people read through ras in the discipline, they are likely to find that most es research papers are “predominantly descriptive” rather than “figure-based”. overall, foregrounding research methods is rarely used in es as a rhetorical strategy to lay the ground for what readers are expected to appreciate later. it is only occasionally deployed early to “set the pace for what comes next”, thus explaining why mss rarely appear in rais. in contrast to specialist informants in es, disciplinary experts in ir have strikingly different views. ir-si1, in particular, pointed out that “epistemological methodologies are largely the ones that are being used” in ir, while es focuses “largely on ontological studies” in which researchers are just “accumulating information” and “mapping a certain behaviour” in an attempt to conceptualise a phenomenon relating to ethnicity. to ir-si1, es studies are “largely inductive” in nature, as researchers often collect information to generate a theory; however, researchers in ir “have to contest a theory” and further test the validity of the theory. this explains why numerous quantitative studies in ir are “epistemological” and “deductive”, since ir researchers need to extract hypotheses based on existing literature in order to further ascertain whether they can “replicate the theory” or “reject the (existing) theory”. according to ir-si1, ir researchers devote more attention to how their methodological design may innovatively contribute to information based on an existing theory, and therefore tend to highlight it early in a research introduction. this point of view is consistent with bryman’s (2008, p. 22) explanation that quantitative research often “entails a deductive approach to the relationship between theory and research in which xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 44 (2022): 75-10086 the accent (emphasis) is placed on the testing of theories”. it is therefore argued here that such quantitative research in social sciences, particularly ir, incorporates “the practices and norms of the natural scientific model and of positivism”, which “advocates the application of the methods of the natural sciences to the study of social reality” (bryman, 2008, p. 13). the over-arching role of ‘summarising methods’ in ir is also reflected clearly in statements given by ir-si2 on research in industrial relations. to ir-si2, “the argument of a methodology is really an argument of the discipline (ir)”, and researchers need to “re-address (their research) according to the method” being foregrounded early, so that readers would “have that expectation” about “what they were going to read” in line with the methodological arguments concerned. ir-si2 attributed the need to foreground the exact methodological strand(s) of a study so as to boost the credibility of their research while attempting to quickly capture the interest of both reviewers and readers. ir-si3 further pointed that ir researchers look for a “problem-detecting method, not a method-detecting problem”, thus explaining why methods are highlighted early in the ir rais. according to irsi3, ir researchers in the past used qualitative case studies, but recently, via journals such as journal of industrial relations, they predominantly focused on quantitative research methods, thus explaining why more writers of ir ras foreground their methodological approaches in the introduction section. the use of qualitative and quantitative techniques in es and ir can be further compared with our text-based data showing the proportions of randomly selected articles using quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods approaches in both disciplines. as previously demonstrated in table 1, most of the es articles are based on research methods which are either entirely qualitative or mainly qualitative, whereas the majority of the ir research articles (also chosen randomly) are based on research methods that are either completely quantitative or largely quantitative. the informants’ statements are therefore consistent with our analysis of the types of research methods, which shows that es rais employed largely qualitative methods while ir rais used largely quantitative methods. just as the approaches to crafting introductions are “highly dependent on the kind of work” writers are presenting, such as “qualitative as opposed to quantitative work” (feak & swales, 2011, p. 41), our text-based findings appear to be in tandem with the specialist informants’ claim that writers of ir research articles, which are predominantly quantitative, have a greater tendency to include method summaries in their research introductions. more precisely, given the current succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 87 focus on testing existing theories in ir, it is understandable that ir researchers generally place a greater emphasis on summarising methods in research introductions as compared to those in es. 3.2. language resources used in method summaries to answer the second research question, it is necessary to explore how expert writers use lexico-grammatical structures to describe data sources and sampling techniques in the inceptive portions of a research article. table 4 illustrates that writers in both disciplines include three key post-modifying structures intended to present a concise summary of data collection procedures. first, they use post-modifying prepositional phrases that succinctly specify origins or sources from which samples of data were obtained (e.g., ‘the empirical material consists of two major and unique surveys conducted in 2003 and 2009 among representative samples of swedish secondary school students’, ‘we draw on two recent large-scale surveys with representative samples of established (turkish and moroccan) and new (afghan, iraqi and somali) muslim immigrant populations’) to present an abridged method summary. highlighting the representativity of the samples in such prepositional phrases appears to be a rhetorical strategy aimed at tacitly impressing the readers with the authentic and rich sources of data in the study being introduced. xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 44 (2022): 75-10088 table 4. references to data source and sampling techniques in ‘describing data collection procedures’ that functions as sub-step 1 of ‘summarising methods’ in es and ir rais. writers use such nominalisations involving head nouns ensued by postmodifying prepositional phrases (e.g., ‘interviews with young british muslims from south asian backgrounds’) to present a concise account of the participants and locations involved in their method summaries. second, finite relative clauses (e.g., ‘persons who matriculated at unb between 2003 and 2005’, ‘muslim immigrant populations in the netherlands, who together represent the vast majority of muslims…’) are used to succinctly post-modify the preceding head nouns denoting respondents. third, non-finite participial clauses (e.g., surveys conducted in 2003 and 2009 among representative samples of swedish secondary school students containing questions about attitudes towards jews, survey, conducted in 2011–2012) are deployed to postmodify head nouns in reduced constructions aimed at achieving word economy in method summaries. these post-modifying structures, foregrounded early in rais, encapsulate a range of information elements, encompassing background of the participants, research instruments, and implementation of the studies, which need to be packed up together in an succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 89 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! discipline instance ethnic studies data are drawn from surveys of persons who matriculated at unb between 2003 and 2005, a period including two admissions cycles before and three admissions cycles after the implementation of quotas. the authors conducted a baseline survey when these persons were attending college and a follow-up survey when they were working and engaging in other post-college activities. (raies 11: 2772). our data come from these groups’ websites. (raies 12: 2755) the empirical material consists of two major and unique surveys conducted in 2003 and 2009 among representative samples of swedish secondary school students containing questions about attitudes towards jews. (raies 14: 2706) to this end, we draw on two recent large-scale surveys with representative samples of established (turkish and moroccan) and new (afghan, iraqi and somali) muslim immigrant populations in the netherlands, who together represent the vast majority of muslims in the netherlands (statistics netherlands, 2004). the ethnic groups are selected on the basis of self-reported religious group membership, so that only groups in which the majority of the population is muslim are included in the studies. we use the unique comparative scope of the data, and multiple measures of religious identification and practice, to investigate the role of ethnic community contexts and the strength of religious identification in connecting discrimination to mosque attendance. (raies 17: 2636) industrial relations employment of tipped workers is common in the fsr sector but not in the lsr sector. data are drawn from the quarterly census of employment and wages (qcew) that allows us to separate fsr from lsr. this separation will allow for a more nuanced analysis of the two wage floors. (raiir 4: 623) in this study we utilise a model of household production to guide an empirical analysis of the effects of informal care roles on employment decision-making using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the australian mature age women in aged care (mawac) survey, conducted in 2011–2012. (raiir 13: 667) in order to obtain the fullest possible understanding of the phenomenon being studied, in-depth case studies were undertaken in six chinese firms, which have production facilities in developing countries. data were collected from both the headquarters and the subsidiaries, covering firms’ approaches to union representation, management union interaction, and rationales behind the firms’ choice of actions. (raiir 20: 233) our measures of adverse labor market events include self-reported problems with coworkers, employment changes, and perceived financial strain. we obtain data on a sample of men and women ages 25 to 64 years from the national epidemiological survey of alcohol and related conditions (nesarc). (raiir 7: 479) whereas they measured autonomy by employees’ potential to decide when to start and finish work (which, in my understanding, is more a description of flexible working time), i used the information whether work hours are entirely determined by employees. moreover, i chose countries representative of different working-time regimes (anxo et al., 2007; figart and mutari, 2000). (raiir 22: 260-261) t abridged methodological account. overall, method summaries in both disciplines exhibit a common characteristic, which is the use of temporal adverbials expressing temporal spans (e.g., between 2003 and 2005, in 2003 and 2009) to distinctly highlight the relatively long periods taken in conducting research, thus impressing the audience with the effort put in the research being reported. another major information element associated with descriptions of data collection procedures’ in ‘summarising methods’ is the reporting of sizes of samples in ir, as exemplified below: (1) the empirical component is based on 10,217 observations across 23 european countries…first across all the european countries at our disposal and subsequently by concentrating on four countries severely affected by the economic crisis and its aftermath (greece, cyprus, spain, and ireland). (raiir 21: 277) (2) the research collected data on the hr strategies of over 100 private and voluntary sector providers of residential homes and domiciliary care, commissioned to provide services by 14 las. (raiir 16: 503) (3) to do so, we combine harmonised micro-data from household surveys, data on national statutory minimum wages and coverage rates and information on minimum rates compiled from more than 1100 sectoral agreements across europe…overall, our dataset covers 18 european countries over the period 2007–2009; in addition to those noted above, these are bulgaria, estonia, france, greece, hungary, ireland, latvia, poland, portugal, romania, and the uk. (raiir 27: 116) (4) i run firm-level regressions, using a database of 726 companies included in the leading national stock exchange indices of 17 european countries. (raiir 29: 58) what appears interesting is that method summaries in es research introductions do not occur in the form of delineation of sample sizes, given that no instances can be found in our dataset of es research articles. a possible reason, as explained above, is that most of the es papers in this randomly selected sample focus predominantly on qualitative research based on an ontological approach, in which the researchers tend to accumulate information inductively to map observed behaviours in order to collect information aimed at generating a theory. this stands in contrast to ir rais, which refer to sample sizes while highlighting research methods in their research introductions. in cases where research methods are summarised in xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 44 (2022): 75-10090 ir rais, writers consistently use nominalisations involving cardinal numerals to accentuate a high degree of subjects’ involvement in the data collection procedures (e.g., based on 10,217 observations across 23 european countries, more than 1100 sectoral agreements across europe). while it is clear that the head nouns in these noun phrases refer to human subjects, study sessions, documents and companies that constitute major sources from which the data were collected, what appears intriguing is the expert writers’ attempt to explicitly demonstrate the extensiveness of their coverage in data collection procedures in the early portions of their research papers. a possible explanation is that ir researchers are expected to highlight the magnitude of their engagement with human subjects and the broad range of different sources, organisations or geographical regions. such an early stress on the magnitude of a sample size (before the methods section) appears to be a subtle rhetorical strategy used by ir researchers to implicitly promote the significance of their study even from the outset of a research paper. with respect to the aforementioned strategy, our informants pointed out that ir researchers have a greater propensity to use a large sample to contest a theory or to test the validity of a theory via quantitative research which is predominantly epistemological and deductive. this “entails a deductive approach to the relationship between theory and research” (bryman, 2008, p. 22). the deductive approach in ir studies emphasises “the testing of theories” and relies on the magnitude of a sample to advocate “the application of the methods of the natural sciences to the study of social reality” (bryman, 2008, p. 13). while the extensive coverage of data sources constitutes a key aspect to be reckoned with, it is necessary to acknowledge here that method summaries may also appear as justifications of data collection procedures in the rais (see table 5). succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 91 table 5. justifications of data collection procedures in sub-step 1 of ‘summarising methods’ in es and ir rais. selectively and laconically foregrounded in the method summaries, the aforementioned justifications appear tacit, as they are characterised by verbinfinitive or verb-preposition structures signalling facilitation (e.g., make it possible to compare, controlling for individual attributes, allows us to measure very precisely, enables us to assess). these structures signalling facilitation generally co-occur with noun phrases that refer to writers’ selected categories of collected data (e.g., data from this marathon in the period 2002–2010, harmonised micro-data from household surveys). such justifications are deployed in the inceptive portions of research papers to foreground the strength of the writers’ data collection procedures in facilitating precise measurements. notwithstanding the over-arching role played by succinct descriptions of data collection procedures, method summaries are occasionally done via elucidations of data analysis procedures in both disciplines. as reported above, ‘elucidating data analysis procedures’ (sub-step 2) occurs in relatively few rais, especially in es, but it still constitutes a sub-step in both disciplines, as exemplified below: (1) first we analyse what was asked, and then how it was reported. (raies 5: 677) (2) all of this is performed through time-series cross-sectional (tscs) analysis using ordinary least squares (ols) estimates and panel corrected standard errors (pcses) on a time-series, provincial-level aggregated dataset of nine canadian provinces for the period 1970 to 2010. (raiir 8: 450) (3) decertifications may be used as a measure for bargaining relationships, as it is clear that if a union is decertified then a bargaining relationship ceases to xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 44 (2022): 75-10092 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! discipline instance ethnic studies the quantitative design was chosen for the purpose of gathering data from a large, international population that would allow generalisability across the cultural group being studied. (raies 2: 746) in this study, data collected among angolan and nigerian migrant parents in the netherlands make it possible to compare the subjective well-being of migrant parents whose children live in the country of origin to migrant parents living with their children in the netherlands, while controlling for individual attributes such as socio-economic, legal and marital status. (raies 16: 2653) industrial relations employment of tipped workers is common in the fsr sector but not in the lsr sector. we use a panel (1990q1– 2013q1) of data from the quarterly census of employment and wages (qcew) that allows us to separate fsr from lsr. this separation will allow for a more nuanced analysis of the two wage floors. (raiir 4: 623) our dataset allows us to measure very precisely the type of the agents, because the type of the agents is represented by the number of meters run individually or by the team. we use data from this marathon in the period 2002–2010, so that the longitudinal nature of the data can also be exploited. (raiir 10: 403) to do so, we combine harmonised micro-data from household surveys, data on national statutory minimum wages and coverage rates and information on minimum rates compiled from more than 1100 sectoral agreements across europe.this effort notably enables us to assess the distributive outcomes of the minimum wage systems. (raiir 27: 116) exist. thus, the number of decertifications is used to construct the dependent variable in the following models. (raiir 8: 459) (4) i conducted descriptive and multivariate analyses using the european working conditions survey (ewcs) for 2010. (raiir 22: 261) what distinctly distinguishes such descriptions of data analysis procedures (from those of data collection procedures) is the nominalisations involving statistical analysis procedures (e.g., ‘time-series cross-sectional (tscs) analysis’, ‘ordinary least squares (ols) estimates and panel corrected standard errors (pcses)’). the noun phrases denoting statistical tests precisely lay out the procedure adopted, thus forming a cogent reference that demonstrates the writers’ analytical competence right from the onset of a research paper. it is interesting to note that procedural verbs are rarely used in the simple past (e.g., conducted), but are largely presented in the simple present (e.g., “we analyse what was asked”, “all of this is performed through time-series crosssectional (tscs) analysis”). the presence of both the simple present and simple past in ‘elucidating data analysis procedures’ suggests that some flexibility does exist in elucidating data analysis procedures so far as tense usage is concerned. 4. conclusion and implications for research writing instruction our concluding statements are written in relation to the two research questions formulated in this study. with respect to the first research question concerning the extent to which method summaries are incorporated in the rais in es and ir, it can be concluded that methods are summarised in less than a half of the es rais but in a vast majority of the ir rais. this explains why ‘summarising methods’ constitutes a prevalent step in ir rais but not es rais. our findings suggest that the significance of method summaries does vary markedly across the social science disciplines. overall, the degrees of prevalence of such summaries in a social science discipline hinges on the philosophical assumptions behind the methodological practices chosen within the academic field concerned. to be specific, as “the main ir journals favoured quantitative pieces” involving “large data sets” (whitfield & strauss, 2000, p. 147), it is understandable that writers in ir have a greater propensity to foreground the key features of their research methods early in their research papers. while it is generally known that “readers of ras are succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 93 more likely to scan and make purposeful choices about what they read” (feak & swales, 2011, p. 40), method summaries are positioned strategically in ir introductions to foreground the procedural contribution and credibility of a study. considering the findings from a pedagogical point of view, we recommend that instructors avoid possible overgeneralisations by examining major cross-disciplinary differences while guiding novice writers on the necessity to incorporate method summaries early in research introductions. for instance, as various social sciences are oftentimes inter-connected, instructors will have to help apprentice writers distinguish between ontological methodologies (frequently adopted in es) from epistemological methodologies (requiring early highlights about quantitative techniques) that have been predominantly used in recent studies in ir. at the sub-step level, our findings have revealed that writers have a greater propensity to focus their summaries on data collection procedures rather than data analysis procedures. despite the limited space allowed for an introduction, ir researchers tend to incorporate such ‘fronted highlights’ of their data collection procedures early in a quest to demonstrate the strength of the research being introduced. novice writers may therefore be introduced to such fronted descriptions of data collection procedures, including cogent statements concerning their data sources, sample sizes, sampling criteria, representativeness and reliability of research data, and other succinct forms of justification of data collection procedures, which are aimed at underscoring the strength of the research procedure(s). with regard to the second research question about prominent language resources in summarising methods, major features that are noteworthy include (i) nominalisations involving procedural verbs in the simple past (in ‘describing data collection procedures’), and (ii) verb-infinitive/preposition structures signalling facilitation and nominalisations involving statistical analysis (in ‘elucidating data analysis procedures’). overall, language instruction can potentially benefit from our findings on cross-disciplinary divergences and commonalities if attention is directed to the detailed linguistic realisations. understanding cross-disciplinary differences in language resources is necessary in that learners’ interest can be generated if the contents of the texts provided to them are closely signalled by the language used in the learners’ specific academic field. this is especially relevant in that textbooks often understate the huge disciplinary variation in language choices (e.g., harwood, 2005; hyland, 2002). in the context of this study, we suggest that learners be initially given different sets of instances xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 44 (2022): 75-10094 which have been extracted from authentic contents of research introductions in their respective disciplines. in the context of summarising methods, apprentice writers in ir can be given a basic analytical task through which they can learn to identify instances of nominalisations and modifications that succinctly highlight sampling techniques or criteria in relation to social issues affecting workers and firms (see table 4), thus raising learners’ consciousness of how expert writers concisely foreground research procedures in research introductions. likewise, instructors may consider using nominalisations in combination with cardinal numerals to laconically underscore a high degree of human subjects’ involvement in data collection procedures, particularly if their study involves a broad range of different sources, organisations or geographical regions. notwithstanding the importance of identifying the aforementioned crossdisciplinary differences in language usage, we need to acknowledge the importance of exploring some linguistic similarities across disciplines. identifying such cross-disciplinary linguistic commonalities helps us to ascertain the “features of language that are transferable across different disciplines” (hyland, 2006, p. 9). this means that exercises can be devised for learners to fill in post-modifying structures, particularly post-modifying prepositional phrases, finite relative clauses and non-finite participial phrases, which crisply state the origins or sources from which samples of data were obtained. such exercises are likely to help novice writers of english as a second language reflect on the strategy needed to underscore the strength of their data collection procedure while attempting to convince the reader about the overall credibility and precision of their newly introduced research procedures. apart from the aforementioned strategies, methods are occasionally summarised with reference to elucidation of data analysis procedures in both academic disciplines. instructors may encourage learners to identify sentences containing nominalisations and other post-modifying/premodifying syntactic structures as part of a reading exercise to help them develop skills in elucidating data analysis procedures. in the context of tense usage, for instance, previous research has shown that research procedures are often reported in the simple past (lim, 2011, 2012, 2017) in applied linguistics, but our findings have shown that when data analysis procedures are described in the simple present in the rais in both es and ir. it therefore appears sensible to allow novice writers to use the simple present to signal a higher degree of current relevance in such fronted highlights of data analysis succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 95 procedures. this constitutes a dimension in which instructors might have to adopt a more open stance that inspires novice writers to consider the audience’s expectations in the specific disciplines, while coming up with related guidelines on tense usage in method summaries. in brief, this inquiry has demonstrated how schematic choices in employing fronted procedural highlights are closely connected with the expert writers’ rhetorical practices across different social science disciplines. this inquiry has indicated that both the prevalence of method summaries and the language resources concerned need to be taken into account in the preparation of instructional materials. information on the degrees of prevalence is likely to assist us in gauging the extent to which we can allow, encourage or downplay the inclusion of ‘summarising methods’, thus avoiding over-generalisations in writing instruction. the recurrent language resources can also be aptly extracted to help materials developers and instructors to make informed choices while advising learners about the connections between writers’ rhetorical strategies and their associated linguistic realisations, which are needed in crafting a concise and cogent method summary. acknowledgements this research is supported by the jiangsu university of technology’s social science funding program (kyy21514). many thanks to the ucsi university in kuala lumpur for the facilities needed to complete this investigation into the method summaries in social science disciplines. we are indebted to our six specialist informants who have given us useful inputs. conflict of interest statement we declare that there is no conflict of interest in the execution of this study, the preparation of the manuscript, and the submission of this paper to ibérica. all authors have agreed on the order of the authors’ names, the name of the first author, and the name of the corresponding author. ethics statement we declare that this study has been conducted in accordance with proper ethical principles. this study does not involve any component that requires xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 44 (2022): 75-10096 a committee approval number. it involved no animal subjects, and the specialist informants involved in this study agreed to be interviewed and allowed their statements to be quoted, while the authors agreed to ensure that the informants’ names are anonymised. article history: received 29 april 2022 received in revised form 20 september 2022 accepted 20 september 2022 references succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 97 basturkmen, h. 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(2015). positive assortative matching: evidence from sports data. industrial relations, 54(3), 401-421. <http://dx.doi. org/10.1111/irel.12096> harwood, n. (2005). what do we want eap teaching materials for? journal of english for academic purposes, 4, 149-161. <https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jeap.2004.07.008> hesse-biber, s. n., & leavy, p. (2011). the practice of qualitative research (2nd ed.). sage. hirano, e. (2009). research article introductions in english for specific purposes: a comparison between brazilian portuguese and english. english for specific purposes, 28, 240-250. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2009.02.001> hyland, k. (2002). authority and invisibility: authorial identity in academic writing. journal of pragmatics, 34, 1091-1112. <https://doi.org/10. 1016/s0378-2166(02)00035-8> hyland, k. (2006). english for academic purposes: an advanced resource book. routledge. hyland, k. (2018). the essential hyland: studies in applied linguistics. bloomsbury academic. hyland, k. (2019). metadiscourse: exploring interaction in writing (2nd ed.). bloomsbury academic. joseph, r., & lim, j. m. h. (2018). background information in the discussion sections of forestry journals: a case study. gema online journal of language studies, 18(1), 198-216. <http://doi. org/10.17576/gema-2018-1801-12> joseph, r., & lim, j. m. h. (2019). directions for the future: a genre-based investigation into recommendations for further research and practical applications in forestry. esp today: xianqing luo & jason miin-hwa lim ibérica 44 (2022): 75-10098 journal of english for specific purposes at tertiary level, 7(2), 124-147. <https://doi.org/10.18485/ esptoday.2019.7.2.1> kwan, b. s. c. (2021). formulating the direction of a study: variations across three epistemological traditions in information systems. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 42, 191-218. <https://doi.org/ 10.17398/2340-2784.42.191> le, t. n. p., & pham, m. m. (2020). genre practices in mechanical engineering academic articles: prototypicality and intra-disciplinary variation. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 39, 243-266. lim, j. m. h. (2011). delineating sampling procedures: pedagogical significance of analysing sampling descriptions and their justifications in tesl experimental research reports. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 21, 71-92. lim, j, m. h. (2012). elucidating data analysis procedures in research reports on language education: an inquiry into writers’ communicative resources. international journal of social science and humanity, 2(3), 260-269. lim, j. m. h. (2014). expert writers’ descriptions and justifications of research instruments and materials: using communicative resources to generate promotional effects. journal of applied linguistics and professional practice, 11(2), 154176. <https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.34704> lim, j. m. h. (2017). writing descriptions of experimental procedures in language education: implications for the teaching of english for academic purposes. english for specific purposes, 47, 61-80. <https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.esp.2017.05.001> lim, j. m. h. (2019). explicit and implicit justifications of experimental procedures in language education: pedagogical implications of studying expert writers’ communicative resources. journal of english for academic purposes, 37, 3451. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2018.10.006> lim, j. m. h, loi, c. k., & hashim, a. (2014). postulating hypotheses in experimental doctoral dissertations on applied linguistics: a qualitative investigation into rhetorical shifts and linguistic mechanisms, ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 27, 121-142. loi, c. k., & evans, m. s. (2010). cultural differences in the organization of research article introductions from the field of educational psychology: english and chinese. journal of pragmatics, 42(10), 2814-2825. <https://doi. org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.03.010> martin, j. (2017). studying persons in context: taking social psychological reality seriously. new ideas in psychology, 44, 28-33. <https://doi. org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2016.11.004> martín, p., & león pérez, i. k. (2014). convincing peers of the value of one’s research: a genre analysis of rhetorical promotion in academic texts. english for specific purposes, 34, 1-13. <https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2013.09.002> medina, d., & menjívar, c. (2015). the context of return migration: challenges of mixed-status families in mexico’s schools. ethnic and racial studies, 38(12), 2123-2139. <https://doi.org/10. 1080/01419870.2015.1036091> miles, m. b., huberman, a. m., & saldana, j. (2014). qualitative data analysis: a methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). sage. moghaddasi, s., & graves, h. a. b. (2017). “since hadwiger’s conjection… is still open”: establishing a niche for research in discrete mathematics research article introductions. english for specific purposes, 45, 69-85. <https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.esp.2016.09.003> moreno, a. i., & swales, j. m. (2018). strengthening move analysis methodology towards bridging the function-form gap. english for specific purposes, 50, 40-63. <https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.esp.2017.11.006> neuman, w. l. (2013). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches (7th ed.). pearson education. ozturk, i. (2007). the textual organisation of research article introductions in applied linguistics: variability within a single discipline. english for specific purposes, 26, 25-38. <https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.esp.2005.12.003> reich, m., & west, r. (2015). the effects of minimum wages on food stamp enrollment and expenditures. industrial relations, 54(4), 668-694. <https://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12110> samraj, b. (2005). an exploration of genre set: research article abstracts and introductions in two disciplines. english for specific purposes, 24, 141-156. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2002.10. 001> shehzad, w. (2008). move two: establishing a niche. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 15, 25-50. shehzad, w. (2010). announcement of the principal findings and value addition in computer science research papers. ibérica, journal of the xianqing luo is associate professor at jiangsu university of technology (china). his research interests include english for academic purposes and cross-cultural communications. his works have been published in esp today, southern african linguistics and applied language studies. jason miin-hwa lim is professor of linguistics and education at the ucsi university (malaysia). he has published extensively in domains relating to applied linguistics and language education. his works have been published in a range of established journals, including system, discourse studies, ibérica, journal of applied linguistics and professional practice, esp today, journal of english for academic purposes, and english for specific purposes. he was a fulbright research scholar at the university of michigan, and a research fellow at the seameo-relc in singapore. lim is an editorial board member of journal of english for academic purposes (elsevier). succinct summaries of research methods: a genre analysis of expert writers’ communicative resources in social sciences ibérica 44 (2022): 75-100 99 european association of languages for specific purposes, 19, 97-118. swales, j. m. (2004). research genres: exploration and applications. cambridge university press. takahashi, r. (2014). an analysis of elf-oriented features in elt coursebooks: are attitudes towards non-native varieties changing in english language teaching policy and practice in japan? english today, 30(1), 28-34. <https://doi.org/10.1017/ s0266078413000539> tessuto, g. (2015). generic structure and rhetorical moves in english-language empirical law research articles: sites of interdisciplinary and interdiscursive cross-over. english for specific purposes, 37, 13-26. <https://doi.org/10.1016 /j.esp.2014.06.002> thomson reuters. (2015). isi web of knowledge journal citation reports: 2015 jcr social science edition. <http://admin-apps.webofknowledge.com/ jcr/jcr> [accessed on 25/09/15]. whitfield, k., & strauss, g. (2000). methods matter: changes in industrial relations research and their implications. british journal of industrial relations, 38(1), 141-151. <https://doi.org/10. 1111/1467-8543.00155> 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper describes and reflects on endeavours to develop, design and assess an educational intervention to improve the academic english reading proficiency of first-year university students in ghana. the study, conducted within the framework of educational design research (edr), describes the development of an intervention in three different content areas: literature, chemistry and linguistics. the study shows that moving from problem identification to solution is a highly complicated process that is strongly influenced by contextual factors such as staff and student motivation, classroom facilities, and quality of the learning materials. after various cycles of formative evaluation, only the linguistics course design was fully successful in terms of design, evaluation and experimental set-up and resulted in a significant improvement of students’ academic reading proficiency and a significant increase of their time spent on reading for study purposes. the study shows how language skills development can be integrated successfully in content courses in a non-western university context. by doing so, it extends prior research in the area of content-based language instruction. keywords: curriculum research; academic literacy; english as a second language, content-based language instruction, reading proficiency. curriculum design in practice: improving the academic reading proficiency of first year university students lieke stoffelsmaa,b, isaac n. mwinlaaruc, gloria otchered, alfred l. owusu-ansahe, joseph a. adjeif aradboud university nijmegen (the netherlands), buniversity of south africa (pretoria), cthe hong kong polytechnic university (china), duniversity of oslo (norway), e,funiversity of cape coast (ghana) a,bl.stoffelsma@let.ru.nl, cisaac.mwinlaaru@connect.polyu.hk, dgloria.otchere@ilos.uio.no, ea.l.owusuansah@ucc.edu.gh & fextrajoseph2007@yahoo.co.uk 97 ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei resumen u n d is e ño c u rri c u l ar e n l a pr ác tic a : l a me jo ra d e l ni v e l e n l e c t ur a a c a dé mi c a d e l os a l umn os e n s u p ri me r a ño e n l a uni v e rs i da d este artículo describe y reflexiona sobre la tarea de desarrollar, diseñar y evaluar un proyecto educativo para mejorar la competencia de lectura académica en inglés de los alumnos de primer curso de universidad en ghana. el estudio, realizado en el marco de la investigación de diseño educativo (edr por sus siglas en inglés), describe el desarrollo de un proyecto en tres áreas de conocimiento diferentes: literatura, química y lingüística. el estudio demuestra que encontrar soluciones para los problemas identificados es un proceso altamente complejo que se está fuertemente influenciado por factores contextuales como la motivación de estudiantes y docentes, las instalaciones en las aulas o la calidad de los materiales docentes. tras varios ciclos de evaluación formativa, solo el diseño del curso de lingúística fue totalmente efectivo en términos de diseño, evaluación y desarrollo experimental y produjo una mejora significativa de la competencia en lectura académica de los alumnos y un notable incremento del tiempo dedicado a la lectura para el aprendizaje. el estudio muestra cómo el desarrollo de la destreza lingüística puede integrarse con eficacia en el ámbito de una universidad no occidental. de esta manera, se amplía la investigación sobre el aprendizaje integrado de idioma y contenido. palabras clave: investigación curricular, inglés como segunda lengua, instrucción basada en contenidos, alfabetización académica, competencia lectora. 1. introduction the increasing demand for the internationalisation of higher education continues to give prominence to english as the language of academic communication in non-native contexts. it has become a strategic linguistic choice not only for marketing universities and other institutions of higher learning, but also for meeting the challenge to produce competitive and efficient graduates for a world where globalisation of knowledge, institutions and professions is on an unprecedented rise (see coleman, 2006). in esl contexts, where english is often introduced as early as primary school, one would expect that the use of english for academic communication in higher education would not pose much of a problem. pre-university institutions, however, have a different culture as well as different practices and values from those of tertiary institutions, and this necessitates planned academic 98 literacy to enable fresh students to make an effective departure from their tertiary education career (johns & swales, 2002; afful, 2007; pérez-llantada, 2011). while there is paucity of innovation research addressing these issues in developing countries, such as those in west africa, there is an increasing body of research-based curriculum renewal in europe (e.g. pérez-llantada, 2001, 2011; shaw & mcmillion, 2011; moore, ploettner & deal, 2015), and asia (e.g. davison, 2006; yang, 2015). one approach that has recently garnered interest is content-based language instruction (cbli), a systematic collaboration between discipline specific teachers and language specialists to design and deliver disciplinary knowledge through english (see marsh, 2012 and carrió-pastor, 2009 for an overview).1 while studies generally show that this approach helps in developing discipline-specific language proficiency, it has been acknowledged that collaboration across disciplines is challenging and embodies complexities (e.g. davison, 2006). motivated by the lack of research that particularly investigates the complexities involved in collaboration, moore et al. (2015) have recently explored the interaction between a science teacher and a language expert in a collaborative learning project. they identified inter alia tensions evolving at disciplinary boundaries, institutional policies and increased workload as some of the challenges. as a step further, the present study reports on a larger scale research. it describes the processes and challenges involved in the design, implementation, and assessment of a curriculum innovation that integrates content and reading proficiency in a west african context, specifically ghana. the study is conducted against the background of the quest among ghanaian universities to prepare first year students to meet the reading demands of university education. in ghana, english is the medium of instruction from upper primary (grade four to six) throughout the rest of the curriculum. in the 1980’s, however, university educators realised the inadequacy of pre-university language instruction in equipping students for tertiary education. various universities have since then individually designed a compulsory first year communicative skills (cs) subject. although the content and duration of cs vary across universities, the underlying objective is to improve students’ academic communication in english. our study focuses on two teacher education universities where similar cs subjects are being offered. cs in these universities is a three credit hour subject, spanning two curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 99 semesters, and students are required to pass it in order to progress to the second year of their study. while the first semester component focuses on reading and study skills, that of the second semester focuses on writing skills, with each component substantially integrating grammatical knowledge and practice. tuition is in the form of lectures, supported by textbooks prepared by staff of the english departments and reading exercises are normally based on short passages from periodicals and general literature. although the importance of cs in improving students’ linguistic competence has been acknowledged by both students and teachers, there are calls to renew the curricula. the main concern is the lack of connection between cs and the linguistic demands of disciplinary specific subjects (afful, 2007). a recent survey has also pointed to students’ dissatisfaction with aspects of the reading component and the need to equip learners with relevant vocabulary (gborsong et al., 2015). in addition, the lack of sufficient language teachers results in large class sizes and, in many cases, teachers without language training are recruited as instructors. as an initial step in addressing this problem, the current study sets out to investigate how the academic literacy skills of students can be improved through a collaborative integration of content and language instruction, with a particular focus on reading. although cbli is predominantly associated with european institutions, it has also been used in asia (e.g. davison, 2006; yang, 2015) and south africa (e.g. parkinson, 2000; jacobs, 2007) with success as well as challenges with regards to collaboration. however, while cbli is predominantly introduced as a new language support curriculum, in the present study, it is used as an innovation in an existing curriculum (see kennedy, 1988 and white, 1988: ch. 8 & 9 on innovation). the participants of the study were b.ed. students, mostly between 19 21 years old. three subject areas were chosen for the study, namely literature, chemistry and english linguistics. the study was guided by the following research question: what are the characteristics of discipline specific teaching and learning activities that could lead to an improvement of english reading proficiency of first-year university students in ghana? this general question is examined by addressing more specific research questions noted in the following section. l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124100 2. design of the research the study was conducted within the framework of educational design research (edr). this approach includes the design, development and evaluation of educational interventions as a solution to particular educational problems. in addition, it yields knowledge about the processes to design and develop interventions and their characteristics (plomp, 2007). edr is therefore an approach for investigating the effectiveness of a curriculum or educational innovation (cf. kennedy, 1988; white, 1988: ch. 8 & 9). six quality criteria proposed by nieveen (2007) were adopted in systematically identifying the nature of the research problem and designing an intervention to address it. these criteria are relevance, consistency, expected practicality, actual practicality, expected effectiveness, and actual effectiveness. following plomp (2007), we operationalised these criteria by organising the study into three phases: a context analysis and problem identification phase (phase 1), a prototyping phase (phase 2) and a summative assessment phase (phase 3) (see figure 1). the main objective of the context analysis and problem identification phase was to investigate the following questions: rq1. what are the characteristics of the academic english reading context of first-year b.ed. students at the two teacher education universities? rq2. is there a need for an intervention that emphasises improving academic english reading proficiency of first year students at the two teacher education universities? (relevance) three separate lead-in studies were conducted, using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. the results of these studies have been published separately (stoffelsma & spooren, 2013; stoffelsma, forthcoming; stoffelsma & de jong, 2015) and they form the basis of the intervention reported in this study (see section 3.2). a set of tentative design guidelines was formulated for the prototyping phase (phase 2) based on the results of the lead-in studies (see appendix i & section 4.2). two prototypes were developed as preliminary versions of the teaching and learning activities to improve academic english reading proficiency (see sections 4.4 & 4.8). the development of prototypes consisted of a number of iterations, each of curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 101 which was evaluated formatively. four research questions were addressed in the prototyping phase: rq3. is the intervention logically designed? (consistency) rq4. is the intervention expected to be usable in first-year courses at the two teacher education universities? (expected practicality) rq5. is the intervention usable in first-year courses at the two teacher education universities? (actual practicality) rq6. is the intervention expected to result in improved academic english reading proficiency of first-year students at the two teacher education universities? (expected effectiveness) the final prototype, the intervention proper, was evaluated in the summative evaluation based on the following question (see section 5): rq7. does the intervention result in the desired outcomes? (actual effectiveness) we will organise the rest of the paper according to the three phases in which the study unfolds, and conclude it with reflections on issues encountered in the research. l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124102 l. stoffelsmaa, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah, j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): …-… figure 1. overall research design (based on dowse & howie, 2013). 3. phase 1: context analysis and problem identification (rq1 & rq2) this section proceeds to discuss the findings of the context analysis and identifies pertinent problems that are subsequently addressed in the study. the context analysis essentially consists of information gathering. as innovation scholars note, it is necessary to classify information for context analysis under two headings: “what we already know and what we need to know” (white, 1988: 146, original emphasis). we operationalise the first of these two aspects of context analysis in the form of a literature review supported by our own experience (section 3.1) and the second in the form of the three lead-in studies .n.i,aamlsffetosl. , guraalinw m ehct. o, g usuwo.la.re, adja..jansah, eiadj 1e gurfi . erllareov 3. 1:eashp ant xteonc 2)q& r dotsdeecorpnoitcessith ,eiwoh&eswodnodesab(ngisedhcraese edim elobrpdansiysalan cehtfosgnidnehtssucsid )3102, . 1 q(ronaticfitin dnasisylanatxetnoc 3 3aicréib 710 (2 ): …-…6 dotsdeecorpnoitcessith smleborpt netinrepsneid ylalitensessisyalantextnco yrssaecens iti,etons ralohsc “: sgindaehotw rla )sisphamelnagiior146,1988: mre htnisisyalantextnco dan)1.3noiects(ce enierpex cehtfosgnidnehtssucsid sserddatlyneuqesbuserat ath erhatgnoiatmrnifostsisnco ocrnoitamrnissialcoty eand nowkadyer oftsrhetesilonaitaropeew.) pusewievre ruatertila fom ehtnidnecose ht eh o dnasisylanatxetnoc eht. ydtusethindes noiatvonnisa.gnier rednus siylanatxetno nowko td e e,tihw(” ofstcpesao wteshetof nworuoybedopp dae leerh t siedtusin l. stoffelsmaa, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah, j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): …-… figure 1. overall research design (based on dowse & howie, 2013). 3. phase 1: context analysis and problem identification (rq1 & rq2) this section proceeds to discuss the findings of the context analysis and identifies pertinent problems that are subsequently addressed in the study. the context analysis essentially consists of information gathering. as innovation scholars note, it is necessary to classify information for context analysis under two headings: “what we already know and what we need to know” (white, 1988: 146, original emphasis). we operationalise the first of these two aspects of context analysis in the form of a literature review supported by our own experience (section 3.1) and the second in the form of the three lead-in studies .n.i,aamlsffetosl. , guraalinw m ehct. o, g usuwo.la.re, adja..jansah, eiadj 1e gurfi . erllareov 3. 1:eashp ant xteonc 2)q& r dotsdeecorpnoitcessith ,eiwoh&eswodnodesab(ngisedhcraese edim elobrpdansiysalan cehtfosgnidnehtssucsid )3102, . 1 q(ronaticfitin dnasisylanatxetnoc 3 3aicréib 710 (2 ): …-…6 dotsdeecorpnoitcessith smleborpt netinrepsneid ylalitensessisyalantextnco yrssaecens iti,etons ralohsc “: sgindaehotw rla )sisphamelnagiior146,1988: mre htnisisyalantextnco dan)1.3noiects(ce enierpex cehtfosgnidnehtssucsid sserddatlyneuqesbuserat ath erhatgnoiatmrnifostsisnco ocrnoitamrnissialcoty eand nowkadyer oftsrhetesilonaitaropeew.) pusewievre ruatertila fom ehtnidnecose ht eh o dnasisylanatxetnoc eht. ydtusethindes noiatvonnisa.gnier rednus siylanatxetno nowko td e e,tihw(” ofstcpesao wteshetof nworuoybedopp dae leerh t siedtusin 3. phase 1: context analysis and problem identification (rq1 & rq2) this section proceeds to discuss the findings of the context analysis and identifies pertinent problems that are subsequently addressed in the study. the context analysis essentially consists of information gathering. as innovation scholars note, it is necessary to classify information for context analysis under two headings: “what we already know and what we need to know” (white, 1988: 146, original emphasis). we operationalise the first of these two aspects of context analysis in the form of a literature review, supported by our own experience (section 3.1) and the second in the form of the three lead-in studies (section 3.2). context analyses play a crucial role in edr. rather than comparing whether, in a certain context, method a is better than method b, design research is aimed at developing an optimal solution for a problem in context (reeves, 2006). prior to developing this solution, several studies must inform the researchers about the characteristics of that particular context. 3.1. outcomes of the literature review our literature review shows that the development of ghanaian students’ linguistic and learning abilities has been influenced by a number of sociocultural factors. firstly, the core cultural values in ghanaian schools promote teacher-centred approaches, content-driven pedagogy and oral responses to teacher’s questions (heyneman, 2009). at tertiary level, the system of rote learning, verbal recall and memorisation of statements is found to be prevalent in the b.ed. science and mathematics programmes at teacher education universities (de feiter, 2006). this culture is not conducive to actively engaging students in independent reading and deeper learning. as noted earlier, the cs subject in these universities, in spite of its benefits, fails to connect reading instruction with the disciplinary needs of students, resulting in students’ inability to appreciate, transfer and consolidate the skills in their long term university studies (afful, 2007; gborsong et al., 2015). the main question addressed in this study is how we can best teach l2 university students in ghana to become better readers in their disciplines. there is sufficient evidence in the literature to justify the assumption that cognitive strategies and, more crucially for our context, motivation for l2 reading comprehension are learnable and teachable (grabe, 2009). building curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 103 on prior reviews of reading theory, grabe (2009) presents a set of instructional implications to strengthen l2 reading comprehension. the following four instructional implications are relevant to this study: emphasize academic and content specific vocabulary, teach text structures, promote extensive reading and develop motivation for reading. 3.2. cycle 1: outcomes of studies i, ii and iii based on our lead-in studies, several characteristics of the academic reading context (rq1) and factors were identified that justified an intervention (rq2). lack of space prevents a full description of the outcomes. only the most important findings are reported. study i identified positive correlations between reading behaviour, attitude and self-concept of first-year university students in ghana (stoffelsma & spooren, 2013), which implied that including additional reading activities in the curricula should lead to more positive reading attitudes and self-concepts. study ii is based on a sample of 496 first-year b.ed. students from the two universities, and showed that 52% of the students manifested a reading ability that was not sufficiently adequate for reading academic expository texts (stoffelsma & de jong, 2015). this observation justifies an intervention to improve their reading proficiency. study iii investigated the academic teaching and learning context at the institutions and indicated that ghanaian students’ problems with academic reading skills have been built up in primary and secondary schools, due to a system of “spoon-feeding” and lack of resources and books. therefore, many students who come in at tertiary level are not trained to be independent learners. this corroborates the observation that the practices of pre-university education are always different from the demands of higher education, thereby justifying the need for transitional support programmes (johns & swales, 2002; pérez-llantada, 2011). in the ghanaian context, once students are in university, problems with academic reading are partly maintained because of a number of contextual factors such as lack of textbooks, the use of lecture notes, and large class sizes with few possibilities for individual attention (stoffelsma, forthcoming). the next section presents the design of a remedial intervention to improve students reading proficiency. l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124104 4. phase 2: design, development and implementation 4.1. cycle 2: workshop i and creation of design team the communicative approach to educational design research as proposed by visscher-voerman and gustafson (2004) acknowledges the influence of social context on design and is characterised by building relationships with stakeholders to discuss and agree upon the standards and design process and final product (also see kennedy, 1988; white, 1988: ch. 9). working together with users and stakeholders and giving them the opportunity to contribute to the design increases the likelihood that they experience ownership of the product and that it is implemented and used correctly. onukaogu (2001), for instance, reports on the failure of a language support programme in nigerian universities due to lack of enough consultation and involvement of teachers in the design of the project. following visscher-voerman and gustafson (2004), we established a teacher design team for each of the two universities to design and develop the prototypes. a teacher design team can be described as “a group of at least two teachers, from the same or related subjects, working together on a regular basis, with the goal to (re)design and enact (a part of) their common curriculum” (handelzalts, 2009: 7). a team of five teachers was established for one university and a team of six for the other.2 participation was voluntary. following the local standards, team members were financially remunerated for their design work. this was considered appropriate since the lecturers were in an administrative system that includes the payment for tasks that are considered “additional” to their normal tasks (see kennedy, 1988: 337). research has shown that the design process and the quality of the design materials are expected to improve when offering support to design teams (huizinga, handelzalts, nieveen & voogt, 2014). tailored support was provided in two ways. specific training sessions were held to train the teachers in curriculum design expertise and pedagogical content knowledge. furthermore, the design teams were guided on-the-job while designing their courses. a number of international advisors provided feedback during the process. the various design stages are presented in table 1. curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 105 4.2. cycle 2: initial design guidelines van den akker (1999: 5) distinguishes between design principles of a “substantive nature” that refer to the characteristics of the intervention (what the design should look like), and design principles of a “procedural” nature (how the design should be developed). this distinction is well reflected in the format in which van den akker (2010) proposes to frame design principles: if you want to design intervention x [for purpose/function y in context z]; then you are best advised to give that intervention the characteristics c1, c2, …, cm [substantive emphasis]; and to do that via procedures p1, p2, …, pn [methodological emphasis]; because of theoretical arguments t1, t2, …, tp; and empirical arguments e1, e2, …, eq. l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124106 curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): …-… in two ways. specific training sessions were held to train the teachers in curriculum design expertise and pedagogical content knowledge. furthermore, the design teams were guided on-the-job while designing their courses. a number of international advisors provided feedback during the process. the various design stages are presented in table 1. quality criterion development stage methods used evaluators consistency (rq3) design principles expert appraisal on initial design principles. ghanaian design teams international scholar in curriculum development and design research international scholar in second language acquisition consistency and expected practicality (rq3, rq4) global design interactive 2-day workshop in ghana with design teams. decisions on details of intervention: 3 courses selected. 11 academic staff 2 international advisors, and principal investigator consistency and expected practicality (rq3, rq4) partly detailed intervention expert appraisal of first three prototypes. screening followed by group discussion international scholar in curriculum development and design research international scholar in second language acquisition international scholar in english linguistics actual practicality (rq5) partly detailed intervention micro-evaluation of one lecture per institution design team, students and principal investigator actual practicality and expected effectiveness (rq5, rq6) partly detailed intervention classroom observation interviews with staff and students design team and principal investigator actual effectiveness (rq7) complete intervention (final prototype) experiment: reading proficiency test (preand post-test design) interviews with staff and students design team and principal investigator table 1. formative evaluation of design stages. 4.2. cycle 2: initial design guidelines van den akker (1999: 5) distinguishes between design principles of a “substantive nature” that refer to the characteristics of the intervention (what the design should look like), and design principles of a “procedural” nature (how the design should be developed). this distinction is well reflected in the format in which van den akker (2010) proposes to frame design principles: based on the theoretical [t1, t2, …, tp] and empirical arguments [e1, e2, …, eq] that were identified in the context analysis and problem identification phase (see section 3), a set of 14 “tentative” design principles [c1, c2, …, cm] was established for the development of a reading intervention programme (see appendix 1). these tentative design principles functioned as a starting point for the development of the prototypes. throughout the various research cycles (analysis, design, evaluation and reflection) the prototypes were refined by the design teams. simultaneously, an inventory was made of the procedural characteristics that best suited the design [p1, p2, …, pn]. by the end of the evaluation, a reduced set of “final” design principles remained. 4.3. cycle 2: expert appraisal i two international advisors and the ghanaian design teams were invited to participate in the appraisal of the tentative design principles (rq3) through individual interviews (advisors) and group interviews (design teams). the majority of the design principles were considered appropriate and logical to the reviewers. the ghanaian design teams were cautious about dp7 (on online reading activities) due to the lack of ict infrastructure and limited ict knowledge of staff and students. the international advisors cautioned about reading for enjoyment activities (dp11) within the academic curriculum since this type of reading does not involve academic vocabulary and style. furthermore, the amount of extra work for dp12 (performing an entry level test) was considered too high. based on the appraisal, principles 11 and 12 were excluded from the list. since the feedback on online activities mainly came from one of the two institutions, dp7 was kept on the list. 4.4. cycle 3: global design workshop and prototype 1 the global design was specified during a design-team workshop. the results of the context analysis and problem identification were taken as a starting point for the design process. a selection of the courses for the intervention was made by the design teams. the following criteria were used for the identification of suitable courses: course level: the course should be a first-year course, so that students who came in straight from secondary schools would benefit most from the intervention. curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 107 course material: the course should already include long expository texts in english that students are expected to read. course set-up: there should be a possibility to divide the course into control and experimental groups. target audience: the course should target similar student populations as the samples used in studies i-iii (sciences, mathematics, arts and social sciences). availability: the course lecturer has to be available and willing to participate in the research. based on these criteria, the design teams identified the following courses as suitable and available for the research: introduction to literature, basic general chemistry, and the use of english. over the years, the usual mode of teaching introduction to literature and the use of english had been by lectures only while basic general chemistry had been taught through lectures, laboratory experiments and tutorials. also, students taking basic general chemistry comprised b.ed (chemistry) and b.ed (mathematics) students, each of whom formed one tutorial group. an experimental set-up was chosen to determine the effect of the intervention. students were split into experimental and control groups for the course tutorials (1 hour per week with approximately 2 hours of homework per week). for each course, all students participated in the same 2-hour lecture per week and read the same texts. tutorials were designed to discuss homework and to do activities in class to process the content that was presented during the lectures. the design of the homework and tutorial activities for the experimental groups was guided by the tentative design principles, whereas the control groups followed the course design as used in the previous years. for the purpose of emphasizing students’ vocabulary building, the experimental groups were given notebooks for writing down new words. finally, all students received a hard copy of the homework assignments on a weekly basis (see stoffelsma & spooren (2017) for details of the experimental set-up). the existing descriptions of the courses were used as a starting point for the design. the design principles were used as a framework and translated into student activities. design tools, such as course templates and evaluation guidelines were provided to the teams (cf. huizinga et al., 2014). all teams used the same course description format based on the ones already in use at l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124108 the institutions: course title, course lecturer, date, target audience, topic of the lecture/tutorial, summary of the lecture/tutorial, learning objectives (knowledge, skills and attitudes, and homework). in order to make the design phase manageable, the teams decided to choose five tentative design principles as a starting point for the initial design. based on their personal teaching experiences, they identified the following tentative design principles as most important: dp1 (teaching text structure), dp2 (homework linked to assessment), dp9 (vocabulary training), dp13 (motivate students to read) and dp14 (active learning strategies). these were used as a framework for the drafting of the first course descriptions while the other dp’s were integrated in the activities as much as possible. for example, the activity described in exhibit 1 (signal words) integrates five dps at the same time: text structure (highlight key words), assessment (presentation of key words during tutorial), large classes (method of group discussions), active learning (presentations of findings during tutorial), and learning new vocabulary (keeping track of these signalling words in a vocabulary notebook). 4.5. cycle 3: expert appraisal ii five weeks after the teams started designing their first course descriptions, an expert appraisal was organised to evaluate the consistency and expected practicality of the first prototypes (rq3 and rq4). the purpose of the review was to evaluate the instruction in terms of “intrinsic merits such as content accuracy or technical quality” (tessmer, 1993: 47). the following question was addressed by the advisors: what is the internal consistency and practicality of the reading activities incorporated in the courses? the overall feedback from the advisors was positive. they found the activities in line with the rationale of the intervention. they made the following suggestions for change: 1. add procedural specifications to the course descriptions, in the form of “teacher guides”. curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 109 l. stoffelsmaa, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah, j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): …-… the drafting of the first course descriptions while the other dp’s were integrated in the activities as much as possible. for example, the activity described in exhibit 1 (signal words) integrates five dps at the same time: text structure (highlight key words), assessment (presentation of key words during tutorial), large classes (method of group discussions), active learning (presentations of findings during tutorial), and learning new vocabulary (keeping track of these signalling words in a vocabulary notebook). design principle related homework and tutorial activity (1) text structure: signal words preview the text and highlight key-words that signal text structure. discuss the function of these words in groups. present your key-words and their function during the tutorial. keep track of these signalling words in your vocabulary notebook. exhibit 1. example of a homework assignment for the linguistics experimental group. 4.5. cycle 3: expert appraisal ii five weeks after the teams started designing their first course descriptions, an expert appraisal was organised to evaluate the consistency and expected practicality of the first prototypes (rq3 and rq4). the purpose of the review was to evaluate the instruction in terms of “intrinsic merits such as content accuracy or technical quality” (tessmer, 1993: 47). the following question was addressed by the advisors: what is the internal consistency and practicality of the reading activities incorporated in the courses? the overall feedback from the advisors was positive. they found the activities in line with the rationale of the intervention. they made the following suggestions for change: 1. add procedural specifications to the course descriptions, in the form of “teacher guides”. 2. make course activities more in line with each other. equal time should be spent on vocabulary and strategic reading activities in all tutorials. 3. diminish the amount of activities. in the current versions there is an overload. 4. decide up front what kind of vocabulary students would have to learn and design activities accordingly. 4.6. cycle 3: refinement of prototypes the suggestions were discussed and incorporated into new versions of the prototypes. firstly, the 300 most frequently used academic words from the nottingham academic word list (awl) were used as a resource for the vocabulary assignments. selected course texts were screened for awl words, which were integrated into student assignments. additionally, the design teams 2. make course activities more in line with each other. equal time should be spent on vocabulary and strategic reading activities in all tutorials. 3. diminish the amount of activities. in the current versions there is an overload. 4. decide up front what kind of vocabulary students would have to learn and design activities accordingly. 4.6. cycle 3: refinement of prototypes the suggestions were discussed and incorporated into new versions of the prototypes. firstly, the 300 most frequently used academic words from the nottingham academic word list (awl) were used as a resource for the vocabulary assignments. selected course texts were screened for awl words, which were integrated into student assignments. additionally, the design teams chose the most important content words for each course (literature, chemistry and linguistics). in total, 120 academic and content words were selected per course for the entire semester. an example of a weekly vocabulary assignment is presented in exhibit 2. in addition, some assignments were included that paid attention to the meaning of words in different contexts. l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124110 curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): …-… chose the most important content words for each course (literature, chemistry and linguistics). in total, 120 academic and content words were selected per course for the entire semester. an example of a weekly vocabulary assignment is presented in exhibit 2. in addition, some assignments were included that paid attention to the meaning of words in different contexts. exhibit 2. example of a vocabulary assignment for the experimental group in chemistry week 3. secondly, a list of specific intended learning outcomes for text structure, vocabulary, and reading motivation was developed per course (see appendix ii and iii). the intended learning outcomes were based on bloom’s taxonomy of learning objectives, in which he classified educational objectives into three domains: cognitive (e.g. knowledge, comprehension, analysis, evaluation), affective (attitude) and psychomotor (skills) (bloom, engelhart, furst, hill & krathwohl, 1956). the learning outcomes were translated into student activities. one member of the design team with a background in linguistics assisted in the chemistry course with the development of the homework assignments. as studies show, collaboration between language teachers and content teachers is key for negotiating disciplinary boundaries, in general, and for the success of cbli (davison, 2006; moore et al., 2015). the intended learning outcomes for the control groups were all related to the course subject matters (literature, chemistry, and linguistics). thirdly, a student guide was developed with background information on text structures (e.g. paragraphs, topic sentence), skimming, summarising and vocabulary. the 300 most frequently used academic words from the awl were included in the student guide. curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): …-… chose the most important content words for each course (literature, chemistry and linguistics). in total, 120 academic and content words were selected per course for the entire semester. an example of a weekly vocabulary assignment is presented in exhibit 2. in addition, some assignments were included that paid attention to the meaning of words in different contexts. exhibit 2. example of a vocabulary assignment for the experimental group in chemistry week 3. secondly, a list of specific intended learning outcomes for text structure, vocabulary, and reading motivation was developed per course (see appendix ii and iii). the intended learning outcomes were based on bloom’s taxonomy of learning objectives, in which he classified educational objectives into three domains: cognitive (e.g. knowledge, comprehension, analysis, evaluation), affective (attitude) and psychomotor (skills) (bloom, engelhart, furst, hill & krathwohl, 1956). the learning outcomes were translated into student activities. one member of the design team with a background in linguistics assisted in the chemistry course with the development of the homework assignments. as studies show, collaboration between language teachers and content teachers is key for negotiating disciplinary boundaries, in general, and for the success of cbli (davison, 2006; moore et al., 2015). the intended learning outcomes for the control groups were all related to the course subject matters (literature, chemistry, and linguistics). thirdly, a student guide was developed with background information on text structures (e.g. paragraphs, topic sentence), skimming, summarising and vocabulary. the 300 most frequently used academic words from the awl were included in the student guide. secondly, a list of specific intended learning outcomes for text structure, vocabulary, and reading motivation was developed per course (see appendix ii and iii). the intended learning outcomes were based on bloom’s taxonomy of learning objectives, in which he classified educational objectives into three domains: cognitive (e.g. knowledge, comprehension, analysis, evaluation), affective (attitude) and psychomotor (skills) (bloom, engelhart, furst, hill & krathwohl, 1956). the learning outcomes were translated into student activities. one member of the design team with a background in linguistics assisted in the chemistry course with the development of the homework assignments. as studies show, collaboration between language teachers and content teachers is key for negotiating disciplinary boundaries, in general, and for the success of cbli (davison, 2006; moore et al., 2015). the intended learning outcomes for the control groups were all related to the course subject matters (literature, chemistry, and linguistics). thirdly, a student guide was developed with background information on text structures (e.g. paragraphs, topic sentence), skimming, summarising and vocabulary. the 300 most frequently used academic words from the awl were included in the student guide. finally, a weekly teacher guide was developed for each course in which planning of the lectures and reading motivation activities were specifically addressed. the timely distribution of hard-copy materials and sufficient texts among the students formed an important aspect of fostering reading motivation. 4.7. cycle 4: micro-evaluation, team meetings and classroom observations following the planning of the formative evaluation process, the final course designs were evaluated in three separate steps to assess actual practicality and expected effectiveness (rq5, rq6), leading to a second prototype. in practice, the three courses did not follow the same steps of formative evaluation due to logistical and contextual factors. therefore, the results of the final steps will be presented separately for each course. 4.7.1. introduction to literature unfortunately, four months after the literature team started designing their first course description it was decided to stop the intervention. the expected curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 111 effectiveness of the complete intervention was rated too low to continue. during the preceding design phases a number of difficulties had been encountered that eventually resulted in this decision. difficulties included: i) lack of textbooks for students; ii) lack of internet and computer facilities; iii) three female staff members left the project prematurely for study abroad purposes; iv) disappointment of the team with the feedback from the expert appraisal, which they perceived as a failure; v) finally, the work had been more demanding than the team had anticipated. we can summarise these reasons into three broad issues. the first is the lack of logistics and the pressure on the limited resources of a developing institution. the second relates to conflicts emerging between an “outsider” (i.e. the advisors) introducing an innovation to “insider” faculty (i.e. the design team) who either do not clearly perceive the benefits to be gained by the change or who consider their personal loss to be greater than the gains (kennedy, 1988: 333). third, as white (1988) notes, appraisal in innovation projects can be perceived by teachers to be face threatening and often leads to crisis. 4.7.2. basic general chemistry 4.7.2.1. actual practicality (rq5) the intervention in practice was faced with a number of challenges. first, dividing the group into equal samples for the control and experimental groups was difficult because of the course schedules of the students (see stoffelsma & spooren, (2017), for details). a second challenge was keeping the students from the control and experimental groups apart. at the beginning of the experiment, students from the control group had the tendency to attend the tutorials for the experimental group because they were under the impression that, in the experimental group, concepts were explained in more detail. after the second week, the teacher started using class lists to check attendance to prevent the students from sitting in the wrong group. a third challenge was the marking of the homework. students in the experimental group wanted to get grades for their homework; however, the tutorial assignments were not integrated into the course grading system. due to the large number of students enrolled for the entire course (about 1000-1200), students were divided into several groups, which were taught by different teachers. consequently, it was impossible to adjust the grading system for only the participating group for the sake of the project. eventually, the students accepted this. l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124112 further, there were logistical issues. the tutorials were held in a laboratory with an insufficient number of chairs. as a result, some of the students had to stand during the entire tutorial. during the first week, it was difficult for the course representative to distribute the homework to the control and experimental group separately. this problem was solved during the third week. finally, the homework assignments for the experimental and control groups were based on the textbook general chemistry: principles and modern applications, 9th international edition (petrucci, harwood, madura & herring, 2006). only eight of the students in the experimental group had a copy of the textbook. the others had to work with photocopies or access the book in the departmental library. a complicating factor was that only students from the education department had access to the course book in their departmental library, whereas the core science students did not have this access. in summary, the challenges here comprised the difficulty in altering institutional arrangements (established class groupings and schedules) for an experimental set-up, difficulties with students’ collaboration and logistics. 4.7.2.2. expected effectiveness (rq6) classroom observations and interviews with staff and students revealed three issues that influenced the expected effectiveness of the prototype: the teaching approach and motivation of the teacher, the attitude of the students, and the teaching approach of the other teachers involved in the course. a few training sessions were organized for the chemistry teacher with his colleague from the english department on how the reading assignments should be dealt with in class. observations revealed that, over time, the teacher grew in his role as motivator for students to engage in reading. also, his capacity of teaching chemistry vocabulary, text structures and engaging students to read improved during the course of the semester. lesson observations revealed that he used an interactive teaching approach for both the control and experimental groups. he questioned students about the concepts he had introduced, he made them write on the blackboard and he frequently asked if the students had understood what he had said in class. students generally commented positively on his teaching, especially because he allowed them to ask questions: yeah, this one, when we attend this tutorial we have enough time to ask questions. (…) actually he takes his time to explain those things to us. he is a very good teacher, very good. (che, g1/s3) curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 113 on the other hand, the chemistry lecturer experienced great initial resistance from the students in the experimental group. the resistance stopped after the third week of the semester. students then realised that the assignments helped them to prepare for quizzes and that they performed better than the students from other groups. interviews revealed that, in the end, students valued the vocabulary and text comprehension assignments. they stated that it helped them in reading and understanding the chemistry course book and stimulated them to use a dictionary. an important difference between the control and the experimental groups was that the control group stated that they were mostly taught how to solve chemistry problems, whereas the students from the experimental group specifically mentioned that the course had made them more capable of understanding concepts. 4.7.3. the use of english 4.7.3.1. actual practicality (rq5) the homework assignments for the experimental and control groups from the linguistics course were based on expository texts from journal articles, textbooks and popular magazines. the amount of time that the groups were expected to spend on homework was equal for all groups. the design team faced three challenges with regard to the usability of the intervention in practice. due to the delayed admission of first-year students, some students started late and did not participate in the pre-test. furthermore, some students from the experimental group had joined the control group on a few occasions. eventually, a class attendance list was used to address this problem. finally, in spite of the equal division of tasks on paper, students from the experimental group reported spending more time on their homework than those from the control groups. thus, while the issue of logistics was not an issue here, there were still problems with institutional arrangements (late admission) and difficulty with student collaboration and the need for negotiation. 4.7.3.2. expected effectiveness (rq6) two factors influenced the expected effectiveness of the linguistics intervention: the teaching approach of the lecturer, and the attitude and learning capabilities of the students. firstly, both the micro-evaluation and classroom observations revealed a highly professional performance of the lecturer. she was enthusiastic but critical, demonstrated a positive attitude l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124114 towards the students and actively involved them in the course. many students raised their hands voluntarily to answer questions and also students at the back of the classroom were included in the classroom activities. most students seemed very well prepared and replied well to the questions. the lecturer checked regularly with the group if they were still following her and she did not hold back in addressing inattentive students. furthermore, the lecturer explained the concepts clearly and calmly, and made frequent use of the blackboard. she often walked around and gave personal feedback to the students. although the team tried to divide the homework equally over both groups, the assignments for the experimental group were more difficult and thus more time consuming. consequently, classroom observations revealed that the experimental group did not respond as enthusiastically and spontaneously as the control group. this probably has to do with the fact that the experimental group had to work harder and students were more serious. in spite of this, the vocabulary and text comprehension assignments were evaluated positively by all students. during interviews, the students reported to have improved on their vocabulary and language and spelling skills: … you know, english serves as the basis for the reading of subjects in this institution. so, as we engage in this reading or tutorial assignments and the works that we read, it kind of helps us and also introduces us to new words that we are finding in other courses that we read. (eng, g4/s2) 4.8. cycle 4: prototype 2 the prototypes for both chemistry and linguistics were revised on two occasions. the first revision was based on the second expert appraisal (consistency and expected practicality) and had the greatest impact on the design. for all courses, procedural specifications were added in the form of teacher guides and expected learning outcomes were specified in more detail. the number of assignments per week was drastically reduced, which made the design less ambitious and more realistic. the focus of the vocabulary component was structured and based on the awl and course-specific vocabulary only. although these modifications changed the design for the better, some team members were disappointed by the fact that some of the work had to be done all over again. the second round of revision was based on two micro-evaluations, several team meetings during the semester and multiple classroom observations. curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 115 this time around, the modifications were less drastic and concentrated more on the refinement of the exercises. for example, some of the assignments for the linguistics course were rephrased in order to improve students understanding of the questions. secondly, students were asked to select words themselves for the vocabulary assignments, in addition to working with the pre-set lists of words only. this was done to give room to the students to build their own vocabulary lists and stimulate ownership of their own vocabulary development. finally, based on the responses in class, it was decided to take a break of 3-4 weeks from the topic sentence in both courses. 5. phase 3: assessment (actual effectiveness) 5.1. cycle 5: prepost-test experiment the actual effectiveness of the complete intervention (rq7) was evaluated through an experiment, including a reading pre-test and a reading post-test. general findings will be reported here; for a full description of the summative assessment, see stoffelsma and spooren (2017). by the end of the intervention, the linguistics experimental group had improved significantly on their academic reading proficiency (t(31) = 1.68, p = 0.05). they had also improved slightly more on their academic reading proficiency than their peers in the control group although the difference between the two groups was only marginal in terms of statistical significance (t(54) = 1.33, p = 0.09). the improvement of students’ reading proficiency could not be established for the chemistry students as a stand-alone group. due to timetable restrictions on the course, it was not possible to equally divide the b.ed. mathematics and b.ed. science students over the experimental and control groups. consequently, it was not possible to use the same sampling strategy as was used for “the use of english”. the chemistry experimental group, therefore, contained only b.ed. chemistry students (n=20), while the control group contained only b.ed. mathematics students (n=8), whose number was deemed too low to be an independent group in the analyses. however, the results show that the time spent on reading in english for study purposes had increased significantly more for the the experimental groups (chemistry and linguistics combined) than for the control groups (t(76) = 1.66, p = 0.05). this improved academic reading proficiency, however, did not affect the results of the final course exams. l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124116 5.2. cycle 5: final prototype and design principles the study started with fourteen tentative design principles (see appendix 1). during the process of design, development, implementation and assessment, the list of “tentative” design principles evolved into six “final” design principles as follows. • dp1 (text structures) focused on identifying basic features of text organisation (i.e. headings, sub-headings, paragraphs), identifying topic sentences, summarizing, and explaining different functions of a text. in general, students found these assignments difficult. • dp2 (assessment) was applied through inspection of the homework and quizzes. • dp8 (provision of texts) was very much appreciated by the students. this was not common practice in many courses in the curriculum. • dp9 (vocabulary) was implemented successfully in both courses. students were actively involved in collecting words for their vocabulary notebooks which were checked in class every week. • dp13 (teacher as role model) classroom observations clearly showed that teachers motivated students to improve their reading skills through various classroom activities. • dp14 (active learning) appeared to be one of the most fundamental principles during the intervention. active learning was supported through timely provision of reading materials and homework assignments, classroom interaction and discussion, and a teaching approach in which students were given responsibility for their own (language) learning eight out of fourteen design principles did not make it to the final list, mostly due to practical constraints. no large classes were part of the experiment so dp3 was not relevant in practice. there was no time available for extra tests to monitor progress (dp5), nor to engage students in extensive reading (dp10). lack of staff time and computers combined with unreliable internet facilities prevented the realisation of dp7. since preselected texts were used, dp6 was discarded. finally, no specific measures curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 117 were taken to prevent cheating (dp4), but the use of small groups and interactive teaching prevented cheating indirectly. four factors played an important role in the successful development and implementation of the prototypes. firstly, the cooperation within the design team was based on the communicative approach (visscher-voerman & gustafson, 2004). a lot of effort was invested in working jointly with design team members and creating ownership of the design (kennedy, 1988). this allowed for the principal investigator and the design teams to learn from each other during the revisions of the prototypes. secondly, research has shown that the amount of time that design research requires from its researchers should not be underestimated (leeman & wardekker, 2011). if one takes the additional workload for the design teams into account, the financial remuneration of the team members was an important incentive and a necessary condition for the execution of the project (kennedy, 1988). thirdly, the integration of language assignments into existing content courses only worked because suitable courses were available that incorporated a sufficient number of expository texts. finally, the teacher guides provided guidance to the lecturers through procedural specifications. returning to the heuristic question posed at the beginning of this study, we can identify characteristics of teaching and learning activities that could lead to an improvement of the academic english reading proficiency of first-year b.ed. students in higher education institutions in ghana. given the theoretical arguments (t1) and empirical arguments (e1) presented in the context analysis studies i-iii (see also stoffelsma & spooren, 2013; stoffelsma, forthcoming; stoffelsma & de jong, 2015) (cf. van den akker, 2010), these characteristics involve the following. (i) teach text structures (c1); link homework to assessment (c2); provide a sufficient number of texts (c3); emphasize vocabulary training of academic and content specific words (c4); include teachers who can motivate students to read independently (c5); and use active learning methodologies (c6) (ii) the intervention is designed and implemented jointly with a teacher design team via a communicative approach that creates ownership (p1), with sufficient compensation for staff time (p2), via content-based language instruction in already existing courses (p3), and by using exemplary curriculum materials with procedural specifications (p4). l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124118 6. conclusion and reflection this study set out to solve the problem of first year students’ academic reading proficiency and their inability to read independently as a step in proposing a renewal of the cs curriculum. the design, development and evaluation of the intervention passed through a number of iterations, or “micro-cycles of research” (plomp, 2007: 17). a variety of formative and summative evaluation methods were used to investigate the relationships between theory, design and practice. the study adhered to design-based research methodology, as it went beyond just designing and testing an intervention (cf. design based research collective, 2003). in contrast to laboratory studies or experimental studies, design experiments are set in “messy situations” (collins, joseph & bielaczyc, 2004: 20). the current study has shown more than anything that, within the framework of edr, moving from problem identification to problem solution is a highly complicated process. the process was complex and required endurance of the design teams and principal investigator, just as in any other design research experiment that addresses complex educational problems in realworld or “messy” settings (collins et al., 2004; mckenney & reeves, 2012; plomp, 2013). the successful design and evaluation of an educational intervention depended to a great extent on contextual factors, such as the motivation and quality of the design team, the willingness of the students to participate, and the academic workload of both students and staff. moreover, logistical factors such as classroom facilities, time schedules, quality of the textbooks, and the internet and printing facilities played an influential role during the intervention. because of all these influences, each course design followed its own path. by the end of the design, development and implementation phase, only the linguistics course design had been fully successful in terms of design, evaluation and experimental set-up. in addition, the iterative character of the design resulted in a thoroughly tested solution. although the chemistry design succeeded, it was not possible to create conditions for an experimental set-up due to timetable restrictions. the teachers who took part in the teacher design teams were sensitized to the role of language and literacy in their classrooms. this was particularly the case for the chemistry course. collaboration between staff from the english and chemistry departments to jointly prepare educational activities was very innovative in the ghanaian context. integrating the teaching of english language into a science course was a challenge that encountered a lot of curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 119 resistance. the study demonstrated that science and mathematics students’ attitudes toward infusing reading into science could be changed by showing them the benefits of improved scientific literacy. the fact that each of the three different courses followed a different route in the design, development, and implementation phase clearly shows that each educational context is different from the other. thus, the present study has produced a number of guidelines, or heuristic statements, which could benefit universities, educators and policy makers in their quest to modify academic literacy programmes, both in ghana and in the west-african region as well as esl countries with similar education systems. acknowledgements the study was funded by faculty of arts, vu university amsterdam; faculty of arts, radboud university nijmegen; and pearson west africa. we also thank the departments where the study was conducted for approving the research and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. article history: received 10 february 2016 received in revised form 2 september 2016 accepted 15 october 2016 references l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124120 afful, j.b.a. 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(2006). “design research from a technology perspective” in j. van den akker, k. gravemeijer, s. mckenney & n. nieveen (eds.), educational design research, 52-66. london: routledge. shaw, p. & a. mcmillion (2011). “components of success in academic reading tasks for swedish students”. ibérica 22: 141-162. stoffelsma, l. & j.h.a.l. de jong (2015). “the academic english reading proficiency of first-year students in teacher education programmes in ghana”. nordic journal of african studies 24,2: 94-117. stoffelsma, l. & w. spooren (2013). “reading and knowledge transfer in ghana: the behaviour, attitudes and self-concepts of first-year students in bachelor of education programmes”. educational psychology 33,6: 690-718. stoffelsma, l. & spooren, w. (2017). “improving the academic reading proficiency of university students in ghana: an educational design research approach”. language matters, 48,1: in press. tessmer, m (1993). planning and conducting formative evaluation: improving the quality of education and training. london: kogan page. van den akker, j. (1999). “principles and methods of development research” in j. van den akker, r.m. branch, k. gustafson, n. nieveen & t. plomp (eds.), design approaches and tools in education and training. boston: kluwer academic. van den akker, j. (2010). “building bridges: how curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 121 research may improve curriculum policies and classroom practices” in s. stoney (ed.), beyond lisbon 2010: perspectives from research and development for education policy in europe (cidree yearbook 2010), 175-195. slough, uk: national foundation for educational research. white, r.v. (1988). the elt curriculum: design, innovation & management. oxford: blackwell. yang, w. (2015). “tuning university undergraduates for high mobility and employability under the content and language integrated learning approach”. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 1 18. url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2015.1061474 [07/07/2015]. l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124122 dr. lieke stoffelsma (corresponding author) is an affiliated researcher at radboud university nijmegen (the netherlands) and an external supervisor at the university of south africa (unisa). her research interests include literacy education and curriculum research in non-western contexts. isaac n. mwinlaaru is a phd fellow in language sciences at the hong kong polytechnic university and an assistant lecturer at the university of cape coast (ghana). his current research areas include systemic functional linguistics, language description and typology, grammaticalization, literary stylistics, english for specific/academic purposes, and discourse studies. gloria otchere is an assistant lecturer at the department of english at the university of cape coast, ghana. she is currently a phd student at the university of oslo, norway. her research interest includes sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and world englishes. alfred l. owusu-ansah is an assistant lecturer at the kwame nkrumah university of science and technology (ghana) and also a phd student at the university of cape coast (ghana). his research interests include the issues of prosody and second language acquisition, language and identity in a multilingual context, and the (re)enactment of prejudice through language. dr. joseph a. adjei is a chemist at university of cape coast. his research interests include analytical chemistry and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (uv/vis). notes 1 another term that is used for cbli is ‘content and language integrated learning (clil)’. clil has also often been used in a narrow european context in relation to the bologna declaration (see fortanetgómez, 2011). 2 for the first university, three teachers from the department of communication and two from the department of english education, and, for the second, four from the department of english and two from the department of chemistry. appendix 1 appendix 2 curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124 123 curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): …-… tentative design principles* design principle description dp1 aim at improving text structure awareness dp2 include homework that is linked to some sort of assessment dp3 include teaching and learning activities that are suitable for large classes dp4 include measures to prevent students from cheating dp5 allow students to monitor their own reading progress dp6 allow students to select at least some of the reading material themselves dp7 include online reading activities on computers or mobile phones dp8 provide a sufficient number of academic texts that are related to the subject content of the courses dp9 include vocabulary training dp10 include extensive reading of academic texts dp11 include extensive reading for enjoyment (story books, magazines, etc.) dp12 include an entry level test before students participate in the reading intervention activities dp13 include teachers who can serve as role models and who can motivate students to read independently dp14 include active learning methodologies, whereby students are engaged in their own reading and learning process * the order in which the design principles are presented is arbitrary l. stoffelsmaa, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah, j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): …-… appendix 2 intended learning outcomes regarding text structure, vocabulary, and reading motivation for basic general chemistry intended learning outcomes course week at the end of the intervention, students are able to: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 actively participate in the tutorial and contribute to discussions in class (attitude) x x x x x x x x x x explain why it is important to be proficient in reading academic english (attitude) x x x x x x x x x x identify basic features of text organisation, such as headings, subheadings, sections, and paragraphs (knowledge) x x x identify the most important sentence of a text (comprehension) x x x x summarize main concepts introduced in a text (comprehension) x x x interpret the meaning of the author (comprehension) x analyse text structure, and point out specific text features that emphasize important concepts (analysis) x x explain the different functions of a text: informative, persuasive, instructive (comprehension) x interpret images and figures of a text in relation to the content of a text (comprehension) x x x x determine the meaning of words based on the context in which they occur (analysis) x x x x x x x x x x consult a dictionary to find the meaning of words that they do not know (comprehension) x x x x x x x x x x explain the meaning of english academic vocabulary and chemistry specific vocabulary (comprehension) x x x x x x x x x x appendix 3 l. stoffelsma, i.n. mwinlaaru, g. otchere, a.l. owusu-ansah & j.a. adjei ibérica 33 (2017): 97-124124 curriculum design in practice ibérica 33 (2017): …-… appendix 3 intended learning outcomes regarding text structure, vocabulary, and reading motivation for the use of english intended learning outcomes course week at the end of the intervention, students are able to: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 actively participate in the tutorial and contribute to discussions in class (attitude) x x x x x x x x x x explain why it is important to be proficient in reading academic english (attitude) x x x x x x x x x x summarize short pieces of text (comprehension) x x x x x x paraphrase the main ideas in a text using their own words as much as possible (comprehension) x x identify basic features of text organisation, such as headings, subheadings, sections, and paragraphs. (knowledge) x x x evaluate the organisation of a text (evaluation) x explain how text organisation can facilitate reading comprehension (comprehension) x x x x predict the content of a text based on skimming the text and by looking at headings, titles, sub-titles (analysis) x x x x identify the most important sentence of a paragraph, the topic sentence (comprehension) x x x x x create a diagram to explain relations between concepts (analysis/ skills) x x explain references/ citations in academic texts (comprehension) x identify words that link one section of a text to the following (comprehension) x point-out sections in the text that explain particular ideas (analysis) x interpret illustrative diagrams in grammar text books (comprehension) x explain what micro structural elements of a text are (comprehension) x x identify the repetition of key words and topic continuity (knowledge) x x explain the function of linking / connecting words in a sentence or paragraph (comprehension) x x identify connecting words at sentence and paragraph level (knowledge) explain what is meant by the physical presentation of a text (comprehension) x x judge the physical presentation of a text (evaluation) x x determine the meaning of words based on the context in which they occur (analysis) x x x x x x x x x x consult a dictionary to find the meaning of words that they do not know (comprehension) x x x x x x x x x x explain the meaning of english academic vocabulary and linguistic specific vocabulary (comprehension) x x x x x x x x x x iberica 13 ibérica 34 (2017): 283-292 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract social media exchanges (for example, via facebook or twitter), blogs, and forums, amongst many other electronic genres, have come to be used as relatively bona fide testimonies of language use nowadays. the present paper discusses how such language data can be effectively employed in research carried out into languages for specific purposes. particularly, it describes a project which aims to compile a representative number of texts (in this case, blog posts) in the spanish fashion panorama in order explore the lexis occurring in the specialised language. it thus details the procedure and criteria followed to create the database, and it tackles some of the challenges which the reader/researcher may encounter in this enterprise. keywords: corpora, internet-based research, blogs, vocabulary in languages for specific purposes. resumen s ig uie n do e l ri tmo d e l a e ra d ig it al : nue v as f ue nt e s d e d ato s e n l a i nv e s t ig a c ió n de l e ng ua s p a ra f i ne s e s pe c íf i c os los intercambios en redes sociales (por ejemplo, a través de facebook o twitter), blogs y foros, entre otros muchos géneros digitales, en la actualidad han pasado a ser utilizados como testimonios relativamente fidedignos de la lengua. el presente estudio trata cómo tales fuentes pueden ser utilizadas de forma efectiva en la investigación sobre lenguas para fines específicos. en particular, describe un proyecto que pretende compilar un número representativo de textos (en este caso, posts de blog) en el panorama de la moda española para explorar el léxico que se da en esta lengua de especialidad. detalla, pues, el procedimiento y criterios keeping up with the digital age: new data sources in research on languages for specific purposes amanda roig-marín university of cambridge adr41@cam.ac.uk 283 ibérica 34 (2017): 283-292 amanda roig-marín seguidos para crear la base de datos y aborda algunos de los retos que el lector/investigador puede encontrar en esta tarea. palabras clave: corpus, investigación basada en internet, blogs, vocabulario en lenguas para fines específicos. introduction curious as it may seem to digital natives – and even to digital immigrants – the use of online sources in academia still causes a certain degree of suspicion and bewilderment among non-specialists. some recent headlines suggesting this by foregrounding the type of sources used read as follows: “using twitter, linguists find global ‘superdialects1’”, “cambridge university linguists use twitter to study how welsh language use is changing2”, or “status update language used to predict facebook users’ age, gender, personality3”. precisely because social media and the internet in general play a crucial role in our world, they tend to record everyday usage as any other medium. this explains why a constantly increasing number of works have concentrated on the potential use of these tools for research (see, amongst others, zappavigna, 2012; page et al., 2014; wang & winstead, 2016). since any form of internet communication is singular in terms of levels of orality, the amount of visual vs. verbal material employed, and the (a)synchronicity of the medium, the existing diversity enables researchers to select the medium that has the greatest potential to answer the questions we endeavour to explore. in this case, i was interested in examining blog posts, which epitomise asynchronous online communication of a considerable length and with certain – albeit intuitive – textual conventions. blogs are usually written by non-experts in the field and infused with a much more personal tone than other digital genres. as zhang (2008: 37) suggests, “while the internet has often been thought to decenter the role of the author (bolter, 1991), blogs have often made the author the center of attention”. still, it is not uncommon to find businesses advertising their services or products via blogs, which, nonetheless, use a narrative style that is considerably less detached from the customer than advertisements simply featuring goods. as for this particular project, i did not intend to analyse the different narratives of these two subtypes of blogs separately, i focused on the lexical 284 features of both personal and businesses’ blogs. my aim was to compile a sufficiently large enough dataset as to be able to trace any patterns, signs of language innovation, and oscillations in the use of native spanish words vis-àvis foreign words (namely, french-origin and english-origin words), so that i would be able to compare the lexis occurring in blogs to the one used in magazines (online and in print) at later stages. in so doing, my long-term aim is to examine to what extent bloggers are imbued with the discourse present in magazines and repeat the same lexical chunks – namely collocations – and conventions found in these more established genres, or if bloggers diverge from them in order to construct their virtual identities or internet personae. this will hopefully lead me to a deconstruction of this language for specific purposes as realised in these genres. hence, even though the goal of this study is presently descriptive, once it has been completed, its findings may serve as a theoretical basis for the design of pedagogical material and activities (for example, to assist in the teaching of vocabulary and genre patterns specific to this area of lsp) in the long run. in the next section i will discuss why blogs are important in our current understanding of languages for specific purposes and how they can contribute to the discipline in comparison to well-established corpora. subsequently, i will explain the type of data set i compiled, the procedure, and the criteria i followed for their compilation, so that researchers working not only in the area of lexicology but also in other fields of linguistics for specific purposes may draw inspiration and incorporate this 21st-century vast source of data into their practices. blogs and 21st-century corpus-driven tools whereas the potential of blogs for teaching a foreign language has been extensively explored (inter alia, zhang, 2008; thomas, 2009; wang & winstead, 2016), less has been written on their use in linguistic – more precisely, lexicological – research. however, their functionality cannot be neglected for several reasons. first, blogs contain highly structured information, being typically composed of a homepage (featuring the most recent posts) and an archive. therefore, the procedure for compiling a blog a priori seems to be rather straightforward. second, although the actual number of posts within each blog varies, the language samples they provide are considerably longer than other virtual genres. it is often argued that a keeping up with the digital age ibérica 34 (2017): 283-292 285 blog should contain at least 300 words to rank well in search engines, although in the database i compiled the total number of words ranged from c. 200 to 700 words. thus, this virtual space allows writers to devote as much time and space as they feel they need to fulfil their needs with no constraints. third, the array of non-specialist and specialist voices which can be electronically heard through blog posts create a composite picture which can be used to characterise the speech of these virtual communities. fourth, as hundt et al. (2007: 3) point out, “for the study of certain phenomena, in particular neologisms, the web is and probably will be one of our best sources of information”. like other web-based means of communication, blogs are indeed mines of language data which cover a wide range of topics and are constantly updated. consequently, lexical items, which are incessantly evolving and being coined, are more likely to make their way into dynamic depositories or databases than into static corpora or dictionaries. traditional corpora are finite bodies of text which provide a representative sample of a language either from a diachronic or a synchronic viewpoint. in general spanish, the most emblematic corpora are corde (corpus diacrónico del español), a diachronic corpus covering the earliest records written in spanish up until the year 1974, crea (corpus de referencia del español actual), comprising texts from 1974 to 2004, and the most recent one, corpes xxi (corpus del español del siglo xxi), which initially incorporated oral and written texts produced from 2001 to 2012 but the project is still underway and will culminate in 2018. general corpora are expected to include both “standard” and “nonstandard” uses of the language so that they present opportunities to study the language in all its forms. however, the asymmetry between the number of “standard” and “non-standard” texts included is problematic when tracing and predicting the development of new “non-standard” uses. for example, in english such a large corpus as coca (corpus of contemporary american english) only yielded eight tokens of “past tense spreading” with swim (i.e. *swimmed), whereas over 88,000 instances were retrieved from the web (cf. geeraert & newman, 2011: 2). this figure is particularly significant for the language researcher, whose task is to document any exiting and emergent uses occurring in the language. when it comes to languages for specific purposes, particularly, in their didactic facet, ad hoc corpora are also developed to examine and amanda roig-marín ibérica 34 (2017): 283-292286 teach/learn the features of particular genres and language contexts which are not well represented in general corpora (on this topic, see, for instance, bárcena, read, & arús, 2014). specialised corpora vary greatly in size and level of specificity, and they may concentrate on very specific text types such as grant proposals (connor & upton, 2004) or on the language for specific purposes as a whole (for example, the cambridge business english corpus). the dataset that i will broadly characterise in the succeeding section resembles specialised corpora, since the focus is exclusively on fashion blogs written in spanish, although its relatively limited size (around 900,000 words) compared to well-established corpora prevents me from naming it as such. english blog-based corpora include the birmingham blog cor pus (<wse1.webcorp.org.uk/home/blogs.html>), consisting of 628,558,282 words extracted from blogs, and the blog authorship cor pus (<u.cs.biu.ac.il/~koppel/blogcorpus.htm>), which encompasses the posts of 19,320 bloggers from <blogger.com> in august 2004, totalling over 140 million words. nonetheless, these are general english corpora and texts are not categorised into any semantic fields “but split into sections according to how the texts were discovered and downloaded”, as the birmingham blog corpus website explains. in this sense, the dataset i compiled has a much narrower scope, which may facilitate the task of the researcher interested in describing contemporary spanish language of fashion and how fashionistas are portrayed in blogs. previous research has already concentrated on a limited number of fashion blogs, but mostly from a completely different angle from the enterprise outlined in this paper: for instance, ruiz molina (2012) analysed the impact of blogs on consumer-centred companies and fashion journalism (also the main focus of rocamora, 2012) by adopting a semiotic framework; riera and figueras maz (2012) examined whether fashion blogs attempt to perpetuate the same idealised beauty standard as the one that is promoted in most fashion magazines, something which did not prove to hold true for all of the sub-categories of blogs (e.g. “ego-blogs”) equally; along these lines, rocamora (2011) considered the process of identity construction and representation of femininity in this virtual space; and, more recently, martínez navarro and de garcillán lópez-rúa (2016) explored how the emergence and popularisation of this electronic medium has reshaped the practices of consumers through the conduction of interviews and group meetings with informants. on account of this, it becomes clear that the keeping up with the digital age ibérica 34 (2017): 283-292 287 present piece of research is not pioneering on fashion blogs, although its more linguistically oriented aim does offer some scope for originality. similarly, even though the use of corpus tools in the compilation and tagging of texts has been widely discussed in lsp research (see, amongst others, flowerdew, 2005; millar & budgell, 2008; carrió-pastor & muñiz-calderón, 2013; herrero-zazo, segura-bedmar, & martínez, 2013) and, to a lesser extent, in thematically diverse e-genres such as blogs (e.g. wallsten, 2005; lukač, 2011; ptaszynski, 2012), substantially less has been written on their interface, that is, on corpus-based approaches to the field of fashion blogs, a gap which the investigation herein presented attempts to fill. a case study: the fashion blog database the dataset i assembled consists of the posts of 100 bloggers gathered from 2013 to 2016, amounting to 2,927 blog posts (~900,000 words). many blogs were located within websites of magazines which count with sections devoted to fashion (for example, <www.telva.com> or <fashion.hola. com/>) although others had independent domains and were found by simple searches containing the key words blogs, moda, and españa. the guiding principles underlying the selection of textual material revolved around the following main axes: (1) language, (2) length, (3) date of production, and (4) topic. a criterion that was essential for the purposes of this project was that all blog posts had to be written in spanish. it was found that frequently bloggers wrote their posts in both english and spanish, but this practice would not give us real insights into the state of spanish (for instance, as far as the role of foreign lexis in spanish is concerned). accordingly, for the sake of consistency, all blogs had to satisfy this language criterion and be written in spanish. likewise, blogs could not exceed the maximum of 700 words nor could they be shorter than 200 words. in that way, despite variations, i made sure all blogs posts contained a minimum amount of text and were not simply made up of photos. as for the date of production, i concentrated on the time spanned from january 2013 to january 2016. this was a short time span as i intended to pinpoint the most recent lexical trends. however, this could be altered to suit the researcher’s needs. the same can be applied to the topic(s) discussed in blogs posts. amanda roig-marín ibérica 34 (2017): 283-292288 i only considered those texts that were within the sphere of fashion, excluding those posts, which, despite being part of a fashion blog, touched upon completely unrelated areas. this thematic decision entirely depends on researchers, their precise aims, and the specialised domains on which they are working (tourism, economics, natural sciences, or medicine, to name but a few). once i had retrieved the posts that would be part of my dataset, i created a labelling system in order to identify each file (since each post had an independent file). these labels would include an initialism and a number. these two elements referred to (1) the name of the blog from which they were retrieved (e.g. pam “persiguiendo a mar” <www.telva.com /blogs/persiguiendo-a-mar/> or mde “maquillaje de estrellas” <www.mujerhoy.com/belleza/blog-maquillaje-estrellas>), and (2) the date in which the post was released. if more than one post was produced on the same day, i numbered them (e.g. 05-12-2015(1)). for the purposes of this project, i removed all images and only kept written texts so that they could be easily processed electronically. furthermore, i recorded basic information of each blog: its (1) name, (2) sub-topic (accessories or clothing, amongst others), and (3) type (personal blog, commercial blog, or others), and (4) the link from which it had been obtained. depending on the type of study conducted, the researcher can also benefit greatly from knowing the main intended readers, author’s background, and other (con)textual elements. nowadays electronic tools make it possible to handle large sets of data as these efficiently. there are tools (e.g. word smith or sketch engine) which work with any corpus (regardless of its size, type and language(s) in which it is written), and they provide basic features of head-words’ behaviour such as kwics (key words in contexts) and collocations (using cowie’s (1981) and howarth’s (1996) theoretical framework). therefore, the use of blogs as primary material should not pose any problems in this regard. it is likewise worth mentioning that, despite the great assets of the online medium, apparently minor issues, such as misspellings, orthographic variations, or foreign words that, for example, have been unconventionally adapted to the spanish graphemic system, could hinder vocabulary research to a certain extent. this is a pitfall which should be further addressed because not all misspellings can be predicted. still, if they are recurrent spelling or grammatical errors, they may hint at possible extended patterns that would require further study. keeping up with the digital age ibérica 34 (2017): 283-292 289 concluding remarks this short article has aimed to provide researchers with basic guidelines on how to approach the compilation of online textual material. in particular, i have concentrated on blogs and described the procedure used to compile a real-life linguistic dataset, which may be replicated in almost any other field. two of the greatest advantages of the internet is that online users produce language fairly naturally, without being particularly aware that they might be observed for scholarship research – thereby avoiding the observer’s paradox –, and that information is constantly renewed and produced unlike paper-based lexicographical sources. one may argue that blogs will be completely superseded by vlogs or other genres, but whilst this shift may be noticeable in some internet communities of users, the truth is that blogs still continue to be very much used in such fields as fashion or tourism. precisely, research into specialised languages requires restricted subsets of language of the type that blogs present. for instance, if one is interested in examining in-group markers used in the language of fashion, it is very likely that fashions magazines will not attest them in the same way as fashionistas or fashion enthusiasts who are writing their own posts with a set of conventions and with a – many times interactive – audience in mind. by compiling a corpus of texts online, not only is it possible to capture myriads of snapshots of the language at that time but also to constantly add new texts which reflect the changing nature of language itself. all of this will hopefully inspire a much more flexible view on corpus-driven studies of languages for specific purposes. at least ever since 1980 traditional corpora have been used (heuberger, 2016: 24), so it is time “to keep with up the digital age” and take full advantage of the spectrum of resources that the internet offers. article history: received 05 september 2016 received in revised form 13 december 2016 accepted 15 december 2016 references amanda roig-marín 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(1991). writing space: the computer, hypertext, and the history of writing. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. amanda roig-marín holds a ba in english and an ma in spanish and english as sls/fls (both with “distinction”), and she is currently doing an mphil in linguistics at the university of cambridge. her main research keeping up with the digital age ibérica 34 (2017): 283-292 291 carrió-pastor, m.l. & r. muñiz-calderón (2013). “the compilation of a corpus of business english: syntactic variation”. procedia social and behavioral sciences 95: 89-95. connor, u. & t.a. upton (2004). “the genre of grant proposals: a corpus linguistic analysis” in u. connor & t. upton (eds.), discourse in the professions: perspectives from corpus linguistics, 235-256. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. cowie, a.p. (1981). “the treatment of collocations and idioms in learners’ dictionaries” in peter strevens (ed.), in honour of a.s. hornby, 223-235. oxford: oxford university press. flowerdew, l. (2005). “an integration of corpusbased and genre-based approaches to text analysis in eap/esp: countering criticisms against corpus-based methodologies”. english for specific purposes 24,3: 321-332. geeraert, k. & j. newman (2011). “i haven’t drank in weeks: the use of past tense forms as past participles in english corpora” in j. newman, h. baayen & s. rice (eds.), corpus-based studies in language use, language learning, and language documentation, 13-34. amsterdam/new york: rodopi. herrero-zazo, m., i. segura-bedmar & p. martínez (2013). “annotation issues in pharmacological texts”. procedia social and behavioral sciences 95: 211-219. heuberger, r. (2016). “corpora as game changers: the growing impact of corpus tools for dictionary makers and users”. english today 32: 24-30. howarth, p.a. (1996). phraseology in english academic writing. tübingen: max niemeyer. hundt, m., n. nesselhauf & c. biewer (2007). corpus linguistics and the web. amsterdam/new york: rodopi. lukač, m. (2011). “down to the bone: a corpusbased critical discourse analysis of pro-eating disorder blogs”. jezikoslovlje 12,2: 187-209. martínez navarro, g. & m. de garcillán lópez-rúa (2016). “the influence of blogs in fashion in consumer behavior: an exploratory approach”. vivat academia 135: 85-109. millar, n. & budgell, b. (2008). “the language of public health a corpus-based analysis”. the journal of public health 16,5: 369-374. page, r., d. barton, j.w. unger & m. zappavigna (2014). researching language and social media: a student guide. new york: routledge. ptaszynski, m. et al. (2012). “annotating syntactic information on 5.5 billion word corpus of japanese blogs” in proceedings of the 18th annual meeting of the association for natural language processing (nlp-2012), 385-388. new york: curran associates. riera, s. & m. figueras maz (2012). “el modelo de belleza de la mujer en los blogs de moda.¿una alternativa a la prensa femenina tradicional?”. cuestiones de género: de la igualdad y la diferencia 7: 157-176. ruiz molina, e. (2012). blogs de moda: un análisis semiótico. barcelona: design, knowledge & future. rocamora, a. (2011). “personal fashion blogs: screens and mirrors in digital self-portraits”. fashion theory 15,4: 407-424. rocamora, a. (2012). “hypertextuality and remediation in the fashion media: the case of fashion blogs”. journalism practice 6,1: 92-106. thomas, m. (2009). handbook of research on web 2.0 and second language learning. hershey/new york: igi global. wallsten, k. (2005). “political blogs and the bloggers who blog them: is the political blogosphere and echo chamber”. in american political science association’s annual meeting. washington, dc september, 1-36. online. url: <journalism.wisc.edu/~dshah/blogclub/site/wallsten.pdf> wang, c & l. winstead (2016). handbook of research on foreign language education in the digital age. hershey/new york: igi global. zappavigna, m. (2012). discourse of twitter and social media. london: bloomsbury. zhang, f. (2008). handbook of research on computer-enhanced language acquisition and learning. hershey/new york: igi global. interests include english lexicology, spanish-english lexical influences, and historical linguistics. she has published on these areas and delivered papers at national and international conferences. notes 1 headline retrieved from <europe.newsweek.com/linguists-find-superdialects-twitter-263622?rm=eu>. 2 retrieved from <techcrunch.com/2013/05/29/cymraeg-tweets/>. 3 retrieved from <www.wired.co.uk/article/facebook-language-study>. amanda roig-marín ibérica 34 (2017): 283-292292 iberica 13 ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract a corporate social responsibility (csr) report is a form of information disclosure about environmental, health, and human rights issues. it serves as an essential bridge for communication between enterprises and stakeholders. enterprises can use vague language (vl) to strategically communicate with the public, establish a positive corporate image, and legitimise their activities. in recent years, many scholars have studied the usage and communicative function of vl in general conversational discourse, yet vl in business discourse has not received much attention. in this study, 30 social responsibility reports of 10 world-renowned cosmetic enterprises between 2015–2019 were collected to build a corpus. with the help of the corpus software antconc, this paper explores vl, specifically in csr reports, using a corpus-assisted approach. further, the quantitative findings are complemented by the contextualised interpretation of the communicative functions of vl in csr reports. the major findings of this research are as follows. there are four types of vl used in csr texts: quantity, degree, time, and softening stance-taking. in addition, the use of vl can help achieve several communicative purposes of csr report drafting (i.e., provide an appropriate amount of information, enhance persuasion, and self-protection). some practical suggestions are discussed for improving the awareness of the strategic use of vagueness in csr reports. keywords: vague language, corporate social responsibility report, corpusassisted discourse analysis, cosmetics industry, business communication. a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry bixi jin beihang university (china) bixijin@outlook.com 77 ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 bixi jin resumen estudio asistido por corpus del lenguaje vago en los informes de responsabilidad social corporativa de la industria cosmética el informe de responsabilidad social corporativa (rsc) constituye una forma de divulgar información sobre asuntos relacionados con el medio ambiente, la salud y los derechos humanos. funciona como un puente esencial que posibilita la comunicación entre las empresas y los accionistas. las empresas pueden emplear un lenguaje vago (lv) de manera estratégica para comunicarse con sus destinatarios, establecer una imagen corporativa positiva y legitimar sus actividades. en los últimos años, muchos investigadores han estudiado el uso y la función comunicativa del lv en el discurso conversacional general. sin embargo, el lv apenas ha sido analizado en el discurso empresarial. para el presente trabajo se ha compilado un corpus de 30 informes de responsabilidad social de 10 empresas mundialmente conocidas de la industria cosmética publicados durante los años 2015-2019. con la ayuda del gestor de corpus antconc se ha explorado el lv en los rsc desde una perspectiva asistida por corpus. los resultados cuantitativos se han complementado con una interpretación contextualizada de las funciones comunicativas desempeñadas por el lv en los informes de rsc. entre los hallazgos obtenidos, cabe destacar que se han identificado cuatro tipos de lv en los textos analizados: de cantidad, de grado, de tiempo y de toma de postura de carácter atenuante. además, este trabajo ha evidenciado que el uso del lv puede ayudar a alcanzar diferentes propósitos comunicativos en los informes de rsc: proporcionar una cantidad adecuada de información, mejorar la persuasión y autoprotegerse. también se ofrecen algunas sugerencias prácticas para que se tenga una mayor conciencia del papel estratégico de la vaguedad en los informes de rsc. palabras clave: lenguaje vago, informe de responsabilidad social corporativa, análisis de discurso asistido por corpus, industria cosmética, comunicación empresarial. 1. introduction extensive research has been conducted to provide various definitions of corporate social responsibility (csr) and related notions (e.g., sustainability reports), and the evolving conceptualizations of csr over the decade reveal its inherent intricacies (maignan, ferrell, & ferrell, 2005). a csr report is officially defined as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society” and “a process to integrate social, environmental, 78 ethical, human rights and consumer concerns into their business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their stakeholders” (european commission, 2011: 6). though it is becoming a generalised practice to include a social responsibility section in annual reports, as the l’oreal report (2018) indicates, this non-financial reporting section achieves the communicative purpose of presenting a clear picture of a company’s efforts and commitments in environmental sustainability, ethics, and corporate governance issues, seeking to obtain transparency and legitimacy (ditlevsen, nielsen & thomsen, 2013). further, it is a management strategy to construct a favorable and trustworthy corporate image (van riel & fombrun, 2007; kushal, 2011; fuoli & hart, 2018), targeting a group of heterogeneous audiences, including “existing shareholders, potential shareholders, creditors, investment and credit analysts, the government and their agencies, employees and society at large” (ditlevsen, 2012: 382). while csrs tend to prioritise social responsibility at large, informed by stakeholder theory, the incorporation of stakeholder views and interests into csrs has gained some prominence in view of the unforeseen outcomes emerging from business activities (fordham & robinson, 2018; maignan et al., 2005). as suggested by the well-known consulting company ecovia intelligence, consumers in the cosmetics industry have become extremely sensitive to the range of social and environmental initiatives mentioned in csr reports. growing consumer awareness prompts companies to be particularly concerned to explain to the public such facts as basic ingredients in the manufacturing process, animal testing, the certification of natural and organic cosmetics, sustainable packaging, and even financial assistance to disadvantaged communities. as a result, a company may organise csr reports with a range of linguistic means to demonstrate its social and environmental initiatives. use of vague language (vl), recognised by its communicative importance, is a drafting strategy in organizing specialised discourse such as laws, policy documents, and business communication (handford, 2010; li, 2017; mccarthy, 2019; scott di carlo, 2015). the strategic use of vl may also contribute to the delicate discursive negotiation in csr reporting. the possible application of vl in csrs motivates the current research. business contexts are appropriate places to observe the use of vl. on the one hand, it may be tempting to think that companies are expected to employ vl to emphasise or amplify their positive efforts in maintaining a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 79 positive corporate images and legitimizing corporate actions; on the other hand, vl may ensure the desired level of flexibility for companies to maintain control over private information or account for unexpected future contingencies of corporate activities (choi & triantis, 2010). therefore, this study aims to identify and explore the strategic use of vl in csr reports in the cosmetics industry. the following questions are addressed: (1) what types of vl are prototypical of csr reports in the cosmetics industry? (2) is the use of vl in csr reports related to their communicative purposes? if so, how? the study seeks to make several contributions to the current literature on corporate discourse. first, the findings enrich the current understanding of vl in corporate discourse. the quantitative corpus linguistics methods and the detailed qualitative discourse analysis of vl in the beauty industry csr reports elucidate the use of vl in the construction of csr reports. second, from a methodological perspective, the study explores vl in csr reports based on a relatively large-scale specialised corpus, enabling the particular language expressions in rich contexts to be identified and categorised. third, the study provides a detailed account of vl in csr reports and examines how the reports may strategically communicate with heterogeneous audiences, construct a positive corporate image, and legitimise csr activities. given that there is no readily available instructional space for vl, the results address the need for incorporating vl into future business training programs and business english learning materials. 2. definition of vague language considerable discussion in recent years has focused on the definitions of vl. while a philosophical approach has suggested that language is inherently vague (russell, 1997), this is not practical for rhetoricallinguistic analysis. research addressing the definition of vl has generated considerable interest among applied linguists; however, the internal configuration of this term remains unclear, and even the terms used to refer to vl are themselves vague (cotterill, 2007). vl has been interpreted in several ways, and presented here are some often-cited definitions. for instance, channell (1994: 20) argued that the evaluation of vl can be determined by the replacement of other words or expressions if they bixi jin ibérica 43 (2022): 77-10280 appear to “render the same proposition” and is “purposely and unabashedly vague”. pinkal (1995:12-15) first differentiates between “communicative indeterminacy” and “semantic indeterminacy”. then, he establishes that there are two types of communicative indeterminacy: vagueness and ambiguity.1 a similar criterion of determining vl was proposed, focusing on the possibility of making the utterance precise and the indeterminacy arising from linguistic expressions. ruzaitė (2007: 28), focusing on vl forms and functions, argues that “vague language is a natural, usually purposeful and multi-functional linguistic phenomenon that involves imprecision and is employed for certain communicative strategies.” zhang (2018: 7) continues this notion by acknowledging that vl can be negotiated to adapt to specific communicative purposes and further specifies that vl is unspecified and context-sensitive. based on the abovementioned studies, it is not surprising that the unclear, indefinite configuration of vl makes it difficult to identify vl in actual practice, as many researchers may propose their own interpretations. therefore, given the intricate nature of identifying vl, it is not my aim to unravel the nuances and minutiae of the various definitions but to be aware of the vague expressions identified by previous studies. the working definition of vl in this study emphasises its unspecified, elastic, negotiable, and communication-sensitive nature (channell, 1994; ruzaitė, 2007; zhang, 2018), which will guide the subsequent data analysis and interpretation of csr reports in corporate discourse. 3. vague language used in discourse vl is a pervasive phenomenon in everyday language. increasing attention has been paid to the usages and communicative functions of vl in general conversational contexts (evison, mccarthy & o’keefee, 2007; cheng & o’keeffe, 2015) and more specialised discourse domains, such as political discourse (gruber, 1993), courtroom discourse (cotterill, 2007), and legal discourse (anesa, 2007; li, 2017). the purposeful use of vl in these contexts has been well investigated and summarised. for instance, anesa (2007) adopted the term “weasel words” to characterise words such as good, appropriate, and reasonable in contracts, as informed by mellinkoff (1963: 21). li (2017: 105) created a vl list based on prior studies and categorised the vl used in large-scale legal documents into time, category, quantity, and a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 81 degree, and proposed four pragmatic functions: extending applicability, providing flexibility, maintaining a balance between precision and overelaboration, and mitigating potential problems. zhang (2018: 123) identified the functions of some under four pragmatic dimensions in natural classroom settings: inclusion of an appropriate amount of information, mitigation, withholding information, and discourse management. despite its importance in business contexts, limited research regarding vl has been conducted in this field. liu (2015) discussed the uses of vl in written business communication across cultures, such as politeness, faceprotection, and goal achievement. malyuga and mccarthy (2018) observed that the pragmatic functions of vague category markers (e.g., and so on, or whatever, and that) in spoken business communication was manifested by its knowledge-sharing practices among different business parties to form group solidarity (also see handford, 2010), or it was used as a face-protection strategy to forestall unexpected circumstances. while vl usages and communicative functions have been well-investigated in general conversational and specialised domains, there has been scarce discussion about vl in the business discourse, particularly regarding the vl usages and functions in csr discourse. 4. previous discourse studies of csr reporting there is a growing literature concerning csr discourse. the csr report is generally recognised as a hybrid genre combining informative and promotional elements (bondi, 2016). existing literature, on the one hand, has focused on the description of generic structures of csr reports based on swales’s (1990) and bhatia’s (2004) frameworks (e.g., skulstad, 2008; bhatia, 2012; yu & bondi, 2017). on the other hand, some studies have been committed to examining the lexico-grammatical resources utilised in the csr report. findings suggest that the linguistic resources companies mobilise for promoting socially responsible actions are used to construct a positive corporate image. malavasi (2011) observed the frequency wordlists of csr texts from two companies and analysed the predominant language patterns revealing pervasive corporate values. bondi (2016) investigated the keywords and phraseologies related to prediction or commitment statements, which are used to legitimise corporate activities and enhance impression management. stance resources related to expressions of attitudes bixi jin ibérica 43 (2022): 77-10282 and evaluations have been much discussed in this area of inquiry. fuoli (2012) addressed the appraisal resources informed by systemic functional linguistics (sfl) in the csr reports by ikea and bp. he concluded that they employed interpersonal resources to portray a trustworthy corporate image. later, fuoli (2017) investigated the stance expressions proposed by biber et al. (1999) in europeanand us-based csr reports, focusing on their efforts to establish committed, caring, and honest corporate images. informed by legitimation theory, lin (2021) examined the discursive strategies adopted by uk and china csr reports to legitimise negative news. socio-cultural factors accounting for linguistic variation were discussed, which contribute to the improvement of crisis management strategies used by large companies. 5. methodology 5.1. corpus-assisted discourse analysis a corpus-assisted discourse analysis approach was adopted for this study. the cads approach is characterised by its synergy of corpus-aided analysis and detailed qualitative discourse analysis, i.e., the automatic detection of linguistic patterns (e.g., frequency, keywords, and collocations) from the naturally occurring texts aided by corpus-analytic tools, enhanced by elaborated interpretations of quantitative patterns in relation to their wider social contexts (partington, duguid & taylor, 2013). the procedure starts from a quantitative analysis aided by corpus techniques such as word frequency and keywords to identify an overall linguistic profile. as a research project unfolds, the analysis become more qualitative and context-sensitive involving substantial efforts of human interpretation and explanation, with less reliance on corpus tools (baker & mcenery, 2015). 5.2. corpus construction in this study, a self-compiled corpus of annual csr reports was built and employed, consisting of annual csr reports selected from 10 wellestablished international beauty groups (l’oréal, estee lauder, procter & gamble, kosé, johnson & johnson, amorepacific group, lvhm, henkel, colgate, and beiersdorf). it contained 30 texts (three texts selected from each corporation at random) produced from 2015 to 2019, which amounted to 775,237 words. as the study adopted a a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 83 cads approach, the corpus under construction was not committed to compiling large corpora of various genre types, seeking to “obtain an overview of the greatest quantity and variety of discourse types possible” (partington et al., 2013: 11-12). specialised corpora of this kind are designed to explore “specific types of genres within specific contexts” (connor & upton, 2004: 7-8) that could not be achieved with corpora built for general purposes. working on a manageably sized corpus also allows researchers to familiarise themselves with the context of the texts and thus enhances the interpretation of corpus findings beyond simply reading concordance lines, countering the criticism that corpus-based research is restricted to somewhat bottom–up lexico-grammatical analysis (l. flowerdew, 2005). table 1. description of the csr corpus. 5.3. analytical procedure antconc 3.5.8 (anthony, 2019) was employed in processing the corpus data. it is a corpus analysis toolkit for text analysis, including major functions such as wordlists, keywords, and concordances. the software can demonstrate the concordance lines of a searched word or multi-word sequences with the contexts provided. the analysis was conducted in three steps. in the first step, ten texts were randomly selected and read from the total of 30 texts in the corpus. the expressions related to vl were marked, considering the vl items that have been identified by prior studies (e.g., channell, 1994; anesa, 2007; cutting, 2007; cheng & o’keeffe, 2015; li, 2017; malyuga & mccarthy, 2018). the point of conducting a close reading is that some vague expressions cannot be automatically identified by the text analysis software. through a detailed reading of the sampled csr texts, the researcher must generate an initial list of the vague items in the csr reports. the vl generated in the list generally fell into the categories of approximate quantities, boosters, downtowners, and shields (see zhang, 2011: 574). in the second step, i used antconc to generate the top 50 words from the wordlist and the keyword list (see appendix) of the self-built csr cosmetics bixi jin ibérica 43 (2022): 77-10284 corpus number of texts number of tokens number of types average words of csr csr 30 775237 essay 20031 25841 i i corpus to examine whether words or related phrases associated with vagueness in the corpus could be added to the identified vl list. this step aimed to supplement the vague patterns in step with the vague expressions that may not have appeared in the 10 sampled texts. after checking, expressions such as ‘more’, ‘or *’ and ‘all’ were added to the list obtained from the step 1 .2 in the third step, antconc was used to analyse all the vl items identified in steps 1 and 2 by searching them throughout the corpus. the analyses address several issues: the frequency and semantic categories of vague expressions, the contexts where vl occurs, and the communicative functions for using them in csr texts. meanwhile, a further investigation with a research assistant specialised in applied linguistics was conducted to exclude lexical items that were obviously not intended for vague use. examples were provided to illustrate how vl is strategically used in csr reports and to analyse the communicative purposes that the corporations intend to achieve. the quantitative corpus analysis of the specialised corpus categorises the vl in csr reports into four main types: quantity, degree, time and softening stancetaking. overall, these four categories show the strategic role performed by vl expressions in promoting a trustworthy corporate image. companies employ these linguistic resources as discursive tactics to “address shareholders’ information needs, but also project readiness and competence; they show that they are in control of the situation and prepared for any contingency” (fuoli, 2017: 21). in the following sections, vl representing each category is discussed in detail. 6. results and discussion 6.1. vague items associated with “quantity” compared with other conversational discourse, language in corporate discourse is supposed to be more precise (mccarthy, 2019). it is somewhat surprising to see that the vague items associated with quantity, such as more than, many, various, and some used in csr texts, are at the forefront of frequency level (5.2 per thousand).3 the recurrence of vague quantity avoids revealing a specific numerical value to define the exact quantity level. a possible explanation for this phenomenon is that companies are trying to balance against accuracy and over-explicitness regarding reported corporate a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 85 activities in case of alternative interpretations. examples 1–5 in the following were identified for this communicative purpose. example 1. additionally, in the past three years alone, this group has helped more than 400,000 american families receive a new recycling cart, totaling more than $27 million worth of new infrastructure and has forged several state-wide partnerships to drive best practice adoption. (procter & gamble, 2017) example 2. while the world is making tremendous progress to curb the course of the global hiv epidemic, many challenges remain in the areas of prevention, treatment, access and public education. (colgate, 2015) example 3. this has allowed us to build a portfolio of successful brands in various global markets and to become the leading cosmetic company representing asian beauty and its wisdom. (amorepacific group, 2016) example 4. through this ongoing effort, we no longer use or are on our way to eliminating some of the ingredients currently raising consumer questions. (colgate, 2015) example 5. in addition, we have been implementing several programs to ensure that our employees can pursue both parenting and professional growth. (amorepacific group, 2016) in example 1, the drafter used “more than + an approximate number” instead of the specific number, which is an estimation of quantity. the vl in this example enables the drafter to avoid providing accurate data but does not affect the dissemination of sufficient csr information at the same time, as it is unnecessary for the target audience to know the specific figures. another possible explanation for the use of this structure is that the procter & gamble (p&g) company does not have specific numbers either. the intentional vagueness may be used to make up for a lack of information and data. in examples 2 and 3, several instances such as m an y challenges and in va r i o us global markets were found to make exact challenges and markets unclear. while these usages of vl decrease the precision of language, it can be inferred that colgate and the amorepacific group tend to emphasise the efforts they have invested for the prevention of aids. the strategic employment of these linguistic devices allows drafters to summarise the current situation of aids prevention and the company’s globalisation bixi jin ibérica 43 (2022): 77-10286 process and maintain an optimum degree of elaboration on the corporate action. example 4 involves the vague word some (e.g., some of the ingredients). in the colgate report, relevant ingredients of cosmetic products and the specific amount of them were not listed. in this context, the drafter intentionally used vl to withhold ingredient information closely related to quality problems in their cosmetics products. instead of mentioning specific figures, vl was employed as a strategic linguistic tool to avoid disclosing internal negative information that may threaten its legitimacy in socially responsible actions and cause image crises. in example 5, vl provides a generality of meaning. s ev er a l programs conveys a general meaning instead of a specific one. amorepacific group tends to convey that they are committed to helping their employees achieve a work–family balance. “several” suggests that they invested consistent efforts in establishing programmes, regardless of the exact number. furthermore, an emerging frequency of the pattern “a + singular quantifier + of” should be noted, such as a variety of, a range of, a series of, and a number of, which were also noted in arinas’s (2012) study that similar expressions can provide a flexible interpretation of the property defined in patents. here are some examples of the use of a range of and a series of: example 6. throughout the year, amorepacific group undertakes a range of activities to effectively respond to various risks identified through our risk mitigation and management process. (amorepacific group,2016) example 7. at our vision care facility in limerick, ireland, a 3.0 mw wind turbine completed in early 2016 is the latest project in a series of energy use and co2 emission reduction efforts ongoing since 2006, which through the end of 2015 have reduced the energy cost and co2 emissions at that location by nearly 30 percent. (johnson & johnson, 2016) in these two examples, the vague references a series of and a range of do not over-elaborate on the exact figures accounting for the company’s csr performance. internal and external audiences are presented with fuzzy accounts, with only an appropriate amount of information disseminated, indicating the company’s operational and strategic decisions. a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 87 table 2. vague items associated with “quantity”. 6.2. vague items associated with “degree” the second group of vague expressions is associated with degree such as important, well, significant, better, appropriate, effective, and good, which follows “quantity” in terms of frequency. the high occurrence of these positive evaluative items echoes previous research showing that companies seek to gain trust from stakeholders (fuoli, 2017). the company attempts to exemplify organisational competence and rational justifications for its decisions or prospects through adjectives and adverbs such as important, well, and significant, and it demonstrates readiness to carefully assess impacts of planning and future scenarios through adjectives such as relevant and appropriate. bixi jin ibérica 43 (2022): 77-10288 bixi jin ibérica 43(2022): …-… lexical item freq freq per thousand more than 760 1.09 many 434 0.62 various 392 0.56 some 294 0.42 several 210 0.30 approximately 205 0.29 nearly 139 0.20 amount of 137 0.20 a variety of 122 0.17 millions of 107 0.15 at least 103 0.15 a range of 84 0.12 numerous 78 0.11 much 62 0.09 almost 62 0.09 a series of 55 0.08 thousands of 53 0.08 or more 38 0.05 most of 33 0.05 a number of 30 0.04 table 2. vague items associated with “quantity”. 6.2. vague items associated with “degree” the second group of vague expressions is associated with degree such as important, well, significant, better, appropriate, effective, and good, which follows “quantity” in terms of frequency. the high occurrence of these positive evaluative items echoes previous research showing that companies seek to gain trust from stakeholders (fuoli, 2017). the company attempts to exemplify organisational competence and rational justifications for its decisions or prospects through adjectives and adverbs such as important, well, and significant, and it demonstrates readiness to carefully assess impacts of planning and future scenarios through adjectives such as relevant and appropriate. example 8. through this work, colgate will be an important catalyst to increase the transparency of supplier companies in the oleochemical industry. (colgate, 2017) example 9. although we missed our healthy future 2015 goal to achieve a 10 percent absolute reduction in water use by 2015, with our 2010 consumption as a baseline, compared to our performance in 2013 and 2014 we made s ig n if ic a nt advancement in water reduction in 2015. (johnson & johnson, 2015) example 10. l’oréal convened a panel of 12 international experts, who contributed to developing the methodology – in line with european product environmental footprint standards – in order to ensure that the final methodology would lead to a relevant and robust assessment of impacts. (l’oréal, 2018) in example 8, the drafter used an important catalyst to describe colgate’s role in transparency improvement. however, the use of important is vague here because there are no specific criteria to delimit whether corporate efforts are important. likewise, the use of significant in example 9 also makes the meaning of the sentence fuzzy. significant is used to describe the large number of products shipped by the company, demonstrating its overall power in production. example 10 uses very and well to cover a wide range of staff health check-up issues informed by. in the absence of facts and data, very and well can be seen as a strategic use to praise their social responsibility behaviours, aiming to construct a positive and responsible image. moreover, in table 2, it is apparent that most of these vague expressions (e.g., important, well, significant, good, appropriate, effective, and great) are degree markers. the companies made more discursive efforts to demonstrate the current situation of socially responsible behaviours by addressing stakeholders’ concerns and needs through concrete language expressions. a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 89 table 3. vague items associated with “degree”. 6.3. vague items associated with “time” another major group of vague expressions is associated with “time” or “frequency,” as demonstrated by the use of expressions in this group, including early, recent, often, by the end of, and always. compared to the other three categories, it seemed that they were rarely observed. this might be explained by the fact that csr reports are often overtly promotional with the frequent use of positive evaluative expressions (livesey & kearins, 2002). vague time references have been found to be prevalent in legal texts for other reasons (li, 2017). here, they appear to play a specific part related to management of the corporate image. given csr’s role in both reporting the regular information over the year and predicting the future, they provide leeway for the company to deal with strategic decision making or fulfil its commitment. bixi jin ibérica 43 (2022): 77-10290 bixi jin ibérica 43(2022): …-… lexical item freq freq per thousand important 377 0.54 well 356 0.51 significant 328 0.47 better 283 0.40 relevant 217 0.31 appropriate 173 0.25 effective 161 0.23 very 158 0.23 main 134 0.19 good 106 0.15 necessary 102 0.15 closely 95 0.14 essential 92 0.13 general 92 0.13 significantly 88 0.13 great 84 0.12 vital 83 0.12 fundamental 72 0.10 table 3. vague items associated with “degree”. 6.3. vague items associated with “time” another major group of vague expressions is associated with “time” or “frequency,” as demonstrated by the use of expressions in this group, including early, recent, often, by the end of, and always. compared to the other three categories, it seemed that they were rarely observed. this might be explained by the fact that csr reports are often overtly promotional with the frequent use of positive evaluative expressions (livesey & kearins, 2002). vague time references have been found to be prevalent in legal texts for other reasons (li, 2017). here, they appear to play a specific part related to maintaining the corporate image: given csr’s role in both reporting the regular information over the year and predicting the future, they provide leeway for the company to deal with strategic decision making or fulfil its commitment. example 11. efforts in 2015 include two fuel cell projects in california, and the construction of a new windmill project in ireland, which was completed in early 2016. (procter & gamble, 2015) example 12. in japan’s cosmetic market, which is now mature, new entrants have entered from other industries in recent years, and, as a result, competition has intensified. (kosé, 2018) example 13. many employees cycle to work, which is good for the environment and their fitness; however, they often ride without helmets, although these are vital for their personal safety in rush-hour traffic. (beiersdorf, 2016) in example 11, the vague item early is related to the time range. the start and end dates of ea r l y 2 0 1 6 are not clarified. e ar l y 2016 in a general sense may refer to the first two or three months of 2016. it is unnecessary to specify the exact date of completion of the new windmill project because e ar l y 2016 as a time reference would not prohibit the smooth understanding of target readers. besides, it is very likely that the drafter would not know the exact date. similarly, example 12 demonstrates the vague term recent, which can refer to several years ago or last year. a possible explanation for the use of recent is that it is difficult to determine which year new entrants from other industries enter japan’s market, which is a continuous process. in example 13, often suggests that the frequency of employees who ride bicycles without helmets is relatively high, even though the specific rate of those who ride without helmets may not be officially counted by the corporation. in the absence of specific data and information, it is wise to use vague items like often to express the same meaning. moreover, the company uses often to emphasise the seriousness of current safety problems, highlighting the role of the safe cycling project launched by the company. a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 91 table 4. vague items associated with “time”. 6.4. vague items associated with “softening stance-taking” vl in this category is manifested by the use of perspective-taking verbs (suggest, think) and possibility indicators such as possible and may. the emergence of these vague items may reflect a general tendency that csr reports are subjective. these linguistic manifestations project reasoned justification for company decision and engagement in csr activities, while also leaving adequate space for negotiations in the case of unforeseen circumstances or negative evaluations, thus revealing the “dialogic nature” of corporate discourse (fuoli, 2017). the examples below may be interpreted as a responsive discursive strategy aiming at displaying their careful engagement with social and environmental performances. example 14. although the quality of kosé’s products is world-class, i think it is crucial to carry out branding that achieves universal global acceptance. kosé will do this not by giving up its unique qualities but by enhancing them as it flexibly responds to changing social conditions. (kosé,2019) example 15. in 2018, ohsas 18001 will probably be replaced by the international standard iso 45001, and we already integrated the expanded requirements associated with this into our internal checklist for our esmas audit program in 2016… (lvhm, 2017) in example 14, compared to the likelihood verb believe expressing a strong sense of obligation and accountability, think conveys a weaker degree of bixi jin ibérica 43 (2022): 77-10292 bixi jin ibérica 43(2022): …-… lexical item freq freq per thousand early 155 0.22 recent 100 0.14 often 98 0.14 by the end of 89 0.13 always 87 0.12 recently 47 0.07 at the end of 30 0.04 usually 16 0.02 sometimes 16 0.02 frequently 11 0.02 table 4. vague items associated with “time”. 6.4. vague items associated with “softening stance-taking” vl in this category is manifested by the use of perspective-taking verbs (suggest, think) and possibility indicators such as possible, may. the emergence of these vague items may reflect a general tendency that csr reports are subjective. these linguistic manifestations project reasoned justification for company decision and engagement in csr activities, while also leaving adequate space for negotiations in the case of unforeseen circumstances or negative evaluations, thus revealing the “dialogic nature” of corporate discourse (fuoli, 2017). the examples below may be interpreted as a responsive discursive strategy aiming at displaying their careful engagement with social and environmental performances. example 14. although the quality of kosé’s products is world-class, i think it is crucial to carry out branding that achieves universal global acceptance. kosé will do this not by giving up its unique qualities but by enhancing them as it flexibly responds to changing social conditions. (kosé,2019) example 15. in 2018, ohsas 18001 will probably be replaced by the international standard iso 45001, and we already integrated the expanded requirements associated with this into our internal checklist for our esmas audit program in 2016… (lvhm, 2017) in example 14, compared to the likelihood verb believe expressing a strong sense of obligation and accountability, think conveys a weaker degree of engagement. thus, the statement signals an emerging ambition on the part of kosé to promote its branding globally, but also leaves the possibility open if kosé fails to fulfil this expectation. in example 15, the use of probably implies the drafter’s unwillingness to commit him/herself concerning whether the statement is true or false. however, vl here engagement. thus, the statement signals an emerging ambition on the part of kosé to promote its branding globally, but also leaves the possibility open if kosé fails to fulfil this expectation. in example 15, the use of probably implies the drafter’s unwillingness to commit him/herself concerning whether the statement is true or false. however, vl here gives stakeholders a clear message that companies are actively adjusting themselves to cope with changes given the relevant standards. meanwhile, lvhm leaves some room for itself in case what they predict does not happen. table 5. vague items associated with “softening stance-taking”. 6.5. communicative functions of vague language from the above discussion, it can be seen that the drafters of csr reports can benefit from the use of vl. overall, five major situations can be summarised as to how drafters tend to strategically use vl, with adaptations based on li (2017) and zhang’s (2018) work: to give an appropriate amount of information, demonstrate solidarity, enhance persuasion, and selfprotection. a) to give an appropriate amount of information. in drafting a csr text, writers are expected to provide relevant information on csr-related development as an annual highlight to stakeholders for future investment, on the one hand. on the other hand, there will always be unexpected circumstances or future contingencies so that companies a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 93 a corpus-assisted study of vague language in csr reports ibérica 43 (2022): …-… gives stakeholders a clear message that companies are actively adjusting themselves to cope with changes given the relevant standards. meanwhile, lvhm leaves some room for itself in case what they predict does not happen. lexical item freq freq per thousand probably 228 0.33 possible 201 0.29 may 134 0.19 assume 109 0.16 estimate 94 0.13 think 38 0.05 might 29 0.04 suggest 21 0.03 table 5. vague items associated with “softening stance-taking”. 6.5. communicative functions of vague language from the above discussion, it can be seen that the drafters of csr reports can benefit from the use of vl. overall, five major situations can be summarised as to how drafters tend to strategically use vl, with adaptations based on li (2017) and zhang’s (2018) work: to give an appropriate amount of information, demonstrate solidarity, enhance persuasion, and self-protection. a) to give an appropriate amount of information. in drafting a csr text, writers are expected to provide relevant information on csr-related development as an annual highlight to stakeholders for future investment, on the one hand. on the other hand, there will always be unexpected circumstances or future contingencies so that companies are unable to inject precise details and thus resort to vl for selfprotection. there may even be a genuine lack of precise information on the part of corporate management. the vague expressions some or many in examples 2 and 4, on the one hand, suggest that companies pay attention to protecting the information that is crucial to cover themselves. while precise information can be obtained if corporations spend money and time collecting missing information, the information-seeking process may result in an imbalance between investment and economic return. it is thus likely that unclear referencing is an effective costsaving strategy. a similar finding can be seen in li’s (2017) study on vl in legal texts, in which she argued that draftsmen may not have time to check and access exact information, which thus results in the emergence of vl. b) to enhance persuasion. in this corpus, we can see that drafters often use vague items associated with stance markers (e.g., important, very, essential). vl in this are unable to inject precise details and thus resort to vl for selfprotection. there may even be a genuine lack of precise information on the part of corporate management. the vague expressions some or many in examples 2 and 4, on the one hand, suggest that companies pay attention to protecting the information that is crucial to cover themselves. while precise information can be obtained if corporations spend money and time collecting missing information, the information-seeking process may result in an imbalance between investment and economic return. it is thus likely that unclear referencing is an effective cost-saving strategy. a similar finding can be seen in li’s (2017) study on vl in legal texts, in which she argued that draftsmen may not have time to check and access exact information, which thus results in the emergence of vl. b) to enhance persuasion. in this corpus, we can see that drafters often use vague items associated with stance markers (e.g., important, very, essential). vl in this category comprises positive evaluative language items mainly in the form of adjectives to discursively build up a committed image, establish a positive relationship with stakeholders, and underscore their annual contribution to social and environmental issues (bondi, 2016; fuoli, 2017). for instance, colgate seeks to demonstrate the active role they lead by signalling a confident attitude, for example by using important as a stance presentation to persuade stakeholders (example 8). c) to protect one’s image. to build a favorable corporate image, companies may downplay unfavourable information or soften their position through strategic use of vl. as shown in examples 14 and 15, concerning prospects and technological advancement, companies use vl to soften their stances regarding the blueprint of the product. rather than elaborate on the advancement of production standards, the company presents itself as a rational decision-maker with cautious attitudes, leaving negotiable space for not fulfilling the objectives. also, vl cushions the negative effects of potential criticisms. for instance, as evidenced by the vague term some in “experienced some difficulties from excessive store openings due to business expansion”, some can be construed as a face-saving discursive strategy to maintain a positive corporate image bixi jin ibérica 43 (2022): 77-10294 7. summary and conclusions the sections above address the following research questions: what are the prototypical types of vl in csr reports of the cosmetics industry? is the use of vl in csr reports related to their communicative purposes? if so, how? four types and four communicative functions were illustrated. the linguistic representations of vl are associated with the semantic categories “quantity,” “degree,” “time,” and “softening stance-taking.” the communicative functions underlying the linguistic findings are 1) give an appropriate amount of information; 2) enhance persuasion; and 3) selfprotection. i arrived at these findings through a cads approach by analysing csr through corpus methods; at the same time, the contextual analysis surrounding vl use in their contexts sensitised me to the salience of some of the communicative strategies. the approach helps to uncover how cosmetics companies communicate socially responsible initiatives through the discursive constructions of vl in csrs. the semantic types and pragmatic functions of vl align with the findings proposed in prior research (li, 2017; zhang, 2018) and confirm some observations made in previous research on the promotional and subjective nature of csr reports, as evidenced by the positive evaluative expressions and softening stance expressions. the study also contributes to an enhanced understanding of vl on the part of business practitioners and business communication scholars, enabling them to critically understand and assess the vl features in corporate discourse. such findings of these categorisations and pragmatic functions can be transferred into actual drafting practices, such as when a company drafting csr reports seeks effective and image-enhancing methods. the strategic employment of these linguistic resources may manage readers’ impressions and navigate them toward a favorable direction. beyond the textual level, given the strategic nature of vl use, the study may bridge the gap between applied linguists and business practitioners, prompting them to be aware of the value and feasibility of collaboration. some avenues for future research on vl in corporate discourse can be pursued. notably, in the current study, vl was identified based on prior studies and sample readings. several other linguistic manifestations of vl are not considered in this paper (e.g., conditional sentences, passive sentences, and epistemic modality). the paucity of these lexico-grammatical features provides a potential source of inspiration for applied linguists to a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 95 uncover more semantic types and pragmatic functions of vl. further, while i focused on the investigation of vl mainly through frequency as conducted in prior research (li, 2017; malyuga & mccarthy, 2018), future research could focus on a more sophisticated quantitative approach (e.g., collocational patterns), which expands the scope of the data analysis. in addition, only english versions of csrs are included in this research. it is hoped that future research would focus on the vl in both english and non-english csrs and then identify the potential social, cultural, and organisational factors that may account for the linguistic variation between these two types of reports. article history: received 03 october 2020 received in revised 15 february 2022 accepted 25 march 2022 references bixi jin ibérica 43 (2022): 77-10296 anesa, p. 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(2004). text, context, pretext. critical issues in critical discourse analysis. blackwell. zhang, g. (2011). elasticity of vague language. intercultural pragmatics, 8(4), 571-599. zhang, g. (2018). vague language, elasticity theory and the use of “some”: a comparative study of l1 and l2 speakers in educational settings: linguistic analysis of some. bloomsbury publishing plc. appendix a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 99 a corpus-assisted study of vague language in csr reports ibérica 43 (2022): …-… appendix rank word freq 1 the 33476 2 and 31387 3 of 23892 4 to 21888 5 in 18958 6 our 13426 7 a 10643 8 for 9223 9 we 8087 10 with 7434 11 on 5799 12 is 5256 13 by 4816 14 as 4758 15 are 4449 16 button 4421 17 that 4024 18 this 3285 19 sustainability 3280 20 from 3199 21 at 3125 22 health 2855 23 employees 2744 23 products 2650 25 have 2489 26 an 2437 27 management 2430 bixi jin ibérica 43(2022): …-… 28 their 2383 29 business 2373 30 all 2310 31 more 2234 32 its 2156 table a1. top 50 words from the wordlist of the csr (cosmeics industry). table a1. top 50 words from the wordlist of the csr (cosmeics industry). bixi jin ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102100 bixi jin ibérica 43(2022): …-… 32 its 2156 33 water 2145 34 global 2102 35 people 2049 36 johnson 2029 37 or 1936 38 also 1920 39 new 1913 40 has 1906 41 group 1809 42 through 1748 43 environmental 1733 44 safety 1659 45 product 1642 46 which 1619 47 colgate 1580 48 social 1567 49 care 1563 50 program 1541 table a1. top 50 words from the wordlist of the csr (cosmeics industry). a corpus-assisted study of vague language in corporate responsibility reports of the cosmetics industry ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102 101 a corpus-assisted study of vague language in csr reports ibérica 43 (2022): …-… rank word keyness 1 colgate 1258.82 2 henkel 1072.857 3 gri 709.54 4 kosé 694.74 5 amorepacific 694.304 6 lvmh 591.087 7 beiersdorf 490.015 8 tesa 303.321 9 gorsky 207.69 10 sustainability 148.45 11 maisons 134.657 12 cdp 125.034 13 rspo 120.58 14 innisfree 117.819 15 ehs 116.228 16 ungc 110.451 17 janssen 98.977 18 sekkisei 98.587 19 lauder 97.139 20 krw 96.398 21 ghg 95.904 22 estée 93.972 23 dior 85.806 23 hennessy 79.975 25 decorté 79.943 26 handwashing 78.545 27 supplier 76.195 28 earthwards 74.601 29 button 73.426 bixi jin ibérica 43(2022): …-… 30 bsbf 72.252 31 recyclability 71.146 32 stewardship 70.529 33 parfums 70.351 34 csr 69.849 35 sephora 69.783 table a2. top 50 words from the keyword list of the csr (using the english web 2020 in sketch engine as the reference corpus). table a2. top 50 words from the keyword list of the csr (using the english web 2020 in sketch engine as the reference corpus). bixi jin ibérica 43 (2022): 77-102102 bixi jin ibérica 43(2022): …-… 34 csr 69.849 35 sephora 69.783 36 g4-dma 69.035 37 nivea 68.187 38 guerlain 66.518 39 fy16 64.991 40 credo 64.936 41 berluti 61.269 42 foreword 61.239 43 elc 60.923 44 co2e 60.141 45 packaging 60 46 sustainably 56.277 47 ecovadis 55.83 48 terracycle 53.645 49 deforestation 53.129 50 johnson 52.889 table a2. top 50 words from the keyword list of the csr (using the english web 2020 in sketch engine as the reference corpus). iberica 13 ibérica 43 (2022): 7-26 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the stage is an apt metaphor for how the erpp community has come to understand research-based writing: research writing is of course a textual practice, but it is also inherently social, with both cognitive and affective dimensions. the aim of our paper (based on a plenary given at nfeap in 2021) is to bring new insights to our understanding of these stages by presenting a few data examples derived from a task completed by a group of doctoral students in the sciences. the task was designed to foreground primarily social facets of writing: writing as genre performance on a specific stage, for a specific audience and as a form of situated, purposeful communication against the backdrop of the current knowledge within a field. further, the task foregrounded writing as a form of development towards a self-directed, agentive and possibly creative adaptation of one’s authorial choices. we present three main arguments: first, we show that a straightforward disciplinary framing of research-based writing may not be reflective of the hybridised, fluid and multidisciplinary audiences that our students write for; second, we argue that students need support in recognising this complexity and in developing rhetorical adroitness in order to write effectively; and third, we call for deeper engagement with well-established theories of learning such as self-regulation and metacognition to design tasks that investigate and promote student learning, and that encompass the social, cognitive and affective dimensions of genre performance. keywords: academic writing, writing for research, writing in stem, genre pedagogy, interdisciplinarity, learning processes and metacognition. setting the stage(s) for english for research and publication purposes: authors, audiences, and learning the craft raffaella negretti & lisa mcgrath chalmers university of technology (sweden), sheffield hallam university (united kingdom) negretti@chalmers.se, l.mcgrath@shu.ac.uk 7 ibérica 43 (2022): 7-26 raffaella negretti & lisa mcgrath resumen preparando los escenarios para el inglés para fines de investigación: autores, públicos y aprendizaje la metáfora del escenario es una metáfora adecuada para explicar cómo desde el ámbito del inglés para fines de investigación se ha llegado a entender la escritura basada en investigación: si bien la redacción de resultados de investigación es una práctica textual, también es inherentemente social, con dimensiones tanto cognitivas como afectivas. el objetivo de este artículo, basado en una conferencia plenaria presentada en el norwegian forum for english for academic purposes (nfeap) de 2021, es ofrecer nuevas perspectivas acerca de nuestro conocimiento de esos escenarios a través de varios ejemplos procedentes de una tarea llevada a cabo por un grupo de doctorandos del área de ciencias. esta tarea se diseñó de tal forma que fuera capaz de poner de relieve los aspectos sociales del proceso de escritura, entendido como actuación genérica que tiene lugar en un determinado escenario, para un público específico y como forma de comunicación que se produce en una situación concreta y con un fin determinado respecto al conocimiento disponible dentro de un campo. además, la tarea hizo hincapié en la interpretación de la escritura como una forma de desarrollo hacia una adaptación autodirigida, agentiva y, en cierta manera, creativa de las propias decisiones del autor. en este artículo se presentan tres argumentos principales: en primer lugar, mostramos que enmarcar claramente la escritura basada en investigación dentro de los límites de una disciplina concreta puede implicar que no queden bien representados aquellos lectores multidisciplinares para los que nuestros estudiantes habrán de escribir y que evidencian una mayor hibridación disciplinar; en segundo lugar, consideramos que los estudiantes necesitan ayuda a la hora de reconocer esta complejidad y de desarrollar una habilidad retórica suficiente para escribir con eficacia; por último, abogamos por un mayor compromiso con teorías establecidas del aprendizaje como la autorregulación y la metacognición para diseñar tareas que investiguen y promuevan el aprendizaje de los alumnos y que abarquen las dimensiones sociales, cognitivas y afectivas de la actuación genérica. palabras clave: escritura académica, escritura para fines de investigación, escritura en ctim, pedagogía de géneros, interdisciplinariedad, procesos de aprendizaje y metacognición. 1. introduction our point of departure for this paper is the metaphor of a stage1 as a way of thinking about how the english for research and publication purposes 8 (erpp) community has come to understand research-based writing, a textual practice that is also inherently social (curry & lillis, 2008; hyland, 2015; tardy et al., 2020), with both cognitive and affective dimensions (casanave, 2019; castelló et al., 2013; devitt, 2015; roderick & moreau, 2020; salabubaré et al., 2021). publishing is the stage, and academics are actors performing genres to audiences who have expectations based on a familiarity with those genres and the rhetorical contexts in which they operate. stage can also pertain to the series of stages of writer development, the processes through which the academic writer acquires the ability to perform and have agency when writing for different audiences and in different contexts. in this paper, we look closely at this stage and these stages, the actors and their audiences, and make three key points derived from an amalgamation of our previous research (kaufhold & mcgrath, 2019; mcgrath, 2015; negretti, 2017, 2021; negretti & mcgrath, 2018, 2020) and illustrated by new data. first, we show that a disciplinary framing of research-based writing is not necessarily reflective of the hybridised, fluid and multidisciplinary groups that our students write within. second, we argue that students of writing for publication need support in recognising the complexity of their writing contexts and in developing a rhetorical dexterity to enable them to write effectively. thirdly, we show how engagement with well-established theories of learning such as metacognition and selfregulation (sr) can help erpp teachers and researchers to design tasks that investigate and promote students’ development as effective and adaptive research writers. in sum, we explore how the metaphor of stages can illuminate aspects of learning and teaching writing for publication, at least in the way we interpret it in our work. in this paper, we present the theoretical foundations of our work, provide an example of a practical task that we have created (see appendix) based on these theoretical pegs, and provide illuminating extracts from the data we have collected. 2. the social nature of writing: stage, actors and audience as indicated in our introduction, there is now substantial agreement that writing is a socially-situated practice (curry & lillis, 2008; hyland, 2015); academics write research articles for a specific audience who share certain expectations and standards for knowledge construction and verification, and setting the stage(s) for english for research and publication purposes ibérica 43 (2022): 7-26 9 what constitutes a contribution to the field (swales, 1990). these shared epistemological expectations naturally invoke the concept of discipline. indeed, discipline continues to dominate framings of genre investigations of writing for publication, as evidenced by multiple and recent papers in english for specific purposes journals such as ibérica (e.g. cheung & lau, 2020; kathpalia & khoo, 2021; le & pham, 2020). in writing studies, we talk often about disciplinary communities, designated by swales (1998) as “near cousins” of discourse communities, to characterise the audiences of research genres. hyland’s work has led the charge –for him, “discipline is the key factor influencing publishing behaviour” (2015, p. 68). ‘discipline’ then, as a conceptual category, could be said to have almost hegemonic status in erpp research. nonetheless, discipline is a slippery notion (trowler et al., 2012). in fact, some have argued that conceptualisations of disciplines as “intellectual arenas” are outdated (wallerstein, 2003, p. 454), and that a focus on discipline is at odds with “the dynamic disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas of the contemporary university” (manathunga & brew, 2014, p. 45). disciplines are important organisational structures for university management, and they do of course exist within departments, associations, and publication outlets (krishnan, 2009). but while in the 19th and 20th centuries, researchers tended to work within bounded disciplinary spaces (manathunga & brew, 2012) it has been shown that many academics do not in fact affiliate strongly with a specific discipline when it comes to scholarly publication, but rather identify their work as part of an interdisciplinary field. affiliations are like russian dolls –scholars work within a field within a field within a field or, alternatively, academics position themselves at the confluence of disciplines. kaufhold and mcgrath (2019) in their work on academics in the humanities found that disciplinary affiliation was idiosyncratic, multiple, interdisciplinary and shifted over time. instead of focusing on discipline, participants in that study identified group memberships in terms of research interests, and their audiences were interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary networks. to further muddy the waters, amalgamate disciplines such as chinese studies have also emerged (see kuteeva & negretti, 2016). another important aspect of understanding the stage, actors and audiences involved in writing for publication is the relationship between the academy and industry. one of the pillars of the so-called ‘knowledge economy’— defined as “the production and services based on knowledge-intensive raffaella negretti & lisa mcgrath ibérica 43 (2022): 7-2610 activities that contribute to an accelerated pace of technical and scientific advance” (powell and snellman, 2004, p. 199)—is strong collaboration between public and private research organisations. these collaborations can be said to deal in “mode 2 knowledge” (gibbons et al., 1994). it needs to be noted that theorisations of disciplinarity do not always align –for an alternative conceptualisation, we refer the reader to bernstein’s distinction between ‘singulars’ and ‘regions’ (2000, p. 52). in broad terms, mode 1 knowledge refers to knowledge that is generated within a particular discipline of the academy, arising from a research agenda that is set by the discipline, and validated according to the standards of that discipline. the data generated is said to be ‘context free’ in that the research problem or design are not necessarily conceived of in relation to a real-world context or problem. mode 2 knowledge on the other hand is said to be rooted in a context of particular application (for example, in a specific industry, one might ask: what could make this product more effective or this process more efficient?). in this sense, the knowledge is directly and immediately relevant to practitioners and other applied stakeholders. therefore, unlike mode 1 knowledge that is deeply rooted in the discipline, mode 2 knowledge is often interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, or transdisciplinary, and, as pointed out by trowler (2014), often contextdependent and “local” rather than disciplinary. teams work together on a temporary basis, resulting in knowledge production that is characterized by heterogeneity and organisational diversity. whereas mode 1 knowledge verification is the job of the discipline, mode 2 knowledge is judged in terms of its application and from the perspective of the different stakeholders involved (nowotny et al., 2003). this scenario brings us to our second point. clearly, as teachers of writing for publication, we need to foreground the social nature of that writing if we are to support students in recognising the complexity of their writing contexts and in developing a rhetorical dexterity to enable them to write effectively within those contexts. departing from a disciplinary and primarily textual perspective (i.e. engineers write research articles in this way; these are the conventional features of research articles in engineering) will not work if our students do not have fixed disciplinary identities (kaufhold, 2017; kaufhold & mcgrath, 2019) and are working in temporary, interdisciplinary applied teams, writing for an interor trans-disciplinary audience. in engineering, for example, students may need training in producing complex genres that address readers beyond academia and that blend academic and setting the stage(s) for english for research and publication purposes ibérica 43 (2022): 7-26 11 professional/digital discourse (sancho guinda, 2020). attention to the social context is perhaps especially crucial when we work with multilingual scholars and students, whose access to international publication practices in english is often constrained by a variety of limitations in terms of research networks and literacy brokerage (curry & lillis, 2008). as curry and lillis argued more than 10 years ago: “our research highlights the need to go beyond a focus purely on texts in designing materials to support the english-medium professional academic text production of scholars and postgraduates, towards an approach that foregrounds social practices” (2008, p. 324, emphasis added). hence, there is broad agreement that it is a good idea to foreground social practices. however, knowledge of these social practices is often tacit, inherently implicit in expert knowledge. the key question is then, what kind of tasks can we develop to help erpp students and lecturers (and indeed supervisors and subject lecturers) become aware of the social practices that surround writing for publication? we argue that this can be achieved without relinquishing a focus on text or subject-matter knowledge, and by fostering important drivers of learning such as self-regulation and metacognition. 3. learning the craft: examples from students’ assignments, in transor interdisciplinary contexts we focus here on a writing context task (appendix) that was designed to foreground the social dimensions of writing for research: writing as performing a genre on a stage, for a specific audience, writing as a form of situated, purposeful communication against the backdrop of the state-of-the art knowledge within a field or sub-field. this task is the initial capstone assignment in a writing for publication course, attended by doctoral students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem). the aim is to start the course by foregrounding the social aspects of research writing, and in a sense to ‘set the stage’ for each student by scaffolding them to think about: who are they writing for? what characterises their audience? how do they perceive/define their own positionality in the field? what do they see as a successful genre performance in their specific context – what strategies are they using to appeal to that audience? in this section, we connect the writing context task to our discussion about social practices in research writing and their connection to discipline (for further studies on social and disciplinary practices surrounding doctoral raffaella negretti & lisa mcgrath ibérica 43 (2022): 7-2612 writing, see also gonzález-ocampo & castelló, 2018; moore & schleppegrell, 2020; negretti & mcgrath, 2020; negretti, 2021; paltridge & starfield, 2020; park & schallert, 2019). the data extracts we present are drawn from the assignments written by students in various iterations of the course, over a period of 2 years. we will show excerpts from four students (out of 33 participants), to illustrate how the task may have prompted them to reflect on audiences and themselves as actors on the research stage. these students were chosen as focal participants as their responses to tasks flagged a very strong transdisciplinary or interdisciplinary dimension in their writing contexts, and provided compelling insights pertaining to our study focus. p1, an applied physics student half-way to the phd, was working in a very specialized field that dealt with the manipulation of light and its ability to interact with matter, with potential applications in quantum computing, among others. by their own admission, this research transcends a specific discipline, having “gained a lot of interest in several research communities, everything from fundamental physics to applied physics and chemistry as well as pure theoretical research groups” (p1, writing context assignment). p2 was a doctoral student mid-way towards a phd in energy technology, in the already rather interdisciplinary department of “space, earth and environment”. the focus of their research—c02 capture— brings together researchers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds (from geology to policy-making), and often occurs in a collaborative nature with industry partners. working in applied mechanics, p3’s research exemplifies the close interaction between academia and industry that is typical of much engineering research (what we associate with mode 2 knowledge). this hybrid identity was immediately foregrounded in the first line of their writing context assignment: “as an engineer working within the automotive industry, i do research on new technologies for improving the efficiency of automobiles” (p3, writing context). p4, from the department of microtechnology and nanoscience (in itself a rather diversified “discipline”) also exemplified this connection with industry, but in addition to that, clearly staked out the relevance of their research for different fields, associated with different goals and methodological approaches. it is very clear from the focal participants’ data that these students do not write to a discipline, but typically have interdisciplinary, hybrid academic/professional, experimental/theoretical audiences. this task elicited considerable variety in the type of readers that students typically setting the stage(s) for english for research and publication purposes ibérica 43 (2022): 7-26 13 address, and for the most part students seemed aware of the multifaceted nature of their audiences. for instance, for p1, the audience follows what we have called ‘the russian doll’ model, referring to smaller and more specialized audiences of fields within fields. notice how p1 explicitly positions their work, and identifies an element of interdisciplinarity within it: within photonics, a distinction is made between devices that manipulate light at microscopic or macroscopic length scales. at macroscopic length scales, e.g., the manipulation of light with lenses and optical fibers, the averaged material properties of the device, such as its refractive index, are important. this subfield of photonics is often referred to as optics. at microscopic length scales, e.g., integrated optical chips and small optical antennas, the specific geometry of the material and its microscopic material properties are important. due to the small length scales involved, this subfield of photonics is also known as nanophotonics. my research provides a bridge between optics and nanophotonics. (p1, bold in the original) the same student then explicitly connects the field with audiences (researchers and journals). the following paragraph is quoted in its entirety because it concludes with an “aha” moment (a metacognitive experience, cf. metcalfe & schwartz, 2015), triggered by writing the task: our research targets an audience with a diverse scientific background. physicists may be interested in the theories and concepts underlying a particular metamaterial design while engineers may be interested in the fabrication process and the specifications of the device. this diversity is reflected in the journals that metamaterial research appears in. metamaterial research is often published in high-end journals when new concepts or fabrication techniques are discussed, such as science, nature (photonics, physics and nature materials), pnas and physical review letters. other contributions either appear in physics journals which tend to focus on the conceptual and technical progress in the field, e.g., european physical journal (qt), new journal of physics, and journal of optics, or they appear in applied physics and engineering journals such as physics applied, ieee (microwave and antenna propagation, quantum electronics), european physical journal (qt) and physical review applied. finally, because of field is evolving very rapidly and involves many engineering disciplines, progress if regularly highlighted in reviews in modern physics, optics and photonics, etc. good mapping of the field! (p1, bold in the original) raffaella negretti & lisa mcgrath ibérica 43 (2022): 7-2614 similarly, p2 highlights how the field in which they work comprises a broad spectrum of specializations, describing both the “broad and the “specialized” research field: my broader research field is about carbon capture and storage (ccs). this academic topic is rather ‘densely populated’ since it deals with mitigating global warming –a major challenge in the 21st century. amongst others, it comprises research in capture technologies (the means of how to separate/collect co2 from its sources), mapping and simulation of geological storage locations or other long-term storage media, cost calculations, policy making, and application of ccs in various fields of industry (e.g. heat and power generation, oil and gas, other producing or process industries). the specialized area i see myself involved in deals with partial capture, where only the most cost effective part of the total co2 emissions of an industrial source is separated for storage (usually significantly less than 90 % of the co2). the industrial co2 sources i focus on are nordic industries (e.g. pulp & paper, cement production) and predominantly iron & steelmaking. (p2) on the other hand p3 indicates working at the intersection of two different fields, and notices differences in form as tied to the different parts of the research: to start with my first field in high temperature thermoelectric modules it comprises of several parts, where i’m doing some kind of research at least. the research has two distinct parts to it, the synthesis of materials and the fabrication of modules. the synthesis is not my main field but my previous publication did have a synthesis part with completely different type of language, writing i was not familiar with before. (p3) the same student’s description of their research field potentially foregrounds what we interpret as mode 2 knowledge, where the focus is the problem and the scientific contribution to the solution comes from a variety of fields (including industry): not sure right now who will be my target audience but i’m sure that at least the aerospace industry will be interested. as an engineer working within the automotive industry, i do research on new technologies for improving the efficiency of automobiles. due to environmental concerns and government legislations, there are many researchers from different backgrounds that are working on hevs. (p3) setting the stage(s) for english for research and publication purposes ibérica 43 (2022): 7-26 15 in terms of their own position in the field, these quotes also illustrate that while most students depart from their scientific contribution (the subjectmatter) in describing their writing context, their links to other researchers are often foregrounded. in other words, writing this assignment prompts students to reflect on their role on the stage of their research context. in addition, students’ reflections on audience, readers, and the contribution of their own work within the field facilitate a metacognitive awareness of what this means for their own research writing: set goals and plan their submission, monitor their expressions of novelty and contribution, and foreshadow the potential strategies that research writing for specific journals/audiences may entail. for example, p1 reflects on what it would mean to address readers outside their own specialized area (theorists vs. experimentalists): for me, the difficulty will consist in providing a sufficiently broad introduction and accessible description of this technical work. also, being slightly outside of the field, the introduction and state-of-the art will be the hardest part. (p1) this reflection brings about metacognitive awareness of the rhetorical strategies required to appeal to the audience, tying anticipated audience expectations to the way they structure their writing and drawing on genre knowledge (see tardy (2009) and tardy et al. (2020) for a conceptualisation of genre knowledge, genre awareness and metacognition) where conventions have been established. first, a broad introduction should cover the use of optical forces in science (optical force community), optical forces in artificial materials (nanophotonics community) and tunable metamaterial designs based on optical forces (metamaterial community, nonlinear physics). in the conclusion of metamaterial papers, it is also common practice to comment on the challenges related to the fabrication of the structure and the appearance of losses. overall, the conclusion should appeal to the metamaterial community in general, from theoretical physicists to material scientists and experimenters. (p1) in the same manner, other students reflected on the challenges posed by the varied background of their audiences, and what that means in terms of performing the genre. for example, p2 shows metacognitive awareness of rhetorical strategies tied to the multidisciplinary background of their audience. raffaella negretti & lisa mcgrath ibérica 43 (2022): 7-2616 the participants of this conference are likely to be the main audience for the article and will have a diverse background in ccs (see topics mentioned above). other likely readers are partners in the project i am involved in, on cost-cutting for process industries. the broad and quite multi-disciplinary background of the readers requires a distinct and clear definition of the paper’s scope. this point is likely the most important to be made, since the paper’s nature will be ‘work in progress’ and may not deliver a great leap in novelty or constructed knowledge. in the conclusion part, it will be crucial to motivate future work with help of the results and establish a border between other fields of research (e.g. general design of absorption processes from an industrial source). (p2) the student ‘on two stages’, p4, also recognizes the need to play a different role and plan the contribution according to the target journal saying: i also do some work with completely different fields, mainly in high frequency antennas. because my work so far has been purely practical i have not yet seen any similar research articles in 3d printing, and only a few about antennas. i can however guess that this “field” as well is two widely different fields with two different groups. my plan is to write these articles as 3dprinter articles if the breakthrough is 3d-printing and as antenna articles if the breakthrough is antennas. (p4) similarly, p3 reflects on their own contribution to the field and how to make that contribution salient vis-à-vis current practices in research publication in their context: i have noticed that most of the research papers usually focus on one thing, for example testing a certain part, algorithm or configuration in a few operating conditions or comparing different technologies under one driving cycle… i plan to test different control algorithms and variations in the configuration to see their benefits with respect to other technologies under multiple driving conditions. this will allow my research to look into these technologies from a broader perspective. i will be conducting both simulations and experimental work as well, which can further widen the perspective and accuracy of my findings. (p3) as we have shown in this section, in response to the writing context task, the focal participants described the multifaceted nature of their audiences – disciplinary, interdisciplinary and hybrid. the task also fostered their metacognitive awareness of what this characterisation means for their writing– both in terms of the writing challenges they face and the strategies they employ. setting the stage(s) for english for research and publication purposes ibérica 43 (2022): 7-26 17 4. stages of development in genre performance: selfregulated learning and eap/erpp having discussed some examples from the data, we now turn to our third point: the metaphor of stages also brings about the idea of development and learning. as we have attempted to show thus far, in relation to learning to write for academic audiences, stages evokes two dimensions: stages as a metaphor for context, and the need to help students develop the metacognitive knowledge necessary to recontextualize their writing knowledge across different stages – their shifting writing contexts and heterogeneous audiences. stages of development – how students can be taught to become selfregulated, independent academic writers. these two aspects are somewhat inherent in the concept of recontextualisation proposed by cheng (2007, p. 303), as “learners’ abilities not only to use a certain generic feature in a new writing task, but to use it with a keen awareness of the rhetorical context that facilitates its appropriate use”. recontextualisation entails that the development of academic writing expertise, and thus a learning goal of academic writing pedagogy, is to develop the ability to perform– and take agency –across a variety of rhetorically recurrent situations (miller, 1984). to be clear, as tardy et al. (2020, p. 15) point out, “rhetorical situations do not themselves recur; rather, it is the perception of recurrence or similarity that leads people to respond in similar ways.” thus, in this regard, we can again consider the idea of stages as a plural, the many types of social situations and audiences that the same genre may serve, or that require different genres and, at times, languages. as theorized further by tardy et al. (2020) as well as others (driscoll et al., 2019; negretti, 2021; novacek 2011), the process of recontextualization or transfer, especially as learners develop, requires metacognition: the awareness of what you know, including how to adapt your knowledge to different situations, as well as the ability to plan, monitor and control how you learn. tardy (2020) and her colleagues view both genre awareness and metacognition as referring to a broader, conceptual understandings of how genres can be used (independently from language), and argue that genre awareness can be considered as a specialized, writing-specific type of raffaella negretti & lisa mcgrath ibérica 43 (2022): 7-2618 metacognition, necessary for recontextualization against the backdrop of varied social contexts. we have consistently argued in our work (mcgrath et al., 2019; negretti & mcgrath, 2018; negretti & mcgrath, 2020; negretti, 2021) that metacognition –metacognitive awareness of genre-specific knowledge– is crucial in the development of writing expertise, and therefore it should be deliberately included in writing pedagogy. we acknowledge that in this, we are not the first: beaufort (2007, 2012) raised the metacognitive dimension of writing in her theorization of expertise, and, together with iñesta (beaufort & iñesta, 2014), highlighted the need to make explicit learners’ knowledge about how to write –and how to regulate (or self-regulate) their writing process (castelló et al., 2013). in brief, metacognition theory can be summarized as follows (from negretti, 2021, p. 171): 1. metacognitive knowledge (also called metacognitive awareness). this comprises: a. declarative knowledge: being aware of possessing a certain type of knowledge, including the self, types of tasks, domain knowledge. it can be verbalized. b. procedural knowledge: being aware of processes and actions to tackle a specific task –the “know how.” often acquired implicitly through experience and automatized, and learners may benefit from making it explicit. c. conditional knowledge: being aware of when and why certain aspects of declarative and procedural knowledge are relevant to a specific task and its conditions and, thus, a prerequisite for an effective use of declarative and procedural knowledge. 2. metacognitive regulation metacognitive regulation refers to metacognitive forms of thinking that power self-regulated learning (winne & azevedo, 2014), from monitoring progress and identifying faults, to controlling cognitive activities such as planning and goal setting in light of task conditions, to evaluating one’s performance. setting the stage(s) for english for research and publication purposes ibérica 43 (2022): 7-26 19 as pertinent to our argument, the reader may notice that the definition of conditional metacognitive knowledge – comprising of knowledge about task conditions as socially situated – brings us back to the notion of stages and recontextualization, and specifically the ability to adapt and perform across different stages (or task conditions in metacognitive terms). 5. the implications of metacognition for erpp writing pedagogy the key question here is, what are the implications of metacognition for writing, and for writing pedagogy? a recent paper by negretti (2021) investigated the common aspects of writing that doctoral students in stem are metacognitive about, and raised three specific theoretical points that are particularly pertinent to writers: first, writers with different backgrounds and experiences may hold different and/or inaccurate declarative metacognitive knowledge about writing (dunning et al., 2003), and may need help in developing accurate metacognitive knowledge of expert writing. second, procedural knowledge (the know-how) is often implicit (see beaufort & iñesta, 2014): students may not be aware of what they are doing, or whether it is effective, and may benefit from tasks that foster conscious and explicit attention to these processes (winne & azevedo, 2014). finally, research writing is highly sensitive to contextual dimensions: strategies that may work for some students may not work for others, or for all situations (dunlosky & rawson, 2019), making it important to develop tasks that can promote conditional metacognitive knowledge (i.e., knowledge of why certain strategies are relevant to the specific situation) of erpp practices. metacognition and the ability to self-regulate one’s learning (and writing) are thus empowering, but they require scaffolding. as zimmerman (2000, pp. 24-25) writes: “even with the seemingly solitary and highly personal craft of writing, there is abundant evidence (zimmerman & risemberg, 1997) of the value of social and physical environmental regulation techniques, such as emulating the styles of exemplary models, soliciting assistance from teachers or confidants, and restructuring the writing setting. … the social milieu influences self-reflection processes in a similar fashion to forethought and performance phase processes.” raffaella negretti & lisa mcgrath ibérica 43 (2022): 7-2620 we end our discussion with some provocation. first, this paper has dealt with concepts from educational psychology, education and higher education research. why should the erpp community borrow from theories or concepts from other fields? it is true that a variety of terminology in writing studies has been used to describe stages of learning and development of genre dexterity but how solid is our research evidence when it to comes to effective learning? in our view, we in the erpp field may benefit from more theoretical and conceptual clarity when specifically investigating learning. this leads us to our second point, i.e. the implications of these theories for practice. robinson and levin (2019) in their chapter titled ‘quackery in educational research’ state that: “when researchers make recommendations for practice, they are “selling” an intervention.” (p. 37). we concur that the promotion of pedagogical approaches necessitates a critical perspective on the evidence base drawn. a question we may ask ourselves is thus whether we sufficiently scrutinize our erpp-pedagogy research: to what extent can we say that our knowledge of best practices for teaching erpp is based on “replicable, scientifically ‘credible’ evidence.” (robinson & levin, 2019, p. 35)? what evidence do we have about erpp learners’ generalities (bazerman, 2018) when it comes to research writing? on this point, much can be learnt from a field like educational psychology that has accrued evidence about effective learning and teaching for decades now. while we may indeed need field-specific terms, theories of learning can actually bring a degree of simplification to teachers, when planning tasks –such as the ‘writing context’ task described here– and to researchers, when trying to examine what our students are learning –particularly learning beyond the textual dimension, encompassing the cognitive and affective dimensions (teng & zhang, 2020, 2021). concepts such as metacognition or self-regulated learning may also give us an evidence base for what works, for whom, and in what circumstances. finally, we return to the discussion at the start of our paper – the theatre of writing can be interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary in the construction of mode 2 knowledge: learning to write for publication is a real-world, multifaceted problem, which, as we have shown, can lend itself to interdisciplinary and perhaps even transdisciplinary thinking and working –situating ourselves, as the students in our study do, at the intersection of fields. in the case of erpp, the confluence of fields such as applied linguistics, educational psychology, and higher education could reap rich rewards. setting the stage(s) for english for research and publication purposes ibérica 43 (2022): 7-26 21 article history: received 23 november 2021 received in revised 21 april 2022 accepted 23 april 2022 references raffaella negretti & lisa mcgrath ibérica 43 (2022): 7-2622 bandura, a. 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(2020). the discourse of engineering students’ entrepreneurial proposals raffaella negretti is associate professor in academic and scientific writing in english at chalmers university of technology, department of communication and learning in science, division for language and communication. her research focuses on academic writing, metacognition, genre pedagogy, and learning in higher education, appearing in a variety of international outlets such as the journal of second language writing, written communication, applied linguistics, and higher education. lisa mcgrath is a senior lecturer in educational linguistics at the sheffield institute of education, sheffield hallam university. her research focuses on academic writing, disciplinary discourse, and genre, and has appeared in journals such as the journal of second language writing, english for specific purposes, teaching in higher education, and applied linguistics. raffaella negretti & lisa mcgrath ibérica 43 (2022): 7-2624 at the universidad politécnica de madrid. in a. bocanegra-valle (ed.), applied linguistics and knowledge transfer: employability, internationalisation and social challenges (pp. 105-131). peter lang. swales, j. m. (2018). other floors, other voices: a textography of a small university building. university of michigan press. tardy, c. (2009). building genre knowledge. parlor press llc. tardy, c. m., sommer-farias, b., & gevers, j. (2020). teaching and researching genre knowledge: toward an enhanced theoretical framework. written communication, 37(3), 287321. teng, l. s., & zhang, l. j. (2020). empowering learners in the second/foreign language classroom: can self-regulated learning strategiesbased writing instruction make a difference? journal of second language writing, 48, 100701. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2019.100701> teng, l. s., & zhang, l. j. (2021). can selfregulation be transferred to second/foreign language learning and teaching? current status, controversies, and futures directions. applied linguistics, amab032. <https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/amab032> trowler, p. (2014). depicting and research disciplines: strong and moderate essentialist approaches. studies in higher education, 39(10), 1720-1731. wallerstein, i. (2003). anthropology, sociology and other dubious disciplines. current anthropology, 44(4), 453-465. winne, p. h., & azevedo, r. (2014). metacognition. in r. k. sawyer (ed.), cambridge handbooks in psychology. the cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 63-87). cambridge university press. <https:// doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139519526.006> zimmerman, b. j. (2000). attaining self-regulation: a social cognitive perspective. in m. boekaerts, p. r. pintrich & m. zeidner (eds.), handbook of selfregulation (pp. 13-39). academic press. zimmerman, b. j., & risemberg, r. (1997). becoming a self-regulated writer: a social cognitive perspective. contemporary educational psychology, 22(1), 73-101. <https://doi.org/ 10.1006/ceps.1997.0919> notes 1 the metaphor of “stages” was the theme of the 2021 norwegian forum of english for academic purposes conference, where this paper was originally delivered as a plenary. appendix your academic writing context provide a short account in which you describe your writing context, i.e. the research field or subfield in which your writing is situated—your “territory”—and how your work contributes to this scientific community. first, besides broader aspects of the field, you should also describe the specialized sub-field that you aim to address in your writing, and possibly even the journals or publication outlet(s) that you are considering for your article: who are you writing for? how much do you know about your audience? what are the most relevant topics and areas of research that are currently investigated? what kinds of expectations will your reader have about your text? then, describe how you as a writer fit into this scientific community: what is your research about, and how, in some way or another, does it contribute to generating more knowledge for your target audience? why is your work relevant for this scientific community, either in terms of theory/methodology, or in terms of problems and issues with previous findings? this text should be written for a fairly general readership, but try to make the analysis of the audience as specific and concrete as possible (e.g. the readership of a specific journal or specialized area vs. the field as a whole). setting the stage(s) for english for research and publication purposes ibérica 43 (2022): 7-26 25 iberica 13 ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 issn 1139-7241 abstract international patents are increasingly demanded in academic circles as a sign of excellence and compete with situated genres such as projects, grants, phd supervisions, books and journal articles, especially in hard science environments. the scarce modelling and dissemination of the genre so far, however, together with some wrong assumptions about the technical register, have helped propagate a series of “genre fallacies” that contribute to perpetuating undesirable writing practices and make the case for explicit instruction. in this paper i advocate a pedagogy of patent writing based on the deconstruction of such myths, which are basically concerned with a notion of the genre as rigid and static, highly impersonal, and exclusively descriptive. my study, based on a qualitative and corpus methodology, revolves around the crucial role of metadiscourse as evidence of flexibility in patent texts. keywords: engineering community, international patents, genre flexibility, metadiscourse. resumen rasgos de flexibilidad en la escritura de patentes la demanda de patentes internacionales como signo de excelencia académica aumenta cada vez más en los círculos universitarios y es frecuente encontrar dicho género profesional entre las credenciales de los profesores, sobre todo en los entornos científico-tecnológicos, junto con proyectos, becas, direcciones de tesis doctorales, libros y artículos de investigación publicados. sin embargo, tanto su escasa diseminación en el pasado como su ausencia generalizada en los programas de lenguas para fines específicos, han contribuido a propagar una serie de creencias erróneas y prácticas de escritura no deseables entre sus usuarios, basadas en una noción de la patente como texto estático y rígido, impersonal y exclusivamente descriptivo. mi estudio, basado en una metodología cualitativa y de corpus, reivindica una pedagogía de la escritura de patentes y flexibility features in patent writing carmen sancho-guinda universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) carmen.sguinda@upm.es 185 ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 carmen sancho-guinda subraya el papel crucial del metadiscurso como evidencia de flexibilidad del género. palabras clave: entornos de ingeniería, patentes internacionales, flexibilidad de género, metadiscurso. 1. introduction: deficiencies in polytechnic settings engineers at the polytechnic university of madrid, where i teach academic english and professional communication, frequently share their concerns of the multi-layered complexity (that is, encompassing issues of vocabulary, grammar, structure, register and reader-considerateness) inherent in international patent writing. despite the still nascent dissemination of patents in academic circles, they have gained prominent status in any (bio)technological career as the fruitful outcome of the collaboration between university and society, and compete with more situated genres such as journal articles, books or research projects. what seems to make the patent text difficult is not so much writing in english and using specific phraseologies (finally acquired by imitation) as the absence of a systematic rhetorical and metadiscursive modelling at technical faculties, either within esp syllabi or in-service teacher seminars. technology teachers, in effect, concentrated as they are on modulating explicitness to claim a satisfactory property scope and on expressing the right nuances in a legal register, do not feel confident as patent users nor do they perceive the slim flexibility potential of the genre. my informants, three aeronautical engineers who had patented their inventions internationally and volunteered to be interviewed about their experiences during the process, unanimously described the genre as “rigid” in both language and format, “not allowing any personalisations and stylizations”. they considered patents strictly descriptive and overlooked their persuasive nature, although technical descriptions and empirical data may constitute cogent arguments by themselves. sales (2006: 142) refers to this kind of factual exhortation, typical of engineering communities of practice, as “restrained persuasion”. nonetheless, as i have contended elsewhere (sancho-guinda, 2010), the patent text does provide leeway for subjectivity, idiolects and variation. an additional hurdle is the lack of a consistent linguistic feedback from patent examiners, sometimes non-native speakers of english themselves, which leaves applicants at a loss and impels them to “clone” documents 186 without being fully aware of the possible communicative repercussions of such action. in the hope of mitigating these problems, my objective here is to lay the basis for a “visible pedagogy”1 of patent writing, offering guidelines useful to esp teachers, students and professionals. in so doing i will try to deconstruct three myths on patent writing widespread in my polytechnic environment and describe the main features of the genre as i go along. 2. methodology of the study this article combines qualitative and quantitative methods. my qualitative study follows bhatia’s (1993) and hyland’s (2004) recommendations to implement “emic” surveys on the attitudes and practices of specialists. the three informants mentioned above underwent a structured interview (see appendix 1) probing into their patent-writing strategies and the major difficulties faced, as well as into their notions of the genre and the feedback received from patent examiners. my quantitative research involves the corpus-supported analysis of 333 patents passed by the united states patents and trademark office (henceforth uspto) between 1998 and 2009, electronically searched by means of the concordance program antconc 3.2.1w (anthony, 2007). the samples, some of which are listed in appendix 2, cover electromechanical devices, substances and processes – the most common inventions in engineering environments – and total 3,041,464 tokens (words, figures and symbols) and almost 30,000 word types. searches consisted of recurrent clusters initially noticed through manual scrutiny (“those/the skilled in the art”) and of various metadiscoursal categories potentially productive and compiled from hyland’s (2005a) appendix to metadiscourse. the most remarkable results obtained within each methodological approach will be discussed to substantiate the myth deconstructions attempted below. 3. deconstructing myths about patent writing there are three fallacious beliefs circulating among students and teachers at my workplace. such beliefs stem from a deficient genre-mapping of one of the texts most used by the engineering community of practice and the ingrained vision of the technical register as invariably impersonal and flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 187 accurate. it is in our hands, as esp instructors, to change this situation by teaching genres as goal-oriented and inter-related social interactions rather than as a series of rhetorical and linguistic prescriptions. myth 1: writing patents requires building entirely new schemata technology professionals would probably feel less intimidated by patent writing if they realised the circular relationship between the patent and the research article (hereafter ra), a text type they handle much more often. myers (1995) highlighted the connection between the two documents as chained genres: patents may lead to more discoveries and ras to subsequent inventions. bearing in mind this circularity would enable practitioners to recycle their background knowledge and selectively incorporate or discard the pool of resources they employ when writing for specialised journals. contrastive modelling proves crucial in this kind of training, which would be favoured by a task-based guided discovery aided by corpus analysis to detect lexico-grammatical and metadiscoursal patterns. in the light of genre theory, the major parameters of divergence between patents and ras would be the following: “purpose”, “discourse community”, “register”, “communal status”, “rhetorical organisation”, “persuasive resources” and “variation”. let us go through them in turn. while patents and ras alike are means to build an academic reputation as merits in the curriculum vitae, the ra’s aim is to disseminate knowledge and that of the patent is profitable comercialisation. both writings must delimit ownership to meet their ends, but patents do it by setting a series of claims that acknowledge the legal nature of the document and its binding consequences. their respective discourse communities also differ: ras are expected to address a homogeneous audience of experts and patents a heterogeneous one joining people “skilled in the art” (that is, inventors, scientists and patent examiners) and lay readers (lawyers and potential investors). translated into discourse, this fact implies that patents should gloss their contents more, mark out the inferences they contain, increase in general their use of metadiscoursal devices as guidance, and as a hybrid genre merge the technical and legal registers. the social value of each genre varies too: ras are signposts or transitions along a route of scientific achievements and patents are goals in themselves, boundary-makers demarcating a territory and vindicating exclusivity. to attain it, patent applicants resort to minimal citation and avoid intertextuality, which might weaken the claims exposed. therefore, links with the prior art are scarce and carmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210188 restricted to antecedents that are immediately left aside to give way to detailed accounts (verbal and visual) of the invention to be patented (arinas pellón & sancho-guinda, 2010). in the ra, conversely, intertexts connecting the current discovery to previous ones back up the credibility of the investigation all throughout. another device exploited to safeguard exclusivity is the interplay of boosting and hedging. ras alternate assertiveness and modesty to show plausibility and win over the reader through a self-effaced and supportive writer role, and for this purpose a network of mitigated statements and metadiscoursal guidance is deployed. in patents, solidarity (through contextualisation and glossing, for instance) is a means to pre-empt litigation because of misinterpretation, and boosters and hedges do not signal the author’s assertiveness and modesty but explicitness or vagueness in the description of the patentable product. in this sense, fuzziness may prove an asset at court because, once technical feasibility has been stated, inventors tend to reveal very few details so as not to endanger exclusivity. this fuzziness is especially noticed in denominations, by which everyday appliances such as vacuum cleaners may be found as “mulchers”, “cyclonic separators” or “dust collection units”, for example. apart from the use of a legal register in patents, the most conspicuous difference between them and ras is perhaps content organisation. according to arinas pellón (2010), the rhetorical moves in patents can be summarized into the sequence property scope → field and application → gaps in the prior art → detailed physical and functional description → cautionary statements (optional). each move subsumes several sections marked under different headings: for instance, the property scope, which defines and delimits the invention, comprises the abstract and the legal claims. the field-and-application move expands and stresses the information given so far by including a “brief summary of the invention”. the gaps posed by analogous patents in the past are addressed in a “background/prior/related art” subdivision, and detailed descriptions may attach tables and diagrams. the document may close with cautionary statements specifying alternatives for fabrication. it might help writers to note that ras and invention disclosures are rhetorically complementary: ras are inductive – that is, they report on a finding and then explore its applications, and patents deductive, as they unfold in the obverse direction (from a practical solution of a problem or flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 189 application to the ways in which it can be designed, fabricated, or arranged). also, in a rough rhetorical comparison, the property scope, field-andapplication and prior-art gaps make up a sort of prolonged ra introduction articulating the invention niche together with the criteria for its validity: utility, feasibility, and novelty. these three ruling principles do not differ much from the ones observed by hyland (2000) for ras: relevance, credibility and novelty. patents are relevant if useful, are credible if technically practicable, and by definition must be unprecedented designs – totally or partially. in other words, they cannot be deduced from previous patents or from the combination of their constituents, as specified in the national laws and established rules (such as the u.s. code in title 35 section 103a, and the u.s. code of federal regulations, title 37 sections 1.71 b and c and 1.75). the detailed description and cautionary statements, by contrast, could be taken as a broad results-and-discussion move. the sequencing of rhetorical moves in ras and patents, as it happens with the type and rate of promotional elements and the expression of subjectivity, may vary across disciplines and even with individual preferences, always subject to the primary goal of each genre and their intended addressees (see table 1). but the sources of variation in patents are also national, given that they must abide by the codes and regulations of each country. the samples in my corpus follow the “consolidated patent rules” title 37 of the u.s. code of federal regulations and title 35 of the u.s. code. to conclude with this first myth, one more aid to genre acquisition could be the visual reminder i am proposing in table 1 for an instruction based on socioliteracy (johns, 1997), guided discovery, critical thought and schema activation. some (or all) of the cells may be left blank for trainees to carmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210190 divergent parameter research article patent priority objective knowledge dissemination commercialisation community of practice homogeneous: experts heterogeneous: experts + lay readers communal status signpost/transition/landmark territorial demarcation register technical/scientific hybrid: technical + legal rhetorical organization inductive deductive citation as credibility back-up. citation detrimental to exclusivity. persuasive resources boosting and hedging for credibility and solidarity (modesty role) boosting and hedging for explicitness and vagueness sources of variation disciplinary + individual national + disciplinary + individual table 1. global contrastive approach to patents and research articles. t complete individually or through peer interaction – out of intuition, experience or after examining appropriate textual models. the table contemplates the genre parameters commented above. myth 2: patent writers convince only through “restrained persuasion” the belief that the technical and academic registers must be “aseptic” or “faceless” is rife in my polytechnic setting. teacher and student writers, in consequence, avoid any trace of opinion, emphasis, emotion, and persuasion strategies other than “restrained” (that is, empirical). we will see that these subjective meanings, through which patent writers nevertheless may position themselves and engage with their readers, are compatible with restrained persuasion and materialise in three basic metadiscursive options: “community pointers”, “informative guides” and “stance markers”. the first category, “community pointers”, joins items from hyland’s (2005b) stance and engagement strategies (self-mention and reader pronouns, respectively) and serves to assign roles to the writer and certain membership sectors within the collective. “informative guides” include interactive connectives and engagement devices such as asides, directives, and markers of shared knowledge, all of them a pivotal tool for persuasion because they process technical information for lay readers by summarising, explaining and clarifying. the last option, “stance markers”, transmits the writer’s insights and affective reaction to his/her message, at the same time building intimacy with the audience and anticipating its behaviour. this option basically respects hyland’s original taxonomy and embraces boosters, hedges and attitudinal adverbials (as already mentioned, i have inserted the fourth element – self-mention pronouns – into the group of community pointers). stance and engagement are to be understood as interlocking features: engagement is but interpersonal stance on community members and outsiders and is shaped by disciplinary practice. in the findings and discussion section i expand on the significance of these two writing features. myth 3: there is no room for vagueness in patent writing a common misconception regarding patents is that all the information they contain must be precise. drawing on the research by several authors, mostly into the legal and commercial discourses (myers, 1995; bhatia, 2005; endicott, 2005; anesa, 2007; and engberg & heller, 2008, among many flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 191 others), arinas pellón (2012) underscores the compatibility between vagueness and precision in the patent text and delves into the motivation for their use. from his study we can deduce that vagueness is a regulatory communicative and linguistic device mediating between two communities of stakeholders in the patenting process: the validity and the infringement people, all of whom may be technical experts. the validity group is made up of patent examiners (who assess format and descriptive and legal requisites), some courts, and the u.s. re-examination forum (who assesses financial feasibility). the infringement group is formed by all those affected commercially by the patent: licensees and competitors. by covering a maximum scope of intellectual property through “communicative un-determinacy” and “semantic indeterminacy” (both pinkal’s (1995) terms), vagueness augments the inventors’ financial potential and reduces business opportunities for competitors and licensees. thanks to vagueness, competitors are prevented from launching patents based on uncovered claims and licensees from carrying out activities without licensing costs. communicative un-determinacy is the deliberate provision of less information than expected in a given situation and semantic indeterminacy is the doubt about the verisimilitude of a given proposition. patents withhold technical details as to further embodiments and improvements that would allow for more patents of the same inventive idea and provide denotative flexibility oriented to the patentee’s self-protection. by way of illustration, the numerical or quantifying inaccuracy achieved by means of approximators in support of the inventor’s arguments (“between”, “about”, “within”, “least”, “ranging”, “several”, “certain”, “a plurality/ratio/set of ”, etc.) does not really flout grice’s (1975) maxims of quantity and quality because the maxim of relation is primed throughout the whole patent text: whatever is disclosed is pertinent to the fabrication and proper functioning of the invention (hence it must be true), and the information provided suffices for those “skilled in the art” to make sense of the message. arinas’s (2012) corpus-driven study concludes that imprecision in patents derives mainly from three sources: the use of “category nouns”, especially in titles (that is, hyperonymic terms such as “invention”, “embodiment”, “disclosure”, “system”, “apparatus”, “mechanism”, “assembly”, “section”, “member”, “unit”, etc.); “the imprecise quantifiers referred” to above; and a series of “expressions without an established standard for interpretation”. carmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210192 modal verbs (“can”, “may”), manner and quantifying adverbs (“selectively”, “substantially”), archaic anaphorics from the legal domain (“said”, “whereby”, “herein”, “wherein”, “thereby”, “thereof ”, etc.) are but just some of these tokens in a larger repertoire. in earlier joint research (arinas pellón & sancho-guinda, 2010) i have largely remarked the cataphoric value of vague quantifiers – expressions of sufficiency, profusion, totality or partiality – and their importance as expectation-raisers or predictors of meaning for patent readers and writers. “most” (536 occurrences in my corpus) suggests both amount and a restrictive focus lacking in “many” (“most” can be subsumed in “many” but “many” does not imply a majority), and arouses an expectation of novelty of the present patent by going back to the conventionality of the background art, alone or collocated with “typically”, “recent(ly)”, “common(ly)”, and “favourable/favoured”. “many” (369 cases) equally finds a niche for patentability by referring back to the prior art, often associated to negativelyloaded nouns (“drawbacks”, “faults”) and besides advances novelty and versatility (“many suitable/alternative ways”). “several” (429 hits) and “certain” (417) demarcate countable items through specificity, frequently in collocation with verbs introducing lists of elements or features (“claim”, “contain”, “include”, “comprise”, “be characterized by”, etc.) and categorizing nouns (“embodiment”, “factor”, “configuration”, etc.). two other contexts for “certain” are prepositional (“in a certain…”) and delimit some scale or range (“in a certain + angle, density, speed, distance, pressure, rate”, etc.) or formulate generalizations about the invention (“in certain + applications, areas, cases, conditions”, etc.). these two deictic formulas subtly leave an open end for patent continuation by changing or adding elements. finally, “much of ”, although minor in number (21 occurrences) because it quantifies abstract and non-count referents, operates at two levels: as a reminder of the conventional or flawed prior art embodiments to be perfected (“it is known that much of the…”) and as a mixture of endophoric and stage labeller – which are, metadiscourse items from hyland’s (2005a) taxonomy. endophorics lead the reader to some portion of the text and stage labellers mark argumentative or procedural steps or recapitulate the whole message. with this function, “much of ” points to information or reporting acts in the document, usually as a caveat against misinterpretation (“much of this description is based on technical design documents…”). flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 193 having reviewed the main conveyors of vagueness, the little step beyond i want to take here is to abandon trends for a while and draw attention to individual repertoires in licensed patents, which may be used pedagogically to show insecure writers valid linguistic tools at their disposal. genres evolve, as hyland (2000) reminds us, not only because of sociocultural changes and large-scale developments in the discipline, but also through users’ manipulation of conventions within boundaries. one of those admissible manipulations is the use of “in principle” as a hedge, which i analyse in the next section. 4. findings and discussion: a tripartite choice of subjective meanings curiously enough, my interviewees did not regard the interplays explicitness/vagueness and boosting/hedging as big obstacles. instead, they admitted to having serious trouble at condensing the message and coping with legal phrases. they did not commission the writing to lawyers or patent agents but undertook it themselves, normally in co-authorship and by cloning and adapting fragments from similar patents, even reproducing some short passages verbatim or taking other documents as templates, but always paying close attention to property overlaps. this involvement in the writing process, all the same, did not hone their consciousness of the rhetorical complementariness of ras nor of their similar and dissimilar moves and variation sources. in addition, my informants disclosed that conferencing is a common practice among national patent examiners, something logically unviable in international patenting. in neither realm, however, do examiners advise applicants on how to construct interpersonality with the heterogeneous readership nor on how to preserve the facelessness traditionally attributed to science and the academy – limiting their remarks to the layout, the formulaic legal language, and of course to technical aspects that might reduce patentability chances. the format of their corrections is generally one of minimal marking, at the most as electronic “balloon commentaries”. by influence of these feedback trends reinforcing the popular beliefs about technical discourse, then, reader-considerateness is a low-frequency feature and “idiolectal” in many cases (that is, concentrated in the same document), but it evidences patent descriptions do not just convince through restrained persuasion, which coexists with subjective meanings of engagement and positioning. carmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210194 as for the first of these meanings, “community pointers”, corpus analysis reveals that writers position themselves with auto-inclusive pronouns, virtually confined to the possessives “my” and “our” as there are no occurrences of first-person object pronouns. those possessives collocate with the words “invention”, “application”, “implementation” and “example” or with more finely-tuned bases such as “machine”, “chip”, “key”, “filter”, etc. in the claims, the instances of the subjects “i” and “we” are very few (22 cases of “i claim” and 23 of “we claim”), when the number of impersonal claims is more than ten times higher (246 hits of “what is claimed is…”). the abundance of this pseudo-cleft structure might be justified by a need to emphasize the exclusivity vindicated, a function that plain cataphora (anticipatory “it-constructions”, absent in this corpus) could not fulfill. occasionally, the pronoun “we” may bring in the reader in conjunction with other engagement items (the question and the directives in example 1, my emphasis). the effect is a pedagogical overtone similar to that of textbooks, which fosters reader involvement and with it increases the probability to persuade. (1) how do we do this? consider a state the generator may be in. say it has the address of the last word we loaded. (walmsley, uspto patent no. 7,557,941) another persuasive tactic is the assignment of authority roles to concrete sectors of the community (engineers and experts in general), roles which urge lay readers (by the way never mentioned explicitly) to follow the directives specified in the text. the four cases of the noun phrase “engineers” i found contribute to establishing the niche for the invention by introducing some prior-art gap to be bridged (example 2, again my emphasis). (2) engineers have addressed driveshaft and related overspeed problems in a variety of ways. (...) the present disclosure is directed to one or more of the problems or shortcomings set forth above. (landes, uspto patent no. 7,556,585) more elaborated and lexicalised “expertise noun phrases” (that is, “those/the skilled-in-the-art”) segregate an indefinite specialist contingent and associate it with instructional glosses in the form of cognitive directives, which tell non-experts what to notice, understand or interpret and thus prevent lawsuit action. the clusters most used (over 460 hits) are two: flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 195 • modal verb + verb of perception/intellectual activity + that-clause (active or passive) verbs of perception: “recognize”, “appreciate”, “realize”, “see”, etc. verbs of intellectual activity: “know”, “understand”, “comprehend”, “interpret”, etc. • modal verb + to be + adjective of certainty adjectives of certainty: “clear”, “apparent”, “obvious”, “evident”, etc. these are illustrated in examples 3 and 4 (emphasis added): (3) however, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. (zhang et al., uspto patent no. 7,557,055) (4) it will be apparent to those skilled in the art, that is, to those who have knowledge or experience in this area of technology, that many uses and design variations are possible for the improved trailer brake system 10 disclosed herein. (gill & swanson, uspto patent no. 6,666,527) with regard to informative guides, a most peculiar finding is that they at times incur tautological deduction. this way, inferential markers turn into code glosses that spell out associations customarily taken as self-evident – for instance, the correlations simplicity/economy and wear/short duration of examples 5 and 6 (emphasis added). (5) moreover, the production of the plate-shaped elements is simple and therefore cost-effective. (frobel et al., uspto no. 6,763,741) (6) there is hence relative little wear during operation of the system, contributing to its long lifetime. (six, uspto no. 6,762,524) these redundant commentaries foreground the feeling of community with their appeal to elementary knowledge, while pre-empting rebuttal caused by outsider misinterpretation. they are found in the detailed description and background art sections, posing problems still unresolved by other patents or spotlighting properties of the invention presented, such as versatility of carmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210196 fabrication and use. on the contrary, encapsulating metadiscourse (“to sum up”, “basically”, etc.) appears as a double mark of concision within the abridged parts of the document. precisely for this reason, and as shown in table 2, the impact of encapsulating frame markers is predictably minor: their mission at a micro-textual level is accomplished at a macro-textual one by whole text portions devoted to epitomizing contents, such as the abstract, the “summary of the invention” and the “brief descriptions” (of the invention or the drawings). the data displayed in table 2 suggest that patent writers’ efforts at readerconsiderateness are directed, above all, towards making clear their deductive steps, in the main expressing technical causes and effects by means of transition markers. these steps may be unknown to non-experts and need to be reiterated, paraphrased and defined through code glosses, the second devices most resorted to. all in all, patents exhibit a tension between discourse and metadiscourse that mirrors the different nature and needs of the lay and expert readerships behind the text. as potential sponsors, lay readers may be attracted into the author’s line of reasoning with textual strategies arguing for the validity of the invention but superfluous for an expert audience. lastly, a wide array of “stance markers” communicates preference, certainty, relevance, judgments, expectations and opinions. from the adverbials and their corresponding adjectives shown in table 3, preference markers flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 197 metadiscursive category hits frequency per 1,000 tokens code glosses 954 0.31 that is (to say) 557 0.18 this/that/which means 190 0.06 in other words 172 0.06 x speaking, 20 0.01 others 15 0.00 frame markers 35 0.01 briefly, 13 0.00 basically/in essence 11 0.00 to summarise/sum up, 7 0.00 others 4 0.00 transition markers 4,072 1.34 thus 1,947 0.64 therefore 1,543 0.51 hence 340 0.11 consequently/in consequence 206 0.07 others 36 0.01 table 2. raw and relative frequencies of the main informative guides. t l outnumber by far the rest of items owing to two reasons: one is that the words “preferably”, “preferred”, “desirable” and “desired” are mentioned by the u.s. regulations as collocates of the bases “embodiment” and “invention”, providing ready-made language chunks that, through extended use, have ended up lexicalized and constituting part of the genre phraseology. the other reason is their vague quantifying function (arinas pellón, 2012), preceding numerical approximators such as “about”, “at least”, “between”, “in a/the range of/from”, “within”, etc., to introduce some kind of measurement (“a preferred range of ”, “preferably between x% and y%”). the second most abundant group of stance markers is formed by those expressing certainty and relevance. they criticise the flaws of the background art and stress the benefits of the current invention while simultaneously appealing to shared knowledge to strengthen collective bonds. items such as “obviously”, “clearly” or “evidently” are typical examples. • preference items: “preferably”, “preferred desirably”, “desired”. • certainty items: “of course”, “clearly”, “certainly”, “obviously’”, “evidently”, “surely”, “really”, “absolutely”, “truly”, “actually”, “no doubt”, “definitely”, “indeed”, “always”, “all the time”. • relevance items: “significantly”, “importantly”, “remarkably/ble”, “fundamentally”, “what is more”, “what is important is”, “what is especially to be noted is”, “it should be noted/pointed out”. • expectation items: “surprisingly”, “logically”, “striking”, “naturally”, “unexpectedly”, “understandable”. • judgment items: “dramatically”, “(un)fortunately”, “wrongly”. carmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210198 stance aspect hits frequency per 1,000 tokens preference (lexicalised) 4,271 1.40 certainty 729 0.24 relevance 202 0.07 expectation 54 0.02 judgment, 33 0.01 opinion 27 0.01 total 5,316 1.75 table 3. raw and relative frequencies of the main stance markers. • • opinion items: “in our opinion”, “from this viewpoint”, “from the standpoint of ”, “from the viewpoint of ”, “admittedly”. the markers of expectation and judgment also optimize reader considerateness by performing evaluative and solidarity functions: besides conveying authorial views on what is informatively salient, they act as informative guides that facilitate the comprehension of contents (“significantly”, “it should be noted that…”) or underline communal “givens” (“understandably”, “logically”). this functional bivalence blending meanings of certainty and relevance with expectation and judgment justifies the higher frequencies of their markers over those of opinion, much less numerous. we should remember that through technical description and certain terms (“embodiment”) the whole document expresses the inventors’ and patent examiners’ beliefs about what is the best mode of the invention, and consequently opinions tend to appear unsignalled. unmarkedness is also the trend in the expression of the aforementioned ruling principles (that is, utility, novelty and feasibility), which are taken for granted. the nouns and verbs reflecting them have a minimal incidence in the corpus, as shown in table 4. items such as “utility/usefulness”, “innovation/novelty” and “feasibility/viability” occur very infrequently. we may emphasize four chief findings: first, this assumption that ruling principles need not be textually explicit. second, that adverbial and adjectival stance markers are much more employed than nominal ones, as is made clear by the total counts on tables 3 and 4. third, that some synonymous pairs of signalling nouns (“utility/usefulness”, “solution/remedy”, “feasibility/ viability”, “innovation/novelty”, “problem/difficulty” and “disadvantage/ drawback”) yield notable differences as to their occurrence, sometimes attributable to slight nuances of specificity and scope (“problem” vs. “difficulty”, “disadvantage” vs. “drawback”, “feasible” vs. “viable”), to connotations imposed by the habitual field of use (“solution” vs. “remedy”, the latter more domestic and healing-oriented, or “utility” vs. “usefulness”, with “utility” being more specific and associated with technical topics), and to the degree of commitment or graveness when praising one’s own invention or criticising the background art (“innovation” vs. “novelty”, “risk” and “hazard” vs. “danger”). and fourth, thirteen result verbs often used (see table 4) refer in almost equal proportions to shortcomings of previous patents (“prevent”, “improve”, “avoid”, “overcome”, “minimize”, “solve”, “resolve”, “refine”) and strong points of the product currently flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 199 described that may be independent of the prior art (“ensure”, “achieve”, “optimize”, “guarantee”, “maximize”). the most pervasive verbs related with faults of former inventions total eight items and 1,198 hits, and those offering gains not necessarily linked to patented precedents amount to five items and 621 occurrences. thus far i have gone through some overt markers of stance-taking and considered the phenomenon of unmarkedness, but stance may also be marked subtly. an unobtrusive (yet profuse) stance item is “such” as a deictic and intensifier, particularly in finding a patent niche for the invention through appraisal: pointing up its innovation and advantages, expressing disapproval of the prior art, or surprise related to results and performance. there are a number of reasons for encouraging native spanish-speaking patent writers to notice “such” as a positioning resource: first, the use of its spanish equivalents (tal, semejante, tamaño/a) entails a certain writing expertise and evokes a somewhat stilted tone that does not seem appropriate for a technical register. it is not likely, therefore, that “such” forms part of the spanish engineers’ repertoire. carmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210200 positively loaded nouns hits negatively loaded nouns hits positively loaded result verbs hits advantage(s) 559 error(s) 872 enable 722 solution(s) 521 problem(s) 474 prevent 664 efficiency 434 failure(s) 273 ensure 283 improvement(s) utility convenience 184 54 38 stress disadvantage(s) corrosion 198 82 76 achieve improve update 266 181 150 interest 26 aging 75 avoid 141 refinement(s) 21 risk 59 overcome 98 applicability usefulness 20 7 fatigue drawback(s) 45 45 minimize solve 71 36 efficacy 7 difficulty(-ies) 37 optimize 26 remedy 4 deterioration 27 maximize 23 feasibility innovation 4 2 breakage destruction 27 24 guarantee resolve 23 6 novelty viability 1 0 instability deficit malfunction hazard(s) inconvenience(s) danger(s) 15 13 12 12 11 7 refine innovate renew 1 0 0 total 1,882 total 2,384 total 2,691 table 4. signposting lexemes positively and negatively loaded. second, it bi-functionally makes a deictic and an emphatic reference. according to quirk et al. (1985), “such” can be paraphrased by “like this/that”, so it involves a comparative and attention-drawing component while invoking shared knowledge (“such methods and devices are used…”). third, its deictic reference is bi-directional, because it may be either anaphoric (“however, such a method requires…”) or cataphoric (“for just such a purpose as this”). fourth, explicit instruction would be convenient to discriminate its syntactic collocations as a determiner (“the use of such methods”) and as an adjective (“one such mechanism”, “most such devices”) and thus become acquainted with its variants (“many such valves”, “various such additives”, “several such mechanisms”, “similar such automatic brake valves”, “no such systems”, etc.). and finally, it may broaden a little the restrained persuasive techniques of the engineering community, accustomed to using “such” only to exemplify (“such as”) or set technical conditions as noun predicates (“such that...”, “in such way that...”), and occasionally to qualify nouns (“methods such as those developed for...”) or substitute them in order to avoid inelegant repetition (“as such”, “to such”). in my corpus, “such” is a high-frequency item (5,796 instances), but nearly half of its occurrences (2,692) are cases of exemplification. the setting of premises and conditions takes 1,164 instances, whereas there are only 128 substitutional uses. noun modifications and deictic functions, both of which do carry referential and affective (emphatic) meanings, total 1,812 hits and are interspersed among all the former, being hardly discernible for nonexperienced writers. these latter collocational patterns of “such” as determiner and adjective deserve further commentary: unexpectedly, its associations with positively and negatively loaded nouns to praise the invention or criticise the background art are very scarce and often idiolectal. true, “such” collocates with only two positively-loaded nouns: “flexibility” (a single case) and “advantage” (two instances and in the same text sample). its appearance with positive evaluative adjectives is reduced too in scope (“optimum” and “suitable”) and number (four cases altogether). the combinatory catalogue flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 201 of negatively-loaded nouns is also limited, consisting of four isolated collocations with “malfunction”, “trouble(s)”, and “twisting”, and nine with “problem(s)”, sometimes reinforced by the adjective “serious”. other accompanying adjectives found between “such” and the nominal base and denoting undesirable qualities of previous patents are “rigid” and “complex” (one isolated occurrence of each). below are some examples of “such” as marker of shared knowledge (actually working as a marker of engagement) before criticising the prior art (example 7), as a criticism signalling the faults and gaps of a previous patent (example 8), as an emphasizer of nouns beaconing positive (example 9) and negative (example 10) properties/conditions and positive and negative adjectives (examples 11 and 12, respectively). (7) such methods and devices are used, for example, within the scope of driving off assistance devices and/or driving off assistance methods which prevent unintentional rolling of the vehicle when it is driven off. (braeuer et al., uspto no. 7,480,545) (8) [s]uch a method requires a course for driving the vehicle, as well as many steps. (chida et al., uspto no. 7,548,811) (9) in order to yield such an advantage, the ssa of the pre firing material powder is preferably 5 m.sup.2/g or more, as described above. (kawada & horikawa, uspto no. 7,504,042) (10) this is such a serious problem that hot box detectors are located at numerous points across the rail system. (porto,uspto no. 6,572,313) (11) such a low-cost tractor can be used for specialized applications, such as pulling specialty oil production apparatus into the borehole and then leaving it in the hole. (bloom et al., uspto no. 6,745,854) (12) in addition, such a rigid construction introduces large radial forces into the bearing housing. said radial forces may affect the bearing play due to resulting eccentricity or deformation of the bearing housing and this put the operability of the bearing at risk in the extreme case. (fuerst & matyscak, uspto no. 6,942,390) carmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210202 surprisingly, “neutral” or “unloaded” words make the most prolific bases in the collocations of “such” (162 hits), when praises of the patentable invention and disqualifications of the prior art should be automatically identified with positively and negatively loaded items. terms like “method”, “application”, “measure”, “situation”, “case”, “layout”, “configuration”, “system”, “construction”, “constitution”, “structure”, “element”, “type”, “unit”, “value”, “use”, or “drive” incline the evaluative scale of the document to one side or another (to the criticism of former patents or to the promotion of the invention described), depending on the section where they are located (background/prior art or summary/description of the invention). among this neutral inventory, “configuration” stands out for its multiple and nuanced praising functions (examples 13-16), and “thing” for transmitting surprise, novelty and applicability despite its vague referent (example 17). emphases are mine in all instances. (13) [problem-focused advantage/suitability] → such a configuration is suitable for a case in which high driving speed is required and the driving load is light. (nagao et al.,uspto no. 6,763,915) (14) [fully advantageous versatility] → while, in the present embodiment, a parking brake 164 is provided as an example of the vehicle movement-prohibiting device, the present invention is not necessarily limited to such a configuration. (cook et al., uspto no. 6,692,051) (15) [versalitity combined with novelty] → furthermore, in each of the above embodiments, the torsion spring 15 is arranged on the front side (opposite to the cam shaft side) of the vane rotor 7. however, the embodiments are not limited to such a configuration. the torsion spring 15 may be arranged on the rear side (the cam shaft side) of the vane rotor 7. (takahashi & kuroda, uspto no. 6,758,178) (16) [“cautious” versatility] → if desired, the cam 368 could be made to be completely rigid with respect to the remainder of the spool. however, such a configuration would require more force to rotate the cam and is thus less desirable than the preferred configuration described above. (bloom et al., uspto no. 6, 679,341) flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 203 (17) the wet primary container 212 can be used for such things as liquid fertilizer, liquid herbicide, liquid insecticide, liquid fungicide, or other such liquid crop inputs. (mcquinn & bauer, uspto no. 6, 708,631) my analysis of stance has been centered on adverbial, adjectival, nominal and verbal markers. however, stance may be encoded by syntactic means, such as “emphatic do” and clausal inversions. there are only 39 cases of emphatic do, 35 of which are in the present tense and 33 in the third person singular to describe the invention, especially in what concerns inherent features introduced by the verbs “have” (associated to nouns like “effect”, “ability”, “disadvantages”, “advantages”, etc., see example 18), “provide”, “offer”, “give”, “include”, “allow”, “occur”, “determine”, “require”, “make”, “concern”, “coincide”, “belong”, and “contain” (example 19). a considerably smaller group of collocates (six items) is formed by verbs of more specialized technical action such as “change”, “slide”, “start”, “set”, “enter” and “rotate”. the boosting value of emphatic do, in spite of its low use, resides in agglutinating meanings of relevance (its appearance in affirmative sentences makes information outstanding) and of certainty counter to expectations. inversions are not productive devices either and just involve “(not) only” and “should” (14 and 38 cases respectively). both items may indistinctly enhance the applicability and versatility of the invention (examples 20 and 22) or the flaws and gaps of the prior art (examples 21 and 23). “only” serves as well as a restrictor of conditions and circumstances for the correct functioning of the invention, recounted in the description section (example 24). the emphasis is mine in all cases: (18) although the device exhibited in u.s. pat. no. 5,638,777 enables good control of the phase shift between the crankshafts, it does have certain drawbacks. (hallenstvedt et al., uspto no. 6,763,787) (19) the piston pump 2” contains many of the same elements as piston pump 2 and 2’, but does contain alternate elements. (hunnicutt et al., uspto no. 6,764,286) (20) not only is the present invention applicable to a process cartridge such as the above described (…), but also a process cartridge which comprises (…) (higeta et al., uspto no. 6,763,209) carmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210204 (21) not only is this an outdated process, but inefficient and costly to project owners and contractors. (woods, uspto no. 6,763,925) (22) only when this has happened, does the main arbitration consider doing likewise with its current rotation. (walmsley, uspto no. 7,557,941) (23) in the same cycle, having seen the re-assertion, the cpu can asynchronously turn around (…) and enable a subsequent posted write, should it wish to do so. (walmsley, uspto no. 7,557,941) (24) additionally, there may be concerns about disturbing the surrounding environment by using heavy machinery to place aggregate materials, should those materials be misplaced by the machine operator. (woods, uspto no. 6,763,925) counteracting boosting effects, hedges actively introduce vagueness, quantitatively or qualitatively. quantitative vagueness, interestingly, manifests itself in marked patterns through imprecise quantifiers, whereas its qualitative variant is habitually instilled by omitting technical details of the invention (that is, with communicative un-determinacy) or through lowfrequency and idiolectal markers. one of them, “in principle”, appears only on seven occasions and in five patent documents. its supporting role is highly polysemic, fulfils at least six functions, and the fact that it is not listed in any metadiscoursal repository (hyland’s 2000 and 2005a) makes it an untapped resource and a potential factor of genre flexibility. its possible meanings are collected in examples 25-30 (highlights mine): (25) [sufficiency] → in principle, it is sufficient to identify the wheels on the inside of the curve, since in a tilting event (…) (schramm et al., uspto no. 6,756,890) (26) [infallibility] → [t]here is at least in principle, no torque transferred to the piston 27 when the crankshaft extension 21 rotates. (hallenstvedt et al., uspto no. 6,763,787) (27) [versatility] → [a]ny configuration is possible in principle, though. (becker et al., uspto no. 6,764,054) (28) [perceptive equality] → (…) which is periodically calculated as a value that is, in principle, equal to the maximum wheel speed (…) (kajiwara, uspto no. 7,480,554) flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 205 (29) [judged convenience] → [a]nd this is in principle undesirable in mass production of such cylinders. (macht et al., uspto no. 7,493,849) (30) [shared knowledge/authority] → (…) so as to ensure angular mobility, as is known in principle from de 43 22 969 a1 or de 43 31 241 a1. (macht et al., uspto no. 7,493,849) the paraphrases of these instances are varied and range from modal verbs – “should” in examples (25) and (30) and may/can in example (27) – to the disclaimers “as far as we know” and “so far” (example 26) and “in my opinion” or “in most cases” (example 29), to the epistemic mitigators “apparently” or “seemingly” (example 28) and no paraphrase at all (example 30). 5. some points for reflection this fallacy-centred approach to patent writing, motivated by immediate needs in my academic community, should be taken as a seed for future studies, qualitatively and quantitatively more exhaustive. patents are ubiquitous as cross-disciplinary genres and key to academic promotion and the awarding of grants, scholarships and projects by public and private entities, but have remained marginal in esp instruction owing to their past inaccessibility before their recent digital diffusion and the complex hybrid nature of their register – both technical and legal. this marginalization has caused text cloning to become a rooted practice for some native spanishspeaking professionals who miss specific training to verbalise their inventions in english, as is the case of my three informants, and for whom internationalization counts as an added value. certainly, what is known as “triadic patenting” (in usa, europe and japan) defines a paramount commercial axis that uses english as lingua franca and is the goal of most inventors. i do believe that the popularisation of the genre rhetoric and of the format and phraseology it adopts in english will contribute to improve the writing skills of patentees, in the same way as genre theory and the research and literacy programmes it spawned in successive years has been helping disseminate the moves and features of the research article in spanish universities since the early 1990s. at that time our tertiary education system carmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210206 began to import the anglo-saxon model and teachers were asked to publish their work in indexed journals. likewise, today’s growing demand for patenting in some communities of practice, such as that of engineering teachers, may trigger research into the structure and discourse of patents and this in turn may exert a beneficial didactic effect for technology professionals and academia. however, until patent-writing pedagogies start to emerge massively in courses, printed and online channels, isolated institutional initiatives will thrive in the long run only if they follow a threefold course of action: 1) the integration of the genre in esp syllabi together with reports, commercial correspondence, research articles, etc., and the organization of monographic in-service seminars for teachers. 2) permanent counselling by the applied linguistics departments and/or specialised centres in each institution (such as the venture centre at the university of michigan). 3) the development of electronic applications (ontologies, blogs and writing sites giving step-by-step guidance, prompts and tips) providing models and tools for self-assessment and autonomous learning that attend to situated practices as much as to sources for variation. all three measures require a close collaboration between linguists and technical and legal experts, be it in the form of team-teaching or the facilitation and design of materials. my hope is that the myths i have endeavoured to dismantle in this paper and these final suggestions stimulate mutual curiosity in the disciplinary communities involved in patenting processes and a better understanding of their texts. acknowledgements my deepest thanks to professor stephen s. brigham, from michigan state university. [paper received 19 june 2011] [revised paper accepted 23 march 2012] flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 207 references carmen sancho-guinda is a senior lecturer in the department of applied linguistics at the polytechnic university of madrid, where she teaches eap, esp and in-service seminars for engineering teachers undertaking englishcarmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210208 anesa, p. (2007). “vagueness and precision in contracts: a close relationship”. linguistica e filologia 24: 7-38. anthony, l. (2007). antconc 3.2.1w. url: http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/software.html [22/10/10] arinas pellón, i. (2010). “how does a patent move? genre analysis has something to say about it” in m. gotti & c. williams (eds.), legal discourse across languages and cultures, 313-334. bern: peter lang. arinas pellón, i. (2012). “how vague can your patent be? vagueness strategies in u.s. patents”. hermes-journal of language and communication studies 48: 1-20. arinas pellón, i. & c. sancho-guinda (2010). “descriptive strategies in u.s. patents” in heine, c. & j. engberg (eds.), reconceptualizing lsp. online proceedings of the xvii european lsp symposium. aarhus school of business-aarhus university, 17-21 august 2009. url: http://www. asb.dk/fileadmin/www.asb.dk/isek/pellon _sanchoguinda.pdf [17/03/12] bernstein, b. (1975). class and pedagogies: visible and invisible. paris: organisation for economic co-operation and development. bhatia, v.k. (1993). analysing genre: language use in professional settings. london: longman. bhatia, v.k. (2005). “specificity and generality in legislative expression: two sides of the coin” in v.k. bhatia et al. (eds.), 337-356. bhatia, v.k., j. engberg, m. gotti, & d. heller (eds.) (2005). vagueness in normative texts. bern: peter lang. endicott, t. (2005). “the value of vagueness” in v.k. bhatia et al. (eds.), 27-48. engberg, j. & d. heller (2008). “vagueness and indeterminacy in law” in v.k. bhatia, c.n. candlin & j. engberg (eds.), legal discourse across cultures and systems, 145-168. hong kong: hong kong university press. grice, h.p. (1975). “logic and conversation” in p. cole & j.l. morgan (eds.), syntax and semantics, 3: 41-58. new york: academic press. hyland, k. (2000). disciplinary discourses. social interactions in academic writing. london: longman. hyland, k. (2004). genre and second language writing. ann arbor, mi: the university of michigan press. hyland, k. (2005a). metadiscourse. exploring interaction in writing. london: continuum. hyland, k. (2005b). “stance and engagement: a model of interaction in academic discourse”. discourse studies 7: 173-192. johns, a.m. (1997). text, role and context: developing academic literacies. cambridge: cambridge university press. myers, g. (1995). “from discovery to invention: the writing and rewriting of two patents”. social studies of science 25: 57-105. pinkal, m. (1995). logic and lexicon. dordrecht: kluwer. quirk, r., s. greenbaum, g. leech & j. svartvik (1985). a comprehensive grammar of the english language. london: longman. sales, h.e. (2006). professional communication in engineering. london: palgrave macmillan. sancho-guinda, c. (2010). “a glocal patent voice? interactional dynamics in the engineering patents genre”. 43th annual conference of the british association for applied linguistics (baal). university of aberdeen, united kingdom, 9-1 september 2010. united states code, title 35 (rev. 2007). appendix l patent laws, part ii. url: http://www. uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/consolidated_ laws. pdf [17/03/12] united states code of federal regulations, title 37 (rev. 2010). patents, trademarks, and copyrights. appendix r patent rules. url: http:// www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/consolidated_ rules.pdf [17/03/12] united states patent and trademark office (2012). url: http://www.uspto.gov/ [17/03/12] medium instruction. her research focus is the interdisciplinary analysis of academic and professional discourses and innovation in academic literacies. notes 1a term originally coined by bernstein in 1975 and later used by hyland (2004: 11). appendix 1: interview questions to upm teachers appendix 2: patent samples flexibility features in patent writing ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210 209 • how many international patents (written in english) have you been granted? • what strategies did you use to write them? (literal translation, text-cloning or adaptation of similar documents, commission to experts, individual or collaborative writing) • what major difficulties did you encounter while writing? • what do you think is the ultimate goal of the patent text? (description, persuasion, both, others?) • do you regard patents as rigid and faceless texts? in language? in format? in both? • do you draw on other professional texts to write patents? if so, on what texts and what features do you apply? • what kind of feedback or corrections did you get from your international patent examiners? (focused on content, vocabulary and grammar, style) • what is the format of such corrections? (conferencing, conventional symbols, error labelling, written comment, others) • do you find explicit instruction convenient? a c • • • • a becker, b., e.r. frohnhaus, k. kautzner & u. karthaus (2004, july 20). locking device with grooved locking pins. (uspto no. 6,764, 054). bloom, d., n.b. moore & r.e. beaufort (2004, june 8). electrically sequenced tractor. (uspto no. 6,745,854). bloom, d., n.b. moore & r. levay (2004, jan. 20). tractor with improved valve system. (uspto no. 6,679,341). braeuer, k., m. schopper & d. tondelli (2009, jan. 20). method and device for detecting the initiation of the driving off process by a driver of a vehicle. (uspto no. 7,480,545). chida, r., k. matsuo, h. nakada, t. inagawa & k. nakamura (2009, june 16). control apparatus of vehicle incorporating automatic transmission. (uspto no. 7,548,811). cook, c.l., j.s. corey, w.c. kahn, & f.h. schneck (2004, feb. 17). tractor-truck cab with workstation and mobile seat. (uspto no. 6,692,051). frobel, t., s. hoefig, w. schweer & m. siemers (2004, july 20). adjustable foot-lever assembly. (uspto no. 6,763,741). fuerst, a.g.a. & k. matyscak (2005, sept. 13). bearing device for the rotor of a rotating machine. (uspto no. 6,942,390). gill, g.p. & d.l. swanson (2003, dec. 23). electro-hydraulic brake actuating device for a trailer. (uspto no. 6,666,527). hallenstvedt, o., b. kristiansson, s. nilsson & a. rydberg (2004, july 20). device for controlling the phase angle between a first and a second crankshaft. (uspto no. 6,763,787). higeta, a., s. yasuda & t. hoshi (2004, july 13). process cartridge remanufacturing method. (uspto no. 6,763,209). hunnicutt, h.a., r.j. barron & p. every (2004, july 20). piston pump with pump inlet check valve. (uspto no. 6,764,286). k carmen sancho-guinda ibérica 24 (2012): 185-210210 kajiwara, k. (2009, jan. 20). motion state estimation apparatus for vehicle and motion state control apparatus for vehicle. (uspto no. 7,480,554). kawada, s. & k. horikawa (2009, march 17). piezoelectric ceramic composition and piezoelectric ceramic electronic component. (uspto no. 7,504,042). landes, j.w. (2009, july 7). machine drive line overspeed protection method. (uspto no. 7,556,585). macht, e., h. derra, j. ryba & d. grimmer (2009, feb. 24). hydraulic cylinder in particular slave cylinder for a hydraulic clutch actuation system for motor vehicles. (uspto no. 7,493,849). mcquinn, c.a. & n.a. bauer (2004, mar. 23). variable payload tractor vehicle with coordinated crop input management system. (uspto no. 6,708,631). nagao, s., e. morikuni & t. matsunaga (2004, july 20). mainspring mechanism and device having the same. (uspto no. 6,763,915). porto, j.a. (2003, june 3). freight rail wheelset handling and storage protection. (uspto no. 6,572,313). schramm, h., p. dominke, k.d. leimbach & g. wetzel (2004, june 29). method and apparatus for stabilizing a vehicle in the presence of a tilt tendency. (uspto no. 6,756,890). six, a. (2004, july 13). magnetic drive system for a vehicle differential. (uspto no. 6,762,524). takahashi, k. & k. kuroda (2004, july 6). valve timing control device. (uspto no. 6,758,178). walmsley, s.r. (2009, july 7). use of variant and base keys with three or more entities. (uspto no. 7,557,941). woods, j. (2004, july 20). self propelled backfilling apparatus. (uspto no. 6,763,925). zhang, x., l.c. sengupta & e. underhill (2009, july 7). tunable low loss material composition. (uspto no. 7,557,055). 01 editorial.qxd editorial ibérica continues growing and expanding horizons. on this occasion it brings to the fore some subdisciplines, communicative contexts, methodologies, genres and practices that are emergent or have been under-represented in previous issues. a prime example of a subdiscipline barely explored in the scholarly literature is intertextuality as a specialised area of forensic linguistics, dealt with by victoria guillén nieto in article 5 to show how plagiarism is detected in professional legal genres. among other communicative contexts so far under-represented in this journal are the political scenario and the security forces, the former respectively tackled by ana belén cabrejas and ricardo casañ pitarch in articles 4 and 9, and the latter, by adrián fuentes luque and alan campbell, in article 11. the political sphere comprises established genres with a long tradition behind them, such as the parliamentary speech (article 4), rich in tropes as evaluation devices, and others of more recent appearance and professionalization, as is the case of the campaign tweet (article 9). with regard to the second under-researched setting, the military, its communicative needs in english are pinpointed here in a seminal study (article 11) with a focus on the use of audio-visual translation–subtitling–for improving listening comprehension skills. two other environments of current interest are advertising, in particular its use of certain lexical items to enhance persuasion and, along with it, promotion (article 7, by marisa diez-arroyo), and international englishmedium publication, which in this issue gathers diverse topical targets and approaches, as well as very specific domains. three contributions belong to this area: first, article 3, by by bixi jin, presents a qualitative content analysis of the linguistic requirements in the submission guidelines for research papers within the field of chemical engineering. second, article 6, by sujata s. kathpalia and christopher s.g. khoo, examines the functional relationship between citation and rhetorical moves in biology research articles. third and last, article 8, by weiyu zhang and yin ling cheung, explores how automated language processing tools can aid academic writers in two scientific disciplines–biology and medicine. as for methodologies, burgeoning instances are multimodal critical discourse analysis, with which ibérica 40 (2020): 9-12 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 belinda crawford camiciottoli (article 2) identifies ideological stance in economics lectures at university, and sentiment analysis, applied to economy reports by m. ángeles orts in article 10. in addition, the present compilation of articles sheds light on a wide range of communicative practices of a varied nature: semiotic (in article 2), evaluative (in article 4), intertextual (in articles 5 and 6), interlingual (in article 11), expressive (in articles 9 and 10), and related to academic writing habits, such as the decision to adopt native standards (in article 3), or the rhetorical use of citation and recourse to automated processing tools, both in article 8. our guest contribution, by larissa d’angelo and stefania consonni, reflects on a research topic of common concern and broad application: metadiscourse. it traces the category back to its origins, going through the different ‘waves’ of its theoretical and empirical development in applied linguistics and discourse analysis from the 1980s onwards. the authors especially address the evolution of metadiscourse over the last 40 years, providing an overview of its research across genres and media and pointing to the research discourses, theoretical frameworks and methodologies that have recently arisen. under the metadiscursive lens, the collection of articles in this issue can be looked at from an alternative perspective that underlines the omnipresence and crucial role of discourse markers in professional communication. thus, article 2 stresses the importance of semiotic ensembles combining verbal and nonverbal stance cues (i.e. prosody, gaze, gesture and body orientation) in discriminative listening during l2 economics lectures, to distinguish fact from opinion. article 3 highlights clarity among the linguistic requisites most often demanded by high-impact journals, which begs the question of what incidence code glosses and shared knowledge markers, dependent on the type of audience and the disciplinary culture, may bear on textual intelligibility. article 4 analyses the ideological nuances conveyed by political metaphor and metonymy as evaluative stance items, and article 5 informs us that evidentiality and affect markers may incline a forensic verdict towards plagiarism. similarly, article 6 details the multiple metadiscursive functions of citations (i.e. as evaluators, signposters and boosters) in biology scientific papers, article 7 delves into the polysemic interpretations of the term ‘unique’ as a lexical booster in advertising, and article 8 describes how certain clusters of connectives (e.g. causal, logical, adversative and contrastive, temporal and additive) provide cues for text organisation and do play a significant part in drawing links between ideas and clauses when automated language processing tools are used. along these editorial ibérica 40 (2020): 9-1210 lines, article 9 underscores the salience of rhetorical questions to achieve nearness and appeal to emotion in political tweets, and notes the incorporation of emojis, which might be labelled as simultaneous stance and engagement items, while article 10 scrutinizes the language of emotion, both denotative and metaphorical, as a stance indicator in the institutional discourse of economy and finance. article 11, finally, indirectly opens up new research paths as to the effectiveness of adding minimal code glosses to subtitles in order to improve aural comprehension. the ritualistic closure of every ibérica editorial thanks those scholars who generously lent themselves to evaluating submissions, this time between january and june 2020. they are, in alphabetical order: claudia barahona (universitat politècnica de catalunya, spain) silvia cacchiani (università degli studi di modena e reggio emilia, italy) alan campbell (middle tennessee state university, usa) marta carretero lapeyre (universidad complutense, spain) pedro jesús castillo ortiz (universidad de granada, spain) loi chek kim (universiti malaysia sabah, malaysia) alejandro curado fuentes (universidad de extremadura, spain) aránzazu garcía pinar (universidad politécnica de cartagena, spain) pilar gonzález vera (universidad de zaragoza, spain) deirdre kant (università degli studi di pavia, italy) paul miller (universidad de navarra, spain) giuseppina scotto di carlo (università degli studi di napoli l’orientale, italy) dieter stein (universität düsseldorf, germany) gert vercauteren (universiteit antwerpen, belgium) feng wang (tongji university-shanghai, china) gao xia (beihang university, beijing, china) we hope that ibérica keeps inspiring and encouraging international collaboration, some of whose fruitful outcomes we share in the coming pages. carmen sancho guinda universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) iberica@aelfe.org editor-in-chief of ibérica editorial ibérica 40 (2020): 9-12 11 01 editorial.qxd editorial metaphor in the specialised discourse of scientific disciplines and technology metaphor plays a central role in scientific thought, language and discourse in the same way it does in general human thinking and communication. metaphorical language pervades the specialised discourse of different disciplines including medical and legal sciences, engineering or architecture. according to brown (2003: x), “[i]t (metaphor) figures in the scientist’s initial creative impulses, in interpretations of experimental data, in formulations of scientific explanations, and in communications between scientists and between scientists and the rest of the world”. as the articles included in this volume show, some scientific and technical metaphors may be embodied, and others may respond to socio-cultural motivations. metaphor studies are currently a flourishing research area and yet the role and function of metaphor in specialised language require major attention. this special issue of ibérica responds to the need for further research on metaphor considered as a ubiquitous cognitive and communicative tool which forms an integral part of the discourse of different scientific disciplines. since their inception, science and technology have been making use of metaphor and metonymy to design new models, to innovate and to convey novel theories that were difficult to explain to the rest of the scientific community or to humanity in general (cuadrado et al., 2016: lii-lxi). during the last 30 years, the development of cognitive science has opened up new roads into linguistic specialised areas. accordingly, contributions analysing the interface between specific languages, professional genres, and linguistic and conceptual metaphor and metonymy have recently emerged (lakoff & nuñez, 2000; colburn & shute, 2008; semino, 2011; herrerasoler & white, 2012; deignan, littlemore & semino, 2013; zeidler, 2013). equally, within the framework of cognitive linguistics, multimodal approaches, cross-linguistic and cross-cultural studies of metaphor and metonymy have served to shed light into new aspects of research on different disciplinary matters (kövecses, 2005, 2009; forceville, 2017). in sum, the analysis of metaphorical expressions within specific vocabularies that are context-specific (english, 1998; cuadrado et al., 2016) provides new ibérica 34 (2017): 9-16 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 opportunities to explore unnoticed source domains and their correspondences with target expressions. it is clear that empirical explorations on the role of metaphor in science and technology can bring invaluable insights upon scientific and technical language and reveal the linguistic vehicles that scientists and engineers most frequently use. at the same time, the analysis of source and target mappings, their conceptual integration and linguistic recruitment can be helpful and didactic (fauconnier & turner, 2008). accordingly, this research is likely to be useful not only for scholars but also for specialised language learners and for technical translation. taking into account that the scope of this monographic issue was restricted to scientific and technical metaphor in specialised languages, we consider the reception of 20 proposals from 17 european university researchers as a very good sign of the growing interest on this topic. our sincere recognition is extended to all the proponents, although due to space limitations a selection of the papers was required. the volume starts off with the work of two outstanding linguists in the area of cognitive linguistics: antonio barcelona and alice deignan. these leading scholars have kindly accepted to contribute to this monographic issue with two papers that offer major insights on the role of metonymy and metaphor in scientific and technical discourse. we wish to state all our appreciation to both of them. antonio barcelona presents an inspiring study of metonymy in scientific discourse in: “salience factors determining natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon”. this paper puts forward a breakthrough in metonymy research in scientific and technical language by proposing a salience grid factor for lexical segments or standard abbreviated english lexical forms, known as “clippings”. by applying this model to examples of the medical lexicon, the author argues for its appropriateness in different genres and registers to determine the metonymicity of a clipping. the motivational metonymy to be applied in clippings runs as salient part of form for whole form. in his conclusions, barcelona convincingly proves the adequacy of the salience factor grid in this analysis and underlines the lack of natural metonymic clippings in medical discourse compared to the use of initialisms and acronyms attributing this fact to the need of precision in the medical lexicon. alice deignan, in an original article entitled “metaphors in texts about editorial ibérica 34 (2017): 9-1610 climate change”, analyses three corpora from different genres and registers dealing with a current environmental issue. the paper begins by considering the role of metaphorical thinking and language in science, and then reviews some of the work on scientific metaphor in expert and popular genres. the author proceeds by examining the different uses and functions of metaphor and metonymy with particular focus on the information that young people receive and what they understand about the topic. deignan compares young people’s use of figurative language with that of researchers and educationalists and draws significant results by concluding that written texts for non-specialists tend to “open up” scientific metaphors, which may lead to misunderstandings of the underlying science. on the other hand, the author finds that young people tend to refer to arctic and antarctic animals as symbols of the problem of climate change. all the selected papers that were accepted for this volume illustrate different contexts and perspectives on metaphor or metonymy use in science and technology. they are summed up as follows. ruth breeze’s “explaining superfoods: exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports” studies the metaphor scenarios used to explain nutritional discoveries through institutional press releases, online news reports, and magazines/blogs. this paper intends to show that the use of metaphorical language is one of the ways in which the media bridge the gap between making new scientific knowledge known, and providing entertainment. as a conclusion, breeze highlights that the role of the media in informing the public, promoting health and explaining scientific discoveries cannot be separated from the intention to attract and maintain attention. the next two contributions explore metaphor use in two professional genres. rosario caballero in “buildings that move: motion metaphors in architectural reviews” focuses on the ways in which built space is described by means of motion metaphors in the genre of the architectural reviews within architectural communication. she describes how motion metaphors could be visual or image metaphors and likewise they help reviewers organize their commentary in the review genre. caballero concludes that perception in architecture involves several realms of sensory experience which interact and fuse into each other and that this use of motion metaphors is congruent with contemporary architects and reviewers’ enactive – embodied – approach to architectural space. editorial ibérica 34 (2017): 9-16 11 the article “a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter of the leading civil aircraft manufacturers” by mª enriqueta cortés de los ríos and ángel felices lago discusses the dominant axiological values in the aeronautical discourse through the genre of chairman’s letters included in the annual reports of leading civil transport aircraft manufacturers. the authors have found that the metaphorical tools employed in the analysed corpus are generally aimed at reinforcing the positive axiological load inherent to the promotional nature of the chairman’s letter. cortés and felices also put forward the strong persuasive and rhetorical power of metaphor, metonymy and image schemas and their suitability to transmit messages schemas related to positive or negative axiological values. the next four articles study the function of conceptual metaphor in the framing of scientific, technical and medical discourse from different angles. durán-escribano and argüelles-álvarez focus on the function of domainspecific mappings as conceptual categorisers for scientific and technical vocabularies. the study is based on the qualitative analysis of the metaphorical lexical units included in eight widely accepted specialized language dictionaries. taking examples from earth sciences and from the more recent technological field of telecommunications, domain-specific correspondences (where both source and target domains pertain to scientific fields) are found to give evidence of their decisive role as theory constitutive elements, in the definition of specific terms, and in the expression of new concepts. navarro i ferrando’s work tackles the cognitive and communicative functions of conceptual metaphor in the field of oncology. imagistic, orientational, ontological and structural conceptual metaphors are studied, exploring their categorization and conceptualization roles in knowledge construction. communicative aspects, such as deliberate vs unconscious metaphor usage, and the conventional character of metaphorical expressions are discussed with the purpose of characterizing the discourse of medical science research articles. climent and coll-florit also explore conceptual metaphor in medical science in their paper on metaphor use by psychiatrists in their talk about schizophrenia. the study is based on a corpus taken from a spanish documentary film capturing personal interviews to health professionals, patients, and their relatives. from these, psychiatrists’ interventions were selected and analysed in order to quantify and classify the metaphorical expressions employed. the corresponding conceptual metaphors were editorial ibérica 34 (2017): 9-1612 depicted and classified according to target domains, revealing a clear relationship to either biomedical or social models of illness. another contribution on medical language is balteiro’s “metaphor in ebola’s popularized scientific discourse”, based on a sample of scientific american articles. the author identifies and analyses specific instances of metaphors used to represent ten frame elements in popularized articles on the ebola disease, depicting medical professionals’ mechanisms to communicate their knowledge about ebola to non-experts. two main conceptual metaphors outstand, ebola is war and recovery is a road, whose analysis leads to the conclusion that many of their corresponding mappings may be considered as reformulation techniques. campos-pardillos studies the metaphorical imagery used in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation. this has recently produced a body of literature discussing the strategies and instruments that make possible to overcome the problems arising from the variety of national jurisdictions in the eu. in these publications, there are frequent metaphors that conceptualize abstract notions with desirable metaphor framings based on living beings and on objects, or portraying cooperation as a journey where progress is the acceptable option or a weapon in a fight against cross-border crime. conversely, non-cooperation is associated with negative images, mainly obstacles and barriers, and even with a disease for which the legal measures are “remedies” that “alleviate mistrust”. finally, jimenez-munoz and lahuerta martínez discuss the evidence of a metaphor-metonymy continuum from a set of cross-field l2 science texts. using a three-dimensional taxonomy for metaphor (communicative, conceptual and linguistic), and a revision of metonymy types as research instruments, this paper performs a cross-field comparison of a corpus of 150 texts to which cefr-b1 undergraduates in economics, geography, and chemistry at a spanish university are exposed. statistical treatment of the results shows certain variation and trends among disciplines, and the prevalence of a metaphor-metonymy overlap in the areas studied. the findings encourage the use of a cognitive approach when highlighting metaphor and metonymy to l2 students, since the cross-linguistic and crosscultural variations that characterise these figures may complicate transitioning from literal to figurative language uses to eap learners. to conclude, we wish to thank ibérica for allowing us to edit this special issue, and particularly its editor-in-chief, dr. carmen pérez-llantada, who has editorial ibérica 34 (2017): 9-16 13 offered her unconditional support and expertise guiding the edition of this special issue from its birth, as well as the whole editorial team for their highly professional work. our gratitude is also due to all peer-reviewers those of the editorial board, as well as specialist external reviewers for their invaluable and generous help in the assessment of all proposals and for their wise suggestions. as a sign of our acknowledgement, we include their names listed alphabetically. editorial board members and international advisory board members: rafael alejo...........................................universidad de extremadura, spain elena bárcena.......................................universidad nacional de educación a ................................................................distancia, spain m luisa carrió .....................................universidad politécnica de valencia, spain honesto herrera..................................universidad complutense de madrid, spain mª ángeles orts llopis ......................universidad de murcia, spain mercedes rico ......................................universidad de extremadura, spain françoise salager-meyer .....................universidad de los andes, venezuela carmen sancho guinda .....................universidad politécnica de madrid, spain marisol velasco sacristán ...................universidad de valladolid, spain we would also wish to thank the following external reviewers: guadalupe aguado de cea.................universidad politécnica de madrid, spain inmaculada álvarez de mon ..............universidad politécnica de madrid, spain patrizia anesa .......................................università degli studi di bergamo, italy begoña bellés .......................................universitat jaume i, spain magdalena bielenia-grajewska ..........university of dansk, poland mª luisa blanco gómez.....................universidad rey juan carlos, spain ana bocanegra valle ...........................universidad de cádiz, spain maría boquera matarredona ..............universidad politécnica de valencia, spain carmen bretones callejas ..................universidad de almería, spain marta carretero....................................universidad complutense de madrid, spain georgina cuadrado esclapez ............universidad politécnica de madrid, spain eleftheria dogoriti ..............................technological educational institute of epirus, ................................................................greece pedro fuertes-olivera .........................universidad de valladolid, spain miguel garcía yeste.............................university of stockholm, sweden blanca kraljevic ...................................universidad rey juan carlos, spain carmen lopez ferrero .......................universitat pompeu fabra, spain araceli losey león..............................universidad de cádiz, spain guzmán mancho .................................universitat de lleida, spain mª ángeles orts llopis ......................universidad de murcia, spain giovanni parodi ...................................pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso, chile editorial ibérica 34 (2017): 9-1614 lorena pérez hernández ..................universidad de la rioja, spain joana pierce mcmahon.......................universidad politécnica de madrid, spain mª dolores porto requejo.................universidad de alcalá de henares, spain ana roldán riejos ...............................universidad politécnica de madrid, spain manuela romano .................................universidad autónoma de madrid, spain francisco ruiz de mendoza...............universidad de la rioja, spain eva samaniego fernández .................universidad nacional de educación a ................................................................distancia, spain nadežda silaški.....................................university of belgrade, serbia hanna skorczynska .............................universidad politécnica de valencia, spain paloma tejada ......................................universidad complutense de madrid, spain paloma úbeda mansilla ......................universidad politécnica de madrid, spain javier valenzuela ..................................universidad de murcia, spain verónica vivanco cervera..................universidad politécnica de madrid, spain debra westall .......................................universidad politécnica de valencia, spain ana roldán-riejos & pilar durán-escribano universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) guest editors of ibérica 34 references editorial ibérica 34 (2017): 9-16 15 brown, t. l. (2003/2008). making truth: metaphor in science. university of illinois press. colburn, t. r. & g. m. shute (2008) “metaphor in computer science”. journal of applied logic 6: 526-533. cuadrado, g., i. argüelles, p. durán, m-j. gómez, s. molina, j. pierce, m. m. robisco, a. roldán, & p. úbeda (2016). bilingual dictionary of scientific & technical metaphors and metonymies (english & spanish). oxford: routledge. deignan, a., j. littlemore, & e. semino (2013). figurative communication in discourse communities. cambridge: cambridge university press. english, k. (1998). “understanding science: when metaphors become terms”. asp [online] 19,22: 151-163. url: http:// asp.revues.org/2800. [xx/xx/xxxx] fauconnier, g. & m. turner (2008). “rethinking metaphor” in r. gibbs (ed.), cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought, 53-66. cambridge: cambridge university press. forceville, ch. (2017). “visual and multimodal metaphor in advertising: cultural perspectives”. styles of communication 9,2: 26-41. herrera-soler, h. & m. white (eds.) (2012). metaphor and mills: figurative language in business and economics (application of cognitive linguistics, 19). berlin/boston: de gruyter mouton. kövecses, z. (2005). metaphor in culture: universality and variation. cambridge: cambridge university press. kövecses, z. (2009). “the effect of context on the use of metaphor in discourse”. ibérica 17: 11-24. lakoff, g. & r. e. núñez (2000). where mathematics comes from how the embodied mind brings mathematics into being. new york: basic books. semino, e. (2011). “the adaptation of metaphors across genres”. review of cognitive linguistics 9: 130-152. zeidler, p. (2013). models and metaphors as research tools in science. berlin: lit verlag. 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract maritime english (me), as a type of english for specific purposes (esp), is somewhat different in that its instruction and research are founded on specific international legal procedures. thus, it is vital to determine an esp framework that bridges the code-tailored me curriculum development with the communicative language teaching approach. this paper reports on the revision of the international maritime organization (imo)’s model course 3.17, maritime english, where an integrated genre-based esp framework helps to achieve the balance between language learning’s “wide-angled” quality and me’s legal consistency. it is argued that code-tailored me competences find expressions in maritime domain-specific genres; those are the typical sets of english communicative events that seafarers are involved in while achieving their maritime professional objectives. the curriculum can be designed as to integrate linguistic systems, professional motivation and behaviors, communicative skills and cultural awareness into the teaching process, which entails a process of learning maritime english while taking maritime domain-specific action. specifically, the principle of genre as social action apprises the two-stage syllabus mapping, that is, general maritime english (gme) and specialized maritime english (sme). in gme, the focus is placed on the linguistic content and how language tasks embedded in the maritime contexts are fulfilled; in sme, the focus is placed on the professional content and how the maritime workplace duties and identities are fulfilled through the english language. as such, syllabus mapping calculates the discursion-profession correlation and helps to ensure that code-tailored me teaching is communicative performance-oriented. thus, the multi-syllabus task maritime english as a code-tailored esp: genre-based curriculum development as a way out yan zhang and clive cole shanghai maritime university (china) and world maritime university (sweden) chriszy924@hotmail.com & clive.cole@wmu.se 145 ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 yan zhang & clive cole design and content selection must consistently maintain the genre-based balance on the linguistic-communicative continuum. as a result, the english linguistic systems underlying the maritime domain-specific performances are naturally presented to gme learners; duty-specific knowledge, understanding and proficiency (kup) requirements for english competence are accordingly unpacked into genre sets to let sme learners develop professional communicative expertise. moreover, specific intercultural registers defined by english as the lingua franca at sea and ashore demand indispensable cultural input to discursive practices in me education. keywords: maritime english, genre-based curriculum development, twostage syllabus mapping, linguistic-communicative balance, kup. resumen e l in g l é s m ar ít imo c o mo u n i ng l é s p ar a f in e s e s p e c íf i c o ‘ c o di f ic a d o’ : u na p ro p ue s ta de de s a rr ol l o c ur ric ul a r ba s a da e n u n e nf o qu e d e g é ne r o el inglés marítimo (me, por sus siglas en inglés), un tipo de inglés para fines específicos (esp, por sus siglas en inglés), conlleva un uso del lenguaje relativamente diferente, en tanto que su instrucción e investigación están basadas en procedimientos legales de carácter internacional. es por tanto importante el determinar un marco pedagógico de esp que permita crear puentes entre un desarrollo curricular específico para me y un enfoque comunicativo de enseñanza de la lengua. en este trabajo se detalla la revisión del curso modelo de la international maritime organization (imo, por sus siglas en inglés) (model course 3.17, maritime english), en el que se integra una instrucción formal basada en un enfoque de género con el fin de que los estudianes adquieran una formación que incluya competencia lingüística general, así como conocimiento especializado en aspectos legales en el ámbito del me. se argumenta sobre géneros específicos del dominio marítimo y sobre la adecuación de introducir en el aula situaciones comunicativas reales propias de la profesión. en particular, el curriculum se puede diseñar para integrar en el propio proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje aspectos lingüísticos, la motivación profesional, las destrezas comunicativas y la percepción cultural. el concepto de género como acción social se plantea a nivel curricular en dos etapas, una de formación en inglés general (ge por sus siglas en inglés) y otra en inglés especializado (specialized maritime english, sme). en la primera etapa, la instrucción se centra en aspectos lingüísticos y en tareas que se llevan a cabo en contextos marítimos. en la segunda etapa, la instrucción formal está 146 centrada en contenidos profesional y en el uso de la lengua inglesa para llevar a cabo tareas propias del ámbito profesional vinculado al mar. teniendo en cuenta estos planteamientos, la planificación didáctica busca fortalecer la correlación entre el discurso profesional y la profesión, buscando así que la enseñanza específica de este tipo de esp esté orientada al desarrollo de la producción lingüística. por lo tanto, en este artículo se argumenta que se debe mantener un equilibrio entre aspectos relativos a los géneros profesionales y aspectos lingüístico-comunicativos. de este modo, en una primera etapa, los sistemas lingüísticos subyacentes a la producción lingüistica se presentan a los estudiantes de gme. en una segunda etapa, se busca que el estudiante obtenga un conocimiento del ámbito profesional, a la par de competencia (comprensión y maestría) en inglés y en el conocimiento de los géneros propios de la profesión. asimismo, se trabaja a nivel curricular con diferencias interculturales en el marco del inglés como lengua franca con el fin de formarles en prácticas de comunicación en el mar y en tierra. palabras clave: inglés marítimo, desarrollo curricular basado en un enfoque de géneros, aprendizaje en dos etapas, equilibrio lingüístico comunicativo, kup. 1. introduction this paper reports the revision of the international maritime organization (imo)’s model course 3.17, maritime english, arguing that a genre-based framework of english for specific purposes (esp) curriculum development can help achieve the balance between language learning’s “wide-angled” quality and maritime english (me)’s legal consistency. since its introduction to the field of esp by tarone, dwyer, gillette and ickes in 1981 and swales in 1990, genre has become an important notion and orientation in esp research (see hyon, 1996; hyland, 2003; cheng, 2007; johns, 2008; paltridge, 2009; basturkmen, 2010; tardy, 2011; rose & martin, 2012). furthermore, the mounting literature (such as nickerson, 2000; lockwood, 2002; pennycook, 2010; paltridge, 2014) has witnessed that the trend in esp approaches is towards genre analysis as being context-based, rhetorically-oriented, and “wide-angled” (berkenkotter, 2009: 18). explicitly, esp research and practice increasingly emphasizes the contextual and situational characteristics of genre as language use and takes into account the language, communication skills, professional know-how and cultural issues when considering esp curriculum development (e.g. lockwood, 2002; 2012; nickerson, 2000; lam, cheng and kong, 2014). this paper outlines the maritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 147 interface between such a theoretical framework and an esp program: namely, the imo model course 3.17, maritime english and its revision. this “course” was first developed and published in 1999 and has been updated twice through the 2009 and 2015 revisions to meet the knowledge, understanding and proficiency (kup) requirements for english language training within the context of the international convention on standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers, 1978 (stcw), as substantially amended in 1995 and 2010. ever since its publication, the course has played a significant role in providing instructors in maritime academies, universities and training agencies, with professional guidance, rather than “a rigid teaching package”, on the teaching of me. since english is regarded as the lingua franca in the international maritime transport arena, this model course has been a vital tool and indispensable handbook for those engaged in the education of seafarers worldwide, especially those from non-native english speaking backgrounds. the vision is that effective communication on board and ashore, as set out by the stcw convention, can indeed help to enhance the safety of life at sea as well as to protect the marine environment. to do this, model course 3.17 has been developed and designed as per the terms of competences regarding the english language contained in the stcw code, as amended. however, industrial stakeholders, and especially those from native english speaking backgrounds, have urged that the contents contained should be rigidly maritime jargon-related. this paper argues that a too “narrow-angled” esp syllabus design would be problematic. the paradigm of an esp model course with a rigid, one-to-one correspondence to those items as prescribed in the code, amounts to “transporting” the all-inclusive provisions to the curriculum framework which would be entry-like. an effective communication-oriented esp curriculum calls for braiding detailed language system knowledge with business-specific communicative tasks in situational and social contexts; this helping the learners to be involved in the process of “learning-by-doing”. transporting the code directly to entry-like syllabi is likely to disorient the instructors, as well as the learners of english for maritime specific purposes. for the instructors, they expect a syllabus to provide guidance for their language lesson design, but an entry-like syllabus with only professional jargon and duty descriptions would make them feel disoriented in developing their own teaching programs. yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170148 moreover, rigid professional entry-like syllabi are at odds with the generallyaccepted idea of many researchers and trainers of esp today (see paltridge, 2014), that is, a broad understanding of english is required in order to meet the specific objectives. on the other hand, for learners, the lack of appreciation of the socio-cognitive nature of language use in an esp program would compromise the validity of training, especially for the target group learners with their language needs of esp as a foreign language. it is further argued in this paper that me curriculum design and content selection, with its legal foundation, should develop a feasible, but flexible paradigm, which meets the professional needs while setting language learning in social and institutional contexts and scenarios. how such an effective paradigm can be realized via the genre-based esp curriculum design and development in the revision of imo model course 3.17, maritime english, is the subject of this paper. in describing the genrebased rationale, the authors draw on, and incorporate the work of the three broad schools of genre analysis: “the new rhetoric” school, as represented in the works of freedman and medway (1994); the sydney school of systemic-functional approach, as developed by martin and rose (2003), hyland (2003) and the esp/eap school, as represented in the works of swales (1990) and bhatia (1993, 2004). the paper is structured as follows: following the introduction above part 2 gives the legal foundation of me training and education, explaining how me is a code-tailored esp; part 3 presents and analyses the needs analysis conducted prior to this curriculum development; the detailed argumentation for a genre-based framework of me curriculum development corresponding to the needs analysis and adhering to its legal foundation is then elaborated in part 4; finally, part 5 is the conclusion, which wraps up the arguments to the thesis that a genre-based curriculum framework can be a way out of the dual requirements of me with its “narrow-angled” legal consistency and its “wide-angled” communicative language quality. 2. maritime english: a code-tailored english for specific purposes me is “an umbrella term” (bocanegra-valle, 2013), or “the entirety” (cole, pritchard & trenkner, 2007: 125) of english language used in the international maritime community for the seaborne trade and for the safety maritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 149 of navigation. in this sense, me is typically a type of esp (cf. culic-viskota & kalebota, 2013) with its “wide-angled” communicative nature. simultaneously, me has a “solid legal foundation both for curriculum design and for research” (cole & trenkner, 2012: 242). the international convention on standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers (stcw), was adopted in 1978, entered into force in 1984 and has been frequently updated and amended; notably by two major revisions that were adopted in 1995 and in 2010. essentially, the stcw convention, 1978, as amended, prescribes and defines standards concerning the training, certification and competence of seafarers, and as such works as the legal foundation of me. it is stated that: all seafarers shall be properly educated and trained, adequately experienced, skilled and competent to perform their duties in a manner which provides for the safety of life, property and security at sea and the protection of the marine environment. (imo, 2011: 71) in this connection, imo model course 3.17 maritime english is one of 63 model courses developed by imo to assist maritime education institutes and their teaching staff, and especially those in developing countries, to improve their maritime teaching capacities, thus enhancing their implementation of the stcw convention. the maritime english model course in particular sets out the education and training framework as a guide for me teaching so that the learners will achieve the required standards of competence related to effective communication as specified in the stcw code, as amended. as mentioned earlier, model course 3.17 was first published in 1999, marginally revised in 2009, and fully revised in 2015. significantly, in the 2010 manila amendments to the stcw convention, the minimum “knowledge, understanding & proficiency” (kup) requirements of english competence for seafarers have been updated as clearly prescribed in the tables of the code’s two parts, (where part a is mandatory and part b recommendatory). for officers in charge of the navigational watch, for example, the general requirement of english competence is to “use the imo standard marine communication phrases and use english in written and oral form”. as specified in table part a-ii/1, stcw (imo, 2011), relevant english kups for officers in charge of a navigational watch include: 1) using charts and other nautical publications; 2) understanding meteorological information and messages concerning ship’s safety and operation; 3) communicating with other ships, coast stations and vts centres; 4) yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170150 performing the officer’s duties also with a multilingual crew; 5) using and understanding the imo standard marine communication phrases. in addition, the english competence requirements for electro-technical officers have been added to part a of the code. furthermore, two aspects relevant to the me competences prescribed in the stcw convention, as amended, can be seen as the influential force of the present revision. firstly, the english competence requirements, and correspondingly the specification of the kups of the english language in the code, are tied to the duties of maritime-specific roles, among which are navigational officers, engineering officers, electro-technical officers, gmdss radio operators and personnel on passenger ships. this legislation clearly stipulates the socio-situational quality of me as an esp. second, communicative competence in the english language for maritime purposes is given priority in the code, which renders me instruction with discrete and isolated sections of terminologies, grammar and pronunciation to be unfeasible. for seafarers of all ranks, the criterion for evaluating their english competence is “communications are clear and understood”. here, the satisfactory exchange of communications in nautical situations is reiterated; english is the lingua franca on board and ashore among crew members and multilingual passengers and is thus the basis for the requirement of effective maritime communication. hence, the two aforementioned aspects challenged what existed in the 2009 edition of imo model course 3.17, which was to develop the framework of linguistic knowledge while including the maritime content. the course structure was organized from the elementary to upper intermediate language level, a level division of general english language described by heaton (1988). in addition, the general linguistic content of english language systems and communication skills was separated from the maritime content of the tasks seafarers are expected to be able to carry out in english, as prescribed by the stcw code. therefore, there was a need to integrate language more intensively with maritime-specific roles and tasks in nautical situations. 3. needs analysis as the first step consequent to the adoption of the manila amendments in 2010 to the stcw convention, imo challenged its member states, governmental maritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 151 organizations and non-governmental organizations to commit to revising and updating all the model courses related to the stcw convention. as a result, the international maritime lecturers’ association (imla) responded to this invitation and offered to revise and update imo model course 3.17, maritime english. this was accepted by the imo’s sub-committee on human element, training and watchkeeping (htw) at its first session, 17th to 21th february 2014 and subsequently completed by the 31st october 2014 deadline. the imla working group of the model course 3.17 consisted of esp developers from the world maritime university (sweden), the maritime training agency marlins (u.k.), and shanghai maritime university (china). as course designers, the imla working group was expected to be alert to the needs of mainly non-english native esp target learners, to the relevant prescriptions required in the stcw, and to the context of maritime working operations. consequently, substantial information was collected and assessed in the form of a needs analysis to establish the “how” and the “what” of me teaching. the needs analysis as an integral part of this esp curriculum development program was conducted in a socio-rhetorical genre-analytic and ethnographic framework (see jasso-aguilar, 2005; hyland, 2006; johns & makalela, 2011). this involved aspects that fed into the survey incorporating the language background and proficiency of target learners, the genre-analytical perspectives of the target discourse in nautical situations, the expectations and intentions of the maritime industry stakeholders, and the features of the maritime discourse communities and situations. simultaneously, a needs analysis process was undertaken that involved a workshop questionnaire, unstructured interviews (long, 2005), existing textbook analyses, field observations and a corpus analysis. the workshop questionnaire dissemination and unstructured interviews1 were conducted among experienced teachers at maritime academies and agencies, maritime curriculum designers, and maritime industry stakeholders that included the imo, maritime operation companies, and imo member maritime administrations. the 26th international maritime english conference (imec26, terschelling, netherlands, july 2014) and its workshops, along with model course 3.17 working group meetings held regularly at international gatherings, were optimal occasions for collecting (vital) information, analyzing the results and testing/consolidating the outcomes. unstructured interviews were centred on the maritime yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170152 stakeholders’ observations and expectations of the code-stipulated and dutybound english communication competence of cadets and seafarers. a representative questionnaire item is shown as follows: consider the me competency levels of your cadets / seafarers when they graduate / complete courses at your training establishment. which of the following areas of me language competence presents most difficulty to your students? tick all that apply and note why your students have difficulties in these areas. reading skills / listening skills / writing skills / speaking skills / pronunciation / grammar / general english vocabulary / me terminology /maritime communication discourse / standard marine communication phrases (smcp) / cultural awareness / communication strategies the results of the questionnaire and interview analyses are as follows: (i) the target learners of this model course mainly come from nonnative english speaking backgrounds, with an entry benchmark at the elementary english language level; a typical response being: “learners are able to use english for very basic, everyday needs but without sustained fluency and with many errors”; “they have a limited understanding of spoken english, requiring a lot of rephrasing, repetition and simplification of language”. such target learners include students of maritime academies, as well as seafarers of different ranks and departments already-employed in maritime administrations, ports and shipping companies. (ii) the maritime industry stakeholder perspectives on seafarers’ english cohere highly with the competency standards set in the stcw convention, 1978, as amended. however, in reality the stakeholders are generally not satisfied with the effectiveness of the seafarers’ listening and speaking skills, especially in emergency situations. as they maintain, “it is a professional requirement to achieve effective english communication for maritime-specific purposes and duties”. in addition, they emphasize that the consistency of the new me model course within the provisions of the stcw code is a vital ingredient in promoting best practice at sea and on shore. (iii) english has the legal status of being the lingua franca for communication purposes on board, ship-to-ship, and ship-tomaritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 153 shore as well as playing a critical role in the maritime industry at large. it thus performs a significant function in maintaining the safety of life and property at sea and in preventing marine pollution. as such, me education can never be limited to “transporting” maritime terminologies to multi-lingual learners who are not of an english language-native background. communication breakdown can be attributed, to a certain extent, to seafarers’ “non-effective” language use: pronunciation errors, problematic listening, limited lexical-grammatical pattern choices, lack of cultural awareness, and the absence of such discoursal knowledge as using proper linguistic resources in proper situations. the analyses of existing me textbooks showed the linguistic content of english was usually per se presented at levels identified by the complexity of phonology, grammar, and the frequency of vocabulary in general english. moreover, the presentation of linguistic content was separated from maritime-purpose communications, and loosely tied to communication types concerning specific maritime duties. through the observation of nautical english communications on board/ashore as well as through the analysis of me corpora2, difficulties in me communication were located at the language stratum of discourse. that is, communication breakdown often happens due to the seafarers’ inability to properly use english in real situations. firstly, it was found that seafarers often experience difficulty in discerning the english pronunciation of multilingual crews, passengers or shore personnel, not to mention understanding the nuances of what is being said in physical situations, through the vhf radio, telephones and so on. secondly, seafarers cannot always connect an ample range of lexical-grammatical choices, such as conditionals, imperatives, relative clauses, and modalities, with relevant maritime-purpose communication tasks such as giving directions, or reacting to emergency alerts on board and ashore. this lack of competence impacts on the quality of each communication and the intended effect. thirdly, the problematic discourse strategies in a seafarer’s english communications, such as negotiating and ordering, could be attributed to the lack of proper crosslingual, and/or cross-ethnic cultural awareness. so, on the one hand, there is the code confining the provisions of me curriculum content, while on the other, the outcome of the needs analysis shows clearly the indispensability of a sociolinguistic framework in me yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170154 teaching. how the me curriculum, as an esp program, has to address the discourse issues and cultural problems, is a topic which the maritime industry stakeholders and observers seldom consider. in fact, at the final stage of validating this model course, some key imo member states “bought into” the idea that a broad understanding of english was required in order to meet specific objectives; this was initially perceived as too challenging, but fundamental to a successful outcome. thus, the balance between me’s legal consistency and esp learning’s “wideangled” quality can be achieved via a genre-based curriculum design. that is to say, an effective me curriculum aiming at teaching effective communication competencies has to involve the “integration of discursive and professional practices” (bhatia, 2008: 161). if effective communication is the target of maritime english, then me syllabus mapping, content selection and task design have to aim at teaching learners how best to get domainspecific actions done in english. 4. detailed genre rationale the socio-linguistic view of treating genre as institutionally and professionally situated actions and as ways of “getting things done through language” (pennycook, 2010: 122) can be beneficial for ensuring the validity of esp teaching. in the me context, to develop the english competency of trainees is to train seafarers how to get maritime-specific “things” done through english, as per the relevant requirements of the stcw convention. that is to say, that me curriculum development can take an integrated genre-based approach, which helps achieve the balance between the communicative approach3 and the legal consistency aspects. specifically, the phonological, lexical-grammatical resources of english language can be embedded into discourse strategies, which are involved in english communication for maritime-specific purposes and duties. 4.1. genre as a social action: general maritime english vs. specialized maritime english when me is treated as “getting maritime-specific things done”, language learning embraces the integral participation of professional actions in the maritime community through the language, that is english. thus, me competence finds expressions in maritime domain-specific genres; those are maritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 155 typical sets of the english communicative events seafarers get involved in to achieve their maritime professional objectives. in this respect, me “involves a combination of distinctive registers according to the field or subjectmatter, hence its register complexity and medium” (cole, pritchard & trenkner, 2007: 136)4. thus the contextual and situational understanding of language use for specific purposes is in line with the new rhetoric approach to genre in which genre is understood as those recurrent patterns of language use fusing semantic meaning and linguistic forms as rhetorical actions in situational and social contexts (freedman & medway, 1994). here, on the one hand, maritime domain-specific genres are those maritime socially situated actions fulfilled by using the english language, indexing the socio-rhetorical contexts of the maritime industry worldwide. on the other, while performing these communicative activities, participants present themselves to the industry and take on their identities as seafarers (those of diverse duties and different ranks). as stipulated in the stcw convention, english as a lingua franca is used for “effective communication” on board, ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore, for the purpose of “maintaining safety of life and property at sea and in preventing marine pollution” (imo, 2011: 347). me means typified rhetorical actions in marine-related situations and contexts where the requirements of english communicative competence in the context of the stcw are presented as tied to different maritime-specific duties and inevitably in the form of “to do something in some situation”. for example, for officers in charge of navigation at the operational level, qualified english competence means “to perform the officer’s duties also with a multilingual crew” (imo, 2011:105); for masters, officers, ratings and other personnel on passenger ships, it means “to communicate with passengers during an emergency” (imo, 2011: 209). the process of me acquisition is thus the learning of maritime-specific genres: braiding linguistic contents and rhetorical resources into the underlying assumptions, into the ways of behaving and into the aims of the maritime industry, thereby interweaving all of them to achieve the goals of the workplace. as a consequence, this genre-based me conception appropriately shapes the content selection and task design in both of the two syllabus stages of the model course 3.17 revision. furthermore, the model course is intended to provide guidance to assist administrations in developing their own instruction programs to achieve the yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170156 standards of english competence as prescribed in the amended stcw. therefore, it is expected that instructors will “customize” it to their learners’ needs and levels by including the relevant parts from the course as applicable. moreover, cole & trenkner (2009) ascertain that a certain command of general english has to be acknowledged as a basic prerequisite of me. for that reason, the “new” model course has thus been revised into two “new” core sections: general maritime english (gme) and specialized maritime english (sme). here, gme braids general english language input (grammar, vocabulary and phonology), and the four language communication skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) into typical sets of english communicative events that seafarers of all ranks may become involved in. this section covers the elementary and lower-intermediate levels of proficiency in me where the communicative events cover and expand those mandatory and recommendatory maritime-specific actions through english, as prescribed in the amended stcw. these events are thus general to seafarers, but not specific to their ranks. in other words, gme takes a broad approach to maritime domain-specific genres, encompassing generalized maritime settings and context. sme, on the other hand, correlates specific types of english communicative events with explicit types of seafarer ranks or duties, and directly immerses learners into those specialized types of communicative tasks that are specific to each professional rank and workplace function. this section sets the task’s difficulty at the intermediate level through to the upper intermediate level in terms of english proficiency. the syllabus structure is mapped out into five parts corresponding to five types of maritime duties or departments, namely: 1. for navigation officers. 2. for engineering officers. 3. for electro-technical officers (eto). 4. for gmdss radio operators. 5. for personnel on passenger ships. contents listed in these parts are organized by the english competence requirements of the kup for the different maritime ranks or departments prescribed in the amended stcw (respectively, tables a-ii/1, a-iii/1, aiii/6, a-ii/4, and a-v/2). the tasks are designed to focus on the specific maritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 157 kups of the mandatory english competence requirements in the abovementioned tables of the stcw code, part a. corresponding to the “action” format of the code, these tasks are intended to lead learners to the “required performances” of different ranks or departments. if these actions are properly fulfilled, the maritime duty-specific genres are thus satisfactorily acquired. therefore, the tasks in the syllabus are always presented as “cando” acts prefixed by the words “the expected learning outcome is that the trainees” act through the english language. a modified and truncated version of the gme and sme syllabus mapping is exemplified in table 1 below. in table 1, the communicative event of emergency handling shows gme and sme have different syllabus mappings while following the same sociolinguistic principle. in gme, the functional linguistic features of second conditionals, modals and conjunctions are presented through authentic texts of the emergency communication. in addition, the communicative event is deconstructed into a series of language skill tasks that practise these functional linguistic features. most importantly, the tasks designed have the authentic texts as a reference and aim to fulfill real maritime acts through the yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170158 y. zhang & c. cole ibérica 35 (2018): …-… section competence grammar vocabulary listening and speaking reading and writing gme 34 evaluate different perspectives on a problem and recommend appropriate action; describe emergency response procedures; give instructions to passengers in the event of an emergency second conditional clauses modal verbs would, could and might in conditional sentences; conjunctions suppose, imagine, what if in conditional sentences instructing passengers and crew members to evacuate read about emergency response procedures; describe procedures for the evacuation of passengers and crew members in writing sme 2.1c 1.3.2 emergency communication apply the correct procedure for transmitting a distress alert/call; create distress messages based on different scenarios in written and oral form; simulate acknowledgement of distress messages; listen to orally simulated emergency situations and practise the given scenarios with colleagues; simulate on-scene communication between different parties involved in sar; demonstrate urgency and safety communications and practise the given scenarios with colleagues;. table 1: gme and sme syllabus outline (2 examples). in table 1, the communicative event of emergency handling shows gme and sme have different syllabus mappings while following the same sociolinguistic principle. in gme, the functional linguistic features of second conditionals, modals and conjunctions are presented through authentic texts of the emergency communication. in addition, the communicative event is deconstructed into a series of language skill tasks that practice these functional linguistic features. most importantly, the tasks designed have the authentic texts as a reference and aim to fulfill real maritime acts through the english language, for example, instructing evacuation in a marine emergency situation. this section targets the learners at the elementary and lower-intermediate english levels, and is therefore suitable for seafarers of all ranks and departments. here, the focus of the gme syllabus is placed on linguistic content; on how language tasks embedded in maritime contexts are fulfilled. however, for learners at the lower-intermediate to upper levels, professionally fulfilling communication acts specific to their ranks or departments are the targets. in this respect, the correlation between lexical-grammatical choices and the communicative purposes of maritime domain-specific actions, as introduced and english language, for example, instructing evacuation in a marine emergency situation. this section targets the learners at the elementary and lowerintermediate english levels, and is therefore suitable for seafarers of all ranks and departments. here, the focus of the gme syllabus is placed on linguistic content; on how language tasks embedded in maritime contexts are fulfilled. however, for learners at the lower-intermediate to upper levels, professionally fulfilling communication acts specific to their ranks or departments are the targets. in this respect, the correlation between lexicalgrammatical choices and the communicative purposes of maritime domainspecific actions, as introduced and considerably practised in gme, is taken as having been accepted and understood by these learners. therefore, the sme section places the focus on professional content; on how maritime workplace duties and identities are fulfilled through the english language. sme divides these learners into “professional” groups and immerses them into “professional” assumptions, motivation and the conventions of doing duty-specific acts through the english language. as is shown in table 1, for those with the specific workplace duty of emergency communication as part of their rank-specific responsibilities, namely, officers in charge of a navigational watch on ships of 500 gross tonnages or more, the sme syllabus mapping directly prepares the learners for the specialized tasks associated with the sub-actions, such as transmitting a distress alert/call, of the complete communicative event of emergency handling. here, the general communicative competence of emergency communication is “unpacked” into a series of professional know-how tasks, i.e. the learners are led into participating in the substantial activities of their ranks and departments. me acquisition is thus in the process of a real-sense onscene action where the learners are taught what conventionalized actions are required out of a recurrent marine situation, such as an emergency, and how to connect meaning and form to realize those actions. indeed, in doing these actions, the learners can present their professional identities as being of specific ranks or departments in the maritime community. as a consequence, the two-stage syllabus organization gives me instructors the flexibility to weight the teaching program according to the kup requirements of english competence in the stcw code. the correlation between language and content, or the discursion-profession correlation, is maintained, but with the focus on the language in gme, on the content in sme. the code-tailored me is thus “tailored” as oriented towards maritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 159 communicative performance and to “getting maritime-specific things done” as argued earlier. 4.2. multi-syllabus approach: genre-based balance of the linguisticcommunicative competence continuum in english as a foreign language (efl), there has been continual tension and constant debate over the teaching and learning of english (i) as the acquisition of a linguistic system or (ii) as communicative behavior (cf. gass, 2013). in teaching, the former means that the language input of vocabulary, phonology and grammar guarantees the learner’s language skills acquisition (listening, speaking, reading and writing), whereas the latter gives priority to immersing the learner with the pragmatic use of language in real situations. in this respect, the history of esp education witnesses the shift in focus from the linguistic system and skills in general, to communicative behaviors in specific settings (cf. belcher, johns and paltridge, 2011). however, there is a high risk in undermining the instruction of the linguistic system knowledge in esp teaching, especially for non-native english learners. on the one hand, if the linguistic form and skill instruction is too narrow it would be inadequate in developing a learner’s capacity to handle specialized professional communicative tasks; on the other hand, to immerse the learner into settings and situations without explaining the grammar-genre specific correlation would also compromise the validity of the learning activity. in addition, for second language learners who have not yet developed the cultural awareness skills across languages, a communicative approach to language teaching that is too broad would sometimes result in “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”. as a result, the revision of model course 3.17 follows a multi-syllabus approach: for the gme part (core section 1), the maritime domain-specific performances have been deconstructed and restored to language input (grammar, vocabulary and phonology) and language communicative skills (listening and speaking, reading and writing). for the sme part (core section 2), the duty-specific kup requirements for english competence have been unpacked into “genre sets” (bhatia, 2004: 53) in order to involve the targeted learners. a “genre set” incorporates a class of typical maritime professional genres of different modes that seafarers with a particular duty and department would be engaged in as part of their routine professional activities. yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170160 this multi-syllabus approach can help to achieve the balance of the linguistic-communicative continuum. that is, neither the total communication situation immersion, nor the only language input instruction, can guarantee the effectiveness of the esp teaching. in the me context, english linguistic systems underlying the maritime domain-specific performances can be firstly made maritime-general and language-substantial. then me teaching can be tuned to be more maritime-specific regarding the duties and departments, thus aiming at realizing maritime professional identities through using the english language. in the gme part, the learner, from reading and listening to relevant authentic materials, catches the genre-specific explanation as to how the language input presented realizes specific values in the maritime-related communicative events. for example, the linguistic systems of the present perfect continuous tense, adverbials of time such as since and for, as well as phrases for expressing degrees of certainty, can all find their predominance and generic values in the performances of reporting recent events on board, handing over the watch, and recording the log. through the identification and selection of these contents as language input, and embedding them into authentic texts, it is possible to convey to the learner a much needed psychological reality and relevance to the learning tasks of speaking and writing. a modified and abbreviated version of balanced syllabus mapping is exemplified in table 2. maritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 161 maritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): …-… required performance: check task completion in routine operations: vhf communication regarding bunkering, distress and urgency messages using smcp listening and speaking reading and writing grammar: present perfect; regular and irregular verb forms simulating vhf communication .1compare normal speech with vhf protocol; .2 identify some vhf recordings; .3 check stages of completion of a variety of tasks form spoken information; .4 talk about the recent activities with partners identifying vhf communication regarding distress, urgency, safety and bunkering operations .1 read messages concerning vhf communications regarding distress, urgency and safety; .2 simulate urgency procedures; .3 refer to a checklist to describe stages of completion in a routine procedure; .4 simulate vhf communication regarding bunkering operations vocabulary: verbs relating to bunkering, maintenance and safety procedures; phonology: elision, the weak vowel sound, contracted and merging sounds in connected speech table 2: balanced syllabus mapping in gme given the reliance on voice communications from ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore, pronunciation, speaking and listening are emphasized in the gme curriculum development. in addition, a challenging variety of functional linguistic features realizing the relevant required action performance are represented in the input of listening/reading texts and practised in the output of speaking/writing activities. multi-mood (the understanding of different moods or attitudes when listening) and multi-mode (different types of communication, such as vhf radio, telephone, or formal/informal face-to-face conversations) listening materials form the basis of grammar, vocabulary and phonology input. as revealed in table 2 above, the tasks of vhf communication are designed for the learner to identify and interpret specific phonological features such as merging in connected speech, or meaningful features such as distress and urgency. such functional linguistic features can be found in the genre-specific explanation in the action of “vhf communication regarding bunkering, distress and urgency messages” where these features are particularly problematic for those who are non-native english speaking seafarers. connecting the linguistic system with the communicative actions in syllabus design makes for better awareness of the text-genre/action rationale. here, the explanation of the linguistic system comes from the analysis and understanding of the maritime domain-specific genre/action in which they are conventionally used. accordingly, basturkmen (2010) claims this meaning-making integration of the linguistic system and generic resources helps develop the learner’s capacity of handling specialized professional communicative tasks without sacrificing their language accuracy. when it comes to sme, the focus is more towards the procurement of maritime professional identity via the english language. here, the learners are firstly given the reliance on voice communications from ship-to-ship and ship-toshore, pronunciation, speaking and listening are emphasized in the gme curriculum development. in addition, a challenging variety of functional linguistic features realizing the relevant required action performance are represented in the input of listening/reading texts and practised in the output of speaking/writing activities. multi-mood (the understanding of different moods or attitudes when listening) and multi-mode (different types of communication, such as vhf radio, telephone, or formal/informal face-to-face conversations) listening materials form the basis of grammar, vocabulary and phonology input. as revealed in table 2 above, the tasks of vhf communication are designed for the learner to identify and interpret specific phonological features such as merging in connected speech, or meaningful features like distress and urgency. such functional linguistic features can be found in the genrespecific explanation in the action of “vhf communication regarding bunkering, distress and urgency messages” where these features are particularly problematic for those who are non-native english speaking seafarers. connecting the linguistic system with the communicative actions in syllabus design makes for better awareness of the text-genre/action rationale. here, the explanation of the linguistic system comes from the analysis and understanding of the maritime domain-specific genre/action in which they are conventionally used. accordingly, basturkmen (2010) claims this meaning-making integration of the linguistic system and generic resources helps develop the learner’s capacity of handling specialized professional communicative tasks without sacrificing their language accuracy. when it comes to sme, the focus is more towards the procurement of maritime professional identity via the english language. here, the learners are firstly divided up according to their specific professional ranks or departments, and then directly introduced to, and involved in, their maritime duty-specific genre set where a range of typical communicative activities are provided. a modified and abbreviated version of the sme “genre-set” syllabus mapping is exemplified in table 3. yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170162 it is presumed that the linguistic system-genre/action correlation has been accepted and developed to some degree by sme learners. here, the principle of syllabus mapping is to follow the professional division using specialized content designs for specialized maritime ranks or departments, as defined in the stcw convention. take for example gmdss radio operators, who are in charge of, or performing gmdss radio duties on a vessel as shown in table 3. their maritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 163 y. zhang & c. cole ibérica 35 (2018): …-… exemplified in table 3. specialized maritime english for gmdss radio operators (imo reference: stcw code table a-iv/2) competence: transmit and receive information using gmdss subsystems and equipment and fulfulling the functional requirements of gmdss training outcomes: demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of: 1 the english language, both written and spoken, for the communication of information relevant to safety of life at sea 1.1 use maritime safety information and special services read navtex messages including meteorological and navigational warnings, etc. to become familiar with special terms and message patterns and extract important information from enhanced group calling (egc) messages by scan reading read egc messages including meteorological warnings and navigational warnings, etc. to become familiar with special word message patterns and scan read to identify the key information in the egc message understand maritime safety information (msi) broadcasts on vhf/mf/hf radio draft special service text messages to obtain special services from relevant coastal special stations (for example medico) demonstrate communication with coastal special service stations (for example meteorological stations) to obtain special services 1.2 read gmdss operational instructions and communication publications scan read the relevant list of radio signals and/or itu references to obtain the specific information 1.3 role play communication based on distress, urgency or safety scenarios render the correct calling procedures for transmitting a distress alert/call/message create distress messages of different scenarios in written and oral form simulate a distress communication with colleagues between two or more vessels create correct acknowledgements of given distress messages create a distress call by a station, not itself in distress, based on a given scenario simulate the cancellation of a given false distress alert/call demonstrate distress/urgency/safety traffic with relevant simulated parties, e.g. rcc, sar unit, and information provider, etc. listen to simulated emergency communication on vhf with background noise and record the information in writing simulate urgency and safety communications based on given scenarios applying the correct calling procedures table 3: syllabus mapping in sme it is presumed that the linguistic system-genre/action correlation has been accepted and developed to some degree by sme learners. here the principle of syllabus professional identity defines the limited range of generic texts in their work routine centring around producing and interpreting distress/alert calls or messages, dealing with emergency communications on vhf. these genres/actions comprise a genre set, jointly realizing the narrowly defined professional activities, and internally intertextually linked in terms of their shared professional motivation and obligation. “drafting distress messages” and “creating and interpreting emergency vhf radio calls” are both communicative stages involving different moods, modes and “moves” of communication. however, they share the linguistic resources while most importantly, jointly contributing to the accomplishment of the professional performance required for gmdss radio operators. the safety culture and requirements, the communication channel features and the marine environment form the socio-rhetorical and situational context, coconstructing real communications. worth noting is the sme syllabus “unpacks” rank-specific competences into duty-specific genre sets and puts the learner into “action” through using english in particular settings for particular professional objectives. here, me acquisition is realized through participating in the knowledgeproducing activities of professional duties. therefore, communication skills are developed around the complex and dense sociological and professional context for communication. this means that the sme syllabus design is oriented towards the development of the learners’ professional expertise, which depends not only on the linguistic system and skill mastery but also the accomplishment of an accruement of complex and intertextually linked communicative behaviors required by the particular field of work. 4.3. multi-cultural factors in me education there are two themes that cannot be overridden in the accounts of english education for maritime domain-specific purposes: industrial internationalization and the use of english as the lingua franca. as the stcw code states (imo, 2011:347), during the most recent three to four decades, the seafaring profession has become international in character and the increasing use of multinational crews is the norm. this is also true of the maritime business at large, which has fast become globalized in nature with the outcome that effective communication in english today is a necessity for all the parties involved. yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170164 as to the english language as the lingua franca, it is argued that “adoption of a common language for maritime communications would promote safe practice by reducing the risk of human error in communicating essential information”. moreover, although not universal, by common practice english is rapidly becoming the standard language of communication for maritime safety purposes, partly as a result of the use of the imo standard marine communication phrases. (imo, 2011: 347) therefore, in syllabus design and content selection, the model course 3.17 developers bore in mind that english for maritime-domain specific purposes involves the diversity of cultural input to discursive practices. on the one hand, performing maritime-socially situated actions through the english language itself it would be intertwined with english native cultural factors while on the other, the multilingual and multinational crews would also bring variability to the use of english lexical-grammatical and discoursal resources, which are influenced by their non-english nativized cultural factors. this duality in the use of linguistic resources in professional genres has long been noticed and explored by esp researchers and curriculum developers as seen in the work of bhatia, 1993, 2004; gimenez, 2001; poncini, 2004; nickerson, 2005; dovey, 2006; lockwood, 2012; and lam and kong, 2014. the competency of communicating with multinational crews is given significant prominence both in the mandatory standards, for example, for navigation officers as stated in table a-ii/1 of the stcw code, 1978, as amended, and in the guidance for all seafarers as defined by section b-vi/1 of the code. cultural awareness is given attention in the code because it contributes to maritime safety and marine environment protection. from the perspective of esp teaching and learning, culture permeates through linguistic system-genre/action practices and professional activities. communicative practices of “clarifying, warning, apologizing, thanking”, among others, are indispensable elements of required performances in an emergency, watchkeeping on board, ship-to-ship and sea-to-shore communication scenarios. however, conceptualizations of these practices are different among cultures. as to the lexical-grammatical resources, a nonenglish native’s misunderstanding of modals in instantiating different degrees of coercion and attitude, for example, would damage the effectiveness of the communication, and thus directly risk the safety of the ship, the crew and the marine environment5. maritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 165 given the genre-based framework and the noticed intercultural issues grounded in the communication on board and ashore, intercultural meaning is therefore “unpacked” into communicative events for which the corresponding lexical-grammatical resources are required. the language input of discoursal resources such as modals and conjunctions are braided into the communication strategy practices in the gme section. moreover, in the sme section, cultural awareness even becomes a key word in the task design. for example, the tasks for navigation officers are designed as consisting of the genre set demanding the cross-cultural awareness from oral event descriptions, order (given by non-english-native speakers) identifications to onboard ship communications. this “unpacking” approach encapsulates language, culture, communicative skills as well as professional motivation and behavior in the teaching process, where these elements are continuously negotiated in the process of learning me while fulfilling maritime domain-specific tasks. in the maritime communication context, the content of what is being transferred and discussed, the “specific sociolinguistic circumstances” (i.e. specific speakerhearer relationships are often developed under various degrees of stress and panic) (cole, pritchard & trenkner, 2007:137) and the multi-mode communication at sea and ashore interact with each other to produce very specific intercultural registers. all of these factors point to the part in me education and training of communication strategy development, rather than product-based terminology teaching. 5. conclusion this paper reports on syllabus mapping, task design and content selection in the context of the revision and subsequent validation of imo model course 3.17, maritime english. it proposes a genre-based esp curriculum development framework. the needs analysis offers points to the indispensability of a sociolinguistic framework in maritime english teaching: that is, communicative competence can be defined as a seafarer’s know-how to get maritimespecific “things” done through english, as per the relevant requirements of the international maritime organization’s international convention on standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers, 1978, as amended. problems that arise in me communication are found in the yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170166 discourse issues, cross-cultural awareness, and the link between language form and meaning. it is argued that code-tailored me competence finds expressions in maritime domain-specific genres; these are typical sets of the english communicative events seafarers are involved in to achieve their maritime professional objectives. an effective me curriculum should integrate linguistic systems, professional motivation & behavior, communicative skills and cultural awareness into the teaching process, which entails a process of learning me while taking maritime domain-specific action. specifically: (i) syllabus mapping can be divided into two sections: general maritime english (gme) and specialized maritime english (sme). gme focuses on the linguistic content, generalizing how language tasks embedded in maritime contexts are fulfilled; sme focuses on professional contents, specializing in how maritime workplace duties and identities are fulfilled via the english language. as such, syllabus mapping calculates the discursionprofession correlation and helps ensure code-tailored me teaching to be communicative performance-oriented. (ii) the multi-syllabus task design and content selection can help achieve a genre-based balance on the linguistic-communicative continuum. in gme, the meaning-making integration of linguistic systems and generic resources can strengthen the textgenre/action rationale, developing the learners’ capacity of handling specialized professional communicative tasks without sacrificing their language accuracy. in sme, duty-specific genre sets can directly immerse the learners into specialized tasks, developing their professional expertise through the accomplishment of complex and intertextually linked communicative activities. (iii) furthermore, specific intercultural registers defined by english as the lingua franca at sea and ashore demand indispensable cultural input to discursive practices in me education. in short, genre-based curriculum development in maritime english education is a way out of the “game” between the “narrow-angled” legal requirements for maritime english and the “wide-angled” communicative nature of english for specific purposes. maritime english as a code-tailored esp ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170 167 acknowledgements this paper has been funded by the national commission of philosophy and social science, china, under grant number 12byy004. we are grateful to jin yong-xing, chairman of imla, for encouraging and inspiring us to undertake this project, which has illuminated our academic research with practical values. we would also like to convey our appreciation to all the working group members; for the individual and collective creativity and cooperation that successfully navigated us to the final outcome, the validation of the revision at the plenary of imo’s human element, training and watching sub-committee (htw 2) in february 2015 and the publication of imo model course 3.17, maritime english, third edition, in october 2015. the implementation of this enterprise will, as it always has been, to provide academies and agencies with guidance in the communicative approaches to maritime english teaching. article history: received 03 march 2016 received in revised form 22 october 2016 accepted 22 october 2016 references yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170168 basturkmen, h. 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(2008). “genre awareness for the novice student: an on-going quest”. language teaching 41: 237-252. johns, a. m., & l. makalela (2011). “needs analysis, critical ethnography, and context: perspectives from the client and the consultant” in d. belcher, a.m. johns & b. paltridge (eds.), 197221. lam, p.w.y., w. cheng & k.c.c. kong (2014). “learning english through workplace communication: an evaluation of existing resources in hong kong”. english for specific purposes 34: 68-78. lockwood, j. (2002). language training design and evaluation processes in hong kong workplaces. unpublished doctoral dissertation, hong kong university, hong kong. lockwood, j. (2012). “developing an english for specific purpose curriculum for asia call centres: how theory can inform practice”. english for specific purposes 31: 14-24. long, m. (ed.). (2005). second language needs analysis. cambridge: cambridge university press. martin, j.r., & d. rose (2003). working with discourse: meaning beyond the clause. london: continuum. nickerson, c. (2000). playing the corporate language game: an investigation of the genres and discourse strategies in english used by dutch writers working in multinational corporations. amsterdam: rodopi bv editions. nickerson, c. (2005). “editorial. english as a lingua franca in international business contexts”. english for specific purposes 24: 367-380. paltridge, b. (2009). “where have we come from and where are we now?” in d. belcher (ed.), english for specific purposes in theory and practice, 289-296. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. paltridge, b. (2014). “genre and english for specific purposes” in b. paltridge & s. starfield (eds.), the handbook of english for specific purposes, 347-366. west sussex, uk: wiley blackwell. pennycook, a. (2010). language as a local practice. london: routledge. poncini, g. (2004). discursive strategies in multicultural business meetings. bern: peter lang. rose, d. & j.r. martin (2012). learning to write/reading to learn: genre, knowledge in the sydney school. london: equinox. swales, j.m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. tardy, c.m. (2011). “esp and multi-method approaches to genre analysis” in d. belcher, a.m. johns & b. paltridge (eds.), 145-173. tarone, e., s. dwyer, s. gillette & v. ickes (1981). “on the use of the passive in two astrophysics journal papers”. the esp journal 1: 123-140. yan zhang 20 years as teacher, course designer, public examiner and researcher in the field of english as foreign language, functional linguistics and genre analysis. since 2011 full professor at shanghai maritime university, shanghai, china. frequent presenter at conferences of elf and functional linguistics; publications and projects are mainly on contrastive functional linguistics, genre analysis and translation. clive cole 46 years as teacher, director of studies, head of specialization, course designer, curriculum developer, project evaluator, public examiner, researcher and expert consultant all within maritime education & training, maritime & academic english, study skills, and teacher education. recently retired having been employed at world maritime university since 1984 where he was associate professor and held a number of senior responsibilities within the faculty; has authored over 45 papers on maritime english/met&related subjects. hon secretary of the international maritime lecturers’ association; chair of imla’s international maritime english conference. notes 1 the questionnaire was distributed extensively to 26 maritime academies and agencies throughout the world for group discussion and collective submission; that is, the questionnaire part of the needs analysis targets covered maritime academies worldwide. unstructured interviews targeted and covered maritime stakeholders. nine interviews of imo officers, maritime operation companies and government administrators lasted a total of 610mins. the raw data can be accessed on http://www.imla-imec.com and from chriszy924@hotmail.com. 2 the two corpora studied were the “maritime english corpus” established by shanghai maritime university, and the corpus of mars reports found at http://www.nautinst.org/en/forums/ mars/search-all-mars-reports.cfm. 3 the genre-based framework is the orientation at the stage of curriculum development; accordingly the linguistic system, professional know-how, and social/situational contexts can be braided into syllabus mapping, content selection and task design. this helps to ensure the communicative approach at the stage of classroom teaching as emphasized in the instructor manual of the model course 3.17. 4 in this paper, we differentiate the terms of discourse, genre and register according to their nuances in the three schools of genre analysis. discourse emphasizes more the attitudinal, and interpersonal components in language use; register, as is more of a systemic-functional concept, focuses on the situational contexts of language use; genre involves all the processes of a communicative event, integrating language use to situational contexts of professional actions and to socio-cultural factors in a given community. 5 this is also the reason why modals are discouraged in the smcp; this being a list of standard core phrases in marine communication. yan zhang & clive cole ibérica 35 (2018): 145-170170 iberica 13 ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in this paper, i explore the ways in which built space is described by means of motion metaphors in one of the prototypical genres of architectural communication, namely, the architectural review. i describe motion metaphors as meeting two main needs. in the first place, buildings described as “hunkering down”, “easing into”, or “heaving up” their sites instantiate visual or image metaphors whereby particular layouts or appearances (the metaphorical targets) are seen as reminiscent of the kind of movement encapsulated in the verbs (the metaphorical sources). motion metaphors also help reviewers organize their commentary in the review genre, which is often done as if it were a virtual tour inside the building at issue. in turn, this contributes to recreating in textual form how people “feel” buildings while interacting with and inside them, i.e. a more holistic experience. this use of motion metaphors is congruent with contemporary architects’ and reviewers’ enactive – embodied – approach to architectural space. keywords: motion metaphors, form is motion, image metaphor, embodied architecture. resumen e d i f i c i o s e n m o v i m i e n t o : m e t á f o r a s d e m o v i m i e n t o e n r e s e ñ a s d e a r q u i t e c t u r a el presente artículo presenta un estudio del uso de metáforas de movimiento en la reseña de arquitectura, uno de los géneros prototípicos del discurso de la disciplina. la discusión se centra en dos usos típicos en el contexto arquitectónico: en primer lugar, construcciones de movimiento como “hunkering down”, “easing into”, or “heaving up” se usan para describir el buildings that move: motion metaphors in architectural reviews rosario caballero universidad de castilla la mancha (spain) mrosario.caballero@uclm.es 89 ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 rosario caballero aspecto externo de edificios o parte de los mismos y, en este sentido, responden a lo que se conoce como metáforas visuales o de imagen. en segundo lugar, las metáforas de movimiento también ayudan a los reseñadores a organizar su comentario en las reseñas, el cual se presenta como si se tratara de un tour virtual dentro del edificio reseñado. este “viaje” contribuye a recrear, de forma textual, la percepción de la gente cuando interactúa con un edificio y dentro del mismo, es decir, proporciona a los lectores una experiencia más holística, todo lo cual es congruente con el enfoque enactivo y corpóreo hacia el espacio arquitectónico de los arquitectos y reseñadores contemporáneos. palabras clave: metáforas de movimiento, form is motion, metáfora de imagen, arquitectura corpórea. 1. introduction the human body, arguably the oldest and most traditional notion in building, has become a trending topic in architecture, and so has one of the actions intrinsically related to it: motion. of course, the architect’s preoccupation with space dynamics is far from new, and goes back to the discussion of space and spatiality in german aesthetics, the application of newtonian mechanics into building design or the work of modern architects in the 1920s and 1930s (forty, 2000; caballero, 2006; gerber & patterson, 2013). however, the motion-space contract has gained full momentum, and the claim that the latter cannot be understood without the former seems to be more alive than ever, as suggested by architectural firms called motionspace architecture + design, en-motion design, fluid motion architects or architects in motion. buildings may be experienced in many ways, among which two stand out. on the one hand, we can approach, look at and contemplate buildings as objects, and appreciate their looks or the way they integrate with their surroundings. yet, we mostly experience buildings by actually moving along, up, or through them. while the first experience may be qualified as somewhat tourist-like, the second is the real raison d’être of most private and public buildings. the following description of a temple complex in monte alban (mexico) by bloomer and moore (1977: 86-88) underlines this point: the temple complex […] seems to have been built around the act of climbing. there, thousands of feet above the valley floor, a flat plaza was made from which each temple was entered, up a flight of steps, then down, 90 then up again higher to the special place. to arrive at the largest temple, one went up, then down, then up, then down, then farther up again. […] getting there is all the fun. (italics in the original) in like manner, yudell (1977: 59) claims that “all architecture functions as a potential stimulus for movement, real or imagined”, a belief that led him to state that basic architectural experiences have a verb form. these views are fully compatible with architectural descriptions and their frequent use of motion lexis – particularly, but not exclusively, verbs – for discussing spatial artefacts – from the conventional reference to tall buildings as “high-rises” to sentences like “the new block runs north-south.” since buildings are static artefacts, such descriptions do not express real motion, but illustrate a phenomenon approached in various ways. functional systemic scholars explain such expressions as a way of construing and expressing the semantic notion of location in dynamic – relational – terms rather than using customary – and static – copular patterns with “be”, “lie” or “be located” (halliday, 1985/1994; eggins, 1994; thompson, 1996; martin et al., 1997). for instance, in thompson (1996: 81) we find the use of verb “run” in “hope street runs between the two cathedrals” explained as “blending” relational and material processes, that is, “the relational (‘state’) meaning is dominant but the wording brings in a material (‘action’) process colouring.” the choice of a motion verb to express a circumstance like location is implicitly attributed to the rhetorical demands imposed on authors, who may seek “a more dynamic tone” in their descriptions “especially if there are a number of similar choices in that area of the text”. the implicit view is that the use of a motion verb is subservient of other textual considerations and, therefore, dispensable, rather than the natural or first option to linguistically convey a given situation. this use of motion verbs has also been explored by cognitive linguists, who refer to it as “fictive motion” (talmy, 1988, 1996, 2000; matlock, 2004; matlock & bergmann, 2015), “abstract” or “subjective motion” (langacker, 1986, 2000; matsumoto, 1996) or the more comprehensive “non-actual” motion (zlatev et al., 2010; blomberg & zlatev, 2014). these scholars have explained fictive-motion cases as motivated by different types of mental processes. in lakoff and turner (1989: 142) we find them described as instances of the particular image metaphor form is motion whereby “a form is understood in terms of the motion tracing the form”. thus, they motion metaphors in architectural reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 91 explain that in a description like “the roof slopes down” the inclined, slanted shape of a roof (the target in the metaphor) is understood by drawing upon (mapping) the shape of a real slope (the metaphor’s source). put differently, our understanding and description of certain spatial arrangements derives from a more basic understanding of particular ways of moving. other cognitive scholars, however, have argued against the metaphorical quality of the phenomenon. thus, langacker (1986, 2000) explains fictive motion as a means to foreground the path-like configuration of certain entities – “trajectors” – by evoking simultaneously all the locations that make them up – a cognitive process he calls “sequential scanning”. for instance, when we say that a road “travels” or “runs” along the coast, we draw attention to all the places or spots along the coast occupied (“travelled”) by the road thus described, i.e. as if we were moving along it. his discussion focuses on entities related to motion in two main ways: on the one hand, entities that allow the displacement of other objects (e.g. roads, paths or trails) and, on the other, spatially extensible entities (e.g. cables, hoses and the like). the type of trajector is important in that those intrinsically related to motion (e.g. roads) allow for manner of motion verbs such as “sneak”, “climb” or “plunge”, whereas trajectors not associated with motion (e.g. cables) are seldom predicated by manner verbs (matlock, 2004). finally, fictive motion has been extensively discussed by talmy (1988, 1996, 2000), who claims that our “general cognitive bias towards dynamism” (talmy, 2000: 101) is manifested in language and in what he calls “general fictivity”, a representational framework that may well encompass other figurative phenomena such as metaphor. talmy discusses six main categories of fictivity according to dimensions such as the type of entity, observer, perspective, etc. involved. for instance, a description like “the trees cluster in the patio” illustrates an “advent path”, explained as describing the location of an object (“the trees”) in terms of its arrival or manifestation (“clustered”) in its location (“the patio”). in turn, many of the fictive motion cases introduced earlier, for instance, descriptions like “the river snakes along the valley” or “the staircase zigzags from the first to the third floor” focus on the configurations of river and staircase and fall into the category called “coextension path” and defined as “a depiction of the form, orientation, or location of a spatially extended object in terms of a path over the object’s extent” (talmy, 2000: 138). rosario caballero ibérica 34 (2017): 89-11092 indeed, given the importance of motion, spatiality, perspective, and visual apprehension in both talmy’s work and architecture as a discipline, many fictive cases in architectural discourse may be used to illustrate the detailed, fine points differentiating fictive categories in talmy’s work, even if his fictivity framework is too technical to bring into this paper. two insights from his work, however, fall within the scope of this paper. the first of these is talmy’s suggestion that fictive motion cases concerned with spatial descriptions may be metaphorically motivated regardless of whether they evoke actual motion or otherwise. by framing the expressions within the broader notion of “ception” (which encompasses both perception and conception), talmy’s views bring to mind lakoff and turner’s form is motion metaphor, while drawing attention to the perceptual –visual – plus conceptual quality of the phenomenon. in the second place, and most interestingly, talmy also stresses the experiential dimension of fictivity, and claims that it is not a stable phenomenon but, rather, may be experienced differently by different people, that is, allows for variation across individuals and even across temporal spans (what may be fictive at some point need not be equally regarded at some other). this suggests that different cultures, for instance, architects, may be more dynamically biased than others. as it is, the motion predicates in architectural discourse exhibit a number of idiosyncratic features worth investigating. the first of these concerns the type of entity or “trajector” involved in the expressions. in general discourse, fictive motion typically occurs with either entities that are spatially extensible or entities that allow for motion and, therefore, evoke the image of people or vehicles moving along them whenever they are predicated by motion verbs. architectural trajectors fall in the second type and, therefore, some fictive cases in architectural discourse do recreate the potential – physical and factive – motion in such spaces. however, many other cases are exclusively concerned with describing what built structures look like, a use often ignored in cognitive linguistics (for a detailed discussion, see caballero, 2006, 2009). a second point of contention concerns the verbs involved in fictive motion cases, which in general discourse only incorporate manner when predicating trajectors intrinsically related to motion since they evoke the potential motion effected along them by real animate entities capable of running, climbing or soaring in space. interestingly, manner of motion verbs are the norm in architectural texts regardless of the constructions’ focus – i.e. their use to recreate the motion potential of architectural spaces or to describe the buildings’ visual traits. finally, in contrast to the typically elongated shape of motion metaphors in architectural reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 93 the trajectors in general discourse, the trajectors in architectural texts need be neither long nor rectilinear, but also involve bulky, massive buildings or very tall ones – all of which motivate the type of motion verb used in their predication. my take on fictive motion cases in the particular context of architectural texts is that they are informed by two types of metaphor. on the one hand, descriptions of buildings as “hunkering down”, “easing into”, or “heaving up” their sites are visually informed and point to the presence of the image metaphor form is motion. in turn, reference to buildings’ inner spaces as “routes” (usually co-occurring with “circulation”) or “itineraries” departs from this visual scenario to focus on the motion possibilities of the building’s future users, describing them as part of a journey and, therefore, in the more holistic, dynamic, and function-based terms advocated by bloomer and moore (1977) above. finally, such prospective – virtual – tours inside buildings may be used by writers to organize their texts, that is, play a textual role in the genres where they occur. in the following sections i describe the metaphors underlying motion expressions in architectural texts, and the different needs and goals they meet in the building review genre. 2. methodological considerations the discussion in this paper draws upon my previous work on metaphor in the discourse of architects, where i combine the procedures followed in conceptual metaphor theory (cmt) and genre analysis in order to describe architects’ use of metaphor in architectural reviews (caballero, 2006, 2009, 2014, forthcoming). the data used come from a corpus of 150 texts (120,000 words) retrieved from print magazines written by and for architects and enjoying a high status within the community (architectural record, the architectural review, architectural design, architecture, architecture australia, and architecture south) and architecture websites (http://www.arcspace.com, www.archdaily.com, http://architizer.com, http://www.architectmagazine.com). since the corpus has been part of former and current projects, it is constantly expanded, which means that some texts go back to 1999 while some others are more contemporary. as discussed elsewhere, the architectural review is one of the most popular genres in architectural communication and plays a critical disciplinary and educational role in the discipline. this is largely due to the comprehensive rosario caballero ibérica 34 (2017): 89-11094 nature of the topics covered by reviews: while the texts are mainly devoted to describing and evaluating noteworthy buildings, this endeavour often involves bringing in those issues addressed by the buildings under focus (for instance, how those buildings solve a particular construction problem, represent a design typology or trend, etc.). together with discussing how the technical and constructive properties of architectural projects meet private, social and/or urban demands, a well-crafted review also attempts to translate into words a holistic experience of buildings. thus, reviewers often start by assessing the building’s visual properties and, then, gradually guide the readers through its inner spaces – a tour that may not only help readers better understand them, but points to the fact that buildings are first and foremost spaces for human interaction. given this “dynamic” concern, the presence of motion language for describing people’s potential displacements inside buildings – what is known as “circulation” – should not be surprising (for instance, nouns such as “route” or “progression” and verbs like “lead”, “follow”, “go up” and the like). a different question is the use of verbs such as “meander”, “scatter”, “stagger”, “sweep” or “undulate” to describe the same such spaces, which points to a different focus within the review genre. for the purposes of this study, i considered any term whose semantics included motion – irrespective of whether this is their core meaning or conflates with other notions. this is the case with verbs “unfold” or “stretch” (mainly concerned with change of state, yet often co-occurring with dynamic and/or locational prepositions such as “out” or “through”), touch verbs like “nuzzle”, “poke”, or “punch” whose core meaning is contact by impact (see levin, 1993 for a thorough classification of verbs following their semantic profile and syntactic behaviour). i also included cases where nouns are converted into motion verbs by adjoining a path particle to them (filipovi�, 2007), as happens with the english verbs “fan out”, “rake up” or “scissor down”. all such verbs were considered worthy of consideration for the purposes of this paper, and regarded as motion verbs. 3. motion language in architectural reviews the corpus yielded 1,931 motion instances (i.e. tokens) that describe built spaces in dynamic terms. as shown in table 1, motion lexis mostly motion metaphors in architectural reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 95 comprises verbs, followed by nouns, adjectives and adverbs. the full lists of terms are provided in appendix 1. motion language fulfils several purposes in architectural reviews, as shown in the following description of a bank in klagenfurt (austria)1: (1) one geologically contoured part of the building heaves up from the site like surrounding pre-alpine hills rising out of the valley, while another part thrusts toward the intersection in an eruption of angled volumes caught in seismic upheaval. […] despite the external complexity, the basic parti of the bank building is a three-sided doughnut, with corridors that triangulate around a light well […]. “you’re always moving across bridges, through thresholds. from one building to another, you’re experiencing movement as part of a journey,” claims the architect, who always deploys orientation devices – views, openings, corridors– to make the path of the constantly changing officescape self-guiding and cogent. example (1) relies on motion verbs (“heave”, “thrust”, “triangulate”) and nouns (“orientation devices”, “path”, “officescape”) as well as a quotation where the architect describes the interactional properties of his building by explicitly equating them with a journey. however, these motion terms are not equally concerned and, thus, while the verbs describe the physical – both external and internal – appearance of the bank in terms of vertical, forceful motion, the nouns focus its interactional properties, that is, the “orientation devices”, “path” and “officescape” offered to its users. these two dimensions of motion are addressed in the essay “stillness” by the architectural firm jones, partners architecture: in considering the possibility of movement in a project, the first hurdle is feeling a need to justify it programmatically, to understand that movement’s contribution to a design need not be mere functionality. movement is not only a means but can be an end in itself; not simply alteration of spatial relationships […] but a pleasing visual or haptic sensation. (jones, 2001. url: http://www.jpaessays.info/stillness.html) rosario caballero ibérica 34 (2017): 89-11096 3 lexical category number of instances % in corpus verbs 1,481 76,7% nouns 374 19,3% adjectives 66 3,5% adverbs 10 0,5% table 1. distribution of motion data across lexical categories. taking into account these considerations, the motion data in the corpus may be further classified according to whether they are mainly focused on the building’s “visual sensation” or on functionality. table 2 shows the distribution of motion lexis across their various foci: as illustrated in the table, cases of real and abstract motion are the least frequent. the former involve the verbs “rotate” and “turn” and, as shown in examples (2) and (3), are cases of motion caused by mechanical means. in turn, abstract motion is not exclusive of architecture, but happens any time we talk about the evolution of ideas, improvement of conditions etc. and do so by means of terms such as “advance”, “progress(ion)”, or “step forward”, that is, as motion along a path and towards a goal. example (4) shows the occurrence of such cases in the architectural realm: (2) [the] tower will be glasgow’s tallest structure and is designed to rotate gently according to wind direction, like a giant weather vane. (3) rotating thermal chimneys turn according to wind direction and […]. (4) [the building’s elements] collectively constitute a modest advance (for the uk) in environmental responsiveness. the jubilee campus extends an english tradition of elegantly-wrought pavilions within a romantic landscape, but also embraces an environmentally responsible architecture fit for the new millennium. the third group in order of frequency comprises motion lexis that presents built spaces as “fluid”, “flowing”, “dynamic”, “kinetic” or “moving” entities, but remains vague as to whether the traits motivating such terms concern the space’s physical or functional traits. thus, while “tilted in two directions” in (6) clearly refers to the building’s shape, the exact meaning of its ability to “break through a static corner” or its “dynamism” remains unclear. likewise, motion metaphors in architectural reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 97 e focus verbs nouns adjectives adverbs visual traits of built space 1,235 115 25 2 people’s interaction with space 73 223 5 mixed / vague focus 86 33 36 8 abstract motion 84 3 real motion 3 total 1,481 374 66 10 table 2. distribution of motion data according to lexical categories and rhetorical focus. although example (5) deals with how the old and the modern have been combined in a design, interpreting “speed” and “slowness” remains relatively flexible: (5) the anonymity and speed of the free plan have been counteracted by the personalized slowness of craft. (6) tilted in two directions, the design breaks through a static urban corner with a gesture that posits dynamism as its fundamental thesis. sometimes, motion verbs have to do with the effect of built arrangements on sensory elements such as light (e.g. “bounce”) or sound (e.g. “disperse”). their more elusive quality contrasts with the clearly visual focus of the remaining lexis in passage (7): (7) by inverting the long-span trusses and reversing their direction so the undersides rise and fall, the architects created an alternating rhythm of angled surfaces to bounce light and disperse sound. all in all, however, the motion language discussed so far illustrates the tendency of architects to describe space in dynamic terms. the more idiosyncratic, and salient, use of motion language involves descriptions of what buildings look like and how their internal spaces are organized for people’s use, as addressed in the following sections. 3.1. visual focus of motion language motion language is mostly concerned with describing the external appearance of built space, a task often accomplished by means of verbs. this is illustrated by the high occurrence of this lexical category (1,235 instances) versus the scarcer use of nouns, adjectives or adverbs. motion verbs exhibit various degrees of dynamism, innovation and graphicness. thus, versus the neutral – and to a large extent expected – use of verbs such as “lie”, “sit”, “rest”, “stand” or “rise”, we also find descriptions with more dynamic and less conventional verbs like “hunker”, “ease”, “sweep”, “sprawl”, “inch out”, “clamber” or “unfurl”. indeed, the choice of verb in architectural descriptions appears to be largely determined by the spatial trait in focus. for instance, while any building may be described as lying, sitting, or resting in its site (that is, statically via posture verbs), predicates such as “rise”, “stand”, or “loom” foreground traits such as height rosario caballero ibérica 34 (2017): 89-11098 and verticality, and “heave”, “thrust”, “emerge”, “surge” and “blast” add the component of force and often predicate bulky buildings. the italicized expressions in the following examples illustrate this use: (8) thrusting towards the sky and into the urban streetscape the street frontage of the building is an expression of [...] (9) [the building is] a mesmeric swell of concrete surging around two glass rocks. (10) [a] glazed canopy [...] that blasts out from the corner of the building [...]. in turn, projected motion on a horizontal plane is usually expressed by means of verbs like “project”, “reach”, “cantilever” or “corbel” (the last two denominal verbs typical of architectural discourse), and verbs such as “melt”, “splay”, “spill”, “sprawl”, “expand”, “sweep” and “spread” combine the attributes width and continuity or extension and, therefore, often qualify short, wide spaces: (11) holl suspended the northwest corner of the addition, allowing the gently sloping interior garden to spill out under the building toward the wooded vale below. (12) even the sweeping concrete ramps that lead to the parking levels cantilever from the rectangular container to emphasize their additive nature. (13) the price house has concrete-block walls that corbel out as they rise [...]. (14) arcades sweeping around the west side of the building, and concentrated around the south end, accommodate shops and restaurants. motion verbs may also highlight salient properties of the building sites, as happens in example (15) where the verb “tuck” draws attention to the tight, narrow quality of the space occupied by a building, and the verb “perch” in (16) suggesting the difficulties involved in erecting buildings in certain places: (15) tucked between existing structures on a tight site, the addition […]. (16) it houses the campus radio station, perched apparently precariously over the south and west edges. the descriptive – indeed, graphic – potential of many of the motion verbs found in the corpus results from the fact that they often incorporate manner in their semantics. manner of motion is figuratively attributed to the motion metaphors in architectural reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 99 buildings thus predicated to highlight some of their salient traits. this is the case of the careful, gentle motion of the library and wall in examples (18) and (19), the sinuous motion of a ceiling and a staircase in (17) and (20), the difficult, forceful motion of the conservatories in (21), and the slow, inchby-inch outward projection of the blocks in (22): (17) an undulating ceiling ripples through the lecture theatre. (18) the new library eases gently into a wild west landscape […]. (19) one wall slides back on a flush-mounted track to open the room to the outdoors. (20) a concrete stair weaves between the structural supports and an undulated gunnite roof. (21) [t]wo giant linked conservatories which clamber up the crags on the northern side of the pit. (22) [t]he masonry blocks inch out from the vertical plane as they rise. the main function of these motion verbs is to describe what built artefacts look like, which points to the metaphor form is motion (lakoff & turner, 1989), where particular layouts or appearances (the metaphorical targets) are seen as reminiscent of the kind of movement encapsulated in the verbs (the metaphorical sources). put differently, the description of spatial arrangements and topologies draws upon our more basic understanding of particular ways of moving. however, motion is best understood in action, that is, by actually moving or by observing the entities capable of moving in the process of doing so. in this regard, it is far from surprising to find that some of the motion verbs discussed so far go beyond the metaphor form is motion and coactivate other metaphors as well. this is the case of verbs that express motion by specific limbs and, therefore, typically predicate the animate beings thus endowed: (23) based on a boomerang shaped plan, the new building steps down from a prow at its south end to embrace a new public space. (24) the building responds to this with the lightweight living block shunting forward, reaching out to all of these elements. (25) the box containing a reading room and administrative offices totters precariously above the building’s entrance canopy. rosario caballero ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110100 together with instantiating a motion metaphor, the verbs “step”, “embrace”, “reach out” and “totter” above incorporate legs and arms in their semantics and, therefore, also evoke the metaphor buildings are animate beings – itself one of the most entrenched metaphors in architectural discourse. in turn, verbs like “hover”, “oversail” and “float” bring to mind mechanical artefacts such as boats (passages 27 and 28) or planes (examples 26 and 29) and suggest the metaphor buildings are mobile artefacts – a metaphorical frame sometimes reinforced by the expression’s co-text, as in examples (26) and (28): (26) a couple of squashed zeppelins [i.e. building’s roofs] hover over the solid structures. (27) organization of the teaching pavilions which oversail the lakeside promenade is similarly direct. (28) at the north-west end, each block curves to a point, like a pair of sleek ocean liners nosing gently into dry dock. (29) sheltered by the hillside, the structure seems to have just alighted. other motion verbs point to an all-purpose malleability metaphorical frame whereby space is portrayed as tangible matter that architects shape or mould as if it were clay, stone, or wood and, accordingly, buildings are described as plastic artefacts (see caballero, 2006). the metaphor is instantiated by predicates characterizing buildings and their parts as pliable (“fold”, “unfold”), soluble (“melt”), or flexible (“stretch”, “splay”, “spread”, “flex”, “extend”, “expand”) solids whose “movement” results from the application of an external or internal force causing a change of shape or state: (30) santiago calatrava’s kinetic building parts fold and unfold, spread and glide. (31) the new building […] will stretch behind the old school. (32) they have created a building that almost melts, as if in permanent drought. (33) each end of the footbridge is supported on pairs of smaller silhouetted columns which splay out to frame the north school entrance. a related final group of motion verbs comprises verbs like “flow” and “cascade” which, as happens with “float”, suggest the metaphor built space is a fluid: motion metaphors in architectural reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 101 (34) in the reyes-retana house, rooms flow freely into each other […]. (35) [the library is] a free-standing inverted cone which floats on a polygonal timber deck within the lake […]. the discussion so far has shown that motion expressions are far from simple and may co-instantiate figurative schemas that go beyond motion. nevertheless, regardless of the number of metaphors suggested by the expressions, all the examples above are concerned with visual information. put differently, buildings may be directly or indirectly likened to boats, zeppelins, and animate creatures, but the only characteristic of the entities involved in the metaphor is (an aspect of) their particular spatial configuration (often shape) rather than other mechanical or behavioural properties. the verbs that best illustrate this visual concern are denominal verbs such as “rake”, “bunch”, “ramp”, “cascade”, “scissor”, “funnel”, “line”, “fan”, or “corbel”. the corpus yields examples like the following: (36) customers descend to the store from the parking levels by elevators or by stairs that scissor down through the three-story space. (37) at north and south ends are stands for hardier (and poorer) fans, unshaded and raking up at a steep angle. (38) left and right of the lobby stack, office areas press forward to the permitted building limit. here, the walls curve gently backwards until they get to the seventh floor, where they crank quite severely back to obey planning profile rules. (39) the driveway slips in under the west courtyard wall and then ramps up steeply to the entrance level. in all cases, the movement expressed by the particles is given a shape via the denominal verbs co-occurring with them: the main trait mapped onto spatial arrangements is the whole configuration or shape of scissors, fans, and any other entity that may be used to convey a shape or configuration or topology. for instance, in (38) the particles “backwards” and “back” express motion (particularly, the direction of motion) while “curve” and “crank”, both denominal and, when turned into verbs, expressing manner of motion, specify the shape of the walls thus predicated. together with clearly illustrating the visual bias of motion constructions in general within the architectural realm (and, therefore, the metaphor form is motion introduced earlier), these verbs are interesting in that they rosario caballero ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110102 point to metonymy as the cognitive schema motivating the metaphor form is motion. for instance, the only trait involved in a description of a parking lot as “fanning out” is the shape of an open fan, which suggests that the description relies on a metonymic selection – “activation” – of some of the features characterizing the entities involved in the metaphor. a detailed discussion of the relationship between metonymy and metaphor in such cases, however, falls outside the scope of this paper (but see caballero, 2009). 3.2. interaction focus the second largest set of motion language points to the scenario moving within a building is making a journey whereby buildings’ inner spaces are described according to the interaction, motion possibilities they afford to users. this is illustrated in example (1) shown earlier where the architect himself explains that the building was designed as a “translation” of the town where it was built – an urban metaphor that motivates the ensuing description of the experience inside the building as if it were a “journey”. this functional focus foregrounds the two-fold quality of space as both a means for and an enhancer of movement, as explicitly voiced in the passages below, which show motion language used to describe the visual and functional traits of a supermarket and a library respectively – the latter specifying the building’s “journey” as a sea voyage or trip: (40) zapata’s supermarket is a beautiful object – it hums with kinetic energy, sweeping along and up the street like an elegant, silvery comet. but it is more compelling as the crystallization of a series of movements and circulation systems. (41) after years of post-modernism […] wilson has shown us the value of letting the building articulate its own content, of making its parts recognizable and its spaces navigable. the metaphor moving within a building is making a journey is usually instantiated by nouns rather than verbs, among which the most recurrent are “circulation”, “route”, “itinerary”, “path”, “promenade”, “direction”, and “orientation”. “circulation” is particularly interesting in that it illustrates what ciapuscio (2011) calls “nomadic” metaphors, that is, metaphors used in different scenarios and, accordingly, subjected to various formal and conceptual transformations. thus, the motion metaphors in architectural reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 103 nineteenth-century architect and critic viollet-le-duc drew an analogy with the body’s cardiovascular system and popularized “circulation” for describing the different ventilation and heating systems buried within the walls of buildings. through use, the “distribution” meaning of the term started to cover both the arrangement of volumes within the overall plan of the building and the communication among different spaces within the whole. at the same time, architects started to use it to refer to the – prospective – human movement within or around a building (for a diachronic description of this and other metaphors, see forty, 2000). this functional approach is a most sought-after trait in large-scale buildings designed for public uses such as libraries, museums, hospitals and the like and, accordingly, their description is often organized as a virtual tour inside the building. this is the case of examples (42) and (43) dealing with a museum and a hospital respectively: (42) circulation is handled subtly, via multiple paths, views of the spaces beyond, and little arrows pointing to the galleries above the escalators. the collection is no longer shown in chronological order. contemporary works are on the double-height first floor and visitors are taken back in time, upwards through increasingly intimate galleries [...]. instead of the old directed route, there are now choices, and more opportunity to wander. being able to see from one gallery to the next means it is easy to choose a route and difficult to get lost. (43) despite the size of the complex, central circulation remains relatively short and clear. skewed walls in the connections to the treatment wings consistently indicate the major direction, so from the shape of the space you know which way to go. real complications start at ground floor, with two skewed routes played off against the column grid. the main pedestrian entrance arrives from the front of the […]. the other main entrance is nearby […]. where the two routes intersect is the main stair, set inside its own glass cage but still fully visible, rising right up the centre of the building. on the south side, a row of doors leads out to the southern garden space embraced by the right-angle of ward wings. a long curved wall swings in to meet the entrance, almost seeming to continue the line of the ramp opposite across the hall. as to the verbs related to this journey schema, the examples above show “arrive” and “lead”, both of them alluding to the arrival and progression towards a given direction (“lead”) of the people using them. other verbs thus concerned include “give onto”, “open”, “direct”, or “join”, as in the rosario caballero ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110104 following examples, which, nevertheless, combine the interactive potential of the spaces at focus (reinforced by the co-text) with visual notions – for instance, if a space gives onto another space, it not only leads you there, but also offers views to it: (44) reading rooms give on to an inner glazed promenade around the forest. (45) the corridors open out to wide spaces that pool students like piazzas in the city. finally, in passage (42) we find spaces taking visitors “back in time, upwards through increasingly intimate galleries”, a description where going up in space involves going back in time. indeed, space and time as mediated by architectural form is a critical concern in architecture. before taking this point further, consider example (46): (46) based on an angular version of a möbius strip, [the house’s] parti drives the conventionally two-dimensional floor plate into the third and fourth dimensions: looped circulation that is always rising or falling erases the distinction between floors, turning them, literally, into a rotating, revolving continuum of linked space, form, and time. the möbius strip implies a continuously evolving surface, and by subsuming all the rooms in the circulation ribbon, the architect creates a relational environment of forms and spaces juxtaposed in evolving relationships. […] the möbius circulation starts at the top of the entrance stair, one flight up from the lowest level, where the main bedroom and one of the studies are located. the path splits at this landing with a corridor that passes an informal kitchen and a large dining area […]. the path continues to a tall living room of variable height; the ceiling and floor shift at the center, splitting the room into low and high ground. the path doubles back on itself and climbs a half level to a corridor that serves the second home office, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. this corridor continues to a stair that descends to the secondfloor entrance hall to complete the circuit. all the rooms comprise a loop, “a 24-hour cycle of sleeping, working, and living,” to use van berkel’s phrase. […] the flow of space is simultaneously centripetal and centrifugal. […] the house engages the senses by inviting promenades that set the parts into kaledeiscopic rotation. spaces [...] succeed each other in this time-based concept of a house understood through experience. this house by ben van berkel and caroline bos was designed after the mathematical notion known as the möbius strip or band, a diagram packed with both visual and “abstract” implications. regarding the former, the motion metaphors in architectural reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 105 reviewer uses the möbius strip to describe the building’s parti, that is, its basic scheme or concept, and later refers to the whole building as a “ribbon” or “loop”. however, the architects’ choice of this geometrical configuration goes beyond its topological properties. rather, as stated in the text, the möbius strip is a graphic representation of the time-space continuum and befits both the discipline’s and van berkel and bos’s aesthetics plus function agenda. accordingly, the reviewer’s commentary pivots on notions of temporality and motion: he recreates the circulation routes in the building, making extensive use of motion nouns (“path”, “circuit”, “promenade”), verbs (“rise”, “fall”, “pass”, “continue”, “shift”, “double”, “descend”, “succeed”) and adjectives (“rotating”, “revolving”, “evolving”) in order to evoke the idiosyncratic journey afforded by a house which, as claimed in the text, needs to be experienced in order to be understood (see also harris, 2002). together with being congruent with architects’ concerns with motion, example (46) is a good illustration of the use of motion language to organize spatial descriptions in texts. this textual function usually involves motion lexis with an interactional focus, which is often used by reviewers to guide their readers outside and inside the building’s spaces. the following is a brief extract from the review of luxor theatre in rotterdam, introduced as “a rich internal landscape of interacting layers that combines contingencies of site with the rituals of theatre going”: (47) depositing their coats at the counter to the left, [people] turn to start on one of the three batteries of stairs rising to higher levels, going to left or right depending on destination. as they rise through the building, each new stair invites them to the next stage of the promenade until they find the appropriate level for their seat. unprecedented is the delightful sloping route along the south edge on top of the lorry ramp, which is treated as a series of very long steps [...]. it winds irresistibly round, gathering more stair connections as it goes, and culminates in a double-level bar and restaurant [...]. further stairs within this volume lead to an upper bar level and to a whole additional foyer leading back the other way to another bar above the entrance. the sequence of spaces –every bit a contrived promenade architecturale– is enriched by careful framing of views with various scales of window. like the philharmonic in berlin [...] it provides a kind of internal landscape of interacting layers where the people of rotterdam can parade in their finery to see and be seen, creating a theatre of the interval almost as important as that of the stage. rosario caballero ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110106 this passage does not describe a real scene but, rather, an imaginary, prospective one. through the use of verbs like “turn”, “start”, “gather” or “lead” and nouns such as “destination”, “promenade”, “route” or “landscape” this reviewer offers his/her readers a virtual tour to luxor theatre which describes the function of the various spaces under focus, helps organize his description in a coherent way and, most interestingly, engages his readers and – presumably – may help them imagine what experiencing its spaces may actually feel like. 4. concluding remarks as pointed out by forty (2000: 57), “the notion that architecture represents implied movement within forms that are not themselves in motion has been a conventional part of modernist thinking, and still seems to be widely taken for granted”. what exactly is signified by motion terms when applied to buildings is, nevertheless, a complex question. in the present paper i explore two of the main uses of motion language in spatial descriptions, and the metaphors underlying those. following the assumption in contemporary architecture that perception and understanding of three-dimensional space can only be achieved through motion, either of the eye or of the body in space, i first discuss the image metaphor form is motion as used to describe what buildings and their spaces look like. however, space is ultimately understood by actually moving in it, which points to the second metaphor informing motion language in architectural descriptions, namely, the less visual, more interactive scenario moving within a building is making a journey whereby moving inside a building is described as an imaginary, virtual tour in its various spaces – a tour which may also be used as a blueprint to organize the reviewer’s commentary in textual form. together with illustrating architects’ bias towards dynamism, the holistic use of motion language to describe spatial experiences may well problematize the privileged status of sight versus other sense modalities, thus opening interesting avenues for further research in both people’s – both expert and non-expert – experience of space and the way they use language to describe it. indeed, not only does architecture involve several realms of sensory experience which interact and fuse into each other, but by foregrounding the kinetic dimension of built space, contemporary architects vindicate the critical role of the haptic system in mediating our sensory experience in and with space, vision included: “haptic experiences [the entire motion metaphors in architectural reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 107 body] give fundamental meanings to visual experience, while visual experiences serve to communicate those meanings back to the body” (bloomer & moore, 1977: 44). acknowledgements the present research is funded by the spanish ministerio de economía and competitividad mineco (reference: ffi2013-45553-c3-2-p). article history: received 20 january 2017 received in revised form 2 april 2017 accepted 6 april 2017 references rosario caballero ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110108 blomberg, j. & j. zlatev. (2014). “actual and nonactual motion: why experientialist semantics needs phenomenology (and vice versa)”. phenomenology and the cognitive sciences 13: 395-418. bloomer, k. & c. moore. (1977). body, memory, and architecture. new haven: yale university press. caballero, r. (2006). re-viewing space. figurative language in architects’ assessment of built space. berlin: mouton de gruyter. caballero, r. (2009). “form is motion. dynamic predicates in english architectural discourse” in k.-u. panther, l. thornburg, & a. barcelona (eds.), metonymy and metaphor in grammar. 277-290. amsterdam: john benjamins. caballero, r. (2014). “language, space and body: sensing and construing built space through metaphor” in j. bamford, f. poppi, & d. mazzi (eds.), space, place and the discursive construction of identity, 107-134. berne: peter lang. caballero, r. (forthcoming). “metaphorical motion constructions across specialized genres” in i. ibarretxe-antuñano (ed.), motion and space across languages: theory and applications. amsterdan & philadelphia: john benjamins. ciapuscio, g. (2011). “de metáforas durmientes, endurecidas y nómades: un enfoque lingüístico de las metáforas en la comunicación de la ciencia”. arbor: ciencia, pensamiento y cultura 747: 89-98. eggins, s. (1994). an introduction to systemic functional linguistics. london: pinter. filipović, l. (2007). talking about motion: a crosslingual investigation of lexicalization patterns. amsterdam & philadelphia: john benjamins. forty, a. (2000). words and buildings. a vocabulary of modern architecture. london: thames and hudson. gerber, a. & b. patterson (eds.) (2013). metaphors in architecture and urbanism. bielefeld: transcript verlag. halliday, m. a. k. (1985/1994). an introduction to functional grammar. london: edward arnold. harris, y. 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(1993). english verb classes and its alternations. chicago: university of chicago press. rosario caballero is an associate professor at the universidad de castilla-la mancha (ciudad real, spain) where she teaches english linguistics and lexicographic tools. her research focuses on the role of metaphor in professional genres, sensory language and cross-modality and, more recently, the expression of manner across languages. she has authored re-viewing space. figurative language in architects’ assessment of built space (2006, mouton) and coedited sensuous cognition. explorations into human sentience (2013, mouton). notes 1 unless otherwise indicated, my discussion is based on previous research (caballero, 2006, 2009, 2014) and the examples are taken from these published works. to avoid confusion, only the expressions under discussion have been italicized. appendix 1 motion metaphors in architectural reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110 109 martin, j. r., ch. matthiessen, & c. painter. (1997). working with functional grammar. london: arnold. matlock, t. (2004). “the conceptual motivation of fictive motion” in g. radden & r. dirven (eds.), motivation in grammar, 221-248. amsterdam: john benjamins. matlock, t. & t. bergmann. (2015). “fictive motion” in e. dabrowska & d. divjak (eds.), mouton handbook of cognitive linguistics, 546-562. berlin: mouton de gruyter. matsumoto, y. (1996). “subjective motion in english and japanese verbs”. cognitive linguistics 7: 183-226. talmy, l. (1988). “force dynamics in language and cognition”. cognitive science 12: 49-100. talmy, l. (1996). “fictive motion in language and ‘ception’” in p. bloom, m. f. garrett, l. nadel & m. a. peterson (eds.), language and space, 211276. cambridge, ma: mit press. talmy, l. (2000). toward a cognitive semantics. vol i: conceptual structuring systems. cambridge, ma: mit press. thompson, g. (1996). introducing functional grammar. london: arnold. yudell, r. (1977). “body movement” in k. bloomer & c. moore (eds.), body, memory, and architecture, 57-76. new haven: yale university press. zlatev, j., j. blomberg, & c. david. (2010). “translocation, language and the categorization of motion” in v. evans & p. chilton (eds.), language, cognition, and space: the state of the art and new directions, 389-418. london: equinox. real motion (3 instances) verbs (3): rotate (2), turn (1) abstract motion (87 instances) verbs (84 instances): extend (9), advance (8), emerge (8), double (v) (7), drive (6), embrace (5), turn (4), fall (3), rise (3), accompany (2), break free (2), disgorge (2), elevate (2), escape (v) (2), grow (2), propel (2), reach (2), claw one’s way back (1), come (1), dump (1), edge (v) (1), expand (v) (1), get out (1), go (1), hinge (v) (1), intercept (1), join (1), lean (1), roll (1), set out (1), shift (v) (1), spring (1) nouns (3 instances): journey (2), route (1) rosario caballero ibérica 34 (2017): 89-110110 people’s interaction with space (301 instances) verbs (73 instances): lead (53), give access (6), give on(to) (6), give way (3), direct (v) (2), bring in (1), gather (1), join (1) nouns (223 instances): circulation (58), route (30), passage (27), path (20), promenade (20), transition (15), street (10), landscape (9), direction (6), circuit (5), journey (4), orientation (4), arrival (3), pathway (2), congregation (1), crossroads (1), dispersal (1), gateway (1), hinge (1), itinerary (1), officescape (1), signpost (1), topography (1), way (1) adjectives (5 instances): transitional (4), alternate (1) visual traits of built space (1,314 instances) verbs (1,235 instances): surround (69), run (55), rise (47), curve (36), extend (29), slope (27), float (25), stand (24), suspend (23), sit (22), line (21), project (21), hover (20), angle (19), emerge (19), elevate (18), stretch (17), flank (16), flow (15), step (14), cant (13), follow (13), raise (13), tuck (13), undulate (13), adjoin (12), expand (12), lie (12), span (12), sweep (11), wrap (11), fall (10), soar (10), tilt (10), unfold (10), align (9), penetrate (9), spread (9), climb (8), fold (8), go (8), meet (8), shift (8), stagger (8), turn (8), cantilever (7), come (7), hinge (7), intersect (7), oversail (7), reach (7), slide (7), taper (7), wind (7), appear (6), cluster (6), continue (6), cross (6), descend (6), disappear (6), embrace (6), grow (6), hang (6), loop (6), protrude (6), rake (6), rest (6), spiral (6), incline (5), interrupt (5), poise (5), radiate (5), splay (5), surge (5), thrust (5), tower (5), draw back (4), lean (4), nestle (4), overhang (4), perch (4), recess (4), spill (4), swing (4), swoop (4), terminate (4), alternate (3), arch (3), bend (3), cascade (3), contract (3), crank (3), cut through (3), hug (3), loom (3), meander (3), pulsate (3), ring (3), rotate (3), scatter (3), straddle (3), swell (3), thread + prep (3), break through (2), bulge out (2), butt up (2), change (2), cling (2), coil (2), culminate (2), drop (2), enfold (2), fan out (2), flutter (2), fly (2), gyrate (2), hunker (2), inflect (2), intrude (2), jut (out) (2), melt out (2), merge into (2), press (2), push out (2), ramp up (2), revolve (2), ripple (2), sandwich (2), set in motion/rotation (2), set forth/off (2), slip (2), sprawl (2), swirl (2), throw (2), topple (2), touch (2), travel (2), tumble (2), weave (2), accompany (1), advance (1), alight (1), ascend (1), bifurcate (1), billow (1), bite into (1), blast out (1), branch out (1), bunch up (1), carve into (1), circle (1), clamber (1), contort (1), corbel out (1), crash (1), crawl (1), criss-cross (1), crop up (1), crouch (1), dig into (1), dip down (1), disperse (1), double back (1), drape over (1), drift (1), drive (1), ease into (1), encircle (1), enter (1), erupt (1), funnel (1), get to (1), heave up (1), inch out (1), joggle (1), join (1), jostle (1), link through (1), list (1), lock into (1), loft off (1), lower (1), maintain a distance (1), march off (1), nod (1), nose into (1), notch into (1), nuzzle (1), overlay (1), pause (1), peel away (1), pivot on (1), plug into (1), poke into (1), pop up (1), proceed (1), pull past (1), punch into (1), recede (1), recline (1), ride (1), round (1), scissor down (1), scurry (1), scythe (1), settle (1), shaft in (1), shoot out (1), shunt forward (1), skirt (1), slant (1), slice through (1), snake (1), spin off (1), spring (1), sprout (1), straggle (1), submerge (1), succeed (1), swim (1), totter (1), trace (1), trail (1), traverse (1), triangulate around (1), trickle (1), twist (1), unfurl (1), warp around (1) nouns (115 instances): elevation (41), extension (20), high-rise (11), sweep (6), progress (5), extrusion (4), projection (4), sprawl (4), shift (3), alignment (2), flow (2), interruption (2), intrusion (2), dance (1), eruption (1), expansion (1), rotation (1), suspension (1), tunnel (1), incline (1), inflection (1), stealth (1) adjectives (25 instances): free-standing (10), sunken (6), lean-to (2), buckled (1), centrifugal (1), centripetal (1), diverging (1), erratic (1), floaty (1), intrusive (1) adverbs (2 instances): centrifugally (1), sweepingly (1) mixed / vague focus (163 instances) verbs (86 instances): open (32), arrive (3), pass (3), bridge over (1), cradle (1), pool (1), reverse direction (1), carry (15), move (15), bounce (3), change direction (3), alternate (2), drive (1), emanate (1), locate (1), stop (1), take flight (1), take one’s place (1) nouns (33 instances): intersection (9), progression (6), fluidity (5), motion (3), release (3), dynamism (2), agitation (1), interpenetration (1), repose (1), slowness (1), speed (1) adjectives (36 instances): dynamic (16), fluid (8), static (8), kinetic (3), reposeful (1) adverbs (8 instances): alternately (3), dynamically (3), fluidly (2) table 3. motion data. iberica 13 ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this article identifies, describes and analyzes specific instances of metaphors used to represent and explain ten “frame elements” in popularized scientific articles devoted to the ebola disease or virus, within the overall “health frame”. the descriptive and explanatory metaphors studied derive from culturally salient objects or experiences which allow scientists, medical professionals and journalists to effectively communicate scientific information and knowledge about ebola to non-experts in less complex, understandable and down-to-earth terms. apart from the identification and characterization of specific instances of ebola metaphors (corresponding to general framings such as ebola is war or recovery is a road), this work also focuses on the purposes, functions and effects that these metaphors, usually considered as reformulation techniques (jacobi, 1994), have in the popularization of such an important health threat which has quite recently caused general hysteria and almost a global crisis. by “popularization” we mean the communicative function that metaphor plays in approaching a scientific issue to the world population or to society in general, or the process of bringing science to everyday life (väliverronen, 1993). for such purposes, a sample of articles from scientific american has been considered. keywords: popularized scientific discourse, scientific dissemination, disease metaphors, ebola metaphors. resumen l a m e tá f or a e n e l di s c ur s o c i e ntí f ic o di v u l g ati v o s ob r e e l éb ol a el presente artículo identifica, describe y analiza casos específicos de metáforas, dentro del más general de la salud o de las enfermedades, utilizados para representar y explicar diez elementos o dominios destino en artículos de popularización científica dedicados a la enfermedad o el virus del ébola. las metaphor in ebola’s popularized scientific discourse isabel balteiro universidad de alicante (spain) balteiro@ua.es 209 ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230 isabel balteiro metáforas descriptivas y explicativas se derivan de objetos o experiencias culturalmente relevantes, que permiten a los científicos, a los profesionales de la medicina y a los periodistas comunicar de forma efectiva a destinatarios no expertos en un lenguaje menos complejo y más comprensible y llano información científica sobre el ébola. además de la descripción de casos específicos de metáforas sobre el ébola (correspondientes a marcos generales como el ébola es la guerra o la recuperación es un camino), este trabajo aborda los fines, funciones y efectos que estas metáforas, normalmente consideradas como técnicas de reformulación (jacobi, 1994), tienen dentro de la popularización de una importante amenaza para la salud que recientemente ha provocado la alarma general. por “popularización” entendemos la función comunicativa que tiene la metáfora al acercar una cuestión científica a la población mundial o a la sociedad en general, o el proceso de llevar la ciencia a la vida cotidiana (väliverronen, 1993). para nuestro análisis se ha estudiado una muestra de artículos procedentes de la revista scientific american. palabras clave: popularización del discurso científico, divulgación científica, metáforas sobre enfermedades, metáforas del ébola. 1. introduction the most recent outbreak of ebola, a viral disease transmitted through direct contact with blood or bodily fluids of infected patients or animals, whose symptoms include fever, headache, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and hemorrhage (smith, 2006; meyers et al., 2015), began in west africa in march 2014. it was soon perceived as a global threat, as it is one of the highest fatality rate viruses nowadays (smith, 2006) but also for the widespread highly politicized media coverage it received (vellek, 2016: 1). according to the world health organization (who, 2015) and the centers for disease control and prevention, between 2014 and 2015 ebola had infected 28,616 people and killed 11,310, having a fatality rate of approximately 50 percent (meyers et al., 2015). at the time of the outbreak these figures and even lower ones created a perception of an overwhelming threat and a general state of confusion and hysteria. conscious of this and unable to understand purely scientific and expert medical explanations, citizens might have also turned to a different and “half-way” type of discourse: popularized scientific/medical discourse, that is, scientific/medical articles aimed at the general public. this is probably one of the main sources of information used by western and/or non-african 210 population to easily understand and learn about the ebola virus. reformulation techniques, including metaphor (jacobi, 1994), play a major role in the popularization of scientific discourse (on this, see väliverronen, 1993) or in the process of bringing science to everyday life, especially in the interactions between scientific or technical discourses and lay discourses (black, 1962; hesse, 1970; brown, 1986). as has been stressed by cognitive approaches, metaphors contribute to the organization of our thoughts and to the understanding of abstract issues or concepts by making them “easier to grasp” (lakoff & johnson, 1980: 115; goatly, 1997; see also lakoff, 1987a, 1987b; kövecses, 1990; ortony, 1993; gibbs & steen, 1999; lakoff & johnson, 1999; stern, 2000; ricoeur, 2003; kövecses, 2006; semino, 2008; dirven & ruiz de mendoza, 2010; kövecses, 2010; gibbs, 2011a, 2011b; or zwicky, 2014). in medical discourses for lay audiences, metaphors allow people to immediately understand and know the meaning of a specific health situation, concept or topic by relating it to a familiar, concrete or generalized experience, concept or issue, as we shall see below. 2. metaphor and the popularization of scientific discourse. disease as metaphor at first sight, science might not seem to be an appropriate field for metaphors, as its discourse is allegedly precise, specialized, unbound to culture, depersonalized, and objective (widdowson, 1974). however, as weinrich (1995) states, the generalized idea that scientists do not use metaphors is simply a myth as, in fact, modern science is based on metaphors. metaphors are an integral part of scientific thinking and writing as well as of interaction between scientific and other discourses (black, 1962; hesse, 1970; brown, 1986). metaphors may even be regarded as “omnipresent” (keller, 1996), although some are now lexicalized and hence they are no longer perceived as metaphorical (fourez, 1994), but rather as indispensable in scientific discourse. science resorts to theory-constructive metaphors, which fill a lacuna or lexical need in specialized vocabulary, and are consequently absolutely necessary in scientific discourse. in addition, the so-called pedagogical or exegetical metaphors, used in science though they are not strictly necessary and replaceable by a non-metaphorical scientific term or expression, contribute to explain, describe or illustrate a scientific metaphor in ebola’s popularized scientific discourse ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230 211 phenomenon or object in a metaphorical way (boyd, 1993: 485-486). however, this distinction is not clear: knudsen argues that “[w]hether the metaphor belongs in one category or another does not depend on the specific metaphorical expression itself, but on the context and its purpose” (2003: 1259). in general, metaphors are primarily used in scientific discourse to generate, reason or explain hypotheses and theories (hesse, 1970; leatherdale, 1974). they constitute a tool for effective communication of scientific knowledge and research (prelli, 1989) and are therefore necessary. for a scientist or researcher, conceptual metaphors may mean an auto-clarification or advance in the resolution of a problem, a hypothesis or even a new theory, and may also yield an important number of new metaphorical terms (cuadrado & durán, 2013). for non-specialists, metaphors used to communicate scientific knowledge may allow them to conceptualize and understand abstract and technical phenomena and concepts by associating them with familiar objects and notions. accordingly, scientists may “reformulate” their message, with or without a mediator’s intervention, depending on the addressee (lewenstein, 1995; ciapuscio, 2003: 209). metaphor is one of the reformulation techniques or mechanisms which establishes a “common ground” between scientific and non-scientific discourses (for metaphors in the media see, for example, väliverronen, 1993; hellsten, 1997). to some extent, metaphors allow the simplification and popularization of scientific knowledge or scientific discourse and appeal to the shared knowledge between experts and non-experts, which is reflected in the linguistic choices made by those writing popularized scientific texts. hence, scientific metaphors are not only present in discourses addressed to scientists or specialists, but also in those aimed at general readers. in fact, metaphors may be virtually the only way for nonprofessionals to understand abstract scientific issues (lakoff & johnson, 1980) which, otherwise, would not have been successfully “popularized”, transmitted or translated to them. apart from that, metaphors in scientific texts addressed to non-experts may strengthen scientific and/or professional authority, persuasion and emotiveness, as well as other political or economic interests (be these biased or not), but they may also have different interpretations and conceptualizations depending on the addressees (haack, 1994). in other words, people interpret scientific information and metaphors according to their experience and previous knowledge, but scientists’ or writers’ selection isabel balteiro ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230212 and use of metaphors may highly condition laypeople’s understanding and attitudes towards science. the use of metaphors for the portrayal of illnesses and diseases has been often debated in the literature (for a general account on mental health metaphors see tay, 2017; for physical health ones, see demjén & semino, 2017). sontag argued that discourses on illness should be completely exempt of metaphors, as they emphasize the negative consequences of illnesses on patients; e.g. military metaphors contribute to the stigmatizing of certain illnesses and patients (sontag, 1978; gwyn, 1999: 207). conversely, czechmeister (1994: 1231) describes metaphor as a “two-edged sword”, which can be a “rich resource” or a “potential burden”, depending on how it is used (cf. semino et al., 2015). the metaphor disease is war may have positive implications, when it becomes a source of empowerment, that is, if the patient is portrayed as a fighter (reisfield & wilson, 2004). sontag (1989), after reviewing her ideas, acknowledged that metaphors cannot be avoided in medical-related discourses, although “that does not mean there aren’t some metaphors we might well abstain from or try to retire” (1989/1991: 93). similarly, larson, nerlich and wallis (2005) argue in favor of eliminating some metaphors and promoting others. independently of these arguments, an approach now widely accepted is found, amongst others, in reisfield and wilson (2004), hanne and hawken (2007), or loftus (2011), who highlight the effectiveness of metaphors in the communication and popularization of health-related issues. unlike other illnesses that have deserved much linguistic attention for their impact in the so-called “developed countries” (e.g. cancer or aids; see, amongst others, guerrero, 1990; clarke, 1992 & 1999; sharf & freimuth, 1993; haane & hawken, 2007; hidalgo downing & kraljevic mujic, 2009; williams camus, 2009; demmen et al., 2015; hauser & schwartz, 2015), the linguistic or sociolinguistic study of ebola has only produced a few studies. to our knowledge, the four main academic publications are ungar (1998), joffe and haarhoff (2002), trčková (2015), and vellek (2016), apart from the purely scientific and technical articles on ebola as well as ebola popularized articles like those used as sources of our sample. kamara (2016), despite its promising title, “ebola: in search of a new metaphor”, is a report-like article of a fund/awareness raising event on “voices against ebola” based on causal layered analysis (cla) (inayatullah, 1998). the four pieces of research just mentioned focus on newspaper portrayals of ebola: vellek (2016) presents a contrastive diachronic study of ebola framing in metaphor in ebola’s popularized scientific discourse ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230 213 american, british and singaporean newspapers, joffe and haarhoff (2002) and trčková (2015) synchronically concentrate on either british or american press. for their part, joffe and haarhoff (2002) analyze whether ebola is seen as a threat, how media and lay representations of ebola interact, and whether there is a uniform depiction of ebola in britain through the study of british broadsheets and tabloids. similarly, trčková (2015) focuses on ebola metaphors but by resorting to liberal american newspapers, whereas ungar (1998) explores the media’s response to ebola, focusing on whether and how they reassured or alarmed their western audience. the present study, which may be included within research on metaphor and illness in public communication (demjén & semino, 2017: 387-391), aims to continue with the research on representations of ebola as done in the four articles mentioned above. however, unlike them, it also attempts to fill the lacuna of empirical studies on metaphoric portrayals of the most recent outbreak of ebola in popularized scientific discourse by analyzing a sample of articles from scientific american (url: http://www.nature.com/ scientificamerican/information/aims.html). disregarding their implicit educational component, this paper primarily identifies the metaphors used to explain ebola to lay readers as well as, secondarily, the empowerment or disempowerment resulting from the selection and employment of such metaphors. 3. data and method as mentioned, this study is based on the analysis of data from scientific american, which describes itself as “the world’s premier magazine of scientific discovery and technological innovation for the general public” (see http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/information/aims.html; accessed 02/01/2017). our sample consists of ten “hard-news” articles on ebola (over 15,000 words altogether), published between november 2014 and february 2016 and collected from the online version of scientific american. these articles, written by a medical doctor, medical reporters, journalists and associate editors for health and medicine, were carefully read and manually analyzed. metaphor selection was performed following the metaphor identification procedure (mip/mipvu; steen et al., 2010), whereby a metaphor is basically identified if “the contextual meaning contrasts with the basic meaning but can be understood in comparison with it” (pragglejaz isabel balteiro ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230214 group, 2007: 3). once identified, the metaphors were classified according to their target domain or frame element, first, and to their metaphorical source domain(s), secondly. we also attended to the purposes or functions that these metaphors serve in the popularization of ebola discourses and their potential effects in educating, informing objectively or, on the contrary, potentially (mis)leading non-experts or society’s perceptions at large, by highlighting some aspects and disregarding others. 4. analysis and discussion of the data the sample yielded 630 metaphorical expressions, including lexical and conceptual metaphors and their mappings, strictly representing ebola as well as other participants or agents in the fight against it; this means an approximate average of over 4.2 metaphors every 100 words. other metaphorical expressions found in the sample, like “nath believes that years of research invested in studying hiv …”, corresponding to the conceptual metaphor time is money, have been left out from the study because they refer to neither ebola nor ebola-related issues. ten target domains or frame elements were identified in the sample, namely, (1) the disease itself (sections 4.1 to 4.5); (2) patients or victims (4.6); (3) the body and its parts (4.7); (4) symptoms and consequences (4.8); (5) recovery or healing (4.9 & 4.10); (6) health workers (namely, doctors, researchers and experts; section 4.11); (7) research, knowledge, information and findings (4.12); (8) treatment, vaccination and drugs (4.13 to 4.15); (9) other preventive measures (4.16); and (10) authorities (4.17). as we shall see (table 3 and below), these frame or target elements were associated to different and varied source domains and subdomains or mappings (around 50, which we grouped into 17 subsections), many of them revolving around the almost omnipresent military metaphor ebola is war, although other conceptual and lexical metaphors have also been identified, as tables 1 and 2 show. metaphor in ebola’s popularized scientific discourse ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230 215 isabel balteiro ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230216 conceptual metaphors •! ebola is war o! ebola is a battle o! ebola is an attack o! ebola is a killer o! ebola is a force of physical destruction o! ebola is a villain o! ebola is a torturer o! patients/survivors are fighters o! victims/patients are prisoners o! the body and the immune system are victims o! healing is killing or destroying ebola o! health workers or experts are warships o! health workers or experts are fighters (with arms) o! health workers or experts are groupings, controllers & leaders o! treatments are prisoners o! treatment/vaccines are bullets, arms or shields o! treaments are invaders o! drugs are leaders, fighters & winners o! authorities are villains •! ebola is movement o! ebola is a path or a road o! patients are runners o! recovery is a road o! research and progress is a road o! research is a hunt o! measures are steps •! ebola is hidden or inside •! the body is a building or a container •! recovery or healing is cleaning •! (ebola’s) knowledge is light o! research is a source of light table 1. conceptual metaphors and their mappings. lexical metaphors • ebola is a plague • ebola is a storm • ebola is quicksand • ebola is fire • ebola is a spider • ebola is a lyon • ebola is a plant • ebola is an object or a burden • ebola symptoms & consequences are physical marks • ebola consequences are a ghost and a mystery • health workers and experts are groups of stars • lack of treatment(s) is a drought • excess of treatments is a flood • drugs are cocktails table 2. lexical metaphors. metaphor in ebola’s popularized scientific discourse ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230 217 the target or frame element metaphors and mappings ebola (the disease or virus) • ebola is war • ebola is a battle • ebola is an attack • ebola is a killer • ebola is a force of physical destruction • ebola is a villain • ebola is a torturer • ebola is a (dangerous) natural phenomenon • ebola is a plague • ebola is a storm • ebola is quicksand • ebola is fire • ebola is a spider • ebola is a lion • ebola is a plant • ebola is an object or a burden • ebola is a path or a road • ebola is hidden or inside patients or victims • patients/survivors are fighters • patients/victims are prisoners • patients are runners the body and its parts • the body and the immune system are weapons • the body is a building or a container symptoms and consequences of ebola • ebola symptoms and consequences are physical marks • ebola consequences are a ghost & a mystery recovery from ebola or healing • healing is killing or destroying ebola • recovery or healing is cleaning • recovery is a road health workers (doctors, researchers, & experts) • health workers or experts are fighters (with arms) • health workers or experts are warships • health workers or experts are controllers and leaders • health workers and experts are groups of stars research, knowledge, information and findings • research and progress is a road • research is a source of light • research is a hunt treatment, vaccination and drugs • treatment/vaccines are bullets, arms or shields • treatments are invaders • drugs are leaders, fighters, runners & winners • treatments are prisoners • drugs are cocktails • treatments are natural phenomena or disasters o lack of treatment(s) is a drought o excess of treatments is a flood other preventive measures • measures are steps authorities • authorities are villains table 3. metaphors found in ebola’s popularized discourses organized according to frame elements. e as we shall see below, the metaphors identified in our sample contribute to educating and providing information on ebola (“that’s the new normal ever since ebola began ravaging communities throughout liberia, sierra leone and guinea”) but also to non-experts’ understanding of the disease and its related components and agents (“ebola also can trigger a massive ‘cytokine storm’ cytokines are chemical messengers between cells, highly active during an immune attack causing veins to leak and burst”; “these vital structures are at risk of collateral damage when the immune system wages war on foreign invaders”). furthermore, they produce negative perceptions on the readers, related to threats, risks, or fears (“the virus has devastated chimpanzee and gorilla populations as well”; “and some affluent countries will surely buy supplies as a shield against bioterrorism”) and most of the time they also represent victims’ disempowerment (“the people of guinea have been locked in a life-and-death struggle with ebola virus since last december”). in general, but for a few exceptions like “some affluent countries will surely buy supplies as a shield against bioterrorism” which may function as rhetorical devices for decoration or hyperbole, the metaphors used aim at reformulating and simplifying scientific language to bring the discourse closer and make it more easily understandable to non-experts, but they also serve to reinforce the persuasive nature of the texts. metaphors successfully convey and communicate scientific-technical, medical, and disease-related knowledge, but simultaneously portray ebola as a negative and fearful virus with the intention of producing specific reactions and effects on the readers, especially making them aware of its threatening and killing nature. the overall effect pursued by the metaphor, which may be perceived in most of the examples below, is (1) to ensure vividness and offer powerful descriptions that may “move” readers at an enormous geographical and sociocultural distance (journalists and doctors have frequently been witnesses to the disease, whereas readers are very unlikely to ever see an ebola case), and (2) to emphasize the threat ebola poses, in spite of such distance, even if “as a side effect”, as we shall see, it sometimes disempowers the patients. 4.1. ebola is war ebola and related agents are generally associated with military images which orbit around the metaphor ebola is war (“we saw as the war went on – i mean, the epidemic went on – […]”), like ebola is a battle (“when fallah talks about ebola he often refers to the epidemic isabel balteiro ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230218 as a pitched battle”), ebola is an attack (“an immune attack -causing veins to leak and burst”; “the outbreak that has killed 7,000”; “the three countries worst hit by ebola”), ebola is a killer (“ebola, which has killed more than 5,000 people […]”), or even ebola is a force of physical destruction (“the epidemic that already killed almost 10,000 people in west africa also upended daily life and scuttled plans to vaccinate thousands of kids against preventable diseases”), that causes disorder (“fears of ebola and the disruption of health services have stalled vital childhood immunizations in west africa”) and destruction at all levels (“the virus has devastated chimpanzee and gorilla populations as well”; “health care is decimated”; “ever since ebola began ravaging communities throughout liberia, sierra leone and guinea”; “the disease is wreaking havoc in their communities”). the war metaphor is extremely effective, insofar as it emphasizes the threat, and also carries other interesting nuances, such as the idea that all efforts are justifiable and that neutrality is not a feasible option. apart from an aggressive killer, ebola is a villain or a torturer that “torments”, makes matters worse and hurts (“victims say they are tormented by brain deficits and more”; “ebola certainly laid bare preexisting health problems, but it also exacerbated them in profound ways”). the metaphor reaches a peak of vividness when it says that “the ebola outbreak festered for about 18 months”. 4.2. ebola is a (dangerous) natural phenomenon following with this negative or frightening depiction of the disease (“ebola presented a particularly rare threat because not only did it occur across a wide geographic region but it also engendered fear that often kept people from using available health care services”), other fear-instilling images not related to war are ebola is a (dangerous) natural phenomenon, a plague (“the massive viral surge still plaguing west africa”; a storm “ebola also can trigger a massive ‘cytokine storm’ cytokines are chemical messengers between cells, highly active during an immune attack causing veins to leak and burst”; or quicksand “this outbreak is like quicksand. it’s continually moving.”). the aggressive, dangerous and destructive power of ebola is also conveyed through the metaphor ebola is fire, the paradigmatic image of destruction and/or damnation ever since the bible (“her knees burning with pain”; “outbreaks flare up unexpectedly”; “it could spark more outbreaks”; “ebola crisis could fuel measles outbreak in west africa”) or also in metaphor in ebola’s popularized scientific discourse ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230 219 expressions like “hot zones” or “this month’s hot spot may have few patients next month when a trial begins”. 4.3. ebola is other living beings although the ebola virus is certainly a living being, some lexical metaphors attribute features typical of other living entities: humans, animals, and plants. hence, ebola is also portrayed as other living beings, either as a human, through personification, or with plant and animal attributes, which reinforces vividness in descriptions (literally) and presents ebola as not only a concrete entity, but one capable of acting of its own accord: ebola “responds” (“changes to the ebola response”), “perpetuates” itself (“yet if ebola does become truly endemic – perpetuating itself through the human population – […]”) and “in recent months ebola has only tightened its grip in his area”, but it “may rapidly move to another county” and even it has capacity to “engender” (“but ebola presented a particularly rare threat because […] it also engendered fear that often kept people from using available health care services”). alongside these relatively general portrayals, ebola is at times represented by an animal, a spider or a lion: ebola is a spider, a symbol of death, mystery and cunning in some western cultures (and a phobic image for many), which creates a complicated web to access to, “to help trace the complex web of ebola’s spread”, or a lion that has an indomitable power (“they want to chase the spots where the infection is just more rampant”). apart from those, the strength of the disease is seen when ebola is a plant that has roots (“five of the co-authors of that paper died from ebola in the course of researching the epidemic’s roots”) and stems (“most of those earlier outbreaks stemmed from people finding, butchering and eating apes found dead in the forest”), grows (“despite the fact that the outbreak is not growing at projected rates, …”), “crops up” (“ebola may still crop up sporadically in the years to come...”), or “flourishes” (“underestimating the power of ebola to spread across west africa is how the virus was able to flourish in the first place”). interestingly enough, the positive connotations of some of these metaphors in other contexts are reversed: in the discourse of ebola, verbs like “flourish” lose that optimistic or promising aura and take an unnerving tone, at least for the lay reader, unaware that expressions like “flourishing infection” are usual in expert-toexpert medical communication. isabel balteiro ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230220 4.4. ebola is a(n) (static) object but also a path or road apart from ebola’s description as a living being, it may also be quite the opposite, although a tangible threat as well: ebola is an object or a burden that can be inadvertently carried (“and there’s no chronic carrier of this virus who appears to harbor the virus even after it has been eliminated from a community”; “fruit bats are the most likely carriers of ebola”), a metaphor that reinforces the dangerous and mysterious character of the virus. in addition to this, the complexity of ebola allows other metaphor framings such as those involving movement, resulting from its physical tangibility: ebola is a path or a road and “relatively few scientists understand the ebola disease course thoroughly”. 4.5. ebola is hidden or inside one of the characteristics of things that instill fear is that sometimes they are hidden from view before they attack. thus, from instances like “if ebola hides out in people who seem healthy, only to reappear from compartments deep within the body to make them sick and potentially contagious, it could spark more outbreaks”, it follows that ebola is hidden or inside where body parts (and animals) are containers, that is, harbors, hosts or sanctuary sites for ebola (see section 4.7) (“it is unclear how or even if the disease jumped from bats to humans or if there was an intermediate host, such as apes”; “three kinds of bats from the region are believed to harbor the deadly filovirus”; “the eyeball is not the only hiding place for ebola”). the source of fear is not only real, but also an evasive one, and can attack when least expected. 4.6. patients are fighters and runners but also prisoners very closely related to the abovementioned ebola is a battle, metaphors may be found where patients/survivors are fighters (“why ebola survivors struggle with new symptoms”; “thousands of ebola survivors face persistent joint pain and other problems”) and patients are runners in a race (“the difference between responding to an epidemic versus an endemic disease is as great as the difference between preparing for a sprint versus a marathon”). against this “active” or empowering view of patients, other metaphors assign them passive, inactive or disempowering roles, where they can neither act nor attempt to exert control over the virus or disease (“the 2014-16 west metaphor in ebola’s popularized scientific discourse ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230 221 african ebola epidemic has left 17,000 survivors at risk of post-ebola syndrome”), or patients/victims are prisoners who fight unsuccessfully (“the people of guinea have been locked in a life-and-death struggle with ebola virus”). 4.7. the body is a building or container as seen above (section 4.1), the body and its parts are buildings (containers) that serve as hiding places (for the virus) but “these vital structures are at risk of collateral damage when the immune system wages war on foreign invaders”. accordingly, they are described as “sanctuary sites”, “hiding places/spots”, “place to hide out”, or “protected sites”, as in “fallah worries the uterus may be another sanctuary site for ebola, offering the virus a safe place to hide”, “ebola can take months to be cleared from certain protected sites in the body like the gonads”, or “if ebola hides out in people who seem healthy, only to reappear from compartments deep within the body to make them sick and potentially contagious”. 4.8. ebola symptoms and consequences are physical marks but also ghosts the framings in our sample condition the readers’ perception and awareness of their own bodies and the consequences of ebola and may even generate mistrust and suspicion about apparent healthy and asymptomatic people. despite the fact that ebola consequences are patent physical marks (“the ebola virus is leaving an indelible mark on survivors”; “at 8 a.m. each morning she meets with other health care workers before embarking on a full day of ebola tracking”), the reverse effect is also sought in ebola is a ghost (there is a specific section in one of the articles entitled “ebola’s ghost”) and a mystery in “the cause of the pain and why it is so common are mysteries”. 4.9. healing is cleaning or destroying ebola given ebola’s post-marks and consequences, recovery/healing is cleaning (“the virus could be replicating in the eye long after it has been cleared from the blood”, “ebola can take months to be cleared from certain protected sites in the body like the gonads”). overcoming ebola implies killing/destroying it/making it disappear (“ebola expert daniel bausch, who has worked to quash ebola during isabel balteiro ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230222 planning sessions”; “the virus […] is on the correct path to be stamped out”). in general, no empowering functions are assigned to patients who fight against the virus; rather the discourse becomes here quite agentless but for experts who appear as the heroes that fight to “stamp it out”, while patients have a passive role, as in “a man who had been discharged from an ebola treatment unit”. 4.10. recovery is a road overcoming ebola, however, is not easy, and implies going through a long road, although such a journey at least assigns an active role to the victims. accordingly, recovery is a road (“liberia was on track to be declared ebola-free”; “the first snapshot of health complications facing ebola survivors in sierra leone presents a dismal picture of their road to recovery”; “and in the past few months that nation has made strides against its ebola outbreak; it is currently on track to be declared ebola-free if no new cases develop through early april”; “requires an entirely different mindset and extensive resources to go the distance”; “wary top health officials must draw up blueprints for the current crisis while eyeing the unpredictable road ahead”). 4.11. health workers are groupings and leaders doctors, researchers, experts and health workers are depicted with active and positive involvement in dealing with ebola, which probably aims at enhancing readers’ faith in them and reflect the journalists’ admiration. once again, the war metaphors “come to the rescue”, and health workers and experts are groups of stars or warships, fighters (with arms), controllers and leaders (“a constellation of global health heavy hitters have come together to propel products that were far from ready to the red carpet”; “a fleet of community health volunteers and district health offices”; “some are now suffering from vision loss or blindness, and health workers are struggling to address this burgeoning need”; “nothing in the medical arsenal attacks the virus directly”; “wary top health officials must draw up blueprints for the current crisis while eyeing the unpredictable road ahead”; “their health will be monitored at semiannual checkups for five years”; “the organization is to marshal massive resources in an emergency”). metaphor in ebola’s popularized scientific discourse ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230 223 4.12. research is a (dark) road or a hunt that brings light and desirable objects research, knowledge, information and findings are the means and the aims of those health workers to put an end to the mystery and darkness of ebola. on the one hand, as was the case with recovery, research/progress is a road (“five of the co-authors of that paper died from ebola in the course of researching the epidemic’s roots”), which sometimes remains obscure, an image that highlights the metaphor ebola is a mystery (see above) (“testable research is murky at best”; “and it remains far from clear that bats are the hosts of the deadly zoonotic disease”, “and it still remains unclear where the virus came from when it made the leap into humans”, “there are other puzzling findings, too”, “the semen results […] are particularly intriguing”, “it’s a guessing game. even for top scientists”). in view of such darkness ahead, research is a hunt (“researchers are still hunting for answers”) for findings which are (desirable) objects to be collected (“emerging findings, amassed by tracking unprecedented numbers of people”), metaphors that strengthen efforts by health professionals. also against such darkness, research/ information is a source of light (“each new report of their symptoms provides a clearer window into the health care needs of this population”; “traces of the virus have been found in semen 284 days after infection, according to new research unveiled by the world health organization on august 7”) which highly contributes to the fight against the disease. 4.13. treatments are prisoners but also bullets or arms apart from the perception that ebola information is a (dark) picture (“the first snapshot of health complications facing ebola survivors in sierra leone presents a dismal picture of their road to recovery”), treatments are prisoners (“that work – designed to determine if tkm-ebola is safe and what a dose should entail – is actually on a partial clinical hold … still, the drug can be released under ‘emergency use’ rules”; “there were valid reasons why no experimental ebola vaccine had made it out of the regulatory pipeline”) that need to be released (“you compare the rate of new infections in areas that have already received the vaccine with those in places where rollout has not yet taken place”; “vaccination campaigns were rolled out every few years”) and, when released, they progress slowly (“the work to get the clinical trials up and running has been … agonizingly slow when measured against ebola’s rampage”). these metaphors suggest the isabel balteiro ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230224 difficulty of finding the right treatment and making it work. treatments are necessary to fight against the disease, which takes us back to the war scenario: treatment/vaccines are bullets, arms or shields (“but the lack of ebola-specific treatments has not deterred the search for magic bullets – or ammunition of any sort”; “but the vaccine cannot trigger the disease itself”; “it is expected the newlink vaccine will require only one shot”; “and some affluent countries will surely buy supplies as a shield against bioterrorism”). 4.14. absence or excess of treatment are natural phenomena, disasters or invaders shortages of treatment are described as natural phenomena: lack of treatment is a drought (“when it comes to treatments for ebola, there has been a nearly four-decade-long drought”; “but that drought could give way to a free-for-all if the world is not careful, some experts worry”) or emptiness (“the drug vacuum … has inspired a curious phenomenon”) and excess of treatments is a flood (“a tsunami of treatment proposals has flooded the in-boxes of staff at the who and research funding agencies”). a critical view on pharmaceutical businesses is then provided, whereby large numbers of treatments are invaders to fight against (“some of the suggestions are easy to strike from the list, says friede”). 4.15. drugs are leaders, fighters, runners and winners when treatment appears to succeed in the battle, if only partly, drugs become active tools, which reinforces their power but also leaves patients with a passive role (if a patient heals, it is because of the drug, not because of the patient, who is turned into a “battleground”). thus, drugs are leaders (“the other leading therapeutic is the small interfering rna drug tkm-ebola”), fighters (“the drug has some action against ebola virus in the test tube”; “the drugs are antivirals, though not specifically designed to target ebola”), runners (“if neither of the frontrunners succeeds, maybe using company x’s vaccine as the prime and company y’s as the boost might work”) and winners (“a drug that does nothing might look like a winner”), which are attractively presented to western readers as cocktails (“the monoclonal antibody cocktail zmapp gained nearly mythical status last summer”; “the three antibodies in the cocktail […] are generated in genetically modified tobacco plants”). metaphor in ebola’s popularized scientific discourse ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230 225 4.16. measures are steps in addition to treatment and vaccination, other preventive measures may be taken (measures are steps: “such quarantines, the liberian government says, are a precautionary step to keep the virus from potentially moving even farther afield”), which are usually imposed by governments or by medical or political authorities. the selection of metaphors in the sample presents a critical view of those measures and makes readers aware of their wrong nature and their negative consequences on the population or on society. 4.17. authorities are villains finally, an unnerving component of the war is that authorities are villains, guilty or responsible for the complex war-like ebola situation, as in “some of the steps taken by international groups and national governments, such as quarantines, may have exacerbated the outbreak” or “a forcefully imposed quarantine that traps the healthy with the sick”. 5. conclusions as shown in the previous analysis, metaphors used in the communication of medical information or knowledge to non-experts, allow addressees to understand and visualize ebola, a quite unknown disease for western populations, in terms of familiar and well-known concepts, actions and even concrete elements. however, this is by no means a neutral description, but quite the opposite: on the one hand, the ascription of negative features and the militarization of ebola affecting all its components and agents (ebola is war, patients are fighters, treatments are bullets, etc.), although yielding vivid descriptions of the disease, conditions readers’ perceptions of the virus and contributes to the stigmatization of the disease and to the general transmission of fear to society. in spite of this, the variety of metaphors, such as patients are runners, fighters, or prisoners, explains the complexity of ebola but also provides, alongside with fear and other negative feelings, some positive images connoting hope. however, these metaphors are context-sensitive, which means that an apparently negative metaphor may become positive or vice versa, and hence they function with empowering or disempowering effects depending on the linguistic context. the role of the metaphors studied tends to be that of isabel balteiro ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230226 enhancing and reinforcing negative and fearful views of the disease; nevertheless, military metaphors are at times used to depict patients or victims’ actions with an empowering function, reflecting their power or courage to fight against the virus (“the people of guinea have been locked in a life-and-death struggle with ebola virus since last december”; “why ebola survivors struggle with new symptoms”; “thousands of ebola survivors face persistent joint pain and other problems”). although ebola is described as a very aggressive force, sometimes health and political authorities and even patients or victims are also portrayed as responsible for, or guilty of the ebola spread. furthermore, the tension between dehumanization or impersonalization of human beings and, paradoxically, the personification of non-humans, is another distinctive peculiarity of the sample analyzed that perfectly and effectively represents the impact of the virus on the population. moreover, the metaphors used appear almost as clichés, completely deprived of emotiveness, following typical patterns of western thought, and may make the reader remain distant from the texts and the circumstances described, but at the same time strongly aware of the danger or threat that ebola involves, where medicines/drugs and health workers and authorities are depicted as essential in overcoming ebola. even though this study is by no means complete and does not attempt to exhaust the analysis of ebola metaphors in popularized scientific discourses, we may conclude that, first, the use of metaphors in the explanation or reformulation of scientific information and knowledge is an effective simplification mechanism that facilitates understanding, further learning and education among non-expert addressees, but also produces specific reactions by resorting to familiar domains rather than more abstract ones. in further research, it might be interesting to continue analyzing these metaphorical framings, in wider corpora, and most specifically, comparing the images of (dis)empowerment used with those cases where the victims of diseases are western citizens, who may also be exposed to the same media and resent certain connotations. article history: received 29 january 2017 received in revised form 5 april 2017 accepted 22 may 2017 metaphor in ebola’s popularized scientific discourse ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230 227 references isabel balteiro ibérica 34 (2017): 209-230228 black, m. 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drawing upon a corpus of three high-profile american trials, the quantitative and qualitative analysis identifies the traces and degree of the jury’s presence through lexico-grammatical resources, and reveals distinct interactional patterns, which are indicative of the interactive goals of the two speech genres. such relational practice does not merely “oil the wheels” of courtroom communication, but also constitutes a key way in the meaning-making process of these genres. the findings attest to the centrality of relational work in accomplishing transactional goals in institutional discourses. keywords: closing argument, engagement feature, interpersonal negotiation, opening statement. resumen e n tre l a s o l id a rid a d y l a a rg ume n ta c ió n: l a n e g oc ia c ió n in te rp e rs o na l e n do s g é ne r os l e g a l e s este artículo presenta un estudio comparativo de la negociación interpersonal en dos géneros legales de naturaleza monológica, la presentación del caso y los alegatos finales. para el estudio se utilizó un corpus de casos mediáticos americanos. tanto el análisis cuantitativo como el cualitativo permiten identificar rasgos de la presencia del juez a nivel lexicogramatical, así como patrones de metadiscurso interaccional recurrentes, indicativo del propósito comunicativo de los dos géneros orales. esta práctica discursiva no solo es facilitadora de la comunicación en la corte sino que constituye un pilar fundamental en el proceso between solidarity and argument: interpersonal negotiation in two legal genres krisda chaemsaithong hanyang university (south korea) krisda@hanyang.ac.kr 221 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 221 ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 krisda chaemsaithong de construcción del significado en estos géneros. los resultados apuntan al papel central que juega el propósito transaccional de los discursos institucionales. palabras clave: argumento concluyente, rasgo interpersonal, negociación interpersonal, presentación del caso. 1. introduction the interpersonal dimension of courtroom discourse has attracted considerable scholarly attention in recent years. advocating a view of courtroom communication as highly interactional, rather than simply informative, this social view of courtroom discourse locates interpersonal negotiation and participant relationships at the heart of a trial, arguing that every successful case presentation must display the lawyer’s awareness of her audience and their needs. writing about effective trial techniques, the late law professor mauet (2013) contended that jurors believed the lawyer who they felt a personal connection with, while hobbs (2008: 232) argues that “the speaker’s personality and identity are key factors in determining how a verbal presentation will be received”. the central point here is that lawyers must draw on conducive ways of expressing their arguments, representing themselves, and engaging the audience. two courtroom genres where interpersonal negotiation very likely functions as a “deal breaker” are opening and closing speeches. this is because, first, setting aside voir dire, they are the only opportunities for lawyers to speak directly to, and persuade, the “real”, outcome-determining addressee (i.e. the jury), as opposed to the “apparent” addressee in display talk (i.e. the witness/defendant/judge). second, a favorable verdict is dependent upon “how effectively the advocate’s personality is projected towards the jurors than upon any other single factor” (goldberg & mccormack, 2009: 409410). simply put, this audience-centered approach requires that lawyers explicitly acknowledge the silent jury’s by giving them a voice and a role, transform them from passive observers into active participants, and conduct interpersonal negotiation with them. indeed, previous studies have documented several ways in which relational work in the courtroom can be conducted: through display of “similarity cues” (fuller, 1993), dialect switching (hobbs, 2003), violation of grice’s cooperative principle (cotterill, 2010), footing management (matoesian, 2001), referring expressions (dettenwanger, 2011), and metadiscourse (cavalieri, 2011). although these devices allow speakers to position 222 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 222 themselves with respect to their interlocutors to influence beliefs, attitudes, expectations and modes of interrelating with the audiences, they do not constitute the speaker’s direct and explicit construction of the addressee in courtroom discourse. what they primarily do is manage information flow, construct and ascribe a desired identity, and communicate speakers’ affect and evaluation towards what it is they are saying. to use thompson and thetela’s (1995) terms, they are “interactive”, but not “interactional”. little systematic attention has been paid to overt interactional resources, which in turn partly limits the strength of the claim about the extent to which legal discourse is interpersonal. drawing upon a corpus of three high-profile cases, the current study proposes to quantitatively and qualitatively explicate the ways in which lawyers conduct overt interpersonal negotiation in the discourse of the opening and closing address. these much-lesser studied courtroom genres (as compared to, say, witness examination) constitute interesting sites to investigate traces and the degree of the real addressee’s presence with respect to 1) the interactional lexico-grammatical resources used for carrying out interpersonal negotiation and their distributional patterns, and 2) what such patterns reveal about the presenter’s interactive goals in these genres. this research, thus, contributes to unveiling the interactional patterns of the opening and closing address, and to attesting to the centrality of relational work in accomplishing transactional goals in institutional discourses. 2. opening statements and closing arguments a trial proper begins with the opening statement from the party with the burden of proof (i.e., the plaintiff ’s side in a civil trial or the prosecution in a criminal trial), followed by the defense’s presentation. assuming (in principle) that jurors know nothing about the case, this initial phase proffers the first opportunity for the trier of fact to hear a comprehensive statement of each party’s factual claims. in the opening statement, attorneys from both sides introduce themselves and parties involved in the lawsuit, outline the important facts of the case in the form of narratives, explain the applicable law, and request a verdict. what makes the opening statement particularly peculiar is its dual nature. the official website of the us federal courts states that “although opening statements should be as persuasive as possible, they should not include arguments” (administrative office of the us courts, between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 223 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 223 2014), and it is “originally intended to do no more than to inform the jury in a general way of the nature of the action and defense so that they may be better prepared to understand the evidence” (best v. district of columbia 291 u.s. 411, 54 s. ct. 487, 78 l. ed. 882 [1934]; my own emphasis). what this means in practice is that, to create a successful persuasive opening address, lawyers need to come close to being argumentative. in reality, however, what counts or does not count as argumentative is hard to precisely distinguish, and is usually left to the discretion of the trial judge. the closing argument, in contrast, is the concluding statement in which a lawyer reiterates important argumentative points for jurors to consider for the last time, after witness examination and before deliberation. this last phase generally, though not always, starts with the prosecution, and is followed by the defense team. in some jurisdictions, the prosecution is permitted a final rebuttal argument. the primary purposes are to summarize the testimony, “remind” jurors about key evidence, explain the significance of the evidence elicited during the trial, point out the inconsistencies in the case presentation, and instruct the jurors about how to apply the law and jury instructions to the case (administrative office of the u.s. courts, 2014). under the law, a closing argument may not introduce new information and may only use evidence introduced during the trial. this implies that the expression of personal opinions about the merits of the case or the credibility of witnesses are allowed so long as they are supported by evidenced introduced previously, while groundless opinion is not permitted. the discursive characteristics of these two genres differ from those of other courtroom genres in many ways. first, instead of being a dyadic interactional situation, they are monologues delivered to silent, overhearing audience with no interruption (except in cases where objections are raised). second, these speeches are not jointly constructed, but are produced under the lawyer’s complete control, thereby showing the producer’s pragmatic awareness of the audience and their needs. third, unlike other courtroom exchanges, which are display talk that occur for the sake of the overhearing jury, they are directed specifically to jurors. owing to these generic constraints and discursive characteristics, the two phases are linguistic sites where lawyers of both sides are highly motivated to construct and negotiate their relationships with jurors for a desired verdict. krisda chaemsaithong ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244224 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 224 3. interpersonal negotiation interpersonal negotiation is rooted in the view that language use, be it a single turn in a conversation or a written text, involves intersubjective positioning, as all texts are “dialogic” (bakhtin, 1986). that is, meaning is not simply the product of an addresser sending a message to an addressee, but rather is a joint creation, resulting from their collusion as interlocutors in a particular communicative event, even if only one person appears to do most of the talking (tannen, 1985: 100). this is because whatever a language user says or writes constitutes “a response to preceding utterances…each utterance refutes, affirms, supplements, and relies upon the others, presupposes them to be known, and somehow takes them into account” (bakhtin, 1986: 91), with the addresser oftentimes anticipating and acknowledging potential response from the addressee. based on this heteroglossic nature of discourse, hyland (2005) proposes a model of interaction in discourse, which nicely distinguishes between speaker-oriented and listener-oriented ones. the former, labeled “stance”, serves to convey the speaker’s attitudes and evaluation, consisting of such categories as hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mentions. the latter, “engagement”, accounts for the ways in which speakers attend to the listener overtly, thereby showing their recognition of the presence of the audience. engagement features encompass categories such as pronouns, personal asides, appeals to shared knowledge, directives and questions. following hyland (2005), this study conceptualizes relational negotiation in the courtroom as the ways in which a lawyer acknowledges jurors, overtly recruits them to the discourse and, in so doing, linguistically marks their presence. resources that signal their presence include: inclusive first-person pronouns, second-person pronouns, questions, directives, asides, and references to shared knowledge. these engagement features are well in line with bakhtin’s notion of dialogism because they have a dialogic purpose in that they refer to, anticipate, or otherwise respond to the actual or anticipated voices and positions of the jurors and lawyer of the other side. the fine distinction lies in the fact that this way of conceptualizing engagement is somewhat narrower, and limited to the lawyer’s choices to introduce jurors as real discourse participants, excluding her ways of signaling personal attitude or opinion towards propositions, hence “interactional” (thompson & thetela, 1995). previous discourse studies have documented some evidence as to how courtroom audiences may be oriented to. first-person plural pronouns, for between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 225 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 225 instance, have been found to help lawyers construct themselves and the jurors as sharing the same opinions and evaluations. a case in point is danet (1980: 530), who noted that the defense attorney in a jerusalem rape tried to use the first person pronoun “we” to suggest agreement between himself and the judges during the closing argument phase. also examining closing arguments, stygall (1994) finds that when lawyers use “we”, they are using it generically to position themselves and the jurors as part of a larger group, e.g. all human beings. similarly, “you” is found to be the most common pronoun in the closing arguments, and it serves to put the jurors into a single entity (180). pascual’s (2006) qualitative study specifically explores the use of questions in the closing statements of a high-profile american case, arguing that the use of questions creates “fictive interaction” in this monologic genre, which serves as an effective argumentative strategy. focusing on how lawyers use linguistic devices in the creation of opposing narratives, rosulek (2015) finds that, through first-person pronouns, lawyers create groups (which either did not necessarily exist previously or did not have easily defined boundaries), thereby easing differences. at the same time, they also represent jurors as already accepting claims with phrases such as “you know” and “you saw”, rather than telling the jurors to believe their propositions. these strategies have the effects of silencing the jurors’ doubts and emphasizing their narratives. from a diachronic perspective, chaemsaithong (2014) explores a range of metadiscursive devices in opening statements between 1759 and 1789, including both authorial stanceand engagement-devices. through metadiscursive resources, early lawyers could powerfully shape and control not only the ideational content of this type of discourse but also power relations between the lawyer and jurors. overall, while the studies discussed above do much to inform the present study, they focus on a few specific devices, analyze a single case without quantitative findings to substantiate the claims, or do not examine the typical audience orientation features of these two genres, thereby offering only a partial mapping of audience orientation in courtroom discourse. the present analysis seeks to build on the results of these studies, but will also go further to document what overt engagement features are possible and common in these two genres as well as the pragmatic motivations behind them. krisda chaemsaithong ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244226 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 226 4. data and methodology the corpus consists of transcripts from three american trials (hence, 6 opening statements and 6 closing arguments). these cases have been selected because of their very high visibility. a short description for each trial is provided below. case 1: united states v. timothy james mcveigh, 1997 (opening: 36,016 words; closing: 33,971 words) the incident, also known as oklahoma bombing, was deemed the most destructive act of terrorism on american soil before the 9/11 attacks. motivated by his hatred for how the government handled the waco siege in 1993, which ended in the burning and shooting deaths of some 70 religious sect members, mcveigh detonated an explosive-filled truck in front of a federal building in downtown oklahoma in retaliation for that incident, killing more than 160 people. mcveigh was executed by lethal injection. case 2: commonwealth of virginia v. lee boyd malvo, 2003 (opening: 18,843 words; closing: 13,288 words) related to case 2 above, this case involves a jamaican-born 17-year-old malvo, who was tried for his role in the same attacks. having befriended muhammad, malvo learned to shoot and kill. tests determined that the only fingerprints found on the rifle were malvo’s, while the defense’s argument is that malvo was brainwashed by muhammad into committing the crimes. malvo was sentenced to life in prison without parole. case 3: the state of california v. michael jackson, 2005 (opening 36,257 words; closing: 64,213 words) world-famous singer jackson was tried for sexually molesting 13-year-old arvin gavizo, who had suffered from cancer, and for exposing the teenager to strange sexual behavior. he was also accused of administering alcohol to the child, holding him and his family at neverland, and exposing a minor to explicit sexual material. jackson was found not guilty on all charges. the corpus was analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. first, the transcripts were manually scanned for possible explicit markers of audience engagement in the texts. the software antconc 3.4.3m was then used to help search the frequency of occurrence, and all frequency counts were then normalized to a common basis, per 1,000 words of text, to allow between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 227 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 227 for a direct comparison of the results. finally, their pragmatic functions were examined in detail. 5. findings in this section, i first explicate the ways in which lawyers’ argumentative work can be facilitated by the use of addressee features, including secondperson pronouns, inclusive first-person pronouns, questions, asides, shared knowledge, and directives. i then proceed to present the quantitative findings with respect to the frequencies of addressee features and their patterns. 5.1. second-person pronouns in both genres, more than half of second-person pronouns refer to the jury. they are used for conducting several kinds of speech acts with silent jurors, thereby treating them as real players in the monologic discourse. this includes referencing (1a), suggesting (1b), formulating terms (1c), and exemplifying (1d). (1) a. from the photographs presented to you… (jackson pro opening) b. let me suggest to you that michael jackson possessed this book in 1993, when he was sharing his bed…with one child. (jackson pro closing) c. it’s another tipton look-alike, if you will. (mcveigh pro closing) d. to give you just two examples of the materials… (mcveigh pro opening) the majority of these personal pronouns (approximately 70%), however, appear to be used for different purposes in the two genres: previewing in the opening statements and reviewing in the closing arguments. each is characterized by strong lexico-grammatical patterning, involving verbs such as “learn”, “see”, “hear”, and “recall” in the future tense (for previewing) or the past tense (for reviewing). in (2a,b), lawyers do not merely assist jurors in providing a roadmap or recapitulating certain pieces of evidence or testimony, but also facilitate their processing needs by providing informational links to a different part of the trial. krisda chaemsaithong ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244228 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 228 (2) a. her actions refute the idea of a conspiracy, as you heard me say ad nauseam in my examination of witnesses. (jackson def closing) b. you will hear her husband testify to that handiwork. (malvo pro opening) what is more striking but has not received attention in the literature is the case where personal “you” can be maneuvered for strategic membership management. found only in closing speeches, this strategy situates jurors in the opposing counsel team and, in effect, creates an argumentative exchange where lawyers successfully position themselves as logically superior and authoritative. in (3a, b), with “you” semantically referring to the opposing counsel, the lawyers problematize the other team’s arguments, thereby undermining their validity. (3) a. if you really think there was a conspiracy of this magnitude, if you really think the actions were this serious, if you really think a family was being abducted and hidden and spirited away to their doom, why do you only charge michael jackson? (jackson def closing) b. no 1. is that the killing of linda franklin, no matter how you carve it up, the killing of linda franklin was a willful, deliberate, premeditated killing. (malvo pro closing) more frequent in the closing phase is impersonal you (23% as opposed to 12% in the opening phase). objectively the jury is not in the reference set. however, the pronoun still functions interpersonally by inducing “hearer simulation” (malamud, 2012), which implies “putting oneself into the shoes of anyone meeting relevant condition” (2012: 257), so that jurors are “invited to empathize with the (set of) protagonist(s) about which some statement is made potentially but not necessarily, the speaker” (gast et al., 2015: 150). this is evident in (4a), where the jurors are positioned as mcveigh at the time he was mistreated by the government, and in (4b), where the jurors are invited to enjoy the experience neverland by themselves. (4) a. timothy mcveigh and many like him unsuccessfully tried political methods. they tried the courts. they tried civil disobedience…so, they between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 229 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 229 looked to other, more direct methods. what happens with non-violent direct-action methods? the police put pepper-mace in your eyes, they handcuff you, and they throw you in jail. this has happened to environmentalists. (mcveigh def closing) b. if you go into neverland, you are struck by the childlike, disneylike, fantasylike atmosphere. you’ll see statutes of children…you’ll see a train. you’ll see a lake…(jackson def opening) at the most extreme end, lawyers can broaden the simulation to encompass the public at large, thereby elevating the argumentative status of a proposition to a common sense or universal statement (gast et al., 2015: 152). by positing a scenario that is true (only) in the hypothetical world (5a), and by generalizing that anyone can easily obtain a copy of the book (5b), the lawyers can objectify their theory of the case. (5) a. and to even consider it, you have to believe janet arvizo beyond a reasonable doubt that she escaped from neverland, went back, escaped from neverland, went back, escaped from neverland, went back. it’s absurd on its face. (jackson pro closing) b. the turner diaries, we will show, has sold about 200,000 copies in this country. in fact, you can buy it down at the tottered cover book store right here in denver; and it is no more a blueprint, much less a reason, to blow up a federal building than…lady chatterley’s lover can teach you how to make love. (mcveigh def opening) 5.2. inclusive first-person plural pronouns previous studies on first-person pronouns highlight such issues as group membership, participant alignment, and positive/negative face needs. in particular, duszak (2002: 6) observes that “we” can be managed “to construct, redistribute, or change the social values of ingroupness and outgroupness”, thereby opening up several referential and pragmatic options. using this pronoun, the speaker can align herself into one group or community that may or may not exist in the real world (zupnik, 1994), thereby constructing a shared identity. this in turn overrides the jurors’ motivation to consider alternative explanations, for the lawyer appears to speak on their behalf. in both genres, first-person plural pronouns exhibit a similar range of krisda chaemsaithong ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244230 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 230 functions. they can be used to construct a cohesive in-groupness, with the members sharing the same knowledge or experience as the lawyer either from inside the courtroom (6a) or outside (6b). (6) a. we are not suggesting to you that lee is crazy in the sense that most of us think about crazy people. as soon as the word “insane” comes up, we all think about “one flew over the cuckoo’s nest”, and we see them as “zombiefied”. (malvo def opening) b. all of us have seen campers. this is a topper, runs flush to the cab. (mcveigh pro closing) on some occasions, the boundaries of the constructed group are extended to encompass social members outside of the courtroom. in doing this, lawyers often draw upon the group’s communally held social values. for instance, in (7a), the reformulation of the kansas legislature as “our” legislature, which enjoys such widespread support from american people that acquitted the convicted lt. calley1, serves to create an appeal for similar treatment of mcveigh. similarly, in (7b), the lawyer alludes to the nation’s founding principles to set up a moral basis for the trial. (7) a. after lt. calley was convicted, was he executed? did he serve a hard time? did he even serve a life sentence? no. the kansas legislature, our legislature, echoed the sentiments of the majority of americans and offered a solution calling for lt. calley’s freedom. (mcveigh def closing) b. well, ladies and gentlemen, the statements of our forefathers can never be televised to justified warfare against innocent children. our forefathers didn’t fight british women and children. they fought other soldiers… (mcveigh pros opening) alternatively, instead of highlighting similarities, the pronoun “we” may be called upon to aid in the contrastive categorization of other groups, the socalled “we-versus-they” cognitive dichotomy (duszak, 2002). found in both genres, this may influence the audience to disalign with and mistreat those defined as “they”, while forcing “us” into tighter and closer union, and “when a more overt choice is made to name a ‘we’ (self) and a ‘they’ (other), other dangerous divides occur along many different lines” (pennycook, 1994: 176-177). in (8a), defending mcveigh’s motive, the lawyer fabricates a between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 231 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 231 dichotomy between the american government and american citizens, and in (8b) the lawyer creates an emotional appeal for malvo by distinguishing his pitiable living condition from the jurors. (8) a. bit-by-bit american government had taken our freedoms. we would have reacted strongly had the government tried to take our freedoms all at once. but since it was done little-by-little, each citizen went along to go along. (mcveigh def closing) b. his [malvo] mother was a seamstress. she learned to sew to make clothes… that’s lee in a suit that she made for him. that might not be the color that we would pick out, but he was very proud of it, and that’s what she did for a living. (malvo def opening) at the most extreme end, like impersonal “you”, first-person plural pronouns may be used generically to refer to no group in particular. this impersonal “we” is more frequent in the opening phase (8% as opposed to 4% in the closing speech). in (9a), the defense uses an analogy of a confluence to portray how malvo and muhammad got acquainted, with the two streams distinctly indexed by impersonal “we” and “you”. in (9b), the pronouns draw upon lay-people’s experience of familiar handwriting to identify mcveigh’s involvement. (9) a. like virtually everyone of us in our life, she’s [arvizo’s mother] made mistakes. (jackson pro opening) b. all of us in our life’s experiences know that over time, you can become acquainted with somebody else’s handwriting. i mean all of us can think of people that we know and that we have seen enough handwriting to recognize similarities. (mcveigh pro closing) 5.3. questions the use of questions is perhaps the most direct way in which the addressee can be constructed (bamford, 2000). even in situations where response is not possible, contact is established with the audience, as the user appears to show interest in them. at the same time, because the device implies the right to demand information from the interlocutor, the user assumes a position of authority. krisda chaemsaithong ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244232 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 232 common in both genres are focus questions that draw the jury’s attention to specific aspects of the case, with introductory clauses such as “the question is” and “the question you’re going to ask is”, as in (10a, b). such questions typically concern the key elements that determine the innocence or guilt of the defendants, which are necessary information in both phases. (10) a. the primary issue before you…is going to be…with regard to the killing of linda franklin: who was the trigger man? who fired the fatal shot? (malvo pro closing) b. because michael jackson, as you know, has been the subject of so much speculation, so much false reporting, so much embellished documentary…the question you’re going to be asking is, “who is he.” (jackson def opening) the opening statement is notable for expository questions (53% as opposed to 23% in the closing argument), intended to introduce a topic and provide textual scaffolding for the discourse that follows. this type of questions fulfills the jurors’ expectation of a cohesive opening statement. in (11a, b), the lawyers first pick an issue, turn it into a question, and immediately supply the answer for the jurors. (11) a. the central focus of those acts was to isolate and to control the arvizo family and to keep them away from the media, and to convince them to participate in a network planned rebuttal video to be produced by the defendant and his co-conspirators. who are these co-conspirators and what are their relationships to the defendant in this case? well, first of all, let’s start with…(jackson pro opening) b. they have a saying in jamaica…it’s called “save the eye”. have you ever heard that phrase? do you know what it means? save the eye means… (malvo def opening) the closing statements, in contrast, are replete with rhetorical questions (45%, as opposed to 17% in the opening statements). an argumentative device conveying an implicature, these questions make an indirect statement, which is usually contradictory to its propositional content, hence “polarity shift” (ilie, 1994). they are commonly employed to express the lawyer’s doubt of the witnesses’ or the opposing side’s testimony and show between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 233 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 233 disalignment with what they said/did. in (12a, b), the illocutionary meaning is that the prosecution’s witness and evidence are not to be trusted, and that mcveigh should be supported just as before as he has not changed, respectively. (12) a. you’re going to trust him [prosecution’s witness] over macaulay culkin? they want you to. if you listen to them, macaulay, wade, brett all came here to lie under oath and say they weren’t molested. do you buy any of that? (jackson def closing) b. timothy mcveigh was one of those troops you supported in the gulf war. he fought for your liberty. he was a law-abiding citizen, friend, son, and brother. if he was what he was before april 19, 1995, hasn’t he also been the same man since then? (mcveigh def closing) 5.4. asides using asides, lawyers interrupt the ongoing flow of discourse and bring the jurors into the text to offer a metapragmatic comment on what has been said. by attending to jurors in the middle of an argument, lawyers initiate a brief interpersonal dialogue with them. these asides, therefore, add more to the addresser-addressee relationship than to the propositional development of the discourse. common in both genres are asides that clarify information (13a), manage terms (13b), and make a repair (13c), while asides that display an evaluative stance on the opposing side and their argument, such as “his mean questioning” and “they’re not sure which way they’re going” in (13d), are almost exclusively found in the closing arguments. in these cases, lawyers show they do not take a statement for granted, but rather they appeal to the jurors’ willingness to follow their reasoning. (13) a. our evidence is that the spotter’s job is to look around and make sure that nothing can interfere with the job at hand look out for cops, look out for other witnesses, look out for people who can spot them, that’s the spotter’s job. (malvo pro closing) b. spotlight is the company and i’m not sure of its full legal name, but that’s for ease of convenience, what we’ll call it, they market this debt calling card service. (mcveigh def opening) krisda chaemsaithong ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244234 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 234 c. mr. jones stood before you in closing in opening, i should say and said… (mcveigh pro closing) d. in a library of thousands and thousands of books, they found a couple of books that focused on men. and they wanted you to think that someone mr. jackson was some i don’t know whether they’re trying to say he’s a gay man, or, as mr. zonen in his mean questioning, try to suggest he’s asexual, they’re not sure which way they’re going but… (jackson def closing) 5.5. references to shared knowledge appeals to shared knowledge are explicit signals that serve to mark a statement as unproblematic, familiar or accepted. these appeals therefore manifest the lawyer’s sensitivity to the needs of the audience and constant monitoring of the state of mutual understanding. projected shared knowledge can be achieved by presenting a claim as an incontestable fact requiring no further proof: it is what jurors already know about or are expected to know. in (14a), by attempting to suggest that the models of x-rated magazines in jackson’s bedroom are underage, the prosecutor marks the age-related statements as evident to the jurors, while in (14b) muhammad’s significant role in indoctrinating malvo is construed as indisputable through a metaphor. this technique is particularly critical to creating favorable first impressions in the initial phase of a trial, as it can determine whether a crime narrative is credible and logically coherent and whether the jury will continue listening. (14) a. when you see them [x-rated magazines jackson was testified to show to arvizo] and you will see them it is clear that if these young ladies are 18 years old, which they’re supposed to be, they sure don’t look 18 years old. (jackson pro opening) b. mr. muhammad created what lee became just as surely as a potter molds clay. (malvo def opening) alternatively, lawyers may assume a role of dialogic partner in approving a particular argument from the jurors. discourse markers such as “yes”, “you know”, and “of course” are found to realize this purpose. in (15a), “yes” sets up an affirmative response to a previous dialogic turn, thereby appearing to reaffirm jackson’s positive aspects. about sixty per cent of these discourse markers in the closing speeches serve further as a mitigating strategy for a between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 235 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 235 following disaffiliative move. in (15b), for example, by conceding an argument that the jurors may raise, the lawyer introduces what he considers a more interesting piece of evidence. (15) a. he [jackson] talks about children who need attention and affection, and something must be wrong with all the violence in the world. yes, that’s michael jackson’s idealism, some might say, to some extent, naivete. (jackson def opening closing) b. what tim mcveigh was saying and talking about to other people are, of course, his thoughts and beliefs, but he certainly got reinforcement about those views from one book. (mcveigh pro closing) 5.6. directives broadly speaking, directives encompass a broad category of illocutionary acts that impose an obligation on the addressee to carry out an action, thereby presupposing the presence of the addressee. directives may be realized by: 1) the presence of an imperative, 2) a modal of obligation addressed to jurors, 3) explicit verbs of request (such as “ask”, “let”, “request”) or 4) a predicative adjective (or its nominal form) expressing the lawyer’s judgment of necessity or importance (such as “necessary”, “important”, “essential”). in both genres, they function to direct jurors to some desired real-world action. this ranges from inviting them to an activity (16a), recommending steps they should (not) take (16b), and to spelling out the verdict they should render (16c). (16) a. now listen to this. this is all from frank…(jackson pro closing) b. the [the defense] want you to have tim mcveigh’s face vanish from your calculations… you shouldn’t take that invitation. (mcveigh pro closing) c. i will ask you to convict him of capital murder. i ask you to do that for one little reason. (malvo pro opening) the majority of directives (62% in the opening and 73% in the closing phase), however, require the jurors to engage in cognitive activity. interestingly, in the opening phase, such cognitive activity virtually entirely involves “emphatic” purposes (hyland, 2002: 218), such as focusing krisda chaemsaithong ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244236 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 236 attention or holding a memory, as in (17a, b). the closing phase, in contrast, exclusively contains directives with rhetorical purposes. unlike blunt directives which seek to settle matters above, rhetorical directives seek to accomplish closure by setting up a new line of argument (17c), or by leading the jurors through an exposition (17d). (17) a. remember, when he went in on saturday and paid the money, he didn’t take the truck with him… (mcveigh pro opening) b. i ask you to consider that as you look at the evidence. (jackson pro opening) c. but stracke says so. let’s assume he did. what does that tell us? (malvo def closing) d. this is not the first time civil lawyers have tried to manipulate the criminal process to get their work done for them. think about it. you don’t have to hire experts. you don’t have to hire investigation…because if somebody is convicted… the civil burden of proof, preponderance…is already established. (jackson def closing) now that the pragmatic functions of the addressee features in both genres have been discussed, an overall quantitative comparison is in order. in lines with the qualitative results, the addressee features display quite substantial differences in frequency. as table 1 below shows, the overall frequencies suggest that audience interaction in both genres can be characterized by the predominance of second-person pronouns (>50% of all the features), and this feature shows a slight increase of 3.62% at the closing phase. this in turn reflects the lawyers’ high pragmatic awareness of overtly addressing the jurors. the other features pattern differently in the two genres, however. in the opening statements, shared knowledge and inclusive first-person pronouns, occurring at about the same rate (19.50% and 18.37%, respectively), outnumber asides (7.42%) and directives (3%). questions are rarely used (0.60%). this is in stark contrast to the closing arguments, where questions (15.67%) and inclusive first-person pronouns (12.63%) appear on top of the list. note, in this concluding phase, a significant increase in the use of questions (of 15%) is witnessed, whereas shared knowledge appeals and inclusive first-person pronouns decline significantly (to 14.24% and 6.87%, respectively). in addition, a slight increase (of about 1.30%) is seen in asides and directives in this phase. between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 237 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 237 the frequency counts at the level of each trial, shown in table 2, yield a more illuminating picture. despite individual variation, relatively similar frequencies and patterns of distribution can be observed. in all of the trials, second-person pronouns consistently predominate in both genres, and increase in the final phase. similarly, questions are rare in the opening phase, but peak in the closing phase, while asides and directives show a slight upward trend at the end of the trials. the opposite trend can be observed in the cases of shared knowledge and inclusive first-person pronouns. the former drop sharply in the closing speeches, while the latter, excluding jackson’s case, decline slightly. what the quantitative results show, it can be argued, is a marked decrease in the use of shared knowledge appeals and inclusive first-person pronouns on the one hand, and an increase in the rest of the features on the other, notably the use of questions. because shared knowledge appeals and inclusive firstperson pronouns primarily allow lawyers to represent the audience as concurring and being in agreement, such a distributional contrast likely suggests that lawyers are less concerned with establishing and solidifying common ground and affiliation at the final stage. rather, they are more concerned with setting up jurors in a dialogically contrary position in order to raise opposition and show disalignment. krisda chaemsaithong ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244238 between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): …-… category total tokens per 1,000 words % of total tokens opening closing opening closing opening closing 2nd pp 1,242 2,121 13.63 19.03 51.11 54.73 question 15 608 0.16 5.45 0.60 15.67 aside 180 335 1.98 3.01 7.42 8.66 directive 72 162 0.80 1.45 3.00 4.17 shared k 447 160 4.90 1.44 18.37 4.14 incl 1st pp 474 489 5.20 4.39 19.50 12.63 total 2,430 3,875 26.67 34.77 100.00 100.00 table 1. overall frequency of engagement markers across trials (total 161,696 words). the frequency counts at the level of each trial, shown in table 2, yield a more illuminating picture. despite individual variation, relatively similar frequencies and patterns of distribution can be observed. in all of the trials, second-person pronouns consistently predominate in both genres, and increase in the final phase. similarly, questions are rare in the opening phase, but peak in the closing phase, while asides and directives show a slight upward trend at the end of the trials. the opposite trend can be observed in the cases of shared knowledge and inclusive first-person pronouns. the former drop sharply in the closing speeches, while the latter, excluding jackson’s case, decline slightly. table 2. frequency of engagement markers in each trial (per 1,000 words). what the quantitative results show, it can be argued, is a marked decrease in the use of shared knowledge appeals and inclusive first-person pronouns on the one hand, and an increase in the rest of the features on the other, notably the use of questions. because shared knowledge appeals and inclusive first-person pronouns primarily allow lawyers to represent the audience as concurring and being in agreement, such a distributional contrast likely suggests that lawyers are less concerned with establishing and solidifying common ground and affiliation at the final stage. rather, they are more concerned with setting up jurors in a dialogically contrary position in order to raise opposition and show disalignment. 6. conclusion between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): …-… table 1. overall frequency of engagement markers across trials (total 161,696 words). the frequency counts at the level of each trial, shown in table 2, yield a more illuminating picture. despite individual variation, relatively similar frequencies and patterns of distribution can be observed. in all of the trials, second-person pronouns consistently predominate in both genres, and increase in the final phase. similarly, questions are rare in the opening phase, but peak in the closing phase, while asides and directives show a slight upward trend at the end of the trials. the opposite trend can be observed in the cases of shared knowledge and inclusive first-person pronouns. the former drop sharply in the closing speeches, while the latter, excluding jackson’s case, decline slightly. category total tokens per 1,000 words % of total tokens opening closing opening closing opening closing 2nd pp 10.72 20.99 18.55 21.30 14.01 17.52 question 0.06 3.27 1.80 7.90 0.30 6.10 aside 1.19 3.09 2.12 3.31 2.12 2.90 directive 0.47 1.77 1.91 2.26 0.39 1.12 shared k. 6.11 1.35 5.62 1.51 3.39 1.46 incl 1st pp 5.91 4.97 8.11 5.72 3.06 3.80 total 24.46 35.44 38.11 42.00 23.27 32.90 table 2. frequency of engagement markers in each trial (per 1,000 words). what the quantitative results show, it can be argued, is a marked decrease in the use of shared knowledge appeals and inclusive first-person pronouns on the one hand, and an increase in the rest of the features on the other, notably the use of questions. because shared knowledge appeals and inclusive first-person pronouns primarily allow lawyers to represent the audience as concurring and being in agreement, such a distributional contrast likely suggests that lawyers are less concerned with establishing and solidifying common ground and affiliation at the final stage. rather, they are more concerned with setting up jurors in a dialogically contrary position in order to raise opposition and show disalignment. 6. conclusion 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 238 6. conclusion as we have seen, both the opening and closing address stand out in terms of constant negotiation of interpersonal relationship, evidenced through six key features. viewed from the perspective that language is a system of choices (halliday, 2013), these linguistic resources are among many other choices the lawyers could have chosen (including, of course, no overt audience interaction at all), and thus the distinct interactive patterns above suggest that the presenters are motivated by different goals. in the opening statement, the interactive goal appears to be establishing and maintaining solidarity with the audience, while in the closing statement, the presenter’s goal appears to be challenging and invalidating the opponent’s theory of the case. this seems to be in line with the legal constraints of each genre, described in section 2. as the trial moves from the initial to the concluding phase, the interactive goals change from constructing and fostering solidarity and in-group membership to challenging and being argumentative. it can, therefore, be concluded that lawyers are faced with two distinct, but interrelated, kinds of communicative work. first and foremost is the need to effect an in-group membership of the current discursive interaction, and of performing solidarity and cooperative interactions. at the very least, jurors need to be encouraged to at least continue listening attentively, if not accept the lawyer’s arguments, and this is perhaps of immediate importance in the initial phase of the trial, where jurors are still mostly ignorant about the parties, the facts of the case, what really happened or why it happened, so that they can develop first impressions about these elements. here lawyers must meet the jury’s expectations of inclusion, thereby appealing to their positive face needs in securing cooperation (brown & levinson, 1987). all of the lexico-grammatical devices examined enable the lawyer to handle such expectations not only by turning silent jurors into co-constructors of the discourse but also by addressing jurors’ desire for consensual identity, namely, to be endorsed by others. despite their low semantic content, hearer-inclusive pronouns are indeed an effective means to construct addresser-addressee dialogue in the monologic discourse, for example, when jurors are construed as characters in narratives, as participants in a preview/review session and speech acts, and as the recipients of directives. in addition, focus and expository questions, asides, and appeals to shared knowledge constitute attempts to stimulate common interest, anticipate and readily respond to possible reaction, and ensure a common understanding. between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 239 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 239 also important is the argumentative task, which appears to be the focus of the concluding speech. because the jury has been presented with relevant information and facts, and because lawyers are well aware that the success of the presentation rests largely on audience approval and a positive judgment of their contribution, engagement devices can be called upon to execute argumentative demand. in doing so, skillful lawyers selectively pick and emphasize particular parts of their evidence that affirm their argumentative strength, and connect them to facilitate processing. rhetorical questions, in particular, assist the presenter in invalidating alternative points of view without having to spell them out. asides serve to clarify and highlight certain elements as the discourse unfolds while managing membership and inviting the jurors to a simulation through personal, and impersonal pronouns contribute to how the speaking lawyer’s party should prevail. at the same time, these engagement markers may also be used to challenge and undermine the opponent’s theory of the case or credibility. it needs to be pointed out, though, that engagement devices can satisfy both communicative needs at once; that is, lawyers are trying to reach out to the jurors and simultaneously making their discourse argumentative. however, each phase of the trial may present lawyers with different dominant communicative demand, which in turn affects the patterns of addressee features. all in all, the relational practice found in these monologic genres does not serve to merely “oil the wheels” of courtroom communication, but rather constitutes a key way to the meaning-making process in this institutionalized discourse. this is perhaps what kennedy (2007: 594) has in mind when he writes “lawyers must transform himself into a salesperson marketing ideas that makes the jury buy one version of the facts over the other in order to influence the jury’s decision”. indeed, as this study shows, to achieve such an end necessarily involves a good command of interactional features. lawyers have to know when to distance themselves from and challenge jurors, when to position themselves as authoritative, and when to encourage solidarity, shared experience, and commonality. the findings, therefore, offer invaluable support to previous studies on institutional discourses: engagement devices are multifunctional, and relational management is the sine-qua-non of communication, even in contexts where interlocutors seem to be more concerned about getting things done, hence transactional goals (koester, 2006: 106). krisda chaemsaithong ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244240 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 240 in a more critical vein, it is worth considering that in reality many of the interactional devices do not necessarily include the jurors. this point is illustrated in (18) an extended excerpt from jackson’s closing speech by the prosecutor. the overt pronominal expressions show disparate personal references as well as pragmatic functions. with the exception of “you”3, the rest of the second-person pronouns do not referentially index the jurors, but are intended for simulation, directing the jurors to assume the role of “we”1 who actually did the investigation. similarly, “we”1-3 give off an inclusive impression to the jurors, as if they had participated in the search. (18) now, in his bedroom, when we1 went in there and we2 started opening drawers conducting our3 search, is a drawer that contains, as—just as you1 open the drawer, that is the magazine that you2 see that’s in there. in that drawer, the testimony to you3 was also found photographs of the arvizo children. that picture of the arvizo children, with davellin in her uniform as an lapd cadet and the other two boys, was found in that drawer at that time. this was found in a box at the foot of the bed. just like that. i mean, it may have been closed, but all you4 have to do is open it up. in real time, it is not likely that the jurors could take their time to consider whether they were actually included in this group. it is precisely through these linguistic devices that the lawyers make the discourse essentially argumentative and lead the audience to make certain inferences. it is hoped that this research demystifies how lawyers communicate with jurors in the initial and last phases of the trial. the findings may have practical implications for training jurors and the public at large to be aware of, and less easily swayed by, persuasive interactive techniques. an interesting topic to pursue further is to examine those cases where lawyers fail to bring in the audience and investigate what may have caused such a failure. it will also be illuminating to compare these genres across cultures as well in order to present a more complete picture of the kinds of engagement that are acceptable as well as expected cross-culturally, as the linguistic resources lawyers select are likely to be relative to a particular audience and the sociocultural contexts in which they are used. article history: received 23 february 2016 received in revised form 4 may 2016 accepted 4 may 2016 between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 241 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 241 references krisda chaemsaithong ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244242 administrative office of the u.s. courts (2015). “differences between opening statement and closing arguments”. url: http://www.uscourts.gov/about-federalcourts/educational-resources/about-educationaloutreach/activity-resources/differences [23/12/2015] bakhtin, m. (1986). speech genres and other late essays. austin: university of texas press. bamford, j. (2000). “question and answer sequencing in academic lectures” in m. coulthard, j. cotterill & f. rock (eds.), dialogue analysis vii: working with dialogue, 159-169. tübingen: max niemeyer. brown, p. & s. levinson (1987). politeness: some universals in language use. cambridge: cambridge university press. cavalieri, s. (2011). “the role of metadiscourse in counsels’ questions” in a. wagner & l. cheng (eds.), exploring courtroom discourse: the language of power and control, 79-110. surrey: ashgate. chaemsaithong, k. (2014). “interactive patterns of the opening statement in criminal trials: a historical perspective”. discourse studies 16: 347-364. cotterill, j. (2010). “interpersonal issues in court: rebellion, resistance and other ways of behaving badly” in m. locher & s. graham (eds.), interpersonal pragmatics, 353-380. berlin: mouton de gruyter. danet, b. 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(1994). trial language: differential discourse processing and discursive formation. philadelphia: john benjamins. tannen, d. (1985). “relative focus on involvement 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 242 in oral and written discourse” in d. olson, n. torrance & a. hildyard (eds.), literacy, language and learning, 239-260. cambridge: cambridge university press. thompson, g & p. thetela (1995). “the sound of one hand clapping: the management of interaction in written discourse”. text 15: 103-207. zupnik, y.j. (1994). “a pragmatic analysis of the use of person deixis in political discourse”. journal of pragmatics 21: 339-384. between solidarity and argument ibérica 32 (2016): 221-244 243 krisda chaemsaithong is associate professor of english at hanyang university, south korea. using discourse-analytic and pragmatic approaches, he analyzes courtroom discourse, both historical and contemporary, and focuses on such issues as interaction, identity, and politeness. notes 1 lt. calley was found guilty of murdering 22 vietnamese civilians during the vietnam war, with a life sentence. however, the majority of americans disagreed with this verdict and were outraged by it, which ultimately led to a presidential pardon after he served 3 years of his sentence. 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 243 10 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:09 página 244 01 editorial.qxd editorial it is a great pleasure to open this editorial by informing ibérica’s readership that the journal has renewed the seal of excellence (2016). this seal, which is awarded by the spanish foundation for science and technology (fecyt), is a recognition to those journals that fully comply with the highquality standards set by fecyt. i would like to thank ibérica’s national and international readership, as well as aelfe’s president and aelfe’s executive board for their institutional support to the journal. my special thanks, also, to the former journal editor, the current editorial team, editorial board and international editorial board, for their generous time and dedication to the journal. though in many different ways, and playing different roles, they have all supported the journal’s compliance with high quality standards and contributed to this achievement. the research included in this new issue, namely, an invited contribution, nine original articles and five book reviews, clearly illustrates the potential of the field of languages for specialised purposes (lsp) to inspire innovative studies. the articles appearing in this issue address multiple methodological and thematic issues and contribute in novel ways to our understanding of languages for specialized purposes. their authors’ national backgrounds (chile, iran, korea, malaysia, russia, spain and the uk) also lend ample credence that there is worldwide interest in aspects of languages for specialized purposes. the invited authors of this new issue have contributed with an article entitled “writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge in the context of contemporary higher education”. in this article, karin tusting and david barton (university of lancaster, uk) discuss discipline-specific aspects of academics’ writing practices. they take an ethnographic approach to bring to the fore insightful reflections on literacies and workplace learning and their implications for eap education in higher education contexts. the first original article, by daniel linder and goedele de sterck, entitled “non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms: what happens in the early stages of reception and reibérica 32 (2016): 9-14 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 00 iberica 32_01 editorial.qxd 9/11/16 20:02 página 9 production?”, is an exploratory, survey-based study of the way non-native english speaking scientists use english neologisms in their field of specialization. the article discusses how the scientists tend to use the new concepts coined in the field and coin acceptable, natural-sounding spanish equivalents for research dissemination purposes. the article by iryna mykytka, “metaphors in photography language”, specifically focuses on the use of verbal metaphor in the language of photography. the aim of the study is to investigate how metaphors are used to construct photographic concepts in a corpus of photography blogs. the corpus analysis draws on metaphor identification procedure (mip) (pragglejaz group, 2007). the findings reveal a variety of conceptual metaphors projected from different source domains into the target domain through conceptual mapping. pictorial metaphors are also discussed in light of the above-mentioned analytical framework. in the third article, kumaran rajandran examines a prototypical professional genre for corporation disclosure, the csr (corporate social responsibility) report, and its communicative goals in the malaysian context. in this original article, entitled “incorporating other texts: intertextuality in malaysian csr reports”, the author describes the use of explicit references to documents (policies, regulations, reports, research, standards) and individuals/groups (ceos, stakeholders, expert organizations) and explores the rationale and communicative intentions of the intertextual sources cited. the following original article is entitled “a move-step analysis of the concluding chapters in computer science phd theses”. in this article, carmen soler-monreal uses the move-step genre framework and corpus methods to analyse the closing chapters of phd theses written by computer science doctoral students. the corpus findings indicate that the chapters are divided into prototypical sections and subsections and follow a cyclical pattern for content organization. the study findings show a recurring presence of some steps, suggesting that the authors do not seem to find it necessary to highlight the value of their research. comparative insights into other phd theses chapters are also provided. maría jesús sánchez and alfredo fernández-sánchez’s original article, entitled “adaptación del léxico del inglés a las necesidades de los estudiantes”, is a contribution to the study of academic vocabulary and its role in language acquisition and language learning processes. the article editorial ibérica 32 (2016): 9-1410 00 iberica 32_01 editorial.qxd 9/11/16 20:02 página 10 explores aspects of vocabulary knowledge that textbooks give attention to. it is argued that teachers’ knowledge of the scope of specific (academic) vocabulary provided in textbooks can enhance appropriate classroom exposure to such vocabulary and subsequent practice, and is thus crucial for successful vocabulary acquisition and learning. the next original article, by javad zare, vahid mahmoudigahrouei, saeed ketabi and zahra keivanlooshahrestanaki, “english for research publication purposes: the case of scholarly peer review comments”, turns the readers’ attention to the challenges of using english as an additional language for research publication purposes. this article critically describes the language needs of iranian non-native speakers of english (nnse) researchers when publishing in english in scholarly journals. using a questionnaire, a semistructured interview, and a corpus of the referees’ comments, this article illustrates language-related challenges when using english as an additional language for research publication goals. in his original article, “engineering students’ instrumental motivation and positive attitude towards learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting”, joseba m. gonzález ardeo reports on an exploratory small-scale study focusing on the attitude towards learning english and levels of motivation of engineering students at an esp course. the results of the study reflect positive attitudes, as well as a high level of instrumental orientation and relatively high levels of intrinsic motivation. the original article entitled “deontic modality as an expression of social regulation in citizen political discourse on journalism blogs comments”, by cristian gonzález arias and juan satt román, presents an interesting analysis of journalism blogs and the different modes of social regulation found in the citizens’ political discourses in the comments sections of opinion columns. the article nicely illustrates how journalistic texts are the medium through which commentators subtly enter the public space and urge other social actors to perform the requested actions. krisda chaemsaithong’s original article, entitled “between solidarity and argument: interpersonal negotiation in two legal genres”, provides a comparative analysis of interpersonal negotiation in two monologic courtroom genres. drawing on discourse-analytic and pragmatic perspectives, this author advocates a view of courtroom communication as highly interactional and social. the article finally editorial ibérica 32 (2016): 9-14 11 00 iberica 32_01 editorial.qxd 9/11/16 20:02 página 11 comments on several practical implications for training jurors in persuasive interactive techniques. this issue also includes a total of five book reviews, with insightful research perspectives on multiple facets of languages for specialized purposes. one can conclude that, put together, these reviews lend ample evidence that the field of lsp is a very prolific area for investigative efforts. all the reviewed volumes form coherent collections and constitute important contributions to the field of lsp research. it is hoped that they will be of interest to ibérica’s readership. the following editorial board members have collaborated with ibérica over the past semester: marta aguilar (universitat politècnica de catalunya), elena bárcena (universidad nacional de educación a distancia), mª enriqueta cortés de los ríos (universidad de almería), mercedes eurrutia (universidad de murcia), honesto herrera (universidad complutense de madrid), ken hyland (the university of hong kong, china), laura muresan (bucharest university of economic studies, romania), mª ángeles orts (universidad de murcia), philip shaw (stockholm university), chelo vargas (universidad de alicante), marisol velasco (universidad de valladolid) and bernd voss (technische universität dresden, germany). i would also like to acknowledge the collaboration of the following external reviewers from spain and elsewhere, who have participated in the same timespan: guadalupe aguado de cea (universidad politécnica de madrid) laura alba juez (universidad nacional de educación a distancia) patrizia anesa (university of bergamo, italy) ángel arrese (universidad de navarra) ana bocanegra (universidad de cádiz) geneviève bordet (université paris diderot, france) ruth breeze (universidad de navarra) sally burgess (universidad de la laguna) maría luisa carrió (universitat politécnica de valencia) shirley carter-thomas (institut mines-télécom, france) cristina anca colibaba (gr. t. popa university, iasi, romania) georgina cuadrado (universidad politécnica de madrid) costanza cucchi (università cattolica del sacro cuore di milano, italy) winnie cheng (the hong kong polytechnic university, hong kong) editorial ibérica 32 (2016): 9-1412 00 iberica 32_01 editorial.qxd 9/11/16 20:02 página 12 nuria edo (universitat jaume i, castelló) antoinette mary fage-butler (aarhus university, denmark) lynne flowerdew (hong kong university of science and technology, hong kong) anca gâță (“dunărea de jos” university, galați, romania) julio giménez (university of westminster, united kingdom) cristian gonzález arias (pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso, chile) silvia gutiérrez vidrio (universidad de guadalajara, méxico) christoph hafner (city university of hong kong) glenn ole hellekjær (university of oslo, norway) javier herráez (universidad politécnica de madrid) juraj horváth (university of prešov, slovakia) jarosław krajka (university of social sciences and humanities, poland) violeta jurkovič (university of ljubljana, slovenia) giovanna mapelli (università degli studi di milano, italy) eva mestre (universitat politècnica de valència) fanny meunier (université catholique de louvain, belgium) spela mezek (stockholm university, sweden) giovanni parodi (universidad de valparaiso, chile) mª dolores perea (universidad de cádiz) mercedes querol (universidad internacional de la rioja) miguel ruiz (universitat jaume i, castelló) mª noelia ruiz-madrid (universitat jaume i, castelló) nadežda silaški (university of belgrade, belgrade) raquel taranilla (hamad bin khalifa university, qatar foundation, qatar) carmen valero (universidad de alcalá de henares) michel van der yeught (l’université d’aix-marseille, france) esther vázquez (universidad autónoma de madrid) as all the contributions compiled in this issue illustrate, there is a rich repertoire of theories, frameworks, perspectives and analytical methods to further understand the multi-faceted aspects that characterize specialized (professional and academic) languages today. carmen pérez-llantada universidad de zaragoza (spain) editor-in-chief of ibérica editorial ibérica 32 (2016): 9-14 13 00 iberica 32_01 editorial.qxd 9/11/16 20:02 página 13 00 iberica 32_01 editorial.qxd 9/11/16 20:02 página 14 iberica 13 ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in this paper, we examine the lexical profile of literary academic articles with a view to determining how they differ from research articles in other disciplines and how the vocabulary level and complexity affect reading comprehension, particularly for non-native speakers of english. for this purpose, a corpus of 110 literary articles from reputable journals was compiled and compared against two corpora featuring the same number of articles: one consisting of research articles from science, technology and medicine (stm), and the other comprising research articles from social sciences and other humanities. the results reveal that the lexical profile of literary academic papers is, as expected, more similar to social sciences and other humanities than to the stm field when it comes to the coverage of general-purpose vocabulary, vocabulary level and vocabulary diversity. despite the lexical similarities to social sciences and other humanities, the vocabulary of literary academic papers is somewhat more complex and diverse than that found in them. the largest differences were noted with respect to the level of academic vocabulary, whose use is much sparser in literary studies than in all other fields. the pedagogical implications include advocating for refraining from reading literary academic articles earlier than postgraduate studies for non-native-speakers of english (with some exceptions), as their vocabulary level will generally be insufficient for those purposes. we also point to the limited value of teaching academic vocabulary to students of literary studies. keywords: lexical profiling, literary studies, research articles, vocabulary level, word lists. abstrakt lexikalisches profil literaturwissenschaftlicher artikel lexical profile of literary academic articles vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović university of montenegro vesnabr@ucg.ac.me & vmilica@ucg.ac.me 115 ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović in diesem referat untersuchen wir das lexikalische profil literaturwissenschaftlicher artikel, um festzustellen, inwiefern es von forschungsartikeln anderer disziplinen abweicht und wie sich sein wortschatz und seine komplexität auf das leseverständnis auswirkt, insbesondere auf das von nicht-englisch-muttersprachlern. zu diesem zweck wurde ein korpus von 110 literarischen artikeln aus renommierten fachzeitschriften zusammengestellt und mit zwei korpora mit der gleichen anzahl von artikeln verglichen: einer mit forschungsartikeln aus den stm-wissenschaften und der andere mit forschungsartikeln aus den sozialund geisteswissenschaften. die ergebnisse zeigen, dass das lexikalische profil von literaturwissenschaftlichen arbeiten in bezug auf erfassung des allgemeinen zwecks von wortschatz, wortschatzniveau und wortschatzvielfalt erwartungsgemäß eher den sozialund geisteswissenschaften als den stm-wissenschaften ähnelt. trotz der ähnlichkeiten mit den sozialund geisteswissenschaften ist das vokabular literarisch-akademischer arbeiten etwas komplexer und vielfältiger als das, worauf in den anderen genannten wissenschaften gestoßen wurde. die größten unterschiede wurden beim akademischen wortschatz festgestellt, dessen verwendung in der literaturwissenschaft viel sparsamer ist als in allen anderen bereichen. zu den pädagogischen auswirkungen gehört, dass es für nichtmuttersprachler des englischen empfohlen wird, keine literarisch-akademischen artikel vor dem aufbaustudium zu lesen (mit einigen ausnahmen), weil ihr wortschatz für diese zwecke im allgemeinen unzureichend wäre. wir weisen auch auf den begrenzten wert des lehrens vom akademischen wortschatz für die studenten der literaturwissenschaften. schlüsselwörter: lexikalische profilerstellung, literaturwissenschaft, forschungsartikel, wortschatz, wortlisten. 1. introduction this study aims at exploring the lexical profile of literary academic papers published in english in literary studies journals. literary study (or literary criticism) refers to the study, interpretation and evaluation of literature. the discipline is diverse and it includes various schools of thought. modern literary studies are typically based on literary theory and engage in a philosophical discussion on the methods, goals, genre, style, history, censorship, of literature, on multidisciplinarity, etc., as well as on the theory itself, in a clear, cogent and concise way (tanko, 2017: 43). academic literary critics generally teach at university literature departments and publish scholarly articles in academic journals. research articles in literary studies are sometimes labelled as ‘essays’ in some of these journals, which points to 116 their “liminal status among the other narratives of science” (stotesbury, 2003: 340). despite their displaying certain peculiarities in comparison to scholarly articles from other disciplines, in the linguistic literature exploring their features they are thought of as belonging to the genre of research articles and are referred to as such, i.e. as “literary research articles” (jacoby, 1987; balocco, 2000; afros & schryer, 2009; shaw, 2009; lewin & perpignan, 2012; malaskova, 2012, etc.). specifically, shaw (2009) notes that “research articles in literary studies” typically lack epistemically oriented introductions that follow what swales (1990) calls a ‘creating a research space’ (cars) model, but that they nevertheless feature argumentative material that makes claims “just as natural-scientific writing does”, following a pattern: preview claim – quotation – interpretative recount – claim marker – claim. shaw (2019: 219) concludes that these articles “belong to the broad genre of scientific research articles” and can thus be “compare[d] across disciplines”. we will set out from such a premise in this paper. in the current linguistic research on the rhetorical structure and language of research articles from various disciplines, the field of literary studies has been relatively neglected (balocco, 2000; wilder, 2005; 2012; tanko 2017). it has also been underexplored within eap/esp studies (cf. lake & cortes, 2020), i.e. in the research, with the aim of producing pedagogical implications as to the teaching and learning of english for certain purposes and fields. bearing this in mind, one of the goals of the present paper is to contribute to the research on linguistic variation in research articles from various fields. our main aim, however, is to ascertain to what extent literary scholarly articles can be used as reading materials by l2 university students in terms of their vocabulary suitability for these students. to accomplish these goals, we will determine the vocabulary profile of these papers, answering three research questions. first, we will explore how many words are needed to successfully read literary scholarly articles. next, we will investigate how diverse their vocabulary is. finally, we will determine how much academic vocabulary they contain. the results obtained will show how similar or different the lexical profile of literary research articles is in comparison with the lexical profile of research papers published in science, technology and medicine (stm), on the one hand, and social sciences and other humanities, on the other hand. we will also determine the vocabulary requirements imposed on non-native english speakers who wish to read these articles. lexical profile of literary academic articles ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 117 2. theoretical background in the theoretical section of the paper, we briefly present research on the vocabulary load (or level) of various genres and its relation to reading comprehension, modes of measuring lexical diversity, as well as previous studies on academic vocabulary in research papers. 2.1. vocabulary level the development of large corpora and software for corpus analysis has allowed for modern lexical profiling studies, which have provided new insights into the lexical frequency of english words in various types of texts. according to their frequency in various genres, as well as in spoken and written discourse, words can be classified into so-called “word lists”. different lists can be compiled to different purposes: on the one hand, they can be used for teaching and learning a foreign language, which includes research on vocabulary load, course design and testing the knowledge of vocabulary and, on the other hand, they can be utilized for research purposes in the field of psychology (nation, 2016: 3). nation (2013) identifies high-, midand low-frequency vocabulary. highfrequency vocabulary includes function and general-purpose words used very frequently in virtually all types of texts; these are generally the words that both native and non-native speakers of english learn first, as they are most exposed to them. the most famous word lists containing such vocabulary typically include about 2,000 words. the first of them in wide use was west’s general service list (1953), which is now outdated and has been replaced by newer lists, obtained from large corpora, using modern tools and stricter criteria. two new gsls (ngsls) were compiled by brezina and gablasova (2013) and browne, culligan and philips (2013), and both report somewhat better results than the original gsl. some of the word list makers have advocated for these lists to include 3,000 words (schmitt and schmitt, 2014). mid-frequency vocabulary typically refers to the next 6,000 to 7,000 most frequent words (depending on how the high-frequency range is defined, as either the first 3,000 or the first 2,000 most frequent words). these words are rarer than those classified as high-frequency, but they still make a significant portion of virtually all types of texts. nation (2013) designates the rest of the words, i.e. those that are not within vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138118 the most frequent 9,000 words, as low-frequency words. they might still be reasonably frequent in some types of texts but they are generally not frequent in everyday texts. based on the bnc and the coca corpora, together containing 450 million words, nation (2012) produced 25 word lists, each including 1,000 words, sorted according to their frequency in these two corpora. the first two lists generally correspond to the ngsls mentioned above and can be used as their alternative. the next seven lists correspond to mid-frequency vocabulary, whereas those beyond the ninth list are low-frequency words in general language. as can be seen, vocabulary level is commonly measured in thousands of words, whereby word itself is differently defined. most lexical frequency studies equate it with a word family, which means that the base word, together with the forms inflected from it and the words derived from it, fall under the same word family (e.g. measure, measures, measurement, measurer…) (nation, 2013), whereas some studies apply the lemma principle, which is more restrictive and counts only the inflected forms as belonging to the same word (e.g. measure, measures, measuring…) (francis & kučera, 1982). nation’s word lists employ the word-family principle. how many words does one need for reading comprehension? this question is somewhat hard to answer but most studies settle for one of the following two thresholds: the first one refers to 95%-coverage of a text, which is enough for “reasonable” or “adequate” comprehension (laufer, 1989), and the second refers to 98%-coverage of a text (nation, 2006), which is needed for an “optimal” or “ideal” reading of a text. it is assumed that the rest of the words (2%-5%) can be inferred from the context or using a dictionary etc., without any external support. bearing this in mind, a researcher can determine how many thousands of words a reader needs to know in order to reach either adequate or optimal reading comprehension levels of a certain text. for instance, nation (2006) maintains that either 4,000 or 9,000 word families are needed for reading novels, depending on the threshold we settle for; for newspapers, one needs either 4,000 or 8,000 word families; for children’s movies, the figures range from 4,000 to 6,000 word families; and the range for general spoken english varies between 3,000 and 7,000 word families. mcquillan (2016) finds different results for different popular fiction books (some cover 98% with the first 4,000 word families, while some need as many as 8,000 word families lexical profile of literary academic articles ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 119 for this level of coverage). hsu (2011), for her part, determines that 5,000 word families are needed for reading business research articles, if the coverage threshold is set at 95%. later, hsu (2013: 465) established that the first 14,000 word families of english covered only 83.1% in her medical textbook corpus (only the lists covering the first 14,000 word families were available at the time of the study), leaving many medical terms outside this scope. similarly, vuković-stamatović (2020) found that the 25,000 most frequent word families of english did not allow meeting the 95%-coverage threshold in a physics research article corpus, implying that a great deal of physics vocabulary comes from low-frequency words which are situated outside these frequency bands. these results point to vast differences in the vocabulary of research articles of various disciplines, which is worth investigating further. 2.2. lexical diversity another aspect of lexical profile is that of vocabulary diversity or variation, i.e. how many different words are used in a text. vocabulary diversity does not necessarily correspond to vocabulary level. in theory, some texts could contain many rare words, i.e. have a high vocabulary level, but still be repetitive and not display much lexical diversity and, vice-versa, a text may display substantial lexical variation but not use many rare words. vocabulary diversity can be measured using the so-called type-to-token ratio (ttr), which is the ratio of unique word forms (types) to the number of all running words in a text (tokens). when comparing texts of different lengths, the ratio must be normalized in some way, as the results would not be truly comparable (as corpora get larger, the number of tokens can become huge, but the number of types cannot follow the same pace, i.e. it does not rise proportionally to the number of tokens). in this case, for normalization purposes, it is possible to use the standardized ttr (first introduced by johnson (1944); implemented in wordsmith tools 4.0 by scott (2004)). when applying the sttr method, the corpus is first cut into parts of the same length, i.e. the same token count, and then the ttr is consecutively measured for the so-obtained chunks and standardized, i.e. averaged, at the end of the procedure. however, the cutting is mechanical and the so-obtained chunks may vary greatly vocabulary-wise and not be very representative of the entire corpus. this is why covington and mcfall (2010) suggested a modification of the method: changing the first stage of the procedure, i.e. the method of cutting the text. they propose averaging “moving” chunks: e.g. if we decide vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138120 that the size of the chunk is 1,000 words, then the first chunk would comprise the text from the 1st to the 1,000th word, the second one would contain the text found between the 2nd and the 1,001st word, the third one would feature the text between the 3rd and the 1,002nd word, and so on, until the whole of the corpus is exhausted. in this way, substantially more chunks are obtained than by just cutting the text into consecutive stretches of equal length. for instance, in a corpus of 100,000 words, by applying the sttr cutting method, we will obtain 100 chunks of 1,000 words. however, by applying the cutting method as proposed by covington and mcfall (2010), we would obtain 99,001 chunks of the same length, and averaging this many chunks allows for more precision. covington and mcfall (2010) believe that the measures obtained in this way are more representative of the entire corpus. 2.3. academic vocabulary academic vocabulary refers to words commonly found in academic texts. it is also sometimes called sub-technical vocabulary (cowan, 1974; anderson, 1980; yang, 1986; baker, 1988). some authors have identified such vocabulary outside the most frequent words of english and have put it in specialized word lists. the first influential one was the university word list (uwl), compiled by xue and nation (1984) as a combination of its four predecessor lists (campion & elley, 1971; praninskas, 1972; lynn, 1973; ghadessy, 1979). it was followed by the well-known academic word list (awl), built by coxhead in 2000, who first excluded the highly frequent general words from her corpus (as represented by the gsl, in this concrete case). the coverage of the awl in various academic corpora is typically around 10% (coxhead, 2000; chen & ge, 2007; valipouri & nassaji, 2013, etc.). although the list has been somewhat criticized, e.g. for not being extensive enough (hancioglu and eldridge, 2007) and for not providing enough specificity as per disciplines (hyland & tse, 2007), it has been fairly influential in the world of lexical profiling, as well as in eap teaching and learning, and many lists produced since have followed it as a role model. such are the new academic word lists: one produced by browne, culligan and phillips (nawl, 2013), and the other called the academic vocabulary list (avl), produced by gardener and davies (2013), both from much larger corpora than the original awl. since the awl has been used in many previous studies, using this list allows for comparisons with the results obtained earlier, which is an advantage for our research purposes. lexical profile of literary academic articles ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 121 some authors have produced discipline-specific academic word lists, whereas others have embarked on generating more general ones, covering several fields: among these lists is the pilot science list (coxhead & hirsh, 2007), covering almost 4% in the science corpus consisting of 14 disciplines. the list was built by first excluding the gsl and the awl words. another list is the academic article word list for social sciences (aawl-ss), produced by kwary and artha (2017). like the awl, it was built after the exclusion of the gsl words from a 1-million-word corpus. although it contains just 350 types, the authors argue that it has a better coverage in their corpus than the awl, which has considerably more items (12.65% vs. 11.76%). however, we determined that some of the types from the aawl-ss could be added to the gsl, as missing family members (e.g. additionally, competitive, determinant, developmental, organizational, reference, settings and tourism), if we apply the commonly used rules and definitions devised by bauer and nation (1993), with the level 6 definition of word family (this includes derivation using all most frequent, productive and regular prefixes and suffixes). these types and members derived from them belong to high-frequency vocabulary, which may be a significant factor when comparing the efficiency of word lists. in the case of the awl and the gsl there is no overlapping (the awl applies bauer and nation’s definitions) and, therefore, on methodological grounds, we find that a direct comparison between the aawl-ss and the awl cannot be made before addressing the issue mentioned above. 3. methodology, corpus and research questions in this paper we intend to study the lexical profile of literary academic articles. for that purpose, we use a corpus containing 110 literary academic articles, taken from reputable 10 literary studies journals, all indexed in clarivate analytics (11 articles per journal) and published in the years 2018 and 2019. the articles were converted to plain text files and the reference sections were removed so as to reduce the load of proper nouns, which is a common practice in lexical profiling studies. the corpus obtained in this way contains 822,859 tokens. for comparison purposes, we use two additional corpora in this study. the first is the oa stm corpus (open access corpus of scientific, technical, and medical content), freely-distributable from elsevier labs1 (2015), which contains 11 articles from each of the following ten domains: agriculture, vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138122 astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, earth science, engineering, materials science, mathematics and medicine (a total of 754,593 tokens). we compiled another corpus in a similar way, using 110 recently-published articles from 10 high-impact journals indexed in clarivate analytics. the journals are from the following disciplines: anthropology, archaeology, economics, history, law, linguistics, political science, psychology, philosophy and sociology (literary studies were deliberately excluded). we call this the social sciences and humanities research articles corpus (ssh-rac), containing 952,181 running words. all three corpora used in this study contain 110 articles which have been published recently in reputable journals. reference sections, tables, figures, running titles etc., have all been removed from all the three corpora. we use the lexical frequency profiling methodology, where we first analyse our corpora against the set of 25 word lists generated by nation (2012) from the combined corpus of the bnc and the coca. the aim is to see how much corpus coverage is reached with each of the individual lists and whether reading comprehension may be achieved using general highand midfrequency vocabulary solely. specifically, we want to determine how many word lists, or thousands of word families, are needed to reach the coverages of 95% and 98%, respectively, needed for adequate and optimal reading comprehension. we then calculate the standardized ttr (sttr) and the moving average ttr (mattr), as measures of lexical diversity of this genre, and see how they correspond to the vocabulary level data. finally, we determine the presence of academic vocabulary. we use coxhead’s awl (2000) and the aawl-ss (kwary & artha, 2017). these are available as lists of headwords (e.g. abandon, abstract…) and needed to be expanded into an all-member format (e.g. abandon, abandoning, abandons, abandonment; abstract, abstracted, abstractedly, abstracting, abstraction, abstractions…), for the calculation of their coverages in the corpora. this was done by means of cobb’s familizer (2018). the research questions posed in this study are the following: 1. how many words are needed to read literary academic articles? 2. how lexically diverse is the language of literary academic articles? lexical profile of literary academic articles ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 123 3. how much academic vocabulary is contained in literary academic articles? 4. how similar or different is the lexical profile of literary academic articles to research articles from the stm field, on the one hand, and social sciences and other humanities, on the other hand? the software used for lexical profiling is the antwordprofiler 1.4.0 (anthony, 2014). for calculating the sttr and mattr, we first use antfilesplitter (anthony, 2017) and then mawatatarad (milička, 2013). 4. results and analysis our analysis starts with table 1, in which we present the results regarding the coverage of general-purpose vocabulary, as represented by the gsl, and the academic vocabulary, as represented by the awl, in our three corpora. table 1. coverage of gsl and awl in the three corpora (%). as shown in table 1, the best coverage of the gsl was found in literary studies articles, followed by papers in social sciences and humanities, whereas in the stm field the coverage is substantially lower. thus, literary studies articles feature a lexical profile which is similar to social sciences and other humanities, in the category of general-purpose vocabulary, with a slightly greater coverage of the gsl when compared to them. the findings regarding the gsl’s coverage are similar to those found in other studies. for instance, the ones coxhead (2000) determined in her 3.5million-word academic corpus, which consisted of four subsections: arts, commerce, law and science. the overall coverage of the gsl in her corpus was 76.1% and, for the subsections, the respective results were as follows: arts – 77.4%, commerce – 76.8%, law – 79.1%, and science – 72.7%. her coverages were somewhat higher than the ones we obtained, which is explained by the differences in our corpora, namely, coxhead used first-year university texts, as opposed to our research articles corpora, which have a vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138124 word lists literary studies stm sciences social sciences & human. gsl 74.37 66.73 73.46 awl 6.92 10.24 10.91 t more complex vocabulary as they are intended to be read by graduates and professionals, rather than undergraduates. still, we note the same tendencies in both studies: the coverage of general-purpose vocabulary seems to be higher in social sciences and humanities, as opposed to the stm fields. this is likely due to the fact that the stm fields tend to have a more specialized terminology, which accounts for a substantial share in their vocabulary coverage. for instance, nation (2013: 31) finds that disciplines such as botany or medicine have large technical vocabularies, well exceeding 6,000 words, but that disciplines such as applied linguistics likely have a much smaller technical vocabulary, comprising between 1,000 and 2,000 words. as for the awl’s coverage, it is significantly lower in literary studies (6.92%) than in the stm field, on the one hand, and social sciences and other humanities, on the other (10.24% and 10.91%, respectively), which is an important finding. this can be attributed to the specificity of the structure of literary papers whose meta-language is much less formulaic. the articles of social sciences, other humanities, and the stm field have a more rigid structure and repetitive academic vocabulary than is the case with literary studies articles, which are sometimes, on account of this, called simply ‘essays’. the fact that research articles in literary studies display some genre peculiarities certainly plays a role in the choice of vocabulary. as a nonnegligible influence in this type of scholarly articles one must also take into account the specific kind of corpora which impacts the researcher on both conscious and, possibly, subconscious levels. the language of belles lettres, which is the core research interest and which the scholars are exposed to (both in corpora and other research articles), undeniably influences the metalanguage of these articles. the level of academic vocabulary found in social sciences and other humanities, and the stm field, is in line with the results of other studies (coxhead, 2000; chen & ge, 2007; valipouri & nassaji, 2013, etc.) and so is the finding that social sciences and other humanities use somewhat more academic vocabulary than do the stm disciplines (kwary & artha, 2017). the genre of literary studies articles and its vocabulary is indeed different in this respect and this could have significant pedagogical implications. for illustration purpose of what kind of vocabulary is represented by the gsl and the awl in our corpus, we present the extract below (taken from sibanda (2018)). the words belonging to the gsl are underlined, whereas those belonging to the awl are in bold. lexical profile of literary academic articles ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 125 it is my argument, however, that such an assertion is far too simplistic to explain the extensive use of negative stereotyping of the black self without providing a more nuanced engagement with the realities of postcolonial subjectivities. bulawayo’s novel harkens back to the style of resistance writing that was predominant in south africa during the era of apartheid, especially among black authors whose writing was so overtly political as to undermine its aesthetic appeal. whilst it is not the suggestion of this article that bulawayo’s novel is lacking in aesthetic appeal, i argue that it is the form of writing that propelled njabulo ndebele to write rediscovery of the ordinary (1986) and for albie sachs to present a paper at an anc conference entitled preparing ourselves for freedom: culture and the anc constitutional guidelines (1991). in both instances, they were engaging with the ways in which writing needs to move away from overt politicization and opt for a subtler aesthetic that is reflective of realities of people’s lives without relinquishing the role of the writer in society. but bulawayo reflects the worst excesses of poverty and “defines [it] as merely the observable suffering resulting from a simple lack of material resources” (roenigk, 2014: 1). the result of this approach is precisely what is termed poverty porn because she fails to reflect in her novel the act that “[p]overty is a result of both individual and systemic problems, involving not only personal circumstances but the social and justice systems in place that either works to empower the poor or perpetuate their conditions” (roenigk, 2014: 1). (an extract from sibanda (2018), published in the journal of literary studies) as we can see, a great number of words are covered by the said two lists. some of the remaining words have no learning load, such as some proper names (e.g. africa, roenigk, ndbele, bulawayo, etc.) and abbreviations (e.g. anc). however, even the combined two lists are insufficient for the lower threshold of reading comprehension, bearing in mind that some words which are important for understanding the text are outside them (e.g. postcolonial, subjectivity, novel, aesthetic, appeal, subtle, reality). our analysis proceeds with table 2, in which we present the coverage of the academic vocabulary typical of social sciences, as represented by the aawlss word list (kwary & artha, 2017). table 2. coverage of aawl-ss in the three corpora (%). vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138126 f word lists literary studies stm sciences social sciences & human. aawl-ss 5.49 8.49 9.22 as can be seen from table 2, the coverage of aawl-ss in the three corpora coincides with the awl’s results, which additionally corroborates the findings presented above regarding a strikingly lower presence of academic vocabulary in literary research articles as opposed to research articles of social sciences and other humanities, as well as the stm disciplines. we will not compare the results of stm disciplines and social sciences and humanities, as the word list used was extracted from social sciences and cannot be fairly applied to the stm field. table 3 presents the coverages of the word lists derived from the bnc/coca corpus, together with the words which have no or have minimum learning load: these are proper nouns, which are typically easy to identify; abbreviations, which are generally explained the first time they are used in a text; and marginal words, which contain the letters of the alphabet, as well as swear words and exclamations (the latter two are not covered in our three corpora). table 3. vocabulary coverage in three corpora (%). results coinciding with those presented earlier were obtained when the three corpora were compared against the bnc/coca word lists: the lower reading threshold of 95%-coverage for literary articles is achieved at 8,000 + proper nouns, abbreviations and marginal words, whereas articles in the area of social sciences and humanities could be read at 7,000 + proper nouns, abbreviations and marginal words. however, not even the entire set of 25,000 + proper nouns, abbreviations and marginal words will suffice to read lexical profile of literary academic articles ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 127 bnc/coca word lists literary studies stm sciences social sciences & human. 2,000 + proper n., abbrev. and marginal words 80.96 73.7 80.01 3,000 + proper n., abbrev. and marginal words 89.22 83.52 90.24 4,000 + proper n., abbrev. and marginal words 91.73 86.8 92.61 5,000 + proper n., abbrev. and marginal words 92.98 88.68 93.74 6,000 + proper n., abbrev. and marginal words 93.92 89.77 94.48 7,000 + proper n., abbrev. and marginal words 94.63 90.36 95.05 8,000 + proper n., abbrev. and marginal words 95.16 90.92 95.75 9,000 + proper n., abbrev. and marginal words 95.49 91.29 96.03 25,000 + proper n., abbrev. and marginal words 96.81 93.37 96.51 the stm articles even barely comfortably, as they together cover just 93.37%. our results differ from those achieved by hsu (2011), who found that 5,000 words were needed to reach the coverage of 95% in economic research articles, but do coincide with hsu (2013) and vuković-stamatović (2020). considering that a native speaker who has graduated from high school knows about 20,000 word families and that even illiterate native speakers are expected to know the first 9,000 word families of english (nation, 2013: 26), this means that literary research articles can be adequately read by both the educated and the uneducated native speakers of english. as would be the case with all complex academic texts, this would probably entail some guesswork from the context and using a dictionary, generally without outside assistance, especially in the second group. on the other hand, only very proficient esl speakers have a vocabulary of 9,000 word families, which is rarely reached by non-natives, and these would typically be students of doctoral studies taught in english and professionals (nation, 2013: 26). as many non-native adults will only have a vocabulary of less than 5,000 word families (nation & waring, 1997), this means that reading literary research articles (as well as articles from the remaining social sciences, humanities and the stm disciplines) will be beyond their reach and will typically be reserved for highly proficient graduates and professionals. research articles are mainly read by these two target groups anyway, but a problem may arise if teachers ask undergraduate non-native speakers of english to use research articles for their seminar and graduation papers, as these would, in all likelihood, not be readable to the degree needed. certainly, testing students’ vocabulary level prior to assigning such tasks would be advisable (for instance, using the vocabulary levels tests. initially devised by nation (1983)). the level of 98%, needed for ideal reading, remains, however, unreached by any group. in all probability, even educated native speakers will initially need some assistance when starting out to read these research articles. for nonnative speakers, this means that most of them will need to use a dictionary or some other form of assistance, if they wish to fully cover the entire vocabulary used in those articles. as expected, the lexical profile of literary research articles is more similar to that of social sciences and other humanities, than to the stm disciplines. still, the vocabulary of literary academic articles seems to be somewhat more complex than that of social sciences and other humanities, in that it requires more words for the same level of reading comprehension. as noted earlier, vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138128 the language of literary academic papers is less formulaic and we would say that it often strives to emulate the language of the narrative genres it focuses on. the style of writing is very important in this field (some would say as important as its content), which is why repetitiveness is avoided. its abundance of synonyms, figures of speech, such as metaphor, metonymy, allegory and other literary devices, undoubtedly influence its vocabulary complexity and raise its vocabulary level. it would appear that the stm disciplines are the most demanding in terms of vocabulary level, as they do not reach the adequate reading comprehension threshold even with all the lists derived from the bnc/coca corpus. however, we must understand that these lists represent words which are most frequent in general english, as represented by the two reference corpora they were derived from, and that the stm disciplines, beyond some level of general high-frequency vocabulary, use a lot of specialized vocabulary which is highly infrequent in general language (for instance, names of chemical compounds, minerals, alloys, etc.). so, taken only by itself, our finding that all bnc/coca lists cover just 93.37% of the words used in the stm research articles cannot be taken as proof that the vocabulary of stm disciplines is somehow more complex than that of the other sciences and humanities. to illustrate the coverage of the bnc/coca lists in our corpus and what kind of words these lists represent, we will use another extract form the literary academic articles corpus (taken from spadaro, 2019: 21). the figure was created by means of the software antwordprofiler. the colours mark the following word lists: red – 1st 1,000 words, green – 2nd 1,000 words, blue – 3rd 1,000 words, pink – 4th 1,000 words, violet – 5th 1,000 words, orange – 6th 1,000 words, brown – 7th 1,000 words, yellow – 8th 1,000 words, dark blue – 9th 1,000, black – the remaining lists. words in black were not listed in the said word lists. lexical profile of literary academic articles ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 129 figure 1. an extract from spadaro (2019: 21). in the first 1,000 words we find all the functional words (such as of, the, and, that…) and many other general words which pervade the text. in the 2nd 1,000 words, there are words such as poem, lack, according, identify, lasting, unease, social, etc. in the 3rd 1,000 words, we find words such as: estimate, accompanying, absence, moreover, unsophisticated, superior, etc. the words from the 4th 1,000 words are: flings, thee, genre, betray, humble, parameter, predecessor, longing, imitation and nonsense. the 5th 1,000 words are represented by: mimicking, nucleus, overtly and transcend. the 6th 1,000 words include: winces, perpetual, perpetually, oscillation, hue, motion and ape. the next 1,000 words, i.e. the 7th bnc/coca list contains: incongruities, grotesque and cohesion. from the 8th 1,000 words, in this extract we find just the word ontological. in the 9th 1,000 words we come across: impenetrable, imbues and legible. the 10th bnc/coca list is represented by just one word in this extract (microcosm), whereas from the 11th word list we find two: poetics and decorum. the remaining words are: forme (16th 1,000), vacuity (18th 1,000) and various proper names (tayor, hoskyns), which belong to the proper names list. some words are not found in the bnc/coca set, as these lists are still imperfect. for instance, two proper names, clapp and coryat, are not found in nation’s proper names list (this list can never be complete); ‘sence is an abbreviated form quoted so from taylor, whereas relationality is a low-frequency member of the word family whose headword is relate and as such should be added to the 1st 1,000 words. as we said, 8,000 word families are needed to read literary journal articles adequately. this would mean that words such as impenetrable, imbue, legible, microcosm, poetics, decorum, forme, and vacuity could be guessed from the context or looked up in a dictionary by the reader, without outside assistance, or some of them could simply be skipped, without significantly endangering the reading vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138130 h b r m o 5 t s r n h d h n o m o v e y comprehension of the entire text. still, as can be seen from this example, reading would be much more laborious than in the case the reader already knew most of these eight words. what one can notice here based on this extract and what is generally true of all the three corpora used in this study is the vast presence of latinand greek-based vocabulary, especially the former. virtually all the words above from the 3rd frequency band onwards have latin and greek roots, with rare exceptions (the exceptions being just moreover (3rd band); fling, thee, longing (4th band); and hue (6th band)). bird (1987) found that in the most frequent 1,000 words of english, the words of italic and hellenic origin made up 40% of the words; this percentage, however, rose in higher frequency bands, where their share averaged 60%. the share of latin also depended on the field, rocha-e-silva (2018) found. he inspected medical, financial, sport, literary and colloquial corpora, and found that most latin-based words were used in the medical and financial texts, while they were the least frequent in the literary and colloquial corpora. green (2015) estimates that 90% of the vocabulary of science and technology has latin and greek roots. this fact certainly represents an advantage for those learners of english who speak languages based on latin, i.e. romance languages. for instance, moss (1992) finds that in scientific and technical texts, spanish speakers can expect 30% of cognates, which they can successfully recognize in 60% of the cases. quero (2015) studied english medical texts and found that 55% of the words used were english/spanish cognates. moreover, the share of graecolatin in english, especially in science, also has important pedagogical implications for the speakers of those languages that have heavily borrowed from latin. rocha-e-silva (2018: 2) comments that all european languages have borrowed immensely from latin, as a consequence of the renaissance, and the industrial and scientific revolutions. we may thus speak of the socalled international scientific vocabulary,2 a set of mostly latinand greekbased scientific-technical words, typically phonologically and morphologically adapted to various languages, but used with the same meaning across them. as we have already suggested, testing the learners before assigning any task of reading research articles is strongly advisable; depending on the other languages they speak, there could be a substantial number of cognates and borrowed words they could successfully recognize in context and this could reduce the figures regarding the vocabulary load. some authors have even excluded latin words when making a word list for their students; for instance, konstantakis (2007) does so when he sets out to lexical profile of literary academic articles ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 131 derive his business word list, arguing that these words have a low learning burden. however, to be able to do this, one needs to have a particular learning group in mind, typically one that is homogenous in terms of their linguistic background. our final table, table 4, presents the results regarding the lexical diversity as displayed in the three corpora. as commented in the methodology section, for these purposes we use both the standardized and the moving average type-to-token ratio (calculated for chunks comprising 50,000 tokens). table 4. lexical diversity in the three corpora (%). table 4 shows the lexical diversity of the three corpora. as was mentioned in the methodology section, vocabulary diversity does not necessarily coincide with vocabulary level and this is clearly shown in our study. although literary papers could be read at 8,000 word families, and papers in social sciences and other humanities at 7,000 word families, these papers exhibit significantly higher vocabulary diversity than the stm papers, which cannot be read even at 25,000 most frequent word families in english. what our results indicate, when considered jointly, is not that the stm papers are necessarily more demanding in terms of vocabulary, i.e. that more words are needed to read them. it is a more specific vocabulary that is needed to read them successfully or comfortably, which further stresses the need for creating specific word lists for the stm disciplines, bearing in mind that the specific vocabulary is repetitive in them (as confirmed by the sttr/mattr results). nevertheless, when the results on both vocabulary level and vocabulary diversity are considered jointly, literary studies articles could be considered the most lexically demanding articles. 5. pedagogical implications the results presented in this study could be of particular interest to nonnative learners of english literature studies and their teachers, as an vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138132 word lists literary studies stm sciences social sciences & human. sttr 0.152 0.095 0.119 mattr 0.154 0.097 0.122 indication of whether and to what extent learners can cope with reading literary academic articles or when they will be able to do so. it would be best to first test these learners’ vocabulary using, perhaps, nation’s vocabulary tests (2013). depending on other languages they speak, they could be able to recognize a number of cognates and loanwords (especially from latin and greek), which means they would face a lower vocabulary load than might be suggested by the results reported here. by knowing how many thousands of words learners know, educators will be able to tell in advance if students can adequately and optimally read these texts or if they are too much of a challenge considering their current vocabulary knowledge. these data will help teachers decide if and when they can make use of academic articles as learning materials and at what level. it is highly likely that only post-graduates will be able to read and benefit from scholarly articles in literary studies. the comparatively low level of the awl in literary academic articles might mean that teaching it in this discipline would have a limited value since, as we have seen, it is used significantly less than in other two areas. 6. limitations of the study as stated in the introduction, nowadays there are more recent and up-to-date versions of general service and academic vocabulary lists than the ones we used (the gsl and the awl); however, opting for the older lists in this case allowed for a comparison of our results with those from the previous studies. as explained earlier, in this paper we used three corpora, each of them containing 110 articles; in the compilation of our corpora of literary articles and social science and humanities, we decided to apply the same make-up as the one employed in the oa stm corpus (elsevier labs, 2015), in order to make the three corpora fully comparable. as a result, the three corpora are relatively large, each of them featuring between 750,000 and 1 million words. while they are all of a size which is sufficient for lexical profiling, they could also have been larger, taking into account that two of them represent a number of disciplines. lexical profile of literary academic articles ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 133 7. conclusion as shown in the results section, a corpus of 110 literary academic articles corpus (compiled by the authors) was subjected to lexical frequency profiling. the so-obtained lexical profile was subsequently compared to the lexical profile of two additional corpora, containing 110 research articles each: the stm corpus (elsevier labs, 2015) and the corpus of social sciences and humanities (also compiled by the authors). we analysed their vocabulary level, variation and how much academic vocabulary they featured. we found that literary studies articles boast the largest coverage of general words, followed closely by research articles in social sciences and other humanities, whereas in the stm field their coverage is substantially lower. however, the results significantly differ for academic vocabulary, found to be rather lower in literary scholarly articles than in other disciplines. the wide discrepancy in the level of academic language in literary study articles, not only when compared to the stm disciplines, but also to the other disciplines in the field of social sciences and humanities is, in all probability, due to the fact that the language in these papers is much less formulaic and that it, to some extent, resembles the subject of study (different narrative genres); the style of writing and avoiding repetitiveness are esteemed very highly in this discipline. in addition, literary studies follow the genre norms of research articles somewhat more loosely than other disciplines. the literary academic papers can be read at 8,000 word families, needed for “reasonable” comprehension (a coverage of 95%), while the articles from social sciences and other humanities can be adequately read at 7,000 word families. however, not even the whole set of the word lists derived from the bnc/coca corpus was enough to read the stm research articles comfortably. the reason for this is that the stm field requires quite a specialized vocabulary which is situated beyond the highest frequency bands, but which is very repetitive, judging by its low score for lexical variation. the combined results for the vocabulary level and vocabulary diversity suggest that literary studies articles are in fact the most lexically demanding articles amongst the ones we studied. taking into account nation’s (2013) findings on the number of word families normally known by educated l2 speakers, it is not until the post-graduate level of literary studies that educators may successfully use such articles with their students. there could be exceptions for students who are familiar with latin and greek roots, who could be able to successfully recognize some of the cognates and loanwords, vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138134 which would reduce their vocabulary load. this is why it is advisable to conduct a preliminary check of students’ vocabulary level in order to decide if scholarly articles from a particular field can be used as their reading materials. based on our results, we believe that producing a discipline-specific word list for literary studies would be of much less use than for the stm disciplines, as there is much less repetitive vocabulary in them. such a list, in all probability, would be much longer, i.e. contain many more words than those made for 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(2018). “writing good english: is scientific english a latin language in disguise?”. vesna bratić is an associate professor of english literature at the faculty of philology, university of montenegro. she teaches undergraduate courses in 18th and 19th century english literature and graduate courses in american literature at the english department and esp at the faculty of electrical engineering. her professional interests lie within contemporary american and english literature, gender studies, metaphor and discourse analysis. milica vuković stamatović, phd, is an associate professor of english language and linguistics at the faculty of philology, university of montenegro. she currently teaches discourse analysis and english for specific purposes. she has taught english for physics and english for mathematics for over a decade. her main research interests lie in the field of discourse analysis, pragmatics and esp. lexical profile of literary academic articles ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138 137 medicalexpress 5: 1-5. schmitt, n. & d. schmitt (2014). “a reassessment of frequency and vocabulary size in l2 vocabulary teaching”. language teaching 47(4): 484-503. doi: <https://doi.org/10.1017/s026144481200 0018>. scott, m. 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(2005). “‘the rhetoric of literary criticism’ revisited: mistaken critics, complex contexts, and social justice”. written communication 22(1): 76119. doi: <https://doi.org/10.1177/074108830427 2751>. xue, g. & i. s. p. nation (1984). “a university word list”. language learning and communication 3(2): 215-229. yang, h. (1986). “a new technique for identifying scientific/technical terms and describing science texts”. literary and linguistic computing 1(2): 93103. doi: <https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/1.2.93>. notes 1 url: <https://elsevierlabs.github.io/oa-stm-corpus/>. 2 the term was first introduced by gove in webster’s third new international dictionary (1961). vesna bratić & milica vuković stamatović ibérica 42 (2021): 115-138138 iberica 13 ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract that the english language is the prevailing language in international scientific discourse is an undeniable fact for research professionals who are non-native speakers of english (nnse). an exploratory, survey-based study of scientists in the experimental disciplines of neuroscience and medicine seeks to reveal, on the one hand, the habits of scientists who in their research practice come across neologisms in english and need to use them in oral and written scientific discourse in their own languages, and, on the other hand, their attitudes towards these neologisms and towards english as the language of international science. we found that all scientists write and publish their research articles (ras) in english and most submit them unrevised by native speakers of english. when first encountering a neologism in english, scientists tend to pay close attention to these new concepts, ideas or terms and very early in the reception process attempt to coin acceptable, natural-sounding spanish equivalents for use in the laboratory and in their spanish texts. in conjunction with the naturalized spanish term, they often use the english neologism verbatim in a coexistent bilingual form, but they avoid using only the english term and very literal translations. these behaviors show an ambivalent attitude towards english (the language of both new knowledge reception and dissemination of their ras) and spanish (used for local professional purposes and for popularization): while accepting to write in their acquired non-native language, they simultaneously recognize that their native language needs to preserve its specificity as a language of science. keywords: english for specific purposes, neologism, neuroscience, research article, spanish. non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms: what happens in the early stages of reception and re-production?1 daniel linder and goedele de sterck universidad de salamanca dlinder@usal.es & desterck@usal.es 35 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 35 ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 linder & sterck resumen c ie n tí f ic o s no -n at iv o s , d if u s ió n d e l c on oc imi e nt o y ne o l og is mo s e n ing l é s ¿ q u é o c ur re e n l a s f a s e s más te m pr an as d e r e c e pc ió n y re p ro du c c i ón ? para los científicos no nativos de inglés, la redacción de artículos de investigación en una lengua extranjera supone un reto a la hora de difundir sus resultados. en un estudio exploratorio realizado mediante encuestas a una población de neurocientíficos e investigadores médicos en españa se busca descubrir, por un lado, qué hábitos prevalecen entre estos profesionales a la hora de procesar neologismos en inglés durante sus investigaciones y transmitirlos tanto verbalmente como textualmente en sus lenguas maternas y, por otro lado, qué actitudes manifiestan hacia los neologismos ingleses y hacia la lengua inglesa misma como lengua de comunicación científica. se ha comprobado que la totalidad de los científicos encuestados escriben y publican artículos de investigación científica en inglés y que la mayoría lo hacen sin revisión nativa. al encontrarse por primera vez con un neologismo en inglés, los encuestados dedican una atención especial a este nuevo concepto, idea o término, y en una fase muy temprana del proceso de recepción intentan acuñar expresiones equivalentes que sean aceptables, naturales y funcionales en los contextos orales y escritos donde los han de retransmitir, a menudo empleando también los neologismos primarios en inglés de forma bilingüe pero siempre evitando emplear exclusivamente el término inglés y traducciones muy literales al español. estos comportamientos muestran una actitud ambivalente hacia la lengua inglesa (la lengua en la que llegan nuevos conocimientos y en la que estos científicos no nativos realizan la difusión de sus descubrimientos) y la española (la lengua en la que se realizan las comunicaciones profesionales más inmediatas y la popularización de sus resultados): mientras que aceptan redactar su producción científica en una segunda lengua, a la vez reconocen que su lengua materna necesita ser reconocida y conservada como lengua de expresión científica. palabras clave: artículo de investigación científica, español, inglés para fines específicos, neologismo, neurociencia. 1. introduction in today’s world of scientific publication, the vast majority of new knowledge appears in english-medium texts. one of the consequences is that english neologisms (new concepts, ideas and terms) are pervasive in scientific communication in other languages. our study deals with the early reception of english neologisms by non-native english speaking (nnes) 36 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 36 scientists based in spain2 and how they feel towards these neologisms and the predominance of english. in this report, we want to provide some preliminary data gathered from questionnaires administered to a small group of neuroscientists and medical researchers. it was important for us to establish comparability with previously published survey-based, quantitative and qualitative studies centered on scientists and scholars in the cultural context of spain, the purposes of which were mainly either 1) to demonstrate that local scientists and scholars, subject to language-based asymmetries and inequalities, are in a position of relative disadvantage with respect to native english speakers and nnes from countries with longer traditions of publishing scientific research in english (pérez-llantada, 2007; ferguson, pérez-llantada & plo, 2011; moreno, reyrocha, burgess, lópez-navarro & sachdev, 2012), or especially 2) to establish that english-medium publication is increasingly prevalent, particularly in the “hard” sciences (fernández polo & cal varela, 2009; díaz galán & fumero pérez, 2010; pérez-llantada, plo & ferguson, 2011; mur dueñas, 2012; burgess, gea-valor, moreno & rey-rocha, 2014). obviously, the ways these same issues affect scientists and scholars from/in other countries have been addressed by a number of other authors (see, for example, swales, 1997; flowerdew, 1999; ammon, 2001; tardy, 2004). the studies mentioned above largely attest to the increased use of english as the language of science. however, our goal is significantly different because we focus on the attrition of spanish as a language for scientific communication, i.e. the decreased currency and usage of this language within discourses of specialized communication. martin et al. (2014: 65), who surveyed spanish medical researchers, recently reported “a sharp decline in national medical journals that is leading to the progressive disappearance of the ra [research article] in spanish” towards which they expressed “an ambivalent attitude”, on the one hand accepting the increased use of english and on the other admitting that their native language had acquired a diminished role in the conveyance of scientific knowledge. the way scientific language attrition affects spanish has also been studied by fernández polo and cal varela (2009), sánchez ibáñez (2013), and sánchez ibáñez and garcía palacios (2014). how the decreased use of national, regional and local languages affects nnes scientists and scholars from/in other countries has also been addressed in the literature (gunnarsson, 2000; bennett, 2007; giannoni 2008). non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 37 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 37 our primary object of study is the reception by non-native speakers of english (nnse) of scientific information, particularly of neologisms coined in english, and also the re-production of scientific discourse, i.e. the secondary production and dissemination in a foreign language of new terms, including english neologisms, in oral and written communication in both their native language (nl) and english. in exploring english neologism reception and re-production, we bring into focus a novel object of study while employing a widely-used, methodologically proven instrument of inquiry, i.e. language user surveys. 1.1. english: the language of contemporary science in a closer look at the current situation surrounding scientific communication, scholars such as dutch linguist abram de swaan (2001) have noted that we seem to live in the age of english-only science, and other researchers such as the chilean/german educator rainer enrique hamel (2007: 54) have shown that “english is today’s sole globally dominant language, the ‘hyper-central’ language of the world”. science written in spanish does indeed represent only a tiny percentage of international science production. as reported by the science citation index, which sources its information from 8,300 journals from 150 different disciplines, “scientific research published in spanish amounts to only 0.24% of total world scientific production” (our translation, ansede, 2014: http://esmateria.com/2014/03/05/la-ciencia-en-espanol-es-solo-el-024-deltotal/). according to the anglo-oriented pubmed database, the number of medical publications in spanish represents 0.8% for the period spanning 2005 and 2010, and according to the more balanced scopus database (2013) this figure is a mere 1.3%. these extraordinarily paltry numbers underrepresent the amount of published science in the spanish-speaking world, particularly in latin america. scientific databases such as digitalia, infolatina, lilacs and scielo (in alphabetical order) that index peer-reviewed scientific research in spanish, portuguese, french and other languages at least partly counteract the disregard of non-english publications (see, for example, brunner-ried & salazar-muñiz, 2012, cited in englander, 2014: 8). the profile of the “standard” spanish scientist is in line with this situation. defined predominantly as a native speaker of spanish who reads and publishes his or her ground-breaking research overwhelmingly in english, the spanish scientist sees how the use of english opens the door to wider and faster dissemination of research, on the one hand, and to increased academic impact on the other. however, spanish scientists also conduct vast linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): 35-5838 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 38 amounts of local scientific communication in spanish or basque, catalan and galician, the other co-official languages of the officially bilingual autonomous communities of spain. they do so in such places as universities and institutional laboratory floors, on the pages of local, regional and national scientific publications, and in internal reports, memorandums and funding proposals. regarding this diglossic situation, spanish scientists can be seen to represent two opposing trends. some of them strongly support the use of english only within a conception of monolingual science. as far back as 1993, biochemist ramón serrano salom in a letter to the editor of el país, one of spain’s leading daily newspapers, defended the idea that modern science should be disseminated in english: let us redefine, then, what our objectives are, but let us do so within a european context in which we all communicate with our fellow european researchers in english. we should attempt to revive the existence of a universal scientific community and culture as in the days of erasmus and luis vives, a glorious period in which latin played the role that english plays today. (our translation, 1993) others call for the preservation of multilingual science, to pursue a science for all and to prevent the impoverishment of local, regional and national languages and the ways of thinking and making science that may be not only linguistically but also culturally different from what is conveyed through english-only media. a sample of this point of view is the recent declaration by over 30 spanish-speaking science and language experts who, during a meeting on “spanish, an international language for the dissemination of knowledge”, held at the universidad menéndez y pelayo, defended such a stance: “it is our intent to undertake all measures necessary to promote the use of spanish as a language of international communication as well as a language of exchange and transmission of scientific knowledge” (declaración de apoyo al español como lengua internacional y del conocimiento, 2013). 1.2. spanish: a language of contemporary science the hegemony of english has serious consequences for the volume and quality of scientific text production in spanish. in a study of the total research production during the 2006-2007 academic year in the university of la laguna (spain), díaz galán and fumero pérez (2010: 120) found that non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 39 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 39 85% of the articles published by researchers in the “hard sciences” were in english. fernández polo and cal varela (2009: 156) have reported similar findings, with 77.8% of all experimental scientists reporting that over 75% of their research is published in english. a reverse extrapolation of these data indicates that only 15-22.2% of the articles published by “hard” and “experimental” scientists are written in other languages, mainly spanish. the consequences for scientific communication in spanish are serious. martin et al. (2014: 60) report on the almost complete disappearance of prestigious, specialized national journals in the field of medicine. as evidence of this lack of highly specialized scientific texts written directly in spanish, we should consider that in spain there are only four neuroscience journals that offer full texts (two of them are spanish-only, one of them publishes articles in spanish or english and one is a spanish and english bilingual edition) and these journals publish mostly clinical and applied topics in a local/regional/national setting. although latindex, lilacs and scielo register 28 journals for spanish-speaking america (19 are spanishonly and 9 publish articles in spanish or english), once again these publications focus on local/national/regional communication. as a result, more and more highly specialized texts are being produced directly in english and few(er) specialized texts are being produced in spanish. the lack of corpora of hard or experimental scientific articles in spanish generates a language problem that can affect technical writers, terminologists and translators who work with/into spanish, as there is not an ample body of carefully constructed primary texts from which they can retrieve specialized, parallel scientific terminology. vandaele (2013: 13) has stated that “[i]f there are no well-written and well-thought-out original texts in a language, it becomes extremely difficult to translate scientific texts into that language”. within this context, a number of international initiatives are supporting the production and dissemination of scientific texts in languages other than english. the voxrom project (garcía palacios & de sterck, 2014), which has officially been adopted by realiter (red panlatina de terminología [pan-latin terminology network]), consists in the creation of a repository of full text scientific articles in romance languages. the aim is to give visibility to science in other languages than english – particularly in romance languages – and to make corpora and terminology in context available. also in this regard, special mention should be made of the medes linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): 35-5840 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 40 repository (https://medes.com/public/home.aspx), a private initiative conducted by scientists and health professionals to encourage scientific medical writing in spanish. as front-line science is written almost exclusively in english, and spanish is confined to local/national/regional communication and less specific, popularizing texts, a gap between specialized discourse in english and popular discourse in spanish is created. margarita salas, a biologist and member of the real academia española, seems to support this dichotomy, making all languages but english “second-class languages” relegated to the realm of popularisation, when she states: in order to maximize the dissemination of our research results spanish scientists strive to publish our research in the best possible journals, which means that our publications are written in english. however, when it comes to popularisation, we write in spanish, as scientific discourse at this level targets the average reader and should be expressed in common terms found in the dictionary of the real academia. (our translation, anon., 2009) the efforts of the spanish foundation for science and technology (in spanish, fundación española para la ciencia y la technología, fecyt) lead in the same direction, as the goal of this institution is to encourage science culture and popularization in spanish, whereas it accepts english to be the (only) language of specialized scientific discourse, thus fostering asymmetrical bilingualism. the lack of specialized knowledge texts written directly in spanish leads to a lack of terminology flourishing and blooming in its natural context. the continued prevalence of english over spanish deepens the gap between terminology in vitro (terms collected and defined in reference works such as dictionaries, glossaries, data bases, and so forth, which are the result of institutional or private investment and management) and terminology in vivo (terms that appear as is in texts generated by specialists within real communicative contexts). in the field of neurology, there are a number of terminological resources available in spanish, the most complete of which is the trilingual diccionari de neurociència, by antoni valero cabré, and termcat (http://www.termcat.cat /ca/diccionaris_en_linia/140/presentacio). nonetheless, resources such as this one are examples of in vitro terminology. the very nature of dictionaries, compiled after current usage of terms can be established, means non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 41 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 41 that they tend to contain only consolidated terms and exclude unsubstantiated neologisms. without specialized knowledge being disseminated directly in spanish in natural contexts, i.e terminology in vivo, little terminology can be produced and no descriptive terminology can exist. the pervasive role of english and secondary term formation leads to indiscriminate term importation, favors the principle of least effort (vera torres, 2008), and feeds the myth of the terminological superiority of scientific english (vivanco cervero, 2009). 1.3. objectives the present study is a pilot effort which seeks to collect information about the behaviors and attitudes of spanish scientists vis-à-vis their use of spanish as a language of science against the backdrop of english prevalence and also about their processing of english neologisms in oral communication and written text production in spanish. though there is no commonly agreed upon definition of what neologisms are, we propose to define them as typically complex words or multi-word lexical items that make their first-known diachronic appearance in a language, corpus of texts or specialized discourse. neologisms are terminological names for new knowledge items (concepts, ideas, terms) that can result from new scientific or academic research, contact between languages, and changing societal demands and realities. our composite definition draws on cabré (1991), cabré and nazar (2012) and faber (2012). it is beyond the scope of the present study to discuss how neologisms are formed and the types of neology that exist but we are interested in their functional, pragmatic and sociological roles, particularly in the role that english-language neologisms have in the early stages of new term reception and formation in other languages. a neologism coined in one language can be called into service by a second language, which needs to incorporate it by some means into its lexicon. in these cases, very frequent in all specialized (scientific) discourses, the primary, or source, language term is borrowed or shaped into a secondary, or target, language term. in this process, called secondary term formation, foreign languages like spanish, which use neologisms coined originally in english, will use a variety of techniques to adapt them to their specialized lexicons in oral communication and in written texts. the adoptive/adaptive techniques used by other languages include (garcía palacios & sanz vicente, 2011: 17): linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): 35-5842 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 42 using the english neologism as is, i.e. non-adapted term borrowing, often using some special way of marking the neologism (in oral communication, using effective pauses or special intonation, and in written texts, using the cursive or quotation marks). using a very literal translation of the english neologism, i.e. complete loan translation, often using some special way of marking (in oral communication, using effective pauses or special intonation, and in written texts, using the cursive or quotation marks). attempting to coin an acceptable, natural-sounding equivalent in the other language, i.e. paraphrase, without mentioning the english neologism nor using a very literal translation. in order to achieve a one-to-one correspondence between primary and secondary terms, as well as greater precision of meaning and clear intertextual referencing, a number of combinatory techniques can be used, including: using the english neologism as is, then explaining or defining the neologism, often using special marking (in oral communication, using meta-language in which to couch the definition or explanation, and in written texts, using commas or parenthesis). using the english neologism as is, then adding a very literal translation of the neologism. using the english neologism as is, then attempting to coin an acceptable, naturalsounding equivalent in the other language. using a very literal translation of the english neologism with or without mentioning the neologism in english, often using some special way of marking (in oral communication, using effective pauses or special intonation, and in written texts, using the cursive or quotation marks). using a very literal translation of the english neologism, then explaining or defining the neologism in the other language, often using special marking (in oral communication, using meta-language in which to couch the definition or explanation, and in written texts, using commas or parenthesis). we hypothesize that the predominance of english and the scientists’ attitudes towards english and their native language(s) as (a) vehicle(s) of scientific communication will be particularly noticeable in the early reception and re-production of english neologisms by spanish scientists. we surmise that in the current scenario, they would not pay close attention to neologisms and to how they would need to be communicated in spanish, whether orally non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 43 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 43 or in writing, because the spanish language will supposedly play a minor role in the transfer of scientific knowledge. therefore, we suspect that spanish scientists will tend merely to borrow english neologisms verbatim, translate them literally or use both of these techniques jointly (borrowed neologism + literal translation). the design of the study is described in the following section. 2. methodology in a small scale study of native spanish-speaking, laboratory-based neuroscientific and medical researchers, using an anonymous survey created with google forms, we have sought to obtain measurable data on a range of questions pertaining to language-related behavior and attitudes regarding the neologisms each scientist uncovers during the research process. on the one hand, we wanted to assess “attitudinal factors” and, on the other, we wanted to collect data about the “actual behavior” of neurologists when gathering specialized knowledge and when disseminating their own findings, both in english and in spanish. the questions in the survey explore issues such as the usefulness of languages other than english for scientific communication, the prevalence of certain commonly held notions about languages for scientific communication, and the habits nnes scientists use to record english neologisms when they come across them in texts. of particular interest is what the survey reveals about (1) how nnes scientists handle and record english neologisms when they first encounter them, (2) the habits of nnes scientists when transmitting english neologisms in l2 oral communications in the laboratory, and (3) the range of strategies used by nnes scientists to transmit english neologisms in l2 in written texts beyond their immediate laboratory surroundings. the questionnaire itself was divided into three basic parts, and the data received were self-reported in spanish. all responses were translated into english by the authors. 3. results 3.1. english publication practices of neuroscientists and medical researchers the survey was sent to fourteen scientists who collaborate with the instituto de neurociencias de castilla y león (incyl) and six professors of linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): 35-5844 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 44 medicine at the university of salamanca, of whom ten responded (n=10; 50%). all of these respondents were native speakers of spanish. three of the respondents were also native speakers of galician, while none of them were native speakers of other co-national or other foreign languages. all respondents claimed to be proficient in reading, writing and speaking spanish and english, though several respondents claimed skills in aother languages. the three native speakers of co-national galician were the only ones in the group who had skills in this language. three people can read catalan, but none of the respondents have any knowledge of basque. three of our surveyed group claimed to have a full skill set in three foreign languages (english and spanish, plus portuguese (2) or italian (1), while one scientist claimed to have complete proficiency in four foreign languages (spanish and english, plus french and italian) and also reading skills in portuguese and catalan. after english and spanish, the third most widely known language was portuguese (two claimed full knowledge of this language and three claimed reading skills) followed by french (two claimed full knowledge and two claimed reading skills). with over half of those surveyed in possession of a full skill set in at least three languages and three of the ten with reading skills in at least six languages, the overall impression is that this group of scientists can cover quite a bit of western european ground and transmit this content proficiently in english and spanish and, in some cases, in other (foreign) languages. regarding what language the neuroscientists received new knowledge in, as could be expected all respondents consider english the main source language (10). as the scientists were asked to list the top three languages in which they received new scientific information, half of the respondents (5) placed spanish second on the list, and french (1) and german (1) were also mentioned. a number of scientists ranked spanish (1) and french (1) third, while the contribution of galician and portuguese also merited one mention each. interestingly, three out of ten scientists considered english the only source language for new knowledge and listed no others. a visual ranking of the languages in which new scientific knowledge is received is depicted in figure 1. non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 45 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 45 regarding the production of new scientific knowledge, all of the scientists publish in english (10), while eight out of ten publish in english only. insofar as their writing process is concerned, none of the respondents write scientific articles in spanish, then self-translates (with or without native-speaker revision prior to submission) or uses professional translation (0). all of them write directly in english (10), and most of them do this without revision by a native speaker prior to submission (6). four (4) authors write their articles in english, then have their texts revised by a native speaker. two of those surveyed indicated that they publish in both spanish and english, though they stated that they used spanish only for unspecialized or semi-specialized publications. the implications of the use of english for “real” scientific publication and of spanish for “popular” science will be discussed at some length below. in response to the questions regarding the scientists’ attitudes towards the role of english and spanish as languages of science, the data obtained reveals that, perhaps not surprisingly, all respondents show a positive attitude towards english (10), arguing that it fosters scientific dissemination, and they also believe that english-only scientific communication will likely cause no detriment to scientific development in non-native countries (7). at the same time, however, most respondents show that they do not support english being expressly promoted in this way (8), that they do not believe that major scientific conferences should be held only in english (6), and that most were willing to maintain spanish as a language of science (7). based on these seemingly contradictory opinions, we can construe that the scientists surveyed hold complex opinions, both accepting the reality of english as the language of science and recognizing its benefits and simultaneously supporting an active role for scientists in the use and defense of other languages coexisting with english in a multilingual world of science. linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): 35-5846 linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): …-… placed spanish second on the list, and french (n=1) and german (n=1) were also mentioned. a number of scientists ranked spanish (n=1) and french (n=1) third, while the contribution of other languages is merely residual, with galician and portuguese meriting one mention each. interestingly, three out of ten scientists considered english the only source language for new knowledge and listed no others. a visual ranking of the languages in which new scientific knowledge is received is depicted in figure 1. figure 1. the most important languages in which new scientific information is received. regarding the production of new scientific knowledge, all of the scientists publish in english (n=10), while eight out of ten publish in english only. insofar as their writing process is concerned, none of the respondents write scientific articles in spanish, then self-translates (with or without native-speaker revision prior to submission) or uses professional translation (n=0). all of them write directly in english (n=10), and most of them do this without revision by a native speaker prior to submission (n=6). four (n=4) authors write their articles in english, then have their texts revised by a native speaker. two of those surveyed indicated that they publish in both spanish and english, though they stated that they used spanish only for unspecialized or semispecialized publications. the implications of the use of english for “real” scientific publication and of spanish for “popular” science will be discussed at some length below. in response to the questions regarding the scientists’ attitudes towards the role of english and spanish as languages of science, the data obtained reveals that, perhaps not surprisingly, all respondents show a positive attitude towards english (10), arguing that it fosters scientific dissemination, and they also believe that english-only scientific communication will likely cause no detriment to scientific development in non-native countries (7). at the same time, however, most respondents show that they do not support english being expressly promoted in this way (8), that they do not believe that major scientific conferences should be held only in english (6), and that most were willing to maintain spanish as a language of science (7). based on these seemingly contradictory opinions, we can construe that the scientists surveyed hold complex opinions, both accepting the reality of english as the language of science and recognizing its benefits and simultaneously supporting an active role kcrtes&rednli heton ond cesh snipasd ecapl foerbmuna.ednoitenmosal ontiouibtrnocethilehw, dirth nognitierme esugutropdan sitneisc hlisgnedereidsnocts rl auisva. srethoondtelis nd a1)=n(h ncerfnd a,tsilhe =n(hsianpsedkanrstsitencisf erlyeremissegaugnlarethofo lgnitesertni.eachnoitenme n regaugnlaecruoslynoeth winsegaugnlaethfoginkna mreg e erw)1=n(an )1=n(chenrfdan)1= nialicagithwl, auidse entfotuoee rht,yl dnaegdlewonkwen niecswenhichw pidesid veiecersidgeelknow 1e gurfi anttpormitosmthe d etc 1eruig fin . ifienticsnewh chiwn ianguageslant atmornfic vedeceirs ion iat 1e gurfi . anttpormitosmthe onoitcudorpehtgnidragre hiw,10)=n(h singlen ih sipubl cosiscesorpgnitirwreihtas felsenht,hsianpsniesclitar seusoron)issiubmso toripr nd a,10)=n(h singlen iy ltcerdi s on issiubmso toriprrkeape stxetriehtevahneht,hsilgen acidnideyevrusesohtfootw ifienticsnewh chiwn ianguageslant atmornfic ,egdelwonkcitneicswenf n ih sipubln etofoutghtieelhi dnopesre htfoe non,edncernco ant uoithwroithw(stelasnatr 0)=n(on italnsartlonaisspr houttiwshitdo mhetoftosmnd wshoruta4)=n(ourf.6)=n( .rekaepsevitanaybdesiver htobnihsilbupyehttahtdeta vedeceirs ion iat . stsitneicsehtfolla raofnsiy.onlh single e tirwstend citneisc etiva nosiiverrekaesp etirwmhetoflla.0) veitnaaby on isvierhout n iselcitrarihetetirw ,hsilgendnahsinaps y yetht athdtetasyethhguoth hts.noitacilbupdezilaicesp fodnanoitacilbupcitneisc .wolebhtgnelemso resnoitseuqehtotesnopsrein gnalsahsinapsdnahsilgen lay,nglisiprursnotpsharpe tahtgniugra,)01(hsilgen hsinglethatveeilbe eicsy onl nint nemploevedniecsto py inapsdesuy spnurylnosh foseuehtfos noitacilpmieh ecneisc”ralupop“rshinaps csehtgnirdagre edttitua’tstisnie oatadeht,ecneicsfosegaug itiposahowssntpondeserll animessidcitneicssretsti lkeillliwon itacunimomccinte non hetta.7)(seirountcveitna ,gp imserodezilaicesp ”laer“rshilgnef tadsseuscideblliwe foleorethsdrawtose ,tahtslaeverdeniatb dsraowtudetittavei ,noita osaleyhtdan ntemirtdeno eusacy l ,rveehow,emitemas 2 3aicréib 610 (2 ): …-…10 ahtwohsstnednopsertsmo eotompr ,8)(y awshitn id odelhe bdluohscesennco gnalasahsinapsniatnima e w,snoinipoyroctiadrtnco accephtob,snoinipoexlpmco ebs tignizingocerdnaecneisc lgnetroppustonodyehtta tveeilbenotdo y hetthat mathtdan,)6(hsilgneniylno desab.)7(ecneicsfoegaug e urtsncocan niecsetht ath hsilgnefoytiealre htgnitaccep s tene ylsueoantlumisdan ppu s ylsserpxegniebhsil cinteicsormthat otgnilliwe erwtsom ylgnmieesesehtno ldohdeyeuststisn foe aguganle htas elo revitc an agnitrop 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 46 3.2. english neologisms in spanish oral and written communication the responses to our four questions in specific reference to neologisms will be discussed here. in order to analyze the way spanish scientists deal with neologisms, we considered three different situations: 1) when reading in english, 2) when talking to a spanish-speaking colleague, and 3) when writing in spanish. those surveyed were also asked about who they believed should take the most prominent role in secondary term formation: scientists, translators, terminologists, specialized journalists, or others. when encountering neologisms in written texts, most respondents do pay attention to these new terms (7) and either memorize them (2), highlight them (4) or write them down (1). only three respondents stated that they paid no attention to them. when spanish-speaking scientists talk to other nns colleagues in the laboratory and need to convey an english neologism, seven of them use an adaptive/adoptive technique plus a combinatory, bilingual solution for conveying in spanish newly encountered neologisms. only one respondent tends to use a very literal translation and two of them use a natural-sounding spanish equivalent only. six of the respondents use the english term then either try to coin an acceptable, natural-sounding equivalent (4/6) or formulate an explanation in their own words (2/6). it is notable that four of the five choices involving literal translations of the terms went unchosen, non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 47 non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): …-… for scientists in the use and defense of other languages coexisting with english in a multilingual world of science. figure 2. the role of english and other languages, in particular spanish, in the international world of science (respondents could choose one or more responses). 3.2. english neologisms in spanish oral and written communication the responses to our four questions in specific reference to neologisms will be discussed here. in order to analyze the way spanish scientists deal with neologisms, we considered three different situations: 1) when reading in english, 2) when talking to a spanish-speaking colleague, and 3) when writing in spanish. those surveyed were also asked about who they believed should take the most prominent role in secondary term formation: scientists, translators, terminologists, specialized journalists, or others. when encountering neologisms in written texts, most respondents do pay attention to these new terms (7) and either memorize them (2), highlight them (4) or write them down (1). only three respondents stated that they paid no attention to them. nno entscive inat eddnaesuehtnistsitneicsrfo cisfodlrowalugnilitluma ceen and n oinatissemdiresearch s,stient ixeocsegaugnalrehtof oesnfee ce. olneosh ilengand mssgi nihsilgnehtiwgnitsi 2e gurfi . herotand h sienglofe olrthe ednopse(r 23. . sigoloenhsilgen noitacinummco uqruruootsesnopsereth ntihe tn ih,sspaniarulcitparn i,anguageslher )sesnops rereor m oen oesooh cdluo ctsn . larohsinapsnisms otecnerercicepsnisnoitseu enicsofd lorwonalinaternt ce nettirwdnal eblliwsmsigoloeno uqruruootsesnopsereth o trdeorn i.erhed esuscsdi hrtd erdeionscew,smsogiolne 2) w n he napsatoginlkta rewdeyevrusesoht.hsinasp tsometh n ielo rtnenimor p uo jdeliziacep, stsisglooinmrte igoloengniretnuocnenewh (smertewne eshtotnoitentat y nlo.1)(n dowmhetetirwor to meth . otecnerercicepsnisnoitseu h snipasy awheteyzlnaao onsituatisnterdieehr : 1) whe hisn dna,eugaellocgnikaesp yehtohwtuobadeksaoslaer s:noitamrmre tyradnoce s .sreth or, otslisanru tsom,stxetnettirwnisms 2(emhtze iroemmerhteidan)7( tthatd etatssntpondesereehrty eblliwsmsigoloeno ics htiwealdstsiten n he ,hsilgnenignidare )3 w n he nignitiwr ekatdluohsdeveileb ,srotalsnar t,stsitneic s yapodstnednopser )4(emhtthgilhgih,)2 on intettano d ipay het ibér 32ca ibér 610 (2 ): …-… 11 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 47 leading us to conclude that this kind of terminological or translational solution tends to be discarded by scientists at the very early stages of neologism reception. when writing in spanish, similar strategies are used to transmit english neologisms. as we have just seen, literal translation solutions are not preferred at the earliest stages of reception, as even at this early stage scientists are already thinking about spanish acceptability and naturalness rather than overly faithful, word-for-word equivalents excessively rooted in the english source term. like above, a significant number of those surveyed opt for a combinatory, bilingual solution. none of the respondents use the english-only option. in fact, the most commonly-chosen option (4/10) is a linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): 35-5848 linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): …-… figure 3. how scientists react to neologisms when first encountered (one response only). when spanish-speaking scientists talk to other nns colleagues in the laboratory and need to convey an english neologism, 70% of them use an adaptive/adoptive technique plus a combinatory, bilingual solution for conveying in spanish newly encountered neologisms. only one respondent (10%) tends to use a very literal translation and 20% use a natural-sounding spanish equivalent only. 60% of the respondents use the english term then either try to coin an acceptable, naturalsounding equivalent (4/6) or formulate an explanation in their own words (20%). it is notable that four of the five choices involving literal translations of the terms went unchosen, leading us to conclude that this kind of terminological or translational solution tends to be discarded by scientists at the very early stages of neologism reception. kcrtes&rednli 3e gurfi . caerstsitneicsw ho hiswh iik no(deretnuocnetsrifnewhsmsigoloenott llsnnhttkltstit )ylnoesnopseren . tblhti hsinapsnewh neiscgnikaesp silgneaneyvncooteedndan euiqnhcte uspl a oatnibmco lno.smsigoleonedertnucoen dnantiolasnatr 20% tnaaeus hsilgneehtesustnednopsre fro)6/4(tnelaviegnidnuso ehtfor utahtelbatonsiit sugnidael,nesohcnutnwe tosdntentioluosl antiolasnatr oniptecermsogiolneof . gaellocsnnrehtootklats stitn ,msigoleonh 70% es umeh o eyvncornoitulosalugnilib,y tendnopesre noyl 0(1 %) sdnte laurt laviuqeshinapsgnidnuso rmet nainoctoytrreitheneth ehtninoitanalpxenaetalumr nratlraetilgnivlovniseciohcev ahtedulcnocot odinkistht t atstisniecsybdedracisdebto yrotarobalehtnis eug evitpoda/evitpad an a ylewnhsianpsnigni l arliteyrevaesutos .ylnotnel 60% eh o lartuan, lebtapeccan 2(s drownworie 0%). srmetehtfosnoitalsn rol aicglooinmrtefo segtaslyraeyreveth 2 3aicréib 610 (2 ): …-…12 linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): …-… figure 3. how scientists react to neologisms when first encountered (one response only). when spanish-speaking scientists talk to other nns colleagues in the laboratory and need to convey an english neologism, 70% of them use an adaptive/adoptive technique plus a combinatory, bilingual solution for conveying in spanish newly encountered neologisms. only one respondent (10%) tends to use a very literal translation and 20% use a natural-sounding spanish equivalent only. 60% of the respondents use the english term then either try to coin an acceptable, naturalsounding equivalent (4/6) or formulate an explanation in their own words (20%). it is notable that four of the five choices involving literal translations of the terms went unchosen, leading us to conclude that this kind of terminological or translational solution tends to be discarded by scientists at the very early stages of neologism reception. kcrtes&rednli 3e gurfi . caerstsitneicsw ho hiswh iik no(deretnuocnetsrifnewhsmsigoloenott llsnnhttkltstit )ylnoesnopseren . tblhti hsinapsnewh neiscgnikaesp silgneaneyvncooteedndan euiqnhcte uspl a oatnibmco lno.smsigoleonedertnucoen dnantiolasnatr 20% tnaaeus hsilgneehtesustnednopsre fro)6/4(tnelaviegnidnuso ehtfor utahtelbatonsiit sugnidael,nesohcnutnwe tosdntentioluosl antiolasnatr oniptecermsogiolneof . gaellocsnnrehtootklats stitn ,msigoleonh 70% es umeh o eyvncornoitulosalugnilib,y tendnopesre noyl 0(1 %) sdnte laurt laviuqeshinapsgnidnuso rmet nainoctoytrreitheneth ehtninoitanalpxenaetalumr nratlraetilgnivlovniseciohcev ahtedulcnocot odinkistht t atstisniecsybdedracisdebto yrotarobalehtnis eug evitpoda/evitpad an a ylewnhsianpsnigni l arliteyrevaesutos .ylnotnel 60% eh o lartuan, lebtapeccan 2(s drownworie 0%). srmetehtfosnoitalsn rol aicglooinmrtefo segtaslyraeyreveth 2 3aicréib 610 (2 ): …-…12 non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): …-… figure 4. strategies used by spanish-speaking scientists which are used to convey english neologisms when speaking spanish with colleagues (one response only). when writing in spanish, similar strategies are used to transmit english neologisms. as we have just seen, literal translation solutions are not preferred at the earliest stages of reception, as even at this early stage scientists are already thinking about spanish acceptability and naturalness rather than overly faithful, word-for-word equivalents excessively rooted in the english source term. like above, a significant number of those surveyed opt for a combinatory, bilingual solution. none of the respondents use the english-only option. in fact, the most commonly-chosen option (40%) is a spanish-only choice, either “i try to coin an acceptable, natural-sounding spanish equivalent” or, as one respondent added in the “other” text box, “i try to find an already-existing equivalent in spanish texts” (our translation). figure 5. strategies used by spanish-speaking scientists to convey english neologisms when speaking spanish with colleagues (one response only). when asked about who should bear the responsibility of secondary term formation in spanish, nine respondents consider that it is up to scientists to create neologisms, in two cases recognizing that specialized translators should also share this responsibility with scientists. none of them see this question as an exclusive responsibility of specialized translators. within the context of dissemination, five respondents pointed to the role they feel specialized translators should play, while three assign dissemination to specialized nno entscive inat 4e gurfi . hsinaspybdesuseigetarst -speaki panisng speaki ,hsinapsnignitirwnewh stusjvehaewsa.smsogiolne tiopecerfosegtast slieraeeth peccahisnapst uobaginkinth and n oinatissemdiresearch s,stient convey o tused e arch hiws stientscing speaki y)onlesponse rone (eagues lcolh tiwsh pani desueraseigetartsralimis onsiutolson italnsartlaretiln,ees anevesa, ntio egtaslyraeistht retharsselnartuandnailitybtap olneosh ilengand mssgi hen ws smogineolsh ingleconvey . hsilgnetimsnartot tad erreprnoteraons ydaelraeratstisniecs l, ithaflyrevonathr peccahisnapst uobaginkinth drwo rfo xestnelaviedrwo erbmuntcaningisa e,voab dnosperehtfoenon.noitulso ylnommco noitpoensoch (40% alruatne,labtaccep gnidnuso ytri“, xobt xte”retho“eth )ntiolasna trruo (”tsxte . retharsselnartuandnailitybtap ilgneehtnidetoorylevissecx rtpoedeyvruse sohtfo coa shilgneehtseus tned iopty onl 0%) hisnapsais e,echoicy onl enos a,ro”tnelaviuqeshinaps ydaelranadto eqgnitsiex l, ithaflyrevonathr ekil.mretecruoshs alugnilib,yroatnibmco tosmhet,tcafn ion.i n an oico ty rti“rheti tnednospere n idedd a hsianpsnitenalviueq 5e gurfi . hsinaspybdesuseigetarst -speaki twi s stientscing speaki glooe nhlisgn eyevno cto seugaelloch )lyn oesnops reen (o . hisnap sginkaep sneh wsmis hsohwtuobadeksanewh renin,hsinapsninoitamrfo casowtni,smsigoleone eatcr osal wytilibisnopse rsih terah s foytilibisnopesre visuclex pondeserveon,itnaimessdi w, ylaplduohssrtolasnatr ibér ytilibisnopserehtraebdluoh ititahtredisnocstnednopser zedialecipsathtgnziingecorescas smeh oeno n.stsitneic shti w tiw.sroatlsanrtzedialecips heteolrheto td entpoisntponde w naimessdign issaeehrtelhi 32ca ibér 610 (2 ): …-… 13 etyradnocesfo otstsitneicsotpus dluohssroatlsanrtzed n as anoitsesih tee fotextncoe htnih d ezilaicpesley he d ezilaicpeso ton itna 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 48 spanish-only choice, either “i try to coin an acceptable, natural-sounding spanish equivalent” or, as one respondent added in the “other” text box, “i try to find an already-existing equivalent in spanish texts” (our translation). when asked about who should bear the responsibility of secondary term formation in spanish, nine respondents consider that it is up to scientists to create neologisms, in two cases recognizing that specialized translators should also share this responsibility with scientists. none of them see this question as an exclusive responsibility of specialized translators. within the context of dissemination, five respondents pointed to the role they feel specialized translators should play, while three assign dissemination to specialized translators only, exempting scientists from this role. there were two “other” responses to this question, one of which noted that scientists should always be responsible for creating secondary neologisms because specialized translators often use neologisms in the wrong way. the second stated that the role of scientists, specialized translators and specialized journalists in secondary neology creation and dissemination was contextdependent. none of the respondents believed that specialized journalists had any role to play, neither as creators nor as disseminators of secondary neologisms, and none of them believed that primarily specialized translators should create neologisms and scientists should disseminate them. non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 49 non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): …-… figure 4. strategies used by spanish-speaking scientists which are used to convey english neologisms when speaking spanish with colleagues (one response only). when writing in spanish, similar strategies are used to transmit english neologisms. as we have just seen, literal translation solutions are not preferred at the earliest stages of reception, as even at this early stage scientists are already thinking about spanish acceptability and naturalness rather than overly faithful, word-for-word equivalents excessively rooted in the english source term. like above, a significant number of those surveyed opt for a combinatory, bilingual solution. none of the respondents use the english-only option. in fact, the most commonly-chosen option (40%) is a spanish-only choice, either “i try to coin an acceptable, natural-sounding spanish equivalent” or, as one respondent added in the “other” text box, “i try to find an already-existing equivalent in spanish texts” (our translation). figure 5. strategies used by spanish-speaking scientists to convey english neologisms when speaking spanish with colleagues (one response only). when asked about who should bear the responsibility of secondary term formation in spanish, nine respondents consider that it is up to scientists to create neologisms, in two cases recognizing that specialized translators should also share this responsibility with scientists. none of them see this question as an exclusive responsibility of specialized translators. within the context of dissemination, five respondents pointed to the role they feel specialized translators should play, while three assign dissemination to specialized nno entscive inat 4e gurfi . hsinaspybdesuseigetarst -speaki panisng speaki ,hsinapsnignitirwnewh stusjvehaewsa.smsogiolne tiopecerfosegtast slieraeeth peccahisnapst uobaginkinth and n oinatissemdiresearch s,stient convey o tused e arch hiws stientscing speaki y)onlesponse rone (eagues lcolh tiwsh pani desueraseigetartsralimis onsiutolson italnsartlaretiln,ees anevesa, ntio egtaslyraeistht retharsselnartuandnailitybtap olneosh ilengand mssgi hen ws smogineolsh ingleconvey . hsilgnetimsnartot tad erreprnoteraons ydaelraeratstisniecs l, ithaflyrevonathr peccahisnapst uobaginkinth drwo rfo xestnelaviedrwo erbmuntcaningisa e,voab dnosperehtfoenon.noitulso ylnommco noitpoensoch (40% alruatne,labtaccep gnidnuso ytri“, xobt xte”retho“eth )ntiolasna trruo (”tsxte . retharsselnartuandnailitybtap ilgneehtnidetoorylevissecx rtpoedeyvruse sohtfo coa shilgneehtseus tned iopty onl 0%) hisnapsais e,echoicy onl enos a,ro”tnelaviuqeshinaps ydaelranadto eqgnitsiex l, ithaflyrevonathr ekil.mretecruoshs alugnilib,yroatnibmco tosmhet,tcafn ion.i n an oico ty rti“rheti tnednospere n idedd a hsianpsnitenalviueq 5e gurfi . hsinaspybdesuseigetarst -speaki twi s stientscing speaki glooe nhlisgn eyevno cto seugaelloch )lyn oesnops reen (o . hisnap sginkaep sneh wsmis hsohwtuobadeksanewh renin,hsinapsninoitamrfo casowtni,smsigoleone eatcr osal wytilibisnopse rsih terah s foytilibisnopesre visuclex pondeserveon,itnaimessdi w, ylaplduohssrtolasnatr ibér ytilibisnopserehtraebdluoh ititahtredisnocstnednopser zedialecipsathtgnziingecorescas smeh oeno n.stsitneic shti w tiw.sroatlsanrtzedialecips heteolrheto td entpoisntponde w naimessdign issaeehrtelhi 32ca ibér 610 (2 ): …-… 13 etyradnocesfo otstsitneicsotpus dluohssroatlsanrtzed n as anoitsesih tee fotextncoe htnih d ezilaicpesley he d ezilaicpeso ton itna 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 49 4. discussion 4.1. what are the english publication practices and attitudes of spanish neuroscientists and medical researchers towards english? in an attempt to summarize our findings and put them into a meaningful perspective, we offer the following discussion. not surprisingly, the respondents consider english the main (and occasionally the only) language for reception of new knowledge. in our study we found that all respondents write and publish their scientific texts in english, with only 20% of those surveyed stating that they publish in both spanish and english and 80% stating that they publish exclusively in english. many scientists claim reading, writing and speaking skills in a wide number of other european languages. all of our sampled authors disseminate the scientific knowledge they generate in english, with only a small portion (20%) also stating that they publish in spanish. according to these data, 80% of the authors publish solely in english and none of the respondents write and publish their articles solely in spanish. fernández polo and cal varela (2009), pérez-llantada et al. (2011), and martin et al. (2014) conducted similar surveys in which they found results that clearly support the fact that most present-day scientists and academics tend to write directly in english, and their findings were linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): 35-5850 linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): …-… translators only, exempting scientists from this role. there were two “other” responses to this question, one of which noted that scientist should always be responsible for creating secondary neologisms because specialized translators often use neologisms in the wrong way. the second stated that the role of scientists, specialized translators and specialized journalists in secondary neology creation and dissemination was context-dependent. none of the respondents believed that specialized journalists had any role to play, neither as creators nor as disseminators of secondary neologisms, and none of them believed that primarily specialized translators should create neologisms and scientists should disseminate them. figure 6. the perceived role of scientists, specialized translators and specialized journalists in secondary term formation (one response only). 4. discussion 4.1. what are the english publication practices and attitudes of spanish neuroscientists and medical researchers towards english? in an attempt to summarize our findings and put them into a meaningful perspective, we offer the following discussion. not surprisingly, the respondents consider english the main (and occasionally the only) language for reception of new knowledge. in our study we found that all respondents write and publish their scientific texts in english, with only 20% of those surveyed stating that they publish in both spanish and english and 80% kcrtes&rednli gtinpmexe, lynosrtolasnatr o,noitseuqsihtotsesnopsre ocesgnitarecr elbisnopsre hetn ismsogiolneeusn e slnartdezilaicesps,stitneisc essdind aon itaercogy olne reht. leoristhmotstisniecs tneicstahtdetonhcihwfoen suacebsmsigoloenryadno pse yawong rwhe . at sdnoce seh t nruojdezilaicespdnas rotasl xteontcsawon itnaime ndepede retho“otwerewer ” ebsyawladluohstsi sroatlsanrtzedialecip f oelo reh ttah tdeta yradnocsenis stilan hetofonen.ntnde nednopsre epst athdevlieebts sroeatcr nor as ortnaimessdi cpesy liramiprthatd veeilbe etanimsseiddluoshs stitneisc orynadahtslisanruojdeliziace ,smsogiolney rondacesofsor ercd houlssortalnsartd ezilaic eht m. sareithen, ylaptoleo mhetofnonend a nd asmsogiolneetae 6e gurfi . tsienticsofe olred veicperthe onissucsi4. d iglneehtearathw1.4. stsinteicsourenh snispa an jed zialipecsand soratlansrted zialipecs,st )lyn oesnops reen (ontioarmfo . secitacrponiatcilbuphsi owtsrehcareseralcidemdan mertyondarecsn istsinalour ofsedutittadan ? hsiglnesdarow 2 3aicréib 610 (2 ): …-…14 zriammusottpmettanain owlhetrew,veitcpesrpe dnopsereht,ylgnisirprustno tiopecerregaugnla)lynoeth bupdane tirwstendnopesrlal dyeveursehostof tah tgnitat s mehttupdnasgnidnr uoe on.isuscsding iow amehthsilgneredisnocstned ruoni. egdlewonkwenfontio nenistextc itencisreihthsilb ahsinap shto bn ihsilbu pyeh tt lgninaemaotnim yllanoisaccodna(nia t athdnuewydtusr ylnohtiw,hsilgn 20% dn ahsilgn edn a 80% 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 50 similar to ours. pérez-llantada et al. (2011) found that of the ten senior spanish academics (five from the physical sciences and engineering, and five from the social sciences) they surveyed 80% wrote their articles directly in english. fernández polo and cal varela (2009) report that 77.8% of experimental scientists wrote over 75% of their work in english (2009: 156). a study conducted by hauaner and englander (2011: 407-8) found that amongst scientists in two higher education institutions in mexico 75% of respondents published at least half of their work exclusively in english, though only 5 out of 148 did so exclusively in english. there is a current tendency for non-native scientists to write directly in english. st. john, in 1987, found that scholars, at the beginning of their careers, had often tried writing first in their native language and had their papers translated. however, over time scientists have abandoned this practice because it is often too difficult to find native-speaking translators who have the right area expertise and also because the process of working with the translator can be too time-consuming (st. john, 1987: 116). mur dueñas (2012: 145) states that “scholars have moved from having their r[esearch] a[rticle]s translated into english to drafting the first version in english themselves”. our research provides additional evidence of this tendency. the subsequent implications of writing solely in english, and consequently abandoning scientific spanish, have therefore had quite a long history. for a language like spanish to remain active and viable as a language of science it is required that autonomous texts be produced in that language; these texts form the basis of in vivo terminology research, corpus-building and parallel text searching. other authors also provide data on this potential risk. pérez-llantada et al. (2011: 22) report: interviewees were aware that the emphasis on english-language publication came at a cost, especially to scientific publishing in spanish. as one social scientist explained, writing research papers in spanish was little valued with the result that spanish was increasingly restricted to popular science publications (e.g. the spanish equivalent of scientific american), national conference proceedings, and regional government reports, all of which are considered necessary for knowledge transfer but of limited prestige: “in publishing internationally we tend to neglect the spanish context. therefore, every now and then we try to publish science literature within the professional spanish circuit so as to transfer the knowledge gained from our research to working practitioners. non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 51 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 51 martin et al. (2014: 61) report that “the informants were well aware of the negative consequences of writing in english, namely that this hinders the development of academic writing in spanish, research on topics of local concern and the survival of medical journals in spanish”. the scientists we surveyed hold complex, even contradicting, opinions about the use of spanish and other languages within specialized discourse communities as vehicles of scientific and academic communication. at the same time, they both accept the reality of english as the language of science and recognize its benefits, and they support an active role for scientists in the use and defense of other languages coexisting with english in a multilingual world of science. only two specified that they use spanish for publication at all, and curiously both of them felt the need to “justify” the reason why they wrote in spanish at all: they used spanish for popular science texts. how can we interpret the divergent responses? do they mean that scientists think spanish scientific discourse should be preserved? do they mean that scientists think highly specialized scientific discourse, terminology and neology in spanish are a lost cause? to our minds, the complex, conflicting responses indicate that nnes scientists would welcome initiatives that can bridge the language gaps and make the communicative pathways bidirectional. for proposals that explore ways in which increased english scientific dissemination can co-occur with publication of scientific knowledge in spanish see menenghini & packer (2007), who propose such initiatives as bilingual publications, and salager-meyer (2013), who proposes such ideas as extended abstracts in languages other than english. 4.2. how do spanish scientists deal with english neologisms in the early stages of reception and re-production? in an attempt to observe what happens with english-language neologisms at the closest possible location of reception and re-production by nness, we tried to trace how they are first perceived, how they are dealt with in reception and how these are transmitted orally and in writing to fellow non-native scientists. this is the first attempt to trace non-native scientists’ neologistic behaviors and poll their attitudes using a self-reporting methodology. we hypothesized that the predominance of english as the preferred language of publication for spanish neurological and medical researchers, a situation that has caused spanish in these fields to be used for (mostly) popularizing purposes, would have an effect on the manner in which english neologisms linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): 35-5852 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 52 were received, transmitted orally and used in written texts. our initial hypothesis, namely that english neologisms would tend to be borrowed verbatim, translated literally or used jointly (borrowed neologism + literal translation), has not been borne out by the results of the study. we conjectured that, if spanish had truly become a non-scientific language used only for popularization of science, then scientists would pay little attention to how english neologisms would be conveyed in spanish, borrow them verbatim or use literal translation strategies. however, we found that most respondents (70%) did pay close attention to neologisms and tried to coin acceptable, natural-sounding spanish equivalents when speaking in the laboratory (60%) and when writing in spanish (60%). both in spoken and written communication in spanish, literal translation was barely used (10% in both cases) and english-only oral communication was used by 10% of the respondents, while in many cases the verbatim english neologism was used jointly with one of two explicitation types: (1) a spanish explanation (20%); or (2) an acceptable, natural-sounding spanish equivalent (20%). a significant number of the researchers (40%) stated that they often avoided using the english term entirely. based on these findings, we conclude that at very early stages of english neologism reception and re-production nnes spanish scientists use the english term plus an acceptable, natural-sounding spanish equivalent that they take upon themselves to coin. therefore, spanish scientists are creating secondary terms, not merely echoing english terms, immediately after receiving knowledge of them, and they are proposing mostly bilingual solutions that live side-by-side in conversation and on the page. one of the respondents stated that he or she “[tried] to find an alreadyexisting equivalent in spanish texts”. this comment prompted in us the following reflection: in order for such equivalents to be found, specialized, scientific texts written directly in spanish need to be available. without authentic texts, there can be no truly specialized scientific language, no in vivo terminology and no neology in spanish or indeed in any language other than english. another pertinent observation we would like to make is that all respondents recognize that they write in spanish, though this may be in nonarticle genres such as essays, book chapters, books, progress reports, informal communications and funding applications. concerned as we are with the disappearance of spanish as a language of science, it can be surmised here that in other types of writing apart from the research article spanish is used regularly and assiduously. in fact, díaz galán and fumero pérez (2010: 121) found that a significant amount of research dissemination in the hard sciences non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 53 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 53 was written in spanish. for prestigious, international research articles, these authors found that spanish is used much less frequently (14.8%), but for the totality of scientific production, including books and book chapters, essays, edited volumes and conference addresses and oral communications, spanish has a more significant presence (27.16%). we can surmise that in addition to published research, spanish scientists are producing a large volume of unpublished letters, e-mails, reports, applications, and other documents in which they report on their research in their native language. as for who scientists believe should bear the responsibility for secondary term formation in spanish, they overwhelmingly believe that scientists should create neologisms (90%). only 20% of the respondents recognize that this duty could be shared with specialized translators and, rather surprisingly, none of them envisioned specialized journalists as having any role to play, neither as creators nor as disseminators of secondary neologisms. this bullish attitude towards shared responsibility for neology in spanish is noteworthy, especially since both of these groups of language professionals are deeply and actively involved in secondary term formation and dissemination. on the one hand, specialized translators are often involved in cutting-edge, front line production of scientific communication, and on the other, specialized journalists are often asked to produce convincing and potentially long-lasting equivalents in popularizing texts and their texts reach a much wider audience than the scientific articles they are reporting on. 5. conclusion we found that the non-native speaking spanish scientists who responded to our questionnaire consider english the main (or even the only) source language for reception of new knowledge and they write and publish their research articles in english. the respondents call for wide use of english, but at the same time most of them advocate the use of spanish, though most of their texts in spanish are written only for “local” professional use and popularization purposes. most respondents pay close attention to english-language neologisms in the field of neurosciences. when talking in spanish with colleagues, most of them communicate english neologisms in english plus they add an explanation or a newly created equivalent in spanish. when writing in spanish, they tend to coin natural-sounding terms in spanish, sometimes linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): 35-5854 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 54 adding the term in english alongside. they tend to do this in the early stages of new term reception. most respondents believe that it is up to scientists, rather than terminologists and journalists, to create neologisms, though some scientists believe that specialized translators have a role to play. our small scale study confirms that spanish neuroscientists and medical researchers receive and disseminate new scientific knowledge virtually exclusively in english and over the years have gained the language skills to do so. however, the survival of spanish as a language of cutting-edge, frontline science has diminished, as evidenced by the fact that few of these scientists publish anything in spanish except locally-relevant texts and popularizing articles, books, chapters and essays. despite the recognition that the kind of research articles that bring academic prestige are written exclusively in english, there is also concern among these nnes scientists for the well-being of spanish, for the persistent use of spanish as a language of real science, not merely a language of popular scientific discourse. acknowledgements we would like to thank the two blind peer reviewers for their constructive feedback. we also extend our appreciation to our project director, joaquín garcía palacios, for his unwavering support. article history: received 23 march 2015 received in revised form 14 january 2016 accepted 15 january 2016 references non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 55 ammon, u. 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(2013). writing science in a second language. west lafayette, in: parlor press. martín, p., j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, a.i. moreno. (2014). “publishing research in english-language journals: attitudes, strategies and difficulties of multilingual scholars of medicine”. journal of english for academic purposes 15: 57-67. meneghini r. & a. packer (2007). “is there science beyond english?” embo reports 8: 112-116. moreno, a. i., j. rey-rocha, s. burgess, i. lópeznavarro & i. sachdev (2012). “spanish researchers’ perceived difficulty writing research articles for english medium journals: the impact of proficiency in english versus publication experience”. iberica 24: 157-184. mur-dueñas, p. (2012). “getting research published internationally in english an ethnographic account of a team of finance spanish scholars’ struggles”. iberica 24: 139-156. pérez-llantada, c. (2007). “native and non-native english scholars publishing research internationally: a small-scale study on authorial (in)visibility”. journal of applied linguistics 4(2): 217-238. 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 56 daniel linder teaches specialized translation and english for specific purposes at the university of salamanca, spain. he is a certified translator of the american translators association and a member of the chartered institute of linguists (london). he has published on a wide variety of research interests, including specialized language in literature, in babel, linguistica antverpiensia, perspectives, ttr and translation studies. goedele de sterck teaches translation at the university of salamanca, spain, and works as a professional translator. she is a certified translator of the flemish literature fund and the dutch foundation for literature and a member of tremédica. her main research areas are scientific and technical translation and terminology, and compared multilingual translation study in the field of germanic and romance languages. non-native scientists, research dissemination and english neologisms ibérica 32 (2016): 35-58 57 pérez-llantada, c., r. plo & g. ferguson (2011). “‘you don’t say what you know, only what you can’: the perceptions and practices of senior spanish academics regarding research dissemination in english”. english for specific purposes 30: 18-30. sager, j. c. 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(1993). “la ciencia española”, carta al director, el país, 8/10/1993. url: http://elpais.com/diario/1993/10/08/opinion/75003 4802_850215.html [20/10/14]. st. john, m. j. (1987). “writing processes of spanish scientists publishing in english”. english for specific purposes 6 (2): 113-120. de swaan, a. (2001). words of the world. the global language system. cambridge/malden: polity press/blackwell. swales, j. m. (1997). “english as tyrannosaurus rex”. world englishes 16 (3): 373-382. tardy, c. (2004). “the role of english in scientific communication: lingua franca or tyrannosaurus rex?”. journal of english for academic purposes 3: 247-269. universidad menéndez y pelayo & the lilly foundation (2013). declaración de apoyo al español como lengua internacional y del conocimiento. url: http://www.uimp.es/blogs/ prensa/2013/08/01/texto-integro-de-la-declaracion -en-apoyo-al-espanol-como-lengua-internacionaly-del-conocimiento-2/ [20/10/14] vandaele, s. (2013). “le français, langue du savoir: quelques réflexions”. le français à l’université 18(4). url: http://www.bulletin.auf. org/index.php?id=1697#quotation [20/10/14] vera torres, j.a. (2008). “la terminología científica en español: análisis de la situación y proyectos de actuación futura” in iii acta internacional de la lengua española: una nueva era audiovisual y tecnológica. url: http://www. rac.es/ficheros/doc/00498.pdf. [20/10/14] vivanco cervero, v. (2009). “tecnicismos, metáforas y ametáforas: lenguajes y lenguas en contacto” in m.j. arias-salgado robsy (ed.), el español, lengua para la ciencia y la tecnología. presente y perspectivas de futuro, 110-134. madrid: instituto cervantes/santillana. url: http://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/espanol_ciencia/04 .htm. [20/10/14] 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 57 notes 1 the authors are members of the neuroneo project (regulación de los procesos neológicos y los neologismos en las áreas de neurociencias, 2013-2016), which was funded by the spanish government’s ministry for the economy and competiveness (ref. ffi2012-34596). 2 this pilot study is limited to spain and the behavior and practices of a core group of neuroscientists and medical researchers. in a subsequent stage, we will conduct a larger-scale survey including latin american respondents and covering a wider representation of spain and the spanish-speaking world. after conducting the subsequent large-scale survey mentioned above, the results about attitude will be compared to real practice. to this end, a semiautomatic extraction tool for neologisms is being developed. this will allow scientists to submit proposals for new terms to a group of terminologists in such a way that both scientists and terminologists will end up collaborating on the creation of appropriate spanish equivalents which then will be disseminated jointly by the scientists and translators/interpreters (garcía palacios et al., 2013). linder & sterck ibérica 32 (2016): 35-5858 02 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:03 página 58 iberica 13 ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the recent rise in the number of english-medium journals in non-anglophone countries stems from the hegemony of english in global scholarly communication, and language requirements outlined by such journals to authors offer a valuable yet often overlooked source of information in terms of underlying values and assumptions concerning knowledge production and circulation. drawing on the notion of “semiperiphery” to refer to brazil’s current standing within global scientific publishing, this exploratory study focuses on author guidelines of brazilian english-medium journals indexed in the scielo database to map language requirements established for manuscript submission and to assess, from a discursive perspective, whether they reinforce or disprove dominant ideologies regarding academic publishing, knowledge construction and dissemination, and the status of english as the academic lingua franca. the research data included 98 journal guidelines sections from seven subject areas, and results suggest that journals across the disciplinary spectrum endorse the primacy of (native speaker) english in knowledge dissemination, which calls for a critique of scientific monolingualism on the part of research policymakers, in brazil and elsewhere. keywords: author guidelines; english-medium journals; brazil; scielo; semiperiphery. resumen políticas linguísticas na semiperiferia: uma análise de diretrizes para autores em periódicos brasileiros que publicam em inglês language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals gisele dionísio da silva centre for english, translation, and anglo-portuguese studies, nova university of lisbon (portugal) giseledionisio@gmail.com 131 ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 gisele dionísio da silva o aumento recente no número de periódicos que publicam exclusivamente em inglês em países não anglófonos alinha-se com a hegemonia do inglês no âmbito da comunicação acadêmica global, e as exigências de linguagem feitas por tais periódicos aos autores surgem como fonte de dados ao mesmo tempo valiosa e pouco explorada no que tange aos valores e às concepções que subjazem à produção e circulação de conhecimento. pautado no conceito de “semiperiferia” para definir a atual posição do brasil no contexto internacional de edição científica, este estudo exploratório analisa a seção “diretrizes para autores” de periódicos científicos brasileiros indexados no scielo que publicam somente em inglês. objetiva-se, com isso, mapear as exigências de linguagem atribuídas ao processo de submissão de manuscritos e avaliar, sob uma perspectiva discursiva, se estas reforçam ou contradizem ideologias dominantes concernentes à edição acadêmica, à construção e disseminação de conhecimento e ao estatuto do inglês como língua franca da ciência. os dados incluem diretrizes de 98 periódicos vinculados a sete grandes áreas do conhecimento, e os resultados indicam uma tendência transdisciplinar de endossar a primazia do inglês (nativo) na circulação de conhecimento, tendência essa que demanda uma crítica do monolinguismo científico por parte de agentes decisórios e formuladores de políticas de incentivo à pesquisa, tanto no brasil quanto em outros países. palabras clave: diretrizes para autores; periódicos em inglês; brasil; scielo; semiperiferia. 1. introduction english as the lingua franca of global communication has taken over academic practices in the last few decades. growing pressure to publish in this language now affects many scholarly requirements, such as those for assessing the quality of researchers’ work, granting tenure, and funding projects. the effects of this institutionalised pressure have had such an impact on scholars’ scientific output all over the world that english for research publication purposes (erpp) is now a thriving research field (canagarajah, 2002; curry & lillis, 2004; lillis & curry, 2010; lillis et al., 2010; bennett, 2014a & 2014b). researchers from non-anglophone contexts, non-native english speakers (nnes) who produce scholarly work in their local language(s) and have an increasing need to disseminate their findings to a larger global audience (motivated both by personal satisfaction and professional constraints), often face considerable difficulties in getting their work published in so-called “international” journals. these, despite the apparent diversity evoked by the 132 qualifier “international”, usually amount to english-medium publications controlled by a restricted group of large commercial publishers such as elsevier, wiley-blackwell, springer, and taylor & francis, which currently spearhead the highly profitable global market of scholarly publishing (these publishers accounted for over 50% of all papers published in 2013, according to a study by larivière, haustein & mongeon, 2015). therefore, according to lillis and curry (2010, p. 6), “together ‘english’ and ‘international’ constitute an important indexical cluster used to signify ‘high quality’”. the quality of such publications is measured by powerful indexes such as the science citation index (sci), created in the 1960s by the institute for scientific information (isi)1 to rank the world’s most important journals. to achieve this, the isi devised the impact factor (if), a calculation based on a two-year interval which involves dividing the number of times articles from a given journal were cited by the number of articles that are citable. the if sets in motion a cyclical trend in that it “both determines the inclusion of particular journals in indexes [and] helps contribute to the higher status of a journal” (lillis & curry, 2010, p. 15). even though the if still constitutes a major (if not central) bibliometric criterion of journal quality worldwide (lillis et al., 2010; packer & meneghini, 2015), it has been subjected to widespread criticism, including the claims that it is insufficient for measuring journal quality and that it does not realistically reflect research being carried out in developing countries (caramelli & rocha e silva, 2010). packer and meneghini (2015, p. 20, my translation) endorse such a critique: “the general belief or perception that the impact factor is correlated with the quality of research published by a journal and, in turn, with the quality of the journal itself affects and seriously restricts the development of journals published at national level”. be that as it may, journals continually strive to have high ifs and receive positive assessment from national governmental bodies as well as from citation indexes such as those of the web of science (wos). these indexes follow a specific set of criteria to evaluate journals, namely basic publishing standards, editorial content, international focus, and citation analysis (testa, 2016). publishing standards cover aspects such as peer review, acknowledgements, ethical practices, publishing format, timeliness, international editorial conventions and, most importantly, full-text english. testa (2016) underscores the importance of english for the international outreach of academic publishing: language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 133 english is the universal language of science. for this reason our focus is on journals that publish full text in english or, at the very least, bibliographic information in english. there are many journals covered in web of science core collection that publish articles with bibliographic information in english and full text in another language. however, it is clear that the journals most important to the international research community are publishing full text in english. this is especially true in the natural sciences. there are notable exceptions to this rule in the arts & humanities and in social sciences topics. (...) nonetheless, full text english is highly desirable, especially if the journal intends to serve an international community of researchers. the dominance of english within science is, therefore, a given to those responsible for establishing criteria to assess researchers’ work and productivity. thus, to conform to such linguistic and editorial standards and to enhance their visibility within the scholarly community, journals from non-anglophone countries have increasingly resorted to english as their sole medium of communication or, at best, as the preferred language alongside national or local ones. the incidence of such “english-medium journals” (lillis & curry, 2010; lillis et al., 2010; lillis, 2012; petrić, 2014) – a phenomenon viewed by petrić (2014) as relatively under-researched – now affects the whole spectrum of disciplinary areas, after an initial predominance in the hard sciences. in the brazilian academic scenario, publishing in english is also on the rise (packer, 2016). according to a report produced by clarivate analytics (2017) for the coordination for the improvement of higher education personnel [coordenação de aperfeiçoamento pessoal de nível superior – capes], a brazilian federal government agency which oversees research funding, brazil ranked 13th in the world as regards the number of peer-reviewed papers published between 2011 and 2016, and during the same period 87 brazilian journals were included in the wos indexes. the report does not make any explicit reference to english publications, but from testa’s quotation above it can be inferred that these journals offer, if not full texts in english, at least bibliometric information in this language. however, it does acknowledge that the inclusion of brazilian journals “shows the web of science editors’ recognition of the quality and international interest in brazilian research” (clarivate analytics, 2017, p. 11). therefore, complying to international standards – or to those established by the wos – involves tackling the language issue directly. brazilian journal editors have sought to do this by establishing normative and often nongisele dionísio da silva ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154134 negotiable guidelines for authors wishing to publish research articles and other texts (e.g. book reviews, review articles, case reports, and short communications). the “author guidelines” section, known also as “instructions for authors” or “submission guidelines”, comes forth as a valuable yet often overlooked source of information regarding editors’ expectations on the linguistic, structural, and bibliographic aspects of manuscripts. as the point of entry of scholars’ access to publishing, its potential for discourse analysis and for research on academic writing has yet to be fully explored; indicative of this is the fact that the literature review has so far produced only three studies which focus specifically on author guidelines in journals related to various fields of knowledge (for economics, see henshall, 2012, 2018; for applied linguistics, see viégas, 2016). this article examines author guidelines of brazilian english-medium journals from across the disciplinary spectrum, with a view to mapping out requirements established by editors for the submission of manuscripts and, ultimately, to assessing their stance related to dominant ideologies regarding academic publishing, knowledge construction and dissemination, and the status of english as the academic lingua franca. given that journal editors are major gatekeepers of scholarly publishing and have the power to establish which bodies of knowledge circulate and how, learning more about journals’ language policies is crucial to raising scholarly awareness of the way textual constraints may affect the wider context of the production and distribution of knowledge – even if policy and practice may (and often do) not overlap (henshall, 2018, p. 27). the remainder of this paper provides an overview of the theoretical framework adopted for this study, which draws on the notions of “semiperiphery” in academic writing, “discourse communities”, and “literacy brokers”; summarises the research data set and methodology; presents and discusses the main findings of the data analysis; and offers concluding remarks on the topic at hand. 2. the semiperiphery in academic writing current debates on the politics and practices of academic writing often refer to scientific communities in terms of either the centre (or core) or the periphery, a terminology first proposed by world-systems theory in the 1970s (wallerstein, 1984). according to bennett (2014a, p. 157), although the language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 135 theory was developed “to take account of long-term shifts in patterns of power and culture that could not adequately be explained on the level of the nation-state”, under a primarily economic focus, its major points and terminology have since been applied to various social, political, cultural, and educational discussions, among them that of academic writing. since there appears to be a direct relationship between national wealth and academic and scientific achievement (bennett, 2014a), scholars have widely resorted to dividing the world into centre – or, broadly speaking, “western” – and peripheral countries. the former are contexts of intellectual excellence and considerable investment in education and research, while the latter tend to have low research output and insufficient material resources. however, such a division is continually subject to instability, given the fluid nature of both core and periphery – it is possible, hence, to find peripheries within the centre and centres within the periphery (canagarajah, 2002, p. 42). the hegemonic role of english among the world’s languages, which canagarajah (2002, p. 40) sees as motivated by “nonlinguistic reasons”, that is to say, by political and economic dominance, has a twofold contribution: it spreads centre values to the periphery and gives centre institutions access to peripheral ones, thus serving as their role models. hence, what scholars in peripheral countries actually “import” from the dominant academic cultures is not only linguistic and rhetorical norms, but also epistemological paradigms of knowledge construction. this further consolidates anglophone research values and practices, in canagarajah’s (2002, p. 43) view: (...) publishing according to the conventions and terms set by the center academic communities influences in no small way the representation of periphery knowledge. the publishing requirements, epistemological paradigms, and communicative conventions established by the center shape the knowledge that gets constructed through (...) journals. such knowledge serves the interests of the center more than the periphery. the journals thereby disseminate partisan knowledge globally. situated in-between core and periphery, both geographically and economically, are countries that combine characteristics of both groups – these have been assembled under the label of semiperiphery, proposed by wallerstein (1984) within the world-systems theory and subject to multiple applications, including academic writing (e.g. collection of essays in bennett, 2014b; solovova, santos & veríssimo, 2018). in terms of academic culture, gisele dionísio da silva ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154136 semiperipheral countries play a dual role in the sense that they emulate and reinforce values and practices from the centre while, at the same time, welcoming new elements into the system as a result of their contact with the periphery. in mediating knowledge channels between the centre and the periphery, the semiperiphery strives to establish a balance within its own academic milieu – on the one hand, “by emulating the centre and professing a commitment to its standards” (bennett, 2014a, p. 168) and, on the other, “by giving a platform to alternative practices and non-standard forms of knowledge” (2014a, p. 169). from a linguistic standpoint, this process of assimilation from both “globality” and “locality” (salager-meyer, 2015) may generate phenomena such as diglossia and language change (bennett & muresan, 2016, p. 97), as well as further boost and legitimise the dominance of english as the lingua franca of scholarly output. as regards the scope of this study, the notion of semiperiphery seems applicable to the case of brazil. while the country’s academic community, in some disciplines more than in others, increasingly orbits around practices and values from the anglophone centre (what lillis & curry, 2010 name its centripetal pull), e.g. by the growing number of english-medium journals (packer, 2016; alcadipani, 2017), a closer collaboration with the wos, and the establishment of partnerships with “world leaders in research, like germany and the usa” (clarivate analytics, 2017, p. 13), it also shows signs of resisting anglophone dominance. examples of this centrifugal force (lillis, 2012, p. 716) include 1) an effective open-access (oa) policy for journals listed in bibliographic database scielo (scientific electronic library online), created in brazil in 1998 (addressed in more detail in the next section); 2) continuing publication in portuguese in most journals from the humanities2 and 3) a growing “regional collaboration within latin america” (clarivate analytics, 2017, p. 14). a segment of the brazilian academic community has, in fact, promoted a movement of resistance to the hegemony of english and to the often unreflective endorsement of the anglophone publish or perish logic; such a movement is voiced by alcadipani (2017, p. 409, my translation), who strongly urges against upholding an “epistemic colonialism” that assigns brazilian scholarly output a subaltern role on the world stage: if national english-medium journals or those now resorting to english are rarely cited by the “global” audience, seldom integrate rankings of “global” journals, and are rarely ever cited outside brazil, there is little reason why a researcher who has written an article in english that he/she considers to be language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 137 “good” should submit it to an english-medium brazilian journal. publishing in such journals will not help his/her scholarly output to become “global” or the author to participate in a “global” academic debate. alcadipani concludes that “publishing in portuguese” (2017, p. 410) may constitute a means of resisting the centripetal pull of anglophone academic practices. it must be pointed out, however, that the author directs his criticism at national journals that publish in english, rather than at scholars who seek to publish in english in international journals. the increase in english-medium journals being published in brazil is viewed in a very different light by packer (2016), co-founder of scielo, who regards it as “one of the most outstanding developments” in brazil’s process of research dissemination over the past few years, in addition to being one of three of scielo’s stages of internationalisation (the other two being minimum quotas for foreign researchers in editorial boards and for foreign authors in journals’ overall content). these radically opposing views are indicative not only of the contentiousness surrounding the issue of publishing (solely) in english, but also of the ambivalent – hence, semiperipheral – status of brazil within global scholarly practices, in general, and publishing trends, in particular. 3. discourse communities in academic publishing in recent decades, the term “community” has been associated with qualifiers like “discourse”, “practice”, and “speech” in attempts to describe and explain how a given social group both construes and is construed by language (canagarajah, 2002). given that this study seeks to highlight discourses connected with the brazilian publishing scene, as well as the way specific communicative goals are conveyed through textual instructions to authors (instructions that amount to an academic textual genre in its own right), it draws on the concept of “discourse community”, defined by swales (1990, p. 24) as “a group of people who link up in order to pursue objectives that are prior to those of socialization and solidarity”. inspired by the earlier and highly influential concept of “speech community” from sociolinguistics, swales sought to understand the internal dynamics of written scholarly communication (as opposed to the oral dimension of the parent concept) by contending that genres are “communicative vehicles for the achievement of goals” (1990, p. 46) which underscore and define all gisele dionísio da silva ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154138 operations of a discourse community. endorsement of genres is but one of six characteristics proposed by swales to identify a group of individuals as a discourse community, in addition to it subscribing to a set of common public goals; having mechanisms of intercommunication and effective participation among its members; acquiring specialised terminology; and establishing a threshold level between novices and experts (swales, 1990, pp. 24-27). for the purposes of this study, the mechanisms of intercommunication and the possession of genres and technical terminology are particularly useful to map out the ways in which the brazilian academic community establishes communicative norms via journals’ author guidelines section. academic publishing, as a specific scholarly practice, is a domain that oversees a series of conflicts and negotiations between members of different (sub-)communities. to examine the author guidelines section of brazilian english-medium journals and to shed light on the underlying set of values and ideologies that dictate what is to be published and how, this study also endorses the distinction between communicative and social conventions proposed by canagarajah (2002). the former is further divided into “textual” and “publishing” conventions, with textual conventions concerning “matters of language, style, tone, and structure that characterize academic texts” (canagarajah, 2002, p. 6), and publishing conventions encompassing aspects such as “the protocol for submitting papers, revisions, and proofs; the nature of the interaction between authors and editorial committees [and] bibliographical and documentation conventions” (2002, p. 6). social conventions are, in turn, “the rituals, regulations, and relationships governing the interaction of members of the academic community” (2002, p. 6). such a distinction is useful to the extent that it relates textual norms and constraints to the larger social practices at work within academic writing. in addition, this study draws on lillis and curry’s (2010) useful classification of academic communities that multilingual researchers are writing for. the authors envision seven potential communities which orbit around “disciplinary, geolinguistic and applied versus theoretical [dimensions]” (lillis & curry, 2010, p. 42): 1) national academic community in the local national language; 2) national applied community in the local national language; 3) national academic community in english medium; 4) “international” academic community in the local national language; 5) intranational academic community in english medium; 6) other national academic community in national languages; 7) “international” academic language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 139 community in english. the scope of this study immediately relates to the third type of community but, as will be seen in the discussion of results, some of the journal guidelines in the data set are clearly aimed at achieving the status of the seventh type of community. 4. literacy brokers academic publishing involves not only those who produce research and later report their findings to the scientific community, i.e. the actual authors of texts, but a number of others (individually or collectively) who intervene in varying forms and degrees on the shaping of manuscripts, both in terms of form and content. these interventions are often given broad and straightforward labels, such as proofreading, reviewing, editing, and translating, but their actual nature and effects on academic writing have as yet been little researched (lillis & curry, 2010). given that publishing, whether done for academic or commercial purposes, is a highly complex and multilayered process that involves collaboration (and often conflict and negotiation) between a number of professionals, the role they play cannot be underestimated. hence, this study draws on the notion of “literacy brokering” proposed by lillis and curry (2010, p. 88), a meta-category that encompasses “all the different kinds of direct intervention by different people, other than named authors, in the production of texts”. the use of the term “brokering” stems from the need to acknowledge “that intervention in academic texts is not a neutral enterprise, but rather involves participants of unequal status and power” (2010, p. 88). literacy brokers include two main categories: “language” and “academic” brokers. language brokers are asked to intervene on texts due to their expertise in language issues – these include, on the one hand, professional brokers such as translators, proofreaders, and language specialists in general, and, on the other, informal brokers such as friends or family members. academic brokers are, in turn, experts who work in universities or research facilities and have general, disciplinary or sub-disciplinary knowledge regarding the text they are called upon to correct or review. 5. research data and methodology the research data set comprises author guidelines from all 98 brazilian english-medium journals indexed by scielo, a digital library for oa gisele dionísio da silva ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154140 journals that was created in brazil in 1998 (for the history of scielo, see packer et al., 2014). nowadays it houses journals from 16 countries from latin america and europe, as well as from south africa, and its extensive list of contributors helps to put brazil among the top-ranking countries publishing oa journals worldwide – according to lillis and curry (2010), the country had the world’s second highest number of oa journals in 2009. the decision to investigate language policies in brazilian journals included in this particular research database was grounded on this study’s contention that brazil enjoys a semiperipheral standing as regards its scientific output – a standing which places it both at the borderlines of centres of research excellence and at the core of a research network encompassing scholars from latin america and other parts of the world. scielo, a platform initially created in brazil and still (proportionately) spearheaded by brazilian academics3, despite its multinational composition, comes forth as a suitable source of data for this purpose. the 98 journals that publish only in english account for one third of all brazilian journals currently indexed by scielo (296); those that publish only in portuguese or in portuguese and other languages (e.g. spanish) were excluded from the data set. of the journals, 32.65% presented author guidelines in english only, whereas 67.35% exhibited instructions in both portuguese and english. in addition, 60.20% of journals required authors to submit manuscripts with titles, abstracts, and descriptors in english only, whereas 39.79% asked authors to submit these in two or even three languages (english and portuguese or, in some cases, english, portuguese, and spanish). the journals surveyed cover seven subject areas, according to the classification put forward by scielo, itself based on the classification of broad disciplinary areas devised by brazil’s national council for scientific and technological development [conselho nacional de desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico – cnpq], the governmental body responsible for overseeing research and development. subject areas are as follows: agrarian sciences, applied social sciences, biological sciences, engineering, exact/earth sciences, health sciences, and human sciences. an eighth subject area listed in the index, that of linguistics, literature and arts, does not have brazilian english-medium journals indexed in scielo and was, therefore, excluded from the study. journals’ distribution according to subject area is shown in figure 1. language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 141 as regards sample size, the share of english-medium journals in relation to the total number of journals per area is as follows: agrarian sciences – 71.8%; biological sciences – 59.3%; engineering – 45%; exact/earth sciences – 40%; health sciences – 35.1%; human sciences – 7.8%; applied social sciences – 2.4%. such distribution shows a predominance of englishmedium outlets within the natural and hard sciences (a contention also made by petrić, 2014, p. 194 for english-medium journals in serbia). ten journals (10.2%) were listed in more than one subject area due to their multidisciplinary nature, but in this study were assigned only to the first field of knowledge listed in scielo. 5.1. analytical parameters parameters for analysing author guidelines sections converged, to a certain extent, with those proposed by viégas (2016) and henshall (2012, 2018) to categorise journals’ language requirements. viégas’ (2016, p. 65, my translation) parameters are “language”, “language variety (for spelling)”, and “third-party revision”, whereas henshall’s (2018, pp. 29-30) are variety of english, grammatical correctness, and readership constraints. in view of the nature of this study’s data set, a decision was made to adapt and add analytical categories. firstly, since all 98 journals analysed publish only in english, viégas’ first criterion was not applicable. secondly, in line with this study’s terminological orientation, “third-party revision” was renamed “literacy brokers”, a broader category which includes other forms of language mediation such as translation and copy-editing. therefore, four major parameters inductively emerged from the data analysis: english gisele dionísio da silva ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154142 journals’ distribution according to subject area is shown in figure 1. figure 1. distribution of brazilian english-medium journals indexed by scielo, according to subject area. a language variety, language style, literacy brokers, and publishing conventions. the first parameter, english variety, refers to journal guidelines’ indication of varieties of english to be used by nnes authors when submitting their texts. in the data set, specifications included american english, british english, american or british english, and english as a general term. journals that failed to specify a variety of english but conditioned the publication of manuscripts to language revision effected by editing companies based in english-speaking countries (such as the united states) were pooled under the corresponding varieties. the second parameter, language style, concerns both micro-level aspects related to accuracy in grammar and vocabulary, as well as macro-level, rhetorical aspects (in line with canagarajah’s communicative textual conventions). the third parameter, literacy brokers, pertains to the language professionals involved with editing, copy-editing, proofreading or translating texts prior to publication by journals. lastly, the fourth parameter, publishing conventions, covers journal guidelines’ specifications of citation and reference styles – which, in some cases, may imply editors’ preference for a particular language variety (a point already made by henshall, 2018, p. 29) – as well as of texts’ general structure and layout. the following section presents and discusses the main results of the data analysis. the data comprised textual information regarding instructions for authors made available on journals’ websites in scielo and, occasionally, on external websites (for journals published by editorial conglomerates such as elsevier and springer). explicit references to parameters 1 (english variety) and 3 (literacy brokers) were tallied under the categories that emerged from the data set: for parameter 1, “american english”, “british english”, “american or british english”, and “english”; for parameter 3, “proofreading by a nes (native speaker of english)”, “proofreading by a nes who is also an expert in the field”, “professional revision/editing”, and “translation”. textual information pertaining to parameters 2 (language style) and 4 (publishing conventions) were pooled under the respective categories. direct quotations from journals’ author guidelines are indicated by the initial letter of their respective subject area (agrarian sciences – a; applied social sciences – as; biological sciences – b; engineering – e; exact/earth sciences – e/e; health sciences – h; human sciences – hs) followed by a number in brackets. quotations from guidelines originally presented in portuguese on journals’ websites have been translated into english for the purposes of this article. language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 143 6. results 6.1. english language variety the analysis of journals’ language requirements shows that a vast majority of them (69.38%) did not specify language variety, opting instead for english as an umbrella term. this finding may be explained by a lack of perception on the part of nnes (or, indeed, of those of any language) regarding specific language varieties, which leads them to focus on the function of communication rather than on linguistic and cultural identity (henshall, 2018, p. 31). across the disciplinary sample surveyed in this study, the health sciences yielded the largest share (39.71%), followed by agrarian sciences (26.47%) and by biological sciences and engineering (11.76% each), which suggests a general lack of awareness of (or of concern for) language variation in these areas of knowledge. journals that endorsed the use of american english (or simply american spelling), both explicitly and implicitly (i.e. through the recommendation of language services provided by us-based companies), accounted for 23.47% of the total. while such a preference is not surprising, given the considerable influence of american culture among brazilians in general4, it reveals brazilian editors’ continuing endorsement of national standards of english amid growing support for the english as a lingua franca (elf) movement (jenkins, baker & dewey, 2018). four journals (4.08%) pointed out that “either north american or british english is admitted, but not a mix of both registers” (hs5), hence either expressing concern with language standardisation or emulating international journals. yet another journal acknowledged that, “[a]lthough we encourage submissions from around the globe, we require that manuscripts be submitted in american english” (b6), an almost apologetic statement specifically addressed to nes authors from countries other than the united states and, to a lesser extent, to nnes authors who use other varieties. as previously mentioned, the effective resonance of american academic practices in brazilian english-medium journals can also be felt implicitly, through the common endorsement of us-based language and editing companies. seventeen of the 23 journals (73.91%) pooled under the american english category gave such endorsement, mostly to the same company, as will be addressed in the subsection on literacy brokers. lastly, 3.06% of journals did not provide any language requirements, a finding that signals an imbalance between language policy and actual practice gisele dionísio da silva ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154144 (henshall, 2018) – since all texts published by them are, invariably, in english – and, ultimately, a taken-for-granted attitude on the part of editors regarding english as the sole conduit for disseminating scholarly knowledge. 6.2. language style journals generally employed broad and vague language style requirements, e.g. “clear and concise” (h8), “good scientific english” (b3), “correct scientific english” (h26 – my translation), “quality version” (a2, a3, a14, a23 – my translation), “acceptable english usage” (h18), “[a]ppropriate use of the english language” (h18). no further benchmarks are given to establish what counts as “good”, “correct” or “acceptable” written english, and further ethnographic research with the gatekeepers involved would be required to assess whether there are disciplinary differences at play in such requirements in the brazilian context (a methodological choice adopted by hynninen and kuteeva, 2017 in their analysis of research writing standards in finland and sweden). moreover, the most repeated qualification for manuscripts was “conciseness”, with the noun and its adjective “concise” having been mentioned by 4.08% of journals each; its portuguese equivalents, “conciso”/“concisa”, were mentioned by 15.15% of journals which presented author guidelines in this language. in addition, some journals made specific reference to micro-level aspects of grammar, vocabulary, and rhetoric. for instance, one publication requested that authors “[o]pt for short sentences in direct and active form” (h6 – my translation), in line with anglophone journals’ current preference for active over passive voice5. another journal alerted authors not to use “clichés, slang, and colloquial words or expressions such as ‘in the present study’” (b11) – the latter a literal translation of an expression commonly used by portuguese speakers in academic writing, which indicates that editors largely envision this to be the main target audience in terms of authorship and expect authors to “tone down” their portuguese textual rhetoric (bennett & muresan, 2016). yet another requested that authors “[n]ever use abbreviations that spell common english words, such as fun, pin, score, and sun” (h13), a curious admonition which, while motivated by a fear of having research articles appear too informal, lacks pragmatic validity. english numerical conventions were also stressed by some of the journals – for instance, 3.06% requested that authors should express decimal values by employing “dots instead of commas” (e/e4). such prescriptive recommendations corroborate hynninen and kuteeva’s (2017, p. 63) contention that l2 users language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 145 of english acting as gatekeepers may have conservative views towards standard english norms and thus reject variation. however, these recommendations may also be interpreted as didactic advice on the part of editors that seek to foster efficient writing practices in english by nnes authors; this view would help assign an educational role to semiperipheral english-medium journals, aimed at assisting “local authors develop skills needed for publishing in english” (petrić, 2014, p. 201). lastly, 7.14% of journals specifically asked authors to provide objective and concise titles for their articles and, above all, to avoid expressions like “effects of ”, “influence of ”, “study on”, “considerations on”, etc., deemed as “irrelevant” (a24 – my translation) and “unnecessary” (e7 – my translation). this need to avoid words and expressions regarded as too broad for a scientific report corroborates lillis and curry’s (2010) claim that highly specialised journals, such as those concentrated in the anglophone world, tend to be very restricted in scope, “where tiny yet significant contributions to specific knowledge areas can be noted and evaluated” (2010, p. 128). from this perspective, pinpoint contributions to scientific knowledge require an equally precise language in order to be effectively conveyed. this kind of norm, subsumed by a perception of english as the default language of science, often contrasts with other rhetorical traditions such as that of portuguese and other romance languages, which favours verbal expansiveness and elaboration (bennett & muresan, 2016, pp. 101-114). this rhetorical contrast raises a number of problems for the translation of academic texts from portuguese into english (bennett, 2011). 6.3. literacy brokers the analysis shows that literacy brokers operating in the brazilian academic publishing scene may be individual or collective, as well as relate to both language and content expertise. in the data set, 20.40% of journals stated that manuscripts should be proofread by a nes, whether one of the authors or not. of this sub-group, 45% of author guidelines stressed the twofold need for native speakers with scientific expertise, usually a colleague; in line with the terminology proposed by lillis and curry (2010), he/she would amount to an academic broker, but in the present case combines both language and academic brokering. moreover, 37.75% of journals expressed the need for manuscripts to be submitted to professional revision or editing6, whereas 22.44% gisele dionísio da silva ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154146 recommended manuscripts to be translated. these requirements entailed, in most cases, two others: 1) that authors must present a certificate validating the revision or translation of manuscripts (32.20% of the 59 journals which endorsed revision and/or translation), and 2) that such a certificate be issued by language editing companies suggested by journals themselves (33.89%). the data show that certain companies are endorsed by various journals from different subject areas, which suggests that journal editors tend to recommend brokers whose work they are familiar with to colleagues in charge of other journals. one company in particular stood out among the rest, having been endorsed by 32.20% of journals: american journal experts (aje), a us-based enterprise that offers proofreading, translation, and editing services to academics worldwide. given that its in-house proofreaders and translators are, according to its own website7, nes and phd holders from highly specialised fields, the company combines language and academic brokering and, as a result, exerts considerable influence over both the form and content of english-medium research articles. the company’s outreach helps to reinforce the legitimacy and hegemony of american english not only in brazil, but also throughout latin america. as for translation, another major brokering activity in these journals’ manuscript submission process, it operates mostly under the following conditions: authors may submit manuscripts in portuguese (or, occasionally, in spanish) but, in case these are accepted for publication, they must provide the english translation at their own expense by hiring professional translators or translation agencies. one journal even suggested that authors should “seek financial aid for translation in their own institutions, especially in postgraduate departments” (h7 – my translation), which confirms the widespread notion that high-quality translation services tend to be costly (lillis & curry, 2010, p. 112). of the journals which explicitly referred to translation, however, 18.18% do not outsource translation, but consider it as an in-house task to be performed by their own editorial team; by requiring authors to provide portuguese titles, abstracts, and descriptors, such journals offer to translate these into english for researchers with no knowledge of portuguese: “a portuguese language title, abstract and keywords will also be published. if you are fluent in portuguese, please provide this as indicated below. if not, we will translate your original text into portuguese” (h23). other references to translation concerned a macro-linguistic level in terms of literality – “provide a concise (...) and accurate portuguese or spanish translation of the english abstract” (b11); “abstract: up to 250 words, it language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 147 must be a faithful translation of the portuguese text” (a21 – my translation) – as well as a micro-linguistic level, as regards specific lexical categories: “names of sponsor institutions should be listed in their original spelling and not translated to english” (b11); “geographic descriptors must not be translated” (b11). across the disciplinary sample included in this study, the human sciences had the largest proportionate share of journals requesting manuscripts’ revision or translation or both (71.42%) at the hands of literacy brokers, followed by agrarian sciences (64.28%) and biological sciences (56.25%). this finding suggests that viewing revision or proofreading as a means to achieve language correctness is not an exclusive concern of scholars from the humanities, encompassing also those active in other subject areas (as observed by hynninen and kuteeva, 2017 with regard to historians and computer scientists). three journals, one from each of these subject areas, are published by international leaders in the field (two by springer and one by elsevier), and their instructions to authors hence follow these publishers’ standards. the large majority of these journals, though, are published by university or independent presses in brazil, which leaves open to contention the role of publishers in establishing journals’ language policies – a role highlighted by henshall (2018, p. 32) as being central to policies on grammatical correctness. this issue lies outside the scope of this article, but merits future investigation. 6.4. publishing conventions publishing conventions in the data set varied extensively among journals, especially with regard to citation and reference styles, but there was some common ground concerning the need to avoid or altogether prevent the listing of references in languages other than english (a practice highlighted by lillis et al., 2010). in addition to one journal specifically requesting noninclusion of references to works originally written and published in portuguese, three others instructed authors to list references in english whenever possible: in case references in other languages were considered necessary, one of them requested that “the title should be translated and presented in english, between brackets” (a6), whereas another made the following concession: “up to four references written in languages other than english will be allowed without the need for justification” (a28 – my translation). restricting authors’ referencing scope to english-medium publications is clearly tributary to editors’ wish to increase journals’ if and gisele dionísio da silva ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154148 hence boost their international standing, but the (not so) long-term implications of silencing research produced in local languages, notwithstanding its quality, must be addressed by academia and governmental bodies. a further indication of the hegemonic status of english in these publications may be given by their visual layout. three journals requested that titles, abstracts, and descriptors in english must come before their equivalents in other languages. one of them stated: “the title in portuguese or spanish must be placed below the title in english. the resumo or resumen should be placed after the abstract and keywords” (h8). precedence – both literal and metaphorical – of english in academic writing is, once again, motivated by practical bibliometric factors, e.g. faster and more accurate search for research articles and effective citation, but also conforms to an ideology that seeks to legitimise english as the only credible conduit for producing and disseminating knowledge worldwide. 7. conclusions the status of english as the language of global communication and, as far as academia is concerned, as the medium through which scholars hope to boost the visibility and influence of their research has complex and farreaching implications; one of the most detrimental is the gradual silencing of knowledge produced and reported in other languages. what the widespread adoption of linguistic and rhetorical norms, as well as of other academic practices from the anglophone context, actually implies is that it is still up to the centre to settle “what counts as relevant knowledge and who has the right to determine what counts as relevant knowledge” (lillis & curry, 2010, p. 161). in some of the brazilian journals analysed, editors’ wish to increase if and academic visibility has even led them to restrict the number of references written in languages other than english – a clear indication that, albeit for bibliometric purposes, quality scientific output by nnes authors needs to be monolingual, particularly in the natural and health sciences. far from subscribing to a rejection of english-medium publishing (in brazil and elsewhere) and to a movement of linguistic, rhetorical, and epistemological resistance, this study sought to shed light on a largely unexplored source of data regarding the editorial voice behind academic language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 149 journals. since editors are the major gatekeepers of publishing and have the power to establish which bodies of knowledge circulate and how, learning more about journals’ language policies is an important step in raising awareness about the way textual and rhetorical constraints may affect the production and distribution of scientific knowledge. this study’s findings have shown, by recourse to the four major parameters outlined (english variety, language style, literacy brokers, and publishing conventions), that brazilian english-medium journals follow a diverse array of textual and rhetorical norms, despite some common ground between them. for instance, they tend to refer to english as a homogenous, global language, rather than specifying language varieties – a finding which suggests that brazilian editors generally favour the promotion of reader fluency more than the association with a given linguistic and cultural tradition. moreover, they tend to view the role of literacy brokers as beneficial to the publication process, though this role is largely expected to be certified, either by language editing companies or by native speakers with expertise in academic writing and/or scientific research. as regards language style and publishing conventions, the considerable diversity in language requirements observed in the data prevents any kind of systematic quantification; this suggests that such instructions to authors, rather than being simply “copied” from older or more prestigious journals, may reflect editors’ personal notions of language standardisation and correctness. in general, there is a clear effort on the part of editors to offer a platform for brazilian researchers to gain more visibility on a global scale, since many instructions seem to address issues that are familiar to portuguese speakers (marlow, 2014). results, therefore, show that these english-medium journals reinforce, through various strategies, traditional notions of academic publishing, knowledge construction and dissemination, and, above all, the status of english as the academic lingua franca. however, there is a seeming paradox in their efforts to achieve international recognition, in view of the high incidence of journal titles (38.77%) that include the nationality adjective “brazilian”; one journal fully embraces such paradox by being called the international brazilian journal of urology. this apparent contradiction – coupled with the fact that the majority provide author guidelines in portuguese and occasionally in spanish, as well as in english – has the potential to confirm brazil’s semiperiphery standing within the global scholarly publishing scene. this standing, while retaining a “national” reference through journal titles (even if for purely historical reasons), also gisele dionísio da silva ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154150 strives to meet international standards for scientific production – exclusive publication in english among them. in summary, despite growing calls for brazilian scholars to publish in english and, in so doing, to improve their professional assessment and boost career prospects, the fact that english-medium journals account only for one third of scielo’s total number of journals (with the others still publishing in portuguese or in portuguese and english) indicate that the brazilian academic community in general continues to resist the “centripetal pull” of the anglophone centre, at least in the short term. as a true semiperiphery location, brazil continually aims to reach a balance between maintaining its locality and aspiring to universality, between producing (as well as applying) research for the local population while enhancing its competitiveness abroad. it is important that all those involved with drafting educational and research policies at national level, while coming up with solutions to boost scholarly productivity, also critically assess the long-term impact of scientific monolingualism on brazil’s academic culture. such a debate is naturally extensive to other geolinguistic contexts and discourse communities, and future research on journals’ language policies, whether from an intra-, multi-, or transdisciplinary perspective, should help scholars assess their collective practices and foster more equitable mechanisms of knowledge circulation. article history: received 15 september 2019 received in revised form 12 april 2021 accepted 05 may 2021 references language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 151 alcadipani, r. 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(2014). capítulo 1 –o scielo aos 15 anos: raison d’être, avanços e desafios para o futuro. in a. l. packer et al. (eds.), scielo – 15 anos de acesso aberto (um estudo analítico sobre acesso aberto e comunicação científica), (pp.15-28). unesco. packer, a. l., n. cop, a. luccisano, a. ramalho, & e. spinak (eds.) (2014). scielo – 15 anos de acesso aberto (um estudo analítico sobre acesso aberto e comunicação científica). unesco. petrić, b. (2014). english-medium journals in serbia: editors’ perspectives. in k. bennett (ed.), the semiperiphery of academic writing: discourses, communities and practices (pp.189209). palgrave macmillan. salager-meyer, f. (2015). peripheral scholarly journals: from locality to globality. ibérica, 30, 15–36. solovova, o., santos j. v., & veríssimo, j. (2018). publish in english or perish in portuguese: struggles and constraints on the semiperiphery. publications, 6(25), 1–14. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge university press. testa, j. (2016). journal selection process. clarivate analytics, 18 july. retrieved 23 august 2019 from https://clarivate.com/essays/ journalselection-process viégas, m. r. (2016). o inglês como língua franca e a publicação acadêmica: uma análise de diretrizes para autores de periódicos internacionais [english as a lingua franca and academic publishing: an analysis of author guidelines of international journals]. master’s dissertation. federal university of rio grande do sul. wallerstein, i. (1984). the politics of the worldeconomy: the states, the movements and the civilizations. cambridge university press. notes 1 the isi created the web of knowledge (nowadays known as web of science), an online platform for multidisciplinary scientific citation indexing. the web is now maintained by clarivate analytics. 2 retrieved 23 august 2019 from http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?lng=en 3 according to scielo analytics, brazil has a clear lead in the ranking of articles’ affiliating countries within scielo, accounting for 65.87% of the total number of publications. retrieved 23 august 2019 from https://analytics.scielo.org/w/publication/article?collection=scl#about-the-chart-5 4 according to the british council (2015, p. 55): “the youth of brazil are mostly exposed to the american way of life through popular culture. as a result, many of the younger students will enrol in schools that teach american english and are oriented towards american english proficiency tests, like the toefl (currently over half of the english taught in brazil is american english)”. 5 according to bennett (2011, p. 194), the “so-called impersonal active” involves using the active voice when the grammatical subject is an object, thing, or material. 6 one journal suggested reading materials on the issue (“guidance on grammar, punctuation, and scientific writing” – b6), among them an article (marlow, 2014) which gives “tips” for native portuguese speakers to write like a nes. 7 retrieved 23 august 2019 from https://www.aje.com/about/our-team language policies from the semiperiphery: an analysis of author guidelines in brazilian english-medium journals ibérica 41 (2021): 131-154 153 iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.49 abstract the literature review (lr) section is an integral part of a research article (ra) where the author needs to develop a theoretical groundwork to anchor his/her own study. however, the part-genre always eludes novice writers, which involves deciding what to cite from relevant past literature and what goals cited ideas serve therein. insights are thus necessary into how experienced/expert writers address such issues. unfortunately, there has been a dearth of research into this topic, with existing work focusing mainly on formal features and generic functions of source use. motivated by the gap and the pedagogical need and grounded in swales’s (1990) cars model and kwan and chan’s (2014) semantic typology of citations, this study is an attempt to examine semantic attributes of source ideas that get cited in different parts of lr sections of information systems ras following a behavioral science research (bsr) paradigm. findings reveal that distinct types of source ideas are cited, which are associated with the specific moves/steps of the lr sections and the bsr paradigm. a comparison of some of the cited ideas with the original ones from the source texts demonstrates that the latter have been re-contextualized to varying degrees to advance the arguments that the writers make in their lrs. taken together, the study’s outcomes suggest that using a move-specific approach can yield useful insights into source use in lrs. implications for citation teaching and future citation research will be drawn. keywords: citation content, literature reviews, move analysis, information systems, re-contextualization what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? an exploratory study of citations in information systems research articles thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan hong kong metropolitan university (hong kong) & city university of hong kong (hong kong) hotchan@hkmu.edu.hk, enbkwan@cityu.edu.hk 49 ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan resumen ¿qué citan los investigadores en la sección de revisión bibliográfica? un estudio exploratorio de las citas en los artículos de investigación del área de sistemas de información la revisión bibliográfica es una sección fundamental de un artículo de investigación en la que el autor necesita desarrollar una base teórica para sustentar su propio estudio. sin embargo, esta sección, que implica decidir qué citar de la bibliografía previa y a qué objetivos responden las ideas citadas en ella, tiende a eludir los artículos de escritores noveles. por ello, es necesario saber cómo los escritores experimentados o expertos abordan estas cuestiones. lamentablemente, la investigación sobre este tema es escasa y los trabajos existentes se centran principalmente en las características formales y en las funciones genéricas del uso de las fuentes. teniendo en cuenta este vacío y su necesidad pedagógica, este estudio, basado en el modelo cars de swales (1990) y en la tipología semántica de citas de kwan y chan (2014), trata de examinar los atributos semánticos de las ideas fuente que se citan en diferentes partes dentro de la sección de revisión bibliográfica en artículos del área de sistemas de información, siguiendo un paradigma de investigación de las ciencias del comportamiento. los resultados revelan que se citan distintos tipos de ideas fuente que se asocian con los movimientos/pasos específicos de las secciones de revisión bibliográfica y el paradigma de investigación de las ciencias del comportamiento. una comparación de algunas de las ideas citadas con las originales de los textos fuente muestra que estas últimas han sido recontextualizadas en diferentes grados para avanzar en los argumentos que los escritores presentan en sus secciones de revisión bibliográfica. en conjunto, los resultados del estudio sugieren que utilizar un enfoque específico en el movimiento puede generar información útil sobre el uso de las fuentes en las revisiones bibliográficas. además, se extraen implicaciones para la enseñanza y para la futura investigación sobre la citación. palabras clave: contenido de las citas, revisión de la bibliografía, análisis de movimientos, sistemas de información, recontextualización. 1. introduction the literature review (lr) in research writing has drawn much attention among eap scholars in recent years (kwan, 2006; kwan et al, 2012; bruce, 2014; chen & li, 2019; gil-salom & soler-monreal, 2014; peng, 2019; xie, 2016) owing to its strategic importance in various research genres. one of the key functions of the lr is to signal to the reader the wider research 50 community to which the writer’s study belongs. in some lrs, writers present and defend their theoretical frameworks and other important aspects of their studies (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; hart, 1998). these functions call for a critical engagement with past literature and hence a heavy reliance on source use. citing in lrs often presents different sorts of challenges to novice writers, which are manifested in various forms of anomalies. bibliomaniac referencing (belcher, 1994), laundry-listing of citations (rudestam & newton, 2007), and indiscriminate citing (ridley, 2012) are those highlighted in the literature. the problems point to writers’ lack of authorial control over what they cite (ridley, 2012; kamler & thomson, 2006) and, more importantly, a misconception of lrs. rather than seeing it as a strategically developed narrative of existing scholarship to advance their studies, many writers mistake lr as an encyclopedic description of a field of studies to display their knowledge (rudestam & newton, 2007). addressing what many supervisors and reviewers may see as aberrant citing, some research writing manuals have started to provide advice on source use in general (paltridge & starfield, 2020; swales & feak, 2012) and some on its use in lr writing in particular (hart, 1998; ridley, 2012; feak & swales, 2009; swales & lindemann, 2002). unfortunately, very few of them have dealt with what writers need to cite in specific parts of lrs and rhetorical purposes cited ideas serve in the parts. instruction in lrs to date seems to emphasize mostly the widely established cars (create-a-research-space) model (swales, 1990) as a schema to organize the part-genre, with little attention given to how specific moves/steps draw on source ideas. the pedagogical paucity could be explained by the lack of empirical research on which instruction can draw. indeed, despite the plethora of citation research conducted by eap scholars, much of the work has focused on lexicogrammatical features and functions of citations (e.g., hyland, 1999; petric’, 2007; samraj, 2013; swales, 1990) rather than their propositional content. addressing the empirical and pedagogical voids in the literature, we present in this paper an investigation of semantic attributes of source ideas referred to in specific moves/steps of lr sections of research articles (ras) published in information systems journals. we argue in this paper that what gets cited is constrained in part by the moves/steps in which the citations situate (kwan & chan, 2014). what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 51 2. literature review of citation studies with referencing being a key requirement in scientific research, citation over the years has been studied by scholars not only in applied linguistics but also in information science and sociology of science (white 2004). information scientists interested in bibliometrics and scientometrics tend to see citation as a normative/reward system (white 2004). much of the scholarship in the field tends to focus on the relationships between citing papers and those cited, gauging the value and impact of scientific publications (lang et al., 2020; liu et al., 2014; sun & zhu, 2012). sociologists of scientific knowledge on the other hand have their focuses on citing as acts of scientific bricklaying and persuasion (gilbert, 1976, 1977; merton, 1973; small, 2004). they investigate behind-the-scene practices to understand social construction of knowledge (gilbert, 1976, 1977; law & williams, 1982) and private intentions of citing (gilbert & mulkway, 1984; myers, 1985). sharing some of the views of scholars of the two fields, applied linguists see citation as an ethical and rhetorical practice but they are more concerned with its discoursal and textual features such as linguistic realizations that might serve various rhetorical ends (harwood, 2004). within the domain of eap, work has often been pedagogically motivated (charles, 2006; hyland, 1999; swales, 1990). one commonality of the large body of work produced in the three fields is the concern with classifying citations and various taxonomies have been generated. many of the schemes focus on citation functions1 with evidence drawn from textual contexts or ethnographic data (see, e.g., chubin & moitra, 1975; harwood, 2009; liu, 1993; moravsik & murgugesan, 1975; peritz, 1983; petric’ 2007; petric’ & harwood, 2013; spiegel-rösing, 1977; swales, 1986). with its emphasis on language, some of the taxonomies developed in applied linguistics concern primarily lexico-grammatical features of citations (e.g., hyland, 1999, 2002; thomas & hawes, 1994; thompson, 2005; thompson & tribble, 2001; thompson & ye, 1991). while the taxonomies shed light on various aspects of citations in different ways, translating them into instruction in lr writing is not without difficulties. one is that the functional categories are mostly generic and do not particularly show how they can be applied in specific parts of a research text. secondly, they do not address citation content. what sorts of ideas do writers tend to cite in a particular move of an lr? what shape the citations of such ideas? moravcsik and murugesan (1975) and finney (1979) are among the few that seem to be able to answer the questions. their schemes, thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7452 though show predominantly functional categories, does include ‘concept’, ‘method’, and ‘tool’ that are more concerned with citation content. yet, their schemes do not particularly show whether these three types of ideas are cited in specific sections of a research text. among the different studies documented in the literature, we find kwan and chan’s (2014) sectionspecific citation analysis the most germane to the current study. analyzing source ideas in different moves of the results and closing sections of ras in information systems, the authors postulated three macro types of epistemic matters (entities) commonly cited in research texts, namely, theoretical2, methodological3 and research (see figure 1). figure 1. kwan and chan’s (2014) semantic typology of citations (p.31). theoretical citations carry theories or concepts. they may be shorthand citations (hyland, 1999) bearing just names of theories (see text 1). they can also be definitions of constructs (text 2) or propositional statements (text 3). text 1 castells’ theory of network society (castells, 2000) and tammen’s power transition theory (tammen, 2000) provide perspectives that are germane in this regard. text 2 cognitive trust refers to an interpersonal trust based on rational thinking (lewis & weigert, 1985). text 3 finally, homophily theory (e.g., mcpherson et al., 2001) suggests that people who perform at a similar level are more likely to interact repeatedly with each other. what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 53 citation category epistemic entities possible types of epistemic entities possible types of content about the entities theoretical citation conceptual entities a theory a concept the name of a theory/concept a hypothesis a definition of a concept methodological citation methodological entities a research methodology/ instrument/protocol the name of a research approach/instrument/procedure a specific characteristic of a research instrument/procedure research citation research activities a research study a group of research studies the aim/focus of a research study research finding methodological citations relate research approaches mostly (see text 4) though occasionally more concrete techniques or procedures are included. text 4 we chose to use strauss and corbin’s (1990) [grounded theory] approach…. research citations refer to different aspects of empirical work such as research aims (text 5) or research findings (text 6) usually signaled by research-related verbs such as “aim at” and “reveal”. text 5 casamayor et al. (2010) similarly aim at detecting nfrs… text 6 animesh et al. [1] revealed that experiential factors have a significant impact on users’ intention to purchase virtual items in an svw. taking the 3-category scheme to guide the coding of citations in their corpus, kwan and chan (2014) noticed finer types in each category with each serving particular purposes in specific moves of the results and closing sections. their findings led them to develop a section/move-specific and semantic-functional citation typology, suggesting the promises that the move-based approach holds for pedagogically-motivated citation analyses. following kwan and chan (2014), the current study examines source ideas cited in specific moves/steps in lrs in information systems ras by drawing on their citation classification scheme as well as the widely-established cars model (swales, 1990) originally postulated for ra introductions but subsequently found applicable to lrs in theses and ras (kwan, 2006; kwan et al., 2012; gil-salom & soler-monreal, 2014; soler-monreal, 2015; tessuto, 2015; tseng, 2018). the cars model assumes that writers follow three tactical moves to create the niches of their studies in competitive publishing ecologies. the three moves are move 1 establishing a territory, move 2 establishing a niche, and move 3 occupying the niche, with each realized in identifiable steps. it is argued here that the moves and their respective steps to a large extent constrain what might get cited therein. in move 1, for example, when writers establish the territories of their studies, they tend to employ the steps of characterizing existing knowledge (e.g., theories and concepts) associated with their thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7454 research topics and surveying relevant research activities by citing extensively (kwan, 2006; swales 1986, swales, 1990, 2004). source ideas found in these two steps quite likely fall into the categories of theory and research of kwan and chan’s (2014) taxonomy. move 2, an evaluative move, may cite ideas pointing to theoretical or methodological issues. the overall aim of the current study is to explore whether such speculations can be borne out empirically. specifically, it seeks to address three analytical questions: 1) in which moves and steps of the lr sections do citations usually occur? 2) what ideas tend to be cited in the identified moves and steps of the lr sections? 3) what functions do the ideas serve in relation to the moves and steps of the lr sections? 3. methodology 3.1. information systems ras in information systems (is) was chosen for this study. is has an interdisciplinary origin, drawing heavily on theories, concepts, and research methods from various reference disciplines (e.g., computer science, management, sociology, social psychology) to study human and organizational issues regarding the development, application, and management of is (avgerou & cornford, 1993). the field thus has a multiepistemological landscape with behavioral science research (martin & smith, 1995), design science research (hevner, 2007), and interpretive research (klein & myers, 1999) often discussed in the literature. owing to the limited space, only lrs in behavioral science research (bsr) ras were analyzed in this paper. bsr is a positivitist paradigm, which aims to develop and test a theory that explains or predicts an it-related phenomenon and its possible impacts on organizations and individuals such as the impacts of the use of smart tourism technologies (e.g., smartphone apps) on travelers’ travel planning (huang et al., 2017). bsr typically follows a hypothetico-deductive approach (march & smith, 1995), which begins with the formulation of a theory comprising a set of hypotheses about associative relationships between what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 55 phenomena. the hypotheses are then validated through quantitative methods involving statistical testing of data collected from sources such as surveys and experiments (lee, 1989). 3.2. data collection the data under study were sourced from reputable is journals. an online search was first conducted on the sjr (scientific journal rankings) computer science, information systems database4 to identify high-ranking is journals, which yielded a total of 311 journal titles. then the journals were rankordered according to their impact factors. the top 50 were screened. among these were six belonging to the senior scholar’s basket of eight considered by the association of information systems as the most prestigious (ais, 2011). the six journals were eventually chosen5. a total of 30 bsr ras published in 2010-2018 were selected using a judgment sampling method. all these articles investigated associative relationships between it-related phenomena with an lr section appearing between the introduction and methodology sections which was named with such section headings as literature review, research model and hypotheses, theorybuilding and hypothesis development, or model development (cf., kwan, 2017). the lr texts were extracted for analysis. the corpus has a size of 108,974 words and an average word count of 3,632 per text. 3.3. data analysis 3.3.1. move/step analysis a move/step analysis was performed to identify the moves and their steps informed by the cars model (swales, 1990, 2004) and the model developed by kwan et al. (2012) on is lrs. each text was first read to gain an overall understanding of its purpose, content and structure. our observations showed that the lr sections had a clear aim to develop hypotheses, which were presented in different sub-sections. these hypotheses were tested in the writers’ studies (cf., kwan, 2006; kwan et al., 2012). the reading of each lr text was followed by a preliminary parsing of move-step segments per section. each segment was then coded accordingly. codes were also created to accommodate new step segments. (see section 3.3.3 for discussion of reliability and validity checks of coding). figure 2 presents the move structure identified. it was observed that the move structure was realized in thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7456 a simple 1-2-3 pattern and sometimes it was manifested in cyclical patterns (e.g., 1-2-1-3). figure 2. the move structure of the bsr lrs. 3.2.2. citation analysis a citation analysis was conducted after the move coding was completed. a citation is defined here as a text segment comprising a unit of ideas taken from a single source or generalized from multiple sources, which can be realized in a wide range of grammatical units, ranging from noun phrases to subordinate and main clauses and even sometimes spanned several main clauses (see the italicized parts in texts 7 and 8). text 7 we draw on attentional control theory (act) (eysenck et al. 2007) to explain how negative emotion influences mouse cursor distance and speed. what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 57 m1 establishing a territory s1a claiming centrality s1b making topic generalizations s1c reviewing items of previous research m2 establishing a niche s2a counter-claiming s2b indicating a research gap s2c question-raising s2d continuing a tradition s2e making inferences m3 occupying the niche s3a outlining purposes s3b announcing present research s3c presenting hypotheses s3d defining the theoretical notion(s) used s3e describing the notion(s) used s3f describing the theory used s3g indicating the next (sub-)section note: move is abbreviated as m. for example, move 1 is referred to as m1. steps are also abbreviated as s. for example, s1a, s1b, s1c, and s1d mean the respective steps of m1 f text 8 recently, in addition to being used in studies of initial adoption and continuance usage, the value-based model has also been used to understand the intention to switch or change. ko et al. [44] developed a value-based model to understand why an organization’s users resist changing to innovative information systems. they found that switching benefits have a positive impact and switching costs have a negative impact on perceived value. all citations were first marked up and skimmed for the sorts of ideas cited to establish an overall picture of the types of citation content in the corpus. ideas in each citation were then re-read and classified tentatively using kwan and chan’s (2014) typology (see figure 1) as a preliminary scheme. ideas not appearing in the typology were placed in new categories. lexical cues were resorted to facilitate the coding. texts 7 and 8 are used to illustrate classifying decisions. in text 7, the term “attentional control theory” provides an explicit signal that it is a theoretical citation. however, as only the name of the theory was mentioned, it was placed in a theoretical subtype of terminology. in text 8, the research acts represented by the two verbs “developed” and “found” indicate that what gets cited in the sentences are parts of a study (see the italicized parts). the segments were placed respectively in two research sub-types of act and finding. figure 3 presents the semantic typology of citations developed (see appendix for the glosses and examples of the cited ideas in the typology). thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7458 figure 3. the semantic typology of citations developed in the present study. it is interesting to see that no methodological citations posited in kwan and chan’s (2014) classification were observed in the corpus. a very likely reason is that the major goal of the lr sections is to develop hypotheses for testing. worth mentioning also is the presence of non-epistemically-framed citations as illustrated in texts 9 and 10, which indicate no signs of the epistemic nature of the cited content (see the italicized parts). text 9 …the need to involve various stakeholders in it projects is well recognized … se [senior executives] are often key decision makers that operate behind the scene to marshal key resources that projects need in order to be what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 59 citation categories types of entities types of ideas about the entities theoretical citations theory, model, & framework concept terminology the name of a theory/concept potential the potential of a theory/concept definition the definition of a concept component the component of a theory/concept proposition the proposition of a relationship application the application of a theory/concept theory evaluation the evaluation of a theory/concept research citations a single research study a group of research studies aim/focus the aim/focus of research act the research act performed finding the finding of research reported claim the research claim made research evaluation the evaluation of research nonepistemically framed citations* real-world phenomenon problem-associated phenomenon itor business-related problem non-problemassociated phenomenon event and human behavior successful. lack of support from ses has been the number one risk in it projects from the perspective of it pms [project managers] (smith et al., 2006). text 10 … it is believed that in today’s stressful society, escapism is increasingly necessary for many people. individuals engage in some behaviors to escape unpleasant realities or to distract themselves from problems and pressures [37]. such behaviors are often pleasure-oriented, such as. however, our random checks of some of their original sources found that some of the non-epistemically framed citations are in fact results reported in the closing sections of the source texts as exemplified by texts 11 and 12. text 11 from table 1, it can be seen that lack of top management commitment to the product was undoubtedly perceived to be the most important risk. it received the highest mean and was also ranked the most times. text 12 persons who engaged in escapism were found to be over age 30, highly educated, and adherents to minority regions. they were above average in seeking sensory arousal and in imaginal capacity. further they felt socially estranged in terms of their personal values. as can be seen, lexical cues of research findings in the source texts (see the parts in bold) were all removed in the citing texts in which the findings were re-contextualized (linell, 1998) and recast as accepted or uncontested truth (buckingham & neville, 1997). 3.3.3. coding reliability and validity both the move and citation procedures were performed in multi-iterations. the first author of this paper coded 15 lrs with the help of the data analysis software ‘maxqda’. to optimize objectivity and reliability, the coded data was checked by another researcher (the coder). prior to coding the data, the coder was briefed about the objectives of the study, the move framework and the citation typology used, and how to go about doing the coding. she then was asked to code one lr to familiarize herself with the coding scheme. following that, she coded the lrs that the author had coded. the coded segments were compared with disagreements resolved through discussions thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7460 between the author and the coder. changes were then made to the developing typologies where needed. 4. results and discussion 4.1. move-step distribution of citation types our first analytical question concerns the distribution of citations in different moves/steps of the lrs. results are presented in table 1, which shows that a total of 1,499 citation counts were registered. m1 bears the most counts, with the majority found in s1b and s1c. this is in stark contrast to the much fewer counts in m2 where the citations mainly occur in s2a. m3 shows the fewest citations with most found in s3d. table 1. move-step distribution of citations in the lrs. these results are in fact not surprising given that each move has its distinct rhetorical purpose. with m1 establishing the territory to situate within a community and showing the “narrative” of the field, it is only natural that what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 61 move(m)/step(s) no. of citations found (%) m1 establishing a territory s1a claiming centrality 33 (2.20) s1b making topic generalizations 789 (52.6) s1c reviewing items of previous research 529 (35.3) total (m1) 1,351 m2 establishing a niche s2a counter-claiming 72 (4.80) s2b indicating a research gap/need 10 (0.70) s2c question-raising s2d continuing a tradition s2e making inferences 9 (0.60) total (m2) 91 m3 occupying the niche s3a outlining purposes s3b announcing present research s3c presenting hypotheses s3d defining the theoretical notion(s) used 46 (2.80) s3e describing the notion(s) used 8 (0.80) s3f describing the theory used 3 (0.20) s3g indicating the next (sub)section total (m3) 57 total (m1 + m2 + m3) 1,499 the writers draw heavily on existing literature. this sharply contrasts with the far fewer citation counts in m2 where the writers comment on what is surveyed in m1, which presumably requires more of the writers’ own voices. likewise, in m3 where the writers need to show their own research or hypotheses, there is less need for engaging with past literature. 4.2. distribution of citation types across different steps in this section, we take a closer look at the ideas cited in the specific steps to seek answers to the second analytical question. recall the typology of citation content shown in figure 3, which shows that the ideas identified fall in three main citation categories and their sub-types. segments of each category and their sub-types were counted. the raw frequency (rf) counts of each sub-type were converted to mean frequency (mf) counts per 1,000 words of text. 4.2.1. theoretical citations theoretical citations rank first in their frequency counts (a total of 804), which are sub-classified into terminology, potential, definition, component, proposition, application, and theory evaluation. table 2 presents their move-step distribution. table 2. move-step distribution of cited theoretical matters in the lrs. definition and proposition figure markedly more than the other five (see total a). however, the seven subtypes show distinct cross-move/step distribution (see total b). in m1, only s1a and s1b bear theoretical citations, with the latter displaying more counts of definition and proposition. however, in m2, only s2a has a heavy presence of evaluation. in m3, s3d shows a high count of definition. thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7462 steps s1a s1b s2a s3d s3e s3f type of idea mf(rf) mf(rf) mf(rf) mf(rf) mf(rf) mf(rf) total (a) terminology 0.37(40) 0.07(8) 0.03(3) 0.47(51) potential 0.40(44) 0.40(44) definition 2.33(254) 0.39(42) 2.72(296) component 0.47(51) 0.47(51) proposition 2.99(326) 0.02(2) 3.01(328) application 0.17(19) 0.02(2) 0.19(21) theory evaluation 0.07(8) 0.35(38) 0.42(46) total (b) 0.07(8) 6.74(734) 0.35(38) 0.42(46) 0.07(8) 0.03(3) 4.2.2. research citations research citations rank second in their frequency counts (a total of 578). they have five subtypes: aim/focus, act, finding, claim, and research evaluation. table 3 shows their distribution. table 3. move-step distribution of cited research matters in the lrs. aim/focus and finding are much more common than act, claim, and research evaluation (see total a). these ideas are distributed unevenly across different steps (see total b). in m1, s1c features a variety of subtypes of research citations, with finding cited most frequently, followed by aim/focus, act and claim. however, there are far fewer research citations in m2, which are located mainly in s2a. 4.2.3. non-epistemically-framed citations non-epistemically-framed citations are the least common with a total of 117 frequency counts only. their move-step distribution patterns are shown in table 4. as can be seen, problem-associated phenomenon occur at a higher frequency rate than non-problem-associated phenomenon (see total a). the two types of citations appear mainly in s1b (see total b). table 4. move-step distribution of cited non-epistemically-framed matters in the lrs. what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 63 steps s1a s1c s2a s2b s2e type of idea mf(rf) mf(rf) mf(rf) mf(rf) mf(rf) total (a) aim/focus 0.03(3) 1.16(126) 1.18(129) act 0.83(90) 0.05(5) 0.87(95) finding 2.36(257) 0.04(4) 0.08(9) 2.48(270) claim 0.81(88) 0.07(8) 0.88(96) research evaluation 0.09(10) 0.09(10) 0.18(20) total (b) 0.03(3) 5.15(561) 0.25(27) 0.09(10) 0.08(9) 4 steps s1a s1b s2a type of idea mf(rf) mf(rf) mf(rf) total (a) problem-associated phenomenon 0.09(10) 0.43(47) 0.06(7) 0.59(64) non-problem-associated phenomenon 0.11(12) 0.38(41) 0.49(53) total (b) 0.20(22) 0.81(88) 0.06(7) 4.3. functions of the cited ideas in the move-steps of the lrs this section addresses the third analytical question by providing a qualitative examination of how some of the predominant citation types are used in relation to the rhetorical purposes in the specific moves in which they occur and what are discussed in the neighboring moves. 4.3.1. theoretical citations: definitions and theoretical propositions definitions falling under the theoretical category occur quite frequently in s1b and s3d. text 13 shows examples of definitions of the concept of privacy (see the italicized parts). text 13 [s1b] as shown in figure 1, the dependent variable (dv) of our research model is perceived privacy. … for example, westin (1967) refers to ‘states of privacy’ … also, warren and brandeis’s (1890) definition of general privacy as a ‘right to be left alone’ implicitly refers to a state – of being left alone. similarly, mis researchers have referred to privacy as a state. for example, dhillon & moores (2001, p. 2) defined internet privacy as ‘the seclusion and freedom from unauthorized intrusion’, and di pietro & mancini (2003, p. 78) defined privacy as ‘the freedom of not having someone or something to interfere in our life without our permission’. … since, per definition, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of mental and sensory information, an individual’s evaluation of his or her own mental and or/physical state of being is carried through his or her perceptions. … [s3d] we thus adapt the schoeman’s (1984) conceptual definition of privacy in general to information privacy: perceived privacy is an individual’s self-assessed state in which external agents have limited access to information about him or her. definitions are crucial for non-technical readers. however, they do not need to be cited from sources if they are to educate readers only. it is thus argued here that definitions play a more critical role in the lrs. they are needed to reduce conceptual ambiguity such that they can be measured objectively (efron & ravid, 2019; jaccard & jacoby, 2010; shoemaker et al., 2004). when cited from sources, definitions are cast as established and validated by prior researchers, thus legitimatizing their use in the writers’ studies. theoretical propositions also figure prominently especially in s1b. they mostly describe associative relationships between concepts or phenomena, as illustrated by text 14 (see the italicized part). thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7464 text 14 [s1b] tam [technology acceptance model] suggests that perceived ease of use is positively related to perceived usefulness and that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness together influence behavioral intentions [17]. … usefulness represents the gain in performance, and ease of use corresponds to the reduction in cognitive effort, i.e., the cost associated with the use of the system. the frequent occurrence of theoretical propositions in s1b is somewhat expected in the lrs given that one major concern of bsr is with hypotheses. hypotheses to test should at least stand a chance of being proved valid empirically. grounding the hypotheses in work by predecessors is hence one way to provide preliminary empirical support for them (fitzpatrick & wallace, 2006; sutton & staw, 1995). the frequent occurrence can also be explained by the strong presence of s2e where the writers draw on existing propositions to infer possible connections between phenomena to legitimize the formal hypotheses that they announce in s3d, a point that will be elaborated in the next section. 4.3.2. research citations: aims/focuses of studies and their findings aims/focuses of studies and their findings under the category of research citations occur mostly in s1c. as illustrated in text 15, the writers generalize the key focuses of “related studies” through a series of noun phrases (see the italicized part), which are then followed by a sentence generalizing the result of a positive relationship between a group of phenomena demonstrated in the same cited studies (the underlined part). text 15 … [1c]... related studies have been conducted on the motives and effects of customer participation on service production and delivery [4,23], the impact on service quality of customer participation [18], the impact of customer participation regarding the level of satisfaction on repurchase and preference [26], and finally, the effect of customer participation on the service provider [42]. we found that most studies on participation demonstrate a strong connection to positive attitudes, satisfaction, and preferences for a brand or for a company. [2e] therefore, we can assume that customers, who frequently participate in e-wom, have a higher sense-of-connectedness and membership than those who do not. in essence, increased levels of customer participation are related to higher levels of e-loyalty to online shopping malls. after all, e-wom participation may enhance a customer’s social site identification. [3c] based on the literature review, we propose these hypotheses: what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 65 h2a. e-wom participation has a positive impact on personal site identification. h2b. e-wom participation has a positive impact on social site identification. text 16 further provides examples of cited findings (see the italicized parts). text 16 … [s1c] several studies also argued or found evidence that the timeliness (or recency) of online information influences users’ information processing and adoption, and even behavior of choosing products or services. for example, cheung et al. [86] suggested that the timeliness of information is positively associated with users’ perceived usefulness of information in online reviews. filieri and mcleay [85] indicated that there is a positive relationship between information timeliness and travelers’ information adoption from online review sites. [2e] with these findings, we argue that timeliness will be positively associated with users’ information processing from the content in social media, which will eventually influence their destination image formation. [s3c] therefore, we hypothesize that h1c. timeliness of tourism information in social media is positively associated with the cognitive image of a destination. h2c. timeliness of tourism information in social media is positively associated with the affective image of a destination. citing of research aims/focuses and findings in s1c, mostly couched in terms of relationships, is not surprising when we consider what the writers do in s2e as illustrated in texts 15 and 16 (cf. the propositions in s1b). the writers of the two texts draw on the associative relationships surveyed in s1c to infer in s2e the connections between the phenomena, and the inferences are then turned into formal hypotheses in s3d. this arguably is the reason for the high frequency of citations of theoretical propositions in s1b. thus what to cite in each move is not only dictated by the goal of bsr but also what to achieve in a subsequent move. 5. conclusion 5.1. summary and contributions one of the biggest problems we observe in lrs produced by novice writers is indiscriminate use of source ideas, leading to bibliomanic, if not laundrylisting, citing. this phenomenon reflects a lack of authorial control and an thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7466 incomplete knowledge about what can be cited in lrs to make clear to the reader the arguments. what then can be or need to be cited? addressing this question, we conducted an analysis to examine the types of ideas cited in the different moves/steps of the lrs the bsr ras published in is with the hope to generate a typology that can be used to inform citation teaching. our study reveals that a wide variety of source ideas are cited across the three moves and their respective steps of the lr texts, with definition and proposition found mostly in s1b and finding and aim/focus occurring mainly in s1c. as discussed, the predominance of these citation types is mainly shaped by the inferencing step of 2e and the hypothetico-deductive nature of bsr. one of the contributions of this study is the semantic typology developed to describe different types of ideas cited in the different moves/steps of the lrs (see figure 3) though not all of them appear in the same degree of frequency. yet, while we are confident about the theoretical and research citations and their respective sub-types, we are less so about those grouped under the non-epistemically framed category, some of which were recontextualized findings, which may be a line of inquiry for future research. our typology is distinct from many of the others reported in the literature (e.g., moravsik & murgugesan, 1975; peritz, 1983; harwood, 2009), which did not take into consideration specific parts of a research text where citations occur and how the parts dictate the choice of source ideas. nor did these typologies consider the epistemological paradigm that can constrain the ideas to cite. on the other hand, our typology is also distinct from the one reported in kwan and chan (2014) originally developed to describe citations in the results and closing sections of is ras. however, our findings add further support to the value of move/step-specific analysis of citations. what we found, nonetheless, needs to be further validated is using a bigger corpus involving data from a larger number of disciplines and a wider range of epistemological paradigms (e.g., interpretivist research and design science research). the purpose is perhaps not so much to test the generalizability of our typology but to identify possible cross-discipline and cross-paradigm differences. given the space constraint, we were not able to analyze how the categories of citations and their sub-types observed are realized syntactically, another line of inquiry that could be pursued in the future. what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 67 5.2. pedagogical implications albeit the small scale of the current study, its findings shed light on instruction in source use in bsr lrs. for example, teachers may adopt the move structure and citation typology that we developed to guide their teaching. alternatively, they may validate ours by performing a small-scale analysis of bsr lrs. assuming that a teacher wants to carry out a text analysis on their own, we propose the steps below, which can be applied to develop a lesson for both is and non-is students. the goal of the instruction is to raise students’ awareness of what they may need to consider citing in various move-steps of bsr lrs to serve specific rhetorical ends. text analysis to begin with, the teacher needs to choose a few lrs from bsr ras. these texts can be drawn from journals of students’ disciplines. the criteria explicated in section 3.2 may be applied to inform the selection of bsr texts. the analysis can be conducted following the procedures presented in sections 3.3.1 and 3.3.2. the move structure as well as the typology generated can then be used as heuristics to guide the design of instruction. designing the instruction it is important to first raise students’ awareness of the goal of an lr in bsr writing (hypothesis development) and how it shapes what to present in different moves/steps as well as the ideas to cite therein. students can be guided to understand these by conducting an analysis of an lr text. to this end, the lr text to analyze needs to have clear s1b, s1c, s2e and s3c at the least. these steps can be marked up using the steps’ numbers [see the markup in texts we presented in sections 3 and 4]. questions are then developed to guide students to examine the moves/steps in which citations most frequently occur (e.g., s1b, s1c, s2a, etc.). in order not to overwhelm the students with too much analysis work, one section of the text with all the 3 moves and the key steps should suffice for close analysis. the following questions can be set to guide students’ analysis of the text: 1. what is the major purpose of the lr text? [answer: to introduce the hypotheses tested in the study] 2. what does the writer try to say in this section of the text [answer: to develop a specific hypothesis] thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7468 3. what does the writer present in the parts numbered (e.g., s1a, s1b, s1c, s2a, s2e and 3c)? [answer: to introduce existing knowledge, studies, making inferences, presenting a formal hypothesis, etc.] 4. does the writer cite in the parts? in which of the parts does the writer cite most or least? what sort of ideas does the writer cite in the parts (theories, propositions, research findings, etc.)? [answer: theoretical propositions in 1b, findings of studies in s1c, etc.] why are the ideas cited? why aren’t research methods cited? [to prepare the reader for the inferences in s2e and the hypothesis in 3c.] 5. what have you learned in this task? the analysis task can be concluded with the teacher’s consolidation of students’ observations, followed by the introduction of the cars move structure and the citation typology developed by the teacher (or in this study). students can also be reminded to establish an overarching goal to achieve in the lr (to develop a set of hypotheses for testing) and specific goals for each of its sections (presenting a specific hypothesis/es). the cars model and typology can be used to help develop ideas in each of the sections. for example, in surveying existing research (s1c), students can introduce studies by highlighting their findings that demonstrate or suggest certain types of associative relationships. alternatively, they may cite propositions or theories discussed in other studies. the types of ideas are to prepare the reader to see the inference made in s2e that speculates or asserts associative relationships that they will turn into a formal hypothesis in s3c. here, students may need to be reminded of the importance of the inferencing step of s2e to help the reader see how the survey and citations in m1 lead to the formal hypotheses presented in m3. article history: received 18 april 2022 received in revised form 26 september 2022 accepted 27 september 2022 references what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 69 association for information systems (2011, december 6). senior scholars’ basket of journals. <https://aisnet.org/page/seniorscholarbasket> avgerou, c., & cornford, t. (1993). developing information systems: concepts, issues and practice. macmillan. thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7470 belcher, d. (1994). the apprenticeship approach to advanced academic literacy: graduate students and their mentors. english for specific purposes, 13(1), 23-34. berkenkotter, c., & huckin, t. (1995). genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: cognition, culture, power. lawrence erlbaum associates. bruce, i. (2014). expressing criticality in the literature review in research article introduction in applied linguistics and psychology. english for specific purposes, 36, 85-96. buckingham, j., & neville, m. (1997). a model of citation options. australian review of applied linguistics, 20(2), 51-66. charles, m. (2006). phraseological patterns in reporting clauses used in citation: a corpus-based study of theses in two disciplines. english for specific purposes, 25(3), 310-331. chen, x., & li, m. 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(2012). evaluating prior scholarship in literature reviews of research articles: a comparative study of practices in two research paradigms. english for specific purposes, 31, 188-201. lang, r., porter, k., krentz, h. b., & gill, m. j. (2020). evaluating medical conferences: the emerging need for a quality metric. scientometrics, 122, 759-764. law, j., & willams, r. j. (1982). putting facts together: a study of scientific persuasion. social studies of science, 12, 535-558. lee, a. s. (1989). case studies as natural experiments. human relations, 42(2), 117-137. linell, p. (1998). approaching dialogue. impact: studies in language and society. john benjamins. liu, m. (1993). citation functions and related determinants: a study of chinese physics publications. journal of library and information science, 19(1), 1-13. liu, s., chen, c., ding, k., wang, b., xu, k., & lin, y. (2014). literature retrieval based on citation context. scientometrics, 101, 1293-1307. mansourizadeh, k., & ahmad, u. k. (2011). citation practices among non-native expert and novice scientific writers. journal of english for academic purposes, 10(3), 152-161. march, s. t., & smith, g. f. (1995). design and natural science research on information technology. decision support systems, 15, 251266. merton, r. k. (1973). the sociology of science, theoretical and empirical investigations. the university of chicago press. moravcsik, m. j., & murugesan, p. (1975). some results on the function and quality of citations. social studies of science, 5, 86-92. myers, g. (1985). the social construction of two biologists’ proposals. written communication, 2, 219-245. paltridge, b., & starfield, s. (2020). thesis and dissertation writing in a second language. routledge. peng, j-e. 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(2012). citation genetic genealogy: a novel insight for citation analysis in scientific literature. scientometrics, 91, 577-589. sutton, r., & staw, b. (1995). what theory is not. administrative science quarterly, 40(3), 371-384. swales, j. m. (1986). citation analysis and discourse analysis. applied linguistics, 7(1), 3956. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge university press. swales, j. (2004). research genres: explorations and applications. cambridge university press. swales, j., & feak, c. b. (2012). academic writing for graduate students: essential tasks and skills. university of michigan press. thomas chan’s main research areas are discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and english for academic/specific purposes. he is currently affiliated with the office of research affairs at hong kong metropolitan university. becky kwan is associate professor of english at the city university of hong kong where she teaches a variety of theory and esp courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. her areas of research include thesis writing, academic discourse, genre analysis and doctoral publishing. her work has appeared in english for specific purposes, journal of english for academic purposes, higher education, and studies in higher education. notes 1 these include discourse functions (e.g., comparing and contrasting) and rhetorical functions (e.g., negational and confirmational). 2 cf. moravcsik and murugesan’s (1975) “conceptual references”. 3 cf. moravcsik and murugesan’s (1975) “operational references” or finney’s (1979) “methodological references”. 4 the journals are european journal of information systems, information systems journal, information and management, journal of the association for information systems, mis quarterly, and decision support systems. https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=1710&area=1700&type= j&order=sjr&ord=desc 5 the journals are european journal of information systems, information systems journal, information and management, journal of the association for information systems, mis quarterly, and decision support systems. thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7472 swales, j., & lindermann, s. (2002). teaching the literature review to international graduate students. in a. johns (ed.), genre in the classroom: multiple perspectives (pp. 105-119). lawrence erlbaum associates. tessuto, g. (2015). generic structure and rhetorical moves in english-language empirical law research articles: sites of interdisciplinary and interdiscursive cross-over. english for specific purposes, 37, 13-26. thomas, s., & hawes, t. p. (1994). reporting verbs in medical journal articles. english for specific purposes, 13(2), 129-148. thompson, p. (2005). points of focus and position: intertextual reference in phd theses. journal of english for academic purposes, 4, 307-323. thompson, p., & tribble, c. (2001). looking at citations: using corpora in english for academic purposes. language learning and technology, 5, 91-105. thompson, g., & ye, y. (1991). evaluation in the reporting verbs used in academic papers. applied linguistics, 12, 305-382. tseng, m. y. (2018). creating a theoretical framework: on the move structure of theoretical framework sections in research articles related to language and linguistics. journal of english for academic purposes, 33, 82-99. white, h. (2004). citation analysis and discourse analysis revisited. applied linguistics, 25, 89-116. xie, j. (2016). direct or indirect? critical or uncritical? evaluation in chinese english-major ma thesis literature reviews. journal of english for academic purposes, 23, 1-15. appendix: the semantic typology of citations developed in this study what do researchers cite in their literature review sections? ibérica 44 (2022): 49-74 73 ci ta tio n ca te go ry po ss ib le ty pe s of th e en tit ie s po ss ib le ty pe s of c on te nt a bo ut th e en tit ie s ex am pl es th eo re tic al a th eo ry /m od el / fra m ew or k a no tio n te rm in ol og y th e ge ne ric o r p ro pe r n am e of a th eo ry /c on ce pt bo th c as te lls ’ t he or y of n et w or k so ci et y (c as te lls , 2 00 0) a nd t am m en ’s p ow er tr an si tio n th eo ry (t am m en , 2 00 0) p ro vid e pe rs pe ct ive s th at a re g er m an e in th is re ga rd . po te nt ia l th e po te nt ia l o f a th eo ry /c on ce pt , i .e ., th e ab ilit y th at it h as to p er fo rm a ta sk (e .g ., ex pl ai n or p re di ct a b eh av io ra l p he no m en on ) so cia l id en tit y th eo ry (s it ) c an e xp la in th e pa rti ci pa tio n be ha vi or (e .g ., so ci al in te ra ct io ns ) in o nl in e co m m un iti es (b ag oz zi & dh ol ak ia , 2 00 2; d ho la kia e t a l, 20 04 ). de fin iti on th e m ea ni ng o f a th eo re tic al c on ce pt sw itc hi ng c os t r ef er s to ‘t he o ne tim e co st s th at c us to m er s as so ci at e w ith th e pr oc es s of sw itc hi ng fr om o ne p ro vi de r t o an ot he r’ (b ur nh am e t a l, 20 03 , p . 1 10 ) co m po ne nt th e (s tru ct ur al ) c om po ne nt o f a th eo ry /c on ce pt so cia l c ap ita l in vo lv es th re e di st in ct d im en si on s: c og ni tiv e, s tru ct ur al a nd re la tio na l (n ah ap ie t & g ho sh al , 1 99 8) . pr op os iti on th e st at em en t a bo ut a th eo re tic al re la tio ns hi p, e ith er c au sa l o r a ss oc ia tiv e ta m [t ec hn ol og y ac ce pt an ce m od el ] s ug ge st s th at p er ce iv ed e as e of u se is p os iti ve ly re la te d to p er ce iv ed u se fu ln es s an d th at p er ce iv ed e as e of u se a nd p er ce iv ed u se fu ln es s to ge th er in flu en ce b eh av io ra l i nt en tio ns [1 7] . ap pl ic at io n th e ap pl ica tio n of a th eo ry /c on ce pt , i .e ., th e wa ys th at it w as /h as b ee n us ed fo r a c er ta in p ur po se tr an sa ct io n co st th eo ry h as b ee n us ed to e xp lo re s tr at eg ic o ut co m es , i nc lu di ng c os t sa vi ng s [2 0] . th eo ry e va lu at io n th e (p os itiv e or n eg at ive ) e va lu at io n of a th eo ry /c on ce pt /p er sp ec tiv e in te rm s of it s st re ng th s an d we ak ne ss es o r t he a m ou nt o f s up po rt/ at te nt io n th at it h as re ce ive d th e ca lcu lu s pe rs pe ct ive o f p riv ac y ha s be en d es cr ib ed a s ‘th e m os t u se fu l f ra m ew or k fo r an al yz in g co nt em po ra ry c on su m er p riv ac y co nc er ns ’ ( cu ln an & b ie s, 2 00 3, p . 3 26 ). w hi le s uc h re fle ct io ns a re im po rta nt in re gu la tin g hu m an b eh av io r, th ey a re o fte n ne gl ec te d in m od el s of b eh av io ra l c ha ng e (b an du ra , 1 99 8) . re se ar ch a sin gl e re se ar ch s tu dy a gr ou p of re se ar ch s tu di es ai m /f oc us th e m ai n ai m (s ) o r f oc us (e s) o f r es ea rc h, i. e. , r es ea rc h ar ea s/ in te re st s/ pr ob le m s/ ph en om en a th at p rio r r es ea rc he rs a im a t o r f oc us on p ur su in g in th ei r r es ea rc h re se ar ch h as te nd ed to fo cu s on th e un de rly in g m ec ha ni sm o f h ow it c ap ab ili ty co nt rib ut es to e xc el le nt p er fo rm an ce (e .g ., pa vlo u & el s aw y, 2 01 0; r ai & t an g, 2 01 0; k im et a l, 20 11 ). ac t th e re se ar ch a ct (s ) c ar rie d ou t b y pr io r r es ea rc he rs in th ei r r es ea rc h, w hi ch m os tly in vo lve (s ) p ro ce ss in g or u sin g re se ar ch d at a an d ad op tin g or de ve lo pi ng a th eo ry /c on ce pt /m et ho d/ te ch ni qu e/ in st ru m en t sw an so n [7 6] a na ly ze s da ta fr om 2 50 c ol le ge s tu de nt s an d fin ds th at fa nt as y ex pe rie nc e is hi gh ly a ss oc ia te d w ith d ec is io n m ak in g pa tte rn s. sm ith e t a l ( 19 96 ) d ev el op ed a n in st ru m en t, c on ce rn s fo r in fo rm at io n p riv ac y, to m ea su re in di vi du al s’ c on ce rn s to w ar d or ga ni za tio na l p riv ac y pr ac tic es , i nc lu di ng fo ur d im en si on s: co lle ct io n, e rr or s, s ec on da ry u se , a nd u na ut ho riz ed a cc es s to in fo rm at io n. fi nd in g th e fin di ng s of re se ar ch , i .e ., em pi ric al e vid en ce a nd fa ct s th at p rio r re se ar ch er s di sc ov er ed b as ed o n th e re se ar ch d at a th at th ey a na lyz ed in th ei r r es ea rc h re se ar ch h as s ho w n th at m oo ds c an im pa ct th e pe rc ep tio ns , j ud ge m en ts a nd d ec is io ns o f in di vi du al s (is en e t a l., 1 98 8; s ch wa rz & c lo re , 1 99 6) cl ai m th e re se ar ch c la im s m ad e ba se d on a (o r a g ro up o f) pr ev io us ly cit ed re se ar ch fi nd in g( s) in fu rth er re se ar ch a im ed a t e xp la in in g wo rk pl ac e de via nc e, l aw re nc e & ro bi ns on (2 00 7) ex pl ai ne d th at c on tro l c an a ct ua lly e nc ou ra ge d ev ia nc e wh en it p ro du ce s a pe rc ei ve d di sp ar ity b et we en e m pl oy ee a nd e m pl oy er , a p he no m en on th at h as a lso b ee n ex am in ed in cr im in ol og ica l r es ea rc h (s ou rc es ). th ey a rg ue d th at th e di sp ar ity a nd r es ul tin g re si st an ce is a co ns eq ue nc e of th e vi ol at io n of a n in di vi du al ’s n ee d fo r au to no m y. it is th us n ot s ur pr isi ng th at … thomas h. t. chan & becky s. c. kwan ibérica 44 (2022): 49-7474 re se ar ch e va lu at io n th e ev al ua tio n of re se ar ch in te rm s pr im ar ily o f i ts lim ita tio ns pr ev io us s tu di es re po rt in co ns is te nt fi nd in gs r eg ar di ng w he th er th e ex te nt o f pe rs on al iz at io n ca n sh ap e th e co ns tr ai nt -b as ed a nd d ed ic at io nba se d m ec ha ni sm s (k im & so n, 2 00 9; z ho u et a l, 20 12 ). no nep ist em ica lly -fr am ed a re al -w or ld p he no m en on pr ob le m -a ss oc ia te d ph en om en on it o r b us in es sre la te d pr ob le m s th at in di vid ua ls or o rg an iza tio ns e nc ou nt er fi rm s op er at in g in a h os tile b us in es s en vir on m en t m ay e nc ou nt er h ig h ta x bu rd en s, go ve rn m en ta l d et er re nc e, in ac ce ss ib le te ch ni ca l k no w le dg e pr ov id ed b y ed uc at io na l in st itu tio ns , f ra gi le in fra st ru ct ur e, s lo w m ar ke t g ro w th , g en er al e co no m ic d ow nt ur n, o r a la ck o f s ui ta bl y qu al ifi ed s ta ff (r ue da -m an za na re s et a l, 20 08 ). no npr ob le m -a ss oc ia te d ph en om en on ev en ts o r b eh av io rs th at in vo lve in di vid ua ls or o rg an iza tio ns a ct in g in pa rti cu la r w ay s to a ch ie ve c er ta in p ur po se s in s uc h co m m un itie s, u se rs s ha re in fo rm at io n ab ou t t he p ro du ct s or c re at e co nt en t t o pr om ot e an d su pp or t t he p ro du ct s to w ar d w hi ch th ey fe el lo ya l ( sc ha u et a l., 2 00 9) . iberica 13 ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract after briefly reviewing the cognitive-linguistic notions of metonymy and constructional form adhered to by the author (a) and discussing the general grammatical notion of clipping and a’s notion of “natural metonymic clipping”, the paper presents the list of salience factors whose combination determines the overall relative salience of a word segment. two well-known inventories of american english medical abbreviations are then analyzed with the goal of identifying natural metonymic clippings in this register, noting their scarcity. a sample of three word segments that have become conventional medical clippings (tabfor tablet, -lytes for electrolytes, and chem panel for chemistry panel) and a segment of one of the original full forms that has not become a conventional clipping (-blet in tablet) is then selected with the purpose of testing a’s salience factor grid on it. this grid is carefully described, including its numerical values, and systematically applied to the above-mentioned sample. the application of the grid to the sample seems to explain to a large extent the selection of the segments conventionalized as clippings in the sample, especially if compared to other “rival” segments. these results seem to confirm a’s earlier work arguing for the validity of the salience factor grid as a tool to account for the overall relative salience of a word segment and its (non) conventionalization as a natural metonymic clipping. keywords: lexical morphology, metonymy, linguistic motivation, medical discourse, clipping. resumen fa c to r e s de s al i e nc ia d e te r m in an te s de l as ab r e v ia c i on e s me t on ími c a s n at ur al e s e j e mpl if i c ad a s m e di an te e l l é x ic o mé di c o salience factors determining natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon antonio barcelona sánchez universidad córdoba (españa) antonio.barcelona@uco.es 17 ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 antonio barcelona sánchez tras repasar brevemente las nociones cognitivistas de metonimia y forma construccional que propone el autor (a) y comentar la noción gramatical general de “clipping” (o “recorte” morfológico) y el concepto de “recorte metonímico natural” propuesto por a, el trabajo presenta la lista de factores de saliencia cuya combinación determina la saliencia relativa global de los segmentos de una palabra. a continuación se analizan dos conocidos inventarios de abreviaciones médicas en inglés americano con objeto de identificar recortes metonímicos naturales en ese registro, y se observa su escasez en el mismo. se selecciona luego una muestra de tres segmentos léxicos que han pasado a ser recortes (clippings) convencionales en el leguaje medico (tabpor tablet, -lytes por electrolytes, y chem panel por chemistry panel), y un segmento de una de las formas completas originales que no se ha convertido en un clipping convencional (-blet en tablet), con objeto de poner a prueba la plantilla de factores de saliencia propuesta por a. se describe detalladamente dicha plantilla con sus valores numéricos, y se la aplica sistemáticamente a la muestra. la aplicación de la plantilla parece explicar en gran medida la selección de los segmentos de la muestra como clippings o recortes convencionales, sobre todo si se les compara con otros segmentos “rivales”. estos resultados parecen confirmar investigaciones anteriores de a que apoyan la validez de la citada plantilla de factores de saliencia como herramienta para explicar la saliencia relativa global de un segmento léxico y su (no) convencionalización como recorte (clipping) metonímico natural. palabras clave: morfología léxica, metonimia, motivación lingüística, discurso médico, recorte (clipping). 1. introduction this article has been written with the goal of presenting to the academic community, especially the researchers in scientific and technical language, a salience factor grid that i have been developing over the last few years to account for the selection of the lexical segments eventually becoming standard abbreviated english lexical forms, known as “clippings”. although this grid can be applied to explain in part all other types of lexical abbreviations and also syntactic abbreviations, i have so far only applied it to, and tested it with, what are called below “natural metonymic clippings” (barcelona, 2016). in the present paper i continue testing the grid with a sample of conventional clippings drawn from the medical lexicon. the main contribution of this paper, as i see it, is thus not a systematic study of all types of medical abbreviations, most of which are not natural metonymic clippings (as will be explained below), but the evidence it provides of the 18 validity of that grid to account for all instances of natural metonymic clippings in all sorts of genres and registers. in section 2, i will briefly clarify the cognitive-linguistic notion of metonymy i adhere to and will argue for the claim that metonymy does not only motivate meaning construction but also certain types of “constructional form”. this latter term will also be explained in that section. in section 3, the notion of “natural metonymic” clipping will be very briefly characterized. this will be followed by a brief, initial enumeration of the list of salience factors involved in the selection of the segments retained as clippings, with particular attention to the “naturalness” and “ability to evoke the full form” factors. section 4 will be devoted to discussing briefly the regularities observed in medical lexical abbreviations (one of them being the scarcity of natural metonymic abbreviations), and to presenting the small four-item sample of medical language clippings and the criteria followed in the selection. section 5 is the main section of the article. it includes a more detailed description of the salience factor grid and its application to the sample of medical clippings selected in section 4. section 6 includes the conclusions of the article. 2. metonymy in cognitive linguistics and in constructional form the notion of “metonymic clippings” implies the notions of “metonymy” and “clipping”. the latter notion will be discussed in section 3. the present section is devoted to briefly discussing the notion of metonymy in cognitive linguistics (cl) and in constructional form. all cognitive linguists share the basic cognitive notion of metonymy, at least in its core elements. everyone in the field agrees that, like metaphor, metonymy is a “conceptual” phenomenon whereby one concept (normally called the source domain) is used to activate another closely related concept. however, cognitive linguists disagree on a number of specific basic issues, such as the distinction between metonymy and related phenomena like “zone activation” and “facetization” (paradis, 2011), the exact nature of the source-target link, the defeasibility of metonymy (panther & thornburg, in natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 19 press), the reality of whole for part and part for part metonymies, its distinction from metaphor and other phenomena (barnden, 2010), and other issues, such as metonymic prototypicality (barcelona, 2003, 2011; peirsman & geeraerts, 2006). barcelona (2011), kövecses and radden (1998), lakoff and turner (1989), panther and thornburg (2003, 2007, in press), radden (in press), and bierwiaczonek (2013), among others, have discussed all these issues in detail. the review of their respective positions would go beyond the bounds of this article. the following definition of metonymy (adapted from barcelona, 2011 and included in barcelona, 2015) is an attempt at providing a general, “schematic” definition of metonymy: metonymy is an asymmetric mapping of a conceptual entity, the source, onto another conceptual entity, the target. source and target are in the same frame and their roles are linked by a pragmatic function, so that the target is mentally activated. this definition is not very different from other well-known definitions within cl provided by some of the above-mentioned linguists (especially kövecses & radden, 1998, and panther & thornburg, 2007), and should be regarded as a synthesis of them all, with some additional ingredients. the “mapping” or “conceptual projection” (lakoff & turner, 1989: 103-104) in metonymy occurs between entities in the same conceptual domain, whereas metaphor is a mapping occurring across two different conceptual domains. whereas in metaphor we find a symmetric and systematic correspondence and structural equivalence between elements of the conceptual structure of the source and those of the target (lakoff, 1993), in metonymy we do not find any degree of structural similarity or equivalence between source and target, hence their mapping is “asymmetric”. in the metaphor life is a journey, the beginning of the journey is mapped onto the beginning of life, the obstacles in the journey onto life’s difficulties, etc. but in a part for whole metonymy like body part for person as in (1) the ship was lost with all hands the source body part does not map symmetrically onto the whole person: the fingers in the hand are not projected onto any specific aspect of the person, the palm is not projected either onto any specific aspect of the person, and so forth. only the hand (and the associated knowledge about its use) is used to activate the notion of a (specific type of) person (a passenger or a manual worker, a sailor in this case). antonio barcelona sánchez ibérica 34 (2017): 17-4420 the term “frame” is probably more adequate than the term “domain”, used by lakoff and turner (1989: 103), to designate the conceptual structure within which metonymies operate. “frame” designates a knowledge-rich model of a recurrent, well-delineated area of experience (fillmore, 1985). frames are equivalent to one of the types of lakoff’s (1987) “idealized cognitive models” (icms), namely “propositional icms”. the terms “domain”, “icm” and “frame” are often used interchangeably but “domain” should probably be distinguished from the other two (radden & dirven, 2007: 9-12), due to its ambiguity. it can be used both in a “taxonomic” sense, to designate the schematic classification and subclassification into taxonomies of broad areas of experience, such as physical entities in general, and in a “functional” sense, to organize our detailed knowledge about specific areas of experience (the domains then are called “functional domains” by barcelona 2002a, 2003, 2011); in this use “domain” is synonymous to “frame” and “(propositional) icm”. for further arguments for the claim that metonymy operate within frames, see barcelona (2002a, 2011). frames assign a “role” to the mental entities populating them. in example (1), the relevant frame is the human being frame, which represents speakers’ detailed encyclopedic knowledge about human beings (their bodies and body parts, physiology, emotions, interaction, life cycle, etc.). the source and target roles must be linked by what fauconnier (1997) calls a “pragmatic function” and kövecses and radden (1998) and radden (in press) a “metonymic relationship”. a “pragmatic function” is a privileged conceptual link in our long-term memory between the roles of metonymic source and target within the corresponding frame: body-part for person, cause-effect, producer-product, agentaction, condition-result, agent-instrument, thingrepresentation, salient part of constructional form for whole constructional form etc. (see below on this last metonymy). this privileged link is an essential condition for the metonymic mental activation of the target by the source. the nose and mouth are distinct conceptual units included in the english-culture human person frame, but their roles are not connected by a pragmatic function and therefore they cannot act as a metonymic source for the other (kövecses & radden, 1998: 48-49). however, the pragmatic function connecting the role salient body part assigned to mouth, nose, eyes and other body parts with the whole role assigned to the person or the natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 21 human body allows these body parts to act as metonymic sources for people, as in he only earns four hundred pounds a month and, with five mouths to feed, he finds this very hard. there is wide agreement that metonymies are ubiquitous in language, thought and communication. as regards language, metonymy has been argued to operate in phonology, grammar and discourse (barcelona 2002b, 2013, 2015; radden 2005), and to constantly interact with other metonymies, metaphors and other conceptual structures (barcelona, 2005; ruiz de mendoza, 2011).1 grammar in cl is a structured inventory of “grammatical constructions” (a key concept in cl), which are conventional pairings of form (including phonemic and prosodic form) and meaning (including all sorts of pragmatic meaning) at all levels, from morphemes through lexemes, phrases and several types of structures with an indeterminate hierarchical level like idioms and other relatively fixed expressions, to clauses and sentences (goldberg, 2006; langacker, 2008: 161-214). metonymy operates in all sorts of grammatical constructions (see the various chapters in panther, thornburg, & barcelona, 2009), mainly by directly or indirectly motivating their meaning but also by motivating their form and their formmeaning connection. the metonymic motivation of (initially non-canonical) “constructional form” did not receive enough attention by early metonymy researchers in cl (except for brief remarks on the topic by kövecses & radden, 1998: 45-46 and radden & kövecses, 1999: 28, 36). but, more recently, barcelona (e.g. 2002b, 2005, 2013, 2009, 2016), radden (2005: 17) and, especially bierwiaczonek (2007, 2013: ch. 2) have recently begun to explore this phenomenon. constructional forms (including lexical forms) are “models” stored in speakers’ minds, and as models, they, too, constitute conceptual units, irrespective of their actual phonetic realization. this allows us to view the set of basic forms2 of a given construction (i.e. a lexeme) as constituting a conceptual frame, within which metonymy can operate. constructional forms partially motivated by metonymy include certain lexical abbreviations, or “clippings” (like prob from problem), and certain types of ellipsis, as in “did you buy the tickets” “yes, [i bought the tickets] yesterday”; the metonymy at work is salient part of constructional form for whole form. antonio barcelona sánchez ibérica 34 (2017): 17-4422 3. clippings and “natural metonymic clippings” the grammatical notion of “clipping” is, in principle, quite simple: in morphology, it designates an abbreviated lexical form, that is, a shortened form of a lexeme resulting from the retention of just one part of its full form. typical examples include prof for professor (where only the initial part is retained), fridge for refrigerator (where only a middle part is retained), or bus for the now near obsolete form omnibus (where only the final part is retained). of course, this calls for the need to determine when the abbreviation affects a lexeme or a phrasal construction. for example, one may wonder whether such a sequence as the standard construction in medical english chemistry panel, “a comprehensive screening blood test that indicates the status of the liver, kidneys, and electrolytes” is a (compound) lexeme or a phrase. in terms of the standard definition of compounding, it should be regarded as a compound rather than a multiply variable noun phrase, given its relative fixedness and its highly specific meaning. therefore, the standard abbreviation chem panel of this compound in medical english should count as a clipping affecting one of the lexical morphemes (chemistry) constituting the compound.3 most of the medical clippings in the sample analyzed are, however, forms of mono-morphemic lexemes. the term “natural metonymic clipping” will be reserved for the abbreviated lexical forms that retain a real, i.e. “natural”, segment of the full lexical form and can best evoke the full form. in my view, it is these clippings that can be regarded as most clearly metonymic clippings as far as their form is concerned, so that an abbreviation like hanky for handkerchief is less natural a clipping as doc for doctor (see below on the “naturalness” salience factor). the selection of the segment of the full form of a lexeme retained as a conventional metonymic clipped form of that lexeme is motivated by the relative salience of that segment within the full form. in turn, that salience is determined, so we claim, by the number of salience factors exhibited by the segment in question and the degree to which they operate in it. on the basis of the analysis and observation of over two hundred english clippings representing a wide variety of types, i identified the following salience factors (barcelona, in preparation; barcelona, 2016): a. higher-weighted factors: initial position, being relatively easy to recognize and remember, being relatively easy to pronounce, ability to evoke the full form, ability to evoke the meaning of the full constructional form, natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 23 “naturalness” of the segment, length (the shorter, the more salient), “energetic” effect, formal distinctiveness b. lower-weighted factors: prosody: primary stress, “audibility”, similarity to existing full or shortened forms of other constructions, final position, medial position. c. other factors: aesthetic preference, entrenchment. others may have to be added in special cases. these factors will be briefly discussed and illustrated with medical clippings in section 5. they are treated in greater detail in barcelona (2016) and barcelona (in preparation). but, in order to round off the notion of “natural metonymic clippings”, we need to anticipate the discussion of the higherweighted factors “‘naturalness’ of the segment” and “ability to evoke the full form”. a metonymic abbreviated form should in principle constitute a “natural” segment of the full form. by “natural” i mean the degree to which the graphemes and phonemes of the segment selected as a clipped form mirror the same “continuous” sequence in one of the segments of the full form. the scores (see section 5) reached by each segment on this factor are inversely proportional to the number of phonemes/graphemes or prosodic features (especially stress) included by the segment which do not occur in exactly the same environment in the full form. hence the abbreviated form gas constitutes a natural segment of gasoline, since its phonemes/graphemes mirror the same continuous sequence as in the segment gasof the full form. but the nonexistent abbreviated forms *gs or *gsln would not be natural in our sense, since, although they do pick out some phonemic/graphemic parts of the full form, their graphemic/phonemic sequences do not mirror any continuous sequence in the full form. an intended abbreviated form of gasoline like gassy, though perfectly mirroring the continuity of the segment gas(in speech, not in writing, where an additional <s> has been inserted), would be less “natural” in our sense because it adds one phoneme/grapheme which is not present in any continuous sequence of the full form (on the other hand, gassy is the full form of another lexeme with the meanings “abounding in gas; of the nature of gas”; see 1989 oed edition, revised 2009 for cd-rom version). a similar reasoning applies to the low naturalness of hanky for handkerchief. the similarity of the clipped form to the full form is also determined by the total number of phonemes/graphemes and/or syllables shared by the antonio barcelona sánchez ibérica 34 (2017): 17-4424 clipped form with the full form, whether or not they occur in the same continuous sequence. this is the type of similarity contemplated in the factor “ability to evoke the full form”, which is the other factor that determines the metonymicity of a clipping. the minimum degree of similarity required for the eligibility of a segment as the source form in the salient part of form for whole form metonymy is the sharing of one syllable with the target full form. the established clipping prof for professor matches this minimum requirement and so does the nonexistent clipping *essor for professor (although the overall salience of prof in terms of all the other salience factors is much higher than that of *essor). the difference between the factors “ability to evoke the full form” and “naturalness” can be seen by examining the hypocoristic clipping bob (<robert), which scores relatively high in terms of “naturalness”, since it shares with the full form the continuous sequence -ob(although the replacement of initial r with b prevents it from reaching top score on this factor). but it reaches a low score on “ability to evoke the full form”, since bob only shares with the full form robert two phonemes/graphemes, but no syllable (the syllable bobdoes not occur in the full form). this pet name, thus, should not be claimed to be a natural metonymic clipping. compare with the hypocoristic rob, a natural metonymic clipping for the same full name; it reaches top scores on both factors. compared to the “ability to evoke the full form” factor, the “naturalness” factor rules out discontinuous shortenings such as initialisms, including acronyms and similar phenomena, illustrated by nato (<north atlantic treaty organization), btw (< by the way), sitcom (<situation comedy), tv (<television), *gsln (<gasoline) etc., from a “global” account in terms of metonymy (contra kövecses & radden, 1998; bierwiaczonek, 2013). these discontinuous abbreviations seem to be understood globally on the basis of “analogy”, since when speakers interpret them they seem to capture their abstract, schematic similarity to the abstract structure of the full form.4 this analogical connection is similar to the “structural correlation” (lakoff, 1987) between source and target in conceptual metaphor, a correlation that is extracted with the help of metonymy (barcelona, 2000). metonymy is instrumental in the choice and interpretation of the phonemes/graphemes included in these discontinuous shortenings (bierwiaczonek, 2013: 66-70; barcelona, 2016; barcelona, in preparation): the abstract analogy of these shortened forms to the full form is doubtless facilitated by the local metonymic connections of each initial to the corresponding component natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 25 word or word-segment (n activates north, a activates atlantic and so forth; t activates teleand v activates -vision). these local metonymies pick out the salient phonemes/graphemes from the initial, medial and final parts of the full form to jointly yield its “skeleton”. in sum, these discontinuous abbreviations should not be treated, “as a whole”, as exclusively metonymic, but as metonymy-based analogical abbreviations. 4. regularities observed in standard medical abbreviations. the sample selected for analysis i examined two standard online lists of conventional medical abbreviations in american english, the alphabetical listing of common medical abbreviations (alma henceforth),5 and the list of common medical abbreviations and acronyms (locma henceforth).6 there are two regularities in the abbreviations included in those two lists that stand out from my perspective: (a) the prevalence of initialisms, especially acronyms. (b)the scarcity of clippings, especially of “natural” metonymic clippings. most of the medical abbreviations registered in the above-mentioned sources consist in the selection of the initial letter or phoneme of each of the words included in a phrasal, conventional construction in medical discourse. this phenomenon is known as initialism. these constructions, depending on a variety of factors (as suggested in section 3), could also be regarded as compounds; if so, they could be regarded as lexical abbreviations, but by no means as clippings. let alone natural metonymic clippings, as suggested in section 3. examples include rds (= respiratory distress syndrome) [locma], or aaa (abdominal aortic aneurysm) [alma]. there are also some instances of discontinuous lexical abbreviations, affecting one mono-morphemic lexeme, like tb for tuberculosis, but again these examples can hardly be regarded as clippings, let alone natural metonymic clippings. finally, the two lists of abbreviations include a few initials, such as l < left (alma), p < pulse (locma), or t < temperature (locma), but, even if conventional initialisms can be correctly argued to be motivated by the metonymy salient part of constructional form for whole constructional form, the single-letter initial segments retained in these lexical antonio barcelona sánchez ibérica 34 (2017): 17-4426 abbreviations score minimally in terms of both the “naturalness” and the “ability to evoke the full form” factors, hence they are not “natural” metonymic abbreviations (on the other hand, initialisms are hardly ever regarded as clippings). the only natural (or approximately natural) metonymic clippings (in writing, in speech or in both) that i have found in the two medical abbreviation lists are displayed in table 1, where they are classified primarily in terms of their syllabic structure, and secondarily in terms of their position (initial, medial or final) and prosodic stress as segments of the full form. some of the clippings included in the table appear in both medical abbreviation lists, but i have only registered the source where i found each clipping first (i examined alma before locma). table 1. natural metonymic medical clippings identified in two lists of medical abbreviations. chem panel is properly speaking not a natural metonymic clipping, since this form does not mirror a continuous sequence of the full form of the compound chemistry panel; only its first element, chem, constitutes a natural metonymic clipping of the first element (chemistry) of the full form of the compound. the naturalness of this internal clipping is one of the reasons why chem panel has been included in table 1. the other reason is its representativeness in terms of syllabic structure and stress placement (see below). the use of capital and low-case letters reflects the use in both lists, which contain abbreviations spelled completely with block letters (aaa), with a capital letter followed by low-case letters (lytes), or with low-case letters only (tid, tab). normally, when an abbreviation is spelled as a sequence of capital letters, it is pronounced as a sequence of initial letters (i.e. ta “therapeutic activity” is pronounced as “t-a”), but not always (i.e. tha “total hip arthroplasty” is apparently pronounced /ˈtɑː/; see natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 27 clipping syllabic structure of segment7 stress and position8 source abd < abdomen (?) / mono sti alma amb < ambulate mono sti alma cap < capsule mono sti locma tab < tablet mono sti locma lytes < electrolytes mono ustf locma ob < obstetric (?) / mono unsti alma imp < impression (?) / mono unsti locma ca < cancer (?) / mono sti alma ca < calcium (?) / mono sti alma tw < twice a week n.s.? / mono sti alma bilat < bilateral dis st2 alma chem panel < chemistry panel poly sti locma https://quizlet.com/87606334/usa-medical-abbreviation-t-w-flashcards/). of the twelve natural metonymic clippings in table 1, four of them seem to be monosyllabic both in the spoken and in the written medium, and six of them are clearly monosyllabic in the written medium (e.g. abd, ob, imp, ca, ca, tw) but i have not been able yet to ascertain whether their actual pronunciation is monosyllabic, too (this is indicated by the question mark in the relevant column); therefore, these are less natural monosyllabic clippings overall than the four clearly monosyllabic clippings in speech,9 and will not be discussed any further. of the ten monosyllabic clippings (in speech, in writing or in both) seven correspond to the initial stressed segments in the full form and two correspond to the initial unstressed segments of that form. there is, additionally, one disyllabic clipping, consisting of the first two syllables of a four-syllable form with primary stress on the second syllable (bilat < bilateral). and one trisyllabic clipping obtained from a five-syllable compound, whose primary stress falls on the first syllable (chem panel < chemistry panel). in the general english lexicon, medial clippings, where the medial part is retained (as in flu for influenza), are fairly rare. given the infrequency of clipping in medical abbreviations, it is not surprising to find that there are no instances of medial clipping in this register. the other two main types of clippings are also represented in this register in approximately the same proportion as in the general lexicon: initial clippings (where the initial part of the lexical form is retained, as in exam for examination) are fairly frequent, whereas final clippings (where the final part is retained, as in phone for telephone) are much less common but not rare (see jamet, 2009, and jespersen, 1909-1949, vol. vi: 534-551). in section 5, the set of salience factors listed in section 3 is applied to the following representative subset of the clippings in table 1: tab (originating in the initial stressed segment of a disyllabic full form), lytes (originally a final unstressed segment of a four-syllable full form), and chem panel (which retains the initial stressed syllable of the full form of a five-syllable compound lexeme and the rest of the full form; the relative length of the clipping is the main reason why it has been selected for analysis, since clippings tend to be brief). the salience factor grid is also applied to a nonconventional potential clipping of one of the original full forms involved (-blet in tablet). antonio barcelona sánchez ibérica 34 (2017): 17-4428 5. description of the salience factor grid. its application to the sample of medical clippings in section 3 we have listed the various salience factors that we have argued to be involved in the selection of a word-segment as the source of the metonymy salient part of constructional form for whole constructional form. it is now time to describe this salience grid in some more detail and apply it to the sample of clippings selected in section 4. given space limits, we will not be able to discuss and apply all the factors with the same degree of detail. in barcelona (2016; in preparation), the grid has been described and thoroughly applied to a representative set of fifteen clippings occurring in the general lexicon, such as gas for gasoline, bus (from omnibus), prof for professor, flu for influenza, or phone for telephone. first of all, the notion of salience in this context should be clarified in the following terms: salience is “relative”, that is, a word-segment is salient in comparison with other segments of the same lexical form because it is more prominent than them on more factors or dimensions, but not necessarily in all possible dimensions. so gasin gasoline is more prominent than, say, -line on “initial position”, “primary stress”, or “ability to evoke the meaning of the full form”, and “energetic effect” (barcelona, 2016). salience is “multifactorial”. the relatively salience of a segment depends not on one single dimension, but on a bundle of them. salience is “scalar”. the salience of a segment furthermore depends on the “degree” to which it is prominent on each dimension, since all dimensions are scalar in nature. salience factors/dimensions are not equally relevant, i.e. they have different “weights”. as stated in section 3, some of them are more relevant than the others for the salience of a segment. for example, “primary stress” seems to be less relevant than “initial position” (jespersen, 1909-1949, vi: 551) for the emergence of clippings. the last two properties are reflected in the degree scales and the numerical scores applied in the salience grid. the grid includes a scale indicating the degree to which salience factors/dimensions are operative in the natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 29 selection of a segment. the scale includes four basic degrees, each with a numerical score: t = highest (i.e. top) score (8 score points for higher-weighted factors and 4 for lower-weighted factors). h = (relatively) high score (6 score points for higher-weighted factors and 3 for lower-weighted factors). m = approximately mean score (4 score points for higher-weighted factors and 2 for lower-weighted factors). l = low score (2 score points for higher-weighted factors and 1 for lower-weighted factors). ll = lowest score (0 score points for higher-weighted factors and 0 for lower-weighted factors). the above numerical scores are not presented as exact measurements at all. they are only used to represent the scalarity and differential weighting of the various factors and have been set up to avoid vague statements like “x is very/a little/not prominent on factor y” or “x is more/less prominent than y on factor z”, which make it difficult to determine relative salience with a minimum of precision. 5.1. higher-weighted factors these factors are applied below to each medical clipping in the sample and to a potentially eligible segment of one of the full forms, namely -blet from tablet. initial position jespersen (1909-1949, vi: 534ff) claimed that the choice of the initial part is the natural way of shortening words. scores for each segment in the sample: tab-: t -blet: ll -lytes: ll chempanel: m. this scoring is due to the fact that the segment selected as clipping includes as sub-segments the first syllable of the compound and its last two-syllables. antonio barcelona sánchez ibérica 34 (2017): 17-4430 being relatively easy to recognize and remember this factor measures the memorability of the segment as a part of the full form. it depends in part on the combination of some of the factors that will be discussed below, namely, length, ability to evoke the full form, audibility, energetic effect, naturalness, similarity to or formal distinctiveness from existing full or clipped forms of other constructions. however, this multifactorial factor should be regarded in itself as a separate factor in segment salience. to calculate the scores on this factor i have applied the above numerical scale to the other factors determining the factor “being easy to recognize and remember”. two of these are lower-weighted (audibility and similarity to existing full or clipped forms of other constructions) and the other five (length, etc.) are higher-weighted factors. the sum of the scores on these seven factors yields 48 points if a segment reaches t score on the seven factors, 36 points if it reaches an h score on the seven factors, 24 points if it reaches an m score on the seven factors, 12 points if it reaches an l score on the seven factors, and 0 points if it reaches an ll score on the seven factors. the actual scores reached by each one of the segments under analysis are registered in table 2 (see section 5.3), which reflects the discussion of each salience factor in the rest of the present section 5.2. tab-: m, since the combined scores on the seven factors, as registered in table 2, yield 35 points (however, the score is very close to being h). -blet: m, since the combined scores on the seven factors, as registered in table 2, yield 32 points (however, the score is close to being h). -lytes: h, since the combined scores on the seven factors, as registered in table 2, yield 37 points. chempanel: m, since the combined scores on the seven factors, as registered in table 2, yield 24 points. being relatively easy to pronounce jespersen (1909, vi: 540-541, 549) suggests that numerous shortenings are due to the relative difficulty to pronounce the full form, especially to small children. therefore, the simpler the syllabic structure and the lower its articulatory difficulty, the more salient a segment will be on this dimension. for example, stand-alone consonant clusters would score very low on this factor (imagine the noun table abbreviated as just the cluster /bl]/). the scores: natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 31 tab-: t. -blet: l (it contains an initial consonant cluster and schwa as vocalic nucleus). -lytes: m (it includes one final consonant cluster). chempanel: l (its syllabic structure is complex: it is a polysyllabic segment). ability to evoke the full form an l (low) score is reached by segments sharing only one or more phonemes/graphemes with the full form, but not reproducing a syllable of that full form. an m score is assigned to segments sharing at least one syllable with the full form. high (h) scores are assigned to segments with two syllables in common with the full form, and t scores to segments sharing more than two syllables with the full form. these are the scores: tab-: m. -blet: m. -lytes: m (but the score would be h in the written form of the segment). chempanel: t. ability to evoke the meaning of the full constructional form this reflects the ability of the segment to evoke the meaning, i.e. the “profile” in langacker’s (1987; 2008: 66-70) terms of the construction as a whole, or at least some of the conceptual elements or domains presupposed by that meaning, i.e. those in langacker’s “base” (1987; 2008: 66-70). in the latter case, the more “central” (langacker 1987: chapter 4) the conceptual element/domain suggested, the higher a segment will score on this factor. here are the scores for the segments in the sample: tab-: h (it indirectly evokes the meaning of the original full form thanks to the similarity of this segment to the first syllable of the full form). -blet: l (this segment is not even indirectly capable of evoking the meaning of the full form). -lytes: ll (compared to electro-, this segment is not even indirectly capable of evoking the meaning of the full form). chempanel: t (the first syllable easily evokes “chemistry”, one of the central base domains in the meaning of chemistry panel and the second component is identical to the second component of the full form). antonio barcelona sánchez ibérica 34 (2017): 17-4432 naturalness tab-: t. -blet: t. -lytes: t. chempanel: ll. the phonemes and/or graphemes of the first three segments mirror the same “continuous phonological and/or graphemic sequence” as in one of the segments of the corresponding full form. the reason for the ll score reached by chempanel is that the segment under analysis matches one discontinuous segment of the full form chemistry panel. but the score would be t if only the internal clipping chem (<chemistry) were considered. length (brevity) jespersen (1909-1949, vi: 551) noted that most clippings are very short, most of them monosyllabic. the shorter a segment in relation to the total length of the full form (measured in terms of its number of syllables and in terms of syllable length), the more salient it is on this dimension. scores in the sample: tab-: t. -blet: t. -lytes: h (monosyllabic, but with a longer vocalic nucleus – a diphthong). chempanel: ll (polysyllabic). “energetic” effect jespersen (1909-1949, vi: 551) claims this to be a “general property” of lexical shortenings, connected to “progress in linguistic efficiency: the short, crisp, energetic forms are easier to handle than the original long and cumbersome ones, in which much was really superfluous for the purpose of being understood by others”. therefore, length (“short”) is normally allied to energeticness, but these should be regarded as distinct dimensions. the main component of energeticness seems to be a special application of energy, often manifested in the use of monosyllables with a short vowel closed by a consonant (especially a stop consonant or a voiceless consonant). this factor only concerns the spoken use of the clippings under study. here are the scores: natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 33 tab-: t. -blet: h (the initial bilabial + liquid consonant cluster is less energetic than an initial plosive like the /t/ in tab). -lytes: m (the initial liquid and the slightly longer vocalic nucleus and the final consonant cluster somehow diminish the crispness of the segment). chempanel: ll (its length runs against its energetic effect). formal distinctiveness this is often a decisive factor, which gauges salience in terms of the lack of similarity of a segment to the forms of other lexemes: the less similar a part of a constructional form is in phonological and/or graphological terms to the full form of another construction or to a shortened form of another construction, the more salient that part will be. for example, at the time when the telephone was invented, the form tele was already a shortened form of the form telegraph. therefore, the initial stressed segment teleof telephone was less salient on this dimension than the segment -phone. jespersen (1909-1949, vi: 549-550) points out this fact as the main reason why, running against the preference for initial segments, the final segment was selected in this case. although jespersen did not use himself the term “formal distinctiveness” (nor did he propose an elaborate grid of salience factors), this factor is implicit in his explanation of the choice of -phone over teleas an abbreviation for telephone. these are the scores for the sample under analysis: tab-: ll. there are nine lexemes with the same form in the oed and with the same pronunciation, some of them slang (“strap”, “old woman”) and most of them in specialized register (military, academic, theatrical slang, and in typewriting and computing, i.e. “tabulator key”), and one related verb. in the free dictionary, tab is also presented as an abbreviation of table. -blet: m. there are no equivalent spoken different words or word forms in oed, or anywhere else, as far as i know, since the pronunciation of this segment within the full form would have a schwa as the vocalic nucleus. so, in speech it would reach t score, but not in writing, since there are at least two lexemes with the same form: the noun blet (“a state of decay of fruit, due to being antonio barcelona sánchez ibérica 34 (2017): 17-4434 over-ripe”) and the related verb blet (“to become blet”). furthermore, the free dictionary registers these two acronyms: blet-1 (brotherhood of locomotive engineers and trainmen), and blet-2 (basic law enforcement training). -lytes: ll. there are no other “written” lexical forms in the oed, but the free dictionary registers one very similar form lite as an informal simplified spelling of the adjective light (“low in calories”). there are quite a few “spoken” matches of this form, especially the noun light (illumination sense) with its many polysemous senses and the many compounds where it enters, which can be used in plural (e.g. rear-light(s)); note also the verb light (in its “illuminate”, “brighten up” senses), when used in 3rd person singular. the free dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com) records the noun lights (connected to the adjective light “light in weight”) with the meaning of “lungs of an animal slaughtered for food”. chempanel: ll. no oed matches for the compound (in its full or abbreviated form). none for chem in that dictionary, but several elsewhere, since it is a frequent colloquial abbreviation for chemistry, chemist, chemical. the oed includes two matches for the noun panel (“piece of cloth” and connected uses) and the related verb panel. the form panel also enters many compounds like panel patient, etc. 5.2. lower-weighted factors primary stress jespersen (1909-1949, vi: 540-551) gives this factor a minor role, since there are a large number of english clippings that consist in the initial, final, even medial unstressed segments of the full form, like frat<fraternity, prof<professor, lab<laboratory, bus<omnibus, phone<telephone, van<caravan, flu<influenza. these are the scores for the sample: tab-: t. -blet: ll. -lytes: ll. chempanel: t. the main stress of the full form of the compound is retained by chem-. natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 35 audibility this factor assigns higher salience to the more audible segments. audibility is measured on the basis of a number of criteria: syllabic segments are more salient than non-syllabic segments. the closer a vowel is to a primary cardinal vowel (jones, 1969: 26-41), the more audible it will be. the cardinal vowels are represented in the international phonetic alphabet by these symbols: i, e, ɛ, a, ɑ, ɔ, o, u. voiced consonants are more audible than voiceless ones. stressed syllables are more audible than unstressed ones. syllables ending in a vowel are more audible than those closed by a consonant; of the latter those closed by non-plosive stop consonants are less audible than those closed by other consonants (plosive stops, fricatives, laterals, nasals). this factor is connected to, and somehow overlaps with, “easy to recognize and remember”, “energetic effect” and “prosody: primary stress”. here are the scores for the sample under study: tab-: h, since in this monosyllabic segment the vowel is close to a cardinal vowel (see jones, 1969: ch. 14) and its syllable is closed by a voiced nonplosive stop consonant. -blet: ll, since in this unstressed monosyllabic segment the schwa vocalic nucleus is far removed from cardinal vowels, it starts with a consonant cluster that devoices its first component (the /b/ sound) and it ends in a voiceless stop consonant. -lytes: h, since in this unstressed monosyllabic segment the vowel nucleus includes a diphthong made up of two vowels close to cardinal vowels, it starts with a voiced consonant and ends with a consonant cluster whose initial voiceless stop is compensated in terms of audibility by the final voiceless hissing fricative (the /s/). chem-panel: t, since it is trisyllabic, with a main and a secondary stress, two of its vowels are close to cardinal vowels and although two syllables are initiated by a stop consonant, one of them (chem-) is closed by a voiced nasal consonant and the other one ends in a vowel (pa-), whereas the last syllable (-nel) starts with a voiced nasal and ends with a voiced lateral (if the antonio barcelona sánchez ibérica 34 (2017): 17-4436 syllabication chem-pa-nel pattern is applied, instead of chem-pan-el, which would not modify the score). “similarity to existing full or shortened forms of other constructions” is the mirror image of the higher-weighted factor “formal distinctiveness”. this similarity factor (in conjunction with weightier factors such as first position, etc.) may facilitate, for playful, humorous, or mnemonic purposes, the salience of a segment as a metonymic source for the full form. for example, the pet name mike may have increased the already high salience (in terms of stress, brevity, ability to evoke full form, naturalness, etc.) of mike in its selection as a metonymic clipping for microphone.10 these are the scores for the segments under consideration, exactly the opposite of those for “formal distinctiveness”: tab-: t, for the same reasons that this segment scores ll in terms of formal distinctiveness. -blet: m, for the same reasons that it scores m on formal distinctiveness. -lytes: t, for the same reasons that it scores ll on formal distinctiveness. chempanel: t, for the same reasons that it scores ll on formal distinctiveness. the selection of a segment in final position of the full form is less frequent than the selection of initial segments, according to jespersen (1909-1949, vol. vi: 548) and jamet (2009), which suggests that “final position” is a less powerful salience factor than initial position. these are the scores for the segments under analysis in this paper: tab: ll, since this monosyllabic segment takes initial position in the full form, provided the spoken and/or written syllabic structure of tablet is analyzed as cvc (tab-) + cvc (-let), where c = consonant and v = vowel. -blet: t; this monosyllabic segment takes final position in the full form, provided the spoken and/or written syllabic structure of tablet is analyzed as cv (ta-) + ccvc (-blet), where c = consonant, v = vowel and cc = consonant cluster (-bl-).11 -lytes: t; the segment takes final position in the spoken full form (it corresponds to its final spoken syllable) and in the written form (it corresponds to the last and the penultimate syllable of that written form, but this is simply due to the orthographic representation of the final spoken syllable of the full form). natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 37 chempanel: l. the discontinuous segment selected takes one initial spoken and written monosyllabic segment of the full form, one final spoken and written near final, i.e. middle, syllable (paor pan-, depending on the syllabic analysis chosen), and the final spoken and written syllable (-nel or -el) of the full form (chemistry panel). that is, of the three syllables of the clipped form, only one is final. the last factor to consider is “middle position”. jespersen (1909-1949, vol. vi: 547) claims that clipped forms retaining a middle segment of the full form are very infrequent. therefore, “middle position” is a very weak salience factor, and, like the other weak factors discussed in this sub-section, it is normally allied to a combination of more powerful factors determining the selection of a segment as a clipped form, as in flu for influenza, fridge for refrigerator, jam for pajamas, liz for elizabeth (brevity, ability to evoke the full form, ease of pronunciation, etc.). here are the scores for the segments selected for this study: tab-: ll, since the syllable making up the segment is initial in the full form. -blet: ll, since the syllable making up the segment is final in the full form. -lytes: ll, since the syllable making up the segment is final in the full form. chempanel: l, since only one of the three syllables making up the segment, namely pa(or pan-) is middle in the full form. 5.3. overall relative salience of the segments in the sample the scores on each factor assigned to the segments selected for this study, together with the overall salience scores resulting from the addition of the partial scores on each factor are presented in table 2. as can be seen, the most salient segment within the original full form is tab-, followed by chempanel, which is in turn closely followed by bletand -lytes. the much higher score reached by tabthan by its “rival” segment -blet seems to explain why the former got selected as the conventional clipped form of tablet. antonio barcelona sánchez ibérica 34 (2017): 17-4438 natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 39 !! el ig ib le se gm en t fa ct or s w ith a h ig he r w ei gh t fa ct or s w ith a lo w er w ei gh t o ve ra ll sc or e in iti al po si tio n re la tiv el y ea sy to re co gn iz e an d re m em be r re la tiv el y ea sy to pr on ou nc e ab ili ty to ev ok e th e fu ll fo rm ab ili ty to e vo ke th e m ea ni ng of th e fu ll fo rm “n at ur al ne ss ” le ng th “e ne rg et ic ” ef fe ct fo rm al di st in ct iv en es s pr im ar y st re ss au di bi lit y si m ila rit y to fo rm s of ot he r co ns tru ct io ns fi na l po si tio n m id dl e po si tio n ta b t m t m h t t t ll t h t ll ll 65 bl et ll m l m ll t t h m ll ll m t ll 38 ly te s ll h m m ll h t m ll ll h t t ll 35 c he m pa ne l m m l t t ll ll ll ll t t t l l 40 ta bl e 2. s al ie nc e sc or es o f t he s eg m en ts c or re sp on di ng to th e cli pp in gs in th e st ud y an d of o ne ri va l s eg m en t. 6. conclusions and discussion in barcelona (2016) and in barcelona (in preparation), i have argued that the application of the salience grid seems to explain the selection as conventional clippings of such segments as proffor professor (over -essor), gas for gasoline (over -line or -soline), -flufor influenza (over in-, fluen-, -enza, or -za), -phone for telephone (over tele-) and of other segments (such rob for robert, mike for microphone, lab for laboratory, or bro for brother) over other eligible segments of the full form. the analysis reported in the present paper seems to confirm the adequacy of the salience factor grid as a way of accounting for the selection of certain segments as natural metonymic clippings. this is the main conclusion to be drawn from this paper. the salience factor grid is still an imperfect, tentative proposal, which will have to be further refined. but even in its present form, it seems to explain quite precisely the multifactorial salience “motivating” the selection of certain segments of full lexical forms as clipped forms linked to the full forms via the motivational metonymy salient part of form for whole form. motivation, however, is not the same thing as necessity, let alone prediction, since high relative salience cannot be taken as an absolute predictor of future linguistic behavior; like any motivational factor of linguistic structure, it only has limited predictive power (panther & radden, 2004). the scarcity of natural metonymic clippings in medical discourse is somehow striking as compared to their much higher frequency in the general lexicon. it is not clear what the reason may be for this fact. a possible explanation is that in the medical register the concepts expressed by its technical lexicon are very complex and they must be expressed by means of highly precise expressions to avoid confusion. they cannot normally be expressed by means of just a simple monomorphemic lexeme, which could then be easily abbreviated as a clipping in rapid communication. this requirement of precision seems to explain why most medical abbreviations are initialisms and acronyms rather than clippings: each of the evoked parts of the technical expression is evoked quite precisely by means of the corresponding initial. article history: received 31 august 2017 received in revised form xx month xxxx accepted xx month xxxx antonio barcelona sánchez ibérica 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(2011). “metonymy and cognitive operations” in r. benczes, a. barcelona, & f. j. ruiz de mendoza-ibáñez (eds.), 103-123. antonio barcelona is a full professor at the university of córdoba, he has lectured extensively as an invited speaker on metaphor, metonymy and cognitive linguistics at several universities and conferences in spain and abroad, most recently at düsseldorf (2015) and zagreb, croatia (2016). author of over a hundred articles, and author or editor of several books on these topics. notes 1 a group of researchers from several universities have been building a detailed metonymy database, under my direction, as part of projects ffi2008-04585 and ffi2012-36523, funded by the spanish government. it is an ongoing repository of conceptual metonymies that systematically gathers data on their multilevel operation in language and on their hierarchical structure, and that may become a guide for researchers in metonymy. see the chapters by barcelona, blanco-carrión and hernández-gomáriz in blanco-carrión, barcelona and pannain (eds.), in press, for a description of its design and examples of its entries. 2 that is, the uninflected full (i.e., non-abbreviated) form of lexemes and the full (i.e., non-elliptical or non-defective) form of syntactic constructions. 3 on this expression and its abbreviation, see list of common medical abbreviations and acronyms. url: http://www.medicinenet.com/common_medical_abbreviations_and_terms/article.htm [20/06/2017] 4 but this connection becomes obscured over time. some of them, especially acronyms like nato, are eventually treated as a new lexeme and develop their own spoken form. the american english pronunciation of nato is /ˈneitoʊ/. some acronyms are not even recognized any longer as acronyms by many speakers. this is the case of radar (<radio detecting and ranging). 5 http://www.spinalcord.org/resource-center/askus/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=1413. [20/06/2017] 6 see note 3 for the url of this resource. 7 n.s = non-syllabic; mono = monosyllabic; dis= disyllabic. 8 sti: stressed initial segment / usti: unstressed initial segment / ustf: unstressed final segment / st2: stressed second syllable (for disyllabic segments) / poly = polysyllabic (more than two syllables). 9 chemical symbols like ca for calcium are normally pronounced like the corresponding full form. if ob is pronounced as in the abbreviation ob-gyn /ˈoʊ.bi.dʒi.waɪˌen/, then it is probably pronounced /ˈoʊˈbi/. as for tw, it is very difficult to pronounce it as a one-syllable lexical form; therefore, its pronunciation either simply repeats the one for the full form twice a day, or utters the /t/ and the /w/ separately, as an initialism. 10 in this respect, this comment in the new york times is quite illustrative: “(…) the abbreviation arose as a kind of nickname, playfully anthropomorphizing the microphone as mike.” url: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/magazine/01-onlanguage-t.html?_r=0 [30/08/2015] 11 as can be seen, the syllabic structure of one and the same lexeme can be analyzed by speakers in alternative ways, provided the resulting syllabic patterns are allowed by the phonotactic possibilities of a given language. see gimson, 1970: 51-53, 239-255. natural metonymic clippings illustrated through the medical lexicon ibérica 34 (2017): 17-44 43 01 editorial.qxd editorial since our last issue, ibérica has undergone four important changes intended to dynamize the management of manuscripts and increase citations, which we believe will improve the status of the journal in the long run. first, at the beginning of the year this editorial team incorporated the figure of ‘statistics advisor’ to help reviewers evaluate empirical data, and provide support for authors wishing to upgrade their research designs. we want to thank dr. pascual cantos gómez for his generosity in undertaking this responsibility and sharing his knowledge with all of us. second, english has been chosen as the only lingua franca for publication, with a view to reaching a wider readership and facilitating the search for external reviewers. this decision was made by aelfe’s executive board on march 8, 2019, and approved in the general assembly of members on june 21, during the memorable aelfe conference held in pamplona at the university of navarra. third, we have set up a new ojs journal-hosting platform that will soon be operative. we would like to thank aelfe’s president, alejandro curado fuentes, and the association’s webmaster, francisco ruiz romero, for their involvement and dedication. and last, but by no means least, we have the executive board’s permission to occasionally include around twelve regular articles per issue and thus reduce waiting times. the next goal on our horizon is the acquisition of digital object identifiers (dois) for future articles. in addition to the guest contribution, the present issue contains twelve articles, representing five major research strands that are of central interest to ibérica’s readers: writing, lsp teaching, english-medium instruction (emi), multimodality and translation. they cover a varied range of genres (e.g. business letters, academic dissertations from different educational levels, doctoral theses, research articles, lectures and websites) and methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, mixed). our invited article, by laura alba-juez and lachlan mackenzie, examines the phenomenon of ‘fake news’, an issue of considerable concern in the digital media, within the perspective of professional journalistic discourse. to this end, the authors conduct a sociopragmatic analysis of political and scientific fake news samples in english and lay particular ibérica 38 (2019): 9-16 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 00 iberica 38_01 editorial.qxd 13/1/20 19:45 página 9 emphasis on the role of emotion. they consider the status of fake news as a genre, and unveil its intricate pragmatic workings, which essentially consist in the induction of false inferences, the display of misleading images, and the manipulation of the main evaluative subsystems in systemic functional linguistics: attitude, engagement, and graduation. the multifaceted nature of writing is highlighted in five articles from different perspectives. jun lei and tianmin jiang (article 1, “chinese university faculty’s motivation and language choice for scholarly publishing”) address the motivation and language choices in scholarly publishing among more than 300 chinese university faculty, and bring to light the complexity of the interactions involving interest and utility value, cost, self-perceived ability, language, discipline, and overseas experience. another critical aspect of writing, that of students’ perceptions, is investigated by federico navarro, fernanda uribe gajardo, pablo lovera falcón and enrique sologuren insúa (article 2, “encuentros con la escritura en el ingreso a la educación superior : representaciones sociales de los estudiantes en seis áreas de conocimiento”). their research delves into the social representations of academic writing teaching expressed by first-year university students from six areas of knowledge in a chilean state university. their results show that students deem the discursive and procedural features of ‘indistinctive genres’ (e.g. the essay) the hardest challenge, especially regarding the management of sources and the fulfilment of expectations from teachers and discourse communities, as well as the development of ideas throughout the text. the remaining three papers on writing focus on the expression of authorial stance and draw conclusions that lend themselves to useful pedagogical applications for the training of novice or insecure research writers. esmaeel abdollahzadeh’s (article 6, “a cross-cultural study of hedging in discussion sections by junior and senior academic writers”) scrutinizes the use of uncertainty markers in the discussion sections of master’s dissertations written by iranian and english graduates in applied linguistics and in those of research articles written by professional academics from the same field. his data reveal remarkable differences in use of hedging depending on linguo-cultural background and seniority. for instance, graduates (english and iranian alike) tend to resort to modal verbs more than professionals, who employ more accurate and reader-based hedges, evidentials and judgmental verbs. except in the case of modal verbs, iranian discussions are in general less frequently hedged than english ones, where more conversational hedges can be found. editorial ibérica 38 (2019): 9-1610 00 iberica 38_01 editorial.qxd 13/1/20 19:45 página 10 the master’s dissertation in applied linguistics is also the target genre of xuyan qiu’s and xiaohao ma’s study of stance, but this time contrasted with the doctoral thesis and the research article (article 12, “disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance: comparison of stance features among master’s dissertations, doctoral theses, and research articles”). their findings disclose different stance-taking practices according to the degree of disciplinary enculturation: the stance patterns of doctoral candidates are similar to those of expert writers, with more self-mentions, whereas master’s students make use of more hedges, boosters and attitude markers. written stance outside academia is researched by francisca suau-jiménez (article 7, “how hotel websites discursively adjust to customer preferences using online criticism”), whose combination of netnographic and metadiscursive surveys uncovers stance trends in a digital genre emblematic of tourism: the hotel website. she diachronically inquiries into the use of attitudinals and boosters in four hotel websites with 200 corresponding negative reviews from tripadvisor, and concludes that these metadiscourse devices are crucial in the adjustments made by these websites to improve their description of services and indirectly manage customer dissatisfaction. significant insights into curriculum development for lsp teaching are provided in the work by almudena basanta and lieve vangehuchten (article 3, “las cartas de presentación en los informes de rsc en chile, españa y méxico: en busca de un equilibrio entre people, planet y profit”) and in the article by mahmood reza atai and s. yahya hejazi (article 10, “assessment of academic english language needs of iranian post-graduate students of psychology”). basanta and vangehuchten offer a corpus-based study of the content and expression of corporate social responsibility (csr) in business letters presenting the csr reports of ceos from three spanishspeaking countries with different linguistic varieties and from different areas of csr implementation, which show considerable variation in their motivating principles. this fact points to the need to introduce current, culture-specific key topics in the lsp curriculum. reza atai and hejazi’s research, by contrast, concentrates on a more traditional method of needs analysis for curriculum development in english for academic purposes (eap) education and course design. they set out to determine the english language needs of postgraduate psychology students by means of questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and observations in a population of over 300 informants including postgraduates, eap instructors and content editorial ibérica 38 (2019): 9-16 11 00 iberica 38_01 editorial.qxd 13/1/20 19:45 página 11 teachers from seven major iranian universities. several skills and subskills are identified as important. the lsp panorama is completed with olga rocío serrano’s article on teaching in a multimodal setting (article 3, “selección conceptual, terminológica y estructuración de la historia de un microescenario virtual para el aprendizaje del francés de negocios”). she describes the process of composing a story for an initial macro-scenario for a virtual 3d simulation designed to teach the language used in french business contexts. after a first stage involving an internet search and the assembly of specialized authentic texts, their qualitative and quantitative analysis with the aid of a lexicometric tool enables the author to spot and select the contents, notions, collocations, compounds and terminological combinations that are worth learning and facilitate the creation of a branching-structured story. teacher education is the core topic of articles 4 and 5, respectively authored by ana bocanegra and helen basturkmen (“investigating the teacher education needs of experienced esp teachers in spanish universities”) and by aintzane doiz, david lasagabaster and víctor pavón (“the integration of language and content in english-medium instruction courses: lecturers’ beliefs and practices”). by interviewing experienced esp instructors in two spanish universities, bocanegra and basturkmen explore their teacher education needs and pay attention to the subjects’ views of esp teaching, the type of knowledge and skills they think are required, and the forms of support that would help them. results allow the authors to detect five areas of need: course development, knowledge of the target discipline and of the language used in it, peer collaboration, and opportunities for professional growth. the other side of the coin is the education of content lecturers in emi programmes, studied in depth by doiz, lasagabaster and pavón. their investigation discerns the challenges faced by these teachers, which pivot around the specificities of teaching in a foreign language, and stresses the benefits of collaboration with language teachers. research on multimodality is here represented by patrizia anesa’s dynamic qualitative approach to the hybridized semiotics of academic lecture slideshows (article 9, “syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities: towards a reconceptualization of visuals?”). she draws on the mit opencourseware initiative for study materials and devises a rubric for operationalizing the grammar of visuals and hence understanding how meaning is created. her findings indicate that semiotic resources develop editorial ibérica 38 (2019): 9-1612 00 iberica 38_01 editorial.qxd 13/1/20 19:45 página 12 syncretically, synergize to convey meanings, and have a reciprocal transformative function. the last topic in this issue is the teaching of translation, specifically the acquisition of translation competence. in article 11 (“la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos a través de las asignaturas de traducción francés-español”), julia isabel lobato patricio details the outcomes of a project aimed to improve the translation competence of incoming french-speaking students registered in french translation courses at her university, and provides teaching tools for that purpose. the four book reviews we have included complement the research strands of writing and lsp pedagogies exposed so far. jinjing wang evaluates novice writers and scholarly publication: authors, mentors, gatekeepers, coedited by pejman habibie and ken hyland (2019). this is a book that presents not only experiences, opinions and suggestions from both anglophone and eal (english-as-an additional-language) scholars, but also empirical research on the challenges and practices of writing for publication. this serves to rebut myths and misconceptions, make the case for genre literacy and dissolve the ingrained native/non-native divide. along similar lines, english for research publication pur poses: critical plurilingual pedagogies, authored by karen englander and james n. corcoran (2019) and reviewed by víctor a. meléndez garcía, gives voice to the ‘academic peripheries’ and, among its pedagogical reflections, underlines the need for genre and critical language awareness and sustainable writing practices. technology-assisted esp learning is the central subject in integrating information and communication technologies in english for specific purposes, coedited by rosa muñoz-luna and lidia taillefer (2017) and reviewed by salvador montaner villalba. after summarising the state of the art in technological innovation for didactic purposes, this volume emphasizes the authenticity of esp teaching and learning contexts (i.e. the design of more practical interactive environments) through information and communication technologies (icts), as well as their multiple didactic implementations. finally, xiangdong li’s review of optimizing the process of teaching english for medical purposes with the use of mobile applications: a memrise-based study, by maria chojnacka (2017), spotlights the book’s innovative proposal about teaching and learning esp via mobile-technology to encourage self-paced learner autonomy. from these pages, the whole of the ibérica team warmly welcomes eleven colleagues who have become internal reviewers and thus members of the editorial ibérica 38 (2019): 9-16 13 00 iberica 38_01 editorial.qxd 13/1/20 19:45 página 13 editorial board this year: larissa d’angelo and stefania consonni (both from the università degli studi di bergamo), rosa lorés sanz and maría pilar mur dueñas (both from the universidad de zaragoza), ismael arinas pellón (universidad politécnica de madrid), jerome tessuto (università degli studi della campania ‘luigi vanvitelli’) and gianluca pontrandolfo (università degli studi di trieste) joined us in early march, and since late june we have also counted on the expertise and commitment of salvador montaner villalba (universitat politècnica de valència), stefania m. maci (università degli studi di bergamo), and miguel fernández álvarez and óscar o. santos sopena, both from the universidad politécnica de madrid. as usual, i will close this fall editorial with heartfelt thanks to the scholars who have collaborated with ibérica as external reviewers between january and june. they are, in alphabetical order: marta aguilar (universitat politècnica de catalunya, spain) manuel alcántara plá (universidad autónoma de madrid, spain) sara álvarez martínez (université grenoble-alpes, france) patrizia anesa (università degli studi di bergamo, italy) elisabet arnó i maciá (universitat politècnica de catalunya, spain) laura aull (wake forest university, usa) helen basturkmen (university of auckland, new zealand) marina bondi (università degli studi di modena e reggio emilia) sally burgess (universidad de la laguna, spain) miguel ángel campos pardillos (universidad de alicante, spain) tania collet-najem (university of windsor, canada) isabel corona marzol (universidad de zaragoza, spain) emma dafouz milne (universidad complutense de madrid, spain) rosana dolón herrero (universitat de valència, spain) nuria edo marzá (universitat jaume i, spain) andreas eriksson (chalmers tekniska högskola/chalmers university of technology, sweden) inmaculada fortanet gómez (universitat jaume i, spain) claire hardaker (university of lancaster, uk) isabel herrando rodrigo (universidad de zaragoza, spain) jill jeffery (universiteit leiden, the netherlands) kevin jiang (jilin university, china) ricardo maría jiménez (universitat internacional de catalunya, spain) penny kinnear (university of toronto, canada) becky kwan (city university of hong kong, china) editorial ibérica 38 (2019): 9-1614 00 iberica 38_01 editorial.qxd 13/1/20 19:45 página 14 enrique lafuente millán (universidad de zaragoza, spain) zak lancaster (wake forest university, usa) carmen llamas saíz (universidad de navarra, spain) xiaohao ma (jilin university, china) guzmán mancho barés (universitat de lleida, spain) davide mazzi (università degli studi di modena e reggio emilia) salvador montaner villalba (universitat politècnica de valència, spain) thomas morton (universidad autónoma de madrid, universidad internacional de la rioja, spain) luo na (the chinese university of hong kong, china) lene nordrum (lunds universitet, sweden) elena oliete aldea (universidad de zaragoza, spain) moisés perales escudero (universidad de quintana roo, mexico) pascual pérez paredes (university of cambridge, uk) brigitte planken (radboud universiteit, the netherlands) xuyan qiu (the university of hong kong) maria grazia sindoni (università degli studi di messina, italy) jerome tessuto (università degli studi della campania luigi vanvitelli, italy) victor zhe zhang (the university of hong kong) wei zhu (university of south florida, usa) we hope this new issue inspires fresh research paths, contributes to bringing professional and academic communities of practice still closer, and keeps alive their interest in specialised communication. carmen sancho guinda universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) iberica@aelfe.org editor-in-chief of ibérica editorial ibérica 38 (2019): 9-16 15 00 iberica 38_01 editorial.qxd 13/1/20 19:45 página 15 resumen el concepto de género tiene un papel fundamental en la enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas para fines profesionales y académicos. una metodología basada en el género parte de la necesidad de analizar la situación en la que se produce la comunicación y plantea la enseñanza de la lengua teniendo en cuenta los géneros usados por la comunidad discursiva en la que se quiere integrar el estudiante. los textos se consideran ejemplos de géneros, que constituyen una respuesta relativamente convencionalizada a una situación comunicativa específica. el objetivo de este artículo es discutir la utilidad del concepto de género en la enseñanza de inglés para fines profesionales y académicos a estudiantes no nativos, teniendo en cuenta las condiciones en las que se produce el aprendizaje, y hacer una propuesta de cómo se puede organizar un syllabus de inglés para ingeniería en torno al concepto de colonia de géneros. palabras clave: diseño curricular, colonia de géneros, inglés para ingeniería, enseñanza de ife abstract applying the concept of genre colony to the teaching of english for specific purposes the concept of genre has an important role in the teaching and learning of languages for professional and academic purposes. a genre-based methodology is aimed at helping students master the genres used by a specific discourse community, and therefore starts from the analysis of the situation where communication takes place. individual texts are presented as instances of a prototypical genre, which is a relatively conventionalised response to a particular communicative situation. the purpose of this paper is to discuss the usefulness of the concept of genre in the teaching of english for specific purposes, and to show how the concept of genre colony can be used to organise the syllabus of an english for engineering course. key words: syllabus design, genre colony, english for engineering, esp teaching ibérica 10 [2005]: 133-144 notas de investigación/research notes aplicación del concepto de "colonia de géneros" a la enseñanza de inglés para fines específicos maría josé luzón universidad de zaragoza mjluzon@posta.unizar.es 133 1. introducción el concepto de género tiene un papel fundamental en la enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas para fines profesionales y académicos. uno de los pilares de una metodología basada en el género es el análisis del contexto social en el que se produce la comunicación y de los géneros usados por la comunidad discursiva en la que se quiere integrar el estudiante. se considera que el dominio de dichos géneros es fundamental para que los estudiantes puedan llegar a ser miembros de dicha comunidad. hay dos propuestas distintas de cómo se puede ayudar a los estudiantes a conseguir este objetivo: enseñar los géneros de forma explícita, centrándose en las características textuales del género (por ejemplo, características léxico-gramaticales, estructura retórica, elementos discursivos y pragmáticos) (walker, 1999; flowerdew, 2000; hyon, 2001; swales & lindemann, 2002; hyland, 2003), o situar a los estudiantes en el contexto social en el que se usan los géneros, de forma que entren en contacto con dichos géneros y con las situaciones retóricas a las que responden (freedman et al., 1994; freedman & adam, 1996; artemeva et al., 1999). este último modelo parte de la idea de que los géneros se aprenden a través de procesos sociales, por medio de la colaboración con los miembros de una comunidad de práctica: los estudiantes aprenden las prácticas discursivas de la disciplina participando en las actividades de la comunidad (adam & artemeva, 2002). en la enseñanza de inglés para fines específicos se ha seguido el primer enfoque (weissberg & buker, 1990; marshall, 1991; bhatia, 1991, 1993 y 1997; kusel, 1992; thompson, 1994; dudley-evans, 1997). se considera que los géneros constituyen una respuesta relativamente convencionalizada a una situación comunicativa específica y se diseñan tareas que ayuden a los estudiantes a ser conscientes de las convenciones que los caracterizan. se busca proporcionar modelos que ayuden a los estudiantes a dominar las estructuras genéricas que usan los expertos, y de este modo conseguir que sean capaces de usar dichos géneros de forma efectiva. swales y feak (1994) proporcionan un buen ejemplo de un curso de escritura basado en el género. el objetivo de este artículo es discutir la utilidad del concepto de género en la enseñanza de inglés profesional y académico a estudiantes no nativos, teniendo en cuenta las condiciones en las que se produce el aprendizaje, y hacer una propuesta de cómo se puede organizar un syllabus de inglés para ingeniería en torno al concepto de colonia de géneros. maría josé luzón ibérica 10 [2005]: 133-144134 2. el concepto de género un género es una acción comunicativa tipificada que aparece como respuesta a una situación recurrente (miller, 1984; yates y orlikowski, 1992) y que se caracteriza por una serie de propósitos comunicativos reconocidos por los miembros de la comunidad discursiva que lo usa (swales, 1990; bhatia, 1993). en la literatura sobre análisis de género se distinguen tres enfoques distintos: la nueva retórica (miller, 1984; bazerman, 1994; berkenkotter & huckin, 1995), el enfoque del ife (swales, 1990; bhatia, 1993), y el de la lingüística sistémica funcional (christie & martin, 1997). la diferencia más destacada entre estos enfoques es que el foco de análisis en la nueva retórica son las prácticas sociales y en el campo del ife y de la lingüística sistémica funcional se presta más atención al análisis textual. desde la nueva retórica los géneros se definen como acciones sociales relacionadas con contextos específicos y esferas de actividad de una comunidad discursiva. las características formales de los géneros están determinadas por el contexto y por la comunidad y relacionadas con el motivo social del escritor al responder a una situación social recurrente (freedman & medway, 1994b: 3). desde la perspectiva del ife (swales, 1990; bhatia, 1993) los géneros se perciben como acciones comunicativas de una comunidad discursiva. para swales (1990) y bhatia (1993) el criterio más importante para definir género es el propósito comunicativo. este propósito comunicativo determina las características léxico-gramaticales del género. desde la perspectiva de la lingüística sistémica el foco de atención es la estructura esquemática de distintos géneros. martin (2002: 269) describe el género como �configurations of meaning [�] recurrently phased together to enact social practices�. a pesar de las diferencias entre estos enfoques, en los tres casos se está de acuerdo en que los géneros son acciones comunicativas convencionalizadas que se construyen socialmente, y en que las semejanzas en aspectos formales y lingüísticos que presentan los textos pertenecientes a un mismo género son el resultado de una respuesta efectiva a situaciones retóricas recurrentes (swales, 1990; devitt, 1993; freedman & medway, 1994b). en palabras de devitt (1993: 576), genres develop [�] because they respond appropriately to situations that writers encounter repeatedly. in principle, that is, writers first respond in fitting way and hence similarly to recurring situations; then the similarities among those appropriate responses become established as generic conventions notas de investigación / research notes ibérica 10 [2005]: 133-144 135 hay varios aspectos importantes que deben ser tenidos en cuenta al plantearse la enseñanza de géneros. en primer lugar, a pesar de las convenciones genéricas los géneros son productos dinámicos (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; paltridge, 1995a; ramanathan & kaplan, 2000). berkenkotter y huckin (1995: 4) proporcionan la siguiente definición de género: �genres are inherently dynamic rhetorical structures than can be manipulated according to the conditions of use�, y consideran el conocimiento del género como �a form of situated cognition embedded in disciplinary activities�. los géneros no son estructuras fijas, sino modelos flexibles que cambian como resultado de un proceso de evolución, a medida que cambian las necesidades socio-cognitivas de las comunidades discursivas. además, los usuarios pueden manipular las convenciones textuales para dar respuesta a una situación social particular (bhatia, 1993 y 2004). otro aspecto importante es el de prototipicalidad. los textos individuales son ejemplos de un género prototípico y tienen propiedades o cualidades heredadas de este prototipo (swales, 1990; paltridge, 1995b), pero también pueden tener rasgos que los diferencian de dicho prototipo. los textos son entidades heterogéneas o intertextuales, que pueden tener elementos de géneros diferentes. al analizar los textos pertenecientes a un género hay que prestar atención tanto a las semejanzas como a la variación (hyland, 2000). por tanto, los conceptos de intertextualidad e interdiscursividad son básicos para entender los géneros. como bahktin (1986: 89) afirma, los géneros incluyen �echoes and reverberations of others� utterances�. los géneros son entidades complejas interrelacionadas con otros géneros de múltiples formas, y, por tanto, no se pueden entender si no se analizan en relación con el contexto en el que se producen y con los otros géneros usados por una comunidad discursiva. un tipo de relaciones genéricas son las existentes entre géneros que tienen similares propósitos comunicativos, formando lo que bhatia (2002a, 2002b y 2004) llama colonia de géneros: �a constellation of closely related and overlapping genres, sometimes within but often across discourse communities� (bhatia, 2002a: 10). los miembros de una colonia tienen propósitos comunicativos similares (aunque no necesariamente todos los propósitos comunicativos en los casos en los que los géneros sirven más de un propósito), comparten ciertas convenciones retóricas y contextos y presentan características léxico-gramaticales similares. sin embargo, la mayoría pueden ser diferentes en otros aspectos, tales como la afiliación profesional, los contextos de uso, maría josé luzón ibérica 10 [2005]: 133-144136 o las relaciones entre los participantes. como ejemplo, bhatia cita los géneros promocionales, géneros narrativos, géneros académicos, o cartas. bhatia (2002b: 282) establece una distinción entre tres niveles de descripción genérica: (i) valores genéricos (lo que otros autores denominan �tipos de textos�, tales como narración, argumentación, descripción), que son independientes de un determinado contexto social y situacional. (ii) colonias de géneros, que están asociadas a un concepto amplio y poco definido de contexto retórico; según bhatia, una colonia de textos es una categoría con límites poco definidos y hay solapamiento entre las distintas colonias. (iii) géneros, que son dependientes de contextos socioretóricos definidos. una colonia puede tener miembros primarios y secundarios. bhatia (2004) ejemplifica claramente esta idea con la colonia de géneros promocionales. los anuncios, cartas promocionales, propaganda en la cubierta de libros o cartas de recomendación son miembros primarios de esta colonia. entre los miembros secundarios se podrían incluir, entre otros, las cartas para conseguir fondos, los folletos de viajes o las solicitudes de becas, ya que en todos estos géneros hay elementos promocionales. 3. el género en la enseñanza de ife numerosos cursos de ife usan el género como criterio organizador del syllabus. en la mayoría de estos cursos el género se considera una entidad relativamente estable, cuyas características se pueden enseñar, de modo que los estudiantes lo puedan reproducir. se trata de que los estudiantes se familiaricen con los diferentes géneros que necesitarán, comprendan cómo están organizados los textos y por qué están escritos así, y sean conscientes de las estrategias que pueden usar al aprender a producir textos para finalidades específicas. es decir, en estos cursos se intenta conseguir que los estudiantes de ife aprendan qué tipo de lenguaje o qué prácticas discursivas son apropiadas en un contexto específico. para lograr este objetivo, un syllabus organizado en torno al género parte de la identificación y análisis de los distintos géneros que los estudiantes tendrán que leer y producir (davies, 1988). normalmente se incluye en el syllabus los objetivos comunicativos de cada género que notas de investigación / research notes ibérica 10 [2005]: 133-144 137 se desea presentar, junto con su estructura discursiva y sus características léxicogramaticales. a pesar de que este es un método bastante aceptado en ife, existe una controversia sobre la enseñanza de géneros. algunos investigadores proponen que los géneros se pueden enseñar explícitamente (ej. fahnestock, 1993; williams & colomb, 1993), mientras que otros rechazan la enseñanza explícita o consideran que hay límites a este tipo de enseñanza (devitt, 1993; freedman, 1993; russell, 1997; adam & artemeva 2002; johns, 2002b). freedman afirma que los géneros no se deben enseñar como patrones fijos, caracterizados por el uso de determinadas estructuras y elementos lingüísticos, pero sí considera necesario que los estudiantes sean conscientes de la importancia de factores genéricos (audiencia, contexto, etc.). devitt (1993: 577) describe el conocimiento del género que los estudiantes deberían tener, sugiriendo cómo se puede enseñar: knowing genre means knowing such things as appropriate subject matter, level of detail, tone, and approach as well as the usual layout and organization. knowing the genre means knowing not only, or even most of all, how to conform to generic conventions but also how to respond appropriately to a given situation. este conocimiento del género es lo que bhatia (1997) llama �posesión del género� y considera esencial para que los estudiantes puedan usar el género de forma efectiva. según él, los estudiantes deben adquirir la habilidad de responder a contextos retóricos familiares y no familiares. para conseguir esto, es importante no presentar los géneros de un modo prescriptivo, sino como estructuras cognitivas que se pueden manipular. una propuesta interesante sobre qué enseñar en relación con el concepto de género es la de chapman (1999). chapman define tres objetivos de aprendizaje relacionados con los géneros: aprender géneros (ampliar el repertorio de géneros de los estudiantes) aprender sobre género (fomentar la conciencia de género y de conceptos como el de audiencia), y aprender a través de los géneros (utilizar los géneros como herramientas para aprender en situaciones concretas). para lograr estos tres objetivos es necesario proponer actividades en las que la escritura de un texto sea un proceso situado en un contexto social, y en el que el género se perciba como una entidad dinámica, flexible y con un objetivo (chapman, 1999; johns, 2002b). chapman afirma que cuando los estudiantes han tenido muchas experiencias con distintos géneros, dichos géneros forman parte de los medios que tienen los estudiantes de construir y representar el maría josé luzón ibérica 10 [2005]: 133-144138 significado y por tanto se convierten en recursos que pueden usar en la comunicación. siguiendo a langer (1997), chapman sugiere que ampliar el repertorio de géneros de los estudiantes sin concentrarse de forma explícita en géneros específicos puede contribuir a un pensamiento más flexible. un syllabus de inglés para fines específicos organizado en torno al concepto de colonia de géneros (bhatia 2002a, 2002b y 2004) puede ser apropiado para conseguir este objetivo. 4. propuesta de syllabus para �inglés técnico� para ingeniería la asignatura �inglés técnico� (6 créditos) se imparte en las cuatro titulaciones de ingeniería del centro politécnico superior de la universidad de zaragoza: ingeniería industrial, ingeniería química, ingeniería en informática e ingeniería de telecomunicaciones. el programa de las cuatro asignaturas está organizado en torno al concepto de colonia de géneros, pero sus contenidos son diferentes para adaptarse a las distintas disciplinas. cada unidad del programa presenta una colonia o grupo de géneros que comparten rasgos comunes. el programa de �inglés técnico� no se basa en el estudio detallado de los aspectos formales de unos pocos géneros con los que los estudiantes se deben familiarizar por varias razones. en primer lugar, en el caso de la enseñanza de inglés técnico para ingeniería a estudiantes universitarios (y probablemente en muchos otros casos de enseñanza de ife) resulta difícil decidir cuáles serán los géneros más importantes para nuestros alumnos y concretar unos pocos géneros que deberían formar parte de un syllabus. bhatia (2002b: 283) considera que los estudiantes de ife probablemente ya poseen el conocimiento sociocultural asociado con contextos profesionales y académicos muy concretos, por lo que a nivel de ife la enseñanza se puede basar en los géneros. sin embargo, en el caso de la enseñanza de inglés para ingeniería a estudiantes no nativos, esta descripción corresponde más bien a profesionales que ya están trabajando en un determinado contexto, pero no a estudiantes no graduados, cuyas necesidades comunicativas todavía no están tan claramente definidas. la enseñanza explícita de géneros específicos sólo parece apropiada en cursos de ife donde los estudiantes tienen necesidades muy concretas y definidas. en esos casos el curso se podría centrar en el género que los estudiantes necesitarán usar. otro problema que plantea la enseñanza explícita de géneros concretos es que, dado que los géneros no son estructuras fijas (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; ramanathan notas de investigación / research notes ibérica 10 [2005]: 133-144 139 & kaplan, 2000; bhatia, 2004), no consideramos conveniente enseñarlos como tales. si los géneros se presentan de un modo prescriptivo, como estructuras fijas y estables, los estudiantes no percibirán su carácter dinámico y pueden no ser conscientes de la posibilidad de manipularlos para conseguir objetivos determinados y adaptarlos a situaciones concretas. por último, en un curso de 60 horas resulta imposible reflejar la complejidad de los géneros: los géneros no son categorías discretas (hay géneros híbridos, géneros que se integran en otros, etc.) ni entidades autónomas, sino que se relacionan con otros géneros de múltiples formas, dando lugar a sistemas de géneros (bazerman, 1994), colonias de géneros, etc. si los estudiantes estudian un solo género o un grupo de géneros estrechamente relacionados será más difícil que perciban cómo factores tales como el propósito comunicativo o la audiencia determinan la elección de elementos lingüísticos en un texto. por todo ello, nos interesa que los alumnos presten atención más que a géneros específicos a lo que bhatia llama �colonias de géneros�. se trata de presentar a los estudiantes grupos de géneros con propósitos comunicativos similares, para que reflexionen sobre las similitudes y diferencias entre los géneros que forman una colonia y sean conscientes de que la audiencia a la que un texto va dirigido y el propósito comunicativo del texto determinan la lengua que se usa. para diseñar los distintos cursos de �inglés técnico�, el primer paso fue definir los propósitos comunicativos para los que los estudiantes necesitarán usar la lengua y los géneros con dichos propósitos comunicativos en su disciplina. después de concretar las colonias de géneros a incluir en el syllabus, determinamos las funciones retóricas o estructuras de organización que se dan en estos géneros (ej. problema-solución, comparación-contraste, narración) y los elementos léxico-gramaticales relacionados con cada colonia. las estructuras retóricas y los elementos léxico-gramaticales se estudian en relación con las colonias de géneros en las que aparecen. la tabla 1 muestra los grupos o colonias de géneros con los que se pretende familiarizar a los estudiantes en las asignaturas de �inglés técnico� para ingeniería, ejemplos de género de cada colonia, ejemplos de estructuras retóricas y ejemplos de elementos léxico-gramaticales asociados con cada colonia. maría josé luzón ibérica 10 [2005]: 133-144140 para ayudar a los estudiantes a desarrollar las destrezas y estrategias necesarias para utilizar la lengua inglesa en su disciplina es necesario presentar los géneros de una forma flexible. en las asignaturas de �inglés técnico� los géneros no se utilizan como modelos a aprender sino como ejemplos de cómo se usa la lengua para conseguir un propósito comunicativo determinado. así pues, se trata de enseñar los géneros como estrategia. para lograr este objetivo, en las asignaturas de �inglés técnico� se siguen las siguientes pautas: (i) en cada unidad se agrupan géneros diferentes, pero que comparten propósitos comunicativos. (ii) se presentan y analizan textos que se han escrito en respuesta a una situación determinada y se pide a los aprendices que usen los textos con un objetivo similar al que se usan en la comunidad discursiva a la que quieren pertenecer. por ejemplo, los estudiantes deben comprender las especificaciones o fichas técnicas de distintos productos o materiales y determinar si dichos productos son apropiados para un uso determinado. notas de investigación / research notes ibérica 10 [2005]: 133-144 141 tabla 1. colonias de géneros en el syllabus de �inglés técnico� (iii) se busca que los aprendices perciban la importancia de los conceptos de audiencia, situación y propósito comunicativo y que sean capaces de adaptar a estos factores el tipo de lengua que necesitan usar. se les pide, por ejemplo, que analicen textos con propósitos similares pero dirigidos a distintas audiencias. (iv) se introducen nuevos géneros en el contexto de situaciones familiares para el estudiante. por ejemplo, en �inglés técnico� para ingeniería informática se pide a los estudiantes que examinen evaluaciones o anuncios de productos informáticos para decidir cuál comprar. esta es una actividad que están acostumbrados a hacer con textos en español (e incluso con textos en inglés). de este modo pueden recurrir al conocimiento que tienen de un género en su lengua materna, y a las estrategias para usar dicho género. (v) se utilizan para la misma tarea distintos géneros que tienen un propósito similar (ej., evaluaciones o anuncios de productos), de modo que los estudiantes pueden ver cómo influye el propósito comunicativo en las formas lingüísticas, y reflexionar sobre las semejanzas y diferencias entre los géneros y sobre cómo procesar y utilizar la información que se da en cada género. (vi) se proponen tareas en las que los estudiantes puedan percibir las relaciones entre géneros. muchas tareas combinan más de una destreza (lectura, escritura, expresión oral) y distintos géneros, ej. la lectura de un texto para producir otro texto perteneciente a un género distinto. (vii) se plantean tareas que ayuden a los aprendices a percibir los géneros como estructuras flexibles y dinámicas, que se pueden manipular. para ello se pueden utilizar textos que incluyan elementos de varios géneros, o se puede pedir a los estudiantes que comparen dos textos pertenecientes al mismo género o que propongan alternativas a cómo se ha utilizado la lengua para construir significado en un texto. 5. conclusiones la enseñanza de inglés profesional y académico en el contexto universitario español está determinada por factores, tales como necesidades poco definidas o falta de tiempo, que en la mayoría de los casos hacen poco viable o poco útil concentrarse en enseñar géneros específicos de manera explícita, como estructuras fijas. no obstante, es importante que los estudiantes sean conscientes de la importancia de conceptos maría josé luzón ibérica 10 [2005]: 133-144142 como audiencia, situación y propósito comunicativo y se familiaricen con el repertorio de géneros que usa la comunidad discursiva en la que quieren integrarse. por ello proponemos que un syllabus de inglés en este contexto se puede organizar en torno al concepto de colonia de géneros, o grupos de géneros que tienen un propósito comunicativo similar. para ejemplificar cómo se usa la lengua para obtener propósitos comunicativos específicos se utilizan textos que representan géneros pertenecientes a una colonia determinada. no se trata de que los estudiantes consideren los géneros como modelos fijos a imitar, sino de que entiendan por qué un texto es apropiado en un contexto social determinado y de que usen los géneros para comprender y deducir las convenciones del género y construir sus propios textos. en resumen, hay que ayudar a los estudiantes a reflexionar sobre los géneros, sobre las situaciones comunicativas en las que se usan esos géneros, y sobre el uso de la lengua en esas situaciones. 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(1999). �using genre theory to teach students engineering lab report writing: a collaborative approach�. ieee transactions of professional communication 42,1: 12-19. weissberg, r. & s. buker (1990). writing up research. experimental research report writing for students of english. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. williams, j. & g. colomb (1993). �the case for explicit teaching: why what you don�t know won�t help you�. research in the teaching of english 27,3: 252-264. yates, j. & w. j. orlikowski (1992). �genres of organizational communication: a structurational approach to studying communications and media�. academy of management review 17,2: 299-326. iberica 13 ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in a world in which major technological advances have considerably boosted the use of the web as a communication tool, the analysis of digital press releases to disseminate information on the case-related activity of judicial courts and project their social and institutional identity far and wide is useful to understand an evolving continuum of professional discursive practices (re-)shaped within institutional and media (public relations) communication strategies. drawing from the criteria of genre categorizations (swales, 2004; bhatia, 2004; askehave & swales, 2001) along with computer-mediated analysis of texts (yates & orlikowski, 1992; askehave & nielsen, 2005; caballero, 2008; villanueva et al., 2008; garzone, 2012) and metapragmatic strategies of press releases (jacobs, 1999) in a randomised corpus of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases, i first place the sampled texts into their context of use, and then look at the generic structure used to realise the moves with communicative purposes, in both qualitative and quantitative analyses of data. context and structure underlying the communicative genre are then mapped onto the role and function of intertextuality and interdiscursivity (fairclough, 1992, 2003; bhatia 2004, 2017) alongside recontextualization (linell, 1998; sarangi & brookers-howell, 2006). the findings show that the genre typifies the rhetorical activities and purposes of release writers as they come across to the media and the wider audiences in the ongoing context of institutionalised communication, and the ways the genre effectively replicates other forms of discourses and genres at different levels of organisational structure. keywords: discourse and communication, genre, press release, interdiscursivity. making sense of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases: context, structure and replicable genres girolamo tessuto university of campania ‘luigi vanvitelli’ (italy) girolamo.tessuto@unicampania.it 219 ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 girolamo tessuto resumen explorando los comunicados de prensa en línea del tribunal de justicia de la unión europea: contexto, estructura y géneros replicables en un mundo en el que los grandes avances tecnológicos han impulsado el uso de internet como herramienta de comunicación, resulta útil analizar el papel que desempeñan los comunicados de prensa digitales en la difusión de información acerca de la actividad relacionada con los casos de los tribunales y en la proyección de su identidad social e institucional. este análisis nos permitirá comprender cómo han evolucionado las prácticas discursivas profesionales y cómo se han (re)amoldado dentro de las estrategias de comunicación institucionales y de medios (relaciones públicas). el presente artículo parte de los criterios de categorización de los géneros discursivos (swales, 2004; bhatia, 2004; askehave & swales, 2001), del análisis de textos mediado por ordenador (yates & orlikowski, 1992; askehave & nielsen, 2005; caballero, 2008; villanueva et al., 2008; garzone, 2012) y de las estrategias metapragmáticas de los comunicados de prensa (jacobs, 1999) en un corpus aleatorio de comunicados de prensa en línea del tribunal de justicia de la unión europea. con base en ello, en primer lugar, se sitúan los textos seleccionados en su contexto de uso, y, después, se analiza la estructura genérica mediante la cual se llevan a cabo los diferentes movimientos (moves) con fines comunicativos mediante análisis tanto cualitativos como cuantitativos. posteriormente, se explica la relación del contexto y de la estructura subyacentes a este género comunicativo con el papel y la función de la intertextualidad y la interdiscursividad (fairclough 1992, 2003; bhatia 2004; 2017), junto con la recontextualización (linell, 1998; sarangi & brookers-howell, 2006). los resultados obtenidos evidencian que, a medida que los comunicados de prensa se presentan a los medios y al público en general en el contexto actual de la comunicación institucionalizada, este género va tipificando las actividades retóricas y los propósitos de sus autores, así como las formas en que el género replica de manera efectiva otras formas de discursos y géneros en diferentes niveles de estructura organizativa. palabras clave: discurso y comunicación, género, comunicado de prensa, interdiscursividad. 1. introduction with the world wide web continuously transforming the way we conduct our lives, new opportunities for publishing information and news online are growing and changing the role of gatekeeping journalists in today’s media environment and public relations industry. alongside this, the press release 220 remains the workhorse of most media public relations programmes on the web and acts as the most effective communication tool for information and news to spread far and wide, helping companies or institutions get valuable publicity. the fact that the press release is journalistic in format, versatile and can be written “for different audiences [for whom it is] supposed to do different things” (jacobs, 1999: 22) has made it the object of considerable discourse-, genreand public relations-analytic research (e.g. sleurs et al., 2003; tench, 2003; barnett, 2005; mclaren & gurău, 2005; lassen, 2006; catenaccio, 2008, gilpin, 2008; lindholm, 2008; pander maat, 2007, 2008; pander maat & de jong, 2012; bremner, 2014; wickman, 2014; tessuto 2017) designed to indicate structure, style, purpose and other contextual factors. but with the internet “rapidly changing the use and language of press releases” (strobbe & jacobs, 2005: 91), the influence of textual and discursive practices on the genre of press releases is no exception in professional and institutional communication used for media relations programmes. this is visible at several constitutional courts in the world, which are increasingly maintaining web sites where press releases are commonly posted as pdf files and used to spread information on court proceedings far and wide. while social media is also emerging as a tool to alert and educate audiences regarding those activities, the generic role and construction of press releases used in these institutionalised channels of communication and media external relations provide the preferred option for “shap[ing] reader’s opinion about the institution” (gilpin, 2010: 282) alongside the institutional ‘voice’ in upholding and interpreting the law, and similarly generate sliced and diced compelling pieces of news coverage relevant for dissemination of information and knowledge about the court. indeed, due to the spread of new technologies (garzone, 2012), genres are also continually adapting for specific communicative purposes, needs and situations (askehave & swales, 2001; bhatia, 2004), and allow the communicative genre of press releases available from court web sites to provide an evolving continuum of interpretations and discursive practices (re-)shaped within institutionalised contexts of professional communication and to bring to the fore interdiscursive mechanisms these contexts are now framing for media communication. to the extent that these press releases play a central role in the day-to-day activities and public relations goals of a particular court, the nature and processes involved in their construction and use also remain, to the best of my knowledge, largely missing, if not totally making sense of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases: context, structure and replicable genres ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 221 absent, from the linguistic (genre-based) research landscape. in an attempt to bridge this gap, this study sets out to examine the genre of european court of justice institutional press releases both for their context of use and value for strategic, purpose-driven generic structure alongside the ways they tie with a predictable network of discursive contexts and practices re-arranged by release writers as part of the media communication and public relations goals inside this institution. to this end, the study is guided by three complementary research questions: 1. how can these press releases be properly contextualised for their activity, purpose and genre in institutional and media communication? 2. what kind of generic structure and rhetorical move types determine the internal organisation of press release discourse and help release writers come across effectively to the audience and to the media professionals? 3. how is the institutional press release genre (re-)shaped by other forms of genres at different levels of generic structure? to answer these questions in both descriptive and interpretative terms, i shall first indicate the empirical material and research method used, before undertaking the analysis and discussion of the findings for those questions, and drawing some preliminary conclusions. 2. material and method 2.1. corpus data the empirical data for this study came from a synchronically randomised corpus of 50 english-language press releases (prs) sanctioned via the press and media unit of the curia’s institutional web site over a four-month period (from october 2017 to february 2018).1 sampled press releases were retrieved from the press releases’ tagged page of this site on a mouse click, downloaded as pdf files and subsequently converted into text-formats. wordsmith retrieval system (scott, 2015) was then used to generate different quantitative data of the sampled texts. the overall data source for this study was a 60,271 word-corpus of published press releases, with an average length of 1,160 words per text (roughly 3 pages in pdf format). girolamo tessuto ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244222 table 1. quantitative data of press releases collected from the curia (press and information unit) website through wordsmith tools 6.0. the screenshot in figure 1 below displays the press releases’ tagged page of the curia’s (press and media) site where all the releases appeared in a reverse number order, so that the first press release has the most-recent releasenumber on a particular dateline, and so on, allowing users to click on newerreleases or older-releases in internet communication: figure 1. press releases page. in addition to this numbering and dating system, the screenshot displays a minimum set of uniform metadata for publishing online press releases (that is, a judgment or an opinion referred to and made available on a mouse click, case number in the register, parties, languages, field, and snapshot ruling), alongside the remainder of the page devoted to graphic logo for release institutional ‘face’ and other headers for global navigation options. expectedly, these headers contain multiple anchor text-rich “hyperlinks” (askehave & nielsen, 2005) to the same or other digital content domains through intertextual frames (underlined), such as twitter usage policy, and case-law search form, which provide more search engine exposure to readers as web users, while also distributing traffic across media outlets. making sense of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases: context, structure and replicable genres ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 223 total tokens total sentences total mean (in words) mean length per text 60,271 1,555 37.29 1,160 2.2. data analytical procedure to address the three research questions primarily in qualitative terms, the initial aim of this study was to put press releases into their context of activity, purpose, and genre. so, the functionally-defined criteria of discourse and genre categorisations (swales, 2004; bhatia, 2004; askehave & swales, 2001), involving the role of press releases in communications research (mclaren & gurău, 2005; maat, 2007; catenaccio, 2008; tessuto, 2017), were taken into account along with the criteria that press releases are essentially written to be reproduced by the media around several pre-formulation strategies, such as a comprehensive ‘lead’ paragraph, a reverse pyramid structure, and a number of metapragmatic features dealt with elsewhere (jacobs, 1999). analysis of the generic structure of texts focused on the standardised makeup of press releases and the more textually relevant moves with communicative purposes, with each move being examined as “a discoursal or rhetorical unit that performs a coherent communicative function” (swales, 2004: 228; biber et al., 2007: 23), and as a “socio-cognitive pattern [of] a professional community” (bhatia, 2004: 9). in addition to coupling structural analysis of the genre as a text and community-based discourse with a focus on computerand web-mediated communication (yates & orlikowski, 1992; askehave & nielsen, 2005; caballero, 2008; garzone, 2012), this study used a qualitative content analysis (neuendorf, 2002) to systematically and comprehensively code the frequency of manifest content juxtaposed within press releases. alongside these analytical procedures is the recognition that press releases favoured the distribution of information between the writer’s account and attributed source via indirect reporting and summarisation (that is, restating the reported source of information in the writer’s own language at roughly the same level of detail). indirect reporting (summarisation) here subsumed much of the rhetorical process of recontextualisation (e.g. linell, 1998; sarangi & brookers-howell, 2006), which relates to “how prior talk, text and context are reproduced and transformed in dynamic, dialogic fashion with consequences of meaning making” (sarangi & brookers-howell, 2006: 6), and works actively to develop new (recontextualised) texts in the system (linell, 1998). the predominant use of indirect reporting (attributing what is summarised to people who said or wrote it) thus carries over to the phenomenon of interdiscursivity that covers the broader kind of voice appropriation (fairclough, 2003; bhatia, 2004, 2017) from different discourses and genres. girolamo tessuto ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244224 3. results and discussion in the following sub-sections, i present and discuss the findings of the multimodal analysis of sampled texts in relation to their contextualised and generic structure features, and highlight how specific organisational features of release text draw upon other well-defined (‘offline’) discourses and genres. 3.1. contextualising press releases for their activity, purpose and genre the mission statement of the curia press and information unit spells out that: “[t]he press and information unit is mainly responsible for the communication of the judicial activity of the court and its relations with the press. it drafts and distributes the press releases concerning judgments and opinions which are likely to be of interest to citizens and the media and/or which have an important social or economic impact” (communication directorate’s page). this way of articulating the unit’s goals and seeking to establish the “media agenda” for “public relations activities” (kiousis et al., 2007) lays out quite clearly the genre-based activity and purpose of press releases as prepared by the unit’s communication staff (hereinafter referred to as the curia’s press release writers or media professionals, as the context requires). in essence, sampled press releases are pieces of communication written by “either qualified lawyers or legal academics” (personal communication from curia press and media services) to report information about the ‘rulings’ or ‘decisions’ delivered by the judges of the european court of justice (ecj), or about the ‘reasoned opinions’ (or ‘submissions’) delivered by the advocates general of the same court regarding the merits of a particular case.2 the fact that press releases have a case judgment or opinion in subject focus not only suggests that they are organised and used in relation to specific structure, content, style as well as purpose of the “discourse community” (swales, 2004), or the “disciplinary or social institution” (bhatia, 2004), but also that they are produced primarily by expert writers seeking to instantly connect with like-minded readers in a community-oriented genre. yet, we are still informed that press releases are “likely to be of interest to citizens” (communication directorate’s page), meaning that they are equally conceived for a more general audience participation in what the court is making sense of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases: context, structure and replicable genres ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 225 doing and why. in this vein, writing press releases makes what is ‘shared’ by a community a dynamic concept in the public space of the web, and exemplifies how release writers were seeking to set up an information and communication platform by reaching out to the broadest possible audiences – those from within and outside the focused community. in boiling down to the essence of a court’s case as well as the broader community-based input, press releases are presented in a distinct case-summary format, signifying that informational source materials (judgments or opinions) are regularly recontextualised into reports via indirect reporting (attributing what was summarised and reported to other voices). clearly, this transformative process involves identifying what was actually written in press releases; in other words, measuring and analysing large amounts of texts (judgments or opinions) for their reliable content found within case-release summaries across the sample, thus identifying opportunities for this recontextualising process to be better aligned with evidence. but this process of creating concise release texts in the web medium also rely on combined “narrations, arguments and descriptions” (bhatia, 2004: 60) as the central rhetorical functions or generic values (bhatia, 2004: 60), showing what release writers brought to their writing to express themselves effectively and share with others. while this process of writing allows for the specificity of the genre to be used for an overall public information purpose, presenting a mixture of values along these established patterns inevitably suggests that the writers created hybrid, middle ground texts between the genre of cases (judgments or opinions) as pure reports and the informative press release genre with a reporting function being appropriated to achieve their professional goals. with this hybrid activity at work in the current discourse, curia press releases can best be thought of as providing the means by which the importance of the online treatment of case informational content is reflected in material communicative goals of the justice court (institution-internal communication), and converted into reportand summary-like communicative products that the issuing institution is interested in bringing to the forefront of varied – albeit ‘selective’ – readers, including reporters, through the curia media professionals (media communication). as valuable tools for this mutual process between institutional communication and media communication, sampled press releases are deployed as asynchronous, one-way forms of communication embodied in part within the medium of computerand web-enabled communication (yates & orlikowski, 1992; askehave & nielsen, 2005; villanueva et al., 2008; garzone, 2012). girolamo tessuto ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244226 implied in this mutual process is that the public information model of press releases plays up a good level of legitimacy in the eyes of the writers to attract the attention of media outlets when it is particularly useful for the factual relevance of the case, and to convert press releases into newsworthy items when the media outlets decide to pick up a decision or opinion in the case. in line with this reasoning, it is no surprise that press releases align with “the formal requirements of news reporting” through preformulation strategies (jacobs, 1999: 113), and foreground the relevance of the news factor in the process of news selection (shoemaker, 2006) by enhancing an item’s significance, or the newsworthiness, of the case, and creating “news value” in the media reporting (harcup & o’neill, 2001). yet, we may expect that release writers should do more to cover everything from the case information to the news angle, and ideally aim to foster public perception regarding the processes by which the court considered and resolved their disputes. this is not a truism, since we are dealing with judgments and opinions that are the ‘voice’ of the justice court and serve to convey and explain to audiences how the advocate general provides the court’s judge with views and arguments that are valuable in order to debate and reach a judgment. consequently, press releases also function as information carriers to raise public awareness about the foundational processes of fairness and transparency falling upon those institutions. with these motives and intentions being part of – albeit underplayed in – the current system of internal (institutional) communication and external (media) communication, publishing press releases becomes necessarily broader in rhetorical functions than it is already meant to be in the unit’s goals across the web site. so there comes the recognition of the genre as serving the clearly expressed, official purpose of informing audiences, including reporters, about the case being disseminated and generating media coverage around the newsworthy case. this couples with the implicit purpose of shaping public opinion and boosting (promoting) the social and institutional role and identity of the court acting as a final, sole arbiter of justice, and of the advocate general assisting the court in the cases assigned to him/her. acknowledging this complementary set of communicative purposes of press releases necessarily brings out the complexity of several possible layers of purposes as advanced in most prominent text and genre analytical perspectives (askehave & swales, 2001; bhatia, 2004). however, it also emphasises the issues and realities which the public information genre is now dynamically seeking to represent (bhatia, 2004: 164-168) in making sense of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases: context, structure and replicable genres ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 227 “congruent meanings” (bazerman, 2003: 380) and “ideologically active […] social actions” (bawarshi & reiff, 2010: 4) embedded, albeit covertly, within the bread and butter of institutional and media communication strategies. 3.2. generic move structure at a glance with these contextualising features at work, and following a close analysis of the sampled texts, an eight-move organisational structure was identified to characterise the curia’s press release genre, as outlined in table 2. table 2. overall rhetorical move structure of the curia’s press release genre and move frequency. as we see, the frequency of obligatory move patterns (found in 100% of the sample texts in the corpus) in this structural model shows that writers are attentive to a highly conventionalised, linear order sequence for text production in which to organise and relay information about the court’s cases. more precisely, the structural model is one in which the body of textually relevant press releases is constructed across moves 3, 4, 5 and 6 as necessary to provide instant recounts of the courts’ judgments and opinions in a neutral and detached writing style, with moves 4, 5 and 6 being also organised recursively in the relevant material. moreover, table 2 shows that the structural model relies on traditional features appearing at the start (moves 1-2) and at the end (moves 7-8) of the ‘core’ textual format as part of the standardised makeup, reflecting those identified in other types of press release writing (catenaccio, 2008: 17 and ff.; tessuto, 2017: 160-161). girolamo tessuto ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244228 generic move structure % rhetorical framing move 1 press release caption 100 introductory material move 2 case identification 100 introductory material move 3 announcing decision or opinion in the case 100 press release body move 4 outlining the facts of the case 100 press release body move 5 identifying the legal issues in the case 100 press release body move 6 stating the reasons for the decision or opinion in the case 100 press release body move 7 clarifications 100 concluding material move 8 further information 100 concluding material except for move 8 being embedded within the digital medium of discourse, all of these standardised features and text-based moves allow for (pdf formatted) press releases to be deployed as asynchronous, one-way communication forms or as traditional print texts, meaning that writers and media professionals did not seek any reader feedback on the case. as a result of this specific rhetorical structure and constitutive communication style, the online discourse of the press release as a genre is sufficient to define “a typified rhetorical action in the context of socially defined recurrent situations” (yates & orlikowski, 1992: 301), or, like any other offline genres, to describe a rhetorical behaviour of generic integrity (bhatia, 2004). in other words, the structure lays down the established practices of professional writers and the ways they go about achieving their own institutional and media communication goals in online published texts. just as this rhetorical move structure ties in with the communicative purposes and actions of the genre, so too it foregrounds the pre-formulating frames that writers used to provide journalists with source texts “requiring little or no reworking” in their news reporting style (jacobs, 2006: 201). as will be further elaborated in the sections below, pre-formulating is reflected in the ways writers construct the sequence of moves (3-4-5-6-7) in the ongoing structural description. in essence, move 3 functions like a news-report headline in conjunction with a news-report subhead, with moves 4, 5 and 6 expanding on the most important information positioned at the top (move 3) under the guise of an inverted pyramid structure, and move 7 including information about the role and procedure of the court issuing release under the guise of a traditional press release boilerplate information section. 3.3. rhetorical moves explained with this generic structure at work, let us now have a closer look at how release writers constructed individual moves in the rationale of the genre. move 1 in move 1 (press release caption), beginning to frame introductory release material asynchronously in standardised format, writers identify the press release by the institution from which it emanates, serial number/year, place and dateline at the top right corner of the page, with the curia’s major graphical logo in the top left corner anchoring the institution’s unique identity: making sense of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases: context, structure and replicable genres ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 229 (1) curia logo court of justice of the european union press release no 121/17 luxembourg, 14 november 2017 like the traditional wording ‘for immediate release’ used in this type of generic writing, the capitalised, boldface type of the wording press release means that anyone can share the information as soon as it is made public, including the journalists who know what can and should be done with the words ‘press release’. move 2 next, in the top right corner of the introductory material, is move 2 (case identification) in standard format. essentially, this links up the judgment or opinion with a case number in the court’s register, followed by the names of the parties to the dispute appearing just underneath outside any mention of the authoring judge: (2) judgment in case c-165/16 toufik lounes v secretary of state for the home department move 3 this way of framing the relevant set of case-law data in the official document serves as an opening of the text-based release itself, so that the informativity-level of move 3 (announcing the decision or opinion in the case) provides a quick summary of the actual decision delivered in the judgment by the justice court, or the opinion delivered by the advocate general. these summaries always appear at the centre of the front page in heavyfaced type and larger font size of release documents to perform an attention-grabbing function as in news headlines and other forms of publishing (ellis, 2001; infantidou, 2009) and to direct the reader’s attention to the legal outcome in the case. they are invariably followed by a secondary, italicised and smaller font-size descriptive statement (or subheadline) used to complement and further clarify the topic of the decision/opinion covered in the headline. thus, we read: (3) according to advocate general [na me], a national court may, in the event of fraud, disapply the social security certificate of posted workers in the european union girolamo tessuto ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244230 fraud linked to the issue of the e 101 certificates of posted workers represents a threat to the coherence of the member states’ social security schemes, is a form of unfair competition and calls into question the equality of working conditions on national labour markets as we see in (3), presenting a snapshot of the attorney general’s opinion in the case with a social security in focus, this move is always presented with an adjunct agent structure (according to ...) in noun phrase for the attributed source, and the broader segment of the reported speech equally keeps the deontic modality status of the statement, albeit in syntactically discontinuous verb phrase (may, in the event of fraud, disapply). by contrast, in the case of a justice court’s ruling shown in (4), the agent (court) of the reported material is never identified or cast as the syntactic subject of a verb of communication, but the rhetorical move always involves putting the main points from the source material into the writer’s own words (summarising and paraphrasing) as it does with the (deontic) modality status of the statement within the encompassing (summarised source): (4) a non-eu national may benefit from a right of residence in the member state in which his eu citizen family member resided before acquiring the nationality of that member state in addition to her nationality of origin the conditions for the grant of that right of residence must not be stricter than those laid down by the free movement directive even though release writers were solely responsible for the wording of the reported materials, the incorporation of an adjunct agent structure with a clearly distinguishable name seems to be a more effective, personalised way to highlight the professional role of the advocate general as a ‘party to the court’ on points of law that were in doubt, or otherwise missing from this court. this personalised approach to the rhetorical content of the move squares with the broad legal effects of the court’s decisions, which not only depend on the parties involved in the case and the judges disposing of the case, but also on the assistance of the attorney general who offers views and arguments that bear on the case. with these topic framing (sub)titles almost always being the first important elements that readers see and influencing whether or not they continue reading, this snappy move does have a promising public relations goal to fulfil. this move, in other words, helps readers decide at a glance if the case making sense of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases: context, structure and replicable genres ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 231 release is worth reading, and if they decide it is, it may also create a news hook by enabling journalists “to retell the press release in their own news reporting” (jacobs, 1999: 183), whether or not verbatim. move 4 if the announcing decision or opinion move is a useful lead-in device to grab at least the partial attention of readers, then it is time for writers to funnel down smoothly into the case so that the attention-grabber does not lose its power. so, in move 4 (outlining the facts of the case), writers flesh out ‘what happened’ in the dispute now before the court and provide the backbone of the material facts, the parties to the dispute, and other court’s ruling, appeals, as well as any subsequent action taken under the guise of ‘lead’ materials. thus, we read (parties’ names removed by this author in the excerpt): (5) mr x, an algerian national, entered the uk in 2010 on a six-month visitor visa and then overstayed illegally. ms y, a spanish national, moved to the uk as a student in 1996. [...] mr x applied for the issue of a residence card as a family member of an eea (european economic area) national. by letter of 22 may 2014, the secretary of state for the home department informed mr x that his application had been refused. the letter stated that, under the uk legislation transposing the free movement directive,1 [fully referenced source in footnote] ms y had ceased to be regarded as an ‘eea national’ following her acquisition of british citizenship. [...] mr x brought a claim before the high court of justice of england and wales, queen’s bench division (administrative court), against the decision of 22 may 2014. as we see, providing instant recounts of factual issues in the case along a short word-length (originally 183 types) serves the purpose of immediately informing the readers about the cause of action (issues of fact) that required the court to make a final ruling or opinion on the case (issues of law). in releasing the main points about facts, writers intrinsically rely on the traditional ‘ws’ and ‘h’ questions composing the most important ‘lead’ parts of a news story (bell, 1991), so that getting across the essential questions in the case (who were the parties to the lawsuit? what was their dispute? when, why and how did their dispute arise?) gives journalists the essence of the story, while also determining whether they will be alerted and directed to news reporting. but releasing such factual news stories is not complete until the writers describe the sequence of events and actions unfolding over time by way of narration. so, the example above shows just how those stories are girolamo tessuto ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244232 retold by writers as third-person objective narrators, and the centrality given to past tense forms (simple past, past perfect) functions as the primary surface markers of narrative discourse (toolan, 2009). over and above, the example in (5) clearly emphasises intertextual elements flowing into the narrative move by way of quotation marks (fairclough, 1992: 104; bhatia, 2004: 126). this can be seen with the release writer quoting snatches from the directive (... an ‘eea national’ following ...) and always relegating the cited source to a footnote. used systematically in a range of 1 to 4 instances across the current move, these forms of intertextual quotes are constantly blended with the writer’s summary of factual recounts and serve to provide support for the material in the cited source. besides other ‘previously interacting genre-texts’, or systems of genres (bazerman, 1994) intertwining with the narrative events (by letter of 22 may … / the letter stated … / mr x brought a claim before …), acknowledging the interaction of the move with other (legislative) texts by quotation marks enables the readers to gain the most vivid interpretation and narrative coherence of events emanating from the writer’s account and indirect reports. at the same time, it adds openness and transparency to the reported facts among those readers and reporters landing on the release move content from across the public space of the web. in keeping to the context and purpose of the current communicative move, writers are also obedient to the conventionalised, ‘insider speak’ leaking through different kinds of language features. these are realized by community-specific acronyms (such as, eea for european economic area, or ccbt for common consolidated base taxation) and terms for institutional roles (such as high court of justice, queen’s bench division), alongside specialised lexis appearing mostly in the form of nominals (such as, free movement directive, social security contribution, preliminary ruling procedure) and verb+noun collocational patterns (such as, brought a claim, referred a question, rejected his appeal), as required by the content of the case. move 5 just as the factual issues are important to give a foretaste of the ruling/opinion in attention-grabbing ‘lead’ paragraphs, so too the legal issues here have to funnel through the case in similar paragraphs. so in move 5 (identifying the legal issues in the case), writers set one or more legal issues that were at ‘question’ in the case, as in: making sense of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases: context, structure and replicable genres ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 233 (6) the tribunal da relação do porto (court of appeal, oporto) has doubts regarding the interpretation of the directive and asks the court of justice whether the minimum uninterrupted weekly rest period of 24 hours to which a worker is entitled must be provided no later than the day following a period of six consecutive working days.2 [fully referenced source in footnote] this example shows that writers always rely on whether (or alternatively if) to report (by summary) the basic (indirect, polar-opposite yes or no) questions ‘of law’ that were to be decided by the judge in the case with corresponding conclusions. however, it also illustrates that the writers never abstain from intertextual references to other cited sources they actually needed at any one time. this way of restating legal questions seems to determine nothing less than showcasing the newsworthy angle of the case to its fullest potential, and leaving the journalist or the public wanting to know more. move 6 in move 6 (reasons for the decision or opinion in the case), release writers relocate information about factual and legal issues (move 4 and 5) within the established legal paradigms of the action set out by the court or attorney general. by so doing, they provide an informative synopsis of the legal decisions or opinions and corresponding conclusions as derived from the arguments considered in support of, or against, the principles for those decisions/opinions, by including any other significant observation made by the court/attorney, as well as any primary, secondary or other sources of law in intertextual frames they had to deal with. thus, in the excerpt below from the court’s judgment, we can see what goes into this informational move constructed at a short length (originally 258 words), where case information dictates its distribution between writer’s account and indirect report: (7) by today’s judgment the court observes, first of all, that, according to article 62 of the convention, the word ‘court’ includes any authorities designated by a state bound by that convention as having jurisdiction in the matters falling within its scope. furthermore, it is clear from the explanatory report on the convention2 [fully referenced source in footnote] that that article takes a functional approach, [...]. next, the court finds that, as a general rule, under swiss law the institution of a civil action must be preceded by conciliation proceedings, and the failure to comply with that obligation has the result that any subsequent legal proceedings will be rendered inadmissible. the conciliation proceedings (which are subject to the audi alterem partem girolamo tessuto ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244234 principle) may result in the delivery of a binding judgment, a draft judgment which may become final if [...]. the court also finds, first, that the conciliation authorities are subject to the guarantees laid down by swiss law on the disqualification of magistrates of which those authorities are composed and, second, that the latter perform their duties in a wholly independent manner. in those circumstances, the court declares that, in carrying out the function conferred on them in civil matters, the swiss conciliation authorities may be classified as ‘courts’ for the purposes of the convention. in keeping to this pattern between writer’s voice and attributed voices, writers are able to give an understanding of the decision as briefly and succinctly as possible. they do so by objectively covering the major commentary (consideration) on the legal arguments presented by the judge (… the court observes, first of all, that …), followed by more than one ratio for decision on the identified issues (next, the court finds that … / the court also finds, first, that, … and, second, that … / … the court declares that …) in consecutive, unmodified reporting clauses, which simply conclude on the outcome of the case. in such reporting clauses, (third-person singular) active simple present tense forms of specific verbs (e.g. admit, acknowledge, answer, consider, clarify, conclude, emphasise, explain, make clear, note, observe, state, take the view) are the most common in stating the outcome of the case in either decision or opinion, and fit into the course of a reported argument and discourse by way of performative (expositive) verbs (levinson, 1983), as shown from an excerpt of the advocate general’s opinion below: (8) in his opinion delivered today, advocate general [na me] considers, first, that the terms of the directive […]. the advocate general also states that one of the key criteria for granting subsidiary protection is […]. however, other (third-person singular) active simple present verb forms (allows, declare, direct, dismiss, find, hold, and order) are also used performatively in the underlying clause of reported decisions alone, where they make explicit the precise action being carried out in the utterance, whether as verdictives (declare, find, hold) or exercitives (allow, dismiss), as shown from excerpts of the court’s decision: (9) in addition, the court holds that an applicant for international protection can rely on the expiry of the six-month period. that is true irrespective […]. making sense of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases: context, structure and replicable genres ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 235 intuitively, the emphasis on this set of explicit performative verbs (verdictives and exercitives) in the reporting clauses of decisions is selfexplanatory of the role of the court in determining questions of fact and law. in other words, we are made aware of the court acting as a final, sole arbiter of justice for the matters at hand, as noted before. as we read through the examples above, the major arguments for the decision and conclusion are still noticeable in the layout presentation, where they are displayed in comfortable heavy-faced type to expand on the snapshot decision ‘announced’ previously within (bolded) move 3. the upshot of these move-level recounts arranged in responsive, fluid typography is twofold. on the one hand, they help readers get their head around complex issues now being argued about by the attorney general, or otherwise disposed of by the court. on the other, because of their significance of facts, they work as points of reference for the journalists to take their news selection decisions as to the impact (negative or positive, social or economic) of the case, and in the latter instance they serve as cleverly prefabricated materials for journalists to reproduce, perhaps verbatim, in news discourse. as part of this pre-formulating process, the examples above give writers something more to aim at. we can observe the more neutral “third-person self-reference” (jacobs, 1999) to the court as opposed to the more personalised “third-person self-reference” to the attorney general (advocate general + name) featuring prominently across this move. very obviously, this kind of reference is one which emphasises the authoritative, institutional voice, role, and identity of either court in presenting a streamlined and objective reasoning on the case. but the repetition of such a reference across the running text is still being cleverly prefabricated in standard material for reuse by the journalists, who may easily retrieve any significant chunk from those that-clause statements with the institution in subject position (... the court holds that ... / advocate general [+ name] considers that ...), and consequently reproduce it for their own reporting. allied with such referentially situated institutions in the running text is the regular use of a temporal reference point, or time deixis (levinson, 1983: 54, 62; renkema, 1993: 79), expressed by the time adverbial ‘today’ (by today’s judgment the court observes … / in today’s opinion, advocate general [+ name] takes the view …), which serves to express what happened in point of time by “claim[ing] it as potential ‘news’” (sacks, 1992: 172). girolamo tessuto ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244236 in addition to these metapragmatic features, writers in this move cannot still get away from intertextuality by referencing readers to other layers of (legislative and other) texts and meanings by footnotes, and similarly allow this concluding, rhetorical, ‘core’ framing of press releases to respond to the stylistic features that are the hallmarks of legal discourse. as shown in (7), a number of lexical and syntactic elements (e.g. action, audi alterem partem, delivery of a binding judgment, bring legal proceedings, having jurisdiction in the matters falling within its scope, under) are not just there to abide by the relevant content of the case, they also create a high level of formality in the ongoing discourse. such elements, therefore, establish a meaningful mindshare with the target audiences, including the knowledgeable media, in the public relations process, as noted before. move 7 structuring release move contents for institutional and media communication goes alongside other content criteria for dealing with the internet and letting press releases work for media professionals. as part of the concluding framing material in a standardised but also textual format, move 7 (clarifications) provides a useful explanation of the court’s procedures in the form of ‘notes’. in the excerpt case of a release opinion, we read: (10) note: the advocate general’s opinion is not binding on the court of justice. it is the role of the advocates general to propose to the court, in complete independence, a legal solution to the cases for which they are responsible. the judges of the court are now beginning their deliberations in this case. judgment will be given at a later date. note: a reference for a preliminary ruling allows the courts and tribunals of the member states, in disputes which have been brought before them, to refer questions to the court of justice about the interpretation of european union law or the validity of a european union act. the court of justice does not decide the dispute itself. [...]. on the face of it, this focus on explanatory notes is now taking the media public relations strategy into a different course that was not there before. this is to say that the move creates more opportunities for the journalists and the wider (non-disciplinary) audience to understand about the essential role of the institution (advocate general), and about certain procedures in references for a preliminary ruling before the justice court. where these making sense of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases: context, structure and replicable genres ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 237 notes are taken to function like a comprehensive boilerplate explanatory profile of the institution publishing the release and work to put the release in context for the journalists, it seems fair to say that they are still appropriate pre-formulating materials in that the same information can now be useful for the journalists’ own readership. more important still, creating opportunities to understand matters of legal procedures can be seen in the example by the deictic item ‘now’ used to conveniently “nam[e] some day on which the reported event happened” (sacks, 1992: 172), thus offering one last piece of prefabricated material for news reporting. move 8 in concluding the framing structure of press releases, the standard format of move 8 (further information) provides a short and to-the-point message in italics. as shown in (11), this is achieved by the writers specifying the unofficial, media use of the document and providing appropriate links for case and other information, as well as the media professionals’ contact details at the bottom centre of the (press release) text-page: (11) unofficial document for media use, not binding on the court of justice. the full text of the judgment is published on the curia website on the day of delivery. press contact (name +phone number) pictures of the delivery of the judgment are available from “europe by satellite”(+ phone number) www.curia.europa.eu as part of the constitutive, one-way style of communication noted before, this move shows that media professionals are simply deploying a static set of “hyperlinks” (askehave & nielsen, 2005), allowing readers as web users as well as reporters to retrieve the full judgment or opinion in a passive, viewonly and one-way interaction, or to access multi-media (audio and video europe by satellite) information about the courts’ rulings and other institutional content from eu institutions (policies and issues) in the same one-way fashion. even though these static navigational links, appearing as inherently intertextual artefacts, are arranged for the reader internet-facing site and the participants’ social interaction or ‘presence’ is characteristically non-existent, the “functionality” (villanueva et al., 2008) of the electronic, digital medium still has a role to play among those readers/users. this is because the linking mode “adds a functional dimension to the rhetorical strategies and intentions” (tessuto, 2017: 161) already fulfilled by the move girolamo tessuto ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244238 activities, and promotes greater openness, transparency, and accessibility to curia and other eu affairs. 4. further discussion and conclusion this paper has described and interpreted how the online public information genre of the curia press release is shaped within institutionalised contexts of professional communication and how context and structure are dependent upon other offline discursive and generic practices. analysis has shown how the conventionalised rhetorical move structure and the salient linguistic features typify the communicative purposes of release writers and media professionals as they treat information and disciplinary knowledge about the case-related activity of the court in institutionalised and media communication channels that are within their own control over the site, and the ways in which writers come across effectively to the audiences and the journalists when enticing them to read about, or report about the case. reliance on a broadly pre-formulated process and mere adaptation from certain structural features of the reporting, albeit hybrid, release genre offers potential opportunities for writers to draw the public’s eye to the case-related topic over the web, and for the journalists to know what the case is all about right from the beginning of release, therefore enabling them to make their own determinations as to the relevance, or newsworthiness, of a case. how much journalists are likely to exploit from what has been prefabricated for them by release writers is hard to say at this stage, and therefore falls outside the realm of this study. standing alongside the organisational move patterns is the predictable network of discursive contexts and practices emerging from the case roundup and meaningful process described by this author as “generic replicability” (tessuto, 2012: 20 ff.). it is hardly worth mentioning that this process involves release writers drawing from, and interacting with, previous legal discourses in intertextual connections through a pattern known as manifest intertextuality (fairclough, 1992, 2003), or similarly borrowing from the judgment and opinion genres through several patterns known as constitutive intertextuality (fairclough, 1992), or interdiscursivity (fairclough, 2003; bhatia, 2017), the latter grounded in a “creative appropriation or manipulation of prior formulations of discursive actions within and across professional practices and cultures to construct new and creative forms of professional making sense of web-based european court of justice institutional press releases: context, structure and replicable genres ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244 239 genres” (bhatia, 2017: 46; 2004). this replicability process is supported by two interrelated reasons behind the formal logic of the report genre. firstly, writers are concerned with drawing up informative press releases on the basis of source materials in fairly regular and predictable ways since they provide release texts with a similar organisational structure to case judgments or opinions. here, in fact, it is normal practice that information from any one type of cases includes the name of the case and its parties, the factual and legal issues raised in the case alongside the reasons for decisions or opinions argued in the case (tessuto, 2018: 205-214). secondly, and more specifically, this replicability of source materials spills over into a series of moves, or rhetorically distinct purposes and activities (move 3, 4, 5, 6), where writers are able to borrow faithful content, rhetorical conventions, as well as language style from the professional practices of the offline (ecj) judgment and opinion genres to shape their own release texts according to their goals. obviously, the extent to which this content within judgments or opinions is retained within press releases depends upon the rhetorically narrow configuration of the release texts produced in the standard reportandsummary format. but, because press releases are produced for the writers’ goals, the inclusion of other elements (move 1, 7, 8) inevitably expands the fairly regular relationship with the generic structure of judgments and opinions, thus modifying the source materials according to well-established conventions of the press release genre. in other words, this provides press releases with their most typical features alongside the reverse pyramid structure and other such features noted throughout the analysis. it therefore stands clear that this replicability process constructed across a series of rhetorically distinct moves is responsible for the ways previously enacted legal texts and discourses (judgments, opinions, etc.) take shape in a shift towards a different context (press release), and for the ways they are negotiated in such a shift. in this vein, this study shows how release writers are concerned with selective strategies of recontextualisation deriving from material that is moved within a new context via writer’s voice and other attributed voices in indirect reporting (summarisation), intertextual quotes and interacting genre-texts. of course, these strategies are not the same as communicating suitably ‘dumbed down’ lay versions of case informational press releases to the public at large, as might be the case of popularisation analytic discourse strategies (ciapuscio, 2003; calsamaglia & van dijk, 2004; gotti, 2014). however, reliance on the rhetorical processes of recontextualisation examined here (similar to other processes such as reframing girolamo tessuto ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244240 or resemiotisation dealt with elsewhere) can only assist release writers in quickly conveying, clarifying and explaining to ‘varied’ (legal and general) audiences how the court settled a legal dispute in complex and lengthy rulings, or how the advocate-general considered all the different views and arguments in the case brought before the court. these processes, in turn, help legitimise the regulatory voices and self-identities of those institutions in open and transparent ways over the web in much the same way as they locate the press release genre within the complex interrelations between texts, audiences, contexts and cultural practices that are extremely fluid and constantly shifting in terms of discourses. by the same token, such processes militate in favour of the current system of institutional and media communication, whose participants (release writers and media professionals) aim towards cutting crossways through situated genres in the process of re-working information and sustaining news agenda strategies as part of their public relations goals on the web. consequently, the mobilisation of intertertextual and interdiscursive resources within this kind of communication can only be seen as allowing the curia’s press 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(2009). narrative progression in the short story: a corpus stylistic approach. john benjamins. villanueva, m. l., m. j. luzón & m. n. ruiz-madrid (2008). “understanding digital genres as semiotic artefacts: meaning and cognition beyond standardised genres”. computers and composition online journal. spring issue. wickman, c. (2014). “rhetorical framing in corporate press releases: the case of british petroleum and the gulf oil spill”. environmental communication 8(1): 3-20. doi: <https://doi. org/10.1080/17524032.2013.816329>. yates, j. & j. w. orlikowski (1992). “genres of organizational communication: a structurational approach to studying communication and media”. academy of management review 17(2): 299-326. doi: <https://doi.org/10.2307/258774>. notes 1 curia press releases available at <https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/jo2_16799>. 2 more specifically, these are opinions which considered all the different views and arguments that might apply to the case brought before the ecj for its final decision/ruling. girolamo tessuto ibérica 42 (2021): 219-244244 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this study was an attempt to explore how important points are highlighted in persian academic lectures. more specifically, this paper was aimed to reach a taxonomy of importance markers based on (a) the discourse functions of importance markers, and (b) the relative position of the importance marker to the highlighted discourse. a mixed-methods (exploratory) approach and a corpus-driven method were used to extract importance markers from 60 lectures of the persian sokhan corpus. in terms of discourse functions, importance marking was found to be done by a set of five discourse functions, i.e. discourse organization, audience engagement, subject status, topic treatment, and relating to exam. among these, audience engagement was the first most frequently used discourse function. additionally, in terms of the position of the highlighted discourse, eight patterns were found for anaphoric importance marking. ten patterns were also found for cataphoric importance marking. moreover, cataphoric importance markers were considerably more prevalent than anaphoric importance markers. generally, the findings suggested that lecturers are more inclined to function interpersonally in persian academic contexts. the paper ends with pedagogical implications. keywords: importance marking, discourse function, persian academic lecture, corpus. resumen l o s ma rc a do re s d e imp or ta nc i a: l a re f e r e nc i a a l di s c ur s o s e ñ al a do s e n l a s c l as e s ma g i s tra l e s este artículo es un intento de explorar cómo determinados aspectos importantes se destacan en las clases magistrales. más concretamente, este artículo buscaba importance marking: giving reference to the highlighted discourse in academic lectures javad zare, abbas eslami-rasekh, and azizollah dabaghi university of isfahan (iran) javadzare@gmail.com, abbaseslamirasekh@gmail.com & dabaghi@fgn.ui.ac.ir 213 ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 j. zare & z. keivanloo-shahrestanaki crear una taxonomía de marcadores de importancia basados en (a) las funciones discursivas de los marcadores de importancia, (b) la posición relativa del marcador de importancia en el discurso señalado. un método mixto y un análisis de corpus (corpus-driven) se utilizaron para extraer los marcadores de importancia de 60 clases magistrales recogidas en el corpus sokhan. en cuanto a las funciones discursiva, se demostró que para destacar la importancia se utilzan cinco tipos de funciones, i.e. la organización del discurso, la involucración de la audience, la importancia de la asignatura, el tratamiento del tema y la relación con el examen. entre estos, se demostró que la involucración de la audiencia es la función discursiva más frecuentemente usada. además, por lo que se refiere a la posición del discurso destacado se utilizan ocho estructuras para destacar la importancia de forma catafórica. los marcadores discursivos catafóricos son considerablemente más prevalentes que los marcadores discursivos anafóricos. en general, nuestros resultados sugieren que los profesores tienen una mayor inclinación hacia la interpersonalidad en el ámbito académico en persa. este artículo concluye con las implicaciones pedagógicas del estudio. palabras clave: marcadores de importancia, función discursiva, clases magistrales en persa, corpus 1. introduction academic lectures are one of the most important genres lecturers and students need to deal with at the university. on the one hand, the importance of academic lectures is rooted in the fact that they are the main instructional method through which lecturers present their theoretical knowledge. the instructors’ success in their career thus depends on their successful undertaking of this genre. on the other hand, the knowledge students obtain from lectures accounts for the largest part of assessment and with that of academic success. as sutherland and badger (2004: 285) note, lecturing is “tightly geared towards assessment” and lecturers see “their lectures as a means of conveying the assessment needs of the course to the students”. yet, the abundance of information presented in the lecture, and lack of control over the speech rate, along with the students’ limited command of english, make comprehending lectures a demanding task. therefore, the ability to distinguish between important and less important points seems crucial for efficient comprehension of the lecture. importance markers, also called “relevance markers” (hunston, 1994; crawford camiciottoli, 2004, 2007; deroey, 2014, 2015) are 214 “lexicogrammatical devices which overtly mark verbally or visually presented points as being comparatively relevant, important or significant” (deroey, 2014: 266). according to hunston (1994: 199), relevance markers have four main features: (a) they are retrospective or prospective; (b) they “overtly mark the relevance of preceding, or subsequent, stretches of text”; (c) they evaluate the discourse and are, thus, metadiscursive; and (d) they have an important discourse organizational role. the last two features concern the metadiscursive nature of relevance markers. metadiscourse refers to discourse about discourse or discourse about the evolving discourse (ädel, 2006). according to hyland (2004, 2005), metadiscourse expressions comprise two main functions: interactive and interactional. interactive resources are used to guide the reader through the text; interactional resources, on the other hand, are used to involve the reader in the argument. the metadiscursive nature of importance markers can also be supported by the fact that examples of these markers are found in “delimiting topic”, “marking asides”, “managing the message”, and “speech act labelling” metadiscourse (ädel, 2010), and “text-structuring metadiscourse” (thompson, 2003). discourse organizational patterns are reported to improve lecture comprehension, note-taking, and recall of the students (e.g., flowerdew & tauroza, 1995; thompson, 2003; jung, 2006). as importance markers help students identify which portions of the lecture are important to learn, remember, or take note of, they are considered as decisive discourse organizational expressions (flowerdew, 1994). hence, an understanding of how important portions of lecture discourse are highlighted is useful. nevertheless, very little is known about importance markers. the studies that have exclusively dealt with importance markers are few and far between (e.g., crawford camiciottoli, 2004, 2007; deroey & taverniers, 2012a; deroey, 2014, 2015). deroey (2015) explored importance markers derived from 160 lectures of the base corpus. this author classified importance markers in terms of their orientation to the discourse participants and the highlighted discourse. she labelled the patterns of importance markers with content, listener, speaker, or joint orientation as, respectively, “mn v-link”, “v n/clause”, “1s pers pron v n/clause”, and “1p pers pron v n/clause”. importance markers with prospective, retrospective, or combined orientation to the highlighted discourse would have the patterns of “v n/clause” and “mn v-link”; “deic importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 215 v-link adj”, “deic v-link mn”, and “deic v-link adj mn”; and “1s pers pron v n/clause” and “deic v-link adj mn”, respectively. most markers were found to be either directed towards the content (e.g., “the point is”) or listeners (e.g., “you should remember”). few importance markers were oriented towards the speaker (e.g., “i should stress”) or speaker and listeners jointly (e.g., “i want you to notice”). deroey also made a distinction between primary and secondary interactive orientation. classifying a marker as primary interactive orientation “depends on its main constituents, namely subject or object pronouns, full verbs, metalinguistic nouns, importance adjectives, and adverbs, while its secondary interactive orientation depends on possessive determiners, preand postmodifiers (adjectives, pronouns, verb type), and accompanying discourse markers” (2015: 4). she found many content-oriented markers with secondary listener orientation (e.g., “these are the things to take home”). partington (2014) examined the marking of importance at local and macro levels in ted talks based on a corpus of 27 ted talks given between 2007 and 2012. partington found four types of importance markers including (i) concordancing lexical items and simple word patterns, (ii) necessity items, (iii) personal relevance items, and (iv) big number items. “concordancing lexical items and simple word patterns” is related to the lexical items (e.g., “key”, “vital”, “important”, “essential”, and the like) that explicitly highlight the importance of information. “necessity” items concern expressing that something is necessary to do (e.g., “you have to, “you’ve got to”, “needs to be”, “so we need”). “personal relevance” items involve appealing to personal relevance (e.g., “this is an example that you might care about someday”). and “big number” items necessitate using large numbers to highlight the importance of a topic (e.g., “it’s a 130-fold improvement”, and “that is 10 times further and faster than anything we’ve ever achieved in industrial history”). deroey and taverniers (2012a) explored 160 lectures from the base corpus to discover relevance markers in english lectures. the authors found importance markers with adjective, noun, verb and adverb as their main elements. among these, the verb pattern “v clause” (e.g., “remember slavery had already been legally abolished”), followed by the noun pattern “mn vlink” (e.g., “the point is”), were found to be the dominant relevance markers in english lectures. crawford camiciottoli (2004, 2007) investigated a small corpus comprising 12 business studies lectures delivered by uk, us and non-native speaker j. zare & z. keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234216 lecturers and 10 micase lectures from different disciplines for potential relevance markers. she found six retrospective and prospective patterns for relevance markers with various combinations of deictics, determiners, relevance adjectives, metalinguistic nouns, and the linking verb “is”. among retrospective patterns, the “deic + is + adj” (e.g., “this is important”) one was dominant. among prospective importance markers, the pattern “det + adj + meta n + is”, equivalent to deroey & taverniers’ (2012a) “mn v-link” (e.g., “the main point is”), was the most prevalent. prospective importance markers were found to be considerably more frequent than retrospective markers. drawing on authentic discourse data derived from the persian sokhan corpus1, this study was an endeavor to explore how important portions of discourse are highlighted in persian academic lectures. more specifically, this paper sought to reach a taxonomy of importance markers based on the relative position of the highlighted discourse to the importance markers. furthermore, we aimed for a new taxonomy of importance markers based on their discourse functions. 2. material and method 2.1. corpus the corpus used in the present study was the persian sokhan corpus. sokhan contains 60 authentic academic lectures distributed across the four disciplinary groups of engineering, humanities, medicine, and basic sciences, 15 from each broad group. the lectures in sokhan are all in persian and are all delivered by male native speakers of persian lecturers. 2.2. analytical procedure a mixed-methods approach was adopted in the study. the design of the study was exploratory, to use lodico, spaulding, and voegtle’s (2006) term. a quantitative measure of the distribution of importance markers was reached based on the qualitative data (transcripts of the lectures) collected formerly. in order to derive importance markers, we followed deroey and taverniers’s (2012a) research design. we constructed a sub-corpus of 16 lectures from the sokhan corpus (four from each disciplinary group), totaling 170,000 importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 217 words. to control for the factor of discipline, lectures from all the four broad disciplinary groups were included in the study. in order for the subcorpus to be representative of the entire sokhan corpus, the study level was also taken into consideration in selecting the lectures. the sub-corpus was, thus, systematically varied in terms of discipline and study level. the transcripts of the lectures in the sub-corpus were carefully read to locate the patterns which appeared to highlight important discourse. in this endeavor, only expressions that highlighted discourse entity, rather than world entity were extracted (deroey & taverniers, 2012a). here, a distinction needs to be made between discourse and world entities. discourse entities are examples of expressions that are related to the discourse, that is, expressions where the lecturer evaluates the importance of discourse, not a world activity or issue. accordingly, examples where it was not clear whether the highlighted discourse was a discourse entity or world entity were not included (1). besides, following deroey and taverniers (2012a), we disregarded the expressions that marked the importance of student or third-party discourse and quoted material (2). (1) banabarin in mohem-e ke in mansha-e ab-o bebinim [so, it is important to see the source of water] (2) je nokte-i ke ona eshare mikonan in-e ke [a point that they mention is that] wordsmith (scott, 2015) was used to generate concordances for the patterns that seemed to highlight important discourse in the sokhan corpus. other lexemes that seemed to mark important points were also discovered. these lexemes of marking importance were complemented by their synonyms and derived forms (deroey & taverniers, 2012a). the co-texts of the retrieved importance markers, generated by wordsmith, were then inspected independently by each author to determine whether they functioned as importance markers. afterwards, the researchers compared their results to reach a compromise. a total of 293 instances of importance marking were hence found. j. zare & z. keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234218 3. results and discussion 3.1. anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric importance marking using wordsmith concord tool (scott, 2015), concordances of the 293 instances of importance marking were broken down. the importance markers were then classified in terms of the relative position of the highlighted discourse to the importance markers. this was done to see if the highlighted discourse goes before or after the importance marker. crawford camiciottoli (2004, 2007), and deroey and taverniers (2012a) have used retrospective and prospective terms for this classification. however, in order to have a more comprehensive taxonomy, taking into account both verbal and visual features of academic lectures, the terms “endophoric”, “anaphoric”, “cataphoric”, and “exophoric” reference were used. as figure 1 shows, in this taxonomy a distinction is made between endophoric importance marking, which deals with verbal cues used to signal the importance of discourse, and exophoric importance marking, which is concerned with visual aspects. endophoric importance marking comprises anaphoric and cataphoric reference. anaphoric importance marking occurs when the importance marker refers to portions of discourse mentioned earlier (3). here, the audience need to look back in the speech to discover the highlighted discourse. cataphoric importance marking, on the other hand, is when the highlighted point is mentioned later in the discourse (4). thus, to importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 219 javad zare & zahra keivanloo shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): …-… issn 1139-7241 e-issn 2340-2784 deroey and taverniers (2012a) have used retrospective and prospective terms for this classification. however, in order to have a more comprehensive taxonomy, taking into account both verbal and visual features of academic lectures, the terms “endophoric”, “anaphoric”, “cataphoric”, and “exophoric” reference were used. figure 1. importance markers in terms of the position of highlighted discourse. as figure 1 shows, in this taxonomy a distinction is made between endophoric importance marking, which deals with verbal cues used to signal the importance of discourse, and exophoric importance marking, which is concerned with visual aspects. endophoric importance marking comprises anaphoric and cataphoric reference. anaphoric importance marking occurs when the importance marker refers to portions of discourse mentioned earlier (3). here, the audience need to look back in the speech to discover the highlighted discourse. cataphoric importance marking, on the other hand, is when the highlighted point is mentioned later in the discourse (4). thus, to recognize the highlighted point the audience need to look ahead in the speech. (3) … xob! in nokte aval. [… well! this is the first point.] (4) nokte mohem in-e ke … [the important point is …] exophoric importance marking occurs when the highlighted point is outside the verbal discourse. this happens when the lecturer refers to a point in the handouts or slides (5). to detect the highlighted discourse the lecture participants need to go beyond the verbal cues and look at the visual information presented. hsolonaviekarhaz&erazdavja 2102(sreinrevatdnayeorde woh.noitacfiissalcsihtrfo uoccatoinginkta, ymonoxta l ohpoden“smerte ht,esruect desureewecnrere . ikanatserhah naevitcepsorterdesuevah)a2 maevahotredroni,revew fl auisvdnal abrevthobt nu irohapcat“c”,irohapan“c”,iro smretevitcepsorpdn evisneherpmocerom icmedacafosertua c” irohpoex“danc”,i 1e gurfi . mecnrtaopim atsihtni,wsohs1erugifas ginamecntaropim , dhcih w esourcsdiof , m icirohpox edn a tehlighigf h onitioso pef th osrm te inrserka edamsinoitcnitsidaymonoxa so tdes useu clabre vhti wslae d gnikra mecnatropm , cs ihcih w ersuocis dd . neweteb c irohpoden ecnatropm ieh tlangi s lausi vhti wdenrecno c , p anopmic irohpodne.sectpas na.ecnrere anopmic irohap rsuocsidfosnoirtopotrsre tohceepsethinkcabkolo ethno, ginkramecntaropim ruocsidehtniretaldenoitnme ieadahkooloteednce enidau )(3 ni!box… etnok v a ehtsisiht! llew[… gp , hapanessirpmcognikarmce an e htenhwsrccuognikarmce an ,reeh).(3r eirlaedenoitneme ddtehlighighethrevocisdto , dnahrethoe ethnehwis ehtezingocerot,suht.)4(esr eechpse htni . l.av trse ntpoi .] c irohapcatdanc iroh erkarmce antropmie otdeenecneiduaeht icrohptaac. esruocis ist inopdtehlighigh ehttniopdethgilhgih 3 3aicréib 710 (2 ): …-… nsis 1139-7241 e043 2nsis -2784 6 )(4 etkno mehmo inke eh[t tntaro ntpoi nikramecnatropmicirohpoex nsppehashit.esourcsdilbarve hihettcetdeo t.5)(sdeilsor nd asueclbarvehetyond bego 2784 …e k ] … dethgilhgihehtnehwsruccogn ao tsrerreurtcelhetn hewns eurtcelhetesourcsdid eghtighlhi on itamiluasvihettaook lnd ehtedistuositniopd sndouthahetn intpoi paicitrpae o td enesnt dentesepron . recognize the highlighted point the audience need to look ahead in the speech. (3) … xob! in nokte aval. [… well! this is the first point.] (4) nokte mohem in-e ke … [the important point is …] exophoric importance marking occurs when the highlighted point is outside the verbal discourse. this happens when the lecturer refers to a point in the handouts or slides (5). to detect the highlighted discourse the lecture participants need to go beyond the verbal cues and look at the visual information presented. (5) in slide mohem-e. [this slide is important.] since the video files of the sokhan corpus were not accessible and the study was limited to exploring verbal cues only, exophoric importance markers were disregarded. table 1 shows the lexicogrammatical patterns of anaphoric importance markers along with their distributions. hunston and francis’ (2000) notation system2 has been used to represent the patterns. note that the focus of the patterns, what signals the importance of points, is in upper case. as table 1 shows, the analysis of concordances revealed eight patterns for giving anaphoric reference to important points of discourse. among anaphoric patterns, “hd + exam points” and “hd + deic mn v-link (adv) j. zare & z. keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234220 importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): …-… (5) in slide mohem-e. [this slide is important.] since the video files of the sokhan corpus were not accessible and the study was limited to exploring verbal cues only, exophoric importance markers were disregarded. table 1 shows the lexicogrammatical patterns of anaphoric importance markers along with their distributions. hunston and francis’ (2000) notation system2 has been used to represent the patterns. note that the focus of the patterns, what signals the importance of points, is in upper case. anaphoric importance markers raw counts % hd3 + deic (adj) mn 9 3 hd + this v-link mn n/clause 2 0.7 hd + deic v-link (adv) adj 2 0.7 hd + deic v-link (adv) adj mn 7 2.3 hd + deic mn v-link (adv) adj 12 4 hd + deic mn v-link (adv) adj mn 3 1 hd + topicalized-adv (deic) v-link adj mn 1 0.3 hd + exam points 12 4 total 48 16 table 1. distribution analysis of anaphoric importance markers. as table 1 shows, the analysis of concordances revealed eight patterns for giving anaphoric reference to important points of discourse. among anaphoric patterns, “hd + exam points” and “hd + deic mn v-link (adv) adj” outnumbered the other patterns as the first most frequently used patterns in persian academic lectures (4,4 %). the pattern “hd + exam points” includes those instances of importance markers that indicate the likelihood of portions of discourse to be included in the exam (6). though very helpful for students to detect important points, this pattern constituted only four percent of all the importance markers in the sokhan corpus. the infrequence of this pattern may be related to the fact that the constant use of this pattern by the professor might reflect a teaching-tothe-test attitude: where the lecturer only stresses the materials which are considered important for assessment and the students are discouraged from paying attention to the other parts of discourse. (6) in soal-e emtehan-e. [this is an exam question.] the pattern “hd + deic mn v-link (adv) adj” is somehow similar to the most frequent retrospective pattern, “deic + is + adj”, that crawford camiciottoli (2007) found in english lectures. what makes our pattern different is the inclusion of a metalinguistic noun (e.g., “point”), in addition to an evaluative adjective (e.g., “important”), to signal the importance of discourse (7). the occurrence of these elements together makes this pattern an explicit importance marker, thus assisting the lecture audience in detecting the important portions of adj” outnumbered the other patterns as the first most frequently used patterns in persian academic lectures (4,4 %). the pattern “hd + exam points” includes those instances of importance markers that indicate the likelihood of portions of discourse to be included in the exam (6). though very helpful for students to detect important points, this pattern constituted only four percent of all the importance markers in the sokhan corpus. the infrequence of this pattern may be related to the fact that the constant use of this pattern by the professor might reflect a teaching-to-the-test attitude: where the lecturer only stresses the materials which are considered important for assessment and the students are discouraged from paying attention to the other parts of discourse. (6) in soal-e emtehan-e. [this is an exam question.] the pattern “hd + deic mn v-link (adv) adj” is somehow similar to the most frequent retrospective pattern, “deic + is + adj”, that crawford camiciottoli (2007) found in english lectures. what makes our pattern different is the inclusion of a metalinguistic noun (e.g., “point”), in addition to an evaluative adjective (e.g., “important”), to signal the importance of discourse (7). the occurrence of these elements together makes this pattern an explicit importance marker, thus assisting the lecture audience in detecting the important portions of discourse. the metalinguistic nouns found in persian lectures were “point”, “question”, “idea”, “thing”, “matter”, “truth of the matter”, and “focus”. among these, “point” outnumbered the other lexemes (105 instances). this mirrors the findings in swales (2001), who investigated the use of “point” and “thing” in micase and observed “point” among the most frequent discussive nouns. it is important to note that lexemes such as “question”, “idea”, “thing”, “matter”, “truth of the matter”, and “focus” do not necessarily signal the importance of discourse per se. counting these lexemes as importance markers depends on the presence of other elements such as evaluative adjectives (8). the evaluative adjectives found in persian lectures were “important”, “necessary”, “fundamental”, “main”, “interesting”, and “considerable”. in line with biber, johansson, leech, conrad, and finegan (1999), and swales and burke (2003, as cited in deroey & taverniers, 2012a), “important” outnumbered the other evaluative adjectives (29 instances). as in english (deroey & taverniers, 2012a), in persian “interesting” did not importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 221 signal the importance of discourse by itself (9). the presence of an interactive verb highlighted the importance of points. (7) in nokte mohem-e. [this point is important.] (8) chizi ke vase ma mohem hast in-e ke [what is important for us is] (9) jaleb ine ke bedonid [it is interesting for you to know that] what is common among most anaphoric patterns is the presence of a deictic (e.g., “this”). a deictic was found in six out of eight patterns. the frequent use of dectics in anaphoric importance markers mirrors the findings of deroey and taverniers (2012a), who found retrospective relevance markers with a deictic. the deictic used in the patterns is important, as it encapsulates the highlighted parts of discourse and its detection and interpretation are crucial for the comprehension of the lecture by the audience. each anaphoric pattern is provided with an example in the appendixes (appendix a). table 2 presents the derived patterns of cataphoric importance markers along with their distributions. as table 2 shows, the analysis of concordances revealed ten patterns for giving cataphoric reference to important portions of discourse. among cataphoric patterns, “v + hd” (37%) outnumbered other patterns as the most frequently used pattern in persian academic lectures, followed by “(adv) j. zare & z. keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234222 importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): …-… table 2 presents the derived patterns of cataphoric importance markers along with their distributions. cataphoric importance markers raw counts % (adj) mn + hd 16 5.5 (adv) (adj) mn v-link + hd 68 23.3 there v-link (adj) mn + hd 14 4.8 let 1st pers pron v (mn) + hd 3 1 v + hd 108 37 (adv) 1st/2nd pers pron v + hd 20 7 it v + hd 1 0.3 let's (not) v + hd 3 1 it v-link adj + hd 5 1.7 what v-link adj v-link + hd 7 2.3 total 245 84 table 2. distribution analysis of cataphoric importance markers. as table 2 shows, the analysis of concordances revealed ten patterns for giving cataphoric reference to important portions of discourse. among cataphoric patterns, “v + hd” (37%) outnumbered other patterns as the most frequently used pattern in persian academic lectures, followed by “(adv) (adj) mn v-link + hd” (23.3%). this mirrors the findings of crawford camiciottoli (2007), who found “det + adj + meta n + is” to be the most frequent pattern in english lectures. in “v + hd”, an interactive verb signals the importance of upcoming discourse (10). the verbs used in this pattern were “remember”, “remind”, “keep in mind”, “forget”, “pay attention”, “note”, “notice”, “highlight”, “take note of”, “learn”, “know”, and “understand”. the verbs may be complemented by a following deictic such as “here” and “this”, or a that-clause. in a similar vein to english lectures (deroey & taverniers, 2012a), the pattern was predominant (37%) in cataphoric patterns and all the importance markers. the dominance of this pattern may be due to (a) the simple structure of this pattern and (b) the interactive verbs used in it. the basic structure of this pattern (using a main verb only) makes it a convenient way of signaling importance. moreover, the imperative nature of the interactive verbs used in the pattern orient the audience to certain parts of discourse by involving them in the discoursal process. (10) deqat konid man nemixam begam [note! i’m not saying] the pattern “(adv) (adj) mn v-link + hd”, which was found to be the second most frequent cataphoric pattern, comprises chiefly a metalinguistic noun and a linking verb with sporadic pre-modifications such as adjectives and adverbs (11). the nouns were the same as anaphoric importance markers, with “point” being the most frequent one. here, the parts of discourse which are aimed to be (adj) mn v-link + hd” (23.3%). this mirrors the findings of crawford camiciottoli (2007), who found “det + adj + meta n + is” to be the most frequent pattern in english lectures. in “v + hd”, an interactive verb signals the importance of upcoming discourse (10). the verbs used in this pattern were “remember”, “remind”, “keep in mind”, “forget”, “pay attention”, “note”, “notice”, “highlight”, “take note of ”, “learn”, “know”, and “understand”. the verbs may be complemented by a following deictic such as “here” and “this”, or a thatclause. in a similar vein to english lectures (deroey & taverniers, 2012a), the pattern was predominant (37%) in cataphoric patterns and all the importance markers. the dominance of this pattern may be due to (a) the simple structure of this pattern and (b) the interactive verbs used in it. the basic structure of this pattern (using a main verb only) makes it a convenient way of signaling importance. moreover, the imperative nature of the interactive verbs used in the pattern orient the audience to certain parts of discourse by involving them in the discoursal process. (10) deqat konid man nemixam begam [note! i’m not saying] the pattern “(adv) (adj) mn v-link + hd”, which was found to be the second most frequent cataphoric pattern, comprises chiefly a metalinguistic noun and a linking verb with sporadic pre-modifications such as adjectives and adverbs (11). the nouns were the same as anaphoric importance markers, with “point” being the most frequent one. here, the parts of discourse which are aimed to be highlighted are either embedded in the same clause as the importance marker (11) or encapsulated by a deictic and said afterwards (12). (11) nokte asli in-e ke [the main point is that] (12) ide in-e. bebinid je [the idea is this. see, a] the pattern “(adv) 1st/2nd pers pron v + hd”, which was the third most frequent cataphoric importance marker, comprises an initial adverb and a main verb principally (13). what is important about this pattern is the fact importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 223 that the adverb does not indicate the importance of points by itself. the presence of another element such as an interactive verb complements this function (13). (13) faqat bajad bedonid ke [only you should know that] what is interesting to note is that all the patterns containing interactive verbs were cataphoric in nature. note that in these patterns, the highlighted discourse always follows the importance marker either in the same clause as the importance marker or summed up by a deictic and stated completely afterwards in another sentence. each cataphoric pattern is provided with an example in the appendixes (appendix b). table 3 presents the overall counts of anaphoric and cataphoric importance markers. as table 3 shows, cataphoric importance markers dominated the persian importance markers in the entire sokhan corpus, accounting for 84 % of them. this mirrors the findings of crawford camiciottoli (2007) and deroey (2015) for english lectures. the dominance of cataphoric importance markers may be twofold. first, the presence of interactive verbs in most of these importance markers involves the participants of the lecture in the discourse and makes them participate actively in the process. second, the initial position of the importance marker in relation to the highlighted discourse informs the audience of the prominence of the information, which is about to be presented and thus of the necessity of paying close attention to or taking note of them. 3.2. importance markers in terms of discourse functions the 293 instances of importance marking that were derived from the sokhan corpus were examined manually by the two researchers to see which discourse functions they served. a compromise was reached, in case j. zare & z. keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234224 javad zare & zahra keivanloo shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): …-… issn 1139-7241 e-issn 2340-2784 highlighted are either embedded in the same clause as the importance marker (11) or encapsulated by a deictic and said afterwards (12). (11) nokte asli in-e ke [the main point is that] (12) ide in-e. bebinid je [the idea is this. see, a] the pattern “(adv) 1st/2nd pers pron v + hd”, which was the third most frequent cataphoric importance marker, comprises an initial adverb and a main verb principally (13). what is important about this pattern is the fact that the adverb does not indicate the importance of points by itself. the presence of another element such as an interactive verb complements this function (13). (13) faqat bajad bedonid ke [only you should know that] what is interesting to note is that all the patterns containing interactive verbs were cataphoric in nature. note that in these patterns, the highlighted discourse always follows the importance marker either in the same clause as the importance marker or summed up by a deictic and stated completely afterwards in another sentence. each cataphoric pattern is provided with an example in the appendixes (appendix b). table 3 presents the overall counts of anaphoric and cataphoric importance markers. importance markers raw counts % anaphoric 48 16 cataphoric 245 84 total 293 100 table 3. distribution analysis of anaphoric/cataphoric importance markers. as table 3 shows, cataphoric importance markers dominated the persian importance markers in the entire sokhan corpus, accounting for 84 % of them. this mirrors the findings of crawford camiciottoli (2007) and deroey (2015) for english lectures. the dominance of cataphoric importance markers may be twofold. first, the presence of interactive verbs in most of these importance markers involves the participants of the lecture in the discourse and makes them participate actively in the process. second, the initial position of the importance marker in relation to the highlighted discourse informs the audience of the prominence of the information, which is about to be presented and thus of the necessity of paying close attention to or taking note of them. 3.2. importance markers in terms of discourse functions their opinions differed. it is important to note that this part of the study was conducted to extend the results of deroey and taverniers (2012b) on importance markers. in a study on lesser importance marking, these authors observed five types of markers of lesser importance in english academic lectures, including “message status”, “topic treatment”, “lecturer knowledge”, “assessment”, as well as “attention-and note-taking directives”. we wanted to see if the same types of markers are found for highlighting importance. consequently, the functional analysis of the importance markers led to a set of five importance marking functions. as figure 2 shows, these functions include “discourse organization”, “audience engagement”, “subject status”, “topic treatment”, and “relating to exam”. from these five importance marking functions, “subject status”, “topic treatment”, and “relating to exam” were taken from deroey and taverniers (2012b), not to mention the fact that they discuss them as “types”, rather than “functions”. note also that deroey and taverniers’ study was on the marking of lesser importance. we found it interesting to investigate whether the same markers can be found for importance marking. interestingly, “lecturer knowledge” markers of lesser importance were not present in importance markers. “message status”, “topic treatment”, “assessment”, and “attention-and note-taking directives”, however, were present among the importance markers with some noteworthy differences. all the importance markers were then investigated to see which functional category they belonged to. table 4 presents the distribution of each functional category in the persian sokhan corpus. each discourse function is provided with an example in the appendixes (appendix c). importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 225 importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): …-… the 293 instances of importance marking that were derived from the sokhan corpus were examined manually by the two researchers to see which discourse functions they served. a compromise was reached, in case their opinions differed. it is important to note that this part of the study was conducted to extend the results of deroey and taverniers (2012b) on importance markers. in a study on lesser importance marking, these authors observed five types of markers of lesser importance in english academic lectures, including “message status”, “topic treatment”, “lecturer knowledge”, “assessment”, as well as “attention-and note-taking directives”. we wanted to see if the same types of markers are found for highlighting importance. consequently, the functional analysis of the importance markers led to a set of five importance marking functions. figure 2. importance markers in terms of discourse functions. as figure 2 shows, these functions include “discourse organization”, “audience engagement”, “subject status”, “topic treatment”, and “relating to exam”. from these five importance marking functions, “subject status”, “topic treatment”, and “relating to exam” were taken from deroey and taverniers (2012b), not to mention the fact that they discuss them as “types”, rather than “functions”. note also that deroey and taverniers’ study was on the marking of lesser importance. we found it interesting to investigate whether the same markers can be found for importance marking. interestingly, “lecturer knowledge” markers of lesser importance were not present in importance markers. “message status”, “topic treatment”, “assessment”, and “attention-and note-taking directives”, however, were present among the importance markers with some noteworthy differences. all the importance markers were then investigated to see which functional category they belonged to. table 4 presents the distribution of each functional category in the persian sokhan corpus. each discourse function is provided with an example in the appendixes (appendix c). atropmifosecnatsni392eth uanmedniamexe erwsuprco .devresyehtsnoitcnfu ca tid.erdi no ttnatropm is i aneyoerdfostluesre htdentex ecnatropmirsseelnoydust ginkra mecnatropim devirederewtahtgnikramecna otserchearesrowte htybylal c esiomprom ni,dehcaerswa dut seh oa psih ttah teto n )b2102(serineravtdan on pim ,gnikram srothuaeseth sb o serutce licmedac a ing nahkosehtmod e srucosidchihwee s snoiniporiehtesac o tdetcudno csa wyd ani. srekramecntaro f osepy tevdevre ecnatrompiresselfosrekrma ,”tnemtaertcipot“,s”utast noitnett“a etondan irdginkta lhgihrdnuerasrekrma mce antropmie htfosisyalan snoitcnfu . lgnenie sertucleicmedacahis ssmssea“,”egdelwonkrerutcel“ eestodtenawew. ”setivceir esnoc.ecnatrompignithgil e vfoetsa otedlserkarm egassem“gindlucin, s allews a,”tnessm foseptyemasethif ,yltne l antiocneth gnimce antropmi 2e gurfi . rtaopim nesehtwsohs2erugifas tiocn fuersuocisf d osrm te inrserka mecnrta agroesruocsid“edulcnisnoitcn sntio . ecneidua“”noitazina neseht,wsohs2erugifas tenemaggen suattsectus“”, inamecntaropimeeseth katerew”maxeotgnitale“r tahttcafehtnoitnme yeth si d erineravtdaneyoerdathtosal vniotgnitseretnitidnuwe serteni. ginkramecntaropim t neserpt onerewecntaropim na, t”nemssessa“, t”netmaetr tneserperwe gnoam op imeth agroesruocsidedulcnisnoitcn atelr“dan”,tenmeatrtc ipot“”, “, ”stutast ceus“, sntiocng evatdnayeoredmonek h trehta r,”sepyt “s ameh tssucs gnime htnoaswyduts’ser kramemasehtrehtehwetagitsev cle“, lygtins ”egdlewonkrertu em“. sreamecntaropimint ntionttea“dn etondan dginkta teo nemo sith wsrekra mecntar ecneidua,noitazina ”.amexotgniat mofr dna, t”netmaetricpto otton,)b2102(srein eto n.”snoitcn “nah ce.anopmierseslfo rdnuebnacsrek resslefosrekram” icpto“, ”stutasegasse , revewoh, ”setivceird dythrow .secner srekramecnatropmiehtlal t.otedgnoelbeyhtyroegcat aniserpe htniyroegcat kso elpmaxenahtwi dnepp ae thin ibér sotdetagitsevninehterwe oitubirtside htstenesrp4e labt nahk e srucosidache.suprco idneppa (seixd )cx . 33ca ibér 710 (2 ): …-… 11 lanoitcnhciwhees alnoictneachfono eddivorpsinoictn as table 4 shows, audience engagement was found to be the first most frequently used discourse function. audience engagement refers to instances of importance marking where the lecturer involves the audience in the discourse process (14). here, the audience is supposed to pay attention, memorize, or take note of specific portions of the discourse. the audience is attracted to the discourse by using verbs such as “remember”, “keep in mind”, “not forget”, “pay attention”, “notice”, “highlight”, “take note of ”, “learn”, “know”, and “understand”. the preponderance of this discourse function may suggest that lecturers tend to function interpersonally in importance marking by actively involving their audience in the lectures. audience engagement importance markers are somehow similar to deroey and taverniers’ (2012b) “attention-and note-taking directives”. whereas audience engagement markers draw the attention of the audience to the important information of lectures, attention-and note-taking directives “explicitly direct the audience not to pay (much) attention to particular discourse” (deroey & taverniers, 2012b: 2096). (14) doresh-o qat bekeshid [circle that] discourse organization was the second most frequently used function among persian importance markers. discourse organization involves organizing the discourse by means of dividing it into points and non-points (15). this is done by the use of such nouns as “point”, “question”, “idea”, “thing”, “matter”, “truth of the matter”, and “focus”. the prevalence of discourse organization as an importance marking function may be related to the prevalence of “point” in academic lectures. (15) je nokte-i ke inja hast in-e ke [there is a point here that] j. zare & z. keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234226 javad zare & zahra keivanloo shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): …-… issn 1139-7241 e-issn 2340-2784 importance markers raw counts % discourse organization 82 28 audience engagement 134 46 subject status 59 20 topic treatment 7 2.5 relating to exam 11 3.5 total 293 100 table 4. distribution analysis of importance markers. as table 4 shows, audience engagement was found to be the first most frequently used discourse function. audience engagement refers to instances of importance marking where the lecturer involves the audience in the discourse process (14). here, the audience is supposed to pay attention, memorize, or take note of specific portions of the discourse. the audience is attracted to the discourse by using verbs such as “remember”, “keep in mind”, “not forget”, “pay attention”, “notice”, “highlight”, “take note of”, “learn”, “know”, and “understand”. the preponderance of this discourse function may suggest that lecturers tend to function interpersonally in importance marking by actively involving their audience in the lectures. audience engagement importance markers are somehow similar to deroey and taverniers’ (2012b) “attention-and note-taking directives”. whereas audience engagement markers draw the attention of the audience to the important information of lectures, attention-and note-taking directives “explicitly direct the audience not to pay (much) attention to particular discourse” (deroey & taverniers, 2012b: 2096). (14) doresh-o qat bekeshid [circle that] discourse organization was the second most frequently used function among persian importance markers. discourse organization involves organizing the discourse by means of dividing it into points and non-points (15). this is done by the use of such nouns as “point”, “question”, “idea”, “thing”, “matter”, “truth of the matter”, and “focus”. the prevalence of discourse organization as an importance marking function may be related to the prevalence of “point” in academic lectures. (15) je nokte-i ke inja hast in-e ke [there is a point here that] “subject status” or “message status” (deroey & taverniers, 2012b) involve explicitly evaluating the importance or relevance of information, using evaluative adjectives (16). this is usually done by the use of such adjectives as “important”, “necessary”, “fundamental”, “main”, “interesting”, and “considerable”. subject status was the third most frequent function of importance “subject status” or “message status” (deroey & taverniers, 2012b) involve explicitly evaluating the importance or relevance of information, using evaluative adjectives (16). this is usually done by the use of such adjectives as “important”, “necessary”, “fundamental”, “main”, “interesting”, and “considerable”. subject status was the third most frequent function of importance marking in persian lectures. this function can be used to mark explicitly certain portions of discourse as important or less important. (16) chizi ke mohem-e in vasat in-e ke [what is important here is that] relating to exam involves revealing what is likely to be assessed in the exam in relation to the content of present discourse (17). deroey and taverniers use “assessment” (2012b) or “assessment-related” (2012a) to refer to those markers of (lesser) importance that “point out the likelihood of being assessed on particular content” (2012a: 231). in all the instances of this function, the word “exam”, its synonyms, or derived forms were identified. whereas relating the discourse content to assessment and exam is a useful way of telling the students which parts to pay attention to, this function was quite rare. according to deroey and taverniers (2012a), as information concerning what to examine in the test is usually discussed in the first or last sessions of the course, and we do not know for sure whether the lectures incorporated into the sokhan corpus are from the first or last sessions of the semester or not, the infrequence of these markers cannot be explained. however, it can be hypothesized that the rareness of this function is related to the fact that relating specific content of the discourse to assessment might overshadow other parts of discourse which are necessary to learn as disciplinary content but are not normally assessed in exams. this might lead to a teaching-to-the-test attitude and discourage the audience from paying attention to other portions of discourse. (17) soal-e emtehan hamin-e [this is an exam question] topic treatment is the function dealing with the way the lecturer lectures in a special subject. deroey and taverniers (2012b: 2091) refer to topic treatment markers as “discourse organizational statements signaling that topics or aspects thereof are not covered, or that little discourse or time is devoted to them”. we have taken topic treatment as another way of importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 227 highlighting importance in academic lectures. here, topic treatment refers to statements that suggest whether a topic or its aspects need to be covered extensively (18), or are not necessary to cover at all (19, 20). this function involves using expressions such as “go into”, “cover”, “skip”, “briefly”, and “in more detail”. it is important to note that the interpretation of topic treatment as importance marking is based on the idea that only salient topics and information make it into the lecture, considering the limited time available and the abundance of topics to discuss (deroey & taverniers, 2012b). however, it must be born in mind that lack of time to cover everything might be the case sometimes. (18) takid mikonim roj-e in [i stress this] (19) vali man vared-e jozejat nemisham [but i don’t go into the details] (20) hala az in ke begzarim [let’s skip this subject] what makes topic treatment different from subject status is that in subject status, the lecturer presents his/her attitudinal evaluation of the importance of the presented information along a “parameter of importance” (thompson & hunston, 2000: 24), whereas in topic treatment whether a topic gets limited or preferential treatment is stated. in other words, importance marking is done explicitly in subject status, whereas it is implied in topic treatment. as topic treatment deals with topics, the rareness of this function may be related to time management, the fact that only a few topics are usually discussed in every session. 4. conclusion this study was informed by the belief that an understanding of the discourse structure of lectures is beneficial to the students’ comprehension, note-taking, and recall of lectures (e.g., decarrico & nattinger, 1988; flowerdew & tauroza, 1995; khuwaileh, 1999; jung, 2003a, b, 2006; thompson, 2003). with the limited analysis of this study, which, as video recordings of the sokhan corpus were not accessible, explored verbal j. zare & z. keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234228 importance markers only, any generalized conclusions are necessarily tentative but perhaps worth noting with respect to their implications. first, in terms of the position of the highlighted discourse, eight patterns were found for anaphoric importance marking, among which the patterns “hd + exam points” and “hd + deic mn v-link (adv) adj” outnumbered others. ten patterns were also found for cataphoric importance marking among which “v + hd” was predominant. second, cataphoric importance markers dominated the entire sokhan corpus. third, in terms of discourse functions, marking certain portions of discourse as important was found to be done by one of the five discourse functions – discourse organization, audience engagement, subject status, topic treatment, and relating to exam. interestingly, audience engagement was found to be the first most frequently used discourse function. by and large, the findings of this study may imply that lecturers are more inclined to involve the audience than to refer to the text when signaling importance in persian academic contexts. that is to say, instead of providing information without caring about the interpretations of the audience about the relative importance of discourse, lecturers tend to ensure that what they present is given enough attention to by drawing their addressees in and providing the important points of discourse in a way that makes planning for online processing and note-taking possible. in other words, persian academic lectures are more oriented towards the audience than to the content. theoretically, the authentic patterns and discourse functions of importance marking that were found in this study may be used as a basis for comparative research on how this function is done in other genres, and across other languages and disciplines. pedagogically, these patterns, discourse functions and examples of their specific uses may be utilized in materials for listening and lecturing courses. specific courses for lecture listening, comprehension, and note-taking can also be designed and implemented based on these patterns for native and non-native speakers of persian. this study suggests various areas for further research on the function of importance marking. further research needs to be conducted to find if the taxonomy of the discourse functions of importance marking is the same for other languages such as english. additionally, it seems necessary to investigate some of the variables that are relevant to lectures such as lecturing styles, academic culture and field of study. importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 229 article history: received 18 february 2016 received in revised form 01 june 2016 accepted 11 june 2016 references j. zare & z. keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234230 ädel, a. (2006). metadiscourse in l1 and l2 english. amsterdam: john benjamins. ädel, a. (2010). “just to give you kind of a map of where we are going: a taxonomy of metadiscourse in spoken and written academic english”. nordic journal of english studies 9,2: 69-97. biber, d., s. johansson, g. leech, s. conrad & e. finegan (1999). the longman grammar of spoken and written english. london: longman. crawford camiciottoli, b. (2004). “audienceoriented relevance markers in business studies lectures” in g. del lungo camiciotti & e. tognini bonelli (eds.), academic discourse: new insights into evaluation, 81-97. bern: peter lang. crawford camiciottoli, b. (2007). the language of business studies lectures. amsterdam: john benjamins. decarrico, j. & j.r. nattinger (1988). “lexical phrases for the comprehension of academic lectures”. english for specific purposes 7,2: 91102. doi:10.1016/0889-4906(88)90027-0 deroey, k.l.b. (2014). “‘anyway, the point i’m making is’: lexicogrammatical relevance marking in lectures” in v. lieven, k. davidse, c. gentens & d. kimps (eds.), recent advances in corpus linguistics: developing and exploiting corpora, 265-291. amsterdam: rodopi. deroey, k.l.b. (2015). “marking importance in lectures: interactive and textual orientation”. applied linguistics 36,1: 51-72. doi:10.1093/applin/amt029 deroey, k.l.b. & m. taverniers (2012a). “just remember this: lexicogrammatical relevance markers in lectures”. english for specific purposes 31,4: 221-233. doi:10.1016/j.esp.2012.05.001 deroey, k. l. b. & m. taverniers (2012b). “‘ignore that ‘cause it’s totally irrelevant’: marking lesser relevance in lectures”. journal of pragmatics 44,14: 2085-2099. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2012.10.001 flowerdew, j. (1994). “research of relevance to second language lecture comprehension: an overview” in j. flowerdew (ed.), academic listening: research perspectives, 7-29. cambridge: cambridge university press. flowerdew, j. & s. tauroza (1995). “the effect of discourse markers on second language lecture comprehension”. studies in second language acquisition 17,4: 435-458. doi: 10.1017/s0272263100014406 hunston, s. (1994). “evaluation and organization in a sample of written academic discourse” in m. coulthard (ed.), advances in written text analysis, 191-218. london: routledge. hunston, s. (2000). “evaluation and the planes of discourse: status and value in persuasive texts” in s. hunston & g. thompson (eds.), evaluation in text: authorial stance and the construction of discourse, 176-207. oxford: oxford university press. hunston, s. & g. francis (2000). pattern grammar: a corpus-driven approach to the lexical grammar of english. amsterdam: john benjamins. hyland, k. 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(1999). “the role of chunks, phrases and body language in understanding coordinated academic lectures”. system 28,2: 249-260. doi: 10.1016/s0346-251x(99)00019-6 lodico, m.g., d.t. spaulding & k.h. voegtle (2006). methods in educational research from theory to practice. san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons. partington, a. (2014). “the marking of importance in ‘enlightentainment’ talks” in m. gotti & d.s. giannoni (eds.), corpus analysis for descriptive and pedagogical purposes, 143-166. bern: peter lang. scott, m. (2015). wordsmith tools version 6. stroud: lexical analysis software. sutherland, p., & badger, r. (2004). “lecturers’ perceptions of lectures”. journal of further and higher education 28,3: 277-289. doi:10.1080/0309877042000241751 swales, j.m. (2001). “metatalk in american academic talk the cases of point and thing”. journal of english linguistics 29,1: 34-54. doi:10.1177/00754240122005189 thompson, g & s. hunston (2000). “evaluation: an introduction” in s. hunston & g. thompson (eds.), evaluation in text: authorial stance and the construction of discourse, 1-27. oxford: oxford university press. thompson, s.e. (2003). “text-structuring metadiscourse, intonation and the signaling of organization in academic lectures”. journal of english for academic purposes 2,1: 5-20. doi:10.1016/s1475-1585(02)00036-x. importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 231 javad zare holds a ph.d. in applied linguistics from the university of isfahan, isfahan, iran. his research areas of interest include discourse analysis, corpus-linguistics, pragmatics, and eap. his most recent publications have been in discourse processes, text & talk, and iberica. abbas eslami-rasekh is an assistant professor in the faculty of foreign languages at the university of isfahan in iran. he has taught graduate and undergraduate level courses in efl for the last 10 years. his research interests include issues related to eap students, eap needs assessment, discourse analysis, and translation. azizollah dabaghi completed his doctoral studies in language learning and teaching at the university of auckland. currently, he is an assistant professor at the university of isfahan, teaching and researching language acquisition and translation courses at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. his main interests include translation and culture, legal translation, sociolinguistics, and second language acquisition. notes 1 the persian corpus of sokhan was developed at the science and technology park of north khorasan, iran under the directorship of javad zare and zahra keivanloo-shahrestanaki. corpus development was assisted by funding from the technology university of esfarayen and the science and technology park of north khorasan, iran. the lectures of sokhan were recorded between 2010 and 2015. sokhan totals 480,526 words. 2 following deroey and taverniers (2012), hunston and francis’ (2000) notation system has been used for the patterns of importance markers. here, the pattern focus is in upper case, other elements are in lower case and lexemes are in italics. deic = deictic, adj = adjective, mn = metalinguistic noun, v-link = linking verb, n = nominal complement 3 “hd” stands for “highlighted discourse” in the derived patterns. appendix a appendix b j. zare & z. keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234232 javad zare & zahra keivanloo shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): …-… issn 1139-7241 e-issn 2340-2784 appendix a anaphoric importance markers: patterns and examples anaphoric importance markers example hd + deic (adj) mn in je nokte [this is one point] hd + this v-link mn n/clause pas in nokte-i bod ke [so, this was the point] hd + deic v-link (adv) adj chon in xeili mohem-e [because this is very important] hd + deic v-link (adv) adj mn in matlab-e mohemi-je [this is an important topic] hd + deic mn v-link (adv) adj in nokte mohem-e [this point is important] hd + deic mn v-link (adv) adj mn in nokte nokte mohemi-je [this point is an important point] hd + topicalized-adv (deic) v-link adj mn xeili nokte xobi-je [a very good point it is] hd + exam points soal-e emtehan hamin-e [this is an exam question] appendix b cataphoric importance markers: patterns and examples cataphoric importance markers example (adj) mn + hd nokte xeili mohem [a very important point] (adv) (adj) mn v-link + hd nokte in-e ke [the point is that] there v-link (adj) mn + hd do-ta nokte inja vojod dare [there are two points here] let 1st pers pron v (mn) + hd je nokte-i-o aval eshare konam [let me make one point first] v + hd deqat konid man nemixam begam [note! i’m not saying] (adv) 1st/2nd pers pron v + hd faqat bajad bedonid ke [only you should know that] it v + hd takid mishe age [it is emphasized that if] let's (not) v + hd faramosh nakonim ke [let’s not forget that] it v-link adj + hd jaleb in-e ke bedonid [it is interesting for you to know] what v-link adj v-link + hd chizi ke vase ma mohem hast in-e ke [what is important for us is] javad zare & zahra keivanloo shahrestanaki ibérica 33 (2017): …-… issn 1139-7241 e-issn 2340-2784 appendix a anaphoric importance markers: patterns and examples anaphoric importance markers example hd + deic (adj) mn in je nokte [this is one point] hd + this v-link mn n/clause pas in nokte-i bod ke [so, this was the point] hd + deic v-link (adv) adj chon in xeili mohem-e [because this is very important] hd + deic v-link (adv) adj mn in matlab-e mohemi-je [this is an important topic] hd + deic mn v-link (adv) adj in nokte mohem-e [this point is important] hd + deic mn v-link (adv) adj mn in nokte nokte mohemi-je [this point is an important point] hd + topicalized-adv (deic) v-link adj mn xeili nokte xobi-je [a very good point it is] hd + exam points soal-e emtehan hamin-e [this is an exam question] appendix b cataphoric importance markers: patterns and examples cataphoric importance markers example (adj) mn + hd nokte xeili mohem [a very important point] (adv) (adj) mn v-link + hd nokte in-e ke [the point is that] there v-link (adj) mn + hd do-ta nokte inja vojod dare [there are two points here] let 1st pers pron v (mn) + hd je nokte-i-o aval eshare konam [let me make one point first] v + hd deqat konid man nemixam begam [note! i’m not saying] (adv) 1st/2nd pers pron v + hd faqat bajad bedonid ke [only you should know that] it v + hd takid mishe age [it is emphasized that if] let's (not) v + hd faramosh nakonim ke [let’s not forget that] it v-link adj + hd jaleb in-e ke bedonid [it is interesting for you to know] what v-link adj v-link + hd chizi ke vase ma mohem hast in-e ke [what is important for us is] appendix c importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): 213-234 233 importance marking in academic lectures ibérica 33 (2017): …-… appendix c importance markers in persian academic lectures in terms of discourse functions: examples importance markers example discourse organization je nokte-i ke inja hast in-e ke [there is a point here that] audience engagement doresh-o qat bekeshid [circle that] subject status chizi ke mohem-e in vasat in-e ke [what is important here is that] topic treatment takid mikonim roj-e in [i stress this] relating to exam soal-e emtehan hamin-e [this is an exam question] iberica 13 ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 english as a scientific and research language. debates and discourses: english in europe, volume 2 ramón plo alastrué, carmen pérez-llantada (eds.) berlin, boston: de guyter mouton, 2015. 266 pages. isbn: 978-1-61451-749-8. the work is the second volume in a series that presents research reports resulting from the international research network and project titled english in europe: opportunity or threat? the project involved a partnership between various universities in different european countries. the partner universities hosted conferences that included a special focus on the impact of having english as the medium in education and research in their own region. details of this background to the project are given in the “series preface” written by the principal investigator of the english in europe project. the chapters have been written by academics from across a range of european countries including croatia, the czech republic, germany, italy, poland, portugal, romania, spain, and sweden. this volume will, i believe, be of interest to scholars familiar with the european context. it will also be of interest to those, who like myself, have limited familiarity but would like an introduction to the issues, debates and research topics related to the adoption of english as a shared language for academic and research communication in the european context. the work is organised into three parts. the first part is titled “the sociocultural scenario”, the second “the discourse community scenario” and the third “the language policy scenario: english as a lingua franca in linguistics?” the first chapter in part i (the socio-cultural scenario) and the final chapter in part iii (the language policy scenario) have been written by each of the two editors of the book. part i explores social and cultural issues relating to the use of english and effects of the dominance of anglophone academic norms in the european context. the chapters address different issues, such as the trend towards a 245 reseñas/book reviews 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 245 single academic epistemology, or epistemological monoculture, (bennett) and limited use of citations to publications in languages other than english in journals (breeze). bennett presents an articulate and well-argued position paper that examines changes in academic cultures and the trend away from a former diversity of scholarly discourses and views on what constitutes valid knowledge. it is argued that such diversity has come to be sidelined by the prevalence of english academic discourse (ead) and its concomitant tendency towards an empiricist research paradigm. the dominance of ead stems, it is argued, from its associations with power and wealth rather than its inherent value as a means of communicating research or empiricism’s inherent value as a means of explanation. the different epistemological traditions “encoded into different languages” are increasingly under threat from the “inexorable expansion of english academic discourse” (page 9). the primary mechanism driving this process is argued to be discursive and often implicit in the translation, revision and editing processes that operate when academic papers are brought into alignment with the dominant norms” of english academic discourse and “by extension” the empiricist paradigm (page 11). the chapter by breeze focuses on citation practices and the question of whether there is a decrease in the citation of publications in languages other than english. specifically, the chapter focuses on the citation practices of scholars from outside the anglo-american inner circle (scholars in outer and expanding circles) and their citation practices in preparing papers for publication in international journals. the chapter discusses issues and reports findings from a two-stage study (quantitative analysis of the language of bibliography in a set of leading social science journals and interviews with journal article authors and editors to elicit their understanding of authors’ difficulties in getting published and the reasons behind their citation practices). needless to say, the study found very few of the sources referred to in the bibliographies to be in languages other than english. the chapter ends with a particularly insightful discussion section focusing on the interview data and findings concerning the authors’ citation strategies and concerns. two further chapters in part i address the topics of resources for publishing in english as a foreign language (gnutzmann, jakisch & rabe) and the potential ramifications of the widespread use of english as the language for knowledge dissemination on the world wide web (bondi). reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266246 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 246 part ii of the work is taken up with specific discourse communities and examines the impact of “english-only research publishing practices” (plo alastrué, page 5). the chapters report studies based mainly on comparative analyses of textual data from research communication. the first chapter examines czech and anglo-american writers of english use of textorganizing devices in research articles (povolná). the second (oliver) examines the use of hedging expressions and attitude markers in three academic genres (research papers, case reports and book reviews) across languages (spanish and english) and disciplines (medicine and linguistics). the third (schmied) reports an examination of a range of text-linguistic features in a corpus of english writing of german students specialising in english language and linguistics in a particular english department at a university of technology with reference to comparable databases. the fourth chapter (dontcheva-navratilova) reports an analysis of citations in czech english-medium and international english-medium linguistics journals. the final chapter in part ii (bocanegra-valle) reports a study of the recommendations for language improvement in reviews of articles submitted to an english-medium journal. as the author rightly points out, peer review reports are private documents that are generally not available for analysis. as a result, very limited linguistic, text-based description of this genre has been available to date. the chapter describes findings from an analysis of review reports of over 100 articles submitted by anglophone and non-anglophone researchers to a particular journal in the field of applied linguistics. it focuses on reviewers’ assessments and comments about the researchers’ use of language. the chapter provides a number of interesting findings, including the finding that there was limited evidence to suggest significant variation in how articles written by anglophone and nonanglophone writers had been rated for use of language (one criterion in the assessment sheets completed by the reviewers). part iii concerns issues of language policy and language planning and examines perspectives about the effects of the use of english as a shared academic language on national languages. drawing on data elicited in interviews with german l1 scholars, schluer examines the factors influencing their decisions concerning the language to publish in. kuteeva reviews results from across a set of studies that have investigated the role of english in swedish academia (a context characterised by a generally high level of proficiency in english). the chapter reports on the parallel language reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266 247 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 247 policies that appear to have encouraged scholars to use languages other than english in their research. further chapters include the topics of challenges of publishing in english as a lingua franca as perceived by researchers in the romanian context (muresan & nicolae), the attitudes of students towards the implementation of english-medium instruction in croatia (margić & žeželić) and attitudes of students towards native and non-native teachers of english in poland (lewińska). the volume offers a rich and diverse set of topics to engage readers and enable them to develop a broad understanding of the field of enquiry. it provides a good mix across and within chapters of issues (debates) and reports of empirical studies. taken as a whole, the volume presents a balanced overview of the situation in europe. as can be seen from my brief overview above, whereas some content raises issues and suggests causes for concern, other content suggests that the englishization of academic communication in the european context is perceived in rather “neutral terms” and “ambivalent attitudes” (pérez-llantada, page 354). the final chapter (pérez-llantada), reviews themes and debates across the chapters and identifies possible topics for future research. a conclusion drawn in this chapter suggests a nuanced view regarding the adoption of english as a shared language for academic and research communication. there is partial contestation of “early views of linguistic imperialism” (page 354) and concomitantly recognition that the adoption of english has led to some opportunities, not only threats. received 01 february 2016 accepted 22 february 2016 reviewed by helen basturkmen university of auckland (new zealand) h.basturkmen@auckland.ac.nz reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266248 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 248 iberica 13 ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract russian jury instructions have not previously been analysed in terms of the explanatory strategies employed in expert-lay discourse, where abstract concepts need to be displayed in a way that enables a lay audience to understand them. the current study was motivated by the lack of explicit guidance for interacting with lay persons in russian courtroom trials, and by the challenges faced by jury members in attempting to understand abstract and(or) unfamiliar legal concepts. the results underpin the article’s central argument that the explanatory strategies can overcome the incomprehensibility of expert texts, indicating that efforts should be made to explain abstract legal concepts to a lay audience. these strategies are: 1) definitions selected to explain the meaning of legal terms; 2) descriptions employed to communicate new knowledge by relating it to existing knowledge; 3) examples used with the intention of avoiding communication problems by referring complex legal concepts to concrete objects or events; 4) metaphors that facilitate jurors’ comprehension of abstract legal information by bringing it closer to their everyday experience; 5) synonyms which provide alternatives to abstract legal concepts from everyday language. the research could be extended further by carrying out studies on explanatory strategies in other specialised domains where technical expert texts create a demand for expert-to-lay translation. keywords: discourse, legal language, explanatory strategy, comprehension, abstract concept. resumen la mediación discursiva de conocimientos expertos a no expertos: un análisis de instrucciones al jurado ruso discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: an analysis of russian jury instructions olga boginskaya irkutsk national research technical university (russia) boginskayaoa@istu.edu 55 ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 olga boginskaya hasta el momento, las instrucciones dadas al jurado ruso no se han analizado como estrategias explicativas empleadas en el discurso entre expertos y no expertos. el presente estudio se ha visto motivado por la falta de orientación explícita para interactuar con los no expertos en la sala del tribunal ruso, así como por los desafíos a los que se enfrentan los miembros del jurado cuando tratan de entender conceptos legales abstractos y/o desconocidos para ellos. los resultados obtenidos en este artículo ponen de manifiesto que las estrategias explicativas pueden superar la incomprensibilidad de los textos de expertos, de tal modo que deberían emprenderse esfuerzos para explicar los conceptos legales abstractos a un público no experto. estas estrategias son 1) definiciones que explican el significado de los términos legales, 2) descripciones empleadas para comunicar nuevos conocimientos relacionándolos con conocimientos previos, 3) ejemplos empleados para evitar problemas de comunicación mediante la remisión a objetos o eventos concretos para comprender ciertos conceptos jurídicos, 4) metáforas que facilitan la comprensión de la información jurídica abstracta acercándola a la experiencia cotidiana, 5) sinónimos que funcionan como equivalentes cotidianos de los términos legales. esta investigación puede ampliarse mediante nuevos estudios sobre estrategias explicativas en otros ámbitos de especialidad en los que los textos técnicos producidos por expertos de tales ámbitos han de adaptarse a un público no experto. palabras clave: discurso, lenguaje jurídico, estrategia explicativa, comprensión, concepto abstracto. 1. introduction the jury trial involves two categories of actors, legal experts trained in the field of law and laypersons who lack knowledge of law, which reflects the asymmetrical relationship that exists in the courtroom. as laypersons, including jurors, play a crucial role in a trial, “it is of the utmost importance that they should be able to understand all the communication going on in court, including the legal terms used and their implied concepts” (gotti, 2014: 19). knowledge asymmetries, such as those that arise in legal settings, should be considered from a speaker-audience perspective, taking into account legal knowledge transfer from formal legal language to the language of common citizens (heffer et al., 2013; roelcke, 2018). the knowledge factor: centers around the ability of comprehension of the target group, i.e., the target group’s general ability to understand a text, its level of general background knowledge or its level of expertise (or lack of) in connection 56 with a specific subject […]. typical intralingual translations instigated by the parameter of knowledge (explanatory translations) are typically of the expert-to-layman kind (zehtsen, 2009, p. 806). a number of studies are available on legal-lay interactions (anesa, 2016; gotti, 2014; heffer, 2005; tiersma & curtis, 2008). they make attempts to describe particular features of expert-lay discourse and identify explanatory structures that contribute to the popularization of legal information. little attention has, however, been devoted to research into comprehensibility of jury instructions written in languages other than english. due to the fact that in russia jury trials have begun to operate only since 1993, russian jury instructions have barely been analysed in terms of the explanatory strategies employed in legal-lay discourse, in which a set of abstract concepts needs be displayed in a way that enables a lay audience to understand it. the current study was thus motivated by the lack of explicit guidance for interacting with lay persons in a russian court. assuming that explanatory strategies constitute an identifiable field of study within the broader field of discourse studies, this paper examines asymmetrical discursive interactions. it sets out to investigate the explanatory strategies employed in jury instructions to ensure the accessibility and comprehensibility of the information provided by the judge. jury instructions are complex, and jurors might find it difficult to understand them, which is problematic because jurors can only apply instructions to the extent that they understand them (baguley et al., 2017). considering the crucial role that explanatory strategies assume in legal-lay discourse, including jury instructions, the main research questions addressed here are the following: (1) what explanatory strategies are used to communicate legal information to jurors in the russian courtroom? (2) which of these explanatory strategies are most commonly used in the corpus? ‘literature review on explanatory strategies in expert-lay discourse’ section reviews work that deals with knowledge asymmetry and explanatory strategies employed in specialised texts. in the section titled ‘data and methods’, the data, including the data selection criteria, and the procedures employed to analyse the explanatory strategies are described. following that, the main explanatory strategies found in the corpus are analysed discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: an analysis of russian jury instructions ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 57 through exemplification. the article concludes by outlining further research avenues. 2. literature review on explanatory strategies in expertlay discourse this article aims to focus on expert-lay interactions and explanation structures. in this sense, the present study is in line with research on popularisations by many other authors who have dealt with the linguistic features of this type of discourse and compared it with scientific discourse (anesa, 2016; baguley, 2017; balteiro, 2017; calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004; ciapuscio, 2003; engberg, 2020; garzone, 2020; gülich, 2003; heffer, 2005; krapivkina, 2017a; tiersma & curtis, 2008). these studies have shown that experts and laypeople rely on different types of knowledge (specialised knowledge versus lay knowledge), which gives rise to a complex dialogue based on the subjective reconstruction of phenomenological experience on the one hand, and professional experience on the other. the knowledge parameter centres on the audience’s comprehension capacity, i.e., its level of expertise in connection with a specific discipline (zehtsen, 2009, p. 806). knowledge asymmetries require translation of expert knowledge into lay language, i.e. simplification and explanation are crucial mechanisms contributing to the comprehensibility of specialised texts. the strategies of simplification (lay words, simple syntax) and explanation (definitions, descriptions, examples, synonyms and metaphors) help nonexperts “to construct lay versions of specialized knowledge and integrate these with their existing knowledge” (calsamiglia & van dijk, 2004, p. 370). in other words, they help lay people to relate two types of knowledge and produce expressions more suitable to the audience’s level of comprehension and knowledge (ciapuscio, 2003). these strategies are especially crucial in jury trials, where the defendant’s fate is in the hands of lay people, and they have been studied in a number of publications on legal language and discourse. for example, tiersma (1999) identified a number of linguistic features that impede the comprehension of jury instructions. among others, he mentions abstract legal concepts which need to be explained to jury members. heffer (2005) explored variation among judges in the delivery of instructions and raised the question as to whether comprehension of jury instructions might be improved through olga boginskaya ibérica 43 (2022): 55-7658 linguistic accommodation or standardised simplification of written texts. he claims that lawyers: have been taught to follow ‘paradigmatic’ legal principles and procedures, and are well aware of the contribution an evidential point might make to their logic-based legal case. at the same time, they are equally well aware of the need to communicate with and persuade a group of lay people (the jurors) who are unlikely to reason in a paradigmatic fashion with respect to evidence detailing the crime narrative at the heart of the case (heffer, 2005, p. 15). as heffer (2005) points out, the communicative asymmetry creates a discursive tension which is manifested in both the macrolinguistic structures of jury instructions, and in the microlinguistic choices of the legal professionals. professional training contributes to mutual understanding between members of the same discourse community. lay participants will inevitably not have the same training and understanding. therefore, legal professionals are forced to employ discursive strategies that facilitate comprehension on the part of a lay audience. however, they do not abandon the need to promote their professionalism and expertise, navigating “these characteristics and their temporary mitigation in order to provide more informal, simplified expressions deemed more appropriate in relation to user needs” (anesa, 2016, p. 83). explanatory structures such as definitions, descriptions, exemplifications, synonyms, paraphrases, reformulations, and tropes, are employed by legal professionals to make up for the knowledge gap in legal discourse involving lay participants (anesa, 2016). the comprehensibility of jury instructions as a legal genre has been studied by a number of lawyers and linguists (baguley et al., 2019; buchanan et al., 1978; charrow & charrow, 1979; diamond & levi, 1996; elwork et al.,1977; tiersma & curtis, 2008). several studies have focused on jury instruction comprehensibility testing (charrow & charrow, 1979; saxton, 1998; wiener et al., 1995). for example, an experiment conducted by wiener et al. (1995) showed that rewritten instructions containing lay concepts and syntactically simple structures were more comprehensible to mock jurors. a number of studies have demonstrated significant improvements in comprehension when legal and abstract terms were explained through definitions, descriptions, examples or paraphrases (diamond & levi, 1996; elwork et al.,1977; gülich, 2003; imwinkeiried & schwed, 1987; wiener et al., 1995). imwinkeiried and schwed (1987), for example, described four linguistic discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: an analysis of russian jury instructions ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 59 methods which can improve the comprehensibility of jury instructions: substitution of abstract and legalistic words with the words of everyday language, sentence simplification, sentence length reduction, and proper text organisation. for her part, gülich (2003) argues that metaphors, exemplification, scenarios, and concretisation should be employed to present specialised knowledge to a lay audience. similar to gülich, zehtsen (2009, p. 803) identified the following strategies: paraphrasing, restructuring and simplification, whereby exclusive expertise is discursively represented and translates into intelligible knowledge. along the same lines, tiersma and curtis (2008) compared comprehension of the new civil instruction on circumstantial evidence with comprehension of the old circumstantial evidence instruction and concluded that the new instruction is more effective at overcoming difficulties with the common understanding of legal concepts. the authors argue in favour of explaining complicated topics by using examples, or employing more understandable words (synonyms) that may be familiar to jurors. to sum up, communication between lawyers and jurors presents two main features: (1) the relationship between them is an expert-lay-relation, which implies the presence of a knowledge asymmetry; (2) since the purpose of specialised knowledge mediation is to inform a lay audience about abstract legal phenomena, it goes without saying that in the courtroom the hermetic features of legal discourse should be simplified by presenting legal information by means of clearly understandable language using a set of explanatory strategies. 3. data and methods to meet the aforementioned objectives, the corpus including russian jury instructions was built as specified below. eleven texts were derived from the jurytrial.ru site that posts judicial documents, books and articles on jury trial issues. a further 31 texts were taken from the archive of the regional court of russia located in irkutsk. all the texts selected to build the corpus were jury instructions on murder and felony murder. the size of the corpus came to 250,063 words, distributed throughout 42 texts. according to flowerdew (2004), the corpus containing 20,000-250,000 words should be called smallscale. however, it is matched with the features under study since explanatory olga boginskaya ibérica 43 (2022): 55-7660 structures are a common phenomenon in expert-lay discourse. all the texts in the corpus date back to the period between 2003 and 2019 as the aim is to focus on recent texts that are synchronically comparable. to compile the corpus for this study, jury instructions were selected and analysed in terms of the explanatory strategies used to improve the comprehensibility of legal concepts. the jury instructions were selected based on the following criteria: (1) the texts were required to contain explanatory strategies; (2) the texts were required to contain abstract legal terms that have different meanings in general and legal language; (3) the texts were required to be synchronically comparable, i.e. all the texts included in the corpus date from the period between january 2003 and july 2019. texts that met these criteria were shortlisted and selected to build the corpus. given during the trial, the jury instructions provide juries with guidelines on their behaviour and help to deliver verdicts because they describe the procedures jurors should follow to evaluate the evidence (lieberman, 2009). because the jury instructions explain relevant law, they contain legal terms and present special difficulties because of their linguistic complexity. thus, the communicative efficiency of popularised jury instructions is crucial to a fair trial. the corpus may be used to confirm the presence of explanatory strategies when legal knowledge is transferred to a lay audience. calsamiglia and van djik’s (2004) classification of explanatory strategies was taken as a methodological basis for the present study. all the explanatory strategies found in the corpus were distributed between five groups: definitions, descriptions, examples, metaphors, and synonyms. in order to go beyond a mere list of explanatory strategies employed in the corpus, the present study applied both quantitative and qualitative analyses. a manual analysis of the corpus was used to identify the explanatory strategies based on signalling markers. metaphors were identified at the level of individual word tokens using the metaphor identification procedure (pragglejaz group, 2007). synonyms were identified by close reading. both the relative and raw frequencies of occurrences of the explanatory strategies and signalling markers were calculated to facilitate comparison. the frequency was also calculated per 10,000 words to facilitate comparison. the results of the quantitative analysis were summarised in table format. discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: an analysis of russian jury instructions ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 61 quantitative analysis was supplemented with qualitative analysis applied to all instances of the explanatory strategies in the corpus so as to interpret the results of the quantitative analysis and reveal the role of explanatory mechanisms in dialogue between asymmetrical interlocutors. 4. results in this section, the data obtained from the study are presented, beginning with the relative and raw frequencies of occurrences of the explanatory strategies found in the corpus (table 1). thereafter, a focus is placed on the frequency of occurrences of individual explanatory strategies and linguistic markers signalling these strategies in the corpus (tables 2-6). as shown in table 1, definitions and descriptions, comprising 31.3% and 26.2% respectively, are the most commonly used explanatory strategies, while metaphors and synonyms are the least commonly used tools, comprising only 10.8 and 9.9%. table 1. frequency distribution of the explanatory strategies in the corpus. 4.1. definition definitions improve the clarity of legal terms, and play a significant role in explaining unknown words to a lay audience and ensuring the comprehensibility of expert discourse. they are determined by the speaker’s ability to switch from professional jargon to lay language. the quantitative analysis revealed 189 instances that could be identified as definitions (7.6 instances per 10,000 words). here are two examples from the corpus: (1) под хищением понимаются совершенные с корыстной целью противоправные безвозмездное изъятие и (или) обращение чужого имущества в пользу виновного или других лиц, причинившее ущерб собственнику или иному владельцу этого имущества. olga boginskaya ibérica 43 (2022): 55-7662 explanatory strategies relative frequency (%) raw frequency normalised frequency definitions 31.3 189 7.6 descriptions 26.2 158 6.3 examples 20.6 124 5 metaphors 10.8 65 2.6 synonyms 9.9 60 2.4 total 100 596 23.9 ! ! t theft is understood as an act of unlawful seizure of someone else’s property in favour of the culprit or other persons, committed with a mercenary intention and causing damage to the owner of this property1. (2) под нападением понимается применение насилия. assault is understood as the act of inflicting harm. “хищение” (“theft”) and “нападение” (“assault”) are explained by providing definitions that express the essential nature of the legal concepts and are used to discursively represent knowledge about the legal phenomena in question. these definitions are obligatory in jury trials because in everyday language these concepts have different semantic features and should be specified. for example, in everyday language “нападение” (“assault”) is defined as “a swift action taken with the aim of causing harm, capturing someone / something, or proving one’s superiority”). the most frequently defined terms found in the corpus are “убийство” (“murder”) – sixteen instances, “умысел” (“criminal intent”) – fourteen instances “соучастие в преступлении” (“criminal complicity”) – thirteen instances, “нападение” (“assault”) – nine instances, and “пособник” (“accomplice”) – seven instances. the statistics presented above can be explained by the types of crime – murder and felony murder – that the jury instructions selected deal with. here are two examples from the corpus, in which the terms “убийство” (“murder”) and “нападение” (“assault”) are defined. (3) убийство – это умышленное причинение смерти другому человеку. murder is an intentional infliction of death upon another person. (4) под разбоем понимается нападение в целях хищения чужого имущества. robbery is understood as an attack with the intent of stealing someone else’s property. the judge makes an attempt to eliminate any possible misunderstanding regarding the meaning of the legal concepts “убийство” (“murder”) and “разбой” (“robbery”) by providing their technical definitions. the excerpts show the use of two definition markers: “это” (“this”) separated by the dash2 (1) and the verb “понимается” (“is understood”). discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: an analysis of russian jury instructions ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 63 the findings of the present study reveal that the definitions found in the corpus typically display the following forms: table 2. frequency distribution of definition techniques in the corpus. as shown in table 2, the most common definition technique used in the corpus is juxtaposition, comprising 64.4% (or 121 of all cases) of the definition techniques found in the corpus. it is a process whereby the legal term is followed by its definition introduced by morphological forms of the verbs “понимать” (“to understand”), “определять” (“to define”) or the linking word “это” separated by a dash. some typical examples from the corpus are provided below. (5) под соучастием в преступлении закон понимает совместное участие двух или более лиц в совершении умышленного преступления. the law understands complicity as the joint participation of two or more persons in the commission of an intentional crime. (6) заключение эксперта и его показания – это заключение или показания специалиста в какой-либо области знаний. the expert opinion and the expert testimony are the opinion or testimony of a specialist in a certain field of knowledge. as shown in table 3, “понимать” (“to understand”), comprising 38.3% of all markers, is the most commonly used linguistic tool for introducing definitions of the legal concepts in this corpus. the verbal marker “определять” (“to define”) and the pronominal marker “это” (“this”) comprise only 12.1% and 10.5%, respectively. olga boginskaya ibérica 43 (2022): 55-7664 ! ! type of definition relative frequency (%) raw frequency normalised frequency legal term + definition 64.4 121 4.8 definition + legal term 35.6 68 2.7 total 100 189 7.5 ! ! table 3. frequency distribution of the definition markers in the corpus. interesting for the present study is the use of the modal verb “следует” (“must” in the legal context) coupled with the definition verb “понимать” (“to understand”). in this case, the jurors are provided with a compulsory instruction signalled by the deontic modality tool. here is an example of the case: (7) под незаконной передачей предметов преступления следует понимать их незаконное предоставление лицами, у которых они находятся, посторонним лицам для временного использования или хранения. one must understand the illegal transfer of objects of crime as their illegal provision by persons, who possess them, to unauthorised persons for temporary use or storage. the deontic modality is a crucial style feature in legal documents, including jury instructions. legal texts, being prescriptive by nature, “are regulatory instruments containing rules of conduct or norms. accordingly, they prescribe a specific course of action that an individual ought to conform to” (sarcevic, 1997, p. 11). 4.2. description along with definitions, legal professionals often describe legal concepts without delving into their theorization, because what laypeople need is an understanding of a concept, rather than its abstract definition. being enlarged versions of definitions, descriptions are used to explain expert knowledge by relating it to common knowledge and have simpler structures (anesa, 2016; ciapuscio, 2003). in this corpus, 158 discursive instances that were interpreted as descriptions were found (6.3. instances per 10,000 words). the process is illustrated in the following example. discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: an analysis of russian jury instructions ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 65 definition markers relative frequency (%) raw frequency normalised frequency !"#$%&'()* (is understood) 38.3 72 2.9 (+&,"#) !"#$%&'( (the law understands) 25.5 48 1.9 ()-'./'() !"#$%&(0 (should be understood) 13.6 26 0.8 "!1'.'-*'()* (is defined) 12.1 23 0.9 2(" (this) separated by the dash 10.5 20 0.8 total 100 189 7.3 ! ! e (8) доказательствами являются любые сведения, устанавливающие наличие или отсутствие обстоятельств, подлежащих доказыванию (событие преступления, причастность к нему подсудимого, виновность). evidence is any information that establishes circumstances to be proven (a crime event, involvement of the defendant, guilt of the defendant). in order to explain the legal concept, the judge describes it by relating it to shared experience. the description provides a set of characteristics whereby the legal phenomenon can be recognised. the quantitative analysis revealed that the verb “являться” (“to be”) was the most commonly used linguistic marker signalling descriptions in the corpus (see table 4). table 4. frequency distribution of the description markers in the corpus. as distinct from definitions, descriptions involve a far more limited use of specialised vocabulary. they most commonly extend throughout large paragraphs. consider example (9), explaining the nature of the legal concept “разумные и неустранимые сомнения” (“reasonable and irremediable doubts”) through a description which extends throughout the paragraph consisting of two complex sentences. (9) сомнения должны толковаться в пользу подсудимого. но не все, а только разумные и неустранимые. что такое разумные сомнения? это такие сомнения, которые можно разумно объяснить, основанные на здравом смысле, а не на предвзятом мнении, предположениях, воображениях, чувстве симпатии или антипатии к подсудимому, желании угодить общественному мнению, оправдать ожидания друзей. неустранимые сомнения – это те, которые невозможно устранить путем тщательного и всестороннего анализа представленных вам доказательств. doubts must be interpreted in favor of the defendant. but not all doubts, only reasonable and irremovable ones. what are reasonable doubts? these are olga boginskaya ibérica 43 (2022): 55-7666 description markers relative frequency (%) raw frequency normalised frequency *3-*(0)* (be) 47.8 76 3.1 2(" (this) separated by the dash 31.9 50 2 (" ')(0 (that is) 20.3 32 1.3 total 100 158 6.4 ! ! doubts that can be reasonably explained, based on common sense rather than prejudice, assumptions, imagination, sympathy or antipathy towards the defendant, the desire to please the public, to meet the expectations of friends. irremediable doubts are doubts that cannot be eliminated through the careful and comprehensive analysis of the evidence presented. in the example just quoted, we see that the explanation provides structural and dynamic information in terms of the properties of the phenomenon. the nature of the legal concepts is described by including their main features. the analysis revealed that all the definitions that appeared in the corpus were limited to a few words (34%) or a clause (66%), and never extended throughout large sections of discourse. interesting for our study is that sometimes descriptions are offered before the legal concepts have been introduced. the following example illustrates such a case: (10) показания подсудимого, потерпевших, свидетелей, заключения и показания экспертов, протоколы следственных действий, вещественные доказательства и различные документы, оглашенные в ходе судебного следствия, – это доказательства по делу, которые вам следует оценить, проанализировать в совещательной комнате. testimony given by the defendant, victims, and witnesses, expert opinions, investigation reports, material evidence and documents read out during the trial are evidence in the case, that you must evaluate and analyse in the deliberation room. in example (11), the legal concept “прямой умысел” (“direct intent”) is explained by offering a description which is followed by concrete examples. (11) посягательство на жизнь сотрудника правоохранительного органа может быть совершено только с прямым умыслом. то есть при производстве выстрелов в одного или нескольких потерпевших стреляющий осознает неправомерность своих действий и не просто допускает, а предвидит возможность наступления в результате его выстрелов смерти человека и желает лишить жизни сотрудника милиции. infringement on life of a law enforcement officer can be committed only with a direct intent. that is, when firing shots at one or several victims, the shooter realises the illegal nature of his actions, not only admits, but discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: an analysis of russian jury instructions ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 67 foresees the possibility of a death as a result of his shots, and wants to kill the police officer. what follows is an example where a definition and a description go together explaining an unknown word and an unknown phenomenon. this analysis identified 27 occurrences of this combination. (12) умышленное убийство из хулиганских побуждений, то есть убийство, совершенное на почве явного неуважения к обществу и общепринятым нормам морали, когда поведение виновного является открытым вызовом общественному порядку и обусловлено желанием противопоставить себя окружающим, продемонстрировать пренебрежительное к ним отношение. это преступление совершается без повода или с использованием незначительного повода как предлога для убийства. при убийстве из хулиганских побуждений выбор жертвы бывает случайным. суть в том, что виновное лицо желает противопоставить свое «я» другому человеку. хулиганские побуждения бессмысленны и безрассудны с точки зрения здравого смысла, но являются реальными и достаточно сильными побудительными мотивами к совершению преступления. виновное лицо как бы самоутверждает значимость своей персоны в глазах других при совершении убийства. a premeditated murder for molester motives, that is, a murder committed due to obvious disrespect for society and generally accepted moral norms, when the behavior of the perpetrator is an open challenge to public order determined by the desire to oppose others and demonstrate a disdainful attitude towards them. this crime is committed without reason or using a minor reason as a pretext for murder. when murdering for molester motives, the choice of the victim is random. the bottom line is that the guilty person wants to oppose himself to another person. molester motives are senseless and reckless in terms of common sense, but they are real and strong enough to commit a crime. the guilty person sort of asserts his own significance when committing this kind of murder. the definition is followed by a description, as it needs the help of a description to be understood better. table 5 presents the relative and raw frequencies of occurrences of the types of description in the corpus. it should be therefore stated that explanatory procedures combine and overlap, always with the aim of presenting information that the jurors may find complex. olga boginskaya ibérica 43 (2022): 55-7668 table 5. frequency distribution of the types of description in the corpus. 4.3. exemplification exemplification was the third most common explanatory strategy found in the corpus, with a total of 124 instances (5 per 10,000 words). being a communication process through which meaning is explained, it is based on case-based processes and allows jurors “to focus on a more familiar experiential concept, which otherwise may remain expressed in abstract terms, and to link that concept to concrete and specific situations” (anesa & butler, 2015, p. 123). in the type of interaction addressed in the corpus, the exemplification strategy is a resource judges frequently select to present legal knowledge by making it accessible to a lay audience, including jurors. this strategy is a form of formulation applied to the semantic-conceptual level of discourse. it includes the resources deployed by speakers to explain complex concepts in terms of everyday experience (brünner, 1999; ciapuscio, 2003). baguley et al. (2017) point out that it is difficult to alter legal concepts without changing their legal meaning. the exemplification technique provides factual examples of legal concepts with the aim of making these concepts less abstract and improves jurors’ comprehension when factual, case-specific examples are used. such examples are often easier to remember than everyday knowledge and hence are quite useful as an explanatory device in expert-lay interactions (calsamiglia & dijk, 2004). apart from conveying the specific features of the legal phenomenon, the judge brings them closer to the jurors’ experience by means of comparison with everyday objects or scenarios that help them to form mental pictures of the concepts. the judge feels it necessary to ensure that legal concepts are understood by the jury and provides highly comprehensible explanations. the following example illustrates such a case. (13) изложенное в законе понятие о неосторожных преступлениях сложно для понимания. поэтому я вам расскажу о классических примерах совершения убийства по неосторожности. например, лицо, не желая смерти потерпевшего и не допуская ее наступления, discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: an analysis of russian jury instructions ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 69 description markers relative frequency (%) raw frequency normalised frequency description + legal concept 37.2 59 2.4 legal concept + description 32.1 51 2 legal concept + definition + description 16.8 27 1.1 legal concept + description + exemplification 13.9 21 0.8 total 100 158 6.3 t ! наносит удар в голову потерпевшего. у здорового человека от такого удара имелись бы только легкие телесные повреждения. но в данном случае у пострадавшего было заболевание сосудов головного мозга, и от нанесенного ему одного удара произошло кровоизлияние в мозг, человек умер. другой пример. лицо также наносит удар, не желая и не допуская смерти потерпевшего, который падает, ударяется о твердое, допустим, бетонное покрытие и умирает от черепно-мозговой травмы, полученной при падении, а не непосредственно от полученного удара. при таких обстоятельствах налицо неосторожные убийства. the legislative concept of reckless crimes is difficult to understand. therefore, i will tell you about classical examples of negligent homicide. for example, a person who does not intend to kill the victim strikes him on the head. a healthy person would have only minor bodily injuries from such a strike. but in this case, the victim had a disease of the brain vessels, and the strike evoked cerebral haemorrhage, and the person died. another example. the person also strikes, not wanting and not foreseeing the death of the victim, who falls, hits the hard surface, let it be a concrete surface, and dies from a head injury caused by the fall rather than by the hit. under these circumstances, these are reckless murders. here, the legal concept “неосторожное убийство” (“reckless murder”), which the judge obviously considers opaque for the jury, is explained by offering an example that helps the lay audience immediately understand the meaning. the word “например” (“for example”) signals the exemplification strategy. this analysis revealed that the preferred means of introducing the exemplification strategy is by making reference to specific situations that are closer to the jury’s everyday experience (58% of occurrences). examples in the corpus were signalled by just four exemplification markers: “например” (“for example”), “в частности” (“including in particular”), “в том числе” (including), and “такие как” (“such as”). example (14) contains the exemplification marker “в частности” (“in particular”): (14) к огнестрельному оружию относятся, в частности, винтовки, карабины, пистолеты и револьверы, охотничьи и спортивные ружья, автоматы и пулеметы, минометы, гранатометы, артиллерийские орудия и авиационные пушки, иные виды огнестрельного оружия независимо от калибра. a firearm is a type of gun, in particular rifles, carbines, pistols and revolvers, olga boginskaya ibérica 43 (2022): 55-7670 hunting and sporting rifles, machine guns, mortars, grenade launchers, artillery and aircraft cannons, and other types of firearm, regardless of their calibres. table 6 presents the most frequent exemplification markers as a percentage of all such markers in the corpus. there seems to be an evident preference for the marker “например” (“for example”) comprising 50.1 % of all exemplification markers found in the corpus. table 6. frequency distribution of the exemplification markers in the corpus (% of total). thus, examples refer to the act of presenting expert knowledge to a lay audience. they play a significant role in legal-lay interactions, contributing, as kucelman (2016, p. 111) points out, to “the creation of a coherent text by providing an easily accessible link between a more abstract, general statement of high complexity and its particular, specific instances”. 4.4. metaphorisation the fourth most common explanatory strategy in the corpus used to communicate law-related information was metaphorisation (65 occurrences). the frequency per 10,000 words was 2.6. metaphors perform three main functions: they attract the reader’s attention, structure and explain specialised concepts, and organise the text into a narrative (camus, 2015). in the courtroom, according to bugliosi (1996), it is not difficult to keep the jurors’ attention for several days if the lawyer can deliver a discourse “that is sprinkled with example, metaphor and humor”. metaphorisation offers a series of advantages, including the tangible quality of images from the physical world used to represent abstract and often complex concepts that would otherwise be difficult to define (gotti, 2008). this is especially true in the case of legal-lay interactions, whereby a number of concepts are defined and explained in terms of conceptual metaphors. discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: an analysis of russian jury instructions ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 71 exemplification markers relative frequency (%) raw frequency normalised frequency #&!1$%'1 for example 50.1 62 2.5 3 4&)(#")($ in particular 21.3 26 1 3 ("% 4$)-' including 16.9 21 0.8 (&,$' ,&, such as 11.7 15 0.6 total 100 124 4.9 m ! the analysis revealed a widespread use of sports and military metaphors (“битва”, “противник”, “состязание”, “вторгаться”, “позиция защиты”, “арсенал правовых средств”, “правила игры”), providing support for the thesis that these often frame trial procedures. what follows is an example from the corpus where an abstract concept is explained by means of the sports metaphor “марафон” (“marathon”): (15) судебное заседание – это многомесячный длительный марафон, в котором представители государственного обвинения и защитники спорят друг с другом, оспаривают те или иные положения … а вы в этом марафоне являетесь судьями, арбитрами. courtroom trial is a long-term marathon, in which the prosecution and the attorney argue with each other, challenge each other’s statements... and in this marathon you are judges, arbiters. the simple, concrete, and memorable comparison with a familiar sports activity makes it possible to grasp the abstract legal concept “судебное заседание” (“trial”). the metaphorisation allows the judge to explain the nature of a jury trial which is conceptualised as a long distance race, and helps the jurors to understand the abstract legal phenomenon by associating it with a familiar sports event. in the following example, a combination of two explanatory strategies is employed: (16) ваша задача – тщательная работа с фундаментом, с существенными фактами. и выбрав, например, доказательство, подтверждающее вину, вы должны проанализировать, имеются ли другие доказательства, которые дополняют или обусловливают этот фундамент. и если это так, то тогда доказательства становятся убедительными, не оставляющими сомнений. это и есть оценка доказательств в их совокупности. your task is to thoroughly work with the building base, with substantial facts. and after having chosen, for example, incriminating evidence, you have to analyse whether there are other types of evidence that support or determine this building base. if this is the case, the evidence becomes convincing, beyond doubt. this is exactly what the weight of evidence is. in presenting the legal information, the judge seeks to align with everyday experience through the mention of a concept that is typical of daily life. the metaphor “фундамент” (“building base”) allows the jurors to immediately understand the meaning of the legal concept by establishing a link between olga boginskaya ibérica 43 (2022): 55-7672 two domains of experience – construction and law. the example of the legal procedure “оценка доказательств в их совокупности” (“weight of evidence”) is introduced by the exemplification marker “например” (“for example”). it is interesting to observe that as distinct from definitions and descriptions, metaphors and examples are aimed at ensuring the jury’s comprehension by bringing the legal information closer to their everyday experience through the mention of everyday objects or events. 4.5. synonyms another explanatory strategy, the least frequent in the corpus (60 occurrences or 2.4 per 10,000 words), is the use of synonyms providing alternative terms for abstract concepts that jurors may not be familiar with. it could be interesting to note that in legal-lay discourse synonyms, which are always avoided in legal language based on the principle of unambiguity, are sometimes employed to improve the comprehensibility of abstract legal concepts. as ciapuscio (2003, p. 214) points out, synonyms imply “a certain degree of semantic equivalence between referential and treatment expressions”. the findings showed that the only means of introducing synonyms is the linguistic marker “то есть” (“that is”) (46 occurrences in the corpus). other tools introducing synonymic expressions (“другими словами”, “иначе говоря”) and clearly showing the reformulation procedure did not appear in the corpus. (17) если показания подсудимого непоследовательные, то есть противоречивые, это не означает, что подсудимый сознает свою вину. if the defendant testimony is inconsistent, that is, contradictory, this does not mean that the defendant is conscious of his guilt. the less frequent use of examples, metaphors and synonyms as explanatory tools might be partly due to the fact that they make meanings more ambiguous than clear (krapivkina, 2017b). what is more, as baguley et al. (2017, p. 7) point out, “providing factual examples of legal concepts reduces the conceptual complexity, but also increases the amount of information. this increase in the amount of information may then negate the effect of reducing the conceptual complexity”. discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: an analysis of russian jury instructions ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 73 5. conclusions forty-two jury instructions were analysed with the aim of identifying the most common explanatory strategies employed to translate complex legal concepts into the terms of everyday life. since they are basically tools for facilitating access to complex legal information, their function is to aid the layperson’s comprehension. the results of the present study revealed that russian judges use five types of explanation with the aim of making legal knowledge comprehensible to a lay audience and preventing the emergence of communicative problems that could affect the jury’s conclusions. these are definitions, descriptions, examples, metaphors, and synonyms. the article’s significance lies in the attempt to describe the knowledge asymmetry elimination process in the russian judicial setting, which has scarcely been addressed in terms of the explanatory mechanisms intended to overcome communication problems that arise between legal professionals and a lay audience. even though this article did not attempt to exhaust the analysis of explanatory strategies used by russian judges, its main contribution is that of identifying ways of accommodating professional discursive practices towards a lay audience and improving current understandings of discursive tools for reducing knowledge asymmetry, focusing on russian-medium texts. the content of this paper could expand our research horizons on this issue, which has important societal relevance. i suggest that further studies be undertaken to explore this area of research, by exploring other aspects of courtroom discourse, including but not limited to the types of syntactic complexity, that interfere with comprehension. the research could be extended further by carrying out studies in other legal domains where obscure expert texts create a demand for expert-to-lay translation of the materials presented in various world languages. on the other hand, the findings of the present study refer to jury instructions and, consequently, one limitation of this analysis is its exclusive focus on written courtroom discourse. further research is thus needed into oral legal-lay discourse in various legal settings in order to complement the findings of the present study by bringing out the distinctive characteristics of spoken legallay discourse. article history: received 2 october 2020 received in revised form 29 march 2022 accepted 13 april 2022 olga boginskaya ibérica 43 (2022): 55-7674 references discursive mediation of expert knowledge to a lay audience: an analysis of russian jury instructions ibérica 43 (2022): 55-76 75 anesa, p. 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(2014). expert to lay communication: legal information and advice on the internet. in v.k. bhatia, g. garzone, r. salvi, g. tessuto & c. williams (eds.), language and law in professional discourse. issues and perspectives (pp. 61-76). cambridge scholars publishing. turnbull, j. (2018). communicating and recontextualizing legal advice online in english. in j. engberg, k. luttermann, s. cacchiani & c. preite (eds.), popularization and knowledge mediation in the law. popularisierung und wissensvermittlung im recht (pp. 201-222). lit verlag. wiener, r. l., pritchard, c.c., & weston, m. (1995). comprehensibility of approved jury instructions in capital murder cases. journal of applied psychology, 80, 455-467. editorial this issue is the last one with me as editor-in-chief. i step down with the satisfaction that ibérica has regained its q1 status in editorial rankings and keeps enthusiastically responsive to the needs and challenges demanded by academia. the incoming tandem of chief editors, formed by dr. ruth breeze (universidad de navarra, spain) and dr. maria kuteeva (stockholm university) is working hard to have the new journal platform ready for 2022 and thus facilitate submissions, manuscript management, and the work of databases. other pending challenges will be gradually met in the near future, among them a more official form of recognition for the generous services of external reviewers (via publons, for example), and the reconciliation of the global and the local; that is, the publication in english as lingua franca coexisting with the vernacular versions of some articles closing every issue. in this regard i want to thank drs. ángel felices lago (universidad de granada, spain) and ana isabel moreno (universidad de león, spain) for their insightful comments and valuable suggestions during the discussion around ibérica held on july 9, 2021, at the international aelfe-tapp conference hosted by universitat politécnica de catalunya. other promising ideas recently considered are the creation of a section displaying current research projects, which could even include short video clips introducing the research team members, the project highlights, and the institution in charge of the initiative, as well as regular calls for seminars and webinars. the topical map of this fall issue opens with an overview of the tenets of positioning theory and their application in the emi classroom. the guest article by hayriye kayi-aydar and angel steadman discusses how our adoption of positions derived from our beliefs, rights and duties, together with our repertoires of acts and their implementation within a given group, and the story lines we live out in our daily encounters situate us dynamically in our teaching contexts. they leave a singular imprint on our work, and ultimately configure our ‘selves’—our identities as teachers. this theoretical framework from the 1980s, now freshly applied to emi settings, brings to the fore power issues that may lead us to reflect on and devise more integrative approaches to the use of english as vehicle of international ibérica 42 (2021): 9-14 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 instruction in higher education. these outlooks may be linked with the observations made in this issue by andrea martínez celis in her review of the volume road-mapping english medium education in the internationalised university (palgrave macmillan), co-written by emma dafouz and ute smit in 2020. the growing presence of studies on multimodality in applied linguistics materialises here in two articles, one exploring the engagement strategies in ted talk scientific popularisations and the other revealing how multimodal resources serve the promotional purposes of corporations and construct the social meaning of their performances. in the first study, sichen ada xia and christoph a. hafner conclude that engagement in digital media is achieved by means of a combination of multiple semiotic resources afforded by today’s technologies, showing how five distinctive and strategic multimodal configurations are shaped in their samples from the discipline of biology. visual aids, distance (i.e. long shots of the speakers), the speakers’ gaze and gestures, questions, and personal emotions are contextualised engagement components that involve audiences as part of the scientific popularisation process. the second study, by kumaran rajandran, discloses how multimodality is also used for promotional purposes in financial communication, particularly in the genre of earnings videos, and helps build corporate identity. the author posits the existence of five inter-complementary discursive strategies, whose choices likely depend on coercive, mimetic and normative factors, and may be grouped into the following categories: emphasis on corporate contribution, display of beneficial activities, spatiotemporal anchoring, humanisation of information, and risk acknowledgement. the triangulated research presented, which compares strategies in three languages (english, french and spanish), opens an attractive window onto contrastive research based on different factors, such as corporations of diverse sorts and sizes, years, or national cultures. multimodal environments certainly influence the structure and discourse of professional genres, as girolamo tessuto postulates in his article based on genre analysis. he dissects the genre of the digital press release informing on the case-related activity of judicial courts and specifically of the european court of justice, whose press releases project its social and institutional identity. the systematic analysis undertaken by the author looks into the context of use of such texts, their generic structure, and the editorial ibérica 42 (2021): 9-1410 function of intertextuality, inter-discursivity and selective recontextualisation at various levels of organisational structure. his major conclusion is that the migration of traditional ‘offline’ genres and discourses to the web and their ensuing permanence in a ‘double’ multimodal territory might explain the process of genre change. an overall rhetorical perspective is followed in two of the studies contained in this issue—those by erdem akbas and maryam farnia and by becky c. kwan. the former scrutinises a cross-disciplinary corpus of 300 research highlights from the hard sciences (chemistry and computer science) and soft disciplines (linguistics and management) to discover what moves predominate in each field. their findings suggest that, while the move ‘promoting the results’ is common to both the hard and soft sciences, hard science scholars’ second priority is the promotion of methodological issues, whereas for soft science writers it is the provision of background information. the latter study addresses the use of introduction ‘determinants’ (i.e. purpose statement, research question and hypothesis) in three types of research articles belonging to different epistemological traditions within the area of information systems: behavioural science research, interpretivist research, and design science research. kwan’s results underscore that each type of article has its own characteristic, quasiobligatory determinant variants, which calls for an epistemologicallysensitive taxonomy of introduction determinants with a view to devising pedagogical applications. finally, there are three contributions of a more lexico-grammatical nature. the first of them, by vesna bratić and milica vuković stamatović, investigates how the lexical profile of literary academic papers differs from that of research articles from other disciplines and affects reading comprehension, in particular among non-native speakers of english. despite the lexical similarities between research articles on literature and those from the social sciences and the humanities, the vocabulary of literary academic papers is broader and somewhat more complex, which points to the limited value of teaching academic vocabulary to students of literature. the second contribution under the linguistic prism is carlos pradoalonso’s corpus-based analysis of subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose. according to his findings, syntactic inversions are directly related to the degree of writer involvement in the text, usually higher in learned editorial ibérica 42 (2021): 9-14 11 exposition (social behavioural sciences, political science, law, education, and the humanities) than in scientific exposition (engineering and technology in general, natural and medical sciences). to conclude, the contribution by iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas and m. ángeles escobar determines the prototypical linguistic and discoursal features of three of the most frequent genres in tourism: the informative article about tourist destinations, the travel blog post about travellers’ experiences, and the rules and regulations for tourist accommodation facilities. the findings yielded by their 60-sample corpus in spanish show significant quantitative and qualitative differences, evince that first-person writing and the active voice characterise travel blogs, and pave the way for the design of automatic multilingual tools for assisting professional activities and serving pedagogical purposes. as is customary at the end of each issue’s editorial, ibérica’s team wants to thank most warmly all the external reviewers who have evaluated submissions between january and june 2021. they are, alphabetically mentioned: martín aoiz pinillos (universidad de navarra, spain) clarice s.c. chan (the hong kong polytechnic university, china) ana maría fernández vallejo (universidad de navarra, spain) pilar gonzález vera (universidad de zaragoza, spain) victoria guillén nieto (universidad de alicante, spain) feng (kevin) jiang (jilin university, china) juan carlos palmer (universitat jaume i, spain) carmen pérez-llantada auría (universidad de zaragoza, spain) catherine richards (cps locarno, switzerland) holly vass (coventry university, uk) expectedly, ibérica maintains its high standard of international collaboration: the present issue gathers contributions from hong kong, italy, malaysia, montenegro, spain, turkey and the usa and disseminates a wide array of research topics and methodologies. on this occasion, a pair of sweeping cross-disciplinary orientations go hand in hand with the specificity inherent in the discourses of biology, literature, law, information systems, economics, and tourism, and their associated methods comprise corpus, multimodal, genre, morphosyntactic and lexical analyses. editorial ibérica 42 (2021): 9-1412 may ibérica live long and become even more fecund than it has been so far, reinforcing existing scholarly networks and tending others across disciplines, cultures, and communities of practice. i am certain that i leave it in very good hands. carmen sancho guinda universidad politécnica de madrid (spain) iberica@aelfe.org editor-in-chief of ibérica editorial ibérica 42 (2021): 9-14 13 iberica 13 ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper describes a corpus-based analysis of subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose texts. the focus of the analysis is chen’s (2013) x auxiliary subject construction (xasc), where x codes the fronting of a constituent which triggers the inversion of the auxiliary and the subject, as in little did she understand what was being dealt with or what does that mean? it is argued that the distribution of subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose is related to the degree of an addressor’s involvement in the texts. it will be shown that the more involvement in an academic prose text, the more inversions are to be expected. furthermore, the data will show that subject-auxiliary inversion is far more frequently attested in learned exposition academic prose texts than in scientific exposition academic prose texts, and that the construction itself can be seen to serve as a discourse marker through which an addressor’s involvement is coded in academic writing. keywords: corpus, subject-auxiliary inversion, textual variation, academic prose, learned and scientific exposition. resumen la inversión de sujeto y auxiliar en textos académicos este artículo examina la inversión de sujeto y auxiliar en textos de prosa académica inglesa mediante un análisis de corpus lingüísticos. el análisis toma como punto de partida la construcción x auxiliar sujeto, tratada en chen (2013), donde la x representa un constituyente topicalizado que provoca la inversión del auxiliar y del sujeto como, por ejemplo, en las siguientes oraciones: little did she understand what was being dealt with / what does that mean? en el artículo se argumenta que, en la prosa académica del inglés, la distribución subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose carlos prado-alonso universidad de oviedo (spain) pradocarlos@uniovi.es 59 ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 carlos prado-alonso de la inversión de sujeto y auxiliar está relacionada con el grado de implicación del emisor en los textos. el estudio demuestra que cuanto mayor sea el grado de presencia del autor en el texto, más uso de inversiones de sujeto y auxiliar cabe esperar. el análisis de corpus también demuestra que la inversión de sujeto y auxiliar es mucho más frecuente en la prosa académica de las ciencias humanas y sociales que en la de las ciencias exactas, y también pone de manifiesto que la construcción se puede utilizar como marcador del discurso que permite la presencia del emisor en este tipo de prosa. palabras clave: corpus, inversión de sujeto y auxiliar, variación textual, prosa académica, ciencias humanas y sociales y ciencias exactas. 1. introduction subject-auxiliary inversions are syntactic constructions in which the subject follows the first auxiliary in the verb phrase, as in (1)-(2).1 (1) nowhere has bankruptcy of the pdry’s system been more apparent than in the petroleum sector. (j37; political sciences) (2) how can these be reassembled as a reconstruction of the original plant? (j02; natural sciences) two main types of subject-auxiliary inverted constructions are distinguished in english: verb-first inverted and verb-second inverted constructions. these two types of inversion are labelled auxiliary subject constructions (asc) and x auxiliary subject constructions (xasc) in chen (2013). asc (verb-first inversions) are subject-auxiliary inversions in which the auxiliary is the first syntactic constituent in the clause and is followed by the subject and the main verb, as in examples (3)-(4), below. (3) should you find this memoir in its present state too tedious to pass on to our respectable society, you will make only extracts from it. (j02; natural sciences) (4) be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the united states of america in congress assembled. (j55; humanities) by contrast xasc, henceforth xas inversions, are subject-auxiliary inversions in which the auxiliary is not the first constituent in the clause (verb-second inversions), and are triggered by the fronting of a constituent which is followed by the auxiliary and the subject, as illustrated in (5)-(6). 60 (5) what does dna do exactly? (j13; medical sciences) (6) only now do they share a limit, namely the end-point itself. (j43; political sciences) the two types of subject-auxiliary inversions mentioned above have been the subject of extensive research from a functional perspective (cf. dorgeloh, 1997; goldberg, 2006; granath, 2007; chen, 2013; duffly, 2016; or kim, 2018, among others). this article is a further contribution to this line of research and offers a comprehensive corpus-based analysis of xas inverted constructions (verb-second inversions) in academic prose. there have been other corpus-based analyses of xas inversions in present-day english, but these suffer from limitations of various kinds, as they focus only on particular types of subject-auxiliary inversions. for instance, dorgeloh (1997), hailed as a major contribution to the field, does not deal with the analysis of subject-auxiliary inversions in interrogative clauses (cf. 5) and restricts her investigation to the declarative mood. similarly, granath (2007) is restricted to subject-auxiliary inversions triggered by deictics (cf. 6) or kim (2018) to inversions in exclamatives. a more comprehensive corpus-based account, taking into account all xas inversion types, is thus needed, in that only in such a way can we achieve a conclusive picture of the distribution and functions of these constructions in present-day english texts. the present study is a first step in this direction. the current corpus-based analysis is based on chen’s (2013) classification of xas inverted constructions (cf. section 2). in what follows, i present an indepth corpus-based analysis of the factors that drive the distribution and pragmatic use of xas inversions in academic prose texts. the data are taken from four computerised corpora of british and american present-day english, namely the flob, frown, be06, and ame06 corpora, comprising academic prose texts dealing with medical, natural, political, and social sciences, as well as with texts related to the study of humanities and technology and engineering from the 1990s and 2000s (for details see hofland et al., 1999, and baker, 2009). the distribution and frequency of the subject-auxiliary inversions in the corpus texts will be compared with biber’s (1988) wellknown multidimensional textual analysis. on the basis of such a comparison, i will argue that xas inversions do not only serve an interpersonal function in academic prose, but they are also inherently related to the degree of involvement of the academic prose texts in which they occur. the paper is organised as follows. section 2 offers a discussion of chen’s subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 61 (2013) constructional analysis of subject-auxiliary inversions, plus a classification of the xas inverted constructions used in this research. section 3 offers information on the academic prose texts analysed in this study. section 4 sets out the results of a corpus analysis of the types and distribution of xas inversions, which will be the basis for the pragmatic and textual analysis developed in section 5. finally, section 6 offers some concluding remarks. 2. a classification of subject-auxiliary inversions: chen (2013) there have been numerous ways of classifying subject-auxiliary inversions in the literature. some classifications are based on syntactic criteria alone. newmeyer (1998) in fact argues that subject-auxiliary inversion includes a disparate group of structures, which do not share many functional properties, and the way to capture their commonality can only be formal. by contrast, other classifications are based on semantic criteria alone. jacobsson (1951), for instance, follows a basic semantic approach and distinguishes between subject-auxiliary inversions with restrictive introductory members –in which the clause-initial constituent triggers the inversion (cf. 7)– and non-negative introductory members, where the inversion does not include a clause-initial constituent with negative meaning, as in (8). (7) aristotle did not necessarily intend these lectures to be treated as a single work, nor did he even necessarily regard them all as essays of logic. (j51; humanities) (8) the rate of divorce has increased, as has the proportion of men who are never or previously married. (j64; humanities) some classifications are based on a mixture of syntactic and semantic criteria (cf. schmidt, 1980, or dorgeloh, 1997). schmidt (1980: 11-13), for instance, distinguishes between subject-auxiliary inversions after adverbs with negative, restrictive or affective meaning, after other openers, after so, nor, neither and no more, in complex sentences with special heads, in correlative clauses and in comparative, as in (9). (9) for high quality nesting cover, seed mixtures include rhizomatous grasses that provide more contiguous nesting cover than does the scattered cover associated with bunchgrasses (provide). (j70; technology and engineering) carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8462 drawing on, among others, lakoff & brugman (1987), lambrecht (1994), and diessel (1997), goldberg (2006) proposes a more detailed classification of subject-auxiliary inversion based on functional/cognitive grounds. she distinguishes eight types of subject-auxiliary inversions (cf. goldberg, 2006: 166), namely inversions with counterfactual conditions (cf. 10), in wishes/curses (cf. 11), in yes/no and wh-questions (cf. 12), with negative conjuncts (cf. 13), with initial negative or restrictive adverbs (cf. 14), with positive rejoinders (cf. 15), in exclamative clauses (cf. 16) and in comparative clauses (cf. 9) –which deviate from a prototypical sentence– that is, an independent declarative sentence with a positive polarity and a predicate-focus information structure (cf. goldberg, 2006: 166). (10) should i leave this job to go to the bathroom, i risk being fired. (dorgeloh, 1996: 21) (11) may god save the united states of america! [quoted from prado-alonso, 2011: 22] (12) have you ever had a proper alcoholic drink, a whole drink, not just a sip? (j72; technology and engineering) (13) nor do they appear under the headings “head” and “skull” for salinan in greenberg’s hokan notebook. (j35; political sciences) (14) only then did he prepare a final draft. (j56; humanities) (15) as percentage of boys in class increases so does the pace (or total number of discourse moves per hour) with boys. (j55; humanities) (16) god, have i seen attitudes change! (green, 1982: 120) chen (2013) further groups goldberg’s eight types of subject-auxiliary inversion into two main sets of constructions: auxiliary subject constructions (asc), and x auxiliary subject constructions (xasc). the main difference between the two groups is that xas constructions, which are the central concern of the present study, are constructions of focus, with x being the focal point in the entire sentence. as chen (2013: 9) argues “they are results of fronting a particular element from a position in which it is not assured focus to the sentence initial position, whereby it is assured focus”.2 the xas group of constructions includes subject-auxiliary inversions in wh-questions (cf. 17), triggered by negative conjuncts (cf. 18), by initial negative or restrictive adverbs (cf. 19), by positive rejoinders (cf. 20), by positive adverbs (cf. 21), and by deictics (cf. 22).3 subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 63 (17) why should the denial of it strike protagoras. (j52; humanities) (18) nor can it be understood solely or even mainly as the result of an english cultural or economic colonization of the so-called celtic fringe. (j57; humanities) (19) only recently has attention shifted toward identifying genetic determinants of susceptibility and markers of the early stages of carcinogenesis. (j14, medical sciences) (20) investor can do all right by doing good, so do the brokerage house and money managers who have developed this market niche. (j39; political sciences) (21) particularly do they support universal coverage. (j28; social sciences) (22) only now do they share a limit, namely the end-point itself. (j43; political sciences) by contrast, asc constructions are considered constructions of mood indicator, mapped with the notion of irreality, but they are not used to achieve focus. they include goldberg’s inversions in counterfactual conditions (cf. 10), in wishes/curses and/or exclamatives (cf. 11), and in yes/no questions (cf. 12). since the present study is functionally oriented, the classification of subjectauxiliary inversions in what follows is based on chen’s (2013) detailed functional/cognitive classification. the six xas inversion types mentioned above will be the focus of this investigation. what follows offers information on the texts analysed in the study, as well as an account of the distribution of subject-auxiliary inversion in the textual categories of the corpus, which will serve as the basis for an in-depth textual and pragmatic analysis presented in section 5. 3. the corpora to analyse the behaviour and distribution of subject-auxiliary inverted structures in academic prose, four computerised corpora of british and american english texts from the 1990s and 2000s were selected. these are: the freiburg-lancaster-oslo/bergen corpus of british english (flob; texts from 1991, released in 1999), 2) the freiburg-brown corpus of american english (frown; texts from 1992, released in 1999), 3) the british english 2006 corpus carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8464 (bre06; texts from 2004-2008, released in 2008), and 4) the american english 2006 corpus (ame06; texts from 2004-2008, released in 2008); for details see hofland et al. (1999) and baker (2009). these four corpora were selected for two main reasons. firstly, they match in their internal structure and, as will be shown presently, allow the compilation of a substantial amount and various types of academic prose texts. secondly, flob, frown, bre06 and ame06 were chosen because they match the structure of the lancaster-oslobergen corpus of british english (lob; compilation date: 1961) corpus and the brown corpus of american english (brown; compilation date: 1962) corpus. lob and brown are analysed in biber’s (1988) multidimensional analysis of linguistic variation which, as discussed in section 5, will be used here for comparative purposes as tested criteria of linguistic variation. the flob, frown, bre06 and ame06 corpora comprise 1,000,000 words each distributed into fifteen textual categories one of which is the academic prose textual category. the academic prose texts analysed comprise samples of approximately 2,000 words each, totalling 608,000 running words organised into six well-defined textual categories: natural sciences, medical sciences, social behavioural science, political science, humanities, and technology and engineering, as shown in table 1.4 following biber’s (1988) multidimensional analysis of linguistic variation, these categories were further subdivided into two main types of academic prose texts: “scientific exposition” (medical sciences, natural sciences and technology and engineering) and “learned exposition” (social sciences, political sciences and humanities). table 1. sources and distributions of the textual categories selected from the corpora. since the textual categories in the corpora differ in size, the data were normalised following biber’s (1988: 14) proposal for a “normalised subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 65 textual categories words scientific exposition technology and engineering 96,000 medical sciences 40,000 natural sciences 96,000 learned exposition social behavioural sciences 122,000 political sciences, law, education 120,000 humanities 134,000 total 608,000 frequency of a feature”. as biber notes, “raw frequency counts cannot be used for comparison across texts when they are not at all of the same length”, since in this case longer texts would tend to have higher frequencies simply because there are more opportunities for a feature to occur within them. using biber’s procedure and comparing the frequency per 100; 1,000; 10,000, or 100,000 words –depending on the frequency of the feature under investigation– this possible bias is eliminated. in the present study, given that subject-auxiliary inverted structures are considered to be relatively rare syntactic constructions compared to unmarked svx word order (cf. biber et al., 1999: 926), raw frequencies are normalised by 100,000 words. given the size of the corpus, the use of software tools would have greatly facilitated the retrieval of inverted constructions. unfortunately, the corpusbased search mainly had to be performed manually. manual reading of the corpora was necessary since these corpora are neither parsed nor tagged. an automated analysis of the electronic database was only possible for the retrieval of subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions, as these subjectauxiliary inverted constructions have very specific wh-triggers, namely what, which, who, whom, when, where, how or why. to retrieve examples of xas in whquestions, the software tool antconc 3.5.8 was used (cf. anthony, 2019). the retrieval of the particular subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions by looking for the triggers also yielded a certain amount of junk, that is, results that did not belong to the kind of construction being sought, and a further manual reading of the examples retrieved from the automated search was required in the end. 4. a corpus-based analysis of subject-auxiliary inversion in scientific and learned exposition the analysis of the corpora yielded 298 instances of xas inverted structures, as shown in table 2, below. as can be seen, xas inversions are slightly more frequently attested in the declarative clauses (171 tokens) than in the interrogative clauses (127 tokens) but, overall, there are no dramatic discrepancies in the distribution of these constructions in the declarative and interrogative in terms of frequency. however, despite these similar frequencies, it should be noted that xas inversions are still mainly associated with interrogative clauses in academic prose, since the overall number of carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8466 declarative clauses in this genre is much higher than the number of interrogative clauses. inversion in wh-questions is the only type of xas inversion attested in the interrogative and the most frequent xas inverted construction attested in the corpus (127 instances/normalised frequency 19.8). for reasons that will be discussed presently (cf. section 5), this inversion type is more frequently attested in learned exposition (100 instances/normalised frequency 26.6) than in scientific exposition (27 instances/normalised frequency 11.6), where the construction is more frequently used in social sciences (38 instances/normalised frequency 31.1) and humanities (40 instances/normalised frequency 29.8). as biber et al.’s (1999: 212) corpusbased analysis shows, there is a high frequency of wh-questions in spoken texts, and fictional dialogues which are typically modelled on conversation, because in these types of texts the situation often tends to be interactive, with a constant give-and-take among participants. it has been argued that the main function of wh-questions is to achieve such an interaction and that the construction is used to seek information from the addressee (cf. kim, 2018: 481). by contrast, academic prose seldom includes interactions or direct speech clauses and would be expected to make an infrequent use of xas inversions in wh-questions. the frequent occurrence of these constructions in the academic prose texts analysed here is therefore surprising. as will be discussed in section 5, the motivation for this distribution is that inversion in wh-questions is used in academic writing to explain or describe something by posing a question and then providing an answer. it will also be shown that, in the textual categories analysed here, the construction serves an interpersonal function, which allows the addressor’s presence in discourse, and its distribution is related to the degree of involvement in the text. subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 67 table 2. distribution of xas inversion in the academic prose categories of flob, frown, bre06, and ame06. as the data suggest, inversion triggered by a positive rejoinder is the most frequent type of xas construction in declarative clauses (101 instances/normalised frequency 15.7). this xas inversion involves syntactic structures which are triggered by a pro-form that stands for an entire predicate or a substantial part of it. this goes for xas constructions triggered by so, such, as, etc. functioning as anaphoric adverbs, as shown in (23)-(24), below. in these types of xas inverted structures, the pro-element is a grammaticalised device that stands for the preceding predicate. the construction itself is also fairly idiomatic, because, as noted by biber et al. (1999: 916), there is often no completely equivalent svo word-order. in (23a), for instance, the initial so stands for given information, and has a cohesive effect. furthermore, its location in preverbal position emphasises the parallelism between the two clauses. the subject, which is the main communicative focus, is placed towards the end of the clause, in accordance with the principles of communicative dynamism and end-focus (cf. hartvigson & jakobsen, 1974: 62). this inverted pattern, however, can only be paraphrased with subject-verb order plus additive too (cf. 23b), i.e. the kind of language selected fluctuates too. carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8468 scientific exposition learned exposition technology/ engineering medical sciences natural sciences social sciences political sciences humanities words 96,000 40,000 96,000 122,000 120,000 134,000 mood trigger total corpora total total interrogative wh-word 127 (19.8) 15 (15.6) 6 (10.4) 6 (15) 27 (11.6) 38 (31.1) 22 (18.3) 40 (29.8) 100 (26.6) declarative positive rejoinder 101 (15.7) 16 (16.6) 3 (7.5) 8 (8.3) 27 (11.6) 29 (23.7) 23 (19.1) 22 (16.8) 74 (19.6) negative conjunct 42 (6.5) 3 (3.1) 2 (5) 8 (8.3) 13 (5.6) 12 (9.8) 9 (7.5) 8 (5.9) 29 (7.7) negative adverb 24 (3.7) 1 (0.4) 1 (2.5) 4 (4.1) 6 (2.5) 6 (4.9) 5 (4.1) 7 (5.2) 18 (4.8) positive adverb 2 (0.3) – – – – 2 (1.6) – – 2 (0.5) deictic element 2 (0.3) – – – – – 2 (1.6) – 2 (0.5) total declarative 171 (26.7) 20 (20.8) 6 (15) 20 (20.8) 46 (19.8) 49 (40.1) 39 (32.5) 37 (27.6) 125 (33.2) (23a) when these variables fluctuate, so does the kind of language selected. (j32; political sciences) (23b) when these variables fluctuate, the kind of language selected does too. (24) discrimination is illegal in all countries but the definition of discrimination varies considerably, as does the quality of enforcement. (j22; social sciences) xas inversion triggered by positive rejoinders is attested far more frequently in learned exposition (74 instances/normalised frequency 19.6) than in scientific exposition (27 instances/ normalised frequency 11.6). frequency of occurrence is also consistently higher in the textual categories of learned exposition, with social sciences (29 instances/normalised frequency 23.7) and political sciences (23 instances/normalised frequency 19.7) showing the highest scores. the same goes for xas inversions triggered by negative conjuncts which, as table 2 illustrates, occur more frequently in learned exposition (29 instances/normalised frequency 7.7) than in scientific exposition (13 instances/normalised frequency 5.6), with social sciences (12 instances instances/normalised frequency 9.8) and political sciences (9 instances/normalised frequency 7.5) also showing the highest scores. as dorgeloh (1997: 91) notes, in xas constructions triggered by negative conjuncts, such as neither or nor, there is both a connective (anaphoric) and a negative component in the meaning. in other words, the xas construction performs a clause-linking function while at the same time it focuses on the negative semantics of the fronted conjunct. this is illustrated in (25)-(26), below, in which the fronted negative conjuncts, though equally anaphoric, are not just back-referring constituents, but also, due to their fronting positions, provide a stronger negative meaning for the sentence than their canonical svo counterparts (cf. 25b) on the basis of the corpus, nor is the most frequent negative conjunct used in this construction, especially in learned exposition, though examples of xas inversion with neither are also attested. xas inversions with nor are, as noted by kjellmer (1979: 292), devices of textual cohesion “by means of which different parts of an argument can be held together, and which allow a writer insertions or deviations without jeopardising the stringency of his argument”. (25a) you cannot take pound of clean air away from the common stock and sell it on a market stall, nor can you exclude anybody from enjoying the benefits of clean air. (j41; political sciences) subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 69 (25b) you cannot take pound of clean air away from the common stock and sell it on a market stall, and you cannot exclude anybody from enjoying the benefits of clean air either. (26) just as stones or balls do not find entry through the compact surfaces of walls, neither do rays upon mirrors. (j12, natural sciences) according to green (1982: 130), inversion after negative conjuncts and proforms “seems to be much more frequent in speech”. however, the present corpus-based study suggests that they are also frequently attested in academic prose. academic prose requires many cohesive constructions as it mostly takes place under conditions of displacement, that is, it deals with events, which are not part of the immediate environment of addressor or addressee. formal cohesion must be tight because the situational context is not available to help fill in any possible gaps. academic discourse exhibits a far more structured syntax than other types of genres. as an example, spoken texts tend to have a more fragmented character than academic prose texts and, as chafe (1992: 68) notes, often string together connected clauses without connectives because the connections are ‘in the air’ and, if misunderstood, can be rapidly repaired. in speech, the relationship between ideas is encoded by means of paralinguistic features such as pitch, prominence, pauses, changes in tempo and voice quality, and gestures. this is not the case in academic prose, where there is only the linear flow of words, so this must be exploited to the full. the result is that –in order to integrate a succession of ideas into a more complex, coherent, and integrated whole– academic prose makes use of many cohesive devices, including xas inversions triggered by a pro-form or a negative conjunct. on the basis of the present data (cf. table 2), xas inversions triggered by a fronted restrictive or negative phrase, as illustrated in (27)-(28), represent the third most frequent type of xas inversion in declarative clauses (cf. table 2). (27) only since the 1970’s, or so, have people in indonesia called themselves gays or lesbians. (j43; political sciences) (28) nowhere has this been more evident than in burrell and morgan’s (1979) collapsing of ontology and epistemology into a single subjective axis. (j11; natural sciences) inversions triggered by a negative or restrictive phrase were also more commonly attested in learned exposition (18 instances/normalised frequency 4.8) than in scientific exposition (6 instances/normalised carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8470 frequency 2.5). in learned exposition, they were more commonly attested in humanities (7 instances/normalised frequency 5.2) and social sciences (6 instances/normalised frequency 4.9). inversions of this type are, as biber et al. (1999: 915) note, more frequently found in texts where a strong rhetorical effect is required. as huddleston & pullum (2002: 820) note, “negators mark clausal negation more readily when positioned early in the clause”. this is certainly the case in xas inversion triggered by a negative or restrictive phrase, in which, due to their prominent placement in preverbal position, there is a further intensification of the force of the fronted constituent. in other words, these constructions aim to connect clauses but also to produce a strong negative or restrictive emphatic effect (cf. section 5). for instance, in (28) the placement of the negative adverb serves to emphasise the importance of the negative meaning of the proposition. as i have argued elsewhere (cf. prado-alonso, 2019), other types of texts make less consistent use of such inversions. this is the case of spoken texts, which rely not only on linear word-order. in speech, the speaker may also employ phonological features to structure and emphasise negative information. this is shown in (29b), where pitch prominence is given to the negative element and no inversion is required to achieve a negative emphasis on the clause. (29a) never before had women pursued college degrees. (29b) women had never before pursued college degrees. finally, the other types of xas inversions in the declarative mood –namely, inversions triggered by a fronted positive adverb or a deictic adverb (2 instances/normalised frequency 0.03)– are found very rarely (cf. table 2) and their frequency is of very marginal significance in the data. both subjectauxiliary inversions types would thus seem to be very infrequent in presentday english academic prose. as i have shown elsewhere, (cf. prado-alonso, 2016), inversion with fronted deictics most frequently triggers the inversion of subject and main verb (cf. 30) –xvs inversion– rather than the inversion of subject and auxiliary (cf. 31), and they have been shown to be most commonly attested in speech than in writing. (30) here comes the first inequality. (j22; social sciences) (31) and, there, will one find significant false-negative rates. (j36; political sciences) subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 71 the analysis presented thus far has provided a corpus-based account of instances of xas inversion retrieved from academic prose texts, together with a preliminary discussion of the reasons behind the differences in distribution. the data clearly show that the different types of subjectauxiliary inverted constructions are more frequently attested in learned exposition than in scientific exposition. in order to examine the possible reasons for this marked difference in distribution, a more fine-grained analysis will now be given. such an analysis will allow for a better understanding of the distribution and pragmatic function of this construction in academic prose. as will be seen in section 5, this textual analysis is based on established criteria of linguistic variation (cf. biber, 1988). 5. subject-auxiliary inversion and the degree of addressor’s involvement in academic prose in variation across speech and writing (1988), biber analyses linguistic variation in the lancaster-oslo-bergen corpus of british english (lob) and the brown corpora. these two corpora, compiled in the 1960s, match the structure of flob, frown, bre 2006 and ame 2006 (for details see hofland et al., 1999 and baker, 2009). the textual categories represented in lob and brown are analysed by biber in terms of six parameters or dimensions: • dimension 1, which he calls involved versus informational production, distinguishes discourse with interactional, affective or involved purposes and which is associated with strict real-time production and comprehension constraints, from discourse with highly informational purposes. • dimension 2, narrative versus non-narrative concerns, distinguishes discourse with primary narrative purposes from discourse with nonnarrative purposes, hence dealing with the difference between active, event-oriented discourse, and more static descriptive or expository types of discourse. • dimension 3, endophoric versus situation-dependent reference, distinguishes between discourse that identifies referents fully and explicitly through relativisation, and discourse that relies on nonspecific deictics and reference to an external situation for the carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8472 purposes of identification. this dimension thus corresponds closely to the distinction between endophoric and exophoric reference (cf. halliday & hasan, 1976). • dimension 4, overt expression of persuasion, refers to those features associated with the addressor’s expression of point of view or with argumentative styles intended to persuade the addressee. • dimension 5, labelled abstract versus non-abstract information, distinguishes between texts with a highly abstract and technical informational focus, and those with non-abstract focus. • finally, dimension 6, on-line informational elaboration, distinguishes between informational discourse produced under highly constrained conditions in which the information is presented in a relatively loose, fragmented manner, and other types of discourse, be it informational discourse that is highly integrated or discourse that is not informational in nature. in addition to multidimensionality, variation is treated as continuously scalar in biber’s analysis. the six parameters, then, define continua of variation rather than discrete categories. for example, although it is possible to describe a text as simply abstract or non-abstract, it seems more accurate to describe it as more or less abstract. over the last thirty years, biber’s (1988) multidimensional analytical framework has come to be regarded a powerful tool for the analysis of register variation and genre. the application of this framework has been considered to yield well-tested findings in the study of linguistic variation, and has allowed linguists to investigate language in use and to formulate detailed descriptions, which in turn can encapsulate how language users make concrete language choices in particular linguistic contexts. what follows provides a comparison of the distribution of subject-auxiliary inverted constructions in the textual categories of the corpora analysed here with biber’s analysis of the same categories in terms of the dimension 1, involved versus informational production. the selection of this dimension for the analysis of xas constructions in academic prose is based on the fact that, as has been demonstrated (see chen, 2003, or prado-alonso, 2019, among others), other inversion types, such as locative inversion, tend to occur more frequently in texts which exhibit a stronger interpersonal nature. if the distribution of xas inversion –in academic prose– is sensitive to subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 73 involved or informational production, we can assume that it will be seen clearly in the present data. taking into account dimension 1, involved versus informational production, biber’s analysis shows that, even though the academic prose texts of lob and brown score low in involvement when compared to other text types, the categories of technology and engineering, medical sciences and natural sciences exhibit a very low score on the involved pole of dimension 1, as illustrated in figure 1, below. by contrast, social sciences, political sciences and humanities have moderately higher scores on the involved pole of this dimension. biber also shows that those categories with higher scores on dimension 1 exhibit a higher degree of concern for interpersonal and affective meaning and are characterised by markedly infrequent occurrences of nouns, prepositions, and long words. they also exhibit a frequent occurrence of private verbs used for the overt expression carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8474 + involved on – informational -13.5 -14 social sciences -14.5 humanities -15 political sciences -15.5 -16 -16.5 -17 medical sciences -17.5 -18 natural sciences technology and engineering -18.5 – involved or + informational figure 1. mean scores of dimension 1 –involved vs. informational production– in academic prose (adapted from biber, 1988: 182-183). of private attitudes, thought, and opinions (e.g. think, feel), that-deletions, present tenses, contractions, first and second person pronouns (referring directly to the addressor and addressee), emphatics and amplifiers used by the addressor to mark attitudinal comments, and pro-verb do, whose use may be considered to be related to xas constructions, as some of these constructions require auxiliary do (biber, 1988: 117). by contrast, the textual categories with low scores on this dimension 1 –technology and engineering, medical sciences and natural sciences– have the opposite characteristics. looking first at the distribution of subject-auxiliary inversion in the interrogative mood, the comparison of biber’s mean scores on dimension 1, illustrated in figure 1, with the distribution of subject-auxiliary inverted constructions in the categories analysed here (cf. table 2), shows that, in the interrogative, there is a tendency for those categories with a higher degree of addressor’s involvement –namely social sciences, political sciences and humanities– to favour the use of the construction. this is also seen if we measure the correlation between the mean scores on dimension 1 and the normalised frequencies of subject-auxiliary inversion in the interrogative by calculating a pearson correlation coefficient test and a simple linear regression test.5 correlation and regression are techniques for describing the relationships in data, and are used for answering such questions as whether high values of one variable go with high values of another, or whether one can predict the value of one variable when given the value of another. the pearson correlation coefficient is a statistical test that allows establishing the strength of relationships in continuous variables. in other words, it is a precise measure of the way in which two variables correlate. the strength of the relationship between two variables, in this case the distribution of subject-auxiliary inversion in the academic prose categories and the degree of speaker involvement in those categories, can be expressed numerically using a pearson correlation coefficient. pearson’s correlation coefficient is +1 if two variables vary together exactly. in general, a positive correlation coefficient shows that the two variables are positively correlated, where high values of the first variable are associated with high values of the second. a negative correlation where high values of the first variable are associated with low values of the second and vice versa is shown by a negative correlation coefficient. a value of -1 is obtained for a perfect negative correlation, and a value of 0 is obtained when the two variables are not correlated at all (cf. butler, 1985; baayen, 2008; and johnson, 2008, among subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 75 others). as illustrated in table 3, below, the result of the pearson correlation coefficient for the distribution of subject-auxiliary inversion and biber’s mean scores on dimension 1 in the categories of academic prose is 0.8171. this represents a strong positive correlation, which means that high x variable scores, i.e. frequency of subject-auxiliary inversion in the categories, goes with high y variable scores, namely the degree of speaker’s involvement (and vice versa). the statistical significance of the correlation can be further demonstrated by calculating its p-value which represents the probability that the observed relationship between the two variables in the corpus occurred by chance. p-values that are significant at the p ≤ .0.1 level are commonly considered statistically significant, and p ≤ .0.05 or p ≤ .0.01 levels are often called “highly” significant. in the present correlation the p-value is 0.047119, which is significant at the p < 0.05 level. table 3. pearson correlation coefficient for the distribution of subject-operator inversion in the interrogative mood and biber’s (1988: 182-183) mean scores on dimension 1. in the present quantitative investigation, there is one variable, i.e. the dependent variable (the reason for the distribution of subject-auxiliary inversion in the textual categories), that we want to explain and another variable, i.e. the independent variable (degree of speaker’s involvement), that is believed to affect the dependent variable. calculating a simple linear regression test is a way of predicting the behaviour of the dependent variable according to the values of the independent variable. the key output of a regression analysis is called the coefficient of determination –denoted by r2– which is interpreted as the proportion of the variance in the dependent variable that is predictable from the independent variable. in other words, the coefficient of determination indicates the percentage of the variation in the dependent variable that the independent variable explains collectively; its result ranges from 0 to 1. an r2 of 0 means that the dependent variable cannot be predicted from the independent variable, an r2 of 1 shows that carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8476 mean scores of the textual categories on dimension 1 normalised frequencies for xas inversion in the interrogative mood technology and engineering -18.3 15.6 natural sciences -18.2 15 medical sciences -17 10.4 political sciences -15.3 18.3 humanities -14.9 29.8 social sciences -14 31.1 correlation coefficient 0.8171 p-value (significant at p < 0,05) 0.047119 simple linear regression (r2) 0.6677 the dependent variable can be predicted without error from the independent variable and an r2 between 0 and 1 indicates the extent to which the dependent variable is predictable from the independent variable. in the present data, the coefficient of determination (r2) is 0.6677, which suggests that the distribution of the textual categories in terms of involvement explains at least 66% of the examples of the distribution of subject-auxiliary inversion in the interrogative mood. the statistical analysis therefore shows that, in the interrogative, the preponderance of inversion in learned exposition correlates with the degree of the addressor’s involvement in these text types. the xas inversions attested in the interrogative are well suited to the interpersonal features of these textual categories, and the data further show that the more involved a text, the more xas inversions in the interrogative are to be expected. in the interrogative, the subject-auxiliary inversions analysed here are used to seek information about non-subject parts of the sentence, as illustrated in (32)-(35), below. as chen (2013: 4) notes, they differ from inversions in yes/no questions –i.e. verb first auxiliary-subject constructions (cf. 36)– in that the latter seek information about the proposition expressed by the entire sentence. to seek information about a particular part of the sentence, the addressor fronts the wh-lexeme whose referent is automatically placed at the centre of attention and obligatorily triggers the inversion. it is in this sense that this type of inversion has been lexicalised in present-day english, and such a process of lexicalisation fixes the construction as a distinct unit (cf. brinton & traugott, 2005; traugott & trousdale, 2013). (32) how can protagoras be encouraged that man is not the measure? (j52; humanities) (33) what does this mean in terms of railway operations? (j74; technology and engineering) (34) where did all these frenquency data come from? (j32; social sciences) (35) why should the synthetic chemist seek out novel oxidation? (j07; natural sciences) (36) did you know that our genes are located on your chromosomes? (j13; medical sciences) since the questioned unit in xas wh-inversions is picked out and placed clause-initially for focus, this results in a stressed-unstressed-stressed subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 77 phonological sequence (cf. chen, 2013: 10), as shown in (34), whereby the fronted wh-element is phonologically emphasised and the subject, which typically does not receive stress in an svo word-order, is also phonologically emphasised. in interrogative clauses, the need to focus is therefore the motivation for this subject-auxiliary inversion. it is in this sense that, in the interrogative, this construction is a discourse marker which has a focus management function. in other words, it is a construction that changes the addressee’s current focus of interest or attention and thus belongs to “the speaker’s organisation of discourse” (cf. halliday & hassan, 1976: 239). the corpus-based data show that this interpersonal function of subject-auxiliary inversion is most frequently attested in texts with a higher degree of interpersonal features. in examples (37)-(38), below, for instance, the writer poses questions to focus the attention on particular aspects of content in the text. in (37), the three xas inversions triggered by how and what signal a strong emotional involvement on behalf of the writer, who makes use of a frequent strategy in academic prose: posing a question to announce a research theme or to focus the attention on a particular aspect or aspects of the phenomenon under discussion. in (37), the two xas inversions are used to express a forceful statement. here the addressor follows a natural didactic strategy used in academic writing: that of explaining by posing a wh-question and then providing an answer. in both instances, the subject-auxiliary inversions allow the addressor to be present in the text and to shift the reader’s attention. (37) how then can teacher educators respond –and in essence positively counter– prospective teachers’ resistance to teach for diversity and for understanding? what are some examples of promising pedagogical strategies that teacher educators could use in their courses to help prospective teachers meet the expectations of their teacher education programs? how can teacher educators better prepare prospective teachers to meet the challenges of helping increase the achievement and participation of all students in mathematics and science? we tackle these questions head-on by providing rich narratives of our experiences […]. (j22; social sciences) (38) why does feagin find meta-response to tragedy praiseworthy? first, she claims that the sympathy we enjoy when we respond to tragedy also underlies our capacity for moral action. but what does this establish in terms of moral status? here, we must inquire further into the grounds of pleasure. (j61; humanities) carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8478 in the declarative mood, the preponderance of subject-auxiliary inversion in political sciences, social sciences and humanities, i.e. learned exposition, is also best explained by the degree of addressor’s involvement. this can be noticed if we assess the correlation between biber’s mean scores on dimension 1, illustrated in figure 1, and the normalised frequencies of subject-auxiliary inversion in declarative clauses by calculating a (pearson) correlation coefficient, as illustrated in table 4, below. the result is 0.8357, with a p-value 0.038591, which is significant at the p  ≤  .0.05 level. this represents a strong positive correlation, which indicates that, in declarative clauses, there is a tendency for texts with a higher concern for interpersonal or affective content, namely the texts in learned exposition to favour the use of subject-auxiliary inversion. similarly, the coefficient of determination (r2) in the simple linear regression test is 0.6984 which suggests that the distribution of the textual categories in terms of involvement explains, at least, 69% of the examples of the distribution of subject-auxiliary inversion in the declarative mood. table 4. pearson correlation coefficient for the distribution of subject-operator inversion in the declarative mood and biber’s (1988: 182-183) mean scores on dimension 1. in declarative clauses, the preponderance of subject-auxiliary inversion in political sciences, social sciences and humanities is therefore best explained by the degree of involvement in these text-styles. the different types of inversions in the declarative clauses analysed here are well suited to these interpersonal features. as argued by chen (2013), the function of these constructions is the fronting of the preverbal constituent. in other words, he argues that they serve a focalising function and allow the addressor to move the addressee’s attention to the constituent placed in front position in the clause, which is given prominence. for instance, inversions triggered by a pro-form or a negative conjunct are not only textual devices which simply subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 79 mean scores of the textual categories on dimension 1 normalised frequencies for xas inversion in the interrogative mood technology and engineering -18.3 20.8 natural sciences -18.2 20.8 medical sciences -17 15 political sciences -15.3 32.5 humanities -14.9 27.6 social sciences -14 40.1 correlation coefficient 0.8357 p-value (significant at p < 0,05) 0.038591 simple linear regression (r2) 0.6984 point back to a referent but, as dorgeloh (1997: 116) notes, produce a further “emotionally expressive” effect, which arises from the status of inversion as a marked construction and the process of reordering. since english is an svx word order language, and a “paraphrased” svx word order is generally available in subject-auxiliary inversion triggered by pro-forms or additive adverbs (cf. 39), the use of this construction involves the breaking of expectations about the use of the unmarked sentence pattern. in these inversions, the addressor thus breaks the unmarked discourse conditions of an sxv word order to emphasise the linking parallelism between the inverted clause and the preceding clause. (39a) when these variables fluctuate, so does the kind of language selected and used in conversation. (j32; social sciences) (39b) when these variables fluctuate, the kind of language selected and used in conversation does too. in (39a), for instance, the fronting of the constituent triggers the inversion of the auxiliary and the subject, which attracts informational focus. in this example, both the trigger and the inverted subject receive prominence (which would be represented phonologically in speech). the result is a bi-focal construction in which focus is given to two constituents (the fronted element “so” and the subject “the kind of language selected and used in conversation”), which would not be given prominence in the canonical svx counterpart (cf. 39b), while at the same time the new information is introduced in discourse and emphasised in the postverbal subject. the inversion reflects the concern of the addressor with the relative weight or prominence of a single element from the clause, namely the pro-form which is emphasised in preverbal position, thus achieving a stronger comparative effect. this is in line with the importance in science of comparison as a means of understanding reality; it is, quite simply, difficult to explain the nature of something without describing how it resembles or contrasts with some other comparable thing. as argued in stein (1995: 137), the breaking of normal expectations and the emphasis achieved by the fronting of the pro-form has an interpersonal meaning, namely an “affectual or emotive component”. similarly, inversion triggered by a negative or restrictive element allows the presence of the addressor in discourse in that, through the use of this construction, she/he can change the addressee’s focus of interest or attention in the text towards an individual constituent, namely the preverbal restrictive carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8480 or negative trigger. the negative or restrictive trigger gains emphatic meaning since it is fronted, and the inversion serves a direct function in the explanation or evaluation provided in scientific writing: namely to emphasise the negative meaning of the clause. with the use of the inversion, the addressor singles out a stronger negative meaning and thereby adds to it an interpersonal meaning. this can be seen in (40a) where the initial placement of “only” emphasises the restrictive interpretation of the utterance. the constituent followed by the restrictive trigger, namely the subject, is more strongly affected by the restrictive scope of the trigger. by contrast, in (40b) the restrictive element is part of what is being predicated, it is not moved out of its position, and lacks such an emphatic effect. subject-auxiliary inversion triggered by a restrictive or a negative element therefore contains an interpersonal meaning: “a judgement relative to the speaker’s beliefs” (cf. stein, 1990: 279) of the negative or restrictive interpretation of the utterance. (40a) only recently has attention shifted toward identifying genetic determinants of susceptibility and markers of the early stages of carcinogenesis. (j14, medical sciences) (40b) attention has shifted toward identifying genetic determinants of susceptibility and markers of the early stages of carcinogenesis attention only recently. (41) here comes the bus. (42) now do they share a limit, namely the end-point itself. (j43; political sciences) finally, inverted constructions triggered by deictic adverbs designate the spatial or temporal location of the addressor while at the same time designating the location of the postposed subject as being close to the addressor. in xvs inversions (cf. 41), bolinger (1977: 93), for instance, regards the constructions as “presenting something on the immediate stage” by bringing something literally before the addressee’s presence. this claim is further elaborated by dubrig (1988: 91) who claims that, as illustrated in (41), the construction encompasses a pragmatic presentative function, which consists of “directing the addressee’s conscious attention to an object in his environment by making him focus on a region in his perceptual field”. in subject-auxiliary inversions triggered by deictics (cf. 42), the addressor makes a procedural use of the construction and instructs the addressee to mentally reconstruct a certain lay-out of a temporal or spatial location. in other subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 81 words, the preverbal deictic points to a spatial or temporal location and once the addressee’s attention is directed towards this location, she/he can focus ‘more easily’ on the postposed clause constituents, which introduce the new information and receive prominence in discourse, as illustrated in (42), above. the predicates are concrete locative or temporal relations, but, due to a displacement from the situation itself, a conceptual reconstruction in the mind of the addressee is required. the viewpoint established by the inversion becomes a device of discourse focus management in academic prose, that is, it allows the addressor to change the addressee’s current focus of interest or attention, and therefore the construction serves an interpersonal function. 6. summary and conclusions drawing on chen’s (2013) classification of x auxiliary subject inversions, the present paper has offered a corpus-based analysis of the distribution and pragmatic use of these types of constructions in academic writing. the study has shown that, in both the interrogative and declarative moods, these inverted constructions serve an interpersonal function and may be considered discourse markers through which addressor’s involvement is reflected in academic prose texts. it is in this sense that the constructions are used by the addressor to change the addressee’s focus of interest towards a particular constituent, namely the fronted x. the front shifting of the x constituent triggers the inversion of the auxiliary and the subject, which is also given prominence and attracts the informational focus. such an interpersonal focus management function is also revealed in the distribution of xas inversions in the academic prose textual categories analysed here. the inversions occur in linguistic contexts in which the x is fronted in an attempt to accommodate the post-verbal new information into the addressee’s knowledge base. the corpus-based analysis has further shown that there is a tendency for xas inversions to be more frequent in academic prose text-types with a larger number of interpersonal discourse features, namely texts related to learned exposition: humanities, political sciences, and social sciences. the statistical analysis has in fact demonstrated that the more interpersonal in nature an academic prose text is, the more xas inversions are to be expected. article history: received 19 september 2019 received in revised form 2 november 2020 accepted 15 november 2021 carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8482 references subject-auxiliary inversion in academic prose ibérica 42 (2021): 59-84 83 anthony, l. 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(1998). language form and carlos prado-alonso works as a full-time lecturer in english language and linguistics at the university of oviedo and is a member of the research group variation linguistic change and grammaticalization based at the university of santiago de compostela. most of his published work has been on the analysis –from a functional corpus-based perspective– of several english syntactic constructions, including inverted constructions, verbal anaphoric structures, and parenthetical clauses. notes 1 unless otherwise stated, examples of inversions have been retrieved from academic prose texts in four computerised corpora, namely flob, frown, bre06, and ame06. for details of these corpora and the textual categories analysed here, see section 3. 2 focus is here understood as a cognitive notion and is defined as the special attention that the addressor draws to a particular part of a sentence (cf. talmy, 2000). 3 it should be borne in mind that goldberg’s comparative subject-auxiliary inversion, as seen in (17), is not included in chen’s analysis, in that he considers this construction to be the result of subject postponement rather than of the inversion of subject and auxiliary (cf. chen, 2013: 10-12). following chen’s classification, comparative subject-auxiliary inversions are not included in the corpus-based analysis here. 4 lob, brown, flob, frown, bre2006 and ame2006 also contain a textual category called mathematics as part of the academic prose category. however, this was excluded from the analysis because it has a limited number of texts, and these contain fewer than 20,000 words. 5 all statistical analyses were conducted using r (version 3.6.0). see baayen (2008). carlos prado-alonso ibérica 42 (2021): 59-8484 language function. mit press. prado-alonso, c. (2011). full-verb inversion in written and spoken english. peter lang. prado-alonso, c. (2016). “a constructional analysis of obligatory xvs syntactic structures”. studia anglica posnaniensia 51(1): 51-82. doi: <https://doi.org/10.1515/stap-2016-0002>. prado-alonso, c. (2019). “obligatory inversion in scientific texts”. studia neophilologica 91(3): 314335. doi: <https://doi.org/10.1080/00393274.2019. 1652112>. quirk, r, s. greenbaum, g. leech & j. svartvik (1985). a comprehensive grammar of the english language. longman. schmidt, d. a. (1980). a history of inversions in english. unpublished ph.d. dissertation: the ohio state university. talmy, l. (2000). towards a cognitive semantics. mit press. traugott, e. c. & g. trousdale (2013). constructionalization and constructional changes. oxford university press. doi: <https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/97801996798 98.001.0001>. iberica 13 ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen el objetivo principal de esta investigación es identificar las palabras académicas (nawl, http://www.newacademicwordlist.org/, bauman y culligan, 1995) y las más frecuentes (ngsl, http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org/) que los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera de nivel b2 (marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas: aprendizaje, enseñanza, evaluación, 2002) desconocen, y que se consideran fundamentales en el estadio lingüístico en el que se encuentran. la tarea se llevó a cabo con un cuestionario de familiaridad (escala likert: 1-5). como también se deseaba comprobar cuán bien representado estaba el léxico en el libro de texto de los estudiantes (haines y stewart, 2008), se sometió este material a un programa que informa del tipo de palabras a la vez que lo cuantifica (vocabprofile, http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/). este conocimiento permite centrar la atención del profesor en un léxico específico y realizar distintas actividades para lograr una mayor exposición al mismo (horst, cobb y meara, 1998; waring y takaki, 2003; webb, 2007). a la vez, permite complementar el libro de texto con escritos del ámbito académico, que es donde se detectaron mayores deficiencias. los resultados de esta investigación beneficiarán a los estudiantes, debido al conocimiento que el profesor adquiere sobre el vocabulario específico que se debe desarrollar, las actividades más apropiadas, y la necesidad de proporcionar diferentes contextos en los que aparezcan los términos que hay que aprender; especialmente aquellos en los que se produce un lenguaje más científico y académico. palabras clave: inglés, vocabulario, vocabulario académico, enseñanza del léxico, aprendizaje léxico. abstract e n g l i s h v o c ab ul ar y ad a pt ati on to th e ne e d s of th e s tu de n ts the aim of this article is to identify the academic (nawl, http://www. newacademicwordlist.org/, bauman y culligan, 1995) and most frequent words adaptación del léxico del inglés a las necesidades de los estudiantes maría jesús sánchez1 y alfredo fernández-sánchez2 universidad de salamanca (españa) 1mjs@usal.es & 2a.fernandez@usal.es 133 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 133 ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152 m. jesús sánchez & a. fernández-sánchez (ngsl, http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org/) that our students do not know; vocabulary which is considered fundamental at our students’ linguistic stage (b2 level, marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas: aprendizaje, enseñanza, evaluación, 2002). the task was carried out through a familiarity questionnaire (likert scale of 1-5). we also wanted to check how well the lexicon was represented in the textbook used by our students (haines & stewart, 2008) and, therefore, this material was submitted to a program that provides information about the type of words and quantifies it (vocabprofile, http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/). this knowledge allows the teacher to focus on a specific vocabulary and carry out different activities within the classroom for a greater exposure, which is essential for learning (horst, cobb & meara, 1998; waring & takaki, 2003; webb, 2007). meanwhile it allows the implementation of the textbook with academic texts, which is where major deficiencies were detected. the results of this research will benefit the students, due to the knowledge that the teacher acquires about the specific vocabulary to be developed, the appropriate activities, and the necessity of providing different contexts where the terms to be learned appear; especially those in which academic and scientific language is produced. keywords: english, vocabulary, academic vocabulary, vocabulary teaching, lexical learning. 1. introducción en este estudio se examina el tipo y la cantidad de vocabulario que se encuentra en los libros de texto. aunque sólo se analiza parte del léxico de un libro de texto de nivel b2 (marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas: aprendizaje, enseñanza, evaluación, 2002) los datos cuantitativos y cualitativos obtenidos junto con la base bibliográfica que se maneja (jiménez catalán y mancebo francisco, 2008; criado y sánchez, 2009; brown, 2011; hsieh, wang y lee, 2011; o’loughlin, 2012; fernández orío, 2014) llevan al frecuente y poco apropiado tratamiento del léxico en los libros de texto y a la consecuente imposibilidad de confiar en los materiales presentados en los mismos. 2. revisión bibliográfica 2.1. revisión bibliográfica sobre el léxico el aprendizaje léxico, tanto incidental como intencional, ha sido objeto de estudio por parte de numerosos investigadores en las últimas décadas 134 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 134 (nation, 1990; laufer y nation, 1995; meara, lightbown y halter, 1997; hill 2000; meara y fitzpatrick, 2000; nation, 2001; muncie, 2002; morris y cobb, 2004; horst, cobb y nicolae, 2005; meara, 2005; pigada y schmitt, 2006; coxhead, 2010; pellicer-sánchez y schmitt, 2010). en sus publicaciones, estos autores discuten aspectos relevantes en relación a este área, los cuales en muchas ocasiones tienen que ver con lenguaje escrito y, por lo tanto, con uno que tiende a ser más académico (muncie, 2002; pigada y schmitt, 2006; pellicer-sánchez y schmitt, 2010). asimismo, el tipo de aprendizaje del que hablan es muy extenso, pues puede abarcar tanto a distintos niveles como a distintos tipos de estudiantes (o’loughlin, 2012). una gran parte de las publicaciones se centra en la cantidad y el tipo de léxico que los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera deben conocer dependiendo del estadio de aprendizaje de la lengua en el que se encuentren (nation, 2001). también, la cantidad de términos nuevos que deben aparecer y el procedimiento para medir la riqueza léxica (laufer, 1989; laufer y nation, 1995), así como la importancia de la riqueza contextual y de la frecuencia (hu, 2013). la publicación de nation (2014) es relevante en el campo porque abre nuevas formas de considerar el aprendizaje léxico, ya que establece una división del léxico por niveles. también reitera la importancia de la frecuencia, aspecto relevante para este estudio. todas estas ideas conducen a cuestiones relevantes que hacen pensar en diversos aspectos léxicos de los libros de texto, entre ellos se pueden mencionar: el tipo de léxico que encontramos en ellos, los términos que nuestros estudiantes dominan o desconocen, cómo se distribuyen los términos, si hay una mayor preocupación por la forma que por el contenido, etc. conocimiento que puede contribuir a poner remedio a situaciones léxicas deficitarias que, en parte, pueden estar provocadas por el material con el que se trabaja en el aula, ya que los autores de los libros de texto con gran frecuencia no ponen en práctica los resultados de las investigaciones que tratan el aprendizaje del vocabulario en l2 (lópez jiménez, 2014). 2.2. revisión bibliográfica sobre los libros de texto las preocupaciones de los investigadores sobre el léxico de los libros de texto se plasman en estudios como el de jiménez catalán y mancebo francisco (2008), criado y sánchez (2009), brown (2011), hsieh et al., (2011), fernández orío (2014), y lópez jiménez (2014) entre otros. los resultados obtenidos en algunas de las investigaciones (hsieh et al., 2011; o’loughlin, 2012) revelan que los libros de texto son deficientes como adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152 135 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 135 material de enseñanza. en ellos se echa en falta criterios sistemáticos en cuanto al número de palabras y al tipo de vocabulario que deben incluir (jiménez catalán y mancebo francisco, 2008; lópez-jiménez, 2014). por ello, se deben analizar con el fin de potenciar los puntos fuertes y descubrir de qué modo se pueden complementar. en el caso de hsieh et al. (2011: 13) estos autores encuentran resultados muy positivos con historias y con lectura independiente, ya que a través de este trabajo los niños pasaron como ellos dicen “from nearly zero english to the independent reading stage”. o’loughlin (2012) además recomienda, junto a un material de lectura apropiado, la enseñanza de estrategias eficaces de aprendizaje léxico. en el análisis realizado por lópez jiménez (2014), posiblemente de gran utilidad para los autores de libros de texto por las indicaciones de índole práctico que ofrece, se observa que la práctica del vocabulario tiende a ser tradicional debido al tipo de ejercicio que suele encontrarse en los libros (mayoritariamente abierto o cerrado), a la ausencia de estrategias de aprendizaje, al uso abusivo de agrupaciones semánticas y al insuficiente reciclaje del vocabulario. en la misma vena léxica, la investigación de fernández orío (2014) da cuenta de las diferencias y similitudes que existen en la distribución del léxico de los distintos manuales que se examinan. el estudio muestra un nivel de coincidencia alto entre las dimensiones de conocimiento léxico: semántica, sintáctica, conceptual, referencial y contexual. no obstante, se observan diferencias en cuanto al número de actividades y al rango de las dimensiones. esta información es relevante para el análisis del conocimiento léxico que subyace a las actividades que presentan los libros de texto, el cual probablemente se espera que vaya más allá de la forma de la palabra, del significado y de la función gramatical y que alcance paulatinamente un nivel de procesamiento profundo. en relación a este tema también es importante la aportación de brown (2011), quien analiza a qué aspectos del conocimiento léxico deben prestar atención los libros de texto, ideas que conllevan cambios en las actividades de los mismos. en su estudio se concluye que para conseguir un dominio léxico hay que facilitar actividades en las que haya que discriminar entre palabras similares y que permitan la realización de asociaciones, así como proporcionar repetidos encuentros, es decir, el número de veces que se debe encontrar una palabra para su aprendizaje (zahar, cobb y spada, 2001). como se ha comprobado en la literatura al respecto, la exposición variada a los términos es esencial para el aprendizaje de los mismos. así, saragi, nation y meister (1978) hablan de la m. jesús sánchez & a. fernández-sánchez ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152136 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 136 necesidad de encontrar la palabra en diez ocasiones; nation (1982) proporciona una cifra mayor y dice que dieciséis encuentros es un número corriente en la literatura que trata este tema. jenkins, stein y wisocki (1984) hallan que el 25% de los discentes realmente aprenden el léxico después de encontrarlo diez veces. herman, anderson, pearson y nagy (1987) afirman que para la plena adquisición de una palabra se necesitan veinte encuentros. horst et al. (1998) mencionan diez. waring y takaki (2003) dicen que puede ser necesario encontrar cada término incluso en más de veinte ocasiones diferentes. webb (2007) se sitúa en la misma línea que varios de los autores mencionados anteriormente, ya que se muestra favorable a que se faciliten más de diez encuentros para que se produzca el aprendizaje léxico. aunque no se ha alcanzado un consenso en cuanto al número adecuado, por lo general se piensa que son necesarios seis encuentros o más para poder comprender plenamente el espectro semántico de cada término y su relación con otros. se manejan las ideas de que cuanto mayor sea la exposición mayor será la probabilidad de aprender el término (jiménez catalán y francisco mancebo, 2008), y que éste se interiorizará mucho mejor si las repeticiones permiten encontrarlo de manera diferente a como se ha visto antes (lópezjiménez, 2014). estudios recientes sugieren que además de la cantidad de exposición con las palabras también hay que considerar qué tareas hacen los estudiantes con las palabras (laufer y rozovski-roitblat, 2015). algunas investigaciones (webb, 2005; folse, 2006; lee y hirsh, 2012) han examinado los dos aspectos a la vez (encuentros/tareas) y las conclusions no son claras. en la investigación llevada a cabo por folse (2006) y lee y hirsh (2012) el número de encuentros es más relevante para el aprendizaje que la tarea que se realiza, cosa que no ocurre en la de webb (2005). es interesante considerar ambos aspectos y ser conscientes de que se necesita más investigación en relación con este punto para saber con certeza qué aspecto influye más y en función de ello elaborar los materiales docentes. dado que se parte de que la instrucción explícita del vocabulario con actividades planificadas es útil para que se produzca el aprendizaje (zahar et al., 2001; milton, 2009), es muy probable que los diseñadores de materiales actuales tengan en mente técnicas de presentación del léxico. procurarán que las actividades lleven al profesor a exponer a los alumnos a textos relacionados en los que aparezca el léxico de cierta frecuencia (lópezjiménez, 2014), con el fin de que los estudiantes accedan en repetidas ocasiones a términos relacionados. también la investigación en el campo ha adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152 137 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 137 mostrado que es más conveniente la organización temática frente a la semántica porque, según la teoría de la interferencia (postman, 1961), a medida que la similitud entre la información que se tiene y lo que se ha de aprender aumenta, también aumenta la dificultad del aprendizaje. la investigación de sánchez (2003) es consistente con la de postman (1961) ya que aporta datos cuantitativos en los que se manifiesta un peor aprendizaje de los términos que se hallan más próximos dentro del campo semántico. en ella el aprendizaje de un término se ve dificultado por la interferencia que producen los que están muy próximos a él. la información que aporta la investigación sobre el aprendizaje léxico debe ser considerada por los escritores de materiales docentes en todo momento, y especialmente cuando incluyan términos de bandas que pueden estar fuera del conocimiento del estudiante. 3. objetivo general y específicos a diferencia de las investigaciones ya mencionadas, en este estudio se pretende identificar un material léxico que aúne las necesidades que tienen los alumnos con lo que les ofrece el propio libro de texto (first certificate. masterclass, haines y stewart, 2008). es decir, la realización de un análisis contrastivo minucioso del vocabulario exigido en el libro con el que realmente necesitan los estudiantes según su perfil. por ello, se propone como objetivo general de esta investigación el estudio del vocabulario que deben conocer según su libro, el cual es probable que contenga vocabulario de tres tipos: palabras de la nsgl, de la nawl y algunos tecnicismos. 1. un alto número de las 2.818 palabras de la new general service list (ngsl, http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org/, browne, culligan y phillips, 2013. versión 1.01 que cubre el 92% de textos generales del inglés), ampliación de la lista de 2.284 palabras de bauman y culligan (http://jbauman.com/aboutgsl.html, 1995). se piensa que los estudiantes, en el nivel que se encuentran en el estudio de la lengua inglesa (b2, marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas: aprendizaje, enseñanza, evaluación, 2002) deben conocer todos estos términos (nation, 2001). de hecho, es muy probable que dominen la mayor parte debido a que aparecen en contextos muy diversos y en repetidas ocasiones. la frecuencia facilita la adquisición de los mismos y, por supuesto, está ligada al nivel lingüístico del m. jesús sánchez & a. fernández-sánchez ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152138 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 138 estudiante. como dicen zahar et al. (2001: 13), “… weaker learners are indeed more dependent on frequency than stronger ones…”, razón por la que puede ser que estos estudiantes no dependan tanto de este tipo de vocabulario. 2. gran parte de los términos que se encuentran en la new academic word list (nawl, http://www.newacademicwordlist.org/). antes de la nawl hubo una primera academic word list (awl, averil coxhead, 2000), la cual contiene 570 familias de palabras entre las que no se hallan las del gsl, que sustituyó a la university word list (xue y nation, 1984). la nawl es una lista de términos académicos que contiene 963 palabras obtenidas de un corpus académico de 288 millones de palabras. provienen principalmente del cambridge english corpus, que cubre un amplio rango de temas y disciplinas con textos de revistas y libros académicos del reino unido y de estados unidos. es importante recalcar que la combinación de las dos nuevas listas, ngsl/nawl, da cuenta de un 5% más de texto que el de las listas antiguas, gsl/awl, (wikipedia.org/wiki/new_general_service_ list), razón por la que se utilizarán éstas (ngsl/nawl) en parte de esta investigación. se piensa que los estudiantes probablemente presenten un mayor desconocimiento en el vocabulario de la lista nawl que en los términos de la ngsl por pertenecer a ámbitos y registros con los quizás no estén muy familiarizados. 3. en menor grado, algunos tecnicismos. normalmente, por su origen, frecuentemente del latín o del griego, creemos que éstos no representan un problema para nuestros estudiantes. el parecido con la lengua materna hace que la dificultad esté más bien en el concepto que en la forma, ya que a veces este vocabulario científico puede resultar familiar mientras que los conceptos no. la carencia conceptual, cuando se trate con textos más técnicos, quizá se pueda solucionar trabajando el aspecto semántico de ciertos lexemas (fernández de bobadilla, 2004). el conocimiento del vocabulario más frecuente del inglés, junto con el académico, permite a los estudiantes comprender aproximadamente el 90% de un texto. esta idea se desprende de las palabras de nation (2001: 17-18): “with a vocabulary of 2,000 words, approximately one word in every five will be unknown. with a vocabulary of 2,000 words plus the academic word adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152 139 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 139 list, approximately one word in every ten will be unknown”. si además se conocen ciertos tecnicismos, los cuales suponen el 10% del texto, se puede pensar en el aprendizaje de los propios textos mediante la inferencia. si esto sucede así, sólo se desconoce, como mucho, una palabra de cada veinte, lo que hace que sea el vocabulario mínimo al que se debe aspirar en el nivel en el que se encuentran nuestros estudiantes, ya que dispondrían “de un amplio vocabulario sobre asuntos relativos a su especialidad y sobre temas más generales”, como estipula el marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas: aprendizaje, enseñanza, evaluación (2002: 109) para los estudiantes del nivel b2. a partir de las ideas manejadas han surgido dos objetivos específicos, íntimamente ligados: (i) comprobar si los términos del libro de texto están bien representados en relación al léxico de las listas gsl y awl (nivel de coincidencia). se usan estos listados, y no los del ngsl y nawl (a pesar de que éstos contengan más palabras), porque el programa que discrimina entre léxico académico y de gran frecuencia (vocabprofile, http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/comp/) trabaja exclusivamente con este léxico. la elección se justifica por los medios técnicos de los que se dispone así como por el convencimiento de que los resultados no serían significativamente diferentes si se hubieran utilizado los listados ngsl y nawl. (ii) identificar los términos de los listados ngsl y nawl (más amplios que los gsl y awl) con los que los estudiantes están poco familiarizados, y comprobar si éstos aparecen frecuentemente en el libro de texto. en el caso de que esto no suceda así, esta información se utilizará en el futuro para aplicar instrucción específica de los términos menos conocidos. (iii) dar cuenta de “otras palabras” (off-list terms) que no pertenecen ni a la gsl ni a la awl, es decir, tecnicismos y nombres propios. los resultados que se pueden obtener son de carácter cuantitativo y también cualitativo, adquiriéndose así información sobre el porcentaje de términos (cuantitativo) y el tipo de léxico (cualitativo) que precisa enseñanza, es decir, si debe estar más orientado hacia un uso con términos generales del inglés, y por ello más frecuentes, o a un uso más académico. así mismo, se da cuenta m. jesús sánchez & a. fernández-sánchez ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152140 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 140 de la distribución de “otras palabras” por franjas de frecuencia y se analiza qué franja puede ser de interés de cara a la docencia y al aprendizaje de los términos. 4. método 4.1. procedimiento parte del libro de texto de los estudiantes se sometió al programa vocabprofile (http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/comp/) con el fin de obtener información cuantitativa (número total de palabras y número de palabras diferentes) y cualitativa (tipo de vocabulario). a través de él se obtuvo información sobre el vocabulario de las listas: (i) gsl: palabras k1 (primeras mil palabras más frecuentes del inglés) y palabras k2 (segundas mil palabras más frecuentes del inglés) (ii) awl (vocabulario académico) (i) otras palabras (tecnicismos y nombres propios) como también se deseaba conocer, mediante una metodología cuantitativa, con qué términos de los listados ngsl y nawl estaban familiarizados los estudiantes se midió el grado de familiaridad mediante una escala likert con cinco niveles de respuesta. se consideró que era el mejor método para captar el sentir de los estudiantes con datos cuantitativos fáciles de analizar, y que, al contar con un número considerable de participantes las respuestas de los menos interesados, no pondrían en peligro la validez de la investigación. a los participantes se les pidió que valoraran los términos en una escada de “nada” (valorado con un 1) a “totalmente familiar” (con un 5). una vez hallada la media de cada término se pudo realizar una gradación de los mismos y extraer aquéllos que se deberían trabajar en el aula para su aprendizaje. en este caso se decidió, con la ayuda de varios colegas que imparten clase en el nivel con el que se trabaja, que habría que enfatizar la docencia léxica en aquellos términos que obtuvieran una media inferior a 3. en estudios que utilizan este tipo de escala un alto grado de familiaridad en los términos se correlaciona con el conocimiento de los mismos. por ello, se pensó que aquellos cuya media fuera inferior a 3 precisarían docencia formal, ya que probablemente se necesite una media mayor para asegurar, no sólo el adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152 141 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 141 reconocimiento de los términos, sino la plena comprensión y la correcta producción de los mismos, fin que persiguen las personas involucradas en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, en este caso los profesores y los diseñadores de materiales educativos. 4.2. muestra para la valoración de los términos de la ngsl y de la nawl se contó con estudiantes del grado de estudios ingleses matriculados en la universidad de salamanca en “lengua inglesa i”, asignatura semestral de primer año impartida en el primer semestre de clase, en la que se comienza con un nivel b2 (marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas: aprendizaje, enseñanza, evaluación, 2002). se asume que el nivel de conocimiento de la lengua inglesa consolidado cuando se matriculan los estudiantes es b1, que es el que se exige al finalizar el bachillerato y en las pruebas de acceso a la universidad. participaron libremente en la tarea que se les pidió y se les ofreció crédito extra por su colaboración. juzgaron el grado de familiaridad con los términos de la nawl 25 estudiantes de un grupo, de éstos 19 eran mujeres y 6 varones y tenían una media de edad de 19,2 años. lo mismo hicieron otros 25 estudiantes, 21 mujeres y 4 varones, con una media de edad de 18,9 años, con los términos de la ngsl. los estudiantes valoraron durante el tiempo de clase los mismos términos, presentados éstos de manera contrabalanceada, es decir, se mostraron en distinto orden para que el hecho de que un término apareciera al principio o al final no influyera en su juicio. como los listados eran largos, y el cansancio podía poner en peligro los resultados, se realizaron varias pausas mientras completaban la tarea de juzgar el grado de familiaridad con el léxico de los listados. estos momentos se ocuparon en ejecutar tareas breves distractoras relacionadas con el contenido de clase. 4.3. material el material léxico utilizado fue el listado nawl (http://www. newacademicwordlist.org/) y el ngsl (http://www.newgeneralservicelist. org/, brown, culligan y phillips, 2013). también el vocabulario que aparece en el libro de texto first certificate. masterclass (haines y stewart, 2008) en las seis primeras unidades, que es lo que se cubre en la asignatura de lengua inglesa ya mencionada. el recurso informático del que nos servimos para facilitar el trabajo fue el programa vocabprofile (http://www. lextutor.ca/vp/comp/), que cuantifica y discrimina entre léxico académico m. jesús sánchez & a. fernández-sánchez ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152142 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 142 (awl) y de gran frecuencia (gsl, k1 y k2). también el vocabprofile compleat (http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/comp/), que proporciona la distribución del léxico por franjas de frecuencia. 5. resultados y discusión las seis unidades del libro de texto digitalizadas (first certificate. masterclass, haines y stewart, 2008) se sometieron al programa vocabprofile (http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/comp/), recurso informático que realiza un análisis léxico de los textos dividiendo las palabras en cuatro categorías según la información que proporciona el documento “some research uses of vocabpropfile (vp)” (http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/research.html). (i) las 1.000 palabras más frecuentes del inglés (gsl, k1) (ii) las segundas 1.000 palabras más frecuentes del inglés (gsl, k2) (iii) palabras académicas del inglés frecuentes en textos académicos de diferentes materias (awl) (iv) el resto de palabras que no se encuentra en las otras listas (mayoritariamente tecnicismos y nombres propios) este programa arrojó información de gran utilidad sobre la cantidad y el tipo de vocabulario utilizado en la investigación, como se ve en la siguiente tabla (tabla 1). la tabla indica que en el libro de texto hay 28.741 palabras en total (tokens), de las cuales 3.670 son distintas (types), aunque pueden incluir palabras derivadas. también da información sobre la distribución de las dos mil primeras palabras de mayor frecuencia del inglés, las cuales forman parte de las que se encuentran en el ngsl. como es normal en los estudios cuantitativos que tratan con el léxico (laufer y nation, 1995; meara et al., adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152 143 adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): …-… 4.3. material el material léxico utilizado fue el listado nawl (http://www.newacademicwordlist.org/) y el ngsl (http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org/, brown, culligan y phillips, 2013). también el vocabulario que aparece en el libro de texto first certificate. masterclass (haines y stewart, 2008) en las seis primeras unidades, que es lo que se cubre en la asignatura de lengua inglesa ya mencionada. el recurso informático del que nos servimos para facilitar el trabajo fue el programa vocabprofile (http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/comp/), que cuantifica y discrimina entre léxico académico (awl) y de gran frecuencia (gsl, k1 y k2). también el vocabprofile compleat (http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/comp/), que proporciona la distribución del léxico por franjas de frecuencia. 5. resultados y discusión las seis unidades del libro de texto digitalizadas (first certificate. masterclass, haines y stewart, 2008) se sometieron al programa vocabprofile (http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/comp/), recurso informático que realiza un análisis léxico de los textos dividiendo las palabras en cuatro categorías según la información que proporciona el documento “some research uses of vocabpropfile (vp)” (http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/research.html). (i) las 1.000 palabras más frecuentes del inglés (gsl, k1) (ii) las segundas 1.000 palabras más frecuentes del inglés (gsl, k2) (iii) palabras académicas del inglés frecuentes en textos académicos de diferentes materias (awl) (iv) el resto de palabras que no se encuentra en las otras listas (mayoritariamente tecnicismos y nombres propios) este programa arrojó información de gran utilidad sobre la cantidad y el tipo de vocabulario utilizado en la investigación, como se ve en la siguiente tabla (tabla 1). familias (families) tipos (types) ocurrencias (tokens) porcentajes k1 palabras (1-1000) 798 1667 23930 83,26% k2 palabras (1001-2000) 467 729 2137 7,44% palabras awl 239 350 878 3,05% otras palabras (off-list) ? 924 1796 6,25% total 1504+? 3670 28741 100% tabla 1. tipo de léxico del libro de texto según el programa vocabprofile 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 143 1997; meara y fitzpatrick, 2000; cobb y morris, 2004) abundan las palabras que se encuentran entre las 1.000 más frecuentes del inglés (83,26%), seguidas de las siguientes mil palabras más frecuentes (7,44%). en cuanto a las palabras o términos académicos estas arrojan un porcentaje del 3,05% y “otras palabras” (tecnicismos) un 6,25%. para guiarnos en la interpretación de los datos que presenta la tabla 1 los autores del vocabprofile (http:// www.lextutor.ca/vp/) comentan que un resultado típico en cualquier texto es 70-10-10-10, es decir, el 70% de las primeras mil palabras más frecuentes del inglés, el 10% de las segundas mil palabras de mayor frecuencia, el 10% de vocabulario académico, y el 10% de “otras palabras”. estos porcentajes pueden ser apropiados para un nivel b2, porque permite que los estudiantes traten asuntos relacionados con su especialidad y con temas generales (marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas: aprendizaje, enseñanza, evaluación, 2002: 109). si sumamos los porcentajes obtenidos para los términos más frecuentes (palabras k1+k2) tenemos un 90,69% (83,26%+7,44%). la observación que se puede hacer al respecto es que los términos más frecuentes del inglés están muy bien representados en el libro de texto. no ocurre lo mismo ni con los términos de la awl ni con los tecnicismos, ya que están muy lejos de alcanzar el 10% ideal que señalábamos antes. en el caso de los tecnicismos el porcentaje puede ser incluso algo menor porque en este mismo grupo están también incluidos los nombre propios. los términos que se encuentran bajo la denominación “otras palabras” se sometieron al vocabprofile (compleat), el cual proporciona la distribución de palabras por frecuencia (k1=primeras mil palabras más frecuentes, k2=segundas mil palabras más frecuentes, y así hasta llegar a k-25), y se halló que pertenecen a las dos mil palabras más frecuentes del inglés aproximadamente la cuarta parte (24,76%). en la tabla que se proporciona a continuación (tabla 2) se muestra la distribución del léxico de las franjas 1 a 6 (k1 a k6), lo que supone el 58,63% del total de “otras palabras”. m. jesús sánchez & a. fernández-sánchez ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152144 adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): …-… familias (families) tipos (types) ocurrencias (tokens) porcentaje acumulado de ocurrencias k1 palabras (1-1000) 53 66 136 (7,55%) 7,55% k2 palabras (1001-2000) 111 138 310 (17,21%) 24,76% k3 palabras (2001-3000) 95 129 257 (14,27) 39,03% k4 palabras (3001-4000) 80 91 134 (7,44) 46,47% k5 palabras (4001-5000) 69 72 131 (7,27%) 53,74 k6 palabras (5001-6000) 38 43 88 (4,89%) 58,63% total 1504+? 924 1796 100% tabla 2. distribución de las seis mil primeras palabras del léxico del libro de texto “otras palabras” (vocabprofile compleat). a continuación se expone una figura (figura 1) en la que se visualiza la distribución léxica de “otras palabras” en las 25 franjas de frecuencia. figura 1. distribución de las palabras del léxico del libro de texto “otras palabras” (vocabprofile compleat). se observa que a medida que la frecuencia disminuye también disminuyen las ocurrencias y que las palabras se aglutinan principalmente en las seis primeras franjas de frecuencia. considerando que es posible que las palabras de las dos primeras franjas sean las más conocidas por los estudiantes, merece la pena ser especialmente cuidadoso con el diseño de materiales en los que se visualicen y manipulen las palabras que se encuentran entre la franja k3 y k6. probablemente menos conocidas que las de las franjas anteriores y todavía de cierta importancia, ya que suponen el 33,87%. es muy probable que el resto de léxico, el que se encuentra en franjas de menor frecuencia que la k6 (41,37%), no cuente con muchas ocurrencias o con posibilidad de reciclaje, con lo cual no sería tan interesante desde el punto de vista del aprendizaje dedicar esfuerzos a la presentación de este vocabulario. a continuación, como resumen de la situación, se muestra visualmente el porcentaje léxico esperado (laufer y nation, 1995; meara et al., 1997; meara y fitzpatrick, 2000; cobb y morris, 2004) y el que aparece en el libro de texto de los estudiantes (figura 2). ( sarbalpak1 (1-1000) 53 1001(sarbalpak2 -2000) 111 1002(sarbalpak3 -3000) 95 1003(sarbalpak4 4000) 80 n óadaptaci sailimfa ( seilimfa ) posti ( spetytype ) icnerruoc ( nsetok 53 66 )55%7,(136 111 138 )21%17,(310 95 129 27)14,(257 80 91 44)7,(134 céxildeln séglniledo sai ns) ejatnecrpo e doadlumacu sainceruroc 55%7, 76%24, 03%39, 47%46, 1003(sarbalpak4 -4000) 80 1004(sarbalpak5 -5000) 69 1005(sarbalpak6 -6000) 38 altot 1504+? atabl 2. msiessalednóicubirtsdi enopxeesnóicaunitnoca pasarto“deacxiélón ibucirtsdi 80 91 44)7,(134 69 72 )27%7,(131 38 43 )89%4,(88 1504+? 924 1796 arbalapsaremirplim de o brildelco éxildels ( t)aelpmcoeliffiorropbacvo )t . alne)1arugif(aruganu desanja25 saln e”sabralpa 47%46, 7453, 63%58, 100% oextt ”sarblaa psatr“o eseuq alaziluasvi aincuecer . 1.a gurfi dsarbalapsalednóicubirtsdi uqadidemaeuqavresbose sarbalapsarto“otxetedorbilledocixélled eyunimsidaicneuceale mta (”s taelpmcoelpbacvo ). slaneyuinmisdniébm uqadidemaeuqavresbose abralpasalquey sainceruroc disnoc.aicneucefredsaafr sámsaln aessanjasaremipr ncoosoaddicue tenmalecipes esesarbalapsalnelupinma aledsaleuqsadiconocsonme squeya 87%33,len upone . es enme dasena rtencuen pnocosaicnerrucosahcmu tonupl eedsedtenasertein eyunimsidaicneuceale mta entemlpainciprn naiutglaessa saleuqelbisopseeuqodnared sentauditseoslporsdaionoccs solenesalieratme doeñsideln 3kaaalertnenartneucnee daívadotyseroiretnasaasa otserleeuqelbaborpyumes 3,14(6ka le a cienecuroen noc,elcicereddadilibisop dtaisved edde zajidenrapel slaneyuinmisdniébm saremiprsiessaln e sodsaledsarbalaps npealecerem,s ersa ycenialusive se s etnmeelbaborp.6ky aicnatrompiatreiced , eseuqle,ocixéled ncoe tencuon,)%73 nataíresonlaucol a la szoerescaried abulavocetsedeón icantesepr museromoc,nóicaunitnoca l(do arpeseo cxiélentecpor omybboc;0002,kcirtapztfi steniadtus eslo )2raugi(f . ibér o.ira eumes,nóicautisalednem earaem1995;on,itany ral sirro neecerapaeuql ey)4002, 32ca ibér 610(2 ): …-… 11 leetnemlausivartse y araem1997;,.late edtoxteedorlibl en 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 144 a continuación se expone una figura (figura 1) en la que se visualiza la distribución léxica de “otras palabras” en las 25 franjas de frecuencia. se observa que a medida que la frecuencia disminuye también disminuyen las ocurrencias y que las palabras se aglutinan principalmente en las seis primeras franjas de frecuencia. considerando que es posible que las palabras de las dos primeras franjas sean las más conocidas por los estudiantes, merece la pena ser especialmente cuidadoso con el diseño de materiales en los que se visualicen y manipulen las palabras que se encuentran entre la franja k3 y k6. probablemente menos conocidas que las de las franjas anteriores y todavía de cierta importancia, ya que suponen el 33,87%. es muy probable que el resto de léxico, el que se encuentra en franjas de menor frecuencia que la k6 (41,37%), no cuente con muchas ocurrencias o con posibilidad de reciclaje, con lo cual no sería tan interesante desde el punto de vista del aprendizaje dedicar esfuerzos a la presentación de este vocabulario. a continuación, como resumen de la situación, se muestra visualmente el porcentaje léxico esperado (laufer y nation, 1995; meara et al., 1997; meara y fitzpatrick, 2000; cobb y morris, 2004) y el que aparece en el libro de texto de los estudiantes (figura 2). adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152 145 adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): …-… tabla 2. distribución de las seis mil primeras palabras del léxico del libro de texto “otras palabras” (vocabprofile compleat). a continuación se expone una figura (figura 1) en la que se visualiza la distribución léxica de “otras palabras” en las 25 franjas de frecuencia. figura 1. distribución de las palabras del léxico del libro de texto “otras palabras” (vocabprofile compleat). se observa que a medida que la frecuencia disminuye también disminuyen las ocurrencias y que las palabras se aglutinan principalmente en las seis primeras franjas de frecuencia. considerando que es posible que las palabras de las dos primeras franjas sean las más conocidas por los estudiantes, merece la pena ser especialmente cuidadoso con el diseño de materiales en los que se visualicen y manipulen las palabras que se encuentran entre la franja k3 y k6. probablemente menos conocidas que las de las franjas anteriores y todavía de cierta importancia, ya que suponen el 33,87%. es muy probable que el resto de léxico, el que se encuentra en franjas de menor frecuencia que la k6 (41,37%), no cuente con muchas ocurrencias o con posibilidad de reciclaje, con lo cual no sería tan interesante desde el punto de vista del aprendizaje dedicar esfuerzos a la presentación de este vocabulario. a continuación, como resumen de la situación, se muestra visualmente el porcentaje léxico esperado (laufer y nation, 1995; meara et al., 1997; meara y fitzpatrick, 2000; cobb y morris, 2004) y el que aparece en el libro de texto de los estudiantes (figura 2). ( sarbalpak1 (1-1000) 53 1001(sarbalpak2 -2000) 111 1002(sarbalpak3 -3000) 95 1003(sarbalpak4 4000) 80 n óadaptaci sailimfa ( seilimfa ) posti ( s) icnerruoc ( nsetok 53 66 )55%7,(136 111 138 )21%17,(310 95 129 27)14,(257 80 91 44)7,(134 céxildeln séglniledo sai ns) ejatnecrpo e doadlumacu sainceruroc 55%7, 76%24, 03%39, 47%46, 1003(sarbalpak4 -4000) 80 1004(sarbalpak5 -5000) 69 1005(sarbalpak6 -6000) 38 altot 1504+? atabl 2. msiessalednóicubirtsdi enopxeesnóicaunitnoca pasarto“deacxiélón ibucirtsdi 80 91 44)7,(134 69 72 )27%7,(131 38 43 )89%4,(88 1504+? 924 1796 arbalapsaremirplim de o brildelco éxildels ( aelpmcoelpbacvo . alne)1arugif(aruganu desanja25 saln e”sabralpa 47%46, 7453, 63%58, 100% oextt ”sarblaa psatr“o eseuq alaziluasvi aincuecer . 1.a gurfi dsarbalapsalednóicubirtsdi uqadidemaeuqavresbose sarbalapsarto“otxetedorbilledocixélled eyunimsidaicneuceale mta (”s taelpmcoeliffiorropbacvo ). slaneyuinmisdniébm uqadidemaeuqavresbose abralpasalquey sainceruroc disnoc.aicneucefredsaafr sámsaln aessanjasaremipr ncoosoaddicue tenmalecipes esesarbalapsalnelupinma aledsaleuqsadiconocsonme squeya 87%33,len upone . es enme dasena rtencuen pnocosaicnerrucosahcmu tonupl eedsedtenasertein eyunimsidaicneuceale mta entemlpainciprn naiutglaessa saleuqelbisopseeuqodnared sentauditseoslporsdaionoccs solenesalieratme doeñsideln 3kaaalertnenartneucnee daívadotyseroiretnasaasa otserleeuqelbaborpyumes 3,14(6ka le a cienecuroen noc,elcicereddadilibisop dtaisved edde zajidenrapel slaneyuinmisdniébm saremiprsiessaln e sodsaledsarbalaps npealecerem,s ersa ycenialusive se s etnmeelbaborp.6ky aicnatrompiatreiced , eseuqle,ocixéled ncoe tencuon,)%73 nataíresonlaucol a la szoerescaried abulavocetsedeón icantesepr museromoc,nóicaunitnoca l(do arpeseo cxiélentecpor omybboc;0002,kcirtapztfi steniadtus eslo )2raugi(f . ibér o.ira eumes,nóicautisalednem earaem1995;on,itany ral sirro neecerapaeuql ey)4002, 32ca ibér 610(2 ): …-… 11 leetnemlausivartse y araem1997;,.late edtoxteedorlibl en m. jesús sánchez y a. fernández-sánchez ibérica 32 (2016): …-… figura 2. porcentaje esperado y el porcentaje real del libro de texto. al realizar la comparación se aprecia fácilmente la falta de equivalencia entre el porcentaje de vocabulario del libro de texto y el esperado. en términos generales, se podría decir que los términos más frecuentes (gsl) de la primera franja están muy bien representados, lo cual no sucede con el resto del vocabulario. sería necesario diseñar más recursos pedagógicos y recalcar la importancia del vocabulario de tipo académico (awl) y de las franjas 3k-6k incluido bajo “otras palabras”. de este modo, los estudiantes podrían incrementar su repertorio léxico y producir y comprender, tanto de manera oral como escrita, cualquier texto en inglés. en relación al segundo objetivo de esta investigación se identificaron, a través del cuestionario de familiaridad que realizaron los estudiantes con el vocabulario de la ngsl y de la nawl, los términos específicos con los que los estudiantes estaban poco familiarizados. se detectaron 11 términos de la ngsl con una media <3 (0,39%, ver apéndice) en el grado de familiaridad. además se comprobó el número de veces que aparecían en el libro de texto (0), con lo cual, dado que no hay posibilidad de reciclaje, no se pueden aprender si no es mediante trabajo realizado fuera del ámbito de la educación formal. lo mismo se hizo con los términos de la nawl. en este caso se hallaron 139 términos (14,43%, ver apéndice) y se comprobó que 5 aparecen en el libro de texto con una ocurrencia nimia (1, 3, 2, 1, 1). por lo tanto, hay poca probabilidad de que se aprendan, ya que de nuevo no se facilita su reciclaje mediante repeticiones elaboradas (criado y sánchez, 2009; lópez-jiménez, 2014) ni que haya una exposición distribuida de los mismos (hu, 2013). con estos resultados, el profesor cuenta con una información que posiblemente sea útil a la hora de afrontar la docencia del léxico que conocen y deben dominar los alumnos de este m. ayzehcnássúsje . ezdánnfer ez-sánchez 2.a gurfi atnecrpo esnóicarapmocalrazilaeral bula voc deentecpor eldoiar nimréts oleuqricedaírdopse col,sodatneserperneibymu urcersámrñaesdio irasecne imdéacapo itdeo irabulavoc etseed.”sarbalapsart“o r icudropyocixéloriortepre edorbilledlaerejatnecropleyodarepseej edatlafaletnemlicaicerpae ne.oaderpeselyotexte dorbil (s etneuces áms on aled) edotserlenocedecusonlauc dapeossur raclacery oscgógi o ci 3sasaledy) rdopsetnaidutsesol,odom raenamedotnatr,ednrepmocy .otxete leertneaicnelaviuqe ,esalerengsonimértn nátsearaemripa aíres.oiralubacovle ldeaincatpormial k3 o do uilnci6k usratnemercninaír ricseomoclraora ta r icudropyocixéloriortepre .éslgnienotexteriuqalcu teoodnugeslanóicaleren dairailimafdeo ironaitsueclde alde ng aldey na lo, .sozadiariliamfcoopanabtes %93,0(3<aidme , v énpaer ecesve doermúnelóborpmco dailbiiposy hano quedo da eodazilaerobartetnaidme aldenosimrétoslon co zhi raenamedotnatr,ednrepmocy diesnóicagitsevniatseedovit entauditseoslon razilaerqued da lonocsocepsesoinmrtéslo dsonit11noarectetde s lie doadrgelence)idén e dorbilelenanecíarape uqeces te elcicerded da , n depueesno nóicacudealedotimbáledare a na . e haeso sacetsen ricseomoclraora , ta sévarta,noracitned o irabulavocleon cse steniadtusesloeuqslo a le d ng a nunco e sásemda.addiaril lauclonoc, )0(toxte , seno isrndeepran esmosmiol.lmar nosimrét139 on rallha 2 3aicréib 610(2 ): …-…12 %34,4(1 , v e syce)idénpaer 2,3,1,(aimniaincerurocuna oevune de uqa y,andenrap chánsyoadirc(asadroabel ez, ole da diubirtsidnóciisopex nfiunaon cantuecorspr coiéxlelda cicenoda lartno enecenarap5e uqóborpmco prapocy hao,ntato lorp.1)1, me ajclecirusa tilacife son ezpól;9002ez, 102,zenémji noc.)3102,uh(somsimso sentemebliposqueón icam arnimodenebdycenoncoe uqco ncootexte dorbilel esqueded dailbiobapr esnociietepre taniedm anuayaheuqin)41 el,soadtluesrsotes deahoralaliútaes ar teseedsonmluaslo m. jesús sánchez y a. fernández-sánchez ibérica 32 (2016): …-… figura 2. porcentaje esperado y el porcentaje real del libro de texto. al realizar la comparación se aprecia fácilmente la falta de equivalencia entre el porcentaje de vocabulario del libro de texto y el esperado. en términos generales, se podría decir que los términos más frecuentes (gsl) de la primera franja están muy bien representados, lo cual no sucede con el resto del vocabulario. sería necesario diseñar más recursos pedagógicos y recalcar la importancia del vocabulario de tipo académico (awl) y de las franjas 3k-6k incluido bajo “otras palabras”. de este modo, los estudiantes podrían incrementar su repertorio léxico y producir y comprender, tanto de manera oral como escrita, cualquier texto en inglés. en relación al segundo objetivo de esta investigación se identificaron, a través del cuestionario de familiaridad que realizaron los estudiantes con el vocabulario de la ngsl y de la nawl, los términos específicos con los que los estudiantes estaban poco familiarizados. se detectaron 11 términos de la ngsl con una media <3 (0,39%, ver apéndice) en el grado de familiaridad. además se comprobó el número de veces que aparecían en el libro de texto (0), con lo cual, dado que no hay posibilidad de reciclaje, no se pueden aprender si no es mediante trabajo realizado fuera del ámbito de la educación formal. lo mismo se hizo con los términos de la nawl. en este caso se hallaron 139 términos (14,43%, ver apéndice) y se comprobó que 5 aparecen en el libro de texto con una ocurrencia nimia (1, 3, 2, 1, 1). por lo tanto, hay poca probabilidad de que se aprendan, ya que de nuevo no se facilita su reciclaje mediante repeticiones elaboradas (criado y sánchez, 2009; lópez-jiménez, 2014) ni que haya una exposición distribuida de los mismos (hu, 2013). con estos resultados, el profesor cuenta con una información que posiblemente sea útil a la hora de afrontar la docencia del léxico que conocen y deben dominar los alumnos de este m. ayzehcnássúsje . ezdánnfer ez-sánchez 2.a gurfi atnecrpo esnóicarapmocalrazilaeral bula voc deentecpor eldoiar nimréts oleuqricedaírdopse col,sodatneserperneibymu urcersámrñaesdio irasecne imdéacapo itdeo irabulavoc etseed.”sarbalapsart“o r icudropyocixéloriortepre edorbilledlaerejatnecropleyodarepseej edatlafaletnemlicaicerpae ne.oaderpeselyotexte dorbil (s etneuces áms on aled) edotserlenocedecusonlauc dapeossur raclacery oscgógi o ci 3sasaledy) rdopsetnaidutsesol,odom raenamedotnatr,ednrepmocy .otxete leertneaicnelaviuqe ,esalerengsonimértn nátsearaemripa aíres.oiralubacovle ldeaincatpormial k3 o do uilnci6k usratnemercninaír ricseomoclraora ta r icudropyocixéloriortepre .éslgnienotexteriuqalcu teoodnugeslanóicaleren dairailimafdeo ironaitsueclde alde ng aldey na lo, .sozadiariliamfcoopanabtes %93,0(3<aidme , v énpaer ecesve doermúnelóborpmco dailbiiposy hano quedo da eodazilaerobartetnaidme aldenosimrétoslon co zhi raenamedotnatr,ednrepmocy diesnóicagitsevniatseedovit entauditseoslon razilaerqued da lonocsocepsesoinmrtéslo dsonit11noarectetde s lie doadrgelence)idén e dorbilelenanecíarape uqeces te elcicerded da , n depueesno nóicacudealedotimbáledare a na . e haeso sacetsen ricseomoclraora , ta sévarta,noracitned o irabulavocleon cse steniadtusesloeuqslo a le d ng a nunco e sásemda.addiaril lauclonoc, )0(toxte , seno isrndeepran esmosmiol.lmar nosimrét139 on rallha 2 3aicréib 610(2 ): …-…12 %34,4(1 , v e syce)idénpaer 2,3,1,(aimniaincerurocuna oevune de uqa y,andenrap chánsyoadirc(asadroabel ez, ole da diubirtsidnóciisopex nfiunaon cantuecorspr coiéxlelda cicenoda lartno enecenarap5e uqóborpmco prapocy hao,ntato lorp.1)1, me ajclecirusa tilacife son ezpól;9002ez, 102,zenémji noc.)3102,uh(somsimso sentemebliposqueón icam arnimodenebdycenoncoe uqco ncootexte dorbilel esqueded dailbiobapr esnociietepre taniedm anuayaheuqin)41 el,soadtluesrsotes deahoralaliútaes ar teseedsonmluaslo 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 145 al realizar la comparación se aprecia fácilmente la falta de equivalencia entre el porcentaje de vocabulario del libro de texto y el esperado. en términos generales, se podría decir que los términos más frecuentes (gsl) de la primera franja están muy bien representados, lo cual no sucede con el resto del vocabulario. sería necesario diseñar más recursos pedagógicos y recalcar la importancia del vocabulario de tipo académico (awl) y de las franjas 3k6k incluido bajo “otras palabras”. de este modo, los estudiantes podrían incrementar su repertorio léxico y producir y comprender, tanto de manera oral como escrita, cualquier texto en inglés. en relación al segundo objetivo de esta investigación se identificaron, a través del cuestionario de familiaridad que realizaron los estudiantes con el vocabulario de la ngsl y de la nawl, los términos específicos con los que los estudiantes estaban poco familiarizados. se detectaron 11 términos de la ngsl con una media <3 (0,39%, ver apéndice) en el grado de familiaridad. además se comprobó el número de veces que aparecían en el libro de texto (0), con lo cual, dado que no hay posibilidad de reciclaje, no se pueden aprender si no es mediante trabajo realizado fuera del ámbito de la educación formal. lo mismo se hizo con los términos de la nawl. en este caso se hallaron 139 términos (14,43%, ver apéndice) y se comprobó que 5 aparecen en el libro de texto con una ocurrencia nimia (1, 3, 2, 1, 1). por lo tanto, hay poca probabilidad de que se aprendan, ya que de nuevo no se facilita su reciclaje mediante repeticiones elaboradas (criado y sánchez, 2009; lópez-jiménez, 2014) ni que haya una exposición distribuida de los mismos (hu, 2013). con estos resultados, el profesor cuenta con una información que posiblemente sea útil a la hora de afrontar la docencia del léxico que conocen y deben dominar los alumnos de este nivel. guardando paralelismo con los resultados obtenidos en el primer objetivo de este estudio, el docente sabe que ha de complementar su docencia con las palabras menos conocidas por los estudiantes. en este empeño deberá proporcionar diferentes contextos que guarden relación, para así posibilitar la aparición de estos términos de manera distribuida en repetidas ocasiones. 6. conclusiones e implicaciones pedagógicas los resultados de esta investigación benefician tanto al profesor como a los profesionales que escriben los libros de texto por el conocimiento que adquieren, a diferencia de la información que se obtiene en otras m. jesús sánchez & a. fernández-sánchez ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152146 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 146 investigaciones, sobre deficiencias específicas en cuanto al tipo y número de términos que muestra el libro de texto examinado y las de los estudiantes. aunque es un análisis limitado, la metodología seguida se puede extender a la evaluación léxica de otros manuales. también puede cooperar en la labor de concienciar a los profesionales sobre la necesidad de prestar atención a la investigación (o’loughlin, 2012) que considera aspectos fundamentales sobre el léxico que deben estar presentes en los libros (ej. cantidad, tipo, modo de presentación, etc.) porque constituyen la base del aprendizaje de esta parcela de la lengua. es probable que su consideración permita evitar las lagunas que suelen producirse. todo esto podría repercutir de forma positiva en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, ya que los autores de los libros de texto pensarían en un mayor número de actividades donde apareciera el léxico identificado como deficitario, lo que posibilitaría el paso del reconocimiento a la producción del mismo. se cuenta con información específica sobre qué vocabulario se enseña y se debe enseñar en el nivel con el que se trabaja. por ello, habría que focalizar la atención, los recursos y el tiempo necesario para practicar términos académicos, parcela donde los estudiantes presentan mayores deficiencias. también puede ser conveniente dedicar esfuerzos a los que se encuentran entre las franjas 3k a 6k. todo este vocabulario, particularmente el académico, es fundamental porque es el que permite seguir y asimilar mejor el contenido de las clases de la carrera de estudios ingleses, a la vez que posibilita que los estudiantes se desenvuelvan adecuadamente en el ámbito académico. es posible que para conseguir una mayor eficacia en su enseñanza, el profesor se vea obligado a realizar modificaciones en la metodología utilizada. lo hará con vistas a que le permita proporcionar múltiples ocasiones en los que aparezca este léxico, ya que como señalan algunas investigaciones mencionadas a lo largo del trabajo, el número de veces que se encuentran las palabras es esencial para su aprendizaje. así mismo, la presentación habrá de organizarse de manera temática más que semántica porque esta última agrupación entorpece más que facilita el aprendizaje, debido a la interferencia producida por la proximidad de los términos. por tanto, es probable que para lograr un mayor desarrollo léxico haya que poner el énfasis en: (i) la presentación abundante de textos complementarios al libro con el que se trabaja para conseguir, de manera intencional, el desarrollo léxico. labor que se puede llevar a cabo en las adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152 147 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 147 actividades que se realizan en clase, posibilitando múltiples encuentros y creando la necesidad de utilizar el léxico de manera distribuida en diversos contextos (criado y sánchez, 2009). (ii) además de la lectura y de las diversas actividades relacionadas con la producción y comprensión oral encaminadas al desarrollo del léxico en el aula, también se debe fomentar la escritura. la ganancia, desde el punto de vista léxico, sería considerable, ya que es en el lenguaje escrito donde principalmente se da un lenguaje de corte más académico, más elaborado y probablemente más técnico. si se asignan temas ajenos a las experiencias personales, los estudiantes utilizarán un lenguaje más objetivo e impersonal, que estaría más próximo a expresiones y términos del ámbito académico y científico. una de las limitaciones de este estudio está en la identificación del vocabulario técnico que conocen los estudiantes de este nivel. aunque pensamos que en general los términos más frecuentes (k1-k2) son conocidos por nuestros estudiantes, no se puede asegurar que sea así para los términos que se encuentran entre las franjas k3 a k6, y mucho menos para el resto de franjas de menor frecuencia. por ello, en investigaciones futuras habría que comprobar el grado de conocimiento de los mismos con el fin de trabajarlos en mayor o menor profundidad. así mismo, dado que una posible deficiencia puede estar en el aspecto cualitativo de la investigación, por aportar quizá una visión parcial y generalista del tema, se podría añadir al procedimiento seguido preguntas que dieran más detalles sobre el léxico (ej. si se desconoce pero no completamente, si se ha visto en algún contexto, etc.). se piensa que los resultados de esta investigación se pueden extrapolar a estudiantes del mismo nivel (b2) con libros de texto diferentes. no obstante, sería deseable analizar, con la metodología llevada a cabo en este estudio, una amplia gama de los más utilizados en la enseñanza de este nivel. de este modo, se podría llegar a conclusiones sólidas sobre cuán adecuados son los libros de texto en relación al aprendizaje léxico. article history: received 19 noviembre 2015 received in revised form 06 febrero 2016 accepted 09 febrero 2016 m. jesús sánchez & a. fernández-sánchez ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152148 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 148 references adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152 149 bauman, j. y b. culligan (1995). “about the general service list”. url: http://jbauman.com/aboutgsl.html [13/06/2015] brown, d. 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(2003). “importancia de la composición de los campos semánticos en su aprendizaje”. miscelánea, 27: 229-248. saragi, t., p. nation y g. meister (1978). “vocabulary learning and reading”. system 6: 72-80. “some research uses of vocabprofile (vp).” url: http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/research.html [25/8/2015] vocabprofile. url: http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/comp / [27/6/2015] vocabprofile (compleat). url: http://www.lextutor. ca/vp/comp/ [20/1/2016] waring, r. y m. takaki (2003). “at what rate do learners learn and retain new vocabulary from reading a graded paper?” reading in a foreign language 15: 1-27. webb, s. (2005). “receptive and productive vocabulary learning”. studies in second language acquisition, 28: 46-65. webb, s. (2007). “the effects of repetition on vocabulary knowledge”. applied linguistics 28: 4665. doi: 10.1093/applin/aml048 wikipedia, url: org/wiki/new_general_service_ list [29/4/2015] xue, g. y i.s.p. nation (1984). “a university word list”. language learning and communication 3,2: 215-229. zahar, r., t. cobb y n. spada (2001). “acquiring vocabulary through reading: effects of frequency and contextual richness”. canadian modern language review 57,4: 541-573. web prepublication: url: http://www.lextutor.ca/cv/v_ conditions.htm, [2/1/2016]. m. jesús sánchez & a. fernández-sánchez ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152150 mª jesús sánchez obtuvo el título de máster en la u. de wisconsin y el doctorado en la u. de salamanca. enseña cursos de grado y de posgrado en la u. de salamanca. su investigación, empírica y aplicada, se centra en el aprendizaje y en la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera dentro de una perspectiva cognitiva. 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 150 alfredo fernández-sánchez obtuvo los títulos de máster en educación y en tics en la u. de salamanca. enseña cursos de inglés en la u. de salamanca, donde es a la vez estudiante de doctorado. sus temas de interés tienen que ver con el aprendizaje de idiomas extranjeros y herramientas informáticas que facilitan la enseñanza y aprendizaje de los mismos. appendix adaptación del léxico del inglés ibérica 32 (2016): 133-152 151 m. jesús sánchez y a. fernández-sánchez ibérica 32 (2016): …-… ngsl < 3 wage withdraw troop amendment mere bias vessel neglect reckon boundary shareholder nawl < 3 gram allocation pathway myth constrain span cattle marrow circa flip mole dilute likelihood assert fin liter consumption loop nonetheless headquarter node plausible offspring plug shallow sin scroll clay allocate vague flesh harvest decay fringe motif lung gradient realm nest liver reinforce scatter sponsorship thread slot subset auction straightforward usage leaf thickness bodily likewise confine conceive neat drain enforcement wheat hierarchy portrayal congruent utterance shuttle donor volition sustainable drift layout randomly wavelength contour rub axis embed slash barrel onset acute overlap surplus chunk cue swap niche depict bulk outer grasp rack valve lump hawk confound prey amino cord render merge encode slab beam marble randomize footnote strand stack uplift wisdom swell basin fiber upward splice helix bundle threshold ton gut array dose watershed grid flux whereby yeast onwards widespread damp thereby cone,cones gauge 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 151 06 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 152 iberica 13 ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract abstract concepts are frequently expressed in natural language by means of metaphors, metonymies and other types of figurative language. knowledge and appropriate use of these conceptual instances of actual language use by university graduates are related to l2 mastery, and therefore conceptual instruction is expected to facilitate l2 acquisition. the aim of this paper is to study esp higher-education students’ conceptual competence and its relationship to their overall l2 competence. an empirical study measures the students’ ability to recognize metaphors and metonymies, including demographic, sociological and individual factors (including the effect of the informal learning of english language by means of extra-curricular activities) as interpretive data on such reflective figurative language recognition. results indicate a significant difference in learners’ figurative language interpretation across academic disciplines. in addition, english language proficiency and age, together with two sociological factors (regular english-related leisure activities and speaking english on the phone) are significant factors in figurative language recognition in a specialised university context. age and leisure choices also turned out to be significant factors in figurative language identification and literal meaning choice. the findings of the present study have important implications for esp practitioners regarding the teaching of metaphors and metonymies to their students, as well as learners when practising extracurricular english-related activities. it seems of relevance to insert figurative language recognition and use into esp programs for l2/fl learners at all levels of english proficiency. keywords: metaphor, metonymy, figurative language, esp, higher education. analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language: the effect of individual factors and extracurricular activities antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez universidad de oviedo, spain jimenezantonio@uniovi.es, lahuerta@uniovi.es 179 ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez resumen análisis de la relación entre el nivel de competencia y la habilidad para identificar el lenguaje figurativo: el efecto de factores individuales y actividades extracurriculares los conceptos abstractos se expresan frecuentemente en la lengua por medio de metáforas, metonimias y otros tipos de lenguaje figurativo. el conocimiento y el uso apropiados de estos ejemplos conceptuales de uso real de la lengua por parte de estudiantes universitarios se relaciona con el dominio de la lengua segunda, o l2, y, por consiguiente, se espera que la instrucción conceptual facilite su adquisición. el objetivo de este artículo es estudiar la competencia conceptual de los estudiantes universitarios en un contexto de inglés para fines específicos (ife) y su relación con su competencia general en la l2. mediante un estudio empírico se mide la habilidad de los estudiantes para reconocer metáforas y metonimias, incluyendo factores demográficos, sociológicos e individuales (como el efecto del aprendizaje informal de la lengua inglesa por medio de actividades extracurriculares) entendidos como datos interpretativos acerca de esa capacidad de reconocimiento del lenguaje figurativo. los resultados muestran una diferencia significativa en la interpretación del lenguaje figurativo en diferentes disciplinas académicas. la competencia lingüística y la edad, junto con dos factores sociológicos (la realización continuada de actividades de ocio en lengua inglesa y el uso habitual del teléfono para hablar en inglés) son factores significativos en el reconocimiento del lenguaje figurativo. los resultados de este estudio tienen implicaciones pedagógicas relevantes respecto a la importancia de introducir el reconocimiento y el uso del lenguaje figurativo en los programas de ife en todos los niveles de competencia lingüística. también presenta implicaciones para los aprendices de lengua que realicen actividades frecuentes en inglés. palabras clave: metáfora, metonimia, lenguaje figurativo, ife, educación universitaria. 1. introduction as integral part of linguistic creativity, both metaphor and metonymy appear profusely in specialised language. they help highlight conceptual relations between entities and constitute a tool for effective communication of knowledge and research (prelli, 1989). metaphor has traditionally been defined within cognitive linguistics as a conceptual mapping where target and source domains do not have a common experiential superordinate domain (lakoff & turner, 1989, p. 103-104), working essentially through 180 domain substitution. on the other hand, metonymy has been considered more a cognitive apprehension of the relation between two concepts of particular relevance to communication (barcelona, 2003). the omnipresence of metaphor along with metonymy in specialised texts has been the object of frequent discourse research in the last decades, in fields such as engineering (berezin, 2018), physics (dalke, grobstein & mccormack, 2006), politics (arntfield, 2008), medicine (dosani, 2021), law (wojtczak & witczak-plisiecka, 2020) and technology (he, 2021), among other fields. these studies evidence that regardless of their potential nature as mappers, both metaphor and metonymy point at referents through iconic or indexical relations (panther, 2006, p. 148); these also replace source meaning with target meaning, and consequently displace the target frame or domain structure, which is important for the interpretation of a situation (lakoff & johnson, 1980). such figurative processes create pragmatic inferences, which the reader interprets within such a frame. when it comes to specialised texts and in english-based instruction to speakers of other languages, this would seemingly complicate the transmission of key concepts and data, as the conceptual frame is often unknown to learners. in l2 contexts, particularly in specialised domains, the nature of such figurative uses can be obscure to apprentices, as they often follow the received epistemological models in their fields of study (i.e., they may focus on particular terms rather than its context or its relation with other words), and language tends to be perceived as primarily literal or denotative. this perception actually distorts the position of language elements within the metonymy-metaphor continuum, and it prevents linking figurative and nonfigurative uses into a more comprehensive use of language as a richer tool for communication (jiménez muñoz & lahuerta martínez, 2017). as gibbs pointed out, “tropes in everyday conversation” are used because much of our “thinking is constrained by figurative processes” (1993, p. 253). this “figurative thinking” entails the “use of a query routine which assumes that an unknown expression might be figurative, or which asks what the implications of using a figurative expression might be” (2006, p. 6). this means that, while it may be true that understanding the literal meaning of a figurative expression is not needed a contextually appropriate interpretation, literal and figurative modes must be clearly set apart in the mind of the language user to avoid pragmatic misunderstandings. without a fundamental analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 181 grasp of this divide (i.e., when figurative expressions such as hot under the collar are taken literally), l2 learners would fail to understand contextual expressions or, conversely, mistakenly extend literal meanings beyond an adequate scope of application, thus resulting in likely communication breakdown. however, it has been noted in the literature that “how far language learners need to engage with the complexities” of figurative language to understand such “expressions remains unclear” (littlemore & low, 2006, p. 20). the study presented here attempts to shed some light on such an issue by linking how much l2 learners correctly identify as metaphor or metonymy to the potential individual reasons (such as language level, informal learning opportunities, such as pastimes and activities carried out in english) that may explain their performance. there has been virtually no research on such factors, and in those cases where the figurative ability of l2 users was explored (see next section) numbers have tended to be low and language proficiency markedly homogeneous. this study examines a large sample size of individual, demographic, and sociological factors, allowing for a more indepth analysis of metaphorical and metonymical competence and the potential reasons behind it (in particular, the role of language proficiency in the conscious choices made by learners, and its statistical comparison with other individual factors). additionally, it does so in a large spectrum of language ability (from beginner to proficient english competence) by asking participants to either identify expressions as literal/unique or adequately interpret a different context where such expressions would be suitable. this allows highlighting whether figurative thinking was at play in their choice, and it establishes not only a rate of successful metaphorical/metonymical interpretation, but also of the misidentification of figurative language as literal. therefore, it is possible to establish a correlation between their choices and the factors behind them, so that learners and instructors could ultimately infer statistically which areas facilitate better the needed successful separation between literal and figurative modes, and implement these into their teaching-learning routines. 2. literature review much literature regarding figurative language in l1 and l2 contexts has focused on the development of figurative competence with age. for antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204182 example, magnusson (2013) reported that older l2 english students and swedish monolingual students made greater use of grammatical metaphor, which establishes an implicit link between language proficiency and using figurative uses of the language; this tallies with other studies on the effect of age in adolescent metaphoric competence (deckert et al., 2018; willinger et al., 2019). for our study, these findings would imply that greater language proficiency (whether being a l1 or a more competent l2 speaker) aids to the critical separation of literal and figurative modes. in formal learning, several studies have analysed specialised texts used in efl instruction and proven the relevance of figurative discourse in academic disciplines. jiménez muñoz and lahuerta martínez (2017) carried out a cross-field comparison of a corpus of 150 common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) b1 set texts to which undergraduates in economics, geography, and chemistry at a spanish university were exposed, showing the prevalence of metaphor-metonymy overlap in those areas of knowledge. other studies address the problems and difficulties figurative language may present to l2 speakers. thus, littlemore et al. (2010) carried out two experiments to examine the use of metaphor and metonymy by international students when making use of the metaphors in university lectures across a variety of academic disciplines; they concluded that metaphors are widely used in academic lectures, that they present difficulties to international students, and that most were unaware of these issues. the second study looked into the use of metonymy among members of a staff at a university, finding that “metonymy is used by members of a discourse community in ways that are unique to that community although there are also links with metonymic usages in the wider english-speaking community” (littlemore et al., 2010, p. 208). metonymy, thus, presented problems to l2 speakers attempting to enter the discourse community, and members of the community were equally unaware of these difficulties as monolingual staff never attempted to paraphrase their metonymies. other studies (azuma, 2005; aleshtara & dowlatabadi, 2014) showed a strong correlation between efl students’ knowledge of english vocabulary and general language proficiency and their ability to understand and use english metaphorical expressions. in our study, we have opted to make such literal vs. figurative identification clear by including the option to mark an expression as literal, so that we could measure whether participants made conscious choices between literal and figurative modes, and how successful they were in doing analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 183 so, which allows its alignment with language proficiency and other individual factors. from a more pedagogical point of view, doiz and elizari (2013) studied the consequences of developing conceptual metaphor awareness for figurative language learning in the efl classroom. compared to traditional translation-based approaches, systematic presentation of the target figurative expressions improved comprehension and retention of the target vocabulary. in addition, this study showed that metaphor awareness is instrumental in the learning of new figurative vocabulary in english and the understanding of disciplinary content. more recent studies also corroborate these findings in tertiary education. liardét (2018) explored the different ways chinese efl learners evaluate meanings metaphorically in their academic argumentative writing, showing a gradual increase in the frequency of metaphors and steady development toward more metaphoric competence across two years of university study. chen (2019) showed that learners receiving cognitive-based metaphoric mapping instruction significantly increased their retention and awareness of figurative language; moreover, high-intermediate learners made greater progress in noticing expressions with more abstract mapping relations. additionally, metaphoric mapping instruction assisted learners at a lower proficiency level to acquire more advanced language ability, beyond their current level. most of these studies point to a significant progress in figurative awareness as students become more competent in the l2 or when they receive direct instruction, but virtually no research has analysed the effect of other background factors in their ability to identify figurative language. our assumption is that both formal and informal l2 learning contribute to such figurative competence, and that while in-class strategies may be devised, outof-class experiences may also be key. we also intuitively assume that learners in different degrees may also be distinct in their leisure and learning experiences (and that their disciplinary discourses and expectations may also vary), and therefore we analyse subject degrees separately, as well as the whole dataset. the novel contribution of this paper lies in the fact that it examines a larger number of individual, demographic, and sociological factors (proficiency level, degree, age, l1, period of time in immersive context, extra english courses taken, and leisure in general and as individual extra-curricular activities performed as interpreters of such l2 proficiency) antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204184 thus allowing for a more in-depth analysis of the reasons for individual metaphorical and metonymical competence. as a result, we do not only aim to analyse the impact of language proficiency in figurative competence in a more numerous cohort than in the studies above (and with a different l1, spanish) but also to pinpoint whether language proficiency is also related to the identification of the literal-figurative divide, and what individual factors may provide an explanation. 3. research questions the research questions of the present study are formulated as follows: 1. is there a relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language? 2. is there a relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify terms as literal or non-figurative correctly? 3. is there a relationship between students’ proficiency level and their misidentification of a figurative expression as literal? 4. are relationships formulated in rq1, rq2 and rq3 affected by any particular individual factor in the dataset? 5. are there any links between informal learning by means of extracurricular activities and students’ ability to identify figurative language? 4. participants the participants were 342 students majoring in business, chemistry and geography at a spanish university, 174 of whom were male and 168 female. table 1. participant distribution by gender and degree. analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 185 * * * * * t business chemistry geography total male 54 54 66 174 female 60 72 36 168 total 114 126 102 342 the information collected in our questionnaire about age and l1 showed that a total of 16 students (4.68% of the total) were born before the 1990s and 24 before 1995 (7.02%). the bulk of the study population, 296, were born between 1995 and 1998 (86.55%), while only 6 chemistry students (1.75%) were born in 1999. standard deviation (sd) in the age of participants was 4.667. most students speak spanish as their first language (320, or 93.57%). only the business cohort has some international students: 8 from germany, 2 from the netherlands, and 2 from the united kingdom. spanish students invariably progress from spanish high-schools, which only ensures a2 level of competence, although studies show that their actual performance is closer to b1 if enrolled in an emi degree (hernándeznanclares & jiménez-muñoz, 2017). 5. methodology during the month of february 2019, students from the three degrees were asked to complete a questionnaire and a test on the identification of figurative language. the questionnaire was common to these three degrees; it collected information about their degree, gender, age, l1, their use of english in an immersive context, their engagement in extra-curricular activities, and their current cefr levels. most of the test of figurative language identification was specific to each degree; it consisted in a multiple-choice test designed by the authors so as to assess the ability to identify contextual usage of words regarding their figurative and literal meanings in three fields of study: business, geography and chemistry. however, these three tests shared the same amount of literal, metonymical and metaphorical items. the data used for test development in the study came from a corpus of one hundred and fifty textbook and handbook excerpts (jiménez muñoz & lahuerta martínez, 2017), fifty from each of the fields of knowledge under study, used by the authors of this study in their own university esp lessons. these texts were analysed for metaphors following steen’s three-dimensional taxonomy (2011, p. 40), which allows for a distinction between the nondeliberate versus deliberate uses of metaphor and it includes two further oppositions between conventional versus novel metaphor (conceptual structure) and simile versus metaphor (linguistic form). following such distinctions, we have considered that a metaphor is used deliberately when antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204186 users are aware of its foundation in a cross-domain mapping and opt for this figurative use, while a potential metaphor (v.g. engine as the agent in a process) is used non-figuratively (car engine) in the specialised domain. the frequency of an expression is analysed quantitatively using the bnc corpus and therefore tagged as conventional. the opposition between conventional and novel metaphors refers to the conceptual properties of metaphors; that is, there can be, potentially, expressions which are not part of conventional language use, and whose mapping offers novel ways to conceptualise objects or ideas. in our business subcorpus, for instance, word of mouse refers to online comments and ratings given by users through websites and social networks, repurposing word of mouth into its technologically-updated version. finally, the opposition between simile and metaphor refers to the primarily linguistic properties of metaphors, often marked linguistically by words such as like or as, among others. these criteria, based on steen’s taxonomy, were rigorously applied in each subcorpus to identify each type of metaphor. for the analysis of metonymies in the texts we followed the key metonymy types in radden and kövecses (1999) taxonomy, as later adapted by littlemore and tagg (2018). thus, a clear distinction between whole-and-part metonyms and part-and-part metonymies is kept. the former is further subdivided into things and part, scale, constitution, event, category and member, and category and property. part-and-part metonymies (v.g. to damage your neck, a local newspaper) include action, perception, causation, production, control, possession, containment, location, sign and reference, and modification as major categories (littlemore & tagg, 2018, p. 6). the test for each subject degree contained fifty short multiple-choice questions. thirty out of the fifty questions were drawn from each of the three corpora and were specific to each field of study. of these thirty questions, twelve items concerned metaphor (v.g. to support the measure) and metonymy (v.g. to face an issue), while other six items were instances of specialized terms (terms with a unique specialized meaning in their domain, such as planet or currency). the other twenty items were common to the three tests and included metaphor, metonymy and specialized items from the three corpora. students were asked whether the word in bold could be linked to another meaning (out of three) or, alternatively, it was a literal use (i.e., specialised, denotative or technical). if they could think of a different use of the word analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 187 in any other context, they had to circle the option they thought correct. otherwise, they had to circle the option “specialized”. the test was introduced by some examples like the one below (where head of finance is a whole-part metonymy operating in the business domain) for a better understanding and clarification of the test items. she has a good h e ad for numbers. a. specialized c. the member of a group b. the person in charge of an organization d. the front part of a boat students could not use any help; they were then given 30 minutes to complete both the background information questionnaire and this test on figurative language. 6. results descriptive analysis regarding the amount of time spent in contact with english in an immersive context (such as living abroad), table 2 shows that the largest percentage was found in “never”; that is, most students said that they have not spend any time in their lives using english for real communication (47.35%). this percentage was quite large, especially among chemistry and geography students (59.52% and 52.94%, respectively). it is worth pointing out that only the business degree has a significant share of students who have spent long spells in immersive contexts, although the percentage is quite low: 7.02% have spent more than 1 year and 1.75% more than 4 years. sd was 1.510. antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204188 table 2. time spent using english in an immersive context. table 3 below presents the results obtained regarding the information collected about the students’ engagement with extra-curricular activities in english. as it can be noted, although the groups can be distinguished by the number of activities they perform, the distribution of activities by percentage of total number of activities performed shows some similarities between degrees. the three groups showed the largest percentage of activities in listening to music, followed by watching videos and visiting websites. the lowest percentage of activities for the three degrees was found in speaking on the phone/videoconferencing. table 3. frequency of extra-curricular activities performed by students. as aforementioned, students were also asked to report any official language certificates they held or complete self-reported cefr scales (council of analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 189 students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language significant share of students who have spent long spells in immersive contexts, although the percentage is quite low: 7.02% have spent more than 1 year and 1.75% more than 4 years. sd was 1.510. business percentage chemistry percentage geography percentage total percentage never 32 28.07 75 59.52 54 52.94 161 47.35 1 month 36 31.58 33 26.19 36 35.29 105 30.88 1-3 months 20 17.54 12 9.52 12 11.76 44 12.94 4-6 months 10 8.77 6 4.76 0 0 16 4.71 6-12 months 6 5.26 0 0 0 0 6 1.76 > 1 year 8 7.02 0 0 0 0 8 2.35 > 2 years 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 >3 years 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 >4 years 2 1.75 0 0 0 0 0 0 total 114 100 126 100 102 100 340 100 table 2. time spent using english in an immersive context. table 3 below present the results obtained regarding the information collected about the students’ engagement with extra-curricular activities in english. as it can be noted, although the groups can be distinguished by the number of activities they perform, the distribution of activities by percentage of total number of activities performed shows some similarities between degrees. the three groups showed the largest percentage of activities in listening to music, followed by watching videos and visiting websites. the lowest percentage of activities for the three degrees was found in speaking on the phone/videoconferencing. students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language significant share of students who have spent long spells in immersive contexts, although the percentage is quite low: 7.02% have spent more than 1 year and 1.75% more than 4 years. sd was 1.510. table 2. time spent using english in an immersive context. table 3 below present the results obtained regarding the information collected about the students’ engagement with extra-curricular activities in english. as it can be noted, although the groups can be distinguished by the number of activities they perform, the distribution of activities by percentage of total number of activities performed shows some similarities between degrees. the three groups showed the largest percentage of activities in listening to music, followed by watching videos and visiting websites. the lowest percentage of activities for the three degrees was found in speaking on the phone/videoconferencing. business % students chemistry % students geography % students total % students music 112 98.25 114 90.48 96 94.12 322 94.15 books 32 28.07 12 9.52 24 23.53 68 19.88 websites 74 64.91 48 38.1 66 64.71 188 54.97 speaking 48 42.11 21 16.67 18 17.65 87 25.44 phone 10 8.77 6 4.76 0 0 16 4.68 emails 16 14.04 15 11.9 0 0 31 9.06 socialn 56 49.12 24 19.05 30 29.41 110 32.16 videos 102 89.47 93 73.81 96 94.12 291 85.09 other 0 0 15 11.9 6 5.88 21 6.14 total 450 43.86 348 30.69 336 36.6 1134 36.84 europe, 2001) to best reflect current level in all four skills. as per table 4, most students are between the b1 (lower intermediate, 34.5%) and b2 (upper intermediate, 30.99%) proficiency range, with great variation across levels. when considered separately, most business students are at an upper intermediate level of proficiency (b2), whereas most chemistry students are at a lower intermediate level (b1) and most geography students could be considered beginners to lower intermediate (a1-b1). advanced and proficient students are only found in business and chemistry, being their percentage in any case comparatively low. table 4. student cefr levels. there were other differences in the data collected for the participants in these groups; we calculated the mean and standard deviations for the background information collected in our questionnaire related to age, number of extra-curricular activities, l2 hands-on experience, extra courses and english level for the three degrees (see table 5 below). the oldest students were those in geography (mean 22.88). with respect to the performance of extra-curricular activities, the highest mean was found in business (mean 4.18 years), followed by chemistry (3.19), and finally geography (2.24). the business group had also received more extra lessons (mean 4.19 years). with respect to their english proficiency, the mean level for business is b1 or lower intermediate whereas for both chemistry and geography, is a2 (beginner). for statistical purposes, cefr data are normalised as per standard procedures. antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204190 jiménez muñoz & lahuerta martínez table 3. frequency of extra-curricular activities performed by students. as aforementioned, students were also asked to report any official language certificates they held or complete self-reported cefr scales (council of europe, 2001) to best reflect current level in all four skills. as per table 4, most students are between the b1 (lower intermediate, 34.5%) and b2 (upper intermediate, 30.99%) proficiency range, with great variation across levels. when considered separately, most business students are at an upper intermediate level of proficiency (b2), whereas most chemistry students are at a lower intermediate level (b1) and most geography students could be considered beginners to lower intermediate (a1-b1). advanced and proficient students are only found in business and chemistry, being their percentage in any case comparatively low. cefr business chemistry geography total percentage a1 21 36 57 16.67 a2 4 18 18 40 11.70 b1 34 54 30 118 34.5 b2 58 30 18 106 30.99 c1 14 3 17 4.97 c2 4 4 1.17 total 114 126 102 342 100 table 4. student cefr levels. there were other differences in the data collected for the participants in these groups; we calculated the mean and standard deviations for the background information collected in our questionnaire related to age, number of extracurricular activities, l2 hands-on experience, extra courses and english level for the three degrees (see table 5 below). the oldest students were those in geography (mean 22.88). with respect to the performance of extra-curricular activities, the highest mean was found in business (mean 4.18 years), followed by chemistry (3.19), and finally geography (2.24). the business group had also received more extra lessons (mean 4.19 years). with respect to their english proficiency, the mean level for business is b1 or lower intermediate whereas for both chemistry and geography, is a2 (beginner). for statistical purposes, cefr data are normalized as per standard procedures. table 5. mean and standard deviations for age, extra-curricular activities, l1 experience, extra courses and english level. table 6 below shows the mean and standard deviation of each individual extra-curricular activity for the three degrees under study. it shows that the highest mean for all three degrees corresponds to listening to music, followed by watching videos and visiting websites. table 6. mean and standard deviations for each extra-curricular activity. the mean score (i.e., how many right choices were made) and mean literal choice (i.e., how many elements were thought to be literal) obtained in each degree were compared. as we can see in table 7, stark differences (more visible in figure 1) were found: the chemistry group achieved a higher score in their identification of figurative tropes, followed by business and geography. analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 191 students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language age number of extra-curricular activities l2 hands-on experience (months) extra lessons (years) english level (cefr 1-6) business minimum 19 2 0 0 2 (a2) maximum 42 8 60 8 6 (c2) mean 20.7 3.95 4.18 4.19 3.82 (b1) sd 3.615 1.46 8.81 2.95 0.83 chemistry minimum 24 1 0 0 1 (a1) maximum 30 8 6 7 5 (c1) mean 20.44 3.19 0.83 2.71 2.81 (a2) sd 1.01 1.49 1.48 2.50 1.06 geography minimum 19 1 0 0 1 (a1) maximum 61 4 3 7 4 (b2) mean 22.88 2.24 0.71 2.76 2.29 (a2) sd 10.16 0.83 0.95 2.86 1.16 table 5. mean and standard deviations for age, extra-curricular activities, l1 experience, extra courses and english level. table 6 below shows the mean and standard deviation of each individual extracurricular activity for the three degrees under study. it shows that the highest mean for all three degrees corresponds to listening to music, followed by watching videos and visiting websites. table 6. mean and standard deviations for each extra-curricular activity. the mean score (i.e., how many right choices were made) and mean literal choice (i.e., how many elements were thought to be literal) obtained in each degree were compared. as we can see in table 7, stark differences (more visible in figure 1) were found: the chemistry group achieved a higher score in their identification of figurative tropes, followed by business and geography. students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language table 5. mean and standard deviations for age, extra-curricular activities, l1 experience, extra courses and english level. table 6 below shows the mean and standard deviation of each individual extracurricular activity for the three degrees under study. it shows that the highest mean for all three degrees corresponds to listening to music, followed by watching videos and visiting websites. music books websites speaking phone e-mails social net. videos other business mean (%) 98.24 28.07 64.91 42.11 0.88 14.04 49.12 89.47 0 sd 1.31 4.53 4.87 5.12 2.94 3.52 5.23 3.13 0 chemistry mean (%) 90.47 0.95 38.09 16.67 0.48 11.9 19.05 73.81 11.9 sd 3.12 3.42 4.96 3.28 2.21 3.31 4.11 4.51 3.32 geography mean (%) 94.11 23.53 64.71 17.6 0 0 29.41 94.11 0.06 sd 2.41 4.44 4.92 3.92 0 0 0.47 2.42 2.44 table 6. mean and standard deviations for each extra-curricular activity. the mean score (i.e., how many right choices were made) and mean literal choice (i.e., how many elements were thought to be literal) obtained in each degree were compared. as we can see in table 7, stark differences (more visible in figure 1) were found: the chemistry group achieved a higher score in their identification of figurative tropes, followed by business and geography. table 7. mean score and distribution per degree. figure 1. figure identification score density per degree. with respect to the percentage of literal meaning choices per degree, table 8 and figure 2 show that the highest mean was found in geography, followed by chemistry and, finally, business. geography undergraduates were the ones who more frequently mistakenly identify specialized terms, which reveals that the figurative-literal divide is still a problem for them, and that their approach to specialized language assumes more literal uses than actual disciplinary discourse contains. antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204192 jiménez muñoz & lahuerta martínez degree mean score sd iqr 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% n business 17.72 6.33 8 5 13 17 21 31 104 chemistry 20.36 4.58 7 7 11 17 21.5 24 126 geography 14.35 4.03 6 9 11 14 17 23 102 table 7. mean score and distribution per degree. ! figure 1. figure identification score density per degree. with respect to the percentage of literal meaning choices per degree, table 8 and figure 2 show that the highest mean was found in geography, followed by chemistry and, finally, business. geography undergraduates were the ones who more frequently mistakenly identify specialized terms, which reveals that the figurative-literal divide is still a problem for them, and that their approach to specialized language assumes more literal uses than actual disciplinary discourse contains. jiménez muñoz & lahuerta martínez table 7. mean score and distribution per degree. ! figure 1. figure identification score density per degree. with respect to the percentage of literal meaning choices per degree, table 8 and figure 2 show that the highest mean was found in geography, followed by chemistry and, finally, business. geography undergraduates were the ones who more frequently mistakenly identify specialized terms, which reveals that the figurative-literal divide is still a problem for them, and that their approach to specialized language assumes more literal uses than actual disciplinary discourse contains. ! "! #! $! %! !& !! !& !# !& !% !& !' !& !( )*)+, ./ 01 23 -.45..67! 89: ;<= >=* table 8. literal meaning identification by degree (in quartiles). figure 2. literal identification score density per degree. statistical analysis of test scores data were analysed using spss (version 27.0, ibm corp.). test reliability was calculated on the full dataset, ranging from acceptable to high (cronbach’s alpha = .66–.81). an a priori power analysis, using the effect sizes from pilot data determined the sample size needed to have a power of .80 to reveal effects, if they existed. all inferential analyses were run with standard alpha set at .05 (i.e. 95%). means are analysed per primary variables, as highlighted in the literature and specified in the research questions above (i.e. language level, gender or age), and a pearson linear correlation analysis was employed to calculate the correlation between those background variables regarding informal learning experiences and leisure choices (see table 15). this analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 193 students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language degree avg. score sd iqr 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% n business 36.63 15.8 16 9.5 20 34.5 40 44 104 chemistry 40.71 8.84 9.5 20 34.5 40 44 68 126 geography 44.82 13.71 16 24 36 42 52 72 102 table 8. literal meaning identification by degree (in quartiles). figure 2. literal identification score density per degree. statistical analysis of test scores data were analysed using spss (version 27.0, ibm corp.). test reliability was calculated on the full dataset, ranging from acceptable to high (cronbach’s alpha = .66–.81). an a priori power analysis, using the effect sizes from pilot data determined the sample size needed to have a power of .80 to reveal effects, if they existed. all inferential analyses were run with standard alpha set at .05 (i.e. 95%). means are analysed per primary variables, as highlighted in the literature and specified in the research questions above (i.e. language level, gender or age), and a pearson linear correlation analysis was employed to calculate the correlation students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language table 8. literal meaning identification by degree (in quartiles). figure 2. literal identification score density per degree. statistical analysis of test scores data were analysed using spss (version 27.0, ibm corp.). test reliability was calculated on the full dataset, ranging from acceptable to high (cronbach’s alpha = .66–.81). an a priori power analysis, using the effect sizes from pilot data determined the sample size needed to have a power of .80 to reveal effects, if they existed. all inferential analyses were run with standard alpha set at .05 (i.e. 95%). means are analysed per primary variables, as highlighted in the literature and specified in the research questions above (i.e. language level, gender or age), and a pearson linear correlation analysis was employed to calculate the correlation ! "! #! $! %! &!! !' !! !' !& !' !" !' !( !' !# !' !) *+,-+./01+234/+,05 6 +. 74 /8 6+1,++29! :;< =>? @?a approach allows apprehending differences in subgroups with a common trait (v.g., being b1 and studying chemistry) to identify particular cases that, later on, may deserve pedagogical interventions focused for such demographic, and to determine whether progression exists as language proficiency increases. additionally, it enables the identification of those informal learning activities with a greater impact on the ability to use figurative language more accurately. results above will help answer the research questions already put forward by the study. the first research question wondered whether there was a relationship between student proficiency level and their recognition of figurative tropes in any of the three degrees. the results obtained confirm that the proficiency level had a positive effect on the scores. as per table 9 below, the higher the student level the higher the overall test score is, which gives empirical support to what previous studies seemed to indicate in terms of language proficiency being linked to figurative identification in context. table 9. students’ language competence and figurative trope identification. the second research question explored the link between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify literal uses correctly. the misidentification of figurative language as a literal use tends to diminish as level increases (see table 10 below). this is evident both in general and when degree results are analysed separately, despite slight variations in the intensity of such changes per increasing level of competence. antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204194 jiménez muñoz & lahuerta martínez between those background variables regarding informal learning experiences and leisure choices (see table 15). this approach allows to apprehend differences in subgroups with a common trait (v.g., being b1 and studying chemistry) to identify particular cases that, later on, may deserve pedagogical interventions focused for such demographic, and to determine whether progression exists as language proficiency increases. additionally, it enables the identification of those informal learning activities with a greater impact on the ability to use figurative language more accurately. results above will help answer the research questions already put forward by the study. the first research question wondered whether there was a relationship between student proficiency level and their recognition of figurative tropes in any of the three degrees. the results obtained confirm that the proficiency level had a positive effect on the scores. as per table 9 below, the higher the student level the higher the overall test score is, which gives empirical support to what previous studies seemed to indicate in terms of language proficiency being linked to figurative identification in context. level mean score bus che geo all a2 12.5 18.62 13.89 15 b1 14.71 20.11 12.6 15.81 b2 18.79 22.5 18.67 19.99 c1 18.71 26 22.36 c2 29.5 29.5 mean score 18.84 21.81 15.05 20.53 table 9. students’ language competence and figurative trope identification. the second research question explored the link between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify literal uses correctly. the misidentification of figurative language as a literal use tends to diminish as level increases (see table 10 below). this is evident both in general and when degree results are analysed separately, despite slight variations in the intensity of such changes per increasing level of competence. table 10. students’ level of competence and their choice of literal meanings. a third objective of this study was to examine whether the effect the students’ proficiency level had on their misidentification of a figurative expression as literal. as table 11 shows, it can be discerned that fewer wrong literal choices are found as level increases, which implies that students become more aware of context as their english proficiency increases. we also found here some marked differences among degrees and proficiency levels: the overestimation level (i.e., which percentage of expressions were incorrectly thought to be literal, which reveals that they fail to grasp the figurative-literal divide) in business is very high at a2, but it decreases sharply as proficiency increases, whereas in chemistry and geography such an overestimation level is lower at a2, but it diminishes less strongly, or even fluctuates. table 11. students’ proficiency level and their wrong literal choice. the fourth research question in this study concerned the effect of individual characteristics, such as gender, on the student ability to identify figurative and specialized meanings correctly, and on their misidentification of a figurative expression as literal. no significant difference was found between males and females; gender did not affect the students’ wrong literal choice either. analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 195 students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language level % literal bus che geo all a2 58 19.77 22.33 33.37 b1 15.76 20.38 23.6 19.91 b2 19.93 21.1 20.67 20.57 c1 15.71 20 17.86 c2 15 15 mean % 24.88 20.31 22.2 21.34 table 10. students’ level of competence and their choice of literal meanings. a third objective of this study was to examine whether the effect the students’ proficiency level had on their misidentification of a figurative expression as literal. as table 11 shows, it can be discerned that fewer wrong literal choices are found as level increases, which implies that students become more aware of context as their english proficiency increases. we also found here some marked differences among degrees and proficiency levels: the overestimation level (i.e., which percentage of expressions were incorrectly thought to be literal, which reveals that they fail to grasp the figurative-literal divide) in business is very high at a2, but it decreases sharply as proficiency increases, whereas in chemistry and geography such an overestimation level is lower at a2, but it diminishes less strongly, or even fluctuates. table 11. students’ proficiency level and their wrong literal choice. the fourth research question in this study concerned the effect of individual characteristics, such as gender, on the student ability to identify figurative and specialized meanings correctly, and on their misidentification of a figurative expression as literal. no significant difference was found between males and females; gender did not affect the students’ wrong literal choice either. students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language table 10. students’ level of competence and their choice of literal meanings. a third objective of this study was to examine whether the effect the students’ proficiency level had on their misidentification of a figurative expression as literal. as table 11 shows, it can be discerned that fewer wrong literal choices are found as level increases, which implies that students become more aware of context as their english proficiency increases. we also found here some marked differences among degrees and proficiency levels: the overestimation level (i.e., which percentage of expressions were incorrectly thought to be literal, which reveals that they fail to grasp the figurative-literal divide) in business is very high at a2, but it decreases sharply as proficiency increases, whereas in chemistry and geography such an overestimation level is lower at a2, but it diminishes less strongly, or even fluctuates. level % overestimation bus che geo all a2 +38.05 +19.86 +23.5 +27.14 b1 +11.53 +20.78 +29.2 +20.5 b2 +19.86 +22.21 +23.33 +21.8 c1 +11.43 +20.02 +15.73 c2 +10.02 +10.02 mean % +18.16 +20.72 +25.34 +21.41 table 11. students’ proficiency level and their wrong literal choice. the fourth research question in this study concerned the effect of individual characteristics, such as gender, on the student ability to identify figurative and specialized meanings correctly, and on their misidentification of a figurative expression as literal. no significant difference was found between males and females; gender did not affect the students’ wrong literal choice either. table 12. means for test score and literal choice per gender. however, when students are grouped by age some differences and trends can be observed (see. table 13 below) in both their ability to identify figurative and literal meanings. the highest score was found among the youngest participants and the lowest score corresponded to the oldest ones. also notably, literal meaning was the preferred option by the older students, who consequently tended to overestimate terms (v.g. agent or workshop) as literal and unique to their domain. table 13. means for test score and literal choice per age. a pearson linear correlation analysis was carried out to examine the relationship between the factors collected (degree, age, l1, period of time in immersive context, extra english courses taken, cefr level and leisure in general and as individual extra-curricular activities performed), students’ figurative meaning score and their literal meaning choices (table 14 below). this analysis revealed a very moderate positive impact on the score with leisure and level categories, the correlation with leisure being relatively stronger (0.35026698). no remarkable impact on the percentage of literal meaning selected by students was found. e-mails, reading books, and faceto-face speaking are more relevant than the rest of extra-curricular activities. in the case of percentage of literal choices in students’ responses, there are no strong correlations to be mentioned. antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204196 jiménez muñoz & lahuerta martínez gender score literal (rel. %) literal overestimation female 18.25 39.1 +19.3 male 18.11 39.53 +19.93 table 12. means for test score and literal choice per gender. however, when students are grouped by age some differences and trends can be observed (see. table 13 below) in both their ability to identify figurative and literal meanings. the highest score was found among the youngest participants and the lowest score corresponded to the oldest ones. also notably, literal meaning was the preferred option by the older students, who consequently tended to overestimate terms (v.g. agent or workshop) as literal and unique to their domain. ! table 13. means for test score and literal choice per age. a pearson linear correlation analysis was carried out to examine the relationship between the factors collected (degree, age, l1, period of time in immersive context, extra english courses taken, cefr level and leisure in general and as individual extra-curricular activities performed), students’ figurative meaning score and their literal meaning choices (table 15 below). this analysis revealed a very moderate positive impact on the score with leisure and level categories, the correlation with leisure being relatively stronger (0.35026698). no remarkable impact on the percentage of literal meaning selected by students was found. emails, reading books, and face-to-face speaking are more relevant than the rest of extra-curricular activities. in the case of percentage of literal choices in students’ responses, there are no strong correlations to be mentioned. jiménez muñoz & lahuerta martínez table 12. means for test score and literal choice per gender. however, when students are grouped by age some differences and trends can be observed (see. table 13 below) in both their ability to identify figurative and literal meanings. the highest score was found among the youngest participants and the lowest score corresponded to the oldest ones. also notably, literal meaning was the preferred option by the older students, who consequently tended to overestimate terms (v.g. agent or workshop) as literal and unique to their domain. ! age score literal (rel. %) literal overestimation over 27 (<1990) 17 56.5 +37.5 23-26 (1990 – 1994) 21.44 31.56 +11.8 19-22 (1995 – 1998) 17.85 38.29 +19.17 18 (1999) 22.5 61 +41 table 13. means for test score and literal choice per age. a pearson linear correlation analysis was carried out to examine the relationship between the factors collected (degree, age, l1, period of time in immersive context, extra english courses taken, cefr level and leisure in general and as individual extra-curricular activities performed), students’ figurative meaning score and their literal meaning choices (table 15 below). this analysis revealed a very moderate positive impact on the score with leisure and level categories, the correlation with leisure being relatively stronger (0.35026698). no remarkable impact on the percentage of literal meaning selected by students was found. emails, reading books, and face-to-face speaking are more relevant than the rest of extra-curricular activities. in the case of percentage of literal choices in students’ responses, there are no strong correlations to be mentioned. table 14. correlation between figurative score, literal choice and individual factors. the last research question in this study explores the effect of informal learning (extra-curricular activities) on the students’ ability to identify figurative language. table 15 below shows the mean score and mean literal meaning choice for each individual activity, per degree. as it can be observed, when degree is not observed as a clustering factor, students regularly writing emails in english had the highest mean scores, and using social networks correlates with the highest percentage of literal choices. when each degree is considered separately, it could be noticed that in all the degrees the highest mean score was found in those who regularly spoke english on the phone (or videoconferencing). with respect to choice of literal meaning, the highest percentage was found in those using social networks in business and geography, and those in chemistry who usually speak english face-to-face with others. analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 197 students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language score % literal degree -0.08070081 0.21806379 age 0.06590989 -0.19798091 l1 0.22956517 0.06837943 leisure 0.35026698 -0.02467832 months 0.16145198 -0.01145796 extra 0.01984099 -0.17323622 level 0.31280431 -0.13929223 music -0.00618924 -0.17311997 books 0.17647053 0.03864142 websites -0.00478443 -0.08443342 speaking 0.18732953 -0.17164996 phone 0.1117058 0.1682127 emails 0.2027941 0.05854121 socialn 0.03005351 -0.01296878 videos 0.14193263 0.02392322 other 0.1348788 0.08100109 table 14. correlation between figurative score, literal choice and individual factors. the last research question in this study explores the effect of informal learning (extra-curricular activities) on the students’ ability to identify figurative language. table 14 below shows the mean score and mean literal meaning choice for each individual activity, per degree. as it can be observed, when degree is not observed as a clustering factor, students regularly writing emails in english had the highest mean scores, and using social networks correlates with the highest percentage of literal choices. when each degree is considered separately, it could be noticed that in all the degrees the highest mean score was found in those who regularly spoke english on the phone (or videoconferencing). with respect to choice of literal meaning, the highest percentage was found in those using social networks in business and geography, and those in chemistry who usually speak english faceto-face with others. table 15. students’ test scores and literal choices per informal learning tasks. a subsequent confirmatory factorial analysis also hints at the effect of these activities on student performance. 21.248% of variation in cases are strongly explained by the amount of english-related leisure activities undertaken regularly (sig. 0.798) and their language proficiency (sig. 0.755), while 13.154% are relatively explained by being younger (sig. -0.383) or speaking english on the phone regularly (sig. 0.347). 7. discussion the aim of the present paper was to examine and quantify the impact of individual background factors such as language proficiency and informal learning experiences on the recognition and use of two figurative tropes, namely metaphor and metonymy, as figurative language in a university esp context. this also allows discerning differences among subject degrees, and to anticipate some of the problems undergraduates with a specific set of characteristics may experience when reading discipline-specific texts in english. considering overall score (see tables 7 and 8), our findings indicate marked differences in figurative trope competence according to discipline and degree, with chemistry undergraduates performing better and geography students most frequently misidentifying literal terms. this points to a difference in figurative language interpretation skills among students from antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204198 jiménez muñoz & lahuerta martínez extracurricular bus che geo all mean score mean % literal mean score mean % literal mean score mean % literal mean score mean % literal music 17.82 36.17 20.63 41 14.44 44.38 17.63 40.52 books 21.13 37 22.29 41.43 13 52 18.81 43.48 websites 18.76 36.86 20 41.13 14 31.5 17.59 36.5 speaking 21.04 35.58 20.13 46.25 16 44 19.06 41.94 phone 21.8 51.2 26 34 16 44 21.27 43.07 e-mails 21.75 40.75 21.4 41,2 21.58 40.98 socialn 18.32 37.86 19.9 42.4 14.34 61.34 17.52 47.2 videos 17.94 36.86 19.89 40.56 14.64 47.27 17.49 41.56 other 22.5 38.34 22.5 38.34 mean 19.82 39.04 21.42 40.7 14.63 46.36 19.27 41.51 table 15. students’ test scores and literal choices per informal learning tasks. a subsequent confirmatory factorial analysis also hints at the effect of these activities on student performance. 21.248% of variation in cases are strongly explained by the amount of english-related leisure activities undertook regularly (sig. 0.798) and their language proficiency (sig. 0.755), while 13.154% are relatively explained by being younger (sig. -0.383) or speaking english on the phone regularly (sig. 0.347). 7. discussion the aim of the present paper was to examine and quantify the impact of individual background factors such as language proficiency and informal learning experiences in the recognition and use of two figurative tropes, namely metaphor and metonymy, as figurative language in a university esp context. this also allows to discern differences among subject degrees, and to anticipate some of the problems undergraduates with a specific set of characteristics may experience when reading discipline-specific texts in english. considering overall score (see tables 7 and 8), our findings indicate marked differences in figurative trope competence according to discipline and degree, with chemistry undergraduates performing better and geography students most frequently misidentifying literal terms. this points to a difference in figurative language interpretation skills among students from various academic disciplines, which calls for further research into the separate discourse and affordances in these disciplines so that field-bound pedagogical interventions can be devised. this various academic disciplines, which calls for further research into the separate discourse and affordances in these disciplines so that field-bound pedagogical interventions can be devised. this approach would highlight the importance of figurative language in esp design, and would deviate from any pedagogical inclination to consider technical english (i.e. literal or denotative) the primary communication mode in esp. a relevant finding of this study was that english language proficiency and age, together with two sociological factors (namely, english-related leisure activities undertaken regularly, and frequently speaking english on the phone/videoconferencing) can be moderate predictors in figurative language recognition in a specialised university context. in our study we first considered the relationship between english proficiency level and ability to identify figurative language. the results obtained revealed a positive correlation of the proficiency level on the students’ test scores so that it may be inferred from means distribution (see table 9) that the higher the student level the higher their metaphoric and metonymic competence. in addition, the misidentification of figurative language as a literal use tended to diminish as proficiency increased, and fewer incorrect literal choices (i.e., nontechnical terms less frequently mistaken for technical, unique words) were found in higher competence levels, which implies that as their english proficiency increases, students also become more aware of context, and they are better able to identify figurative and literal interpretations of a term in its usage-circumscribed context of appearance (see table 11). by studying both metaphor and metonymy, our results partially corroborate those obtained by aleshtara and dowlatabadi (2014) and azuma (2005), who showed a strong correlation between efl students’ knowledge of english vocabulary and their metaphorical competence, and liardét (2018), whose study revealed an increase in the frequency of metaphors and a gradual development toward more metaphoric competence among efl learners across two years of university study. regarding the correlation of the rest of the factors examined on figurative language recognition and leisure options turned out to be acting factors in figurative language identification and literal meaning choice. specifically, the highest score in figurative language identification was found among the youngest participants and the lowest score corresponded to the oldest ones (see table 13). literal meaning was the preferred option by the older students, who also misinterpreted these in many occasions. this result analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 199 fundamentally disagrees with studies carried out with younger informants; both magnusson (2013) and willinger et al.’s (2019) assertion that metaphor identification and comprehension invariably increase with age seems to be applicable to the transition to adolescence, but not necessarily be the case with adult learners. this study was also designed to gauge the effect that the informal learning of english language might have on reflective figurative language recognition and wrong literal misidentifications – which is largely understudied empirically in esp contexts. findings reveal that students regularly writing emails in english showed highest figurative language competence and those using social networks most often made an incorrect identification of a figurative expression as literal. on the other hand, when each degree was considered separately, the highest mean score in all degrees corresponded to students who reported regularly speaking english on the phone/videoconferencing. with respect to choice of literal meanings, the highest percentage corresponded to those using social networks in business and geography, and speaking english face-to-face in chemistry. most authors have focused on language proficiency as a determining factor in figurative competence, but not so much on how such proficiency has been acquired (esp. informal vs. informal learning) or whether a distinct mindset was at play. for instance, aleshtar and dowlatabadi (2014), who focused on the concept of metaphoric competence and its essential role in l2 acquisition, argued that higher language proficiency students are more aware of the need to acquire a solid english competence for their future careers and do more extra-curricular activities. this points out, like does our study (see tables 7 and 8, and figures 1 and 2), at mindset or aprioristic differences in the approach to language or language conceptualization on the part of esp students (which seem to be also discipline-bound), perhaps worth exploring further from a more psycholinguistic angle. it also stresses the need to include the teaching of metaphorical expressions in disciplinary content to improve students’ figurative language competence – which is as important as communicative and grammatical competences (littlemore & low, 2006). the results of our study are indicative that once l2 learners have reached a reasonable and acceptable level of l2 proficiency (set here between cefr b2 and c1, as per table 9 above), they are able to understand metaphorical and metonymic language; results highlight that students below b2 may have antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204200 greater difficulty in discerning the difference between figurative and literal expressions in a tertiary-education context. in addition, regular englishrelated leisure and communication have revealed themselves as potentially beneficial (see table 15) in undergraduates’ figurative-language recognition across different degrees – which may potentially impact their academic performance. this is an interesting result, as it points to new unexplored ways in which language learners (perhaps in a more individualised manner) can be helped to identify, interpret, and make use of, the functions of metaphor and metonymy via both direct instruction and informal learning. the study has some limitations. first, learners were given limited time to answer a complex questionnaire, and memory or speed may have affected its completion. however, all questionnaires were filled in time and no student asked for an extension. also, regarding age, the result obtained may be explained by the fact that among the older undergraduates in our sample there may be students who have fallen behind academically or those who have chosen to go to college later in life, but such data was not collected. finally, as it regards analytical methods, the separation of metonymy and metaphor into two different analyses and a heightened focus on the statistical relevance for each subgroup (v.g. geography students with b1 level, for which a large-scale study would be needed) would be of use to explore learner differences further. 8. conclusion and pedagogical implications genre-specific metaphor and metonymy extend the meanings of conventional lexis; its prevalence in academic and discipline-specific texts makes figurative language a research issue worth studying. the analysis of figurative discourse may help us to shed some light on learners’ figurative competence and help devise strategies to deal with its acquisition. the findings presented here allow us to conclude that individual factors like the participants’ english proficiency level, demographic factors like age, and sociological factors like english-related leisure activities and speaking english on the phone have a positive effect on esp students’ metaphor and metonymy identification and comprehension. there are also implications for the esp practitioners regarding the teaching of metaphors and metonymies to their students; in the light of results here, it seems of relevance to insert figurative language recognition and use into analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 201 esp programs at all levels of english proficiency. in this vein, boers (2000) suggests that it is essential to draw students’ attention to the source domain or origin of the figurative expressions they come across in their specialised reading, and proposes to “include explicit reference to the literal sense or origin, grouping figurative expressions under their source domains, and questioning the validity of the underlying analogies” (2000, p. 145). littlemore et al. propose “to highlight the use of metaphor and metonymy by particular discourse communities, and to help their students to prepare for it. not only lsp students need to know that their target discourse community will make use of its own specific lexis, but also that the meaning of mainstream lexis may be extended via metaphor and metonymy” (littlemore et al., 2010, p. 208). esp teachers need to teach their students the metaphorically and metonymically extended meanings characteristic of their specialized discipline and, at the same time, help them develop the kinds of strategies they need to work out the meanings of such usages when they encounter them. roldán-riejos and úbeda also argue that it would be advisable to concentrate on metaphor as a learning feature by offering students corpora-driven examples of metaphor visibility “addressing nonverbal elements, such as sketches, drawings, designs and pictures where metaphor may be used” (2013, p. 107). our study shows that such pedagogical focus is needed to highlight the differences between figurative and literal uses, and it offers a method to assess the figurative competence of a group of esp students. a similar discipline-specific test can also be used to reflect about some of these figurative uses in a teaching-learning context. the findings of the present study can help students and university instructors gain a more in-depth understanding of how features of figurative language are employed by learners at different stages of efl competence in higher education. however, this is a relatively unexplored domain that calls for further research. more contrastive studies are needed to confirm the effect of the factors examined regarding figurative competence, and how it may be more successfully fostered. article history: received 14 february 2022 received in revised form 28 march 2022 accepted 30 march 2022 antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204202 references analysis of the relationship between students’ proficiency level and their ability to identify figurative language ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204 203 aleshtara, m. t., & dowlatabadi, h. (2014). metaphoric competence and language proficiency in the same boat. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 98, 1895-1904. arntfield, m. (2008). hegemonic shorthand: technology and metonymy in modern policing. communication review, 11(1), 76-97. azuma, m. (2005). metaphorical competence in an efl context. toshindo publishing. barcelona, a. (2003). metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads: a cognitive perspective. mouton de gruyter. berezin, j.d. (2018). undergraduate engineering students’ use of metaphor in presenting prototypes to a technical and non-technical public audience. asee annual conference. <https://monolith.asee .org/public/conferences/106/papers/22728/view> boers, f. (2000). enhancing metaphoric awareness in specialised reading. english for specific purposes, 19(2), 137-147. chen y.-c. (2019). teaching figurative language to efl learners: an evaluation of metaphoric mapping instruction. language learning journal, 47(1), 49-631. dalke, a., grobstein, p., & mccormack, e. (2006). exploring interdisciplinarity: the significance of metaphoric and metonymic exchange. journal of research practice, 2(2), 1-13. deckert, m, schmoeger, m., schaunig-busch, i., & willinger, u. (2018). metaphor processing in middle childhood and at the transition to early adolescence. journal of child language, 46(2), 334-367. doiz, a., & elizari, c. (2013). metaphoric competence and the acquisition of figurative vocabulary in foreign language learning. elia, 13(1), 47-82. dosani, s. (2021). the value and benefit of narrative medicine for psychiatric practice. bjpsych bulletin, 45(5), 274-276. gibbs, r. w. (1993). process and products in making sense of tropes. in a. ortony (ed.), metaphor and thought (pp. 252-276). cambridge university press. gibbs, r. w. (1994). the poetics of the mind. cambridge university press. he, q. (2021). a corpus-based study of textual metaphor in english academic writing. studia linguistica, 1-25. <https://doi.org/10.1111/ stul.12176> hernández-nanclares, n., & jiménez-muñoz, a. (2017). english as a medium of instruction: evidence for language and content targets in bilingual education in economics. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 20, 883-896. jiménez muñoz, a., & lahuerta martínez, a. c. (2017). a metaphor-metonymy continuum? evidence from cross-field l2 set texts. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 34, 257-278. lakoff, g., & johnson, m. (1980). metaphors we live by. the university of chicago press. lakoff, g., & turner, m. (1989). more than cool reason: a field guide to poetic metaphor. the university of chicago press. liardét, c. l. (2018). as we all know: examining chinese efl learners’ use of interpersonal grammatical metaphor in academic writing. english for specific purposes, 50, 64-80. littlemore, j., & low, g. (2006). figurative thinking and foreign language learning. palgrave macmillan. littlemore, j., & tagg, c. (2018). metonymy and text messaging: a framework for understanding creative uses of metonymy. applied linguistics, 39(4), 1-28. littlemore, j.m., chen, p. tang, p.l., koester, a., & barnden, j. (2010). the use of metaphor and metonymy in academic and professional discourse and their challenges for learners and teachers of english. in s. de knop, f. boers & a. de rycker (eds.), fostering language teaching efficiency through cognitive linguistics (pp. 189-238). de gruyter. magnusson, u. (2013). grammatical metaphor in swedish monolingual and multilingual upper secondary school students’ writing. functions of language, 20(2), 250-281 panther, k.-u. (2006). metonymy as a usage event. in g. kristiansen, m. achard, r. dirven & f.j. ruiz de mendoza (eds.), cognitive linguistics: current applications and future perspectives (pp. 147-185). mouton de gruyter. prelli, l. (1989). a rhetoric of science. inventing scientific discourse. university of south carolina press. radden, g., & kövecses, z. (1999). towards a theory of metonymy. in k. panther & g. radden antonio jimenez-muñoz is an assistant professor of english at the universidad de oviedo, spain. his research focuses on the impact of methodological interventions in the acquisition of esp/eap in english-asa medium-of-instruction contexts. he has published the results of empirical studies in journals such as international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, porta linguarum, and ibérica, and he has contributed to edited collections for multilingual matters, routledge, peter lang, gale, and mcgraw-hill. ana cristina lahuerta martínez is a professor of english at the universidad de oviedo, spain. her research focuses mainly on teaching and learning english as a foreign language. she has published in journals such as english for specific purposes, assessing writing, the language learning journal, ibérica, resla and porta linguarum, and she has contributed to edited collections for peter lang. antonio josé jiménez muñoz & ana cristina lahuerta martínez ibérica 43 (2022): 179-204204 (eds.), metonymy in language and thought (pp. 17-58). john benjamins. roldán-riejos, a., & úbeda mansilla, p. (2013). metaphor in the esp engineering context. ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 25, 107-126. steen, g. j. (2011). the contemporary theory of metaphor – now new and improved! review of cognitive linguistics, 9(1), 26-64. willinger, u., deckert, m., schmöger, m., schaunig-busch, i., formann, a.k., & auff, e. (2019). developmental steps in metaphorical language abilities: the influence of age, gender, cognitive flexibility, information processing speed, and analogical reasoning. language and speech, 2, 207-228. wojtczak, s., & witczak-plisiecka, i. (2020). metaphors and legal language: a few comments on ordinary, specialised and legal meaning. research in language, 17(3), 273-295. iberica 13 ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the pervasiveness of slideshows in present-day academic lectures calls for a continuous redefinition and problematization of the nature and functions of modes, as well as of their interaction in a multimodal space such as the slide. indeed, intense visuality in lectures is linked to a growing need for the ability to decipher the complex semiological landscapes that slides represent. this work is based on the analysis of a corpus of lecture slides drawn from the mit opencourseware initiative. through a qualitative approach, it observes the fluidity of the different types of resources, with particular attention paid to visuals. this study offers an analytical framework which represents an embryonic rubric for operationalizing the grammar of visuals. it is based on a fluid and dynamic conception of visuals and focuses on the hybridity of the different semiotic resources, which often cannot be ascribed to specific categories without running into reductionist simplifications. the approach adopted aims to go beyond the investigation of the contribution made by individual modes, and to consider the meaning created dynamically by the interaction of the different resources, in a circular process which goes from the singular to the global and vice versa. results show that the multiple semiotic resources involved develop syncretically and have a reciprocal transformative function in the meaningmaking process. also, they synergically convey the information desired through their mutual validation. keywords: visual communication, powerpoint, syncretic modality, lecture slides, social semiotics, slideshow presentations, digital humanities. resumen m od al i da d s inc ré ti c a e n l as p re s e n ta c io ne s d e d ia p os i tiv as e n l a e ra de l a s h u ma ni da de s d ig i ta l e s : ¿ h ac i a u na r e c o nc e p tua l i z ac i ón d e l os e l e me n to s v is ua l e s ? syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities: towards a reconceptualization of visuals? patrizia anesa university of bergamo (italy) patrizia.anesa@unibg.it 249 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 249 ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 patrizia anesa la generalización de las presentaciones de diapositivas en las clases actuales llama a una continua redefinición y problematización de la naturaleza y de las funciones de los diferentes modos, así como de su interacción en un espacio multimodal como la diapositiva. de hecho, la intensa visualidad de las clases conlleva una creciente necesidad de saber descifrar los complejos paisajes semiológicos que representan las diapositivas. el presente artículo se basa en el análisis de un corpus de presentaciones de diapositivas de clases procedentes de la iniciativa mit opencourseware. mediante un análisis cualitativo, se analiza la fluidez de los diferentes tipos de recursos, con especial atención a los elementos visuales. este trabajo ofrece un marco de análisis que representa una rúbrica embrionaria para operacionalizar la gramática de los elementos visuales, que se basa en una concepción fluida y dinámica de los elementos visuales y se centra en el carácter híbrido de los diferentes recursos semióticos, los cuales a menudo no pueden adscribirse a categorías específicas sin incurrir en simplificaciones reduccionistas. la elección de la perspectiva adoptada responde a la intención de no limitarse al análisis de la contribución de modos individuales, sino de considerar el significado creado de manera dinámica por la interacción de diferentes recursos, en un proceso circular que va de lo singular a lo global y viceversa. los resultados muestran que los múltiples recursos semióticos involucrados se desarrollan de manera sincrética y tienen una función transformadora recíproca en el proceso de creación de significado. asimismo, transmiten de manera sinérgica la información mediante su validación mutua. palabras clave: comunicación visual, powerpoint, modalidad sincrética, diapositivas de clases, semiótica social, presentaciones de diapositivas, humanidades digitales. 1. introduction slideshow presentations are becoming increasingly common in academic settings, and lectures constitute no exception to this trend. multimodality approaches often focus on the analysis of different semiotic resources involved in the construction of meaning in social interaction. in this study, the emphasis is on specific communicative events, namely academic lectures. given the plethora of semiotic resources which could be explored, the object of the investigation had to be restricted and is circumscribed to the use of visual material, with particular attention being paid to the role that slides play in the process of meaning-making. more specifically, the material analyzed is drawn from a corpus of lecture slides pertaining to four open courses run at mit (massachusetts institute of technology, cambridge, usa) between 2014 and 2016. 250 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 250 any multimodal analysis should take into account that the classifications of modes1 are often contested because the very notion of ‘mode’ varies across different schools of thought (mills, 2016). modes may be broadly defined as semiotic resources or structures which allow for the construction of meaning in a given social and cultural context. however, what may be considered as a mode is highly dependent on the specific community, and the meaning which it allocates to such structures or resources, as well as the signmaking system that it shares. for instance, traditional modes may be seen as wide-ranging resources such as texts, images, sounds, gestures, etc. however, a given community of professionals may assign the status of mode to a precise element, such as color or font, in that it acquires a specific semiotic meaning which is clearly acknowledged within that particular community (cf. djonov & van leeuwen, 2011). kress also describes a mode as a “socially shaped and culturally given resource for making meaning” (2009: 55). thus, a mode does not display a specific semiotic value per se, but such value depends on the usage that a social group makes of it. in other words, modes are unstable entities which evolve through social processes. the pattern which characterizes the use of modes in a certain context, and within a certain community, is definable as modal grammar (jewitt, 2006). it can be argued that not all modes have the same importance or prominence for the creation of meaning as such prominence is variable: it is highly context-dependent and participant-dependent. moreover, such presumed prominence evolves over time, so that a certain mode may initially appear less salient, although ultimately it may represent the main vehicle through which meaning is created. what is more, a hierarchical conceptualization of modes is to some extent fallacious, given their interdependence and the fact that they often live in their reciprocal lights. 2. multimodal approaches to discourse over the years, multimodality has become a key aspect of scientific enquiry across fields and disciplines and has been extensively employed to understand the functions of different semiotic resources (textual, auditory, visual, spatial, etc.) and their orchestration in the creation of meaning. as jewitt (2014) points out, “multimodality can be understood as a theory, a perspective or field of enquiry or a methodological application”. as discourse is inherently multimodal, it comes as no surprise that, among its syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 251 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 251 various fields of application, multimodality has played a significant role in a vast array of discourse studies. following pivotal studies such as roth (1994) or kress and van leeuwen (2001), the constant growth of theoretical and methodological frameworks within the field of multimodality is indicative of the plurality of perspectives through which this ground can be approached. at the same time, it is also indicative of the growing need for new ideas and tools to investigate the complex multimodal phenomena which characterize contemporary social life. according to jewitt (2014), three main strands of research may be identified in the area of multimodality: 1. social semiotic, which investigates the way in which people use different multimodal resources in given social contexts; 2. systemic functional, which aims to observe how multimodal resources contribute to processes of meaning-making within an approach grounded in systemic functional grammar (see e.g. halliday & matthiessen, 2014); 3. interactional, which draws considerably on the notion of situated interaction (e.g. scollon & scollon, 2013) and places its focus on the participants and their reactions. these approaches may at times overlap (for instance, both the social semiotic and the systemic functional approach draw significantly on hallidayan theories) or may be fruitfully combined. from a different, albeit related, perspective, jewitt, bezemer and o’halloran (2016) identify three focal approaches to multimodality, which include systemic functional linguistics, social semiotics, and conversation analysis. following a well-established tradition (see e.g. baldry & thibault, 2006; bateman, 2008; iedema, 2003; o’halloran, 2004), this work hinges, ultimately, on an adaptation of halliday’s systemic functional linguistics (sfl) (halliday, 1975, 1994, 2003) to social semiotics (see e.g. kress & van leeuwen, 2001; van leeuwen, 2005). it may be placed broadly within the area of ‘multimodal discourse analysis’ and partially draws on an approach which has been defined as ‘systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis’ (sf-mda) (cf. o’halloran, 2008; jewitt, bezemer & o’halloran, 2016). as o’halloran (2008: 444) notes, patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274252 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 252 [t]he sf-mda approach is concerned with the meaning potential of semiotic resources distributed across strata (i.e. context, discourse semantics, lexicogrammar and phonology, and typography/graphology) and the theory/analysis of the integrative meaning of semiotic choices in multimodal discourse. (o’halloran, 2008: 444) halliday’s traditional metafunctions of language (halliday, 1975) have often been used to analyze the creation of meaning in intersemiotic systems. the ideational metafunction realizes the representation of entities extant in the world and, consequently, it is the ‘content function of language’ (halliday, 2007: 183). the interpersonal metafunction is the ‘participatory function of language’ (halliday, 2007: 184) and it allows the expression of the relationships between all the participants involved. the textual metafunction enables the actualization of ideational and interpersonal meaning in given contexts (see royce & bowcher, 2007). a metafunctional analytical approach can find applications beyond the linguistic field and provides a descriptive basis across various meaningmaking practices. for instance, visuals, on which this analysis concentrates, also fulfill the three metafunctions assumed in sfl in that their use can convey information, contribute to structuring the talk, and help the imagination of the audience in the construction of meaning (see valeiras jurado, 2015: 113). in particular, the ideational metafunction represents the key focus of this study. in this respect, unsworth (2006) suggests the notions of concurrence, connection and complementarity to describe the processes through which ideational meanings between image and language are created. concurrence is related to an (approximate) equivalence between the meaning conveyed by image and language. connection refers to the creation of meaning through the relations developing between image and language (such relations may be spatial, temporal, causal, etc.). finally, in the case of complementarity, image and language construct different, but complementary, meanings by corroborating or neglecting one another. this classification is partial, in that it is based fundamentally on a bimodal perspective which takes into account only images and texts and ignores other semiotic resources which unavoidably play a role in the creation of meaning in most social contexts. also, these processes may be fluid and dynamic and not necessarily mutually exclusive. however, it serves the crucial purpose of clearly illustrating that meaning is not created simply by the different syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 253 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 253 semiotic resources involved but ultimately by the processes which characterize the relationships between such resources. on a practical note, it should be kept in mind that a complete description of the meaning-making processes which lie at the interstices of multiple modes is, inevitably, a partial task and would probably fail in providing valuable insights into complex intersemiotic relations. any classification runs the risk of being reductionist and overly-rigid given the immense human creativity and the vast technological power at our disposal and the consequent infinite potential in combining different modes. however, improving our understanding of the semiotic resources available, and the intricacy of their relationships, can help raise critical awareness and sensitize us to their prospects and their contingencies. 3. academic lectures 3.1. lectures as multimodal events the lecture has always constituted a space characterized by creative intersemiosis (thesen, 2016: 35). at the same time, the importance assigned to different modes and their salience within lectures has constantly evolved. clark (2006) points put that social practices in academia have progressively led to “the triumph of the eye over the ear” (2006: 13), and, continuing in this vein, thesen observes that the written text has gradually imposed itself over the “predominantly oral, memorial culture of the medieval university” (thesen, 2016: 38).2 similarly, kruse (2006) also highlights the mounting importance of writing in universities. this epistemic shift should be continuously problematized, considering the implications that ‘the triumph of the eye’ has in modern academic learning environments, with the exigencies of moving beyond the textual mode, intended merely as the written word, to a perspective encompassing an ensemble of different visual modes. in particular, bayne and ross (2013) emphasize the key importance of visuals and suggest that the supremacy of the verbal text is fading away, to the extent that the written word can even become entirely unnecessary in some academic contexts. in a lecture, all semiotic resources need to be investigated as a composite. no mode can be observed in isolation if the objective is to understand its social semiotic value within the complexities of a given communicative event. the focus of this preliminary investigation is restricted to the analysis of presentation slides and this choice is guided by two primary reasons. firstly, patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274254 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 254 this work is only an initial step into a broader analysis of the components of the meaning-making ensemble involved in lectures, and a comprehensive investigation would obviously be unachievable (running the risk of oversimplifications which are against the very nature of a study aiming to observe the complexities of multimodal events such as lectures). secondly, it is not excludible a priori that a student may access one specific type of material, such as the slides, without consulting the other sources of information available on the course webpage. one should take into account that the open courses analyzed can provide different types of materials online, ranging from videos to slides, from readings to notes, from transcripts to extra exercises, etc. ideally, when students access a course, they watch the lecture videos and consult notes and slides, thus practically recreating the space of the lecture. however, for some courses, lecture videos are not available, and, in any case, a student may consult one type of material, ignoring the others, or may access them asynchronically. the primary target audience is represented by the students attending the lesson in class, who may simultaneously listen to the lectures and observe the slides whilst they are being projected. however, all the slides are available online and may be accessed across time and space by a wide range of users, described by mit as belonging to three main groups: students, educators, and self-learners. presenters are aware that the material will be publicly available and thus visible to a potentially infinite number of users. this may, directly or indirectly, affect the specific construction of a slide and the exploitation of the affordances of the different semiotic resources. 3.2. slides slide presentations are widely used in different academic settings, such as conferences and seminars, and also represent a standard tool through which lectures are conducted. lecture slides may be ascribed to the “slide show genre” (charles & ventola, 2002: 170). while originally conceived as applying to conference presentations, this name may also be extended to lectures in which slideshows are employed. a slideshow may be included within the lecture genre as well, which, according to fortanet’s (2005) classification, belongs to the category of “classroom genres”. lecture slides have been thoroughly investigated focusing on themes such as students’ reactions (e.g., apperson, laws & scepansky 2008; burke, james & syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 255 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 255 ahmadi, 2009), performance and recall (e.g., amare, 2006; baker et al., 2018), and design recommendation (e.g., garner et al., 2009). however, it should be pointed out that results regarding their efficacy are often inconsistent (see levasseur & sawyer, 2006, for an overview). slides are employed in lectures worldwide for several reasons: they help the speaker to follow the path envisaged in the presentation of the contents; they should favor understanding by students taking notes; they provide material which can be uploaded onto elearning platforms, and so can be accessed remotely. however, extensive criticism has also been raised regarding the use of slides (see kernbach, bresciani & eppler, 2015), especially in terms of information overload and as a potential distraction catalyst, hampering the full understanding of the talk. moreover, myers’ (2000) reservations that powerpoint (ppt) slideshows may lead the presenter to be an animator, rather than a lecturer, are still particularly relevant to any reflection on the use of these tools in academia. the software employed for presentation design is generally microsoft powerpoint, which, in some settings, has become the standard, to the extent that the word is often used as an eponymy to refer to all types of presentation applications. however, several other tools are available and include: prezi,3 keynote,4 google slides,5 visme,6 slidebean,7 and swipe,8 among others. the use of computer slides has profoundly affected the way we communicate and interact in lectures. in this respect, academics can exploit a vast array of multimodal elements, while fulfilling the need to conform to the demands set by the genre and the expectations that it generates (archer & breuer, 2015; van leeuwen, djonov & o’halloran, 2013). indeed, joining the academic community also involves the ability to analyze the different functions of the multiple modes available. thus, lectures should be designed in order to consider the importance of multimodal resources for the transmission of information. indeed, they do not simply represent an additional support to the lesson itself but have a transformative value and play a crucial role in the success of the communicative moment. on the one hand, we can argue that lectures have always encompassed multimodal potential (see section 3.1). on the other hand, new technological affordances can radically modify the processes through which the creation of meaning takes place in a lecture. for instance, the linearity and the sequential production which characterizes speech is based on a conception of patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274256 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 256 communication which is ontologically different from the simultaneous occupation of space that a slide presents, as illustrated by kress in his discussion of the logics of time and space (kress, 2005). in this regard, we can argue that the ephemerality of speech has often been contrasted to the permanence of writing, but this distinction to some extent loses its applicability in most contemporary contexts, for example, in the case of lectures which can be video-recorded and then re-watched ad libitum. additionally, the “ability of the written text to travel across time and space” (räisänen, 2015: 136) seems to be extended to an entire communicative event, such as a lecture, although in a reproduced context which may imply different enactments on the part of the agents involved and possible different effects in terms of the users’ interpretation. 4. method 4.1. corpus the corpus under investigation consists of 2620 slides presented in 68 lectures during four courses randomly selected from the mit website through opencourseware, the initiative which involves the web-based publication of mit course content.9 at the time of writing, the site offers more than 2400 courses and has had 300 million visitors. the material available includes, among others, videolectures, transcripts, slides, handouts, extra reading material, and syllabi. table 1 presents an overview of the corpus: syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 257 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 257 the four courses belong to different areas (electronic engineering and computer science, biology, management, and physics) and ran between 2014 and 2016. each course was taught by at least two different instructors, and this criterion allows us to include a wider range of presenters (thus aiming for a more heterogeneous set of participants). another criterion for selection was that the courses include complete videolectures and transcripts.10 although this study prioritizes slides as the main object of observation, this choice is linked to the potential use of related material for subsequent analysis. patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274258 patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 225-248 opencourseware, the initiative which involves the web-based publication of mit course content.9 at the time of writing, the site offers more than 2400 courses and has had 300 million visitors. the material available includes, among others, videolectures, transcripts, slides, handouts, extra reading material, and syllabi. table 1 presents an overview of the corpus: course number of lectures lecture code no. of slides length of lecture instructor(s) year a introduction to computer science and programming in python 12 a-l1 a-l2 a-l3 a-l5 a-l5 a-l6 a-l7 a-l8 a-l9 a-l10 a-l11 a-l12 35 24 21 35 24 58 35 21 26 39 40 38 43’05 43’30 45’01 41’08 41’27 48’21 41’32 41’43 47’27 51’25 49’12 48’31 ab ab ab ab ab eg ab ab ab eg eg eg 2016 2016 2016 2016 2016 2016 2016 2016 2016 2016 2016 2016 b foundations of computational and systems biology 20 b-l1 b-l2 b-l3 b-l4 b-l5 b-l6 b-l7 b-l8 b-l9 b-l10 b-l11 b-l12 b-l13 b-l14 b-l15 b-l16 b-l17 b-l18 b-l19 b-l20 62 26 46 44 51 85 45 44 36 32 42 72 88 118 152 150 42 58 47 61 1h06’10 1h16’47 1h20’00 1h22’37 1h20’05 1h08’13 1h21’27 1h20’27 1h22’05 1h18’25 1h22’39 1h05’50 1h04’21 1h11’37 1h19’18 45’10 1h14’14 1h20’29 1h22’12 1h17’56 cb,dg,ef cb cb cb dg dg dg dg cb cb cb ef ef ef ef ef gl dg dg dg 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 c poker theory and analytics 8 c-l1 c-l2 c-l3 c-l4 c-l5 c-l6 c-l7 c-l8 50 50 76 112 104 14 21 58 30’48 1h08’28 1h11’44 43’39 46’25 1h20’08 1h04’13 1h04’46 kd jf kd kd kd ab bc mh 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 d reducing the danger of nuclear weapons and proliferation 2 d-1 d-2 29 30 1h35’26 1h23’27 vn ab 2015 2015 total 68 2620 table 1: corpus details. 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 258 4.2. approach this study focuses on lecture slides11 and, more specifically, on the use of visual semiotic resources, with the awareness that they are part of a wider multimodal event which is the lecture itself. among the many approaches available to investigate a complex product such as a slide, the multimodal approach allows us to account for the key role played by a syncretic use of modes (and, in particular, of visuals) and the ways in which they contribute to meaning-making processes. among the plurality of multimodal practices in academic environments, slideshows represent a complex, quotidian space where the conflation of different modes becomes evident. a presentation, be it a ppt or other, becomes a multimodal product. indeed, not only is it a conglomerate of individual modes (in that it includes a vast array of visuals but can also include audio and video material within the presentation) but, at a wider level, it is inseparable from the context of production and from the presenter, whose comments become an integral part of the presentation. thus, the slideshow can be observed at three different levels: 1. statically, by looking at the slide as a final entity, as a product per se; 2. dynamically, by observing the animation within the slides and the products incorporated. this level of analysis is appropriate to investigate genre hybridity, which in turn is interdiscursively related to other genres; 3. interactively, by observing the context of production and considering the slides as inherently linked to the communicative event in which they are shown. this level of analysis takes into account the social semiotic plane from a more inclusive perspective. in this work the approach adopted aims to go beyond the observation of the contribution of individual semiotic modes and to consider the meaning created dynamically by the interaction of the different resources, in a circular process which goes from the singular to the global and vice versa. as kress and van leeuwen (2006: 177) aptly state, multimodal analysis often implies reflecting upon “whether the meanings of the whole should be treated as the sum of the meanings of the parts or whether the parts should be looked upon as interacting with and affecting one another”. syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 259 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 259 this investigation is based on a model specifically developed for the analysis of visuals, which i define as ifv (integrated framework for visuals), as illustrated in section 5. methodologically, the framework loosely draws on a typology of visuals introduced by rowley-jolivet (2002). this analysis is inherently qualitative, and it is exempted from quantitative data for two primary reasons. firstly, several detailed works have previously approached slideshows (in lectures and in other settings) from this perspective (see e.g. diani, 2015; rowley-jolivet, 2002). secondly, this paper is conceptually based on the recognition of the fluidity of semiotic resources and the problematization of their ascription to a specific category; thus, i would argue that a qualitative approach allows a minimization of the risk of running into reductionist simplifications which would go against the theoretical underpinnings of this work. a comprehensive multimodal social semiotic approach to the investigation of tools such as powerpoint as a semiotic practice should include three different dimensions: the software’s design, the composition of slideshows, and their presentation, as zhao, djonov and van leeuwen (2014) pertinently point out. this study, however, focuses exclusively on the second dimension and, more specifically, on the use of visuals, in that it has the mere purpose to conceptualize them from the perspective of hybridity and to illustrate such hybridity through a limited number of examples selected to this end. 5. towards a dynamic typology of visuals rowley-jolivet’s seminal study (2002) focuses on the importance of visuals in scientific conference paper presentations. her four-dimension typology, broadly drawing on bertin (1973), can also constitute a point of departure for the investigation of visual elements in lecture slides. however, shifting paradigms in the use of visuals (determined, inter alia, by new technological affordances) call for the need to reconceptualize and redefine typologies of visuals. although his theories have often been oversimplified, leading to static applications of fixed categories of visuals to heterogeneous and dynamic elements, bertin himself emphasized that graphic representation is constantly subject to changes regarding the very nature of the image, which can become a living entity. la grande différence […] entre la représentation graphique d’hier, mal dissociée de l’image figurative, et la graphique de demain, c’est la disparition patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274260 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 260 de la fixité congénitale de l’image. devenue manipulable par superpositions, juxtapositions, transformations, permutations, autorisant groupements et classements, l’image graphique est passée de l’image morte, de l’illustration, à l’image vivante, à l’instrument de recherches accessible à tous (bertin, 1973: 78) (italics in original).12 bertin’s work paved the way for an approach that i would define as ‘semiological infographics’, given the semiological perspective adopted to investigate information design. yet, some of the conceptual underpinnings of his work appear inapplicable to contemporary contexts, as will be illustrated. bertin (1973: 6) distinguishes between graphical images (such as graphs, diagrams, and maps) and figurative images (such as photographs),13 and rowley-jolivet’s (2002) classification integrates them with scriptural visuals (including texts) and numerical visuals (e.g. mathematical formulas). numerical and graphical visuals are generally considered monosemic, while figurative and scriptural ones are defined as polysemic (rowley-jolivet 2002: 28).14 according to bertin (1973: 6), the reading of a graphical image is originally defined as monosemic in that each single element has a given, pre-defined value encoded by a single variable. thus, if one variable represents a given value, the reading of the graphical visual should be unambiguous. for instance, if in a graph the blue color refers to a certain piece of information, it is supposed that the user will not have to make a hermeneutic effort to interpret the graph, as the image is theoretically monosemic. instead, figurative images are traditionally described as polysemic and open to various interpretations. clearly, this conceptualization (which bertin applied specifically to the field of cartography) nowadays needs to be problematized and is not applicable tout court to other types of visuals. indeed, although bertin’s interpretation was particularly influential when it was developed at the beginning of the 1970s, the complexities of new technology, and its affordances in the digital age, render its application controversial in the modern era. in this regard, i would argue that the constant increase in the level of sophistication in the creation of visuals makes the distinction between monosemic and polysemic items inevitably largely fallacious if applied to contemporary visual design. this paper aims to show that this dichotomic distinction is fundamentally an oversimplification which neglects the polysemic value that graphical and numerical visuals may also assume and the hermeneutic effort involved in their processing. secondly, the hybrid nature and the fluidity of visuals often make the very distinction between these categories unclear. the notion of syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 261 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 261 monosemic images (conveying apparently only one meaning) inexorably implies some shortcomings, such as the overlooking of the fact that sophisticated graphical images can be ideologically laden, elicit emotions, and convey multiple, even oppositional, subjective constructions of meanings. conceptually, rowley-jolivet (2002) defines ‘graphical’ and ‘figurative’ as belonging to the same semiotic system (visual), while ‘scriptural’ belongs to the linguistic semiotic system and ‘numerical’ to the mathematical one. the use of the term ‘visual’ to define both the semiotic system and the mode could be criticized; consequently, for the sake of clarity, in this work the term ‘illustrative’ is adopted to define the semiotic system which pertains to graphical and figurative visuals (see table 2). although such distinction is heuristic rather than conceptual, it may avoid the risk of running into definitional overlapping. table 2 presents the integrated framework for visuals, which is based on a typology that includes the categories suggested by rowley-jolivet (which i grouped under the label ‘form’), but is also extended to features such as synchronicity, aspect, format and hyperlinking. far from representing an exhaustive typology, it aims to take into account different features which characterize a wide range of visuals and may be adopted for the analysis of slides. consequently, this framework is tentative and constantly evolving, given the nature of the items contemplated. it may be considered as a ‘snapshot’ of a typology which is applicable to a specific genre at this point in time, with the awareness that technological developments will determine the need for its constant adaptation. visuals are firstly classified according to their form, including scriptural, graphical, figurative and numerical items, but also the classes ‘other’ and ‘hybrid’. given the general tendency to conceive visuals as images, the patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274262 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 262 inclusion of scriptural and numerical elements in this category may appear debatable. however, visuals are here intended as a macrocategory, thus encompassing elements consisting of different visual signs. a description of visuals which does not include the scriptural and numerical elements is, of course, conceptually possible but appears in line with the dichotomic perspective that the theoretical background of this paper aims to deviate from, i.e. the conceptual contrast between words and pictures (and, more generally, between different categories of modes). the class ‘other’ heuristically encompasses all other potential forms of visuals, such as videos, which are not specifically contemplated in the traditional typology. hybridity, as we shall see, is a feature which is present across visuals, and all items may present hybrid characteristics. hence, these classes should be considered fluid and permeable. some visuals may also be predominantly ascribable to one category, while displaying features of another. however, in some cases, the ‘hybrid’ label appears necessary as it is not possible to define which class is focal in order to ascribe the item to one single class. for instance, if we consider a logo which includes both figurative and textual elements, it would be conceptually fallacious to analyze the different elements as if they existed in isolation and thus the image text has to be conceived as a hybrid visual. visuals are also classified according to their dynamic aspect, in that both static and moving visuals may be present. dynamicity encompasses different stages from complete steadiness, to the presentation of animated effects, to video material. as regards format, although it may not appear crucial for the construction of meaning (as images in different formats may not display manifest differences), raster and vector images15 carry with them affordances which can imply precise constraints in the production of the slideshow. slides may also be classified according to the presence of hyperlinks. this aspect is not automatically applicable to all visuals, but in the digital age it seems to be acquiring particular importance and is relevant to the genre under investigation in this study. slides may include external links, thus having an outward drive which cannot be ignored, in that the anchoring element (and the related content) becomes an additional source of information. 6. slides as multimodal spaces 6.1. the fluidity of visuals as mentioned above, this paper argues for the need to reconceptualize visuals according to fluid and dynamic categories. while some elements may syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 263 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 263 be unproblematically assigned one specific label as only one form of visual is present, in several cases this attribution is not possible. indeed, new technology has led to further mutability in visuals, and the boundaries between the categories are often blurred. one single paper clearly cannot describe exhaustively the infinite forms of hybridity which emerge in complex spaces such as slides. thus, the objective is to present selected examples which demonstrate the high level of intricacy which characterize visuals with merely illustrative purposes. not only can visuals not be easily ascribed to specific categories, but a single slide often includes multiple forms of visuals and it is impossible to define it as purely numerical, scriptural or figurative. by means of an example, figure 116 constitutes a complex modal ensemble in which different figurative elements, whose presence is crucial for the graphical conceptualization of the message, are clearly combined with scriptural ones. the construction of meaning is given by the interdependence of the different visuals, which create hybrid units acting in synergy and thus assuming a given epistemological value thanks to their mutual validation. for instance, a single visual (e.g. the image of homer simpson) is not only ‘accompanied’ by another (e.g. the textual element ‘homer’), but a new compositional unit (whose different components reciprocally nurture their validity) is created, and it acquires a specific meaning within the entire space of the slide. patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274264 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 264 the analysis of the position that the different visuals assume within the slide is also critical to the definition of their meaning-making potential (see djonov & van leeuwen, 2013), but this approach would clearly be beyond the scope of the paper, which is aimed exclusively at the problematization of a clear-cut separation between classes of visuals. the next slide, as shown in figure 2, presents a formula expressed through numerical signs, followed by the same concept in a more verbalized version (“in words”). the two forms coexist and, while scriptural signs can have a clarifying function, they both guide the viewer in the interpretation process. thus, one visual is not merely an addition to the other but, rather, they become inseparable for the successful conveyance of meaning. figure 3 also presents figurative elements, as well as textual and numerical ones, within a graphical apparatus. they are all central to the representation of knowledge and the creation of a shared meaning among the agents involved. hence, the slide itself constitutes what i define as a ‘multitopia’, meaning an environment which entails a variety of environments, characterized by the presence of various visuals which act synergically. syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 265 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 265 beyond the hybridity of slides from a macro perspective, the analysis of individual elements also reveals their high levels of complexity. for example, the visual item in figure 4 may be seen as predominantly scriptural, but it is not a prototypical scriptural form and the meaning conveyed also assumes graphical contours. categorizing it simplistically as a scriptural component would mean ignoring the meaning conveyed by its graphical traits. figure 5 may be described as mostly graphic, but to some extent it is also figurative. from a broad perspective, this element consists solely of a patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274266 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 266 graphic, which is then composed of different signs. however, when observed individually, the different semiotic resources appear as a combination of texts, images, and lines, which co-construct meaning. in this case, lines play a chief function in that they represent a connection; they link the different elements, thus contributing to the creation of a specific visual syntax17 (van leuween, 2005). the meaning potential of these connections is noticeable and can indicate dependence, cause, development, etc. the line itself does not simply serve as a connector but has a transformative value, in that the single elements which are linked are not intended as isolated entities but as a part of new composition. another illustration of the hybridity of visuals is offered by figure 6, which presents an instance of coding. coding lies in between the realms of numerical and textual representations in that both semiotic systems are employed for the conveying of information. it may be described as a hybrid system, which inevitably generates visuals which do not clearly belong to a single traditional category. syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 267 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 267 as previously mentioned, logos constitute complex alphanumerical-pictorial ensembles, ascribable to the category ‘hybrid’. they often include both graphical/pictorial and scriptural elements which work in synergy. thus, it can be argued that each mode has a transformative function in relation to the others, transferring meaning from one element to another, which in turn is transformed, assuming a new meaning. 6.2. multimodal syncretism slides include a vast range of semiotic modes, whose usage varies according to the presenter, the subject, and the educational objectives to be fulfilled, so that each course displays its own multimodal mannerism. certain types of information can only successfully be conveyed through specific visuals, which are used in a syncretic way. in this respect, slides become catalysts for the syncretic use of multimodal resources. slides can be seen as multimodal spaces which incorporate multiple resources. to describe them, i suggest using the term syncretism, which contemplates the investigation of different modes and their relations from a global perspective. like a chemical reaction which rearranges the atoms of the reactants to create different substances, the combination of the different modes creates a new final product. thus, syncretic modality is in line with the concept of intersemiotic complementarity, i.e. how modes “complement each other in the ways that they project meaning” (royce, 2007: 63). different modes generate new inseparable entities, which exist in a perpetual entanglement. patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274268 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 268 7. conclusions slideshows in lectures have become common in all disciplinary fields, and visually attractive presentations are often deemed necessary in order to meet students’ expectations in the era of digital humanities. during lectures, students are expected to listen, watch and read at the same time. this appears in contrast to assumptions that we live in a logocentric society, as well as to traditional conceptualizations of representation in which text supersedes all other forms of meaning (lim, 2004). the seismic epistemic shift which we have experienced has led to the imposition of a visual culture, and this fundamental change is also reflected in academic lectures, where multimodal resources can function as enhancers of knowledge popularization and knowledge communication. the different resources are not simply accompanying tools which only have an aesthetic function or which only guide the presenter through the lecture. rather, they help listeners to coconstruct knowledge and to engage in the process of creating commonlyshared meanings. this work focuses on authentic examples of academic communication and provides a contribution to applied linguistics through two main focal points: 1) a theoretical one, which describes the fluidity of modes (with special attention being devoted to visuals), problematizes their very distinction, and suggests the conceptualization of syncretic multimodality; and 2) an empirical one, which observes real instances of modal syncretism in slides and confirms the blurred contours which exist between different types of modal resources. the dilemma regarding whether new media require “a new concept of literacy, or simply a recombination of literacy practices” (tyner, 2000: xv) remains unsolved. if the word ‘graphicy’ (see e.g. donnison, 2004) has been introduced as opposed to literacy and numeracy to define the ability to master graphic and pictorial resources, i would argue for the need to conceptualize the notion of ‘modacy’, intended as the ability to master multiple modal resources, which has become crucial with the advent of new and converging technologies. this paper also emphasizes the necessity to gain a finer understanding of the fluidity of modal resources, and their flexible and permeable nature. new technological affordances make their ascription to static categories highly problematic, and the time is ripe for a problematization of the very distinction of modes in the first place. different semiotic resources are syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 269 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 269 unstable and dynamic. this is particularly evident for those ascribable to the category of visuals, which are becoming progressively hybrid to the degree that they may become increasingly complex and lose their defining features. thus, it is often impossible to categorize slides as ‘scriptural’, ‘numerical’, ‘graphical’ or ‘figurative’, according to traditional paradigms, in that the majority of slides present a combination of different visuals. overall, this approach highlights the need for a constant reconsideration of predefined categorizations of modes in a world where technological advances constantly create shifts in paradigmatic conceptions of the resources available, and new creative ways of combining modes become possible. clearly, the relatively limited number of courses and presenters involved in this study implies a word of caution regarding the possibility of drawing generalizable conclusions. also, the themes of subjectivity and reflexivity inevitably play an important role in an area where individual choices may be determined by a complex array of factors which are not always available to the researchers. however, given their ubiquity and their relevance in academic lectures, slideshows represent a fertile ground for research. on a practical note, the mastery of slides as a genre implies a deep understanding of the affordances of various semiotic resources in a given context. this, in turn, may lead to a more enlightened use of such resources and to a more successful construction of meaning, as well as (potentially) to communicative achievements and the ensuing educational success. indeed, the acquaintance to how multimodality operates in educational settings can allow us to implement multimodal tools more effectively. from an educational standpoint, analyses of this type can contribute to helping lecturers become more cognizant of both the affordances of multiple semiotic resources and the need to consider them from a syncretic perspective. acknowledgements this study is part of the project “knowledge dissemination across media in english: continuity and change in discourse strategies, ideologies, and epistemologies”, funded through prin 2015, prot. 2015tj8zas_002. article history: received 26 november 2018 received in revised form 10 may 2019 accepted 13 may 2019 patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274270 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 270 references syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 271 amare, n. 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(2002). “visual discourse in scientific conference papers: a genre based study”. english for specific purposes 21: 19-40. royce, w. l. (2007). “intersemiotic complementarity: a framework for multimodal discourse analysis” in t.d. royce & w.l. bowcher (eds.), new directions in the analysis of multimodal discourse, 63-109. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. scollon, r. & s. scollon (2003). discourses in place: language in the material world. london: routledge. simpson, z. (2016). “drawn writing: the role of written text in civil engineering drawing” in e. breuer & a. archer (eds.), 241-255. sipe, l. r. (1998). “how picture books work: a semiotically framed theory of text-picture relationships”. children’s literature in education 29(2): 97-108. thesen, l. (2016). “the past in the present: modes, gaze and changing communicative practices in lectures” in e. breuer & a. archer (eds.), 31-52. tyner, k. (2000). “foreword: expanding literacy in a shrinking world” in a. w. pailliotet & p. mosenthal (eds.), reconceptualizing literacy in the media age, xv-xx. oxford: elsevier. unsworth, l. (2006). “towards a metalanguage for multiliteracies education: describing the meaningmaking resources of language-image interaction”. english teaching: practice and critique 1: 55-76. valeiras jurado, j. (2015). “a multimodal approach to persuasion in conference presentations” in b. 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 272 patrizia anesa (ph.d. in english studies, university of verona) is a researcher in english language and translation at the university of bergamo and is a member of cerlis (research centre on specialized languages). her research interests lie mostly in the area of esp, with particular reference to legal and academic discourse and to the investigation of knowledge asymmetries in expert-lay interaction. notes 1 following bezemer and kress’s seminal definition, in this work a mode is intended as “a socially and culturally shaped resource for making meaning. image, writing, layout, speech, moving images are examples of modes” (2008: 171). 2 in this respect, see the concept of lectio and disputatio which characterized medieval scholastic practices (cf. higton, 2012: 23). 3 prezi provides completely animated presentations. slides are showcased within one frame, making the transition unexpected and involving. 4 keynote has been developed for apple devices and offers a wide range of transitions and animations. 5 google slides is characterized by simplicity and an intuitive approach. it allows collaborators to be connected and work simultaneously on the same presentation. 6 visme is cloud-based and is particularly useful to produce creative infographics. 7 slidebean manages formatting and transitions automatically and is a very time-efficient tool. 8 swipe allows the presentation to be fully interactive by creating polls that can be used in real time. 9 all courses are freely available at https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/. 10 for all the courses selected, the material available includes slides, videos (showing the complete lecture), and transcripts of the entire talk accompanying the slides. 11 thus, a slide represents the basic unit of meaning in this analysis. 12 “the big difference [...] between the graphic representation of yesterday, wrongly dissociated from the figurative image, and the graphic of tomorrow, is the disappearance of the congenital fixity of the image. having become manipulable by superpositions, juxtapositions, transformations, permutations, permitting syncretic modality in slideshows in the era of digital humanities ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274 273 crawford camiciottoli & i. fortanet-gómez (eds.), 108-130. van leeuwen, t. (2005). introducing social semiotics. london: routledge. van leeuwen, t., e. djonov & k. o’halloran (2013). “‘david byrne really does love powerpoint’: art as research on semiotics and semiotic technology”. social semiotics 23(3): 409423. zhao, s., e. djonov & t. van leeuwen (2014). “semiotic technology and practice: a multimodal social semiotic approach to powerpoint”. text & talk 34(3): 349-375. 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 273 groupings and classifications, the graphic image has gone from the still image, from the illustration, to the living image, to the instrument of research accessible to all”. 13 it should be pointed out that bertin’s original interpretation also included mathematical and musical signs as categories of fundamental signs. 14 bertin’s work also contemplates the case of pansemic meanings attributed to signs, as happens, for instance, with non-figurative images, i.e. abstract images. ‘pansémie’ is thus described as an extreme form of ‘polysémie’ (bertin, 1973: 6). 15 raster graphics consist of colored pixels arranged to create an image, while vector graphics are made up of paths, each with a mathematical formula (vector) which dictates how the image is rendered. vectors can be infinitely scaled without losing quality, whereas raster images cannot be scaled to larger sizes without scarifying their appearance. 16 all images are used in conformity with the code of best practices in fair use for opencourseware (see http://cmsimpact.org/code/code-best-practices-fair-use-opencourseware/). patrizia anesa ibérica 38 (2019): 249-274274 09 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:53 página 274 01 editorial.qxd editorial multimodal analysis of specialized discourse in recent years, different theories and approaches have been developed towards research on discourse from a multimodal perspective. the main premise is that “language is inherently multimodal” (fortanet-gómez and crawford camiciottoli, 2015:2), that is to say, messages are codified across an indeterminate number of ‘modes’ (words, gestures, facial expressions, writing, colors, music, electronic presentations, etc.) that contribute to the creation of meaning (jewitt, 2009; kress & van leeuwen, 2001). among the most well-known approaches to multimodal studies, three may be highlighted: multimodal social semiotics (hodge & kress, 1988; kress & van leeuwen, 2001; van leeuwen, 2005), multimodal (or systemic functional – multimodal) discourse analysis (baldry & thibault, 2006; o’halloran, 2004, o’toole, 2011), and multimodal (inter)action analysis (norris, 2004; scollon & scollon, 2003). studies focusing on specialized discourse, however, have rarely adopted a multimodal point of view (plastina, 2013; prior, 2013). and, in the few cases in which this has been the perspective, they have centered for the most part on the study of written materials (guo, 2004; yuen, 2004), and some of them on lectures (bernad-mechó & fortanet-gómez, 2019) and conference presentations (querol-julián & fortanet-gómez, 2012). the analysis of specialized discourse still has much to contribute by applying multimodality theories and methodologies, with the aim to obtain a more complete vision of the intrinsic characteristics of this discourse. the articles in this monographic volume will therefore be focused on multimodal studies of specialized discourse. the specific purposes of this discourse are business and finance, medicine, science and nursing. there are articles dealing with professional discourse, student and teacher classroom discourse, and media, research and institutional discourses, as well as with a number of different genres: earnings calls, students’ presentations, business and product pitches, investor reports, research dissemination talk, medical drama and docu-series, formal and informal classroom texts, promotional videos produced by research groups and from the nature online video streaming archive, conference presentations, and university websites. we ibérica 37 (2019): 9-16 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 9 00 iberica 37_01 editorial.qxd 8/5/19 18:15 página 9 hope ibérica readers find a special interest for the wide variety of fields and genres studied by the articles in this special issue. the first contribution is a guest article by belinda crawford camiciottoli, “multimodality and financial communication: the case of earnings calls”. she deals with a very specific business genre, the earnings call, that is, a teleconference in which executives present their companies’ economic results to professional financial analysts. the multimodal analysis shows the intersemiotic complementarity of several semiotic resources in this genre: prosodic features, accompanying visual supports with numerical data, graphics and images. verbal and non-verbal resources cannot be understood in isolation. their combination conveys pragmatic meanings which can sometimes be regarded as authoritative and at other times as tentative, depending on the goals of the participants in the earnings call. the second article is “a multimodal approach to business presentations for the tourism industry: learning communication skills in a master’s programme” by juan carlos palmer-silveira., which deals, like the article following it, with students’ presentations simulating business discourse. palmer-silveira describes the use of multimodal resources by students giving a presentation to persuade businesspeople to choose a 5-star hotel in barcelona. a total of 28 presentations by students enrolled in the master’s degree in english language for international trade at universitat jaume i (castelló, spain) were recorded and analysed. results show the special relevance of three elements: gestures, pace and rhythm, in the development of appropriate communication skills. similarly, in “beyond language: a multimodal analysis of success in non-native business-english pitches”, antonio jimenez-muñoz analyses from a multimodal perspective 140 business pitches and 376 investor reports presented by students in a business english course. results show statistical evidence of the influence of non-verbal elements on pitch success, which reveals an implicit impact of non-verbal aspects and soft skills – such as presenting and negotiating in academic assessment. from a pedagogical perspective, the author points out the need for a rubric-based assessment method which can consider both speech and other modes – or their combinations – as well as skills-oriented effectiveness under simulation, in order to better match curricular expectations of employability. in “modal coherence in specialised discourse: a case study of persuasive oral presentations in business and academia”, julia editorial ibérica 37 (2019): 9-1610 00 iberica 37_01 editorial.qxd 8/5/19 18:15 página 10 valeiras-jurado probes into what exactly makes these persuasive presentations effective. specifically, the question under study is whether it is the choice of persuasive strategies, the number of semiotic modes, or the consistency in the use of these modes (i.e. modal coherence) that affects persuasion more directly. the case study presented compares a research dissemination talk and a product pitch. the results suggest that modal coherence is of crucial importance for the effectiveness of a persuasive presentation. in other words, a varied and balanced use of modes seems to be beneficial, but increasing the number of modes will not make communication more effective unless they are used coherently. veronica bonsignori in “a multimodal analysis of spoken medical english in expert-to-expert interaction in tv programmes” focuses on oral communication between professionals in medical contexts. due to the difficulty in obtaining a real-life corpus, she analyses two american tv products, the medical drama code black (2015-present), and the medical docu-series boston med (2010). findings seem to reveal that gaze direction and head movements become more prominent in some sequences as substitutes of gestures when doctors need to use their hands and body posture to help patients. gestures, however, appear to be much more relevant when doctors discuss a clinical case, either to formulate a diagnosis while visiting a patient or to argue about how a patient was assisted. in his article “display cases, catalogues and clock faces: multimodal social semiotic analysis of information graphics in civil engineering”, zach simpson investigates the social semiotic practices surrounding the use of information graphics within the specialized discourse of civil engineering. the types of written texts collected include formal texts produced by students for the purpose of assessment, informal texts produced by the participants (such as notes taken during classes or discussions), and assigned or given texts such as textbooks and class notes. three broad social practices surrounding the use of information graphics are identified, each of which is characterised by the representational functions it fulfils: display case, catalogue and clock face graphics. these practices are described, and the features of each of them are explained. the paper concludes with a brief reflection on how delineation of the social practices associated with information graphics enables understanding of civil engineering knowledge. editorial ibérica 37 (2019): 9-16 11 00 iberica 37_01 editorial.qxd 8/5/19 18:15 página 11 the following two articles deal with the discourse of research. “bridging the gap between experts and publics: the role of multimodality in disseminating research in online videos”, by maría josé luzón, analyses two types of online research videos: promotional videos produced by research groups themselves or their institutions, and videos from the nature online video streaming archive, which act as a complement to a published paper. these videos are addressed to audiences with different degrees of expertise, so researchers are expected to meet the information needs of various publics. the purpose of the study is to analyze how multimodal strategies are used to recontextualize knowledge for an interested public. the strategies to engage the readers and attain affective engagement are realized by orchestrating resources of speech (e.g. lexical and grammatical choices which convey intimacy, informality or affinity), image and gestures. in “introducing nursing conference presentations: a step forward”, miguel ruiz-garrido studies the beginning or set-up stage of conference presentations in nursing. the aim of the study is to check whether there is a common pattern to start paper presentations in an international nursing conference, and to analyse those initial sections from a multi-layer perspective. a dataset of 16 invited conference presentations on nursing are analysed. data indicate that paralinguistics and kinesics play a relevant role when speaking in public, mostly when supporting the creation of the speaker’s persona and the relationship with the audience. in this analysis, pitch or silence, on the one hand, and head and hand/arm movements and gestures, on the other, are common semiotic resources that support the spoken language. additionally, metadiscourse and non-linguistic features show diversity in the promotion of speakers’ personae and audience engagement. the last article in this special issue researches institutional discourse. “representation of international students on australian universities websites: a critical multimodal discourse analysis”, by zuocheng zhang and wenchao tu conceptualizes university websites for international students as multimodal texts employing language and other semiotic resources such as images to represent these students. the interplay between images and linguistic texts assists in achieving accommodation in human communication. based on a qualitative inquiry into the webpages for international students on the official websites of three australian universities, the article shows how these institutions categorize international editorial ibérica 37 (2019): 9-1612 00 iberica 37_01 editorial.qxd 8/5/19 18:15 página 12 students and represent them in perceived activities and interpersonal relations through language and other modes. the discursive representation of international students by the three australian universities is discussed in relation to conceptual shifts in international student education, diversity management and multimodal discourse analysis. the article concludes with implications for international student representation and university webpage design, as well as education in languages for specific purposes. this special issue of ibérica also contains four book reviews related to its monographic topic: introducing multimodality (by carey jewitt, jeff bezemer & kay o’halloran, routledge 2016), commented on by larissa d’angelo (universitá degli studi di bergamo, italy); multimodality across communicative settings, discourse domains and genres (by belinda crawford camiciottoli & veronica bonsignori, eds., cambridge scholars publishing 2016), evaluated by adriana gordejuela (university of navarra, spain); multimodal analysis in academic settings: from research to teaching (by belinda crawford camiciottoli & inmaculada fortanet-gómez, eds., routledge studies in multimodality 2015), assessed by jan engberg (aarhus university, denmark), and doing visual analysis (by per ledin & david machin, sage 2018), reviewed by l kumaran rajandran (universiti sains malaysia. malaysia). finally, we would like to thank the following members of the editorial board (listed below in alphabetical order) for their time and interest in supporting a high-quality peer-review process: rafael alejo (universidad de extremadura) m. luisa carrió (universidad politécnica de valencia) rosa giménez (universidad de valencia) elena martín monje (universidad nacional de educación a distancia) c. peter neuman (universidad de zaragoza) lourdes pomposo (universidad politécnica de madrid) mercedes rico (universidad de extremadura) marisol velasco (universidad de valladolid) invited external reviewers have also generously supported this process over the past months. we would also like to thank them for their detailed assessment of the manuscripts. their expertise in providing relevant feedback on the submitted work is very much appreciated. these are, in alphabetical order: jelena bobkina (universidad politécnica de madrid) francesca coccetta (università ca’ foscari, venezia) editorial ibérica 37 (2019): 9-16 13 00 iberica 37_01 editorial.qxd 8/5/19 18:15 página 13 belinda crawford-camiciottolli (università di pisa) giuliana diani (università degli studi di modena e reggio emilia) nuria edo-marzá (universitat jaume i) teresa morell (universidad de alicante) pilar mur (universidad de zaragoza) jesse pirini (victoria university of wellington, new zealand) mercedes querol-julián (universidad internacional de la rioja) noelia ruiz-madrid (universitat jaume i) to conclude, we wish to thank ibérica for allowing us to edit this special issue, and particularly its present and previous editors-in-chief, dr. carmen sancho-guinda, and dr. carmen pérez-llantada. both offered their unconditional support and guided our edition work for this special issue from the beginning to the end. we also wish to thank the whole editorial team for their highly professional work. inmaculada fortanet-gómez & edgar bernad-mechó universitat jaume i (castelló, spain) guest editors of ibérica 37 references editorial ibérica 37 (2019): 9-1614 baldry, a. & p. j. thibault (2006). multimodal transcription and text analysis. london: equinox. bernad-mechó, e. & i. fortanet-gómez (2019). “organizational metadiscourse across lecturing styles: engagement beyond language” in c. sancho guinda (ed.), engagement in professional genres. deference and disclosure [p&bns 301]. amsterdam: john benjamins. fortanet-gómez, i. & b. crawford camiciottoli (eds.) (2015). multimodal analysis in academic settings: from research to teaching (routledge studies in multimodality). new york: routledge. guo, l. (2004). “multimodality in a biological text” in k. o’halloran (ed.), multimodal discourse analysis: systemic functional perspectives, 196219. london and new york: continuum. hodge, r. & g. kress (1988). social semiotics. cambridge: polity. jewitt, c. (ed.) (2009). the routledge handbook of multimodal analysis. london: routledge. kress g. & t. van leeuwen (2001). multimodal discourse. the modes and media of contemporary communication. london: arnold. norris, s. (2004). analyzing multimodal interaction. a methodological framework. new york: routledge. o’toole, m. (2011 [1994]). the language of displayed art (2nd ed.). london & new york: routledge. plastina, a. f. (2013). “multimodality in english for specific purposes: reconceptualizing meaningmaking practices”. revista de lenguas para fines específicos, 19: 372-396. prior, p. (2013). “multimodality and esp research” in b. paltridge & s. starfield (eds.), the handbook of english for specific purposes, 519-534. malden, ma: wiley-blackwell. querol-julián, m. & i. fortanet-gómez (2012). “multimodal evaluation in academic discussion sessions: how do presenters act and react?” english for specific purposes, 31: 271283. 00 iberica 37_01 editorial.qxd 8/5/19 18:15 página 14 editorial ibérica 37 (2019): 9-16 15 scollon, r. & s. scollon (2003). discourses in place: language in the material world. new york: routledge. van dijk, t. 2004. “critical context studies” in first international conference on critical discourse analysis, 5-8. university of valencia. van leeuwen, t. (2005). introducing social semiotics. london: routledge. yuen, c.y. (2004). “the construal of ideational meaning in print advertisements” in k. l. o’halloran (ed.), multimodal discourse analysis: systemic-functional perspectives, 163-195. london: continuum. 00 iberica 37_01 editorial.qxd 8/5/19 18:15 página 15 00 iberica 37_01 editorial.qxd 8/5/19 18:15 página 16 iberica 13 ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract extant research has highlighted the essentiality of grammatical metaphor (gm) as a linguistic resource in academic writing. drawing on systemic functional linguistics (sfl), this study investigated the relationship between explicit instruction in nominalisation as one type of gm and esl learners’ mastery of this key resource. adopting a true experimental design, the study involved 38 filipino professionals in singapore who needed to pass ielts for academic or professional purposes. the students in the experimental group received 9.5 hours of explicit instruction in various aspects of nominalisation, whereas those in the control group received the same amount of instruction focusing on error analysis, formality of language, as well as the use of the academic word list (awl) and the british national corpus. comparisons between the texts produced by the experimental and the control group in response to timed writing tasks revealed quantitative and qualitative differences in the frequencies of nominalisations employed, the lexical density of texts, and the quality of essay organisation. the findings constitute new evidence of the importance of gm as a powerful linguistic resource for helping learners write texts that are valued in academia. keywords: grammatical metaphor, nominalisation, academic writing, explicit instruction. resumen los efectos de la instrucción explícita de la nominalización en aprendices de escritura académica en inglés como segunda lengua effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing guangwei hu & miller reyes perez the hong kong polytechnic university (hong kong) & iss international school (singapore) guangwei.hu@polyu.edu.hk & mperez@iss.edu.sg 27 ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 guangwei hu & miller reyes perez la investigación previa ha subrayado el carácter esencial de la metáfora gramatical como recurso lingüístico en la escritura académica. el presente trabajo adopta el enfoque de la lingüística sistémico-funcional para investigar acerca de la relación entre la instrucción explícita de la nominalización, entendida como un tipo de metáfora gramatical, y el dominio de este recurso fundamental por parte de los aprendices de inglés como segunda lengua. el estudio cuenta con un diseño experimental y se basa en 38 profesionales filipinos en singapur que necesitaban aprobar el examen ielts por razones académicas o profesionales. los estudiantes del grupo experimental recibieron 9.5 horas de instrucción explícita acerca de varios aspectos de la nominalización, mientras que aquellos que formaban parte del grupo de control recibieron la misma cantidad de horas de instrucción sobre análisis de errores, rasgos lingüísticos de formalidad y el uso de la academic word list (awl) y del british national corpus. al comparar los textos producidos por el grupo experimental con los del grupo de control en tareas de escritura con tiempo limitado, se han puesto de manifiesto diferencias cuantitativas y cualitativas en la frecuencia de las nominalizaciones utilizadas, la densidad léxica de los textos y la calidad de la organización de los ensayos. los resultados obtenidos ofrecen nuevas evidencias de la importancia de la metáfora gramatical como un recurso lingüístico muy útil para ayudar a los aprendices a escribir textos que vayan a ser valorados positivamente en el mundo académico. palabras clave: metáfora gramatical, nominalización, escritura académica, instrucción explícita. 1. introduction language learners engage in a complex meaning-making process when they write in academic or professional contexts (halliday, 1989). the complexity of this process stems from the need to transfer meanings from everyday, dynamic, and common-sense renderings to technicalised, static, and specialised representations. grammatical metaphor (gm) has been identified in the literature as a powerful linguistic resource for facilitating this shift (halliday, 1998). gm has been extensively investigated (e.g., schleppegrell, 2004a; thompson, 2009), and extant empirical studies have involved english-as-l1 students (e.g., christie, 2002; christie & derewianka, 2008; painter, 2003; torr & simpson, 2003; woodward-kron, 2008), learners of english as a second language (chen & foley, 2004; mohan & beckett, 2001; schleppegrell, 2004a; wang, 2012), learners of german as a foreign language (ryshina-pankova, 2010), and learners of spanish as a heritage language (achugar & colombi, 2008; colombi, 2006; velasquez-mendoza, 2015). 28 these studies have focused largely on describing gm as a linguistic phenomenon and outlining the ontogenetic progression followed by learners in their language development. little attention, however, has been given to the effect of explicit instruction in gm on learners’ awareness of this language resource and their ability to draw on it in their writing. thus, it is not clear whether the teaching of gm can facilitate mastery of this resource and contribute to better writing quality. to bridge this lacuna, the present study utilised a true experimental research design to investigate the effect of explicit instruction in nominalisation, a type of gm, on the use of nominalised expressions and the quality of essays modelled on the writing tasks of ielts. the results of this study are expected to further our understanding of learners’ mastery of gm and inform writing instruction in english for academic or professional purposes. 1.1. grammatical metaphor, nominalisation, and academic writing as learners progress in their language development, they learn to make meanings in increasingly diverse contexts. effective participation in these communicative contexts requires the ability to construe meaning in ways expected by the relevant discourse communities. one of these discourse communities is the academic community, where learners are expected to master advanced academic literacy and make meanings in highly complex ways. upon their entry into the academic community, learners typically discover that the informal, interactional register that they are familiar with may not be appropriate in the construal of meanings in formal, academic contexts. instead, a highly abstract and formal register may be valued and typical of the academic discourse they need to master1. academic writing, for example, has an informationally dense structure that relies heavily on elaborated nominal phrases packed with lexical words and, consequently, contributes to its high lexical density (biber, 2006; fang & schleppegrell, 2008; fang, schleppegrell, & cox, 2006; halliday, 1989), assumes an authoritative stance (fang, 2006; schleppegrell, 2004b), and is organised differently from spoken interaction (schleppegrell, 2004a). given such expectations for academic writing, it is imperative that learners shift from the informal, interactive language of everyday life to a formal, technical and objectified written language. part of this shift involves moving away from a dynamic representation of experience, that is, the use of verbs to express transitivity processes, to a synoptic interpretation of reality, where processes are objectified by turning verbs into nouns. this transformation effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 29 allows the various processes to be described, evaluated, and organised (halliday, 2004). for this shift to occur, learners need to master the important linguistic resource of grammatical metaphor. halliday (1998) describes gm as the “remapping of the semantics onto the lexicogrammar” (p. 192). this remapping refers to the re-configuration of meanings where congruent realisations are recast by means of incongruent or metaphorical realisations. the construct of realisation makes it clear that the relationship between semantics and lexicogrammar is not of a one-toone nature, but is expressed through a system of diverse options. congruent realisations are the typical or unmarked ways of expressing our experience of the world, while incongruent renderings are atypical or marked realisations. in congruent realisations, events are expressed through verbs or verbal groups, qualities through adjectives, participants through nouns or nominal groups, and logical relations (i.e., how one event relates to another) through conjunctions. in incongruent renderings, events and qualities are realised by nouns, and logical relationships by verbs or verbal groups, as exemplified below. as learners move from congruent, common-sense, and dynamic representations to incongruent, abstract, and static ones, a corresponding shift occurs in the two strata of the content plane (i.e., discourse semantics and lexicogrammar). consider the clause complex below. (1) learners struggle to write academic texts because teachers have avoided explicitly teaching them language in functional ways. in this congruent rendering, processes are expressed through verbal groups (struggle to write and have avoided), participants through nominal groups (learner, academic texts, teachers, and them), circumstance through adverb and prepositional phrases (explicitly and in functional ways). the clauses in this clause complex are in a hypotactic relationship linked by the relator (because), where one clause is dependent on the other. the congruent rendering in example 1, however, can be expressed incongruently. in example 2, the first nominal group (the teacher’s avoidance of explicit teaching of language in functional ways) is linked to the second nominal group (learners’ struggles in writing academic texts) by the verbal group (leads to), with incongruent construal of the logical relator (because). (2) teachers’ avoidance of explicit teaching of language in functional ways leads to learners’ struggles in writing academic texts. guangwei hu & miller reyes perez ibérica 43 (2022): 27-5430 from the two examples, it is apparent that gm is a powerful linguistic resource enabling the shift from a dynamic to a synoptic representation of meanings. previous research has pointed to its various roles in helping learners exude authority, achieve impersonality, objectify arguments, use abstract rather than human participants, achieve cohesion and coherence, and condense ideas (colombi, 2006; ryshina-pankova, 2010; schleppegrell, 2004a, 2006). adding to this list is what is considered the most important function of gm: integrating information in learners’ text coherently and moving their argument forward (drury, 1991; ravelli, 1988; schleppegrell, 2004b; schleppegrell & colombi, 2002). one type of gm is nominalisation. nominalisation, according to eggins (1994), is the process of changing entities that are not normally nouns, that is, verbs (e.g., manage) and adjectives (e.g., manageable), into nouns (e.g., management). from the examples presented in the preceding section, the verb struggle and the verbal group have avoided in example 1 are transformed into the nouns struggles and avoidance in example 2, respectively. thus, struggle and have avoided are nominalised, and struggles and avoidance are nominalisations. nominalisation as a linguistic means has been chosen for investigation in the present study because it is “the single most powerful resource in creating gm” (halliday, 2004, p. 656). there is ample evidence of the importance of using nominalisations in academic writing. several studies have found a relationship between their use and the quality of student writing (jones, 1998; schleppegrell, 2004a, 2004b; to, lê, & lê, 2013; woodward-kron, 2008). similarly, researchers have noted that an increase in the use of nominalisation as a type of gm, relative to the genre of the text, correlates with a more advanced command of the target language (colombi, 2006; halliday, 1993). in view of these findings, it would be interesting to investigate whether explicit instruction in gm in general and nominalisation in particular can increase learners’ appropriate use of these linguistic resources in their academic discourse and, consequently, improve the quality of their academic writing, as reflected in content, organisation, vocabulary, language, and mechanics. 1.2. previous research on grammatical metaphor and nominalisation as pointed out earlier, there is little empirical research on the effects of instruction in gm and nominalisation. we have been able to locate only two published studies addressing the topic. wang (2012) conducted a pre-test effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 31 post-test quasi-experimental study involving intact classes of chinese learners of english in china. the experimental group received instruction in nominalisation and basic writing skills for 8 hours over a span of four weeks. the control group only received instruction in basic writing skills during the same period. while the results showed a post-test increase in the nominalisations used by the experimental group, the design of the study was not robust, as it was not clear whether the two groups were comparable prior to the start of the study. such comparability was critical as intact groups were used in the study. moreover, for the two treatment conditions to be truly comparable, the control group should have spent the same number of hours learning comparable content. in wang’s study, while the experimental group was taught nominalisation, the control group did not receive an equivalent amount of instruction covering comparable and related content. a more recent investigation by nabifar (2016) focused on the effect of explicit teaching of gm on iranian efl tertiary learners. the study again involved intact classes of students and thus adopted a quasi-experimental design. while improvement in the use of nominalised expressions and increases in the lexical density of texts written by the experimental group were reported, no effect on the quality of student writing was found. furthermore, the researcher did not provide representative texts from the students to showcase their mastery and use of nominalisations. nor was information given about what the explicit instruction consisted of. while the two studies reviewed above are commendable for their focus on the relationship between explicit teaching of gm and learners’ use of this powerful resource, their findings need to be interpreted with caution because of several limitations. one limitation was their use of a quasi-experimental design and consequently the failure to exercise adequate control over potential confounding variables, such as prior differences between the intact groups of students involved. another limitation was the extent to which gm was taught explicitly. it was not clear whether the instruction for the experimental groups was explicit or how explicit it was. a third limitation concerned the interpretation of the empirical results. an increase in the frequency of nominalisations and lexical density (i.e., the ratio of content words to ranking clauses), for example, cannot be taken simply as indicating better writing quality through, say, improved textual organisation, though there is good reason to expect nominalisations to enhance the cohesion and coherence of a text, and hence its textual organisation, through its impact on thematic progression. guangwei hu & miller reyes perez ibérica 43 (2022): 27-5432 these limitations notwithstanding, there is a good rationale for an empirical focus on the explicit teaching of gm. although the ontogenetic progression of gm discussed by halliday (2004) suggests that gm is acquired relatively late, learners may vary in their development due to individual differences in the linguistic resources they have already acquired (derewianka, 1995). one example of this variability comes from ezeifeka’s (2015) investigation into the research abstracts written by nigerian tertiary esl students. although the participants in the study were university students, they still showed a lack of knowledge about the use of nominalisation in their abstracts, failing to achieve lexical economy, which is a fundamental feature of research abstracts. explicit instruction in gm would conceivably provide a remedy for the problem. however, christie (2002, p. 66) has noted that “many english teachers do not believe in the teaching of metalanguage in discussing the kinds of texts to be written, or the linguistic features of these.” 2 as a result, critical knowledge about language remains hidden, and access to such knowledge is left as a matter of chance. this does a disservice to the development of advanced literacy, which is the capacity to deploy language in ways that abstract away from immediate, lived experience, to build instead truths, abstractions, generalisations, and arguments about areas of life of various kinds. capacity to handle these things can be taught. let’s teach. (christie, 2002, p. 66). in response to christie’s call for action and to address the research gaps identified above, this study set out to answer the following research questions: 1. does explicit teaching of nominalisation lead to a significant increase in its use in learners’ academic writing? 2. does explicit teaching of nominalisation lead to a significant increase in the lexical density of students’ academic writing? 3. does explicit teaching of nominalisation lead to a significant improvement in the textual organisation of students’ academic writing? effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 33 2. method 2.1. participants this study was conducted in singapore. a combination of convenience and snowball sampling was adopted to recruit participants. personal acquaintances were invited to participate by email, short messaging service, and word of mouth. they were then asked to recruit colleagues who might be interested in participating in the study. a total of 51 filipino professionals who were working in singapore agreed to participate. these filipino professionals were aged between 25 and 43 at the time of the study. they all had bachelor’s degrees from the philippines and were working in various occupational fields (e.g., engineering, information technology, building management, medical, sales and marketing). their english proficiency ranged from lower to upper intermediate levels. they were all intending to take the international language testing system (ielts) test for either academic or professional purposes. random assignment was employed to select 26 of them for the experimental group, and the remaining participants formed the control group. because of their busy schedules, only 38 participants (21 in the experimental group and 17 in the control group) were able to complete both the pre-test and the post-test. their preand post-test essays constituted the dataset for this study. 2.2. the intervention both groups of participants received four sessions of instruction spreading across four weeks (see table 1 for detail). the second author was the instructor for both groups. the first session was the same for the two groups and introduced the structure of the expository essay. for sessions 2 to 4, the focus of instruction for the experimental group was on nominalisation. session 2 was intended to raise the participants’ awareness of nominalisation by making them compare spoken and written texts and guiding them through an analysis of how an account of an event was typically rendered in speech and how the same event was written up in a science textbook. the goal of the instruction was to contrast the typical use of dynamic verbs and conjunctions in the interactional register with the synoptic, static, and noundominated language of academic writing and help the participants note one of the most salient features of written texts, viz. the use of nominalised guangwei hu & miller reyes perez ibérica 43 (2022): 27-5434 expressions. exercises that required the participants to transform verbs and adjectives in the original sentences to their corresponding noun forms were done in class. they were also asked to practise de-nominalisation and write the congruent forms of nominalised expressions. session 3 focused on the expansion of head nouns using preand post-modifiers to further comment on, evaluate, describe, and categorise the nouns. such expansion is essential to packing information in noun phrases and contributes to high lexical density. a high-scoring and a low-scoring student essay were shown to the participants, with the pre-modifiers, head nouns, and post-modifiers in them color-coded. the goal was to compare the two essays in terms of their lexical density. finally, session 4 centred on how the use of nominalisations can contribute to the cohesion of a text and how to express various logical relationships using verbs/verbal groups instead of conjunctions typical of speech. the participants were taught how the strategic use of anaphoric reconstrual, that is, nominalising a previously construed verb, and the use of deictics (e.g., this, these) help move their ideas forward in a concise manner. table 1. instruction for the experimental and the control group. for the control group, differences between formal and informal language were discussed in the second session. the focus was on avoiding the use of informality markers such as contractions, slang words, colloquialisms, and phrasal verbs. this was to raise learners’ awareness of the formality of written language. session 3 was devoted to familiarising the participants with, and providing opportunities for them to use, coxhead’s (2000) academic word list (awl) and a list of common nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs from the 15,331,668-word academic section of the british national corpus. gap-filling exercises were completed with topics that are normally given in effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 35 week experimental control duration 1 structure of the expository essay structure of the expository essay 120 min 2 raising awareness of nominalisation practice in nominalisation & denominalisation differentiating formal & informal language (contractions, clichés, slang, colloquialism, phrasal verbs) 150 min 3 expanding head nouns with pre-modifiers & post-modifiers use of the academic word list (awl) and the british national corpus 150 min 4 achieving cohesion (anaphoric reconstrual, deictics) nominalisation of conjunctions use of relational processes error analysis (subject-verb agreement, countable and uncountable nouns, tenses) 150 min ielts’ writing tests (e.g., diet and health, fuel, crime and punishment, sports, education). error analysis was the focus of session 4, which discussed errors in subject-verb agreement, the use of countable versus uncountable nouns, and agreement in the use of tenses. 2.3. preand post-test of writing as mentioned earlier, a pre-test in the form of a timed essay writing task was given to all the participants in week 1 prior to the intervention. the topic for the essay, taken from ielts (2013), was: every year several languages die out. some people think that it is not important because life will be easier if there are fewer languages in the world. to what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion? the post-test was administered in week 5 after session 4. the topic for the posttest essay, also taken from ielts (2007), was: today, the high sales of popular consumer goods reflect the power of advertising and not the real needs of the society in which they are sold. to what extent do you agree or disagree? both tests were administered in a comfortable room. the participants were given 40 minutes to complete each test. they were given a writing pad and were required to write down their 4-digit unique numerical code for the sake of anonymity. as both writing topics were taken from real ielts exams, they were expected to be comparable and, consequently, counterbalancing was not used to control for topic-related effects. the ielts rubric was not used to mark the preand post-test essays because we suspected that the 9-band score range was not sufficiently finegrained to capture subtle but important improvements in the participants’ writing. instead, the esl composition profile (jacobs, zinkgraf, wormuth, hartfiel, & hughey, 1981) was used as the rating scale. though not based specifically on research informed by systemic functional linguistics (sfl), this rubric is one of the best known and widely employed analytic rubrics in esl. it underwent extensive piloting and revision, leading to its use in numerous tertiary writing programs (weigle, 2002). the second author and another experienced marker familiar with the rubric double marked all the essays. before the marking of the essays, a calibration procedure was taken to standardise the two raters’ interpretation of the rubric. the two raters then independently marked the essays. a pearson correlation was run to determine the level of interrater reliability. the obtained pearson’s r was 0.966 for the pre-test and 0.979 for the post-test, which represented excellent interrater reliability. all disagreements were resolved through discussion. guangwei hu & miller reyes perez ibérica 43 (2022): 27-5436 2.4. data analysis to address the first research question, all nominalisations used in both the preand the post-test essays of the experimental and the control group were coded. the key criterion for identifying nominalisations was the presence of stratal tension between the strata of semantics and lexicogrammar in all incongruent expressions (halliday, 1985, 1998; halliday & martin, 1993; martin, 1992, 1993). based on the definition of gm in the stratal model (halliday, 1985, 1998), gm is categorised into experiential and logical metaphors. experiential metaphors are further categorised into processes as nouns and qualities as nouns; logical metaphors are further divided into causes as verbs, adjectives, prepositions and nouns. in addition, derivation and agnation were considered because they could corroborate the incongruence of a given expression (ravelli, 1988, 1999). derivation concerns suffixes that can form incongruent expressions from verbs and adjectives (e.g., popularity from popular and perception from to perceive). agnation refers to the linguistic phenomenon that a given metaphorical expression will have its corresponding congruent form. for example, the incongruent expressions consumption and utilization can be unpacked to their congruent forms to consume and to utilize, respectively. in the case of dead and technical metaphors (e.g., have dinner, take a bath, relationship) the resulting nominalisations were not coded due to the loss of stratal tension between the semantics and the lexicogrammar. incorrect nominalisations (e.g., belongingness instead of belonging, the used of instead of the use of) and spelling errors (e.g., dissimination instead of dissemination) were also excluded from coding. the second author and another coder familiar with sfl independently coded the nominalisations in the participants’ essays. the inter-coder reliability was excellent: pearson’s r was 0.969 for the pre-test essays and 0.986 for the post-test ones. the frequency of the coded nominalisations was normalised by 100 words to take into account the varying length of the essays. independentand paired-samples t-tests were run on the normalised frequencies of nominalisations found in the experimental and the control group’s preand post-test essays to determine between-group and within-group differences, respectively. to address the second research question, lexical density (ld) was calculated according to the method used in previous studies (coffin, donohue, & north, 2013; droga & humphrey, 2002; halliday, 1989). the number of ranking clauses were counted, with embedded ones being excluded. the total number of content words were then counted. content words carry effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 37 information within a clause and comprise lexical verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. grammatical items such as prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, modal verbs, pronouns and articles were excluded. the formula for lexical density adopted in this study is: ld = total number of content words/total number of ranking clauses. the second author and a research assistant coded the data independently. pearson’s r values for the coding of ranking clauses, content words, and lexical density in the preand post-test essays ranged from 0.969 to 0.998. the results indicated excellent inter-coder reliability. all disagreements were resolved through discussion. independentand paired-samples t-tests were then conducted on the lexical density of the experimental and the control group’s preand post-test essays to determine between-group and within-group differences, respectively. to address the last research question, independentand paired-samples ttests were run on the writing scores based on jacobs et al.’s (1981) esl composition profile that were given to the experimental and the control group’s preand post-test essays to determine between-group and withingroup differences, respectively. 3. findings 3.1. effects of explicit instruction on the use of nominalisations table 2 presents the mean frequencies of nominalisations for the preand post-test by group. both the experimental and the control group used more nominalisations in the post-test essays than in the pre-test ones. the increase, however, was markedly greater for the experimental group. an independent samples t-test on the pre-test frequencies found no significant difference between the experimental group (m = 2.23, sd = 0.88) and the control group (m = 3.09, sd = 1.82), t(36) = -1.910, p = 0.064, d = 0.64. for the post-test frequencies, the t-test results indicated that the experimental group (m = 8.28, sd = 2.33) differed significantly from the control group (m = 6.66, sd = 1.53), t(36) = 2.462, p = 0.019, d = 0.84. the effect size was large, indicating practical significance for the explicit teaching of nominalisation. guangwei hu & miller reyes perez ibérica 43 (2022): 27-5438 table 2. frequencies of nominalisations by group and test. a paired-samples t-test found a statistically significant difference between the experimental group’s use of nominalisations on the pre-test (m = 2.23, sd = 0.88) and on the post-test (m = 8.28, sd = 2.33), t(20) = -11.889, p < 0.001, d = 2.59. the paired samples t-test for the control group also found a significant difference between the pre-test (m = 3.09, sd = 1.82) and the post-test frequencies (m = 6.66, sd = 1.50), t(16) = -6.200, p < 0.001, d = 1.88. a comparison of the effect sizes for the two groups indicated that the value for the experimental group was markedly greater. excerpts 1 to 4 demonstrate the use of nominalisations by a participant in the experimental group (learner 0012) and a participant in the control group (learner 0030). these two participants were chosen because their use of gm was representative of the patterns found in the essays written by the experimental and the control group, respectively. the two excerpts from learner 0012’s essays show an evident increase in the frequencies of nominalisations, from three occurrences in the pre-test essay to six in the post-test one3. however, the excerpts from the introductory paragraphs of learner 0030’s preand post-test essays show no such increase in the frequencies of nominalisations. in fact, the instances of nominalisations were reduced from four in the pre-test paragraph to only three in the posttest one. excerpt 1 (learner 0012, pre-test) i would agree that life will be easier if there are fewer languages in the world. there will be no barrier in communication regardless of which country you come from. basing from my own experience, while living here in singapore, there will be instances wherein i will not understand the people around me because they talk in their own language. excerpt 2 (learner 0012, post-test) the influence of advertising has been a powerful tool which dictates the decision making of many consumers. it is agreed that good advertising has a major impact in the saleability of products. excerpt 3 (learner 0030, pre-test) effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 39 group pre-test post-test increase experimental 2.23 8.28 371.3% control 3.09 6.66 215.5% in my opinion, i agree that life will be easier if there are fewer languages in the world because it will be easier to communicate and express our thoughts and ideas. there times that when we try to translate certain words to another language, the meaning or interpretation is going to be different, which can result to misunderstandings. if people use languages that the other person doesn’t understand, it will be hard to put across what we want to mean. excerpt 4 (learner 0030, post-test) nowadays, consumers patronize the products that has attractive advertisements rather than on what they really need, hence, has resulted to a considerable increase in sales of these popular commodities. it is agreed that this is seen in society 3.2. effects of explicit instruction on lexical density table 3 presents the mean number of content words, ranking clauses, and the resultant mean scores of lexical density by group and test. an independent-samples t-test run on the pre-test lexical density scores found no significant difference between the experimental group (m = 3.18, sd = 0.51) and the control group (m = 2.86, sd = 0.64), t(36) = 1.715, p = 0.095, d = 0.28. however, the t-test run on the post-test lexical density scores revealed that the experimental group (m = 4.56, sd = 0.78) differed significantly from the control group (m = 3.75, sd = 0.45), t(32.731) = 4.007, p < 0.001, d = 1.317. the effect size, as indicated by the d value, was very large according to cohen’s (1988) criteria. table 3. frequencies of nominalisations by group and test. a paired-samples t-test found that the experimental group’s lexical density increased significantly from the pre-test (m = 3.18, sd = 0.51) to the posttest (m = 4.56, sd = 0.78), t(20) = -8.802, p < 0.001, d = 1.92. the control group’s lexical density also increased significantly from the pre-test (m = 2.86, sd = 0.64) to the post-test (m = 3.75, sd = 0.45), t(16) = -6.408, p < 0.001, d = 1.56. however, the associated effect size was smaller than that of the experimental group. taken together, these results indicated that the guangwei hu & miller reyes perez ibérica 43 (2022): 27-5440 group pre-test post-test cw rc ld cw rc ld experimental 38.42 12.19 3.18 42.03 9.59 4.56 control 35.13 12.25 2.86 42.24 11.32 3.75 instruction received by the experimental group was more effective in improving lexical density in academic writing than that received by the control group. excerpts 5 to 8 showcase the use of ranking clauses and content words in the preand post-test introductory paragraphs written by a participant in the experimental group (learner 0025) and a participant in the control group (learner 0047). excerpt 5 (learner 0025, pre-test introduction) language is a mean of expressing your emotions, thoughts and ideas into words.|| it plays a big role in our life|| because it represents one’s origin, culture, and tradition.|| it can bind a nation|| but it can also divide a nation.|| the paragraph presented above consists of 5 ranking clauses. the first clause complex links the clauses in a hypotactic relation by means of the logical relator, because. the second clause complex consists of two paratactic clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (but). the content words include language, mean, expressing, emotions, thoughts, ideas, words, plays, big, role, represents, origin, culture, tradition, bind, nation, divide, and nation. the resultant lexical density for this paragraph is 3.6 (18/5). excerpt 6 (learner 0025, post-test introduction) the power of creative and influential advertising is the manifestation of increasing trend of sales for major products rather than the reflection of the true needs of the end customers.|| it is agreed || that most of the sturdy companies focus more on the profit rather than the basic needs of the people.|| the paragraph in excerpt 6 consists of 3 ranking clauses that contain several nominal groups instead of paratactic and hypotactic clauses. the resultant lexical density for this paragraph is 7.67 (23/3). an increase in lexical density is apparent in the post-test introductory paragraph. this was due to both the increased use of elaborated nominal groups and the reduced number of ranking clauses in the paragraph. tables 4 and 5 compare learner 0025’s use of nominal groups in the preand the post-test introduction. effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 41 table 4. nominal groups in learner 0025’s pre-test introduction. table 5. nominal groups in learner 0025’s post-test introduction. learner 0047’s pre-test introductory paragraph in excerpt 7 includes 6 ranking clauses. the clauses are introduced by which or linked by and. such clause chaining is typical of a spoken register. the resultant lexical density for the paragraph is 3.83 (23/6). similarly, the post-test introductory paragraph reproduced in excerpt 8 comprises four ranking clauses linked by the subordinating conjunctions, because and while. the lexical density for this paragraph is 4.25 (17/4). tables 6 and 7 compare learner 0047’s use of nominal groups in the preand the post-test introduction. excerpt 7 (learner 0047, pre-test introduction) hundred years ago, small communities creates their own languages as their basic form of communication || which they call their own dialects. ||this guangwei hu & miller reyes perez ibérica 43 (2022): 27-5442 pre-modifier head post-modifier deictic epithet classifier thing qualifier a language of expressing your emotions, thoughts and ideas means words a big role our life one’s origin culture tradition a nation pre-modifier head post-modifier deictic epithet classifier thing qualifier the power of creative and influential advertising the manifestation of increasing trend of sales for major markets the reflection of the true needs of the end users the basic needs of the people forms ||and takes a part of their culture and history || which is being passed on || and inherited by next generations.|| excerpt 8 (learner 0047, post-test introduction) many people believe || that people purchase products because of the great impact of its advertisement rather than because they need them. || while advertisement plays a big role on product sales,|| this may not be the real case.|| table 6. nominal groups in learner 0047’s pre-test introduction table 7. nominal groups in learner 0047’s post-test introduction. 3.3. effects of explicit instruction on writing quality an independent-samples t-test run on the pre-test data determined that the difference in overall writing scores between the experimental group (m = effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 43 pre-modifier head post-modifier deictic epithet classifier thing qualifier small communities their own languages their basic form of communication their own dialects their culture history pre-modifier head post-modifier deictic epithet classifier thing qualifier many people people products the great impact of its advertisement advertisement a big role product sales the real case 69.74, sd = 9.02) and the control group (m = 68.20, sd = 5.98) was not significant, t(34.786) = 0.627, p = 0.535, d = 0.205. the independent-samples t-test run on the post-test overall writing scores also failed to find a significant difference between the experimental (m = 81.81, sd = 8.64) and the control group (m = 76.94, sd = 8.96), t(36) = 1.699, p = 0.098, d = 0.553. the esl composition profile used to score the essays in this study comprises five subscales: content, organisation, vocabulary, language, and mechanics. independent-samples t-tests were run to compare the experimental and the control group on the subscale scores for the pre-test and the post-test essays, and only the post-test comparison of the organisation subscale scores yielded a significant difference. although the experimental group (m = 14.14, sd = 1.96) did not differ significantly in their organisation scores from the control group (m = 14.06, sd = 1.17) on the pre-test, t(36) = 0.155, p = 0.877, d = 0.051, a significant post-test difference with a large effect size was found between the experimental group (m = 17.86, sd = 1.48) and the control group (m = 16.29, sd = 2.38), t(25.593) = 2.357, p < 0.001, d = 0.813. these results indicated that explicit instruction in nominalisation was effective in improving the organisation of academic writing. to find out how the use of nominalisations contributed to effective textual organisation, a thematic analysis was conducted on the post-test essays. the analysis was intended to map out the thematic progression (themerheme) of the texts. the t-unit was chosen as the basic unit of analysis. a t-unit is a clause complex that contains an independent clause together with all clauses dependent on it (fries, 1995). the t-unit, rather than the ranking clause, was chosen as the unit of analysis because the thematic development of a dependent clause is normally constrained by the independent clause (fries & francis, 1992). following halliday (1985), the theme is what the message is about and consists of everything up to and including the first ideational element in a t-unit, while the rest constitutes the rheme. table 8 presents the thematic analysis of a representative excerpt of the post-test essay written by learner 0003 in the experimental group. as can be seen clearly, the nominalisations used in the excerpt contributed to its cohesion. in the first t-unit, the nominal group, the popularity of the advertisements, in the rheme employs a nominalisation (i.e., popularity). it is then rendered as the rise of the internet in the succeeding theme of the second guangwei hu & miller reyes perez ibérica 43 (2022): 27-5444 t-unit, with the head noun (rise) being another nominalisation. internet is thematised in the third t-unit to introduce its effect in the rheme by means of the material process influenced. this process is then picked up in the theme of the succeeding t-unit, where it is reconstrued as participants by the nominalisations impacts and effects. the material process is reconstrued again as the incongruent expression influence in the rheme of the fifth t-unit. towards the end of the text, the nominal group, advertisement of your interest, containing a nominalisation (advertisements) in the theme position is elaborated in the rheme. the same theme continues as a deictic (this) in the next t-unit. such anaphoric reconstrual creates cohesion and makes the text hang together well as it unfolds. this contrasts with the excerpt from the post-test essay written by a learner in the control group that is presented in table 9. table 8. themes/rhemes in an excerpt of learner 0003’s post-test essay. the excerpt in table 9 is chosen because it is representative of the essays written by the control group. in this excerpt, there are only four nominalisations (i.e., attention, thinking, sales and return). human agents (advertisers, they), rather than abstract subjects, are used, and material processes are construed instead of relational ones. the excerpt starts by thematising the circumstantial adjunct, nowadays, in the first t-unit. no link is constructed for the causal claim has resulted to a considerable increase of these popular commodities in the rheme of the second t-unit. if a nominal group effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 45 tunit theme rheme 1 studies have shown that most buyers purchase products based on the popularity of the advertisements rather than the importance it provides to the society. 2 with the rise of internet and social media, it can be agreed that advertising has great impact to the choices being made. 3 internet has influenced us in so many ways. 4 the impacts and effects of it can be easily seen on our daily lives. 5 one of these is the buying influence to consumers. 6 in one of the studies done by it experts they found out that google keeps track and records searches of frequently visited sites of the users. 7 as a result of this, advertisements of your interest will appear to your future visited sites, especially on your social media accounts. 8 this leads to buying what seems to be your want instead of needs. such as the consumption of products that have attractive advertisements were used instead, it would help to establish a cohesive link between the rheme of the first t-unit and the theme of the succeeding t-unit. advertisers is thematised in the fourth t-unit and is picked up as the theme again in the subsequent t-unit by means of they. another human agent (consumers) is thematised in the seventh t-unit and rendered as the theme in the following t-unit by they again. the immediate shift to the theme return of investment makes the text incohesive due to the lack of links that could have been built in through the use of nominalisations. 4. discussion 4.1. effects of explicit instruction on the use of nominalisations the quantitative results presented in the preceding section revealed that explicit instruction in nominalisation as a type of gm led to a 4-fold increase in the frequency of incongruent/metaphorical expressions in the experimental group’s post-test essays. a plausible explanation for this significant increase lies in the experimental group’s raised awareness of the registral expectations of an effective expository essay. they were able to acquaint themselves with the kind of meaning construal that is highly valued in academic writing, that is, a strong preference for nouns rather than verbs or adjectives. in an effort to imitate the type of text that is valued in an academic writing context, they employed more nominal groups in their guangwei hu & miller reyes perez ibérica 43 (2022): 27-5446 tunit theme rheme 1 nowadays consumers patronize the products that has attractive advertisements rather than on what they really need, 2 hence, has resulted to a considerable increase in sales of these popular commodities. 3 it is agreed that this is seen in society. 4 advertisers employ the popular celebrities to promote their products to catch the attention of the consumers. 5 they release these ads through the television, newspapers, radios and social media. 6 it has been evident that these faces encourage the consumers to buy these products that they represent. 7 in addition, consumers buy these goods thinking that they are the trend. 8 they see these parcels almost everywhere that they just go and join the bandwagon so not to be left out from the new things. 9 therefore, return of investments may have shown a significant increase. 10 to conclude, the high sales of the popular goods is due to the power of advertising and not the real needs of the society in which they are sold. i writing, and more than half (n = 12) of them were able to elaborate and expand nominal groups through an extensive use of pre-modifiers and postmodifiers. an awareness of the kind of meaning construal that is valued in academic writing motivated the participants in the experimental group to incorporate nominalisations in their writing, including some infelicitous ones. while these infelicities (e.g., result to instead of result in for the incongruent rendering of because; basing for the incongruent rendering of based) would need further work, they did evidence the participants’ conscious effort to render meanings in incongruent ways. interestingly and unexpectedly, the control group also showed an increased, albeit less dramatic, use of nominalisations in their post-test essays. this less marked increase could be attributed to the intervention that they received. although the group did not receive explicit instruction in nominalisation, they were made to work on the academic word list, which contains quite a number of nominalisations. 4.2. effects of explicit instruction on lexical use the quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed significant differences in the lexical density of the post-test essays written by the experimental and control groups. the greater lexical density found in the experimental group’s essays was primarily due to the reduction in the number of ranking clauses they employed and the corresponding increase in the use of elaborated nominal groups. the reduction in the number of ranking clauses indicated the participants’ move away from the interactional register that characterizes spoken language to a more formal, authoritative, informationally-dense style that is characteristic of academic writing (schleppegrell, 2004a). this reduction appeared to stem from the participants’ attempt to reason within the clause rather than between the clauses (halliday, 1998; hyland, 2009; martin, 1992; schleppegrell, 2004a). such reasoning has been referred to as buried reasoning, where two nominal groups are joined by a relational process, and is accomplished through the use of gm. as demonstrated in the excerpts presented earlier, participants in the experimental group used verbs and prepositional phrases as logical relators to take the place of conjunctions. that is, they used gm and embedding, in contrast to the greater reliance of the control group on clause-chaining, which schleppegrell (2004a, p. 66) describes as “an emergent organisational structure”. this clause-chaining style made the control group’s texts appear not well planned or executed. as lexical density is also influenced by the number of content effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 47 or lexical words in a clause, the use of elaborated nominal groups with premodifiers and post-modifiers in the experimental group’s essays packed information within a clause and made it informationally dense. the observed increase in the post-test essays written by the control group, on the other hand, could be attributed to their work on the academic word list as part of the intervention. this list comprises commonly used academic words, which are all content words. it seemed that some of the participants in the control group made an effort to use some of these words on the list they newly learned, which increased the number of content words in their essays, hence, the lexical density. 4.3. effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on textual organisation the quantitative and qualitative analyses reported in the findings section identified a significant difference in the post-test organisation scores between the two groups, although no other significant differences (in overall writing quality, content, vocabulary, and language) were found. the positive effect of the explicit instruction in nominalisation on the organisational structure of the essays could be explained by the cohesion achieved through the experimental group’s greater use of nominalisations. a referencing pattern that construed previously deployed congruent expressions as nominalized variants in the succeeding text was evident in the experimental group’s post-test essays. the creation of such cohesive links is in line with ravelli’s (1999, p. 136) definition of gm as “an alternative lexicogrammatical realization of a choice in the semantics” and halliday’s (1994) characterisation of gm as an incongruent “co-representational” reference to a semantic element or elements in the preceding text. the use of this strategy helped to construct cohesive thematic progression, for example, by foregrounding abstract terms (often realized by nominalisations) in the theme position and elaborating them in the rheme position, to achieve both cohesion and coherence. 5. conclusion this study investigated how explicit instruction in nominalisation impacted on the texts written by participants in the experimental group and how these texts differed from those written by their counterparts in the control group. guangwei hu & miller reyes perez ibérica 43 (2022): 27-5448 notable differences, both quantitative and qualitative, were found between the texts produced by the two groups in terms of the incidence of nominalisations, the lexical density of the texts, and the quality of essay organisation. these significant differences point to the usefulness of the explicit teaching of nominalisation and offer the following implications. first, it is pedagogically sound to raise learners’ awareness of gm as a linguistic resource. comparison between congruent and incongruent renderings can help sensitize learners to the different ways in which reality is construed and make them understand that different choices result in different meanings. this is critical as novice academic writers need to adopt new patterns of words that are different from those used in everyday interaction. notably, these choices that are valued in academic writing often involve the use of nominalisations. while the use of nominalisations does lead to more technicality, denser texts and greater cohesion (liardet, 2013), it is also important to keep in mind that the goal of instruction is not merely to increase the frequency of nominalisations in learners’ writing but to enable them to use nominalisations judiciously and acquire an understanding of the diverse functions and roles that nominalisations can serve. second, the findings of this study suggest that it is beneficial to teach learners explicitly about the various means of modifying and expanding head nouns. further description, evaluation, and categorisation of head nouns through the use of preand post-modifiers can pack information efficiently in nominal groups and lead to informationally dense texts. participants in the experimental group could have produced even more content words in their post-test essays if they had been taught about the uses of various preand post-modifiers. third, the explicit teaching of relational processes can facilitate the construction of an objectified and authoritative stance that is essential in expository writing. linking nominal groups with relational processes leads to unassailable propositions (halliday, 2004). such processes can also increase lexical density due to the corresponding reduction in the use of ranking clauses when nominal groups are linked by relational verbs rather than conjunctions. finally, concepts such as theme, rheme, and thematic progression can help both teachers and students better understand textual organisation, coherence, and cohesion. they can make explicit what is foregrounded in a clause or a t-unit, and how this chosen focus is carried on to the succeeding sentence or text. as seen in this study, the experimental group’s essays were effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 49 more coherent and cohesive because abstract entities were thematised through nominalisations and further elaborated in the rheme position. visual representations of thematic progression (such as tables 6 and 7) could be exploited as useful tools to help learners understand how their texts unfold and why their texts achieve or fail to achieve cohesion, coherence, and register sophistication. to conclude, our study has extended previous sfl-informed research on academic discourse by investigating how explicit instruction in gm could enhance learners’ academic writing. as such, it is one of the first attempts to produce empirical evidence of the effectiveness of such instruction. its findings provide a much-needed basis for pedagogical decisions regarding why and how to teach gm in an academic context. this contribution notwithstanding, our study has several limitations. first, our sample of participants was relatively small due to practical constraints, and the results of the statistical analyses could have been affected by the sample size. future studies should utilize larger samples to obtain more robust statistical results. second, as only adult learners of english from the philippines were involved in our study, our findings may not be generalisable to learners speaking other first languages and exposed to different literacy practices. interested researchers may explore how learners from different cultural and literacy traditions may respond to explicit metalinguistic instruction in gm (hu, 2011). third, our study was unable to determine if the observed positive effects of explicit instruction in gm could be sustained over an extended period due to the lack of a delayed post-test. further research would do well to include such a test to ascertain whether learning gains from such instruction can be maintained. finally, future research can explore how explicit instruction in gm may be combined synergistically with various approaches to data-driven learning (sun & hu, in press) to capitalise on the affordances of new information technologies and large corpora of academic texts. article history: received 12 april 2021 received in revised form 28 march 2022 accepted 28 march 2022 references guangwei hu & miller reyes perez ibérica 43 (2022): 27-5450 achugar, m., & colombi, m. c. 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(2008). more than just jargon–the nature and role of specialist language in learning disciplinary knowledge. journal of english for academic purposes, 7, 234-249. university. his research interests include academic literacy, language assessment, second language education, biliteracy acquisition, and english as an international language. he has published widely on these and other areas. he is co-editor for journal of english for academic purposes. miller reyes perez teaches english language acquisition and general science courses at iss international school, singapore. his research interests include academic writing, vocabulary acquisition, language assessment, and english as a second/additional language. he has presented his research findings at international conferences in singapore, the united states, malaysia, and hong kong. notes 1 it should be noted that hyland and jiang (2017) reported only a small increase of informal features (i.e., first-person pronouns, unattended anaphoric pronouns, and sentence initial conjunctions/conjunctive adverbs) in research articles in hard sciences over a span of 50 years. they also noted an increase in features of relative formality (e.g., proportions of nouns and adjectives to verbs and pronouns) during the same period. 2 there may be other reasons why teachers do not teach gm explicitly. for example, they may not be aware of gm as a linguistic resource; they may lack preparation to teach gm effectively; they may take other pedagogical approaches to the linguistic phenomenon. 3 one of the nominalisations found in the post-test essay, advertising, differed from the others in that it was provided as part of the writing prompt. effects of explicit instruction in nominalisation on esl learners’ academic writing ibérica 43 (2022): 27-54 53 maquetación 1 ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract citations, i.e. references to previous research, serve scholars to construct their own authority and support their new knowledge claims. however, scholars from different linguacultural backgrounds may use citations differently to achieve these purposes. this study compares the use of reporting verbs in articles written in english by scholars from anglophone contexts and eal scholars, in order to identify divergent usage and examine to what extent diverse discursive patterns containing these verbs are used and accepted in international publications. results show that, although the overall frequency of reporting verbs is similar in both corpora, there were differences in the types of verbs (i.e. research verbs, discourse verbs and mental verbs) most frequently used, in the variety of verbs, and in the frequency of some specific verbs. further, the usage of reporting verbs in the texts written by the eal scholars appears to be determined by their knowledge of and conformance to generic conventions but also by their bilingual literacy. keywords: reporting verbs, citation, variation, academic writing, eal. resumen v ar ia c i ón e n p rá c ti c a s d e e s c ri tu ra a c a dé m ic a : u n an ál is i s d e l os v e rb os d e a tr ib uc i ón en pu bl i c ac io ne s e n in g l é s las referencias a estudios previos permiten a los autores de textos académicos construir su propia autoridad y apoyar sus conclusiones. sin embargo, estas referencias pueden ser usadas de forma distinta por académicos de distintas culturas y lenguas para lograr estos objetivos. este artículo compara el uso de verbos de atribución en artículos de investigación de lingüística escritos en inglés por autores anglófonos y españoles, para identificar usos diferentes y examinar variation in academic writing practices: the case of reporting verbs in englishmedium research articles maría-josé luzón university of zaragoza (spain) mjluzon@unizar.es 171 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 171 ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 maría-josé luzón hasta qué punto se aceptan prácticas discursivas variadas en las publicaciones internacionales. el análisis muestra que, aunque la frecuencia de verbos de atribución es similar en ambos corpus, hay diferencias en el tipo de verbos (verbos de investigación, de discurso o mentales) que se usan más frecuentemente, en la variedad de verbos, y en la frecuencia de algunos verbos. los resultados sugieren que el uso de verbos de atribución en el discurso de los lingüistas españoles está determinado por su conocimiento de las convenciones genéricas, pero también por su literacidad bilingüe. palabras clave: verbos de atribución, citas, variación, escritura académica inglés como lengua adicional. 1. introduction english has become the dominant language of communication in international academic contexts and scientific publication, with scholars using eal (english as an additional language) for publication outnumbering first-language english scholars (lillis & curry, 2010; pérezllantada, 2012). the high linguistic and cultural diversity of scholars publishing in english has aroused interest in the publishing and writing practices of eal scholars (lillis & curry, 2010; hanauer & englander, 2013; kuteeva & mauranen, 2014; cargill & burgess, 2017). these studies have shown that the rhetorical choices of eal scholars often arise from their discursive tradition and concluded that the imposition of anglophone rhetorical conventions pose considerable challenges and difficulties for these scholars when attempting to publish in english (e.g., they may have to revise and resubmit their manuscripts because they diverge from the accepted norms of research reporting; research writing is particularly time consuming for them) (see curry & lillis, 2004; belcher, 2007; uzuner, 2008; lillis & curry, 2010). these concerns about the disadvantages of eal scholars have led to calls for the acceptance of variation and multicultural rhetorical strategies in academic written texts (belcher, 2007; mauranen et al., 2010; canagarajah, 2013; lillis & tuck, 2016). the consideration of practices that diverge from those deployed by anglophone scholars from the perspective of “language variation”, rather than “language deficit”, is shared by three related approaches to academic writing: academic (bi)literacies, translingualism, and english as a lingua franca (elf). the academic literacies approach (e.g., lillis & curry, 2010; lillis & tuck, 2016) sees academic writing as situated social practice, where 172 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 172 aspects such as identity, institutional context, power relations or ideology play an important role, and argues for the acceptance of diverse semiotic/ linguistic practices for academic knowledge-making. the translingual approach (e.g., horner, 2011; canagarajah, 2013) views the integration of (bilingual) language practices not as a problem to solve, but as a resource to produce meaning and achieve communicative effectiveness. elf researchers also claim that, since most readers and writers of research published in english are non-native, there is no justification for imposing the “linguistic standards of a national community” (mauranen et al., 2010: 184). jenkins’ (2015) most recent conceptualization of elf incorporates perspectives of the translingual approach: in elf interactions the other languages that the participants know are also present, even if they are not used, giving way to what jenkins calls “language leakage” (2015: 75). this echoes a basic concept in translingualism: “communication transcends individual languages”, that is, languages “mutually influence each other” (canagarajah, 2013: 6). rather than being detrimental, this influence offers possibilities to construct meaning and convey one’s voice. these three approaches emphasize that bi/multilinguals draw on their communicative repertoires for meaning construction and stress the need to accept these multiple discursive practices. recent research on academic writing actually reflects a trend towards an increasing acceptance of non-standard linguistic forms in some highprestige international journals (rozycki & johnson, 2013), which intimates that in order to get a paper accepted for publication grammatical accuracy may be less relevant than other factors like genre knowledge or awareness of the rhetorical self (hyland, 2016; tribble, 2017). research has also revealed the acceptability of non-conventional hybrid rhetorical structures in research paper abstracts (lorés-sanz, 2016) and the use of recurring academic phraseology in l2 published papers that deviates from the use of academic phraseology by writers from l1 english backgrounds (pérez-llantada, 2014), which suggests that eal scholars may be reshaping rhetorical patterns in innovative ways (lorés-sanz, 2016) and that anglophone norms are merging with “culture-specific linguistic features” (pérez-llantada, 2014: 192). however, research on variation in academic texts and on the contribution of eal authors to the evolution of english as used for international publishing is still scarce and there is, therefore, a need for more studies on the discursive practices of eal scholars seeking publication. an integral part of academic discourse that can shed light on eal scholars’ writing practices is citation, i.e., the inclusion in the text of a reference to variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 173 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 173 another source. citation is generally acknowledged as a key feature for knowledge construction (and persuasion) in academic writing (hyland, 1999; charles, 2006). references to previous research enable writers to construct their own authority by showing that they are knowledgeable members of the community, to position their research within an existing state of disciplinary knowledge and create a niche for this research, and to show their allegiance to specific orientation within a disciplinary community (hyland, 1999; charles, 2006; harwood, 2009). much research into citation has been devoted to the analysis of the form and/or rhetorical function of citations in texts by a specific group of writers (e.g. novice writers, l2 students) (e.g. thompson & tribble, 2001; charles, 2006; petrić, 2007; harwood, 2009; mansourizadeh & ahmad, 2011; petrić & harwood, 2013; samraj, 2013). some studies have focused particularly on reporting verbs, analyzing their tense and voice (e.g. shaw, 1992), their denotation, i.e. the types of activities they refer to (thompson & ye, 1991; hyland, 2002), or their role as evaluative devices, used to express the cited author’s stance towards the reported information and the writer’s commitment (thompson & ye, 1991; hyland, 1999; bloch, 2010). yet despite the extensive body of research on citation, most studies have concentrated on texts by anglophone writers, both expert and novice (hyland, 1999; charles, 2006) or by non-native student writers (petrić, 2007). although less attention has been paid to the citation practices of nonanglophone scholars, research has revealed the influence of the scholars’ discursive tradition and social context on these practices. some studies have analyzed the influence of the geographical location of scholars and the medium of publication (national vs. international) on the types of sources cited (lillis & curry, 2010; lillis et al., 2010) and have revealed the pressure experienced by non-anglophone writers to cite english-medium texts. other studies report cross-linguistic differences in citation practices (e.g., mur-dueñas 2009; hu & wang, 2014). mur-dueñas (2009) reports differences in citation frequency and citation types between business management ras written in english and in spanish, and hu and wang (2014) found differences in the type of citations used in chineseand english-medium journals of applied linguistics and medicine. focusing on english-medium publications, research has also shown that the l1 background of non-anglophone scholars influences their citation practices when writing in english (e.g., okamura, 2008; rowley-jolivet & carter, 2014; dontcheva-navratilova, 2016; hryniuk, 2016). okamura (2008) examined maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194174 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 174 citation forms in scientific articles written in english by anglophone and by japanese writers and found that the latter tended to use a single form of integral citation, while in the writing of the anglophone writers there was more variety of forms. rowley-jolivet and carter (2014) compared uncorrected manuscripts written in english by expert french researchers and published ras by anglophone researchers and found a much higher number of “reporting-that” clauses and a larger range of verbs in “reporting-that” structures in anglophone writing than in drafts written in english by french scholars. these authors suggest that the reason for these differences could be that other types of reporting structures are used in french academic discourse and this influences the french researchers’ writing in academic english. likewise, dontcheva-navratilova (2016) states that differences in intended readership and literacy traditions may account for the differences in the function of citations in research articles published in english by anglophone scholars (targeted at an international readership) and by czech linguists (targeted at a more local readership). to contribute to a better understanding of eal scholars’ citation practices, the present article focuses on the use of reporting verbs when citing others’ work. despite the role of reporting verbs as evaluative devices to construct authorial identity (thompson & ye, 1991; hyland, 2002), little research has addressed how eal scholars use these verbs, although this scarce research suggests that the authors’ linguistic backgrounds may affect their use (rowley-jolivet & carter, 2014). the aim of this article is to analyze and compare the use of reporting verbs in linguistics english-medium research articles written by anglophone scholars and eal scholars, in order to ascertain whether variations occur and to examine to what extent international publishing is accepting hybrid discursive practices regarding these verbs. more specifically, i will analyze whether the texts written by the two groups of writers display different citation practices as regards the frequency of use of reporting verbs, the semantics of these verbs, and the citation patterns where these verbs occur. 2. corpus and method 2.1. corpus for the study, a corpus of 60 ras in linguistics published between 2000 and 2009 was analyzed. 30 ras were written in english by scholars from variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 175 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 175 anglophone contexts (engal sub-corpus) (totaling 241,533 words) and 30 ras were written in english by eal scholars (spanish scholars)1 (spengal sub-corpus) (totaling 237,982 words). the corpus used is part of a larger corpus: the spanish–english research article corpus (serac). the serac corpus contains 24 articles for the engal sub-corpus and 24 articles for the spengal corpus. i added six articles to each of the subcorpora to have more data for the analysis of variation2. the criteria used to select ras was the affiliation of the authors to anglophone institutions (for the engal corpus) or to spanish institutions (for the spengal corpus). the authors’ first and last names provided additional confirmation of their status as anglophone or eal authors. for each of the sub-corpora 10 articles were taken from each of three international high-impact journals3 (journal of pragmatics, english for specific purposes and lingua). using the same journals for the compilation of the two sub-corpora guarantees likely audience, similar publication impact, and similar publication guidelines and editorial gatekeeping. 2.2. method the first step of the analysis consisted in the manual identification of the reporting verbs (henceforth rvs) in the corpus. through careful reading of the two sub-corpora, a list of all the verb lemmas that functioned as rvs in each of them was compiled. then, the number of occurrences of each rv was calculated. for this purpose, wordsmith tools (scott, 2008) was used to generate concordances for the verbs. every concordance line was then examined manually, to count only occurrences of verbs that functioned as rvs in context. i use the term “reporting verb” to refer to those occurrences of verbs that in a particular rhetorical context are used to report on claims or ideas by other authors. therefore, suggest is considered a reporting verb in (1a), but not in (1b). (1) a. welty (1989) suggests that (…) it is not always the most suitable one for students who are not familiar with the discussion method (spengal) b. the analysis of collocational frameworks in the medical paper suggests that some frameworks are central to the phraseology of this genre. (spengal) frequencies of rvs in both corpora were compared and the academic section of the coca (corpus of contemporary american english) was maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194176 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 176 used to check whether rvs present in the spengal but absent in the engal occurred in a larger english corpus. i then analyzed whether spanish and anglophone scholars used the different types of rvs with the same frequency. for the categorization of rvs, hyland’s (2002) model was used. drawing on thompson and ye (1991), hyland (2002) distinguished between “research acts”, which contain verbs which describe experimental activities or findings (e.g., calculate, discover, find), “cognition acts”, which contain verbs which represent the researcher’s mental processes (e.g., believe, assume), and “discourse acts”, which involve verbal expressions (e.g., discuss, describe). at this stage, the 30 most frequent rvs in each sub-corpus were selected, classified according to the acts to which they refer (research verbs, discourse verbs and mental verbs) and the frequency of occurrence of each type of verbs in the two sub-corpora was compared. the next step involved gathering all the occurrences of each rv and coding them according to the following criteria: type of citation and citation pattern. this coding helps to reveal differences in the cited author’s prominence and visibility in the two sub-corpora. the coding form to register the information for each rv can be found in appendix a. (i) the type of citation where the verb occurs. i drew on swales’ (1986) distinction between integral citation (i.e., the name of the author4 is included in the sentence, e.g., “swales (1991) claims that…”), which foregrounds the cited author, and non-integral citation (i.e., the name of the author is provided in brackets), which places emphasis on the content. however, following fløttum et al. (2006) and hewings et al. (2010), i distinguished integral citation, non-integral citation and direct quotation. as hewings et al. (2010) point out, although the occurrences of direct quotation could be classified as integral or non-integral citation, keeping “direct quotation” as a separate category can provide useful information on differences regarding author prominence in both corpora. (ii) the pattern where the verb occurs. for this analysis i drew partly on thompson and tribble’s (2001: 95-96) classification of functions of citation. they divided integral and non-integral citation into sub-types, taking into account both the function and the form of the citation. i adapted thompson and tribble’s (2001) classification, to focus mainly on form, that is, on the grammatical variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 177 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 177 choices made by writers when using rvs. in this case the occurrences of direct quotation have been subsumed in the integral/non-integral categories because there were only 13 occurrences of non-integral quotation and considering them separately would make the classification unnecessarily complex. i distinguished the following categories: 1. patterns in integral citation (including integral quotation). 1.1. human subject (cited author) + rv. a noun group referring to the cited author functions as the subject of the rv or as the agent in a passive construction. (2) a. biber et al. (1999) show that these items convey a great deal of meaning (spengal) b. … communicative tasks, defined by skehan (1998: 268) as activities … (engal) 1.2. non-human subject (research noun+ cited author) + rv. the subject of the rv is a noun group whose head is a research noun (e.g., findings) and where the cited author is typically a modifier. (3) more recent work by aijmer (2002) emphasizes that…. (engal) 2. patterns in non-integral citation (including non-integral quotation). 2.1. general inanimate reference (discourse/research noun with a general reference) + rv (active /passive). the discourse noun is used to refer to several sources and the citation in brackets provides examples of these sources. (4) some notable studies (aguado de cea, 1993; belda medina, 2003; gallench pérez & posteguillo gómez, 2001) have provided different approaches…(spengal) 2.2. general animate reference (plural reference to cited authors) + rv. a plural animated noun (writers, researchers) is the head of a noun phrase that functions as the subject of the rv. (5) other authors mention the possibility of zero plural (…) (lorenzo criado, 1994, p. 200; seco, 1972, p. 139). (spengal) maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194178 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 178 2.3. rv in the passive voice or introductory ‘it’ as subject of rv in the passive voice (e.g., it has been reported that). (6) research into teacher beliefs has been critiqued for eliciting (…) (munby 1984; woods 1996) (engal) these patterns reflect different degrees of authors’ visibility as participants in the reporting process. while assigning the cited author the subject position (pattern 1.1.) makes him/her more prominent and visible, pattern 2.3. deflects attention from the author. 3. results 3.1. frequency of reporting verbs the number of occurrences of rvs in the two sub-corpora was very similar: 648 (272.28 per 100,000 words) in the spengal corpus and 631 (261.24 per 100,000 words) in the engal corpus. this similarity indicates that spanish expert writers in linguistics are fully aware of the function of rvs in their discipline. despite this similarity in the frequency of rvs, there is a striking difference regarding lexical variety: a much higher number of different verbs are used in the spengal corpus (129 vs. 88). a comparison of the verbs that are used by spanish and anglophone scholars may help to explain this difference (see table 2). as can be seen, 65 verbs occur in both corpora, a high number of verbs (64) occur only in the spengal corpus, and a much smaller number of verbs occur only in the engal corpus. variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 179 variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): …-… b. … communicative tasks, defined by skehan (1998: 268) as activities … (engal) 1.2. non-human subject (research noun+ cited author) + rv. the subject of the rv is a noun group whose head is a research noun (e.g., findings) and where the cited author is typically a modifier. (3) more recent work by aijmer (2002) emphasizes that…. (engal) 2. patterns in non-integral citation (including non-integral quotation). 2.1. general inanimate reference (discourse/research noun with a general reference) + rv (active /passive). the discourse noun is used to refer to several sources and the citation in brackets provides examples of these sources. (4) some notable studies (aguado de cea, 1993; belda medina, 2003; gallench pérez & posteguillo gómez, 2001) have provided different approaches…(spengal) 2.2. general animate reference (plural reference to cited authors) + rv. a plural animated noun (writers, researchers) is the head of a noun phrase that function as the subject of the rv. (5) other authors mention the possibility of zero plural (…) (lorenzo criado, 1994, p. 200; seco, 1972, p. 139). (spengal) 2.3. rv in the passive voice or introductory ‘it’ as subject of rv in passive voice (e.g., it has been reported that). (6) research into teacher beliefs has been critiqued for eliciting (…) (munby 1984; woods 1996) (engal) these patterns reflect different degrees of authors’ visibility as participants in the reporting process. while assigning the cited author the subject position (pattern 1.1.) makes him/her more prominent and visible, pattern 2.3. deflects attention from the author. 3. results 3.1. frequency of reporting verbs occurrences per 100,000 words number of different verbs used spengal 648 272.28 129 engal 631 261.24 88 table 1. frequency of rvs in the spengal and engal corpora. 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 179 some of the verbs that occur in both corpora are part of phrases where the reporting expression is actually the whole phrase (e.g., draw a conclusion, provide evidence). interestingly, although these verbs are present in both corpora, they do not always occur in the same combinations. for instance, the combinations draw+ proposal or provide+ approach occur in the spengal corpus, but not in the engal corpus. since the absence of a specific combination in any of the corpora may be due to the size of these corpora, i searched for draw+ proposal and provide+ approach in the academic section of the coca, to check whether they occurred in a larger english corpus. the searches yielded no occurrence of draw+ proposal, and a very low frequency of provide+ approach (1.28 per million). the spengal corpus also displayed “multi-word verb+ noun” combinations which occurred only once (build up a typology, play down the role of, flesh out a framework) (e.g. 7) and were absent both in the engal corpus and in the academic section of the coca corpus. although these combinations might be considered “incorrect” with regard to enl (english as a native language) standards, they are intelligible and have been accepted as such by participants in the reviewing and editorial process. the occurrence of these unconventional combinations is in agreement with pérez-llantada’s (2014) finding that formulaicity in l2 expert writing is not completely native-like. maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194180 maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): …-… the number of occurrences of rvs in the two sub-corpora was very similar: 648 (272.28 per 100,000 words) in the spengal corpus and 631 (261.24 per 100,000 words) in the engal corpus. this similarity indicates that spanish expert writers in linguistics are fully aware of the function of rvs in their discipline. despite this similarity in the frequency of rvs, there is a striking difference regarding lexical variety: a much higher number of different verbs are used in the spengal corpus (129 vs. 88). a comparison of the verbs that are used by spanish and anglophone scholars may help to explain this difference (see table 2). as can be seen, 65 verbs occur in both corpora, a high number of verbs (64) occur only in the spengal corpus, and a much smaller number of verbs occur only in the engal corpus. 1. rvs occurring in both corpora (65) 2. rvs occurring only in the spengal corpus (64) 3. rvs occurring only in the engal corpus (23) accept, address, advocate, analyze, apply, argue, assume, call, characterize, cite, claim, classify, comment, compare, conclude, consider, contend, criticize, deal with, define, demonstrate, describe, develop, discuss, distinguish, document, draw, emphasize, establish, examine, explain, find, focus, give, highlight, hypothesize, identify, include, indicate, introduce, investigate, maintain, make, note, notice, offer, observe, perform, point out, present, propose, prove, provide, reveal, put it, refer, report, say, show, state, stress, study, suggest, use, write acknowledge, add, adhere, agree, allude, approach, argue against, attest, attribute, be aware thati, be concerned, believe, build up, broaden, capture, carry out, center, challenge, claim for, contribute, declare, defend, estimate, differentiate, divide, do (research)ii, echo (suggestions), endorse, expound, flesh out (a framework), follow, hold (a view), illustrate, incorporate, insist, lay (emphasis on), link, list, mention, obtain, pay attention to, play down, point to, postulate, propound, put forward, qualify, reach (a conclusion), recognize, recommend, refine, reject, remark, reproduce, resort to, see as, signal, suffer, sustain, talk about, think, underline, understand, warn account for, assert, assign, confirm, constrain, dismiss, draw on, employ, formulate, interpret, instruct, outline, posit, produce (an analysis), question, raise (a point), review, specify, support, take (a position), term, test, view i within rvs i also consider collocations of the type be+ adjective. ii the object of the verb is provided to show how these verbs are used as a rv in the corpus. table 2. comparison of rvs used in the spengal and the engal corpus. some of the verbs that occur in both corpora are part of phrases where the reporting expression is actually the whole phrase (e.g., draw a conclusion, provide evidence). interestingly, although these verbs are present in both corpora, they do not always occur in the same combinations. for instance, the combinations draw + proposal or provide+ approach occur in the spengal corpus, but not in the engal corpus. since the absence of a specific combination in any of the corpora may be due to the size of these corpora, i searched for draw+ proposal and provide+ approach in the academic section of the coca, to check whether they occurred in a larger english corpus. the 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 180 (7) although early research played down the role of the li in second language learning (dulay, burt, & krashen, 1982)... (spengal) regarding columns 2 and 3 in table 2, what is interesting is not the presence of some verbs in only one of the corpora, since this may be due to the size of the corpora, but the high number of verbs that only occur in the spengal corpus. these include verbs of latin origin, which have a frequently used spanish cognate (e.g., adhere, allude, attribute, center, contribute, declare, defend, expound, mention, propound, recognize, sustain). their high frequency in the spengal corpus could be the result of “language leakage” (jenkins, 2015) from the eal scholars’ l1. l1 influence could also explain the occurrence in the spengal corpus of specific verbs that do not occur in the engal corpus, such as signal (see example 8), and that could be considered “false cognates”. (8) janney and arndt (1992: 22) signal “the lack of agreement among investigators about how politeness should be defined” (spengal) the two occurrences of signal could be due to the fact that the spanish verb señalar is the equivalent for note/ point out. the meaning that the author intends to convey (signal = point out) could be different from the meaning that would be construed by monolingual native english readers (signal = to make a sound or movement that tells someone something), but not necessarily different from the meaning construed by other multilingual readers, who may be familiar with cognates of señalar (meaning point out) in other european languages (e.g. signaler in french, segnalare in italian). this raises the question of the fluidity of lexical meaning in intercultural communication. it should not be taken for granted that english users from different linguistic backgrounds share identical meanings of a lexical item (xu & dinh, 2013), but this semantic divergence does not necessarily lead to misunderstanding, since in intercultural communication lexical meanings are co-constructed and negotiated in context. the audience of articles in international journals is composed of readers from different multilingual backgrounds, who will draw on their linguistic repertoires (including their l1 and other languages they may know) to construct meaning. in example (8) the use of signal has been accepted as valid in the reviewing process, which suggests that certain semantic divergences might be overlooked both by authors and readers, as long as there is no major communication breakdown. variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 181 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 181 a comparison of the frequency of the rvs in column 2 in the different sections of the coca reveals that some of them are less common in written academic english than in other more informal registers, e.g. talk about (760 occurrences per million in the spoken section vs. 51.70 in the academic section), play down (3.58 occurrences per million in the newspaper section vs. 0.83 in the academic section). this is also the case with some verbs which occur more frequently in the spengal than in the engal corpus, e.g. say (5,199 occurrences per million in the spoken section vs. 946 in the academic section), put it (95 occurrences per million in the spoken section vs. 36 in the academic section). this suggests that spengal authors may be less sensitive to register variation in english than engal authors. this is in agreement with previous research revealing that the academic texts of l2 writers display some elements more typical of spoken discourse (hinkel, 2003) and with cohen’s (2001) recount of his own difficulty in discriminating between formal and informal register when using academic hebrew. this result is also related to the finding that the development of l2 writing involves a move from the features of spoken english to those typical of formal writing (shaw & liu, 1998). 3.2. types of rvs in the spengal and engal sub-corpora table 3 shows the top rvs in the two corpora (31 in the spengal corpus, 30 in the engal corpus) with their frequency of occurrence. the first figure indicates the number of instances of the rv and the second figure expresses the frequency of each rv as a percentage of all rvs in each subcorpus. maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194182 variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): …-… spengal engal verb total % (of 648) verb total % (of 631) point out 45 6.94 find 74 11.72 propose 36 5.55 propose 54 8.55 argue 34 5.24 note 48 7.6 claim 29 4.47 argue 43 6.8 show 25 3.85 suggest 39 6.18 consider 25 3.85 show 38 6.02 find 23 3.54 discuss 18 2.85 suggest 23 3.54 identify 17 2.69 state 22 3.4 assume 17 2.69 note 21 3.24 analyze 16 2.53 define 14 2.16 examine 14 2.21 explain 14 2.16 consider 13 2.06 analyze 13 2.00 claim 13 2.06 focus 13 2.00 describe 13 2.06 describe 12 1.85 study 12 1.9 distinguish 11 1.7 point out 12 1.9 table 3. top rvs in the two corpora. drawing on hyland’s (2002) distinction, the verbs in table 3 were classified into research verbs (i.e., verbs referring to procedures/experimental activities or used to state findings), discourse verbs (i.e., verbs involving verbal expression) and cognitive verbs (i.e., verbs referring to mental processes). table 4 below shows the classification of the top rvs used in the two corpora and the percentage of each type. 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 182 drawing on hyland’s (2002) distinction, the verbs in table 3 were classified into research verbs (i.e., verbs referring to procedures/experimental activities or used to state findings), discourse verbs (i.e., verbs involving verbal expression) and cognitive verbs (i.e., verbs referring to mental processes). table 4 below shows the classification of the top rvs used in the two corpora and the percentage of each type. variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 183 variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): …-… distinguish 11 1.7 point out 12 1.9 mention 10 1.54 present 11 1.74 maintain 9 1.38 call 9 1.42 accept 8 1.23 compare 9 1.42 call 8 1.23 report 9 1.42 stress 8 1.23 cite 8 1.26 conclude 7 1.08 distinguish 8 1.36 examine 7 1.08 investigate 8 1.36 observe 7 1.08 use 8 1.36 point to 7 1.08 provide 7 1.1 provide 7 1.08 develop 7 1.1 put it 7 1.08 document 7 1.1 comment 6 0.92 observe 6 0.95 compare 6 0.92 focus 6 0.95 identify 6 0.92 refer 6 0.95 study 6 0.92 total 470 total 550 table 3. top rvs in the two corpora. drawing on hyland’s (2002) distinction, the verbs in table 3 were classified into research verbs (i.e., verbs referring to procedures/experimental activities or used to state findings), discourse verbs (i.e., verbs involving verbal expression) and cognitive verbs (i.e., verbs referring to mental processes). table 4 below shows the classification of the top rvs used in the two corpora and the percentage of each type. maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): …-… verb group spengal engal verbs % of total verbs % of total research show, find, analyze, focus, observe, examine, study (7 verbs/ 95 occurrences) 20.21 find, show, analyze, examine, study, investigate, use, develop, observe, focus (10 verbs/ 189 occurrences) 34.36 discourse point out, propose, argue, claim, suggest, state, note, define, explain, describe, distinguish, mention, maintain, accept, stress, call, compare, conclude, put it, point to, provide, comment, identify (23 verbs/ 350 occurrences) 74.46 propose, note, argue, suggest, discuss, identify, claim, describe, point out, present, call, report, compare, cite, distinguish, provide, document, refer (18 verbs/ 331 occurrences) 60.18 cognitive consider (1 verb/ 25 occurrences) 5.31 assume, consider (2 verbs/ 30 occurrences) 5.45 470 100 550 100 table 4. types of rvs in the spengal and the engal sub-corpora. the percentage of cognitive rvs is very low in both corpora, consider and assume being the only cognitive verbs among the top rvs. however, there is a striking difference in the frequency of use of research and discourse verbs in the two corpora. although there is a clear preference for discourse verbs over research verbs in the two corpora, scholars in an anglophone context used a much higher number of research verbs than spanish scholars. table 3 shows the high frequency in the engal corpus of two research verbs used to state findings, find, show (which together comprise 17.74% of the rvs in the engal corpus, compared to 7.39% in the spengal corpus). by contrast, the most frequent rv in the spengal corpus is the discourse verb point out (6.94% of the rvs in the spengal corpus vs. 1.9% of the rvs in the engal corpus). hyland and tse (2005: 60) suggest that academic writers use rvs strategically to focus on a specific type of support for their own claims: “by framing evaluations with either a research, cognitive, or discoursal focus, writers can also implicitly signal whether they intend their judgements to be understood as grounded in research practices, interpretive practices, or reporting practices”. hyland (2009) found a clear preference for research act verbs in the hard disciplines and for discourse act verbs in the soft disciplines and attributed it to the differences in the way knowledge is constructed, with the hard disciplines emphasizing the importance of experimental results to support claims and the 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 183 the percentage of cognitive rvs is very low in both corpora, consider and assume being the only cognitive verbs among the top rvs. however, there is a striking difference in the frequency of use of research and discourse verbs in the two corpora. although there is a clear preference for discourse verbs over research verbs in the two corpora, scholars in an anglophone context used a much higher number of research verbs than spanish scholars. table 3 shows the high frequency in the engal corpus of two research verbs used to state findings, find, show (which together comprise 17.74% of the rvs in the engal corpus, compared to 7.39% in the spengal corpus). by contrast, the most frequent rv in the spengal corpus is the discourse verb point out (6.94% of the rvs in the spengal corpus vs. 1.9% of the rvs in the engal corpus). hyland and tse (2005: 60) suggest that academic writers use rvs strategically to focus on a specific type of support for their own claims: “by framing evaluations with either a research, cognitive, or discoursal focus, writers can also implicitly signal whether they intend their judgements to be understood as grounded in research practices, interpretive practices, or reporting practices”. hyland (2009) found a clear preference for research act verbs in the hard disciplines and for discourse act verbs in the soft disciplines and attributed it to the differences in the way knowledge is constructed, with the hard disciplines emphasizing the importance of experimental results to support claims and the humanities relying on the strength of arguments and on the reference to the words of previous researchers. as can be seen, both in the spengal and the engal corpus discourse act verbs are more frequent than research act verbs, which shows the importance of argument and interpretation in linguistics. however, the higher frequency of discourse act verbs in the spengal corpus when compared with the engal corpus could suggest that, while both spanish and anglophone writers prefer to ground their claims on the cited authors’ reporting of and interpretation of their own research, spanish writers are less willing to emphasize the research results of cited authorsas in example (9)instead of their authoritysee example 10. (9) laufer (1989) found that learners who knew 95 per cent of the words in text were more likely to be successful readers (engal) (10) gains (1999) claims that the informality of e-mail messages is not retained in business messages (spengal) maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194184 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 184 3.3. types of citations of which reporting verbs are part table 5 gives the frequency of rvs in the three different types of citation considered in the research. it should be pointed out that i did not count the occurrences of the different types of citation in the corpora, but the frequency of these types with a rv. a chi-square test was carried out in order to determine the significance of the differences in the two corpora. the distribution of citation types with rvs was found to be significantly different between the two corpora (χ²= 50.92, df = 2, p < 0.0001). table 5 shows a striking difference in the use of rvs in the two corpora: the percentage of rvs+ quotation is much higher in the spengal corpus than in the engal corpus (18.51% vs. 5.7%). this suggests that spanish writers resort to quotation much more frequently than anglophone writers. a possible explanation is that, since writers use direct quotations to give other authors’ voices the floor (fløttum et al., 2006), spanish scholars tend to use more quotations to provide a more authoritative support to their claim, as illustrated in example (11). (11) first, we have provided further evidence that discourse is pre-patterned (…). as sinclair puts it (sinclair, 1991: 108): “by far the majority of text is made of the occurrence of common words in common patterns”. (spengal) it is also interesting to compare which rvs are used in quotations: variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 185 variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): …-… humanities relying on the strength of arguments and on the reference to the words of previous researchers. as can be seen, both in the spengal and the engal corpus discourse act verbs are more frequent than research act verbs, which shows the importance of argument and interpretation in linguistics. however, the higher frequency of discourse act verbs in the spengal corpus when compared with the engal corpus could suggest that, while both spanish and anglophone writers prefer to ground their claims on the cited authors’ reporting of and interpretation of their own research, spanish writers are less willing to emphasize the research results of cited authorsas in example (9)instead of their authoritysee example 10. (9) laufer (1989) found that learners who knew 95 per cent of the words in text were more likely to be successful readers (engal) (10) gains (1999) claims that the informality of e-mail messages is not retained in business messages (spengal) laufer (1989) found that learners who knew 95 per cent of the words in text were more likely to be successful readers and had better comprehension scores. 3.3. types of citations of which reporting verbs are part type of citation spengal engal total % total % integral citation (excluding quotations) 415 64.04 487 77.17 non-integral citation (excluding quotations) 113 17.43 108 17.11 quotation 120 18.51 36 5.7 total 648 100 631 100 table 5. occurrences of reporting verbs in integral citations, non-integral citations and quotations. table 5 gives the frequency of rvs in the three different types of citation considered in the research. it should be pointed out that i did not count the occurrences of the different types of citation in the corpora, but the frequency of these types with a rv. a chi-square test was carried out in order to determine the significance of the differences in the two corpora. the distribution of citation types with rvs was found to be significantly different between the two corpora ("#= 50.92, df = 2, p < 0.0001). table 5 shows a striking difference in the use of rvs in the two corpora: the percentage of rvs+ quotation is much higher in the spengal corpus than in the engal corpus (18.51% vs. 5.7%). this suggests that spanish writers resort to quotation much more frequently than anglophone writers. a possible explanation is that, since writers use direct quotations to give other authors’ voices the floor (fløttum et al., 2006), spanish scholars tend to use more quotations to provide a more authoritative support to their claim, as illustrated in example (11). maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): …-… (11) first, we have provided further evidence that discourse is pre-patterned (…). as sinclair puts it (sinclair, 1991: 108): “by far the majority of text is made of the occurrence of common words in common patterns”. (spengal) it is also interesting to compare which rvs are used in quotations: spengal (120) engal (36) state (13), define (10), point out (10), call (8), explain (8), argue (7), put it (6), describe (5), maintain (5), claim (4), conclude (4), note (4), observe (4), say (4), refer (3), stress (3), consider (3), mention (2), signal (2), suggest (2), talk (2), remark (2), write (2), add (1), advocate (1), comment (1), find (1), prove (1), show (1), underline (1) note (10), call (5), describe (4), observe (2), argue (2), claim (2), refer (2), state (2), conclude (1), consider (1), define (1), propose (1), put it (1), say (1), suggest (1) table 6. verbs occurring in quotations in the spengal corpus and the engal corpus5. as can be seen, the most frequent rvs in quotation are different in the two corpora. point out and note are both factive verbs (hyland, 2002) used to show that the writer accepts the truth of what the original author said, but while engal authors prefer note, spengal authors prefer point out. note occurs in 28.57% of the quotations in the engal corpus and only in 3.3% of the quotations in the spengal corpus. similarly, point out, which occurs in 8.3% of the quotations in the spengal corpus, is absent in the engal corpus. some verbs are closely associated to quotation in the spengal corpus: 85% of the occurrences (6 out of 7) of put it and 59% of the occurrences of state are used to introduce a quotation. these are non-factive verbs, always used by spanish writers in the corpus to introduce a quotation which supports the writer’s statement (see examples 11 and 12). (12) a close examination of the introduction unit of the abstracts revealed that this section was the most complex unit (…). swales himself draws our attention to the complexity of research article introductions when he states that: introductions are known to be troublesome [...].(spengal) in the spengal corpus state usually occurs in the patterns: “as stated by+ author”, “as author(s)+ state(s)”, “accordingly, author(s)+ state(s) that”. the use of state in the spengal corpus is similar to that in the learner corpus analyzed by bloch (2010). he found that in expert writing state was sometimes used to present a claim with which the writer did not agree, while in the learner corpus state tended to be used to report the cited author’s claims as facts. this is interesting because the evaluative potential of words seems to be easily available to anglophone authors, but it may not be so evident for eal authors. therefore, the evaluative meaning of rvs in academic texts by eal writers might not be exactly the same as the meaning construed by anglophone speakers. table 7 shows the frequency of rvs in the different citation patterns. interestingly, the relative frequency of each pattern was not significantly 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 185 as can be seen, the most frequent rvs in quotation are different in the two corpora. point out and note are both factive verbs (hyland, 2002) used to show that the writer accepts the truth of what the original author said, but while engal authors prefer note, spengal authors prefer point out. note occurs in 28.57% of the quotations in the engal corpus and only in 3.3% of the quotations in the spengal corpus. similarly, point out, which occurs in 8.3% of the quotations in the spengal corpus, is absent in the engal corpus. some verbs are closely associated to quotation in the spengal corpus: 85% of the occurrences (6 out of 7) of put it and 59% of the occurrences of state are used to introduce a quotation. these are non-factive verbs, always used by spanish writers in the corpus to introduce a quotation which supports the writer’s statement (see examples 11 and 12). (12) a close examination of the introduction unit of the abstracts revealed that this section was the most complex unit (…). swales himself draws our attention to the complexity of research article introductions when he states that: introductions are known to be troublesome [...].(spengal) in the spengal corpus state usually occurs in the patterns: “as stated by+ author”, “as author(s)+ state(s)”, “accordingly, author(s)+ state(s) that”. the use of state in the spengal corpus is similar to that in the learner corpus analyzed by bloch (2010). he found that in expert writing state was sometimes used to present a claim with which the writer did not agree, while in the learner corpus state tended to be used to report the cited author’s claims as facts. this is interesting because the evaluative potential of words seems to be easily available to anglophone authors, but it may not be so evident for eal authors. therefore, the evaluative meaning of rvs in academic texts by eal writers might not be exactly the same as the meaning construed by anglophone speakers. table 7 shows the frequency of rvs in the different citation patterns. interestingly, the relative frequency of each pattern was not significantly different between the two corpora (χ²= 3.33 df= 4, p > 0.5), which suggests that both groups of expert writers in linguistics share genre knowledge concerning the function of the different citation patterns in ras in their discipline. as can be seen, in both corpora the most frequent pattern where rvs occur is the one where the author is most visible, pattern 1.1.: “human maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194186 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 186 subject (cited author)+ rv”, and the other patterns are used with a similar frequency. 4. discussion and conclusions the analysis of the two corpora of english-medium ras in linguistics, one written by anglophone scholars and the other by spanish scholars, shows variation regarding the use of rvs in academic writing. the present findings thus indicate that the discourse of english-medium ras written by spanish expert writers displays many linguistic features and rhetorical practices found in texts written by anglophone scholars, but also examples of language use that diverge from anglophone style and norms. both corpora display a similar number of occurrences of rvs and a preference for discourse rvs to construct knowledge. this may be attributed to the fact that both groups of scholars are expert users of academic english who make an effective use of rvs to achieve the goals of their disciplinary cultures. however, although the corpus analyzed is not large enough to make confident generalizations, the study has revealed some differences in the way these two groups of writers used rvs in englishmedium research articles, which allows for some tentative conclusions. the analysis of the corpora showed that spanish scholars used a higher percentage of discourse act rvs than anglophone scholars and a higher percentage of rvs in quotations, thus giving the cited author the floor more variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 187 variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): …-… different between the two corpora ("#= 3.33 df= 4, p > 0.5), which suggests that both groups of expert writers in linguistics share genre knowledge concerning the function of the different citation patterns in ras in their discipline. as can be seen, in both corpora the most frequent pattern where rvs occur is the one where the author is most visible, pattern 1.1.: “human subject (cited author)+ rv”, and the other patterns are used with a similar frequency. spengal (648 occurrences) engal (631 occurrences) patterns total % of rvs total % of rvs integral structures 1.1. human subject+ rv (biber et al. show that) 518 79.93 506 80.19 1.2. non-human subject+ rv (recent work by aijmer emphasizes that) 9 1.38 11 1.74 non-integral structures 2.1. general inanimate reference+ rv (some studies have provided) 51 7.87 58 9.19 2.2. general animate reference+ rv (some writers emphasize that) 23 3.54 13 2.06 2.3. introductory it or rv in passive voice (research into … has been critiqued for) 47 7.25 43 6.81 total 648 100 631 100 table 7. citation patterns of which rvs are part. 4. discussion and conclusions the analysis of the two corpora of english-medium ras in linguistics, one written by anglophone scholars and the other by spanish scholars, shows variation regarding the use of rvs in academic writing. the present findings thus indicate that the discourse of english-medium ras written by spanish expert writers displays many linguistic features and rhetorical practices found in texts written by anglophone scholars, but also examples of language use that diverge from anglophone style and norms. both corpora display a similar number of occurrences of rvs and a preference for discourse rvs to construct knowledge. this may be attributed to the fact that both groups of scholars are expert users of academic english who make an effective use of rvs to achieve the goals of their disciplinary cultures. however, although the corpus analyzed is not large enough to make confident generalizations, the study has revealed some differences in the way these two groups of writers used rvs in english-medium research papers, which allows for some tentative conclusions. the analysis of the corpora showed that spanish 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 187 often. according to the findings, the group of eal scholars investigated seems to have a clearer preference for citation practices that enable them to support their own claims by recourse to other scholars’ ideas, assertions and interpretation. thus, the spanish authors in this study could be exploiting rvs to make their knowledge claims acceptable by the editors and reviewers of high impact international journals and thus secure publication in these journals. the study has also revealed that, although the overall frequency of rvs was similar in both corpora, the texts written by spanish scholars displayed a higher number of different verbs, some of them with very few occurrences. spanish scholars utilized non-routine verb+noun combinations and a high number of verbs from a latin origin, both true and false cognates. consistent with previous research (pérez-llantada, 2014; loréssanz, 2016) this variability indicates that the eal writers activated their l1 literacy resources to meet their communicative needs when writing in english. the comparison of the two corpora also reveals slight differences in the use of some rvs: some verbs are more strongly associated with specific patterns or specific functions in one corpus than in the other (e.g. the use of point out, state and put it to introduce quotations in the spengal corpus). the present findings suggest that, although the two groups of writers share most generic conventions regarding rvs, the usage of these verbs in the writing of spanish scholars is influenced by their multilingual literacy repertoire, which supports previous research showing the “hybrid” practices (“largely, but not completely, native-like”) of eal scholars (ädel & erman, 2012; pérez-llantada, 2014: 84). the analysis of the data also suggests emerging features in academic writing by eal scholars (or, at least, in the academic writing by spanish scholars) (e.g. verbs of spoken register, frequent use of cognates), which, as a result of the increasing number of eal researchers publishing in international journals, could, as rozycki and johnson (2013) point out, contribute to gradually altering the features of academic written communication. an interesting finding is that the spanish writers in this study seem to be relatively less register-sensitive than anglophone writers and they may also overlook subtle semantic divergences when using “false” cognates or when using some rvs for evaluation. it can thus be concluded that a key to effective communication at the receptive level is relative tolerance towards register and code variations, for instance, accepting usage that might be slightly less formal than expected or accepting words whose meaning is slightly different from the one that would be construed by a native speaker. maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194188 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 188 as convincingly argued by belcher, there is a need for a “new reader responsibility”, based on flexibility and contextual adaptation: readers of international publications need to be flexible and “willing, when needed, to accept responsibility for constructing meaning from what may seem lessthan-immediately-transparent text” (belcher, 2014: 65). as horner concludes, eal (multilingual) writers have to employ attitudes like “tolerance for language variation” and “strategies of accommodation and negotiation” (horner, 2011: 302). the findings of this study are consistent with previous research showing the presence of non-standard forms, innovative rhetorical patterns, and culturespecific features in peer-reviewed academic writing (rozycki & johnson, 2013; pérez-llantada, 2014; lorés-sanz, 2016) and support hyland’s (2016) call for a more inclusive view of academic publishing, not based on l1 vs. l2 dichotomies. the study has thus sought to contribute to providing information on variations that are successfully used by eal authors to achieve their purposes and shows the need to conceptualize academic english as english-medium discourse characterized by variability, fluidity and hybridity, with room for the diverse rhetorical styles and textual choices of expert scholars (including anglophone scholars) with different l1 backgrounds, who use various linguistic/ semiotic resources to report research. the results of this study have implications both for academic literacy instruction and for publication reviewing and gate-keeping. one important implication of this study is that the teaching of academic english should be approached from a “language variation” perspective, acknowledging the discourse practices of scholars from varied linguistic backgrounds, as also postulated by wingate (2015) for students. aligning with curry and lillis (2004) and belcher (2007), the results of this study highlight the need for academic writing courses for eal scholars, which raise their awareness of how expert writers (both anglophone and non-anglophone) make rhetorical choices intended to develop their authorial identity and get their claims accepted. as heng hartse and kubota (2014) argue, an “error-based” approach, which focuses on identifying non-standard forms in the writing of l2 scholars and helping them to avoid these “errors”, is not adequate, because, as this study has shown, some forms that are not preferred by anglophone scholars are accepted in actual practice. materials to be used in those courses and criteria to assess acceptable performance should, therefore, not be based on corpus observation (data driven learning) of variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 189 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 189 what anglophone scholars do, but on the study of the processes and texts of expert scholars from different linguistic backgrounds. these materials would help to promote the acceptance of varying norms, lexico-grammatical forms that might deviate from the anglophone norms, and creative uses of language intended to achieve communicative effectiveness. as hyland (2016) also contends, the assumption that conformity to native-speaker standards affects paper acceptance may discourage eal authors from revising their manuscripts. therefore, materials exposing scholars who write in english to a diversity of discursive practices may reassure them when submitting their contributions to english-medium journals. this is in line with a critical pragmatic approach to the teaching of academic writing, which acknowledges the need to teach dominant discourse conventions, but also encourages students to question these conventions (harwood & hadley, 2004). in terms of publication reviewing, this study supports the recommendation of other scholars (belcher, 2007; heng hartse & kubota, 2014) that reviewers, editors, and other literacy brokers should accept linguistic and discursive choices that diverge from anglophone conventions but are effective and should not assess submissions against anglophone norms but against the criterion of international intelligibility. a sensible practice when considering the acceptability of forms in academic writing by eal users is the “variation-oriented” perspective proposed by heng hartse & kubota (2014: 82): the acceptance of difference and variation while maintaining high standards of intelligibility, communicative effectiveness, and linguistic accuracy. one limitation of this study is that it has involved eal scholars in a single discipline and in a single geopolitical context. therefore, future research is necessary on the use of rvs and function of citations in the englishmedium writing of eal scholars in other disciplines and locations. this research would contribute to identifying possible features which, even if infrequent in the writing of anglophone authors, are preferred by multilingual scholars from different l1 backgrounds. a study of the use of rvs and citation patterns by anglophone and multilingual scholars in different disciplines could also reveal differences in how the practices of multilingual scholars diverge from those of anglophone scholars across disciplines, which would help to understand the rationale for the citation practices of scholars from different linguistic backgrounds and in different social and cultural contexts. finally, in line with current ethnographic studies maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194190 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 190 on academic writing and literacy practices (lillis & curry, 2010), this study could be complemented with interview-based research where some of the authors in the corpora could provide information about their citation practices and explain the motivations for their preferences regarding specific rvs or citation patterns, thus furthering our understanding of the situatedness of citation practices in english-medium texts. acknowledgements this research was supported by the spanish ministry of economy and competitiveness (project code: ffi2012-37346; and project code: ffi201568638-r) and by the regional government of aragón (project code: h21). article history: received 9 november 2017 received in revised form 2 february 2018 accepted 2 february 2018 references variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 191 ädel, a. & b. erman (2012). “recurrent word combinations in academic writing by native and non-native speakers of english: a lexical bundles approach”. english for specific purposes 31,2: 8192. belcher, d. 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(2007). “rhetorical functions of citations in highand low-rated master’s theses”. journal of english for academic purposes 6: 238-253. petrić, b. & n. harwood (2013) “task requirements, task representation, and selfreported citation functions: an exploratory study of a successful l2 student’s writing”. journal of 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 192 maría josé luzón is senior lecturer at the university of zaragoza, spain. she has a phd in english philology and has published papers on academic and professional discourse and on language teaching and learning in the field of english for academic purposes. her current research interests include the analysis of online academic genres, especially academic blogs, and the analysis of elf in academic online and written discourse. notes 1 for the sake of brevity, the terms “anglophone scholars”/ “anglophone writers”, and “spanish scholars”/ “spanish writers” are used herein to refer to these groups. 2 for a more detailed description of the serac corpus and of the criteria used in its compilation see pérez-llantada (2012). 3 these are anglophone journals, listed in the social science citation index, which in the years of compilation had a high impact factor in the discipline (higher than 1). 4 following thompson and ye (1991: 361), the term “author” is used to refer to “the person who is being reported” and “writer” to refer to “the person who is reporting”. 5 bold has been used to highlight verbs that occur in both corpora. variation in academic writing practices ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194 193 english for academic purposes 12: 110-124. rowley-jolivet, e. & s. carter-thomas (2014). “citation practices of expert french writers of english: issues of attribution and stance” in a. łyda & k. warchał (eds.), occupying niches: interculturality, cross-culturality and aculturality in academic research, 17-34. new york: springer. rozycki, w. & n. johnson (2013). “non-canonical grammar in best paper award winners in engineering”. english for specific purposes 32,3: 157-169. samraj, b. (2013). “form and function of citations in discussion sections of master’s theses and research articles”. journal of english for academic purposes 12: 299-310. scott, m. (2008). wordsmith tools version 5. liverpool: lexical analysis software. shaw, p. (1992) “reasons for the correlation of voice, tense and sentence function in reporting verbs.” applied linguistics 13,3: 302-319. seidlhofer, b. (2011). understanding english as a lingua franca. oxford: oxford university press. shaw, p. & e. liu (1998). “what develops in the development of second language writing? applied linguistics 19: 225-254. tribble, c. (2017). “elfa vs. genre: a new paradigm war in eap writing instruction?. journal of english for academic purposes 25: 30-44. thompson, g. & y. ye (1991). “evaluation in the reporting verbs used in academic papers”. applied linguistics 12: 365-382. thompson, p. & c. tribble (2001). “looking at citations: using corpora in english for academic purposes”. language learning and technology 5: 91-105. uzuner, s. (2008). “multilingual scholars’ participation in core/global academic communities: a literature review”. journal of english for academic purposes 7: 250-263. wingate, u. (2015). academic literacy and student diversity: the case for inclusive practice. london: multilingual matters. xu, z. & t.n. dinh (2013). “how do ‘we’ (world englishes) make sense in elf communication? words and their meanings across cultures”. journal of english as a lingua franca 2,2: 365 388. 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 193 appendix maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): 171-194194 maría-josé luzón ibérica 36 (2018): …-… notes 1 for the sake of brevity, the terms “anglophone scholars”/ “anglophone writers”, and “spanish scholars”/ “spanish writers” are used herein to refer to these groups. 2 for a more detailed description of the serac corpus and of the criteria used in its compilation see pérez-llantada (2012). 3 these are anglophone journals, listed in the social science citation index, which in the years of compilation had a high impact factor in the discipline (higher than 1). 4 following thompson and ye (1991: 361), the term “author” is used to refer to “the person who is being reported” and “writer” to refer to “the person who is reporting”. 5 bold has been used to highlight verbs that occur in both corpora. appendix verb: engal corpus (number of occurrences) spengal corpus (number of occurrences) type of citation 1.integral 2.non-integral 3.quotation syntactic pattern 1.1. (i) human subject (cited author)+ rv 1.2. (i) non-human subject+ rv 2.1. (non-i) general inanimate reference+ rv 2.2. (non-i) general animate reference+ rv 2.3. (non-i) rv in passive voice 07 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:23 página 194 iberica 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract although studies on the rhetorical structure of research article introductions and citation analysis are independently available in the literature, there are none that focus on the functions of citations in the context of generic moves in these introductions. to address this gap, the present study analyzes the generic structure as well as citation functions in introductions of biological science articles in english-medium international journals. specifically, the aim is to examine the relationship between generic moves and citation functions in individual moves. the findings on the relationship between moves and citations indicate that there is a preference for certain types of citations in specific parts of article introductions. this study will not only enable biological science graduate students to better understand research article introductions but also facilitate the writing of these in their own field. keywords: article introductions, genre analysis, citation analysis. resumen estructura genérica y funciones de la citación en las introducciones de artículos de biología en revistas internacionales en inglés si bien existen algunos estudios sobre la estructura retórica de las introducciones de los artículos de investigación y sobre la citación, no se tiene constancia de la existencia de trabajos centrados en las funciones de la citación en relación con los movimientos genéricos en tales artículos. por ello, el presente estudio analiza la estructura genérica y las funciones de la citación en artículos de biología generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles in english-medium international journals sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo nanyang technological university (singapore) msskath@ntu.edu.sg & chriskhoo@pmail.ntu.edu.sg 123 ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo publicados en revistas internacionales en inglés. concretamente, el objetivo es examinar la relación entre los movimientos genéricos y las funciones de la citación en movimientos independientes. los resultados obtenidos muestran que existe una preferencia por ciertos tipos de citaciones en determinadas partes de las introducciones de los artículos. este trabajo no solo permitirá a los estudiantes de posgrado de biología entender mejor las introducciones de los artículos de investigación, sino que también facilitará su redacción en su propio campo. palabras clave: introducciones de artículos, análisis de género, análisis de la citación. 1. introduction in today’s academic world, graduate students need to learn how to write about their research in english-medium international journals, since sharing their research with the international research community is as important as conducting research. by publishing their research in the form of academic articles, they enter an ongoing global conversation with other scholars in their field. as they are new to this academic genre, a good starting point for graduate students is learning to write article introductions, particularly because they are challenging in terms of the roles they serve as opening sections of articles. these introductions not only perform the multiple roles of providing topic information, engaging the readers and raising the credibility of the article through citations from works of other scholars (swales, 1981, 1990, 2004) but their generic and citation conventions may vary across different disciplines (hyland, 2000; samraj, 2005; charles, 2006; hu & wang, 2014), cultures (belcher, 1994; bloch & chi, 1995; pennycook, 1996; rowley-jolivet & carter-thomas, 2014; dontcheva-navratilova, 2015, 2016), languages (hirano, 2009; loi 2010) and contexts (i.e. national or international) of publications (hewings, lillis, & vladimirou, 2010; lillis et al., 2010). to help graduate students with these aspects of research writing, this article examines the rhetorical structure and citation conventions of article introductions in biological science articles. many studies have been conducted on the rhetorical structure of article introductions, different sections of research articles or entire articles in different disciplines. a majority of these studies have used swales’ (1981) move-structure pattern, which was later refined and renamed the create a research space (cars) model (1990, 2004). using this model as a starting point 124 for the rhetorical analysis of moves in article introductions, studies have either focused on specific disciplines such as agricultural and forestry engineering/science (hopkins, 1985; del saz rubio, 2011; joseph, lim, & nor, 2014), computer science/software engineering (hughes, 1989; anthony, 1999), education psychology (swales & najjar, 1987), electronics (cooper, 1985), and social science disciplines (lewin, fine, & young, 2001; ozturk, 2007; jalilifar, 2012) or a range of disciplines/sub-disciplines for a comparative analysis (swales, 1981; crookes, 1986; samraj, 2002, 2005; habibi, 2008; kanoksilapatham, 2012). yet other researchers extended swales’ generic framework to the analysis of entire research articles including biochemistry research (thompson, 1993; kanoksilapatham, 2005), computer science (posteguillo, 1999), linguistics/applied linguistics (yang & allison, 2003), engineering (peng, 1987; kanoksilapatham, 2015; maswana, kanamaru, & tajino, 2015) and medical science (nwogu, 1997) articles. the present study develops kanoksilapatham’s (2005) analysis of biochemistry articles by applying it to introductions of articles from various biological science journals. another area relevant to this study is the analysis of citations in article introductions. citations have been analyzed in published and student writing from different perspectives in the fields of gender studies (petrić, 2007), information science (white, 2004), linguistics/applied linguistics (swales, 1986, 1990; hyland, 1999; thompson, 2000; dontcheva-navratilova, 2015, 2016), science (mansourizadeh & ahmad, 2011), and sociology of language (bazerman, 1988), as well as across different fields (hyland, 1999; harwood, 2009; hu & wang, 2014). although different methodologies have been used for citation analysis by scholars in these fields, they agree that the role of citations in academic writing is, on the one hand, to acknowledge the work of colleagues, and, on the other, to raise the credibility of their own claims. at a general level, citation analysis can be based on the rhetorical functions of citations in a text (moravcsik & murugesan, 1975; petrić, 2007), formal criteria that focus on the linguistic realization of citations (swales, 1990) or a combination of both (thompson & tribble, 2001). other distinctions involve analyzing rhetorical functions of citations based on researchers’ intuitions (petrić, 2007) versus citers’ motivations (harwood, 2009), using different methodologies such as providing authors a list of pre-selected citation categories (brooks, 1985; shadish et al., 1995) or eliciting citation functions from authors in relation to their published articles (wang & white, 1999; harwood, 2009). more specifically, in the field of applied linguistics, generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 125 citation practice has been investigated from the perspective of cultural differences (belcher, 1994; bloch & chi, 1995; pennycook, 1996, dontcheva-navratilova, 2015, 2016), disciplinary variation (hyland, 2000) and differences among novice and expert writers (mansourizadeh & ahmad, 2011). from the review of studies above, it is apparent that there are many studies that focus on the rhetorical structure of research article introductions and citation analysis independently, but there are hardly any that combine these two aspects to examine the functions of citations in the context of generic moves in article introductions. therefore, the objective of this study is to overcome this research gap by examining both the rhetorical structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles, and specifically to determine the relationship between individual moves and citation functions in these introductions. the two research questions investigated are as follows: • what is the move structure and frequency in the article introductions of biological science articles in this study? • what are the functional categories of citations in the introductions of biological science articles and their relationship with moves/steps? the findings on the relationship between moves and citation types will reveal whether there is a preference for certain types of citations in specific parts of article introductions. pedagogically, this study will specifically benefit graduate students in biological science by familiarizing them with the typical generic and citation conventions of research articles in their field, and also contribute towards the field of english for specific academic purposes in general. 2. methodology the data for this study comprise 50 articles extracted from 10 journals in the field of biological science. the journals were selected from the top ten journals with the highest impact factors listed under three categories in thomson reuters’ journal citation reports: biochemistry and molecular biology, cell biology, and biotechnology and applied microbiology. these three subfields of biological sciences are closely related and as such there is substantial overlap in the journal listing under the three categories. for this study, ten specific sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148126 journals were selected from each of the three categories and five research articles were extracted from each of these journals for analysis. the journals included: cell, genome research, molecular psychiatry, molecular systems biology, nature medicine, nature biotechnology, metabolic engineering, genome biology, cancer cell, and cell stem cell. survey journals (often with titles beginning with “annual review of ”, “advances in”, “reviews in” and “trends in”) and survey articles were excluded from this study. care was also taken to include some journals from publishers other than nature publishing group and cell press, two very prominent publishers in biological sciences. the overall rhetorical structure of the research articles was dependent on the journals, with articles in two of the journals following the conventional imrad (introduction, methods, results and discussion) structure and in 8 of the journals following a modified irad-m (introduction, results, discussion and method) structure. the article introductions in the corpus varied in length ranging from 191 words to 1535 words. the articles were numbered and analysed from two perspectives, genre analysis and citation analysis, in order to determine the relationship between moves/steps and citation functions in different parts of the article introductions. the examples used in this article are numbered (e.g. b1) and their sources are provided in appendix a. the conceptual framework employed for these is presented in the sub-sections below. 2.1. framework for move analysis swales’ (1990, 2004) cars model has been extensively used by researchers to account for the rhetorical structure of article introductions in various fields. according to him, the 3-move model is motivated by the three main functions of article introductions: to convince readers about the significance of the research topic (move 1), to indicate that there is a niche or gap in past work that needs to be filled (move 2) and to show how that niche will be occupied through the present study (move 3). this model is presented in table 1: generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 127 this model has been refined further by several discourse analysts based on the analysis of article introductions in different disciplines. the adaptation that is particularly applicable to the present study is kanoksilapatham’s (2005) model as it was based on the analysis of 60 biochemistry research articles. as biochemistry articles belong to the bioscience discipline, the model was applied to this study’s corpus of biological science articles. although it was used as a starting point for this study, a few modifications were made to represent the rhetorical structure of the biological science articles in the present corpus after an initial analysis of 20 articles. a comparison between kanoksilapatham’s model and the modifications made to it in the present study is presented in table 2 below and followed by a justification for these changes: sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148128 moves steps move 1 establishing a territory step 1 claiming centrality and/or step 2 making topic generalization(s) and/or step 3 reviewing items of previous research move 2 establishing a niche step 1a counter-claiming or step 1b indicating a gap or step 1c question-raising or step 1d continuing a tradition move 3 occupying the niche step 1a outlining purposes or step 1b announcing present research step 2 announcing principal findings step 3 indicating ra structure table 1. swales’ (1990) cars model for article introductions. t kanoksilapatham’s model modifications move 1 announcing the importance of the field step 1 claiming the centrality of the topic step 2 making topic generalizations step 3 reviewing previous research move 1 introducing the field step 1 claiming centrality of the topic step 2 elaborating on the topic move 2 preparing for the present study step 1 indicating a gap step 2 raising a question move 2 preparing for the present study step 1 indicating a gap step 2 raising a question/issue step 3 extending the research move 3 introducing the present study step 1 stating purpose(s) step 2 describing procedures step 3 presenting findings move 3 introducing the present study step 1 stating purpose(s)/hypotheses step 2 describing procedures step 3 presenting findings step 4 highlighting the value of the study table 2. modifications to kanoksilapatham’s model. a ! p as can be seen from the above tables, kanoksilapatham modified swales’ (1990) model by renaming the moves and steps, deleting some of the steps (move 2 -steps 1a and 1d; move 3 – step 1b and step 3) and adding steps (move 3step 2 describing procedures). similarly, kanoksilapatham’s model was altered further to better account for the corpus in this study. the name of move 1 was changed to ‘introducing the field’ as shown in example 1, to better reflect the dual purpose of the opening move in article introductions – that of persuading readers of the importance of the field (move1-step 1) as well as providing them with relevant information on the topic of research (move1-step 2): (1) move 1 introducing the field: step1: heart failure (hf) is a devastating disease and a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. step 2: hf often follows myocardial infarction (mi) that is usually accompanied by a massive loss of cardiomyocytes (cms). these cms cannot be regenerated by the adult mammalian heart and cannot yet be replaced and/or regenerated via cellbased therapies. unfortunately, transplanting cms into an infarcted heart yields only transient and marginal benefits (burridge et al., 2012). (b8) in addition, steps 2 and 3 were combined and renamed ‘elaborating on the topic’, as the main goal seems to be to provide background information on the topic of the article through both cited and non-cited information, as is evident in (1). another reason for renaming step 3 ‘reviewing previous research’ is that it is misleading as citations are not only found in move 1 but are spread throughout the introduction (swales 1990: 140) and this is reflected in the modified version of the cars model (swales, 2004). proceeding to move 2-step 1 ‘indicating a gap’, its function is to create a research space for the current study in both frameworks as illustrated in (2): (2) move 2-step 1: indicating a gap cardiovascular progenitor cells (cpcs) may offer a promising avenue for cardiac-regenerative therapy ... unfortunately, although these committed cpcs might be more suitable for cardiac cell therapy in vivo, they have yet to be extensively expanded, thus significantly limiting their applications. (b8) however, move 2-step 3 ‘extending the research’ was reintroduced from swales’ model as a few distinct examples of this step were identified in the present corpus. example 3 illustrates how the authors mention their own preliminary research first and the current one as an extension of it: generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 129 (3) move 2-step 3: extending the research interestingly, our preliminary analysis of gaba+ [gamma-butyric acid] aging trend using the traditional mega-press [mega-point resolved spectroscopy sequence] method, showed a similar trend of age-related reduction of gaba levels in patients with schizophrenia.18 motivated by these prior observations, our study included an adequately powered sample to examine the schizophrenia diagnosis by age cohort effect on gaba concentration, and utilized a gaba assessment technique that removes the macromolecule contamination. (b27) some of the names of the steps in moves 2 and 3 were also expanded to account for alternative realizations of the steps in the form of questions and/or issues (examples 4a and 4b, move 2-step 2 raising a question/issue) and statement of purpose and/or hypothesis (example 5, move 3-step 1 stating purpose(s)/hypotheses): (4) move 2-step 2 raising a question/issue 4a. raising a question: however, this raises the question of whether microrna and protein cell fate determinants act independently or coordinate with each other to determine cell fate. (b6) 4b. raising an issue: although several fluorescent probes have been developed to study inflammasome activation in vitro10-12, their use for in vivo applications has remained challenging, lacking translation to singlecell resolution at the organ level10,12,13. (b44) (5) move 3-step 1 stating purpose(s)/hypotheses to address this, we employed mega-press with frequency selective pulses at 1.9 and 1.5 p.p.m.24 to assess macromolecule suppressed gaba in a cohort of participants with schizophrenia and psychiatrically healthy controls. we tested the hypothesis that older participants with schizophrenia would have lower anterior cingulate gaba levels compared with older control participants. we predicted that there would be no significant difference between younger participants with schizophrenia and controls. (b27) while the remaining steps in move 3 (examples 6 and 7) are the same as in kanoksilapatham’s model, step 4 ‘highlighting the value of the study’ (example 8) was added due to the moderately high percentage of this step (46%) in the corpus: (6) move 3-step 2 describing procedures we developed and utilized indigo [inferring drug interactions using sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148130 chemo-genomics and orthology] to analyze a large compendium of publicly available chemogenomic data in escherichia coli (nichols et al, 2011) to identify predictive genetic features of antibiotic synergy and antagonism, and subsequently infer novel drug interactions. (b33) (7) move 3-step 3 presenting findings by finding orthologs of genes identified by indigo to be predictive of drug interactions in e. coli, we successfully predicted drug synergy and antagonism in the bacterial pathogens mycobacterium tuberculosis and staphylococcus aureus. (b33) (8) move 3-step 4: highlighting the value of the study hence, the cell fate determinants provide a safeguard mechanism against excessive stem cell proliferation when normal homeostasis is disrupted by inflammation or oncogenic mutation. (b6) an important point to note about steps is that they can be realized independently or be conflated. in examples 6 and 7, steps 2 and 3 in move 3 are realized independently but they could be conflated, as shown in (9): (9) move 3-steps 2 and 3: combination of computational analysis and quantitative experiments revealed that the unique regulatory kinetics among mir-34a, numb, and notch enables a robust binary switch so that notch level is steady and insensitive to precise mir-34a level except for a sharp transition region. (b6) in the quantitative analysis of the corpus, both conflated and independent steps were included in the frequency count of the steps for all three moves. in other words, parts of sentences that served particular functions were counted as steps, even though they were not expressed in the form of independent sentences. an inter-coder reliability test was carried out by the second author on a sample of 15 articles. the percentage agreement and cohen’s kappa value for each step are given in table b1 in appendix b. cohen’s kappa measures the proportion of agreement after removing chance agreement between two coders. following cohen (1960), landis and koch (1977), and viera and garrett (2005), values of 0.21 to 0.40 were considered to represent fair agreement, 0.41 to 0.60 moderate agreement, and 0.61 to 0.80 substantial agreement. while most of the steps have a moderate to substantial agreement, move 2-step 2 raising a question/issue and move 3-step 2 describing procedures show fair agreement. as the differences were due to conflation of steps within and across moves, the issue was resolved by generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 131 considering these as embedded steps within sentences/clauses in the coding. 2.2. framework for citation analysis the citation analysis in this study is based on functional criteria although some contextual information is also provided on citation types using formal criteria. a combination of resources was employed to arrive at a comprehensive inventory of citations with specific functions. as a starting point, 19 functional types were collated, 8 from petrić’s (2007) text-based citation analysis of highand low-rated master’s thesis of second language writers on gender studies and 11 from harwood’s (2009) interview-based study of computer scientists and sociologists on citation use in their own articles. after taking into consideration the similar, different and overlapping categories, a list of categories was prepared and tested on 20 article introductions in the corpus. the term ‘attribution’ is not used as a category label in the present study, as attributing information for the sake of collegiality or to protect oneself is considered to be an overall function of all citations. the citation categories included in the present study and their definitions are provided below: 1. applying: this citation function is defined according to petrić (2007) as making connections between the cited authors’ and the writers’ works in terms of concepts, terminology and methodology. in the present study, this definition is extended to include both adoption of other authors’ works as well as adaptation of previous authors’ works. 2. associating: this citation function is the same as petrić’s (2007) ‘establishing links between sources’ and it highlights both similarities and differences between or among different citations. 3. building: the term is borrowed from harwood (2009) and used in the present study for all citations that contribute towards building knowledge on the topic of the article whether in terms of topic generalizations, elaborations or exemplifications. this term also encompasses what petrić (2007) refers to as ‘attribution’ and ‘exemplification’ in her study, with the former defined as information related to terminology, propositions or research activity and the latter as an example to illustrate the writer’s statement. 4. evaluating: this refers to petrić’s (2007) citation function of ‘evaluation’ that includes both negative and positive evaluation of other authors’ works. harwood (2009) uses the terms ‘credit’ (along with the use of evaluative adjectives) and ‘engaging’ to refer to these citations as they appear to involve both praise and criticism of others’ works. sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148132 5. signposting: this functional category is named after harwood’s (2009) category ‘signposting’ and petrić’s (2007) ‘further reference’, both of which serve the function of referring readers to other sources for further information on the topic, equations/algorithms or methodology. signposting citations serve three specific functions of helping less informed readers, keeping the argument on track and saving space (harwood, 2009). 6. supporting: this function is the same as harwood’s (2009) ‘supporting’ function in that information is cited from other sources to support and justify the writers’ topic of research, method/methodology and claims, especially when reader/reviewer objections are anticipated. examples from the corpus to illustrate each of these categories/subcategories along with article numbers (in round brackets) are provided in table 3. ‘none’ refers to sub-categories that were not found in the introductions of the present corpus. generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 133 category/sub-category example 1.! applying: adopting/adapting other authors’ works !! theory none (usually prevalent in the methods section of articles) !! terms/definitions none (usually prevalent in the methods section of articles) !! method to address this, we employed mega-press with frequency selective pulses at 1.9 and 1.5 p.p.m.24 to assess macromolecule suppressed gaba in a cohort of participants with schizophrenia and psychiatrically healthy controls. (b27) 2.! associating: establishing links between sources !! similarities interestingly, our preliminary analysis of gaba+ aging trend using the traditional mega-press method, showed a similar trend of age-related reduction of gaba levels in patients with schizophrenia.18 (b27) !! differences the inconsistency is reminiscent of earlier mrs [magnetic resonance sprectroscopy] findings in glutamate, although subsequent evidence suggests that glutamate was elevated in younger schizophrenia patients,20-22 but reduced in chronic, older patients.18,23 (b27) 3.! building: building topic knowledge by citing other authors !! topic generalisations gamma-butyric acid (gaba) is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain.1 (b27) !! topic elaborations gaba dysfunction has been implicated in the pathophysiology and cognitive deficits of schizophrenia, mainly based on post-mortem and preclinical research. 2,3 (b27) 4.! evaluating: evaluating other authors’ works !! positively such use of levothyroxine (l-t4) at supraphysiologic doses has offered promise in several open-label studies, including rapid cycling,6 prophylaxis-resistant bipolar patients7 and for patients with refractory unior bipolar depression.8 (b29) !! negatively the overall evidence from treatment trials in bipolar depression is sparse, and the role of antidepressants and their efficacy remains controversial.2-5 (b29) 5.! signposting: directing readers to other sources for more information !! topic n-terminal fragments of mutant htt protein interfere with gene transcription in the early stages of the disease process (reviewed in ref. 16). (b41) !! equations as a consequence, the translation efficiency (!"#$of each transcript (%"#$can be described by a constant (i.e. leading to the protein abundance: &" ' ()* !"$with + being the rate of growth in h"1 (klumpp et al, 2009)). (b32) the subcategories of ‘building’ were later collapsed and referred to as ‘topic elaborations’ as it was difficult to distinguish between general claims on a topic and their elaborations. moreover, the authors’ claims were not always extracted from other sources as shown in (10): (10) topic generalization: adult tissues are maintained and constantly regenerated by the activity of tissue-specific multipotent stem cells. topic elaboration: this reservoir is periodically activated and compensates for cell loss and tissue damage, while preserving the stem cell pool (barker et al., 2010) (b7) for the sake of economy, two of the sub-categories of ‘supporting’ key findings and explaining findings were also combined as they are both related to the results of a study. as for the sub-categories of ‘applyingtheory and terms/definitions’, they were not present in the corpus since they usually appear in other sections of a research article such as the methods section (petrić, 2007). the functional category ‘tyingsimilarities/differences’ is not included in this study of article introductions because it is more relevant for the results and discussion section of articles when comparing the findings of one’s own study to that of other studies (petrić, 2007; mansourizadeh & ahmad, 2011). all the citation functions obtained substantial inter-coder agreements of over 80% while ‘evaluating’ obtained moderate agreement at 67%. as sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148134 ! $ $ $ !! method one common approach to this is to rank stretches of sequence by their phylogenetic conservation [7]. (b15) !! results by improving the sequencing and data analysis processes, we were able to sequence the cfdna [cell-free dna] of the 15 crpc [castration-resistant] patients that were previously excluded due to low yield of dna in their plasma samples, to validate all of the mutations reported in our previous work [25] and to identify new candidate mutations. (b14) 6.! supporting: justifying by citing other authors !! topic significance human induced pluripotent stem cells (ipscs) constitute a promising tool for investigating the underlying pathophysiology of traditionally challenging neurodevelopmental disorders.13 (b26) !! method we have demonstrated the utility of ipscs to investigate the functional consequences of mecp2 [methyl-cpg-binding ptotein-2] loss of function.14,15 (b26) !! key findings several studies in transgenic mice, overexpressing mecp2, have shown a progressive neurological phenotype, including tremor, gait ataxia, seizures, anxiety, abnormal learning and behavior, and early death, recapitulating some aspects of the human disease.6-9 (b26) !! explaining findings and cyanobacteria which was chosen as a chassis in our study can convert co2 and solar energy into organic compounds through oxygenic photosynthesis with an efficiency higher than that of terrestrial plants (zhou et al., 2014b). (b22) table 3. examples of citations based on their functions. ! t previously mentioned, values of 0.61 to 0.80 represent substantial agreement and 0.41 to 0.60 represent moderate agreement. please refer to table b2 in appendix b for the percentage agreement and cohen’s kappa value for the analysis of citation functions. the discrepancies in coding the negative and positive evaluation functions in citations were resolved by re-examining the identification criteria comprising a set of linguistic markers denoting praise and criticism (for example, positive evaluation is signalled by the word ‘promise’ and negative evaluation by the words ‘sparse’ and ‘controversial’ in table 3, item #4). in this study, the citation functions identified are deduced through a text analysis rather than interviews with authors to account for their motivations/intentions for using particular citation types. although the latter method is insightful, it could not be adopted here because the overall aim was to identify trends in move and citation practice as well as move-citation relationship in articles introductions. to achieve this aim, it was important to extract a reasonably large number of articles from authentic and wellestablished journals in the field of bioscience. the final stage of the analysis involved investigating the interaction between moves/steps and citation types most frequently found in the different parts of article introductions. the citation types used with most frequency in the three moves and the reasons for their frequency were identified. the analysis showed that there is in fact a match between the rhetorical structure of article introductions and citation functions in the specific moves/steps. the findings are presented and discussed at length in the next section. 3. results and discussion the findings of the genre analysis and citation analysis of bioscience article introductions are reported in this section along with a discussion about the frequency of citation types across different moves/steps. 3.1. genre analysis of article introductions the role of introductions in any research article, according to swales (1990, 2004), is to re-establish the significance of the study, place it in the context of past research and show how it will overcome existing knowledge gaps. the move/step analysis of the 50 articles in the corpus showed that all three generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 135 moves are included in the introductions of all the articles irrespective of their length. this rhetorical analysis conforms to swales’ analysis of article introductions with regard to the presence and sequence of moves. however, the frequency of the steps is varied (see table 4). move 1 serves the dual function of promoting the topic of research (step 1) and providing adequate information on it (step 2). as both functions are equally important, the frequency of both steps is very high, at 88% and 100% respectively. not only do authors have to compete with other researchers for readership but they also have to ensure that, once they have convinced readers of the significance of their research, they need to keep their attention by giving them all the necessary information related to their topic. in accordance with swales’ (2004) modified version of the cars model, step 3 ‘reviewing items of previous research’ was omitted in our analysis as it was observed that citations are not concentrated in one place but are spread in different parts of the introduction. in comparison to kanoksilapatham’s (2005) analysis of biochemistry research articles, the 100% frequency count of moves 1 and 3 of the introduction is similar, but in her analysis move 2 only has a frequency of 67%. this shows that there could be variations in the rhetorical structure of bioscience articles depending upon their sub-discipline. in move 2, the main function is to convince readers of the motivation for the research. there are three specific ways of achieving this – by indicating that there is a gap in past research (step 1), raising questions or issues related to past research (step 2) and/or by stating that past research needs to be extended in some way (step 3). in terms of frequency, step 1 seems to be sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148136 3 3 move frequency steps frequency move 1 introducing the field 50 100% step 1 – claiming centrality of the topic 44 88% step 2 – elaborating on the topic 50 100% move 2 preparing for the present study 50 100% step 1 – indicating a gap 29 58% step 2 – raising a question/issue 1 2% step 3 – extending the research 4 8% combining steps 16 32% move 3 introducing the present study 50 100% step 1 – stating purpose(s)/hypotheses 50 100% step 2 – describing procedures 40 80% step 3 – presenting findings 32 64% step 4 – highlighting the value of the study 23 46% table 4. frequency of moves and steps. m the preferred way of achieving this in the corpus (58%), followed by combining the steps (32%), whereas the individual realization of the other steps (steps 2 and 3) is least preferred (10%). similar to kanoksilapatham’s (2005) findings, it was observed that this move is most frequently realized in biological science articles through step 1 rather than through the other alternatives. as for move 3, the main function seems to be to occupy the niche that has been created in the previous move. therefore, the step that is most crucial at this stage is stating the aim of the study in the form of purpose statements, research questions or hypotheses (step 1). among the four steps, step 1 has the highest frequency at 100% with step 2 ‘describing procedures’ (80%), step 3 ‘presenting findings’ (64%), and step 4 ‘highlighting the value of the study’ (46%) appearing in declining frequencies. step 2 probably has a high frequency of occurrence to give readers key information on methodology at the outset, as the method section is usually postponed to the end in biological science articles rather than following the conventional imrad sequence (introduction, methods, results and discussion). in the sample, articles extracted from 8 of the 10 journals have a delayed methods section. however, even the 10 journal articles that follow the conventional imrad structure seem to have this step in their introductions, following the conventional structure of introductions in the discipline. another interesting observation was that 5 out of the 10 article introductions that omit this step are from the same journal (i.e. cancer cell), indicating that authors could be influenced by journal conventions based on their reading of sample articles. as for step 3, it appears that it is more likely to be present in hard science articles such as physics (swales & najjar, 1987) and biochemistry (kanoksilapatham, 2005), than in social science articles. according to these authors (swales & najjar, 1987; kanoksilapatham, 2005), only the principal findings are announced in the introduction as a teaser to the more detailed information in the results section. in biological science articles, it appears that the authors attempt to provide a preview of not only the results but of the entire article by means of move 3 in their introductions. to determine whether the presence or absence of moves/steps in the introduction could be influenced by the instructions to authors, a review was conducted of the 10 journal websites from which data were extracted for this study. it was found that these documents only provide general guidelines on the structure of articles, without elaborating on the rhetorical structure of article introductions. generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 137 3.2. citation analysis in article introductions the citations in this study were analyzed according to functional categories and according to their interaction with moves and steps in article introductions. the total number of citations in the article introductions of 50 articles were 699 (in 3,338 words), with the largest number of 481 in move 1, followed by 186 in move 2 and the smallest number of 32 in move 3. past research (thompson, 2005; mansourizadeh & ahmad, 2011) has shown that citation density is high in the introduction of articles when compared to the other sections, since writers need to position their articles in the related research context, review relevant past literature and highlight the gap in past research. as for citation types, it has been documented that non-integral citations are predominantly used in hard disciplines because writers place more emphasis on the message rather than on authors to show objectivity and to avoid interruptions in the flow of their arguments (hyland, 1999, 2000; thompson, 2005; hewings et al., 2010). although biological science articles in this study tend to use both the name-year (60%) and numbered (40%) style format depending upon journal preferences, the citation analysis showed that only 2% of the citations are integral citations, whereas the remaining 98% are non-integral. this confirms hyland’s (1999, 2000) findings that non-integral citations are prominently used in the hard sciences because the focus is on conveying ideas objectively as opposed to singling out authors who propose them. apart from objectivity, hewings et al. (2010) point out that non-integral citations enable writers to provide an uninterrupted flow in their arguments. the propensity of non-integral citations could also be due to the choice of journals, most of which fall under the molecular biology category. comparison with articles from other sub-disciplines of biology may reveal differences that are worth exploring. furthermore, a comparison between citation forms revealed that there is a propensity for paraphrasing in biological science articles, especially in molecular biology articles. with the exception of one direct quote citation, all the other citations in the present corpus were paraphrases of information from other sources. in dubois’ study (1988), biomedical scientists confirmed that extended quotations are rarely used in biomedical science articles and are only restricted to phrases and terms that belong to the public domain of science. the functional analysis of citations shows that their concentration and functions vary across moves in article introductions. in the present corpus, sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148138 move 1 has the largest number of citations (68%), with less than half this amount in move 2 (27%) and the least in move 3 (6%). the distribution of citations also varies according to functions, although with some degree of overlap (see table 8). tables 5-7 present the distribution frequency of citations according to their functions in the three moves. the density of citations in move 1 is the highest at 68% and correspondingly, it has a spread of citations with 5 different functions, as shown in table 5. the top 2 citation functions of supporting (31%) and building (52%) in move 1 correlate with the rhetorical functions of step 1 (claiming the centrality of the topic) and step 2 (elaborating on the topic). the supporting citations are mainly the ‘topic significance’ sub-type in step 1 but ‘key findings’ in step 2. as for the building citations, their main function is to offer information from various sources to build on the readers’ topic knowledge and provide them sufficient background knowledge to contextualize and understand the article. in move 2, the predominant citation functions are those of supporting (33%), evaluating (32%) and building (25%), as can be seen in table 6. in this move, evaluating citations usually appear after the building (i.e. information elaboration) and supporting (i.e. key findings of other studies) citations, because authors usually review past literature on the topic before evaluating it negatively in support of the move’s function of highlighting a gap in past research, as in (11): (11) building: thus, the term mds/aml [myelodysplastic syndromes/acute myeloid leukemia] is often used to describe a biological continuum in leukemia pathogenesis (cazzola et al., 2013; kreso and dick, 2014). evaluating (negative): however, the molecular basis of mds to aml generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 139 citation function step 1: claiming centrality of the topic step 2: elaborating on the topic total % associating – 18 18 4% building – 251 251 52% evaluating 1 41 42 9% signposting – 21 21 4% supporting 45 104 149 31% total 46 435 481 100% table 5. functions of citations in move 1. t ( ! t transition remains poorly understood (bejar and steensma, 2014; larsson et al., 2013; zhang et al., 2015), underscoring the need to better understand the specific pathways responsible for disease initiation and progression. (b1) the analysis revealed that the majority (83%) of the evaluation citations (i.e. 49 out of 59) are indeed negative in move 2 of the introduction. although there are some positive evaluations (17%), they usually precede the negative evaluations, either as a buffer or as contrast in praise-criticism pairs (example 12), a juxtapositioning strategy that is also mentioned in petrić (2007): (12) evaluating (positive): interestingly, the presence of tils [tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes] has been previously shown to correlate with better patient outcomes during various antitumor therapies in multitude of cancers (galon et al., 2006; hwang et al., 2012; mahmoud et al., 2011). evaluating (negative): however, it is commonly known that the tumor microenvironment often inhibits activated t cells from entering tumor tissues or prevents effective t cell priming for tumor control through various pathways (gajewski et al., 2013). (b5) as for the match between move and citation functions, this strategy of critiquing previous work via citations is consistent with the move function of preparing the ground for the present study. move 3 has very few citations (6%) because in this part of the introduction the authors usually introduce their own work in response to the gap that has been created in the previous move. they provide a preview of their article by elaborating on the purpose, method, results and significance of their study. as in other moves, the citations are specifically related to these rhetorical functions (see table 7), with signposting citations mainly justifying sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148140 ! citation function step 1: indicating a gap step 2: raising a question/issue step 3: extending the research total % associating 10 1 – 11 6% building 40 3 4 47 25% evaluating 54 – 5 59 32% signposting 5 – 2 7 4% supporting 29 3 30 62 33% total 138 7 41 186 100% table 6. functions of citations in move 2. ! s ! s the methods used (example 13, step 2) and supporting citations highlighting or explaining key findings of other studies (example 14, step 3): (13) move 3 introducing the present study-step 2 describing procedures signposting: for the protein domain division, we annotate each gene’s protein domains based on the conserved domain database (cdd) [6], a collection of conserved domain sequences. (b15) (14) move 3 introducing the present study-step 3 presenting findings supporting: based on the strong evidence supporting gabaergic function in working memory,2,25 we predicted that gaba level would specifically relate to working memory compared with other clinical, cognitive and functional measures. (b27) the citation functions and their frequency across different moves in the introductions are presented in table 8. the overall findings reveal that the most predominant citations in article introductions are building (43%) and supporting (32%) citations in keeping with the main role of these introductions, which is to prepare readers for the article and to raise its credibility. similarly, the distribution of citations across moves shows that building (84%) and supporting (68%) citations are also generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 141 citation function step 1: stating purpose(s) /hypotheses step 2: describing procedures step 3: presenting findings step 4: highlighting the value of the study total % applying – 3 – – 3 9% signposting – 12 1 3 16 50% supporting 1 4 4 – 9 28% others 1 3 – – 4 13% total 2 22 5 3 32 100% table 7. functions of citations in move 3. t 4 citation function move 1 move 2 move 3 total building 84% 16% – 42.6% supporting 68% 28% 4% 31.5% evaluating 42% 58% – 14.4% signposting 46% 16% 38% 6.3% others 50% 31% 19% 5.2% total 67.7% 26.6% 5.7% 100% table 8. citation functions across moves/steps. 4 most predominant in move 1 to support the move’s functions of boosting topic centrality (step 1) and topic knowledge (step 2). as for evaluating citations, the trend seems to be to evaluate other studies positively in move 1 (78% of the positive evaluations across moves) but negatively in move 2 (88% of the negative evaluations across moves), supporting the opposing functions of the two moves – those of building topic knowledge and showing a gap in past research, respectively. signposting citations are important in move 1-step 2 (46%) and move 3-step 3 (38%) in order to economize on length of topic elaborations in the former move and methodological information in the latter. the distribution of the citations with different functions across moves provides concrete evidence that there is a close relationship between rhetorical functions of moves and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles in the corpus. 4. conclusion this study was motivated by our work with science phd students in a graduate english course, in response to questions related to research paper writing in their disciplines. the focus of this study was on examining the relationship between rhetorical moves and citation functions in biological science article introductions, as there is a dearth of studies that specifically examine the interaction between these two aspects of writing in academic articles. the findings show that there is indeed a one-to-one relationship between moves/steps and citations, although some functions cut across moves and steps. the study has direct implications for designing english for specific academic purposes courses, especially for graduate students. not only are these students required to write dissertations but they are also expected to publish journal articles in their fields during their candidature. in fact, most universities nowadays provide these students an option of submitting dissertations that are a compilation of published articles. therefore, raising their awareness of both rhetorical structure and citation use in article introductions, as well as across different sections of articles would be beneficial for writing dissertations and journal articles. as the focus of this article is only on article introductions of biological science articles, the interaction between moves and citations needs to be examined in other sections of the article and extended across other disciplines, because there could be disciplinary variations across fields. future work could also build a database of typical moves, citations and linguistic features for novice sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148142 researchers in different fields. other aspects that could be explored include citation density, citation integration and sources of citations in research articles within and across disciplines. for a holistic account of move and citation practice, it is also recommended that the text analysis carried out in this study be supplemented by a questionnaire survey or interview of authors to gain insight into their move and citation practice motivations. acknowledgements this article is an outcome of a project entitled ‘evidence-based teaching of literature review writing’, funded by the singapore ministry of education, tertiary education research fund (grant no. moe2015-1-tr05). article history: received 07 january 2019 received in revised form 25 march 2020 accepted 30 april 2020 references generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 143 anthony, l. 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(2016). nature medicine 22,1: 64-71. url: http://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4016 appendix b sujata s. kathpalia & christopher s. g. khoo ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148146 move and steps percentage agreement cohen’s kappa move 1 introducing the field step 1 claiming centrality of the topic 0.87 0.44 step 2 elaborating on the topic 1.00 move 2 preparing for the present study step 1 indicating a gap 0.80 0.55 step 2 raising a question/issue 0.40 0.12 step 3 extending the research 0.80 0.33 move 3 introducing the present study step 1 stating purpose(s)/hypotheses 0.93 * step 2 describing procedures 0.67 0.40 step 3 presenting the findings 0.93 0.86 step 4 highlighting the value of the study 0.93 0.86 *this step is almost always present. table b1. results of inter-coder reliability test for step analysis. generic structure and citation functions in introductions of biological science articles ibérica 40 (2020): 123-148 147 citation function percentage agreement cohen’s kappa applying – * – associating 0.80 0.47 building 0.87 0.44 evaluating 0.67 0.33 signposting 0.93 0.63 supporting 0.80 – ** tying – * – *this citation function was not found in any introduction section in the sample. **the second coder identified this citation function in every article. table b2. results of inter-coder reliability test for analysis of citation functions. iberica 13 ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.45.317 abstract although theory and research on english for academic purposes (eap) practitioners have grown recently, there is little documented research on their emotions and identities. this study explored the emotions of 12 iranian eap practitioners and the associated role in their identity construction. adopting a narrative inquiry methodology, the study examined the practitioners’ emotions across the zembylas’s (2002) three-dimensional framework of teacher emotions and their role in the practitioners’ identity construction. data analyses revealed that while the practitioners consider recognition from students as contributive to their positive emotions and identities, sociocultural-ideological discourses and power relations negatively influence their emotions and identities. such idiosyncrasies were viewed to create huge dissonances between the practitioners’ identity and their professional sense-making at personal, interpersonal, and macro-structural levels. the study offers implications regarding eap practitioners’ emotions and identities situated within sociocultural localities of eap instruction. keywords: english for academic purposes, eap practitioners, teacher emotions, teacher identity construction, narrative inquiry. resumen “ m uc h o s d e n o so tr o s no n o s s en t im o s b ie n” : e x pl o r an do l as e m o c i o ne s e id e nt id ad es d e l o s p r o f e si o n al es i ra ní e s d el i ng l é s c o n f i ne s a ca dé m i co s aunque tanto la teoría como la investigación en torno a los profesionales del inglés con fines académicos (english for academic pur poses: eap) han “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari golestan university (iran), mazandaran university of medical sciences (iran) & kharazmi university (iran) a.derakhshan@gu.ac.ir, sedighehkarimpour1367@yahoo.com, mostafanazari136969@gmail.com 317 ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari experimentado recientemente un importante crecimiento, hay poca investigación documentada sobre sus emociones e identidades. el presente estudio explora las emociones de 12 profesionales iraníes de eap y su papel en la construcción de su identidad. con base en la metodología de investigación narrativa, el estudio analiza las emociones de los profesionales a través del marco tridimensional de zembylas (2002) de las emociones de los profesores y su papel en la construcción de la identidad de los profesionales. el análisis de los datos evidencia que, si bien los profesionales consideran que el reconocimiento de los estudiantes contribuye a sus emociones e identidades positivas, los discursos socioculturales-ideológicos y las relaciones de poder influyen de forma negativa en sus emociones e identidades. estas idiosincrasias se interpretan como elementos que crean grandes disonancias entre la identidad de los profesionales y su percepción profesional a nivel personal, interpersonal y macroestructural. el estudio tiene en cuenta las implicaciones con respecto a las emociones e identidades de los profesionales de eap situadas dentro de los contextos socioculturales de enseñanza de eap. palabras clave: inglés con fines académicos, profesionales de eap, emociones de los profesores, construcción de la identidad docente, investigación narrativa. 1. introduction the professionalism of english for academic purposes (eap) practitioners has gained increasing attention over the past decade (e.g., atai et al., 2022; campion, 2016; ding, 2019; ding & campion, 2016). in response to this growing recognition, research has addressed various aspects of eap practitioners’ professionalism, including cognitions, practices, identities, and professional development (for relevant reviews, see basturkmen, 2014; nazari, 2020). a significant part of eap practitioners’ work is their professional responsibilities, engagement with contextual localities, and responding to socio-educational needs, all of which contribute to their developing identities (tao & gao, 2018). in light of such contextual idiosyncrasies, eap practitioners construct identities that guide their cognitions, practices, and sense of professionalism, and situate their work within a larger sphere of sociocultural particularities of eap instruction (ding, 2019; ding & campion, 2016; nguyen, 2019). in his work on eap practitioner identity, ding (2019) elaborates on three forces shaping practitioner identity development, encompassing social (sociocultural), structural (institutional), and disciplinary (internal tensions of 318 eap) dimensions. ding further argues for examining the “conditions and materiality that govern what [eap practitioners] can realistically achieve or would like to achieve” (p. 70). the above three aspects and the centrality of contextual discourses of eap instruction have also been emphasized by tao and gao (2018) in shaping practitioners’ developing identities, and especially by atai et al. (2018) in the context of iran. given the significant role of such contextual understandings in shaping identities, there is a need for further research on eap practitioners’ identity construction. moreover, considering the fundamental role of emotions in teachers’ identities (e.g., benesch, 2020; fairley, 2020) and the multifaceted nature of eap practitioners’ work (basturkmen, 2014), the emotional side of their professionalism merits further attention. the present study aims to fill this gap and explores iranian eap practitioners’ emotions (i.e., how internal feelings are constructed in light of personal and contextual characteristics) and their role in practitioner identity construction (i.e., how eap teachers view the role of emotional particularities in their self-perceptions) in light of zembylas’s (2002) threedimensional framework of teacher emotions. in pursuing this goal, we will discuss how the study unpacks the particularities of eap teaching in iran in terms of the role of personal, institutional, and sociocultural issues in eap teachers’ professional practice. by focusing on these three dimensions of emotions, we will show how eap teaching is shaped by sociocultural and disciplinary considerations, which provides an overall understanding of the emotional process eap teachers go through in terms of their identity and agency. such an exploration also offers implications for eap teachers in other contexts in showing how context figures as a significant factor in their emotions and identity construction, especially in a context like iran. these findings hold the potential to offer original contributions for the international eap scholarship and help eap teachers and teacher educators to come to a better understanding of eap teachers’ emotions and identities, and the range of factors shaping their professionalism. 2. literature review 2.1. english language teacher identity and emotions over the past two decades, research on language teacher identity (lti) construction has grown exponentially (derakhshan & nazari, 2022a, 2022b; “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 319 mehdizadeh et al., 2023, nazari et al., 2023a, 2023b). the reason for such augmented attention is that language teachers are no longer viewed as mere content deliverers, but as individuals who develop personalized sensemakings in the process of becoming teachers in response to contextual definitions of language teaching (e.g., kanno & stuart, 2011; kayi-aydar, 2019; nazari & karimpour, 2022; pennington & richards, 2016; yazan & lindahl, 2020). for example, eslamdoost et al. (2020) report on the religious beliefs iranian teachers hold, especially their appearance, which define their positioning in relation to institutional identities and participants. similar findings have been reported by ding and de costa (2018) in the context of china in how faith comes to (re)shape an experienced teacher’s defined and adopted identities. attention to identity construction has also been reflected in scholarship on eap practitioners. in a study on chinese eap practitioners, tao and gao (2018) examined eight chinese practitioners’ identities through life-history interviews. the researchers developed a model of eap teacher identities, which involved three components of socio-economic dimensions, institutional contributors, and professional development work experience, which appeared to be associated with special bearings for the positive and negative emotions that eap tachers could experience. in another study, atai, babaii and lotfi gaskaree (2018) examined nine iranian eap practitioners’ professional identities through life-history interviews and philosophy statements. data analyses revealed eight identities for teachers defined by their role as “creators and users of learning opportunities; teachers as selectors and users of teaching/learning materials; teachers as assessors and evaluators; teachers as researchers; teachers as realizers of and facilitators of the development of learners’ (full) potentials; teachers as observers of ethicality; teachers as learners; and, teachers as teacher educators” (p. 104). given the significant role of emotions in teachers’ identities (e.g., benesch, 2020; derakhshan & nazari, 2022b; fairley, 2020; wang et al., 2021) and the multifaceted nature of eap practitioners’ work (atai et al., 2018; basturkmen, 2014), the emotional side of their professionalism has received scant attention. a key constituent of teacher identities is emotions, to the extent that “teacher identity is at bottom affective and is dependent upon power and agency” (zembylas, 2003, p. 214). in light of the social turn in applied linguistics, research on the connection between language teachers’ emotions and identities has gained a surge of attention (de costa et al., 2018; fairley, ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344320 2020; mehdizadeh et al., 2023; nazari et al., 2023a; nazari & karimpour, 2022). for example, li (2020) examined the interplay between beliefs, emotions, and identities of two chinese teachers by relying on barcelos’ (2015) call for the integrated examination of identity construction as guided by emotions and beliefs. the analysis of the teachers’ narratives indicated the connection between beliefs and emotions, and their impacts on the teachers’ identity construction. moreover, the study highlights the significant role of localities of teaching in the teachers’ developing identities. 2.2. theoretical framework the definition of emotions and identity construction in the present study captures a range of personal, institutional, and sociocultural dimensions in the connection between emotion and identity (benesch, 2017; zembylas, 2003). the study is theoretically informed by zembylas’s (2002) threedimensional framework of teacher emotions that captures the internalexternal shperes and manifestations of emotions, which are considered as sticky objects attached to the identity web teachers (re)construct in light of their historicity and professional membership (benesch, 2017). the framework has three components: intrapersonal (personal), interpersonal (institutional), and intergroup (sociocultural) levels. these three levels capture teachers’ personal emotional sense-making, how institutional membership contributes to their emotions, and how macro-level societal discourses and power relations contribute to teachers’ emotions and identities (benesch, 2017, 2020). considering that eap practitioners’ identity construction is in constant synergy with social, structural, and disciplinary complexities of eap instruction (ding, 2019), zembylas’ (2002) framework can effectively portray how iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities are shaped in light of particularities of teaching. specifically, the framework could be effective in examining eap practitioners’ emotions and identities for three reasons. the first reason seems to lie in eap practitioners’ professional identities in relation to their roles. in this vein, dudley-evans and st john (1998) proposed five roles for esp teachers, including teacher, course designer and materials provider, collaborator, researcher, and evaluator, which are likely to add to the complexities eap teachers could face in constructing their identities and the emotions they experience. moreover, atai et al. (2018) discuss the narrative of an eap practitioner, diba, whose comments mirror the significance of attending to students’ emotions in “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 321 shaping practitioners’ professional identities including commitment and sense of responsibility and contentment. eap practitioners’ professional roles can, thus, be accompanied by emotional labor relative to each of these five roles. second, given that eap practitioners’ educational background does not necessarily involve developing content expertise (e.g., ding & campion, 2016), those who move to the eap context are quite likely to experience various emotions that in turn shape their identities. for example, chang (2017) reports on the identity transition of an eap practitioner, rachel, whose transition to esp instruction was accompanied by multiple emotional conflicts such as being overwhelmed, feeling ill-prepared, and feeling anxious, which collectively made her struggle in developing adaptability to her new professional identity. moreover, changing the context of teaching was one of the major reasons for which the general english teachers in song’s (2016) study experienced vulnerability. third, as there are no systematic eap teacher education programs in iran (atai & nejadghanbar, 2017; tavakoli & tavakol, 2018), iranian eap practitioners may experience high emotional labor, which can negatively influence their developing identities. research has indicated that iranian eap practitioners experience emotional challenges that negatively affect their professionalism, such as isolation, lack of contentment, and lack of professional support (e.g., atai et al., 2018; estaji & rahimi, 2014; tavakoli & tavakol, 2018). in addition, zembylas’ framework fits well with ding’s (2019) tripartite conceptualization of the factors shaping eap teachers’ identities in terms of sociocultural, institutional, and personal dimensions shaping eap teachers’ identity, and here specifically with a focus on their emotions. 2.3. purpose of the study despite the recent growth of attention to eap practitioners, there is little systematic research on their emotions and identity construction. additionally, the lack of adequate empirical, practical, and institutional attention to eap practitioners in iran “has resulted in a fuzzy state in which teachers basically follow their own tentative conceptualizations of the nature of eap instruction” (atai & nejadghanbar, 2017, p. 44). moreover, in the same context, estaji and rahimi (2014) examined resilience among eap practitioners. their results showed that resilience featured as a substantial factor in the practitioners’ self-perceptions and was linked to socioculturaleducational idiosyncrasies that define eap teaching in iran. furthermore, ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344322 kaivanpanah et al. (2021) found that iranian eap practitioners face multiple challenges, especially “low motivation for and fear of eap” of students, which complicate the practitioners’ effective instruction (p. 7). such challenges were also highlighted in tavakoli and tavakol’s (2018) study in that the iranian practitioners argued that “teacher bashing and humiliation are the worst parts of eap courses” (p. 34). as this body of knowledge indicates, the iranian context poses multiple emotional conflicts that influence eap practitioners’ identities. however, there is little systematic research on how practitioners perceive their emotions and identities in this context, and how emotions interact with contextual idiosyncrasies to shape the practitioners’ identities. more specifically, although the literature reports on the emotions eap teachers experience, emotions and identity – two key factors shaping (eap) teachers’ professional practice – have not been studied in the scholarship on eap teachers’ professionalism. the present study aims to begin to fill this gap in the knowledge base of eap teacher education by addressing the following question: how do iranian eap practitioners’ intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup emotions shape their professional identities? 3. method 3.1. background the present study was conducted in iran where eap instruction is provided with the aim of preparing and assisting university students to communicate effectively in order to fulfill their academic and professional needs (atai & nejadghanbar, 2017). by focusing on specialized texts, eap courses aim to assist university students to become prepared for the range of issues they encounter in their future workplace (iranmehr et al. 2018). as a major part of the curricula, university students in iran are demanded to pass three obligatory courses planned by the ministry of science, research, and technology (msrt). policy, planning, and evaluation have also changed over the years in light of governmental shifts. one such change relates to oscillations in university matriculation in that over the past decade, a greater number of students have entered higher education through private universities. such universities are more lenient in student entrance and their prime criterion for student acceptance is the economic adequacy of candidates. “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 323 another change relates to the way instructors are evaluated. formerly, the instructors were primarily evaluated based on the type and number of classes. however, a shift of focus has occurred in which, as iranmehr et al. (2018) and tavakoli and tavakol (2018) put it, quality is gauged against the benchmark of contributions to the educational system, particularly publications. this issue has also created a competitive culture in that, according to tavakoli and tavakol (2018), little use is made of scholarly publications and a disorganized collection of publications is garnered. this issue has created an increasingly competitive space with little funding available, with instructors aiming for immediately completing the projects, and obtaining the funds as soon as possible. however, it must be acknowledged that such a culture exists due to the economic problems of the instructors and their low salaries (soodmand afshar & movassagh, 2016), which could negatively influence practitioners’ developing identities, as also reported in tao and gao (2018). 3.2. participants data for this study were collected from 12 eap practitioners who taught eap courses at different universities in iran. their age ranged from 34 to 38 years and their experience in teaching eap courses ranged from 8 to 12 years. all the instructors (seven males and five females) were phd holders of applied linguistics except one who majored in english literature, but they were teaching students taking content courses (e.g., medical courses, nursing, and dentistry) due to their professional expertise in the english language. we selected the instructors through convenience and snowball sampling techniques. table 1 details the profile of the participants.. thus, the participants of the study were english teachers who taught technical english to students of content areas (see kaivanpanah et al., 2021). moreover, the approval of the participants was obtained before starting the data collection and they were assured that ethical considerations of maintaining their anonymity would be strictly observed to avoid subsequent repercussions. 3.3. design and data collection the study was methodologically informed by the narrative inquiry as it helps obtain a detailed understanding of teachers’ historicity and present functioning (barkhuizen, 2016), which is suitable for exploring eap practitioners’ intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup emotions. ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344324 narrative inquiry has been adopted as a rigorous methodology in examining language teachers’ present emotions and previous emotional experiences (e.g., golombek & doran, 2014; song, 2016). in line with the theoretical framework of the study, two research methods were used: written questionnaires and narrative frames. wr i t te n q ue st i o nn ai r es : in order to gain insight into the practitioners’ emotions and identities, we designed a written questionnaire to be completed by the practitioners. the questions were informed by the literature on eap practitioner identities (atai et al., 2018; tao & gao, 2018) and teacher emotions (zembylas, 2002). the questionnaire involved queries about the practitioners’ self-understanding, benefits and challenges of eap and their association with emotions/identities, the frequent emotions they experience as eap practitioners, and eap-related aspects that influence their emotions and identities most (appendix a). it also expanded on the teachers’ narrative frames (see below) to gain a more detailed understanding of their emotions and identity construction. due to the covid-19 pandemic, we forwarded the questionnaire to the practitioners and they completed it on their own. thus, we consulted the practitioners and arranged the details of the questionnaire protocol. the practitioners could respond to the questions either in persian (l1) or english. they could also either write or audiorecord their answers. all of the practitioners wrote their responses to the questions in english. n ar r a ti v e f r a m es : in order to expand on the data from the questionnaire, we designed a narrative frame to elicit the practitioners’ responses in greater depth. the rigor of narrative frames lies in the point that they “provide guidance and support in terms of both the structure and content of what is to be written” (barkhuizen & wette, 2008, p. 376). this characteristic could prompt the practitioners’ recollection of their emotional experiences, and help with capturing the heterogeneity of their identities (ding & campion, 2016). the focus of the narrative frames was on the practitioners’ emotional experiences and contributions to their identity construction. along these lines, we examined the most positive and negative emotional experiences of the practitioners, which could root in various personal, professional, and sociocultural resonances (zembylas, 2003). in line with ding (2019) and zembylas’ (2002) framework, the teachers were asked to share an emotional experience that could relate to personal, institutional, and sociocultural issues of teaching eap in iran, although they could share more than one narrative. “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 325 3.4. researcher positionality regarding the significance of the researcher’s role in qualitative research (creswell, 2014), the researchers played different roles across different stages of the study. the first researcher collaborated in writing different parts of the paper and conceptualizing different sections. the second researcher collected the data. the third researcher wrote different parts of the paper. after collecting the data, the researchers read the data several times and developed separate codes. these codes were put against each other to develop neat categories and themes. these observations were met in accordance with an insider perspective in regard to study design, conduction, and composition as we are familiar with the iranian context of higher education. 3.5. data analysis the data were thematically analyzed (creswell, 2014) to delineate the categories fitting the theoretical framework of zembylas (2002). in this sense, several steps were followed based on a thematic analysis approach (braun & clarke, 2006). first, the transcribed data from the teachers’ written responses were read several times to develop an initial understanding of their nature. second, the initial themes emerging from the data were written down along with the specific extracts that reflected the theme. it must be pointed out that we had in mind the three levels of emotions zembylas (2002) delineated (i.e., interpersonal, intrapersonal, and intergroup levels) based on which the emerging codes were thematized. third, the initial themes were refined through constant-comparison and integrative engagement with the main data set to develop the major themes. at this stage, the data from both data sources (i.e., written questionnaires and narrative frames) were analyzed against each other to develop more inclusive themes. for example, when a code from the questionnaire and one from the frame were similar in terms of the content, they were subsumed under the same category. fourth, the themes were analyzed against the three levels of zembylas’s (2002) model to fit in the major themes. after several rounds of theme refinement, the major categories per level were finalized. we also consulted a qualitative researcher to check the categorizations of the codes across the three layers of the framework. there were few disagreements, which were resolved by discussion. in addition, it must be mentioned that across the data analysis stages, the codes were cross-checked by the researchers, and also the ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344326 researchers discussed various issues related to how to analyze the data to enhance the credibility of the interpretations. 4. findings the analysis of the questionnaires and narrative frames revealed threads across the three levels of the theoretical framework as: • intrapersonal (recognition from the learners and knowledge inadequacy), • interpersonal (practitioners as agents of criticality and institutional pressures), and • intergroup (socio-economic impediments, hollow prestige, and religious predicaments). these themes exerted particular bearings on the practitioners’ emotions and identities, as detailed below. figure 1 shows the schematic representation of the findings. figure 1. iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 327 ! these themes exerted particular bearings on the practitioners’ emotions and identities, as detailed below. figure 1 shows the schematic representation of the findings. figure 1. iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities intrapersonal level recognition from the learners one of the major factors contributing to the practitioners’ positive emotions was the students’ acknowledgment of their efforts. the recognition varied from the classroomlevel appreciation of the students to their positive feedback on the practitioners and their instruction outside the class: “it really makes me happy when the students come to my room and thank me for the effort i put to work” (t5, questionnaire, extract 1). the practitioners narrated stories of recognition that featured their happiness, satisfaction, and enjoyment from their functioning. such a recognition had created positive selfperceptions in the practitioners and motivated them to develop personalized understandings of themselves as teachers keeping up with standards of professionalism. for example, in extract 2 below, t10 narrates a positive incident that marks the students’ recognition of her efforts on a special day. she characterizes this recognition in “influential” and “worthwhile” terms, which made her “feel precious and motivated” and in turn contributed to reformulations in the way she has come to view her students and her identity as a professional eap practitioner: the most positive emotional event i have experienced in my university classes has been when my students decided to hold a small party on teacher’s day. this event is important because it made me feel that as a teacher i was influential and worthwhile to them. it made me feel precious and motivated to be persistent in developing professionally as a teacher. it created changes in my understanding of students because until that day i had not thought that my students notice iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities intrapersonal (recognition from the learners and knowledge inadequacy) intergroup (socioeconomic impediments, hollow prestige, and religious predicaments) interpersonal (practitioners as agents of criticality and institutional pressures) 4.1. intrapersonal level 4 . 1 . 1 . r ec o g ni t i o n f r o m t h e l ea r ne r s one of the major factors contributing to the practitioners’ positive emotions was the students’ acknowledgment of their efforts. the recognition varied from the classroom-level appreciation of the students to their positive feedback on the practitioners and their instruction outside the class: “it really makes me happy when the students come to my room and thank me for the effort i put to work” (t5, questionnaire, extract 1). the practitioners narrated stories of recognition that featured their happiness, satisfaction, and enjoyment from their functioning. such a recognition had created positive self-perceptions in the practitioners and motivated them to develop personalized understandings of themselves as teachers keeping up with standards of professionalism. for example, in extract 2 below, t10 narrates a positive incident that marks the students’ recognition of her efforts on a special day. she characterizes this recognition in “influential” and “worthwhile” terms, which made her “feel precious and motivated” and in turn contributed to reformulations in the way she has come to view her students and her identity as a professional eap practitioner: the most positive emotional event i have experienced in my university classes has been when my students decided to hold a small party on teacher’s day. this event is important because it made me feel that as a teacher i was influential and worthwhile to them. it made me feel precious and motivated to be persistent in developing professionally as a teacher. it created changes in my understanding of students because until that day i had not thought that my students notice my efforts and are grateful to me and i decided to develop a more positive attitude toward my students. (narrative frame, extract 3) 4 . 1 . 2 . kn o w l e dg e i na de qu ac y the practitioners narrated stories that showed how their lack of subject content expertise had agitated the classroom atmosphere. this problem was primarily associated with inadequate mastery over specialized terminology the students brought to the fore and had created identity tensions for the practitioners: “sometimes, the students ask a word related to cardiovascular areas that shock me as i do not know their meaning and this makes me feel ashamed and incompetent” (t1, questionnaire, extract 4). besides experiencing sadness, shame, and frustration, the practitioners held that such ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344328 moments had effaced their personal motivation and professional identity as legitimate eap practitioners. knowledge was viewed as highly significant in the extent to which students believe in instructors and successful course progression in the long run: “in my opinion, when you have great mastery over the content, students see you as a source of power and listen to what you say” (t2, questionnaire, extract 5). for instance, in extract below (6), t7 mentions how she has experienced shame and frustration due to her inability to respond to a student’s question. the practitioner describes such moments as sites for experiencing frustration and demotivation, which contribute to the way students perceive eap practitioners. her reference to “this is bad for a university teacher” further indicates that such emotional challenges devalue the practitioners’ identity, especially in the eyes of the students: the most negative emotional event i have experienced in my university classes has been when i did not know the exact meaning of the vocabulary one of my students asked. this event is important because it made me feel that as a teacher i should know the meaning of all the necessary words. i could not control this unpredictable event, but i felt ashamed and frustrated. such moments have always made me frustrated and demotivated, and i kind of feel that my students do not take me as serious anymore. this is very bad for a university teacher. (narrative frame, extract 6) thus, at a personal level, the practitioners experienced both positive and negative emotional incidents that have primarily influenced their identities. this identity had in turn contributed to the practitioners’ motivation relative to the positivity and negativity of the emotional experiences in shaping their professional self as legitimate eap practitioners. 4.2. interpersonal level 4 . 2 . 1 . p r ac ti t i o ne r s a s a g en t s o f cr i t ic a l i ty a dominant theme among the practitioners’ responses pertained to conceptualizing their own role as not just teachers, but as individuals who can contribute to students’ academic and social growth. the major reason for such an attitude was the importance of not being “limited to class and helping students decide about important life matters” (t12, questionnaire, extract 7). this attitude was viewed as helping the practitioners feel agentive in their professional career in terms of moving the students beyond academic affairs and cultivating in them criticality toward various socio-educational issues: “i feel “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 329 power when i move my students beyond what they just see and know as they should become more critical” (t12, questionnaire, extract 8). satisfaction and composure were the major emotional consequences of such efforts, which were viewed as central to practitioners’ work in higher education. for example, in the following extract, t1 gives primacy to creating criticality in his learners as a way to his own feelings of effectiveness and constructiveness: one of the most positive experiences for me was when i attempted to develop the perceptions of criticality in my students. i gave them power to have voice in the course and it was really thriving. although some problems occurred, this experience and course made me develop positive emotions about myself and my students in a way that i felt that i am an effective teacher. (narrative frame, extract 9) t5 considered giving voice to his learners to foster their autonomy as his professional responsibility, which makes him feel proud of himself: i have responsibilities that go way above simply teaching the content and the subject matter. i need to facilitate learning by enabling my students to voice their ideas and stay on top of their own learning. this makes me feel proud of myself as a teacher. (questionnaire, extract 10) 4 . 2 . 2 . i nst i t ut io na l p r es sur e s one of the most dominant threads among the practitioners’ responses pertained to the existing pressure in their universities. the pressure was viewed as primarily stemming from ineffective educational policies, which in turn influenced the practitioners’ motivation: “sometimes you see issues at the universities that make you question your own personhood, motivation, and energy to teach” (t5, questionnaire, extract 11). exercising a top-down policy in material selection and syllabus enactment, and an inappropriate competitive atmosphere were two corollary themes of such pressure. regarding the former, the practitioners argued that they have low agency in selecting course content and “most of the materials are assigned by higherorder decision-makers” (t7, questionnaire, extract 12). this condition was perceived as negatively influencing the practitioners’ sense of fulfillment and disbelief in their abilities to craft tailor-made activities that reflect their personalized understanding of professional practice in higher education. t12 referred to such a top-down system in evaluation and coursebook selection, which bother him and restrict his agency: ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344330 the unnecessary restrictions about the evaluation system or pre-defined course books are what goes on my nerve. they limit you and do not let you go on according to what you find necessary. as if you know what you shall do or have a clear understanding of the goals and the way you can grasp them, but some external barriers avoiding you. that is awful. (questionnaire, extract 13) a subsidiary consequence of systemic pressure was creating a competitive atmosphere that influences the practitioners’ emotional vulnerability and collegial identity, which in turn contribute to their functioning in other social roles: “as we are university instructors, we should always try to engage in publishing and do track-and-field, which makes us invest less in the quality of works. sometimes i cannot devote my time to my family, which makes me sad” (t3, questionnaire, extract 14). the practitioners lamented over such a condition and considered it as igniting their becoming individuals who get angry easily and react unfavorably in their relationships with students and colleagues. the major element in such emotions and identities was the demands of the competitive atmosphere to promote professional ranking, which make the practitioners prioritize competition over personal dimensions of their career. for instance, in the following extract, t5 views competition as central to university work. he also makes mention of funds and grants, which are necessary for performing better than colleagues. reference to “annoying” and “drains my energy” indicate that such a competitive climate has a negative impact on his other responsibilities: a lot of what happens at a university is often affected by competition. there are competitive grants and funds that one needs to constantly apply for. you need to outperform your colleagues and display your abilities all the time and it does not matter what quality your work has. this is sometimes annoying and drains my energy for my other responsibilities. (questionnaire, extract 15) thus, the practitioners’ interpersonal emotional experiences were tied to their agency and relatedness in response to competing discourses. regarding the former, the practitioners conceptualized their role as beyond knowledge delivery toward promoting criticality in the students to function as socially meaningful individuals. as to their relatedness, the practitioners referred to the existing top-down educational system that limits their agency and creates unfavorable consequences in their relationship with colleagues and sense of professionalism more generally. most notably, the context-specific issue of “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 331 destructive competition was pointed out, which was viewed as shaping both the practitioners’ negative emotions and interpersonal connectivity. 4.3. intergroup level 4 . 3 . 1 . so ci o e co no m i c i m pe di m e nt s most of the practitioners situated eap in iran within its sociocultural prism and made reference to multiple hurdles impeding effective eap instruction. among such hurdles were social and economic impediments, which were viewed as influencing their status as higher education professionals, emotional security, and well-being. as to social impediments, the practitioners took issue with the general climate of the society in negatively influencing the practitioners’ and students’ emotions and identities. most notably, the lack of a quality system to screen the students were viewed as demotivating for instructors and students: “what upsets me most is seeing our universities decline in quality and open their doors to those who do not deserve to be there. for this reason, i refrain from teaching at universities or institutions which are business-like and have been established primarily to make profit” (t7, questionnaire, extract 16). t8 referred to the social climate of the society as negatively influencing talented students’ performance, which in turn contributed to his own depression and sense of powerlessness as an effective practitioner: “i become depressed when i see some of my talented students stop studying the way i expected them to. this makes me feel that as a teacher i am not powerful enough to help everyone and to change the worsening status quo in my country” (questionnaire, extract 17). the economic side of eap practitioners’ work was viewed as directly linked to their grit and emotional understanding of the workplace. the practitioners considered economic adequacy as fundamental to their perseverance and investment in upgrading their knowledge, which could in turn contribute to the quality of students’ learning. nonalignment between workload and salary was the major objection of the practitioners, which was viewed as connected to the general picture of eap instruction in iran. for example, t12 characterized the status of eap practitioners in iran through the lens of economic problems and referred to its role in his anger and disappointment: whenever i think about the economic issues, negative emotions resurface. i remember that once i talked about this issue to higher-order decisionali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344332 makers, and they had their own alibis. and the expectations are really high. i don’t know what they think when they pay no attention to the economic side of our work. these issues really irritate me (narrative frame, extract 18) 4 . 3 . 2 . ho l l o w p r es t ig e an interesting theme among the three practitioners’ responses was their emphasis on the lack of a significant difference between language schools and university career: “to me being a university teacher or an english teacher at institutes is not much different” (t3, questionnaire, extract 19). conversely, there were teachers who mentioned the higher prestige of being a university instructor. while prestige was viewed as important at the university level, it was considered as insignificant at the macro-level of the society. t2 referred to the positive sense being a university practitioner gives her, yet she described such a status as “not worth it” (questionnaire, extract 20). prestige was also defined in light of the social status of university practitioners, which has gradually subsided in social interactions of iranian people. for example, t7 referred to the dynamics of the society as influential in the respect university instructors receive in other social situations: one benefit of being a university teacher, which, quite sadly, is disappearing due to the emerging cultural and economic dynamics in the iranian society, is being held in high regard by other people, especially those who are also faculty members and thus can receive preferential treatment in public institutions like banks and other government offices. (questionnaire, extract 21) this condition was considered as negatively contributing to the way eap practitioners perceive themselves as venerated individuals in society. for example, t3 related this lack of prestige to political and governmental policies, which has created a substantial shift in her understanding of university instructors’ self: the meaning of a university teacher has changed for me. now, a university teacher to me is just a teacher who teaches at university and nothing more; it’s not even prestigious, maybe because of the policies of the government toward universities and university students. (questionnaire, extract 22) 4 . 3 . 3 . r el ig i o u s p r ed ic a m en ts religion was considered to be a substantial factor in the practitioners’ professional functioning, emotional conflicts, and identity as a professional “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 333 eap practitioner. in this regard, they referred to certain religious rules that have crawled into the way practitioners are regarded and treated. the restriction was not limited to female practitioners only, and male practitioners also referred to the impact of religious rules on their professional emotions and identities. for example, t1 (male) narrated an experience in which his clothes were not compatible with the university rules according to which he had been banned from entering the university. in the following extract, he mentioned this point because his coat has been “too short”. this occurrence has been emotionally disappointing for him: the dress code was the most bothering one. i remember once they didn’t let me enter the university because my coat was “too short” according to them. that was really disappointing and i had to go all the way back home because someone that day was not in a good mood. (questionnaire, extract 23) t10 (female) referred to a similar problem vis-à-vis her dress code, which must not be provocative. she eloquently lamented over “plain uniforms and scarf in dark colors”, which negatively influence her comfort and sense of femininity: as i live in a religious and islamic country, there are restrictive dress codes with respect to our clothes style and color. as a female teacher i have to cover up and dress formally. i have to wear plain uniforms and scarf in dark colors which really bothers me and makes feel downgraded. i’m not allowed to wear make-up at work and i’m under constant observation. (questionnaire, extract 24) thus, taken in a macroscopic scale, emotions were viewed as profoundly rooted in the way higher education is understood in iran and its power relations. in this regard, the practitioners interpreted their negative emotions not only in light of policy and planning in education, but also as a function of social dynamics of the society. reference to socio-economic impediments, the diminishing prestige of university instructors, and religious barriers was contributive to the practitioners’ negative emotions. yet, negative emotions were not the only by-product of such problems and they were perceived as sanctioning the practitioners’ professional legitimacy, investment in their professional work, and self-understanding as a human being. ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344334 5. discussion the data presented in this study indicated that the practitioners’ emotions are linked to various aspects of their professionalism and contribute to their identities in complex ways relative to personal, professional, and sociocultural idiosyncrasies. the findings showed that the practitioners have experienced both positive and negative emotional experiences, which have borne certain meanings for their identity construction thus, the definition of emotions and identity construction in this study captures how personal, institutional, and sociocultural factors shape eap teachers’ emotions and identity construction. with regard to positive emotions, recognition in the eyes of students was viewed as important in the practitioners’ satisfaction and motivation to align their identity with professionalism standards. this finding shows the significant role of students in eap practitioners’ identities as professionals who maintain their identity in updating their knowledge to provide more quality instruction. tao and gao (2018) refer to similar points regarding the importance of persistent professional development among esp practitioners, which “enable them to assert themselves as esp teachers at the university” (p. 6). in this sense, it seems that the practitioners use such positive emotional experiences as lenses through which they align identity standards with professional demands to act responsively. the triad of positive emotions, identity standards, and professional functioning characterizes eap practitioners’ career and its complex nature, with students acting as the mediating role in striking balance among these three components. these experiences could also occur to many eap teachers across other contexts, yet what coloring they take and how they influence the teachers’ professional practice seems to need further attention from eap researchers in other contexts. additionally, the practitioners viewed their role as beyond delivering the content toward higher-order aspects of professionalism, especially developing critical students, which well-aligns with a critical conceptualization of language teachers’ identities and emotions in fostering students who can develop transformative characteristics (de costa et al., 2018; miller & gkonou, 2018). the practitioners’ satisfaction and composure in this regard were defined in light of their agency as university instructors. in this sense, being a university instructor seems to function as the agentic position that enables eap practitioners to develop criticality in “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 335 their students and claim agentic identities for themselves. as iranian eap practitioners are often institutionally limited to foster higher-order competencies in the students (tavakoli & tavakol, 2018), it might be that practitioners’ agentive attempts to develop critical students is a reflection of their own inner voices. in this sense, it seems that being critical in the iranian context is not primarily favorable as due to ideological discourses, teaching in iran “is likely to provide substantial challenges to some efl teachers and to present them with both political and personal conflicts” (eslamdoost et al., 2020, p. 4). along these lines, it appears that while the practitioners might not be able to take the initiative to personally step toward transformation, they exercise vicarious agency to empower their students to become transformative individuals. these findings imply that agency should be considered as a central element of eap teacher education courses in that although eap teachers may not be able to tackle grand policies, they can be educated how to show agency in the classroom and at various institutional levels to positively contribute to educational effectiveness. the practitioners, however, expressed negative emotions that exceeded the positive emotions in terms of quantity and contributions for identity construction. in this regard, inadequate technical knowledge was viewed as a source of experiencing negative emotions. besides the point that this problem aroused negative emotions in the practitioners, problematic situations seem to have negatively shaped their identities. as practitioners have certain identities in being university instructors, when they cannot respond to the students’ questions effectively, they experience negative emotions and doubt their professional legitimacy in being able to fulfill the requirements that define their identity as higher-education practitioners. this aspect of teacher professional identity has been emphasized in the previous literature on general english teachers (e.g., benesch, 2020) in that teachers attempt to align their identity with situated understandings to claim and subsequently adopt certain identities for themselves (wolff & de costa, 2017). as the issue of technical knowledge may be a conundrum for many eap teachers across various contexts (see atai et al., 2022), it seems that more partnership between eap teachers and decision-makers who could alleviate such problems is needed in order to reduce the emotional tensions that eap teachers are likely to face. it seems that such an identity creates what zembylas (2003) calls “emotional rules” (p. 196) for eap practitioners. that is, once the practitioners conceive of themselves as university instructors, this self-understanding linearizes ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344336 their role definition as knowledgeable instructors and, thus, sanctions the identity they craft for/from themselves as omnipotent individuals. the consequence of such an identity is that when their knowledge is problematized, the experience is interpreted in emotional terms and questions they identity they have constructed for themselves. this selfunderstanding, however, needs to align with the nature of eap work as, according to dudley-evans and st john (1998), in many situations, eap students may know the content better than the practitioner. such an emotional labor was also a function of institutional demands and particularities. there is a large body of knowledge on the effect of such institutional demands on iranian eap practitioners (e.g., atai & nejadghanbar, 2017; mazdayasna & tahririan, 2008). tavakoli and tavakol (2018) discuss such restrictions in detail and propose several alternatives to bring about change in the system, arguing that “at the time being it might be considered more as wishful thinking than an agenda for change” (p. 41). educational policy and planning in iran constrain eap practitioners’ work from various professional aspects. one such challenge in this study was the new competitive culture that appears to allegedly motivate the practitioners toward professional growth, yet it is virtually creating psychological and professional anomalies in the practitioners. emotional vulnerability and collegial tensions were considered as side effects of such a competitive climate, which come to negatively influence the practitioners’ personal and professional lives. we argue that besides the technical issues that should be focused on in eap teacher education courses, such courses should pay attention to the role of institutional, non-pedagogical challenges that are likely to complicate eap teachers’ effective identity construction and experiencing positive emotions. this way, teacher education can become responsive not just in pedagogical terms, but also at the level of institutional issues. the above issue was intertwined with the economic dimension of iranian eap practitioners’ work. this side of practitioners’ work was viewed as central to their emotional states such as anger and disappointment, and to their investment in contributing to educational accountability (for similar results in the chinese context see tao & gao, 2018). the role of economic inadequacy in eap practitioners’ ill-being is critical as it could materialize in the extent to which they invest energy in their career to claim the identity of an effective educator. economic safety of iranian eap practitioners is tied to the policies of the msrt and this sector is in turn under the control of “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 337 the government in paying the salary and signing the contracts. such a condition could well explain why the practitioners considered the prestige associated with university instructors as superficial, and some considered university career as little different from teaching at language schools. indeed, it seems that the social values attributed to university instructors are subsiding in the context of iran. in such a condition, when eap practitioners situate their work within the macro-level dynamics of the society, they are socially becoming less-venerated individuals and professionally becoming disappointed by what they imagined and what they encounter in reality. the practitioners in our study lamented over recruiting a large number of university students into higher education. this governmental policy was initiated around 2010 and was followed by the entrance of a huge number of students to azad and payame-noor (higher education systems in which the candidates pay a fee for their education) and state universities. this condition gradually led to the emergence of a generation of students who did not go through academically-sound screening filters. the policy primarily influenced our practitioners’ agency in that they can little take the initiative to create change in students’ effective development, which had also made them feel as incompetent individuals. these findings align with zembylas (2002, 2003) and benesch (2017, 2020) who argue that top-down policies are likely to negatively influence teachers’ emotions and identities. for our teachers, such an effect is realized in agency constraints and emotions of powerlessness, depression, lack of emotional security, and low well-being. these negative emotions in turn influenced the teachers’ identity in that they could not craft the identity of agentic practitioners who could have a significant share in educational growth. another major impediment in eap practitioners’ work was the religious beliefs that have shaped educational policy and planning in iran and have negatively influenced the practitioners’ emotional states and personalprofessional identities. this condition is not novel in iran, as since the establishment of the islamic revolution in 1979, religious ideas have been embedded in various policy documents (nazari & hashemi, 2020). the restrictions such an ideology seems to influence the way practitioners see themselves as professionals and even more as human beings, as our findings showed. it would be easier to discuss this finding in emotional than identity terms as the consequences of banning a practitioner from entering the university and disrespecting their basic needs might be emotionally ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344338 regulatable but may exercise long-lasting tensions that extend to the whole range of practitioner identities. it seems that, against our will, we have to crisscross the discussion and turn a blind eye on the main issue, as suggestions are neither useful for practitioners nor of value to policymakers. the only useful point might be that the practitioners train themselves to regulate their emotions in such situations as the power relations, competing discourses, and dominant ideologies are beyond grappling with. we would like to emphasize that agency and resistance, as discussed in critical discussions of teacher emotions (e.g., benesch, 2017; zembylas, 2002), are necessarily restricted to iranian eap practitioners’ classes, and other discourses, especially religious implications, are beyond these practitioners’ potency to problematize. although the challenges our eap teachers experienced were mostly defined based on contextual descriptions of eap instruction in iran, teachers from other contexts could also experience such challenges as far as policy and planning act dominantly and coercively (see ding, 2019). thus, further research on how sociocultural challenges problematize eap teachers’ emotions and identity construction would provide useful insights into their professionalism based on contextual particularities. 6. conclusion this study examined the under-researched area of eap practitioners’ emotions and identities. the findings of the study indicated that iranian eap practitioners’ emotions are partly in connection with their classroom experiences and are largely defined by macro-structural localities of teaching eap in iran. the main finding of this study is the huge gap between eap practitioners’ identity and contextual idiosyncrasies that were profoundly colored by a range of negative emotions iranian eap practitioners experience. such emotional challenges are definitive in sanctioning the identities practitioners construct. lamentably, it seems that iranian eap practitioner identity construction is more under the duress of suppressive ideologies, oppressive discourses, and powerful forces than the practitioners’ agentive role in such construction. in this sense, unpacking the emotions of eap teachers contributed to understanding how emotions feature as a significant element of the teachers’ identity construction, which is a novel dimension of the study. “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 339 the findings of the study open up novel ways to better understand what ding and campion (2016) called the heterogeneity of eap practitioners’ work. a large part of this heterogeneity for iranian eap practitioners’ identities is the wide range of emotions they experience most of which are, unfortunately, negative emotions. this point could probably be best captured in the narrative of one of the practitioners who said: “most of us are not feeling well”. it is yet to understand to what extent can iranian eap practitioners proceed with the positive feedback they receive from their students. we now know that these instructors are striving to fulfill their professional roles by their understanding of professional standards of conduct. however, it seems that the range of mediating discourses complicating the practitioners’ work are more constitutive of their work than positive, perhaps fleeting, personal emotions. such an understanding requires longitudinal research on eap practitioners and their emotions and identities. more specifically, examining practitioner burnout could be an effective research agenda in contexts similar to iran. we eschew providing implications for eap policy and planning, as we believe that such an undertaking would be in vain. indeed, change should be sought where there is room for change. most of the iranian references cited in this study have provided the necessary suggestions for change, yet there is little recognition of and attention to such suggestions. the major reasons lie in the fact that, as also argued by tavakoli and tavakol (2018), eap experts are not the major educational decision-makers; there is little professional investment in the preparation of the practitioners; there is little economic and educational investment in eap practitioner professional well-being and continuing professional development, and there is little ear to hear the voice. we believe that (at least iranian) eap practitioner emotions and identities must be interpreted within this condition, as these emotions and identities have clear implications for the practitioners’ work. nonetheless, what is heard loudly is the complaint of many eap practitioners who can offer fresh educational ideas, but are either self-oppressed or other-suppressed. future research may also consider observing the teachers’ classes to document the eap teachers’ real-time practices and use them as a door into their emotions and identity construction. moreover, future research may recruit a greater number of teachers to obtain a better understanding of how emotions and identity are influenced by various personal, institutional, and sociocultural issues. of particular note here is that future research may engage in cross-contextual comparison between eap teachers in different ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344340 parts of the world to examine any similarities and differences in their emotions and identity construction, and how contextual challenges shape these two key constructs differentially. article history: received 30 april 2022 received in revised form 30 january 2023 accepted 31 january 2023 references “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 341 atai, m. r., babaii, e., & lotfi gaskaree, b. 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(2016). ali derakhshan, the corresponding author, is an associate professor of applied linguistics at the english language and literature department, golestan university, gorgan, iran. he gained his ma in tefl from the university of tehran and his phd in applied linguistics from allameh tabataba’i university. he was selected as a distinguished researcher by the teaching english language and literature society of iran in 2021. his name appeared in the list of the top 2% scientists in the world in 2022. he has been a member of the iranian elites foundation since 2015. he has published in accredited international journals (computers & education, language teaching research, system, studies in second language learning and teaching, journal of multilingual and multicultural development, elt journal, current psychology, asia pacific education researcher, educational studies, etc.) and various local journals. his research interests are positive psychology, teacher education, learner individual differences, cross-cultural interpersonal factors in educational psychology, interlanguage pragmatics, and intercultural communication. sedigheh karimpour is an assistant professor of applied linguistics in the department of english language at mazandaran university of medical sciences, sari, iran. her areas of interest are second language teacher education and english for academic purposes. her publications have appeared in computer assistant language learning, system, innovation in language learning and teaching, asia-pacific education researcher, language teaching research, journal of language, identity, and education, etc. “most of us are not feeling well”: exploring iranian eap practitioners’ emotions and identities ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344 343 eap education in iran: where does the problem lie? where are we heading? journal of english for academic purposes, 22, 132-151. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jeap.2016.04.002 tao, j. t., & gao, x. a. (2018). identity constructions of esp teachers in a chinese university. english for specific purposes, 49, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2017.09.003. tavakoli, m., & tavakol, m. (2018). problematizing eap education in iran: a critical ethnographic study of educational, political, and sociocultural roots. journal of english for academic purposes, 31, 28-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2017. 12.007 wang, y., derakhshan, a., & zhang, l. j. (2021). researching and practicing positive psychology in second/foreign language learning and teaching: the past, current status and future directions. frontiers in psychology, 12, 1-10. https:// doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.731721 yazan, b., & lindahl, k. (2020). language teacher identity in tesol: teacher education and practice as identity work. routledge. zembylas, m. (2002). constructing genealogies of teachers’ emotions in science teaching. journal of research in science teaching, 39, 79-103. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.10010 zembylas, m. (2003). emotions and teacher identity: a poststructural perspective. teachers and teaching, 9, 213-238. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 13540600309378 mostafa nazari is a phd candidate of applied linguistics at kharazmi university, tehran, iran. his area of interest is second language teacher education and he has published in computer assisted language learning, system, european journal of teacher education, journal of teacher education, etc. appendix a written questionnaire 1. how do you describe yourself as an eap teacher? what does being an eap teacher mean? 2. what are some of the challenges of being an eap teacher? how do they influence your feelings about yourself, your work, your relationship with students, etc.? 3. what are some of the benefits of being an eap teacher? how do they influence your feelings about yourself, your work, your relationship with students, etc.? 4. what are the most frequent emotions (both positive and negative) you experience as an eap teacher? what feeling do these emotions give you about yourself and your work? how do they influence you? 5. what aspects of your work as an eap teacher upset and arouse you and your emotions most? 6. in the frame, you talked about xxx. could you please explain more about this? how did it influence your emotions and self-perceptions? ali derakhshan, sedigheh karimpour & mostafa nazari ibérica 45 (2023): 317-344344 iberica 13 abstracts in academic discourse. variation and change marina bondi, rosa lorès sanz (eds). bern: peter lang, 2014. 361 pages. isbn: 978-3-03431483-1. this rich edited collection consists of thirteen chapters that address both time-honored and new topics using rigorous and innovative methods. together, they meaningfully expand our knowledge of abstract variation across disciplines, languages, and time. a specific strength of all the chapters in the volume is the discussion of connections between discourse variation and social variables. the first section, focusing on intercultural variation, includes four chapters looking at five disciplines in three languages in contrast with english. the first chapter, by alonso-almeida, reports a corpus-based, contrastive study of evidentials and epistemic devices in english and spanish computing, medicine, and law abstracts. among the chapter’s many strengths are a thorough review of evidentiality and epistemicity and a rigorous methodology. perhaps its most significant finding is the trend, already suggested by other studies, that claims in english are softer than they are in spanish. chapter two by busch-lauer, features a useful literature review and presents the results of the author’s own cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural comparison of english and german abstracts. the latter have tended to conform to anglo-american expectations. the chapter closes with suggestions for teaching and further research. chapter three by diani focuses on a little studied language in contrastive studies: italian. her results show that italian linguistics abstracts often contain fewer moves; they tend to exclude results and conclusion. the english abstracts are more likely to problematize the paper’s topic, to represent the author explicitly, and to evaluate findings positively. some of these trends have also been found in contrastive studies of english and mexican spanish abstracts (sandoval-cruz, 2015) and in lorés sanz’s study in this same volume, suggesting a common preference for a rhetoric of justification across these two romance languages versus a preference for a rhetoric of persuasion in english (jiménez-alexandre & erdurán, 2008). reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 279-300 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 249 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 249 chapter four by lorés sanz offers a nuanced discussion of the differences and similarities found in pairs of translated abstracts as well as the possible explanations for those differences. like diani with italian, the author finds that spanish abstracts tend to be more impersonal, use fewer moves, and problematize their motives to a lesser extent (i.e. by not using move 2). her study of translated versions finds a great influence of spanish in the translations, but also accommodation processes, which together result in the production of a third text. chapter five, by łyda and warchał, focuses on comparing lexical differences across genders and native vs. non-native english. this is an innovative study as gender differences in abstracts had not been previously investigated. in general, the authors find that gender, together with nonnativeness, influence the use of specialized vocabulary: male nnss tend to use more specialized words than female nnss or nss. the authors interpret that male nnss feel “a greater need to confirm their academic status and legitimize their presence among other top-ranked english-writing scholars” (page) than female nnss do. the next section on cross-disciplinary variation begins with a chapter by bordet looking at variations in two disciplines: materials science and didactics of mathematics, both in l1 french and l2 english. her innovative focus is on collocational chains as contributors to text cohesion and to the creation of an insider ethos. she finds discipline-mediated l1 effects: l2 writers, particularly in didactics of mathematics, where the authors’ command of fewer lexical resources becomes an obstacle to the development of field-specific coherence and an authoritative disciplinary persona. the second chapter in the section, by cavalieri, compared applied linguistics and medicine abstracts by examining their structure, metadiscourse, and verbs of saying. medicine prefers the inclusion of the results and discussion moves, the situating research move and the authorial persona in the methods move. another meaningful difference is the greater attribution of utterances to others in applied linguistics. these findings are interpreted as signaling a greater emphasis on empiricism on the part of medical authors, as well as a more elaborate construction of a community of informed readers. in the third chapter, hatzitheodorou examines law and business abstracts using an eclectic move analysis framework that integrates macrostructural reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266250 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 250 and microstructural analyses. most of the chapter is devoted to discussing this framework. the author finds that business abstracts are longer, have more moves and are more empirical, whereas law abstracts focus on problematizing topics theoretically. although the author does not make this claim, a likely cause of these differences lies in the social science nature of business research versus the more humanities-like orientation of legal scholarship. the fourth chapter, by sala, reports an ambitious and rigorous study of abstracts as indicators of diverging and converging disciplinary epistemologies. the author uses the results of an analysis of attribution and knowledge-thematization strategies in four disciplines (medicine, applied linguistics, law, and economics), to embark in a sage, complex and nuanced exploration of the epistemological correlates of these features’ varying frequencies and distributions. in general, the soft sciences make more recourse to a rhetoric of persuasion, whereas medicine is more based on a rhetoric of justification. one wishes the author had made references to the rich literature on the discourses of economics, medicine, and law in order to expand his already significant insights, but this is an understandable shortcoming in the light of space limitations. the fifth chapter, by salager meyer, alcaraz ariza and lewin, examines the structures of abstracts in alternative medicine journals in four genres to determine the extent to which they comply with journal requirements and resemble those in other medicine journals. they find that the four genres are not structured as expected, with the research paper journals being the most structured and the review paper abstracts the least structured ones. section three, addressing diachronic perspectives, begins with a chapter by bondi that explores variation in voice markers in history, economics and linguistics from 1990 through 2010. she finds a general increase in first-person and other voice markers, which she interprets as an increasing construction of “both the novelty and importance of one’s own position and the identity of the writer as a researcher” (page 268) and also as a rising awareness of abstracts’ rhetorical functions. other findings concern the co-variation of voice features within and across the disciplines, which lead the author to conclude that voice markers “act as micro-systems of meanings” (page 269) in the next chapter, gillaerts examines diachronic variation in metadiscoursal features from 1987 to 2007 in applied linguistics. it features reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266 251 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 251 an excellent discussion of methodological difficulties that will be very useful to novice researchers. the author finds an overall increase of interactive metadiscourse coupled with a decrease in interactional metadiscourse. further, “for interactives, the decrease of transitions goes hand in hand with an increase in frame markers and evidentials, whereas for interactionals the loss of hedges is compensated by a gain of boosters and attitude markers” (page). these findings signal the abstracts’ evolution towards a mini-article with an overt, strong persuasive intent. the final chapter, by okamura and shaw, examines variation in move structure, personal pronouns, reporting verbs and theoretical nouns in journals of three disciplines: biology, economics, and marketing. their results show a general increase in personal pronouns in active voice sentences and epistemically committed reporting verbs (e.g. demonstrate, reveal). only the biology journal, cell, has evolved to a more standardized move structure with a greater frequency of the gap move. the authors compare these findings to trends revealed by other studies and discuss them in light of sociological variables such as journal guidelines and the rise of online publishing. in closing, i wholeheartedly concur with john m. swales’ appraisal in the afterword that this is an “impressive volume” (page 322). as professor swales states, one of its most welcome features is the authors’ careful attempt at “relating features of abstracts in a field with the epistemologies prevalent in that field” (page 322) and with contextual factors of academia that shape, and are shaped by, the language of abstracts. received 15 february 2016 accepted 16 february 2016 reviewed by moisés damián perales-escudero universidad de quintana roo (méxico) mdperales@uqroo.mx references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 32 (2016): 245-266252 sandoval-cruz, r.i. (2015). “análisis contrastivo de movimientos retóricos en resúmenes de lingüística aplicada escritos en español mexicano e inglés norteamericano” in m.d. peralesescudero & m. méndez (eds.), experiencias de docencia e investigación en lenguas modernas, 20-31. chetumal, mexico: universidad de quintana roo. jiménez-aleixandre, m. & s. erduran (2008). “argumentation in science education: an overview” in s. erduran & m. jimenezaleixandre (eds.), argumentation in science education: perspectives from classroom-based research, 329. dordrecht, netherlands: springer. 11 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:30 página 252 iberica 13 ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this study explores the rhetorical structure of university lecture introductions and its linguistic specificities. applying genre, corpus and contrastive analyses, it aims to identify which moves and steps are used in lecture introductions in english and montenegrin, as well as to reveal differences and similarities in their structure between the two languages. drawing upon the swalesean move approach (1981, 1990) and referring to the models already established in the literature, the study examines academic lectures in the linguistics discipline taken from the electronically available british corpora, and a specially compiled corpus of montenegrin linguistic lectures. the results show the major difference lying in a more elaborate framework in british lecture introductions. this consists of three moves – move 1: orienting the students, move 2: setting-up lecture framework and move 3: putting topic in context, compared to the two-move structure of montenegrin lecture introductions composed of move 2 and move 3. some specific differences are also noticed in the composition of these two moves. the main similarity lies in the presence of two obligatory moves in both corpora, move 2 and move 3 respectively, reflecting the influence of the lecture as an established academic genre in university settings regardless of the language in which lectures were delivered. in addition, compared to the established models in the literature, the findings have yielded three steps that are original to this study. keywords: university lecture introductions, linguistics lecture introductions, rhetorical structure, moves, steps. british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure branka živković university of montenegro (montenegro) brankaz@ucg.ac.me 103 ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 branka živković resumen introducción de las ponencias universitarias británicas y montenegrinas: un estudio de su estructura retórica basado en corpus este estudio explora la estructura retórica de las introducciones a las ponencias universitarias y sus especificidades lingüísticas. a partir de los análisis de género, de corpus y el análisis contrastivo, el presente artículo tiene como objetivo identificar qué movimientos (moves) y pasos se utilizan en las introducciones a las ponencias en inglés y montenegrino, así como revelar las diferencias y semejanzas en su estructura en los dos idiomas. con base en el enfoque de movimientos de swalesean (1981, 1990) y en los modelos ya establecidos en la bibliografía, el estudio examina varias ponencias universitarias sobre lingüística procedentes de los corpus británicos ya disponibles y de un corpus que se ha compilado a partir de ponencias montenegrinas. los resultados muestran que la mayor diferencia estriba en el hecho de que el marco de presentación de ponencias británico es más elaborado. este incluye tres movimientos –movimiento 1: orientación de estudiantes; movimiento 2: configuración del marco de la ponencia; y movimiento 3: contextualización del tema–, en comparación con la estructura de ponencias montenegrinas, articulada a partir de dos movimientos: los movimientos 2 y 3. la principal semejanza es la presencia de dos movimientos obligatorios en ambos corpus (los movimientos 2 y 3), lo cual refleja la influencia de la ponencia como un género académico establecido en entornos universitarios y académicos, independientemente del idioma en el que las ponencias se imparten. asimismo, en comparación con los modelos establecidos en la bibliografía, los resultados han evidencia la existencia de tres pasos originales para este estudio. palabras clave: introducciones a las ponencias universitarias, introducciones a las ponencias de lingüística, estructura retórica, movimientos, pasos. 1. introduction lecture introductions give information on the lecture topic, its structure, scope, aims and contextual framework. they introduce lectures which are normally sizeable monologue stretches, whose processing and comprehension represent a daunting task to non-native students who may experience “considerable difficulty in following academic lectures delivered in a foreign language” (thompson, 1994, p. 172). to overcome such a difficulty, students need to become familiar with the structural framework of lecture introductions and their linguistic specificities, which may consequently enable the creation of “mental maps” helping students process 104 the information in the lectures (thompson, 1994; lee, 2009). more precisely, effective understanding of the introduction can assist students in making predictions about where the lecture is going, seeing where one component fits with another and within the whole lecture, and assessing the relative significance of each aspect of the lecture (thompson, 1994, p. 176). given that “the ability to predict presupposes an awareness of text structure” (young, 1990, p. 212) and that this awareness leads to better comprehension, knowledge of the rhetorical organisation of lecture introductions is likely to be helpful when it comes to following and understanding the rest of the lecture. four genre-based studies on the rhetorical structure of lecture introductions have been conducted to date: thompson (1994), lee (2009), shamsudin and ebrahimi (2012) and yaakob (2013). what they have in common is the employment of the swalesean move approach (1981, 1990), which enabled them to determine specific structural components in the lecture introductions analysed, with some differences that will be discussed in section 2.1. three authors (thompson, 1994; lee, 2009; yaakob, 2013), explored corpora of lecture introductions in different disciplines and broad scientific fields, whereas only shamsudin and ebrahimi (2012) investigated a discipline-specific corpus, that of engineering. all four studies are englishcentered, meaning that none is contrastive in terms of examining the corpora of lecture introductions delivered in english and other languages. with this in mind, the present cross-linguistic research examines the rhetorical structure of lecture introductions given in english and montenegrin in the linguistics discipline with the aim to identify similarities and differences between the two corpora. this will help us to determine whether the language and setting affect the rhetorical organisation of this very significant academic subgenre. this study is contrastive and draws on electronically available british corpora and a specially collected corpus of montenegrin linguistic lectures. the choice of languages was motivated by the following reasons. english is undoubtedly the recognised world language of both spoken and written academic communication. thus, lectures, “as the most extended spoken genre in higher education institutions” (bellés-fortuño, 2018, p. 170), are held in english not only in english-speaking countries, but also in those where english is not a national language, such as montenegro. each year a number of students of english as a foreign language enroll at the university of montenegro. these students have an opportunity to listen to the lectures british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 105 of english native and non-native speakers who, thanks to various scholarships and mobility programmes, come and teach for up to one academic year at the english language and literature department. moreover, different exchange and mobility programmes enable the students to study at international universities and attend lectures in english. in addition, montenegrin university education in general aims to become more international by currently introducing study programmes for international students to be instructed in english. having the internationalisation of university lecturing and learning in mind, it seems significant both for lecturers and students to become familiar with certain characteristics of the lecture genre. the former can become more attentive to their own lecture discourse in university settings and the latter should be able to follow and comprehend the lecture content more easily. 2. theoretical background while there is a number of ways of studying texts, genre analysis has become established as the most widely used and productive method of text analysis (hyland, 2013, p. 98). one of the most salient directions within genre analysis is the groundbreaking swalesean move approach (1981, 1990) which this research draws upon. it enables the identification of formal and linguistic features of various genre types. a genre is “a distinctive category of discourse of any type, spoken or written” (swales, 1990, p. 33), with its communicative purpose understood by the genre community (bhatia, 1993). the swalesean framework aims to segment texts into units fulfilling a specific communicative purpose connected and contributing to the overall communicative objective of the genre. these units are known as moves and steps. a move represents a text component of a higher rank which is a “defined and bounded communicative act” (lorés-sanz, 2004, p. 282). moves are composed of steps as their lower structural realisations directed to the communicative purpose of both moves and the whole genre. from the swalesean genre analysis perspective, a lecture can be defined as the main genre in tertiary education “for a lecturer to impart knowledge to students about a particular subject and for students to obtain knowledge about a subject by listening to the lecturer” (yaakob, 2013, p. 46). in those normally long stretches of talk, students are faced with the demanding task of listening to, following and processing their content (thompson, 1994; branka živković ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128106 thompson, 2003; lee, 2009). lecture introductions, as a subgenre of the lecture genre, introduce lectures, providing information on the lecture topic, its scope, structure, aims, as well as its context. they “offer an opportunity for the lecturer to establish an interpretive framework for the audience to use as they listen to the rest of the lecture” (thompson, 1994, pp. 145-146). given that producing a structured sequence of utterances can assist listeners in creating a coherent mental representation of a talk (brown & yule, 1983, p. 17), it is necessary that lecturers structure their lecture introductions in such a way as to enable students to create “mental maps” (thompson, 1994; lee, 2009) that aid them in following and comprehending the rest of the lecture. 2.1. previous genre studies on the structure of lecture introductions the rhetorical organisation of lecture introductions has received only occasional scholarly attention. four genre analyses of lecture introductions have been conducted to date: thompson (1994), lee (2009), shamsudin and ebrahimi (2012) and yaakob (2013). in addition, previous research on the structure of lectures and lecture introductions encompasses two widely influential analyses carried out by young (1994) and palmer silveira (2004). thompson (1994) was the first to analyse the structure of lecture introductions in a mixed corpus of 18 lecture introductions in applied linguistics, engineering and medicine. using the swalesean framework, thompson introduced the terms functions and subfunctions. not making a difference between a generic model in the mentioned disciplines, thompson identified a general model composed of two main rhetorical functions: setting up the lecture framework and putting topic in context, with their specific subfunctions. setting up the lecture framework “is essentially metalinguistic, in that it gives the audience information about the lecture discourse itself ” (thompson, 1994, p. 176). it consists of four subfunctions: announce the topic, indicate scope, outline the structure and present aims. on the other hand, putting topic in context is the function concerned with the lecture content realised through three subfunctions: show importance/relevance of topic, relate ‘new’ to ‘given’ and refer to earlier lectures. lee (2009) investigated how the class size influenced the rhetorical organisation of 10 lecture introductions from various disciplines taken from the micase. following thompson (1994), lee (2009, p. 46) introduced another move, namely warming up, in which lecturers “warm up the audience british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 107 prior to the actual lecture, offering them general course information and course-related asides (or digressions), looking ahead to future lectures, and/or telling an anecdote”. lee (2009, p. 53) reported that the class size affected the choice of moves and steps in the examined lecture introductions, and recognised the limitation of his study observed in the small corpus used. based on thompson’s (1994) and lee’s (2009) models, shamsudin and ebrahimi’s (2012) study examined a malaysian engineering spoken english corpus (mesec) composed of only 6 lecture introductions in the field of engineering. they concluded that the malaysian lecturers used the same three moves given in lee’s study (2009), and found some differences at the level of certain steps. shamsudin and ebrahimi added two steps, namely greeting and reciting prayers, to lee’s warming up move (2009). these steps seem specific to malaysian engineering lecture introductions and signify “a more relaxed and rather sincere climate in the class which is more typical and preferred in eastern countries” (shamsudin and ebrahimi, 2012, p. 1306). yaakob (2013) investigated a corpus of lecture introductions in four broad fields of arts and humanities, social, physical and life science taken from the british academic spoken english corpus (base). following dubois (1980), yaakob (2013) introduced two main orientations, namely content orientation and listener orientation. the content orientation realises thompson’s two functions (1994): setting up the lecture framework and putting topic in context. the listener orientation, including seven subfunctions: greeting, announcement, introduce oneself, check comprehension, check comprehension feedback, refer to handout and refer to visuals, was recognised and added by yaakob (2013). two of the salient studies about the structure of lectures and lecture introductions were performed by young (1990, 1994) and palmer silveira (2004). analysing the macroand micro-structure of seven lectures in sociology, economy, engineering and geology, young (1990, 1994) identified an analytical unit phase indicating a ‘strand of discourse that recurs discontinuously throughout a particular language event’ (1994, p. 165). young revealed that the lecture macrostructure was composed of six phases divided into two groups: metadiscoursal and those pointing to the lecture content. the former consists of a discourse structuring, conclusion and evaluation phase, while the latter includes the interaction phase, theory or content and example phase. although young proposed a new schema for the lecture macrostructure, she did not conduct a quantitative analysis of the discoursal branka živković ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128108 units, which appears to be a very significant foundation for a subsequent qualitative analysis. palmer silveira (2004) analysed the ways lecturers developed the initial part of their lectures in business, law and sociology. paying attention to different linguistic devices, he investigated how the message of the current lecture was connected to the information already explained in previous lectures or to the documents/data students had, how the main topic was introduced and how the general layout was established. palmer silveira (2004) qualitatively presented different strategies that teaching professionals used in order to introduce their lectures by means of specific linguistic devices. he concluded that there was the need to start preparing professionals who could deliver lectures to their prospective students as successfully as possible (palmer silveira, 2004, p. 112). 2.2. the current study these earlier studies reveal a great deal about the complexities of the rhetorical organisation of lecture introductions. however, they did not examine the impact of the language itself (and its associations) on the rhetorical structure. no efforts so far have been made to explore a discipline-specific corpus of lecture introductions delivered in two different languages. the abovementioned studies focused mainly on the exploration of a mixed corpus of english lecture introductions in different disciplines or broad scientific fields, apart from that of shamsudin and ebrahimi (2012) which investigated a corpus of engineering english lecture introductions. none of the authors analysed lecture introductions in the specific field of linguistics. as for the montenegrin and the bcms (bosnian/croatian/montenegrin/serbian) context in general, research on lecture introductions’ rhetorical organisation has not been conducted until now. against this background, the present study explores lecture introductions in the linguistics discipline. lectures on linguistics were also chosen as it is the discipline with which the author is the most familiar and from which the author was in a position to collect the corpus for montenegrin lectures. unlike previous studies, this paper examines british and montenegrin lecture introductions and deals with the following research questions: rq1. which moves and steps are used in british lecture introductions in linguistics? british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 109 rq2. which moves and steps are used in montenegrin lecture introductions in linguistics? rq3. are there differences and similarities in lecture introductions between the two corpora? to answer these questions, the standard british corpora and a specially collected corpus of montenegrin lectures are explored, with the aim of determining a discipline-specific rhetorical model of lecture introductions in two different languages, and identifying whether the language and setting affect their rhetorical organisation. the cross-linguistic perspective of the present study may add to contrastive linguistics and to the existing body of knowledge on the contrastive investigations of academic lectures. due to the internationalisation of university lecturing mainly through mobility programmes and the rapid expansion of emi teaching contexts, these findings may be relevant to both native and non-native lecturers and students. lecturers could gain insights into how british and montenegrin professors of linguistics structure their lecture introductions and which linguistic resources they use in their structural components. there is also a possibility of applying the current study results in designing syllabi for emi teacher training courses. as emi lecturers are not language experts, they need to be trained to be more attentive to their own lecture discourse. they could become more aware of the rhetorical structure of lecture introductions, which may be useful when teaching students from various linguistic backgrounds. on the other hand, the findings are of relevance to students who can become knowledgeable about the structural and linguistic features of lecture introductions, and, in that way, overcome difficulties in listening to and following the rest of the lecture content. 3. data and analysis this study focuses on 24 university lectures in linguistics, or a total of 181,008 words. the lectures are divided into two corpora – the british and the montenegrin. the british corpus consists of 12 university lectures, i.e. 94,242 words, on a variety of topics in the field of linguistics. seven lectures were drawn from the base2 corpus, one lecture from the british national corpus (bnc)3 and four lectures from the university of reading and its sacll (self-access centre for language learning). the montenegrin corpus includes the same number of academic lectures (n=12), or 86,766 branka živković ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128110 words, in the same discipline. it was specially collected as an electronic official corpus of the montenegrin academic spoken language does not exist. the lectures4 held by different assistant, associate, and full professors of linguistics, at undergraduate and graduate levels, were audio recorded. the audio files were then transcribed by means of the common transcription symbols used in discourse analysis (given in appendix 2). the details on the corpora are included in appendix 1. the british and montenegrin corpora share the following features a) they are composed of the same number of university lectures belonging to the particular subject field of linguistics, b) they cover various topics within this discipline, c) they were given by university lecturers in the university context, d) lecturers are native speakers of british english and montenegrin. the lecture introductions were separated from the lecture central parts by means of a) careful reading of transcripts and reference to their audio files5, b) the presence of boundary markers, such as ok, now, right, right so in english, or their montenegrin equivalents dobro, sad, e sad, dobro dakle, as well as the combination of discourse markers and filled pauses, such as erm now, er okay (thompson, 1994; sinclair and culthard, 1975), c) semantic criteria, meaning that introductions were considered to have ended once the lecturer set up the lecture framework and provided some contextualisation, and d) reference to the already established models in the literature (thompson, 1994; lee, 2009; shamsudin and ebrahimi, 2012; yaakob, 2013). in addition, there were lectures with no boundary markers in the introductory section. in such cases, the boundary between the lecture introductions and the main body was drawn on the basis of the careful reading of the transcripts and “identifying the point where the lecturers moved into the substantive part of the lecture” (lee, 2009, p. 46), i.e. the mentioned semantic criteria were applied. the swalesean move analysis framework (1990) was employed in examining the structure of lecture introductions, and the existing abovementioned studies were considered. the method of contrastive analysis was also applied to reveal differences and similarities between the corpora. to avoid the problem of researcher bias, a second rater6 coded the structural units of lecture introductions. the results were compared with the author’s and the cases with different codes were read again, discussed and resolved. british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 111 4. results the analysis of the british and montenegrin corpora resulted in the following move structure (table 1): table 1. moves and steps in british and montenegrin lecture introductions. table 1 shows certain similarities and differences in the structure of university lecture introductions between the british and montenegrin corpora. the main similarity exists in the presence of two obligatory moves move 2: setting-up lecture framework and move 3: putting topic in context, which record a very high frequency in both corpora. move 2 appears in all the british and montenegrin linguistic lectures (100%), and move 3 displays a little higher frequency in the british corpus (91.6% and 83.3% respectively). branka živković ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128112 moves and steps frequency n of occurrences % british montenegrin british montenegrin move 1: orienting the students 3 25 step 1: greeting the students 2 16.6 step 2: thanking the students 1 8.3 move 2: setting-up lecture framework 12 12 100 100 step 1: announcing the topic 9 10 75 83.3 step 2: outlining the structure 8 4 66.6 33.3 step 3: indicating the scope 4 33.3 step 4: presenting aims 2 1 16.6 8.3 move 3: putting topic in context 11 10 91.6 83.3 step 1: showing the importance/relevance of topic 6 1 50 8.3 step 2: relating “new” to “given” 5 4 41.6 33.3 step 3: referring to earlier lecture(s) 4 7 33.3 58.3 step 4: referring to future lecture(s) 1 8.3 step 5: referring to the course 3 4 25 33.3 step 6: referring to the exam 2 16.6 step 7: referring to other course(s) 2 16.6 this major similarity reflects the influence of the lecture “as an established academic genre in tertiary education” (chang, 2012, p. 113) regardless of the language the lectures were delivered in. the presence of two obligatory moves confirms the previous research on lecture introductions done by thompson (1994), lee (2009), shamsudin and ebrahimi (2012), yaakob (2013). the major difference lies in the more elaborate structure of the british lecture introduction. it is composed of three moves. apart from move 2 and move 3, which are common to both british and montenegrin corpora, move 1: orienting the students is found exclusively in british lectures. the next difference refers to a more complex internal structure of move 2 in the british corpus and move 3 in the montenegrin. the internal composition of move 2 includes four steps in the linguistic lectures in english, and one step fewer in the montenegrin ones. move 3 consists of five steps in the british lectures, while in the montenegrin lectures it is realised through six steps. these differences will be discussed in more detail in the following subsections. 4.1. move 1: orienting the students orienting the students includes two steps greeting the students and thanking the students. it is found in a quarter of the british corpus, whereas montenegrin lecture introductions do not have this move. its more frequent step greeting the students is signalled by the use of fixed greeting phrases, and can be “an indicator a speech act is beginning and that all students should start paying attention to what the lecturer says” (yaakob, 2013, pp. 11-12), such as in the following examples: (1) good morning everybody, good morning teachers. (el10) (2) good morning everybody (el11) a greeting is also found to be rare by yaakob (2013, p. 116) as a consequence of “the unequal status between participants and social distance between lecturers and students”. step 2: thanking the students for attendance is present in just one lecture, and it may be for the reason that the last lecture a professor had was twenty years ago (extract 3). it is a short step marked by the performative verb to thank: british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 113 (3) thanks very much. well, as i was saying when i was last lecturing in this lecture theatre twenty years ago, the.... (el9) the absence of move 1 in the montenegrin lecture introductions could be explained in terms of the greater social distance between lecturers and students that possibly exists in this cultural context. however, future research on larger corpora of lecture introductions is needed to confirm this assumption. 4.2. move 2: setting-up lecture framework in contrast to the optional status of move 1, move 2: setting-up lecture framework is obligatory in both corpora (100%). professors here establish the lecture framework and give information about its topic, scope, structure and aims (thompson, 1994, p. 176). in british linguistic lectures, move 2 consists of four steps, announcing the topic, outlining the structure, indicating the scope and presenting aims. this result supports the previous studies and suggests the same structuredness of this move in the linguistics discipline. as for montenegrin, the step indicating the scope is not identified. announcing the topic is the most common step both in british and montenegrin linguistic lectures (75% and 83.3% respectively). lecturers introduce the topic of their lectures, as in the following: (4) and today i am going to talk about english. (el10) (5) dobro, da na š nj e pr e da v an j e su odredbe i dopune glagolskih riječi. (ml1) ‘ok, today’s lecture is modifiers and complements of verbs.’ (6) znači, d an as r ad im o duge akcente naporedo sa svim ovim ostalim.(ml11) so, today we are covering long accents together with everything else.’ in examples 4, 5 and 6, boundary markers and, ok and so mark the beginning of the lecture introductions. the announcement of the topic is typically expressed via the communicative verb to talk and the activity verb to cover, the adverb today, the noun phrase današnje predavanje ‘today’s lecture’ and the first person pronouns i/we. outlining the structure is the step considered very important in the british corpus (66.6%), whereas it is found optional in the montenegrin (33.3%). in this step lecturers inform students of what they will cover at certain points of the lecture: branka živković ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128114 (7) er i thought i would show this week some ways in which that had been put into use as a means of research by students… and then i thought…i’d show you er i’d move on to show you some research…(el7) (8) ali prije nego što dođemo do lekseme, mi ćemo prvo reći šta je riječ i koja je razlika između riječi i lekseme (zp) ovdje vrlo važno…tako da ćemo mo prvo poći, dakle, od definicije riječi. (ml2) ‘but before we come to a lexeme, we will first say what a word is and what the difference between the word and the lexeme is (zp) very important here…therefore, we will start with the definition of a word.’ this step contains aspectual verbs which “characterize the stage of progress of some other event or activity” (biber et al., 1999, p. 361). lecturers state that they will start with, move on or come to specific issues during their lectures. temporal expressions and then and before are also the markers of this step, as well as the adverb first, the activity verb to show and the communicative verb to say. indicating the scope is found only in british lecture introductions (33.3%). british professors give the information on how much time they will devote to particular aspects of their lectures to attract and keep the students’ attention during the remainder of the lecture. let us consider excerpts 9 and 10. (9) right er okay well i’ll start because er i’m going to have to go very quick today…(el8) (10) so what i am going to give you this morning is a quick, not too detailed, but a look at the history of writing from its beginnings as we know it, until modern times. but we’ve only got 50 minutes, and for each stage in its history you could spend days on it, ok. (el12) as we can see from extracts 9 and 10, this step is frequently intertwined with the step outlining the structure and announcing the topic. lecturers use the adjectives phrase a quick, not too detailed, the adverb phrase very quick and the construction we’ve only got 50 minutes. such expressions indicate brevity thus suggesting students that professors will not cover too much of the subject matter. they are employed to draw and keep students’ attention during the rest of the lecture. presenting aims is an optional step in both corpora (16.6% in british and 8.3% in montenegrin respectively). in this step, british professors state the aim of their lectures using its most typical signals – the nouns aim or reason (extract 11). in extract 12, a montenegrin lecturer employs the cognitive verb to think whose meaning is, in fact, to plan/to intend denoting what the professor’s aim was. british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 115 (11) now the reason that we have this session is actually because a few years ago…(el2) (12) aha, dobro, onda ću morati ja sve da vam pričam, a ja sam mislila da to bude više razgovor. da mi vi kažete šta tamo nijeste razumjeli, šta vam je bilo <komplikovano> (.) i slično. (ml5) ‘ok, then, i’ll have to talk about everything, but i thought it would be more of a dialogue. to tell me what you haven’t understood there, what has been <complicated> to you (.) and so on.’ 4.3. move 3: putting topic in context putting topic in context is another obligatory move identified in the structure of both british and montenegrin lecture introductions (91.6% and 83.3% respectively). “while setting up lecture framework orients the lecture-asobject towards the audience, putting topic in context deals with the lectureas-content” (thompson, 1994, p. 178). this move contains the steps showing importance/relevance of topic, relating “new” to “given”, referring to earlier lecture(s), referring to future lecture(s), referring to the course, referring to the exam and referring to other course(s). montenegrin lecture introductions have all of them except referring to future lecture(s). in contrast, the british corpus has two steps fewer, namely, referring to the exam and referring to other course(s). as for the previous research, the putting topic in context move is an essential structural component in the studies conducted by thompson (1994), lee (2009), shamsudin and ebrahimi (2012), yaakob (2013). the difference between the current study and the earlier ones refers to three new steps added to the move in the present study: referring to the course, referring to the exam and referring to other course(s). showing the importance/relevance of topic is present in the half of the british lecture introductions, while it is found only in one montenegrin lecture. examples 13, 14 and 15 serve as an illustration of this step. (13) er today this perhaps will be [0.2] a few tips [0.6] perhaps pitched somewhere between er [0.6] a pep talk and a little bit of the reading of the riot act [0.5] but it’s just to give you [0.2] a sense a kind of bit of fine tuning [0.3] for how you might [0.2] think about the work [0.2] that you present [0.2] for us to read [0.5] er [0.4] for the degree [0.6] pec-, er particularly as opposed to what you might have been doing [0.3] for a-level there are sort of significant shifts you see [0.4] so it’s no bad thing early on to start thinking about the way things might change [0.4] (el4) branka živković ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128116 (14) er i’d move on to show you [0.2] some research which went beyond that and looked at [0.4] er vocabulary knowledge [0.2] more extensively because [0.2] of course there’s more to knowing a word than just being able to recognize it on the page (el7) (15) ali prije nego što dođemo do lekseme mi ćemo prvo reći šta je riječ i koja je razlika između riječi i lekseme (zp) ovdje vrlo važno (ml2) ‘but before we come to a lexeme we will first say what a word is and what a difference between the word and the lexeme is (zp) here very important’ extracts 13 and 14 contain the evaluative adjective significant, the noun phrase no bad thing, and the adverb phrase more extensively, all pointing to the importance of the topics lecturers previously announced. this step is similarly expressed in example 15, via the use of the evaluative adjective ‘važno’ important and its intensifier ‘vrlo’ very. it also follows the announcement of the topic. in the step relating “new” to “given”, professors remind students of the information they already know so as to relate it to new points to be covered in the lecture. it has an optional status in both corpora (41.6% in british and 33.3% in montenegrin). let us look at excerpts 16 and 17. (16) so point one a reminder something that i keep saying, knowledge of language is knowledge of a bod a body of rules that assign phonological, syntactic and semantic properties to words and sentences. (el6) (17) dakle, danas ćemo govoriti o <semantici>. vi znate da je semantika nauka o <značenju>, vi znate da je značenje od (.) prvih interesovanja za jezik i jezičke pojave. takođe postojalo je interesovanje za tumačenje značenja, vi se (.) sjećate kad ste polagali u drugom semestru o (.) teoriji imenovanja. (ml4) ‘so, today we will be talking about <semantics>. you know that semantics is the science about <meaning>, you know that the meaning is one (.) of the first interest in a language and language phenomena. there was also interest into the interpretation of meaning, and you (.) remember when you had a test on a (.) theory of naming in the second semester.’ in extract 16 a british lecturer uses the noun reminder to connect what students already know to a new lecture topic. in a similar way, his/her montenegrin colleague employs the constructions you know or you remember to contextualise the topic s/he already announced in the first utterance (extract 17). british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 117 referring to earlier lecture(s) features near two times greater frequency in the montenegrin corpus compared to the british (58.3% and 33.3% respectively). this finding suggests that montenegrin lecturers find it more important to revise what was done in the earlier lecture(s), and connect it with the current one. examples 18 and 19 serve as an illustration. (18) i thought what i’d do today having introduced to you last week the idea of er measuring vocabulary (el7) (19) što se tiče instrumentala, još na prošlom času smo rekli da je to padež zajednice i da imamo dvije osnovne vrste instrumentala: instrumental oruđnik i instrumental socijativ. u instrumentalu oruđniku, rekli smo to na prošlom času, stoji ime pojma pomoću kog se vrši radnja i takav instrumental upotrebljava se isključivo bez predloga. što se tiče instrumentala sa predlozima, rekli smo i to, slaže se sa malim brojem predloga i tu je, prije svega, predlog s, odnosno sa, koji obilježava društvo, pa se takav instrumental zove socijativ. (ml3) ‘as for the instrumental case, even at the last lecture we said that it is the case of company and that we have two basic kinds of the instrumental: instrumental indicating an instrument and comitative instrumental. in the instrumental indicating an instrument, we said that at the last lecture, there is the name of an entity by means of which the action is performed and such instrumental is used exclusively without prepositions. as for the instrumental with prepositions, we said that also, it is used with a small number of prepositions and that is, first of all, the preposition s, i.e. sa7, denoting company, so such instrumental is called a comitative one.’ examples 18 and 19 illustrate referring to the last lecture typically marked by the noun phrases last week or last lecture, the verbs to introduce, to say, pointing to what was done at the previous lecture. these metadiscursive elements have the reviewing function of pointing backward in the discourse (ädel, 2010, p. 86). by recalling the content covered in the earlier lecture(s), professors provide a contextual framework for the current one. referring to future lecture(s) is found only in yaakob (2013), and the current study confirms that it can be a part of the british linguistic lecture introductions. referring to future lecture(s) is an optional step, identified only in one british lecture, pointing to it being very rare: (20) so the title of my lecture today is ‘heinz 57the history of english and the rise of english as a global language’... so the end of my lecture will lead on to what john slaght is going to talk to you about next time. so there will be a link (el11) branka živković ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128118 in example 20, a lecturer refers to a future lecture to be held by another professor on the same course. s/he connects the topic of the current lecture with the future one. temporal expression next time is used, as well as the construction be going to + infinitive, pointing to the future lecture. such linguistic elements reflect the previewing function of pointing forward in the discourse and announcing what is to come (ädel, 2010, p. 86). referring to the exam is not identified in the previous studies. this study reveals the incidence of this optional step only in the montenegrin corpus (16.6%). it relates the current lecture to the future exam so as to motivate students to study more intensively: (21) onda će vam poslužiti (.) kao nešto što ćete moći da koristite dok budete spremali ispit, dok budete tražili definicije jezičke politike, odnos jezičke politike, jezičkog planiranja i standardizacije, dakle, imate sve u tom radu. tako kad budete spremali se za ispit, imaćete tu osnovne, osnovne stvari o ovim sociolingvističkim pojmovima. (ml5) ‘then it will serve (.) something you will be able to use when you study for the exam, while searching for the definitions of language policy, the relation between language policy, language planning and standardisation, therefore, you have everything in that article. so, when you prepare for the exam, you will have the basic things about these sociolinguistic notions.’ (22) proučite program. pitaću vas sve vezano oko toga. znači, štagod vas budem pitala (.) na ispitu, povezaću s programom (ml8) ‘study the programme. i will ask you everything about it. so, whatever i ask you (.) in the exam, i will connect with the programme.’ this step is implicitly related to the step showing the importance/relevance of topic, as it suggests the significance of the current lecture topic for the future exam. therefore, it is expressed through the noun exam, and the verbs use, serve and ask, or even the statement i’ll ask you everything about it, implying the relevance of the topic. same as referring to the exam, the step referring to the course is not recognised by the previous studies. it displays a little higher frequency in the montenegrin lectures than in the british (33.3% and 25%). let us have a look at excerpts 23 and 24. (23) okay so this is the first [0.2] of [0.9] a few lect-, few lectures er [0.4] eight lectures [0.4] on [0.5] historical linguistics or language change (el5) british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 119 (24) u okviru sintakse padeža ostalo nam je još da uradimo instrumentalne sintagme sa predlozima i lokativne sintagme takođe sa predlozima. (ml3) ‘within the syntax of cases, we are left with covering the instrumental phrases with prepositions and locative phrases also with prepositions.’ in this step, british and montenegrin lecturers put the topic in the context of the entire course. they announce the number of a lecture, the first in 23, or use the construction ostalo nam je još da uradimo ‘we are left with covering’ in 24, denoting the last lecture. professors also refer to the specific name of courses. referring to other course(s) is a step that was not identified in the previous research. although optional, it is found solely in the montenegrin lecture introductions. this step makes a connection between other courses and the current lecture, putting topic in appropriate context. montenegrin professors link what students already know in other courses to the current lecture, as in the following example: (25) ok. dakle, današnja tema je leksikologija, pa da vidimo šta vi znate o leksikologiji. (zp) šta je to što ste učili, dakle, iz predmeta maternji jezik? učili ste pretpostavljam šta je <leksema>, jel’ tako? i čime se leksikologija bavi. (ml2) ‘ok. so, today’s topic is lexicology, let’s see what you know about lexicology. (zp) so, what is that what you studied in the course mother tongue? you studied i suppose what a <lexeme> is, didn’t you? and what lexicology deals with. in example 25, after the announcement of the current lecture topic, a montenegrin lecturer poses questions relating to what students already know in the mother tongue course. this way the lecturer, via a comparative approach, builds on students’ previous knowledge, as the knowledge in the l1 course is connected with the lecture topic. the professor thus creates a broader contextual framework for the current lecture topic. 5. conclusion these findings have revealed specific differences and similarities between the corpora with regard to the move structure of lecture introductions in the linguistics discipline. the major differences the analysis has yielded are the following: branka živković ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128120 1. lecture introductions in english have a more elaborate framework including three moves – move 1: orienting the students, move 2: setting-up lecture framework and move 3: putting topic in context. move 1, composed of the steps greeting the students and thanking the students, is not a part of the montenegrin lecture introductions structure. however, as this move is optional, further research into a larger corpus is recommended. 2. the steps outlining the structure and showing the importance/relevance of topic display a much higher frequency in the british corpus, while the incidence of the step referring to earlier lecture(s) is around two times greater in the montenegrin one. this result suggests that the lecture sequence and the significance of the current topic are more heavily emphasised in the british linguistic lecture introductions, whereas relating what was done in previous lectures to the current topic seems to be more important in the montenegrin ones. 3. the steps referring to the exam and referring to other course(s) are only a part of the montenegrin lecture introductions. this implies the significance of relating the current topic to the future exam, as well as connecting what was learnt in other course(s) to the issue presented in the current lecture. the knowledge from other disciplines linked with linguistics appears to be very useful for students to build upon in the current course content. the major similarity the british and montenegrin lecture introductions share lies in the use of two obligatory moves: move 2: setting-up lecture framework and move 3: putting topic in context and their similar linguistic signals. this leads to the conclusion that the influence of the lecture genre seems to outweigh that of the language lectures are delivered in. nonetheless, the abovementioned specific differences should be borne in mind, as they could be of help to british and montenegrin professors when teaching students who are nonnative speakers of english and montenegrin1. “in many university contexts, lecturers are generally not trained in how to lecture” (lee, 2009, p. 53). this is also the case with the english language and literature department of the university of montenegro, where its students, preparing for obtaining the degree as english teachers, have an english language teaching methodology course that does not encompass how to give lectures at university level. additionally, in the context of the internationalisation of universities and the introduction of emi courses, emi lecturers also need to british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 121 be trained on how to present the lecture content in english, as they are not language experts and need tailor-made emi support. hence, the findings might provide the empirical basis for designing syllabi about disciplinaryspecific methodology for emi courses at the level of tertiary education which could include, among other aspects, a focus on the linguistic and rhetorical structures employed by professors in lectures as a type of naturally occurring academic discourse. as for the resemblance between the model presented and those previously established in the literature, this one is very similar to existing models. however, this model differs when it comes to the steps referring to the course, referring to the exam and referring to other course(s), which are original to this study. they were not identified in the previous research, which is one of the contributions of the present study. however, future research into a larger corpus is needed to confirm their status with more certainty. further research could also empirically examine how familiarising students with the structure of lecture introductions influences their comprehension of the lecture content. further lines of investigation might also include examination of the rhetorical structure and linguistic specificities of the lectures held in english in montenegro, in comparison with native english speakers’ lectures. this exploratory study has its own limited focus in that it compares relatively small sets of lectures. albeit enough to describe the rhetorical structure of lecture introductions and its linguistic realisations in two languages, the current corpora could be extended in future research to incorporate more lectures so as to provide broader generalisations taking into account that lectures might vary from one another depending on factors such as lecturing styles or type of lectures. given that the knowledge of formal and linguistic schema, i.e. the rhetorical structure of a text and its linguistic features, plays an important role in l1 and l2 language systems, affecting its comprehension in a language (yang, 2010, p. 175), the current research findings obtained through cross-linguistic study may assist non-anglophone and anglophone lecturers and students in becoming more aware of the rhetorical structure of lecture introductions and their linguistic features. such awareness could help lecturers to be more attentive to their own lecture discourse in university settings, as they may deliver lectures to students of various linguistic backgrounds. on the other hand, by becoming familiar with the rhetorical organization of lecture branka živković ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128122 introductions students might become more proficient in the lecture comprehension process. at the theoretical level, the present study may contribute to contrastive linguistics and contrastive literature on academic lectures. “observations from small-scale studies of a limited set of languages (often only two) form the basis for hypotheses about universal linguistic principles” (nordrum, 2015: 328). the findings suggest that employing structural and linguistic choices in lectures is a phenomenon concerning not only one language, and, therefore, calls for its further investigation in other language pairs. the current research could be a starting point for additional cross-linguistic explorations of lectures in english and other languages with a potential of adding “explanatory power and theoretical value to contrastive linguistics as a field” (nordrum, 2015: 328). article history: received 2 june 2020 received in revised form 18 october 2021 accepted 4 march 2022 references british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 123 ädel, a. 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(1980). genre and structure of biomedical speeches. forum linguisticum, 5, 140169. du bois, j.w. (1991). transcription design principles for spoken discourse research. pragmatics, 1, 71-106. hyland, k. (2013). esp and writing. in b. paltridge & s. starfield (eds.), the handbook of english for specific purposes (pp. 95-113). john wiley & sons inc. jefferson, g. (2004). glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. in g. lerner (ed.), conversation analysis: studies from the first generation (pp. 13-31). john benjamins. lee, j.j. (2009). size matters: an exploratory comparison of smalland large-class university lecture introductions. english for specific purposes, 28, 42-57. lorés-sanz, r. (2004). on ra abstracts: from rhetorical structure to thematic organization. english for specific purposes, 23(3), 280-302. nordrum, l. (2015). review of the book contrastive discourse analysis – functional and corpus perspectives, by m. taboada, s. doval suárez & e. gonzález álvarez (eds.). linguistics and the human sciences, 10(3), 327-332. branka živković received her phd in linguistics from the university of montenegro, faculty of philology. at the same faculty she teaches modern english language 3 – level c1.1, modern english language 4 – level c1.2, functional and transformational syntax, as well as translation of economic texts and translation of legal texts from english. at the faculty of civil engineering, the faculty of electrical engineering and the faculty of medicine of the university of montenegro, she teaches english for specific purposes. her main research interests include contrastive linguistics, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, academic discourse, genre analysis, pragmatics. her more recent publications have appeared in revista española de lingüística aplicada/spanish journal of applied linguistics, revista signos. estudios de lingüística, círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación and zeitschrift für slawistik, among others. notes 1 the regional varieties of former serbo-croatian are also serbian, bosnian and croatian, altogether with montenegrin being a part of the dialect continuum of south slavic languages. although the four languages have become official languages of bosnia and hercegovina, croatia, montenegro and serbia, they are one language from the linguistic point of view (bugarski, 2018: 101). they are spoken by “nearly branka živković ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128124 palmer silveira, j.c. (2004). delivery strategies in classroom lectures: organising the message. in p. garcés conejos, r. gómez morón, l. fernández amaya & m. padilla cruz (eds.), current trends in intercultural, cognitive and social pragmatics (pp. 97-114). editorial kronos. savić, s. (1993). diskurs analiza [discourse analysis]. univerzitet u novom sadu. shamsudin, s., & ebrahimi, s.j. (2013). analysis of the moves of engineering lecture introductions. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 70, 1303-1311. sinclair, j.m., & coulthard, r.m. (1975). towards an analysis of discourse: the english used by teachers and pupils. oxford university press. swales, j. (1981). aspects of article introductions. university of aston. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge university press. thompson, s. (1994). frameworks and contexts: a genre-based approach to analysing lecture introductions. english for specific purposes, 13(2), 171-186. thompson, s.e. (2003). text-structuring metadiscourse, intonation and the signalling of organization in academic lectures”. journal of english for academic purposes, 2(1), 5-20. yaakob, s. (2013). a genre analysis and corpus based study of university lecture introductions [doctoral dissertation]. the university of birmingham. <https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/5241/1/yaak ob14phd.pdf> yang, s.s. (2010). the influence of schema and cultural difference on l1 and l2 reading. english language teaching, 3(4), 175-180. young, l. (1990). language as behaviour, language as code: a study of academic english. john benjamins. young, l. (1994). university lectures – macrostructure and micro-features. in j. flowerdew (ed.), academic listening: research perspectives (pp. 159-176). cambridge university press. 20 million people in four countries of the western balkans: the republics of bosnia and herzegovina, croatia, montenegro, and serbia” and a large number of speakers living in diaspora (taken from: <https://slavic.ku.edu/why-study-bosniancroatianserbian-bcs-ku-slavic-department>). 2 the transcriptions used in this study come from the british academic spoken english (base) corpus, which was developed at the universities of warwick and reading under the directorship of hilary nesi (warwick) and paul thompson (reading). corpus development was assisted by the universities of warwick and reading, baleap, euralex, the british academy and the arts and humanities research board. 3 the written part of the bnc is 90%, whereas the spoken part constitutes 10% of the bnc. 4 formal permission to record lectures at the university of montenegro was obtained. 5 the audio files of the lectures from the base corpus are “only available to students and academic staff in the centre for applied linguistics for research and teaching purposes” (taken from: <https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collections/base/>). therefore, seven british lecture transcripts from the base corpus were read. the five remaining ones from the bnc and sacll were both read and listened to. all the montenegrin lecture transcripts were read and their audio files were listened to. 6 the second rater is a colleague holding a phd in applied linguistics with the research interest into discourse and genre analysis. 7 its english equivalent is ‘with’. 8 the list is based on accessible literature on transcription symbols used in discourse analysis (du bois, 1991; savić, 1993; cameron, 2001; jefferson, 2004). british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 125 appendix 1: corpora details. table a1.1. montenegrin corpus details. branka živković ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128126 branka !ivkovi" ibérica 43(2022): …-… appendix 1. categories corresponding to the linguistic features analysed in this work. lecture codes course /subject n of words lecture duration (h:min:s) ml1 contemporary montenegrin (the syntax of simple and complex sentences) 6,674 48:52 ml2 introduction to linguistics ii 9,757 56:43 ml3 contemporary montenegrin (the syntax of cases) 7,321 53:15 ml4 introduction to linguistics i 7,946 1:05:32 ml5 sociolinguistics 7,800 1:01:59 ml6 phonetics 4,218 44 ml7 discourse analysis 2,220 40:46 ml8 methodology of teaching language and literature 16,204 1:46:20 ml9 contemporary montenegrin (standardasation and orthography) 3,553 45:36 ml10 contemporary montenegrin (orthography with speech culture) 3,535 46:03 ml11 contemporary montenegrin (accentology and introduction to dialectology) 4,933 48:53 ml12 semantics 12,605 2:16:27 n of words and total duration 86,766 12:43:26 table a1.1. montenegrin corpus details. table a1.2. british corpus details. appendix 2: transcription symbols table a2.1. transcription symbols8. british and montenegrin university lecture introductions: a corpus-based study of their rhetorical structure ibérica 43 (2022): 103-128 127 british and montenegrin university lecture introductions ibérica 43 (2022): …-… lecture codes department/institution lecture title n of words lecture duration (h:min:s) el1 applied linguistics applied linguistics and language teaching 15,745 1:38:47 el2 celte (centre for english language teacher education) collaborative learning 7,473 0:42:07 el3 celte (centre for english language teacher education) dictionaries 8,965 0:55:34 el4 english essay writing and scholarly practice 9,129 0:46:07 el5 linguistics historical linguistics 8,256 0:47:58 el6 king's college london syntax 6,982 1:02:32 el7 celte (centre for english language teacher education) research methodology: vocabulary 8,826 0:47:06 el8 celte (centre for english language teacher education) using video tapes in elt 5,097 1:04:41 el9 university of reading (sacll (self-access center for language learning)) internet linguistics 7,593 50:28 el10 university of reading (sacll (self-access center for language learning)) global languages 5,547 51:34 el11 university of reading (sacll (self-access center for language learning)) the history of english 6,384 43:43 el12 university of reading (sacll (self-access center for language learning)) the history of writing 4,245 44:47 n of words and total duration 92,242 10:55:24 table a1.2. british corpus details. branka !ivkovi" ibérica 43(2022): …-… appendix 2: transcription symbols symbol meaning <> slower relative to surrounding talk >< speeded up relative to surrounding talk abrupt cut off of sound = overlapping talk ? rising intonation question . closing intonation (.) a short pause or gap (...) a longer pause or gap (zp) filled pause ! laugh ______ _ emphasised relative to surrounding talk (nejasno) transcriber unable to hear word p professor s student studenti students table a2.1. transcription symbols8. iberica 13 ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract practitioners and academics have long admitted that metaphor is part of the language of the law, both in general areas and in specific fields (company law or criminal law, amongst others), and have recognized its role as basic for legal persuasion and reasoning. such persuasive power becomes necessary not only in legal proceedings, but also when new instruments and procedures are introduced, which may come across opposition. this is the case within the european union with what has been termed “judicial cooperation”, a wide label encompassing a number of strategies and instruments making it possible to overcome problems arising from various national jurisdictions being involved in a case. in the face of resistance from some politicians, and even judicial actors, a whole body of legitimizing discourse is required, where persuasive metaphors are essential. one of these legitimation instruments is the wide array of scholarly papers analysing the evolution of judicial cooperation and attempting to underline the benefits of such cooperation. in these papers, there are frequent metaphors that conceptualize abstract notions with desirable metaphor framings based on living beings and on tangible objects (especially instruments, buildings, areas and structures), or portraying cooperation as a journey where progress is either the only acceptable option or a weapon in a fight against cross-border crime. conversely, non-cooperation is associated with negative images, mainly obstacles and barriers, and is even seen as a disease for which the legal measures are “remedies” that “alleviate mistrust”. our study, based on an ad hoc sample of scholarly papers dealing with european judicial cooperation, will examine the “liaison magistrates” and “contact points” as a “remedy” against “high levels of mistrust”: metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation miguel ángel campos-pardillos universidad de alicante (spain) ma.campos@ua.es 231 ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 miguel ángel campos-pardillos role of metaphors within an argumentative strategy aimed at legitimizing cooperation procedures. keywords: legal metaphor, eu judicial cooperation, metaphor and persuasion. resumen “magistrados de enlace” y “puntos de contacto” como “cura” frente a “altos niveles de desconfianza”: imágenes metafóricas en artículos académicos sobr e c ooperación judicial en la ue desde hace tiempo, profesionales y académicos vienen admitiendo que la metáfora forma parte del lenguaje jurídico, tanto en campos generales como en ramas específicas (el derecho mercantil o el penal, entre otros), y han reconocido su papel como básico para la persuasión y la argumentación jurídicas. dicho poder persuasivo se hace necesario no solo en procesos jurídicos, sino también cuando se introducen nuevos instrumentos y procedimientos que pueden encontrarse con oposición. tal es el caso, en el seno de la unión europea, de lo que ha venido en llamarse “cooperación judicial”, concepto amplio que incluye diversas estrategias e instrumentos que permiten superar los problemas que suscita el que en un único procedimiento estén afectadas varias jurisdicciones nacionales. ante la resistencia de algunos políticos, e incluso de miembros de la profesión judicial, se hace precisa una estructura completa de discurso de legitimación, en el que las metáforas son esenciales. uno de estos instrumentos consiste en la amplia variedad de artículos académicos que analizan la evolución de la cooperación judicial y tratan de poner de relieve sus beneficios. en estos artículos, hay frecuentes metáforas que transmiten conceptos abstractos mediante marcos metafóricos deseables y atractivos, basados en seres vivos y en objetos tangibles (sobre todo instrumentos, edificios, espacios y estructuras), o que describen la cooperación como un viaje en el que la única opción aceptable es avanzar hacia adelante, o en un arma en la lucha contra los delitos transfronterizos. por el contrario, la no cooperación se asocia a imágenes negativas, principalmente obstáculos y barreras, e incluso se ve como una enfermedad para la cual las medidas jurídicas son “remedios” que “calman la desconfianza”. nuestro estudio, basado en una muestra creada al efecto de artículos académicos sobre cooperación judicial europea, abordará el papel de las metáforas dentro de una estrategia argumentativa destinada a legitimar los procedimientos de cooperación. palabras clave: metáfora jurídica, cooperación judicial en la ue, metáfora y persuasión. 232 1. introduction: european judicial cooperation in the negotiations before the maastricht treaty in the 1990s, “police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters” was conceived as one of the three pillars of european integration, or order to combat drug trafficking and weapons smuggling, terrorism, trafficking in human beings, organised crime, bribery and fraud. although the “pillar” structure was later abandoned after the treaty of lisbon, the initial desire to promote cooperation and harmonization remained in what was termed a “post-september 11 environment”, when governments and citizens began to partake of an idea already known to judges: crime had no borders. during the first decades of the european union, extradition and cooperation in europe were governed by multilateral treaties, such as the european convention on extradition (1957) or the european convention on the suppression of terrorism (1977). however, these instruments were regarded as insufficient, especially since the schengen agreement of 1990. this feeling, strengthened by the political and social pressure after the 2001 terrorist attacks, gave rise to a number of procedures and instruments, the most important being the european arrest warrant (hereinafter, eaw), approved by council framework decision of 13 june 2002, meant to ensure the mutual enforcement of arrest warrants and eliminate the need for extradition (traditionally affected by political and diplomatic factors). nevertheless, this was not the only measure for eu judicial cooperation: other instruments came along, such as the european evidence warrant (council framework decision 2008/978/jha of 18 december 2008), which supplemented various agreements already in existence since the 1980s, regarding the transfer of sentenced persons, the transfer of proceedings in criminal matters and the enforcement of sentences. these legal instruments were supported by the creation of specific bodies and networks, like the european judicial network (1998), eurojust (2002) and probably in a near future, the european public prosecutor. the practical result was that many political and administrative obstacles were removed for cooperation and the system was run by the judiciary in its entirety (for further analysis and comprehensive information on the eaw, see ouwerkerk, 2011). however, as we shall see in the following sections, all these areas where cooperation is proposed have a high symbolic component, since they involve concepts of sovereignty (and nationalism), on the one hand, and the protection of human rights, on the other. therefore, a strong ideological metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 233 task is necessary both to overcome existent concepts and to promote new ones in the face of powerful anti-eu and anti-cooperation discourses (see spencer, 2004). given that all these concepts are abstract, there is the need to give them a concrete existence so that they may be understood and approved of by decision-makers, but also by legal professionals and the general public. this is where metaphor comes into play, as a basic tool for abstract reasoning (goatly, 2007: 14). our study will explore how metaphors are used by academics in order to represent and, more importantly, legitimize european judicial cooperation, a type of discourse that, to the best of our knowledge, has received scarce attention. 2. theoretical framework 2.1. metaphor and law: the state of the art if our understanding is conditioned by metaphors, it is only normal that all domains of human knowledge and activity contain metaphorical language. such is the case of law, where both legal scholars and academics have explicitly accepted it as one of the basic components of legal language (cf. murray, 1984; henly, 1987; schane, 2006). from a purely objective point of view, if we consider the fundamental role of metaphor in the understanding of abstract notions (lakoff & johnson, 1980), by explaining and modelling them (on this, see goatly, 1997: 149), the specific abstract nature of legal concepts and reasoning requires resorting to metaphorical thinking in order to allow us to understand and grasp what the law entails; as henly (1987: 85) has aptly described, “the very act of judging requires category jumps –from fact to law, from passion to principle, from persons to rules”. indeed, metaphor is present not only in specific terminology or in legitimation discourses, but also lies at the origin of many apparently non-metaphorical words which are central to law, such as “appeal”, “case” or “prove” (watt, 2013) or even legal prepositions and syntax (for instance, the use of “down” or “under” in “hand down a judgment” or “under the terms herein”, based on control is up, things controlled are down). in fact, the figurative nature of legal language goes to the extent that, once metaphorical lexis is introduced in order to express non-existent concepts (mentioned by goatly, 1997: 149), many concepts in legal language are simply not describable in non-metaphorical terms. this has great implications, not only for the importance of metaphor in general, but also for the impossibility to view these concepts from a neutral perspective, as shall be seen below. miguel ángel campos-pardillos ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256234 more specifically, metaphors have also been seen at work in areas like corporate law (berger, 2004, 2007; greenwood, 2005), constitutional law (jackson, 2006), copyright law (larsson, 2013), or criminal law (duncan, 1994). what is more important, metaphors have been so central to law that there is a constant transfer of metaphorical frames from the legal to the political sphere and back, as has been shown by lakoff and wehling (2012), not only regarding the “corporations are persons” debate, but also more recently, with respect to the “health is a product” or “taxes are a burden” metaphors, which have been shown to have a highly ideological content. indeed, this ideological content is central to the analysis of metaphor, since metaphors do not only “illustrate” or “explain”, but are consciously or unconsciously chosen to promote a conceptualization of events. for instance, when critics of abortion describe its legalization as a step in a “slippery slope”, a very powerful, fear-instilling image is created of society (and therefore, citizens) going downhill from the legalization of abortion into an abyss of anarchy. also, when it is said that “penumbra” is a space within legal reasoning, judges are justified not to use logic and precedent and follow their instinct, something that would legitimize practices that run counter to the principle of stare decisis, central to the common law system (henly, 1987: 87). as may be seen, metaphor is a useful tool in legal controversies; however, the debate regarding judicial cooperation is not only a legal one (i.e. it does not only involve human rights or the protection of the individual), but also a political one, especially if we consider that judicial cooperation is sponsored by (and the consequence of) a relatively recent political development such as the european union. accordingly, the following section will briefly explore what the role of metaphor has been in eu discourse. 2.2. the eu and metaphor in the same way metaphors are used to legitimize or delegitimize legal measures and positions, the european union is also creating its own legitimation discourse as a supra-national entity. metaphor is essential for this construction, given that nations themselves largely exist in the mind of their citizens through metaphorical images (drulák, 2006; musolff, 2016: 93ff). the ideological construction of the eu through metaphor has received plenty of attention from the academia, regarding the european union itself metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 235 (musolff, 2004; drulák, 2006), its enlargements (hülsse, 2006), its role as an international actor (barbé et al., 2015) or even to construct discourses of inclusion and exclusion in european identity (wodak, 2007). in general, these metaphors have succeeded in establishing both what the european union is (a body, an area, a space, a building) and what it can do (a model, an instrument, a player, a force). in fact, a sizeable part of institutional eu terminology is largely metaphorical: the most fitting description is that put forward by drulák (2006: 16), who portrays the eu as a whole as a “target domain which can be metaphorically bridged to several source domains”. as we pointed out earlier, and given the power of metaphor to promote a given interpretation of events, it follows that little, if any, of eu institutional language is neutral. metaphors, amongst other tools, are at work especially when, as we hinted above, the existence of the eu is constantly questioned, both in itself (“should it exist or not”?) and concerning its role (“should it be merely an economic community, or advance towards greater integration?). hence the importance of legitimation discourses, which are hardly necessary in the case of nation states, since they are mostly accepted as they are, both by their citizens and by others, and have existed for centuries. this can hardly be said about the eu, a comparatively “young” (and thus frail) entity, constantly fighting in order to preserve its own existence (with some states leaving and others facing growing internal pressure in such direction), or against accusations of lack of accountability or transparency or, at times, democratic default (hix, 2008; scharpf, 2011; majone, 2014). political developments also mean that metaphor in eu ideological construction is by no means static. thus, it has even been observed that there has been an evolution in the metaphors used. as noted by guzzetti (1995: 168), for instance, the metaphor of “space”, which seemed to be prevalent (e.g. “euro area”, “european economic area”, “european higher education area”), has comparatively lost weight compared to that of “networks” (e.g. the european judicial network, the european migration network, enterprise europe network) in order to stress integration between the parts of a whole. 3. our study in order to show how metaphor contributes to the legitimation of the european arrest warrant and other instruments of judicial cooperation in miguel ángel campos-pardillos ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256236 the eu, we manually extracted all metaphors used to refer to judicial cooperation from a selection of 13 academic papers dealing with the topic (see primary references section). the approach is qualitative, since the focus was more on the metaphors themselves than on density or sheer numbers, although mention will be made if a given metaphor or image is a very pervasive one. the method for metaphor detection follows the proposal by the pragglejaz group (2007), whereby metaphors are manually extracted and identified as such if the contextual meaning of a word or expression differs from the basic meaning, but still allows some connection between one and the other. the purpose being to analyse the conceptualization of judicial cooperation, metaphors not related to such cooperation were disregarded for the study, like “heads of state and government”, even if they pertained to legal language (e.g. “serve a sentence”). the result was a total of 186 metaphors related to judicial cooperation, from a total word count of 75,677 words. regarding our analysis, although other authors have classified legal metaphors on the basis of the “great chain of being metaphor” (vegara, 2014, 2015), in the specific case of legal cooperation we have preferred to resort to the more “classical” three-tiered taxonomy by lakoff and johnson (1980: 14) of ontological metaphors, structural metaphors and orientational metaphors, as we have considered that, due to its simpler nature, it provides better insights on the effects of those metaphors in order to conceptualize and legitimize judicial cooperation. the following section shows the most interesting source domain subcategories found. 4. analysis of the results in this section, we shall comment on the most salient metaphors used to describe (and justify) judicial cooperation. in order to visualize the metaphorical associations through the effects they produce, we have subdivided the ontological metaphors into “living beings” and “object” metaphors, and grouped the structural and the orientational metaphors as follows: metaphors of living beings object metaphors (physical properties, instruments, containers) metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 237 structural metaphors: • journey and position metaphors • fight metaphors 4.1. metaphors of living beings one of the most usual techniques in human perception is considering animals, objects and even concepts as living beings. this animation of instruments and organizations (cooperation measures and organizations are living beings) provides them with “living” features, which is why beginnings and endings become births and deaths (in each example, the metaphor is italicized, and the name of the author(s) of the paper is indicated between brackets): (1) it [surrender of prisoners] was given birth in the statute of the international criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia (plachta) (2) the grand concept of an espace judiciare européen […] seemed to have died a quiet death (vermeulen). the metaphor of the “body” itself is a frequent one although lexicalized (the oed [2009] shows metaphorical examples ever since the renaissance, such as “the entire body of the scripture” in 1593), and it is based on law is a body and on legal cooperation organizations are bodies, which implicitly means that, like human bodies, they are coordinated and have a common purpose: (3) a single eu body of law based on mutual recognition (nilsson) (4) eurojust, a body of prosecutors and judges having its seat in the hague (nilsson) the conceptualization as bodies, in turn, leads to metaphorical tokens of body parts: (5) it is also at the heart of its added-value as it allows eurojust to assist member states (thwaites) within living beings, human metaphors allow a “peer-to-peer” approximation to concepts, seen by addressees as “one of us”. this view, miguel ángel campos-pardillos ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256238 which lies at the root of other phenomena, such as anthropomorphism, creates empathy between the addressee and the concept, especially when there is a danger that the connection may not occur; in the words of epley et al. (2007: 864), “[a]nthropomorphized agents can act as powerful agents of social connection when human connection is lacking”. once established as humans (cooperation, courts, states and organizations are human beings), target domains share the traits of human beings and are capable of human attitudes and feelings: (6) it [the area of freedom, security and justice] drew inspiration from the creation of the so-called internal market of the european community (nilsson) (7) this is done by stimulating and improving judicial co-ordination (thwaites) (8) the newly proposed regime is over-ambitious (apap & carrera) within human attitudes, there is a specific scenario where cooperation, courts and states relate as humans would, i.e. they trust each other and, as a result, they recognize each other. in the case of “trust”, the token often appears in the combined metaphorical schema “building trust”, which refers to institutional efforts to overcome suspicion that foreign legal systems are not up to standard (for instance, in the protection of human rights, and therefore “may not be trusted”). in the following examples, “trust” is attributed to member states as agents, and in some cases (11) “mistrust” is both a physical entity with vertical gradation and capable of “locking” an extradition system: (9) policy orientations may or may not overcome the persistent mistrust and lack of confidence among the member states (apap & carrera) (10) approximation and harmonization of legislation and mutual trust in each other’s legal systems is therefore absolutely necessary (felfoldi) (11) the eu extradition system, which still seems locked in a rather high level of mistrust (apap & carrera) one of the central concepts in european judicial cooperation, defined in european instruments, is that of “recognition”, even as part of the name of various cooperation texts (council regulation (ec) no 44/2001 and regulation (eu) no 1215/2012 on civil and commercial matters, council metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 239 regulation (ec) no 2201/2003, on matrimonial matters and parental responsibility). the concept is also based on human attitudes (human beings recognize one another), where the subject is usually the courts (or states) and the object is the judicial decision: (12) non-custodial pre-trial supervision measures are not recognised between states (ljungquist) (13) […] implement the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions (apap & carrera) the extent to which states and cooperation are seen as humans is so great that there is also a metaphor whereby mistrust and lack of cooperation are viewed as a disease afflicting such humans, and the cooperation measures become the remedy: (14) transfer of the evidence to the issuing state without delay unless a legal remedy is underway (williams) (15) it also seeks to alleviate the apparent mistrust among the current and future eu member states (apap & carrera) 4.2. object metaphors: where judicial cooperation becomes tangible as we have argued earlier, the apprehension of abstract concepts is not a simple matter, which is why in many languages the concept of physical, three-dimensional existence is equated to reality, as in expressions like “tangible results” or “materialize”. in the case of judicial cooperation, especially when seen as theoretical and difficult to achieve, it is capital to provide it with “tangible” nature (cooperation is an object with physical properties), so that the feeling is created that the cooperation exists in what henly (1987: 82) calls “the world of objects”. in this way, the eaw can occupy the “physical place” of extradition (16) or help (17), a europe without borders (18) can have a physical shape, and importance can also be measured in terms of relative weight (20) or size (21): (16) european arrest warrant – is it an improved method to replace extradition? (apap & carrera) (17) the help provided by eurojust can take various shapes such as putting different member states’ competent authorities in contact (thwaites) miguel ángel campos-pardillos ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256240 (18) hand in hand with the shaping of a europe without internal borders, the eu had to face an increased vulnerability regarding its internal security (bogensberger & troosters) (19) …what we have in the framework decision is a horizontal system, as opposed to a vertical one. (plachta) (20) does the eaw guarantee a good balance between efficiency and judicial protection of the individual’s fundamental rights? (apap & carrera) (21) the evidence being sought is necessary and proportionate for the proceedings in question. (williams) when something has physical, three-dimensional existence, it can be used by the homo faber to do things. thus, the metaphor law is an instrument/tool is a frequent one (as is also in its application to the european union as such), to the extent that the word “instrument” has developed an established meaning of “a formal writing of any kind, as an agreement, deed, charter, or record, drawn up and executed in technical form, so as to be of legal validity” (oed). although the meaning has been lexicalized, the use of “instrument” applied to legal texts (treaties, directives, regulations) still evokes – although at an unconscious, nonexplicit level – problem-solving through physical means: (22) most on the treaties and other legal instruments mentioned in this article may be found at the council of the eu website (nilsson) (23) this instrument [the framework decision] will apply the principle of mutual recognition to a judicial decision (vermeulen) however, in some other examples the occurrences are more explicitly metaphorical, as they depart from the pure naming of “statutory texts” and explicitly refer to the fact that something can be used to do things (reinforcing both its practical nature and the idea that there is a purpose to be attained). thus, “instrument” transmits its core meaning more clearly, together with “tool”, when applied to the european arrest warrant or eurojust: (24) instruments […] may be considered valuable tools for effectively combating cross-border crime in the european union. (apap & carrera) (25) eurojust is a “tool” which can be contacted by the member states’ competent authorities (thwaites) metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 241 in some cases, judicial cooperation is seen as a mechanism or a piece of machinery, which, as can be seen in some of the examples below, is capable of industrial production (“output”), but also needs mechanical “maintenance” (“oil”): (26) this cooperation mechanism between national and european jurisdictions applies, in principle, also in third pillar matters (bogensberger & troosters) (27) the main convention output of the newly established eu machinery in the field of judicial cooperation in criminal matters (vermeulen) (28) to further improve, simplify and speed-up their co-operation; in other words to facilitate or “oil” it (thwaites) another variation of the object metaphor is the conceptualization of judicial cooperation as space. the concept of “area” and “space”, as has been seen above, was a basic one at a time in european institutions. judicial cooperation is no exception, especially since the then french president giscard d’estaing envisaged the espace judiciaire européen or “european legal area” in 1977. although the literal concept was dropped, the notion of space or area helps to give a physical presence to european cooperation, and also acts as a “container” metaphor (in fact, “framework” is so frequent a term that it is unavoidable in eu law): (29) … the mandate to draw up a number of draft conventions which would help to create a european area for judicial cooperation in criminal matters (vermeulen) (30) does an efficient eu framework exist that safeguards the suspected individual’s human rights? (apap & carrera) the advantage of the container metaphor, central to the eu itself (drulák, 2006: 21ff) is that it also enables an objective representation of cooperation, i.e. “those who cooperate are inside, those who do not are outside”: (31) member states can “opt-in” according to different modalities as concerns the authorization to pose questions to the court (bogensberger & troosters) another ontological metaphor creating a strong positive mental association is that of cooperation is a building. political discourse (and miguel ángel campos-pardillos ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256242 persuasive discourse in general) has often resorted to construction metaphors, as does general language (“constructive” criticism is desirable); architectural metaphors have been used to describe european unification (see, for instance, schäffner, 1993), and the image of the “pillar” is a very popular one, amongst others, to describe the role of nato (luoma-aho, 2004). in the case of the european union, as we saw earlier, european integration was once described as a structure resting on “three pillars”, and at the time the papers analysed here were published, the “pillar” image was a very strong one: (32) this cooperation mechanism between national and european jurisdictions applies, in principle, also in third pillar matters (bogensberger & troosters) as can be observed, the “pillar” metaphor has been lexicalized to such extent that it may appear with the correct physical orientation resulting from the comparison (the pillar is under those things it supports), as in (33), but in some cases it has lost its original value and enters other prepositional schemas indicating different relationships, e.g. as a container (34), or even in a higher position than those things it supports, which indicates that, when they occur together, the control is up, things controlled are down metaphor, prevalent in law, is stronger than the “pillar” one (35): (33) framework decision on the protection of the environment by criminal law, based on a third pillar legal base (bogensberger & troosters) (34) the maastricht treaty [...] that recognized for the first time some limited jurisdiction for the court [...] adopted within the framework of the third pillar (bogensberger & troosters) (35) articles 1 to 7 could have been properly adopted on the bases of article 175 tec so that its adoption under the third pillar provisions infringed upon article 47 (zeitler) as a rule, the idea of “building” and “constructing” is very frequent, as endorsed by institutional discourse, which has strongly emphasized the domain of building, which conveys “strength”, “protection”, but also, as will be seen below, “process”. academic papers dealing with european cooperation frequently draw on this scenario, including both buildings and their constituents (including the “foundation”): metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 243 (36) the establishment of a basic level of trust is closely intertwined with the building of an eu judicial area (apap & carrera) (37) such co-ordinated activities have generated constructive results (thwaites) (38) the eu provisions on police and judicial cooperation criminal matters, arts. 29-42 of the title vi of the treaty on the european union (teu), provide the legal foundation […] for the programme (apap & carrera) within the structure of the “european cooperation building”, the image of the “cornerstone” emphasizes the importance of the eaw or of mutual recognition of judgments as a sine qua non component (if the cornerstone is removed, the whole building collapses): (39) it [the eaw] represents a cornerstone for the establishment of a single eu legal and judicial area of extradition (apap & carrera) (40) the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions should become the cornerstone of judicial cooperation (nilsson) the building metaphor can be seen as an event scenario (as a container metaphor), but it also focuses on the process. the advantage is that attention is thus shifted towards the potential benefits, and any problems (described as those in a building site) may be tolerated. in this way, any potential “destructive” metaphors by opponents of judicial cooperation may be deactivated before they are even wielded: (41) the only comforting thought is that the muddle exists, not because europe has built a muddled system, but because the system is at present in a state of transition. viewed as a building-site rather than a completed structure, the muddle becomes bearable. (spencer) a variety of the building metaphor is the “house” or “shelter” domain, also very popular in politics. the “house” was used to describe the eu itself, in the popular expression “common european house” (chilton & ilyin, 1993); its components also appear as a way to express abstract concepts through everyday images: (42) the level of the extradition threshold in the requesting and requested state, as well as the double criminality rule itself, have been debated (vermeulen) miguel ángel campos-pardillos ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256244 (43) any relaxation had to concern the imprisonment threshold and extraditable offences in general (vermeulen) 4.3. structural and orientational metaphors: how cooperation behaves and what it does as we saw earlier, any potential failures in eu judicial cooperation may be “counteracted” by viewing cooperation as a building “under construction”, whereby the ontological metaphor (cooperation is a building) may also be seen as an event/action structural metaphor (to cooperate is to build a house). in the field of structural metaphors, we shall concentrate on two main framings: the journey scenario and the fight scenario. 4.3.1. journey and position metaphors: the road towards cooperation the journey metaphor is an obligatory image in human experience (life itself is “a journey”, and so is death). its use in the language of judicial cooperation is probably where this argumentation comes closer to political discourse: all endeavour is a “path”, where advancing is seen as a good sign. in the case of the european union, the path/journey metaphor is among the most important elements in its ideological construction (musolff, 2004: 39ff). in judicial cooperation, the process is viewed as a journey, the destination being judicial recognition and cooperation: (44) [the european evidence warrant] is to be considered as a first step towards replacing the existing regime (williams) (45) moreover, the starting point was not pursued consistently: if necessary, nonprivative penalties, included monetary sanctions, could be substituted by imprisonment (vermeulen) (46) a genuine eu security strategy or security roadmap to fight everything broadly falling within the so-called ‘internal and external threats to our european societies’ (apap & carrera) within the journey scenario, progress is the only acceptable option, and therefore, improvements are forward movement: (47) eurojust’s unique and unprecedented structure represents an important step forward to enhance multilateral co-operation in eu criminal matters (thwaites) metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 245 (48) does the green paper on procedural safeguards for suspects and defendants in criminal proceedings throughout the eu provide the right way forward? (thwaites) (49) as the progress of the work on the new comprehensive, un-sponsored, convention against terrorism clearly indicates, no such universal definition is in sight (williams) consequently, slow speed or backwards movements are not desirable: (50) the agreement was only ratified at slow pace and only became sort of successful in the second half of the nineties (vermeulen) (51) in the convention of 27 september, ultimately, the step backwards was a small one (bogensberger & troosters) (52) the quasi-automatic renunciation of entitlement to the principle of speciality, on the contrary, represented a considerable regression (bogensberger & troosters) as forward progress towards a destination has been defined as positive, problems/developments in judicial cooperation are physical obstacles: (53) therefore it must not be an obstacle to the application of article 54 of the cisa if different legal classifications may be applied to the same facts in two different member states (bogensberger & troosters) (54) for practitioners to meet and identify blockages to co-operation as well as best practices and/or common procedures (thwaites) (55) fight barriers to effective judicial co-operation (thwaites) along journeys, achievements are also referred to with metaphorical tokens. for example, in line with general legal language, “landmark” is frequently used for decisions with great repercussion in case law (leading to an almost unavoidable expression in legal english, landmark decision/judgment): (56) the court’s ruling is generally considered as a landmark judgment, as it clarifies the distribution of powers between the first and third pillars regarding provisions of criminal law (bogensberger & trosters) a similar concept, but with a different application, is that of “milestone”, also describing a specific point along a journey, but this implies a major miguel ángel campos-pardillos ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256246 achievement reached with difficulty or after negotiation, which is why it is usually applied to treaties or agreements: (57) following the political introduction of the so-called ‘mutual recognition principle’ in the tampere milestones [...] of this new principle in the framework decision of 13 june 2002 on the european arrest warrant (vermeulen) in this respect, a very frequent metaphorical token is the “tampere milestones”, the label for the goals agreed at the tampere european council of 15-16 october 1999, including common asylum and migration policy, a european area of justice, a eu-wide fight against crime and stronger external action. in this case, the milestone metaphor joins the description of mutual recognition of judgments as “the cornerstone of judicial cooperation”. as is frequently the case with metaphors that have become an unavoidable term with no alternative, even critics of the eu’s justice and home affairs policy “accept” this positive metaphor. for instance, in a paper with such a disparaging title as “constructing crises, (in)securitising terror: the punctuated evolution of eu counter-terror strategy”, the author has no other option than to use terms with a great euphoric load, like “third pillar” and the “tampere milestones”, which somehow weakens his open criticism of eu policy, as in “the eu has inflated the threat posed by terrorism” and “counter-terrorism practices can generate greater insecurity inside and outside the union” (oz, 2010: 445). however, it is not only linear journeys that are seen as desirable, but also converging ones, i.e. all of those meaning proximity, the metaphor being close is good, separated is bad. this is a usual metaphorical conceptualization in human cognition, which tends to see, for instance, similarity in terms of proximity and difference in terms of distance. eu law makes frequent use of this image, often resorting to expressions like “approximation of laws” and “alignment with the acquis communautaire” as one of the obligations of eu membership, or as the maastricht treaty suggested, “the approximation of the laws of member states to the extent required for the functioning of the common market” (article 3, h). of course, this proximity would not operate without the object metaphors we saw earlier, so that things may come near each other, and even touch: (58) eurojust has developed a network of contact points in several countries throughout the world to assist it in its mission (thwaites) metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 247 (59) eurojust is linked to a series of related actors such as the european police office (europol), the european anti-fraud office (olaf), the liaison magistrates and the european judicial network (thwaites) (60) eurojust also has links with organisations such as iberred (the iberoamerican network for judicial co-operation) (thwaites) in general, as these examples show, the underlying metaphor is that good relationships are physical contact or immediate proximity. such physical contact is at the root of two very important figures in european judicial cooperation with a highly metaphorical load: the “contact points” and the “liaison magistrate”. the “contact points” are the basis of the european judicial network, defined by article 1 of council joint action 98/428/jha of 29 june 1998 as “a network of judicial contact points […] set up between the member states”. for its part, the “liaison magistrate” is a common occurrence in international cooperation, a judge facilitating legal assistance with other states (both within the eu and third countries). through the use of liaison, the relationship is a physical one, but also an image that brings in connotations of cooking (liaison was originally borrowed from french with regard to cooking sauces, according to the oed), intimate relationships or military coordination (which in turn takes us to the fight metaphors we shall see below, especially in the back-formation “liaise”, born in military jargon): (61) eurojust’s specific task is to actively liaise between the member states’ competent authorities (nilsson) (62) they also foresee the secondment of liaison prosecutors (thwaites) when contact (the ideal scenario) is not possible, a movement in the right direction is that implying greater proximity, in such a way that (increased) proximity is good, (greater) distance is bad: (63) eurojust’s daily work has an impact on eu member states by bringing them closer without however changing their criminal laws (thwaites) (64) title vi of the eu-treaty, which contains provisions on police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters [...] calls for closer cooperation between police forces and the judiciary (bogensberger & troosters) special emphasis can be made here on approximation, an extension of the proximity schema which has also become a central concept in european law. in eu terminology “approximation” designates the process whereby eu law miguel ángel campos-pardillos ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256248 is transposed and implemented in member states and in candidate countries (the metaphor of “unification” or “uniformity” is excessive, and almost taboo, given the fear of states of losing sovereignty): (65) the necessary approximation of legislation will facilitate cooperation between authorities and the judicial protection of individual rights (plachta) (66) the application of the ne-bis-in-idem principle is not made conditional upon harmonisation, or at the least approximation, of the criminal laws of the member states (bogensberger & troosters) closely related to this “approximation”, but also to the human beings metaphors, is the ability to “sing to the same tune”, leading to one of the most powerful terms in eu discourse, that of “harmonization”, which evokes togetherness, but also lack of conflict (“harmony” has become lexicalized as a partial synonym of “peace”): (67) approximation and harmonization of legislation and mutual trust in each other’s legal systems is therefore absolutely necessary (felfoldi) (68) the council has been active in a programme of harmonization of criminal law since 1997 (ligeti) finally, a type of metaphor that logically follows from the conceptualization of abstract concepts as physical ones is the orientational metaphor, whereby abstract concepts, once objectivized, are assigned a spatial locus in terms of one another, such spatial connection also expressing abstract relationships. as we mentioned above, orientational metaphors are very frequent both in everyday use and in legal language (e.g. control is up, things controlled are down), and they appear in our sample as a logical consequence of concepts related to cooperation being given a physical nature: if two objects exist physically, they can be viewed in terms of their spatial relationship, but these relative positions also indicate hierarchical relationships. for instance, the european arrest warrant, cooperation rules and programmes are up and legal measures are down: (69) what are the inherent gaps in the proposed new surrender procedure under the eaw? (apap & carrera) (70) both the scope of authorities whose decisions fall under the mutual recognition rule and the notion of financial penalty needs to be further explained (ligeti) metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 249 also, cooperation is measured vertically, i.e. more is up, less is down, and is conceptualized in terms of higher or lower levels: (71) … achieve an improvement in the level of trust and cooperation in the eu (apap & carrera) (72) the convention of 27 september 1996 relating to extradition between the eu member states, has lowered the threshold in the requested state to six months (vermeulen) finally, vertical upward movement often becomes an image of coming into being: (73) the last decade of the xx century has witnessed the emergence of a new form of international cooperation in criminal matters (plachta) (74) eurojust is gradually emerging a solid and incontrovertible facilitator of judicial co-operation (thwaites) 4.3.2. fight metaphors: the cooperation battle against a common enemy as we mentioned in the introduction to this paper, in order to promote judicial cooperation, crime is portrayed as a cross-border enemy, an image that provides cohesion and prevents internal dissent (“united against a common threat”), and also justifies all measures, however unpopular: after all, as the stockholm programme argued in 2010, “in a global world, crime knows no borders”. therefore, fight metaphors are usual, although legal scholars and practitioners exercise self-contention and avoid the explicit mention of “war on terrorism” which politicians often resort to (steuter & willis, 2008). the difference is important, because a “fight” or a “struggle” may be tempered by human rights considerations and has a number of “rules”, whereas “war” is where everything would be permitted: (75) instruments [...] may be considered valuable tools for effectively combating cross-border crime in the european union (apap & carrera) (76) reflected the concern of the member states to improve judicial cooperation in the struggle against crime (vermeulen) (77) instruments such as the european arrest warrant would thus directly help to tackle the imminent new threats (apap & carrera) miguel ángel campos-pardillos ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256250 (78) the 2000 convention […] is an efficient weapon in the fight against organized crime and terrorism (nilsson) however, it is not only crime that is combated, but also any obstacles to, or criticism of these cooperation bodies or measures. this includes another metaphor which has become lexicalized, “conflict of jurisdiction”: (79) eurojust also faces a series of challenges in the performance of its tasks (thwaites) (80) consequently, such situations may lead to a conflict of jurisdiction, for example when two or more member states have initiated parallel proceedings for the same facts (panayides) 5. conclusions language does not “describe” reality; it “creates” reality. however, language is so immensely powerful that it does not only tell us what exists, but what may exist, what is possible or feasible and what is not. in this respect, as all these examples have illustrated, metaphorical concepts and their expressions can be used to construct a given reality, that of european judicial cooperation, but also to emphasize its potential, to legitimize it and to metaphorically disparage its opponents. in this particular topic, it should not be forgotten that, unlike other situations where laws and legal measures are not debated, legal cooperation is more open to controversy, because, for a start, the legitimacy of the eu to create and implement legal measures is not always accepted (in fact, some eu countries, like denmark, do not participate in some of them). this does not happen with nation-states: when a party wins an election and has a majority in parliament, it is usually “allowed” to pass laws, the only barrier being their constitutionality. but not only this: even if the power of the eu to adopt measures were accepted (not the case), the measures themselves would face strong criticism, both in objective terms of human rights issues, and in supranational terms of sovereignty. this is why the academic controversy is a legal one, but also (and mainly) a political one, and more is expected to come in the near future with impending developments in the eu and worldwide. in this study, we have examined a number of conceptual metaphors on european judicial cooperation, with a special focus on the notions of metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 251 instruments, journeys or houses. some metaphors have a long tradition in legal vocabulary, as witness words like “body” applied to courts or institutions, or “instrument” to documents or statutes, whereas others are more typical of political discourse, such as journey or fight metaphors, and even some are almost proper to judicial cooperation. regarding the effects produced, this paper has shown two main types of metaphors: those that underline the material existence of cooperation through living beings and object scenarios, and those focusing on the achievements made and the difficulties encountered, especially through the journey and the fight scenarios. both act as powerful persuasive instruments in the legitimation of european judicial cooperation, the former for those who do not believe in its feasibility, the latter for those that emphasize its difficulties. moreover, by using those metaphors, a body of “semi-official” terminology is created which usually highlights positive aspects and minimizes (or completely eliminates) negative ones, in such a way that also those who may oppose judicial cooperation might be forced to express themselves through the metaphors used by its supporters (e.g. “judicial recognition”, “tampere milestones”, “liaison magistrates”, “contact points”), and even if these opponents resort to adverse persuasive strategies (or metaphors) of their own, they start the battle at a disadvantage: for instance, were one to talk about of “the failure of the tampere milestones”, the first perception would be that of an oxymoron (“if it is a milestone, it cannot fail, can it?”). in fact, one of the interesting components of the metaphors in our sample, in line with other studies (drulák, 2004: 37), is that they are conventional and institutionalized (most of them are lexicalized), and there is little room for “innovative” metaphors, which may indicate an absence of radical change. an important feature of this study is that it has been carried out with papers by legal scholars who are not necessarily native speakers of english. in our opinion, this can provide insights into the real use of english in a context, such as academic discourses on the eu, where the language norms and the ensuing discourses are not necessarily dictated by native speaker uses, and where there is frequent influence between languages. therefore, an interesting follow-up to this analysis would be gauging to what extent there has been transfer between european languages in these metaphors, especially considering that metaphors in legal and political settings are in a very good position to cross language barriers, and that many of them appear in multilingual documents, such as regulations or directives. it may well be miguel ángel campos-pardillos ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256252 the case that these metaphors are part of a multilingual ideological scenario, which, should it succeed, may be a key factor for the survival, not only of european judicial cooperation, but of the eu itself. article history: received 29 january 2017 received in revised form 7 april 2017 accepted 18 april 2017 references metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 253 apap, j. & s. carrera (2004). “european arrest warrant: a good 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(2015). “legal metaphors in translation: the great chain of being”. cognitive linguistic studies 2,2: 330-348. watt, g. (2013). “rule of the root: proto-indoeuropean domination of legal language” in m. freeman & f. smith (eds.), law and language. current legal issues 15: 571-589. oxford: oxford university press. williams, c. (2006). “the european evidence warrant”. revue internationale de droit penal 77,1: 155-162. wodak, r. (2007). “discourses in european union organizations: aspects of access, participation, and exclusion”. text & talk 27,5/6: 655-680. zeitler, h.e. (2006). “environmental criminal law”. revue internationale de droit penal 77,1: 255-261. miguel ángel campos-pardillos is a senior lecturer at the university of alicante (spain). he has written extensively on legal english and translation, including dictionaries (law, human rights, amongst others), a monograph on american legal language for spanish speakers, and a number of papers and book chapters in international publications. his research interests currently focus on metaphor in legal language and on legal english as a lingua franca. metaphorical imagery in scholarly papers on eu judicial cooperation ibérica 34 (2017): 231-256 255 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract comprehending multisemiotic texts has become a demanding task in all disciplinary domains, not only academic but also professional. reading tables, pictures, graphs and words, as a whole or separately, is a challenge that most students must face. nowadays there exists limited research available combining descriptive and experimental data on this field of study. in this paper, we help fill this gap by combining linguistic corpus descriptions and experimental designs in order to assess reading capacity of university students. the general objective of the paper was to determine if it was possible to comprehend a passage from a disciplinary genre (monetary policy report, mpr) through a single predominant semiotic system. in order to achieve this objective, an experiment with three versions of a text was designed: (a) the original text (verbal and graphs), (b) the text with predominance of graphs, and (c) the text with predominance of the verbal system. the participants were 151 students of a university program in the field of economics in chile. they were divided into two groups: first and third year university students respectively. overall results show no statistically significant differences between the three conditions of the experiment for each group. nonetheless, there are significant differences between the reading scores of both groups, particularly, when the texts were composed predominantly of only one semiotic system (verbal or graphs). no differences were determined in the texts that required an integrated reading of verbal and graph systems. results indicate that students with a higher level of disciplinary insertion (third-year students) were able to comprehend information coded solely through graphs or words and produced a summary that contained the core semantic meaning of the texts given. these findings show that reading more than words: contending semiotic systems and the role of disciplinary knowledge in specialized text comprehension1 giovanni parodi and cristóbal julio pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso (chile) giovanni.parodi@pucv.cl & cristobal.julio@pucv.cl 11 ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 g. parodi & c. julio graphs is a skill that students acquire during instruction in specialized programs, by increasing their knowledge of disciplinary genres such as the mpr. keywords: multisemiotic written genres, reading comprehension, specialized disciplinary texts, economics discourse, monetary policy report. resumen m ás qu e pa l ab ra s : l a t e ns i ón e n tre s i s te ma s s e mió ti c os y e l r ol d e l c on oc i mi e nto d is c ip l in ar e n l a c om pr e ns i ón d e t e xto s e s pe c i al i z a do s la comprensión de textos multisemióticos se ha convertido en una tarea exigente en todos los ámbitos disciplinarios, no sólo académicos sino también profesionales. la lectura de tablas, figuras, gráficos y palabras, juntos o por separado, es un reto al que la mayoría de los estudiantes deben enfrentarse. hoy en día existe escasa investigación disponible que combine datos descriptivos y experimentales de este campo de estudio. este estudio ayuda a llenar este vacío mediante la unión de descripciones lingüísticas de corpus y diseños experimentales, con el fin de evaluar las habilidades de lectura de estudiantes universitarios. este artículo se enfoca en determinar si es posible comprender un pasaje de un género disciplinar (informe de política monetaria, ipom) por medio de un único sistema semiótico predominante. para lograr este objetivo, se diseñó un experimento con tres versiones un texto: (a) el texto original (verbal y gráfico), (b) el texto con predominio del sistema gráfico, y (c) el texto con predominio del sistema verbal. la muestra de lectores se constituyó por 151 estudiantes en un programa universitario en el campo de la economía en chile. se dividieron en dos grupos: estudiantes de primer año y de tercer año. entre los resultados generales no se identificaron diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre las tres condiciones de las pruebas de comprensión en cada grupo independiente de los estudiantes. por otro lado, sí existen diferencias significativas entre las puntuaciones de lectura de los estudiantes universitarios de primer y el tercer año, sobre todo cuando los textos estaban compuestos predominantemente de un solo sistema semiótico (verbal o gráfico). no hubo diferencias significativas en las pruebas que requerían una lectura integrada de los sistemas verbal y gráfico. los resultados indican que los estudiantes con un mayor nivel de inserción disciplinaria (tercer año) fueron capaces de comprender información codificada exclusivamente a través de gráficos o palabras y de producir un resumen que contenía el significado semántico nuclear del texto dado. estos hallazgos muestran que la lectura de gráficos es una habilidad que los estudiantes adquieran durante la instrucción en programas especializados, mediante el aumento de su conocimiento sobre los géneros disciplinares como el ipom. 12 palabras clave: géneros escritos multisemióticos, comprension de lectura, textos disciplinares especializados, discurso de la economía, informe de política monetaria. 1. introduction first and second language reading research has focused mainly on the comprehension of the verbal dimension of written discourse, considering textual and cognitive variables, which arise due to the complexity of the phenomenon (van dijk & kintsch, 1983; de vega, carreiras, gutiérrezcalvo & alonso-quecuty, 1990; kintsch, 1998; de vega & cuetos, 1999; mcnamara & magliano, 2009; alvermann, unrau & ruddell, 2013; parodi, 2003, 2014; parodi, peronard & ibáñez, 2010). from multidisciplinary backgrounds, this type of research has been carried out from mainly two venues: purely scientific and applied to both education and language teaching. the texts used belonged to genres that include everyday life topics, primarily narratives (graesser, singer & trabasso, 1994; arnoux, 2002; león, 2003), and highly specialized and disciplinary genres (otero, león & graesser, 2002; parodi, 2007, 2015; parodi, julio & vásquez-rocca, 2015). comparatively, few studies have addressed the multisemiotic nature of written discourse, either by studying the comprehension of charts, tables, diagrams, and illustrations, or by exploring the interaction between those multisemiotic artifacts and their language cotext. in other words, there is a limited number of scientific studies on how meaning is constructed from the different kinds of information coded in a text, where the verbal and other semiotic systems, such as the pictorial, mathematical, typographical, color, and diagrams work synergistically together (lemke, 1998; o’halloram, 2006; van leeuwen, 2005, 2006, 2011; bateman, 2014). although theoretical and empirical research on multisemiotic text comprehension has yet to advance in order to equal the developments attained by verbal text comprehension studies, research has focused on some multisemiotic domains, such as learning based on multiple representational systems (paivio, 1971, 1986; sadoski & paivio, 2001; holsanova, 2008; holsanova & nord, 2010; aravena, 2011; pereira & gonzález, 2011; gladic, 2012; manghi, 2013; sanchez & wiley, 2014; schüler, arndt & scheiter, 2015), multimedia learning (mayer, 2005, 2009; ainsworth, 2006; segers, verhoeven & hulstijn, 2008; rummer, schweppe, fürstenberg, scheiter & zindler, 2011; rau, michaelis & fay, 2015) and, among others, the study of the cognitive load more than words ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 13 from a variety of code types (sweller, 1988; chandler & sweller, 1991; brüken, steinbacher, plass & leutner, 2002; plass, moreno & brünken, 2010; sweller, ayres & kalyuga, 2011). the present experimental study is based on the aforementioned body of research, but it seeks to advance from a corpus-based approach on specialized genres, offering empirical data on the comprehension of written multisemiotic disciplinary discourse. the corpus was compiled from texts widely used by a specific college discourse community in the field of economics (corpus pucv-ucsc-2013). the general objective was to determine if it was possible to comprehend a passage from a disciplinary genre through a single predominant semiotic system. in order to achieve this objective, three comprehension texts were designed, based on one original version of a rhetorical-functional section of a text taken from the monetary policy report (mpr) genre: (1) predominantly graphs, (2) predominantly verbal, and (3) a combination of both, as in the original text. the three text versions were given to a random sample of 151 university students, grouped into two levels of disciplinary insertion (first and third year students of an economics university undergraduate program). this study aims at answering three research questions: (1) is it possible to understand an excerpt from the mpr genre through a single predominant semiotic system? (2) which of the three text versions shows the best results in discourse comprehension: (a) the version that uses the original text with both graph and verbal semiotic systems; (b) the version that uses predominantly the graph system; or (c) the version predominantly verbal? (3) in what way does the level of disciplinary insertion (the number of years a student has progressed in his/her undergraduate university program) affect the comprehension of these three versions of a specialized text? this article is organized as follows: first, a brief description of the theoretical framework on multisemiotic text comprehension is presented, followed by the methodological procedures geared towards the examination of the three research questions. then, the results of the analyses are presented, followed by conclusions and projections for this line of research. g. parodi & c. julio ibérica 33 (2017): 11-3614 2. theoretical framework 2.1. comprehension of multisemiotic discourse text comprehension research has developed theories and models focused fundamentally on static texts, predominantly verbal (parodi, 2003, 2011, 2014). this means that the move towards the exploration of multisemiotic texts has just started to come forward. as parodi (2014) points out, the prevalence of studies of static texts is due to the fact that there still are unanswered questions and unexplored areas regarding static, mainly verbal, text comprehension. there is yet a need of more empirical work to examine text comprehension considering just one semiotic system (de vega, graesser & glenberg, 2008; schüler et al., 2015). nevertheless, text comprehension that includes semiotic systems other than the verbal has attracted the attention of some researchers who have provided the first insights in this area. in this section, we will briefly review four approaches regarding the comprehension of multisemiotic texts. without a doubt, the pioneering studies of paivio (1971, 1986, 1991) and later on sadoski’s (1992, 2009) and sadoski and paivio’s (2001, 2007) stand out for their early envisioning of a theory that brings together – in a scientific and systematic way – two old traditions: mental images and the linguistic or verbal system. thus, the dual coding theory (dct) assumes that cognition operates on two types of mental representations: a code specialized on verbal language (logogens) and a non-verbal code, specialized in processing objects and non-linguistic events, in the form of mental images (imagens). while the dct relies on the principle that both coding systems are frequently used together, the authors assert that, depending on the case, a system may take predominance over the others. the dct has originated and supported a variety of both theoretical (sadoski, paivio & goetz, 1991; schnotz, 2002; mayer, 2005) and empirical research (sadoski, willson, holcomb & boulware-gooden, 2005; sadoski & willson, 2006). despite the impact and advances made by the dct, one question regarding its tenets is whether there exist only two representational systems (logogens and imagens) with which the mind codes and represents information, or whether there could be just one format for information of different nature. consensus has not been reached around these issues and, therefore, there are no definite answers for the moment (de vega et al., 2008; louwerse, 2010; schüler et al., 2015). more than words ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 15 in order to explain cognitive processing beyond the verbal code, a second approach is proposed by mayer (2005, 2009, 2011): the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (ctml). this theory is based on three fundamental learning principles: the dual-channel (auditory and visual) assumption, the limited cognitive capacity assumption (each channel has a limited processing capacity), and the active-processing assumption (active learning requires the use of coordinated cognitive processes). thus, the two processing channels initially code verbal and pictorial information independently. it is only after each representation is coded and organized that the integration stage is fulfilled. for the ctml, people learn more deeply when they process language and images together, rather than language alone. this idea gave rise to the multimedia principle, that is, two codes strengthen the construction of text meaning. at the same time, this theory identifies five cognitive processes of multimedia learning: word selection, image selection, word organization, image organization, and integration. these five cognitive processes result in the generation of five different levels of representations for words and images. the key level of representation is the one that establishes the connections between word-based representations and imagebased representations. according to mayer (2005, 2009), this connection involves a change from independent codes to an integrated model in which corresponding relations and elements are linked with one another from the input of parallel representations. in this way, it is possible to create a representation of an integrated model that includes connections of the reader’s previous knowledge, which is drawn from both long-term memory and the working verbal and visual memory. the ctml can be subjected to the same questionings as paivio and sadoski’s dct, regarding the levels of representations and coding formats. besides, ctml could be a richer theory if it were connected to contemporary research on reading comprehension theories proposed, for example, by van dijk and kintsch (1983), kintsch (1998), mcnamara and magliano (2009), to mention a few. nevertheless, mayer does connect his theory with other similar ones such as paivio’s (1986), sweller’s (1999, 2003), and schnotz and bannert’s (2003). the third approach is offered by schnotz (2002, 2005), schnotz, bannert and seufert (2002), and schnotz and bannert (2003). they proposed the integrated model of text and picture comprehension (imtpc), also based on the studies conducted by sadoski and paivio (2001, 2007). the model’s cognitive architecture consists of sensory registers, working memory and g. parodi & c. julio ibérica 33 (2017): 11-3616 long-term memory. it also includes a cognitive level (comprising two channels: verbal and pictorial) and a perceptual level (comprising multiple sensory channels.) the central assumption of imtpc is that the reader basically builds two levels of representations. one of them comes from the text (propositional representation) and the other one from the images (mental model). schnotz and bannert (2003) refer to them as descriptive representation and depictive representation, respectively. according to schnotz and horz (2010), imtpc differs from dual coding theory (paivio, 1986, 1971) and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (mayer, 2005, 2009) in both its structural terms and its predictions. these differences focus on the fact that the imtpc assumes that it will not always be beneficial – in terms of learning – that the text provides both words and images: this is because it is supposed that two codes are not necessarily better than one. in other words, for the imtpc, unlike other approaches, the interaction of various semiotic systems combined may produce detrimental effects (sweller, 1999, 2003, 2005), under certain conditions and for certain learners. one of these detrimental effects is known as the general redundancy effect (chandler & sweller, 1991). the imtpc predicts that learners, with a high level of expertise and a high level of prior topic knowledge do not often need to process texts containing both words and images, that is, single-format texts may be enough to achieve successful learning. one important feature of the imtpc is its connection to seminal works in the field of text comprehension (e.g., van dijk & kintsch, 1983). it does not, however, consider more contemporary views nor does it adopt a critical stance regarding the debate about levels of representation and the format of such levels. as for schontz and horz (2010), they delve into multimedia learning and define it as the combination of different forms of representations. these authors highlight the new advances in multimedia and hypermedia and advocate for their use in the field of instructional design, as they would allow for a better adaptation of instructional materials according to the learners’ needs and preferences. in the fourth place, communicability theory (ct) and its assumptions regarding multisemiotic text comprehension are discussed. parodi (2011, 2014) claims that text comprehension comprises a multidimensional macroprocess in which multiple psycho-socio-bio-linguistic factors intervene and various types of knowledge converge. therefore, comprehension cannot be explained through just one dimension or factor. it is necessary to identify different levels of analysis and to distinguish the more than words ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 17 dimensions that are inherently connected. in this perspective, parodi (2011, 2014) advances the principle of comprehension accreditability and suggests three distinctive main assumptions: a) the situated cognition assumption, b) the interactivity assumption, and c) the socioconstructiveness assumption. concisely, comprehension accreditability is understood as a psycholinguistic mechanism by which expert readers should be able to give an account of what they have read and to communicate it in such a way that they could show that they understood the text, guided by their reading objectives. this principle entails a communication circuit, in which the reader must declare, through written or oral language, their understanding of the text meanings. in order to comply with this principle, parodi (2011, 2014) explains that it is possible that comprehension is accredited through nonverbal semiotic systems, such as a sequence of drawings, a diagram or through a complex relationship between more than one semiotic system, for example, words and graphs. this act is thus constituted by revising the created representation and by an eventual re-representation or construction of a new representation, which may enrich comprehension. the ct also considers that text comprehension is a social act, contextualized and situated, which means that reading is not only reader driven, but also community driven. along with the aforementioned features, the ct considers the various semiotic systems found in static texts from a range of scientific disciplines. numerous empirical studies examine the variations of multisemiotic devices used in specialized disciplinary genres (lemke, 1998; royce, 1999; parodi, 2010; hiippala, 2012; taboada & habel, 2013; bateman, 2014; parodi, boudon & julio, 2014; parodi, julio & vásquez-rocca, 2015). the static text features empirically observed involve different processing requirements, which must be taken into account if the purpose is to, for example, support readers in the development of efficient reading strategies to comprehend disciplinary texts. in this context, based on various empirical findings, parodi (2010, 2014) argues that all static texts are constituted by a combination of semiotic systems. among them, it is possible to identify the following: the verbal system, the graph system, the mathematical system, the typographic system, the color system, and the layout system (van leeuwen, 2011; parodi, 2014; parodi, boudon & julio, 2014). regarding mental (de)coding systems, the ct argues for the existence of a range of representational systems. for text comprehension, the human brain g. parodi & c. julio ibérica 33 (2017): 11-3618 is capable of decoding information of varied nature and has several modules and specialized cells that allow the processing of the varied information conveyed in a text (van essen & dieker, 2007; dehaene, 2010, 2011; koch, 2012). in this sense, only two semiotic representational systems are not enough to describe and explain the rich nature of a text. it is evident, though, that research in biology, neuroscience, neurolinguistics, and cognitive sciences, among others, is still far from delivering a detailed account of all possible (de)coding modes and their features. one thing is certain: the brain does not have only one way to code our thoughts (dehaene, 2011). in addition, information conveyed in texts does not necessarily have to be coded in different semiotic systems to make it more understandable. the theory available regarding multisemiotic text comprehension is still scarce and preliminary. a close and critical review reveals that they do not manage to capture comprehensively the multidimensionality of the phenomenon that they intend to explain. as mentioned above, there are limitations and unanswered questions regarding the level and number of representational systems and the exact formats of these representations. such limitations and questions apply not only to multisemiotic text comprehension, but also to the comprehension of purely verbal texts. at the same time, as parodi (2010, 2011, 2014) points out, what seems to be under discussion is the very concept of written text (static in this case). in part of the specialized literature, it is common to find the expression “the text and the image”. this distinction between two constitutive units seems to advance the idea that the text is basically composed of the verbal system, which is confusing because only one dimension of the textual conception is being emphasized. texts potentially comprise many different semiotic systems (verbal, graphics, mathematical, color, typographic, among others). therefore, the separation between “text and image” or between “text and illustrations” is not applicable according to the ct. if the aim is to emphasize the multisemiotic nature of a given text, we propose to use an expression such as “the text and its constitutive semiotic systems”. 3. methodology 3.1. the monetary policy report genre the monetary policy report (mpr) genre is a specialized type of report, which is produced by the chilean central bank. its communicative more than words ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 19 purpose is to inform about the projections of the country’s monetary policy concerning short and long-term inflation at the moment in which it is issued. at the same time, its aim is to support decision-making regarding national monetary policies. its audience is defined by law: it is intended for the congress members, government officials and the general community. the mpr is one of the genres that were identified in the pucv-ucsc-2013 corpus (parodi, julio & vásquez-rocca, 2015). this corpus was collected from required and supplementary readings of mandatory courses of two economics university programs (parodi, julio & vásquez-rocca, 2015; parodi, boudon & julio, 2014). the research team compiled all the texts that students were given as reading assignments, as part of the academic curriculum in commercial engineering and accounting. the total number of texts in the pucv-ucsc-2013 corpus was 222. based on a subcorpus of 40 mprs, vásquez (2014) identified the complete rethorical organization of this genre. five core macromoves in the mprs rhetorical and functional organization were identified. the macromove number three, assertion and projection, plays a key role in achieving the communicative purpose of this genre, which is the presentation of information in relation to future projections of the economy and is repeated as many times as the writer deems necessary in order to elaborate on the addressed topics. besides, this macromove presents the highest occurrence of figures and tables in this genre (vásquez, 2014). within this macromove, vásquez (2014) identified a distinctive move, which was labeled as the panoramic view of the current and future situation. due to the presence of different semiotic systems and its status in disciplinary instruction, the mpr genre seems suitable to explore the following variables: (a) text comprehension of different semiotic system predominance, and (b) disciplinary insertion (number of years a student has progressed in a university program). 3.2. experimental design: comprehension test 3.2.1. predominance of different semiotic systems based on previous corpus research that describes the rhetorical organization of the mpr (vásquez, 2014; parodi, vásquez-rocca & julio, 2015), one issue of the mpr subcorpus was selected in which a passage containing the g. parodi & c. julio ibérica 33 (2017): 11-3620 panoramic view of the current and future situation (pvcfs) rhetorical move, part of the assertion and projection macromove, was identified. from this original rhetorical text segment, two new versions were developed. thus, the three text versions were constituted as follows: text a, the original text (with both verbal and graph semiotic systems); text b, a predominantly graph text (the verbal system was mostly removed); and text c, a predominantly verbal text (graphs were removed). texts b and c are referred to as being with predominance of the graph or verbal system. this is because in neither case one semiotic system is absolutely independent from all other possible systems interacting in a text, such as, the typographic system, the color system, the layout system. figure 1 shows the first page of each of the three experimental texts. as shown in figure 1, in the original version (text a), the text kept its original format, i.e. no changes were made. in text b, all seven graphs and one table of the original text were kept. all verbal information was removed, except titles, subtitles, section numbering, figure titles, and explanatory notes. the rhetorical organization was maintained and the eight artifacts were arranged in two columns, from left to right, top to bottom. the aim was to maintain the original reading sequence, based on the flow of information of the original text. the graphs’ colors were also maintained, as a key element in the construction of their meaning. in the predominantly verbal version (text c), the eight artifacts were removed and the page layout was set with “normal configuration” margins. original titles and subtitles were maintained, as well as the double spacing between paragraphs. additionally, all explicit reference to the graphs and table were removed. more than words ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 21 more than words ibérica 33 (2017): …-… disciplinary insertion (number of years a student has progressed in a university program). 3.2. experimental design: comprehension test 3.2.1. predominance of different semiotic systems based on previous corpus research that describes the rhetorical organization of the mpr (vásquez, 2014; parodi, vásquez-rocca & julio, 2015), one issue of the mpr subcorpus was selected in which a passage containing the panoramic view of the current and future situation (pvcfs) rhetorical move, part of the assertion and projection macromove, was identified. from this original rhetorical text segment, two new versions were developed. thus, the three text versions were constituted as follows: text a, the original text (with both verbal and graph semiotic systems); text b, a predominantly graph text (the verbal system was mostly removed); and text c, a predominantly verbal text (graphs were removed). texts b and c are referred to as being with predominance of the graph or verbal system. this is because in neither case one semiotic system is absolutely independent from all other possible systems interacting in a text, such as, the typographic system, the color system, the layout system. figure 1 shows the first page of each of the three experimental texts. figure 1. first page of texts a, b and c. as shown in figure 1, in the original version (text a), the text kept its original format, i.e. no changes were made. in text b, all seven graphs and one table of the original text were kept. all verbal information was removed, except titles, subtitles, section numbering, figure titles, and explanatory notes. the rhetorical organization was maintained and the eight artifacts were arranged in two columns, from left to right, top to bottom. the aim was to maintain the original reading sequence, based on the flow of information of the original text. the graphs’ colors were also maintained, as a key element in the construction of their meaning. in the predominantly verbal version (text c), the eight artifacts were removed and the page layout was set with “normal configuration” margins. 3.2.2. multisemiotic comprehension of the mpr genre: the summary as an evaluation tool and its rubric the three texts (a, b, and c in figure 1) were the basis for the construction of a reading comprehension test to measure multisemiotic comprehension. in order to do this, a summarizing technique was used (parodi, ibáñez & venegas, 2015) for all three text versions. students were required to write a summary of what they had understood from the texts following these directions: read the text given below and then write a summary containing its main ideas. this summary is intended to briefly inform a group of economics professor about the information contained in the text. please, do not use more than the space provided. if necessary, take notes and write on the test sheet. thus, the purpose of the summary writing task was that the readers focused on the main ideas of the text. in addition, there was a limited space (10 lines) in order for the readers to convey the core content of the given text. the students had a total of 90 minutes to complete the task. the psycholinguistic process of writing a summary implies a series of linguistic and cognitive activities. according to parodi, ibáñez and venegas (2015), the activity of concisely accounting for what has been understood can be materialized through various semiotic modes, such as a graph, a diagram, or words. from this perspective, the subject is seen as a reader/writer that must be capable of performing both psycholinguistic processes as part of the same macro-activity. it is this reading macro-activity, in this case, the reading task, what moves the reader to write the summary by indicating the reader/writer how to perform the task. in order to assess the summaries written by the students, three experts in the field of economics were asked to write a summary of the three texts already mentioned (see figure 1). these experts’ summaries were compared with the rhetorical steps described in vásquez’s (2014) mpr genre description. it was confirmed that the steps described by vásquez (2014) matched those conveyed in the experts’ summaries. therefore, a scoring rubric was created based on the experts’ summaries. consequently, the students’ summaries were scored following the rubric shown in table 1: g. parodi & c. julio ibérica 33 (2017): 11-3622 as shown in table 1, differentiating scores were given, based on the functional relevance that each rhetorical step serves in the rhetorical move, as well as the move within the macromove and, therefore, the macromove within the genre. in order to keep the reliability of the summary scoring process, two independent raters were trained in the rhetorical and functional aspects of mpr, its multisemiotic features and the use of the summary assessment rubric. the two independent raters scored each one of the summaries. inter-rater agreement was established at 80%. in the case of disagreement, a third rater was consulted to settle the difference. 3.3. participants: university students of an undergraduate program in the field of economics considering the purpose of this study, 151 chilean native-spanish-speaking students from first and third years of an undergraduate program in the field of economics were chosen (mean age = 22 years old). participants were grouped according to their year in the university program: the texts were distributed randomly among the participants, making sure all three texts were evenly distributed in each group. table 2 shows the variables under study: text versions according to its predominant semiotic system more than words ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 23 more than words ibérica 33 (2017): …-… scoring move step score per step percentage assertion 1 10 evidence 1 5 25% assertion 2 10 evidence 2 5 25% panoramic view of the current and future situation (pvcfs). projection 30 50% totals 60 100% table 1. summary assessment rubric. as shown in table 1, differentiating scores were given, based on the functional relevance that each rhetorical step serves in the rhetorical move, as well as the move within the macromove and, therefore, the macromove within the genre. in order to keep the reliability of the summary scoring process, two independent raters were trained in the rhetorical and functional aspects of mpr, its multisemiotic features and the use of the summary assessment rubric. the two independent raters scored each one of the summaries. inter-rater agreement was established at 80%. in the case of disagreement, a third rater was consulted to settle the difference. 3.3. participants: university students of an undergraduate program in the field of economics considering the purpose of this study, 151 chilean native-spanish-speaking students from first and third years of an undergraduate program in the field of economics were chosen (mean age = 22 years old). participants were grouped according to their year in the university program: level of disciplinary insertion version of text/nº of participants total original (a) graph (b) verbal (c) first-year students 22 22 22 66 third-year students original (a) graph (b) verbal (c) 29 28 28 85 total 151 table 2. distribution of participants: group and text versions. the texts were distributed randomly among the participants, making sure all three texts were evenly distributed in each group. table 2 shows the variables under study: text versions according to its predominant semiotic system (three texts: a-b-c), and level of disciplinary insertion in a university program (two levels). these variables are consistent with the objective and questions of the study and they will be the basis for the statistical data analyses. more than words ibérica 33 (2017): …-… scoring move step score per step percentage assertion 1 10 evidence 1 5 25% assertion 2 10 evidence 2 5 25% panoramic view of the current and future situation (pvcfs). projection 30 50% totals 60 100% table 1. summary assessment rubric. as shown in table 1, differentiating scores were given, based on the functional relevance that each rhetorical step serves in the rhetorical move, as well as the move within the macromove and, therefore, the macromove within the genre. in order to keep the reliability of the summary scoring process, two independent raters were trained in the rhetorical and functional aspects of mpr, its multisemiotic features and the use of the summary assessment rubric. the two independent raters scored each one of the summaries. inter-rater agreement was established at 80%. in the case of disagreement, a third rater was consulted to settle the difference. 3.3. participants: university students of an undergraduate program in the field of economics considering the purpose of this study, 151 chilean native-spanish-speaking students from first and third years of an undergraduate program in the field of economics were chosen (mean age = 22 years old). participants were grouped according to their year in the university program: level of disciplinary insertion version of text/nº of participants total original (a) graph (b) verbal (c) first-year students 22 22 22 66 third-year students original (a) graph (b) verbal (c) 29 28 28 85 total 151 table 2. distribution of participants: group and text versions. the texts were distributed randomly among the participants, making sure all three texts were evenly distributed in each group. table 2 shows the variables under study: text versions according to its predominant semiotic system (three texts: a-b-c), and level of disciplinary insertion in a university program (two levels). these variables are consistent with the objective and questions of the study and they will be the basis for the statistical data analyses. (three texts: a-b-c), and level of disciplinary insertion in a university program (two levels). these variables are consistent with the objective and questions of the study and they will be the basis for the statistical data analyses. 3.4. hypotheses this study aims at contrasting the following hypotheses: hypothesis 1: there are statistically significant differences in comprehension scores depending on the three versions of the text. hypothesis 2: there are statistically significant differences between the results of the different versions of the texts depending on the group of the students of the sample (first and third year). 4. results and discussion the general objective of this paper was to determine if it was possible to comprehend a passage from the disciplinary mpr genre through a single predominant semiotic system. in this section, the results are presented following the two hypotheses in order to answer the following research questions. 1. is it possible to understand an excerpt from the mpr genre through a single predominant semiotic system? 2. which of the three text versions shows the best results in discourse comprehension? 3. in what way does the level of disciplinary insertion affect the comprehension of these three versions of a specialized text? 4.1. hypothesis 1 non-parametric statistical analyses were conducted to test hypothesis 1 (kruskal-wallis). the results of the analyses showed no statistically significant differences (p-value = 0.589; p-value = 0.076) in the comprehension results among the three versions of the text, taken independently first-year students (n= 66) and third-year students (n= 85). thus, hypothesis 1 is refuted. according to these results, participants in g. parodi & c. julio ibérica 33 (2017): 11-3624 each group comprehended the information regardless of the semiotic system used (graphs, verbal or mixed). given that readers were able to produce similar summaries regardless of the semiotic system predominant in the texts, this indicates that they were able to construct similar representations from the texts, although the information was provided in different formats. to answer the research question regarding whether it is possible to understand a text from one single predominant system, we can say that our data suggest that it is possible, since comprehension scores were similar across the three versions of the text. in the same line, zwaan and radvansky (1998) claim that situation models are needed to explain similarities in comprehension performance across modalities, which would explain that no differences among the three versions of the text were detected. based on similar findings, zwaan and radvansky (1998) suggest that readers could use modality-independent cognitive procedures to construct situation models when, for example, reading, listening or viewing a text. now, these data provide presumably opposite evidence for the multimedia principle (fletcher & tobias, 2005; mayer, 2005, 2009, 2011), which states that learners achieve a better level of understanding from texts that include both verbal and graph-visual systems, compared to texts that present information only through the verbal system. fletcher and tobias (2005) and mayer (2009, 2011) emphasize that there is empirical evidence that support the multimedia principle, but they point out that in cases where subjects have a high previous knowledge, the graphs are not of much impact on learning. regardless of that, this principle highlights that the combination of various semiotic systems generates better learning results, a claim that, in this case, our findings would not support. 4.2. hypothesis 2 the results of the analysis to test the second hypothesis of this study (mannwhitney non-parametric test) indicate that there were no statistically significant differences (p-value = 0.6826) for the comparison between the two reader groups (first and third year students) in the complete original version of the text (text a). however, there were significant differences between the two groups of students in both predominantly graphic (text b) and verbal (text c) representation systems (p-value = 0.0105 and p-value = 0.0057, respectively). in this context, evidence against the hypothesis is more than words ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 25 presented only in the first case with the original version of the text (p-value = 0.6826). the data showed no differences between first and third year students in the summaries they produced after reading the complete original version of the text (graphs and verbal). for the other two cases, the results support hypothesis 2, which states that the difference between the scores of the respective texts is statistically significant. this means that third-year students, with more prior knowledge about the topic, the genre, the different semiotic systems, and the graph artifacts, did not differ from the first-year students when writing a summary of a text composed of verbal and graph systems (text a). in spite of the fact that text a is an excerpt of a text that is a required reading for students in an economics university program (corpus pucv-ucsc-2013), and it plays an important role in the acquisition of specialized knowledge, the level of disciplinary insertion cannot explain the similar results obtained by the two groups in the reading comprehension of the complete original version. students with a higher level of disciplinary insertion performed better in the summary tasks, both when reading from the predominantly graphic and the predominantly verbal versions (text b and text c). this shows that readers with more disciplinary knowledge about economics and the mpr genre managed to comprehend a single predominant semiotic system better (predominantly graph or a predominantly verbal). results indicate that students with a higher level of disciplinary insertion (third-year students) were able to comprehend information coded solely through graphs (test b) and produce a summary that contained the core semantic meaning of the text assigned. these findings show that reading graphs is a skill that students acquire during instruction in specialized programs, by increasing their knowledge about specialized genres such as the mpr. therefore, this data shows that the role of disciplinary knowledge is crucial to understand and comprehend a specialized text which contains specific multisemiotic artifacts, like the ones explored in this study. furthermore, these findings support schnotz’s idea that the integration of information from diverse systems or codes does not necessarily contribute to deriving a deeper comprehension of a text. the general redundancy effect (schnotz, 2005; sweller, 2005; schnotz & horz, 2010; leahy & sweller, 2011; sweller et al., 2011) states that students with high levels of prior knowledge perform better in reading g. parodi & c. julio ibérica 33 (2017): 11-3626 comprehension tasks in which only one single semiotic system is predominant. from the comprehension perspective, however, processing redundant texts (that contain the same information in two or more semiotic systems) produces cognitive overload in the short-term memory and, consequently, hinders processing in the long-term memory. in fact, schontz’s (2005) integrated model predicts that readers with more background knowledge will obtain better results in texts with information from only one source (only picture or only written text). on the other hand, sweller (2005) and sweller et al. (2011) offer a body of empirical evidence to support that, in many cases, only picture texts produce better learning results, compared to traditional, less effective versions that require the integration of verbal and picture elements. in the case of text c (predominantly verbal), and according to the analyses conducted, the same results obtained in text b were observed regarding the general redundancy effect. this means that learners with more background knowledge did not require texts with integrated information, but texts with only one format; in this case, verbal. this empirical finding in favour of the verbal-only format, and in detriment of the complete original format (text a), is coherent with the following assertion: [...] adding a picture to a written text or adding written text to a picture means adding unneeded information. although, only one of the two information sources is needed, the eye wonders between both of them resulting in a split of attention. thus, the learner loses time and expends mental effort searching for redundant information. (schnotz & horz, 2010: 147) this could imply that students reading the original version of the text segment from the mpr either: (a) do not use time efficiently to read the whole text and complete the summary within the time given for the task; (b) use their cognitive resources to integrate into the summary only what they have managed to read; or (c) if they have read the whole text, they cannot create a coherent mental representation, probably because they cannot integrate all the available information. these hypothetical scenarios contrast with the experience of students that read the graph and verbal versions. it would be possible then that, as stated in the research questions, participants were able to comprehend an economics text from just one predominant semiotic system (whether it be verbal or graph), only if they had an advanced level of disciplinary insertion. more than words ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 27 4.3. comprehension of the rhetorical organization of the mpr in order to study possible differences between the three versions of the text and the two groups of students, further analyses were conducted to disaggregate comprehension scores at the different rhetorical steps. figure 2 below shows the percentage distribution of the level of comprehension attained by participants at the different rhetorical steps in the three text versions. higher comprehension scores were observed in the rhetorical steps in the third-year student group. it is also worth noting that there is some regularity in the steps with a higher achievement since, in both student groups and in all text versions, the steps with the highest scores are assertion 1 and evidence 1. this suggests that, in general, readers focused on the first sections of the texts when producing the summaries, and that the quality of the comprehension progressively decreased in the following steps. in general, it is evident that students tended to first comprehend and then summarize, preferably, the first part of the texts. as mentioned above, third-year students were significantly better in statistical terms at comprehending the texts than first-year students (51% and 36%, respectively). however, comprehension scores at the level of each rhetorical step do not indicate that they were proficient in terms of processes of text comprehension. applied mann-whitney non-parametric test with a significance level of .05 here is enough sample evidence to say that first-year students test scores are smaller than the test scores of thirdyear students (p-value = 0.0006). this finding highlights again the relevance of the disciplinary insertion variable in effectively supporting the development of skills for the better comprehension of written texts using various formats, as those examined in this study. g. parodi & c. julio ibérica 33 (2017): 11-3628 more than words ibérica 33 (2017): …-… (c) if they have read the whole text, they cannot create a coherent mental representation, probably because they cannot integrate all the available information. these hypothetical scenarios contrast with the experience of students that read the graph and verbal versions. it would be possible then that, as stated in the research questions, participants were able to comprehend an economics text from just one predominant semiotic system (whether it be verbal or graph), only if they had an advanced level of disciplinary insertion. 4.3. comprehension of the rhetorical organization of the mpr in order to study possible differences between the three versions of the text and the two groups of students, further analyses were conducted to disaggregate comprehension scores at the different rhetorical steps. figure 2 below shows the percentage distribution of the level of comprehension attained by participants at the different rhetorical steps in the three text versions. figure 2. comprehension of rhetorical steps for the three text versions. higher comprehension scores were observed in the rhetorical steps in the thirdyear student group. it is also worth noting that there is some regularity in the steps with a higher achievement since, in both student groups and in all text versions, the steps with the highest scores are assertion 1 and evidence 1. this suggests that, in general, readers focused on the first sections of the texts when producing the summaries, and that the quality of the comprehension progressively decreased in the following steps. in general, it is evident that students tended to first comprehend and then summarize, preferably, the first part of the texts. as mentioned above, third-year students were significantly better in statistical terms at comprehending the texts than first-year students (51% and 36%, respectively). however, comprehension scores at the level of each rhetorical step do not indicate that they were proficient in terms of processes of text comprehension. applied mann-whitney non-parametric test with a significance level of .05 here is enough sample evidence to say that first-year students test scores are smaller than the test scores of third-year students (p-value = 0.0006). wehtdareevahyehtfi) (c ebylbabrop,noitatnesrepre ethopyheseht. ntioamrin ahpargehtdaertahts tnedust uqchearesre htniedattsas enotsujmotxetscimonoec etarectonnacyeht,txetelohw etragetnitonnacyehtesuace trnocsioranecsl atice htiwtas bdluowtis.nosirevlabrevdna labe erwstanpciip,snoitesu metsyscitoimestnanimoderpe sdorwnahtemor latnemtnreehocae elbaliavaehtllae foce enierpexe hth ,tahtnehtelbssiopeb andenehrpmcoote btirehtehw( alberve n ad hay hetfiy onl,ph)agror 3.4. htfonoisneherpmco fidelbissopydutsotr erdoin puorgotweth s ,stnedut o de htatesrcosnoisenehrpmco hetofon ibutirtsdigeantecrpe sptel saicrtoeht rner deth in naiplicsdioflveeld encdvaa onoitazinagrolacirotehre rseverehtehtneewtebsecnre udno cere wsesylan arehtr rugif.septscaliroethrtenid neiattaon insheepromcoflveelhe sniosret vx teeer the thin . onitrensi . rpmehtfo dnatxetehtfosnoirs etagerggasi do tdetcu e htswohswoelb2e r tasntpaicitrpaby d ne 2e gurfi . eherpmco vtxeteerhtehtrofspetslacirotehrfonoisne snoisrev . gur p serocsnoisneherpmocrehghi o slasitioup.grntudetsraye meveihcarehgihahtiws pest hiheth tiwpsetshet,onsisrve ,larenegni,tahts steggsu dare odupr ,esiarmmuse htgnci tn id esaercdey lveisseogrpr srotdednets tnedust rpmoct .sxtethetof p ciroteehtnidevresboerwes omssierhetthatng inoth torwo rgtnedusthtobni,ecnsitnem a1 on itressaeraseorcstsghehi rsed oitce stsreh tn odesuc foytialuqe htathtdan arnegen i.psetsng iowlhet , eizrammusnethdnadneher epr drihtehtnispetslac tiragulereom hetn iy txetllanidnas puor shit1.encdeviend a neh wstxe teh osno noisenehrpmcoe ht thatntdeviesiti,la blare y, tra ptsr fieh t evobadenoitnemas dirth, -ye ethgindneherpmoct asmrte pmocr,evewoh).ylevitcepsre y hetthatetacndiinotdo anmedilppa.noisenehrpmco shguoneisereh5.0fol evle etehtnahtrellasmeras erosc ibér y lntacgniiserewsntudetsraye tsnathtsxtee ntudetsraye olevelehttasreocsnoisnehrep eicprerew ofsmretn int nan nonyentiwh setcirtemarpa t athyastoecneidvelepmas drihtfos eroscste ntudetsraye 33ca ibér 710 (2 ): …-… 15 lacitsitatsn irettbey ,36%nd a51%(snt petslacrioterhhcaefo xtetofsesseocprof encacgniisah tiwts tsir tsetsntudetsraye s .0006)0.=uelva moreover, third-year students obtained higher comprehension scores (50%) on the projection rhetorical step in text b (graph version) than first-year students (20%). this pattern of results was observed across the three texts. the statistical analysis (mann-whitney non-parametric test with a significance level of .05) revealed there is enough sample evidence to say that scores of projection in text b by third-year students are larger than scores of projection in text b by first-year students (p-value = 0.0290). the projection, as indicated before, constitutes the fundamental rhetorical step within the rhetorical segment of the mpr genre chosen for this study, since it mainly contributes to determining the communicative purpose of the genre, hence the highest score in the summary assessment rubric. third-year students were able to derive this information from the predominantly graphic text. in this text, the projective information was represented through a cartesian plane. thus, in order to create a cognitive representation of this information, students had to re-code the meaning that was represented by means of graphs and express it verbally in the summary. this process of communicating what has been read finds support in the circuit of communication posited by the communicability theory (parodi, 2014), as well as in the process of verbally summarizing in writing, as is detailed in parodi, ibáñez and venegas (2015). 5. conclusions the results of this study provide empirical evidence supporting the significant role of the predominance of a single semiotic system, such as the verbal or graph in the comprehension of texts in the disciplinary field of economics; at the same time, the findings also reveal the relevance for reading comprehension of higher levels of disciplinary insertion. while we did not detect statistically significant differences in comprehension across the three texts in each student group, we did find that third-year students were able to derive deeper comprehension from texts in the verbal and graph versions. however, the complete original version that includes the two semiotic systems showed no differences between first and third year reader groups. taking into account the communicability theory (ct), the findings indicate that it is possible to predict that a reader/writer with an adequate level of proficiency on a specialized topic is able to comprehend a predominantly graph text, construct a coherent cognitive representation of more than words ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 29 those textual meanings in one or more types of mental codes, and then produce a summary through writing, which is verbal. thus, the reader/writer is able to read and process one representational system and transform it in a different one. according to the guiding principles of the ct, third-year readers/writers that participated in this study established a communicational circuit. in this circuit, they first analyzed the graph version of the text and then produced a verbal summary. during this process, they created a mental representation, probably, in two codes: graph and verbal. the study showed a core distinction between first and third year students of an undergraduate program in the field of economics when reading the mpr genre. the third-year students showed that they had developed a body of disciplinary knowledge, coupled with knowledge about the conventions of written specialized discourse and its multisemiotic features and knowledge about the visual representation of information through graphs. they seemed to display these different types of knowledge especially when texts were presented in a single format (verbal or graph). however, these students did not differ from first-year students’ comprehension level of the text that integrated both the verbal and graph codes. this could be due to a higher processing cognitive load and by higher requirements from working memory (general redundancy effect). from a theoretical perspective, these empirical findings compel us to reexamine the multisemiotic nature of static written texts, as well as the multiple cognitive codes needed to process textual data. recent studies (rau et al., 2015; schüler et al., 2015) highlight the relevance of further examining text theories of interaction between the different semiotic systems and their types and degrees of connection, considering textual and cognitive variables. the answer to the first question presented in this study is that it is certainly possible to read a specialized text from a discipline such as economics from a single, predominant semiotic system. this is achievable provided that the readers are advanced members of the discourse community (high level of disciplinarity), have attained an advanced knowledge of the mpr genre and know how the semiotic systems and their corresponding artifacts work in the texts they are required to read. the results of this study show that third-year readers incorporated in their summaries the rhetorical-functional core elements of the rhetoricalfunctional move present in texts with a predominance of a single semiotic system, whether it be verbal or graph, but not in texts that integrated both g. parodi & c. julio ibérica 33 (2017): 11-3630 systems. thus, the summaries show that readers significantly comprehended assertion, evidence, and projection, and that, according to the ct, they were able to demonstrate such comprehension by keeping the rhetorical organization of the source text in the construction of the summary. regarding strengths, limitations, and projections, this study differs from others of the same sort in various aspects. for example, the experimental materials are based on a corpus study in the field of economics and the selected genre is common in academic and professional circles in this field (corpus pucv-ucsc-2013). also, the corpus texts have been carefully described and their rhetorical organization and multisemiotic features identified. this fact has allowed us to select well-defined rhetorical segments and artifacts, with naturalistic features, contextually situated. at the same time, writing a summary has proven to be an efficient task to measure the level of text comprehension, consistent with the communicability theory. one limitation was that the readers’ comprehension performance was not tested beforehand and therefore they were not grouped according to their reading comprehension level. that would have enabled us to further examine our results, especially for first-year students. in future studies, this procedure should entail a higher number of participants in order to have distinctive target groups. besides, a deeper textual analysis of the relationship between the verbal and picture-visual system is needed in order to better understand how the text information is integrated and to know how much processing cognitive load is involved, especially in the complete original version of the text (text a). despite these limitations, this study can be taken as a starting point to further examine, for instance, the theoretical implications of number and format of multisemiotic systems, and also to examine other more practical and instructional approaches, such as the compilation of corpora based on teaching-learning texts. as highlighted by mayer (2009) and schüler et al. 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(2014). “conexiones entre artefactos multisemióticos y organización retórica en la construcción de significado en el género ipom del discurso de la economía”. paper presented at viii encuentro nacional de estudios del discurso, aled chile. universidad de valparaíso, viña del mar. van leeuwen, t. (2005). “typographic meaning”. visual communication 4, 2: 137-143. van leeuwen, t. (2006). “towards a semiotics of typography”. information design journal + document design 4, 2: 139-155. zwaan, r. & g. radvansky (1998). “situation model in language comprehension and memory”. psychological bulletin 123, 2: 162-185. g. parodi & c. julio ibérica 33 (2017): 11-3634 dr. giovanni parodi is presently head of the postgraduate school of linguistics at the the pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso (pucv), chile, and editor in chief of revista signos. estudios de lingüística. his major fields of interest are corpus linguistics, genre theory and reading processes of specialized texts. currently he is conducting research in disciplinary academic/professional written discourse with eye tracking technologies. he has been principal researcher and co-researcher in international and national projects with funding from, among other, ecos/sud conicyt, alfa, daad, and reading and writing unesco chair unitwin. he has published more than 60 scientific articles in indexed journals, 5 authorbooks, 4 books as co-author, and 12 books as editor or co-editor. he has performed a wide variety of administrative and academic positions, at university, national and international scopes. because of his scientific merits, in 2008 he was appointed as a member of the academia chilena de la lengua. cristóbal julio has obtained a degree in hispanic language and literature at the pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso (pucv), chile. since 2010, he has participated in fondecyt and conicyt funded research teams. from 2016, he is coordinating activities at the language & cognition laboratory at the pucv. he has presented his research at national and international conferences. he has also participated as co-author in four research papers focusing on topics such as identification of the rhetorical organization of discourse genres and the processing of written texts with experimentation in constituent semiotic systems. he currently researches the comprehension of texts with an emphasis on the relationship between multisemiotic systems with eye tracking methodologies. his main areas of interest are corpus linguistics, psycholinguistics, discourse genres and multisemiosis of written discourse. notes 1 this paper was funded by fondecyt research grant 1130033. more than words ibérica 33 (2017): 11-36 35 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract much of the research into the topic of financial crises has centered mainly on verbal metaphors whereas visual and multimodal aspects of the phenomenon have remained rather underrepresented. within the theoretical framework of critical metaphor analysis pertaining not only to verbal (charteris-black & musolff, 2003; charteris-black, 2004) but also to pictorial and multimodal discourse (forceville, 1996 & 2008; forceville & urios-aparisi, 2009), in this paper we focus on both linguistic and pictorial realisations of the euro currency which pertain to the broader topic of the eurozone crisis. closely modelling our methodology on bounegru and forceville (2011), we analyse seven covers of the weekly magazine the economist published in the period 2010-2012 which relate to the eurozone crisis and belong to the liquid and movement domains respectively. the purpose of our investigation is to answer the following two questions: (1) how do verbal and visual modes of metaphorical representation contribute to the creation of a particular conceptualisation of the euro currency, and (2) what are some of the evaluative components rendered from the selected multimodal representations? in order to address these questions, we attempt to establish how conceptualisations of the euro are used by the media so as to describe the impact of the eurozone financial crisis by the use of suggestive pictures accompanied by textual messages and symbols. keywords: critical metaphor analysis, economic discourse, monomodal and multimodal metaphors, eurozone crisis. resumen s al v ar e l e u ro – un an ál i s is m ul ti mo da l d e l as me t áf o ra s qu e d e s c r ib e n l a c ri s is e n l a e ur oz o na saving the euro – a multimodal analysis of metaphors depicting the eurozone crisis1 nadežda silaški and tatjana đurović university of belgrade (serbia) silaskin@sbb.rs & tdjurovic@sbb.rs 125 ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 n. silaški & t. đurović mucha de la investigación sobre el tópico de la crisis financiera se ha centrado principalmente en las metáforas verbales mientras que el aspecto visual y multimodal del fenómeno ha permanecido inexplorada. dentro del marco teórica del análisis crítico de la metáfora (charteris-black y musolff, 2003; charteris-black, 2004) junto con el del discurso pictórico y multimodal (forceville, 1996 y 2008; forceville y urios-aparisi, 2009), en este artículo nos centramos en la materialización lingüística y pictórica del euro en relación con el ámbito más amplio de la crisis de la eurozona. tomando como modelo el enfoque metodológico de bounegru y forceville (2011), analizamos siete portadas de la revista the economist publicadas entre 2010 y 2012 que se centran en la crisis en la eurozona y pertenecen a los dominios líquido y movimiento respectivamente. el objetivo de nuestra investigación es responder las siguientes preguntas: (1) cómo contribuyen los modos de representación metafórica verbal y visual a la conceptualización del euro y (2) cuales son algunos de los componentes evaluativos utilizados en las representaciones multimodales seleccionadas? para dar respuesta a estas preguntas, intentamos establecer cómo las conceptualizaciones del euro se usan en los medios de comunicación para describir el impacto de la crisis financiera de la eurozona a través de las imágenes y de los mensajes textuales y símbolos que las acompañan. palabras clave: análisis crítico de metáforas, discurso económico, metáforas monomodal y multimodal, crisis de la eurozona. 1. introduction we live in a world where “[t]he majority of newspapers and magazines add visual images concerned with the contents of newspaper and magazine articles with the aim of helping readers have a thorough understanding of topics and contents of newspaper and magazine articles” (yang & zhang, 2014: 2564). this is especially true of magazine front covers, which aim, by carefully and convincingly combining the verbal and the visual into persuasive messages, to inform readers about the latest events as well as to influence their line of reasoning about such events, in accordance with the worldview magazines wish to represent and defend. therefore, it is possible to speak of the language of magazine front covers as a special type of multimodal discourse, having important multiple functions of attracting, informing and persuading potential readers, as well as helping them to understand the message, at the same time slanting this message in such a way as to influence this understanding to suit the policy of the publication. 126 the focus of this paper is on the multimodal analysis of the front covers of the economist magazine, at the time when the financial turbulence in the eurozone had erupted in the late 2009. the debt crisis taking place in several eurozone member states which were unable to repay or refinance their government debt and had to be rescued by “the troika” has triggered a myriad of representations, the media’s being just one of them. more precisely, we tackle the topic of the eurozone crisis or the european sovereign debt crisis, as it is alternatively called, examining, in line with the main postulate of multimodality, that there are different modes used to create meaning, verbal and non-verbal ones, both linguistic and pictorial realisations of the euro currency, which relate to the broader topic of this crisis. we will try to establish how the eurozone crisis is communicated on the covers of the economist magazine, in an attempt to unpack both verbal and pictorial modalities of metaphor and other cognitive devices such as metonymy and image schemas used on these covers. the purpose of our investigation is to answer the following two questions: (1) how do verbal and visual modes of metaphorical representation contribute to the creation of a particular conceptualisation of the euro currency, and (2) what are some of the evaluative components rendered from the selected multimodal representations? in order to address these questions, we attempt to establish how the conceptualisation of the euro, realised by means of several monomodal or multimodal mappings, is used by the media so as to describe the impact of the eurozone financial crisis by the use of suggestive pictures accompanied by textual messages and symbols. our paper is structured in the following way: after a brief account of the theoretical framework underlying our analysis, given in sections 2 and 3, we deal with our data collection and the method of analysis in section 4. the focus of section 5 is on the analysis of the covers which make up our data collection. here we provide and discuss the most common monomodal or multimodal metaphorical mappings found on the selected covers pertaining to the eurozone crisis, which centre around the two respective domains – liquid and movement. in section 6 we summarise our findings and point out the significance of the choice of metaphors used on magazine covers. saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 127 2. theoretical background the theoretical underpinnings are based on cognitive theory of metaphor and metonymy (lakoff & johnson, 1980; radden & kövecses, 1999; charteris-black & musolff, 2003; charteris-black, 2004; benczes, barcelona & ruiz de mendoza ibáñez, 2011) on the one hand, and, on the other, the theory of multimodal discourse (forceville, 1996 & 2008; forceville & urios-aparisi, 2009; bounegru & forceville, 2011), in which the meaning is created through some modes of communication other than the verbal one. although cognitive theory of metaphor, and conceptual metaphor theory (cmt) in particular, have been widely and critically assessed over the last thirty years (see e.g. kövecses, 2008; gibbs, 2011), our application of cmt stems from the original lakoff and johnson’s views (1980) in which the claim is made that metaphors are a property not of words but of concepts and that, as such, they enhance understanding of particular concepts and ideas. in cognitive linguistic terms, one conceptual domain – the target – is understood in terms of another conceptual domain – the source – where a “conceptual domain” refers to “any coherent organization of experience” (kövecses, 2002: 4). while rather neglected at the very onset of cognitive linguistic research, metonymy has gradually begun to be considered an equally important cognitive device for influencing the way we think. many authors have claimed that it is “a cognitive phenomenon that may be even more fundamental than metaphor” (panther & radden, 1999: 1), a view which has been reiterated in a number of further volumes on metonymy and metaphor (e.g. dirven & pörings, 2002; barcelona, 2003). although disagreements still arise among cognitive linguists concerning many unresolved issues surrounding metonymy as a cognitive mechanism, it has now been widely accepted that “metonymy plays a crucial part in the motivation of numerous conceptual metaphors” (benczes, barcelona & ruiz de mendoza ibáñez, 2011: 2). metonymy also refers to mappings between conceptual domains, but unlike metaphor which entails a mapping between two conceptual domains, where the source is used to structure the target, metonymy, on the other hand, is according to the standard cognitive linguistic view understood as a conceptual projection whereby one domain is partially understood in terms of another domain included in the same experiential domain (barcelona, 2000). it is, therefore, often understood as an intradomain phenomenon, but unlike metaphor, where mapping is symmetrical, in metonymy mapping is asymmetrical, a more salient entity provides mental n. silaški & t. đurović ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146128 access to a less salient domain or entity within the same domain (barcelona, 2011: 12; see also kövecses & radden, 1998; radden & kövecses, 1999). in addition to metaphor and metonymy, image schemas also play a vital role in understanding and structuring the concept of the eurozone crisis, thus adding to “conceptual interaction” (ruiz de mendoza ibáñez, 1997) and frequently the parallel activation of these three cognitive instruments. a theory of image schema was developed by johnson (1987), who defined it as “a recurrent pattern, shape, and regularity in, or of […] ongoing ordering activities” (1987: 29), such as our actions, perceptions, and conceptions. more specifically, an image schema is a spatial abstraction that arises from everyday bodily experience (see also lakoff, 1987; ruiz de mendoza ibáñez, 1997). among a number of image schemas provided by johnson (1987: 126), pertinent to our multimodal analysis of the eurozone crisis are the verticality, path and container schemas, all characterised by a number of structural elements and a basic logic which refers to “a set of relations between elements and the inferences based on them” (peña cervel, 1998: 452). thus the verticality schema “emerges from our tendency to employ an up-down orientation in picking out meaningful structures of our experience” (johnson, 1987: xiv) and is based on an underlying dichotomy, with the positive pole perceived as up and the negative pole perceived as down. more importantly, image schemas “can then be metaphorically extended to structure nonphysical, nontactile, and nonvisual experiences” (rohrer, 2007: 35-36), such as the eurozone crisis and the euro currency. the foundation for the comprehension of such an abstract domain as the eurozone crisis is orientational metaphor based on spatial orientation more is up/less is down, where the image schema of verticality is conflated with the concept of quantity. the path image schema consists of a source or starting point, a destination or an end point and a direction. an internal logic of this schema is that if you go from a source to a destination along a path, then you must pass through each intermediate point on the path (lakoff, 1993). movement is an important notion of the path image schema, here viewed as the movement of money (the euro), conceptualised as a liquid substance. this in turn gives rise to the flowing movement image schema and the movement of money is the flow or movement of liquid mapping, also “based on our daily experiences with water running from a tap, with blood, etc.” (silaški & kilyeni, 2011: 67). saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 129 finally, the container image schema, with its three structural elements – an interior, an exterior and a boundary – is organised around this basic logic: the boundaries prevent what is outside from affecting the entity or entities found within the container or a bounded region; everything is either outside or inside the container; if container a is in container b and b in c, then a is inside c (lakoff, 1989: 116). more importantly, though, as our analysis will corroborate, image schemas, predominantly used in the construction of visual metaphors and metonymies, tend to co-occur on the same cover. they hinge on viewing the eurozone crisis as the state or condition in which the eu member countries may find themselves, the state of crisis thus being conceptualised as a container which has its inside, outside, and the boundary between them. the euro, in turn, is perceived as liquid which in time of crisis may be emptied, spilled or poured from the container, now relating to the thus conceptualised eu member countries. on the other hand, this, on an abstract level, leads to comprehending economic recession and crisis as a downward movement, activating the up-down vertical orientation and intertwining the motion and path schema with that of verticality. 3. multimodal metaphors on magazine covers in analysing magazine covers, which typically consist of a photograph or illustration, accompanied with a headline and other verbal elements, we focus on cognitive devices pertaining to the eurozone crisis which are not, or not exclusively, verbal, but rather visually, i.e. pictorially manifested. if, according to lakoff and johnson, “[t]he essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (1980: 5), then it is possible to reason, as forceville (2009a) does, that if verbal metaphors are “manifestations” rather than “reduplications” of thought, one of these manifestations may be non-verbal or pictorial, which in turn should contribute to the completeness of a theory of metaphor. unlike monomodal metaphors, such as the prototypical verbal metaphors, multimodal metaphors, as defined by forceville, are “metaphors whose target and source are each represented exclusively or predominantly in different modes”, where adverbs “exclusively” or “predominantly” are particularly relevant since, according to the author, “non-verbal metaphors often have targets and/or sources that are cued in more than one mode simultaneously” (2009b: 24). since magazine front covers can hinge on only n. silaški & t. đurović ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146130 two modalities, the metaphors in our analysis also belong to either monomodal metaphors, i.e. either verbal metaphors or pictorial/visual metaphors, or to multimodal metaphors, composed of both the verbal and visual modalities (bounegru & forceville, 2011). in addition, it is worth emphasising that the motivation for mapping the source domain onto the target domain in multimodal metaphors goes well beyond the notion of embodiment which is so widely used in cmt to provide concreteness to the source domain. rather, as forceville claims, knowledge about source domains is also a matter of cultural connotations “that are metonymically related to a source domain [and] are often more important for potential mappings to a target than its embodied aspects” (forceville, 2009b: 28). our analysis of the economist magazine covers related to the eurozone crisis will also show that the source domains of the multimodal metaphors are grounded both on our physical experience and cultural contexts. pictorial and multimodal metaphors used on the cover, the most prominent part of a magazine, are forms of mass communication and thus should bring about a strong impact on the readership. the importance of effective magazine covers may be attributed to several reasons. firstly, they serve as an introduction to the articles featured inside and should be as attractive to readers as possible so as to make them buy the magazine. in this sense, a magazine cover functions metonymically in relation to the whole text contained inside, thus having to be strong and salient enough as a part to represent the whole. but, as cortés de los ríos (2010: 84) points out, dealing with the cognitive devices to communicate the economic crisis on the covers of the economist, “the magazine cover is not simply a visual and verbal summary of what is considered the most important current topic; it is also an important form of self-advertising”. in this sense, a magazine cover serves not only as an advertisement, but also as a means of structuring the reality or rather “the presentation of a selective view of reality” (mccracken, 1993: 14). secondly, since pictures (often combined with text) have a stronger rhetorical effect and much more persuasive power than words alone, the choice of pictorial metaphors for a magazine cover seems only natural, having in mind the basic property of metaphor to represent an abstract, hard-to-understand concept in terms of a more concrete and easier-tounderstand concept. namely, pictorial and multimodal metaphors in particular “require[s] the text’s recipient to construct a meaningful reading by processing verbal and visual elements together” (koller, 2009: 49), which saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 131 boosts the persuasive power of the cover. in addition, as forceville claims, pictorial metaphors have “a more sensual and emotive impact on viewers” (2008: 475) than those purely verbal. for that same reason, they may have “greater international appeal, since they do not (exclusively) rely on language codes” (forceville, 2008: 475). finally, and this is of special importance when it comes to pictorial metaphors depicting the eurozone crisis on the covers of the economist magazine – they may have a strong influence on the readership regarding their understanding of the crisis, since, although most frequently metaphorically structured in words alone,2 it may be better perceived by using powerful pictorial elements which pertain not only to its multifarious causes and effects but also the ideologies subtly hidden behind the metaphorical veil. 4. data collection and methodology the data collection for our analysis consists of seven covers of the weekly magazine the economist published in the period 2010-2012 and collected from www.economist.com. the selected time frame more or less coincides with the timeline of the eurozone crisis, which began in the late 2009, whereas the ending seems not to be in sight yet, despite various attempts to return the eurozone countries to healthy and sustainable growth. the economist magazine was chosen as the source of data for several reasons. firstly, all the selected covers combine visual and verbal manifestations of metaphors. more precisely, in each selected cover the euro currency, or its symbolic form, is explicitly present either pictorially (in the form of coins or banknotes) or verbally (the word “euro” appears in the text accompanying the picture), or both. all the covers profile the euro currency by way of suggestive pictures together with textual messages and symbols to describe the impact of the eurozone crisis. secondly, in all the covers the image manifests a metaphor, even though it is not always automatically related to the eurozone crisis, but needs to be communicated by way of verbal/textual or contextual cues. finally, all the covers display various roles of the verbal (the text) and the visual manifestations (the image). hence, we are also interested to demonstrate that all the metaphors, monomodal and/or multimodal, pertaining to the eurozone crisis as a target, exhibit some evaluative components, which stems from the metaphor role on the selected n. silaški & t. đurović ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146132 magazine covers – to alert readers and make them convert the depicted and perceived similarities between diverse concepts and the euro crisis into action. also, as expected, our classification of the covers, based on the identification of the source domain, has not been facilitated by the existence of a very complex cognitive apparatus. quite on the contrary, metaphors, metonymies, and image schemas of pictorial and/or verbal type frequently intertwine on the same cover and are all rife with rich cultural references. “as in verbal metaphors, it is connotations rather than denotations of source domains that get mapped in metaphors, and these may substantially differ from one (sub)cultural group to another” (forceville, 2009b: 29). therefore, in line with the method of analysis used in bounegru and forceville (2011: 213), who provide clear instructions for the identification of metaphors in multimodal discourse (more precisely, political cartoons pertaining to the global financial crisis), in the next section we discuss monomodal and multimodal cognitive devices pertaining to the eurozone financial crisis, trying to determine their contribution to the structuring of the european sovereign-debt crisis. 5. analysis as established by bounegru and forceville, there are several domains which, by means of the euro currency pictorial and verbal modes of presentation, cognitively represent the eurozone crisis: the liquid domain, the movement domain, the fire domain, the food domain, etc. an analysis of the seven covers belonging to the liquid and movement domains will be presented here since the two domains comprise consistent and most prevalent sets of metaphors, both monomodal or multimodal, frequently structured by the same metaphor/metonymy-image schema interplay. liquid and movement verbal metaphors have long been employed to structure varied concepts in business and economics, such as money, banks, companies, markets and their movements (see e.g. o’connor, 1998; charteris-black & ennis, 2001; charteris-black, 2004; alejo, 2010; silaški & kilyeni, 2011; herrera-soler & white, 2012). this stems from the physical property of water to be fluid (which in turn results in the economic concept of liquidity) and move (the concept of flow). yet, the saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 133 conceptualisation of the rates of change in market value via “bodily knowledge of the speed of movement” (charteris-black, 2004: 168) is not grounded only in the movement in/of the water, but also in the movement on the ground or in the air. the liquid and movement domains are shown to be prevalent in the structuring of economic crisis via verbal metaphors as well (see white, 2004; rojo lópez & orts llopis, 2010; silaški & đurović, 2011; arrese, 2015), where the overall intensity of water movements – the effects of the global financial crisis, the magnitude of these effects, and, most importantly, the fact that the crisis is getting out of control – are best communicated by turbulence, whirlpool, flood, waves and other metaphorical expressions. the global economic crisis has also become a fertile research ground in multimodal metaphor analyses (cortés de los ríos, 2010; bounegru & forceville, 2011; đurović & silaški, 2013), where multimodal metaphors tend to buttress the same purpose as their purely verbal renderings – highlighting the scale and destructive power of the crisis as well as influencing judgments by persuasion. in a subsequent multimodal analysis of seven covers of the economist we focus on verbal and visual instantiations of the two domains, liquid and movement, to show how the interrelationship of the identified metaphors, metonymies and images schemas contribute to the creation of a particular conceptualisation of the euro currency and the eurozone crisis in general, and to reveal the evaluative character of the selected multimodal renderings. 5.1. the liquid domain the first cover presented in figure 1 and belonging to the liquid domain was published in the 25th june 2011 issue of the economist and tends to convey the impact of greece’s default on the entire eurozone. the visual metaphor depicts a businessman who is looking at the hole of a magnified kitchen sink. the image of the businessman rests on the metonymy business suit/briefcase for businessman (via clothes for the person relationship, resting on the defining property of category for category cognitive principle). the sink is cognitively viewed as a container via the in-out relation, when states, such as indebtedness, financial crises, etc. are conceptualised as containers. on the other hand, the euro is pictorially represented with a banknote on the verge of falling into one of the kitchen sink holes, which together with the image of the kitchen sink adds to the identification of the money is a liquid metaphor. all this is pictorially reminiscent of the n. silaški & t. đurović ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146134 idiom “go down the drain”, meaning “being lost or wasted” and in the light of the verbal message “if greece goes…”, accompanying the visual part of the cover, is suggestive of enormous bail-outs to greece regarded by many eu leaders as a waste of money. the size of the magnified sink as opposed to that of the businessman and more importantly, the implied huge amount of money that goes down the sink, point to “an axiological clash” (cortés de los riós, 2010: 91), where the value of “big” does not prototypically connote a positive but rather a negative value. the cover may perhaps not be rightly interpreted unless verbally cued, which makes it an example of multimodal metaphor. the half of the conditional sentence “if greece goes…”, implying a very likely possibility and, when cued pictorially, making reference to “going down the drain”, underlines fear and panic on a looming greek default and a likely situation that awaits other crisis-hit eu economies. the second cover (figure 2), dating from 15th january 2011, unless cued verbally, would otherwise serve to depict any life-threatening situation. however, when backed by the verbal “the euro crisis: time for plan b”, it is clearly put into the context of the eurozone crisis, and fares as a multimodal metaphor. the pictorial mode of the cover is based on the euro crisis is the waterfall metaphor, which rests on the eurozone crisis is the movement in the water (the movement and the verticality image schemas), and the containment metaphor. in light of the verbal message, the cartoon characters stand as a metonymical reference to the eu leaders and policy makers, who should steer the canoe saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 135 saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): …-… relation, when states, such as indebtedness, financial crises, etc. are conceptualised as containers. on the other hand, the euro is pictorially represented with a banknote on the verge of falling into one of the kitchen sink holes, which together with the image of the kitchen sink adds to the identification of the money is a liquid metaphor. all this is pictorially reminiscent of the idiom “go down the drain”, meaning “being lost or wasted” and in the light of the verbal message “if greece goes…”, accompanying the visual part of the cover, is suggestive of enormous bail-outs to greece regarded by many eu leaders as a waste of money. the size of the magnified sink as opposed to that of the businessman and more importantly, the implied huge amount of money that goes down the sink, point to “an axiological clash” (cortés de los riós, 2010: 91), where the value of “big” does not prototypically connote a positive but rather a negative value. the cover may perhaps not be rightly interpreted unless verbally cued, which makes it an example of multimodal metaphor. the half of the conditional sentence “if greece goes…”, implying a very likely possibility and, when cued pictorially, making reference to “going down the drain”, underlines fear and panic on a looming greek default and a likely situation that awaits other crisis-hit eu economies. figure 1. the economist, 25th june 2011: “if greece goes…”. the second cover (figure 2), dating from 15th january 2011, unless cued verbally, would otherwise serve to depict any life-threatening situation. however, when backed by the verbal “the euro crisis: time for plan b”, it is clearly put into the context of the eurozone crisis, and fares as a multimodal metaphor. the pictorial mode of the cover is based on the euro crisis is the waterfall metaphor, which rests on the eurozone crisis is the movement in the water (the movement and the cus,setatsnehw,noitalre niatnocasedsialutcepnco etonknabahtiwdetnesrepre h tiwrhetogeth chiw,sehol yenomethfontioaneid diehtfotnecsinimre og“mio bhfhilhid icnan,ssendetbednisahc ht,danherhtoe htno.sren nootnignillaffoergevehtno n hectkihetofgeamiheth a. rohptaemdiuqilasiy b“ginnaem, ”inardethnwodo fal eurothe ngsavi rea.cte,sesricla psioreue h llyiartoic knisnehctikehtfoen heto tddsank isn llyiartoicpisisthll a ”dtesawrot slogineb hi alberve htfothgile htnidan uggessi,rovechetoftrpaluasvi wasasrdeaelueny amby neibushetofthato td eoppos esogathteynomfotnuoam 19:0102,sóirsoledsérto(c erhatrtube vitisopa e tonnco vsselnudetrerpetniylthgri aheht.rohpatmeladmoitlmu ibssoplyelikyrevaginlypim to “ niadrhetn downg goi ” nu, ”,…esogeece rgfi“e agsesmal libaousmnoreofveitsugge -out hety.onemofetsa htfoezsi lntamieormnd an amssne an“ottniop,knise htnwodes foeulavehtreehw),1 “ gbi ” doe ervcoe hte.ualve viategna er sekamhcihw,deucyllarbev ecnetneslanoitidnocehtfofla ib llyiartoicpdeucnehw, dnaility loanoicnapdnaraselinredn e htgniyanpmacco”, d dergaereceergo tsout s aknsideingameh huged eiplmihety,l ” hasclcaligoloiaxan llacypiototprnotsdoe y e btonsapherpaym foelpmaxenati ,”…seogeceergfi“ ecnererginkam, lly lt uafedkeergginmolo ng goi aiawathtnoiatutisyelkila dan p stai sisircrheot ionomceuethi g .sei 1e gurfi . ecthe tsionomec 110 2enu jth5, 2 : “ ecereif g goes… goes…”. 2erugif(revocdnoceseth esiwrheotd oulwy,llbarve htybdekcabnewh,revweho ncoe htotnitupylearcl t xte dmolairotcipeht.rohpatme hpatemll afterawe th nit enemvome th ibér yraunajht51mognitad,)2 ilny atcpideo tveres -th mit:sisircorueeht“labreveh afdna, isisrcenozorueethfo htnodesabsirevocehtfoed ro , urehetnostserhciwh vomeht(terawe th 33ca ibér 710(2 ): …-… 9 deucsselnu,1102y . ntioaitusginnteaerth siti,”bnalprem l adoltimumasasera sisisircorueeh sisisirconeozur ehtdnat enemv away, i.e. the eu (pictorially represented via the container metaphor) from the steep waterfall they are dangerously approaching. the metaphor is suggestive of the non-working policies propagated by the eu leaders represented on the cover as seven cartoon characters (portraying seven eu member states: portugal, belgium, spain, greece, ireland, italy, and germany) desperately trying to prevent the imminent plunge over the waterfall, i.e. the eu debt crisis. in addition, the verbal “time for plan b” implies the previous, ineffective plan a which, in turn, should hint at who is to blame for the worsening of the eurozone crisis and for being incapable of saving the euro from collapsing. the third cover presented in figure 3 belongs to the 20th november 2010 issue of the economist and rests on a number of pictorial metaphors, the central being a sort of replica of géricault’s the raft of the medusa, which depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of the french naval frigate méduse. the raft with a sail containing a circular constellation of stars resembling the one on the eu flag – metonymy the eu flag for the eu (which rests on the member of a category for the entire category metonymy) – as a metaphor for the eu belongs to the container schema, which is visually and conceptually placed into another container, the crisis and debts, represented by stormy waters, giving rise to the euro crisis is drowning (which belongs to a wider class of the water/liquid metaphors). the crisis-ridden people in the eu, reminiscent of the people surviving a shipwreck on the raft, are portrayed in n. silaški & t. đurović ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146136 n. sila!ki & t. "urovi# ibérica 33 (2017): …-… verticality image schemas), and the containment metaphor. in light of the verbal message, the cartoon characters stand as a metonymical reference to the eu leaders and policy makers, who should steer the canoe away, i.e. the eu (pictorially represented via the container metaphor) from the steep waterfall they are dangerously approaching. the metaphor is suggestive of the nonworking policies propagated by the eu leaders represented on the cover as seven cartoon characters (portraying seven eu member states: portugal, belgium, spain, greece, ireland, italy, and germany) desperately trying to prevent the imminent plunge over the waterfall, i.e. the eu debt crisis. in addition, the verbal “time for plan b” implies the previous, ineffective plan a which, in turn, should hint at who is to blame for the worsening of the eurozone crisis and for being incapable of saving the euro from collapsing. figure 2. the economist, 15th january 2011: “the euro crisis: time for plan b”. the third cover presented in figure 3 belongs to the 20th november 2010 issue of the economist and rests on a number of pictorial metaphors, the central being a sort of replica of géricault’s the raft of the medusa, which depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of the french naval frigate méduse. the raft with a sail containing a circular constellation of stars resembling the one on the eu flag – metonymy the eu flag for the eu (which rests on the member of a category for entire category metonymy) – as a metaphor for the eu belongs to the container schema, which is visually and conceptually placed into another container, the crisis and debts, represented by stormy waters, giving rise to the euro crisis is drowning (which belongs to a wider class of the water/liquid metaphors). the crisis-ridden people in the eu, reminiscent of the people surviving a shipwreck on the raft, are portrayed in such a way as facing away from the viewer, to another direction, to n. ki!alsi & t. #viuro" egamiy tialcitrve mehsc rachet,geassemlbarvehetof amylicopdnasredaleueeth htaivdetnesrepreyllariotci(p aorppalysuoregnaderayeth bdetagaporpseicilopgnikrwo i(ch nemniatnocehtdna,s)am onymtemasand atssretcarhacoon nacethreteslduohsohw, sreka temreinatnoceh o)rohap gusisrohptaemeht. ginhca odetneserpersredaelu eehtyb b thgilni.rohpatemtn o tencererlacionym eon ayaw ueeth. i.e, lalferatweeptse htmo nonethfoetivsegg nevessarevocehtno ill niayrtrop(seractarchnootcar ylati,dnaleri,eceerg,niasp teawethrevoegnlupt neinmim ehtseilpmi”bnalpremi“t wtanthi temablo tsiho foru ee thginva olebapacin esattserbemmueenevsgn : tyletarepsed)ynamregdna, i. isisrct bedueeth. i.ell, afrte wanalpevitceni,suoiverpe oneozurehetofng niesorwhe .ginspllao cmo muigleb,lagutrpo , ehttneverpotgniyrt l abreveth, nitioddan dluohs,nrutni,hcihw ng ibend asisircone 2e gurfi . sionomecthe nidetneserprevocdrihteth of tsimonoceeth nostesrdan ’tlcauiérgfoca ileprfotrosa rwehtf ohtaeftaehtmofr ucricagniniatnocliasahtwi gaeu – ehtmyynotme t 110 2ryauna jth5, 1 : “ e mit:sisirco eurthe 02ehtotsgnoleb3erugif nth hapetmaliroctipfoerbmuna n s asehtreth ichw, agifrlavanhcnerfehtf okcer mesersratsfonoitalletsnocralu ueehtrofgalfue ban plorfe ”. eusis0102rebmevon gneibalrtcene ht,sroh t nemomatsicpedhic eta esmé areht. ehtnoenoehtgnilbm ehtnostserhcihw( 3 3aicréib 710(2 ): …-…10 g myy rogetacaforembme sgnolebueehtrrohpatme toanotniacedlpylalutcepnco esirng vigi,sretawy mortsby hetofssalcrdeiwao tongslbe pe ntecsniimer,uehetn ieopl afsay awah ucsn id yeartpor rogetaceritnerofyr iatnocehtot w,amehcs ansisicre ht,reniatnocerht dsisisircorueehto te phoratemdiuqil/retawhe pwhisang viseoplpehetofnt o t,rewevihetomy awang ica )ymynotemy – a as dnayllausivsihcihw edtenesrepr,stebddan h chiw(gninword sisirchet.)sphor neddri era,arheton k cerpw o ton,itcerdirhenotao such a way as facing away from the viewer, to another direction, to the open and troubled sea. the verbal metaphor “saving the euro” appears to refer to steven spielberg’s famous movie saving private ryan. the flags of spain, greece, ireland and portugal metonymically stand for their respective countries and visually demarcate the economies that need help the most, lest they drown and take the whole eu (via raft with the eu flag) with them. the rescue mission is administered by the obvious rescuers, the european central bank, via the image of a helicopter clearly marked by the acronym ecb, and the german chancellor angela merkel, a visual symbol of germany (the president for a country metonymy) – germany being the biggest creditor of these crisis-hit eu economies and thus their only hope in financial terms. the rescue mission is carried out from the air, which connotes up, and in turn metaphor power/dominance is up. hence this visual part of the cover may also covertly express the criticism of germany’s (frequently viewed as mrs merkel’s) role as the sole judge who decides which financial behaviour would be approved and which would not, or in view of the verbal cue, who decides on the way the euro should be saved. 5.2. the movement domain the movement domain, frequently utilised as the source domain that provides a rich knowledge structure for understanding complex economic phenomena, is represented in our data collection with four covers. saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 137 saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): …-… the open and troubled sea. the verbal metaphor “saving the euro” appears to refer to steven spielberg’s famous movie saving private ryan. the flags of spain, greece, ireland and portugal metonymically stand for their respective countries and visually demarcate the economies that need help the most, lest they drown and take the whole eu (via raft with the eu flag) with them. the rescue mission is administered by the obvious rescuers, the european central bank, via the image of a helicopter clearly marked by the acronym ecb, and the german chancellor angela merkel, a visual symbol of germany (the president for a country metonymy) – germany being the biggest creditor of these crisishit eu economies and thus their only hope in financial terms. the rescue mission is carried out from the air, which connotes up, and in turn metaphor power/dominance is up. hence this visual part of the cover may also covertly express the criticism of germany’s (frequently viewed as mrs merkel’s) role as the sole judge who decides which financial behaviour would be approved and which would not, or in view of the verbal cue, who decides on the way the euro should be saved. figure 3. the economist, 20th november 2010: “saving the euro”. 5.2. the movement domain the movement domain, frequently utilised as the source domain that provides a rich knowledge structure for understanding complex economic phenomena, is represented in our data collection with four covers. the first cover in this category (figure 4) dates from 5th november 2011 and depicts parthenon as a metonym for greece. in the light of the target concept, place (greece) for event (the eurozone crisis) metonymy, the cover would hardly be classified as a multimodal metaphor unless integrated with the t. aesdlebuotrdnanepoeth rre psnevtesto fs’grelbie podnadnaleri,eceerg,niasp cataremdylalusivdanesirtnuco ueeholwhetkeatnd an owdr htybderetsinmidasinoissmi lelichfimth ginvas“rohptaeml abreveht ievomsuom eatvirpng isav dnatsyllacimynotemlagutrpo elheednathtesimonecoe hte cat iwaravi(u w)gueethth sreucsersuoivboeh , eporueeth thbdkly eurothe ngsavi tosraeppa”orueeth ane fosgeht. evitcepserriehtrd eyhttesl,tsome htpel eucsereht. methithw knabl atrnecnae , avi thd alecrtepolicehafoegaimeth a,lekremalegnarollecnach )ymynotemy rountca – he thusnd t aseionomc eu ethi aethmot uodierracis us iecnanimorewpo msciiticre htsesrpexylvco cedohwegdujelosehtsaelro vniro,tondluowchihwdan edavse bdluohsoreu . emynorcaethybdekramlyra ht(ynamregfolobmyslausiv erctseggibehtgniebynamrge se tlaincna iy hopeihe dna, pusteonnochichw, ir p.u fotraplausivsihtecnhe ewivyltenueq(s’yangfo uoivaheblaicnanhcihwsedic we,cualberve htfoewiv deho namregethdna, bce srepeh roftneid sisircesehtforotide on issi muecse rhe t.s rohptaemnrtuind oslayamrevocehtf )s’elkermsrmasedew devroppaebdluowr u hety awheton sdeicde 3e gurfi . onomecthe 25. . odt enemvometh idt enemvomth tsionom 010r 2ebmevo nth0, 2 : “ ehtgnivsa niamo hdililf orue ”. hid ,niamodt enemvometh dgeelknowh cirasdeovipr n id enteseprersi,naenomphe ogetacsihtnirevoctsreth onymtemasanon hetrapstcpide everfo)eceerg(ecapl sadeissalcebyldrahdluwo ibér ehtsadesilituyltnee ng ndiatsrundeeurtts ovech tiwon itcelolcatdaour ht5mosetad)4erugif(yro ofghtilhetn i.eceergonym m)sisircenozorueeht(tne mas seunlphoratemlodamitul 33ca ibér 710(2 ): …-… 11 tahtniamodecruos cionomcex eplomc .srove dna1102rebmevon ,pteoncctgerathetof revoceht,ymynotem heth tiwd etagrentiss the first cover in this category (figure 4) dates from 5th november 2011 and depicts parthenon as a metonym for greece. in the light of the target concept, place (greece) for event (the eurozone crisis) metonymy, the cover would hardly be classified as a multimodal metaphor unless integrated with the verbal modality “greece” with all three letters ‘e’ from the word being substituted with the euro symbol, which also stands in a metonymical relation to the eu and the eurozone countries. cognitively speaking, the cover, on the one hand, conveys the idea of the verticality schema and the bad is down metaphor; on the other hand, the image of the euro in a steep fall through the air (the movement schema) connotes the great speed and imminence of fall, thus underscoring the disastrous effects of the devaluation of the euro on the greek economy in the light of the possibility of greece leaving the eurozone and abandoning the euro. the cover conveys the following message: if greece, i.e. greek economy, visually cued as parthenon, goes down, which is in turn cued by the euro symbol falling through the air, this would have serious repercussions for the rest of the eurozone and europe in general. the verbo-pictorial metaphor hinges on the notion that “very rapid changes are typically conceptualised with reference to ways of moving in the air, i.e. with the greatest of ease” (charteris-black, 2004: 166), which is rooted in our knowledge and physical experience that there is very little resistance to movement in the air. n. silaški & t. đurović ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146138 n. sila!ki & t. "urovi# ibérica 33 (2017): …-… verbal modality “greece” with all three letters ‘e’ from the word being substituted with the euro symbol, which also stands in a metonymical relation to the eu and the eurozone countries. cognitively speaking, the cover, on the one hand, conveys the idea of the verticality schema and the bad is down metaphor; on the other hand, the image of the euro in a steep fall through the air (the movement schema) connotes the great speed and imminence of fall, thus underscoring the disastrous effects of the devaluation of the euro on the greek economy in the light of the possibility of greece leaving the eurozone and abandoning the euro. the cover conveys the following message: if greece, i.e. greek economy, visually cued as parthenon, goes down, which is in turn cued by the euro symbol falling through the air, this would have serious repercussions for the rest of the eurozone and europe in general. the verbo-pictorial metaphor hinges on the notion that “very rapid changes are typically conceptualised with reference to ways of moving in the air, i.e. with the greatest of ease” (charterisblack, 2004: 166), which is rooted in our knowledge and physical experience that there is very little resistance to movement in the air. figure 4. the economist, 5th november 2011: “gr$$c$”. a visual solution similar to the previous cover is exploited on the second cover belonging to the movement domain dating from the 28th july 2012 issue of the economist (figure 5), this time pertaining to a zoomorphised pictorial representation of spain and its financial troubles, together with that of the caption “spain”. spain is pictorially represented as a bull, branded with the euro symbol, and stuck by coloured barbed sticks on its neck and flanks, connoting spain in great financial woes. if we assume that the caption is not necessary for the identification of the source and the target, then this cover qualifies as a monomodal metaphor. however, unlike the previous cover where the effects of n. ki!alsi & t. #viuro" w”eceerg“y tilodamlbarve msyorueehthtiwdetutistbsu uocenozorueethdnaueeth hetofadeihetysonvecnd,ha ,dnahrehtoehtno;rohpatme c) amehcstnemevomeh(t unde dihei om’e‘sretteleehrtllah tiw emanis dnastsolahcihw,lobm , ginkaepslyeitivngoc. sietrnu th nd aamhecsytilacitrevhe eetsaniorueehtfoegmaieht midnadeepstaregehtsetonnoc heofildeheof ng ibed orwhetom otnoitalerlacimynote enoethno, revoceth nwodsidabhet riaehthguorhtllafpe suht,llaffoecnenimm k hehe csrunde eousrtsasdihetng ior e htfothgile htniymoneco coe ht.oreue htgninodanab deu cyllausi v,ymonoc ekeegr guorthgllinafl obmysorueeth dnaenozorueethfot sereth ve“thaton inotheton sngehi gnivomfosyawotecnrere sihcihw,)661:4002,kcabl ntaisse r littleyre v iseret thath hetofon itualvadehetofstce nieavleece rgfoytilibissope esmgniwolle htseyvncoerv ad hw,nwods eog,nonehaps ioresevahlduowisth, iraethhg brevehtl. arenegineporued asngehacd piary rve yllacipytre setaregehthtiw.e.ir,iaehtni dnaegdelwonkruonidetoor .ir ae tht innemevo m toecn k eergheton o urehe dane nzooruee htgn e..ieece,rgfie:agses ybdeucnrutnis ihcih rsniossucrepersuio ob phoratemlaiortcpi htiwdesilautpecnocy sriertah(c”esaefot ecneirepxelacisyhp 4e gurfi . the htotralimisnoituloslausiva nemevomheto tng ongilbe tsionomecthe 110r 2ebmevo nth, 5 : “ $c$$$$grgr$ detiolpxesirevocsuoiverpeh 28thetomng itdan iadomtn ”. revocdnocesehtno ofuessi2012 y uljh 28t 3 3aicréib 710(2 ): …-…12 ng ongi tsimonoceeth ),5reugi(f dnaniapsfonoitatnesrepre ctipsinaips”.naips“noitcap eruolocybkcustdna,lobmsy seowlaicnantaergniniasp uosethfontioaneideth ewoh.rohpatmeladmoonmo ng gniniartepemitsiht oozato htegot,selburotlaicnansti b,lluba asedtenesreprylaliroct akcens tinos kcistdebrabde noitpacehttahtemussaewfi. isthnetht, egrtaethdnaecru revocsuoiverpehtekilnu,reve y l iartoicpdeishpromo ehtfotahthtiwr eh oreue hthtiweddanrb s,knadna gnitonnco ryrassecentonsin asasauqrevoc fostceehterehwr a visual solution similar to the previous cover is exploited on the second cover belonging to the movement domain dating from the 28th july 2012 issue of the economist (figure 5), this time pertaining to a zoomorphised pictorial representation of spain and its financial troubles, together with that of the caption “spain”. spain is pictorially represented as a bull, branded with the euro symbol, and stuck by coloured barbed sticks on its neck and flanks, connoting spain in great financial woes. if we assume that the caption is not necessary for the identification of the source and the target, then this cover qualifies as a monomodal metaphor. however, unlike the previous cover where the effects of the eu financial crisis are portrayed by the euro symbols rapidly falling off the word “greece” marking this cover as a multimodal metaphor, here the letter “s” starts to fall through the air (a combination of the two image schemas, verticality and movement). thus, when the caption is accounted for, the metaphor “verges towards the verbo-pictorial variety” (bounegru & forceville, 2011: 215). the intensity of the trouble is reiterated by the image of the bull branded by the euro symbol on its body, which should indicate that the financial fall of spain via the letter s standing for spain would lead to the fall of the entire eurozone, and by the verbal remainder “pain”, which unequivocally shows what spain and other eurozone countries will be left with if spain falls, literally and metaphorically. the use of similar visual solutions by means of the selected cognitive patterns, verticality and movement image schemas, in both covers, pinpoints the intention of the metaphor creators to underline that spain’s financial situation is just as threatening as that of greece. saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 139 saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): …-… the eu financial crisis are portrayed by the euro symbols rapidly falling off the word “greece” marking this cover as a multimodal metaphor, here the letter “s” starts to fall through the air (a combination of the two image schemas, verticality and movement). thus, when the caption is accounted for, the metaphor “verges towards the verbo-pictorial variety” (bounegru & forceville, 2011: 215). the intensity of the trouble is reiterated by the image of the bull branded by the euro symbol on its body, which should indicate that the financial fall of spain via the letter s standing for spain would lead to the fall of the entire eurozone, and by the verbal remainder “pain”, which unequivocally shows what spain and other eurozone countries will be left with if spain falls, literally and metaphorically. the use of similar visual solutions by means of the selected cognitive patterns, verticality and movement image schemas, in both covers, pinpoints the intention of the metaphor creators to underline that spain’s financial situation is just as threatening as that of greece. figure 5. the economist, 28th july 2012: “spain”. the third cover of the 26th november 2011 issue of the economist (figure 6), similarly to the previous two, combines two image schemas, those of movement and verticality, and unequivocally refers to the eurozone crisis. the cover depicts the image of a plummeting comet, whose two parts, the nucleus and the tail, are symbolically represented by the 1-euro coin and remnants of the 20-euro banknote respectively, both metonymically standing for the eurozone countries. the image of the 20-euro banknote against the dark black background leaving a blazing trail is suggestive of the threat of imminent disaster. equally effective in communicating the potential break-up of the eurozone is the image of the 1-euro coin-comet head moving swiftly downwards which, unless averted, will crash with far-reaching consequences. the aspect of ueeth operasisirclaicnanfi csihtgniam”eceegr“drwo aehthguorhtllafots trast movemdnay tialcitrve wtosegrev“rohptaemeth ieht.)512:1102,ellivecrfo thbddbll bth rslobmysorueehtybdeyartro sarevoc a ohpatmeladmoitlmu wtehtfonoitanibmoca(ria uht.)ntem itpacehtnehws, obrevethsdra rvalaiortcpi retiersielbuortehtfoytisnetni hhichdbitsl b eurothe ngsavi ehtff ognillfayldipar ”s“rettelehtereh,ro samehscegamiow , ,rdetnuoccas inoi &u grouneb(y”teir foegamiehtybdetar inld hehadi orueethybdednarbll ubeth ehtaivniapsf ollfalaicnanfi ybdna, enozorueetirneeth rehtodnaniapstahws wosh t. llyaicrohptaemdnallyarlite vs,nrettapevitingocdetcelse ethtsinopinp, srevocthobin slaicnans’niasp j isntioaitu ohshichw, ydobitsnol obmys owniapsrfognidnatssrettel , ”inap“redinamerl abreveth feleblliws eirtnuocenozorue tioluosl auisvrilaimsfoesueht emevomdnaytilacitrev aercrohptaemethfontiontein rt oa ths aginnteaer thst asu inlduo hetthatetacdi f ollfaehtotdaeldlu llyacoivuqenuhichw llafniapsfihtiw s, ethfosnaemybsntio s,amehscegamitne t athelinrednutosrtoa .eceer 5e gurfi . nht62ehtforevocdrihteth s uoiverpehtotylralimsi nmeevmo actiervdnat ie htsctiepdervcoe ht.sisicr tsionomecthe 210 2lyu jth8, 2 .”inap: “s foeussi1102rebmevon eeth egamiowts enibmoc,owt feryllacovienudna,tylia ,etmcognietmmulpa foe agmi tsimonoce ),6reugi(f foseohts,amehsc enozoreuehtotsr e ht,starpowte sohw ymsera,liathetnd auselnuc 02ehtfostnanmre kanboreu eht. sietrnuocenozorueeth blang viaelound kgrcbak cabl retsasdi llyauqe. ie vi ehtfoegamiehtsienozoreu rcllwi,detrevasselnu,hciwh ibér tby d enteseprery llacibolym viectpesre tonk ynoetmhtob,yel 02ethfoegaime nkanboreu hetofveitsuggessiliartng izabl tentope htgnicatinummconi 1nicooreu nivomeadhetmco rafhtwihsar uqesnocgnihcare 33ca ibér 710(2 ): …-… 13 1het dannicooreu rgnidantsylcalimy karde httsnaiage ton ntneimmioftaehrthe eakrbalit hetofup sdarwnwodyliwsgn fotcepsaeht.secneu the third cover of the 26th november 2011 issue of the economist (figure 6), similarly to the previous two, combines two image schemas, those of movement and verticality, and unequivocally refers to the eurozone crisis. the cover depicts the image of a plummeting comet, whose two parts, the nucleus and the tail, are symbolically represented by the 1-euro coin and remnants of the 20-euro banknote respectively, both metonymically standing for the eurozone countries. the image of the 20-euro banknote against the dark black background leaving a blazing trail is suggestive of the threat of imminent disaster. equally effective in communicating the potential break-up of the eurozone is the image of the 1-euro coin-comet head moving swiftly downwards which, unless averted, will crash with far-reaching consequences. the aspect of saving the euro and preventing the dissolution of the eurozone is verbally cued by the question “is this really the end?”, which should convey the need to act immediately so as to stop the ominous downward spiral of the eurozone, block its shattering and consequently save the single currency. since the meaning of the caption is neutral (and may have different referents) and the image on the cover – the euro-comet hurtling towards a collapse used as a source domain – unambiguously conveys the idea of the eurozone crisis (a target domain), we regard this magazine cover as an example of a monomodal metaphor. by representing the eurozone crisis as the fall of the burning euro comet and its very rough landing (the eurozone crisis is plummeting/way of moving in the air metaphor), the focus is placed on the speed, extent and direction of the movement which, since it stirs panic and instills fear, asks for immediate acting. yet, likening the eurozone crisis and a potential break-up of the euro to the natural phenomenon of a comet underscores the unpredictable and uncontrollable character of the crisis. thus, laying its stress on the inevitability of the disaster backed up visually and verbally, the selected magazine cover may seem as a means of lifting the burden from the shoulders of all those involved in the crisis – the ones who have initiated it as well as the ones who should take the measures to cushion the catastrophic effects of the crisis. n. silaški & t. đurović ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146140 the cover in figure 7 dating from the 16th july 2011 issue of the economist may be communicated as the eurozone crisis is falling off the cliff, which encompasses two metaphors: economic changes are ways of moving on the ground and the bad is down (the verticality schema). both metaphors are brought together to highlight the dire consequences of the eurozone crisis and the imminent danger of the collapse of the euro as a single currency, pictorially rendered by the 1-euro coin, as a metonym for the eurozone countries. the risk of the euro moving quickly downwards is particularly grave as this would drag down the eurozone’s third-biggest economy, italy, metonymically represented by the topographical image and as if about to severe from the rest of the continent. the path of the motion of the euro symbol indicates that the single currency itself is at risk, which is verbally cued by “on the edge” together with the sub-caption “why the euro crisis has just got a lot worse”, thus making the unity with the image of italy on the verge of breaking off from the rest of europe. the imminence of italy’s fall and the diminutive size of this country as compared to that of the euro symbol are suggestive of the disastrous consequences of the crisis hitting such a big eu economy. the choice of colours also adds to the gravity of the whole situation: the red background symbolising the enormity of debts against the image of the rest of europe in black serves to portray the depressing, dismal plight of the eurozone countries’ economies. hence the entire cover serves to reflect the magnitude of the eurozone crisis in saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 141 n. sila!ki & t. "urovi# ibérica 33 (2017): …-… saving the euro and preventing the dissolution of the eurozone is verbally cued by the question “is this really the end?”, which should convey the need to act immediately so as to stop the ominous downward spiral of the eurozone, block its shattering and consequently save the single currency. since the meaning of the caption is neutral (and may have different referents) and the image on the cover – the euro-comet hurtling towards a collapse used as a source domain – unambiguously conveys the idea of the eurozone crisis (a target domain), we regard this magazine cover as an example of a monomodal metaphor. by representing the eurozone crisis as the fall of the burning euro comet and its very rough landing (the eurozone crisis is plummeting/way of moving in the air metaphor), the focus is placed on the speed, extent and direction of the movement which, since it stirs panic and instills fear, asks for immediate acting. yet, likening the eurozone crisis and a potential break-up of the euro to the natural phenomenon of a comet underscores the unpredictable and uncontrollable character of the crisis. thus, laying its stress on the inevitability of the disaster backed up visually and verbally, the selected magazine cover may seem as a means of lifting the burden from the shoulders of all those involved in the crisis: the ones who have initiated it as well as the ones who should take the measures to cushion the catastrophic effects of the crisis. figure 6. the economist, 26th november 2011: “is this really the end?” the cover in figure 7 dating from the 16th july 2011 issue of the economist may be communicated as the eurozone crisis is falling off the cliff, which encompasses two metaphors – economic changes are ways of moving on the ground – and the bad is down – the verticality schema. both metaphors are brought together to highlight the dire consequences of the eurozone crisis and the imminent danger of the n. ki!alsi & t. #viuro" nitneverpdnaorueehtgnivsa llaershitsi“on itsquehetby ethptostosaoslyteiademim tlyneesnocdnaginrtteahsits mdna(l atruenisntiopaceth ervco – orueeth ltruhetmco helbi ulssoidehtgn zorueethfontio onvecd houlsh chiw,”nd?ehety l fol airpsdrawnwodsuoinmoe tly vsa e s. ycnerrucleginseth a)tsnerert nerdevahyam asedsue sapllcoa sdarwotgnil (iiheofdei deucllyaevisenoz tcao td enehety onve kclob, enozorueethf cins fognieanme hte ethnoegaimethdna naimodce ruosa as – n)idom hetysonvecy lguousbimuna rdagre revoceinzagamisth ricenozroueehtgnitnesrepre orueeh(tgnidnalhguro atemriaehtnignivmo wntemovemhetofon itcerdi innelikt, ey. gtincateiademim monehpl artuanethtoorueeth hetofretcarhaceblalolrontunc uasviup d kecbaretsasdihetof ehtgniilfos naemas amese a(sisirconeozurehetofadei monomafolepmaxenasa uegnirnubehtfollehtsasis mmulpisisisrcenozo tnodecalpsisuceht,)rohpa nd acnipasritstiencish,chiw padnaisisrcenozorueethgin thserocsrednut emocafononem ng yial,hust.sisirche its ss erst d etceleshety,llbarvend ay llua fos redluoshehtmonedrube ew,n)iadomtgerata yb. rohptaeml adom ryevstidnatemocrou foyaw/gintem ht dantentex,eedpse kssa,rasllitnsi kaerbl tianteop ofup lbtaicderpnueth dane ytilibativeniehtnoss y amrovecneizgaam nidevlovniseohtllaf g th sisicre : evahohwsenoeth satacehtnoihsucotserusame senoethsall ewsait dteitiain .sisircehtfostcecihport ethektalduohsohw 6e gurfi . onomecthe tsionom 110r 2ebmevo nth6, 2 : “ thllya reis this ?dn ee th ” 3 3aicréib 710(2 ): …-…14 gur gnitad7erugifnirevoceth htsadetacinmmuocebyma sessapmocnehcihw,fficl tnognivomfosywa tob.amehcsy tialcitrve ehetofsencqueeonscerdi , 2 lly t61ehtmog uessi2011 y uljh fsisisircenozorueeh srohpatemowt – imonoec dnuorgeht – abe htdan berasrohpatemht egotthguro mmihetnd asisirconeozure ofue tsimonoceeth ehtffognillaf e raesgnahcci nwodsida – eth ehtthgilhgihotr ehte hetofrngedantnei wealthier members of the eu “family”, whose precarious financial position exposes the single currency to risk, visually and verbally cued on the cover as being on the brink of fall. 6. discussion the above multimodal analysis of the magazine covers inevitably entails an attempt to detect some of the evaluative components rendered from the selected multimodal representations. overall, given the common denominator, which stems from the implied meaning of the selected covers – warning about the impending danger of dissolving the monetary union and abandoning the euro – all the above metaphors can be labelled as “destruction metaphors” (bickes, otten & weymann, 2014: 429), whose primary pragmatic function is to warn readers and spread fear among them. furthermore, “[i]n a state of anxiety, the reader is more likely to accept and approve the determined rescue measures of the government. in a scenario in which the eurozone is about to collapse, all action taken seems to be justified to the reader” (bickes, otten & weymann, 2014: 429-430). anxiety and fear, as our analysis shows, are communicated by the complex verbopictorial cognitive mechanisms, which are always encoded in a visual mode and sometimes in a verbal mode as well. on the basis of our analysis it may be said that the spatial concepts, those of verticality, movement, and container, together with the structural metaphors, are more prevalent in the visual than the verbal mode, which is in line with forceville n. silaški & t. đurović ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146142 saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): …-… collapse of the euro as a single currency, pictorially rendered by the 1-euro coin, as a metonym for the eurozone countries. the risk of the euro moving quickly downwards is particularly grave as this would drag down the eurozone’s thirdbiggest economy, italy, metonymically represented by the topographical image and as if about to severe from the rest of the continent. the path of the motion of the euro symbol indicates that the single currency itself is at risk, which is verbally cued by “on the edge” together with the sub-caption “why the euro crisis has just got a lot worse”, thus making the unity with the image of italy on the verge of breaking off from the rest of europe. the imminence of italy’s fall and the diminutive size of this country as compared to that of the euro symbol are suggestive of the disastrous consequences of the crisis hitting such a big eu economy. the choice of colours also adds to the gravity of the whole situation: the red background symbolising the enormity of debts against the image of the rest of europe in black serves to portray the depressing, dismal plight of the eurozone countries’ economies. hence the entire cover serves to reflect the magnitude of the eurozone crisis in wealthier members of the eu family, whose precarious financial position exposes the single currency to risk, visually and verbally cued on the cover as being on the brink of fall. figure 7. the economist, 16th july 2011: “on the edge. why the euro crisis has just got a lot worse”. 6. discussion the above multimodal analysis of the magazine covers inevitably entails an attempt to detect some of the evaluative components rendered from the selected multimodal representations. overall, given the common denominator, which lgnisa asoreue htfoe sapllco zooruee htrmynoetma as agry lraulcitrpasidsranwdow onymtemy,latiy,onomcetsggebi moe erevsottuoabfiasdan orueeth hts etacidnilobmsy dgeheby d llba ederdenrylaliroctip,cyenrrcue l e htfoksire ht.esirtnucoe nzo tn dowg adrd oulwshitsavea hetby d enteseprery llacionym pe ht.tennitncoe htfotesre htm flsetiycnerrucelgnsiehttah ubheh ihedge eurothe ngsavi 1e htybed ,nicooreu nivomoreu y klcquig drhits’oneozurehet geamilacphiaopogrt fonoitome htfohatp s ihcihw,skirtas i hhi dgeehetn o“by d uecy llbarve e”,srowtola togtsujashsisicr oginkaerbfoegreveth m htfoze ise vitunimide htdan ortasside htfoe vitesgguse ar olcofoce ioche ht.ymoneco lisobmysdnuorgkcabdereth rveskcalbnieprouefotsre monoce’seirtnuocenozoreu rcenozorueehtfoedutingma on itiposlaincnaousiracepr ubsheth tiwrhetoget”dge -cap thtiwytinue htgniakmsuhte”, mmieht.eprouefotsreehtm athtotedarpmcoasyrtnucosih hsisicre htfocesenueqsncosu sdadosalsruo foityvargethto inagatsbedfoitymroneethginlis erv s , ginsserpedethyatrropto revoceritneehtecneh.seim htfosrembmereihtlaewnisisir y ncerurcenglishetsexpose oreue htyhw“noitcap noyaltifoe agmie ht llaf’sylaitfoecnenim lobmysoreue htfoat uegiba chusgnittih : ntioaitusleohwethf ethfoegaimetht sin ethfot hligpl amisd sevres etht certo esohw,ylmiafueeh nd ay lluasvik,siro t pospr sarovecheton d uecy llbarve y nglxpos ofnk ibrheton ng ibe llfa . y 7e gurfi . the tsimonoec lyu jth6, 1 110 2 : “ hsisircorueehtyhw.egdeehton esrowtolatogtsujsa ”. onissucsi6. d ylanaladomitlumevobaeth e htfoe mosectetdottpemtat .snoitatneserperladmoitlmu ibér srevocenizagamehtfosisy erdenrstennopmcoe viatualeve nmmoocehtnevig,llarevo 33ca ibér 710(2 ): …-… 15 nasliatneylbativeni eectelse htmoeder d hcihw,rotanmioned and urios-aparisi’s (2009: 13) conclusion that “[n]on-verbal and multimodal metaphors may make salient certain aspects of conceptual metaphors that are not, or not as clearly, expressible in their verbal manifestations”. also, the pictorial representations of the image schemas always communicate a negative evaluation of the eurozone crisis and the euro currency and add to the overall persuasive character of the covers, channeling the way the readers understand and react to this event. in addition, metonymy is an equally important cognitive device for communicating the meaning of the covers, and many metaphors mentioned above are actually metonymy-based. metonymies are mainly represented visually, and less frequently verbally. as expected, many visual representations are deeply culturally entrenched, which, in view of the target domain, the eurozone crisis, has strong evaluative character. this, for instance, relates to figure 4 which makes reference to greece via a symbol of parthenon, linked with the ancient greece. we may reason that this symbol, metonymically motivated, seems to convey the message that greece is the originator and cause of the eu’s financial woes, with the underlying message that the country which is the cornerstone of modern europe and the eu is at the same time the one that is heading towards breaking up the euro as one of the most important symbols of the european identity. hence the media representation of multimodal metaphors trades on the capacity of metaphors to help to form opinions and provide a window on “the beliefs, attitudes and feelings of the discourse community in which they [metaphors] occur” (charteris-black, 2004: 13). 7. conclusion our aim in this paper was to analyse how visual and/or verbal modalities of metaphor, metonymy and image schemas hinging on the liquid and movement domains as cognitive instruments used on the front covers of the economist magazine contribute to the structuring of the concept of the european sovereign debt crisis in order to make it more fathomable to the readership. we have hopefully shown that the interplay of the metaphors such as the euro crisis is the waterfall, the euro crisis is drowning, the eurozone crisis is plummeting, the eurozone crisis is falling off the cliff with metonymies (e.g. member of a category for the entire category) saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 143 and image schemas (verticality, path-motion, container) helps to convey the eurozone crisis and to buttress its negative character. the interrelationship of these pictorial and/or multimodal cognitive tools points out their power and their ability to impart desired messages to the target audience, stemming from a strong emotional impact of this interrelationship. we have hopefully offered evidence for the potential of metaphor, be it verbal, pictorial or multimodal, “to construct representations of the world that impinge on human understanding of various aspects of social and political life and for its vital role in forming and influencing human beliefs, attitudes and action” (charteris-black, 2004: 28). acknowledgements this research was conducted within project no. 178002 languages and cultures across time and space funded by the ministry of education, science and technological development of the republic of serbia. article history: received 3 march 2016 received in revised form 20 september 2016 accepted 21 september 2016 references n. silaški & t. đurović ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146144 alejo, r. 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(1997). “metaphor, metonymy and conceptual interaction”. atlantis xix,1: 281-295. saving the euro ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146 145 silaški, n. & t. đurović (2010). “the conceptualisation of the global financial crisis via the economy is a person metaphor – a contrastive study of english and serbian”. facta universitatis, series: linguistics and literature 8,2: 129-139. silaški, n. & t. đurović (2011). “the natural force metaphor in the conceptualisation of the global financial crisis in english and serbian”. zbornik matice srpske za filologiju i lingvistiku liv,1: 227-245. silaški, n. & a. kilyeni (2011). “the money is a liquid metaphor in economic terminology – a constrastive analysis of english, serbian and romanian”. professional communication and translation studies 4,1-2: 63-72. white, m. (2004). “turbulence and turmoil in the market or the language of a financial crisis”. ibérica 7: 71-86. yang, y., & z. zhang (2014). “representation meaning of multimodal discourse – a case study of english editorials in the economist”. theory and practice in language studies 4,12: 2564-2575. n. silaški & t. đurović ibérica 33 (2017): 125-146146 nadežda silaški is professor of english for economists at the faculty of economics, university of belgrade. her research interests include cognitive linguistics, critical discourse analysis and esp. she has recently coedited a volume on esp at tertiary level in serbia and contributed a coauthored chapter to metaphor and intercultural communication with bloomsbury publishing. she has published internationally in peer-reviewed journals and is currently editor-in-chief of esp today. journal of english for specific purposes at tertiary level. tatjana đurović is associate professor of english for economists at the faculty of economics, university of belgrade. her research interests focus on english for specific purposes, applied cognitive linguistics and discourse analysis and she has published widely in these areas. she has recently co-edited a volume on esp at tertiary level in serbia and contributed a co-authored chapter to metaphor and intercultural communication with bloomsbury publishing. she is currently an associate editor of esp today. journal of english for specific purposes at tertiary level. notes 1 a much shorter version of this paper was presented at the xxxiii aesla international conference multimodal communication in the 21st century: professional and academic challenges held in madrid, spain, 1618 april 2015. 2 for the conceptualisation of the global financial crisis via the organism and the natural force metaphors, see silaški and đurović (2010) and silaški and đurović (2011) respectively. also see arrese (2015) for a comprehensive account of studies that investigated the role of conceptual metaphors in the structuring of the 2008 economic crisis. iberica 13 ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in this paper our aim is to look into the dominant axiological values in the aeronautical discourse through the chairman’s letters included in the annual reports published in 2014 and 2015 of some leading civil transport aircraft manufacturers: airbus, boeing, bombardier, embraer and textron aviation. we will analyse the positive qualities and the way in which they are introduced in this type of discourse through cognitive tools such as metaphor, metonymy and image schemas. this work has been structured according to the cognitive theory of metaphor and metonymy (lakoff & johnson, 1980, 1999) and extended to axiological semantics (krzeszowski, 1997, 2004) and to specialized discourse (adams & cruz garcía, 2007; cortés de los ríos, 2010; nicolae, 2010), among others. however, the specific approach to a technological manufacturing sector does not seem to have been carried out so far and, consequently, this study tries both to bridge this gap and to show new evidence for the correct interpretation of this genre. the results show that the source domains that are regularly used to highlight the positive qualities of the new planes and their manufacturing companies are extremely diverse. consequently, source domains such as lens, journey, construction, game and living organism, among others, can be found in these corporate letters. however, only two metonymies (institution for people responsible and part for the whole) are used to communicate positive attributes in this sector and the number of relevant image schemas in the corpus (attribute, space, container and balance) is also limited and occasional. keywords: axiological linguistics, cognitive semantics, metaphor and metonymy, aeronautical engineering discourse. a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter of the leading civil aircraft manufacturers1 mª enriqueta cortés de los ríos and ángel felices lago universidad de almería and universidad de granada (spain) mecortes@ual.es & afelices@ugr.es 111 ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago resumen una aproximación cognitivo-axiológica a la carta del pr esidente de los principales fabricantes de aviones civiles en este trabajo nuestra intención es investigar los valores axiológicos dominantes en el discurso aeronáutico a través de las cartas de los presidentes incluidas en los informes anuales publicados en 2014 y 2015 de algunos de los principales fabricantes de aviones de transporte civil: airbus, boeing, bombardier, embraer y textron aviation. analizaremos las cualidades positivas y la forma en que se integran en este tipo de discurso mediante herramientas cognitivas tales como la metáfora, la metonimia y los esquemas de imagen. este trabajo ha sido estructurado de acuerdo con la teoría cognitiva de la metáfora y la metonimia (lakoff y johnson, 1980, 1999), y extendida a la semántica axiológica (krzeszowski, 1997, 2004) y al discurso especializado (adams y cruz garcía, 2007; cortés de los ríos, 2010; nicolae, 2010, entre otros). no obstante, una aproximación concreta a un sector de fabricación tecnológica como es éste parece no haber sido efectuada hasta ahora y, por consiguiente, intentamos dar cobertura a esta ausencia y aportar una nueva evidencia para la correcta interpretación de este género. los resultados indican que los dominios fuente que se utilizan regularmente para destacar cualidades positivas en los nuevos aviones y las empresas que los fabrican son extremadamente diversos. en consecuencia, dominios fuente tales como lente, viaje, construcción, juego y organismo vivo, entre otros, aparecen en las cartas seleccionadas. sin embargo, únicamente dos metonimias institución por personas responsables y parte por el todo se emplean para comunicar los atributos positivos en este sector y el número de esquemas de imagen identificado en el corpus (atributo, espacio, contenedor y equilibrio) es también limitado y ocasional. palabras clave: lingüística axiológica, semántica cognitiva, metáfora, metonimia y discurso de la ingeniería aeronáutica. 1. introduction this paper intends to analyze the dominant axiological values in the aeronautical sector discourse through the chairman’s letters2 included in the annual report of the five leading civil transport aircraft manufacturers: airbus, boeing, bombardier, embraer and textron aviation. in other words, we propose to find out the most prominent aeronautical management qualities through cognitive tools such as metaphor, metonymy, image schemas and 112 the way in which they are introduced into this type of discourse following a cognitive-axiological approach. with this purpose in mind, this analysis has been structured according to the cognitive theory of metaphor and metonymy proposed by lakoff and johnson (1980, 1999) and extended to specialized discourse by adams and cruz garcía (2007), cortés de los ríos (2010), nicolae (2010), silaški and kilyeni (2014). the connection between this cognitive theory and axiology has been explored and applied to other varieties of discourse by krzeszowski (1997), kiełtyka (2008), hart (2008), felices lago and cortés de los ríos (2009), pérez hernández (2011), fornalczyk and biela-wolonciej (2012), among others. to this end, we propose the analysis of the aforementioned cognitive tools in the 2014 and 2015 chairman’s letters included in the annual corporate reports of the five aeronautical manufacturers selected, which are generally addressed to their shareholders, stakeholders and/or potential investors. the combined cognitive-axiological approach we propose seeks to reveal the dominant values in a crucial section of the business report genre (ceo and/or chairman’s letter) in connection with the aeronautical discourse. this is a type of approach, which does not seem to have been conducted so far and, consequently, this study tries both to bridge this gap and to show new evidence for the correct interpretation of this genre. this article has been structured as follows: section 2 offers an overview of the theoretical background for this study. section 3 deals with the selected sample data and the methodology employed. section 4 shows the sample analysis and the results. section 5 offers some conclusions. 2. theoretical background 2.1. a cognitive-axiological approach the theoretical underpinnings of this paper are based on a cognitiveaxiological approach. some relevant contributions have laid the foundations of axiological linguistics, particularly in cognitive semantics. cognitiveaxiological linguistic research was initiated and developed by krzeszowski (1990, 1993, 1997) and continued by pauwels and simon-vanderbergen (1995). krzeszowski created a new field of cognitive axiology where the dichotomy with poles good – bad is equally and may be more important than the dichotomy true – false. this linguist provides evidence that the axiological parameter seems to play a much more important role in meaning a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 113 analyses than previously conceived. krzeszowski (1990) did not only introduce the key principles of this new perspective, but also pointed out the dominant function that values perform in the structure of concepts. krzeszowski’s (1990: 150) axiological principle maintains that: words have a tendency to be axiologically loaded with ‘good’ or ‘bad’ connotations in proportion to the degree of the human factor associated with them. the idea behind this principle is that metaphorical expressions are more prone to axiological polarity than non-metaphorical ones. krzeszowski (1993, 1997) justifies the metaphorical nature of the good-bad polarity and empirically bases the integration of the axiological component on the idealized cognitive models. similarly, this linguist states that preconceptual image schemata should include the axiological parameter more-less or the positive-negative scale. pauwels and simonvanderbergen (1995) have researched into the role of values, using a different approach to that of the polish linguist. they identify the elements that determine a positive or negative value judgement, concentrating on the metaphorical projections from the domain of the parts of the body to that of the linguistic action. an important aspect, in our view, is the emphasis that they place on context. metaphors expressing value judgements can be grouped into two main classes: (1) context-independent value judgements, that is, prototypically positive or negative and (2) context-dependent value judgements. other contributions which follow a cognitive-axiological approach to specialized discourse correspond to cortés de los ríos (2001), velasco sacristán and cortés de los ríos (2009), felices lago and cortés de los ríos (2009), koller (2009), ortíz (2010), and pérez hernández (2013, 2014). it is also particularly relevant how previous research in the field of cognitive semantics has demonstrated that cognitive tools such as metaphor and metonymy play an extremely important role in communication both independently or in interaction patterns. metaphors based on metonymies and metonymies based on metaphors are also common (ruiz de mendoza & díez, 2002). in this sense, both are considered to interplay and interact, making it more difficult to differentiate them (barcelona, 1998). other patterns that are also used to persuade readers are image schemas. they are abstract representations of recurring dynamic patterns of bodily interactions that structure the way we understand the world. they are schematic and exist beneath conscious awareness (e.g. container, part-whole, front-back, updown, source-path-goal, link, balance, forward-backward, cycle) (johnson, mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136114 1987). image schemas provide the basis for a large number of metaphoric and metonymic mappings and underlie metaphor-metonymy interaction (lakoff & johnson, 1980, 1999; johnson, 1987). 2.2. the genre of the chairman’s letter the chairman’s letter or the ceo’s (chief executive officer) letter is a written business genre and is unanimously considered as an outstanding part of the annual report (jameson, 2000). most previous contributions highlight and investigate the way in which these letters address the target audience, how corporate values and ethical concerns are conveyed to the reader or how the performance targets are reached by the company during the yearly period (garzone, 2004; nickerson & de groot, 2005). consequently, the annual report (ar), which is distributed among shareholders, investors, employees and analysts, describes the company’s operations, its balance sheet, future prospects and other relevant information (jay, 1995). annual reports are “overtly and prominently informative, their latent promotional nature can be perceived throughout the texts and more patently in their narrative and discretionary parts” (malavasi, 2007: 173). to this respect, watson (2005: 3) stated that “a narrative text is the chairman or executive’s letter, within the ar”. malavasi (2007) affirmed that the ceo’s letters pursue informative goals and attempt to create strong and trust-based relations with their audience, to establish a favourable image and promote themselves and their services. as a result, these texts are both informative and persuasive (anderson & imperia, 1992). a letter to shareholders often sets the tone of ars prepared for publicly held companies. the chairman of the board of directors or the chief executive officer usually signs the letter on behalf of company management. bhatia’s (2004) theory of genre colonies offers an interesting contribution to the study of corporate reports from a generic and discoursal perspective. he argued that one of the current dominant characteristics of professional and academic genres is the invasion of promotional values in most forms of discourse, creating a constellation of closely related genres with overlapping advertising purposes. the chairman’s letter is widely seen as “a promotional genre, designed to construct and convey a corporate image to stockholders, brokers, regulatory agencies, finance media, and the investing public” (anderson & imperia, 1992: 114). this genre has been already reported to rely on a highly rhetorical architecture. nicolae (2010: 52) affirmed that “it is a welcome addition to the dry, factual, numerically rich financial reports, being the main a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 115 discourse product in this frame that has a publicity function”. despite some evident differences with the letter prototype, the chairman’s letter also has a number of indicators that link it to the letter macrogenre; it has the opening address, the closing, and the body of the letter. bhatia (2004: 170) identified seven main moves in his analysis of the chairman’s letter to shareholders in corporate disclosures: move 1: looking back (overview of the review period) move 2: identifying important themes (claims made) move 3: elaboration on themes (evidence for claims) move 4: expectations and promises (projections for future) move 5: expressions of gratitude (thanks to staff and shareholders) move 6: looking forward (revisiting move 1) move 7: positive and polite closing this author also noticed that the amount of engagements with past events depends on the company’s performance in the preceding year. when it has performed financially well, we are more likely to find a clear explanation of the achievements, but if the company has gone through a bad period, it tends to include fewer mentions of past events and to be instead more forward looking. von berg (2013: 27) previously explained: when addressing internal audiences, ceos presumably lead the way and devise the policies of the organization in regard to the future. we think and many authors have claimed that ceos not only need to implement companywide strategies and values, but also need to communicate them effectively, so as to persuade the organization’s workforce to follow the directions the ceo wishes the organization to take. the metaphors, metonymies and image schemas identified by means of values in the selected letters in section 3.1 are presumably intended to construct a corporate image, build credibility, refer to corporate governance and convince the audience (shareholders and potential investors) that the company is undertaking a profitable performance. this is not surprising, because these cognitive tools are supposed to be designed for achieving rhetorical and persuasive purposes in accordance with the conclusions reached by bhatia and the other sources quoted above in the domain of genre analysis. mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136116 2.3. cognitive tools the chairpersons of the aeronautical manufacturers often tend to present the positive or negative aspects of their company performance by verbalizing how well or how badly the business period has been evolving. as for metaphor, our approach focuses on a metaphorical link with a domain conventionally representing the desired quality that the chairman wants to highlight, such as innovation for the design of an aircraft or the cutting-edge technology of new planes. the use of diverse metaphors leads to a better understanding of companies perceived as complex entities. some metaphorical themes, which are commonly used in business or economics have been previously identified by cognitive semanticists and have inspired our methodological choice. the most widely used business metaphors were initially classified into six categories: journey, machine, organism, war, game, and society (clancy, 1989). later, boers and demecheleer (1997) analysed the metaphorical concepts of journey, health and war in the western economy discourse. life cycles, chaos and zoom lenses are conceptual metaphors in the discourse of entrepreneurship theory (arleo, 2000). person, burden, garment, mechanical aspects and competitor were identified in financial advertising (cortés de los ríos, 2007). herrera soler (2008) identified the following source domains in the business press headlines: plant life, war, mechanics, health, literature, religion, human/animal life, journey, sports and nautical. a highly recurring source domain to describe economy and finance is living organism (wang et al., 2013). liquid, wave and movement, fighting and contraction movement, growth, rise and big, depth, rise and movement are used in financial analyst reports to describe emotions (ho & cheng, 2016). other contributions, although scarce, highlight the importance of using cognitive metaphors in letters to shareholders. for instance, in her analysis of a corpus of chairman’s letters from diverse companies, nicolae (2010) identified the following ones: living organism, soldier, willful human being, friend, servant, actor, vehicle, construction, processual entity and culture. later, bujaki and mcconomy (2012) also revealed key source domains in this type of letters: science, journey, vision, construction and theatre. a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 117 with reference to metonymic patterns, the institution for people responsible metonymy (lakoff & johnson, 1980) is the main tool used as a hedge by the chairperson to communicate with the audience and diversify the responsibility for events or results. speakers may choose a metonymic expression depending on their communicative purpose: to intensify the role of the responsible people or to keep the profile of the person in charge as low as possible. the part for the whole is the other widely used metonymy (lakoff & johnson, 1980) in which the reference to a characteristic or important part is used to stand for the corresponding whole. both choices are made from the perspective of pragmatic intention. as can be seen in the examples selected below, these metonymies function systematically. this cognitive structure is basically used to link conspicuous aspects of the company such as leadership or relevance in the civil aerospace sector with values emphasized by the chairman: ([being] good, outstanding, etc.). in addition to that, as can be observed in section 4 below, the number of image schemas identified in the corpus (attribute, space, container and balance) is restricted to a limited number of values. 3. sample data and methodology 3.1. sample data the data collection for our analysis consists of a sample of ten chairman’s letters3, which can be found in the following links and websites. the ten selected letters, totalling 12,379 words, tend to boast good results once the global economic crisis, which started in 2008 has begun to fall behind. the sample letters are always authored by a single management representative, the chairman or president of the board. as the companies selected are all leading and successful actors in their field, all the cognitive tools under scrutiny tend to convey positive qualities. mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136118 3.2. methodology due to the nature of these letters, the information is studied on the verbal mode. our analysis consists of identifying the metaphors whose source domain is at least one of the metaphorical themes identified above by previous contributions and new metaphors that could be found as a result of our data scrutiny. the pragglejaz method has been used to recognise metaphorically used words in discourse, which involves the canonical case of metaphor identification in cognitive linguistics (pragglejaz group, 2007). this procedure consists of: (1) reading the whole text or transcript to understand what it is about; (2) deciding about the boundaries of words; (3) establishing the contextual meaning of the examined word; (4) determining the basic meaning of the word (most concrete, human-oriented and a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 119 3 t airbus 2014 ranque, d. chairman. letter to shareholders. retrieved 7 september. 2016 from file:///c:/users/usuario/downloads/airbus%20group-ar%202014eaccessibility_en.pdf (707 words) airbus 2015 ranque, d. chairman. letter to shareholders. retrieved 7 september 2016 from file:///c:/users/usuario/downloads/airbus-ra2015-en_03%20(1).pdf (980 words) boeing 2014 mcnerney, w. j. chairman & ceo. letter to shareholder and employees. retrieved 7 september 2016 from http://www.annualreports.com/hosteddata/annualreportarchive/b/nyse_ba_2014.p df (2,529 words) boeing 2015 muilenburg, d. chairman, president & ceo. letter to shareholder and employees. retrieved 7 september 2016 from http://s2.q4cdn.com/661678649/files/doc_financials/annual/2015/2015-annualreport.pdf (2,392 words) bombardier 2014 bellemare, a. president & ceo. letter to stakeholders. retrieved 7 september 2016 from http://www.bombardier.com/content/dam/websites/bombardiercom/supportingdocuments/sustainability/ reports/csr/bombardier-activity-report-2014-en.pdf (741 words) bombardier 2015 bellemare, a. president & ceo. letter to stakeholders. retrieved 7 september 2016 from http://ir.bombardier.com/var/data/gallery/document/11/98/03/65/14/bombardieractivity-report-2015-en.pdf (580 words) embraer 2014 fleury, f. president & ceo. letter to shareholders. retrieved 7 september 2016 from http://www.embraer.com/annualreport2014/en/mensagem.html (819 words) embraer 2015 fleury, f. president & ceo. letter to shareholders. retrieved 7 september 2016 from http://www.embraer.com.br/annualreport2015/en/o-voo-de-2015.htm (873 words) textron aviation 2014 donnelly, s. chairman & ceo. letter to shareholders. retrieved 7 september 2016 from http://s1.q4cdn.com/535492436/files/doc_financials/2014/2014_textron_annual_rep ort.pdf (1,276 words) textron aviation 2015 donnelly, s. chairman & ceo. letter to shareholders. retrieved 7 september 2016 from http://s1.q4cdn.com/535492436/files/doc_financials/2015/textron-2015ar.pdf (1,472 words) table 1. links and websites of the selected letters. specific); (5) deciding whether the basic meaning of the word is sufficiently distinct from the contextual meaning; and (6) deciding whether the contextual meaning of the word can be related to the more basic meaning by some form of similarity. with reference to metonymies, we follow lakoff and johnson’s (1980) classical classification adapted to specialized contexts. finally, we will adopt evans and green’s (2006) list of image schemas for our study purposes. 4. sample analysis and results in the following lines, an account of the metaphors, metonymies and image schemas linked to values will be given, particularly those in connection with the corporate image, the financial performance and the corporate governance of the selected aircraft manufacturing companies. a discussion on the way in which these cognitive tools are introduced and interact with each other will be added. the results will show that innovation, leadership, progress, efficiency, pro-activity, profitability, customer attention and environmental protection are updated as positive axiological qualities in the selected texts4. most of them might also be considered as context-dependent values5 (except for “efficiency” or “profitability”) and can be quickly detected after skimreading the sample letters (see table 2). a summary of the target values with their corresponding source domains can be seen in table 2 below: mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136120 key values source domains innovation lens, path, medical treatment, culture, garment leadership lens, game, construction, progress, path, processual entity, movement, living organism, mythological figure progress war, rise, medical treatment efficiency game, journey, lens, vehicle, living organism proactivity journey, game profitability health, vehicle customer attention lens, construction, living organism, servant environmental protection down, construction table 2. target values with their corresponding source domains. in the following sections, we collect the examples of the metaphorical expressions taken from the sample letters and the way they behave as vehicles for the corporate values. table 3 below also shows the occurrence frequency of the expressions representing the source domains in the ten sample letters. for reasons of space in sections 4.1 to 4.8 we can only include one example of each metaphorical expression from the corpus. as can be seen above, a total of 142 metaphorical expressions were extracted. the most recurring source domains are living organism followed by game and war. 4.1. key value: innovation the innovation value is based on the following cognitive tools: (a) metaphors this value is conveyed by means of the following source domains: lens, path, medical treatment, garment and culture. this is shown in the subsequent examples taken from the corpus6: a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 121 source domains metaphorical expressions frequency of occurrence in the sample letters living organism growth, grow 33 game win, earn a position, play a role, competitive, compete, champion 22 war fronts, strategy, battlefield 20 vehicle drive, steer, accelerate, speed 13 lens focus 13 health healthy, recover 10 construction strong foundation, build 6 movement lead ahead, move forward, move quickly 5 path cross a frontier, road, route 4 journey embark, journey 3 medical treatment injection, injuries 2 rise height, higher 2 progress bright future, headway 2 garment tailor 2 processual entity shape 1 mythological figure giant 1 servant serve 1 down reduce 1 culture heritage 1 table 3. distribution of metaphors in the chairman’s letters. the chairmen of these companies refer to this value using five metaphorical themes. all these source domains, despite its diversity, are used to highlight the innovative trend of the aerospace sector and its products, the cuttingedge technology employed and the creativity of certain staff members. the selected corporations also have a long tradition in the continuous improvement of the technological input and output. (b) metonymies examples of metonymies used by the chairman to reinforce the innovation value have been collected as follows: (1) the idea for the fund started with our innova program, which encourages embraer´s teams to constantly develop innovative projects. (embraer, 2014). (2) market demand for the 787 is extensive and broad based as its gamechanging capabilities continue to improve the way the world flies. (boeing, 2015) as can be seen in the following table, example 1 is a metonymy-based metaphor interaction. example 2 above includes a metonymy which interacts with the image schema: containment-in-out. the container (company and the world) stands for its contents: mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136122 source domain: innovation examples lens in 2014 we maintained our focus on innovation and created the aerospace investment fund (fip), the first of its kind in latin america. (embraer, 2014) path with each decade, aerospace technology crossed another frontier, and with each crossing, the world changed. (boeing, 2015) medical treatment this year, we welcome three new board members, catherine guillouard, claudia nemat and carlos tavares, who bring a fresh injection of highly relevant competences and skills. (airbus, 2015) garment by listening closely to our customers, and tailoring proven innovation to meet their needs, we have de-risked a decade of new product development, while at the same time expanding the performance and efficiency advantage of our airplanes in every segment. (boeing, 2014) culture bombardier’s heritage is rich with entrepreneurship and innovation. (bombardier, 2014) table 4. source domains that introduce the innovation value. e a metonymy is widely used in our corpus to communicate the image of innovation, viewed as a process to achieve project differentiation as well as sector improvement. 4.2. key value: leadership this value is based on the following cognitive tools: (a) metaphors the leadership value is conveyed by means of the following source domains: lens, game, construction, progress, path, processual entity, movement, mythological figure and living organism. this is shown by the subsequent examples: a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 123 e a source stands for target idea (example 1) person (via the part for the whole) the world (example 2) people flying by plane table 5. metonymies that introduce the innovation value. a 4 t source domain: leadership examples lens on the operational side, management’s sharp focus on programme execution is paying off. in 2015, commercial aircraft deliveries reached a new record of 635 units, the a380 reached its breakeven target and the a350 ramp-up advanced in line with plans. (airbus, 2015) game as we approach the start of our 100th year in business, we do so with renewed confidence in our capabilities, winning strategies for our markets and time-tested resolve to continue leading our industry through innovation inspired by our customers’ needs, and fueled by the talents, technologies and teamwork of our employees and global partners. (boeing, 2014) construction we’re looking forward to 2015 and beyond as we build on this strong foundation and create long-term value for our customers, our employees and our shareholders. (textron aviation, 2014) progress bombardier is a company with a phenomenal history of achievement and a bright future. (bombardier, 2015) path the road we are on is the right one to make bombardier strong again, to be a great employer, a consistent generator of shareholder value, a champion of our communities and the leading market of sustainable mobility solutions. (bombardier, 2015) processual entity7 our mission of creating better ways to move the world has shaped bombardier into a company with an impressive product portfolio and talented people. (bombardier, 2014) movement leading ahead (bombardier, 2015) mythological figure a special word should be reserved for our third departing member, manfred bischoff, a true giant of the aerospace world by any standards. (airbus, 2015) living organism overall, we project demand for 36,770 new airplanes over the next 20 years at a total value of $5.2 trillion – a highly attractive market in which our superior products and technologies have us poised for sustained growth in the years ahead. (boeing, 2014) table 6. source domains that introduce the leadership value. leadership is one of the most recurrent values in the aeronautical engineering discourse. the chairmen tend to project this value using extremely diverse source domains which apparently have no evident connection. the relevant metaphorical themes have also been used to highlight the dominant position of their company’s products in this sector and, at the same time, they try to build a positive corporate image. on the one hand, the mythological figure source domain is used in this context to refer to an exceptional person who attracts attention due to his professional commitment and becomes a paragon for the rest of the staff. this example is also a metonymy-based metaphor interaction which rests on the following image schema: attribute (big-small), big being valued positively. in addition, the last metaphorical expression interacts with the balance schema: “… our superior products and technologies have us poised for sustained growth in the years ahead” (boeing, 2014). in our opinion, this special link can be understood as the financial and productive equilibrium reached by a company when there is a sustained demand for the products and technologies it offers. (b) metonymies the leadership value is also conveyed by the corporate executives using the most common metonymies which characterize this type of discourse. three examples are taken from the corpus: (1) as we recognize our accomplishments of the past year, and review our strong financial and market positions, our eyes are fixed on the future and our commitment to build an even bigger, better boeing and an even stronger team for winning in our second century. (boeing, 2015) (2) boeing extended its leadership of the aerospace industry in 2015 with record deliveries and revenues at boeing commercial airplanes and solid sales and healthy margins in boeing defense, space & security. (boeing, 2015) (3) embraer’s recognition in 2014 largely reflects its high employee satisfaction ratings; these reached 86% in 2014 and contributed to the company being declared one of the best places to work in latin america (great place to work institute) and receiving special mention in the best places to start a career prize (você s/a magazine). (embraer, 2014) as can be seen in the following table, example 1 is a metonymy-based metaphor interaction. it is also based on the following image schema: mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136124 attribute (strong-weak, big-small), being strong and big valued positively. “big” interacts with the primary metaphor importance is size (grady, 1999): examples 2 and 3 refer to a metonymy-based metaphor interaction between an ontological metaphor and a metonymic concept: institution for people responsible. this metonymy also interacts with the image schema: containment-in-out. the container (company) stands for its contents. as previously stated in section 2.3, metonymy is widely used in our corpus to communicate the image of leadership and relevance in the civil aerospace sector. 4.3. key value: progress this value is based on the following cognitive tools: (a) metaphors as can be observed in the following examples, the progress value is conveyed by means of the war, rise and medical treatment source domains: progress is an important corporate value which may refer to existing commercial opportunities or to the implementation of new tools or a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 125 ( ( a source stands for target eye (example 1) person (via the part for the whole) company (examples 2 and 3) employees (via institution for people responsible) table 7. metonymies that introduce the leadership value. a 4 t source domain: progress examples war our businesses made progress on a number of fronts (textron aviation, 2014) rise i am energized by this new beginning and look forward to bringing bombardier to new heights. (bombardier, 2014) medical treatment progress in strengthening our safety culture included reducing hazards that cause the most serious injuries and implementing new enterprise standards for safety tools and equipment. (boeing, 2014) table 8. source domains that introduce the progress value. ( equipment. in this case, source domains such as war, medical treatment and rise are used to transfer this positive quality. it should be taken into account that the selected manufacturers also make military planes and their chairmen refer figuratively to war scenarios to highlight that it serves as a catalyst for technological development. the war metaphor is also used to focus on the fight against adversities. in the same vein, the medical treatment metaphor is implemented to improve safety and prevent real or imaginary damages. albrighton (2013) has already linked the concept of rise or elevation to the progress metaphor. (b) metonymies as can be observed in the following examples, the progress value is also conveyed by some metonymies: (1) our company continues to make sound progress on numerous fronts, operational and strategic, but also from a governance perspective. (airbus, 2015) (2) throughout 2015, the board closely monitored the technical and commercial progress of the group’s major programmes. it reviewed enterprise risk management results, the internal audit plan and reoriented the group’s compliance programme by implementing a reinforced anti-corruption policy. (airbus, 2015) as can be seen in table 9, examples 1 and 2 are a metonymy-based metaphor interaction between an ontological metaphor and a metonymic concept: institution for people responsible. in addition, this metonymy interacts with the containment-in-out image schema. the container (company) stands for its contents. this cognitive tool is used for highlighting the technological progress as the basis for competitiveness and improvement in the aeronautical sector. 4.4. key value: efficiency this value is based on the following cognitive tools: mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136126 source stands for target company (examples 1 and 2) employees (via institution for people responsible) table 9. metonymies that introduce the progress value. 4 t (a) metaphors this value is conveyed by means of the following source domains: game, journey, lens, vehicle and living organism. this can be observed in the subsequent examples: the shareholders understand the importance of efficiency in a company. the chairpersons introduce this value frequently by means of the game source domain to communicate the capacity and competitiveness of employees. also the top executives occasionally adopt other metaphorical themes such as journey, lens, vehicle and living organism to communicate this value. (b) metonymies the efficiency value is also conveyed by some metonymies as we can see in the following examples: (1) thanks to the group’s continued financial success, we are able to propose a dividend increase for the sixth year in succession at € 1.30 per share, an amount which, based on earnings per share of € 3.43, is in line with our policy of a payout ratio of between 30% and 40%. (embraer, 2014) (2) with our focus, passion and discipline, bombardier is poised for success. (bombardier, 2014) (3) airbus group has ambitious plans. as we look to the time ahead, i believe shareholders can continue to count on the support of a strong and dedicated board. (airbus, 2014) a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 127 4 t source domain: efficiency examples game winning such a competitive commercial airplane program demonstrates the confidence that customers have in tru to deliver sophisticated flight training requirements for their operations. (textron aviation, 2014) journey and importantly, we devised and embarked on a new strategic roadmap focused on four catalysts to improve performance. (bombardier, 2015) lens and importantly, we devised and embarked on a new strategic roadmap focused on four catalysts to improve performance. (bombardier, 2015) vehicle … our employees are working together with a one boeing mindset to drive incremental and step-function improvements in quality, productivity and safety. (boeing, 2014) living organism in 2014, boeing delivered another strong year of growth and improved operational performance. (boeing, 2014) table 10. source domains that introduce the efficiency value. as shown in table 11, examples 1, 2 and 3 are a metonymy-based metaphor interaction between an ontological metaphor and a metonymic concept: institution for people responsible. in addition, this metonymy interacts with the image schema: containment-in-out. the container (company) stands for its contents. example 2 is also a case of metonymy based on the balance schema. the chairpersons consistently underline and link success, good results or improvements to the concept of efficiency. this helps to offer a positive corporate image and meet shareholders expectations. 4.5. key value: proactivity this value is based on the following cognitive tool: metaphor. it is conveyed by means of the journey and the game source domains as can be observed in the following examples: the journey and game source domains (lakoff & jonhson, 1980) are used in the examples to communicate the proactivity values8 that embody them. some companies around the world have adopted formal statements of corporate values, and their chairpersons identify their international presence, competitiveness, long-term sustainable growth, innovation in products, investment in people and innovation in technology as top issues on their companies’ agendas, which can only be reached by the proactive implication of all the personal and entrepreneurial energy involved. proclaiming these corporate values is a rhetorically effective strategy due to its potential to mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136128 source stands for target company (examples 1, 2 and 3) employees (via institution for people responsible rests on an ontological metonymy) table 11. metonymies that introduce the efficiency value. 4 t source domain: proactivity examples journey in 2016 we will continue to develop projects, innovate in our products, invest in our people, seek excellence in management and advance in cutting edge technology. throughout this journey, we would like to truly thank the contribution of all our stakeholders. (embraer, 2015) game we must earn our position every day by constantly asking as much of ourselves as all those who came before us. (boeing, 2014) table 12. source domains that introduce the proactivity value. t enhance the stakeholders’ emotional involvement. embraer, a leading company and an emblem of south america, is one of the companies that puts it into practice. 4.6. key value: profitability this value is based on the following cognitive tools: (a) metaphors profitability is conveyed by means of the health and vehicle source domains, as can be seen in the following examples: profitability is an essential value for any private company. health and vehicle source domains are the tools used here to introduce this value. the chairpersons use them in their communication since they must show “a good financial health” to gain the confidence of customers, stakeholders and investors and, as a result, their company must be viewed as a vehicle, which has to “accelerate” to achieve positive results. (b) metonymy the profitability value is also conveyed by the institution for people responsible metonymy as can be seen in the following example: (1) bombardier is already significantly better prepared in 2016 to deliver a profitable future. (bombardier, 2015) a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 129 t source domain: profitability examples health … we expect to see profitability recover meaningfully and sustainably. (bombardier, 2015) vehicle our imperative now is to execute to deliver on our lower-risk development agenda and to accelerate the conversion of our record backlog into cash and earnings to fund those projects and provide increasing returns to all stakeholders. (boeing, 2014) table 13. source domains that introduce the profitability value. ( ( source stands for target company employees (via institution for people responsible rests on an ontological metonymy) table 14. metonymy that introduces the profitability value. t in table 14 this metonymy interacts with the image schema: containment-inout. the container (company) stands for its contents company. 4.7. key value: customer attention this value is based on the following cognitive tools: (a) metaphors the customer attention value is conveyed by means of four source domains: lens, construction, living organism and servant as can be seen in the following examples: the chairpersons can communicate and share this leading conceptual tool by means of the lens, construction and living organism source domains, which are frequently used in the specialised literature. the product life cycle, for example, is perhaps one of the most widely used metaphors in the area of marketing. it serves as the model by which managers can understand how products progress in the market place and it is used particularly in advertising to gain customer attention (palmer & lindgreen, 2008). in addition, the servant source domain was previously identified by nicolae (2010), who also affirmed that “metaphor is a rhetorical tool that is used not only to convince the readership about the strength, readiness and zeal of the company run by the ceo, but also a means of attaining consensus of views based on relationship correspondences” (nicolae, 2010: 57), and the servant metaphor illustrates this. mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136130 ( ( t source domain: customer attention examples lens as we add new capabilities to our company, we’ve continued a relentless focus on our customers to anticipate their requirements, address their needs with leadingedge products and provide them with outstanding support throughout the entire product life cycle. (textron aviation, 2014) construction over the past year, textron aviation’s 21 company-operated service centers have received certifications to expand their capabilities and service beechcraft, cessna and hawker customers. this represents another way we are building and growing our relationships with customers. (textron aviation, 2015) living organism over the past year, textron aviation’s 21 company-operated service centers have received certifications to expand their capabilities and service beechcraft, cessna and hawker customers. this represents another way we are building and growing our relationships with customers. (textron aviation, 2015) servant we are here to serve our customers. (embraer, 2014) table 15. source domains that introduce the customer attention value. (b) image schema the customer attention value is mainly shown by means of the following space image schema: center-periphery, center being valued positively, as we can see in the subsequent example: (1) i always want employees to remember that customers are at the centre of everything we do. (bombardier, 2015) this value is particularly relevant in the corporate world since the chairpersons generally focus on the company commitment with the customers. 4.8. key value: environmental protection this value is based on the following cognitive tools: (a) metaphor environmental protection is conveyed by means of the down and the construction source domains, as can be seen in the following examples: the lexical item “reduce” evokes the metaphor less is good or reduction is good. this is paradoxically, conceptualized as a clearly appreciative schema on a positive-negative scale in the eco-discourse (felices lago & cortés de los ríos, 2009). on most occasions, more is up (good) and less is down (bad) are well grounded in our experience in western culture (lakoff & johnson, 1980). in addition, the construction metaphor is also used to communicate this value. nowadays, it is a corporate policy to contribute to environmental protection. this is positively perceived by the customer since the industrial sector has a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 131 ( t source domain: environmental protection examples down we also advanced global development of sustainable aviation biofuel with partners across six continents, and we tested more than 25 new technologies to reduce airplane noise and carbon emissions on the 787 ecodemonstrator. (boeing, 2014) construction we build a sustainable future. (embraer, 2014) table 16. source domains that introduce the environmental protection value. been traditionally associated with pollution and depletion of natural resources. (b) image schema the attribute image schema (big-small) is used to reinforce this value, big being valued positively, as can be observed in the following example: (1) building a better planet goes hand-in-hand with building a bigger, better boeing. (boeing, 2014) 5. conclusions it is a fact that the chairman’s letter linguistic and discursive features have been widely scrutinised in previous research, particularly by genre analysis specialists, but it is also true that, to this date, and as far as we know, only one contribution from lakoffian semantics has been made (nicolae, 2010). all experts from the linguistic models concerned have concluded that this type of letter, to a large extent, attempts to create a strong and trust-based relationship between corporate executives and their audience, to establish a favourable corporate image and, at the same time, to promote themselves and their services. nicolae (2010) also found a diverse typology of metaphors across a set of chairman’s letters from various economic sectors. consequently, a similar approach to this type of text from a specific industrial and/or technological sector was missing. we also found that the metaphorical tools employed are generally aimed at reinforcing the positive axiological load inherent to the promotional nature of the chairman’s letter, especially in dynamic, innovative and high tech sectors such as aeronautical engineering and/or manufacturing. to this end, we have retrieved the documents from the websites of the five leading companies corresponding to the annual reports of 2014 and 2015. after that, we have mapped out the dominant axiological values combining the resources and methods of the cognitive theory of metaphor and metonymy with those of axiological semantics. the results in section 4 show that well-known corporate values such as innovation, leadership, progress, efficiency, proactivity, profitability, customer attention and, more recently, environmental protection, can be perceived by the readership with the help of cognitive tools such as the metaphor, the metonymy and, occasionally, the image schema. as shown in table 2, as many as nineteen mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136132 source domains are the vehicles in the ten sample letters, showing a great cognitive diversity and the complexity of the corporate values under scrutiny. lens, journey, construction, game and living organism are found in at least three values and become the leading source domains; they are followed by medical treatment and vehicle, which are linked to two values. culture, garment, health, progress, processual entity, war, rise, servant, path, down, movement and mythological figure occur only once. however, only two metonymies (institution for people responsible and part for the whole) are used to communicate positive attributes in the civil aerospace sector and the number of image schemas identified in the corpus (attribute, space, container and balance) is also limited and occasional. our analysis can also point out the strong persuasive and rhetorical power of these cognitive tools and their ability to transmit messages and to influence existing or potential shareholders. to conclude, we are aware that although this sample may be limited, there is room for further research in other technological sectors, which will provide us with more information about metaphors, metonymies and image schemas in connection with positive or negative axiological values. article history: received 28 january 2017 received in revised form 12 may 2017 accepted 14 may 2017 references a cognitive-axiological approach to the chairman’s letter ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136 133 adams, h. & l. cruz garcía (2007). “the advertising of financial products in the press”. ibérica 13: 123-146. albrighton, t. 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(2005). “illusions of trust: a comparison of corporate annual report executive letters before and after sox”. paper presented at the 8th international public relations research conference, miami (fl). url: http://www.instituteforpr.org/wpcontent/uploads/watson_05iprrc.pdf [20/12/16] wenstøp, f. & a. myrmel (2006). “structuring organizational value statements”. management research new 29,11: 673-683. notes 1 this article is based on research carried out within the framework of the project ffi2014-53788-c3-1p, which is funded by the spanish ministry of economy and competitiveness. 2 in this article, when we refer to the chairman’s letter we also cover similar types of texts, particularly the chief executive officer’s (ceo) letter. the structure, the target audience and the communicative goals tend to be identical. consequently, we will use both terms depending on the preferences expressed by other authors in their original contributions. 3 as previously mentioned in the introductory chapter we have selected a sample of the chairman`s letters included in the annual corporate reports published in 2014 and 2015 of the following aeronautical manufacturers: airbus, boeing, bombardier, embraer and textron aviation. 4 some of these common corporate values have been collected by wenstøp, f. & a. myrmel (2006) from diverse sources. 5 context-dependent refers here to the fact that values such as innovation, leadership etc. are values basically activated in the corporate discourse, but cannot be considered as context-independent values such as truth, generosity, etc., which are positive values regardless of the discourse type. 6 henceforth, all metaphorical expressions in the examples will be italicized. 7 this source domain was identified by heimbürger (2009) in the context of meetings and negotiations and also by nicolae (2010) in ceos letters. 8 the proactivity value includes a combination of positive axiological features commonly integrated in what is known as corporate excellence: active commitment, breaking through new markets and challenges, optimistic and/or forward-looking attitude, management involvement searching for success, etc. mª e. cortés de los ríos & á. felices lago ibérica 34 (2017): 111-136136 ibérica 42 (2021): 245-249 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 road-mapping english medium education in the internationalised university emma dafouz, ute smit cham, switzerland: palgrave macmillan, 2020. 163 pages. isbn: 978-3030234621 no one living in the current age can ignore the phenomenon of internationalisation of education that has been growing unstoppably during the last decades. in this respect, universities are among the first institutions where this process started centuries ago and has now been greatly intensified. lyngstad (2007: 3) defines university internationalisation as “the attempts of higher education institutions to integrate intentionally an international and intercultural dimension into the teaching, research and service function of the institution”. if we want internationalisation to be a reality instead of a mere attempt, all university members (professors, students, administrative staff and policy makers) should collaborate together in order to involve every area of activity (teaching, research, learning, administration and policy) to make this possible. despite all the research on the internationalisation of he, the complexity of its success requires a model, holistic and flexible at the same level, that comprises all the issues involved in internationalisation and all the participants that play a role in it. in this context, dafouz and smit first presented road-mapping for conceptualising this reality in their paper “towards a dynamic conceptual framework for english-medium education in multilingual university settings” in 2016. since then, their framework has been applied to several international higher education institutions, which has provided them with the opportunity of illustrating road-mapping through real examples. moreover, as emphasised by the authors, the applied linguistic nature of their framework is an advantage for a “real world problem in which language is its central issue” (brumfit, 1997: 93, as cited in dafouz and smit, 2020: 3). 245 book reviews in the introductory chapter of the book, some of the labels that are commonly used in the academic research on internationalisation of higher education are defined. since the main concern of most previous studies in the field of applied linguistics has been englishisation, the terms english medium instruction (emi) and integrating content and language in higher education (ilche) are briefly discussed. the authors suggest an alternative term that goes beyond the more generally used emi and propose englishmedium education in multilingual university settings (ememus, eme henceforth, for short). eme works as a comprehensive tool that integrates an ample variety of research agendas and pedagogical approaches and comprises diverse types of education. the combination of instruction and learning, without prioritising any of them, is one of eme’s greatest strengths. the notion of multilingualism is also understood in a wider sense, since english works jointly with other languages, and thus is not treated as just an additional language. after the introduction, the book is divided into two main interconnected sections. the first one (chapters 2 and 3) includes the most theoretical aspects, conceptualising the realities of eme and explaining road-mapping and all its dimensions. the second section (chapters 4 and 5) is focused on the most practical applications of the framework. in the final chapter, the book concludes by mentioning the limitations of the model and further avenues for research. more specifically, in order to conceptualise eme, the second chapter of the book describes the situation of six universities from several parts of the world and in different socioeconomic conditions to emphasise the diversity of contexts to which eme can be applied. the authors firstly reiterate that eme does not work only in europe, but in any country belonging to kachru’s (1985) expanding circle, in which the middle east and north africa, asia and latin america are included. however, their spotlight is on english-medium education in places that already enjoy well-established higher educational systems (smit & dafouz, 2012: 2). this clarification helps the reader to focus on a particular context, since english has significant value in many countries in which applying eme would be very ambitious for socioeconomic and cultural reasons. the universities that are explored belong to sweden, the netherlands, spain and, out of europe, to united arab emirates, japan and colombia. they represent a wide variety of diverse conditions; they have public and private investors, the level of english among students and staff is diversified, and the ways of reseñas / book reviews ibérica 42 (2021): 245-249246 approaching the resulting problems vary according to the needs of each institution. the third chapter presents the theoretical background and develops roadmapping in depth. the six dimensions of the framework (roles of english, academic disciplines, (language) management, agents, practices and policies and internationalisation and glocalisation), all of them connected by discourse, are also defined in this chapter. even though the authors assure that the essence of the model remains almost unchanged since its release in 2016, they succeed in providing a more detailed perspective of roadmapping that overcomes its complexity by using working definitions that can come in handy for researchers. after reviewing the theoretical dimensions of the framework, chapter 4 foregrounds how road-mapping can be applied to different areas through the description of four studies. the first two are focused on participants’ expectations and evaluations of eme, and the next two on applied linguistics discussions. it should be noted that the last study was carried out before road-mapping was released, which demonstrates its practicality to reinterpret the results obtained from previous analyses. all these investigations prove the flexibility of the framework that is easily adaptable to any context that can be found in higher education institutions. at the end of this chapter dafouz and smit acknowledge the complexity of roadmapping and the possible overlapping between its dimensions owing to lack of clear taxonomic hierarchies. nevertheless, these “boundaries” will most probably be set when the framework is put into practice. this is the reason why the authors encourage stakeholders involved in internationalisation to apply their model. chapter 5 may be the most practical, especially for the university staff engaged in the process of internationalisation. the intent of this chapter is to explain the applications of road-mapping to managerial and policy issues of higher education institutions by providing real examples. to this end, the situation of a spanish university at the institutional level is described. to illustrate the framework at the national level, a reflection is provided on how agents have traditionally perceived internationalisation in two main settings: japan, on the one hand, and a transnational eu project, known as equiip (educational quality at universities for inclusive international programmes), on the other. seven european universities representing a wide range of scenarios to which the framework can be applied participated in this project. attention reseñas / book reviews ibérica 42 (2021): 245-249 247 should be drawn to the figure of the educational developer, who plays an essential role as a mentor to make internationalisation a successful reality. some practical activities are also included in this chapter in order to guide and motivate future “internationalisers”. the sixth and last chapter summarises concisely the content of the book and draws some conclusions reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of the framework. lastly, the authors put forward several dimensions of roadmapping that are under-investigated and encourage researchers, educators and policy-makers to apply it and test it for its improvement. as a researcher engaged in eme, i found the honest and clear inclusion of the downsides of using english as a vehicle for education one of the strongest assets of the book. furthermore, some aspects that were overlooked by other approaches have room in this model. for instance, it is worth mentioning the risk of taking anglocentric perspectives and westernising all educational systems, since it may lead to the loss of language and identity diversity. as a conclusion, dafouz and smit’s book is extremely valuable in shedding light on what english-medium education in multilingual university settings is. moreover, it illustrates the diversity of eme the world over. this innovative framework serves as a guideline for everyone involved in the phenomenon of internationalisation of he to make it real. received 1 december 2021 accepted 9 december 2021 reviewed by andrea martínez celis universidad complutense de madrid (spain) andmar07@ucm.es references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 42 (2021): 245-249248 brumfit, c. (1997). “how applied linguistics is the same as any other science”. international journal of applied linguistics 7(1): 86-94. doi: <https:// doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.1997.tb00107.x>. dafouz, e. & u. smit (2016). “towards a dynamic conceptual framework for english-medium education in multilingual university settings”. applied linguistics 37(3): 397-415. doi: <https:// doi.org/10.1093/applin/amu034>. kachru, b. (1985). “standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: the english language in the outer circle” in r. quirk & h. g. widdowson (eds.), english in the world: teaching and learning the language and literatures, 11-30. cambridge university press. lyngstad, r. (2007). “internationalizing higher reseñas / book reviews ibérica 42 (2021): 245-249 249 education”. journal of comparative social work 2(1): 17-25. doi: <https://doi.org/10.31265/jcsw. v2i1.29>. smit, u. & e. dafouz (2012). “integrating content and language in higher education: an introduction to english-medium policies, conceptual issues and research practices across europe”. aila review 25(1): 1-12. doi: <https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.25. 01smi>. iberica 13 ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract financial communication is conducted through various genres, among which are earnings videos. the videos discursively disclose corporate performance two/four times yearly (once every three/six months), using multimodal features to convey specific social meaning about corporate performance. these features constitute discursive strategies, which may generate and maintain investor interest in corporations. a multimodal analysis of language and image features is conducted on earnings videos in english, french and spanish of corporations in the global finance industry. the analysis posits five discursive strategies. the information in the videos (1) emphasizes corporate contribution, (2) displays their beneficial activities, and is (3) anchored to spatio-temporal location. the information (4) is humanized and (5) acknowledges the risks faced. the strategies are realized using language and image features. these features complement one another because language and image co-construct meaning about corporate performance. the discursive strategies should be understood in relation to the corporate context, which reveals institutional isomorphism. the choice of strategies is probably influenced by a mix of coercive, mimetic and normative reasons. disclosure in earnings videos is linked to government and stock exchange regulations, models of existing texts and conventionalized practices, and comprehension for investors. the study of financial communication may enrich discursive competence and provide a systematic way to decipher and deploy multimodal features. keywords: financial communication, interim reporting, videos, semiotics, multimodality. the multimodal construction of corporate performance: an analysis of earnings videos kumaran rajandran universiti sains malaysia kumaranr@tuta.io 139 ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 kumaran rajandran resumen la construcción multimodal del rendimiento corporativo: un análisis de vídeos de ganancias la comunicación financiera tiene lugar a través de diferentes géneros discursivos, entre los que se encuentran los vídeos de ganancias. estos vídeos divulgan discursivamente el rendimiento corporativo dos o cuatro veces al año (una vez cada seis/tres meses) utilizando características multimodales para transmitir un significado social específico sobre el rendimiento corporativo. estas características constituyen estrategias discursivas que pueden generar y mantener el interés de los inversores en las corporaciones. en el presente estudio se lleva a cabo un análisis multimodal de las características del lenguaje y de la imagen en vídeos de ganancias de corporaciones de la industria financiera global en inglés, francés y español. el análisis plantea cinco estrategias discursivas. la información de los vídeos (1) hace énfasis en la contribución corporativa, (2) muestra las actividades beneficiosas que ha llevado a cabo y (3) está anclada en el eje espaciotemporal. la información (4) se presenta de manera humanizada y (5) se reconoce la existencia de riesgos a los que se ha hecho frente. tales estrategias se llevan a cabo a partir de diferentes elementos lingüísticos y visuales. estas características se complementan entre sí porque el lenguaje y la imagen coconstruyen el significado del rendimiento corporativo. las estrategias discursivas deben entenderse en relación con el contexto empresarial, que revela el isomorfismo institucional. la elección de estrategias probablemente esté influenciada por una combinación de razones coercitivas, miméticas y normativas. la divulgación en los vídeos de ganancias está vinculada a las regulaciones gubernamentales y bursátiles, los modelos de textos existentes y las prácticas convencionalizadas, así como la propia comprensión de los inversores. el estudio de la comunicación financiera puede enriquecer la competencia discursiva y ofrecer una manera sistemática de descifrar y desplegar aspectos multimodales. palabras clave: comunicación financiera, informe intermedio, vídeos, semiótica, multimodalidad. 1. introduction corporations are vehicles of profit maximization (maxwell, 2007: 161). they continue to pursue profit if investors continue to invest in their operations. they need to generate and maintain investor interest because capital is limited. corporations already compete in the product/service market, and the competition is extended to the financial market (laskin, 2011). the 140 competition for capital (marcus, 2005) has motivated corporations to disclose their story about performance (rosenkranz & pollach, 2016; sandell & svensson, 2016). disclosure of corporate performance presents an avenue to market achievements and improvements during a period of time. the corporate practices facilitating the disclosure are subsumed under financial communication. financial communication has acquired importance (argenti, 2015) because the investing environment is experiencing changes regarding participation, regulation and globalization (argenti, 2015; marcus, 2005). while participation means the increasing impact of institutional investors and the increasing number of retail investors, regulation spans new government and stock exchange directives, and stakeholders’ expectations (argenti, 2015). these two changes happen as capital markets globalize, making capital flows mobile among markets. financial communication creates value (laskin, 2018) because it helps institutional and retail investors navigate the abundance of information in the investing environment. financial communication produces multiple texts (argenti, 2015). it is highly regulated communication (jones et al., 2020) because its information can influence investor decision. most research on financial communication involves annual reporting (erickson, weber & segovia, 2011; hearit, 2018; laskin, 2018) because the reporting is consistent and salient. annual reporting is produced yearly, and it is endorsed and publicized by corporations. it is available once every year, but investors would not wait an entire year before making an investment decision. their decision is contingent on shorter time periods and requires other sources of information. interim reporting provides regular information because it is available two/four times yearly (once every three/six months), which can facilitate faster investment decision. interim reporting articulates social practices sharing a broadly similar purpose of disclosing corporate results regularly. it is encapsulated in a suite of texts, such as announcements, press releases, earnings calls, earnings presentations, earnings statements and earnings videos. among these texts, earnings statements are mandatory while the other texts are voluntary, which gives corporations a chance to employ multiple textual features to engage investors. some research has analyzed these texts (e.g. crawford camiciottoli, 2017; rosenkranz & pollach, 2016; sandell & svensson, 2016) but videos remain under-analysed (davison, 2015). the multimodal construction of corporate performance: an analysis of earnings videos ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 141 earnings videos are relatively new and are not yet common in interim reporting although other types of corporate videos started being popular three decades ago (thralls, 1992). the videos are present on various platforms (computer, tablet, smartphone, smart television) and a multiplatform presence can improve their chances of being watched by investors. earnings videos are an exercise in impression management. corporations produce, publish and distribute the videos. these practices grant greater control of communication (crawford camiciottoli, 2019: 18-19) about how performance should be depicted. corporations may simplify and sensationalize information, which could persuade retail investors, who often do not have sophisticated financial knowledge, in contrast to institutional investors (rajandran, 2021). earnings videos discursively disclose the reality about interim results. a discursive focus for exploring corporate texts is recognized (mccabe & knights, 2016: 179) because it facilitates a detailed and systematic analysis. responding to hoffmann, tietz and hammann (2018: 304), who advocate further theoretical and qualitative research on financial communication, this article adopts a method grounded in social semiotics (van leeuwen, 2005). social semiotics investigates the function of multimodal features (e.g. colour, language, image, sound) in specific contexts (van leeuwen, 2005). the present article provides an overview of language and image features, which constitute discursive strategies to convey corporate performance in earnings videos. discursive strategies are how corporations frame and present performance (kettell, 2010). corporate texts can use discursive strategies to emphasize positive traits and to deemphasize negative traits. the article is guided by the following research questions: how are discursive strategies employed in earnings videos? what are their multimodal features? in subsequent sections, i review relevant research on discourse in financial communication before explaining the analytical method and the analysis of the videos. the videos utilize five discursive strategies, realized by multimodal features. the choice of strategies reflects institutional isomorphism, meaning the manifestation of similar textual features through a mix of coercive, mimetic and normative approaches (boxenbaum & jonsson, 2008; dimaggio & powell, 1983). kumaran rajandran ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162142 2. discourse in financial communication financial communication texts have garnered academic interest, particularly in the area of annual and interim reporting (hoffmann, tietz & hammann, 2018: 304). research sheds light on impression management in these texts because corporations are presented favourably through language and image features (hooghiemstra, 2000). hearit (2018) considers legitimacy in several annual reports and press releases of the bank of america, jpmorgan chase and wells fargo during the 2008 financial crisis. the three banks prioritize values that bolster or redefine their competence, which is proven by specific examples of profitability and stability. erickson, weber and segovia (2011) and laskin (2018) explore performance in the section on management discussion and analysis in several annual reports. corporations showing positive performance tend to praise their results and accept responsibility, but those with negative performance justify results or evade responsibility. there is growing literature on interim reporting, which has examined earnings calls, earnings statements and press releases. for crawford camiciottoli (2017) and sandell and svensson (2016), corporations blame negative performance on other parties in earnings calls and earnings statements. sandell and svensson (2016) also find that corporations may blame themselves but minimize the severity in earnings statements. rosenkranz and pollach (2016) compare articles and press releases. the comparison exposes a stark difference because corporations prefer positive words and non-numerical information in press releases, but the media prefer negative words and numerical information in articles. research posits a tendency for simple and binary language, and it has developed observations concerning the use of images. beattie, dhanani and jones (2008) compare the use of charts, pictures and tables in 1989 and 2004. despite the temporal gap, graphs and tables visualize financial variables while pictures portray key personnel. jones et al. (2020) inspect the use of graphs about stock market price during the 2008 financial crisis. although graph use decreased, the available graphs depict favourable comparisons and longer time scales but did not fabricate information. rajandran and fauziah (2014) determine how language and image articulate themes regarding corporate social responsibility (csr), where csr information is a corporation’s philanthropic initiatives for stakeholders. crawford camiciottoli (2019) and rajandran (2021) recognize how language, image and sound are interdependent, ensuring smooth navigation of the multimodal construction of corporate performance: an analysis of earnings videos ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 143 financial information. beattie, dhanani and jones (2008), crawford camiciottoli (2019), rajandran (2021), rajandran and fauziah (2014) and jones et al. (2020) demonstrate the contribution of image to language in financial communication. despite these studies, earnings videos are not commonly analysed, although mccabe and knights (2016) and thralls (1992) probe other types of corporate videos. for mccabe and knights (2016), language and image features in strategy videos imply a paternalistic masculinity, whose power endorses leadership and vindicates change. for thralls (1992), language and image features in training videos can shape behaviors, inspiring belonging but reinforcing existing power structures. both mccabe and knights (2016) and thralls (1992) indicate language and image being co-deployed in videos, complementing each other’s meaning. multimodality is thus a common phenomenon in financial communication texts. the language features of these texts are important (crawford camiciottoli, 2017; hoffmann, tietz & hammann, 2018; sandell & svensson, 2016) but their image features should not be marginalized (beattie, dhanani & jones, 2008) because these texts cohesively use language and image. the migration of texts from print to digital formats (e.g. blogs, social media sites, videos, websites) facilitates multimodal design and prioritizes multimodal analysis of financial communication texts. the present article can enrich existing literature on financial communication texts by adopting a discursive focus on earnings videos. the videos are relatively new and are not yet common in interim reporting although other types of corporate videos started being popular three decades ago (thralls, 1992). earnings videos remain under-analysed (davison, 2015) and so this analysis complements earlier studies on other interim reporting texts, such as earnings calls (crawford camiciottoli, 2017, 2019), earnings statements (sandell & svensson, 2016) and press releases (rosenkranz & pollach, 2016). the videos reveal how corporations employ language and image features to convey information about corporate performance. these features reflect discursive strategies, which may generate and maintain investor interest in corporations as changes in participation, regulation and globalization intensify and quicken. kumaran rajandran ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162144 3. methodology the analysis was conducted on earnings videos of corporations in the global finance industry. the industry consists of banking, insurance and real estate corporations (industry classification benchmark, 2012). six multinational corporations listed in the fortune global 500 were selected because their assets, revenues and profits are among the largest in the world (table 1). the corporations have been anonymized to ensure their privacy. table 1. selected corporations. i searched for and downloaded earnings videos from 2017 to 2019. this resulted in 53 videos. the number of videos was limited because a qualitative and interpretive analysis was pursued. the videos received a code in relation to corporation, interim and year. for example, ‘a, h1 2019’ means corporation a’s video for the first half of 2019 and ‘b, q3 2018’ means corporation b’s video for the third quarter of 2018. the videos last from 1.3 to 3.5 minutes and employ a few scenes presenting the ceo/cfo speaking or displaying graphics to be seen. two researchers transcribed the language and noted the image available in the videos before conducting the analysis. while the language in the videos is english, french or spanish (translations in analysis have been verified), the image is charts, pictures or icons. the method of analysis employed social semiotics (van leeuwen, 2005), which studies multimodal features in social contexts, and how these features can shape meaning. concepts from van leeuwen (2008) were employed to decipher language, and concepts from ledin and machin (2018) were employed to decipher image. for language features, social actors were analysed. social actors construe entities taking part in events using adjectives, adverbs, nouns, or verbs (van leeuwen, 2008). among the categories of social actors are the multimodal construction of corporate performance: an analysis of earnings videos ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 145 corporation headquarters videos a france 6 b spain 12 c netherlands 12 d spain 11 e canada 9 f switzerland 3 total 53 activation/passivation (entities are a dynamic force in events or are undergoing events), genericization/specification (entities are generic or specific), nomination (entities are named in terms of identity or function) and appraisement (entities are positively or negatively valued). for image features, setting, character, angle and shot were analysed (ledin & machin, 2018). setting means the concrete or abstract location of activities. character means the people depicted in terms of facial expression, body language and clothing. angle can imply superior/inferior or involved/detached status. shot employs physical distance through various camera shots to presume social distance. two researchers separately coded language and image for relevant features. this resulted in double coding and so the two coded videos were reviewed together to ensure consistency before a common coding was finalized. the language and image features reflected discursive strategies, explaining how corporations frame and present performance (kettell, 2010). these strategies are embedded in a corporate context, meaning the configuration of history, culture, economy and politics that impact corporations (rajandran & fauziah, 2014). corporations share a context and therefore encounter shared social expectations, such as for interim reporting. these expectations provide coercive (regulatory), mimetic (peer/industry) and normative (professional) reasons for disclosure (dimaggio & powell, 1983). the reasons are not always distinct (dimaggio & powell, 1983) but provide a heuristic to explain the choice of strategies. 4. analysis the analysis of earnings videos posited five discursive strategies. the information in the videos (1) emphasizes corporate contribution and (2) displays their beneficial activities, (3) anchored to spatio-temporal location. the information (4) is humanized and it (5) acknowledges the risks faced. these strategies are realized using language and image features. these features complement one another, where language and image co-construct meaning about corporate performance in earnings videos. 4.1. corporate contribution the first strategy consists of underscoring the corporate contribution through nomination, activation and character. the corporation is nominated kumaran rajandran ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162146 by an official name (bolded) in extracts 1 and 3, or it is nominated by pronouns (italicized) in extracts 2 and 4. these language features are often the first element of the clause. the nouns or pronouns become the starting point and make it possible to organize information revolving around corporations. the clauses in extracts 1-4 mention corporations first, prioritizing corporations in multiple activities. similarly, image features maintain information revolving around corporations. the placement of features, such as corporate colours (e.g. blue in corporation a, orange in corporation c), logo or building gives prominence to the corporations. these features obtain salience because their larger size is easily noticeable. almost every scene repeats the language and image features, reiterating the presence of the corporations. the combination of these features renders corporations the central participant in the videos. the contribution of the corporations is strengthened by activating corporate agency in actions and descriptions. corporations a and c performed actions to achieve ‘primary relationships’ and ‘sensitivity’, as indicated by the verbs ‘boosted’ and ‘reduced’ in extracts 2 and 3. actions are also noted in extract 4, although their presence is not obvious because the nouns ‘acquisition’ and ‘integration’ are nominalizations. if ‘unpacked’, the nouns display how corporation e acquired and integrated different parts of its operations. these actions reveal corporate decisions about organizing their activities. actions are available in extract 5, where character portrays employees of corporation c speaking on headsets and clicking or typing on mouse or keyboards. the employees are working, and their actions exemplify dedication to the customer. extract 4 shows descriptions using the verbs ‘had’, ‘is’ and ‘went’. corporation e describes its achievements in different parts of its operations. for rajandran and fauziah (2014), actions and descriptions are typical in corporate texts because this is a way that corporations can emphasize their responsibility. corporate performance acquires a sense of dynamism as corporations endeavour to perform beneficial activities. (1) e, err, was named the 2018 bank of the year in latam. (e, q4 2018) (2) we also boosted our primary relationships by 170000. (c, q1 2018) (3) le groupe a réduit sa sensibilité aux marchés financiers... the group reduced its sensitivity to financial markets... (a, h1 2019) (4) we had a very good quarter. if you look at the international bank, the the multimodal construction of corporate performance: an analysis of earnings videos ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 147 acquisition in chile is working extremely well. we’re gaining market share, the integration of our credit card portfolio went well. (e, q2 2019) (5) (c, q3 2018) (6) (c, q4 2017) 4.2. beneficial activities beneficial activities or giving activities a positive evaluation through appraisement, character and setting is the second strategy. appraisement is a typical finding in corporate texts (rajandran & fauziah, 2014). for language, the evaluation is either explicit or implicit. extracts 2 and 4 employ explicit positive evaluation because extract 2 has a verb (underlined) and extract 4 has adjectives (underlined) designating desirable results. extracts 1 and 3 use implicit positive evaluation because being ‘bank of the year’ in extract 1 and the advantages of ‘reduced its sensitivity to financial markets’ in extract 3 kumaran rajandran ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162148 prove the corporation’s capability. the evaluation marks generic or specific achievements. for example, the adjectives in extract 4 are generic because their definition is arguable and could shift, but the phrase ‘bank of the year’ in extract 1 is specific because the criteria for the award can be traced. the evaluation in extracts 1-4 simultaneously invokes an implicit positive evaluation of corporations a, c and e because their activities produced the achievements reported. regarding image, the evaluation can also be explicit or implicit. extract 6 shows explicit positive evaluation because the adult and children (character) are laughing with outstretched hands in a park (setting), manifesting the joy of living sustainably. extract 5 shows implicit positive evaluation because the employees (character) using the equipment (setting) do not flag the advantages of the upgraded call center but their presence together suggests industrious employees. the evaluation in extracts 5-6 simultaneously invokes an implicit positive evaluation of corporation c because it directs the activities for sustainability and the upgrade. moreover, appraisement may be articulated by numerical amount. it presents information favourably using numbers (jones et al., 2020), and explains the meaning of the numbers. the amount is any quantity in cardinal, monetary or percentage form. it is employed to depict comparison, level or proportion. comparison charts a change in an area between two phases of time, often the previous and present interim or year. the percentages ‘13%’ and ‘14%’ in extracts 7 and 8 indicate an increase, as indicated by the prepositional phrase ‘up about’ and the arrow icon pointing in an upward direction. the increase took a year, as can be gathered from adjoining clauses in extract 7 and the phrase ‘yoy’ (year-on-year) in extract 8. corporations e and f confirm an improvement through a comparison of past and present. level shows an area acquiring a significant amount. the cardinal numbers ‘19 million’ and ‘400,000’ in extracts 9 and 10 are meant to be significant, as indicated by the adjective ‘exceeding’, and the salience of the blue circle’s colour and size. the number of ‘mobile clients’ and ‘new customers’ reached a critical level in corporations b and c, and deserves a mention. proportion means an area contributing an amount to the total whole. the percentages ‘12%’ and ‘26%’ in extracts 11 and 12 give the ratio of ‘wealth’ and ‘brazil’ to income and profit respectively. corporations d and e describe their funds through a proportion. this permits these funds to be ranked, and the the multimodal construction of corporate performance: an analysis of earnings videos ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 149 ranking can justify the selected activities. for example, the ceo of corporation d reports steps to strengthen activities in brazil, which probably is linked to its proportion of profit. the numerical amount may invoke an implicit positive evaluation of corporations because a desirable comparison, level or proportion is provided. performance has improved and this is verifiable by numbers. these numbers promote objectivity because their use presumably is based on facts, becoming harder to question. yet, corporations may manipulate their accounting and any comparison, level or proportion can receive favourable or unfavourable treatment. such ‘creative accounting’, a practice recorded in financial communication (argenti, 2015), can jeopardize the objectivity of the numerical amount presented. the positive evaluation in extracts 1-12 signals the beneficial activities of corporations. it mixes explicit and implicit evaluation because employed alone, explicit evaluation implies self-praise and implicit evaluation may not point out important information adequately. their use together creates a balance in evaluation (crawford camiciottoli, 2019; rajandran & fauziah, 2014). it helps to distinguish positive or negative developments, and marks which development helped or hindered performance in the interim. the value of performance is noted in language and image because viewers may not always understand financial information. (7) err, i mean, look at the underlying results, up about 13%. (f, q1 2018) (8) (e, q2 2019) (9) nuestros clientes móviles han crecido un 43% superando ya los 19 millones... our mobile clients have grown 43%, already exceeding 19 million... (b, q1 2018) kumaran rajandran ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162150 (10) (c, q1 2018) (11) wealth is a business that produces about 12% of the bank’s overall net income today... (e, q2 2019) (12) (d, q2 2018) 4.3. spatio-temporal location the third strategy is the information anchoring videos to spatio-temporal location using specification and setting. information can become specific because performance is linked to the interim. performance unfolds in space and time, and it is valid in these circumstances. space is immediate and distant, and the former is constant, but the latter can change as the scenes of the videos progress. the immediate space is depicted in the videos. the setting of the space is structured as an interview in extract 13 or a presentation in extract 12. the spatial structure resembles real-life the multimodal construction of corporate performance: an analysis of earnings videos ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 151 interviews and presentations. the interview is a series of questions and answers about the interim between the ceo and employee while the presentation relays ceo statements about the interim (rajandran, 2021). the interview positions the ceo and employee seated facing one another, and the presentation shows the ceo standing facing the camera. the space in extracts 12 and 13 is focused on the ceo because he has authority and shares knowledge about performance. the distant space is not depicted in the videos. the space is provided in relation to performance, as in extracts 1, 4, 5 and 12. in extracts 1, 4 and 12, the prepositional phrases ‘in latam’ (latin america) and ‘in chile’, and the noun ‘brazil’ designate countries or regions. the words specify geography because the activity is confined to a particular place and would not influence another place. in extract 5, the employees in an office are evidence for an area of operations. the setting is seen as the ceo talks about dedication to the customer, which demonstrates real-life activities. demonstration is commonly utilized because pictures of activities may garner more trust than words about activities (rajandran, 2019). time specifies the three prototypical phases of past, present and future. past time tends to dominate as the videos review performance in the last six/three months. the verbs in extracts 1-4 employ the past tense (‘was named’, ‘boosted’, ‘reduced’, ‘had’, ‘went’) to describe activities in the interim. the activities are finished, and their outcomes can be reported. present time states activities continuing in the present. the verbs in extract 4 employ the continuous aspect (‘is working’, ‘are gaining’) about the status of the acquisition in chile. the verb in extract 11 employs the present tense (‘is’), capturing ‘net income’ at present. time shows the start, end or development of activities. they are valid for the time frame in the verb and are a snapshot for the moment. time presents numerous activities being performed (crawford camiciottoli, 2017) as performance has not remained static. kumaran rajandran ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162152 (13) (f, q3 2018) (14) i’m very excited about the bank’s future. i think we’re just hitting our stride. (e, q1 2018) 4.4. humanized information for the fourth strategy, earnings videos humanize information through stimulating interaction between corporations and viewers using appraisement, character, angle and shot. the videos portray the human face of corporations, the ceo (crawford camiciottoli, 2019; mccabe & knights, 2016). he becomes a metonymic spokesperson, representing and speaking on behalf of corporations. the ceo employs pronouns, such as ‘i’ in extract 14, to refer to himself. he takes responsibility for performance because his job scope is ensuring that objectives are met. the ceo shares his opinions, and thereby exploits emotions. this is captured by appraisement in language and character in image. appraisement is seen in the words/phrases ‘excited’ and ‘hitting our stride’ in extract 14. although the former explicitly shows evaluation and the latter implicitly marks evaluation, the ceo projects satisfaction in his corporation. character employs the facial expression of a smile. the ceo chose to smile at regular intervals because a smile often indicates positive emotions (ekman, 2003), marking his satisfaction explicitly. yet, the emotions in language and image are generic and do not have depth because they only indicate general satisfaction. the ceo reveals minimal emotional involvement because as he is the metonymic spokesperson, more displays of emotions could compromise the perceived objectivity of information. the multimodal construction of corporate performance: an analysis of earnings videos ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 153 (f, q3 2018) information is further humanized by angle and shot, as seen in extracts 12 and 13. as he speaks, the ceo is recorded at eye level angle, and the camera moves between frontal and oblique angles, profiling him from the front and side respectively. the eye level angle positions the ceo and viewers as social equals (ledin & machin, 2018) because their interaction does not need anyone to look up or down, a conventional marker of deference. the ceo is also recorded in close-up, where he is seen until the shoulders in extract 12, or in a medium close shot, where he is seen from the waist upwards in extract 13. these shots demarcate physical distance, which presumes social distance (ledin & machin, 2018) between the ceo and viewers. people would not let strangers come as near as the close shot because this distance implies a cordial relationship (ledin & machin, 2018). the ceo is ‘known’ to viewers or the two would not be placed so near. using angle and shot, the videos present the ceo as approachable and familiar. in real life, the ceo and viewers have an impersonal social relation, as they probably do not know and do not meet one another. humanizing the ceo can diminish his powerful position (mccabe & knights, 2016). he does not seem distant but is somebody who viewers can try to relate to. neither the ceo nor viewers are more powerful than the other. rather, the two parties are partners because the ceo and other employees manage corporations, and viewers as investors provide capital for corporations. humanizing is also acknowledged in other corporate texts (crawford camiciottoli, 2019; mccabe & knights, 2016), particularly in digital texts, because a moving and reacting person can be recorded. it fosters a personal social relation between corporations and investors, which indicates synthetic personalization (fairclough, 2006). personalization gives a human dimension to information, but it is synthetic because it mimics real-life speech situations and introduces their features in earnings videos. through synthetic personalization, the ceo speaks directly to investors in friendly conversation about corporate performance. the ceo gains personal visibility (edelman, 2016) and investors are acknowledged. synthetic personalization benefits the ceo and investors by implying their involvement in corporate performance. 4.5. risks faced the fifth strategy in the videos is revealing the risks faced through genericization. risks directly or indirectly impact corporate performance, and cover natural and human induced risks. these risks are external or kumaran rajandran ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162154 internal, and while external risks are not under corporate control, internal risks are under their control. the risks mentioned are those leaving a material impact on performance. because risks are inevitable and multiple, they cannot always be specified. extracts 15 and 16 present external risks and extracts 17 and 18 present internal risks. the risks are ‘market volatility’ (extract 15), ‘natural catastrophes’ (extract 16), ‘the relationship between b and group x’ (extract 17) and know your customer enhancement program (extract 18). the nominal groups and the picture are genericized, which means that details are not provided, and their complexity is presumed to be comprehended. corporations manage these risks by ensuring ‘strength of risk indicators’, ‘strong capital ratio’ (extract 15), ‘plans’ (extract 16), ‘thorough and exhaustive investigation’ (extract 17) and employees at work (extract 18). these nominal groups and the picture are similarly genericized because their execution involves multiple steps, but causal or procedural explanations are not mentioned, which means that the actual or potential impact on corporations does not need to be provided. generic information encourages brevity because the ceo does not need to linger on risks, which may shift the focus away from performance. brevity is also required because the videos are short and there is no time to describe the risks faced. in extracts 15-18, corporations reveal their resilience despite external or internal risks (hearit, 2018) using activation, appraisement, character and setting. their resilience is stated by making corporations b, c and f the agent of the activities. while corporation f is easily identified as ‘we’ in extract 16, corporation b is implied as enabling ‘risk indicators’ and ‘capital ratio’ in extract 15 and ‘investigation’ in extract 17, and corporation c ensured employees developed a ‘know your customer program in extract 18. in extracts 16 and 17, the verbs ‘planned’, and ‘commissioned’ display actions undertaken by corporations f and b to deal with external or internal risks. the activities receive positive evaluation in extract 15 (‘strength’, ‘strong’), extract 16 (‘we planned for that’) and extract 17 (‘thorough’, ‘exhaustive’), indicating that corporations b and f performed the right activity. the positive evaluation is enhanced by the conjunctions ‘despite’ in extract 15 and ‘but’ in extract 16. they contrast unfavourable risks and the activities by corporations. it implies contingency plans that worked because activities could continue unobstructed. the multimodal construction of corporate performance: an analysis of earnings videos ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 155 extract 18 captures how corporation b implements the ‘know your customer program’. the setting is professional because the equipment, furniture and layout are typical for an office. the presentation of employees who sit, type or talk portrays them at work. corporation c, through employees, is working on the program diligently. the picture has a ‘live’ feel, as if it is an activity in progress. in extracts 15-18, the videos portray resilient corporations by giving them agency and evaluating them positively. their ability to respond to changes ensures performance not being compromised despite natural or human induced risks. (15) estos resultados se suman a la fortaleza de los indicadores de riesgo y a un sólido ratio de capital a pesar de la volatilidad en los mercados. these results add to the strength of the risk indicators and a strong capital ratio despite the volatility in the markets. (b, q4 2018) (16) we, we did have natural catastrophes in this first half. a little above our plans and a little worse and above last year. so, we were hit ourselves. errr, but we planned for that. (f, q2 2018) (17) en cuanto a la relación de b con el grupo x, se ha encargado una investigación profunda y exhaustiva que está siendo realizada por terceros. regarding the relationship between b and group x, a thorough and exhaustive investigation was commissioned, conducted by third parties. (b, q3 2018) (18) (c, q1 2019) kumaran rajandran ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162156 5. discussion and conclusion the discursive strategies in earnings videos are multimodal, and the labor of constructing meaning about corporate performance is shared across language and image features (davison, 2015). the strategies may be realized by other specific multimodal features, but the features detailed in extracts 118 are noted for the videos in table 1. although language is more important than image in printed corporate texts (rajandran, 2019), language and image are equal contributors in corporate videos (mccabe & knights, 2016; thralls, 1992). the medium of video requires multimodality, where language and image features emphasize the positive traits of corporations. from extracts 1-18, five discursive strategies are noted in earnings videos. the information in the videos (1) emphasizes corporate contribution and (2) displays their beneficial activities, and (3) is anchored to spatio-temporal location. the information (4) is humanized and it (5) acknowledges the risks faced. these strategies favour the corporate story about performance. their use serves impression management in earnings videos (hooghiemstra, 2000) because it can shape perception about corporations, and consequently may generate and maintain investor interest (rajandran, 2021). their interest determines investment decision and hence capital flows towards corporations. the choice of discursive strategies should be understood in relation to the context of the global finance industry. the context reveals institutional isomorphism (boxenbaum & jonsson, 2008), which makes the corporations in table 1 use similar strategies. the choice of strategies is probably influenced by a mix of coercive, mimetic and normative reasons (dimaggio & powell, 1983). firstly, coercive reasons may motivate the discursive strategies. the government and stock exchange regulate the legal demands for interim reporting. interim reporting texts experience some form of regulation and the videos should comply with existing policies on disclosure. corporations may leverage language and image features in the videos to their advantage. the videos explain corporate performance, and the explanation can persuade the government and stock exchange about corporations that disclose information clearly to investors. secondly, mimetic reasons can shape the discursive strategies. other corporate texts, notably financial and csr reports, are models for earnings videos because these texts are older and established (laskin, 2018; rajandran & fauziah, 2014). moreover, other domains, particularly entertainment and the multimodal construction of corporate performance: an analysis of earnings videos ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 157 politics, use videos regularly and can become models for earnings videos because these texts target the public. earnings videos may be modelled on other corporate texts and videos in other domains, and subsequently adopt or adapt their strategies. existing videos in turn inspire future videos. the corporations in table 1 are dominant in the global finance industry. the videos produced by them create a precedent that is reproduced through (conscious or unconscious) exposure and training. this could influence how earnings videos are produced in the global finance industry. the influence provides a repertoire of strategies to be expected. the expectation conventionalizes certain strategies, and other corporations may replicate these strategies in videos. future videos may model the practices of existing videos, adhering to these conventions. thirdly, normative reasons can shape the discursive strategies. other interim reporting texts (earnings calls, earnings presentations, earnings statements, press releases) are perhaps complex but videos render information comprehensible, more so for retail investors than institutional investors. the former may not have sophisticated financial knowledge, unlike the latter. the videos become a way for ‘educating’ investors about corporate performance. they do not need to peruse lengthy documents because the videos are a quick and easy way to understand performance. the coercive, memetic and normative reasons could explain the presence of shared strategies across the videos analyzed. through their use, disclosure in earnings videos is linked to government and stock exchange regulations, models of existing texts and conventionalized practices, and comprehension for investors. disclosure reflects the corporate context (rajandran & fauziah, 2014) and the discursive strategies become a textual manifestation of context. the corporate context is known to exert ‘pressure’ on disclosure, and shared social expectations can influence the choice of language and image features in corporate texts (crawford camiciottoli, 2017; erickson, weber & segovia, 2011; hearit, 2018; jones et al., 2020; laskin, 2018; rajandran & fauziah, 2014; sandell & svensson, 2016). the multimodal study of financial communication texts may enrich discursive competence or provide a systematic way to decipher and deploy multimodal features. practitioners in financial communication can utilize the strategies in document design. they should make an informed decision about multimodal features because it may improve their ability to produce corporate texts. academics in financial communication can incorporate the strategies in their courses, as crawford camiciottoli (2019) proposes. they kumaran rajandran ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162158 should facilitate learning about multimodal features because their students as future professionals may prepare corporate texts. discursive strategies can inspire guidelines about language and image for practitioners and academics (beattie, dhanani & jones, 2008; rajandran, 2019). students become sensitized to the function of language and image features in financial communication. the two groups, academics and practitioners, should consciously traverse professional boundaries because financial communication is interdisciplinary and is contingent on social practices in disciplines such as finance, strategy, public relations, communication, linguistics and semiotics. the importance of discursive competence may motivate the demand for ‘corporate semioticians’ (rajandran, 2019: 108). such people would have training in business (in one or more specialization, such as finance, human resource, management) and multimodality. they should advise on the creation of financial communication texts. the presence of corporate semioticians may improve the quality of corporate communication. their discursive competence would help to improve corporate value (laskin, 2018). they can advocate the corporate story regarding the sustainable use and growth of assets, revenues and profits. at the same time, discursive competence must not serve to misinform investors. it should adhere to ethical and legal standards to preserve the credibility and reliability of corporate communication, and ultimately, of corporations themselves. the present article studied the multimodal features of the discursive strategies in earnings videos. although the number of videos may limit the generalizability of the findings, the qualitative and interpretive analysis is not feasible for large numbers as it requires a significant amount of manual analysis. the value of the endeavour is the ability to understand the strategies and features in the videos, and explain their function. future research can compare videos of different years, corporations, industries or countries, and observe any change in the choice of strategies and features. it should integrate insights from corporations and investors to understand the perspectives of the actual producers and consumers of the videos (davison, 2015). moreover, earnings videos are part of a suite of texts, such as announcements, earnings calls, earnings presentations, earnings statements and press releases. these texts should also be analyzed to obtain a comprehensive overview of the communication in an interim. the multimodal construction of corporate performance: an analysis of earnings videos ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162 159 acknowledgements the author thanks ms. lim yi ling for her assistance in transcribing the videos. he also thanks the two anonymous reviewers for their feedback. article history: received 2 may 2020 received in revised form 21 june 2021 accepted 15 august 2021 references kumaran rajandran ibérica 42 (2021): 139-162160 argenti, p. 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(2005). introducing social semiotics. routledge. iberica 13 ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this article discusses the use of metaphors and metonyms in texts about climate change in different registers, with a particular focus on the information given to young people, and what they understand about the topic. it begins by considering the role of metaphorical thinking and language in science, and reviews some of the work on scientific metaphor in expert and popular genres. the article analyses the different functions of metaphors in two texts about anthropogenic climate change from different genres, arguing that in the popular text analysed metaphors tend to have the function of entertaining and dramatizing, and introducing and concluding (interpersonal and textual), as opposed to their informational (ideational) function in the research article that was analysed. i then discuss a corpus and discourse analysis of young people’s talk about climate change. the young people’s use of figurative language is compared with that of researchers and educationalists. the analysis finds that, consistent with work on scientific popularisations, written texts for non-specialists tend to “open up” in knudsen’s (2003) terms experts’ metaphors, extending them creatively. i found that on occasion this seems to lead to, or reflect, misunderstandings of the underlying science. i also find that young people reference arctic and antarctic animals as symbols of the problem of climate change. keywords: metaphor, science, climate change, education, schools. resumen las metáforas en los textos sobre el cambio climático este artículo discute el uso de las metáforas y metonimias en los textos sobre el cambio climático en diferentes registros, con un interés especial en la información proporcionada a la gente joven, y en lo que ellos entienden sobre el tema. el artículo comienza considerando el papel del razonamiento metafórico y del lenguaje en la ciencia y revisa el trabajo de las metáforas científicas en los géneros metaphors in texts about climate change alice deignan university of leeds (uk) a.h.deignan@education.leeds.ac.uk 45 ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 alice deignan expertos y populares. el artículo analiza las diferentes funciones de las metáforas en dos texos sobre el cambio climático antropogénico en diferentes géneros y defiende que en los textos populares analizados las metáforas tienden a realizar la función de entretenimiento y dramatización así como de introducción y conclusión (interpersonal y textual), en contraposición con la función informacional (ideacional) del artículo de investigación que se analizó. a continuación llevo a cabo el examen de un análisis de corpus y del discurso de la gente joven sobre el cambio climático. la comparación del lenguaje figurativo de estos con el de los investigadores y de los expertos en educación demuestra que, como se recoge en la investigación sobre la popularización del discurso científico, los textos escritos para los no especialistas tienden a "abrir", en términos de knudsen (2003), las metáforas de los expertos, extendiéndolas de forma creativa. descubrí que en ocasiones esto parece conducir a, o reflejar, interpretaciones erróneas de la ciencia subyacente. también observo que la gente joven se refiere a los animales árticos y antárticos como símbolos del problema del cambio climático. palabras clave: metáfora, ciencia, cambio climático, educación, escuelas. 1. introduction this article describes a set of corpus and discourse analytic studies of figurative language used in writing and talk about climate change. climate change is a current and urgent issue; 2015 and 2016 were the two warmest years on record (met office press release, 2017), and large numbers of animal and bird species are already negatively affected (pacifici et al., 2017). levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were below 300 parts per million (ppm) for over 400,000 years, until 1950. in 2013 the figure passed 400 ppm, and at the time of writing the figure is 406 ppm (nasa website, 2017). within the scientific community, there is widespread agreement that climate change is happening, and is due to human activity (boykoff, 2011). climate change can only be slowed, if at all, by dramatic modifications to lifestyle and consumption. young people born in the 1990s and in this century will probably live to see some major impacts of climate change, yet this same group of people are under an unprecedented pressure to consume, from the media, their peers and advertisers. this is a behaviour which is directly in conflict with the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but young people are unlikely to draw this conclusion without targeted information about climate change and its causes. non-scientists generally, and perhaps especially young people, do not usually read specialist scientific writing on climate change, but rather get 46 information through school and educational materials, and from popular science writing. as boykoff writes, people typically do not start their day with a morning cup of coffee and the latest peer-reviewed journal article. instead, citizens turn to mass media— television, newspapers, radio, internet and blogs— to link formal science and policy with their everyday lives. (2011: 53) the research described in this article looks at how metaphors frame climate science in non-specialist pedagogic and popular texts. i also examine some of the metaphors used by school students in interviews about climate change. this is intended as a contribution to finding out what nonspecialists, especially young people, are told about climate change, how this is framed through metaphor, and, in turn, how they express their understanding of it. i begin with a discussion of previous research on how metaphors are used in texts written for scientists and in texts written for the non-scientific public. 2. metaphor and doing science metaphor use in science has much in common with what we know about metaphor in language and thought generally. metaphorical language pervades the discourse of science, and, like metaphors in non-technical genres, scientific metaphors often “highlight and hide” (lakoff & johnson, 1980: 13) aspects of their topic. a few metaphors in science “frame our way of thinking” (cuddington, 2001: 464); that is, they form a backdrop to scientific thought and discussion and thus are more powerful than highly visible metaphors. an example of this is the balance metaphor, which is also frequent in other specialised registers such as law and politics (sanchez, 2011). in the natural sciences, the metaphor could be phrased as (good) natural systems are in balance. in everyday language, the metaphor is realised in brand names of products such as pet foods and vitamin tablets, which claim to restore the body’s balance. the metaphor is seen in educational materials where it is claimed that predators and their prey live in balance, and it also underlies some specialist scientific discourse. cooper (2001) traces the origins of the balance metaphor back to greek thought. cuddington notes that the metaphor frames nature as “a beneficent force” (2001: 463), and before darwin, an order that was believed to have metaphors in texts about climate change ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 47 been designed by god. she argues that the metaphor suggests an unscientific idea, which has now been superseded by the more sophisticated mathematical concept of “equilibrium”, also, of course, metaphorical. in the discipline of ecology, equilibrium is a way of describing species numbers, where predators, food supply and other influences are such that the numbers of a species are stable over time. this mathematical notion has no intrinsic evaluative quality, but it can become blurred with the older balance metaphor, whose positive connotations often seep into it. both cooper and cuddington note that the balance metaphor has suggested a constancy that does not, in reality, exist. species numbers have always fluctuated, often to extreme degrees. ladle and gillson (2009) claim that for some ecologists, a flux of nature metaphor is replacing the balance of nature one, but that this is not seen more widely in texts accessed by the general public. in one of the best known discussions of the framing function of metaphors, lakoff (1991) argued that mappings such as a nation is a person justified, and in some cases, directly led to, specific actions in a war context. cuddington (2001) and ladle and gillson (2009) make the same claim of the balance of nature metaphor. cooper (2001) argues that the natural world is always undergoing change, albeit often very slowly; the balance metaphor hides this, and is used to argue for conservation activities that preserve a perceived ideal state. ladle and gillson (2009) show, through corpus and document analysis, that the balance metaphor is associated with conservation of nature and prevention of change. one example is in the us, where this approach led to attempts to prevent all forest fires “in order to prevent disturbance and thereby maintain a perceived balance” (2009: 230). ladle and gillson note that, over time, the result of this policy was larger, more severe fires, which caused much more serious damage than would have resulted from the smaller fires that had been prevented. as well as framing, metaphors are often ways of developing new hypotheses in science, as described by boyd (1993: 482). the importance of metaphor to developing scientific thought is well documented, including by scientists themselves, such as brown (2003) and cuddington (2001). brown writes of metaphor: it is at the very core of what scientists do when they design experiments, make discoveries, formulate theories and models, and describe their results to others – in short, when they do science and communicate about it. (2003: 14) alice deignan ibérica 34 (2017): 45-6648 this author traces in scientific detail the metaphors used by scientists in their developing understanding of topics such as the atom, protein folding, and the cell, arguing that metaphors shape the direction of scientific enquiry. he also argues that the metaphors that dominate and shape thought are as much a product of culture and embodiment as metaphors in other domains of life. scientists have also analysed how metaphors can hinder understandings of science. in an account of the history of cancer treatment written for nonscientists, mukherjee (2010), an oncologist, writes that medical researchers’ use of the war metaphor to talk and think about their research seriously slowed down advances in understanding and developing treatments. the war metaphor was politically apposite at the time and place he describes: the cold war period in the us. mukherjee argues that the war metaphor portrays cancer as a homogenous, identifiable enemy, leading to the mistaken conceptualisation of it as a single disease, for which a single treatment could be found. some doctors and researchers believed, he argues, that if only the weapon – early versions of powerful chemotherapy, administered in the absence of the drugs that are now available to alleviate its terrible side effects – was delivered in high enough doses, the enemy could be conquered, over the battleground of the patient’s body. it is now known that cancer takes a wide variety of forms, which have a range of different causes, and the treatments that are available and being developed differ accordingly. he argues that the misguided search for a single “magic bullet” (page 86) delayed progress on some cancers, possibly by decades. 3. science communicated through metaphor to nonscientists explorations of metaphors in science communication have divided their use into, broadly, metaphors used to communicate between peers, and metaphors used to explain science to the non-scientific public, that is, for a pedagogical purpose (for example, boyd, 1993). a repeated finding is that linguistic metaphors very quickly lose any sense of metaphoricity to scientists. knudsen (2003) asked scientists their views about metaphorical terms in the field of dna, and reports: a number of the molecular biologists i have consulted argue that, since they know exactly which chemical relations and substances are being referred to, the metaphors in question have lost any figurative quality they might have metaphors in texts about climate change ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 49 had. in the opinion of these scientists, no definitive difference exists between these metaphorical concepts and concepts with a mere non-figurative origin. (2003: 1252-1253) when the same topics are written about for non-scientists, in popularisations for example, the metaphors tend to be, in knudsen’s terms, “opened up”. she compared the metaphors used to talk about dna by scientists in peer to peer communication and in popularisations. in communication between scientists in the research journal science, linguistic metaphors such as translation, code and message quickly became established and were used “just like any other scientific concept” (2003: 1254). knudsen shows how this text metaphor was “opened up”, that is, extended, explored and re-lexicalised in popularised accounts, some of which were written by the same scientists. she cites linguistic metaphors such as read off, dictionary, and spell out from scientific american, as well as re-uses of the established scientific terms message, translate and code. semino (2008) found the same process in her analysis of a scientific article about ageing, and a popularised version, which was published in the new scientist. the scientists put forward the hypothesis that as an organism ages, cells become less effective at removing toxins; this is described using what semino terms a metaphor of waste disposal. in the scientists’ texts, the use is fairly limited, while in contrast, the popular version exploits the mapping creatively and humorously, beginning with a long description of the writer’s attic, and the junk it contains (2008: 143). deignan et al. (2013) analysed a new scientist article which presented findings about glaciers alongside the two research articles that it was based on. the terms equilibrium and balance were used in the research articles, in the expressions equilibrium line altitude and surface mass balance. these have technical meanings related to the relationship between ice melting in the summer and re-accumulating in the winter, and the point on the glacier at which these occur. the terms tend to be abbreviated to “ela” and “smb”, which suggests that their figurative origin is lost (ibid.). the terms were used frequently in the research articles, but there were no exploitations or developments of a balance metaphor. in the new scientist popularisation, the terms ela and smb were not used, either in full or abbreviated form. however, the writer used derived terms such as out of equilibrium, in (1) glaciers are about 25 percent out of equilibrium (anathaswamy 2011: 8). alice deignan ibérica 34 (2017): 45-6650 this expression is not used at all in the research articles that were analysed, nor in a wider corpus search of academic articles. it appears to have been creatively coined by the new scientist writer. the writer also used the balancerelated linguistic metaphor tipping point, in citations such as (2) greenland will reach a tipping point in about 30 years (ibid, p. 8) an expression which again is not used at all in the source research texts. as was the case for the “junk” metaphors described by semino, above, the metaphors used by scientists communicating with each other seem to have lost any figurative dimension they may have had, while the popular text treats them creatively. another difference in metaphor use between research and popular texts is function, which i illustrate with an example of two topically-related texts about climate change. in 2017, an article was published in the peer reviewed journal anthropocene review, entitled “the anthropocene equation” (gaffney & steffen, 2017). the article proposed an equation to represent the rate of change to the earth’s system. the first author, gaffney, is a science journalist, while steffen is a chemist who has published in some of the leading scientific journals. gaffney also published a version of the article in the new scientist, entitled “simple equation shows how humanity is trashing the planet”. there are differences between the two articles in the functions that metaphors are used for. the articles contain a number of shared metaphors that denote scientific and technical concepts; these include drive, driver (an abstract force that leads to change), baseline (as in baseline data) and instability. the research article also includes more specialised technical uses of metaphor, such as feedback(s), interaction, and forcing, which have a denotational, or referential, function. these include the figurative expression saw-tooth in the following: (3) …the earth system of the quaternary is typified by saw-tooth oscillations of glacial-interglacial cycling. which refers to a strong up-and-down pattern of a line on a graph, to denote the same phenomenon. this use of saw-tooth is found in a number of texts in the oxford english corpus, either referring to a graph, real or imaginary, or to the screens on medical instruments to measure heart rates etc. it is common in scientific texts to find figuratively-used expressions which refer metaphors in texts about climate change ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 51 to the appearance of a line on a graph, or representation on a diagram to stand for a trend or distribution, such as curve, steep, climb, falling, peak and trajectory, as in the following citations, all from specialist academic texts: (4) at low levels of adoption, the supply curve for adopters is steeper than it is at higher levels of adoption (expert corpus; see below) (5) each site’s yearly hydrograph was categorized into one of four types (simple, complex, semi-complex i or semi-complex ii) based upon the visual characteristics of the climbing limb, the peak flow times and the falling limb. (expert corpus; see below) (6) the graph traces the deterministic trajectory from an initial state when the allele is rare in both populations to when the allele has reached global fixation. (genetics online, 10.06.2005) i regard this as a metonymy from metaphor. the description of aspects of a graph using terms from the concrete semantic field of rising, falling, and in the case of trajectory, flying through the air, is metaphorical. the association of these features of a graph with the changing phenomenon that they represent is then metonymical. the related popular article published in the new scientist contains some metaphors that denote, in common with the research article, but also metaphors that appear to have other functions. an analysis of the following paragraph illustrates this. metaphors identified using the metaphor identification procedure (pragglejaz, 2007) have been underlined: (7) for the last 2.5 million years, earth settled into a rather unusual period of potential instability as we rocked back and forth between ice ages and intervening warm periods, or interglacials. far from living on a deeply resilient planet, we live on a planet with hair triggers. industrialised societies are fumbling around with the controls, lulled into a false sense of security by the deceptive stability of the holocene, the last 11,700 years. remarkably and accidentally, we have ejected the earth system from the interglacial envelope and are heading into unchartered waters. (page 2) the oxford english corpus was used as a reference corpus to examine citations of the underlined metaphors. as expected, a number of them, such as settled into, resilient and lulled [into a false sense of security] are in very general use with the same denotational meanings as in this text, and do not appear alice deignan ibérica 34 (2017): 45-6652 to have additional functions in the article. of interest here, and in contrast to the metaphors identified in the research article, are the following: rocked back and forth hair triggers fumbling around with the controls ejected… envelope heading into unchartered waters these seem to have functions beyond denoting, the first of which is explanatory, or pedagogical. rock back and forth in: “we rocked back and forth between ice ages…” conveys the proposition expressed in the research article in the sentence discussed above: (3) the earth system of the quaternary is typified by saw-tooth oscillations of glacial-interglacial cycling. the metaphor rock back and forth draws on our everyday, bodily experience to make this accessible to a non-scientific readership (in interesting contrast with the research article use of saw-tooth) and therefore seems to have a pedagogical function as well as a denotational one. the paragraph as a whole summarises material that is covered over several pages and is supported by detailed references to other research studies in the research article. however, each of the other metaphors listed above both explains but also adds additional meaning to the points made in the research article. the point that human activity is having a major effect on climate, introduced in the paragraph cited above with “far from living on a deeply resilient planet…” is introduced in the research article with the sentence: (8) however, an entirely new forcing is now driving change in the earth system: human activity (h). although h is a subset of i (internal dynamics), here we argue that the magnitude, the unique nature of the forcing in the history of the planet, and the rate have now become so profound that h deserves to be considered in its own right in the context of earth system dynamics. this text presents an outsider standpoint to human activity, while the popular article repeatedly writes of we. the human race is talked of metonymically as taking actions that a single person would: fumbling around, ejecting, heading to unchartered waters. each of these actions is also metaphorical, writing of the changes wrought to the environment and other species by an metaphors in texts about climate change ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 53 industrialised lifestyle as if they were the physical actions of an individual or small group of people. as noted above, the research article also uses metonymy, but from a graph to a phenomenon – that is, using a scientific artefact to explain a scientific phenomenon, rather than bringing the discussion into the immediate realm of the human body and human action. the popular article also uses metaphor to move blame for the crisis away from humanity; the metaphor hair trigger is used, as part of a claim that the earth is a very fragile system. this claim is not made in the research article, which instead writes of the magnitude of the changes produced by human activity. in the title of the popular article: “simple equation shows how humanity is trashing the planet”, and the penultimate sentence: “the stakes could not be higher, yet critical knowledge and action needed for stability is in danger of becoming collateral damage in today’s war on facts”, the tendency for metaphors to have a function that encompasses entertaining, dramatizing and, sometimes, exaggerating, is seen, in expressions such as stakes… high, collateral damage and war. in my analysis, this has overlapped with the pedagogic function in some expressions, discussed above. unsurprisingly, neither the pedagogic nor the entertaining function was found in the research article. 4. science metaphors in school education having discussed the form and function of scientific metaphors across genres, and briefly described a number of studies, i return to the issue raised in the introduction: the communication of climate change to young people. in order to investigate this issue, a project team from leeds and lancaster universities, uk, compiled three corpora, as follows: alice deignan ibérica 34 (2017): 45-6654 corpus contents tokens expert journal articles and policy documents. 509,772 materials texts accessed by young people and their teachers relating to climate change. 260, 679 interviews transcribed interviews with school students aged 11-16. 87,929 table 1. climate change corpora from different genres. t the expert corpus has two sub-corpora of roughly equal sizes. the academic section consists of articles published in three prestigious journals in the field: climate change, global environmental change and nature. the team took advice from climate experts at leeds and lancaster universities on the choice of these journals. the policy documents section consists of policy documents from the intergovernmental panel on climate change, the uk department for environmental, food and rural affairs, oxfam and other bodies that comment at a national or international level on climate change. the materials corpus consists of texts such as curriculum materials, science textbooks, revision websites, popular science websites for young people, and teacher information packs. this was the last corpus to be built, and also the most complex, as many of the texts are from the internet, or from textbooks, and are multi-modal. for this project we only analysed text formally, but we noted that the use of images and sound were also often metaphorical. the interviews corpus consists of transcriptions of 41 focus group-style discussions between one of the project teams and groups of school students. the students all attended one of the four collaborating secondary schools in the yorkshire region (north-east england). the schools are in different socio-economic areas; and ranged in location from leeds city centre, through suburban to rural. all are non-selective, state (i.e. not feepaying) schools, who have links with leeds university through the latter’s teacher training work. students were nominated by their science teachers to take part, and were interviewed in year groups, that is, each group consisted of children from the same school year and science class. ethical approval was granted through the relevant university of leeds committee; all participants gave informed consent, and data were anonymised and stored securely. we analysed the data in a variety of ways, for different purposes. to conduct metaphor research, i used the corpus software sketch engine (kilgarriff et al., 2014) to perform word counts, generate concordances and identify frequent and significant collocates, cross-checking a sample of my analysis with other team members. this enabled us to compare the three corpora against each other, and also against two reference corpora, the british national corpus and the oxford english corpus. i started by using the word list function of sketch engine to obtain a list of the most frequent words in each of the three corpora. our focus was on lexical words rather than grammatical words such as prepositions. while we acknowledge that prepositions are often metaphorically used, my initial analyses showed that this is rarely, if metaphors in texts about climate change ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 55 ever, with meanings specific to the domain of climate science. having obtained a word list, in order of frequency, for each of the three corpora, i concordanced each of the lexical words, or, more precisely, lemmas (i.e. all inflections of a word), starting with the most frequent. for the two larger corpora, i analysed concordances down to words that occurred 200 times per million words, that is, of mid-range frequency. in this way i analysed the concordance data for several hundred words. i then analysed concordances for all lexical words in the interviews corpus down to a raw frequency of 5. this analysis sought to establish whether words were used with a figurative meaning or literally. to do this, i used a version of the metaphor identification procedure (mip) (pragglejaz, 2007). mip stipulates reading entire texts to determine context, which is clearly not practical for a corpus of this size, and not possible in any case from the starting point of the concordance line. however, the subject matter was known, and the genre of the texts was predictable, so i found that in almost all cases the 80 characters of context of a concordance line was sufficient to determine whether a word was being used literally or figuratively, and in the few remaining unclear cases, a slightly expanded window was enough. the mip analysis showed that the majority of frequent lexical words were used literally. the most time-consuming part of the analysis was where words were used both literally and metaphorically. this was the case especially for a set of words describing level, including level itself, high, low, rise, fall and similar words. these are used in the usual scientific sense, to describe and compare quantities of abstract entities, including the use described above, related metonymically to graphical representations of data. members of this lexical set are also used literally in climate science, to talk about the sea level. for words such as these, citations of each meaning were counted carefully. a smaller number of words were always used metaphorically in the corpora: frequent examples included impact, scenario, approach and balance. the findings from previous studies, discussed above, indicated a tendency for specialist scientific metaphors to be “opened up” (knudsen, 2003) in popularisations. our findings were consistent with this. our comparative analysis of the expert and materials corpora showed a broad picture in which, in the expert corpus, metaphors tended to be found in technical terms or semi-technical descriptions, while in the materials corpus they were used for overtly pedagogic purposes, often being turned into similes, and/or with the grounds for the metaphor explained. further details about the expert and materials corpora are discussed in deignan et al. (2017). i now discuss the examples of alice deignan ibérica 34 (2017): 45-6656 figurative language that we identified in the corpus of interviews, comparing these, where relevant, with the other two corpora. the interviews corpus was analysed using corpus tools and also thematically. during the manual thematic analysis, metaphors were again marked up using the mip procedure, and i marked up metonyms following littlemore and tagg’s procedure (2016), which is a variant on mip, based on work by biernacka (2013). i found that in the interview corpus, metaphors were sometimes used in a similar way to the other corpora. in other citations, however, they were “opened up” and extended. as shown in table 2 below, students tended to favour metaphors whose vehicles are likely to be familiar objects in the world of an older child or young adult, such as trap, bounce and blanket. there was some evidence that their understandings of the target domain were inaccurate as a result of their bringing their own real-world knowledge to the interpretation of metaphors. i now discuss some specific examples of this. table 2 gives the most frequent metaphors in the interviews corpus. in a few cases, the same words were also used as similes; this is shown in column 4. some of these words were also used literally, but for clarity, the figures for literal use are not given here. metaphors in texts about climate change ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 57 rank lemma frequency as metaphor frequency as simile figurative uses per millon words 1 go 388 4410.1 2 greenhouse 161 30 2172.2 3 way 130 1478.4 4 cap (in ice-cap) 94 1069 5 release 89 1012.1 5 trap 89 1012.1 7 lead (/li:d/) 38 432.1 8 slow 36 409.4 9 bounce 33 375.3 10 point 32 363.9 11 chain 30 341.1 12 blanket 30 5 341.1 13 rise 27 307 14 level 23 261.5 15 escape 21 238.8 15 impact 21 238.8 15 link 21 238.8 18 contribute 18 204.7 19 balance 13 147.8 20 save 11 122.3 21 low 10 111.2 21 footprint 10 111.2 22 band 5 3 90.9 23 play 7 77.8 24 barrier 4 1 66.7 24 scenario 5 66.7 table 2. most frequent metaphors (with similes) in the interviews corpus. the most frequent metaphor in the interviews corpus was go, which is accounted for by citations such as the following: (9) i think that erm, like the way we’re going and the way the earth’s changing, it’s possible that like in many years’ time, it might, like… (10) …because you’re burning trees which err, because of their burning, err, releases co2 and then those trees are gone. (11) bees are supposed to, erm they were talking about a bit of a problem with bees, and if bees go, then no plants will get pollinated. (12) …some animals are going extinct, like polar bears, because they’re losing where they live. despite its frequency, for a number of reasons, go is not the most salient metaphor in the corpus. firstly, the use of going to to talk about the future was included in the figurative counts, but this is clearly not domain-specific, and might be better considered to be a grammatical use rather than lexical. only slightly more domain specific was the frequent use of go up/go down to refer to temperature. also, like many frequent words, go is highly polysemous, the high number of citations in fact reflecting smaller numbers of many different meanings, each of which, if counted as a separate group, would appear much lower in the frequency rankings. nonetheless, there are points of interest in the concordance data for go. citation (9) seems a realisation of a journey mapping, a use that was found a number of times. with the exception of going to to talk about the future and go up/go down, the most frequent metaphorical use of go was to talk about disappearance or extinction, in 24 citations, as exemplified in citations (10) and (11) above. in addition, there were 16 citations of the collocation go extinct, as in citation (12). a search of the british national corpus showed 4 citations of this collocation, compared with 430 for the lemma become with extinct. in the interviews corpus there were only 20 citations of the lemma become with extinct, i.e. in contrast with the bnc, it was slightly less frequent than go extinct. this is consistent with my perception that go extinct is a regional and relatively informal use that is over-represented in the speech of these young people. the second most frequent metaphor in the interviews corpus, and most frequent in the materials corpus, is greenhouse. this is also used as a simile in 30 citations. as discussed in more detail by deignan et al. (2017), greenhouse alice deignan ibérica 34 (2017): 45-6658 is used in a highly technical sense in the expert corpus in collocations such as greenhouse gases, and almost certainly has no metaphorical meaning for the readers and writers of the texts in the corpus. in contrast, in the materials corpus, attention is drawn to the literal meaning, in citations such as (13) in a greenhouse, shorter wavelength radiation from the sun can pass through the glass. however, longer wavelength thermal radiation is trapped inside by the glass. so the greenhouse stays warm. gases in the atmosphere, such as water vapour, methane and carbon dioxide, act like the glass. in the interviews corpus, there are a number of references to literal greenhouses, as well as metaphorical, such as: (14) so the greenhouse effect is like a greenhouse when you walk in, it’s warm isn’t it cos it, other heat is trapped inside by the sun and then it like warms it up, and greenhouse gases are like, it’s hard to explain like, the gases, i can’t really explain it but i know like a greenhouse, it’s almost like the same as a greenhouse. there is some evidence that this leads to misunderstandings; for instance, the interviews corpus also contains references to glass: (15) at certain heights the sun is able to get into like the glass, then when it’s inside it can’t get out cos there’s no, cos there’s no sun to let it get through from inside. so then when you walk in it’s really warm and because of that, and it’s like, the earth is covered in like lots of glass panels but we just can’t see them, because the sun’s projecting into them. it doesn’t, it won’t come out, it’ll just keep coming in and when it tries to get out, it’ll just bounce off the roof and down in a continuous loop. there are a number of such references in a number of different interviews. these, and other passages in the corpus, show that some of the students interviewed are under the erroneous impression that greenhouse gases form a thin, hard layer round the earth analogous to panes of glass. another very frequent metaphor in the interviews corpus is trap. this is an example of a group of metaphors that work by comparing scientific processes and entities to concrete objects and actions that would be very familiar in the everyday world of the young people interviewed, like release (discussed in deignan et al., 2017) and blanket, discussed below. as shown metaphors in texts about climate change ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 59 in table 2, trap was the joint 5th most frequent metaphorically-used lemma in the interviews corpus. it occurred in the expert corpus 10 times with a metaphorical meaning. 7 of these refer to co2 being trapped inside fossil fuels or similar scientific states, while the remaining 3 citations are found in expressions such as trapped in poverty. in the expert corpus, the frequency is just 19.6 per million words, contrasted with 1012.1 in the interviews corpus. in the materials corpus, trap is mostly used to talk about heat being trapped by greenhouse gases. occasionally it is used to describe bubbles trapped in ice, which are then used to analyse the composition of air historically. in the materials corpus, metaphorical trap occurs in 406 citations per million words, far more frequent than in the expert corpus, but less than in the interviews corpus, where it occurs 1,012.1 times per million words. the following citations from the interviews are typical. all four of the schools used are represented. (16) it’s like the world like trapped in a giant greenhouse and it’s just getting hotter and hotter. (17) when the sun rays shine upon us, they get trapped in the atmosphere cos those gases trap them, and that heats the atmosphere up (18) it’s almost having tinfoil on the whole entire planet because it’s keeping the heat in and it’s not letting any other heat erm, out, so we’re completely trapped in our own eco-system, and it’s really hard to change because of all these greenhouse gases, it’s trapping us slowly and slowly, it’s making us more hot and more humid, and it’s trapping us in. (19) the earth is like the plant, and the co2 is making like a glass shelter around it, and it’s trapping heat in. it can be seen that while the metaphor is used in all three corpora, albeit with different frequency levels, it is used to talk about different entities. in the interviews corpus, the entity which traps is the atmosphere, co2, or, occasionally, the ozone layer (several students confused what they had learned about the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect). the object of trap was variously the planet, heat or sunrays. despite minor variations, there seems to be a consistent scenario in which an outer shell around the planet keeps something in, preventing escape. this is more or less consistent with the use in the materials corpus, but the students both over-simplify the meaning and extend it. as a result, the interviews use contains some slight alice deignan ibérica 34 (2017): 45-6660 scientific inaccuracies, as seen in the above citations, for example, that the planet is trapped, rather than heat. the students’ use of blanket shows the same tendencies. figurative blanket is not found in the expert corpus. it is found in the materials corpus 31 times, equivalent to 118.9 times per million words, in contrast with a frequency of 341 times per million words in the interviews corpus. in the materials corpus, only 6 citations are metaphorical, with the remaining 26 citations being similes, in citations such as: (20) methane, together with other greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide contribute to global warming by acting like a blanket surrounding the whole planet. the proportion of similes to metaphors is almost the exact reverse in the interviews corpus, with 30 metaphors and 5 similes. examples of each are: (21) when the weather’s getting warmer and it’s like a blanket of carbon dioxide around the earth. and it’s caused by carbon dioxide from cars and methane, and factories. (22) …some gases like are stopping the erm heat, sun from bouncing, because when it shines in onto the earth, it comes down, but then the blanket of pollution and greenhouse gases would just stop the heat from coming back through so then it’ll get really hot. (in the interviews data, it was sometimes difficult to distinguish simile from metaphor because of a tendency for the students to use like as a very frequent discourse marker, and not necessarily a marker of simile. i relied on my experience of working with this age group to help me disambiguate these uses). in a number of citations in the interviews corpus, there is some extension of the metaphor, as in the following citation, where a student talks about not being able to take off the blanket. (23) …a giant blanket around the earth, keeping it warm and even too warm, and we can’t take that blanket off. here, as for greenhouse, the students have brought extended meaning to a metaphor that they have encountered in pedagogical materials. the students seemed to have noted a metaphor that resonated with their everyday experience, and that they used it with much greater frequency than it is found metaphors in texts about climate change ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 61 in the other corpora, perhaps because of this resonance. further, they tend to reinterpret the metaphorical use, bringing their experience to it and extending it creatively, thus bringing in slight inaccuracies. some of the metaphors used by the students did not occur in the other two corpora, or not with the same meaning. this was the case for bounce, band and barrier, as used in the following citations from the interviews corpus. (24) …there’s lots of co2 coming like out of cars and things, and it’s bounced its erm, some of the warmth is bouncing back onto the earth, it’s like erm, it’s warming up places that erm, like places like antarctica where like polar bears live and things. (25) …there’s like a band around the world and it like lets some of the co2 out. (26) it’s like bad air that we create, it’s getting trapped, erm, and it’s like a barrier for the sun so things are heating up a lot quicker, especially the earth. as for the examples previously discussed, the literal referents of all of these metaphors would be familiar to students from their everyday lives. they may represent the students’ attempts to make sense of the diagrams that feature in many websites and textbooks, in which greenhouse gases are represented as a discrete layer around the planet (a band or barrier), deflecting heat (which bounces back to earth). as for the previous metaphors, this leads to some over-simplification of the science. 5. symbols of climate change for students in my manual analysis of the interviews corpus, i also attempted to identify the central images and entities that students use to refer to the wider problem of climate change. as would be expected, the image of the polar bear is highly salient to the school students, and they referred to this animal in 35 of the 41 interviews. polar bears were referred to especially when students were asked what climate change is and what the main effects are. responses to these questions included: (27) err, climate change, it’s mostly happening in the ice-caps and it’s destroying all the habitats of the polar bears, and they’re running out of space to hunt the food and look after the cubs. alice deignan ibérica 34 (2017): 45-6662 (28) erm like in the arctic, with polar bears all the ice-caps are all melting so they’re like migrating a bit south to different countries and erm, it’s causing like havoc in little villages around. (29) it’s erm, it can cause the ice-caps to melt i think and erm, which can cause sea-levels to rise. erm, flooding in areas, erm, some animals are going extinct, like polar bears, because they’re losing where they live. students in three of the four schools also mentioned penguins, the second most frequent animal to be mentioned after polar bears. [polar] bears is the most significant collocate of penguin, because they are often mentioned together, as in the following point about the effect of climate change, made by a 14 year old student: (30) it can affect like anything that is adapted to that environment sort of thing. like polar bears and penguins. when asked to say how she would explain climate change and its effects to a younger pupil, one 12-year-old female student said the following: (31) imagine you got a penguin and that penguin lives on antarctica on a like massive sheet of ice which can melt easily as the temperatures go up… because it’s getting warm and the ice is melting, and let’s say it’s getting warm, the ice is melting and there’s a seal over here trying to eat the penguin but can’t go on land, well can’t move from land that well, but then the ice is gradually getting shorter and shorter, and then the seal has more water to move in, and then because of us, the ice is gone, and the penguin has to swim, but it can’t swim forever, it can’t hold its breath forever, and then the seal eats the penguin. students produced various narratives of this kind, describing how the habitats and lives of polar bears, penguins and seals were threatened, and the food chain was disrupted. in general, animals tended to be mentioned before people as victims of climate change, and seem to act as symbols of the problem. 6. conclusion in this article, i have argued that scientific metaphors are never neutral. like metaphors in other genres and register, they have entailments which can be metaphors in texts about climate change ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 63 ideological and influence behaviour. this was the case for example, for the “balance of nature” metaphor. scientific metaphors have different functions in different text types, popularisations tending to use metaphor for explanatory, dramatization and entertainment purposes. educational materials for young people use metaphor as a pedagogic device, and often spell this out with simile. the findings of this study were consistent with work by writers such as knudsen (2003) and semino (2008) in showing that texts written for non-specialists tended to open up scientific metaphors. this study also attempted to find out how the users of such texts, young people, reproduced these metaphors. it has found that they further extended and opened them up, bringing their own concrete experience to their interpretation, and that they brought their own metaphors to their attempts to explain their understandings. acknowledgements the research into young people’s understandings of climate change described here is part of a larger project called “translating science for young people”, funded by the arts and humanities research council, uk (grant number ah/m003809/1). i am grateful to the other investigators elena semino (lancaster university) and indira banner (leeds university), to the research fellow, shirley-anne paul (leeds university), who conducted the interviews, to the young people who took part in the interviews, and to their science teachers. article history: received 16 may 2017 received in revised form 17 september 2017 accepted 17 september 2017 references alice deignan ibérica 34 (2017): 45-6664 anathaswamy, a. 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(2001). “must there be a balance of nature?” biology and philosophy 16: 481-506. alice deignan is a professor of applied linguistics in the school of education, university of leeds, uk. she works with corpora to investigate lexical meaning, especially focussing on metaphor and metonymy. she is interested in cross-register variation, and its implications for non-expert language users such as young people and language learners. she is author of metaphor and corpus linguistics (2005, john benjamins) and co-author of figurative language, genre and register (2013, cup with jeannette littlemore and elena semino). metaphors in texts about climate change ibérica 34 (2017): 45-66 65 cuddington, k. (2001). “the ‘balance of nature’ metaphor and equilibrium in population ecology”. biology and philosophy 16: 463-479. deignan, a., j. littlemore & e. semino (2013). figurative language, genre and register. cambridge: cambridge university press. deignan, a., e. semino, & s-a. s. paul. 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(2008) metaphor in discourse. cambridge: cambridge university press. iberica 13 ibérica 32 (2016): 87-104 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in malaysia, corporate social responsibility (csr) is relatively new but corporations have been required to engage in and disclose their csr. a typical genre for disclosure is csr reports and these reports often refer to other texts. the article investigates the act of referencing to other texts or intertextuality in malaysian csr reports. it creates an archive of ceo statements and environment sections in csr reports and studies the archive for keywords, which can identify the incorporated texts. the function of these texts is examined in relation to malaysia’s corporate context. csr reports contain explicit references to documents (policies, regulations, reports, research, standards) and to individuals/groups (ceos, stakeholders, expert organizations). the incorporated texts display variation in corporate control, which organizes these texts along an intertextual cline. the cline helps to identify corporate and non-corporate sources among the texts. the selection of incorporated texts may reflect government and stock exchange demands. the texts are not standardized and are relevant for the csr domain and corporations, where these texts monitor and justify csr performance. yet, the incorporated texts may perpetuate inexact reporting because corporations select the texts and the parts of texts to refer to. since these texts have been employed to scrutinize initiatives and results, csr reports can claim to represent the “truth” about a corporation’s csr. hence, intertextuality serves corporate interests. keywords: csr communication, csr reports, intertextuality, intertextual cline, corporate and non-corporate sources, malaysia. resumen u n an ál i s is d e l a i nc or po ra c ió n de f u e nt e s : l a i nt e rte x tua l i da d e n l o s i nf o rme s d e r e s po ns a bi l id ad so c ia l cor po ra ti v a e n m a l a s ia en malasia, la responsabilidad social corporativa (csr por sus siglas en inglés) es un ámbito relativamente nuevo. sin embargo, las corporaciones lo han incorporating other texts: intertextuality in malaysian csr reports kumaran rajandran universiti sains malaysia (malaysia) kumaran-r@hotmail.com 87 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 87 ibérica 32 (2016): 87-104 kumaran rajandran introducido con el propósito de dar visibilidad a esta dimensión. un género prototípico para dicho propósito es el llamado informe de responsabilidad social corporativa (csr report, por sus siglas en inglés). este artículo analiza la intertextualidad de estos informes, es decir, las referencias a otros textos, en informes de csr en malasia. para ello se creó un corpus de ceo statements (carta del principal oficial ejecutivo o ceo) y environmental sections (sección de medio ambiente) de informes de csr y se estudiaron las palabras clave, con el fin de identificar las referencias a otros textos. la función de estos textos se examina dentro del contexto corporativo nacional. estos informes contienen referencias explícitas a documentos (documentos de política, reglamentos, informes, investigación, estándares) y a individuos/grupos (los ceo, grupos de interés y organizaciones expertas). los textos que se incorporan a estos informes muestran variación en lo que respecta al control corporativo y se organizan de forma jerárquica, reflejando los intereses del gobierno y la demanda de la bolsa de comercio. los textos no están estandarizados y son relevantes para las corporaciones implicadas en la responsabilidad social corporativa, en tanto que los textos monitorizan y justifican sus actuaciones en este ámbito. no obstante, los textos incorporados pueden perpetuar unas aseveraciones inexactas, dependiendo de qué tipo de textos son y a qué partes del texto se refiere. dado que estos textos se han empleado para abordar con detalle las iniciativas y los resultados corporativos, los informes de responsabilidad social representan, en principio, la ‘verdad’ de cada corporación respecto a dicho aspecto. se concluye que la intertextualidad sirve por tanto para reforzar los intereses corporativos. palabras clave: comunicación profesional, responsabilidad social corporativa (rsc), intertextualidad, fuentes corporativas y no corporativas, malasia. 1. introduction the term “corporate social responsibility” (csr) emphasizes a corporation’s social obligation and impact (crane & matten, 2007). many corporations practice csr but its global extent is uneven (handy, 2002). csr is prominent in europe and north america and it is becoming common in malaysia, where the government and stock exchange are instrumental parties for developing csr (lu & castka, 2009). the prime minister encouraged csr during the budget speech in 2006 and 2013, and the government provides csr-related tax deductions and exemptions. the stock exchange can delist corporations for not performing csr and it hopes to establish a csr-based fund and index. the stock exchange also launched the malaysian csr framework in 2006, which contains a set of guidelines and delineates four csr areas of community, environment, marketplace and workplace (bursa 88 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 88 malaysia, 2015). besides the government and stock exchange, other stakeholders, such as employees and customers, may inspect a corporation’s societal contribution. hence, malaysia’s corporate context motivates csr. since csr was promoted after 2006, it is a relatively new domain for malaysian corporations. they have to engage in and disclose csr, and disclosure requires corporate communication (ihlen, bartlett & may, 2011). it activates corporation-stakeholder interactions through csr communication, which informs stakeholders about a corporation’s csr. a typical genre for disclosure is csr reports. these reports are published in print and electronic formats in english because english is malaysia’s language of business. csr reports contain a ceo statement and sections about the four csr areas. these reports explain initiatives and results, and the explanation often mentions other texts. the act of referencing to other texts is termed “intertextuality” (fairclough, 1992, 1995a, b, 2003). the present article analyzes intertextuality in malaysian csr reports. these reports display the corporate perspective but intertextuality opens a space to incorporate other texts and hence other perspectives. while previous research about csr reports explored their structure (catenaccio, 2011), topics (ihlen, 2009) or language features (rajandran & fauziah, 2014b), intertextuality was not their focus. most research featured european or north american csr reports and the burgeoning interest in csr communication should consider csr reports in other regions (ihlen, bartlett & may, 2011). the article identifies and examines the incorporated texts in csr reports. then, it proposes an intertextual cline to organize these texts and examines their function in relation to malaysia’s corporate context. 1.1. definition of intertextuality julia kristeva created the terminology “intertextuality” (1986: 37) to refer to a combination of texts in a text, which makes a text a mosaic of quotations. scholars cannot ignore references to other texts if they wish to understand a genre. fairclough (1992, 1995a, b, 2003) popularized intertextuality in discourse studies by providing clearer definitions and exploring the political domain. the article adopts fairclough’s definition but studies the corporate domain. intertextuality is defined as the incorporation of some part, aspect or element from other texts into a text (fairclough, 1992, 1995a, b, 2003; wodak & fairclough, 2010). there is no limit to incorporating other texts and numerous texts can be incorporated in a text. intertextuality in malaysian csr reports ibérica 32 (2016): 87-104 89 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 89 intertextuality is achieved by explicit and implicit references. while explicit references state the name of a document (e.g. environmental conservation guidelines) or the name of an individual/group (e.g. peter, malaysia energy centre) (wodak & fairclough, 2010: 27), implicit references state concepts from a document or individual/group but does not state which document or individual/group the concepts come from (fairclough, 2003: 40). the content of these references may be cited through direct speech, indirect speech, free indirect speech and narrative report of speech acts (chouliaraki & fairclough, 1999: 49; fairclough, 2003: 41). the source of speech and its details are shown by direct speech and indirect speech. yet, direct speech is presumed to be verbatim and is marked by quotation marks (fairclough, 2003: 49) and indirect speech involves some degree of change from verbatim and has reporting groups/phrases (fairclough, 2003: 49). while free indirect speech mixes direct speech and indirect speech (fairclough, 1992: 119), narrative report of speech acts employs a noun to indicate an act of communication (fairclough, 2003: 49). these explicit and implicit references leave a linguistic trace, which demands a linguistic analysis of intertextuality (kristeva, 1986; wodak & fairclough, 2010). 1.2. intertextuality in corporate communication research about intertextuality has emphasized written corporate genres because these are convenient, tangible and ubiquitous. convenience means a genre is easier to be obtained, tangibility implies its continuity and durability, and ubiquity is linked to its wider distribution. in anderson (2005), meetings about organizational change state explicit references to individuals. these individuals are cited through indirect speech and are specified through their names (e.g. evan) or roles (e.g. manager) (anderson, 2005: 68, 71). their opinions are employed to stabilize past practice or to shift future practice. kong (2006) examines property purchase reports. these reports state explicit references to groups, who are property agencies. the groups are cited through direct and indirect speech to bring objectivity and to avoid responsibility for mistaken or misleading content (kong, 2006: 779). in lassen (2006), press releases about biotechnology state explicit references to individuals. these individuals, who are a company representative and a researcher, are cited through indirect speech. while the company representative mentions the benefits for biotechnology, the researcher poses its dangers (lassen, 2006: 515). intertextuality helps to substantiate the kumaran rajandran ibérica 32 (2016): 87-10490 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 90 corporate perspective since corporations select texts which are sympathetic to their practices (anderson, 2005; kong, 2006; lassen, 2006). koskela (2013) examines strategy texts, which designate a corporation’s ethos. they cite explicit references to motivate activities in line with corporate and legal conventions. rajandran and fauziah (2014a) investigate csr reports. these reports contain explicit references to policies, standards and studies. policies or standards guide initiatives and studies justify initiatives (rajandran & fauziah, 2014a). to the best of my knowledge, previous research on csr reports has not studied intertextuality. its focus has been primarily on structure (catenaccio, 2011), topics (ihlen, 2009) or language features (rajandran & fauziah, 2014b). this research thus has not considered the contribution of other texts to content or its communicative intentions. although, dawkins (2004), du, bhattacharya and sen (2010), and coombs and holladay (2012) recognize the importance of other texts in csr reports, the function of intertextuality needs further exploration. moreover, research has analyzed domains related to corporate communication, such as public relations (bremner, 2014) and accounting (devitt, 1991). bremner (2014) shows how one intern learns three genres (press release, media coverage, media pitch). the intern develops her competence by learning from explicit and implicit references (bremner, 2014: 273). devitt (1991) notes how a tax accountant utilizes more explicit than implicit references. these references symbolize the knowledge and power of the internal revenue service (irs) (devitt, 1991: 347). for bremner (2014) and devitt (1991), the incorporated texts are relevant for the domains of public relations and accounting, and texts which are not relevant for these domains are not mentioned. from previous research, intertextuality is typical in corporate genres. their credibility is enhanced by citing documents or individuals/groups who verify corporate practices. the choice of structure, topics and language features also contributes to credibility but intertextuality provides another way to enhance credibility. yet, csr reports are not studied often for intertextuality. hence, the present article formulates these questions to understand the role of intertextuality in csr reports: which texts are incorporated in malaysian csr reports? why are these texts incorporated? the analysis for the incorporated texts and their function improves knowledge about how csr reports explain their initiatives and results. that knowledge helps writers and intertextuality in malaysian csr reports ibérica 32 (2016): 87-104 91 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 91 readers to critique csr reports by studying the selection of incorporated texts. 2. methodology the present article analyzes malaysian csr reports and an archive of reports from 10 corporations from 2009 to 2011 was created. these are among the major corporations by market capitalization and the years 2009 to 2011 capture the phase where csr began to be consistently disclosed. there was minimal disclosure before 2006 because the government and stock exchange did not require csr reporting and reporting practices were limited (lu & castka, 2009). table 1 shows the industry for these corporations. a variety of industries are represented, which enables generalizable findings about the use of intertextuality in malaysian csr reports. the article analyzed ceo statements (29,031 words) and environment sections (109,986 words) and these sections are found throughout the archive. ceo statements provide an overview of a corporation’s csr and environment sections exemplify one of the four areas of the malaysian csr framework. ceo statements and environment sections respectively contain similar content although the length varies because corporations may or may not provide extensive details about initiatives and results. a linguistic analysis was pursued since the incorporated texts leave a linguistic trace (kristeva, 1986; wodak & fairclough, 2010). keywords or kumaran rajandran ibérica 32 (2016): 87-10492 intertextuality in malaysian csr reports ibérica 32 (2016): …-… contributes to credibility but intertextuality provides another way to enhance credibility. yet, csr reports are not studied often for intertextuality. hence, the present article formulates these questions to understand the role of intertextuality in csr reports: which texts are incorporated in malaysian csr reports? why are these texts incorporated? the analysis for the incorporated texts and their function improves knowledge about how csr reports explain their initiatives and results. that knowledge helps writers and readers to critique csr reports by studying the selection of incorporated texts. 2. methodology the present article analyzes malaysian csr reports and an archive of reports from 10 corporations from 2009 to 2011 was created. these are among the major corporations by market capitalization and the years 2009 to 2011 capture the phase where csr began to be consistently disclosed. there was minimal disclosure before 2006 because the government and stock exchange did not require csr reporting and reporting practices were limited (lu & castka, 2009). table 1 shows the industry for these corporations. a variety of industries are represented, which enables generalizable findings about the use of intertextuality in malaysian csr reports. corporation industry1 digi telecommunications drb-hicom conglomerate (primarily automobiles & parts) guinness anchor food & beverage maybank conglomerate (primarily banks) media prima media nestlé (malaysia) food & beverage petronas conglomerate (primarily oil & gas) rhb conglomerate (primarily banks) telekom malaysia conglomerate (primarily telecommunications) ytl conglomerate (primarily utilities) table 1. csr reports. the article analyzed ceo statements (29,031 words) and environment sections (109,986 words) and these sections are found throughout the archive. ceo statements provide an overview of a corporation’s csr and environment sections exemplify one of the four areas of the malaysian csr framework. ceo statements and environment sections respectively contain similar content 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 92 typical words to indicate other texts were identified through reading the ceo statements and environment sections. this provides a systematic way to discover the incorporated texts. two researchers separately identified the keywords after reading the archive several times, which minimizes the chances to overlook keywords. the researchers listed the keywords acquired in every reading and their judgment and experience (fairclough, 1995: 77) helped the decision to include or exclude words as keywords. the keywords were reviewed together to compare and resolve inconsistencies before common keywords were selected. these keywords are nouns or verbs and table 2 shows some examples. while nouns indicate the title of texts, verbs indicate the content of texts. these are general nouns (e.g. code) and verbs (e.g. confirm) and every instance of their use was searched for (e.g. code, codes, confirm, confirms, confirmed, confirming). the search uncovered how the nouns become specific (e.g. “code of sustainable practice”) and how the verbs often mention a source (e.g. “pwc…has confirmed”). these nouns and verbs as keywords helped to indicate potential incorporated texts in csr reports. next, the co-text or adjoining words where the keywords were employed were isolated. the co-text for the keywords was examined to ensure if the keywords did indicate incorporated texts. similar texts were provided a general title, such as “policy” or “standard” and the titles display which types of texts are incorporated. a cline was proposed to organize these texts and to identify their sources. then, their function was examined in relation to malaysia’s corporate context, which reveals why these texts are incorporated. 3. analysis malaysian csr reports contain explicit references to documents (policies, regulations, reports, research, standards), along with references to individuals/groups (ceos, stakeholders, expert organisations). csr intertextuality in malaysian csr reports ibérica 32 (2016): 87-104 93 kumaran rajandran ibérica 32 (2016): …-… although the length varies because corporations may or may not provide extensive details about initiatives and results. a linguistic analysis was pursued since the incorporated texts leave a linguistic trace (kristeva, 1986; wodak & fairclough, 2010). keywords or typical words to indicate other texts were identified through reading the ceo statements and environment sections. this provides a systematic way to discover the incorporated texts. two researchers separately identified the keywords after reading the archive several times, which minimizes the chances to overlook keywords. the researchers listed the keywords acquired in every reading and their judgment and experience (fairclough, 1995: 77) helped the decision to include or exclude words as keywords. the keywords were reviewed together to compare and resolve inconsistencies before common keywords were selected. these keywords are nouns or verbs and table 2 shows some examples. noun verb code confirm regulation estimate report observe survey recognize table 2. examples of keywords. while nouns indicate the title of texts, verbs indicate the content of texts. these are general nouns (e.g. code) and verbs (e.g. confirm) and every instance of their use was searched for (e.g. code, codes, confirm, confirms, confirmed, confirming). the search uncovers how the nouns become specific (e.g. “code of sustainable practice”) and how the verbs often mention a source (e.g. “pwc…has confirmed”). these nouns and verbs as keywords helped to indicate potential incorporated texts in csr reports. next, the co-text or adjoining words where the keywords were employed were isolated. the co-text for the keywords was examined to ensure if the keywords did indicate incorporated texts. similar texts were provided a general title, such as “policy” or “standard” and the titles display which types of texts are incorporated. a cline was proposed to organize these texts and to identify their sources. then, their function was examined in relation to malaysia’s corporate context, which reveals why these texts are incorporated. 3. analysis malaysian csr reports contain explicit references to documents (policies, regulations, reports, research, standards), along with references to individuals/groups (ceo, stakeholder and expert organization). csr reports cite specific or non-specific policies. extract 1 mentions a specific policy, where “environmental” (underlined) indicates the csr area and extract 2 mentions a 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 93 reports cite specific or non-specific policies. extract 1 mentions a specific policy, where “environmental” (underlined) indicates the csr area and extract 2 mentions a non-specific policy, where “sustainable practice” (underlined) spans several csr areas. telekom malaysia and ytl utilize these policies to guide their csr, as marked by “minimising our impact” (italicized) in extract 1 and “in line with” (italicized) in extract 2. both corporations can claim to implement these policies, which guide preparing initiatives and achieving results. the policies are voluntarily adopted and both corporations seem pro-active in performing csr. internal benchmarking is promoted (herzig & schaltegger, 2006: 311) and corporations can compare csr performance among their constituent units, such as branches, departments, sections or subsidiaries. the comparison cannot be done among corporations because their policies may employ distinct criteria. yet, the policies in extracts 1-2 may be considered as subjective since telekom malaysia and ytl developed these policies and decided the criteria for compliance. (1) we have a number of policies aimed at minimising our impact on the environment including our environmental conservation guidelines. (telekom malaysia, 2011, environment section) (2) ytl power’s electranet operation in australia operates in line with a code of sustainable practice. (ytl, 2009, environment section) reference is also made to regulations, which control corporate practices. since these are national laws to prohibit environmental degradation and to preserve flora and fauna, regulations are pertinent for environment sections. these regulations are either listed, as in extract 3 (bolded) or insinuated, as in extract 4 (bolded) because there is a known set of environmental regulations to adhere to in malaysia. while listing shows which environmental aspects are emphasized (air, wastes, sewage), insinuating could cover various aspects although the mention of “wastewater” (underlined) only involves certain regulations. guinness anchor and media prima can claim to care for the environment and employ these regulations. both corporations have to comply with regulations (dewitt, 1991; koskela, 2013) because regulations are mandatorily imposed. their compliance is designated by “subscribe to” (italicized) in extract 3 and “compliant with” (italicized) in extract 4, which minimizes charges of noncompliance because the government can fine or sue the corporations for not upholding these regulations. kumaran rajandran ibérica 32 (2016): 87-10494 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 94 (3) media prima and its subsidiaries subscribe to the following regulations: • environmental quality (clean air) regulations 1979 • environmental quality (scheduled wastes) regulations 2005 • environmental quality (sewage) regulations 2009 (media prima, 2011, environment section) (4) gab’s treatment of wastewater is fully compliant with local legislation. (guinness anchor, 2009, environment section) csr reports also cite other corporate reports. these reports are cited to link csr to other corporate practices. in extract 5, the “csv report” (bolded) complements the “corporate and financial reports” (bolded). these reports indicate nestlé (malaysia) disclosing its finances and csr. its economic and social practices are documented since corporations are now judged for profit and sustainability (coombs & holladay, 2012). in extract 6, “second” (underlined) marks continuity for the “sustainability report” (bolded). the report from 2010 becomes a member of a series of chronological csr reports. these reports enable drb-hicom to record its csr performance from year to year and they become evidence for the corporation’s long-term commitment to sustainability. (5) this csv report accompanies the nestlé corporate and financial reports, which together, make up the 2011 annual report for the group. (nestlé, malaysia, 2011, ceo statement) (6) on behalf of the board of directors, i am pleased to present our second sustainability report. (drb-hicom, 2010, ceo statement) reference is also made to research, as observed by rajandran and fauziah (2014a). research is internal if corporations conduct it and external if other organizations conduct it. extract 7 mentions an internal research (bolded) and media prima indicates its involvement with “our” (underlined). media prima could study the survey and implement initiatives to improve the workplace. extract 8 mentions an external research (bolded) and digi acknowledges another organization’s involvement through “mckinsey” (underlined). digi has studied the report and implemented initiatives to improve the environment. whether internal or external, research is often empirical and can claim to be an objective examination of areas in the malaysian csr framework (workplace in extract 7 and environment in extract 8). research encourages digi and media prima to act on these areas, intertextuality in malaysian csr reports ibérica 32 (2016): 87-104 95 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 95 as implied by “reflects” (italicized) in extract 7 and “is… bolstered by” (italicized) in extract 8. (7) our career satisfaction survey reflects our strategic planning within the workforce. (media prima, 2010, ceo statement) (8) our resolute decision to address climate change is further bolstered by a mckinsey report on the environmental impact by industry. (digi, 2009, ceo statement) csr reports also cite standards (bolded), which guide csr. though standards seem to be like policies, corporations develop a policy (extracts 12) and regional or global organizations develop a standard, such as the international organization for standardization (iso) (underlined) in extract 9. iso14001 makes the environment an international focus but the environment has a national focus as one of the areas in the malaysian csr framework. digi links a national agenda to an international endeavor by adopting iso14001 to guide its environmental csr. standards are voluntarily adopted and digi can claim to be pro-active in monitoring its environmental impact. the standard in extract 9 may be considered as objective because iso decided the criteria for compliance and digi cannot manipulate these criteria. standards stipulate shared criteria and can be used to compare csr performance among corporations. external benchmarking is promoted (herzig & schaltegger, 2006: 303) and digi can compare its csr against other corporations. the comparison stimulates improvements for a corporation’s csr and inspires industry best practice. (9) to further internalise environmental sustainability across the organisation, we extended our iso14001 certification for environmental management system to our operations nationwide. (digi, 2011, environment section) extracts 1-9 exclude the content of references but extracts 10-14 include their content through direct speech, indirect speech and narrative report of speech acts. csr reports often quote references which encourage or endorse their csr because corporations select whose perspective to portray. these references contribute to depict corporations positively, as also seen in other corporate genres (anderson, 2005; kong, 2006; lassen, 2006). in extracts 10-11, the ceo (bolded) and the stakeholder (bolded) are the source of direct speech and the details in quotation marks are their opinion kumaran rajandran ibérica 32 (2016): 87-10496 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 96 (italicized). both extracts specify individuals by mentioning a name (“peter brabeck-letmathe”, “wang khang jeck”) and role (“chairman”, “sjk (c) chung wa” [name of school, which entails a student]) (anderson, 2005). in extract 10, the ceo is quoted and his quotation positions csr as part of management consideration. it mentions “the developing world” because nestlé (malaysia) has national csr objectives which may not be pursued in other countries. in extract 11, the stakeholder is quoted because he participated in an initiative. he gives feedback and maybank can use this feedback to maintain, modify or cancel an initiative. (10) improving agricultural productivity is absolutely fundamental in helping to address water shortages and increasing the “crop per drop”, particularly in the developing world. peter brabeck-letmathe, chairman, nestlé s.a. (nestlé, malaysia, 2010, environment section) (11) if the numbers of one animal decrease, other animals will decrease too. animals need water, food and habitat to survive… i’ve learned a lot from this programme. wang khang jeck, 11, sjk (c) chung wa (maybank, 2011, environment section) in extract 12, “stakeholders” (bolded) is the source of speech but the details of their opinion (italicized) are unknown. the narrative report of speech acts “concerns” captures the intention for two-way communication between media prima and its stakeholders. it is pluralized to indicate that the corporation has solved numerous stakeholder problems. the problemsolving stance is part of its claim to be “malaysia’s leading integrated media investment group”. although media prima acknowledges its stakeholders, their concerns are not listed. these are concealed because it may not have been responding to every concern. (12) at media prima, we take great pride in being malaysia’s leading integrated media investment group by responding to the concerns of our stakeholders who are the key drivers of our success today. (media prima, 2010, ceo statement) in extracts 13-14, an expert organization (bolded) is the source of indirect speech and the details after the reporting verbs (“estimates” in extract 13, “has confirmed” in extract 14) are their opinion (italicized). malaysia energy centre (bolded) in extract 13 and pricewaterhousecoopers (pwc) (bolded) in extract 14 are experts in a domain. csr reports mention expert organizations if corporations do not have expertise in certain domains. intertextuality in malaysian csr reports ibérica 32 (2016): 87-104 97 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 97 malaysia energy centre is based in malaysia and pwc has a branch in malaysia, and these organizations understand national developments. their opinion is valuable and these organizations can confirm csr initiatives and results in nestlé (malaysia) and ytl. since these corporations do not have expertise in global reporting initiative (gri) and carbon credit respectively, they need pwc to certify a csr report and malaysia energy centre to confirm the value of carbon credit. corporations select the expert organization to refer to and may select the organization whose opinion substantiates their perspective. (13) the malaysia energy centre estimates that the country has up to rm100 million tonnes of carbon credit potential for the 2006 to 2012 period… (ytl, 2011, environment section) (14) pwc…has confirmed it to be gri application level c+. (nestlé, malaysia, 2010, ceo statement) 4. discussion the incorporated texts in extract 1-14 are explicit references to documents (policies, regulations, reports, research, standards) and to individuals/groups (ceos, stakeholders, expert organisations). explicit references are also noted for other corporate genres (anderson, 2005; kong, 2006; lassen, 2006; koskela, 2013; rajandran & fauziah, 2014a). corporate genres may favor these references for three reasons. firstly, explicit references can be traced to specific documents or individuals/groups. secondly, these references are often established and known csr authorities. thirdly, explicit references contain defined and fixed criteria, which are useful for verifying csr initiatives and results. the article proposes to organize the incorporated texts along an intertextual cline for ceo statements (figure 1) and for environment sections (figure 2). the cline represents an endeavor to generalize the extent of corporate involvement in the texts. it is limited to the csr reports in table 1 and may differ for other csr reports. the texts are organized along the cline after considering corporate control. control means texts can be determined or influenced by corporations. they take part in drafting and deciding the content of texts, and hence content can be tailored to their interests. they also take part in publishing the texts. corporations invest their resources to create these texts and can claim some form of proprietorship over them. kumaran rajandran ibérica 32 (2016): 87-10498 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 98 corporate control diminishes rightwards along the cline, where corporate involvement becomes reduced. the cline helps to identify corporate and non-corporate sources, which display more or less corporate control respectively. corporate sources are not expected to be independent and have vested interests in a corporation’s csr. their texts may be considered as subjective because corporations can decide on their content, as in policy (extracts 1-2), report (extracts 5-6), internal research (extract 7), the ceo (extract 10) and the stakeholder through narrative report of speech acts (extract 12). non-corporate sources are presumed to be independent and do not have vested interests in a corporation’s csr. their texts may be considered as objective because corporations would not decide on their content, as is the case of regulation (extracts 3-4), external research (extract 8), standard (extract 9), the stakeholder through direct speech (extract 11) and expert organization (extracts 13-14). for dawkins (2004), du, bhattacharya and sen (2010), coombs and holladay (2012), non-corporate sources are more credible than corporate sources. credibility is not evenly shared among the sources but csr reports do not favor one source. these reports utilize two sources to minimize bias because corporations employ criteria from themselves and other organizations to verify their csr. these two sources can claim to provide holistic verification for a corporation’s csr. yet, the distinction between corporate and non-corporate sources does not have to always be watertight. corporate and non-corporate sources are a model for one another because their texts are public and their criteria can inspire the criteria in other texts. these sources also experience periodic updating, with contribution from corporate and non-corporate parties. intertextuality in malaysian csr reports ibérica 32 (2016): 87-104 99 intertextuality in malaysian csr reports ibérica 32 (2016): …-… figure 1. intertextual cline for ceo statements. figure 2. intertextual cline for environment sections. the cline helps to identify corporate and non-corporate sources, which display more or less corporate control respectively. corporate sources are not expected to be independent and have vested interests in a corporation’s csr. their texts may be considered as subjective because corporations can decide on their content, as in policy (extracts 1-2), report (extracts 5-6), internal research (extract 7), the ceo (extract 10) and the stakeholder through narrative report of speech acts (extract 12). non-corporate sources are presumed to be independent and do not have vested interests in a corporation’s csr. their texts may be considered objective because corporations would not decide on their content, as is the case of regulation (extracts 3-4), external research (extract 8), standard (extract 9), the stakeholder through direct speech (extract 11) and expert organization (extracts 13-14). for dawkins (2004), du, bhattacharya and sen (2010), coombs and holladay (2012), non-corporate sources are more credible than corporate sources. credibility is not evenly shared among the sources but csr reports do not favor one source. these reports utilize two sources to minimize bias because corporations employ criteria from themselves and other organizations to verify their csr. these two sources can claim to provide holistic verification for a corporation’s csr. yet, the distinction between corporate and non-corporate sources does not have to always be watertight. corporate and non-corporate sources are a model for one another because their texts are public and their criteria can inspire the criteria in other texts. these sources also experience periodic updating, with contribution from corporate and non-corporate parties. the selection of incorporated texts among the 10 corporations (table 1) may be motivated by malaysia’s corporate context. since the government and stock exchange require corporations to report their csr, their institutional demands regulate reporting practices. these parties promoted csr after 2006 and advocate certain texts (particularly regulations and standards) (bursa malaysia, 2015). corporations have to adhere to these demands to avoid being penalized or delisted, which is reflected in their selection of incorporated texts. moreover, these texts are relevant for corporations, which are institutions (koskela, 2013: 1e gurfi m inyitlautxetretin . tsnemteta soer c foelinl catuxrtetein . strope rrs cniasyala m 2e gurfi . in citnediotsplehenilceth ortnocetaroocsselroermo vevahdnat nednepedinebto deredisnocebyma usas sntiocet snemnirovnr e foelinl catuxrtetein . nondnaetaropro ose atroprco ruosetarooc.ylevitcepserlo tioaroprocaintsserteindtesev cansnoiatroprcoe secaube viect aylpsidchihw,cesruo detcepxetonerasecr tsxteireht. rscs’ntio can on deicde ireth deredisnocebyma usas actrtxe(cyilopnias,tentnco tcratx(eoeceht),7tcratx(e non.)21tcartxe(s tcahceesp ertniedtesve avhtonoddan e secaube viectoederdisnco foesacethis x(enoitalugre r edlohekatseht),9tcratx(e 13stcarxte(on itaznigaor -14) )4002(snikwadrfo , hb,du ),210(2 noncesruose atroco cansnoiatroprcoe secaube viect 1sact 5stcarxte(tporer,2) -6) gurohtr edlohekatsehtdna) 01t neatroprco msuerperas ecruso .rscs’noiatroprcoa nisteser tondluowsnoiatroprco deicde 3stcratx h craeserlnarexte,4) ratx(ehceepstcreidhgurohtr . ayrahcattah dan ,)0102(nse co anhte lbiedcre rome arces can on deicde ireth h craeserlnarenti,6) fortopreevitrraanhg tnednepedniebotdem e baymstextreiht onde sat, ntenocireth rdadnats),8tcratx(e rtepxedna) 11tcra sbmoco dan yadallho cesruose atroprco ),210(2 non cesruose atroco erahsylnevetonsiytilibidecr stporereshet.ecoursone a ierticryolpemsnoiatroprco ecruosotweseht. rscireth e ht,ety.rscs’noiatroprco laotevahtons eods ecruso enorledomaeras ecruso erticre hte ripsnicana ierticr irontch tiwng,itupdacodiirpe celeseth dtearoprocinfontio anhte lbiedcre rome arces r cstubsecruosehtgnomade niimo tsecourso wteziliut elsemhtmo orrheotnd asve lisoheidvorptoimlacnacse atroprcoeenwetbnoictnitsid taroproc.thgitretawebs yawl s txetriehtseuacebrehtonae ruose esht.stexterhtonia ier poorcomon ibuti nondnaetra tioaroproc01ethgnomatsxted .cesruose atroprco stroperr do vorafnot eusacbesabiezimni irveo tonsitaznigaor arntioarevtic nondane at e atroprco nondnaet e atroprco riehtdnacilbupera ce enierpexosalcesr .esitarpe atroprco ebyam)1lebat(sntio p ocs’aisyalamybdetavitmo noiatroprcoe riueqre ganchex secitcrapgnirtopreetalugre cuitarp(stextnaitcere catovad ao tvehaonsitapororc.2015) id etceersih chiwd,etsilde ocrt navleereratsxteeseth ibér pg ogehtecnis.txetnocetaropr ireiht,rscreihttroeprotsn eht. cdetomorps eiapse dardantsdansnoiatluegrylarlcu voiao tndsamdeesheto terdhea ornciofon itcelesrihetn i apor tiotitusinerahichw, sntioaropro 32ca ibér 610(2 ): …-… 11 y)( kcotsdnatnmenrevo sdanemdalnoitutitsn dna6002rears a,isayalma srub()sd ord ezilnapeng ibed voi ,roveeorm.sxtetd eta 3102, laeksok(sntio : 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 99 the selection of incorporated texts among the 10 corporations (table 1) may be motivated by malaysia’s corporate context. since the government and stock exchange require corporations to report their csr, their institutional demands regulate reporting practices. these parties promoted csr after 2006 and advocate certain texts (particularly regulations and standards) (bursa malaysia, 2015). corporations have to adhere to these demands to avoid being penalized or delisted, which is reflected in their selection of incorporated texts. moreover, these texts are relevant for corporations, which are institutions (koskela, 2013: 395). corporations are multifaceted institutions and their presence spans various domains. csr reports contain texts relevant for the csr domain and not for other domains. for example, these reports would not mention the malaysian companies act 1965, which explains incorporating, administering and liquidating corporations because it does not cover csr. the institution (koskela, 2013) remains crucial but is further specified by domain (devitt, 1991; bremner, 2014), where domains specify for institutions the relevant texts to be incorporated. corporations in malaysia can claim to regulate their social impact through the incorporated texts. these corporations can use these texts to monitor or justify their csr performance. yet, csr-washing, where corporations augment or falsify csr claims (coombs & holladay, 2012: 30), remains a concern and the incorporated texts may perpetuate inexact reporting. csr reports use incorporated texts but the same texts are not selected. these texts have not been standardized because numerous texts exist and corporations select which texts to cite. the texts might be the same type (e.g. regulation) but corporations determine which among these texts are suitable for their requirements. for example, there are various regulations for the environment in malaysia but certain regulations are selected, and individual corporations and industries may not select similar regulations. corporations also select which parts of these texts to cite because not every criteria is related to their csr performance. moreover, csr reports do not cite the incorporated texts for every initiative and result. an initiative or result is linked to a text if it has satisfied a text’s criteria. a corporation’s csr always achieves the criteria in the incorporated texts or it can be made in line with the criteria in these texts. these texts introduce other perspectives but these perspectives often match the corporate perspective. they seem to be sympathetic to corporations (anderson, 2005; kong, 2006; lassen, 2006) since corporations prepare csr reports and can decide which texts or parts of texts to cite in csr reports. kumaran rajandran ibérica 32 (2016): 87-104100 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 100 alternatively, csr reports may not use intertextuality and can simply describe initiatives and results. the description presents a long list of achievements that have not been verified. there would be no criteria to compare against and a corporation’s csr would seem to lack transparency. the use of “plain language” means corporations did not introduce benchmarks to monitor or justify their csr and they do not want their csr to be scrutinized. yet, csr is relatively new in malaysia (lu & castka, 2009) and there is little precedence for csr reports. there are few previous examples for malaysian csr reports but csr reports have been abundantly produced in europe and north america (ihlen, bartlett & may, 2011). these reports incorporate other texts and malaysian csr reports mimic their reporting. it enables malaysian csr reports to be comparable to international csr reports. moreover, corporations do not need to devise improvised criteria and can use the criteria in the incorporated texts. their csr reports would be considered to report the “truth” since these texts have been employed to scrutinize initiatives and results. intertextuality helps corporations to claim credibility for their csr disclosure. the government and stock exchange cannot ascertain the veracity of every initiative and result and have to rely on the explanations in csr reports. since the disclosure provides evidence for csr performance, the government would provide csr-related tax deductions and exemptions for corporations, and the stock exchange would not delist corporations (rajandran & fauziah, 2014a, b). these decisions benefit corporations and their operations can continue unhindered. hence, intertextuality serves corporate interests because corporations can argue for self-regulation by implementing the criteria in the incorporated texts. corporations do not need others to supervise their social impact and they can do it themselves. yet, disclosure does not mean engagement because csr reports can state various initiatives and results but the impact must be observed in real life. preferably, disclosure reflects engagement or csr reports would mislead stakeholders. stakeholders need to authenticate if corporations have achieved the criteria in the incorporated texts. 5. conclusion the present article has investigated intertextuality in malaysian csr reports. these reports contain explicit references to documents (policies, intertextuality in malaysian csr reports ibérica 32 (2016): 87-104 101 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 101 regulations, reports, research, standards) and to individuals/groups (ceos, stakeholders, expert organisations). the incorporated texts display variation in corporate control, which organizes these texts along an intertextual cline. the cline helps to identify corporate and non-corporate sources among the texts. the selection of incorporated texts reflects government and stock exchange demands, besides helping corporations to monitor and justify csr performance. yet, the incorporated texts may perpetuate inexact reporting because corporations select the texts and the parts of texts to refer to. since these texts have been employed to scrutinize initiatives and results, csr reports can claim to represent the “truth” about a corporation’s csr. hence, intertextuality serves corporate interests because corporations can argue for self-regulation by implementing the criteria in the incorporated texts. practitioners of corporate communication can consider the intertextual mix or choice of incorporated texts. they identify the texts which are relevant for the institution and domain. they then review which among these texts are suitable for adoption. non-corporate documents (regulations, external research, standards) are included because corporations can imply their knowledge of latest criteria and their preparation to be inspected by such criteria. non-corporate individuals/groups (stakeholders, expert organizations) must also be included. stakeholders can relate their positive and negative experiences about csr. subsequent csr reports inform how positive experiences are reinforced and negative experiences are remedied. expert organizations are a neutral third party and contribute domain expertise. corporate documents (policies, reports, internal research) and individuals/groups (ceos) are optional but should not dominate csr reports, to minimize accusation of bias. the present article has identified explicit references but future research needs to study implicit references. it may expand the keywords, which helps to identify other explicit and implicit references. future research should also consider csr reports from other countries, languages and industries, as csr reports are a global phenomenon (ihlen, bartlett & may, 2011). research can ascertain whether intertextual references in malaysian csr reports are encountered in other csr reports and whether the functions of these references are similar or different. the intertextual cline discussed in this article remains a proposal and future research can ascertain its validity. research can quantify intertextuality by studying the frequency of the incorporated texts. ultimately, diachronic or synchronic changes can be kumaran rajandran ibérica 32 (2016): 87-104102 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 102 tracked and the reasons for these changes are posited. it would establish a productive enterprise in comparative studies of intertextuality. intertextuality is employed in csr reports but there are contesting opinions on whether or not it is a conscious choice (kong, 2006: 774). research can interview writers and query their reasons for incorporating selected texts. research should also interview readers and ascertain their understanding of these texts. interviews could validate the intertextual cline and discover how participants organize the intertextual sources along the proposed cline. this could provide an empirical basis to identify corporate and non-corporate sources. besides csr reports, it would be beneficial to study how intertextuality works in other corporate genres with a view to constructing a typology of incorporated texts in corporate communication. article history: received 29 april 2015 received in revised form 17 november 2015 accepted 18 novemeber 2015 references intertextuality in malaysian csr reports 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(2009). sustainability report 2009. ytl corporation berhad, kuala lumpur 04 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:05 página 104 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract situated in an intercultural communication setting, this study explores the impact of the writer’s and the receiver’s national cultures and the writer’s professional identity on the move structures of persuasive email requests. the paper particularly compared persuasive email requests written by hong kong chinese and japanese university students. for triangulation, the pre-writing group discussions and post-writing reflective essays produced by the same groups of students were also analyzed. by employing the genre analysis framework developed by bhatia and swales, we identified eight structural moves in email messages and observed similarities and differences in the use of these moves across the two corpora. the findings suggest that culture and identity construction interactively play important roles in affecting the students’ use of persuasive strategies. keywords: persuasive writing, cultural impact, identity construction, hong kong, japanese. resumen e l im pa c to de l a c u l tur a y d e l a id e nt id ad e n s o l ic itu de s c o me rc ia l e s e n e n u n c on te xt o i nt e rc u l tur al : un e s tu di o c omp a ra tiv o b as a d o e n e l a ná l is i s d e l g é ne r o este estudio se enmarca en un contexto de comunicación intercultural. su objetivo es explorar el impacto de la cultura nacional del escritor y del receptor y, por otro lado, examinar la identidad profesional del escritor a través de los culture and identity on intercultural business requests: a genre-based comparative study bertha du-babcock and haiying feng city university of hong kong (hong kong) and university of international business and economics (china) enbertha@cityu.edu.hk & fhy@uibe.edu.cn 171 ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ‘movimientos retóricos’ de una solicitud comercial. en este trabajo se compararon las solicitudes comerciales persuasivas escritas por estudiantes de universidades de hong kong china y japón. para la triangulación de estos datos, se analizaron también las discusiones de grupo previas al proceso de redacción de este tipo de textos, asi como los ensayos de reflexión producidos por estos estudiantes tras la redacción de estos textos. utilizando el marco del análisis de género propuesto por bhatia y swales, en el presente estudio se identificaron un total de ocho movimientos retóricos en los mensajes electrónicos de los dos corpus utilizados para este estudio. los resultados sugieren que la cultura y la construcción de la identidad juegan un importante papel, en tanto que determinan el uso de estrategias de persuasión por parte de los estudiantes. palabras clave: escritura persuasiva, impacto cultural, construcción de la identidad, hong kong, japonés. 1. introduction in the era of globalization, english as a lingua franca is commonplace where english is used as the language of communication between business practitioners with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. this phenomenon has posed challenges to students who are non-native english speakers and new to their chosen professions. in the context of writing business letters in intercultural settings, student writers have to demonstrate on the one hand awareness of communicative norms and writing conventions that are generally accepted in their profession so as to construct themselves as competent members of the discourse community (swales, 1990; bizzell, 1992). on the other hand, they have to take into account that these conventions might be different from those in their own culture. research has provided empirical evidence for the impact of culture on individuals’ linguistic behaviors in intercultural communication settings (e.g., du-babcock, 1999, 2005 & 2006; tanaka, 2006 & 2008; scollon, scollon & jones, 2012; du-babcock, 2013; du-babcock & tanaka, 2013). however, how a non-native english writer’s own culture, the receiver’s culture, and the writer’s perception of his/her own identity affect the structure process of writing a business letter has become a topic of increasing importance yet is still under research. to investigate this issue, we developed a simulated case scenario where student writers wrote a requestive email message to a potential business collaborator who is a british. in this study, we recruited two groups of non172 native english speaking university students from hong kong and japan. while hong kong and japanese are often categorized as collectivist cultures (hofstede, 2001), two cultures exhibit distinctive communication behaviors (du-babcock & tanaka, 2013). consequently, the study examines persuasive strategies used by hong kong and japanese students in order to determine whether there is a convergent or divergent pattern in writing the requestive message. we adopted a genre analysis approach (swales, 1990; bhatia, 1993) to investigate the move structures of requestive messages written by the two researched groups. we also explore the role of cultures and identities constructed by student writers (as students or as business practitioners). 2. literature review the present study is situated in an intercultural setting, and explores the impact of culture (the writer’s vs the receiver’s) and identity (student vs professional) on constructing persuasive email messages. studies on (1) requestive email messages, (2) culture and communication styles, and (3) the writer’s identity construction are reviewed. 2.1. requestive email messages email communication is a hybrid medium of communication, situating along a continuum between formal written letters and informal conversations (gimenez, 2000; baron, 2003; biesenbach-lucas, 2007). an extensive research on email communication compares requestive messages written by native english speakers (ness) and non-native english speakers (nness) including taiwan chinese (chang & hsu, 1998), jordanians (al-ali & sahawneh, 2008), thai (swangboonsatic, 2006), and mixed asians (biesenbach-lucas, 2007). results revealed that while ness tend to use more indirect syntactical forms (e.g., interrogatives) and hints, nness tend to use direct forms (e.g., imperatives) (chang & hsu, 1998; scollon, scollon & kirkpatrick, 2000; al-ali & sahawneh, 2008). in terms of the order of structural moves, ness employ a “request-reason” pattern while asian nness prefer to a “reason-request” pattern (chang & hsu, 1998; swangboonsatic, 2006). past research has also suggested that both native and non-native writers take in consideration situational factors (e.g., weighting of the imposition, power distance) and vary the request strategies when writing a requestive message (biesenbach-lucas, 2007). culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 173 based on the literature reviewed, we put forth research question 1. rq 1: how did hong kong and japanese students construct their requestive messages? did they converge to or diverge from the moves of composing requestive messages? 2.2. culture and communication style british is regarded as an individualist culture; whereas, hong kong and japan are often viewed as collectivist societies (hofstede, 2001; house et al., 2004; gesteland, 2005). individualistic societies emphasize individual differences and accept deviation from group norms while collectivist societies value group interest over individual desire and needs, and place emphasis on harmonious relationships (redding, 1997; nishiyama, 2000; hofstede, 2001; debroux, 2003; selmer & de leon, 2003). cultures also differ greatly in terms of communication style. british are reported to use low-context communication styles where directness and explicitness are preferred. effective persuasive discourse can be characterized by the “aristotle” dictum; that is, “state your case and prove it” (matalene, 1985). there is a linear development of writer’s ideas (park, dillon & mitchell, 1998). in contrast, hong kong and japanese people tend to use high-context communication styles where indirect forms of writing are preferred. making connection between the messages and the background context is left to the readers (scollon et al., 2000). nevertheless, there have been critiques of these traditional views towards eastern and western writing styles (akar & louhiala-salminen, 1999; scollon et al., 2012) that could be signaling a change in communication norms. although hong kong and japan belong to collectivist cultures, they exhibit different communication behaviors. hong kong, being a “hybrid society” (redding, 1997: 111), has more exposure to the western culture. hong kong is more westernized than other chinese societies such as mainland china and taiwan (goodman, 2013). in examining chinese students’ use of rhetoric strategies for argumentation, kirkpratrick (1995: 225) argues his subjects’ english writing was “influenced by western rather than by traditional chinese styles”. moreover, hong kong people are described as materialistic and pragmatic (lau, 1982) and therefore emphasize individual achievements and interests rather than those of their company (levin & yeung, 1996). bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200174 in contrast, japanese business people value long-term relationship rather than temporary profits (nishiyama, 2000; debroux, 2003). when presenting an argument, the japanese place the central point towards the end but the supporting reasons were likely to be absent or unclear (suzuki, 2010). likewise, reasons and background are usually provided before the request is delivered (kameda, 2014). haneda and shima (1982) further asserted that the common aida (attention, interest, desire, and action) approach in request letters is not applicable in japanese context. du-babcock and tanaka (2013) compared communication behaviors of hong kong and japanese business professionals in decision-making meetings. they found that japanese participants tended to avoid direct disagreement in order to maintain group harmony while hong kong participants tended to be assertive in expressing disagreements, especially in the intercultural meetings. research in contrastive rhetoric has documented that writers transfer firstlanguage communication patterns and strategies to second-language writing (connor & kaplan, 1987). similarly, in professional and academic writing, while writers tend to demonstrate disciplinary-specific discourse features (fløttum, dahl & kinn, 2006), the influence of communication norms of the writer’s native language is evident (abdi, 2009). thus, when writing across cultures, miscommunication can accrue if writers continue to use discourse patterns that are effective in their home cultures but may not be suitable in other cultures. therefore, we put forth our second research question as follows. rq 2: how did writer’s and receiver’s cultures influence the construction of the requestive messages written by hong kong and japanese students? 2.3. identity construction identity is “formed and shaped through action” (richards, 2006: 3) and actions are accomplished through communication. as such, identity construction is a complex process situated in actual interactions and wider sociocultural contexts (de fina, schiffirin & bamberg, 2006). communicators may actively construct their identities through their choice of communication devices (feng & dubabcock, 2016). as dunn (2011: 3644) argued, communicators’ use of communication strategies may not be “simply a matter of mechanical conformity to social norms; rather speakers use their knowledge of the indexical meanings of these forms to actively construct desired social roles and relationships”. culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 175 identity is formed when writers become members and situate themselves in discourse communities. individual discourse communities can be identified through the conventionalized communication patterns shared by members of the community (swales, 1990; bizzell, 1992; hyland, 2012). to claim membership and be accepted within a particular discourse community, members use the writing conventions that are frequently used in the community (swales, 1990; bizzell, 1992). nevertheless, some writers (e.g., hyland, 2012) may choose not to follow the same writing convention. consequently, identity formation can be a process of conforming to become a member of a discourse community, or possibly non-conformity to develop an individualized identity. we also adopted piaget’s (1968) concepts of stage theory to connect the writing of persuasive messages with identity. as college students, individuals are likely to think and act as students who see themselves members of student discourse community while professionals think and act according to their accepted code of conducts in the professional discourse community. there is a transition from being students to professionals by exposing to professional education in classroom and work experience at workplace. in this transition students can continue to use “student talk” in student-to-student communication but professional genre in the classroom and at work. in sum, students are exposed to differing influences, and it is important to understand these influences in order to understand how students compose their persuasive messages. thus, we put forth research question 3. rq 3: how did identity influence the construction of requestive messages written by hong kong and japanese students? 3. research method the present study draws on three sets of data produced by 80 undergraduate students, 40 each from a hong kong university and a japanese university. participating students were sophomore or junioryear students, majoring in english for professional communication or business administration. on average, hong kong students achieved an ielts score between 6 and 7 while japanese students achieved between 5 and 6. despite english language proficiency differences, both groups of students were able to write long essays in english. to mitigate the impact of the students’ language bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200176 proficiencies, this study examined the data at a discourse level and focus on the writer’s use of persuasive strategies (see data analysis). 3.1. procedure at the time of data collection, students were required to take a business communication course to fulfil their program requirements. a writing task was designed and incorporated into business communication courses. the same task scenario and instructions (see appendix a), with slight modifications to localize the names and monetary denominator, were used for consistency. based on the scenario, students composed an email request in english. all participating students were informed of the study and their consent was sought before the commencement of the data collection process. to increase its authenticity, students assumed the role of the manager of the corporate communication department (hong kong students) or the chief executive officer (ceo) (japanese students) of a local company (the writer’s own company, hereafter called subject company or “sc”). the sc intended to expand its business by importing products of a british speaker manufacturer (target company, hereafter “tc”). however, tc already had an exclusive distributor (rival company, hereafter “rc”) in the respective local region (hong kong or japan). in addition, the president of rc had a close personal relationship with ceo of tc. the task required students to write an email message to the executive director, international sales division of tc to request for business collaboration. the writer and the receiver met at a reception of the tc’s new product exhibition six months ago. this task was chosen for three reasons. firstly, it was situated in an intercultural communication setting as the receiver was of a culture (british) different from the writer’s own (chinese or japanese). the norms and practices that were deeply rooted in writer’s native culture could greatly influence the choice of communication strategies unconsciously or consciously. secondly, students had to draw on their business and communication knowledge in order to strategically formulate the request in a way that they believed to be able to convince the receiver to respond to the request. thirdly, the task assigned students a professional role (as a manager). the students were required to demonstrate the knowledge of how to write a persuasive request in english in a business setting in order to construct their identity as a (competent) member of the business discourse community. culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 177 the assigned task involved three in-class activities: pre-writing group discussion; persuasive message writing; and post-writing reflection (see appendixes b and c for descriptions). in pre-writing group discussion, students formed groups of 4 to 6 persons to generate ideas on what and how to write. in order not to bias the results, the students were only given the lecture on how to write persuasive requests after they completed their individual written task. the reason for doing so is to truly reflect their own culture without being influenced by the lecture. students also wrote individual reflections discussing reasons for writing the requests the way they were. the group discussions and post-writing reflections not only elicit justifications of their persuasive writing strategies, but more importantly, as olinger (2011: 274) argued, they “provide a window into the embodied construction of identities”. 3.2. research data this study draws on the three data sets (pre-writing group discussions, individual writing requests, and individual reflective essays) collected from the hong kong and japanese students. the hong kong corpus consists of six pre-writing group discussions, 40 individual persuasive requests and 40 reflective essays while the japanese corpus includes seven pre-writing group discussions, 40 persuasive requests and 40 reflective essays. each pre-writing group discussion lasted about 40-50 minutes and was digitally recorded and later transcribed. we analyzed the 80 requestive messages by using the genre analysis framework developed by bhatia (1993) and swales (1990). while swales’s (1990) genre analysis of the move structure aims for academic articles, bhatia’s (1993, 2004) framework concentrated on a range of business promotional genres. according to bhatia, promotional genres share a communicative goal and usually contain the following moves: (1) establishing credentials, (2) introducing the product/offer, (3) product details/offering incentives, (4) enclosing documents, (5) soliciting response, (6) using pressure tactics, and (7) ending politely. the messages examined in the present study can be classified as a promotional genre because the main communicative purpose is to promote sc to tc and persuade tc to respond to the request. by adapting bhatia’s (1993, 2004) structural moves, we devised a move scheme (see table 1) to code the 80 requestive messages. the messages were coded by two raters and bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200178 the interrater reliability was .90. all instances of inconsistent coding were scrutinized and discussed until consensus was reached. although the english proficiency levels of the student writers varied, this study analyzes the messages at the discourse level rather than at the lexicalgrammatical level. we particularly focus on how the communication goal of the message is achieved through the construction of the steps and moves shown in table 1. the analysis of the pre-writing group discussions and reflective essays allow the authors to link the three data sets to perform a triangulation and examine the intricacies and interplay of culture and identity construction. culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 179 bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): …-… although the english proficiency levels of the student writers varied, this study analyzes the messages at the discourse level rather than at the lexicalgrammatical level. we particularly focus on how the communication goal of the message is achieved through the construction of the steps and moves shown in table 1. the analysis of the pre-writing group discussions and reflective essays allow the authors to link the three data sets to perform a triangulation and examine the intricacies and interplay of culture and identity construction. table 1. move scheme used to analyze the email messages in this study. move step example move 1. establishing credentials step 1a. greeting hello (jpn1) how are you? (hk13) step 1b. introducing the writer my name is [name]. i am the ceo of xyz corporation in japan. (jpn1) step 1c. introducing sc we are a distributor specializing in high quality audio equipment in japan. (jpn3) step 1d. referring to the previous meeting it was my pleasure to meet you at your company’s new product exhibition six months ago. (hk2) move 2. attracting reader’s attention step 2a. praising tc or tc’s products i was deeply impressed by the outstanding performance and quality of the audio products of your company. (hk2) step 2b. indicating an increasing demand for tc's products in the region our marketing research showed that there is a sustainable demand in your company’s amplifiers and speakers in the local market (hk23) step 2c. expressing sc's interest in tc's products i am very interested in your products. (jpn10) move 3. making the request step 3a. introducing the request i want to make a new proposal for your company. (jpn1) step 3b. requesting to be a sole distributor i would like to become your new sole exclusive distributor in japan. (jpn10) step 3c. requesting to be an additional distributor therefore we would like to establish a business partnership with abc and to become one of abc's distributors in hong kong. (hk41) step 3d. requesting to import tc's products we are seeking the honor of working with your company to import abc products to hong kong. (hk4) step 3e. requesting to do business with tc we would like to do business with your company.(jpn28) move 4. providing reasons for collaboration step 4a. highlighting sc's achievements our business is expanding rapidly over the past 5 years, with our sales turnovers increased from hk$ 1.0 billion to hk$ 9.0billion. (hk2) step 4b. offering specific incentives to tc not only can we promote your brand to hong kong people and expose the products to your target customers, we can also promise a double or triple culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): …-… increase of your company’s sales turnover. (hk2) step 4c. offering nonspecific incentives to tc with a large market share, we are able to provide more distribution channels for our [your] products, hence this will increase the sales turnover of your company (hk35) move 5. enclosing documents step 5a. attaching documents i have attached our company’s information as an attached document to this e-mail . (jpn34) step 5b. providing sc’s website address more information is on our website http://www.xyzcorp.xxx (jpn31) table 1. move scheme used to analyze the email messages in this study. 4. results and interpretations in this section, we describe findings of the three research questions. 4.1. rq1: how did hong kong and japanese students construct their persuasive messages? did these student writers converge to or diverge from the moves of composing requestive messages? to answer research question 1, we conducted a move analysis of 80 persuasive messages by using the coding scheme presented in table 1. we then employed chi-square (χ²) tests to compare the move frequencies in messages written by hong kong students (hereafter, hk corpus) and bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200180 culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): …-… move 5. enclosing documents step 5b. providing sc’s website address more information is on our website http://www.xyzcorp.xxx (jpn31) move 6. using pressure tactics step 6a. acknowledging the relationship between tc and rc we understand that you have a sole and exclusive distributor, fortune audio co. (hk8) step 6b. describing rc in a positive tone [rc] is a respected company in the industry, yet there is currently a decline in their sales volume. (hk41) step 6c. describing rc in a negative tone [rc] is a respected company in the industry, yet there is currently a decline in their sales volume. (hk41) step 6d. pointing out tc would lose competitive strength if not collaborating with sc as mr. wong [rc director] is aging, without the help of major salespersons, he might not be able to increase your company’s product sales as expected. (hk32) step 6e. other pressure tactics i strongly believe that that is a very good business opportunity that abc should not miss (hk10) i sincerely hope your company to consider this oncein-a-lifetime opportunity we offer to your company. (hk26) move 7. soliciting a response step 7a. specifying a format i am planning to visit england on november and would like to talk about it further. would you please arrange a 2-hour meeting? (hk25) step 7b. providing contact info if you are interested in our company and would like to know more about us, please feel free to give us a call on 29183932. (hk2) step 7c. specifying a reply-by date please reply me the detail arrangement by 30th, october. (hk25) step 7d. soliciting a response with no specifications if you are interested in our company, we can make an appointment to talk about our company. (jpn34) move 8. ending politely step 8a. expressing desire for a reply/ for doing business with tc/ for meeting with the reader i am looking forward to hearing from you soon. (jpn 12) i look forward to the opportunity of doing business with you. (jpn 5) i look forward to meeting with you soon. (hk 1) step 8b. expressing gratitude thank you for reading my email. (jpn 12) thank you very much for your time (hk 40) thank you for your consideration. (jpn 25) messages written by japanese students (hereafter, japanese corpus). the significant level was set at 0.05. we observed that each message can be constructed by up to eight moves, and each move can be accomplished in two to five steps. while some steps (e.g., greeting, self-introducing the writer, attaching documents) appear once in the message, other steps (e.g., praising the tc to gain interest, highlighting the sc’s achievements, offering nonspecific incentives) appear multiple times. as shown in table 2, we identified 606 units of steps in hk corpus and 517 units in japanese corpus. in the following, the eight moves are discussed. 4.1.1. move 1: establishing credentials move 1 often occurs in the beginning to establish the writer’s credentials. table 2 shows a significant difference in constructing this move between the two groups. while in both corpora, steps 1c (introducing sc) and 1d (referring to the previous meeting) are the most frequently used steps, steps 1a (greeting) and 1b (introducing the writer) are rarely found in the hong kong corpus (see figure 1). the finding reveals that hong kong students are likely to consider steps 1c and 1d are sufficient in establishing writer’s credentials while japanese students regarded all four steps equally important to accomplish this purpose. the finding of hong kong students differs from zhu (2000) which states that greetings and self-introduction are typical moves in chinese business letters and serve to establish or maintain long-term relationships. moreover, all of the greetings found in both corpora are expressed in either “hello” or “hi”, which is commonly used in spoken contexts and displays an informal and personalized register in email communication (gimenez, 2000), culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 181 bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): …-… 4. results and interpretations in this section, we describe findings of the three research questions. 4.1. rq1: how did hong kong and japanese students construct their persuasive messages? did these student writers converge to or diverge from the moves of composing requestive messages? to answer research question 1, we conducted a sentence-by-sentence analysis of 80 persuasive messages by using the move scheme presented in table 1. we then employed chi-square (!") tests to compare the move frequencies in messages written by hong kong students (hereafter, hk corpus) and messages written by japanese students (hereafter, japanese corpus). the significant level was set at 0.05. we observed that each message can be constructed by up to eight moves, and each move can be accomplished in two to five steps. while some steps (e.g., greeting, self-introducing the writer, attaching documents) appear once in the message, other steps (e.g., praising the tc to gain interest, highlighting the sc’s achievements, offering non-specific incentives) appear multiple times. as shown in table 2, we identified 606 units of steps in hk corpus and 517 units in japanese corpus. in the following, the eight moves are discussed. move hk (n=40) jpn (n=40) chi-square score p-value move 1. establishing credentials 86 109 9.2527 0.026113* move 2. attracting attention 65 38 6.5555 0.037713* move 3. making the request 71 76 41.0261 0.00001* move 4. providing reasons for collaboration 228 151 7.7014 0.021265* move 5. enclosing documents 6 22 19.0909 0.000012* move 6. using pressure tactics 74 60 7.4473 0.114054 move 7. soliciting a response 37 16 6.7734 0.079482 move 8. ending politely 39 45 0.1436 0.704738 total 606 517 * the significant level is at p < 0.05 table 2. a comparison of move structures between hong kong and japanese students. 4.1.1. move 1: establishing credentials move 1 often occurs in the beginning to establish the writer’s credentials. table 2 shows a significant difference in constructing this move between the two groups. while in both corpora, steps 1c (introducing sc) and 1d (referring to the previous meeting) are the most frequently used steps, steps 1a (greeting) and 1b (introducing the writer) are rarely found in the hong kong corpus (see figure 1). the finding reveals that hong kong students are likely to consider steps 1c suggesting these students viewed the email message as an informal communication channel. results of move 1 suggest that in establishing credentials japanese students place more emphasis on interpersonal relationship and used more relational practices than those of hong kong students. this finding is consistent with general observation that japanese people value interpersonal relationship (debroux, 2003). 4.1.2. move 2: attracting receiver’s attention move 2 functions to capture the receiver’s attention to continue reading the message. a significant difference was found in constructing move 2 (see table 2). of the three steps, hong kong students were more likely than japanese students in praising tc or tc’s products (step 2a), or indicating the increasing demand of the tc’s products (step 2b). bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200182 culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): …-… and 1d are sufficient in establishing writer’s credentials while japanese students regarded all four steps equally important to accomplish this purpose. the finding of hong kong students differs from zhu (2000) which states that greetings and self-introduction are typical moves in chinese business letters and serve to establish or maintain long-term relationships. moreover, all of the greetings found in both corpora are expressed in either “hello” or “hi”, which is commonly used in spoken contexts and displays an informal and personalized register in email communication (gimenez, 2000), suggesting these students viewed the email message as an informal communication channel. results of move 1 suggest that in establishing credentials japanese students place more emphasis on interpersonal relationship and used more relational practices than those of hong kong students. this finding is consistent with general observation that japanese people value interpersonal relationship (debroux, 2003). figure 1. a comparison of move 1 at a step level. 4.1.2. move 2: attracting receiver’s attention move 2 functions to capture the receiver’s attention to continue reading the message. a significant difference was found in constructing move 2 (see table 2). of the three steps, hong kong students were more likely than japanese students in praising tc or tc’s products (step 2a), or indicating the increasing demand of the tc’s products (step 2b). cul abtesnitenciuse ard1dan yllauqespetsr ulladerdagre sgnokgnohfognidneth uralterculntin oy tidentiand ure t hsil hwlstianedercs’riterwgin psihthsilpmoccaottnartopmiy 002(uzhmosridstneduts suestreqness busiural tsnedtusesenapajileh .esorpup tahtsetatshcihw)00 flesnd angsiteegr tiocudotrin atniamroshilbasteotevrse pororch botn ingsiteegr coenkopsniedsuylnommco acinummocliamenir etsigre sageassemliamehetd ewevi tseggus1evomfostlusre ntion sisphameeormecapl ong hofehostn hatsecitcapr ajthaton iteobslarnege seinhcinsevoml aicptyerantio e gnolnia m. siphsntiolaerte lhe“rhetien id essexpreeraapor mrniansaylpsiddanstextnco eggus),0002,zenemi(gnoita hacon itacunimomclamin a aitnedercgnihsilbatsenitaht erlonasrperent udnaiphsntiola ng ndishit.sntudetsong kong perentiuelvaeoplpeesnepaa dansertetlsesnisube ethfoll a, revoerom sih chiw,”hi“oro”ll zedialnoserpdanalm stnedutsesehtgnitse .lnneha stnedutsesenapajsla l antiolaereromdesu h tiwntetsionscsing p hionsitalerlonasrpe ajthaton iteobslarnege ).3002,xurobe(d perentiuelvaeoplpeesnepaa p hionsitalerlonasrpe 1e gurfi . a 14. . .2 gnitcartta:2evmo recei a c a at1 ove mofson iparom s pte level. noitenttaser’vrecei erutpacotsnoitcn2evmo ridtnacingisa.egassme ong h,psetseehrthetfo.2) ctroctgnsiiarpnis tnedust stoducprs’cthetofnd amde ibér cotnoitnettas’reviecerehte nitcurtsnocnidnusawecne eormerewsntudetsong kong idniro,)a2pets(s tcudorps ’c 2b)p ets( . 35ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 11 ehtgnidaereunitnoc elbatees(2evomg esenapajnathlyelik gnsiaercniehtgnitaci 4.1.3. move 3: making the request the result reveals the significant difference between the two groups when making the request. meanwhile, in comparing the frequencies of varying strategies in making requests, the analysis shows while japanese students tended to request to be the sole distributor (χ² = 5.84, p<.05), hong kong students requested to be an additional distributor (χ²= 27.66, p<.05). a close examination of the messages reveals that a range of strategies (steps 3b-3e) were employed in constructing the move 3. some students boldly asked for replacing the current sole distributor (step 3b). others took a lesser assertive approach by proposing to be an additional distributor (step 3c), or used an implicit strategy by expressing their intention to import the tc’s products (step 3d) or to do business with tc (step 3e). figure 3 shows that while hong kong students requested to be additional distributors (step 3c), the majority of japanese students requested to be sole distributors, followed by requesting to import tc’s products. the analysis also reveals that both hong kong and japanese students reiterated their requests in different parts of the email message. for instance, 17 of hong kong students and 16 of japanese students repeated the same requests to be sole distributors or additional distributors in their messages. it was also observed that these students used different strategies when making the requests. while ten hong kong students and nine japanese students repeated the same requests in various parts of the messages, six hong kong and five japanese students started with an implicit request to import tc’s products (step 3d) or to do business or have collaboration with tc (step 3e) and culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 183 bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): …-… figure 2. results of move 2 at a step level. 4.1.3. move 3: making the request the result reveals the significant difference between the two groups when making the request. meanwhile, in comparing the frequencies of varying strategies in making requests, the analysis shows while japanese students tended to request to be the sole distributor (!" = 5.84, p<.05), hong kong students requested to be an additional distributor (!"= 27.66, p<.05). a close examination of the messages reveals that a range of strategies (steps 3b3e) were employed in constructing the move 3. some students boldly asked for replacing the current sole distributor (step 3b). others took a lesser assertive approach by proposing to be an additional distributor (step 3c), or used an implicit strategy by expressing their intention to import the tc’s products (step 3d) or to do business with tc (step 3e). figure 3 shows that while hong kong students requested to be additional distributors (step 3c), the majority of japanese students requested to be sole distributors, followed by requesting to import tc’s products. the analysis also reveals that both hong kong and japanese students reiterated their requests in different parts of the email message. for instance, 17 of hong kong students and 16 of japanese students repeated the same requests to be sole distributors or additional distributors in their messages. it was also observed that these students used different strategies when making the requests. while ten hong kong students and nine japanese students repeated the same requests in various parts of the messages, six hong kong and five japanese students started with an implicit request to import tc’s products (step 3d) or to do business or have collaboration with tc (step 3e) and followed by an explicit request to be a sole distributor (step 3b) or an additional distributor (step 3c). dubertha & ck babco engfngyihai eng e gurfi 2. levelpestata2evomfostlusre . 31.4. . rehtgnikma:3evmo ingisehtslaevertlusereth .tseuqerehtgnikma wname s,steuqergnikamnis eigetarst isdleosethebtot seuqerto dlanoitiddanaebotdetseuqre mehtfonoitanimaxeesolca ucrtonscn id oyeplmeerew)3e idelostnrreucehtgnicalpre tseuqe htneewtebecneridtnaci qeehtgnirapmocni,elihw apjaelihws woshs siylanaehts, tis h),50.<p,48.5="!(r otubri sid .)5.0<, p6.67 2="! (rtouibtr foegnaratahtslaeversegassem udetseoms3.ovemhetng ituc otrsehto).b3pet(sr otubritsi owte n hewoupsgr gniyravfoseicneuq dednets tnedustseena stnedutsgnokgnoh b3spets(seigetartsf ydlbolsntude redkas evirtessar esselako idelostnrreucehtgnicalpre botgnisoporpybachorpap insserpxeybygteatrsit licpim or3d) ctithwsseinsubodto daebotdesteers tnedust desteuqers tnedustseenapja eht. tscudorps’ctt ropim htdetaretiers tnedustseenapja nokgnohfo71,ecnatsnirfo rstidelsoebots steuqeremsa sawit eshtathtedversboosal otrsehto).b3pet(sr otubritsi s(rotubirtsidalnoitidadane b etht ropimtontionteinirethgin thswohs3eruigf. )e3ptes(c 3pets(s rotubirstidlanoitidd wolls,rotubirstidelsoebot nae obathtsealevrosalsisyal eridnis steuqerrieh ofstrpant esenapajfo61dnastnedutsgn itiddaros rotubir irtsdilona orbut atrtstenidedsustendutse es evirtessar esselako anedsuro,c)3epts ptes(tscudorps’ct gnokgnohilehwt ath foytiromeht,)c3 otgnisteuqerybdew dangnokgnohhto .geassemliamehetof ehtdetaeperstneduts .sgeassemrihetn isor gniakmenhwesiegat 5 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…12 gnohnteilehw. tsseuqereth suioravintsseuqeremaseth htiwdetrasts tnedustseenapja vehaorssneibusdo o tor3d) ide losa e bottesueqrtciilpex .)3c napajeinndnatsnedtusgnokg hixs, segassemethfoaps tropmiotsteuqerticilpminah 3ep ets(cth tiwon itaboralolc itidadanro)b3epts(rotubirtsi dteaepertsnedtusesen gnoh evdnagnko pets(s tcudorps ’ctt n aby d eowlnd a)3e otubirtsidalno petr (s followed by an explicit request to be a sole distributor (step 3b) or an additional distributor (step 3c). the analysis also reveals that the japanese students were more likely than the hong kong students to introduce the request (step 3a) before making the actual request (19 versus 9). it is worth noting that, when comparing strategies of making the request, step 3b brings most benefits to sc, yet it is likely to put tc in a difficult position given the fact that ceo of the tc has established a close relationship with the existing sole distributor, rc. tc might decline the request to avoid damaging the relationship with the current sole distributor. consequently, the strategy of requesting to be an additional distributor (step 3c) is likely to be accepted in that both rc and sc are entitled to import tc’s products to the local market. our data indicates that most of the hong kong students adopted an explicit yet compromised approach when making the request. this approach aligns with the general description of hong kong people being strategically pragmatic (lau, 1982). in contrast, while some japanese students adopted an explicit and assertive approach in requesting to replace the existing sole distributor, others used an implicit and indirect approach to propose business collaboration with tc. the former approach seems contradictory to the general impression that the japanese are polite and value good relationships and harmony among all parties while the latter approach is consistent with the general impression. bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200184 culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): …-… the analysis also reveals that the japanese students were more likely than the hong kong students in introducing the request (step 3a) before making the actual request so as to prepare the receiver for the forthcoming request (19 versus 9). figure 3. results of move 3 at a step level. it is worth noting that, when comparing strategies of making the request, step 3b brings most benefits to sc, yet it is likely to put tc in a difficult position given the fact that ceo of the tc has established a close relationship with the existing sole distributor, rc. tc might decline the request to avoid damaging the relationship with the current sole distributor. consequently, the strategy of requesting to be an additional distributor (step 3c) is likely to be accepted in that both rc and sc are entitled to import tc’s products to the local market. our data indicates that most of the hong kong students adopted an explicit yet compromised approach when making the request. this approach aligns with the general description of the hong kong people being strategically pragmatic (lau, 1982). in contrast, while some japanese students adopted an explicit and assertive approach in requesting to replace the existing sole distributor, others used an implicit and indirect approach to propose business collaboration with tc. the former approach seems contradictory to the general impression that the japanese are polite and value good relationships and harmony among all parties while the latter approach is consistent with the general impression. 4.1.4. move 4. providing reasons for collaboration move 4 is the most frequently occurring move found in both corpora, and the significant difference (!"= 7.7014) is observed. in comparing the types of strategies to rationalize the collaboration, figure 4 reveals that the hong kong students tend to highlight sc’s achievements (step 4a) more than japanese (150 versus 92). to hong kong students, it is important to convince tc that sc is cul ahtslaeveroslasisylanaeth stnedutsgnkognho in trin e areprpotasostesueqraluact .9) uralterculntin oy tidentiand ure t ta eth erews tnedustseenapja a3ptes(t seuqerethgincudo nimcohtre htrerveceire hte suestreqness busiural nahtylekilerom eth ethginkamereb) suserv91(tesueqrgn e gurfi cnehw,tahtgnitonhrtowsiit ye,cso tstnebetosmngsibr hctethfooect atht cafeth mct.cr,rotubirstidelso nrreucehthtiwpihsnoitalre lanoitiddanaebotgnitseuqre td eltinteeracsnd acrh bot 3. re .levelep tsa at3 ove mofs tsul gnikamfoseigetratsgnriapmoc dian ictputo ty lkeilsititye dehlisbtasesah snoiatelre socla otsteuqerehtenilcedthgim neuqesnocr.otubritsidelostn tylekilsi) c3pet(sr otubritsidl s’cttpormio lheto tstoducpr b3pets,tseuqreehtg n vegion itipostulc gnitsiexe hthtiwpihs ehtgnigamaddiova foygetratseht,yltn ot thatn id epteccabe .tkeramlaocl tsomtahtsetacidniatadrou enhwachorpapedsimorpmco arnege fontioiprcsedl eth nho selhiw,tsarontcn i.1982) tesrniachorpape vitersas erndiind aticiplmin ad eus ct eeshcaorpparemreth.tc eulavdnaetiloperaseenapja ocsihcaorpparettalehteliwh fo eth dastnedutsgnkognho rpapsiht.tesueqre htgniakmen cigetartsgniebelpoepgnkogn doptasntudetsesnepaajeoms osgnitsiexe htace leprotgnit esnisube soporpotachorpapct arenegehtotyrotcidartnocsme oahdnas pishnoitalerdooge hthtwitnetsisno esrpmialerenge teyticilpxenadetpod e hthtiwsngialachor ,ual(citamgarpyllac nd aticixplen ad edopt serhto,rotubirtside lo htiwnoiatroabllcoses tahtnoisserpmila eth s eitrapllagnomayno .noises 41.4. . aergnidivorp.4evmo tneuqetsomehtsi4evmo 7="!(ecneridtnacingsi cehtezilanoitarots eigetarst csthgilhgihotdnets tnedust .92)ussrve sgnokgnohto ibér noitaroballocrsnosa bnidnuevomgnirruccoylt mocni.devrsebos i)4107.7 c slaveer4 egurifon,itaboralol rom)a4pets(s tnemeveihcas ’ nocottnatropmisiti,stneduts 35ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 13 ehtdna,aroochtob fos epytehtgnirapm that eth gnkognho er 051(esenapajnath sicstahttcecnivn 4.1.4. move 4. providing reasons for collaboration move 4 is the most frequently occurring move found in both corpora, and the significant difference (χ²= 7.7014) is observed. in comparing the types of strategies to rationalize the collaboration, figure 4 reveals that the hong kong students tend to highlight sc’s achievements (step 4a) more than japanese (150 versus 92). to hong kong students, it is important to convince tc that sc is young but grows rapidly, and the rapid increase of the total revenue is a proven record. moreover, the hong kong students also tended to provide specific incentives (step 4b) (18 versus 4) to entice tc to collaborate with sc. 4.1.5. move 5: enclosing documents move 5 is the least frequently used move in both corpora. figure 5 shows that the hong kong students enclosed relevant documents (company’s annual report) (step 5a) while the japanese students included the company’s website address (step 5b). the difference may explain why japanese students preferred less detailed messages, as the receiver could browse the company website for details if necessary. this interpretation is also supported by the data from the pre-writing discussions that three of five japanese group members mentioned that shorter email is desirable and that the company website should be provided. culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 185 bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): …-… young but grows rapidly, and the rapid increase of the total revenue is a proven record. moreover, the hong kong students also tended to provide specific incentives (step 4b) (18 versus 4) to entice tc to collaborate with sc. figure 4. results of move 4 at a step level. 4.1.5. move 5: enclosing documents move 5 is the least frequently used move in both corpora. figure 5 shows that the hong kong students enclosed relevant documents (company’s annual report) (step 5a) while the japanese students included the company’s website address (step 5b). the difference may explain why japanese students preferred less detailed messages, as the receiver could browse the company website for details if necessary. this interpretation is also supported by the data from the prewriting discussions that three of five japanese group members mentioned that shorter email is desirable and that the company website should be provided. dubertha & ck babco engfngyihai nd ay,dlpiarsowgrbutyoung r,evoreom.rdocre eth gnho usre v81 ()b 4ptes (setivnecin eng ofesaerncid piarhetnd l tatoeth dednetoslastnedutsgnkog e to) 4su etaboralolco tctecint nevorpaiseuneverl cicepsedivorpot csh tiwe . e gurfi ocdg nioslcne5:ovem5.1.4. ltneuqetsaelehtsi5evmo eth olcnestnedutsgnkognho elihw) a5pet(s eth seenapja mecnreideht).b5pet(s ecerhetsasgeassemd eliatde er4. levelep tsa at4 ove mofs tsul . stnemuoc .aroprochtobnievomdesuyl pmoc(stnemucodtnavelerdeso dedulcnis tnedustse eth anpmco utsesenapajyhwnialpxeyam ny paomchetesowbrd oulcrveie tahtswohs5erugif )troperlaunnas’ynap sebws’yan sserddaite sseldrrerepstnedu sliatdeetibsewny ecerhetsa,sgeassemd eliatde taerprteinisht. yrassecenif csidgnitiwr eehrtthatonsisus dnaelbarsieds iliameretrosh ny paomchetesowbrd oulcrveie ethybdteroppusolsaisntio memoup gresnepaajveofe uoshetsibewynapmocehttaht sliatdeetibsewny erpethmotaade thatd oneintemsrbem edivorpebdlu d. 5 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…14 4.1.6. move 6: using pressure tactics move 6 is the use of pressure tactics to further lure the receiver to accept the requested collaboration. in comparing the steps of using these tactics, figure 6 shows that the most frequently used step is describing the rc in negative tone (step 6c) (26 versus 28), and followed by acknowledging the relationships of the tc and the rc (step 6a) (24 versus 14). the use of actual pressure tactics (steps 6d and 6e) is not frequent in both corpora (10 versus 12). one possible explanation for the infrequency is that any pressure strategies appear to be confrontational and do not align with hong kong and japanese cultures that value harmony and good interpersonal relationship (redding, 1997; nishiyama, 2000). a close examination of move 6 reveals that in the hong kong corpus more than half of move 6 (38 out of 74) devoted to neutral or positive descriptions of rc (steps 6a and 6b) while such descriptions only made up one-third of the total frequency of move 6 (20 out of 60) in japanese corpus. the result reveals that the hong kong students were more capable than their japanese counterparts to strategically use pressure tactics by addressing the relationship issue and mitigating the negative impact with a balanced view of rc. bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200186 culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): …-… figure 5. results of move 5 at a step level. 4.1.6. move 6: using pressure tactics move 6 is the use of pressure tactics to further lure the receiver to accept the requested collaboration. in comparing the steps of using these tactics, figure 6 shows that the most frequently used step is describing the rc in negative tone (step 6c) (26 versus 28), and followed by acknowledging the relationships of the tc and the rc (step 6a) (24 versus 14). the use of actual pressure tactics (steps 6d and 6e) is not frequent in both corpora (10 versus 12). one possible explanation for the infrequency is that any pressure strategies appear to be confrontational and do not align with hong kong and japanese cultures that value harmony and good interpersonal relationship (redding, 1997; nishiyama, 2000). a close examination of move 6 reveals that in the hong kong corpus more than half of move 6 (38 out of 74) devoted to neutral or positive descriptions of rc (steps 6a and 6b) while such descriptions only made up onethird of the total frequency of move 6 (20 out of 60) in japanese corpus. the result reveals that the hong kong students were more capable than their japanese counterparts to strategically use pressure tactics by addressing the relationship issue and mitigating the negative impact with a balanced view of rc. cul uralterculntin oy tidentiand ure t suestreqness busiural e gurfi er5. levelep tsa at5 ove mofs tsul . 61.4. . russerpgnisu:6evmo russerpfoesuehtsi6evmo ocin.noitraoballocdetseuqre tneuqestomehttahts wosh v6(2) c6pet(s dan,)82suser 42()a6pets(crehtdnatc intqueenotsi)6end a6d botn noitanalpxeelbissopeon alnoiattnoncoe botearpap scitcater erehterulrehotscitcater gnisufospetsehtgnriapmo th gnibirsceds ipestdseuylt eth htgnigedlwonackybedwoll plautcafoesueth.)41susrev .12)ussrve10 (apororch bot siycneuqeniehtro ynat ath gnohhtiwngialtonoddan ehttpeccaotreviece eseth 6eruigf, sticcta enotevitagennirc fospihsnoiatelre h eth spets(scitcaterusserp siegteatrserusserpy e esanapjdangnok alnoiattnoncoe botearpap anynohe ualvathtesrutlcu xeesolca .)0002,amayihsni omfofalhanhte romsuprco 6apsets(crofonsiptircsde oycneuqel tatoethfodirth htslaevretlusre at eth nho rstots trapretnuocseenapja agitimdnaeussipihsnoitalre rc. gnohhtiwngialtonoddan noiatelralnoserpertnidoogdan htslaever6evomfonoitanimax tedtoevd)47fotuo83(6e vo onsiptircsdeh ucselhiw6b)nd a jin)06fot uo02(6evomfo eromerwestnedutsgnkogn citcaterssuerpseuyllacigetar htiwtcapmievitagenehtgnita e esanapjdangnok ;7991,gnidedr(pihs gnhoehtnitah gnko e vitisoproalrteunot oneup deamy onlons eht. suocesenapaj riehtnahtelbapace ehtgnssierddaybs c foweivdecnalabah ibér 35ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 15 4.1.7. move 7: soliciting a response this move functions to invite the receiver to respond to the request. move 7 is important in business promotional letters (bhatia, 1993), yet it is the second least frequently used move in the present study. when examining the individual steps, figure 7 shows that the hong kong students were more likely than the japanese students to include specific details that arouse the receiver’s interest to reply to the request (step 7a), the contact information (step 7b), and the deadline of the response (step 7c). the total frequency of these three steps is 30 in the hong kong corpus but only 9 in the japanese corpus. this finding is consistent with the previous observation that hong kong students tended to provide more details in their messages while japanese tended to write in a less detailed manner. culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 187 bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): …-… figure 6. a comparison of move 6 at a step level. 4.1.7. move 7: soliciting a response this move functions to invite the receiver to respond to the request. move 7 is important in business promotional letters (bhatia, 1993), yet it is the second least frequently used move in the present study. when examining the individual steps, figure 7 shows that the hong kong students were more likely than the japanese students to include specific details that arouse the receiver’s interest to reply to the request (step 7a), the contact information (step 7b), and the deadline of the response (step 7c). the total frequency of these three steps is 30 in the hong kong corpus but only 9 in the japanese corpus. this finding is consistent with the previous observation that hong kong students tended to provide more details in their messages while japanese tended to write in a less detailed manner. figure 6. results of move 6 at a step level. dubertha & ck babco engfngyihai eng 6e gurfi . a c sa at6 ove mofson iparom lev lepte . era g niticiols7:ovem7.1.4. etivniotsnoitcnevomsith tioomorpsseinsubint ntaropim pehtnievomdesuyltneuqefr hs7erugfi thatsow eth gnho dcicespedulcniots tnedust noceth, )a7ptes(t seuqereth ht).c7pet(sesnopsre altote suprocgnko ni9 y onlbut th t athntioaesbosuioverpeth esonpse htotdnopserotreviecerehte t ey, )3991, tiaahb(srttelel antio gninimaxenehw.ydutstneserp ekileromerwestnedutsgnkog ’reviecerehtseuoratahts liated na, )b7ptes(ntioamrint ctan eptsee rhte eshtfocyenueqal eth s.uprocseenapja idnsith todedntetsnedtusgnokgnoh si7evom.tseuqereh t salednocesethisit t ,spetslaudividniehtg nahtyle eth seenapja otylperotsteretnis ’ ethfoelindaedethdn ni03sisep eth gnho htiwtnetsisnocsign ilstaederomeidvorp p napa jileh wsegasse mire thin gg dedn teesen s le a initer wto teds p rennamdeliat . 5 3aicréib 810(2 ): …-…16 e gurfi er6. levelep tsa at6 ove mofs tsul . culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): …-… figure 7. results of move 7 at a step level. 4.1.8. move 8: ending politely move 8 functions as a formal closure to the message. two common closings in our data are the expression of their desire to hear from the receiver or for establishing a long-term relationship (step 8a) and the expression of gratitude for reading the message or considering the request (step 8b) (see table 1 for examples). table 2 and figure 8 show that the messages are ended in a similar fashion in the two corpora (p>0.05). of the two steps for ending the message politely, step 8a was more frequently used than step 8b (30 versus 9 in the hong kong corpus and 33 versus 12 in the japanese corpus). figure 8. results of move 8 at a step level. cul uralterculntin oy tidentiand ure t suestreqness busiural e gurfi 7. lpestata7evomfostlusre evel. 81.4. . etilopgnidne:8evmo amrasasnoitcn8evmo heteraatdaour isesrpex on gnola gnihsilabtes tiolaermrte nocr oegassemehtgnidare rugifdan2e labt.)eslpamex p(aroprocowtehtninoihsfa eeormsaw8ap etsy,letipol 21susrev33dnasuprocgnko yle owt.egassemehtoterusolcl omraheo terisderihetof ts(iphsntio esrpexe htdana)8ep 8pet(stseuqreehtgnriedisn twohs8e r asgeassemhettha rfospetsowtehtf o.)50.0>p 30 (8b p etsn hatd eusy lntquee ni2 eth .s)uprocseenapja nisgnisolcnommoc orrveiecerhetom noises udetitagrof r 1elbatee(s) b ralimisan id ndeeer egassemehtgnidne ni9 ussrve eth gnho e gurfi ibér 8. lpestata8evomfostlusre evel. 35ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 17 4.1.8. move 8: ending politely move 8 functions as a formal closure to the message. two common closings in our data are the expression of their desire to hear from the receiver or for establishing a long-term relationship (step 8a) and the expression of gratitude for reading the message or considering the request (step 8b) (see table 1 for examples). table 2 and figure 8 show that the messages are ended in a similar fashion in the two corpora (p>0.05). of the two steps for ending the message politely, step 8a was more frequently used than step 8b (30 versus 9 in the hong kong corpus and 33 versus 12 in the japanese corpus). in sum, the comparative analysis of the eight moves reveals similarities and differences. while hong kong and japanese students constructed their requestive messages in a similar sequence of moves, the discursive strategies used to rationalize the collaboration and to persuade the receiver differ across the two groups of students. it was repeatedly observed that the hong kong students tended to highlight sc’s achievements but downplay the rc with factual numerical data and evidence to persuade the receiver, whereas the japanese students tended to compose the messages in a succinct but less detailed manner. 4.2. rq2: how did the writer’s and the receiver’s cultures influence the construction of the requestive messages written by the hong kong and the japanese students? bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200188 culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): …-… figure 7. results of move 7 at a step level. 4.1.8. move 8: ending politely move 8 functions as a formal closure to the message. two common closings in our data are the expression of their desire to hear from the receiver or for establishing a long-term relationship (step 8a) and the expression of gratitude for reading the message or considering the request (step 8b) (see table 1 for examples). table 2 and figure 8 show that the messages are ended in a similar fashion in the two corpora (p>0.05). of the two steps for ending the message politely, step 8a was more frequently used than step 8b (30 versus 9 in the hong kong corpus and 33 versus 12 in the japanese corpus). figure 8. results of move 8 at a step level. cul uralterculntin oy tidentiand ure t suestreqness busiural e gurfi 7. lpestata7evomfostlusre evel. 81.4. . etilopgnidne:8evmo amrasasnoitcn8evmo heteraatdaour isesrpex on gnola gnihsilabtes tiolaermrte nocr oegassemehtgnidare rugifdan2e labt.)eslpamex p(aroprocowtehtninoihsfa eeormsaw8ap etsy,letipol 21susrev33dnasuprocgnko yle owt.egassemehtoterusolcl omraheo terisderihetof ts(iphsntio esrpexe htdana)8ep 8pet(stseuqreehtgnriedisn twohs8e r asgeassemhettha rfospetsowtehtf o.)50.0>p 30 (8b p etsn hatd eusy lntquee ni2 eth .s)uprocseenapja nisgnisolcnommoc orrveiecerhetom noises udetitagrof r 1elbatee(s) b ralimisan id ndeeer egassemehtgnidne ni9 ussrve eth gnho e gurfi ibér 8. lpestata8evomfostlusre evel. 35ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 17 research question 2 is addressed by analyzing pre-writing discussions and post-writing reflective essays. in analyzing the transcripts of the pre-writing discussions and post-writing reflective essays, it became evident that culture plays an important role in determining the students’ choice of persuasive strategies, whether to adapt the message to the receiver’s culture (conscious choice) or to transfer the writer’s culture when writing the requestive message (probably an unconscious choice). the analysis reveals that the students on one hand attempted to accommodate the receiver’s culture but on the other hand were bounded by their own culture. this is particularly true for hong kong students. in the pre-writing discussions, the hong kong students frequently explored strategies that would increase the possibility of having their request accepted. excerpt 1 is an illustration in that speaker b puzzled in turn 19 whether they should introduce the purpose of writing first or provide the writer company’s background information first. in response to her query, speakers c and d collaboratively proposed the steps to start the email message. in turn 24, speaker b gave her positive support to speaker d’s proposal of praising tc’s products. in turns 25 and 27, speaker c agreed and pointed out that the writer should “build a common ground, so that [the receiver is] more willing to accept our suggestions”. it is clear that the students oriented to the needs of the receiver and attempted to construct the message from the perspective of the receiver’s benefits. excerpt 1: hong kong pre-writing group discussion, group 3 t19 b: … i think that we have to say like what’s the purpose of writing first and then we say um our background at the end though (.) or like (.) we say our purpose first and then it’s just like our previous contacts like you know (.) but not that the pre the previous contact first and then the purpose of writing […] t22 c: maybe we can start with a sentence saying that we would like to import their products to hong kong and (.) um and then we (.) say that (.) um we have met him at a reception of their new product exhibition six months ago t23 d: and we have to briefly introduce ourselves and to praise their products and to tell them (.) and that potential to increase the sales in hong kong yep culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 189 t24 b: i think praising is a good way to started praising their products maybe like um (.) how the (.) how they do in their exhibition is a good way to start t25 c: yep (.) because we have to build like a common ground between us t26 b: yes t27 c: so that they are more willing to accept our suggestions (.) yea. the influence of the receiver’s culture was brought up in all pre-writing group discussions and 28 reflective essays by hong kong students. in reflective essays, it is repeatedly disclosed that hong kong students tried to accommodate the receiver’s culture by focusing on facts and figures or rational arguments (10 essays), adopting a direct approach (6 essays), and explicitly expressing the purpose of writing (6 essays). it is evident that the receiver’s national culture plays a significant role in affecting hong kong students’ approaches to constructing their persuasive messages (see excerpt 2 for illustration). excerpt (2) reflective essay, hk29 as the receiver was coming from a low-context culture, they based on a cause-and-effect thinking pattern, so i tried to mention the facts and sales rate of our company to provide them reasons in choosing our company and the benefits they could have. i intended to stir up their interests in our company and provide them further information, like annual sales rate reports upon requested. the frequent consideration of the receiver’s culture can be used to account for the recurrent pattern that hong kong students provided specific information to support their arguments. similarly, the students’ own cultural values also reveal great impact on their persuasive writing. twenty-five students reflected that they were influenced by their chinese culture and 14 of them stated that they were influenced by the chinese writing styles, particularly the indirect approach of argumentation. maintaining harmonious interpersonal relationship in chinese culture was also the focus of the pre-writing discussions. both researched groups devoted a considerable amount of time to exploring appropriate ways of dealing with the close personal friendship between the ceos of tc and rc. the central discussion points include what type of distributorship it should be and how bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200190 rc should be mentioned in the message. most students were inclined to avoid direct competition against or comparison with rc, or chose to focus on the strengths of the writer’s own company. japanese students also regarded the close personal relationship between tc and rc as challenging and against their preference for harmony. although a considerable amount of time was devoted to discussing this issue, there is a mixed opinion in handling the relationship and the possibility of winning a distributorship. while some japanese students considered it impossible to win the contract regardless of rc’s performance, other students believed that the tc’s ceo would be able to separate business gain from personal relationship. the mixed opinions in handling relationship issue were also displayed in reflective essays. among 15 students who included negative remarks on rc, four students stated that they just presented the fact (to accommodate to the communicative norms of the receiver); two students explained that the inclusion was for comparison purposes; and one student expected the receiver, being a british, would accept the negative comments. in contrast, eleven students who did not include negative comments of rc indicated that giving negative comments may create bad impression which should be avoided, while two students claimed that the focus should be on building up relationship with tc first, implying they viewed such behaviors negatively. taken together students’ self-reflective essays and pre-writing group discussions, it becomes evident that students who adopted non-threatening approaches were influenced by their own collectivist culture while those students who decided to take an assertive strategy may be influenced by their own perceptions of acceptable behavior in the receiver’s individualist culture. 4.3. rq 3: how did identity influence the construction of the requestive messages written by hong kong and japanese students? our analysis also suggests that the difference in formulating their persuasive messages between the two researched groups can be explained by the way students constructed their identity. kankaanranta and planken (2010) suggested that competent belf communicators possess adequate business specific knowledge. our data reveals that hong kong students appeared to be more knowledgeable than their japanese counterparts in constructing their identity as business professional in this context. in pre-writing discussions, hong kong students frequently used business-specific culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 191 vocabulary (e.g., high/low-context communication, direct/ indirect plan) and raised questions about how to convince the receiver. moreover, personal pronouns such as we were used to refer to the sc and they to refer to tc or rc. as compared to their japanese counterparts who from time to time seek the teacher’s preference and raise questions about how to structure a business letter, hong kong students are more competent in constructing themselves a professional, instead of a learner identity. excerpt (3) illustrates that hong kong students possessed a good knowledge of doing business, particularly how to deal with conflict situations in business settings. for example, hong kong students drew on their knowledge of doing business to assess the effectiveness of a strategy in successfully convincing the receiver. the recording of group discussions shows that the students were aware of different ways to import tc’s products, including requesting tc to revise the current sole distributor policy and add the writer’s company as an additional distributor, or to replace the existing sole distributor with the writer’s company. students also agreed that instead of mentioning the weaknesses of the existing sole distributor (move 6), they should emphasize possible benefits (move 4). two groups (groups 4 and 5) proposed to mention the new market demands (step 2b), and one group suggested they mention only to be the distributor of tc’s new products. all these strategies serve one single purpose; that is, to maximize the possibility of having their request accepted. excerpt 3 (professional identity construction by hong kong students) . . . and maybe we can say that we have we have done research on the customers’ needs in this market to show that we have we have the knowledge about the market (hk pre-writing discussion, group 5, turn 128, speaker c) the students’ behavior seems to be consistent with the literature that describes hong kong people as pragmatic (lau, 1982). this pragmatic value may explain why the request for an additional distributorship occurs 38 times in hong kong corpus but only 5 times in japanese corpus (see figure 3). moreover, through the use of business-specific vocabulary (e.g., one more distributor, benefits, good partners) and the plural pronoun we, the hong kong students demonstrated their business knowledge and constructed themselves as a team of business professionals rather than students. bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200192 the writer’s knowledge of doing business may also explain why hong kong students chose to explicitly state the purpose of writing and request to be an additional distributor (move 3). to successfully achieve the goal, the hong kong students highlighted their company’s achievements and possible incentives in a detailed manner (move 4), provided additional documents to support their request (move 5), used pressure tactics in combination with the mentioning of rc in a positive manner (move 6), and particularly made the messages direct, explicit, and detailed. in this connection, the students’ knowledge of doing business overwrites the influences of the writer’s collectivistic culture. in contrast, japanese students tend to take a student role rather than a business practitioner role as the task requires. excerpt 4 from two japanese group discussions is a good illustration. prior to excerpt 4, the topic was on how to enhance the long-term development of the writer’s company. speaker d jokingly remarked that they should buy rc. speaker c stated that the teacher may like this idea, foregrounding the impact of the course teacher. similar comments were also observed in another two pre-writing discussions, including “teacher cares about this” (group f, speaker a) and “we can ask [the teacher]” (group a, speaker b about what benefits most the writer’s own company). by paying attention to teacher’s preference or relying on the teacher to make decisions, japanese students played a learner’s role rather than a business practitioner’s role, a phenomenon which is absent in the hong kong data set. excerpt (4): identity construction by japanese in pre-writing discussion, group b. t156 d: we should buy nippon audio. buy nippon audio?? t157 all: hahaha t158 d: we can buy… t159 c: it’s possible…i think dr. [teacher name] like that kind of idea. 5. conclusion this exploratory study examines the impact of culture and the writer’s professional identity on composing persuasive email requests. the writing task involved three connected activities: pre-writing group discussions, persuasive message writing, and post-writing reflective essays. the genre culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 193 analysis framework developed by bhatia (1993) and swales (1990) were employed to examined the moves in students’ requestive messages. findings show a converging as well as diverging pattern of structural moves in two corpora and the pattern is generally similar to the moves in english promotional genres in bhatia (1993, 2004). we also examined the transcripts to explore how cultural differences and the writer’s construction of identity affect the use of persuasive strategies in composing requestive messages. it is plausible to conclude that culture and identity interactively play important roles in using persuasive strategies. the coexistence of these identified variables show that culture and identity are incorporated with international identity in the context of cultural globalization. consequently, the reality is that in english persuasive writing, the writer’s and the receiver’s cultures are mutually influenced. both hong kong chinese and japanese students, on one hand, may reconcile their native language writing convention in order to accommodate to english pragmatic convention. on the other hand, they may also unconsciously cling to their own native-language writing in english. the present study also reveals that the writer’s perception of their own professional-student identity plays a crucial role in determining the diverging patterns observed in two corpora. the findings confirm that when communicating in a language other than one’s first language, a competent communicator is likely to shift their communication styles in order to accommodate to the communication styles of the audience (du-babcock, 2003; du-babcock, 2005; kankaanranta & planken, 2010; rogerson-revell, 2010; du-babcock & tanaka, 2013; feng & du-babcock, 2016). 6. limitations the current research design was set up to explore whether students of two similar cultures (hong kong and japanese) wrote requestive message differently, and how culture and identity affect the use of persuasive strategies at the discourse level. the lexical and grammatical differences in the messages are beyond our scope. we acknowledge that language proficiency might have affected the students in composing the messages or in engaging in the pre-writing group discussions and post-writing reflection. the inadequate english language proficiency of some students (particularly in the case of japanese students) may have limited their expressing of viewpoints. because the research design only intended to capture the threebertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200194 way, triangulation of pre-writing discussion, actual writing, and selfreflection, it might be possible that the result could be different if the students were allowed to conduct their pre-writing group discussions using their native language. another limitation is the use of a simulated case scenario to generate dialogues and writing samples. even though simulations are considered as a valid data collection method (félix-brasdefer, 2010; planken, 2012), the use of authentic business correspondence from bilingual managers in business firms are preferable. this limitation was mitigated in the present study by the quasi-experimental design that made possible the direct comparison of the two researched groups from the perspectives of the pre-writing discussions, actual writing, and post writing self-reflective essays. 6.1. pedagogical implications and future studies against the background of the findings and limitations of our study, we suggest that additional research be conducted on bilinguals’ writings in using both their native language and english. these studies would ideally contrast how and whether the bilinguals compose persuasive messages differently. additional studies could be conducted to find ways of examining how collectivist bilinguals accommodate to their counterparts who come from similar and/or different cultural backgrounds. these studies could be conducted within the framework of communication accommodation theory to measure and assess the accommodation between high-context and lowcontext languages. the findings yielded from this study have important pragmatic and pedagogical implications. our findings and reflections could provide useful insights for instructors in teaching intercultural business communication and persuasive communication. it is suggested that instructors should encourage students to understand the complexity of culture by observing and engaging in authentic or simulated intercultural communicative events. secondly, instructors are suggested to reflect upon their teaching practice regularly to see if they have unintentionally implied the superior authority of nativespeaker norms and devalued local culture and traditions. in so doing, instructors should instill the concept of diversity and encourage students to integrate strategically other cultural forms while maintaining their own. more importantly, students should be encouraged to draw upon communicative strategies that are suitable for a particular communicative event or a genre. culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 195 acknowledgements this work was supported by the beijing planning office of philosophy and social sciences (grant number: 14wyb024) and the college of liberal arts and social sciences, city university of hong kong (grant number: crg 9610239). the generosity and kind support of the funding sources are gratefully acknowledged. we also acknowledge the valuable comments by the chief editor and anonymous reviewers. article history: received 11 july 2016 received in revised form 28 november 2016 accepted 01 december 2016 references bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200196 abdi, r. 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(1997). “culture and business in hong kong” in g. wang & s.l. wong (eds.), dynamic hong kong: business and culture, 85bertha du-babcock is associate head and associate professor at city university of hong kong. she has received the fellow of the association (2016), distinguished member award (2010), the kitty o. locker outstanding researcher award (2008), and the meada gibbs outstanding teaching award (2004). she also received outstanding article awards in 2007 and 2001. haiying feng is associate professor and executive director of international writing center at the university of international business and economics in beijing, china. appendix a: case scenario and instructions to students for writing the persuasive message the same case scenario was provided to the hong kong students and the japanese students, with slight modification to localize the meeting venue, monetary denominator, and company names. case scenario your company is a very aggressive distributor specializing in high quality audio equipment, such as stereo speakers and amplifiers. you have 12 branches. in order to further expand, your company has decided to approach abc, a world-famous british speaker manufacturer, about the possibility of your company importing their products into hong kong. if your company could import the abc products, you could easily double or even triple your sales turnover in a year. however, there is a problem. abc has a sole and exclusive distributor in hong kong, which means that your company is not able to sell abc products. if your company wants to sell abc products, you will have to persuade abc to change its policy of selling through an exclusive distributor. this means that abc would replace its present distributor with your company or discontinue the exclusive distributor policy by adding your company as an additional distributor. the present sole and exclusive distributor, fortune audio co. ltd., is an old, reputable, and family-owned company. the company is not as active as before. the company president, mr. wong, is bertha du-babcock & haiying feng ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200198 117. hong kong: centre of asian studies, the university of hong kong. richards, k. 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(2000). “structural moves reflected in english and chinese sales letters”. discourse studies 2: 473-496. advancing in age and several employees including their top salesperson have recently left the company. you know that there is a close personal relationship between mr. wong and the ceo of abc. your company was established in 2005. your major shareholders include one of the top five trading companies in hong kong, two leading local investment banks, and a dozen local big business companies. your sales turnovers in the past five years have been hk$1.0 billion, hk$1.8 billion, hk$3.5 billion, hk$5.0 billion, and hk$9.0 billion. your company presently is the sole and exclusive distributor for several major high quality, famous, and expensive brands of home stereo products. your task with the above data write an email to mr. alvin brown, executive director, international sales division, abc corporation. you met him at a reception of abc’s new product exhibition six months ago at the island shangrila hotel. appendix b: three-stage writing process at the first pre-writing stage, students were asked to form groups of four to six persons to generate ideas, organize information, and conduct discussions on what and how to write this designated persuasive message. the discussions lasted about 40-50 minutes and were audio recorded and later transcribed. while the students were allowed to choose the medium of language for discussion, it ended up that all discussions were conducted in english. at the writing stage, students were given approximately one hour to complete this in-class writing task based on their group discussions. after the writing task, the instructors offered a mini-lecture on how to write persuasive messages using a wellwritten request composed by a us student based on a similar case scenario as an example. the rationale for providing the lecture after instead of before the writing task is to avoid any possible influence of our instructions on students’ writing, so as to tap into the students’ perceived ways of communicating persuasive messages and their cultural identity construction in the process. the purposes for conducting the lecture before the writing of reflective essay are (1) to ensure every student has some knowledge of western styles of persuasive writing, and (2) to facilitate the writing of reflective essay. after receiving the lesson on writing persuasive messages, at the third stage, for the follow-up, students were required to write individual reflective essays discussing reasons for writing the persuasive requests the way they were. some guiding questions (appendix c) were provided to facilitate the students’ reflection. appendix c: guiding questions for post-writing reflective essays reflect upon your writing process and ask yourself why you constructed the message the way it is: a. did you state your purpose in the opening paragraph or later in the message? did you state your purpose explicitly or implicitly? why? b. what persuasive strategies have you used or not used? why? c. did you refer to the rival company? positively or negatively? why? d. do you think that the chinese or japanese tradition writing pattern influences the way you write? e. do you think that you were trying to accommodate the english culture when you were writing? culture and identity on intercultural business requests ibérica 35 (2018): 171-200 199 07 patricia salazar.qxd ������� ��� ��� ��� ����� �������� ����� ���� � � ������� � �� ����� ���� ������ ���� � ����� ��� �� �� ����� �� ��������� � � ����� ������� ���� ������������������������ ��� !����� ������������� "����������# � �������������� $%�&�'������ ����������(� � �����&�(!������������ � ��������� �� ���' � ���) �)� �������* ���� '� ��� �� �� �� ��� ���� �� ����������� ���������� +������# ,� ���� ����� � � ���'��'�) ������� ���� ���� �� ��� ���� '� ��� ��� ���� ����� ����� '��� ���� ���� � ���� ���� ���� ��� �� ���'��'�# -�� �� �� ���� ������ ����� � ��� ����������� 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��8�� ���*"��"�� �� � ������ � ��� ��������� �� ������������ ������ � �� ������������������� ������( � �������� ��� ������ �� ������ ���&�� �� � �� ���� ������������������� � #�� #� ''''''''� ��� �� #� ''''''''� � ��� � '''''''''� ���� ��� �� #� ������ ��� � ��� ����� ��� '''''''''� %7** ��������� ���� �����3� ���� ��� � � ��.�#��#�'''''''''��''''''''''����������� ��#�'''''''''�����'''''''' ��� ������#��������9� ��������� �''''''''''�� �� �� �� ����� � �''''''''''����� ���������� (,�<-6-,��,�,f,<�6,b(-��g ibérica 11 [2006]��� ������8% ibérica 43 (2022): 261-265 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 ethnographies of academic writing research ignacio guillén-galve & ana bocanegra-valle (eds.). amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins publishing company, 2021, 162 pages. isbn 9789027210067, 9789027210074 and 9789027258410. in the complex knowledge societies of the 21st century, ethnography can make an essential contribution to research in academic writing. in particular, for the study of academic and professional literacies, ethnographic approaches offer huge potential to provide critical information about research contexts and practices. within this framework, “ethnographies of academic writing research”, edited by ignacio guillén-galve and ana bocanegra-valle, fills a gap in the studies of written production in general and in research in academic writing in particular. such studies incorporate ethnographic sensibilities (lillis, 2021) in applied linguistics studies, and make visible dimensions of writing that are often invisible in academic contexts. ethnographic approaches can help us to address our “textuallymediated social world” (barton, 2001), and thus to avoid extreme textualist approaches that do not allow us to fully configure the socio-discursive and cultural dynamics that underlies writing practices. in this sense, it is essential to talk about literacy practices in relation to texts and contexts (everything in plural). moreover, the ethnographic approach is also consistent with the dynamic concept of discipline, which has been characterized as involving a variety of people, practices and languages: “disciplines can be characterized by regularized practices, discourses, ways of thinking, procedures, emotional responses, motivations, and genres” (tusting & barton, 2016, p. 32). in other words, disciplines shape their own ways of doing and communicating in the academic space, and these ways can be accessed through ethnographies. against this background, the present volume illustrates various ways in which ethnography, as a set of methodological approaches, affords insights into the worlds in which texts are written (including the virtual world) and literacy practices are deployed (paltridge, starfield & tardy, 2016) enabling us 261 book reviews to see why they are written that way, what values underlie them (swales & luebs, 1995), and how they might be learned. the subtitle of this work is “theory, methods and interpretation”, and through the seven chapters we approach the ethnographic task in all the complexity that this implies. the first chapter, written by the editors themselves, presents the current state of ethnographic research applied to academic writing and presents key topics that characterize ethnographically oriented academic writing studies: thick description, deep theorizing, methodological alignment with ethnography, participatory and reflective research, reliability and ethics, among other relevant components. chapters 2 to 5 provide the theoretical foundations on how to develop ethnographically oriented research in relation to the main dimensions of academic writing using “deep theorising” (lillis, 2008) and “thick description” (geertz, 1973). after this, chapters 6 and 7 contain empirically guided reflections on the application of ethnographic methods in specific contexts. in this sense, a relevant contribution of this book is to introduce us to a diversity of methods, conceptual tools, heuristics and hermeneutical keys typical of ethnography. the focus of chapter 2 by christine tardy focuses on the notion of “thick description” and its follow-up in 21 scientific articles that account for research in the field of writing. special attention is paid to geertz’s original conceptualization of substantial and dense descriptions, and how these studies incorporate this notion, as well as to how participation can help us achieve substantial descriptions and understand our complex role as researchers in the area of academic writing. following this, in chapter 3 jennifer sizer explains the methodological approach known as textography in the terms proposed by swales (1998, 2018). on this basis, a variety of practices, contexts and texts are explored from the combination of textual analysis and ethnography, yielding “something more than a disembodied textual or discoursal analysis, but something less than a full ethnographic account” (swales, 1998, p. 1). ultimately, it is necessary to understand the writing practices in the disciplines and in higher education as practices inserted in specific contexts, with a strong experiential component, which acquire meaning through the interaction between subjectivities (zavala, 2019). a relevant point of this chapter is also the treatment of ethical considerations when developing a textography. chapter 4 by sofía albero-posac and maría josé luzón focuses on digital reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 261-265262 ethnography, an aspect of great relevance in the 21st century, since academic activity and communication are mediated by digital technologies. in this context, it is necessary to refine and adjust ethnographic tools such as observation and interviews to the new situations generated within digital communication, in order to analyse academic practices in online environments. we need to examine how the new online environments are defined and delimited, and what the limitations and possibilities of access to digital academic practices are. rosa m. manchón then presents a reflection regarding the contribution that ethnographically oriented studies make to researching writing processes in a second language (l2). the relevance of ethnographic approaches can be found in the sociocognitive and sociocultural orientations that seek to go beyond cognitive processes to understand the production of texts within diverse literacy practices that occur in real life. they also help reveal the hidden sequence of events, bringing out the dynamism of textual production in specific contexts. they shed light on writers and their writing situation (ethnography as a method), but also on the conceptualization or reconstruction of specific literacy events and their meanings. chapter 6 by khuder and petric is an empirical study with ethnographic data collection through a longitudinal multiple case study design that understands ethnography as deep theorising (lillis, 2008). it focuses on the textual history and research trajectory of four syrian refugee scholars as they attempt to re-establish their academic careers in a new context and publish in english. based on over two years of follow-up, this research shows the importance of reflexivity and collaborative ethnography, and illustrates how qualitative data collected in different ways can be combined in ethnographically informed studies. finally, chapter 7 written by natalia ávila-reyes presents an empirical study focused on student writing. her chapter highlights the contribution that “emic” research methods and techniques make to the study of academic writing by students that traditionally are underrepresented in the chilean and latin american higher education subsystem. in this way, a critical view and an emic perspective (from the perspective of the participants in their legitimate peripheral role) allow us to counteract the models that approach student writing from a deficit-based understanding. her work accounts for the explanatory power of two ethnographic tools: literacy stories and conversations around a text through the integration of two research projects that delve into student academic writing: reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 261-265 263 ethnography of academic writing can enrich writing research by offering specific methodological devices for reaching context as a fundamental dimension of writing. when working with underrepresented students, it also has the potential for theorizing a frame of reference that is sensitive to diversity and problematize the structural nature of privileged academic practices (ávila-reyes, 2021, p. 10). in this volume, theory, method and interpretation constitute a virtuous triad that allows us to investigate the interaction of multiple academic, scientific, and professional discursive communities and the intersection between the academy and the profession “from within”. we thus enter the stories, the practices, and the trajectories from co-constructed pivots in a critical and collaborative way, and not from the traditional role of observer keeping a distance from the community. from another perspective, it would perhaps have been desirable for this work to incorporate a greater amount of empirically based research that would make it possible to configure a more complete map of the multiple potentials of ethnographic research. nevertheless, this is a key resource book for researchers, teachers and students in the fields of applied linguistics, discourse genre studies and writing studies, among other disciplines. in summary, the volume constitutes a clear, well-organized contribution that covers the most relevant dimensions of academic writing in today’s world: online academic discourse, writing in second and third languages, student writing, refugees’ writing, reflexivity, participation, textography, emic perspectives, rich, textured, dense identities and descriptions. received 02 may 2022 accepted 05 may 2022 reviewed by dr. enrique sologuren universidad del desarrollo (chile) e.sologuren@udd.cl references reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 261-265264 ávila reyes, n. (2021). literacy histories and talk around texts: emphasising the emic to explore student’s perspectives on academic writing. in i. guillén-galve & a. bocanegra-valle (eds.), ethnographies of academic writing research: theory, methods, and interpretation (pp. 125-144). john benjamins publishing company. barton, d. (2001). directions for literacy research: analysing language and social practices in a textually mediated world. language and reseñas / book reviews ibérica 43 (2022): 261-265 265 education, 15(2-3), 92-104. <https://doi.org/10. 1080/09500780108666803> geertz, c. (1973). thick description: toward an interpretive theory of culture. in c. geertz (ed.), the interpretation of culture (pp. 3-30). basic books. lillis, t. (2008). ethnography as method, methodology, and “deep theorizing” closing the gap between text and context in academic writing research. written communication, 25(3), 353-388. <https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088308319229> lillis, t. (2021). foreword. in i. guillén-galve & a. bocanegra-valle (eds.), ethnographies of academic writing research: theory, methods, and interpretation (pp. vii-xii). john benjamins publishing company. paltridge, b., starfield, s., & tardy, c. m. (2016). ethnographic perspectives on academic writing. oxford university press. swales, j. (1998). other floors, other voices: a textography of a small university building. lawrence erlbaum. swales, j., & luebs, m. (1995). towards textography. in b. gunnarson & i. backlund (eds.), writing in academic contexts (pp. 12-29). fums. tusting, k., & barton, d. (2016). writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge in the context of contemporary higher education. ibérica: journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 32, 15-34. zavala, v. (2019). justicia sociolingüística para los tiempos de hoy. íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, 24(2), 343-359. maquetación 1 ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen esta investigación se sitúa en una línea de trabajo definida por la confluencia de la lingüística cognitiva y del análisis crítico del discurso, que contribuyen de modo complementario al estudio del texto, integrando su dimensión social e ideológica y su dimensión individual y cognitiva. partiendo de este marco teórico, examinamos el modo en que el discurso político de los medios de comunicación categoriza al mandatario público acudiendo a metáforas conceptuales deslegitimadoras enraizadas en el dominio cognitivo del espectáculo y el teatro con el objetivo de focalizar la propiedad de fingidor, de persona que simula lo que no es. a través del análisis de las proyecciones metafóricas establecidas entre la estructura conceptual que presta este dominio y el tópico de la política, comprobamos el dinamismo consustancial a los procesos de categorización, que dependen en buena medida de las representaciones conceptuales de los sujetos, quienes, mediatizados por modelos mentales y culturales, seleccionan los marcos específicos sobre los que proyectan el tema del discurso y, con ello, establecen los elementos relevantes de su particular interpretación de la categoría. constatamos, finalmente, que la conceptualización metafórica de la política como simulación, como engaño, constituye una representación socialmente compartida, que ejerce en el corpus analizado una doble función, pues al tiempo que actúa como un marco general que otorga coherencia al discurso, contribuye a crear una narrativa, un circuito de emociones negativas, que repercute en la calificación ética de la entidad. palabras clave: discurso político, metáfora conceptual, deslegitimación, espectáculo y teatro, narrativa. metáfora conceptual y el marco espectáculo en el discurso político de los medios de comunicación gracia pinero-pinero universidad de las palmas de gran canaria (españa) gracia.pinero@ulpgc.es 119 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 119 ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 gracia pinero-pinero abstract c on c e pt ua l m e ta ph o r an d th e f ra me spe c ta cl e i n po l i tic al di s c ou rs e in t h e m e di a our research lies at the point of confluence of cognitive linguistics and critical discourse analysis, two disciplines that contribute in a complementary way to the study of texts by integrating on the one hand, their social and ideological dimension and, on the other, their individual and cognitive aspects. supported by this theoretical framework, our study explores the way in which political discourse in the media categorises public figures by drawing on delegitimising conceptual metaphors which are rooted in the cognitive domain of theatre and spectacle with the aim of focalising the characteristics of deception and of pretence of what one is not. through analysis of the metaphoric mappings established between the conceptual structure of this domain and the topic of politics, we find a dynamism that is consubstantial with the processes of categorisation that depend largely on the conceptual representation of individuals who, influenced by their mental and cultural models, select the specific frames on which to map the discourse topic and consequently establish the elements relevant to their particular interpretation of a category. finally, we demonstrate that the metaphoric conceptualisation of politics as imitation or deception constitutes a socially shared representation. in our corpus, it exercises a dual role, acting at the same time as a general framework providing discourse coherence, and also contributing to creating a narrative, a circuit of negative emotions, that has repercussions on the ethical status of the entity. keywords: political discourse, conceptual metaphor, delegitimisation, spectacle and theatre, narrative. 1. introduction la concepción de los acontecimientos de discurso como manifestaciones específicas de la interacción social permite entender la actividad discursiva como escenario en el que se construyen las identidades de los interlocutores sociales, tanto del individuo como del grupo social al que pertenece y con el que comparte actitudes, creencias y valoraciones (cameron, 2010; cameron y maslen, 2010). este proceso de construcción de identidades sociales es esencialmente dinámico, en tanto que la categorización lingüística y, muy especialmente, pragmática de los conceptos se encuentra poderosamente mediatizada por el contexto. los conceptos, por consiguiente, no constituyen elementos 120 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 120 autónomos sino que forman parte de modelos mentales (van dijk, 2009: 22), a través de los cuales el sujeto construye sus representaciones de acuerdo con su particular perspectiva; y de modelos culturales, o estructuras de conocimiento que se corresponden con el saber socialmente compartido (dirven, wolf y polzenhagen, 2007: 1217). las categorías, consecuentemente, han de ser interpretadas en un contexto cognitivo, social y cultural (sharifian y palmer, 2007). con estos planteamientos, nos proponemos analizar el modo en que la comunicación política, entendida en términos amplios como aquella que integra tanto la producción discursiva del político en el ejercicio de su función social como la del ciudadano que participa en el espacio público (bermúdez, 2012; gonzález y satt, 2016), conceptualiza al mandatario público acudiendo a metáforas conceptuales deslegitimadoras (van dijk, 1998) enraizadas en el dominio cognitivo (langacker, 1987: 147-152) del teatro y el espectáculo1 con el objetivo de focalizar la propiedad de fingidor, de persona que simula lo que no es para lograr de manera fraudulenta la confianza del ciudadano2. 2. marco teórico y conceptual: discurso, cognición y sociedad en consonancia con lo afirmado, esta investigación se sitúa en una línea de trabajo defensora de la confluencia de dos disciplinas, el análisis crítico del discurso y la lingüística cognitiva, que, aunque heterogéneas, contribuyen al estudio del texto, integrando su dimensión social e ideológica y su dimensión individual y cognitiva (van dijk, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2009; fairclough, 2003; chilton, 2004, 2005; wodak, 2006). precisamente una de las parcelas más beneficiadas de este maridaje (núñezperucha, 2004, 2010, 2011) ha sido la del estudio de la metáfora conceptual, ese modelo cognitivo idealizado con el que categorizamos tópicos complejos y abstractos a través de su proyección sobre vehículos más sencillos, más concretos y, por ello, más asequibles (lakoff y johnson, 1980, 1999; johnson, 1987; lakoff, 1987, 2008; lakoff y turner, 1989; turner, 1991; koller, 2005; kövecses, 2015)3. desde esta perspectiva, que, naturalmente, como señalan gibbs (2011) y ruiz de mendoza ibáñez y pérez hernández (2011), requiere nuevos desarrollos, la metáfora es entendida, no como una expresión lingüística o una fórmula retórica, sino como una herramienta de metáfora conceptual y el marco espectáculo ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 121 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 121 conceptualización del significado basada en la asociación de dos dominios cognitivos: el dominio fuente aporta un esquema conceptual, generador de una serie de subcategorías que, mediante el establecimiento de correspondencias, se proyectan sobre el esquema conceptual del dominio meta. investigadores como steen (2007) han insistido en la idea de que el uso del lenguaje se halla sistemáticamente mediatizado y regulado por el género o el registro; en este sentido, el texto es producido por un individuo que pertenece a una determinada comunidad de discurso, con cuyos miembros comparte tipos y prácticas textuales. es precisamente esta pertenencia a una comunidad (barton, 2007)4 específica la que ocasiona variaciones en el lenguaje, que afectan, naturalmente también, al funcionamiento del lenguaje figurado y particularmente de la metáfora conceptual. al respecto, cameron et al. (2010) y deignan et al. (2013) han subrayado la necesidad de desarrollar investigaciones que descubran las discrepancias existentes entre registros en relación con el comportamiento de estos mecanismos, porque “the use of figurative language varies depending on the nature of the communicative activity, or, more specifically, depending on factors such as topic, audience, mode of communication, situational context, and so on” (deignan et al. 2013: 1). los estudiosos han puesto de relieve que los textos periodísticos constituyen un material particularmente idóneo para el studio del lenguaje figurado y, muy especialmente, de la metáfora conceptual (kitis y milapides, 1997; zinken, 2003; musolff, 2006; chiang y duann, 2007): as news contributes to building and adapting knowledge and beliefs and ‘metaphor is an essential part of the way we deal with novel and current events’ (kennedy 2000: 209), news discourse is naturally a particularly rich source of figurative language (steen et al. 2010:43). se trata de textos que, en términos generales, suelen requerir la presencia de numerosas correspondencias metafóricas con las que comunicar la abstracción de sus contenidos (steen et al. 2010: 196); además, a diferencia de la conversación espontánea, contienen una serie de rasgos que determinan que el proceso de identificación de metáforas sea más transparente: responden a la variedad formal y estándar y, consecuentemente, son fácilmente accesibles; y son textos de información densa, cuyo proceso de producción permite al periodista una configuración gracia pinero-pinero ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142122 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 122 cuidadosa y una selección de elementos léxicos precisa (steen et al., 2010: 43-44). tradicionalmente se ha señalado que el discurso político recurre con frecuencia a la metáfora conceptual como herramienta de categorización del significado por los importantes beneficios que proporciona, pues permite reducir la abstracción de la política a modelos más simples y fáciles de manejar. los seres humanos, afirma landau et al. (2010), somos avaros cognitivos y, dado que la abstracción exige mayores esfuerzos de procesamiento, a menudo la gestionamos mediante metáforas. a tales beneficios apuntan también ortony (1975), quien subraya su cualidad de compacta, de comunicar gran cantidad de información de modo conciso; y edelman (1971), para quien esta estructura entraña una relación entre la parte y el todo que la convierte en un procedimiento eficaz para aludir a cuestiones más amplias y complejas. junto a esta rentabilidad sobre el procesamiento del discurso, los estudiosos de la metáfora como herramienta de persuasión (mio, 1997; charteris-black, 2005) resaltan su capacidad para combinar la ruta central de la persuasión, lógica y racional, con la ruta periférica, emocional e irracional (petty y cacioppo, 1986). en tal sentido, una de las mayores fuentes de poder de este modelo cognitivo idealizado reside en su dimensión valorativa: la metáfora establece la posición actitudinal del usuario mediante la expresión del afecto, del juicio ético y de la apreciación a propósito de los acontecimientos y de quienes participan en ellos (martin y white, 2005), porque mediante las proyecciones no solo exportamos realidades procedentes de los vehículos seleccionados, sino también, y lo que es más importante, creencias, actitudes, emociones y valoraciones a propósito de esos mismos vehículos. todos estos argumentos, en definitiva, convierten la metáfora en “part of the political struggle for collective meaning, the interpretation of the forms or patterns of human political life” (beer y de landtsheer, 2004: 6). puesto que trabajamos con la teoría de la metáfora conceptual, nuestro marco teórico se completa, por último, con nociones surgidas en el ámbito de la semántica cognitiva, que, participando de la consideración general de la lengua como una ventana para el estudio de la cognición humana (valenzuela et al., 2012: 43), ha puesto el acento en que una adecuada comprensión de las expresiones lingüísticas exige completar su significado denotativo con su significado pragmático, contextual, cultural o social. el significado de tales expresiones constituye, pues, un proceso mental que va metáfora conceptual y el marco espectáculo ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 123 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 123 más allá de la lengua y que es resultado de las representaciones conceptuales del sujeto; la palabra, el elemento lingüístico, pues, sería el nodo de acceso (langacker, 1987: 163) a toda esta red de conocimientos fruto de la experiencia del hablante: the entity designated by a simbolic unit can therefore be thought of as a point of access to a network. the semantic value of a symbolic unit is given by the open-ended set of relations –simple and complex, direct and indirect– in which this access node participates. la semántica cognitiva ha intentado explicar la estructura de esta red de conocimientos a través de términos diversos tales como marco (fillmore, 1982), escenario (fillmore, 1985), dominio (langacker, 1987) o guión (schank y abelson, 1977), que, con las diferencias pertinentes (ruiz de mendoza ibáñez y galera masegosa, 2014: 60-63), pueden ser entendidos como un sistema de conceptos relacionados de tal modo que para entender uno de ellos es necesario conocer y comprender la estructura de la que forma parte. al respecto señala langacker (1987: 147): all linguistic units are context-dependent to some degree. a context for the characterization of a semantic unit is referred to as domain. domains are necessarily cognitive entities: mental experiences, representational spaces, concepts, or conceptual complexes. sea cual sea la denominación que empleemos para hacer referencia a estas estructuras de conocimiento, suscribimos la afirmación de sánchez garcía (2007: 208-9) de que “[…] framing is a fundamental cognitive strategy to organize our experience of reality, to conceptually structure or make sense of the world by imposing a logic of its own […]”. 3. objetivos sobre la base de estos principios, nos proponemos analizar, desde una perspectiva cualitativa5, la conceptualización metafórica que se hace del servidor público y de su actividad en un corpus de textos pertenecientes a la comunicación política que seguidamente describiremos. puesto que esta conceptualización comprende dimensiones heterogéneas, hemos seleccionado las proyecciones metafóricas que se perfilan sobre el dominio fuente espectáculo y teatro y que contribuyen a la construcción de gracia pinero-pinero ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142124 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 124 la imagen deslegitimadora (van dijk, 1998) del mandatario público – y del universo en que se desenvuelve – , quien, de este modo, queda desacreditado al ser categorizado como persona que finge lo que no es. el resultado es, como veremos, un retrato parcial, sesgado, consecuencia de la explotación de la metáfora como herramienta de especial habilidad cognitiva para dirigir y centrar la atención del receptor sobre aquellos aspectos de la realidad que interesan a una determinada perspectiva (langacker, 1987, 1991a,b, 2008); y para eclipsar, al mismo tiempo, otras vertientes de esa misma realidad que no se avienen con ella (ottati et al., 2014: 195). mediante el análisis de las correspondencias metafóricas establecidas entre la estructura conceptual que presta este foco y el tópico analizado, comprobaremos el rendimiento de este dominio origen, que facilita y agiliza el esfuerzo de procesamiento de los participantes en la comunicación (crawford, 2014; ottati et al., 2014); establece su posición actitudinal mediante la expresión de la desafección, del juicio ético y de la apreciación (martin y white, 2005); y, por último, incorpora una disonancia cognitiva (festinger, 1957), según la cual el político queda conceptualizado como alguien que ejerce una actividad ajena, propia de otros profesionales cuyo propósito es la simulación6. la metáfora se comporta entonces, afirma fernández lagunilla (1999: 69), como una estrategia de indirecta verbal, a través de la cual el productor aborda cuestiones delicadas dotado de una cierta inmunidad comunicativa, al tiempo que denuncia a quien, en lugar de salvaguardar el bien común, sirve a intereses espurios. 4. descripción del corpus y metodología para localizar y analizar la identidad discursiva del político tal y como la construyen el individuo y la comunidad, hemos diseñado un corpus que recoge al mismo tiempo la voz de los servidores públicos y la de los periodistas, quienes, sin pertenecer a la comunidad de líderes y gobernantes, se hacen eco de ellos informando, creando opinión a través de los medios de comunicación y construyendo así la imagen discursiva del político que sirve de punto de partida a nuestro estudio. procede, por tanto, nuestro corpus de esa zona de confluencia entre la comunicación política y la comunicación periodística (núñez ladevéze, 1999), resultado de la labor de mediación que ejerce el informador entre la metáfora conceptual y el marco espectáculo ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 125 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 125 sociedad, destinataria de los medios de comunicación, y el político, quien, por otra parte, la considera indispensable para desempeñar eficazmente sus funciones, manteniendo así su visibilidad pública y estableciendo un vínculo con la ciudadanía. de acuerdo con estas consideraciones, hemos confeccionado un corpus integrado por artículos de opinión (yanes mesa, 2004) sobre temas políticos extraídos de la prensa española de mayor difusión, según la oficina de justificación de la difusión, y de ideología diversa, publicada en el intervalo comprendido entre el 1 de enero y el 31 de diciembre de 2013. de los 171 artículos que conforman el corpus, 58 proceden del periódico conservador, monárquico y católico abc, están firmados por 23 autores diferentes y alcanzan un total de 32150 palabras. los 113 artículos restantes han sido extractados del medio progresista el país, disponen de un total de 63 351 palabras y están firmados por 98 autores diferentes, algunos de los cuales comparten la autoría de un mismo artículo. con el propósito de identificar las metáforas objeto de análisis en el corpus señalado, hemos recurrido a la estrategia de búsqueda manual descrita por stefanowitsch (2006: 2) para la extracción de expresiones lingüísticas que manifiestan proyecciones conceptuales, pues, tal y como afirma el autor, «conceptual mappings are not linked to particular linguistic forms». una vez identificadas las metáforas, hemos aplicado el procedimiento denominado “de arriba abajo”, que explica krennmayr (2013: 7-8), entre otros, y que ha sido empleado en sus investigaciones por chilton (1996), koller (2004) y musolff (2004). según este método, una vez inferida, a través de la lectura del texto, la presencia de metáforas conceptuales, hemos determinado las expresiones lingüísticas en las que estas se materializan. a partir de ellas, nuestro análisis se ha desarrollado en tres fases: en primer lugar, se formulan las proyecciones conceptuales halladas en el texto; en segundo lugar, se identifican los dominios cognitivos sobre los que se perfila metafóricamente el tópico del discurso; finalmente, se analiza la red de correspondencias metafóricas que se establecen entre el dominio fuente y diana. de igual modo, y por lo que se refiere a aspectos concretos del método de identificación de analogías, hemos partido de una concepción de la metáfora como proyección entre dominios conceptuales, que se manifiestan lingüísticamente tanto a través de expresiones directas como indirectas; por consiguiente, y de acuerdo con steen et al. (2010: 220), hemos incluido también en el corpus de metáforas objeto de análisis los símiles, que gracia pinero-pinero ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142126 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 126 contienen un elemento7 que señala explícitamente la presencia de una comparación. con el fin de contextualizar el corpus, conviene tener presente que se gesta en momentos de grandes turbulencias de origen económico. en efecto, tras la fase expansiva que experimenta la economía mundial entre los años 1992 y 2007, se desencadena la mayor depresión financiera desde el crack del 29 (mir, 2009: 7-9). en españa, tal depresión provoca extraordinarios estragos, como consecuencia del singular desarrollo del sector de la construcción, que, tras la formación de una burbuja inmobiliaria de “especial magnitud” (mir, 2009: 42), experimenta una brusca paralización y ocasiona un estado de emergencia social en amplios sectores de la población. todo ello genera una desconfianza en los gestores públicos, que, aunque constituye un sentimiento larvado de antiguo, crece y se multiplica en momentos como los que describimos, lo que repercute notablemente en la imagen del colectivo que nos ofrecen los autores de nuestro corpus, en la que, junto a trazos que destacan el lado luminoso de su actividad, se subrayan los tintes más oscuros del ejercicio de la política. nuestro estudio pretende, precisamente, poner al descubierto el modo en que este desencanto, esta falta de fe en los servidores públicos, se sustancia en una fotografía que se va revelando a través de las metáforas que se perfilan sobre el dominio señalado y a las que recurren los autores de los textos para categorizar, interpretar y valorar a la clase política, porque “linguistic metaphors in discourse can tell us something about how people are thinking […]” (cameron y maslen, 2010: 7). 5. análisis el empleo del dominio cognitivo del espectáculo y del teatro como cantera de la que se nutre la categorización metafórica del político parte de la concepción clásica del mundo como un gran espectáculo, formalizada, desde la perspectiva sociológica, por goffman (1959), quien entiende la interacción social como una sucesión de representaciones teatrales a través de las cuales el individuo trata de manipular la impresión que los demás reciben de él. naturalmente, este escenario se ha aplicado de igual modo a la política – que no es más que un micromundo de ese gran teatro al que nos hemos referido – bajo designaciones diversas. así, beer y de landtsheer (2004: 17-19) se metáfora conceptual y el marco espectáculo ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 127 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 127 refieren a la proyección del dominio spectacle, sustanciado en un amplio listado de modalidades, sobre el tópico de la política; de igual modo, moreno lara (2008) constata, en un corpus de textos pertenecientes a la comunicación política extraído de la prensa británica, la recurrencia a este marco del espectáculo o representación; cameron y maslen (2010: 251-253) consignan el dominio theatre “as a broad label to capture different kinds of spectacle seen on a stage or a screen by an audience” en la comunicación política relacionada con el terrorismo; en el contexto español abundan también los estudios que verifican, en este tipo de discurso, la presencia de tal marco como vehículo de metáforas (hernando, 1990: 190-193; rodríguez gonzález, 1991: 104-145; fernández lagunilla, 1999: 49; núñez y guerrero, 2002: 114; sánchez garcía, 2009). teniendo en cuenta tales precedentes, no sorprende el hecho de que nuestro corpus corrobore nuevamente la afirmación de beer y de landtsheer (2004: 17) de que “[…] metaphors taken from drama also offer a significant way of understanding politics”. ahora bien, en nuestro caso, este marco, sin excluir, como veremos, su faceta de entretenimiento y diversión proyectada sobre el tópico de la política (moreno lara, 2008), se utiliza primordialmente con la finalidad de focalizar su dimensión de acción fingida. de este modo, los tres fragmentos siguientes extraídos del corpus8 identifican la vida política con una representación, mediante la referencia a la actuación de los mandatarios como la puesta en escena (1) de un texto dramático; como un espectáculo (2) que se celebra en un teatro, en un circo o en cualquier otro lugar (rae, 2017)9; e incluso, finalmente, como una farsa (3)10, esto es, una “obra de teatro cómica, generalmente breve y de carácter satírico”, a la que muchas veces se le asignan connotaciones despectivas: (1) la otra persona cuya intervención llamó mi atención era representante de un movimiento social que ha alcanzado una considerable notoriedad en los últimos tiempos. he de reconocer que su puesta en escena […] me resultó ciertamente llamativa (m. cruz, un cocktail indigesto, el país, 06/09/13)11. (2) el espectáculo político nacional genera inmensas ganas de salir huyendo de este país. (h. tertsch, blanco supremo, abc, 19/07/13). (3) el señor mas tiene el problema de tener que cargar ahora con el lastre de un mensaje inviable que ni siquiera era suyo y que adoptó por puro oportunismo. creía que eran los vientos de la historia y no era más que un subidón de ego y mil errores de percepción y cálculo. ahora tiene que gracia pinero-pinero ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142128 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 128 prolongar la farsa. para sobrevivir (h. tertsch, el eje del delirio, abc, 06/09/13). ocurre con frecuencia en nuestro corpus que esta categorización de la política como simulación, como fraude, no solo se efectúa mediante una estrategia como la metáfora sino que, al mismo tiempo, este procedimiento se acompaña de una formulación, sea en el pre-texto o en el postexto, directa o explícita, que, en opinión de ottati et al. (2014: 192), “can serve as a cognitive expectancy that influences the interpretation of subsequent information”. en la muestra 3, el descrédito que conlleva la equiparación de este universo con una farsa va precedido de una descalificación literal del político, a quien se acusa de adoptar un mensaje inviable por puro oportunismo y de interpretar equivocadamente la realidad como consecuencia de un subidón de ego y de mil errores de percepción y cálculo. una vez conceptualizada la política como representación, se proyectan sobre ella algunas de las categorías clave de todo drama (burke, 1969), tales como el escenario y el personaje. la primera de ellas, el escenario, el lugar donde se desarrolla la representación, se corresponde con cualquiera de los espacios en los que el político ejerce su actividad, llámese parlamento, llámese mitin, y que se identifican, finalmente, con el mundo, concebido entonces, según se constata en los extractos que seguidamente exponemos (4, 5, 6 y 7), como un gran escenario en el que el político protagoniza el espectáculo, que a veces queda reducido a ruido escénico, tal y como ocurre en la muestra 7, donde las elecciones primarias que tienen lugar en un partido político se identifican con la citada expresión, referida a la interferencia que puede afectar a la comunicación entre el público y la escena: (4) ocurre que los dos jarrones chinos […] lucen con demasiada intensidad en unas estanterías repletas de enseres vulgares como son las de la escena pública española (i. camacho, fondo de armario, abc, 08/11/13). (5) no debe haber persona más feliz esta última semana que el ministro de educación, josé ignacio wert, que, por fin, ha conseguido desaparecer del escenario público, guarecido […] detrás de las imponentes figuras de alberto ruiz-gallardón y josé manuel soria (s. gallego-díaz, compromisos para quien ose pedir el voto, el país, 29/12/13). (6) la izquierda suele hacer de estos congresos un gran escenario para el mitin […] (c. herrera, ¿de verdad que no van a hablar de eso?, abc, 08/11/13). (7) se equivocan por tanto quienes creen que el partido socialista está metáfora conceptual y el marco espectáculo ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 129 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 129 desahuciado como alternativa. con este alegre modelo de gasto, el ruido escénico que generarán las primarias y un candidato de refresco pueden estar en condiciones de disputar el poder dentro de un par de años […] (i. camacho, el partido que se parece a españa, abc, 11/11/13). la relación solidaria que se establece entre el escenario y el espacio en el que interviene la clase política se acompaña a menudo, como hemos visto a propósito de otras correspondencias, de secuencias que explicitan la evaluación negativa que el autor de la metáfora hace del político, sistemáticamente vinculado con el concepto de engaño, que aflora a la superficie del texto a través de términos tales como fraude, suplantación, crisis de credibilidad o cuestionamiento de la legitimidad, según observamos en los fragmentos 8 y 9: (8) el factor william wallace, la fraudulenta leyenda heroica de la liberación nacional, se ha apoderado del escenario público catalán al suplantar con la movilización callejera los mecanismos de representación democrática (i. camacho, el factor wallace, abc, 13/09/13). (9) y crisis de liderazgo político y de credibilidad que afecta prácticamente a todos los actores de ese escenario, al ser cuestionada su legitimidad […] (j.l. garcía delgado, por un compromiso de regeneración democrática, el país, 13/11/13). no es infrecuente que la proyección metafórica del escenario sobre el lugar en el que actúa el político se instancie, como en los extractos 10, 11 y 12, mediante otras expresiones que activan el mismo marco escénico en la mente del receptor: tal es el caso del sintagma nominal telón de fondo (10), “aquello que cierra la escena”; de la locución adverbial entre bastidores12 (11), “fuera de la representación que el público ve en el escenario”, que alude, además, al propósito del político de ocultar a la opinión pública sus actuaciones; o de la locución verbal rasgarse las vestiduras con dramatismo griego (12), la cual focaliza la hipocresía de la clase política, que se escandaliza y se indigna con la afectación o la exageración propias de un actor, como nos da a entender, más allá de la metáfora, el autor de la muestra 12 cuando afirma que llegado el momento, nada de nada: (10) pero este es solamente el telón de fondo sobre el que se desarrollan otros dos argumentos […] (j. coll, cataluña, democracia o populismo, el país, 09/09/13). (11) sería, con todo, un error atribuir toda la responsabilidad al extinto gracia pinero-pinero ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142130 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 130 dictador. […]. secundados por figuras de segunda fila, pero miembros prominentes de la élite de los servidores del régimen […], todos más o menos enzarzados en una lucha entre bastidores de la que nadie ha dicho hasta ahora ni pío (a. viñas, la astracanada del oro de moscú, el país, 23/08/13). (12) durante un año la clase política española ha discutido, se ha peleado y se ha rasgado las vestiduras con dramatismo griego por la cuestión catalana, pero llegado el momento, nada de nada (n. redondo terreros, ante el desafío catalán, ni todo ni nada, el país, 27/09/13). junto al escenario, el personaje es otra de las categorías esenciales al drama (burke, 1969) que en nuestro corpus se corresponde metafóricamente con el político, quien de este modo se transforma en actor, en alguien que representa un personaje y que, consecuentemente, finge ser lo que no es. las muestras que siguen (13, 14, 15, 16 y 17) categorizan a los mandatarios públicos como actores, protagonistas públicos que adoptan papeles y que, como se constata en la última de ellas, abandonan la escena cuando concluyen su espectáculo: (13) wert ha adoptado el papel del fanático mceachern, el personaje creado por william faulkner en luz de agosto, empeñado en que su hijo adoptivo joe christmas aprendiera el catecismo a latigazos (a. lara ramos, wert: fracasará tu reforma, el país, 17/07/13). (14) y crisis de liderazgo político y de credibilidad que afecta prácticamente a todos los actores de ese escenario, al ser cuestionada su legitimidad […] (j.l. garcía delgado, por un compromiso de regeneración democrática, el país, 13/11/13). (15) todo el proceso de reforma estatutaria fue desgraciado desde el principio hasta el final; los actores políticos del momento, tanto en barcelona como en madrid, actuaron con frivolidad y cortoplacismo […] (j. coll, cataluña, democracia o populismo, el país, 09/09/13). (16) no se dan cuenta, por ejemplo, los dirigentes de los dos grandes partidos nacionales […] que la falta de acuerdo entre ellos no solo es aprovechada por los nacionalistas catalanes, sino que profundiza el alejamiento de los ciudadanos, que son incapaces de ver un mínimo de grandeza en los protagonistas públicos (n. redondo terreros, ante el desafío catalán, ni todo ni nada, el país, 27/09/13). (17) ése era el calendario sobre el cual se articuló la política de estado de un rodríguez zapatero que sólo abandonó la escena cuando ya todas las metáfora conceptual y el marco espectáculo ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 131 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 131 determinaciones conducentes a ese desenlace estuvieron tomadas (g. albiac, cierre de modelo, abc, 24/10/13). en las secuencias anteriores, además, esta conceptualización metafórica que desautoriza al político como simulador suele apuntalarse con otros argumentos que lo denigran manifiestamente; así, en la 13, el político adopta el papel de un fanático, de quien carece de mesura en la defensa de sus opiniones; en la 14, la metáfora está flanqueda por juicios negativos en torno a la clase política, de la que se afirma que atraviesa una crisis de credibilidad y de la que se cuestiona su legitimidad; en la 15, se abunda en su descrédito acusándole de proceder con frivolidad y cortoplacismo; en la 16, por último, se le culpa de carecer de un mínimo de grandeza, de elevación moral. de acuerdo con el referido enfoque dramatúrgico de la interacción social (goffman, 1959), el rol, el papel que representa el individuo, se instancia en nuestros textos en metáforas lingüísticas que aluden a los diversos artificios, máscara, camuflaje o disfraz13, a los que recurre el gobernante con el fin de no ser reconocido o de tomar el aspecto de otro. en los extractos siguientes (18, 19 y 20), el político queda deslegitimado por engañar deliberadamente, por enmascarar, camuflar o disfrazar; y por hacerlo, además, con el fin ilícito de tapar sus muchas vergüenzas, como se indica en el primero de ellos: (18) la insultante, desgraciada, impúdica y repugnante ley del aborto, enmascarada con el pornográfico tratamiento lingüístico de ley orgánica de protección de la vida del concebido y de los derechos de la mujer embarazada, hojarasca rimbombante para tapar sus muchas vergüenzas […] (j.m. izquierdo, abortemos esa funesta ley del aborto, el país, 27/12/13). (19) […] la historia nos muestra que la exacerbación de los conflictos que tienen una base identitaria, aunque intenten camuflarse tras otras máscaras, diluyen las verdaderas luchas por una mayor igualdad y justicia social (j. coll, cataluña, democracia o populismo, el país, 09/09/13). (20) incluso la foto que ilustraba en muchos medios la presencia de montoro en el congreso (abrazado a su colega de economía, luis de guindos) era forzada […]. resultaba curiosa, mientras los testigos permanecían atónitos ante el disfraz de un país acelerado en su bienestar (j. estefanía, ese no es el debate, el país, 27/10/13). sin embargo, el dominio cognitivo del espectáculo, según hemos afirmado, va más allá del drama; por ello, el dirigente no solo se conceptúa como actor, como hemos visto hasta ahora; es, además, prestidigitador, ventrílocuo e gracia pinero-pinero ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142132 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 132 incluso estrella de la canción, según sea la modalidad de espectáculo en la que se sitúe el usuario de la metáfora. todas estas instanciaciones, como veremos, insisten en la descalificación del político por fingidor, por dar a entender algo que no es cierto. la primera de estas conceptualizaciones, como decimos, identifica la política con el ilusionismo, con el “arte de producir fenómenos que parecen contradecir los hechos naturales”; en nuestro corpus, lejos de constituir un entretenimiento inocente, hace referencia a acciones deliberadamente encaminadas a hacer pasar por real lo que no lo es. el dirigente, entonces, se retrata como un prestidigitador, como un constructor de falsas apariencias, que, mediante trucos, crea la ilusión de que algo imposible está ocurriendo. tal es el caso de sacar un conejo de la chistera14, según se afirma en el fragmento que sigue (21): (21) la diputada cunillera pertenece a un psc experto en sacarse conejos de la chistera política y que tiene curiosamente serios problemas «federales» porque actúa más como «confederado» que como «federado», o sea cuestionando a todas horas el poder federal de ferraz y de la moncloa (i. ezquerra, corcuera y el alma, abc, 20/09/13). en las líneas que reproducimos a continuación, el mandatario público se identifica, además, con un ventrílocuo, con una persona “que tiene el arte de modificar su voz de manera que parezca venir de lejos, y que imita las de otras personas”. esta metáfora negativa desacredita al político y lo representa como un sujeto que transmite un discurso ajeno, prestado, correspondiente al personaje que encarna en la escena, tal y como señala el texto siguiente (22): (22) la misión sagrada del escribiente político, el negro de toda la vida que ahora se denomina ghostwriter, consiste en diluirse en el anonimato y dejar que su jefe pase a la historia como ventrílocuo de un ingenio prestado (i. camacho, fin de la cita, abc, 06/08/13). el político, por último, se transforma también, en el marco del espectáculo, en una estrella de la canción, de la que interesa su apariencia, su aspecto, su imagen, como explicita la muestra 23, en la que las acciones de reformar o renovar que ejecuta el político se identifican no solo con fichar a un justin bieber sino también con sustituir ideas por palabras retóricas: (23) las reformas solo se justifican con argumentos rigurosos acerca de problemas muy serios. por poner algunos ejemplos: cataluña, la política metáfora conceptual y el marco espectáculo ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 133 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 133 fiscal, la crisis del euro, programas de gasto social no redistributivo, la dirección política de la unión europea. si no es así, reformar o renovar solo consistirá en fichar a un justin bieber; en sustituir ideas por palabras retóricas (j. m. maravall, más participación para salvar la política, el país, 16/09/13). apreciamos en este extracto un complejo metafórico (ruiz de mendoza y galera, 2014: 96), sustanciado en la expresión fichar a un justin bieber, en la que concurren dos escenarios relacionados con el dominio espectáculo: de una parte, el vocablo fichar activa el marco base del espectáculo deportivo, cuya estructura conceptual se proyecta sobre el político para identificarlo con un fichaje, con el contrato de un deportista de prestigio por parte de un club o de un equipo; de otra, el empleo del nombre propio de un conocido artista, justin bieber, introduce el escenario del espectáculo musical para conceptualizar al político como una estrella de la canción; este escenario del espectáculo musical incorpora a la vez un conglomerado conceptual, derivado de la interacción entre metáfora y metonimia, que se particulariza en un caso de parangón (ruiz de mendoza y galera, 2014: 113), pues conlleva una reducción metonímica del dominio fuente: en efecto, el parangón, definido como objeto o persona considerada como modelo y ejemplo de una cualidad en particular, se materializa aquí en la figura de justin bieber, para representar al político como una persona que dispone de una imagen exterior impecable, pero a la que no necesariamente se le presuponen argumentos o ideas rigurosas a la hora de emprender reformas de su competencia. naturalmente, el espectáculo, como suele ser habitual en las fiestas públicas, tiene como ingrediente ineludible la cohetería, los fuegos de artificio, que, con su estallido de luces, colores y sonidos, proyectan metafóricamente la noción de agitación, de inquietud, sobre el mundo de la política en general, en el caso de la muestra 24, y, en la muestra 25, sobre las elecciones primarias que tienen lugar en el seno de un partido político: (24) […] el sanedrín socialista decidió pisar el acelerador y considerar que todo valía contra un gobierno de derechas que dos años atrás les había humillado en las urnas con una aplastante mayoría absoluta. todo valía y todo se hizo: el salto valorativo de la crítica razonable a la cohetería y la agitación fue inmediato (c. herrera, aznar hundió el prestige, abc, 15/11/13). (25) no me sorprende, pues, que se prefiera evitar la cohetería de las primarias (c. herrera, ¿de verdad que no van a hablar de eso?, abc, 08/11/13). gracia pinero-pinero ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142134 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 134 el examen efectuado confirma el dinamismo consustancial a los procesos de categorización, en tanto que en el discurso político de los medios de comunicación el vehículo del espectáculo y el teatro se proyecta metafóricamente sobre los líderes políticos para focalizar una propiedad, la de fingidor, que, aunque en un principio se estima como extrínseca y periférica, parece estar adquiriendo un mayor grado de centralidad en nuestra comunidad de habla para representar esta categoría. en este sentido, conviene tener presente que cada una de las especificaciones que conforman el significado enciclopédico de una entidad dispone de un grado particular de centralidad, correlacionado con factores diversos15 y, de manera especial, como en el caso que nos ocupa, con el nivel de convencionalidad que alcanza en una determinada comunidad de habla. al respecto, afirma langacker (1987: 159): “a specification achieves linguistic significance, and can be regarded as part of the meaning of a lexical item, only to the extent that it is shared by a community of speakers”. 6. conclusiones nuestro análisis ha puesto de manifiesto la pertinencia de un marco teórico conformado por la confluencia de la lingüística cognitiva y del análisis crítico del discurso para descubrir el modo en que la actividad discursiva, en tanto que práctica social, se constituye en el escenario en el que se construyen las identidades de los interlocutores sociales, tanto del individuo como del grupo social al que pertenece. centrados particularmente en la metáfora conceptual, hemos constatado una vez más que la categorización se muestra como un proceso dinámico, que pone al descubierto que los significados de las expresiones lingüísticas dependen en buena medida de las representaciones conceptuales de los sujetos, quienes, mediante la selección de unos marcos específicos sobre los que proyectan el tópico del discurso, establecen los elementos relevantes para hablar de una determinada categoría y modulan el grado de centralidad de sus rasgos definitorios. en nuestro caso, y a través de un corpus constituido por textos pertenecientes al discurso político de los medios de comunicación españoles de mayor difusión, hemos analizado las metáforas conceptuales y lingüísticas perfiladas sobre el dominio cognitivo del espectáculo y el teatro, que deslegitiman al político – y el universo en el que se desenvuelve – presentándolo como persona que finge lo que no es. metáfora conceptual y el marco espectáculo ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 135 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 135 a través del análisis de las correspondencias metafóricas generadas por la estructura conceptual que presta el foco estudiado, hemos observado su rendimiento cognitivo, que agiliza el procesamiento de los participantes en la comunicación (ottati et al., 2014; crawford, 2014), establece su posición actitudinal (martin y white, 2005) y, por último, incorpora una disonancia cognitiva (festinger, 1957), según la cual el político queda colocado sobre un escenario ajeno, en el que desarrolla funciones opuestas a las propias de su caracterización más intrínseca. el dominio cognitivo analizado proyecta sobre la vida pública algunas de las categorías clave de toda representación: así, este universo se convierte en un gran escenario, en el que el político se describe como un actor que interpreta un papel, identificado metafóricamente con la máscara, el camuflaje o el disfraz, que son los artificios a los que recurre con el fin de no ser reconocido o de tomar el aspecto de otro. más allá del teatro, en otras modalidades de espectáculo, el gobernante queda representado como un prestidigitador, que mediante trucos crea la ilusión de que algo imposible está ocurriendo; como un ventrílocuo, que transmite un discurso ajeno, el propio del personaje que encarna; y finalmente, como un deportista de prestigio o como una estrella de la canción, de la que interesa su apariencia, su imagen, su aspecto. las metáforas que beben de este marco fuente se constituyen entonces en un procedimiento de deslegitimación del político – muchas veces acompañado de otras formulaciones explícitas – , quien, proyectado sobre él, queda devaluado y desacreditado como un simulador, al que se tilda de mentiroso, de falsificador. la frecuencia con la que se presentan estas correspondencias permite hablar de una metáfora sistemática (cameron, 2010: 91) o de escenarios de metáforas (cameron y maslen, 2010: 251), por cuanto se dan cita en sucesivos acontecimientos de discurso, en los que, además de otorgarles coherencia, contribuyen a crear una narrativa (fisher, 1984), un circuito de emociones negativas, que repercute en la calificación ética de los protagonistas. la deslegitimación del político como fingidor constituye, a tenor de su convencionalidad, una representación metafórica socialmente compartida, que, consecuentemente, se observa, más que a través de individuos, a través de grupos socioculturales (cienki, 2005; mussolf, 2004, 2006), entre cuyos miembros constituye una herramienta relevante en el discurso intergrupal (bowdle y gentner, 2005). gracia pinero-pinero ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142136 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 136 el dinamismo inherente a los procesos de categorización convierte el discurso político de los medios de comunicación en un espejo que refleja, mediante las conceptualizaciones metafóricas que efectúan los interlocutores, sus inquietudes, sus reivindicaciones, las transformaciones, en fin, que tienen lugar en el contexto en el que se desenvuelven y que permiten entender las discrepancias con que distintas comunidades de habla interpretan una misma entidad, porque, como afirman beer y de landtsheer (2004: 6), las metáforas son herramientas esenciales para enmarcar el discurso, para mantener o transformar las ideas políticas. agradecimientos queremos agradecer a los dos revisores anónimos los constructivos comentarios vertidos sobre una versión anterior de este artículo. article history: received 20 february 2017 received in revised form 7 july 2017 accepted 10 july 2017 bibliografía metáfora conceptual y el marco espectáculo ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 137 barton, d. 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(2007). applied 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 139 gracia piñero piñero, doctora en filología hispánica y profesora titular de universidad, forma parte de la división cognición, texto y contexto del instituto universitario de análisis y aplicaciones textuales (iatext) de la universidad de las palmas de gran canaria. desarrolla su investigación en diversas áreas relacionadas con la lingüística aplicada y con la lingüística cognitiva notas 1 de acuerdo con la convención propia de los trabajos desarrollados en el ámbito de la teoría de la metáfora conceptual, mantenemos la versalita para referirnos a los dominios cognitivos fuente y diana, así como a las metáforas conceptuales. 2 este trabajo forma parte de una investigación de mayor amplitud que analiza los dominios cognitivos empleados en el discurso político de los medios de comunicación para desacreditar al político mediante metáforas. el marco del espectáculo y del teatro que estudiamos aquí se completa con una matriz integrada por los tres dominios siguientes: decoración y maquillaje, comercio y marketing, y, por último, sueño y fantasía. todos ellos comparten con el espectáculo una semejanza de familia, pues reiteran, mediante escenarios diferentes, la conceptualización del profesional de la política como manipulador, como persona que distorsiona la verdad al servicio de intereses particulares. la amplitud significativa de esta matriz y las numerosas proyecciones metafóricas que origina han aconsejado dedicarle un estudio específico (pinero-pinero, 2017). gracia pinero-pinero ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142140 cultural linguistics. implications for second language learning and intercultural communication. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. steen, g. (2007). finding metaphor in grammar and usage. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. steen, g.j., a.g. dorst, j.b. herrman, a.a. koal, t. krennmayr y t. pasma (2010). a method for linguistic metaphor identification: from mip to mipvu. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. stefanowitsch, a. (2006). “corpus-based approaches to metaphor and metonymy”, en a. stefanowitsch, s.th. gries (eds.), corpus-based approaches to metaphor and metonymy, 1-16. berlin/new york: mouton de gruyter. turner, m. (1991). reading minds: the study of english in the age of cognitive science. princeton, nj: university press. valenzuela, j., i. ibarretxe-antuñano y j. hilferty (2012). “la semántica cognitiva”, en i. ibarretxeantuñano y j. valenzuela (dirs.), 41-68. van dijk, t. (1997). discourse as social interaction. discourse studies: a multidisciplinary introduction. london: sage. van dijk, t. (1998). ideology. a multidisciplinary approach. london: sage. van dijk, t. (1999). “el análisis crítico del discurso”. anthropos 186: 23-36. van dijk, t. (2009). society and discourse: how social context influence text and talk. cambridge, new york: cambridge university press. wodak, r. (2006). “mediation between discourse and society: assessing cognitive approaches in cda”. discourse studies 8(1): 179-190. yanes mesa, r. (2004). “el artículo, un género entre la opinión y la actualidad”. revista latina de comunicación social 58: 1-10. zinken, j. (2003). “ideological imagination: intertextual and correlational metaphors in political discourse”. discourse & society 14(4): 507-523. 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 140 3 las consideraciones sobre la necesidad de aunar el análisis crítico del discurso y la lingüística cognitiva han alumbrado la denominada critical metaphor theory (charteris-black, 2005: 26), que establece vínculos entre el componente cognitivo, el componente social y el componente lingüístico del discurso. 4 en el ámbito de la sociolingüística interaccional, lave y wenger (1991) introducen el concepto de community of practice para referirse a la variación que experimenta el lenguaje, no por la pertenencia del individuo a un determinado grupo social, sino por su implicación en una actividad específica. 5 pretendemos un estudio cualitativo, que, más allá del grado de frecuencia con el que estas metáforas afloran en el discurso, revele la categorización que hacen los autores del corpus de esta esfera de la realidad. 6 naturalmente, no se trata de metáforas específicas del discurso político; por el contrario, nos hallamos ante proyecciones convencionales, que se dan cita en nuestro corpus y que pueden identificarse en otros tipos de discurso, porque, como afirman maass et al. (2014: 153-4), las metáforas compartidas se procesan con mayor facilidad y rapidez y, por ello, se convierten en una herramienta relevante en el discurso intergrupal. 7 cameron y deignan (2003) y goatly (2011) se refieren a estas expresiones con el nombre de metaphor flags; por su parte, steen et al. (2010) hablan de metaphor in thought. 8 atendiendo a nuestro propósito de desarrollar un estudio cualitativo y con el fin de no sobrepasar los límites de un trabajo de esta naturaleza con reiteraciones innecesarias, hemos seleccionado aquellos fragmentos del corpus en los que las proyecciones metafóricas estudiadas son más significativas o añaden algún matiz especialmente revelador. 9 todas las definiciones que figuran en este estudio están extraídas del diccionario de la lengua española (rae 2017), de manera que, a partir de este momento, y para no resultar excesivamente reiterativos, omitiremos la referencia a esta fuente. 10 moreno lara (2008) documenta en la prensa inglesa la categorización de unas elecciones y de un diálogo entre políticos como una farce. 11 las muestras extractadas del corpus se acompañan de la información relacionada con el texto en que se insertan: autor, periódico en que aparecen y fecha de publicación. 12 moreno lara (2008) identifica en la prensa británica la expresión behind the scenes para hacer referencia al modo en que el político desarrolla secretamente sus actividades, con el propósito consciente de ocultarse a la luz pública. 13 chilton (1996: 141) documenta la representación de la mentira y el engaño como un disfraz en la metáfora el marxismo es un disfraz identificada en el texto enviado por georges kennan, responsable de asuntos exteriores en la embajada de moscú, al departamento de estado americano a propósito del discurso que stalin pronunció el 9 de febrero de 1946. en este caso, se conceptualiza el secretismo y el engaño atribuido a la mente soviética como un disfraz. 14 núñez y guerrero (2002: 109) incluyen, entre los vehículos a los que recurre la comunicación política, ciertas profesiones como el ilusionista, que ilustran con un enunciado del expresidente del gobierno español j.m. aznar similar al identificado en nuestro corpus: gonzález es un ilusionista que se saca de la chistera un conejo llamado garzón. 15 a propósito del grado de centralidad de los rasgos que configuran una categoría, asevera langacker metáfora conceptual y el marco espectáculo ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142 141 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 141 (1987: 159): “the inherent nature of a specification does not fully determine its degree of centrality, but several contributing factors can be discerned: centrality tends to correlate with the extent to which a specification is conventional, generic, intrinsic, and characteristic”. gracia pinero-pinero ibérica 36 (2018): 119-142142 05 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:22 página 142 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper deals with task design in the context of a telecollaboration project which was carried out in a business english course among students from spain and the united states. the goal was to provide students with opportunities to develop linguistic, intercultural and digital competences by interacting and collaborating online with native speakers of the target language. a task-based approach was adopted and enriched by gamification, the different tasks being designed with a view towards engaging students intrinsically in the learning process. this was achieved by means of the adoption of gamification strategies and techniques such as the use of points, performance graphs, quests, avatars, a reward system, peer assessment and the use of social media. via technological immersion, students from both sides of the atlantic ocean were required to work together online to complete different tasks while exchanging peer feedback and assessment. the paper analyses and discusses participants’ views and perceptions about the gamified telecollaboration exchange. the quantitative and qualitative data were gathered by means of preand post-treatment questionnaires. results indicate that students found this way of learning beneficial in terms of the development of different skills and competences (namely linguistic, digital and intercultural) and motivation. keywords: telecollaboration, gamification, task design, business english. resumen “ a p re n di e nd o de l a v i da r e al y no d e l os l ib ro s ” : u n e n f oq ue l ud if i c ad o d e l d i s e ño d e t ar e as de l i ng l é s d e n e g oc io s e n l a te l e c o l ab or ac ió n tra ns a tl á nt ic a “learning from real life and not books”: a gamified approach to business english task design in transatlantic telecollaboration ana sevilla-pavón and julia haba-osca universitat de valència (españa) ana.m.sevilla@uv.es & julia.haba@uv.es 235 ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca este artículo versa sobre el diseño de tareas en el contexto de un proyecto de telecolaboración que fue llevado a cabo en una asignatura de inglés para los negocios entre estudiantes de españa y de los estados unidos. el objetivo era ofrecer a los estudiantes oportunidades de desarrollar competencias lingüísticas, interculturales y digitales por medio de la interacción y colaboración con hablantes nativos de la lengua meta. se adaptó un enfoque basado en tareas y enriquecido por la ludificación a través de diferentes tareas diseñadas con el fin de implicar a los estudiantes intrínsecamente en el proceso de aprendizaje. ello se logró gracias a la adopción de estrategias y técnicas de ludificación como el uso de puntos, gráficos de rendimiento, narrativas épicas, avatares, sistema de premios, evaluación entre pares y herramientas de comunicación social. mediante la inmersión tecnológica, los estudiantes de ambos lados del océano atlántico tuvieron que trabajar juntos en línea para completar las diferentes tareas al tiempo que intercambiaban feedback y evaluación entre pares. el presente artículo analiza y describe las opiniones y percepciones de los participantes en cuanto al intercambio de telecolaboración ludificado. los datos cuantitativos y cualitativos se recogieron a través de prey postcuestionarios. los resultados indican que a los estudiantes esta manera de aprender les resultó beneficiosa en cuanto al desarrollo de diferentes destrezas y competencias (principalmente lingüísticas, digitales e interculturales) y motivación. palabras clave: telecolaboración, ludificación, diseño de tareas, inglés para los negocios. 1. introduction in recent years, the development of english for specific purposes (esp) has been considerable and the number of esp courses offered in higher education institutions and elsewhere has increased exponentially. this increase can be explained by socioeconomic reasons, new linguistic perspectives and the emergence of learner-centred approaches (hutchinson & waters, 1987; gatehouse, 2001). among those reasons, scientific and technological progress, economic and linguistic reasons and the current position of english as the world’s unofficial lingua franca (warschauer, 2006) as well as an increase in vocational training and learning brought about by globalisation (basturkmen, 2010) can be underlined. over the past few years, experts have widely researched professional and academic varieties of english as a foreign language (fuertes-olivera & samaniego, 2012). parallel to the growing demand of esp courses, educators are becoming more aware of the benefits of promoting the integration of information and 236 communications technologies (ict) into educational practices. in this respect, authors such as clifford (1998) argue that even though teachers will never be replaced by computers and ict, technology-savvy teachers will progressively replace teachers who don’t use ict in their teaching contexts. moreover, the spread of ict use worldwide has contributed toward the hegemonic role of the english language (warschauer, 2006). the obvious need for a change in the curriculum tailored to the needs and demands of society in the twenty-first century requires greater and committed strategies for appropriate teacher training. moreover, technological resources in schools and higher education need to be provided in order to operate a number of practices aimed at the integration and effective implementation of educational technology in educational processes. the constant evolution of society regarding the use of technology in general, and education in particular, points out the need to embed the use of ict in daily school practices. in this way, normalisation (bax, 2000, 2003; chambers & bax, 2006) would be achieved and ict use would no longer be disconnected from the curriculum. in this context, ict “normalisation” is understood as the stage at which ict is used in language education without our being consciously aware of their role as technologies but rather as effective and embedded elements in the language teaching and learning processes (bax, 2003). thus, a continuum between the use of ict outside the classroom – for professional and personal purposes – and the use of technologies for learning would be established. the possibility of achieving normalisation in the language classroom is growing day by day thanks to an increasingly robust research body around innovative teaching approaches such as telecollaboration, also called virtual mobility, online interaction and exchange (dooly & o’dowd, 2012), or etandem. telecollaboration involves the “application of global computer networks to foreign (and second) language learning and teaching in institutionalized settings” (belz, 2003: 2). thus, in telecollaborative exchanges, internationally-dispersed learners in parallel language classes use internet communication tools such as e-mail, synchronous chat, threaded discussion, and moos (as well as other forms of electronically mediated communication), in order to support social interaction, dialogue, debate, and intercultural exchange. (belz, 2003: 2) the vitality of this teaching approach is shown by the growing number of participants and dedicated online platforms which demonstrate that a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 237 telecollaboration is much more present than ever in foreign language classrooms (sevilla-pavón & haba-osca, 2016). another innovative teaching approach is the more recent approach known as gamification, which can be considered as the use of game elements in non-gaming contexts to improve user experience and engagement (kapp, 2012; kapp, blair & mesch, 2013). in order to clarify the many reasons why a telecollaboration approach enriched by gamification is particularly convenient, we must highlight the fact that it assumes a social-constructivist view of the learning process (vygotsky, 1978) which is student-centred (vygotsky, 1978; jones, 2007) and task-based (willis, 1996; skehan, 2003a, 2003b; richards & rodgers, 2014), all of which are of major importance in current language learning theories and approaches (lee, 2000). besides this, it is a form of virtual mobility increasingly used in different educational levels, including higher education, substituting and complementing the physical mobility of students (o’dowd, 2013) by allowing both a first-hand contact with the target language and the achievement of cultural goals (eck, legenhausen & wolff, 1955; kern, ware & warschauer, 2004; hauck & youngs, 2008). furthermore, this form of distant collaboration is characterised by the interaction between students from different parts of the world who attend parallel classes of foreign language(s) while using communication via the internet or mediated by synchronous and asynchronous tools (belz, 2003). in this way, because communication is one of the main elements of telecollaborative tasks, this teaching approach promotes the development of students’ communicative competence (cc). cc is an essential competence due to its importance in students’ intellectual development, as established by the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr, council of europe, 2001). the importance of the concept of cc was introduced a few decades ago and discussed by habermas (1970), hymes (1971, 1995), jakobovits (1970), canale (1983, 1995) and widdowson (1972, 1978, 1995), among others. they all pointed out the urgent need to take into account the socio-cultural traits necessary for the use and acquisition of a foreign language. therefore, as early as 1970 cc was considered a practical ability rather than an idealistic concept isolated from its context and linguistic knowledge. currently, this wider vision has been enriched by the addition of a specific intercultural dimension resulting in the concept of intercultural communicative competence (icc). particularly, the council of europe has stressed the importance of icc in today’s globalized society, which they define as follows: a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260238 intercultural dialogue is an open and respectful exchange of views between individuals and groups belonging to different cultures that leads to a deeper understanding of the other’s global perception. (council of europe, 2008: 128) many authors have focused on different aspects and benefits of telecollaboration in language learning contexts (eck, legenhausen & wolff, 1995; kern, ware & warschauer, 2004; hauck & youngs, 2008) and there is also an increasing body of research about gamification in educational settings (dominguez, saenz-de-navarrete, de-marcos, fernández-sanz, pagés & martinez-herraiz, 2013; attali & arieli-attali, 2015; hanus & fox, 2015; kingsley & grabner-hagen, 2015; kim, 2015; su & cheng, 2015). however, to our knowledge, these two approaches have never been applied in an english for specific purposes (esp) context and neither have they been used in combination. this paper aims to contribute towards filling in these gaps in the literature by exploring task design in a gamified esp telecollaboration project for the development of students’ icc, linguistic, and digital competences. this is done following the recommendation of the council of europe, which advises that intercultural dialogue and communicative competence should be key areas of european policy, progressively replacing “assimilationist” and “multicultural” models for dealing with our increasingly diverse societies (helm, 2013). “assimilationist” and “multicultural” models have been criticised for being one-dimensional and for fostering inequalities based on culture, religion, race, gender, and socio-economic condition (gitlin, 1995; gwyn, 1995; barry, 2001; alesina & glaeser, 2004; bloemraad, korteweg & yurdakul, 2008). in response to this, the integration of the theoretical backgrounds of social psychology, interpersonal communication, and anthropology has been proposed so as to construct a multidimensional understanding of icc (arasaratnama & doerfel, 2005) with a view towards fighting the aforementioned inequalities. 2. gamification in the classroom over the past decade we have witnessed a worldwide technological revolution which has deeply changed our society and the way we communicate, work, and access information. this new era is also characterised by an accelerated technological progress in which new a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 239 innovations keep emerging and spreading widely, making previous technologies obsolete within just a few years and producing dramatic changes (bostrom, 2007) in social practices such as the way we communicate, access and share information. in this context, researchers and practitioners are faced with the challenge of adapting their teaching styles and practices to the changes brought about by our knowledge and information society, characterised by rapid access to huge amounts of information via the internet and, in some cases, the risk of “infoxication” (benito-ruiz, 2009) or “infosaturation” (dias, 2014). in spite of the challenges, there are many positive aspects about this new digital era, such as the emergence of a new type of collaborative individuals who co-construct knowledge and share, access and modify information over the internet thus contributing towards a co-constructed collaborative culture (kessler, 2013). this has to do with the evolution from the web 1.0, in which the www user was a passive receiver of information, towards the more participatory web 2.0 or social web, in which the user plays a more active role (sevilla-pavón, 2015). bearing in mind the social and educational practices of today’s collaborative, interconnected and digitally immersed students, language educators have tried to come up with new ways of integrating those practices into the classroom and even beyond its four walls (peregoy & boyle, 2005; ponder, vander veldt & lewis-ferrell, 2011). among those, gamification and telecollaboration have raised a lot of interest due to the myriad of affordances for language learning they offer thanks to the fact that they bring the outside world into the classroom while building bridges between the classroom and the external reality. some of the most beneficial aspects of connecting social and learning practices inside and outside classrooms, as reported in the literature, include the enrichment of the learning process by means of higher levels of engagement and motivation (bishop, 2012; kapp, 2012; de-marcos, domínguez, saenz-de-navarrete & pagés, 2014) collaboration (kukulska-hulme & shield, 2008; bradley, lindstrom & rystedt, 2010), intercultural awareness (lee, 1998) and problem-solving (leithwood & poplin, 1992). in spite of the increasing interest that gamification has raised among educators and researchers alike, there is no agreement on the definition of the concept of gamification. werbach and hunter (2012), as well as deterding, dixon, khaled and nacke (2011), understand gamification as the use of game elements and game design techniques in non-game contexts, a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260240 with the aim of enhancing the processes enacted and the experience of those involved (caponetto, earp & ott, 2014). meanwhile, koivisto and hamari (2014) prefer a broader view of gamification as “the phenomenon of creating gameful experiences”, understanding “gameful experiences” as experiences which incorporate game mechanisms “for engaging people in individually and socially sustainable behaviours, such as exercise, sustainable consumption, and education” (koivisto & hamari, 2014: 179). gamification is based on the success of the gaming industry and social media and virtually any task, assignment, process or theoretical context can be gamified. albeit, not all situations, contexts and tasks require it. still, gamification has been applied to a broad variety of settings and contexts, including education and training, because of its perceived potential to make learning more motivating and engaging (caponetto, earp & ott, 2014), while fostering participation, empowerment, autonomy and digital literacy. deterding, dixon, khaled and nacke (2011) consider that the main game design elements are: badges, stat and experience points, leaderboards, levels, time constraints, limited resources, turns, narratives, clear goals, variety of game styles, challenge, fantasy and curiosity. moreover, among the different gamification mechanisms and dynamics we also find economy points, progress bars, performance graphs, quests, avatars, social elements and media, votes and reward systems, achievements, virtual goods, guilds and skill trees (krause, mogalle, pohl & williams, 2015). the gamification elements, mechanisms and dynamics chosen with a view towards enriching the telecollaboration project were points, leaderboards, progress bars, performance graphs, quests, avatars, social elements, votes and a reward system. this means that elements from both a thin-layer approach (e.g. points and badges) and a long-term deep-level (e.g. quests, social elements and media) approach (marczewski, 2013) were used in the project, as discussed in the following section. 3. dynamics and mechanisms of gamification 3.1. point systems the first gamification element which was applied to task design in the project was a point system. points can be considered as numeric accumulations based on certain activities (sheldon, 2010). in spite of being included in the category of thin-layer approaches to gamification, the use of a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 241 this point system can be very successful when used in combination with deep-layer elements. the point system was applied with a view towards fostering participation and communication in english among students at all times. by giving points to students who participated in class and interacted in english, and taking away those points when spanish or catalan was used instead of english, interaction in the l2 was intended to be promoted and rewarded. having many points by the end of the semester would mean receiving up to 0.25 points added to their final grade. the point system was organized so as to follow the basic gamification principle of giving many chances to achieve the expected outcome (e.g. participating and interacting in l2 so as to gain more points), thus focusing on rewards rather than punishments. in addition, students were encouraged to reflect on the fact that they did not have many opportunities to interact in english outside of class, in spite of acknowledging that they found this interaction both enjoyable and beneficial. this reflection was aimed at helping them realize that they should take advantage of class time to practice the language. in this way, it was hoped that extrinsic motivation could be turned into intrinsic motivation (dörnyei, 1998). extrinsic motivation is understood as performing a behaviour as a means to an end, that is, to receive some extrinsic reward (e.g. better grades) or to avoid punishment (dörnyei, 1998). meanwhile, intrinsic motivation is defined as behaviour performed for its own sake, in order to “experience pleasure and satisfaction such as the joy of doing a particular activity or satisfying one’s curiosity” (dörnyei, 1998: 121). 3.2. quests and epic narratives another important gamification element in the project had to do with quests and epic narratives, which were related to the tasks students were asked to fulfill. because a quest can be understood as a mission with an objective that leads to rewards, it contributes towards fulfilling honour and individualism. moreover, quests add an epic dimension to tasks while promoting comradeship and a sense of justice (zichermann & cunningham, 2011). however, a lot of time and effort need to be invested in the design of a quest and in creating a powerful and relevant story. furthermore, students need to be persuaded that a quest is worth doing. in the project, the epic narrative behind the “developing a revolutionary product” quest was that of young entrepreneurs – the students from the a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260242 universitat de valència (uv) – who had created a start-up and were about to launch a revolutionary product for the american market. they were going to be advised by a group of consultants from the usa – the students from northern arizona university (nau) – who were familiar with the target market and its needs and expectations. the uv students’ task was to persuade investors – in this case, their classmates – to finance their product by means of an oral presentation in a business fair and a digital story in which they would present important aspects of their product. the presentation should incorporate an introduction (team, position, structure of the company, etc.); design, features and consumer benefits; feasibility; pricing strategy; distribution (sales outlets and channels); promotion (advertising, product launch and sales promotion); competing products or technologies; strategies: packaging, branding, guarantee; and a conclusion. by framing the tasks within the “developing a revolutionary product” quest students were asked to go beyond the simple completion of tasks so as to achieve a better grade at the end of term. instead, they were persuaded that they could fulfill an important mission which would potentially have a positive impact in society: developing an innovative and revolutionary product which would improve people’s lives. 3.3. other elements: leaderboards, avatars, social elements and social media other gamification elements that were used in the project included leaderboards, avatars, social elements and social media, and a reward system, as explained below: leaderboards: these were rankings of participants based on success (domínguez, saenz-de-navarrete, de-marcos, fernandez-sanz, pages & martinez-herraiz, 2013). examples of these include progress reports in aula virtual, the uv’s virtual learning environment, showing whether or not students had submitted their work on time and if it was well done. avatars: they were visual representations of students or their alter egos (kapp, 2012). for instance, the avatars chosen by students as their public image, which were displayed as their profile pictures on the google+ community, as shown in the following figure: a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 243 social elements and social media: these were used to foster relationships and collaboration with other students. they had to get in touch through various media: text and video chat, online forum, email, etc., in order to organize their work and make decisions about how to go about completing the different tasks of the project. a reward system: this system was used to motivate students to accomplish their quest. it included peer assessment in the form of votes in assessment rubrics and voting polls for digital stories (fig. 2) and oral presentations; prizes which were given in an award ceremony celebrated at the end of the term; and investments from investors according to their ratings in the assessment rubrics as well as in the “investors’ reports” students were asked to write. a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260244 a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): …-… other gamification elements that were used in the project included leaderboards, avatars, social elements and social media, and a reward system, as explained below: leaderboards: these were rankings of participants based on success (domínguez, saenz-de-navarrete, de-marcos, fernandez-sanz, pages & martinez-herraiz, 2013). examples of these include progress reports in aula virtual, the uv’s virtual learning environment, showing whether or not students had submitted their work on time and if it was well done. avatars: they were visual representations of students or their alter egos (kapp, 2012). for instance, the avatars chosen by students as their public image, which were displayed as their profile pictures on the google+ community, as shown in the following figure: figure 1. screenshot of a student’s avatar. social elements and social media: these were used to foster relationships with other students and collaboration. they had to get in touch through various media: text and video chat, online forum, email, etc., in order to organize their work and make decisions about how to go about completing the different tasks of the project. a reward system: this system was used to motivate students to accomplish their quest. it included peer assessment in the form of votes in assessment rubrics and voting polls for digital stories (fig. 2) and oral presentations; prizes which were given in an award ceremony celebrated at the end of the term; and investments from investors according to their ratings in the assessment rubrics as well as in the “investors’ reports” students were asked to write. a. alilve s n pavó & j. aba h acos tstnemelenoitacimagrehot danstenemelalcios,saratav :owlbe sdraobredale ereweseht: zneas,zeugnímo(d -devna zenima ziarrhe x e)310 2 nitcerpehtnidesuerwetaht ewra dana,iedmalcios sdar tsnaipticrapfosginknare ed,eterrav dnanref,socrma gor pedulcn ieseh oselpma ,sdraobredaeldedulcn ednailpexas,emtsys ssecucson d esba zed &segpa,znsa alu an istrope rsserg zenima ziarrhe , x e.)310 2 llautrvisuv’eht,lautrvi htdettimbsudahs tnedust wrei srataav erl auisverewyeht: atvaahet,encatnsiorf.2012) lorpriehtsadeyalpsiderwe :eruginwlloeth gor pedulcn ieseh oselpma wiohs,tnemnorivnegninrael lelwaswtifidane mitnokrow throtsnedtusfosntiotaneserpe rihetsasntudetsby n ehoscsra ehtnoserutcipe moc+elgogo alu an istrope rsserg tonrorehtewhgnwi e.nod , ppak(sogerlteaireth h chiw,geamicipubl niwnohssa,ytinumm e gurfi mlaicosdnastnemelelaicso 1e . ’tnedutsafotohsneersc aravats . aidem : t eshe tsotdesuerwe htwispihsnoitalerret itaboralolcnd asntudetsrheot relinnot, ahcoeidvdnat xte twohtuobasnoisicedekma .tceojpr metsysdrwaera : t metyssshi qu msessaseerpedduclniti.tes seiortslatgidislpolng ivot ony merecd rawan an in vegi srotsevnimofr to tgnidrocc a ope r’srtosevin “eth enduts” hrth ouctn itgeo td hay heton. grotoredroin., tceil, ame, mur ehtgnitelmpoctuobaogot di ntudetsetvaiotmo td eussawm asniestovfoe htnitenm s ) 2.gi(f noiattenesrpalrodan ethetofnd ehettad etabrelecony tnemssess aeh tn isgnita rrieh t e.tirwotedkase erwsten mousirvaough hr a:ied dnaowiretheiznag hetofkssatnterdi riheth siplomccao tsnt dancsirburtenmsessas e erwchihwzesirp;sn sntemtsnveind a;mre n is alle ws ascirbu r 3 3aicréib 710 (2 ): …-…8 a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): …-… figure 2. screenshot of the nau-uv voting poll. 4. the “nau-uv telecollaboration” project: a gamified approach the telecollaboration exchange described in this article was supported by the lifelong learning and educational innovation service from the universitat de valència. it was carried out between this university and northern arizona university (united states) during the first semester of the academic year 20152016, from october to december. the students had 4 hours per week of face-toface classes over 14 weeks, half of which were devoted to completing the different tasks of the project. 50 students in total (21 students from different degrees at nau and 29 international business students from uv) participated in the project, which combined gamification and telecollaboration. among those, 27 spanish participants who were first-year students enrolled in a business english compulsory course of the degree in international business at the university of valencia completed the online post-questionnaire about the project. the following tables show: (a) the different phases and themes as well as the tasks which students were asked to complete throughout the “nau-uv telecollaboration” project (table 1); (b) the categorisation of the thin-layer and deep level gamification elements used in the design of the tasks within the project (table 2). ness busitoach approed fiiamga ngdesitask sh ilengness 2e gurfi 4. ua“neth tevu hoacrpap . eersc uanhe tofnshot llopgnitovuv . ” onatiorablolcelte p ojer t: coje a defigami eth nahcxentioarobllaoclete acueddnagninralegnolli uodeiacswati.aicnèlva ud)setatsdetiun(ytisreviun mecedo trobetcoom2016, skeew41revosessalcecfa tceojprhetofkssatnterdi narenti29 nd auantaseegrde deinbmochichwt, cerpeth ho wsntpaicitrpah snipas27 e esourcy orspulomch singl wleticraisthindeibrcsedegn moecivresnoitavonnilanoita naytisrevinusihtnewetebtu iru hetofretsemestsrhetng shour4 d hasntudetshet.rbem etovederewhcihwf of lah, s21 (laottn isntudets50 .t tu omsntudetsssneiusblonaitna robllaocletednantioamag tsrerewho nresntudetsraye onaitnarentin ieegredhetof ethybdteroppussaw edtatisrevinuehtm anoziarnrehtrnodn 2015rayecimdeaca ecafofk eewrpes -toehtgnitelpmocotd t nerdmotsnedtu n id etpaicitrpa)vuom , esothgnoma. ntioar ssneiusban id elolnr hettassneiusblona y pulngl mocaicnelvafoytisreviun seblatng iowlhet.tceojpr )(a asesahpt nerdeth hte etlpmcootedkas )1elba(t ; )(b t ofon itasigoretache ofgn isdehetn id eus gr tsopenilnoehtdetelpm sque hows : skstaethsall ewsasemethdna uan“e httuohguorh celetuv nhithetof gl evlepeeddnareyla t(tceojprhetn hitiwkssathetof hetboutaerionnaits ewtsnedtushichws re tcerp”noitaroballoc tsnemleentioamag 2)ebla . ibér 33ca ibér 710 (2 ): …-… 9 4. the “nau-uv telecollaboration” project: a gamified approach the telecollaboration exchange described in this article was supported by the lifelong learning and educational innovation service from the universitat de valència. it was carried out between this university and northern arizona university (united states) during the first semester of the academic year 2015-2016, from october to december. the students had 4 hours per week of face-to-face classes over 14 weeks, half of which were devoted to completing the different tasks of the project. 50 students in total (21 students from different degrees at nau and 29 international business students from uv) participated in the project, which combined gamification and telecollaboration. among those, 27 spanish participants who were firstyear students enrolled in a business english compulsory course of the degree in international business at the university of valencia completed the online post-questionnaire about the project. the following tables show: (a) the different phases and themes as well as the tasks which students were asked to complete throughout the “nau-uv telecollaboration” project (table 1); (b) the categorisation of the thin-layer and deep level gamification elements used in the design of the tasks within the project (table 2). a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 245 a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): …-… phase 1: pre-exchange / preparation theme: getting to know each other and breaking the ice tasks 1. creating a digital profile 2. pre-questionnaires about telecollaboration and digital storytelling 3. diagnostic test 4. writing ice-breaking questions 5. recording an introductory video phase 2: exchange (1) theme: challenging stereotypes tasks 1. making groups 2. exchanging stories about experiences communicating in the l2 3. watching ted video by chimamanda ngozi adichie “the danger of a single story” and exchanging comments in the forum about their “single story” 4. discussing and reflecting about stereotypes from the different countries phase 3: exchange (2) theme: higher education in spain and in the united states tasks 1. getting information about their partner’s institution 2. sharing information 3. discussing the differences and similarities of both education systems and student life in their respective cities and campuses 4. writing a critical account regarding their oral discussion about the different higher education systems phase 4: exchange (3) theme: intercultural communication tasks 1. oral and written tasks about cultural shock 2. discussing and creating a list of the top 5 countries which do the most good for the world 3. watching ted video by simon anholt: “which country does the most good for the world?” and exchanging comments in the forum on whether they would change their lists and why 4. discussing and writing posible solutions regarding scenarios of issues with intercultural communication in business environments phase 5: main collaborative task theme: a revolutionary product to be presented in a business fair tasks 1. step-by-step creation of digital stories about revolutionary products developed in their groups 2. oral presentation in a business fair 3. writing an investors’ report about the products they would invest in and why 4. peer assessment and exchange of feedback and comments in the forum and through the assessment sheets for the digital stories and oral presentations 5. discussing with foreign consultants how to adapt the product to the foreign market phase 6: postexchange & assessment theme: project assessment and farewell tasks 1. post-questionnaires about telecollaboration and digital storytelling 3. recording a farewell video and exchanging farewell comments in the forum a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260246 a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): …-… phase 1: pre-exchange / preparation theme: getting to know each other and breaking the ice tasks 1. creating a digital profile 2. pre-questionnaires about telecollaboration and digital storytelling 3. diagnostic test 4. writing ice-breaking questions 5. recording an introductory video phase 2: exchange (1) theme: challenging stereotypes tasks 1. making groups 2. exchanging stories about experiences communicating in the l2 3. watching ted video by chimamanda ngozi adichie “the danger of a single story” and exchanging comments in the forum about their “single story” 4. discussing and reflecting about stereotypes from the different countries phase 3: exchange (2) theme: higher education in spain and in the united states tasks 1. getting information about their partner’s institution 2. sharing information 3. discussing the differences and similarities of both education systems and student life in their respective cities and campuses 4. writing a critical account regarding their oral discussion about the different higher education systems phase 4: exchange (3) theme: intercultural communication tasks 1. oral and written tasks about cultural shock 2. discussing and creating a list of the top 5 countries which do the most good for the world 3. watching ted video by simon anholt: “which country does the most good for the world?” and exchanging comments in the forum on whether they would change their lists and why 4. discussing and writing posible solutions regarding scenarios of issues with intercultural communication in business environments phase 5: main collaborative task theme: a revolutionary product to be presented in a business fair tasks 1. step-by-step creation of digital stories about revolutionary products developed in their groups 2. oral presentation in a business fair 3. writing an investors’ report about the products they would invest in and why 4. peer assessment and exchange of feedback and comments in the forum and through the assessment sheets for the digital stories and oral presentations 5. discussing with foreign consultants how to adapt the product to the foreign market phase 6: postexchange & assessment theme: project assessment and farewell tasks 1. post-questionnaires about telecollaboration and digital storytelling 3. recording a farewell video and exchanging farewell comments in the forum a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): …-… 2. focus groups interviews table 1. phases, themes and tasks within the “nau-uv telecollaboration” project. a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): …-… gamification elements approaches phase(s) pros cons points (sheldon, 2010) thin-layer 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 they can be used to promote appropriate behaviours. they foster acceptance and order they are useless if the system lacks many other mechanisms. leaderboards (domínguez et al., 2013) thin-layer 1, 2, 3, 4 they create the feeling of progress and encourage students to work harder. they foster competitiveness which might result in lack of willingness to collaborate. avatars (kapp, 2012) thin-layer 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 they enable students to express their personality and beliefs in a nonthreatening way. they might make people uncomfortable or even sceptical when they have to “talk” to an alter ego instead of seeing the real person behind it, leading to trust issues. reward systems (kapp, 2012) thin-layer 4 they motivate students to work towards reaching a goal and encourage them to do better so as to be rewarded. they might put too much emphasis on the outcome instead of the process. they might discourage students to keep playing if goals are unclear or too hard to reach. quests (zichermann & cunningham, 2011) deep level 4 they contribute towards fulfilling honour and individualism. they create epic meaning within tasks while promoting comradeship and a sense of justice. a lot of time and effort need to be invested in their development together with the creation of a powerful and relevant story. students need to be persuaded that a quest is worth doing. social elements and social media (simões et al., 2013) deep level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 they foster interaction, communication, collaboration and the sense of belonging to a learning community. they foster problem-solving skills, critical thinking and digital literacies. they can be distractive. there might be cases of cyberbullying or netiquette issues. they might discourage faceto-face discussions. table 2. classification of gamification elements used in task design within the “nau-uv telecollaboration” project. 5. methodology upon completion of the project, the participants filled in an online questionnaire, available on googleforms, which consisted of 60 openand closed-ended questions. the questionnaire was divided into 5 sections, a to e. the questions of sections a to d were closed-ended, and students had to rate the different statements on a 5-point likert scale according to their level of agreement or disagreement, 1 being “completely disagree” and 5 being “completely agree”. as for the final section (section e), it comprised open-ended questions about students’ experiences and opinions about learning languages in multicultural settings. the questionnaire provided both quantitative and qualitative data. moreover, it was anonymous so as to guarantee the veracity of the participants’ answers as well as to prevent potential bias (e.g. students delivering the perceived “right answer”). the questionnaire was divided into the following sections: section a: demographic data, and information concerning internet and social media use; a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 247 a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): …-… gamification elements approaches phase(s) pros cons points (sheldon, 2010) thin-layer 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 they can be used to promote appropriate behaviours. they foster acceptance and order they are useless if the system lacks many other mechanisms. leaderboards (domínguez et al., 2013) thin-layer 1, 2, 3, 4 they create the feeling of progress and encourage students to work harder. they foster competitiveness which might result in lack of willingness to collaborate. avatars (kapp, 2012) thin-layer 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 they enable students to express their personality and beliefs in a nonthreatening way. they might make people uncomfortable or even sceptical when they have to “talk” to an alter ego instead of seeing the real person behind it, leading to trust issues. reward systems (kapp, 2012) thin-layer 4 they motivate students to work towards reaching a goal and encourage them to do better so as to be rewarded. they might put too much emphasis on the outcome instead of the process. they might discourage students to keep playing if goals are unclear or too hard to reach. quests (zichermann & cunningham, 2011) deep level 4 they contribute towards fulfilling honour and individualism. they create epic meaning within tasks while promoting comradeship and a sense of justice. a lot of time and effort need to be invested in their development together with the creation of a powerful and relevant story. students need to be persuaded that a quest is worth doing. social elements and social media (simões et al., 2013) deep level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 they foster interaction, communication, collaboration and the sense of belonging to a learning community. they foster problem-solving skills, critical thinking and digital literacies. they can be distractive. there might be cases of cyberbullying or netiquette issues. they might discourage faceto-face discussions. table 2. classification of gamification elements used in task design within the “nau-uv telecollaboration” project. section b: attitudes and views on language learning and the use of technology for that purpose; section c: telecollaboration and development of skills and competences; section d: cultural awareness; section e: previous language learning experiences in multicultural settings, views on the most beneficial aspects and challenges of learning english in a multicultural setting and definitions of intercultural communication. the quantitative data were analysed by performing a descriptive analysis so as to quantify the opinions of the students, closed-ended questions within a questionnaire being the most widely used method for quantitative analysis (giddens, 2014). 5.1. participants the qualitative and quantitative data analysed in this article were gathered by means of a post-questionnaire, as mentioned earlier. out of the 29 spanish students who participated in the project together with 21 students from the united states, 27 answered the post-questionnaire (n=27). among those, 74.1% were female and the remaining 25.9% were male. most of them (89.9%) belonged to the 17-20 age group. they were registered in the subject business english iii, a compulsory 6 ects-credit course offered in the international business degree. 74.1% of them considered that their english level was a b2, that is, upper intermediate (cefr, 2001). the group which was studied was very homogeneous: students were studying the same degree, they belonged to the same age group and they came from similar social and cultural backgrounds, as shown by their responses in the questionnaire. 5.2. procedure the 50 participants from nau and uv were split and mixed in 10 groups of between 5 and 8 students each so as to make sure that there were at least two native speakers from each nationality per group. within those groups, students were paired up for the completion of certain tasks, such as the synchronous videoconferencing sessions, whereas they participated as a group in other activities (e.g. debates and discussions). a separate google+ a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260248 community was created for each of the groups so that students could easily interact and organize their work. bearing in mind that task design should take students’ level, needs, interests and preferences as departing points (nunan, 1993; hampel, 2006), the members from the different communities were asked to fill in an online questionnaire on googleforms and 27 responses were obtained. 6. results and discussion students’ responses regarding their internet use on a weekly basis revealed a very frequent use, as illustrated in figure 3: 13 students (48%), nearly half of the participants, manifested using the internet between 10 and 20 hours per week, while 7 other students (26%) declared using it even more often, from 20 to 30 hours per week. therefore, a wide majority of the participants (74%) used the internet quite frequently. this, together with the fact that most of them (89.9%) were in the 17-20 age group, could be related to their belonging to a “digital native” generation (prensky, 2001), accustomed to working and interacting with electronic resources and ict. concerning internet and social media use, students’ responses showed that they used mainly facebook (88.9%), instagram (85.2%) and skype (81.5%). this demonstrates that ict and social media play a major role in their social practices. however, in the case of the google+ platform, this had been used by only 5 students (18.5%) prior to the project, as shown in figure 4: a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 249 a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): …-… the same age group and they came from similar social and cultural backgrounds, as shown by their responses in the questionnaire. 5.2. procedure the 50 participants from nau and uv were split and mixed in 10 groups of between 5 and 8 students each so as to make sure that there were at least two native speakers from each nationality per group. within those groups, students were paired up for the completion of certain tasks, such as the synchronous videoconferencing sessions, whereas they participated as a group in other activities (e.g. debates and discussions). a separate google+ community was created for each of the groups so that students could easily interact and organize their work. bearing in mind that task design should take students’ level, needs, interests and preferences as departing points (nunan, 1993; hampel, 2006), the members from the different communities were asked to fill in an online questionnaire on googleforms and 27 responses were obtained. 6. results and discussion students’ responses regarding their internet use on a weekly basis revealed a very frequent use, as illustrated in figure 3: figure 3. students’ time spent on the internet weekly. 13 students (48%), nearly half of the participants, manifested using the internet between 10 and 20 hours per week, while 7 other students (26%) declared using it even more often, from 20 to 30 hours per week. therefore, a wide majority of the participants (74%) used the internet quite frequently. this, together with the fact that most of them (89.9%) were in the 17-20 age group, could be related to a. alilve s n pavó & j. aba h acos eth yeh tdn apuor geg aema s niessnopesrreihtybnwohsas erudeocrp2.5. anmostnapicitrap05eth aesntudets8 nd a5 n eewtbe cdn alaico sralimi smoema c erainnoitese htn . imdnatilpserewvudnaua mo tsao sh c erhtathte ruse ak ,sdnuorgkca blarutlu c fospuorg01nidexi owtteaslate erwe er aesntudets8 nd a5 n eewtbe nah caeomsrkeapesveitna mocehtrpuderiaperwe ,onsissesng incerocdevi ddanesatebd.ge.(esitiviact puorge htfoeachredeatcr . kro wireth sedksattahtdnimnignirabe ntpoing itrpadesasencerepr wsitienummoct nerdeth msrelgogo snopse r7 2dn a mo tsao sh c erhtathte ruse ak hostn hitiwoup.grrpey tilonaitna hcus,sksatniaecfonoitelpm ad etpaicipay hetsaerhew e atarepsa.)snoisscusid gogo ylieasdlucostendutsathtoss level’stnedutsekatdluohsngis 2006),lpemah1993;n,unan(snt linnonaintodeksaerew tab oere wse dein owtteaslate erwe er sntudets,oupsgrehos suonorhcnysehtsah ougrasa rheotn ip +el sa wytinummo c ze iangrodanactertni etni,sdeen,l dnastsre omsrbememhet,2006) noeiranntioseuqelin msrelgogo snopse r7 2dn a onissucsi dd antsluse6. r rsesnopser’stnedust nidareg etartusllisa,eusntqueey rve tab oere wse dein . on eekwa noe suetnertnireihtgn egurifn id e 3: a edealevrsiasbyleek e gurfi 3. st ylkewetenretniehtnotnepsemit’stnedust . 3 3aicréib 710 (2 ): …-…14 hay lrane,)48%(sntudets13 10 n eewtbe erpsruoh02dan to02mo, noeromneveit thdesu)%47(tsnaipticrapeth 98(mehtf otsomtahttcfa %.9 tsniam,sntpaicitrpahetofflha (stendutserhto7e lihw,eekw rereht. keewrepsruoh03to ht. tlyneeiteuqt enrteineth 71ethinerew)% oup,grgea20 tnerentihetng iusd et gnisuedarecld)%62( foityromeidwa, er ethithwrethegto, ish o td etalerbed oulcoup, the limited number of google+ users prior to the project was seen as an advantage, since by using a platform that they did not usually use for social interaction (e.g. facebook) possible distractions could be avoided. in addition, this contributed towards achieving one of the main goals of the project: developing their digital literacy. through the use of google+ and other googlebased tools (drive, docs, forms) in telecollaboration, students learnt how to use those tools and they declared finding them useful for other subjects and academic purposes beyond the project. thus, students displayed very positive attitudes towards them, as illustrated by this example of responses to the open-ended question about google drive: google drive was… response 1: …very useful, i didn’t know it existed until the telecollaboration. r2: … useful. i had never used it before. r3: … a fantastic tool. r4: … helpful to do the work. r5: … an amazing tool. r6: … an essential tool. as for their attitudes and views on language learning and the use of technology for that purpose, 20 students declared that they were very motivated to learn english at their university (74.1%) and 21 students (77.8%) said they felt very comfortable using technology in their english classes, choosing the highest values for those questions in a 5-point likert scale. moreover, 26 students (96.2%) said they enjoyed working with other a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260250 a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): …-… their belonging to a “digital native” generation (prensky, 2001), accustomed to working and interacting with electronic resources and ict. concerning internet and social media use, students’ responses showed that they used mainly facebook (88.9%), instagram (85.2%) and skype (81.5%). this demonstrates that ict and social media play a major role in their social practices. however, in the case of the google+ platform, this had been used by only 5 students (18.5%) prior to the project, as shown in figure 4: figure 4. students’ use of social media. the limited number of google+ users prior to the project was seen as an advantage, since by using a platform that they did not usually use for social interaction (e.g. facebook) possible distractions could be avoided. in addition, this contributed towards achieving one of the main goals of the project: developing their digital literacy. through the use of google+ and other googlebased tools (drive, docs, forms) in telecollaboration, students learnt how to use those tools and they declared finding them useful for other subjects and academic purposes beyond the project. thus, students displayed very positive attitudes towards them, as illustrated by this example of responses to the openended question about google drive: google drive was… response 1: …very useful, i didn't know it existed until the telecollaboration. r2: … useful. i had never used it before. r3: … a fantastic tool. r4: … helpful to do the work. r5: … an amazing tool. r6: … an essential tool. as for their attitudes and views on language learning and the use of technology for that purpose, 20 students declared that they were very motivated to learn l itaigd“atogingnloebireth htwignitcaretnidnagnikrwo icosdnatenretnigninrecnco y nliamd eus oobecfa 9.88 nd atcithatsetartonsmde achetn irveeowhsecitcapr ness busitoach approed fiiamga ntioareneg”etivan 2,yksnre(p . tc idn asecruose ricnotrcle e nopser’stneduts,esuaidemla ,)%9 margatsin dn a)%2.58 ( ormay apladiemlaiocs hetofesa +eogo h tmrtal p ngdesitask sh ilengness )1002 todemtosucca, ses yehttahtdewosh sih t.)%5.18 ( laiocsrihetn ieolr sih nebed ha y bdes u achetn i,rveeowh.secitcapr sntudets5 y onl ior p)%.581 ( hetofesa +eogo h t,mrtal p ig f innwoh sst, acer pe th to sih nebed ha y bdes u ure 4: gurfi forebmundetimileth ogo e,agtanvad ecnsi ang iusby . .ge(ntiocartein oobecfa p casdrawtodteuibtrnocisth aretillatgidirihetng opilvede e gur 4. aidemlaicosfoesu’stnedust . +elgo r peh to troir psres u usnotd diy hetthattapl ebdluocsnoitcratsidelbissop oginamethfoenoginviehc oughrty.c eusheth elgoo n as anee ssa wtcej laiocseusy lluaus ,noitiddain.dediova t: cerpethfolsao +e erhtodan elgogo aretillatgidirihetng opilvede sooltd esba rof,scdo,evi lacedyethdnalsotoesoth tdnoeybessoprupc iemacad llias,emhtsdarwotesdutitat tuoabnoitesuqedden elgogo evidreogo …sa w esuyrev…:1esnopsre evendahi.lesu…:r2 ltittfr3 oughrty.c eusheth elgoo msr eduts,noitraoballoceletni) rl esumethgindder sidstenduts,suht.ectrpe h esrfoe lpamexsihtybedatrtsul :evidr ehtlitnudetsixetiwonkt'ndidi,lu re betid eus e. +e erhtodan elgogo esuotwohtrnaelstne dnatsceusretho edaylps veitiposy rve enpoe htotessnopes .noitaroballocelete .lootcitsatna…:r3 wehtodotlpleh…:r4 .lootgnizamana…:r5 .lootlaitnessena…:r6 wseivdnasedutittariehtras stneduts02,esopruptahtrfo ibér .krow tdnagninraelegaugnalnows reverewyehttahtderalceds y 33ca ibér 710 (2 ): …-… 15 ygolonhcetfoesueh n raelo td etvaiotmy students and 23 (85.2%) considered that this helped them learn. when specifically enquired about telecollaboration, 88.9% of the respondents (24 students) found it a very engaging language learning approach. as for the kinds of skills, competences and attitudes students thought telecollaboration had enhanced, these were linguistic competence (17 students, 62.9%), motivation (18 students, 66.6%), digital literacy (17 students, 62.9%) and intercultural communication competence (25 students, 70.3%), as shown in figure 5: section d dealt with (inter)cultural awareness. the questions from this section were inspired by the literature on intercultural awareness and intercultural communication. regarding cultural awareness, students overall showed positive attitudes towards other cultures, as well as mixed feelings of curiosity and fear, as shown in figure 4. 96.3% of the participants (26 students) said that they agreed or completely agreed with the statement: “all cultures have something to offer the world”, choosing the highest value in a 5-point likert scale. meanwhile, they completely disagreed with the statement “i think that my culture is the only right one” (24 students, 88.9%). moreover, 81.5% of the participants (22 students) considered they were aware of their own culture biases and how they affected their thinking. as for their attitudes towards racism and discrimination, 66.7% (18 students) said racially offensive comments or jokes made them feel very uncomfortable, and 70.3% (19 students) declared that they spoke up if they witnessed another person being humiliated or discriminated against. moreover, 66.7% (18 students) stated they very much appreciated the richness of other cultures, 92.6% (25 students) said they were interested in the ideas and beliefs of people from different ethnicities, 55.6% (15 a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 251 a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): …-… english at their university (74.1%) and 21 students (77.8%) said they felt very comfortable using technology in their english classes, choosing the highest values for those questions in a 5-point likert scale. moreover, 26 students (96.2%) said they enjoyed working with other students and 23 (85.2%) considered that this helped them learn. when specifically enquired about telecollaboration, 88.9% of the respondents (24 students) found it a very engaging language learning approach. as for the kinds of skills, competences and attitudes students thought telecollaboration had enhanced, these were linguistic competence (17 students, 62.9%), motivation (18 students, 66.6%), digital literacy (17 students, 62.9%) and intercultural communication competence (25 students, 70.3%), as shown in figure 5: figure 5. students’ perceived development of skills through telecollaboration. section d dealt with (inter)cultural awareness. the questions from this section were inspired by the literature on intercultural awareness and intercultural communication. regarding cultural awareness, students overall showed positive attitudes towards other cultures, as well as mixed feelings of curiosity and fear, as shown in figure 4. 96.3% of the participants (26 students) said that they agreed or completely agreed with the statement: “all cultures have something to offer the world”, choosing the highest value in a 5-point likert scale. meanwhile, they completely disagreed with the statement “i think that my culture is the only right one” (24 students, 88.9%). moreover, 81.5% of the participants (22 students) considered they were aware of their own culture biases and how they affected their thinking. as for their attitudes towards racism and discrimination, 66.7% (18 students) said racially offensive comments or jokes made them feel very uncomfortable, and 70.3% (19 students) declared that they spoke up if they witnessed another person being humiliated or discriminated against. moreover, 66.7% (18 students) stated they very much appreciated the richness of other cultures, 92.6% (25 students) said they were interested in the ideas and beliefs of people from different ethnicities, 55.6% (15 students) declared they made conscious efforts to a. alilve s n pavó & j. aba h acos 7(ytisrevinuriehttahsilgen golonechtgnisue labtrmco ionsitsqueehostsuelva 6(9 )%.2 deyo eyeh tdia s edpelhsihtathtederdisnco fo%.988, ntioarobllaoclete %8.77(stneduts12dna)%1.47 ch,essasclhsilgnereihtniyg 5an i orm.elacstrkeilntpoi nedut sreht ohti wgnikro w calecipsenhw.lemhted tsnedtus42(tsnednopsereth yrevtlyehtdias)% teshgihe htgnisooch sntudets26 ,roveeor )%2.58 (3 2dn astn tuoabedriuqenylcal yrevait dnu)ts gninearle aguganlgniaggen uohtstendutsesdutitatdan ticisuglin ecnetepmo c t s71 ( udets17 (y caretillatgidi c encetpeom 3.07,stneduts5(2 rsa.achorpap f osdni keh t enadhnoiatroabllecoeltthgu (noitavito m,)%9.2 6,stnedut urtulcrentind a)9%62.,sntude rugifninwohssa),%3 e 5: secnetepmo c,sllik e erwe esht,cedanhen ,)%6.6 6,stnedut s81 on itacunimomclaur e gurfi 5. ’stnedust rce p c)retni(htiwtlaeddnoitcse ocle tehguro thillskf st onemploeve ddeiverc oitseuqeht.ssenerawalarutluc ntioraobllao . noitcessihtmosno )( aretilehtybderipsnierwe cugnidaregr.noicatinummco htosdarwotesdutitat rutlcuer %3.69.4e rugifninwohsas eedragyeletlpmcoroeedrag ng ihoosc,d”lorwhetr yeht,elihwname eetlpmco ly e” nothgirylnoe htsie rutlcu onsc)sntudets22 (sntpaicitrpa htreihtedeyhtwohdan q enerwaalarutlucretninoerut ervostenduts,sesenarawalrutlcu osgniedximaslelwas,esr duts62(stanpciipe htfo% esrutlculal“:tenemattse hthtiw sghehihetng 5aineluavt ly ntemetatsheth tiwd eegrasdi rom.)%9.88,stenduts42(e” hetoferawaerewy hetd erdeions .gniknih larutlucretnidnasse e vitisopedwohslaler ,danytisoircufo eyhtathtdais)stend otgnihetmose avhes .elacskeilntpoi y mthatnk hiti“nt e htfo%5.18,erveor utulcn owrihe sesaibre 3 3aicréib 710 (2 ): …-…16 drwaotsedutittariehtras mmocevsinoyllaicardisa ecld)stenduts91(%3.07dan diord etailihumng ibeon srpe erppahcumyrevyehtdetast tnierewyehtdisas)tnedust 15 (6%55.,seitichnitenterdi ,noitanimircsiddnamsicarsd lemehtedams ekojros tnem pue kopseyhtathtedarecl ethif roveeorm.tnsigaad etnaimircs rehtofoss enhcirehtdetaice lebdnas aediehtnidesteret deamy hetd eralcde)sntudets15 )stneduts81(%7.66 ,elbatrmocnuyrev rethonadesseitnwye )sntudets18 (7%66., 52(%6.29s,erutluc oelpoepfos feil m o tseousiconscde students) declared they made conscious efforts to learn from other cultures and 88.9% (24 students) considered it was exciting to get to know a person from a different culture. nevertheless, 66.6% (18 students) manifested not having any friends from other ethnicities, 59.2% (16 students) acknowledged that most of their friends were from their own ethnic background and 44.4% (12 students) said they did not interact at all with people from different countries in their everyday life. in the last section, section e, students had the opportunity to share their accounts of previous experiences learning languages in multicultural settings, their views concerning the most beneficial aspects and the challenges of learning english in a multicultural setting and their own definitions of intercultural communication. students were free to write their answers in spanish, catalan or english. nevertheless, all of them chose to reply in english, probably due to the fact that the questionnaire was written in english and delivered in the context of an english class. the following quotes illustrate some of the students’ accounts about their previous experiences of contact with foreign people their age, as well as their feelings about the opportunity to learn english with speakers from the target language and culture through telecollaboration. among those accounts, many instances of not having had significant previous opportunities to learn the target language in multicultural or immersion contexts were found. moreover, in some cases, mixed feelings were expressed (e.g. fear combined with excitement): response 1: i could do an exchange years ago but i didn’t go. r2: i was only 10 days in ireland with my school four years ago. a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260252 a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): …-… learn from other cultures and 88.9% (24 students) considered it was exciting to get to know a person from a different culture. nevertheless, 66.6% (18 students) manifested not having any friends from other ethnicities, 59.2% (16 students) acknowledged that most of their friends were from their own ethnic background and 44.4% (12 students) said they did not interact at all with people from different countries in their everyday life. figure 6. students’ perceived cultural awareness. in the last section, section e, students had the opportunity to share their accounts of previous experiences learning languages in multicultural settings, their views concerning the most beneficial aspects and the challenges of learning english in a multicultural setting and their own definitions of intercultural communication. students were free to write their answers in spanish, catalan or english. nevertheless, all of them chose to reply in english, probably due to the fact that the questionnaire was written in english and delivered in the context of an english class. the following quotes illustrate some of the students’ accounts about their previous experiences of contact with foreign people their age, as well as their feelings about the opportunity to learn english with speakers from the target language and culture through telecollaboration. among those accounts, many instances of not having had significant previous opportunities to learn the target language in multicultural or immersion contexts were found. moreover, in some cases, mixed feelings were expressed (e.g. fear combined with excitement): response 1: i could do an exchange years ago but i didn’t go. r2: i was only 10 days in ireland with my school four years ago. r3: sadly, i haven’t had any opportunities. that’s why i’m so excited and scared at the same time. r4: i spent a week in the pyrenees with people from all over the world so we could improve our english level, for example, i met people from florida, india, ireland, pakistan, etc. dnaserltuucrethomoale diaomon srpeaknowo ttge detsinma fyn agniva hto n htfotsomathtedgedlwonack ais)stenduts21(%4.44dan veerihetn iseirountcnterdi ness busitoach approed fiiamga reidsnoc)tsnedtus42(%.988d ,sselhetrveen.eurtulcnterdi ,seiticinht ereht omosdnei woreihtmoe erwsdenireih alatactertnitondideyhtdai ydrve ay . ngdesitask sh ilengness togitincxesawit der )sntudets18 (6%66., )stnedut s61 (%2.9 5 dnuorgackbc inhetnw moe lpeophtiwlal e gurfi 6. ,enoitces,noitcestsalehtin aelsenceirxpeeousvieprof enbtsome htgnincernco ci htdangnitetsalrutlcuitluma etirwoteeerewstnedust ohcmehtfolla,sselehtrevne ’stnedust enessarawalurtculved ceiper . otytinurtoppoehtdahstneduts laurtulcitulmn isgenguaalng ni oesgenlalche htdansectpasal tlcuertnifosnoitindnworei ,hsinaspnisrewsnariehte eniylperoteso blobaprh,singl stnuoccar iehtreahso swevirihet,ngsittesl nihsilgnegninearlfo .noicatinummcoalrut .hsilgneronalatac thattcafheto tduey bl , itterwsaweiranntioseuqeth gniwolleth.ssalchsilgen enierpexsuoievrpreihttuoab poe httuoabsgnireihtas erltuucdnaegaugnlat egrta gnivahtonfosecnatsniynma rltuulticuminegaugnlat egrta ws gniledexims,seacemso naoddluoci:1esnopsre nisyad01ylnosawi:r2 yp prh,ngl indereliveddnahlisgneinnitte htfoemosetartsullisetog eopngeirhtiwacttncofoces iwhsilgnelotytinutropp ma. ntioarobllaocletehguorth opposuoiverptnacingisdahg erewtsxtenocniosremimrol ar nibmocra.g.e(dsseerpxeerew gt’ndiditubogasraeyegnahcxen dnalerin rae yruoohc sy mith w y nafot xtenocethin stnuocca’stnedutseh e lpeo ll ewsa, egaireth e htmosereakpsht , tsnuoccaesothgnom ehtnraelotseitinutro in, revoerom. dnue :)tnemeticxehtiwden .og og as nisyad01ylnosawi:r2 daht’nevahi,yldas:r3 e.mite same htat htnikeewatnepsi:r4 ilgneruoe vorpmidluco te,natsikap,dnalire c. ibér dnalerin rae yruoohc sy mith w m’iyhws’taht.seitinutroppoyna llamoelpoephtiwseenerypeh ie,lpamexr,elevlshi poeptme 33ca ibér 710 (2 ): …-… 17 .og as deracsdnadeticxeosm ewosdlrowehtrevol ,aidni,adirolfm oelp r3: sadly, i haven’t had any opportunities. that’s why i’m so excited and scared at the same time. r4: i spent a week in the pyrenees with people from all over the world so we could improve our english level, for example, i met people from florida, india, ireland, pakistan, etc. regarding their views on the most beneficial aspects and the challenges of learning english in a multicultural setting, the following quotes illustrate the fact that students were aware of both the beneficial aspects and the challenges of such experience, and that they were looking forward to experiencing learning in a multicultural, diverse setting: r5: benefits: learning from real life and not books. challenge: timetable? r6: a language and how it is used [sic] is normally conditioned by the culture of its speakers and that’s why it’s important to get to know different cultures in order to understand their language and how to use it correctly. in my opinion, the most challenging aspect is to learn and understand the different meanings and expressions. r7: i think that the most beneficial aspects are that you get to know different cultures in class. r8: this may make lessons more interesting as everyone has different opinions and ways of thinking. the most challenging aspects may be agreeing with people that hold different beliefs. personally, i think the most benefits are the variety of new things that you can learn and the most challenging aspects are to get on well with someone different from you and with different ideas. finally, when asked to give their own personal definition of “intercultural communication”, most students tended to focus on what they perceived as positive aspects about communicating across cultures, as illustrated by the following responses: r9: i would state that it is a way of breaking down personal barriers and limitations and the best way of evolving as an individual. r10: it is a way of meeting new people and learning about them and other cultures so that you become a really open-minded person. r11: i would define it as a way of sharing and learning from other cultures improving your own and yourself as a student and as a person. a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 253 r12: intercultural communication would be being able to speak with people from other places all over the world, having a complete comprehension of their environment and situation. some of the aspects related to intercultural communication and awareness which were underlined by students can also be found in the literature, such as the keywords “interaction” and “communication”, “culture”, “flexibility” and “adaptability”, “learning”, “identity’, “sharing”, “speak” and “situation”: concerning interaction and culture, guilherme (2004) understands intercultural communication as the ability to effectively interact with people from other cultures. as for “adaptability” and “flexibility”, these are considered by meyer (1990) as the key abilities to be developed by foreign language students. with regard to the concepts of “identity” and “context”, authors such as byram and fleming (1998) argue that intercultural communicative communication involves interaction among different social identities, their perceptions of other identities and even the awareness of the participants’ own identities depending on the context. it is worth noting that the students’ understanding and knowledge of intercultural communication was acquired following a “learning-by-doing” approach (shank, berman & macpherson, 1999), as these concepts were not explicitly taught in class. this can be considered as an illustration of what was perceived by one of the participants as “learning from real life and not books”. 7. concluding remarks this paper has focused on the task design process of a telecollaboration project which was enriched by gamification and carried out in a business english course offered at uv. a study was carried out in order to gather students’ perceptions and opinions about the gamified design of the different tasks they were asked to complete through telecollaboration with other students from the united states. to our knowledge, no previous studies have attempted to combine telecollaboration and gamification. moreover, these two approaches have never been applied to esp settings. therefore, the authors have contributed towards filling a double gap in the literature by dealing with the combination of gamification and telecollaboration; and by exploring their application to esp learning contexts. the synergy resulting from the combination of telecollaboration and gamification in esp contexts is perceived by students as beneficial in a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260254 terms of the development of different skills and competences (namely linguistic, digital and intercultural) and motivation. the tasks design process of the business english gamified telecollaborative exchange took into account the social and educational practices of nowadays’ students: collaboration, interconnectedness and digital immersion (kessler, 2013). the goal was to cater for the needs, interest and preferences of students in terms of the development of 21st century skills while going beyond the classroom’s four walls (peregoy & boyle, 2005; ponder, vander veldt & lewis-ferrell, 2011). to achieve that goal, real business contexts where brought into the esp classroom thanks to different gamified and telecollaborative tasks which students completed throughout the semester and thanks to the digital tools they used for interaction and organisation. moreover, students were provided with opportunities to meet and collaborate with real people from the target language and culture for the completion of those tasks. the students’ perceptions, views and attitudes towards the project were gathered by means of an online questionnaire which included both openended and closed-ended questions concerning their views on language learning and the use of technology; their opinions about the level of usefulness of telecollaboration in term of the development of different skills and competences; the students’ cultural awareness; and their overall opinions and comments about the project. results indicate that students were aware of both the challenges and the benefits of the project and, in spite of experiencing the fear of the unknown, they were willing to face the challenges and to intrinsically engage in their learning process through gamified telecollaboration. according to their answers to the different questions, they found this way of learning business english beneficial in terms of their development of different skills and literacies (namely linguistic, digital, and intercultural) and their intrinsic engagement on their learning process. in addition, their answers to the openended questions showed very positive attitudes towards the project and high levels of engagement, as they saw this as a unique opportunity to experience the target language and culture while preparing for their future multicultural business working contexts. nevertheless, several limitations of this study should be borne in mind, namely, the small size of the sample, which does not allow for the generalisation of the results; and the aforementioned possible bias in relation a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 255 to students’ potential delivery of perceived “right answers” to the questions included in the questionnaire. another limitation is that the study relied too much on students’ self-perceived benefits. future research could focus on the application of similar studies with bigger samples so as to increase its validity and generalisability, as well as on confronting students’ perceptions with their actual performance. moreover, future studies could look into the relationship between different variables so as to determine how this relationship might affect the students’ development of competences and motivation. acknowledgements acknowledgements are due to the lifelong training and teaching innovation service from the university of valencia for funding the “nauuv telecollaboration” initiative within the project “applying studentcentred methodologies to foster active learning and motivation among students” (ref. uv-sfpie_rmd15-308327), led by dr ana sevilla-pavón. the authors would like to thank professor audra travelbee and her students from northern arizona university (nau) for their participation in the project as well as professor anna nicolaou for her help in designing the tasks of the project. article history: received 9 march 2016 received in revised form 23 june 2016 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(2006). “preface” in e. arnó macià, a. soler cervera & c. rueda ramos (eds.), information technology in languages for specific purposes: issues and prospects, 1. barcelona: springer. werbach, k. & d. hunter (2012). for the win: how game thinking can revolutionize your business. wharton school, philadelphia. widdowson, h. (1995). “conocimiento de la lengua y habilidad para usarla” in m. llobera (coord). competencia comunicativa. documentos básicos en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, 83-90. madrid: edelsa. widdowson, h. (1978). teaching language as communication. oxford: oxford university press. widdowson, h. (1972). “the teaching of english as communication”. english language teaching 27,1: 15-18. willis, j. (1996). a framework for task-based learning. longman handbooks for language teachers. harlow: longman. zichermann, g. & c. cunningham (2011). gamification by design: implementing game mechanics in web and mobile apps. sebastopol, california: o’reilly media. a gamified approach to business english task design ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260 259 dr ana sevilla pavón is assistant professor at the university of valencia and researcher at iulma, silva and talis. her research interests revolve around computer-assisted language learning and testing; courseware design; intercultural communication through telecollaboration; and english for specific purposes. she has participated in numerous international projects and conferences, and published journal articles (ibérica, revista de educación a distancia, and european journal of open and distance learning, among others), books and book chapters (cambridge scholars, springer, de gruyter, equinox). julia haba osca is assistant professor of english at the university of valencia and researcher at iulma and silva. she holds a phd in language and literature didactics. she has participated in numerous national and international conferences, as well as in research and innovation projects in the fields of education as well as language and literature didactics. a. sevilla-pavón & j. haba-osca ibérica 33 (2017): 235-260260 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 43 (2022): 1-6 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 editorial this spring issue is the first that has been processed entirely through the new ojs platform, and also the first produced entirely under the new editorship of ruth breeze and maria kuteeva. our first task is to express our sincere appreciation of carmen sancho guinda for the incredible work she did during her time as editor-in-chief. carmen took over from carmen pérez llantada as editor-in-chief in 2018 and devoted herself to the task of editing ibérica with extraordinary enthusiasm, true professionalism and a wonderful eye for detail. in issues 36 to 42 she was able to build on the sound foundations laid by jordi piqué, ana bocanegra and carmen pérezllantada. she also consolidated ibérica’s reputation as a truly international journal with a vision of specialised communication that encompasses but also considerably expands the traditional understanding of languages for specific purposes. in this editorial we also need to thank the president of aelfe, alejandro curado, the board of directors, and the members of the editorial and international advisory boards, who have all helped to shape the journal over the years. particular appreciation is due to alejandro curado, and to aelfe treasurer, ignacio guillén, for their support during the challenging period of transition from the old online format to the ojs platform. we believe that issue 43 constitutes a positive start to the new phase in ibérica’s development, in that it represents a number of tendencies that are likely to gain currency in the years to come. while academic writing and english for professional purposes are clearly themes that are here to stay, the articles in this issue also show the close relationship between lsp and the growing fields of clil and emi, which was analysed by dafouz in her recent guest article for this journal (2021). perhaps as a sign of things to come, this issue also includes three articles related to the discourse of corporate social responsibility (csr), which explore linguistic, discursive and multimodal aspects of this important area. moreover, we are very pleased that the articles in this issue focus on specialised discourse in languages other than english, including our traditional association with spanish, but also, in this case, russian and montenegrin. we hope that more authors will feel inspired to explore specialised languages and their didactics 1 ibérica 43 (2022): 1-6 editorial in other languages, or to develop comparative studies. the brief overview that follows should serve as a guide to issue 43, and an indication of the journal’s current scope. in the guest article for this issue, raffaella negretti and lisa mcgrath offer an innovative vision of academic writing as a performance on a specific stage, and argue for a more context-sensitive, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach to teaching academic writing. they urge teachers to give greater priority to helping students develop metacognitive and selfregulatory competences that will serve them better in today’s increasingly complex knowledge economy, in which interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge transfer are highly valued. continuing in the area of academic writing, guangwei hu and miller reyes perez then centre on the interesting topic of nominalisation, which constitutes a key linguistic resource in advanced academic writing. using methodology based on systemic functional linguistics, they compare texts written by students who received explicit instruction in nominalisation with those by a control group. they found that the instruction group made strategic use of nominalisations that contributed to the cohesion and thematic development of the text, as well as helping them achieve a more authoritative, informationally-dense style. olga boginskaya then tackles the asymmetrical relationship between legal professionals and lay participants in the russian courtroom, taking the example of explanations and instructions given to juries, showing how explanatory strategies are used to overcome technical expert texts, and make abstract legal concepts clear for lay participants. her analysis provides an interesting point of comparison for legal linguists, as well as a basis for devising strategies useful in professional-lay communication. the next article, by bixi jin, takes us to a different area of lsp, with a focus on vague language in corporate social responsibility (csr) reports. vague language has long been a subject of interest to linguistics and philosophers alike, because there are various kinds of indeterminacy that can be used for a wide range of very different reasons. in this study, jin examines vague language relating to quantity, degree, time and stance-taking, and identifies a number of strategies that may motivate their use, particularly avoiding commitment, exerting a persuasive function, and downplaying unfavourable information. this study adds to the existing literature on csr and complements previous reflections on vague language. 2 ibérica 43 (2022): 1-6 editorial after this, we turn again to comparative lsps, with branka živković’s indepth study of moves and steps in lecture introductions in english and montenegrin. comparisons of this kind between lectures delivered in british universities (the corpus of british academic spoken english, or base), and lectures given in other languages and academic cultures, open up interesting new perspectives and have obvious implications for teacher training in english medium instruction (emi) in the expanding circle (see breeze & sancho guinda, 2021). the next paper, by adrián granados, maría dolores lópez-jiménez and francisco lorenzo, brings us a sorely-needed longitudinal study of students’ writing in content and language integrated learning (clil) in secondary education. focusing on writing in history classes over three years of secondary school, they find that students come to use more lexical items, and gradually employ terms with a higher degree of abstractness and associability. this can be seen as evidence of growth in their disciplinary writing competences, revealing an increasing grasp of history literacy. their findings also provide an interesting complement to the study by hu and reyes perez (this issue). returning to the theme of csr, pilar pérez cañizares then turns to the importance of visual images in csr reporting, using quantitative content analysis (qca) to establish the frequency of visual elements in reporting by inditex, the world’s biggest fashion retailer. she documents three distinct phases in the use of images in inditex csr reports, and offers the tantalising suggestion that pictures may present topics and serve aims which do not coincide with those of the written text. metaphors, metonymies and other types of figurative language may prove particularly challenging for students in lsp contexts. in the next paper, antonio josé jiménez-muñoz and ana cristina lahuerta-martínez address university esp students’ conceptual competence and its relationship to their overall l2 competence. comparing across cefr levels, these authors find that students below b2 may have greater difficulty in discerning the difference between figurative and literal expressions. regarding discipline, they also identify differences in students’ ability to decode metaphorical language, and recommend that practice at interpreting nonliteral language should be factored into esp courses. the next article, by belén lópez arroyo and lucía sanz-valdivieso, returns to one of the classic themes of lsp in spain, namely the language 3 ibérica 43 (2022): 1-6 editorial of tasting notes. the innovative angle here is the comparison between two different professional specialties within this field, that is, wine tasting and olive oil tasting. their corpus-based approach shows almost identical rhetorical structures regarding moves and steps, but interestingly reveals that the genre of the wine tasting note seems to be more conventional and consolidated than that of the oil tasting note. this could be explained by the fact that wine tasting is a more established activity with a longer discursive tradition. in the last article we return to the theme of csr, and ricardo jiménez and joan fontradona bring us a diachronic case study of one major spanish bank’s csr discourse over a 7-year period. the main contribution of their paper is that it develops a useful methodology combining corpus linguistics and framing analysis, which they use to track how the bank’s corporate reporting changed as a result of adopting the united nations’ sustainable development goals. the issue ends with three book reviews: the first is of carmen sancho guinda’s recent edited volume engagement in professional genres, followed by a review of ethnographies of academic writing research: theory, methods, and interpretation, edited by ignacio guillén-galve and ana bocanegra-valle, and finally a review of corpora in esp/eap writing instruction, edited by maggie charles and ana frankenberg-garcia. peer reviewers for this issue include, in alphabetical order, martín aoiz, ismael arinas, elisabet arnó, elvis buckwalter, stefania consonni, isabel corona, larissa d’angelo, ana maría fernández vallejo, johann fischer, kayo kondo, maria kuteeva, esther linares, stefania maci, raffaella negretti, ramón plo, johannes schnitzer and rachel whittaker. we know that we often make heavy demands on reviewers, and so we would like to express our sincere gratitude to them for their dedication and professionalism. our thanks also go to the members of the editorial team, to associate editor begoña bellés fortuño, and to book reviews editor jesús garcía laborda for his unceasing dedication to the journal. ruth breeze and maria kuteeva universidad de navarra (spain) and stockholm university (sweden) editors-in-chief iberica@aelfe.org 4 breeze, r., & sancho guinda, c. (2021). teaching english medium instruction courses in higher education. bloomsbury. dafouz, e. (2021). crossing disciplinary boundaries: english-medium education (eme) meets english for specific purposes (esp). ibérica, journal of the european association of languages for specific purposes, 41, 13-38. <https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.41.13> ibérica 43 (2022): 1-6 editorial references 5 maquetación 1 ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumo considerada em um âmbito mais amplo da comunicação especializada, as teorias modernas da terminologia concebem a variação como uma propriedade inerente ao termo e, por esse motivo, passível de estudo, considerando fatores cognitivos e contextuais como evolução do conhecimento, nível de especialização, ponto de vista, entre outros. por outro lado, embora reconhecida e estudada, a representação da variação nos dicionários ainda segue uma orientação prescritiva. nesse sentido, neste trabalho, objetiva-se analisar o fenômeno da variação denominativa na lexicografia em uso no brasil e propor uma representação lexicográfica da variação em um dicionário especializado de aprendizagem de lexicografia. para isso, realizamos uma análise da variação denominativa explícita em um córpus de textos de lexicografia brasileira com o objetivo de verificar as consequências cognitivas resultantes da utlização dessas variantes, bem como os possíveis fatores cognitivos que podem originar essa variação. finalmente, propomos uma representação da variaçao na organização microestrutural do dicionário de lexicografia brasileira. palavras-chave: terminologia, variação denominativa, lexicografia brasileira, dicionário especializado. abstract e x pl i c it te rm v a ri at io n in br az i l i an l e x ic o g r ap h y: p ro po s al f o r it s r e p r e s e n t at i on i n th e m ic ro s t r uc tu re o f t h e b ra z i l i a n l e xi c o g ra p h y d ic tio na ry a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil: pressupostos para a organização microestrutural do dicionário de lexicografia brasileira1 lucimara alves costa & sabela fernández-silva pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso (chile) lucimara.costa@hotmail.com & sabela.fernandez@pucv.cl 93 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 93 ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva from a specialized communication perspective, contemporary theories of terminology conceive variation as an inherent feature of the term. for such reason, it is plausible of analysis, taking into consideration cognitive and contextual factors such as chronological evolution, level of specialization, viewpoints, among others. nevertheless, variation in dictionaries remains underrepresented, due to the prescriptive tradition that dominated terminology research. in this sense, the present paper aims at analyzing the phenomenon of term variation in the domain of lexicography in brazil and at offering a proposal for its lexicographic representation in a specialized lexicography dictionary for learners. thus, we have carried out analysis of explicit term variation of a corpus of texts of brazilian lexicography with a view to observing the cognitive consequences emerging from the use of such variation, as well as the possible cognitive factors that may originate this variation. finally, we propose the representation of term variation in the microstructural organization of the brazilian lexicography dictionary. keywords: terminology, term variation, brazilian lexicography, specialized dictionary. 1. introdução as teorias modernas da terminologia2 como a socioterminologia (gambier, 1991; gaudin, 1993, 2003), a teoria sociocognitiva da terminologia (temmerman, 2000) e a teoria comunicativa da terminologia (cabré, 1999) propiciaram uma nova orientação sobre o estudo dos termos, passando a considerá-los como unidades dinâmicas inseridas numa diversidade de contextos de comunicação especializada. dessa forma, a variação é reconhecida como uma característica inerente ao termo e que pode manifestar-se em todas as àreas de especialidade, devendo, por isso, ser representada nos dicionários levando em consideração as necessidades dos usuários em situações sociais e comunicativas específicas (fernández e faber, 2011). embora tenha havido um considerável desenvolvimento na produção de dicionários especializados direcionados a distintos tipos de usuários (alcaraz & hughes, 1993/2007/2012; dancette & rhéthoré, 2000; binon et al., 2002; l’homme, 2008; faber & león, 2010), a lexicografia especializada de aprendizagem ainda necessita de maior atenção à funções ainda pouco aprofundadas, como o tratamento da variação terminológica nos dicionários (fernández-silva & becerra, 2015). 94 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 94 nesse sentido, neste trabalho objetivamos investigar sobre a variação denominativa na lexicografia corrente no brasil, com o intuito de observar como este fenômeno se manifesta nesse âmbito, sua motivação e como esta pode ser representada na microestrutura do dicionário de lexicografia brasileira (dlb). para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa compilamos um córpus especializado constituído por 300 textos de lexicografia brasileira no período 1980 a 2013. extraímos os termos e contextos definitórios com dois programas computacionais (wordsmith tools e terminus) e detectamos as variantes buscando pelos marcadores de equivalência ou sinonímia. consideramos apenas as variantes denominativas explícitas, ou seja, claramente demarcadas por meio de marcadores discursivos que veiculam equivalência (suarez, 2004: 02) e analisamos as consequências cognitivas dessas variantes (fernández-silva, 2011), bem como os possíveis fatores que poderiam motivar essa variação. nessa análise pudemos selecionar as variantes a serem incluídas na proposta do dicionário supracitado e sua representação na microestrutura dessa obra. para melhor compreensão da proposta, após essa introdução apresentamos a fundamentação teórica a respeito da variação nas teorias modernas da terminologia e discutimos a respeito da terminologia da lexicografia brasileira. posteriormente, descrevemos os fundamentos metodológicos seguidos para o desenvolvimento do trabalho e passamos aos resultados da pesquisa que, por sua vez, foram divididos em dois blocos: (i) quanto à variação terminológica na lexicografia em uso no brasil e (ii) quanto à sua representação na proposta do dicionário e, por fim, as conclusões. 2. a variação nas teorias modernas da terminologia as teorias modernas da terminologia adotam uma perspectiva descritivista em que a linguagem passa a ocupar um papel central na categorização, representação e transmissão do conhecimento especializado. nesse novo cenário a variação terminológica deixa de ser vista como um obstáculo e passa a ser vista como um fenômeno funcional na comunicação especializada, estando presente na conceitualização e na denominação do conhecimento especializado. a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 95 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 95 atualmente constata-se que há uma sólida e crescente preocupação no desenvolvimento de estudos sobre a variação terminológica abordando este fenômeno tanto no plano linguístico, quanto sociocomunicativo e cognitivo. no plano cognitivo observa-se que a variação está relacionada à dinamicidade dos processos de categorização e estruturação do conhecimento especializado e o caráter situado da cognição. nesse viés destacam-se as teorias terminológicas cujos pressupostos se embasam na linguística cognitiva como a teoria sociocognitiva da terminologia (temmerman, 2000), a teoria comunicativa da terminologia (cabré 1999, 2008; fernández-silva et al., 2012) e a terminologia baseada em marcos (faber et al., 2006), com a integração de modelos semânticos provenientes das ciências cognitivas para explicar os processos de formação e estruturação dos conceitos especializados e sua denominação por meios linguísticos. na teoria sociocognitiva da terminologia, temmerman (2000) demonstra a estrutura prototípica de algumas categorias das ciências naturais, para cuja definição não basta indicar apenas sua posição em uma estrutura lógicoontológica e suas características distintivas, e sim considerar outros elementos estruturais como a origem da compreensão, dimensões que constituem a estrutura intercategorial e a intenção do emissor da mensagem, o que determinará os elementos informativos que serão apresentados na descrição da categoria (temmerman, 2000:74). já a teoria comunicativa da terminologia surge como uma proposta teórica que pretende descrever a variação em toda sua dimensionalidade, propondo um modelo variacionista e textualista que permite sua descrição em todos os níveis linguísticos e discursivos (cabré, 1999: 106). para a autora, a diversidade está presente no processo que transcorre desde a formulação até a denominação de um conceito e, portanto, a variação se projeta em três planos da unidade terminológica: referencial, cognitivo e linguístico. esses pressupostos cognitivos também se transladaram para a elaboração de produtos lexicográficos e terminológicos seguindo os fundamentos da lexicografia cognitiva (geeraerts, 2007; ibarretxe-antuñano, 2010; ostermann, 2012, 2015). assim, a terminologia baseada em marcos (faber et al., 2006) apresenta uma proposta de representação conceitual embasada na semântica de marcos (fillmore, 1985) destinada à criação de bases de dados terminológicos multilíngues. segundo as autoras, é importante considerar que os produtos terminológicos devem ser elaborados de forma l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): 93-11896 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 96 que representem o caráter multidimensional, flexível e situado da estruturação conceitual, uma vez que os modelos tradicionais não refletem a organização real dos conceitos, tampouco o dinamismo da categorização. os projetos ecolexicon3, o projeto varimed4 e o dicionário de arquitetura (fernández e faber, 2011) são exemplos de recursos elaborados considerando essa teoria. 2.1. variação terminológica conceitual e denominativa a variação terminológica pode ocorrer no plano do conteúdo (cognitivo) e no plano formal (linguístico) dando lugar à variação conceitual e denominativa. embora diversos estudos tenham investigado essa temática, ainda não se tem uma definição consensual a respeito destes dois fenômenos. podemos entender a variação conceitual como resultado das diferenças na concepção de uma mesma realidade. segundo cabré (2008), a variação conceitual ocorre quando diferentes conceitualizações originam distintos conceitos para um mesmo referente. por outro lado, a variação conceitual pode ser entendida como a variação em um mesmo conceito. assim, o que temos são diferentes nuances conceituais a respeito de uma conceitualização unitária. essa variação em um mesmo conceito pode ou não ter reflexos denominativos, como aponta freixa (2002) e kostina (2010). esta última autora define a variação conceitual como “um processo cognitivo que conduz a mudanças graduais em um conceito, e manifesta-se formal e semanticamente em diferentes graus de equivalência entre os sentidos de uma unidade lexical ou de suas variantes léxico-semânticas” (kostina, 2010: 36). a variação não terá reflexos denominativos quando a alteração se projeta apenas semanticamente, como ocorre por meio de processos polissêmicos regulares e irregulares. nesse trabalho, entendemos que a variação conceitual se processa entre diferentes traços conceituais de um mesmo conceito, por isso ela ocorre, em especial, no plano cognitivo. se as distintas visões de um mesmo conceito motivam representações linguísticas distintas, ocorre a variação conceitual com reflexo denominativo, ou também denominada variação denominativa com consequências cognitivas. para nós, estes dois fenômenos são o mesmo. a diferença consiste, basicamente, em uma questão de perspectiva: se partimos do conceito ou do ponto de vista a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 97 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 97 da produção, estamos diante da variação conceitual com reflexo denominativo; quando partimos da denominação e se tem em conta a recepção, estaríamos falando de variação denominativa com consequências cognitivas. convém ressaltar que a variação denominativa não é equivalente à sinonímia linguística por dois motivos (fernández-silva, freixa & cabré, 2012): primeiro, porque a variação denominativa pode incluir mudanças formais ou estruturais (por exemplo, entre uma sigla e sua forma desenvolvida) e não apenas alterações léxicas. segundo, porque nem sempre ocorre uma relação de sinonímia completa entre as variantes denominativas, podendo haver casos de sinonímia relativa, na qual há uma relação de inclusão, intersecção ou outra relação entre o conteúdo semântico das variantes. para diferenciar estes dois casos, cabré (2008) e fernández-silva (2011) propõem distinguir entre variação denominativa sem e com consequências cognitivas, como veremos no seguinte item. 2.1.1. variação denominativa sem e com consequências cognitivas a variação denominativa sem consequências cognitivas ocorre quando um mesmo conceito é representado por denominações distintas, mas com o mesmo conteúdo semântico, como por exemplo, nomenclatura e nominata (listado de nomes). ao proporcionar a mesma informação sobre o conceito, presumivelmente “ñao se associa a nenhuma intenção cognitiva por parte do emissor” (fernández-silva, 2011: 60). a variação denominativa com consequências cognitivas é produzida quando um conceito se expressa por meio de variantes que se diferenciam não só formalmente, mas também semanticamente pois apresentam aspectos distintos do conteúdo conceitual, como em marca de uso e marca lexicográfica que, embora sejam utilizadas como sinônimas, observa-se que ressaltam visões distintas do conceito. a primeira ressalta a função (orientar quanto ao uso) ao passo que a segunda destaca o destino, ou seja, uma marcação utlizada em obras lexicográficas. considera-se que esse tipo de variação tem consequências cognitivas porque enfatiza algumas características do conceito, um ponto de vista particular e, portanto, incide na maneira como o receptor compreende a informação conceitual. este tipo de variação poderia responder a uma intenção cognitiva do emissor que, de maneira consciente ou inconsciente, emprega este recurso para ressaltar um determinado ponto de vista ou determinadas características l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): 93-11898 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 98 conceituais sobre outras em um dado contexto. na seguinte seção veremos os fatores cognitivos que podem originar a variação denominativa. 2.2. fatores cognitivos de variação denominativa fernández-silva (2011) propõe uma tipologia de fatores cognitivos de variação denominativa (ver tabela 1) em que se distinguem fatores sistêmicos – relacionados com a natureza dos sistemas conceituais e linguísticos – e fatores contextuais, relacionados à diferenças de categorização entre indivíduos ou grupos de indivíduos, ou diferenças na abordagem de um mesmo conceito em função da situação comunicativa em que é usado. centrando-nos nos fatores cognitivos de ordem contextual abordados nesta investigação, em primeiro lugar destaca-se a evolução do conhecimento (variação diacrônica). em segundo temos os dialetos e culturas que também podem ser um fator de variação, pois assim como as comunidades linguísticas se diferenciam na forma como percebem e estruturam a realidade, também pode ocorrer diferenças entre as variantes de uma mesma língua. por outro lado, a confluência de distintas áreas temáticas em um contexto interdisciplinar pode originar variação. como apontam gaudin (1993), cabré (1999) e tebé (2005), os conceitos surgidos de uma área podem ser apropriados e reinterpretados em outras, convivendo uma pluralidade de perspectivas sobre a mesma realidade, a qual se pode manifestar no emprego de distintas variantes que refletem a conceitualização particular de cada área disciplinar. a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 99 l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): …-… um determinado ponto de vista ou determinadas características conceituais sobre outras em um dado contexto. na seguinte seção veremos os fatores cognitivos que podem originar a variação denominativa. 2.2. fatores cognitivos de variação denominativa fernández-silva (2011) propõe uma tipologia de fatores cognitivos de variación denominativa (ver tabela 1) em que se distinguem fatores sistêmicos – relacionados com a natureza dos sistemas conceituais e linguísticos – e fatores contextuais, relacionados à diferenças de categorização entre indivíduos ou grupos de indivíduos, ou diferenças na abordagem de um mesmo conceito em função da situação comunicativa em que é usado. fatores sistêmicos da organização conceitual sistema conceitual multidimensionalidade do sistema conceitual classe conceitual flexibilidade do conceito da organização linguística sistema linguístico-cultural fatores contextuais diferenças de conceitualização (variação por usuários) evolução do conhecimento dialetos/ culturas áreas temáticas em contexto interdisciplinar escolas de pensamento/ ideologias indivíduo (perspectiva individual) diferenças na abordagem do conceito (variação por usos) adequação ao nível de especialização intenção, objetivo, ponto de vista tabela 1. fatores cognitivos de variação denominativa (adaptado de fernández-silva, 2011: 61-62). centrando-nos nos fatores cognitivos de ordem contextual abordados nesta investigação, em primeiro lugar destaca-se a evolução do conhecimento (variação diacrônica). em segundo temos os dialetos e culturas que também podem ser um fator de variação, pois assim como as comunidades linguísticas se diferenciam na forma como percebem e estruturam a realidade, também pode ocorrer diferenças entre as variantes de uma mesma língua. por outro lado, a confluência de distintas áreas temáticas em um contexto interdisciplinar pode originar variação. como apontam gaudin (1993), cabré (1999) ou tebé (2005), os conceitos surgidos de uma área podem ser apropriados e reinterpretados em outras, convivendo uma pluralidade de perspectivas sobre a mesma realidade, a qual se pode manifestar no emprego de distintas variantes que refletem a conceitualização particular de cada área disciplinar. quanto à variação causada por escolas de pensamento ou ideologias, constata-se que se trata de uma prática comum que, em uma mesma disciplina, distintas 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 99 quanto à variação causada por escolas de pensamento ou ideologias, constata-se que se trata de uma prática comum que, em uma mesma disciplina, distintas escolas empreguem suas próprias denominações para referir-se a conceitos idênticos ou muito próximos, seja por diferenças na conceitualização ou pela vontade de diferenciação (freixa, 2002). do mesmo modo, as diferenças socioprofissionais podem ser um fator de variação na comunicação especializada. as diferenças no tratamento da língua de especialialidade e da língua geral entre grupos socioprofissionais dedicados a uma mesma atividade refletem a estratificação linguística do entorno de trabalho (bertaccini & matteucci, 2005), a qual se manifesta, entre outros aspectos, em usos diferenciados da terminologia. ressalta-se que a variação também pode ser causada por uma perspectiva individual, relacionada a uma motivação subjetiva do autor ao utilizar uma nova variante, geralmente impulsionado pelo fato de que nenhuma das denominações existentes reflitam sua concepção particular do conceito. por fim, em uma última divisão se encontram os fatores cognitivos relacionados às diferentes situações de comunicação. isso ocasiona a variação em um mesmo autor (autovariação), seja em um mesmo texto ou em textos distintos, dado o fato de que um único autor pode usar variadas variantes que refletem distintos aspectos do conteúdo conceitual, seja para adaptar-se ao nível de conhecimento da audiência, seja para enfatizar algum aspecto do conceito que considera pertinente em um contexto dado. esses fatores cognitivos de variação foram os mesmos utilizados nessa pesquisa para analisar as possíveis motivações para a variação na terminologia da lexicografia brasileira. 3. a terminologia da lexicografía brasileira segundo krieger et al. (2009), o marco da lexicografia brasileira se deu no século xx com as primeiras edições de dicionários no país. entretanto, nunes (1996) advoga que a produção lexicográfica no brasil deve ser considerada desde as práticas textuais do período da colonização, quando as línguas indígenas mescladas à língua dos colonizadores deram origem aos neologismos (mais tarde brasileirismos), que solidificaram o português do brasil e que começam a ser incluídos nos dicionários de língua portuguesa (em portugal) no final do século xix e, posteriormente no brasil. sobre a publicação dos primeiros dicionários brasileiros, biderman (2003: 71) advoga que antônio joaquim macedo de soares teria sido o primeiro l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118100 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 100 dicionarista a descrever o vocabulário do português brasileiro se sua obra tivesse sido publicada no século xix; entretanto, segundo nunes (1996: 57), os primeiros dicionários brasileiros de língua portuguesa produzidos no brasil só apareceram por volta de 1930 e 1940 e são os dicionários de lima e barroso (1938) e de freire (1939-1943). dentre os principais acontecimentos que demarcaram e solidificaram a lexicografia no brasil desde as primeiras defesas das dissertações de mestrado até a atualidade, apresentamos, na tabela 2, um breve retrospecto dos marcos considerados, a nosso ver, como principais demarcadores dessa trajetória. a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 101 l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): …-… dentre os principais acontecimentos que demarcaram e solidificaram a lexicografia no brasil desde as primeiras defesas das dissertações de mestrado até a atualidade, apresentamos, na tabela 2, um breve retrospecto dos marcos considerados, a nosso ver, como principais demarcadores dessa trajetória. data marcos autores formação/ escola lexicográfica 1930/1940 primórdios 1. primeiros dicionários brasileiros de língua portuguesa produzidos no brasil, ainda sob influência indígena e regionalista. hildebrando de lima e gustavo barroso (1938) laudelino freire (1939) brasileira 1980 a 2000 instauração e solidificação da lexicografia como disciplina 1. primeiros trabalhos acadêmicos sobre na área da lexicografia 1. leci b. barbisan maria da graça krieger (1980) brasileira 2. publicação do artigo marco da lexicografia no brasil 2. maria tereza camargo biderman (1984) brasileira 3. um dos trabalhos pioneiros sobre a o dicionário bilíngue 3. john robert schmitz (1984) inglesa 4. um dos primeiros trabalhos enfocando a lexicografia brasileira 4. maria josé bocorny finatto (1966) brasileira 5. início da publicação da coletânea “ciências do léxico” 5. (1998) 2001 a 2015 lexicografia como ciência: avanço na pesquisa e produção bibliográfica brasileira 1. publicação de uma das principais obras sobre a lexicografia. 1. herbert andreas welker (2004) 1. alemã 2. publicação de dois artigos reconhecidos como grande referência nos estudos sobre a trajetória da lexicografia brasileira e a lexicografia no século xx 2. maria da graça krieger alexandra felderkircher muller, andréia roberta da rocha garcia e rosinalda pereira batista (2006, 2009) brasileira 2. maria da graça krieger alexandra felderkircher muller e rosinalda pereira batista brasileira 3. primeira tese discutindo sobre a variação terminológica na lexicografia brasileira . 3. lucimara alves da costa (2015) brasileira tabela 2. marcos principais da lexicografia no brasil (adaptado de costa, 2015). 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 101 constata-se que a trajetória lexicográfica brasileira constitui-se pela mescla de diferentes línguas e tendências lexicográficas, começando com as línguas indígenas, passando pela lexicografia portuguesa, para depois chegar à lexicografia brasileira com os primeiros dicionários em 1938/1939. porém, mesmo esses dicionários demarcando o início da produção dicionarística no brasil, verifica-se que a produção lexicográfica brasileira solidificou-se fortemente influenciada pelas tendências espanhola, inglesa, francesa e alemã, conforme verifica-se com os trabalhos de herbert andreas welker, john robert schmitz, philippe humblé, felix bugueño-miranda, entre outros autores estrangeiros significativos no panorama da lexicografia no brasil, não mencionados nesse recorte. esta heterogeneidade de perspectivas, temáticas e escolas dá lugar, como veremos mais adiante, a uma terminologia pouco estabilizada com uma grande convivência de variantes terminológicas. a respeito do estudo da variação na lexicografia brasileira, o primeiro trabalho a abordar com profundidade essa questão se deu em costa (2015). anteriormente, o que podíamos encontrar eram textos em que se abordava, sucintamente, essa temática e desde uma perspectiva prescritiva, como podemos ver em barbosa (2001), ao referir-se às variações terminológicas dos termos glossário, dicionário e vocabulário. considerando o conjunto de obras lexicográficas e terminológicoterminográficas produzidas em épocas mais recentes, diríamos que não se tem muita clareza, quanto às fronteiras conceptuais, denominativas, definicionais dos tipos desses textos, não obstante o estágio avançado em que se encontram, neste fim de século, as pesquisas das ciências da palavra, nessas áreas, não obstante, igualmente, a existência de numerosos organismos e obras de normalização terminológica em diferentes países, que não conseguiram assegurar, para certos conceitos, uma terminologia da terminologia uniforme e consensual (barbosa, 2001: 26). no trabalho de costa (2015) observou-se que de fato não existe uma terminologia da lexicografia uniforme e consensual, porém, não acreditamos que isso seja necessário e tampouco possível, devido à grande complexidade dos fatores linguísticos, cognitivos e sociais que envolvem a prática terminológica. assim, nesta pesquisa, o que buscamos é explorar essa variação como uma contribuição a mais para o estudo da lexicografia. variação esta que, de l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118102 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 102 forma criteriosa e estruturada, deve ser refletida na microestrutura de um dicionário especializado de aprendizagem organizado com as unidades especializadas próprias desse domínio. 4. fundamentos metodológicos nesta seção detalhamos a metodologia embasada em córpus seguida para a parte descritiva da pesquisa: (4.1) compilação do córpus, (4.2) extração dos termos e seleção das variantes e (4.3) análise semântico-cognitivo das variantes em relação com os contextos de ocorrência. 4.1. o córpus o córpus de análise, composto por 300 textos da área de lexicografia (45 milhões de palabras), foi constituído pautado nos seguintes critérios: (i) textos escritos em português brasileiro, por autores brasileiros ou estrangeiros, no recorte temporal de 1980 a 2013; (ii) autores significativos da lexicografia no brasil, que fazem parte do grupo de trabalho em lexicologia, lexicografia e terminologia (anpoll5), ou com produções em coautoria com alguns desses autores; (iii) relevância das publicaciones no âmbito, baseada no número de citações no google escolar e na bibliografia obrigatória do programa de doutorado en linguística da universidade estadual de são paulo (unesp)6; (iv) textos acadêmicos de diversas tipologias textuais: capítulos de livro, artigos de revista, teses, dissertações, livros, resenhas e resumos; os 300 textos foram recuperados em sua versão digital ou, nos casos dos textos impressos ou textos mais antigos e que não estavam disponíveis online, eses foram digitalizados e convertidos com ocr para que pudessem ser manipulados com programas computacionais. consideramos que o córpus é uma mostra representativa da produção lexicográfica brasileira pois, por um lado, nos preocupamos em buscar um equilíbrio entre os critérios acima mencionados e, por outro, o tamanho do córpus permite uma aproximação exaustiva do fenômeno estudado. a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 103 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 103 4.2. extração dos termos para a extração dos termos utilizamos o critério de frequência e de estrutura morfossintática. em relação à frequência, por meio da ferramenta word list (wordsmith tools) e a ferramenta de extração de termos e n-gramas do programa terminus, realizamos a extração dos termos mais frequentes do córpus. para isso estabelecemos uma média de corte que consistiu em considerar os termos que tinham a média de 0.01 na frequência relativa, o que equivale a 288 ocorrências na frequência absoluta dos termos no córpus. quanto aos padrões morfossintáticos, consideramos unidades monoléxicas e poliléxicas de até 3 constituintes com as seguintes estruturas: n (nome: macroestrutura); v (verbo: lematizar); n+a+(a) (nome+ adjetivo+adjetivo: lexicografía infantil, dicionário escolar infantil); n+(a)+sp (nome+ adjetivo+sintagma preposicional: marca de uso; dicionário geral de língua). essas estruturas foram selecionadas pelo fato de serem as construções mais frequentes na formação de termos. seguindo esses critérios, extraímos uma lista provisória de candidatos a termos com os 500 mais frequentes do córpus que, posteriormente, por meio de análise comparativa entre as listas extraídas pelos dois programas, reduzimos a 200 termos-núcleo que apareciam nas duas listas e que apresentavam variantes denominativas explícitas inter e intralinguísticas. dessas 200 unidades, selecionamos as 50 variantes denominativas intralinguísticas mais frequentes a fim de analisar como ocorria o processo de variação terminológica. 4.3. detecção e análise das variantes para a análise da variação terminológica no córpus selecionamos, de forma semi-automática utilizando a ferramenta concord do wordsmith tools, os contextos ricos em conhecimento7 (meyer, 2001) no qual se apresentavam as variantes denominativas explícitas, ou seja, com marcadores de equivalência claramente destacados, como é o caso da figura 1. l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118104 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 104 uma vez detectadas as variantes, procedemos à análise semântico-cognitiva. para isso, diferenciamos entre variantes com consequências cognitivas e sem consequências, segundo os parâmetros descritos na tabela 3, a seguir: a continuação, analisou-se o tipo de relação sinonímica entre as variantes, o que nos permitiu diferenciá-los em: 1. sinônimos: quando os variantes são equivalentes semanticamente. 2. sinônimos relativos por inclusão: há uma relação de inclusão entre os significados, isto é, uma relação de composição (formar ou fazer parte de...). a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 105 a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): …-… seguindo esses critérios, extraímos uma lista provisória de candidatos a termos com os 500 mais frequentes do córpus que, posteriormente, por meio de análise comparativa entre as listas extraídas pelos dois programas, reduzimos a 200 termos-núcleo que apareciam nas duas listas e que apresentavam variantes denominativas explícitas inter e intralinguísticas. dessas 200 unidades, selecionamos as 50 variantes denominativas intralinguísticas mais frequentes a fim de analisar como ocorria o processo de variação terminológica. 4.3. detecção e análise das variantes para a análise da variação terminológica no córpus selecionamos, de forma semiautomática utilizando a ferramenta concord do wordsmith tools, os contextos ricos em conhecimento7 (meyer, 2001) no qual se apresentavam as variantes denominativas explícitas, ou seja, com marcadores de equivalência claramente destacados, como é o caso da figura 1. figura 1. contexto com as variantes denominativas palavra-entrada e lema. uma vez detectadas as variantes, procedemos à análise semântico-cognitiva. para isso, diferenciamos entre variantes com consequências cognitivas e sem consequências, segundo os parâmetros descritos na tabela 3, a seguir: varia rtxe,soirétircsesseodniugse estenueqsaim005somco astsilase rtena viatarpmco somrte maicerpaaqueo elnúc ntisaticíxplesvaitnainomde s etnairav05s as omanoicelse natimdenoaçãovari la naitíclpx eaiv tsilamusomíar e da irósivorpa e,tenmroiertsope,suprcóod asamrgorpsiodsoelpasdaírtex praqueesatsilsduasnam sed.sacitsnguíilarntierent cistíugnilartnis avitanimoneds xe l ilsar bo niafargoic sota soatdidcane e siálane doeimrope, 002a somziuedr,as rvamvaantesepr stenia ,sdedauni200 sass as etneuqes iams ac arriocoomocr asilanaedmfi asdesiálaneão çceted3.4. mretoãçairavadesilánaaarpa amra odzanilituca iátmotau otnemicehnocmesocri 7 e(m ou ,saticíxplesvaitnainomde dao saco éo omc,dosacatsde onirmetoãçariavedossecropo setanivaras anoicelessupróconacigólonim oddrconoca tenam htimrwo esrepaeslauqon) 1002r,eye quiedesedoracramomc,as 1agurif . acigólo . imesamred,soma sloh so, sotextnco amavatne s etnairavs entemaralcaincêlvaqui 1.a gurfi mocotxetnco iravsasadatcetedzevaum tnesomaicneridossiarpa arvalapsavitanimonedsetnairavsam ada rent lánaàsomedecorp,setnai eis icnêesnocmocsetnairavert a.emle ada oticnâmes a.vitingco mesesavitingocsai tnesomaicnerid,ossiarpa arpsoodnuegs,asciênueqsnco ibér icnêesnocmocsetnairavert 3a elabta nsoticresdsoretâmar 36ca ibér 810(2 ): …-… 11 mesesavitingocsai :riuegsa , l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): …-… variação denominativa sem consequências cognitivas variação denominativa com consequências cognitivas há alteração na forma (escrita) da unidade terminológica (ut), mas não há alteração no sentido. há alteração na forma (escrita) e também no sentido. os termos apresentam os mesmos traços conceituais. os termos apresentam traços conceituais diferentes. os termos podem ser considerados equivalentes sinonimicamente. na !o ha " uma relac #a !o de sinoni "mia absoluta entre os termos, mas pode haver uma sinoni "mia relativa por inclusa !o ou por intersecc #a !o. tabela 3. critérios para classificação dos termos de acordo com a tipologia semântico-cognitiva (costa, 2015). a continuação, analisou-se o tipo de relação sinonímica entre as variantes, o que nos permitiu diferenciá-los em: 1. sinônimos: quando os variantes são equivalentes semanticamente. 2. sinônimos relativos por inclusão: há uma relação de inclusão entre os significados, isto é, uma relação de composição (formar ou fazer parte de...). 3. sinônimos relativos por intersecção: os significados se relacionam parcialmente, apresentando traços em comum e coincidindo de alguma forma. 4. não sinônimos: não há equivalência semântica entre os termos, de foma que não podem ser considerados sinônimos linguísticos. 5. resultados nesta seção apresentamos, primeiramente, a tipologia de variação encontrada e as causas de variação e, posteriormente, a representação dessa variação na proposta de organização microestrutural. 5.1. a variação terminológica no corpus de lexicografia brasileira os resultados da classificação semântica das variantes podem ser visualisados na tabela 4. 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 105 3. sinônimos relativos por intersecção: os significados se relacionam parcialmente, apresentando traços em comum e coincidindo de alguma forma. 4. não sinônimos: não há equivalência semântica entre os termos, de foma que não podem ser considerados sinônimos linguísticos. 5. resultados nesta seção apresentamos, primeiramente, a tipologia de variação encontrada e as causas de variação e, posteriormente, a representação dessa variação na proposta de organização microestrutural. 5.1. a variação terminológica no córpus de lexicografia brasileira os resultados da classificação semântica das variantes podem ser visualisados na tabela 4. se identificaram 38 variantes com consequências cognitivas e 12 sem consequências cognitivas. todas as variantes sem consequências cognitivas foram consideradas sinônimas porque estabelecem uma relação de equivalência semântica, como podemos verificar no exemplo das variantes rótulo e rubrica: contexto 1: nos dicionários quando os domínios específicos a que a entrada pertence aparecem no verbete, são denominados marcas de uso, rótulos ou rubricas. fonte: rangel & bagno, 2006. as unidades apresentadas são variantes denominativas que se distinguem formalmente, mas apresentam os mesmos traços conceituais: marcação que serve para identificar ou rotular o sentido e utilização de uma determinada palavra. nesse caso, o uso de uma ou outra variante não apresenta incidência l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118106 a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): …-… tipologia classificação linguística qtd. exemplo variantes com consequências cognitivas sinônimos relativos por inclusão 08 definição circular/ circularidade sinônimos relativos por intersecção 18 dicionário geral/ dicionário padrão não sinônimos 12 dicionarista/ lexicógrafo variantes sem consequências cognitivas sinônimos 12 rótulo/rubrica tabela 4. tipologia e classificação linguística das variantes analisadas. se identificaram 38 variantes com consequências cognitivas e 12 sem consequências cognitivas. todas as variantes sem consequências cognitivas foram consideradas sinônimas porque estabelecem uma relação de equivalência semântica, como podemos verificar no exemplo das variantes rótulo e rubrica: contexto 1: nos dicionários, quando os domínios específicos a que a entrada pertence aparecem no verbete, são denominados marcas de uso, rótulos ou rubricas. fonte: rangel & bagno, 2006. as unidades apresentadas são variantes denominativas que se distinguem formalmente, mas apresentam os mesmos traços conceituais: marcação que serve para identificar ou rotular o sentido e utilização deu uma determinada palavra. nesse caso, o uso de um ou outra variante não apresenta incidência cognitiva sobre o receptor, que recebe as mesmas informações conceituais a respeito do termo definido, por isso são considerados variantes denominativas sem consequências cognitivas. a respeito do tipo de mudança formal entre as variantes sinonímicas, embasada na classificação formal de freixa (2002), verificam-se os seguintes casos (ver tabela 5): tabela 5. classificação formal das variantes sem consequências cognitivas. observa-se que as variantes sem consequências cognitivas de nossa amostra apresentam somente variação lexical. os casos de variação comportam alterações léxicas, tanto simples como complexas. assim, em 2 casos se dá a variação em unidades monoléxicas (rótulo/rubrica) e em 2 casos em unidades poliléxicas (lexicografia didática/lexicografia pedagógica). temos 2 casos em 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 106 cognitiva sobre o receptor, que recebe as mesmas informações conceituais a respeito do termo definido, por isso são considerados variantes denominativas sem consequências cognitivas. a respeito do tipo de mudança formal entre as variantes sinonímicas, embasada na classificação formal de freixa (2002), verificam-se os seguintes casos (ver tabela 5): observa-se que as variantes sem consequências cognitivas de nossa amostra apresentam somente variação lexical. os casos de variação comportam alterações léxicas, tanto simples como complexas. assim, em 2 casos se dá a variação em unidades monoléxicas (rótulo/rubrica) e em 2 casos em unidades poliléxicas (lexicografia didática/lexicografia pedagógica). temos 2 casos em que ocorre uma mudança léxica simples entre os modificadores de unidades mono/poliléxicas, e em otros 6 casos, alterações léxicas complexas, com parentesco formal (entrada/palavra-entrada) ou sem parentesco formal entre as variantes (lexicografia especializada/ terminografia). em relação à variação denominativa com consequências cognitivas, identificamos três tipos de relação de sinonímia: relativa por inclusão, intersecção ou nãosinonímia, como apontamos na tabela 4. nesses casos temos traços conceituais diferentes refletidos pelas variantes, o que faz com que tenham incidência cognitiva na forma como o conteúdo é entendido pelo receptor. como exemplo, consideramos a dualidade a seguir: contexto 2: definição circular, também denominada circularidade ocorre quando uma palavra-entrada é definida por um sinônimo, e vice-versa. fonte: rangel & bagno, 2006. ainda que neste contexto sejam empregadas como variantes de um mesmo conceito, ao analisarmos semanticamente essas unidades vemos que a a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 107 a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): …-… tabela 4. tipologia e classificação linguística das variantes analisadas. se identificaram 38 variantes com consequências cognitivas e 12 sem consequências cognitivas. todas as variantes sem consequências cognitivas foram consideradas sinônimas porque estabelecem uma relação de equivalência semântica, como podemos verificar no exemplo das variantes rótulo e rubrica: contexto 1: nos dicionários, quando os domínios específicos a que a entrada pertence aparecem no verbete, são denominados marcas de uso, rótulos ou rubricas. fonte: rangel & bagno, 2006. as unidades apresentadas são variantes denominativas que se distinguem formalmente, mas apresentam os mesmos traços conceituais: marcação que serve para identificar ou rotular o sentido e utilização deu uma determinada palavra. nesse caso, o uso de um ou outra variante não apresenta incidência cognitiva sobre o receptor, que recebe as mesmas informações conceituais a respeito do termo definido, por isso são considerados variantes denominativas sem consequências cognitivas. a respeito do tipo de mudança formal entre as variantes sinonímicas, embasada na classificação formal de freixa (2002), verificam-se os seguintes casos (ver tabela 5): tipo de alteração qtd. exemplos variação lexical simples unidades monoléxicas 02 rótulo/rubrica unidades poliléxicas 02 lexicografia didática/lexicografia pedagógica variação (lexical) complexa com parentesco formal (mono/poli) 02 entrada/ palavra-entrada sem parentesco formal 04 lexicografia especializada/terminografia tabela 5. classificação formal das variantes sem consequências cognitivas. observa-se que as variantes sem consequências cognitivas de nossa amostra apresentam somente variação lexical. os casos de variação comportam alterações léxicas, tanto simples como complexas. assim, em 2 casos se dá a variação em unidades monoléxicas (rótulo/rubrica) e em 2 casos em unidades poliléxicas (lexicografia didática/lexicografia pedagógica). temos 2 casos em 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 107 primeira delas representa um tipo de definição, ao passo que a segunda equivale a uma propriedade apresentada por ela, isto é, referência de um termo a outro de forma a ocasionar uma série de consultas ao dicionário. esta complementariedade entre os significados nos permite clasificá-los como sinônimos relativos por inclusão. como exemplo de variantes sinônimos relativos por intersecção apresentamos a dualidade dicionário geral de língua e dicionário padrão, que embora sejam tratados como variantes (ver contexto 3), apresentam traços distintos de um mesmo conceito: contexto 3: em todas as taxonomias já mencionadas, há um consenso sobre a existência de un genótipo chamado por biderman (1998, p.129) “dicionário padrao” ou “dicionário geral de lingual” [...]. fonte: bugueño-miranda & farias, 2011. devido ao caráter mais abrangente e extenso do termo dicionário geral em detrimento do caráter mais seletivo e conciso de dicionário padrão, os termos não podem ser considerados como sinônimos. no entanto, há uma relação de intersecção entre alguns traços conceituais dessas duas tipologias de dicionários, como o fato de descreverem o léxico da língua geral, serem organizados alfabeticamente e apresentarem, minimamente, informações como lema e definição, informações gramaticais, etc. como exemplo de variantes consideradas por muitos como sinônimos, mas que apresentam traços conceituais diferentes de acordo com nossa análise, temos as unidades dicionarista e lexicógrafo: contexto 4: primeiro entendamos o lexicógrafo (ou dicionarista) em sentido restrito, o profissional que prepara dicionários de língua, ou seja, os dicionários que informam como é a estrutura da língua e como ela funciona (borba, 2011). fonte: xatara et al., 2011. a linha que diferencia os conceitos de lexicógrafo e dicionarista é bastante tênue, para alguns até inexistente, como podemos verificar no contexto apresentado. por outro lado, para autores como zavaglia (2010), por dicionarista entende-se o profissional que elabora dicionários, mas sem formação ou preparação para isso, apenas um técnico ou um “fazedor de dicionários”, que não segue critérios científicos e tampouco se embasa em estudos lexicológicos ou metalexicógraficos para produzir seus dicionários. nesse sentido, poderíamos entender o dicionarista como o profissional que l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118108 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 108 produz um dicionário sem ter formação específica, ao passo que o lexicógrafo seria o profissional formado em lexicografia e que reflete, analisa e dispõe de critérios científicos para elaborar suas obras. sendo assim, lexicógrafo e dicionarista não são variantes sinonímicas de um mesmo conceito, pois, embora contenham traços em comum, as informações conceituais veiculadas não são as mesmas. quanto à tipologia formal das variantes com consequências cognitivas, verificam-se os seguintes casos (ver tabela 6): verifica-se que as variantes denominativas com consequências cognitivas de nossa amostra são, em sua maioria variantes lexicais simples, em que se dá uma alteração léxica nos modificadores das unidades poliléxicas (dicionário geral/dicionário padrão), totalizando um número de 20 variantes, e apenas 08 monoléxicas. também se registram 10 casos de variação lexical complexa, sendo 08 variantes com parentesco formal (definição circular/circularidade) e 02 sem parentesco (artigo lexicográfico/verbete). contudo, não se constata na amostra analisada nenhum caso de variação morfossintática. 5.1.1. fatores de variação denominativa o passo seguinte consistiu em analisar os fatores que originaram a variação nos casos analisados. embasados na tipologia dos fatores cognitivos de variação de fernández-silva (2011), distinguimos três principais fatores em nosso córpus: (i) variação causada por motivação subjetiva, (ii) variação causada pela tendência ou escola de pensamento seguida pelo autor e (iii) variação cronológica relacionada à evolução do conhecimento. estes três fatores originam tanto os casos de variação com consequências cognitivas como sem consequências cognitivas (ver tabla 7): a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 109 a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): …-… a linha que diferencia os conceitos de lexicógrafo e dicionarista é bastante tênue, para alguns até inexistente, como podemos verificar no contexto apresentado. por outro lado, para autores como zavaglia (2010), por dicionarista entendese o profissional que elabora dicionários, mas sem formação ou preparação para isso, apenas um técnico ou um “fazedor de dicionários”, que não segue critérios científicos e tampouco se embasa em estudos lexicológicos ou metalexicógraficos para produzir seus dicionários. nesse sentido, poderíamos entender o dicionarista como o profissional que produz um dicionário sem ter formação específica, ao passo que o lexicógrafo seria o profissional formado em lexicografia e que reflete, analisa e dispõe de critérios científicos para elaborar suas obras. sendo assim, lexicógrafo e dicionarista não são variantes sinonímicas de um mesmo conceito, pois, embora contenham traços em comum, as informações conceituais veiculadas não são as mesmas. quanto à tipologia formal das variantes com consequências cognitivas, verificam-se os seguintes casos (ver tabela 6): tipo de alteração qtd. exemplos variação lexical simples unidades monoléxicas 08 lexicógrafo/dicionarista unidades poliléxicas 20 dicionário geral/dicionário padrão variação lexical complexa com parentesco formal (mono/poli) 08 definição circular/circularidade sem parentesco formal 02 artigo lexicográfico/ verbete tabela 6. classificação formal das variantes com consequências cognitivas. verifica-se que as variantes denominativas com consequências cognitivas de nossa amostra são, em sua maioria variantes lexicais simples, em que se dá uma alteração léxica nos modificadores das unidades poliléxicas (dicionário geral/dicionário padrão), totalizando um número de 20 variantes, e apenas 08 monoléxicas. também se registram 10 casos de variação lexical complexa, sendo 08 variantes com parentesco formal (definição circular/circularidade) e 02 sem parentesco (artigo lexicográfico/verbete). contudo, não se constata na amostra analisada nenhum caso de variação morfossintática. 5.1.1. fatores de variação denominativa o passo seguinte consistiu em analisar os fatores que originaram a variação nos casos analisados. embasados na tipologia dos fatores cognitivos de variação de fernández-silva (2011), distinguimos três principais fatores em nosso córpus: (i) variação causada por motivação subjetiva, (ii) variação causada pela tendência ou escola de pensamento seguida pelo autor e (iii) variação cronológica relacionada à evolução do conhecimento. estes três fatores originam tanto os casos de variação com consequências cognitivas como sem consequências cognitivas (ver tabla 7): 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 109 (i) variação causada por motivação subjetiva a variação originada por um fator individual e, portanto subjetiva, está relacionada a um desejo e escolha pessoal do autor. no nosso córpus esta se dá como um recurso de progressão textual, como se pode observar no seguinte contexto: contexto 5: apesar da tentativa de se formular uma definição seguindo os moldes da definição por gênero próximo e diferença específica, a maioria das paráfrases assume a característica do que muitos estudiosos convencionaram chamar de definição circular. […] ao também tratar da definição circular, martínez de souza [...] a concebe como uma “definição defeituosa onde o definido e o definiente se remetem reciprocamente”, ou seja, o segundo tipo de circularidade apontado por landau (2001). fonte: brangel, 2011. consideramos que o uso dessas variantes se dê como um recurso estilístico, por parte do autor, para evitar a repetição, pois, embora saibamos que definição circular e circularidade aportam informações conceituais distintas (a primeira um tipo de variação e a segunda uma propriedade dessa tipologia de definição), cognitivamente, para o autor do texto as duas variantes são sinônimas, podendo ser ambas utilizadas para dar maior fluência ao texto. pode, tratar-se, nesse caso, de uma intenção consciente de ressaltar a propriedade de circularidade, pois ao reiterar a referência a esta propriedade por meio de um substantivo, atribui-le uma maior importância e se focaliza a atenção do leitor. em outros casos essa motivaçao subjetiva pode estar condicionada por uma vontade de adaptação ao nível de conhecimento do público direcionado, como é o caso do contexto 2, que reproduzimos novamente: contexto 6: a entrada [o mesmo que lema, cabeça de verbete, palavra-entrada] é a palavra ou expressão que encabeça o verbete, o elemento a ser definido ou explicado. fonte: rangel & bagno, 2006. l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118110 l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): …-… fator de variação tipologia qtd. exemplo motivação subjetiva com consequências 26 definição circular/ circularidade sem consequências 08 lexicografia didática/ lexicografia pedagógica tendência ou escola lexicográfica com consequências 12 entrada/lema sem consequências 02 lexicografia especializada/terminografia evolução do conhecimento com consequências 02 macroestrutura/nomenclatura sem consequências 00 - tabela 7. fatores de variação denominativa encontrados no córpus. (i) variação causada por motivação subjetiva a variação originada por um fator individual e, portanto subjetiva, está relacionada a um desejo e escolha pessoal do autor. no nosso córpus esta se dá como um recurso de progressão textual, como se pode observar no seguinte contexto: contexto 5: apesar da tentativa de se formular uma definição seguindo os moldes da definição por gênero próximo e diferença específica, a maioria das paráfrases assume a característica do que muitos estudiosos convencionaram chamar de definição circular. […] ao também tratar da definição circular, martínez de souza [...] a concebe como uma “definição defeituosa onde o definido e o definiente se remetem reciprocamente”, ou seja, o segundo tipo de circularidade apontado por landau (2001). fonte: brangel, 2011. consideramos que o uso dessas variantes se dê como um recurso estilístico, por parte do autor, para evitar a repetição, pois, embora saibamos que definição circular e circularidade aportam informações conceituais distintas (a primeira um tipo de variação e a segunda uma propriedade dessa tipologia de definição), cognitivamente, para o autor do texto as duas variantes são sinônimas, podendo ser ambas utilizadas para dar maior fluência ao texto. pode, tratar-se, nesse caso, de uma intenção consciente de ressaltar a propriedade de circularidade, pois ao reiterar a referência a esta propriedade por meio de um substantivo, atribui-le uma maior importância e se focaliza a atenção do leitor. em outros casos essa motivaçao subjetiva pode estar condicionada por uma vontade de adaptação ao nível de conhecimento do público direcionado, como é o caso do contexto 2, que reproduzimos novamente: contexto 6: a entrada [o mesmo que lema, cabeça de verbete, palavra-entrada] é a palavra ou expressão que encabeça o verbete, o elemento a ser definido ou explicado. fonte: rangel & bagno, 2006. trata-se de um manual organizado para professores da rede estadual de ensino que tem por objetivo orientar sobre o uso de dicionários em sala de aula. sendo assim, a variação denominativa cumpre uma função didática de viabilizar o conhecimento a um público leigo, pois ao apresentar as duas variantes o autor apresenta aspectos distintos do conceito que podem auxiliar na compreensão. 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 110 trata-se de um manual organizado para professores da rede estadual de ensino que tem por objetivo orientar sobre o uso de dicionários em sala de aula. sendo assim, a variação denominativa cumpre uma função didática de viabilizar o conhecimento a um público leigo, pois ao apresentar as duas variantes o autor apresenta aspectos distintos do conceito que podem auxiliar na compreensão. (ii) variação causada por tendência ou escola lexicográfica seguida por meio de nossas análises pudemos verificar que muitas das variantes denominativas utilizadas na lexicografia brasileira são influenciadas por tendências lexicográficas de outros países. em sua maioria, constata-se essa variação em textos e autores distintos, porém, em alguns casos, isso pode ocorrer em um mesmo texto e autor. o fato de confluírem esses termos constantemente na produção lexicográfica do país, faz com que os mesmos se mesclem e não apresentem delimitações tão visíveis quanto à tendência lexicográfica de que se origina, o que torna natural a utilização de variantes de escolas distintas em uma mesma obra. esses exemplos são mais visíveis com os termos próprios da lexicografia inglesa e alemã, pois os termos da lexicografia francesa, espanhola e portuguesa há muito se solidificaram na produção lexicográfica no brasil, o que torna difícil delimitar de que escola se originaram. como exemplo de variação denominativa com consequências cognitivas originadas pela influência da tendência ou escola lexicográfica, apontamos as unidades lema e signo-lema, como se mostra no contexto 7: contexto 7: por um lado, o usuário pode querer conhecer a significação de uma unidade léxica, ou seja, a sua estratégia de busca vai do lema (ou signolema) à paráfrase explanatória. fonte: bugueño-miranda, 2009. a unidade signo-lema foi motivada pela influência lexicográfica alemã, seguida por bugueño-miranda (2009), ao passo que outros autores como biderman (2003), apontem como variantes de lema as unidades entrada ou palavraentrada, geralmente seguindo a tradição francesa. como exemplo de variação sem consequências cognitivas originada por tendência ou escola lexicográfica, podemos analisar a dualidade lexicografia especializada e terminografia, visível no seguinte contexto: a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 111 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 111 contexto 8: já na terminografia, também conhecida como lexicografia especializada, está focada na análise dos termos relativos a uma linguagem especializada [...]. fonte: costa filho, 2007. como se pode observar, costa filho (2007) utiliza terminografia e lexicografia especializada como variantes, ainda que venham de disciplinas distintas com tradições separadas. entretanto, funcionalmente se reconhece que se trata de um mesmo conceito, e que portanto se usam indistintamente como variantes. parece-nos claro que há, na utilização desses termos, uma variação ocasionada por tendências lexicográficas distintas. (iii) variação causada por evolução do conhecimento a variação denominativa relacionada à evolução do conhecimento ocorre quando há o surgimento de uma nova denominação para um conceito préexistente, sendo esta relacionada à ampliação ou modificação do conhecimento; isso faz com que se peceba novos matizes conceituais antes não observados e que se manifieste em uma variação denominativa, como se pode observar nos exemplos 9 e 10. contexto 9: um dicionário é constituído de entradas lexicais, ou lemas [...]. a lista total desses lemas constitui a nomenclatura do dicionário, a sua macroestrutura. fonte: biderman, 2001. contexto 10: também deveria ratificar o termo nominata usado por villar, pois o termo consagrado em lexicologia/lexicografia é nomenclatura. os teóricos do léxico também usam o termo macroestrutura que refere, porém, um conceito distinto. fonte: biderman, 2002. analisando os contextos apresentados, podemos dizer que, nesse caso, se produziu uma alteração temporal na conceitualização realizada por uma mesma autora. em 2001, biderman não via diferenças conceituais entre nomenclatura e macroestrutura e as empregava como variantes sinonímicas, porém como resultado da evolução de seu pensamento, passou a ver aspectos que a levaram a considerá-las como unidades com conceitos distintos e, portanto, não sinônimas. 5.2. a representação da variação na proposta do dicionário de lexicografia brasileira o usuário potencial do dlb foi considerado de nível médio ou alto, constituído por estudantes e especialistas dessa área, que possuem certo l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118112 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 112 conhecimento sobre a lexicografia e que não buscaria nesse dicionário informações formais e básicas como classe gramatical, marcações de plural, concordância, etc. em relação com a representação da variação consideramos que a microestrutura do dlb deva, primeiramente, possibilitar aos estudantes e especialistas desse âmbito: 1. compreender as variantes apresentadas para uma mesma denominação; 2. entender a utilização e os traços que diferenciam essas variantes por meio dos contextos definitórios, visando compreender quando seus traços semânticos se equivalem, incluem-se ou se interseccionam; 3. compreender as possíveis causas dessa variação; 4. verificar as consequências cognitivas presentes na utilização de distintas variantes. nesse sentido, a proposta de microestrutura do dlb foi pautada seguindo os pressupostos da terminologia cognitiva e sendo assim, não se trata de uma proposta prescritiva, uma vez que inclui informações sobre os termos e sua utilização. apresenta todos os tipos de relações entre as variantes e não apenas as estritamente sinônimas, o que permite que se visualize a multidimensionalidade dos conceitos por meio das relações de não sinonímia e sinonímia relativa por inclusão e intersecção. o enunciado definitório considera os traços prototípicos dos termos e foi adaptada para o tipo de usuário almejado e os conceitos ativam os pressupostos cognitivos subjacentes e, portanto, mostram as relações deste conceito com outros na estrutura conceitual, o que permite uma maior compreensão do conceito e sua estruturação. assim, a proposta de verbete do dlb contemplará as seguintes informações (ver exemplo no quadro 1): (a) entrada: apresentada em letra minúscula e negrito, seguido de ponto final; b) categoria gramatical: apresentada em itálico e abreviadas: s.m. (substantivo masculino singular), s.m.p. (substantivo masculino plural), s.f. (substantivo feminino), s.f.p. (substantivo feminino plural), adj. (adjetivo), v. (verbo); a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 113 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 113 c) definição: considerando os pressupostos da lexicografia cognitiva procuramos apresentar uma proposta de definição mais ampla e mais tangível aque apresentasse maiores informações sobre o conteúdo conceitual e permitisse que o usuário obtivesse uma maior compreensão sobre a forma com se estrutura o conceito. d) contextos “ricos em conhecimento”: apresentamos contextos que definam a palavra-entrada e forneçam mais detalhes sobre a utilização do lema em contextos de uso, apresentados por diferentes autores. e) remissivas: além da remissiva tradicional, apresentamos a explicação sobre como se dá essa remissão: sinônimo; sinônimo relativo por inclusão, sinônimo relativo por intersecção, não sinônimo e siglas. f) notas explicativas: utilizada como um recurso para elencar as observações e comentários feitos pelos autores a respeito do termo definido ou para apresentar nossas observações a respeito das definições presentes nos contextos. vejamos: 6. conclusões no presente trabalho investigamos o fenômeno da variação denominativa na lexicografia em uso no brasil, com o intuito de propor uma representação lexicográfica que refletisse essa variação. apoiamo-nos nos pressupostos das teorias modernas da terminologia de base cognitiva, que concebem a variação terminológica como um fenômeno inerente à comunicação l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118114 l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): …-… verbete s.m enunciado lexicográfico ou terminológico constituído pela junção da palavra-entrada e todas as informações relacionadas a ela como: classe gramatical, definição, contexto de uso, entre outras. contexto: o verbete, ou artigo lexicográfico, é a unidade mínima autônoma em que se organiza o dicionário [...]. fonte: heinrich (2007). contexto: todo dicionário [...] consiste num estudo atomístico do léxico na medida em que considera isoladamente as palavras que servem de entradas[...]. é a partir da palavra-entrada ou lema que se organiza o verbete ou artigo lexicográfico. fonte: murakawa (2010). remissivas: artigo lexicográfico s.m. (não sinônimos) notas: embora sejam utilizados como sinônimos ressalta-se que as unidades verbete e artigo lexicográfico ressaltam aspectos distintos do conceito. verbete refere-se a um breve texto ou apontamento, ao passo que artigo lexicográfico além das informações sobre a natureza ou seja, texto breve, reforça o destino, pequeno texto que se insere dentro de uma obra lexicográfica. sobre a utilização desses termos na lexicografia brasileira destacamos que, ainda que os dois termos sejam comumente utilizados, a unidade terminológica verbete é a mais frequente e comumente aceitável na lexicografia do brasil, ao passo que artigo lexicográfico, consiste em uma tradução e adaptação da unidade terminológica artículo lexicografico, utilizado na lexicografia espanhola. quadro 1. modelo de verbete do dicionário de lexicografia brasileira (adaptado de costa, 2015). 6. conclusões no presente trabalho investigamos o fenômeno da variação denominativa na lexicografia em uso no brasil, com o intuito de propor uma representação lexicográfica que refletisse essa variação. apoiamo-nos nos pressupostos das teorias modernas da terminologia de base cognitiva, que concebem a variação terminológica como um fenômeno inerente à comunicação especializada, reflexo da dinamicidade dos processos de categorização do connhecimento e funcional na transmissão do conhecimento especializado e que, por esse motivo, deve ser representada nos recursos terminológicos. nossa proposta está embasada no estudo sobre a variação na terminologia da lexicografia brasileira. para isso, realizamos uma análise da variação denominativa explícita em um córpus de textos de lexicografia brasileira, e refletimos sobre as consequências cognitivas resultantes da utlização dessas variantes e os possiveis fatores cognitivos que podem originá-la. os dados obtidos nessa pesquisa nos mostram que a variação, assim como em qualquer âmbito, está presente também na lexicografia brasileira, podendo ser esta ocasionada por motivação subjetiva dos autores, confuencia de tendências lexicográficas distintas, ou evolução do conhecimento. a partir desses resultados, a microestrutura, que propomos para o dicionário de lexicografia brasileira, aspira refletir a multidimensionalidade dos conceitos especializados e sua variabilidade denominativa. o objetivo é representar o uso da variação como uma estratégia cognitiva na produção e compreensão do discurso especializado. por esse motivo nossa proposta pretende ser um aporte para essa linha, reconhecendo que não é a única proposta e admitindo as limitações que possa 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 114 especializada, reflexo da dinamicidade dos processos de categorização do conhecimento na transmissão do conhecimento especializado e que, por esse motivo, deve ser representada nos recursos terminológicos. nossa proposta está embasada no estudo sobre a variação na terminologia da lexicografia brasileira. para isso, realizamos uma análise da variação denominativa explícita em um córpus de textos de lexicografia brasileira, e refletimos sobre as consequências cognitivas resultantes da utilização dessas variantes e os possíveis fatores cognitivos que podem originá-la. os dados obtidos nessa pesquisa nos mostram que a variação, assim como em qualquer âmbito, está presente também na lexicografia brasileira, podendo ser esta ocasionada por motivação subjetiva dos autores, confluência de tendências lexicográficas distintas, ou evolução do conhecimento. a partir desses resultados, a microestrutura, que propomos para o dicionário de lexicografia brasileira, aspira refletir a multidimensionalidade dos conceitos especializados e sua variabilidade denominativa. o objetivo é representar o uso da variação como uma estratégia cognitiva na produção e compreensão do discurso especializado. por esse motivo nossa proposta pretende ser um aporte para essa linha, reconhecendo que não é a única proposta e admitindo as limitações que possa apresentar. no entanto, consideramos seu aporte na tradição lexicográfica brasileira, já que todavia prevalece uma visão prescritiva sobre a variação e sua representação nos dicionários. article history: received 9 august 2016 received in revised form 11 july 2017 accepted 12 july 2017 bibliografia a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 115 alcaraz, v.e. e b. hughes (2012). diccionario de términos jurídicos inglésespañol/spanishenglish. barcelona: ariel. barbosa, m.a. 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(1996). discurso e instrumentos lingüísticos no brasil: dos relatos de viajantes aos primeiros dicionários. tese de doutorado. campinas: universidade estadual de campinas – unicamp. 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 116 lucimara alves costa é doutora em estudos linguísticos pela universidade estadual paulistaunesp/ibilce, brasil e doutora em ciencias del lenguaje y linguística aplicada pela universitat pompeu fabra de barcelona. atualmente realiza uma investigação de pós-doutorado na pontifícia universidad católica de valparaíso-chile. seus interesses de investigação compreendem a terminologia e a lexicografia. sabela fernández-silva é doutora em ciencias del lenguaje y linguística aplicada pela universitat pompeu fabra de barcelona. atualmente trabalha na pontifícia universidad católica de valparaíso-chile, onde exerce docência na graduação e pós-graduação. seus interesses de investigação compreendem a terminologia, a neología a traducción especializada desde uma perspectiva cognitiva. notas 1 este trabalho é uma ampliação da pesquisa de doutorado intitulada: reflexões sobre a variação terminológica na lexicografia corrente no brasil: análises e consequências e foi realizado no decorrer da investigação de pós doutorado “di postdoc”, financiado pela pontificia universidad católica de valparaíso pucv, chile. 2 utilizamos terminologia (com t maiúsculo) sempre que ser referir à disciplina e terminologia (com t minúsculo) quando diz respeito ao conjunto de termos de uma disciplina ou área de especialidade. 3 http://ecolexicon.ugr.es/en/aboutecolexicon.htm 4 http://varimed.ugr.es a variação denominativa explícita na lexicografia no brasil ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118 117 ostermann, c. (2012). “cognitive lexicography of emotion terms”. 15th euralex international congress, 493-501. oslo, norwegen. ostermann, c. (2015). cognitive lexicography – a new approach to lexicography making use of cognitive semantics. lexicographica. series maior 149. berlin/boston: de gruyter mouton. prieto velasco, j.a., m. tercedor sánchez & c.i. lópez rodríguez (2013). “la multidimensionalidad conceptual en la traducción médica”. skopos. revista internacional de traducción e interpretación 2: 167-183. rangel, e.o. e m. bagno (2006). dicionários em sala de aula / elaboração egon de oliveira rangel, marcos bagno. brasília: ministério da educação, secretaria de educação básica. suárez, m. (2004). análisis contrastivo de la variación denominativa en textos especializados: del texto original al texto meta. barcelona: iulaupf. tebé, c. (2005). la representació conceptual en terminologia: l’atribució temàtica en els bancs de dades terminològiques. barcelona: iula-upf. temmerman, r. (2000). toward new ways of terminology description: the sociocognitive approch. amsterdam: john benjamins. xatara, c. et al. (2011). dicionários na teoria e na prática: como e para quem são feitos. são paulo: parábola editorial. zavaglia, c. (2010). dicionários infantis: uma análise de suas microestruturas. relatório de pósdoutoramento. são josé do rio preto: unesp. 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 117 5 associação nacional de pós-graduação e pesquisa em letras e linguística. 6 este programa de doutorado foi realizado durante os anos de 2010 a 2014, sendo cursadas durante esse período 4 disciplinas de lexicografia, o que demonstra a forte formação lexicográfica que tem esse programa e sua importância no contexto da lexicografia no brasil. 7 de acordo com meyer (2001) os contextos ricos em conhecimento são aqueles em que se recorre a elementos contextuais que possam auxiliar na compreensão e identificação de um item do domínio de conhecimento (meyer, 2001: 281). l. alves costa & s. fernández-silva ibérica 36 (2018): 93-118118 04 iberica 36_iberica 13 26/10/18 20:21 página 118 iberica 13 ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.263 abstract the flipped classroom as an instructional approach has gained increasing attention in english language teaching and learning, including english for specific purposes (esp). effective flipped instruction in esp settings requires a proper technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpck) for teachers as well as a deep understanding of attributes of esp learners. this article examined a cohort of chinese university students’ experiences of learning news english (an esp-oriented course) through pre-class micro-lesson videos as part of a flipped classroom. the data included task sheets accompanying the micro-lesson videos prepared by the teachers as well as interviews with the students about their learning experiences, think-aloud sessions and learning diaries. adopting an activity theory perspective, we were able to identify notable differences between the teacher-designed pre-class activity system and the activity system actually experienced by the students. the study also demonstrated the complicating effect of students’ critical thinking disposition on the dynamics of their micro-lesson learning. the findings are discussed in relation to esp teacher development, in particular regarding the development of tpck for effective design and delivery of flipped instruction in esp settings. keywords: activity theory, flipped classroom, critical thinking disposition, esp teacher development, technological pedagogical content knowledge. resumen aula invertida en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de inglés para fines específicos: una perspectiva desde la teoría de la actividad el aula invertida como enfoque de instrucción está ganando cada vez más atención en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del inglés, incluyendo el inglés para fines específicos (english for specific purposes. esp). para una efectiva instrucción flipped classroom in esp teaching and learning: an activity theory perspective hao liua, hu qiua & zuocheng zhangb a xi’an jiaotong university (china) & b university of new england (australia) liuhao@mail.xjtu.edu.cn, sis@mail.xjtu.edu.cn & zzhang26@une.edu.au 263 ibérica 44 (2022): 00-00 hao liu, hu qiu & zuocheng zhang invertida en un contexto de esp se requieren conocimientos técnicos pedagógicos del contenido para profesores y una comprensión avanzada de las características de los alumnos de esp. este artículo examina la experiencia de un grupo de universitarios chinos que aprenden inglés informativo (en un curso orientado a esp) a través de vídeos de microlecciones previas a la clase como parte de un aula invertida. los datos incluyen ejercicios que acompañan a los videos de microlecciones preparados por los profesores, entrevistas con los estudiantes acerca de su aprendizaje, sesiones de pensamiento en voz alta y diarios de aprendizaje. desde una perspectiva de la teoría de la actividad, hemos podido identificar diferencias considerables entre las actividades diseñadas por los profesores previas a la clase y las actividades experimentadas por los estudiantes. el estudio también demuestra las dificultades del pensamiento crítico por parte de los estudiantes durante su aprendizaje con las microlecciones. los resultados se discuten a la luz del desarrollo de los profesores de esp, haciendo hincapié en el desarrollo de sus competencias de conocimientos técnicos pedagógicos del contenido para el diseño y la instrucción invertida efectiva en contextos de esp. palabras clave: teoría de la actividad, aula invertida, disposición de pensamiento crítico, desarrollo docente en esp, conocimientos técnicos pedagógicos del contenido. 1. introduction the flipped classroom commonly involves a breakdown of teaching and learning into two phases, that is, an out-of-class phase and an in-class phase (persky & mclaughlin, 2017). in the out-of-class phase, teachers provide content typically via videos on online platforms for students who learn the content in their own time prior to or post the in-class phase. the in-class phase is focused on collaborative group or pair work. this innovative approach in education has been applied across disciplines and stages of education to positive effects (e.g., das et al., 2019; gouia & gunn, 2016; persky & mclaughlin, 2017). it has also gained popularity in english as a foreign language (efl) teaching. a recent literature search in the databases ebsco, proquest and scopus with the search words “flipped classroom” and “english as foreign language” in “abstract” returned 20, 26 and 19 results respectively. these studies suggest that flipped classroom is effective in the teaching and learning of listening, speaking, reading and writing macro-skills (e.g., abdullah et al., 2020; al-naabi, 2020; chang & lin, 2019; hung, 2017; öztürk & çakıroğlu, 2021). 264 the potential of the flipped classroom in english for specific purposes (esp) teaching and learning, especially in non-english speaking countries, is a worthy but under-researched topic as our database search only yielded less than 30 studies on flipped esp classrooms. as esp concerns the nexus between subject knowledge and the english language (paltridge & starfield, 2013; zhang & wang, 2011), having students learn the relevant subject knowledge in the out-of-class phase can save teachers from having to explain such content in detail and enable them to use in-class time for focal language learning and practice. given that the flipped classroom puts the onus of learning on the esp teacher and students, its success relies on teachers possessing a proper knowledge of the content, pedagogy and technology involved in their teaching setting. while the concept technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpck) (mishra & koehler, 2006) provides an integrative way of looking into the three components of teacher knowledge, its application in esp settings has been little documented (e.g., basturkmen, 2015, 2021). a recent study of teaching business english to undergraduate students in the gulf region (nickerson, 2018) demonstrates the power of treating content, pedagogy and technology in an integrative way in esp education. learner factors are also indispensable for research in esp teaching and learning. although research has attended to individual learning styles, dispositions, personal goals and identities (e.g., belcher & lukkarila, 2011; dudley-evans & st john, 1998; hutchinson & waters, 1987; zhang, 2017), there is still a need to investigate learner attributes including the critical thinking disposition, in particular its role in flipped esp classrooms, as the critical thinking disposition has been found to differentiate learner behaviour and learning outcomes (liu et al., 2016; stupnisky et al., 2008). this article explores esp teachers’ tpck and the impact of students’ critical thinking disposition in flipped esp classrooms by examining the teaching and learning of news english in a flipped classroom at a chinese university. in the news english course, students were taught about news in english and practised english language skills (news english course team, 2021). we focused on the teaching and learning in the out-class phase through microlessons (i.e., pre-recorded short lecture-style videos dealing with key concepts or features of english news prepared by teachers and assigned to students to learn prior to class). we found activity theory (engeström, 1999) highly relevant to the purpose of our study. flipped learning is complex, as the three moderators (instructional design, educational context flipped classroom in esp teaching and learning: an activity theory perspective ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284 265 and techniques for assessment of learning outcomes) all account for student achievements (shahnama et al., 2021). through the lens of activity theory, we expect to provide a systemic description of the dynamic processes of designing and learning in the flipped news english course. our insights will assist esp teachers to develop a critical awareness of tpck by factoring in the affordances and constraints of technology, learner attributes and subject matter in designing and implementing flipped esp classrooms. 2. literature review 2.1. the flipped classroom through micro-lessons and news english teaching and learning flipped instruction has received considerable research attention. for example, crompton et al. (2017) developed a flipped classroom framework including preand post-class activity design and classroom organisation. öztürk and çakıroğlu’s (2021) model for the flipped classroom featured student self-regulated learning strategies to keep them active in class. hung (2017) included clickers in question-and-answer activities to gamify classroom dynamics. abdullah et al. (2020) found that flipped classroom considerably reduced student anxiety in english speaking performance. hsiao et al. (2021) showed that undergraduate students on an english for tourism course experienced deeper learning and higher self-efficacy in the flipped classroom than in the traditional classroom. studies of the pre-class aspect of flipped instruction are of particular relevance to our article. while videos are preferred by most teachers and students as out-of-class learning material (herreid & schiller, 2013; long et al., 2016), their impact on student learning is unclear. according to das et al. (2019), pre-class videos had a positive influence on student learning. delozier and rhodes (2017) and long et al. (2016), however, found that video lectures themselves did not affect learning among university students from different disciplines and class levels. yilmaz and baydas (2017) showed that using metacognitive strategies can predict 80% of students’ learning performance, testifying to the importance of metacognitive strategies in pre-class asynchronous activities in flipped instruction. these observations resonate with research in the field of efl teaching and learning using flipped classroom (e.g., chen et al., 2017; ghufron & nurdianingsih, 2020; karimi & hamzavi, 2017; liu et al., 2019; mehring, 2016; wu et al., 2017). there is therefore the hao liu, hu qiu & zuocheng zhang ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284266 need to carefully consider the material provided to students in the out-of-class phase and account for learner factors when researching flipped instruction. liang and yu’s (2018) study of blended learning in a news english course provides some useful clues. their integrated approach involving online teaching and learning through micro-lessons and face-to-face classes was well received by their students. what is missing in their study, though, is information on how the students experienced the dynamics of learning through the mediation of micro-lessons in their news english course. 2.2. activity theory and tpck for flipped classroom activity theory is built on vygotsky’s pioneering work that foregrounds the social nature of human behaviour (engeström, 1999; leont’ev, 1981). human behaviour or social practice may be analysed at three levels: activity, action or operation (leont’ev, 1981). any activity is jointly performed by social actors to achieve social ends through socio-historically developed tools. behaviour that is automatically performed as a means to the end is called an operation. where conscious efforts are involved in goal-directed behaviour, it is analysed as an action. in the more recent model of activity theory or third-generation activity theory (engeström, 1999, 2001), the complexity of activity is represented as activity system encompassing six inter-related elements: the subject, who performs the activity; the object, which is the purpose of the activity responsible for the outcomes of the activity; the tool, which is used to facilitate or enable the activity; the rules, which allow or prohibit certain actions or operations; the community, which the subject is involved in; and the division of labour among the subject and the community in eventuating the activity. activity theory has been applied in analysing technology-mediated learning processes (e.g., benson et al., 2008; lee et al., 2021). for example, lee et al.’s (2021) study of university students learning chemistry through mobile technology from the perspective of activity theory was able to take account of the interactions among students, technological devices and emerging learning processes. as the six elements in the activity system capture the participants, their actions as well as the various layers of the sociocultural environment associated with the relevant activity, they are highly pertinent to a systemic exploration of teaching and learning in flipped classrooms. the insights from the activity system perspective will be useful for understanding the tpck that esp teachers would need to handle the flipped classroom in esp teaching and learning: an activity theory perspective ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284 267 complexity in flipped instruction. according to mishra and koehler (2006), tpck requires five dimensions of understanding and knowledge, including ways of representing concepts through technologies, instructional techniques for constructively using technologies to teach content, the use of technologies to facilitate the learning of difficult concepts, students’ prior learning and beliefs and approaches, and the use of technologies to consolidate or extend knowledge and approaches to learning. therefore, tpck captures the integration of subject content, pedagogy and technology which is essential to effective esp teaching and learning (bloch, 2013; sevillapavón & haba osca, 2017). 2.3. learner factors in esp and critical thinking dispositions while learner factors in terms of subjective needs, learning styles and identity are widely acknowledged in esp research (e.g., belcher & lukkarila, 2011; dudley-evans & st john, 1998; zhang, 2017), the critical thinking disposition has been under-researched. the critical thinking disposition is a concept developed by facione (1990) for describing one’s affective disposition or mental attributes such as being inquisitive and keen on reasoning and seeking for reliable information. a student’s critical thinking disposition can be measured through the california critical thinking disposition inventory (cctdi), which can distinguish students with a positive critical thinking disposition from students with a negative critical thinking disposition (facione & facione, 1992). for example, positive critical thinking disposition students tend to have strong intellectual curiosity and are well organised, orderly, focused and diligent in inquiry, while negative critical thinking disposition students are likely to have no interest in seeking the truth and flinch when encountering difficulties or uncertainty. the cctdi has been adapted to the chinese context by wen et al. (2011) and used in a number of studies, including studies on the impact of critical thinking disposition on learning in flipped classrooms (liu, 2016). micro-lessons as a technology-mediated pedagogical tool may appeal differently to students of positive and negative critical thinking dispositions, hence the relevance of factoring in this learner attribute in the study of flipped instruction in the news english course. hao liu, hu qiu & zuocheng zhang ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284268 3. material and methods 3.1. data the data for the study were collected from the teachers and students taking a news english course at one of china’s top universities in the north-western region of the country (top west university as pseudonym). the course included five micro-lessons dealing with the topics of news and newspapers, grammatical features of news headlines, lexical features of news headlines, news lead and the structure of news reports respectively. students were instructed to study these micro-lessons before attending the subsequent twohour face-to-face classes. the data for this article were collected from the 2019 news english course. the teachers were requested to provide their teaching materials, which include hard copies of their course syllabus, task checklist for learning the micro-lessons and lesson plans for face-to-face teaching in addition to video recordings of their micro-lessons. at the beginning of the course, all the 222 news english students taught by the first two authors took the critical thinking disposition test (wen et al., 2011). the top 15 students who had achieved the highest scores qualifying them on the positive criterion (wen, 2012) and the bottom 15 students with the lowest scores satisfying the irresolution criterion were invited, and all agreed, to participate in this study and will be referred to as hctd students and lctd students respectively. these students were asked to keep and submit journals recording their experiences of learning the micro-lessons, undertake a think-aloud session for the second micro-lesson (grammatical features of news headlines), and participate in semi-structured interviews upon completion of the course. there was no required format for the journals and the students recorded their experiences in their own time. three of each student’s journals that best represent their experience of learning the micro-lessons were selected for inclusion in the data set. the research was conducted under the approval of their faculty. the data set is summarised in table 1. table 1. data set. flipped classroom in esp teaching and learning: an activity theory perspective ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284 269 data sources data types teacher participants video recordings of 5 micro-lessons course syllabus, task checklists for microlesson learning lesson plans for faceto-face teaching student participants 1 think-aloud protocol of learning the micro-lesson on grammatical features of english news headlines 3 journals recording learning of the microlessons post-course individual interview on learning the micro-lessons 3.2. data processing the activity system (engeström, 1999, 2001) consists of the subject (teacher, student) teaching or learning news english (object) to achieve the learning outcomes of the course (outcome). the teaching and learning are mediated by the course syllabus, textbook, micro-lessons and task sheets (mediating tools), and are undertaken by following rules including the time frame for completing the learning tasks (rules). the student, their peers, the teachers and the university support staff together form the community, where each stakeholder takes on different roles in the teaching and learning process (division of labour). the link between the object and the outcome is a process of lived experiences (learning process) which can be analysed as operations and actions. this conceptualisation of the micro-lesson for the news english course provided the initial scheme for coding the data set. several measures were taken to ensure a high interrater reliability in the coding and analysis of the data. the teacher data were initially coded by the corresponding author as a teacher-designed activity system including the six system elements. the initial coding and analysis were shared with the first two authors who were experienced members of the news english teaching team. while these two authors asked for clarifications of certain coding or categorisation in the initial coding and analysis, they agreed that the analysis generally reflected their experiences of teaching the news english course, including the micro-lessons. any different coding and analysis were discussed among the three authors until they eventually agreed on the coding and analysis. the student data were processed in a similar fashion. the corresponding author selected the think-aloud protocol, interview transcript and journals of one student for initial coding and analysis, which resulted in a provisional coding scheme. this coding scheme was shared with the other two authors, who then trialled the coding scheme in analysing the data of three hctd students and three lctd students by using nvivo 12. subsequently, the three authors discussed and finalised the coding scheme by removing or consolidating codes and categories. by using this coding scheme, the first two authors coded all the student data independently, reaching a consistency rate of 76%. these two authors discussed all their discrepant coding and analysis of the data by referring to the coding scheme and in the case of several tricky pieces of data, inviting a third opinion from the corresponding author. through this collaborative process, they reached a consensus on coding and analysis. the findings of the study are reported in section 4 (see tables 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 for detail). hao liu, hu qiu & zuocheng zhang ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284270 a distinction was made between action and operation in the data coding and analysis. an action is an instance of purposeful behaviour that requires conscious efforts while an operation is reported (by the student or teacher) or interpreted (by the authors) as an automatic act. table 2 presents some examples of coding actions and operations. the actions and operations proved helpful in discussing the teacher-designed and the studentexperienced activity systems. table 2. coding actions and operations. 4. findings one major finding from the analysis is that the chinese university students experienced the micro-lessons as a notably different activity system from their teacher’s original design (see tables 3, 4, 5 and 6). another major finding relates to the hctd and lctd students’ experiences of the teacherdesigned activity system. the htcd students approximated to the teacherdesigned activity system to a greater extent than the lctd students. these findings are detailed in this section and discussed in the next with reference to esp teachers’ tpck and the importance of learner factors in flipped instruction. 4.1. major differences between teacher-designed and studentexperienced activity systems the analysis of the data from the news english teachers, including the course syllabus, task checklists for micro-lessons and lesson plans for faceto-face teaching, made visible the six elements of the activity system designed by the teachers. the second micro-lesson on grammatical features flipped classroom in esp teaching and learning: an activity theory perspective ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284 271 codes criteria for coding data operation act being automatic or requiring no clear conscious effort h3: pause for a while. (from think-aloud) h5: pause when necessary. (from student journal) action act being purposeful and requiring clear effort l54: i took out the news i had read before and reread the headline. (from student journal) l57: replay when i couldn’t understand or when i had questions. (from interview) h6: i need to pause here to look at the headline again. (from think-aloud) note: h=htcd student, l= lctd student, 3/5/54/57/6 indicating individual students (same henceforward). " of news headlines is selected to illustrate the teacher-designed activity system. the seven-minute micro-lesson was delivered in such a way that each grammatical feature was first introduced through an example news headline and then explicitly stated by the teacher, before the next grammatical feature was introduced in the same sequence as for the first grammatical feature. there were two stated outcomes in the task checklist provided to the students for learning this micro-lesson: 1) learning the five grammatical features of english news headlines, including the use of the present tense for past events, past participle form for passive voice, infinitive form (i.e., to do) for future events, omission of functional words and use of punctuation marks (e.g., colons functioning as reporting verbs); 2) mastering the grammatical features as preparation for practice in the subsequent face-toface class. other important outcomes to achieve are summarised in table 3. table 3. outcomes (implied) of learning. hao liu, hu qiu & zuocheng zhang ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284272 phases outcomes (implied) : 10 [pre-viewing the micro-lesson: select 10 news headlines from print or digital media and record them in your notebook, trying to understand what they mean. note that you should avoid sourcing from the same column such as sports news or entertainment.] sourcing and comprehending information : [during viewing the micro-lesson: listen and take notes; pause after each example headline, getting to the meaning of the headline and its structure as if in a normal sentence and comparing your understanding with the answer subsequently provided by the teacher.] noting knowledge points, guessing and validating information :1. ? 2. “ ” 3. : “ 2 ” 10 ( ) 1-2 : + [post-viewing: answer the following three questions: 1. what are the main grammatical features of news headlines? 2. how to put the grammatically ‘incorrect’ headlines into normal/grammatically correct sentences? 3. based on the grammatical features, did you understand the 10 news headlines correctly? completing homework: log in the news english website and complete the ‘micro-lesson 2 – grammatical features of news headlines’ activities to consolidate your learning. remember to bring to the class your 10 news headlines for in-class practice (subject to your class teacher). please post 1-2 questions to the class qq forum in the format of id + questions (subject to your class teacher).] applying knowledge, evaluating learning and posing questions it can be clearly seen from table 3 that the micro-lesson was not merely designed for the explicitly stated outcomes of learning the set of grammatical features of news headlines and preparing for the face-to-face sessions. it was also intended for the students to practise a range of study and cognitive skills such as sourcing information, making guesses, validating information and making queries. there was a set of rules imposed through the task checklist, including the tasks to complete and a clear timeframe set for task completion for each of the three prescribed learning phases (see pre-, during and post-viewing phases in table 3). the division of labour was between the teacher and the students in addressing the object, that is, the teacher preparing the micro-lesson and the student engaging with it with autonomy and diligence, in order to achieve the stipulated and implied outcomes. the task sheet also specified a set of actions and operations for the learning process. table 4 provides a summary of several salient actions and operations. table 4. actions and operations in teacher-designed activity system. this teacher-designed activity system was experienced by the students in several interesting ways regarding the outcomes and actions versus operations. table 5 summarises the top six outcomes reported by the students. the students were largely positive about the micro-lesson as part of their learning of the news english course with 158 positive in contrast with 74 negative comments (i.e., references, following the nvivo convention). the outcomes perceived and pursued by the students overlapped with several of those outcomes in the teacher-designed activity system, for example, taking the micro-lesson both to learn knowledge of news and features of english in use (62 references) and to facilitate their face-to-face sessions (37 references). flipped classroom in esp teaching and learning: an activity theory perspective ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284 273 actions recommended by the teacher operations recommended by the teacher preparing for micro lesson and flipped class by selecting 10 news headlines pausing to make time for applying knowledge and self-assessment learning grammatical features of news headlines listening and taking notes applying newly gained knowledge in understanding news headlines posting queries and puzzles to class forum " table 5. outcomes in student-experienced activity system. however, the student-experienced activity system also included the outcome of language learning. table 6 summarises two frequent actions performed by the students, which were, nonetheless, designed as operations. for example, viewing the video of the micro-lesson was not singled out as something requiring conscious effort – assumed to be operations in the task sheet/video of the micro-lesson (see table 4). it turned out to require painstaking efforts from the students, as they paused or replayed the video multiple times (i.e., 53% of the pauses and 45% of the replays) to solve vocabulary problems or understand issues. for the students, the microlesson was a source of language input that required conscious and purposeful learning. learning and practising language (e.g., vocabulary and listening comprehension) is, arguably, an outcome not designed into the teacher-designed activity system but experienced by the students as important. table 6. actions for tackling vocabulary problems and comprehension. regarding the division of labour, the theme (i.e., following the microlesson and the teacher’s guidance) is relevant. below are several typical comments by both hctd and lctd students on their role and the teacher’s role in the micro-lesson learning: hao liu, hu qiu & zuocheng zhang ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284274 " outcomes references positive experience of micro-lesson learning 158 negative experience of micro-lesson learning 74 learning knowledge points 62 critical reflection on the material, the teacher and self 42 micro-lesson as resource for enhancing memory and mastering knowledge points 38 supplement classroom learning 37 " actions percentage of relevant references against the total pausing for vocabulary and understanding 53% replaying for vocabulary and understanding 45% h9: “when teacher assigned the task i just wanted to see what he required us to do.” h12: “do what the teacher asked us to do.” l11: “i followed the teacher and just listened to what the teacher said.” these comments indicate a follower role for the students with reliance on the teacher. this role claim contrasts with what is proposed by the teacher, that is, for students to be autonomous in learning the micro-lesson. there is thus substantial disparity in the distributed cognition in the teacher-designed versus the student-experienced activity system. few students posted any queries or puzzles to the class qq forum as indicated in the task sheets (see table 3). this means that the studentexperienced activity system has the student acting as an individual learner rather than as part of a community despite the stipulation in the teacherdesigned activity system. in summary, the activity system designed by the news english teachers provided the students with a schematic approach to learning about english news. the potential of the activity system was tapped to a considerable extent in the sense that the students took on several key outcomes specified or implied in the teachers’ task sheets. one distinct outcome in the studentexperienced activity system is the learning of grammar and vocabulary in the micro-lesson in its own right. unlike the community and division of labour stated in the teacher-designed activity system, the studentexperienced activity system displays an individual rather than communal learning environment and student learning in a passive rather than an active, autonomous and agentive style. 4.2. students of different critical thinking dispositions engaging with micro-lessons the hctd and the lctd students displayed several distinct ways of using the mediating tools, aligning themselves with the outcomes of the activity of learning the micro-lessons, and observing the rules of the activity system designed for them. for example, as shown in table 7, the hctd cohort aligns more readily with the outcomes designed for micro-lesson learning than the lctd cohort, that is, learning knowledge points (85% versus 15% of the flipped classroom in esp teaching and learning: an activity theory perspective ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284 275 references for the hctd and lctd students respectively) and getting prepared for classroom learning (68% of the references for the hctd students versus 32% for the lctd students). an independent samples t-test run through spss 25.0 indicates that the differences between the two cohorts are also statistically significant regarding the outcomes except for negative experience of micro-lesson learning and critical reflection on the material, the teacher and self (see table 8 for the mean, standard deviation, t scores and p value). table 7. outcomes for the hctd and lctd students. table 8. independent samples t-test results. the hctd students’ alignment with the teacher-designed activity system is also evident as they did not seem to get bogged down by language issues. when there was an unfamiliar vocabulary item, they did not pause or replay hao liu, hu qiu & zuocheng zhang ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284276 top 6 themes of outcome percentage of references-htcd percentage of references-lctd positive experience of micro-lesson learning 48% 52% negative experience of micro-lesson learning 55% 45% learning knowledge points 85% 15% critical reflection on the material, the teacher and self 19% 81% micro-lesson as resource for enhancing memory and mastering knowledge points 61% 39% supplement classroom learning 68% 32% mean (sd) t p value htcd (n = 15) lctd (n = 15) supplement classroom learning 1.67 (2.09) 0.86 (0.95) -3.084 0.01* positive experience of micro-lesson learning 5.07 (3.61) 5.57 (3.57) -4.352 0.00** micro-lesson as resource for enhancing memory and mastering knowledge points 1.53 (1.36) 0.93 (1.07) 3.976 0.00** learning knowledge points 3.53 (2.07) 0.64 (1.08) -4.303 0.00** critical reflection on the material, the teacher and self 0.53 (0.92) 1.43 (1.79) 0.295 0.77 negative experience of micro-lesson learning 3.47 (3.31) 2.00 (2.94) -2.04 0.05 the video to resolve the language issue as much as their lctd peers, but would rather pursue an overall understanding of the micro-lesson. table 9 is a comparison of the listening behaviour between the two cohorts. the hctd students complied, more than the lctd students, with the outcome of studying the micro-lesson, that is, to understand the grammatical features of the news headlines rather than the specific vocabulary item or phrase in the headlines. as a result, the activity system as designed and delivered by the news english teachers seems to be taken up better by the hctd students than the lctd students. table 9. pausing and replaying by htcd and lctd students. the think-aloud transcripts of one hctd student and one lctd student are provided below to give a glimpse of their different experiences and also to demonstrate their distinct strategies for engaging with the micro-lesson. only the sections from the beginning of their think-aloud up to the first grammatical feature of news headlines (i.e., past tense form indicating passive voice) are presented. the “…” indicates segments edited out. bold, underlining and italic fonts are added for easy reference in the interpretation to follow. excerpt from h6 今天…学习的任务是新闻标题有哪些主要的语法特点，如何把有语 法问题的新闻标题还原成语法正确的形式…暂停一下，因为有点跟 不上他这个说的话…obstacle不认识，需要查一下。obstacle是障碍的 意思。a man robbed a，我暂停一下回答一下他这个问题，他问我， flipped classroom in esp teaching and learning: an activity theory perspective ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284 277 hao liu, hu qiu & zuocheng zhang actions specifics of actions htcd lctd number of references percent -age number of references percent -age pausing understanding or checking vocabulary 28 40% 45 50.6% taking notes 17 24.3% 33 37.1% thinking 25 35.7% 11 12.4% replaying understanding or checking vocabulary 10 23.3% 23 51.1% catching up 11 25.6% 13 28.9% forgetting or ignoring 0 0% 5 11.1% confirming or reviewing 11 25.6% 4 8.9% thinking or different understanding 11 25.6% 0 0% table 9. pausing and replaying by htcd and lctd students. the think-aloud transcripts of one hctd student and one lctd student are provided below to give a glimpse of their different experiences and also to demonstrate their distinct strategies for engaging with the micro-lesson. only the sections from the beginning of their think-aloud up to the first grammatical feature of news headlines (i.e., past tense form indicating passive voice) are presented. the “…” indicates segments edited out. bold, underlining and italic fonts are added for easy reference in the interpretation to follow. excerpt from h6 … … …obstacle obstacle a man robbed a … … … … … be … [today…the learning task is news headlines, their major grammatical features, how to restore ungrammatical news headlines to grammatical forms… pause here, because i cannot follow the teacher’s speaking…obstacle i don’t know the word, check it up. obstacle means barrier. a man robbed a, i pause for a while to answer his [the teacher delivering the micro-lesson] question, he asks me, from the headline, what can you tell happened in the news… a man kidnapped his victim, or was this man kidnapped by someone else…first need to examine the grammar of the sentence…so i feel this should be the man was kidnapped. on this friday night. yes, my guess was correct…the past tense often is viewed as the passive voice. passive voice, perhaps this verb … be was omitted, then it looks like it was a past tense, but actually the passive voice] excerpt from l51 可以知道这个故事中发生了什么通过这个标题…一个男人绑架了他 的受害者，或者是一个男人被其他人绑架…先要探讨一下它的语法 特点…所以我觉得这个是应该是说的是这个男人被绑架了。在这个 周五的晚上。对，它说的这个猜测是正确的…过去的这个时态经常 被认为是被动语态。被动语态它可能是…省略了他那个be动词，然 后就是看上去像是一般过去式，然后实际上是被动语态… [today…the learning task is news headlines, their major grammatical features, how to restore ungrammatical news headlines to grammatical forms… pause here, because i cannot follow the teacher’s speaking…obstacle i don’t know the word, check it up. obstacle means barrier. a man robbed a, i pause for a while to answer his [the teacher delivering the micro-lesson] question, he asks me, from the headline, what can you tell happened in the news… a man kidnapped his victim, or was this man kidnapped by someone else…first need to examine the grammar of the sentence…so i feel this should be the man was kidnapped. on this friday night. yes, my guess was correct…the past tense often is viewed as the passive voice. passive voice, perhaps this verb … be was omitted, then it looks like it was a past tense, but actually the passive voice] excerpt from l51 看一下这个学习任务单…（停顿）一个男人…抢劫了受害者。一个 男的被其他受害者抢劫了，这个是一般新闻上很容易看到的那种有 误区了…我感觉很多词汇不熟，我得背英语词汇了…就是讲男的抢 劫的问题，他是抢劫还是被抢劫，感觉一般这种新闻标题的话好像 …特别是有一些用标题吸引别人眼球，然后就是额故意误导一下， 然后就显得好像很夸张的样子。我看一下，他是说一个男人被抢劫 了，我要在这停一下，我想把它给记下来，它是一个被动式，语法 特点有一个被动式…the past tense usually indicates passive voice… [take a look at the task sheet… (pause) a man…robbed a victim. a man was robbed by other victims, this is in general easy to notice in news, a confusion… i seem not to know many of the words, i need to rote learn them…this is about a man, did he rob or was he robbed, i feel in general this kind of news headline seems…in particular some news headlines are used to attract the eyeball, then er intentionally mislead, then appear exaggerated. i have a look, he [the teacher delivering the micro-lesson] said a man was robbed, i need to pause here, i want to note it down, it is passive voice, the grammar feature is passive voice…the past tense usually indicates passive voice…] hao liu, hu qiu & zuocheng zhang ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284278 both students reported following the task checklist in their micro-lesson learning (see highlighting in bold). they paused to check their understanding of the material. when they encountered a key but unfamiliar word, the hctd student checked it up while the lctd student planned to rote learn it later (see underlining). the most interesting point is the two students’ strategy for decoding the target sentence (i.e., “a man robbed under gunpoint”). the hctd student made grammar-informed guesses to be confirmed later in the micro-lesson while the lctd student resorted to their individual experience of reading news headlines to make sense of the sentence and took the correct answer as notes (see highlighting in italic). both students respectively spent 30 minutes and 25 minutes studying the seven-minute micro-lesson although the time recommended by the teacher was 20 minutes maximum. 5. discussion and conclusions this investigation of the dynamics of the micro-lesson learning experiences of the news english students at a chinese university provides an example of applying the activity theory (engeström, 1999, 2001) to esp teaching and learning research. although the study was based on data collected from students and teachers involved in a single esp-oriented course which would make it improper to make general statements, the major findings about discrepancies between teacher micro-lesson design and student uptake and the distinct learning behaviour of the hctd and lctd students shed valuable light on the tpck for flipped instruction in esp settings. micro-lessons have the potential to package information (in this case, knowledge of english news and language features) as relatively selfcontained units of knowledge for advanced viewing and learning. the constraint of this asynchronous approach is that the information needs to be comprehensible for students to unpack. in the second micro-lesson which focuses on learning grammatical features in news headlines, the speed of delivery, the organisation of the information and the language used in the example news headlines, all posed challenges to a number of the students. they had to spend time re-listening to certain information and checking vocabulary before they were able to achieve the outcomes of understanding the knowledge points and language features. zhang et al. (2022) researched the use of technology to enhance collaborative learning and called for training second and foreign language teachers and students on technologies. flipped classroom in esp teaching and learning: an activity theory perspective ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284 279 our study indicates specific aspects of such training for teachers operating flipped instruction by using micro-lessons. following mishra and koehler (2006), esp teachers need to be trained on the representation of the content (e.g., language features of english news) through the technology (microlesson videos) and the pedagogy to ensure that the pre-class phase is undertaken by students effectively. specifically, the stumbling blocks for students can be removed when preparing the micro-lesson, for example through what derewianka and jones (2016) call designed-in scaffolding (e.g., difficulties anticipated and addressed in the lesson plan). such scaffolding can be implemented through pre-teaching some of the difficult vocabulary or sentences or carefully selecting sample news headlines to prevent unnecessary interferences (e.g., difficult vocabulary) with the achievement of the designed-in outcomes. this could increase the efficiency of the microlesson learning as the actual time for learning the 7-minute video by the students (i.e., up to 30 minutes) far exceeded the teachers’ recommendation of 20 minutes. the finding that students’ critical thinking disposition impacts on their micro-lesson learning accentuates the need to factor learner attributes in technology-mediated esp teaching and learning. the hctd students tend to align more readily than their lctd peers with the learner role set in the micro-lesson, that is, to learn on their own, prioritise the learning of knowledge points and prepare for the subsequent face-to-face lessons. meanwhile, regardless of their critical thinking disposition, the study participants did not always display autonomous and communal learning in the out-class phase as anticipated by their teachers. rather, they were inclined to follow their teachers’ lead and study the micro-lessons as individuals. one might invoke the stereotype of confucian-background learners being passive in their learning styles (e.g., cortazzi & jin, 1996, 2013) to account for the follower practices of the chinese students. however, as harmer (2015) argues, the division of labour, or sharing of learning responsibility, should never be taken for granted in flipped classrooms. to enable students to exercise and enhance autonomy and agency, the micro-lesson needs to have opportunities built into the teaching/learning sequence in such a way that being autonomous is both required and also actually rewarding. this is important because of the key purpose of the micro-lesson for preparing students for in-class collaborative practice. students who are underprepared due to misunderstandings of the expectations of micro-lesson learning or are inefficient in their learning are likely to be disadvantaged in the teacherhao liu, hu qiu & zuocheng zhang ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284280 designed activity system. given that both htcd and ltcd students used the task checklist to guide their learning of the micro-lessons, this important mediating tool can be rephrased in a way that students do not mistake the tool for procedural requirements for outcomes. when learner factors, including critical thinking disposition, are proactively considered in teaching design and implementation, esp teachers will help their students achieve learning outcomes better (nickerson, 2018). effective esp teaching and learning through flipped classrooms requires sound tpck of esp teachers. our study may be a small step towards understanding this teacher knowledge. for future iterations of the news english course, this tpck may be applied in addressing the tensions or contradictions between the teacher designed-activity system and studentexperienced activity system through systemic teaching design (mishra, 2021). for example, the content (knowledge of news in english and language features) may be represented and delivered in a way that is more accessible and engaging for students through designed-in scaffolding and monitoring features. further research may integrate more relevant activity systems (engeström, 1999, 2001), in particular the activity system of inclass teaching and learning, and collect data from both esp teachers and their students when they navigate different but interconnected activity systems. given that the critical thinking disposition is a highly relevant learner factor, its specific dimensions and impact on learning in flipped classrooms should be considered. further research might extend understandings of teaching and learning, which will help refine esp teachers’ tpck to maximally facilitate student learning through flipped classrooms. article history: received 01 april 2022 received in revised form 10 august 2022 accepted 10 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(2017). an examination of undergraduates’ metacognitive strategies in pre-class asynchronous activity in a flipped classroom in esp teaching and learning: an activity theory perspective ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284 283 hao liu is an associate professor at the school of foreign studies, xi’an jiaotong university, china. her major research interests include critical thinking and intercultural communication. her recent publications focus on the relationship between cognitive levels of questions raised by english learners and their critical thinking skills in learning and practice. hu qiu is an associate professor at the school of foreign studies, xi’an jiaotong university, china. he is interested in critical thinking, intercultural communication and bibliometric analysis. his recent publications focus on china’s national college entrance examination system and the ets test in the states for candidates with disabilities. zuocheng zhang is senior lecturer in tesol education at the university of new england, australia. he is interested in disciplinary literacies, esp teacher development and international student engagement. his recent publications include a monograph on learning business english in china: the construction of professional identity and a co-edited volume on international student education in tertiary settings: interrogating programs and processes in diverse contexts (routledge, 2021). hao liu, hu qiu & zuocheng zhang ibérica 44 (2022): 263-284284 flipped classroom. educational technology research & development, 65(2), 1-21. zhang, r., zou, d., cheng, g., & xie, h. (2022). implementing technology-enhanced collaborative writing in second and foreign language learning: a review of practices, technology and challenges. education and information technologies, 27, 80418069. <https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-10941-9> zhang, z. c. (2017). learning business english in china: the construction of professional identity. palgrave macmillan. zhang, z. c., & wang, l. f. (2011). curriculum development for business english students in china: the case of uibe. the asian esp journal, 7(1), 10-27. iberica 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract the present study explores the interplay of metaphor, metonymy and evaluation in an american and spanish parliamentary speech by president obama and pm rajoy, aiming at convincing the public of economic victory through positive selfevaluation and other-deprecation. a further objective is to investigate whether there is a relationship between the speakers’ ideological positions and the entities that are evaluated. within the general framework of cda for parliamentary debates (van dijk, 2005), we use martin and white’s appraisal scheme as an analytical tool. the results reveal that both political candidates used evaluation in their speeches as a tool to justify and persuade the audience of their economic decisions. on the other hand, both politicians used evaluation, not as an expression of their own ideological traits, but also as an ideological tool that would favor their intentions of rising to power. keywords: parliamentary speech, metaphor, metonymy, evaluation, persuasion. resumen metáfora, metonimia y evaluación como mecanismos políticos en el discurso parlamentario americano y español este estudio investiga la interacción entre metáfora, metonimia y evaluación en un discurso parlamentario del presidente obama y del presidente del gobierno rajoy cuyo objetivo es convencer a la audiencia de recuperación económica por medio de las estrategias de presentación positiva de sí mismo y negativa del contrario. otro objetivo es analizar si hay una relación entre las posturas ideológicas de los candidatos y las entidades evaluadas. dentro del marco general de análisis del discurso para los debates parlamentarios (van dijk, 2005) metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices in american and spanish parliamentary political discourse ana belén cabrejas peñuelas iulma – universitat de valència (spain) ana.belen.cabrejas@uv.es 75 ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 ana belén cabrejas peñuelas utilizamos el modelo de evaluación de martin y white como herramienta de análisis. los resultados indican que los políticos utilizaron evaluación en sus discursos como herramienta para justificar sus decisiones económicas y para persuadir a la audiencia. por otra parte, los dos utilizaron la evaluación, no sólo como expresión de sus características ideológicas, sino también como instrumento para alcanzar el poder. palabras clave: debate parlamentario, metáfora, metonimia, evaluación, persuasión 1. introduction ample research (ferrari, 2007; charteris-black, 2009; cabrejas-peñuelas & díez-prados, 2014; díez-prados, 2016) reveals that politicians have a wide selection of linguistic strategies at their disposal to gain votes (e.g. political implicatures, rhetorical figures, evaluative language, lexical choice, among others), while at the same time they create a positive self-image and put the others (typically, the opposing party/ies) in a negative light. two of such devices are metaphors and metonymies, which are used as powerful tools due to their persuasive power (díez-prados, 2016), for their role in ideological positioning (ferrari, 2007) and for their ability to emphasize the positive characteristics of the ‘in-group’ and to highlight the negative traits of the ‘out-group’ (van dijk, 1998).  parliamentary discourse is considered a “specific genre of political discourse” (van dijk, 2005: 67), which serves politicians’ aim to meet certain objectives: “dominating the opposing candidate with a view to seducing their main addressees: citizens” (our translation) (sánchez garcía, 2009: 136). for that purpose, they give political speeches, debate with other politicians, ask questions and give answers. however, “the indisputable protagonist of the debate” (our translation) (izquierdo labella, 2014: 41) is the president or prime minister, who can use all means available to him to “cajole [the audience] while berating his partisan foes in the chamber before him” (zug & ewing, 2018 (online)). one way to do so is through metaphors and metonymies. the language of politics is especially suited for the use of metaphors and metonymies, since they both “play a key role in the development of patterns of reasoning. [these] are created by the speaker or writer with the express purpose of shaping the thinking patterns of the listener or reader” 76 (littlemore, 2015: 101). evaluation is also a crucial aspect of metaphor and metonymy, although from the point of view of the language user, metonymy provides subtler ways of communicating nuance and evaluation than metaphor (2015: 1). thus, complementing an analysis of evaluation with an analysis of metaphor and metonymy may help to unveil what linguistic means politicians resort to appeal to the ‘in-group,’ while deprecating the ‘out-group’ (van dijk, 1998). the use of conceptual metaphors and/or metonymies has been examined in pre-electoral debates in the us (neagu, 2013), in the us as compared to spain (cabrejas-peñuelas, 2018, 2020) and in debates across languages, such as english and malay (charteris-black, 2003). also, metaphors and evaluation have been the focus of attention in english and spanish televised debates (díez-prados, 2016). however, to our knowledge none has attempted to analyze the use of metaphors and metonymies and their interplay with evaluation in american and spanish political speeches in order to ascertain their role regarding positive self-evaluation and other-deprecation (van dijk, 2005; littlemore, 2015), for persuasion (lakoff and turner, 1989) and for ideological expression. with the aim of providing a contrastive perspective, the present study draws on the results obtained for metaphors and metonymies in the 2015 state of the union address in the us (henceforth, sotu) and in the 2015 state of the nation address in spain (henceforth, sona) (cabrejas-peñuelas, 2018, 2020) and adds a study of the interplay between metaphors, metonymies and evaluation. in such political speeches, the politicians attempted to convince the audience of achieving an economic victory after a serious economic crisis striking both countries and the world. also, they attempted to portray a positive image of themselves, while they showed the opposing parties in a bad light. this study attempts to answer the following research questions: 1. what type(s) of evaluative device(s) as found in martin and white’s (2005) categorization of attitude are used in the american and spanish political speeches analyzed? 2. do metaphors and metonymies in both political speeches fulfill an evaluative function? 3. are there any differences between the type of evaluative devices used by obama and rajoy depending on the ideological makeup of the speakers? metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 77 to answer the three research questions, the metaphors and metonymies (and their interactions) found in the economy section of the 2015 sotu and 2015 sona (cabrejas-peñuelas, 2018, 2020) have been used to check whether they contain evaluative devices, following martin and white’s (2005) appraisal model for the study of evaluation. for díez-prados (2016: 217), metaphors “can be considered as a kind of prism through which candidates are presented”. when loaded with positive or negative evaluation, they “are likely to have a powerful persuasive force,” since they hold “the power of evaluation” (i.e. we not only import entities from the source domain to the target domain, but we also carry over the way we evaluate the entities in the source domain) (lakoff and turner, 1989: 65; italics in original). similarly, we believe that evaluation can enhance the persuasive role of metonymies, since when we use metonymies, we also carry over the way we evaluate entities, although the metonymic mapping occurs within a single domain (1989: 103). section 2 compares the sotu in the us and the sona in spain and gives a short account of the political background of obama’s and rajoy’s political speeches. section 3 concentrates on metaphor, metonymy and evaluation in political discourse. section 4 deals with the methodology of the study. section 5 attempts to provide some light into the results for evaluation in obama’s and rajoy’s speeches, followed by the interplay of metaphor, metonymy and evaluation and the similarities and differences between the politicians and, finally, section 6 provides the conclusions to the study. 2. parliamentary discourse: the state of the union address vs. the state of the nation address. sociopolitical background of the speeches the sotu in the us is an annual speech to members of congress (in the 20th century, also to american citizens), as mandated by the us constitution, in which the president explains the state of the union and makes policy recommendations for the upcoming year. previously delivered in written form, it was not until the mid-20th century that it started to be delivered orally before a joint session in congress. despite the variation among the sotu’s, campbell and hall (2008: 139) identified a three-part rhetorical sequence: public meditations on values, assessments of information and issues, and policy recommendations. there are also recurring thematic elements, such as ana belén cabrejas peñuelas ibérica 40 (2020): 75-10078 past accomplishments and future goals, bipartisanship  to build consensus and unfailing optimism (shogan, 2015: 6-8). in addition to these, the 2015 1hour-long sotu dealt with a variety of topics, including the economy, natural resources, social policy, healthcare, the internet, space exploration, terrorism, cybersecurity, foreign policy, and climate change. economic issues were of especial interest for obama, who promised his economic policies would benefit all americans in an attempt to promote himself and the democratic party ahead of the 2016 election. president of congress gregorio peces-barba created sona in spain in 1983 with an aim to add modernity and novelty to the congress. he defined it as “a sort of compilation or general recapitulation” that takes place in the years when there is no inaugural address (our translation) (izquierdo labella, 2014: 33). it is inspired in the us sotu, although it takes a very different format, since it was designed to be a debate. the debate starts with the pm’s intervention, which is followed by the opposing party’s rebuttal and those of other political parties, countered later by the pm’s response. this continues with the resolutions debate, in which each political party elaborates a series of proposals that are voted for or against, all of which adds to the complexity of the overall debate. parliamentary debates have a number of formal properties of their own: intervention turns and replies for the speakers according to whether they are a member of the government or the opposing party; speaker or turn-taking control by the speaker or president of congress; ritualized forms of address (e.g. “su señoría” in spanish and “honorable member” in english); and formal lexical and syntactic structures (van dijk, 2005: 67) coupled with colloquial forms to appeal to the public and, thus, parliamentary debates are considered “oral text[s] that ha[ve] characteristics of a written text” [our translation] (sánchez garcía, 2009: 130). rajoy’s speech in 2015 lasted for 1 hour and 30 minutes and had the following main sections: economy, corruption, the catalan independence movement, foreign policy and social policy. taking advantage of his privileged position as a pm who can introduce the topics he considers most important, rajoy spent a considerable amount of time on presenting the best economic data of his three years in power and on announcing measures aiming at boosting growth with a view to winning over voters in the upcoming 2015 general elections. also, he congratulated himself on bringing spain out of the crisis without the need for a bailout. in the metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 79 meantime, the opposition parties accused him of unjustified triumphalism, while they stressed the existence of a high unemployment rate and a growing wealth gap. the final aim of the opposition politicians was however not “to accept the present addressee’s own ideas –an impossible task in practice– but to damage the quality of his image in front of the final addressees, that is, the array of citizens” (our translation) (izquierdo labella, 2014: 19).  the context of president obama’s sotu was one of a country that was slowly coming out of a grueling recession; a healthcare law that provided health insurance coverage to millions of americans, although it was vigorously opposed by the republican party due to its high costs; and a plan to offer millions of illegal immigrants work permits in the us. in addition, the country endorsed a financial regulation reform and a plan for regulating greenhouse gases. in foreign policy, the us signed a long-term deal with iran to prevent it from carrying forward a nuclear program, started normalizing diplomatic and economic ties with cuba and joined the struggle against is. pm rajoy gave his 2015 sona to a country that was on the road to recovery from a serious economic crisis, as the employment figures indicated, but had undergone cuts in health and education and the poverty levels had risen. also, the country had seen a major corruption case in the conservative party, consisting of a vast slush fund that their former treasurer bárcenas had overseen for more than two decades. in addition, there was a growing independence movement in catalonia, fueled by a widespread feeling that the central government was taking much more of catalonia’s tax money than it was giving back. finally, it had seen the rise of startup parties podemos (‘we can’) and ciudadanos (‘citizens’) that had split the votes between four parties rather than the traditional two –the socialists and the conservative party– after voters were angered by at the corruption scandals and were eager to putting an end to austerity in spain. 3. metaphor, metonymy and evaluation in political speeches that political language is rife with metaphors and metonymies has been demonstrated by many studies, either by examining metaphors only (lakoff and johnson, 1980/2003; semino, 2008; mussolff, 2012; neagu, 2013; díezprados, 2016), metonymies only (littlemore, 2015) or both (meadows, 2006; catalano & waugh, 2016). lakoff and johnson (1980/2003) and mussolff ana belén cabrejas peñuelas ibérica 40 (2020): 75-10080 (2012) analyze the role of metaphor as cognitive heuristics for perspectives on social issues (e.g. immigration, unemployment, racism). semino (2008) and díez-prados (2016) study the relation between metaphor and ideology. in addition, neagu (2013) and díez-prados (2016) point out the evaluative potential of metaphors in political discourse, while littlemore (2005) also provides evidence of the evaluative function of metonymy. metaphors can be defined as mapping conceptual structures from a relatively familiar source domain (e.g. journey) onto a more abstract target domain (e.g. love), thus producing metaphors, such as love is a journey, which takes the form “conceptual domain a is conceptual domain b” (kövecses, 2002: 4). conceptual metaphors should be distinguished from “linguistic metaphors”, which refer to the linguistic expressions used in a given language (e.g. this relationship is going nowhere (linguistic metaphor), where the conceptual metaphor is love is a journey). in conceptual metaphors, “there is a systematic set of correspondences, or mappings” that characterize the metaphor (e.g. in the source domain ‘the travelers’ correspond to ‘the lovers’ in the target domain) (2002: 9). it is precisely these mappings the ones that “provide much of the meaning of the metaphorical linguistic expressions […] that make a particular conceptual metaphor manifest” (2002: 14). metonymies are defined as mapping in which a source (e.g. congress) provides mental access to a target (e.g. congress members) that is “less readily or easily available” (lakoff and johnson, 1980: 176), as in “i’m sending this congress a bold new plan” (cabrejas-peñuelas, 2018) (institution stands for its members). however, unlike in metaphors, the target is understood from the perspective of the source (barcelona, 2002: 215). this happens because “the metonymic source projects its conceptual structure onto that of the target, not by means of a systematic matching of counterparts [as in metaphor], but by foregrounding the source and by backgrounding the target” (2002: 226; emphasis in original). lakoff and johnson (1980) further distinguish metaphor from metonymy in terms of the distinction ‘directing attention versus understanding’, among other criteria. it is this notion of ‘directing attention’ the one used in metonymy to hide the less favorable aspects of the target, while stressing the importance of others. the political arena is especially suited to metaphors and metonymies, since politicians can use them to emphasize the positive characteristics of the inmetaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 81 group, while highlighting the negative traits of the out-group (van dijk, 1998). for example, using the metaphor “floods” in relation to immigration may evoke negative emotions in the audience and appeal to the in-group (‘we’) as opposed to the out-group (‘immigrants’). at the same time, metaphors “invite listeners to conceive of one issue or phenomenon in the light of another issue or phenomenon” and, thus, they “shape the way in which people apprehend and respond to a particular issue or event” (paris, 2002: 427). this suggests that metaphors are potentially manipulative (díezprados, 2016; paris, 2002), which makes them especially suitable in political discourse. metaphor and metonymy (and their interactions) can also be employed for ideological positioning, due to their ability to highlight some aspects of a given phenomenon while downplaying others (semino, 2008; littlemore, 2015). see (1), in which the metonymy simplified events for complex subevent (“turmoil” and “battle”) interacts with the metaphor government investigations/operations are war (“fighting” and “scrutinizing”), contributing to portraying powerful ceos as weak victims of the government: (1) now mr. dimon’s tenure is engulfed in turmoil, the consequence of fighting a multifront battle with federal authorities scrutinizing everything … (catalano & waugh, 2016: 807). in (1), through victimization and other techniques of positive selfpresentation in which metaphors and metonymies are used in both image and text, newspapers “contribute to the dominant ideology which maintains social inequalities” (2016: 813). this suggests that metaphors and metonymies (and their interplay) are “very useful device[s] when one seeks, either consciously or subconsciously, to present one’s own perspective or to influence the views of others” (littlemore, 2015: 99). however, metonymy may be even more manipulative than metaphor, because it is less easily perceived and is processed in much the same way as literal language (2015: 103). the evaluative function of metaphor and metonymy is particularly important in political discourse, as pointed out by a wealth of researchers (ferrari, 2007; neagu, 2013; littlemore, 2015; díez-prados, 2016), since political candidates defend their personal and their party’s point of view with an aim to convince the audience, while they attack their opponents. see (2) ana belén cabrejas peñuelas ibérica 40 (2020): 75-10082 below, in which the conceptual metaphor governing is caring (for the people) in a face-to-face political debate serves for positive presentation of us and our actions. the metaphor is realized by the evaluative items interesa (‘concerns’) and importa (‘worries’): (2) lo único que me i n t e r e s a [affect: positive] de ese impuesto [appreciation: negative] para los bancos, aparte de que me lo explique usted, si lo tiene a bien, es si eso sirve [judgment: positive] para que haya más crédito [appreciation: positive] en españa, porque a mí eso sí que me im po rta [affect: positive] [the only thing i am interested in about that tax for banks, apart from an explanation on your part, if you don’t mind, is if that is useful to have more credit in spain, because that’s what worries/concerns me] (díez-prados, 2016: 237, emphasis in original). in i nt er e sa (‘concerns’) and i m po rt a (‘worries’) (in bold and italics), the linguistic expression of the metaphor governing is caring and the evaluative device (in terms of appraisal) coincide. this way, the political candidate “reinforces the idea that he does feel concern for his people, which presents him as a responsible prospective president” (2016: 237). similarly, the part for whole metonymy in (3) serves bush as a gambit to refer to past enemies in metonymic terms: (3) and like fascism and communism [judgment: negative] before, the hateful ideologies [appreciation: negative] that use terror will be defeated by the unstoppable power of freedom [applause] (meadows, 2006: 7). in (3), bush implies there is a connection between fascism and communism in the past and terrorists in the present. the term “fascism” is used metonymically to refer to the entire german nazi establishment, while “communism” refers to the political establishment of the soviet union (2006: 7) and both are evaluated negatively. bush also negatively evaluates the term “hateful ideologies,” which is used to refer metonymically to the people who hold those ideologies and their terrorist actions. this way, bush attempts to “shape [the audience’s] thinking patterns” (2006: 7) and shows that metonymy is a powerful tool to sway their opinion to his side. metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 83 4. materials and methods the 2015 sotu in the us and the 2015 sona in spain were first examined to identify the metaphors and metonymies employed (and their interactions) in the economy section, which is the only common topic to both speeches (see cabrejas-peñuelas, 2018, 2020). the objective was to find out the role of metaphors and metonymies in changing the public opinion towards that of the politicians giving the speeches and, thus, they are used for manipulation. with that aim in mind, we identified the metaphors and metonymies used by president obama and pm rajoy in their speeches to convince the audience of economic victory, following the general framework of conceptual metaphor theory (lakoff and johnson, 1980/2003) and conceptual metonymy theory (dirven and ruiz de mendoza ibáñez, 2010). the objective now is to check whether the metaphorical and metonymical expressions exert an evaluative function, following martin and white’s (2005) appraisal theory. for the study of metaphors and metonymies, the 2015 sotu was taken from the american presidency project webpage1 (6,718 words) and the 2015 sona was obtained from la moncloa webpage2 (10,719 words), the site of the presidency of the spanish government. the transcriptions were first divided into sections corresponding to the different topics; next, the economy section in both speeches was analyzed in terms of the metaphors and metonymies used (3,214 words in obama’s sotu and 6,310 words in rajoy’s sona; these correspond to 47.84% and 58.87%, respectively of the overall speeches, which highlights the importance of the economy section). for the study of the interplay between the linguistic phenomena of metaphor, metonymy and evaluation, the transcripts of obama’s and rajoy’s political speeches were copied and pasted in text format to be uploaded to a freeware program called uam corpus tool, developed by mick o’donnell.3 this software is, in fact, a set of tools to annotate the text(s), make searches in the corpus and run descriptive and inferential statistics. for the analysis, we used martin and white’s (2005) appraisal model included in the program, which is used to analyze how the speaker/writer values the entities (people and things) within their texts. it distinguishes between graduation (evaluation related to intensification), engagement (evaluation related to the use of different voices) and attitude (evaluation that is “concerned with our feelings, including emotional reactions, judgments of behavior and evaluation of things”, martin & white, 2005: 35). in the present article, we concentrate on ana belén cabrejas peñuelas ibérica 40 (2020): 75-10084 the major category, attitude, since our interest is focused on the expression of evaluation itself. attitude is subdivided into three categories dealing with judgment and emotional responses: affect, which covers the field of emotions (e.g. happy, sad, furious, dislike); judgment, which covers ethics (e.g. natural, skilled, immoral, brave); and appreciation, which is associated to the field of aesthetics (e.g. boring, well-balanced) (see figure 1 below): we decided to analyze attitude in this study because we were interested in finding out to what extent the metaphors and metonymies used by the democrat and the conservative politicians expressed attitudinal meanings in an attempt to “present [their] own perspective or to influence the views of others” (littlemore, 2015: 99). attitude sheds some light on the way the debaters condemn or praise, attack or defend and negatively or positively describe the policies of the opponent’s party (van dijk, 2005: 68). through evaluation, each candidate hopes to win votes in the upcoming general elections that will help him stay in power, while reducing the chances of the opposing candidate and, thus, there is a lot at stake. this suggests that evaluation is a rhetorical device for positive presentation of us and our metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 85 metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… white, 2005: 35). in the present article, we concentrate on the major category, attitude, since our interest is focused on the expression of evaluation itself. attitude is subdivided into three categories dealing with judgment and emotional responses: affect, which covers the field of emotions (e.g. happy, sad, furious, dislike); judgment, which covers ethics (e.g. natural, skilled, immoral, brave); and appreciation, which is associated to the field of aesthetics (e.g. boring, wellbalanced) (see figure 1 below): ! figure 1. the attitude network. we decided to analyze attitude in this study because we were interested in finding out to what extent the metaphors and metonymies used by the democrat and the conservative politicians expressed attitudinal meanings in an attempt to “present [their] own perspective or to influence the views of others” (littlemore, 2015: 99). attitude sheds some light on the way the debaters condemn or praise, attack or defend and negatively or positively describe the policies of the opponent’s party (van dijk, 2005: 68). through evaluation, each candidate hopes to win votes in the upcoming general elections that will help him stay in power, while reducing the chances of the opposing candidate and, thus, there is a lot at stake. this suggests that evaluation is a rhetorical device for positive me serpehtni.)53:5002,etiwh itat tu ist serteinruoecins, utitat rthtoindeidivdbusis vochcihw,tcffea:sesnopsre ilsdi tnemgduj); ochichw, assichihw,noiatecirppadan ! onitaulavednamyyontme,orhpatme noetartnecnocew,elcitratnes niosserpxeethnodesucis djuithwglinaedsierogteaceer .g.(esnoitomef odlefiehtrsev . .ge(sicthesrevo alurnat , ll iethtaesfodele htotedatciosas ! secivedlacitiolpsaon ,yrogetacromehtn . lfeitsntioaluavefo l antioomednat nemgd happy, dsa , suiorfu , el laromim , eavbr ); .ge.(csi ngibor , llwe ! eancbal ee(s woleb1erugfi ! :)w ! ! ! ! ! ittaezylanaotdedicedwe ehttnetxetahwottuognidnfi ciitilope viatsnoce htdan epnwo]reiht[tenesr“p itceprs ! .korwnetude titatthe 1.e gurfi wesuacebydutssihtniedut useimynotemdnarsohpateme eanmalnidutitatedsesrpexsan f osweivehtecneuflniotr oevi ! nidetseretnierewew tracomedehtybdesu ottpemtatannisgniean reomeltti(l”rsehtof ! epnwo]reiht[tenesr“p itceprs omsdshesudetitta.99)2015: ategndanddroacktat 2005:k,dn va(y trpas’ntoppone ginmocpuethinsteovinwto osecnahcehtgnicudereliwh tahts steggsus iht.ekast ! i f osweivehtecneuflniotr oevi retbadehety awheton ghtileom e bicresdyelvitisoproyelviat ht.68)2005: ,noitaulavehguro ehill wt athsntiocleel areneg ,dnaetadidnacgnisoppoehtfo lacirotehras inoitaulave ! i xxca ibér xxx(x ): …-… ,reomeltti(lrsehtof ,esiaprorn mondecsr e htfoesciilope ht sepohetadidnachcae , rewopinytasimhlp tatolasiereht,suht d e vitisoprce iev actions and negative presentation of them and their actions (cabrejaspeñuelas & díez-prados, 2014; van dijk, 2005) for the study, we carried out a content analysis of the text, assigning labels corresponding to the appraisal schemes. in most cases, labels were attached to individual words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), but in some cases, the unit of evaluation spanned phrases or even clauses or sentences. an example of the latter would be (4): (4) obama: fifteen years into this new century, we have picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and begun again the work of remaking america [judgment: tenacity: positive attitude]. in order to guarantee consistency in the analysis, the whole debate was analyzed by one researcher and to ensure inter-rater reliability, another researcher analyzed 30% of the debate. the two researchers coincided in 85.45% of the cases in the attitude analysis. in those cases where there were discrepancies, these were discussed until a consensus was reached. also, some methodological decisions were made: first, it was decided to calculate the number of affect, judgment and appreciation items relative to the total number of words in the text to calculate relative frequencies (i.e. #evaluative items/total number of words). the second methodological decision referred to the use of the chi-square test to check whether the differences between the political candidates were significant or were due to chance. 5. results and discussion this part has been divided into three parts: we first present the quantitative results for the study of evaluation in obama’s sotu and rajoy’s sona; then, we analyze the interplay between metaphor, metonymy and evaluation; and, finally, we explore the influence that ideology may have on the use of evaluative devices by the democrat and conservative politicians. 5.1. results from the analysis of evaluation in this subsection, we present and discuss the main findings regarding the frequency of evaluation devices by the two politicians to answer our first research question (what type(s) of evaluative device(s) as found in martin and white’s (2005) categorization of attitude are used in the american and spanish ana belén cabrejas peñuelas ibérica 40 (2020): 75-10086 political speeches analyzed?). the results have been derived from the analysis of the 2015 obama’s sotu and the 2015 rajoy’s sona, following martin and white’s (2005) appraisal theory. we mention only the results that proved statistically significant (see table 1).4 when contrasting the three types of attitude, appreciation (i.e. the evaluation of things, processes or states of affairs aesthetically or with the social value the object is accorded) is the most frequently used by both politicians and affect (i.e. the evaluation of an entity, process or state emotionally) is the least used; judgment (i.e. the evaluation of human behavior from an ethical standpoint, criticizing or praising actions, deeds, sayings, beliefs, motivations, and so on) falls within the other two. political speeches are used to assess things, processes and human behavior and less so emotions, which explains the differences between the attitude types. closer examination of the relative frequencies reveals that both political candidates rely on different uses of attitude devices to build rather different images  that would help them to gain electoral votes in the upcoming elections, while at the same time reducing the opposing candidates’ chances metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 87 metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… the evaluation of an entity, process or state emotionally) is the least used; judgment (i.e. the evaluation of human behavior from an ethical standpoint, criticizing or praising actions, deeds, sayings, beliefs, motivations, and so on) falls within the other two. political speeches are used to assess things, processes and human behavior and less so emotions, which explains the differences between the attitude types. + weak significance (90%); ++ medium significance (95%); +++ high significance (98%). table 1. evaluative devices in the 2015 rajoy’s sona and 2015 obama’s sotu closer examination of the relative frequencies reveals that both political candidates rely on different uses of attitude devices to build rather different images that would help them to gain electoral votes in the upcoming elections, while at the same time reducing the opposing candidates’ chances of winning: rajoy uses more appreciation to announce new measures to “alleviate the situation of the middle classes” (5.67% for rajoy versus 3.89% for obama) (!2 = 8.64, p<.02) in a political move that will help his chances of re-election. in contrast, obama uses more judgment (3.15% for rajoy versus 3.55% for obama) (!2 = 10.44, p<.02) to show his actions (and the government’s) to be an attempt to improve the lives of ordinary americans, while also offering a contrast with republicans’ actions. these are unlikely to approve the president’s proposals and monetary requests, given their control of congress. and yet, obama rolls out major proposals to frame his legacy.5 the appraisal results also of winning: rajoy uses more appreciation to announce new measures to “alleviate the situation of the middle classes” (5.67% for rajoy versus 3.89% for obama) (χ2 = 8.64, p<.02) in a political move that will help his chances of re-election. in contrast, obama uses more judgment (3.15% for rajoy versus 3.55% for obama) (χ2 =  10.44, p<.02) to show his actions (and the government’s) to be an attempt to improve the lives of ordinary americans, while also offering a contrast with republicans’ actions. these are unlikely to approve the president’s proposals and monetary requests, given their control of congress. and yet, obama rolls out major proposals to frame his legacy.5 the appraisal results also reveal that obama and rajoy focus on the positive policies aiming at boosting growth, while taking credit for the government’s role for leading the way (6.62% of positive attitude versus 6.47% for obama) (χ2 = 14.14, p<.02). however, rajoy shows higher rates of negative attitude than obama to refer to the critical situation of spain and the negative measures adopted by the previous government (2.52% of negative attitude for rajoy versus 1.18% for obama) (χ2 = 13.72, p<.02). when focusing on judgment, obama judges the normality (i.e. how special/(un)usual a person’s behavior state is) (χ2 = 42.47, p<.02) and rajoy judges the capacity (i.e. an assessment of the competence and/or ability) of the appraised elements (χ2 =  8.23, p<.02). indeed, obama positively evaluates human behavior (his government’s behavior) from an ethical point of view to set an optimistic note to his speech (see (5)), while rajoy positively evaluates in over 80% of the cases the capacity of the conservative government to deal with the crisis, as in (6): (5) obama: but tonight, we turn the page. […] more of our kids are graduating than ever before. more of our people are insured than ever before. and we are as free from the grip of foreign oil as we’ve been in almost 30 years [judgment: normality: positive attitude]. (6) rajoy: we balanced our external balance and stopped spiral of debt that trapped us [judgment: capacity: positive attitude].6 within appreciation, all subtypes – reaction (i.e. what strikes or makes you react somehow), composition (i.e. how well the parts of the entity fit together) and social valuation (i.e. whether something is socially valued for its usefulness, worthiness, efficaciousness, or health-giving properties) – show significant differences (p<.02). certainly, in his sona prime minister rajoy congratulates himself for turning the nation around from a situation of near-bankruptcy without the need for a bailout. he also announces ana belén cabrejas peñuelas ibérica 40 (2020): 75-10088 measures to speed up growth and help the middle classes, such as giving tax breaks to encourage permanent contracts to workers, extending spending on welfare for families, cutting judicial fees and introducing a “second chance” law to help households pay off their debts. these measures are represented by a relative frequency of 5.67% of appreciation (χ2 =  8.64, p<.02), particularly the subtypes of social valuation with 4.03% (χ2 =  19.11, p<.02) and composition with 0.54% (χ2 = 7.09, p<.02) (see (7)): (7) rajoy: once the flat-rate for contracts [appreciation: social valuation: positive attitude] finishes, we’ll start a reduced tax break [appreciation: composition: positive attitude] for new permanent contracts [appreciation: composition: positive attitude]. in contrast, president obama uses higher rates of reaction to contrast past –when he took office amid a historic recession and two us wars– and present, which shows a brightening economic picture that demonstrates that he was right and his adversaries, misguided all along (1.65% of reaction, χ 2 = 12.13, p<.02) (see (8)): (8) obama: at every step, we were told our goals were misguided or too ambitious […]. instead, we’ve seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade [appreciation: reaction: positive attitude]. 5.2. interplay between metaphor, metonymy and evaluation previous studies (cabrejas-peñuelas, 2018, 2020) have analyzed metaphor and metonymy in the 2015 sotu and the 2015 sona (see table 2 below). the results indicate that obama and rajoy used metaphors and metonymies to persuade their audiences of economic victory and, thus, used them ideologically. also, they attempted to gain support and justify their economic decisions (which in spain involved having budgets slashed and the rise of the cost of living) by portraying a country that had recovered from a serious financial crisis: a growing economy (action for result/the economy is a living organism), deficits cut (action for result/governing is healing/the government is a surgeon), recovery (action for result/the economic crisis is a disease), among others. both politicians further envisage the economic crisis as a natural phenomenon and, hence, employ the discourse of natural tragedy (“spiral of debt,” “darkest months,” “shadow”). at the same time, they rely on the us/them relational pair to attribute positive characteristics to us and their metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 89 in-groups (the democrat and conservative politicians and their political parties) and negative traits to them (the republican party in the us and the socialist party in spain). next, we address our second research question (do metaphors and metonymies in both political speeches fulfill an evaluative function?) by presenting some examples of the interplay between metaphor/metonymy and evaluation (the linguistic realization of the metaphor/metonymy has been indicated with underlining and the appraisal item in bold) (see (9)): (9) obama: so the verdict is clear (economy is a verdict) [appreciation: reaction: positive attitude]. middle class economy works [appreciation: social valuation: positive attitude]. expanding opportunity works [appreciation: reaction: positive attitude] (economy is a machine) […]. in (9) the linguistic expression of the metaphor and the evaluative item are close to each other but do not coincide, unlike in (10), in which they are unified (also, díez-prados, 2016): (10) rajoy: we wanted to take the country out of the trap it was in (the financial crisis is a container), restore the production tissue (governing is healing) [judgment: social valuation: positive attitude], stop the disappearance of jobs [judgment: social valuation: positive attitude], recover trust (achieving a purpose is achieving a desired object) [judgment: capacity: positive attitude] […]. in (10), the prime minister expresses the ethical concern that he (and his cabinet) went through to solve the spanish economic crisis without resorting to a bailout, which had meant serious budget cuts for spaniards ana belén cabrejas peñuelas ibérica 40 (2020): 75-10090 metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica xx (xxxx): …-… (8) obama: at every step, we were told our goals were misguided or too ambitious […]. instead, we’ve seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade [appreciation: reaction: positive attitude]. 5.2. interplay between metaphor, metonymy and evaluation! previous studies (cabrejas-peñuelas, 2018, 2020) have analyzed metaphor and metonymy in the 2015 sotu and the 2015 sona (see table 2 below). the results indicate that obama and rajoy used metaphors and metonymies to persuade their audiences of economic victory and, thus, used them ideologically. also, they attempted to gain support and justify their economic decisions (which in spain involved having budgets slashed and the rise of the cost of living) by portraying a country that had recovered from a serious financial crisis: a growing economy (action for result/the economy is a living organism), deficits cut (action for result/governing is healing/the government is a surgeon), recovery (action for result/the economic crisis is a disease), among others. both politicians further envisage the economic crisis as a natural phenomenon and, hence, employ the discourse of natural tragedy (“spiral of debt,” “darkest months,” “shadow”). at the same time, they rely on the us/them relational pair to attribute positive characteristics to us and their in-groups (the democrat and conservative politicians and their political parties) and negative traits to them (the republican party in the us and the socialist party in spain). obama metaphors metonymies rajoy metaphors metonymies total 176 148 total 259 225 total types 24 58 total types 30 62 type/token ratio 0.14 0.39 type/token ratio 0.12 0.28 [# metaphors or metonymies / total number of words] x 100 5.48 4.60 [# metaphors or metonymies / total number of words] x 100 4.10 3.57 table 2. total numbers of metaphors and metonymies and relative frequencies. next, we address our second research question (do metaphors and metonymies in both political speeches fulfill an evaluative function?) by presenting some examples of the interplay between metaphor/metonymy and evaluation (the linguistic realization of the metaphor/metonymy has been indicated with underlining and the appraisal item in bold) (see (9)): (9) obama: so the verdict is clear (economy is a verdict) [appreciation: reaction: positive attitude]. middle class economy works [appreciation: social valuation: positive attitude]. expanding opportunity works [appreciation: reaction: positive attitude] (economy is a machine) […].! and the elimination of hard-fought social rights. rajoy envisages the financial crisis as a container (the financial crisis is a container) and the government as a doctor who needs to heal the ailing spanish economy (governing is healing/the government is a doctor) until full recovery of trust (achieving a purpose is achieving a desired object) and endows them with a moral assessment. this way, rajoy reinforces his image of a responsible politician before the audience, which makes him a good candidate for the upcoming general elections. similarly, the linguistic expression of the metaphor/metonymy coincides with some evaluative items in (11): (11) rajoy: spain (place for institution) has gone from being a country on the brink of bankruptcy (the crisis is a container) [judgment: propriety: negative attitude] to becoming an example [judgment: tenacity: positive attitude] of recovery (action for result) (the crisis is a disease), which today (time for period of time) other countries of the eu pay attention to. it is not a problem [judgment: incapacity: negative attitude] for europe (place for institution) any more, neither does it need a bailout (action for event) [judgement: incapacity: negative attitude] nor does it have to abandon the euro (money for institution) [judgment: incapacity: negative attitude]. in this example, rajoy pictures the crisis as a container and as a disease; also, the metonymies action for event and money for institution are endowed with a moral assessment, which stresses the incapacity of spanish institutions to carry out certain tasks during the crisis. it was not until his party governed that the country’s economy improved and set an example for the rest of eu countries. and yet, journalists and politicians criticized his words for being inaccurate and far from the reality of spaniards.7 the prime minister’s words, which attempted to win over the electorate were markedly ideological, because they did not correspond to reality.8 likewise, in (12) obama takes credit for an improving economy by using metaphors and metonymies and evaluative language: (12) obama: at this moment (point in time for period), with a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry (economy is a living organism), booming energy production (action for result) [appreciation: reaction: positive attitude] – we have risen (economy is motion) [judgment: capacity: positive attitude] from recession (effect for cause) (recession is down) [appreciation: social valuation: negative metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 91 attitude] freer [judgment: normality: positive attitude] to write our own future (economy is a narrative) than any other nation on earth. indeed, in “growing,” “shrinking,” “bustling” and “booming” the economy is a living organism metaphor, the action for result metonymy and positive evaluation coincide in an attempt to offer a bright picture of the economy of the present time. this however does not fully comply with the slow economic improvement and poor-quality jobs of the concurrent us economy. thus, obama’s words have ideological purposes, as he seeks to impose his own vision of reality. also, the linguistic expression of the economy is motion metaphor (meaning ‘upward movement from something inherently negative’) and positive judgment of american citizens’ capacity (which also includes the democrats’ capacity) interplay. this way, obama offers a contrast with the past that is characterized by recession. in “recession”, in turn, negative appreciation interacts with the recession is down metaphor and the effect for cause metonymy, which points to the crisis as having an unknown origin, since the real culprits are not mentioned. the final aim is to persuade the audience of the good results obtained. but, besides basking in the economic resurgence, president obama also needs to appeal to the public with specific proposals for the middle classes in a political move to press republicans to make new coalitions with democrats (condon, 2015 (online)). see (13) below, in which obama attempts to make his words resonate with the public by using the economy is a machine metaphor and positive appreciation. the conflation of the metaphor and evaluation helps him to stress the need for high-paying jobs and the government’s positive role in achieving that aim. this is part of democrats’ notion of morality, following the moral action is fair distribution metaphor, typical of the nurturant parent family, due to their interest in equality (lakoff, 2002): (13) obama: as we better train our workers, we need the new economy to keep churning out high-wage jobs [economy is a machine] (appreciation: social valuation: positive attitude) for our workers to fill [jobs are a container]. since 2010, america [place for institution] has put more people back to work than europe, japan [place for institution] and all advanced economies [part for whole] combined. ana belén cabrejas peñuelas ibérica 40 (2020): 75-10092 5.3. evaluation and the politicians’ ideological makeup in order to answer our third research question (are there any differences between the type of evaluative devices used by obama and rajoy depending on the ideological makeup of the speakers?), we examine which entities are evaluated in terms of appraisal and how this is carried out. both speeches are tinged with ideology, since both politicians hold and defend different ideological positions: obama is progressive and liberal and rajoy, conservative. the politicians’ ideologies are manifested in their choice of topics for the speech, as they can select the topics they consider most important, which is especially the case of rajoy, although for obama there are topics that have historical roots. however, their ideologies are most apparent in the reasons why economic decisions are made: for liberal obama, these are of a social nature, including tax hikes on the wealthy, tax cuts for middle-class citizens, free community college tuition and paid leaves for workers and families.9 for conservative rajoy, his economic decisions include introducing stimulus measures to encourage jobs; and new tax breaks and measures to support families, which are often used to attract its traditional voters. the analysis of appraisal of the economy section of obama’s speech reveals that obama positively evaluates his economic measures consisting in taxing wealthy americans and large corporations to pay for benefits for working families, while at the same time those measures also benefit companies that invest in america (see (14)): (14) obama: let’s close [judgment: social valuation: positive attitude] the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top one percent to avoid paying taxes [judgement: social valuation: negative attitude] on their accumulated wealth. we can use that money to help more families pay for childcare and send their kids to college [judgment: social valuation: positive attitude]. obama’s stance on taxes and on government regulations, his support for equality and for increasing workers’ minimum wage and his interest in other economic decisions that help preserve the social welfare safety net demonstrate his liberal ideology. obama’s economic measures are also used in an evaluative fashion to reinforce the idea that he feels a deep concern for the people and is, thus, a responsible prospective president. despite the accusations that the pp party favors the interests of the wealthy, rajoy also positively evaluates a new economic measure intended to help the metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 93 middle classes consisting in tax breaks to encourage more flat-rate permanent contracts and his next challenge, which would be creating three million new jobs (see (15)): (15) rajoy: […] we’ll start [judgment: propriety: positive attitude] a flat rate for permanent contracts [appreciation: composition: positive attitude]. the first 500€ are exempt from paying social security [appreciation: social valuation: positive attitude]. rajoy further mentions other extraordinary employment allowances, including the ‘prepara’ program, the employment activation plan and a reform of the current vocational training program, which he evaluates positively in an attempt to project a positive presidentiable image (see (16)): (16) rajoy: we want to support [judgment: propriety: positive attitude] workers’ employability, especially those most vulnerable [appreciation: social valuation: positive attitude] and favor [judgment: propriety: positive attitude] business’s productivity and competitivity. it seems, therefore, that both politicians, regardless of their ideology, present themselves (and the parties they represent) as defenders of the middle classes in an attempt to sway voters to their side. not to defend them would imply losing votes in the upcoming general elections (also, in díez-prados, 2016). at the same time, they blame the opposing party for the ills of the crisis (“the economic recession that we inherited from the previous government”), attack the policies of the opposing party and the opposing party itself for not giving credit to the measures put in place or planned by the government by using negative evaluation. for example, in (17) liberal obama accuses republicans of not raising the minimum wage, since the conservative wing’s ideological position holds antisocial policies because of their economic costs:  (17) obama: to everyone in this congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage [judgment: normality: negative attitude], i say this: if you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. if not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in america a raise. in sum, both political candidates, irrespective of their ideological position, defend policies that are typical of a left-wing ideology, that is, tax breaks and benefits for middle-class families, which they evaluate positively. whether ana belén cabrejas peñuelas ibérica 40 (2020): 75-10094 this is true in both politicians’ agendas or is part of their political strategy to persuade voters is outside the scope of this study. what is important, however, is that with presidential elections in sight, evaluation serves politicians to paint a rosy picture of themselves and their actions so as to win the support of voters, while they also deprecate others and their actions (cabrejas-peñuelas & díez-prados, 2014: 180). 6. conclusion the present study has attempted to ascertain the role of evaluation in political speeches aiming at persuading the electorate of the political decisions made, its interplay with metaphor and metonymy and the differences in the evaluative devices used depending on the speakers’ ideological stance. we now recall the research questions guiding this paper in order to provide an answer: 1. what type(s) of evaluative device(s) as found in martin and white’s (2005) categorization of attitude are used in the american and spanish political speeches analyzed? the appraisal analysis of obama’s sotu and rajoy’s sona reveals different uses of evaluation in their speeches. indeed, while obama judges human behavior from an ethical viewpoint, rajoy evaluates things and processes aesthetically and expresses social value. judgment is also used differently by the two politicians: obama focuses on the need for change (judgment: normality); that is, on moving past the iraqi and afghan wars and recession and embracing his economic policies that will move the country forward. however, rajoy focuses on his capacity (and his cabinet’s) (judgment: capacity) and, thus, presents himself as a steady leader who kept his nerve during the crisis and managed to steer spain away from a bailout. as regards appreciation, obama highlights the emotional reactions to the economic plans of his administration, while rajoy judges the social value of his economic proposals for the middle classes and gives details of the types of proposals made. obama and rajoy also use polarity differently: both show the success of their economic decisions to move away from economic recession and the opposing party’s failure. however, rajoy particularly dwelt on the socialist’s failure, and thus manifests higher rates of negative attitude than obama. metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 95 2. do metaphors and metonymies in both political speeches fulfill an evaluative function? the analysis of obama’s and rajoy’s political speeches further uncovers the fact that metaphors and metonymies abound in this type of political discourse and that, on occasions, such linguistic phenomena overlap with evaluation. indeed, through economy metaphors and metonymies, both politicians claim success in the economic arena after years of economic recession as a result of their economic policies, while also they take direct aim at the opposing party’s policies. but their words have markedly ideological purposes, as they seek to impose their own vision of their country’s economies on their citizens. through the interplay of metaphor, metonymy and evaluation, both political candidates also attempt to justify their political decisions and, thus, influence the audience’s views: rajoy takes pride in his good economic results and portrays himself as a safechoice for re-election in the 2015 general elections. however, obama attempts to make his agenda resonate with the public and to obtain a bipartisan appeal for some initiatives targeted at the middle classes which, if not passed by the republican-controlled congress, would leave republicans in the uncomfortable position of being aligned with millionaires. 3. are there any differences between the type of evaluative devices used by obama and rajoy depending on the ideological makeup of the speakers? despite their opposing ideologies, the evaluative devices used by president obama and prime minister rajoy show a similar approach in their speeches: president obama brandishes his own ideological position before the new republican congress –he stresses his focus on social welfare, including giving tax cuts for low– and middle-class families, lowering mortgage premiums and offering paid leave. rajoy also positively evaluates the new economic measures aimed at improving the conditions of the middle classes in view of the upcoming general elections and the need for voters to think of the conservative party as holding a moderate ideology. at the same time, through negative evaluation both candidates paint the opposing party and their policies in a negative light. thus, in the context of general elections (i.e. pre-electoral debates (cabrejas-peñuelas & díez-prados, 2014; díezprados, 2016) or parliamentary speeches) political candidates use evaluation, not as an expression of their own ideological traits, but as an ideological tool ana belén cabrejas peñuelas ibérica 40 (2020): 75-10096 of positive self-presentation and negative other-deprecation that would get them in power once again. article history: received 13 september 2019 received in revised form 14 january 2020 accepted 24 february 2020 references metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 97 barcelona, a. 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(1989). more than cool reason: a field guide to poetic metaphor. chicago: the university of chicago press. ana belén cabrejas-peñuelas is an associate professor at the university of valencia (spain). she investigates the cognitive processes involved in second or foreign language writing, in particular the revision process, although she is also concerned with discourse analysis, pragmatics and systemic functional linguistics. her most important publications deal with l2 writing processes, evaluation and the interplay of evaluation, metaphor and metonymy for persuasion in political language from a contrastive perspective. notes 1 the 2015 state of the union address can be consulted on the american presidency project webpage: <http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/sou.php>. 2 the 2015 state of the nation debate can be downloaded from la moncloa webpage <http://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/presidente/intervenciones/documents/2015/240215debateestadona cion.pdf> 3 the program can be downloaded for free from the webpage <http://www.corpustool.com/>. ana belén cabrejas peñuelas ibérica 40 (2020): 75-10098 littlemore, j. (2015). metonymy: hidden shortcuts in language, thought and communication. cambridge: cup. llamas, m. (2015). “los mayores ejemplos de recuperación son irlanda y los países bálticos”. libremercado. url: <https://www.libremercado. com> [03/09/2019]. martin, j.r. & p.r.r. white. (2005). the language of evaluation: appraisal in english. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. meadows, b. (2006). “distancing and showing solidarity via metaphor and metonymy in political discourse: a critical study of american statements on iraq during the years 2004-2005”. critical approaches to discourse analysis across disciplines 1(2): 1-17. muñoz, e. (2015). “no pedir el rescate fue la gran medida social de esta legislatura”. cadena ser. url: <https://cadenaser.com/> [03/09/2019]. mussolff, a. (2012). “the study of metaphor as part of critical discourse analysis”. critical discourse studies 9(3): 301-310. neagu, m.i. (2013). decoding political discourse: conceptual metaphors and argumentation. london: palgrave macmillan. paris, r. (2002). “kosovo and the metaphor war”. political science quarterly 17(3): 423-450. sánchez garcía, j.f. (2009). estudio programático del discurso periodístico político español. a propósito de los debates sobre el estado de la nación. phd dissertation. universidad de granada. semino, e. (2008). metaphors in discourse. cambridge: cambridge university press. shogan, c.j. (2015). the president’s state of the union address: tradition, function, and policy implications. url: <https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/ misc/r40132.pdf> [15/08/2019]. van dijk, t. a. (1998). ideology: a multidisciplinary approach. london: sage. van dijk, t.a. (2005). “war rhetoric of a little ally: political implicatures and aznar’s legitimatization of the war in iraq”. journal of language and politics 4(1): 65-91. zug, ch. & c.m. ewing (2018). “what happened to the state of the union address? originally, it helped the president and congress deliberate”. the washington post. url: <http:// washingtonpost.com> [03/09/2019]. 4 in this study, we take p<0.05; that is, a significance level of 95%, which is considered significant in social sciences (dörnyei, 2007: 210). 5 that rajoy uses more appreciation may explain the reactions happened in the aftermath of the speech (muñoz, 2015): “data everywhere about how much the employment has risen, how much the risk premium has been lowered, how much pensions have increased […] and the large number of economic aids in education (our translation) (muñoz, 2015 (online)). similarly, some journalists (e.g. kaplan, 2015) commented after obama’s speech the president’s attempt to contrast with republicans and, thus, leave a positive legacy: “his state of the union address was all about putting those proposals on the table, and offering a contrast with republicans” (kaplan, 2015 (online)). 6 due to space restrictions, the examples have been provided only in english. 7 some journalists (e.g. llamas, 2015) criticized rajoy’s words in the aftermath of the debate: “how truthful is that assertion? the truth is that data contradict rajoy. […] spain is growing and creating employment but the national recovery is very far from that other countries of the eurozone have been registering for a long time, such as ireland, estonia, latvia and lithuania” (our translation) (llamas, 2015 (online)). 8 the european commission’s winter economic forecast for european countries reveals that countries, such as ireland and lithuania are growing faster than spain (european commission, 2015 (online)). 9 obama is a liberal in the us sense; that is, he proposes fiscal policies that benefit low and middle classes and these would be paid with tax increases on the wealthy. he also supports equality, environmental issues, universal healthcare, and gun control. however, unlike liberals in europe, he believes in the government regulating the economy. metaphor, metonymy and evaluation as political devices ibérica 40 (2020): 75-100 99 iberica 13 ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this study was an attempt to investigate the english for research publication purposes (erpp) needs of iranian non-native speakers of english (nnse) researchers. to this end, a questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and a corpus of the referees’ comments were used. the corpus comprised 621 comments drawn from 78 reviews on 45 full-length manuscripts from three broad disciplinary groups, i.e. engineering, science, and humanities. the results of corpus analysis suggest that, regardless of discipline, iranian nnse researchers, as off-network researchers, seem to have more problems with the use of language than with technical contents when writing a scientific manuscript. moreover, the results of corpus analysis show that coping with syntactic and lexical use of english was much more problematic than discourse and rhetoric. whereas science researchers believed in the primacy of lexis and syntax over discourse and rhetoric due to the existence of some definite moves in their papers, humanities researchers stressed the significance of knowing the moves of different sections of an article. the paper ends with some pedagogical implications for different disciplinary groups. keywords: academic writing, english for research publication purposes needs, peer review comments, english-only research world, iranian researchers. resumen e l ing l é s y l a pu bl i c a c ió n d e r e s ul ta d os c i e nt íf i c os : un e s tud io d e c a s o d e l o s c ome n ta ri os de l o s r e v is o re s english for research publication purposes: the case of scholarly peer review comments javad zare1, vahid mahmoudi-gahrouei2, saeed ketabi2 and zahra keivanloo-shahrestanaki1 1esfarayen university of technology (iran) 22university of isfahan (iran) 1javadzare@gmail.com, 2mahmoudivahid1980@yahoo.com, 2s.ketabi@yahoo.com & 1keyvanlo@esfarayen.ac.ir 153 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 153 ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki este artículo analiza las necesidades linguísticas de investigadores iraníes que utilizan la lengua inglesa para la publicación de los resultados de su investigación. el análisis está fundamentado en datos recogidos mediante un cuestionario, entrevistas semi-estructuradas y un corpus de comentarios de revisores. el corpus utilizado está formado por 621 comentarios extraidos de 78 revisiones de 45 manuscritos de tres grandes áreas disciplinares (i.e. ingeniería, ciencias y humanidades). los resultados del análisis del corpus sugieren que, independientemente de la disciplina a la que pertenecen, los investigadores iraníes tienen a tener problemas relacionados con el uso de la lengua y no tanto con los contenidos que plasman en sus manuscritos. asimismo, los resultados del análisis del corpus muestran que la sintaxis y el léxico son más problemáticos para ellos que los aspectos de discurso y la retórica. mientras que los investigadores de las disciplinas científicas creen que la sintaxis y el léxico son más importantes que el discurso y la retórica de los textos, ya que existen patrones discursivos estandarizados. los investigadores en las disciplinas de humanidades destacan la importancia de conocer los patrones discursivos estandarizados en las dsitntas secciones de los artículos para revistas. a la luz de los resultados, el artículo valoras varias implicaciones pedagógicas para los distintos grupos disciplinares. palabras clave: escritura académica, inglés para la publicación de resultados científicos, inglés para fines académicos, comentarios de revisores, investigadores iraníes. 1. introduction there has been growing interest in the last few decades among academics to publish in mainstream indexed journals. many factors have resulted in this “publish or perish” competition (van dalen & henkens, 2012: 1). in the first place, the current research system running rampant around the world seems to have pressed researchers to publish as many papers as possible in international high profile journals in order to achieve world-wide recognition among peers. second, academics’ success in continued higher education, employment, promotion, and tenure depends to a large extent on their publication records. last, publication in high profile journals is key to financial eminence for academicians. with the visibility of scientific journals calculated by the number of citations they receive (impact factor), high profile journals are more likely to publish papers in english to reach a wider audience (lillis & curry, 2010; mungra & webber, 2010). this has brought about the dominance of english as the 154 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 154 global lingua franca of scientific publication. this inequitable dominance of english in research publication has led to the emergence of a network of researchers comprising only those scholars whose native language is english, referred to as “networked researchers” (belcher, 2007: 1). networked scholars enjoy the “free ride” (van parijs, 2007) that their mother tongue brings to them, as they do not have to suffer the hardship of learning a new language (flowerdew, 2013). on the other hand, many non-native speakers of english (nnse) researchers around the world, referred to as “offnetwork” researchers (swales, 1987: 43), may find themselves marginalized and placed off the research community network, due to the less-advantaged status of their first language. these off-networked researchers have to invest time, energy, and money in learning this new language (flowerdew, 2013). as ammon (2007) points out, networked scholars, because of their greater facility in using english, may take on more gatekeeping functions and establish rules for scientific publication. according to the commonly used principle of the survival of the fittest, only researchers who are best adapted to the expectations of these anglophone journals are likely to survive in this englishonly competition. iranian researchers are no exception to this. as “offnetwork” researchers, some iranian researchers, in spite of the substantial number of their submissions, seldom or never see them published. this is mainly because getting acceptance in an indexed international journal entails having scientific manuscripts undergo a peer review process whereby the novelty, significance, and credibility of authors’ claims, and the scientific quality and rigor of the manuscripts are evaluated (flowerdew, 2001; mckay, 2003). this process, as belcher notes, is a high stake game “fraught with frustration and disappointment” (2007: 2), the passing of which requires “reviewer patience and author persistence” (2007: 11). as peer review remains the sole norm for assessing the scientific quality of a manuscript (flowerdew, 2001; gosden, 2001; mckay, 2003), more attention should be drawn to investigating its features and impact on publication efforts. due to its very limited accessibility and hidden status as an “occluded genre” (swales, 1996: 45), peer reviewer comments were neglected before. however, over the last two decades, this genre has attracted much attention. the controversial nature of the peer review process put aside, lillis and curry (2006: 4) have pointed out the facilitative roles of “literacy brokers” such as editors, referees, and academic peers. a great deal of attempt has gone into analyzing the discourse features of this occluded genre and its impact on publication outcomes (e.g., gosden, 2003; gupta et english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 155 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 155 al., 2006; belcher, 2007; fortanet, 2008; mungra & webber, 2010; lillis & curry, 2015). drawing on interviews with scientific journal editors, flowerdew (2001: 135) concludes that “parochialism, or failure to show the relevance of the study to the international community”, rather than language use, as the most salient problem of international researchers when writing scientific manuscripts. investigating referees’ comments on letter manuscripts of native and non-native speakers of english (nse and nnse) researchers by applying a framework generally drawn on halliday’s (1985) metafunctional organization of language, gosden (2003) found interactional deficiencies of nnse researchers’ manuscripts as the most frequently commented theme by referees. gosden attributes this to the concern of the referees being more directed towards the interpersonal function of the manuscripts, that is “the effectiveness of the writer’s interaction with the reader in the text” (2003: 87) than towards the ideational, i.e. technical information. in an attempt to investigate the role that peer reviewers play in accepting or rejecting manuscripts with off-network provenance, belcher (2007) examined the submission history of an applied linguistics journal. this author found that language use and style are the most frequently highlighted aspect, with 90% of the critical commentary from the reviewers. mungra and webber (2010) investigated medical research manuscripts of italian nnse researchers in order to determine the most frequent linguistic problems they face when writing a scientific paper. they found technical content the most frequent category, followed by lexical and grammatical use of language, clarity, and verbosity. this finding is related to the role of referees to critique the technical content of the manuscript, rather than the use of language. tahririan and sadri (2013) examined a corpus of comments made on manuscripts of engineering, medical, and social sciences solicited from iranian nnse students. the students whose manuscript comments were gathered were graduate students in isfahan, iran. the manuscripts were full research articles associated with their m.a. or ph.d. theses. the analysis of their corpus revealed content comments as the most frequently mentioned category for all the three broad disciplines, which is again attributed to the role of reviewers to criticize the technical content of submissions. more recently, drawing on a longitudinal research project, lillis and curry (2015) explored 95 text histories from applied linguistics scholars based in zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178156 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 156 slovakia, hungary, spain, and portugal. the purpose of the study was to investigate the ideologies reflected in the peer reviewers and editors’ comments made during the peer review process on papers submitted for publication consideration to english-medium journals. lillis and curry problematized three basic categories in the text histories of applied linguistics, i.e. “(1) the treating of english as a single stable semiotic resource over which the ‘native’ speaker is attributed a privileged evaluative position; (2) the overriding transparency approach to language and communication; (3) the focus on production as distinct from uptake” (2015: 127). no doubt, the studies that have focused on peer review and referees’ comments to date have contributed a lot to understanding the discourse features of reviewers’ comments, the concerns of referees, and the problems they bring about to early career researchers. however, the need to conduct studies that associate the concerns of referees with the needs of early career researchers for international publication is felt. this study was informed by the belief that investigating the comments of referees may shed light on the english needs of non-native researchers for publication purposes. to this end, an approach drawing on analyses of the feedback of peer reviewers, and perceptions of researchers of their own needs through questionnaire and semi-structured interview was followed. 2. material and methods in order to determine the erpp needs of iranian researchers as nnse, three procedures were followed: 1) a questionnaire, 2) a semi-structured interview, and 3) a corpus of peer reviewers’ comments. the aim of the questionnaire and semi-structured interview was to elicit information regarding the researchers’ concerns for international scholarly publishing. the corpus of peer reviewers’ comments was analyzed to obtain information regarding the referees’ concerns as criteria for publication in international high profile journals. 2.1. corpus and participants a corpus of 621 referees’ comments drawn from 78 reviews on 45 fulllength manuscripts was compiled. this corpus was solicited from 45 iranian researchers-ma or phd holders-specialized in the three broad disciplines of engineering (en), science (sc), and humanities (hu). the manuscripts on english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 157 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 157 which the comments had been made dealt with issues in civil engineering, computer engineering, materials engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, statistics, and applied linguistics. all these manuscripts had been finally accepted for publication between 2009 and 2014 in one of the international high profile journals published by such publishers as elsevier, wiley, springer, sage, ieee, and taylor & francis that subject papers to a peerreview evaluation. table 1 presents a description of the data, the proportion of manuscripts in each field, the number of reviews, and the total number of comments throughout the entire corpus. here, comments are points which are raised by the reviewer and seek modification in some part of the manuscript. due to the confidentiality and inaccessibility of this occluded genre, that is, reviewer’s comments, purposive sampling was followed to compile these comments. anonymity and informed consent of the authors were taken into consideration. all the participants whose manuscripts had been solicited were asked to complete an online questionnaire. also, from among the 45 participants of this study, 15 (five per each broad discipline) were chosen for the semistructured interview. the aim of conducting interviews was to complement the results of corpus and questionnaire analysis by asking the authors to provide their perspectives on issues that were not covered in the questionnaire or corpus. that is why the same participants took part in different stages of the investigation. zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178158 english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): …-… was analyzed to obtain information regarding the referees’ concerns as criteria for publication in international high profile journals. 2.1. corpus and participants a corpus of 621 referees’ comments drawn from 78 reviews on 45 full-length manuscripts was compiled. this corpus was solicited from 45 iranian researchers-ma or phd holders-specialized in the three broad disciplines of engineering (en), science (sc), and humanities (hu). the manuscripts on which the comments had been made dealt with issues in civil engineering, computer engineering, materials engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, statistics, and applied linguistics. all these manuscripts had been finally accepted for publication between 2009 and 2014 in one of the international high profile journals published by such publishers as elsevier, wiley, springer, sage, ieee, and taylor & francis that subject papers to a peer-review evaluation. table 1 presents a description of the data, the proportion of manuscripts in each field, the number of reviews, and the total number of comments throughout the entire corpus. here, comments are points which are raised by the reviewer and seek modification in some part of the manuscript. due to the confidentiality and inaccessibility of this occluded genre, that is, reviewer’s comments, purposive sampling was followed to compile these comments. anonymity and informed consent of the authors were taken into consideration. field no. of comments subfield no. of manuscripts no. of reviews engineering 177 civil engineering 1 1 computer engineering 6 9 materials engineering 1 2 chemical engineering 2 3 electrical engineering 7 14 mechanical engineering 1 2 humanities 103 applied linguistics 5 10 science 341 physics 14 27 mathematics 1 1 chemistry 1 2 biology 1 2 statistics 5 5 total 621 45 78 table 1. description of the data. all the participants whose manuscripts had been solicited were asked to complete an online questionnaire. also, from among the 45 participants of this study, 15 (five per each broad discipline) were chosen for the semi-structured interview. the aim of conducting interviews was to complement the results of 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 158 2.2. instruments an online questionnaire (appendix a) and a semi-structured interview (appendix b) were designed in persian, based on mungra and webber’s (2010) framework (table 2) to determine iranian researchers’ erpp needs. the questionnaire comprised two major independent sections: a) technical content, with 10 items dealing with the technical details of the manuscripts, and b) language-use with nine items dealing with language related issues. language related categories included six items of lexis and syntax, and three items of discourse and rhetoric. the items were in 5-point likert-type scales ranging from 1 (not problematic at all) to 5 (extremely problematic). the semi-structured interview consisted of four questions dealing with the main skills, problems, and improvement of writing for international research publication, as well as factors considered by peer reviewers when evaluating manuscripts. the content of the interview protocol was grounded in the quantitative results from the first phase of the study. as the goal of the interview was to elaborate on the results of the questionnaire, we wanted to better understand the reviewers’ perceptions and, to a limited extent, the authors’ deficient skills in writing for international research publication. after audiotaping and transcription, each interview was analyzed at two levels: individually and transversally by following these steps: (1) preliminary exploration of the data by reading through the transcripts, (2) coding the data by segmenting and labeling the text, (3) verifying the codes, (4) using codes to develop themes by putting similar codes together, (5) connecting themes, (6) constructing a case study narrative composed of descriptions and themes, and (7) cross-case thematic analysis (creswell & plano clark, 2011). 2.3. data analysis from among the existing methodological choices (e.g., gosden, 2003; belcher, 2007; mungra & webber, 2010), we chose mungra and webber’s (2010) framework to analyze the corpus of referees’ comments. this was mainly because their model incorporates both content-related and languagerelated comments, dividing them into specific relevant subsections. although mungra and webber’s model seems to be comprehensive, some additions are suggested in the conclusion and implications section (section 4.1) for ease of classification of the reviewers’ comments. english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 159 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 159 after compilation, following mungra and webber (2010), we investigated the corpus in terms of comments categories. to this end, the entire corpus was explored to discover potential examples of comments. as mentioned earlier, a comment was defined as any point raised by the reviewer seeking modification in some part of the manuscript. based on this definition, only points implying change in the text of the manuscript qualified as a comment. many positive comments of appreciation were sifted out, accordingly. as table 1 illustrates, the number of comments throughout the whole corpus totaled 621. subsequently, each comment was manually investigated by the researchers to see to which category it belonged in mungra and webber’s model. in case, the researchers’ opinions diverged on the categorization of reviewers’ comments, the authors of the manuscripts were asked to provide their views on the purpose of the comment. the reason this was done was because of the fact that in some cases, it was difficult to determine if the comment raised questions about the technical details of the paper or language use issues. in mungra and webber’s (2010) model, comments fall into either content or language-use categories, as table 2 illustrates. zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178160 english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): …-… comment was defined as any point raised by the reviewer seeking modification in some part of the manuscript. based on this definition, only points implying change in the text of the manuscript qualified as a comment. many positive comments of appreciation were sifted out, accordingly. as table 1 illustrates, the number of comments throughout the whole corpus totaled 621. subsequently, each comment was manually investigated by the researchers to see to which category it belonged in mungra and webber’s model. in case, the researchers’ opinions diverged on the categorization of reviewers’ comments, the authors of the manuscripts were asked to provide their views on the purpose of the comment. the reason this was done was because of the fact that in some cases, it was difficult to determine if the comment raised questions about the technical details of the paper or language use issues. in mungra and webber’s (2010) model, comments fall into either content or language-use categories, as table 2 illustrates. i. content comments 1. incomplete literature 2. lack of association between claim and data 3. procedural infelicities and lack of rigor 4. explain why data are unusual 5. scientific reasoning errors of own data 6. terminology or definitions 7. statistical irregularities 8. incorrect scientific interpretation of other authors 9. lack of association between claim and prior research 10. sampling errors ii. language-use comments a. lexis and syntax comments 1. not well written/use of english 2. lack of clarity 3. typos or suggestions for text editor 4. verbosity 5. repetitions 6. incoherent b. discourse and rhetorical comments 7. improve information flow 8. up-tone or give more salience to novelty feature 9. down-tone claim or hedge table 2. comment categories (adapted from mungra and webber, 2010: 46). each major category is divided into specific subsections. in the following section, examples of each category extracted from the corpus of this study are presented. in the examples, gosden’s (1995) convention was followed to ensure anonymity of the authors and the scientific details of the comments. technical details of the manuscripts were encoded as [td] and its subsets as [td 1], [td 2], 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 160 each major category is divided into specific subsections. in the following section, examples of each category extracted from the corpus of this study are presented. in the examples, gosden’s (1995) convention was followed to ensure anonymity of the authors and the scientific details of the comments. technical details of the manuscripts were encoded as [td] and its subsets as [td 1], [td 2], etc. likewise, citations were referred to as [citations] and quotations from the manuscript were given as [text] in the examples. i. content comments example i.1. incomplete literature: there is also a strand of historical research that is not mentioned at all, for instance [citation 1]’s work, and [citation 2] has also addressed some historical aspects. (hu02rev) example i.2. lack of association between claim and data: this seems to be a glued-on [td 1] which does not follow from the present study. even if other researchers have argued for its [td 2] usefulness, none of those referred to have dealt with [td 3]. (hu09rev) example i. 3. procedural infelicities and lack of rigor: how all [citation]’s categories are [text 1] also requires clear arguments to support it. the categories are different, and while some may contain [text 1] elements i want to see how these contrast with [text 2]. if all examples with one of these [td 1] is [text 1], but nothing else is, what happens with [td 2]? (sc11rev) example i.4. explain why data are unusual: in table x, first case, it is quite strange that the [td 1] increases with [td 2]. (en22rev) example i.5. scientific reasoning errors of own data: i am not convinced. for instance, [citation] found [td 1]. it may not have appeared in the narrow scope of your data of [td 2], but this is no guarantee of [td 1] never appearing in [td 3]. moreover, you did not find them in [td 4] either, and [text] does not come in there. (hu05rev) example i.6. terminology or definitions: english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 161 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 161 what is this? you have not defined the concept [text] in your background section. (sc25rev) example i.7. statistical irregularities: page x, line x: [td 1] is 1.5418 a and not 1.54056 which corresponds to [td 2]. (sc04rev) example i.8. incorrect scientific interpretation of other authors: [citation] does not employ the concept at all, and this is only the interpretation of some [td] scholars. most have very different backgrounds. (hu02rev) example i.9. lack of association between claim and prior research: [citation] highlighted the importance of a [td 1]. yes, but in relation to [td 2], and you are talking about [td 3]. (sc31rev) ii. language-use comments a. lexis and syntax comments example ii.1. not well written/use of english: it might be helpful to indicate in the text itself that this is [citation]’s definition, given that there are different ones. this paragraph would be better if it was not in the passive voice because there is no consensus of either these views or about the change in its perception. (hu06rev) example ii.2. lack of clarity: vague. please specify what advances this confers to [td] or else leave out. (en28rev) example ii.3. typos or suggestions for text editor: page x, lines x and xx: it is not [text 1] but [text 2] (typo). (sc16rev) replace [text 1] with [text 2] (suggestion). (en29rev) example ii.4. verbosity: the ‘results and discussions’ part may be further shortened. (sc03rev) zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178162 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 162 example ii.5. repetitions: to me, this is a completely tautological sentence. what is it that is meant to be warranted here? (hu05rev) example ii.6. incoherent: there are no [td] in the paper, so the reader may wonder where this came from. (hu10rev) b. discourse and rhetorical comments example ii.7. improve information flow: in this discussion i think you should write out the [td] you are using and then show how it leads to the result. (sc21rev) example ii.8. up-tone or give more salience to novelty feature: i am not sure this makes the present paper special. [td 1] and [td 2]have been the main focus of most [td 3] studies. (hu04rev) example ii.9. down-tone claim or hedge: how the [a] claims that this can be [td] for mass production? don’t use such a general claim. (en10rev) upon completion of the corpus analysis, a non-parametric data analysis was run to see if the difference between the distributions of comments across the three disciplinary groups was significant. a chi square test was run, as our data were categorical and we could not use parametric data analyses which are appropriate for continuous data. the results of corpus analysis were then complemented with those of the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. 3. results and discussion 3.1. corpus analysis this section deals with the results of the quantitative analysis of the corpus of comments, the general and detailed distribution of the comments presented and discussed. english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 163 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 163 table 3 summarizes the results of the quantitative analysis of the distribution of comments across the three broad disciplinary groups. as table 3 shows, comments are distributed between content and languageuse categories. this is in line with the findings of sionis (1995) investigating french nnse scholars’ manuscripts, kourilová (1996) examining research manuscripts of slovak nnses, gosden (2003) focusing on letter manuscripts of nses and nnses, and mišak, marušić, and marušić (2005) examining medical research manuscripts of croatian nnses. this indicates that for the referees of international high profile journals, what is important in nnse researchers’ manuscripts is both technical content and language-related issues. this may be accounted for by the fact that the researchers whose manuscripts constituted the corpus of this study were early career researchers with procedural incompetency to conduct a scientific study and limited language ability to prepare a well-written report. as table 3 displays, language-use comments accounted for 65%, 70% and 83% of the comments on manuscripts of engineering, humanities, and science disciplines, respectively. content comments constituted roughly onethird (35% and 30%) of the comments on engineering and humanities manuscripts and less than one-fifth (17%) of the comments on manuscripts of science. in line with the findings of gosden (2003) and belcher (2007), language-use comments exceeded content comments. these results may indicate that, as far as the referees’ criteria are concerned, no matter which discipline they were specialized in, nnse researchers seemed to have more problems with the use of language than with the technical contents when writing their manuscripts. this, however, runs counter with the findings of flowerdew (2001), mungra and webber (2010), and tahririan and sadri (2013). this shared finding is attributed to the main role of peer reviewers to provide feedback on the content of the manuscript (mungra & webber zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178164 zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): …-… the results of corpus analysis were then complemented with those of the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. 3. results and discussion 3.1. corpus analysis this section deals with the results of the quantitative analysis of the corpus of comments, the general and detailed distribution of the comments presented and discussed. table 3 summarizes the results of the quantitative analysis of the distribution of comments across the three broad disciplinary groups. comments en hu sc no. % no. % no. % i. content comments 62 35 31 30 57 17 ii. language-use comments a. lexis and syntax comments 88 50 64 62 252 74 b. discourse and rhetorical comments 27 15 8 8 32 9 total 177 100 103 100 341 100 table 3. distribution analysis of comment categories. as table 3 shows, comments are distributed between content and language-use categories. this is in line with the findings of sionis (1995) investigating french nnse scholars’ manuscripts, kourilová (1996) examining research manuscripts of slovak nnses, gosden (2003) focusing on letter manuscripts of nses and nnses, and mi!ak, maru!i", and maru!i" (2005) examining medical research manuscripts of croatian nnses. this indicates that for the referees of international high profile journals, what is important in nnse researchers’ manuscripts is both technical content and language-related issues. this may be accounted for by the fact that the researchers whose manuscripts constituted the corpus of this study were early career researchers with procedural incompetency to conduct a scientific study and limited language ability to prepare a wellwritten report. as table 3 displays, language-use comments accounted for 65%, 70% and 83% of the comments on manuscripts of engineering, humanities, and science disciplines, respectively. content comments constituted roughly one-third (35% and 30%) of the comments on engineering and humanities manuscripts and less than one-fifth (17%) of the comments on manuscripts of science. in line with the findings of gosden (2003) and belcher (2007), language-use comments exceeded content comments. these results may indicate that, as far as the referees’ criteria are concerned, no matter which discipline they were specialized 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 164 2010). tahririan and sadri (2013), however, note that many content comments they found in their examples were not necessarily related to scientific content infelicities but revealed the researchers’ limited language ability. considering the fact that all the manuscripts that made up the corpus of this study had been written by iranian nnses with limited language abilities, this substantial difference in the proportion of language-use comments to content comments is reasonable. besides, as technical contents of a manuscript are conveyed through language forms, improper use of language may affect clarity of the scientific content and thereby elicit peer reviewers’ comments of language-use. content comments refer to the points raised by the peer reviewer about the technical details of the manuscripts, including the literature, procedure, statistics, reasoning and interpretation of data and prior research studies (mungra & webber, 2010). with engineering manuscripts, around one-fifth (19.7%) of the comments dealt with “procedural infelicities”, followed by “incomplete literature” (5.6%), and “missing terminologies and definitions” (4.5%). likewise, with science manuscripts, “missing terminologies and definitions” (4.7%), “incomplete literature” (4.4%), and “procedural infelicities” (3.8%) were the most frequent problems with slight variations in their sequence. given the fact that almost all the researchers whose manuscripts were solicited for this study were early career researchers, their incompetency in conducting scientific analyses may have led to these problems. these findings are in line with those of mungra and webber (2010), who report “lack of procedural rigor”, “incomplete literature”, and “errors of claim” as the most frequent themes among content comments of english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 165 english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): …-… in, nnse researchers seemed to have more problems with the use of language than with the technical contents when writing their manuscripts. this, however, runs counter with the findings of flowerdew (2001), mungra and webber (2010), and tahririan and sadri (2013). this shared finding is attributed to the main role of peer reviewers to provide feedback on the content of the manuscript (mungra & webber 2010). tahririan and sadri (2013), however, note that many content comments they found in their examples were not necessarily related to scientific content infelicities but revealed the researchers’ limited language ability. considering the fact that all the manuscripts that made up the corpus of this study had been written by iranian nnses with limited language abilities, this substantial difference in the proportion of language-use comments to content comments is reasonable. besides, as technical contents of a manuscript are conveyed through language forms, improper use of language may affect clarity of the scientific content and thereby elicit peer reviewers’ comments of language-use. table 4 presents the results of the detailed analysis of content categories. content comments en hu sc no. % no. % no. % 1. incomplete literature 10 5.6 2 2 15 4.4 2. lack of association between claim and data 3 1.7 6 5.8 2 0.6 3. procedural infelicities and lack of rigor 35 19.7 7 6.6 13 3.8 4. explain why data are unusual 3 1.7 2 0.6 5. scientific reasoning errors of own data 2 1.2 3 3 6 1.8 6. terminology or definitions 8 4.5 3 3 16 4.7 7. statistical irregularities 1 1 1 0.3 8. incorrect scientific interpretation of other authors 8 7.7 9. lack of association between claim and prior research 1 0.6 1 1 2 0.6 10. sampling errors total 62 35 31 30 57 17 table 4. distribution analysis of content comments. content comments refer to the points raised by the peer reviewer about the technical details of the manuscripts, including the literature, procedure, statistics, reasoning and interpretation of data and prior research studies (mungra & webber, 2010). with engineering manuscripts, around one-fifth (19.7%) of the comments dealt with “procedural infelicities”, followed by “incomplete literature” (5.6%), and “missing terminologies and definitions” (4.5%). likewise, with science manuscripts, “missing terminologies and definitions” (4.7%), “incomplete literature” (4.4%), and “procedural infelicities” (3.8%) were the most frequent problems with slight variations in their sequence. given the fact that almost all the researchers whose manuscripts were solicited for this study were early career researchers, their incompetency in conducting scientific 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 165 medical manuscripts. moreover, the results support tahririan and sadri’s (2013) observation that for manuscripts of medicine and engineering, procedural issues, followed by incomplete literature, rank the most frequently commented aspects. however, a quite different pattern was observed in the comments made on the manuscripts of humanities. as table 4 displays, “incorrect scientific interpretation of other authors” (7.7%), along with “procedural infelicities” (6.6%), and “lack of association between claim and data” (5.8%), with slightly more or less frequency, were the most common categories among the comments. on the contrary, in manuscripts related to social sciences tahririan and sadri (2013) observe “incomplete literature” as the most frequent comment category and “procedural infelicities” in the second place. the inconsistency of the results of the humanities papers may be accounted for by the small number of the manuscripts (5 papers) investigated in this study. in line with the findings of mungra and webber (2010), and tahririan and sadri (2013), other comments such as “lack of association between claim and data”, “explaining why data are unusual”, and “lack of association between claim and prior research” was raised less frequently by the referees for engineering and science manuscripts. “scientific reasoning errors of own data” was more common with science papers than with papers of engineering and humanities. “incorrect interpretation of other authors” was totally absent in engineering and science manuscripts, whereas it was the most frequently raised theme for the humanities papers. “statistical irregularities and sampling errors” were either entirely absent or the least frequently commented themes. these findings may reveal iranian nnse researchers’ areas of difficulty when preparing a well written report of their scientific studies, as far as the peer reviewers’ criteria are concerned. what commonly elicited the referees’ critical commentary in the manuscripts of the three broad disciplines was incompetency of iranian nnse researchers in describing procedural issues of their papers clearly and thoroughly. the fact that peer reviewers from different disciplines provided feedbacks more frequently dealing with procedural infelicities than with other technical issues stresses its importance in the eyes of referees. in addition, “incomplete literature”, “incorrect scientific interpretation of prior studies”, and “lack of association between claim and data” were also of great importance to the referees, which may indicate iranian researchers’ needs of academic writing to be met. zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178166 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 166 table 5 reports the detailed distribution of language-related comments. as table 5 shows, language-use comments encompass two distinct subcategories, i.e. “lexis and syntax”, and “discourse and rhetoric”. “lexis and syntax” comments refer to the criticisms levelled against sentence-level structure, or lexically and grammatically appropriate use of language. these include features of lexical and grammatical choice, clarity, spelling and reformulations, overuse of the words (verbosity), repetitions, and coherence. “discourse and rhetoric” comments, on the other hand, refer to the effective use of language above sentence level, including moves, discourse, and rhetorical features (mungra & webber, 2010). a look at table 5 reveals that, regardless of discipline, “lexis and syntax” were more considerably commented than “discourse and rhetoric”. throughout the entire corpus, “lexis and syntax” comments accounted for 50, 62, and 74%, whereas “discourse and rhetoric” made up 15%, 8% and 9% of the comments on engineering, humanities, and science manuscripts, respectively. in line with mungra and webber (2010) and tahririan and sadri (2013), a notable discrepancy was observed in the frequency of “lexis and syntax”, and “discourse and rhetoric”. clearly, this indicates that referees of international high profile journals find syntactic and lexical use of english much more problematic than text structure in iranian nnse researchers’ submissions. a closer look at the distribution of each comment category in table 5 shows that among “lexis and syntax” comments, “not well written/use of english”, “lack of clarity”, and “typos or suggestions for text editor” ranked the most frequently commented themes in the manuscripts of the three disciplines. english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 167 english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): …-… lanuage-use comments en hu sc no. % no. % no. % a. lexis and syntax comments 1. not well written/use of english 24 13.5 32 31 124 36.3 2. lack of clarity 24 13.5 13 12.6 28 8.2 3. typos or suggestions for text editor 37 21 10 9.7 95 27.8 4. verbosity 2 1.2 2 2 2 0.6 5. repetitions 1 0.6 6 5.8 2 0.6 6. incoherent 1 1 1 0.3 b. discourse and rhetorical comments 7. improve information flow 14 7.9 6 5.8 25 7.3 8. up-tone or give more salience to novelty feature 12 6.7 1 1 6 1.8 9. down-tone claim or hedge 1 0.6 1 1 1 0.3 total 115 65 72 70 284 83 table 5. distribution analysis of language-use comments. as table 5 shows, language-use comments encompass two distinct subcategories, i.e. “lexis and syntax”, and “discourse and rhetoric”. “lexis and syntax” comments refer to the criticisms levelled against sentence-level structure, or lexically and grammatically appropriate use of language. these include features of lexical and grammatical choice, clarity, spelling and reformulations, overuse of the words (verbosity), repetitions, and coherence. “discourse and rhetoric” comments, on the other hand, refer to the effective use of language above sentence level, including moves, discourse, and rhetorical features (mungra & webber, 2010). a look at table 5 reveals that, regardless of discipline, “lexis and syntax” were more considerably commented than “discourse and rhetoric”. throughout the entire corpus, “lexis and syntax” comments accounted for 50, 62, and 74%, whereas “discourse and rhetoric” made up 15%, 8% and 9% of the comments on engineering, humanities, and science manuscripts, respectively. in line with mungra and webber (2010) and tahririan and sadri (2013), a notable discrepancy was observed in the frequency of “lexis and syntax”, and “discourse and rhetoric”. clearly, this indicates that referees of international high profile journals find syntactic and lexical use of english much more problematic than text structure in iranian nnse researchers’ submissions. a closer look at the distribution of each comment category in table 5 shows that among “lexis and syntax” comments, “not well written/use of english”, “lack of clarity”, and “typos or suggestions for text editor” ranked the most frequently commented themes in the manuscripts of the three disciplines. this is in line with mungra and webber (2010) and tahririan and sadri (2013). whereas “not well written/use of english” was the most frequently commented theme in science and humanities manuscripts (31% and 36.3%, respectively), “typos or suggestions for text editor” ranked top in engineering manuscripts, totaling 21%. regardless of discipline, verbosity, repetitions, and incoherence were less 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 167 this is in line with mungra and webber (2010) and tahririan and sadri (2013). whereas “not well written/use of english” was the most frequently commented theme in science and humanities manuscripts (31% and 36.3%, respectively), “typos or suggestions for text editor” ranked top in engineering manuscripts, totaling 21%. regardless of discipline, verbosity, repetitions, and incoherence were less frequently commented by the referees. this, however, may not be construed as their triviality. instead, this finding may indicate that, in the eyes of peer reviewers, iranian nnse researchers, regardless of discipline, had fewer problems when dealing with coherence of the text than with accurate use of english. in the manuscripts of engineering, humanities, and science, among “discourse and rhetoric” comments, “improve information flow” ranked first, constituting 7.9%, 5.8% and 7.3% of the comments, followed by “uptone or give more salience to novelty feature” with 6.7%, 1% and 1.8%, and “down-tone claim or hedge” making up 0.6%, 1% and 0.3% of the comments, respectively. in line with mungra and webber (2010), these results may point to the importance attached to text structure and readability of the information flow by reviewers. therefore, regardless of discipline, iranian nnse researchers need to work on their text structuring skills in order to improve the information flow of their scientific papers. subcategories of “up-tone or give more salience to novelty feature”, and “down-tone claim or hedge” deal with issues of authorial stance such as the strength or modesty of claims. interestingly, among these features, “up-tone or give more salience to novelty feature” was more frequently commented than “down-tone claim or hedge” with manuscripts of engineering and science. while this supports the results of mungra and webber (2010) and tahririan and sadri (2013), it may be construed as a flaw for iranian nnse researchers in engineering and science disciplines. hence, when reporting the results, these researchers need to make salient the novelty and results of their scientific studies. in general, the results of the quantitative analysis of the corpus of comments show that language-use commentary outnumbers technical content comments. however, we should note that quantitative supremacy does not necessarily mean supremacy of one over another, as technical aspects of the article seem to be more severely judged than language-use issues and lead to the rejection of the manuscript. table 6 shows the results of the non-parametric test. zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178168 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 168 the results of chi square test (p < .05, df: 2, x2: 23.709, sig: .000) indicate that the difference between the three disciplines in the frequency of content and language-use comments was significant. although, the quantitative analysis of the corpus revealed language-use comments as the most frequent category among the comments made on the manuscripts of the three field groups, the results of chi square test point to a significant association between discipline and comment type. this significant discrepancy between these three broad groups of disciplines, in terms of commented themes in general, and each specific subcategory in particular, may indicate that the amount of stress attached to different features of a manuscript by the referees of international high profile journals is field-specific. 3.2. questionnaire the results of the online questionnaire are presented and discussed below. descriptive statistics were run to determine which areas of academic writing were problematic for nnse researchers and to what extent they faced difficulty dealing with them. figure 1 displays the results of the descriptive statistics. english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 169 zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): …-… frequently commented by the referees. this, however, may not be construed as their triviality. instead, this finding may indicate that, in the eyes of peer reviewers, iranian nnse researchers, regardless of discipline, had fewer problems when dealing with coherence of the text than with accurate use of english. in the manuscripts of engineering, humanities, and science, among “discourse and rhetoric” comments, “improve information flow” ranked first, constituting 7.9%, 5.8% and 7.3% of the comments, followed by “up-tone or give more salience to novelty feature” with 6.7%, 1% and 1.8%, and “down-tone claim or hedge” making up 0.6%, 1% and 0.3% of the comments, respectively. in line with mungra and webber (2010), these results may point to the importance attached to text structure and readability of the information flow by reviewers. therefore, regardless of discipline, iranian nnse researchers need to work on their text structuring skills in order to improve the information flow of their scientific papers. subcategories of “up-tone or give more salience to novelty feature”, and “downtone claim or hedge” deal with issues of authorial stance such as the strength or modesty of claims. interestingly, among these features, “up-tone or give more salience to novelty feature” was more frequently commented than “down-tone claim or hedge” with manuscripts of engineering and science. while this supports the results of mungra and webber (2010) and tahririan and sadri (2013), it may be construed as a flaw for iranian nnse researchers in engineering and science disciplines. hence, when reporting the results, these researchers need to make salient the novelty and results of their scientific studies. in general, the results of the quantitative analysis of the corpus of comments show that language-use commentary outnumbers technical content comments. however, we should note that quantitative supremacy does not necessarily mean supremacy of one over another, as technical aspects of the article seem to be more severely judged than language-use issues and lead to the rejection of the manuscript. table 6 shows the results of the non-parametric test. value df asymp. sig. (2-sided) pearson chi-square 23.709a 2 .000 likelihood ratio 23.563 2 .000 linear-by-linear association 22.850 1 .000 n of valid cases 621 pearson chi-square 23.709a 2 .000 table 6. chi-square tests. the results of chi square test (p < .05, df: 2, x2: 23.709, sig: .000) indicate that the difference between the three disciplines in the frequency of content and english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): …-… language-use comments was significant. although, the quantitative analysis of the corpus revealed language-use comments as the most frequent category among the comments made on the manuscripts of the three field groups, the results of chi square test point to a significant association between discipline and comment type. this significant discrepancy between these three broad groups of disciplines, in terms of commented themes in general, and each specific subcategory in particular, may indicate that the amount of stress attached to different features of a manuscript by the referees of international high profile journals is field-specific. 3.2. questionnaire the results of the online questionnaire are presented and discussed below. descriptive statistics were run to determine which areas of academic writing were problematic for nnse researchers and to what extent they faced difficulty dealing with them. figure 1 displays the results of the descriptive statistics. content 51% lexis and syntax 34% discourse and rhetoric 15% figure 1. distribution of problematic areas. as figure 1 shows, “content”, “lexis and syntax”, and “discourse and rhetoric” accounted for 51%, 34% and 15% of the problematic aspects, respectively. what seems to be evident here is that technical content (51%) and language-use (49%) were equally problematic for all the researchers from different fields of study. moreover, the importance of “discourse and rhetoric” in academic writing for the authors was close to the results of the corpus analysis. contrary to the findings of the corpus analysis, the results of the questionnaire analysis revealed that for them dealing with scientific content and use of appropriate english were equally challenging. in practice, however, most of the problems that peer reviewers found with their manuscripts were related to the appropriate use of english. egaugnla sawsntemomceus gaugnladleaeversuproceth e admstenmmcoe htgnoam nioptsetreauqsihcfostlusre caningissihte.pyttenmmco omcofsmretn i,sneiplicsdi liib r fosh ileng quahethough,tla.ntacgniis eg omhetsasntemomceus st rhte htfostpicrsuanme htno ebnoitaicossatnacingisaott te eshteenwetbcyanepcrsidtcan ,larnegen isemhetd entemom hhidi nocatiipublresearch ofsiyslnaaveitatintqua yrogetactneuqest e ht,spuorgdelee r dnaenilpicsidneewte spuorgadorbee rht of cicpesh caend a, dhf m,ralucitrapniyrogetacbsu nusamaofseurtanterdi dlesislanrujo cesp . 2.3. eriannoitsequ tseuqenilnoehtfostlusereth urerwescitsitatsevitpircsde rennsrcitamelborperwe di1 egurif.mheth tiwng ilade otnuomaehttahtetacidniyam rentiofseererhetby ptircnus csiddnadetneserperaeriannoit saerahciwhenimretedotnu tnetxetawhotdnasrehcraeser tulserhetysaplsdi irscedehtfos otdehcattass erstfo elprgh hilonaitna .wolebdessuc gnitiwrcimedacafo luciddecafyeht ty scistitastevitp . %15tnetnco e gurfi ,wsohs1erugifas “ tentnco ” 15redtnuacco % 43, % dan hts ierehtnediveebots mese rcitamelborpyllauqeerwe mo foecnartopmiehtr,evore “ 34%ax syntand s lexi hrdnaesruocsdi 1.e saeracitamelborpfonoitubirtsdi . ”, “ xtanysdnaisxle ” dna, “ sdi ectpasc iatemlborpe htfo%51 dna)%15(tnetnoclacinhcettah idmosrehcraeserehtllar “ ciorthernd aesourcsdi ” acain %51ciroteh esourcs ciroethrdan ” athw.yelviectpesr,sect egaugnald )49%(eus .ydutsfosdletnere ethrgitinrwicmed tluesre htote soclaswsrohtau htfosgnidnehtotyrartnco trathtedealevrsisyalan ueqe erwhsilgnee atirporpap srewevierrepethatsmeoblpr .hsilgnefoe sue atirporpap ibér .sisyalansuprcoe htfost stlusereht,sisylanasuproceh niealdemht cinteicsh tiwg hce,iactrpni.gnigenlalchylalu sptircnusamriheth tiws 32ca ibér 610(2 ): …-… 15 eriannoitseuqehtfo ofeusnd anteontc e htfotsom,erevwoh heto td etalererews 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 169 as figure 1 shows, “content”, “lexis and syntax”, and “discourse and rhetoric” accounted for 51%, 34% and 15% of the problematic aspects, respectively. what seems to be evident here is that technical content (51%) and language-use (49%) were equally problematic for all the researchers from different fields of study. moreover, the importance of “discourse and rhetoric” in academic writing for the authors was close to the results of the corpus analysis. contrary to the findings of the corpus analysis, the results of the questionnaire analysis revealed that for them dealing with scientific content and use of appropriate english were equally challenging. in practice, however, most of the problems that peer reviewers found with their manuscripts were related to the appropriate use of english. mungra and webber (2010) and tahririan and sadri (2013) found a rather close distribution of content and language-use comments with content comments slightly more frequent. whereas these authors attribute this to the role of peer reviewers to critique content rather than language, we observed that regarding clarity of scientific content, the peer reviewers are more concerned with the accurate use of language than with technical content, as clear description of the latter is dependent on the appropriate use of the former. a detailed analysis of the responses to the online questionnaire shows that for technical content, “procedural aspects”, “explaining why data are unusual”, and “covering the entire relevant literature”, with 8.6%, 8.6% and 6.5% levels of challenge, were the most problematic skills of academic writing. for language-use, the participants’ responses to the questionnaire show that a good use of english, and a clear description of the content, with 9.8% and 9.01% levels of challenge, were the most problematic. a simple comparison of these rates reveals that among all the items in the questionnaire, those related to the good and clear use of english were more problematic than technical content or procedural issues in the eyes of the authors. 3.3. interview this section deals with the results of the semi-structured interview. the responses of engineering researchers can be divided into two major themes. first, some felt that language-use-related problems were quite common, along with technical content problems, when writing a scientific manuscript. zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178170 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 170 their technical content problems were mainly concerned with the accuracy of their experiments, and the association between their experiments and the strength of their claims. among their language-use problems, typos and suggestions for lexical choices, and clarity of the language were more problematic than others. (1) most of the problems that the reviewers found with my paper were related to the scientific content of my article, not to mention that typos were also noted. but typos were not serious. the comments also dealt with the relationship between data and findings, how much data we gathered and our claims based on them. (en03int) (2) i remember one of the reviewers asked about a sentence that s/he couldn’t understand about one of my algorithms. so he had asked me to revise it. (en04int) second, some other engineering researchers pointed out that language was not a challenge for them, as their manuscripts were edited by their advisors and overseas colleagues, or the reviewers’ comments regarding language use were not serious. engineering researchers believed that bringing up a novel research question by identifying the gap in the literature and coping with procedural issues were particularly problematic. it is important to note that even this group of engineering researchers pointed to their problems with clear description of their scientific contents which they attributed to either sentence structure or lexical choice of the scientific terminology. (3) i’m not saying that language is not important at all. they found many grammar mistakes and some poor terminology choices. however, comments related to the experiments were more serious. (en05int) science researchers felt that, among content skills, other than procedural issues, covering the entire literature, and establishing association between claim and data were very challenging for them. besides, almost all the science researchers who were interviewed for this study believed that language played a significant role in their publications. with their papers following certain moves, researchers of theoretical physics and mathematics referred to lexis and syntax as the sole area of difficulty in writing scientific papers. level of discourse and rhetoric was not challenging for them, accordingly. among their language-use needs, they enumerated sentence level structure, clear description of the content, typos and accurate choice of the terms. english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 171 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 171 (4) the sentences that we use in articles are certain. they are used frequently in articles. only the equations change. from here we get to …, and then … (sc03int) humanities researchers also felt that both scientific content and appropriate use of language were problematic for them. more important than other issues in writing scientific manuscripts was covering the entire relevant literature. regarding the use of language, their problems were related to both “lexis and syntax”, and “discourse and rhetoric”. they listed balance in the use of active and passive voice, consistency in the use of tense, and natural sequence of the parts of speech, which are all related to the good use of english at the sentence level, as the most important and problematic issues. clarity of the language, verbosity, and coherence were also mentioned as issues causing difficulty. while acknowledging the importance of lexis and syntax, they attributed their difficulty in writing scientific papers mostly to their ignorance of the register of a scientific article, the moves and transitions of each subsection of the article, and keeping a balance in the strength of claims, which are considered as discourse and rhetoric problems. (5) i believe it has become an etiquette for publishing to have your paper polished by a native speaker. … there are certain transitional steps to follow from each section to another. (hu05int) some of the interviewees referred to peer-review as a “blind process”, pointing out that in the peer review process it has become a cliché for referees to ask nnse to have their paper polished by a native speaker of english, regardless of the quality of the language. 4. conclusion and implications this study was an attempt to investigate the english needs of iranian nnse researchers for publication purposes. taking into consideration the fairly small sample we investigated in this study and the fact that the results of the questionnaire and corpus are based on quantitative analysis, any generalization is essentially tentative. additionally, as our main data relate to a corpus of peer review comments which highlight the reviewers’ concerns, not necessarily the needs of the researchers for publication in english, and the fact that the actual manuscripts were not investigated, any generalized conclusion should be avoided. yet, some possible implications are worth considering. zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178172 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 172 in line with the findings of sionis (1995), kourilová (1996), gosden (2003), mišak, marušić, and marušić (2005), the results of our analyses indicate that iranian nnses as off-network researchers seem to be in need of both language-use and procedural content training. this was pointed out by the participants from different disciplines in the interviews and questionnaires, and by the peer reviewers in their comments. whereas university students in iran receive “research methods” courses during their m.a./m.s. programs, aimed at improving their scientific competence in how to conduct a study, their english language instruction courses are limited to those they take during the b.a./b.s. program, which mainly focus on their reading skills, with no attention to their academic writing needs. therefore, the need for offering a course in relation to the use of language in academic writing is felt. the finding that language-use problems accounted for 65%, 70% and 83% of all the comments of peer reviewers for engineering, humanities, and science manuscripts, respectively, may suggest the primacy of the appropriate use of language over methodological competence in different fields of studies. whereas some assume that peer reviewers are mainly concerned with the scientific quality of the analyses and papers (mungra & webber, 2010; tahririan & sadri, 2013), the analysis of peer reviewers’ concerns indicated that as far as clarity of technical details is concerned, improper use of language may elicit critical commentary from peer reviewers. regarding the issues of scientific content, the procedural infelicity of the manuscripts was found common among researchers from different fields, which reveals the demands of the referees for international publication and thus the need for more training in scientific competence. concerning language use, we observed that coping with the syntactic and lexical use of english was much more problematic than discourse and rhetoric. as tahririan and sadri (2013) point out, lexis and syntax comments feature important aspects of clarity and precision, which are the building blocks of academic writing. iranian nnse researchers need to consider these aspects of academic texts when preparing a scientific research report. academic writing training, hence, should address such issues as balance in the use of active and passive voice, consistency in the use of tense, natural sequence of the parts of speech, lexical choice of scientific terminology, clarity, and brevity. whereas the science researchers believed in the primacy of lexis and syntax over discourse and rhetoric, due to the existence of some definite moves in english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 173 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 173 their papers, the humanities researchers stressed the superiority of the knowledge of the moves of the different sections of an article. the academic writing training of this group of researchers may need to focus on how to manage the transitions of the different sections of an article. moreover, iranian nnse researchers need to make the novelty features of their papers more salient. with regards to mungra and webber’s (2010) model, although it seems to be comprehensive, during the analysis of our corpus, we came up with three new subsections which may be added to the comment categories for ease of classification. these include deficient information, irrelevant reference, and content similarity (plagiarism). by and large, the findings of our investigation reveals the universal problem of iranian nnse researchers with clear description of technical contents, using lexically and grammatically appropriate language, while benefiting from rhetorical and discourse features of effective writing. our results may inform early career nnse researchers who seek publication in international english-only high profile journals of the concerns and demands of peer reviewers for manuscripts in different fields. in order to survive in this english-only research network, nnses, as off-network researchers, need to become aware of the concerns of peer reviewers and adapt themselves to their expectations. while our study investigated a very limited number of manuscripts and participants from each broad discipline, more field-specific studies focusing specifically on every aspect of the use of language are desirable. acknowledgements we wish to express our gratitude to all the iranian researchers who bothered to give us their time and the confidential comments made on their scholarly articles. if it were not for their kind favor, we would not have been able to gather this corpus and conduct the study. we wish them success in this english-only publish or perish research world. our acknowledgement also goes to the reviewers of ibérica who provided us with their informative comments. article history: received 20 august 2015 received in revised form 14 january 2016 accepted 25 june 2016 zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178174 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 174 references english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 175 ammon, u. 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(1996). “interactive functions of language in peer reviews of medical papers written by non-native users of english”. unesco alsedlsp newsletter 19: 4-21. lillis, t. & m. j. curry (2006). “professional academic writing by multilingual scholars: interactions with literacy brokers in the production of english-medium texts”. written communication 23: 3-35. doi: 10.1177/0741088305283754 lillis, t. & m. j. curry (2010). academic writing in a global context: the politics and practices of publishing in english. new york: routledge. lillis, t. & m. j. curry (2015). “the politics of english, language and uptake. the case of international academic journal article reviews”. aila review 28: 127-150. doi: 10.1075/aila.28.06lil mckay, s. l. (2003). “reflections on being a gatekeeper” in c.p. casanave & s. vandrick (eds.), writing for scholarly publication: behind the scenes in language education, 91-102. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. mišak, a., m. marušić & a. marušić (2005). “manuscript editing as a way of teaching academic writing: experience from a small scientific journal”. journal of second language writing 14: 122-131. doi: 10.1016/j.jslw.2005.05.001 mungra, p. & p. webber (2010). “peer review process in medical research publications: language and content comments”. english for specific purposes 29: 43-53. sionis, c. (1995). “communication strategies in the writing of scientific research articles by nonnative users of english”. english for specific purposes 14: 99-113. doi: 10.1016/j. esp.2009.07.002 swales, j. m. (1987). “utilizing the literatures in teaching the research paper”. tesol quarterly 21: 41-68. doi: 10.2307/3586354 swales, j. (1996). “occluded genres in the academy: the case of the submission letter” in e. ventola & a. mauranen (eds.), academic writing: intercultural and textual issues, 45-58. amsterdam: john benjamins. tahririan, m. h. & e. sadri (2013). “peer reviewers’ comments on research articles submitted by iranian researchers”. the journal of teaching language skills (jtls) 5: 107-123. van dalen, h. p. & k. henkens (2012). “intended and unintended consequences of a publish‐or‐perish culture: a worldwide survey”. journal of the american society for information science and technology 63: 1282-1293. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.1983205 van parijs, p. (2007). “tackling the anglophones’ 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 175 free ride: fair linguistic cooperation with a global lingua franca” in a. carli & u. ammon (eds.), linguistic inequality in scientific communication today. aila review 20, 72-86. amsterdam: john benjamins. zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178176 javad zare holds a phd in applied linguistics from the university of isfahan, iran. his research areas of interest include discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, pragmatics, and eap. his most recent publications have been in discourse processes, text & talk, and ibérica, the journal of the european association of language for specific purposes. vahid mahmoudi-gahrouei is a ph.d. candidate at university of isfahan, isfahan, iran. he is currently teaching at farhangian university, shahrekord branch, shahrekord, iran. he has attended some national and international conferences. his research interests lie in l2 acquisition of syntax, critical discourse analysis, and educational psychology. saeed ketabi earned his ph.d. from cambridge university, england. currently, he is an associate professor of applied linguistics at the university of isfahan, iran, and is teaching various elt courses at the graduate level. he has published and presented several papers in his area of expertise. zahra keivanloo-shahrestanaki holds an m.sc. in artificial intelligence. currently, she is a member of the academic staff of esfarayen university of technology. appendix a english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): …-… swales, j. m. (1987). “utilizing the literatures in teaching the research paper”. tesol quarterly 21: 41-68. doi: 10.2307/3586354 swales, j. (1996). “occluded genres in the academy: the case of the submission letter” in e. ventola & a. mauranen (eds.), academic writing: intercultural and textual issues, 4558. amsterdam: john benjamins. tahririan, m. h. & e. sadri (2013). “peer reviewers’ comments on research articles submitted by iranian researchers”. the journal of teaching language skills (jtls) 5: 107-123. van dalen, h. p. & k. henkens (2012). “intended and unintended consequences of a publish!or!perish culture: a worldwide survey”. journal of the american society for information science and technology 63: 1282-1293. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.1983205 van parijs, p. (2007). “tackling the anglophones’ free ride: fair linguistic cooperation with a global lingua franca” in a. carli & u. ammon (eds.), linguistic inequality in scienti!c communication today. aila review 20, 72-86. amsterdam: john benjamins. javad zare is a ph.d. candidate of applied linguistics at university of isfahan, isfahan, iran. his research areas of interest include discourse analysis, pragmatics, and eap. vahid mahmoudi-gahrouei is a ph.d. candidate at university of isfahan, isfahan, iran. he is currently teaching at farhangian university, shahrekord branch, shahrekord, iran. he has attended some national and international conferences. his research interests lie in l2 acquisition of syntax, critical discourse analysis, and educational psychology. saeed ketabi earned his ph.d. from cambridge university, england. currently, he is an associate professor of applied linguistics at the university of isfahan, iran, and is teaching various elt courses at the graduate level. he has published and presented several papers in his area of expertise. zahra keivanloo-shahrestanaki holds an m.sc. in artificial intelligence. currently, she is a member of the academic staff of esfarayen university of technology. appendix a problematic areas of academic writing (online questionnaire) the following questionnaire is part of a research project intended to investigate the academic writing needs of iranian non-native speakers of english researchers. all the items present problematic skills of academic writing. each statement is followed by five numbers, 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 with the following meanings: ‘0’ means ‘not problematic at all’. ‘1’ means ‘slightly problematic’. ‘2’ means ‘moderately problematic’. ‘3’ means ‘very problematic’. ‘4’ means ‘extremely problematic’. after reading each statement, please mark the number (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4) that applies to you. note that there are no right or wrong responses. zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): …-… background information surname (optional): ………….. discipline ………….. appendix b semi-structured interview protocol 1. what are the main skills essential for writing and publishing a scientific paper? 2. what are the major problems you face when writing a scientific paper? 3. what factors are considered by peer reviewers when evaluating your paper? 4. how can we improve your writing for publication skills? list of codes: technical content, language-use, typos, lexis, and syntax definitions of codes technical content: interviewees’ remarks on the scientific aspects of articles and experiments language-use: interviewees’ remarks regarding the use of language in scientific articles typos: typographic mistakes lexis: poor choice of terminology in articles syntax: inaccurate use of english structure in the language of scientific articles 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 176 appendix b english for research publication ibérica 32 (2016): 153-178 177 zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): …-… background information surname (optional): ………….. discipline ………….. statement response i. technical content 1. covering the entire relevant literature 0 1 2 3 4 2. establishing sound association between claim and data 0 1 2 3 4 3. procedural aspects 0 1 2 3 4 4. explaining why data are unusual 0 1 2 3 4 5. scientific interpretation of own data 0 1 2 3 4 6. providing accurate terminology and definitions 0 1 2 3 4 7. running correct statistical analyses 0 1 2 3 4 8. scientific interpretation of prior authors 0 1 2 3 4 9. matching claims with those of the former researchers 0 1 2 3 4 10. selecting an appropriate sample 0 1 2 3 4 ii. language use 11. well use of english 0 1 2 3 4 12. clear description of the content 0 1 2 3 4 13. choosing the right terms and avoiding typos 0 1 2 3 4 14. conciseness 0 1 2 3 4 15. avoiding repetitions 0 1 2 3 4 16. maintaining coherence 0 1 2 3 4 17. readability in the flow of information 0 1 2 3 4 18. giving salience to novelty features 0 1 2 3 4 19. maintaining modesty in claims of novelty 0 1 2 3 4 appendix b semi-structured interview protocol 1. what are the main skills essential for writing and publishing a scientific paper? 2. what are the major problems you face when writing a scientific paper? 3. what factors are considered by peer reviewers when evaluating your paper? 4. how can we improve your writing for publication skills? list of codes: technical content, language-use, typos, lexis, and syntax definitions of codes technical content: interviewees’ remarks on the scientific aspects of articles and experiments language-use: interviewees’ remarks regarding the use of language in scientific articles typos: typographic mistakes lexis: poor choice of terminology in articles syntax: inaccurate use of english structure in the language of scientific articles zare, mahmoudi-gahrouei, ketabi & keivanloo-shahrestanaki ibérica 32 (2016): …-… background information surname (optional): ………….. discipline ………….. appendix b semi-structured interview protocol 1. what are the main skills essential for writing and publishing a scientific paper? 2. what are the major problems you face when writing a scientific paper? 3. what factors are considered by peer reviewers when evaluating your paper? 4. how can we improve your writing for publication skills? list of codes: technical content, language-use, typos, lexis, and syntax definitions of codes technical content: interviewees’ remarks on the scientific aspects of articles and experiments language-use: interviewees’ remarks regarding the use of language in scientific articles typos: typographic mistakes lexis: poor choice of terminology in articles syntax: inaccurate use of english structure in the language of scientific articles 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 177 07 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:07 página 178 iberica 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 13-34 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in this paper we provide an overview of past and current research on metadiscourse and highlight new research discourses emerging from the field. we trace the category back to its critical and theoretical origins, examining the three ‘waves’ that have configured it over the last four decades. we investigate how metadiscourse has evolved and the reasons why it continues fascinating researchers in professional and academic fields in a variety of disciplines and domains. we then focus on the fact that, as communication moves online and a variety of genres become digitalised, researchers active in metadiscourse are increasingly concerned with digital communication and are accordingly questioning (or adapting) well-established methodologies, but also proposing new and much-needed perspectives on reflexivity. the field is undoubtedly in a flux and new and interesting approaches and eclectic frameworks are emerging, which merit consideration. keywords: metadiscourse, reflexivity, discourse analysis, genre analysis, digitalization. resumen crónica de tres olas. acerca de la historia y de la teoría del metadiscurso el presente artículo ofrece una retrospectiva de la investigación del metadiscurso, con especial énfasis en la emergencia de nuevas perspectivas de análisis. en él se rastrean los orígenes teóricos y críticos de esta categoría y se examinan las tres olas que han moldeado el metadiscurso en las últimas cuatro décadas. asimismo, se muestra cómo ha evolucionado y por qué sigue fascinando a los investigadores de ámbitos académicos y profesionales de diferentes disciplinas y dominios. por otra parte, se muestra cómo los investigadores que trabajan activamente en el análisis del metadiscurso cada vez prestan mayor atención a la comunicación a tale of three waves: or, concerning the history and theory of metadiscourse larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni1 universitá degli studi di bergamo (italy) larissa.dangelo@unibg.it & stefania.consonni@unibg.it 13 ibérica 40 (2020): 13-34 larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni digital, como consecuencia de la mayor relevancia que ha ido adquiriendo la comunicación en internet y la digitalización que han sufrido diferentes géneros textuales. todo ello está llevando a cuestionar y adaptar algunas metodologías ya establecidas en relación con el metadiscurso y a formular nuevas propuestas en torno a la reflexividad. así pues, este campo de investigación está, sin duda, evolucionando de manera constante y dando lugar a interesantes acercamientos novedosos y marcos de análisis eclécticos que se han de tener en cuenta. palabras clave: metadiscurso, reflexividad, análisis del discurso, análisis de género, digitalización. 1. prologue: of p a re r g a, and other marital facts in what is probably the first portrait of an artist’s wife in europe, margareta van eyck sat for her husband jan in early 1439 (fig. 1). in three-quarter view, half-length on a dark background with light coming from the left, she is depicted in an accurate tone of typically bourgeois discretion. a triumph of naturalistic representation, margareta is vividly captured as she gazes at the viewer, and a vigilant observer she is indeed, her blue-grey eyes scrutinising an encoded beholder (kress & van leeuwen, 1996) –despite it being unclear whether this is her spouse, as befits marital life, or an external onlooker. what interests us here is, however, the occurrences taking place in the original wooden frame, a liminal area of the artwork that lies outside the canonical ‘sphere’ of pictorial representation. painted in imitation of darkveined greige marble, it bears two orders of trompe-l’oeil epigraphic pseudoinscriptions in latin. van eyck, that is, has encased in the artwork’s frame mouldings a verbal apparatus that complements his lifelike representation of his wife. in the upper edge inscription, margareta herself informs us about her identity and relationship to the author, and the work’s date of completion: “co[n]iv[n]x m[eu]s joh[ann]es me c[om]plevit an[n]o 1439˚ 15˚ ivnij” (‘my husband johannes completed me in the year 1439 on the 15th of june’). on the lower edge (see detail in fig. 2), she goes on to reveal her age at the time of the portrait: “[a]etas mea triginta triv[m] an[n]orv[m]” (‘my age is thirty-three years’). 14 most importantly, to the right of the frame’s lower moulding, there appears van eyck’s personal motto, a phrase in ancient flemish transliterated in greek capital letters: “alc ixh xan” (‘as [best as] i can’). this is an utterance that works as an expression of ironic modesty, revealing the painter’s awareness about the quality of the execution, indisputably daring and yet inescapably other than (or utterly inferior to) nature itself. why begin this overview on metadiscourse by citing van eyck’s eccentric artwork? because instances of textual and visual metadiscourse, which today are highly debated topics, indeed pervade the history of humankind. in early panel painting, for instance, frames were essential elements, often made out of the very same piece of wood as the painting itself, or nailed to it with utmost care. the frame often became an essential part of the artwork, not a tale of three waves: or, concerning the history and theory of metadiscourse ibérica 40 (2020): 13-34 15 figure 1. jan van eyck, portrait of margareta van eyck (1439), oil on panel, 41.2 x 34.6 cm (original frame included), bruges, groeningemuseum. gfi e ur 1. jan yck,evan jan kceynavaamfotirpo k nigri (om c.64 3 x.21, 4lena pn oli), o934(1 sumegninero, gsegru), bdedulcn iem fralan mues . figure 1. jan van eyck, portrait of margareta van eyck (1439), oil on panel, 41.2 x 34.6 cm (original frame included), bruges, groeningemuseum larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni apparatus that complements his lifelike representation of his wife. in the upper edge inscription, margareta herself informs us about her identity and relationship to the author, and the work’s date of completion: “co[n]iv[n]x m[eu]s joh[ann]es me c[om]plevit an[n]o 1439˚ 15˚ ivnij” (‘my husband johannes completed me in the year 1439 on the 15th of june’). on the lower edge (see detail in fig. 2), she goes on to reveal her age at the time of the portrait: “[a]etas mea triginta triv[m] an[n]orv[m]” (‘my age is thirty-three years’). figure 2. jan van eyck, portrait of margareta van eyck (1439), detail from lower frame moulding. most importantly, to the right of the frame’s lower moulding, there appears van eyck’s personal motto, a phrase in ancient flemish transliterated in greek capital letters: “alc ixh xan” (‘as [best as] i can’). this is an utterance that works as an expression of ironic modesty, revealing the painter’s awareness about the quality of the execution, indisputably daring and yet inescapably other than (or utterly inferior to) nature itself. why begin this overview on metadiscourse by citing van eyck’s eccentric artwork? because instances of textual and visual metadiscourse, which today are highly debated topics, indeed pervade the history of humankind. in early panel painting, for instance, frames were essential elements, often made out of the very same piece of wood as the painting itself, or nailed to it with utmost care. the frame often became an essential part of the artwork, not only physically, but also conceptually, in that it carried texts. and these texts helped the viewer in ‘reading’ the image, so much so that text, frame, and picture were equally structural parts of the artwork (kiilerich, 2001). ever since antiquity, aesthetics and critical theory have employed the multifaceted term parergon (para, ‘beside’, and ergon, ‘work’) to indicate the metalinguistic affordances of non-propositional devices such as van eyck’s frame inscriptions, which extend far beyond the role of accessory by-work, subordinate embellishments or filling supplements to an artwork’s main subject. despite its historical origin as the expression of a ‘peripheral’ form of beauty –which is how, for instance, kant (1790) and j.j. winckelmann (1850) considered it, as an addendum to an artwork’s propositional content–, the principle of parergonality has progressively developed into a cunning manifestation of reflexive intelligence. parerga are nowadays in fact identified with the material and/or conceptual thresholds, boundaries or even literal margins of a text (duro, 2019), as semiotic resources whose purpose is not to add to the work’s ideational dimension, but to jump beyond the referential function of representation. to point, that is, to the very act of representation itself, and to reveal the dialogical relations (suggestions, assumptions, expectations, interpretations, negotiations, etc.) that are nurtured amongst the different social actors that partake in the semiotic process: authors, recipients and discourse itself. the function of parerga is thus not intrinsically propositional, but extrinsically social and epistemological. it is indeed metadiscoursal. “[n]either work (ergon) nor outside the work [hors d’oeuvre], neither inside or outside, neither above nor below”, they “giv[e] rise” to the artwork’s ‘sphere’ in its broader sense (derrida 1987: 9). a form of discourse on the artwork itself qua discourse, the parergon plunges the ergon within the fabric of textual, contextual, interpersonal and social relationships and discourses in which they jointly take shape and meaning. to come closer to the more familiar terms of applied linguistics, we may say that van eyck’s metadiscoursal expedients set the stage for a full reading of his painting’s ideational contents. quite in the fashion of margins in medieval manuscripts, these parerga are consubstantial with the subject matter of the actual painting, to such an extent that it is unthinkable to separate panel from frame, icon from text (or wife from husband, for that matter). in particular, jan’s motto complements and integrates margareta’s likeness, for which it provides hermeneutic scaffolding, suggesting the artist’s l a ssiar ad’ nge thatustrappaa rsheatrergaam “itpl o lnge & s aintefa c onnions keilfeilshisntemeplomct ussnformif lers r hebouta nn]eoh[aju]s[ev[n]x o[n]i wshiof on itantesprereke tp hionsitalrend ay tintdei n[n]o tvi]pl[omnn]e nsidgeer uppehetin . feiw ork’swhetnd ahor, utaheto t (‘m”i15˚ 1439˚ n[n]o on, iptricns of etdaork’s nd bahus “on:iteplomc omcsnneohaj on sgoehes2), hi ts igey a(‘m nn]eoh[aju]s[emv[n]x o[n]ic 1439 r ayehetn iemd eteplom ithettagear helavereo ton yrthi ’). rsa yeehret n[n]o atvie]pl[omcemsnn]e 15heton 1439 th o’). unejof at]e[a“:tiraporthetof emi y (‘m”i15˚ 1439˚ n[n]o dee(sdgeer eowlhetn o te n[n]orv[ma] v[mritantgiritaemsa nd bahusy g. ifn iliat ]”n[n]orv[m aportmitosm sphraao, totm as] naci ’). hit boutassnereawa or trinfey irletut tn gibehy w etof sencatnsi gfi eur yck,evan jan 2. arpo frahetof ghtriheto ty, lnta nsrath simelfnteincan ies asishi n encrae that orksw cxeehetof y tilquahetbout f. lest iureto) naor t sdiatemon wervioveshi csdiatemluasvind aluaxte kceynataamfoti m frolitae), d934(1 ng, dioulmr eowl’semfra atpiack eregn id etraetilns issxpreen asaorks roniiof on ng riday blaputsndiion, iutc ycen vang iticby eourscs ghlhireay odath chiw, eoursc gnidluo memr fraewo lm . k’sycen varsappearehet “:rsettella xanxh ical (‘” hetng ilaverey, tsodemcroni heoty blpaacsneityend ang crinteccek’syc ork?wrta endei, scopitd etbadey ghl lonarspek’s (‘as [ tsbe r’sentipahe (or n hatr he eusacbeork? dervaped of ory tshihet hetof outdeam ben eoftemfra sxtetd erriacti nd a uretcpi w nd ascithetsea gonre ork’) ‘w, emfrak’syce ntehmsillbeme hu ndnkiam . nepay rlaein of ecepiemasry vehe ood w tof rtpalaintessen aemacbe td pelhesxteteshetnd a. s paluratructsy llquaereew plmevehaory hetlacitricnd nguilatemhetetacndiio tork’) exteh chiw, onsiptricnsie sntemeupplsng illfior snt ghly , fra, encatnsifor ng, intipal or f, lesting intipahetsaood het orkwrta physy onlnot, n ir ewevihe ng’dia‘re het hetof srtpa rta elii(kork w td etecfaitulmhetd oyepl ngu nonof sencffordaacitsi of erolhetyond ber fand e ubjsn iamork’swrtan ao t , opiy ghl emelelaintessereewsemfra tosmuth tiwtio td elinaor luapteoncco slabuty, llaciphys geami , hucmo s so etthat hcrie , encisr vee2001). rmet epar a s‘be, nonucssecvidelonaitipropos byory sseccaof ubordisork, w lacoritshistietpised. tceubj pe n eoft, snte het. reac thatn iy, ll , emfra, xte y, tquiinta nd a’, deis n vasah uc etnaubordi san gioril ntehmsillbeme th on issxpreee lkenciw nn am paof eplincpri . encgeillenti garearp nowrea lraetiln veeor deiork’swhet t, sithat, ntpoi onsiptumssa sntemeupplsng illfior snt of form’ lrapheri‘peaof on , tid redeionsc(1850) nn sa sprogreshay tilrgonarepa d efiintdeitcfan iysdaanow aof nsrgiaml xtet uro(d , o tbuton, insemdilonaitade ntesprereof tcary veheto t onsitatrpreentionsitatcxpee ubjsn iamork’swrtan ao t y utabeof – , howsih chiw wrtan ao tndumddean as cao ntid opelvedey lveis or nd/alarietamheth tiwd 2019), ourcsreciotimessa ntreferehetyond bep umjo tlavereo tnd af, lestion itant that.) cteonsitaigotneons lacoritshistietpised. tceubj (1790) ntak, encatnsifor ontclonaitiproposork’sw unnic of on itatsfeniamng bounda, dsholshretluapteonccor notsiepurposehoswseourc ntesprereof on itfunclaint ugge(sonsitalrelacogiladihe hettongsmad urenurtreat san gioril . .jjnd a(1790) nteont – het, vexieflreof seribounda o tdd ao tnot o ton. itant ugge , onsits ntreffedihe , onsiptumssa hatorstcalaiocs of epar si diatemd endei ine, deisoutor 1987:darrie(d gonre tn hitiw oiy jheh tchiw oslceomco t aourscsdiatem onsitatrpreenti, onsitatcxpee ciotimeshetn ikeartpatha y llacinsrintinothust propos ork wr heti]e[n“. laourscsdi het, ”owlbenor bovear heti eourscsdiof forma9). 1987: eontc, luaxtetof cbrifahet nd m apeha skeay tlntoi niae r ailimfaoremheto tr eos geatshettessntedixpeela that.) cte, onsitaigotne, ons ntepiicre, horsuta:sseprocc lacinsrixtebut, lonaitipropos (ork gonre whetdeisoutnor ) wrtaheto t”esri] v[egi“y he f lestiork wrtaheton qua di ocsnd alonarsrpeenti, luaxte ng. ni tsnguiild eipplaof srmet pashiof ng diarelfula hettongsmad urenurtreat hetf. lestieourscsdind asnt ogiolmetspiend alaiocsy ll [ork w eruvd’oeshor tine], stin i’ rephe‘sork’sw broa het, eourscsdi epar pl csdind apshionsitalrelaioc vathaty asy amew, scit ngintipa eontclonaitadei’s ntreffedihe on itfunche siit. lacogi deinsir he ensesr debroa hetsungepl n iseoursc k’sycen va etuiqsnt aourscsdiatem on hisfahetn i hetof r ettam xtetfromon ci enti rgaamsetgra geatshettessntedixpeela mlvaediemn insrgiamof ah ucso tng, intipaluatca nd, bahusfromfeiw(or xt wfor , ssnekeil’satrerga hi pashiof ng diarelfula ,sptricnusam eshet epar nkahiuntsitithatntexten a ulcirtpain r). ettamthatfor ciutneermhesdeprovitih c ngintipa eontclonaitadei’s ga heth tiwlaintatubsonscrea fromlnepaetrapaeso teblnka meplomco totmn’sajr, aul c tng itsuggesng, diffolacs etuiq. snt tceubjshe , emfrafrom nd asntem ’stsirtahet figure 2. jan van eyck, portrait of margareta van eyck (1439), detail from lower frame moulding. only physically, but also conceptually, in that it carried texts. and these texts helped the viewer in ‘reading’ the image, so much so that text, frame, and picture were equally structural parts of the artwork (kiilerich, 2001). ever since antiquity, aesthetics and critical theory have employed the multifaceted term parergon (para, ‘beside’, and ergon, ‘work’) to indicate the metalinguistic affordances of non-propositional devices such as van eyck’s frame inscriptions, which extend far beyond the role of accessory by-work, subordinate embellishments or filling supplements to an artwork’s main subject. despite its historical origin as the expression of a ‘peripheral’ form of beauty –which is how, for instance, kant (1790) and j.j. winckelmann (1850) considered it, as an addendum to an artwork’s propositional content–, the principle of parergonality has progressively developed into a cunning manifestation of reflexive intelligence. parerga are nowadays in fact identified with the material and/or conceptual thresholds, boundaries or even literal margins of a text (duro, 2019), as semiotic resources whose purpose is not to add to the work’s ideational dimension, but to jump beyond the referential function of representation. to point, that is, to the very act of representation itself, and to reveal the dialogical relations (suggestions, assumptions, expectations, interpretations, negotiations, etc.) that are nurtured amongst the different social actors that partake in the semiotic process: authors, recipients and discourse itself. the function of parerga is thus not intrinsically propositional, but extrinsically social and epistemological. it is indeed metadiscoursal. “[n]either work (ergon) nor outside the work [hors d’oeuvre], neither inside or outside, neither above nor below”, they “giv[e] rise” to the artwork’s ‘sphere’ in its broader sense (derrida 1987: 9). a form of discourse on the artwork itself qua discourse, the parergon plunges the ergon within the fabric of textual, contextual, interpersonal and social relationships and discourses in which they jointly take shape and meaning. to come closer to the more familiar terms of applied linguistics, we may say that van eyck’s metadiscoursal expedients set the stage for a full reading of his painting’s ideational contents. quite in the fashion of margins in medieval manuscripts, these parerga are consubstantial with the subject matter of the actual painting, to such an extent that it is unthinkable to separate panel from frame, icon from text (or wife from husband, for that matter). in particular, jan’s motto complements and integrates margareta’s likeness, for which it provides hermeneutic scaffolding, suggesting the artist’s awareness that, even with the best intentions, representation can only larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni ibérica 40 (2020): 13-3416 get as close as it can to empirical reality. it also implies that –whatever semiotic system it may employ, be it visual or verbal or (as in this case) hybrid– language itself works as an integrated system of strata (jakobson, 1985), in which a referential drive towards a text-external reality (the ergon, margareta’s portrait) is complemented and counterbalanced by a metalinguistic function (the parergon, jan’s philosophy of representation). a full intelligibility of the meanings conveyed by the artwork as a whole therefore depends on the systemic and functional relations between, on the one hand, the ergon’s ideational dimension and, on the other, the parergon’s interpersonal and textual resources (halliday, 2002 & 2004). as with good marriages, or linguistic systems, there is no untying the knot: the artwork’s ‘sphere’ comprises and articulates all metafunctions, binding and structuring the work’s social existence as much as its privileged relation with the world and with language itself. all of these phenomena –regardless, obviously, of aesthetic parameters– we nowadays read as metadiscourse, or to be more precise, visual metadiscourse. the interactional dynamics synthesised in margareta’s size of frame and oblique angle stance; her inquisitive demand gaze; the temporal and metaleptic anchors fictionally carved in the frame mouldings; and especially jan’s first-person “alc ixh xan”, a reflexive downtoner which condenses an attitude of paradoxical disengagement from the illusionistic epistemicity of his pictorial grammar in a gesture of ornamental exoticism. all the parergonal facts that make van eyck’s portrait of his wife such a dazzling visual (as well as verbal) artwork may be analysed, contrasted and discussed in relation to metadiscoursal resources (such as hedges and boosters, frame, attitude, self-mention and engagement markers; hyland, 2005), or to metadiscoursal criteria such as reflexivity, explicitness, intratextuality (mauranen, 1993; ädel, 2006; ädel & mauranen, 2010). for, despite the taxonomic or even conceptual fuzziness it may have produced over time (nash, 1992: 100; hyland, 2005: 16) as different ‘waves’ of studies have developed and interconnected, metadiscourse is still a long way from declining in interest, fascination and versatility across languages, cultures and media. in what follows, we compile a concise critical history of metadiscourse over the last four decades (section 2), tracing it back to its various formulations and different approaches in applied linguistics and providing reasons why it has become such an all-pervasive “discourse universal” (mauranen, 2010a). we then focus on the most recent developments of the category, in a tale of three waves: or, concerning the history and theory of metadiscourse ibérica 40 (2020): 13-34 17 particular regard to today’s increasing digitalization of knowledge and discourse, and discuss some new and promising directions for future research (section 3). hopefully, we will highlight some of the reasons why metadiscourse has been –and still is– a must-have compass to language and communication in an ever-increasing variety of domains, genres and settings. as van eyck’s portrait of margareta seems to suggest, metadiscourse is among the most intriguing and productive facets of our social and intellectual life. it shapes and explains nearly everything. marriage excluded, of course. 2. the three waves: a short history of metadiscourse metadiscourse has been circulating in western culture for a long time. its manifestations in verbal discourse can be traced as far back as the middle ages, and to different domains such as science, medicine, biography, narrative and poetry (alter, 1975; hutcheon, 1980; waugh, 1984; taavitsainen, 1999). its roots also embrace the history of visual discourses such as heraldry, painting, sculpture and architecture (foucault, 1966; dällenbach, 1977; flam, 2009; stead, 2017), and even music (mannion, 2019). and yet, not until the early 1980s did the ways in which authors may embed marks of authorship and/or potential (or actual) readership in texts, so as to steer and shape the reception and interpretation thereof, become the object of systematic and specialised scrutiny on the part of applied linguistics. interest towards metadiscourse was triggered by the ‘interactional turn’ of language analysis in the late 1970s (sinclair & courthald, 1975); it was then crucially fuelled by halliday’s trifunctional model (2002 & 2004), in which the centuries-old vocation of language to represent the ‘real’ world –the one supposedly standing prior to, and outside of, sign systems– was reperspectivised by the interpersonal and textual metafunctions, accounting for the intersubjective processes performed by language in terms of social relationships and the compositional arrangements structuring language’s meaning-making processes (2004: 29). as is part of the legend, the first conceptual appearances of metadiscourse were somewhat low profile, to some extent reminiscent of early (and fairly restrictive) formulations of the parergon, i.e. as an apparatus of peripheral, residual areas of the text where contents that are not propositional, and thus appear to exceed the text’s main subject, tend to be stored. that is, as ancillary paraphernalia of the ergon (‘normal’, first-degree referential larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni ibérica 40 (2020): 13-3418 discourse). harris first defined metadiscourse as a set of subsidiary kernels, “entirely different” in content from a text’s main kernels, “except that they often contain one word from […] or a pronoun referring to a main kernel” (1970 [1959]: 464-65), thus underlying their satellite status with respect to the referential pertinence of fully-fledged propositional cores. likewise, williams described it in terms of second-degree “writing about writing, whatever does not refer to the subject matter being addressed” (1981: 84), while crismore shifted the focus to the in-fieri poststructuralist notion of ‘discourse’ as he spoke of “discoursing about discourse” (1984: 280). vande kopple (1985: 83) identified it with material “which does not add propositional information but which signals the presence of an author”, thus bringing in the explicitation of a principle of authorship (burke, 1995) as its main trigger, while crismore, markkannen and steffensen completed the picture by incorporating the opposite side of the semiotic spectrum, that is, the reader/listener. irrelevant to a text’s ideational sphere, metadiscourse is key in structuring its organisation, interpretation and evaluation on the part of the audience (1993: 39). what immediately emerges from this ‘first wave’ of metadiscourse research is how beneficial the category can be to the study of aspects of textuality which did not receive attention until the end of the 1970s, when the socalled ‘textual turn’ (ferraris, 1986) climbed over language’s referentiality to investigate semiosis in extenso, that is, the entire semiotic spectrum of communication, from its origin to its arrival point, as part of a text’s message. here lies the “distinct element of sophistication” that metadiscourse bestows on language: it allows us to produce meanings that go “beyond referential information about states of affairs” (mauranen, forthc.) and cover discourse itself in its full sense, as “the social use of language” (danesi, 2016: 204). an incrementally dynamic vision of metadiscourse has thus taken shape, also nurtured by two classics of language-as-socialization theory. on the one hand, foucault’s historicist notion of discourse as “a group of sequences of signs” existing within specific social, cultural and ideological settings that –far from being accessory elements in the interpretation of texts, are foregrounded as the very conditions of their existence– provided an intersubjective and materialist standpoint from which even specialised discourse, such as “clinical discourse, economic discourse, the discourse of natural history, psychiatric discourse”, should always be examined (1969: 108). on the other hand, bakhtin’s theory of dialogism clarified that any discourse has to some a tale of three waves: or, concerning the history and theory of metadiscourse ibérica 40 (2020): 13-34 19 extent “already been articulated, disputed, elucidated, and evaluated in various ways”, so that “various viewpoints, world views, and trends cross, converge and diverge in it” (1979: 94). for this reason, any discourse works as a two-way chain of communication, pivoting “responsive reactions and dialogic reverberations” with both its predecessors and addressees. the role “of the others for whom [an] utterance is constructed is extremely great”, for these ‘others’ are the “active participants” from whom the speaker/writer expects and elicits a response (1979: 95-96). as the material non-neutrality and intersubjective porousness of discourse increasingly became the shared patrimony of critical theory and applied linguistics along the 1990s and 2000s, more and more attention was devoted to the analysis of the personality, attitude, credibility, authority, cognitive and epistemic traits of authors, and likewise to the various aspects that form their encoded recipients’ identikit (although it must be admitted that spoken discourse entered the stage quite late, and has so far attracted much less limelight than written communication.) since then, metadiscourse has extensively been analysed and compared across cultures and languages (crismore, markkannen & steffensen, 1993; mauranen, 1993b; valerogarcés, 1996; bunton, 1999) and in different disciplinary domains and communicative genres, from eap (mauranen, 1993a; thompson, 2003; hyland, 2000, 2005) to l1 and l2 student writing practices (swales, 1990; hyland, 2004), esl, esp and eap practice and pedagogy (intraprawat & steffensen, 1995; cheng & steffensen, 1996; camiciottoli, 2003; bondi & borelli, 2018), elf (mauranen, 2010a, 2010b, 2012); scientific discourse (hyland, 1998; hyland & tse, 2004; bamford & bondi, 2011; hyland & sancho-guinda, 2012), news and advertising discourse (fuertes-olivera et al., 2001; dafouz-milne, 2008), business and corporate discourse (hyland, 1998; de groot et al., 2016), etc. this ‘second wave’ of studies had the indisputable benefit of categorisation, providing analytical body and bulk to the intuitions of poststructuralism and ‘interactional’ textual analysis in the 1970-80s. the singling out of systematic criteria and measurable parameters for identifying, quantifying and comparing linguistic expressions of metadiscourse thus became a key task of research. a whole family tree of taxonomies developed, in which different generations confront and complement each other –producing brilliant bifurcations as much as fuzzy family resemblances. to start with, there was the issue of where to draw a dividing line between metadiscourse and automated language, so as to put together a toolbox for discourse analysis that would be larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni ibérica 40 (2020): 13-3420 applicable to a potentially wide variety of contexts. this was no minor concern, if we bear in mind that, essentially, metadiscourse is about strategically making certain language choices in certain material situations –and not others. orienting the communicative situation via certain (and not other) types of interactive resource (logical transitions, endophorics, evidential or frame markers, etc.), or disciplining discourse itself through specific interactional manoeuvres (epistemic markers, self-mentions, secondperson engagement markers, etc.) which help govern the text’s dialogue with its reader/listener, is indeed an art of flexibility. hence we see the need for ‘soft’ –as opposed to schematic and rigid– categorizations. if early chartings of the phenomenon limited it to metatextual (valero-garcés, 1996; bunton, 1999) or illocutionary resources (beauvais, 1989; quoted in hyland, 2005: 199), more articulate approaches rapidly emerged. vande kopple’s model (1985), for instance, based on seven types of markers pertaining to textual and interpersonal functions, although challenged by some objections concerning its applicability limits (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995), stimulated revisions such as crismore, markkannen and steffensen’s model (1993) and upgrades such as hyland’s systematisation (2005). it is at this stage of research –referred to as the (broader) ‘interactive’, or ‘integrative’ tradition– that key distinctions were introduced to sharpen the category of metadiscourse and counterbalance its development as, in hyland’s terms, an umbrella term for all expressions that configure and negotiate meaning-making patterns, by way of “assisting the writer (or speaker) to express a viewpoint and engage with readers as members of a particular community” (2005: 37). in particular, metadiscourse was clarified as covering exclusively those “aspects of the text that embody writer-reader interactions”, for it allows writers to encode their positioning and attitude towards propositional contents, as well as enabling readers to be guided along the text and perceive said positioning and attitude (hyland & tse, 2004). secondly, it achieves this through different orders of resources, which hyland (2005) labels “interactive” and “interactional” (as suggested by thompson, 2001), accounting for, respectively, assisting readers with the apprehension, organisation and evaluation of the text’s ideational contents, and involving and engaging them in the construction of a mutually shared discursive pact. and finally, it concerns only text-internal relations, that is, reflexive phenomena that pertain to the world of the ongoing discourse only, thus excluding other metatextual occurrences, such as intertextuality (hyland, 2005: 38). a tale of three waves: or, concerning the history and theory of metadiscourse ibérica 40 (2020): 13-34 21 but to go back to the above question: why has metadiscourse become such a “discourse universal” (mauranen, 2010)? although a univocally coherent answer may hardly be formulated (and would probably prove reductive), it is clear how metadiscourse has been critically construed in the 1990-2000s –for reasons it seems to partially share with the logic of the parergon– as a paradigm of language’s anti-referential cleverness. conceptualised as scaffolding composed of lexical, grammatical and semantic elements at work both within and beyond sentence level, its function is to circumscribe, encapsulate and regulate the social and hermeneutical life of discursive artefacts, by dialectically designing their interpersonal borders as a privileged observatory for the trifunctional operativity of language (halliday, 2002, 2004). indeed, it seems that much of the fascination with metadiscourse comes from a paradox. for this articulate constellation of second-degree, anti-mimetic resources –eccentric with respect to language’s ‘primary’ ideational mission–, by centripetally drawing us towards the centre of semiosis, contributes to a more sophisticated representation of empirical reality. as it happens, one may add, with jan van eyck’s “alc ixh xan” motto in the frame moulding of his wife’s portrait. by refracting and perspectivizing reality, metadiscourse co-constructs it in its multifaceted social and epistemological complexity. it operates not to the detriment, but to the dialectical advantage of language’s representative mission, precisely because it returns discourse to the material universe of intersubjective relations it is always and inevitably produced in. in lieu of an answer, another paradox may therefore result from the above question. metadiscourse’s antireferential cleverness may in fact be but the surface manifestation of as a subtler form of epistemological wisdom. interestingly, encouraging developments in this direction may come from the ‘third wave’ of metadiscourse studies, also known as the (narrower) ‘nonintegrative’ strand. a bright bifurcation in the genealogy of metadiscourse research (mauranen, 1993a, 1993b), it pivots on what ädel labels “reflexive turn” model (2006, 2010). assuming metadiscourse to be “discourse about the ongoing discourse” (mauranen, forthc.) –thus covering verbalizations on “the evolving discourse itself or its linguistic form, including references to the writer-speaker qua writer-speaker and the (imagined or actual) audience qua audience of the current discourse” (ädel, 2010: 75)– this model reintegrates the metatextual component expunged by the interactive tradition. and by doing so, it gives even more prominence to the epistemological ‘creativity’ of metadiscourse. in jakobson’s terms (1960), larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni ibérica 40 (2020): 13-3422 metadiscourse triangulates the expressive function (material expressing the speaker/writer’s persona), the directive function (material expressing the envisaged or material reader/listener’s persona) and the metalinguistic function (jakobson, 1985), covering ‘discourse-internal discourse’, i.e. verbalizations of the semiotic code itself. and yet, referentiality being the great absentee in the reflexive triangle does not prevent metadiscourse from performing key cognitive functions. quite the contrary, in fact, as this model even further unveils the semiotic mission carried out by this explicit, discourse-internal and intratextual second-degree order of language: the very making of language into discourse, that is, into an “interpersonal activity whose form is determined by its social purposes” (leech & short, 1987: 168). anything but detrimental to the ongoing development of this research area, the bifurcation between the interactive and the reflexive model has brought about productive methodological distinctions, and even more interesting hybridizations. on the one hand, the devising of ‘thin’ analytical approaches, typical of second-wave studies (vande kopple, 1985; crismore, markkannen & steffensen, 1993; hyland, 1998, 2004, 2005) allowed pioneering quantitative surveys of the phenomenon, whose insight into the occurrence and distribution of markers across extended corpora and heterogeneous discourse domains and genres has instantiated the large-scale charting out of a previously unexplored territory that is typical of the taxonomical strand of research in the 1990-2000s. ‘thick’ methods of analysis, usually dataoriented, are on the other hand typically used in the later reflexive model, and translate into qualitative discourse-analytical approaches, smaller in scale but more focused on contextual, social and cultural variables (ädel, 2006, forthc.; pérez-llantada, 2010; bondi, 2010; rodway, 2018; mauranen, forthc.). needless to say, approaches can also be interwoven, so as to combine both larger-scale and context-specific analysis (akbas & hatipoğlu, 2018) –which adds to the reasons why metadiscourse proves a multifaceted, complexifying lens through which the epistemology of culture and discourse may be fruitfully observed. through the thick and thin, forty years after its inauguration, the field of metadiscourse is still in a flux, and very much so. today’s rapidly changing contexts, media and modes of communication –and particularly the inception of digital culture, as well as of multi-semiotic literacy practices in all domains of discourse, public and private, scientific and popular– indeed seem to bestow even more relevance on the study of metadiscourse, and call, now more than ever, for theoretical flexibility and analytical eclecticism. a tale of three waves: or, concerning the history and theory of metadiscourse ibérica 40 (2020): 13-34 23 3. a new wave: metadiscourse in digital communication as the previous section has illustrated, the field of metadiscourse can be easily perceived as a busy forge from which new, thought-provoking studies continue to emerge, driving researchers towards uncharted waters. underpinning this continuously innovative inclination is current research work on metadiscourse, along with the development of new research methodologies, including visual research methods and combinations of qualitative (‘thick’) and quantitative (‘thin’) approaches with special focuses on discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and genre analysis. in particular, we are starting to realise that as digital and social media have gradually entered our daily lives in the past two decades, our academic and non-academic communication practices have also changed. along with the linguistic practices in which people engage, and the nature of the social networks they construct, there is a strong and growing interest in how people create meaning not just through language, but through a range of digital resources. it has become clear that the communicative immediacy of digital media, and the spectrum of genres (or hybridised forms) now available, dictate the way we engage in meaning-making practices in a multimodal environment. the growing interest in digital discourse on the part of researchers is exemplified by the biannual metadiscourse across genres (mag) conference that in june 2019 gathered a substantial group of researchers at the university of bergamo (italy)2 to discuss the latest metadiscourse developments and the move towards digital forms of communication. all this excitement on the part of metadiscourse scholarship, however, should not come as a surprise. as previously discussed, metadiscourse is largely viewed as an aspect of language that is highly dialogic and interpersonal (hyland, 2005; ädel, 2006). since the field was established in the 1980s, most of the research work has revolved around written, monologic academic genres, leaving behind those modes where synchronous/asynchronous communication with one’s readers and listeners is central (garzone et al., 2007; jones, chik & hafner, 2015; pérez-llantada, 2016). an interest in those oral and written forms that offer academic and non-academic writers extensive space for self-expression and engagement with readers was therefore long due. researchers such as miller and dawn (2004), davies and merchant (2007), mortensen and walker (2002) and more importantly, luzón (2006, 2010) have been pioneers of one of the digital genres that has been studied most since its appearance: the academic blog. once again, we see that the interest larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni ibérica 40 (2020): 13-3424 is still centred on the academic world and how scholars engage with readers, how they disseminate results, express opinions and build an academic persona, but the leap had finally been made. from that point on, it has been clear that the web, together with the explosion of digital technologies, is the driving force that changes the way scientific knowledge circulates and how the public accesses scientific information (buehl, 2015), for example through websites (alejo gonzález, 2005), microblogs and blogs (bondi, 2018; kuteeva & mauranen, 2018; zou & hyland, 2019), open-source materials, podcasts (pérez-llantada, 2016), wikis (kuteeva, 2011, 2016), vlogs (ädel, orthc.) and tweets (sclafani, 2017; aitamurto & varma, 2018; zappavigna, 2018). soon enough, a significant number of studies primarily focused on academic blogs (luzón, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2013a, 2013b, 2018; walker, 2006; trench, 2008; mauranen, 2013; kuteeva, 2016; bondi, 2018; malavasi, 2020) revealed the intimate, highly dialogic nature of this digital genre, where a popularization and democratization of scientific discourse takes place and where the scholar is held immediately (and sometimes vehemently) accountable for what s/he writes. as zou and hyland (2019) note, the blog offers the immediate advantage of enhancing one’s visibility, constructing one’s persona and disseminating one’s research work to a wider, more diverse type of audience, which goes beyond one’s disciplinary field. however, the immediacy of response and the uncertainty in the type of audience reached through digital genres forces him/her to correctly implement and manage strategies of recontextualization (puschmann, 2013; yus, 2015; bondi, 2018), in order to linguistically adjust and rhetorically repackage a scientific text, so that it can be understood by non-experts too (myers, 2010; campagna et al., 2012). not only does the author have to carefully consider how to present material, but s/he will also have to possess a firm command of interactional strategies and a range of language and discourse features to manage the dialogic speech that takes place within a digital environment (puschmann, 2015; zou & hyland, 2019). specific writing abilities have to be cultivated to pursue this pragmatic goal, which may confirm the ‘creative’ affordances of metadiscourse, as discussed above. on the other hand, this trend immediately shows how digitalization is straining the whole domain of academic and scientific communication in ways that twenty years ago were unimaginable. only a handful of metadiscourse studies have so far focused on the alterations that are increasingly visible in the interpersonal dimension of a tale of three waves: or, concerning the history and theory of metadiscourse ibérica 40 (2020): 13-34 25 academic discourses the more they become digitalised. these are explored by yus (2015), for example, who looks at the use and frequency of interpersonality markers in academic discourse located and communicated on the web vs. offline academic discourse, finding that as the text becomes more digitalised, common-ground markers seem to decrease, while similes, boosters and direct addresses to the audience increase. his study underlines the difficulties academic digital writers face when trying to predict the audience’s background knowledge and the impulsivity of readers’ interpretations. similar issues also emerge in bondi’s (2018) empirical study of three economics blogs, in which academic economists commonly engage. in bondi’s corpus-based study, the participant-oriented dimension of posts clearly suggests that the prominent use of reader engagement markers, selfmentions, as well as text-oriented and action-oriented elements, is justified by the will to guide readers through the text, making sure the argument is understood and the writer’s position and ideas are commonly shared along the whole spectrum of communication. along the same lines, zou and hyland’s (2019) corpus-based analysis compares blog posts and traditional journal research articles, using the stance and engagement model (see hyland, 2005), emphasising how academic writers create a different writer persona and apply different rhetorical choices when their research is recontextualised online. these initial metadiscursive studies have started to delve into the complex ways the communicative immediacy of digital media, along with the spectrum of genres (and progressively hybridised forms) now available, have inevitably influenced the way we communicate and the way we make meaning in a more widespread, lesshomogeneous, multimodal environment, the common notion of an academy perceived as an ‘ivory tower’, out of reach to a non-expert readership (puschmann, 2015). in particular, several contributions in this direction have stemmed from the 2019 mag conference, investigating progressively hybridised academic genres that have migrated –or are in the process of migrating– from analogue to digital format. some have a clear pedagogical matrix, belonging to the universe of students’ writing practices: from ma dissertations to internship reports (fendri, 2020; thomson, 2020), undergraduate research papers and upper secondary pupil essays (macintyre, 2020). that is to say, they analysed material produced by learners as a unidirectional and standardised product meant for assessment at school or university. thomson’s (2020) study, for example, focuses on traditional novice writing larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni ibérica 40 (2020): 13-3426 practices across educational contexts (norway, sweden and the uk) and different argumentative genres. in particular, he looks at the interactional expression of attitude in pre-tertiary essays of five different kinds. attention is paid to how different proportions of individual value-laden lexis and grammar vs. impersonal presentation of propositional content and logical argumentation may serve the communicative purposes of academic vs. professional writing, as exemplified by upper secondary school essays in different countries. mcintyre’s (2020) study investigates the related issue of how undergraduate students’ citation practices are being impacted by the growing shift towards on-screen dissemination contexts. the study questions the extent to which explicit training in the use of evidentials may help novices to build a solid authorial self, and the limits of the digital format for the development of critical competencies. also worth further investigation are writing practices in which the hybridization between different modes and media is more or less stabilised, and where various pragmatic functions and communicative expectations have fully been taken over by digitalization, such as for instance e-mails (bogdanovic & gak, 2020), university websites and moocs (giordano & marongiu, 2020). these are bidirectional screen genres mainly used for student-professor or student-institution communication, that is, for more structured dialogical exchange between the two parties involved in academic knowledge dissemination. interestingly, as in the case of blogs, these digital academic genres function as a vantage point from which we may observe both sides of the phenomenon, thus tracing the different ways in which scientific or pedagogic contents may effectively be conveyed with the specific chain of communication (and ecosystem) that is represented by academic discourse communities. despite the ongoing and ever-increasing democratization and popularization of knowledge that are being boosted by digital technology, the changing conventions of asymmetric, peer-to-peer scientific communication are still a favourite area of research for metadiscourse scholarship. mauranen (orthc.) for example, after extensively researching discourse reflexivity in spoken dialogues (e.g. mauranen 2002, 2003, 2005), and ascertaining that it diverges considerably from metadiscourse in the written mode, decided to consider research blog discussions, as they provided her with a combined perspective on discourse reflexivity, one that is dialogic but also written. she found evidence that there is more open and direct evaluation in digital than spoken dialogues, especially when participants engage in debates and negotiate a tale of three waves: or, concerning the history and theory of metadiscourse ibérica 40 (2020): 13-34 27 disagreement: a phenomenon that may only be interpreted by taking into account the specific communicative affordances of online dialogicity. she then reveals the limitations of monologue-based models and calls for more adequate metadiscourse models to further the field of study. finally, she firmly believes that the greater explicitness found in digital forms of communication, driven by many lingua franca situations, offers an ideal opportunity for exploring metadiscourse as a potential discourse universal. ylva biri (orthc.) corpus-based analysis examines instead the usage and functions of metadiscourse in english-speaking online communities. she recognises that different social networking sites (snss) have different technological features or affordances, which is why metadiscourse is here considered in different settings. a working metadiscourse framework is developed to illustrate how metadiscourse is used in twelve online communities, taken from three social media platforms –twitter, reddit, and tumblr– and four polarised political topics of interest are considered: altright, red pill, feminism, and the resist movement. sancho-guinda (orthc.) examines the visual abstract and its graphical format. the author considers the role of visual and filmic metadiscourses as “narrative transformers” and regards ‘stylisation’ as a phenomenon interestingly capable of enriching but also hindering scientific meaning. to this end, sancho-guinda comments on samples from science blog archives and jcr journals and draws on a mixed methodological framework, comprising not only hyland’s well-known metadiscourse model, but also incorporating stimuli from critical genre analysis, multimodal and visual analysis, social semiotics, narrative and positioning theories, and the conceptual theory of metaphor. her eclectic contribution is particularly relevant, we believe, because it not only considers the regenring and transduction processes that scientific information undergoes when it is transformed into a condensed visual narrative, but also attempts to tackle and categorise visual metadiscourse, an area of research still underrepresented (see for example kumpf, 2000; fechine & pontes, 2012; degroot et al., 2016; d’angelo, 2016, 2018) and which, in the times of increasing visualization and digitalization we are facing, has become a necessary avenue of research. another set of innovative studies have also emerged from the 2019 mag conference, which solidly move away from a scriptocentric tradition, contributing to the theory of metadiscourse and to our understanding of the role metadiscourse and related ‘meta’ phenomena may play in less researched larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni ibérica 40 (2020): 13-3428 digital forms of communication. for instance, delibegović džanić and berberović (orthc.) analyse text-image advertisements with idiomatic expressions with the aim of, on the one hand, investigating how visual elements play a crucial role in understanding the cognitive and rhetorical functions of advertisements, and on the other hand, of establishing to what extent hidden cognitive mechanisms involved in the interpretation of advertising can be explained using conceptual blending theory. this leads to the idea that blending contributes to the creativity and effectiveness of pictorial advertisements. as with sancho-guinda’s work, this is a most welcome contribution, as it seeks to devise a much-needed framework of visual metadiscursive elements that, especially in digital genres, represent significant meaning-making devices that cognitively and rhetorically complement the accompanying text. it is not by chance that we selected ädel’s (orthc.) contribution to conclude this historical and critical overview of past and present metadiscourse research, for her study is particularly representative of the changes the field has undergone, and the dive into deep waters we are witnessing. in her work, we see her reflexive model (2006) revisited and applied to a sample vlog (video blog), functioning as a case study. through in-depth qualitative analysis, the uses of metadiscourse in the vlog are illustrated and neighbouring categories are pinpointed, so that crucial delimitations and differences between metadiscourse and related phenomena emerge. what is particularly relevant here is that particular semiotic resources, such as paralinguistic and visual cues, are used to support the (verbal) metadiscourse investigated in vlogs. she coins the term “synchronous intertextuality” to refer to how the intertext (in this case, a simulator game) is operating while the vlogger is interacting with it, revealing a very different type of intertextuality than the one we usually see in academic discourse. at the end of this journey, we cannot but join ädel when she concludes that a ‘new wave’ of metadiscourse studies is envisioned for the future, where the research focus moves more firmly from the non-propositional and interpersonal to the reflexive. such a move, we agree, would lead to a firmer grounding of metadiscourse in the theory of reflexivity, and to a deeper understanding of the sea change that, today more than ever, our culture is undergoing. article history: received 21 february 2021 received in revised form 25 february 2021 accepted 26 february 2021 a tale of three waves: or, concerning the history and theory of metadiscourse ibérica 40 (2020): 13-34 29 references larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni ibérica 40 (2020): 13-3430 ädel, a. 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(1981). “argument structure and morphology”. linguistic review 1(1), 81-114. winckelmann, j.j. (1850). the history of ancient art among the greeks. translated by g.h. lodge. miami: hard press, 2017. yus, f. (2015). “interactions with readers through online specialized genres: specificity or adaptability?” in l. gil-salmon & c. soler-monreal (eds.), dialogicity in written specialised genres, 189-208. amsterdam: john benjamins. zappavigna, m. (2018). searchable talk: hashtags and social media metadiscourse. london: bloomsbury. zou, h. & k. hyland (2019). “reworking research: interactions in academic articles and blogs”. discourse studies 21(6): 713-733. larissa d’angelo is associate professor of english language at the department of foreign languages, literatures and cultures of the university of bergamo and an active member of the research centre on languages for specific purposes (cerlis). her main research interests deal with the translation of texts aimed at children and young adults, audiovisual translation and multimodal genre analyses. stefania consonni is a researcher in english linguistics at the university of bergamo (italy). she has published books and essays on textual paradigms and narratology; the semiotics of visual and verbal language; the history and theory of spatialization and visualization; the semiotic, pragmatic and epistemological features of traditional and new genres within academic, scientific, entertainment and media discourse. notes 1 although this paper has been planned jointly, stefania consonni is responsible for sections 1-2 and larissa d’angelo for section 3. 2 metadiscourse across genres (mag) 2019: metadiscourse in digital communication: what has changed? an international conference hosted by cerlis, university of bergamo, italy (27-29 june 2019). url: https://dllcs.unibg.it/it/seminari-e-convegni/convegni-e-workshop/mag-2019. larissa d’angelo & stefania consonni ibérica 40 (2020): 13-3434 iberica 13 ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract while the typology of metonymy has remained relatively stable in the literature, there is still ongoing discussion about metaphor varieties and their distinction from the former. some theorists (radden, 2003; chen & lai, 2012) have argued that language must be approached as stages along a continuum, with literal and metaphoric uses at both ends, and metonymy somewhere in the middle. however, in l2 contexts, particularly in specialised domains, the nature of such figurative uses can be obscure to learners, as they often follow the received models in their fields of study, and language tends to be perceived as primarily literal. this actually distorts the position of language elements within the metonymy-metaphor continuum, and it prevents linking figurative and nonfigurative uses into a more comprehensive use of language as a richer tool for communication. using a three-dimensional taxonomy for metaphor, which takes into account communicative, conceptual and linguistic factors, and a detailed revision of metonymy types as research instruments, this paper performs a cross-field comparison of a corpus of 150 cefr-b1 set texts to which undergraduates in economics, geography, and chemistry at a spanish university are exposed. it gives statistical treatment to the appearance of figurative language in texts, showing variations and trends among disciplines, and the prevalence of metaphor-metonymy overlap in those areas of knowledge. in addition, the findings encourage the integration of a cognitive approach when highlighting metaphor and metonymy to l2 students, since the cross-linguistic and crosscultural variations that characterise these figures may complicate transitioning from literal to figurative language uses without instructors needing to resort to their mother tongue. keywords: metaphor, metonymy, second language acquisition, specialised texts. a metaphor-metonymy continuum? evidence from cross-field l2 set texts antonio jimenez-munoz and ana cristina lahuerta martínez universidad de oviedo (spain) jimenezantonio@uniovi.es & lahuerta@uniovi.es 257 ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278 a. jimenez-munoz & a.c. lahuerta martínez resumen ¿un continuo metáfora-metonimia? evidencias en textos intercurriculares para la enseñanza del inglés para fines específicos mientras que los tipos de metonimia han permanecido relativamente estables en la literatura, existe todavía controversia acerca de las variedades de metáfora y su diferenciación de la metonimia. algunos autores sostienen que el lenguaje debe considerarse como etapas a lo largo de un continuo, con el sentido literal y metafórico en ambos extremos, y la metonimia situada en algún punto entre ambos. sin embargo, en contextos de adquisición, particularmente los especializados, la naturaleza de tales usos figurativos puede resultar opaca para los aprendices, ya que estos a menudo siguen los modelos prevalentes en sus disciplinas y tienden a percibir el lenguaje de una manera literal. esto distorsiona la posición de los elementos en el continuo metáfora-metonimia, ya que impide unir usos figurados y no figurados de forma más amplia en un uso más rico del lenguaje comunicativo. usando como instrumentos de investigación una taxonomía tridimensional para la metáfora, con valores comunicativos, conceptuales y lingüísticos, y una revisión de los tipos de metonimia, este artículo compara un corpus de 150 textos mcer b1 que los alumnos de los grados de economía, geografía y química deben estudiar en una universidad española. se examina estadísticamente la aparición de usos figurados en los textos, mostrando variaciones y tendencias entre estas disciplinas, y un frecuente solapamiento entre metonimia y metáfora. los resultados sugieren la integración de un enfoque cognitivo que haga relevantes las metáforas y metonimias a los aprendices. las variaciones inter-lingüísticas e inter-culturales propias de estas figuras pueden dificultar la transición entre usos figurados y literales, obligando a los profesores a recurrir a su lengua materna. palabras clave: metáfora, metonimia, adquisición de segunda lengua, textos especializados. 1. introduction most modern cognitive approaches to figurative language stress the complexity of discerning the limits and conditions for metonymy and metaphor, but systematically retain roman jakobson’s (1971/1956) view of such figures as poles along a continuum. such an approach has been justified because “the interactions of metonymy and metaphor are so intricate that the boundary forms not a dichotomy but a continuum” (chen & lai, 2012: 235). this metaphor-metonymy linearity has progressively been replaced by a continuum between figurative and literal uses of languages. figurative is a 258 language whose primary meaning is partially structured by metaphor and can be extended “beyond the range of ordinary literal ways of thinking and talking into the range of what is called figurative” (lakoff & johnson, 1980: 13) or which is experienced “in terms of another domain of a different kind” (johnson, 1987: 15). studies of metaphor and metonymy have found it notoriously difficult to separate one from the other, as they often overlap or motivate each other. furthermore, a detailed quantitative analysis of a variety of figurative expressions has rarely been applied to l2 classroom settings. this study first reviews relevant literature on metaphor and metonymy, so as to highlight how their relevance can, in practice, cast aspersions on the usefulness of such clear-cut distinctions. subsequently, the methodology and the results of the analysis of figures within a corpus of specialised texts will be reported and discussed. finally, from the findings of the study, a number of pedagogical implications will be suggested, as well as potential directions for future research. 2. metaphor, metonymy: differences and taxonomies metaphor has often been defined within cognitive linguistics as a conceptual mapping where target and source domains do not have a common experiential superordinate domain (lakoff & turner, 1989: 103-104). in that respect, metaphor works essentially through domain substitution, whereas metonymy has been considered more as a cognitive apprehension of the relation between two concepts (arata, 2005) of particular relevance to communication (barcelona, 2003a; benczes, barcelona, & ruiz de mendoza ibáñez, 2011). however, its demarcation from conceptual metaphor remains as a challenge; the consensus view from cognitive linguistics is that metonymy establishes “an asymmetric mapping of a conceptual domain, the source, onto another domain, the target. source and target are in the same overall domain and are linked by a pragmatic function, so that the target is mentally activated” (barcelona, 2011: 19). this means that its nature is fundamentally concept-forming, and it is rooted in experience, or in the apprehension of a particular relation between concepts or parts by means of contiguity. there is ongoing debate, however, on whether metonymy is prototype-based or, on the other hand, domain-based. unlike metaphor, metonymy can be considered a conceptual mapping which remains “withina metaphor-metonymy continuum? ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278 259 domain” (lakoff & turner, 1989: 103) or their “functional domain” (barcelona, 2011: 52), as both can be encompassed within a field. thus, “baton” can replace “runner” within the same “athletics” domain metonymically, but metaphorically outside its domain (“to take the baton” as “take over a role”), as the latter involves the “two separate domains” (geeraerts, 2011: 215) of “athletics” and “drama”. this clear-cut distinction has been challenged as potentially “an arbitrary intervention by a linguist” in the selection of domain boundaries, since these are “experientially based and consequently to a large extent individually determined” (feyaerts, 1999: 318). also, the fact that at a superordinate domain (in the case of “athletics” and “drama”, the overall domain “group activities”) it may be conceived complicated to discern whether an expression operates in a single domain. langacker advanced the notion of active zones, as “those portions of a trajectory or landmark that participate directly in a given relation” (1984: 177), which has influenced more recent research. for example, radden and kövecses (1999: 21) stated that “metonymy is a cognitive process in which one conceptual entity, the vehicle, provides mental access to another conceptual entity, the target, within the same idealized cognitive model”, while benczes et al. (2011:202) survey compounds to show how “metaphors and metonymies can and do interact rather often in linguistic expressions” and metaphors can do so “within the same domain matrix”. goossens (2002: 340) proposed the term “metaphtonymy” to refer to cases when both metaphor and metonymy act upon an idiomatic expression. subsequent studies have stated that the source of metaphoric mapping is often created by a previous metonymy (urios-aparisi, 2009; hidalgodowning & kraljevic-mujic, 2011). barcelona (2011: 52-53) refines the definition of metonymy as “an asymmetric mapping of a conceptual domain, the source, onto another domain, the target,” and that of metaphor as having the properties of “a symmetric mapping” and “source and target, either in different taxonomic domains and not linked by a pragmatic function, or, in different functional domains”. in the sentence “he is a star bass”, the “bass” as “bass player” metonymy belongs to the same functional domain “concert”, and it is linked pragmatically as an instrument-agent, but it is accompanied by the “celebrity is star” metaphor which, in turn, will activate the different functional domain “fame”. however, barcelona (2011:12) also establishes how a metonymical mapping is asymmetric, unlike metaphor’s symmetric mapping, so that in the latter structural features are a. jimenez-munoz & a.c. lahuerta martínez ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278260 shared, while metonymies shift focus in a particular direction. this allows not only having the existence of a single domain as a defining factor, but also using the specific nature of the mapping to discern metonymy from metaphor more clearly. theoretical considerations aside, language in these studies has been considered primarily in ideal terms, and not through real-life language usage data. corpora are arguably the most promising empirical approaches to research into figurative language. some studies on metaphor have successfully investigated into the nature of both conceptual and linguistic metaphors (steen, 1999; charteris-black, 2000; babarczy, bencze, fekete, & simon, 2010) and metonymies in specialised domains (hilpert, 2006; pérez sobrino, 2016), moving beyond the limitations of dictionary-based research. however, some more conventional approaches can be salvaged. in this sense, the historical thesaurus of the oxford english dictionary can aid not only as a historical source but also as a taxonomic classification of conceptual fields, since it lists synonyms next to their dates of use, and it may be used both semasiologically and onomasiologically through lexemes and nearsynonyms. while it is not the only approach to the identification of metaphor, the metaphor identification procedure (pragglejaz group, 2007; steen et al., 2011) puts forward a scientific method for identifying, classifying and annotating metaphorical uses. metonymy annotation, however, has been more contested due to the seemingly inexhaustible variety of potential metonymies. a number of practical procedures have been proposed to differentiate among target domain lexicon (hilpert, 2006; markert & nissim, 2006) or conceptual mappings (steen et al., 2011), but the need for a conclusive taxonomy is still due. the most widely used in the field is the comprehensive taxonomy by radden and kövecses (1999), which has been adapted of late (littlemore & tagg, 2016) to address the intensely creative ways in which metonymy can be used within a given context. 3. specialised domains and figurative language the technical contexts in which english can be used usually fall under english for specific purposes (esp), but these are also intersected in classroom uses by english for academic purposes (eap) and english as a medium of instruction (emi). as an integral part of linguistic creativity, a metaphor-metonymy continuum? ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278 261 both metaphor and metonymy can appear in specialised language. however, the intended exactitude, conciseness and precision of scientific or academic discourse in geography, biology or chemistry would discourage from their use. both metaphors and metonymies help highlight conceptual relations between entities, whether or not part of the same domain. “rodents” are metonymically characterised by their actions, mapping a wide number of animals in a category that is nevertheless subjective, since other animals that also gnaw – such as moles or rabbits – are not rodents; rather than helping make sense of the world, its use may complicate scientific knowledge in a l2 context. the pervasiveness of metaphor in scientific and technical texts has come under closer scrutiny in the last decade, in fields such as politics (arntfield, 2008), medicine (kreuzthale & schulz, 2012) and, more extensively, science and technology (dalke, grobstein & mccormack, 2006; cuadrado-esclapez & robisco-martín, 2011; gelernter, cao, & carle, 2013; durán-escribano & argüelles-álvarez, 2016; koteyko & atasanova, 2016). their capacity to “have organizing, theory-constitutive, educational, and persuasive functions” (steen et al., 2011: 107) in scientific thought and discourse is undeniable. these studies evidence that regardless their potential nature as mappers, both metaphor and metonymy point at referents through iconic or indexical relations (panther, 2006: 148), but nevertheless replace source meaning with target meaning, and consequently displace the target frame or domain structure. such figurative processes serve as inputs for pragmatic inferences, which depend on the reader for their felicity; in the case of undergraduate set texts, and particularly in english-based instruction to speakers of other languages, this would seemingly complicate the transmission of key concepts and data. to further complicate the successfulness of such specialised-but-figurative educational texts, it is worth remembering that the interaction between both phenomena can also happen at the purely conceptual level (barcelona, 2003b: 10), so that the metaphoric or metonymic nature of these mappings may be obscure, particularly to speakers of other languages. therefore, analysing a corpus of various set texts to which l2 students are exposed in their subjects can reveal pertinent conclusions towards the quantitative weight and features of the metaphorical and metonymical concepts they interact with. in such a frame, the metaphor taxonomy set forth by steen (2011) can prove fruitful, as it revises the role of “deliberate metaphor” in communication. that is to say, when a linguistic expression is used in such a a. jimenez-munoz & a.c. lahuerta martínez ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278262 way that speakers “are aware of its foundation in a cross-domain mapping, and in such a way that they may also want to alert their addressee to this fact as well” (steen, 2011: 37). in the case of esp textbooks, deliberate metaphors are those that would be recognised as metaphors by an ideal reader. two example annotations in our geography subcorpus might be illustrative. “the sea is ‘harmful’ to people” includes a marked word choice which is both encoded and decoded as a metaphor; on the other hand, “the earth’s ‘crust’” is a common expression, hence annotated as a non-deliberate metaphor. as an example of the unmarked use of a metaphoric expression, its relevance within the l2 classroom is greater than in less formal settings. a number of approaches have been offered to ascertain the deliberateness of authorial metaphor in educational discourse (cameron, 2003; aubusson, harrison, & ritchie, 2006), but whether authors “use a linguistic expression in such a way that they are aware of its foundation in a cross-domain mapping, and in such a way that they may also want to alert their addressee to this fact as well” (steen, 2011: 37) has been largely ignored within the theoretical discussion of metaphor and metonymy. contemporary cognitive-linguistic approaches have highlighted how these can work conventionally, automatically, and even unconsciously; in doing so, the extent to which users may deliberately use these for communicative purposes has been elided. a corpus analysis including deliberateness, as well as other cognitive-linguistic factors, would show that these are not at odds: conventional metaphors are not necessarily non-deliberate. they can be used both non-deliberately (“lakoff attacked glucksberg”) or deliberately (“wasps, the wrong weather, and why this summer’s got a very nasty sting in the tail”) since “conventionality is part of one dimension, metaphor in thought, which is orthogonal to the other dimensions, in this case the communicative dimension, which includes deliberateness” (steen, 2011: 40). steen’s taxonomy also offers the additional advantage of distinguishing metaphor from simile, which has been kept in our annotations. another often overlooked aspect is the lack of emphasis on the speaker’s creativity in metonymical processes. metonymy, just as metaphor, can serve a range of functions, such as those of illocution, cohesion, euphemism, humour or persuasion (littlemore & tagg, 2016: 7-8). therefore, the way these are conveyed matters just as much as the cognitive mappings these figures perform. while comprehensive frameworks for metonymical classification, such as the one put forward by radden and kövecses (1999), a metaphor-metonymy continuum? ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278 263 or concepts such as domain or “idealized cognitive models” (lakoff, 1987: 85) can be retained, the uses of metonymies in longer academic texts must consider metaphor overlapping. an expression such as “white collar” combines part-for-whole metonymy with the metaphorical substitution “office worker” as “white collar”, and its use is an example of creativity – understood as a figure-powered stylistic choice – through a deliberate figuration, if conventional. in other words, metonymy and metaphor interact richly as conceptual mappings, rather than being milestones along a continuum. what is pertinent in educational settings is that this mapping is activated through the “business” frame, often delivered to students – just as “biology” and “geology”, or their subdivisions – holistically through texts. without such reciprocal knowledge of both figurativeness and its context of appearance, the non-literal meaning of the expression would complicate understanding content. this essential fact may be crucial in the case of l2 students, who may fail to decode either literal or figurative meanings – if not both – thus jeopardizing academic success. 4. research questions the main focus of this contribution is on the analysis of metaphors and metonymies in a specialised corpus, particularly quantifying the presence of figurative language in specialised discourse, rather than examining its qualitative or conceptual relevance. thus, the general research questions that shape the study are: 1. is the use of figurative language in the corpus significant? 2. are there any differences between the three corpora regarding metaphor, simile and metonymy? 3. are there any cases of overlap of metaphor and metonymy in the corpus? if there is such overlap, of what type is it? is it significant? 4. can a continuum be kept as a model to situate these figures, or should cognitive/conceptual overlap be considered a more apt conceptualization? a. jimenez-munoz & a.c. lahuerta martínez ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278264 5. method traditionally seen as a teaching or learning process, esp has also been more recently regarded as a specialised discourse within particular scientific fields and professional settings (ruiz, palmer, & fortanet, 2010). this study focuses on three types of common specialised academic discourse: business, chemistry and geography. the data used in the study comprises a corpus of one hundred and fifty texts, fifty from each field of knowledge under study. the texts are typically 400-500 word long, and their complexity is adequate for b1 students according to the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr), being materials used by the authors of this study in their own university esp lessons. the three subcorpora used in the present study can be said to be formally homogenous (table 1). the texts were analysed for metaphors following steen’s (2011: 40) threedimensional taxonomy, which allows for a distinction between nondeliberate versus deliberate uses of metaphor and it includes two further oppositions between conventional versus novel metaphor (conceptual structure) and simile versus metaphor (linguistic form). following such distinctions, we have considered that a metaphor is used deliberately when users are aware of its foundation in a cross-domain mapping and opt for this figurative use, while a metaphor is used non-deliberately when there is no more usual or more frequent alternative in the specialised domain. the frequency of an expression is analysed quantitatively using the british national corpus, and the use of a high-frequency expression in the bnc corpus or the oed is therefore tagged as conventional. the opposition between conventional and novel metaphors refers to the conceptual properties of metaphors; that is, there can be, potentially, expressions which are not part of conventional language use, and whose mapping offers novel ways to conceptualise objects or ideas. in our business subcorpus, for a metaphor-metonymy continuum? ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278 265 features business chemistry geography total number of words 18,439 13,826 17,177 49,442 number of sentences 1,276 1,207 1,197 3,680 avg. sentences per text 25.52 23.94 24.14 24.53 avg. syllables per sentence 15.2 13.56 14.58 14.45 avg. syllables per word 1.51 1.55 1.52 1.53 percentage of words with three or more syllables 13.96 14.19 13.31 13.82 table 1. corpus features. instance, “word of mouse” refers to online comments and ratings given by users through websites and social networks, repurposing “word of mouth” into its technologically-updated version. finally, the opposition between simile and metaphor refers to the primarily linguistic properties of metaphors, often marked linguistically by words such as “like” or “as”, among others. these criteria, based on steen’s taxonomy, were rigorously applied in each subcorpus to identify each type of metaphor. for the analysis of metonymies in the texts we followed the key metonymy types in radden and kövecses’s (1999) taxonomy as adapted by littlemore and tagg (2016). thus, as table 2 below shows, a clear distinction between whole-and-part metonyms and part-and-part metonymies is kept. the former is further subdivided into things and part, scale, constitution, event, category and member, and category and property. part-and-part metonymies include action, perception, causation, production, control, possession, containment, location, sign and reference, and modification as major categories (littlemore & tagg, 2016: 6). each text has been electronically annotated with the uam corpus tool (o’donnell, 2016) following these two taxonomies. a qualitative analysis of the results included a detailed analysis of the corpus, which allows discerning a. jimenez-munoz & a.c. lahuerta martínez ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278266 metonymy types examples total whole and part thing and part part for whole – “logo” for “corporate image” scale end for whole scale – “junior and senior” accountants constitution material for object – “concrete” for “wall” event subevent for whole event – the “interview” got her the job category and member category for member of category – “river valleys” category and property salient property for category – some “muscle” was needed total part and part action agent for action – the “weathering” of materials perception thing perceived for perception – to “monitor” a department causation effect for cause – “manufacturing” of products production producer for product – a “scan” was required control controller for controlled – the “richter” was alarming possession possessed for possessor – “wealth” determines policies containment container for contents – the “envelope” must be sent location place for inhabitants – “stockholm” sold less this quarter sign and reference words for the concepts they express – “a way to reduce costs” modification modified form for original form -“ceo” for “chief executive officer” table 2. metonymy types (based on littlemore & tagg, 2016). specific cases of literal and non-literal uses of expressions, their deliberate uses within different conceptual mappings, and the more complex case of metonymic compounds. it also includes a detailed analysis of relevant instances of metaphor and metonymy overlapping. a subsequent quantitative analysis (see table 4 below) would reveal whether such particular figurative uses in the texts were relevant and, if so, whether there were significant differences between subcorpora. two aspects with regard to language use must be highlighted in our analysis of the corpus. first, the level of lexicalization in specialised and more general uses of a given expression makes the nature of such cognitive mapping often transparent, even in cases of metonymy-metaphor overlap. for instance, the use of “company is business” shares both a metonymic origin (the perception of two or more companions as sharing a commercial interest) and a metaphorical substitution (such group represents the whole productive and commercial enterprise) but records in oed’s historical thesaurus show its consistent use since at least 1550. others, such as “success is financial gain”, or “programme is a series of events”, “see is read”, “take is consider” are just as commonly associated that it would be difficult for either l1 or l2 users to perceive these as figurative. as such, these uses have not been annotated as non-literal language within the corpus. secondly, other common uses, such as the deliberate use of “monitor” as “supervise” have been marked as metonymies on the basis of their optionality, as well as to differentiate from l2 uses, such as “control” as “supervise”, evidenced in the european parliament proceedings parallel corpus (koehn, 2011). 6. results our data reveal a constant presence of figurative tropes in the three subcorpora. more specifically, in response to the first research question, our examination showed a total of 8,462 instances of figurative uses of the language (see table 3 below). geography presented the largest number of cases (3,416 instances, an average of 67.46 per text, and 19.64% of total word count), followed by business (2,764, 55.28, 14.99%), and chemistry (2,282, 40.22, 15.99%). examining each trope separately, it is revealed that business texts used more metonymies (1,047 instances), followed by geography (1,028), and chemistry (607). with regard to metaphors, a metaphor-metonymy continuum? ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278 267 geography presented the highest number of this trope (2,130 instances), followed by business (1,884), and chemistry (1,723). regarding similes, only 19 instances were found in the business subcorpus, and 12 instances in both the chemistry and geography ones. prima facie, “technical texts” have been said to be “more tractable because” they lack “figurative language and can be understood in its literal sense” (copeck et al., 1997: 391). however, we find a high degree of figurativeness; a number of studies have called attention to the use of metaphor in textbooks in the fields of economics (boers & demecheleer, 1997; charteris-black, 2000; kolar, 2012) and science (salager-meyer, 1990; brown, 2003; aubusson, harrison, & ritchie, 2006) while specific studies on metonymy have been scantier (runblad, 2007; catalano & waugh, 2013). while largely restricted to metaphor, researchers have stressed the importance of figurative language in specialised discourse. they have analysed how particular figures offer models to interpret reality; ours is a first attempt at evidencing such relevance through quantification methods in a more comprehensive manner. the relative weight of figurative language found in the corpus, along with the distinctions between the tropes involved, has severe pedagogical implications not only for l2 contexts, but also for the conceptualization of scientific text-types themselves. answering the second research question, important differences were found in the use of metaphor, simile and metonymy in each subcorpora. table 4 below shows the number of each type and subtype of metonymies in the three corpora. it can be perceived how whole-and-part types are more common, with 1,436 instances (813 in chemistry, 418 in geography and 205 in business), as compared to 1,246 instances of the part-and-part types (842 in business, 215 in geography, and 189 in chemistry). within the wholeand-part type, the distribution is highly skewed toward the category-andmember subtype, with 665 cases in the geography subcorpus, 306 in geography, and 66 cases in business. the whole-and-part type metonymies are illustrated in the following examples: “luminol reveals blood ‘traces’” is a. jimenez-munoz & a.c. lahuerta martínez ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278268 6 figurative uses business chemistry geography total total number of cases 2,764 2,282 3,416 8,462 metonymies 1,047 607 1,028 2,682 metaphors 1,884 1,723 2,130 5,737 similes 19 12 12 43 table 3. number of cases of figurative uses of the language. an instance of the whole-and-part category-member subtype from the chemistry subcorpus. “destructive waves destroy the coastline in ‘a number of ways’” is an example of the whole-and-part category-property subtype from the geography subcorpus. “the company ‘headquarters’ are in new york” is an instance of the whole-and-part, category-property metonymy in the business corpus. within the part-and-part type, the causation and action subtypes present the largest numbers of occurrences, particularly in business, with 314 of a total of 413 instances. the action subtype is also more frequent in business, with 234 instances out of 359. the following sentences are instances of both subtypes in the business corpus: “international ‘trade’ is heavily regulated” [part-and-part causation metonymy], “no more money will be ‘pumped’ into the project” [part-andpart action metonymy]. the scale subtype within the whole-and-part type, with just one instance in the geography subcorpus, and the possession and control subtypes of the part-and-part metonymy type, with three and four occurrences in the corpus respectively, present the lowest number of instances in the corpus. the following sentences are instances of the three subtypes in the geography corpus: “the ‘koppen system’ recognizes five a metaphor-metonymy continuum? ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278 269 metonymies business chemistry geography aggregate thing and part 16 30 44 90 scale 0 0 1 1 constitution 11 52 43 106 event 5 1 3 9 category and member 66 306 665 1,037 category and property 107 29 57 193 total whole and part 205 418 813 1,436 action 234 56 69 359 perception 37 11 8 56 causation 314 51 48 413 production 1 4 0 5 control 0 3 1 4 possession 0 0 3 3 containment 69 14 47 130 location 58 3 5 66 sign and reference 20 24 4 48 modification 109 23 30 162 total part and part 842 189 215 1,246 total 1,047 607 1,028 2,682 table 4. metonymy occurrences in the corpora by type. major climatic types” [whole-and-part control metonymy], “the higher on the ‘richter scale’ the more severe the earthquake is” [part-and-part possession metonymy], “some examples of erosion in ‘young rivers’ are vshaped valleys, interlocking spurs and waterfalls” [part-and-part scale metonymy]. table 5 shows the common occurrences of metaphors and similes (5,780 in total) per type in the three subcorpora. out of the three, the geography subcorpus presents the largest number of total metaphors and similes (2,142 instances), followed by business (1,903), and chemistry (1,735). it can be noted that most metaphors are non-deliberate: 5,005 versus 775 deliberate ones. the geography subcorpus has the largest number of conventional non-deliberate metaphors (1,996), followed by chemistry (1,582) and business (1,417). the following sentences exemplify non-deliberate metaphors in each subcorpus: “there are a number of ways of extracting ‘resources’ from the ground” [geography], “mendeleyev uncovered the ‘principle’ of the periodic table” [chemistry], “the hotel ‘chain’ was struggling financially” [business]. no conventional non-deliberate similes were found. with respect to conventional deliberate metaphors, 454 instances were found in the business subcorpus, 134 in geography, and 131 in chemistry. the following sentences sample conventional deliberate metaphors: “oklahoma receives more tornadoes than any other region on the planet. it also receives most of these ‘severe’ events in the month of may” [geography], “carbonic acid ‘dissolves’ some rocks such as limestone” [chemistry], “her ‘contribution’ to the funds is essential” [business]. we also found 18 instances of conventional deliberate similes in the business subcorpus and 11 in both chemistry and geography. it is worth pointing out the low occurrence of novel metaphors and similes, and the absence of any instances of novel nondeliberate metaphors or novel non-deliberate similes. therefore, it can be argued that a novel non-deliberate metaphor may not exist, and that similes are almost invariably deliberate by nature; an analysis of a larger corpus of similar texts may help confirming such an assumption. there were 13 instances of novel deliberate metaphor in the business subcorpus, whereas no instances were found in chemistry or geography. there was just one instance of novel deliberate simile in each (“like a key to a jammed door”, “like a big supermarket”, “like a frozen ice cube”). a. jimenez-munoz & a.c. lahuerta martínez ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278270 the figures in tables 4 and 5 show two relevant trends; on the one hand, across these subcorpora, there is correlation in the occurrence – or absence – of several subtypes of metonymy and metaphor. that is to say, if a certain subtype is relatively prevalent in a given field, it is also prevalent in the other subcorpora. on the other hand, it seems that while this is the case, the use of these subtypes among fields of specialization is uneven, so that categoryand-member metonymies are tenfold in geography when compared to business and, conversely, conventional deliberate metaphors amount to a fourth. the third research question quantifies overlap between metaphor and metonymy as cognitive mappings. as table 6 below shows, there are numerous cases of such overlap: 324 instances of whole-and-part metonymies that were also conventional non-deliberate metaphors, and a further 82 that were also conventional deliberate metaphors; some examples and details will be discussed further below. the category-and-member and the constitution subtypes showed the largest number of overlapping instances, with 181 and 102 respectively, followed by category-and-property, with 96 cases. there are 139 category-and-member metonymies overlapping with conventional non-deliberate metaphors, and 42 with conventional deliberate metaphors. the following sentence from the geography subcorpus is an example of the overlapping between category-and-member metonymy and conventional non-deliberate metaphors: “in some situations, many roads may lead to a ‘bridging’ point”. with respect to part-and-part type metonymies, there were 272 overlaps with conventional non-deliberate a metaphor-metonymy continuum? ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278 271 metaphor and simile business chemistry geography aggregate conventional non-deliberate metaphor 1,417 1,592 1,996 5,005 novel non-deliberate metaphor 0 0 0 0 conventional non-deliberate simile 0 0 0 0 novel non-deliberate simile 0 0 0 0 total non-deliberate 1,417 1,592 1,996 5,005 conventional deliberate metaphor 454 131 134 719 novel deliberate metaphor 13 0 0 13 conventional deliberate simile 18 11 11 40 novel deliberate simile 1 1 1 3 total deliberate 486 143 146 775 total 1,903 1,735 2,142 5,780 table 5. metaphor and simile occurrences per type. metaphors, and 98 with conventional deliberate metaphors. within this type, the causation subtype presented the largest number of overlaps (244 instances; 185 with conventional non-deliberate metaphors and 59 with conventional deliberate metaphors). the following sentence from the chemistry subcorpus illustrates the overlapping between part-and-part causation metonymy and conventional non-deliberate metaphors: “if you are ‘packing’ soft and unbreakable articles, a pair of sheets for example, they should be wrapped in good quality brown paper or sheet polythene”. significantly, overlapping was much more frequent in the case of conventional deliberate metaphors (35.96%) as compared to conventional non-deliberate metaphors (11.91%), in this way it seems that the deliberate use of a metaphor and their partial coincidence with a metonymical mapping is a relatively stronger correlation. the fourth and final research question encompasses some of the quantitative aspects above, but requires a more qualitative approach. a. jimenez-munoz & a.c. lahuerta martínez ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278272 overlap conventional non-deliberate metaphor conventional deliberate metaphor aggregate thing and part 22 0 22 scale 0 0 0 constitution 102 0 102 event 5 0 5 category and member 139 42 181 category and property 56 40 96 total whole and part 324 82 406 action 19 6 25 perception 14 1 15 causation 185 59 244 production 3 0 3 control 0 0 0 possession 0 0 0 containment 26 2 28 location 24 30 54 sign and reference 0 0 0 modification 1 0 1 total part and part 272 98 370 total 596 180 776 percentage of metaphors 11.91 35.96 13.56 table 6. cases of overlapping of metaphor and metonymy. whether overlapping is more useful as a conceptualization than a linear continuum needs to be framed within the discussion of specific examples found in the corpus. 7. discussion the use of figurative language entails, pragmatically, a “phenomenon whereby we talk and, potentially, think about something in terms of something else” (semino, 2008: 1). thus, although it is markedly absent in the pedagogical design of esp curricula (doiz & elizari, 2013) the quantities reported above highlight the need for its inclusion as an active part of esp learning. l2 students, in the light of such prevalence of figurative uses in these three disciplines, require specific training about figurative uses of words, as well as non-inferential awareness about which cognitive mappings are at work within a given expression, however conventional its usage. as such, the “figurative use of language may itself constitute a field of meaning” (ritchie, 2006: 156), which is coherent with previous theoretical studies in esp business and science (herrera-soler & white, 2012; roldánriejos & úbeda-mansilla, 2013). being able to recognise and explore nonliteral uses is an essential skill that may contribute distinctively towards the understanding of a text, let alone the construction of cognitive networks (littlemore & low, 2006) and avoiding potentially treacherous conceptual transfer among languages (juchem-grundmann & krennmayr, 2010). however, our corpus study reveals a number of relevant issues that affect both l2 students, who are the main recipients of such esp texts, as well as l1 users within these specialised domains. secondly, it is also important to point out that many of the metonymies and metaphors cited in the paper have calques in other languages, including spanish: this is the case of “success is financial gain”, “programme is a series of events”, “see is read”, “take is consider”, “unemployment is lack of employment”. as we can see in these examples, in calques there is a transfer of meaning from one language to the other. these calques should also be taken into account in the design of esp curricula since, from a pedagogical perspective, they could facilitate students’ acquisition of metonymy and metaphor. thirdly, the traditional understanding of the overlap is that the same expression at the same time qualifies as both a metonymy and a metaphor, a metaphor-metonymy continuum? ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278 273 but in such a way that one prevails over the other. barcelona (2003a: 31) takes a radical approach, so “that every metaphorical mapping presupposes a conceptually prior metonymic mapping, or to put it differently, that the seeds for any metaphorical transfer are to be found in a metonymic projection”. however, as goossens (2002) points out, both metaphoric and metonymic processes occur in the development of a given expression, so that there are cases of embeddedness: metonymy-from-metaphor and metaphor-from-metonymy. typically, these involve a conceptual item x being linked to y, and y to z, so that the x-y link is metaphorical and the y-z link is metonymic, or vice versa. however, such linearity – in itself a transposition of the metaphor-metonymy continuum – is not always analysable; it is often unclear in our corpus whether an expression is primarily metonymical or metaphorical, or which precise subtype is at work. a “fork” is a tool for eating which is called so because its tines, usually three, seem to fork from the handle. as such, it is a metaphor-from-metonymy type, but it is nevertheless heavily lexicalised and its use is non-deliberate; furthermore, it can be also indistinctly seen as a perception or part-for-whole metonymy. there can be further embedding of such conceptual mappings: a “fork” can also be perceived, in turn, as a metonymy where the fork is a salient feature that names the whole piece. in l2 contexts, despite its nonliteral origin, not much can be gained from highlighting these specific overlaps, unlike in some more specialised use (“fork” as “copy of a process” or “fork” as “detour”). in the case of compounds (such as “pancake”, “billboard”, “forecast”, “airline”) such intricate overlap might be more objectively explained. similarly, the level of deliberateness in metaphorical uses is complex if “market” as “economic activity” is the regular nondeliberate use in a subcorpus, while the distinction between a “local”, “domestic”, “home”, or “internal” market is deliberate on the part of the speaker, however unpremeditated. in addition, the figurative and non-figurative uses of the expressions in the corpus are largely subcorpus-bound; the use of “range”, “star”, “growth”, “build” and “launch” is less figurative in geography than in business, and “solution” means something entirely different in chemistry than in the other two subcorpora. other more general uses of “rise”, “source”, “service”, “network”, “mouse”, “core” and “limit” as non-literal expressions are relatively much more common across subcorpora, and not necessarily in other fields such as, for instance, health sciences or computing. a. jimenez-munoz & a.c. lahuerta martínez ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278274 8. conclusion as discussed above, the findings of this study support the need for the inclusion of figurative language in esp learning. learners of specialised disciplines need to distinguish literal from figurative language as it may improve their conceptual comprehension. in light of its prevalence in specialised discourses, instructors should explain the definition of figurative language to students clearly and carefully. ultimately, rather than focusing on perceiving non-literal uses as elements along a continuum, it must be considered that “figurative language” is generally nothing “but a convenient way of identifying and discussing a widely-recognised but fuzzily defined subset” of a number of cognitive processes (ritchie, 2006: 11). these cognitive processes are best presented in l2 through metaphor and metonymy types, as the goal of language interaction is both content meaning and the way it is formed. claims that metaphor and metonymy elude rigorous definition and that these categories do not provide deep insight (fauconnier, 2009) must be resisted; as evidenced in our corpus analysis, a substantial amount of text is figurative. contrary to what chen and lai (2012) suggest, instructors must not adopt the idea of a metonymy-metaphor continuum; on the contrary, a cognitive overlap in the use of figurative meanings is a more apt conceptualization. such model must be explicated to l2 students to reveal how language – however specialised – can act both figuratively and creatively. much insight on meaning would come not only from their status as either metaphors, metonymy, or both, but also from looking at the detailed underlying cognitive operations involved in such mappings, and the way they are combined and blended. a taxonomy of these combinations is perhaps inexhaustible, but making these operations evident to l2 students, at least under metaphoric and metonymic types, may help to illuminate concepts as well as to create networks of meaning. rather, they must introduce words or expressions with figurative meanings to students within a cognitive operation framework that encompasses the most relevant mappings for an expression, regardless their metaphoric or metonymic type. they must foster vocabulary learning through domain association, as this process of recognition of corresponding “traits between the subjects described and the subjects compared might help them understand expressions better and hence retain those learned longer” (chen & lai, 2012: 245). however, they must do so focusing on the particular cognitive operations at hand, and their potential expansions within the domain. a metaphor-metonymy continuum? ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278 275 some limitations to the present study must be acknowledged: the number of disciplines examined in this study is not comprehensive, nor is the amount of samples under analysis extremely large. the research would need to be replicated in other analogous fields of study before they could be generalised to other esp disciplines. future studies should then be carried out with a larger sample from a wider range of disciplines. finally, the present study focuses strictly on a specialised corpus; further studies may also investigate esp learners’ awareness of figurative language use, as well as their ability to comprehend and interpret figurative expressions in context. this could lead to the ultimate aim of contributing to their effective teaching and learning in the esp classroom. article history: received 11 january 2017 received in revised form 16 april 2017 accepted 17 april 2017 references a. jimenez-munoz & a.c. lahuerta martínez ibérica 34 (2017): 257-278276 arata, l. 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(2011). “the contemporary theory of metaphor now new and improved!” review of cognitive linguistics 9,1: 26-64. steen, g. j., a. g. dorst, b. herrmann, a. kaal, t. krennmayr, & t. pasma (2011). a method for linguistic metaphor identification. amsterdam: john benjamins. urios-aparisi, e. (2009). “interaction of multimodal metaphor and metonymy in tv commercials: four case studies” in c. forceville & e. urios-aparisi (eds.), multimodal metaphor, 95-118. new york/paris: mouton de gruyter. iberica 13 ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract metaphorical language plays an important role in spreading and popularising scientific information. however, little is known about the process through which sober scientific research is transformed into colourful or even sensational news. this paper examines the main metaphor scenarios used to explain nutritional discoveries, generally related to the overarching metaphors of “combat” and “maintenance”, and explores how they are developed and distributed across institutional press releases, online news reports, and magazines/blogs. most of the metaphor scenarios seem to arise first in the press release, but these are considerably extended and embellished by the other media. only occasionally are new metaphor scenarios engaged, which reflect societal discourses concerning science and nutrition. keywords: metaphor scenario, media language, science reporting, discourse analysis. resumen l a m e t á f o r a e n l a r e p r es e n t a c i ó n d e l o s s u p e r a l i m e n t o s e n l o s m e d i o s d e c o m u n i c a c i ó n : u n e s t u d i o c u a l i t a t i v o d e d i e z c a s o s el lenguaje metafórico tiene un papel importante en la difusión de la investigación científica. sin embargo, no se comprende suficientemente el proceso por el que se transforma la información original en noticias atractivas o incluso sensacionales. en este artículo se estudian los escenarios metafóricos que se emplean para comunicar los resultados de la investigación en nutrición en tres tipos de texto: las notas de prensa institucionales, los periódicos y agencias online, y las revistas/blogs. los principales escenarios metafóricos, la mayoría explaining superfoods: exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports ruth breeze universidad de navarra (spain) rbreeze@unav.es 67 ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 ruth breeze relacionados con los conceptos de “combate” y “mantenimiento”, se identifican, y su desarrollo en los distintos medios se analiza. la mayoría de los escenarios aparecen por primera vez en las notas de prensa, pero se elaboran y se amplían en los demás medios online. solamente en pocas ocasiones los medios introducen nuevos escenarios metafóricos que reflejan otros discursos sobre la ciencia y la nutrición disponibles a nivel social. palabras clave: escenario metafórico, lenguaje mediático, difusión científica, análisis de discurso. introduction the popularisation of scientific research has been a steady focus of research in discourse studies over the last thirty years. early studies tended to assume that science held “true” knowledge, and that the media simplified or even contaminated that information (hilgartner, 1990). since then, a more sophisticated understanding has emerged of the role of the media and the complex relationships between scientists, journalists and the public (weingart, 1998). we now know that scientists and their institutions actively seek to influence the media with a view to enhancing their profile and obtaining funding, while the media themselves are under different pressures that affect content, tone and presentation. moreover, the role and presence of the audience have also changed over this time, since readers are increasingly able to interact with producers. in this changing landscape, one point is clear: we are witnessing a closer relationship between science and the media, and it is increasingly difficult to disentangle different strands of information. media science reports consist of a complex blend of rigorous facts, popularisation strategies and hype, and when the message they transmit is seriously distorted, this may have consequences not only for education, but also for public health. one area of science which is accorded particular prominence in the media is that of nutrition, and research about particular foods is likely to be given more media attention than drier, less accessible forms of scientific research. one topos that frequently generates media attention is the notion of the “superfood” which acts as a panacea against a range of diseases, and which “will give our bodies the health kick they need to stave off illness and aging” (european food information council, 2012). despite some critical attention from consumer bodies and health authorities (nhs behind the headlines, 2016), which are eager to point out that “it is unrealistic to expect a narrow 68 range of ‘superfoods’ to significantly improve our well-being” (european food information council, 2012), the notion that some foods have quasimagical health-enhancing powers recurs frequently in news and magazine reports, as well as in health and diet-related blogs. such items are often embellished by colourful metaphorical language which dramatizes their claims. what is less clear, is exactly how such transformations occur: do the media writers exercise considerable licence when writing their articles, or do some changes enter the information during the writing of the institutional press release sent to the media? against this background, this paper conducts a qualitative analysis of how research about so-called “superfoods” is represented in the online media (newspapers, news agencies and providers, magazines and blogs). it centres on the metaphors used in media reports, mapping out the various metaphor scenarios on which writers draw, and endeavouring to tease out where these originated: in the institutional press release, or in the writing of the media text. theoretical framework in cognitive theory, metaphors are understood in terms of one-to-one mappings from source to target domain (lakoff & johnson, 1980). however, there are two problems with this. one is that metaphors do not appear in isolation, with one idea neatly mapped onto another to illustrate a point, but rather reflect conventions and comparisons prevalent in a particular culture, often with evaluative implications. the other is that the mappings found in any particular discourse may lack coherence, often conjuring up contradictory images of both source and target. to address these issues, musolff (2006) suggests that rather than activating isolated mappings from source to target, metaphors in discourse tend to reflect background “scenarios” that provide a range of source material for conceptualising a particular topic. for example, speakers/writers draw upon stereotypical scenarios in our (culturally conditioned) experiences of areas such as health, family or combat, in order to explain and evaluate phenomena from particular source domains such as the economy, business or medical treatment. as musolff (2006: 24) points out, these scenarios often also have evaluative undertones as a result of social attitudes to the source domain, which may be politically motivated. use of scenarios is ubiquitous in public discourse (musloff, 2006: 28, 35), and the “folktheoretical” and “strongly stereotyping” knowledge employed in such exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 69 metaphors actually helps to shape the course of public debate by giving an argumentative advantage to those who appropriate them (musolff, 2012). as musolff (2012: 306) points out, even when metaphors are highly conventionalised, the network of associations around them still conveys ideological meanings, since the literal meaning from the source domain tends to “linger” in the text, and is likely to contribute to the pervasive ideological tone. the potential of metaphor has also been discussed by scholars interested in other types of discourse, particularly in the areas of education and popularisation. metaphor plays a prominent role in media popularisation discourses and other areas where specialised knowledge is conveyed to nonspecialist audiences. in business, for example, popular periodicals such as the economist have been found to contain a wider range of metaphors than academic journals, and these metaphors were different in frequency and type (skorczynska & deignan, 2006). in scientific reporting, the potential of metaphor to explain complex ideas by means of parallelisms between the source and target domain is probably the first motivation for employing such devices (english, 1998; luzón, 2015). nevertheless, although the use of metaphors in scientific discourse, say, may seem far removed from the ideological uses mentioned above, there are some areas in which elements are present that are more than simply explanatory. this is particularly evident in media texts about scientific phenomena, in which metaphors are indeed used to explain, but also to dramatise or humanise scientific concepts. as calsamiglia and van dijk show, “the mass media are not passive mediators of scientific knowledge, but actively contribute in the production of new, common knowledge and opinions about science and scientists” (2004: 371). with metaphor, what happens is particularly interesting, since as knudsen (2003: 1259) observes, the media do not simply relay the metaphorical language devised by scientists, but actually adapt and extend it, reworking and recontextualising it for lay audiences. in specialist texts, scientific metaphors, once accepted, generally become what she terms “closed” (2003: 1254), being used just like any other scientific concept (e.g. “translation” in genetics). however, in non-specialist texts, these metaphors tend to be “open”, or even “reopened”, in that they are marked as metaphors, and explained further, sometimes in relation to other metaphors used to clarify fundamental scientific concepts that might not be familiar to the reader. in all this, it is important to note that, as calsamiglia and van dijk show, “the role of new knowledge production by the mass media needs to be further ruth breeze ibérica 34 (2017): 67-8870 contextualized in relation to the other, especially the entertainment, functions of the media” (2004: 371-2). metaphors spark and maintain interest, and explanatory uses of metaphor in the media merge with “promotional” or even “sensationalising” functions. lexical choices which animate, or even personify, diseases raise the emotional temperature of a text and provoke fear in readers. in such cases, the explanatory use of particular metaphor scenarios overlaps with the need to attract attention and persuade the audience. moreover, as media language is relatively conventionalised, the use of such metaphor scenarios quickly becomes widespread in reports about particular topics. the media tend to reflect each other, and many reports on the same issue will rely on the same sources, and even the same informants, so that particular topics readily become associated with particular metaphor scenarios. although this is interesting as a discourse-related phenomenon, it raises several difficult questions concerning the media and their role in promoting public health. the way in which health topics are reported has come in for repeated criticism, generally levelled at the journalists responsible for such reports. goldacre (2008, 2016) draws our attention to the crude oversimplifications found in media reports, which sometimes culminate in absurd generalisations. however, although many of his analyses centre on a misuse of metonymy, he focuses more on the misleading reporting of scientific content than on the actual language or metaphors used, and his criticisms centre on factual issues rather than on conceptual or linguistic features. in a linguistically-focused approach to media science reporting, breeze (2015) shows how one health-related scientific discovery was relayed in the media, analysing how newspapers reproduced the boosting devices first introduced in the press release, while eliminating the hedging used there to moderate specific claims. her study identified salient metaphors appearing in the media texts, most of which originated in the press release itself. interestingly, this suggests that the metaphors and metonymy found in media science reports may in fact often be introduced by the original press release, or even by the scientists themselves, who provide striking quotations to accompany the brief reports on their research. far from being a media distortion, this phenomenon could be part of the strategy adopted by scientific institutions to draw attention to their work and attract funding. despite the evident importance of this subject, little research has been published on the role of metaphorical language and metaphor scenarios in media science reports. in this paper, i undertake a detailed qualitative study exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 71 of ten research articles about the health benefits of consuming certain foods, often labelled “superfoods”, together with the institutional press releases issued on publication, and a selection of online newspaper and magazine articles covering the same pieces of research. in particular, i address the following questions. 1) what are the characteristic metaphor scenarios engaged in media reporting on superfoods? 2) where do the metaphor scenarios originate, and how are they elaborated across the press releases and different kinds of media report (online news reports, magazines/blogs) based on the same original text?1 texts and method the texts selected for this study were all initially located through the nhs website “behind the headlines”, which provides accurate information about health-related stories published in the uk media. ten different foods were selected which had been the subject of a report on this website over the years 2010-2016. in each case, i located the original press release, and media reports that referred specifically to this piece of research, including online news reports (e.g. newspapers, bbc news, cnn news), and other media (online magazines or blogs). media reports were included in this study only if they referred directly to the research study or researchers in question, and if they dated from the two-month period following the publication of the original article. science articles for which fewer than two online news reports and two magazine or blog entries could be located were excluded from this study. it should be noted that although an attempt was made to search for all the texts specifically reporting on the research article in question over the two-month period following publication, it is likely that some texts escaped my attention, either because they did not include the words included in the search criteria, or because they were no longer online. the foods selected are shown in table 1, which also provides an overview of the number of news reports and other media articles for each one. a total of 60 news reports and media texts were included in the study, as well as ten press releases and the original ten research papers. news and other media reports were included in the study if they had originally been published in the month after the original report, and included a direct reference to the study (by giving the title or journal of the paper, or naming the scientists or their research team). since not all the research papers attracted the same ruth breeze ibérica 34 (2017): 67-8872 media attention, it was not possible to include an equal number of news and other media reports for each food. words or expressions were taken as metaphorical if they had a more basic contemporary meaning in other contexts than in the given context (pragglejaz, 2007), i.e. these words had a usual meaning which was more concrete, more related to bodily action, or more precise than the one in the text, and the contextual meaning contrasted with this usual meaning but could be understood in comparison with it. for example, when the daily mail states that “green tea can fight off dementia”, the phrasal verb “fight off” means “to defend oneself from an attack by someone or something” (oxford english dictionary), as in the sentence “candice fought her assailant off”. this is a) more concrete and more related to bodily action than the use in the text, and b) the use in the text can be understood in comparison with it. it is therefore classed as a metaphorical use. since the focus of the present study is on how press releases and online media report research results about “superfoods”, the metaphors identified here concern only the food itself and its supposed effects (other metaphors, such as those used to explain diseases or processes without reference to the food or substance and its effects, or those used to describe ongoing nutritional trends, have been excluded, for reasons of space). overview of metaphor scenarios the main metaphor scenarios used in the context of each food are shown in table 2, with lists of the main words or expressions used to engage these scenarios in each set of texts. exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 73 press release online news reports other media beetroot 1 2 2 black rice 1 3 2 broccoli 1 3 2 chocolate 1 7 3 fish oil 1 5 2 green tea 1 2 2 nuts 1 4 2 pomegranate 1 5 3 red grapes 1 4 2 yoghurt 1 3 2 table 1. types of source text included in this study for the ten foods. s o t ruth breeze ibérica 34 (2017): 67-8874 main metaphor scenarios press release online news reports magazines/blogs beetroot h a s boost, power, popeye effect humble, boost, power, dramatic, popeye effect boost, power, magic black rice c h cl s a rival, fight, boost, embrace fight, packed, boost, mop up, hail, revere, pack a punch promote, boost, rivals, treasure, rich, marry, forbidden broccoli c h b s a loaded, pack, promising progeny, stick around loaded, stick around, miracle, boost, protect big daddy of superfoods, hail, minitrees, pack, stick around, supercharge, makeover chocolate c h s a cut out, protect protect, comfort, guilty, slash, cut, rejuvenating, healing powers, boost boost, revered fish oil c a role dramatic, protect, cut, slash inflammationfighting, exciting, cut, trigger, keep symptoms at bay green tea c h m missiles, kill, zoom in on target, stealth molecules, camouflage, boost, target cancer-fighting, protect, attack, hurdle, harness (homing/nano) missiles, stealth molecule, camouflage, filter out, target, boost, shield, cloak nuts c h cc a cut, killer, fight, protect, crack mystery, boost, stave off cut, killer, fight killer pomegranate c h m b cl cc s a reveal secret, protect, struggle, recycle powerhouse, david against goliath, cleanup process, essential mechanism, fight, open up territory recycle and rebuild themselves, food of the gods, holds the key, power plants, cluttered up, poorly functioning, packed, combat, fountain of youth, miracle, tiny battery packs, power up, keep at bay, recharge, open up territory, secret, powerhouse, power, key, fountain of youth, recycle, kickstarting, soothe, fight, battery packs, keep at bay, recharge, miracle, run down, drained, holding at bay small generators, boost, attack, clean-up, promise as is evident from table 2, the main metaphor scenarios engaged are related to what might be termed two “master scenarios”: namely, “combat” and “maintenance”. combat, and the related scenario of harnessing, are the most frequent, appearing in relation to all but one case. in what follows, i provide an outline of the main metaphor scenarios activated, indicating if these are common to all media or specific to a particular kind. combat (attack and defence) is a scenario that has frequently been associated with medical discourse in many contexts (demmen et al., 2015). here, the notion of the body as a battleground appears across all three sets of texts. expressions such as “fight/combat cancer/infection/disease”, “barrier defence” and “line of defence” occur in many press releases, and tend to be repeated across online news reports and other media, often giving rise to more elaborate discursive realisations than in the press release, such as “fend off bacteria” (daily express), “shielding” (escapist magazine), “keep symptoms at bay” (daily mail), “free radicals attack our cells” (daily express). moreover, the “master scenario” of combat can be seen to underlie the metaphor of “harnessing forces”, which will be described next. harnessing the body’s own potential, or the forces of nature, forms a second common scenario found in all three sets of texts. this draws on the idea of the body as a vital system that is potentially self-regulating, which has a long trajectory in the history of thought, going back at least to the times of galen (bechtel & richardson, 1998). the system itself can fail, or “go awry”, but it, or particular parts of it, can “harness health-boosting power” available naturally in order to restore the organic balance. in particular, the concept of “boosting” appears to be a staple of health-related media reporting. this is exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 75 red grapes c h m cc s a enhance, boost, synergy, popped out, fight, (first line of/ barrier) defence, combat boost, fight, go awry, popped out, synergy, reveal, key role, fight, hail, first line of defence, fend off, work with, stood out, harness, trigger work in synergy, popped out, fight, key role, first line of defence, combat, boost yoghurt h m a beneficial, boost, role, enrich, mechanism, leaky benefit, boost, wasting, mechanism, enriched benefit, mechanism, boost, friendly table 2. metaphorical words or expressions used in connection with the food/substance and its actions. key: c: combat; h: harnessing own forces; m: mechanism; b: battery; cl: cleaning; cc: cracking a code or secret; s: supernatural; a: animation. one of the few expressions identified as metaphorical which is actually used in the original scientific research papers (e.g. “resveratrol boosts camp expression”, in the article on red grapes), but there the meaning is characteristically “closed” to convey an exact scientific concept related to raising the expression of a particular gene. in the online news reports, on the other hand, “boosting” is an open metaphor, used rather loosely, in a variety of different ways (knudsen, 2003). press releases often contain the notion that a substance “boosts” one of the body’s natural processes, which is then repeated, or further developed, by the media. other metaphors appear to draw on the same underlying organic/vitalistic model of the human body. the body as a machine or mechanism that can break down and be repaired is linked to the above idea, but the underlying metaphor is to a mechanical device rather than an organic system. indeed, the master scenario of “maintenance” seems to underlie not just the mechanism scenario, but also the battery and cleaning scenarios described below. the notion of the body as machine is famously associated with descartes (hatfield, 2016), who popularised it, but it actually underlies much scientific writing. here, this is particularly frequent in the reports on the pomegranate: the body can “become worn out and damaged” (daily telegraph), an “essential mechanism” can fail (press release), in which case the superfood can help to “kickstart” an important function (natural society). in the case of yoghurt, we even read that important barriers can become “leaky with aging” (press release). within this general area, the battery offers a particular scenario, the specific development of which is worthy of further attention. in the present sample, this scenario is exploited most in the case of the pomegranate. the press release tells us that as we age, “our cells increasingly struggle to recycle their powerhouses”, but the daily express elaborates on this, informing us that our cells are filled with “small energy generators called mitochondria”, and these mitochondria are “tiny rod-like ‘power plants’” (an explanation which is not provided in the press release, but which is available in many online reference sources), and that the substance in question will enable us to “recycle these drained battery packs” and “power them up again”. curiously, the scenario of the battery seems to be usable both to explain what happens in the body (in the case of pomegranates) and to describe what scientists are doing to the food (in the case of broccoli). along similar lines, cleaning2 is also an aspect of bodily maintenance at cellular level that also gives rise to some metaphorical explanations, which also draw ruth breeze ibérica 34 (2017): 67-8876 on the main underlying metaphor scenario of the body as machine. the press release about pomegranates alludes to the cellular “clean-up process”, and this idea is developed further by the media reports. cells can become “cluttered up” (daily telegraph) and unwanted items need to be “cleared away” and “recycled” (daily telegraph). with other foods, similar creativity is exercised in the media reports concerning the use of this scenario: e.g. newspapers tell us that black rice can “mop up harmful molecules” (daily mail). moving beyond the main scenarios related to combat and mechanism, we also encounter some other scenarios in these texts. scientific advances are sometimes represented as cracking a code. this rather diffuse scenario is, of course, a staple of reports about complex issues such as the genome (liakopoulos, 2002), but is here applied to less abstruse science-related questions. playing on the use of “to crack”, the mirror tells us that “scientists have cracked the age-old mystery about why nuts are good for us”. according to the daily express, scientists working on red grapes have “revealed the secrets” of having a healthy life. the press release about pomegranates has the headline “pomegranate finally reveals its powerful anti-aging secret”. the daily mail picks up this idea, stating that the pomegranate “may hold the secret to a long and healthy life”, while the headline in food and wine is “science reveals the secret behind pomegranates’ anti-aging power”. various metaphors found here also draw on the scenario of the supernatural, although it should be noted that the press releases refrain from employing such imagery. broccoli, the daily express tells us, is a “miracle vegetable”, while according to the food blog delish, beetroot has “magic muscle power”. black rice is a “forbidden rice” (daily mail), the prerogative of chinese emperors. milk chocolate is “revered” (you beauty). the food credited with the most exceptional properties of this kind is the pomegranate, variously celebrated by the news reports and other online media as the “food of the gods” (daily telegraph) which contains a “miracle ingredient” (daily mail) or “miracle anti-ageing tool” (daily express), and which holds the “fountain of youth” (life plan). links to the supernatural, to religion or magic, have been previously documented in media science reporting, particularly in the area of biotechnology and genetics (liakopoulos, 2002). here, such references are not highly developed (for example, the term “miracle vegetable” can at most be interpreted as vaguely religious hype), except in the case of the pomegranate, where the fruit’s association with classical culture allows the exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 77 writers to develop a scenario drawing on ancient mythology and narrative (e.g. the fountain used by the king of the ethiopians, described in herodotus in the 5th century bc (1987, 3.23)). in general, the scenario of the supernatural, in the broadest sense, is variously invoked, to enhance messages concerning the food’s supposed qualities, the mystique surrounding it and the way people feel about it. finally, one device which, though metaphorical, is hard to relate to one specific scenario, is that of animation, occasionally even personification: either the food itself, or one of its components, is animated. the emphasis may be on the “character” or “presentation” of the food itself, so we find the pomegranate personified as a “humble fruit” (daily mail), while broccoli will “get a makeover” (science alert). animation is also used to attribute volitional actions to what are, intrinsically, inanimate substances. the substance in red grapes that helps to cure infection is said to have “popped right out” from the other substances, while black rice can “pack a punch” (cnn), thus engaging animation as well as the combat scenario. yoghurt promotes the development of “friendly bacteria” (net doctor). in other contexts, foods compete with each other or have family relationships. the “rhetoric of animation” associated with health-related reporting was amply discussed by fowler in the negative context of health scares, where the combat metaphor activates the “battle against the bugs” scenario associated with horror and science fiction movies (1994: 97). it is therefore interesting that animation also appears in reports with a positive framing of health issues. metaphors from press release to media reports although it is clear from table 2 that press releases generally contain fewer metaphorical uses than the media reports, press releases certainly do make use of metaphorical language. since institutional press releases are written with the main aim of promoting their institution and its research, with a view to attracting broad attention and obtaining as much media coverage as possible, it is hardly surprising that the writers of such press releases should employ a similar repertoire of rhetorical strategies to journalists themselves – including metaphors. on the other hand, the writers of press releases probably do operate under more constraints than journalists and bloggers, since they represent serious scientific institutions, and cannot afford to lose credibility with the scientific community itself. previous research has ruth breeze ibérica 34 (2017): 67-8878 suggested that they operate in a grey area between two different paradigms: that of newsworthiness, and that of scientific research (breeze, 2015). this explains why, for example, claims made in the press releases are often heavily hedged, even though the positive results and their implications are boosted. in the present set of texts, many metaphor scenarios fleetingly engaged in the press release are taken up and further developed in the media reports. it might seem excessive to claim that skilled press release writers can “prime” media reporters to follow particular lines of thought, but as we shall see, there is evidence to suggest that a press release that draws on recognisable metaphor scenarios will find these at least reproduced, if not developed and embellished, in the media reports that it generates. starting from the most obvious point, as table 2 shows, the press releases which contain a larger range of metaphorical expressions seem to be associated with media reports that also include many metaphors. the most sober press releases, such as those for “fish oil”, “chocolate” or “nuts”, which contain only the most conventionalised metaphorical language, appear to give rise to a relatively narrow range of metaphors in media reports. conversely, where the press release employs a more highly developed dramatization of the scenario, the media pick up on this and even develop this further. thus in the case of green tea, the press release contains a set of metaphorical expressions which engage the scenario of warfare or combat: “missiles”, “stealth molecules”, “camouflage” and “tumor targeting”. the media reports not only repeat the same expressions, but also develop this theme even more dramatically along the same lines: expressions such as “homing missiles”, “nanomissiles” and “cloaking drugs” are not in the original press release, but are found in the magazine/blog articles to describe the effects of the substance in question. let us consider another example to explore how this works in more detail. the press release about red grapes states that “continued research could ... possibly lead to the development of therapeutically useful natural compounds that could boost the innate immune response”. this is picked up by almost all media reports and elaborated further. typically, the media reports zoom in on the substantive claim, ignoring the (substantial) hedging used to couch it (breeze, 2015). in addition to the obliteration of subtlety and flattening of modality, however, the media also add new metaphorical language which heightens the importance of the discovery and downplays any uncertainty about its real applications. the daily express relays the original information as follows, using metaphors from the press release: exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 79 “scientists have discovered that red grapes and blueberries contain ingredients that work with vitamin d in the body to boost the immune system, vital for good health in fighting infection”. this sentence not only combines one new instance of animation (“work”) with two metaphors from the press release (“boost” and “fight”), but it compresses complex information that is originally set out carefully across a much longer expanse of text in such a way that the effects of these substances are made to seem to be generalised, immediate, and extremely important. by conflating key ideas from the press release within a single sentence, the report generates a new, dramatic scenario in which active agents are depicted as “working” to “boost” the system that “fights” infection. interestingly, some expressions seem to be perceived as newsworthy in themselves, and are seized upon by all the reporters who pick up the story. in the case of red grapes, the expression “popped right out” (indicating their uniqueness) originates in the press release, in a direct quotation from one of the scientists. this is then picked up by almost all the online media. on the other hand, the fate of other equally colourful expressions seems to be more idiosyncratic: for example, a “david and goliath” comparison is provided in the press release on pomegranate, but is not taken up by the media at all, while the “popeye effect”, which also originates in the press release (for beetroot), is picked up by online news reports, but not by the magazines/blogs. on the other hand, expressions playing on the notion of “keeping the doctor away” abound in all types of media articles, often in the headline, but are never in the press releases. finally, as table 2 shows, one press release, namely that about pomegranates, was particularly rich in metaphorical language. although this press release adheres to the convention that results should be hedged, and stresses that so far, result have only been obtained in nematodes, it also makes strong claims, such as: “the epfl scientists’ approach provides a whole new palette of opportunities to fight the muscular degeneration that takes place as we age, and possibly also to counteract other effects of aging”. the different metaphor scenarios engaged in this press release (code-cracking, supernatural, mechanism, battery, cleaning) are all taken up in various ways in the media reports. interestingly, the battery metaphor is not spelled out in the press release, although it is alluded to in “our cells increasingly struggle to recycle their powerhouses”. yet the media mostly pick up the battery metaphor and elaborate on it, adding explanations of their own, many of which centre on the idea of mitochondria as “tiny battery packs that power ruth breeze ibérica 34 (2017): 67-8880 our cells” (daily mail). the daily express provides the following explanation: “all our cells are filled with small energy generators called mitochondria but when mitochondria get old they become less-efficient, or even toxic. old mitochondria are recycled by the cell into new mitochondria and this, in turn, is mitophagy”. here, it seems that journalists and bloggers are sensitive to metaphor scenarios activated in the press release, and do not lack creativity or imagination when it comes to taking advantage of these cues to extend and embellish the information they have to convey. on a different note, the metaphors used in the press release often clearly have an educational function: for the wider public to appreciate scientific research, it is necessary for them at least to have a basic understanding of the concepts and processes involved. scientific popularisation relies on basic shared knowledge which can enable the writer to develop or convey a new idea by combining ideas that the reader already has (hallyn, 2000). this sample of texts offers some instances where a metaphor-based didactic explanation is simply reproduced in media reports. for example, the press release on broccoli provides the following explanation: “the researchers crossed two broccoli lines and tested their progeny in terms of total phenolic content and their ability to neutralize oxygen radicals in cellular assays. they then used a genetic technique called quantitative trait locus analysis to search for the genes involved in generating phenolics in the most promising progeny.” this explanation, with its image of “progeny” and “promising progeny” is repeated verbatim in the daily express. however, we should note that although some of the metaphors relayed in the media reports are simply included as explanations, this is not the end of the story. it is interesting to observe that other media forgo the “family” scenario and replace this idea with explanations such as “scientists believe they are now one-step closer to creating other vegetables such as kale and cabbage with mega-doses of phenolic compounds which lower risk of heart disease” (daily mail). the use of “creating” here subtly evokes the image of the scientist who “plays god” (see knudsen, 2003), studiously avoided in the press release, which prefers to convey that of the homely plant-breeder and the “family” of plants. this illustrates how journalists sometimes go beyond their source material to engage metaphor scenarios available on a broader societal level, which perhaps reflect their own background interpretation of the issue, or a wider ideological framework. exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 81 conclusions this qualitative study of metaphor scenarios in press releases on so-called superfoods and in the media reports based on these specific source texts extends our knowledge of the workings of metaphor in discourse, and sheds light on how the media draw on and elaborate metaphor scenarios as they relay scientific information to the wider public. concerning the decision to use the concept of the metaphor scenario (musolff, 2006), it is evident that this provides a useful framework for analysing phenomena such as media reports, where metaphorical language is used for a variety of purposes, including explanation, dramatisation and promotion. the notion of the scenario proves productive here, because it reveals some of the strategies that journalists use to develop, popularise and promote complex scientific concepts. most metaphorical language in the media reports reflects scenarios originally engaged in the press release, suggesting that the metaphor scenarios used are particularly salient for these journalists and bloggers. however, the media writers do not simply reproduce metaphors, but generate new ones associated with the same scenario (e.g. warfare or batteries), available by association with socially familiar discourses. moreover, media writers even occasionally introduce references to new metaphor scenarios (e.g. scientists playing god) by association with other popular notions. as liakopoulos (2002) has emphasised, the imagery surrounding particular scientific topics tends to stabilise and consolidate over time. while in professional science, this stabilisation leads to the adoption of metaphorical language as technical terms with a fixed meaning (knudsen, 2003, see above), in media language this means that particular clusters of “open” metaphors tend to be available for dealing with a particular topic, and these metaphors (or scenarios) prove generative for media writers. this phenomenon evidently holds considerable interest for discourse analysts. just as the use of certain metaphor scenarios associated with media health scares, becomes “a self-sustaining expressive performance” (fowler, 1994: 91) which persists autonomously within the discourse of a particular domain, so another set of metaphor scenarios forms a stable background to the way nutrition-related topics are represented and recontextualised for media audiences. the media surround certain types of food with discourses that engage other scenarios, ranging from vitalist and mechanistic visions of the human body, to religion and mythology. such reports may fulfil a public ruth breeze ibérica 34 (2017): 67-8882 health function and encourage healthy eating. however, they also appear to conjure up a world view in which people’s health can be magically transformed by the consumption of a particular food. to conclude, the role of the media in informing the public, promoting health and explaining scientific discoveries can never entirely be separated from the intention to attract and maintain attention. the use of metaphorical language is one of the ways in which the media bridge the gap between making new scientific knowledge known, and providing entertainment. in the case of media science, this process may actually begin further back, with the press releases that are issued with promotional, as well as informative, intent. it would require further research, particularly in the area of reader reception, to determine the extent to which the functions of informing and entertaining are fulfilled in each case, and whether the overall message is conducive to public health. article history: received 04 january 2017 received in revised form 31 march 2017 accepted 03 april 2017 references exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 83 bechtel, w. & r.c. richardson (1998). “vitalism” in e. craig (ed.), routledge encyclopaedia of philosophy, 639-643. london: routledge. breeze, r. (2015). “media representations of scientific research findings: from ‘stilbenoids raise camp expression’ to ‘red wine protects against illness’” in m. gotti, s. maci & m. sala (eds.), insights into medical communication, 311-330. bern: peter lang. breeze, r. (2016). “tracing the development of an emergent part-genre: the author summary”. english for specific purposes 42: 50-65. calsamiglia, h., & t.a. van dijk (2004). “popularisation discourse and knowledge about the genome”. discourse and society 15: 369-389. demmen, j., semino, e., demjen, z., koller, v., hardie, a., rayson, p., & s. payne (2015). “a computer assisted study of the use of violence metaphors for cancer and end of life by patients, family carers and health professionals”. international journal of corpus linguistics 20: 205-231. english, k. (1998). “understanding science: when metaphors become terms”. asp 19-22: 151-163. european food information council (eufic) (2012). “the science behind superfoods. are they really super?” url: http://www.eufic.org/article/en/artid/the-sciencebehind-superfoods/ [22/09/2017] fowler, r. (1994). “hysterical style in the press” in d. graddol & o. boyd-barrett (eds.), media texts: authors and readers, 90-99. clevedon: multilingual matters. goldacre, b. (2008). bad science. london: fourth estate. goldacre, b. (2016). bad science blog. url: http://www.badscience.net/ [22/09/2017] hallyn, f. (ed.) (2000). metaphor and analogy in the sciences. dordrecht: kluwer. hatfield, g. (2016). “rené descartes” in e. n. zalta (ed.), the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. url: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2016/entrie s/descartes/ [22/09/2017] herodotus. (440 bc, 1987). the history (tr. d. grene). chicago: university of chicago press. hilgartner, s. (1990). “the dominant view of ruth breeze is senior lecturer in english at the university of navarra, spain, and combines teaching with research as a member of the gradun research group in the instituto cultura y sociedad. her most recent books are corporate discourse (bloomsbury academic, 2015) and the coedited volumes essential competencies for english-medium university teaching (springer, 2016), evaluation in media discourse: european perspectives (peter lang, 2017) and power, persuasion and manipulation in specialised genres (peter lang, 2017). notes 1 in what follows, “online news reports” is used to mean newspapers and news sources such as the bbc and “magazines/blogs” to other types of online publication. “media reports” and “the media” is used to refer to all of these publications collectively. 2 although “cleaning” may have a literal meaning in terms of cellular processes, the elaborations of this, such as “mop up” or “cluttered up” are clearly metaphorical. appendix source material (ra: research article; pr: press release) beetroot ra: coggan, a., leibowitz, j., spearie, c., kadkhodayan, a., thomas, d., ramamurthy, s., mahmood, k., park, s., waller, s., farmer, m., & peterson, l. (2015). acute dietary nitrate intake improves muscle contractile function ruth breeze ibérica 34 (2017): 67-8884 popularization: conceptual problems, political uses”. social studies of science 20: 519-539. knudsen, s. (2003). “scientific metaphors going public”. journal of pragmatics 35: 1247-1263. lakoff, g. & m. johnson (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago: university of chicago press. liakopoulos, m. (2002). “pandora’s box or panacea? using metaphors to create the public representations of biotechnology”. public understanding of science 11(5): 5-32. luzón, m.j. (2015). “recontextualising expert discourse in weblogs: strategies to communicate health research to experts and the interested public” in m. gotti, s. maci & m. sala (eds.), insights into medical communication, 331-352. bern: peter lang. musolff, a. (2006). “metaphor scenarios in public discourse”. metaphor and symbol 21(1): 23-38. musolff, a. (2012). “the study of metaphor as part of critical discourse analysis”. critical discourse studies 9(3): 301-310. nhs behind the headlines. (2016). url: http://www.nhs.uk/news/pages/newsindex.aspx [22/09/2017] oxford english dictionary. oxford: oxford university press. pragglejaz group (2007). “mip. a method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse”. metaphor and symbol 22(1): 1-39. skorczynska, h. & a. deignan (2006). “readership and purpose in the choice of economics metaphors”. metaphor and symbol 21(2): 87-104. weingart, p. (1998). “science and the media”. research policy 27: 869-879. in patients with heart failure: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial. circulation: heart failure 8, 5: 914-920. url: https://doi.org/10.1161/circheartfailure.115.002141 pr: beet juice boosts muscle power in heart patients. washington university. https://source.wustl.edu/2015/ 09/beet-juice-boosts-muscle-power-in-heart-patients/ consumer healthday. beet juice boosts muscle power in heart patients. 21 september 2015. delish. beets are underappreciated. 17 september 2015. mirror. experts hail beetroot juice’s ‘popeye effect’ in building strength of heart attack patients. 17 september 2015. npr. why you might want to be drinking beet juice at the gym. 14 october 2015. black rice ra: jang, s., & xu, z. (2009). lipophilic and hydrophilic antioxidants and their antioxidant activities in purple bran rice. journal of agricultural and food chemistry 57, 3: 858-862. pr: black rice rivals pricey blueberries as source of healthful antioxidants. louisiana state university. url: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2010/august/black-rice-rivals-pricey-blueberriesas-source-of-healthful-antioxidants.html [22/09/2017] cnn. is black rice the new brown? 26 august 2010. daily mail. black rice is the new cancer-fighting superfood, claim scientists. 27 august 2010. independent. scientists hail health benefits of black rice. 27 august 2010. natural news. nutrition discovery. black rice rivals blueberries as source of healthful antioxidants. 14 september 2010. nutrition unplugged. is black the new blue? 15 september 2010. broccoli ra: gardner, a., brown, a., & juvik, j. (2016). qtl analysis for the identification of candidate genes controlling phenolic compound accumulation in broccoli. molecular breeding 36, 81. pr: more reasons to eat your broccoli. university of illinois. 24 june 2016. url: http://web.extension.illinois.edu/ state/newsdetail.cfm?newsid=3380 [22/09/2017] daily mail. why broccoli really is a superfood. 23 june 2016. daily express. eating miracle vegetable broccoli three times a week cuts cancer risk and this is why. 11 october 2016. huffington post. broccoli to become the big daddy of superfoods. 24 june 2016. metro. broccoli is about to get even healthier. 28 june 2016. science alert. scientists just found a way to make broccoli even healthier. 28 june 2016. chocolate ra: kwok, c., boekholdt, s., lentjes, m., loke, y., luben, r., yeong, j., wareham, n., myint, p., & khaw, k. (2015) habitual chocolate consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease among healthy men and women. bmj heart 101, 16. url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2014-307050 [22/09/2017] pr: eating up to 100g of chocolate every day linked to lowered heart disease and stroke risk. university of aberdeen. 16 june 2015. url: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/7836/ exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 85 daily express. a chocolate a day: how just two bars daily can add years to your life. 16 june 2015. daily telegraph. two bars of chocolate a day ‘lowers risk of stroke and heart disease’. 15 june 2015. independent. two chocolate bars a day ‘reduce risk of heart disease and stroke’. 16 june 2015. itv news. link between eating chocolate and lowered stroke risk. 16 june 2015. metro. it’s official: chocolate linked to lower risk of heart disease and stroke. 16 june 2015. mirror. two chocolate bars a day can slash the risk of heart disease. 16 june 2015. science daily. chocolate for your heart. 15 june 2015. the guardian. more evidence that chocolate may be good for the heart. 16 june 2015. well & good. eating chocolate every day linked to lower heart disease and stroke. 16 june 2015. you beauty. get low with cocoa. 16 june 2015. fish oil ra: di giuseppe, d., wallin, a., bottai, m., askling, j. & wolk, a. (2016). long-term intake of dietary long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a prospective cohort study of women. annals of the rheumatic diseases, online first, 10 november 2016. pr: regular weekly portion of fatty fish can halve rheumatoid arthritis risk. british medical journal. 13 august 2013. url: http://ard.bmj.com/content/suppl/2013/08/13/annrheumdis-2013-203338.dc2/annrheumdis-2013203338_press_release_to_upload.pdf [22/09/2017] bbc. eating oily fish ‘halves rheumatoid arthritis risk’. 13 august 2013. consumer healthday. eating fish may be tied to lower rheumatoid arthritis risk: study. 13 august 2013. daily express. how oily fish can halve risk of arthritis. 13 august 2013. daily mail. eating salmon once a week ‘reduces risk of rheumatoid arthritis by half’. 13 august 2013. everyday health. researchers have long touted the health benefits of omega-3 rich fish, and now research suggests it could substantially reduce your ra risk. 12 august 2013. mirror. eating salmon once a week ‘cuts rheumatoid arthritis risk in half. 13 august 2013. the guardian. eating fish could halve risk of arthritis. 13 august 2013. green tea ra: chung, j., tan, s., gao, s., yongvongsoontorn, n., kim, s., lee, j., choi, h., yano, h., zhuo, l., kurisawa, m., & ying, j. (2014). self-assembled micellar nanocomplexes comprising green tea catechin derivatives and protein drugs for cancer therapy. nature nanotechnology 9: 907-912. url: http://www.nature.com/nnano/ journal/v9/n11/full/nnano.2014.208.html [22/09/2017] pr: ibn develops green tea-based ‘missiles’ to kill cancer cells more effectively. a*star. 6 october 2014. daily express. tea bid to fight cancer. 6 october 2014. daily mail. green tea could help scientists develop new cancer fighting drugs. 5 october 2014. escapist magazine. green tea-powered nano “missile” is the latest cancer-fighting drug. 7 october 2014. phys.org. researchers develop green tea based ‘missiles’ to kill cancer cells more effectively. 6 october 2014. nuts ra: aune, d., keum, n., giovannucci, e., fadnes, l., boffetta, p., greenwood, d., tonstad, s., vatten, l., riboli, ruth breeze ibérica 34 (2017): 67-8886 e., & norat, t. (2016). nut consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer, all-cause and causespecific mortality: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. bmc medicine 14, 207. url: https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-016-0730-3 [22/09/2017] pr: a handful of nuts a day cuts the risk of a wide range of diseases. imperial college london. 5 december 2016. daily express. eat nuts to live longer. doctors say nuts ‘should be prescribed to fight killer diseases’. 5 december 2016 daily mail. eating nuts every day to cut heart and cancer risk: just a handful can reduce chance of dying early by a fifth. 5 december 2016 huffington post. handful of nuts a day can keep the doctor away, research shows. 5 december 2016 independent. eating handful of nuts a day can keep the doctor away, research proves. 5 december 2016 mirror. eat a handful of nuts daily to slash your risk of heart disease and cancer. 5 december 2016 nature world news. eating a handful of nuts every day reduces risk of heart disease, cancer. 6 december 2016. pomegranate ra: ryu, d., mouchiroud, l., andreux, p., katsyuba, e., moullan, n., nicolet-dit-félix, a., williams, e., jha, p., lo sasso, g., huzard, d., aebischer, p., sandi, c., rinsch, c., & auwerx, j. (2016). urolithin a induces mitophagy and prolongs lifespan in c. elegans and increases muscle function in rodents. nature medicine 22: 879-888. pr: école polytechnique fédérale de lausanne. 11 july 2016. url: http://actu.epfl.ch/news/pomegranate-finallyreveals-its-powerful-anti-agin/ [x22/09/2017] business standard. pomegranate juice may help fight ageing. 14 july 2016. daily express. are pomegranates the key to living forty five percent longer lives? 11 july 2016. daily mail. are pomegranates a fountain of youth? 11 july 2016. daily telegraph. discovery of pomegranate’s anti-ageing molecule is a ‘milestone’. 11 july 2016. food and wine. science reveals the secret behind pomegranates’ anti-aging power. 14 july 2016. fox news. swiss biotech company tests anti-aging promise of pomegranates. 12 july 2016. life plan. are pomegranates a fountain of youth? 18 july 2016. natural society. the superfruit that may hold the fountain of youth. 12 july 2016. red grapes ra: chunxiao guo, brian sinnott, brenda niu, malcolm b. lowry, mary l. fantacone, adrian f. gombart. synergistic induction of human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide gene expression by vitamin d and stilbenoids. molecular nutrition and food research, supported by the national institutes of health. published online 14 september 2013. pr: red grapes, blueberries may enhance immune function. oregon state university. 17 september 2013. url: http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2013/sep/red-grapes-blueberries-may-enhance-immune-function [22/09/2017] consumer healthday. blueberries, red grapes may enhance body’s immune function. 17 september 2013. daily express. revealed: the secret of living a berry healthy long life. 18 september 2013. exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports ibérica 34 (2017): 67-88 87 daily telegraph. red wine and blueberries could boost immune system. 17 september 2013. kgw news. red wine, blueberries may boost your immune system. 17 september 2013. mirror. red grapes and blueberries boost immune system, scientists say. 17 september 2013. pill advised. grapes and blueberries boost immunity. 17 september 2013. yoghurt ra: akbari, e., asemi, z., kakhaki, r., bahmani, f., kouchaki, e., tamtaji, o., hamidi, g., & salami, m. (2016). effect of probiotic supplementation on cognitive function and metabolic status in alzheimer’s disease: a randomized, double-blind and controlled study. frontiers in aging neuroscience, published online 10 november 2016. url: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00256 [22/09/2017] pr: probiotics improve cognition in alzheimer’s patients. eurekalert. 10 november 2016. url: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-11/f-pic110116.php [22/09/2017] daily telegraph. probiotics can help thinking and memory for people with alzheimer’s disease. 10 november 2016. homecare. probiotics found in yoghurt may ‘benefit cognition’ in people with alzheimer’s disease. 11 november 2016. netdoctor. could yoghurt help people with alzheimer’s? 11 november 2016. the sun. eating probiotics “boosts” brainpower in alzheimer’s patients. 10 november 2016. the times. yoghurt can ‘help treat alzheimer’s’. 10 november 2016. ruth breeze ibérica 34 (2017): 67-8888 iberica 13 ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract tourism is one of the most important specialized domains in spain. for this reason, many linguistic studies related to tourism texts have been carried out in the last few years. in this work, we focus on three of the most frequent and difficult textual genres written in spanish in this domain: the informative article, the travel blog post, and the rules and regulations (for tourist accommodation facilities). the goals of this research are two: a) to carry out a linguistic analysis of the three aforementioned genres from the tourism domain on the textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse levels to gain a comprehensive understanding of the features of these text types, and b) to compare these genres in order to identify statistically significant differences among them and show that some specific linguistic features are prototypical of each one. to achieve these goals, we compiled a corpus in spanish comprised of texts corresponding to the analysed genres. then, we analysed linguistic features from both a quantitative and qualitative point of view. finally, we carried out a comparative analysis using statistical techniques that shed light on significant differences between the genres. keywords: textual genres, tourism, corpus, linguistic features, statistical analysis. resumen una comparación de géneros textuales en español: el caso del ámbito del turismo uno de los ámbitos especializados más importantes en españa es el turismo. por esta razón, durante los últimos años se han realizado una gran cantidad de comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar universidad nacional de educación a distancia (uned) (spain), universitat de barcelona (ub) (spain) & universitat pompeu fabra (upf) (spain) iriad@flog.uned.es, amor.montane@ub.edu, beatriz.fisas@upf.edu & maescobar@flog.uned.es 163 ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar estudios lingüísticos relacionados con textos turísticos. en este trabajo, nos centramos en tres de los géneros textuales en español más frecuentes y difíciles de escribir en este ámbito: el artículo de divulgación, la entrada de blog de viajero y la normativa (de alojamiento turístico). esta investigación persigue dos objetivos: a) llevar a cabo un análisis lingüístico de los tres géneros mencionados del ámbito del turismo teniendo en cuenta tres niveles (textual, léxico y discursivo), para obtener una caracterización global de los rasgos de este tipo de textos, y b) comparar estos géneros para identificar diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre ellos y probar que algunos rasgos lingüísticos son específicos de cada uno. para lograr estos objetivos, hemos compilado un corpus en español formado por textos correspondientes a los géneros analizados. a continuación, hemos analizado rasgos lingüísticos, tanto desde un punto de vista cuantitativo como cualitativo. finalmente, hemos llevado a cabo un análisis comparativo mediante técnicas estadísticas, que mostraron diferencias significativas entre los géneros. palabras clave: géneros textuales, turismo, corpus, rasgos lingüísticos, análisis estadístico. 1. introduction nowadays, the accurate writing of specialised texts has become a relevant activity for professionals. these texts are not easy to write, since textual genres produced in the context of specialised communication have specific characteristics that authors must bear in mind (cabré, 1999; gotti, 2008). furthermore, these characteristics vary across domains and genres (van dijk, 1989; swales, 1990; bhatia, 1993). tourism is one of the most important specialised domains in spain, since it is a key economic pillar of the country. for this reason, many linguistic studies related to this domain have been carried out. they focus both on traditional genres (such as travel itineraries and informative articles), and on emerging genres (such as travel websites and travel blog posts). calvi (2006 & 2010) and calvi and mapelli (2011) proposed an approach for classifying them and offer a detailed analysis of some genres generated in this domain. based on the list of genres gathered in these papers, da cunha and montané (2019) analysed the most frequently occurring genres representing the greatest writing difficulties for university students and tourism professionals in spain. the informative article, the travel blog post, and the rules and regulations (for tourist accommodation facilities) were three of the most 164 frequent and difficult genres written in spanish in the tourism domain. moreover, the greatest writing difficulties detected were related to textual structure, selection of contents, lexical choices, text cohesion, and degree of formality. against this backdrop, this article aims to: (a) carry out a linguistic analysis of the three aforementioned textual genres from the tourism domain on the textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse levels to gain a comprehensive understanding of the features of these text types. (b) compare these textual genres in order to identify statistically significant differences among them and prove that some specific linguistic features are prototypical of each one, according to the assumptions exposed in section 4. to achieve these objectives, a corpus-based methodology was used, since as breeze (2019: 79-80) states: corpus-based methods offer a useful way to approach specialised genres, since their strength lies in their ability to detect what is characteristic about texts of a conventionalised nature. by finding what is particularly frequent, or infrequent, in a particular corpus, it is possible to understand more about how language is used – and therefore how meaning is made – in those texts. thus, we compiled a corpus comprised of informative articles, travel blog posts, and rules and regulations written in spanish. then, we analysed different linguistic categories from both a quantitative and qualitative point of view. finally, we carried out a comparative analysis using statistical techniques that shed light on significant differences between the analysed genres. section 2 includes a review of the main publications about tourism genres. section 3 introduces our theoretical frameworks. section 4 sets out the main assumptions of the work. section 5 explains our methodology, while section 6 offers a linguistic characterization of the genres according to the proposed corpus. section 7 contains a statistical design to deal with our comparative analysis of the tourism texts under stake, and section 8 discusses the results. finally, section 9 lays out conclusions and provides some pointers for future work. comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 165 2. literature review traditional tourism genres, such as guidebooks, tourism brochures, travel itineraries or informative articles, have been the object of many studies over the years (calvi, 2006). calvi (2010) also stresses the need for focusing on new forms of communication that have been developed in the internet age, such as institutional websites and blogs. some authors have focused on these emerging genres in the tourism domain, including blogs and internet forums (mapelli & piccioni, 2011), blogs and travel websites (martínez escalona, 2012), travel blogs written by non-professionals (goethals, 2013), tourism newsletters (rodríguez abella, 2014), and hotel websites (cheng, 2016; suau-jiménez & piqué-noguera, 2017). in this context, calvi and mapelli (2011) proposed a multi-functional and multi-dimensional classification that underscores the complexity of textual genres in this domain, which tend to be unconventional and of a relatively hybrid nature. for instance, tourism reports are related with economics, tourism rules and regulations with law, and tourism informative articles with journalism. owing to this hybrid nature, in general, the analysis of tourism genres is challenging, since determining their macrostructure and formal features is difficult (calvi, 2011). the analysis of tourism genres in spanish has been carried out from several approaches, taking different linguistic features into account. the vast majority of previous studies focused on specific genres. for example, in mapelli and piccioni (2011), 13 morphosyntactic features were analysed (adverbs, verbal tenses and persons, and pronouns, among others) in a corpus of nine genres, using parodi’s (2005) multi-dimensional methodology. other studies have also analysed morphosyntactic features, such as deixis and discourse modalisation in travel itineraries (ares, 2011), and adjectives, verbal tenses and persons in tourism webpages (rodríguez abella, 2011). pragmatics and discourse features have been studied as well, for example, discourse voices in travel reports (canals & liverani, 2011), interpersonal metadiscourse in institutional webpages (suau-jiménez, 2011), linguistic elements expressing ideology in spanish touristic laws (carpi, 2011), interpersonal discourse in travel forums (suau-jiménez, 2014), pragmatic and textual strategies in hotel reviews (goethals, 2016), and hedging in research articles and hotel websites (suau-jiménez & piqué-noguera, 2017). other relevant features analysed in the literature are related with the lexicon used in tourism genres, such as verbs of perception in guidebooks and iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190166 tourist advertising (pérez vázquez, 2011), specialised collocations in tourism webpages (navarro & miotti, 2011), lexical variation in hotel promotion websites (sanmartín, 2011), lexical choices in guidebooks (mapelli, 2013), and lexicon of cultural heritage in travel blogs and online travel reports (pano, 2019). other research that has also focused on the lexicon in tourism, especially on terminology and neology, is found in calvi (2016), where a bilingual and comparable spanish-italian corpus was used. this included travel itineraries, reports, advertising posts, travel blog posts and travel forum posts, among other genres. despite the studies carried out in the tourism domain so far, calvi (2011) pointed out that more research on the structural configuration and rhetorical moves of tourism genres is lacking. in this context, our work is innovative in various ways. it simultaneously analyses three sets of linguistic features (textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse features) from both a qualitative and quantitative point of view. it also compares three genres, using a corpus of texts written in spanish, automatic natural language processing (nlp) tools, and statistical techniques. concerning the selected genres, the informative article has been analysed before (calvi, 2006), as well as the travel blog post (mapelli & piccioni, 2011). nevertheless, to our knowledge, a comparative corpus-based linguistic analysis between these two genres has not been carried out from a quantitative point of view and taking the textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse features proposed in this study into account. moreover, the rules and regulations genre (in the context of tourist accommodation facilities) has not been previously analysed or compared to other genres in the same domain.  3. theoretical framework this section summarises the key features of the theoretical frameworks adopted for the corpus analysis. each one deals with a linguistic level: textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse levels. in the first place, we discuss two approaches regarding the textual level. following van dijk (1977), we may identify different textual genres according to a clearly codified and widely accepted pattern. for example, the research article usually consists of different sections: introduction, problem, solution and conclusions. we also follow van dijk (1989) and assume a textual superstructure, which provides the general organisation of each type comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 167 of text. the superstructure shows different sections, and some of them include titles and subtitles. in addition, according to swales (1990), some passages of the text can be considered as moves. a move “represents a stretch of text serving a particular communicative (that is, semantic) function” (upton & cohen, 2009: 589). we use these moves to characterise the textual structure of the genres of our corpus, along the same lines as the corpus-based analysis proposed by biber et al. (2007). in the second place, concerning the lexico-grammatical level, we follow the communicative theory of terminology (ctt) by cabré (1999). according to the ctt, textual genres produced in specialised domains have some global characteristics, such as precision, concision, systematicity, impersonality and objectivity. these characteristics are expressed through different linguistic features. for example, the passive voice is used to express impersonality, while the absence of subjectivity markers implies objectivity, and so on (cabré et al., 2010). in the third place, with regard to the discourse level, we use mann and thompson’s (1988) rhetorical structure theory (rst). this theory describes how texts are organised in terms of discourse relations between the text’s discourse segments (sometimes marked explicitly using discourse connectors). we follow the definition of discourse segment put forward by tofiloski et al. (2009: 77): discourse segmentation is the process of decomposing discourse into elementary discourse units (edus), which may be simple sentences or clauses in a complex sentence, and from which discourse trees are constructed. in sum, to carry out the linguistic analysis of our corpus, we assume the main proposals of the aforementioned frameworks. first, superstructure and moves are used in the textual level. second, the global characteristics of texts produced in specialised domains are employed in the lexico-grammatical level. third, discourse segments, relations and connectors characterise the discourse level. 4. assumptions this study starts from several assumptions related to the textual, lexicogrammatical and discourse levels, following the theoretical frameworks mentioned in section 3. the three general assumptions are the following: iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190168 1. the three genres have dissimilar textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse features, on the assumption that “rules and regulations” is the most different genre because of its hybrid nature bridging the legal and the tourism domain. 2. within the digital media, new genres (such as the travel blog post), which may share target reader and function with traditional genres (such as the informative article), are emerging. these genres might be similar in some specific aspects. nevertheless, as their communication channel is not the same, they could also differ in some lexicogrammatical and discourse features that would make it possible to differentiate them. 3. the textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse features in informative articles are fixed, as much as in rules and regulations, as they are considered traditional genres. in contrast, there is more room for creativity in the travel blog posts. the specific assumption related to the textual level is the following: 1. the texts corresponding to the travel blog post and the informative article contain many different sections, titles and moves, depending on the subjects discussed in each text. the texts corresponding to the rules and regulations genre include fewer different sections, titles and moves. the assumptions concerning the lexico-grammatical level are the following: 1. in rules and regulations, subjective elements are scarce. in travel blog posts and informative articles, subjective elements are usually employed. 2. in the three genres, active voice is mainly employed, as it is usual in spanish. this voice is more frequent in the travel blog post. 3. verbs in the first person singular and plural are used in all three genres. the travel blog post is the genre in which the first person singular is used more frequently. finally, the assumptions related to the discourse level are the following: 1. travel blog posts include more sentences than informative articles, and rules and regulations. comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 169 2. in travel blog posts, complex sentences are usually divided into discourse segments, which are marked through connectors. in informative articles, and rules and regulations, discourse segmentation and connectors are not so frequent. 3. in informative articles and in travel blog posts, argumentative strategies are often used. therefore, authors usually include connectors to mark discourse relations aiming to contrast (such as antithesis, concession and contrast), to express reasons to visit a place or make a trip (such as cause) or to explain the aim of a trip (such as purpose). reformulation strategies are also used in these two genres. thus, authors use connectors to mark relations of restatement and summary, in order to offer additional information to the readers to clarify the text. in the rules and regulations genre, all those connectors are scarcely used. 4. in rules and regulations, and in travel blog posts, connectors expressing condition are usually employed. in informative articles, the condition relation is used less as a discourse strategy. 5. corpus methodology 5.1 building the corpus as noted above, this study considers three tourism-related genres: informative articles, travel blog posts, and rules and regulations. according to calvi’s (2010) classification, an informative article falls within the publishing genre, and would normally be included in a travel or tourism magazine, providing tourist information about a place. a travel blog post lies within the informal genre, derived from the interactive modalities of digital communication (dann & liebman, 2007), offering information about a trip. rules and regulations are a legal genre stemming from the legal domain and applied to regulate tourism-related activities (calvi, 2010). the corpus comprises 20 texts per genre making a total of 60 texts from the tourism domain (see table 1). iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190170 table 1. corpus statistics. texts were selected from a wide variety of sources: 20 informative articles from five spanish travel magazines: viajar, el viajero, horizontes, top viajes and revista ibérica (four articles each). 20 travel blog posts written by specialised spanish travel bloggers, including paco nadal, nani arenas and lucía sánchez. 20 sets of rules and regulations from tourist accommodation facilities placed in different spanish regions, such as hotel route 42 (castillala mancha), hotel celta galaico (galicia) and hotel atarazanas (andalucía). 5.2. categories of analysis in appendix 1, the categories corresponding to the linguistic features analysed in this work are listed. on the textual level, the following three categories were considered: “sections” used to structure the text, that is, each of the sections that could be clearly identified, either because section breaks were included or because their topic was distinct. for example, in an informative article, sections included “heading”, “introduction”, “body”, and “appendix”. “titles” included at the beginning of each section. for example, the “appendix” section of an informative article includes the title “a practical guide.” “moves” found in each section, that is, semantic and functional textual units with a specific communicative purpose.1 for example, the “introduction” section of a travel blog post includes “photo”, “photo caption”, “blogger’s thoughts (reason for writing)”, and “links to websites”. comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 171 textual genre number of texts number of words informative article 20 34,532 travel blog post 20 25,440 rules and regulations 20 40,277 total 60 100,249 ! ! ! ! ! ! on the lexico-grammatical level, two categories serve to analyse the corpus. on this level, we combine both morphosyntactic features related to verbal aspects (such as voice and number) and specific lexical units that indicate subjectivity. details are given below: morphosyntactic features, specifically, the use of the “active and passive voices”, and the use of the “first person singular and plural”. “subjectivity markers”, based on a clearly defined group of subjective units (otaola, 1988), such as superlatives and nouns, adjectives and adverbs conveying opinion. for example: desgraciadamente (“unfortunately”), quizás (“perhaps”) or peor (“worse”). finally, on the discourse level, the following three categories are relevant: “sentences”, considering that they are word sequences starting from an upper-case letter and ending with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark. “discourse segments” (tofiloski et al., 2009). specifically, we use the criteria for discourse segmentation most used in spanish (iruskieta, da cunha & taboada, 2015). examples 1 and 2 include sentences in spanish extracted from two different rules and regulations in our corpus (with their corresponding translation into english). in these sentences, the different discourse segments are indicated in square brackets. 1. [en caso de que la salida del pasajero se efectúe antes de la fecha estipulada en la reserva,] [no se procederá a efectuar ningún reembolso.] [in case a guest departs before the date indicated in the booking confirmation,] [no refund will be issued.] 2. [a los clientes que no pongan a disposición sus habitaciones durante esas horas no se les realizará la limpieza de la habitación,] [aunque se les podrán reponer consumibles.] [should you not make your room available during the stipulated cleaning period, your room will not be cleaned,] [although consumable goods may be replaced.] “discourse connectors” related to eight rst discourse relations: antithesis, cause, concession, condition, contrast, purpose, iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190172 restatement and summary.2 these relations were selected because they occur most frequently in the rst spanish treebank3 and are also regularly indicated in this corpus using connectors. the connectors associated with the aforementioned relations and considered for the sake of this study were extracted from da cunha et al. (2011). for instance, in reference to the examples set out earlier: in example 1, the connector en caso de (“in case”), which expresses condition, is detected at the beginning of the first segment of the sentence, and, in example 2, the connector aunque (“although”), which expresses concession, is detected between the two segments included in the sentence. 5.3. semi-automatic corpus analysis the linguistic analysis of the aforementioned levels of the corpus took place in two phases. first, data were manually extracted for sections, titles and moves (from the textual level). second, the remaining data were extracted automatically (from the lexico-grammatical and discourse levels), by using the following automatic nlp tools: a morphosyntactic analyser (freeling; atserias et al., 2006), and a discourse segmentation system (diseg; da cunha et al., 2012). 5.4. model structures elaboration in order to characterise genres from a textual point of view, similarities in the sections, titles and moves of each of the three analysed genres were measured. a frequency threshold of 50% was established to determine relevance. consequently, if the same section, title or move appeared in at least 50% of texts corresponding to a genre, it was deemed to be a relevant feature of that genre. this information was utilised to design a model structure including the sections, titles and moves that tend to appear most frequently in texts for each genre. 5.5. linguistic characterisation of the genres the study also analysed the lexico-grammatical and discourse features mentioned in section 5.2. to characterise the genres, the averages of the different analysed linguistic features were used. as the texts included in the corpus had different sizes (see table 1), the data were normalised by using the frequency per million words (fpmw, biber et al., 1998).4 the fpmw is comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 173 calculated dividing the absolute frequency of the analysed linguistic characteristic by the total number of words in the corpus; the result is multiplied by 1 million. the equation can be represented in this way: fpmw = (absolute frequency/number of words in the corpus) × 1,000,000 6. linguistic analysis of the corpus this section includes our proposal of model structures of the three genres from the tourism domain. moreover, we provide the results of the linguistic analysis on the textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse levels, giving a comprehensive overview of the most outstanding features of each genre. 6.1. model structures as explained in section 5.4, sections, titles and moves were selected taking a frequency threshold into account, in order to design a model structure including those that tend to appear most frequently in each genre. appendices 2, 3 and 4 offer the model structures for the three genres: informative article, travel blog post, and rules and regulations, respectively.5 6.2. linguistic characterisation in this section, we provide and discuss the normalised averages of the analysed features for each genre. in the first place, the quantitative results related to the informative article are shown in table 2. iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190174 table 2. normalised averages related to analysed data for the informative article genre. on the textual level, taking the averages correlation between sections and titles into account, we observe that each section of the informative article genre usually contained more than one title. moreover, each section tended to include several moves (more than seven per section). on the lexicogrammatical level, the occurrences of subjective units were noteworthy, taking into account the number of sentences of the corpus: one out of five sentences included at least one subjective unit. in this genre, the active voice was primarily used rather than the passive voice. moreover, verbs in the first person singular were used more frequently than verbs in the first person plural. on the discourse level, sentences comprised one or two discourse segments. the most frequent connectors expressed antithesis and condition. there were no connectors expressing summary. in the second place, the quantitative results related to the travel blog post are included in table 3. comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 175 textual level lexical level discourse level feature average feature average feature average nº of sections 3,352.1 nº of subjective units 7,736.8 nº of sentences 42,830.0 nº of titles 4,030.8 nº of verbs in the active voice 98,506.5 nº of discourse segments 68,544.0 nº of moves 24,020.9 nº of verbs in the passive voice 840.6 total nº of connectors 6,298.9 nº of verbs in the first person singular 3,102.7 nº of connectors expressing antithesis 2,142.2 nº of verbs in the first person plural 1,685.1 nº of connectors expressing cause 1,054.4 nº of connectors expressing concession 964.1 nº of connectors expressing condition 1,801.9 nº of connectors expressing contrast 41.6 nº of connectors expressing purpose 230.0 nº of connectors expressing restatement 64.7 nº of connectors expressing summary 0.0 table 3. normalised averages related to analysed data for the travel blog post genre. in this genre, on the textual level, each section contained around one title in average. in addition, more than five moves per section were included. on the lexico-grammatical level, the occurrences of subjective units were remarkable, taking into account that one out of four sentences of the corpus showed at least one of these units. furthermore, this genre predominantly used the active voice, as passive voice was very unusual in this kind of texts. finally, the analysis revealed that first person singular verbs appeared more frequently than first person plural verbs. on the discourse level, sentences often comprised almost two discourse segments in average. the most frequent connectors expressed, again, condition and antithesis. there were no connectors expressing summary and restatement. in the third place, the quantitative results related to the rules and regulations are shown in table 4. iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190176 textual level lexical level discourse level feature average feature average feature average nº of sections 4,691.7 nº of subjective units 11,441.1 nº of sentences 51,432.3 nº of titles 4,742.7 nº of verbs in the active voice 129,272.3 nº of discourse segments 87,596.6 nº of moves 26,616.3 nº of verbs in the passive voice 592.8 total nº of connectors 11,525.0 nº of verbs in the first person singular 10,685.9 nº of connectors expressing antithesis 3,749.1 nº of verbs in the first person plural 3,223.0 nº of connectors expressing cause 1,872.5 nº of connectors expressing concession 1,128.1 nº of connectors expressing condition 4,158.7 nº of connectors expressing contrast 108.2 nº of connectors expressing purpose 508.4 nº of connectors expressing restatement 0.0 nº of connectors expressing summary 0.0 i table 4. normalised averages related to analysed data for the rules and regulations genre. in this genre, on the textual level, sections contained more than four titles in average. moreover, each section tended to include about 13 moves. on the lexico-grammatical level, we highlight that subjective units were barely used in the corpus, since only one out of 13 sentences of the corpus included these units. again, in this genre the active voice was primarily used rather than the passive voice. finally, first person singular verbs appeared more frequently than first person plural verbs. on the discourse level, sentences rarely comprised more than one discourse segment. the most frequent connectors expressed condition. there were no connectors expressing summary and contrast. 7. statistical design in order to check that the proposed features allow us to characterise the different types of texts analysed in this work, this section includes a statistical design given the following hypotheses: • null hypothesis (h0): there are no differences between the textual genres considering the textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse features proposed in this work (see sections 4 and 5.2). • alternate hypothesis (our claim): there are differences between comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 177 textual level lexical level discourse level feature average feature average feature average nº of sections 1,405.7 nº of subjective units 3,961.3 nº of sentences 52,146.3 nº of titles 6,111.6 nº of verbs in the active voice 94,439.3 nº of discourse segments 76,791.2 nº of moves 19,252.3 nº of verbs in the passive voice 2,030.8 total nº of connectors 6,576.2 nº of verbs in the first person singular 5,715.0 nº of connectors expressing antithesis 482.6 nº of verbs in the first person plural 1,513.5 nº of connectors expressing cause 176.8 nº of connectors expressing concession 243.5 nº of connectors expressing condition 5,046.5 nº of connectors expressing contrast 0.0 nº of connectors expressing purpose 472.1 nº of connectors expressing restatement 154.7 nº of connectors expressing summary 0.0 ! ! textual genres considering the aforementioned features proposed in this work. as cantos (2002) explains, the quantitative analysis of linguistic features allows us to characterise specialised domains and genres. nevertheless, the same author (cantos, 2002: 241) highlights the relevance of statistical significance: we cannot decide just by looking at these figures; we need to perform a further calculation: a test of statistical significance and determine how high or low the probability is that the difference between the two corpora on these features is due to chance. thus, in this study, several statistical tests were conducted to compare the normalised data across the three linguistic levels (following barón & téllez, 2004). to do so, the categories corresponding to the analysed features are used as statistical variables. levene’s test was used to analyse normal distribution. later, different tests were run to compare averages. an analysis of variance (anova) test was conducted to determine if it was possible to differentiate among genres for parametric variables,6 while the kruskalwallis test for independent samples was utilized for non-parametric variables.7 subsequently, in order to determine if there were statistically significant differences among specific genres, post hoc multiple comparison tests were conducted. based on the results of levene’s test, either tukey’s hsd test (for variables with equal within-group variance) or dunnett’s t3 test (for variables with unequal variances) was utilised. finally, a discriminant analysis was conducted to describe significant differences among the genres. concerning the textual level, the statistical tests revealed statistically significant differences among genres for two textual variables. for the “nº of moves” variable, when genre pairs were compared, the travel blog post and the rules and regulations had significant differences (p = .018). hence, we reject the h0, and validate the alternate hypothesis. in fact, the travel blog post included the most moves, whereas the latter, fewer moves. for the “nº of sections” variable, the rules and regulations genre differed the most from the other genres, informative article (p = .001) and travel blog post (p = .000), because it contained fewer sections than the other two genres, as expected. regarding the “nº of titles”, no significant differences were found among genres. therefore, the alternate hypothesis related to the textual features was partially validated. iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190178 with regard to the lexico-grammatical level, statistical tests did identify statistically significant differences for four out of the five analysed variables. for the “nº of subjective units” variable, the three genres differed significantly (p < .05), as expected, given that the number of these units in each genre varied. in the rules and regulations genre, they were very scarce. moreover, we found that subjectivity is a key feature of the travel blog post, since it contains more subjective units than the other two genres. concerning morphosyntactic verbal features, for the “nº of verbs in the passive voice” and “nº of verbs in the active voice” variables, the h0 was rejected, since we obtained significant differences (p < .05). this result may be due to the fact that the travel blog post rarely exhibits passive voice, since it prioritizes the use of active voice. with respect to the variables related to verbal persons, the significant differences were only found between the informative article and the travel blog post (p = .01) concerning the first person singular. the latter is the genre where the first person singular was used more frequently. surprisingly, no differences regarding this variable were found between the travel blog post, and rules and regulations. hence, the alternate hypothesis related to the lexico-grammatical features was partially validated. in relation with the discourse level, statistical differences were found for six variables. no significant differences were found among genres regarding the number of sentences. the informative article and the travel blog post differed significantly between them for the variables “nº of discourse segments” (p = .002) and “total nº of connectors” (p = .001), the second being the genre where more segments and connectors were detected. regarding the variable “total nº of connectors,” the travel blog post also contained significantly more connectors than rules and regulations (p = .002). these two results allowed us to reject the h0. in the case of the variables related to specific connectors, the rules and regulations genre had more differences from the others concerning the use of connectors expressing antithesis, concession and cause (p < .05). these connectors were scarcely used in this genre, as expected. nevertheless, we did not find significant differences among genres in the use of connectors expressing purpose, contrast, restatement and summary. in the case of purpose connectors, they were used in the texts of the three genres and their frequency was similar. in the case of the other connectors, their frequency in the corpus was so low that it was not possible to obtain statistical comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 179 significance. regarding the use of connectors expressing condition, the statistical results showed that the informative article had differences with the travel blog post (p = .01), and rules and regulations (p = .000). in these two genres, this kind of connectors was more frequent, as we had anticipated. consequently, the alternate hypothesis concerning the discourse features was also partially validated. finally, the results of a discriminant analysis revealed statistically significant differences between the three genres. the classification of genres proved to be rather suitable, since 93.3% of texts were assigned to the correct genre. cross validation results were also acceptable, since 90.0% of texts were correctly classified. results are depicted graphically in figure 1. figure 1. results of the discriminant analysis in graphic format. centroids (that is, the mean discriminant score for each group) were clearly distinct for all the genres, which fell far from one another. the distance was furthest for the rules and regulations, implying that this genre has more dissimilar textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse features. in addition, texts from different genres hardly overlapped. only a few texts from the travel blog post genre overlapped with texts from the informative article genre, since they are similar in some specific aspects. finally, the largest dispersion was found for the travel blog post, implying that texts in this genre most differ from each other. conversely, the informative article and the rules and regulations genres had the least degree iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190180 of dispersion, indicating that the features of the texts corresponding to each genre tend to be similar. thus, the discriminant analysis supported that the three genres analysed have linguistic characteristics that allow us to differentiate them from each other, which validates our hypothesis and confirms the three general assumptions included in section 4. 8. discussion in this section, we discuss the significant differences obtained from the statistical analysis, which concern the assumptions mentioned in section 4. with regard to the textual level, we proved that there are significant differences between the travel blog post and the rules and regulations regarding the inclusion of moves, and between the three genres concerning the number of sections. the texts corresponding to the travel blog post genre include many different moves, depending on the subjects discussed in each post. by contrast, the texts corresponding to the rules and regulations genre include fewer different moves, since these moves coincide among the texts. in the case of sections, something similar happens: rules and regulations also include many sections, but these sections are common to most of the texts in our corpus. nevertheless, in the travel blog post and in the informative article there is a smaller number of sections, but these sections do not usually coincide among the different texts of the corpus. these differences are due to the hybrid nature between the legal and the tourism domain of rules and regulations, which follows a prototypical textual structure, based on legal articles (for example, “article 1”, “article 2”, “article 3”). thus, the features of the legal domain would affect the global characterisation of this tourism genre. in fact, calvi (2011) indicates that not all genres commonly used in tourism communication are specific to the sector: some of them belong rather to related fields, and hardly undergo changes when moving to the sphere of tourism. this is what happens with rules and regulations, which properly belong to the legal field. concerning the lexico-grammatical level, we proved that the presence of subjective units is a lexical feature that allows us to differentiate between genres. in rules and regulations, subjective units are scarce, since the texts of this genre must be objective, because they have some characteristics of legal texts, as mentioned. moreover, they should tend to impersonality, like legal contracts (alcaraz, hugues & gómez, 2014). however, in the travel blog comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 181 post, subjective units are very frequent: as authors express their own travel experiences, the content is more personal. in informative articles, subjective units are also included, since they provide tourist information about a place. therefore, these genres are not so objective. as calvi (2011) states, the discourse of tourism tends to move away from the subjective vision of the travel stories, but it recovers this vision in genres such as the travel blog, which is related to autobiographical genres. nevertheless, our findings indicate that subjective units are more frequent in travel blog posts than in informative articles. this result makes us think that, as informative articles are published in a travel or tourism magazine, they are expected to be more objective than travel blog posts. we also statistically evidenced that the active voice is a morphosyntactic feature that characterizes the travel blog post. this result seems to indicate that travel bloggers tend to use active voice in order to explain their own trip more dynamically and to emphasise the grammatical subject. we proved too that the first person singular allows differentiation between the travel blog post and the informative article. this feature is more frequent in the travel blog post since it resembles the genre of autobiography (calvi, 2011). in addition, as mapelli and piccioni (2011) have pointed out, on the one hand, the travel blog post is associated with a situational context of continuum (that is, chronological storytelling) and, on the other hand, it shares features with informal communication. in the informative article, the use of the first person singular is not as recurrent, because it is a more formal genre. regarding the discourse level, our results showed that the travel blog post is the genre with most connectors. these results confirm that travel bloggers try to write clear and dynamic texts, and, thus, they tend to divide complex sentences into segments (usually, marked through connectors), in order for the recipient to easily understand the texts. in the case of connectors corresponding to argumentative strategies, our results showed that connectors of antithesis, concession and cause are scarcely used in rules and regulations: first, because of the schematic format of this genre and, second, because these argumentative strategies using connectors would be unnecessary in this kind of texts. by contrast, in informative articles and in travel blog posts, argumentative strategies are often used. therefore, authors usually include discourse relations aiming to contrast (antithesis and concession) and to express reasons to visit a place or make a trip (cause). iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190182 we also demonstrated that connectors expressing condition are usually employed in rules and regulations and in travel blog posts, while they are not common in informative articles. in the case of rules and regulations, this would be due to the inclusion of different legal articles that usually contain conditions, as mentioned in alcaraz, hugues and gómez (2014), which must be met by both the guests and the tourist accommodation (for example, “if the guest leaves the room after 12 noon, a penalty must be paid”). in the case of the travel blog post, as bloggers try to involve the readers, the use of the condition relation is one of the strategies employed to motivate readers to visit a specific place (for example, “if you go to that city, don’t miss visiting its cathedral”). on the contrary, informative articles are usually more descriptive and the condition relation would be less used as a discourse strategy. it is interesting to note that, although in this work we assume that there are differences between rules and regulations and the other two genres, the results show that they are not so different regarding some linguistic features. some of these features are the number of sentences included in the texts, the number of segments, the total number of connectors, and the connectors expressing condition. lastly, the discriminant analysis supported the notion that the three genres analysed have linguistic characteristics that allow us to differentiate between them. rules and regulations turned out to be the genre that can be most easily distinguished because, as  mentioned, it is a hybrid genre that shares features of the legal and tourism domains. the travel blog post and the informative article are similar genres, but they are also distinguishable. actually, although these two genres share target reader and function, their communication channel is different, which has an impact on their linguistic features. the differences found in our research concerning lexicogrammatical and discourse features between the two genres reinforce this idea. in addition, the travel blog post had more dispersion among the texts, because it is the most creative and flexible genre of those analysed, with the most personal writing style. 9. conclusions and future work this article focuses on three textual genres in the tourism domain: the informative article (about a tourist destination), the travel blog post (about a travel experience), and the rules and regulations (for a tourist comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 183 accommodation facility). its first goal was to perform an analysis of some linguistic features of these genres on the textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse levels, in order to gain an in-depth understanding of them. for its second goal, a statistical comparison among genres was carried out to prove that some specific linguistic features are prototypical of each one, according to the assumptions set out in section 4, using a corpus-based methodology. our corpus contained 60 sample texts in spanish from these genres. this study makes two major contributions. first, we provide a new corpus with a linguistic characterisation of the three aforementioned genres. we also elaborate the most frequent model structures utilised in these genres. these model structures include the sections, titles and moves that appear regularly in each one. in addition, the study offers quantitative information about their textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse features. we analyse morphosyntactic features including verbs in the active and passive voice, verbs in the first person singular and plural, and lexical units indicating subjectivity. we also consider discourse features such as sentences, discourse segments, and discourse connectors. second, this article provides a statistical design that has allowed us to test our hypothesis: the genres under discussion are different from each other, considering the textual, lexico-grammatical and discourse features proposed here. the corpus size seems to be suitable for texts statistical processing, taking into account the fact that significant statistical differences emerged from the corpus analysis. our current research is related to the design of an automatic tool to help to write tourism-related texts, bearing in mind the analysis included in this article. this tool, named artext, is available online and free of charge at: http://sistema-artext.com/. in the future, this tool could be implemented in different languages, such as english. acknowledgements this work was supported by a research project that received a beca leonardo 2015 from the fundación bbva (in[15]_hms_lin_0371), by a research project funded by the ministerio de ciencia, innovación e universidades at the call proyectos i+d del subprograma estatal de generación de conocimiento 2018 (pgc2018-099694-a-i00), and by a ramón y cajal contract (ryc-2014-16935), all of them associated with the iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190184 department of foreign philologies and their linguistics at universidad nacional de educación a distancia (uned) in spain. this research was developed in the framework of the actualing and iulaterm research groups. we would like to thank josh goldsmith for the translation of the text, and sheila queralt for the statistical advice. article history: received 25 june 2020 received in revised form 31 march 2021 accepted 27 june 2021 references comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 185 alcaraz, e., b. hughes & a. gómez (2014). el español jurídico. barcelona: ariel. ares, a. 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(2011). “unidad y variación en el español de turismo: las páginas web de promoción de hoteles de españa y chile” in m. v. calvi & g. mapelli (eds.), 335-357. suau jiménez, f. (2011). “la persuasión a través del metadiscurso interpersonal en el género página web institucional de promoción turística en inglés y español” in m. v. calvi & g. mapelli (eds.), 177-199. suau-jiménez, f. (2014). “dialogic voices of writers and readers in traveller forums through interpersonality” in l. gil & c. soler (eds.), dialogicity in written specialised genres, 137163. john benjamins. suau-jiménez, f. & c. piqué-noguera (2017). “hedging in tourism discourse: the variable genre in academic vs professional texts” in proceedings iria da cunha holds a phd in language sciences and applied linguistics (universitat pompeu fabra, 2008). she is an associate professor at the department of foreign philologies and their linguistics at the universidad nacional de educación a distancia (uned, spain). she is a member of the actualing and iulaterm research groups. her main research lines are specialized discourse, terminology and natural language processing. m. amor montané holds a phd in language sciences and applied linguistics (universitat pompeu fabra, 2012). she is a serra húnter fellow at universitat de barcelona. she is a member of the iulaterm research group at institut de lingüística aplicada of universitat pompeu fabra. her main research lines are terminology, specialized discourse and neology. beatriz fisas has a ba in linguistics with honors by the universitat de barcelona. she is a member of the natural language processing research group (taln) at universitat pompeu fabra. her main research lines are applied linguistics, natural language processing, specialized discourse and corpus linguistics. m. ángeles escobar holds a phd in linguistics (university of utrecht, 1995). she is an associate professor at the department of foreign philologies and their linguistics at the universidad nacional de educación a distancia (uned, spain). she is a member of the actualing research group. her main research lines are contrastive grammar (english/spanish), second language acquisition and psycholinguistics. notes 1 all the moves were validated by the authors of this article. 2 see rst website to obtain the definitions of these relations: <http://www.sfu.ca/rst/index.html> [22/06/20]. 3 <http://www.corpus.unam.mx/rst/index_es.html> [22/06/20]. comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 187 of the ix congreso internacional de lingüística de corpus. paris. swales, j. m. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge university press. tofiloski, m., j. brooke & m. taboada (2009). “a syntactic and lexical-based discourse segmenter” in proceedings of the 47th annual meeting of acl, 77-80. acl. upton, t. a. & m. a. cohen (2009). “an approach to corpus-based discourse analysis: the move analysis as example”. discourse studies 11(5): 585-605. doi: <https://doi.org/10.1177/146144560 9341006>. van dijk, t. a. (1977). text and context: explorations in the semantics and pragmatics of discourse. longman. van dijk, t. a. (1989). la ciencia del texto. paidós. 4 this method is frequently used in corpus linguistics, for example, in the british national corpus and the corpus of contemporary american english (molina & sierra, 2015). 5 literal english translations of the spanish model structures are included in this article. we are aware that sections, titles and moves for the same textual genres may differ in english, and that a textual analysis of an english corpus would be necessary to linguistically characterise texts written in this language. 6 the parametric variables of the study are “nº of moves”, “nº of subjective units”, “nº of verbs in the passive voice”, “nº of sentences”, “total nº of connectors”, “nº of connectors expressing condition” and “nº of connectors expressing purpose”. 7 the non-parametric variables are “nº of sections”, “nº of titles”, “nº of verbs in the active voice”, “nº of verbs in the first person singular”, “nº of verbs in the first person plural”, “nº of discourse segments”, “nº of connectors expressing antithesis”, “nº of connectors expressing cause”, “nº of connectors expressing contrast”, “nº of connectors expressing concession” and “nº of connectors expressing restatement”. appendix 1. categories corresponding to the linguistic features analysed in this work. iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190188 domain: textual genre text 1: [text name] textual level number (nº) extracted data from texts nº of sections name of section 1 name of section 2 name of section n nº of titles title 1 title 2 title n nº of moves move 1 move 2 move n lexical level number (nº) nº of subjective units nº of verbs in the active voice nº of verbs in the passive voice nº of verbs in the first person singular nº of verbs in the first person plural discourse level number (nº) nº of sentences nº of discourse segments total nº of connectors nº of connectors expressing antithesis nº of connectors expressing cause nº of connectors expressing concession nº of connectors expressing condition nº of connectors expressing contrast nº of connectors expressing purpose nº of connectors expressing restatement nº of connectors expressing summary appendix 2. model structure for the genre “informative article”. appendix 3. model structure for the genre “travel blog post”. comparing textual genres in spanish: the case of the tourism domain ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190 189 sections titles moves heading no title provided title author introduction no title provided why you should visit body no title provided photos photo caption description, list or recommendation of tourist attractions most noteworthy features of selected tourist attractions suggested itinerary or itineraries references to historical events references to noteworthy figures connected to the place and/or to a tourist attraction suggested activities awards or prizes won by tourist attractions appendix a practical guide links to websites with information about accommodations, facilities, and transportation sections titles moves heading no title provided title introduction no title provided photo photo caption blogger’s thoughts (reason for writing) links to websites body no title provided graphics: photos, photo gallery, videos and/or maps graphic caption description or recommendation of tourist attractions links to websites emotional reaction epilogue no title provided wrap-up appendix 4. model structure for the genre “rules and regulations”. iria da cunha, m. amor montané, beatriz fisas & m. ángeles escobar ibérica 42 (2021): 163-190190 sections titles moves heading no title provided main document title legal framework article [nº] information about the applicable legal provisions [nº]. bookings article [nº] facility booking information [nº]. pricing article [nº] room pricing information [nº]. payment article [nº] payment information [nº]. cancellation policy article [nº] cancellation information [nº]. check-in article [nº] check-in information [nº]. check-in and check-out times article [nº] information about check-in and check-out times [nº]. length of stay article [nº] information related to length of stay [nº]. rooms article [nº] information about rooms [nº]. hours article [nº] information about hours [nº]. additional services article [nº] information about additional services [nº]. customer rules and responsibilities article [nº] information about customer rules and responsibilities [nº]. pets article [nº] pets policy [nº]. premises liability article [nº] premises liability information [nº]. complaints article [nº] information about complaints [nº]. right to refuse admission article [nº] information about the right to refuse admission [nº]. iberica 13 ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 resumen el fin último del grado en traducción e interpretación (gtei) de cualquier institución es, o debería ser, la adquisición de la competencia traductora. este concepto cobra tal importancia en la didáctica de la traducción que ha sido objeto de infinidad de estudios (toury, 1984; pym, 1992; campbell, 1998; etc.) y de importantes labores de clasificación/homogeneización (kelly, 2002; hurtado, 1999; y el grupo pacte, 2001). los estudiantes erasmus francófonos que se matriculan en asignaturas de traducción francés-español del grado en traducción e interpretación de la universidad pablo de olavide demuestran, por lo general, tener una menor competencia traductora que los estudiantes locales de su mismo nivel académico. esto provoca que muchos de estos estudiantes vean frustrados sus esfuerzos al no poder superar los objetivos establecidos en las guías docentes. para tratar de hacer frente a esta situación se ha llevado a cabo un proyecto de investigación financiado por el mecd cuyo objetivo es la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes erasmus francófonos a través de las asignaturas de traducción. comenzamos revisando las nociones de “competencia traductora” y “error de traducción”, para continuar con la descripción, desde un punto de vista tanto lingüístico como traductológico, de las necesidades iniciales de los estudiantes francófonos que eligen la upo durante su estancia erasmus (y que coinciden en el aspecto lingüístico con las señaladas por autores como agbodoyetin, 2011; nginios, 2013, y agudelo, 2016). finalmente exponemos, como han hecho delgado y barceló (2011) en ámbitos especializados, los recursos metodológicos que hemos aplicado y recomendamos para paliar estas necesidades y desarrollar la competencia traductora de dichos estudiantes. palabras clave: competencia traductora, error de traducción, detección de necesidades, recursos metodológicos, estudiantes erasmus francófonos. la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos a través de las asignaturas de traducción francésespañol julia lobato patricio universidad pablo de olavide (españa) jlobato@upo.es 303 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 303 ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 julia lobato patricio abstract t h e i mp ro v e me nt of tr an s l at io n c omp e te n c e i n f r e nc h s p e ak i ng s tud e nt s t h ro ug h f r e nc h sp an is h t ra ns l a ti on c o ur s e s the main purpose of the ba in translation and interpreting is, or should be, the acquisition of “translation competence”. this concept has been particularly significant in the field of translation teaching, which has been the object of many studies (toury, 1984; pym, 1992; campbell, 1998; etc.) and of three models of classification/homogenization (roiss, 2006): kelly, 2002; hurtado 1999; and the pacte research group, pacte 2001. french-speaking incoming students who register in french translation courses at the university pablo de olavide generally show a lesser degree of acquisition of translation competence than the local students. this sometimes causes frustration because little or no translation competence prevents them from succeeding in these courses. in order to mitigate this situation, a research project supported by the spanish ministry of education was carried out. the main goal of this project was to improve the translation competence of french-speaking incoming students through translation courses. this paper briefly defines the notions of translation competence and “translation error”, reports the outcome of the aforementioned project, and goes on to analyse the linguistic and translation needs of such students, following the studies of agbodoyetin (2011), nginios (2013) and agudelo (2016). finally, some teaching tools designed to overcome these needs and develop translation competence are explained, in the vein of some authors from the field of specialized translation, such as delgado & barceló (2011). keywords: translation competence, translation error, detection of needs, teaching tools, french-speaking incoming students. 1. introducción el fin último del grado en traducción e interpretación (gtei) de cualquier institución es, o debería ser, la adquisición de la “competencia traductora”. este concepto cobra tal importancia en la didáctica de la traducción que ha sido objeto de infinidad de estudios (toury, 1984; pym, 1992; campbell, 1998; etc.) y de tres grandes labores de clasificación/homogeneización (roiss, 2006): kelly, 2002; hurtado 1999; y el grupo pacte, 2001. en este estudio se ha llevado a cabo una metodología de investigación descriptiva basada en datos empíricos obtenidos de forma cuantitativa que permiten proponer de forma cualitativa una metodología de adquisición de la competencia traductora mediante el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera. 304 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 304 los estudiantes erasmus francófonos que se matriculan en asignaturas de traducción francés-español del grado en traducción e interpretación (gtei) de la universidad pablo de olavide (upo) demuestran, por lo general, tener una menor competencia traductora que los estudiantes locales de su mismo nivel académico. la mayor parte de estos estudiantes procedentes de otras universidades cursan en sus universidades de origen la licence en langues étrangères appliquées.1 esta falta de fundamento traductológico es consecuencia de la inexistencia de asignaturas de corte traductológico en los planes de estudios de las universidades de origen. esto provoca que al matricularse en la upo del gtei muchos de estos estudiantes vean frustrados sus esfuerzos al no poder superar los objetivos establecidos en las guías docentes de las asignaturas de traducción. para tratar de hacer frente a esta situación se ha llevado a cabo un proyecto de investigación financiado por el mecd cuyo objetivo era la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes erasmus francófonos a través de las asignaturas de traducción. 2. la competencia traductora el estado de la cuestión sobre el concepto de “competencia traductora” no presenta opiniones unánimes en vista de los estudios publicados hasta la fecha (roiss, 2006: 440). en un somero repaso a dicha noción encontramos no solo una gran variedad de definiciones, sino también importantes diferencias en cuanto a las sub-competencias que la constituyen. pym define la competencia traductora desde un prisma puramente traductológico en el que se da por hecho que los traductores han de tener un amplio conocimiento gramatical, retórico, terminológico, del mundo laboral, etc. así, para pym (1992: 3), la adquisición de la competencia traductora debe implicar la habilidad de generar una serie de textos meta para un texto origen y de seleccionar de forma rápida y con confianza justificada uno de estos textos meta y proponerlo como sustituto del texto origen para un propósito y un lector determinados. para hurtado (2003: 42), y el grupo pacte (2017), desde un enfoque más profesional, la competencia traductora es un proceso dinámico de construcción de conocimientos a partir de conocimientos previos; se considera un proceso de reconstrucción y reestructuración de los conocimientos ya existentes. la competencia traductora está formada por la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 305 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 305 una serie de sub-competencias como son la competencia comunicativa en las dos lenguas (comprensión en la lengua de partida y reexpresión en la lengua de llegada), la competencia extralingüística (conocimientos culturales, temáticos, etc.), la competencia de transferencia (capacidad de realizar el proceso traductor con la máxima calidad), la competencia profesional (conocimientos y habilidades relacionados con el ejercicio de la traducción profesional: mercado laboral, herramientas de documentación, nntt, etc.), la competencia psicofisiológica (estar en buen estado físico, capacidad de resistencia, buena memoria, ser creativo, etc.) y la competencia estratégica (capacidad de aplicar procedimientos para paliar deficiencias en otras subcompetencias o para resolver problemas encontrados durante el proceso traductor, como la reducción del plazo de entrega). desde una perspectiva didáctica, kelly (2007: 106), por su parte, señala que la “macrocompetencia traductora” se subdivide a su vez en la competencia comunicativa y textual, cultural, temática, instrumental, psicofísica, interpersonal y estratégica. como podemos observar, tanto kelly como hurtado proponen una denominación distinta a la hora de describir las sub-competencias en las que se clasifica la competencia traductora, aunque la mayor parte de los conceptos quedan recogidos en sus clasificaciones; así, las competencias instrumental y temática y cultural de kelly coinciden con las competencias profesional y la extralingüística de hurtado, respectivamente. martín (2010: 234-235) añade que a estas sub-competencias, formuladas de diversas maneras, se han añadido por parte de algunos autores ciertas cualidades que podríamos denominar de naturaleza personal, como la paciencia, el esmero y la capacidad de ver las cosas desde perspectivas diferentes (kurz et al., 2000: 80), el disfrute durante el proceso de traducción (hervey et al., 1995: 4), la capacidad de tolerar la ambigüedad (tirkkonencondit, 2000: 141), la capacidad de hacer y responder las preguntas relevantes (mackenzie y malmkjaer, 1998: 16) y otras (malkiel, 2008: 61-62). nosotros añadimos además (lobato, 2011: 38) la competencia crítica, que consistiría en tener la capacidad de valorar la fiabilidad de las fuentes de documentación y aplicar ese espíritu crítico para autoevaluar el propio resultado del proceso traductor en aras de conseguir la máxima calidad. en cualquier caso, ya sea desde un enfoque más traductológico, profesional o didáctico, todos los autores coinciden en señalar que la competencia traductora es un saber hacer para el que se necesitan unas habilidades julia lobato patricio ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326306 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 306 específicas con el fin último de producir un texto meta con la máxima calidad2 posible. según conde (2008: 99), desde una perspectiva pedagógica, y citando a leejahnke (2001: 260), solo cuando los estudiantes son conscientes de sus propios errores, se vuelven sensibles a la evaluación y, de esta forma, los estudiantes comprenderán mejor qué y cómo se evalúa, además de poder determinar la calidad de su traducción. 3. el concepto de e r ro r en traducción el concepto de “error” en traducción ha sido tradicionalmente, y sigue siendo considerado, según tolosa (2013: 17), una de las “cenicientas” en la traductología moderna. este autor atribuye la escasez de estudios sobre esta cuestión a la dificultad y lo etéreo del tema, lo cual “dificulta extraordinariamente la tarea de trazar una línea de análisis global”. no obstante, encontramos algunos estudios (pym, 1992; nord, 1996; delisle et al., 1999; hurtado, 2001, entre otros) que hoy en día son considerados literatura de referencia en torno a esta cuestión que han tratado de ofrecer, si bien cada uno por su parte, de forma aislada, una definición y clasificación del error en traducción de utilidad para la evaluación de las traducciones, entendidas estas como producto y teniendo como punto de mira la adquisición de la competencia traductora. para pym (1992: 4) un “error de traducción” es la manifestación de un defecto en cualquiera de los factores que entran en juego en las habilidades que para él conforman la competencia traductora, que son, por una parte, la capacidad de generar una serie de términos válidos en el texto meta para un texto origen y, por otra parte, la capacidad de seleccionar de manera rápida y justificada una de estas opciones de la serie para crear un texto meta que responda al encargo de traducción y a las expectativas del lector. en resumen, es el proceso de generar y seleccionar entre distintas opciones textuales. para pym, al traductor se le presuponen todas las demás habilidades requeridas (conocimientos gramaticales, culturales, estratégicos, sentido común, etc.). partiendo de esta concepción, pym ofrece una visión no binaria de la traducción en la que un texto origen puede dar más de un texto meta correcto o adecuado y propone una clasificación de lo que se entiende por error de traducción. en primer lugar, estarían los errores no binarios, aquellos para los que hay al menos dos opciones viables de término la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 307 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 307 en el texto meta frente a otras opciones incorrectas; y, en segundo lugar, estarían los errores binarios, que solo admiten dos opciones: correcto o incorrecto. para pym, los problemas binarios establecen una línea clara y delimitada entre lo correcto y lo incorrecto, mientras que en el caso de los no binarios, la línea es mucho más difusa e imprecisa. en este sentido, pym desacredita la hipótesis simplista de que las correcciones de errores binarios corresponden a las clases de lengua y los no binarios a las clases de traducción y defiende que ambos tipos de errores deben ser corregidos en ambos escenarios en la medida de las necesidades de los estudiantes y de la capacidad del profesor. para delisle hablar de “error” en traducción es hablar de faute (1993: 30) y lo describe como “el error de forma o de fondo cometido por desconocimiento o ignorancia de los conocimientos”. distingue entre “errores de lengua” y “errores de traducción” (delisle et al., 1999: 246). para estos autores el error de lengua es un error que se produce en el texto de llegada y que se puede atribuir a la falta de conocimiento de la lengua de llegada o de su manejo. los autores incluyen en esta categoría las ambigüedades no deliberadas, los barbarismos, los errores ortográficos, gramaticales o de puntuación, los usos impropios, las colocaciones equivocadas, las repeticiones abusivas y los solecismos. por otra parte, distingue el error de traducción como “aquel que se produce en el texto de llegada y que se puede atribuir a la falta de conocimiento o la aplicación equivocada de los principios de traducción, las reglas de traducción o los procedimientos de traducción, o bien a la interpretación errónea de algún segmento del texto de origen, o bien a un error metodológico”. entre estos errores distingue la adición, el contrasentido, el falso sentido, la hipertraducción, la interferencia, la omisión, la paráfrasis, la pérdida, el sinsentido, la sobretraducción y la subtraducción. otra de las autoras principales en este campo, nord (1997), lleva a cabo una distinción de error de traducción muy distinta a la de otros autores, aunque en la línea de su categorización de los problemas. para nord, hablar de “error de traducción” es hablar de un fracaso a la hora de cumplir las instrucciones del encargo de traducción y de proponer soluciones adecuadas a los diferentes problemas de traducción. de esta forma, divide los errores en cuatro grupos, comenzando con los errores pragmáticos, que se derivan de soluciones inadecuadas a los problemas pragmáticos (diferencias entre las situaciones comunicativas). en segundo lugar, encontramos los errores culturales, que afectan a la reproducción o adaptación de las normas y las julia lobato patricio ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326308 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 308 convenciones de los dos sistemas. a continuación, se mencionan los errores lingüísticos, que son aquellos frutos de traducciones inadecuadas en lo que a estructuras lingüísticas se refiere. finalmente, añade los errores textuales, causados por una respuesta inadecuada a problemas textuales, producto del texto concreto del que se deriva. a su clasificación, nord añade una jerarquización de los errores según la dificultad que supone afrontar cada tipo de problema de traducción. concluimos este apartado con la concepción del error de traducción por parte de hurtado (2001: 302). la autora sostiene que los errores de traducción se definen teniendo en cuenta criterios textuales, contextuales y funcionales. asimismo, pueden afectar tanto al sentido del texto original como a la reformulación en la lengua de llegada en todas sus dimensiones. de esta forma, hurtado distingue tres grandes grupos de errores de traducción. como mencionamos, comienza con los errores que afectan al sentido original del texto, que pueden abarcar desviaciones de sentido (contrasentido, falso sentido, sinsentido y no mismo sentido), adiciones y supresiones desacertadas, referencias extralingüísticas mal o no solucionadas e inadecuación al registro (campo, modo y tono). en segundo lugar, contempla los errores que afectan a la expresión en la lengua de llegada, en el plano textual (incoherencia y mal encadenamiento discursivo), estilístico (estilo pesado o no idiomático, falta de eufonía), léxico (barbarismos, calcos y registro inadecuado), morfosintáctico y, finalmente, ortográfico y tipográfico. por último, añade los errores pragmáticos, que derivan de la elección de soluciones no acordes con la finalidad de la traducción; en otras palabras, con el encargo y el destinatario. a continuación, presentamos a modo de recapitulación una tabla en la que se recogen las clasificaciones de los errores de traducción propuestas por los autores anteriormente citados: la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 309 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 309 4. descripción del proyecto como venimos observando desde hace varios cursos, los estudiantes erasmus francófonos que se matriculan en asignaturas de traducción francésespañol (ya sea traducción general o especializada) del gtei de la upo demuestran, por lo general, tener una menor competencia traductora que los estudiantes locales de su mismo nivel académico. este hecho tiene como consecuencia que muchos de estos estudiantes vean frustrados sus esfuerzos al no poder superar los objetivos que estas asignaturas establecen en sus guías docentes. en la upo, las asignaturas “traducción especializada ci y cii francés” e “introducción a la traducción c francés” suelen contar cada año con un número importante de estudiantes erasmus matriculados (un 15  %)3; este escenario de enseñanza-aprendizaje multicultural supone, sin duda, un enriquecimiento no solo para los propios estudiantes erasmus, sino también para los estudiantes locales (normalmente hispanohablantes), que se ven beneficiados del intercambio lingüístico y cultural que se produce en el aula. sin embargo, podemos afirmar por nuestra experiencia como docentes de dichas asignaturas durante diez años que los estudiantes erasmus procedentes de universidades de países francófonos demuestran tener una menor competencia traductora que los estudiantes españoles de su mismo nivel universitario. esto puede deberse a la composición de sus planes de estudio o a la visión que su sistema educativo tiene del proceso traductor, que hace que los estudiantes erasmus francófonos que cursan asignaturas de traducción tengan carencias traductológicas no solo a nivel teórico, sino también metodológico y práctico. este hecho tiene como consecuencia que muchos de estos estudiantes vean frustrados sus esfuerzos al no poder superar los objetivos que estas asignaturas establecen en sus guías docentes. consideramos que un semestre es tiempo insuficiente para instruirles en los conceptos traductológicos imprescindibles (además de que sean capaces de superar las deficiencias lingüísticas en español que presentan al comenzar el curso)4 para que adquieran la competencia traductora necesaria para superar dichas asignaturas. a esto se le añade el inconveniente de que el docente no puede detener el ritmo de estas asignaturas ni cambiar la programación establecida para instruir a los estudiantes erasmus en conceptos traductológicos ya estudiados por los alumnos locales en otras asignaturas de corte más teórico o de cursos inferiores. julia lobato patricio ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326310 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 310 es aquí donde el proyecto de colaboración que presentamos cobra sentido. en el marco de una beca5 de colaboración del mecd (de españa) con el departamento de filología y traducción de la upo concedida para el curso 2017-18, se llevó a cabo el proyecto “la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes erasmus francófonos en las asignaturas de traducción de francés”. la finalidad de este proyecto era que los estudiantes erasmus francófonos matriculados en asignaturas de traducción de francés-español pudieran adquirir (no solo durante las clases sino también en sesiones de apoyo adicionales) las destrezas traductológicas necesarias para cursar dichas asignaturas de forma satisfactoria y, así, poder superarlas. los objetivos del proyecto fueron los siguientes: 1. analizar los planes de estudio de las titulaciones universitarias de procedencia de los estudiantes erasmus francófonos con el fin de detectar el origen de las carencias traductológicas. 2. analizar, junto con los estudiantes erasmus, la metodología que estos alumnos utilizan a la hora de enfrentarse al proceso traductor y corregirla en sesiones grupales específicamente diseñadas para los estudiantes erasmus. 3. analizar y clasificar los errores de lengua y de traducción cometidos por estos estudiantes y corregirlos en sesiones grupales de apoyo específicamente diseñadas para los estudiantes erasmus. siguiendo la recomendación de pym (1992), hemos llevado a cabo este estudio de evaluación empírico de adquisición de la competencia traductora (a través de la investigación-acción participativa), siendo conscientes, como apuntan lobato y aubry (2018: 135), de la sinergia necesaria entre las clases de lengua y las clases de traducción para la corrección de errores en aras de la adquisición de la competencia traductora7. coincidimos con pym (1992: 1) en la dificultad8 de obtener muestras representativas y grupos de control y somos conscientes de que la muestra de nuestro estudio (15 estudiantes erasmus que cursaron las asignaturas “introducción a la práctica de la traducción” o “traducción especializada ci” durante el año 2017-18 y 45 textos analizados) puede no ser representativa ni aplicable a todas las clases de traducción en esta combinación lingüística francés-español. los sujetos son estudiantes francófonos erasmus procedentes todos ellos de universidades francesas9 que la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 311 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 311 en el momento de su estancia erasmus cursaban el 2º o 3er año de la licence en langues étrangères appliquées con una duración en el sistema universitario francés de 3 años (bac+3). al analizar los planes de estudios de las universidades de origen, observamos que en este nivel de estudios (licence) no hay asignaturas propiamente de traducción, sino que la traducción10 se enmarca, en su mayoría, dentro del bloque de lengua extranjera y se hace uso de la traducción pedagógica, rechazada durante años y que parece de nuevo recobrar fuerza (carreres y noriega, 2013: 256) con el fin de adquirir una lengua extranjera y no de la enseñanza-aprendizaje de la traducción como disciplina en sí misma para la formación de traductores. 5. detección de las necesidades de los estudiantes francófonos partiremos de la descripción, desde un punto de vista tanto traductológico como lingüístico, de las necesidades iniciales de los estudiantes francófonos que eligen la universidad pablo de olavide durante su estancia erasmus. estas necesidades fueron detectadas a través de las sesiones de apoyo11 que se ofrecieron a los estudiantes erasmus como complemento, y de forma totalmente gratuita, a las clases de traducción. en estas sesiones, los estudiantes llevaban a cabo un proceso guiado de autoevaluación de las traducciones que previamente habían realizado (bien en clase o bien en casa) en el marco de las asignaturas de traducción de la que estuvieran matriculados en la upo. así, según recomienda lee-jahnke (2001: 262) se iban anotando las fuentes documentales y las dificultades que los estudiantes habían encontrado en el proceso traductor (además de los errores cometidos en las traducciones) y, una vez clasificadas, se les ofrecían las herramientas y recursos necesarios para poder superarlas. tal y como afirma conde (2009: 99) citando a haiyan (2006), la autoevaluación es una manera óptima para estimular la aparición de una conciencia crítica y favorece la reflexión objetiva de los estudiantes sobre la calidad de sus traducciones. en primer lugar, desde el punto de vista traductológico se detectó que los estudiantes erasmus que cursaban en su mayoría en su universidad de origen una licence en lea llegaban a la upo sin haber estudiado nunca traductología, por lo que no poseían conocimientos teóricos acerca de la competencia traductora, el proceso traductor, las técnicas de traducción o sobre los aspectos profesionales del ámbito de la traducción. julia lobato patricio ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326312 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 312 como consecuencia de esto, se observó una carencia de metodología a la hora de enfrentarse al proceso de traducción. hasta entonces, la mayoría de los estudiantes solo habían empleado la traducción mediante lo que conocemos como “traducción pedagógica” (grellet, 1991: 86; lavault, 1991: 54) para el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera. en segundo lugar, desde el punto de vista lingüístico y coincidiendo con autores como agbodoyetin (2011), nginios (2013) y agudelo (2016), se detectaron las siguientes necesidades: se observó una falta de metodología en la búsqueda de información (equivalentes, reglas gramaticales, colocaciones, etc.) en diccionarios o bases de datos. se observaron errores de interlengua en las traducciones de los estudiantes. según santos (1993: 128) “la interlengua es el sistema lingüístico del estudiante de una l2, que media entre la lengua nativa (l1) y la lengua meta (l2), cuya complejidad se va incrementando en un proceso creativo que atraviesa sucesivas etapas marcadas por las nuevas estructuras y vocabulario que el alumno adquiere”, es decir, es la lengua propia del aprendiz. entre los principales errores destacamos: errores gramaticales: uso de las preposiciones, confusión de los verbos ser y estar, fallos de concordancia de género, concordancia de tiempos verbales o el uso del subjuntivo. errores ortográficos: acentuación, mal uso de los signos de exclamación, interrogación, tanto por ciento, etc. errores terminológicos: incapacidad de elegir el término adecuado según el campo temático o la “colocación” correcta. errores de falsos sentidos, contrasentidos y sinsentidos: dificultades a la hora de transmitir en el texto meta el sentido del texto original de forma total o parcial. hemos comprobado que, además de los errores descritos más arriba, los alumnos hacen también hipercorrecciones, adiciones, omisiones de información, errores de coherencia textual e incluso inadecuaciones de registro o de estilo. la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 313 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 313 6. análisis y clasificación de errores en las 45 traducciones (francés a español) analizadas se detectaron 1420 errores. mostramos a continuación en una tabla, a modo de resumen, el porcentaje de cada tipo de error y el número de errores cometidos por tipologías atendiendo a la clasificación de hurtado (2001) y añadimos ejemplos concretos de los errores cometidos por los estudiantes: errores gramaticales (26 %, 367) dentro de los errores gramaticales, los más comunes son los siguientes: confusión de los verbos ser y estar. (1) [...] las personas que son en contra [...]. (2) [...] i los especies animales son más protegidos que los embriones humanos [...]. en (2), además de la confusión entre ser y estar, encontramos errores ortográficos y de concordancia de género. mal uso de preposiciones. (3) [...] la iglesia española católica vuelve estar en guerra. (4) [...] un proyecto de ley que está en favor del aborto. (5) [...] el gobierno de josé luis zapatero va presentar [...]. confusión en el uso del género de los sustantivos. falta de concordancia de género. (6) [...] las programas de desarollo suspendidas [...]. (7) [...] la revolución de los costumbres realizado [...]. julia lobato patricio ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326314 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 314 (8) las razones de la coche compartida son múltiples. [...] error en la conjugación de tiempos verbales. (9) [...] forman parte de los zapatos terapéuticos que se vende en farmacias [...]. (10) [...]. ponga todo en tu lavadora [...]. mal uso del subjuntivo. (11) [...] fue su jefe quien le propusó a cada uno de sus salarios compartir sus viajes con otras personas que vivan cerca. error en el uso de los pronombres relativos que y quien. (12) el lunes, es paul que lleva las riendas [...]. errores ortográficos (26 %, 366) dentro de los errores ortográficos, los más comunes son los siguientes: errores de acentuación. (13) [...] fue su jefe quien le propusó [...]. (14) ¿cuál es la causa y como esta va a evolucionar? (15) [...] en la zona de vehiculos compartidos [...]. uso incorrecto de los espacios entre los signos de interrogación, exclamación y comillas. (16) [...] ¡sólo hace falta empezar ! en (16) se ha dejado un espacio de separación antes del signo de exclamación de cierre. (17) i y ha encontrado uno ! en este caso el estudiante confundió el signo de apertura de la exclamación con la letra “i” además de dejar espacio de separación tras y antes del signo. mal uso de la coma. (18) [...] usted parece un hallux valgus, es decir de una inflamación [...]. además de la errata ortográfica en el verbo “padecer” o quizá de la confusión con el verbo “parecer”, hay un mal uso de la coma, ya que no se añade tras el reformulador “es decir”. la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 315 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 315 uso incorrecto del signo del tanto por ciento. (19) [...] afecta fundamente las mujeres, en 95%, [...]. además de no haber incluido el espacio entre la cifra y el signo %, se detecta la falta de la preposición a antes de “las mujeres” y de un determinante antes de la cifra. errores de inadecuaciones de estilo (17 %, 237) errores terminológicos (14,7 %, 209) selección de términos no adecuados al campo temático. (20) [...] este cítrico es famoso por sus numerosas utilizaciones probadas tanto en medicina que en cocina [...]. en (20), el término más apropiado sería “propiedades”. selección de términos no adecuados en la “colocación” correspondiente. (21) marion sale su coche del garaje [...]. en (21) se ha elegido el verbo intransitivo “salir” en lugar del transitivo “sacar” y el resultado es una expresión incorrecta sin sentido en español. (22) [...] una anomalía morfológica como el pie plato [...]. en (22), el error proviene del claro calco del francés “pied plat”, que produce una combinación errónea de términos en español. errores de falsos sentidos, contrasentidos y sinsentidos (5,5 %, 78) (23) ejemplo 1: traducción del estudiante: “hoy, no estrés, se hace conducir” (sinsentido). frase original: « aujourd’hui, pas de stress, elle se fait conduire. » (24) ejemplo 2: traducción del estudiante: “¡para sylvie, debía comprar un coche o no podía ir al trabajo!” frase original: « pour sylvie, c’était covoiturage ou pas de boulot! » (falso sentido). julia lobato patricio ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326316 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 316 en la parte marcada en cursiva ha habido una traslación errónea del sentido del texto original. la única opción contemplada por sylvie para ir al trabajo era “compartir coche”, no “comprar un coche”. errores que afectan al plano textual (incoherencia, mal encadenamiento discursivo, uso indebido de conectores) (5,2 %, 784) (25) [...] este cítrico es famoso por sus numerosas utilizaciones probadas tanto en medicina que en cocina [...]. se trata de un calco del francés “tant… que”. (26) [...] si tienes la ropa un poco amarilleada, puedes cortar un limón en rodajas, [...]. ponga todo en tu lavadora [...]. en (26), además de la mala elección del término amarilleada, hay una inconsistencia en el uso de la persona verbal. errores relacionados con la inadecuación de registro lingüístico (3 %, 45) (27) ejemplo 1: traducción del estudiante: “¡para sylvie, debía comprar un coche o no podía ir al trabajo!”. frase original : « pour sylvie, c’était covoiturage ou pas de boulot! ». en este caso no se ha mantenido el mismo registro de lengua y el estudiante ha utilizado una expresión perteneciente a la lengua estándar en lugar de haber utilizado una más coloquial como “no currar”, “quedarse en paro”, etc. (28) ejemplo 2: traducción del estudiante: “[...] algunos productos antiacneicos no pueden utilizarse al sol so pena de irritaciones [...]”. frase original: « [...] certains produits antiacnéiques ne peuvent être utilisés au soleil sous peine d’irritations [...] ». en español la locución preposicional “so pena de” está reservada para el lenguaje jurídico con un registro normalmente elevado. la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 317 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 317 errores de adición, supresión innecesaria de información (2 %, 31) (29) “[...] una manifestación ligada al virus del herpes (vhs-1) hsv1 por sus siglas en inglés [...]”. en este caso ha habido una adición de la parte marcada en cursiva. no es necesario añadir la sigla en inglés. alusiones extralingüísticas no solucionadas (0,6 %, 9) (30) “[...] el gobierno de josé luis rodríguez zapatero, en efecto, va a presentar un proyecto de ley que descriminalizará el ivg [...]”. no se ha solucionado el uso de la sigla en español, que sería en todo caso ive. puesto que el uso de esta sigla en español no está tan extendido como en francés, habría que hacer explícita toda la expresión “interrupción voluntaria del embarazo”. se observa también un error de concordancia de género. (31) “[...] en este lugar, representantes con visión parcial del colectivo handicap 35, técnicos de rennes métropole, de keolis rennes [...]”. no se facilita al receptor más información sobre estas empresas. teniendo en cuenta el encargo de traducción, era necesario hacerlo ya que al receptor de la traducción no se le presuponen dichos conocimientos. julia lobato patricio ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326318 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 318 7. propuestas de acción a continuación, exponemos las propuestas de acción que se llevaron a cabo para paliar las necesidades detectadas en los estudiantes erasmus. en primer lugar, comenzaremos por las necesidades traductológicas. debido a la falta de conocimientos teóricos sobre los conceptos traductológicos de base, la principal necesidad en este plano era la adquisición de una metodología para llevar a cabo el proceso traductor. para ello, en las sesiones de apoyo se les instruyó en este sentido recomendando lo siguiente: no empezar a traducir directamente, sino hacer una o varias lecturas previas del texto original con el fin de detectar los problemas de traducción, terminología especializada (desconocida para el estudiante), estructuras gramaticales complicadas, etc. una vez realizada esta fase, se les indicó que llevaran a cabo la labor de documentación en general sobre el tema y en particular sobre esta terminología específica y que una vez hecho esto podrían comenzar con la fase de transferencia hacia la lengua meta. de forma paralela, a medida que se iba poniendo en práctica esta metodología tanto en las sesiones de apoyo como en las clases de traducción, se iban explicando a los estudiantes los conceptos traductológicos necesarios. en cuanto a las necesidades lingüísticas, consideramos que la falta de competencia lingüística puede suplirse con una fuerte competencia documental. según delgado y barceló (2011: 117), la documentación se erige como el método más eficaz para solucionar las dificultades propias de los textos especializados. el desconocimiento de los aspectos anteriores no es excusa para cometer un error de este tipo, sobre todo en encargos para los que cuentan con tiempo suficiente para resolver sus dudas (se excluyen las situaciones de examen por disponer de menos tiempo). por ello, proponemos los siguientes recursos documentales: para paliar los errores relacionados con los aspectos gramaticales, proponemos la utilización de los siguientes recursos: la nueva gramática de la lengua española, el diccionario panhispánico de dudas (dpd), el portal fundéu (fundación del español urgente), crea (corpus de referencia del español actual de la real academia española), conjugadores en línea, etc.12 para paliar los errores relacionados con los aspectos ortográficos proponemos la consulta de recursos como el diccionario la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 319 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 319 panhispánico de dudas o el volumen hablar y escribir correctamente. gramática normativa del español actual de leonardo gómez torrego, entre otros. para paliar errores relacionados con los aspectos terminológicos, proponemos como principal fuente de documentación los textos paralelos (entendidos aquí como textos originales redactados en la lengua meta sobre el mismo tema con la misma función o funciones equivalentes a las del texto original), además de la consulta del diccionario de la lengua española (dle), el diccionario combinatorio del español contemporáneo de ignacio bosque, el uso de alineadores de textos paralelos como linguee o reverso (con especial atención a las fuentes de las que provienen), bases de datos (como iate y proz), etc. para paliar los errores relacionados con la transmisión del sentido, basándonos en férriz y sans (2010: 54), se han diseñado actividades (algunas de las cuales incluimos en el apéndice) encaminadas a la detección, identificación y correcciones de errores de traducción relacionados con la transmisión del sentido. 8. conclusiones comprobamos en nuestros resultados que coincidimos con las conclusiones a las que llegan autores como nginios (2013: 103) al afirmar que la principal causa de los errores es la transferencia negativa o interferencia de la lengua materna (francés) de los aprendientes, por su similitud con la lengua meta (español). según conde (2008: 99), desde una perspectiva pedagógica, y citando a leejahnke (2001: 260), los estudiantes de traducción han de ser sensibles a la evaluación, lo cual solo se consigue haciéndoles conscientes de sus propios errores. lorenzo (2004: 165) considera que el análisis de las traducciones propias posee un alto valor pedagógico. en este sentido, consideramos que mediante la puesta en práctica de este proyecto, en cierto modo, hemos contribuido a favorecer la conciencia crítica de los estudiantes/traductores sobre su trabajo, ya que han llevado a cabo la revisión de las traducciones realizadas, han podido detectar los errores cometidos y hallar una solución a los mismos. julia lobato patricio ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326320 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 320 a pesar de la reducida muestra con la que hemos podido contar en este estudio, sirva este trabajo como modesto punto de partida para seguir profundizando en los aspectos relativos a la adquisición de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes erasmus que cursan en las universidades de destino asignaturas de traducción sin tener previamente nociones traductológicas. podemos afirmar, a la luz de los satisfactorios resultados obtenidos en las asignaturas de traducción13, que, tras llevar a cabo este proyecto, la mayoría de los estudiantes que participaron en él consiguieron, al final del semestre, reducir considerablemente el número de errores detectados en las traducciones que iban realizando. sin embargo, por falta de tiempo, no hemos podido extraer datos cuantitativos acerca de la progresión de cada estudiante en distintos momentos del proyecto. finalmente, hemos de señalar el gran interés y satisfacción de los estudiantes participantes en la experiencia, los cuales lo han puesto de manifiesto tanto de forma verbal en las clases como por escrito en las encuestas de evaluación docente. historia del artículo: recibido 5 abril 2019 versión revisada recibida 22 octubre 2019 aceptado 23 octubre 2019 referencias la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 321 agbodoyetin, h. (2011). análisis de errores de interlengua e intralengua en aprendices francófonos de e/l2 y líneas de actuación para su tratamiento didáctico. tesis doctoral. universidad autónoma de madrid. agudelo, p. (2016). la interlengua de los estudiantes francófonos de ele: el caso de ser y estar. tesis doctoral. universidad de montreal. campbell, s. (1998). translation into the second language. londres/nueva york: longman. carreres, a. y m.r. noriega (2013). “traducción pedagógica y pedagogía de la traducción: un diálogo necesario” en b. blecua, s. borrell, b. crous, f. sierra (eds.), plurilingüismo y enseñanza de ele en contextos multiculturales: xxiii congreso internacional asele, 253-261. alicante: biblioteca virtual miguel de cervantes. conde, t. (2009). proceso y resultado de la evaluación de traducciones. tesis doctoral. universidad de granada. delgado, i. y t. barceló (2011). “el proceso de documentación en el aula de traducción económica (francés-español): recopilación de recursos electrónicos sobre el mundo de la empresa”. çédille, revista de estudios franceses 7: 116-136. delisle, j (1993). la traduction raisonnée. ottawa: presses universitaires d’ottawa. delisle, j., h. lee-jahnke y m.c. cormier (eds.) (1999). terminologie de la traduction /translation terminology / terminología de la traducción / terminologie der übersetzung. ámsterdam/ filadelfia: john benjamins. férriz, c. y c. sans (2010). “una propuesta de intervención didáctica en la enseñanza de la traducción del portugués al español: análisis de errores de traducción”. monográficos marco ele 11: 37-63. garzone, g. (2002). “quality and norms in interpretation” en g. garzone y m. viezzi (eds.), 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 321 notas 1 con una duración de 3 años, estos estudios ofrecen, por lo general, una formación multidisciplinar en dos lenguas y civilizaciones extranjeras y en materias de aplicación de corte económico. información extraída del sitio web de la association nationale des langues étrangères appliquées: <www.anlea.org>. 2 no entraremos aquí en explicar lo que se entiende por calidad en traductología, ya que no forma parte de los objetivos de este estudio; sin embargo, apuntamos que es, sin duda, un concepto muy debatido desde los orígenes de esta ciencia, sobre el cual la mayoría de los autores que lo han tratado (pellet, 2001: 12; halliday, 2001: 14; garzone, 2002: 115) coinciden en destacar que el concepto de “calidad” es un concepto relativo que afecta a todo un proceso y cuya concepción va cambiando con el tiempo. 3 según los datos de estudiantes matriculados en las asignaturas “introducción a la práctica de la traducción de la lengua c francés”, “traducción especializada ci francés” y “traducción especializada julia lobato patricio ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326322 interpreting in the 21st century: challenges and opportunities, 107-119. ámsterdam: john benjamins. grellet, f. (1991). “vers une pédagogie communicative de la traduction” en the british council, goethe-institut y ens-credif (eds.), the role of translation in foreign language teaching, 85-89. parís: didier érudition. halliday, m.a.k. (2001). “towards a theory of good translation” en e. steiner y c. yallop (eds.), exploring translation and multilingual text production: beyond content, 13-18. berlín/nueva york: mouton de gruyter. hurtado, a. (1999). enseñar a traducir. madrid: edelsa. hurtado, a. (2001). traducción y traductología: introducción a la traductología. madrid: cátedra. kelly, d. (2002). “un modelo de competencia traductora: bases para el diseño curricular”. puentes 1: 9-20. lavault, e. (1985). fonctions de la traduction en didactique des langues. parís: didier erudition. lee-janhke, h. (2001). “aspects pédagogiques de l’évaluation en traduction”. meta: journal des traducteurs/meta: translators’ journal 46(2): 258271. lobato, j. (2011). materiales didácticos para la enseñanza y la práctica de la traducción francésespañol. pretraducción y traducción, 2ª ed. sevilla: bubok publishing. lobato, j. y a. aubry (2018). “¿es posible mejorar la competencia lingüística en lengua francesa a partir de los errores detectados en las clases de traducción con el fin de mejorar la adquisición de la competencia traductora?” en m.t. barceló martínez, y c. velasco rengel (eds.), evaluación, direccionalidad y orientación profesional en los estudios de traducción e interpretación, 133-147. málaga: eda libros. martín martín, j.m. (2010). “sobre la evaluación de traducciones en el ámbito académico”. resla 23: 229-245. nginios, t. (2013). dificultades en el uso de las preposiciones en estudiantes francófonos de ele. memoria de maestría. universidad de montreal. pacte group (2017). “pacte translation competence model. a holistic, dynamic model of translation competence” en a. hurtado albir (ed.), researching translation competence by pacte group, 35-41. ámsterdam: john benjamins. pellet, m. (2001). “translation quality is the difference between ‘march madness’ and the craziness of march”. the ata chronicle 30(5): 1113. pym, a. (1992). “translation error analysis and the interface with language teaching” en: c. dollerup y a. loddegaard (eds.), teaching translation and interpreting. training, talent, and experience, 279-290. ámsterdam: john benjamins. roiss, s. (2006). “competencia traductora y tipología textual en busca del punto de intersección”. estudios filológicos alemanes 11: 439-450. tolosa, m. (2013). don de errar: tras los pasos del traductor errante. castelló de la plana: publicacions de la universitat jaume i. toury, g. (1984). “the notion of ‘native translator’ and translation teaching” en w. wilss y g. thome (eds.), die theorie des übersetzens und ihr aufschlusswert für die übersetzungs– und dolmetschdidaktik. tubinga: narr. 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 322 cii francés” de la universidad pablo de olavide durante los cursos 2013-14, 2016-17 y 2017-18. la mención de lengua c hace referencia a que se trata de la segunda lengua de trabajo de los alumnos. 4 este mismo enfoque pero aplicado a estudiantes hispanohablantes con el fin de mejorar su competencia lingüística en fle ha sido tratado por lobato y aubry (2018). 5 otorgada al estudiante de 4º curso adrián granados navarro y dirigida por la dra. julia lobato patricio. 6. en este caso con el departamento de filología y traducción de la universidad pablo de olavide. 7 otros proyectos pioneros sobre la adquisición de la competencia traductora han sido llevado a cabo por el grupo pacte 2001. 8 puesto que el proyecto no formaba parte del programa de las asignaturas en las que estos alumnos se habían matriculado, la participación de los sujetos dependía del grado de compromiso del estudiante erasmus con en el proyecto, que implicaba asistir a sesiones de tutoría fuera del horario de clase, así como la revisión y corrección de los textos traducidos durante estas sesiones y en casa. 9 université du littoral côte d’opale, université paris est creteil, université de picardie jules verne, entre otras. 10 thème, thème gramatical, como se denomina en algunos de los planes de estudios consultados. 11 las sesiones fueron de una hora y media semanales durante 12 semanas. 12 a modo de ejemplo incluimos en este apartado una serie de actividades que según nginios (2013: 70102) son eficaces para facilitar el aprendizaje de los usos de las preposiciones y evitar “en lo posible la fosilización de errores”. en estas actividades se trabajan expresiones con preposiciones (completar huecos, respuesta de preguntas a partir de un texto, relacionar unas expresiones con otras mediante flechas, ordenar una secuencia lógica, etc.). el autor se centra sobre todo en la práctica de los usos de las preposiciones de, a/ en y por/ para ya que se ha observado que son las preposiciones que más dificultades presentan en los alumnos francófonos. (nginios, 2013: 104). las principales preposiciones practicadas a partir de estas actividades son de, a/ en y por/ para, con especial atención a las oposiciones en los usos de los pares a / en y por / para. además se desarrollan las destrezas de la comprensión lectora, la expresión escrita. 13 en el curso 17-18 en la asignatura “introducción a la práctica de la traducción de la lengua c francés” los cuatro estudiantes erasmus francófonos matriculados superaron la asignatura, mientras que en “traducción especializada ci francés”, de los once estudiantes erasmus francófonos matriculados, la superaron ocho. la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 323 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 323 apéndice actividad 1. equivalencias fuera de contexto objetivos: reflexionar sobre las diferencias entre las equivalencias fuera de contexto y contextualizadas. reflexionar sobre la importancia del contexto en traducción. buscar equivalencias de los términos haciendo uso de los conocimientos previos o del diccionario. desarrollo de la tarea y comentario: se divide la clase en dos grupos; se reparten dos listas de términos o expresiones en francés (a y b), una a cada mitad de la clase, y se pide a los alumnos que busquen el equivalente en español. podrá hacerse uso del diccionario bilingüe. estos términos o expresiones han sido extraídos de dos textos (que se presentan al final de la siguiente tarea) que guardan bastantes similitudes entre ellos en cuanto a estructura, contenido, terminología, etc. es importante que los alumnos no conozcan el título de los textos ni sepan qué tema tratan para que no estén influenciados a la hora de elegir los equivalentes en español. de esta forma se pondrá más de relieve la dificultad de traducir un texto (o una expresión en este caso) sin ayuda del contexto. evaluación: se ponen en común las traducciones de los dos listados de términos y se llega a una propuesta de traducción (fuera de contexto) para cada término. se vuelve a dividir la clase en dos grupos y se reparten los textos «votre enfant a de la fièvre?» y «vous avez de la fièvre?» de los que se han extraído los términos o expresiones. se repartirá el texto 1 al grupo que tenía el listado b y el 2 al que buscó las equivalencias del listado a. por parejas, los alumnos comprueban si la traducción ofrecida anteriormente para el listado de términos sería la adecuada teniendo ahora delante el texto completo. no tardaremos en darnos cuenta de que, aunque dispongamos del texto completo para comprobar la propuesta de traducción de los términos, no podremos valorar la validez o no de la traducción hasta no tener un encargo de traducción para nuestro texto. las decisiones de traducción se toman teniendo en cuenta todos los agentes y elementos que intervienen en el contexto de traducción. lista a température, signe, organisme, coup de chaleur, troubles, conseils pratiques, maux de tête, appareil, tisane, bouillon, délais, sauf avis contraire lista b soulager, chez un enfant, couvert, réaction naturelle, mal supportée, inconfort, personne ayant la garde, couches superflues, s’évacuer, bouillon, découvrir, pièce actividad 2. equivalencias contextualizadas objetivos: reflexionar sobre la importancia del contexto en traducción y cómo éste condiciona la toma de decisiones para resolver los problemas concretos de traducción. desarrollo de la tarea: en este caso los alumnos han de crear un encargo de traducción para los textos 1 «votre enfant a de la fièvre?» y 2 «vous avez de la fièvre?» empleados en el ejercicio anterior y, a continuación, traducirlo. se reparte el texto a los alumnos y se les deja un tiempo prudencial (30-40 minutos) para traducirlo de forma individual. es interesante que los alumnos continúen trabajando con el mismo texto que en el ejercicio anterior. evaluación: se pide a los alumnos que expongan los posibles contextos y encargos de traducción creados y se corrige la traducción en clase resolviendo los problemas de traducción que haya en el texto. comentarios: el profesor ha de insistir en que, a la hora de crear el encargo de traducción, este debe ser lo más real posible julia lobato patricio ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326324 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 324 para tratar de asimilar esta actividad a una situación profesional de traducción. es interesante que este ejercicio se realice en un aula de informática o que los alumnos traigan a clase sus ordenadores portátiles (si hay conexión inalámbrica a internet) o bien diccionarios monolingües y bilingües. la mejora de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes francófonos ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326 325 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 325 julia lobato patricio ibérica 38 (2019): 303-326326 11 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:55 página 326 iberica 13 ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in this paper, an analysis of conceptual metaphor types and their relation with cognitive and communicative functions is carried out on a sample of oncology research papers. according to conceptual metaphor theory (cmt), four conceptual types are described: imagistic, orientational, ontological and structural. the purpose is to explore the cognitive functions of metaphor – categorization and conceptualization – and their role in knowledge construction. on the other hand, communicative aspects, such as deliberate versus unconscious metaphor usage, as well as the conventional character of metaphorical expressions are observed, with the purpose of characterizing the discourse of medical science research articles in english. keywords: conceptual metaphor, cognitive function, deliberate metaphor usage, oncology. resumen t i p os d e me tá fo ra c on ce p tu al en o nc ol ogí a: fu n ci on es c ogn it i va s y c omu ni ca ti va s este artículo propone un análisis de los tipos de metáfora conceptual descritos en la teoría conceptual de la metáfora – imagística, orientacional, ontológica y estructural –, en relación con sus funciones cognitivas y comunicativas en el discurso de los artículos de investigación en oncología. el objetivo es explorar las funciones cognitivas de la metáfora – categorización y conceptualización – y su papel en la construcción del conocimiento. por otra parte, se observan aspectos comunicativos, como el uso deliberado o inconsciente de la metáfora, así como el carácter convencional de las expresiones metafóricas, con el propósito de caracterizar el discurso de los artículos de investigación médica en inglés. palabras clave: metáfora conceptual, función cognitiva, uso metafórico deliberado, oncología. conceptual metaphor types in oncology: cognitive and communicative functions1 ignasi navarro i ferrando universitat jaume i (spain) navarroi@uji.es 163 ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 ignasi navarro i ferrando 1. introduction the aim of this paper is to disclose linguistic evidence of metaphor use in medical discourse, particularly in oncology, a research field dealt with regularly in numerous scientific publications. more concretely, the purpose is to analyse metaphorical language in texts on hiv-related lymphoma, written by experts and addressed to a readership of peers. consequently, a description of the conceptual types and cognitive functions of metaphor in that register is pursued. it is assumed that metaphor plays an essential role in establishing links between our understanding of the world and scientific language (brown, 2003). in this line, a characterization of texts on hivrelated lymphoma is pursued to shed some light on the role of metaphorical models in scientific communication. studies on metaphor and its influence on human knowledge have proliferated during the recent decades, not only in the field of linguistics or literary studies, but also in other social sciences. this has revealed the potential that metaphor bestows speakers and writers in favouring a particular standpoint. lakoff and johnson (1980) showed that metaphorical expressions pervade language and evince the existence of conceptual models sustaining our comprehension of everyday situations. nowadays, the pervasiveness of metaphor is widely accepted as a necessary cognitive mechanism in our comprehension of target domains. according to this view, metaphorical models provide coherence to many spheres of human culture, from economics, law, and politics, to religion, philosophy or science (see lakoff & johnson, 1999). the role of metaphor in science has long been pointed out as a tool for conceptualization and theory modelling (black, 1962; gentner & gentner, 1983; kuhn, 1993), and was recently the object of more extensive analysis in this line (brown, 2003; zeidler, 2013). as for medicine, discourse has been described from the perspective of genre analysis (yanoff, 1988; salager-meyer, 1994; gotti & salager-meyer, 2006; wilce, 2009) and terminology (dirckx, 1983; cimino et al., 1994). additionally, the qualitative analysis of particular metaphors in medical discourse (semino et al., 2004; semino, 2008, 2011) constitutes a valuable contribution. according to semino (2011), metaphor adapts differently to genres of diverse social scope, mainly in terms of communicative and conceptual function. since the appearance of illness as metaphor (sontag, 1978) there has been a considerable amount of research adopting a sociological perspective to deal with metaphor usage in the context of healthcare and illness, and its application to therapy and doctor-patient 164 communication (see demjén & semino, 2016 for an overview). in the context of clinical practice, coulehan (2003) focuses on the importance of metaphorical narrative to healing processes and masakume and zumla (2012) discuss the cross-cultural implications of metaphor usage. on the other hand, the study of conventional metaphor usage in medical scientific discourse has revealed the relevance of metaphorical models like war, sport, the body-as-machine (periyakoil, 2008) or personification and other models (huang, 2005; finatto, 2010) in the conceptualization of medical processes and notions. additionally, systematic corpus studies have contributed to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of metaphor in technical medical texts (mungra, 2007) and to point out communicative functions of medical metaphors in popularization media (camus, 2009). this paper focuses on medical language used by specialists and addressed to colleagues, with the purpose of identifying and characterizing cognitive as well as discursive functions of metaphorical language. from previous observation, our hypothesis is that the specialized register under scrutiny here – oncology research – is expected to use metaphor conventionally and unconsciously for conceptual rather than communicative functions, whereas discourse addressed to the general public – such as the press – is expected to incorporate cognitive models with an argumentative and expressive function (navarro i ferrando, 2016). 2. conceptual metaphor types dealing with the concept of metaphor, black remarks that a figurative form normally substitutes the literal one, though sometimes there is no literal expression at all, so that a metaphor is just “the use of a word in some new sense in order to remedy a gap in the vocabulary” (black, 1955: 280). subsequently, black (1962) endorses the interaction view of metaphor, suggesting that two thoughts about different entities are active together and supported by a single linguistic expression whose meaning results from their interaction. lakoff and johnson (1980) and lakoff (1993) systematized black’s (1962) interaction approach as the conceptual mapping approach. according to this view, “metaphor has come to mean a cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system” (lakoff, 1993: 203) characterized as a set of ontological correspondences between two domains, where the implicational system of the source domain provides a model for the conceptual metaphor types in oncology ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 165 conceptual relationships in the target domain. mappings are constrained by the invariance principle that ensures the maintenance of the target domain original coherence. in turn, mappings determine epistemic correlations by projecting knowledge from the source domain onto the modelling of the target domain. in this survey, metaphors reveal how the domain of human cells is modelled partially according to knowledge configurations from other domains. for the purpose of conceptual modelling, four types of conceptual metaphor are postulated, namely imagistic, orientational, ontological and structural (lakoff & johnson, 1980; lakoff, 1993). additionally, kövecses (to appear) has recently pointed out that the conceptual content of metaphorical mappings may be approached from different levels of abstraction (image-schemas, frames, domains, and mental spaces). accordingly, both source and target domains participating in a metaphor are envisaged as knowledge configurations that involve pre-conceptual structure (image-schemas) together with a conceptual structure (concept, frame, domain), and consequently, the four conceptual metaphor types can be correlated with one or more levels of knowledge configuration. the imagistic metaphor type correlates one conventional image onto another by means of similarity, and allows for mapping knowledge about the first (source) onto knowledge of the second (target). conventional images are structured by both image-schemas and a category or concept at the conceptual level in the mapping given that shape is one of the attributes of basic categories in human conceptual systems. image metaphors are very expressive because they schematically profile very concrete aspects of experience, such as particular scenes or formal qualities of single entities, as seen in example 1: (1) the idea of putting any form of the aids virus into people sounds a bit frightening, […], but the virus used by his team was ‘gutted’ and was no longer harmful. (grady, 2011: 1, sept. 13) the expression “gutted” recalls the image of an animal that has been emptied of organs so that it can be prepared as food or, in an extended meaning, a room or building that has been emptied for redecoration. the image of a hollow space is transferred to the idea of a virus understood to be empty of its previous genetic configuration so that new genetic architecture can be implemented. the image metaphor here maps an emptied space. ignasi navarro i ferrando ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186166 secondly, orientational metaphors configure a system of concepts on the grounds of spatial orientation (up-down, in-out, near-far). orientational metaphors project spatial orientation onto abstract concepts, such as happiness (happy is up, or sad is down). the orientational configuration expressed by the metaphor is based on our experience of the world through perception and motion. next, ontological metaphors represent abstractions such as activities, emotions or ideas, as something concrete, such as objects, substances, containers or persons. thus, components of experience like abstract entities, processes, events, attributes and relations are managed conceptually as concrete objects or tangible substances. nominalization is, therefore, a basic mechanism for ontological metaphor because it expresses the properties of a thing (mind is a container) or a person (death is a reaper). finally, structural metaphors build the conceptual configuration of one complex concept or a whole domain in terms of another. typically, structural metaphors grow on a set of inference patterns and implications from the source domain that facilitate understanding and provide coherence for the target domain (life is a journey). 3. cognitive and communicative functions in scientific texts, metaphor usually fulfils a task directly related to the contents of a theory or to the explanation of a phenomenon (fauconnier, 1997: 165-168). when the reality that the scientist tries to describe escapes direct perception – as is the case of cells, bacteria and viruses – scientists need to make an effort to create models to conceptualize the phenomena under observation. in addition, the discovery of previously unknown facts makes it necessary to create new categories precisely to name such phenomena. thus, science not only needs to name entities whose existence was not known (categorization function), but also elaborates new conceptualizations of previously unknown processes and complex systems (conceptualization function). categorization, as a metaphor cognitive function, implies that a “base concept is used to access or derive an abstract metaphoric category of which it represents a prototypical member, and the target concept is then assigned to that category” (bowdle & gentner, 1999: 92). this function also provides a name for the target concept and serves primarily to attribute specific properties to it (glucksberg & keysar, 1993). conceptual metaphor types in oncology ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 167 on the other hand, conceptualization, as a metaphor cognitive function, leads to the elaboration of models that explain the relationships between the entities in the target domain within a conceptual system including frames, scenarios and scripts as conceptual configurations (see kövecses, 2015: 3148). this analogical process includes mapping and induced schemas from the source domain, and may lead to extension and reanalysis of the target domain (fauconnier, 1997: 102-105). as for communicative functions, the user’s intentionality – the deliberate use of metaphorical expressions – is observed. steen (2011) suggests that a deliberate use of metaphor implies the speaker’s awareness of a crossdomain mapping and an intention to alert the addressee to that mapping, which indicates a specific rhetorical motivation. the user’s communicative goal points to changing the addressees’ perspective on the current topic in the communicative event by making them look at it from the point of view of the source domain in the mapping. the interlocutors process the meaning of a metaphorical utterance as a comparison between the domains, being that comparison conscious if metaphor is deliberately used. moreover, in many communicative events, the speaker’s intention leads the hearer in the process of configuration of both concepts and relationships in the target domain, which reveals a conceptualization function. on the other hand, conventional metaphors normally occur in non-deliberate usage. according to steen (2011), the meanings activated by the metaphorical expression are processed directly as meanings in the target domain, with no online mappings in the communicative act. metaphor usage may be, then, unconscious and the metaphor usually fulfils a categorization function, since the interlocutors categorize the concepts directly in the target domain without carrying out an analogical process. thus, our hypothesis holds that the cognitive conceptualization function, whose objective is to elaborate models (via analogical processes), is prototypically the result of a deliberate use, while the categorization function prototypically results in the use of terminology that, being already known by the scientific community, is conventional and used unconsciously. 4. materials and method the aim of this survey is a qualitative analysis of metaphor types and functions in oncology research papers, controlling the three parameters of ignasi navarro i ferrando ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186168 “field”, “tenor” and “mode” (halliday, 1985/1989). for that purpose, a sample corpus consisting of 8 research papers, 1 editorial and 3 letters to the editor from specialized journals (see references in the appendix) was compiled with the assistance of the research staff at the catalan institute of oncology,2 who provided the materials. the topic (field) was limited to hivrelated lymphoma by selecting articles including two keywords: “lymphoma” and “hiv”. consequently, all the texts in the sample deal with lymphomas caused by hiv, which assures the desired homogeneity. the articles are written in a very formal style, addressed to a readership of oncologists (tenor). as a result, the corpus includes 12 articles on hiv-related lymphoma treatment, totalling 30,419 words and covering a time span from 2001 to 2016. the limited size of the corpus allows for a qualitative characterization of the data. on the other hand, given the unequal distribution of texts obtained per genre, this research focuses on analysing metaphor in a particular register, rather than on differences between genres. furthermore, style and content traits do not differ significantly among these genres in the highly specialized journals selected. as cameron and deignan (2003: 151) point out, though findings may not be generalizable, small samples allow for manual analysis providing data which could be used as starting clues for searches in large corpora. our collection of highly specialized texts was compiled with particular sociocultural criteria for this investigation and constitutes a relevant body of evidence that can be directly interpreted (sinclair, 2001: xi). at this point, a diagnostic criterion is necessary for identification of metaphorical expressions where an expression taken literally poses a logical contradiction in the context in which it occurs. to this end, a metaphor identification procedure (pragglejazz group, 2007; steen, 2007; steen et al., 2010a & 2010b) is applied. steen et al. (2010a: 15) suggest that “metaphor in discourse can be identified by looking for indirectly used words, which then have to be interpreted by comparison to a more basic sense”. thus, the method is grounded on the comparison of contextual meaning with primary meaning for a set of selected lexical units. primary meaning is determined by basic definitions in cambridge english dictionary online (henceforth, cedo) and merriam webster dictionary and thesaurus online (henceforth, mwdto). the contextual meaning is determined by the frame configured by those concepts expressed through lexical units appearing in combination with the selected lexical unit. the comparison of the basic meaning frame elements with the contextual meaning frame elements determines whether the frames conceptual metaphor types in oncology ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 169 are the same or if they differ. metaphors are identified in those cases where basic and contextual frames differ. once metaphorical expressions have been identified, the metaphors are classified into four conceptual types, namely imagistic, orientational, ontological and structural, as described in section 2. each one of these types correlates with the conceptualization or categorization function described above. a metaphor fulfils a conceptualization function when it helps both speaker and hearer in understanding and characterizing the cognitive domain that constitutes the topic of discourse, the relationships among the concepts in that domain, its frames and scripts. on the other hand, the categorization function provides categories for entities in the target domain, as is the case when we need to refer to a particular event, process or participant. the metaphors are then analysed as deliberate versus non-deliberate on the basis of the occurrence of linguistic or other types of marks. in order to discern which uses are deliberate and which are not, those formal signals making the author’s intention apparent are observed (quotation marks, italics, special formats, or linguistic resources, such as comparisons and similes). the following signals, which constitute explicit alerts on behalf of the author, serve for the researcher to consider a metaphorical expression as deliberate metaphor usage: quotation marks; simile marked by “like” or “as if ”; analogy (let us think of x as y, in the same way as x so y, etc.); mental space builders (imagine x, think of x); x-of-y nominal construction; and x-is-y construction. finally, metaphors are marked as conventional versus novel. a metaphor is considered to be conventional if the contextual meaning, defined by the contextual frame, corresponds with a secondary meaning in cedo or mwdto, or both, and differs from the primary basic meaning that represents the source domain of the metaphor. this is clear evidence that the particular sense is lexicalized, and consequently, conventional in the discourse community. for the purposes of our analysis, attention was paid only to metaphorical language used to process information about the target domain, namely hivrelated lymphoma and the human body, the processes involved, their consequences and medical treatment. other conventional metaphorical expressions and novel metaphorical expressions employed as stylistic devices were left out. ignasi navarro i ferrando ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186170 5. results altogether, 24 lexical units (types) pertaining to the field “oncology” were found to be used metaphorically in the entire corpus, totalling 351 tokens (1.15% out of 30,419 words). the results showing conceptual metaphor types and their cognitive functions are presented in separate sections, 5.1 and 5.2, respectively. with regard to the communicative aspects of metaphor usage, deliberate metaphor usage – an intentional phenomenon – is apparent to the researcher as far as signals occur in the discourse. the intention was to find evidence of deliberate uses of metaphorical expressions. however, none of the expected marks (see section 4) were found in the corpus (the implications of these results are discussed in section 6). finally, section 5.3 presents results concerning the conventional character of metaphor usage. 5.1. conceptual metaphor types table 1 shows the four types of conceptual metaphor and the linguistic expressions corresponding to each type. the figure in brackets by each expression indicates its absolute frequency (number of tokens) in the entire corpus. in the case of imagistic, orientational and ontological metaphors, each linguistic expression corresponds to a metaphor, and the expression itself is conceptual metaphor types in oncology ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 171 imagistic orientational ontological structural bulky(3) follow-up(29) cohort(26) severe(13) effusion(3) cross-talk(9) dominant(3) diffuse(11) stem-cell(4) aggressive(37) naïve(3) opportunistic(18) burden(10) response(54) load (33) noninvasive (1) chain(45) colony(3) niche(8) population(15) event(3) migrator (1) site(9) homing(10) table 1. linguistic expression of conceptual metaphor types. i employed to name the metaphor in those cases where there is no additional or different term in the target domain � there is “a gap in the vocabulary” (black, 1955: 280). on the other hand, each structural metaphor is manifest in the corpus through several linguistic realizations. the standard notation in cmt for structural metaphors utilizes the formula x-is-y, being x the target domain and y the source domain (lakoff, 1993). 5.1.1. image metaphors image metaphors establish a correspondence between source and target domain based on shape or visual configuration similarities. the three image metaphors identified here recall visual effects that give names to different kinds of tumour on the grounds of the visual display of the malignant cells. “diffuse” implies a substance that is not concentrated but scattered over the place, and “effusion” implies an image of a liquid flowing out of a source. thus, as seen in examples 2, 3, and 4, “diffuse large b-cell lymphoma (dlbcl)” and “effusion lymphoma” each specifically designates a category of tumour. in the case of “bulky disease” the expression qualifies diverse types of lymphoma or malignancy showing a larger size than could be expected. (2) the most common arl subtypes are diffuse large b-cell lymphomas (dlbcl). (schommers et al., 2015: 807) (3) […] less frequent subtypes of hiv-related lymphomas include primary central nervous system (cns) lymphomas, primary effusion lymphomas and plasmablastic lymphomas. (ribera & navarro, 2008: 1129) (4) the frequency of an intermediate-high ipi score, extranodal involvement in two or more areas, bulky disease, bone marrow, and cns involvement and extranodal involvement were similar in both series. (baptista et al., 2015: 813) 5.1.2. orientational metaphors orientational metaphors express the understanding of a process or event in terms of spatial orientation configurations. in the case of the follow-up metaphor, the control that doctors maintain over patients is understood via the conceptualization of a physical process whereby the patient would be (in the source domain) physically followed very closely so that contact is preserved. that control is linguistically referred to as “follow-up”, a noun designating either every single event where doctor and ignasi navarro i ferrando ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186172 patient meet or the period of time over which a series of meetings take place, plus “follow up”, a verb designating the doctor’s control action. the semantic connotation of contact, meaning closeness, is manifested through the spatial particle “up”, which suggests that proximity is a hallmark of control. accordingly, the source domain contributes a sense of motion (the literal meaning of “follow”) and an orientational clue to proximity and completed contact (“up”). altogether, the target domain – doctors controlling treatment – is metaphorically expressed as doctors following the patient’s disease at a very short distance: “follow-up” implies closeness in example (5) as verb plus noun (single event), (6) as noun (period of time), and (7) where the contextual frame also reminds of the source domain by means of the lexical unit “reachable”, since patients are “lost” if no longer “reachable”. (5) patients who were lost to follow up were censored at the time of their last follow-up […]. (barta et al., 2016: 1) (6) after a median follow-up of 48 months, 69% of patients (n¼33) had died. (castillo et al., 2012: 5274) (7) patients were followed every 6 months and were considered lost to follow up if no longer reachable. (schommers et al., 2015: 807) 5.1.3. ontological metaphors ontological metaphors provide concepts for entities, events or processes in abstract or new domains on the grounds of semantic attributes taken from other concepts that are well and long established in the language. rather than visual imagistic patterns or shapes (image metaphors) or spatial configurations (orientational metaphors), ontological metaphors project functional attributes onto target domains. in the case of the cohort metaphor, the relevant attribute consists in keeping a group of persons together for some purpose – a group of patients who are submitted to the same treatment, as in (8), below: (8) this study provides important real-life data on clinical outcomes in a large cohort of patients with arl. (schommers et al., 2015: 809) patients are characterized through the naïve metaphor if submitted to a particular treatment for the first time, as in (9): conceptual metaphor types in oncology ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 173 (9) we performed a case-control study nested within the italian cohort of naïve to antiretroviral hiv patients […]. (bibas et al., 2012: 749) whereas the basic meaning of “naïve” refers to a quality of human personality describing a person who is not experienced about world affairs, in the context of medical treatment, the relevant semantic feature is the lack of experience, but only in relation to the particular treatment that the patient encounters for the first time – “antiretroviral hiv”. another ontological metaphor gives rise to the term “stem cell”, which refers to an unspecialized cell, “especially one taken from a person or animal in a very early stage of development, that can develop into any other type of cell” (cedo). the source domain induces the frame of the main trunk of a plant developing buds and shoots. the mapped attribute is a functional one, as in (10): (10) [...] regimens followed by autologous stem cell transplantation have been increasingly employed in hiv infected patients. (ribera & navarro, 2008: 1131) the load metaphor depicts the amount of virus or bacteria forming a tumour as “load” or “burden”. though these two terms seem synonymous, our data suggest that the use of “load” is more extended to diverse contexts since “burden” is restricted to the collocation “tumour burden”, whereas “load” occurs in this and other collocations. thus, these lexical units provide the attribute “quantity of material as cause of an extra effort”, so that the presence of virus is depicted as causing an additional effort to the supporting cells in their managing biological functions, which brings about negative consequences. in addition, this metaphor finds linguistic expression in contextual words that contribute to our understanding of how to deal with viruses. accordingly, the metaphorical entailments prompt the use of contextual expressions, such as “reduced”, “measured”, “carried”, shed”, and so on, as well as characterized as “heavy”, as in examples 11 and 12. (11) […] splenic tumor load in lt__/_ recipient mice was significantly decreased. (rehm et al., 2011: 1029) (12) […] enlarged thymi resulting from heavy tumour load were occasionally detectable. (rehm et al., 2011: 1023) ignasi navarro i ferrando ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186174 according to mwdto, the meaning of “event”, includes the outcome of an occurrence, as a lexicalized semantic aspect in addition to the happening itself. in the domain of cancer treatment, “event” designates any infection or malignancy appearing at any moment between diagnosis and cure or death. thus, the ontological metaphor creates a specialized term, so that only certain types of occurrences are called “events”, i.e. those that bring about disease, illness, impairment or worsening. the term “event” is applied to the outcome of an occurrence by virtue of a metonymic process. what we call here “occurrence” refers literally to the inception of the illness, which is conceptualized as its cause. in examples 13 and 14, emergence of cancer is referred to as a kind of “event”, in this specialized sense. (13) cns relapse (cnsr) in adequately treated patients is a relatively rare event. (barta et al., 2016: 1) (14) arl was the initial aids-defining event in 198 patients. (schommers et al., 2015: 807) the primary meaning of “niche” depicts a hollow space in a wall. in the niche metaphor, spatial emptiness is something wanted, so that a niche becomes an exclusive field, adding the connotation of safeness and comfort. a niche is metaphorically a goal to be reached. a conventional extension of that meaning refers to a location suited to a group of organisms, called an “ecological niche”. thus, in natural science the term describes the environment where a species has adapted for survival. in oncology, a virus reaches a niche as it infects the tissue or cell it can live on by means of consuming its proteins or molecules. the projected attribute can be traced from the frame used in natural sciences to the frame in oncology as in example, 15: (15) […] ccr7-dependent lymphoma cell lodging, a process that is intimately linked with lymphoma cell access to survival niches. (rehm et al., 2011: 1031) the basic sense of the word cross-talk is almost synonymous with “interference” in the context of spoken communication through technological devices. in the cross-talk metaphor, the main implication points to unwanted information intruding into the communication channel. in oncology, “cross-talk” is used to indicate that an external biological agent comes into contact with a cell and modifies its molecular configuration or conceptual metaphor types in oncology ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 175 program by virtue of “interference” with the expected molecular biological processes. in addition, molecular interference is usually reciprocal, as seen in example 16. (16) […] the lymphoma cells interacted with fibroblastic reticular cells in a reciprocal fashion. this cross-talk involved stimulation of the lymphotoxin β receptor. (rehm et al., 2011: 1020) in biochemistry, strong links among diverse components are expressed by means of the chain metaphor. these components may be atoms, molecules or chemical groups. in addition, depending on the degree of power of these links and the amount of components, chemical chains may be denominated as light or heavy, as in example 17. (17) the free light chain (flc) assay measures the concentration in the serum of immunoglobulinkappa (j) and lambda (k) light chains that are not attached to a heavy chain. (bibas et al., 2012: 750) 5.1.4. structural metaphors ontological metaphors are useful conceptual mechanisms to name entities or processes in an abstract or new domain, so that the emerging concepts may designate single phenomena. however, the projected attributes from the source frame, and the new concepts generated thereby, do not bring about further entailments or implications beyond the single concepts themselves or their frames. otherwise, structural metaphors express, as it were, complex mappings from rich source domains onto enriched target domains, where a set of linguistic manifestations show the implicational configuration of diverse participants in the source complex domain as they are recycled in order to give coherence to the relationships among participants and processes in the target domain. accordingly, a structural metaphor represents a complex conception of a set of entities and their participation in multiple frames. in our sample, two sets of lexical units occur expressing the structural metaphors disease is an enemy and a tumour is a group of people. in the metaphor disease is an enemy, a set of lexical units expressing frames where two enemies are involved are transferred to frames and situations experienced in the relationship between patient and disease. thus, the fact that an enemy is conceived as “aggressive” in its attitude implies that ignasi navarro i ferrando ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186176 we fear its causing damage on us or our surroundings. damage may be “severe”. an enemy waits for the best moment to attack and looks for the weak points showing an “opportunistic” behaviour. as the opponent receives an attack, a response or reaction is produced. one of the opponents becomes “dominant” over the other. in this fashion, the whole “story” about the two enemies is projected to the conceptualization of the relation between the disease and the patient and his/her body. in our sample, tumours “behave” in a particular way. examples 18 to 22 illustrate diverse aspects of this metaphor: “severe”, “severely”: hard attitude of an opponent or enemy. (18) hiv-infected patients had higher incidences of grade 3-4 mucositis and severe infectious episodes. (ribera & navarro, 2008: 1130) “aggressive”, “aggressively”, “aggressiveness”: violent behaviour in human beings. (19) in patients with hiv, nhl often behaves more aggressively and presents at an advanced stage. (barta et al., 2016: 1) “opportunistic”: enemy who waits for the opportunity to attack. (20) the introduction of potent protease inhibitors in 1996 and their use in combination with other agents (haart) has changed the incidence of many opportunistic infections. (navarro et al., 2001: 912) “response”: the opponent’s reaction to an attack. (21) the complete response (cr) rate of patients with high tumour burden was not different in hiv-infected and hiv-uninfected patients. (baptista et al., 2015: 814) “dominant”: the stronger fighter dominates the weaker one. (22) […] p53 is the dominant tumour suppressor in myc-induced lymphomagenesis. (rehm et al., 2011: 1025) the metaphor tumours are people represents a scenario where large groups of people, tribes or nations, “migrate” and “invade” territories. oncological discourse shows a conceptualization of cell groups as conceptual metaphor types in oncology ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 177 “populations” that “invade” a location in the body, and “home in” on a “site”, establishing “colonies”. this scenario is illustrated in examples 23 to 26: population: a large group people living on a territory. (23) the ihh-producing cell population localized within the t-cell zone. (rehm et al., 2011: 1027) migratory capacity: populations move from one location to another. (24) lymphoma cells, derived from wt-e-myc mice, showed migratory capacity in vitro in response to the chemokine ligands ccl21 and cxcl12. (rehm et al., 2011: 1023) colony: part of a population migrates and settles on a distant location. (25) […] mobilization procedures including preferentially chemotherapy and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. (ribera & navarro, 2008: 1131) site: a location for the establishment of a colony. (26) […] mutations that disable p53 phosphorylation sites for ser/thr kinases. (rehm et al., 2011: 1025) an interesting projection in the tumours are people metaphor is the “infecting is homing” mapping. the attribute “able to find a home” is mapped to the target domain as applied to intrusive or inserted cells. the biological mechanism allowing a group of cells to home in on an organ is called receptor, and has to do with enzymatic interaction among cells. (27) […] the chemokine receptor ccr7 regulates e_-myc lymphoma homing to lymph nodes and distinctive microanatomic sites. (rehm et al., 2011: 1020) 5.2. cognitive functions metaphor usage in language works at the service of target domains comprehension. the four conceptual types described in section 5.1 perform cognitive functions to different degrees in different kinds of discourse. table ignasi navarro i ferrando ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186178 2 shows the two cognitive functions observed: concept categorization and domain conceptualization. those types of conceptual metaphor that project an entity onto another (image and ontological metaphors) result in new concept categories designating things, single events or processes. otherwise, metaphors that project whole implicational systems (structural metaphors) provide tools for conceptualizing networks of relationships among things, processes and events in the target domain, resulting in the elaboration of complex scenarios. the only orientational metaphor found in our data fulfils a categorizing function, given that the term “follow-up” designates a process, with no further implications in the conceptualization of the whole domain. conceptual metaphor types in oncology ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 179 categorization conceptualization follow-up + bulky disease + diffuse + effusion + cross-talk + niche + naïve + burden/load + stem cell + chain + event + cohort + colony + + population + + migratory + site + homing + dominant + severe + aggressive + opportunistic + response + noninvasive + table 2. cognitive function. interestingly, the expressions “colony” and “population” play both categorizing and conceptualizing functions in oncological discourse. both designate categories of groups of cells or viruses, and as such, they elaborate concepts as categories of entities. from that point of view, they manifest ontological mappings. on the other hand, both participate in the complex configuration of the structural metaphor tumours are people. these categories of large cell groups help in the conceptualization of the disease as a land invasion by a large population. in that sense, we suggest that these metaphorical concepts fulfil both categorizing and conceptualizing cognitive functions. 5.3. conventional vs. novel usage regarding the conventional or novel character of metaphorical expressions, our criterion relies on lexicographic information contained in cedo and mwdto. for each metaphorical lexical unit analysed, as far as one dictionary provides a definition for the sense found in the contextual frame in the corpus, that metaphorical sense has been considered lexicalized, and therefore conventional in the discourse community (follow-up, stem cell, naïve, severe, aggressive, opportunistic, response, colony, population, migration, chain, load). technical denominations consisting of an acronym are considered conventional in the discourse community, such as “primary effusion lymphoma” (pel), “diffuse large b-cell lymphoma” (dlbcl) and “free light chain” (flc). as for the expressions “bulky”, “site”, “niche”, “cross-talk”, “homing”, “dominant” and “(non)invasive”, cedo and mwdto do not offer a specific oncological definition, but include very close definitions used in biology, which also correspond to the contextual frames in the corpus. this observation points at the conclusion that the categories expressed by these lexical units are also conventional in the field of oncology, being extensions of the senses defined in cedo and mwdto. since specialized dictionaries or glossaries were not used in this study, this issue remains unsolved here. finally, “cohort” is found extensively all through the corpus in the sense described above, which shows evidence of conventional status in the discourse community, even though the frame is not defined in either cedo or mwdto. ignasi navarro i ferrando ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186180 6. discussion the cmt hypothesis that metaphor is present in any kind of discourse is corroborated by our results. however, no claims on metaphorical density can be adduced, since our procedure excludes the analysis of certain lexical types like prepositions and the general lexicon. attention was focused on the lexicon referring only to the target domain, that is, the field of oncology and related clinical procedures. firstly, image metaphors offer the possibility of visualizing abstract phenomena such as different lymphoma configurations. our results confirm that image metaphors are used to characterize specific categories by means of visual features. secondly, according to our data, ontological metaphors predominate over imagistic, orientational and structural metaphors. that is an expectable outcome, given that ontological mappings project single entities, processes or events from source domains so that new concepts can be brought about in order to fill gaps in the vocabulary. the results also suggest that the use of expressions pertaining to structural metaphors like disease is an enemy and tumours are peoples seem to be ingrained in oncological discourse. as for cognitive functions of metaphor, the categorization function is used to create categories in the target domain given that no specific vocabulary exists for newly identified phenomena, thereby producing specific field terminology. those expressions whose metaphorical specific meaning in oncology is not found in cedo nor mwdto correspond to technical terms. the metaphorical terms found in our survey corroborate this claim – “niche”, “crosstalk”, “homing”, “cohort” and “bulky disease”. as such, terms based on ontological metaphors “progressively acquire specialized meanings that are specific to the target domain” (semino, 2011: 131). this study shows how ontological metaphors fulfil categorization purposes in the specialized field. the conceptualization of the target domain as a complex set of conceptual relationships is led by two structural metaphors where the source domains supply conceptual material for the understanding of processes, events and participants configuring complex domains or scenarios. thus, connecting the concepts of “attack”, “aggressiveness”, “defence”, “resistance”, “fight”, “victory”, “defeat”, etc. offers a model to reason about disease treatment. conceptual metaphor types in oncology ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 181 as for communicative aspects of metaphor, there is complete absence of any formal marks for intentional use of metaphorical language. thus, our data clearly show that the oncology research register does not allow for deliberate uses of metaphor. the authors of this type of discourse seem to be unaware that the language they use is metaphorical. the source domain is not present in the mind of the writer, and there is no intention at all to call for it in the mind of the reader. this fact raises the question whether we deal here with dead metaphors. in our view, in spite of unconscious usage, metaphorical language is still a reality since the lexicographic evidence shows that both the literal primary sense and the metaphorical sense are conventional in the community, i.e. both senses are contemporary. this observation corroborates the thesis that [t]he analogical mapping is not only alive, it is now entrenched in the conceptual and grammatical system. what the entrenchment does is make the mapping less noticeable at a conscious level; but at another level, it is more available than ever for reasoning, inference transfers, and conceptual elaborations (fauconnier, 1997: 22). the results, therefore, show that there is no room for creativity in research papers in oncological discourse, but rather well established conventional language is used. furthermore, even though some concepts have emerged via metaphor, no consciousness about mappings is actualized in the discursive activity. 7. conclusions several limitations have constrained the validity of the findings in this work. though the results may certainly represent a first approach to metaphor in this particular type of text (oncology research) the size of our sample does not allow for conclusive generalizations. further study is needed in this particular context in order to unravel communicative aspects of metaphor usage, such as deliberate usage, conventionality and creativity, and their correlation with conceptual types and cognitive functions. nevertheless, the data analysed in this survey suggest that at least some technical terms and conceptualizations come about in medical science through metaphorical operations. regarding conceptual metaphor types – imagistic, orientational, ontological and structural – all are active in the ignasi navarro i ferrando ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186182 specialized discursive community for the purpose of describing abstract frames and domains. particularly, specialized research articles incorporate terminology grounded mainly on ontological metaphors, leaving image metaphors for the creation of very specific categories. on the other hand, orientational metaphor mappings, as they instantiate well entrenched conventional cognitive models, are present to a very much reduced extent. this fact points at an explanation for the descriptive character of medical research articles in contrast with other more argumentative kinds of discourse, like the press, where the pervasiveness of orientational and structural metaphors is highly apparent. regarding cognitive and discursive functions of metaphor we may conclude that cognitive functions are crucial for the descriptive nature of scientific discourse, whereas communicative functions are diminished. in addition, being both cognitive functions fundamental for the understanding of the field, categorization plays a special role in the generation of specialized terminology in order to refer to particular entities and processes. regarding communicative functions, only conventional metaphors are used, being that usage utterly unconscious. finally, metaphors with categorization function are used non-deliberately and conventionally, as expected. on the other hand, metaphors with conceptualization function, whose use was expected to be, at least partially, deliberate and novel, also present a completely non-deliberate and conventional usage in oncological research texts. acknowledgements i would like to express my sincere gratitude to the editors and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. article history: received 5 february 2017 received in revised form 28 april 2017 accepted 28 april 2017 conceptual metaphor types in oncology ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 183 references ignasi navarro i ferrando ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186184 black, m. 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(2016). “metaphorical aspects in cancer discourse” in p. ordoñez-lópez & n. edo-marzá (eds.), medical discourse in professional, academic and popular settings, 125-148. bristol, uk: multilingual matters. ortony, a. (ed.) (1993). metaphor and thought (2nd edn). new york: cambridge university press. periyakoil, v.s. (2008). “using metaphors in medicine”. journal of palliative medicine 11,6: 842-844. pragglejaz group (2007). “mip: a method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse”. metaphor and symbol 22,1: 1-39. ignasi navarro i ferrando is senior lecturer in english language and linguistics at jaume i university. he graduated in hispanic and english philology at the university of valencia, and earned his phd in english linguistics at jaume i university. his research focuses on prepositional polysemy and metaphor in discourse, particularly in scientific medical language and spiritual thought. notes 1 financial support was granted by pla 2014 de promoció de la investigació de la universitat jaume i, ref. p1·1a2014-02, and by the spanish ministry of economy and competitiveness, ref. ffi2013-43593-p. 2 special gratitude goes to dr. josé-tomás navarro at josep carreras leukaemia research institute (catalan institute of oncology). http://www.carrerasresearch.org/ca/lymphoid_neoplasms. conceptual metaphor types in oncology ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186 185 salager-meyer, f. (1994). “hedges and textual communicative function in medical english written discourse”. english for specific purposes 13,2: 149-171. semino, e. (2008). metaphor in discourse. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. semino, e. (2011). “the adaptation of metaphors across genres”. review of cognitive linguistics 9: 130-152. semino, e., j. heywood, & m. short (2004). “methodological problems in the analysis of a corpus of conversations about cancer”. journal of pragmatics 36,7: 1271-1294. sinclair, j. (2001). “preface” in m. ghadessy, a. henry & r.l. roseberry (eds.), small corpus studies and elt. theory and practice, vii-xvi. amsterdam: benjamins. sontag, s. (1978). illness as metaphor. new york: farrar, straus and giroux. steen, g. (2007). “finding metaphor in discourse. pragglejaz and beyond”. culture, language and representation 5: 9-25. steen, g. (2011). “the contemporary theory of metaphor – now new and improved!”. review of cognitive linguistics 9,1: 26-64. steen, g., a. g. dorst, b. herrmann, a. kaal, t. krennmayr, & t. pasma (2010a). a method for linguistic metaphor identification. from mip to mipvu. amsterdam: john benjamins. steen, g., a. g. dorst, b. herrmann, a. kaal, & t. krennmayr (2010b). “metaphor in usage”. cognitive linguistics 21,4: 765-796. wilce, j.m. (2009). “medical discourse”. annual review of anthropology 38: 199-215. yanoff, k.l. (1988). the rhetoric of medical discourse: an analysis of the major genres. dissertation available from proquest. aai8824810. url: http//:repository.upenn.edu/ dissertations/aai8824810 [22/04/17] zeidler, p. (2013). models and metaphors as research tools in science. berlin: lit verlag. dictionaries cambridge english dictionary online © cambridge university press, url: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ [22/04/17] merriam webster dictionary and thesaurus online © merriam webster inc., url: http://www. merriam-webster.com/ [22/04/2017] appendix 1. corpus references baptista, m. j., o. garcía, m. morgades, e. gonzález-barca, p. miralles, a. lópez-guillermo, e. abella, m. moreno, j. m. sancho, e. feliu, j.m. ribera, & j.t. navarro (2015). “hiv-infection impact on clinical–biological features and outcome of diffuse large b-cell lymphoma treated with r-chop in the combination antiretroviral therapy era”. aids 2015, 29: 811-818. baptista, m. j., a. hernández-rodríguez, e. martínez-cáceres, m. morgades, j. martínez-picado, g. sirera, j.m. sancho, e. feliu, j.m. ribera, & j.t. navarro (2016). “epstein–barr viral loads and serum free light chains levels are potential follow-up markers of hiv-related lymphomas”. leukemia & lymphoma doi: 10.1080/10428194.2016.1179299: 1-3. barta, s. k., j. joshi, n. mounier, x. xue, d. wang, j. m. ribera, j. t. navarro, ch. hoffmann, k. dunleavy, r. f. little, w. h. wilson, m. spina, l. galicier, a. noy, & j. a. sparano (2016). “central nervous system involvement in aids-related lymphomas”. british journal of haematology doi:10.1111/bjh.13998: 1-10. bibas, m., m. p. trotta, a. cozzi-lepri, p. lorenzini, c. pinnetti, g. rizzardini, g. angarano, p. caramello, l. sighinolfi, c. m. mastroianni, g. mazzarello, a. di caro, c. di giacomo, a. d’arminio monforte, & a. antinori (2012). “role of serum free light chains in predicting hiv-associated non-hodgkin lymphoma and hodgkin’s lymphoma and its correlation with antiretroviral therapy”. american journal of hematology 87: 749-753. castillo, j. j., m. furman, b. e. beltrán, m. bibas, m. bower, w. chen, j. l. díez-martín, j. j. liu, r. n. miranda, s. montoto, n. m. nanaji, j. t. navarro, a. c. seegmiller, & j. m. vose (2012). “human immunodeficiency virusassociated plasmablastic lymphoma. poor prognosis in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy”. cancer november 1: 5270-5277. navarro, j. t., m. j. baptista, m. morgades, c. tural, f. millá, e. feliu, & j. m. ribera (2013). “neoplasms and infections as the main causes of death in patients in complete response to hiv-related non-hodgkin lymphoma in the combination antiretroviral therapy era: a study out of a series of 146 patients”. british journal of haematology 162: 278-291. navarro, j. t. & j. m. ribera (2014). “unique clinical implications of hiv-related lymphoma”. international journal of hematologic oncology 3,3: 171-174. navarro, j. t., j. m. ribera, a. oriol, m. vaquero, j. romeu, m. batlle, a. flores, f. millá, & e. feliu (2001). “influence of highly active anti-retroviral therapy on response to treatment and survival in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-related non-hodgkin’s lymphoma treated with cyclophosphamide, hydroxydoxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone”. british journal of haematology 112: 909-915. navarro, j. t., f. vall-llovera, j. l. mate, m. morgades, e. feliu, & j.m. ribera (2008). “decrease in the frequency of meningeal involvement in aids-related systemic lymphoma in patients receiving haart”. haematologica 93,1: 148-150. rehm, a., a. mensen, k. schradi, k. gerlach, s. wittstock, s. winter, g. büchner, b. dörken, m. lipp, & u. e. höpken (2011). “cooperative function of cr7 and lymphotoxin in the formation of a lymphoma-permissive iche within murine secondary lymphoid organs”. blood 118,4: 1020-1033. ribera, j. m. & j. t. navarro (2008). “human immunodeficiency virus-related non-hodgkin’s lymphoma”. haematologica 93,8: 1129-1132. schommers, ph., m. hentrich, ch. hoffmann, d. gillor, a. zoufaly, b. jensen, j. r. bogner, j. thoden, j. ch. wasmuth, t. wolf, m. oette, m. müller, s. esser, j. j. vehreschild, g. fätkenheuer, & ch. wyen (2015). “survival of aids-related diffuse large b-cell lymphoma, burkitt lymphoma, and plasmablastic lymphoma in the german hiv lymphoma cohort”. british journal of haematology 168: 806-810. ignasi navarro i ferrando ibérica 34 (2017): 163-186186 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this paper focuses on the results of a questionnaire distributed to a group of undergraduate computer science students at a croatian university who had english in computer science 1 and 2 as esp mandatory courses and then to a group of graduate computer science students who used to have these english courses. the central part of the questionnaire focused on the “english element” language borrowings at various levels of orthographical, phonological and morphological adaptation to croatian and unadapted expressions collected from croatian information and communications technology (ict) magazines. the main aim was to establish whether the students from both age groups found the “english element” acceptable in the standard croatian language of journalistic register and to what extent. the results showed that the “english element” was perceived as predominantly acceptable, and the more adapted the terms were to croatian, the less acceptable they were, regardless of the students’ age and personal and professional development. keywords: language contacts, esp, acceptability, english element, croatian ict students. resumen l a p e rc e p c ió n de l “ e l e me nt o in g l é s ” e n l a s re v i s ta s c r oa ta s d e t i c e n l o s e s t ud ia nt e s d e g ra do s y po s g ra d os de i nf or má ti c a este artículo se centra en los resultados de un cuestionario distribuido a un grupo de estudiantes de informática en una universidad croata que cursaron los the perception of the “english element” in croatian ict magazines with undergraduate and graduate computer science students daniela matić university of split (croatia) daniela.matic@fesb.hr 201 ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 daniela matić cursos inglés para informática 1 y 2 como cursos obligatorios de inglés específico y a un grupo de estudiantes de posgrado que cursaron estos cursos de inglés. la parte central del artículo se centró en el “elemento inglés” – préstamos lingüísticos con diferentes niveles de adaptación ortográfica, fonológica y morfológica al croata y expresiones no adaptadas recogidas en revistas de tecnologías de la información y comunicación (tic). el objetivo principal fue establecer si los estudiantes de ambos grupos de edad encontraron el “elemento inglés” como aceptable en el registro periodístico en lengua croata standard y hasta qué nivel. los resultados demostraron que el “elemento inglés” se percibió predominantemente como acceptable, y que cuanto más adaptados al croata estaban los términos, menos aceptables eran, independientemente de la edad de los estudiantes o de su situación personal y profesional. palabras clave: contacto lingüístico, ife, aceptabilidad, elemento inglés, estudiantes de tic croatas. 1. introduction language contacts between english and croatian are fairly recent when compared with languages such as italian, german, hungarian or even turkish with which croatian shared a long and cumbersome history. english, unlike the aforementioned languages, has not been the language of a warring and conquering nation and has not been imposed upon the community as a result. english words started entering croatian after world war 2, but the process has been intensified since the 1990s due to globalization as a large-scale phenomenon in which the english language has a domineering role as a means of communication, notably in ict. languages change, influenced by endogenous or exogenous processes, but they are not independent of their users. “borrowing is the incorporation of foreign features into a group’s native language by speakers of that language: the native language is maintained but is changed by the addition of the incorporated features” (thomason & kaufman, 1988: 37). every language needs new borrowings especially to meet the requirements of a very demanding and rapidly growing global communication in science and technology, and “the areas of language most receptive to innovation lie on the periphery of the lexical spectrum, i.e. in specialized domains” (pulcini, furiassi & gonzález, 2012: 15), such as the ict field and its “computerese” (winford, 2003: 58). english ict terminology is frequent in conversational style among professionals who strive for the fast exchange of turns and 202 language efficiency where english ict terms, often opaque to the non-ict world, serve as a means of in-group identification. croatia, unfortunately, is not a technological trendsetter, but is, as many other countries, dependent on technology imported from countries which have substantial resources to invest into scientific research and development. such technologically advanced communities, primarily the usa, devise terms for new referents reflecting their perception of reality by tapping their language system: “the united states has achieved a certain position of dominance in the technological sphere, as competitors fell by the wayside, (…). however, the language in which research on new technology is published is principally english, no matter what the origin” (wright, 2004: 150). very often these terms are imported, as cultural borrowings, to receiving languages, such as croatian, to fill “gaps in the structural inventory of the recipient language” (matras, 2009: 149) and they stay unadapted as foreignisms (haspelmath, 2009: 43) or adapted to a point even though “all languages have the means to create novel expressions out of their own resources” (haspelmath, 2009: 35). once these terms are accepted and embraced as borrowings by, first, the ict community, and then by a wider society, they will not be easily replaced by croatian terms. on the other hand, replacing borrowings by equivalents is important to and indicative of language vitality and of native speakers’ attitude toward their native language (granić, 2011: 266) if it is to preserve its identity. therefore, striking a balance between the import of new terms, which facilitates international transfer of knowledge, and creating domestic terminology, which would satisfy professional users, linguists and ordinary people, proves to be a demanding task in language planning and policy (granić, 2011: 270). magazines use journalistic style, one of the five “functional styles”, so called in slavic stylistics studies, of the standard croatian language (silić, 2006). this use of the term partially covers the meaning of “registers”, defined by some linguists as “situationally defined varieties” (biber et al., 1999: 5) or as “functional variety of language” (halliday & matthiessen, 2004: 27). in newspaper register “the language used is carefully edited and revised” (biber et al., 1999: 9). the sub-register of printed or online computer magazines may be referred to as information and communication technology (ict) journalistic register. croatian ict magazine texts, on average, are supposed to be informative and written with neutral, non-figurative language resources if they are to be as objective as possible (silić, 2006: 77; hudeček & mihaljević, 2009: 29) and, the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 203 as such, are written in the standard croatian language. magazines are part of public discourse and the messages they send are public (kovačević & badurina, 2001: 101) and available to magazine readers who are not only ict experts but also ordinary people interested in ict for various reasons. journalists and contributors should be aware that readers, consciously or not, internalize their lexis or writing style and thus shape their own language (hudeček & mihaljević, 2009: 10-11). linguistically, a prominent characteristic in croatian ict magazines are english-like ict terms for fairly new extra-linguistic referents but also for some known ones, since “global avenues of communication such as radio, television and the internet (…) have facilitated the spread of vocabulary from (american) english (…) even though the contact is supposedly ‘distant’” (winford, 2003: 31). english or anglicized ict terms may be treated as jargonisms or even occasionalisms up to a point; however, when used in magazines, jargonisms tend to spread, quickly gain popularity and eventually enter standard lexis. the intensity with which these terms enter croatian leaves very little time to croatian linguists, who strive to comply with the predominantly purist language policy (barić et al., 1999: 106; nikolić-hoyt, 2005: 180), to adapt them to croatian or to find appropriate croatian equivalents (sočanac, 2010: 89). thus, many english words remain unadapted (stojaković, 2004; stojaković & malčić, 2006). purism of the croatian standard language policy does not ban foreign words though it prefers domestic words whenever possible in standard, public and scientific communication (barić et al., 1999: 104). 1.1. english model adaptation numerous expressions entering croatian from english retain their original orthography, unlike expressions which entered croatian before transitional processes starting from 1990’s. before that time, original english graphemes would be replaced by closest croatian ones, so there was a certain degree of orthographic adaptation according to the orthography of the giving language (filipović, 1990: 28-29; nikolić-hoyt, 2005: 189). in the meantime, the number of esl speakers has risen, so has their proficiency in english; therefore, new entries to croatian are often not perceived as foreign and unadapted forms are often retained as such (nikolić-hoyt, 2005: 183). most new expressions enter the receiving language through written media, especially in ict, and orthography is very often prioritized as a decisive factor in adaptation. croatian orthography manuals mostly speak in favor of “graphic adaptation”: hrvatski pravopis (badurina et al., 2007: 217, 237) daniela matić ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226204 recommends that new entries and their subsequent derivations be transcribed with graphemes used for croatian phonemes. however, if they are written in their original form, they are foreign words. in that case, they should be italicized to mark their foreign origin, as it is also recommended by another hrvatski pravopis, issued by institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje (croatian language and linguistics institute) in 2013. if they are compliant with the croatian phonetic system, they are considered borrowings and are not italicized. of course, croatian equivalents are always preferred to foreign words (http://pravopis.hr/pravilo/pisanje-opcih-rijeci-i-sveza/46/). when words borrowed from english are adapted and integrated at various stages, they become loanwords, anglicisms, meaning that english phonemes and morphemes are substituted by croatian ones in the processes of transphonemization and transmorphemization (filipović, 1986: 68). the english of ict, especially its american variety, has largely influenced croatian orthography in ict magazines. the question is whether the words that appear unadapted in their base form and mostly in print should be categorized as foreign words or as anglicisms. nikolić-hoyt (2005: 181, 189), therefore, finds it necessary to rethink the definition of “anglicism” since a large number of terms have not undergone these processes and are not anglicisms in this sense of the word. in this paper we studied words imported from english into croatian which have been left unadapted or adapted in various ways, and have entered one register. these words cannot be referred to as “anglicisms” in every single case, since many of them have not been transformed, and this is the reason why we use the expression the “english element”, used also by rudolf filipović in his work, to cover all kinds of english influence upon a language, be it lexical, morphological, semantic, syntactic or phraseological (in pulcini, furiassi & gonzález, 2012 “anglicism” was used as an umbrella term for these influences). 1.2. the native speaker according to davies (2003: 210), the native speaker is a person who acquired a l1 in childhood and uses it, “has intuitions (in terms of acceptability and productiveness) about his/her grammar 1, “and has intuitions about those features of the grammar 2 which are distinct from his/her grammar 1” (grammar 1 the speaker’s own linguistic system, idiolect; grammar 2 the standard language). naturally, intuition cannot be perceived as the only the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 205 criterion when testing the acceptability of some language expression since native speakers’ intuition is subjective and depends on the level and quality of their education as well as on their interest in language issues (barić et al., 1999: 49-50). we are well aware that students in general, even though native speakers, cannot make acceptability judgments which would be normative and not subject to questioning. still, they can voice their opinion whether they perceive various linguistic phenomena at the interface of croatian and english as acceptable (acceptability tests in davies, 2003; ellis et al., 2009). 2. aim as we teach english in computer science 1 and 2 as mandatory esp courses, we wanted to analyze the students’ attitudes toward english and croatian in their professional life. what motivated and finally triggered this research were articles in croatian ict magazines where the english element is abundantly present in various forms and at various levels of adaptation. the issue of acceptability and english borrowings in croatian ict terminology with the first-year students was only examined in matić (2014). other previous research publications (mihaljević, 1993; stojaković, 2004) have explored different student groups and used differently designed questionnaires. the aim of the research and this paper was to find answers to the following questions: (i) what is the students’ attitude, whose mother tongue is croatian, toward the english element in croatian ict magazines? (ii) do the results in the two groups of students differ and to what extent with respect to their age? (iii) do the results in the two groups differ and to what extent with respect to the quantity of croatian university textbooks and scientific materials the students had to cover in the course of their studies and to the acquired knowledge, but also with respect to less formal sources of information they encounter in both croatian and english? daniela matić ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226206 the null hypothesis in this research would be that the students’ perception of the english element and, subsequently, acceptability of the collected expressions was unrelated to their age and university education. taking into account a considerably high exposure of our students to ict terminology in magazines, internet articles and mass media, we hypothesized that the students examined in this research would find many of the collected expressions fairly acceptable in newspaper register, but we wanted to establish whether their different age and education would be significant factors and contribute to different results. however, it was not until these results had been statistically processed that we were able to establish the degree of acceptability and the difference between the two age groups. 3. methodology 3.1. participants the examined students completed 4 years of secondary education. the first group of participants in this research were 78 first-year computer science students at a croatian ict faculty, 60 of them male (76.92%) and 18 female (23.08%) (henceforth group 1), who were examined in the second semester of the 2013/14 academic year. they all attended the english in computer science 1 and 2 courses. at that moment, they were at the beginning of the undergraduate university education cycle, which lasts three years. the second group of participants were 54 second-year graduates of computer science at the faculty who had completed their undergraduate education. they used to have the abovementioned english courses in the first year of their undergraduate studies, but since then they were exposed to english only in non-educational environments and situations, and usually less formal. in this group, 46 of males (85.2%) and 8 females (14.8%) (henceforth group 2) were examined in the third semester of the 2014/15 academic year. at that moment, they were in their fifth, and last, year of their university education. according to “the usual methodological expectations of experimental psychology”, as stated in wasow and arnold (2005: 1483-1484), the number of participants was sufficiently large so that the research could be carried out and, subsequently, the obtained results processed statistically. the results of our questionnaire-based research drew on the students’ acceptability judgments which they made as native speakers of croatian who the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 207 had developed certain linguistic intuition over the years. these are “primary intuitions”, “simply introspective judgments of a given linguistic expression’s well-formedness or of its meaning” (wasow &arnold, 2005: 1482). 3.2. research instrument in order to conduct this research, a questionnaire was drawn up and tailored to our purposes. the first part contained questions related to sociodemographic variables (gender, age, completed secondary education) and the students’ attitude toward their knowledge of english, language they read computer texts in, ways of acquiring information on ict and the reasons for choosing one language over the other. the second part of the questionnaire contained questions on ict expressions originating from english. the students were asked to express their opinion on the “english element”, expressions collected from popular croatian ict magazines available in print and online. in order to test the students’ perception of acceptability of the english element, we collected a number of expressions which were not graphically marked as foreign words in croatian texts (by inverted commas, or italicized, bolded or underlined), but were at various levels of adaptation and integration into croatian. the lists of singular and plural nouns, infinitive verbs, gerunds, adjectives (as examples of direct borrowing) and syntactic calques (examples of indirect borrowing) (pulcini, furiassi & gonzález, 2012: 6) represent a reduced amount of what we found, as their quantity or frequency in texts were not the focus of our study. they were sampled from eight issues of the ict magazines pc-chip (issues 223-226 published in 2014) and vidi (issues 209-213 published in 2013), which can be accessed, for educational purposes, in their digital form through the www.edu.hr website, part of the croatian academic research network (carnet). the printed magazines could also be bought at usual points of sale throughout the country. the linguistic expressions were presented randomly and the students did not know what the purpose of the questionnaire was nor were they familiar with any of the papers we referred to in this article. the students had to provide answers anonymously. the questionnaire took between 30 and 45 minutes to be filled out. the statistical analysis was done with the spss software. during the poll, unfortunately, some students did not provide answers to all the questions so the total number of answers and daniela matić ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226208 the number of students who were examined was slightly discrepant in several instances. 4. results and interpretation 4.1. questionnaire, part one the age range of the students in group 1 was between 18 and 25, averaging at 19 (67.94%). the majority of students had attended grammar high school (86%), as opposed to 14% of them graduating from various secondary vocational schools where students usually have fewer english classes per week. the majority of students (60 of them, 76.92%) studied english (a mandatory course) in regular school courses, while 18 of them (23.08%) took additional private courses. the age range of the students in group 2 was between 21 and 41, averaging at 23 (61.1%). most of them had attended grammar high school (55.6 %), as opposed to 44.4% of them graduating from various vocational schools. some of them, 38.9%, attended english courses in private language schools, whereas 61.1% had english only in school. when asked how they found information on breakthroughs in computing (table 1), the offered options were as follows: a) i read manuals/coursebooks from the field b) i read magazines from the field (printed or online) c) i search the internet d) i talk to my friends/colleagues e) something else (state what that is) _______________ (no answers) f) i don’t look for information the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 209 the most frequent answer in both groups was “i search the internet”. statistically speaking, there is almost a significant difference in their answers (p-value is 0.054, close to 0.05), probably because a number of students from group 1 did not search any information, as they stated in their answers and the students in group 2 never circled the answer “i don’t look for information”. this can be, at least partly, explained by the fact that the group 1 students were still at the beginning of their computer science studies and did not fully develop a habit of self-study for reasons other than obtaining grades, as in high school. daniela matić ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226210 the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): …-… year of study offered options a b c d f total 1 (group 1) no. of students 2 7 51 6 12 78 % within year of study 2.6% 9.0% 65.4% 7.7% 15.4% 100.00% 5 (group 2) no. of students 2 6 42 4 0 54 % within year of study 3.7% 11.1% 77.8% 7.4% 0.0% 100.00% total no. of students 4 13 93 10 12 132 % in the total no. of students 3.0% 9.8% 70.5% 7.6% 9.1% 100.00% chi-square tests value df asympt, sig (2-sided) pearson chisquare 9.291* 4 0.054 likelihood ratio 13.600 4 0.009 n of valid cases 132 *4 cells (40.0%) have expected count lower than 5. the minimum expected count is 1.64. table 1. information-finding methods – group1 and group 2 results the most frequent answer in both groups was “i search the internet”. statistically speaking, there is almost a significant difference in their answers (p-value is 0.054, close to 0.05), probably because a number of students from group 1 did not search any information, as they stated in their answers and the students in when asked “when you read texts about computers from books, magazines or internet websites, what language are the texts in a) croatian; b) english”, the answers were as follows (table 2): the students showed statistically different answers (p-value was 0.002, lower than 0.05) and the null hypothesis is proved to be incorrect, that is, during their education students obviously develop different reading habits and use english much more for professional purposes. the group 2 students far more frequently read the texts in english, which explains the students’ preference of english and a rather relaxed attitude toward the english element in croatia, which we are about to discuss. namely, the language of their search was most frequently english for 50 students (92.6 %), the reason being that texts in english are more available, as they stated. obviously, even though they do not study english in any formal environment, english has the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 211 daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… group 2 never circled the answer “i don’t look for information”. this can be, at least partly, explained by the fact that the group 1 students were still at the beginning of their computer science studies and did not fully develop a habit of self-study for reasons other than obtaining grades, as in high school. when asked “when you read texts about computers from books, magazines or internet websites, what language are the texts in a) croatian; b) english”, the answers were as follows (table 2): year of study language of texts they read croatian english total 1 (group 1) no. of students 23 55 78 % within year of study 29.5% 70.5% 100.0% 5 (group 2) no. of students 4 50 54 % within year of study 7.4% 92.6% 100.0% total no. of students 27 105 132 % in the total no. of students 20.5% 79.5% 100.0% chi-square tests value df asympt. sig (2-sided) pearson chisquare 9.561 * 1 0.002 likelihood ratio 10.628 1 0.001 n of valid cases 132 *0 cells (.0%) have expected count lower than 5. the minimum expected count is 11.05. table 2. language of texts students read – group1 and group 2 results the students showed statistically different answers (p-value was 0.002, lower than 0.05) and the null hypothesis is proved to be incorrect, that is, during their education students obviously develop different reading habits and use english become a natural tool of search and english texts a natural source of information. 4.2. questionnaire, part two 4.2.1. acceptability level the second part of the questionnaire contained a number of the aforementioned direct and indirect ict lexical borrowings selected according to their levels of adaptation. the language question “do you find the following forms of anglicisms acceptable in the standard croatian?”, tested the level of acceptability (mihaljević, 1993: 123124) of direct ict borrowings by using a 5-point likert scale (totally unacceptable-1, mostly unacceptable-2, neither acceptable nor unacceptable3, mostly acceptable-4, totally acceptable-5). the english translation is provided in parentheses below each expression in tables. the analysis starts with nouns as the most numerous category of borrowings since the “high borrowability of nouns is thus primarily a product of their referential functions” (matras, 2009: 168). table 3 shows the results for a number of nouns in their singular, citation form, phonologically and morphologically partially adapted. daniela matić ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226212 daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… singular nouns group statistics t-test expression year of study n mean levene's test for equality of variances sig. (2-tailed) kontroler (controller) 1 78 4.03 equal variances assumed 0.390 5 54 4.19 equal variances not assumed 0.393 kompajler (compiler) 1 78 4.26 0.833 5 54 4.22 0.838 tutorijal (tutorial) 1 78 3.45 0.267 5 54 3.69 0.277 ekstruder (extruder) 1 76 2.32 0.048 5 53 1.92 0.046 rauter (router) 1 78 2.81 0.000 5 54 1.80 0.000 hosting (hosting) 1 78 3.74 0.356 5 54 3.93 0.359 gejmer (gamer) 1 78 3.68 0.046 5 54 3.19 0.049 table 3. acceptability of partially adapted singular nouns group1 and group 2 results the figures which we take into consideration are those under ‘equal variances assumed’. the results are similar in most cases, though the group 1 answers show a slightly higher acceptability of more than a half of these 7 partially orthographically and phonetically adapted nouns (but not morphologically, because they keep the english morpheme –er) still having a status of compromise replica. the noun which was not favored in either group was ekstruder, even less acceptable with group 2. the answers show a statistically significant difference (‘equal variances assumed’: p-value is 0.048, lower than 0.05), the reason may be that it was not a common word among the students. two more nouns, rauter and gejmer, phonologically, phonetically and orthographically well adapted to croatian, also show statistically significant varied preferences with the students (‘equal variances assumed’: p-value is 0.000 and 0.046 respectively): both nouns rate lower in group 2, and rauter is the least acceptable of all. to conclude, group 1 shows a slightly higher acceptability of orthographically and phonetically adapted nouns in singular than group 2, which is statistically significant in three cases. the question of acceptability also pertained to nouns in plural (table 4). daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… table 3. acceptability of partially adapted singular nouns group1 and group 2 results the figures which we take into consideration are those under ‘equal variances assumed’. the results are similar in most cases, though the group 1 answers show a slightly higher acceptability of more than a half of these 7 partially orthographically and phonetically adapted nouns (but not morphologically, because they keep the english morpheme –er) still having a status of compromise replica. the noun which was not favored in either group was ekstruder, even less acceptable with group 2. the answers show a statistically significant difference (‘equal variances assumed’: p-value is 0.048, lower than 0.05), the reason may be that it was not a common word among the students. two more nouns, rauter and gejmer, phonologically, phonetically and orthographically well adapted to croatian, also show statistically significant varied preferences with the students (‘equal variances assumed’: p-value is 0.000 and 0.046 respectively): both nouns rate lower in group 2, and rauter is the least acceptable of all. to conclude, group 1 shows a slightly higher acceptability of orthographically and phonetically adapted nouns in singular than group 2, which is statistically significant in three cases. the question of acceptability also pertained to nouns in plural (table 4). the figures which we take into consideration are those under ‘equal variances assumed’. the results are similar in most cases, though the group 1 answers show a slightly higher acceptability of more than a half of these 7 partially orthographically and phonetically adapted nouns (but not morphologically, because they keep the english morpheme –er) still having a status of compromise replica. the noun which was not favored in either group was ekstruder, even less acceptable with group 2. the answers show a statistically significant difference (‘equal variances assumed’: p-value is 0.048, lower than 0.05), the reason may be that it was not a common word among the students. two more nouns, rauter and gejmer, phonologically, phonetically and orthographically well adapted to croatian, also show statistically significant varied preferences with the students (‘equal variances assumed’: pvalue is 0.000 and 0.046 respectively): both nouns rate lower in group 2, and rauter is the least acceptable of all. to conclude, group 1 shows a slightly higher acceptability of orthographically and phonetically adapted nouns in singular than group 2, which is statistically significant in three cases. the question of acceptability also pertained to nouns in plural (table 4). the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 213 the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): …-… plural nouns group statistics t-test expression year of study n mean levene's test for equality of variances sig. (2-tailed) fajlovi (files) 1 78 3.62 equal variances assumed 0.012 5 54 3.00 equal variances not assumed 0.011 overclockeri (overclockers) 1 77 3.56 0.255 5 53 3.30 0.252 shaderi (shaders) 1 75 3.33 0.501 5 54 3.48 0.491 gameri (gamers) 1 77 3.61 0.705 5 54 3.52 0.704 add-onovi (add-ons) 1 78 3.15 0.864 5 54 3.11 0.864 driveri (drivers) 1 77 4.45 0.857 5 54 4.48 0.854 game developeri (game developers) 1 78 3.97 0.484 5 53 4.11 0.479 gadgeti (gadgets) 1 78 4.12 0.763 5 54 4.06 0.763 tooltipovi (tooltips) 1 78 3.32 0.190 5 54 3.02 0.195 in most of these examples, the english orthography has been retained and there are no indicators as to the pronunciation. the orthographic exception is fajlovi, the only plural noun orthographically, phonologically and phonetically adapted as a compromise replica, and morphologically adapted, since the word receives the inflectional suffixes. however, these english plural nouns may acquire the status of compromise replica owing to the achieved degree of transmorphemization since inflectional suffixes are simply pasted to the english model, some of which retain the english agentive suffix –er. regarding the attitude on acceptability, the students find these orthographically unadapted forms acceptable and the degree of acceptability is even slightly higher than in singular nouns which were orthographically daniela matić ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226214 the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): …-… tooltipovi (tooltips) 1 78 3.32 0.190 5 54 3.02 0.195 frameworci (frameworks) 1 77 2.79 0.293 5 54 3.04 0.290 benchmarci (benchmarks) 1 78 2.82 0.980 5 54 2.81 0.980 featuri (features) 1 78 2.59 0.236 5 54 2.87 0.250 webbrowseri (webbrowsers) 1 77 3.70 0.137 5 54 3.33 0.144 widgeti (widgets) 1 77 4.05 0.905 5 54 4.07 0.902 daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… stickovi (sticks) 1 77 4.03 0.739 5 54 3.96 0.749 launcheri (launchers) 1 78 3.59 0.494 5 54 3.44 0.501 teraflopsi (teraflops) 1 78 3.17 0.272 5 54 2.91 0.275 flagshipovi (flagships) 1 78 2.95 0.277 5 54 2.70 0.284 shooteri (shooters) 1 76 3.33 0.277 5 54 3.07 0.281 pluginovi (plug-ins) 1 76 4.08 0.676 5 54 4.00 0.681 streamovi (streams) 1 77 4.30 0.599 5 54 4.20 0.595 geekovi (geeks) 1 77 4.04 0.802 5 54 3.98 0.804 table 4. acceptability of partially adapted plural nouns group1 and group 2 results in most of these examples, the english orthography has been retained and there are no indicators as to the pronunciation. the orthographic exception is fajlovi, the only plural noun orthographically, phonologically and phonetically adapted as a compromise replica, and morphologically adapted, since the word receives the inflectional suffixes. however, these english plural nouns may acquire the status of compromise replica owing to the achieved degree of transmorphemization since inflectional suffixes are simply pasted to the english model, some of which retain the english agentive suffix –er. regarding the attitude on acceptability, the students find these orthographically unadapted forms acceptable and the degree of acceptability is even slightly higher than in singular nouns which were orthographically better adapted, but no pattern in their preferences, which could indicate some regularity, can be established, that is, why they found the form of e.g. driveri more acceptable than shaderi. the noun that has been most adapted, fajlovi, is even less acceptable with group 2 and the correlation shows a statistically significant difference in the students’ answers (p-value is 0.012, lower than 0.05). two more nouns which have been transmorphemized and which have undergone sibilarization, frameworci, benchmarci, were found to be the least acceptable in both groups. the nouns that were found the most acceptable with both groups were driveri, streamovi, gadgeti, pluginovi, and widgeti, where the croatian inflectional suffixes for plural form were simply added to the stem and no other visible daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… table 4. acceptability of partially adapted plural nouns group1 and group 2 results in most of these examples, the english orthography has been retained and there are no indicators as to the pronunciation. the orthographic exception is fajlovi, the only plural noun orthographically, phonologically and phonetically adapted as a compromise replica, and morphologically adapted, since the word receives the inflectional suffixes. however, these english plural nouns may acquire the status of compromise replica owing to the achieved degree of transmorphemization since inflectional suffixes are simply pasted to the english model, some of which retain the english agentive suffix –er. regarding the attitude on acceptability, the students find these orthographically unadapted forms acceptable and the degree of acceptability is even slightly higher than in singular nouns which were orthographically better adapted, but no pattern in their preferences, which could indicate some regularity, can be established, that is, why they found the form of e.g. driveri more acceptable than shaderi. the noun that has been most adapted, fajlovi, is even less acceptable with group 2 and the correlation shows a statistically significant difference in the students’ answers (p-value is 0.012, lower than 0.05). two more nouns which have been transmorphemized and which have undergone sibilarization, frameworci, benchmarci, were found to be the least acceptable in both groups. the nouns that were found the most acceptable with both groups were driveri, streamovi, gadgeti, pluginovi, and widgeti, where the croatian inflectional suffixes for plural form were simply added to the stem and no other visible changes followed. of these 22 plural nouns, there were only 6 examples better adapted, but no pattern in their preferences, which could indicate some regularity, can be established, that is, why they found the form of e.g. driveri more acceptable than shaderi. the noun that has been most adapted, fajlovi, is even less acceptable with group 2 and the correlation shows a statistically significant difference in the students’ answers (p-value is 0.012, lower than 0.05). two more nouns which have been transmorphemized and which have undergone sibilarization, frameworci, benchmarci, were found to be the least acceptable in both groups. the nouns that were found the most acceptable with both groups were driveri, streamovi, gadgeti, pluginovi, and widgeti, where the croatian inflectional suffixes for plural form were simply added to the stem and no other visible changes followed. of these 22 plural nouns, there were only 6 examples (27.27%) (shaderi, driveri, game developeri, frameworci, featuri, widgeti), plural nouns that have been simply transmorphemized, which the group 2 students rated as more acceptable than the group 1 students. group 2 found the rest of the plural nouns less acceptable than group 1. in general, the group 1 students again found these forms slightly more acceptable than the group 2 students, even though the difference in the answers of the two groups is not statistically significant, except for one case. we could say that these results are indicative of a certain trend, namely that the group 2 students do not perceive even these orthographically and phonetically unadapted but acceptable transmorphemized forms or maybe they have a more critical viewpoint. the following table, table 5, contains the students’ acceptability rating of infinitive verb forms at various levels of adaptation to the standard croatian language. the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 215 daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… infinitive verb forms group statistics t-test expression year n mean levene's test for equality of variances sig. (2tailed) renderirati (render) 1 78 3.37 equal variances assumed 0.000 5 54 4.33 equal variances not assumed 0.000 overclockati (overclock) 1 77 3.64 0.156 5 54 3.94 0.142 streamati (stream) 1 78 4.04 0.919 5 54 4.02 0.917 outsourceati (outsource) 1 78 3.04 0.412 5 53 3.23 0.415 table 5. acceptability of verbs group1 and group 2 results croatian, unlike english, whose “inflectional morphology is sparse” and therefore “absorbs loans easily” (grant, 2014: 442) has a rich inventory of morphological endings. verbs borrowed from english are transmorphemized by infinitive formants -ti, -(a)ti, -(ira)ti in order to assume their syntactic function since they are formally different from nouns (unlike many english nouns and verbs which share the same form). some of these 9 verbs were orthographically and phonologically/phonetically adapted to croatian, (resetirati, renderirati). some of the verbs have not undergone any transphonemization according to the pronunciation or orthography (uploadati, streamati, overclockati, shareati, outsourceati), and the verbal aspect, characteristic of croatian and its cognates can be only contextually croatian, unlike english, whose “inflectional morphology is sparse” and therefore “absorbs loans easily” (grant, 2014: 442) has a rich inventory of morphological endings. verbs borrowed from english are transmorphemized by infinitive formants -ti, -(a)ti, -(ira)ti in order to assume their syntactic function since they are formally different from nouns (unlike many english nouns and verbs which share the same form). some of these 9 verbs were orthographically and phonologically/ phonetically adapted to croatian, (resetirati, renderirati). some of the verbs have not undergone any transphonemization according to the pronunciation or orthography (uploadati, streamati, overclockati, shareati, outsourceati), and the verbal aspect, characteristic of croatian and its cognates can be only contextually determined. the secondary adaptation of verbs with suffixes, prefixes or possibly infixes may indicate the perfective aspect (proguglati, poskenirati), so these are the verbs which have undergone both transphonemization and transmorphemization, which are no longer perceived as compromise replicas but as verbs formally integrated into the language system. the verb resetirati, which is well adapted to the croatian phonetic system and has undergone a partial transphonemization, was rated as the most acceptable of all. another verb, uploadati, whose acceptability rating is slightly lower than in the previous example, has not undergone either transphonemization or any orthographic adaptation, but was added the croatian infinitive ending only and was also perceived as acceptable. a higher acceptability difference is evident between these two verbs and the verb proguglati, which is phonetically, daniela matić ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226216 daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… outsourceati (outsource) 5 53 3.23 0.415 shareati (share) 1 77 3.53 0.985 5 54 3.54 0.985 uploadati (upoload) 1 78 4.55 0.594 5 54 4.48 0.603 resetirati (reset) 1 78 4.68 0.961 5 54 4.69 0.960 proguglati (google up/around) 1 78 4.00 0.528 5 54 4.13 0.529 poskenirati (scan up) 1 78 3.03 0.728 5 54 3.11 0.731 table 5. acceptability of verbs group1 and group 2 results croatian, unlike english, whose “inflectional morphology is sparse” and therefore “absorbs loans easily” (grant, 2014: 442) has a rich inventory of morphological endings. verbs borrowed from english are transmorphemized by infinitive formants -ti, -(a)ti, -(ira)ti in order to assume their syntactic function since they are formally different from nouns (unlike many english nouns and verbs which share the same form). some of these 9 verbs were orthographically and phonologically/phonetically adapted to croatian, (resetirati, renderirati). some of the verbs have not undergone any transphonemization according to the pronunciation or orthography (uploadati, streamati, overclockati, shareati, outsourceati), and the verbal aspect, characteristic of croatian and its cognates can be only contextually orthographically and morphologically adapted and integrated. on the other hand, another verb which is well adapted, poskenirati, has the lowest acceptability rating of all with the examined students, although this verb, as well as the aforementioned proguglati, are adapted, express the perfective aspect and have therefore attained a higher, secondary adaptation level. another orthographically, phonetically and morphologically well adapted verb, renderirati, was perceived by group 1 as less acceptable than some unadapted verbs. this is the only instance which shows a statistical difference in answers since group 2 rated it as more acceptable (p-value 0.000, lower than 0.05), as well as other 6 verbs. table 6 compares the results of groups 1 and 2 in acceptability ratings of gerunds. in biber et al. (1999: 66-67) gerunds are classified among “borderline cases of lexical word class membership”. though derived from verbs, their croatian form, different from any participial forms, leaves no doubt as to what their function is when they assume nominal position. the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 217 daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… gerunds group statistics t-test expression year n mean levene's test for equality of variances sig. (2tailed) cachiranje (caching) 1 77 3.29 equal variances assumed 0.126 5 54 3.61 equal variances not assumed 0.120 ke"iranje (caching) 1 78 2.99 0.556 5 54 3.13 0.561 rootanje (rooting/routing) 1 78 3.74 0.988 5 54 3.74 0.988 streamanje (streaming) 1 78 3.99 0.833 5 54 3.94 0.831 tagiranje (tagging) 1 78 3.87 0.874 5 54 3.91 0.872 flashanje (flashing) 1 78 3.47 0.972 5 54 3.48 0.972 svajpanje (swiping) 1 77 2.34 0.719 5 54 2.26 0.720 hakiranje (hacking) 1 78 4.82 0.004 5 54 4.52 0.010 taggiranje (tagging) 1 78 3.56 0.061 5 54 3.09 0.071 these 15 gerunds were derived from adapted or unadapted verbs in the process of transmorphemization: the english model was added the croatian gerund morpheme anje corresponding to the english morpheme –ing. the acceptability range in gerunds is slightly wider than in verbs. hakiranje is the most acceptable form of all and is also orthographically, phonologically / phonetically and morphologically adapted to croatian, as well as driftanje, but the answers of the two groups are statistically different (p-value 0.006), where group 2 found the form less acceptable. streamanje, although morphologically adapted, is neither orthographically nor phonologically/phonetically adapted, but the acceptability average is rather high. the results for another two unadapted gerunds show statistically significant differences, scrollanje and trollanje (both with p-value 0.003), where group 2 again chose the unadapted gerund in fewer cases. both groups found skrolanje, the form adapted to croatian, quite acceptable. the least acceptable in both groups are three orthographically and phonologically / phonetically adapted gerunds (keširanje, rutanje and svajpanje) and one orthographically and phonologically/phonetically unadapted, browsanje. group 1 found 10 cases more acceptable than group 2. table 7 compares the acceptability ratings of adjectives provided by groups 1 and 2. daniela matić ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226218 daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… taggiranje (tagging) 1 78 3.56 0.061 5 54 3.09 0.071 rutanje (rooting) 1 78 2.99 0.294 5 54 2.74 0.291 skrolanje (scrolling) 1 78 3.50 0.316 5 53 3.26 0.318 scrollanje (scrolling) 1 78 3.56 0.003 5 54 2.83 0.004 trollanje (trolling) 1 78 3.76 0.003 5 54 3.02 0.004 driftanje (drifting) 1 78 4.01 0.006 5 54 3.44 0.009 the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): …-… browsanje (browsing) 1 78 2.92 0.504 5 54 2.76 0.504 table 6. acceptability of gerunds group1 and group 2 results these 15 gerunds were derived from adapted or unadapted verbs in the process of transmorphemization: the english model was added the croatian gerund morpheme anje corresponding to the english morpheme –ing. the acceptability range in gerunds is slightly wider than in verbs. hakiranje is the most acceptable form of all and is also orthographically, phonologically / phonetically and morphologically adapted to croatian, as well as driftanje, but the answers of the two groups are statistically different (p-value 0.006), where group 2 found the form less acceptable. streamanje, although morphologically adapted, is neither orthographically nor phonologically/phonetically adapted, but the acceptability average is rather high. the results for another two unadapted gerunds show statistically significant differences, scrollanje and trollanje (both with p-value 0.003), where group 2 again chose the unadapted gerund in fewer cases. both groups found skrolanje, the form adapted to croatian, quite acceptable. the least acceptable in both groups are three orthographically and phonologically / phonetically adapted gerunds (ke!iranje, rutanje and svajpanje) and one orthographically and phonologically/phonetically unadapted, browsanje. group 1 found 10 cases more acceptable than group 2. table 7 compares the acceptability ratings of adjectives provided by groups 1 and 2. these five collected adjectives are derived from unadapted, partially adapted and adapted nouns according to the croatian word formation rules. “like nouns, adjectives tend to adopt the agreement morphology of the recipient language” (matras, 2009: 188), so they have been added derivational morphemes, inflectional morphemes, and the superlative prefix naj-. these adjectives, morphologically adapted to croatian (but not fully orthographically and probably not phonologically and phonetically) were not perceived as acceptable by either group of students. moreover, group 2 provided lower acceptability ratings in four examples, which in two cases were statistically significant (gađetirajuća, derived from the noun “gadget” and possibly verb *gađetirati, p-value 0.001; smartfonoliki, derived from “smartphone”, p-value 0.008). on the other hand, both groups found the least adapted adjectives most acceptable: bugovita, derived from “bug” and cross-platformski, a hybrid adjective derived from “cross-platform”, where the first part retained english spelling. the listed examples show that a higher level of adaptation and integration into the croatian language system was on average perceived as less acceptable and that overall acceptability ratings in all categories are somewhat lower in older students. these were examples of direct lexical borrowings. on the other hand, syntax is often perceived as less receptive or permeable to foreign influence. to prove or reject this common opinion, we collected some juxtaposed the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 219 daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… adjectives group statistics t-test expression year n mean levene's test for equality of variances sig. (2tailed) ga#etiraju$a (gadgeting) 1 78 2.18 equal variances assumed 0.001 5 52 1.52 equal variances not assumed 0.000 bugovita (buglike) 1 78 2.97 0.979 5 54 2.98 0.979 cross-platformski (cross-platform) 1 78 3.26 0.711 5 54 3.17 0.710 najgamerskiji (the most gamerlike) 1 78 2.27 0.175 5 54 1.96 0.163 smartfonoliki (like a smartphone) 1 78 2.05 0.008 5 54 1.52 0.005 table 7. acceptability of adjectives group1 and group 2 results these five collected adjectives are derived from unadapted, partially adapted and adapted nouns according to the croatian word formation rules. “like nouns, adjectives tend to adopt the agreement morphology of the recipient language” (matras, 2009: 188), so they have been added derivational morphemes, inflectional morphemes, and the superlative prefix naj-. these adjectives, morphologically adapted to croatian (but not fully orthographically and probably not phonologically and phonetically) were not perceived as acceptable by either group of students. moreover, group 2 provided lower acceptability ratings in four examples, which in two cases were statistically significant (ga"etiraju#a, derived from the noun “gadget” and possibly verb *ga#etirati, p-value 0.001; smartfonoliki, derived from “smartphone”, p-value 0.008). on the other hand, both groups found the least adapted adjectives most acceptable: bugovita, derived from “bug” and cross-platformski, a hybrid adjective derived from “cross-platform”, where the first part retained english spelling. the listed examples show that a higher level of adaptation and integration into the croatian language system was on average perceived as less acceptable and that overall acceptability ratings in all categories are somewhat lower in older students. these were examples of direct lexical borrowings. on the other hand, syntax is often perceived as less receptive or permeable to foreign influence. to prove or reject this common opinion, we collected some juxtaposed language elements language elements classified as syntactic calques (mihaljević, 1993: 38) following the english syntax pattern according to which a head noun may be premodified by another noun or, very often, a numeric expression or an acronym. this structure, in which a head noun is postmodified by another noun, a numeric expression or an acronym, is not typical in croatian. the collected examples consist of mostly croatian, not foreign sounding words, and as such, this pattern is not as salient in text as a single word. in table 8, in the column marked as a, were structures in croatian collected from ict magazines. the structures marked as b followed croatian syntactic rules. unfortunately, a number of students did not understand what they were asked to do; hence the column was marked with ‘0’. the question ran as follows: “in columns a and b there are pairs of expressions which differ in the word order or part of speech. choose the expression which you find more acceptable linguistically”. daniela matić ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226220 daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… no . o f e x. a b ye ar o f s tu dy results 0 a b pe ar so n ch i-s qu ar e as ym p. s ig . 2si de d 1 analogni 3.5mm izlazni priklju%ci analogni izlazni priklju%ci od 3,5 mm. 1 7 9.0% 51 65.4% 20 25.6% 0.726 5 3 5.6% 38 70.4% 13 24.1% 2 xdsl modem modem xdsl 1 7 9.0% 67 85.9% 4 5.1% 0.220 5 4 7.4% 50 92.6% 0 0.0% 3 prvi xperia telefoni prvi telefoni xperia, prvi xperijini telefoni 1 7 9.0% 63 80.8% 8 10.3% 0.927 5 4 7.4% 45 83.3% 5 9.3% 4 iz davnog crt doba iz davnog doba crtova (katodnih cijevi) 1 6 7.7% 27 34.6% 45 57.7% 0.412 5 4 7.4% 13 24.1% 37 68.5% 5 na"a dvd tema u na"oj temi o dvd-ovima 1 9 11.5% 25 32.1% 44 56.4% 0.713 5 4 7.4% 17 31.5% 33 61.1% 6 pametni telefon g serije pametni telefon serije g 1 7 9.0% 47 60.3% 24 30.8% 0.921 5 4 7.4% 32 59.3% 18 33.3% 7 monitorima sa 16:10 omjerom stranica monitorima s omjerom stranica 16:10 1 8 10.3% 30 38.5% 40 51.3% 0.958 the results showed that a majority of students from both groups found a structures more acceptable, except for examples 4, 5, and 7 where it was group 2 that opted for b examples. the difference in the two groups’ answers is not statistically significant; however, there is a slightly higher acceptance of a structures in group 2, except for examples 4, 5, and 7. the reasons for acceptance of a examples could be varied: reading english ict texts, where such syntax is a standard owing to its conciseness, or reading croatian ict text whose authors have accepted such syntax transposing it mechanically into croatian without any adaptation. finally, the reason could be somewhat longer examples in column b which could in general contribute to the length of ict texts that usually tend to be succinct. 4.2.2. level of (dis)agreement –the use of croatian and english in the ict context the last question was aimed at examining the students’ attitude toward english and croatian terminology and their agreement or disagreement with a number of statements partially taken from mihaljević (2003, 2006 & 2007) and halonja&mihaljević (2012) (table 9), presented as common misconceptions, and partially from the opinions collected from some of the students during our esp teaching experience or some ict professionals. both age groups had to express their agreement or disagreement with the statements in the table. the question ran as follows: “the table below contains a number of statements concerning the use of english ict terms and anglicisms as well as croatian ict terms. read each statement and by circling a digit on a 5-point scale the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 221 daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… 6 pametni telefon g serije pametni telefon serije g 0.921 5 4 7.4% 32 59.3% 18 33.3% 7 monitorima sa 16:10 omjerom stranica monitorima s omjerom stranica 16:10 1 8 10.3% 30 38.5% 40 51.3% 0.958 5 5 9.3% 20 37.0% 29 53.7% 8 u svijetu android tableta u svijetu androidovih tableta 1 7 9.0% 67 85.9% 4 5.1% 0.874 5 4 7.4% 48 88.9% 2 3.7% 9 popularna phablet kategorija popularna kategorija phableta 1 8 10.3% 48 61.5% 22 28.2% 0.818 5 4 7.4% 33 61.1% 17 31.5% 10 ascii kodovi, c kodovi ascii, funkcije 1 6 7.7% 59 75.6% 13 16.7% 0.661 the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): …-… funkcije jezika c 5 4 7.4% 44 81.5% 6 11.1% table 8. acceptability of syntactic calques – group 1 and group 2 results the results showed that a majority of students from both groups found a structures more acceptable, except for examples 4, 5, and 7 where it was group 2 that opted for b examples. the difference in the two groups' answers is not statistically significant; however, there is a slightly higher acceptance of a structures in group 2, except for examples 4, 5, and 7. the reasons for acceptance of a examples could be varied: reading english ict texts, where such syntax is a standard owing to its conciseness, or reading croatian ict text whose authors have accepted such syntax transposing it mechanically into croatian without any adaptation. finally, the reason could be somewhat longer examples in column b which could in general contribute to the length of ict texts that usually tend to be succinct. 4.2.2. level of (dis)agreement –the use of croatian and english in the ict context the last question was aimed at examining the students’ attitude toward english and croatian terminology and their agreement or disagreement with a number of statements partially taken from mihaljevi! (2003, 2006 & 2007) and halonja&mihaljevi! (2012) (table 9), presented as common misconceptions, and partially from the opinions collected from some of the students during our esp teaching experience or some ict professionals. both age groups had to express their agreement or disagreement with the statements in the table. the question ran as follows: “the table below contains a number of statements concerning the use of english ict terms and anglicisms as well as croatian ict terms. read each statement and by circling a digit on a 5-point scale (1=strongly disagree; 2= disagree; 3=neither agree nor disagree; 4=agree; 5= strongly agree) express your agreement or disagreement with the statements”. (1=strongly disagree; 2= disagree; 3=neither agree nor disagree; 4=agree; 5= strongly agree) express your agreement or disagreement with the statements”. the obtained results showed that the students from two different age groups held very similar opinions and that their agreement or disagreement with the statements matched. statistically significant difference was calculated in one case only, in statement 9 where group 1 more frequently expressed their disagreement with the statement, whereas group 2 agreed with it to a higher daniela matić ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226222 daniela mati! ibérica 35 (2018): …-… students' attitude group statistics t-test statements year n mean levene's test for equality of variances sig. (2tailed) 1) english computer terms are much more precise than croatian terms – english term precisely describes the concept. 1 77 4.34 equal variances assumed 0.397 5 54 4.44 equal variances not assumed 0.382 2) everyone knows what an english computer term means-everyone speaks like that. 1 77 4.17 0.488 5 54 4.26 0.506 3) croatian terms do not describe the concept precisely. 1 77 3.62 0.502 5 54 3.74 0.511 4) accepting english terms will increase and improve the knowledge of english in users. 1 77 4.01 0.802 5 54 4.06 0.803 5) croatian terms are often too long. 1 77 3.77 0.241 5 54 3.98 0.260 6) i use english terms more often when speaking. 1 76 4.43 0.387 5 54 4.31 0.391 7) croatian computer terms are sometimes funny. 1 77 4.51 0.821 5 54 4.54 0.827 8) english terms are more attractive, more prestigious and they sound better. 1 76 4.11 0.801 5 54 4.15 0.806 9) it is not necessary to create croatian computer terms when we have english ones. 1 77 3.16 0.042 5 54 3.65 0.045 10) it is difficult to translate english terms into croatian because the croatian language vocabulary is less developed than english. 1 77 2.86 0.654 5 54 2.96 0.665 table 9. students' agreement with statements the obtained results showed that the students from two different age groups held very similar opinions and that their agreement or disagreement with the statements matched. statistically significant difference was calculated in one extent, expressing their preference of english. group 1 did not quite discard croatian terms at that moment. in statements 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8 both groups showed a high degree of agreement, slightly higher in group 2. the highest result was reached in statement 7, which stated that croatian ict terms were “funny“. this prevailing attitude may be explained by the fact that the students had already been accustomed to english terms which they had encountered as signifiers of some new ict referents, they used them as jargonisms, so that every subsequent in(ter)vention of croatian linguists, already belated from the students’ perspective, might sound inappropriate, or “funny”. hence their agreement with statement 1, once they have learned the english term for a new referent, every croatian equivalent is allegedly imprecise, although statement 3, which is statement 1 rephrased, shows a lower degree of agreement. the prestige that english has in the ict world is evidently very important to the students since they agreed with statement 8. statement 2 is indicative of their perception regarding the wide use of english as the main tool, especially in spoken communication (statement 6). statement 10 is least agreed with. it seems that the examined students did not completely discard their mother tongue and they did not perceive it as an underdeveloped language, unable to provide means for croatian ict terminology. 5. conclusion the research was conducted with a view of establishing whether the undergraduate and graduate ict students of various ages accepted what we called the “english element” in croatian ict magazines. we compared the results of the two age groups to determine whether the attitudes toward english and their mother tongue generally changed during their educational process with respect to recommended scientific literature in their curricula and the amount of information they had internalized, formally and informally. the results showed that the “english element” was perceived as acceptable by the students. the difference in answers was prevailingly statistically insignificant except for several isolated cases where mostly group 2 showed a somewhat less tolerant attitude to both adapted and unadapted forms. regardless of the students’ personal development and age difference, education in their mother tongue, quantity of croatian scientific material they had to study and less formal sources of information or the english element in croatian ict magazines ibérica 35 (2018): 201-226 223 perception of and attitudes toward the english element do not change much over the years and are, as it were, petrified. the answers also showed that the students’ language awareness of croatian as a language of ict could be improved. these results could imply that they do not perceive croatian as a potential lsp, but as a native language not quite appropriate for professional communication. in order to change this perception, “small” languages such as croatian could be taught as lsps at engineering colleges with a view of raising awareness of how important it is to create and actively use native terminology, along with classes for academic purposes concentrated on writing skills in scientific register, persuasion and debating speaking skills, which could help native ict terms obtain a wider circulation. esp classes could include more varied translation exercises from english into croatian to introduce native language expressions to students. this could help them develop a habit of using these expressions in their professional communication instead of resorting to english forms. a number of english ict terms have already had their croatian equivalents in dictionaries (kiš, 2000, or some proposed equivalents found at http://bolje.hr, supported by the croatian language and linguistics institute), so the students should be encouraged to use them. the very fact that croatian equivalents are not used in the ict magazines could be a sign of authors’ intellectual slackness, snobbism or disregard of croatian, lack of proofreading service and of preferential treatment of english due to its prestigious status. the attitudes which the students expressed could help mobilize croatian linguists to respond to these processes more effectively, but also stir up language policy makers to keep the croatian language vital and ready to react to new extra-linguistic referents by envisaging changing trends and simulating language future based on present changes both in language and society. 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(2003). an introduction to contact linguistics. oxford: blackwell publishing. wright, s. (2004). language policy and language planning from nationalism to globalisation. houndmills, basingstoke, hampshire: palgrave macmillan. online source: http://pravopis.hr/pravilo/pisanje-opcih-rijeci-i-sveza/ 46/ [accessed june 15, 2016] 30 rese.as.qxd ibérica 10 [2005]: ������� ��� ������� ��� ������ ��� �� ���� ����� ���� ������ ������ ��������� ��� � ����� �� �� ����� � ��� � ��� �������� �� ������ � ��������� � � ������������ � ������ ���������������� !"� �� # ���������� � ������ �������� ��� ������������ �! ��� ��$������ %���������%��� � ���������� �%�� ���&� � ������ �� � � ��� ���� ���� � �� ��& � ��������� �� ������ ������ �� � ���� � ����� � � ����� � ������ ��� � � '�������� � ����� ��� �� ���� ��� ��� �� ������ ��� ���� �� ���! 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and future performance require insight into these skills. a validated self-assessment questionnaire was administered to 194 graduate students of applied linguistics, who assessed their own academic reading skills. in addition, open-ended questions added to the questionnaire and interviews with 14 students were analyzed, yielding eight domains identified as particular challenges. the results revealed that students assessed their information literacy to be the weakest domain. the eight areas of challenge included: shortage of time, information literacy, content knowledge, critical literacy, writers’ language styles and generic features of texts, teachers’ high expectations and vague instructions, insufficient statistical literacy and insufficient interaction with peers. the implications for english for academic purposes (eap) instruction are discussed. keywords: academic literacy, applied linguistics, graduate students, academic reading, literacy. resumen explorando los desafíos de la lectura académica para los estudiantes de posgrado de lingüística aplicada exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow the hong kong polytechnic university (hong kong), kharazmi university (iran) & harvard university (united states) hassan.nejadghanbar@polyu.edu.hk, atai@khu.ac.ir & catherine_snow@gse.harvard.edu 315 ibérica 44 (2022): 00-00 hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow la posesión de habilidades para la lectura y escritura de textos académicos es un requisito para concluir con éxito un programa de posgrado. estos son tipos de competencias especialmente importantes para los estudiantes de lingüística aplicada, quienes durante sus estudios y en su futuro académico y profesional requerirán estas destrezas. se administró un cuestionario de autoevaluación validado a 194 estudiantes de posgrado de lingüística aplicada con el que estos valoraron sus propias destrezas de lectura académica. además del cuestionario, los participantes respondieron diferentes preguntas de respuesta libre y 14 de ellos participaron en sendas entrevistas. su análisis evidenció la existencia de ocho aspectos de especial dificultad. los resultados ponen de manifiesto que los estudiantes consideran que su alfabetización informacional es el aspecto en el que creen tener menores habilidades. las ocho áreas que suponen un mayor desafío para los estudiantes son las siguientes: la falta de tiempo, la alfabetización informacional, el conocimiento del contenido, la alfabetización crítica, el estilo de cada autor y aspectos relativos al género de cada texto, las altas expectativas de los profesores y la existencia de instrucciones imprecisas, una insuficiente alfabetización estadística y una insuficiente interacción con sus pares. por último, se discuten las diferentes implicaciones de estos hallazgos para el ámbito del inglés para fines académicos. palabras clave: alfabetización académica, lingüística aplicada, estudiantes de posgrado, lectura académica, alfabetización. 1. introduction the english language, the dominant language used for disseminating and ratifying knowledge, requires learners to develop an understanding of academic literacy that allows them to “engage with the academy” (canagarajah, 2002, p. 41). however, it appears that a proportion of students who study academic sources in english have neither sufficient english language proficiency nor adequate familiarity with the literacies required for successful learning (murray, 2010). therefore, it is important to equip students with the required academic literacies in order to help them succeed in their studies and work. among the literacies that are valued, students should be able “to define problems, make claims, situate research, and argue for findings and interpretations through academic reading and writing practices” (ferenz, 2005, p. 340). in most cases, the scope of studies dealing with academic literacy has been limited to writing (e.g., lea & street, 1998; lillis & scott, 2007). reading has also been studied and understood under the academic literacy umbrella (jo, 316 2021; kalbfleisch et al., 2021), and is considered to be the key to opening doors to all students (hirai et al., 2010), but it has received less attention (abbott, 2013; kalbfleisch et al., 2021). accordingly, the goal of this study was to investigate ma students’ assessments of their academic reading skills and explore their challenges when reading academic sources. considering the fact that both native and non-native students are novices when they start dealing with academic disciplinary texts (thesen & van pletzen, 2006) and the fact that english for specific academic purposes (esap) modules are rarely offered in ma programmes to prepare the students for reading disciplinary texts, the findings of this study have implications for university teachers, curriculum developers, and course designers by shedding light on students’ experiences, challenges, and needs. 2. academic literacy and academic reading braine (2002) cogently argues that academic literacy is more than reading and writing. it also includes students’ need to develop interaction with their peers and teachers, develop their writing and research strategies, and adapt to the cultural and social environments of their institutions. similarly, we consider reading a multidimensional and discipline-specific skill that cannot be captured solely as language proficiency or knowledge about generic features of different text types. furthermore, we argue that academic reading cannot be seen purely as a cognitive process. reading includes personal, sociocultural, and political aspects. it can range from strategy use to familiarity with academic language and genres, interaction with teachers and peers, information literacy, and critical literacy. in the two-year-long graduate programmes in applied linguistics in iran, students generally need to pass 32 credits, all in english, dealing with teaching/testing the english language and learning how to do research on teaching/testing issues. some writing support is given, which mainly focuses on general essay writing skills and ignores higher-level generic features of academic scholarly writing and more importantly academic literacy skills such as selective reading, information literacy, and critical literacy. on the other hand, similar to many international programmes, there is no esap reading course in the ma curriculum to prepare students for advanced academic literacy and reading skills/strategies. students’ academic literacy needs including their problems and struggles in reading typically go exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 317 unnoticed and students are left to their own devices in doing their reading and acquiring the academic literacies required to succeed in their mainstream applied linguistics programmes. as in canada (macmillan & mackenzie, 2012) and britain (lillis & scott, 2007), access to higher education in iran has broadened recently, with a huge number of students pursuing university studies. in the 1980s and 1990s, as a result of the islamic revolution and also in line with the globalization processes which thematized education as a crucial prerequisite to economic growth, iranian higher education witnessed a sharp increase in the number of colleges and universities (tavakoli & hasrati, 2015). as a result, the number of students in ma programmes in applied linguistics increased from around 50 in 1994 to more than 1200 in 2014 in the public sector. this drastic increase raises the question of whether students possess and/or gain during their ma studies the academic literacies needed to deal with the requirements of their applied linguistics programmes. here we focus specifically on academic reading by investigating ma students’ self-assessments of their academic reading and the challenges they face during their studies (hirai et al., 2010). the findings may have implications for designing or renewing applied linguistics programmes in iran and similar contexts. 3. literature review based on our literature review, we can divide the studies on academic literacy into three main groups. the first group aims at uncovering the literacy practices that help learners to acquire academic literacy and explores how academic literacy is perceived by professors and students (bhat & samanhudi, 2022; ferenz, 2005; green & agosti, 2011; lea & street, 1998). overall, the results of these studies suggest that literacy practices and interactions between teachers and students help students acquire the literacies required to succeed in academia. the second group includes those studies which investigate the role of genre in students’ academic literacy development and their socialization into their discourse communities (andrew & romova, 2012; hedgcock & lee, 2017; roald et al., 2021). these studies confirm that explicit teaching of academic genres has a positive role in helping novices to acquire academic literacy to flourish in their disciplines. the third group includes studies on students’ academic reading (atai et al., 2018; kuzborska, 2015; mann, 2000). their results indicate that students’ metacognitive awareness and literacy practices are important factors in their hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344318 academic reading, showing that academic reading needs to be understood as a personal and socially situated skill. compared to academic writing, academic reading has received less attention (see abbott, 2013; hirvela, 2016; mcgrath et al., 2016), especially at graduate levels. despite our best efforts, we have not located any studies that examined students’ assessment of their academic reading and the challenges they faced in this regard at graduate levels of applied linguistics. we sought answers to the following questions: 1) how do ma students of applied linguistics evaluate their ability to read academic sources? 2) what are the most frequent academic reading challenges faced by ma students of applied linguistics? 4. method a questionnaire developed by nejadghanbar (2019) was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. the questionnaire was developed based on a thorough review of the relevant literature (e.g., abbott, 2013; braine, 2002; dhieb-henia, 2003; hirai et al., 2010; hirvela, 2016; kuzborska, 2015; mann, 2000; mcgrath et al., 2016; neely, 2005; ohata & fukao, 2014) and interviews with experts who were assistant/associate/full professors in applied linguistics and were teaching and researching reading comprehension. a preliminary theoretical framework was proposed based on the literature and experts’ comments and an instrument with 50 items was developed. the instrument was validated by conducting exploratory factor analysis (efa) with 345 participants and further confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) with 207 participants (nejadghanbar, 2019). more specifically, before evaluating the reliability of the questionnaire and conducting factor analysis, the normal distribution of the data was checked. in order to ensure that low rankings on all items indicated poorer preparation or less self-reported competency, items with ‘never’ to ‘always’ scale needed to be reverse coded. to measure and ensure the ‘internal consistency’ of the newly developed questionnaire, cronbach alpha coefficient was obtained (dörnyei, 2003). the reliability index of the instrument was .807, indicating high reliability and internal consistency of the items in the questionnaire (cohen et al., 2007). the results of principal axis factoring, parallel analysis, and rotated component matrix led to retaining 8 factors which explained 47.77% of the total variance. exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 319 before conducting cfa on the eight-factor structure emerging as the result of efa, data screening was done and normality of the data and sampling adequacy was checked. subsequently, the factor structure obtained in efa was set up and run in amos. the model fit was assessed in accordance with the combination of goodness-of-fit indices including rmsea, cfi, and srmr (lei & wu, 2007). the model fit was reviewed by evaluating the following components against the best-fit criteria (lei & wu, 2007): 1. srmr with values ≤ .08, 2. rmsea with values ≤ .06 3. cfi with value greater than the .90s (or more desirably ≥.95). the cfa model showed that the eight-factor model with 37 items produced a good fit with srmr = .066, rmsea = .055, and cfi = .901. the eight components that emerged were labelled: reading strategies, english language proficiency, content knowledge, statistical literacy, genre awareness, information literacy, interactive reading, and critical literacy. an open-ended question was included to elicit the most frequent problems that students faced in doing their academic readings. among all the participants, 113 answered this question. furthermore, to triangulate our data and gain more insights into their answers, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 volunteers who agreed to participate. 5. participants and instrumentation the validated questionnaire was administered to 194 participants aged 20-42 and chosen based on availability sampling. there were 119 (61.3%) female and 75 (38.7%) male participants. all of the participants were doing their ma studies at universities. around one quarter of the participants (47; 24.2%) were in the second semester of their ma studies, about two-thirds of them (116; 59.8%) in their third semester, and the rest (31; 16.0%) in their fourth semester. two sources of data were collected to answer the second research question: 113 written answers to the open-ended question added to the questionnaires and 14 student interviews. the age range of the 113 participants answering the open-ended question was 22-39, with 69 (61.06%) female and 44 hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344320 (38.93%) male participants. the age range of those 14 students who were interviewed was 24-36, with 8 (57.2%) female and 6 (42.8%) male participants. 6. data analysis spss software version 22 was used to calculate frequencies and percentages of students’ responses and qualitative data was processed using thematic analysis (creswell, 2007). the first author read and reread the responses to the open-ended question asking participants to report their most frequent problems in reading to identify general themes. these initial themes were then refined and themes that referred to similar concepts were clustered together. since the participants had reported their problems in a list-wise manner, their responses could easily be assigned to different themes. for example, one respondent reported that “my first problem is lack of time, the second one is my lack of enough background content knowledge, and the third one is my difficulty in understanding statistics”. his response was assigned to three different themes including shortage of time, content knowledge, and statistical literacy. after finishing the data analysis, a ph.d. holder in applied linguistics, with experience in content analysis, analysed the whole data set following the same procedure. he agreed with the researcher in 97.3% cases. subsequent interviews were conducted to elicit elaboration and details about respondents’ answers to the qualitative question in the questionnaire. these interviews did not lead to the emergence of new themes. for instance, in the interview, we asked the same respondent mentioned above what he meant by lack of time and he reported that “my main problem is the volume of readings that i have to do every week … i never find time to do them completely. we have to read many book chapters and articles per week and we simply cannot cover them all.” 7. results 7.1. students’ evaluation of their academic reading (rq1) in this section, the results related to the first research question are presented. frequencies, percentages, and descriptive statistics related to each of the 37 items of the questionnaire are reported. exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 321 7.1.1. reading strategies in order to explore the students’ perceptions of their use of reading strategies, we asked them to show whether, when reading the assigned academic texts, they drew visual maps to chart the progression of ideas, noticed how parts were arranged to make a unified whole and present ideas, pulled an idea or argument apart to look at it more closely, made a logical connection among various sources, compared and contrasted ideas mentioned in different sources, synthesized previously unrelated ideas, related new information to background knowledge, and finally connected different parts similar to reading a story. table 1. students’ self-assessment of their use of reading strategies. in reporting results, for clarity and simplicity of presentation, we combine ‘agree’ with ‘strongly agree’ and ‘disagree’ with ‘strongly disagree’ in this report and report a ratio of agree totals/disagree totals. we do the same for never/always and very familiar/unfamiliar scales. for example, in item one, hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344322 ! no. item strongly-disagree disagree no idea agree stronglyagree agree/ disagree ratio 1 i draw a visual map to chart the progression of ideas. 47 (24.2%) 43 (22.2%) 47 (24.2%) 37 (19.1%) 20 (10.3%) 0.63 2 i notice how parts of texts are arranged to make a unified whole and present ideas. 13 (6.7%) 46 (23.7%) 50 (25.8%) 72 (37.1%) 13 (6.7%) 1.44 3 i pull an idea or argument apart and look at it more closely. 12 (6.2%) 52 (26.8%) 47 (24.2%) 71 (36.6%) 12 (6.2%) 1.29 4 i make a logical connection between different ideas 14 (7.2%) 60 (30.9%) 34 (17.5%) 72 (37.1%) 14 (7.2%) 1.16 5 i make connections among different sources. 6 (3.1%) 49 (25.3%) 35 (18.0%) 83 (42.8%) 21 (10.8%) 1.87 6 i compare and contrast ideas mentioned and discussed in several sources. 16 (8.2%) 54 (27.8%) 46 (23.7%) 62 (32.0%) 16 (8.2%) 1.11 7 i synthesize (integrate) previously unrelated ideas. 31 (16.0%) 75 (38.7%) 46 (23.7%) 31 (16.0%) 11 (5.7%) 0.40 8 i relate new information to my background knowledge. 14 (7.2%) 46 (23.7%) 27 (13.9%) 80 (41.2%) 27 (13.9%) 1.78 9 i connect different parts to each other similar to when i read a story. 17 (8.8%) 49 (25.3%) 32 (16.5%) 70 (36.1%) 26 (13.4%) 1.45 mean (ratio) 1.23 we have divided the sum of ‘strongly agree’ (10.3%) and ‘agree’ (19.1%) by the sum of ‘strongly disagree’ (24.2%) and ‘disagree’ (22.2%). table 1 shows the agreement ratio for the item about drawing a visual map was 0.63, indicating that more students disagreed (46.4%) than agreed (29.4%) with the claim that they used this strategy; it was even lower (0.40) for synthesizing ideas. high agreement ratios were found for making connections between different sources (1.87) and relating new information to background knowledge (1.78). other items fell closer to the 1.0 ratio indicating approximately equal agreement and disagreement. 7.1.2. english language proficiency in order to investigate students’ self-assessments of their english language proficiency in doing their readings, they were asked to indicate if their levels of general and academic english proficiency were sufficient for doing their readings. table 2. students’ self-assessment of their proficiency. as table 2 indicates, the agree/disagree ratio was 2.89 for the claim that general language proficiency was sufficient for their readings, and 1.94 for sufficiency of academic english proficiency, indicating low levels of difficulty with regard to language proficiency. 7.1.3. content knowledge in order to examine the students’ self-assessment of their content knowledge, the respondents were asked to indicate how often the readings assigned for their ma programmes were negatively affected by their ‘insufficient background knowledge’ and ‘low understanding of concepts and terminologies used in the texts’. in addition, they were required to indicate how familiar they were with ‘research paradigms’. exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 323 ! ! no. item strongly-disagree disagree no idea agree stronglyagree agree/ disagree ratio 10 my general english proficiency is sufficient for understanding academic texts. 9 (4.6%) 34 (17.5%) 27 (13.9%) 92 (47.4%) 32 (16.5%) 2.88 11 my academic english proficiency is sufficient for understanding academic texts. 14 (7.2%) 37 (19.1%) 44 (22.7%) 80 (41.2%) 19 (9.8%) 1.94 mean (ratio) 2.41 ! i table 3. students’ self-assessment of their content knowledge. as table 3 indicates, students generally reported little difficulty with background knowledge or understanding the concepts referred to in the texts they read (never/always ratios of 3.70 and 3.69 respectively), but many reported being unfamiliar with the research paradigms used (1.04). 7.1.4. statistical literacy in order to investigate students’ self-assessments of their statistical literacy, we asked them to indicate how often their reading of texts assigned for their ma programmes was negatively affected by ‘difficulty in interpreting the statistical data presented in academic texts’, ‘difficulty in understanding statistics presented in tables’, ‘difficulty in interpreting information presented in graphic and visual format’. they also indicated their familiarity with ‘statistical analysis tests’. hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344324 ! ! ! no. item never rarely sometimes usually always never/ always ratio 12 insufficient background knowledge. 27 (13.9%) 62 (32.0%) 81 (41.8%) 19 (9.8%) 5 (2.6%) 3.70 13 low understanding of concepts and terminologies used in the texts. 30 (15.5%) 66 (34.0%) 72 (37.1%) 21 (10.8%) 5 (2.6%) 3.69 no. item not-familiar slightlyfamiliar somewhatfamiliar familiar veryfamiliar familiar/ unfamiliar ratio 20 … research paradigms (i.e., qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods). 14 (7.2%) 49 (25.3%) 65 (33.5%) 52 (26.8%) 14 (7.2%) 1.04 mean (ratio) 2.81 i table 4. students’ self-assessment of their statistical literacy. as table 4 shows, students reported little difficulty in interpreting statistical data (1.46) and understanding statistics presented in tables (1.32). they appeared to have more difficulty in interpreting information presented in graphic/visual format (0.98) and statistical analysis tests (0.86). 7.1.5. genre awareness the next section of the questionnaire examined students’ self-assessments of their genre awareness. this section required respondents to show if they had difficulty in recognizing the functions of various sections of academic texts, distinguishing different organizational features of genres, and finally noticing how authors use meta-discourse features. exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 325 ! no. item never rarely sometimes usually always never/ always ratio 14 difficulty in interpreting the statistical data presented in academic texts. 27 (13.9%) 58 (29.9%) 51 (26.3%) 37 (19.1%) 21 (10.8%) 1.46 15 difficulty in understanding statistics presented in tables. 25 (12.9%) 53 (27.3%) 57 (29.4%) 38 (19.6%) 21 (10.8%) 1.32 16 difficulty in interpreting information presented in graphic and visual format. 19 (9.8%) 43 (22.2%) 69 (35.6%) 41 (21.1%) 22 (11.3%) 0.98 no. item not-familiar slightlyfamiliar somewhatfamiliar familiar veryfamiliar familiar/ unfamiliar ratio 21 … statistical analysis tests (t-test, anova, etc.). 26 (13.4%) 54 (27.8%) 45 (23.2%) 39 (20.1%) 30 (15.5%) 0.86 mean (ratio) 1.15 table 5. students’ self-assessment of their genre awareness. as table 5 indicates, while students reported more difficulty in distinguishing different organizational features of genres (0.82), they reported less difficulty in recognizing the functions of different sections of academic texts (1.5) and in noticing how authors use metadiscoursal features (2.22). 7.1.6. information literacy the next section of the questionnaire examined students’ self-assessment of their information literacy. items probed their familiarity with differences between academic websites/databases and non-academic ones, credibility, accuracy, the relevance of the online sources, credible online databases of applied linguistics/tefl, the peer review process, and techniques for finding relevant articles online. hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344326 ! no. item never rarely sometimes usually always never/ always ratio 17 difficulty in recognizing the functions of different sections of academic texts 23 (11.9%) 62 (32.0%) 54 (27.8%) 46 (23.7%) 9 (4.6%) 1.5 18 difficulty in distinguishing different organizational features of genres 17 (8.8%) 36 (18.6%) 76 (39.2%) 54 (27.8%) 11 (5.7%) 0.82 19 difficulty in noticing how authors use metadiscoursal features 33 (17.0%) 56 (28.9%) 65 (28.9%) 32 (16.5%) 8 (4.1%) 2.22 mean (ratio) 1.51 table 6. students’ self-assessment of their information literacy. as table 6 indicates, students reported low levels of information literacy. the familiar/unfamiliar ratio was 0.36 for knowing the differences between academic websites or databases and non-academic ones, 0.24 for familiarity with credibility, accuracy, and relevance of online sources, 0.28 for their familiarity with credible online databases, 0.19 for their familiarity with the peer review process, and 0.56 for their familiarity with right techniques for finding relevant articles online. 7.1.7. interaction with teachers and peers this section of the questionnaire was designed to explore if, while doing their readings, students consulted their teachers or peers to ask for their viewpoints and clarifications, and whether they openly discussed disciplinary conventions with their teachers or peers. exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 327 ! ! 7 t no. item not-familiar slightlyfamiliar somewhatfamiliar familiar veryfamiliar familiar/ unfamiliar ratio 22 differences between academic databases and non-academic ones. 27 (13.9%) 74 (38.1%) 57 (29.4%) 30 (15.5%) 6 (3.1%) 0.36 23 credibility, accuracy, relevance, etc. of the online sources. 38 (19.6%) 78 (40.2%) 50 (25.8%) 20 (10.3%) 8 (4.1%) 0.24 24 credible online databases. 33 (17.0%) 84 (43.3%) 44 (22.7%) 26 (13.4%) 7 (3.6%) 0.28 25 peer review process. 43 (22.2%) 73 (37.6%) 55 (28.4%) 19 (9.8%) 4 (2.1%) 0.19 26 right techniques for finding relevant articles online. 18 (9.3%) 79 (40.7%) 42 (21.6%) 39 (20.1%) 16 (8.2%) 0.56 mean (ratio) 0.33 table 7. students’ self-assessments of their interaction. as table 7 shows, students reported higher levels of interaction with their peers than with their teachers. the agreement ratios for the items about consulting their peers to ask for their viewpoints/clarifications and discussing disciplinary conventions with them were 1.15 and 1.34 respectively. on the other hand, the agreement ratios were lower for consulting their teachers to ask for their viewpoints/clarifications or discussing disciplinary conventions with them (0.86 and 0.93 respectively). 7.1.8. critical literacy this section evaluated students’ self-assessments of their critical literacy. items asked the respondents to show if they involved themselves in the text by thinking of their own views, adopted a critical stance toward academic conventions, (dis)agreed with the ideas presented, read between the lines and noticed the writers’ underlying assumptions, knew that there could be other supporting and contrasting ideas and compared/contrasted different positions and ideas expressed in different sources. hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344328 ! no. item strongly-disagree disagree no idea agree stronglyagree agree/ disagree ratio 27 i refer to my teachers to ask for their viewpoints and clarifications. 14 (7.2%) 59 (30.4%) 58 (29.9%) 54 (27.8%) 9 (4.6%) 0.86 28 i refer to my peers to ask for their viewpoints and clarifications. 11 (5.7%) 55 (28.4%) 52 (26.8%) 65 (33.5%) 11 (5.7%) 1.15 29 i openly discuss disciplinary conventions with my teachers. 13 (6.7%) 55 (28.4%) 63 (32.5%) 49 (25.3%) 14 (7.2%) 0.93 30 i openly discuss disciplinary conventions with my peers. 16 (8.2%) 45 (23.2%) 51 (26.3%) 61 (31.4%) 21 (10.8%) 1.34 mean (ratio) 1.1 table 8. students’ self-assessment of their critical literacy. as table 8 indicates, students reported low levels of critical literacy. items such as involving themselves in the text by thinking of their own views and reminding themselves that the ideas mentioned in texts are the ideas of the author fell close to 1.0 ratio showing roughly equal agreement and disagreement. the agreement ratio for the item about (dis)agreeing with the ideas presented was 1.7 indicating that more students do this. on the other hand, lower agreements were observed for items such as adopting a critical stance (0.79), reading between the lines (0.65), comparing/contrasting different positions and ideas (0.7), and checking the credibility of journals by using different criteria (0.73) indicating that students had more struggles in these areas. figure 1 summarizes students’ assessments of their academic reading skills based on the average ratio of each component. information literacy appeared to be the area in which students had the most difficulty. critical literacy was the second most difficult area. the third area was interaction exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 329 ! ! no. item strongly-disagree disagree no idea agree stronglyagree agree/ disagree ratio 31 i involve myself in the text by thinking of my own views. 19 (9.8%) 55 (28.4%) 40 (20.6%) 62 (32.0%) 18 (9.3%) 1.08 32 i adopt a critical stance toward academic (e.g., reading) conventions. 26 (13.4%) 51 (26.3%) 56 (28.9%) 43 (22.2%) 18 (9.3%) 0.79 33 i try to (dis)agree with the ideas presented, even texts written by famous scholars. 22 (11.3%) 49 (25.3%) 40 (20.6%) 64 (33.0%) 19 (9.8%) 1.7 34 i can read between the lines and notice the writers’ underlying assumptions. 16 (8.2%) 62 (32.0%) 65 (33.5%) 43 (22.2%) 8 (4.1%) 0.65 35 i remind myself that these are the ideas of this author; there could be other supporting/contrasting ideas, too. 25 (12.9%) 44 (22.7%) 34 (17.5%) 69 (35.6%) 22 (11.3%) 1.31 36 i compare/contrast different positions and ideas expressed in different sources. 24 (12.4%) 65 (33.5%) 43 (22.2%) 47 (24.2%) 15 (7.7%) 0.7 37 for checking the credibility of a journal, i use different criteria 28 (14.4%) 51 (26.3%) 57 (29.4%) 37 (19.1%) 21 (10.8%) 0.73 mean (ratio) 0.99 f with teachers and peers, followed by statistical literacy, reading strategies, genre awareness, english language proficiency, and finally content knowledge. figure 1. students’ assessments of their academic reading skills. 7.2. students’ perceptions of their most frequent problems in academic reading (rq2) in this section, the results related to the second research question, which aimed at exploring the most frequent problems that students faced during their ma programmes with regard to their reading assignments, are presented. a total of 8 themes emerged which are discussed in the following sections. table 9. students’ most frequent problems in academic reading. hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344330 ! 0,33 0,99 1,1 1,15 1,23 1,51 2,41 2,81 0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3 information literacy critical literacy interaction with teachers and peers statistical literacy reading strategies genre awareness english language proficiency content knowledge ! theme frequency 1 shortage of time 61 (21.63%) 2 information literacy 58 (20.57%) 3 content knowledge 54 (19.15%) 4 critical literacy 34 (12.05%) 5 writers’ language style and generic features of texts 28 (9.93%) 6 teachers’ high expectations and vague instructions 20 (7.10%) 7 statistical literacy 16 (5.67%) 8 insufficient interaction 11 (3.90%) 282 (100%) note:113 students answered the question. the total does not add up to this number because many respondents reported only one or two problems. as table 9 indicates, shortage of time was the most frequent problem, reported 61 (21.63%) times by the participants. generally, students referred to the large amount of reading that they had to do and the shortage of time that they faced in this regard. for example, student 3 (s3) mentioned that “my main problem is the volume of readings that i have to do every week … i never find time to do them completely. we have to read many book chapters and articles per week and we simply cannot cover them all and this leads to disappointment and anxiety” (excerpt 1). a group of students appeared disappointed and demotivated by the huge amount of material that they were required to read and this had made them feel helpless and incompetent. s6 mentioned that “because we are bombarded with books and articles. i do not have time to read them. this makes me feel confused and prevents me from catching up” (excerpt 2). s1 argued that she does not enjoy the way reading works at ma level in that “you do not stick to a few sources throughout the semester”, rather “you have to deal with different articles and book chapters which is time-consuming”. she went on to argue that “i am used to reading books from the beginning to the end. that’s why i do not particularly enjoy it when many chapters from a variety of sources are introduced” (excerpt 3). the second theme referred to the problems that students confronted regarding information literacy, 58 (20.57%). within this category, we included their difficulty in finding access to relevant materials, their inability to find what they were looking for, and their inability to check the credibility of a given source. for example, s11 argued that “i always have difficulty finding access to the articles i find relevant to my study. it is not possible for me to have access to the online materials” (excerpt 4). s11 was not aware of the fact that her university had provided access to those articles and she could access most of those articles via her university. many students referred to their own inability in finding what they were looking for. they argued that they did not know how to find the articles they needed. as s13 explained, “it is not easy to find what you are looking for. i have difficulty finding the topics that i want” (excerpt 5). likewise, s4 put an interesting argument forward by saying “i have problem finding what i am looking for. in fact, my problem is that i am not sure if there are not many sources in my area of investigation or simply it is because i am not good at doing academic searches…” (excerpt 6). a considerable number of students also referred to their difficulty in assessing the credibility of the online sources they were using. s8 argued that exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 331 her unfamiliarity with different journals had led her to publish with a predatory journal. feeling embarrassed and ashamed of what she had done unintentionally, s8 reasoned that “i had no idea of predatory journals. this semester, i was very happy of publishing my first article. just a few weeks ago, i found out about predatory journals. i had published with one such journal … i feel embarrassed” (excerpt 7). the same sentiment was reflected by s1, who was unhappy with her experience of gaining the literacy she had at the time of this research. she argued for early and explicit education of the literacies that she had learned ‘painstakingly’ by herself. she went on to argue that “you cannot imagine how hard it was for me to learn the abc of an academic search and the very basic difference between academic and nonacademic or fake databases. nobody taught me” (excerpt 8). the third most frequently reported theme was students’ lack of enough content knowledge (19.15% of reported problems). this had prevented not only their understanding but also blocked their motivation to search or their willingness to play a more active role in their classes. for example, s10 put it this way “some … articles are too specific and academic and i cannot comprehend them. for example, we studied systemic functional linguistics for several sessions. i simply do not know what it is” (excerpt 9). s7 put it this way “i really like to cooperate more in classroom discussions; however, i cannot because of my weak background knowledge” (excerpt 10). similarly, s2 explained that “due to insufficient background knowledge, sometimes i cannot get the main point of the article and it stops me from further reading” (excerpt 11). a considerable number of students, 34 (12.05%), mentioned critical literacy as a problematic issue. they criticized the way they had received education and the way they were tested as the main reasons for their attested inability to critically read their assignments. for instance, s2 argued that “most teachers have always, directly and indirectly, persuaded us to do description rather than critical analysis” (excerpt 12). arguing along the same lines, s12 noted that “i have not been properly educated on critical thinking techniques. i do not know what my teachers mean by critical reading. for this reason, i cannot question ideas” (excerpt 13). a few students argued that the way they were expected to take exams had left them with no option but to memorize for exams which prevented them from adopting critical perspectives toward what they read. for instance, s6 said that “most of our exams look for descriptive accounts of what we read and this has led me to get used to memorizing not analysing.” (excerpt 14). hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344332 almost a tenth of all reported problems referred to the difficulties that respondents had with the writing style of authors and generic features of texts. they highlighted the authors’ use of language as hard to understand. for instance, s14 argued that “it is difficult for me to understand the conventions of introducing subjects.” (excerpt 15). likewise, s7 held that “it is difficult to understand the way writers form ideas and present them. the points are not usually straightforward” (excerpt 16). some students’ comments were more related to the genre and organizational conventions of their readings. s1 noted that “it seems impossible to recognize different genres. i cannot even understand what different sections of an academic paper are designed for” (excerpt 17). s4 argued that she was good at talking about genres theoretically, but had problem noticing generic features. she put it this way “i have been told about genre, move, steps, but i have never been able to practically notice them in my readings. at the theory level, i can talk about genres, however, in practice, i have difficulty noticing moves and steps” (excerpt 18). in their answers, 20 students (7.10%), referred to their teachers’ high expectations and vague assignments as important sources of the problem. elaborating on teachers’ high expectations, s2 explained “we are expected to do a lot of readings and writings and to do a research project from the very first semester; not just one but at least four, which is an impossible task” (excerpt 19). likewise, s10 argued that “i am not yet used to the conventions of academic reading and writing. i have not been given enough time to practise them. however, i am bombarded with a huge amount of reading and writing” (excerpt 20). students also elaborated on their teachers’ vague instructions. for instance, s11 stated that “there have been many occasions where i was reading the assignments but i did not know why i was reading them and what i was expected to accomplish ... ambiguity in the description of the tasks is a big issue” (excerpt 21). on the other hand, there were reports where students appreciated their teachers’ help in assisting them to understand their readings. in fact, they highlighted the significance of teachers’ guidance. s9 put it this way “some sources were hard to read through but when described and explained by the teachers, all ambiguities were resolved” (excerpt 22). some students, 16 (5.67%), explicitly mentioned the problems they had with statistics either within texts or presented in tables and figures. s9 argued that “i have been taught about statistics, but i have very much difficulty with papers that use statistics to report their findings” (excerpt 23). similarly, s12 exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 333 noted that “methods used in analysing the data and also interpreting tables are the most difficult parts. i never imagined dealing with statistics again” (excerpt 24). some students referred to their difficulty in analysing the statistics presented in tables and figures, as s1 explained “understanding information presented in tables and figures is not an easy task” (excerpt 25). finally, 11 (3.90%) students referred to their peers’ unwillingness to cooperate, arguing that they could understand much better if there were more cooperation. for example, s8 who was unhappy with her relationship with her classmates noted that “my classmates are too conservative and busy to share their understandings of the materials with me ... the problem is that they see themselves in competition with each other” (excerpt 26). likewise, s3 said that “my classmates are not accessible for studying and reviewing in pairs/groups. if we could initiate studying in groups, our learning could increase for sure” (excerpt 27). 8. discussion this study addresses the academic reading comprehension challenges faced by ma students of applied linguistics. questionnaire results showed that information literacy was the most important factor impeding students’ academic reading. this was followed by critical literacy, interaction with teachers and peers, statistical literacy, reading strategies, genre awareness, content knowledge, and english language proficiency. the quantitative findings were well-supported by the qualitative findings, as the problems and challenges that students reported in the qualitative part of the study were very similar to the quantitative findings from the questionnaire. the analysis of the qualitative data led to the emergence of identified shortcomings or challenges in the following areas: time, information literacy, content knowledge, critical literacy, writers’ language style and genre, teacher expectations and instructions, statistical literacy, and peer interaction. students’ self-assessments showed that reading strategies ranked fifth as a factor impeding successful academic reading. moreover, in line with previous studies (e.g., dhieb-henia, 2003), the qualitative findings of this study highlight the problems that university students face with regard to the large number of readings that they need to do (see excerpts 1 to 3). this may be attributable to students’ poor control over reading strategies. dhieb-henia hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344334 (2003, p. 387) rightly argues that “these problems pertain essentially to their inability to read selectively; that is, extracting what is important for the purpose of the reading and discarding what is insignificant”. in line with hirvela (2016), the qualitative findings indicated that teachers’ high expectations, vague assignments, and poor feedback are important problems (see excerpts 20 to 23). university professors teaching in ma programmes might be assuming that their students either know how to manage all the assigned materials or will be able to find a way to manage them. however, expecting students to learn how to read scholarly articles on their own may lead to frustration and confusion because they may not be able to read strategically and selectively. in fact, from the comments (see excerpts 1 to 3), it can be concluded that these students had problems in the strategic reading of materials. applied linguistics professors interviewed while developing the academic reading instrument used in this study (nejadghanbar, 2019) repeatedly mentioned that they did not expect their students to read all the materials; they expected them to be strategic in selecting the most important parts or sources. however, this is apparently not well understood by the students, who think they need to read every word, which in turn might lead to anxiety and disappointment. students did not report serious problems with regard to their language proficiency. this is in line with the previous research revealing that ma students’ problems do not necessarily lie in language (abasi & graves, 2008). as the questionnaire results showed, content knowledge was the least challenging factor for students. contrary to the quantitative findings, the qualitative findings identified content knowledge as the third most frequent problem. the reason for this contradiction could be the fact that a considerable portion of the qualitative data regarding the content knowledge problems was shared by students who had studied non-english or nonteaching majors for their ba studies (see excerpts 11/12). statistical literacy was the fourth most difficult factor. the qualitative data indicated that students struggle with understanding statistics presented in the sources they read (see excerpts 23 to 25). this finding echoes previous literature revealing that many ma students in the social and behavioural sciences have difficulty in understanding statistics (onwuegbuzie, 2003), mostly presented in one statistics course or a quantitative-based research methodology course (onwuegbuzie & wilson, 2003). graduate students’ exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 335 difficulty in understanding statistics has led “two thirds and four fifths of graduate students … to experience uncomfortable levels of statistics anxiety” (onwuegbuzie, 2003, p. 1023). as the quantitative results showed, genre awareness was ranked sixth in difficulty. the qualitative findings also pointed to difficulties with regard to genre (see excerpts 18/19). this is in line with the previous research showing that students are often unfamiliar with genre in academic texts (hirai et al., 2010) which makes the process of comprehending academic texts difficult (northedge, 2003). these findings suggest that students need practical, rather than theoretical, help and guidance in dealing with their reading and writing tasks. among all other factors, information literacy proved most difficult. qualitative data confirmed the quantitative findings, where this was the second most frequently reported problem. one reason for students’ low information literacy could be the fact that they may have not received previous education on information literacy. for example, publishing in predatory journals can be attributed to students’ inability to tell credible databases from low credibility ones. it seems teaching information literacy is generally ignored. although university teachers like their students to be competent in information literacy skills, they are not inclined to spend class time on information literacy skills (bury, 2011). interaction with teachers and peers was rated as the third most challenging factor, showing students’ low levels of interaction with their teachers and peers. this finding is consistent with previous literature showing students’ lack of collaboration in doing their readings (mcgrath et al. 2016). in line with lea and street (1998), we argue that the problems students face are not limited to the textual ones, but include the interactions with peers and teachers that can facilitate the acquisition of academic literacy (ferenz, 2005; atai et al., 2018). critical reading, as an indispensable part of good reading (kuzborska, 2015), was the factor ranked second in difficulty in the questionnaire. the qualitative findings showed critical literacy as the fourth most frequently reported problem. since critical literacy, as an important aspect of academic literacy (roald et al. 2021), can be quite different across disciplines (mann, 2000; neely, 2005), students need to receive instruction from their subject matter instructors about what they mean by critical reading. this was reflected in the qualitative data where students mentioned the difficulty that hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344336 they had in understanding what their teachers meant by critical reading. this finding is in line with lea and street (1998, p. 161), who argue that there are “differences between staff and students’ understanding of the writing [or reading] process at levels of epistemology, authority and contestation over knowledge rather than at the level of technical skill, surface linguistic competence or cultural assimilation”. 9. conclusion the findings of this study show that students’ problems in academic reading are not primarily associated with or limited to language proficiency or generic features of different text types. the multidimensional skill of academic reading and its discipline-specific nature lead to different types of problems and challenges for students. these findings highlight the important role that teachers can play in helping their students adopt the right approach to academic tasks as well as the significant changes that they could make by formulating purposes for reading specific texts, providing guiding questions, and including structures to ease access to themselves and to promote student-student interaction across the curriculum. the eight factors highlighted in the questionnaire, together with the qualitative data from this study, pinpoint areas in which ma students need help. expecting students to know about these areas beforehand or to learn academic reading all on their own would lead to many students’ demotivation, disappointment, and frustration. furthermore, it might lead to unintentional acts of plagiarism and publishing with predatory journals (babaii & nejadghanbar, 2017). students’ unfamiliarity with these literacies leads to inefficient academic reading, which impairs their ability to participate in disciplinary practices. the findings offer implications for university teachers, curriculum developers, and course designers in the field of applied linguistics. the problems reported by the students should encourage teachers to be realistic in their expectations; they should not assume that students start their ma studies equipped with the literacies that they require. these findings provide teachers with accounts of students’ experiences, challenges, and needs which can be used to inform their practice. based on the areas of importance and difficulty indicated in this study, curriculum developers and course designers could design academic literacy courses for exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 337 ma programmes in applied linguistics, or add academic reading modules to the existing content courses. article history: received 25 april 2022 received in revised form 07 july 2022 accepted 27 august 2022 references hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344338 abasi, a. r., & graves, b. 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(2011). apprenticing students to academic discourse: using student and teacher feedback to analyse the extent to which a discipline-specific academic literacies program works. journal of academic language & learning, 5(1), 1835-5196. hedgcock, j. s., & lee, k. (2017). an exploratory study of academic literacy socialization: building genre awareness in a teacher education program. journal of english for academic purposes, 26, 1728. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2017.01.004> hirai, d. l. c., borrego, i., garza, e., & kloock, c. t. (2010). academic language/literacy strategies for adolescents. routledge. hirvela, a. (2016). academic reading into writing. in k. hyland and p. shaw (eds.), routledge handbook of english for academic purposes (pp.127-139). routledge. jo, c. w. 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(2019). iranian graduate applied linguistics students’ perspectives on academic literacy with a focus on reading: towards developing an instrument. unpublished phd dissertation. kharazmi university, tehran. northedge, a. (2003). enabling participation in academic discourse. teaching in higher education, 8(2), 169-180. <https://doi.org/10.1080 /1356251032000052429> ohata, k., & fukao, a. (2014). l2 learners’ conceptions of academic reading and themselves as academic readers. system, 42, 81-92. onwuegbuzie, a. j. (2003). modeling statistical achievement among graduate students. educational and psychological measurement, 63(6), 1020-1038. <https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0013164402250989> onwuegbuzie, a. j., & wilson, v. (2003). statistics anxiety: nature, etiology, antecedents, effects, and treatments: a comprehensive review of the literature. teaching in higher education, 8, 195209. <https://doi.org/10.1080/135625103200005 2447> roald, g. m., wallin, p., hybertsen, i. d., & stenøien, j. m. (2021). learning from contrasts: first-year students writing themselves into academic literacy. journal of further and higher education, 45(6), 758-770. <https://doi.org/10. 1080/0309877x.2020.1813264> tavakoli, p., & hasrati, m. (2015). ma tefl programmes in iran: change in a globalised era. in c. kennedy (ed.), english language teaching in the islamic republic of iran: innovations, trends, and challenges (pp. 139-150). british council. thesen, l., & van pletzen, e. (2006). academic literacy and the languages of change. continuum. mahmood reza atai is professor of applied linguistics at kharazmi university, tehran, iran. he is the editor of the iranian journal of applied linguistics and has been a member of the editorial board for some international journals. furthermore, he has served as a member of the scientific committee of some international conferences. his publications include five co/authored eap textbooks for university students and several articles on esp/eap. his recent articles appear in english for specific purposes, journal of english for academic purposes, system, relc journal, and teacher development.  catherine snow is john h. and elisabeth a. hobbs professor of cognition and education at the harvard graduate school of education. she has conducted research on language and literacy development from infancy through midadolescence, with both monolingual and multilingual learners. hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344340 appendix: the questionnaire dear participants this survey is intended to shed light on the reading literacy of ma students of applied linguistics (tefl). please take a few minutes to respond to this anonymous survey. your honest responses to this survey will help improve teaching in ma programs. section 1: this section of the survey will help us understand the ways in which you undertake/undertook your reading assignments in different courses. for each statement, check the value that best describes your habits. please report your own actual experiences, not what you think is the ‘right answer’. your honest, anonymous responses will supply valuable information. a: now, please check the value that best describes your abilities in the following items. exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 341 ! while reading assigned academic texts during my ma studies… strongly d isagree n o idea a gree strongly a gree 1 i draw a visual map to chart the progression of ideas. 2 i notice how parts of texts are arranged to make a unified whole and present ideas. 3 i pull an idea or argument apart and look at it more closely. 4 i make a logical connection between different ideas. 5 i make connections among different sources. 6 i compare and contrast ideas mentioned and discussed in several sources. 7 i synthesize (integrate) previously unrelated ideas. 8 i relate new information to my background knowledge. 9 i connect different parts to each other similar to when i read a story. 10 my general english proficiency is sufficient for understanding academic texts. 11 my academic english proficiency is sufficient for understanding academic texts. a section 2: this section of the survey aims at exploring the factors which might pose problems to you in reading academic texts. a: read the following items carefully and check how often you think you come across these issues while reading academic texts. b: read the following items carefully and report your familiarity with each item. hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344342 ! ! how often is your reading of texts assigned for your ma program negatively affected by the following issues …. n ever r arely som etim es u sually a lw ays 12 insufficient background knowledge. 13 low understanding of concepts and terminologies used in the texts. 14 difficulty in interpreting the statistical data presented in academic texts. 15 difficulty in understanding statistics presented in tables. 16 difficulty in interpreting information presented in graphic and visual format. 17 difficulty in recognizing the functions of different sections of academic texts (i.e., recognize what to expect while reading different parts of an academic text such as abstract, introduction, methodology). 18 difficulty in distinguishing different organizational features of genres (i.e., move-step structures). 19 difficulty in noticing how authors use metadiscoursal features e.g., transition (in addition – and) boosters (in fact, definitely), hedges (might, probably), attitudinal markers (i agree, surprisingly) etc. ! ! how familiar are you with the … n ot f am iliar slightly f am iliar som ew hat f am iliar m oderately f ili v ery fam iliar 20 … research paradigms (i.e., qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods). 21 … statistical analysis tests (t-test, anova, manova, factor analysis, etc.). 22 … differences between academic websites/databases and non-academic ones. 23 … credibility, accuracy, relevance, etc. of the online sources. 24 … credible online databases (of applied linguistics/tefl/ tesol/education). 25 … peer review process. 26 … right techniques for finding relevant articles online. section 3: this section seeks your perceptions/viewpoints on reading as a situated social activity. please read each item carefully and then check the box that best describes your habits and abilities. exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344 343 ! while reading academic texts … strongly d isagree d isagree n o idea a gree strongly a gree 27 i refer to my teachers to ask for their viewpoints and clarifications on different parts. 28 i refer to my peers to ask for their viewpoints and clarifications on different parts. 29 i openly discuss disciplinary conventions (i.e., how texts are written and organized in applied linguistics) with my teachers. 30 i openly discuss disciplinary conventions (i.e., how texts are written and organized in applied linguistics) with my peers. 31 i involve (see/find) myself in the text by thinking of my own views (which may be contradictory or similar to those of the author/s). 32 i adopt a critical stance towards academic (e.g., reading) conventions. 33 i try to (dis)agree with the ideas presented, even texts written by famous scholars. 34 i can read between the lines and notice the writers’ underlying assumptions. 35 i usually remind myself that these are the ideas of this author; there could be other supporting and contrasting ideas, too. 36 i compare/contrast different positions and ideas expressed in different sources. 37 while reading to check the credibility of a journal, i use different criteria such as the journal index in different databases, its editors, reviewers, the authors, etc. what are three (or even more) most frequent problems you face(d) while reading your assignments in ma programs? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………........................................ ................................................................................................................................................................................. any other point which would like to share: ………………………………………………………………………….....................................…………………………… we are looking for some volunteers for a short interview on this topic. if you are interested in participating and contributing to our study in this regard, please let us know how we can contact you. ……………………………..............................................................................................................………………….. demographic information: your age: 20-25 o 25-30 o 30-35 o 35-40 o above 40 o your gender: female o male o your ba major: linguistics o literature o teaching o translation o other o _________ your ma major: ______________________________ type of academic institution of your ma: state o azad o payam noor o other o ______ your current semester of ma program: first semester o second semester o third semester o fourth semester o have finished ma o other o ________________ so many thanks. hassan nejadghanbar, mahmood reza atai & catherine snow ibérica 44 (2022): 315-344344 iberica 13 ibérica 34 (2017): 279-282 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 the discourse of tourism and national heritage: a contrastive study from a cultural perspective. claudia elena stoian newcastle upon tyne: cambridge scholars publishing, 2015. 435 pages. isbn: 978-1-4438-8219-4. the book by claudia elena stoian contributes to the field of online tourism promotion by exploring how destination branding is carried out on the web in three european countries, romania, spain and great britain. as the literature in the field claims, by deploying a set of representational and discursive strategies, branding aims to turn a place into a destination that will attract potential tourists. arguably, however – and this is the main assumption in stoian’s contrastive study – these semiotic strategies will vary, both transnationally, because of cultural variables typical of each individual country, and internally, because of the different goals of market-driven versus institutional actors in tourism promotion. in light of the prominence of web-mediated communication in contemporary tourism discourse, stoian’s data set is entirely digital and comprises six websites in english, two for each country under examination. the institutional website is maintained by the national tourist board, while the commercial one is run by a tour operator. websites are analysed through the tools of halliday’s systemic functional linguistics, which is adapted to other semiotic resources according to kress and van leeuwen’s model. the focus on lexico-grammatical and visual features is integrated with studies on intercultural communication, in particular e. t. hall’s model of cultural variability. on each site the pages that are chosen for detailed analysis are those dedicated to unesco world heritage sites (e.g. the monastery of horezu, santiago de compostela and the tower of london), exploiting these landmarks’ potential for attracting cultural tourists. thanks to the recognition of their historic legacy as an outstanding value that transcends national boundaries, world heritage sites always feature as main places of interest for international visitors. 279 reseñas/book reviews stoian approaches the multimodal composition of meaning with meticulous care. she clearly prioritises the linguistic analysis of the page content, which is summarised in the text and reported in full in the eighty-page-long appendix before the bibliography. the analysis of visual materials is equally careful, though the low resolution of the chosen screenshots does not do justice to her work, making it occasionally difficult for readers to follow the descriptions she provides. despite the poor quality of the images, linguistic and visual data are collected and interpreted systematically. one of the assets of her work is that such a methodologically sound approach to the decoding of internet pages can be easily adapted to a variety of web-mediated discourses elsewhere and is a very good illustration for practitioners. ultimately, a reflection that stoian’s analysis suggests is that the multimodal features of websites make webpages convergent rather than divergent, with a recognisable visual and verbal grammar that is globally shared in contemporary semiotic economies. the same can be said for content, since all unesco world heritage sites are discursively constructed according to very similar “universal” values. the main differences stoian finds in the three institutional websites have to do with the quantity of information as opposed to connotation and with the predominance of the verbal versus the visual, with visit britain as the most convincing of the three at the time of writing. this inevitably provisional comparison, however, should be weighed against a survey of the best digital practices enacted in public discourse in the three countries examined. though this policy issue is somehow omitted in the technicalities of the discussion, the point is that the implementation of a digital agenda on the part of the government seriously impacts institutional and professional knowledge, thus affecting the cultural variable of context stoian frequently draws on in her analysis. thanks to consistent public investment over the years, great britain is a leader in digital innovation in the public sphere among european countries, a benchmark that probably explains the more user-centric, visitor-oriented approach stoian captures on visit britain. the websites run by three national tour operators also show similarities and differences in design and stance. what they have in common is a focus on more circumscribed information, which is necessary to sell a tour, an activity or a service, and also on the appeal of world heritage sites as impressive “sights” that the tourist gaze will appreciate. compared to the institutional set, the use of multimodality is less prominent, with more blatantly reseñas / book reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 279-282280 promotional and less articulated messages. national tourist boards, instead, show greater skills in branding, not in the least because they have the financial means to invest more extensively in professional expertise. on the practical side, the book ends with a recommendation to train in teams all those who are involved in online destination branding, like tourism professionals and website designers. in a nutshell, stoian’s thorough and exhaustive study is an interesting contribution to the understanding of multimodality in tourism discourse that will hopefully inspire further investigations into the realm of online branding. received 07 march 2017 accepted 08 march 2017 reviewed by maria cristina paganoni università degli studi di milano (italy) mariacristina.paganoni@unimi.it reseñas / book reviews ibérica 34 (2017): 279-282 281 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract research has demonstrated that it is challenging for english as an additional language (eal) writers to acquire phraseological competence in academic english and develop a good working knowledge of discipline-specific formulaic language. this paper aims to explore if scie-lex, a powerful lexical database of biomedical research articles, can be exploited by eal writers to enhance their command of formulaic language in biomedical english published writing. our paper builds on the challenges associated with formulaic language (namely collocations) for eal writers, it reflects on the benefits of using a lexical database and it evaluates a pedagogical approach to helping eal writers produce publishable texts. it specifically highlights results from two writing workshops conducted for eal writers (medical researchers in the present study). the workshops involved medical researchers working on drafts of their writing using scie-lex. our paper reports on the specific benefits of using scie-lex as demonstrated by revisions in the writing produced by the eal medical researchers. this paper aims to contribute to current discussion on english for research publication purposes (erpp) for the eal community who now form the main contributors to research knowledge dissemination. keywords: eal writers, biomedical discourse, english for research publication purposes, lexical database, pedagogical benefits. resumen l o s b e ne f i c io s p e da g óg ic o s d e un a ba s e d e d ato s d e l é x ic o ( sc ie e le x ) c o mo a p oy o a l a p ro du c c i ón d e t e xto s b i omé d ic os pu bl i c a bl e s po r e s c r ito re s qu e u ti l iz a n e l in g l é s c om o l e ng u a a di c io na l the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database (scie-lex) to assist the production of publishable biomedical texts by eal writers natalia j. laso and suganthi john university of barcelona (spain) and university of birmingham (uk) njlaso@ub.edu & s.p.john@bham.ac.uk 147 ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 n.j. laso & s. john la investigación ha demostrado que el uso del inglés como lengua adicional (english as an additional language, eal por sus siglas en inglés) en la escritura académica representa un reto para los investigadores no nativos de dicha lengua, en tanto que estos deben adquirir competencia fraseológica en inglés académico y desarrollar un conocimiento del lenguaje formulaico propio de la disciplina. este artículo busca explorar si la base de datos de artículos de investigación biomédicos scie-lex puede utilizarse por estos escritores para mejorar su dominio del lenguaje formulaico en la escritura biomédica en lengua inglesa. en este trabajo se describen los retos asociados al lenguaje formulaico (las llamadas combinaciones de palabras) a los que se enfrentan los escritores de eal y valora los beneficios pedagógicos de la utilización de esta base de datos léxica como apoyo a la producción de textos publicables. en concreto, se describen dos talleres de escritura diseñados para escritores de eal (investigadores del ámbito de la medicina en el presente estudio). en los talleres estos investigadores trabajaron sobre varios borradores de textos utilizando scie-lex. se describen los beneficios de su uso a través de las revisiones de los textos que llevaron a cabo los investigadores. el presente trabajo busca contribuir al debate actual sobre el llamado english for research publication purposes (erpp, por sus siglas en inglés) en la comunidad de escritores de eal, comunidad que juega un papel primordial en la difusión del conocimiento científico. palabras clave: uso del inglés como lengua adicional en la escritura académica, discurso biomédico, inglés para fines de investigación, base de datos léxica, beneficios pedagógicos. 1. introduction english for research publication purposes (erpp) is now a well-established field of research in eap. it is defined as “a branch of eap addressing concerns of professional researchers and post-graduate students who need to publish in peer-reviewed international journals” (cargill & burgess, 2008: 75). english is the dominant language for research publication and there is strong evidence to suggest that the largest contributors to research publications are writers who use english as an additional language (eal) (hyland, 2016: 64). this paper recognises the importance of erpp for a group of eal spanish medical researchers and reports on a study which uses a corpus-based lexical database in two workshops to help the users produce academic language typical of publications in their various fields of research. the paper also highlights the need for more concrete evidence from empirical studies of the impact of corpus-informed pedagogy. 148 there is wide acknowledgement of the usefulness of corpora for language teaching, for example, through the use of corpus-informed teaching materials such as the cobuild project (sinclair, 1987) and the contributions made to pedagogy by work such as the longman grammar of spoken and written english (biber et al., 1999). since 2000, there have been a number of influential textbooks in the field of language teaching and learning using corpora (bennet, 2010; flowerdew, 2012; to name a few). more recently, there have also been lexicographic developments such as the louvain english for academic purposes dictionary (lead) which incorporates a corpus tool with a specialised dictionary of general academic english (paquot, 2012; granger & paquot, 2015). these contributions emphasise the relevance of corpus-informed pedagogy. there is, however, growing concern that there is insufficient focused research matching the “‘hype’ given to corpora and/or corpus tools for pedagogical purposes” (reppen, 2011 cited in friginal, 2013: 210). efforts to address this issue exist (friginal, 2013), but “the evidence for the successful use of corpus resources… remains slight” (tribble, 2013: 1). this paper contributes to the discussion of erpp by investigating the use of a lexical database with a group of spanish medical researchers to assist their production of discourse in their disciplinary area, viz. biomedical science. this study moves current research on corpus-informed pedagogy a step beyond awareness-raising, which is typically the focus of classroom-based research using corpora, to investigating actual language production, in this case, the written drafts of sections of biomedical research articles. 1.1. the role of corpora in the teaching of formulaic language large-scale general english corpora (such as the bank of english), general academic english corpora (such as micase) to more specific genre corpora (such as bawe focusing on the academic essay) and discipline-specific corpora (such as the one used in this study, the health science corpus hsc) have inspired research studies on real language use. many of these corpora have been used in classroom situations inspired by tim johns’ seminal data-driven learning (ddl) approach (1990). ddl is an approach in which learners become “language detectives” by discovering facts about the language they are learning for themselves and drawing conclusions from their exposure to authentic examples. the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 149 one of the key contributions of corpora to language teaching and learning has been the recognition of language as being formulaic in nature (wray, 1999; gledhill, 2000; wray, 2002; flowerdew, 2003; simpson, 2004; hyland, 2008, to name a few). this was brought to the fore by the neo-firthian’s pioneering work of sinclair and halliday. following sinclair’s idiom principle, which states that writers can use “a large number of semipreconstructed phrases that constitute single choices, even though they might appear to be analysable into segments” (sinclair, 1991: 110), it must be noted that evidence for formulaic expressions is highly significant in language. meunier (2012: 112) argues that “if teaching is meant to help learners improve their proficiency levels, it should then at least in part be devoted to improving learners’ knowledge and use of formulas”. however, it has been recently noted that “research into the teaching and learning of multiword units is still scarce” (pellicer-sánchez, 2015: 1). in fact, meunier (2012: 116) goes so far as to say that “very few studies provide results of experiments carried out to foster formulaicity within a pedagogical task”. to this end, the pedagogical use of databases as collections of information, specifically designed to facilitate language learning, seems very pertinent. most examples of lexical databases in electronic form are focused on general english, such as, wordnet (miller et al., 1990), which organises lexical information in terms of word meanings; eurowordnet (vossen, 2004), which provides a semantic analysis of semantic relations between synsets; simullda (janssen, 2004), a multilingual lexical database which uses structured interlingua; and frame-based multilingual databases, which provide a semantic account of lexical units based on semantic frames (for example, boas, 2005). despite the growing development of lexical databases that provide lexicogrammatical and discourse features of languages, more lexical resources are required to suit the needs of specialised discourse communities. as pointed out by kennedy (2014), lexical databases must provide not only semantic information about the various sense(s) of each lexical unit, but also on how each sense may be realised by a different grammatical patterning, which contributes a great deal to characterising the prototypical environment of occurrence of formulaic expressions in a given discourse. n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172150 1.2. the formulaic nature of scientific english and its challenges for eal writers research has demonstrated that it is particularly challenging for eal writers to acquire phraseological competence in academic english and develop a good working knowledge of formulaic language (howarth, 1996, 1998; wray, 1999; oakey, 2002; williams, 2005; granger & meunier, 2008; ferguson et al., 2011; pérez-llantada, 2014). this fact becomes especially apparent in scientific research articles which must show that the hypotheses have been tested appropriately and that the results reported accurately reflect the materials and methods used (cargill & o’connor, 2013). the skills required for successful scientific writing entail both the accurate selection of correct terms and grammatical constructions as well as a good command of appropriate lexical combinations and phraseological expressions. phraseological empirical studies have confirmed the important role of formulaic language in the textual development of meaning (gledhill, 2000; kaszubski, 2000; flowerdew, 2003; hyland, 2008) and have also highlighted the need for further research on the phraseological conventions characteristic of specialist genres. as kaszubski (2000: 2) points out: word combinations are inextricably related to the layer of style the appropriateness and/or naturalness of selection and co-occurrence of items, subject to genre-sensitive restrictions and conventions. thus, in order to compare aspects of lexical use, one is bound to focus attention on phraseology. the current treatment of phraseology in specialised registers acknowledges the need for corpus-based studies of the prototypical lexicogrammatical patternings and discourse functions of formulaic language across disciplines (oakey, 2002; biber, 2006; hyland, 2008; laso, 2009; laso & john, 2013a/b; verdaguer et al., 2013). as asserted by hyland (2008: 5), “[g]aining control of a new language or register requires a sensitivity to expert users’ preferences for certain sequences of words over others”. thus, it seems that being familiar with the specific phraseology of a discourse community will bring about not only a better knowledge of the genre but also an enhanced competence in the process of reading and writing in specialised registers. due to the fact that discipline-specific phrases make up a very important part of the writing, it seems of paramount importance that professionals involved with the practice of research article writing become acquainted with the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 151 the formulaic language of their research field, since conforming to those conventions considered to be “good style” will maximise their chances of publishing in international scientific journals. bearing in mind that scientific discourse is “highly stereotypical in nature” (gledhill, 2000: 116), it therefore presents a challenge for eal writers. spanish biomedical researchers (our targeted community in this study) must be aware of what etherington (2008) calls the “game strategies”: that is, the formulaicity that characterises scientific writing. without some understanding and, most importantly, control over the rules of the game that operate across text types, structure, organisation and lexicogrammatical features, eal writers will find it difficult to successfully publish in international journals in their subject areas (pérez-llantada, 2014). as discussed in the literature (cohen et al., 1988; laso & john, 2013a/b), knowing the technical terms of a discipline is not a sufficient condition to write effective scientific papers in an efficient way. it is, in fact, the nontechnical words – “terms that have a specialized meaning in a particular field and are used consistently in that field” (cohen et al., 1988: 162) – which are more problematic to those eal writers. in this regard, the use of lexical databases that give account of the formulaic language associated with nontechnical terms in a given discipline seems a useful writing resource to assist the efficient production of published biomedical discourse. 1.3. overview of study with the aim of creating a lexical database to meet the growing demand for pedagogical resources assisting eal teaching and learning, the grelic1 research group at the university of barcelona developed scie-lex, a lexical resource organised around highly prototypical non-specialised terms in biomedical discourse. scie-lex provides an exhaustive account of the combinatorial possibilities of general lexical units as well as their rhetorical features. this paper explores if scie-lex can be exploited by eal writers to enhance their knowledge of formulaic language, in particular the use of collocations, in biomedical english published writing. in addition, this study highlights the challenges associated with formulaic language for eal writers, reflects on the benefits of a lexical database and evaluates a pedagogical approach to helping eal writers produce publishable texts. n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172152 in order to provide spanish biomedical researchers with the necessary skills to produce an academic research article using appropriate academic english and style, two writing workshops were conducted for a group of these biomedical researchers at the university of barcelona. workshop 1 aimed at helping our participants recognise the formulaic nature of biomedical discourse and to familiarise them with scie-lex through a series of exercises which could help them navigate through the database. workshop 2 intended to provide support for these writers in their production of a publishable research article through consulting scie-lex. 2. data and method 2.1. corpus and the lexical database used in the study this study is based on corpus evidence, since all formulaic language discussed has been extracted from the health science corpus (hsc), which consists of a 4-million word collection of health science texts from the fields of medicine, biomedicine, biology and biochemistry. scie-lex, which is based on the hsc, provides lexicogrammatical information about the most common collocations of general terms frequently used in the biomedical register as well as information on lexical bundles2 associated with some of its headwords. this information relates not only to the lexicogrammatical variants of the lexical bundles, but also to the rhetorical functions (moves) performed by these units as well as their most prototypical distribution across the article. scie-lex can be found at www.ub.edu/grelic/eng/index.php. 2.2. method emails were sent to three leading research institutions for participants to attend two “writing for publication” workshops in barcelona: cresa-centre de recerca en salut animal (uab-irta), a public foundation created in 1999 for conducting research in animal health; the institute for research in biomedicine (irb-ub), a world-class research centre devoted to understanding fundamental questions about human health and disease; and the institute for bioengineering of catalonia (ibec-ub), a research centre whose purpose is to carry out interdisciplinary research at the highest international quality level which helps to improve health and quality of life and generate wealth. the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 153 while we targeted both doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, all our participants were doctoral researchers who were aiming to publish their current research in top international journals in their fields. when the participants registered for the workshops, they were asked to submit an 800word draft of their writing. fifteen participants (of at least c1 proficiency using the cefr system) responded to our email and the final number attending was ten biomedical doctoral researchers mainly from the fields of life sciences and psychological sciences. the submitted drafts were carefully read through and some non-prototypical collocations from three word classes (nouns, verbs and adjectives), i.e. collocates not found in the hsc corpus (see section 2.1), were highlighted. these collocations then formed the basis of the activities developed during workshop 1. 2.2.1. workshop 1 the first part of the workshop opened with a discussion on the nature of scientific discourse and the unique characteristics of a journal article (how it is different from other types of research writing, such as thesis writing, which, as doctoral researchers, the participants were familiar with). the participants then completed worksheet 1 (appendix 1), which had two aims. firstly, we hoped to familiarise them with the notion of prototypicality in biomedical discourse, and secondly, we hoped to encourage them to view language as occurring in chunks rather than as individual elements. the prototypical nature of biomedical english was introduced through exercises using three academic journal articles and asking them to notice similarities in the ways in which these articles were structured and how language was used in general terms. encouraging them to view language as occurring in chunks was achieved by using exercises with concordance lines which required them to think about context; in this case, collocations before and after a keyword. by the time they reached the end of this workshop, they were also familiar with the interface of scie-lex. 2.2.2. workshop 2 the second workshop introduced them to the potential this lexical database had to assist their written production for publication. n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172154 the second worksheet (appendix 2) was then introduced. this worksheet was designed based on the drafts submitted as the pre-work for participation in the workshop. we had read and identified collocations in their drafts which were not prototypical of biomedical english as demonstrated in the hsc. we created a few collocation activities for them to complete and asked them to extend the observations they made about these collocations to their drafts. we then moved around the room and provided each participant with individual feedback on their drafts. we helped them with their searches in scie-lex and also made some general comments about their drafts. then, they were asked to redraft their work and to save their writing. at the end of workshop 2, we asked participants to complete a questionnaire about their impressions of scie-lex and their experience of using it (appendix 3). our intention was to be able to correlate the questionnaire findings to revisions in their writing. in other words, we sought to find out if participants felt that scie-lex was a useful tool for them to improve their writing, then whether this would be demonstrated in the revisions implemented into their writing. the observations we make in this paper come from 8 participants as 2 of them did not submit a second draft of their writing and thus were not considered in the present study. all participants signed a consent form and were assured of anonymity. the observations are based on a very small set of data, but the contexts of the workshops and the discussions we had with writers as we moved around the room is revealing of the potential for a corpus-based lexical database to be used as a pedagogical writing resource. 3. observations from the workshops the observations in this section will be presented in the same order as in the worksheets – noun, adjective and verb collocations. each example will appear with the participants’ first draft, revised draft and a screenshot of what motivated the revisions, not necessarily in this order. a discussion will follow in section 4 after the observations. it is important to note that we are not presenting all the occurrences of each of the nouns, verbs and adjectives we identified as appearing in lexical bundles presented in this study, but our primary focus here is to illustrate and highlight the influence of the use of scie-lex on the improvement of writing quality. the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 155 as already mentioned, we devised a worksheet of exercises consisting of verbs, nouns and adjectives (table 1) featured in the participants’ drafts. these nouns, adjectives and verbs were used by the participants in ways which were not typically found in the hsc and therefore deemed not prototypical of biomedical discourse. all these nouns, adjectives and verbs were highlighted in the participants’ drafts as items for them to consider for revision during the workshops. our aim was to see if the lexical database would enable them to make independent revisions to their drafts both in terms of lexical bundles and text distribution in their writing: scie-lex provides information on lexical bundles associated with some of the headwords. as mentioned earlier, this information relates not only to the lexicogrammatical variants of the lexical bundles, but also to the rhetorical functions (moves) performed by these units as well as their most prototypical distribution across the article. in other cases, scie-lex only presents the lexicogrammatical information of the headwords. 3.1. observation 1: the noun s tu dy the abstract noun study occurs 6,618 times in the hsc, out of which 3,028 tokens are instances of the inflected form and the remaining 3,590 are base forms. a closer look at corpus data reveals that formulaic expressions of the type in + the/this + adjective + study stand out as recurrent chunks, as illustrated in the figures provided by antconc 3.4.4w (anthony, 2014) and shown in figure 1. regarding the variability of the formulaic expression in + the/this + adjective + study, the following lexicogrammatical variants were most frequently found: in this study (647 occurrences), in the (adjective) study (301 occurrences), in * study (890 occurrences), and used in this study (167 occurrences). data from participants in the workshops shows some variability in the use of the lexical bundle in the present study. example 1 illustrates, for instance, participant p1b’s use of this lexical bundle before revision: n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172156 n. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): …-… that scie-lex was a useful tool for them to improve their writing, then whether this would be demonstrated in the revisions implemented into their writing. the observations we make in this paper come from 8 participants as 2 of them did not submit a second draft of their writing and thus were not considered in the present study. all participants signed a consent form and were assured of anonymity. the observations are based on a very small set of data, but the contexts of the workshops and the discussions we had with writers as we moved around the room is revealing of the potential for a corpus-based lexical database to be used as a pedagogical writing resource. 3. observations from the workshops the observations in this section will be presented in the same order as in the worksheets – noun, adjective and verb collocations. each example will appear with the participants’ first draft, revised draft and a screenshot of what motivated the revisions, not necessarily in this order. a discussion will follow in section 4 after the observations. it is important to note that we are not presenting all the occurrences of each of the nouns, verbs and adjectives we identified as appearing in lexical bundles presented in this study, but our primary focus here is to illustrate and highlight the influence of the use of scie-lex on the improvement of writing quality. as already mentioned, we devised a worksheet of exercises consisting of verbs, nouns and adjectives (table 1) featured in the participants’ drafts. these nouns, adjectives and verbs were used by the participants in ways which were not typically found in the hsc and therefore deemed not prototypical of biomedical discourse. all these nouns, adjectives and verbs were highlighted in the participants’ drafts as items for them to consider for revision during the workshops. our aim was to see if the lexical database would enable them to make independent revisions to their drafts both in terms of lexical bundles and text distribution in their writing: nouns adjectives verbs advance, procedure, resistance, growth, study, finding, purpose, result, research capable, responsible, related appear, assess, consist, develop, seem table 1. nouns, adjectives and verbs used in the worksheets. scie-lex provides information on lexical bundles associated with some of the headwords. as mentioned earlier, this information relates not only to the lexicogrammatical variants of the lexical bundles, but also to the rhetorical functions (moves) performed by these units as well as their most prototypical distribution across the article. in other cases, scie-lex only presents the lexicogrammatical information of the headwords. (1) for the present study, two isolates of influenza a virus were used: an avian-origin lpaiv h5n2 subtype (a/anas platyrhynchos/2420/2010) (h5n2) and a human-origin h1n1 subtype (a/catalonia/63/2009) (ph1n1). (p1b) there are no instances of the lexical bundle for the present study in the hsc. during the workshop, this participant was asked to search for the headword study (figure 2): the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 157 the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): …-… 3.1. observation 1: the noun study the abstract noun study occurs 6,618 times in the hsc, out of which 3,028 tokens are instances of the inflected form and the remaining 3,590 are base forms. a closer look at corpus data reveals that formulaic expressions of the type in + the/this + adjective + study stand out as recurrent chunks, as illustrated in the figures provided by antconc 3.4.4w (anthony, 2014) and shown in figure 1: figure 1. information on lexical bundles of the noun study from antconc 3.4.4w. regarding the variability of the formulaic expression in + the/this + adjective + study, the following lexicogrammatical variants were most frequently found: in this study (647 occurrences), in the (adjective) study (301 occurrences), in * study (890 occurrences), and used in this study (167 occurrences). data from participants in the workshops shows some variability in the use of the lexical bundle in the present study. example 1 illustrates, for instance, participant p1b’s use of this lexical bundle before revision: (1) for the present study, two isolates of influenza a virus were used: an avian-origin lpaiv h5n2 subtype (a/anas platyrhynchos/2420/2010) (h5n2) and a human-origin h1n1 subtype (a/catalonia/63/2009) (ph1n1). (p1b) there are no instances of the lexical bundle for the present study in the hsc. during the workshop, this participant was asked to search for the headword study (figure 2): n. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): …-… figure 2. screenshot of the lexical bundles associated with the noun study in scie-lex. this motivated the following independent revision by participant p1b (example 2). (2) in the present study, two isolates of influenza a virus were used: an avianorigin lpaiv h5n2 subtype (a/anas platyrhynchos/2420/2010) (h5n2) and a human-origin h1n1 subtype (a/catalonia/63/2009) (ph1n1). (p1b) there was evidence of other uses of the noun study in lexical bundles used by the writers in the workshop. for example: (3) eighty-seven ml of of collected from experimental prrsv-negative piglets were pooled and used for the study. (p5e) this lexical bundle used for the study occurs only once in the hsc, but the bundle used in this study occurs 167 times in the corpus data. while this participant did not revise her writing, the tendency to produce bundles which are not prototypical in the corpus should be noted. this was not an isolated example as there were similar examples such as the following one: (4) for this study, only the gmv maps were used for statistical analyses. (p6r) this lends additional evidence to observations already made by other researchers (pérez-llantada, 2014) about the challenges formulaic language poses for eal writers. the implications of a workshop such as this one provides some indication of the benefits of eal writers being able to consult corpora to aid their writing of formulaic language typical of the discourse communities they are writing for. 3.2. observation 2: the noun attention this motivated the following independent revision by participant p1b (example 2). (2) in the present study, two isolates of influenza a virus were used: an avian-origin lpaiv h5n2 subtype (a/anas platyrhynchos/2420/2010) (h5n2) and a human-origin h1n1 subtype (a/catalonia/63/2009) (ph1n1). (p1b) there was evidence of other uses of the noun study in lexical bundles used by the writers in the workshop. for example: (3) eighty-seven ml of of collected from experimental prrsv-negative piglets were pooled and used for the study. (p5e) this lexical bundle used for the study occurs only once in the hsc, but the bundle used in this study occurs 167 times in the corpus data. while this participant did not revise her writing, the tendency to produce bundles which are not prototypical in the corpus should be noted. this was not an isolated example as there were similar examples such as the following one: (4) for this study, only the gmv maps were used for statistical analyses. (p6r) this lends additional evidence to observations already made by other researchers (pérez-llantada, 2014) about the challenges formulaic language poses for eal writers. the implications of a workshop such as this one provides some indication of the benefits of eal writers being able to consult corpora to aid their writing of formulaic language typical of the discourse communities they are writing for. 3.2. observation 2: the noun a t te nt i o n the noun attention has 151 occurrences in the hsc. the prepositions it collocates with are dependent on the verb preceding the noun. in the hsc, the two most common verbs which collocate with attention are pay (12 occurrences) and focus (35 occurrences). there is a wide range of other verbs which occur with attention, but with fewer occurrences for each verb: receive (8), attract (7), bring (4), deserve (4), require (3), etc. when the verb pay is used with attention the preposition it collocates with is to, whereas when the verb n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172158 focus is used with attention, the preposition it collocates with is on. the following was noted as occurring in one of our participant’s writing: (5) we paid attention on two cell based binding affinity assays: “mhc reconstitution assay” and “mhc-epitope stabilization assay”. (p2m) during workshop 2, participant p2m consulted scie-lex with the following information about the noun attention (figure 3): as a result of consulting scie-lex, the participant revised his first draft and changed the preposition used with the noun attention to produce the prototypical bundle paid attention to as found in the hsc (example 6). (6) we paid attention to two cell based binding affinity assays “mhc reconstitution assay” and “mhc-epitope stabilization assay”. (p2m) 3.3. observation 3: the adjective r e sp o ns i bl e the adjective responsible occurs 526 times in the hsc. the preposition it collates with is always for. the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 159 the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): …-… the noun attention has 151 occurrences in the hsc. the prepositions it collocates with are dependent on the verb preceding the noun. in the hsc, the two most common verbs which collocate with attention are pay (12 occurrences) and focus (35 occurrences). there is a wide range of other verbs which occur with attention, but with fewer occurrences for each verb: receive (8), attract (7), bring (4), deserve (4), require (3), etc. when the verb pay is used with attention the preposition it collocates with is to, whereas when the verb focus is used with attention, the preposition it collocates with is on. the following was noted as occurring in one of our participant’s writing: (5) we paid attention on two cell based binding affinity assays: “mhc reconstitution assay” and “mhc-epitope stabilization assay”. (p2m) during workshop 2, participant p2m consulted scie-lex with the following information about the noun attention (figure 3): figure 3. screenshot of the lexicogrammatical patterning of the noun attention in scie-lex. as a result of consulting scie-lex, the participant revised his first draft and changed the preposition used with the noun attention to produce the prototypical bundle paid attention to as found in the hsc (example 6). (6) we paid attention to two cell based binding affinity assays “mhc reconstitution assay” and “mhc-epitope stabilization assay”. (p2m) 3.3. observation 3: the adjective responsible the adjective responsible occurs 526 times in the hsc. the preposition it collates with is always for. example 7 demonstrates the use of this bundle in participant p3j’s writing: (7) some of these outbreaks were responsible of avian-to-mammals transmissions, affecting also humans; thus, representing a threat to public health [2-4]. (p3j) during workshop 2, the revision to this bundle was motivated by consultation of scie-lex (figure 4) and example 8 is the revised version, thus reiterating the benefits of the use of the lexical database: (8) some of these outbreaks were responsible for avian-to-mammals transmissions, affecting also humans; thus, representing a threat to public health [2-4]. (p3j) 3.4. observation 4: the adjective c ap ab l e the adjective capable occurs 343 times in the hsc. of these 343 times, it occurs with the preposition to only once in the corpus, but 336 times in combination with the preposition of. therefore the prototypical occurrence of this adjective is in combination with the preposition of. when participants used the adjective in their writing, we found that two of them (example 9 and example 10) used it with the preposition to. (9) previously, our group identified the peptide vin1, located in conserved regions of the influenza a virus hemagglutinin subunit 1, as capable to generate cross-reactive antibodies (abs) in pigs. (p3j) n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172160 n. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): …-… figure 4. screenshot of the lexicogrammatical patterning of the adjective responsible in scie-lex. example 7 demonstrates the use of this bundle in participant p3j’s writing: (7) some of these outbreaks were responsible of avian-to-mammals transmissions, affecting also humans; thus, representing a threat to public health [2-4]. (p3j) during workshop 2, the revision to this bundle was motivated by consultation of scie-lex (figure 4) and example 8 is the revised version, thus reiterating the benefits of the use of the lexical database: (8) some of these outbreaks were responsible for avian-to-mammals transmissions, affecting also humans; thus, representing a threat to public health [2-4]. (p3j) 3.4. observation 4: the adjective capable the adjective capable occurs 343 times in the hsc. of these 343 times, it occurs with the preposition to only once in the corpus, but 336 times in combination with the preposition of. therefore the prototypical occurrence of this adjective is in combination with the preposition of. when participants used the adjective in their writing, we found that two of them (example 9 and example 10) used it with the preposition to. (9) previously, our group identified the peptide vin1, located in conserved regions of the influenza a virus hemagglutinin subunit 1, as capable to generate cross-reactive antibodies (abs) in pigs. (p3j) (10) the re-introduction of genes capable to activate cell death in tumoral cells or genes that can modulate intrinsic cellular factors and eliminate cancer cells are among the most common approaches. (p4l) (10) the re-introduction of genes capable to activate cell death in tumoral cells or genes that can modulate intrinsic cellular factors and eliminate cancer cells are among the most common approaches. (p4l) the information contained in scie-lex is illustrated in figure 5: after consulting scie-lex (figure 5), they revised their writing to produce the more prototypical form with the preposition of and concurrently revised the form of the verb to a gerund as demonstrated in example 11 and example 12 which follow: (11) previously, we identified the peptide vin1, located in conserved regions of the influenza a virus hemagglutinin subunit 1, as capable of generating cross-reactive antibodies (abs) in pigs. (p3j) (12) the re-introduction of genes capable of activating cell death in tumoral cells or genes that can modulate intrinsic cellular factors and eliminate cancer cells are among the most common approaches. (p4l) 3.5. observation 5: the verb c o ns i st the verb consist occurs 606 times in the hsc in all its forms: consist (73), consists (152), consisted (199), and consisting (182). when it occurs in any of its the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 161 the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): …-… the information contained in scie-lex is illustrated in figure 5: figure 5. screenshot of the lexicogrammatical patterning of the adjective capable in scie-lex. after consulting scie-lex (figure 5), they revised their writing to produce the more prototypical form with the preposition of and concurrently revised the form of the verb to a gerund as demonstrated in example 11 and example 12 which follow: (11) previously, we identified the peptide vin1, located in conserved regions of the influenza a virus hemagglutinin subunit 1, as capable of generating cross-reactive antibodies (abs) in pigs. (p3j) (12) the re-introduction of genes capable of activating cell death in tumoral cells or genes that can modulate intrinsic cellular factors and eliminate cancer cells are among the most common approaches. (p4l) 3.5. observation 5: the verb consist the verb consist occurs 606 times in the hsc in all its forms: consist (73), consists (152), consisted (199), and consisting (182). when it occurs in any of its forms in a bundle, it is followed by the preposition of, as demonstrated in scielex (figure 6). forms in a bundle, it is followed by the preposition of, as demonstrated in scie-lex (figure 6). in his draft, participant p2m used consist in the following way (example 13): (13) the last step consists to complete the staining and test sample on a flow cytometer. (p2m) during workshop 2, this participant was able to consult scie-lex (figure 6) and revise his writing accordingly: (14) the last step consists of completing the staining and test sample on a flow cytometer. (p2m) the observations above provide some evidence of the ways in which the medical researchers who participated in both workshops engaged with scielex and revised their writing based on the information they obtained from their searches of these lexical bundles in a lexical database. our study demonstrates the potential for lexical resources of this kind to have an impact on writing quality. n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172162 n. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): …-… figure 6. screenshot of the lexicogrammatical patterning of the verb consist in scie-lex. in his draft, participant p2m used consist in the following way (example 13): (13) the last step consists to complete the staining and test sample on a flow cytometer. (p2m) during workshop 2, this participant was able to consult scie-lex (figure 6) and revise his writing accordingly: (14) the last step consists of completing the staining and test sample on a flow cytometer. (p2m) the observations above provide some evidence of the ways in which the medical researchers who participated in both workshops engaged with scie-lex and revised their writing based on the information they obtained from their searches of these lexical bundles in a lexical database. our study demonstrates the potential for lexical resources of this kind to have an impact on writing quality. 4. discussion beyond the revisions that the writers made to their drafts after their consultation of scie-lex, other interesting observations are worth mentioning here. during workshop 2, we worked individually with participants. as each participant recognised and revised the headwords we had highlighted in their drafts, we noticed that they were also focusing their attention on where these bundles were occurring and concurrently revising other parts of their paper which were not presented to us as part of the pre-work for the workshops. this particular aspect 4. discussion beyond the revisions that the writers made to their drafts after their consultation of scie-lex, other interesting observations are worth mentioning here. during workshop 2, we worked individually with participants. as each participant recognised and revised the headwords we had highlighted in their drafts, we noticed that they were also focusing their attention on where these bundles were occurring and concurrently revising other parts of their paper which were not presented to us as part of the prework for the workshops. this particular aspect of their revision behaviour was interesting as other studies have noted the benefits of highlighting (to students) language which occurs in particular moves. bianchi and pazzaglia (2007), for instance, asked their students to subdivide a research article and to then examine concordances of research-associated keywords (like study/studies, experiment/experiments, research/researches, etc.) in the different sections of the article to sensitise them to different uses of these keywords depending on the moves they occurred in. other studies, too, have highlighted the benefits of familiarising students with lexical bundles occurring in particular moves. bhatia, langton and lung (2004, cited in connor & upton, 2005) have stressed the need to make law students aware of their lexical choices in moves through a study of the synonymous words dismiss and reject which have very clear preferences for different moves in law cases. flowerdew (2015), for instance, reports on an exercise she developed with students in which her aim was to familiarise them with lexical phrases associated with commenting on results. she used the keyword surprising and found that using this type of empirical data alerts students to the fact that language has certain phraseological tendencies, depending on the genre under investigation. similarly, scie-lex already contains discourse information for a number of words and this can be readily accessed and used by the writers, as was observed in our study (figure 2). there are numerous studies which confirm the benefits of awareness-raising activities which have “led to a considerable improvement of the recognition of formulaic language” (meunier, 2012: 120). of note are also studies influenced by pedagogy and some key examples are those by charles (2007, 2011) and bloch (2008, 2009, 2010), who have both designed and developed innovative hands-on corpus activities for their students. their papers report on the benefits of students searching specialised corpora for typical lexicogrammatical functions in classroom contexts. what is difficult to the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 163 notice from these studies, and which we have attempted to do in the current study, is to try and gather information on the “actual uptake of formulaic sequences”, which meunier has noted as “not always easy to assess” (2012: 120). by recognising the revisions our writers have made to their first drafts, we have attempted to provide some evidence of the influence of corpus consultation on the written production (not only awareness-raising) of the participants in our workshops. this, we feel, goes some way towards addressing reppen’s (2011) suggestion for “heightened classroom research looking at the effects of corpus-informed materials on writing quality”, although with several limitations as discussed next. 5. limitations one limitation we observed was that the participants in our workshops needed us to identify non-prototypical collocations for them (worksheet 2). to this respect, and bearing in mind that participants were unfamiliar with the database, the role of the facilitators during the workshops was extremely important in making participants’ lexicogrammatical searches in scie-lex more successful. our expectation, however, is that as they get acquainted with the use of this pedagogical resource, they are likely to be able to use it more independently so as to improve their writing. one possible suggestion may be to devise some activities which use the most frequent researchoriented headwords (e.g. study, experiment, research, results, limitations, discussion) to sit alongside the database to sensitise them to the way in which scie-lex works and how it might assist them with their written production. another possible suggestion could be to improve scie-lex with a tool to automatically highlight eap words which are challenging for learners. another limitation was the small number of participants. there certainly was the possibility that more participants might have attended the workshops, had we not asked for a piece of writing to be submitted ahead of workshop 1. in fact, two participants attended the workshops without providing us with writing beforehand. there is also a general reluctance to submit redrafted work. research involving revision data tends to be small due to the challenge around collecting revised writing (laso, 2009). despite the fact that the observations from this study cannot be generalised because of the small size of our dataset, they can serve to raise awareness about the growing need for corpus-informed materials across disciplines that n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172164 contribute to eal scholarly writers getting familiar with the formulaic language of published research articles in their field of expertise (friginal, 2013: 216). 6. conclusion the first edition of the workshops on “writing for publication” proved to be successful on various fronts since it introduced medical researchers to the language and style characteristic of biomedical english by means of scielex. it also showed them how to use a lexical database to eventually be able to consult it independently. overall, the experience has been very positive. the use of scie-lex has contributed to participants improving their drafts from a lexicogrammatical point of view, for example, collocational patterns of non-technical terms in biomedical research articles. users also considered other factors beyond the actual lexicogrammar. also, the facilitators’ interventions during the workshops helped participants improve their drafts on issues such as paragraph distribution, thesis development, organisation of topic sentences, and punctuation. one outcome which we did not predict was the way in which participants reacted to scie-lex. they were very engaged during the workshops and they were comfortable with the terminology we had introduced collocations and lexical bundles. we feel this is a good way forward for writers to improve their production of publishable articles, as they become familiar with how to recognise and produce effective research articles. finally, a satisfaction questionnaire was distributed among participants (appendix 3), all of whom pointed out that they found scie-lex an extremely useful resource to help them produce phraseologically competent texts in biomedical english. these workshops have also stressed the fact that further corpus-informed studies on the pedagogical applications of lexical resources are needed so as to contribute to a thorough understanding of the challenges faced by eal writers of specialised discourses. we opened this article with a quote from reppen (2011) about the need for more focused research to match the “hype” given to the use of corpora for teaching purposes. this study, while limited in size and scope, provides some evidence towards this. what it has certainly achieved is evidence of the potential for a database to help this particular group of writers produce phraseologically competent texts, the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 165 contributing towards the need for more evidence of “the influence of corpora in developing writing skills” (friginal, 2013: 220). acknowledgements the authors acknowledge the support of the grup de recerca en lexicologia i lingüística de corpus group (grelic) at the university of barcelona (2014sgr1374). we would also like to acknowledge all the participants in the workshops who willingly submitted first and second drafts of their work for this research study. we would also like to thank the reviewers for the helpful comments and suggestions on this paper. article history: received 21 march 2016 received in revised form 11 august 2016 accepted13 august 2016 references n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172166 anthony, l. 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(2004). “eurowordnet: a multilingual database of autonomous and language specific wordnets connected via an inter-lingual index”. international journal of lexicography 17,2: 161173. williams, g. (2005). “challenging the nativespeaker norm: a corpus-driven analysis of scientific usage” in g. barnbrook, p. danielsson & m. mahlberg (eds.), meaningful texts. the extraction of semantic information from monolingual and multilingual corpora, 115-127. london: continuum. wray, a. (1999). “formulaic language in learners and native speakers”. language teaching 32: 213-31. wray, a. (2002). formulaic language and the lexicon. cambridge: cambridge university press. n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172168 natalia j. laso is a lecturer at the university of barcelona (ub). she holds a phd in english philology from the ub and is also a member of the grelic-lexicology and corpus linguistics research group. her research is focused on science writing for research publication purposes as well as on the use of corpora in the linguistics classroom. suganthi john is a senior lecturer in english language in the department of english language and applied linguistics at the university of birmingham. her research focuses on self-representation and identity in academic texts. she is also interested in writing development across boundaries (undergraduate to postgraduate; postgraduate to workplace) and in writing for research publication purposes. notes 1 grup de recerca en lexicologia i lingüística de corpus (lexicology and corpus linguistics research group); (2014sgr1374). 2 recognising that there are a number of different definitions for multi-word units, in this paper we use “lexical bundles” as our preferred term because this is the terminology used in scie-lex, the pedagogical resource discussed in this paper. appendix 1 the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 169 n. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): …-… vossen, p. (2004). “eurowordnet: a multilingual database of autonomous and language specific wordnets connected via an inter-lingual index”. international journal of lexicography 17,2: 161-173. williams, g. (2005). “challenging the native-speaker norm: a corpus-driven analysis of scientific usage” in g. barnbrook, p. danielsson & m. mahlberg (eds.), meaningful texts. the extraction of semantic information from monolingual and multilingual corpora, 115-127. london: continuum. wray, a. (1999). “formulaic language in learners and native speakers”. language teaching 32: 213-31. wray, a. (2002). formulaic language and the lexicon. cambridge: cambridge university press. natalia j. laso is a lecturer at the university of barcelona (ub). she holds a phd in english philology from the ub and is also a member of the greliclexicology and corpus linguistics research group. her research is focused on science writing for research publication purposes as well as on the use of corpora in the linguistics classroom. suganthi john is a senior lecturer in english language in the department of english language and applied linguistics at the university of birmingham. her research focuses on self-representation and identity in academic texts. she is also interested in writing development across boundaries (undergraduate to postgraduate; postgraduate to workplace) and in writing for research publication purposes. notes 1 grup de recerca en lexicologia i lingüística de corpus (lexicology and corpus linguistics research group). 2 recognising that there are a number of different definitions for multi-word units, in this paper we use “lexical bundles” as our preferred term because this is the terminology used in scie-lex, the pedagogical resource discussed in this paper. appendix 1 writing for publication workshop 1 worksheet 1 source: adapted from “academic writing and the disciplines” in friedrich, p. (ed.) teaching academic writing. london: continuum. 1. read through the hsc samples below and answer the following questions: a) do the titles contain a common pattern? how long is a typical title? does it include any punctuation, such as a colon, semi-colon, or dash? 1. interactions between the escherichia coli camp receptor protein and the cterminal domain of the a subunit of rna polymerase at class i promoters 2. a new concept in artificial diets for chrysoperla rufilabris: the efficacy of solid diets the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): …-… 3. comparative genomics: the key to understanding the human genome project 4. development and behavior of spodoptera exigua (lepidoptera: noctuidae) larvae in choice tests with food substrates containing toxins of bacillus thuringiensis 5. effects of temperature on eggs, fecundity, and adult longevity of hylobius transversovittatusgoeze (coleoptera: curculionidae), a biological control agent of purple loosestrife 6. hybrid zones and the genetic architecture of a barrier to gene flow between two sunflower species 7. fecundity and longevity of green vegetable bug, nezara viridula, following parasitism by trichopoda giacomellii 8. genetic identification of three abc transporters as essential elements for nitrate respiration in haloferax volcanii 9. habitat preferences of three congeneric braconid parasitoids: implications for host-range testing in biological control 10. developmentally programmed assembly of higher order telomerase complexes with distinct biochemical and structural properties b) do the enclosed articles use any headings or sub-headings? if so, are they general (e.g., intro, method, conclusion) or text-specific? c) do(es) the author(s) use first person pronouns (i/my/me or we/our/us) at all? if so, when, how often and why? d) when referring to other work, do(es) the author(s) use any evaluative language, such as adjectives (e.g., useful, successful, positive/negative, harmful), adverbs (e.g., effectively, satisfactorily, inadequately, (un)successfully) or verbs with evaluative connotations (e.g., succeed, fail, prove). list these and indicate whether they are positive or negative. appendix 2 writing for publication workshop 2 worksheet 2 1. study the concordance data below and find the instances of the word certain used (1) for referring to someone or something without being specific about exactly what or who they are and (2) with the sense “definitely true”: 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. rednuotyekehtth:scimonegevitarraapmco etpodospforoivviahbednatnempolevde sullicbafosnixtogniniatncosetarrattrsbsu fe,sgegnoerreutarraepmtefostceffeefeff llacigoloi b), aeadinoilurcu: cratepoelo(c utcetteihcararccittienegehtdnasenozdirribhyhyb vegeteen rreen gofyttyilongevand yttyundifec iilelacomgi ts efibenal cigoagpede th emonegnamhuehtgnidnats tcejoojprpro augixearrae arval) eaditucon: ratepodipe(l sisneignirriuhtth bolhyfoyttyivegnoltluaddna,yy,ttyidnucfe fetrisesoo lelrpuf pt oneg all atrono c wotnewetbew olfenegottoreirrirrrbaafoerre ridiirva areznbug,e ablveget ginwwinlloof, lauidr atabasedal clexia f o doofthiwwitsseteciohcniea rsovievsnarrattrsuib oeze usgatttsovir seicesprweolfflnsu adopohicrricttrybmitissarraapg 8. 9. 10. iilelacomgi arrattrcbaeerrehtfonoitaciffiitnedicittienge icanivol negncoeerrehtfosecnerreeffeeprpretatibha lorrottrncolacigolobi yllybmessademmarragorropyllylatnempolevde esittioperprproperalururaluctrructststr b) suselcitradesolcneehtdo txetro)noisulcnoc,dohtme -speci c) tsrifesu)s(rohtuaeht)se(do hy?wand d) krowrehtootgnirrefernewh (e ulusefusef ulsuccessfsuccessf rttrinroffostnmeelelaitnessesasrrsetteropsspna snoitacilpmi:sdiottoisarrapadinocabrbracirrien wisexelpmocesarraemoletteredrrdorehgihfoy busrosgnidaehynae arso,fings? headi c?ifspeci (snuonorpnosrept e/myy/mi/m or su//urr/uo//owe ) evitaulaveynaesu)s(rohtuaeht)se(od,k itposi / inegat ulffhar (erbd), xarraeffeolahninoittiarraiirpseretarra roffo tsho nignittisetegnra dnalacimehcoibtcnitsidhtthwi algenerhey te ar , troin., .g(e nfteowoh, nehw, osif ?llat a sahcus,egaugnal ves iectadj veliectffefeff liactsfsfisatsati 1. ., .g(e ulusefuseful, ulsuccessfsuccessful, posi lyteauqedain (, un) ulsuccessfsuccessful r thetheh wteaicd indn aeseth 2xidnepap wr init fdnaw olebatadecnadrocnocehtydust aboutc ifspecing beihouttiwng hietsomor veitposi / veinegat , ulffulmharharm .g(esrbevda), yllyul (esnotitaonnocevtiaulavethiwsrbevr o) re ayer th ve.inegatorve itposi 2pohskro wniotalicbu pro fgin 2teehskrwo desuniatrecdrwoehtfosecnatsniehtdnif hworhatwy lexactabout h tiw2)(and e arhey to ., .g yvelvelyiectffectefeff , yllyioractactorsfsfactisatsati , ., .g(e succeed, ilfa , oveprprove t sil). enoemosotgnirreferrof)1(d :ue”rty eltniidef“sense he th ibér 33ca ibér 710(2 ): …-… 21 appendix 2 n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172170 the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): …-… 3. comparative genomics: the key to understanding the human genome project 4. development and behavior of spodoptera exigua (lepidoptera: noctuidae) larvae in choice tests with food substrates containing toxins of bacillus thuringiensis 5. effects of temperature on eggs, fecundity, and adult longevity of hylobius transversovittatusgoeze (coleoptera: curculionidae), a biological control agent of purple loosestrife 6. hybrid zones and the genetic architecture of a barrier to gene flow between two sunflower species 7. fecundity and longevity of green vegetable bug, nezara viridula, following parasitism by trichopoda giacomellii 8. genetic identification of three abc transporters as essential elements for nitrate respiration in haloferax volcanii 9. habitat preferences of three congeneric braconid parasitoids: implications for host-range testing in biological control 10. developmentally programmed assembly of higher order telomerase complexes with distinct biochemical and structural properties b) do the enclosed articles use any headings or sub-headings? if so, are they general (e.g., intro, method, conclusion) or text-specific? c) do(es) the author(s) use first person pronouns (i/my/me or we/our/us) at all? if so, when, how often and why? d) when referring to other work, do(es) the author(s) use any evaluative language, such as adjectives (e.g., useful, successful, positive/negative, harmful), adverbs (e.g., effectively, satisfactorily, inadequately, (un)successfully) or verbs with evaluative connotations (e.g., succeed, fail, prove). list these and indicate whether they are positive or negative. appendix 2 writing for publication workshop 2 worksheet 2 1. study the concordance data below and find the instances of the word certain used (1) for referring to someone or something without being specific about exactly what or who they are and (2) with the sense “definitely true”: 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. rednuotyeke:scimonegevitapmco etpodospforoahbednatnempolevde sullicbafosnixtogniniatncosetsbsu fe,sgegnoutepmtefostc acigoloi b), aeadinoilurcu: cratepoelo(c utcihcenegehtdnasenozd vegetgofilongevand undifec iilelacomgi ts efibenal cigoagpede th emonegnamhuehtgnidnats tce augixee arval) eaditucon: ratepodipe(l sisneignu bolhyfoivegnoltluaddnaidnucfe fetrisesoo lelrpuf pt onegtrono c wotnewetbew olfenegrebaafo va areznbug,e ablveget glloof, lau atabasedal clexia f o doofthtsseteciohcniea evsnsuib oeze usgattt seicesprweonsu adopohybmitissapg 8. 9. 10. iilelacomgi cbaehtfonoitacitnedicenge icanivol negncoehtfosecntatibha lncolacigolobi bmessademmgplatnempolevde es b) suselcitradesolcneehtdo txetro)noisulcnoc,dohtme -speci c) tsrifesu)s(rohtuaeht)se(do hy?wand d) krowrehtootgnirrefernewh (e inrstnmeelelaitnessesarona snoitacilpmi:sdiispadinoccen wisexelpmocesemolreorehgihfoy busrosgnidaehynae arso,fings? headi c?ifspeci (snuonorpnosrept ei/m or suwe ) evitaulaveynaesu)s(rohtuaeht)se(od,k itposi / inegat har (erbd), xolahninopseret r tsho nignsetegnra dnalacimehcoibtcnitsidwi algenerhey te ar , troin., .g(e nfteowoh, nehw, osif ?llat a sahcus,egaugnal ves iectadj veli li 1. ., .g(e , , posi lyteauqedain (, un) r thetheh wteaicd indn aeseth 2xidnepap wr init fdnaw olebatadecnadrocnocehtydust aboutc ifspecing beihouttiwng hietsomor veitposi / veinegat , .g(esrbevda), ul (esnotitaonnocevtiaulavethiwsrbevr o) re ayer th ve.inegatorve itposi 2pohskro wniotalicbu pro fgin 2teehskrwo desuniatrecdrwoehtfosecnatsniehtdnif hworhatwy lexactabout h tiw2)(and e arhey to ., .g i , i , ., .g(e succeed, ilfa , t sil). enoemosotgnirreferrof)1(d :ue”rty eltniidef“sense he th ibér 33ca ibér 710(2 ): …-… 21 n. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): …-… 2. from the concordance data below, supply the adjectives and the prepositions that collocate with the word response. 3. from the concordance data, identify (1) the verbs that collocate with the word agreement, (2) the adjectives that precede it, and (3) the prepositions that follow it. appendix 3 2. hnojs.& asoln. uppls,owbela date dancoroncche tomfr esnopsre . onsitieposprhe tand esvitecadjhe tyuppl d orwhe th tiwe atoclolchatt 3. t1)(yfidentia,date dancoroncche tomfr fhattons iteposiprhe t3)(and ,tiecede pr d orwhe th tiwe atoclolchattbservhe t tiowlol . enteem t athsetivcjedaeth) (2, 3 3aicréib 710(2 ): …-…22 3xidnepap appendix 3 the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172 171 n. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): …-… 2. from the concordance data below, supply the adjectives and the prepositions that collocate with the word response. 3. from the concordance data, identify (1) the verbs that collocate with the word agreement, (2) the adjectives that precede it, and (3) the prepositions that follow it. appendix 3 2. hnojs.& asoln. uppls,owbela date dancoroncche tomfr esnopsre . onsitieposprhe tand esvitecadjhe tyuppl d orwhe th tiwe atoclolchatt 3. t1)(yfidentia,date dancoroncche tomfr fhattons iteposiprhe t3)(and ,tiecede pr d orwhe th tiwe atoclolchattbservhe t eemagragreem tiowlol . enteem t athsetivcjedaeth) (2, 3 3aicréib 710(2 ): …-…22 3xidnepap the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): …-… scie-lex_satisfaction questionnaire we would be extremely grateful if you could spend just a few minutes of your time completing this short questionnaire about your use of scie-lex. please tell us something about yourself: i am a postgraduate student (phd) i am a researcher i am a university lecturer other please select the best description of your field of study/work: engineering life sciences medicine and nursing physical sciences psychological sciences social sciences what is your first language? please indicate how useful you feel scie-lex is for scientific writing 1 2 3 4 5 6 not useful at all extremely useful if you have found scie-lex to be useful, please indicate how you feel it has helped you: eisc -le ocuoyfilufetargylemertxeebdluowwe ofuse youraboute ronnaiiquest eisc -lex ts efibenal cigoagpede th x_slelex erainnoiestuqnoiactsfiat_sx cemitruoyfosetunimwefatsujdnepsdlu lex. atabasedal clexia f o trohssihtgnitelpmoc esouryboutang hiteomsuslletesaepl teaudratgso p ami a s )dht (pnedtu ami a rehrcaesre rretuc leityrseivn u ami a rehot yofon iptircsdetsbehettcelesesaepl gnireenigen encescise fli gnisrundnaenicidme secneisclacisyph secneisclacigolohcyps :fle :korw/udytsofd leifoury secneisclaicso ?egaugnaltsrifruoysitawh leefou yulfeushowetacndiiesaepl sc 1 2 3 llatalufesutno dnu foeva huoif y eisc -lex fues ue bto eiiesc -lex gitinr wtificniec srr s fois 4 5 6 tex e hsal it he feuo ywo hteaicd inesalel, pfu eergasdi erustno erag lufesuylemert :uo ydelpe e ylgnorst eeagr eisc -lex ianguage lhe te mves gi ngitirwc ifientsciy morfneed eisc -lex ofce choideriwa e mves gi gitinr wy mr foegaugnla eisc -lex ch hiwsee o te mps hel erbe can and c igenere arases phr used eisc -lex y mse ganioro te mps hel gnitiwr eergasdi erustno erag e ylgnorst eeagr eisc -lex y morfdeas ie mves gi gnitiwr eisc -lex pshelped/helhas leefotme gnitirwmytuobatnedifnocermo ibér 33ca ibér 710(2 ): …-… 23 n.j. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): 147-172172 the pedagogical benefits of a lexical database ibérica 33 (2017): …-… scie-lex_satisfaction questionnaire we would be extremely grateful if you could spend just a few minutes of your time completing this short questionnaire about your use of scie-lex. please tell us something about yourself: i am a postgraduate student (phd) i am a researcher i am a university lecturer other please select the best description of your field of study/work: engineering life sciences medicine and nursing physical sciences psychological sciences social sciences what is your first language? please indicate how useful you feel scie-lex is for scientific writing not useful at all extremely useful if you have found scie-lex to be useful, please indicate how you feel it has helped you: disagree not sure agree strongly agree scie-lex gives me the language i need for my scientific writing scie-lex gives me a wider choice of language for my writing scie-lex helps me to see which phrases are generic and can be reused scie-lex helps me to organise my writing scie-lex gives me ideas for my writing scie-lex has helped/helps me to feel more confident about my writing eisc -le ocuoyfilufetargylemertxeebdluowwe ofuse youraboute ronnaiiquest eisc -lex ts efibenal cigoagpede th erainnoiestuqnoiactsfiat cemitruoyfosetunimwefatsujdnepsdlu lex. atabasedal clexia f o trohssihtgnitelpmoc esouryboutang hiteomsuslletesaepl teaudratgso p ami a s )dht (pnedtu ami a rehrcaesre rretuc leityrseivn u ami a rehot yofon iptircsdetsbehettcelesesaepl gnireenigen encescise fli gnisrundnaenicidme secneisclacisyph secneisclacigolohcyps :fle :korw/udytsofd leifoury secneisclaicso ?egaugnaltsrifruoysitawh leefou yulfeushowetacndiiesaepl sc 1 2 3 llatalufesutno dnu foeva huoif y eisc -lex fues ue bto sc -lex gitinr wtificniec fois 4 5 6 tex e hsal it he feuo ywo hteaicd inesalel, pfu eergasdi erustno erag lufesuylemert :uo ydelpe e ylgnorst eeagr eisc -lex ianguage lhe te mves gi ngitirwc ifientsciy morfneed eisc -lex ofce choideriwa e mves gi gitinr wy mr foegaugnla eisc -lex ch hiwsee o te mps hel erbe can and c igenere arases phr used eisc -lex y mse ganioro te mps hel gnitiwr eergasdi erustno erag e ylgnorst eeagr eisc -lex y morfdeas ie mves gi gnitiwr eisc -lex pshelped/helhas leefotme gnitirwmytuobatnedifnocermo ibér 33ca ibér 710(2 ): …-… 23 n. laso & s. john ibérica 33 (2017): …-… scie-lex has helped/helps me to improve my writing style can you think of any other ways that scie-lex could help you? could you suggest a few ways in which you think scie-lex could be improved? many thanks for completing this questionnaire hnojs.& asoln. eisc -lex pshelped/helhas otme lety sgitinr wy mevorpim tahtsyawrehtoynafoknihtuoynca sc hfdlco eergasdi erustno erag eiiesc -lex you? p held coul khh eiiesc lex oved? be d coul e ylgnorst eeagr oved? cihwnisyawwefatseggusuoydluco noitseuqsihtthgnitelmpocroffosknahtynma knihtuoyhc eiiesc -lex oved? prmibe d coul erreiirann oved? 3 3aicréib 710(2 ): …-…24 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this article deals with the problem of intercultural business communication between spaniards and russians and aims at identifying the possible points of misunderstanding between the representatives of the two countries at the moment of introducing their companies, and designing a set of strategies to avoid them. it compares the spanish and the russian cultures through the contrast of the linguistic patterns used by spaniards and russians to introduce business companies on their official websites. geert hofstede’s (2001/1980) five value dimension model has been taken as a basis for the analysis, and the two cultures have been compared in five aspects: individualism index, power distance index, masculinity index, uncertainty avoidance index, and long-term orientation index. for the purposes of the study two corpora were created which consisted of 30 web presentations of spanish and russian companies respectively: 10 belonged to travel agencies, 10 to real estate agencies, and 10 to food companies. the analysis was done with the help of the concordance programme antconc 3.2.4w and spss statistics software package version 20.0.0. keywords: intercultural business communication, value dimensions, cultural orientations. resumen i nf l u e nc i a d e l a c ul tu ra e n e l l e n g ua j e d e l as au to -p re s e n ta c io ne s de l a s c omp a ñí as de ne g oc i o e n l a s p ág in as we b e s pa ño l as y r us a s este artículo trata del problema de la comunicación intercultural de los negocios entre los españoles y los rusos, intenta identificar posibles puntos de the influence of culture on the language of business companies’ self-presentations on spanish and russian websites kseniia belova university of alicante (spain) ksbelova@yandex.ru 37 ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 kseniia belova malentendido entre los representantes de los dos países a la hora de presentar sus compañías, y diseñar un conjunto de estrategias para evitarlos. las culturas española y rusa se comparan a través del contraste de los patrones lingüísticos utilizados por los españoles y los rusos para presentar las compañías en sus páginas web oficiales. el modelo de las cinco dimensiones de geert hofstede (2001/1980) ha sido la base del análisis, y las dos culturas han sido comparadas en cinco aspectos: índice de individualismo, índice de distancia del poder, índice de masculinidad, índice de evasión de la incertidumbre e índice de orientación a largo plazo. para los propósitos del estudio se confeccionaron dos corpus que consistían en 30 presentaciones web de las compañías españolas y rusas respectivamente: 10 pertenecían a las agencias de viaje, 10 a las inmobiliarias, y 10 a las empresas de alimentación. el análisis ha sido realizado con la ayuda del programa de concordancias antconc 3.2.4w y el software estadístico spss statistics software package versión 20.0.0. palabras clave: comunicación intercultural de los negocios, dimensiones de valor, orientaciones culturales. 1. introduction the concept of international communication is not new. from the beginning of times, primeval tribes and nations from different cultural backgrounds met and had contact. however, their communicative encounters were rather limited, few and simple in comparison with nowadays. the selection of topics and signals was adapted to the immediate necessities of life: hunting, defence, attack, hiding, looking for food and shelter, reproduction. but the nature of intercultural encounters has changed significantly since that time. at present, people travel much more than before thanks to the development of the means of transport, and interact with people from all over the world thanks to the appearance of the internet and electronic forms of communication that make possible instant messaging and even real time communication with the remotest areas of the planet. in the recent decades, changes in government legislation on civil rights promoted contact between people from different racial and ethnic background, making them co-workers, neighbours or even part of the same family. multiculturalism has spread all over the world, thus creating the concept of “global village” in which we live at present. the best example of it can be the united states of america, the “melting pot”, where “african american, hispanic and other ethnic groups are actively defending the validity of their identities while the anglo population has begun to sense an urgency for understanding these perceptions” (singer, 1998: 104). 38 people’s goal in intercultural communication may be different: tourism, studies, business or relationship, and the time they spend interacting with other cultures can be measured distinctly: by minutes or by years, but one thing is common: they will have to face certain problems of misunderstanding. the question of having the correct intercultural communication competence has become a burning issue, as nowadays all the nations and cultures prove to be interdependent. the diversity of interests and expectations presents great opportunities for mutual cooperation, creating a global community where people from different cultures live in respect and understanding. however, it also presents the possibility of turning this dream into a nightmare in which there are “clusters of strangers living in ghettos and united only in their antipathies for others” (barnlund, 1998: 36). people that come from distinct cultural backgrounds are aware of the differences that exist between them, and these differences tend to become very important, sometimes even exaggerated or distorted, which creates a negative stereotype. in this case, mutual respect and cooperation are difficult to obtain, however rivalry and tension are easily provoked, and that results in an intercultural conflict. to prevent this from happening, we have to be aware of the differences that separate nations and cultures, and be ready to accept them and reach compromise solutions. for this reason, research in the field of intercultural communication is of paramount importance nowadays and has to be conducted on a large scale. the globalization process which has been taking place actively over the last decades, has promoted opportunities for international business and trading, which have been used by entrepreneurs all over the world. big companies look for business partners in new locations. due to the economic crises in europe, the european countries have to search for solution and very often they find it in the countries with emerging economies, like china, russia, brazil and india. in this paper we are going to look closely at the example of the negotiations between spain and russia. in the latest press it is easy to find evidence that spain and russia have been developing solid business connection. the most popular areas of interaction are: 1. tourism: according to the statistic data, the number of the russian tourists that travel to spain has almost doubled in the past two years and forecasts indicate that this tendency will be maintained in 20131. the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 39 2. real estate sector: low house prices caused by the burst of the spanish real estate bubble in addition to the possible adoption of the law which will grant the residence permit to those who buy a house for a price over 160,000 euros, have triggered much interest in the potential buyers and investors from russia.2 3. export, expansion of trade and investment: for spain, russia may be one of the key markets in the field of technology, food and agriculture, textiles, as well as in the automotive sector, transport infrastructure, renewable energy and environment.3 in general, the commercial interchange between russia and spain has grown in the past few years, and the future seems promising. a short summary for the year 2011 can be seen in figure 1 taken from rusia hoy, a digital newspaper about russia4: in the area of international business, to be competent in intercultural communication is extremely significant for achieving success in negotiations and reaching mutual agreement. as the commerce between spain and russia kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7040 kseniia belova ibérica 32 (2016): …-… figure 1. pablo león. “españa y rusia potencian sus relaciones económicas”. rusia hoy, 28 de mayo de 2012. in the area of international business, to be competent in intercultural communication is extremely significant for achieving success in negotiations and reaching mutual agreement. as the commerce between spain and russia seems to be a topical issue today, in this paper we will analyse, through intercultural perspective, possible problems that may arise in business communication between the spanish and the russians, and give their respective solutions. 2. statement of the problem since the second half of the 20th century the question of intercultural communication, and especially in the business context, has been dealt with much, and a lot of research has been carried out on this topic (hall, 1959 & 1966; hofstede, 1980; gudykunst, 1988; samovar & porter, 1991; bennett, 1998; guillén-nieto, marimón-llorca & vargas-sierra, 2009; kecskes & romero-trillo, 2013). however, in the process of looking for the material for the present paper (analysing the works of the authors mentioned before and searching on the internet and in the library), we have noticed that research on intercultural business communication between native spanish and russian speakers is very scarce. probably, it can be explained by the fact that the english language has become the main medium for business communication between people from vaobela ikseni 1.e gurfi añapes“.nóelolbpa noitarnetnifoareaehtin syelemrtexsinoicatinummco a.tnemeregalautumgnihcare in, yadtoeusisl aicptoaebto eoblpreblispos,veitcpesrpe mónocesenoicalersusnaicnetopaisruya 2012.de ayo mde 28 tepmocebot,ssenisublan ccesusgnieviachrtcaningis apsneewtebercemmocehtsa , eslyanaill wewrepapisthin neibusn iesiray amthatsme .”sacim yhoaisru , lrautlurcetninitnet dansnoiatitoegnniscces eesaissurdnania ms l arltuucrteinhguorth on itacunimomcssne rhetnd ah snipashetn eewtbe 2. r pet of thnmetates ob foflahdnocesehtecnsi alecipesdan,noicatinummco hcraeserfotoladna,hcmu ug1980;,deetsofh1966; dykuns nélluig1998; miram,oteni ro )3102llitr tcpeserrihetvegind a,nsaisusr melob tseuqehtyrutnecht02eht ,textncosesnisube htniylal sihtnotuodeirracneebsah rovamas1988;,tdykuns & o p nóm acroll & sagra v ,arresi onsiutolsveit . larutlucretnifonoit htiwtealdeenbash 9591,llah(cipot & ,ttenne b;199 1,retro sekscek;9002 & 2 3aicréib 610 (2 ): …-…4 oremro .)3102,ollitr fossecorpehtni,revweho ehtfosrkowehtgnisylan(a ),ryrabilehtnidnaternetin wtbeon itacunimomcssneibus eebnacti,ylbaborp.ecrasc fumdiemn iamheteomcbe lairetamehtrgnikoolf oitnemrsohtuae nd aebed ne aesretahtdecitonevahew), susrnd ah snipasveitnan eew eehttahttcafehtybdenialpx beon itacunimomcssneibus repaptneserpehtro heton ng hicraesnd lrautlurcetninohrca y rvesisrkeapesn ais ugnalshilgne ashe ag omeoplpen eewtbe seems to be a topical issue today, in this paper we will analyse, through intercultural perspective, possible problems that may arise in business communication between the spanish and the russians, and give their respective solutions. 2. statement of the problem since the second half of the 20th century the question of intercultural communication, and especially in the business context, has been dealt with much, and a lot of research has been carried out on this topic (hall, 1959 & 1966; hofstede, 1980; gudykunst, 1988; samovar & porter, 1991; bennett, 1998; guillén-nieto, marimón-llorca & vargas-sierra, 2009; kecskes & romero-trillo, 2013). however, in the process of looking for the material for the present paper (analysing the works of the authors mentioned before and searching on the internet and in the library), we have noticed that research on intercultural business communication between native spanish and russian speakers is very scarce. probably, it can be explained by the fact that the english language has become the main medium for business communication between people from different countries who speak different languages. for that reason the principal research is being conducted on english and its role in intercultural communication throughout the world (guillén-nieto, 2009; mateo martínez, 2010; kecskes & romero-trillo, 2013). another reason may consist in rather recent beginning of active business relations between spain and russia. a few years ago, it was a very rare case to see a spanish businessman making deal with a russian one. this situation has changed. the necessity to carry out research on cross-cultural communication between these two nations becomes a burning issue. it will help us discover probable sources for future misunderstanding and problems, and develop some strategies to avoid them and make business relations successful. 3. purpose of the study following the idea expressed in the previous section, our main objectives for this research paper can be formulated as follows: the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 41 1. to explore, describe and explain the possible influence of cultural dimensions on the way spanish and russian business companies introduce themselves on their official websites. 2. to compare the presentations of spanish and russian companies on their official websites in order to find cultural and linguistic similarities and differences. 3. to identify possible problems of misunderstanding between the representatives of the two countries at the moment of introducing their companies, and to design a set of strategies to avoid them. the following chapters will explain in more detail the initial hypotheses of the research and the model of analysis that will be used. 4. hypotheses culture, as well as language, is a social system acquired and shared by the individuals that belong to the same community. cultural background is always present in the life of a person and has great influence on everything he or she does and says. no form of human communication can develop without cultural influence because communication is implemented through language, and language is connected to the mind of the people who use it. it develops together with people in certain social and cultural circumstances, so inevitably it will have their influence. language describes and defines the world that people live in, so if there are differences in cultures and mentalities, there will be differences in languages. so languages, and thus communication, will be always influenced by culture, as the interlocutors’ cultural background is impossible to forget or ignore (mateo martínez, 2010). identification of cultural norms and orientations makes it possible to explain the preference of community members for certain linguistic and nonlinguistic behaviour. hence, the general working hypothesis of this project is that culture influences the way spanish and russian business companies introduce themselves on their official websites, which has been selected as the object of study for this research. more specifically, different cultural values can be traced in spanish and russian linguistic patterns, and these differences will enable the language researcher to predict possible points of misunderstanding between the two cultures. kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7042 for the purpose of this research we will use hofstede’s (2001/1980) value dimensions model which is based on statistics and presents quantified scores, so the comparative analysis can be easily carried out. hofstede offers five value dimensions: individualism index, power distance index, masculinity index, uncertainty avoidance index, and long-term orientation index (a recently added dimension of indulgence index has not been analysed as it appeared after the present work had been written). (i) individualism versus collectivism (idv): this dimension deals with the concept of identity and integration of the individuals within social groups or organizations. on the one extreme there is individualistic culture whose members are only expected to take care of themselves and their close family, and on the other extreme we find collectivist cultures whose members are expected to take care of their relatives or other members of a certain group. (ii) power distance (pdi): this dimension refers to the degree of power that the individuals have in social groups or organizations, and the social distance that exists among them. (iii) masculinity versus femininity (mas): this value dimension deals with the characteristics traditionally assigned to the masculinity and femininity. a masculine culture is more competitive and its members will prefer assertiveness, heroism, achievement and material reward for success. on the contrary, a feminine culture is more consensus-oriented and its members will prefer cooperation, caring for the weak, modesty and quality of life. (iv) uncertainty avoidance (uai): this dimension deals with the degree of tolerance that a culture has towards the unknown. on the one extreme of the continuum there are cultures that tend to reject the changes of the status quo to avoid the uncertainty that they may provoke. on the other extreme there are cultures that are not so rigid in their attitude towards the changes and feel comfortable with the fact that the future can never be known. (v) long-term versus short-term orientation (lto): this value dimension deals with the search for virtue in a society. on the one hand, there are short-term oriented cultures whose members are not likely to save for the future, as they focus on achieving quick the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 43 results. they are centred on the present. on the other hand, longterm oriented cultures are thrifty; they show tendency to save and invest, and perseverance in achieving results. they are oriented towards the future. the scores on the hofstede centre website5 (provided in chapter 8) suggest that there can be serious differences between russia and spain if we talk about power distance. however, there is no significant distinction as far as the rest of the value dimensions are concerned. as no information is available on russia for the long-term orientation dimension, we will suppose that there may be a significant difference. in this research we will concentrate both on possible differences and similarities between the two cultures, which are likely to manifest themselves through the language. so, the hypotheses of this paper are: 1. hofstede’s value dimensions of individualism index, power distance index, masculinity index, uncertainty avoidance index, and long-term orientation index can be detected in the linguistic traits used in the presentations of spanish and russian companies on the websites. 2. the dimensions of individualism index, masculinity index, and uncertainty avoidance index will be expressed through similar language patterns in spanish and russian web presentations, namely through: (a) the same quantitative use of the 1st person plural and the 1st person singular forms (for the individualism index), (b) the same use of expressive and instrumental languages (for the masculinity index), (c) the same degree of accessibility of information, length of texts and position of the purpose statement (for the uncertainty avoidance index). 3. the dimension of power distance will be expressed through distinct language patterns in spanish and russian web presentations, namely through the different quantitative and qualitative use of the personal pronouns that denote v/t forms of address. 4. the dimension of long-term orientation may be assumed to be expressed through distinct language patterns in spanish and russian web presentations, namely through the different use of references to the future and to the present. kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7044 5. corpora in order to implement the idea of our research and to analyse the influence of hofstede’s value dimensions on the way spanish and russian companies introduce themselves on their websites, it is necessary to have samples of texts used in web presentations. these samples allow us to create two corpora, the spanish and the russian, and later, to conduct a contrastive analysis. first of all, a preliminary choice of companies was made. to be able to decide the presentations of which companies will be of our interest, we used the information about the current state of business affairs between spain and russia. as we have already mentioned in the introduction, the most popular areas of negotiations between these countries are tourism, real estate sector and export. so, for the purpose of our research, we selected spanish and russian companies from these business sectors. to choose the most representative spanish companies from the tourist sector, we used the list of the travel agencies with the biggest annual sales volume published in hosteltur.com on the 5th june, 2012.6 the russian travel agencies were chosen from the best travel agencies in russia with the biggest turnover, according to the information provided by the russian travel agency association in march, 2012.7 the list of the companies can be found in the appendix. as there are so many real estate agencies in spain today, and each of them performs almost the same functions, the real estate agencies for our analysis were chosen only from madrid, because we suppose that the most representative agencies would be concentrated in the capital of a country. the selection was carried out through the search made on spanish yellow pages of madrid8 sorted by reviews. the first ten results of big real estate agencies were chosen. in russia the best and the biggest real estate agencies are situated in moscow, the capital of the country, so we used the same procedure as described before but with russian yellow pages of moscow region9, to find the top ten real estate agencies. all the companies are mentioned in the appendix. finally, we decided to represent the export sector with the food industry companies, since, according to the last year report in el pais10, the export of food and drinks has become one of the principal export sectors in spain, leaving behind the automobile one. in russia, the export of food does not the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 45 have such a relevant value in economy as it does in spain. however, the russian food industry companies have ambitious projects of expanding the exportation of food and beverages to the western consumers, as rusia hoy stated a year ago in its report11. it may be thus presumed that spain and russia are likely to start fruitful negotiations in this sector in the nearest future. the spanish companies from the food and drink sector were selected from the ranking list of the food industry companies in spain with the biggest annual sales volume, provided by marketing4food.com on the 5th march, 2012.12 the russian companies of the food and drink sector were chosen from the similar ranking list, provided by the russian economic newspaper коммерсантъ on the 7th february, 2012.13 the names of the selected firms are given in the appendix. as a contrastive analysis of the cultural influence must be based on representative corpora, only the original texts written in spanish and in russian as the respective first language were chosen. in consequence, we obtained the first corpus formed by the web presentations of the companies created by and for spanish people. the second corpus consists of the texts written by and for russian people respectively. the texts were taken from the official websites of the companies, from the sectors called “¿quiénes somos?”, “nuestro grupo”, “acerca de”, “carta de presentación”, “qué es…?”, “conócenos”, “nosotros”, etc. and their counterparts on the russian webpages, including the messages from the general managers, if there were any. we decided to leave out the sections dedicated to the history of the company and its economic data, as well as the detailed paragraphs about the ethical values, social responsibility, etc. because we considered that this information is not relevant for the purpose of our study. we chose the most visible sectors the presentations of the companies which constitute the first message that a person sees when he or she looks for the information about a company. as the first impression proves to be the strongest and, often, the decisive one, we considered this section of the webpage the most relevant. the characteristics of the obtained corpora are summarized in table 1: kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7046 6. model of analysis the comparative analysis of the way spanish and russian companies introduce themselves on their websites means that the object of study has a double perspective linguistic and intercultural. for this reason, a complex model of analysis is required. the present work borrows its model of analysis from the previous studies in the field of intercultural communication. the source of inspiration was a cross-disciplinary model for the analysis of intercultural business communication between spaniards and britons, introduced by victoria guillén-nieto (2009: 37). according to the author, it “consists of four levels, moving from the inner, invisible, face of a culture (levels 1 and 2) to the outer, visible, face of a culture (levels 3 and 4)”, and it is summarized in table 2: a cross-disciplinary model for the analysis of intercultural business communicat ion between spaniards and britons the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 47 kseniia belova ibérica 32 (2016): …-… characteristics corpora 1. topics of the texts travel agencies real estate agencies food and drink companies 2. number of texts 10 for each topic, 30 in total 3. length of texts spanish corpus: minimum length 66 words / maximum length 483 words russian corpus: minimum length 76 words / maximum length 834 words 4. total length of the corpus spanish corpus: 7248 words russian corpus: 8342 words 5. genre presentation of a company 6. setting official webpage of the company, the introductory sector (“quiénes somos” or the like) 7. channel written 8. mode written language 9. language spanish corpus: spanish (standard) russian corpus: russian (standard) 10. authors representatives of the company 11. readers potential consumers/clients or business partners 12. objectivity partial: some data are objective, but the description of the company is subjective – it is always presented as the best in its category 13. communicative purpose to address potential clients/consumers or business partners, introduce the company and inform about its benefits, convince them to choose this company and its services, prompt purchases or collaboration. often these communicative purposes take the form of providing enjoyment, help, taking care of health, etc. table 1. the characteristics of the corpora. 6. model of analysis the comparative analysis of the way spanish and russian companies introduce themselves on their websites means that the object of study has a double perspective linguistic and intercultural. for this reason, a complex model of analysis is required. the present work borrows its model of analysis from the previous studies in the field of intercultural communication. the source of inspiration was a crossdisciplinary model for the analysis of intercultural business communication between spaniards and britons, introduced by victoria guillén-nieto (2009: 37). according to the author, it “consists of four levels, moving from the inner, invisible, face of a culture (levels 1 and 2) to the outer, visible, face of a culture (levels 3 and 4)”, and it is summarized in the following table 2: in the case of our research, the model of analysis presented above was applied to intercultural business communication between spaniards and russians. 7. procedure our research was organised in four stages, according to the model of analysis. at the first stage, we selected relevant value dimensions for the analysis of intercultural business communication between spaniards and russians. we used hofstede’s (2001/1980) value dimensions, which are based on exhaustive empirical research supported by sophisticated statistics, including the five cultural indexes previously mentioned in the article. at the second stage, we defined culture-specific value orientations in spanish and russian cultures. the value dimensions taken from hofstede’s model were analysed and compared between the two countries, with the help of the statistic data provided on the hofstede centre website, and then, the relevant dimensions were kept for the purposes of analysis. hofstede’s scores on value dimensions for spain and russia taken from the hofstede centre website, are shown in figure 2. kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7048 the influence of culture ibérica 32 (2016): …-… a cross-disciplinary model for the analysis of intercultural business communication between spaniards and britons level 1 selecting relevant value dimensions for the analysis of intercultural business communication between spaniards and britons. level 2 defining culture-specific value orientations in spanish and british cultures. level 3 analysing how culture-specific value orientations have been negotiated into culture-specific ritualistic behaviour, namely protocol and social etiquette. level 4 examining how culture-specific value orientations have been negotiated into culture-specific language use, namely rules of interaction, socio-pragmatic conventions, and pragmalinguistic behaviour. table 2. levels of analysis (guillén-nieto, 2009: 37). in the case of our research, the model of analysis presented above was applied to intercultural business communication between spaniards and russians. 7. procedure our research was organised in four stages, according to the model of analysis. at the first stage, we selected relevant value dimensions for the analysis of intercultural business communication between spaniards and russians. we used hofstede’s (2001/1980) value dimensions, which are based on exhaustive empirical research supported by sophisticated statistics, including the five cultural indexes previously mentioned in the article. at the second stage, we defined culture-specific value orientations in spanish and russian cultures. the value dimensions taken from hofstede’s model were analysed and compared between the two countries, with the help of the statistic data provided on the hofstede centre website, and then, the relevant dimensions were kept for the purposes of analysis. hofstede’s scores on value dimensions for spain and russia taken from the hofstede centre website, are shown in figure 2. these data confirm that there are some strong cultural differences between spain and russia, namely when we speak about power distance. whereas spain’s power distance index is medium, russia’s is particularly high. the value dimensions of individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance show around 10-score difference between the two cultures, which does not represent a serious distinction. the last value dimension of long-term orientation has a lack of data for russia, which means that this aspect must be further analysed. the readers can observe that the value dimension that is most likely to cause problems of misunderstanding and friction between the spanish and the russians is power distance, and they can suppose the same about long-term orientation, as the data is not fully provided. in the rest of the dimensions the scores do not differ much, which means that the two cultures are likely to be similar in these aspects. for the purposes of our research we kept and analysed all five cultural dimensions in order to confirm or refute these suppositions. the third stage related to the analysis of how culture-specific value orientations have been negotiated into culture-specific ritualistic behaviour, was omitted in this research, as the principal interest of this work consists in the linguistic analysis. the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 49 kseniia belova ibérica 32 (2016): …-… pdi idv mas uai lto spain 57 51 42 86 19 russia 93 39 36 95 unknown figure 2. hofstede’s scores on value dimensions for spain and russia. these data confirm that there are some strong cultural differences between spain and russia, namely when we speak about power distance. whereas spain’s power distance index is medium, russia’s is particularly high. the value dimensions of individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance show around 10-score difference between the two cultures, which does not represent a serious distinction. the last value dimension of long-term orientation has a lack of data for russia, which means that this aspect must be further analysed. the readers can observe that the value dimension that is most likely to cause problems of misunderstanding and friction between the spanish and the russians is power distance, and they can suppose the same about long-term orientation, as the data is not fully provided. in the rest of the dimensions the scores do not differ much, which means that the two cultures are likely to be similar in these aspects. for the purposes of our research we kept and analysed all five cultural dimensions in order to confirm or refute these suppositions. the third stage related to the analysis of how culture-specific value orientations have been negotiated into culture-specific ritualistic behaviour, was omitted in this research, as the principal interest of this work consists in the linguistic analysis. vaobela ikseni pdi nispa 57 aissru 93 2e gurfi . s’edetsfho erehttahtmrnocatadeseth wenhwyelamna,issurdan msix ndeiencatsdirepow vid sma uai 51 42 86 39 36 95 eulavnoserocss and n paisorfons ensimdi ridlarutlucgnortsemosera ce.antsiderwoptuoabeakpse w raulcitrpasis’aisusr,umdiem lto 19 nunknow aussirand . niapsneewtebsecner s’naipseaserhwce. vahetgh.hiy lr elu msilduavindiiofonsinsemdi 01dnuoar ebecneriderosc vstaleht.noitcnistids uoirse aisusratdaof ae mhich, w tahtevresbonacsredaereth ng ndiatsrundesimofsmeoblpr acyethdna, ecntaisdrewopis eidvorpllyt onistaadeth hatnsaemh chiwh,ucmrdi foessoprupe htrof.sectpas tdeiidi ntiatreuncnd ay tniiulcsam,m hcihws,erutlucowtehtneewte gnolfonosinemideulav omrte thret bsut mceps aist tha thsna sitahtnoisnemideulavehtt nipashetn eewtbeon itcind ang tesoppusna onglboutaemashe iosneimdethfot serethni. d ty lkeileraseurtulco wthettha adantepke wchearesrruo lna itihet howsencdavoiay nt atnseerpertons eodh kclaasahntiotaniero . deslyaneth esuacotylekiltsom nsaisusrhetnd ah sni ongsa, ntiotanieromrte t onodserocsethsn eshetn iralimisbeo t laurtulcvellad eysl 2 3aicréib 610 (2 ): …-…12 mrco trdeorn ionsinsemdi ehtotdetaleregatsdrihteth ulco ntid etaigotnen ebeveha isth picnir peh ts a,hcraese r .sisyalan .onsitiuppossesheteerorm erutlucwohfosisylana ficesp eurtul vahebcistilautircicesp sno ckro wsih otseretn ilap s noitatneiroeulavc nidettimos aw,ruoiv citsiugni leh tn istsi finally, at the fourth stage, we examined how culture-specific value orientations have been negotiated into culture-specific language use, using created corpora as the basis for the study. on this stage two types of analyses were conducted: qualitative and quantitative. in the former we looked at different linguistic levels to compare the texts and find language variables that are worth analysing. guillén-nieto (2009: 49-50) in her analysis of intercultural business communication between spaniards and britons summarized the hypothetical correlation between cultural dimensions and oral and written linguistic patterns in table 3: kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7050 kseniia belova ibérica 32 (2016): …-… value dimension national culture culturespecific values language-specific behaviour time spanish polychronic multifocus high tolerance for interruptions high tolerance for simultaneous speech british monochronic single focus low tolerance for interruptions low tolerance for simultaneous speech personal space british non-contact culture promotes the use of independence strategies (negative politeness) spanish contact culture promotes the use of involvement strategies (positive politeness) context spanish fairly high context promotes implicitness relies on contextual cues and non verbal codes british low context relies on symbolic language and the verbal code individualism index british very high (89) form of reference to self as an individual uses independence strategies (negative politeness) spanish average (51) form of reference to self as a group uses involvement strategies (positive politeness) power distance spanish average (57) honorifics, terms of address v/t forms british moderately small (35) honorifics, terms of address ø v/t forms masculinity index british moderately high (66) task-oriented instrumental spanish average (42) people-oriented expressive uncertainty avoidance index spanish strong (86) turn-taking system is asymmetrical long turns low tolerance of silence shows preference for digressiveness, circumlocutions, long explanations, long texts, and long sentences needs to provide background information and context purpose statement is postponed thesis/purpose statement is delayed indirectness in purpose statement requires confirmation british moderately weak (35) turn-taking is symmetrical short-turns more tolerance of silence shows preference for linearity, short explanations, short texts, and short sentences purpose statement is anticipated directness in purpose statement table 3. hypothetical correlation of culture-specific values with language-specific behaviour (guillén-nieto, 2009: 49-50). the above mentioned table 3 was used as a source of inspiration for our own research. having analysed the corpora, we selected the linguistic variables that were used for further investigation and that are summarized in table 4: when the linguistic variables were defined, we proceeded with the quantitative part of the analysis, which included: (i) use of the concordance program antconc 3.2.4w to carry out the analysis of the selected linguistic variables; (ii) chi square test or t-test of spss statistics software package version 20.0.0 to determine whether or not the differences observed in the frequencies of the linguistic variables selected in both corpora are statistically significant. the results obtained helped us compare the corpora of spanish and russian texts, and thus, compare the respective cultures through contrastive analysis. the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 51 the influence of culture ibérica 32 (2016): …-… the above mentioned table 3 was as a source of inspiration for our own research. having analysed the corpora, we selected the linguistic variables that were used for further investigation and that are summarized in the following table 4: value dimension national culture culture-specific values analysed linguistic variables spanish average (51) personal pronouns “we” and “i” possessive pronouns “our” and “my” individualism index russian average (39) verbs in the 1st person singular and the 1st person plural forms (present tense) russian very high (93) personal pronouns “tú/!"” and “usted(es)/#" ($")” that express v/t forms of address power distance index spanish average (57) spanish average (42) expressive language masculinity index russian moderately low (36) instrumental language russian very high (95) accessibility of the information length of texts, paragraphs and sentences uncertainty avoidance index spanish very high (86) position of the purpose statement spanish low (19) presence of the references to the future long-term orientation russian no data available presence of the references to the present table 4. correlation of linguistic variables with hofstede’s five cultural dimensions in the spanish and the russian corpora. when the linguistic variables were defined, we proceeded with the quantitative part of the analysis, which included: (i) use of the concordance program antconc 3.2.4w to carry out the analysis of the selected linguistic variables; (ii) chi square test or t-test of spss statistics software package version 20.0.0 to determine whether or not the differences observed in the frequencies of the linguistic variables selected in both corpora are statistically significant. the results obtained helped us compare the corpora of spanish and russian texts, and thus, compare the respective cultures through contrastive analysis. 8. findings and discussion 8. findings and discussion 8.1. individualism index the cultural dimension of individualism versus collectivism deals with the concept of identity that the individuals have in their society. there are cultures with collectivist mentality, where the self-image is defined in terms of “we”, and with individualistic mentality, where the self-image is presented as “i”. after the previous qualitative analysis of the corpora we have selected linguistic variables which, in our opinion, reflect the cultural values described by hofstede. we have noticed that the most popular way among all the companies is self-presentation from the first person plural: “we”, “our company”, “our agents”, etc. logically, the most used verb form in this case is the first person plural (“somos”, “hemos logrado”, “trabajamos”, “esperamos”, “поможем” [we will help], etc.). frequent use of personal and possessive pronouns of the first person plural is also common for these presentations (“nosotros”, “esa es nuestra esencia, nuestra misión y nuestro destino”, “nuestro nuevo cliente”, “мы” [we], “наши клиенты” [our clients], etc.). the use of “we”, referring to self as a group, speaks about individualism index. both cultures have average score for this value dimension. however, russia has a lower score and tends to present a more collectivist mentality than spain. so, we have decided to analyse the use of the personal pronoun “we”, possessive pronoun “our” and verbs in the first person plural form (present tense) in the spanish language and the russian language to see if there may be significant difference. we have also checked the opposite linguistic characteristic: the presence of the personal pronoun “i”, possessive pronoun “my” and verbs in the first person singular form (present tense) in both corpora, to see if there are any cases of them and if their presence can be meaningful. we present the results of the quantitative analysis of the corpora in the comparative figure 3: kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7052 we can notice that the results for the spanish and the russian corpora are very similar, however, the number of instances the 1st person plural personal pronoun appears is different: in the russian texts it was found 94 times, while in the spanish texts only 27, almost 3.5 times less. according to hofstede’s scale, both spanish and russian cultures have average scores for this value dimension: spain 51 and russia 39. the pearson chi-square test of spss statistics proved that there is no significant difference between the spanish and the russian corpora (which proved our initial hypothesis), so the two cultures are similar in this aspect and are unlikely to have difficulties in communication based on this value dimension. but, the research with antconc showed that in the russian corpus the 1st person plural personal pronoun was used almost 3.5 times more than in the spanish corpus, which proves the idea that russia has a little more collectivist mentality than spain. 8.2. power distance index power distance index demonstrates the degree of power and social distance that exists among the individuals in a society. there are cultures that prefer a strict hierarchical order where each person occupies a certain place, and there are cultures whose members opt for equality in the distribution of power. in the spanish language and the russian language there is a distinction between t/v forms. in spanish, the t form is expressed by the 2nd person the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 53 kseniia belova ibérica 32 (2016): …-… 8.1. individualism index the cultural dimension of individualism versus collectivism deals with the concept of identity that the individuals have in their society. there are cultures with collectivist mentality, where the self-image is defined in terms of “we”, and with individualistic mentality, where the self-image is presented as “i”. after the previous qualitative analysis of the corpora we have selected linguistic variables which, in our opinion, reflect the cultural values described by hofstede. we have noticed that the most popular way among all the companies is selfpresentation from the first person plural: “we”, “our company”, “our agents”, etc. logically, the most used verb form in this case is the first person plural (“somos”, “hemos logrado”, “trabajamos”, “esperamos”, “%&'&()'” [we will help], etc.). frequent use of personal and possessive pronouns of the first person plural is also common for these presentations (“nosotros”, “esa es nuestra esencia, nuestra misión y nuestro destino”, “nuestro nuevo cliente”, “'"” [we], “*+,./-)*!"” [our clients], etc.). the use of “we”, referring to self as a group, speaks about individualism index. both cultures have average score for this value dimension. however, russia has a lower score and tends to present a more collectivist mentality than spain. so, we have decided to analyse the use of the personal pronoun “we”, possessive pronoun “our” and verbs in the first person plural form (present tense) in the spanish language and the russian language to see if there may be significant difference. we have also checked the opposite linguistic characteristic: the presence of the personal pronoun “i”, possessive pronoun “my” and verbs in the first person singular form (present tense) in both corpora, to see if there are any cases of them and if their presence can be meaningful. we present the results of the quantitative analysis of the corpora in the comparative figure 3: figure 3. results of the quantitative analysis of the corpora for the individualism index dimension. singular personal pronoun “tú” and the v form by the 3rd person singular or plural pronoun “usted” and “ustedes”. in russian, the t form is presented by the 2nd person singular personal pronoun “ты” and the v form by the 2nd person plural pronoun “вы” or “вы”, as in contemporary russian these two forms of writing of the same pronoun, with a capital or with a small letter, are interchangeable. “вы (вы)” can be used for both the singular and the plural v forms. one of the significant moments that we have observed while performing qualitative analysis is the preference for the use of “tú”/“ты” or “usted”/“вы/вы” when addressing the reader. the second person singular pronoun “tú”/“ты” which creates the atmosphere of familiarity and equality, was more frequent in the spanish texts. with the help of this form of address, the authors of the presentation have shortened the social distance between the company and the reader. in the russian corpus the most common way of address was with the pronoun “usted”/“вы/вы”, which is rather formal and reserved, and creates the feeling of respect and aloofness. preference for a certain form of address reveals the difference in power distance index between russia and spain. russian culture has a very high score (93) which is reflected in a more formal and distant form of address “вы/вы”, while spain has an average score (57) and opts for using a more informal form “tú”. later we have used the software package spss statistics and its chi-squared test to see if the frequencies previously observed in the categorical variables vary significantly. in our case we analysed the frequencies of the appearance of t and v forms in both corpora. we made a hypothesis that the difference in the appearance of these characteristics is significant between the two corpora. if it is so, the value of the chi-squared should be less than 0.05 (according to the convention, if the value of the statistical significance is less than 0.05, then there is a significant difference between the groups; if it is less than 0.01 the difference is very significant). if the value is more than 0.05, there is no significant difference between the corpora, so the cultures are alike in terms of this cultural value and should not experience problems in communication. for the t-forms we obtained the following result (table 5): kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7054 as the value of statistical significance is less than 0.01, the difference between the corpora has proved to be very significant, so our hypothesis is correct. and the results for the v-forms can be seen in table 6: the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 55 kseniia belova ibérica 32 (2016): …-… significantly. in our case we analysed the frequencies of the appearance of t and v forms in both corpora. we made a hypothesis that the difference in the appearance of these characteristics is significant between the two corpora. if it is so, the value of the chi-squared should be less than 0.05 (according to the convention, if the value of the statistical significance is less than 0.05, then there is a significant difference between the groups; if it is less than 0.01 the difference is very significant). if the value is more than 0.05, there is no significant difference between the corpora, so the cultures are alike in terms of this cultural value and should not experience problems in communication. for the t-forms we obtained the following result (table 5): crosstab count t-forms does not appear appears total spanish corpus 23 7 30 corpus russian corpus 30 0 30 total 53 7 60 chi-square tests value df asymp. sig. (2-sided) exact sig. (2sided) exact sig. (1sided) pearson chisquare 7.925a 1 .005 continuity correctionb 5.822 1 .016 likelihood ratio 10.631 1 .001 fisher's exact test .011 .005 linear-by-linear association 7.792 1 .005 n of valid cases 60 table 5. the results of the pearson chi-square test for the t-forms of address. as the value of statistical significance is less than 0.01, the difference between the corpora has proved to be very significant, so our hypothesis is correct. and the results for the v-forms can be seen in the following table 6: kseniia belova ibérica 32 (2016): …-… significantly. in our case we analysed the frequencies of the appearance of t and v forms in both corpora. we made a hypothesis that the difference in the appearance of these characteristics is significant between the two corpora. if it is so, the value of the chi-squared should be less than 0.05 (according to the convention, if the value of the statistical significance is less than 0.05, then there is a significant difference between the groups; if it is less than 0.01 the difference is very significant). if the value is more than 0.05, there is no significant difference between the corpora, so the cultures are alike in terms of this cultural value and should not experience problems in communication. for the t-forms we obtained the following result (table 5): crosstab count t-forms does not appear appears total spanish corpus 23 7 30 corpus russian corpus 30 0 30 total 53 7 60 chi-square tests value df asymp. sig. (2-sided) exact sig. (2sided) exact sig. (1sided) pearson chisquare 7.925a 1 .005 continuity correctionb 5.822 1 .016 likelihood ratio 10.631 1 .001 fisher's exact test .011 .005 linear-by-linear association 7.792 1 .005 n of valid cases 60 table 5. the results of the pearson chi-square test for the t-forms of address. as the value of statistical significance is less than 0.01, the difference between the corpora has proved to be very significant, so our hypothesis is correct. and the results for the v-forms can be seen in the following table 6: the influence of culture ibérica 32 (2016): …-… crosstab count v-forms does not appear appears total spanish corpus 25 5 30 corpus russian corpus 17 13 30 total 42 18 60 chi-square tests value df asymp. sig. (2-sided) exact sig. (2sided) exact sig. (1sided) pearson chisquare 5.079a 1 .024 continuity correctionb 3.889 1 .049 likelihood ratio 5.216 1 .022 fisher's exact test .047 .024 linear-by-linear association 4.995 1 .025 n of valid cases 60 table 6. the results of the pearson chi-square test for the v-forms of address. again, our hypothesis is correct, as the value of statistical significance is less than 0.05, and the difference in the appearance of v-forms in the two corpora is significant. as we can see from the results of the chi-squared test, the difference between the spanish and the russian corpora in terms of the use of t and v forms proved to be significant (even very significant in the case of t forms). it means that the cultural dimension of power distance is likely to present an obstacle in communication between these two cultures as they are very dissimilar in this aspect. again these results prove our supposition based on hofstede’s score for this value dimension: russia has a very high position on the scale (93), so it is a high power country, and spain has an average score (57) and it is a medium power culture. 8.3. masculinity index masculinity index shows if a culture has masculine values, like assertiveness, competitiveness and achievements, or feminine values, like caring, consensus and cooperation. one of the characteristics that attracted our attention was a slight difference in lexis used in both corpora. while the choice of words is nearly the same, the again, our hypothesis is correct, as the value of statistical significance is less than 0.05, and the difference in the appearance of v-forms in the two corpora is significant. as we can see from the results of the chi-squared test, the difference between the spanish and the russian corpora in terms of the use of t and v forms proved to be significant (even very significant in the case of t forms). it means that the cultural dimension of power distance is likely to present an obstacle in communication between these two cultures as they are very dissimilar in this aspect. again these results prove our supposition based on hofstede’s score for this value dimension: russia has a very high position on the scale (93), so it is a high power country, and spain has an average score (57) and it is a medium power culture. 8.3. masculinity index masculinity index shows if a culture has masculine values, like assertiveness, competitiveness and achievements, or feminine values, like caring, consensus and cooperation. one of the characteristics that attracted our attention was a slight difference in lexis used in both corpora. while the choice of words is nearly the same, the russian corpus seems to have a little more vocabulary of feelings, taking care of others. almost every russian company mentions taking care of the clients as its main objective: “забота о потребителях” [concern for the consumers], “«вимм-билль-данн» помогает людям, радуя их каждый день вкусными и полезными для здоровья всей семьи продуктами питания” [“wimm-bill-dann” helps people, making them happy every day with tasty and health-giving foodstuffs for the whole family], “стремится к 100%-му удовлетворению запросов всех своих клиентов” [strives for 100% satisfaction of all its clients’ demands], etc. this aspect may be explained by a lower score on masculinity index that russia has in comparison with spain. however, this difference is very small. for the purpose of our research, we have decided to look at the presence of the lexis of feelings and taking care of others in the two corpora. russia and spain have very similar scores on this cultural value, still russia has a lower index, so we wanted to check if there is a significant difference through the analysis of this specific vocabulary. we have also analysed the presence of the opposite lexis: vocabulary of achievements, action and results, typical of the cultures with higher masculinity index (words like “venta”, “líder”, kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7056 “negocio”, “продажа” [sale], “cделки” [deals], etc.) to see if there is any meaningful difference between the two corpora in this aspect as well. with the help of the analysis with antconc we can see that in the spanish corpus the vocabulary of feelings and taking care of the others can be found: the vocabulary of achievements and results is also present and can be demonstrated by the following examples: we have chosen only 10 words with the highest frequency ranking for each group, but even with this selection it is possible to notice a difference: 71 words of feelings versus 87 words of achievements. if we take a look at the russian corpus, we will see the following picture for the lexis of emotions and care: the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 57 the influence of culture ibérica 32 (2016): …-… word frequency venta 15 líder 14 consumidores 10 negocio 9 alcanzar 7 profesional 7 tecnología 7 crecimiento 6 liderazgo 6 misión 6 table 8. the frequency of the masculine lexis in the spanish corpus. we have chosen only 10 words with the highest frequency ranking for each group, but even with this selection it is possible to notice a difference: 71 words of feelings versus 87 words of achievements. if we take a look at the russian corpus, we will see the following picture for the lexis of emotions and care: word frequency >=/;8(services) 17 #&0'&(*&=!6 (opportunity) 9 ?+@)=!$& (quality) 8 a&%2&$&(:)*-) (accompaniment) 8 b!:"4 (rest) 7 c2):/+8+)! (offers) 7 c&'&()' (we will help) 6 5)0&%+=*&=!6 (security) 4 b1)=%)@-$+)! (he/she/it provides) 4 d:&2&$6e (health) 3 table 9. the frequency of the feminine lexis in the russian corpus. and for the vocabulary of achievements and results: kseniia belova ibérica 32 (2016): …-… russian corpus seems to have a little more vocabulary of feelings, taking care of others. almost every russian company mentions taking care of the clients as its main objective: “0+1&!+ & %&!2)1-!)/34” [concern for the consumers], “«#-''-5-//6-7+**» %&'&8+)! /9:3', 2+:;3 -4 .+(:"< :)*6 $.;=*"' %&/)0*"':/3 0:&2&$63 $=)< =)'6%2&:;.!+'%-!+*-3 [“wimm-billdann” helps people, making them happy every day with tasty and health-giving foodstuffs for the whole family], “=!2)'-!=3 . 100%-'; ;:&$/)!$&2)*-9 0+%2&=&$ $=)4 =$&-4 ./-)*!&$” [strives for 100% satisfaction of all its clients’ demands], etc. this aspect may be explained by a lower score on masculinity index that russia has in comparison with spain. however, this difference is very small. for the purpose of our research, we have decided to look at the presence of the lexis of feelings and taking care of others in the two corpora. russia and spain have very similar scores on this cultural value, still russia has a lower index, so we wanted to check if there is a significant difference through the analysis of this specific vocabulary. we have also analysed the presence of the opposite lexis: vocabulary of achievements, action and results, typical of the cultures with higher masculinity index (words like “venta”, “líder”, “negocio”, “%2&:+(+” [sale], “c:)/.-” [deals], etc.) to see if there is any meaningful difference between the two corpora in this aspect as well. with the help of the analysis with antconc we can see that in the spanish corpus the vocabulary of feelings and taking care of the others can be found: word frequency necesidades 15 ofrecer 11 confianza 9 atención 6 relaciones 6 seguridad 6 bienestar 5 compromiso 5 salud 5 ayudan 3 table 7. the frequency of the feminine lexis in the spanish corpus. the vocabulary of achievements and results is also present and can be demonstrated by the following examples: and for the vocabulary of achievements and results: in the case of the russian corpus, 10 words with the highest frequency ranking in each group have been selected as well, and we have noticed 73 words of the lexis of feelings and 81 words of achievements. the difference is as obvious as in the spanish corpus: the “masculine” vocabulary predominates. hofstede’s scale shows that spain has an average score of 42 and russia a moderately lower score of 36 in this value dimension. our initial hypothesis about the same quantitative use of expressive and instrumental languages in russian and spanish was proved by the results of the quantitative analysis. the difference between the corpora in the cultural dimension of masculinity versus femininity is not significant. the cultures are alike in this aspect, so the cultural value of masculinity should not give rise to problems of communication between the spanish and the russians. interestingly enough, both corpora have presented more “masculine” lexis than “feminine” (the texts are more oriented towards informing the reader about the achievements, results and success of the company, rather than about the way they care about the customers), though both cultures are considered to be kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7058 the influence of culture ibérica 32 (2016): …-… word frequency venta 15 líder 14 consumidores 10 negocio 9 alcanzar 7 profesional 7 tecnología 7 crecimiento 6 liderazgo 6 misión 6 table 8. the frequency of the masculine lexis in the spanish corpus. we have chosen only 10 words with the highest frequency ranking for each group, but even with this selection it is possible to notice a difference: 71 words of feelings versus 87 words of achievements. if we take a look at the russian corpus, we will see the following picture for the lexis of emotions and care: word frequency >=/;8(services) 17 #&0'&(*&=!6 (opportunity) 9 ?+@)=!$& (quality) 8 a&%2&$&(:)*-) (accompaniment) 8 b!:"4 (rest) 7 c2):/+8+)! (offers) 7 c&'&()' (we will help) 6 5)0&%+=*&=!6 (security) 4 b1)=%)@-$+)! (he/she/it provides) 4 d:&2&$6e (health) 3 table 9. the frequency of the feminine lexis in the russian corpus. and for the vocabulary of achievements and results: kseniia belova ibérica 32 (2016): …-… word frequency c2&-0$&:=!$& (production) 12 c2&:+(+ (sale) 11 a:)/.(deals) 10 7)3!)/6*&=!6 (activity) 9 ?&'')2@)=.-< (commercial) 9 5-0*)= (business) 7 e-==-3 (mission) 7 f+0$-!-e (development) 6 g-:)2 (leader) 5 a!2+!)8-3 (strategy) 5 table 10. the frequency of the masculine lexis in the russian corpus. in the case of the russian corpus, 10 words with the highest frequency ranking in each group have been selected as well, and we have noticed 73 words of the lexis of feelings and 81 words of achievements. the difference is as obvious as in the spanish corpus: the “masculine” vocabulary predominates. hofstede’s scale shows that spain has an average score of 42 and russia a moderately lower score of 36 in this value dimension. our initial hypothesis about the same quantitative use of expressive and instrumental languages in russian and spanish was proved by the results of the quantitative analysis. the difference between the corpora in the cultural dimension of masculinity versus femininity is not significant. the cultures are alike in this aspect, so the cultural value of masculinity should not give rise to problems of communication between the spanish and the russians. interestingly enough, both corpora have presented more “masculine” lexis than “feminine” (the texts are more oriented towards informing the reader about the achievements, results and success of the company, rather than about the way they care about the customers), though both cultures are considered to be feminine, according to hofstede’s scale. this fact can probably be explained by the genre of the texts that have been examined, which requires the extensive use of “masculine” vocabulary: when a business company introduces itself, it will most likely speak about its achievements rather than feelings and emotions. 8.4. uncertainty avoidance index the cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance index defines the degree of tolerance that a culture has towards the unknown. there are societies whose members try to avoid changes as the uncertainty of the outcome inconveniences them, and there are countries that like to take risks and that feel comfortable with the uncertainty of the future. previous qualitative analysis demonstrated that both spanish and russian companies take the question of self-presentation to the public seriously and opt for formal format. the only slight difference between the two corpora may be the fact that the presentations of the spanish firms were not always easy to find. feminine, according to hofstede’s scale. this fact can probably be explained by the genre of the texts that have been examined, which requires the extensive use of “masculine” vocabulary: when a business company introduces itself, it will most likely speak about its achievements rather than feelings and emotions. 8.4. uncertainty avoidance index the cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance index defines the degree of tolerance that a culture has towards the unknown. there are societies whose members try to avoid changes as the uncertainty of the outcome inconveniences them, and there are countries that like to take risks and that feel comfortable with the uncertainty of the future. previous qualitative analysis demonstrated that both spanish and russian companies take the question of self-presentation to the public seriously and opt for formal format. the only slight difference between the two corpora may be the fact that the presentations of the spanish firms were not always easy to find. while on the russian webpages the information about the company was always present and visible, on some spanish websites it was necessary to spend some time and look for this information on the whole webpage (halcón viajes, edreams, rumbo agencias, logitravel, atrápalo, corporación peñasanta, gallina blanca, martínez loriente and puleva). the question of the easy access to the information about a firm may reflect the uncertainty avoidance dimension. russia has a slightly higher score on hofstede’s scale (95), which means that it is not tolerant of ambiguity and needs more background information and context. that is why the presentations of the russian companies are complete, detailed and not difficult to find. for the same reason, the texts which compose the russian corpus are a little longer than those of the spanish one: they provide more information and detail. another difference that we have noticed is the position of the purpose statement (by purpose statements in the case of self-presentations we understand the phrases in which the company explains what it offers to the clients and what the purpose of its work is). in the spanish texts there seem to be more anticipated purpose statements than in the russian discourses. it can be explained by a difference that both cultures have in uncertainty avoidance index. russia has a higher score (95), which means that the russian companies are likely to provide more background information and the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 59 context before telling the reader the purpose of the writing. sometimes the purpose statements are indirect. spain also has a high score (86), however, in the spanish corpus there are more instances of anticipated purpose statement. the spanish companies can state from the beginning the reason for addressing the reader, and only then give more details. so, in the analysis of this cultural dimension we have concentrated on three aspects. first of all, we have checked if it is easy to find the information about the company on its website. later we have seen how long the texts, paragraphs and sentences within the texts are. and, finally, we have analysed if there are more anticipated or postponed purpose statements in the corpora. as russia has a higher score in this dimension, we have expected the russian corpus to show more proofs of high uncertainty avoidance index than the spanish one. after having done the quantitative analysis of the uncertainty avoidance cultural dimension in the spanish and the russian corpora, we can see that the results are inconclusive. on the one hand, two out of three analysed aspects (lengths of texts/paragraphs/sentences and position of the purpose statement) have not shown any significant difference between the corpora. on the other hand, one aspect (accessibility of the information about the company) has demonstrated a very important difference. however, the point of accessibility of information on the websites may be also connected to the principles of web design used in both countries. the russian web designers follow the rules established by the american specialists in this field. after a small research on the basic principles of web design in the usa and russia, we have discovered that russians always cite the translated versions of american articles on the topic or use the same idea and complete it with more information. for example, the russian web pages <http://www.w3school.ru/blog> (a web journal for web masters and bloggers [19/05/2013]), <http://www.trud.ts6.ru> (a website about web design [19/05/2013]), <http://www.webfocus.ru> (a virtual school of web design [19/05/2013]) and many others (<http://www.galleo.ru>, <http://www.diogenes.ru>, <http://www.designonstop.com> [last access to all pages on 19/05/2013], etc.) use the term “usability” and its principles to explain how to create a good website14. the main rules of web usability are explained in the articles published on the national education association page (http://www.nea.org/home/10-principles-of-basic-webdesign.html [19/05/2013]) and on the eighteenth century england website kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7060 at the university of michigan (http://www.umich.edu/~ece/ resources/design.html [19/05/2013]). the principles of web design described on both russian and american websites are the same, and a special emphasis is made on accessibility of information: “don’t hide important information. users don’t like to click too many times to find the information they want — if information is particularly important, make it accessible up front”15. although the spanish web designers also cited the basic rules of the website creation in terms of usability, it is obvious that in practice they prefer to invest in the attractive visual layout more than in the accessibility of information. it leads us to the conclusion that though in general, the cultural value of uncertainty avoidance should not present any serious problems of communication between the spanish and the russians, there is still a possibility of having certain obstacles as the cultures have proved to have some differences in this aspect. as hofstede suggested, russia has a higher score on uncertainty avoidance index (95) than spain (86), so easy access to the detailed information about a company on its website may be a reflection of that fact. 8.5. long-term orientation index this cultural dimension has to do with the search for virtue in a society. on the one hand, there are short-term oriented cultures that are concentrated on the present and quick results. on the other hand, there are societies that are long-term oriented and that are interested in saving and investing for the future. for the purposes of our research an interesting moment is the use of the future tense and other syntactic structures that make reference to the future, as “que siga(n)” + gerund or “esperar” + infinitive in spanish or the like, as well as certain words related to the future, like “tomorrow”, “future”, etc. these are common for the spanish corpus, which may mean a higher degree of long-term orientation for spanish culture in comparison with russian. so, we have decided to analyse and see if the texts from both corpora have references to the future. to check the opposite idea, we have also looked at the references to the present and short-term results (the use of the present tenses, words and phrases related to the present, like “every day”, “today”, etc.). the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 61 with the help of antconc we have found out that the spanish corpus has 5 instances of the word “futuro” versus 7 instances of “cada día”, and 6 of “hoy”, while the russian corpus contains only 1 instance of the use of “будущее” (future) versus 1 instance of “каждый день” (every day), 1 of “сегодняшний день” (today), and 6 instances of “сегодня” (today). these results can be presented in the form of the comparative figure 4: we can see that the russian corpus has fewer references to the future, which may mean that russian culture is less long-term oriented that spanish. the verb tenses and syntactical structures that denote reference to the future or the present were taken into account at the moment of conducting analysis with spss statistics. their presence or absence in each text of both corpora was registered and considered at the time of carrying out the chi-squared test. according to hofstede’s scale, spain has a low score for this cultural dimension (19) and no data is available for russia. the quantitative analysis refuted our initial hypothesis that the dimension of long-term orientation may be assumed to be expressed through distinct language patterns in spanish and russian web presentations, namely through the different use of references to the future and to the present. the linguistic characteristics that express the value dimension of long-term orientation do not present any significant difference between the corpora, so it is unlikely to provoke any communication difficulties between the spanish and the russians, as the cultures proved to be similar in this aspect. it also leads us to the conclusion kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7062 the influence of culture ibérica 32 (2016): …-… with the help of antconc we have found out that the spanish corpus has 5 instances of the word “futuro” versus 7 instances of “cada día”, and 6 of “hoy”, while the russian corpus contains only 1 instance of the use of “1;:;h))” (future) versus 1 instance of “.+(:"< :)*6” (every day), 1 of “=)8&:*3,*-< :)*6” (today), and 6 instances of “=)8&:*3” (today). these results can be presented in the form of the comparative figure 4: figure 4. results of the quantitative analysis of the corpora for the references to the future and the present. we can see that the russian corpus has fewer references to the future, which may mean that russian culture is less long-term oriented that spanish. the verb tenses and syntactical structures that denote reference to the future or the present were taken into account at the moment of conducting analysis with spss statistics. their presence or absence in each text of both corpora was registered and considered at the time of carrying out the chi-squared test. according to hofstede’s scale, spain has a low score for this cultural dimension (19) and no data is available for russia. the quantitative analysis refuted our initial hypothesis that the dimension of long-term orientation may be assumed to be expressed through distinct language patterns in spanish and russian web presentations, namely through the different use of references to the future and to the present. the linguistic characteristics that express the value dimension of long-term orientation do not present any significant difference between the corpora, so it is unlikely to provoke any communication difficulties between the spanish and the russians, as the cultures proved to be similar in this aspect. it also leads us to the conclusion that though there is no data available, russia tends to demonstrate the traits of a short-term oriented society, like spain. 9. conclusion and practical application of the results foplehehthtwi cnoctan w ortu“drowethfosecntasin ocsuprocnaissurehteliwh foecnatsni1sursev) reut ncatnsi6 nd a,y)odat(”6*:) id entesepr mhetn ce o e th seh ttah ttu odnueva he w dadac“fosecntasin7susrev”o ehtfoecnatsni1ylnosniatno ),yadryev(e”6*):<":(+.“ t.y)odat(”3&:*8)=“ofsenc eruig fetivarapmo 4: erltuucf oe cenflunie 5sa hsupro chsinap dna, ”íad ,hoy”“of6 ”))h;:;1“foesue <-*,3*:&8)=“fo1 ben acstulsereshet 4e gurfi . naevitatitnauqehtfostlusre naissurehttahteesnacwe rutlucnaissurtahtnameyma citcatnysdnasesnetbreveth atoinnektaerewt neserpeth otsecnereferehtrofaroprocehtfosisylan secnererrewsahsuprocn sier gn lossle a thdtenier omrte reretonedtahtserutcurtslac dnocfot nemometht at nuocca tneserpehtdnaerutufeht . hcihw,erutehtot .hisnapt sa roerutehtotecner ithwisslyanagtincud atoinnektaerewt neserpeth scitsiatstss sp neserpireht. httadreedisnocdnadreetsigre lacss’edetsfhootgnidrocac elbaliavasiatadondna) 9(1 i mdihetthatsishehypotlaitni ncitsdiough hrtd essexprebe ough hrty lemna,onsitantesepr lehtt. neserpeth cticisugin gnlo onodntiotanieromrte rpotyelkilnusitiosa,roprco dnocfot nemometht at nuocca ot xtehcaeinecnesbaroecn ihcehttuognirryacfoemiteh htrerocsw olasahniaps,e evitatitnauqeht.aissurr e onglofon insem tiotanierote nipasn insrettpagenguaaltnc encererofeusnterdihetough ethsserpxet athsticisrtecarah dt nanigsynat neserpt o fidnoicatinummcoyane kovor ithwisslyanagtincud o sa waropro chto .stetderausq noisnemidlarutlucsih r uodetresisylana todemussaebyamn b ewn aisusrnd ah s o tnd aeurheto tse foniosneimdeluave ethneetwebecner e hteenwetbesitlcu rpotyelkilnusitiosa,roprco sa,snaissurehtdnahsinasp suclncoe htotsuseadlosal itsa tre thteatrsnome d tosdnte acr pd anonisulcon9. c ibér fidnoicatinummcoyane kovor tlucehts misbeo td oveprseur donsie erhthguohtathtnoi troh s oits -te teicosdetneriorm re of thonaticilp apalcti 32ca ibér 610 (2 ): …-… 25 e hteenwetbesitlcu ti.tcpesashitn iralim a issure,lablaiava at niapsekil,yt . tluse s that though there is no data available, russia tends to demonstrate the traits of a short-term oriented society, like spain. 9. conclusion and practical application of the results the analysis described above proved the majority of our initial hypotheses. however, some of them were refuted: 1. hofstede’s value dimensions of individualism index, power distance index, masculinity index, uncertainty avoidance index, and long-term orientation index were traced in the linguistic features used in the presentations of spanish and russian companies on their websites. 2. the dimensions of individualism index, masculinity index, and uncertainty avoidance index are expressed through similar language patterns in spanish and russian web presentations, namely through: (a) the same use of the 1st person plural and the 1st person singular forms (for the individualism index), (b) the same use of expressive and instrumental languages (for the masculinity index), and (c) the similar length of texts and position of the purpose statement (for the uncertainty avoidance index). however, the hypothesis about the same degree of accessibility of information (for the uncertainty avoidance index) was proved to be incorrect. 3. the dimension of power distance appears to be expressed through distinct language patterns in spanish and russian web presentations, namely through the different use of the personal pronouns that denote v/t forms of address. 4. the dimension of long-term orientation does not present any significant differences and appears to be expressed through similar language patterns in spanish and russian web presentations, namely through the same use of the references to the future and to the present. we have analysed the spanish and the russian corpora which consisted of the self-presentations of the different companies on their official websites, and we have discovered the proofs of similarities and differences between the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 63 the two cultures. but how can these findings help to improve the negotiations between the spanish and the russians? first of all, let us look at the similarities. we have found out that hofstede’s cultural dimension of individualism index does not present any significant difference between the corpora. according to the score on hofstede’s official website, both spain and russia belong to the countries with collectivist mentality (spain has 51 points and russia 39), thus the representatives of these cultures will tend to refer to themselves as a group, using a “we” concept. russia has a little lower score, which means that it is a more collectivist country out of the two, that is why during the negotiations (both oral and written) it is important for the spanish to reinforce the idea of “community” because the traits of individualism can be seen as negative in russian culture. for this purpose the 1st person plural personal and possessive pronouns and the verbs in the 1st person plural forms should be given preference over the 1st person singular forms, which transmit the idea of individualism. the cultural dimension of masculinity index does not present any significant difference between the two corpora either. both countries are quite feminine according to hofstede’s score (42 for spain and 36 for russia), and that means that they are both interested in cooperation and caring for others. however, during the analysis we have also seen that both spain and russia have a masculine tendency which can be seen in concern in results and material reward for success. these data lead us to the conclusion that during the process of negotiation between the spanish and the russians it is important to mention the achievements of the company to gain more status in the eyes of the partners, use linguistically assertive language, and show interest in the financial outcome of the business activity they are going to carry out together. but at the same time it is necessary to express care both for the business partners and potential clients, because “femininity” constitutes a part of both cultures. long-term orientation cultural dimension has proved to be expressed in the same way in the spanish and the russian corpora, which indicates the similarity between the countries in this aspect (on hofstede’s scale spain has 19 points and no data is available for russia). we have come to the conclusion that both spain and russia present characteristics of short-term oriented cultures and that means that during the negotiations it is important to reinforce the idea of the interest in the current situation, use more references to the present than to the future. kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7064 as for uncertainty avoidance value dimension, after our analysis we have obtained such results that, on the one hand, indicate the similarity that spanish and russian cultures have in this aspect, but on the other hand, demonstrate that russia has more tendency to avoid uncertainty (which seems to be quite logical, as hofstede’s score for russia is 95, while for spain it is 86). it means that in the process of negotiations between the spanish and the russians special attention should be paid to this point. as the representatives of the russian culture may feel uncomfortable with uncertainty, it is necessary to make things as clear as possible by giving long and substantial introduction to the topic, providing detailed, easy-tounderstand and easy-to-access information about the company and the project. it would be also useful to establish effective communication between the russians and the spanish, by responding letters, e-mails or phone calls in a fast and exhaustive manner, so that any question or doubt that may arise on the russian part can be resolved quickly. in this way many possible problems provoked by the russian strong tendency to avoid uncertainty may be prevented. the last cultural dimension, that of power distance, has proved to be a source of great difference between the corpora, and thus between the cultures. in this aspect spain and russia seem to be extremely unlike, and this idea is supported by the date on hofstede’s webpage: russia has 93 points on the score for power distance index, while spain 57. it means that during the negotiations, the spanish should try to show more formality and keep the hierarchical order established in the russian society, by addressing themselves to their russian colleagues by honorific terms and using v-forms. it is especially important when dealing with the team leaders or other superiors, people with high social status, and elderly people, as these have particular respect in the russian culture. on the other hand, in a certain period of time and after having created strong business bonds, the russians should try to become more informal with their spanish partners by using tforms of address to minimize aloofness in business relations. 10. contribution to the field of languages for specific purposes with the present research we pretended to make a contribution to the field of languages for specific purposes, by making an initial approach to the the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 65 broad topic of business communication between the spanish and the russian cultures, which has not been studied much so far. hopefully, it will be of some help to both spanish and russian businessmen and to the future scholars who will continue the research in this field. this work can be seen as the first step in further study of the question, and the possible future lines of research may be the following: (i) analysis of intercultural business communication between the spanish and the russians based on hall’s three value dimensions of time, space and context (hall, 1959 & 1966); (ii) analysis of other genres of written business communication between the spanish and the russians (contracts, business correspondence, emails, etc.); (iii) analysis of oral business communication between the spanish and the russians (negotiations, self-presentations, argumentation, etc.); (iv) selection of different linguistic variables for each value dimension for the analysis of intercultural business communication between the spanish and the russians (for example, as suggested in the table 3, guillén-nieto, 2009: 49-50); (v) analysis of the use of politeness strategies in business communication between the spanish and the russians. article history: received 3 january 2016 received in revised form 9 august 2016 accepted 10 august 2016 references kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7066 anthony, l. (2012). antconc 3.2.4w [computer software]. tokyo, japan: waseda university. url: http://www.laurenceanthony.net/ barnlund, d. (1998). “communication in a global village” in m.j. bennett (ed.), 35-53. bennett, m.j. (ed.) (1998). basic concepts of intercultural communication. selected readings. yarmouth, me: intercultural press. gudykunst, w.b., ting-toomey, s. & e. chua (1988). culture and interpersonal communication. newbury park, ca: sage. guillén-nieto, v., marimón-llorca, c. & c. vargassierra (eds.) (2009). intercultural business communication and simulation and gaming methodology. bern: peter lang. guillén-nieto, v. (2009). “crossing disciplines in intercultural communication research” in v. guillén-nieto, c. marimón-llorca y c. vargassierra (eds.), 29-65. hall, e.t. (1969/1966). the hidden dimension. new york: doubleday. hall, e.t. (1973/1959). the silent language. new york: doubleday. hofstede, g. (2001/1980). culture’s consequences. thousand oaks: sage publications. kecskes, i. & j. romero-trillo (eds.) (2013). research trends in intercultural pragmatics. berlin: de gruyter. mateo martínez, j. (2010). “professional and academic languages” in r. giménez (ed.), words for working: professional and academic english for international business and economics, 17-56. valencia: universidad de valencia. samovar, l.a., porter, r.e. & e.r. mcdaniel (1991). communication between cultures. belmont, ca: wadsworth. singer, m.r. (1998). “culture: a perceptual approach” in m.j. bennett (ed.), 97-110. websites: el pais – the leader of the spanish daily press. url: http://elpais.com/ [14/04/2013]. hosteltur.com – spanish leader webpage about tourism. url: http://www.hosteltur.com/ [14/04/2013]. imex impulso exterior 2012 international bisiness fair. url: http://imex.impulsoexterior.net/ [14/04/2013]. marketing4food.com – an online observatory specialised in the areas of marketing, sales and promotion in the sector of food industry and agriculture. url: http://www.marketing4food.com/ [14/04/2013]. pisos.com spanish real estate webpage. news report. url: http://noticias.pisos.com/ [14/04/ 2013]. rusia hoy source of political, business and cultural news and analysis about russia. url: http://rusiahoy.com/ [14/04/2013]. russian yellow pages. url: http://www.yp.ru/ [17/06/2013]. spanish yellow pages. url: http://www. paginasamarillas.es/ [17/06/2013]. the hofstede centre official website. url: http://geert-hofstede.com/index.php [17/06/2013]. коммерсантъ – daily russian economic newspaper. url: http://www.kommersant.ru/ [14/04/2013]. риановости – russian digital news agency. url: http://www.ria.ru/ [14/04/2013] the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 67 kseniia belova holds two university degrees: one in theory and methodology of teaching foreign languages and cultures (the english language being the area of specialization), obtained in her native city in russia in the state linguistic university of nizhny novgorod in 2008. in 2011 she graduated in english studies from the university of valencia in spain, and later took a master´s programme in english and spanish for specific purposes in the university of alicante, which she finished in 2013. notes 1 hosteltur.com spanish leader webpage about tourism <http://www.hosteltur.com/125170_turismoruso-crecera-30-espana-2013.html> [last access on 14/04/2013]. 2 news report from pisos.com spanish real estate webpage <http://noticias.pisos.com/reportajes/elmercado-ruso-una-demanda-inmobiliaria-creciente/> [last access on 14/04/2013]. 3 imex impulso exterior 2012 international bisiness fair. products and services to improve the competitiveness of the sme <http://imex.impulsoexterior.net/mesas-redondas-imex-2012/176-imex2012-mr-el-gran-mercado-ruso-en-2012.html> [last access on 14/04/2013]. 4 rusia hoy source of political, business and cultural news and analysis about russia <http://rusiahoy.com/articles/2012/05/28/espana_y_rusia_potencian_sus_relaciones_economicas_17 286.html> [last access on 14/04/2013]. 5 the official website of the hofstede centre <http://geert-hofstede.com/index.php> [last access on 14/04/2013]. 6 <http://www.hosteltur.com/188310_grandes-agencias-mercado-espanol-facturaron-8000-m.html> [last access on 14/04/2013]. 7 <http://ria.ru/society/20120313/593609854.html> [last access on 14/04/2013]. 8 <http://www.paginasamarillas.es/search/agencias-inmobiliarias/all-ma/madrid/all-is/all-ci/all-ba/allpu/all-nc/1?od=comentarios > [last access on 17/03/2013]. 9 <http://www.yp.ru/msk/search/text/агентства+недвижимости > [last access on 17/03/2013]. 10<http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2012/05/27/actualidad/1338143695_863379.html> [last access on 14/04/2013]. 11<http://rusiahoy.com/articles/2012/03/27/los_alimentos_rusos_buscan_salidas_16654.html> [last access on 14/04/2013]. 12<http://www.marketing4food.com/ranking_empresas_espana_alimentacion_alimentario> [last access on 14/04/2013]. 13 <http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1867662 > [last access on 14/04/2013]. 14 usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. (definition taken from nielsen norman group website <http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-tousability/> [last access on 19/05/2013]. 15 “basic web design principles” published on eighteenth century england website at the university of michigan <http://www.umich.edu/~ece/resources/design.html> [last access on 19/05/2013]. appendix kseniia belova ibérica 33 (2017): 37-7068 the influence of culture ibérica 32 (2016): …-… 15 “basic web design principles” published on eighteenth century england website at the university of michigan <http://www.umich.edu/~ece/resources/design.html> [last access on 19/05/2013]. appendix 1. spanish websites used for the analysis travel agencies: viajes el corte inglés url: http://www.viajeselcorteingles.es [17/03/2013] viajes halcón-ecuador url: http://www.halconviajes.com/ [17/03/2013] edreams url: http://www.edreams.es/ [17/03/2013] vibo viajes url: http://www.orizonia.com/es/ [17/03/2013] carlson wagonlit travel url: http://www.carlsonwagonlit.es [17/03/2013] rumbo url: http://agencias.rumbo.es/ [17/03/2013] barceló viajes url: http://www.barceloviajes.com/ [17/03/2013] logitravel url: http://www.logitravel.com/ [17/03/2013] atrapalo url: http://www.atrapalo.com/ [17/03/2013] viajes eroski url: http://www.viajeseroski.es/ [17/03/2013] real estate agencies: don piso url: http://www.donpiso.com/ [24/03/2013] navacasa, servicios inmobiliarios url: http://www.navacasa.es [24/03/2013] tecnocasa url: http://www.tecnocasa.es [24/03/2013] madrid gestión url: http://www.madridgestion.es/ [24/03/2013] fincas villalón url: http://www.fincasvillalon.com/ [24/03/2013] agencia astorga url: http://agenciastorga.com [24/03/2013] prausa consultores inmobiliarios url: http://www.prausa.es [24/03/2013] consulting inmobiliario gilmar url: http://www.gilmar.es [24/03/2013] fincas tonimar url: http://www.fincastonimar.com [24/03/2013] urbe 102 url: http://www.urbe102.com [24/03/2013] food industry companies: nestlé españa url: http://www.empresa.nestle.es [17/03/2013] campofrío url: www.campofrio.es [17/03/2013] corporación peñasanta url: www.centrallecheraasturiana.es [17/03/2013] preparados alimenticios url: www.gallinablanca.com [17/03/2013] panrico url: www.panrico.com [17/03/2013] el pozo alimentación url: www.elpozo.com [17/03/2013] miguel gallego url: www.migasa.com [17/03/2013] martínez loriente url: www.martinezloriente.com [17/03/2013] puleva food url: www.puleva.es [17/03/2013] bimbo url: www.bimbo.es [17/03/20] 2. russian websites used for the analysis travel agencies: coral travel url: http://www.coral.ru/ [17/03/2013] sunmar tour url: http://www.sunmar.ru/ [17/03/2013] 5-1/-& n/&1;= url: http://www.bgoperator.ru/ [17/03/2013] tui russia & cis url: http://www.tui.ru/ [17/03/2013] #=)2&==-<=.+3 =)!6 “5-/)!;2” url: http://www.airagency.ru/ [17/03/2013] m2+*=+o2& !;2 url: http://www.transaerotour.com/ [17/03/2013] p(*"< .2)=! url: http://www.ukrest.ru/ [17/03/2013] k.+:)'=)2$-= url: http://www.acase.ru/ [17/03/2013] pac group url: http://www.pac.ru/ [17/03/2013] the influence of culture ibérica 33 (2017): 37-70 69 the influence of culture ibérica 32 (2016): …-… 15 “basic web design principles” published on eighteenth century england website at the university of michigan <http://www.umich.edu/~ece/resources/design.html> [last access on 19/05/2013]. appendix 1. spanish websites used for the analysis travel agencies: viajes el corte inglés url: http://www.viajeselcorteingles.es [17/03/2013] viajes halcón-ecuador url: http://www.halconviajes.com/ [17/03/2013] edreams url: http://www.edreams.es/ [17/03/2013] vibo viajes url: http://www.orizonia.com/es/ [17/03/2013] carlson wagonlit travel url: http://www.carlsonwagonlit.es [17/03/2013] rumbo url: http://agencias.rumbo.es/ [17/03/2013] barceló viajes url: http://www.barceloviajes.com/ [17/03/2013] logitravel url: http://www.logitravel.com/ [17/03/2013] atrapalo url: http://www.atrapalo.com/ [17/03/2013] viajes eroski url: http://www.viajeseroski.es/ [17/03/2013] real estate agencies: don piso url: http://www.donpiso.com/ [24/03/2013] navacasa, servicios inmobiliarios url: http://www.navacasa.es [24/03/2013] tecnocasa url: http://www.tecnocasa.es [24/03/2013] madrid gestión url: http://www.madridgestion.es/ [24/03/2013] fincas villalón url: http://www.fincasvillalon.com/ [24/03/2013] agencia astorga url: http://agenciastorga.com [24/03/2013] prausa consultores inmobiliarios url: http://www.prausa.es [24/03/2013] consulting inmobiliario gilmar url: http://www.gilmar.es [24/03/2013] fincas tonimar url: http://www.fincastonimar.com [24/03/2013] urbe 102 url: http://www.urbe102.com [24/03/2013] food industry companies: nestlé españa url: http://www.empresa.nestle.es [17/03/2013] campofrío url: www.campofrio.es [17/03/2013] corporación peñasanta url: www.centrallecheraasturiana.es [17/03/2013] preparados alimenticios url: www.gallinablanca.com [17/03/2013] panrico url: www.panrico.com [17/03/2013] el pozo alimentación url: www.elpozo.com [17/03/2013] miguel gallego url: www.migasa.com [17/03/2013] martínez loriente url: www.martinezloriente.com [17/03/2013] puleva food url: www.puleva.es [17/03/2013] bimbo url: www.bimbo.es [17/03/20] 2. russian websites used for the analysis travel agencies: coral travel url: http://www.coral.ru/ [17/03/2013] sunmar tour url: http://www.sunmar.ru/ [17/03/2013] 5-1/-& n/&1;= url: http://www.bgoperator.ru/ [17/03/2013] tui russia & cis url: http://www.tui.ru/ [17/03/2013] #=)2&==-<=.+3 =)!6 “5-/)!;2” url: http://www.airagency.ru/ [17/03/2013] m2+*=+o2& !;2 url: http://www.transaerotour.com/ [17/03/2013] p(*"< .2)=! url: http://www.ukrest.ru/ [17/03/2013] k.+:)'=)2$-= url: http://www.acase.ru/ [17/03/2013] pac group url: http://www.pac.ru/ [17/03/2013] kseniia belova ibérica 32 (2016): …-… kmp group url: http://www.kmp.ru/ [17/03/2013] real estate agencies: e-2 l):$-(-'&=!url: www.mirned.com [17/03/2013] a!&0)' url: www.stozem.ru [17/03/2013] 5-k$)*9 url: http://5avenues.ru [17/03/2013] 400 c/9= url: www.400plus.ru [17/03/2013] 911 k8)*!=!$& l):$-(-'&=!url: www.911rlt.ru [17/03/2013] a7 url: www.a7-invest.ru [17/03/2013] k5qf k8)*!=!$& l):$-(-'&=!url: www.an-aber.ru [17/03/2013] k1=&/9! l):$-(-'&=!6 url: www.absolut-realty.ru [17/03/2013] k$+//&* url: www.avallon-realty.ru [17/03/2013] k$+*8+2: l):$-(-'&=!6 url: http://www.avangardrent.ru [17/03/2013] food industry companies: #-''-5-//6-7+** url: http://www.wbd.ru/ [19/03/2013] p8 f;=url: http://www.goldenseed.ru/ [17/03/2013] b1i):-*)**") .&*:-!)2" url: http://uniconf2.ru/ [17/03/2013] b1i):-*)**+3 =+4+2*+3 .&'%+*-3 (c2&:-').=) url: http://www.prodimex.ru [17/03/2013] n2;%%+ “r)2.-0&$&” url: http://www.cherkizovo-group.ru [17/03/2013] ?&'%+*-3 “danone-p*-'-/.” url: http://www.danone.ru [17/03/2013] kcs “e-2+!&28” url: http://www.miratorg.ru [17/03/2013] c2&:&-e)*):(')*! url: http://www.prodo.ru/ [17/03/2013] n2;%%+ .&'%+*-< “f;=+82&” url: http://www.rusagrogroup.ru/ [17/03/2013] n2;%%+ .&'%+*-< “tu.&” url: http://www.efko.ru/ [17/03/2013] 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 35 (2018): 227-231 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 discourse in context: contemporary applied linguistics. volume 3. john flowerdew (ed). london/new york: bloomsbury, 2014. 349 pages. isbn: 978-1-6235-6305-9. context and discourse are both core concepts to applied linguistics, and the debate on their meaning has given rise to a wide array of approaches, fields of research and to an extremely interesting interdisciplinary debate. discourse in context positions itself at the centre of this debate, bringing together scholars from various academic backgrounds, such as corpus linguistics, systemic functional linguistics, critical discourse analysis, conversation analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, discourse historical analysis, or taking a mixed approach to discourse and context, combining linguistics with sociology, ethnology and other fields of research. in the introduction, flowerdew addresses the notion of context, preparing the ground for the following chapters. he introduces the models identifying units of analysis for the notion of context, and offers an overview of the approaches to the notion of contextualization, highlighting its nature as a process. interestingly, the introduction includes a ‘chapter template’ breaking down the structure of each chapter, thus providing the reader with a navigation tool that will assist and encourage activities such as comparing, contrasting and debating different approaches and theories. baker investigates the construction of sexual identity in the media, by means of a textual analysis of a newspaper article. he combines feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis. he argues for the importance of the selection operated by the researcher in determining which contexts are relevant to the ends of the analysis, thus pointing the spotlight on the role of the researcher themselves. bednarek focuses on the use of wh-questions in american tv-series. she advocates for the relevance of television language to the investigation of popular culture, due to its impact on identities, societies, attitudes, beliefs 227 reseñas/book reviews and, of course, discourse. central to her notion of communicative context is the conceptualization of the relationship between texts and audiences in mediated discourse. she highlights that the communicative context of tv dialogue includes the audience as overhearers, and as the target the dialogue is designed for. cotterrill approaches the dynamics of trial-by-jury in the british courtrooms in terms of its nature as a “power-asymmetric institutional context” (page 71). the study underlines the power-asymmetry in the communication, the role of the audience, i.e. the jury (cfr. bednarek, this volume, on the notion of “overhearers”) and points out how the power dynamics of courtroom interaction are often exploited by lawyers in order to construct the identity of the witnesses as reliable or unreliable sources of information. gunnarsson explores professional discourse and identity construction looking at the way multinational companies construct – discursively – an attractive workplace culture by means of their websites. she outlines her multi-layered approach to context, breaking it down to a set of societal framework systems: the technical-economic framework, related to the use of the web for the dissemination of the companies’ image; the sociocultural framework, linked to the emphasis companies put on values such as diversity and respect; the legal-political framework, as all companies show a concern for issues such as corporate social responsibility, diversity and inclusion. interestingly, she notices, the linguistic framework does not address the issue of language, in spite of the emphasis put on diversity. focussing on a bridge design meeting, handford analyses spoken professional discourse. the study combines corpus linguistics and genre analysis methodologies to highlight the differences and similarities between the professional context considered and other professional contexts. a difference emerges between the meeting investigated and previous studies on the topic of business meeting communication, as it presents a higher frequency of evaluative language and a low frequency of items such as vagueness, hedges and back channels, commonly associated with practices of negotiations typical of such contexts. nonetheless, the author notes, a similar behaviour emerged from previous studies on international construction communication. harris and rampton investigate everyday interactional life in a multi-ethnic urban setting, drawing upon linguistic ethnography. the study has showed reseñas / book reviews ibérica 35 (2018): 227-231228 that a statement that would have been interpreted as racist was actually way less menacing, as it was embedded in a multi-layered context of everyday interaction. such context is described as contributing to keep the racial commentary in check by means of much more pressing concerns. while challenging “the adequacy of the standard social science interview as a means of assessing the significance of race and ethnicity” (page 154), the authors advocate for the validity of their methodology, pointing out that contextual knowledge is central to the “understanding of the utterance under investigation […]” (page 154). hart explores the conceptualization of violence in british media discourse on political protests, focussing on the reports of violence between police and students on the occasion of the raise of the student fees in 2010. in the chapter the author describes his cognitive linguistic approach to critical discourse analysis, and claims that grammar is a locus of ideology and that the role of grammar is to both encode and enact ideology, as patterning evokes mental models that change when the patterning changes. contexts are thus described as being constructed by grammar. iedema and carroll investigate health care communication by means of a methodology they define as “video reflexive ethnography” (page 186). their approach challenges discourse analytical conventions and calls for an “entanglement” of the researcher in the contexts where discourse is produced. videotaping of medical practice and the showing of such tapes to the practitioners in the video (“visualization of practice”) are meant as a way to break a taken-for-granted situation, and to encourage clinicians to reengage with their “here and now”. by means of this activity, called “reflexive video”, practices, meanings and feelings can emerge in new and unexpected ways. lou takes a geosemiotic approach to context, combining this framework with critical discourse analysis. the analysis focuses on an advertising campaign aimed at legitimizing the process of gentrification occurring in the neighbourhood of chinatown (washington d.c.). the author claims that an analysis of the spatial context of language could shed light on the process that reinforces a particular ideology of place (intended as subjective experience of space, featuring a set of contingent socio-cultural meanings). importantly, the study shows the relevance of space and place in the process of context shaping, but also that language has a role as a mediator between space and place. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 35 (2018): 227-231 229 mauranen discusses the use of english as a lingua franca in the context of academia. she underlines how lingua francas are “sites of complex language contact” (page 227) and how the academic environment adds to this inherent complexity by means of a set of traditions, expectations and hierarchies. her study reveals that the complexity of the academic environment raises concerns in the participants that are prioritized in interaction. elf speakers are thus led to prioritize their academic goals over their language struggles, in order to respond to the demands of the academic (social and interactional) context. o’halloran, tan and e take a multimodal approach to the investigation of the semiotic resources used in business news videos on the internet. they advocate for the need of such a methodology in that “discourse analysis based on language alone is insufficient for interpreting how meaning is created and negotiated today.” (page 248). an interdisciplinary methodology of investigation is useful in order to understand the complexity of our world that needs to be explored as a “unified conception” (halliday, 1978: 12). rose and martin discuss the effectiveness of genre-based literacy pedagogy in australian schools, drawing upon the sfl model of text-in-context and bernstein’s model of pedagogic contexts. discussing the outcomes of different approaches to teaching, they argue that describing context in terms of field-tenor-mode is not sufficient to understand and intervene on literacy skills in pedagogic contexts. rather, only a combination of bernstein’s sociological interpretation and linguistics methodologies can provide an analytic tool offering a much-needed broader view on social contexts. waring investigates teacher practices aimed at encouraging student participation in adult esl classroom, drawing upon conversation analysis. the analysis sees context as being at the same time institutional and sequential, and as being mainly governed by a set of turn-taking rules that are sometimes broken by the silence of a less confident student. only a comprehensive understanding of this twofold nature of classroom context can provide an insight on the pedagogical mechanisms that see the teacher charged with the responsibility of selecting (or not selecting) a responder in classroom conversation, in order to encourage shyer students while keeping at bay the too eager ones. wodak approaches political discourse from a discourse-historical perspective, integrating the approach by means of various social theories. in the study, context is conceptualised as being a multi-layered object of reseñas / book reviews ibérica 35 (2018): 227-231230 analysis. the author introduces the notion of “ritualized performance”, and claims that there is no clear-cut boundary between backstage and frontstage politics, as politicians fall in the habit of performing their role. they do, nonetheless, respond and adapt to their audience, be it one of insiders or a public one. i strongly recommend this volume, as it offers its readers the opportunity to cross their disciplinary border and get insights provided by colleagues with a different expertise and working with different methodologies. moreover, it provides a solid stepping-stone for further study to any scholar interested in the issue. received 24 july 2017 accepted 12 september 2017 reviewed by anna stermieri università di modena e reggio emilia (italy) anna.stermieri@unimore.it references halliday, m.a.k. (1978) language as social semiotic: the social interpretation of language and meaning. london: edward arnold. reseñas / book reviews ibérica 35 (2018): 227-231 231 03 marian amengual pizarro.qxd ������� ��� ��� � ���� ������� ����������� ���� � ����� ����������� ����������������������������� ������������������������ ���������������������������������� ��������� ��������������� � �� ����� ���� ������ �� � �������� ���������������������! � ������ ��"��������# ����������� ������ ������� ��������$ � ����� ��������� ����� ��%$������������������������� ���������������������&����������&�# !��� ����'$$'� ������������������# ����(�"���� ������ ������� ������� �� ����� ������� ������ �� �� ��� ��� � ������)�� ��� ���� %$� ��� ��� ���� ����� ��� �� ���"���� ��� '$$'� * � �������� ����"������������������������"������� ���������� ����������� �� ������� ����� � "��� �����+,���� �������������� * ���������� ����"��������������������������"�����)���� � ���������� ��������������� ����� ��"������� ������������� ���������������-��������!��� ����������������������������� . � �������# ��������������������/��� ������������������ ������ �����0���" ���� �� �� ���������������������������"�������������������������������������������� ��������� ���������� "��� ���������������������������,�������� �� � ���� ���1 ���������������� ��������� �������# � ������)�# � ����� �# ������# ���������� � ���� � ��������� ��� ���������� �������� ������������� ������������� ���������� ���� �� ����� ������ ��� ���� ������������ 2/�����������"��� ��� ����������/�� �������������/�������������� � �/��������/�2������2���� �/�� 3 ����/� ��� ������� ��������� �(�"����� �� �3����� � � ������� ������ ����� ��� �4 ���������������� ������ ������� ��� ����/������������� �# �/���������� � �$������������������%$ �����������2� � �/����� ������� � �/��&��������������������������(�"����� ����&���# 5���� '$$'�� 4���� ��������� ��� �/�� ��� ��� ����� �� �/�� �������� � � ������� !������� %$ �����������2� � �/���&�����3� ��"����'$$'��4�����(�"����� 2/�����������/ 4��/����/� �2� ������"������� �" ��� ��������� ���# �/���� ��# ���6�� ��������� ��� ������ � � �/��� ����������� � ��������� 7���������� ��� �����/����/��������"����� �� � ��������8 ��� �"���� � ������ ������ ���/�����!���� �����"�� � �/���2� 9 4� ��# �/�������������� � �/ ������"� ��-������������ ������������������ ������� �������������� �������������������� &������ ����������������������� ��������� � �� ��� ���� � �� �� � �� �� ����� �������� ': ������������� ������� �� 2/���������������� ����������� �������������������������� ������ ���� � ������������/���������������/����/���������/� � ���������2�����/ ����/� �� ���������1 ��� �����������������(�"����� �# �������# �����# �������# ����������� �� ������� ��� *�� ������� ��� ������� ����� � �"�� ����� !��� � � �� ����� ������� �������������� � �������������� �������*������;�������������������������# 9��� ���# <�� � �,�# ������������ ���������������� ��������� ��������������� �3������ ����� ������ ������# ������-���� � "0���� ������ �� ����� � ��������� ��� �= �# ��� ������������ ���� �!��� 1 �� ��"��������# / " ����������������������� ���� ��������� ��� ��������������������"�� ��� ��� ����=����� ����������� � � �"���)�� � ���� ���� ��� ������ � ���� � � ���� �� ��� �� �# ��� ������ � �����# ������"����� �� � �� �������� �� ��� �����)�� ��� � � �������� �� ������ �� �������������� # 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�����2���������.������ �1� ����� .�,��� ����������������������������������� ���*��*����5 � �������. ������ ����������������� ����������8�� ������ . ,�%������������������������� ������� �������� ��� ���������������.��� ����5 6 �������� ����������� ��� �������������� ������6���� ������838 � ���� 9 ���:��������') ��$���������������������������<4�������, , ���� ����������������� �;������ �����5������ ���������� *����������� ����3������� ����+�������� *����� � ���� ���������� ����2� �� �����3�$��� ��� ., ���� � �� ������ ��� � �;���� �� ��� ��5� & ���*� � ����� .������� � � �� ��� � ��� � ������������������� � ��������2� ��� � ������ ��� ������� �.k*�3�3�b��*���7��&��b���.>*l3�b��3�*�;2�m�b�b ibérica 11 [2006]�� ���� %: iberica 13 ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract this exploratory small-scale study focuses on the attitude towards learning english and levels of motivation of 132 engineering students from the university of the basque country (spain). the extent to which they consider themselves competent in three languages (basque/spanish/english) is also evaluated. for assessing these variables, a 35-item questionnaire is used. the participants were taking an esp (english for specific purposes) course and were familiar with english as a vehicular language through clil (content and language integrated learning) and/or emi (english medium instruction) courses. the results demonstrate that their attitude is positive, and it has improved since 2003, despite certain historical events concerning the minority language (basque). with regard to motivation, the students show a high level of instrumental orientation but a low level of extrinsicintegrative motivation. relatively high levels of intrinsic motivation are also observed, not far from extrinsic-instrumental motivation levels. the students’ mother tongue (basque vs. spanish vs. basque/spanish) does not affect results significantly. finally, high levels of self-perceived confidence with respect to their command of english are observed. keywords: trilingual education; attitude; motivation; engineering students; basque country. resumen m ot iv a c ió n in s tru me n ta l y a c t itu d p os i tiv a re s p e c to a l a p re nd iz a j e d e l ing l é s d e e s tud ia nt e s d e in g e ni e rí a e n un e n to rn o te rc ia ri o tri l i ng ü e este estudio exploratorio a pequeña escala se centra en la actitud hacia el aprendizaje del inglés y los niveles de motivación de 132 estudiantes de engineering students’ instrumental motivation and positive attitude towards learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting joseba m. gonzález ardeo university of the basque country (spain) fipgoarj@lg.ehu.es 179 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 179 ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 joseba m. gonzález ardeo ingeniería de la universidad del país vasco-euskal herriko unibertsitatea (españa). también se evalúa el grado en el que ellos se consideran competentes en tres idiomas (euskera/español/inglés). para valorar estas variables, se usa un cuestionario de 35 puntos. los participantes estaban recibiendo un curso de ife (inglés para fines específicos) y estaban familiarizados con el inglés como lengua vehicular a través de cursos de aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras (aicle) y/o inglés como medio de instrucción. los resultados demuestran que su actitud es positiva y que ha mejorado desde 2003, a pesar de ciertos hechos históricos relacionados con la lengua minoritaria (euskera). con respecto a la motivación, los estudiantes muestran un alto nivel de orientación instrumental pero un bajo nivel de motivación extrínseca-integrativa. también se observan niveles relativamente altos de motivación intrínseca, no muy alejados de los niveles de motivación extrínseca-instrumental. la lengua materna de los estudiantes (euskera vs. español vs. euskera/español) no afecta a los resultados de forma significativa. finalmente, se observan altos niveles de confianza auto percibida con respecto a su dominio del inglés. palabras clave: educación trilingüe, actitud, motivación, estudiantes de ingeniería, país vasco. 1. introduction language learning attitude and motivation are some of the key abstract affective variables of language learning (bernaus & gardner, 2008). considerable research has demonstrated that attitude and motivation to learn another language are related to each other (lasagabaster, 2005; elyildirim & ashton-hay, 2006; kormos, 2008; gardner, 2010). according to certain researchers (e.g. dörnyei & ushioda, 2011), learners having a good language motivation and a positive attitude towards an l2 or l3 can learn it more successfully. other affective and non-affective variables such as anxiety and aptitude are also involved in language learning, but this paper will focus primarily on motivation and attitude towards english as a third language in a trilingual formal setting. motivation for language learners is said to be the psychological quality that leads them to achieve the goal of mastering that language, whereas language attitude is related to a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour (eagly & 180 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 180 chaiken, 2007). researchers in many parts of the world have found that motivation is a consistently strong predictor of successful language learning and that their correlation is largely positive (masgoret & gardner, 2003). however, several research studies carried out in different contexts have demonstrated that the strength of motivation to learn a language varies from language to language or with age (lasagabaster et al., 2014), this leading to individual variations over time. in these studies, the oldest learners’ positive attitudes and motivation are less intense than those of the youngest ones, when learning takes place in formal school settings. different names have been coined to describe different types of motivation. the distinction between integrative and instrumental motivation (gardner & lambert, 1972) continues to be valid, but other categorizations, such as intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, are also commonly used (ryan & deci, 2000). on the one hand, integrative motivation has classically represented attitudes and feelings towards the target language group and/or the desire to be integrated into the culture of that language group. however, a more modern approach to this variable (gardner, 2010) indicates that to describe an individual as being integratively motivated to learn a language, first of all, s/he will have to be highly motivated to learn it; secondly, s/he will have an open and accepting approach to the new cultural group and/or a strong emotional interest in the speakers of that language and, thirdly, s/he will have a positive evaluation of the learning situation. on the other hand, instrumental motivation refers to the pragmatic or potential utilitarian gains of l2/l3 proficiency, such as getting a better job or a higher salary or learning the language as an instrument to achieve practical goals such as reading technical material, translation work or achieving higher social status. the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is also used but their definitions have always been controversial (sansone & marackiewicz, 2000). we define “intrinsic motivation” as motivation to engage in an activity for its own sake or because the individual has the desire to perform a specific task in the target language, due to the perceived intrinsic value and enjoyment derived from the activity, while “extrinsic motivation” is motivation to engage in an activity as a means to an end. schmidt et al. (1996) defined extrinsic motivation as motivation to obtain an external reward and intrinsic motivation as motivation to get sufficient rewards from the activity itself. they stated that intrinsic-extrinsic distinction is similar to integrative-instrumental distinction, but not identical. according to them and other researchers, e.g. brown (2000), both instrumental and integrative learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 181 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 181 motivation can be seen as subtypes of extrinsic motivation, because both are related to goals and outcomes. however, a paradigm shift seems to be taking place since, according to dörnyei and ushioda (2011: 7) “for l2 motivation research […] in the 21st century talking about integrative or instrumental orientations has a rather historical feel about it”. the definition of the other affective variable this paper focuses on, language learning attitude, is somewhat more controversial than that of motivation. it can be described as a hypothetical construct used to explain the direction and persistence of human behaviour (baker, 1993), or the feelings people have about their own language or the languages of others (crystal, 1997), or the set of beliefs that the learners hold towards the members of the target language group, the target language culture and, in the case of classroom learning, towards their teachers (hashwani, 2008). the following definition has been used in this study: “language attitude is the set of feelings our students express towards english or towards speakers of this language, taking into account that english is one out of the three languages they use for academic purposes”. the components of attitude are said to be three. the first one, the behavioural aspect of attitude, deals with the way one behaves in a particular situation. when the learners identify themselves with the native speakers of that language and adopt aspects of behaviour which characterize the members of the target language community, they will strive to learn more in the sense of acquiring information and skills useful for daily life and engaging themselves emotionally (kara, 2009). the second one, the cognitive aspect of attitude in the process of language learning, involves the connection between previous knowledge and the new one, creating new knowledge, checking new knowledge, and applying the new knowledge in different situations. finally, the emotional aspect of attitude (feng & chen, 2009) refers to the surrounding situations the learners may like or dislike and the inner feelings and emotions of foreign language learners influence their perspectives and their attitude towards the target language. we understand that learners with a positive attitude will be (highly) motivated in language learning and this will influence their performance in acquiring the target language. the present investigation has been conducted to extend our knowledge of language education in the basque country, where english shares academic goals with basque, a minority language, and spanish, another international language. the study was joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200182 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 182 undertaken to reach a better understanding of how the regular use of english in an academic community with two official languages may be affected in terms of motivation and language attitude. incidentally, the latter was measured in 2003 (same location and questionnaire with similar students) so its comparison with data from 2013 will undoubtedly enrich our outcomes. 2. trilingualism and the basque country during general franco’s regime in spain (1939-1975), a “spanish only” policy was instituted and basque communities were repressed. basque was banned from the public domain for four decades (the ban was lifted in 1979) until it was recognized as an official language by law in the basque autonomous community in 1982. since the statute of autonomy for the basque country was enacted in 1979, the basque parliament is vested with powers over a broad variety of areas, including tax collection. however, after more than 35 years since the statute was accepted by the lower house of the spanish parliament and the spanish senate, 35 areas have not been transferred yet. these fairly recent facts and events may be crucial for understanding some basque citizens’ attitudes towards “foreign languages” (spanish included). the revitalization of the basque language has been very successful in the educational system (gonzález ardeo, 2014) and the system has rapidly evolved since its official launch in 1983. many students are brought up speaking basque and spanish, so they have two native languages. consequently, they can be considered bilingual if we just focus on their natural acquisition process regarding those languages. however, they may or may not be balanced bilinguals. by contrast, l2 is the language these students speak (english) other than their l1 (basque and/or spanish). the rapid evolution of basque has seen more or less simultaneously the early introduction of english, both as a school subject and as a school language. a trilingual model, basque-spanish-english, was officially introduced by the basque government in 2010. however, many private schools had been involved in this approach for several years before this date and the university of the basque country had launched its “trilingualism plan” in 2005. in this paper, the term trilingual means: “able to use three languages actively with fairly similar fluency”. learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 183 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 183 another fact that has heavily influenced the linguistic strategy in the basque country is the bologna process. one of its consequences is the fact that many universities in europe are trying hard to internationalize their curricula (björkman, 2011; gonzález ardeo, 2013). the number of undergraduate and postgraduate programs taught entirely in english increases every year (costa & coleman, 2010) not only in northern europe but also, although at a slower rate, in southern europe. the university of the basque country is deeply involved in this process and, currently, fairly widespread approaches such as clil (content and language integrated learning) and esp (english for specific purposes), and to a much lesser extent emi (english medium instruction), play important roles as facilitators of language acquisition. although emi courses are on the rise in europe, mainly in masters programmes, the integration of emi into an institution involves a number of challenges from the point of view of language proficiency of students and teachers. one of the risks is that the lecturer’s english, although good, may not be specialised enough. further issues may involve the difficulty of assessing examination answers (what is being tested, the english language, knowledge of the subject, a combination of both?). clil is reserved for those programmes that have explicit and integrating content and language aims (coyle et al., 2010; smit & dafouz, 2012), in contrast to emi which focuses on content learning only. coyle (2007: 546) explains that “the literature differentiates between language-led clil, which highlights language development, and subject-led clil, which excludes explicit language teaching”. the strength of clil focuses on integrating content and language learning in varied, dynamic and relevant learning environments. its potential weakness lies in the interpretation of this “flexibility” unless it is embedded in a robust contextualized framework with clear aims and projected outcomes. within the university of the basque country, serious efforts are made in order to implement these two approaches but when emi is implemented, as often as not, certain problems arise. firstly, there is usually a gap between the skills acquired through general language courses and the english language skills needed. secondly, this approach expects students to possess higher english levels (e.g. c1 level effective operational proficiency). thirdly, concern about the linguistic skills of subject teachers is usually perceived. the growth of tertiary clil is an institutional initiative for enhancing the joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200184 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 184 employability of home students while attracting international students. however, despite these words, we must be cautious and keep in mind, as coyle et al. (2010: 25) state, that “the position of clil is clearly at an exploratory stage in higher education in many countries”, the basque country included. finally, esp is designed to meet specific needs; it is related in content to particular disciplines, occupations and activities; it is centred on language (lexis, syntax, discourse, pragmatics) appropriate to activities; it is nongeneral english oriented and it has no pre-ordained methodology (discipline, strategy or need dependent) (bell, 2006). the esp practitioners should regard themselves and their students as professionals who learn and complement each other. the facts in the university of the basque country for the last 30 years certainly fit these words. research carried out in the basque country confirms that secondary school students enrolled in emi or subject-led clil classes (lasagabaster & sierra, 2009) and engineering students enrolled in esp classes (gonzález ardeo, 2003) hold significantly more positive attitudes towards english as a foreign language with regard to teaching content than those in efl classes. moreover, one of the most powerful findings of clil and esp groups centres on increased motivation in both learners and teachers. nevertheless, it is widely recognized that there is a strong need for research and better practices in tertiary clil settings (costa & coleman, 2010). as far as esp is concerned, a paradigm shift has taken place in the university of the basque country and, currently, engineering students often face the dilemma of choosing subject-led clil vs esp courses without being aware of their compatibility (gonzález ardeo, 2013). the following sections include an exploratory small-scale study to determine how and to what extent, if any, the peculiarities of the trilingual approach in our university affect motivation and attitude towards learning english. 3. research questions and hypotheses for the following questions and hypotheses to be developed, we have considered the background and historical perspective depicted within the previous two sections and the fact that the university of the basque country advances towards a multicultural community based on three pivotal languages (basque, spanish and english). moreover, considering that the learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 185 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 185 linguistic question is still a controversial issue in the basque country and that english has become de facto an important vehicular language for engineering students, these are the questions that this study will address: 1. is the l1 in the basque country (basque vs spanish vs basque/spanish) linked to different attitudes towards learning english? the question involves potential cultural resistance to the target language as a consequence of the influence of historical events upon the minority language, basque. by considering recent research on the topic with secondary school students, we address the following hypothesis: the participants will show a positive attitude towards learning english via clil, esp or emi, irrespective of their l1. 2. is students’ motivation to learn english in a tertiary setting a balanced combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation? since the participants are well aware of how important english will be in their careers, we hypothesise that they will show almost exclusively extrinsic motivation, with a high level of instrumental motivation and a very low level of integrative motivation. 3. does being instructed in english at this stage enhance their feelings of having competence in three languages? despite the fact that their self-perceived competence in speaking and writing in english will be high, the hypothesis we address is that they will not consider themselves as (balanced) trilingual subjects. balanced bilingual individuals (basque/spanish b/s) are relatively common within the basque country, but balanced trilingual ones (basque/spanish/english b/s/e) are a lot less frequent. 4. methodology 4.1. participants our sample was taken from the faculty of engineering located in bilbao (spain) and the study involves 132 students (113 senior engineering students taking courses for grade credit, plus 19 students enrolled in a master’s degree). their age range was 21 to 29 [mean (µ) = 23.39, standard deviation (sd) = 8.46]. as for gender, the proportion of male/female students was 81/51. the students’ l1 was basque (28.78% of the sample), spanish joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200186 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 186 (43.18%) or both basque and spanish (28.03%). the participants had the following characteristics in common: 1) they were taking an optional esp course (delivered by the author of this paper); 2) they were following simultaneously (or had followed) optional clil and/or emi courses; 3) english is their l2 or l3. apart from this, we all know that fully homogeneous classes do not exist and the older the learners are, the more different their backgrounds are. our students have different strengths and weaknesses, but they are motivated learners with a good command of english [from (upper) intermediate to advanced level]. finally, a key question to be considered in order to contextualize the sociolinguistic reality which justifies the study is the fact that our students’ parents chose one particular language model in their children’s pre-university education1. this, and the historical events previously mentioned, may or may not have affected their motivation and attitude towards english (as a foreign language). 4.2. instruments the students were invited to complete a questionnaire (see appendix) assessing mainly their attitude and motivation in relation to learning english. the number of items, 35, was decided not only thinking of the solid results the instrument should yield, but also trying to minimize the risk of respondents suffering from fatigue when filling out the questionnaire. thus, the instrument can be described as short enough (manageable), easy to use, and easy to grade. firstly, the questionnaire required students to provide some demographic and/or socio-biographical information (age, gender, l1). secondly, it included several items connected to attitude indicators and key motivators, as well as a section on “self-rating of proficiency in english”. the questionnaire was exclusively administered in english and a 4-point likert scale was used for grading purposes (strongly agree = 4, agree = 3, disagree = 2, strongly disagree = 1). its sections were the following: (i) attitude towards learning english. the main aim of the ten items from this first section was to gather information about attitude towards english in a trilingual formal setting in which basque has to struggle for survival, and spanish is still a common vehicular language. the same items had been successfully used before by learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 187 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 187 gonzález ardeo (2003) and by lasagabaster (2001). the latter adapted baker’s (1993) questionnaire on the topic to the particular context of the basque country. (ii) intrinsic and extrinsic (integrative-instrumental) motivation. the different scenarios usually contemplated (schmidt et al., 1996) are a combination of different levels of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the latter being divided into the dichotomy integrative vs instrumental, as brown (2000) does. in order to quantify this diversity of options in our study, twenty items have been included in this section of the questionnaire, divided into different subsections. the first five items try to detect the level of intrinsic motivation our students show, and the following five try to see to what extent the students have integrative feelings. finally, ten new items try to check the levels of instrumental motivation of these students, both with respect to general english (ge) courses (5 items) and clil/esp/emi courses (5 items). (iii) self-rating of proficiency in english. student responses to the five items included in this section basically expect to show how confident they feel with their level of english and, consequently, if they have the feeling of being trilingual (b/s/e), based on self-perceived competence in these languages. 4.3. data collection the questionnaires were completed in class (≤20 minutes) and the answers were recorded on answer sheets. they were also codified and statistically analysed by means of the following statistical analysis and data management solution: spss statistics. 5. results with the help of the spss software, descriptive (µ and sd for each item are included) and inferential statistics were ascertained. for the latter to be obtained, analyses of variance, anova and factor analysis were carried out. these analyses were also used to test the differences between our subgroups of students with respect to their l1 (b vs s vs b/s). exploratory factor joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200188 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 188 analyses were also carried out to identify the amount of variance explained by each factor, and analyses to evaluate the questionnaire’s reliability and validity were accomplished. internal consistency was measured through cronbach’s alpha. the results from the first section in the questionnaire reflect a very favourable overall attitude towards learning english. table 1 compares the results from 2003 and 2013 in terms of µs and sds. this is the only section of the questionnaire in which this kind of comparison has been carried out since, as we mentioned in the introduction, data from 2003 were readily available (see gonzález ardeo, 2013). the most relevant considerations when comparing these results can be summarized as follows: 1) all the items but two (2 and 3) have improved their µ scores; 2) current µ scores for items 2 and 3 are very close to those obtained in 2003 (no statistically significant differences); 3) in most cases, the differences are not high but some cases are well worth mentioning (scores in 6 and 8 have changed significantly from “reluctant” to “openly in favour of ” being taught in english and not minding “marrying an english speaker”; 4) the differences in µ values for items 1, 3, 7, 9 and 10 are very narrow; 5) sd values have increased somewhat in most cases (all but 1 and 7), so dispersion has increased. since the variables do not overcome normality tests, ten non-parametric wilcoxon-mann-whitney tests were carried out in order to compare mean values from 2003 and 2013. as expected, a statistically significant increase of mean values was observed for item 6 “taught” (p-value=0.0078) and for item 8 “marry” (p-value=0.0005). no statistically significant differences were learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 189 learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): …-… 5. results with the help of the spss software, descriptive (! and sd for each item are included) and inferential statistics were ascertained. for the latter to be obtained, analyses of variance, anova and factor analysis were carried out. these analyses were also used to test the differences between our subgroups of students with respect to their l1 (b vs s vs b/s). exploratory factor analyses were also carried out to identify the amount of variance explained by each factor, and analyses to evaluate the questionnaire’s reliability and validity were accomplished. internal consistency was measured through cronbach’s alpha. the results from the first section in the questionnaire reflect a very favourable overall attitude towards learning english. table 1 compares the results from 2003 and 2013 in terms of !s and sds. this is the only section of the questionnaire in which this kind of comparison has been carried out since, as we mentioned in the introduction, data from 2003 were readily available (see gonzález ardeo, 2013). attitude towards learning english items !/sd (2003) !/sd (2013) n=123 n=132 1. hear 3.044/1.198 3.122/0.987 2. pupils 3.065/0.938 2.867/1.289 3. speak 2.996/1.211 2.906/1.476 4. difficult 2.424/0.787 2.717/1.109 5. useful 1.847/1.356 1.969/1.628 6. taught 2.243/0.989 2.603/1.278 7. enrich 3.486/1.068 3.579/0.883 8. marry 2.182/1.003 2.897/1.238 9. worth 3.819/0.573 3.872/0.693 10. children 3.190/1.098 3.208/1.308 table 1. mean (!) and sd scores of items (see appendix) from “attitude towards learning english” in 2003 and 2013. the most relevant considerations when comparing these results can be summarized as follows: 1) all the items but two (2 and 3) have improved their ! scores; 2) current ! scores for items 2 and 3 are very close to those obtained in 2003 (no statistically significant differences); 3) in most cases, the differences are not high but some cases are well worth mentioning (scores in 6 and 8 have changed significantly from “reluctant” to “openly in favour of” being taught in english and not minding “marrying an english speaker”; 4) the differences in ! values for items 1, 3, 7, 9 and 10 are very narrow; 5) sd values have increased somewhat in most cases (all but 1 and 7), so dispersion has increased. since the variables do not overcome normality tests, ten non-parametric wilcoxon-mann-whitney tests were carried out in order to compare mean values from 2003 and 2013. as expected, a statistically significant increase of mean 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 189 observed in the scores of the remaining items within the same period of time. cronbach’s alpha (α=0.681) predicts that the internal consistency is acceptable since although values between 0.7 and 0.8 are usually needed for confirming internal consistency, in some fields of study (e.g. psychology) values above 0.6 are commonly accepted. finally, considering results in terms of l1 (b vs s vs b/s), no statistically significant differences were observed either. our second section contains four groups of items to study these engineering students’ motivation(s) (n=132). this psychological quality is the cornerstone of this section. subsections of intrinsic and extrinsic (integrative/instrumental) motivation are included. table 2 shows the results of different types of motivation. these results show relatively high levels of intrinsic motivation. however, µ values for items 1, 2 and 4 are far less high than for 3 and 5. item 4 “i learn english simply for the sake of learning it” presents the lowest µ. as far as sds are concerned, they remain relatively low except for item 4 again. data was also evaluated considering the students’ l1 (b vs s vs b/s). the differences observed were not statistically significant. internal consistency of this section can be described as acceptable (α=0.696), and it is both reliable and valid. the taxonomy extrinsic-integrative vs extrinsic-instrumental, used by certain researchers (e.g. brown, 2000), is also used in this study. learners with high integrative motivation have been traditionally associated to individuals interested in learning a foreign language in order to get to know native speakers and/or their culture. nowadays, according to gardner (2010), integrative motivation refers to a constellation of attributes and for a joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200190 joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): …-… values was observed for item 6 “taught” (p-value=0.0078) and for item 8 “marry” (p-value=0.0005). no statistically significant differences were observed in the scores of the remaining items within the same period of time. cronbach’s alpha (#=0.681) predicts that the internal consistency is acceptable since although values between 0.7 and 0.8 are usually needed for confirming internal consistency, in some fields of study (e.g. psychology) values above 0.6 are commonly accepted. finally, considering results in terms of l1 (b vs s vs b/s), no statistically significant differences were observed either. our second section contains four groups of items to study these engineering students’ motivation(s) (n=132). this psychological quality is the cornerstone of this section. subsections of intrinsic and extrinsic (integrative/instrumental) motivation are included. table 2 shows the results of different types of motivation. 1 2 3 4 5 !/sd !/sd !/sd !/sd !/sd intrinsic 2.934/0.893 2.895/1.006 3.542/0.953 2.386/1.490 3.792/0.687 integrative 2.078/1.638 2.809/1.135 3.067/1.089 2.294/1.568 3.298/1.173 instrumental (ge) 3.603/0.627 3.403/0.718 3.393/0.909 2.256/1.008 3.312/0.898 instrumental (clil/esp/emi) 2.239/1.227 3.6535/0.737 2.621/1.013 3.519/0.817 3.328/0.692 table 2. overall mean (!) and standard deviation (sd) scores for motivation items (1 to 5) (see appendix). these results show relatively high levels of intrinsic motivation. however, ! values for items 1, 2 and 4 are far less high than for 3 and 5. item 4 “i learn english simply for the sake of learning it” presents the lowest !. as far as sds are concerned, they remain relatively low except for item 4 again. data was also evaluated considering the students’ l1 (b vs s vs b/s). the differences observed were not statistically significant. internal consistency of this section can be described as acceptable (#=0.696), and it is both reliable and valid. the taxonomy extrinsic-integrative vs extrinsic-instrumental, used by certain researchers (e.g. brown, 2000), is also used in this study. learners with high integrative motivation have been traditionally associated to individuals interested in learning a foreign language in order to get to know native speakers and/or their culture. nowadays, according to gardner (2010), integrative motivation refers to a constellation of attributes and for a language learner to be described as an integratively motivated individual, among other considerations, s/he will have to be emotionally interested in the speakers of that language. these do not seem to be the feelings of our engineering students, according to data depicted within 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 190 language learner to be described as an integratively motivated individual, among other considerations, s/he will have to be emotionally interested in the speakers of that language. these do not seem to be the feelings of our engineering students, according to data depicted within table 2. the scores of µ for items 1 and 4 seem to justify our statement; nevertheless, the sds for both items are considerably high. our students seem to be particularly interested in knowing as much english as possible (items 3 and 5), not just for maximizing their proficiency, but also in case they have to migrate to a place where english is widely spoken (something that might be particularly relevant at this point in time). data was also analysed in connection with the students’ l1 (b vs s vs b/s) and no statistically significant variations were observed. cronbach’s alpha (α=0.688) can be considered acceptable. finally, it is worth considering that overall sds for integrative motivation are consistently and relatively high if compared with sds for instrumental motivation. the following two subsections within table 2 try to identify to what extent our students are instrumentally motivated (in connection with both ge and clil/esp/emi). instrumentally motivated learners want to learn a language because of practical reasons. the best known and the most frequently mentioned instrumental motivation is money. some items in the questionnaire deal with this idea of motivation (2, 3 and 5 for ge). outstandingly high µ values are reached for most items, both in ge and clil/esp/emi, except for item 4 in ge, and items 1 and 3 in clil/esp/emi. in general, there is little dispersion (low sd values) in both cases, except for item 1 in clil/esp/emi. to sum up, it can be said that according to the scores presented in table 2, the instrumental motivation of these students is consistently high. although the difference is not statistically significant, the fact that the overall µ scores are slightly higher for ge (3.193) than for clil/esp/emi (3.068) draws our attention. cronbach’s alpha values are 0.709 (ge) and 0.744 (clil/esp/emi) respectively. finally, both sections can be considered reliable and valid. an exploratory factor analysis was performed for this section on motivation to know the amount of variance explained by each factor. note that as we extract consecutive factors, they account for less and less variability. as far as intrinsic motivation is concerned and following kaiser criterion, only the first factor was retained and the remaining four factors were dropped. this first factor accounts for 59.73% of the variance (eigenvalue = 2.986). items 1, 2, 4 and 5 saturate on factor 1, a dimension that could be represented by learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 191 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 191 “determination” (motivation for doing an activity for the pleasure related to developing knowledge and new ideas or (sensation of) mastering a task). for extrinsic motivation, we focus firstly on integrative motivation. here, only the first factor is retained. it accounts for 61.161% of the variance (eigenvalue = 3.058). items 1, 2, 3 and 5 saturate on this factor, a dimension we have represented by “attitudes towards a worldwide culture”. secondly, we focus on instrumental motivation. the analysis performed for ge and clil/esp/emi provides the following data: two factors present eigenvalues greater than 1 for ge (2.682 and 1.035) and also two factors for clil/esp/emi show eigenvalues greater than 1 (2.473 and 1.115). to sum up, the first two factors for ge and for clil/esp/emi explain respectively 74.370% (53.656% + 20.714%) and 64.105% (44.184% + 19.921%) of the original variables’ variability. in other words, out of 100% of the studied phenomenon’s total variance for ge and clil/esp/emi, 74.370% and 64.105% respectively, are explained by these two factors. table 3 shows how much variability is explained by each item of the socalled instrumental motivation and ge versus clil/esp/emi, and how much of this variability is loaded on each factor or component. on the one hand, it can be observed that items 1 and 2 for ge and items 2 and 5 for clil/esp/emi are the worst explained variables in the model since they account for less than 80% of the original variability. on the other hand, the variability explained in the model for items 3, 4 and 5 for ge and items 1, 3 and 4 for clil/esp/emi is high (enough). moreover, items 2 and 5 for ge saturate on factor 1 (a dimension that could be represented by “money” or “future earning”), while items 1, 3 and 4 load on factor 2 (represented by “social status”). for clil/esp/emi, only item 1 loads on factor 2 and items 2, 3, 4 and 5 load on factor 1, a dimension that could be represented by “a tool to succeed” (“english as a tool to succeed in current engineering studies and future career”). joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200192 joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): …-… of the original variables’ variability. in other words, out of 100% of the studied phenomenon’s total variance for ge and clil/esp/emi, 74.370% and 64.105% respectively, are explained by these two factors. table 3 shows how much variability is explained by each item of the so-called instrumental motivation and ge versus clil/esp/emi, and how much of this variability is loaded on each factor or component. on the one hand, it can be observed that items 1 and 2 for ge and items 2 and 5 for clil/esp/emi are the worst explained variables in the model since they account for less than 80% of the original variability. on the other hand, the variability explained in the model for items 3, 4 and 5 for ge and items 1, 3 and 4 for clil/esp/emi is high (enough). moreover, items 2 and 5 for ge saturate on factor 1 (a dimension that could be represented by “money” or “future earning”), while items 1, 3 and 4 load on factor 2 (represented by “social status”). for clil/esp/emi, only item 1 loads on factor 2 and items 2, 3, 4 and 5 load on factor 1, a dimension that could be represented by “a tool to succeed” (“english as a tool to succeed in current engineering studies and future career”). ge clil/esp/emi communalities components communalities components items extraction 1 2 extraction 1 2 1 0.682 -0.074 0.756 0.894 -0.007 0.901 2 0.792 0.659 0.133 0.796 0.709 0.087 3 0.901 -0.043 0.858 0.921 0.788 0.133 4 0.997 0.087 0.910 0.887 0.936 -0.049 5 0.889 0.992 -0.103 0.752 0.803 -0.051 table 3. communalities and extraction matrix for instrumental motivation of ge and clil/esp/emi. the last section in the questionnaire contains items on “self-rating of proficiency in english”. research indicates that self-evaluation plays a key role in fostering an upward cycle of better learning (simons, 2002). in our study, “self-rating” should be understood as self-evaluation or self-judgment of the quality of the students’ work and command of the target language. table 4 shows some results of the so-called “self-rating” section that are used for descriptive statistics. the most obvious conclusion is that the level of self-confidence of these students with respect to their command of english is, to a certain extent, surprisingly high. an anova showed no statistically significant differences between the groups (f=1.0, p=0.1) for b vs. s vs. b/s. high or very high ! values for all items were obtained. finally, sd scores are sustainably low. 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 192 the last section in the questionnaire contains items on “self-rating of proficiency in english”. research indicates that self-evaluation plays a key role in fostering an upward cycle of better learning (simons, 2002). in our study, “self-rating” should be understood as self-evaluation or self-judgment of the quality of the students’ work and command of the target language. table 4 shows some results of the so-called “self-rating” section that are used for descriptive statistics. the most obvious conclusion is that the level of self-confidence of these students with respect to their command of english is, to a certain extent, surprisingly high. an anova showed no statistically significant differences between the groups (f=1.0, p=0.1) for b vs. s vs. b/s. high or very high µ values for all items were obtained. finally, sd scores are sustainably low. the coefficient obtained for cronbach’s alpha was 0.702 (“acceptable” internal consistency) and it can be assured that this section of the questionnaire is valid and reliable. to summarize our findings, by taking into account the data presented and our three hypotheses, we can state the following: 1. as far as our first hypothesis is concerned -the participants will show a positive attitude towards learning english via clil, esp or emi, irrespective of their l1-, it must be accepted since historical events do not seem to influence or interfere and, as we have observed, attitude towards learning english is positive (even more than in 2003) irrespective of the students’ l1. 2. with reference to our second hypothesis -they will show almost exclusively extrinsic motivation, with a high level of instrumental motivation and a very low level of integrative motivation-, this must be rejected due to the following facts: a) their level of intrinsic motivation is relatively high; b) the students show both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (considering integrative and learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 193 learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): …-… self-rating of proficiency in english (n=132) 1 2 3 4 5 !/sd !/sd !/sd !/sd !/sd 3.291/0.863 3.158/1.093 3.015/1.103 3.613/0.996 3.282/0.903 table 4. overall mean (!) and standard deviation (sd) scores for self-rating items (1 to 5) (see appendix). the coefficient obtained for cronbach’s alpha was 0.702 (“acceptable” internal consistency) and it can be assured that this section of the questionnaire is valid and reliable. to summarize our findings, by taking into account the data presented and our three hypotheses, we can state the following: 1. as far as our first hypothesis is concerned the participants will show a positive attitude towards learning english via clil, esp or emi, irrespective of their l1-, it must be accepted since historical events do not seem to influence or interfere and, as we have observed, attitude towards learning english is positive (even more than in 2003) irrespective of the students’ l1. 2. with reference to our second hypothesis they will show almost exclusively extrinsic motivation, with a high level of instrumental motivation and a very low level of integrative motivation-, this must be rejected due to the following facts: a) their level of intrinsic motivation is relatively high; b) the students show both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (considering integrative and instrumental motivation as a whole); c) integrative motivation levels are lower than intrinsic motivation levels. 3. our third hypothesis they will not consider themselves as (balanced) trilingual subjects can be rejected, since according to their selfevaluation, their level of self-perceived proficiency with respect to their command of english is high and, consequently, they clearly consider themselves individuals who have competence in three languages. however, the hypothesis should be accepted if the adjective “balanced” is added to the description of the term trilingual. 6. discussion on the one hand, the findings included in this research paper with respect to attitude show that these learners hold a very positive or favourable attitude towards learning english. if compared with results obtained in 2003, the differences for some of the items (“i prefer to be taught in english” and “i would not mind marrying an english speaker”) have improved significantly, despite the 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 193 instrumental motivation as a whole); c) integrative motivation levels are lower than intrinsic motivation levels. 3. our third hypothesis -they will not consider themselves as (balanced) trilingual subjectscan be rejected, since according to their self-evaluation, their level of self-perceived proficiency with respect to their command of english is high and, consequently, they clearly consider themselves individuals who have competence in three languages. however, the hypothesis should be accepted if the adjective “balanced” is added to the description of the term trilingual. 6. discussion on the one hand, the findings included in this research paper with respect to attitude show that these learners hold a very positive or favourable attitude towards learning english. if compared with results obtained in 2003, the differences for some of the items (“i prefer to be taught in english” and “i would not mind marrying an english speaker”) have improved significantly, despite the facts presented within the second section of the paper. these were seen as a potential source of negative emotional attitude (feng & chen, 2009) towards foreign languages but they do not seem to interfere with our students’ successful learning process. on the other hand, the different connotations the three languages may have among the basque society in general, and particularly among our engineering students, do not seem to interfere either: 1) basque and spanish are their main languages of instruction but they perceive english as a foreign but, simultaneously, global and natural additional language; 2) the historical events that might have influenced their opinions about foreign languages basque was about to disappear during franco’s regime do not seem to affect their learning process; 3) their l1s are different (b vs. s vs. b/s) and although their feelings about a foreign language may be different, they are not an obstacle for successfully learning it. as cohen and dörnyei (2002: 172) point out, “motivation is often seen as the key learner variable because without it, nothing much happens”. student motivation tends to be stronger when the learner has specific rather than general goals for language learning but it can be lessened when students have negative attitudes or prejudices toward the target language and/or the people joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200194 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 194 who speak that language. the fairly high result obtained for our students’ extrinsic-instrumental motivation to learn english was fairly predictable since these students are taking or have taken non-compulsory clil/esp/emi lessons. the most likely explanation for this high level of instrumental motivation could be that students in general are more likely to exert effort on a course if they anticipate an eventual payoff in terms of their future professional lives. the relatively high level of intrinsic motivation shown by the participants in this study suggests that they are interested learners and, as ryan and deci (2000) state, they perceive themselves as more academically and professionally competent. this description seems to be appropriate enough for our own students but we could add that they probably use more deeplevel learning strategies, persist more and are more confident. learning another language is not like learning mathematics or thermodynamics. for this reason, learning english is likely to involve not only the linguistic and cognitive capacities of the learner, but also their social, cultural and moral senses. in other words, as dörnyei and csizér (2002: 453) state, “the core aspect of […] the integrative disposition is some sort of psychological and emotional ‘identification’”. the notion of extrinsic-integrative motivation has evolved since it was introduced in the late 1950s by gardner and lambert (1972) because the world itself has changed greatly since then. at that time, social groups associated with particular languages were much more clearly identifiable but nowadays globalization has brought about a new society in which english is shared by many groups of non-native speakers. our students may be a case in point of learners of english that do not associate the language with a particular geographical or even cultural community but with a supranational policy involving technological innovation, international business, world travel, etc. our results show that although there are individual differences in extrinsic-integrative motivation in connection with english, they are not significant. the students analysed in this paper, as a whole, show low integrative motivation levels. this finding seems to match those of dörnyei and csizér (2002: 453): “some sort of ‘integrativeness’-related factor typically emerges in empirical studies on l2 motivation”. english is an aspirational language in many ways and our students seem to be willing to share the privilege native english-speakers experience in terms of communication purposes since the tendency is for learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 195 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 195 english to take over as the instrumental language, at the expense of all others. these key questions reinforce the idea that they see english as a tool that plays, or will play, a vital role in their lives but the language does not belong to them (they seem to have just hired or borrowed it). an additional explanation for their high instrumental motivation could be that they are senior and master’s students and, consequently, they are aware of the instrumental importance of english when an engineer is about to enter the employment market where her/his chances of getting a good job without mastering this international language drop dramatically. according to the data collected for this paper, the self-perceived english proficiency of our students seems to be high enough to describe themselves as individuals who are competent in three languages. one possible explanation for the high values observed could be that our students are highly motivated students who take clil, esp and/or emi courses voluntarily. this probably means that apart from being aware of the importance of english, they feel confident when dealing with different topics in english. nevertheless, this does not tell us the whole story since extramural english is nowadays inevitably involved in the learning process of students. taken together, these findings suggest that our students hold a positive attitude towards english and are motivated to keep improving their command of it. although this may appear somewhat surprising, considering the role of basque and spanish as the main languages of instruction in the basque school system, the context of the present learning situation should be considered when interpreting these results. the students within the present context speak basque and/or spanish at home, but they have voluntarily chosen to be partially instructed in english. a likely reason for this could be the high level of self-confidence they show with respect to their command of english. 7. limitations, conclusions and insights the methodological limitations of our small-scale study cannot be omitted: sample sizes in 2013 (n=132) and in 2003 (n=123), lack of prior research studies on motivation in connection with engineering students, and selfreported data (the items on self-rating of proficiency in english). among the limitations of the researcher, the restricted access to more people with joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200196 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 196 similar characteristics to those involved in the study, clearer measures of longitudinal effects (only attitude has been compared with data available from 2003), and potential or hidden biases this researcher may show (e.g. words one may have used, consciously or not, with a positive or negative connotation) should be included. one of the peculiarities of the present study (with its limitations) is that spanish and english hold higher levels than basque in terms of status. this language is still a minority language even within the basque country, whereas the need to learn english is taken for granted by these engineering students and it is reinforced by local language policies. for these reasons, our first conclusion is that we have to continue researching into students’ attitude and motivation, to learn from them in this and other contexts. consequently, by working together researchers and authorities in charge of assessing the linguistic needs of a community, public money can be spent in a more efficient way by implementing enhanced education programmes. basque and spanish are everyday communication languages outside the classroom in the basque country. despite this fact, a significant number of our students consider their level of proficiency in english high or very high. the students have a priori few chances to use the foreign language actively outside a formal setting. nevertheless, with the trend towards globalization and western societies demanding engineers who are proficient in english, they often develop a bicultural identity rooted in their local and global cultures. arnett (2015: 59) also states that through the media, especially the internet, people tend to “develop a global identity that gives them a sense of belonging to a worldwide culture”. regarding this perception, our second obvious conclusion could be that our engineering students seem to view english as the international language that might be a passport to future jobs at home and abroad. trilingual programmes are spreading to various bilingual areas in europe but, at least in southern europe, research is still at an early stage, and we, therefore, lack systematic knowledge of such programmes. then, although certain researchers (e.g. dörnyei & ushioda, 2011) consider that learners enjoying a good language motivation and a positive attitude towards an l2 or l3, english in our case, can learn it more successfully, our third conclusion would be that further research is necessary in order to answer confidently (as far as this is possible) the questions raised concerning such multilingual experiments. this is so much more so considering that learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 197 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 197 researchers such as de angelis (2007) and jessner (2006) have convincingly demonstrated that learning in an l3 (or further languages) differs in many ways from learning in an l2. article history: received 12 october 2015 received in revised form 20 january 2016 accepted 25 january 2016 references joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200198 arnett, j. j. 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(2000). intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: the search for optimal motivation and performance. san diego, ca: academic press. schmidt, t., d. boraie & o. kassabgy (1996). “foreign language motivation: internal structure and external connections” in r. oxford (ed.), language learning motivation: pathways to the new century, 9-70. honolulu: university of hawaii press. simons, h. (2002). “school self-evaluation in a democracy” in d. nevo (ed.), school-based evaluation: an international perspective, 17-34. oxford: jai press. smit, u. & e. dafouz (2012). “integrating content and language in higher education: an introduction to english-medium policies, conceptual issues and research practices across europe” in u. smit & e. dafouz (eds.), integrating content and language in higher education. gaining insights into englishmedium instruction at european universities, 1-12. aila review 25. learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200 199 dr. joseba m. gonzález ardeo (b.eng., ba in economics, master in tefl) is associate professor at the university of the basque country and has taught esp to students enrolled in bachelor or master of engineering degrees for more than 30 years. former member of the editorial board of ibérica. research priorities: esp, trilingualism, and interdisciplinary collaboration. notes 1 model a: most subjects are taught in spanish; model d: most subjects are taught in basque; model b: 50% of the subjects are taught in spanish and 50% in basque. to choose a vs. b vs. d can give us a first picture of the background the students have grown up into. 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 199 appendix. questionnaire joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): 179-200200 learning english in a trilingual tertiary setting ibérica 32 (2016): …-… dr. joseba m. gonzález ardeo (b.eng., ba in economics, master in tefl) is associate professor at the university of the basque country and has taught esp to students enrolled in bachelor or master of engineering degrees for more than 30 years. former member of the editorial board of ibérica. research priorities: esp, trilingualism, and interdisciplinary collaboration. notes 1 model a: most subjects are taught in spanish; model d: most subjects are taught in basque; model b: 50% of the subjects are taught in spanish and 50% in basque. to choose a vs. b vs. d can give us a first picture of the background the students have grown up into. appendix. questionnaire attitudes towards learning english 1. i like hearing english spoken 2. english should be taught to all pupils in the basque country 3. i like speaking english 4. english is a difficult language to learn 5. there are more useful languages to learn than english 6. i prefer to be taught in english 7. learning english enriches my cultural knowledge 8. i would not mind marrying an english speaker 9. english is a language worth learning 10. i would like my children to be english speakers also intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic motivation • intrinsic 1. i like the english language 2. i enjoy learning english very much 3. i would rather learn english than any other language 4. i learn english simply for the sake of learning it 5. i feel the need to speak proper english • integrative: i study english because… 1. i am interested in the culture, history or literature associated to the english-speaking world 2. i would not mind immigrating to a country where english is widely spoken 3. i have a strong desire to know all aspects of this language 4. i like to communicate with people who speak english 5. i am determined to achieve maximum proficiency in english • instrumental: i study english because… 1. i want to be able to speak this international language apart from basque and spanish 2. to be fluent in english will help me to find a good/better job more easily 3. i feel that good knowledge of english will give me an edge in competing with others 4. it is the predominant language of almost 50 countries 5. increasing my english proficiency will have financial benefits for me • instrumental: i’m taking/have taken clil/esp/emi courses because… 1. most books from my reading list on engineering are written in english 2. it is the main language of science, technology and academia 3. most engineering literature i deal with is written in english 4. it can allow me to be part of multidisciplinary and multicultural teams 5. i would like to be fully proficient in the english used in engineering joseba m. gonzález ardeo ibérica 32 (2016): …-… self-rating of proficiency in english 1. i feel i am ready (proficient enough) to interact with native and foreign english speakers 2. i am able to express my ideas, emotions and feelings in english with confidence and ease 3. due to my command of english, i consider myself a trilingual individual (b/s/e) 4. i am linguistically ready for multicultural and multidisciplinary team work 5. i have succeeded in learning english 08 iberica 32_iberica 13 9/11/16 20:08 página 200 30 rese.as.qxd ��������������������� ����������������� ������� ��������������������������� ���������� ��� �� � ������ ����� ���3 0+ � �� ����*��� �� ��������� �5� �bc���3��)�0�3����$� �� ��������+�� * <����(�� a ��* ��� a �0���� �� �+�� ��3� ��� ������ ���� � ��&%� ������' $a ��* ��(�d����� �&��&�&%��� �&�$�� �+�� ��3� �(��'����� 5 ������� �j ����� ������ �� �-�������������� �������� ����� ���� ������� ��� � ��� ���� ������������������������������ ���!������������" �������������������� 3��, � '������� �� j ����3������������������ ��, ��� �� ��� ��� �������k������ ������ ���� �� ����� �3�� �� ���� � ��� �� ��������� ��k�������� �� � ����� '� ���� � ���� ��� �, j� ����� � ��%��� ��k����%��� ��i ��k�! 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la enfermedad como enemigo explícito en metáforas de lucha, con el afectado como contendiente en situación de inferioridad; la cosificación del afectado; y, en general, el uso de metáforas conceptuales contrarias al empoderamiento del afectado. todo ello situaría mayoritariamente a los intervinientes en el modelo biomédico de conceptualización de la esquizofrenia. palabras clave: metáfora conceptual, análisis del discurso, esquizofrenia, psiquiatría. abstract c on c e p tu al me t ap h or i n p s yc h ia tr ic d is c o ur s e o n s c h iz op h r e n ia this paper presents a study of the conceptual metaphors used by psychiatrists in their discourse about schizophrenia in a dissemination context, thus leading to la metáfora conceptual en el discurso psiquiátrico sobre la esquizofrenia salvador climent y marta coll-florit universitat oberta de catalunya (españa) scliment@uoc.edu, mcollfl@uoc.edu 187 ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208 s. climent & m. coll-florit infer their underlying models of conceptualization of such disorder. the corpus has been set up from a documentary film in spanish showing first person interviews to health professionals, patients and relatives. among them all, psychiatrists’ interventions have been selected and their metaphorical expressions have been detected, extracted, quantified and classified. in a second phase, corresponding conceptual metaphors have been inferred and classified according to target domains. the findings show the major conceptualization patterns of schyzophrenia revealed by those metaphors used by the psychiatrists of the corpus and their relation to either biomedical or social models of illness. the main patterns detected are the following: illness as an external agent showing volitional behavior; illness as an explicit enemy in metaphors of war, where the patient is kept in a situation of inferiority; objectification of the patient; and, in general, presence of conceptual metaphors opposite to patients’ empowerment. as a main conclusion, the psychiatrists of the corpus result to be mainly positioned in the biomedical model of conceptualization of schizophrenia. keywords: conceptual metaphor; discourse analysis; schizophrenia; psychiatry. 1. introducción este trabajo presenta un análisis del discurso psiquiátrico sobre la esquizofrenia en un contexto de divulgación, utilizando como metodología la teoría de la metáfora conceptual (tmc). en consecuencia, el análisis asume la naturaleza conceptual de la metáfora, la plausibilidad de su detección a partir de expresiones lingüísticas, y adopta la hipótesis de que las metáforas conceptuales pueden revelar conceptualizaciones y patrones de pensamiento de los hablantes. la tmc fue formulada inicialmente por lakoff y johnson (1980). es ampliamente conocida y se ha desarrollado en multitud de publicaciones, de entre las que se pueden calificar de clásicas johnson (1987), lakoff (1987), lakoff y turner (1989), lakoff (1993) y gibbs (1994). la metáfora conceptual (mc) se postula como un proceso cognitivo inconsciente y habitualmente inadvertido, mediante el cual se proyectan estructuras de conocimiento entre dominios de la experiencia, de manera que el dominio de destino es conceptualizado parcialmente en términos del de origen. es preciso remarcar la naturaleza conceptual y no puramente lingüística de la mc, por lo que se asume que las expresiones metafóricas (em) son la realización superficial de una mc, pudiendo ésta realizarse en múltiples em. 188 la función principal de la mc es facilitar la comprensión y la eficacia comunicativa respecto al dominio de destino, ya que el de origen es de naturaleza más concreta, mejor comprendida y en muchos casos más cercana a la experiencia. en ese sentido, se postula que muchos de los dominios de origen de las mc reflejan patrones de experiencia corporal, denominados “esquemas de imagen” (lakoff y johnson, 1999). el análisis empírico de discursos en el marco de la tmc se ha aplicado a una gran diversidad de ámbitos, como el médico, el legal, el económico, el religioso, el periodístico o el publicitario. los trabajos pioneros y más representativos son los de george lakoff en el campo del discurso político, concretamente sobre el uso de metáforas en la justificación de la primera guerra de irak por parte del gobierno norteamericano (lakoff, 1991) y sobre la comparación del discurso ideológico de los partidos demócrata y republicano estadounidenses (lakoff, 2004). más directamente relacionado con nuestro trabajo, en el ámbito médico cabe destacar el análisis de las mc presentes en relatos de enfermedades tales como cáncer (gibbs y franks, 2002; semino et al., 2017), ictus (boylstein et al., 2007), diabetes (goering, 2015) o depresión (schoeneman et al., 2004). para lakoff (1991: 11-13,16), la metáfora acota la percepción, destacando determinados aspectos o ideas y ocultando otros; y proporciona parte de la estructura inferencial con la que razonamos. distintos trabajos en el campo de la psicología experimental parecen aportar evidencias para la validación de esta hipótesis, por ejemplo el de gentner y gentner (1983), en el que se muestra como distintos modelos analógicos de la electricidad inducen a los sujetos del experimento a predecir aspectos distintos del comportamiento de un circuito eléctrico. asimismo, semino (2011: 130-131) postula que las metáforas conceptuales juegan un papel importante en el modelado de las disciplinas científicas y sus discursos, ya que se introduce terminología de origen metafórico que progresivamente adquiere significados especializados, los cuales dejan de ser percibidos como metafóricos; ello sucede tanto en el lenguaje especializado como en el pedagógico o de difusión (boyd, 1993). el ámbito de nuestro trabajo se sitúa precisamente en la difusión de la esquizofrenia por parte de médicos psiquiatras. sus marcos de fondo son los modelos biomédico y social de interpretación de la enfermedad (giddens, 2006), los cuales, de la misma manera que los marcos mentales postulados por lakoff (2004) en el análisis político de la sociedad norteamericana (el estado como padre estricto la metáfora conceptual en el discurso psiquiátrico ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208 189 vs. como madre protectora), compiten en el plano discursivo para imponer una determinada visión de la enfermedad. en la siguiente sección expondremos con mayor detalle los trabajos realizados en este campo en el ámbito de la salud mental. en el apartado 3 se plantean las hipótesis del trabajo y la metodología seguida, en 4 se desarrolla el análisis del corpus y, finalmente, en 5 se presentan las conclusiones del trabajo. el volumen y las características de la muestra analizada no permiten establecer conclusiones sobre un discurso general y establecido en la profesión psiquiátrica, aunque sí representan una aproximación original para el establecimiento de hipótesis al respecto. 2. análisis del discurso y metáfora en el ámbito de la psiquiatría en los últimos años, se han publicado numerosos trabajos sobre la aplicación del análisis del discurso en el ámbito de la sanidad y, de manera más específica, en el área de la salud mental (harper, 1995; leishman, 2004; mancini, 2007). así, se ha estudiado la interacción entre médico y paciente, especialmente en el proceso de establecimiento del diagnóstico, centrando la investigación en el análisis de las estrategias comunicativas de los profesionales, así como en la delimitación de las fases del encuentro médicopaciente en tanto que género discursivo (ten have, 2001; ainsworthvaughn, 2003). estos trabajos han demostrado que la manera en que los profesionales presentan los tratamientos influye notablemente en la probabilidad de su aceptación o rechazo por parte de los pacientes. por ejemplo, estudios recientes sugieren que el uso relativamente bajo de antipsicóticos inyectables en pacientes con esquizofrenia se debe, en gran medida, al discurso ambiguo de los psiquiatras a la hora de recomendar estos tratamientos (weiden et al., 2015). en estas investigaciones se pone de manifiesto el papel crucial de la lingüística aplicada en la asistencia sanitaria y se reivindica una mayor colaboración entre lingüistas, profesionales de la salud e investigadores de otras áreas de las ciencias sociales, con el objetivo de que las investigaciones tengan una aplicación real en los usuarios finales (candlin y candlin, 2003). de manera relacionada, en el área de la salud mental se subraya la necesidad de avanzar hacia un discurso interdisciplinario de cura holística, en tanto que se ha demostrado que las fronteras profesionales pueden ser obstáculos para la cura s. climent & m. coll-florit ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208190 efectiva del trastorno mental (sainsbury centre for mental health, 2001). en este sentido, cabe destacar el trabajo de zeeman y simons (2011), en que se analiza la introducción de una nueva figura profesional en el área de la salud mental de inglaterra, una figura multidisciplinar que combina prácticas médicas, psicológicas, de enfermería y de terapia ocupacional. en concreto, el estudio se basa en el análisis del discurso de profesionales que participaron en esta iniciativa, para entender de qué manera conceptualizan su rol y su práctica. los resultados muestran que persiste el discurso biomédico imperante, un discurso que reduce la atención sanitaria al proceso de medicalización, concebido en términos de evaluación, diagnóstico, prescripción y administración de medicamentos, esto es, un proceso en que las condiciones humanas se definen en términos de condiciones médicas y problemas (foucault, 1984). no obstante, zeeman y simons (2011) evidencian la emergencia de otros discursos complementarios que enriquecen y equilibran el discurso biomédico. de esta manera, abogan por un discurso interdisciplinario que ponga en valor los componentes psicológicos y humanísticos de la atención a la salud mental. tal como apuntan los autores de este estudio, es muy importante recordar en todo momento la naturaleza performativa del lenguaje: cómo el lenguaje construye la realidad y los efectos de una construcción particular. la supremacía del discurso biomédico en el ámbito de la psiquiatría también se hace patente en el uso de determinadas metáforas. roseman (2016) destaca el aumento de los términos “anti-”, como por ejemplo “antipsicóticos”, que de forma análoga a los “antibióticos” reflejan una conceptualización de los trastornos mentales basada en la guerra: un elemento externo invade el afectado, de manera que la función del tratamiento es erradicarlo; siguiendo con esta metáfora, es muy común el uso de expresiones como “efectos colaterales” o bien la descripción de los afectados como “supervivientes”. como apunta roseman (2008, 2016), la elección de estas metáforas puede tener consecuencias profundas en la práctica profesional. por lo tanto, considera que es fundamental reconsiderarlas, así como los conceptos de diagnóstico y tratamiento que conllevan, en tanto que existen otras metáforas que iluminan mejor el proceso. en este sentido, el autor recuerda que muchos términos de la psiquiatría se han originado como metáfora, como es el caso obvio de la esquizofrenia (“división” de “estructuras” psicológicas), unas metáforas que, si bien se usan como verdades literales en el discurso psiquiátrico, siguen influyendo en la manera en que conceptualizamos un concepto particular. por consiguiente, el estudio de la metáfora conceptual en el ámbito de la la metáfora conceptual en el discurso psiquiátrico ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208 191 psiquiatría puede ser de gran utilidad para avanzar hacia una mejor comprensión y tratamiento del trastorno mental. en este punto es importante destacar que se han realizado numerosos estudios sobre el lenguaje de las personas con esquizofrenia. las investigaciones muestran ciertas deficiencias semánticas y pragmáticas en estos hablantes, especialmente dificultades en la identificación de la ironía, así como problemas en la comprensión de metáforas (de bonis et al., 1997; langdon et al., 2002; bruce y bodenstein, 2005; mossaheb et al., 2014). no obstante, no todos los estudios confirman este patrón. por ejemplo, iakimova et al. (2005) no encuentran dificultades de reconocimiento de la metáfora en personas diagnosticadas con esquizofrenia cuando las metáforas son convencionales. el problema de base, tal como apuntan gibbs y franks (2002), es que en este tipo de estudios los investigadores tienden a prestar atención únicamente a las metáforas más creativas e idiosincráticas, omitiendo el estudio de las metáforas convencionales. asimismo, diversos trabajos han demostrado que la metáfora puede ser una herramienta útil en el tratamiento de pacientes con trastornos psicóticos (mould et al., 2010). en concreto, el terapeuta propone una determinada metáfora (p.ej. la familia es una balsa), a partir de la cual el paciente debe articular su discurso, lo que le permite expresar sus experiencias subjetivas de manera más ágil. otra aproximación es la propuesta por semino et al. (2017), que proponen en interacciones con pacientes de cáncer el uso de metáforas que potencien su empoderamiento, esto es, su grado de agentividad. así, en la línea apuntada por roseman (2016), se indica que los profesionales deben ser conscientes de la función de las metáforas que utilizan (asociaciones emocionales positivas o negativas, empoderamiento o desempoderamiento, etc.), en tanto que tienen consecuencias en su práctica profesional. no obstante, esta área de investigación es poco fecunda y no encontramos estudios que analicen de manera sistemática la producción espontánea de metáforas en el discurso de los profesionales de la salud mental. éste es el objetivo fundamental del presente artículo, centrado específicamente en el análisis del discurso psiquiátrico sobre la esquizofrenia. 3. hipótesis, corpus y métodos el presente trabajo parte de la hipótesis básica de que el uso de unas u otras metáforas conceptuales para hablar sobre la esquizofrenia revela una s. climent & m. coll-florit ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208192 determinada concepción del trastorno mental y de la enfermedad en general. de esta manera, las metáforas se muestran como indicios o pruebas para detectar diferentes tipos de discurso en relación al trastorno mental. el objetivo es observar si las metáforas que los psiquiatras formulan de manera espontánea en un contexto de divulgación se inscriben en el discurso biomédico o en discursos humanísticos alternativos de interpretación de la enfermedad (giddens, 2006; zeeman y simons, 2011). como hemos apuntado en el apartado anterior, el discurso biomédico concibe la enfermedad únicamente como disfunción orgánica y reduce el tratamiento al proceso de medicalización del individuo afectado, minimizando de esta manera su capacidad agentiva. contrariamente, desde los discursos humanísticos la enfermedad no se concibe como un fenómeno puramente físico, de manera que se da menos importancia a la medicación y se apuesta por otros tratamientos más holísticos, potenciando el empoderamiento del afectado. en este sentido, es especialmente relevante el modelo de interpretación social de la enfermedad, el cual subraya el papel crucial del contexto social del afectado, como sus condiciones de vida y trabajo, así como la importancia de las actitudes sociales que eviten la discriminación y los procesos de estigmatización de los afectados. el corpus analizado consiste en un documental español que recoge intervenciones en primera persona de afectados por esquizofrenia y profesionales especialistas en su tratamiento. el documental, titulado 1% esquizofrenia y dirigido por ioné hernández, fue producido por julio médem en el año 2006. con una duración de 72’, el documental incluye la participación de 13 psiquiatras, en un tiempo total de intervención de 20’34’’. en cuanto al proceso de constitución y anotación del corpus, en primer lugar se llevó a cabo una transcripción de los fragmentos relevantes del documental en que intervienen los 13 psiquiatras. dos anotadores expertos en metáfora conceptual realizaron de manera independiente la identificación y clasificación de em, así como la inferencia de las mc a las que corresponden. el grado de acuerdo inicial fue muy elevado y tras varias reuniones de discusión se llegó a un consenso total. para la detección de expresiones metafóricas se aplicó el método metaphor identification procedure (mip) definido por el pragglejaz group (2007) y para la definición de la estructura de las metáforas una adaptación del método de steen (1999, 2007). de manera más específica, formalizamos la aplicación consecutiva de estos dos métodos en los siguientes cinco pasos: la metáfora conceptual en el discurso psiquiátrico ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208 193 1. identificación del foco metafórico. se detecta la palabra o grupo de palabras que permite identificar una em. para la ejecución de este paso, se siguen los criterios definidos por el mip: a) el establecimiento del significado de las unidades léxicas en el contexto analizado; b) la detección por contraposición de un significado más básico (más concreto, más preciso, menos vago y/o relacionado con aspectos físicos); y c) la determinación de que el sentido contextual se relaciona con el sentido más básico por algún tipo de similitud. 2. identificación del dominio meta de la mc, a partir de la em o su contexto. 3. identificación del dominio origen de la mc, a partir del foco metafórico. 4. establecimiento de correspondencias ontológicas y epistémicas de la mc. se establecen las relaciones entre elementos de los dos dominios (correspondencias ontológicas) y se identifican las propiedades que se traspasan desde el dominio origen hasta el dominio meta (correspondencias epistémicas). 5. detección del nivel de generalización de la mc. se determina si la mc identificada forma parte de una metáfora más genérica o si puede ser la combinación de otras metáforas más básicas. la aplicación de este método hace posible tanto la detección de metáforas nuevas como la de metáforas convencionalizadas (bowdle y gentner, 2005) con una base metafórica activa (pragglejazz group, 2007: 30). 4. análisis para analizar el discurso metafórico-conceptual de los psiquiatras del corpus de trabajo consideramos relevantes dos aspectos: (1) cuáles son los dominios meta que aparecen en el discurso y en qué medida; y (2) cuáles son los dominios origen utilizados para conceptualizar dichos dominios meta y cómo los articulan en términos de correspondencias. el primer aspecto es importante porque denota la focalización del discurso, y por tanto los temas, de entre los posibles, que los psiquiatras consideran relevantes. la importancia del segundo aspecto radica en el hecho de que aporta s. climent & m. coll-florit ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208194 interpretación al discurso, ya que al indicar cuáles de las metáforas posibles se utilizan para explicar el dominio meta, y de qué manera se utilizan – es decir, qué entidades o conceptos se proyectan – se revelan ideas y conceptualizaciones determinadas, también de entre otras posibles. 4.1. análisis cuantitativo la metodología de análisis reseñada en el apartado anterior nos ha permitido detectar un total de 101 em, las cuales se han clasificado en 9 grandes clases de mc, en función del dominio meta, tal como se muestra en la tabla 1. la primera observación es que las clases más numerosas de metáforas, con diferencia, son las de la mente y el cerebro (25,7%) y las de la enfermedad (21,8%), y las menos numerosas las de la comunicación (5%) y las de la sociedad (5,9%). este hecho sería indicativo de una aproximación al problema principalmente profesional y abstracta, con menor atención a la incidencia de factores comunicativos o sociales. en un punto intermedio se sitúa el volumen de metáforas del afectado, que hemos dividido entre las relativas al afectado como individuo y las relativas a la vida del afectado. en conjunto significan un volumen alto de metáforas centradas en el afectado (17,8%), lo cual, también por oposición a las centradas en factores comunicativos y sociales, parece denotar una focalización en el afectado como individuo, por oposición a factores contextuales. el número de metáforas de la medicina también es bajo (7,9%), pero puede acrecentar, junto a las de la mente y el cerebro, un conjunto centrado en una aproximación profesional a la situación, lo cual resulta congruente con la profesión psiquiátrica, habituada a tratar las manifestaciones de la mente como objeto de estudio y a desarrollar un pensamiento complejo sobre las mismas. en cualquier caso, la cuantificación a partir del dominio meta debe ser tomada como una primera aproximación de orden temático, pero no muy determinante, ya que la aparición de los temas en el documental puede depender de las preguntas que se hayan hecho a los intervinientes o de su edición posterior. más determinante desde el punto explicativo es el segundo aspecto, es decir, qué dominios de origen y correspondencias se utilizan para explicarlos. la metáfora conceptual en el discurso psiquiátrico ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208 195 4.2. metáforas de la enfermedad en la clase de metáforas de la enfermedad destaca el volumen muy elevado, el máximo de la clase, de metáforas en que se atribuyen a la enfermedad capacidades volitivas (1) o de animacidad, las cuales se pueden interpretar en muchos casos como una personificación, en tanto que implican agentividad voluntaria. en otros casos la capacidad volitiva no es explícita, pero sí lo es una actividad autónoma propia de entidades animadas. en consecuencia, ante esta ambigüedad formulamos este conjunto como la enfermedad es un ser animado. (1) la enfermedad incide de una manera doble, quitando o dejando de ganar. en las expresiones que la instancian destaca, en primer lugar, la caracterización de la enfermedad como agente externo, propio, como hemos visto, del paradigma biomédico; y en segundo lugar, la conceptualización de la enfermedad como una guerra (2). las metáforas que estructuran un proceso conflictivo en tanto que guerra, con todo el conjunto de elementos propios de dicho dominio (antagonistas, medios utilizados como armas, victorias y derrotas) son extremadamente habituales, como indican múltiples estudios sobre metáfora conceptual. en el campo de análisis de discursos sobre la enfermedad, véase por ejemplo semino et al. (2017), en el que se detecta una gran incidencia de esta metáfora en la conceptualización del cáncer. pero lo destacable en el discurso de los psiquiatras del corpus es que, en todos los casos, los contendientes en la lucha son la enfermedad y el afectado. que uno de ellos sea la enfermedad encaja en una concepción biomédica de la situación, ya que en otro tipo de discursos sobre la s. climent & m. coll-florit ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208196 clases de mc por dominio meta casos de em % metáforas de la mente y el cerebro 26 25,7 metáforas de la enfermedad 22 21,8 metáforas de la vida del afectado 12 11,9 metáforas de las emociones 9 8,9 metáforas de la medicina 8 7,9 metáforas del afectado 6 5,9 metáforas de la sociedad 6 5,9 metáforas de la comunicación 5 5,0 otras metáforas 7 6,9 tabla 1. casos detectados de em clasificados por dominio meta. e esquizofrenia se destaca como enemigo, por ejemplo, el estigma social. que el contendiente en la lucha contra la enfermedad sea el afectado focaliza en éste la problemática, dejando a otros agentes, especialmente los propios psiquiatras, pero también a otros profesionales, o agentes familiares o sociales, en un nivel de implicación más distante (o ninguno). por lo tanto este tipo de metáforas enmarcan la situación como un conflicto que recae básicamente sobre el afectado. esta conceptualización puede interpretarse también a favor de un empoderamiento del afectado. (2) son grandes luchadores, se enfrentan con su enfermedad con las armas que la propia enfermedad les deja. otro aspecto a destacar es que en algunas expresiones en que se dota de entidad a la enfermedad o a sus consecuencias se produce miedo en el afectado (3). este hecho es congruente con la mencionada distribución de contendientes en una guerra y añade al papel del afectado como contendiente una situación de inferioridad. este marco, a diferencia del anterior, reduce la capacidad de empoderamiento del afectado. (3) si lo sacas de tí tienes más facilidad para tener menos miedo de él. en otras expresiones de la metáfora la enfermedad es un ser animado, la enfermedad realiza acciones negativas, como sustraer o bloquear la adquisición de bienes del afectado (1) o actuar de manera desordenada y posiblemente peligrosa por lo que debe ser controlada (4). únicamente hallamos una sola expresión en que la enfermedad realiza una interacción que puede considerarse positiva (5), ya que se conceptualiza como un agente en un intercambio de bienes. pero es interesante notar que en este intercambio quien obtiene el beneficio no es el afectado, sino quien lo está observando; por tanto, no redunda en empoderamiento del afectado, ya que éste queda reducido a un elemento pasivo y marginal en la transacción. (4) es el estudio del cerebro el que nos va a permitir controlar y curar las enfermedades mentales. (5) nos aporta aprender de la relación que tiene el ser humano con el sufrimiento. ante la abundancia de expresiones que dotan de animacidad a la enfermedad, tan solo tres la conceptualizan como entes inanimados, la metáfora conceptual en el discurso psiquiátrico ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208 197 destacando su cosificación en (6) – como algo que se tiene y se lleva – y su concepción como contenedor en (7), en tanto que una estructura que tiene un fondo, y por tanto interior, exterior y otros límites – estructuración clásica del esquema de imagen de contenedor (johnson, 1987). el gran desequilibrio en la aparición de metáforas de animacidad frente a las de inanimacidad denota una concepción dinámica de la enfermedad, por oposición a estática. (6) ¿los artistas tienen más enfermedades mentales que los no artistas? sí. ¿por qué? porque lo llevan en los genes. (7) hay muchas personas que piensan que en el fondo y en el origen de la esquizofrenia hay unas vivencias de angustia brutales. sorprende también la gran escasez en esta clase de una metáfora omnipresente en la conceptualización de procesos: la del viaje. una única expresión conceptualiza la enfermedad como un viaje, (7), en que los focos “fondo” y “origen” denotan las conceptualizaciones simultáneas de contenedor y viaje. por lo tanto la enfermedad se concibe mucho más como una entidad, quizá un ser al que enfrentarse, que como un proceso. por contra, y esto nos lleva al análisis de la siguiente clase, lo que sí se conceptualiza claramente como un viaje es la vida del afectado, un marco que es considerado por semino et al. (2017) como favorable al empoderamiento del afectado. 4.3. metáforas de la vida del afectado la práctica totalidad de las metáforas de la vida del afectado son metáforas de viaje, un tipo de metáfora absolutamente habitual en la concepción de procesos. la estructura habitual de la metáfora comprende un camino (8, 9, 10), en el que se produce un movimiento de avance (11) hacia un destino (12, 13), y pueden existir diversos elementos como obstáculos que superar (14). lo interesante, pues, no es la propia existencia de este tipo de expresiones metafóricas, sino las correspondencias ontológicas y epistémicas entre los dominios implicados, el viaje y la vida del afectado. en (8), (9) y (10) observamos que el camino está transitado por la población no afectada por la enfermedad, mientras que los afectados se desvían del mismo (10) o quedan apartados de manera involuntaria (8) o voluntaria (9). (8) aparece en una etapa crucial de la vida (…) que es clave, que es la adolescencia, se quedan apartados, aislados, mientras sus compañeros siguen su proceso. s. climent & m. coll-florit ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208198 (9) los esquizofrénicos son contundentes…exactamente, estos no tienen dudas, cuando actúan verdaderamente desean quitarse del medio. (10) la manera en que una sociedad asume el problema de la desviación. (11) la mayoría avanza, si están bien tratados, la mayoría avanza. los que no avanzan es que están mal tratados. (12) el fracaso está al cabo de la calle. (13) hay quien dice que un tercio no progresa casi nada…un tercio que mejora sustancialmente y un tercio que casi se cura, que casi llega a llevar una vida normal. (14) y eso es también bastante emotivo y ver como se sobreponen a dificultades a veces enormes. los destinos posibles pueden ser de tipo positivo o negativo. el destino deseable del camino es, según se desprende de estas em, la normalidad (13), el cual no se alcanza si no se progresa en el camino. es interesante notar que el motor de dicho avance no es otro que el tratamiento médico (11), por lo que, si no se avanza, es que éste es erróneo – no se contempla la posibilidad de que no exista. las metáforas de la vida del afectado que emiten los psiquiatras del corpus revelan, así, una conceptualización en que el afectado está apartado del camino normal y el objetivo es llegar a una situación de normalidad, cosa que solo se puede obtener mediante tratamiento médico. tal como indican semino et al. (2017), si bien las metáforas de viaje tienden a reforzar los sentimientos positivos y el empoderamiento de los afectados, no presentan por defecto una función positiva, ya que se pueden usar, como acabamos de observar, para enfatizar la falta de control. 4.4. metáforas del afectado temáticamente relacionadas se hallan las metáforas del afectado en este caso en tanto que individuo y no en relación a su posición en el proceso global de la vida. los seis casos se dividen en dos metáforas de cosificación, una del tipo una persona es una planta, dos metáforas de yo dividido o bifurcado (split self) (lakoff y johnson, 1999: 268 ss.) y una metonimia de la enfermedad por la persona. todos los casos están altamente convencionalizados, incluso lexicalizados, pero debe notarse que su uso no deja de ser metafórico o metonímico, aunque, por su alto grado de la metáfora conceptual en el discurso psiquiátrico ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208 199 convencionalización, habitualmente no se perciba. en el uso de las metáforas formulables como el afectado es una cosa (15), y el afectado es una planta (16), se enmarca al afectado en una situación de inacción, y por tanto opuesta a su empoderamiento. en las dos metáforas ello sucede por la propia naturaleza de las mismas, ya que ni las cosas ni las plantas se conciben como entidades que realicen acciones voluntarias. (15) que después ese paciente sea una carga para su familia... no lo pidan a la psiquiatría. (16) va a tener episodios, brotes, que en algún momento hay que controlar. destaca además en (15) la interacción de el afectado es una cosa con una metáfora orientacional clásica, arriba es bueno, abajo es malo, ya que el hecho de soportar una “carga” (cosa de gran peso) implica las nociones de peso y gravedad, y por tanto sujeción de quien la soporta a una situación “abajo”, y por tanto negativa. otra correspondencia epistémica que se revela es que el causante de la situación negativa es el afectado, ya que por la correspondencia ontológica es el conceptualizado como “carga”. para terminar con el análisis de la clase, en los dos casos en que se usa el esquema de “yo dividido”, en el que se conceptualiza la existencia de dos personas dentro del afectado, observamos que el esquema se utiliza en contextos negativos: en términos de conflicto entre el subject (lugar de la consciencia, la razón y la subjetividad) y el self (otros aspectos que no constituyen la esencia del yo) en (17); y en términos de fracaso del subject, ya que pierde el control sobre el self, en (18). en este punto es interesante destacar que, de los seis casos en que aparece en el corpus el esquema de imagen del control, en cuatro el elemento que lo pierde es el afectado (18) y en dos casos lo que queda fuera de control es la enfermedad (4); y quien lo ejerce o debe ejercer es en cinco casos el psiquiatra y en un caso la sociedad. (17) la angustia es el radical básico de la naturaleza humana y es lo que nos enfrenta con nosotros mismos y con la realidad. (18) uno pierde el control de sí mismo. en resumen, todas las metáforas sobre el afectado utilizadas por los psiquiatras del corpus enmarcan valores minusvalorizantes del mismo. s. climent & m. coll-florit ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208200 4.5. metáforas de la mente y el cerebro en la clase de metáforas de la mente y el cerebro distinguimos tres grandes bloques de volúmenes equiparables: metáforas del cerebro (9 ems), de la mente (7 ems) y de los contenidos o actividades mentales (10 ems). en el primer grupo, el cerebro se conceptualiza mayoritariamente mediante la metáfora el cerebro es una máquina, concretamente, en todas las ocurrencias del corpus, como una máquina que en el caso de los afectados funciona mal (19). y, en segundo lugar, mediante una variación de la metáfora del conducto (conduit metaphor) (reddy, 1979), una metáfora compleja de la comunicación en la que se conceptualizan los mensajes como paquetes de información que circulan por conductos entre un origen y un destino. en el caso que nos ocupa, se concibe el cerebro como un conjunto de circuitos por los que se transmite información entre neuronas, siendo el transmisor de naturaleza química (20). nuevamente, como en el caso de la concepción del cerebro como máquina, el funcionamiento del cerebro del afectado se presenta como anómalo, ya que el sistema (mensajeros, circuitos [21]) funciona de manera anormal. ambas metáforas se hallan muy convencionalizadas, de manera que se presentan como de naturaleza objetiva, especialmente la metáfora del conducto como descripción del cerebro, que de hecho se acerca a una descripción objetiva de la fisiología cerebral, aunque expresiones del tipo “se comunican con otras neuronas” o “regulación de esos mensajeros” revelan su naturaleza metafórica, ya que establecen una proyección de conceptos del dominio de la comunicación al del funcionamiento cerebral. (19) hay partes de su cerebro que, de forma disfuncional, porque nada ha venido de fuera, se ponen en funcionamiento y haga que aparezca una palabra cuando realmente desde fuera no se oye nada. (20) ¿qué ocurre en el cerebro que produzca estos síntomas? existen circuitos neuronales específicos (…) que se comunican con otras neuronas (...) las personas con esquizofrenia tienen problemas en la regulación de esos mensajeros químicos, los neurotransmisores, de modo que estos se vuelven hiperactivos. (21) debido a las anormalidades de su desarrollo inicial del cerebro de los esquizofrénicos, el cerebro desarrolla circuitos alternativos para las funciones mentales corrientes. la metáfora conceptual en el discurso psiquiátrico ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208 201 de este subtipo puede concluirse que, aunque el uso de la metáfora el cerebro es una máquina está muy convencionalizado, en el caso de los psiquiatras del corpus se enmarca en un contexto en que la máquina, es decir el cerebro del afectado, funciona mal. por lo que respecta a metáforas de la mente, distinguimos entre las de su propia naturaleza y las de estados o actividades mentales. en primer lugar, la mente se enmarca en exclusiva en el corpus mediante la metáfora la mente es un contenedor de conceptualizaciones o emociones (22, 23), la cual se entreteje con la metonimia la persona por su mente, de manera que se identifica a la persona con su actividad o estado mental – en (22), expresada como “alma”, expresión convencional que tiene su origen en creencias religiosas y que refuerza aún más la identificación entre la persona y sus conceptualizaciones y emociones. (22) uno tiene una pena aquí metida en el alma…entonces lo pones fuera, lo cosificas, lo dibujas, lo pintas y es como si lo sacaras de ti...si lo sacas de ti tienes más facilidad para tener menos miedo de él, lo tienes fuera. (23) al fin y al cabo todos tenemos dentro más o menos casi todas las cosas que se van a reflejar en distinto nivel. en cuanto a metáforas de actividades y contenidos mentales, la gran mayoría de expresiones metafóricas (8 de 10) se refieren al contenido mental, el cual se presenta metafóricamente como una composición o estructura (24) y como un lugar, más concretamente mediante el concepto semánticamente subordinado a lugar, mundo (25); de hecho, la simbiosis de los dominios de origen permite formular la metáfora como el contenido de la mente es un mundo estructurado. en todos los casos, la situación que se describe de la mente del afectado implica desestructuración o estado de destrucción de la estructura, por lo que la curación se concibe como su reconstrucción. (24) (...) recomponer su manera de entender el mundo. (25) hay quien considera, yo estoy entre ellos, que son una especie de respuesta, sobre todo los delirios, para reconstruir un mundo que está siendo invadido. como resumen de esta clase, observamos que los psiquiatras del corpus analizado conceptualizan el cerebro como una máquina o un sistema de conductos, la mente como un contenedor, la persona identificada con su s. climent & m. coll-florit ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208202 mente, y el contenido de la mente como una estructura. pero lo más destacable, ya que se trata de metáforas muy convencionalizadas, es, en el caso del afectado, “la máquina” funciona mal y “la estructura” se ha destruido. 4.6. metáforas de las emociones entretejido con el concepto de contenidos mentales se halla el de las emociones, aunque éstas tienen una naturaleza mixta entre lo psíquico y lo físico, y es por ello que las hemos clasificado aparte. las expresiones metafóricas en que intervienen emociones se dividen prácticamente por mitad entre la cosificación (26) y la personificación (27). es comparable pues a las metaforizaciones de la enfermedad, en que aparecían también ambos dominios de origen, aunque con dos diferencias: en la enfermedad la cosificación es residual, por tanto la caracterización como entidad animada de la enfermedad está mucho más marcada que en las emociones; y en el caso de las emociones no se da la ambigüedad en el dominio de origen entre persona u otra entidad animada, ya que las expresiones verbales que actúan como foco de la expresión metafórica (p.e. “aportar” en 27) requieren de manera clara capacidades intencionales. (26) uno tiene una pena aquí metida en el alma. (27) su mundo de inquietudes se mueve en este aspecto de sentido de la vida, y entonces le aportan a uno reflexiones. el uso por parte de los psiquiatras del corpus de la metáfora una emoción es una persona es congruente con su uso típico según kovecses (2002: 21), que indica que la metaforización de emociones implica fuerzas y por tanto la existencia de agentes. en cambio, el uso de una emoción es una cosa no es tan habitual en inglés, aunque sí se puede considerar convencional en español, en tanto que son habituales las expresiones en que las emociones se expresan como algo que “se tiene”. así pues, no se detecta en esa clase un uso idiosincrático de las metáforas de emociones por parte de los psiquiatras. 4.7. metáforas de la comunicación relacionado con las vivencias y los contenidos mentales se halla el dominio destino de la comunicación. tres de las cinco expresiones presentes en el la metáfora conceptual en el discurso psiquiátrico ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208 203 corpus conceptualizan situaciones de concernimiento o comunicación usando dominios de origen de contacto (28) o proximidad física (29); incluso el uso en una cuarta (30), formulable como comunicación es alimentación, puede considerarse análoga, por la relación de proximidad inherente al acto de alimentar. (28) el enfermo mental nos toca…nos toca en nuestros propios problemas. (29) se quedan apartados, aislados. (30) tienes un mensaje retroactivo que alimenta tu bienestar. el recurso a dominios origen de proximidad o contacto es habitual en metáforas que describen el efecto de emociones, como en los propios ejemplos (28) y (30), por lo que debe notarse que las expresiones de la comunicación del corpus destacan su efecto emocional. la existencia de esta clase de metáforas sugiere que, para los psiquiatras, la relación entre el afectado y su entorno es un factor relevante, aunque como hemos dicho anteriormente, esta consideración se daría en poca medida, por su escaso número. 4.8. metáforas de la medicina la metaforización de la medicina es de tipo diverso, sin que se pueda detectar una tendencia fundamental. se conceptualiza como una máquina, una religión, un viaje, el acceso a un lugar (31) o una guerra naval (32). estos dos últimos subtipos sugieren la conceptualización de la práctica médica como la irrupción en un espacio, que podría ser el de la enfermedad o el de la persona afectada. (31) nosotros generalmente entramos muy tarde. (32) (...) y eso comporta primero un abordaje bioquímico y farmacológico. 4.9. metáforas de la sociedad en cuanto a las metáforas de la sociedad, la mayoría de las expresiones la personifican (33, 34), atribuyéndole capacidades de razonamiento y decisión, incluso de moral. las dos restantes utilizan dominios de origen de tipo fuerza (combinados con la metáfora las causas son fuerzas) y de tipo máquina. metáforas como la sociedad es una máquina y la s. climent & m. coll-florit ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208204 sociedad es una fuerza están muy poco convencionalizadas, por lo que su aparición puede considerarse distintiva del corpus. (33) no quieren pensar ni comportarse como la sociedad cree que deben hacerlo. (34) la manera en que una sociedad asume el problema de la desviación y la locura va a definir su talla moral. el conjunto, pues, puede interpretarse como que los psiquiatras del corpus atribuyen a la sociedad capacidades de causar efectos en los individuos, lo que en este caso se situaría en el modelo social de interpretación de la enfermedad, y no en el biomédico. 5. conclusiones considerando de manera global el apartado de análisis observamos, en primer lugar, que los psiquiatras del corpus emiten metáforas conceptuales convencionales, por lo que en este aspecto no se distinguen de la población en general. su uso idiosincrático se observa en las correspondencias entre dominios, las cuales denotan mayoritariamente conceptualizaciones contrarias al empoderamiento del afectado o que destacan en éste comportamientos anómalos y situaciones negativas. sin embargo, coexisten con un número menor de metáforas potencialmente favorables al empoderamiento del afectado. la cuantificación de clases en base al dominio de destino ofrece tres grupos mayoritarios de metáforas: (1) de la enfermedad, (2) del afectado y su vida, y (3) de la mente y el cerebro. sin que esta cuantificación pueda considerarse determinante, ya que puede depender de factores de edición del documental, sí que a grandes rasgos muestra que éstos son los grandes ámbitos de interés, por oposición a otros como la comunicación, la sociedad o las emociones. destaca por encima de todo la conceptualización de la enfermedad como un ser animado, un agente externo con capacidades volitivas, que se constituye como enemigo en una lucha, por contraposición a un proceso. el contendiente en la lucha es el afectado, por lo que en él recae el peso del conflicto. esta conceptualización, junto con su papel en su vida metaforizada como viaje, pueden interpretarse a priori como favorables a su empoderamiento, pero otros factores, como su situación de inferioridad en la metáfora conceptual en el discurso psiquiátrico ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208 205 la lucha, los perjuicios o ausencia de beneficios de la misma, y las conceptualizaciones del afectado y de su vida en tanto que proceso sobre el que no ejerce control, relativizan extraordinariamente esta interpretación. en este sentido, el afectado se conceptualiza como apartado del camino normal por el que transita el resto de la población, siendo el objetivo reconducirlo hasta la normalidad como destino, lo cual solo puede obtenerse mediante tratamiento médico. las metáforas de la mente y el cerebro revelan asimismo concepciones minusvalorizantes del afectado, pues se presenta su cerebro como una máquina de funcionamiento anómalo y su mente como un conjunto desestructurado. finalmente, un número reducido de metáforas de la comunicación y de la sociedad otorgan un papel a estos factores, en consonancia con el modelo social de conceptualización de la enfermedad. sin embargo, la preponderancia en el corpus de conceptualizaciones contrarias al empoderamiento del afectado y que conciben la enfermedad como ente protagonista, enemigo en un conflicto, sitúan mayoritariamente a los psiquiatras del corpus en el paradigma biomédico. article history: received 20 january 2017 received in revised form 11 april 2017 accepted 21 april 2017 references s. climent & m. coll-florit ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208206 ainsworth-vaughn, n. 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(2001). “lay diagnosis in interaction”. text 2,1-2: 251-260. weiden, p.j., r.s., roma, d. i. velligan, l. alphs, m. dichiara y b. davidson (2015). “the challenge of offering a long-acting antipsychotic therapy: a salvador climent es profesor agregado de lingüística en los estudios de artes y humanidades de la universitat oberta de catalunya, barcelona. sus intereses de investigación incluyen la lingüística cognitiva, la lexicografía computacional, la traducción automática y el e-learning. ha escrito más de 100 artículos de investigación sobre estos temas en capítulos de libros, actas de congresos y revistas académicas. es miembro del grupo de investigación interuniversitario en aplicaciones lingüísticas (grial). marta coll-florit es profesora agregada de lingüística en los estudios de artes y humanidades de la universitat oberta de catalunya, barcelona. sus áreas de investigación son la lingüística cognitiva, la psicolingüística y el procesamiento del lenguaje natural, centrándose en el estudio de la semántica verbal y la metáfora conceptual. es miembro del grupo de investigación interuniversitario en aplicaciones lingüísticas (grial). del 2008 al 2012 fue miembro del comité directivo de la asociación española de lingüística cognitiva (aelco/scola). s. climent & m. coll-florit ibérica 34 (2017): 187-208208 preliminary discourse analysis of psychiatrist recommendations for injectable therapy to patients with schizophrenia”. journal of clinical psychiatry 76,6: 684-690. zeeman, l. y l. simmons (2011). “an analysis of discourse shaping mental health practitioners”. journal of psychatric and mental health nursing 18: 712-720. iberica 13 ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract achieving a credible and authoritative stance in academic writing requires a writer’s disciplinary enculturation. while postgraduate students may have a foot in the door, expert writers have accumulated much knowledge and practice in their research fields. however, we do not yet know enough about how writers with different degrees of disciplinary enculturation produce an authorial stance in specific writing contexts. to address this gap, this study explores the use of stance features in master’s dissertations, doctoral theses, and published research articles in applied linguistics. findings show that master’s students employed more hedges, boosters, and attitude markers, but fewer self-mentions than doctoral and expert writers, suggesting they were tentative in making propositions and respectful of claims in their disciplinary community. doctoral candidates adopted similar stance expression practices as expert writers, indicating their emergent mastery of their field’s rhetorical conventions. the findings contribute to understandings of writers’ differences in taking authorial stance with respect to disciplinary enculturation, and suggest ways to enhance postgraduate students’ stance-taking practices in academic writing. keywords: authorial stance, postgraduate students, thesis and dissertation, corpus. resumen e n c ul t ur ac i ón d is c i pl ina r y p os i c io na mie n to d e l a ut or: c o mp ar ac i ón d e l o s m e c a nis m os d e p os i c io na mi e nto e n te s i s d e má st e r, te s i s do c to ra l e s y ar tí c ul o s d e in v e s tig ac i ón disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance: comparison of stance features among master’s dissertations, doctoral theses, and research articles xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma the open university of hong kong, jilin university (china) christyxyq@hotmail.com, xiaohao@jlu.edu.cn 327 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 327 ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348 xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma para mostrar credibilidad y autoridad, los autores de textos académicos deben adquirir los usos y hábitos de sus respectivas disciplinas. mientras los estudiantes de posgrado todavía están iniciándose, los investigadores experimentados ya han acumulado muchos conocimientos y práctica en sus áreas de investigación. se sabe poco, sin embargo, sobre el modo en que los distintos grados de enculturación académica afectan al posicionamiento del autor en contextos concretos de escritura. para averiguarlo, en el presente estudio se examinan las distintas estrategias de posicionamiento del autor utilizadas en tesis de máster y de doctorado y en artículos de investigación de expertos publicados en el campo de la lingüística aplicada. los resultados muestran que los estudiantes de posgrado utilizan más mitigadores, intensificadores y marcadores de actitud, pero no se mencionan a sí mismos tanto como los doctorandos o los escritores expertos, lo cual indica que los estudiantes de posgrado son prudentes en sus afirmaciones y respetuosos de los preceptos de su comunidad disciplinar. en los doctorandos se aprecia una práctica similar a la de los escritores expertos a la hora de manifestar su postura, lo que indica un cierto dominio incipiente de la retórica de la disciplina. los hallazgos de esta investigación ayudan a comprender las diferencias en la adopción de un determinado posicionamiento por parte de diversos grupos de escritores en relación con su enculturación académica e inspiran fórmulas de mejora de las prácticas habituales entre los estudiantes de posgrado. palabras clave: posicionamiento del autor, alumnos de posgrado, tesis y disertaciones, corpus. 1. introduction recent esp/eap studies have shown growing interest in stance in academic writing. underlying this trend is the recognition that writing for curriculum and publication purposes is a persuasive practice; to accomplish persuasiveness, the writer needs to assume a credible, authoritative stance appropriate to specific contexts of writing (flowerdew, 2015; hyland, 1999). experienced writers are aware of the centrality of stance-taking in academic writing. rather than merely communicating information, they evaluate content to establish authority and effect persuasion, deploying various devices to convey their attitudes and opinions (hyland, 2005a). accordingly, students are expected to project a critical, informed stance that aligns with disciplinary experts’ discourse practices (lancaster, 2016). much has been written about linguistic manifestations of stance in students’ academic writing, for example, in essays, academic reports, and theses (soler328 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 328 monreal, 2016; jiang & ma, 2018). by relating the scope and patterns of stance features to students’ linguistic, disciplinary, and educational backgrounds, researchers have established that appropriately signalling a stance can challenge student writers, especially those lacking linguistic resources and disciplinary writing experience. expert writers sometimes assert stance subconsciously or through tacit choices, making it challenging for students to discern and learn such language features. some first-year undergraduate students tend to adopt extreme generalization markers (such as always) to demonstrate stance (aull et al., 2017), and final-year undergraduates often rely on a limited range of stance features infrequently used by expert writers (hyland, 2012). in addition to certain students’ stance-taking performance, researchers have recently inquired about differences in stance-taking by students of different learning levels, or different degrees of disciplinary enculturation. aull and lancaster (2014) analysed stance features in writing by firstand advancedyear college students and published writers, and found increasing hedging and decreasing boosting features as writers gained more disciplinary enculturation. kawase (2015) analysed authors’ doctoral theses and later research articles and discovered that writers inserted more hedges and fewer attitude markers and self-mentions in the latter. while kawase attributed this to genre difference, it is fair to speculate whether writers’ growing expertise also influenced their use of stance resource. while studies have examined stance features in undergraduate (hyland, 2012; lee & deakin, 2016), master’s (peters, 2011), and doctoral writing (eldakhs, 2018), it is difficult to attain a plausible understanding of writers’ development in the specific academic writing practice of stance-taking. some studies (e.g., koutsantoni, 2006) treat master’s and doctoral students as a group with similar understandings of and performance in academic writing. however, because of the different learning purposes, inquiry modes, and learning outcomes of undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programmes, it is unconvincing to generalize findings of stance in coursework genres and master’s dissertations to doctoral writing. as samraj (2008: 65) rightly noted, master’s dissertations, “produced by ‘quasi’ members at the end of a master’s program, do not completely embody the discursive practices of the disciplines.” similarly, el-dakhs (2018: 14-15) observed, “master’s authors display less enculturation in the disciplinary community than their phd counterparts and may thus not appropriate their practices well enough to the community’s conventions.” disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348 329 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 329 considering the importance of stance for success in academic writing, the lack of knowledge about stance-taking performance development, and the need to control for influences from disciplinary discourse practices, this study compares stance features in the writings of master’s students, doctoral candidates, and expert scholars in applied linguistics, in specific, second or foreign language learning and teaching. drawing on hyland’s (2005a) categorisation of stance resources in interactional metadiscourse, and hu and cao’s (2011) study, this study explores how three writer groups at different stages of disciplinary enculturation deploy stance features in their writing. the question guiding the study is: how do master’s students, doctoral candidates, and expert writers in applied linguistics deploy stance features to project their authorial stance in their writing? we will first discuss current conceptions of stance and review relevant literature on stance in student academic writing and applied linguistics research genres, then present the study’s corpus and analytical framework, before discussing our findings. 2. stance and student academic writing 2.1. stance: evaluative position and writer presence stance concerns the interpersonal and interactional aspects of academic writing. it signals the writer’s voice or personality in the text and is influenced by disciplinary practices of academic persuasion (hyland, 2005a). according to gray and biber (2012), stance conveys writers’ judgement and opinion about given information, varying in its linguistic manifestation (ranging from lexical to grammatical structures) and locus of assessment (from communicating personal attitudes to commenting on the status of knowledge). it is conveyed through evaluative and self-mention language, including features of personal attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and the writer’s chosen self-mention devices (hyland, 2005a). by modulating language of evaluation and self-mention, writers turn texts into venues of negotiation with readers for credit and credibility of claims (dressen-hammouda, 2014). a popular and well-tested taxonomy for analysing stance in academic writing is hyland’s (2005a) metadiscourse model, which divides metadiscourse into xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348330 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 330 interactive sources (guiding readers through texts) and interactional ones (involving readers in the argument). drawing on this model, the current study highlights stance features categorised as interactional markers, dividing stance into hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mentions (hyland, 2005b). it understands hedges and boosters as writers’ means of indexing epistemic stance, and attitude markers as annotations of writers’ feelings on and attitudes towards the information. specifically, hedges are lexical expressions of writers’ caution about the reliability and plausibility of a statement (such as perhaps); in contrast, boosters signal writers’ commitment and assertiveness about certain information (such as definitely). attitude markers communicate the writer’s feelings of information; they include attitude verbs (such as prefer), sentence adverbs (such as essentially), and adjectives (such as remarkable), all of which are lexical items of emotions, judgement, and (dis)agreement (hyland, 2005b). self-mention (such as i) is also a stance feature, because intrusion of first-person pronouns exhibits writers’ rhetorical decision to assert their credibility and gain credit for their claim (hyland, 2012). focusing on lexical evidence of stance manifestation, hyland’s (2005b) model has proven an efficient heuristic for identifying traces of stance in academic writing (dahme & sastre, 2015), particularly in the corpus-based approach taken in this study, through which researchers can consistently extract stance features in large numbers of texts. moreover, heeding silver’s (2003) caution that analysis of stance features should examine the context of their occurrences, we consider the sentential and discoursal context of stance feature in this study. 2.2. stance in student academic writing projecting a stance that is critical, considered, and aligned with disciplinary practices is crucial to students’ academic writing success. college students are often required to “construct stances … in ways that are recognized by readers as appropriate and authoritative – i.e., assertive, knowledgeable, critically distant, and aligned with a specific disciplinary culture” (lancaster, 2014: 269-270), and may receive lower grades when their writing is regarded as lacking an analytical and evaluative stance (soliday, 2004; wu, 2006). postgraduate students are also expected to project a knowledgeable and authoritative stance (swales & feak, 2012), which requires them to evaluate disciplinary claims and knowledge in a polite, yet contrastive manner (hyland, 1998). disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348 331 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 331 though important, assuming an appropriate stance can be challenging. it involves “demarcating one’s views vis-à-vis others’ views, such as through particular types of proportions of hedges, boosters, contrast markers, and code glosses” (aull & lancaster, 2014: 174), which requires students to manage linguistic resources, pragmatic considerations, and discourse knowledge. since students need to grapple with content knowledge and rhetorical situation simultaneously, they are often unprepared when communicating a stance with disciplinary readers or assessors (soliday, 2004). concerning students’ stance-taking performance in academic writing, previous studies have examined two broad questions: 1) the differences between english l1 (el1) and l2 (el2) students in enlisting stance features; and, 2) the differences in stance feature use by students of different levels of study. regarding the first question, research shows el2 students generally underperform el1 students in terms of the frequency and array of stance features in their writing (lee & deakin, 2016). el2 students also insert strong stance features, sometimes to a disproportionate degree, to increase persuasiveness (li & wharton, 2012). however, l1-l2 disparity in stancetaking may decrease as l2 students’ english academic writing experience and disciplinary enculturation increase. ryshina-pankova (2011) compared persuasive writings by l2 students of different levels and found students were increasingly capable of “a more intersubjective and indirect expression of stance” (p. 253). focusing on doctoral theses written by chineseand english-speaking students, geng and wharton (2016) also found advancedlevel el2 writers performed similarly to el1 writers in employing stance features, suggesting that “at the highest level of education, writers’ first language may not exert as much impact on academic writing as it arguably does when writers are at a lower level” (p. 89). in terms of the second question, researchers have examined how students compare with expert writers, and incoming college students with their higherlevel counterparts in enacting stance. crosthwaite, cheung, and jiang (2017) compared academic texts written by undergraduates with expert writers’ and found that students used richer and more frequent hedging and boosting resources in marking their authorial stance. aull et al. (2017) compared low(first-year undergraduates), medium(final-year undergraduates to year-three postgraduates), and advanced-expertise (published) writers, and noted that the frequency and range of generalisation features (such as always, never) distinguished the three groups’ stance-taking practices. xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348332 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 332 based on previous studies, we may make two assertions. first, as students advance in curricular levels, disciplinary enculturation may be more important than linguistic backgrounds in students’ academic writing performance, including their performance in using stance features. consequently, when examining postgraduate students’ stance performance, we may group l1 and l2 students for comparison with expert writers (aull et al., 2017; crosthwaite et al., 2017). second, to discover the roles of disciplinary enculturation in writers’ different stance-taking performances in academic writing, focusing on one discipline will be more feasible and reliable, especially if the metadiscourse features of the discipline’s academic writing are comparatively prominent. 2.3. under-explored stance in postgraduate student writing unlike the differences in stance-taking between l1 and l2 students, and students and experts, few studies have addressed the “deeper and more important issues of disciplinary enculturation and academic identity formation that graduate students undergo, and the role of academic writing in this trajectory” (curry, 2016: 78). students start to gain disciplinary identity – beginning their “disciplinary becoming” – in their postgraduate years (dressen-hammouda, 2008: 234). while scholars generally agree writing experience in a specific field improves rhetorical knowledge of that discipline (beaufort, 2004), and a stance-taking developmental trajectory is found in undergraduate writing (aull et al., 2017), existing scholarship on stance has not yet profiled stance-taking differences among postgraduatelevel students. this is an important gap to fill, given the different foci of learning, inquiry modes, programme outcomes, and degrees of disciplinary enculturation in undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral learning. while undergraduate learning involves “summarizing, describing, identifying, and applying” knowledge, postgraduate learning requires “questioning, judging, and recombining ideas and information into an argument” (ballard & clanchy, 1997, cited in paltridge & starfield, 2007: 9) and developing an awareness that knowledge is rhetorically constructed and negotiable (geisler, 1994). given the different inquiry modes and learning purposes, undergraduate students may face different stance construction expectations; thus, findings on stance-taking development among undergraduates (aull et al., 2017) may not be generalizable to postgraduate writing. disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348 333 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 333 likewise, research on doctoral students’ use of stance expressions may not inform us about master’s students’ stance practices in their writing (eldakhs, 2018). doctoral students, as scholarly participants in disciplinary communities, are often expected to project an expert, authoritative stance in their theses (swales & feak, 2012). in contrast, master’s students, positioned between coursework and scholarly participation, may face different stance expectations from undergraduate and doctoral students. in research-based master’s programmes, a master’s dissertation is students’ “stepping stone into the professional writing practices of their discipline” (peters, 2011: 178). students in programmes focusing on providing professional knowledge and training are also expected to be enculturated in their communities by the end of their candidature, via research projects or dissertations. master’s dissertations may exhibit stance-taking patterns that are different from doctoral theses or published research articles. surprisingly, claims about postgraduate student writing are often made without distinguishing between master’s and doctoral writing. one exception is hyland (2004), who analysed stance in postgraduate writing from six disciplines and discovered that master’s students used slightly more stance features than doctoral students. another study conducted by dahme and sastre (2015) followed biomedical science students who became researchers in the field, and found that they employed more attitude markers and selfmentions in their later published articles than in their master’s dissertations, which the researchers explained as symptomatic of students’ “lack of mastery of disciplinary rhetorical conventions” (174). 2.4. undiscovered developmental trajectory of stance in applied linguistics as stance-taking practices are highly sensitive to disciplinary cultures (hu & cao, 2015), we focused on a single discipline – applied linguistics with a special focus on second and foreign language learning and teaching (hu & cao, 2011) – when comparing master’s students’ features in enacting an authorial stance to those of doctoral and published writers. one rationale for choosing applied linguistics is that the authors are language specialists who are more familiar with the linguistic and rhetorical features of applied linguistics research genres than researchers from other disciplines; thus, there would be more opportunities to identify stance projection pertaining to the genre (kawase, 2015). in addition, previous studies (hyland, 1998) of disciplinary differences in the use of interactional metadiscourse revealed xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348334 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 334 “the greater role of explicit personal interpretation of research” (hyland & tse, 2004: 173), and more careful interpretation of findings in the academic writing of applied linguists than in texts by hard-science researchers. research focusing on applied linguistics alone (el-dakhs, 2018; hu & cao, 2011) mostly explores metadiscoursal markers in different moves of a specific section (liu & buckingham, 2018) or compares l1 and l2 scholars’ stances (abdollahzadeh, 2011). notwithstanding attention to the use of metadiscourse markers in applied linguistics research writings (e.g., el-dakhs, 2018; hu & cao, 2011), few studies on applied linguistics (hyland & tse, 2005; kuhi & behnam, 2011) adopt a “developmental perspective” to analyse research genres produced by writers at various degrees of disciplinary enculturation. el-dakhs (2018), for example, compared the use of metadiscourse in abstracts of doctoral theses and research articles, and found doctoral students employed more hedges but fewer self-mentions than did expert writers. kuhi and behnam (2011) compared metadiscourse use in research articles, handbook chapters, and scholarly and introductory textbook chapters, and found academic texts conveyed not only professional knowledge, but also different stakeholders’ academic communication struggles. given that scientific/academic knowledge is developed from empirical research to a shared, embedded, and respected routine in the discourse community, there could exist a developmental trajectory from less-enculturated to more experienced researchers. our current study addresses this issue by comparing stance features in master’s dissertations, doctoral theses, and research articles. 3. material and methods 3.1. corpus construction we compiled a corpus of approximately three million words, comprising 30 master’s dissertations, 30 doctoral theses, and 60 published research articles from applied linguistics. following hu and cao’s (2011) scope of research, we focused on applied linguistics writings on second or foreign language learning and teaching. master’s students, doctoral candidates, and experts in the corpus are a mixture of l1 and l2 english speakers, as scholars (casanave, 2014; curry, 2016) claim that l1 and l2 writers face similar challenges with academic english, and existing literature (geng & wharton, 2016) reveals no obvious stance-taking differences in l1 and l2 learners’ disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348 335 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 335 academic texts. the el2 writers are from various l1 backgrounds, including chinese, japanese, and korean. table 1 characterises the corpus by the total number of words and the average length of each piece of writing. the dissertations and theses were searched via proquest dissertations database and a library dissertations database at a university in hong kong, using keywords including “second or foreign language teaching,” “language learning,” “language acquisition,” and “applied linguistics.” the first author downloaded the dissertations and theses, which were submitted in pursuit of master of arts or education and doctor of philosophy degrees. we randomly selected 30 master’s dissertations and 30 doctoral theses submitted from 2005 to 2017. these dissertations include studies adopting quantitative or qualitative methods. only the abstracts and main bodies of the writings were included. interview extracts appearing in the main texts were excluded. sixty research articles published in high-impact-factor, english-medium ssci (social science citation index) journals for applied linguistics were selected based on the web of science database 2016, including applied linguistics, tesol quarterly, language learning, studies in second language acquisition, modern language journal, journal of second language writing, language teaching, language teaching research and system. the first author manually downloaded articles published from 2005 to 2017 that related to second or foreign language learning and teaching. all articles were single-authored, by authors describing themselves as assistant professors or above when the articles were published. we randomly selected 60 of these quantitative or qualitative research articles. only the abstracts and main parts of the articles were included, with in-text interview extracts excluded. 3.2. analytical focus drawing on hyland’s (2005a) list of stance features, we used the concordance function of lawrence anthony’s antconc software (version 3.4.4, 2016) to identify authors’ stance features, then coded them manually. xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348336 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 336 the normalized frequencies of stance features, boosters, attitude markers, hedges, and self-mentions per 1,000 words were then calculated. the first author coded all the data and the second author coded 20%, yielding an inter-coder reliability above 95% for all data sets. to compare stance features in the three groups’ writing, we conducted oneway between-subjects analysis of variance analyses (anova) via spss software. the alpha was set at .05. if the one-way anova results achieved a significant level, tukey’s hsd test was conducted to make post hoc pairwise comparisons among the groups. the interpretation for the effect size, partial η 2, followed cohen’s (1988) scale, in which .01, .06, and .14 are dividing lines between small, medium, and large effect sizes. drawing upon hyland’s (2005a, 2005b) list, we conducted contextualized analyses of the functions and effects of stance features by considering the stretches of discourse in which they appeared. 4. findings and discussion this study compared the use of stance features in master’s dissertations, doctoral theses, and experts’ research articles in applied linguistics (more specifically, the field of second and foreign language learning and teaching). table 2 presents the mean normalized frequencies per 1,000 words and standard deviations for stance markers, hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mentions. table 3 presents the results of the post hoc turkey hsd tests following the anova tests. the findings are presented and discussed in the following paragraphs. disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348 337 xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma ibérica 38 (2019): 295-314 the results of the post hoc turkey hsd tests following the anova tests. the findings are presented and discussed in the following paragraphs. master doctoral expert f p partial !2 hedges 15.83 (8.03) 12.43 (4.11) 12.10 (3.65) 5.547 .005** .09 boosters 8.36 (4.32) 6.38 (1.97) 5.81 (1.55) 9.676 .000** .14 attitude 3.69 (2.54) 2.55 (0.89) 2.50 (1.02) 6.697 .002* .10 self-mentions 3.18 (0.62) 3.77 (0.62) 5.16 (0.44) 4.005 .021* .60 stance 31.06 (13.96) 25.13 (7.23) 25.57 (4.82) 4.931 .009** .08 note. * means p < .05, ** means p < .01. table 2: results for stance markers. master-doctoral master-expert doctoral-expert hedges .033* .005** .954 boosters .011* .000** .595 attitude .012* .002** .987 self-mentions .776 .026* .158 stance .022* .013* .972 note. * means p < .05, ** means p < .01. table 3: statistical significance of stance marker differences between corpora. 4.1. hedges hedges (extract 1) are considered as one kind of communicative strategy for weakening the force of authorial claims (hyland, 1998; myers, 1989). as a rhetorical device, they are usually adopted to project authors’ reservation or uncertainty about their statements, or to express their humility and respect for the opinions of other scholars in the disciplinary community, which creates space to interact with potential readers (hyland, 1998). example: (1)! this may account for the humbleness in the self-denigration of the “dean” in the roleplay data. (phd 04; findings) from table 2, hedges were the most frequent stance feature for the three writer groups, indicating they all intended to express reservations about their claims or respect for others’ statements. however, there exists a reducing trajectory concerning the normalized frequency of hedges among the three writer groups, suggesting that, as writers became more enculturated in the disciplinary community and more exposed to the research field’s rhetorical conventions, they tended to hedge less. table 3 shows master’s students deployed significantly more hedges in their dissertations than did doctoral candidates and expert writers, and that there were no significant differences between the latter two groups. based on hyland’s (2005a) taxonomy and lee & deakin’s (2016) list of hedge sub-categories, content-oriented and reader-oriented hedges were also analyzed. according to hyland (1996: 439), content-oriented hedges (i.e. accuracyand writer-oriented hedges) “[concern] a statement’s adequacy conditions: the relationship between proposition and a representation of reality.” accuracy12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 337 4.1. hedges hedges (extract 1) are considered as one kind of communicative strategy for weakening the force of authorial claims (hyland, 1998; myers, 1989). as a rhetorical device, they are usually adopted to project authors’ reservation or uncertainty about their statements, or to express their humility and respect for the opinions of other scholars in the disciplinary community, which creates space to interact with potential readers (hyland, 1998). example: (1) this may account for the humbleness in the self-denigration of the “dean” in the roleplay data. (phd 04; findings) from table 2, hedges were the most frequent stance feature for the three writer groups, indicating they all intended to express reservations about their claims or respect for others’ statements. however, there exists a reducing trajectory concerning the normalized frequency of hedges among the three writer groups, suggesting that, as writers became more enculturated in the disciplinary community and more exposed to the research field’s rhetorical conventions, they tended to hedge less. table 3 shows master’s students deployed significantly more hedges in their dissertations than did doctoral candidates and expert writers, and that there were no significant differences between the latter two groups. based on hyland’s (2005a) taxonomy and lee & deakin’s (2016) list of hedge sub-categories, content-oriented and reader-oriented hedges were also analysed. according to hyland (1996: 439), content-oriented hedges (i.e. accuracyand writer-oriented hedges) “[concern] a statement’s adequacy conditions: the relationship between proposition and a representation of reality.” accuracy-oriented hedges (such as about) represent writers’ tentativeness about the accuracy or reliability of the propositional content. writer-oriented hedges (such as assume) reduce writers’ commitments to their statements. furthermore, reader-oriented hedges (such as believe) attend to readers’ acceptance of writers’ statements, using expressions of modesty and deference. table 4 presents the normalized frequencies of hedge sub-categories among the three writer groups and the significant differences between corpora, from one-way anova test results. though the differences were not significant, master’s students deployed higher frequencies of accuracyand writer-oriented hedges than did other writers, indicating they tended to express uncertainty regarding their own statements and reservations about xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348338 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 338 others’ (hyland, 2005a; aull & lancaster, 2014). master’s students include many reader-oriented hedges to convey their deference and respect for dissertation readers (examiners and supervisors) and display humility. they distance themselves from statements to expand the dialogic space, so that their assertions are less likely to be challenged by examiners (hyland, 2005a). though no significant difference in hedges was noticed between doctoral theses and published research articles, doctoral students adopted slightly more accuracy-oriented and reader-oriented hedges, perhaps reflecting genre differences. previous literature (curry, 2016; el-dakhs, 2018) suggests the educational genre (dissertations, theses) serves purposes of learning and assessing students’ disciplinary content knowledge, whereas high-stake genres (research articles) are professional, written and reviewed by scholars with higher degrees of enculturation in the disciplinary community. as assessors, supervisors and examiners hold authoritative power over doctoral candidates; thus, doctoral students might be cautious when stating propositional content and attempt to obtain supervisors’ and examiners’ acceptance. however, expert writers are at an advanced stage of disciplinary enculturation, and their power balance with disciplinary gatekeepers (reviewers and editors) may be more equal, so they may deploy fewer accuracy-oriented and reader-oriented hedges (kawase, 2015). however, doctoral candidates and experts had similar writer-oriented hedge practices. as doctoral candidates obtained more professional knowledge and greater familiarity with the research field’s rhetorical conventions, they seem to become more confident about their claims, and make less use of writeroriented hedges. 4.2. boosters boosters (extract 2) display writers’ assertiveness, conviction, and confidence about their propositions. by using boosters, writers “mark involvement and solidarity with an audience, stressing shared information, group membership, and direct engagement with readers” (hyland, 1998: disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348 339 disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance ibérica 38 (2019): 295-314 oriented hedges (such as about) represent writers’ tentativeness about the accuracy or reliability of the propositional content. writer-oriented hedges (such as assume) reduce writers’ commitments to their statements. furthermore, reader-oriented hedges (such as believe) attend to readers’ acceptance of writers’ statements, using expressions of modesty and deference. table 4 presents the normalized frequencies of hedge sub-categories among the three writer groups and the significant differences between corpora, from oneway anova test results. though the differences were not significant, master’s students deployed higher frequencies of accuracyand writer-oriented hedges than did other writers, indicating they tended to express uncertainty regarding their own statements and reservations about others’ (hyland, 2005a; aull & lancaster, 2014). master’s students include many reader-oriented hedges to convey their deference and respect for dissertation readers (examiners and supervisors) and display humility. they distance themselves from statements to expand the dialogic space, so that their assertions are less likely to be challenged by examiners (hyland, 2005a). though no significant difference in hedges was noticed between doctoral theses and published research articles, doctoral students adopted slightly more accuracy-oriented and reader-oriented hedges, perhaps reflecting genre differences. previous literature (curry, 2016; el-dakhs, 2018) suggests the educational genre (dissertations, theses) serves purposes of learning and assessing students’ disciplinary content knowledge, whereas high-stake genres (research articles) are professional, written and reviewed by scholars with higher degrees of enculturation in the disciplinary community. as assessors, supervisors and examiners hold authoritative power over doctoral candidates; thus, doctoral students might be cautious when stating propositional content and attempt to obtain supervisors’ and examiners’ acceptance. however, expert writers are at an advanced stage of disciplinary enculturation, and their power balance with disciplinary gatekeepers (reviewers and editors) may be more equal, so they may deploy fewer accuracy-oriented and reader-oriented hedges (kawase, 2015). however, doctoral candidates and experts had similar writer-oriented hedge practices. as doctoral candidates obtained more professional knowledge and greater familiarity with the research field’s rhetorical conventions, they seem to become more confident about their claims, and make less use of writer-oriented hedges. hedges categories normalized frequencies (per 1,000 words) statistical significances between corpora master doctoral expert masterdoctoral masterexpert doctoralexpert accuracy 9.06 7.74 7.57 p = .358 p = .175 p = .976 writer 1.98 1.80 1.78 p = .709 p = .539 p = .988 reader 4.15 2.84 2.34 p = .002** p = .000** p = .272 table 4: hedging categories: normalized frequencies and statistical differences between groups. 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 339 350); they can also project politeness, truthfulness, and sincerity (brown & levinson, 1987). example: (2) …there are obviously similarities between how a teacher feels when presented with a smaller class (“less of a burden”) and when a student is asked to speak in front of a class that is almost half the size of a regular class. (phd 16; findings) from table 2, writers with more disciplinary enculturation deployed fewer boosting features. this decrease was obvious between master’s students and both their doctoral counterparts and expert writers (table 3). table 5 shows the normalized frequencies of emphatics (reinforce truth value, such as really) and amplifying adverbs (strengthening verbs and adverbs, such as always) (hyland, 2005b: 13). although most boosters (over 66%) among the three writer groups were emphatics, that is, used for stressing the certainty of their or others’ views, one-way anova test results indicated a decrease in emphatics from master’s and doctoral students to expert writers, and significant differences in emphatics between master’s students and expert writers. the frequencies of amplifying adverbs also decreased as writers became more enculturated; master’s students inserted significantly more amplifying adverbs than other writers. though all three groups projected politeness and marked involvement toward the audience via boosters, this feature’s higher frequency in postgraduate writing suggests master’s and doctoral students might have deemed doing so more important. as hyland (2005a: 53) observed, boosters “emphasise certainty and construct rapport by marking involvement with the topic and solidarity with an audience”; hinkel (2005: 40) commented that intensifiers/boosters help “[reinforce] the truth-value of a proposition or claim or the strength of the writer’s conviction.” given a perceived strong student-assessor power relationship, postgraduate students might have deliberately inserted boosters to reinforce claims, demonstrate certainty, and emphasise agreements with scholars’ views and establish direct engagement with supervisors and examiners. example 3 was extracted from the literature review chapter of a master’s dissertation. before the statement, the writer reviewed various scholars’ opinions towards the importance of motivation in l2 learning, then used “certainly” to align himself/herself with those scholars. example: (3) as one can see, motivation is certainly one of the important factors in l2 acquisition, and there is no doubt that in order to be a successful learner one xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348340 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 340 needs to be motivated and exert much effort into the learning process. (master 10; literature review) the decreasing occurrence of boosters could also be explained by the master’s students’ developmental trajectory when compared to expert writers. as observed in previous studies (hyland, 2012; crosthwaite et al., 2017), novices’ use of metadiscourse features is different from that of more experienced writers. aull and lancaster (2014) point out that beginning writers tend to overuse intensifying boosters (very, certainly), projecting an overgeneralized and less measured stance, while advanced academic writers delimit their own opinions and construct a stance presenting “academically appropriate acknowledgment” (p. 175). as part of the trend, master’s students might overgeneralize some statements, leaving limited space for alternative views and resulting in a comparatively higher frequency of boosters. 4.3. attitude markers attitude markers usually express affective feelings about propositions (extract 4). as hyland (2005b: 180) put it, “by signalling an assumption of shared attitudes, values and reactions to material, writers both express a position and pull readers into a conspiracy of agreement so that it can often be difficult to dispute these judgements.” example: (4) the analysis of the email (extract 7) shows that the project manager, katy, was included in the salutation, but what is interesting is that katy does participate in this email chain at all. (phd 15; findings) from table 2, for the three writer groups, attitude markers accounted for a small proportion of stance markers (around 10%), similar to previous studies’ findings (lee & deakin, 2016; li & wharton, 2012). table 3 further reveals that master’s students more frequently deployed personal attitudes than doctoral candidates and expert writers, whose normalized frequencies of attitude markers were quite similar. for the sub-categories of attitude disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348 341 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 341 markers (hyland, 2005a) in table 6, a decreasing trajectory in attitude verbs (agree) and adjectives (important) was noticed across master’s students, doctoral candidates, and expert writers, with the differences between master’s students and experts being significant, while those between doctoral counterparts and experts were not obvious. adjectives were the most common attitude markers, followed by attitude verbs. when considering the contextualized functions of attitude markers, we found that expert writers tended to express affective attitudes about the findings and contributions of their studies (extract 5). besides providing attitudinal comments on their results, doctoral candidates employed attitude markers to assert the research gaps in the introduction or literature review chapters (such as “a bit surprising” in extract 6), consistent with kawase’s (2015) finding. in master’s dissertations, most attitude markers appeared in the literature review to reinforce existing theories or claims, showing writers’ positive feelings (agreement, preference) towards other scholars’ views (extract 7). using these attitude markers, master’s students might intend to demonstrate their knowledge, respect for scholars, and eagerness to align with the disciplinary academic community. example: (5) this has important implications for pronunciation instruction. (expert 28; implications) (6) given that social contexts play an important mediating role in accordance with sociocultural theory, it is also a bit surprising to note the absence of a detailed account of the cultural and social contexts as well as the contextual influences upon english learning in these studies. (phd 30; literature review) (7) goal setting is important because, as proposed in goal theories... (master 07; literature review) xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348342 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 342 4.4. self-mentions self-mention markers (extract 8) refer to “the use of first person pronouns and possessive adjectives to present propositional, affective and interpersonal information” (hyland, 2005b: 181), and convey writers’ stance and authorial identity. while science researchers aim to create an objective situation for their studies without self-mentioning, in the humanities and social sciences, a personal pronoun means the writer intends to project a strong relationship with his/her claims, such as reinforcing his/her contribution or seeking audience agreement (hyland, 2005a). example: (8) what i am arguing for in short story analysis is that it serves as a heuristic for the systematic thematic analysis of the content and context of narrative data (in the form of short stories). (expert 27; methodology) tables 2 and 3 reveal an increasing use of self-mentions from master’s dissertations to doctoral theses to published research articles, with significant differences in the use of personal pronouns between master’s students and expert writers. these findings seem to indicate that writers become more comfortable marking their textual existence through self-mentions as they gain disciplinary enculturation. in master’s dissertations, “we” was the most frequent self-mention marker (64% of all first-person pronouns), suggesting master’s students’ intent to involve readers in their statements or arguments. similar to kawase (2015), we found master’s students used “we” to comment on previous studies or address research gaps in the introduction, to include themselves as members of the successful/expert group and reduce their risk of being challenged (myers, 1989). furthermore, master’s students adopted “we” when reporting their study’s findings. in these cases, “we” was often collocated with hedges, such as “as we can see” and “we could conclude that”, which may have been used to involve readers in agreeing with the writers’ interpretations. in comparison, expert writers more frequently used “i” in published research articles (92% of all first-person pronouns), thus reinforcing their authoritativeness (hyland, 2004). while doctoral theses are written for degree accreditation, doctoral writers, having more experience in the research field, seemed more at ease striking an authoritative tone, and thus made more self-mentions than master’s students. the functions of self-mention “i” were further analysed based on previous taxonomies (harwood, 2005; peters, 2011). the findings echo harwood’s disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348 343 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 343 (2005), in that postgraduate students adopted a wide range of methodological “i” to elaborate their studies’ procedures. more specifically, master’s students used methodological “i” for methodological description, but seldom for overcoming methodological pitfalls. instead, master’s students stated purposes via “i”, such as “in this chapter, i am going to....” furthermore, they deployed personal “i” in their dissertations, meaning they praised personal narratives (such as personal experience) to motivate their topic and establish their arguments’ importance. such use of personal “i” (extract 9) emphasised that a research topic was defined by the writer’s personal observation, thus directing readers’ attention to what the writer had done (ellis & bochner, 2001). example: (9) as a full-time english tutor in mass tutorial schools for over four years, i gained some insights about english learning under shadow education in hong kong... i aspired to conduct a study on learners’ experience under shadow education, in order to yield insights on how to provide students with better english learning experience. (master 11; introduction) a wider range of functions for personal “i” was observed in doctoral theses and published research articles, with personal “i” being used when making arguments, defining terms, describing methodological issues, and stating purposes (harwood, 2005). doctoral candidates and expert writers attended more to knowledge production; they deflected expertise and diverted readers’ attention away from their agentive role (peters, 2011). they also discussed prior scholarships and brought out new knowledge or arguments more directly. 4.5. stance markers for the overall occurrences of stance markers (table 2), the anova test yielded significant differences among the three writer groups, with a medium effect size. from table 3, master’s students included significantly more stance features in their dissertations than did doctoral counterparts and expert writers. while hyland (2004) proposed that, compared with master’s students, doctoral counterparts are more tentative in presenting their “‘academic’ reader-friendly prose” (p. 141) and in interacting with potential readers, our findings suggest that master’s students were most obvious in signalling their voice or personality, and expressing their academic persuasion. master’s students seemed the most modest and lacking in confidence, and they thus used more hedges to show their respect for xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348344 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 344 potential readers and scholars and were more tentative about their claims. another possible reason is that master’s students may not have manifested their stance well enough because of their limited knowledge about academic conventions and genre characteristics (bitchener & basturkmen, 2006; eldakhs, 2018). while doctoral candidates adopted slightly fewer stance markers than expert writers, no significant differences were found. this suggests that, regardless of the differences between educational and professional genres, doctoral candidates and expert writers were similarly sensitive in projecting their authorial voices and interacting with readers. this may be explained by doctoral candidates’ mastery of disciplinary rhetorical conventions, improved writing competence, and greater academic knowledge (compared to masters’ students) as they become more enculturated in the field. 5. concluding remarks this study makes a nuanced comparison of the stance features used by master’s, doctoral, and expert writers in applied linguistics, specifically emphasising second and foreign language learning and teaching, and sheds some light on the differences in writers’ stance-taking at different stages of their disciplinary enculturation. since appropriate use of stance expressions should “display excitement and commitment... but be objective” and show assertiveness but “allow for other viewpoints” (lancaster, 2016: 295-297), the scope and patterns of stance in master’s dissertations presented in this study underscore the need for teachers to facilitate these students’ disciplinary enculturation and familiarise them with the field’s rhetorical conventions. for example, teachers could integrate awareness-raising tasks, involving students in contrasting the stance-taking practices valued in expert writing with their own performance. they could also engage students in deliberate stance-projecting practices by emulating expert writers’ performance and introduce them to corpus tools, to help them become effective, informed writers who are aware of the discipline’s valued stance resources and can establish an authoritative and objective stance in their own writing. given previous studies have revealed disciplinary differences regarding authorial stance in academic writing (hyland, 2004), the findings of this study may not be generalized to disciplines other than applied linguistics. disciplinary enculturation and authorial stance ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348 345 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 345 future research involving a wider range of disciplines is needed. furthermore, this study adopted cross-sectional data (master’s dissertations, doctoral theses, research articles) to address the developmental trajectories of applied linguistics researchers. it remains unknown whether the findings are consistent with the “development turmoil” (peters, 2011: 184) novice researchers experience while transiting to expert writers, which warrants further exploration. corpus-based analyses provided valuable insights on stance in academic writing among the three groups of second language education researchers. a more comprehensive and in-depth picture would be generated were interviews about their perceptions of academic stance and inner thoughts (lancaster, 2016) included. acknowledgements we would like to express our sincere gratitude to professor carmen sancho guinda and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on our research article. special thanks go to professor feng (kevin) jiang for his invaluable advice. article history: received 26 october 2018 received in revised form 11 may 2019 accepted 11 may 2019 references xuyan qiu & xiaohao ma ibérica 38 (2019): 327-348346 abdollahzadeh, e. 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(2006). “creating a contrastive rhetorical stance investigating the strategy of problematization in students’ argumentation”. relc journal 37(3): 329-353. 12 iberica 38_iberica 13 13/1/20 19:56 página 348 01 editorial.qxd ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 issn: 1139-7241 / e-issn: 2340-2784 abstract in this paper we report a study which was aimed to find out how overseastrained chinese management academics (cmas) compare with their hometrained counterparts in english-medium scholarly experience. our data were drawn from a web-based questionnaire distributed following the conclusion of the biennial conference of the international association for chinese management research (iacmr) held in 2014, the part of the conference program which featured english sessions, e-mail interviews with some questionnaire respondents, and observation at the conference site. our findings comparatively illustrate the english-medium scholarly experience of the two cohorts of cmas in terms of their participation in the english presentation sessions of iacmr2014, their use of english as university academics, and the relationship between english/chinese-medium research productivity and self-perceived english abilities. our study highlights heterogeneity among different groups of english as an additional language (eal) scholars and calls for more contextualized investigation of the diverse experiences of eal scholars across countries and disciplines in this englishdominant academic world. keywords: chinese scholars, management academics, returnee scholars, using english at international conferences, writing for publication in english. chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience: comparative perspectives on overseastrained and home-trained scholars yongyan li and guangwei hu university of hong kong (china) and nanyang technological university (singapore) yongyan@hku.hk & guangwei.hu@nie.edu.sg 71 ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 y. li & g. hu resumen e l us o de l in g l é s c o mo l e ng ua a c a dé m ic a e n e l á mb it o de l a s c ie nc ia s e m pr e s ar ia l e s e n c h in a: u na p e rs p e c t iv a c o mp ar at iv a d e l os pr of e s o re s c on f orm ac ió n in te rn ac i on al y a qu e l l o s c o n f o rma c i ón n ac i on al en este artículo se presenta un estudio que buscaba explorar comparativamente la experiencia académica de los profesores del ámbito de las ciencias empresariales en china con formación internacionalmente con la de aquellos con formación únicamente nacional. nuestros datos se obtuvieron a partir de un cuestionario online distribuido después del congreso bianual de la asociación internacional de investigación en ciencias empresariales en china (iacmr por sus siglas en inglés), celebrado en 2014, de las sesiones del congresos en las que se presentaron ponencias en inglés, de las entrevistas por e-mail a algunos de los participantes en el cuestionario y de la observaciones in situ durate el congreso. nuestros resultados ilustran de manera comparativa la experiencia de dos grupos de profesores del ámbito de las ciencias empresariales en términos de su participación en las sesiones con presentaciones en inglés en el congreso iacmr2014, su uso del english en las actividades académicas en la universidad, y las relaciones entre la productividad investigadora en las que se emplea el inglés o el chino y la auto-percepción sobre la destreza lingüística en inglés. nuestro estudio señala la hetereogenidad entre los diferentes grupos de académicos que usan el inglés como lengua adicional (ila) y propone la necesidad de una investigación más contextualizada de las diversas experiencias de los académicos que usan ila en la comunicación académica en diferentes países y disciplinas en un mundo académico marcado por el uso dominante del inglés. palabras clave: académicos chinos, académicos del ámbito de las ciencias empresariales, el inglés en conferencias internacionales, el inglés para la publicación científica. 1. introduction this paper reports an exploratory study aimed to compare the englishmedium scholarly experience of overseas-trained chinese scholars with their home-trained counterparts, focusing on the case of chinese management academics (cmas) working in chinese universities. in our definition, “overseas-trained” academics are those academics who have typically received a doctoral degree (or less often, a master’s degree, or both master’s and doctoral degrees) outside mainland china, while the “home-trained” are those who have received their master’s and doctoral degrees in mainland china.1 in focusing on the discipline of management, a social science which 72 displays strong north american dominance in knowledge production (legge, 2001; tietze, 2008; li, 2014) and whose development tends to be closely tied to the economic path of a country, our study highlights the overall appeal of english-medium knowledge construction to the management academics in an emerging economy (i.e., china, by which we mean mainland china in this paper) and at the same time their varying accomplishment in the endeavor. the social sciences in china have not marched at an equal pace toward internationalizing their scholarship profiles; the disciplines housed in the business schools including the discipline of management have, however, stood out (jonkers, 2010). china’s status as an emerging economy has apparently provided a fertile ground for management and economics research, so that, unsurprisingly, “economics and business management” tops the list in a scientometric study of papers listed in the social science citation index (ssci) that were produced by chinese universities between 1978 and 2007 across disciplines (liu & liu, 2009). more specifically, the numbers of ssci-indexed management papers that included chinese authors in 2010, 2012, and 2014 were 119, 225, and 354 respectively (istic, 2011, 2013, 2015). overseas-trained returnee academics at chinese business schools, for whom english-medium publication in indexed journals is typically linked to tenure and promotion (li, 2014; li & yang, 2017 forthcoming), have crucially contributed to the rising numbers. indeed, against the backdrop of china’s booming economy, management has been among the most popular disciplines that chinese students study overseas, and also one of the disciplines hosting the largest numbers of returnees in recent years (ministry of education of prc, 2012). the increase of the population of returnee academics in china in the past decade has been closely tied to china’s pursuit of “world-class” universities, a trend also found in other asian societies and european countries (mok, 2007; deem et al., 2008). incentive schemes have been implemented at national, provincial, and university levels to attract overseas-trained chinese scholars (zweig, 2006; wells, 2007; qiu, 2009), who are considered “an important driver for the increase in productivity and quality of the chinese research effort” (jonkers & tijssen, 2008: 310). at the same time, the younger generations of home-trained cmas have also sought and gained opportunities of participation and scholarly exchange at the international level, in particular through short-term attachment to or study at overseas universities as visiting scholars or exchange students, joint chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 73 publication with overseas scholars, and attendance of international conferences held overseas and in china. the international association for chinese management research (iacmr), established in 2002 and nurtured by some prominent overseas-based and returned chinese management scholars, has played a pivotal role in bridging the chinese community of management academics to the outside world. in our study we capitalized on the opportunity offered by a recent iacmr biennial international conference to access a group of overseas-trained and home-trained cmas to explore their english-medium scholarly experience. in the following we will first review literature relevant to our study. this will be followed by a description of our research methods, elaboration of our findings, and a discussion of the findings. in the conclusion section we will outline some limitations of the study, suggest directions for future research, and end on a note highlighting the value of individual competence in academic english for non-anglophone scholars to participate actively in the processes of knowledge construction and dissemination. 2. literature review previous discussions and research revolving around english as an additional language (eal) scholars have informed our study. on the one hand, nonanglophones’ “communicative handicaps” in english (ammon, 2013: 1928) or their “struggle with the english language burden” (benfield & feak, 2006: 1728) has long been acknowledged. on the other hand, it has been pointed out that the native-nonnative divide may not hold as the right framing for eal scholars’ disadvantages not only because heterogeneity exists among individuals in terms of expertise in english academic writing and publication, but also because publication experience, academic seniority, facility with the research article genre, etc. have a stake in one’s endeavor (swales, 2004; belcher, 2009; ferguson et al., 2011; hyland, 2015). nonanglophone scholars also assess their english abilities differently, as revealed in a series of survey-based studies conducted in europe and elsewhere. they have often expressed confidence in reading and, sometimes, listening skills in academic english (olsson & sheridan, 2012; burgess et al., 2014); writing is more challenging (pérez-llantada et al., 2011; riazi, 2012; hanauer & englander, 2013; burgess et al., 2014); and linguistic inadequacy in speaking is widely recognized – so that the chance of engaging in sophisticated y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): 71-9674 discussions and debates at international conferences is curtailed (ventola et al., 2002; pérez-llantada et al., 2011; olsson & sheridan, 2012). understandably, it has also been found that a non-anglophone scholar’s selfreported english proficiency strongly signals the kinds of attitudes he/she might hold toward the dominance of english, so that more robust proficiency tends to be accompanied by more active participation in the englishization trend (ferguson et al., 2011). several studies on eal scholars have focused on overseas-trained returnees. casanave (1998) conducted a narrative inquiry into north america-trained young japanese scholars’ transition experience in japan. flowerdew (2000) reported a likewise north america-trained hong kong scholar’s case of publishing a paper in an international journal. shi (2003) interviewed a group of “western-trained” chinese tesol professionals to find out about their perspectives and practices in scholarly publication back in china. min (2014: 190), based on interviews with a group of applied linguists in taiwan who were overwhelmingly western-trained, reported that “language, topic, and perceived bias” were “three major perceived challenges” in publishing in international journals. beyond applied linguistics research, framed in the discussions of scientific mobility and its impact on the internationalization of scientific research, two studies, namely, jonkers and tijssen (2008), and jonkers and cruz-castro (2013), examined respectively returnee chinese and argentinian life scientists’ research productivity and co-publication behavior. using bibliometric techniques and academics’ international mobility data, the studies showed that foreign experience was linked to academics’ propensity to collaborate internationally and publish more articles in high impact journals compared with their non-mobile counterparts. finally, previous studies featuring chinese scholars found that compared with their hometrained counterparts, overseas-trained returnee scholars tended to be more motivated and accomplished in english publishing, more actively engaged in international research collaboration, and more inclined to regard their home research system and the former host system as representing separate discourse communities (zhang & chen, 2010; jiang, 2014; li, 2014; ge, 2015). previous reports concerning academics in management or business studies are of particular interest to us. based on an investigation of the experiences of 33 management academics who were non-native speakers of english working in the european higher education sector, tietze (2008: 378) concluded that “the reach of english is both broad and deep”, with “knowledge generation and chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 75 dissemination” conducted almost exclusively in english for these academics. lee and lee’s (2013) interviews with academic staff at a south korean university likewise revealed that for a majority of the participants in business, english was the language of academic publishing. by contrast, burgess et al. (2014: 75), in a large-scale survey of spanish researchers, noted that business studies scholars published in spanish-medium journals as well, presumably due to the “local focus and applied nature” of the disciplines involved. in an earlier ethnographically-oriented study conducted at a business school in denmark, petersen and shaw (2002: 372) similarly reported a complex picture of language use amongst the school’s academics, influenced by the “demands, norms, and language practices” of the various “international and local academic, international and local professional” communities they participated in. in our own previous research, we have shown how the privileging of publishing in indexed english-medium journals was manifested in institutional texts at high-ranking chinese business schools (li & yang, 2017 forthcoming), how such publication was keenly pursued by a group of mostly overseastrained cmas (li, 2014), and how academic staff at the business school of a chinese university negotiated the policy of english-medium instruction (hu & lei, 2014). the study to be reported in this paper will add to the literature reviewed above by deepening an understanding of the different trajectories followed by non-anglophone scholars in their academic pursuits in the englishdominant academy and in the field of management in particular. 3. the study our study was guided by the following overarching research question: how do overseas-trained cmas compare with their home-trained counterparts in terms of english-medium scholarly experience? in the following we will describe our target participants and the methods of data collection and data analysis used in the study. 3.1. participants our target participants were cmas as defined at the beginning of this paper. adopting a convenience sampling strategy (teddlie & yu, 2007), we approached the cmas who attended the sixth biennial conference of the international association for chinese management research (henceforth y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): 71-9676 iacmr2014) held in beijing, june 18-22, 2014.2 the conference had a bilingual policy and included an “english scholarly program” (featuring english presentations) and a “chinese forum” (for chinese presentations). according to the “participant list” shown on its homepage, the conference attracted about 1,090 attendees from universities and research institutes within and outside china. as the online “participant list” provided the names of the conference attendees and their affiliations, we went through the name list, checked for the webpages of the listed names to exclude overseas-based attendees and full-time students (who do not usually have webpages of their own), and found the e-mail addresses of a total of 401 cmas, who then became the target population of our questionnaire survey. with the informed consent of the conference organizers, one of us registered to attend an early part, but not the entire duration, of the conference (due to personal schedule and budget reasons). the registration enabled her to access the conference’s online and print versions of the “english scholarly program” and conduct on-site observation. however, the conference organizers did not allow interviews to be conducted or questionnaires distributed at the conference site, unlike, for instance, the case in burrough-boenish’s (1999) study.3 3.2. data collection and data analyses four sources of data drawn upon in our study will be described below. in the chronological order of their collection, these sources of data were: the “english scholarly program”, observation at the conference site, questionnaire responses, and e-mail interviews. 3.2.1. the “english scholarly program” the “english scholarly program” of the conference listed a total of 259 english papers organized into 69 sessions under either the “papers” or the “roundtables” section. the program gave the title of each paper and showed the names of all the authors together with their affiliations (which enabled us to check the authors’ webpages). from the pool we counted the papers which had cmas as the first author and those which included cmas as co-authors respectively, to get an idea of the degree of cmas’ contribution to the english papers as listed authors. chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 77 3.2.2. observation at the conference site one of us (the first author), who attended an early part of the conference, conducted observation at the conference site. specifically, she observed a pre-conference orientation session for new members of the association, and several english-medium presentation sessions featuring chinese presenters (those with affiliations to mainland chinese universities) on the first two days of the conference, and she took fieldnotes while observing. although the observation was limited, it provided a useful supplementary source of evidence in our study. 3.2.3. questionnaire responses our questionnaire consisted of six sections, with a total of 26 open and closed questions. given the focus of this study, three questions eliciting respondents’ perceptions of international collaboration were not included in the study. the questionnaire was written in chinese and was revised based on the advice of a cma participant in our previous research who checked through the questionnaire before it was mounted to surveymonkey®.4 two days after the conclusion of the conference, an e-mail invitation with an embedded url link to the questionnaire was sent to each of the aforementioned 401 cmas. excluding a few failed deliveries and bouncebacks, we sent out valid invitations to 394 potential respondents, and 114 (28.9%) of them returned completed questionnaires. of the 114, 86 were home-trained (having received all their degrees, including a few currently pursuing their phd, in mainland china), and the remaining 28 were overseastrained. of the 28 overseas-trained returnees, 27 had obtained their phd degree outside mainland china (north america 10, hong kong 7, europe 6, and other countries 4), while another received a master’s degree in north america but a phd in mainland china.5 six of the 28 overseas-trained scholars had also received their bachelor’s degree overseas, rather than in mainland china. in this paper we will draw upon the questionnaire data which were elicited by questions asked along the following lines: (a) how many papers they had presented in english at the international conferences attended in the last five years; (b) how many english articles they had published altogether, as sole author and first author, respectively; (c) how many chinese articles they had published altogether, as sole author and first author, respectively; (d) how they distributed time between academic reading and writing in english and y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): 71-9678 chinese, respectively; and (e) how competent they perceived themselves to be in engaging in these six tasks: understanding english presentations, reading english academic publications, writing academic papers in english, making english presentations, engaging in academic discussions with english-speaking colleagues, and communicating in english with academics outside mainland china by e-mail. descriptive statistics (i.e., mean scores, standard deviations, frequencies, ranges, and percentages) were computed for the quantitative data yielded by the questionnaire to describe the patterns of responses from the sample. inferential statistics (i.e., independent-samples t-tests, pearson’s correlational analyses, and chi-square tests) were run to determine differences between the homeand overseas-trained cmas (e.g., in their self-reported english abilities) and to establish associations between factors (e.g., the relationship between english-medium research productivity and self-perceived english abilities). open-ended comments or elaborations generated by the questionnaire were analyzed using a “descriptive coding” approach (merriam, 2009: 180). 3.2.4. e-mail interviews at the end of the questionnaire we invited the respondents to leave their names and e-mail addresses if they were interested in participating in a short e-mail interview at a later stage. creswell (2012: 219) referred to e-mail interviews as a method which is “useful in collecting qualitative data quickly from a geographically dispersed group of people” and a method which can “promote a conversation between yourself as the researcher and the participants”. as our potential participants were busy fellow academics, we did not expect to engage in a “conversation” with them but hoped that exchange via email would serve as an extension to the questionnaire data. we sent an e-mail (in chinese) to all 34 cmas who indicated their willingness to be interviewed, inviting comments on their use of english versus chinese in their academic lives and, if they had presented a paper in english at iacmr2014, comments on their english-medium performance.6 the total 12 respondents to our e-mail invitations included three overseas-trained (referred to as o1-o3 henceforth) and nine home-trained (referred to as h1-h9 henceforth) academics. the replies we received ranged from a couple of lines to hundreds of words in length. these replies, like the open-ended comments gathered through the questionnaire, were analyzed by the method of “descriptive coding” (merriam, 2009: 180). chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 79 4. findings in the following we will illuminate potential differences between overseasand home-trained cmas in terms of english-medium scholarly experience by drawing upon evidence from our data which concerned, respectively, their participation in the english sessions of iacmr2014, their use of english as university academics, and their english/chinese-medium research productivity and self-perceived english abilities. 4.1. cmas’ participation in the english sessions of iacmr2014 iacmr2014’s “english scholarly program” indicated that of the total 259 english papers included, 129 papers (49.8%) had cmas as first authors, with 108 (83.7% of 129) being first-authored by home-trained cmas and 21 (16.3% of 129) by overseas-trained cmas (their webpages indicated where they had received their doctoral degree). a total of 48 papers (18.5% of 259) had cmas as co-authors only. thus, cmas had a role in over two-thirds (68.3%) of the english papers and first-authored about half of them.7 the number of papers first-authored by home-trained cmas was about five times more than those first-authored by overseas-trained cmas. this difference is understandable, as it was likely that of the hundreds of cmas who attended the conference, the home-trained attendees far outnumbered the overseas-trained attendees, for returnees, after all, presumably make up only a small minority of the total cma population in china. at the same time, although we could assume that those home-trained cmas who were listed as the first author of an english session probably had relatively strong english, our observation at the conference seemed to indicate major difficulty (and reluctance) on the part of some home-trained cmas in presenting in english. they would readily switch to chinese in the interest of expressing themselves, as demonstrated by the following observation notes taken at a home-trained cma’s presentation session which was supposed to be delivered in english: extract 1 (chinese pinyin is used for chinese utterances, which are italicized, and english translations are shown in round brackets.). [the powerpoint slides of the session were in english.] presenter: [a slide on “introduction” was shown on the screen] i will introduce in chinese. i will introduce the most important [parts] in chinese, weile dadao genghao de xiaoguo (in order to achieve a better effect). y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): 71-9680 chair: sorry, there’s foreigner [in the audience]. presenter: ok, i will introduce in two languages. wo geren renwei … (i personally think…) [started to dash away in chinese. a few minutes later, a non-chinese academic, perhaps the only non-chinese academic in the audience, in the 4th row, went out. no objection could be detected from the chinese audience against the use of chinese.] presenter: [referring to a slide of “hypotheses” together with a pictorial model] ta shi focus on jixiao (it/the model focuses on the issue of performance). [the presenter continued to speak in chinese from his english-medium slides, till the end of his presentation.] chair: [beginning of the q & a session] a friend leaves; maybe he cannot understand chinese. who cannot understand chinese? [if there is one,] we will use english. otherwise, we will use chinese. [the q & a session then went on in chinese.] (observation notes, june 19, 2014) the extract of observation notes above can lead to several interpretations: that the presenter preferred to present in chinese, based on his englishmedium powerpoint slides, presumably due to major difficulty in expressing himself in english; that the chair (also home-trained) wanted to stick to the english-medium requirement, due to the presence of a non-chinese attendee, but allowed the presentation to carry on in chinese after the nonchinese attendee left; that the chinese audience preferred to hear a chinesemedium presentation too; and finally, that such a presentation excluded an english-speaking fellow academic. there were also sessions with a home-trained cma (presumably a supervisor) listed as the first author of a paper, but it was a graduate student listed as a co-author who presented the paper in english, and the student presenters generally seemed to be quite capable in english-medium presentations. we were not sure if this arrangement was sometimes based on considerations of the presenters’ english proficiency; neither did we know to what extent such scenarios occurred overall in the english sessions of the conference. our observation at the conference thus constituted a reminder that the author/presenter information given in the conference’s “english scholarly program” needs to be interpreted with caution. chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 81 in e-mail interviews we asked participants who had presented a paper in english at iacmr2014 about their use of english during the presentation. an overseas-trained academic with rich experience of english presentations at international conferences reported in an e-mail response to our query: “i could handle the q & a session [well] and my audience and i enjoyed good communication” (o2; e-mail in english). another overseas-trained academic likewise said: “i used only english in my presentation” and “the q & a session went on well with english as the language” (o3; e-mail in english). by contrast, a few home-trained cmas reported that the presentation part went fine, but “there was more difficulty during interactive communication; i needed to use some chinese and body language to facilitate communication”, as h9 put it (e-mail in chinese). another home-trained cma who also gave an english presentation at the conference seemed to be more confident: “i think making a presentation based on english is not a question, though there could be some minor mistakes” (h7; e-mail in english). when responding to our follow-up comment that “from an outsider’s point of view, effective communication at the discussion/q & a session would require relatively strong english skills on the part of both the speaker and the audience”, the same respondent emphasized the primacy of subject knowledge in facilitating one’s comprehension of a talk: the diffusion of specific knowledge not requires* you to full* understand all the word*, but to understand the meaning of the word or sentence need* you to have certain heuristic thinking skills,* a macro schema or schemata helps you to understand the knowledge,* it is experience based. so if you have certain knowledge in those research areas, you may able to* catch others* key points at once, and the keywords help you to understand the question in brief. (h7; e-mail in english; more obvious errors in the text marked out with *) we would of course agree with h7 when the focus is on receptive skills. as the above quote in english attests, grammatical issues may not affect the communication of meaning. yet it would be fair to suggest that faulty grammar, wording, or sentence structures can sometimes cause difficulty in comprehension and lead to miscommunication or misunderstanding. 4.2. using english as university academics the questionnaire asked the respondents to indicate the percentage of time they spent on academic reading and writing in chinese versus english. a y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): 71-9682 paired-samples t-test did not find a significant difference for the 86 hometrained cmas, t(85) = 0.080, p = .936, d = .009, indicating that the time spent by the home-trained cmas as a group on reading and writing in chinese (m = 50.21%, sd = 24.11) did not differ significantly from the time spent on reading and writing in english (m = 49.79%, sd = 24.11). however, a second paired-samples t-test revealed a significant difference for the 28 overseas-trained cmas, t(27) = -3.334, p = .002, d = .630, with markedly less time spent on reading and writing in chinese (m = 33.21%, sd = 26.64) than in english (m = 66.79%; sd = 26.64). furthermore, an independentsamples t-test found that the home-trained cmas spent significantly more time than their overseas-trained counterparts on reading and writing in chinese, t(112) = 3.156, p = .002, d = .670. conversely, the overseas-trained cmas expended significantly more time than their home-trained counterparts on reading and writing in english. returnee cmas’ focus on english-medium reading and writing has also been revealed in our earlier study (li, 2014). the questionnaire data presented above lumped together the time investment on reading and on writing. our follow-up e-mail interviews indicated that home-trained cmas, though predominantly using chinese in teaching and writing, did read primarily in english. in response to our email question “could you tell us about your use of english and chinese in teaching and research?”, the home-trained respondents reported that they primarily taught in chinese, with the exceptions of h5, who taught one master’s course in english, and h4, who used english in a “bilingual” course, that is, lecturing in chinese but using english-dominant materials (see hu & lei, 2014). in home-trained cmas’ chinese-dominant teaching, use of english ranged from providing useful specialist english vocabulary or english references on powerpoint slides (h1, h3, and h8), to “using a large amount of english resources” in preparing lessons (overseas universities’ syllabi, websites, powerpoint slides, videos, “classic” case studies, etc.) while mixing chinese and english in the course outline (h9). compared with these home-trained cmas’ limited use of english in teaching, the only overseas-trained academic who responded to the same email interview questions mentioned above, o1, reported active engagement with english: that he taught a “bilingual” course to an undergraduate “international class” as well as an mba business english course, and that his “academic exchange” activities included “attending and presenting at one to three international conferences every year, organizing one to two chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 83 international symposiums, inviting overseas experts to visit our university, and participating in the university’s international exchange activities” (e-mail in chinese). while their teaching was chinese-dominant, the home-trained cmas we interviewed by e-mail unanimously reported that for research they read and utilized primarily english literature and resources (for example, academic journal articles, working papers, papers for practitioners, news, and videos). reading of chinese literature was secondary but necessary, given that paper submissions were primarily targeted at chinese journals. one explained: i mainly use english references; but will look for content about china or other developing countries to enlighten myself. after the larger framework and line of thinking have been formed, i will search for chinese references, to see if similar or same scenarios have been reported. (h9; e-mail in chinese) experience in english writing varied among the home-trained, from writing only abstracts in english to english papers; and producing an english text by translating a chinese text into english seems common. responding to our e-mail interview question “when writing in english what strategies have you adopted to overcome potential difficulties?”, the respondents said that translation was done with the assistance of tools such as google (h8) or youdao (electronic dictionary; http://dict.youdao.com) (h3), which was then followed up with careful modification of grammar. in addition, modeling after published english papers and replacing keywords appeared to be an important strategy (h4, h8, and h9). as h8 reported, “so far i usually write in english by modifying sentences in journal articles, or write a sentence based on some chinese meaning first and then look for similar english sentences to modify it” (e-mail in chinese). 4.3. english/chinese-medium research productivity and selfperceived english abilities to find out how the overseas-trained cmas compared with their hometrained counterparts in their englishand chinese-medium research productivity, we ran a number of independent-samples t-tests on the questionnaire data on the numbers of english papers published in total, sole-, and first-authored by them, the numbers of english presentations they had given in the past five years at international conferences held in china or y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): 71-9684 overseas, and the numbers of chinese papers published in total, sole-, and first-authored by them. table 1 presents the descriptive statistics as well as the results of the t-tests. on average, compared with their home-trained counterparts, the overseastrained cmas published significantly more english papers and firstauthored english papers, but fewer chinese papers and first-authored chinese papers. the overseas-trained scholars also delivered significantly more presentations in english than their home-trained counterparts in the past five years. the larger mean number of first-authored english publications by the overseas-trained scholars would indicate that they were more likely than their home-trained colleagues to play a leading role when co-authoring papers, for example, by being the principal investigator of a project and playing a major role in the writing for publication process (see also li, 2014). the relatively small numbers of sole-authored english publications for both groups would suggest that joint publications may be the norm in the discipline of management, although the overseas-trained scholars’ advantage in the number (three times that of the home-trained) seemed to testify to their greater capacity for independence in writing for publication in english, presumably partly due to their stronger english abilities. conversely, the home-trained cmas’ stronger chinese abilities than their english ones, as well as their significantly more time investment in reading and writing in chinese than their overseas-trained counterparts, appeared to have contributed to their greater chinese-medium research productivity. chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 85 y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): …-… issn 1139-7241 e-issn 2340-2784 experience in english writing varied among the home-trained, from writing only abstracts in english to english papers; and producing an english text by translating a written-up chinese text into english seems common. responding to our e-mail interview question “when writing in english what strategies have you adopted to overcome potential difficulties?”, the respondents said that translation was done with the assistance of tools such as google (h8) or youdao (electronic dictionary; http://dict.youdao.com) (h3), which was then followed up with careful modification of grammar. in addition, modeling after published english papers and replacing keywords appeared to be an important strategy (h4, h8, and h9). as h8 reported, “so far i usually write in english by modifying sentences in journal articles, or write a sentence based on some chinese meaning first and then look for similar english sentences to modify it” (e-mail in chinese). 4.3. english/chinese-medium research productivity and selfperceived english abilities to find out how the overseas-trained cmas compared with their home-trained counterparts in their englishand chinese-medium research productivity, we ran a number of independent-samples t-tests on the questionnaire data on the numbers of english papers published in total, sole-, and first-authored by them, the numbers of english presentations they had given in the past five years at international conferences held in china or overseas, and the numbers of chinese papers published in total, sole-, and first-authored by them. table 1 presents the descriptive statistics as well as the results of the t-tests. research productivity overseas-trained (n = 28) home-trained (n = 86) df t p (2-tailed) d m sd m sd total no. of published eps 8.14 5.88 3.44 3.48 33.37a 4.008 .000 1.004 no. of sole-authored eps 1.14 3.19 0.38 0.98 28.69a 1.239 .225 .363 no. of first-authored eps 4.11 3.51 2.09 2.35 35.21a 2.836 .008 .686 no. of english presentations 6.75 5.45 2.76 3.19 33.23a 3.680 .001 .925 total no. of published cps 7.46 6.81 20.94 20.13 111.78a -5.342 .000 1.001 no. of sole-authored cps 2.86 5.35 4.38 6.31 112.00 -1.152 .252 0.262 no. of first-authored cps 5.29 5.93 13.79 13.55 102.68a -4.620 .000 0.873 note. ep = english papers; cp = chinese papers adegrees of freedom were corrected for unequal variances of the two groups table 1. results of independent-samples t-tests comparing overseasand home-trained cmas. on average, compared with their home-trained counterparts, the overseas-trained cmas published significantly more english papers and first-authored english to gauge the questionnaire respondents’ competence to use english for academic communication, we asked them to self-assess their english ability to perform six tasks on an 8-point likert scale anchored in unable to do so and as competent as in chinese. table 2 summarizes the mean scores and standard deviations for these abilities as well as an overall english proficiency measure averaged over the six types of ability. a repeated-measures one-way anova (with the greenhouse-geisser correction) found significant differences in the respondents’ self-assessment of the different english abilities, f(5, 565) = 48.12, p < .001, ηp 2 = .299. post hoc pairwise comparisons with the bonferroni method indicated that as a group the 114 respondents’ perceived english reading ability was significantly higher than that of the other five types of proficiency; that their self-reported ability to communicate with overseas scholars by e-mail was the second highest perceived competence and was significantly higher than the remaining four types of english ability; and that their perceived listening ability was significantly higher than their perceived ability to discuss in english. we also ran independent-samples t-tests to see if the overseasand hometrained cmas differed in their self-assessments of english abilities. the statistical results are presented in table 3. y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): 71-9686 chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): …-… issn 1139-7241 e-issn 2340-2784 papers, but fewer chinese papers and first-authored chinese papers. the overseas-trained scholars also delivered significantly more presentations in english than their home-trained counterparts in the past five years. the larger mean number of first-authored english publications by the overseas-trained scholars would indicate that they were more likely than their home-trained colleagues to play a leading role when co-authoring papers, for example, by being the principal investigator of a project and playing a major role in the writing for publication process (see also li, 2014). the relatively small numbers of sole-authored english publications for both groups would suggest that joint publications may be the norm in the discipline of management; though the overseas-trained scholars’ advantage in the number (three times that of the home-trained) seemed to testify to their greater capacity for independence in writing for publication in english, presumably partly due to their stronger english abilities. conversely, the home-trained cmas’ stronger chinese abilities than their english ones, as well as their significantly more time investment in reading and writing in chinese than their overseas-trained counterparts, appeared to have contributed to their greater chinese-medium research productivity. to gauge the questionnaire respondents’ competence to use english for academic communication, we asked them to self-assess their english ability to perform six tasks on an 8-point likert scale anchored in unable to do so and as competent as in chinese. table 2 summarizes the mean scores and standard deviations for these abilities as well as an overall english proficiency measure averaged over the six types of ability. type of english ability m sd listening: attending seminars/presentations 5.18 1.87 reading journal articles and books 6.38 1.22 writing academic papers 5.05 1.62 presenting papers at conferences/seminars 4.99 1.93 discussing academic issues orally with english-speaking colleagues 4.87 2.02 writing e-mails to academic colleagues outside mainland china 5.88 1.60 overall perceived proficiency 5.39 1.51 table 2. descriptive statistics for self-assessments of different english abilities (n = 114). a repeated-measures one-way anova (with the greenhouse-geisser correction) found significant differences in the respondents’ self-assessment of the different english abilities, f(5, 565) = 48.12, p < .000, !p 2 = .299. post hoc pairwise comparisons with the bonferroni method indicated that as a group the 114 respondents’ perceived english reading ability was significantly higher than that of the other five types of proficiency; that their self-reported ability to communicate with overseas scholars by e-mail was the second highest perceived competence and was significantly higher than the remaining four types of english ability; and that their perceived listening ability was significantly higher than their perceived ability to discuss in english. y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): …-… issn 1139-7241 e-issn 2340-2784 we also ran independent-samples t-tests to see if the overseasand home-trained cmas differed in their self-assessments of english abilities. the statistical results are presented in table 3. type of english ability overseas-trained (n = 28) home-trained (n = 86) df t p (2-tailed) d m sd m sd listening 6.96 0.84 4.59 1.75 96.15a 9.642 .000 1.836 reading 7.00 0.72 6.17 1.29 83.51a 4.251 .000 0.824 writing 6.61 0.99 4.55 1.46 67.67a 8.406 .000 1.679 presenting papers 6.71 1.05 4.43 1.81 80.73a 8.205 .000 1.597 discussing issues orally 6.71 0.98 4.27 1.91 91.09a 8.860 .000 1.698 writing english e-mails 7.00 0.90 5.51 1.61 83.68a 6.107 .000 1.182 adegrees of freedom were corrected for unequal variances of the two groups table 3. results of independent-samples t-tests comparing overseasand home-trained cmas. as expected, the overseas-trained cmas’ self-evaluations were significantly higher than those of the home-trained cmas for all six types of english abilities, and the effect sizes indicated that the differences were all remarkable. these quantitative findings were supported by the e-mail interview data. an overseastrained respondent, for example, told us: “i should say on the whole i am able to use english with relative ease in writing and communication; but i still need to expand my knowledge of specialist vocabulary” (o1; e-mail in chinese). by contrast, a home-trained respondent spoke of his language barrier: “i have no big problem in reading english literature […], but speaking, communication, and writing [in english] is the major barrier for me. i cannot comprehend the presentations at academic conferences” (h1; e-mail in chinese). to explore the relationship between english proficiency and english/chinesemedium research productivity, we conducted pearson’s correlational analyses on the questionnaire respondents’ self-perceived english abilities and research output in english and chinese. as can be seen in table 4, all six types of selfassessed english abilities and the overall english proficiency were significantly positively correlated with the number of english presentations in the past five years, and the number of english papers published. the correlations were very strong in the case of english listening ability, writing ability, ability to discuss in english, ability to present in english, and overall proficiency in english. in addition, with the exception of perceived reading ability, all measures of english abilities were also significantly positively correlated with the number of firstauthored english papers. these results echo what we suggested above: that overseas-trained scholars’ stronger english abilities facilitated an active role in joint authorship and thus enhanced their chance to become the first author. as expected, the overseas-trained cmas’ self-evaluations were significantly higher than those of the home-trained cmas for all six types of english abilities, and the effect sizes indicated that the differences were all remarkable. these quantitative findings were supported by the e-mail interview data. an overseas-trained respondent, for example, told us: “i should say on the whole i am able to use english with relative ease in writing and communication; but i still need to expand my knowledge of specialist vocabulary” (o1; e-mail in chinese). by contrast, a home-trained respondent spoke of his language barrier: “i have no big problem in reading english literature […], but speaking, communication, and writing [in english] is the major barrier for me. i cannot comprehend the presentations at academic conferences” (h1; e-mail in chinese). to explore the relationship between english proficiency and english/chinese-medium research productivity, we conducted pearson’s correlational analyses on the questionnaire respondents’ self-perceived english abilities and research output in english and chinese. as can be seen in table 4, all six types of self-assessed english abilities and the overall english proficiency were significantly positively correlated with the number of english presentations in the past five years, and the number of english papers published. the correlations were very strong in the case of english listening ability, writing ability, ability to discuss in english, ability to present in english, and overall proficiency in english. in addition, with the exception of perceived reading ability, all measures of english abilities were also significantly positively correlated with the number of first-authored english papers. these results echo what we suggested above: that overseas-trained scholars’ stronger english abilities facilitated an active role in joint authorship and thus enhanced their chance to become the first author. chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 87 chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): …-… issn 1139-7241 e-issn 2340-2784 type of english ability no. of eprs last 5 years no. of eps (total) no. of eps (sole author) no. of eps (1st author) no. of cps (total) no. of cps (sole author) no. of cps (1st author) listening .494*** .379*** .051 .255** -.189* -.061 -.163 reading .255** .233** -.050 .131 -.080 -.150 -.042 writing .432*** .452*** .101 .367*** -.162 -.087 -.189* presenting papers .514*** .411*** .050 .296*** -.142 -.102 -.136 discussing issues orally .492*** .409*** .045 .270** -.136 -.070 -.135 writing english emails .393*** .343*** .031 .190* -.137 -.099 -.155 overall proficiency .502*** .429*** .037 .292** -.163 -.103 -.159 note. epr = english presentations; ep = english papers; cp = chinese papers *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001 table 4. correlations among english abilities and english/chinese-medium research output. interestingly, self-perceived english listening ability was significantly negatively correlated with the number of chinese papers published, and perceived english writing ability was significantly negatively correlated with the number of firstauthored chinese papers published. this suggests that the more confident cmas are in their english writing ability, the less likely they will be actively writing chinese papers (but, instead, will be devoted to english writing), a scenario that would usually reflect the case of overseas-trained scholars. confidence in english listening ability could imply a greater chance of participating in englishmedium academic activities (such as lectures and international conferences). it is perhaps not surprising that someone of this proficiency profile – typically an overseas-trained scholar – may have a reduced interest in writing chinese papers. our e-mail interviews offered additional evidence for the overall tendency of overseas-trained cmas preferring to write in english and their home-trained counterparts more often writing in chinese. perceived (and actual) english abilities seemed to be an important leveraging factor. two home-trained scholars observed on their greater difficulty and ineffectiveness in english writing when compared with writing in chinese. h1 said: “if i write in chinese, it will be clearer and more thorough; but when translating into english, i feel the meaning is not accurately expressed sometimes” (e-mail in chinese). h9 reflected: “when writing (in english), i feel like doing math, and cannot experience the sense of satisfaction felt when writing in chinese” (e-mail in chinese). 5. discussion in the foregoing section, we drew upon multiple sources of data to detail the english-medium scholarly experience of two cohorts of cmas, the overseasinterestingly, self-perceived english listening ability was significantly negatively correlated with the number of chinese papers published, and perceived english writing ability was significantly negatively correlated with the number of first-authored chinese papers published. this suggests that the more confident cmas are in their english writing ability, the less likely they will be actively writing chinese papers (but, instead, will be devoted to english writing), a scenario that would usually reflect the case of overseastrained scholars. confidence in english listening ability could imply a greater chance of participating in english-medium academic activities (such as lectures and international conferences). it is perhaps not surprising that someone of this proficiency profile – typically an overseas-trained scholar – may have a reduced interest in writing chinese papers. our e-mail interviews offered additional evidence for the overall tendency of overseas-trained cmas preferring to write in english and their home-trained counterparts more often writing in chinese. perceived (and actual) english abilities seemed to be an important leveraging factor. two home-trained scholars observed on their greater difficulty and ineffectiveness in english writing when compared with writing in chinese. h1 said: “if i write in chinese, it will be clearer and more thorough; but when translating into english, i feel the meaning is not accurately expressed sometimes” (e-mail in chinese). h9 reflected: “when writing (in english), i feel like doing math, and cannot experience the sense of satisfaction felt when writing in chinese” (e-mail in chinese). 5. discussion in the foregoing section, we drew upon multiple sources of data to detail the english-medium scholarly experience of two cohorts of cmas, the overseas-trained and the home-trained. evidence from our observation at the conference and from our follow-up e-mail interviews with some participants showed that home-trained academics were likely to struggle to express themselves when trying to present in english and would switch to chinese if allowed; whereas oversea-trained academics tended to be able to present in english and conduct oral discussion (during q & a) more effectively, presumably due to their stronger english skills. the english barrier highlighted in the study as faced by home-trained cmas in spoken communication echoes reports on european scholars in the y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): 71-9688 literature (ventola et al., 2002; pérez-llantada et al., 2011; olsson & sheridan, 2012). we also found that overseas-trained cmas devoted a significantly greater percentage of their time to reading and writing in english than their hometrained peers. the latter apparently mostly read english literature but wrote primarily in chinese, and when writing in english, might rely on translating from chinese texts by using electronic dictionaries, or modeling after sentences in the literature. such coping strategies are similar to those that tietze (2008: 382) reported as adopted by many of her respondents – european management academics – “in the early stages of their careers”. in terms of translating from chinese texts to produce english texts, it should be noted that our home-trained e-mail interviewees seemed to be referring to translation from chinese on their own (as also mentioned by, for example, st john, 1987, and pérez-llantada et al., 2011), rather than using translation services as reported of spanish humanities and social science scholars (burgess et al., 2014; martín et al., 2014). preference for translating on one’s own rather than using professional translation services could bear upon issues of cost (olsson & sheridan, 2012) and access (burgess et al., 2014); it could also indicate that one considers one’s english adequate, though not necessarily satisfactory (as our respondents indicated), for the purpose. apart from research, it seems overseas-trained cmas also tended to use english in teaching by a much larger measure than their home-trained peers, which is perhaps not surprising, as the overseas-trained would be expected to help to fulfill their schools’ goal of “bilingual teaching” and to assist in their universities’ international academic exchange activities (hu & lei, 2014). the overseas-trained cmas displayed stronger confidence in their english abilities than their home-trained peers and, at the same time, achieved a significantly higher level of english-medium research productivity in terms of english-medium publications and presentations at international conferences. the findings indicate that english proficiency facilitates active participation in english-medium scholarly activities (ferguson et al., 2011), whereas lack of competence in the language can create “communicative handicaps” for eal academics (ammon, 2013: 1928; hanauer & englander, 2013). apparently, the overseas-trained cmas have chosen to favor publishing and presenting papers in english, rather than in chinese. this echoes tietze’s (2008) report on her european management academics and lee and lee’s (2013) report on south korean business academics putting a premium on english-medium publication. a more complex picture of our chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 89 cma participants’ choices between english and chinese could be revealed through the use of other research methods, such as an extended survey (burgess et al., 2014) or an ethnographic study (peterson & shaw, 2002). yet it would be fair to suggest that the overseas-trained cmas (and increasingly, the younger generation of home-trained cmas) are keen to disseminate their work in english (see li, 2014), and international collaboration plays a key role in this endeavor (see zhai et al., 2014). 6. conclusion some limitations of the study reported in this paper should be acknowledged. firstly, a convenience sampling strategy (i.e., sampling cmas attending an academic international conference held in china) was adopted in our study, and the 114 respondents to our questionnaire were also selfselected – presumably for them the issue of our focus in the questionnaire (“english for academic communication”, as indicated in the invitation e-mail and the title of the questionnaire) was particularly relevant. thus we cannot claim that the picture we presented in this paper is representative of the larger population of overseas-trained and home-trained management academics in mainland china. secondly, although on-site data collection through a questionnaire or interviews was not allowed (we felt some on-site interviews would have been a particularly useful source of data for our study), if more systematic on-site observations had been conducted, richer data could have been gathered. needless to say, observation needs to be systematically conducted to stand as a solid source of data. thirdly, we also wished that our e-mail interviews had received elaborated responses from a greater number of target respondents. the regretful gap of time between our questionnaire survey and the follow-up e-mail interviews (as a result of our other commitments as busy academics) could have contributed to the low numbers of the responses we received. as eap researchers we face challenges in juggling between the constraints of logistics and resources and efforts to penetrate the disciplinary communities that are not our own. on the other hand, the current performative pressure on academics in general perhaps does not encourage them to be generous with their time in rendering support to the kind of research conducted by fellow academics typically from the discipline of (language) education. in li (2015), which analyzed possible constraints y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): 71-9690 faced by (language) education researchers in accessing fellow academics as research participants, we emphasized “reciprocity” (shenton & hayter, 2004) as an important principle to operate on in our endeavor to reach out to academics across disciplines, that is, giving something back in return – editing manuscripts for them might be an example. we also suggested honorarium payment (in a token amount) – if it is culturally appropriate – as a possible means of compensating participants, especially when “reciprocity” is hard to be implemented. we pointed out, however, that as eap researchers seeking to access other “academic tribes” (becher & trowler, 2001), ultimately, we do heavily rely on fellow academics’ collegiality in the spirit of “academic citizenship” (macfarlane, 2005) for recruiting them as our research participants. the study reported in this paper should inspire future research. above all, it is important to point out that while focusing on uncovering and illuminating differences between the overseas-trained returnee cmas and their hometrained colleagues, we do not mean to polarize the two groups of academics or suggest within-group homogeneity. clearly, wide differences would exist within each group. among the returned scholars, the english burden may be greater for some than for others (li, 2014; min, 2014) and perhaps their english-speaking co-authors still play an indispensable role in ensuring the quality of language. likewise, individual home-trained scholars may also display relatively high levels of english competence and aspiration for international participation, and their “situated learning” (lave & wenger, 1991) gained through participation in international collaboration, overseas exchanges, and other english-medium professional activities will accumulate over time, leading to increments in their “scientific social and human capital” (jonkers & tijssen, 2008: 313) and thus reducing the gap between them and the overseas-trained. in the spirit of acknowledging the existence of diversity, possible similarities and differences between eal scholars of different backgrounds in terms of the kinds of linguistic and non-linguistic challenges encountered, strategies adopted, patterns of research collaboration, and learning trajectories are worth exploring. more specifically, to follow up on the focus of the present paper, the extent to which and the ways in which overseasand home-trained scholars collaborate with each other so that they together contribute to the development of their institution and discipline (apart from advancing their own academic careers) would be an issue yet to study. overall, from a methodological point of view, there is a need for eap researchers’ chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 91 continued efforts to use a wide range of research methods and data sources (for example, data obtained through surveys, ethnographic approaches, and text analytic research) to investigate non-anglophone academics’ process of participating in english-medium scholarly activities in varied cultural, disciplinary, and professional contexts. in summary, in this paper we reported a study comparing the englishmedium scholarly experience of a sample of overseasand home-trained academics in one discipline (management) in the context of mainland china. we showed that the former group of academics were more actively engaged in english-medium academic communication than the latter group. while highlighting the english language barrier faced by the home-trained academics, we acknowledge that one may prioritize the conveyance/comprehension of meaning over accuracy and idiomaticity in communication in english (as one respondent to our e-mail interview, h7, did), thus in effect echoing the voices that “argue for a shift to english as an international language (eil) as a lingua franca variety for participating in a growing global community” (martín et al., 2014: 65), with greater tolerance for non-anglophone varieties (horner et al., 2011; ammon, 2012). we would support the argument for using eil as a lingua franca variety for the purpose. however, we believe it is a highly worthwhile investment for eal academics who aspire for knowledge contribution to the english-dominant academy to continuously work to enhance individual competence in academic english (tietze, 2008), despite the decisive role of collective competence (lillis & curry, 2006; canagarajah, 2016) when it comes to english-medium joint publication. this is because english language skills are significant for eal academics’ active participation in the knowledge production and dissemination processes, with international conferences being an increasingly important venue for such processes. acknowledgements we would like to thank meng ge and qianshan chen for their research assistantship in this study, and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this paper. article history: received 2 february 2016 received in revised form 2 june 2016 accepted 1 july 2016 y. li & g. hu ibérica 33 (2017): 71-9692 references chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 93 ammon, u. 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(2006). “competing for talent: china’s strategies to reverse the brain drain”. international labour review 145: 65-90. chinese management academics’ english-medium scholarly experience ibérica 33 (2017): 71-96 95 yongyan li is an associate professor at university of hong kong, china. her research focuses on eal researchers writing for international publication and eal students writing in academic disciplines. she has published in journal of english for academic purposes, journal of second language writing, and science and engineering ethics. guangwei hu is an associate professor at nanyang technological university, singapore. his research interests include academic literacy and second language writing. he has published extensively on these topics in such journals as english for specific purposes, higher education, journal of english for academic purposes, journal of pragmatics, and journal of second language writing. notes 1 our definition of the overseas-trained versus the home-trained, primarily based on where the doctorate was received, largely follows how the two categories are commonly conceptualized in mainland china. the job advertisements of many business schools in china, for example, tend to express preferences for “overseas talents”, a prototypical overseas talent being someone who “has received phd from an overseas well-known university”, and better still, has a track record of publishing in indexed, prestigious english-medium journals (li & yang, 2017 forthcoming). only a small minority of the overseas-trained academics in china have also received their undergraduate training overseas (perhaps partly because those who studied overseas since the undergraduate years are less likely to return to china). 2 see the conference website at http://www.iacmr.org/v2en/detail.asp?id=313. 3 the conference organizers informed us that they followed the code of the u.s.-based academy of management which bars data collection on site at conferences. 4 although our surveymonkey® questionnaire (in chinese) still exists online, to turn it into a “share” mode requires payment. we will be happy to share an english version of the questionnaire if such a request is received from any reader. 5 in our analysis we have put the respondent who received a master’s overseas but a phd in mainland china in the group of the overseas-trained. we assumed that the master’s study overseas would also have an impact on an academic’s attitude toward and self-perceived ability of using english for academic communication. 6 the e-mails were sent in late december 2014, that is, about six months after we conducted the questionnaire survey. the undesirable delay was entirely due to our hectic schedules in the months following the questionnaire survey. upon receiving a respondent’s initial reply to our e-mail, usually multiple e-mail exchanges were then conducted between the first author and the respondent, with the former seeking clarification or elaboration from the latter. 7 many of the english papers included non-chinese scholars as co-authors, indicating the importance of international research collaboration for cmas, an issue that fell out of the focus of the present study. see zhai et al. 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